This Hour Has 22 Minutes

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This Hour Has 22 Minutes
Image:This Hour has 22 minutes logo.jpg

Season 12 Promo Card with Cathy Jones, Shaun Majumder, Gavin Crawford, Greg Thomey and Mark Critch.
Format comedy
Run time 22-23 Minutes
Creator Mary Walsh
Starring Cathy Jones
Rick Mercer (1993-2001)
Greg Thomey (1993-2005)
Mary Walsh (1993-2004)
Colin Mochrie (2001-03)
Mark Critch (2003+)
Shaun Majumder (2003+)
Gavin Crawford (2003/2004+)
Country Canada
Network CBC
Original run 1993 – Present
No. of episodes 242 (as of 12th season)

This Hour Has 22 Minutes is a Canadian television comedy. Launched in 1993, the show focuses on Canadian politics, combining news parody, sketch comedy and satirical editorials. Originally featuring Cathy Jones, Rick Mercer, Greg Thomey and Mary Walsh, the series featured satirical sketches of the weekly news and Canadian political events. The show's format is a mock news program, intercut with comic sketches and humorous interviews of public figures.

Its name is a parody of This Hour Has Seven Days, a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation newsmagazine from the 1960s; the "22 Minutes" refers to the fact that a half-hour television program is actually 22 minutes long to make room for commercials.

Jones and Walsh had previously worked together on the sketch comedy series CODCO, on which Thomey sometimes appeared as a guest. Mercer had been a notable writer and performer on his own, touring several successful shows of comedic political commentary.

Salter Street Films produced the series until the 2003-2004 season. Salter Street was acquired by in 2001 by Alliance Atlantis, and production of the series was transferred directly to Alliance Atlantis in 2004.

Recognized with 24 Gemini Awards, 22 Minutes is broadcast on the CBC Television network. It is taped before a studio audience in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

The show airs Friday at 8:30pm on CBC.

Contents

Cast

  • Cathy Jones (1993- ) as anchor Sydney Dubizzenchyk and various correspondents and sketch characters
  • Shaun Majumder (replaced Colin Mochrie from 2003- ) as anchor Tucker T. Bartlett and various correspondents and sketch characters.
  • Mark Critch (recurring member from 2003-05; replaced Greg Thomey from 2005- ), as anchor Bas MacLaren and various sketch characters.
  • Gavin Crawford (guest starred 2003-04; replaced Mary Walsh from 2004- ), as anchor Gavin Cooper and various sketch characters.

Former members

  • Rick Mercer (1993-2001) as anchor J.B. Dixon and various correspondents and sketch characters. Mercer left the show to devote more time to Made in Canada; after that show ended he launched Rick Mercer Report, a series very similar to 22 Minutes.
  • Colin Mochrie (replaced Rick Mercer from 2001-2003) as anchor Antony St. George and various correspondents and sketch characters. Mochrie left the show after two seasons to pursue his own projects and other movie roles.
  • Mary Walsh (1993-2004) as anchor Molly McGuire and various correspondents and sketch characters. Walsh appeared less often in season 11 and left the series because she is pursuing her flourishing film career and also continuing to host Mary Walsh: Open Book, a CBC series in which she moderates a celebrity panel discussing books and literature.
  • Greg Thomey (1993-2005) as anchor Frank MacMillan and various correspondents and sketch characters. Thomey appeared less often in season 12. According to The 22 Minutes Website, Thomey no longer appears on 22 Minutes as of 2005.

