Mr. D

Cast

• Gerry Dee as Gerry Duncan: an under-qualified high school social studies teacher who prefers to be called Mr. D by the children and is jealous when the school's actual Mr. D (Paul Dwyer) returns to Xavier Academy. During season 8, he is promoted to the role of principal of Xavier Academy.
• Jonathan Torrens as Robert Cheeley: Robert is the vice principal of the school but his bizarre character traits make it difficult for his colleagues to respect him. He becomes co-principal with Lisa in season 6 and sole principal at the end of season 6. In Season 8, he is co-vice-principal with Mr. Dwyer.
• Lauren Hammersley as Lisa Mason: a competent and responsible former teacher and principal, known for her traditional teaching style. She has a Masters in Education and a PhD in Medieval literature. In the seventh season, she is the school guidance counselor.
• Bette MacDonald as Trudy Walsh: the school secretary who runs much of the day-to-day business at Xavier Academy.
• Naomi Snieckus as Bobbi Galka: the confident and respected PE teacher at Xavier Academy.
• Darrin Rose as Bill Cogill: Gerry's roommate and a womanizing bachelor who works as the local bartender, until the bar closes in the final season. He then runs a smoothie bar at Xavier Academy.
• Mark Little as Simon Hunt: the science teacher of the school, he is weak and a typical science geek who is also assistant coach of the girls' basketball team.
• Wes Williams as Paul Dwyer: Paul is cool and loved by all the teachers, and was the original Mr. D to the children before he left. During the final season, he is the co-vice-principal of Xavier Academy with Robert Cheeley. Gerry is often jealous of Dwyer and feels that he is in competition with him.
• Suresh John as Malik: the mysterious school custodian with an unusual history.
• Kathleen Phillips as Emma Terdie: Emma is the librarian who runs a tight ship and demands that rules are followed and that things are always done by the book in her library.
• Bill Wood as Frank: the school's guidance counselor and assistant basketball coach to Mr. D. He uses crutches to walk.
• Emma Hunter as Nisha Corcoran, who is hired in season 5 to replace Mr. D when he's fired by Ms. Mason. She has a relationship with Mr. Hunt.
• Booth Savage as Principal Mike Callaghan from season 1 to season 4. He retires at the end of season 4 to be replaced by one of the teachers, Lisa Mason.

Main characters

Production

Creator, writer, executive producer and star Gerry Dee based Mr. D on his ten years teaching physical education in high school before he left for a career in stand-up comedy in 2003. The pilot episode was directed by Steve Wright and produced by Gerry Dee and Michael Volpe. The show is filmed on location at Citadel High School in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

On April 3, 2013, Mr. D was renewed for a third season, and on April 4, 2014, the show was renewed for a fourth season.

For the fourth season, the CBC included the series in a production deal with City. Under the deal, Mr. D and City's new sitcom Young Drunk Punk will each air on their own originating network in the winter of the 2014–15 television season, then swap networks for a second run in the fall of the 2015–16 season.

On March 4, 2015, the CBC announced that Mr. D had been renewed for a fifth season. On February 16, 2016, the CBC announced that Mr. D had been renewed for a sixth season.

On April 6, 2017, Dee confirmed the show had been renewed for a seventh season.

On March 11, 2018, the show was renewed for an eighth season. Dee confirmed this would be the show's last.

Episodes

Series overview

Season 1 (2012)

Guest star: Mike Cammalleri as himself

Season 2 (2013)

Guest star: Russell Peters as Mr. Green Guest Appearance: Nathan MacKinnon and Cameron Critchlow as themselves Guest star: Daniel Negreanu as himself

Season 3 (2014)

Guest star: Paul Henderson as himself

Guest Appearance: Nathan MacKinnon and Cameron Critchlow as themselves

Season 4 (2015)

Guest star: Roberto Alomar as himself Guest star: Jenna Caira as herself Guest Appearance: Nathan MacKinnon and Cameron Critchlow as themselves

Season 5 (2016)

Guest star: Donovan Bailey as himself

Season 6 (2016)

Guest Star: Hal Johnson and Joanne McLeod as themselves

Season 7 (2017)

Guest stars: Alan Frew as Tim King & Heather Rankin as Jen Lewis

Season 8 (2018)

Guest appearances: Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir as themselves.

