Within seconds, it seemed, of wrapping their well-received reunion tour in 2008, The Kids in the Hall were already talking about getting back on screen. Not the big screen of course – memories are not so short that Brain Candy has been forgotten. But bigger, at least, than that of Funny or Die, the comedy site where the troupe test-drove its first new material (the note-perfect ‘Carfuckers’) since the glory days of The Chicken Lady and the Headcrusher. So, back to TV then, and their old home at the CBC, which quickly picked up and is running their mini Death Comes to Town on Tuesday nights, opposite American Idol of all things.

Bruce McCulloch, the idea man behind Death, and producer Suzan Cavan of Accent Entertainment spoke to Playback about how the formerly fractured troupe worked together for their latest go on the medium-sized screen.

Bruce, you and the other Kids have done a lot of work behind the camera in the 15-odd years since the series and Brain Candy. Has that changed you as a troupe?

McCulloch: Definitely. This is not, I think, something we could have done 10 years ago or even five years ago. I think me spending a lot of time writing 22-minute television in America – and living with the tyranny of act enders and character development, which is both ridiculous and valuable – I think that was very helpful.

I’ve always felt like a writer first and a performer second, and that certainly hasn’t changed. [Laughs] But I think we all brought some new skills to it.

Did you write it differently?

BM: We knew from the Brain Candy model how hard it was for five of us to decide on every story. One of the things that attracted me to this idea was that we had a strong [narrative] propulsion – Death gets off a Greyhound bus at the beginning of the first episode, somebody gets murdered and we follow a murder mystery. But there are sideways stories and flights of fancy.

So even though it was probably essentially my idea, a lot of us broke the story. Then later on, Mark [McKinney] would have a sense of the shape [of the story], but he would be most concerned with Death or the other characters he played, which is our classic TV model that we kind of take care of ourselves.

Cavan: There’re not a lot of multiple voices or exec producers – there’s essentially Bruce, and we were in synch with CBC on the vision of the show. I would work hard at analyzing what their psychological needs would be, what the creative room would need and how, in terms of generating scripts, do you do that with not just the least interference but a way that’s always in service to the comedy and the writing?

And shooting up in North Bay – did that pose any problems?

SC: There were challenges in going up north, but it turned out to be a great thing because we had everyone together for two months. It created a real communal spirit both with the cast and crew. When you’re away for that long you miss your home base, but it’s also, I think, an experience that keeps everyone close.

The largest concern was that we hit rutting season for the moose. We were shooting in [nearby] Mattawa and there was a big concern about driving on the highway – apparently they’re quite attracted to film convoys. But no, we didn’t have a lot of surprises.

Did CBC need much convincing to get behind this project? I imagine it was an easy sell.

SC: We had a meeting with Fred Fuchs in fall ’08. CBC was very quick to come on board and very quick to see how exciting it was that the Kids wanted to come back… It was a very quick green light.

BM: It’s about understanding. The CBC was our home 20 years ago, and there are different people there but it still feels like our home. And they also get what we are. In America you’re always having to explain what you’re doing – it’s kind of like dating a woman you don’t trust, and following her around and checking her odometer. In Canada once they say ‘Okay’ they kind of let you do it.

Did you consider using music by the surviving members of Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet?

BM: They remain our good friends, [but] I think it felt like we wanted to move past that. This show asked for a different kind of music. It didn’t feel like a natural thing for us. Craig Northy, who scored Brain Candy and my first film Dog Park… it felt like, well, of course we’re going to hire Craig. So he and Jim McGrath are both doing it.

Kelly Makin, who directed Brain Candy, is also doing all eight episodes. Not that it was his fault, but the movie was not a great hit. Did you ever consider going with someone else?

SC: He’s acquired a great deal of television experience in the meantime, but I don’t think anyone would point to whatever may or may not have worked on Brain Candy on him. I think the movie is highly underrated. Kelly really knows them and knows their comedy.

Television and comedy have, of course, changed since the late ’80s. Do you ever worry that Death Comes to Town won’t have the same magic as the series?

BM: I think the true answer is no. As I look at it and look at rough cuts it just feels like a TV show. It feels normal. I think if we went ‘Well, people swear more on TV now’ that would, by it’s nature, make us loose. I’m a country music fan and I remember in late ’70s when Don Williams and Johnny Cash and those guys did records with synthesizers. [Laughs]

We did with this what we’ve done with everything we’ve ever done, which is not to think about it too much. With Brain Candy, it became a weird kind of satire on Prozac. If we’d had business heads, which we don’t usually, we’d have done our hit characters and maybe had a more successful film and maybe more successful film lives. But we can’t help ourselves. We’re going to do what we do, and this time it’s Death Comes to Town.