Trailer Park Boys began as short films: 1995's 'The Cart Boy' and 1998's 'One Last Shot', a black-and-white film about two friends played by Robb Wells and John Paul Tremblay, which was not set in the same universe as the later series.

The 1999 black-and-white feature film Trailer Park Boys, in which Julian wants his crime-filled life documented after a phone psychic predicts his death, was shown at the Atlantic Film Festival and caught producer Barrie Dunn's attention, who saw potential for a TV series.

The creators were initially turned down by The Comedy Network but decided on a whim to pitch the show to Showcase before heading home to Nova Scotia; Showcase loved the mockumentary feel and low budget and greenlit a first season.

Mike Smith's character Bubbles was originally developed for the 1995 short film The Cart Boy, where 'Bubbles' was actually the name of Smith's character's cat rather than a person; the character grew into one of the show's primary protagonists for the series.

In the original 1999 film, several actors played different roles than in the TV series: Patrick Roach played an alcoholic dog owner named Patrick instead of Randy, and Mike Smith played the location sound recordist rather than Bubbles.

Ricky's car, the 'Shitmobile,' was originally owned by series creator Mike Clattenburg, who donated it to the show because his wife no longer wanted to look at it sitting in the driveway.

Early seasons were filmed at real trailer parks in Nova Scotia, but the crew was banned from returning to several locations due to resident complaints; seasons 5-7 were shot at the former Cole Harbour Rehab Centre, with trailers placed around the existing building that also served as the jail set.

Cory Bowles and Michael Jackson left the original series run because they felt underpaid, contributing to the show's initial ending in 2007 after production had slowed to 4 days per episode instead of 2.5.

The actors who play Ricky, Julian, and Bubbles eventually purchased the full rights to the show and created their own streaming network, SwearNet, later co-producing new seasons with Netflix starting in 2014.

Season 10 featured guest appearances from Snoop Dogg, Jimmy Kimmel, Doug Benson, and Tom Arnold, with two episodes directed by Bobby Farrelly.

Season 12 marked John Dunsworth's final appearance on the show, as he died at age 71 shortly after filming, on October 16, 2017.

The show's theme song 'Breeze' was composed by Blain Morris, who was attempting to emulate Tony Bennett's 'I Left My Heart in San Francisco.'

Bubbles' trademark song 'Liquor & Whores' was performed live while touring with the band Our Lady Peace, and was officially released as an EDM track in 2017 produced by Marc Mysterio on Sony Music.

For the third film, Don't Legalize It, filming moved to Parliament Hill in Ottawa during the 4/20 weekend in April 2013.