On this day, 22 years ago, ‘Corner Gas’ makes its television debut

The cast and crew of "Corner Gas" on location in Rouleau, Sask. (Source: Cornergas.com)

Jan. 22 is a very important day in Saskatchewan entertainment history, as it’s the day “Corner Gas” first graced screens across the nation.

On this day in 2004, the made-in-Saskatchewan sitcom debuted on CTV. The series, centered on the fictional town of “Dog River” and its various wacky inhabitants, ran for a total of six seasons, ending its run in 2009.

Created by Tisdale-born comedian Brent Butt, the series lampooned many tropes about small towns.

For example, one early storyline follows the town as it builds the world’s largest gardening implement, satirizing a practice by many small communities as a way of attracting tourists.

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Additionally, the surnames of many of the series’ characters are nods to small towns across the province, such as Leroy, Yarbo, Quinton, Pelly and Kinistino.

The series was a purely Saskatchewan production. Both outdoor scenes and those shot in the titular gas station were filmed in the town of Rouleau, located around 40 kilometres southwest of Regina, while the interiors were shot at the Canada Saskatchewan Productions Studios, now known as the John Hopkins Regina Soundstage.

The series’ popularity would put Rouleau on the map, with the community of a little more than 500 welcoming visitors from across Canada and the United States during the show’s original run. The town even created a walking tour to guide visitors to the various filming locations.

However, in the years since the series’ conclusion, many of the landmarks associated with the series have fallen into disuse and have been demolished, or in the case of the town’s elevator, burned down.

The principal cast would return for “Corner Gas: The Movie” in 2014 and would convene again (excluding Janet Wright, who died in 2016) for an animated adaptation of the show, “Corner Gas Animated,” which ran for four seasons from 2018 to 2021.

Speaking to CTV News in 2019 ahead of the season two premiere of “Corner Gas Animated,” Butt reminisced on the years he spent filming on the long, flat plains of southern Saskatchewan where you could say there was “not a lot goin’ on,” which really was a positive in the comedian’s mind.

“In between takes, when the cameras turned around and you have five minutes, we would go sit out in a lawn chair and look out at the field and it’s very calming. You see the fields of wheat or canola just blowing in the wind and giant blue sky, it’s very calming and peaceful,” Butt said at the time.

“You don’t get that in downtown Vancouver.”

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