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Corner Gas

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Corner Gas
File:Corner Gas DVD.jpg
Canadian DVD release of Corner Gas' first season. Rear, left to right: Janet Wright, Eric Peterson, Fred Ewanuick, Gabrielle Miller, Tara Spencer-Nairn, Nancy Robertson, Lorne Cardinal. Front: Brent Butt.
Created byBrent Butt
StarringBrent Butt, Gabrielle Miller, Fred Ewanuick, Eric Peterson, Janet Wright, Lorne Cardinal, Tara Spencer-Nairn, Nancy Robertson
Opening theme"Not A Lot Goin' On" by Craig Northey and Jessie Valenzuela
Ending theme"My Happy Place" by Craig Northey
Country of originCanada
Production
Executive producersBrent Butt, David Storey, Virginia Thompson
Running time30 minutes
Original release
NetworkCTV
ReleaseJanuary 22, 2004 –
present

Corner Gas is a Canadian situation comedy which has aired on CTV and The Comedy Network since 2004. Deriving its name from the roadside gas station located in the fictional town of Dog River, the series revolves around life in small-town Saskatchewan. It has been compared to Seinfeld for its dry sense of humour and its plots that are "about nothing," and to Scrubs for its use of surreal escapism through characters' thoughts.

Overview

Corner Gas is the only gas station for 60 kilometres in any direction (according to the first season episode "The Taxman"). Brent Leroy is the proprietor of the station and Wanda works at the station's convenience store as a retail assistant. An adjoining coffee shop (The Ruby) is owned by Lacey Burrows.

The series was created by Canadian comedian Brent Butt who came up with the idea for the series after wondering what his life would be like if he hadn't pursued stand-up comedy (he would still be in a small town in Saskatchewan pumping gas). With the exception of the first season finale and second season premiere episodes, which are linked, most other Corner Gas episodes are standalone storylines that can be viewed in virtually any order, though occasional incidental references to previous episodes can be found, particularly in the second and subsequent seasons.

The first episode of Corner Gas aired on January 22, 2004 and attracted 1.2 million viewers. It became an instant hit and has never gone below the million-viewer mark. The first season consisted of 13 episodes. Less than two months after the first episode aired, CTV renewed it for a second season of 18 episodes. The first season was released on DVD in Canada on October 19, 2004. In keeping with the theme of the series, each DVD set included a coupon good for a free coffee at Petro-Canada service stations. The second season was released on DVD on September 27, 2005, and features the distinction of being one of the few regular TV series whose DVD box set includes described video for the visually impaired. The season three DVD was released on October 3, 2006. Unlike the previous sets, the third season DVD set is presented in anamorphic widescreen.

The series is filmed at Canada/Saskatchewan Production Studios in Regina, Saskatchewan, and on location in Regina and Rouleau, Saskatchewan. It is produced by Prairie Pants Productions in association with CTV.

In late September 2004, to promote the start of the second season, the cast members of Corner Gas travelled to cities across Canada where they pumped gas at local service stations for the day (the fuel being provided to motorists free of charge). By the halfway point of the promotion more than 40,000 litres of free gasoline had been pumped.

Brent's main co-writers are 22 Minutes writer Mark Farrell, Paul Mather, Kevin White and Andrew Carr.

The American distribution rights have been acquired by Arthur Hasson’s Multi-Platform Distribution Co. (MPDC) for syndication to US broadcast stations, and to US cable. The show is being sold on a cash-plus-barter basis to broadcast stations, while it will be offered to cable on an all-cash basis. [1]

The fourth season began airing on CTV on September 18, 2006.

