By KATE TAYLOR, The Globe and Mail

In an Ottawa lab, two government agents are submitting a piece of pizza to rigorous computerized testing – until one of them gives up and just eats the day-old slice. Its tandoori flavour can mean only one thing: It’s the Bombay Burn from Sanjay’s Real Italian. The pair rush over to the pizzeria and attempt to extract information from an obstructionist employee by threatening to kill her with a plastic pizza protector.

The CBC is hoping you will find this funny. It’s a scene from InSecurity, the new Canadian sitcom that launches Jan. 4. The spy and crime shows that it mocks – CSI, 24 and The Border – are ubiquitous, but the TV spy spoof has rarely put in an appearance since the days of Get Smart back in the 1960s.

No matter: Sitcoms are hot these days – the U.S. show The Big Bang Theory is currently the most-watched series in Canada – and Canadian TV producers are ranging far and wide in their search for funny ideas.

“We wanted to shake it up a bit; it’s not as classic as Corner Gas,” says Virginia Thompson, an executive producer on both that long-running former CTV series and InSecurity.

CON'D

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