Lots of life left for Mr. D, comic says
Gerry Dee clearly isn’t sensitive about his lack of public profile south of the border.
As he got set to host last week’s Rockies gala at the Banff World Media Festival, the standup comedian and star of the CBC’s venerable sitcom Mr. D was fully prepared to poke fun at his non-celebrity status among the U.S. industry types milling around the room.
Try as he might, Dee has not made inroads into the U.S., despite playing the titular teacher in his sitcom.
The Rockies, which is the award-show segment of the festival, generally has an audience of international delegates, including American bigwigs from networks.
“The Canadians know me, the Americans don’t, so I can have fun with that,” says Dee. “It’s a little bit of a different environment for me when you are doing it in front of the brass of U.S. and cable networks. I’ll have fun with it.”
Six seasons in, Dee would still love to see the show find success in the U.S.
“I think it would do well,” he said. “I think there is a lot of good comedies in the States and a lot of bad comedies. I certainly think ours is good and would grab an audience. We’ve done the teacher comedy well. A lot have tried and failed and we’ve done it well.”
Mr. D is approaching an age where questions tend to come up about how and when it will end.
Dee says there is no concrete plan for Mr. D. He said he would be delighted for “another year or two or three,” he says.
One of the irons Dee has in the fire is My Scottish Family, a sitcom he is currently developing with CBC. In the meantime, the sixth season of Mr. D airs on the CBC in the fall.