| Trailer Park Boys | |
|---|---|
Trailer Park Boys cast, circa season 4 |
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| 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 Mike Smith 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 Jonathan Torrens |
| Composer(s) | Blain Morris Tonicsounds |
| Country of origin | Canada |
| Language(s) | English |
| 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 – December 7, 2008 |
| Chronology | |
| Followed by | Trailer Park Boys: The Movie (2006) Countdown to Liquor Day (2009) |
| External links | |
| 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 the fictional Sunnyvale Trailer Park in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. The television series premiered on the Showcase television network in 2001.[1] 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.
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In 1998, director Mike Clattenburg wrote and directed a film short titled "One Last Shot", 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. In the following 1999 feature film "Trailer Park Boys", also in black and white, 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 feature 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.[2]
Each season revolves around the recurring themes of Ricky, and Julian (and to a lesser extent Bubbles) constantly trying to figure out new ways to get rich, get high, and stay out of jail. Their schemes are often complicated by vindictive trailer park supervisor Jim Lahey, and his perpetually shirtless assistant, Randy, as Ricky and Julian's incompetence competes with Leahy's own ineptitude. Though the boys mostly save themselves from being caught, every once in a while their plans through such that each of the 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.
Each of the characters has their own particular trademark mannerism or trait. For example: Julian is never seen without a glass of rum and Coke-on-the-rocks in his hand; Ricky's speech is often laced with malapropisms and eggcorns; and Bubbles, who wears Coke-bottle glasses and lives in a shed with a bunch of cats. Trailer Park Supervisor Jim Lahey is normally seen intoxicated while carrying a bottle of whiskey and his assistant Randy is almost always shirtless. There are also three constant pairs of characters: Cory and Trevor; Lucy and Sarah; and J-Roc and T.
| 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 |
| Actor | Character | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| George Green | Officer George Green | Season 1–7 |
| Jacob Rolfe | Jacob Collins | Season 1–7 |
| Jim Swansburg | Detective Ted Johnston | 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 |
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.
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."[3] 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 3e, 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. 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.[4] 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.
The likeness of the three are used in the TV Show Code Monkeys during the 2nd season finale "Car Robber Sunnyvale". The three appear when Boris ask Jerry and Dave to get "Canadian Bacon" from the Canadians.
Season 3 had an average of 300,000 viewers per episode.[5]
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. This movie, the second one, also paved the way for its popularity in the U.S.
The franchise's second feature film, Trailer Park Boys: Countdown to Liquor Day, was released in Canada on September 25, 2009.[6] 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!.
Alliance Home Entertainment has released all seven seasons of Trailer Park Boys on DVD in Region 1.
| DVD Name | Episodes | Release date |
|---|---|---|
| The Complete First and Second Seasons | 13 | May 27, 2003[7] |
| The Complete Third Season | 8 | April 6, 2004[8] |
| The Complete Fourth Season | 8 | April 12, 2005[9] |
| Christmas Special | 1 | November 15, 2005[10] |
| The Complete Fifth Season | 10 | May 9, 2006[11] |
| The Complete Sixth Season | 6 | May 8, 2007[12] |
| The Complete Seventh Season | 10 | May 6, 2008[13] |
| The Complete Series | 55 | June 16, 2009[14] |
| The Complete Collection | 55 | October 11, 2011[15] |
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.[16] 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.[17]
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 2011. The series has been given an order of six episodes. The actors will also serve as writers and executive producers for the series.[18]
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".[19] The tour expanded throughout 2010 and 2011 with live theatre performances worldwide including the U.S., Canada, UK and Ireland, with future performances in Australia and New Zealand in 2012.
In November 2010, the boys did a sketch for Funny or Die, called "MashUpPiece Theater: The Wire / Trailer Park Boys".[20]
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.
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