TORONTO - Few TV characters are as entrenched in Canadian pop culture as the deliriously delinquent crew on the "Trailer Park Boys," and few performers are as inextricably linked with their alter egos as East Coast comics Robb Wells, Mike Smith and John Paul Tremblay.

The trio's success in cultivating a following at home and in the U.S. cemented their place in the annals of Canuck comedy. But they admit it also raises the stakes as they launch a new TV adventure, "The Drunk and on Drugs Happy Funtime Hour."

Wells says making a clean break from the "Trailer Park" anti-heroes Ricky, Bubbles and Julian was key in crafting a new band of lunatics for their half-hour carnival, which debuts on Friday. It's about the cast of a children's TV show who get hooked on a hallucinogenic and start assuming their small-screen personas.

"We wanted to push the envelope and do something absolutely unique and original that's never been done before in every aspect," Wells says by phone from Dartmouth, N.S.

"With the new show we each play 10 characters each, there's a lot of heavy makeup and prosthetics.... I think that was the main goal of this show -- to give the public and fans 10 new versions of ourselves and kind of get out of that typecast and move on to many more projects to come."

Gone are the Coke-bottle specs worn by Smith's kitty-loving Bubbles, the ubiquitous glass of rum-and-coke carried by Tremblay's scheming Julian, and the pompadour and sideburns donned by Wells for his dim-witted Ricky.

Here the boys are barely recognizable under an array of disguises that include fat suits, ladies wigs, super-hero tights, bee costumes, and a gruesome prosthetic tongue.

The show is set in the fictional community of Port Cockerton, with regular characters including a century-old mob boss and his buffoonish offspring, a trio of outlandish gay radio DJs, and a group of degenerate pirates.

As expected, foul-mouthed tirades and grotesque humour abounds.

"The show is not for everybody," admits Smith, wary that the ambitious premise is a risk.

"We're probably going to gain fans and maybe lose some fans that were maybe diehard 'Trailer Park Boys' fans. We'll just have to see."

Influences here come from the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," Monty Python, "The League of Gentlemen" and "Mr. Show with Bob and David," he says.

Wells, Tremblay and Smith -- who write, produce and star in the series -- also experiment liberally with genre and visual style.

Second World War "sandwich soldiers" are depicted in grainy black-and-white, '50s cops appear in the muted tones of early colour TV, and the mobsters show up only in letterbox form.

Smith says the trio invented a stable of wild personas over the years and were waiting for some kind of platform to showcase them.

"We would just always be making up different characters and when it came time to do a new show we were like, 'What are we going to do?"' he says.

"And then we said, 'Let's do all the characters. Let's just come up with a premise that allows us to incorporate all of these bizarre characters we've been thinking of doing over the past number of years."'

Joining in the lunacy are guest stars including Amy Sedaris as the show's pill-popping boss, Jay Baruchel as an over-zealous soldier named Private Prosciutto and an ambulance driver called Falcon, and the late Maury Chaykin as the crazed Dr. Funtime, who unleashes the powerful drug.

Chaykin died last summer not long after filming his part.

"We could only get him for three or four days and he came down and he was just pure genius, it was definitely some of the best stuff we've ever seen him do," says Wells.

"I think Maury just loved acting so much," adds Smith. "It was amazing to watch him go from visibly weak on set to just when it was time to roll he would just turn into Dr. Funtime."

"Trailer Park" alum John Dunsworth and Patrick Roach also appear in the new show.

Despite the sharp turn in a new direction, Tremblay admits the trio are still strongly attached to their "Trailer Park" identities.

He says they continue to tour a live version of the dope-loving ne'er-do-wells and are thrilled to see a reinvigorated fanbase here and in the U.S. thanks to Netflix.

"The tour with 'Trailer Park Boys' is more just to give something back to the fans," says Tremblay, who also revived the characters for a self-titled film in 2006 and a 2009 followup.

"There are so many fans out there, especially down in the States and around the world that just want to see more 'Trailer Park Boys' and it's the only format available to them right now."

Still, Smith says the trio are working on a slew of new projects, including a proposed docu-reality series called "The Liquor Men" -- in which Smith, Tremblay and Wells each start their own liquor brand and compete to see who is the most successful -- and "Tripping with Lee," described as a man-vs-food travel series, except with drugs.

They're also keen to develop their own TV channel called Swearnet, where foul language would fly freely. The trio is in the midst of assembling possible content and would likely start streaming online before hitting the small screen, says Smith.

Getting permission to drop four-letter invectives on "Drunk and on Drugs" was a constant struggle, even on the more permissive network Action, says Tremblay, who recounts negotiating the actual number and type of profanities allowed per episode.

"Drunk and on Drugs" was originally slated to air on Showcase, where "Trailer Park Boys" ran seven seasons until 2008. Smith notes a recent overhaul resulted in a much tamer network than when they last appeared on TV.

"The Drunk and on Drugs Happy Funtime Hour" airs on Action at 9 p.m. ET.