Throng

This year, there’s a fresh arrival in Mercy. A new man of the cloth is about to take over Mercy Anglican and he’s not interested in treating Mercy’s resident Iman as an equal. The friendly relationship between the Muslims and the Christians will be put to the test as CBC Television’s internationally-acclaimed comedy series LITTLE MOSQUE ON THE PRAIRIE returns for its fourth season on Monday, September 28 at 8:30 p.m. It’s the same funny and heart-warming show it has always been …with a little more edge.

Reverend William Thorne (Brandon Firla, Billable Hours) is an ambitious and manipulative minister from the big city who is surprised to find a bunch of Muslims as tenants in his church. Not the ecumenical type, Thorne prefers a church without an Imam and mosque in it. Conflict brewing, Imam Amaar (Zaib Shaikh) literally and figuratively dukes it out with the new Reverend and faces the greatest test of all – himself.

Canadian Prime Time is heating up tonight as CTV and CBC go head to head with Canadian content.

While America's Next Top Model, Bones and The Secret Life of an American Teenager compete for viewers the real race is between the new seasons of Little Mosque on the Prairie and Sophie which return to CBC tonight and the much anticipated Top 100 round of So You Think You Can Dance Canada on CTV.

Which will you be watching?

When I hear that a new show is much anticipated in the media, it is too often because it is something new along the same old lines. Is everyone not tired of CSI from every country in the U.S.? Now I could understand if they made a CSI Vancouver or force the pansy Survivors to suffer through The Coldness of Baffin Island, but am I really the only one who gets sick and tired of the same old same old from American based TV??

I must admit that I am a huge fan of the CBC already, but really, its about time we get to watch a show that is unique and different - Little Mosque on the Praire instantly attracted my attention because I crave new TV!! I watched the first episode and thought it was hilarious - not only does it remind me of my Muslim friends from University in Ottawa, but it also reminds me of the hilarious adventures that some of my multicultural friends experienced at my high school and in the small businesses of Mount Forest, the ultimate in small town Ontario.

Comedy on TV can be so formulaic. It is up to our Canadian humourists to waft some perfume below the noses of the nation - we have been laughing at ourselves for decades (Rick Mercer, Royal Canadian Air Farce, the Frantics, Bob and Doug MacKenzie) and even exporting our comedy to the US (Mike Myers, Jim Carrey) and soon enough everybody will realize that our Canadian comedy is far more intelligent and witty than anything else produced in the world.

CBC
Monday 9:00 PM and Wednesday 8:00 PM, from January 15

LITTLE MOSQUE ON THE PRAIRIE is a new comedy from CBC Television about a small Muslim community in the prairie town of Mercy, many of whose residents are wary of their new, more “exotic” neighbours. The series takes an unabashedly funny look at the congregation of a rural mosque and their attempt to live in harmony with the often skeptical, even down right suspicious, residents of their little prairie town. The sitcom reveals that, although different, we are all surprisingly similar when it comes to family, love, the generation gap and our attempts to balance our secular and religious lives.

LITTLE MOSQUE ON THE PRAIRIE premieres on Tuesday, January 9 at 8:30 p.m. on CBC Television following The Rick Mercer Report. An encore presentation will air on Wednesday, January 10 at 8 p.m. Beginning Monday, January 15, the much anticipated series moves to its regular Monday night timeslot at 9 p.m. and Wednesdays at 8 p.m.