Producing Parker is a Canadian adult-oriented Animated Work Com created by Laura Kosterski and Carolyn Newman, with Kevin Gillis, creator of The Raccoons, as a producer. The series was produced by Breakthrough Entertainment, who are better known for their Teletoon originals like Atomic Betty and Jimmy Two-Shoes.
The show's protagonist is Parker Kovak (voice of Kristin Booth), a good-natured if slightly neurotic bachelorette in her late 20s who works as a TV producer for the Bellamy Broadcasting Network. Parker oversees the production of a popular female-targeted daytime Talk Show called The Dee Show, hosted by the decadent, self-absorbed, and high-maintenance Dee (voiced by Kim Cattrall). Overworked and underpaid, Parker finds herself having to manage the day-to-day antics that come with working in network television, from putting up with Dee to getting the show ready for airtime to keeping the inept and eccentric behind-the-scenes crew in line. And while Parker may not have it easy at work, she does find some solace at home in the form of her pet and best friend, an intelligent and sophisticated dog named Massimo who takes care of the house while she's away and can always be counted on to be there for her when she needs an ear or some advice.
The series debuted on May 4, 2009, airing on Global Television Network and TVtropolis. It ran for a total of 2 seasons and 26 episodes, coming to end on July 8, 2011.
Producing Parker provides examples of:
- Actor Allusion: In "The Parker Prophecies" future Parker watches a Sex and the City parody. Kim Catrall, who voices Dee, is a prominent cast member on that show.
- A Day in the Limelight: "Dog Dee Afternoon" and "Lying, Cheating, Dirty Dogs" for Massimo. "Renovating Parker" for Hal. "Man Trap" and "Real Men Eat Parker" for Simon.
- The Ahnold: Günther Fürst, an action hero-turned Republican senator-turned fitness guru who dates Parker during episode "The Skinny on Parker".
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: In "The Dee Block", Dee and Parker are arrested with charges of breaking and entering, possession of stolen property, and the judge not finding them attractive enough.
- Art-Style Dissonance: The series's art style strongly resembles 6teen. As even Breakthrough Entertainment is mainly known for working on kids cartoons, but the series itself is extremely raunchy.
- The Alcoholic: Dee. Her idea of cooking show is, initially, show how to prepare cocktails.
- All Asians Know Martial Arts: Parodied with Dr. Chang, who confronts Parker's group with some funny Bruce Lee noises and movements when they attempt to escape... he then clarifies that he doesn't actually knows karate... but his orderlies do!
- Ambiguously Brown: Simon and Russell. Simon once complains about how brown people are stereotyped, implying he is Arabic, though one of his grandfathers was white.
- Ascended Fangirl: Leg-crippled Helen McDonald, serving as Parker's intern while she's a big fan of The Dee Show in "Mentoring Parker". Actually, she's actually held a grudge against Dee for leaving her stranded in the wilderness for three days and is doing the job to kill Dee.
- Attention Whore / It's All About Me: Dee, in spades.
- Bad Boss: Dee costantly mistreat and yells at her own employees, so much that at least one of them (Simon) would love to see her dead. One gag has Victoria executing two members of her staff with a firing squad when Parker beats her at getting a famous host for the show.
- Bestiality Is Depraved: A woman who can talk to dogs appears on The Dee Show in "Dog Dee Afternoon". She says she started this when her abusive father got her a puppy and locked them into the basement. It's not clear if she went that far but she's definitely kissed her dog a lot. Also, apparently Chicago was forced to accept a job as part of her charge for "corruption of marine mammal".
- Big Beautiful Woman: Victoria, but she's not very nice.
- Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: The Dee Show's female employees are this with Chicago, Parker and Dee (which is technically a wig) respectively.
- Bolt of Divine Retribution: In A Recipy for Dee-saster, when Dee, during her near-death experience, argues with God about her being a mere host of the show and insults him, she gets zapped for it (and resuscitates too).
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Broken Aesop: "A Bully for Parker" seems to constantly promote the message that it is wrong to hold grudges, especially when Parker's attempt to get back at a bully at a school reunion goes horribly for her. However, Parker really was not looking for revenge as much as self-defense, since she thought the bully was not genuinely reformed and setting up a prank to humiliate her. - Butt-Monkey: Parker and Simon, at different moments.
- Buxom Beauty Standard: Discussed and defied by Simon in the first episode. When Parker complains that all that men care about is "T&A", Simon begs to differ, claiming that men prefer only the latter and that boobs are merely a "frontal imitation of the butt".
- Camp Gay: Russell. To the point that Dee considers him more woman than Parker.
