Editing CODCO

{{Infobox television
| runtime              = 22 minutes
| first_aired          = {{start date|1988}}
| last_aired           = {{end date|1993}}
| starring             = {{Plainlist|
*[[Tommy Sexton]]
*[[Greg Malone (actor)|Greg Malone]]
*[[Cathy Jones]]
*[[Mary Walsh (actress)|Mary Walsh]]
*[[Andy Jones (comedian)|Andy Jones]]
}}
| country              = Canada
| location             = [[Newfoundland and Labrador|Newfoundland]], [[Halifax, Nova Scotia]] (Production Studio)
| network              = [[CBC Television|CBC]]
| num_seasons          = 5
| num_episodes         = 63
}}
'''''CODCO''''' is a [[Canadians|Canadian]] comedy troupe from [[Newfoundland and Labrador|Newfoundland]], best known for a [[sketch comedy]] series which aired on [[CBC Television]] from 1988 to 1993.<ref name=mbc>[http://www.museum.tv/eotv/codco.htm ''CODCO''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170426174139/http://www.museum.tv/eotv/codco.htm |date=2017-04-26 }} at the Museum of Broadcast Communication.</ref>

Founded as a theatrical revue in 1973,<ref name=mbc /> ''CODCO'' drew on the province's cultural history of self-deprecating "[[Newfie]]" humour, frequently focusing on the [[cod]] fishing industry. The troupe's name was an abbreviation of "Cod Company".

Following the end of ''CODCO'', two of the troupe's core members and an occasional guest collaborator, as well as some of their sketch characters, moved on to the new series ''[[This Hour Has 22 Minutes]]''.<ref name=mbc />

==Roots==
In 1973, [[Tommy Sexton]] and Diane Olsen wrote a comedic show about Canadian stereotypes of Newfoundlanders, ''Cod on a Stick''. Originally launched in [[Toronto]], the cast consisted of Sexton, Olsen, [[Greg Malone (actor)|Greg Malone]], [[Cathy Jones]], [[Mary Walsh (actress)|Mary Walsh]] and Paul Sametz.<ref name=nlheritage>[http://www.heritage.nf.ca/arts/codcoprof.html ''CODCO'' at Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage].</ref> The show subsequently opened in [[St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador|St. John's]], with Scott Strong replacing Sametz, and then toured the province with [[Robert Joy]] replacing Strong. When the show was taped by the [[National Film Board]] in 1974, [[Andy Jones (comedian)|Andy Jones]] appeared in the cast as well.

Sexton, Olsen, Malone, Cathy Jones, Andy Jones, Walsh and Joy subsequently performed in the show ''Sickness, Death and Beyond the Grave'' in 1974. In 1975, all except Malone, who was on a brief sabbatical to study at the [[Toronto Dance Theatre]], appeared in ''What Do You Want to See the Harbour For, Anyway?''; later that year, Malone rewrote the show as ''Das Capital''.

In the fall of that year, the troupe compiled bits from their earlier shows for a week-long performance in [[Philadelphia]], which was titled ''Philadelphia: Somewhere on the Hungry Coast of Newfoundland''. That show was also taped for broadcast on [[CBC Television]]'s ''[[Peep Show (Canadian television series)|Peep Show]]'', as ''Festering Forefathers and Running Sons''.<ref>"Television: Ratings are good news for Global". ''[[The Globe and Mail]]'', November 20, 1975.</ref>

Joy and Olsen left the troupe in 1976.

[[Michael Jones (writer)|Mike Jones]], Cathy and Andy Jones' brother, was not a performing member of the troupe, but was associated with them as a frequent director of their stage shows.<ref>"Codco show no place for reserve". ''[[The Globe and Mail]]'', September 22, 1979.</ref>

Over the next number of years, the troupe's members only rarely worked together as CODCO, but often collaborated with each other individually on various projects, including the film ''[[The Adventure of Faustus Bidgood]]'' and the television series ''[[The Root Seller]]'', ''[[The Wonderful Grand Band]]'' and ''[[The S and M Comic Book]]''.<ref name=nlheritage/> [[Greg Thomey]] and [[Paul Steffler]] also frequently collaborated with the CODCO members on various projects.

