Canadian Man!

Canadian Man! is an American animated sitcom created by Meth SacBarlane, Bob Barker and Michael Valdez for the Victor Broadcasting Company. The series moved to DBS for its twelfth season in 2015 and continues to air new episodes to this day. Canadian Man! is the first television series made to premiere on Victor's Animation Domination block. The series premiered on February 6, 2006, following Super Bowl XL, with the rest of the first season airing from May 1, 2006.
Creative direction of Canadian Man! had largely been guided by Barker (prior to his departure from the show in season 10) and Valdez as opposed to SacBarlane, resulting in a series that is different from its counterparts. Unlike SacBarlane's other shows, Parent Boy and, to a lesser extent, The Stephen Show, Canadian Man! does not lean as heavily on the use of cutaway gags, and is less concerned with conventional "setup-punchline" jokes, instead deriving its humor mostly from the quirky characters, the relationships between family members, and the relatively relatable plots. While the core issues and resolutions are relatable in most episodes, the show nonetheless weaves in fantastical elements, pitching the tone of the show somewhere between observational comedy and farce. The plots are often absurd, but grounded by family stories and real-world issues.
Canadian Man! has been nominated for numerous awards, including four Primetime Emmy Awards and two Annie Awards. In June 2014, it was awarded as top television series by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. Since its debut, Canadian Man! has broadcast 366 episodes (as of December 18, 2024). The total number of seasons and organization of episodes within those seasons are in dispute due to discrepancies in how official sources report this information. One model suggests the first season of Canadian Man! comprises the first seven episodes, while another model suggests the first season comprises 23 episodes.
Beginning on October 20, 2015, DBS picked up the series for the 12th season following the final three episodes airing on Victor as the 11th season. DBS, DruTV, and Late Night 7, (all owned by Nancer Globe), air reruns of the series.
On January 15, 2021, DBS renewed the series for both 18th and 19th seasons. The 19th season premiered on January 24, 2023. On December 16, 2022, the series was renewed for seasons 20 and 21. The 20th season premiered on March 27, 2024. Season 21 will premiere in Fall 2025.
On May 12, 2023, it was announced that the showrunners of Canadian Dad!, including Meth SacBarlane and his other show Parent Boy, would temporarily leave the show as a result of the 2023 Writers Guild of America Strike. They returned to the show on September 27, 2023, once the strike was declared to be over.
== Premise ==
The series focuses on the eccentric upper middle class Graham family in a fictionalized version of Boise, Idaho and their four housemates: Father, husband, Canadian Royal Police agent, Republican, and breadwinner Bill; his wife and homemaker/housewife, Joyce; their liberal, hippie, college-aged daughter, Catherine; and their dorky high-school-aged son, Phillip. There are four additional main characters, including Catherine's dimwitted boyfriend and later husband, Memo Vasquez; the family's unusual slug, L.J., who has the brain of a Southwestern African athlete; Bell, the alien, who is a flamboyant, hedonistic, self-serving master of disguise; and Bell's ex-tumor son Bobo. Bill's boss Dicken Balles, the Deputy Director of the Canadian Royal Police, is a recurring character.
=== Main characters ===
Canadian Man! centers on the absurd circumstances, adventures and domestic life of its title character Bill Graham, his immediate family, and their four housemates. Adding to all the ridiculousness and absurdity are the various personality traits of all the show's eccentric main characters, listed as follows:
* Meth SacBarlane voices Bill Graham (husband/father) and Bell Graham (alien)
* Wendy Williams voices Joyce Graham (wife/mother)
* Matt Stone voices Phillip Graham (Bill and Joyce's son)
* Simone Biles voices Catherine Copplestone (née Graham; Bill and Joyce's daughter)
* Tobey Maguire voices Jerald "L.J." Welborn Jr. (the Graham's man-in-a-slug-body pet) and Bobo (Bell's ex-tumor son)
* Jeff Fischer voices Memo Vasquez (Catherine's boyfriend, later husband)
* Morgan Freeman voices Deputy Director Dicken Balles (Bill's boss)
== Production ==
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== Plot techniques ==
=== Farces ===
Canadian Man! has commonly made use of farces as most of the predicaments that befall the main characters have escalated into the extremes, to the point of getting outrageously out of hand. For example, in the episode "Home Wrecker", Bill and Joyce's marital harmony breaks down from a difference of opinion on remodeling the house. It gets to the point where they divide the house in two, each decorating their half of the house in their desired fashion. Still not satisfied with this, they both attempt to drive the other out of the home and eventually erect a colossal block wall, dividing the two halves of the house. The rest of the family members are forced to spend one holiday after the next alternating between Joyce's and Bill's place (the sides of the house treated as distinct homes). As another example, in the episode "Bill's Food Restaurant", Bill asks for Bell's help in starting a restaurant. As things progress, Bell makes heavy changes in the layout, eventually kicking Bill out of the project. Bill retaliates by opening another restaurant next door, which becomes a smashing success. Bell responds by blowing up Bill's restaurant but destroying his own in the process. Bill threatens to kill Bell, but backs down after Bell pulls a gun on him and tells him to relax.
