Red Green Show

The Red Green Show - 1999 Season

The Red Green Show: 1999 Season finds affable handyman Red Green (Steve Smith) still enthusiastic about helping men everywhere get a grip on all aspects of their lives. "Remember, if you're not handsome, at least be handy," remains Green's mantra for the average guy, though what that means exactly to him continues to defy all reason. In the 16 episodes included in this box set, Green takes the time to show the fellows watching at home how to install tractor wheels on a sedan in order to raise it high enough to mount a boat. (Why? Because it's hard to keep a boat strapped to the roof of a car with duct tape.) Elsewhere, in other segments, Green demonstrates the advantages of a snowball-pitching machine (a good way to get revenge on teens pelting one's windshield with snow); attaches canoe paddles to oversized wheels in order to make his van amphibious; and demonstrates how heavy oil drums used in place of tires can mash a whole lot of apples into a kind of pavement substitute. He also tips male viewers about using old socks as a tool belt, repurposing broken hedge clippers as windshield wipers (capable of shredding unwanted pamphlets left on a car window), and proves that one can build an ice-skating rink that doesn't require one to wake.

Fortunately, Red Green is just as enthusiastic about other things in a man's life, such as love (in one episode, he encourages men to take a good, hard look at their naked selves in the mirror before exiting a relationship to re-entering dating) and self-improvement (trying to become a kinder, gentler friend to Possum Lodge mates who trash his car). As always, Red's Lodge buddies, such as Dalton (Bob Bainborough) and Mike Hamar (Wayne Robson), are there to keep things at a fever pitch (Dalton discovers a mummy and fears it will reawaken, while Mike, the friendly career criminal, explains how he doesn't blame either his mother or "any of" his dads for his problems). Elsewhere, beloved character Harold (Patrick McKenna), Green's nephew, has gone to work for a big business in the big city, and soon regrets inviting Green to visit him at the office. (Green attempts to steal a few things while there). One of the highlights of the season is listening to Red guide men on what to do when their wives ask if they (the women) look old. His solution? Be concomittal. ("You look good to me honey.")--Tom Keogh

It was a very good, mostly okay, not-as-bad-as-it-could-have-been year.

Wit and wisdom of Possum Lodge

Written by and starring Steve Smith

"They say necessity is the mother of invention. Don't know who the father is; probably remorse." So says Red Green, although this wisdom doesn't stop him from turning a car into a dump truck or using a dump truck to clean out his car. The complete ninth season of the public television hit's 15-year run also sees Harold leave the Lodge for corporate life in the big city (with frequent visits from his uncle, of course). Meanwhile, gas station attendant Dale joins the group, and Ranger Gord begins his series of oh-so-educational cartoons.

Join Red, Harold, and all the guys at Possum Lodge for a year's worth of doing what men do when women aren't around—and some things that are even worse. "Sweet tales of male stupidity" —Toronto Sun.

EXTRA JUNK: Character bios and production notes written by series creator Steve Smith.

Red Green's We Can't Help It, We're Men

A message from Red Green

OK, SO YOU GOT A PROBLEM in that your anniversary—which you seem to recall is coming up—it's gone by. It was yesterday and you pulled a complete blank. Total amnesia. So you need help digging your way out of this `cause you are now in the deep stuff. The main thing is, don't blame yourself. It's not your fault.

WE CAN'T HELP IT—WE'RE MEN!

A lot's been written about the differences between men and women. In fact, way too much. That's why I've decided to tackle the subject on video. With help from the men of Possum Lodge (and also from my nephew Harold), I'd like to lead us to a better understanding between the various sexes. Remember, we're all in the same boat, and women are on the shore, laughing.

Red Green

Extra Stuff: Red Green's Of Cars and Men, a 71-min. bonus program that celebrates every man's first love—his car; plus a half hour of additional Red Green segments!

The Red Green Show - 1998 Season

In its eighth year, the Canadian comedy series carries on its absurdist brand of rustic humor in The Red Green Show: 1998 Season. As always, the Possum Lodge's indefatigable handyman, Red Green (Steve Smith), proves a never-ending fount of ideas about turning junkyard debris into modern conveniences and applying a bit of know-how to applications of duct tape on anything and everything. 1998 Season gets off to a scary start with the prospect of Red's nebbish nephew Harold (Patrick McKenna) leaving the show to attend college, which might be true or might be a ploy to earn Red's respect and attention. (The pre-credits teaser is one of the series' best: Red offering a suggestion about how to keep birds from crashing into one's picture window.) "House Moving" is literally that, an episode about moving an old building by balancing it on pick-up trucks. Guest star Graham Greene (Dances With Wolves) is around in a show in which Red demonstrates how to turn a car into a backhoe. "College Life" raises the prospect of Harold going off to school again, this time sharing an apartment with three girls, a situation for which he is less than prepared. In "Free Apricots," a tractor-trailer flips and provides Red and his chums with a large supply of the fruit; meanwhile, Red invents a car jack that goes really, really high. The very funny "Town Services Contract" finds the Possum Lodge boys receiving a contract for towing, snow-plowing, and ambulance services to Possum Lake. One of the best episodes of the season, "Mad About You," concerns Harold attempting to teach Red about anger management, an effort that goes hilariously awry. --Tom Keogh

It was a very good mostly okay not-as-bad-as-it-could-have-been year.

