Odd Job Jack

Production

Odd Job Jack was created by Smiley Guy Studios in Toronto. The show was originally developed as a web-based cartoon and based on an early short the creators made called 'The Seen', which released in 1997, but quickly moved to cable television distribution. The producers paid homage to their web roots by maintaining a website with unique interactive content for each episode, largely consisting of Flash games, advertising the connection as a 'sit.com'.

An advertising deal with Molson Canadian helped fund the move to television. On July 14, 2006, Smiley Guy Studios announced FreeJack, an initiative releasing master files of every character, prop, and background from every episode for the upcoming season under a non-commercial share-friendly license.

However, in 2007, after the fourth season, the show definitely ended production. Every episode is structured by the opening theme, the full episode, and the closing credits. The series featured an experimental form of described video where actors would describe visual sequences in-character.

Plot

The eponymous character, Jack Ryder, graduates from university with a degree in sociology and becomes a temporary employee at an agency called Odd Jobs which specializes in filling difficult and unusual positions. Each episode ends with Jack adding a chapter to a book he is writing about his experiences on his laptop. When not working, Jack often hangs with his eccentric friends: Leopold 'Leo' Trench, an agoraphobic computer hacker who, like one of the characters in McKellar's earlier comedy series Twitch City, is unable to leave his apartment but leads a complex and bizarre life; and Bobby Lee, an Asian kid who works in the family store by day and is a club disc-jockey and masked hero by night.

Jack also spends time at the beginning and end of each episode at the agency, attempting to develop a rapport with Betty Styles, the female assignment 'associate', while under electronic surveillance from the gruff, imperious manager/owner Mr. Fister, who is often involved in bizarre conspiracies, sordid sexual escapades, and crimes behind Jack's assignments. At the conclusion of season three, Betty, after stealing the company jet to rescue Jack from African kidnappers, is fired from Odd Jobs and runs away to a distant country.

In season four, Jack is greeted each episode with a new assignment associate, each with a personality defect. The first season also featured Jacques, a French Canadian doppelgänger to Jack who serves as an office nemesis.

Cast

Don McKellar voices Jack Ryder, a 25-year-old sociologist who works at Odd Jobs, trying to flirt with career counsellor Betty Styles while often being met with rejection. Teress Morton voices Betty Styles in seasons 1-3; after being fired and running away at the end of season 3, she is replaced by a variety of new career counsellors in season 4. Matthew Ferguson voices Bobby Lee, a naive boy and one of Jack's friends who works at Big Fat Store, a convenience store owned by his family; in season 1, he has a crime-fighting alter ego known as DJ Sherpa.

Enoch Savage (episodes 1-6) and Jeremy Diamond (episode 7 onward) voice Leopold Trench, an agoraphobic computer hacker often seen in his home known as The Trench. Rick Miller voices Mr. Fister, Jack and Betty's boss and manager of Odd Jobs, who oversees them from his office and is never shown from the front; he does not appear in season 3 but made one final appearance in season 4. Mairon Bennett voices Spoons Ryder, Jack's activist sister who jumps at every opportunity to chew out her brother.

Julia Donovan voices Barbara 'Babs' Ryder, Jack's mother, an executive at an advertising company whose husband either was captured for creating the cure for the common cold or left when Jack was young. Maria Vacratsis voices Maxine 'Max' Ryder, Jack's grandmother, who spends her spare time sitting on the couch smoking marijuana. The show features voice work by Canadian celebrities: season 1 includes Dave Foley, Troy Hurtubise, Gary Farmer, the Barenaked Ladies, Jeff Tweedy of Wilco, John O'Hurley, Megan Follows, Christopher Plummer, Rick Mercer, Kenny Hotz, Catherine O'Hara, and Don Knotts.

Season 2 includes Tom Arnold, Scott Thompson, James Woods, Tom Green, Leslie Nielsen, Will Arnett, Samantha Bee, and John Goodman.

Reception

Odd Job Jack was nominated for the Gemini Awards in 2006 for Best Cross Platform Project and the Canadian Comedy Awards in 2007 in the Writing Series category, while winning the CFTPA Indie Awards in 2008 for Best Convergent New Media, and the Banff World Television Award for Interactive Program Enhancements. The series achieved over three million views within its first year on Hulu. Writing for TheGATE.ca, critic W. Andrew Powell wrote that 'Odd Job Jack is also pretty damn funny.

It's charm is that it's extremely funny, without half of the insanity or depravity of shows like South Park. Sure, people get chopped up & eaten, dead people get up and dance, and famous people get made fun of, but it's surprisingly fresh without being utterly offensive.' Andrew Ryan for The Globe and Mail noted of the season three premiere that 'Odd Job Jack is still sharply written and crudely animated, which is part of its appeal. Be grateful some things remain resistant to change.'