‘Like comfort food’: Trailer Park Boys cast reflects on 20 years of life in Sunnyvale

“It was truly like The Waltons, with guns and medicine and liquor,” mentioned actor Mike Smith, who plays Bubbles.

In honour of the show’s anniversary, CBC News spoke to some of the forged members about why the present carries on to connect with men and women globally — and its unlikely origins.

Interviews have been condensed and edited for clarity.

Mike Smith (Bubbles): I was playing in a band termed Sandbox. We have been signed to EMI and we toured Canada and the U.S., and that’s fundamentally what I did for a dwelling.

Robb Wells (Ricky): Right right before the present, I was really operating for a enterprise termed Maxx, and I experienced Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island as my territories. I was in income selling bathtubs and whirlpools and showers.”

John Paul Tremblay (Julian): I was in Prince Edward Island, I experienced commenced up a pizza business with Robb Wells, and a yr into it, Pat Roach [Randy] came on board as a husband or wife. We have been sending things back to [Trailer Park Boys creator] Mike Clattenburg.

Wells: [The films] were all over the area. There was one particular sketch we did about a male that was selling cats door to door.

Tremblay: Quick Communicate was yet another one particular that we did exactly where we go door to door to try out to, you know, signal up men and women that want to choose a training course on chatting a lot quicker. It was just a whole lot of Kids in the Hall, SCTV, Tom Green things.

Prior to Trailer Park Boys, Sarah Dunsworth-Nickerson labored in the film and tv industry doing assistant directing work and casting as a result of her father’s business, Filmworks Creation Providers. She satisfied Clattenburg as a result of an audition, and he later showed her the films.

Dunsworth-Nickerson (Sarah): It was Robb Wells and J.P. Tremblay just becoming foolish, just earning up people and just sending them to their close friend just for their have enjoyment. And Mike mentioned to me, “I’m going to educate them how to act and I’m going to make a present.”

Tremblay: He was viewing this insane things we have been accomplishing and he mentioned, “Let us get with each other and do a shorter film.”

Wells and Tremblay starred in 1998’s One Past Shot, which was about two pals acquiring a last night out in Halifax right before one particular of them moved to Vancouver. Their people were not nonetheless recognised as Ricky and Julian, respectively, but the seed was planted. But the film did have Mr. Layhie, performed by actor John Dunsworth, who later became Mr. Lahey.

Up following was Trailer Park Boys, a element-duration film that was screened at the 1999 Atlantic Film Competition. By now, the Ricky and Julian people have been in area. The mockumentary looked at the life of two smaller-time criminals dwelling in a trailer park.

There was no Bubbles in the film, but Smith was accountable for recording and mixing sound. Smith had a go-to perception he’d crack out driving the scenes.

Smith: It was just a character I experienced form of constantly completed just goofing about, you know, when I performed hockey and things. I would be accomplishing that character in the dressing area just to make fellas chuckle. He under no circumstances experienced a name at that position. The glasses came from a property sale in Texas that a girlfriend at the time purchased. Mike Clattenburg observed it and thought it was a funny character, and I believe he named him Bubbles.

Clattenburg and Barrie Dunn (who served as co-producer throughout the early seasons of the present and performed Ricky’s father, Ray) pitched the present to numerous networks.

Tremblay: And then when Showcase was interested in buying it up as a series, we experienced to fundamentally shoot a smaller shorter film showing the character Bubbles, simply because on paper they have been unsure of this character. 

Wells: They thought that we have been earning exciting of any person.

The final result was The Cart Boy, a film about two mall security guards (performed by Wells and Tremblay) who confront Smith for thieving searching carts from the mall. Bubbles wasn’t even Bubbles nonetheless the character’s name in The Cart Boy was Darren.

The pitch was greenlit from Showcase, and the 6-episode initially season debuted on April 22, 2001.

Wells: They have been looking for new first Canadian written content simply because they just commenced up their network and they thought we have been a good healthy.

Tremblay: And they really essential some East Coast content, so we have been the great healthy.

Wells: And it was low-cost, pretty low-cost.

The present experienced an unusual glimpse. It was meant to glimpse like Cops, the American tv present that followed on-obligation law enforcement officers. The pondering driving Trailer Park Boys was that it would be shot from
the criminal’s standpoint.

The present was uniquely Canadian, with nods to donairs, Hurry, Kim Mitchell, Lighthouse and a Casino Taxi business.

Dunsworth-Nickerson: The smoking and all the swearing, the guns and just the absurd things that happens, I under no circumstances observed anything at all like that on Tv. And when we have been earning that things, it was like, “Are we really going to do this? Like, we’re really going to do this and get away with it and it’ll be on tv?” It felt like a thing special and strange in a good way.

In addition to playing Sarah, Dunsworth-Nickerson also labored driving the scenes at different points during the show’s operate, which includes as a costume designer and a 2nd assistant director.

Dunsworth-Nickerson: We have been a little crew, and so for the initially several seasons, Mike Smith did sound and [performed] Bubbles. He did sound with the sound gear strapped to him and keeping a growth, a one particular-gentleman sound group. Mike Jackson, who performed Trevor, was our grip. You can find a bunch of men and women who have been on the crew that ended up form of in the history of the present.

