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Sunnyside cancelled by City

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Things are less than sunny for the folks at Sunnyside; City has decided not to renew the Canadian sketch comedy series for a second season.

“We are extremely proud of Sunnyside and the 13 episodes of this fiercely original comedy that we were able to bring to our viewers,” a statement sent to TV, eh? on Wednesday read. “It was a privilege to work with the immense talent—both off and on screen —involved in this unique Canadian production. It was a difficult decision, but, despite critical acclaim, the series was unable to connect with the audience it needed to continue. We thank Canadians for their support of Sunnyside and look forward to bringing them more original content in the future.”

The news is a definite buzz-kill for co-creators Dan Redican and Gary Pearson and cast members Pat Thornton, Kathleen Phillips, Patrice Goodman, Alice Moran, Kevin Vidal and Rob Norman; the group captured a Canadian Screen Award for Best Performance in a Variety or Sketch Comedy Program or Series (Individual or Ensemble) during Sunday night’s gala, besting This Hour Has 22 Minutes, The Rick Mercer Report and The Second City Project. Sunnyside’s photographer, D. Gregor Hagey, won a CSA for Best Photography in a Variety or Sketch Comedy Program or Series and three other nominations.

Filmed in Winnipeg, the series followed the odd folks and characters who called the neighbourhood of Sunnyside home.

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Featured, Sunnyside

Smart and silly Sunnyside returns to City

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Sunnyside is back, and Sundays on City will never be the same. Sandwiched between American fare Bob’s Burgers and Brooklyn Nine-Nine, the ribald sketch comedy series co-created by Gary Pearson and Dan Redican returns for smart and silly second half of Season 1.

Back for more hijinks are established characters like the trio of Meth Denise, Meth Kimmie and Meth Georgette, Shaytan the demonic barista, Molly the virgin and put-upon husband Graham alongside new creations like the Punching Priest (Rob Norman, who drills those who use the Lord’s name in vain and their cell phones in church with a boxing glove) and Dixon (played by Pat Thornton), who is tasked with buying tampons for his wife. It’s a job given many men, but there’s a twist to it in that strange place called Sunnyside: a war has broken out on the streets and Dixon dodges bullets on his way to the store.

Sunnyside_cast

“There is a war going on and nobody knows why,” Kathleen Phillips says with a laugh. The writer, actor and comedian who portrays memorable ladies like Denise, Molly and Carla, explains the bigger picture storylines for the remaining seven episodes include a volcano eruption, the Second Coming of Christ and the Rapture. Originally ordered for six episodes, Rogers greenlit an additional seven instalments, meaning Phillips, Thornton, Norman, Redican, Pearson and fellow cast Alice Moran, Kevin Vidal and Patrice Goodman headed back to Winnipeg. As Phillips explains, that meant returning to a familiar setting with established characters they could complement with new ones and plunge everyone into more outlandish scenarios.

“There’s never really a time when we say, ‘That’s too crazy,'” Phillips interjects. “If anything, we say, ‘That’s not big or weird enough.'” And while the cast may suss out who the characters are in the writers’ room, Phillips divulges the series’ hair, makeup and wardrobe team play an integral part in helping shape Sunnyside’s citizens.

“It informs everything,” she says. “Sometimes you see the script and you don’t know who the character is because you haven’t had time to sit down and figure out the nuances until you have the costume and the wig on and you’re walking to set. And then you have it.” Aside from Sunnyside, Phillips can be seen reprising her role of librarian Miss Terdie in Season 5 of Mr. D when it returns to CBC in January, and most Thursdays at Comedy Bar where she appears in the Laugh Sabbath comedy collective. Also on tap? She’s working on Filth City, a feature film from LaRue Entertainment headed to Super Channel in 2016, filming her own short film and appearances slated for the Guelph Comedy Festival on Oct. 3 and the Cream of Comedy’s 20th Anniversary show on Oct. 22.

Sunnyside airs Sundays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on City.

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Review: Pushing boundaries and poultry love on Sunnyside

Sunnyside is a very funny—and admittedly odd— little program and I applaud Rogers for putting it on the air in the first place. It’s rare that a series featuring a dude who falls in love with a live chicken is going to make it to primetime (if ever), so kudos to the company for allowing co-creators Gary Pearson, Dan Redican and the improv cast breathe life into these folks.

Thursday’s “Chain gang” continued to explore many of Sunnyside’s established characters, including the meth girls, who wanted to cheer up Georgette by taking her on a shopping spree … in a homeowner’s closet. (The program’s hidden gem might be Georgette, the meth gal who utters nary a word and whose eyes are constantly downcast. Alice Moran’s portrayal cracks me up every time.)

