Tag Archives: Letterkenny

Letterkenny

CraveTV’s first-ever original Letterkenny to launch Super Bowl Sunday

From a media release:

− All six episodes to debut at once, exclusively on CraveTV –
− World premiere of LETTERKENNY to screen at Canadian International Television Festival (CITF) November 20 −
− LETTERKENNY to premiere Spring 2016 on The Comedy Network −

It really is a great day for hay. CraveTVTM announced today that its original comedy series everyone’s been yapping’ about, LETTERKENNY, will begin streaming on Sunday, Feb. 7, otherwise known as Super Bowl Sunday (pretty huge day for TV bud, so watch ‘em all before kickoff). Commissioned by CraveTV, in partnership with The Comedy Network, the entire six-part, half-hour series launches exclusively on CraveTV  a coupl’a weeks after the premium TV streaming service goes direct to consumers in January 2016, and will be followed by its specialty debut on Comedy in Spring 2016.

Created by hotshot Jared Keeso of Bravo’s hit original drama 19-2, LETTERKENNYis based on the Internet sensation Letterkenny Problems, Keeso’s series of shorts which have raked in more than 10 million views and landed a Canadian Screen Award nomination in 2014 for Best Web Series. LETTERKENNY is executive produced, directed, and co-written by Jacob Tierney (The Trotsky).

To get everyone cranked up about the new series CraveTV has acquired Letterkenny Problems and will begin streaming the shorts on Friday, Nov. 20, the same day LETTERKENNY receives its world premiere at the Canadian International Television Festival (CITF) at Toronto’s TIFF Bell Lightbox. As a tribute to the fans that have made Letterkenny a cult hit, CITF will screen LETTERKENNY’s debut episode “Ain’t No Reason to Get Excited” as well as provide a panel discussion with creator, co-writer, star, and executive producer, Jared Keeso. Executive producers Mark Montefiore and Patrick O’Sullivan of New Metric Media will be on hand for panel discussion, but no chirpin’ please and thanks.

CraveTV also confirmed today that building on the success of Letterkenny Problems, six brand-new shorts will accompany each episode streamed on the service. Beauty.

LETTERKENNY revolves around the dustups Wayne (Keeso) and his buds get into with their small-town Ontario rivals. There’s The Hicks, the Skids, and the Hockey Players, who get at each other about the darnedest things, often ending with someone getting their arse kicked. Wayne, his best bud Daryl (Nathan Dales, KING & MAXWELL), and Wayne’s free-spirited younger sister Katy (Michelle Mylett, ASCENSION) are all Hicks. On the ready to take the piss outta Wayne and Daryl,Dylan Playfair (Mr Hockey: The Gordie Howe Story) and Andrew Herr (also, Mr Hockey: The Gordie Howe Story) reprise their roles as The Hockey Players, “Jonesy” and “Reilly,” from Letterkenny Problems. Tyler Johnston (MOTIVE) stars as lead Skid, Stewart; Stewart’s “sideskid” Devon is played by Alexander De Jordy (19-2); Lisa Codrington (COPPER) stars as Modeen’s bartender, Gail; Jacob Tierney as the Christian Leader Glenn; and K Trevor Wilson stars as Wayne’s buddy, Dan.

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Featured, Letterkenny

Letterkenny co-stars reprise standout roles for TV series

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They may play a couple of dopey hockey players, but Andrew Herr and Dylan Playfair take their comedy seriously. The pair co-star in CraveTV and The Comedy Network’s upcoming Letterkenny as Jonesy and Reilly, two dunderheaded, expletive-spouting friends who share a distaste for hicks Wayne (Jared Keeso, 19-2) and Daryl (Nathan Dales, King & Maxwell), a love for hockey … and the same girlfriend.

First introduced in one episode of Keeso’s web series Letterkenny Problems—which was then picked up to series by Bell Media—the characters of Jonesy and Reilly had to be bulked up for the TV show’s six episodes.

