Discuss the best and the worst of the stories, characters, segments, episodes, and seasons.

Compare the differences within segments:
Adventures with Bill and Walter
Tall tales by Hap Shaughnessey and Doc Render
Retailers Murray and Dalton
Animal control by Garth Harble and Ed Frid

Was Harold a better sidekick than Dalton, Mike, and Winston?

Original story format of Seasons 1 and 3, or sitcom starring lodge members of Season 2?

The Red Green Show, or The New Red Green Show?

Ranger Gord in the tower, on the ground, or making educational films?

The Experts, or Red's Male Call?

Someone on these boards must have seen the show at some point, right?

"From Harold, and myself, and the whole gang up here at Possum Lodge, keep your stick on the ice."

I loved the "Possom Lodge Word Game", myself. :)

I only saw a few episodes from the CHCH years, and didn't see any of the shows from Global until CBC and PBS began rerunning it. I saw pretty much every episode of the New Red Green Show, though, so I guess I tend to prefer those.

The true test of a fan, though, is whether or not they've seen the movie. ;)

Oh, I haven't seen the movie yet, so... fail there.

The Possum Lodge Word Game was referred to as "Chew On A Match" in the beginning of Season 5. I preferred how Harold mouthed the pass word to Mike Hamar's shrieking the introduction and emoting the pass word.

The all-time laugh-out-loud segment for me was when Harold got a stray tarantula stuck in his pants. It was somewhere in Season 4, maybe "The Beer Project".

I didn't even know there was a movie, so even bigger fail. Of course I'm American (never been further north than Omaha, Nebraska), so maybe that will excuse me. I've only seen the New Red Green Show, on PBS. I love to see Gordon Pinsent on there, as I only know him as Bob Fraser on due South, so it's great to see him play someone so different. I also like Harold, and the lonely Park Ranger. I think my favorite bits are the Handyman's Corner, where Red tries various do it yourself projects with hilariously disastrous results.

Another American here, never been further north than Niagara Falls, NY. Almost Canada, but not.

There was a pledge drive special around the time of the movie's production, which gave away some spoilers. A year later, the finished movie aired during pledge drives, but my VCR only caught the first half of it. Maybe a www.RedGreen.com visit is in order.

Regarding Due South: Benton himself, Paul Gross actually had a recurring role in Season 6 of Red Green. I don't remember his character's name, but he was building a luxury cottage up at Bluff Point, nicknamed "Blood Point" by the Lodge members due to the large mosquito population.

Follow-up question: was Handyman's Corner funnier when the projects worked, or when they failed?

I liked when the projects worked, because they were so quirky, you could just imagine Red actually working them out.

My husband and I stumbled upon Red Green when we lived in Ann Arbor, MI, and got the CBC channel. I loved the "I'm a man, but I can change, if I have to, I guess," pledge.

Ah, the Men Anonymous Pledge that became the Men's Prayer. Not sure how I felt about that being added to the pledge: Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati.

The show certainly got in some pop culture references, at first from Ranger Gord asking about "Welcome Back, Kotter", playing Bee Gees songs on his guitar, inviting Lodge members to a party with ABBA albums at the watchtower, etc.
Move on to more modern references in The New Red Green Show, where Red planned to extract some sort of fluid from a beached catfish (a huge catfish) and sell it as a medicine. Harold: "Who'd prescribe it, Doctor Kevorkian?"
In another episode, in "The Experts" portion of the show, Harold and Red talk movies with Edgar K.B. Montrose, played by Graham Greene. He says he saw "Dances With Wolves", and thought the native guy should have gotten the Oscar.
Fast-forward to Season 9 or 10, and the episode "Survivor". Red says the first guy walking around naked will get voted off the island. *groan* too far...

Which Red once translated as "When all else fails, play dead". :)

I've actually been to a whole whack of tapings, met the man, got his autograph, hugged both Steve Smith and Rick Green (Bill), have a hockey stick, a few of the books.... my dad was a big, big, big fan. (Said dad was used as an extra when they taped the underground lodge meetings that the credits played over) - a thoroughly wonderful show, and it's so worth checking out all Rick Green's other stuff (In particular History Bites and Prisoners of Gravity... if you can find it).

I always found that the biggest shift happened about the time they switched from Global to CBC. Just different production values, the original set was struck (It had been in Hamilton) and moved to Toronto... I definitely prefer the earlier stuff.

I hadn't even heard of Global before this thread, but Wikipedia says the 1997 season was the first one taped in the CBC studios. I'm a little jealous about going to tapings, getting autographs, meeting the cast...

Maybe the DVD season sets start in 1997 because of copyright clearances with the original stations? I wonder what's going on with those, because I also prefer the earlier seasons. The Season 8 premiere episode (Harold might be leaving for college) was the first one that aired in my market for over a year since I had seen Season 6. The exchange between Harold and Red about how important Harold was to the show, where they started yelling at each other, made me wonder what happened to my show.

Contrast this to the Season 3 episode where Harold showed up late for the second half of the episode, and Red had to work the switcher/effects device that Harold generally wears. He punches random buttons, watches special effects fly across the screen, and successfully rolls the next recorded segment. Red has gotten the hang of the machine by the time Harold shows up in the last studio bit, and Harold panics.

In another episode -- I'm thinking Season 1 -- the show ends with Harold in danger of getting fired, so all the end credits fly in and out with crazy transitions. And it was funny, because the show was going for story before laughs. In later episodes, they seemed to go for laughs before story and it all suffered. In my opinion.

I've never seen the earliest stuff, I started watching about '96 or '97. My all-time favorite sketch was when Red, Harold and Dougie and Ben Franklin discuss who they'd want to be stranded on a desert island with. Second fave: from one of the Christmas specials when Dalton and Ranger Gord talk about presents or somesuch. I also love the Ranger Gord cartoons. Colin Mochrie was on once (probably since he was a Second City alumnus like Patrick McKenna) and he played some sort of hot-dog enthusiast who was a real dick to Harold.

I've seen the movie - if anyone hasn't, don't bother!

I leave you with this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txthgIMX98s The Red Green character originated on "Smith & Smith" back in the '80s. Gotta love that "Muppet Movie end credits"-type music.

Garth Harble, animal control. Most likely to swallow a vole, get chased by a moose, kicked by a deer, and bitten by a snake. "Another super day!"

Big, big news up at the Lodge this week: Seasons 1-3 announced for DVD release on January 26th! Three seasons. Nine discs. One price.