HBO Canada comedy Less Than Kind will kick off its third season with a tribute to the late Canadian actor, Maury Chaykin.

The Winnipeg-set comedy from Breakthrough Entertainment and Buffalo Gal Pictures premieres Jan. 15 with a special Memories of Maury episode to honour the late Chaykin and reflect the hurt and healing that the Canadian actor’s death last year placed on the series’ cast, writers and producers.

The 13-episode story arc for the third season will also start with the sudden death of the family patriarch, played by Chaykin.

That leaves the rest of his family to pick up the pieces of their lives without him.

“The challenge for this season was to write a comedy and drama about a family recovering from sudden and tragic loss as we experienced with Maury,” Less Than Kind executive producer, writer and showrunner Mark McKinney said in a statement.

Chaykin died in July 2010 while he had a part on Less Than Kind.

The third season of the HBO Canada comedy will kick off with three back-to-back episodes and then fill a regular time slot on Sundays at 8:30 p.m. on HBO Canada.

The sitcom’s third season will also feature a host of directors, including McKinney, Bruce McDonald, Gary Yates, Kelly Makin, and James Dunnison.

Actors doing guest roles on the upcoming Less Than Kind season include Kevin McDonald, Nicholas Campbell, Jennifer Irwin, Peter Keleghan, Valerie Mahaffey, Kenneth Welsh and Polly Shannon.

Besides McKinney, Less Than Kind is also written and executive produced by Marvin Kaye and Chris Sheasgreen, who created the series.

Peter Williamson and Ira Levy from Breakthrough Entertainment and Phyllis Laing from Buffalo Gal Pictures also executive produce.

Paula J. Smith and Garry Campbell are producers and Rob Sheridan is a creative consultant.

The writers room also holds Garry Campbell, Jenn Engels, Karen Hill, Denis McGrath, Brian Hartt and Kim Coghill.