It's July 1st!!! It's party time people!!
Today we celebrate for many reasons :
It's Canada Day!
It's Dan Aykroyd's birthday
It's the 1st anniversary of the broadcast of Corner Gas Animated Season 2
IT'S MY 100th POST!!!!!!!
The closest I ever came to finishing a project was the time I decided to build the worlds greatest go kart out of the shopping trolley I found abandoned in a local pond. I put in at least a full half an hour of back, and ground, breaking work. Have you ever seen a stealth fighter jet? Well imagine one of those only with a couple of wheels attached to the front with hairy string. That was my go-kart, in my mind. I had built the mechanical equivalent of a Maclaren F1 racing car, only faster, and with a Ghostbusters sign painted on the side.
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| Nice try! Not as good as my kart! |
I took the cart to the top of my street, with it's perfect camber for a test drive. I elected my mate Duncan as the crash test dummy. Of course there was no thought of using any sort of safety equipment, like a helmet or knee pads, as this was the 1980's and such things didn't exist. With a bigger push forward than when manifest destiny was a thing Duncan was off with a WHOOOOSH which, 2.3 seconds later, was followed by a BAAAANG! This was obviously the noise of the sound barrier being shattered by our revolutionary new vehicle.
The power of hindsight is a wonderful thing as I now realise it might not have been the best idea to start our test circuit on a massive bend. I pottered around the corner to be greeted by the site of my friend upside down in the gutter with the cart on top of him roughly three feet from where he had been launched. He was fine, only one leg was pointing in the wrong direction. There was the distinct smell of burning skin in the air, emanating from his hands where he had been frantically trying to steer the cart with the hairy string. I probably shouldn't point this out but he was driving without a licence or any sort of insurance.
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| Reconstruction |
So when I started Corner Gas Fan Corner I never expected to have the tenacity to keep it going for four years and counting and reach this 100th post!!! I also didn't expect to see over 55,000 people around the world read the thing. I thought a few curious onlookers may stop by and have a poke at it to see if it was alive. A bit like that old lady did to my friend Duncan with her walking stick.
So I figured I better do something special to celebrate the momentous occasion. Only problem is I didn't know what to do. I did consider publishing the pictures I had taken of myself at that boudoir photographer I hired last summer, a very special treat for you all I am sure, but I had forgotten about the injunction.
Then the timing gods rained down on me their fortunes! Corner Gas went and chucked out a whole bucket load of exciting news. So let us celebrate my milestone by writing up some of the shows own on the blackboard of televisual history, in the font of fact, using the chalk of recognition.
This week saw two tweets roll out with exciting announcements. The first I have dealt with sometime ago. It seemed like an official announcement of Corner Gas Animated Season 3.
If you follow my news posts every month you will know I covered this quite a way back. Season 3 has been in the works since before Season 2 aired and has been a long time in production. There have been a few minor delays as was reported in my recent interview for The Jackass-Cast with David Storey.
The recent pandemic also caused new health and safety measures to be taken in the recording studio. The cast are split between two cities, Vancouver and Toronto. Ordinarily they would record together via the means of the wonder of modern technical hoofer doofery with a connection over the net between studios in both cities. Now tracks have to be recorded individually with only one person in the studio and engineers and other technical bods hidden in the safety of other rooms and such like.
Brent even posted showing him recording on the 67th floor of Sparrow Media Towers.
However, with the new announcement I think we can assure that an air date will not be far behind. Previously, the month of August was mentioned (I suspect by accident) in a tweet from the official Corner Gas account in reply to a fan message. This could ring true, however, in last weeks release announcement the second season of Jann was also mentioned and given a fall release date. Maybe this is an indicator of when we can expect Season 3 from the gang. I'm only guessing. Let's just say we will see it's release between now and the air of Season 4 and pat ourselves on the back when we are proved to be correct!
No, that doesn't mean that there is a Season 4 guaranteed. I was given the ok by David Storey to announce that work has already begun, on Season 4, in readiness of an official green light from the bods on the top floor. I have been told that nothing is guaranteed but personally with the shows continued success at award time I will eat my perfectly good par of roadside pants if it doesn't happen. You can hear my whole interview with David here.
Speaking of awards, didn't we do well!! Corner Gas Animated Season 2 romped away with more Canadian Screen Awards.
The nominations were for -
Best Animated Program or Series
Best Performance in Animation - Brent Butt and Eric Peterson
Best Writing in Animation - Kate Hewlett and Diana Frances
Best Direction in Animation - Stephen Evans and Mateusz Garbulinski
Our winners were Brent for best performance and Diana Frances for best writing. Congratulations to both of them and all the nominees. In fact, congratulations to the whole crew. Here's what went on on social media when the winners were anounced.
HEY!!! More hardware!!! I'm a #CdnScreenAwardWinner for Best Performance in an Animated Series!
— Brent Butt (@BrentButt) May 26, 2020
My virtual Acceptance Speech... pic.twitter.com/0SGgj7DaDo
I recently added my definitive list of Corner Gas awards to the site here. It covers the original six series run and the movie. I will be adding a Corner Gas: Animated award page very soon.
Another award winner has been Molly of Denali, which features our very own Lorne Cardinal. The show which features the adventures of 10 year old indigenous girl Molly and her friends and family as they discover cultures around the world.
