Odd Job Jack

Last updated
Odd Job Jack
Odd Job Jack Logo.png
Genre
Created by
  • Adrian Carter
  • Denny Silverthorne Jr.
  • Jeremy Diamond
Directed byAdrian Carter
Denny Silverthorne Jr.
Starring Don McKellar
Theme music composerDenny Silverthorne Jr.
Composers
  • Denny Silverthorne Jr.
  • Roger Leavens
Country of originCanada
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons4
No. of episodes52 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producerJonas Diamond
Producers
  • Adrian Carter
  • Denny Silverthorne Jr.
  • Jeremy Diamond
EditorAndrew Anderson
Running time21–23 minutes
Production company Smiley Guy Studios
Original release
Network CTV Comedy Channel
ReleaseMarch 5, 2003 (2003-03-05) 
October 14, 2007 (2007-10-14)

Odd Job Jack is a Canadian adult animated sitcom starring Don McKellar, about one man's misadventures in temporary employment. Seen on and produced for The Comedy Network, a cable specialty channel, Adult Swim and MuchMusic in Latin America, 2x2 in Russia, Hulu in the United States, and MusiquePlus in the French speaking Canada. A total of 52 episodes were produced over four seasons. [1]

Contents

Production

Odd Job Jack is created by Smiley Guy Studios in Toronto, Ontario. The show was originally developed as a web-based cartoon, but quickly moved to cable television distribution. The producers of the show pay homage to their web roots by maintaining a web site that contains unique interactive content to support each episode, largely consisting of Flash games. They advertised this connection as being a "sit .com".

On July 14, 2006 in an email to subscribers, Smiley Guy Studios announced FreeJack, an initiative under which they have started releasing the master files of every character, prop, and background from every episode for the upcoming season under a non-commercial share-friendly license. [2] However, in 2007, after the fourth season the show definitely ended production.

Every episode is structured by the opening theme, the full episode and the closing credits.

Plot

The eponymous character, Jack Ryder, graduates from university with a degree in sociology and becomes a temporary employee at an agency called Odd Jobs which specializes in filling difficult and unusual positions. Each episode ends with Jack adding a chapter to a book which he is writing about his experiences on his laptop.

When not working, Jack often hangs with his eccentric friends, Leopold "Leo" Trench, an agoraphobic computer hacker who, like one of the characters in McKellar's earlier comedy series, Twitch City , is unable to leave his apartment but nonetheless leads a complex and bizarre life, and Bobby Lee, an Asian kid who works in the family store by day, and is a club disc-jockey and masked hero by night.

Jack also spends some time at the beginning and end of each episode at the agency where he attempts to develop a rapport with Betty Styles, the female assignment "associate" while under electronic surveillance from the gruff, imperious, and decidedly unpleasant, manager/owner (Mr. Fister) who is often involved in some way in the bizarre conspiracies, sordid sexual escapades, and crimes which lurk behind the workaday appearances of Jack's assignments.

Mr. Fister never appears in season three, but makes a final appearance in season four, while at the conclusion of season three Betty, after stealing the company jet to rescue Jack from African kidnappers, runs away to a distant country. Instead Jack is greeted in each season four episode with a new assignment associate, each with a personality defect. The first season also featured Jacques, a French Canadian doppelgänger to Jack who serves as an office nemesis.

Season One

Among the unusual situations in which Jack finds employment during the show's first season are mortuary worker; rodent wrangler on the set of a James Bond-like movie produced entirely with rodents; tree-planter in Bigfoot country; waiter in a chi-chi restaurant where something is definitely not right in the kitchen; security guard in a high-tech firm; Eighties-style business executive in a take-over firm; and Christian theme-park employee. None of these assignments are as straightforward as they seem. Jack's co-workers and employers can only be described as contentedly psychotic.

In the rodent wrangler episode, McKellar plays and parodies himself as a stereotypical vain, role-hungry and superficial actor, as well as voicing the anti-hero, Jack, and is the subject of a self-deprecatory episode based on Being John Malkovich in which a tunnel is dug from Jack's kitchen into McKellar the actor's ego.

There are also a number of sly allusions in the episode to McKellar's movies, including The Red Violin (1998) and Highway 61 (1991)[ citation needed ].

Cast

Guests

The show features voice work by a number of largely Canadian celebrities, especially after the first season: celebrities appear occasionally on the second season, and the third season has a special celebrity guest star for each episode, who either play themselves or voice one of the show's eccentric, if not mad, characters. Celebrities in the first season were Dave Foley, Troy Hurtubise and Gary Farmer. The second season featured the Barenaked Ladies, Jeff Tweedy of Wilco, John O'Hurley, Megan Follows, Christopher Plummer, Rick Mercer, Kenny Hotz, Catherine O'Hara and Don Knotts. And the third season sees Tom Arnold, Scott Thompson, James Woods, Tom Green, Leslie Nielsen, Will Arnett, Samantha Bee, and John Goodman accompany Jack on his adventures in the weird world of work.

