Jake and the Kid (1995 TV series)
{{Infobox television
| image =
| caption =
| genre = Family drama
| creator =
| writer =
| director =
| starring = Ben Campbell
Shaun Johnston
Patricia Harras
| composer = Michael Becker
| country = Canada
| language = English
| num_seasons = 2
| num_episodes = 26
| list_episodes =
| executive_producer = Joseph Green
Michael Hirsh
Patrick Loubert
Andy Thomson
Ron Singer
| producer = Peter Lhotka
Laura Phillips
Arvi Liimatainen
| location =
| runtime =
| company = Nelvana
Great North Productions
| network = Global
| first_aired = {{start date|1995|12|16}}
| last_aired = {{end date|1997|08|16}}
}}
Jake and the Kid is a Canadian television drama series, which aired on the CanWest Global system of stations in the 1990s.Alex Strachan, "Jake and the Kid evokes memories gone with the Prairie wind". Vancouver Sun, December 16, 1995. The second television adaptation of W. O. Mitchell's 1961 short story collection Jake and the Kid,Peter Lhotka, "They're back! Folksy Jake and the Kid given facelift, yet remain family entertainment". Winnipeg Free Press, December 16, 1995. the series is set in the small town of Crocus, Saskatchewan, and centres on the friendship between Ben "the Kid" Osborne (Ben Campbell), a young boy growing up on a farm with his widowed mother Julia (Patricia Harras), and Jake Trumper (Shaun Johnston), a farmhand who becomes Ben's surrogate father figure.Ted Shaw, "Jake role a natural for Johnston". Ottawa Citizen, December 23, 1995.
The supporting cast includes Fred Keating, Brian Taylor, Lorne Cardinal, Warren Ward, Jenny Cooper, Marty Chan, Joe Norman Shaw, Henry Ramer, Tom Cavanagh, Chad Krowchuk, Gabrielle Rose, Michael Hogan, Edanna Andrews, Julie Khaner and Robert Clothier.
Mitchell's original stories were set during the Great Depression; for the series, however, the temporal setting was updated to the 1950s.Tony Atherton, "Jake and the Kid has some growing to do before it makes good". Ottawa Citizen, December 16, 1995. The series additionally consisted largely of original scripts featuring Mitchell's characters, rather than straight dramatizations of the original stories.Grant McIntyre, "Flat out fun: Jake and the Kid takes its prairie setting to heart". The Globe and Mail, December 16, 1995. Although set in Saskatchewan, it was filmed in and around Leduc, Alberta.Joe Chidley, "A classic reborn: Jake and the Kid". Maclean's, December 18, 1995.
Production and distribution
The first season premiered on December 16, 1995 and ran until March 9, 1996, and a second season was announced as part of the network's 1996–97 schedule.Christopher Harris, "Global unveils fall TV line up". The Globe and Mail, June 15, 1996.
Due to a loss of $500,000 in production funding when the provincial government of Alberta shut down the Alberta Motion Picture Development Corporation,Alan Kellogg, "Penny-pinching will turn Jake's town into a ghost town". Edmonton Journal, October 23, 1996. the network declined to order a third season; although it committed to air the second season that had already been commissioned, by agreement with the producers it delayed the scheduling so that they could attempt to reach a deal to continue the series with another network.Richard Helm, "'Jake and the Kid' looks for new network". Ottawa Citizen, March 20, 1997. However, the producers also alleged that Global was dropping the series in retaliation for the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission's concurrent denial of CanWest's applications for new stations in Calgary and Edmonton.Sid Adilman, "Jake And The Kid's TV future a big `if'". Toronto Star, May 28, 1997.
