The appeal of the series to men isn't quite so difficult (or embarrassing) to define. Yet besides the obvious appeal of the laddish humour, there's a lot of heart there, too. "One of the drivers behind creating this show was male relationships – male/male relationships," Bolton explained. "They're super-important to me as a dude and I wanted to show all the different possibilities."

Cake's relationship with rival O'Malley is one of his favourite examples, and was modeled on an unlikely but inspired source. "My influence was the sheep dog and Wile E. Coyote. Two guys who could check in for the day, beat the crap out of each other, and then check out and have a beer. And that's really hockey culture, too. I can fight my best friend on the ice and really we can punch the living daylights out of each other and then shake hands and go for a beer. That's hockey code: you leave it on the ice."

Speaking of the sport, hockey stars like Paul Coffey and Phil Esposito show up in Rent-a-Goalie, and we occasionally get to see Cake's motley group of goalies get off their coffee shop stools and play a game. Still, hockey itself isn't a huge part of the show. "It's definitely a character-driven workplace comedy," Bolton said. "I was paying homage to Taxi when I created this show."

He patterned Cake after Judd Hirsch's "den mother" Alex Reiger and claims he had never considered the similarities between Cake and Cheers' recovered alcoholic, ex-baseball player Sam Malone until it was pointed out to him. Though he added: "It's so freakingly, glaringly obvious, it's amazing I didn't."

With all those influences, though, Rent-a-Goalie is very much its own show with its own unique tone. Fortunately for those who have missed it so far and are intrigued by the blend of heart and fart, reruns play on Showcase, full episodes are available to watch online, and the season one DVD with loads of behind-the-scenes extras is available now in Canada.