The Drunk and on Drugs Happy Funtime Hour (Action: Pope Productions/Happy Funtime Productions, 2011) is a case study in Canadian television not meeting its potential.  Drunk and on Drugs stars actors from Trailer Park Boys, one of the rare Canadian television phenomena of the past decade.  Amy Sedaris and Jay Baruchel, two reasonably popular celebrities, appear in small roles.  In addition, Drunk and on Drugs is the late Maury Chaykin’s episodic television swan song.

Where does Shaw Media air Drunk and on Drugs, then?  The channel it was originally slotted for, Showcase?  No, Shaw Media burns it off on an obscure Showcase spinoff channel, in the middle of July, two episodes at a time.  That’s a shame, as The Drunk and on Drugs Happy Funtime Hour is the best Canadian television I’ve seen so far this summer.

Robb Wells, Mike Smith and John Paul Tremblay play themselves, as they try to figure out why they’re in random predicaments (in a trashed motel room, inside a giant wooden penis) at the beginning of each episode.  Dr. Funtime (Maury Chaykin), who may or may not be a real scientist and/or Maury Chaykin, has created a blueberry-based hallucinogen that keeps the residents of Port Cockerton in line.

Wells, Smith and Tremblay are also kept in Port Cockerton, for reasons as yet unexplained.  Meanwhile, television executive K. Money (Amy Sedaris) is pissed off, as she tries to assemble hours of show footage into something remotely coherent.  I’m not sure what any of this means, if anything.

Wells, Smith and Tremblay play multiple characters throughout the show.  In lesser hands, Drunk and on Drugs would be a vanity project in the tradition of Single White Spenny and Good Dog.  Thankfully, The Drunk and on Drugs Happy Funtime Hour is an ambitious attempt at weaving multiple narratives into a cohesive whole.  Based on the first two episodes, it actually succeeds on this level.

Even given the show’s more outlandish elements (the armless Papa Karlson’s Feetza Pizza, the DJs of all-gay radio station CGAY, the geriatric mob family, Dr. Funtime), Drunk and on Drugs is fairly tightly plotted.  If Trailer Park Boys is Danger Man/Secret Agent, The Drunk and on Drugs Happy Funtime Hour is The Prisoner.  That’s not to say Drunk and on Drugs is as good as The Prisoner, just that the two shows inhabit the same plane of weirdness.  I’m interested to see how the remainder of Drunk and on Drugs pans out.

If you’re curious, the first two episodes of The Drunk and on Drugs Happy Funtime Hour are online at drunkandondrugs.com.  The episodes aren’t viewable outside Canada, but one can get around the geoblocking.  See?  Canadian television not meeting its potential.  I hope The Comedy Network doesn’t wrap a similar geofence around Picnicface.

Yeah, I know.  My neglect of URBMN means these Alliance Home Entertainment titles, if not already out, are coming very soon.  Hey, a few of you are actually purchasing these titles through my links, so I must be doing something right…that or Americans are cross-border shopping.

The titles for April to June 2011, plus a selection for August:

It’s been a while since I posted anything about Alliance Home Entertainment’s Canadian TV-on-DVD releases.  This listing consists of five new releases, two box set repacks, and one oft-delayed title.  To wit:

Andromeda: Season 5 (January 4, 2011)
C.A. Conseil d’administration: Complete Series (November 9, 2010)
Passe-Partout: “Coffret” (November 16, 2010)
TekWar: Complete Series (?)
The Adventures of Sinbad: Season 2 (January 4, 2011)
The Adventures of the Black Stallion: Season 2 (November 9, 2010)
Trailer Park Boys: “Say Goodnight to the Bad Guys” DVD | Blu-ray (December 7, 2010)

You will notice Passe-Partout‘s box set listed as “Coffret.”  From what I can tell, Alliance Vivafilm is re-releasing its Passe-Partout volume sets, packaging them as a collection.  At around $200, I can’t see a market for the set, even though Passe-Partout is encoded into the DNA of every French-speaking Quebecer born in the late 1970s and 1980s.

I question the wisdom of Alliance releasing the TPB special two years after its airdate.  I see no point in releasing Trailer Park Boys: Countdown to Liquor Day before the special that preceded it.  I guess Countdown to Liquor Day is a bigger commercial lure, being the third TPB film.  I don’t know.

