| Jake and the Kid | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Family drama |
| Starring | Ben Campbell Shaun Johnston Patricia Harras |
| Composer | Michael Becker |
| Country of origin | Canada |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 26 |
| Production | |
| Executive producers | Joseph Green Michael Hirsh Patrick Loubert Andy Thomson Ron Singer |
| Producers | Peter Lhotka Laura Phillips Arvi Liimatainen |
| Production companies | Nelvana Great North Productions |
| Original release | |
| Network | Global |
| Release | December 16, 1995 – August 16, 1997 |
| Infobox instructions (only shown in preview) | |
Jake and the Kid is a Canadian television drama series, which aired on the CanWest Global system of stations in the 1990s.[1] The second television adaptation of W. O. Mitchell's 1961 short story collection Jake and the Kid,[2] the series is set in the small town of Crocus, Saskatchewan, and centres on the friendship between Ben "the Kid" Osborne (Ben Campbell), a young boy growing up on a farm with his widowed mother Julia (Patricia Harras), and Jake Trumper (Shaun Johnston), a farmhand who becomes Ben's surrogate father figure.[3]
The supporting cast includes Fred Keating, Brian Taylor, Lorne Cardinal, Warren Ward, Jenny Cooper, Marty Chan, Joe Norman Shaw, Henry Ramer, Tom Cavanagh, Chad Krowchuk, Gabrielle Rose, Michael Hogan, Edanna Andrews, Julie Khaner and Robert Clothier.
Mitchell's original stories were set during the Great Depression; for the series, however, the temporal setting was updated to the 1950s.[4] The series additionally consisted largely of original scripts featuring Mitchell's characters, rather than straight dramatizations of the original stories.[5] Although set in Saskatchewan, it was filmed in and around Leduc, Alberta.[6]