Concealed beneath the show’s unusual glimpse and insane storylines, themes of enjoy, acceptance and loyalty have been rampant.

Dunsworth-Nickerson: I know men and women have accused the present of earning exciting of men and women in a specific circumstance. For me, it was under no circumstances about that, it was constantly just form of cherishing and type of honouring these people. I believe the Randy-Lahey connection was massive.

People Jim Lahey (who was performed by Dunsworth-Nickerson’s father, John Dunsworth) and Randy (Pat Roach), have been the trailer park supervisor and assistant trailer park supervisor, respectively.

Dunsworth-Nickerson: I believe they have been one particular of the initially people that have been ever not a stereotypical homosexual couple. They have been not a stereotypical anything at all. No one in the park cared about them becoming homosexual, and it wasn’t even truly portion of the storyline, it was just a reality.

Smith: I thought it was one particular of the finest enjoy tales in Canadian [tv].

The present wasn’t an quick hit. The forged said it was about 2003 — which is when Time 3 aired — when they understood Trailer Park Boys was starting to be massive.

Wells: We went on tour with Our Girl Peace and Seether and Finger 11 back in 2003 and the initially present was in Kelowna, [B.C.]. We have been nervous as hell going on phase. And we have been like, “Okay, if ten per cent of the men and women in here know who we are, this would be Okay.” And as soon as we went on phase, the whole area just erupted. It went nuts. And I was like, “Okay, I guess really substantially all people here is familiar with who we are.” So then I commenced to understand that we’re reaching a broader audience than just, you know, Nova Scotia.

Tremblay: We’d be at the Toronto airport and we’d have, like, seven nuns, the youngest becoming 72, coming up, wanting our autographs and to choose a picture with us. At that position, we’re like, “Wow, this is reaching a whole lot extra than just men and women our age and younger men and women.”

Smith: Nobody acknowledged me back then simply because I didn’t glimpse like Bubbles at all. I could really substantially operate [incognito]. I would only get acknowledged if I was standing with [them].

Dunsworth-Nickerson mentioned right before the get started of the 3rd season, there was a launch get together at the Marquee on Gottingen Street in Halifax.

Dunsworth-Nickerson: Nobody came, and it wasn’t that it wasn’t publicized. It was type of embarrassing. We felt like losers. And then the following yr, we showed up and there was a lineup about the block.

From there, the present took off. Together the way, some of the tasks have included three element films, are living displays about the world, Trailer Park Boys-themed whisky, beer and cannabis, an animated series, a offer with Netflix and establishing their own streaming system, Swearnet. Trailer Park Boys wrapped its 12th season in 2018.

The Trailer Park Boys brand has experienced amazing accomplishment.

Dunsworth-Nickerson: It was wonderful to see my dad get famous because he was constantly Halifax well known, but he was these a gregarious, open up human being who liked to talk to men and women, so that was type of neat viewing.

Smith: I believe men and women will constantly occur back to displays that are centered about family, enjoy, that type of things. I believe displays like that will constantly resonate with men and women, and they just come to be so familiar with the people, they almost believe of them like family. I guess we’re like ease and comfort food or a thing.

Wells: We obtained to see a whole lot of fantastic places. Some of the finest recollections for me are assembly a veteran that mentioned we have been the only matter that served get them as a r
esult of over in Iraq, diverse tales like that. And that’s what truly would make it worthwhile for me.

Tremblay: This present has completed a whole lot for men and women with mental wellness issues, and we’ve talked to so a lot of troopers and men and women that have mental wellness complications. A whole lot of these men and women have arrived at out to us and instructed us so a lot of diverse tales over the many years that that’s been one particular matter that’s determined us to keep on.

But as higher as the highs have been, there have been some lows: the cancellation of the provincial film tax credit score in 2015 and the introduction of its replacement inappropriate opinions created by Snoop Dogg to a woman camera operator throughout a information job interview when the rapper was in Nova Scotia for a guest visual appeal on the show a 2016 assault demand in Los Angeles against Smith that was later dropped and the 2017 death of star John Dunsworth.

Tremblay: The least expensive for us have been the death of some of our forged, specially John Dunsworth and Phil Collins [performed by Richard Collins]. And Shitty Monthly bill [performed by Brian Huggins], that was a challenging blow, and it was really hard to select up the pieces.

Wells: It’s been complicated having as a result of some of the lows, for positive. But we’ve all trapped with each other and we’ve obtained as a result of it.

Twenty many years soon after Trailer Park Boys initially aired, the trio’s endeavours are now concentrated on Trailer Park Boys: Jail. When a lot of seasons of the present inevitably associated the most important people going to jail simply because of their criminal plots failing, most of the present was set in the trailer park. Trailer Park Boys: Jail adjustments that.

Tremblay: We just hope that men and women will keep on viewing the present and we hope we never disappoint them. 

Wells: Right now, all people wants laughter, and it truly is absolutely the very best medication. As very long as they maintain making the most of it, we’ll maintain making an attempt to place out written content.