YMMV / The Red Green Show

• Germans Love David Hasselhoff:
  • The show became very popular among Americans on PBS despite the latter's generally highbrow reputation. In particular, it was a hit with rural Flyover Country viewers whose experiences were similar to many of the rural Canadian ones the show parodied. They even did live specials for PBS pledge drives.
    • Iowans love Red Green (Steve Smith noted that Iowa was one of the states which gave most generously during PBS pledge drives to keep the rights to Red Green re-runs). Enough to basically get their own episode, "Twinning". Steve Smith also joked that he could probably get elected governor of Iowa if he wanted to. Iowa Public Television continued to air the show in reruns through at least Spring 2016.
    • The show was also extremely popular in Michigan, which was the first U.S. market to pick it up (WTVS Detroit to be exact). No surprise, since Michigan, being just across the border from Ontario, has a lot of cultural similarities and has picked up Canadian channels.
  • Reportedly, while it wasn't overly large, there was a decent sized fandom for the show in Israel, of all places.
  • In "Duct Tape Forever," some of the extras feature interviews with fans who had come to watch the movie being made, with the screen displaying their names and where they were from. No less than three were from in or near Charlottesville, Virginia.
• Growing the Beard:
  • One of the few shows in addition to Star Trek: The Next Generation to apply this trope literally. At the beginning, Steve Smith's beard was actually fairly short and trimmed, as well as more brown than gray, and as his beard grew out (and got grayer) the quality of the show improved. Smith later Lampshaded this fact when he pointed out that you could almost tell what season a given episode was in by looking at his beard.
  • Besides the literal beard, the show really started to take off in season 4, thanks to two new segments ("The Buddy System", "Red's Sage Advice") and a few new characters that would be regulars for the rest of the series (Dalton, Mike, Winston, Edgar). The show also incorporated more "men vs. women" humor, a staple from there on out.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Some of the "Adventures" segments where Walter gets thrown in the air or falls from great heights can be hard to watch in the wake of Joel Harris' death in a skydiving accident.
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • In 'Duct Tape Forever'' Harold finally calls Red out on his constant belittling and insults. Red pulls out a photo of himself as a high schooler—and we see he was nearly identical to Harold. Red was mercilessly picked on as a kid, and he's just trying to help Harold grow a spine.
  • Some of Red's final lines in the final "North of 40" segment about friends and endings also are quite touching.
    "The truth is, when people are friends, they're never really apart. They stay in each other's minds and when they think about each other, they're together again."
    "Anyway, let's all agree that it's been a great right and whenever we hear the sweet sound of a strip of duct tape being torn off..." (does just that) "We'll think of each other. Might even smile."
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • At the end of each season 6 episode, Red told viewers that if they wanted some Possum Lodge merchandise to call 1-800-YPOSSUM, "or if you're a techno geek, check out Harold's homepage on the internet." Nowadays, it's far more commonplace to check out a company's website as opposed to calling a number for information, and more than just "techno geeks" use the internet. Also, Red Green has his own webpage now!
  • One of the Handyman Corner segments of "Xmas in July", aired in 2001, has Red attaching a vacuum cleaner to a toy train so he could clean the whole floor without doing any work. He basically built a Roomba a year before they were introduced!
  • Gordon Pinsent voices Pippi's father in the 1997 Pippi Longstocking animated film. Pippi is just as much The Münchausen as Hap Shaughnessy, it's no wonder where she gets it from!
• More Popular Replacement: The cast that would become the regulars (Dalton, Mike, Winston, Gord) were added starting in season 2. They're largely regarded as being more memorable and play off of Red better.
• Older Than They Think:
  • Since Steve Smith's earlier sketch series, Smith & Smith and The Comedy Mill, have never been PBS staples to the same extent as The Red Green Show, American viewers may be surprised to hear that the character of Red Green goes back to 1979-80, in segments in which he gave rambling monologues (sometimes accompanied by "home movies") about recent Possum Lodge hunting or fishing trips in a spoof of Canadian TV mainstay B.H. "Red" Fisher. Even in those early days, such characters as Buster Hadfield, Stinky Peterson, Junior Singleton, and Old Man Sedgewick were already being mentioned regularly as participants in the chaos that Red related to the viewer.
  • Red's wife Bernice is The Ghost on The Red Green Show, but she actually appeared onscreen in the show Me And Max played by Steve Smith's real-life wife Morag.
• Parody Displacement: The Red Green Show is a parody of The Red Fisher Show, and more generally of low-budget outdoor and handyman shows on cable access channels, which Red Fisher itself also parodied. The Red Green Show is still widely beloved both in Canada and the U.S., while Red Fisher, not to mention the countless outdoor shows they both parodied, have largely fallen into obscurity.
• Retroactive Recognition: Prior to his run on This Hour Has 22 Minutes, Gavin Crawford played a young gas station attendant Red tries to share his wisdom with.
• Seasonal Rot: While if and how much this occurred is up to the viewer, Steve Smith admitted in at least one interview that the show was intentionally ended to keep this from happening. It was even said outright in the last show, on screen. They were ending it while it was still funny so people had good memories of it, to prevent it becoming a Franchise Zombie.
• Sophomore Slump: Steve Smith tends to view the show's second season as almost an Old Shame. Executive Meddling led to a host of new characters and the show becoming more like a sitcom, which Smith hated. It didn't help that the same executives who forced the changes on him ended up cancelling the show anyway. In his intro on the DVD release, Smith really only praises the Handyman Corner and Adventures With Bill segments, which were in his opinion some of the best in the show's entire run.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Every episode of the first season has Harold interrupting Red as he tries to recount the latest misadventures of the lodge members (canoe jousting, a supposed Elvis Presley sighting, etc.). Given how funny the episodes where Red does get to elaborate on his stories are, there's a real sense of missed opportunities there.
• Tear Jerker: The "North of 40" segments typically end with Red saying his trademark line, "Remember, I'm pulling for you. We're all in this together," and then resuming work on the fishing fly he'd been tying at the start. For the series finale, he says the line and then gets up to walk offstage because he's ready to cry.
  • Hell, most of the episode is a tear jerker.