Corner Gas

Corner Gas is a Canadian television sitcom created by Brent Butt. The series ran for six seasons from 2004 to 2009. Reruns still air on CTV, CTV2, CTV Comedy Channel, Much, and E!, and are streaming on Crave and Amazon Prime. The series was followed by a feature film titled Corner Gas: The Movie, with the entire cast reprising their roles. The film was released for a limited theatrical run in December 2014.
Deriving its name from the roadside gas station in the fictional town of [|Dog River], Saskatchewan, Corner Gas is the only gas station for in any direction. Brent Leroy is the proprietor of the station, which was formerly owned by his father, Oscar. Wanda Dollard works at the station's convenience store as a retail assistant. An adjoining coffee shop, The Ruby, is owned by Lacey Burrows, who inherited it from her Aunt Ruby.
The series completed its run following broadcast of its sixth season on April 13, 2009, with a total of 107 episodes. The show averaged one million viewers per episode. Corner Gas received six Gemini Awards, and was nominated almost 70 times for various awards.
On April 6, 2009, Saskatchewan premier Brad Wall signed a proclamation that declared April 13, 2009, "Corner Gas Day" in Saskatchewan.
Production of an animated adaptation, Corner Gas Animated, was announced in December 2016, and premiered on The Comedy Network on April 2, 2018, featuring the complete original cast voicing their original characters, save for Janet Wright, who died in November 2016, the month prior to announcement. The role of Emma is voiced in the animated version by Corrine Koslo.

Production

Concept

The series was created by Canadian comedian Brent Butt, who imagined what his life might be like had he remained in a small Saskatchewan town rather than pursuing stand-up comedy. He originally developed the storyline for CTV and The Comedy Network.
Corner Gas references many tropes about Canadian identity, often ironically. The show focuses on the lifestyle of small-town folk; though set in a small town in Saskatchewan, its stories are not chiefly about Saskatchewan or Canada, but rather the day-to-day interactions of the residents of Dog River.

Executive producers, directors, and co-producers

Corner Gas was produced by CTV and Prairie Pants Productions. Prairie Pants Productions is a company assembled by Brent Butt, Virginia Thompson and 335 Productions. 335 Productions is a partnership between Brent Butt and David Storey. At The Comedy Network, Michelle Daly is Director of Content and Ed Robinson is the President and General Manager. At CTV Inc., Susanne Boyce is President, Creative, Content and Channels and again Ed Robinson is Executive Vice-president, Programming. Brent Butt was a driving force as creator, writer, showrunner, executive producer, actor and, occasionally, director of the show. Paul Mather, Mark Farrell, Brent Butt, Andrew Carr, Kevin White, Robert Sheridan, Norm Hiscock, Dylan "Worts" Wertz and Gary Pearson all contributed to writing the series. David Storey, Mark Farrell, Robert de Lint, Jeff Beesley and Brent Butt provided direction in the program.
Corner Gas was promoted by CTV as the network's "first original narrative comedy series." While it is not, in fact, the first Canadian-produced sitcom ever aired on CTV, having been preceded by The Trouble with Tracy, George, Snow Job, Excuse My French, and Check It Out!, it is the first CTV sitcom in which the network itself has held a primary production role, rather than acting solely as a holder of broadcast rights, and the first to postdate the network's late-1990s corporate restructuring from a cooperative of its affiliated stations into a conventional corporation. Corner Gas can also be verifiably called the most successful of these shows.

Filming locations

Corner Gas was filmed entirely in Saskatchewan. The interior shots were filmed at Canada Saskatchewan Production Studios in Regina. All the outdoor scenes and all scenes that take place in the gas station were filmed on location in Rouleau, a small town on Highway 39 between Moose Jaw and Weyburn. The grain elevator was repainted to read "Dog River" instead of "Rouleau"; however, the water tower still reads "Rouleau"with post production effects used to repaint it to read "Dog River" in the first-season episode "Grad 68". Regina is known as "the city" in Corner Gas.
On 28September 2014, the building that was used as the FOO MART, the local grocery store, was destroyed in a fire.
On 4November 2016, the set that was used for both Corner Gas and the Ruby was demolished due to the foundations sinking. The structures, erected in 2003 as set pieces, were originally built on boggy land and were not initially built to last very long. In the intervening years, they had become a tourist attraction.
In summer 2021, the police station building collapsed, and the debris was removed. On 5November 2021, the grain elevator burned to the ground.

