Sunnyside (Canadian TV series)

Sunnyside
GenreSketch comedy
Created by
Written byGary Pearson, Dan Redican, Kathleen Phillips, Jan Caruana, Alastair Forbes
Directed byShawn Alex Thomson, Jeff Beesley, Dawn Wilkinson, Steve Wright
Starring
ComposerJames Jandrisch
Country of originCanada
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes13
Production
Executive producersDan Redican, Gary Pearson, Dan Bennett, Shane Corkery, Anton Leo, Phyllis Laing, Mark Gingras
ProducersRhonda Baker, Paula Smith
Running time30 minutes
Production companiesCounterfeit Pictures, Buffalo Gal Pictures
Original release
NetworkCity
ReleaseJanuary 8 (2015-01-08) –
November 8, 2015 (2015-11-08)
Infobox instructions (only shown in preview)

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]

  1. ^ a b "Sunnyside a surreal new Canadian sketch-com awash in ponies". canada.com, January 7, 2015.
  2. ^ "Wolseley-shot sketch show a bright spot on the TV schedule". Winnipeg Free Press, January 8, 2015.
  3. ^ Doyle, John (20 March 2016). "John Doyle: Canadian TV is a place of squalor and neglect". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 5 April 2016.
  4. ^ a b Doyle, John (January 7, 2015). "John Doyle: I prefer my urban satire Sunnyside up". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved March 2, 2015.
  5. ^ 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.