Interview with "Trailer Park Boys" creator Mike Clattenburg and more

By Joe Leary | Sep 28, 2009

With a decent opening weekend for his latest big-screen effort, ‘Trailer Park Boys: Countdown to Liquor Day’, writer, creator and producer Mike Clattenburg can take comfort in the knowledge that Canada’s love affair with the dysfunctional lot from the Sunnyvale Trailer Park are once again delighting the nation. While most may have felt from the outset that the series would generate some degree of cult status when it premiered in 2001 , I asked him if he ever anticipated that it would somehow last eight years, and give birth to a couple of big screen adaptations in the process.

“Absolutely not”, Clattenburg assures me. “We did know that somebody was going to find it funny but we made it just as a short film for the Atlantic Film Festival and that was our end goal; just to sit in the theatre and see people watch it. It was Barry Dunn – he plays Ricky’s dad, Ray – he saw it and said, “This can’t end here. I think this could work on television.” I thought with the language, no way, so we pitched it and Showcase said, “Hell, yeah! We want to do this.” Ten years later, it’s not lost on me - it was a wonderful run.”

It’s been about ten year since we first got to see the misadventures of the always scheming trio of Ricky, Julian, and Bubbles, their antics often thwarted by drunken trailer park supervisor Mr. Leahy and the shirtless Randy, his trusted sidekick and more. I asked Clattenburg if the common belief is true that certain characters are based somewhat on elements of his own personality.

“Well, yes and no,” he confirms. “The guys bring a lot of themselves to the characters but there’s a little of myself in every character. There’s a little Bubbles in me – I love cats, so that’s where the cats come from in the show in fact, the cat in the opening of TPB is called ‘Shit-wreck’; that was my cat. But I do bring a lot of myself to the characters and the guys mix that up and together we all work with it. Some people say to me, “John Dunsworth (Mr. Leahy) must be a drunk”, and it’s kind of like a backhanded compliment because the guy doesn’t drink at all, he’s just a great actor. Each one of the characters kind of shift but I would say John Paul Tremblay (Julian) is closer to his character, although he doesn’t carry a drink around 24/7.”

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Still with Canadian television, if you’re looking for a fresh take on the time-honoured tradition of adventure travel, look no further than the OLN Network series, ‘Departures’. Simply put, I think it’s one of the best of its kind ever encountered.

Aimed at the everyday adventure seeker, ‘Departures’ is a fast-paced and highly personal journey between longtime friends Scott Wilson and Justin Lukach, who put their lives and loves on hold for a year to experience new cultures and worlds miles beyond the borders of their native Canada.

“It was weird when we first started filming this thing because we’re just regular guys; we’re just like everybody else and I think that’s what helped people gravitate towards the show because they see that we’re just like everybody else,” Lukach tells me. “I think everybody has been on a road trip with one of their friends at some point and they see that it’s just like what they did and we show all that. There was one episode that we filmed where I started bringing a lot of my personal life into it and I asked if it was okay to show. They told me that if I was comfortable to talk about it, I should go with it. I’m pretty much the same person both on and off camera; I really don’t change that much. People see that and they can relate to what we’re doing.” ‘Departures’ is a show not to be missed, and was such a success during its first year, the boys tell me that they’ve just completed photography on Season Two, due to hit television screens in the New Year.