Tag Archives: Brent Butt

Links: Corner Gas Animated, Season 4

From Melissa Hank of Postmedia:

Link: Brent Butt says goodbye to Corner Gas Animated
They say every dog has its day. Dog River, the setting of Canadian TV franchise Corner Gas, has had 10 seasons. First, as a live-action series from 2004 to 2009 and then as a cartoon revival debuting in 2018. The animated series wraps up its run Monday on CTV Comedy Channel. Continue reading.

From Bill Brioux of Brioux.tv:

Link: Brent Butt sets up the 4th and final season of Corner Gas Animated
Check out the latest from Brent Butt, my guest this week on brioux.tv: the podcast. The creator, writer, executive producer and star of Corner Gas Animated returns to brioux.tv: the podcast to set up the fourth and final season of his award-winning series. Continue reading.

From Greg Harder of the Regina Leader Post:

Link: Corner Gas animated series set to go out with a bang
This may be the end of the road for Corner Gas, but that doesn’t mean its final incarnation is running on fumes. Continue reading.

From Stephen Cooke of Saltwire:

Link: Halifax-raised Corrine Koslo reflects on final fill-up for Corner Gas Animated
It’s a long way to go from rural Saskatchewan to seaside Nova Scotia, especially in the middle of a pandemic. Continue reading.

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CTV Comedy Channel heads back to Dog River for the fourth and final season of Corner Gas Animated, July 5

From a media release:

CORNER GAS ANIMATED heads to the pump one last time as the fan-favourite CTV Comedy Channel Original returns for its fourth and final season, Monday, July 5 at 8 p.m. ET/PT. The latest chapter in the 17-year long history of the iconic CORNER GAS franchise is set to conclude with 13, all-new half-hour episodes packed full of guest stars and a series finale featuring a soon-to-be-revealed Hollywood A-lister.

New episodes of CORNER GAS ANIMATED are available to stream on CTV.ca and the CTV app.

The fourth and final season sees Brent (Brent Butt) impose a ban to keep his father from entering the gas station. Emma (Corrine Koslo) and Oscar (Eric Peterson) face off in a battle of impressions, but Emma is annoyed when everyone loves Oscar’s impression of her the most. Hank (Fred Ewanuick) discovers a bird’s nest, and sets up a livestream so everyone in town can watch the eggs hatch. Lacey (Gabrielle Miller), Wanda (Nancy Robertson), and Karen (Tara Spencer-Nairn) struggle to get noticed on a dating app, and Davis (Lorne Cardinal) and Karen are excited to do some bona-fide police work when an escaped convict is on the loose.

This season of CORNER GAS ANIMATED also features a lineup of star-studded cameos including: prolific Canadian actress and member of the Order of Canada, Tantoo Cardinal; SON’S OF ANARCHY’s Kim Coates; Marvel superhero Simu Liu from the upcoming Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings; KIDS IN THE HALL’s Mark McKinney; iconic Canadian satirist Rick Mercer; and Steven Page, founding member of The Barenaked Ladies.

In the season premiere, “Parachute the Messenger,” (Monday, July 5 at 8 p.m. ET/PT), Brent and Wanda help Lacey achieve her dream of skydiving by working through her fears, but Wanda seems more excited about the possibility of pushing Lacey out of the plane. Mark McKinney makes a special guest appearance as pilot Frank Shoddy.

Launching in April 2018, CORNER GAS ANIMATED quickly established itself as a ratings hit, with the premiere episode debuting as the most-watched series premiere in the history of CTV Comedy Channel, and the entire first season concluding as CTV Comedy Channel’s most-watched series of the broadcast year among total viewers, and in all key demos. The second season of CORNER GAS ANIMATED saw its overall audience increase by 41%. Season 3, which premiered October 2020, is currently the most watched show on CTV Comedy Channel, this broadcast year among the key adult demos.

CORNER GAS ANIMATED has received 13 Canadian Screen Award nominations, taking home six trophies in the last three years, including back-to-back wins for Best Animated Program or Series in 2020 and 2021; and Best Writing, Animation in 2019 and 2020.

For viewing looking to revisit the entire CORNER GAS catalogue, the franchise is exclusively available to stream on Crave, CTV.ca and the CTV app.