Opening sequence

The Corner Gas opening sequence follows a cold open. The opening theme music, "Not a Lot Goin' On", was written by Craig Northey of the rock band Odds and Jesse Valenzuela of the rock band Gin Blossoms, while the closing theme, "My Happy Place" was written by Northey and performed by Odds.

Overview

Corner Gas is the only gas station for in any direction. Brent Leroy is the proprietor of the station and Wanda Dollard works at the station's convenience store as a retail assistant. An adjoining diner, The Ruby, is owned by Lacey Burrows, who inherited it from her Aunt Ruby and moved to Dog River from Toronto. Brent's parents, Oscar Leroy and Emma Leroy, are lifetime residents of Dog River. Dog River's police force, consisting entirely of veteran Davis Quinton and rookie Karen Pelly, keep the peace in the small town—a very simple task—and the officers have an overabundance of free time. Finally, Brent's best friend Richard Henry "Hank" Yarbo, who is constantly unemployed, spends his time hanging out with Dog River's residents and drinking coffee, for which he rarely pays, at The Ruby.
The first episode of Corner Gas aired on January 22, 2004, and attracted 1.5 million viewers. 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.
Butt's main co-writers were This Hour Has 22 Minutes writers Mark Farrell, Paul Mather, Kevin White, and Andrew Carr.
As broadcast of the fourth-season finale approached, there was a flurry of news reports suggesting that the series was coming to an unexpected end, based upon televised promotions for the episode, leaked plot details, and wording of a CTV press release issued on March 6, 2007, that implied that the series finale would air on March 12, 2007. Two segments of production footage with time code circulated on YouTube also seemed to indicate a series finale as imminent despite the show's continued success in Canada and recent U.S. sale. On March 7, 2007, CTV clarified its press release, stating it was a season finale, and on March 13, 2007, CTV confirmed an order for a 19-episode fifth season, which premiered on September 24, 2007.
On April 10, 2008, as production of the sixth season began, Butt announced via a press release that he and his production company, Prairie Pants, had decided to conclude production of the series after the sixth season, with the final episodes airing in the spring of 2009. Butt said the decision to end the series while still a popular offering on CTV was "a very difficult decision... and one I felt I had to make. made it clear that they were keen to do more seasons... I wanted to exit gracefully, on top of our game."
The show's final episode aired on April 13, 2009, airing in simulcast on CTV, The Comedy Network, and A. The episode attracted 2,914,000 viewers on terrestrial television and an additional 235,000 on The Comedy Network, for a total viewership of 3,114,000.

Characters

The surnames of all of the main characters and some recurring characters on the show are names of small towns in Saskatchewan; Burrows, Dollard, Humboldt, Jansen, Kinistino, Leroy, Pelly, Quinton, Runciman and Yarbo.

Main cast

Brent Herbert Leroy is the comic book-reading, sarcastic proprietor of Corner Gas. He is good-natured, but has a tendency to fixate on minor details. It is implied that he and Lacey Burrows have feelings for each other, although neither acts upon them. In Corner Gas: The Movie he and Lacey have entered a romantic relationship three years after the events of the live-action series.
Lacey Burrows is originally from Toronto, and as the series begins she has just taken over the coffee shop in Dog River after her aunt's death and renamed it the Ruby in her honour. She is perpetually trying to fit into small-town life, with mixed, often disastrous, results.
Richard Henry "Hank" Yarbo is Brent's perpetually unemployed best friend. He often hangs out at Corner Gas talking to Brent and constantly borrows money from other characters, but rarely pays them back.
Wanda Dollard is the cashier at Corner Gas, and the self-professed smartest person in town. She has a sardonic, caustic personality and enjoys lording her knowledge over others. She is the single mother of a six-year-old son, Tanner.
Oscar Leroy is Brent's grouchy, stubborn, elderly-stereotype father, the retired former owner and founder of Corner Gas. His all-purpose word is "jackass"; during the course of the live-action series, he says it ninety times.
Emma Leroy is Brent's mother, the brains and muscle of the family. She and Oscar squabble constantly and she usually ends up having to deal with the fallout from his actions, which she usually makes worse.
Sergeant Davis Quinton is Dog River's good-natured Cree senior police officer. He has a habit of misspending the police budget, napping on the job, and making up the laws as he goes along, having never actually read the police manual. Due to the low crime rate in Dog River, he does not take his job very seriously.
Constable Karen Pelly is Dog River's ambitious, athletic and sometimes neurotic junior police officer. She is the youngest main cast member in the series by about ten years.