The Red Green Show

Look out! This show has supplied me life-saving laughs since the early 90s. I feel so lucky to have on tape nearly every episode, from the very beginning of the series - when old Red was so clean-cut and young that you can hardly recognize him as Steve Smith.

It definitely has lost its edge in the last couple of years, but the rustic humor is still pure. They just seem to be out new ideas for the Bill segments, The Experts and the Word Game.

I can't think of any other show or movie that could match this, in its style of humor and its near-accidental staging. This kind of show only comes along once. The way it's staged, it could have been a great live hit in the earliest days of TV.

It's more than likely that I love this show because it talks about people like me, who'll use duct-tape to fix a machine I depend on my life for, because it's easier than drilling holes and setting bolts.

No show that I'm aware of has done so much to celebrate men, even though the show mostly ridicules them. I'm sorry to see how much it's degenerated, in the last season, but you can only come up with so many believably outrageous (or is it outrageously believable) stunts.

I don't know from whence the concept originated, but I'll always love Steve Smith and Pat McKenna for giving me a show about myself, and the people I know.

I used to think that "The Red Green Show" was stupid, but as I watched more episodes I caught on to how great this show is. It really does a superb job of poking fun at the "male bonding" craze that was going on in the 1990's and the entirely male cast represent all sorts of hilarious stereotypes of manhood. They do it so well and it always makes me laugh. And hard at that, too.

Steve Smith portrays Red Green, the leader of the Possum Lodge that's 135 beer stores away from Toronto. His mis-adventures mostly involve the goings-on in his lodge with real and fictionally members of his fraternity. Smith delivers a great performance as the grizzled "King of Men" but it's Patrick McKenna's Harold, Green's nephew that steals most of the episodes. McKenna's character is a nerdy but loveable bumbler who always flashes those pearly whites, has hilarious mannerisms, and just shines with his lack of aloofness. Plenty of recurring characters shine in this series. Co-creator Rick Green's ode to Harp Marx/Teller in the Green narrated "Adventures With Bill" are always a hoot, as Bill always seems to be abused by Red AND Murphy's Law. Gordon Pinsent's compulsive liar/tall tale teller Hap Shaughnessy, Oscar-nominated actor Graham Greene's explosive specialist Edgar Montross, and Peter Keleghan's lonely teary-eyed Ranger Gord are just three of the hilarious people Red interacts with.

Don't forget those classic "Handyman's Corner" segments where his "Handyman's secret weapon" (Duct tape) is always regularly abused; they rule. The Red Green Show, along with Absolutely Fabulous, are two sitcoms that Americans need to watch to understand why some people think that American sit-coms have lost their touch.

I think that the Red Green Show is always nonstop laughs, no matter the date of the episode. As long as it keeps going as it is (maybe if Bill comes back?), then it will be the top Canadian humour show!

I always love the Handyman Corner, the possum lodge Word Game, and ESPECIALLY the Ranger Gord cartoons... Harold is funny, even as a beaver... even that sound he makes. I can imitate that sound. Wahahhhh!

I've seen many mixed responses to this show. Frankly, I think it's awesome, but that's just me. The thing is that you need to realize that this is a scripted show: it follows a set pattern, which may change with the season (e.g. some seasons don't have Ranger Gord's little cartoons), but it's still a stage production and therefore is limited somewhat by the locations it shows (we never really go outside the lodge or into Possum Lake town).

Also, for some parts of this show, you need to turn your brain off. Just do it; it's healthy in moderation. So what if most of the Handyman Corner stuff is physically impossible? Most of it works IN THEORY, and considering Possum Lodge, that's good enough.

There are parts of this show that rock and parts that are mediocre. Ranger Gord is always funny, and the Experts Portion of the Show (where men examine those three little words men find so hard to say: "I Don't Know!") is also worth a peek. My sister loves Adventures with Bill/Walter/Etc.; I think they're okay but not worthy of such high worship. That's one problem with conglomerations: you get a lot of variety, not always a good thing.

In summary, should you ever be vacationing Up North, check this out. If it's not your kettle of fish, it'll only be 22 minutes of your time wasted. You probably waste more waking up.

7/10. I would rate higher, but it IS a TV show and it may change - possibly for the worse.

As you know I'm Canadian, and very proud of it, we have quite a few popular musicians and a couple big name comedians, and we have a couple of TV shows that make it big. One of those TV shows is "The Red Green Show". I remember watching the very first episode of Red Green, and I loved the show. It is very funny, and the cast is hilarious. The show is about a guy, Red Green (Steve Smith) who holds a meeting every day at the Possum Lodge, that's where the show takes place. Every show Red Green teaches the audience something, whether it's lessons on life, campfire songs, or how to make something out of nothing in Handyman Corner. As well as Mr. Green there's his nephew Harold (Patrick McKenna), Dalton Humprey, Mike Hammer, Old Man Sedgwick, a bunch of others and of course Bill. I love watching Adventures with Bill, and I kind of feel sorry for him, because in every episode of Adventures with Bill, something always happens to him, or to Red Green. One of my favorite segments is Handyman Corner, because he comes up with the neatest ideas. I remember this one-time it was a Christmas episode, and Red was making an advent calendar. You'll have to see the episode, because it's hilarious.