Dan for Mayor – Writers doing it for themselves

By Kat Montagu

The offspring of teachers and public servants, Mark Farrell, Paul Mather and Kevin White are three regular Canadian guys who’ve always wanted to make people laugh. Okay, so maybe ‘regular’ doesn’t quite fit – because these three have managed to do something quite unusual in this business. They went to a major network with an idea for a show, Dan for Mayor, talked their way into a green light for a pilot, and then they went shopping for a production partner.

Starting development on Dan for Mayor through CTV’s Writers Only Program, creators Farrell, Mather and White managed to keep creative control and ownership of their show and earned a spot after Hiccups on Monday nights. So why did CTV trust these guys to lead their own show?

In a word – experience.

Years back, Farrell had moved from Halifax to Toronto to do stand up; Mather had joined a sketch comedy troupe in Edmonton, and White had tried improv in Ottawa before going to Ryerson. They had individual successes, but it would be the hit shows This Hour Has 22 Minutes and Corner Gas that would finally bring them together.

“I got a staff writing job on 22 Minutes,” explains Mark Farrell. “I met Paul when I hired him on 22 Minutes. I didn't know him. I just hired him from samples he submitted. Kevin I had seen when he was doing amateur nights at The Laugh Resort. We talked at a Writers Guild awards ceremony and he asked how he could get on the staff of 22 Minutes. I encouraged him to submit samples.”

After story editing Made in Canada with Rick Mercer, Farrell co-wrote the first two episodes of Corner Gas with Brent Butt: saying “I worked on it in supervisory capacity in its first season but the commute was hard from Halifax and I was at that point showrunning 22 minutes. So Paul Mather took over from me for seasons two through four, and Kevin White from him for seasons five and six. I stayed involved writing and as a consulting producer.”

Kevin White picks up the story by describing the conception of Dan for Mayor, “During the CBC strike, when none of us had any work, we pitched a bunch of ideas to CTV.”

Then they had the unusual luxury of hand-picking their producer.

“The three of us got the green light for the pilot,” says Kevin White, “and then we went shopping for production partners. We met with four, and we liked a number of them. But QVF, Sue Murdoch’s company, was not interested in ownership and we were, and it’s worked out very well so far. It’s been a very good partnership.”

For the complete article, please see the print edition of Canadian Screenwriter.