Possum Lodge crew bids adieu
After 15 seasons, Red Green Show tapes last episode Favourite guests in finale that will screen in April
“ This is the last time I’ll put on Red Green’s clothes,” vowed Steve Smith. On Saturday night, before an invitated crowd, Smith rang the curtain down on taping The Red Green Show, one of Canada’s most successful TV comedy series. The farewell season is airing Fridays at 7 p. m. on CBC- TV. The last show is set for April.
It was a night for tears, thankyous and sentiment as the boys of Possum Lodge trotted out for the last time their merry mix of slapstick, one- liners and wacky situations.
“ Not bad for a series cancelled four times,” a more subdued Smith said earlier in the week in his cubbyhole of an office at Showline Harbourside Studios. The record 15 seasons and 300 episodes “ was due entirely to the fans. On a Saturday night taping, we get people driving in from the U.S. just to catch a glimpse of Possum Lodge.” But Smith says, “ I’m 60. I just need a break. It’s been awful for my wife Morag. I’m never around. I figure after six months of solitude I might be doing something else for our company. Right now I intend giving Red as big a send- off as possible.” Smith said he decided two years ago to end the series.
“ The cast and crew have been together a long time. They had to look for other jobs. So I signed a two- year deal with CBC for 18 shows last year and 19 this year, and the total would be 300. It’s an amazing number for a Canadian show.” Red Green first appeared as a solitary character on the old Hamilton CHCH TV series Smith and Smith
( 1978- 87). “ And Red didn’t really work at first because I was then too young to play him. Also he was one- dimensional, he needed his nephew Harold beside him. He could be as nasty as all get out to Harold, but Harold would always reply with a real zinger.”
According to Smith, he needed something to do after his wife bowed out of their act to stay home and look after their teenage sons. “ I begged CHCH for just a little money and I’d do Red Green as a show. I never thought it could last more than one season because it was so specific.” To Smith’s surprise CHCH’s owners pulled the plug and he wound up making the second season at London’s CFPL, “ where we got cancelled again.” The next stop, at Global, led to more cancellations.
Looking back, Smith says the CHCH cancellation was the best thing that ever happened to him. “ I could have sued, but I finally made a deal where I’d get all the rights to Smith and Smith, the sequel Comedy Mill and Red Green for $145,000. It was a windfall for our company.
“Finally George Anthony at CBC took pity on us and we went to CBC. How often has CBC picked up a Canadian show from another network? But the strange thing is the fans understood the show from the very first moment.
“ I couldn’t have done it without Pat McKenna," Smith admints. " His creation of Harold became the heart and soul of the show. For a few years he was barely around, having moved with his family to L. A. We’d tape as much of him as we could, but he was sorely missed.” McKenna says the hardest years were 1996- 2001, while he was also co- starring in Traders as Marty Stephens. “ I’d tape this show on Wednesdays and Saturdays and do Traders the other days. I felt pooped at the end and went to L. A. But I missed Harold.”
There’s a deal brewing with CBC for Harold to be spun off next season in an animated series with McKenna and Smith contributing the voices.
Says Smith: “ Don’t forget we were the first Canadian series in space.” An American astronaut asked for a tape to be brought to the Russian space station Mir. Trapped in the Spektr module after a collision, the tape was never recovered and is presumed to be at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. Co- creator Rick Green’s slapstick “Adventures With Bill,” presented home-movie-style, was another weekly highlight. Gordon Pinsent’s compulsive liar Hap Shaughnessy remained a key laugh getter. Peter Keleghan’s teary, lonely Ranger Gord was another. Other regulars have included Paul Gross as yuppie developer Kevin Black, Graham Greene as dynamite expert Edgar Montrose and Ian Thomas as monster truck owner Dougie Franklin. Smith says parts of the set will be reassembled in a used- furniture store in Hamilton. Other artifacts, including scripts, go to the National Archives. Red Green stuff is already being peddled by PBS stations in the U. S.
Saturday night’s finale was packed with such friends as Keleghan and Leah Pinsent, Greene, Anthony, former CHCH general manager Frank DeNardis ( who first greenlighted the show) and hundreds of diehard American fans. The taping went smoothly, even though it was interrupted several times for standing ovations and a few tears. The last scene was Harold’s marriage in Possum Lodge with Red as best man. The party that followed was fun and Smith quickly changed into regular street garb. Never again would he have to wear Red’s flannel shirts and baggy trousers.