History
Smith originally created the character of Red Green for his 1979–1985 sketch comedy series Smith & Smith. The sketch was a parody of the long-running Canadian outdoors show The Red Fisher Show (1968–1989), starring B.H. "Red" Fisher, in which Red and his friends would show silent films of their fishing trips with commentary at "Scuttlebutt Lodge". The character also appeared in Me & Max and The Comedy Mill before becoming the focus of his own series.
When The Red Green Show premiered on January 4, 1991, it was filmed at the studios of CHCH-TV in Hamilton, Ontario for Seasons 1-2 (1991-1993), then on CFPL-TV in London for Season 3 (1993-1994), and then on the Global Television Network for Seasons 4-6 (1994-1997), and finally, on CBC Television for Seasons 7-15 (1997-2006). The show was renamed The New Red Green Show upon its move to Global, in order to distinguish it from reruns of earlier seasons, and reverted back to The Red Green Show starting in Season 8 (1998-1999).
The show ended on April 5, 2006, having aired 300 half-hour episodes over 15 seasons. Smith decided that the fifteenth season of the show would be the last. He told a reporter that when it came to his entertainment career "I kind of sense when things are coming to an end and I get ahead of it." He wanted to avoid going "one season too many" otherwise "It will at best be repetitive..."
The series finale was filmed on November 5, 2005, at the Showline Studios Harbourside location. At the time when the season began taping, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation locked out staffers who were members of the Canadian Media Guild, rendering the show's regular studios at the Canadian Broadcasting Centre unavailable. The last episode concluded with the show breaking the fourth wall by thanking the audience and fans for their popularity. In addition, the Man's Prayer was revised to "I'm a man, but I changed, because I had to. Oh, well." Steve Smith later acknowledged that this was a tribute to his wife, who had simply responded with "Oh well" after watching the first episode air back in 1991.
The show staged several live mini-telethons (sometimes called "Red Green-a-thons") for public television stations in the United States. These usually coincided with national PBS fundraising drives, and featured contests between various PBS stations carrying the show. The goal was to encourage stations to add the show to their schedules, or to continue airing it if they were already doing so; during one event, Red playfully filled a wheelbarrow with stations that had chosen to drop it from their schedules.
On December 14, 2008, a retrospective special titled "The Red Green Story-We're All in This Together" aired on select PBS stations. The special was released on DVD along with a book. Also, despite stating after the show's final episode that he planned to permanently retire his character, in 2010, Smith embarked on the "Wit and Wisdom Comedy Tour", in which he gave live performances as Red Green in cities across the United States and Canada.