- Characterization Marches On: The show does not seem to settle on whether Victoria's saint-like image is genuine or a facade.
- Chekhov's Gun: In "The Dee Block", Parker is hoping Massimo isn't doing anything crazy while she's in prison. A Description Cut goes to Massimo getting a tattoo on his back. It was an intricate map of the prison letting him break in and free Parker.
- Chick Magnet: After the show's technician Hal receives a makeover, his opening and sticking his head out of a window is quickly met with a woman yelling "OH IT'S HAL!" followed by many more feminine screams and panties being tossed toward him.
- Citizenship Marriage: In "The Parker Prophecies", Parker agrees to marry her boss so he can stay in the country.
- Cluster Bleep-Bomb: Dee falls through her stage's floor in "Renovating Parker".Who's the f***ing ass*** that built this f***ing floor! I'll roast his balls on a spit!
- Compressed Vice: Parker's anorexia in "The Skinny On Parker".
- Comedic Underwear Exposure: Parker loses her pants or ends up in only her underwear quite a bit throughout the series. "The Skinny On Parker" even has a running gag where she is constantly losing her pants thanks to her excessive weight loss.
- Contemplate Our Navels: Parodied by Simon in "Eat, Pray, Parker" - Simon hears about the book "Feast, Ride, Salsa" and responds "Navel gazing! Even better", pulls up his shirt "Here, I got a book for ya, it's called 'Journey to the Center of My Belly-Button'", then puts his index finger in his belly-button "There's amazing personal discoveries in there!". He finds a contact lens from doing this.
- Covert Pervert: The agent of S.H.I.T. is dead serious and menacing... and his sunglasses actually have an X-Ray function which lets him see women naked.
- Didn't Think This Through: While imprisoned in "The Dee Club", Parker has the idea to do The Dee Show with Dee in jail. They give away stainless steel knives for the episode. A prison riot of course starts about a minute after.
- Double Standard: Outlandishly parodied when Parker captures attractive bachelors for a matchmaker segment in "Man Trap" by shooting sleeping darts at them. Simon says when he does that, he gets a restraining order.
- Dramatic Irony: In "Man Trap", Simon is part of a matchmaking segment and ends up choosing what seems to be a legitimate contestant as opposed to the one that was a call girl hired by Parker because the segment was one contestant short. The other contestant turns out to just be a spy for the Victoria show and the call girl disappears before picking up her check causing everyone to assume she must have gone back to her day job, when she ended up actually falling for Simon and her rejection led her to swear off all men and join a convent.
- Dumb Blonde: Chicago. Is also a case of Dumb Is Good.
- Eagleland Osmosis: The characters randomly discuss the Bible belt, the War on Terror, illegal immigration, and Dee once tried to obtain a pardon from the President—but it is entirely possible that the show may take place in the United States despite technically being a Canadian series.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: The season 2 finale sets up that Simon will end up in a happy marriage with Chicago and a succesful movie producer.
- Eats Babies: Seeing a very fat woman at Parker's high school reunion say she's "...had three kids" to explain her weight increase since high school causes Chicago to whisper "...for dinner". After the woman says she watches The Dee Show with her kids all the time, Chicago whispers again "So she didn't eat them?".
- Epileptic Flashing Lights: At the beginning of "The Dee Block" during the intro to Victoria's show.
- Even the Girls Want Her: Happens to Parker in the episode In Dee Club, with the blonde Latino lesbian calling her "sexy lady".
- Evil Laugh: In Renovating Parker, as Parker prepares to operate on Hal after being called "Frankenstein" by Simon she unleashes an epic, evil laughter which causes a dramatic thunder and turns the screen sepia, complete with Simon asking what happened to the color.
- Expy:
- Victoria looks like Queen Latifah and she is pretty much Oprah.
- Massimo is the intellectual talking dog of the main character who enjoys drinking wine, similar to Brian Griffin. His design is also similar to Bolt (which came out less than 6 months before the series debuted)
- Fiery Redhead: Even though she wears a wig, Dee is this literally.
- Foreshadowing: Jackie Cartwright of "Eat, Pray, Parker" is an author of a memoir lauded for being female empowering. So the reason she named her Angry Guard Dog Hemingway, an author that was frequently criticized as being misogynistic, was to be insulting? Actually, she's a man who went through a mid-life crisis and such an inspiration would be suitable for him.
- Formerly Fat: Parker.
- Freudian Slip: Tends to happen to Parker when she's talking in Blake's presence.
- Freudian Slippery Slope: While James Hard reports on rumors of Veronica's sexual relations with a nun in "In Dee Club".James Hard: Catholic school girl, short skirts, lesbian nuns. (coughs) For the Hard News Report, I'm hard. I mean, I'm James Hard. Sorry.
