BBC America will show "Trailer Park Boys" -- lucky you!

[iverglas]

"Trailer Park Boys" is the funniest thing on TV. Better than Larry Sanders reruns. And until now, available only in Canada, pity. (A Canadian joke ...)

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/stories/quickhits2212

Canadian underground hit Trailer Park Boys has been picked up by BBC America, creator Mike Clattenburg announced Friday.

The popular, Halifax-produced mockumentary TV series will have its U.S. debut in April 2004, when more than 50 million people will be able to tune in and enjoy the antics of Julien, Ricky, Bubbles and the other characters of Sunnyvale Trailer Park.

The profanity-laced show will have two versions: an edited version will air in prime time and the unedited version later at night.

Believe me, you want to watch the unedited version. Otherwise, you just couldn't properly enjoy ... oh, season 3, episode 3:

Ricky, too, is feeling quite ill from the effects of smoking while wearing a nicotine patch. Fainting, his lit cigarette falls in a puddle of gasoline causing a customer's car to explode. The Boys are arrested and have to appear in court. Ricky fires their legal aid lawyer and decides to represent them all himself. Ricky and the prosecutor (Jeremy Ackerman) get into a shouting match. The judge (Jennifer Overton) admonishes Ricky for his bad language and warns him to stop or else. Ricky, in an impassioned defense, argues that he has a constitutional right under the People's Choices and Voices Act to express himself and if that means smoking and swearing, so be it. The judge concurs. Ricky deconstructs Lahey's video evidence and puts the blame squarely on Cory and Trevor who, sitting in the court hooked up to life-saving breathing apparatuses for gas poisoning, are in no position to argue.

Where else could you watch a 7-year-old try to kick smoking on the patch, or accidentally shoot her father in the bum, followed by the dog (which belongs to the old lady next door who thinks Julian is her grandson) eating the hash brownies he drops on the floor, and leading to an emergency visit to the crooked veterinarian for stomach pumping and bullet extraction?

Though the BBC America deal marks the show's official entry into the U.S., the "boys" already have American fans who have been downloading the series off the Internet. While in Los Angeles, Tremblay, Wells and Smith were stopped by some of their more ardent followers, including Canadian ex-pat actress Catherine O'Hara.

Those who can't wait can also buy the first two seasons on video/DVD:

http://www.showcase.ca/trailerparkboys/

You can read synopses and watch preview trailers there too:

http://www.showcase.ca/trailerparkboys/episodes/

And it's better than a university Canadian Studies class for getting a peek into the Canadian psyche.

Words don't do the boys justice. Set your VCR for April!

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[MariaS]

1. I am a fan

of an old british comedy show called 'The Young Ones' Not sure if you know it but is this show anything like that?

[iverglas]

10. a britcom I haven't seen

Damn!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/guide/articles/y/youngonesthe_1299003473.shtml

By 1981, certain members of the 'alternative comedy' movement were beginning to turn up on television. Rik Mayall had arguably the highest profile and at least a little leverage with television producers. On stage, he had perfected an off-the-wall poet character, Rik, a pompous, radical prat whom he had brought to TV in Boom Boom...Out Go The Lights Mayall and his then-girlfriend Lise Mayer talked about the sort of home life such a bloke might have, and what other characters might live with him. ...

... The premise was simple: the series depicted a flatshare from hell, with four anarchic, lazy, dysfunctional students living on the breadline and hating and abusing one another. But it was the style of The Young Ones rather than the idea that gave the show its individuality. It gloriously reflected the free-basing, high-octane, in-your-face, unpredictable quality of 'alternative' comedy and turned its back on all of the old, established rules and clichés of television humour to present 35 minutes of rampaging, violent slapstick which had more in common with Warner Bros cartoons than with situation comedy as known to this point.

Similar principle, but TPB is more low-key, I'd say. That's the Canadianness of it. The stuff that looks to you guys like politeness and boringness and is really just subtlety. ;) The boys are just so ... ordinarily insane, and such complete and hopeless losers. *Everybody* knows a Ricky from high school.

