TORONTO – Canadian-born TV writer Andrew Orenstein had been working in Hollywood for well over a decade by the time he was invited to work on his first Canuck series, but it wasn’t his northern roots that got him the gig.

The veteran writer from “3rd Rock from the Sun” and “Malcolm in the Middle” was tasked with injecting “a U.S. feel” into CBC’s newlywed sitcom “18 to Life,” about a teenage couple and their overbearing parents.