Dan for Mayor co-executive producers Mark Farrell, Paul Mather and Kevin White consider the evolution of their new series

What was the path that led from Corner Gas to the new series?

Mark Farrell: In 2005, we were all working on Corner Gas and we thought it would be a good time for the three of us to come in and pitch our own series to CTV. We came in with a bunch of ideas, but the pitch the network responded to was an idea Kevin had about this guy Dan who decides to run for mayor to impress his ex-girlfriend.

Paul Mather: I think Kevin liked the idea of doing something that moved towards a definite event over the course of the season, and he came up with the idea of a small-town election.

Kevin White: We pitched in 2005 and CTV put us into development on Dan early in 2006. Because all three of us were busy on other shows it was a long development: we got them an outline for the pilot in September 2006 and then we got to first draft in January 2007.

Farrell: As far as casting goes, we were always interested in Fred Ewanuick as Dan, because we think he’s great. So when Gas ended we jumped in and grabbed him.

How difficult is it to follow a hit series? Thinking here of such things as the incredibly, and mercifully, short-lived AfterMASH… Following a hit must have both advantages and disadvantages – did you have any concerns?

Mather: The positive thing is people are familiar with your work so they’ll hopefully come out and check out the new show. We didn’t worry too much about either trying to run counter to Corner Gas or straying too far from it in tone.

White: The show’s a different show by its nature – it’s got this idea of moving towards election night – so relationships ebb and flow during the campaign and hopefully there’s a bit of hook for the audience as they watch to see what happens. On Corner Gas, the table was reset at the end of each episode.

There was a short-lived controversy when the series was accused of being similar to another producer’s pilot. How do you address accusations such as these?

White: Yeah, I gather a similar idea was pitched to The Comedy Network a couple years after we’d started developing Dan for CTV. It’s inevitable that similar ideas come up. My inspiration for Dan was actually an Australian series called The Games. It was a fictional account of the Sydney Olympic Committee, with all the ups and downs leading to the Games at the end. A mayoral election seemed like a funny smaller version of that, with some hapless guy throwing his hat in the ring in episode one then tracking his unlikely campaign through to election night.

The series debuted to almost two million… Now what?

White: We couldn’t have asked for a better launch. The numbers were great. Our goal is to hold a strong number – Mondays are pretty competitive – and slowly build as more people discover, like and hopefully stick with the show.