Wit and wisdom of Possum Lodge
Written by and starring Steve Smith

As Red says, "You have to grow old, but you don't have to mature." Eight years into its 15-year run, The Red Green Show showed no signs of maturity. This complete season of the public television hit sees Red at his most inventive, making a heart pacemaker out of a digital clock and trying to run the lodge electrical system from a car cigarette lighter, just to name a couple dismal but hilarious failures. It was also the year that Red ran for mayor and Harold ran off . . . to college. College??

Join Red, Harold, and all the guys at Possum Lodge for a year's worth of doing what men do when women aren't around—and some things that are even worse. "Red is a manly man with a bent brain pan . . . a hip cult classic" —The Detroit Free Press

EXTRA JUNK: Red and Harold character bios.

The Red Green Show - 1997 Season

The long-running Canadian comedy series is in top form on The Red Green Show: 1997 Season, representing the 7th year the Possum Lodge's resident handyman, Red Green (Steve Smith), shares his wisdom and dubious skills with duct tape and junkyard flotsam. Affectionately vexed by nebbish nephew Harold Green (Patrick McKenna), who never stops goading Red into dreaming bigger dreams for The Red Green Show, the greying host celebrates the sale of his series to Swiss television (though he isn't sure if Switzerland and Sweden are one and the same), organizes a local version of Pamploma's "Running of the Bulls" (though he's only got one healthy bull available), and shares advice on how to keep one's grown-up grandchildren attentive and loving (by making them think there's a sizable inheritance coming their way--which there isn't).

On the creative front, Red demonstrates how to make one's own version of an Airstream trailer out of discarded appliance parts and an aluminum boat. Red also uses massive quantities of duct tape to turn two beat-up cars into, uh, one very large, beat-up car, and he transforms an old police car into a zebra-striped, personal emergency vehicle. Meanwhile, speculation runs high at the lodge about the identity of a mystery celebrity who's buying a cabin in the neighborhood, and Harold acquires two tubas in hopes that Red will learn to play it with him. As always, The Red Green Show is both absurd and sweet in its effort to promote manly virtues among clueless men. Smith and McKenna, as always, are a real hoot. --Tom Keogh

Seven years into its 15-year run, The Red Green Show was just hitting its stride, or was that the fan? Anyway, this complete season of the public television comedy hit features some of the show's greatest moments. It was the year Red made the double-wide limo in Handyman Corner and the year the Repair Shop opened with its motto: "If it ain't broke, you're not trying." It was also the year the lodge members first uttered their solemn prayer: "I'm a man, but I can change if I have to, I guess."

Join Red, Harold, and all the guys at Possum Lodge for a year's worth of doing what men do when women aren't around—and some things that are even worse. "The funniest thing to hit public television since Monty Python's Flying Circus"—The Milwaukee Journal.

The Episodes:
Running of the Bulls—The guys at Possum Lodge stage a wild race.
Swiss It Up—Red and Harold sell the show to Switzerland.
The Implosion—A fundraiser for the Historical Society goes awry.
Adopt-a-Highway—Possum Lodge adopts a challenging stretch of highway.
The Strange Ranger—Ranger Gord goes missing from his tower.
Big Guy, Little Guy—Red joins a Big Brothers club just for the soapbox derby.
The Movie—Red and Harold make a feature film on Super 8 MOS.
Expropriation—Red speculates in real estate after a new highway is announced.
The Stool Pigeons—Harold creates an informer's club to snitch on criminals.
Celebrity—Werner Klemperer buys a cottage in the Possum Lake area.
Let Me Count the Ways—The men fix up their cabins for their wives' visit to the lake.
Pardi Gras—Possum Lodge inherits 137 tubas and the guys decide to have a parade.
The Splinter Lodge—Some of the men rebel against Red's leadership.
The Good Old Hockey Game—The men argue for hockey and against curling.
Step Outside—Red encourages Harold to stand up and fight for himself.
The Town Mall—Using the sewers, the men turn downtown into a mall.
The Winter Carnival—The men stage a carnival to entertain their wives.

Red Green - Duct Tape Forever

The cult PBS comedy The Red Green Show stretches into a feature film with Duct Tape Forever, still very much about a batch of underachieving Canadian men and their high church of low expectations, the Possum Lodge. The longtime TV series, starring Steve Smith as flannel-shirted handyman Red Green, makes a comic virtue of Canuck self-parody and universal male ineptness.

