Death Comes to Town
Encyclopedia
Kids in the Hall: Death Comes to Town (or simply Death Comes to Town) is an eight-episode Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 mini-series that aired on CBC Television
CBC Television
CBC Television is a Canadian television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster.Although the CBC is supported by public funding, the television network supplements this funding with commercial advertising revenue, in contrast to CBC Radio which are...

 on Tuesdays between January 12 and March 16, 2010. The show takes place in a fictional Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

 town called Shuckton where their mayor has been murdered. As the Shuckton residents cope with the loss, a new lawyer moves in to prosecute a suspect – though another resident, unsatisfied with the evidence, tries to find the real killer. At the same time, a character who is a personification of death waits at a motel room for the latest Shuckton residents to die.

The series was proposed by Bruce McCulloch
Bruce McCulloch
Bruce Ian McCulloch is a Canadian actor, writer, comedian, and film director. McCulloch is best known for his work as a member of The Kids in the Hall, a popular Canadian comedy troupe, and as a writer for Saturday Night Live. McCulloch has also appeared on series such as Twitch City and Gilmore...

 during a 2008 The Kids in the Hall
The Kids in the Hall
The Kids in the Hall is a Canadian sketch comedy group formed in 1984, consisting of comedians Dave Foley, Kevin McDonald, Bruce McCulloch, Mark McKinney, and Scott Thompson. Their eponymous television show ran from 1988 to 1994 on CBC in Canada, and 1989 to 1995 on CBS and HBO in the United States...

comedy tour and developed by the ensemble into a dark-comedy murder mystery, a departure from their typical sketch comedy
Sketch comedy
A sketch comedy consists of a series of short comedy scenes or vignettes, called "sketches," commonly between one and ten minutes long. Such sketches are performed by a group of comic actors or comedians, either on stage or through an audio and/or visual medium such as broadcasting...

 format. Inspiration for the series came in part from the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 comedy series The League of Gentlemen
The League of Gentlemen
The League of Gentlemen are a group of British comedians formed in 1995, best known for their radio and television series.The League of Gentlemen may also refer to:* The League of Gentlemen ,...

. While the members of The Kids in the Hall play all of the major characters (with the exception of child character RAMPOP played by Landon Reynolds-Trudel), a number of other comedic actors appear in supporting roles, including Dan Redican
Dan Redican
Dan Redican is a Canadian comedy writer and performer and puppeteer, best known for his work with the comedy troupe, The Frantics. As a founding member of the troupe he has worked since 1979 on numerous stage shows, the Frantic Times radio show, Four on the Floor TV show...

, Colin Mochrie
Colin Mochrie
Colin Andrew Mochrie is a Scottish Canadian actor and improvisational comedian, most famous for his appearances on the British and US versions of television improvisation show Whose Line Is It Anyway?.-Early life:...

, Wayne Robson
Wayne Robson
Wayne Robson was a Canadian television, film and stage actor best known for playing the part of Mike Hamar, an ex-convict and sometime thief, on the Canadian sitcom The Red Green Show from 1993 to 2006, as well as in the 2002 film Duct Tape Forever.Robson was born in Vancouver, British Columbia...

 and Mike Beaver
Mike Beaver
Mike Beaver is a Canadian born comic actor and writer currently living in Los Angeles. He first hit the comedy scene back in 1996 with The Bobroom, a sketch comedy troupe from Toronto, that he co-founded. Mike received rave reviews for his fearless comedy style and committed characters. The...

. The series was filmed in North Bay
North Bay, Ontario
North Bay is a city in Northeastern Ontario, Canada. It is the seat of Nipissing District, and takes its name from its position on the shore of Lake Nipissing.-History:...

, Mattawa
Mattawa, Ontario
Mattawa is a town in northeastern Ontario, Canada, at the confluence of the Mattawa and Ottawa Rivers in Nipissing District. Mattawa means "Meeting of the Waters" in Ojibwa...

 and Sturgeon Falls, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

 in the summer of 2009.