“On the web series, there was just a few seconds of chirping,” Herr (Mr. Hockey: The Gordie Howe Story) says from an on-location shoot in Sudbury, Ont. “Now we see why these two are the way they are.” Both guys knew (or know) fellows who are a lot like their TV personas on hockey teams they’ve played on, so they relate to  the verbiage and actions. The scene Canadian TV critics saw being filmed that day included a riotous face-off between Jonesy, Reilly, Wayne and Daryl, with the former pair showcasing macho puffery and an urgency to “tarp off” (take off their shirts) and engage in a “donnybrook” (a fight) with the latter pair. Instead, Wayne and Daryl undressed the hockey players with a rapid-fire delivery of chirping that left Jonesy and Reilly befuddled. Herr says everyone sticks to the scripts written by series creator and executive producer Keeso and executive producer and director Jacob Tierney (The Trotsky), though Playfair’s scene-ending ad libs left Tierney and the crew crowding the monitors cackling several times.

Letterkenny spotlights three social groups—the Hicks, the Skids (Less Than Kind‘s Tyler Johnston is lead Skid, Stewart) and the Hockey Players—who are constantly at odds with each other. But when outside forces attack one faction, the other two come to their defence. Despite their differences, Letterkenny’s three social circles have a sense of community and family, something Playfair says was reflected in real-life by a promise Keeso made to he and Herr.

“Jared told us right away when he was pitching this, ‘You guys are going to be the guys,'” Playfair (Some Assembly Required) recalls. “Herrsie and I realized that we needed to take as many acting classes and get as much experience as we could so that [the network] would have to hire us. Fast forward a year and a half and here we are in Ontario filming Letterkenny with guys we were friends with before we became part of this project.”

Letterkenny will debut on CraveTV.

Check out Reilly and Jonesy in their Letterkenny Problems debut. Warning: expletives abound.

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19-2, Featured

Interview: 19-2’s Jared Keeso teases his new effing comedy project

For Jared Keeso, AC/DC will forever be burned into his brain as the soundtrack to the next step in his television career. A tune by the Aussie rockers was blaring from his cellphone the day he found out his Internet series, Letterkenny Problems had been ordered to TV.

Keeso’s creation, about a foul-mouthed pair of dudes living in the fictional small town of Letterkenny, is the first original Canadian series to air on Bell Media’s CraveTV followed by broadcast on Comedy Network. Last Thursday’s announcement caps off one heck of a week for Keeso that started the previous Sunday when he captured a Canadian Screen Award for his lead role on Bravo’s 19-2.

Congratulations on the Canadian Screen Award. Did you know what you were going to say in your acceptance speech?
Jared Keeso: I had an idea of what I was going to say. I had some points, but I can’t believe I got through it without too many ums and uhs. I managed to seem pretty organized up there. As soon as they called my name the nerves shut off and I was pretty comfortable up on the stage.

How long ago did you find out that Letterkenny was a go? And did Bell Media contact you via phone call, email, text?
They called the producers, Mark Montefiore and Patrick O’Sullivan of New Metric Media. I was in Montreal doing press for 19-2 at the time. We were expecting the green light or red light call. I was in between interviews for 19-2 and my phone rang and it was Montefiore and I knew it. This is the call. I pick up and say ‘Hello?’ and there is AC/DC music playing. [Laughs.] They let that go for 10 for 15 seconds while they were probably dancing around their offices and then Montefiore yells out, ‘Six episodes greenlit, baby!’ I was speechless. I could tell that it was a big a deal to them as it was to me. Everybody at Bell has been so supportive and seem so enthusiastic. Working with them has been a pleasure.

I’m almost positive on CraveTV we can say the f-word as much as we want.

Letterkenny is the first Canadian original to be commissioned for first window on CraveTV. How does that feel to be breaking new ground?

