History Series / TheRedGreenShow

* WordAssociationTest: The Possum Lodge Word Game. Red has 30 seconds to make another character guess a specific word for that character to win a cheap gift certificate from a questionable Possum Lake business, a piece of junk, or another humorous prize. The word will always be something essential to describing the guessing character, who will often be incapable of saying it, such as when Dalton repeatedly avoids saying the word "cheap". Red will (almost) always get the character to win at the wire by tricking them into saying the word, or something that sounds close to the word, indirectly. On rare occasions the roles are reversed, and another character has to make Red guess the word, but the formula remains the same.

* WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue: Over the closing credits of the series finale, Red narrates what happened to the various major characters in the years that followed. [[spoiler:Mike became Possum Lake's Chief of Police (and since he was the town's only criminal, the crime rate dropped to zero), Winston got a job investigating government corruption (he knew the territory), Dalton and Anne-Marie renewed their wedding vows (Anne-Marie wore black), Ed became leader of the local animal rights group, Edgar tried to make a heated recliner using dynamite and hasn't been seen since, Hap became ambassador to Guam (or so he claimed), Harold and Bonnie had two children (who are just as geeky as their parents)... in fact, according to Red, everyone changed except him (although the final shot of a well-dressed Red sitting in an armchair by a fireplace suggests otherwise).]]

* InCaseOfXBreakGlass: The "No Duct Tape" episode features an emergency supply of duct tape in a windowed box, complete with sign "in case of emergency break glass". Unfortunately, when Red does so, the tape crumbles in his hands because it's 50 years old.

** Bill suffers injuries that would kill Wile E. Coyote. But no matter what happens, he's always good as new by the next episode and ready for another zany adventure. He can even take a hit like ramming into set of football uprights headfirst (while trying to pole-vault over them) and be up and around in minutes. That said, there are occasional references to the number of bandages Bill wears at any given time, and in one second-season episode when the Lodge members are trying to deal with an audit, one of them suggests using Bill's medical expenses and all the stuff he damages as "business expenses" for the Lodge.

** Bill suffers injuries that would kill Wile E. Coyote. But no matter what happens to him, by next week's show he's good as new and ready for yet another zany adventure. That said, there are occasional references to the number of bandages Bill wears at any given time, and in one second-season episode when the Lodge members are trying to deal with an audit, one of them suggests using Bill's medical expenses and all the stuff he damages as "business expenses" for the Lodge.

* IdiosyncraticWipes: A still picture of the lodge, and one of several things happens. A chainsaw saws through the picture and it falls away; a gas can plunks into the middle of the screen then explodes, etc. Other wipes included Harold's grinning face sliding past the screen, a lantern turning on, or anything that would fit a lodge-like theme.

Culture is not unknown here at the Lodge, either -- it may be gravely wounded, but it sure isn't being ignored. Red is often seen in short transitional vignettes playing guitar and singing (accompanied by Harold on spoons or homemade drum), or reciting poetry. Occasionally he simply addresses his fellow middle-aged schlubs directly and rather poignantly, concluding with "Remember, I'm pulling for ya, we're all in this together."

The show always ends with the sounds of the lodge meeting beginning, in the basement. Red stays upstairs for a moment to deliver a quasi-{{Aesop}} and a message to his wife, Bernice. Often the opening of the lodge meeting will run behind the closing credits, with the studio audience as the lodge members.

* InCaseOfXBreakGlass: The "No Duct Tape" episode features an emergency supply of duct tape in a windowed box, complete with sign "in case of emergency break glass". Unfortunately, when Red breaks the glass, the 50-year-old roll of duct tape crumbles in his hands.

* DuctTapeForEverything: You know it. Played with in the episode "No Duct Tape," where the lodge runs out of duct tape--only to find loads of it in the attic, where it was being used to fix the ductwork. This leads to a comment from Mike, who says, "[[LampshadeHanging I didn't know you could use it for that!]]"

* ExcusePlot: In earlier seasons of the program, there was generally an over-reaching plot that they tried to work into every segment of the show in some manner or another. In latter seasons, this practice was dropped, with the main plot of the episode only appearing in a few segments and otherwise being kept out of the recurring sketches like "North of 40" or "Handyman Corner." One of the most notable instances was the "No Duct Tape" episode, in which Red was still seen using duct tape in such segments, even though the plot of the episode was that Possum Lodge had run out of duct tape.

* CoolClearWater: {{Subverted|Trope}}. With all the snowmobiles falling through the ice, runoff from the lodge and the marina, junk being thrown in, the appropriately named [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Mercury Creek]], and the proximity of "Stinky" Peterson, Possum Lake has become an environmental nightmare. In a season nine episode, the water is tested and it's found that it isn't technically water at all: it's 40% methyl alcohol with lots of dissolved manganese and sulfates. Near the end of the series, Harold complains that the lake has turned into a giant blob of jelly.

