TORONTO – “Simpsons” scribe Joel Cohen says launching an animated series in Canada with fellow ex-pat Canucks has offered a welcome chance to pen jokes only hosers would get.
The L.A.-based writer teams up with fellow “Simpsons” staffer Tim Long and “How I Met Your Mother” writer/producer Chuck Tatham for Teletoon’s animated series “Crash Canyon,” debuting Sunday.
The half-hour comedy centres on the plight of the Wendells – a Canadian family who accidentally drive off a cliff and into a canyon, where they meet a range of oddball characters who have lived there for years.
Cohen says he relished the chance to drum up inside jokes such as the name of the canyon-bound clothing store – Canadian Attire.
He says he’s wanted to work north of the border for awhile, and recruited his TV colleagues Long and Tatham to each pen scripts.
The Calgary-bred Cohen says it’s been satisfying to write for an audience that will get Canuck references too obscure for a U.S. crowd.
“Tim had a great time putting all sorts of Canadian jokes in,” Cohen said in a recent telephone interview from Los Angeles.
“The draft I read – it was almost too many Canadian jokes. But we found that every episode has two or three or four or five references that mostly only Canadians will get. And it was really fun because, yes, where else would I have the opportunity to do that?”
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“The Simpsons” has levelled its fair share of Canadian barbs over the years but Cohen notes they’ve mostly come from U.S. writers.
“This was the most patriotic thing of all – that a Canadian could make fun of his own country himself,” says Cohen, who developed “Crash Canyon” and wrote the pilot.
The canyon in question is located somewhere in Alberta, adds co-producer and story editor Greg Lawrence, noting the Wendells were driving to Saskatchewan when their RV tumbled over the cliff.
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Misfits who populate “Crash Canyon” include a one-hit wonder punk rocker, a woman who adopts a bear as her slave, a guy in a perpetual coma, and a ventriloquist with an abusive dummy.
Lawrence says even though all the characters are essentially trapped – albeit in a relatively sprawling landscape that includes a river, lake and waterfall – he and Cohen were careful to make sure that does not dictate the storyline.
“The fact that they can’t escape is always present but … there was a conscious decision made in the writing process not to have every episode be about trying to get out of the canyon. Because then it becomes too familiar each week,” says Lawrence, whose writing credits include the defunct animated TV series “Kevin Spencer.”
“It’s not ‘Gilligan’s Island’ where every episode is: ‘This week we’re getting off the island.’ But we do keep the sentiment alive, so as you move through the series there are attempts to get out and all fail.”
Lawrence says keeping them trapped together is where a lot of the comedy comes from.
“I quite like characters who don’t necessarily like each other (being forced to) get along,” he says.
“Crash Canyon” joins a Sunday night schedule already packed with prime-time animated giants simulcast on Global and Fox: “The Simpsons,” “The Cleveland Show,” “Family Guy” and “American Dad.”
Cohen says his new show aims to offer something people could watch with their kids “and only be slightly embarrassed.”
“We push the envelope a little bit farther than let’s say ‘The Simpsons’ … but certainly nowhere near the ‘American Dad,’ ‘Family Guy’ model,” adds Lawrence.
“The Simpsons,” meanwhile, is set to air its 500th episode in February 2012.
With that many episodes in the can, it can be difficult to come up with fresh scenarios to explore in the world of Springfield, says Cohen.
Branching out into a new series allowed him a broader range of creative options.
“They’ve explored a lot of ground both physically and also emotionally,” Cohen notes of “The Simpsons.”
“You’re breaking fresh ground with these (‘Crash Canyon’) characters and they have a different voice than Marge and Homer’s…. It’s that opportunity to do something new and fresh without having to do it under the well-established ‘Simpsons’ umbrella.”
For instance, he says Long’s episode follows the bookish Norm and his hot-headed wife Sheila as they go away for a romantic weekend, something Marge and Homer have done many times.
“It’s a chance to just do a story between a husband and wife but do it in a different angle that you just couldn’t do on ‘The Simpsons,'” he says.
Keeping things novel on “The Simpsons” is a challenge, Cohen explains.
“Literally, sometimes you’ll pitch 30 or 40 or 50 things before our head writer Al Jean will say, ‘OK that’s an episode.’ And through that process a little bit we try to weed out redundancies to other episodes. But then it’s just (about) trying to find something about it that’s new and different to what we’ve done 500 times before.”
He says Canadian guest stars in the new season include Michael Cera as a “Hemingway-esque” love interest for Lisa while former “24” star Kiefer Sutherland provides the voice of a retired spy who tries to establish a normal civilian life in Springfield.
Cohen says the benefit of working in animation is that it travels well, noting that “Crash Canyon” will be distributed globally by MTV.
“Just change the voices and you have a show for any region,” he says, later admitting that Canuck references could keep this series from being completely universal.
“There are many jokes that are Canadian-specific and references to Canada that frankly if someone is watching MTV in Belgium they might not enjoy as much as someone watching television in say, Barrie.”
Nevertheless, that’s a trade-off he’s willing to make for his homeland.
“The number one goal is make it funny and certainly put enough Canadian references in it that Canadians get a little bit more enjoyment out of than anyone else.”
“Crash Canyon” debuts Sunday on Teletoon.
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