It’s the laugh track that hooks you and the smart humour that reels you in. Although it is old-fashioned, the new CTV comedy series Spun Out is one of the most refreshing new shows on TV.
As colleagues and random passersby huddle around a computer monitor to watch the first two episodes of Dave Foley’s new sitcom, Spun Out, the first comment, with remarkable consistency, is  laughter. The show, taped in front of a live studio audience, is old-timey in the best way, as memories of now-classic comedies such as Seinfeld and Everybody Loves Raymond flood back.
And, really, that’s the point. Spun Out is the first multi-camera sitcom shot before a live audience in a very long time. And it is good. The show stars Dave Foley, who finally makes his way back to Canada for something beyond the occasional Kids in the Hall reunion. Not that there is anything wrong with another round from the infamous Girl Drink Drunk. But for Spun Out, Foley will be quarterbacking the new sitcom set to premiere on March 6 and 7.
The Etobicoke native has been interested in coming back to work regularly in Canada, but it had to be the right situation. “I needed to make enough to pay the ransom to my first wife,” says Foley, bluntly, during a break from shooting the show at Pinewood Toronto Studios in the Port Lands.
“It’s been fun though, seriously,” Foley continues. “It’s nice to be back here, but I’ve been working pretty much non-stop.”
The show chronicles the goings-on at well-known PR firm DLPR. The “DL” in question is Dave Lyons, Foley’s character. The ensemble cast also includes Beckett (Paul Campbell), the struggling writer, and Nelson (Al Mukadam), a friend of Beckett’s, as well as the boss’s daughter Stephanie (Rebecca Dalton) and a few other unique characters. “Dave Lyons runs the PR firm. He’s had multiple divorces, and he’s a bit of a womanizer,” says Foley. “He likes the ladies.”
The first episode introduces the new guy, Beckett, a failed writer, and deals with DLPR pitching a trucking company on some rebranding. “Beckett is the voice of reason in a tornado of insanity,” says Campbell, a Vancouver native who starred on the revamped Battlestar Galactica back in the mid-2000s. “Beckett is a writer who aspires to literary greatness.… He’s a bit of a stickler, a bit of a writer geek.”
When Beckett mentions the idea of a beat-box rhythm instead of the usual “beep-beep-beep” when a truck backs up, hilarity ensues.
The show has high hopes, and the expectation is that Spun Out will be as good as anything made south of the border. “We are trying to show that we can set up shop comparable to any U.S. sitcom,” says Foley. “And it looks good, definitely comparable to my experience in the States.”
But, there is no mistaking Foley’s importance in the bigger picture. Despite his ability to maintain his youthful exuberance, his comedic experience is put to great use on Spun Out. “He’s a comedy master in every respect,” says Campbell. “Jokes, punchlines, physical comedy, knowing where the cameras are — when we follow his lead things tend to work out.”
One of Foley’s most successful stints on TV was as the star of another sitcom called News Radio that ran on NBC from 1995 to 1999. But he’s made dozens of film and TV appearances since then, though none quite as successful and high profile.
Spun Out is something new, or at least rediscovered, for Canadian sitcoms. It is shot in a multi-camera style in front of an audience. And the return is thanks to American director Brian Stewart, who employed the format to great success in the United States on outrageously successful shows such as Everybody Loves Raymond. “It’s a dream come true for me. I came here seven years ago, and it has been my singular desire to get this format going in Canada,” says Stewart, who worked on many classic American sitcoms, from The Drew Carey Show to Everybody Loves Raymond.
Foley grew up in Etobicoke, and he famously dropped out of an alternative high school to try his hand at stand-up comedy and to eventually team up with Kevin McDonald to do improv. “I attended SEED, the school of experimental education,” says Foley. “We would do things like vote on smoking or non-smoking classes.”
Eventually, Foley and McDonald would combine forces with Scott Thompson, Bruce McCulloch and Mark McKinney to form Kids in the Hall. They did pretty well. And, it is something that will always be a part of Foley’s life.
“There will always be a Kids in the Hall,” says Foley. “It’s just nice to have something like that in our lives.”
