The Red Green Show was a Canadian
television
comedy that aired on various
channels in Canada, with its ultimate home at
CBC Television, and on
PBS stations in the United
States, from 1991 until the series finale April 7, 2006 on CBC,
making it the longest running live-action scripted comedy in the
world. Reruns currently air on CBC Television,
The Comedy Network, and various
PBS stations. It was produced by
S&S Productions, which is owned by
Steve and
Morag Smith, and directed by William G.
Elliott.
The show
The Red Green Show is essentially a cross between a
sitcom and a
sketch comedy series, and is a parody of
home improvement,
do-it-yourself,
fishing, and other outdoors shows (particularly
The Red Fisher Show).
The plot of a typical episode is expressed through a series of
comedic sketches that are spread throughout the episode. These
sketches draw from the same single set of characters and almost
always take place inside Possum Lodge. Between the main plot
sketches are an assortment of usually unrelated segments that touch
on a variety of topics, from home improvement and marriage advice
to slapstick comedy. Throughout the fifteen seasons, none of the
cast portrayed more than one character, which is very unusual for a
sketch comedy show.
The Red Green set used for filming in
2004.
The title character,
Red Green (
Steve Smith), is a lazy Canadian
handyman who generally tries to find shortcuts to most of his
projects, trusting the vast majority of his work to
duct tape (which he calls "the handyman's secret
weapon" and the "universal adapter"). He is the president of the
Possum Lodge, a
fictional men's club in the
small
northwestern Ontario town
of
Possum Lake, near the also-fictional
town of
Port Asbestos. He and his
fellow lodge members had their own TV show (which was more or less
the show itself), in which they gave
humorous
lessons and demonstrations in repair work and outdoor activities
(such as
fishing and
camping), and advice for
men on
relating to
women, among other things. The
characters
Bob & Doug
McKenzie, from
SCTV's
Great White North sketch, are an obvious comparison and a
likely inspiration (with
Dave
Thomas, who played Doug McKenzie, appearing on an episode of
The Red Green Show along with his real life brother
Ian Thomas, as Ben
and Dougie Franklin).
The show's basic concept was that it was a
cable TV show, taped in part on a hand-held camera
by Red's nephew Harold. The show's structure evolved over time and
included several regular segments that appeared in almost every
show. These segments were interspersed with each episode's three
main plot segments, and they included such staples as the "Possum
Lodge Word Game", "Handyman Corner", and "Adventures with Bill" (a
slapstick
home movie-style sketch with a
voice-over by Red).
In "
Handyman Corner", Red attempted to demonstrate
creative and often humorous ways to tackle relatively common tasks,
such as taking out the trash or making use of derelict cars.
Memorable examples included a
paddlewheeler made out of a van on pallets and
a
revolving door, a
jetpack made from two propane tanks, a hybrid car
from recycled golf carts and satellite dishes, and a kiddie ride
made from a bar stool attached to the agitator of a
washing machine.
Green often used duct
tape in these projects; in one episode, he even tried to duct tape
the Ontario
-Quebec
border as a
potential solution to Quebec
separatism. The segment customarily concluded with the
aphorism "If the women don't find you
handsome, they should at least find you handy."
"Adventures with Bill" was a black-and-white
segment in the form of a narrated home movie, in which Red and Bill
attempted to accomplish a task, trying out a sport, or go on some
adventure, invariably leading to slapstick comedy. (Later in the
series, other characters were featured, sometimes without Red or
Bill.) Red narrated each Adventure as the action occurs.
Red also gave sage advice from behind his
fly
tying workbench, "
North of Forty", usually
talking to older men about married life or coping with changing
society ("Let's face it", he quipped in one episode, "these days,
if you're not young, you're old.") This segment always concluded
with, "Remember, I'm pulling for you. We're all in this together."
"
Buddy System" involved Red and another character
giving men advice on how to get out of a jam with their wives,
although Red was often replaced by another character in later
seasons.
"The Possum Lodge Word Game" usually appeared as
the second or third segment of the show, immediately following the
first plot segment. It was structured much like
Password and
Pyramid, in which the objective is
to get a contestant to say a certain word in thirty seconds by
giving them various clues. On this program, however, the contestant
almost always gave answers that were either way off or very odd,
through the segment (yet humorous), but finally said the correct
word by accident, usually as part of a punch line.
