Corner Gas

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Image:Corner Gas DVD.jpg 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.

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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. A nearby coffee shop (The Ruby) is owned by Lacey Burrows. Dog River also has a newspaper, The Dog River Howler, usually just called The Howler, which almost everybody has contributed to at one point or another.

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 (the first weekly CTV series to be released in the format). In keeping with the spirit 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 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-writer is comedian and former 22 Minutes writer Mark Farrell.

According to the show's official website, the series, which ended its third season in March 2006, is confirmed to return for a fourth season.[1]

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Characters

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Main cast

  • Brent Leroy is the comic book-reading proprietor of Corner Gas. Almost always good-natured but with a tendency to fixate on minor details. In the third season it's revealed that he's a talented cartoonist. He is attracted to Lacey. Played by Brent Butt.
  • Lacey Burrows 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 is attracted to Brent, though she would passionately deny this. Played by Gabrielle Miller.
  • Hank Yarbo 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 doesn't seem to be employed there as of season 3 as he's shown working at jobs like town accountant and newspaper delivery. Apparently slept with Karen after he took her fishing. His mother lives in Saskatoon. Once constructed a detailed scale model of Dog River out of Lego. Played by Fred Ewanuick.
  • Wanda Dollard 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. Played by Nancy Robertson.
  • Oscar Leroy 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!". Played by Eric Peterson.
  • Emma Leroy is Brent's mother, and the brains/muscle of the family. Played by Janet Wright.
  • Sergeant Davis Quinton is the overly sensitive senior police officer in Dog River. 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 actually happened. "Block Party" suggests he might have once competed in rhythmic gymnastics. Has a collection of Hardy Boys books. Played by Lorne Cardinal.
  • Constable Karen Pelly is the ambitious and sometimes neurotic junior police officer in Dog River. 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. Played by Tara Spencer-Nairn.
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Recurring Characters

  • Fitzy Fitzgerald 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. Played by Cavin Cunningham.
  • Wes Humboldt 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. Played by Mike O'Brien.
  • Paul Kinistino 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, which Oscar became addicted to. He apparently speaks a little bit of Cree. He apparently went to high school with Brent, Wanda and Hank, and in "Friend of a Friend" claimed to have a Masters degree in history. Played by Mark Deiter.

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

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Notable guest stars

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

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Dog River

Dog River has a population of 450. The exact location of the town in Saskatchewan has yet to be established, however, according to the Corner Gas tagline, it is at least 40 kilometres from the nearest town, 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). It is stated in the episode "The Taxman" that Corner Gas is the only gas station for 60 kilometres in any direction, which means either that the 40 kilometres value is inaccurate, or that the towns less that 60 kilometres from Dog River do not have gas stations. 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 Howler, and 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 don't 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. Wullerton is a pseudonym for Melfort, Saskatchewan. There is a real existing rivalry between Tisdale, SK (see following paragraph) and Melfort, 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. "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.

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Episode guide

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Season 1 (2004)

Episode # Original Air Date (CTV) Episode Title
1-01 22 January2004 Ruby Reborn
1-02 29 January2004 The Taxman
1-03 4 February2004 Pilates Twist
1-04 11 February2004 Oh Baby
1-05 18 February2004 Grad '68
1-06 25 February2004 World's Biggest Thing
1-07 3 March2004 All My Ex's
1-08 10 March2004 Cousin Carl
1-09 17 March2004 Cell Phone
1-10 24 March2004 Comedy Night
1-11 31 March2004 Hook, Line and Sinker
1-12 21 April2004 Face Off
1-13 28 April2004 I Love Lacey
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Season 2 (2004-2005)

Episode # Original Air Date (CTV) Episode Title
2-01 5 October2004 The Brent Effect
2-02 12 October2004 Wedding Card
2-03 19 October2004 Smell of Freedom
2-04 26 October2004 Whataphobia
2-05 2 November2004 Lost and Found
2-06 9 November2004 Poor Brent
2-07 16 November2004 Hero Sandwich
2-08 23 November2004 Security Cam
2-09 7 December2004 Bingo Night
2-10 14 December2004 Mosquito Time
2-11 17 January2005 Hurry Hard
2-12 24 January2005 An American in Saskatchewan
2-13 7 February2005 Pandora's Wine
2-14 14 February2005 Doc Small
2-15 21 February2005 Rock On!
2-16 14 March2005 Air Show
2-17 21 March2005 Slow Pitch
2-18 28 March2005 Harvest Dance
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Season 3 (2005-2006)

Episode # Original Air Date (CTV) Episode Title
3-01 19 September2005 Dress for Success
3-02 26 September2005 Key to the Future
3-03 3 October 2005 Dog River Vice
3-04 10 October 2005 Will and Brent
3-05 17 October 2005 The Littlest Yarbo
3-06 24 October 2005 Mail Fraud
3-07 31 October 2005 Fun Run
3-08 7 November 2005 Trees a Crowd
3-09 14 November 2005 Picture Perfect
3-10 21 November 2005 Safety Frist (sic)
3-11 28 November 2005 Hairloss
3-12 5 December 2005 Ruby Newsday
3-13 12 December 2005 Merry Gasmas
3-14 30 January 2006 Friend of a Friend
3-15 20 February 2006 Block Party
3-16 27 February 2006 Physical Credit
3-17 6 March 2006 Telescope Trouble
3-18 13 March 2006 Bean There
3-19 20 March 2006 Road Worthy
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Notes

  • The Dog River Police have two police cars, both 1994 Ford Crown Victorias.
  • 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 Christmastime. 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.
  • 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.
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External links

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