==TV series==
In 1986, Walsh, Sexton, Malone, Cathy Jones and Andy Jones reunited as CODCO for a benefit show in St. John's.<ref name=nlheritage/> Sexton and Malone had just completed the successful and popular ''S and M Comic Book'' series of [[CBC Television]] specials, and the CBC was interested in developing further projects with the duo — after the success of the CODCO reunion show, the troupe decided to work on a CODCO series.

''CODCO'' began production in 1986, and debuted on the CBC in 1988.<ref name=nlheritage/> Although not regular contributors, Thomey and Joy sometimes appeared on ''CODCO'' as guest performers.

For most of its run, ''CODCO'' aired as the latter half of a one-hour sketch comedy block, immediately following ''[[The Kids in the Hall (TV series)|The Kids in the Hall]]''.<ref name=mbc />

==Segments and characters==
''CODCO'' shared several characteristics with ''The Kids in the Hall'', including the presence of openly [[gay]] members and the use of [[drag (clothing)|drag]]<ref name=summers>[[Claude J. Summers]], ''The Queer Encyclopedia of Film & Television''. [[Cleis Press]], 2005. {{ISBN|978-1573442091}}. p. 64.</ref> — although where ''The Kids in the Hall'' often revelled in [[absurdist humour]], ''CODCO'''s sketches were typically based around social commentary and [[satire]], often with a strongly political edge.<ref name=programmingreality>Zoë Druick and Aspa Kotsopoulos, ''Programming Reality: Perspectives on English-Canadian Television''. [[Wilfrid Laurier University Press]], 2008. {{ISBN|978-1-55458-010-1}}.</ref> Their sketches were also strongly reflective of the troupe's background on the stage, sometimes playing more as humorous character or scene studies than as conventional sketch comedy.<ref name=mbc />

Recurring characters included the Friday Night Girls (Walsh and Jones), a homely, dateless pair of female friends whose Friday nights rarely consisted of anything more exciting than riding the [[Metrobus (St. John's)|Metrobus]];<ref name=mbc /> Dakey Dunn (Walsh), an unexpectedly insightful macho lout;<ref name=mbc /> Frank Arsenpuffin (Andy Jones), a hapless talk show host faced with a succession of horrifying guests; Marg at the Mental (Sexton), a patient in a [[psychiatric hospital]]; and Jerome and Duncan (Sexton and Malone), a flamboyant pair of gay lawyers.<ref name=mbc /><ref name=summers /> Thomey sometimes appeared on the show as Newfoundland separatist Jerry Boyle, a character he would later reprise on ''[[This Hour Has 22 Minutes]]''.

Another recurring sketch, House of Budgell, was essentially an ongoing [[soap opera]] set in a [[boarding house]].<ref name=programmingreality /> Wake of the Week focused on the Furlong sisters, a pair of elderly spinsters who regularly crashed [[funeral wake]]s, while The Byrd Family focused on a family of hardened criminals. Another of the show's most famous sketches parodied Canadian literary icon ''[[Anne of Green Gables]]''; instead of [[Prince Edward Island]], Anne lived in a dreary Newfoundland fishing outport called Green Gut.<ref name=revisiting>"Revisiting CODCO". ''[[The Globe and Mail]]'', February 25, 2009.</ref> In another, a Newfoundlander brings his girlfriend from [[Toronto]] home to meet his parents; the sketch escalates to the brink of violence as the parents tried to explain why the [[Mi'kmaq people|Mi'kmaq]], not Newfoundlanders, were responsible for the extinction of the [[Beothuk]].

Malone performed a number of celebrity impersonations, including [[Margaret Thatcher]] and Canadian television journalist [[Barbara Frum]],<ref name=programmingreality /> while Sexton did recurring impersonations of [[Barbara Walters]] and [[Tammy Faye Bakker]]. In one famous sketch, Malone as Frum moderated a debate between Jones as a gay teacher who had been fired from his job for testing [[HIV-positive]] and Sexton as Clarabelle Otterhead, the homophobic president of a lobby group called Citizens Outraged by Weird Sex (or COWS).<ref>[http://www.thetelegram.com/Entertainment/2009-12-21/article-1442161/Queens-pay-tribute-to-clown-prince/1 "Queens pay tribute to clown prince"] {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20130411232805/http://www.thetelegram.com/Entertainment/2009-12-21/article-1442161/Queens-pay-tribute-to-clown-prince/1 |date=2013-04-11 }}. ''[[The Telegram]]'', December 21, 2009.</ref> The troupe also parodied the conventions of television news through mock local newscasts; in one such sketch, a [[racism|racist]] anchor character loudly blamed [[Africa]] for [[AIDS]]: "It's all your fault, it's all your fault. Nah nah nah nah nah nah. You're black, you're black, take your dirty bugs back. You're screwing green monkeys and giving it to our junkies. We give you all our foreign aid, and all we gets back is AIDS, AIDS, AIDS."<ref name=programmingreality />

