I know I should be more on top of Canadian television news, but I’m a latecomer to this story.  The Drunk and on Drugs Happy Funtime Hour is currently shooting in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and has been since May 26.  Drunk and on Drugs… is Robb Wells, John Paul Tremblay and Mike Smith’s follow-up to Trailer Park Boys, like I really need to state this.

Less Than Kind‘s Maury Chaykin will guest-star as an actor hired to play a wacky German scientist.  Chaykin is filling in for Alex Lifeson, the man originally tagged to play the scientist.  Jay Baruchel, Pat Roach and John Dunsworth also make appearances in the six-episode limited series.

Baruchel’s easily Drunk and on Drugs…‘ hottest guest star, appearing in films like She’s Out of My League, How to Train Your Dragon and The Trotsky.  His climb towards the Hollywood mainstream can only help Drunk and on Drugs… – well, that and Baruchel’s winning CanCon brownie points for The Trotsky.

There’s nothing I can say about The Drunk and on Drugs Happy Funtime Hour that hasn’t already been said.  You’re either excited for Drunk and on Drugs… or pissed off since it’s not Trailer Park Boys.  Hell, maybe you’re both.  TPB-related projects cause conflicting reactions in people.

Upload Yours, a collection of user-generated clips from The Comedy Network’s heavily promoted Youtube-baiter, will debut Thursday, June 3, 2010 at 10:30 PM.  The show will follow Tosh.0, which The Comedy Network tends to move around often.

Anyone watching The Comedy Network since 2009 will know (and hate) the Upload Yours commercial by heart – Jamie Watson asking viewers if they have a treasure box of comic gold, man in hardhat dancing and faking an injury, upbeat ska music.  By this point, Upload Yours has been flogged for more than a year.

I should be against Upload Yours on principle.  CTVglobemedia owns every clip sent to Upload Yours.  The terms and conditions are fairly onerous.  You’re giving material away to Upload Yours for the carrot of free publicity.  This is the exact thing Amid Amidi rails against on Cartoon Brew.

The Comedy Network’s previous web-projects-made-series are Good Morning World and Hotbox.  Whatever one can say about those programs, at least they’re proper programs.  Upload Yours is stitched-together clips, like The Comedy Network needs an excuse to be cheaper with its CanCon than it already is.

I’d be happy if The Comedy Network could greenlight a series like Summer Heights High, Ugly Americans or We Can Be Heroes – you know, rise to the calibre of the shows TCN is currently airing.  Instead, Canadians get a “best”-of-Internet clip show.  This country…

Sometimes the best programs on CBC Television are the pilots aired once, then dropped in the middle of the harbour.  The Cult (CBC: New Kingdom Productions Ltd./Crescent Entertainment/Big Dog Productions/Chokolat Inc./ITV?, 2008) is one such program, a drama unlike anything else currently on CBC.

Nathan Fall (Henry Czerny) is determined to retrieve his daughter Rachel (Alexia Fast) from the Apostles of the Second Son, a cult perverting(?) Christian mythology.  Nathan has not seen Rachel for five weeks, as he and soon-to-be ex-wife Evelyn (Torri Higginson) have neglected her.  Nathan plans to infiltrate the cult, which sells itself on television as New Eden.

The Cult also focuses on the life of Lucas (Richard Harmon), a teen living in what looks like a halfway house.  He notices the commercial for New Eden, of which Rachel is its figurehead.  Lucas is not initially aware of how New Eden will soon control his life.

Soon, Rachel speaks to Lucas through the television.  Lucas eventually sees rain and fish fall from inside the halfway house.  Could Rachel really be the second coming of Mary, Mother of Jesus, or is Lucas suffering from mental disabilities?  The Cult doesn’t answer this question, not that first episodes of serial dramas ever do.

The best thing about The Cult is that the show is ambiguous about Apostles of the Second Son’s intentions.  Apostles of the Second Son has allegedly been around since Christianity itself.  Outsiders who reveal the Apostles’ existence, like Dr. Frank Hollingshurst (Vincent Gale), tend to die.  The Apostles like to cover the bases for when the Rapture comes.

There’s been mention at TV, Eh? of The Cult, albeit confined to comments on a Republic of Doyle piece.  One commenter wonders why The Cult was passed up for Republic of Doyle.

I grant Republic of Doyle its existence, although I haven’t revised my thoughts on the show since its first episode.  Keeping RoD in mind, why would CBC pass on The Cult?  I see no reason why The Cult couldn’t work as a series, especially when Henry Czerny’s the lead actor.

Maybe I’m overhyping a pilot that has fallen through the cracks of government-aided obsolescence.  It happens.  Show co-creator Angus Fraser is responsible for The Movie Network/Movie Central’s 2005 series Terminal City, and it would be nice to see more Fraser on Canadian television.

Jeff Spriet and James Wilkes’ 11 Cameras was dumped on CBC’s summer schedule in 2006, and that show is surprisingly good.  The Cult‘s three creators can obviously spin something watchable, so why not let them do it?  Does Debbie Travis need a feel-good reality show so badly?

According to a VSC new release e-mail sent to retailers, The Border‘s third (and final) season will be out on DVD August 10, 2010.  The three-disc set will have an MSRP of $29.98 CDN.  Extras will include “Character Psychology Sessions” and “Behind the Scenes with Graham Abbey.”  The series finale will contain director and cast commentary.

The first two season sets of The Border will have their prices reduced to MSRP $19.99 CDN.  There are no mentions of Blu-Ray releases, at least according to the e-mail.

It should be noted that the release date isn’t final, as there is no formal press release for The Border‘s third-season set.  Hopefully, VSC won’t announce the third-season set a week before it streets, like it did for the second season.

CBC recently cancelled The Border after three seasons, due to less-than-stellar ratings on Thursday nights.  The show even ended on a cliffhanger.

Maybe the director and cast commentaries will reveal the reasons behind the cliffhanger.  The Border‘s days were numbered when it was moved to one of CBC’s worst-performing nights.  Then again, doing poorly on CBC Television doesn’t automatically mean cancellation.  They’re still making Little Mosque on the Prairie, so figure that one out.

URBMN readers – hell, anyone familiar with CityTV and MuchMusic – should remember Ed the Sock.  The green-haired, sardonic sock puppet has been around since the late 1980s, when Ed first debuted on Newton Cable in Toronto.  This Movie Sucks! will mark Ed’s debut on CHCH, CJNT and CHEK, as well as Movieola and Silver Screen Classics.  The show first airs May 28, 2010, from midnight to 2:00 AM.

This Movie Sucks! reads like a reiteration of Ed’s Nite In, where Ed and human sidekick Red (Liana Kerzner) make fun of bad films.  This Movie Sucks! will be followed by I Hate Hollywood! in September 2010, according to Bill Brioux and the Ed the Sock website.  A new version of Fromage is also planned.

I’m ambivalent about Ed the Sock’s return to television.  This Movie Sucks! is the perfect fit for both CHCH and CHEK.  It’s a terrible fit for Movieola, the short-film channel.  At least CHCH is airing more than its usual midnight martial-arts film, so I shouldn’t complain.  I’ll only judge This Movie Sucks! once it airs.