The Red Green Show

The Red Green Show is a Canadian television comedy series. It aired on various channels in Canada from April 4, 1991 until April 7, 2006. The show was created by Canadian comedians Steve Smith and Rick Green, both of whom also served on its writing staff throughout its run. Smith played the title role of Red Green, a middle-aged handyman who runs a men's club in the fictional Ontario town of Possum Lake. Most segments feature sketch comedy where Red and the other characters directly relate a story to a live studio audience, interspersed with segments featuring Red and a variety of secondary characters. Recurring themes of the comedy include Smith's love of vintage cars and handyman projects, most of which involve duct tape.

During the show's 15 seasons, it aired across six different networks but its longest run was with its final network, CBC Television. The show has also aired in the United States on PBS. The cast of the show also appeared in a feature-length film, Duct Tape Forever, released in 2003. Reruns air on CBC Television, CTV Comedy Channel, various Public Broadcasting Service stations, and on the Red Green Channel on Roku televisions. It was produced by S&S Productions. Following the show's finale in 2006, Smith has done stand-up comedy tours in character as Red Green.

Red Green is a middle-aged, married handyman and president of the "Possum Lodge", a fictional men's club in the small northwestern Ontario town of Possum Lake. Much of the show centres around Red and the other characters attempting to fix various problems in the area or carry out projects, but their plans almost always lead to comically disastrous results thanks to Red's use of poorly thought-out shortcuts.

The show's basic concept is that of a cable television show taped in front of a live audience at Possum Lodge with multiple segments recorded at other locations. Main story points mostly occur in the lodge in front of the audience, with the primary characters relating most of the episode's events directly. Interstitial cut-scenes provide lessons and demonstrations in repair work, outdoor activities, and advice for men. Red and other characters often break the fourth wall. Some skits regularly interact with the audience, including expected verbal responses from the crowd.

The title character of The Red Green Show, Red Green (played by 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 and his wife Bernice have no children, and have been married for 25 years as of the series premiere. He is seldom seen wearing anything other than his distinctive outfit of a flannel shirt, khaki pants, suspenders (colored red and green as of Season 3), and a Canadian military field manoeuvres cap.

According to his 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, who lost his job at a bank soon afterward. 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 1979–1993 Dodge Ram cargo van, painted to resemble an opossum.

Harold (Patrick McKenna) is Red's nephew and the fictional producer and director of The Red Green Show. He is a nerd, having a significant overbite, thick glasses, and a number of verbal tics. Harold ostensibly controls the transitions between segments with a large homemade device. He is often appalled by Red and the other lodge members and he puts much effort into trying to change everyone's behaviour, usually with little or no success.

McKenna made only occasional appearances during the ninth season, and none at all during the tenth. The in-show explanation was that Harold had moved to the city to take an accounting job in a large company. When McKenna returned in the eleventh season, Harold quit that job and was hired by the town of Possum Lake to serve as its public relations specialist. At the end of the series, Harold dates and marries Bonnie (Laurie Elliott), a truck driver who shares many of his mannerisms.