In the end, Frank and Klaudia run off and steal Gerry's RV to ride off to the sunset. Bill reveals to Gerry he's made business deals to open smoothie bars in private schools across the country and hugs Gerry for the first time before leaving the series.

Lisa feeling dejected being overqualified as a guidance counselor agrees to accompany Brandon to the University where she graduated to help him cope with his anxiety only to get a lucrative offer for a professor position based on her credentials. Lisa finds true love with a former classmate allowing her to finally find happiness after having the roughest years of her life after joining Xavier prompting her to resign.

All the while, Gerry is challenged by the graduating class, who he started teaching in grade 5 in the series premiere, to provide them a parting gift that they’ll remember him. Gerry seeks to do it better than the principals before him. Gerry plans on outdoing his predecessors, which he’s encouraged to break the world record for the largest time capsule using a dumpster. His contribution is that he believes he no longer needs his Bachelor of Education now that he's principal, so he throws it in the dumpster. Along the way, students and staff contribute to the time capsule, which revisits gags from previous episodes. Eventually, Gerry has the students digging up Xavier's grounds to bury the time capsule dumpster, only to stumble upon human bones prompting the local authorities to shut the school down indefinitely.

With Xavier now closed and the students now on their way, the remaining staff realize their fates: Lisa reveals Frank sent them a disgusting postcard after taking off in the previous episode; Simon returns revealing he's on the run from his mother after trying to break away from her permanently, as he returns to take off with Nisha into the sunset; since Robert is actually rich and doesn’t really need the job, he and Bobbi are set anyhow, so they walk off together; Dwyer confesses that despite Donna's anger issues, this all works out as they got back together and already is planning to move closer to the prison where she's incarcerated, so this works out for him, as "every day is a holiday"; Lisa boasts she already resigned is above them all now and is in love; Emma reveals she's crowning and going into labour for seven hours, which Lisa agrees to take her to the hospital; Trudy is finally bored of all this nonsense, so she's glad to finally walk off; leaving Malik who plans to finally meet his long-lost sister in Des Moines and is the only one who comforts and hugs Gerry goodbye with the parting words to keep the school clean. In the end, Gerry realizes he's got nothing now (as Bill left in the previous episode), so he walks off trying to figure out where and what he’ll do next.

Reception

The first episode of the show was watched by 1.23 million viewers, which was the biggest midseason debut for the CBC 2011–12 season.

Awards and nominations

Proposed U.S. version

On October 31, 2015, Gerry Dee and Mr. D co-creator Michael Volpe announced an agreement had been signed with Will Arnett's newly formed TV production company, Electric Avenue, to develop an American version of the show for American network CBS.

Dee revealed the initial contact with Will Arnett came from a friend of a friend who went to school with Arnett. He stated that there had been small interest from American television in the past, but this was the first serious proposal to get an American version of the show up.

Dee and Volpe originally pitched the show as an American reboot with Dee reprising his role. However, CBS was looking to use the show as a vehicle for an American star with Dee and Volpe getting executive producer credits. Veteran comedic actor Tom Arnold had been signed to the title role. CBS also mentioned hiring Tom Hertz as showrunner. Hertz was previously executive producer of popular American sitcoms Spin City and The King of Queens.

While Dee understands a show about his life as a teacher before he became a comedian will be adapted to suit American audiences, with changes including a multi-camera American sitcom system rather than the single camera Canadian system, he hopes the American version will retain Mr. D's mix of character humour, physical comedy and authenticity, along with its use of talented young actors for students instead of 25-year-olds playing teenagers.