As for The Adventures of Sinbad and Andromeda, they finish their runs on January 4, 2011.  This begs the question: which shows will Alliance mill through next?  I mean, the world is at the point where Airwolf‘s fourth season is worthy of release.

Seriously, the Vancouver season of Airwolf!  A lot of Airwolf fans count the fourth season as a separate show, but here we are.  It’s 2011 and you get to see tons of stock footage of a Bell 222, plus Barry Van Dyke!  Night Heat can’t come to DVD why?

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.

The Drunk and on Drugs Happy Funtime Hour (one hell of a working title) has been commissioned by Showcase for a six-episode November 2010 run.  As reported by everyone in existence, this is the new show from Trailer Park Boys stars Robb Wells, John Paul Tremblay and Mike Smith.

I’m not going to belabour the point by rewriting the press release, except that Monty Python’s Flying Circus and The League of Gentlemen are referenced.  Looks like Kids in the Hall: Death Comes to Town has competition.  Nice.

Hosts of The Happy Funtime Hour unknowingly take hallucinogens, acting like the characters they play.  Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson plays “a German scientist who teaches children about nutrition.”  The Drunk and on Drugs Happy Funtime Hour reads like a Sid and Marty Krofft pisstake.  I like it.

The show is ambitious, with Wells, Tremblay and Smith playing numerous characters.  I’m wary of Drunk and on Drugs… being a vanity project, but the TPB actors are capable of pulling a show like this off.  The show will either be awesome or a complete trainwreck.  I don’t see a middle ground.  There shouldn’t be.

Via Showcase’s YouTube account, here’s a video of the show announcement.  Warning: too many shots of a speakerphone.  Way to break the online budget, Showcase.

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I have to admit something.  I have never sat down and watched an entire episode of Trailer Park Boys.  I could never get past the casual swearing, even though the show is one of the most popular Canadian comedies going.  I don’t think I would have requested a Trailer Park Boys screener if it wasn’t the final episode.

After watching “Say Goodnight to the Bad Guys” (Showcase: December 7, 10 ET/PT), I should have given this show a chance when it was in first run.  While I still find Trailer Park Boys‘ profanity fucking gratuitous, the show isn’t nearly as bad as I thought it was.

For first-time viewers, the show revolves around Julian (John Paul Tremblay), Ricky (Robb Wells) and Bubbles (Mike Smith), three Maritimers living at the Sunnyvale Trailer Park.  Their shared nemesis is Jim Lahey (John Dunsworth), a former police officer and the trailer park’s supervisor/chief souse.

Lahey’s deathless enmity towards Julian and the gang stems from a 1977 Halloween prank gone horribly wrong.  Lahey is flanked by shirtless bisexual assistant Randy.  ”Say Goodnight to the Bad Guys” focuses around Lahey’s desire to rid himself once and for all of the Boys, as well as other trailer park irritants.

The acting in “Say Goodnight to the Bad Guys” is a mixed bag.  Mike Smith is great as Bubbles and the other two Boys are almost as good.  Dunsworth is awesome as alcohol enthusiast Lahey.  Trailer Park Boys doesn’t have the talent depth of The Red Green Show, but its mockumentary nature helps mask this deficiency.

Jonathan Torrens’ role as wigger J-Roc is the only acting low point, but it’s been that way since Torrens first appeared on the show.  He’s always worked better as a television host, as seven seasons of Street Cents and five seasons of Jonovision demonstrate.

It’s not much of a spoiler to say that “Say Goodnight to the Bad Guys” isn’t the final word on Trailer Park Boys.  A feature film, the show’s second*, is forthcoming.  The Ricky, Julian and Bubbles Community Service Variety Show tour existed before the finale and will hit Toronto’s Massey Hall in January 2009.

Trailer Park Boys creator Mike Clattenburg claims that this special and the film will end the series.  The film’s working title is “Countdown to Liquor Day.”  Without spoiling the special for longtime viewers, the countdown starts near the end of “Say Goodnight to the Bad Guys.”

I hope Clattenburg isn’t using the special to shill the film, but I wouldn’t put it past him.  Like Don Cherry and Red Green, no one will ever fully get rid of Trailer Park Boys.  Both Bob and Doug McKenzie and The Kids in the Hall are coming back to television within two years.  Look for a Trailer Park Boys comeback four years from now.

^{*The 1999 Trailer Park Boys film doesn’t count as Trailer Park Boys wasn’t a television show back then.  Please don’t correct me on this.  Oh, and fuck bologna sandwiches.}