Characters

Main cast

  • Brent Leroy (Brent Butt) is the comic book-reading proprietor of Corner Gas. He is almost always good-natured but with a tendency to fixate on minor details. In the third season it is revealed that he's a talented cartoonist. He also claims that he has "shirt powers" and good shirts "just come to him." He's also a fan of adventure fiction such as The Saint and The Executioner. He has diplomatic immunity as the town's good will ambassador, and is attracted to Lacey. After mocking a radio host who stopped at Corner Gas, he was turned into a dimwitted character on his radio show, Dog River Dave.
  • Lacey Burrows (Gabrielle Miller) is originally from Toronto, Ontario. She took over The Ruby coffee shop in Dog River after the death of her aunt and is perpetually trying to fit into small town life, with mixed results. She's a terrible liar, and is not the best at math. Lacey also has an aptitude for executing clever schemes. This is shown in the second season episode “Hero Sandwich” wherein Brent compares her to Professor Moriarty after she successfully tricks Dog River residents into not buying her club sandwich. She is attracted to Brent, though she would passionately deny this.
  • Hank Yarbo (Fred Ewanuick) is Brent's perpetually unemployed best friend and most-likely candidate for village idiot. Often seen working at Brent's service station (including the opening credits) but he does not seem to be employed there as of season 3 as he's shown working at jobs like town accountant, newspaper delivery and crossing guard duty. He apparently slept with Karen after he took her fishing. His mother lives in Saskatoon, and his favorite food is Pop Rocks. He once constructed a detailed scale model of Dog River out of Lego.
  • Wanda Dollard (Nancy Robertson) is a retail assistant at Corner Gas, and possibly the smartest person in town (or at least she makes it seem). A single mom, she has a son named Tanner (who is six years old in the first season, which would logically take place in 2003; he would likely be at least eight by the third season, assuming that the show takes place in real time) who regularly terrorizes babysitters. Wanda has earned the nickname "Little Sally Smarty Pants" among her peers.
  • Oscar Leroy (Eric Peterson) is Brent's sarcastic and obstinate father and former owner of Corner Gas, now retired. His all-purpose word is "jackass" and he often demands that the Dog River police arrest everyone who annoys him. He frequently and belligerently points out that, "My taxes pay your salary!" He sometimes gets it wrong. At one point he bursts in to the police station and exlaims, "HEY!I pay your taxes!"
  • Emma Leroy (Janet Wright) is Brent's mother, and the brains/muscle of the family. She usually ends up having to deal with the fallout of Oscar's actions, although she does truly love him. She has also found it hard to "let go" of Brent, and reacts badly when someone else appears to replace her in some aspect of his life (for example, in the fourth season opener, she declares war on Karen when she sees Karen cutting Brent's hair, something Emma had been doing since Brent was a child).
  • Sergeant Davis Quinton (Lorne Cardinal) is the overly sensitive senior police officer in Dog River, who has a habit of mis-spending the police budget. He is obsessed with comic books, Cosmopolitan Magazine, retro-TV and classic cartoon shows; and is a Science Fiction aficionado. He believes that Battlestar Galactica may have happened. "Block Party" suggests he might have once competed in rhythmic gymnastics. Has a collection of original Hardy Boys books.
  • Constable Karen Pelly (Tara Spencer-Nairn) is the ambitious and sometimes neurotic junior police officer in Dog River. She apparently slept with Hank after he took her fishing. Before becoming a police officer, she ranked fifth in Canada in the sport of static apnea (holding one's breath underwater), with a personal best of more than six minutes. She is at least ten years younger than most other characters on the show (they graduated from high school in 1986 and she mentioned still being in high school in 1996).

Recurring characters

  • Fitzy Fitzgerald (Cavin Cunningham) is the mayor of Dog River. He tends to take his position very seriously. His surname was assumed by many to be Jenson, because his grandmother was referred to as "Mrs. Jenson." However, the façade on his office door in the episode "Lost and Found" reveals it to be Fitzgerald. He is a bit paranoid and thinks that anyone will do anything for the position of mayor.
  • Wes Humboldt (Mike O'Brien) owns and operates the Liquor and Insurance store in town. His father died saving his entire platoon in the Korean War, although everyone told Wes that he ran off to join the circus.
  • Paul Kinistino (Mark Deiter) is the bartender at the Dog River Hotel. In the episode "Cell Phone", he replaced the shuffleboard game in the bar with a claw game, to which Oscar became addicted. He apparently speaks a little bit of Cree and went to high school with Brent, Wanda and Hank. In "Friend of a Friend", he claimed to have a Masters degree in history.

The surnames of all Dog River residents (with the exception of Fitzy) are names of small towns in Saskatchewan.

Notable guest stars

Corner Gas is known for attracting notable Canadian actors and politicians to appear either as guest stars or in gag cameos.

Dog River

Dog River has a population of 450. The exact location of the town in Saskatchewan has yet to be established. According to the Corner Gas tagline, it is 40 kilometres from nowhere, but still within a relatively short drive to Regina since characters are often shown going into the city to shop or attend "support meetings" (in the case of Davis). The rival town of Wullerton is apparently 'just down the road.' It is stated in the episode "The Taxman" that Corner Gas is the only gas station for 60 kilometres in any direction. Series creator Brent Butt has said the town lies somewhere between Regina and Saskatoon; these two cities are 257 kilometres apart, so this fact does not contradict anything said on the series. In fact, the term "The City" has been used at various times in the series to refer to either Regina or Saskatoon. The third season episode, "Fun Run", has one character drive to Weyburn for a lark, suggesting Dog River is probably closer to Regina than it is to Saskatoon.

The town has its own newspaper, The Dog River Howler (usually just called the Howler), which almost everybody has contributed to at one point or another. It is usually very inaccurate. The town has only one gas station, Corner Gas. The Ruby Café is the only real restaurant in the town, though residents also enjoy going to the pub in the local hotel. The town also has its own miniature golf course, and is one of the relatively few towns in Saskatchewan to still have a grain elevator, although plans (later abandoned) were made to demolish it during the first season.