CORNER GAS ANIMATED is an inter-provincial co-production produced by Prairie Pantoons (BC), comprised of Brent Butt from Sparrow Media and David Storey from Aslan Entertainment; and Moving Mountoons (ON), comprised of Virginia Thompson and Robert de Lint from Vérité Films, in association with Bell Media, Canada Media Fund, Bell Fund, Ontario Film and Television Tax Credit, Ontario Computer Animation and Special Effects Tax Credit, Film Incentive BC Tax Credit, Digital Animation, Visual Effects and Post Production Tax Credit, Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit, and Prairie Pants Distribution. Animation is produced by Prairie Pantoons, Moving Mountoons, and Smiley Guy Studios. For Bell Media, Chris Kelley is Production Executive; Sarah Fowlie is Head of Production, Original Programming; Carlyn Klebuc is General Manager, Original Programming; Sarah Weaver is Director of Programming; Pat DiVittorio is Vice-President, CTV and Specialty Programming. Justin Stockman is Vice-President, Content Development & Programming, Bell Media. Karine Moses is Senior Vice-President, Content Development & News, Bell Media.

CORNER GAS ANIMATED is distributed worldwide by executive producers Virginia Thompson and Brent Butt through Prairie Pants Distribution which also holds the distribution rights to CORNER GAS: THE MOVIE and the sales agency rights to the original 107-episode comedy series.

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A (Corner) Gas of a time on MasterChef Canada

Tuesday’s “Cooking with (Corner) Gas” episode of MasterChef Canada was full of challenges for the Top 7 home cooks. They had to compete in a Mystery Box Challenge and, FINALLY, a classic MasterChef Canada Tag Team Challenge. But just hold on and let me tell it in order.

As the seven remaining home cooks entered the kitchen they saw a MASSIVE Mystery Box. What could be in it? Or perhaps, who could be in it? Tonight’s challenge was elevated diner food and the contestants got a little bit of help from the cast of the hit series Corner Gas Animated, including Brent Butt, Tara Spencer-Nairn, Lorne Cardinal and Nancy Robertson. For me, it was a good opportunity to add one more great Canadian series to my watch list. For the cooks, winning would give them a huge advantage in the upcoming Elimination Challenge.

All of the cooks rushed to the pantry and got baskets full of delicious products. And then there was Beccy, who had just a couple of grapefruits, eggs and butter. I was looking forward to seeing what she had in her creative mind and what the judges would get in the end. The atmosphere in the kitchen was easy and fun. The Top 7 cooks were cooking passionately and had so many great ideas, like chicken and waffles from Eugene, a Japanese play on steak and eggs from Kaegan and a tuna melt from Marissa. But chefs Claudio, Alvin and Michael made their choice and decided to try three dishes out of the seven; the lucky ones were Nadia, Andy and Beccy. Nadia made a stuffed French toast with smoked applewood brie and spicy berry fig sauce and the judges loved her brie! Beccy cooked an elevated diner pie with grapefruit and basil with Italian meringue and crumble; the presentation was extraordinary. Andy prepared a Thai Burger with vegetable tempura.

Chef Alvin was very impressed by Andy’s dish … and he was the home cook who won the challenge. Which dish would you like to try?

The Elimination Tag Team Challenge was a replication of an Asian box with five different dishes. It contained perfectly crafted Chinese bao with pork belly, cucumber and Asian pear, jellyfish salad and Banh Mi sandwich, and Takoyaki. And for the dessert? Fried banana in coconut batter. The home cooks had 70 minutes to master the box. Andy was safe from elimination but as well had a power to make teams for the Tag Team Challenge. He made Eugene and Beccy a team, Michael G. and Kaegan the second team and Nadia and Marissa the third. The heat was on. The teams were rushing to finish. The normally quiet Beccy was very vocal, urging Eugene to work faster. The judges started to sample the dishes. The first team to get all of their items in their box were Kaegan and Michael G. The Banh Mi was great, the takoyaki and the bun were good, but the bananas were burnt. Beccy and Eugene missed a couple of details but still made a great box. Nadia and Marissa, unfortunately, disappointed judges and Marissa left MasterChef Canada.

MasterChef Canada airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on CTV.Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail

Links: Corner Gas Animated, Season 1

From Sabrina Furminger of the Vancouver Courier:

Link: Corner Gas gets animated
When CTV approached Brent Butt and his partners about bringing Corner Gas back to the small screen, the Vancouver comedian was admittedly leery. Continue reading.

From Bill Brioux of the Canadian Press:

Link: ‘A Sasquatch and a unicorn fight’: Brett Butt talks animated ‘Corner Gas’ reboot
Revivals are taking over television schedules, a trend sure to continue with the smash hit start of Roseanne. But can one of Canada’s most popular sitcoms find success revived as an animated series? Continue reading.

From Dana Gee of the Vancouver Sun:

Link: Corner Gas crew is back and they’re animated
For each of its six seasons CTV’s Corner Gas was Canada’s top sitcom.

In 2014, that success translated into a feature film. Now, four years later, there is indeed a lot going on as the franchise has once again expanded. This time the gang from Dog River, Sask., are starring in an animated version of the show. Continue reading.

