If you know anything about me at all, you know that one of my favorite shows is a Canadian mockumentary tv series called Trailer Park Boys.
The television series is a continuation of Mike Clattenburg's 1999 film of the same name that premiered on the Showcase television network in 2001.
Trailer Park Boys focuses on the misadventures of a group of Trailer park residents, some of whom are ex-convicts, living in the fictional Sunnyvale Trailer Park in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.
The series originally ran for eight seasons.
"Say Goodnight to the Bad Guys," premiered in 2008, ending the initial run of the series. A second film—Countdown To Liquor Day—was released in 2009. A third film has completed production and is awaiting a release date. With the films, stage shows and continued international interest in the original series, an eighth season started production early July 2013.
Episodes revolve around the Ricky, Julian, Bubbles and their misfit accomplices Trevor and Cory trying to make money through petty crime while staying out of jail. Their schemes are complicated by vindictive trailer park supervisor Jim Lahey and his shirtless assistant Randy as Ricky and Julian's incompetence competes with Lahey's own drunken ineptitude. Throughout the season Ricky and Julian end up in and out of jail with most, but not all, of their plans falling apart.
Later seasons changed this formula with the final episode of the season showing that their schemes had been successful. The first episode of the following season would then show them sheepishly explaining how everything went wrong and set them back to square one.
Each of the characters has their own particular trademark mannerism or trait. Julian is the leader and comes up with plans, and is never seen without a drink in his hand. Ricky thinks he is dumb and looks to Julian for advice. He often mispronounces words and is known to mess things up. Bubbles wears Coke-bottle glasses, drives a go kart, lives in a shed with a bunch of cats and gets upset and starts crying when the boys fight. Trailer Park Supervisor Jim Lahey is almost always drunk and his assistant Randy is almost always shirtless. Other minor characters include Cory and Trevor (who help out Ricky and Julian and look up to them), Mr. Lahey and Randy, Lucy and Sarah (Lucy is the mother of Ricky's daughter and Sarah is her roommate) and J-Roc and T (J-Roc thinks he's black despite his skin color and the two are amateur rappers.)
The series is shot in a mockumentary style (including the use of long takes), and often the camera vrew become engrossed in the plot. On several occasions, the camera crew 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. 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, with much of the dialog ad-libbed from very basic plot points.
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
The cinematographic style of the show is split between rough handheld camera work and clearly planned camera work; the latter sometimes involves crane shots and quite clearly pre-arranged fixed-camera shots.
Trailer Park Boys is also an inspirational source for an internet tv series that I am developing called White Trash Heroes.
If you are interested in purchasing episodes of the Trailer Park Boys, or any of the stand alone movies, or the complete series, you can find them at our online store in the DVD section.
And everyone have a great day.
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