In earlier episodes, Red often recited small bits of
poetry in the woods, and the segments were named
depending on the season and had a humorous twist on a famous
saying. For example, a winter segment is named "
Winter of Our Discount Tent".
In many shows, Red and Harold could be seen sitting at a
campfire, with Red usually strumming a
guitar and singing an original humorous song and
Harold providing percussion and vocal accents. In later seasons,
the characters gave brief biographical sketches (consisting of
various odd historical photos accompanied by narration) of "famous"
Possum Lake residents.
Other regular segments included "
Mail Call", where
Harold would read a letter supposedly from a viewer and Red would
answer it. This evolved into "
The Experts", where
Red and another character answer alleged letters from viewers and
always give ridiculous advice; Ranger Gord's "educational" safety
cartoons (featuring
anthropomorphic animals that looked like
Red and Harold); and occasional advice segments with Dalton
Humphrey, Winston Rothschild and Mike Hamar. In the season Mike
Hamar was introduced, he would often try to help Red around the
lodge, but with humorously disastrous results. Hap Shaughnessy
appeared in many segments and always told outlandish stories about
his life, among other things, he claims to have been an
astronaut, to have invented
television and
basketball, and to have once advised
Walt Disney on how many fingers to put on
Mickey Mouse.
The show usually concluded with Red giving a message to his wife,
Bernice (usually a
double entendre),
and delivering his signature piece of life advice in the form of a
hockey metaphor: "Keep your stick on the ice." This was followed by
a general meeting of the Possum Lodge membership, which began with
the ritual stating of the Lodge motto:
"Quando omni flunkus
moritati" (
Pseudo-Latin for "When
all else fails, play dead"). From season six onward, this was often
followed by the Man's Prayer: "I'm a man, but I can change, if I
have to, I guess."
History of the show
Smith originally created the character of Red Green for his
1979–1985 sketch comedy series
Smith & Smith. The sketch was a
parody of the long-running Canadian outdoors show
The Red Fisher Show (1968–1989),
starring
BH "Red" Fisher, in which Red and his
friends would show silent films of their fishing trips with
commentary at "Scuttlebutt Lodge". The character also appeared in
Me & Max and
The Comedy Mill before becoming the
focus of his own series.
The
Red Green Show was produced first by CHCH
in Hamilton,
Ontario
, then by CFPL
in London
, then by the Global Television Network, before
finally finding its permanent home at CBC
Television for the 1997 season (its seventh) onward. The
show was renamed
The New Red Green Show upon its move to
Global, and would keep this title until its second season at
CBC.
The show ended April 7, 2006 after its 15th season with exactly 300
episodes. (This longevity inspired a joke in one episode, where Red
says "The question is, can you do anything with crap? Obviously the
answer is yes, we're in our fourteenth season.")
The last episode was filmed on November 5, 2005, at the
Showline Studios Harbourside location.
At the
time the season began taping, the Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation locked out staffers who were members of the
Canadian Media Guild, rendering
the show's regular studios at the Canadian
Broadcasting Centre
unavailable. The last episode concluded with
the show breaking the
fourth wall by
thanking the audience and fans for their popularity. In addition,
the Man's Prayer was changed to "I'm a man / but I changed /
because I had to / Oh, well."
The low-budget movie
Duct Tape
Forever (2002), was based on
The Red Green Show.
It was screened in select American theaters, but did not receive a
wide release. It has since appeared occasionally on
PBS stations during pledge drives. It is also available
on DVD.
As the show gained popularity, Steve Smith also wrote a syndicated
newspaper column, as Red Green, titled
North of 40 in
which he would give advice to readers.
In previous years, the show would stage live mini-telethons
(sometimes called "
Red Green-a-thons") for public
television stations in the United States. These usually coincided
with national PBS fundraising drives, and featured contests between
various PBS stations carrying the show. This was done to encourage
new stations to carry Red Green, for those who already have it to
continue it, and in one year Red playfully dumped stations that
chose to discontinue the show in a wheelbarrow.
