In an article in the Winnipeg Free Press way back in September, Steve Smith states that he plans to leave the Red Green Show at the end of its fifteenth season. "When I finish next season, it'll be the end of my 15th year, my 300th episode and a month later I'll turn 60," he says.

Message-ID: <10vnb3usq32qi45@news.supernews.com>
From: "Carolyn McCarty"
Newsgroups: alt.fan.red.green
Subject: Uh-Oh!!!
Date: Sat, 29 Jan 2005 08:32:23 -0700

Smith saying adieu to Red Green '05 season to be his last
WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
2004.09.14

CP Wire HAMILTON -- As Steve Smith launches a new TV series skewering bad 
B-movies, he's also planning to leave The Red Green Show that made him 
famous.

The Red Green Show enters its 14th season with an hour-long special Sept. 
24, then 18 episodes starting Oct. 1 on CBC. Fittingly, this month's special 
is a look back -- just as the handyman plans to leave Possum Lodge for good.

"When I finish next season (2005), it'll be the end of my 15th year, my 
300th episode and a month later I'll turn 60," Smith said.

"I know an exit ramp when I see one." His decision comes barely a year after 
federal-funding trouble nearly rolled Red's duct tape empire down a 
different exit ramp.

A deep cut to the Canadian Television Fund put many series in peril until 
actors protested and more money appeared.

This way, Smith says he's able to plan his own exit in late 2005 from the 
character he first played 25 years ago on CHCH-TV's Smith and Smith show.

After more than 260 episodes it's hard to improve the show, says Smith, who 
got a two-year renewal on Red Green last year.

"We use about 10 ideas an episode and have done 263 so far. There's 2,600 
ideas we've already used... and not only do we need more, they have to be 
better, so it's diminishing returns," he said.

"There's an expression in show business: Forgotten but not gone.

And I don't want to be that." Of course, Red Green isn't gone yet, and he'll 
likely live on in PBS reruns long after Smith retires. But the Hamilton 
comic is already trying new things, on a new series called the Steve Smith 
Playhouse which debuted Sunday on Space. The 13-episode series lets Smith 
have a little fun, overdubbing the cheesy dialogue in old B-grade movies 
with his own comic twist. He changes the entire plot with some cheeky lines 
and clever editing.

"Is this going to be as big as Friends?" Smith said. "Maybe not." Smith is 
mulling over the kind of retirement he'd like after finishing Playhouse and 
two seasons of Red Green.

"I don't even want to think about what I'll do after that because somebody 
once said to me, 'If you knew what you're going to do then, you'd wonder why 
you're not doing it now,' " said Smith, a script consultant for his son 
Max's animated series Sons of Butcher.

"I think I'll always need to express myself creatively. I had a newspaper 
column... and might go back to that. Whether it's scripts or books or 
newspaper columns, it'll be something. And I do play golf." -- 

Canadian Press

Mannnnnnnn!  Even when you know it must come eventually, it's still a 
bummer.  I'm off to design a mourning dress with black duct tape.
-- 
Carolyn in The Old Pueblo

If it ain't broke, you aren't trying.   --Red Green
If it ain't broke, it ain't mine.  --Carolyn McCarty

If at first you don't succeed, switch to power tools  --Red Green
If at first you don't succeed, get a bigger hammer.  --Carolyn McCarty