Regular characters and segments

  • Talking to Americans - Rick Mercer tours the United States, talking to Americans as if from a Canadian news program, asking them about "Canadian issues." The object is to prove how little Americans know about their northern neighbours. The piece was so popular that the CBC had Mercer create a one-hour TV special based on the segment. It became the highest rated comedy special in Canadian television history. Some truly memorable bits include Rick Mercer getting Americans to say "Congratulations Canada on legalizing VCRs!" and getting a professor at Princeton University to sign a petition against the re-starting of the Annual Toronto Polar Bear Hunt. In an election 2000 segment, he convinced then-Governor of Texas George W. Bush that Canada's Prime Minister Jean Chretien was named Jean Poutine and that he was supporting Bush's candidacy.
  • No Pun Intended - is a Ludacris-ish Indian rapper played by Shaun Majumder.
  • Babe Bennett - A 22 Minutes "sexual affairs correspondent" played by Cathy Jones, Babe is a sassy suffragette, 1940s style, who talks about sexual matters. She ends each segment by saying "I'm just goofin' around, that's all!"
  • Marg Delahunty - Mary Walsh crashes press conferences, hosts a "sleepover" for the nation's leading female (and gay) politicians, and threatens to "smite" the likes of politicians as "Marg Princess Warrior" (a loose parody of Xena). (View Photo)
  • Mark Jackson - a teenage correspondent that talks to politicians who is played by Gavin Crawford. (The character is carried over from The Gavin Crawford Show.)
  • Bas MacLaren - a 22 Minutes correspondent portrayed by Mark Critch. He talks to politicians about current events and is also one of the 22 Minutes anchors.
  • Mrs. Enid & Eulalia - two elderly women who talk about daily events (portrayed by Cathy Jones and Mary Walsh)
  • Raj Binder - a sweaty soft-spoken Indian sports nerd portrayed by Shaun Majumder, who has also been used as a behind-the-scenes interviewer on Just For Laughs. (View Raj's Website)
  • Uwe Meyer - a fashion correspondent that Gavin Crawford portrays. (The character is carried over from The Gavin Crawford Show.)
  • Streeters aka The Rant - a weekly commentary on current events and political issues which quickly became the show's most famous feature by Rick Mercer in black and white presentations. This segment was later used in colour presentations on the Rick Mercer Report series. (Streeters clip)
  • Billyatropia Smithopolis - the outstanding Canadian sports athlete portrayed by Rick Mercer
  • Dakey Dunn - A 22 Minutes "Male Correspondent" played by Mary Walsh, replete with gold chain, hairy chest, cigarette and beer, who regularly lays out a macho view of economic and cultural matters. This character was earlier used in the CODCO series. Dakey also once accosted Margaret Atwood at a book signing, reciting one of her most famous poems over and over again.
  • Jerry Boyle - a Newfoundland separatist whose campaign slogan is "If you can mark an X, you're my kind of people!", portrayed by Greg Thomey (who also played Boyle as a recurring guest on CODCO.)
  • Joe Crow - an Aboriginal environmental "correspondent" who talks about the environment, portrayed by Cathy Jones
  • Mansbridge One on One - Colin Mochrie as journalist Peter Mansbridge in a spoof of Mansbridge's CBC Newsworld program Mansbridge One on One, where "Peter" has insightful interviews with himself.
  • Max Pointy - A spoof of CBC personality Rex Murphy's political commentaries for The National, performed by Colin Mochrie. Max would start off with a legitimate political issue but end up on an unrelated and generally inane point by the end of his rant, much like the real Rex Murphy.
  • Ottawa Gargoyle - a gargoyle, played by Thomey, who sits on top of the Parliament buildings and satirizes politicians, occasionally throwing hot oil on them.
  • That Show Sucked! with Ma and Eddie Reardon who make fun of TV shows, with Ma saying that whatever show that Eddie watches "Suck" (portrayed by Mary Walsh & Greg Thomey)
  • The Campbell Files with Sandy Campbell (portrayed by Cathy Jones) who talks about the entertainment industry
  • The Quinlan Quints - four quintuplets (the fifth one went missing and has never been found) who live in Buchans, Newfoundland and Labrador; portrayed by Cathy Jones, Rick Mercer, Greg Thomey and Mary Walsh (Colin Mochrie plays Mercer's quint role for seasons 9 and 10).

CBC personality impersonations

  • Rex Murphy - played by Mark Critch (also see the Max Pointy character who is also a parody-impersonation of Rex)
  • Stuart MacLean - played by Gavin Crawford
  • Ian Hanomansing - played by Shaun Majumder

Other memorable segments

Image:TV 22 minutes mercer and chretien at harveys.jpg
Image:Tv 22 minutes parrish.jpg

Famous stunts

Poutine

1999-2000 - During the American election campaign of 2000, Rick Mercer approached Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush on a campaign stop in Michigan, asking for comment on the news that Bush had received the endorsement of Canadian prime minister "Jean Poutine". (The then-prime minister's name was Jean Chrétien, and he had certainly not endorsed Bush.)

Bush accepted the endorsement with a short and grateful speech to the 22 Minutes cameras, which aired as part of the show's regular Talking to Americans feature. In his first official visit to Canada four years later, he joked that his "one regret" about the visit was that he'd "hop[ed] to meet Jean Poutine." View the clip

Stockwell/Doris petition

2000-01 - Often cited as the show's best joke. The sketch was aired during the 2000 federal election campaign, and consisted of a staged rant by Rick Mercer.

When former Canadian Alliance leader Stockwell Day ran for Prime Minister of Canada, he proposed a mechanism to call for a referendum. A petition on any particular subject which gathered at least 350,000 signatures of voting age citizens ("3% of the electors"), would automatically trigger a national referendum.

Mercer's "rant" asked viewers to log on to the 22 Minutes website, and sign an online petition asking the party leader to change his name to Doris Day (after the singer/actress). Producers claim to have obtained in excess of 1,200,000 online votes. This was cheerfully admitted to be a stunt unhampered by the rigours of an Elections Canada-controlled petition. Although the skit had no effect on Alliance policy, it did obtain international publicity for the show and contributed to the general air of farce surrounding Day's election campaign. Day did, however, have a very appropriate response to the petition: "Que sera, sera."

Oilers vs Canadiens

Image:TV 22 minutes oilers.jpg

2003-04 - Shaun Majumder (as "Raj Binder," bottom left corner) was sent to report on the 2003 outdoors Edmonton Oilers and Montreal Canadiens old timers game, preceding the night's actual NHL regular season game. Raj actually sneaked into all the team photos, causing uproar from the event's unwitting organizers in the days after, when the photos were released to the press. view clip


Specials

Image:TV 22 minutes trooper.jpg

External links

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