Letterkenny began as two guys trading insults on YouTube and ran twelve seasons
In a fictional Ontario farm town of 5,000, the hicks, the hockey players and the local drug schemers all talk in rapid-fire puns and surprisingly well-informed opinions. Letterkenny turned a scrappy web series into Crave's first original commission, a live touring show, a hockey spin-off and a Netflix deal.
Jared Keeso created the sitcom and writes it with director Jacob Tierney, who also plays Glen, the town's very obviously closeted minister. Keeso stars as Wayne, who runs a small farm and produce stand with his sister Katy and his friends Daryl and Squirrely Dan, played by Michelle Mylett, Nathan Dales and K. Trevor Wilson. Early episodes turn on Wayne guarding his title as the town's toughest man, the hopeless hockey team and his love life after leaving a high school girlfriend who cheated.
The show grew from Letterkenny Problems, a 2013 YouTube series in which Keeso and Dales stood in various spots swapping one-liners; it earned a Canadian Screen Award nomination for digital media in 2014. Crave commissioned the full series in March 2015 and launched it on February 7, 2016. Each episode opens with a mockumentary cold open, characters addressing the camera, before switching to ordinary sitcom style for the rest.
The fictional town takes its name from Letterkenny in Ireland, and its residents mostly descend from Irish families who fled the Great Famine. It is not modelled on the real Ontario hamlet of that name but loosely on Keeso's hometown of Listowel, and filming happens in Sudbury. Critics singled out how the show flips the cliché of dim country folk: nearly everyone holds thoughtful views on social issues and argues in wordplay.
Releases were irregular and often pinned to holidays, from a St. Patrick's Day special in 2017 to a third season on Canada Day. A media deal in October 2017 promised 40 episodes and a 26-city live tour. The pandemic delayed seasons 10 and 11, and the 12th and final season arrived on December 25, 2023. Hulu carries it in the United States. Shoresy, a hockey player Keeso voiced but whose face never appeared, got his own spin-off on Crave in 2022.
Source: Letterkenny (TV series)
