John Gormley The Saskatoon Star Phoenix Friday, July 11, 2008
What happens when you take one clever funny guy from Tisdale and connect him to a great idea and a talented cast and crew?
The result is the hit CTV series Corner Gas, now midway through shooting the last 19 episodes in the series' sixth and final season.
On Thursday, we took my radio show on the road to Dog River for a four-hour tribute to this great Canadian comedy series that unabashedly sells itself as small-town Saskatchewan.
We actually did the radio show from inside the Ruby Restaurant -- not the one at Rouleau but on the set at the Canada-Saskatchewan soundstage in Regina.
Sitting in a booth at the Ruby, microphone and makeshift studio spread out on the arborite table, it was surreal.
This is the most authentic knock-off of every small-town coffee shop you've ever seen. From the Vico dispenser to the recreated artificial pastries and dainties in the glass case, the faux Ruby is eerily realistic.
As a fan of Corner Gas, this radio adventure was a blast. We chatted with creator/writer/director Brent Butt. Completely devoid of airs and self-importance, Butt sets the example for cast and crew alike.
He's still the same laconic, "humour in all things" laidback guy he was in the early stand-up comedy days of Saskatoon in the 1980s. But now, as the franchise player in Canada's No. 1-rated sitcom, he has the quiet, take-charge approach of a seasoned executive producer.
We talked Corner Gas with cast and crew and took listeners' calls with a range of stars beginning with Saskatchewan natives Butt, Janet Wright and Eric Peterson, who play Brent's parents Emma and Oscar.
We also visited with cast members Nancy Robertson (Wanda), Tara Spencer-Nairn (officer Karen Pelly) and Cavan Cunningham, the mayor of Dog River.
Butt's business partner, executive producer David Storey, describes the production of Corner Gas as one of the best projects he's ever been associated with and tells of how relationships forged in six years have enabled this cast and crew to have as much fun behind the cameras as in front.
While the entire cast and crew were friendly, gracious and generous, top ratings went to Vancouverite Fred Ewanuick, who plays Brent's dull friend Hank.
Ewanuick, clearly no fool -- although he plays one well -- admits to sharing Hank's virtually childlike sense of honesty and discovery.
Engaging, funny and a serious Vancouver Canucks hockey fan, Ewanuick also has a split B.C. Lions-Saskatchewan Roughrider football allegiance and is fanatical about golf, which he took up only four years ago and does pretty well.
Like the rest of the people we met, Ewanuick is absolutely without pretension and the phone lines lit up with fans wanting to visit with this much-loved Corner Gas character.
The radio show was over too soon. Just like Corner Gas.
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So what do you do when someone steals your property and you're catching them in the act?
Ask Jennifer Wright, founder of Green Shift Inc., an environmental education and consulting company that provides advice on how to incorporate green strategies and practices.
Just before the federal Liberal party unveiled its carbon tax proposal under the name "Green Shift," Wright told them she had been using the name corporately for seven years, had a pending trademark registration and didn't want a political party to appropriate her business name.
Bigger than Wright and with Liberal lawyers galore, the party of Stephane Dion ignored her -- she told me it was like being steamrolled.
So as the owner of any other brand or trademark would, Wright has sued the Liberals, prompting Dion to call the lawsuit "deplorable."
There are many words to describe someone defending their property and stopping a theft in progress. Deplorable generally wouldn't be one of them.
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Three cheers for the state of Washington, which is targeting the dreaded left-lane idiot.
In Saskatchewan, divided highways bear the sign "slower traffic keep right" (sure, as if any man alive will admit that he's going slower than anyone else) and in some other places the message is "keep right except to pass."
But in Washington, this message is being backed up by a highway safety law that makes it "a traffic infraction to drive continuously in the left lane of a multi-lane roadway when it impedes the flow of other traffic."
In other words, the left lane of a divided highway and freeway is to be used for its intended purpose -- passing. And drivers must stay in the right lanes unless they're passing another vehicle.
Beyond keeping traffic moving more smoothly it also helps diffuse potential road rage breakouts.
Gormley can be heard Monday to Friday at 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on NewsTalk 650
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