Halifax: First of all, yes, it’s shot in a real trailer park – a real neighborhood – and it will remain nameless lest we be the cause of any drunken pilgrimages.

It’s the fourth park the cast and crew of Showcase’s Trailer Park Boys (produced by Halifax’s Topsail Entertainment) have seen in the show’s four seasons. In this park, series creator/director Mike Clattenburg and his team have their own space as they shoot episodes of the popular series away from the rest of the park’s dwellers.

‘I can empathize with anyone who comes home to find Ricky drunk on the front lawn firing a fucking handgun,’ says Clattenburg, behind the wheel of his old car, used on the show and made famous as The Shitmobile.

A trailer, a shed belonging to character Bubbles, the parked cab of a tractor trailer and The Shitmobile make up the small production square used on this particular day. The only actual coolness in the unseasonable Nova Scotia heat is found when leaning against the truck’s metal grill – but then again, that depends on your definition of ‘coolness.’ If you’re from the old West Side Story school, the coolness is actually all around you.

Robb Wells (Ricky) tries not to disturb the fake blood under his nose while smoking and examining the real blood on his hand attained from punching out a fridge for the previous scene. Mike Smith (Bubbles) generates some laughs by making fun of certain Canadian musicians he’s met, and John Paul Tremblay (Julian) defines coolness by merely existing, with his character’s trademark rum and Coke in hand as though glued there.

They are the triumvirate at the core of this wildly original and profane comedy series about the residents of the Sunnyvale trailer park. The show is seen as an unlikely sleeper hit, but the set is so relaxed and isolated that you have a hard time believing the cast and small crew are doing this for anyone other than themselves.

Trailer Park Boys was born out of Clattenburg’s ‘passion for filmmaking and comedy.’ He and pals, including Tremblay and Wells, would shoot hundreds of hours of videotape, ‘mostly for the joy of it,’ he says, terrorizing Halifax in the process.

Dissolve to several years later. The show is one of the hottest in Canada, with a passionate following from strong word of mouth and critical praise, including three Gemini nominations. It has also become the secret envy of every Canadian TV producer looking for affordable solutions in the wake of CTF cuts and a TV drama crisis that have seen the volume of quality programming plummet in recent years.

Trailer Park Boys costs just under $1.5 million per season. It has generated a 215% increase in ratings since its first season, and was the third highest-rated show on Showcase this summer (pre-Six Feet Under), behind Showcase Review and HBO’s Oz.

In its third season, TPB averaged 109,000 viewers 2+ according to Nielsen Media Research. It’s respectable considering the show’s adult subject matter and only-on-cable status, but doesn’t compare to Six Feet Under, another very adult Showcase offering, which drew 735,000 (2+) for its first ep. Numbers aside, Showcase appears firmly behind TPB as it gains momentum with a hardcore cult following that is bleeding over into the mainstream.

On this day, Clattenburg stays close to his Chipbox monitor (the brand logo is cleverly manipulated to read ‘Shitbox’) and laughs when a take is good. He directs his actors through scene after scene incredibly fast, as Lucy DeCoutere (Lucy) keeps everyone’s spirits light in the heat with some bawdy humor and endearing sweetness. She watches John Dunsworth (Leahy), Smith and Tremblay rehearse a scene that involves Leahy, at his most pathetic, begging Julian for some propane (either to sell or use for ‘recreational’ purposes – we’re not sure).

Tremblay has a hard time keeping a straight face as Dunsworth dances and sings ‘Pro-pane, pro-pane’ in a bluesy, drunken drawl.

In the scene, Bubbles harmonizes with Leahy while informing him that he’s pissing his pants. The piss doesn’t come easily. It takes a couple of tries with a pump created on set, but Leahy’s humiliation is effective and should play well on TV next year.

It’s not all pants-pissing, car-crashing humor on Trailer Park Boys, say its three leads (who look a little frightened by the prospect of doing an interview out of character). The show’s jokes can be subtle, too, and not by accident.

Favorite jokes

‘Our favorite kind of jokes are the ones you don’t really laugh about until an hour later or maybe even the next day,’ admits Wells, who shares writing duties with Smith and Tremblay.

‘It’s funnier if you don’t draw a lot of attention to something and just let it go by,’ adds Smith. ‘We definitely do some obvious joke stuff -‘

‘But we don’t always hit the punch line,’ Tremblay interjects. ‘In some episodes, we have really dramatic scenes and we find they boost up the funny scenes.’

Yes, and they finish each other’s sentences, too, like a family, which is how Clattenburg describes his team. Although the show’s creator can’t fully explain the TPB phenomenon, he says its low-budget look has never hurt it.

‘I think people are looking for something new, that isn’t all gloss,’ he says. ‘I think people are kind of bored with high-res stuff that really has no emotional contact.’

He credits Showcase for giving him the freedom to truly direct his series, which includes being able to do largely unsupervised rewrites on set.

‘A lot ideas will be born here, and on most sets you could never utilize them because the scripts are approved word for word,’ says Clattenburg. ‘A lot of times you write something you think is hilarious and when you get on set it just doesn’t work…It just doesn’t have the same spark.’

He feels the writing, characters and performances all add to the Boys’ popularity, but adds the anti-production value of the show, shot in mini-DV, also helps with the show’s freedom and appeal. The end result is a production format that some competitors have been trying to emulate. Even Canadian Film Centre students are taught to ‘think Trailer Park.’ (See story, p.27). Clattenburg says using DV was integral to the show’s concept, which is why it may surprise many to discover he dislikes it.

‘I don’t think people are ready to accept DV as a classical film style. I’m certainly not,’ he says. ‘It’s limited and hard to work with, and I don’t think it will work for every show.’

Nonetheless, there is something about the show that its fans find infectious. Maybe it is the constant cussing; maybe it’s because Ricky and Julian are living a dream for many by wreaking havoc wherever they go. Maybe it’s all of that, plus the understated humanity of the characters that keeps people coming back. Its stars think so.

‘You want people to love these characters, too, so they have to have some redeeming qualities,’ says Wells. ‘When you strip the guns and dope and bullshit away, all you’ve got is love. Whether it’s love for each other, people in the park, family or cats, basically that’s what it all comes down to. I think we’ve achieved that to some degree.’

Clattenburg says the show will continue as long as everyone is still having fun, and they seem to be. He calls the show his ‘bliss,’ and relishes the thought of making a TPB feature film, an idea that gets a little more real all the time, he says.

‘Every day it seems like someone else is interested, and big players too,’ says Clattenburg. ‘We’ll have to revisit a few characters and a few themes we’ve been working on, but I’m really excited to do it. I’ve been waiting a long time.’

-www.showcase.ca/trailerparkboys/

-www.trailerparkboys.com

-www.topsailentertainment.com