If I really got my motivation together, I'd go through a list of episode summaries and tote up the number of car crashes on this show. Smallville must have a big red flag on the maps of car insurance companies in the smallvilleaverse.

Watching the reruns of season one, I'm very close to do this. In the first five episodes, there's at least one an episode and often more.

There should be a chart, or a table, or something.

Who bells the cat, Am-Chau?

Thinly disguised RPS doesn't squick me hardly at all -- it's clear that the author(s) and the audience are differentiating between the real people and their literary equivalents. Literature even has a hallowed term for such things: roman á clef.

A lot of the shows that film in Vancouver are the lesser-ones, those that just have small, but loyal followings - just as the X-Files started out. So there's somewhat less star-struckness. And for actors, it seems like a good place to live since getting work on one show seems to guarantee it on another. I've seen two of the three Stargate actors on the X-Files - it's a bit like how the WB keeps actors in cold storage.

I've seen two of the three Stargate actors on the X-Files - it's a bit like how the WB keeps actors in cold storage.

Which ones? The Americans, or the Canadians? Because the Canadians are extensively recycled, and why the hell not. For the Americans, it seems more of a big deal.

A lot of the shows that film in Vancouver are the lesser-ones, those that just have small, but loyal followings - just as the X-Files started out. So there's somewhat less star-struckness.

But you're ignoring the movies. Ian McKellen and Hugh Jackman traipsed around Vancouver too, just to name a couple. And by and large -- unstruckedness. It's an industry town. There's just less starstruckedness to start with.

Oh, of course they have to recycle Canadians, since like half the country's population is busy at any given time working on SNL or as back-up for Alanis Morissette or Celine Dion. It's still odd to see Sam Carter sleeping with Skinner.

It's still odd to see Sam Carter sleeping with Skinner.

She boffed him before SG1 started, I thought.

Which is really just some actor getting jobs.

Yeah, but they re-run X-Files episodes indefinitely, so one sees her again after knowing her as Carter. It's like the oddness of seeing Willow and Oz together as children in "My Stepmother Is an Alien."

Given the alternative of jobless favourites, I'm pretty glad the industry (and not just Vancouver) doesn't toss out actors after their first jobs.

I'm not complaing about seeing good actors on multiple series - just saying that it's a bit odd - though a quick and handy way to identity which shows are shot in Vancouver, versus which are shot in New Zealand, where they also re-use locals.

But ... but ... they re-use LA and NY locals too. Actors get jobs, and then they get other jobs, often where they live.