Reception

Odd Job Jack was nominated for the Canadian Comedy Awards in 2007 in the "Writing Series" category. [3]

Notes

  1. Review of Odd Job Jack, TheGATE.ca

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>The Wonder Years</i> 1980s American comedy-drama television series (1988–1993)

The Wonder Years is an American coming-of-age comedy/drama television series created by Neal Marlens and Carol Black. It ran on ABC from January 31, 1988, until May 12, 1993. The series premiered immediately after ABC's coverage of Super Bowl XXII. The series stars Fred Savage as Kevin Arnold, a teenager growing up in a suburban middle class family in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It co-stars Dan Lauria as his father Jack, Alley Mills as his mother Norma, Jason Hervey as his brother Wayne, Olivia d'Abo as his sister Karen, Josh Saviano as his best friend Paul Pfeiffer, and Danica McKellar as his girlfriend Winnie Cooper, with narration by Daniel Stern as an adult version of Kevin.

<i>Second City Television</i> Canadian television sketch comedy show

Second City Television, commonly shortened to SCTV and later known as SCTV Network and SCTV Channel, is a Canadian television sketch comedy show that ran intermittently between 1976 and 1984. It was created as an offshoot from Toronto's Second City troupe. It is an example of a Canadian show that moved successfully to U.S. television, where it aired on NBC in 1981–83.

Guy Smiley is a fictional character on Sesame Street who was dubbed "America's favorite game show host". His skits are among those on the show that parody commercial media. Smiley has also hosted This Is Your Lunch and Here Is Your Life, a parody of This Is Your Life. Guests who were profiled included a loaf of bread, a tooth and a tree. He has also hosted pageants for numbers and letters.

<i>Twitch City</i> Canadian TV series or program

Twitch City is a Canadian sitcom produced by CBC Television, which aired as two short runs in 1998 and 2000. The series also aired in the United States on Bravo, and in Australia. The show's surreal humour was popular with critics. The show was never a mainstream ratings success in Canada, although it had a devoted cult following.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carlos Alazraqui</span> American actor

Carlos Jaime Alazraqui is an American actor, stand-up comedian, impressionist, producer, and screenwriter, best known for his role as Deputy James Garcia on Reno 911! and for his voice acting roles. His extensive voice-over work includes the original voice of Spyro from Spyro the Dragon; Shamless O’Scanty, Leslie P. Lilylegs, Elliott Sampson and Tad Tucker on New Looney Tunes; the Taco Bell chihuahua in the Taco Bell commercials; Denzel Crocker, Juandissimo Magnifico, and Sheldon Dinkleberg on The Fairly OddParents; Rocko and Spunky on Rocko's Modern Life; Scooter on SpongeBob SquarePants; Lazlo, Clam, and other characters on Camp Lazlo; Rikochet in ¡Mucha Lucha!; Grandpapi Rivera in El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera; Carlos Casagrande, Sergio, Vito, and other characters on The Casagrandes; and Mr. Weed in Family Guy. He is a weekly contributor on The Stephanie Miller Show.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joe Flaherty</span> American actor

Joseph Flaherty is an American actor, writer, and comedian. He is best known for his work on the Canadian sketch comedy SCTV from 1976 to 1984, and as Harold Weir on Freaks and Geeks, and for his role as Donald the heckler in Happy Gilmore (1996).

Blue Collar TV is an American sketch comedy television series that aired on The WB from July 29, 2004 to July 26, 2006 starring Jeff Foxworthy, Bill Engvall, and Larry the Cable Guy. The show's humor dealt principally with contemporary American society, and especially hillbilly, redneck, and Southern stereotypes. The show was greenlighted on the heels of the success of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour, which the series' three lead actors toured with in the early to mid-2000s. It was created by Fax Bahr and Adam Small, in addition to J.P. Williams and Jeff Foxworthy. Blue collar is a U.S. phrase used to describe manual laborers, as opposed to white collar for office or professional workers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Don McKellar</span> Canadian actor, screenwriter and film director

Don McKellar is a Canadian actor, writer, playwright, and filmmaker. He was part of a loosely-affiliated group of filmmakers to emerge from Toronto known as the Toronto New Wave.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roast (comedy)</span> Comedic genre

A roast is a form of humor in which a specific individual, a guest of honor, is subjected to jokes at their expense, intended to amuse the event's wider audience. Such events are intended to honor a specific individual in a unique way. In addition to jokes and insult comedy, such events may also involve genuine praise and tributes. The assumption is that the roastee can take the jokes in good humor and not as serious criticism or insult. The individual is surrounded by friends, fans, and well-wishers, who can receive some of the same treatment during the evening. The party and presentation itself are both referred to as a roast. The host of the event is called the roastmaster, a pun on toastmaster. Anyone mocked in such a way is said to have been roasted.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Byner</span> American actor

John Byner is an American actor, comedian and impressionist who has had a lengthy television and film career. His voice work includes the cartoon series The Ant and the Aardvark, in which the title characters are voiced by Byner's impressions of Dean Martin and Jackie Mason, respectively.

