''Billable Hours'' is a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

comedy Comedy is a genre of dramatic works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. Origins Comedy originated in ancient Greec ...

series that was aired on Showcase from 2006 to 2008.Beppi Crosariol, "Bay Street veterans play law life for laughs". ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Newspapers in Canada, Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in Western Canada, western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of more than 6 million in 2024, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on week ...

'', November 9, 2005. Set in the fictional

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

law firm of Fagen & Harrison, the series focuses on three young lawyers struggling to balance their expectations of life with the difficult realities of building a career in the driven

Bay Street Bay Street is a major thoroughfare in Downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the centre of Toronto's Financial District, Toronto, Financial District and is often used by metonymy to refer to Economy of Canada, Canada's financial services indust ...

corporate environment, and engaging in immature and unprofessional behaviour to cope with the soul-crushing drudgery of working life."Calgarian brings laughable nastiness to comedy; Billable Hours step up from actor's tree gig". ''

Calgary Herald The ''Calgary Herald'' is a daily newspaper published in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Publication began in 1883 as ''The Calgary Herald, Mining and Ranche Advocate, and General Advertiser''. It is owned by the Postmedia Network. History ''The C ...

'', October 15, 2008. The series was created by Adam Till, a former lawyer who quit law after becoming disillusioned with the corporate environment, and actor

Fabrizio Filippo Fabrizio "Fab" Filippo (born November 30, 1973) is a Canadian actor. Personal life Filippo was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. His parents are first generation Italian immigrants (his mother is from Campora San Giovanni in Calabria). He brie ...

Production

The first season was filmed in a real Bay Street office building, in offices recently vacated by a real law firm.Jim Bawden, "Double billing in dark humour department; Billable Hours pushes envelope in Season 2". ''

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part of Torstar's Daily News Brands (Torstar), Daily News Brands division. ...

'', April 22, 2007. The space was taken over by another company by the time the second season went into production, however, and with no suitable new office space available Temple Street was forced to build a new office set in its own studios.

Broadcast

The series debuted on Showcase in 2006, and was produced by

Temple Street Productions Temple Street Productions was a Toronto-based Canadian television & digital media production studio. Formed in 1996 by Patrick Whitley and Sheila Hockin, it was sold to Ivan Schneeberg and David Fortier—who had led the studio's drama unit since ...

. Its first episode received what was at the time the channel's highest ratings for an original series premiere."Repatriation a boon for Billable Hours". ''

Prince Albert Daily Herald The ''Prince Albert Daily Herald'' is a daily newspaper serving the city of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Canada, and the surrounding area. History The ''Herald'' traces its roots to the ''Prince Albert Advocate'', which was begun in 1894 as on ...

'', April 19, 2007. The second season premiered in April 2007, and was accompanied by a 10-part webisode series entitled ''Billable Minutes''. The third season of the show premiered in October 2008. The series ended on December 3, 2008. The series also received a second-window broadcast on the terrestrial

Global Global may refer to: General *Globe, a spherical model of celestial bodies *Earth, the third planet from the Sun Entertainment * ''Global'' (Paul van Dyk album), 2003 * ''Global'' (Bunji Garlin album), 2007 * ''Global'' (Humanoid album), 198 ...

television network. In

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

, the series premiered on

ABC2 ABC Family is an Australian free-to-air television channel owned by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and part of its ABC Television network. The channel broadcasts a range of family and teen entertainment programming. The channel oper ...

in August 2009, with all three seasons airing as one continuous run.

Awards

At the

23rd Gemini Awards The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television's 23rd Gemini Awards were held on November 28, 2008, to honour achievements in Canadian television. The awards show, which was hosted by Jason Priestley, took place at the John Bassett Theatre in Toron ...

in 2008, the series received nominations for Best Ensemble Performance in a Comedy Program or Series for the episode "Monopoly Man", and Best Writing in a Comedy or Variety Program or Series for the episode "One Hit Wonder". At the

24th Gemini Awards The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television's 24th Gemini Awards were held on November 14, 2009, to honour achievements in Canadian television. The awards show, which was hosted by Ron James, took place at the Stampede Corral in Calgary and was ...

in 2009, the series won the awards for Best Writing in a Comedy or Variety Program or Series for the episode "A Manson for All Seasons", and Best Sound in a Comedy, Variety, or Performing Arts Program or Series for the episode "Pigeon Lawyer".

