Chilly Beach is a Canadian animated series produced by March Entertainment and created by Daniel Hawes and Doug Sinclair that aired on CBC. Originally conceived as an animated Flash site on the web, it was developed into a full series that ran from 2003 to 2006 with 65 episodes produced over 3 seasons. The show also aired in Australia on The Comedy Channel and eventually came to the United States in 2011 on Hulu.
Chilly Beach is set in the Quirky Town of the same name, which also happens to be located on a large frozen island in the Canadian Arctic. The show's central character is Dale MacDonald, a fat, dimwitted hockey enthusiast and Zamboni driver whose best friend is Frank Schackleford, a part-time scientific genius who despite holding a PhD in physics, chooses to manage a beer store instead. Together, the two get into all sorts of strange shenanigans often involving the Eccentric Townsfolk they live alongside, including unhygienic Greasy Spoon owner Jacques LaRock, Dale's Granola Girl love interest April June, Violent Glaswegian trapper Angus MacAuger, disgruntled American ambassador Katherine Hilderbrand, and Indo-Canadian Mountie Constable Al. Oh, and there's a talking polar bear who frequently tries to eat them.
Described by the producers as a show about "a bunch of Canadians doing the stuff that Canadians do, like playing hockey, drinking beer, and being eaten by polar bears", Chilly Beach is a satirical and comedic look at Canada and how others perceive the country. Two films based on the series were produced and released to DVD in 2008. The first is Chilly Beach: The World is Hot Enough and the second is Chilly Beach: The Canadian President.
Chilly Beach contains examples of:
- 65-Episode Cartoon: 65 episodes of the series (as well as two movies) were produced.
- "Ass" in Ambassador: The local US consul is grossly incompetent and belligerent towards the local population, attempting to run over people in her limousine and referring to a Mountie as "that guy in the bellhop costume."
- Bottom of the Barrel Joke: The characters watch a terrible reality show, prompting April to comment that the network is really scraping the bottom of the barrel. Then Jacques changes the channel to a show that is actually called Scraping the Bottom of the Barrel.
- Billy Needs an Organ: One episode had Dale's estranged brother show up out of the blue and mention that he needs a kidney. Dale is quite reluctant to go through with it, however, a guy gives him a shout-down for letting his brother die. As it turns out, Dale's incompatible with his brother. Frank, on the other hand...
- Brainwash Residue: One episode has Frank turned onto a Were-weinerdog. When he's turned back to a human, he finds he still enjoys squeaky toys.
- Bullet Catch: Parodied when in a skating performance circus (long story), a man jumps into the air while on skates and attempts to catch a bullet in his teeth.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: The show's two child characters, Michel Mabuis and Abby Hilderbrand, are largely dropped after the first season, supposedly because they were unpopular with viewers.
- Deep-Fried Whatever: In one episode, there was a subplot about refining poutine by deep frying it over and over. It gets better each time, but after 3 repetitions it becomes a Heart Attack on a Plate.
- Exactly What I Aimed At: Parodied. After Dale takes a shot at the net, he declares: "He shoots, he!...." and, after many ricochets, the puck inevitably just goes up into the sky, causing him to finish with "... just misses the cloud he was aiming for."
- Exposition Already Covered: In Season 1 "Slush Fund", after discovering that mining the slush of Chilly Beach is destroying the environment of their land, Frank explains this to Dale and decides to shut down the mining to save it. After shutting it down, April comes by to protest the slush mining, but Frank already tells her they already know and he stopped it already. April is disappointed that she has nothing to protest but then tells him to stop eating meat.April: I demand that you stop all slush mining immediately, you bastards! You're destroying the natural environment.
Frank: We know. We stopped it already.
April: (disappointed) Oh. Well... stop eating meat! (walking away) Jerks. - Falling-in-Love Montage: A lampshade was hung on this in one episode: "Would you like to have a romantic montage with me?''.
- Famous-Named Foreigner: A Russian hockey player named Gogol.
- The Grim Reaper: Death appears to take away Dale, who opts to challenge him. Then proceeds to annoy death by taking too long to pick what game they're going to play. Leading to this exchange:Death: "CHOOSE! or I shall choose for you!"
Dale: [panicked] "Uh, hockey!"
Death: "Very well." [summons a hockey rink and puck, then proceeds to slapshot said puck into the goal so fast it buns a hole through the net] "...By the way, hockey is what I would have chosen."
Dale: "Aw, crap." - Man in a Kilt: The Scots-Canadian hermit decides to give the curling ice one final polish before a crucial game... so he lift up his kilt and pees on it. When someone reminds him that it's traditional to wear something under the kilt when there's a woman on the throne he sheepishly admits that it was laundry day.
- Mess on a Plate: In one episode, an amnesiac Frank says that poutine-usually his Trademark Favorite Food-"looks like someone threw up... and left it in the sun."
- The Place: Chilly Beach is both the show itself and the setting.
- Polar Bears and Penguins: A recurring character who was a polar bear with an English accent. His sidekick was a penguin.
- The Runaway: Jaques's nephew, Michel briefly runs away to join a circus in the fifth episode. The circus's leader gladly accepts him, though he also off-handedly mentions that what they're doing is illegal and they're all now accessories to kidnapping.
- Scam Religion: One episode has Dale form a Cult of Personality on himself, duping four townspeople into waiting on him hand-and-foot. This lasts for as long as it took for the government to destroy the black hole Dale told everyone was the devil (the science of the episode is soft enough to spread on toast).
- Spinning Paper: See Worst News Judgement Ever below.
- Straw Feminist: April June is mostly a parody of this portrayal of feminism.
- Weird Currency: The show mocks the real-life use of Canadian Tire money (actually store coupons given at a 4% exchange rate to real money) and Loonies (Canada doesn't have $1 bills) by having Canadian money have bills for cents and coins for dollar amounts - $100 CAD is represented by a gold coin the size of a belt buckle.
- Worst News Judgment Ever: One episode had two spinning papers covering the local election, and a third announcing that "Small town can support three newspapers!"
- X Days Since: One of the townspeople is changing a sign marked "Number of days Since Last Polar Bear Attack" from "0000" to "0001". He gets eaten by a polar bear and the number blows off.
