Trailer Park Boys

Trailer Park Boys
Trailer Park Boys cast, circa season 4
Genre	Mockumentary Comedy-drama
Created by	Mike Clattenburg
Written by	Mike Clattenburg John Paul Tremblay Robb Wells Barrie Dunn Jackie Torrens Mike Smith Jonathan Torrens Iain MacLeod Timm Hannebohm
Directed by	Mike Clattenburg
Starring	John Paul Tremblay Robb Wells John Dunsworth Pat Roach Lucy Decoutere Sarah E. Dunsworth Cory Bowles Michael Jackson Barrie Dunn Jeanna Harrison Ellen Page Shelley Thompson Tyrone Parsons Garry James Sam Tarasco Mike Smith Jonathan Torrens
Composer(s)	Blain Morris Tonicsounds
Country of origin	Canada
No. of seasons	7
No. of episodes	55 + specials (List of episodes)
Production
Producer(s)	Mike Clattenburg Barrie Dunn Michael Volpe
Editor(s)	Jeremy Harty Irving Thatcher Sarah Byrne
Location(s)	Halifax Regional Municipality
Running time	22 minutes (regular episodes) 43 minutes (specials)
Distributor	DEX Distribution
Broadcast
Original channel	Showcase
Original run	April 22, 2001 (2001-04-22) – December 7, 2008 (2008-12-07)
Status	Ended
Chronology
Followed by	Trailer Park Boys: The Movie (2006) Countdown to Liquor Day (2009)
External links
Official website

Trailer Park Boys is a Canadian comedy mockumentary television series created and directed by Mike Clattenburg that focuses on the misadventures of a group of trailer park residents, some of whom are ex-convicts, living in Sunnyvale Trailer Park located in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. The television series premiered on the Showcase television network in 2001. The final season ended in 2007, and the final episode, "Say Goodnight to the Bad Guys", premiered as a special on Showcase on December 7, 2008, ending the series. A second film—Countdown to Liquor Day—was released in Canada on September 25, 2009.

Contents 1 History 2 Plot 3 Characters 3.1 Main cast members 3.2 Recurring cast members 4 Style 5 Popularity 5.1 Ratings 6 Episodes 7 Feature films 7.1 The Movie 7.2 Countdown to Liquor Day 8 DVD releases 9 Future 10 East Coast Music Awards 11 See also 12 References 13 External links

History

In 1999, director Mike Clattenburg wrote and directed a film short titled Trailer Park Boys, which was shot in black and white. The film followed the exploits, in documentary style, of Ricky (Robb Wells) and Julian (John Paul Tremblay), two criminals doing what they did just about every day. The character Julian states to the camera in the film that he wanted his life to be documented after receiving a telephone psychic's prediction that he would die soon. He hoped that the film would deter others from the life of crime he had chosen.

The film was shown at the Atlantic Film Festival in 1999, and it caught the attention of producer Barrie Dunn who saw potential for a TV series. Clattenburg and Dunn, along with Wells and Tremblay worked on a proposal for a 13-episode season of the show, and traveled to Toronto to pitch the show to The Comedy Network. After being turned down, they made a snap decision to pitch the show to Showcase before returning home to Nova Scotia.

They found that the network was receptive, and sent them back with a commitment to a first season, with the provision that a second experienced producer (which ended up being Michael Volpe) be brought on board to assist the team. The first six 30-minute episodes were then written and filmed. Some modifications were made to the characters and story line for the series, and more humour was added to the series in comparison to the film.

The biggest change from film to series was the addition of Mike Smith's "Bubbles" character, who was originally developed for the earlier short film "The Cart Boy"; a film that Smith, Wells, Tremblay, and Clattenburg worked on together in 1995. Smith's character was soon to grow from a recurring character to one of the show's primary protagonists (even though in the earlier film, "Bubbles" was the name of Smith's character's cat). Trailer Park Boys resided with Showcase for its entire seven-season run.^[1]

Plot

Each season follows the same basic pattern. Ricky, Julian, and Bubbles are constantly trying to figure out new ways to get rich, get high, and stay out of jail; their "get rich quick" schemes are usually foiled by the vindictive trailer park supervisor, former police officer Jim Lahey, and his eternally shirtless assistant, Randy, though the Boys' own incompetence certainly plays a role. Early seasons always began with the boys getting out of jail and ended with them being re-incarcerated.

Later seasons changed this formula with the final episode of the season showing that their schemes had been successful, and the boys' future looking optimistic. The first episode of the following season would then show them sheepishly explaining how everything went wrong for them in the interim, thus bringing the story back to square one.

