The Kids in the Hall are making a comeback - Action News
Home WebMail Saturday, November 23, 2024, 04:55 AM | Calgary | -12.0°C | Regions Advertise Login | Our platform is in maintenance mode. Some URLs may not be available. |
Entertainment

The Kids in the Hall are making a comeback

Canadian sketch-comedy troupe The Kids in the Hall is making a return to our screens after a long hiatus. Twenty-seven years after the original series wrapped up on CBC, they're headed to Amazon Prime, with a new season debuting May 13.

Canadian sketch comedy troupe returning with new season, 27 years later

From left to right: Scott Thompson, Mark McKinney, Bruce McCulloch and Dave Foley are shown at an event promoting The Kids In The Hall, which returns after a 27-year hiatus, with a new season beginning May 13 on Amazon Prime. (Michael Charles Cole/CBC)

Canadian sketch-comedy troupe The Kids in the Hall is making a return to our screens after a long hiatus.Twenty-seven years after the originalseries wrapped up on CBC, they're headed to Amazon Prime, with a new season debuting May 13.

Produced by Lorne Michaels's Broadway Video and Canadian production company, Project 10, the revival will see original members Dave Foley, Bruce McCulloch, Kevin McDonald, Mark McKinneyand Scott Thompson reunite for eight episodes.

Despite the time away, it was easy for the cast to settle back into a working rhythm, Thompson told CBC News.

"We just have always been togethereven when we don't see each other for a long time, we just fall right back into it. It's like family. Family you like."

WATCH| The Kids in the Hall trailer:

Also on the way is a new documentary about the group, The Kids in the Hall: Comedy Punks, which is scheduled to appear at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival in Toronto in early May, before making its way to Amazon Prime on May 20.

While the castalso reunited in 2010 for an eight-part narrative miniseries called Death Comes to Town, and have done live shows together, this latest project will be their first televised sketch-comedy series since 1995.

The series willfeature appearances from a number of A-list guests, including actors Jay Baruchel, Catherine O'Hara, Mark Hamilland Will Fortealthough Foley joked:"We don't give up prime screen time to anybody."

WATCH | The Kids in the Hall hit the red carpet:

Kids in the Hall hit the red carpet in Toronto

2 years ago
Duration 3:49
Kids in the Hall stars Scott Thompson and Dave Foley dish on the new season of the iconic Canadian series -- debuting 27 years after its original run finished.

The original show has been credited with being ahead of its time, and pushing the limits of what could be done on Canadian TV.McKinney noted that envelope-pushing isa natural part of the process, and not something they actively set out to do.

"I don't think we'll be pushing the same boundaries, but there's going to be new boundaries," he said."We don't really think in terms of, 'Ohwe're going to smash [boundaries].'It's kind of, we write what makes the other guys laugh."

"Having said that, there is full frontal nudity," quipped McCulloch.

WATCH | The Kids in the Hall are coming back and baring it all:

Kids in the Hall is coming back and baring it all!

2 years ago
Duration 1:45
Kids in the Hall stars Mark McKinney and Bruce McCulloch preview the new season of their iconic Canadian series on a red carpet in Toronto.

The original series wasalso knownand at times controversialfor its queer representation.The landscape on that front has changed dramatically, saidThompson, who is gay.

"It's a thousand times different. My generation, I'm a war vetlike, I came out into a war. So for this, this is like peacetime. For me, how can it get any better?"

The show's original run began in1988 and lastedfive seasons, with its final episode airingin April 1995.The cast was always happy when they would hear the show helped people feel less isolated, notedFoley.

In some ways, a lot of things haven't changed for the comedy troupe behind sketches like The Chicken Ladyand Headcrusher.

"In our heads, whenever we're together, we still feel like these punks in our 20s," said Foley.

WATCH | The Kids in the Hall: Comedy Punks trailer:

While they may not be in their 20s anymore, Foley insists that the Kids still have a few years left in them, with Thompson deadpanning: "We really want to wring it dry. Until we're dead."

He also offers a straightforward summary of the new series.

"It's just us doing sketch comedy, at this stage in our life. Trying to reflect the world we're inand make funny.All we're doing is trying to make each other laughand if other people laugh, that's just a really nice side-effect."

With files from Jackson Weaver