TV, eh?

From Brian Towie of Metro Canada:

• Year of the Letdown
  “Disappointment hardly encapsulates a grim year when dross thrived and the axe fell on the righteous and wicked alike. Puerile Yankee knock-offs such as Project Runway Canada and So You Think You Can Dance Canada drew huge audiences despite cringe-inducing banter from Tré Armstrong and Leah Miller — whose saccharine anima won’t abandon my brain no matter how many times I envision a flaming school bus crashing into a room full of harp seal puppies.” Read more.

From Cameron Archer at URBMN:

• TV Review – Trailer Park Boys: Say Goodnight to the Bad Guys
  “After watching “Say Goodnight to the Bad Guys” (Showcase: December 7, 10 ET/PT), I should have given this show a chance when it was in first run. While I still find Trailer Park Boys‘ profanity fucking gratuitous, the show isn’t nearly as bad as I thought it was.” Read more.

From Raju Mudhar of the Toronto Star:

• What’s next for this trailer park trio?
  “With tomorrow’s 10 p.m. airing on Showcase of Say Goodbye To The Trailer Park Boys – A Trailer Park Boys Special, which follows a marathon of favourite episodes chosen by cast and crew, it seems fitting to explore what they really think about their past and legacy.” Read more.

From John Doyle of the Globe and Mail:

• ‘I learned that a show doesn’t have to be derivative to succeed’
  “Some people never grasped why Trailer Park Boys was that rare Canadian thing – a pop-culture phenomenon, a TV hit with legions of devoted fans. Most famously, Jim Shaw, top honcho at Shaw Communications, used Trailer Park Boys to attack the genre of TV shows made with the help of the Canadian Television Fund.” Read more.

Watch a Showcase exclusive sneak peak of Trailer Park Boys: Say Goodnight To The Bad Guys. This one hour special premieres at 10PM on Sunday, December 7th, exclusively on Showcase:

From Bill Harris of Sun Media:

• Say Goodnight to the Trailer Park Boys
  “Ricky from Trailer Park Boys just might be the worst character in TV history. That’s discounting serial killers and cartoon villains, of course. But in the “regular guy” category, Ricky could be the worst. ‘That’s hilarious,’ said a laughing Robb Wells, who plays Ricky. ‘I never really thought of it like that.’” Read more.

From Flannery Dean of CBC:

• Bye-bye, Boys: The Trailer Park Boys reflect on the end of their great run
  “You don’t need to be a hoser to love the popular Canadian TV show Trailer Park Boys — but speaking as a small-town hoser myself, it doesn’t hurt. Since its 2001 debut, Trailer Park Boys has acted as cultural adrenaline to fun-starved Canadian audiences.” Read more.

From Mark Kubacki of Canwest News Service:

• The boys hash final scheme from trailer park
  “It’s all over but the crying into the rum and coke. After a final TV special airing on Sunday and a feature film due out next fall, the Trailer Park Boys franchise is shutting down – pulling the plug on the only major gig its stars have ever had.” Read more.

From Rob Salem of the Toronto Star (second item):

• Why I now hate Kath & Kim
  “I also, in the same context, recommended the rock mockumentary Cock’d Guns, showcased on the very same Showcase channel. That is, until a couple of weeks ago, when it was pulled only nine episodes into its season, ironically (or not) to add a Friday-night repeat of Showcase original Testees. .” Read more.

From Rob Salem of the Toronto Star:

• Plenty of promise in new Canadian TV comedies
  “I mean, how do you replace a Trailer Park Boys? In fact, there is Showcase’s thrice Gemini-nominated Cock’d Guns, a similarly deadpan rock twist on the same mockumentary style. On the other hand, if you related more to Trailer’s taboo-toppling vulgarity, you need tune no further than the same cable channel’s new and resolutely rude Testees, which has thus far made the Boys look more like altar boys.” Read more.

From Tim Arsenault of the Halifax Chronicle Herald:

• Yes, it’s the end of Trailer Park Boys
  “ANYBODY WHO thinks the Trailer Park Boys are on the verge of moving away hasn’t been paying attention. For all intents and purposes, Ricky, Julian, Bubbles and the gang should be around in various forms long after the television premiere of a one-hour finale special on Dec. 7 at 11 p.m. on Showcase.” Read more.