References

References

1. "Gerry Duncan". CBC News.
2. "Robert Cheeley". CBC News.
3. "Lisa Mason". CBC News.
4. "Trudy Walsh". CBC News.
5. "Bobbi". CBC News.
6. "Bill". CBC News.
7. "Simon". CBC News.
8. "Paul Dwyer". CBC News.
9. "Malik". CBC news.
10. "Emma Terdie". CBC News.
11. "Frank the Guidance Counselor". CBC News.
12. David, Greg. (2011-06-10). "New Gerry Dee comedy heads to CBC". TV Guide (Canada).
13. Russell, Jessica. (2011-06-08). "CBC unveils 2011 fall schedule". TV Guide (Canada).
14. Vlessing, Etan. (2011-11-02). "Canadian Comic Gerry Dee Gets CBC Sitcom". The Hollywood Reporter.
15. Skzlarski, Cassandra. (January 8, 2012). "Gerry Dee turns teaching antics into sitcom". The Chronicle Herald.
16. (2014-04-04). "Mr. D, Dragons' Den, Murdoch Mysteries to return on CBC". Toronto Sun.
17. [https://calgaryherald.com/entertainment/television/citys-calgary-shot-young-drunk-punk-to-get-second-run-on-cbc-this-fall-in-innovative-deal-between-networks "Calgary-shot Young Drunk Punk to get second run on CBC this fall in innovative deal between networks"]. ''[[Calgary Herald]]'', January 9, 2015.
18. "CBC Media Centre - Press Releases - CBC ANNOUNCES NEW DRAMA, COMEDY, AND FACTUAL LINE UP, PLUS RENEWALS FOR 2015-16".
19. (2016-02-16). "Laugh Out Loud With CBC'S Returning Comedies". [[CBC Television.
20. David, Greg. (April 6, 2017). "CBC renews Mr. D for Season 7". TV, eh?.
21. Malyk, Lauren. (March 14, 2018). "Mr. D to retire". [[Brunico Communications]].
22. [[Gerry Dee]]. (March 11, 2018). "Hey ALL,@mrd_on_cbc will be back for an 8th & FINAL SEASON. It's rare in TV to get a show let alone be able to decide when you want to wrap up it up and I'm so thankful that CBC has allowed me to make this decision. It feels like the right time. So proud of what we did. Thx!!".
23. Brioux, Bill. (January 25, 2012). "The Brioux Report: Canadians love hockey, football and The Big Bang Theory". Torstar Media Group.
24. Brioux, Bill. (February 1, 2012). "The Brioux Report: Big Bang, CSI, All Star hockey wins week before sweeps". Torstar Media Group.
25. "Mr. D: Episode Guide". tvguide.ca.
26. Brioux, Bill. (February 8, 2012). "The Brioux Report: Canada bowled over by the Super Bowl". Torstar Media Group.
27. Brioux, Bill. (February 14, 2012). "The Brioux Report: The Grammy Awards hit high ratings note for Global". Torstar Media Group.
28. Brioux, Bill. (February 23, 2012). "The Brioux Report: Survivor and The Amazing Race roar back in pre-Oscar week". Torstar Media Group.
29. Brioux, Bill. (February 28, 2012). "The Brioux Report: CTV gets big bang this week from The Oscars". Torstar Media Group.
30. Brioux, Bill. (April 3, 2012). "The Brioux Report: Big Bang easily tops Junos, Sun News gets lift from political boxing stunt show".
31. Brioux, Bill. (April 11, 2012). "The Brioux Report: Big Bang's Easter Miracle".
32. "TV Feeds My Family: Murdoch Mysteries lifts CBC's premiere week".
33. Brioux, Bill. (February 6, 2015). "Tweet by @BillBriouxTV". Twitter.
34. (March 5, 2015). "TUES o'nites NCIS, NCISNO, Flash, all (R) CBC Mercer 890k @22_Minutes 779k @SchittsCreek 837k MrD 519k CITY HellsKitch 808k CTV2 Voice 812k".
35. (January 28, 2016). "TUES 2+ o'nites CBC MERCER 804K 22MIN 805K SCHITTS 656K MRD 365K".
36. (January 11, 2012). "Arctic Air soars to 1.05 million viewers". TV, eh?.
37. "Mr. D - Awards". [[IMDb]].
38. Slotek, Jim. (2015-10-31). "CBS signs rights deal for CBC's 'Mr. D'". [[Toronto Sun]].
39. (2016-01-15). "Comedian's CBC-TV show returns with teacher in trouble; U.S. version in works". [[The Chronicle Herald]].
40. Szklarski, Cassandra. (2015-11-12). "It's early days for U.S. Mr. D adaptation". [[Toronto Star]].