Characters

Main cast members

Actor	Character	Duration
Robb Wells	Ricky	Season 1–7
John Paul Tremblay	Julian	Season 1–7
Mike Smith	Bubbles	Season 1–7
John Dunsworth	James "Jim" Lahey	Season 1–7
Patrick Roach	Randy	Season 1–7
Lucy Decoutere	Lucy	Season 1–7
Sarah E. Dunsworth	Sarah	Season 1–7
Barrie Dunn	Ray	Season 1–7
Tyrone Parsons	Tyrone aka "T"	Season 1–7
Jonathan Torrens	Jamie aka "J-Roc"	Season 1–7
Cory Bowles	Cory	Season 1–6
Michael Jackson	Trevor	Season 1–6
Jeanna Harrison-Steinhart	Trinity	Season 1, 3–7
Shelley Thompson	Barbara Lahey	Season 2–7
Garry James	Detroit Velvet Smooth	Season 4–5
Ellen Page	Treena Lahey	Season 2

Recurring cast members

Actor	Character	Duration
George Green	Officer George Green	Season 1–7
Jacob Rolfe	Jacob Collins	Season 1–7
Jim Swansburg	Detective Ted Johnson	Season 1, 5–7
Bernard Robichaud	Cyrus	Season 1–7
Sam Tarasco	Sam "Caveman" Losco	Season 1–2, 4–7
Richard Collins	Philadelphia "Phil" Collins	Season 4–7
Mio Adilman	Terry	Season 5
Nobu Adilman	Dennis	Season 5
Sebastian Bach	Himself	Season 7
Brian Huggins	"Shitty" Bill	Season 5–7

Each of the characters has their own particular trademark mannerism or trait. For example, Julian is never seen without a tumbler of rum and Coke in his hand. Ricky's manner of speech is often laced with malapropisms and eggcorns, and Bubbles, who lives in a shed, has coke-bottle glasses and a predilection for cats.

Style

The series is consistently shot in a mockumentary style (including the use of long takes), but often the camera crew became engrossed in the plot. On several occasions, the camera and boom mic operators are spoken to by the characters, and often end up becoming directly involved in the action. In one episode, a crew member is shot, and they are also enlisted several times to help the characters when a pair of extra hands is needed. All of this is intended to produce the feeling that these are real events that are happening to real people, when in reality, the show is loosely scripted and much of the dialog is ad-libbed from very basic plot points laid out beforehand.

Furthering the myth that Trailer Park Boys is nonfiction, many of the actors (particularly Robb Wells, John Paul Tremblay, Mike Smith and John Dunsworth) often make public appearances without breaking character.

The cinematographic style of the show is split between rough handheld camera work and clearly planned camera work; the latter sometimes involves crane shots and quite clearly pre-arranged fixed-camera shots. Although the latter detract from the show's sense of realism, such techniques are rarely employed (usually only in the opening and closing shots of scenes) and do enhance the show's legitimacy as a fictional television program with a professional crew orchestrating the events, as the realism of the show might otherwise lead some viewers to believe that they are in fact watching the day-to-day life of a bunch of alcoholics and addicts.

Popularity

The show became very successful in many countries. The show's lead trio formerly toured with Our Lady Peace, and with Guns N' Roses, with whom Bubbles sings his trademark song "Liquor and Whores."^[2] The Trailer Park Boys have also appeared in music videos with The Tragically Hip, while Bubbles has appeared with George Canyon and Snow, and they have been presenters at numerous award shows – always in character. Several famous artists appear on the show, such as Alex Lifeson from Rush in "Closer to the Heart," singer Rita MacNeil in the season four finale "Working Man," Brian Vollmer from Helix, Sebastian Bach from Skid Row, and singer/songwriter Denny Doherty in the season seven finale "A Shitriver Runs Through It."

The show is a great success for the cable network Showcase, where it is the network's highest-rated Canadian series. It airs in Australia on The Comedy Channel, in the United Kingdom and Spain on Paramount Comedy, in the Republic of Ireland on Channel 6, in Iceland on SkjárEinn, in New Zealand on TV 2, in Israel on Xtra Hot, in the Netherlands on Comedy Central Netherlands, in Denmark on DR2, in Portugal on SIC Radical, in Germany on Comedy Central Germany, in Finland on Nelonen, in Bulgaria on Nova Television, and in Poland on Comedy Central Polska. In the United States, BBC America formerly aired a censored version of the show, but it is no longer part of their lineup. It currently airs in the United States on DirecTV 101.

