Trailer Park Boys - Ricky, Bubbles and Julian
Trailer Park Boys is a popular Canadian mockumentary television series focusing on the misadventures of a group of trailer park residents, some of whom are ex-convicts living in fictional Sunnyvale Trailer Park, located near Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia. The Show premiered in April 2001; its creator and director is Mike Clattenburg.
Shot from the cameraman's point of view (ą la COPS), the low-budget program became something of a rarity in English Canada: a homegrown phenomenon. For example, characters (particularly Bubbles) often appear on novelty T-shirts. The show's lead trio have toured with Our Lady Peace, and Guns N' Roses, with whom Bubbles sang his trademark song "Liquor and Whores". The Trailer Park Boys have also appeared in music videos with The Tragically Hip, while Bubbles has appeared with Rush, George Canyon and Snow, and they have been presenters and hosts on numerous award shows, such as the Junos - always in character.
Several famous artists have appeared on the show over the years, such as Alex Lifeson from Rush, singer Rita MacNeil, Sebastian Bach from Skid Row, and singer/songwriter, the late Denny Doherty in the season seven finale "A Shitriver Runs Through It".
The Trailer Park Boys show has been a huge success on the cable network Showcase, where it's constantly been one of the network's highest-rated series ever. It has aired in Australia on the Comedy Channel, in the United Kingdom and Spain on Paramount Comedy, in the Republic of Ireland on Channel 6, in Iceland on Skjįreinn, in New Zealand on TV 2, in Israel on Xtra HOT, in the Netherlands on Comedy Central Netherlands, in Denmark on DR2, in Portugal on SIC Radical, in Germany on Comedy Central Germany, and in Finland on Nelonen. In the United States, BBC America formerly aired a censored version of the show, but it is no longer part of their lineup. The show just launched in Poland on Comedy Central Polska.
Robb Wells, Mike Smith, and John Paul Tremblay (a.k.a. respectively: Ricky, Bubbles and Julian) are preparing to shoot the Trailer Park Boys Movie sequel this year and are also available to appear in character for special events throughout North America.
Ricky - Robb Wells
 |
Ricky: Ricky is Julian's best friend and business partner, grows awesome dope, generally lives in his car, hates Jim Lahey and is possibly the best swearer in Canada. Despite having his grade ten he doesn't always make the best decisions though and the boys often get in trouble as a result. However, Ricky's heart is usually in the right place, especially when it comes to his family and friends. Rob Wells: Robb Wells hails from Moncton, New Brunswick where his dad worked as a civilian officer in charge of the RCMP Forensic Crime Lab. Robb moved to Dartmouth when he was eight years old, and eventually moved to a house on the same street as John Paul Tremblay. While John Paul was out riding around on his dirt bike, Robb was out playing on the soccer fields. By the time he was in high school, Robb was playing with some of Nova Scotia's best soccer players. They represented Nova Scotia at the Canadian National Championships, and won gold for Canada at the International Tournament in New Jersey. Robb developed his artistic side at an early age with the help of his grade 9 and 10 English teachers. In high school, Robb started hanging around with John Paul Tremblay and Mike Clattenburg and the three of them collaborated on their first short film, One Last Shot. The following year the three work together again on their first feature, Trailer Park Boys. Neither Robb nor John Paul has appeared in a film without the other. Shared film credits include U.S. feature Virginia's Run. From that point on, Robb has had little down time. He appeared as a featured guest of the band Our Lady Peace on their cross-Canada Fear of The Trailer Park tour. Robb also joined John Paul (Julian) and Mike Smith (Bubbles) as guest stars in the video, "The Darkest One", by The Tragically Hip. Robb then collaborated with co-writer Mike Clattenburg and wrote Trailer Park Boys the feature film, co-produced by Ivan Reitman. |
Bubbles - Mike Smith
 |