A police force consisting of two officers keeps the peace in Dog River, though most of the time their duties consist of chasing vermin away from farms and using their radar guns to clock the flying speed of sparrows (which can apparently do 40 km/h).

The residents of Dog River have a pathological dislike of the residents of Wullerton, a neighbouring town, to the point that they spit whenever the rival town is mentioned (they are so used to it they sometimes do not realize it when they spit). The reason for this has yet to be explained. Publicity for the second season indicated that the season finale would reveal the reason for the spitting; however, the episode as broadcast did not actually do so. It should be noted that this practice of looking down on neighbouring towns is common in many prairie communities, including those in Saskatchewan. There is a real existing rivalry between Tisdale, SK (see following paragraph) and Melfort, SK, on which Wullerton has been modelled. Another example is the rivalry between Yorkton, SK and Melville, SK.

The town's name is an homage to series creator Brent Butt's hometown of Tisdale, Saskatchewan through which the Doghide River flows. However, in the show itself, the second season episode "Rock On!" revealed that the town was named after a great uncle of Lacey's who drowned a dozen dogs in the river. She discovered this trivia while researching information for a history plaque. In order to play down this unsavoury branch of her family tree, Lacey instead used a story that Karen made up — that pioneers somehow got hold of a hot air balloon, got an aerial view of the town site, and noticed that the creek formed a shape similar to that of a dog's leg. "Block Party" revealed that the town was founded in 1905, and one of its founders was a Mr. Main after whom Main Street was named (it was renamed Centennial Street in 2005, the origin of the name being forgotten); Main also constructed Dog River's first building, a wooden shack that would later be burned down by Hank Yarbo a century later in order to maintain the accuracy of his Lego scale model of the town (he ran out of blocks and could not make a replica of the shack).

A Regina tour operator regularly takes busloads of tourists to Rouleau to visit "Dog River". Visitors can tour the on-location sets of Corner Gas, including the service station. Many components of Dog River are in fact real attributes of Rouleau, notably the combined liquor and insurance store.


Notes

  • Corner Gas is promoted by CTV as the network's "first original narrative comedy series" [2]. While it is not, in fact, the first Canadian-produced sitcom ever aired on CTV, having been preceded by The Trouble with Tracy, Snow Job, Excuse My French and Check it Out!, it is the first Canadian sitcom in which the network itself has held a primary production role, rather than acting solely as a holder of broadcast rights.
  • The Dog River Police have two police cars, both 1994 Ford Crown Victorias. With the exception of the first episode, the police only use one of them.
  • The second season episode "Hero Sandwich" establishes that the events of the first season and the first half of the second season take place over the course of 10 months.
  • Midway through the second season, CTV moved the series from Tuesday to Monday when American Idol returned on Fox (which CTV rebroadcasts), ending up competing with Rick Mercer's Monday Report, on CBC. The third season episode "Dog River Vice" includes a joke that pokes fun at CTV's rescheduling of the show.
  • The first season finale "I Love Lacey" takes place during the Grey Cup in November, while the third season episode "Merry Gasmas" takes place at Christmas time. These are the only two episodes (to date) to clearly indicate a timeframe for when they take place, although the season 2 finale "Harvest Dance" presumably takes place in the fall, and "The Brent Effect" takes place soon after "I Love Lacey". Neither "I Love Lacey" nor "Brent Effect" show any signs of it being early winter, despite taking place in November. "Block Party" explicitly takes places sometime in 2005.
  • In the "Rock On!" episode, from season two, "Capital Cash", the song performed by Thunderface, was written by Brent Butt. Butt was in a band called Fast Exit as a guitarist before he got into comedy, and they are mentioned in the episode as the band that originally did the song.
  • In the "Dog River Dave" episode, a fictional radio station from Regina, CJKL "The Jackal", was featured. An actual CJKL-FM exists in Kirkland Lake, Ontario.
  • Co-stars Brent Butt and Nancy Robertson married following production of the second season.
  • The series occasionally breaks the fourth wall. For example, in "Physical Credit" Wanda and Brent are talking about films with poor production values when the boom microphone being used to record the scene intentionally drops into the shot and hits Wanda on the head.
  • The only current top-20 Canadian show in all of Canada (other than hockey)—the rest being American imports, Corner Gas debuted in January 2004, outperforming all U.S. sitcoms in the territory among adults 25-54. [3]
  • Corner Gas has spawned a merchandising business, with hundreds of retail items, a coffee table book, sold-out live touring productions and a top-10 DVD. [4]
  • In 2004, production of this series coincided with that of another CTV program, Robson Arms in which Gabrielle Miller and Fred Ewanuick also co-starred. Miller also had a recurring role in the series Alienated in 2004, giving her the rare distinction of playing major roles in three unrelated television series during the same calendar year (although Robson Arms wasn't broadcast until 2005).
  • To promote the "Merry Gasmas" episode in 2005, Brent Butt recorded "Christmas in Dog River" with Craig Northey.
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