Where Is Trailer Park Boys Actually Filmed?

Fans of director Mike Clattenburg's long-running and beloved Canadian mockumentary series, "Trailer Park Boys," are no doubt familiar with the narrative's central location, the fictional Sunnyvale Trailer Park. As the series' title suggests, the show's location is an integral part of the plot, and a character all its own in the Canadian Comedy Award-winning phenomenon, all twelve seasons of which are now available on Netflix (along with the show's various films, including one animated version). 

Part of the series' strength from the start, in fact, has been its relatable setting, and that setting's ability to further enhance the too-real believability of both its absurd "plots" and its unlikable yet somehow lovable protagonists, Bubbles (Mike Smith), Julian (John Paul Tremblay), and Ricky (Rob Wells). However, despite all that blurring of the line between fiction and documentary, Sunnyvale isn't actually a real location — at least, not a singular one. As it turns out, the all-important backdrop for the boys' various antics has changed a number of times over the years. Even though the series has consistently been shot on-location in Nova Scotia, the first four seasons made use of several existing trailer parks in and around Halifax and Dartmouth, while seasons 5-7 were shot on a set in Dartmouth.

PopTurf's detailed breakdown of the series' early moves reveals the creators did a masterful job ensuring one trailer park location looked just like any other, despite the fact that shooting took place at a different location for several seasons in a row. In Season 1, for instance, the team found the perfect spot for the opening credits and Julian's trailer in Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia, in a neighborhood called Woodbine Mobile Home Park. By Season 2, however, the series had moved its trailer park inhabitants to a much smaller group of homes located near the Tufts Cove Generating Station, the source of the red and white-striped smokestacks that appear in several shots. Season 3 saw the series move once again, this time to a park near Halifax's Governor Lake, but the single entrance-0exit proved too difficult to utilize long-term, and Clattenburg decided to set up shop elsewhere for Season 4. 

The custom set where the series shot seasons five through seven was located on Bissett Road in Cole Harbour, and the area — which previously housed Halifax County Rehab Centre — was eventually redeveloped as a trail system connecting Cole Harbour–Lawrencetown Coastal Heritage Park to Bissett Lake Park (via Canadian Broadcasting Corporation). Finally, later seasons saw the series settle down in the Bible Hill Estates Trailer Park in Truro, Nova Scotia (via IMDb). 

For the most ambitious fans of "Trailer Park Boys" — or for anyone else interested in touring all the various locations that the long-running series ever touched — Moskal Multimedia's highly-detailed, five-part breakdown on YouTube will undoubtedly prove useful.