The second season premiered on May 24, 1997."Jake, Kid back for second season". Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, May 15, 1997. The producers did not succeed in finding a new network deal; in October 1997, its sets and props were auctioned off.Jac MacDonald, "Packing it in on the set of Jake and the Kid; Auction sells out the whole fictional town of Crocus, Saskatchewan; Selling out on Jake and the Kid". Edmonton Journal, October 26, 1997. The series was aired in repeats by YTV in 1998–99, and by Global in 2000. In the US, the series aired on Showtime Family Zone in 2003.{{cite web |url=http://www.sho.com/movies/movies_product.cfm?titleid=117445 |title=Original Series - Jake and the Kid: The Circus |website=www.sho.com |access-date=18 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030707211341/http://www.sho.com/movies/movies_product.cfm?titleid=117445 |archive-date=7 July 2003 |url-status=dead}}
Episodes
=Season One (1995–96)=
{{Episode table |background=#3198FF |overall=6 |season=6 |title=28 |director=15 |writer=28 |airdate=30 |episodes=
{{Episode list
|EpisodeNumber = 1
|EpisodeNumber2 = 1
|Title = We All Live in Crocus
|DirectedBy = Anne Wheeler
|WrittenBy = Laura Phillips
|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1995|12|16}}
|ShortSummary =
|LineColor = 3198FF
}}
{{Episode list
|EpisodeNumber = 2
|EpisodeNumber2 = 2
|Title = No Place Like Home
|DirectedBy = Anne Wheeler
|WrittenBy = Laura Phillips
|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1995|12|23}}
|ShortSummary =
|LineColor = 3198FF
}}
{{Episode list
|EpisodeNumber = 3
|EpisodeNumber2 = 3
|Title = Grand Plans
|DirectedBy = Francis Damberger
|WrittenBy = Scot Morison, Laura Phillips
|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1995|12|30}}
|ShortSummary =
|LineColor = 3198FF
}}
{{Episode list
|EpisodeNumber = 4
|EpisodeNumber2 = 4
|Title = Long Live the Queen
|DirectedBy = Otta Hanus
|WrittenBy = Laura Phillips
|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1996|01|06}}
|ShortSummary =
|LineColor = 3198FF
}}
{{Episode list
|EpisodeNumber = 5
|EpisodeNumber2 = 5
|Title = Oil Boom
|DirectedBy = T. W. Peacocke
|WrittenBy = Anne MacNaughton, Scott McPherson
|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1996|01|13}}
|ShortSummary =
|LineColor = 3198FF
}}
{{Episode list
|EpisodeNumber = 6
|EpisodeNumber2 = 6
|Title = Prairie Lawyer
|DirectedBy = Otta Hanus
|WrittenBy = Martin Kinch
|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1996|01|20}}
|ShortSummary =
|LineColor = 3198FF
}}
{{Episode list
|EpisodeNumber = 7
|EpisodeNumber2 = 7
|Title = The Smoking Gun
|DirectedBy = Francis Damberger
|WrittenBy = Laura Phillips, David Young
|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1996|01|27}}
|ShortSummary =
|LineColor = 3198FF
}}
{{Episode list
|EpisodeNumber = 8
|EpisodeNumber2 = 8
|Title = Liar Hunter
|DirectedBy = T. W. Peacocke
|WrittenBy = Laura Phillips
|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1996|02|03}}
|ShortSummary =
|LineColor = 3198FF
}}
{{Episode list
|EpisodeNumber = 9
|EpisodeNumber2 = 9
|Title = Buying the Farm
|DirectedBy = Arvi Liimatainen
|WrittenBy = Scott McPherson
|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1996|02|10}}
|ShortSummary =
|LineColor = 3198FF
}}
{{Episode list
|EpisodeNumber = 10
|EpisodeNumber2 = 10
|Title = Full Circle
|DirectedBy = Francis Damberger
|WrittenBy = Scot Morison
|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1996|02|17}}
|ShortSummary =
|LineColor = 3198FF
}}
{{Episode list
|EpisodeNumber = 11
|EpisodeNumber2 = 11
|Title = Ways of the World
|DirectedBy = Jon Cassar
|WrittenBy = Scot Morison
|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1996|02|24}}
|ShortSummary =
|LineColor = 3198FF
}}
{{Episode list
|EpisodeNumber = 12
|EpisodeNumber2 = 12
|Title = Looks Can Be Deceiving
|DirectedBy = Alex Chapple
|WrittenBy = Scot Morison, Anna Rehak
|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1996|03|02}}
|ShortSummary =
|LineColor = 3198FF
}}
{{Episode list
|EpisodeNumber = 13
|EpisodeNumber2 = 13
|Title = True Confessions
|DirectedBy = Francis Damberger
|WrittenBy = Laura Phillips