Premise

The mayor of Shuckton, Ontario (population 27,063) is murdered several hours after announcing that the town's bid for the 2028 Summer Olympics
2028 Summer Olympics
The 2028 Summer Olympics, which will be officially known as the Games of the XXXIV Olympiad are an international athletic event that will be organized by the International Olympic Committee...

 was rejected. A small-time criminal, Crim, is found with blood on him and is put on trial for the murder. However, an obese man named Ricky suspects the real murderer is still at large and, with the help of his friend Marnie, he investigates the crime. Meanwhile, the mayor's widow takes over mayoral duties, women on a local news team compete for attention, the coroner steals the mayor's body, Crim's lawyer does everything he can to keep his cat alive, and Death waits in a motel room to collect the souls of dead Shuckton citizens.

Characters

All major characters in the miniseries were played by the five members of The Kids in the Hall, except for the mayor's son, who was played by young actor Landon Reynolds-Trudel. Several of the original The Kids in the Hall characters appear in cameo roles, including Mark McKinney's Chicken Lady
Chicken Lady
The Chicken Lady was a character portrayed by Mark McKinney on the sketch comedy show The Kids in the Hall. She is a middle-aged, apartment-dwelling, physically strong, sexually-obsessed freak: the result of mating between a farmer and a hen...

 as a candidate juror and Paul Bellini
Paul Bellini
Paul Bellini is a Canadian comedy writer and television actor. Bellini is well-known figure in the Canadian television comedy industry due to his work on The Kids in the Hall and This Hour Has 22 Minutes. He has worked on several projects with Josh Levy and PJ DeBoy...

 clad only in his towel at an ATM; in addition, McCulloch and McKinney's police officers are tweaked variations of their OPP officer characters of the original series.

Other actors who appeared in supporting roles include Dan Redican
Dan Redican
Dan Redican is a Canadian comedy writer and performer and puppeteer, best known for his work with the comedy troupe, The Frantics. As a founding member of the troupe he has worked since 1979 on numerous stage shows, the Frantic Times radio show, Four on the Floor TV show...

, Colin Mochrie
Colin Mochrie
Colin Andrew Mochrie is a Scottish Canadian actor and improvisational comedian, most famous for his appearances on the British and US versions of television improvisation show Whose Line Is It Anyway?.-Early life:...

, Wayne Robson
Wayne Robson
Wayne Robson was a Canadian television, film and stage actor best known for playing the part of Mike Hamar, an ex-convict and sometime thief, on the Canadian sitcom The Red Green Show from 1993 to 2006, as well as in the 2002 film Duct Tape Forever.Robson was born in Vancouver, British Columbia...

 and Mike Beaver
Mike Beaver
Mike Beaver is a Canadian born comic actor and writer currently living in Los Angeles. He first hit the comedy scene back in 1996 with The Bobroom, a sketch comedy troupe from Toronto, that he co-founded. Mike received rave reviews for his fearless comedy style and committed characters. The...

.
  • Larry Bowman (Bruce McCulloch
    Bruce McCulloch
    Bruce Ian McCulloch is a Canadian actor, writer, comedian, and film director. McCulloch is best known for his work as a member of The Kids in the Hall, a popular Canadian comedy troupe, and as a writer for Saturday Night Live. McCulloch has also appeared on series such as Twitch City and Gilmore...

    ), a former US draft dodger, mayor and former hockey coach of Shuckton. Although shown abusing the powers of his office, he is beloved by the townspeople.
  • Marilyn Bowman (Dave Foley
    Dave Foley
    David Scott "Dave" Foley is a Canadian comedian, writer, director, and producer best known for his work in The Kids in the Hall, NewsRadio, A Bug's Life, and Celebrity Poker Showdown...

