MINCING WORDS

Corner Gas: The Movie is in theatres from Dec. 3 to 7, with CTV, Movie Network, and Comedy Network broadcasts to follow. AHEAD OF CORNER GAS: THE MOVIE, creator-star Brent Butt chats with

Zoomer’s Mike

Crisolago. When CG wrapped in 2009, Butt knew he’d like to make a film “We had to consider the timing of it because if you do it too soon, what’s the point? And if you do it too far away, it’s kind of old and sad and weird … Five years feels

like a nice, right amount of time.” He can’t quite pinpoint what made the show so popular “We kind of operated under the assumption that nobody’s going to watch this thing anyway … so all we can do is make a show that we’re actually proud of. And I think people responded to that authenticity.” There’s a “lost” CG storyline “Bob Newhart would play my grandfather – Oscar’s dad. And when we find out he’s coming to town, Oscar’s very uptight because he says his father’s a real hard ass. And then when Bob Newhart shows up, he’s super mellow. And Oscar’s still railing against him: ‘Why don’t you get off my back!’ We just couldn’t make it come together.”

Character/series arcs were a no-no “Nobody learns anything on this show, and nothing changes. [Laughs] There’s no growth. They end up as they started.” When starting out, he “envisioned” his success “Envision? Yes. Expect it? Not really. [Laughs] The things that I envisioned were bigger. I envisioned playing stadiums and going from gig to gig in my personal helicopter. I have a tremendous capacity to envision things …”