Fun fact. I’ve told the lead actor of Republic of Doyle, Alan Hawco, to go fuck himself.

About 15 years ago, I lived on a street in St. John’s. A few doors away was an elementary school. The producers of RoD decided to use this school as the Police Department. Because St. John’s is very cramped and a mishmash of buildings, they could turn the camera around to the other side of the street and say it was some random ass residence. And because of the weird coloring we’ve got for a lot of our houses on that street, you don’t have to move the camera far to feel like you’re somewhere else entirely even if you shot only 10m up the road. The other thing that I should mention is the street was one way. This meaning if I ever was taking a cab home or something with groceries, I had to get out and walk with all of it and wait for them to say it was okay to pass. I fucking hated, and still do, that show for this singular reason. Preventing me from getting into my damn home for a fuckin cop procedural was probably the first time I said “Fuck cops”. And yes I know he’s a PI and whatever but point stands. I was infuriated. This went on for fucking months.

Cut to a few months later. I’m going up to The Battery hotel. The CBC is doing a big radio broadcast from the hotel and they’ve got a bunch of people speaking, myself included at like 18 or 19. I’m an anxious dude by nature and don’t like being in public so I was in and out pretty quick but I was with there with someone else named Tom. I didn’t mill around with anyone, I didn’t go grab punch at the table, nothing. I just waited by the broadcasters for a couple minutes until they motioned to me to come over (hell yeah for strict scheduling). We spoke for a bit and then I got up and left. As I was leaving the main room, Alan Hawco came up to me and said “Good job man!” I remember him saying that because I didn’t know who he was yet. Then his face hit the registry ID of who he was and anything else he said just turned into Charlie Brown adult noises. My entire face went from vaguely confused but appreciative to (according to Tom) a face reserved for demons punishing those in the deepest pits of hell. I remember full on fucking snarling in a voice loud enough for him to hear but no one else to hear “Go fuck yourself” and then turned and kept walking out. I heard Alan go “Uh…” as I was walking away and then Tom talking to him.

I got in the car and Tom got in a minute later like “What the fuck was that?” I was still furious but said “Honestly I don’t know. I feel like kind of a dick. But fuck that stupid FUCKING show.” While later after I calmed down I explained to Tom and he was like “Oh. Okay that makes sense.”

Now cut to a couple years later. I’m walking around and bump into Alan Hawco. I recognize him instantly and have two conflicting feelings. One is still that same utter rage towards that show and the other is the guilt of telling him to go fuck himself. Before I can say anything he says “I already did it, okay?” and I started just cackling. I said sorry and when I said “I lived at NUMBER STREETNAME” he just went “Ohhhhh…” and nodded his head. I apologized again, we shook hands, and went on our merry ways lol

Still loathe the show but at least now I know Alan is a cool dude.