Kathleen Phillips continues to play memorable citizens, like Claire. An over-the-top poke at those folks who claim a Starbucks table as their “office” for the day, Claire showed up at Dark Roast with a bulky typewriter and announced the table she was at would be “her office from now on” and began clacking away on her food blog article “Croissant My Heart and Hope to Die.” She, of course, annoyed everyone in the place at first … until they got caught up in her out-loud reading of romance in a coffee shop.

Pat Thornton, meanwhile, continued to get away not only with playing every clueless simpleton in Sunnyside but as a dude who held deep, deep love for a live chicken. (“The heart wants what the heart wants. Sometimes the heart wants a chicken,” a poultry farmer advised his confused daughter after Thornton’s character grabbed a bird and ran off.). I cannot unsee those moments where he held the chicken close, romantic music playing, before ushering her into the bedroom and gently closing the door behind them.

Notes and quotes

  • The teeth on those meth ladies. Oh god, their teeth!
  • Shameless plug alert! Claire was entering a writing contest in Chatelaine magazine, which just happens to be owned by Rogers, owner of City. I’m sure that was totally a coincidence.
  • Who else caught the street sign that read “Pearson” on it? I’m assuming it was an homage to Sunnyside co-creator Gary Pearson
  • Only Pat Thornton could pull off a scene describing kissing a girl like holding a jar of change and pretending to lick a chocolate off the front of it “before it falls off and stains your date pants.”

Sunnyside airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET on City.

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City celebrates the zany with wild, wacky Sunnyside

A man’s top hat gives him incredible luck. A coffee barista may be Satan himself. Babies duke it out in a mini-ring while adults bet on who will win. A house’s wall leaks blood. Townsfolk seek life advice from a disembodied voice echoing from a manhole. With all of those characters and story angles introduced in the show’s first few minutes, it’s hard to put a finger on just what Sunnyside is. So we asked star Pat Thornton.

“It’s like a sketch show that exists in a sitcom world,” he explains. “It’s all about the characters that live in the neighbourhood. Like The Simpsons, where you get to know everyone and you come back to see them. There’s no narrative that you have to follow. You just drop in and then move on.”

Created by Gary Pearson (This Hour Has 22 Minutes) and Dan Redican (The Kids in the Hall), Sunnyside boasts wild characters placed in even wilder situations. In Thursday’s debut episode, for instance, a young woman breaks off her relationship with a criminal who then goes on a shooting spree. The police arrive, and while in the midst of the firefight one female cop’s mom wanders over to chat. She’s hit by stray bullet, but keeps on talking to her daughter as if nothing has happened. In another, a husband tells his wife he’s taking their infant for a walk. Instead, he drops by a seedy warehouse to engage his daughter in Baby Fight Club. The scenes are so out of left field in their content that your first reaction is shock–how’d they come up with that??–before you break into laughter.

Sunnyside‘s cast is a who’s who from the Canadian comic and sketch world, including Thornton (Too Much Information and the Comedy Bar Comedy Podcast), Kathleen Phillips (Dan for Mayor), Alice Moran (Too Much Information), Kevin Vidal, Rob Norman (The Nut Job), and Patrice Goodman (Cracked), who assume the roles of such characters as Shaytan the devilish barista, Meth Kimmie, Handy Hank, hemp-wearing Ferg, Rookie Kerri the cop, and hot, hot yoga instructor Penny. Norm Macdonald checks in as The Hole, Sunnyside’s version of Google.

Turns out Pearson and Redican both had show pitches in to Rogers. Executives liked aspects of both projects and asked the pair to work together on what became Sunnyside.

“I know there’s a part of Toronto called Sunnyside, but this is a fictional neighbourhood,” Pearson says. “It’s kind of like Parkdale or Roncesvalles. It’s a neighbourhood in transition. There are rich people, yuppies and stuff, and some poor people, people of different sexual orientations and races and they’re all jammed together in this one place. We see their relationships and how they interact with each other, but at the same time there is magic in the neighbourhood and weird things happen.” (See: the bleeding wall.)

If ad time is any indication, City has high hopes for Sunnyside. The network has been splashing promos for the comedy series all over prime time, something Thornton isn’t used to, but welcomes.

“It was a huge vote of confidence,” he admits. “I like the angle that we take with this show. It’s just, ‘Let’s get weird.'”

Sunnyside is certainly that. And undeniably funny.

Sunnyside airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET on City.

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