Network: CTV Television Network
Broadcast Run: 1999 to 2005
Broadcast Medium: Television
Beginning as a series of illustrated shorts for the Comedy Network’s inaugural season in 1998, this animated cartoon series starred Kevin Spencer as a “chainsmoking, alcoholic sociopath”, and its early billing was as “Canada’s answer to South Park”. The Comedy Network later ordered thirteen half-hours, which began airing in January 1999. By this time, the original thirteen shorts had been sold to NBC for insertion into Saturday Night Live.
The Comedy Network’s parent company, CTV, began scheduling Kevin Spencer at midnight on Saturdays on the national network in June 1999, where it ran until December 18th of that year. The series continued on the Comedy Network.
Kevin Spencer was created and produced by Greg Lawrence, who also narrated. Other voices in the series were those of Dave Bigelow (who also directed), Thomasin Longlands, David L. McCallum and Thomas Michael . The program was produced at Ocnus Productions in Ottawa, and in addition to the US sale, it was marketed internationally to Australia and Spain. Its youth-oriented irreverence generated cult status for the series, which was for a while the subject of many websites.