The East Coast will be represented at the Banff Television Festival’s Market Simulation this year by Gemini Award-winner Edward Kay. Kay has joined forces with Halifax-based Collideascope producer Steve Comeau and Judy Klassen to create the series North of Northwood, which currently exists in the form of a pilot script, with outlines for 12 episodes.

Kay, who is a writer on Salter Street Films’ This Hour Has 22 Minutes and widely regarded in Canada as a creative gold mine, says his half-hour hopeful is not easily described in terms of genre.

‘We are calling it a cross between a dramedy, sitcom and demented evening soap opera,’ chuckles Kay. ‘It is set in a trailer park and it deals with characters who are in their late teens and early twenties, but includes their parents as well.’

Kay cowrote and cocreated the concept for the series with his new bride Klassen. The two met at the Banff festival last year and will return this year as husband and wife. Having shared similar experiences, the two looked to their pasts in order to find the ideas behind the show.

‘When I was a teenager my family lived in a trailer for a while,’ says Kay. ‘Judy grew up in Chilliwack, which is hoser central out in b.c., and when I lived in the trailer it was in the Ottawa Valley, which is also a really hoser place. We just had these common experiences.’

Kay adds that North of Northwood seemed the most logical first project choice for a collaboration.

In creating the characters depicted in North of Northwood, Klassen took some of the characters created in a comedy troupe she was a part of while living in b.c. and repurposed them for the series. With the pilot script finished, Kay describes the central characters in North of Northwood as ‘the bastard offspring of Red Green.’ In the trailer park where the show is set, nothing appears to be sacred. For these young adults a monster truck rally or a trip to a ‘peeler bar’ will win out over a 4H meeting or night at the ballet any day of the week. The kids will insult each other, fight and debauch their way into viewers’ hearts, or at least so Kay hopes.

The dark humor in the series, Kay admits, may be a tad too risque for some broadcasters, comparing his vision of the show to The Larry Sanders Show and The Sopranos. He believes even The Comedy Network, which gave Collideascope money to develop the project, may be a little too conservative for his vision of North of Northwood (and to add further context, please remember that The Comedy Network has Kevin Spencer, South Park, Internet Slutts and Tom Green airing on its weekly sked, and is no stranger to racy material).

‘It is definitely not a traditional sitcom – it is too raw for that,’ admits Kay. ‘Probably the best we would hope for, most realistically, is something like Showtime, or in Canada, Bravo! might go for it.’

Collideascope is hoping the humor of North of Northwood will appeal to an international audience, despite the fact it is a Canadian-made series, tapping the same audiences that embraced exports such as Red Green and sctv’s Bob and Doug MacKenzie. The low-budget comedy will reportedly cost approximately $180,000 per episode to produce and will be shot on video.

www.collideascope.com