- Fun with Acronyms: In "Mentoring Parker", Dee discusses a women's empowerment organization called the The Women's Assistance Trust and later starts her own organization called Today's Invalid Trust. Recipe for Deesaster has the agents of the Show Host Investigation Team.
- Genki Girl: Mimi Chiu in "A Recipe for Dee-saster".
- Going Commando: Both Chicago and Dee have mentioned they sometimes go commando.
- Gonk: Hal is an old, short, balding and rather fat man. Most of his face is covered by his beard. His wife, however is basically him without a beard, more head hair, and dressed like a biker. She appears to be working as a bouncer in "In Dee Club".
- Good Is Dumb: Chicago is a great case of Dumb Blonde, but she's also a very good person deep down and a friend to Parker.
- Goofy Print Underwear: Whenever her underwear isn't just Black Bra and Panties, Parker's underwear is shown to be this any time its exposed, which is almost a once-an-episode occurance.
- In "Man Trap", Simon dances in a pair of space themed underwear.
- Hard Truth Aesop: "The Parker Prophecies" has one of "your future will not always go the way planned it out.''
- Hartman Hips: Parker and Chicago.
- Hat Damage: A sledgehammer lands on Simon's hat after he attempts to toss up a bunch of assorted tools into the air from their toolbox yet fit into it when they land.
- Hidden Depths: "All About Dee" shows Hal to be an ordained minister/satanist... something like that... for being the priest at Dee's wedding.
- He takes over for make-up while Dee fired Russell in "Bully for Parker". He's done it for his wife.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: The villain from the episode Lying, Cheating, Dirty Dogs uses her machinery to turn pet into furniture, and ends up pushed inside her machine and turned into a chair.
- Hollywood Thin: Parodied by Blake's French girlfriend. It's pretty obvious the show is saying her standard is ridiculous, and she herself says she gets her impossibly thin weight with diet pills, smoking and starving herself instead of exercise.
- Homemade Sweater from Hell: Massimo is forced to wear one in the cold opening of "15 Minutes Of Parker". He hates it and it causes him ridicule from the other dogs who call him "snowflake."
- Hot Pursuit: The opening features a bunch of people running after a bikini-clad Chicago.
- I Resemble That Remark!: At one point, Simon implicitly refers to Chicago as "cheap and easy". Soon enough, with no external prompts, she shows her boobs to a random man watching them from the window of another building.
- Imagine Spot: When Dee falls through the floor in "Renovating Parker" and she depressively says none of her staff cares if she lives or dies, Simon replies that he does...proceeding to imagine to himself saying Dee's in her final resting place in hell on a stage before her corpse and coffin get consumed in flames and then announcing his show replacing it "Seriously Hardcore News Report" with himself hosting it along with Chicago and Parker dancing on poles as his "loyal team of sexy topless cub reporters" at which Parker ends it by telling him to stop staring at their bazoombas.
- Impossible Hourglass Figure: Dee
- Incredibly Obvious Bug: Victoria has one on Parker's advance copy of 'Feast, Ride, Salsa' for "Eat, Pray, Parker". It's small but should be quite possible to see on the book's cover and makes noise as it's shown to the viewers.
- I Need A Drink: Dee, all the time. "In Dee Club", this is Parker's reaction to seeing there's another Dee (Dee made a Sex Bot for lesbians based on herself).
- Intellectual Animal: Massimo. Though its never stated whether the animals can talk or if only she can understand them.
- "How Green is my Parker" reveals that Massimo can speak to Parker because he can speak to all animals in their language INCLUDING HUMANS.
- Jerkass: Victoria, though how much of she is depends on the episode.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Dee is usually rough, rude, annoying and loud. However, she does have a few moments of genuine kindness to Parker.
- Judge, Jury, and Executioner: The Hanging Judge from season 2 claims to be this... to the point of "consulting himself" as if he is three separate people and Chicago actually calls him "Mr Judge, Jury and Executioner".
- Katanas Are Just Better: In a variation, Mimi Chui is a great chef who uses her katana as a cooking instrument, using it to butcher a live cow (to make sure the meat is fresh) and remove food from the oven.
- Kick the Dog: Dee, literally in "Dog Dee Afternoon".
- Large Ham: Dee, who's rarely outhammed. And hates being outhammed, one might add. The Hanging Judge in season 2 as well due to being voiced by Harvey Atkin who voiced King Koopa in DiC's Super Mario Bros. cartoons and Sam in The Adventures of Sam & Max: Freelance Police.