    ) is Larry's unhappy alcoholic wife. As requested in the mayor's will, Marilyn becomes mayor and seeks economic development opportunities for the town.
  • RAMPOP (Landon Reynolds-Trudel) is Larry and Marilyn's adopted son. He responds to questions with screeches and chirps, he flails his arms when he runs, and he sees all humans as large animated butterflies. His mother calls him "special" but RAMPOP is the only member of his family who knows which remote control turns on the TV and is the only one who can see Death in his true form and communicate with him.
  • Marnie (Kevin McDonald
    Kevin McDonald
    Kevin Hamilton McDonald is a Canadian comedian and actor, known as a member of the Canadian sketch comedy group The Kids in the Hall.-Early life:...

    ) is a middle-aged delivery driver for the local pizzeria who is prone to frequent spells of forgetfulness she refers to as "the Fuzzies."
  • Ricky Jarvis (McCulloch) is an obese man who has not left his house since he lost a hockey tournament; as the captain of the town's hockey team, he lost all his stamina in sex with a rival team's cheerleader the night before the final game.
  • Crimson "Crim" Hollingsworth (Scott Thompson
    Scott Thompson
    Scott Thompson is a Canadian television actor and comedian, best known for his time as a member of the comedy troupe The Kids in the Hall.-Personal life:...

    ) is a small-time criminal who self-identifies as being one-sixteenth Ojibwe. He is the prime suspect of Larry's murder.
  • Corrinda Gablechuck (Mark McKinney
    Mark McKinney
    Mark Douglas Brown McKinney is a Canadian comedian and actor, best known for his work in the sketch comedy troupe The Kids in the Hall. Following the run of their television series and feature film , he went on to star in Saturday Night Live from 1995 to 1997...

    ) is the field reporter for the local TV news. After becoming pregnant with Shaye's child, she becomes conflicted on whether to stay pregnant or have an abortion.
  • Heather Weather (Thompson) is the weather reporter for the local TV news. She battles Corrinda for the spotlight. She is suspected of the murder when Marilyn learns Heather may have had an affair with Larry.
  • Levon Blanchard (Foley) is the news producer, visibly frustrated by Corrinda and Heather's rivalry.
  • Shaye (McDonald) is the news team's boom microphone operator. He sleeps with Corrinda only after being rejected by other women at the local bar.
  • Dusty Diamond (Thompson) is the town coroner who secretly harboured feelings for Mayor Bowman.
  • "Big City" (McCulloch) is a lawyer who is prosecuting Crim for the murder of Larry Bowman. He uses showmanship to dazzle judge and jury.
  • Sam Murray (McDonald) is the inexperienced local public defense attorney. Not understanding quality of life, he incurs expensive veterinarian bills keeping his sick 32 year old cat, Buttonhole, alive.
  • Death (McKinney) is a grim reaper assigned to collects souls from Shuckton. He has personal vendetta against Ricky – who was supposed to be aborted before he was born, but who survived the procedure because Death was late to collect his soul. When off duty, he hangs out at the tavern, drinking owl's blood and flirting with voluptuous red-headed women.
  • Dr. "Doc" Porterhouse (Foley) is the kindly town abortion
    Abortion
    Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...

    ist. He is a talented doctor but uses odd tools and methods.
  • The Judge (McKinney) presides over Crim's murder trial. He is shown to be frustrated by the disappearance of his gavel and the gavel's replacements.
  • The Police Officers (McCulloch and McKinney) are investigating Mayor Bowman's murder.

Episodes

# Title Director(s) Writer(s) Original airdate

Production and style

During a reunion tour in summer 2008, The Kids in the Hall
The Kids in the Hall
The Kids in the Hall is a Canadian sketch comedy group formed in 1984, consisting of comedians Dave Foley, Kevin McDonald, Bruce McCulloch, Mark McKinney, and Scott Thompson. Their eponymous television show ran from 1988 to 1994 on CBC in Canada, and 1989 to 1995 on CBS and HBO in the United States...

comedy troupe decided they would like to work together again. Since their 1996 movie Brain Candy
Brain Candy
Brain Candy is a feature film by The Kids in the Hall, a Canadian comedy troupe. Directed by Kelly Makin, filmed in Toronto, and released in 1996, it followed the five season run of their television series, which had been successful in both Canada and the United States.The five man team plays all...