The show won The Peabody award for best show in the Children and Youth category. Here, cut and pasted for your convenience, is what the press release regarding the decision to make the show a winner had to say -
An alarming 20% of Americans believe Indigenous people no longer exist. And only 13% of state history standards across the U.S. cover information about Native Americans after the year 1900, while American media depicts Native characters almost entirely in historical settings. Molly of Denali, the charming story of Molly Mabray, an Alaska Native girl who helps her parents run the Denali Trading Post, represents the Indigenous traditions of Alaska Natives as a living cultural tradition which has much to offer us at the current moment, from environmental consciousness to community belonging and creative expression. Alaska Natives play central roles in all aspects of production. WGBH mentored six Alaska Native writers to produce scripts for season 1 and trained more than a dozen Indigenous children to play key voice-over roles or appear in live-action segments. The resulting series puts strong emphasis on cross-cultural communication, research and literacy skills, and environmental consciousness, but beyond that, the show has sparkling characters, compelling stories, and richly detailed settings. For helping to shift the ways that the next generation will think about Indigenous people and for giving native media-makers a central role in shaping their own representation, Molly of Denali deserves a Peabody.
As we can see the show isn't simply another children's cartoon but is of considerable importance and a huge achievement by all involved.
Many of you will also have been following Lorne in the hit T.V. show FBI: Most Wanted. The show has been so popular, it was the highest rated show on the U.S. for it's season, it has it's very own twitter handle! Keep up to date with all the latest from this fantastic series by following @MostWantedCBS.
Being that I have been following the show with interest I would imagine my Google has been flagged somewhere for keep looking out FBI Most Wanted far too often. If you do the same be sure to add "t.v. show" into your search or possibly have to replace your windows when special forces bust through them on ropes, waving dirty big guns about. Does any one know the number of a decent glazier?
Lorne will be my guest on an up coming episode of The Jackass-Cast. If you can't wait for me to edit out all my stammering and burping before I release the episode here is a link, in the picure below, to an interview Lorne performed with Michele Sponagle recently for You Are UNLTD. You may be aware Michele is the author of both Corner Gas Episode Guides. Two books I am constantly reading to playgiarise..err.. I mean, to fact check.
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| Click here for Lorne! |
Recently Hallmark released a new installment of their Martha's Vineyard Mystery series. Riddled with Deceit features a turn from Gabrielle Miller as Rebecca Lane. The story follows former detective Jeff Jackson as he teams up with Dr. Zee Maderias to track down a missing emerald brooch, a thief and a murderer!
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Now, that last sentence I took from IMdB and don't get me wrong, it's a perfectly fine sentence. However, if the detective is looking for an emerald brooch before he searches out a thief and a murderer, you have to wonder about his ability to prioritise. I am sure all will be made clear in the movie. Hallmark often re-run their latest productions so please check your local listings to see when you can watch Gabrielle in action.
In recent posts I have covered the new movie starring Daniel "The tall one who gets an iron in the puss in Home Alone" Stern. Sci-Fi Comedy Drama James vs His Future Self, which features Tara Spencer-Nairn, is now available to buy from all your favourite sources such as iTunes and Google Play. Here is the trailer again for a brief re-cap, you can see my original post here. See how professional I have become over 100 posts, skillfully dodging a bit of extra work there by not writing up the movie again! Genius!
Anyway, I have digressed. Way back at the beginning of the post I mentioned there were two announcements made about the third season. I got so excited about all these other shenanigans I almost forgot to tell you about the second one!
Ok, I didn't really, I just felt the need to add a bit of dramatic tension in your mind like what you get in all the good writted literater...litttyra...books.
The second post related to the special guest cameos we are being treated to this season. Here's the post for you to read whilst I find out who they are and what they do for a living.
So to break down those Twitter handles for you. We can look forward to seeing -
Andrea Martin - Comedian, possibly best known for her work on the legendary SCTV
Jason Priestley - Actor possibly best known for his work on Beverly Hills 90210
Jay Onrait and Dan O'Toole possibly best known as TSN sports anchors
Brett Kissel possibly best known for singing songs with a big hat on
Arcade Fire possibly best known for singing songs with or without hats on but definitely from behind sunglasses
Lance Storm, Bret Hart and Trish Stratus possibly best known for pretending to hit each other in a wrestling ring
So there we have it that's a whole lot of news for our 100th anniversary!
All that is left to say is thank you once again for coming a long with me on this ride. I hope you have enjoyed it so far because there is still plenty to come. A few things to look forward to in the near future are -
The Interactive Dog River Tourist Guide
The Corner Gas Fan Corner Digital Collectors Card Collection
Next up will be two episodes of The Jackass-Cast Podcast featuring my very special guests Craig Northey and Lorne Cardinal.
So hope to see you around for the next 100 posts. If you would like to contribute anything, be it stories, art, photos or anything you have relating to Corner Gas please do not hesitate to get in touch via the comments section below or the addresses on my contact page.
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I would particularly like to send massive thanks and love to Lorne Cardinal, Monique Hurteau, Fred Ewanuick and David Storey who have been endlessly amazing, inspirational, funny and more. Thank you so much, if it wasn't for your belief in me and what I am trying to achieve I would have given this up long ago.
I would also like to raise a glass to Craig Northey, Brent Butt, Nancy Robertson and Gabrielle Miller for their support, help and encouragement of my work here at the site.
Charles Culbertson - thank you for great e-mails and your work here at the site. You got me rolling my friend and that will not be forgotten.
Of course there are many others, you know who you are and you are all aces in my book.
Andrew, Sharon and Bill hope we are now friends forever - despite that I haven't sent the hat out yet.
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