** Possibly Winston, given his profession of sucking sewage, of which he is proud.

* AnAesop: A subtle lesson throughout Season 15 is the neccessity of change, almost a CentralTheme. The main plot is Harold preparing to get married with several subplots resolving the stories of the cast, concluding with the WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue showing the cast finding new jobs and taking chances to achieve happiness. Red gives it more directly in the final episode's North of 40 segment where he says that we all have to move from one phase of life to another and nobody is meant to do one thing their entire life.

* BabiesEverAfter: The epilogue reveals this to be the case for [[spoiler: Harold and Bonnie.]]

* BlazingInfernoHellfireSauce: Red mixes up a batch for a lodge barbecue. It consisted mostly of ketchup and mustard, with some various hot peppers thrown in and some other ingredients, including the "secret ingredient", which was some blue goop in an unlabelled container [[spoiler: (Harold gets it analyzed, it's jet fuel).]] To demonstrate how hot it is, Dalton tastes a little bit on a toothpick and is clearly in serious pain. [[ScreamsLikeALittleGirl Then Harold tastes a big spoonful]].

* DidntThinkThisThrough: Red and the guys often find themselves in the middle of a DIY project that's best left to professional engineers/mechanics or even government agencies. When they invariably go wrong, the consequences veer into complete absurdity. (Example: Red decides to end the local drought by building a cannon to seed the clouds. When Harold accidentally sets it off, the chemical payload falls into Possum Lake and vaporizes it in a huge cloud of foam. The blast touches off a thunderstorm to end the drought, the foam puts out several nearby forest fires, and it'll take so long for the lake to refill itself that the guys can retrieve all the junk they've thrown into it.)

* LongRunners: Fifteen years and more than 300 episodes. As Red himself noted:

* SketchComedy: Recurring segments included ''Handyman Corner'', ''Adventures With Bill'', ''The Experts'', ''Talking Animals'', ''North of 40'' (Red's speeches to other middle-aged men), ''Buddy System'' (when Red and another lodge member give husbands advice on how to get out of a jam with their wives), ''The Possum Lodge Word Game'' (when Red tries to get a lodge member to say a certain word to win a strange prize), ''The Winter Of Our Discount Tent'' (Red reading poetry), ''Possum 911'', "Harold's Hobby House" (where Harold and another lodge member discuss the lodge member's hobbies), "Harold's Handicrafts" (where Harold tries and fails to create handicrafts such as country clocks, wool blankets and duck decoys), boating tips with Glenn Brackston, and one-on-one interviews with everyone from Dougie Franklin to Jimmy [=McVeigh=] to Jack Davidson. Some of these segments were eventually dropped from the show when the writers couldn't come up with anything else they felt was really worth shooting, although ''Buddy System'' eventually reappeared later in the show's run.

** Three in "Handyman Corner": Red knocking down the title sign, banging on something with a sledgehammer, and watching his latest creation fall to pieces at the end of the segment.

** In the "Adventures With Bill" segment, some object flying through the air and breaking the driver's side mirror off of Red's van.
** Red almost always resorts to hitting something with a sledge hammer during "Handyman Corner".

* AnAesop: A subtle lesson throughout Season 15 is the neccessity of change, almost a CentralTheme. The main plot is Harold preparing to get married with several subplots resolving the stories of the cast, concluding with the WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue showing the cast finding new jobs and taking chances to achieve happiness. Red gives it more directly in the final episode's North by 40 segment where he says that we all have to move from one phase of life to another and nobody is meant to do one thing their entire life.

** In one episode, Harold is the one who appears in the "North Of 40" segment instead of Red:

** 1994-1997 seasons: A fly-through of a cityscape, which then pans upward and crashes through the show's logo before rotating 180 degrees to reveal the lodge.

Another popular segment is "Adventures with Bill", featuring the title character's attempts (or more accurately, spectacular failures) to get a grip on the whole outdoorsman gig, in slapstick pantomime shown in black and white and narrated by Red. "The Possum Lodge Word Game" is a typically loose attempt at a Series/{{Password}}-esque game show, with Red trying to get a lodge member to say a certain word for a prize.

* CoolClearWater: {{Subverted|Trope}}. With all the snowmobiles falling through the ice, run off from the lodge and the marina, the appropriately named [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Mercury Creek]], and the proximity of "Stinky" Peterson, everyone knows how dirty Possum Lake is. In a season nine episode, the water is tested and it’s found that it isn’t technically water at all: it’s 40% methyl alcohol with lots of dissolved manganese and sulfates.

* DidntThinkThisThrough: Frequently, mostly trying to DIY projects usually left to trained engineers and even entire national governments for a reason.

* SwappedRoles: The episode "Mad About You" has Harold helping Red with his anger issues. Red feels a lot better when he delegates more of his Lodge duties to Harold, but soon Harold's the one with the anger problems. The reason they both get so angry is from the stress of dealing with the other Lodge members' idiocy.

** In the penultimate episode, Red Green claims to have had the car he was working on for thirty years, but the vehicle in question is a third generation Chrysler LeBaron that would have been no more than 20 years old at the time the episode was filmed.