- Loony Fan: Helen McDonald in "Mentoring Parker" after it's revealed she's planning to kill Dee. Subverted Trope a minute later when it's revealed she wants to kill her for leaving her stranded in the wilderness for three days (Helen is crippled) when she was a child. Well, the loony part still holds since she's last seen being taken away in a straitjacket.
- Major Injury Underreaction: In A Recipe for Deesaster, Dee accidentally toss a sharp kitchen knife away, chopping off Chicago's toe. All the latter has to say is a restrained "Ouchie".
- Mama Bear: Parker's mother Irene. She puts herself between her daughter and a wild coguar without a second thought.
- Man-Eating Plant: In "Man Trap", the partecipants is offered a Venus Flytrap (which can eat meat).
- Meaningful Name: A cosmetic surgeon that is regularly used for the The Dee Show is named "Doctor Alterman".
- Mirror Character: Dee and Victoria are both self-absorbed Jerkasses. Victoria just does a better job at hiding it, which makes her more of a jerkass.
- Mistaken for Gay: In "In Dee Club", Dee assumed Parker is a lesbian because of her hair, clothes, and the fact that she's never seen with a man (offending Simon). She believes that must be the reason why she doesn't have a steady boyfriend. Later she also assumes that the muscular, husky-voiced golfist she's interviewing is a lesbian and is shocked to learn she has a husband and a son.
- Mood Dissonance: Played for Laughs, the voice announcing the topic for today's The Dee Show says it enthusiastically and ends with a "Yeah!" even if the topic is, say, "Missing Children".
- Ms. Fanservice: Chicago, who's also a Shameless Fanservice Girl.
- The biggest example in the series may actually be Parker herself, who can hardly seem to go more than a single episode without being seen either naked or in her underwear.
- My Biological Clock Is Ticking: Parker.
- Named After Someone Famous: Jackie Cartwright's Angry Guard Dog, appearing in "Eat, Pray, Parker", is named Hemingway
- Naughty Nuns / Nuns Are Funny: In "In Dee Club", Victoria neither confirms nor denies she had sexual relations with a nun at a Catholic high school she attended. The nun in question is briefly seen in the news, with her eyes covered by a censor bar to remain anonymous. The reporter has trouble keeping his decorum after reporting it
- Non-Human Sidekick: Parker's dog Massimo.
- Negative Continuity: In the pilot, Chicago is Blake's cousin and lives with her parents. In "Giving Up Dee Ghost," she is his niece and his sole living relative (which would mean her parents are no longer alive).
- Oblivious to Love: Parker is crushing on her boss Blake Bellamy, who alternates between somewhat returning her feelings without acting on them to being completely unaware of Parker's crush.
- Pass the Popcorn: After the claw hauls Parker off to meet her high school bully in "Bully for Parker", Hal produces a bag of popcorn for him and Simon to eat while watching.
- Pragmatic Pansexuality: In In Dee Club, Dee decides to pretend to be lesbian to attract more viewers.
- Prison Rape: Parodied in The Dee Block: when Dee and Parker enter the prison's showers and Parker tells Dee to not drop the soap, Dee's more worried about the fact that there's no soap, nor cream, nor shampoo to speak of. Later in the episode, Simon gets snatched and taken away by three prisoners... though we later see him, naked, sheeplishly claiming that it's the first time that happened to him while the three women look disappointed.
- Punny Name: Parker goes to a female-demographic motorcycle store in "Eat, Pray, Parker". It's name is 'Menstrual Cycle'.
- Puppy Eyes: Massimo's reaction to Parker's anger at him slipping onto air in "Dog Dee Afternoon". It doesn't seem to have calmed her down much, but she didn't kill him like she said she would.
- Raised by Wolves: Dee was raised by cougars. Literally.
- Reclusive Artist: In-Universe. Jackie Cartwright in "Eat, Pray, Parker" gives off this impression considering her house is fenced off with barbed wire atop them, having a "welcome mat" with the words GO AWAY on it, and conversing with Parker by keeping the door shut and slipping out notes under it. That being said, her photo is on the back of her book, she agreed to appear on Victoria's show before Parker convinced her for The Dee Show, she busts out her motorcycle to come out and control her Angry Guard Dog getting furious at Parker and she gets along fine with Parker. Might have to do with how it turns out she's actually a man pretending to be a woman since his publisher told him male mid-life crises don't sell.
- Reunion Revenge: In "Bully For Parker", Parker plans an elaborate revenge for her high school reunion, but has second thoughts when she spends some time with her most vicious tormentor.