|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1996|03|09}}
|ShortSummary =
|LineColor = 3198FF
}}
}}
=Season Two (1997)=
{{Episode table |background=#3198FF |overall=6 |season=6 |title=28 |director=15 |writer=28 |airdate=30 |episodes=
{{Episode list
|EpisodeNumber = 14
|EpisodeNumber2 = 1
|Title = The Fire
|DirectedBy = T. W. Peacocke
|WrittenBy = Scot Morison
|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1997|05|24}}
|ShortSummary =
|LineColor = 3198FF
}}
{{Episode list
|EpisodeNumber = 15
|EpisodeNumber2 = 2
|Title = The Difference Between Corn and People
|DirectedBy = Arvi Liimatainen
|WrittenBy = Anna Rehak
|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1997|05|31}}
|ShortSummary =
|LineColor = 3198FF
}}
{{Episode list
|EpisodeNumber = 16
|EpisodeNumber2 = 3
|Title = The Sky's the Limit
|DirectedBy = Jon Cassar
|WrittenBy = Kelly Rebar
|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1997|06|07}}
|ShortSummary =
|LineColor = 3198FF
}}
{{Episode list
|EpisodeNumber = 17
|EpisodeNumber2 = 4
|Title = Rituals
|DirectedBy = Richard J. Lewis
|WrittenBy = Peter Mitchell
|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1997|06|14}}
|ShortSummary =
|LineColor = 3198FF
}}
{{Episode list
|EpisodeNumber = 18
|EpisodeNumber2 = 5
|Title = The Great Uranium Caper
|DirectedBy = Francis Damberger
|WrittenBy = Heather Conkie
|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1997|06|21}}
|ShortSummary =
|LineColor = 3198FF
}}
{{Episode list
|EpisodeNumber = 19
|EpisodeNumber2 = 6
|Title = What's Real
|DirectedBy = Don McCutcheon
|WrittenBy = Renata Bright
|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1997|06|28}}
|ShortSummary =
|LineColor = 3198FF
}}
{{Episode list
|EpisodeNumber = 20
|EpisodeNumber2 = 7
|Title = Special Delivery
|DirectedBy = Richard J. Lewis
|WrittenBy = Scot Morison
|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1997|07|05}}
|ShortSummary =
|LineColor = 3198FF
}}
{{Episode list
|EpisodeNumber = 21
|EpisodeNumber2 = 8
|Title = The Runaways
|DirectedBy = Francis Damberger
|WrittenBy = Sondra Kelly
|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1997|07|12}}
|ShortSummary =
|LineColor = 3198FF
}}
{{Episode list
|EpisodeNumber = 22
|EpisodeNumber2 = 9
|Title = Crossroads
|DirectedBy = Arvi Liimatainen
|WrittenBy = Renata Bright, Marty Chan, Sondra Kelly
|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1997|07|19}}
|ShortSummary =
|LineColor = 3198FF
}}
{{Episode list
|EpisodeNumber = 23
|EpisodeNumber2 = 10
|Title = The Boxer
|DirectedBy = Stuart Margolin
|WrittenBy = Anna Rehak
|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1997|07|26}}
|ShortSummary =
|LineColor = 3198FF
}}
{{Episode list
|EpisodeNumber = 24
|EpisodeNumber2 = 11
|Title = The Circus
|DirectedBy = Alex Chapple
|WrittenBy = Scot Morison
|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1997|08|02}}
|ShortSummary =
|LineColor = 3198FF
}}
{{Episode list
|EpisodeNumber = 25
|EpisodeNumber2 = 12
|Title = The Ship
|DirectedBy = T. W. Peacocke
|WrittenBy = Heather Conkie
|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1997|08|09}}
|ShortSummary =
|LineColor = 3198FF
}}
{{Episode list
|EpisodeNumber = 26
|EpisodeNumber2 = 13
|Title = The Wedding
|DirectedBy = Arvi Liimatainen
|WrittenBy = Marty Chan, Scot Morison, Anna Rehak
|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|1997|08|16}}
|ShortSummary =
|LineColor = 3198FF
}}
}}
Awards
At the 12th Gemini Awards in 1998, Harras won the Gemini Award for Best Actress in a Continuing Leading Dramatic Role,John McKay, "Global TV dominates at 12th Gemini Awards". Kingston Whig-Standard, March 2, 1998. and the series was a nominee for Best Dramatic Series.Ellen Vanstone, "Fifth estate leads field Geminis to be awarded at galas". The Globe and Mail, January 14, 1998.
The series won four Rosie Awards from the Alberta Media Production Industries Association in 1997, for Best Television Series, Best Male Lead Performance (Johnston), Best Dramatic Script and Best Art Direction.Alison Mayes, "Jake and the Kid scoops up Rosies". Calgary Herald, April 27, 1997.
References
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