Incredible Story Studio was a Canadian Anthology Series targeted at younger audiences with a pretty creative twist: episodes were adapted directly from story ideas submitted by kids all around the world. The show was produced in Regina, Saskatchewan and originally aired on YTV, but also aired on Ontario and Saskatchewan public television, as it was partly funded by those provincial governments.
Each episode featured two ten-minute, one-act shorts. The Framing Device which gives the show its name involves the exploits of the Studio Boss (Camille Devine) and her unseen assistant Jacobs, who behaves as if she is living in The Golden Age of Hollywood (complete with affected Mid-Atlantic accent) and talks up each story and its author, and introduces the main players. Helping to sell the "studio" feeling is the small repertory of child and teen actors available to the producers in Regina, which is shared with several other shows that aired around the same time (particularly Mentors and The MAXimum Dimension), resulting in many of the same faces taking lead parts in several stories each season. Notably, Devine herself is part of this repertory and frequently introduces herself as one of the players, creating an entirely self-contained Celebrity Paradox. The young author of the story being adapted introduces themselves in a video clip immediately before the story begins. After the story has concluded, the Studio Boss narrates a short blurb about the author.
The show ran for five seasons from 1997 to 2002.
Jacobs, roll the film! This series contains examples of:
- Catchphrase: The Studio Boss ends every intro with "Jacobs, roll the film!"
- No Name Given: The Studio Boss is known by no other name. She is not Camille Devine, the actress who plays her, as the Boss treats Devine as a separate person.
- Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: The Studio Boss has a particular animus for one of her players, Camille Devine, always disparaging her whenever she is cast in a lead role. (The actress who plays the Studio Boss? Camille Devine.)
