Jake and the Kid (1995 TV series)

*Jake and the Kid*
Jake and the Kid
Genre	Family drama
Starring	Ben Campbell; Shaun Johnston; Patricia Harras
Composer	Michael Becker
Country of origin	Canada
Original language	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	26
Production
Executive producers	Joseph Green; Michael Hirsh; Patrick Loubert; Andy Thomson; Ron Singer
Producers	Peter Lhotka; Laura Phillips; Arvi Liimatainen
Production companies	Nelvana; Great North Productions
Original release
Network	Global
Release	December 16, 1995 –; August 16, 1997

Jake and the Kid is a Canadian television drama series, which aired on the CanWest Global system of stations in the 1990s.^[1] The second television adaptation of W. O. Mitchell's 1961 short story collection Jake and the Kid,^[2] 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.^[3]

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.^[4] The series additionally consisted largely of original scripts featuring Mitchell's characters, rather than straight dramatizations of the original stories.^[5] Although set in Saskatchewan, it was filmed in and around Leduc, Alberta.^[6]

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.^[7]

Due to a loss of $500,000 in production funding when the provincial government of Alberta shut down the Alberta Motion Picture Development Corporation,^[8] 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.^[9] 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.^[10]

The second season premiered on May 24, 1997.^[11] The producers did not succeed in finding a new network deal; in October 1997, its sets and props were auctioned off.^[12] 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.^[13]

Episodes

Season One (1995–96)

No. overall	No. in season	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date
1	1	"We All Live in Crocus"	Anne Wheeler	Laura Phillips	December 16, 1995 (1995-12-16)
2	2	"No Place Like Home"	Anne Wheeler	Laura Phillips	December 23, 1995 (1995-12-23)
3	3	"Grand Plans"	Francis Damberger	Scot Morison, Laura Phillips	December 30, 1995 (1995-12-30)
4	4	"Long Live the Queen"	Otta Hanus	Laura Phillips	January 6, 1996 (1996-01-06)
5	5	"Oil Boom"	T. W. Peacocke	Anne MacNaughton, Scott McPherson	January 13, 1996 (1996-01-13)
6	6	"Prairie Lawyer"	Otta Hanus	Martin Kinch	January 20, 1996 (1996-01-20)
7	7	"The Smoking Gun"	Francis Damberger	Laura Phillips, David Young	January 27, 1996 (1996-01-27)
8	8	"Liar Hunter"	T. W. Peacocke	Laura Phillips	February 3, 1996 (1996-02-03)
9	9	"Buying the Farm"	Arvi Liimatainen	Scott McPherson	February 10, 1996 (1996-02-10)
10	10	"Full Circle"	Francis Damberger	Scot Morison	February 17, 1996 (1996-02-17)
11	11	"Ways of the World"	Jon Cassar	Scot Morison	February 24, 1996 (1996-02-24)
12	12	"Looks Can Be Deceiving"	Alex Chapple	Scot Morison, Anna Rehak	March 2, 1996 (1996-03-02)
13	13	"True Confessions"	Francis Damberger	Laura Phillips	March 9, 1996 (1996-03-09)

Season Two (1997)

No. overall	No. in season	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date
14	1	"The Fire"	T. W. Peacocke	Scot Morison	May 24, 1997 (1997-05-24)
15	2	"The Difference Between Corn and People"	Arvi Liimatainen	Anna Rehak	May 31, 1997 (1997-05-31)
16	3	"The Sky's the Limit"	Jon Cassar	Kelly Rebar	June 7, 1997 (1997-06-07)
17	4	"Rituals"	Richard J. Lewis	Peter Mitchell	June 14, 1997 (1997-06-14)
18	5	"The Great Uranium Caper"	Francis Damberger	Heather Conkie	June 21, 1997 (1997-06-21)
19	6	"What's Real"	Don McCutcheon	Renata Bright	June 28, 1997 (1997-06-28)
20	7	"Special Delivery"	Richard J. Lewis	Scot Morison	July 5, 1997 (1997-07-05)
21	8	"The Runaways"	Francis Damberger	Sondra Kelly	July 12, 1997 (1997-07-12)
22	9	"Crossroads"	Arvi Liimatainen	Renata Bright, Marty Chan, Sondra Kelly	July 19, 1997 (1997-07-19)
23	10	"The Boxer"	Stuart Margolin	Anna Rehak	July 26, 1997 (1997-07-26)
24	11	"The Circus"	Alex Chapple	Scot Morison	August 2, 1997 (1997-08-02)
25	12	"The Ship"	T. W. Peacocke	Heather Conkie	August 9, 1997 (1997-08-09)
26	13	"The Wedding"	Arvi Liimatainen	Marty Chan, Scot Morison, Anna Rehak	August 16, 1997 (1997-08-16)

Awards

At the 12th Gemini Awards in 1998, Harras won the Gemini Award for Best Actress in a Continuing Leading Dramatic Role,^[14] and the series was a nominee for Best Dramatic Series.^[15]

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.^[16]

References

^ Alex Strachan, "Jake and the Kid evokes memories gone with the Prairie wind". Vancouver Sun, December 16, 1995.
^ Peter Lhotka, "They're back! Folksy Jake and the Kid given facelift, yet remain family entertainment". Winnipeg Free Press, December 16, 1995.
^ Ted Shaw, "Jake role a natural for Johnston". Ottawa Citizen, December 23, 1995.
^ Tony Atherton, "Jake and the Kid has some growing to do before it makes good". Ottawa Citizen, December 16, 1995.
^ Grant McIntyre, "Flat out fun: Jake and the Kid takes its prairie setting to heart". The Globe and Mail, December 16, 1995.
^ Joe Chidley, "A classic reborn: Jake and the Kid". Maclean's, December 18, 1995.
^ Christopher Harris, "Global unveils fall TV line up". The Globe and Mail, June 15, 1996.
^ Alan Kellogg, "Penny-pinching will turn Jake's town into a ghost town". Edmonton Journal, October 23, 1996.
^ Richard Helm, "'Jake and the Kid' looks for new network". Ottawa Citizen, March 20, 1997.
^ Sid Adilman, "Jake And The Kid's TV future a big `if'". Toronto Star, May 28, 1997.
^ "Jake, Kid back for second season". Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, May 15, 1997.
^ 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.
^ "Archived copy". www.sho.com. Archived from the original on 7 July 2003. Retrieved 18 September 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
^ John McKay, "Global TV dominates at 12th Gemini Awards". Kingston Whig-Standard, March 2, 1998.
^ Ellen Vanstone, "Fifth estate leads field Geminis to be awarded at galas". The Globe and Mail, January 14, 1998.
^ Alison Mayes, "Jake and the Kid scoops up Rosies". Calgary Herald, April 27, 1997.