Brian Stack is an American actor, comedian, and writer best known for his sketch comedy work. He worked on all three late-night talk shows hosted by Conan O'Brien including Late Night with Conan O'Brien and The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien on NBC, and Conan on TBS. Stack left Conan in April 2015 to join the writing staff of the CBS series The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brian Nankervis</span> Australian comedian

Brian Nankervis is an Australian writer, actor, radio host, television producer and comedian.

<i>Slings & Arrows</i> Canadian television series

Slings & Arrows is a Canadian television series set at the fictional New Burbage Festival, a Shakespearean festival similar to the real-world Stratford Festival. It stars Paul Gross, Stephen Ouimette and Martha Burns. Rachel McAdams appeared in the first season.

<i>The Odd Couple</i> (1970 TV series) American sitcom (1970–1975)

The Odd Couple is an American sitcom television series broadcast from September 24, 1970, to March 7, 1975, on ABC. The show, which stars Tony Randall as Felix Unger and Jack Klugman as Oscar Madison, was the first of several sitcoms developed by Garry Marshall for Paramount Television. The series is based on the 1965 play The Odd Couple written by Neil Simon, which was also adapted into the 1968 film The Odd Couple. The story examines two divorced men, Oscar and Felix, who share a Manhattan apartment and whose opposite personalities inevitably lead to conflict and laughter.

<i>Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!</i> American sketch comedy series (2007–2010)

Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! is an American sketch comedy television series created by Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim for Adult Swim. It premiered on February 11, 2007 and originally ran until May 2, 2010. The show features surreal, dark and often satirical humor, public-access television-style musical acts, bizarre faux-commercials with a unique editing and special effects style by Doug Lussenhop to make the show appear off-kilter.

<i>The Ann Sothern Show</i> American TV series or program

The Ann Sothern Show is an American sitcom starring Ann Sothern that aired on CBS for three seasons from October 6, 1958, to March 30, 1961. Created by Bob Schiller and Bob Weiskopf, the series was the second starring vehicle for Sothern, who had previously starred in Private Secretary, which also aired on CBS from 1953 to 1957.

<i>Free Radio</i> American TV series or program

Free Radio is a television show, created by Lance Krall and Rory Rosegarten. The show originated on VH1, but has also played on Comedy Central, and Super Channel (Canada). It stars Lance Krall, prominent for his role on The Joe Schmo Show, and Anna Vocino, who also starred with Krall on The Lance Krall Show.

"Stone Mountain" is the third episode of the fourth season of the American television comedy series 30 Rock, and the 61st overall episode of the series. The episode was written by co-executive producer John Riggi and directed by series producer Don Scardino. It originally aired on NBC in the United States on October 29, 2009. Guest stars in "Stone Mountain" include Jeff Dunham and Bubba J, Jimmy Fallon, Blaine Horton, and Betty White.

Smiley Guy Studios is a Canadian animation production company founded in 1998 by graduates of the Canadian Film Centre. It is one of the most prominent creators of adult animation in Canada, with shows like Odd Job Jack, The Dating Guy, Sons of Butcher and Corner Gas Animated, unlike most studios which focus primarily on shows targeting children's or family demographics. Smiley Guy also produces family content.

Sensitive Skin is a Canadian black comedy television series, adapted from the British series of the same name created by Hugo Blick. Its six-episode first season, written by comedian Bob Martin and directed by Don McKellar, premiered on HBO Canada on July 20, 2014. A six-episode second season, with production resuming in spring 2015 in Toronto, premiered on May 15, 2016. On May 7, 2017, the show's official Twitter account informed fans that it was not picked up for a third season.

References

  1. Crump, William D. (2019). Happy Holidays—Animated! A Worldwide Encyclopedia of Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and New Year's Cartoons on Television and Film. McFarland & Co. pp. 51–52. ISBN   9781476672939.
  2. "FreeJack: Odd Job Jack and Creative Commons". Archived from the original on 2010-05-21. Retrieved 2007-07-14.
  3. Riedemann, Dominic (2007-07-31). "Odd Job Jack Nominated". suite101.{{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)