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Television

So long, farewell…thanks!!

ëCorner Gasí closing up shop
Brent Butt was asked what the viewing public can expect in the final episode of Corner Gas.
Will you laugh? Will you cry? Will you be angry? Will you get indigestion? All of the above?
ìIt will make you question your sexuality,î Butt said. ìThatís what we were going for.î
Well, if thatís the case, it would be a different direction for Corner Gas, which wraps up its six-year run tomorrow on CTV.
Weíre fairly sure that Butt, the creator and star, was just kidding about the sexuality thing. But please note, we said ìfairlyî sure.
Butt announced last year that this would be the final season for Corner Gas, which by all measures is the most successful sitcom in Canadian history. Actual shooting on the series was completed last fall, so for Butt and the rest of the cast ó his wife Nancy Robertson (Wanda), Gabrielle Miller (Lacey), Fred Ewanuick (Hank), Eric Peterson (Oscar), Janet Wright (Emma), Tara Spencer-Nairn (Karen) and Lorne Cardinal (Davis) ó Corner Gas already feels like quite a long time ago.
ìI donít watch it every week, because Iím doing a lot of stuff and Iím busy,î Butt said when asked if he follows along with the broadcast dates. ìBy the time they hit the air, Iíve seen each episode about 50 times, right? So I donít feel a need to make sure Iím home to watch.
ìBut if Iím around, thereís something nice about watching it on TV as it airs, knowing that the rest of the country is watching it, too. Itís that shared experience thing. And it has commercials and everything, so it feels more like, ëHey, Iím on a TV show,í as opposed to sitting in an edit suite by yourself.
ìIt does seem as if it was a while ago. But it was such a big part of my life, a lot of it still seems pretty fresh.î
Butt said heís happy with the way the final episode turned out, in terms of it being simultaneously kind of the same and kind of different.
ìMy mandate was, I wanted it to feel like an episode of Corner Gas, but I still wanted to have a special element to it,î Butt said. ìIím very proud of it because I think that was nailed.
ìIf youíre a fan of Corner Gas, this feels like an episode of Corner Gas. But because itís the finale, it has a little something different that youíve never seen before, something weíve never done, and it worked really well.
ìI think it ends in a really good way.î
The pilot has been completed for Buttís new show Hiccups, which stars Robertson, and heís waiting to see if it will be picked up as a series by CTV. Butt also is working on a comedy special of his own.
But whatever Brent Butt does from now on, he already is Canadian TV royalty. How many people can say that?
Thanks for the laughs, Corner Gas.