I'm a Red Green fan, but I can change - if I have to - I guess.
Yes, as all you legion of mismatched suspender and plaid fans know, Friday marked the last episode of the very silly and very, very funny Red Green Show. It was a show dedicated to the inalienable proposition that men never grow up. Or as Red would say, "If you can't stay young, you can at least stay immature."
The show stayed immature for 300 episodes and 15 years, much to the obvious mystery of its creators and the delight of its fans.
I'm actually old enough to remember the Red Fisher Show from the 1960s. That featured endless grainy film of fish being hauled aboard and endless discussions about the intricacies of catching walleye in the incredibly fake confines of Scuttlebutt Lodge, the imaginary place that sort-of inspired the Red Green satire in the first place.
We've been watching Red loyally since actor Steve Smith, a one-time Streetsville resident who used to be an elementary teacher around here, was on CHCH-TV way back when.
It survived many rocky up-and-downs and cancellations and station switches and eventually this most Canadian of shows actually became a cult classic on American PBS stations.
No wonder the Yanks are worried about our porous borders. If Red and Harold and Dalton and Mike and the boys can capture the imaginations of Americans that easily, what hope do they have against mature terrorism?
There were a lot of goofy segments that provoked giggles and groans over the years. I particularly liked 'Ask The Experts,' where Lodge members would answer letters from readers, blithely offering advice in areas about which they knew nothing. That prompted the segment's theme - those three little words men find so hard to say: "I don't know."
I shall miss many other things about the show, but none more-so than 'Adventures With Bill.'
Now I'm not saying this just because the incredibly talented Rick Green, who played Bill and co-wrote the Red Green show for most of its history, just happens to be a long-time Port Credit resident.
Green (The Frantics/ Prisoners of Gravity/ History Bites) is a master of the slapstick style that has its roots in Mack Sennett, Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. Bill's totally unjustified belief in his physical skills was surpassed only by his foolhardy confidence in his friends. The result produced some of the finest short bursts of tragi-comedy since George Bush tried to speak English.
Invariably, a wounded but none-the-wiser Bill, laughed off his injuries and returned to test the limits of his own inabilities again the next week. Fortunately for us, he never found them.
Without Red, Bill, Harold and the members of Possum Lodge, life isn't going to be as giddy for 30 minutes every Friday night, and that's not such a good thing.
Anybody here know the Latin for, "When all else fails, watch the reruns?"