Mike Smith as Bubbles, Robb Wells as Ricky, John Paul Tremblay as Julian in The Trailer Park Boys Special

From a media release:

Get Out The F@!&ing Kleenex!

• Trailer Park Boys Ends Series Run With One Last Special
• Say Goodnight to the Bad Guys – A Trailer Park Boys Special Premieres Sunday, December 7 at 10 p.m. ET/PT only on Showcase

Put down the rum and coke and grab a box of tissues. Showcase and Trailer Park Productions/Topsail Productions announces that after seven successful seasons, the Showcase Original mockumentary series Trailer Park Boys will conclude its regular series run. The news was posted for fans on trailerparkboys.org and showcase.ca. Viewers will get a final dose of the Sunnyvale gang in the World Broadcast Premiere of Say Goodnight to the Bad Guys – A Trailer Park Boys Special airing exclusively on Showcase on Sunday, December 7 at 10 p.m. ET/PT.

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From CBC:

• Canadian TV hit Trailer Park Boys to end
  “The TV cameras will go dark in Sunnyvale next year, as cult favourite Canadian mockumentary Trailer Park Boys is set to end.” Read more.

Alex Epstein of Complications Ensue comments on the current CRTC hearings, to decide if the Canadian Television Fund should be divided into separate funds for cultural programming and for commercial programming:

• Culture=Entertainment
  “SLINGS AND ARROWS is successful cable TV. It is also successful highbrow culture (which satirizes highbrow culture). TRAILER PARK BOYS is successful TV. It is also successful lowbrow culture. If you don’t believe me, wait until “the boys” come round for a signing and see how many people are lining up in the cold. If people waiting in the cold to see actors isn’t a sign of vibrant culture, you tell me what is.” Read more.

From Brendan Kelly of Variety:

• Canadian TV finds funny bone
  “The sitcom may be on life-support in the U.S. but it’s the hottest thing on TV in the Great White North.” Read more.

Todd Babiak of The Edmonton Journal defends Canadian content:

• Potential for greatness, art never more alive on Canuck television
  “The reception of Corner Gas in Canada demonstrates a profound hunger for stories about what it’s like to be a human being who happens to be Canadian. Little Mosque on the Prairie, a brilliant concept with an even more brilliant title, made Corner Gas look like Arrested Development when it debuted in January. But it’s back for a new season, with a creative team poached from Corner Gas — including Edmonton writer Paul Mather. The premiere, Wednesday night on CBC, was a vast improvement.” Read more.

John Doyle of the Globe and Mail defends The Trailer Park Boys against Jim Shaw’s rants:

• Note to Jim Shaw: Leave the Trailer Park Boys alone
  “During the initial flapdoodle over the CTF, Shaw, top honcho at Shaw Communications, cited Trailer Park Boys as a production initially funded by the CTF and took the view that funding the show was an outrage. Some of us were taken aback. Others laughed. Trailer Parks Boys is, after all, a hugely popular success for Canadian TV.” Read more.

Rob Salem of the Toronto Star gives the lineup of new and returning shows this fall, with blurbs from Jim Bawden about Canadian content relegated to its own little listing ghetto within:

• Fall TV preview: Day-by-day
  “Rob Salem takes a day-by-day look at the U.S. television season.” Read more.

Yvonne Zacharias of the Vancouver Sun talks to the boys:

• Trailer Park Boys: From cult to culture
  “The series is over, but the three goofs are going strong, appearing at the Global ComedyFest and busy shooting a TV special.” Read more.

Graeme McRanor of 24 Hours isn’t impressed with the state of Canadian television and interviews Ryerson University media writing professor Michael Coutanche about the economics of producing homegrown shows versus buying foreign content:

• Warning: This article contains Canadian content
  “Don’t get me wrong. When it comes to All Things Canadian, nobody flies the flag higher than me. But when it comes to Canadian television, sometimes I’d rather just set it on fire. Maybe we could make a documentary about it. We’re good at those.” Read more.

From John Doyle, normally of the Globe and Mail but here writing for TV Quarterly:

• What makes Canadian TV so different?
  “Little Mosque on the Prairie made the American media curious because it has a comic premise that’s outrageous in the context of mainstream U.S. network TV — it finds comedy in the lives of a group of Muslims living in a small prairie town where many of the locals are suspicious of them.”