Yes, it’s the end of Trailer Park Boys
The Chronicle Herald
By TIM ARSENAULT
Tue. Nov 18
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ANYBODY WHO thinks the Trailer Park Boys are on the verge of moving away hasn’t been paying attention.
For all intents and purposes, Ricky, Julian, Bubbles and the gang should be around in various forms long after the television premiere of a one-hour finale special on Dec. 7 at 11 p.m. on Showcase. The show is scheduled to follow a Trailer Park Boys marathon of nine episodes chosen by Julian, Ricky, Bubbles, and creator and director Mike Clattenburg, starting at 6:30 p.m.
Depending on viewers’ sleep patterns, any day can seem like a marathon for the homegrown Nova Scotia series. Multiple episodes from the seven seasons of the foul-mouthed slice-of-life mockumentary air daily on Showcase and the digital Action channel.
The boys seem to endure in or out of context. There are season sets of DVDs, a Christmas special that reset the franchise, the hit debut feature film, and calendars. Personal appearances range from the boys jamming with Guns ’N Roses to vision-challenged Bubbles reading the band introductions for Blue Man Group.
If things get any worse at beleaguered Canwest Global, Showcase’s parent company, CEO Leonard Asper may want to give Julian a call to see if he can come up with one of his sketchy get-rich-quick schemes.
Showcase confirmed last week that the upcoming special will put a bow on the television version of the eight-year-old project that put the neighbourhood of Sunnyvale on the map. A day earlier, Clattenburg had posted a message on the Showcase website:
"Over the past few months there has been a lot of discussion among our fans and those in the media about the future of Trailer Park Boys. Will there be another season, another special, another movie? The last thing we want to do is keep our loyal fans in the dark about the show we have all loved doing for the past eight years, so we’d like now to shed some light," he wrote.
"We have a final one-hour television special, Say Goodnight To The Bad Guys, which goes to air on Showcase on Sunday, Dec. 7. Then after that, our sequel movie Countdown To Liquor Day (working title) is due to be released in Canadian theatres in October 2009.
"But, after that, there will be no more. Yes, it’s the end of Trailer Park Boys. Our fans have been so supportive and inspiring that we wanted you to be the first to know. Much love and thanks from all of us at Sunnyvale Trailer Park."
Based on Clattenburg’s debut film of the same name, Trailer Park Boys started following the often well-intentioned but misguided adventures of the three amigos on Showcase in 2001. Its status as a pop culture phenomenon was sealed when musicians trapped on buses became vocal fans of the show. (The firearms and recreational drug enthusiasts would eventually interact with the Tragically Hip, Rush and Rita MacNeil.)
Showcase says the series became the highest-rated Canadian show on specialty television in 2004, and it won Gemini Awards that year for best comedy series and in 2005 for best ensemble performance in a comedy series.
