Made in Canada
7.8 /10 1 Votes
7.6/10 TV No. of seasons 5 Camera setup Single-camera First episode date 5 October 1998 Network CBC Television | 7.9/10 IMDb Country of origin Canada No. of episodes 65 (list of episodes) Running time 30 minutes Final episode date 20 June 2003 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Starring Rick MercerPeter KeleghanLeah PinsentDan LettJackie Torrens Cast Rick Mercer, Peter Keleghan, Leah Pinsent, Emily Hampshire, Gerald Lunz |
Made in Canada is a Canadian television situation comedy which aired on CBC Television from 1998 to 2003. Rick Mercer co-created the program and starred as mercenary TV producer Richard Strong. It was produced using a single camera setup.
Contents
- Made in Canada S1E1 Part 1
- Plot
- Characters
- Notable guest stars
- Production
- After Made in Canada
- DVD release
- References
In the United States, Australia and Latin America, the show was syndicated as The Industry. In France, it was syndicated as La loi du Show-Biz.
Made in Canada S1E1 Part 1
Plot
A satire of film and television production, the series revolves around Pyramid Productions, a viper's nest of creative incompetence, savage greed and hysterical backbiting. Alan Roy, the head of the company, follows whatever is trendy in the production world, whether it be owning his own cable channel or having a designer office. His decisions are usually idiotic and occasionally impossible to fulfill. They constantly lead to extra work for his employees, who must either fulfill his wishes, or deal with the consequences of them. The employees, Richard, Victor, Veronica and Wanda, manipulate each other and sabotage each other's projects in order to earn more money, get promotions or work on better projects. None of the employees appear to have issues with breaking the law and seem to have no sense of morals. They only cooperate when they have an opportunity to destroy another company. Each episode usually deals with one major problem or event, which normally do not carry over to the next episode.
The company's projects also provide storylines for the series, as the staff of Pyramid try to manage the inevitable complications provided by the casts and crews of their film and television productions. The company's cash cows are two series, The Sword of Damacles (sic), a parody of mythological adventure series such as Xena: Warrior Princess and Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, and Beaver Creek, a parody of Canadian period dramas such as Anne of Green Gables and Road to Avonlea. They also face complications with their low budget, poorly made movies, such as Vigilante's Vengeance. Many of their movies fail and end up either not being produced or going straight to video in foreign countries.
Episodes commonly begin and end with brief asides to the camera, breaking the fourth wall. These are usually done by Richard but occasionally by Veronica or Victor.
Characters
Notable guest stars
Production
Filmed in Halifax, Nova Scotia, the series was both produced by and a parody of Salter Street Films and Island Edge Inc, and Pyramid's logo is very similar to that of Salter Street parent company Alliance Atlantis.
The program used The Tragically Hip's "Blow at High Dough" as its theme song.
In 1998, two real-life Canadian film and television studios, Alliance Communications and Atlantis Communications, merged to create Alliance Atlantis. This merger was parodied on Made in Canada, when Pyramid merged with a company called Prodigy and became known as Pyramid Prodigy.
The show's third and fourth seasons won the Gemini Award for Best Comedy Series. Its final episode also received a Gemini for Best Ensemble Performance in a Comedy Program or Series in 2004.
The first season and many of the subsequent episodes were directed by Henry Sarwer-Foner for which he received two Gemini awards for Best Direction in a Comedy Program or Series.
After Made in Canada
Mercer ended the show's planned five-year run in 2003, and can now be seen hosting Rick Mercer Report on CBC. Prior to creating Made in Canada, Mercer was a popular fixture on another Salter Street series, This Hour Has 22 Minutes. (He juggled both series until 2001, when he left 22 Minutes permanently.)
Keleghan can also be seen in The Newsroom, another CBC production as well as having a long running recurring role on The Red Green Show as the eccentric Ranger Gord. Alex Carter (Michael Rushton/Damacles) can now be seen as a detective on the popular CBS drama CSI.
Though rarely shown on television it is currently running on the Canadian channel Bite.
DVD release
Entertainment One released the first season on DVD in Region 1 in 2002. This release has been discontinued and is now out of print.