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]
| 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 |
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]
Production and distribution edit
The first season premiered on December 16, 1995 and ran until March 9, 1996, and a second season was announced as part of the network's 1996–97 schedule.[7]
Due to a loss of $500,000 in production funding when the provincial government of Alberta shut down the Alberta Motion Picture Development Corporation,[8] the network declined to order a third season; although it committed to air the second season that had already been commissioned, by agreement with the producers it delayed the scheduling so that they could attempt to reach a deal to continue the series with another network.[9] However, the producers also alleged that Global was dropping the series in retaliation for the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission's concurrent denial of CanWest's applications for new stations in Calgary and Edmonton.[10]
The second season premiered on May 24, 1997.[11] The producers did not succeed in finding a new network deal; in October 1997, its sets and props were auctioned off.[12] The series was aired in repeats by YTV in 1998–99, and by Global in 2000. In the US, the series aired on Showtime Family Zone in 2003.[13]
Episodes edit
Season One (1995–96) edit
| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | "We All Live in Crocus" | Anne Wheeler | Laura Phillips | December 16, 1995 |
| 2 | 2 | "No Place Like Home" | Anne Wheeler | Laura Phillips | December 23, 1995 |
| 3 | 3 | "Grand Plans" | Francis Damberger | Scot Morison, Laura Phillips | December 30, 1995 |
| 4 | 4 | "Long Live the Queen" | Otta Hanus | Laura Phillips | January 6, 1996 |
| 5 | 5 | "Oil Boom" | T. W. Peacocke | Anne MacNaughton, Scott McPherson | January 13, 1996 |
| 6 | 6 | "Prairie Lawyer" | Otta Hanus | Martin Kinch | January 20, 1996 |
| 7 | 7 | "The Smoking Gun" | Francis Damberger | Laura Phillips, David Young | January 27, 1996 |
| 8 | 8 | "Liar Hunter" | T. W. Peacocke | Laura Phillips | February 3, 1996 |
| 9 | 9 | "Buying the Farm" | Arvi Liimatainen | Scott McPherson | February 10, 1996 |
| 10 | 10 | "Full Circle" | Francis Damberger | Scot Morison | February 17, 1996 |
| 11 | 11 | "Ways of the World" | Jon Cassar | Scot Morison | February 24, 1996 |
| 12 | 12 | "Looks Can Be Deceiving" | Alex Chapple | Scot Morison, Anna Rehak | March 2, 1996 |
| 13 | 13 | "True Confessions" | Francis Damberger | Laura Phillips | March 9, 1996 |
Season Two (1997) edit
| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 | 1 | "The Fire" | T. W. Peacocke | Scot Morison | May 24, 1997 |
| 15 | 2 | "The Difference Between Corn and People" | Arvi Liimatainen | Anna Rehak | May 31, 1997 |
| 16 | 3 | "The Sky's the Limit" | Jon Cassar | Kelly Rebar | June 7, 1997 |
| 17 | 4 | "Rituals" | Richard J. Lewis | Peter Mitchell | June 14, 1997 |
| 18 | 5 | "The Great Uranium Caper" | Francis Damberger | Heather Conkie | June 21, 1997 |
| 19 | 6 | "What's Real" | Don McCutcheon | Renata Bright | June 28, 1997 |
| 20 | 7 | "Special Delivery" | Richard J. Lewis | Scot Morison | July 5, 1997 |
| 21 | 8 | "The Runaways" | Francis Damberger | Sondra Kelly | July 12, 1997 |
| 22 | 9 | "Crossroads" | Arvi Liimatainen | Renata Bright, Marty Chan, Sondra Kelly | July 19, 1997 |
| 23 | 10 | "The Boxer" | Stuart Margolin | Anna Rehak | July 26, 1997 |
| 24 | 11 | "The Circus" | Alex Chapple | Scot Morison | August 2, 1997 |
| 25 | 12 | "The Ship" | T. W. Peacocke | Heather Conkie | August 9, 1997 |
| 26 | 13 | "The Wedding" | Arvi Liimatainen | Marty Chan, Scot Morison, Anna Rehak | August 16, 1997 |
Awards edit
At the 12th Gemini Awards in 1998, Harras won the Gemini Award for Best Actress in a Continuing Leading Dramatic Role,[14] and the series was a nominee for Best Dramatic Series.[15]
The series won four Rosie Awards from the Alberta Media Production Industries Association in 1997, for Best Television Series, Best Male Lead Performance (Johnston), Best Dramatic Script and Best Art Direction.[16]
References edit
- ^ Alex Strachan, "Jake and the Kid evokes memories gone with the Prairie wind". Vancouver Sun, December 16, 1995.
- ^ Peter Lhotka, "They're back! Folksy Jake and the Kid given facelift, yet remain family entertainment". Winnipeg Free Press, December 16, 1995.
- ^ Ted Shaw, "Jake role a natural for Johnston". Ottawa Citizen, December 23, 1995.
- ^ Tony Atherton, "Jake and the Kid has some growing to do before it makes good". Ottawa Citizen, December 16, 1995.
- ^ Grant McIntyre, "Flat out fun: Jake and the Kid takes its prairie setting to heart". The Globe and Mail, December 16, 1995.
- ^ Joe Chidley, "A classic reborn: Jake and the Kid". Maclean's, December 18, 1995.
- ^ Christopher Harris, "Global unveils fall TV line up". The Globe and Mail, June 15, 1996.
- ^ Alan Kellogg, "Penny-pinching will turn Jake's town into a ghost town". Edmonton Journal, October 23, 1996.
- ^ Richard Helm, "'Jake and the Kid' looks for new network". Ottawa Citizen, March 20, 1997.
- ^ Sid Adilman, "Jake And The Kid's TV future a big `if'". Toronto Star, May 28, 1997.
- ^ "Jake, Kid back for second season". Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, May 15, 1997.
- ^ Jac MacDonald, "Packing it in on the set of Jake and the Kid; Auction sells out the whole fictional town of Crocus, Saskatchewan; Selling out on Jake and the Kid". Edmonton Journal, October 26, 1997.
- ^ "Archived copy". www.sho.com. Archived from the original on 7 July 2003. Retrieved 18 September 2022.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ John McKay, "Global TV dominates at 12th Gemini Awards". Kingston Whig-Standard, March 2, 1998.
- ^ Ellen Vanstone, "Fifth estate leads field Geminis to be awarded at galas". The Globe and Mail, January 14, 1998.
- ^ Alison Mayes, "Jake and the Kid scoops up Rosies". Calgary Herald, April 27, 1997.
