Gas running out at Dog River Corner
The Canadian Press
REGINA–Forty kilometres from nowhere, in the fictional town of Dog River, Sask., folks are filling up one last time at Canada's favourite gas station.
That's because the pumps are closing at Corner Gas.
The quirky television show about small-town prairie life wraps up production this week on its sixth and final season. Corner Gas creator Brent Butt says he feels "good about it in a lot of ways."
"I'm sad, I'm nostalgic, but I feel definitely that it's the right thing," Butt said in an interview on the set in Regina.
"If I had any doubt in my mind I probably wouldn't have pulled the plug. It's just very much the right time."
Butt was working as a standup comic when he drew upon his upbringing in the small farming town of Tisdale, Sask., to create Corner Gas. The show focuses on the life of Brent LeRoy, played by Butt, who runs a gas station.
It quickly became a hit, winning six Gemini awards and amusing audiences worldwide.
Brent, his cantankerous father Oscar, his long-suffering mother Emma and the other folks in Dog River are seen in more than 26 countries. Eric Peterson, who plays Oscar, said it has been a great ride.
"It's been one of those magical occurrences for everyone involved – you know, the little show that unexpectedly became this huge hit," said Peterson.
Corner Gas was like coming full circle for Peterson, who was also born and raised in Saskatchewan, but left the province to find work as an actor and now lives in Toronto. Filming the show's exterior scenes in the town of Rouleau, Sask., southwest of Regina, "has been this incredible link" to my past, he said.
Peterson said there's been a "deeply ambivalent" mood on the set as production winds down.
"It's sad, there's been a kind of grief about it," he said. "This isn't to say it's a bad decision or shouldn't be made or anything like that. It's been a wonderful, wonderful experience that's coming to an end."
On the interior set of The Ruby, the show's café, crew members moved around lights and props, preparing to shoot the final season. Butt sat on a stool at the counter, acknowledging there are things he'll miss, too.
"The paycheque," he deadpans.
"Every couple of weeks a cheque in the mail, I'm not used to that. As a greasy nightclub comic before this you never know when the next bag of cash was going to come out of the till at the end of the night. This was a nice steady job."
"You know that's not the only thing I'll miss; I'll miss a lot of things about it," he continued. "I have parking out back. That's kind of nice."
Clearly, Butt has not lost his sense of humour as the show ends.
"I'll miss the crew a lot," he finally concludes. "This is such a great crew. I have so much fun working with these guys every day."
But cast and crew weren't the only ones preparing to say goodbye.
In Rouleau, population about 400, Mayor Allen Kuhlmann said the show's ending is "like a neighbour leaving the community."
"I would just overwhelmingly ... say sadness would be how I feel about it. Happy that it happened, but sad that it has to end," said Kuhlmann.
The production has injected nearly $1 million into Rouleau's economy and tourism has skyrocketed. Thousands of people, some from as far away as New Zealand, have flocked to the town and signed their names on the walls of the local coffee house. The facade of "The Stoop" – as it's known in Rouleau – doubles as the Dog River police department.
Several well-known Canadians have also stopped in Dog River, including Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who made a cameo appearance on the show.
Butt says he thinks people just embraced the show's authenticity.
"We weren't trying to be hip, we weren't trying to be edgy, we weren't trying to be anything other than to be funny. We wanted to be a funny, comfortable show and I think people could tell," said Butt.
"We just thought we're going to try to be a half-hour of entertaining, humorous television, filmed in colour, please enjoy. And they responded."
The final season kicks off Oct.6 on CTV; the series finale airs in April.
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