Red Green: Stuffed & Mounted (1991-2000)
Review by Doc Ezra
Film:
DVD:

Written by William Flaherty, Bruce Pirrie, Steve Smith, and Robert David Sheridan
Directed by Rick Green, Larry Schnur, and Steve Smith
Starring Steve Smith, Patrick McKenna, Bob Bainborough, and Boyd Banks

Features:

• Episode introductions with Steve Smith
  

Released by: Acorn Media Publishing
Region: 1
Rating: NR, suitable for most audiences 13+
Anamorphic: N/A; appears in original 1.33:1 TV aspect

My Advice: Pass, unless you're hard up for something to fill the Home Improvement void in your TV watching life.

When I say "Canadian television comedy," I'm sure a number of you can conjure up fond memories of SCTV, Kids in the Hall, or something of the kind. Quirky shows, full of a unique blend of American and British comedic sensibilities, often with a healthy dose of the just plain weird and a penchant for poking fun at their somewhat overloud and boisterous neighbors to the south. What I suspect few, if any, of you might call to mind is a little something called The Red Green Show. Apparently legendary on Canadian television, the show ran for ten seasons, with a cast of dozens, and was, at least for a time, the highest rated comedy show in the Canuckistan. Having now seen a significant number of episodes, I'm even more worried about those hockey-loving, toque-wearing weirdos resting quietly (some might say too quietly) across the border to the north.

Red Green is kind of hard to explain, but here goes: take everyman hammer-wielding low-brow comic Gallagher (please). Toss him in a gigantic blender. Add Tim Allen and all the non-musical cast members of Hee Haw. Then a pinch of Bob & Doug Mackenzie. One case of duct tape, one box of bad jokes about nagging wives, and a stubborn refusal to throw out old crap or spend money on modern conveniences that could be badly jury-rigged if necessary. Slap a lid on that puppy and liquify. What you get is this show, which is equal parts dumbed-down "up with the little guy" comedy, goofy home improvement skits, secret lodge meetings, fishing trips, and rusted-out trucks. There's even the occasional radically out-of-tune musical number that seems to have no bearing on anything in the show before or after it. And then there's the silent "home movies" that are really just drawn-out sight gags that don't work very well (largely because they take ten minutes to set up).

Now, this isn't to say that the show doesn't occasionally make with the funny. It does. Just not very regularly, and sometimes in spite of itself instead of because of anything the cast or writers have done. The show is the very definition of "hit or miss" comedy. When they're on (rarely), things are genuinely laugh-out-loud funny. When they're off (most of the time), it's painful to watch. The lynchpin holding the show together is Steve Smith as the titular character, an over-the-hill regular schmoe who uses the Possum Lodge to avoid his wife and fund some really dumb ideas (converting used toilets into a home intercom, for example). Smith's portrayal of the always irascible Green tends to get the highest concentration of good lines and sketches, which I guess stands to reason. Patrick McKenna's Harold Green (nephew to Red) is the quintessential überdork, complete with high-water jeans and matching flannel (pressed, of course). His is most often the voice of reason and sanity on the show, which is how he ends up the comedic punching bag when the show's raging anti-intellectualism leaps to the fore.

These discs collect selected episodes from the shows long TV run, which can be a bit disorienting as the discs hop back and forth across the seasons with no seeming rhyme or reason. Smith's brief introductions are actually as entertaining as most anything in the show itself, and really portrays the show as a labor of love (almost enough to make me feel guilty for kicking it in the teeth, but not quite). Why someone as obviously clever as Smith is in these segments would choose to do something that had more in common with Hee Haw than Monty Python is a bit beyond me, but I guess there's no accounting for taste. Other than Smith's intros, there are no features to speak of on these discs.

If you like your humor pretty blue collar, then Red Green might merit a rental. I don't think there's enough consistent comedy gold to make this one a keeper unless you just happen to be a collector of obscure Canadian comedy series on DVD. The fact that somewhere, out there, is someone who fits that profile frightens me terribly. The rest of you can safely pass on this one and just catch reruns of Kids in the Hall on Comedy Central or something.