origin

Based on the first book of tragicomic memoirs by David Robert Loblaw published in 2018 and a finalist at the 2019 Sask Book Awards.

​The book website, with excerpts and photos, at DavidGGrade3.com.

​genre

​Dark comedy / coming-of-age / period series

​synopsis

​The story starts with David, a Bible-loving Catholic school child, whose tidy world unravels when he realizes the adults around him truly believe every word of the Bible — from a talking snake, a global flood, wandering zombies, a guy inside a whale, and angels sleeping with human women to create giants.

At first, David is confused. Then he gets terrified. Surely, they can’t be serious. The Catholic Catechism is just wonderful, exciting stories, but as he looks around him, he finds himself alone in his thoughts. With his intense love of the stories and his total lack of faith in their supposed divine origin, there must be something wrong with him.

​Each episode blends period nostalgia with surreal humour, exploring themes of indoctrination, imagination, and the absurdity of absolute faith. The show uses the innocent eyes of a child to examine the madness of certainty — a world where divine truth and human folly are indistinguishable.

format

30-40 minute television series of 8 episodes with 1 season arc

theme

David G Grade 3 balances dark comedy and heartfelt sincerity, capturing the absurdity of blind faith through the innocent eyes of a child. The tone is warm yet unsettling — nostalgic moments of quiet panic and moral confusion. It invites audiences to laugh, wince, and remember what it felt like to discover the world isn’t as simple — or as holy — as we were told.

tone

It balances absurd humour and emotional truth — the comedy comes not from cruelty or mockery, but from the earnest contradictions of people trying to make sense of faith, fear, and community. The humour is gentle yet unsettling — rooted in faith, fear, and the blurry line between spiritual awe and social delusion. The audience should feel both nostalgic and unsettled, caught between fond memory and quiet unease.

characters

Major:

• David G, 8 year old boy
• Sister Margaret, traditional nun in full habit
• Ape, David’s big brother, 12 years old
• Mom, David’s mother, late-thirties
• Yvette, David’s big sister, 17 years old

Minor:

• Classmates, overflowing classroom of eight year olds
• Father Holler, traditional priest
• Louis, David’s big brother, 18 years old
• Church-goers, large families
• Movie-goers, hundreds of wild children

episodes

​Pilot: Sister Margaret

• David is horrified to meet the infamous nun, but soon eagerly awaits her end of-day strappings.

Episode 2: Jesus Christ in our Gym

• His brother tries to make Christ appear by blowing out the Sanctuary Lamp.

Episode 3: First Communion

• David receives the Body of Christ in his mouth for the first time and is shocked how dry it is.

Episode 4: Lying to a Priest in Confession

• Flustered at his First Confession, David commits the sin of lying.

Episode 5: There Ain’t No Saint Bob

• His big sister is pressuring him to choose Bob (Dylan) as his Confirmation Name.

Episode 6: My First Drink of Blood

• He gets to witness the miracle of wine turning into blood but misses the big moment.

Episode 7: Limbo and Playing with Yourself

• David is saddened when he learns babies who die without Catholic baptism are tortured forever.

Episode 8: Get Into Heaven Free Card

• Going to Mass and Confession for nine consecutive weeks earns him a ‘Heaven Holy Card.’ 

visual style

​The goal is to create a world that looks comforting but feels off-kilter, reflecting the story’s moral and psychological unease – as if reality were filtered through the boy’s anxious imagination.

comparable

• The Wonder Years - nostalgia and narration (with a touch of existential dread)
• Angela’s Ashes – the funny parts
• After Hours - existential anxiety

setting

​Mid-to-late 1960s in a small community on the Canadian prairies.

sets / locations

​Major:

• Grade school in 1960s Canada: classrooms, gym, and playground
• Low-income housing project: interior of David’s home and outside play areas
• Small church in Regina Saskatchewan

Minor:

• Cathedral in Ponteix Saskatchewan
• Large, old cemetery 
• Hundred-year-old movie theatre
• Catholic summer camp

target audience

Boomers (and younger) anxious to see their childhoods on television. “Nostalgia isn’t what it used to be” will be the rallying cry for the series.

the writer

David Robert Loblaw grew up in small-town Saskatchewan, surrounded by people whose faith was absolute and whose curiosity was absent. David G Grade 3 is his attempt to revisit that world — not to mock it, but to understand it.

​Based on his first book of memoirs, this is emotional truth disguised as comedy — a way to laugh at the things that once terrified him, and maybe still do.

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Read excerpts, see videos and photos on the book website at:
DavidGGrade3.com

Series based on first book of memoirs by David Robert Loblaw published by Cameron House Media

David in back row, far right

Father Holler and David, First Communion, 1966

David's mom, First Communion, 1937

David's sister, First Communion, 1957.

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