"Whenever a man does a dumb thing," says Red, "it's better if he doesn't have an audience." Well, a lot of eyes are on Red, his geeky nephew Harold (Patrick McKenna), and the other boys after a rich man (Richard Fitzpatrick) drives his car into a Possum Lodge sinkhole and sues for damages. The solution: Build a giant, duct tape goose and enter it in a Minnesota contest for cash prizes. Of course. Co-creator Smith re-tools the show's self-deprecating essence and run-on joke about male incompetence into a winning movie. --Tom Keogh

Red Green Stuffed and Mounted Six Pack

Brewed and bottled at Possum Lodge
I know what you're thinking: "A six-pack . . . I can polish that off in one night." And I'm sure you can. And often have. But this one's different. Each DVD in this box contains EIGHT of the best episodes from The Red Green Show, handpicked by yours truly to prove that good television can be watched over and over. (Or that people our age can't remember whether they've seen something before or not.) That makes 48 episodes of Red Green in all. So don't think of it as a six-pack. Think of it as two cases.

Red Health Warning: The Surgeon General has advised that consuming this product can be hazardous for women wishing to be pregnant and may lead to an addiction to salted snacks. Extra Stuff: Special introduction to each episode by star Steve Smith, character bios and episode selection

Red Green, DVD* (*Duct Tape Virtuoso Deluxe)

Innovative handyman Red Green is proud to announce his first DVD, and while admitting that he doesn't understand the technology, he chooses to mark the occasion with a tribute to duct tape, that endlessly useful substance he terms "the handyman's secret weapon." In the course of the program, Green (ably portrayed by Canadian comedian Steve Smith) demonstrates projects that are one part Rube Goldberg and many parts duct tape. Some of the gags are elaborate and inspired, such as a bit about a pontoon boat you can make by stripping the heat ducts from your house ("don't forget to replace them before winter"), taping them all together, and adding an outboard motor as a finishing touch. The humor of all this is an acquired taste, and those who just don't get it would probably have to be duct taped to the television to watch Red Green. But if you enjoy this sort of offbeat humor, Duct Tape Virtuoso Deluxe is a treat. How else could you learn to make construction equipment from a stepladder and a Thigh-Master? Who else would teach you how to make a paddlewheel riverboat by taping together parts of a junked van? Only Red Green, who also thoughtfully provides tips on using all those empty duct-tape rolls to make holders for the many bottles in your "beer cellar." Bonus material on the DVD includes a trip to the actual largest duct-tape plant in the world (which Red proudly notes is "right here in Canada"), and a segment shot at a gathering of fanatical Red Green fans who show off their own duct-tape creations. --Robert J. McNamara

It's a Wonderful Red Green Christmas

It's that time of year again: Christmas. When you spend money you don't have—to buy family members you don't like—gifts they don't need. But then, that's where garage sales come from. So this year, do something different. Spend the holidays with us at Possum Lodge!

It's really the ideal place for an old-fashioned Christmas. I make a one horse open sleigh out of a K-car, Bill demonstrates the wrong way to cut down your own Christmas tree, and The Experts answer the age-old question, "Is there a Santa Claus?" Plus, Hap describes how he invented Christmas lights, Edgar decorates the tree using a howitzer, Harold and I do the Possum Lodge version of "The Night Before Christmas," and much more. This video is more jam-packed than you'll be after Christmas dinner.
Happy holidays and have a laugh or two on us! Red Green.

DVD BONUS EXTRAS INCLUDE It's a Merry Red Green Christmas, a second Red Green holiday special; hilarious character bios; and new program introductions by star Steve Smith.

Red Green - Stuffed and Mounted 1

"If women don't find you handsome," goes flannel-shirted, fix-it guy Red Green's motto, "they should at least find you handy." Well, pretty to think so. Being handy is an elusive virtue at The Red Green Show's Possum Lodge, where Red and his dweeby nephew, Harold (Patrick McKenna) and friends routinely gather to make a shambles of simple repairs, science experiments, sundry hobbies, and such wild-eyed solutions to nonexistent problems as How to Get a Badger out of Your Pants. (The latter involves a length of ventilator hose and a tray of stale hors d'oeuvres.)

The eight choice episodes on this disc include the clever "The Network Deal," in which Harold's efforts to draw an American viewership to Red Green results in the casting of a blonde goddess to play Red's wife, and "The Wind-Powered Boat," featuring an extended conversation about Kenyan tiger ranches and Nylon-producing farms. You have to be there. --Tom Keogh

Red Green: Hindsight Is 20/20

Red Green made his television debut in 1979 in a two-minute guest appearance on a variety program. That was 11 years before the launch of The Red Green Show. Red's ability to make success out of failure became an inspiration to his fans as well as to future securities executives. Twenty-five years after that first appearance, it's time to look back and see how it all went so horribly wrong. Interviews with Red and the gang, photos, and video clips tell Red's regret-filled history. Possum Lodge favorites who reminisce and appear in memorable clips include Harold, Buzz Sherwood, Dougie Franklin, Glenn Brackston, Kevin Black, and Bob Stuyvesant.

Also included, never-before-seen Red Green footage predating the hit TV series.

Extra Stuff on the DVD: 66 minutes of extended clips and a Red Green photo gallery.