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When we think of Red Green, it is hard not to make the connection between the show and the joyful season. So, in the spirit of the holidays, we thought we would share some backstory behind the making of the two Christmas Specials, It’s a Wonderful Red Green Christmas and A Merry Red Green Christmas.
Top Quote Red Green: “This is our very first Christmas special. I'd like to apologize, first of all, for being so crass as to take advantage of the whole Christmas thing, and I'd also like to apologize for taking so darn long to think of it!”
In the spring of 1998, we were renewed for our eighth season, and both CBC in Canada and the PBS folks in America wanted us to do a Christmas special, so we started thinking about that. And then later on, in June; I always go to the television festival in Banff. Alberta, and there was a lady there from CBC North, which is the CBC affiliate in Yellowknife, which was at that time part of the Northwest Territories, and she said Red Green was kind of a popular show up there; she was inviting us to maybe come up there sometime for a visit, so I thought, maybe we could put the the two things together and we decided to shoot some of our Christmas special in Yellowknife.
So, a few of us flew up there and had a great time. I mean, the beauty was they had snow a lot earlier than we do, which would really help the whole thing, and then they decided to have a little event while we were there, and have a duct tape contest which they planned to hold in the foyer of the high school. Because it was all built on natural rock; they said it would be great because it can hold up to a hundred people in there, and I thought, 'Well, that doesn't sound like like very many people and then they announced it, and within a week they realized the foyer wasn't going to handle the amount of people, so they switched over to the arena. We had about 1,500 people show up, it was a great time, and we all got to meet all these great folks of Yellowknife. And we shot up there; we did the adventure film up there, we did the handyman corner, and a lot of these poem things that you'll see in this special. But it was a great thing. We ended up actually going back there another time, but it was one of those great things where everything kind of fit together-PBS,CBC, and all the great folks up there, and we ended up with this Christmas special which was the very first one. We had a lot of fun and we really enjoyed doing it, and I hope you enjoy watching it.
It's a Wonderful Red Green Christmas was our very first Christmas special. But then what happened was CBC only had a half-hour version of it and when they saw the one-hour version that we had done for PBS they decided they'd like a one-hour Christmas special of their own. So the very next year, which was 1999 which was our ninth season of the show, they ordered a one-hour Christmas special which we called 'A Merry Red Green Christmas' and we asked the fans and the Lodge Members, to bring in props when they came to the taping and we'd put them into the set so when you take a look at this, if you look around, you will see all of the different props on the set. You're gonna see a lot of stuff that was actually made by people who watched the show.
People with duct tape, people with red and green duct tape. I think the show turned out okay. There's something about red, green, and Christmas, not just a color thing but maybe our style or attitude that kind of fits with Christmas. There are a few highlights in this one for me. One of them was Edgar Montrose playing Silent Night on his pipe bomb organ. I hope you enjoy that. And probably the biggest highlight, Winston Rothschild-to combine sewage and Christmas to me is that's cutting edge, art. And how about the phrase 'discounts for vegetarians I mean, that to me just says Christmas. I hope you enjoy the whole thing, and I think red, green, and Christmas are going to be together for a while to come.
You can watch both It’s a Wonderful Red Green Christmas and A Merry Red Green Christmas on Youtube at RedGreen TV and be sure to check out their New Years Special Red Green Does New Years from the 2001 Season.
Always loved shows that seemed to fly by a wing and a prayer on a shoestring budget and Red Green was one of the best. Good comedy remains relevant no matter how much time has passed. My brothers, my dad, and myself used to love watching the show together, so many good memories from that time. Thank You 🙏.