From Sabrina Furminger of the Vancouver Courier:

Link: An animated return to ‘Corner Gas’
Corner Gas is back, but the town of Dog River and its eccentric inhabitants look a little different than the last time we saw them – dare we say (at the risk of veering into pun territory), they look a tad more animated.

The comedy juggernaut (which ran for six seasons on CTV and seemingly bid adieu with a wildly successful movie in 2014) returns to television on April 2 with Corner Gas Animated –and as the title suggests, it serves up a cartoon take on the zany characters Canadians love and their trademark shenanigans. Continue reading.

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Corner Gas returns with “magic and sorcery” in Animated series

When I first read the news Corner Gas would be returning—this time as an animated version—I scratched my head and asked myself a few questions. Why are they doing this? Didn’t everyone do what they wanted over six seasons of live action? What would make this different?

“I didn’t want to do something for the sake of doing something,” creator, writer, actor and executive producer Brent Butt says of Corner Gas Animated, debuting Monday at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The Comedy Network. “The legacy of it was too important to me. I’m up for a shameless cash grab—don’t get me wrong—but it had to feel right.”

“I honestly thought that the movie was it because Brent is a man of his word and said that was it,” Tara Spencer-Nairn says. “But then I busted Virginia Thompson one day in a Shoppers Drug Mart shortly after the movie came out. I was in line and saw Virginia and she was on her phone saying loudly, ‘I don’t like how the Oscar character looks.’ I was like, ‘Virginia, I’m right here!'”

Thompson, the show’s executive producer alongside Butt and executive producer David Storey, admits the idea for an animated take on the lives of the folks living in small-town Saskatchewan has been in the works for years, but really gained momentum following the success of 2014’s Corner Gas: The Movie. After six seasons on CTV and a final farewell to fans with a feature film, Thompson figured that was it. But an outpouring of support—and demand for more stories from Dog River—caused the trio to recall something they’d kicked around as a joke years ago: an animated series.

“Brent, David and I got together and had lunch and said, ‘What do we want to do?’” Thompson recalls. “The animated concept kept popping up. We’re really excited about this because it really does come from Brent’s imagination and brand of comedy. It’s a different angle to Corner Gas.” Butt’s love of comic books—he and a friend started a publishing company and his first comic, Existing Earth, was nominated for a Golden Eagle Award before he left that for a standup career—and skills as an illustrator (he designed Corner Gas’ station logo) means that the world can expand beyond the limitations of physical television production.

“I think graphically,” Butt says. “I think in cartoon terms. Corner Gas was always written to be a live-action series because it was loosely based on what I imagined my life would be like if I hadn’t pursued stand-up comedy.” During production of the original Corner Gas, some of the ideas he came up with were dismissed as “too cartoonish.” Butt jokes he spent six years de-cartooning Corner Gas; now he can let Dog River and its citizens go wherever he wants with no live action constraints.

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Being unfettered pays off within minutes in Monday’s debut “Bone Dry,” when Brent and Oscar Leroy (Eric Peterson) argue over Brent having forgotten to order more fuel for Corner Gas’ tanks. They’re dry, leading Oscar to surmise the small town will devolve into a world where people fight to the death for gas. Cut to the elder Leroy’s imagination and a riff on The Road Warrior with Oscar, hilariously, as The Humungus. Butt and Peterson are reunited with the rest of the original Corner Gas cast—Gabrielle Miller as Lacey Burrows, Fred Ewanuick as Hank Yarbo, Lorne Cardinal as Davis Quinton, Spencer-Nairn as Karen Pelley, Nancy Robertson as Wanda Dollard—with Corrine Koslo taking over the role of Emma Leroy following the death of Janet Wright.

With half of the cast based in Vancouver and the other half in Toronto, a unique way of capturing their voices for the first season’s 13 episodes was decided on. The technology is good enough that each group could enter a recording studio in their perspective city and do a group read of the scripts.

“We had this lightning in a bottle with these people who were cast to populate this world and interact,” Butt says. “We had that magic chemistry that sometimes happens. That chemistry is a big reason for the success of Corner Gas. Having the actors from each city together means they can react to each other and react over the phone line in Vancouver.”

“We all play off each other,” Spencer-Nairn says. “I feel like if we didn’t do it this way we’d miss a lot of beats. There would be so much comedy lost if we weren’t working together this way and able to react to what the other person is saying live.”

“We could have done it piecemeal,” Butt says. “But there is an intangible chemistry and magic that these people have when they get together and the way they interact is magic and sorcery.”

Corner Gas Animated airs Mondays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The Comedy Network.

Images courtesy of Bell Media.

 

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