, during which they had a falling out over creative differences, they had only worked together on live comedy tours and had not appeared on television together since the end of their show in 1995. Bruce McCulloch pitched a television story idea which the rest of the group liked. They spent a couple days together brainstorming and developing characters. The storyline resolved into a murder mystery miniseries – partly inspired by the British comedy series The League of Gentlemen
The League of Gentlemen
The League of Gentlemen are a group of British comedians formed in 1995, best known for their radio and television series.The League of Gentlemen may also refer to:* The League of Gentlemen ,...

. McCulloch described it as Corner Gas
Corner Gas
Corner Gas is a Canadian television sitcom created by Brent Butt. The series ran for six seasons from 2004 to 2009. Re-runs still air on CTV and The Comedy Network in Canada; it formerly aired on WGN America in the United States....

meets Twin Peaks
Twin Peaks
Twin Peaks is an American television serial drama created by David Lynch and Mark Frost. The series follows the investigation headed by FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper , of the murder of a popular teenager and homecoming queen, Laura Palmer...

. The format diverged from their typical sketch comedy style by following a continuous narrative – though side-stories explore characters further. Along with producer Susan Cavin in fall 2008, they pitched the concept to CBC executive Fred Fuchs
Fred Fuchs
Frederic S. Fuchs is a television producer and film producer active in the United States and Canada, where he holds dual citizenship. He became an executive in the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation on April 3, 2006...

 who greenlit the project.

The troupe hired several of the people they had worked with on Brain Candy, including Craig Northey
Craig Northey
Craig Northey is a Canadian musician and one of the founding members of the band Odds.After the breakup of Odds in 1999, Northey has embarked on several other ventures, including working with Colin James, Rosanne Cash, Glen Phillips, Bruce McCulloch and many others...

 and director Kelly Makin
Kelly Makin
Kelly Makin is a Canadian television and movie director. He directed some episodes of The Kids in the Hall comedy television series and also directed several episodes of Queer as Folk including that series' last episode...

. They shot the series in North Bay
North Bay, Ontario
North Bay is a city in Northeastern Ontario, Canada. It is the seat of Nipissing District, and takes its name from its position on the shore of Lake Nipissing.-History:...

, along with locations in Mattawa
Mattawa, Ontario
Mattawa is a town in northeastern Ontario, Canada, at the confluence of the Mattawa and Ottawa Rivers in Nipissing District. Mattawa means "Meeting of the Waters" in Ojibwa...

 and Sturgeon Falls, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

, which allowed them to access federal and provincial funding incentives for economic development in Northern Ontario
Northern Ontario
Northern Ontario is a region of the Canadian province of Ontario which lies north of Lake Huron , the French River and Lake Nipissing. The region has a land area of 802,000 km2 and constitutes 87% of the land area of Ontario, although it contains only about 6% of the population...

. For example, the courtroom scenes were filmed in North Bay's Trinity United Church and the graveyard site was filmed on Mattawa's Explorer's Point. McKinney has claimed in interviews that the red vest worn by Death was found in a storehouse of old CBC props and costumes, and was previously worn by Bob Homme
Bob Homme
Robert "Bob" Homme, CM was an American-born television actor, best known as the host of The Friendly Giant, a popular Canadian children's television program from the 1950s through the 1980s, which was broadcast on CBC Television.Homme became a citizen of Canada in the early 1990s, holding dual...

 in The Friendly Giant
The Friendly Giant
The Friendly Giant is a popular Canadian children's television program that aired on CBC Television from September 1958 through to March 1985...

. While drafting the script, cast member Scott Thompson was diagnosed with stage one non-Hodgkin lymphoma
Non-Hodgkin lymphoma
The non-Hodgkin lymphomas are a diverse group of blood cancers that include any kind of lymphoma except Hodgkin's lymphomas. Types of NHL vary significantly in their severity, from indolent to very aggressive....

