Since I got to college, I have been known as Fitz. My Dad was known as Fitz before me. Now my wife is known as Dr. Fitz... Suffice to say there are a lot of Fitz's in my family. But none of them - not one - are as sick, wrong, demented, and as big a self-centered a-hole as Richard Fitzpatrick (aka "Fitz") (Jason Priestley, Haven, Tru Calling, Beverly Hills, 90120), the car salesman in Call Me Fitz.
Call Me Fitz is a half-hour comedy series that has not been widely broadcast here in the US (except on DirecTV's Channel 101). It has been quite successful in Canada and just began airing Season 2 in September 2011, with production already beginning on Season 3. It features Fitz, the bizarre behavior that is the norm at Fitzpatrick Motors, and a cast of side characters that get drawn into the wake of the trouble he causes.
Anybody who knows me will tell you I'm a pretty conservative, buttoned down kind of guy in blue jeans. So Priestley's Fitz is about as far from me as you can get. He's the classic slimy, misogynistic used car salesman with a drinking and drug problem. But somehow Priestley plays the character with a flair that makes him seem salvageable... sometimes.
So why is Call Me Fitz so much fun if it's about a largely unlikable character?
I honestly think it's not about Fitz at all - it's about his relationship with Larry (Ernie Grunwald, Supernatural, Psych, CSI ). Larry is the opposite pole to Fitz's depravity. He's the show's conscience. Where Fitz is slimy, Larry is upstanding and righteous. And though Larry is innocent and pure, he still manages to get drawn into Fitz's schemes.
But don't think that they're alone in this world where swearing is the main form of communication. There's the cantankerous and demented family patriarch, Ken Fitzpatrick (Peter MacNeill, Rookie Blue, Queer as Folk). There's Fitz's sister, Meghan (Tracy Dawson, Wild Card, The Gavin Crawford Show). There's the pothead car lot mechanic Josh McTaggert (Donavon Stinson, Reaper, Eureka). There's the car lot secretary Sonja Lester (Brooke Nevin, Breakout Kings, How I Met Your Mother, NCIS, The 4400) trying to be a salesperson even as she's taken advantage of by the staff. There's comatose potential car buyer Babs Devon (Phyllis Ellis, Three Chords from the Truth, Murdoch Mysteries, The Wilkinsons) and her lawyer daughter Ali (Kathleen Munroe, Haven, Stargate Universe, Survival of the Dead) seeking to pin Fitz to the wall. There's the twisted girl scout Kara (Gillian Ferrier, Second Honeymoon, Ice Castles (2010)) seeking to help the lawyer...
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