Since 2000, Red Green has been the "Ambassador of Scotch Duct Tape"
for
3M.
Smith says he has no intentions of ever reprising his character,
partially because he has found it more difficult to maintain the
character's distinctive gravelly voice as well as staying
in-character. However, there is a Red Green cartoon,
Planet
Harold, a
prequel in which Harold is a
teenager living with Red (voiced by McKenna and Smith,
respectively). As of 2008, there isn't any announcement regarding
the progress.
On December 14, 2008, a retrospective special title "The Red Green
Story-We're All In This Together" aired on select PBS stations. The
special was released on DVD along with a book.
DVD releases
Acorn Media has released
The Red
Green Show on DVD in Region 1 in various incarnations.
In 2002-2003, they released six compilation DVDs, labeled as
"Stuffed and Mounted" volumes 1 through 6. Each DVD contains
episodes from various seasons of the show, up to Season 10 (the
most current season at the time these DVDs were released) however
Season 2 was for some reason not featured on any of these volumes.
Also, each episode on the "Stuffed and Mounted" DVDs features a
spoken word introduction by Steve Smith (out of character, as
evidenced by his higher pitched voice).
In 2006, they began to release the series on DVD in complete season
sets. Of note, the releases are identified by year, not season
number; thus the 7th season is labeled as "1997 Season", the 8th
season is "1998 Season", and so on. To date they have released
seasons 7-11, with the most recent being released on March 10,
2009.
[55116]
In 2010, The Red Green Show: The Infantile Years: Seasons 1991-1993
will be released including all 72 episodes from the first 3 seasons
in a 9 disc set. Extras include introductions by Steve Smith and
Red & Harold character biographies.
[55117]
Though not authorized, many sites sell a "Complete Red Green"
collection, gathering all 300 episodes (plus "Duct Tape Virtuoso
Deluxe" and "Duct Tape Forever") onto 54 DVD's.
Season Sets
Main characters
Red Green
Some of the characters that appeared
during the 2004 season of the show.
The title character of
The Red Green Show, Red (
Steve Smith) is the leader of Possum
Lodge and a self-proclaimed handyman who is constantly extolling
the virtues of
duct tape ("the handyman's
secret weapon"). He is married to Bernice Green and does not have
any children. He is seldom seen without his trademark red-and-green
suspenders.
According to Red's DVD biography, Red became the leader of Possum
Lodge after gradually becoming more involved with it over time and
becoming "the only guy nobody hated." At one point, he borrowed a
large sum of money from his brother just before his brother lost
his job. In repayment, Red employed his nephew Harold as the
producer and director of
The Red Green Show.
In addition to being a handyman, Red also has several main
philosophies in life, some of which are passed on to the lodge as a
whole. Chief among them is the phrase "Quando Omni Flunkus
Moritati" (pseudo-Latin for "When all else fails, play dead"). He
also concludes each of his Handyman Corner segments with the
phrase, "If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least
find you handy."
Red owns what is known as "the Possum Van", a 1985
Dodge Ram cargo van, painted as a grey
'possum on a pale blue background, and with
a licence plate reading simply "POSSUM". It is one of Red's few
vehicles that actually runs. It has played (and donated) many parts
in
Handyman's Corner projects.
Red's dry, often sarcastic wit is balanced by a strong sense of
camaraderie with his fellow lodge members, partly because he
directs most of his sarcasm toward Harold. Despite this, Harold and
the rest of Possum Lodge seem to regard Red with a high level of
respect, though occasionally some of the lodge members will
challenge his authority in one way or another.
Harold Green
Harold (
Patrick McKenna) is Red's
nephew and the fictional producer and director of
The Red Green
Show. He is a
nerd—he has a significant
overbite, wears thick glasses, is very eager and sensitive, and is
one of the most intelligent members of Possum Lodge. He is often
appalled by the behavior of the other lodge members (and even Red
himself), and he puts a lot of effort into trying to change
everyone's behavior, usually with little to no success.
