More Tears is a seriocomedy

Comedy-drama

Comedy-drama is a genre of theatre, film and television programs which combines humorous and serious content.-Theatre:Traditional western theatre, beginning with the ancient Greeks, was divided into comedy and tragedy...

  television series that was broadcast by CBC Television

CBC Television

CBC Television is a Canadian television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster.Although the CBC is supported by public funding, the television network supplements this funding with commercial advertising revenue, in contrast to CBC Radio which are...

, as a short run programme; it was written and produced by Ken Finkleman

Ken Finkleman

Ken Finkleman is a Canadian television and film writer, producer and actor.In Canada, Finkleman is best known as the writer, creator and producer of the CBC Television series The Newsroom, in which he starred as television news producer George Findlay...

 following the success of The Newsroom

The Newsroom

The Newsroom is a Canadian television comedy-drama series which ran on CBC Television in the 1996-97, 2003–04 and 2004-05 seasons. A two-hour television movie, Escape from the Newsroom, was broadcast in 2002....

(1996), and was partly a remake of 8½

8½

8½ is a 1963 Italian fantasy film directed by Federico Fellini. Co-scripted by Fellini, Tullio Pinelli, Ennio Flaiano, and Brunello Rondi, it stars Marcello Mastroianni as Guido Anselmi, a famous Italian film director...

(1963), by Federico Fellini

Federico Fellini

Federico Fellini, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI , was an Italian film director and scriptwriter. Known for a distinct style that blends fantasy and baroque images, he is considered one of the most influential and widely revered filmmakers of the 20th century...

.

As in The Newsroom, George Findlay (Ken Finkleman) is the protagonist of More Tears, as a documentary

Documentary film

Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...

 producer, who manipulated his subjects in order to create better television drama. In the final installment, Findlay abandoned the documentary form to film a satire of the neo-conservative government of Mike Harris

Mike Harris

Michael Deane "Mike" Harris was the 22nd Premier of Ontario from June 26, 1995 to April 15, 2002. He is most noted for the "Common Sense Revolution", his Progressive Conservative government's program of deficit reduction in combination with lower taxes and cuts to government...

, the Premier of Ontario. The programme also explored the personal life of George Findlay, his unhappy marriage, and his unhappy extra-marital affairs.

The cast of More Tears (1998) also included Hrant Alianak

Hrant Alianak

Hrant Alianak , also billed as Harant Alianak or Grant Aljanak, is an Armenian-Canadian actor and playwright. In 1988 he was nominated for the Genie Award "Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role" for his role in the 1987 film Family Viewing. He played Pete in the 1995 movie with Adam...

, Yank Azman

Yank Azman

-Early life:Azman was born in a displaced persons camp in Bad Wörishofen, Germany to Cesia , a sales clerk and Kuba Zajfman, a tailor and furrier, Holocaust survivors from Chmielnik, Poland...

, Arsinée Khanjian

Arsinée Khanjian

Arsinée Khanjian is an Armenian-Canadian actress and producer. In addition to her independent work and stage roles, she is regularly cast by her husband, Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan, in his films...

, Leah Pinsent

Leah Pinsent

Leah Pinsent is a Canadian television and film actress.She was born in Toronto, Ontario, the daughter of Canadian actors Gordon Pinsent and Charmion King....

, Evan Solomon

Evan Solomon

Evan Solomon is a Canadian writer, magazine publisher and television journalist, who currently hosts the nightly series Power & Politics on CBC News Network. Beginning in September 2011, he will also host CBC Radio One's weekly political affairs series The House.Solomon graduated from McGill...

, and Kenny Vadas

Kenny Vadas

Ken "Kenny" Vadas is a Canadian actor, now living in Toronto.Vadas was born in Montreal, Quebec to immigrants from Hungary...

.

Finkleman's next project for the CBC was the series Foolish Heart.

Quotations

Shaffik: They [the Liberal Party

Liberal Party of Canada

The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...

] stood up and sang, like a bunch of sheep!

George: Better to be ruled by a sheep than a demagogue.

Shaffik: Spoken like a true Canadian!

(Audition for the part of a Cabinet Minister)

Director: Okay, you're being sodomized . . . Try to make it real.

George: The tear of sentimentality . . . is the opposite of the tear of compassion.