On February 5, 2009, satellite provider DirecTV began airing the series in the United States on its channel The 101 Network, uncensored, at the rate of two episodes per week. DirecTV aired and continues to re-run the entire seven-season run of Trailer Park Boys, plus both specials.^[3] All episodes aired on DirecTV are in 16:9 widescreen format (although not in High Definition resolution), as opposed to the standard definition 4:3 aspect DVD releases of the first five seasons.

Actors John Dunsworth, John Paul Tremblay, and Robb Wells can be seen in the MGM 2002 movie Virginia's Run starring Gabriel Byrne and Joanne Whalley. John Dunsworth plays a local cop while John Paul Tremblay and Robb Wells play active and verbal townsmen similar to their Trailer Park Boys characters. Actors are credited as cop for John Dunsworth, J.P. for John Paul Tremblay (credits as J.P. Tremblay), and Robb Wells as Rob. The movie was filmed in Shelburne, Nova Scotia, Canada.

Ratings

Season 3 had an average of 300,000 viewers per episode.^[4]

Episodes

Feature films

The Movie

The second Trailer Park Boys movie to be produced (the first being the original black and white production that sparked the series), Trailer Park Boys: The Movie (also known as The Big Dirty) was released on October 6, 2006, and distributed by Alliance Atlantis. Ivan Reitman produced the movie, Mike Clattenburg directed it, and Clattenburg and Robb Wells co-wrote it. It was nominated for a Genie Award for Best Motion Picture, but did not win.

Countdown to Liquor Day

The franchise's second feature film, Trailer Park Boys: Countdown to Liquor Day, was released in Canada on September 25, 2009.^[5] The movies serves as sequel to the last television episode, "Say Goodnight to the Bad Guys".

In February 2010, Ricky, Bubbles, and Julian promoted the movie on Jimmy Kimmel Live!.

DVD releases

Alliance Home Entertainment has released all seven seasons of Trailer Park Boys on DVD in Region 1.

DVD Name	Episodes	Release date
The Complete 1st and 2nd Seasons	13	May 27, 2003[6]
The Complete Third Season	8	April 6, 2004[7]
The Complete Fourth Season	8	April 12, 2005[8]
Christmas Special	1	November 15, 2005[9]
The Complete Fifth Season	10	May 9, 2006[10]
The Complete Sixth Season	6	May 8, 2007[11]
The Complete Seventh Season	10	May 6, 2008[12]
The Complete Series	55	June 16, 2009[13]

Future

The cast and crew took the summer of 2008 off, but a new special one-hour episode titled "Say Goodnight To The Bad Guys" aired in Canada on December 7, 2008.^[14] Series creator Mike Clattenburg announced on November 12, 2008 that the special would be followed by a sequel movie scheduled for Canadian release on September 25 2009 (Countdown to Liquor Day), which would be "the end of Trailer Park Boys," and that no additional seasons will be made.^[15]

In January 2009, the boys were in character at select venues nationally including Massey Hall in Toronto, Canada. They performed the Ricky, Julian and Bubbles Community Service Variety Show. The premise was that they were fulfilling court order community service and must put on a puppet show aimed at demonstrating the dangers of using alcohol and drugs.

In November 2009, Wells, Tremblay and Smith announced that they will be starring in a new television series for Showcase called The Drunk and On Drugs Happy Fun Time Hour, set to air in November 2010. The series has been given an order of six episodes. The actors will also serve as writers and executive producers for the series.^[16] Alex Lifeson of Rush will also be a regular on the show.

In March 2010, the boys did a show in character at Massey Hall in Toronto, Canada called "The Ricky, Julian and Bubbles, Drunk, High and Unemployed tour".^[17]

East Coast Music Awards

The Trailer Park Boys hosted the 2006 East Coast Music Awards as Ricky, Julian and Bubbles (in character). Bubbles performed his single, "Liquor and Whores," which has the same melody as the song, "Randy's Gut", which he sings drunk in the first episode of season four.

See also

• Les Bougon

References

External links

• Official website
• Trailer Park Boys at Showcase.ca
• Trailer Park Boys at the Internet Movie Database
• Trailer Park Boys at TV.com

Trailer Park Boys Characters List of characters Seasons List of episodes Films Trailer Park Boys: The Movie · Trailer Park Boys: Countdown to Liquor Day Creator Mike Clattenburg Related articles Sunnyvale Trailer Park