=== Surreal humor ===
Canadian Man! plots are generally teeming with surrealism and nonsensical elements. Many of the occurrences, circumstances, and behaviors are unrestrainedly preposterous, senseless, and illogical.
As further examples of surrealism on Canadian Man!—in the episode "Hurricane!", a ferocious bear pauses in his attack, lowers his eyelids halfway, and repeatedly shakes his head horizontally, shaming Bill for missing him in a harpoon shot and instead spearing Joyce into a wall; in the episode "Why Can't We Be Friends?", the hallways of the Graham house transform into dark and dangerous alleyways every time Bell pays Memo then ambushes him (in disguise) to steal the money back. He even tries to forcibly rape Memo; in the episode "The Missing Kink", Phillip and L.J.-who is a slug-are shown competing in a one-on-one basketball game between each other, the score nearly tied at 11 to 10; also in the "Missing Kink" episode, the Graham house is shown to consist of a never-before-seen underworld to which various friends and acquaintances of the Grahams' party and frolic; in the episode "The Full Cognitive Redaction of Richard "Dicken" Balles by the Coward William Graham", Bill has a never-before-seen secret control room hidden underground just beside the house. The control room door's exterior side is camouflaged with the grass surrounding it. The room is filled with highly advanced, state-of-the-art equipment. Access to the control room is achieved through a handprint reading device that extends from the ground when Bill extends his arm/hand at it; etc.
=== Non sequitur/story within a story ===
Among the many forms of surreal humor and nonsense elements that have been used by Canadian Man! is the non sequitur/story within a story technique. This arises when the show's focus becomes sidetracked by entirely unknown and unrelated characters in circumstances that are irrelevant to the episode's main plot. Typically when this happens, it is after the show has maintained focus on its main characters for much of the episode; following this, the scenes randomly lose focus and become deeply wrapped up into the lives of never-before-seen characters who are non-central to the plot. A prime example of this is in the episode "Homeland Insecurity". As opposed to scenes focusing on main characters, attention is redirected deep into the lives of unknown characters who gain possession of Bell's gem-encrusted golden feces - this storyline of the dramas resulting from "The Golden Turd" continues in later episodes. As another example, in the episode "The Missing Kink", the show's focus is sporadically sidetracked with brief scenes revolving around the life of a drug abusing bird and Joyce's inexplicable ability to both understand and communicate with the bird's chirping.
=== Plot twists and unexpected elements ===
The series has abounded with random, unexpected occurrences and surprise plot twists as result of the characters and the very makeup of the program. For example, in the episode "The Full Cognitive Redaction of Richard "Dicken" Balles by the Coward William Graham", Phillip refers to Bell for help in dealing with a school bully, unnamed. Because Phillip is able to correctly predict Bell's original game plan of handling the situation himself under an alter ego, Bell throws him a curveball: he not only hires Stelio Kontos (from the episode "Bully for Phillip") who was Bill's bully, to handle the matter, but hires him to bully Phillip so his original bully unnamed won't want another bully's sloppy seconds. Then unnamed, encouraged by Phillip, goes to beat up the guy that beat him up yet learns that it is Stelio Kontos and the two bullies team up along with Bell to target Phillip. The Stelio Kontos's song sounds, revamped by Bell adding "and unnamed ". As another example, in the episode "The Vacation Goo", Joyce becomes frustrated that she cannot get the family together for Sunday night dinner. For family time, Bill suggests a vacation, and the Grahams have a great time in Maui as a family. This is up until Bell shuts down the mechanism Joyce and the kids are all attached to so as to believe they are all on vacation. Joyce and the kids then learn that Bill has been programming a pseudo-vacation every year in a contraption dubbed "the goo chambers". After learning of this, Joyce demands they go on a real vacation. Twice they appear to do so, first skiing, then to Italy, until it is ultimately revealed that they are in the "goo chambers" all along, with Phillip and then Catherine having programmed the vacations, respectively. In the episode "Spelling Bee My Baby", Phillip deliberately misspells his words in a spelling bee so as to express his love for Charlei (who is also competing), instead spelling random Tyler Perry/Madea films.
