Sunnyside (Canadian TV series) - Wikipedia
- ️Thu Jan 08 2015
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| Sunnyside | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Sketch comedy |
| Created by | |
| Written by | Gary Pearson, Dan Redican, Kathleen Phillips, Jan Caruana, Alastair Forbes |
| Directed by | Shawn Alex Thomson, Jeff Beesley, Dawn Wilkinson, Steve Wright |
| Starring | |
| Composer | James Jandrisch |
| Country of origin | Canada |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 13 |
| Production | |
| Executive producers | Dan Redican, Gary Pearson, Dan Bennett, Shane Corkery, Anton Leo, Phyllis Laing, Mark Gingras |
| Producers | Rhonda Baker, Paula Smith |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Production companies | Counterfeit Pictures, Buffalo Gal Pictures |
| Original release | |
| Network | City |
| Release | January 8 – November 8, 2015 |
Sunnyside is a Canadian sketch comedy television series, which premiered January 9, 2015 on City.[1] Created by Dan Redican and Gary Pearson, the series is set in the fictional neighbourhood of Sunnyside and features sketches depicting various eccentric recurring characters living there.[2] The show was cancelled after one season,[3] although City has sometimes reaired the episodes in repeats.
The cast includes Pat Thornton, Patrice Goodman, Alice Moran, Kevin Vidal, Kathleen Phillips, Rob Norman and Norm Macdonald.[1] The show was filmed in Winnipeg, Manitoba.[4]
Redican and Pearson had each approached Rogers Communications with individual show ideas; Redican's pitch was Our Street, an ensemble series about the quirky residents of an urban neighbourhood, while Pearson's was Dark Roast, about the quirky customers of a coffee shop.[5] Neither pitch was accepted as presented, but Rogers asked them to combine their ideas into a single show.[5] They agreed and created Sunnyside, patterning their fictional neighbourhood after Toronto's Parkdale.[5]
Macdonald appears on the show only in voice form, as the neighbourhood's surreal alternate reality version of the Internet: a sentient sewer line which can answer search queries shouted into a manhole.[4]
| Season | Episodes | First aired | Last aired | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 13 | January 8, 2015 | November 8, 2015 |
Television critics reviewed the show favourably, with Brad Oswald of the Winnipeg Free Press calling it "Canada's best sketch-comedy TV effort since Codco and The Kids in the Hall arrived in rapid succession in the late '80s",[2] and John Doyle of The Globe and Mail calling the show "daft but deftly skewering the ripe pickings of contemporary ludicrousness".[4] Doyle also criticized the network for scheduling the show to air directly opposite The Big Bang Theory, stating that the show "deserves a much bigger potential audience than that offered in this suicide-slot."[4]
The cast collectively won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Performance in a Variety or Sketch Comedy Program or Series at the 4th Canadian Screen Awards in 2016.[7]
- ^ a b "Sunnyside a surreal new Canadian sketch-com awash in ponies". canada.com, January 7, 2015.
- ^ a b "Wolseley-shot sketch show a bright spot on the TV schedule". Winnipeg Free Press, January 8, 2015.
- ^ Doyle, John (20 March 2016). "John Doyle: Canadian TV is a place of squalor and neglect". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 5 April 2016.
- ^ a b c d Doyle, John (January 7, 2015). "John Doyle: I prefer my urban satire Sunnyside up". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved March 2, 2015.
- ^ a b c Brioux, Bill (January 3, 2015). "TV vets Dan Redican and Gary Pearson team on Sunnyside". Toronto Star. Archived from the original on April 15, 2015.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m "City TV".
- ^ Julianna Cummins, "Room cleans up at final night of 2016 Screenies". Playback, March 13, 2016.