Here’s a nutty idea for a TV show. A slacker dude, with zero political experience, decides on a whim to run for political office. To the shock of his buddies back at the local bar — not to mention the electorate — he wins.
No, it’s not a pilot based on the recent NDP federal election wins by a posse of Quebec university students-turned-members of parliament.
It’s Dan for Mayor, back for a second season — finally — on CTV. The sitcom returns Sunday, as well as June 10 on The Comedy Network.
If the producers had pitched the unlikely storyline that actually took place during the last federal election, “we would have been laughed out of the room,” says Dan for Mayor executive producer Mark Farrell.
He says he and fellow executive producers Paul Mather and Kevin White felt they were already pushing things with the high concept premise of their series: in a desperate ploy to impress a girl, small-town bartender Dan Phillips (played by Corner Gas grad Fred Ewanuick) runs for mayor of a small Ontario town and somehow stumbles into office.
A reach, perhaps, but not as far fetched as the real-life saga of MP Ruth Ellen Brosseau, the former bar manager who managed to win her Quebec riding even though she vacationed in Las Vegas during the election campaign, is not fluent in French and never once visited her riding before her surprise win.
“Sometimes you can’t write it as funny as it is in real life,” says Farrell.
Brosseau’s win even has Dan for Mayor star Ewanuick shaking his head. Should she win a second term, he notes, Brosseau will qualify for a big, fat, MP pension for life.
“Geez,” says the low-key actor. “I went into the wrong racket.”
It is killing the Canucks fan, but Vancouver-based Ewanuick is in Toronto this week to meet and greet with advertisers along with several other network stars at CTV’s annual “upfront” presentation.
“The one thing Leaf fans and Canucks fans share is a lot of years of disappointment,” he says.
He is happy to finally be able to say “Sunday” when people ask when Dan for Mayor — not seen in a year — will return. CTV, along with the other private networks, left most of their prime time Canadian content on the shelf all season, sticking with revenue-generating American simulcasts until the less competitive summer months.
After a long wait for viewers, shows like Global’s Rookie Blue and CTV’s other sophomore sitcom Hiccups are being tossed onto schedules to keep time slots warm for more American fare in the fall.
That’s fine with Ewanuick as long as viewers are able to find his show and give it a second shot. He’s proud of the new season and feels the sitcom has really hit its stride.
“The first season felt like a 13-part pilot,” he says, “and now we’re actually into the show.”
The new episodes were shot last fall in Toronto with exteriors in surrounding communities like Waterloo, Kitchener and Hamilton.
Season Two finds newly elected Dan trying his best to be worthy of his high office — and not always succeeding.
His ambitious gal pal Clair (Mary Ashton) is back on the scene, best bud Jeff (Paul Bates) is behind the bar and Clair’s moustachioed ex- Mike (Benjamin Ayres) is back being a pain in the butt.
Sunday’s episode finds Dan screwing up the naming of a new hockey rink. Future shows see him trying to do the right thing for fictional Wessex, Ont., with bike lanes and green initiatives as well as hosting a mayor’s conference.
The first two episodes take what worked last season — likable leads in a convivial setting — and add pace and purpose.
Now that Dan is mayor, the show doesn’t have to work so hard to campaign. Dan — and Ewanuick — have the job and make the most of it.
Laurie Murdoch is a well-matched foil as a colourless chief of staff happy to keep his rookie boss as far out of the loop as possible.
“What I liked is that they didn’t just put this dumb guy in the mayor’s office,” says Ewanuick of the writers, “they decided to actually let him try and do the best he can to prove to everybody and especially himself that he actually can do it.”
Farrell, previously a show runner on both 22 Minutes and Corner Gas, expects the new Quebec MPs will find a similar learning curve lies ahead.
“I think these people we’ve elected as NDP members are very earnest,” he says. “Dan’s attitude is like that — Let’s go, let’s change stuff. A lot of times he realizes he’s up against it and it is actually very hard to change things.”
Dan might ultimately have better luck than those new Quebec MPs. “A lot of times in TV comedy,” says Farrell, “good intentions are paved to a third act resolution.”
Bill Brioux is a freelance TV columnist based in Brampton, Ont.