Harold's advanced knowledge of
computers,
television and technology originally landed him the job of producer
and director of the TV show. Later in the show's history, he became
employed at Multicorp and went to work in the neighbouring town of
Port Asbestos. He later became the publicity manager for Possum
Lake, and eventually fell in love with Bonnie, a commercial truck
driver who shares nearly all of his unusual mannerisms. The two
were married in the final episode of the series.
Harold and Red spend much of their time on the show trading insults
and poking fun at each other. While they have shown they can
cooperate with one another at times, Harold is often very critical
of Red's ideas and schemes, but usually ends up going along with
them anyway.
In the movie
Duct Tape Forever, Harold is not a member of
the Possum Lodge. At the end, the brotherhood accept him and take
him in.
Dalton Humphrey
Dalton (
Bob Bainborough) is the
owner of Humphrey's Everything Store and is one of Red's best
friends. He is one of the few financially successful lodge members,
most notably because he makes up fake history for the junk he sells
in his store and fools gullible city people into thinking they're
priceless antiques and paying a fortune for them. He is also a
notorious
cheapskate. In the meantime, he
tries to conserve money as much as possible, shortchanging and
cheating people if necessary. When he isn't complaining about the
state of things at his store, he generally complains about his
troubled marriage to Ann Marie and their daughter's spending
habits. ("Thirty dollars for a pair of jeans! Can you believe
it?!")
Dalton has been with the show since season 4 and takes part in the
vast majority of the show's main storylines. He has a strong
relationship with Red, joining him on his regular fishing trips and
taking part in many aspects of the Possum Lodge operations. He also
takes his fatherhood very seriously, often trying to pass on his
ideas and wisdom to other people (most notably Harold). He
generally tells people exactly what he thinks of them, even if it
means offending them.
Ann Marie only appeared onscreen once, in the final episode where
she and Dalton renewed their wedding vows (her face was obscured by
her bridal veil), however she was sometimes seen in shadow in
scenes set near their home (her voice was provided by
Jennifer Irwin). Their daughter, Tabitha,
appeared in the film
Duct Tape
Forever although there she goes by the name Mandy.
Mike Hamar
Mike (
Wayne Robson) is a career
criminal who joined Possum Lodge while on parole from federal
prison. He has become another of Red's best friends and often tries
to help out around the Lodge, though he is not very good at
handyman tasks in general. He talks a lot about his troubled
childhood—mostly about his mother (an
exotic dancer) and many fathers. Mike suffers
from low self-esteem and poor planning, usually causing those
around him to try to cheer him up again. ("No, that's okay Mike.
The wall looks good with the hole in it.") He is the only character
who regularly refers to Red as "Mr. Green." As revealed in the
final episode, Mike eventually becomes a police officer, causing
the crime rate to plummet... since he now has a full-time
job.
Winston Rothschild, III
Winston (
Jeff Lumby) is the owner and
sole employee of Rothschild's Sewage and Septic Sucking Services.
Like Dalton and Mike, Winston is one of Red Green's friends and
takes part in the day-to-day operations at Possum Lodge. He is
always seen wearing a
hard hat, a white
button-down shirt, a bowtie and hip waders. He is generally upbeat
and has a positive outlook on life, and is usually able to look on
the bright side of things even in the face of certain disaster. He
is also a fan of
self help speakers
Anthony Anthony (whom he likes to quote) and Walter Mollusk.
A true entrepreneur, Winston describes sewage and septic sucking as
his lifelong dream. He owns his own equipment and a septic
truck—apparently his only means of transportation, even on his
usually unsuccessful dates. Throughout the series, he appears in a
wide variety of commercials advertising his septic sucking
business, almost always with a humorous quip ("We're number one in
the number two business"; "We'll take that smell off your
hands";"We come in a truck and leave in a day" etc.). In later
episodes, his commercials tend to parody the advertising campaigns
of numerous Canadian companies.
Secondary characters
The following are some of the show's secondary characters who have
appeared frequently on the show, but are usually not integral to
the show's plot-lines.