Parody [[music videos]] were also a frequent feature of the show. In a transparent spoof of Quebec pop idol [[Mitsou]], Cathy Jones played ''Jansu'', a shallow, self-promoting pop singer who tried to be topical with lyrics such as "it's a political world/so separate your garbage!". Sexton parodied [[body image]] as Dusty Springroll, who sang an ode to the fashionability of [[bulimia]]. Figures such as [[Anne Murray]] and [[Bruce Cockburn]] were parodied in commercials for compilation albums with satirical lyrics set to the melodies of real songs by the artists, while another sketch was set in a café holding a [[Leonard Cohen]] impersonation contest.<ref name=revisiting />

==The end of ''CODCO''==
In 1991, a sketch was filmed for ''CODCO'' called the "Pleasant Irish Priests in Conversation", which involved three [[Roman Catholic]] priests discussing their sexual experiences;<ref name=programmingreality /> it was a reference to the then-ongoing [[Mount Cashel Orphanage]] child abuse controversy. The CBC refused to air the sketch. As a result, Andy Jones quit the show in protest.<ref name=programmingreality /> The series carried on for two more years before it came to a close in 1993. Ironically, the CBC subsequently aired "Pleasant Irish Priests" in a ''CODCO Uncensored'' special just a few months after the regular series ended.

Following the end of CODCO, Walsh and Cathy Jones worked with Thomey and [[Rick Mercer]] to create ''[[This Hour Has 22 Minutes]]''.<ref name=programmingreality /> Several CODCO characters, including Dakey Dunn and Jerry Boyle, were carried over to the new series.

Sexton died in 1993 of complications from [[AIDS]].<ref name=mbc />

Malone ran as a [[New Democratic Party of Canada|New Democratic Party]] in the [[St. John's West (federal electoral district)|St. John's West]] [[by-election]] in 2000, losing narrowly to [[Loyola Hearn]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/tories-narrowly-win-nfld-byelection-1.234504|title= Tories narrowly win Nfld. byelection |publisher=[[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation]]|date=2000-11-10|accessdate=2015-12-15}}</ref> Malone ran as the Green party candidate for the riding of [[Avalon (electoral district)|Avalon]] for the [[2019 Canadian federal election|2019 federal election]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://vocm.com/news/actor-activist-greg-malone-running-for-green-party-in-federal-election/ | title=Actor, Activist Greg Malone Running for Green Party in Federal Election }}</ref><ref name="GPC01">{{cite news |last1=Emery |first1=Rosie |title=Canadian comedy legend runs for Greens in Newfoundland |url=https://www.greenparty.ca/en/media-release/2019-06-18/canadian-comedy-legend-runs-greens-newfoundland |accessdate=20 June 2019 |publisher=Green Party of Canada |date=18 June 2019 |location=[[Ottawa]] |language=English}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist|2}}

==External links==
{{Portal|Television|Canada}}
*{{IMDb title|0177644}}
{{ACCT Best Comedy Series}}

[[Category:CBC Television original programming]]
[[Category:1988 Canadian television series debuts]]
[[Category:1993 Canadian television series endings]]
[[Category:Canadian comedy troupes]]
[[Category:Television shows set in Newfoundland and Labrador]]
[[Category:Television shows filmed in Halifax, Nova Scotia]]
[[Category:Television shows filmed in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador]]
[[Category:Gemini and Canadian Screen Award for Best Comedy Series winners]]
[[Category:1980s Canadian sketch comedy television series]]
[[Category:1990s Canadian sketch comedy television series]]
[[Category:1980s Canadian LGBTQ-related comedy television series]]
[[Category:1990s Canadian LGBTQ-related comedy television series]]
[[Category:Sketch comedy troupes]]
[[Category:Television series by Alliance Atlantis]]
[[Category:1988 LGBTQ-related television]]
[[Category:1991 LGBTQ-related television]]
[[Category:1992 LGBTQ-related television]]
[[Category:1993 LGBTQ-related television]]
[[Category:Drag (entertainment) television shows]]