Made in Canada (TV series)

A satire of film and television production, the series revolves around fictional Pyramid Productions – a company where greed and backstabbing thrive.[2] Pyramid produces lucrative (but terrible) television and films for the domestic and international markets,[3] with creative decisions made by non-creative people.[4]

Company head Alan Roy is obsessed with appearances and staying ahead of trends, whether this means owning his own cable channel or having the largest yacht at Cannes. His often-idiotic decisions lead to extra work for his employees, who must fulfill his wishes or deal with the consequences.[5] The employees – Richard, Victor, Veronica and Wanda – manipulate each other and sabotage each other's projects to earn more money, gain promotions or work on better projects. None of them appear to have issues with breaking the law, and they seem to have no sense of morality. They generally only cooperate when they have an opportunity to destroy another company or a mutual enemy. Each episode deals with one major problem (or event), which normally does not carry over to the next episode.

Pyramid projects also provide storylines for the series, as the company's staff try to manage the inevitable complications created by the casts and crews of their film and television productions. Its 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,[2] and Beaver Creek, a parody of Canadian period dramas such as Anne of Green Gables and Road to Avonlea.[2] The staff also face complications with their low-budget, poorly-made films, such as Vigilante's Vengeance.[2] Many of their movies fail; they are not produced, or go direct-to-video in foreign countries.

• Richard Strong (Rick Mercer), the central character, is an ambitious, machiavellian employee trying to navigate, scheme and backstab his way to the CEO's chair; in the first episode, he makes his way from junior script reader to television producer by having his boss (and brother-in-law) Ray Drodge fired. Ruthless and amoral, he is better at his job than most of his colleagues. Richard has had relationships with Veronica Miller, Lisa Sutton and Siobhan Roy, but generally as an opportunity to manipulate rather than out of love. The character was partially inspired by Ian McKellen's performance in the 1995 film adaptation of Shakespeare's Richard III.[2][6] He personifies human vice, unfettered by ethics.[4]
• Alan Roy (Peter Keleghan), the firm's CEO, is a charismatic but intellectually-questionable womanizer who often succeeds more by accident than skill and, much more often, fails miserably. He is frequently mystified that his management style – a combination of bad production ideas, offbeat health fads and half-understood slogans from management books – does not rouse office morale. Alan's career was launched with his first film, Prom Night at Horny High, which was a commercial success despite being lowbrow and indecent. (Keleghan had an early starring role in the 1983 sex comedy, Screwballs.) Keleghan described the character as a cross between Alliance Communications head Robert Lantos and The Simpsons' Mr. Burns.[3] Producer Michael Donovan joked that Alan reflected the showrunners' impression of him.[7]
• Veronica Miller (Leah Pinsent) is the firm's chief operating officer.[3] Although she is generally overworked, doing the jobs of several other employees, she is still forced to do idiotic and degrading tasks for Alan.[8] Veronica occasionally becomes fed up with her poor treatment and sabotages a project or event, which usually spurs Alan to improve her working conditions and meet her demands.[9] The office problem-solver, she is generally an ally of Richard's in making the best of Alan's decisions but will double-cross him if necessary.
• Victor Sela (Dan Lett) is head of Pyramid's film division[3] and a general office sycophant,[10] willing to do almost anything Alan asks of him (no matter how demeaning). He is usually very positive about Alan's schemes. In a test, however, Victor is the least loyal.
• Wanda Mattice (Jackie Torrens), Alan's assistant,[3] uses her influence in the day-to-day workings of the office to obtain power beyond her role in the corporate hierarchy[5] and knows when it is to her advantage to act less intelligent. Although she frequently dresses strangely and appears frumpy, Alan is attracted to her and they frequently have sex in the office.
• Lisa Sutton (Janet Kidder) is a producer[3] and Victor's girlfriend. Richard considers her a threat to his power, and Alan dislikes her for ignoring (or spurning) his attempts to seduce her.
• Raymond Drodge (Ron James) is a producer. Formerly the head of television development, he is fired in the pilot after Richard and Siobhan frame him for sexually harassing Siobhan. He is later rehired in a much lower position[11] after Richard gets his old job. Due to Richard's manipulation, Raymond's marriage falls apart and he begins to believe that he is an alcoholic.
• Michael Rushton (Alex Carter) is the dimwitted, egotistical star of The Sword of Damacles.[11]
• Siobhan Roy (Emily Hampshire), Alan's daughter,[11] is one of the stars of Beaver Creek.[9] Fully aware that being the boss's daughter gives her job security, she freely schemes and manipulates to get whatever she wants.
• Brian Switzer (Chas Lawther), nicknamed "Network Brian", is an executive with the television network which airs Beaver Creek and its main liaison with Pyramid.