Bill Smith
Bill (
Rick Green) is the star of the
"Adventures with Bill" segment, in which he and at least one other
character (usually Red) attempt to perform relatively simple tasks
or try a sport or game in the clumsiest, most accident-prone way
possible. (These segments are done in a silent home-movie format
with a voiceover by Red, which, interestingly, seems to switch back
and forth between past and present tense.) Bill rarely actually
speaks, and has only appeared on the main set of the show in the
second season (still silently) and in the series' final
episode—these are also the only times Bill is ever seen in colour,
since the "Adventures" segments are shown in black & white. In
some segments, Bill can be heard speaking in gibberish, but the
explanation for not hearing him clearly is usually that the camera
they use for these segments has a weak microphone. Later in the
show's history, the "Adventures with Bill" segment was expanded to
include more characters and not necessarily Bill himself.
In each "Adventures" segment in which Bill appears, he usually
attempts to do something of an outdoors nature, such as
backpacking, building something, chopping down a tree, or playing a
sport. Each of his actions are basically slapstick comedy
routines—for example, when he swings an axe, it flies out of his
hands and smashes into another character or Red's Possum Van. In
what has become a classic occurrence, Bill often manages to knock
the side mirrors, or one of them, off the van. He can also store
large tools and miscellaneous items in his overalls, and
pull them out on demand. Many segments show Bill
getting hurt somehow, but apparently not seriously or permanently.
(One segment in particular ends with Bill's arms crushed and
flattened in a grape press.) There is generally no continuity from
one "Adventures" segment to the next, and Bill comes back in the
following episode good as new.
Ranger Gord
Ranger Gord (
Peter Keleghan) is the
local
forest ranger who spends almost
all of his time alone in Fire Watch Tower 13, and, later in the
series, Tower 3. His full name is Gordon Ranger, but he prefers not
to be called "Ranger Ranger." He is always seen wearing his ranger
outfit (which he apparently launders using only a blow dryer), and
he finds various eccentric ways to pass his time, even while Red is
visiting. For example, he has been seen making nature-sounds tapes
by mimicking animal noises into a tape recorder, and he claims to
use baked beans as his alarm clock. In one episode, he even is
found by Red to be hibernating.
Gord has worked in his watch tower for more than eighteen years
without a paycheck, and claims to have been a forest ranger his
entire life. His apparent reason for becoming a ranger was that he
thought
Smokey Bear was talking directly
to him in one of his famous public service announcements ("Only you
can prevent
forest fires"). He
frequently breaks out in tears during Red's visits as he talks
about how lonely he is and/or how much of a sacrifice he makes at
his job. During one visit, Gord claimed to have gotten so lonely
that he ate the watch tower, then later moved on to another tower
in season 7. Gord sometimes laments about his lack of recognition.
Once, he thought that someone had left him some honorary
medallions, only to learn from Red that they were
beer bottle caps (Gord
thought that a
Budweiser cap was for being
a "bud of the forest"). On another occasion, Gord justified his
lack of communication with his superiors as a sign that he is doing
a "good job protecting the forest," to which Red suggested that his
superiors most likely forgot about him.
Later in the series (seasons 9 to 13, between 1999 and 2004),
Ranger Gord made a series of 23 short "educational" cartoons about
the environment. Written, animated, produced, directed and voiced
by Gord himself, these films always feature an animated version of
Gord as a muscle-bound super-hero type, and Red and Harold Green
make appearances as a
'possum and beaver,
respectively. (Dalton and Mike also appear in one short, depicted
as a bear and a raccoon, respectively.) The cartoons' subjects have
included finding money at the end of a rainbow, planting a cell
phone to grow a telephone pole, and a fire fight against the Sun
and its deadly
ultraviolet rays.
(The cartoons were actually written by staff writers, starting with
Shaun Graham who wrote the six original shorts. All 23 shorts were
designed, directed and animated by
Bryce
Hallett of Frog Feet Productions.)
The
original fire watch tower shown in seasons 1–2 was the treehouse in
Steve Smith's backyard in Hamilton, Ontario that he had put up for his sons.
From
seasons 3–6, it was filmed in an actual watch tower (in reality,
located at Port
Carling
, Ont.). By season 8, it was a set. Gord
appeared in the Lodge during season 7, saying that he had eaten the
front two legs of the tower and caused it to fall over. In the
movie
Duct Tape Forever,
the tower had burned down and Ranger Gord was then in charge of a
train station.
