It most certainly was not developed outside the Hollywood mindset. Written, cast and created in Hollywood by the Levy's, who split their time between Toronto and... you guessed it! Hollywood. It's as Hollywood as it gets, it just so happens to feature Canadians who claim with almost zero reference within the show that it's "Canadian," as if that separates it from the cultural norms of America that it continuously touts (including constant references to "going back" to American cities where they clearly have long histories.