I couldn’t be happier about the decision to make us the first original Canadian show to be on CraveTV and then shift us over to Comedy after that. I really like it because I’m almost positive on CraveTV we can say the f-word as much as we want. And that’s good because the way things are scripted right now I think I have one page with a baker’s dozen f-words on it. It’s in every line and sometimes twice per line. Hopefully we get away with it.

Had you guys been aiming for a six-episode order?
A six-episode order is exactly what we wanted. It’s my first time being paid as a writer—it’s my first rodeo—and having six episodes to cut my teeth on gives us a great opportunity to launch without having to water down anything with a larger order. I don’t think I’m able to really pack a punch in 10 or 12 episodes.

Who is writing it? You mentioned yourself already. Is your Letterkenny Problems’ co-star Nathan Dales writing too?
Nate’s not involved in the writing. Jacob Tierney and I are writing every episode and we have Mike Dowse from FUBAR and Goon as our script consultant. And I’ll tell you, that guy is just so valuable to the process. Not only does he bring a ton of expertise to it but he speaks English very, very well. His notes are very concrete and it’s easy for us to understand what he means. We’ve done a lot of moving and shaking based on his advice. It’s pretty crazy to be working with the guy who made one of my favourite movies of all time in FUBAR.

What are you learning about yourself as a writer? Are you a lazy writer? Are you able to whip stuff off?
I’m certainly learning what my strengths and weaknesses are. I’m glad that we’re going the sitcom route with this. My strength is the dialogue, as many laughs as possible. Big story and character arc is not my strength. Working on a show like 19-2 makes me appreciate guys like Bruce Smith and Jesse McKeown that much more because what they do I simply could not do.

Growing up on Listowel, Ont., I’m so proud to have come from that town. But growing up there, getting your ass kicked was a legitimate concern on a day-to-day basis.

Give me a lowdown on the setup of the show. The release says ‘The residents of Letterkenny belong to one of three groups: Hicks, Skids, and Hockey Players. The three groups are constantly feuding with each other over seemingly trivial matters.’

Growing up in Listowel, Ont. … I’m so proud to have come from that town. But growing up there, getting your ass kicked was a legitimate concern on a day-to-day basis. And I think that was because we were all in this small town with nothing better to do so we drink and we fight. We drink we fight and we dance, actually. It is true to life in that you were in one of those three groups. In high school I was friends with everybody so I can draw from actual experiences there. Letterkenny doesn’t drift too far into the absurd. The dialogue is nutty but we do keep it true to real life for the most part.

But I wanted to make sure that the show was tough. We think that’s what sold so much of our audience with Letterkenny Problems. It’s funny but it’s still tough. I don’t think you’d want to eff with either of those two guys.

Where will you be filming?
We’re going to Sudbury, Ont. I’ve only been there once, but I know from growing up and playing hockey that those guys used to come down and just beat the shit out of us physically on and off the scoreboard. There are a lot of tough dudes in that town.

The elephant in the room, of course, is 19-2. When do you expect to hear about a third season of that and how will it impact on Letterkenny‘s production schedule?
We found out about Season 2 of 19-2 a couple of days before the first season finale aired and I think we’d all love to find out around that same time again. That was great, watching the last episode and knowing we were all going back to do it again. I think everybody is pretty optimistic about it and it would be a shame if we didn’t get to go back and do it. Six episodes of Letterkenny is tailored to not get in the way if 19-2 goes back.

Meanwhile, Keeso’s 19-2 airs Mondays at 10 p.m. ET on Bravo.

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19-2, Degrassi, Featured, Industry News

19-2 lead and Best Years creator get developing with TMN

Bell Media’s Aug. 14 announcement regarding its 14 new comedies and dramas in development for The Movie Network was significant. For the first time that I can recall, a Canadian network unveiled its development plan for the coming year, showing its cards in advance. Though commonplace in the U.S. where pilot orders and development deals are announced daily via Variety and Deadline, it’s rare to show your cards north of the border, and was an adjustment for Bell.