Edgar K. B. Montrose
Edgar Montrose (
Graham Greene)
is Possum Lodge's explosives enthusiast. He believes that any
problem (including leaky roofs and invasive weeds) can be solved
with explosives. He is usually seen wearing singed overalls, a
cracked construction helmet and a pair of ear protectors, though he
rarely covers his ears with them.
According to himself, Edgar was born in
Assiniboia,
Saskatchewan
, and he started using explosives at a young
age. He later enlisted in the Army and was dishonourably
discharged after only three weeks, when he blew up the main office
("turns out they were only
thinking of building a new
one").
Edgar's heavy use of explosives over the years has caused him to
lose most of his hearing. As he says, "What doesn't kill you, makes
you hard of hearing." This often leads to nonsensical responses to
questions. (For example, Red asks him, "What have you brought for
us today, Edgar?" and Edgar responds, "Oh, just fine, Red.") He is
also missing a finger on his left hand, though the story of how he
lost it changes each time he tells it. He claims not to have many
friends, and according to his DVD biography, he has "yet to meet a
woman that likes to spend a Saturday night watching [him] blow a
fully grown Douglas Fir tree clean over the lake."
Edgar's middle initials, K.B., are rumored to stand for "Ka Boom!",
his favourite catchphrase.
His favourite movie is The Bridge on
the River Kwai
, saying, "Did you see that baby go up at the
end?"
After seeing the movie
Dances
With Wolves, Edgar thought that the "native guy" (Kicking
Bird) should have received an
Oscar for
his role. (Graham Greene played both roles.)
Hap Shaughnessy
Hap Shaughnessy (
Gordon Pinsent) is
the water-taxi captain of Possum Lake, but he is much better known
at Possum Lodge for his tall tales. In virtually every appearance
he makes on the show, he makes a ridiculous claim to have been a
significant person in history, or to have accomplished some
incredible feat. Nobody else on the show believes him, but he will
go to great lengths to tell his stories anyway. For example, he has
claimed that he invented
basketball while
working undercover for the
CIA, that he once filled in for
Keith Richards of the
Rolling Stones, and that he even fought a
whale for "ten, twenty months." In one episode, it is hinted that
he lies about his past because he has a poor self-image.
Hap is always seen wearing a
Royal Canadian Regiment baseball
cap, which is a nod to Pinsent's own military service as a soldier
in the Regiment during the early 1950s.
Ed Frid
Ed Frid (
Jerry Schaefer) is the
animal control officer of
Possum Lake. Ironically, he is deathly afraid of almost all animals
and believes they are out to get him. (He is most afraid of
hamsters—"They're evil. E-vil.") He is featured on
The Red
Green Show in the "Talking Animals" segment, in which Red
tries to get Ed to show the audience a small animal, such as a
weasel or a leech. Invariably, something goes wrong and causes Ed
to panic, usually bringing an abrupt and comedic end to the
segment.
Minor characters
Throughout its fifteen-season run,
The Red Green Show
sported a cast of well over forty secondary and minor characters,
ranging from fellow Possum Lodge members, to single guest
appearances and even audience members appearing on the set. The
cast, while primarily male, did include occasional female
characters as well, including network executive Kelly Cook
(
Stephanie Beard) and Anne-Marie
Humphrey (
Jennifer Irwin), Dalton's
wife.
PBS Airing Notes
During Season 12,
SDPB aired the final
episodes of that year before Canada did. This was because at that
time SDPB aired Red Green five days per week.
See also
References
- CBC.ca Arts - Red Green says goodbye to Possum
Lodge
- 3M Canada Press Box
- Shaun Graham Bio[1]Wild Sound
- Animation Unleashed: 100 Principles Every Animator, Comic Book
Writer, Filmmaker, Video Artist, and Game Developer Should Know, by
Ellen Besen, 2008 Michael Wiese Productions, Studio City,CA ISBN
978-1-932907-49-0, p225
- CBC television interview for Life & Times. See
http://www.cbc.ca/lifeandtimes/smith.html
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