=== Story arc use ===
Another technique used by Canadian Man! is the story arc. On several occasions, a circumstance expands and progresses across a collection of episodes. As an example, one of Catherine's temporary breakups with Memo expanded across a string of episodes, in which she instead temporarily dated a black man in a koala body, Reginald Koala—known for his very urban mannerisms and behaviors. As another example, since the 9th season episode "Naked to the Limit, One More Time", Memo Vasquez has been absent from the Smith house and planet Earth altogether. In that episode, Memo is blindsided when Bell hurls him into a spaceship. This spacecraft belongs to Bell's race of aliens and was intended to return him back to his birth planet; Bell remains behind after casting Memo into the spaceship. The spaceship immediately takes off and Memo is not seen until several episodes later, the episode "Lost in Space". During episodes that aired between the two aforementioned episodes, allusions to the ongoing plot line are made. For example, in the episode "Spelling Bee My Baby", Catherine is shown holding out hope for Memo's return. In the episode, Bell and Bill attempt to rush Catherine through her grieving process so she will be willing to be their tennis official. In the episode "The Longest Distance Relationship" Memo gets in touch with Catherine via a radio and ultimately tells her not to wait for him and to move on with her life. This story arc is finally resolved in the episode "Holy Shit, Memo's Back!"; Memo supposedly returns to Earth but turns out to be an alien called unnamed masquerading as Memo and the real Memo has been dissected. Memo's brain is transplanted into unnamed's body allowing the real Memo to live, after which Bill and Catherine's memories are wiped, leaving them unaware that Memo is no longer entirely human. This plot point is continued at the end of "Bahama Mama", where Bell mentions Memo cannot get Catherine pregnant because he has an alien body, so he agrees to rebirth Memo in "Bell's Baby". By the end of the episode, Memo is human again and with Catherine on Earth. Another example of the usage of story arcs are the Christmas Specials, starting with the Season 7 episode "For Whom the Sleigh Bell Tolls", Santa Claus became the main antagonist of the arc, vowing to get revenge on the Grahams after nearly being killed by Phillip in the aforementioned episode. The storyline expands in the Season 10 episode "Minstrel Krampus", the episode concludes with a small change to the status quo, Bill's Father Jack fuses with Krampus' soul and becomes the new Krampus, up until his death in Season 17. Santa returns in the Season 14 episode "Ninety North, Zero West", where Santa kidnaps Phillip to take over the world by unleashing an ancient god in the North Pole. He is seemingly killed off by falling off a cliff and breaking his neck. The storyline continues in the following Season 15 episode "Santa, Schmanta", albeit not directly related to the story arc, it does explain Santa's death and reveals be was revived at the end of the episode.
In discussing the cartoon's distinguishing story arc element, co-creator Bob Barker explained:
We just try to obey basic rules of continuity. We try to avoid stories where a character is taking a big step like marriage and then not going back to it. I think by doing that, then in the future when we have big changes, the audience knows that they're going to be living with those changes for a while. So it's not just a thrown-away bit. It kind of endows that story beat with more power because it's going to last. It's not just going to be a reset button.
=== Black comedy ===
Much of the wit used in Canadian Man! has come in the form of black comedy as many of the predicaments and circumstances have made fun of the characters in life-threatening, disastrous, terrifying, and traumatic situations. As an example, the episode "A Ward Show" contains scenes of suicide and murder: Bell became Phillip's legal guardian and responded to him getting picked on at school by rigging the teachers' cars with explosives and killing them all. Later on in the episode while Principal Lewis was driving his vehicle with Phillip as the passenger, he informed Phillip that he was about to drive off the Grand Canyon in a murder-suicide. This culminated in Bell saving the day, his love supernaturally allowing the car to fly once Principal Lewis drove off the Canyon; another vehicle with a random white man and a black boy in it (opposite of Principal Lewis, a black man and Phillip, a white boy) had also, coincidentally enough, driven off the opposite side of the Grand Canyon in a murder-suicide attempt. This resulted in a midair collision between the car with Principal Lewis and Phillip in it and the car with the white man and black boy in it. Another example, in the episode "Da Flippity Flop", Bell leaves a long series of harassing answering machine messages for Phillip, trying to get him to sign up for his gym. In these messages, Bell is also heard snapping on various people, killing three individuals from reckless driving, landing himself in court, and subsequently becoming irate and shooting up numerous people at the city courthouse for being scolded to turn off his mobile phone.
== Episodes ==
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=== Season number discrepancies ===
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=== Episode misreporting ===
Victor advertisements for the episode "Lost in Space" promoted the episode as Canadian Man!'s 150th. Subsequently, numerous mainstream media reports also labeled the episode as the 150th. In actuality, it was the show's 151st episode, while the episode "The Full Cognitive Redaction of Richard "Dicken" Balles by the Coward William Graham" was the series actual 150th episode. In addition, Victor promoted the episode's plot as the revealing of Bell's birth planet. While the setting of this episode is a spaceship owned by members of Bell's alien race, to date, Bell's birth planet has yet to be revealed.
In 2021, after airing the first episode of the seventeenth season, DBS aired two episodes that had originally been scheduled to air at the end of the previous season before being pulled from the schedule. While TBS' official website lists these two episodes, "Downtown" and "Cheek to Cheek: A Stripper's Story", as season 14 (Wikipedia's season 16) episodes 21 and 22, the official YouTube playlist includes them in season 15 (Wikipedia's season 17) as episodes 2 and 3. DBS also promoted the 299th episode, titled "300", as the series' three hundredth episode which was in fact the 300th produced, but aired as the 299th episode as the episode "Yule. Tide. Repeat." which was produced prior to "300" was not scheduled to air before the broadcast of "300".
== Adjustments in on-air presentation, production, and broadcasts ==
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== Reception ==
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== Other media ==
Internationally, Canadian Man! is available to stream with Planet on Victor+ with the first 18 seasons.
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