Bubbles: Bubbles is the heart and soul of Sunnyvale, not to mention the smartest person in the park. He loves his best friends Julian and Ricky, cats, shopping carts, the music of Rush, truck-driving, spaceships and model trains. If it were up to him, Bubbles would lead a quiet life in the park. Unfortunately, he's constantly getting caught up in Julian and Ricky's schemes and is afraid they, or even he, will go to jail again. Mike Smith: He attended St. Francis Xavier University where he earned a degree in English. In 1992, Mike's career in music began to take off. He played guitar and was one of the principal songwriters in the band Sandbox and signed a record deal with EMI in Canada and Nettwerk in the U.S. Nominated for a Juno Award, East Coast Music Awards and a Casby Award, Sandbox released two albums with EMI and Nettwerk: Bionic and A Murder In The Glee Club. In 1999, Mike started composing music for film and television as well as doing location sound recording for film. Mike Clattenburg asked Mike to record sound on a project called Trailer Park Boys which he was about to start shooting with Robb Wells and John Paul Tremblay. During the making of that film, Clattenburg saw Mike imitating a character he had been doing for years and immediately saw the potential. Clattenburg decided to write the character into the series and thus the birth of the loveable character, Bubbles. Mike worked on the US cable pilot called Espia as writer and musical director and appeared as Bubbles in the music video "Legal" by Canadian artist Snow. He also appeared with Robb Wells (Ricky) and John Paul Tremblay (Julian) in The Tragically Hip's music video, "The Darkest One", featuring Don Cherry. Just before that, Mike joined Robb and John Paul on a cross-Canada tour with the musical group, Our Lady Peace. In 2004, Mike (as Bubbles) played guitar and sang "Closer to the Heart" with Rush for a tsunami benefit concert televised by CBC. As a testament to the fact that Bubbles has endeared himself to audiences across the country, Mike won a Gemini in 2003 - it was the Viewer's Choice Award for Favourite Comedian |
Julian - John Paul Tremblay
 |
Julian: Julian is tall, dark, handsome and a natural leader. He also has a glass of rum and coke permanently attached to his hand. A career criminal, Julian is the head of the extended Sunnyvale Trailer Park family and he always tries to take care of the people in the park, especially his best friends, Ricky and Bubbles. However, as long as he's loyal to Ricky - who keeps screwing up, his criminal activities seem to derail. And of course it doesn't help that former park supervisor/current policeman Jim Lahey is always trying to bring him down, when not admiring his beautiful black hair. John Paul Tremblay: John Paul Tremblay (Julian) was born and raised in Halifax, Nova Scotia. When he was a young lad, John Paul (also known as JP and Jape by his friends) moved across the water to Dartmouth - actually to the Dartmouth suburb, Cole Harbour. It was there that he met Robb Wells (Ricky), who is three years his junior. In these early years, John Paul and Robb were not close. On the contrary, John Paul thought Robb was a little dork and Robb thought John Paul was the greasy bastard who owned a dirt bike. By the time they reached high school, however, the boys became best buddies. It was in high school that John Paul and Robb started hanging around with Mike Clattenburg. From that point forward, there was no looking back for John Paul Tremblay and the three of them collaborated in creating the shorts, One Last Shot and Trailer Park Boys. His first acting role came in Clattenburg's award-winning short film, One Last Shot. This was soon followed by his role as Julian in Mike's indie feature, Trailer Park Boys and the U.S. feature, Virginia's Run. John Paul recently sold J. R. Capone's - a chain of pizza restaurants on Prince Edward Island that was first opened by himself and Robb Wells. The success of Trailer Park Boys has opened many new doors for John Paul both here in Canada as well as south of the border. Such credits include a fisherman alongside Robb Wells in Virginia's Run, the lead role of Moe in the U.S feature film Hole-In-One starring Meatloaf and Michelle Williams from Dawson's Creek. Also, together with Robb Wells (Ricky) and Mike Smith (Bubbles), John Paul was a featured guest on the cross-Canada Fear of the Trailer Park tour with Our Lady Peace. He also starred in The Tragically Hip's music video, "The Darkest One" featuring Gord Downie and Don Cherry, and directed by Mike Clattenburg. |
