Trailer Park Boys write, star in new series

CBC News

J.P. Tremblay, left, Mike Smith, centre, and Robb Wells as the Brutto Family, three of the many characters they play in their new Showcase series The Drunk and On Drugs Happy Funtime Hour, set to premiere in 2010. (Showcase)

Mike Smith, Robb Wells and J.P. Tremblay are returning to Canadian TV screens in 2010, but not as the Trailer Park Boys.

Instead, they'll be starring in the new Showcase series The Drunk and On Drugs Happy Funtime Hour, described as a mix of narrative and sketch comedy.

The three comic actors have been writing and developing the series for the past two years and now have the green light from Showcase for six episodes.

Smith, Wells and Tremblay plan to play a range of quirky characters, including the three stars of a fictional children's TV series, The Happy Funtime Hour.

They'll be working with Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson, who plays a German scientist who teaches children about nutrition. When Lifeson's character recommends some "magic" berries, the entire crew of the children's series ends up in a hallucinogenic world.

Showcase compares the sketches that result out of the boys' imagination to Monty Python's Flying Circus and the recent British comedy The League of Gentlemen.

"The series is definitely a departure from our previous work, but with bold characters and a storyline that pushes the envelope Drunk and On Drugs still has a huge dose of our trademark humour that I think our fans expect from us," Wells said in a Thursday press release.

Trailer Park Boys ended its seven-season run in 2007 and the second Trailer Park Boys movie, Countdown to Liquor Day, premiered earlier this year at the Atlantic Film Festival.

Smith, Wells and Tremblay are executive producers on the new series alongside Louis Thomas.