Top 10 Canadian Characters on U.S. TV Shows

[bholas]

Happy Canada Day!

Yes, July 1^st is Canada Day and, whether you are Canadian or not, it’s a great excuse to crack an ice-cold brew and head outside. All over Canada there will be backyard get-togethers, camping trips, and outdoor concerts and almost all of them will have a few key things in common: a red and white color theme, barbequed food, and beer.
Canadians are well known for their love of beer, hockey, and outdoor life (sometimes all at the same time). Of course, that’s a stereotype and there are always exceptions (for example, I’m not a huge hockey fan). However, I’d say I’m proud of most of the stereotypes we have generated, including the perception that we are polite, friendly, law-abiding, and tolerant.
Most Canadians watch U.S. television shows regularly, and it’s always interesting to see Canadian characters when they pop up on U.S. shows because they provide insight into how we are viewed by our neighbors to the south. For example, I’ve noticed that Canadian characters are often employed in the television industry on U.S. TV. This makes sense because many Canadians are actually lurking throughout the real U.S. TV and Film industry. Most recently, Canadian character Danny Baker showed up on 30 Rock as the newest cast member of the sitcom’s fictional TV show TGS (played by Cheyenne Jackson, 7 episodes so far). There are many real life examples of Canadian comedians on U.S. comedy shows and sitcoms, such as: John Candy, Jim Carrey, Mike Myers, Catherine O’Hara, Dan Ackroyd, Phil Hartman, Howie Mandel, Caroline Rhea, Norm Macdonald, and Tommy Chong.
Here are my top 10 favorite Canadian characters from U.S. TV. I’ve ranked them in the order of my preference, taking into account their overall popularity, their portrayal of Canadians, and the number of episode appearances.
Some guidelines: the TV show must be a U.S. production of a regular series (not a mini series, TV movie, or co-production) and the TV show must be a regular TV series (not a news show, game show, or reality show).


10. The Renault Brothers (Twin Peaks)

Jean Renault, Michael Parks; Jacque Renault, Walter Olkewicz; Bernard Renault, Clay Wilcox, 3 episodes, 1990




Jean, Jacque, and Bernard: three fictional brothers who appeared in David Lynch’s Twin Peaks, one of the best shows in TV history.
Jean is the stereotypical quiet and friendly Canadian on the outside, but is actually the most dangerous of the three brothers. During the series he ******s a Madam, frames an FBI agent, and is involved in a kidnapping. His younger brother Jacques Renault is a card dealer, drug runner, and bartender. Bernard, the youngest, helps his brother Jacques run drugs.
I came across one more Canadian character in Twin Peaks during my research: Preston King (Gavan O’Herlihy, 3 episodes, 1990-1991), a corrupt ****er Mountie, who is an interesting subversion of the classic Mountie stereotype. The setting of the show (Twin Peaks, Washington) is right on the U.S.-Canada border. In fact, parts of the show are set in a Canadian casino and brothel, so there could be more Canadian characters that I missed.


While there many not be any real brothels just across the border from Washington in British Columbia (at least not any that I know of), the idea of the brothers running drugs across the border there is not far-fetched. In 2005, an underground tunnel was discovered along the same border – it ran between two buildings (one in the US and one in Canada, pictured above), not too far away from the spot where the Renaults worked.
Surprising, entertaining, and dark characters in true Lynch style – these three frères are in my top 10 because they run against most stereotypes of Canadians on US television.

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[bholas]

9. Brian (The Larry Sanders Show)



Scott Thompson, 35 episodes, 1995-1998

Scott Thompson plays Brian, Hank Kingsley’s personal assistant in the hilarious and innovative Larry Sanders Show. Thompson is actually Canadian and gay so his role as the openly gay and Canadian character on the Larry Sanders Show doesn’t seem like too much of a stretch. However, in real life Thompson is apparently not as highly organized or as well-mannered as the TV character, insisting in an interview that he is not organized at all. Also, he was kicked out of York University for his ‘disruptive behavior.’

He’s making this list because he gets extra points for actually being Canadian and also because of rumors that he is the one who convinced the show to let his character be Canadian.

[bholas]

8. Terrence Henry Stoot and Phillip Niles Argyle (tie)

Voices of Matt Stone (Terrance) and Trey Parker (Phillip), featured in 7 episodes


According to southparkstudios.com, “Phillip is Terrance’s best friend. They live together in Canada where they eat Kraft dinner and make fart jokes.”
It’s true, as a Canadian I admit to eating a lot of Kraft dinner in my time… As for the fart jokes, I think it is perhaps telling that the original use of the phrase “pull my finger” is in a short story by Canadian author Mordecai Richler.
The children of South Park love to watch Philip and Terrence in their Canadian TV show. Terence is from Toronto and Phillip is from Montreal. Including Philip, there are six characters and four spots on this list taken up by French Canadians, which is home to only 23.9% of the population of Canada.

Are there real-life examples of Terence and Philip in Canada? If anything, I think they seem more like Beavis and ****head than any Canadian comedy shows, cartoon or not, that I can think of. There is a strain of Canadian humor that is very slapstick and silly (Hilarious House of Frightenstein, The Red Green Show) but they don’t actually fart on each other’s heads as far as I remember.
Terence: “Phillip, I’m convinced something very, very not good is happening to Canada.”
Phillip: “Yes, I agree whole-fartedly.”

[bholas]

7. Guy Edouard Raymond “Eddie” LeBec (Cheers)

Jay Thompson, 9 episodes, 1987-1989

Eddie LeBec, whose name sounds suspiciously like Rene Levesque when it is pronounced correctly, appeared on one of the most popular shows in TV history, Cheers.

Eddie Lebec married Carla (Rhea Perlman) after he got her pregnant. He started off on the show as a hockey player for the Boston Bruins and then performed in an ice show similar to the Ice Capades until he was ****ed in a Zamboni accident.

Eddie is on this list because he is a hockey player and you can’t get much more Canadian than that. French Canadian hockey players have been competing for the Stanley Cup since 1901. To this day, around half of all hockey players in the NHL were born in Canada.

[bholas]

6. Seth Bullock (Deadwood)




Timothy Olyphant, 36 episodes, 2004-2006

You can still visit the city of Deadwood in South Dakota. Today, it’s a national historic landmark, tourist attraction, and gambler’s paradise with 80 gaming halls. Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Hickok are buried there and Deadwood, with it’s stories of gold mines, gun fights, outlaws, and sheriffs, represents an important, and iconic, part of American history and culture.

Teddy Roosevelt referred to Deadwood’s sheriff Seth Bullock as a “true westerner, the finest type of frontiersman,” so perhaps it’s surprising that the sheriff he is referring to was a Canadian? Seth Bullock, portrayed on the HBO series Deadwood is loosely based on a real Canadian of the same name who was born in Ontario in the mid-1800’s.

When people all over the world think of cowboys, westerns, and the frontier they probably think of the United States of America. However, Seth Bullock is evidence that this history is also shared with Canada, and it’s nice to see a Canadian character featured in a TV western series. This earns the character Seth Bullock a spot on this list.