Trailer Park Boys, a cult-hit Canadian mockumentary about mobile-home living, will feature scenes about Maine in its upcoming seventh season on cable TV north of the border. Sharp-eyed viewers will also be able to catch a glimpse of the Maine-brewed 420 India Pale Ale from Stone Coast Breweries in scenes of the Nova Scotia-filmed series.
The show follows Sunnyvale Trailer Park residents Ricky, Bubbles, and Julian as they grow and sell dope, steal shopping carts, and roll in and out of jail.
These characters, along with drunken Sunnyvale Trailer Park manager Mr. Lahey and his shirtless, cheeseburger-loving assistant Randy, crack up Canadian audiences on television and on the big screen — Trailer Park Boys: The Movie premiered up north on October 6. Although the show isn’t broadcast in Maine, and the movie hasn’t opened in the States yet, Portland has its own following, thanks to the DVD versions of the first five seasons, which, along with the show’s Christmas special, fly in and out of Videoport like crazy.
“People in Maine are gonna flip!” says Mike Clattenburg, series writer/creator/director. “There’s an incredible Maine connection . . . There’s a need for Ricky’s amazing Canadian weed.”
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The tongue-in-cheek cast step over the line in a big way next season — they cross the American border. “The last three episodes take place on the border of Maine and Canada [though on a Nova Scotia set], and it involves an elaborate smuggling ring,” he says.
The international plot begins when Bubbles becomes completely infatuated with model trains and travels to Maine for a train convention. It’s only a matter of time, of course, before Ricky and Julian turn his innocent hobby into a dope-growing scam.
“The boys work on a deal with a rock star named Sebastian Bach,” Clattenburg explains. Bach is the real-life ex-frontman of Skid Row, who plays himself, except with a Maine accent. (Even though he’s originally from the Bahamas.)
“He’s importing Ricky’s incredible weed into Maine,” says Clattenburg. “They concoct this big plan to ship this weed to Sebastian, who is complaining he can’t get any good dope in Maine, and he’s really pissed off. This big, gigantic plan happens where the boys go into the woods and battle beavers and forest rangers.”
“In our stories absurdity reigns,” Clattenburg says. Packed with Rush music, trains, American flags, family dysfunction, and elaborate drug plots, Trailer Park Boys has no trouble relating to its American audience. “We wanted to do an international type of component. It’s really working. It’s really fun.”
Other TPB cameos include Tragically Hip guitarist Gordon Downie, Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson, do-anything stunt cats (also featured in the movie), and Dick Stacey’s Country Jamboree from Bangor. Stone Coast 420 IPA, which the show’s props guy discovered at a concert in Maine, was requested from brewery owner Grant Wilson because of its allusion to stoner culture.
And though Clattenburg says “it’ll be a while” before the show comes to the US (it starts in Canada in April 2007), he adds, “the movie is doing really well in English Canada, so it could pave the way for a release in America.”