The Red Green Show - History of The Show

History of The Show

Smith originally created the character of Red Green for his 1979–1985 sketch comedy series Smith & Smith. The sketch was a parody of the long-running Canadian outdoors show The Red Fisher Show (1968–1989), starring BH "Red" Fisher, in which Red and his friends would show silent films of their fishing trips with commentary at "Scuttlebutt Lodge". The character also appeared in Me & Max and The Comedy Mill before becoming the focus of his own series.

The Red Green Show was produced first by CHCH-TV in Hamilton, Ontario, then by CFPL-TV in London, then by the Global Television Network, before finally finding its permanent home at CBC Television for the 1997 season (its seventh) onward. The show was renamed The New Red Green Show upon its move to Global, and would keep this title until its second season at CBC.

The show ended April 7, 2006 after its 15th season with exactly 300 episodes. (This longevity inspired a joke in one episode, where Red says "The question is, can you do anything with crap? Obviously the answer is yes, we're in our fourteenth season.")

The last episode was filmed on November 5, 2005, at the Showline Studios Harbourside location. At the time the season began taping, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation locked out staffers who were members of the Canadian Media Guild, rendering the show's regular studios at the Canadian Broadcasting Centre unavailable. The last episode concluded with the show breaking the fourth wall by thanking the audience and fans for their popularity. In addition, the Man's Prayer was changed to "I'm a man / but I changed / because I had to / Oh, well."

The low-budget movie Duct Tape Forever (2002), was based on The Red Green Show. It was screened in select American theaters, but did not receive a wide release. It has since appeared occasionally on PBS stations during pledge drives. It is also available on DVD.

As the show gained popularity, Steve Smith also wrote a syndicated newspaper column, as Red Green, titled North of 40 in which he would give advice to readers.

In previous years, the show would stage live mini-telethons (sometimes called "Red Green-a-thons") for public television stations in the United States. These usually coincided with national PBS fundraising drives, and featured contests between various PBS stations carrying the show. This was done to encourage new stations to carry Red Green, for those who already have it to continue it, and in one year Red playfully dumped stations that chose to discontinue the show in a wheelbarrow.

Since 2000, Red Green has been the "Ambassador of Scotch Duct Tape" for 3M.

On December 14, 2008, a retrospective special title "The Red Green Story-We're All In This Together" aired on select PBS stations. The special was released on DVD along with a book. Also, despite stating after the show's final episode that he planned to permanently retire his character, in 2010, Smith embarked on the "Wit and Wisdom Comedy Tour", in which he gave live performances as Red Green in cities across the United States and Canada.