“We had talked about doing it or not doing it over the years,” Corrie Coe, senior vice-president of independent production for Bell Media admits. “In terms of the industry, it gave a sense of the projects that we were working on, the types of talent we were working with and the levels and range of projects which we thought was helpful. We have heard from producers and writers who have said that it has been helpful to know what we’re already working on so they know what to pitch and what not to pitch to us. We were a little worried whether we were giving away too much information but tossed that worry out the window and we’re glad we did.”

She explains that in an average year Bell Media receives 1,200 to 1,300 pitches. Each one is looked at before 40 to 50 are chosen for development before that number is trimmed down to the projects greenlit to pilot or ordered to series. Two of those given the go-ahead this year were comedies Letterkenny and Prons.

Created by 19-2 actor Jared Keeso and Jacob Tierney (The Trotsky) with New Metric Media, Letterkenny is a television adaptation of the duo’s outrageous NSFW YouTube series Letterkenny Problems, which points video cameras at two buddies living in a fictional small-town in Ontario who wax poetic on the problems plaguing they and their fellow townsfolk. Keeso says he and Tierney headed to the Internet after the CBC passed on 19-2 after a pilot episode had been filmed. (The series was picked up by Bravo and Season 2 of 19-2 is currently in production in Montreal.) Tired of relying on auditioning to decide his fate, Keeso opted to create his own content unencumbered by network rules.

“I think this is a great route to go,” he says of his show’s YouTube beginnings. “Not only are you being creative and showing initiative and you’re in control, but you can do whatever you want to. It’s all yours.” Letterkenny is being retooled for television, with more characters being added to round out the cast; at press time Keeso and Tierney have submitted three scripts to Bell Media.

Meanwhile, fellow comedy Prons has the cache of having the high-profile writer/director/actor Kevin Smith attached to it. The man behind Mallrats has teamed with Degrassi and The Best Years showrunner Aaron Martin to tell the ribald tale of a famous porn star who returns to his small town of Brantford, Ont. Martin, who is from Brantford, was approached by Smith and Halfire Entertainment president Noreen Halpern after Smith pitched the idea and needed a Canadian writer to come on board.

Martin was the pair’s first choice; he had worked with Smith on Degrassi and Halpern on The Best Years. The road to getting Prons on the air has been a long one. Martin and Smith pitched the idea to networks two years ago and Astral Media bit. When Astral was purchased by Bell Media, Prons moved under The Movie Network umbrella. Martin laughs when he recalls having to write a show bible explaining why this character is moving back to his hometown.

“It’s about a guy who is in his 30s and wakes up and says ‘What have I done with my life? How did I get here?'” he explains. “And he remembers a time before he sold out and that time was when he was a high school student and his whole life was laid out ahead of him. So he goes back to see his former girlfriend, his former best friend and to save his town’s hockey rink.” Like Keeso and Tierney, Smith and Martin are waiting to hear whether they’ll be moving forward.

Other notable projects in development at TMN include Thunderhouse Falls, written by award-winning author Joseph Boyden; time period crime drama The Tenderness of Wolves, based on the novel by Stef Penney; and Gucci Wars, which tracks the rise and fall of the famed Italian designer. Coe says all are in various stages of the creative process, with some having pilot scripts done, others not that far yet and others working on show bibles. It’s a long journey in a country that relies on tax credits and other financing to come through and networks have to be sure each project is the right fit before they commit to greenlighting a season.

“I do think making TV in Canada is hard,” Coe says. “Even once you have scripts and a bible done and all of the research completed you still have to assemble financing at a level that will allow you to support that budget and creative in a way that makes your show look head and shoulders above anything else out there.

“We’re fortunate to have the tax credits that we do but I do think it’s tricky to cobble together those pieces and get to the moment that the cameras are rolling on Day 1.”

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