- Reused Character Design: The show's designer is really really keen on reusing character designs, often featuring Recurring Extra characters in many different places. For example, Mimi Chui first appeared in the Pussy Cat club dancing with another woman, then in Season 2 as a random woman who's smitten by Simon's new looks but ignored.
- Played for Laughs in "All About Dee" - Victoria has a team of senior producers... that look almost exactly like Parker. And she has executive senior producers which are about the same as well with older hair and glasses.
- Romantic Fake–Real Turn: Mandy, the call girl who is hired to pretend to like Simon in "Man Trap", actually falls in love with him and is left in tears when he rejects her, even being too distraught to pick up her check. She's so heartbroken that she gives up on men forever and joins a convent.
- Rule of Funny: Producing Parker sorta resembles real life...except when it doesn't many times, usually quite excessively.
- Ship Tease: Parker and Simon.
- Shot at Dawn: In "Eat, Pray, Parker", Victoria uses a firing squad on her staff for The Dee Show getting the author appearance she wanted. Complete with the firing squad wearing overcoats and using rifles, firing at Victoria's downward stroke of a saber.
- Show Within a Show: The Dee Show.
- Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Parker, oh so much.
- Skewed Priorities: In "The Dee Block" when Massimo sees a report on TV about Parker being arrested, he just cares about the fact that he won't be getting a walk that night rather than his best friend/owner being locked up in jail.
- Slapstick: Very common among episodes, usually in outrageously excessive ways, such as guests being ejected from The Dee Show by a mechanical claw defenestrating them... while the show's stage is on a very high floor of a skyscraper.
- The opening song's animation involves Parker being run over by a crowd of tux-wearing executives in their chase of Chicago gallivanting in a bikini...twice.
- Sssssnake Talk: Dee when turned into a lamia-creature in "Age Dee-fying".
- Sweet on Polly Oliver: Parodied in one episode, when Dee offhandedly mentions "that time when Victoria disguised herself as a man". Cue to a flashback of Victoria, in men's clothing (which do nothing to hide her voluptuous figure) strolling down the street, causing a passing Dee to mistake her for a man and flirt with her. Back in the present, as the others glare in disbelief, Dee defends herself with a "It was a very convincing disguise."
- Symbolic Blood: In "Age Dee-fying", weather reporter Wendy Weathers is hefted into Blake's shark tank with a mechanical claw. The claw brings her up and off the screen while a giant shark goes up following her. Red curtains in a curved pattern then fall from the top of the tank.
- Temporary Bulk Change: In "The Skinny on Parker" Dee becomes morbidly obese and in the end gets liposuction.
- The show seems to adore this trope. One episode features Simon losing weight thanks to a testosterone pill. Another episode feature Hal being made over into a muscular hunk. And arguably, Parker's backstory of being overweight.
- Too Dumb to Live: One gag has a family of natives too busy watching Dee's dog-kicking moment on television to dodge an incoming magma flow.
- Too Kinky to Torture. Chicago thinks Dee's rack-type torture apparatus looks "fun" and wants one of her own.
- Trauma Conga Line: "Bully for Parker" is not a kind episode to Parker.
- The Unreveal: Antique Annie is about to tell Simon Dee's age in "Age Dee-fying"...but then she gets struck by lightning. Simon comments that this goes far higher than he thought.
- Use Your Head: Fortunately inverted in "Age Dee-fying" - Parker asks "Guys, a little muscle please" when she fails to break open a door Dee has locked everyone out of. Hal and Simon pick her up and use her as a battering ram to break it down, but hit the door with her feet.
- Villain with Good Publicity: Victoria, though again, how much of a villain she is seems to depend on the episode.
- Vitriolic Best Friends: Despite their contrasting personalities, Parker and Chicago are on friendly terms with each other more often than not, to the point that Chicago even becomes Parker's personal confidant on occasion.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: Musclebound men wearing nothing but speedos can been regularly seen in the audience of The Dee Show.
- Where the Hell Is Springfield??: Where exactly this show takes place is never mentioned, although it's heavily implied to be New York City (What looks like the Brooklyn Bridge can be seen when Massimo is running away in "Dog Dee Afternoon")
- World of Weirdness: Blake made a show of a family of zombies. The Dee Show once put on an operation of a woman giving her last kidney to another woman with a mild kidney infection on live and the pained shouting implied they weren't sedated for it (granted, behind a curtain). Another time, they had a doctor turn a woman's legs into a large fish tail like a mermaid for a makeover. There isn't much in the way of giving these a second thought, though Massimo says in the first episode the fact he can talk is unique and he can't go out shopping due to being a dog and Parker tries to keep that fact under wraps.