I hear that BBC has a plan to make all its programming, from time immemorial, available on line free of charge. And won't that be heaven?

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[supernova]

2. Behind the scenes

at The Red Green Show. :D This is what this reminds me of. Hmmm.... wanders of to explore p2p...

[madrchsod]

3. found three on

ares,i`m checking on another couple sites....

[iverglas]

7. details!

I know nothing about downloading video on line, but I'm sure there are people here who do and would benefit from a few hours with Ricky and Julian.

But you gotta start with episode 1 of season 1.

Oh, and if the movie is available (the series followed the original mockumentary movie), don't be put off by it. The Ricky and Julian characters in the movie were rather unpleasant; it had a nasty (although perhaps more "real") edge that was taken off for the series.

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[madrchsod]

8. found three

on ares and 21 files on shareaze, have to wait to see if anything will download,seems alittle slow tonight.

[iverglas]

12. thanks

Gotta go shopping -- will check later for the results.

[HEyHEY]

4. I love that line when RIcky calle the judge "Your Majesty"

Great show...but how ill they EVER edit that one?

[iverglas]

6. I can't imagine!

... how to edit TPB. Maybe the way South Park is "edited" ... delete the vowel sounds only. ;)

Maybe I should tell our neighbours that The People's Choices and Voices Act is actually Part 1 of the Constitution of Canada, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms ...

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[davidinalameda]

5. I saw that when I was in Vancouver last April

thought it was the funniest thing in the world

[ironflange]

9. Trailer Park Boys is a riot! I love it!

Just wondering, what about Kevin Spenser? Any chance of an export deal there? That show can make South Park look like The Flintstones.

[iverglas]

11. uh oh

I've never watched Kevin Spencer, though I had a vague notion it was Canadian. I think I'm too old.

Did Paul Martin just say that he is committed to the Canadian Television Fund? Looking for Kevin Spencer, I found an interesting article:

http://www.pch.gc.ca/progs/ac-ca/progs/fct-ctf/pubs/report-rapport/4-A-e.html

"The Impact Of The CTF
A. Impact on viewership"

(Pre-Trailer Park Boys, though.) Kevin Spencer, you'll be happy to hear, gets (got?) CTF funding. ;)

.

[terrya]

13. Is Ricky the one who's always without a shirt?

I saw a few episodes when I was in Toronto a while back.

And which guy is the one who's always carrying a drink? (I think he's sort of sexy, in a trailer park sort of way)

I'd love to catch this show here, but our cable system doesn't carry BBC America (sadly, since I'm interested in watching Graham Norton's show)

[HEyHEY]

14. Randy has no shirt

Julien has the rum and coke

[terrya]

15. Thanks, HeyHey. eom

[iverglas]

16. close ;)

The shirtless one is Randy, the assistant trailer park supervisor.

http://www.showcase.ca/trailerparkboys/about/cast/lahey_randy.asp

The Sunnyvale Trailer Park tag team of Lahey and his shirtless sidekick Randy can be seen in two lights: a responsible and dedicated team who strive to maintain harmony among the parksfolk or as the irritating, do-gooder incompetents who serve no other purpose than to make life difficult for innocent citizens. Ricky and Julian tend to see things in the latter way, of course.

Dismissed from the police force 16 years ago for unknown reasons, Mr. Lahey spends most of his days scouring the park for bottle-kids and illegal drug users while 'shirtless wonder' picks up garbage in the playground.

("Bottle kids!" ... smash)

Ricky is the one in the bowling shirt.



Julian is the rum and coke boy, and he's sexy in more than just a trailer park sorta way! He's the philosopher king of Sunnyvale Trailer Park.



Beg your cable system for BBC America. (Isn't that what the TV ads tell you to do?)

.

[terrya]

17. Thank you for clearing that up! :-)

I will beg my cable system (RCN) for BBC America! I've got to HAVE it ! :-)