Trailer Park Boys is a popular Canadian comedic mockumentary television series created and directed by Mike Clattenburg that focused on the misadventures of a group of trailer park residents, some of whom are ex-convicts, living in a fictional trailer park located in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. The television show premiered on the Showcase television network in 2001. 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.
History
In 1999, director Mike Clattenburg wrote and directed a film short entitled 'Trailer Park Boys', 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. 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 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 provison 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.
Plot
Each season follows the same basic pattern. Ricky, Julian, and Bubbles are constantly trying to figure out new ways to get rich, get high, and stay out of jail; their "get rich quick" schemes are usually foiled by the vindictive trailer park supervisor, former police officer Jim Lahey, and his eternally shirtless assistant, Randy, though the Boys' own incompetence certainly plays a role. 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.
Characters
Main article: List of Trailer Park Boys charactersMain cast members
Recurring cast members
Each of the characters has their own particular trademark mannerism or trait. For example, Julian is never seen without a tumbler of rum and Coke in his hand. Ricky's manner of speech is often laced with malapropisms and eggcorns, and Bubbles, who lives in a shed, has coke-bottle glasses and a predilection for cats.
Style
The series was 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 are 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.
Popularity
The show became very successful in many countries. For example, characters (particularly Bubbles) often appear on novelty T-shirts. 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." 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 the rock band 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 Channel 6, 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, and in Bulgaria on Nova Television. In the United States, BBC America formerly aired a censored version of the show, but it is no longer part of their lineup. The show just launched in Poland on Comedy Central Polska.
On February 5, 2009, satellite provider DirecTV began airing the series in the US on its channel The 101 Network, uncensored, at the rate of two episodes per week. DirecTV will air the entire seven-season run of Trailer Park Boys , plus both specials. All episodes aired to date 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 seasons 1-5.
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.
Episodes
Main article: List of Trailer Park Boys episodesFeature films
The Movie
Main article: Trailer Park Boys: The MovieThe 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 (Tagline: Greasiest Movie of The Year) was released on October 6 , 2006 , and distributed by Alliance Atlantis. Ivan Reitman is a producer of the project. Mike Clattenburg directed. Also known as "The Big Dirty", it was nominated for a Genie for best picture of the year, but did not win.
Countdown to Liquor Day
Main article: Trailer Park Boys: Countdown to Liquor DayThe franchise's second feature film, Trailer Park Boys: Countdown to Liquor Day , was released in Canada on September 25, 2009. A trailer was released on the official movie site.
DVD releases
Alliance Atlantis Home Entertainment has released seven seasons of Trailer Park Boys on DVD in Region 1.
Future
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. 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.
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 to demonstrate the dangers of using alcohol and drugs.
Announced in November 2009, Wells, Tremblay and Smith announced that they will be starring, though not as their Trailer Park Boys characters, in a new television series for Showcase called The Drunk and on Drugs Happy Funtime Hour , set to air in November 2010.
The Trailer Park Boys are back in Countdown to Liquor Day | Vancouver ...
It’s hard to know which character from Trailer Park Boys is most favoured by fans.
Trailer Park Boys - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Trailer Park Boys is a popular Canadian comedic mockumentary television series created and directed by Mike Clattenburg that focused on the misadventures of a group of trailer park ...
Trailer Park Boys
Official site. Lists cast members, episode recaps, pictures and discussion boards.
YouTube - Trailer Park Boys - The Water Bong Is So Smooth
Me and my friends found this by accident on Navi-X and in the process of watching all 7 series and films now. It cracks me up and Bubbles rocks!
Trailer Park Boys: The Movie - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Trailer Park Boys: The Movie, also known as The Big Dirty and simply Trailer Park Boys, is a 2006 Canadian comedy film based on the hit television series Trailer Park Boys.
Trailer Park Boys
The Beginning: How did Trailer Park Boys become reality? After the 1998 short Mike Clattenburg made which was loosely based on the characters of Ricky and Julian; and after the ...
Trailer Park Boys: The Movie (2006)
advertisement. Overview. User Rating: 7.2/10 4,124 votes. MOVIEmeter: Down 9% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro. Director: Mike Clattenburg. Writers:
"Trailer Park Boys" (2001)
advertisement. Overview. User Rating: 9.3/10 4,078 votes. MOVIEmeter: Down 10% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro. Writers: Jackie Torrens (writer) Jonathan Torrens ...
YouTube - trailer park boys - The Best Of Ricky
It's the best of Ricky....from the movie lol, maybe Foxracing has never heard of the show. With that said, the boys are gonna be back on air with a new show, fuck yeah!!!!
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