Cast

* Brandon Firla as Clark Claxton III *

as Sam Caponelli * Jennifer Baxter as Robin Howland *

Dov Tiefenbach Dov Yosef Tiefenbach (born December 8, 1981) is a Canadian actor and musician. Life and career Tiefenbach was born on December 8, 1981, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He is of Jewish background. He began his acting career at the age of 12, startin ...

as Stu Berger * Jane Luk as Cam Belter, office manager *

Aron Tager Aron Tager (June 30, 1934 – February 28, 2019) was an American actor, poet, artist and sculptor, he is best known for voicing Cranky Kong in the animated television series, ''Donkey Kong Country'' and for portraying Dr. Vink on the children's ...

as Mortie Fagen, head partner *

Ennis Esmer Ennis Esmer (born December 29, 1978) is a Turkish-Canadian actor, comedian, voice actor, writer, producer and presenter. He is best known for his roles as Osman 'Oz' Bey in ''The Listener'' (2009–2014), Nash in ''Red Oaks'' (2014–2017), Ric ...

as Zoltan * Mike Beaver as Murray Stipple * Ron Gabriel as Seth Kaplin, managing partner *

Jayne Eastwood Jayne Eastwood (born December 17, 1946), also credited as Jane Easton or Jane Eastwood, is a Canadian actress and comedian. She is best known for her film roles as Anna-Marie Biddlecoff in '' Finders Keepers'' (1984), Judy the Waitress in '' The ...

as Maxine Bingly *

Robin Brûlé Robin Brûlé is a Canadian actress An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern medi ...

as Millie Larkin, Clark's assistant *

Arnold Pinnock Arnold Pinnock (born December 10, 1967) is a Canadians, Canadian actor who is perhaps best known for his appearance as Paul Greebie, Casey's guidance counselor, in ''Life with Derek''. Pinnock was born in Birmingham, England. His career began wi ...

as Vic Laghm

Episodes

Season 1 (2006)

Season 2 (2007)

Season 3 (2008)

Notes

* In the opening of the episode 201, "Birthday Suits", a lawyer attempts to demonstrate the strength of the office building windows by throwing himself against one of them, but the window shatters and he falls to his death. Such an incident actually took place in a Toronto law firm in 1993."Lawyer killed in fall thought window panes shatterproof". ''

Windsor Star The ''Windsor Star'' is a daily newspaper based in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Owned by Postmedia Network, it is published Tuesdays through Saturdays. History The paper began as the weekly ''Windsor Record'' in 1888, changing its name to the ''Bor ...

'', July 12, 1993. The plot device of falling through a shattered skyscraper window also figures prominently in the Canadian film ''

waydowntown ''Waydowntown'' (stylized as ''waydowntown'') is a 2000 Canadian film directed by Gary Burns and starring Fab Filippo, Don McKellar, Marya Delver and Michelle Beaudoin. The film is a dark comedy that explores office culture and its effects and o ...

'', starring series co-creator Fab Filippo. * In episode 203, "15 Minutes of Shame", it is discovered that Robin played a zombie in a low-rent horror movie. This was a joke referencing Jennifer Baxter's 2005 appearance as a zombie in George Romero's ''

Land of the Dead ''Land of the Dead'' (also known as ''George A. Romero's Land of the Dead'') is a 2005 post-apocalyptic horror film written and directed by George A. Romero; the fourth of Romero's six '' Living Dead'' movies, it is preceded by ''Night of the L ...

''.

References

External links

* * {{Portal bar, Comedy, Television, Canada 2006 Canadian television series debuts 2008 Canadian television series endings 2000s Canadian sitcoms 2000s Canadian workplace comedy television series Canadian legal television series Showcase (Canadian TV channel) original programming Television shows filmed in Toronto Television shows set in Toronto Television series by Temple Street Productions