| Runtime: | 25 minutes |
| Creator: | Eric Lunsky Duncan McKenzie |
| Executive Producer: | Paul Bronfman Steve Levitan |
| Starring: | Raoul Bhaneja Joanne Boland Paul Braunstein Joe Dinicol Krista Sutton Ingrid Hart Paul Sun-Hyung Lee Andrew Kenneth Martin Lisa Merchant Jack Mosshammer Amy Price-Francis |
| Country: | Canada |
| Network: | Global Television Network |
| Budget: | $40,000 (per episode) |
| Num Episodes: | 318 |
| Related: | Going Home |
Train 48 was a Canadian improvised soap opera, broadcast on Global Television Network and CH from 2003 until 2005. The series was based on the format of an Australian television program called Going Home.
Other guest stars on Train 48 included Rae Dawn Chong, politician Sheila Copps, Sean Cullen, Robin Duke, comedian Rick Green, Sue Johanson, Global weatherman Anwar Knight, Carolyn Parrish, Carole Pope, actor Scott Thompson, Emmy Award-winning actress Joanne Vannicola, and former MuchMusic personality Amanda Walsh. Joe Dinicol's grandfather John Neville played Zach's grandfather.
The show was broadcast daily, and recorded the same day. It took place in a railway car of a GO Train on Lakeshore West line returning from Toronto to the suburb of Burlington, Ontario, and followed the lives of 12 daily commuters through their interactions. Although major plot lines were written in advance, much of the dialogue was improvised by the actors. The entire series was shot on a 64-foot replica of a GO Train Bombardier BiLevel Coach, which kept production costs to a minimum.
The train setting allowed a basic construct where characters would share and act upon their opinions and views. The same-day recording allowed for comments on topical news stories to be introduced. The filming production was completed by 1:30 p.m. and edited by 5:00 p.m., later broadcast into regular time slots in different regions of Canada throughout the day (7:00 p.m. weeknights on Global in Toronto). It is estimated that each 30 minute episode cost $40,000 (Canadian) and had a typical audience of 200,000 to 300,000 viewers a night.
The method of improvisation, developed by show runners Duncan McKenzie and Eric Lunsky was a hybrid of techniques used by Mike Leigh and Keith Johnstone. Actors worked from outline scripts of just a few lines per scene, and an extensive character bio which provided each actor with a background of events and attitudes which might affect the scene.[1]
The improvised format and quick turnaround enabled the inclusion of references to extremely current events, giving a heightened sense of realism and currency. For example, the 2003 North America blackout was mentioned the next day. The show typically dealt with fictional relationships, humour and the non-fictional topics mentioned were the cases of Scott Peterson, Karla Homolka, the SARS outbreak and different views about US President George W. Bush.
CanWest Global in partnership with Global had promoted the series with stories and columns in the National Post and other CanWest News newspapers.
The series theme song was titled "Train goes" by Adam Crossley and 9 Point Landing.
The cancellation of the show was announced publicly on June 2, 2005, by series producer Cindy Wrong. She stated that the final episode would be shown on July 1. After the finale, re-runs of the last few episodes aired until the finale was shown again on September 2. The show was cancelled in order to make way for the launch of Entertainment Tonight Canada.
The producers of Train 48 have uploaded the entire series to YouTube for Canadian viewers. In the United States and Canada, episodes can be viewed on Amazon Prime Video's on demand platform.
When Train 48 debuted, product placement was an important aspect of the show for the Global Television Network. Characters were seen using Fido cell phones, and if someone was seen reading the newspaper, it was the National Post, a newspaper owned by CanWest, the parent company of Global Television. The show's producers argued that product placement was there to make the show seem more real.[2] Later in the series, the use of product placement diminished, and the range of reading materials and products on the show became more diverse.
During the production of the series between 2003 and 2004, four episodes were aired on Global Television Network during the week. However, in 2005, this was reduced to three. The series dealt with such controversial issues as the adoption of babies by gay couples, in vitro fertilization, single parent families, and euthanasia. A number of events occurred which would be unusual on a real commuter train, including the death of a passenger, a beating, a shooting, an escaped snake, a party, and sex in the train washroom.
The producers received word of the show's cancellation ahead of time, allowing them to bring the stories to a conclusion. Throughout the series, viewers had frequently commented that the train seemed to be on a journey to nowhere. In response to this criticism, the final episode showed the train stopped, and showed, through the windows, the characters emerging from the train onto the platform at Burlington. This was the only time in the series that characters were ever seen outside the train.