The series was conceived by Mercer, executive producer Gerald Lunz and Salter Street Films co-chair Michael Donovan[17] in 1994.[16] Lunz had launched Mercer's career, producing his one-man shows and This Hour Has 22 Minutes[13] (the latter of which was made by Salter Street).[3] Mercer and Lunz formed Island Edge to co-produce Made in Canada and develop other projects for Mercer.[18][19]

Donovon, Lunz and Mercer wanted to satirize office politics, starring Mercer as an ambitious man manipulating his way to the top in a parody of Shakespeare's Richard III. Instead of killing his rivals, the programme's Richard would kill their careers by ruining their reputations and seizing their power.[13] Richard would address the audience directly, breaking the fourth wall to share his plans and ambitions. Although they realized this was a risk, they felt that Mercer could connect with the audience as he had in his monologues.[20][13][21] Mercer had established himself as the first mainstream Canadian satirist to make scathing criticisms directly, without a comedic mask.[22]^:230–232

They had considered setting the satire in the federal bureaucracy in line with Mercer's political criticism (known as the country's "unofficial opposition party"),[4] but Mercer was not sufficiently knowledgeable about the government's inner workings. Believing that satire required a firm understanding of its targets, they set the programme in a television and film production office; this would be understood by the audience and provide many egos to lampoon. Mercer described the programme in a later interview as having a "Dilbert reality" of an office, in which some have a "suck-up kick-down philosophy".[13] In April 1998, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) approved a six-part series without seeing a script.[13]

The first season was cowritten by Mercer and Mark Farrell[23] over a two-month period.[16] They had both written for 22 Minutes[3] and had written sketches for several years, but neither had written episodic television before.[3] Lunz, a self-described "Shakespeare nut", guided the theme and style.[3] Farrell, Lunz and Mercer remained the show's creative force throughout its five seasons.[24] Other writers for the series included Paul Bellini, Alex Ganetakos and Edward Riche.[1]

The programme shifted from a dark satire to an episodic sitcom after its first season, and addressed the audience less frequently.[12][11] This was often limited to the closing line – "I think that went well" or "This is not good" – which might be given to a character other than Richard, depending on who was behind that episode's schemes.[11] The series' working title was The Industry,[25] which was changed to The Casting Couch and then Made in Canada.[3]

CBC executive George Anthony, who had convinced Lunz and Mercer to come to the network years previously, recognized their talent and was firmly supportive of the production.[26] The programme went from network approval to broadcast in a record six months.[13] Executives ordered a thirteen-episode second season after viewing the first episode,[16] which was unprecedented for the public broadcaster.[17] Casting was done while scripts were still being written,[13] and episodes were filmed out of sequence to accommodate the actors' schedules.[3]

Filmed in Halifax, Nova Scotia, the programme was produced by (and a parody of) Salter Street Films.[27] It used Salter Street's real offices as its main office set during the first season, shooting primarily on evenings and weekends[2][3] from 17 July to 24 August 1998.[16] The first season was directed by Henry Sarwer-Foner (also of 22 Minutes), who had his hand in the programme's editing, scripting, and overall design. He shot with a long lens to achieve a film-like quality, and sought to give it a distinctive look.[28] Sarwer-Foner directed 22 of the series' 65 episodes.[5] Other directors included Michael Kennedy and Stephen Reynolds.[1]

The programme used The Tragically Hip's "Blow at High Dough", one of Mercer's favourite songs, as its theme.[2][16] The iconic Canadian band's first hit single,[29][30] its title was taken from a Scottish phrase about being overambitious and taking on more than one could handle. The lyrics refer to a movie production (Speedway, starring Elvis Presley) which sweeps up a small town.[31] Other Tragically Hip songs were featured including "Poets",[32] "Courage", "New Orleans Is Sinking",[33] "My Music at Work", and "Tiger the Lion".[34]

Although Mercer took time off from 22 Minutes in January 1999[16] to concentrate on the second season of Made in Canada,[17] he continued to appear in most episodes until he retired from 22 Minutes in 2001.[14][35] The programme continued to film during the summer, with 22 Minutes filming in the fall.[36] The second season began filming in June 1999 at Electropolis Studios in Halifax.[37] CHUM Limited vice-president Moses Znaimer allowed scenes for the second-season finale to be filmed at the CHUM-City Building in Toronto for authenticity.[9] Season four began filming on 18 June 2001.[19]

While the first season of the series was in production, two Canadian film and television studios (Alliance Communications and Atlantis Communications) merged to create Alliance Atlantis.[2] This merger was parodied in Made in Canada's second-season premiere, when Pyramid merges with a company called Prodigy and becomes Pyramid Prodigy.[38] Two years later, Alliance Atlantis purchased Salter Street Films.[39]

Made in Canada premiered on CBC Television on 5 October 1998,[3] amidst Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) hearings on the country's broadcasting policy and Canadian content.[16] The series aired on Monday nights at 8:30 pm,[17] after This Hour Has 22 Minutes.[3][9] Both programmes were moved to Friday in fall 2001,[35] leading into Royal Canadian Air Farce and The Red Green Show in a CBC move to create a comedy-programming block and boost already-strong ratings.[40]

The first two seasons were sold to PBS in 1999 for distribution in the United States as The Industry.[25] The series was also syndicated in France, Australia and Latin America;[41] the French name was La loi du Show-Biz.[42]

In 2000, DVD and home-video rights to seasons one and two were acquired by Koch International.[43] Entertainment One released the first season on DVD in Region 1 in 2002; it is currently out of print.[44] The series was telecast on the Canadian cable channel BiteTV from 2010 to 2015.[45][46]

The first and second seasons began streaming on the CBC Gem platform on 12 March 2020.[47][48]

The series was popular and critically praised in Canada and the United States.[10][15] The programme's 5 October 1998 premiere had 1,002,000 viewers, holding 75 percent of the audience from the lead-in This Hour Has 22 Minutes.[49]

• Made in Canada at IMDb