On Friday, season twelve of the Canadian classic comedy Trailer Park Boys was released on Netflix.
The show follows the adventures of Ricky, Julian and Bubbles who live in the fictional Sunnyvale Trailer Park in Dartmouth Nova Scotia. Since its premiere in 2001, the show has made twelve seasons, three feature films and a handful of TV and Netflix specials. This new season sees the boys realize that they can’t go around breaking the law anymore because they are getting older. They attempt to go straight by setting up legitimate businesses and getting jobs, but bad habits manage to interfere with those plans.
Overall, I liked this season a lot. I have been a fan of the show since I was in grade seven and it was good to see that the show can come up with good original ideas and still manage to go back to its roots. This season had two characters from earlier seasons return for recurring and main roles: Kandy, Julian’s first girlfriend from season one and Gary, the mall security manager that hasn’t made an appearance since season five.
There are plenty of references to past seasons, one liners and heartwarming scenes that hardcore Trailer Park Boys fans will appreciate. But there is one reason why this season will be more special than others before it — it is the last season with John Dunsworth, who plays the character Mr. Lahey.
John Dunsworth died in October 2017 from a “short and unexpected illness” according to his daughter Sarah Dunsworth, who plays “Sarah” on the show, in a statement to the CBC. The twelfth season did not expect to be the final season for Mr. Lahey as it began filming in June and ended in August.
The first assumption on what he died from would be from heavy drinking. While he played a drunk trailer park supervisor on the show, Dunsworth did not actually drink a lot in real life. In an interview with John Doyle of The Globe and Mail in 2013, he admitted that he did not actually drink in real life and any kind of drunk behaviour on camera or on stage was faked.
At the end of the final episode, there was a dedication to Dunsworth and a clip of him explaining how the best and most valuable currency of all is gratitude. And as if the clip couldn’t get perfect enough, he finished it off by saying “When you’re dead, you’re dead. But you’re not quite so dead if you contribute something.”
The death of Dunsworth is the third departure of a character due to the actor dying. The other two were Brian Huggins, who played the recurring character “Shitty Bill” and Richard Collins, who played Philadelphia Collins, the owner of “The Dirty Burger” in 2013. However, this is the most influential departure of a character since Lucy DeCoutere, who played Lucy and Jonathan Torrens, who plays “J-Roc,” in 2016.
What makes this different from other major character departures is that Mr. Lahey is one of the most iconic characters on the show. There may be other “bad guys” on the show, but Mr. Lahey and Randy have been the only ones to match Ricky, Julian and Bubbles in terms of extreme behaviour, fan likeability and chemistry on the show.
Having been a fan of the show for a long time, I think it’ll be really hard to have it continue on without Mr. Lahey. It wouldn’t be the first time that a show lost popularity after a main character left. For example, That 70’s Show didn’t last long after Eric (Topher Grace) and Kelso (Ashton Kutcher) left after season seven and midway through season eight respectively.
While this may have happened, this season did not disappoint, even if Mr. Lahey will no longer be on the show.
At the end of the final episode, there was a dedication to Dunsworth and a clip of him explaining how the best and most valuable currency of all is gratitude. And as if the clip couldn’t get perfect enough, he finished it off by saying “When you’re dead, you’re dead. But you’re not quite so dead if you contribute something.”
Well John, you did contribute something. You inspired and entertained millions of people and help put Canadian comedy on the map on a global stage. You may not be with us anymore, but you will live on forever in our hearts as one of the best characters on a Canadian TV show.
Thank you for the memories and the laughs and may you rest in peace.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.