. He began chemotherapy sessions shortly before the August – September 2009 shooting dates and started four weeks of radiation treatment once shooting wrapped.

Broadcast and reception

The series was aired on CBC Television as eight 30-minute shows. It was broadcast between January 12 and March 16, 2010, on Tuesdays at 9 pm following news-comedy shows Rick Mercer Report
Rick Mercer Report
Rick Mercer Report is a Canadian television comedy series which airs on CBC Television...

and This Hour Has 22 Minutes
This Hour Has 22 Minutes
This Hour Has 22 Minutes is a weekly Canadian television comedy that airs on CBC Television. Launched in 1993 during Canada's 35th general election, the show focuses on Canadian politics, combining news parody, sketch comedy and satirical editorials...

. Death Comes to Town was one of three new prime-time shows that CBC launched in the second week of January; the others being a detective comedy-drama Republic of Doyle
Republic of Doyle
Republic of Doyle is a Canadian comedy-drama television series, which debuted 6 January 2010 on CBC Television.The show stars Seán McGinley and Allan Hawco as Malachy and Jake Doyle, a father and son who partner as private investigators in St...

and a family-oriented situation comedy 18 to Life
18 to Life
18 to Life is a Canadian television sitcom that debuted on January 4, 2010 on CBC Television. The series is shown in Quebec on Vrak.TV with the title Majeurs et mariés.-Synopsis:...

. The debut of Death Comes to Town was watched by approximately 1.054 million viewers (60% in the 25-54 age demographic), higher than both Republic of Doyle and 18 to Life. The American cable network Independent Film Channel
Independent Film Channel
The Independent Film Channel is an American cable TV network that airs independent film and related programming. IFC programming includes commercially interrupted feature-length films, original documentaries, shorts, animated series, original series, acquired series, and content exclusively for...

 purchased the US broadcast rights and began broadcasting it on August 20, 2010.

In the Winnipeg Free Press
Winnipeg Free Press
The Winnipeg Free Press is a daily broadsheet newspaper in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Founded in 1872, as the Manitoba Free Press, it is the oldest newspaper in western Canada. It is the newspaper with the largest readership in the province....

, Brad Oswald reviewed the show cautiously, writing it that is "decidedly different, distinctly weird and definitely-an-acquired-taste kind of great" and that some characters and scenes "are edgy and uncompromising and sure to shock and offend nearly as many viewers as they amuse." In the Toronto Star
Toronto Star
The Toronto Star is Canada's highest-circulation newspaper, based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its print edition is distributed almost entirely within the province of Ontario...

Raju Mudhar wrote that the "humour is classic Kids, with plenty of visual gags mixed with off-colour, politically incorrect jokes" and that "the troupe's eye for satire remains sharp as ever". John Doyle in the The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail is a nationally distributed Canadian newspaper, based in Toronto and printed in six cities across the country. With a weekly readership of approximately 1 million, it is Canada's largest-circulation national newspaper and second-largest daily newspaper after the Toronto Star...

wrote a negative review concluding it was "a dismal coda to the comedy troupe's outstanding career". Doyle identified himself as a fan of the original The Kids in the Hall series but found that this show had "excruciatingly awful attempts at humour" and "no comic rhythm". Doyle called it "appallingly slow-witted TV", "mediocre and maddeningly pointless". In the Times-Colonist, Alex Strachan provided a qualified positive review writing that it was "juvenile, sophomoric and deliberately unsophisticated" but "a joy to watch". Strachan concludes that "Death Comes to Town is easy to dismiss as being lightweight, which it is, and scattershot, which it is. There's a genuine joie de vivre at work, though. Death Comes to Town is silly comedy for smart people."

Home media

The complete mini-series was released on Region 1 DVD
DVD region code
DVD region codes are a digital-rights management technique designed to allow film distributors to control aspects of a release, including content, release date, and price, according to the region...

 by Alliance Home Entertainment on August 3, 2010.

External links

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