The Red Green Show is a Canadian sketch comedy-sitcom hybrid that aired 300 episodes from 1991-2006, following the antics of the flannel and duct tape loving wannabe handyman title character and his cohorts at Possum Lodge.  Remarkably popular, it led to specials, books, and a feature film, with PBS and Comedy Central picking up the show here in the US. The Infantile Years collection has all seventy-two episodes of the first three seasons, airing from 1991-1993.
 

Definitely an acquired taste, The Red Green Show is one part Home Improvement, one part Hee Haw, one part Jeff Foxworthy, and one part Little Rascals (No girls allowed) with a Canadian twist.  It is a mostly sketch comedy show (Season 2 is the exception: more on that later) where Red Green hosts a handyman/outdoorsy show produced by his smart but awkward and often scattered nephew, Harold.  Regular segments include “Handyman Corner,” where Red shows how to creatively build fix destroy any number of common and not-so common items (I think my favorite was turning a discarded refrigerator into a dishwasher), often using the handyman’s secret weapon of duct tape and “Adventures with Bill,” where Red dryly narrates black and white home movies of him attempting random activities like archery or pumping a bicycle tire with a disaster-prone outdoor enthusiast.  There are also funny pseudo-poetry segments celebrating the seasons (“Spring Hopes Eternal,” “Winter of our Discount Tent”) and I like the quick campfire songs Red and Harold perform.  Season 3 introduces my favorite segment: “The Experts” where the (decidedly non-expert) guys attempt to answer viewer questions or offer solutions to problems with hilarious results.  The humor is folksy, mostly light, and often slightly absurd, full of puns, self-deprecation, and slapstick.  Season 2 took a bit of a detour into the more traditional sitcom route, and while not disastrous, it also didn’t quite work, and season 3 returned to the more sketch comedy route, adding a live audience and giving the show an energy boost.
 

Comedian Steve Smith plays Red Green with the perfect amount of rustic charm and dry humor, and he is at his best when he can’t fix things or he’s insulting Harold.  Patrick McKenna is the geeky Harold usually seen with his special effects “axe” around his neck (it’s really some sort of old computer keyboard attached to a board with all kinds of knobs and buttons).  He does his best to fit in with the Possum Lodge gang, though he also tries to improve their behavior, with little luck.  The almost always silent Bill (save for the screaming) is gamely played by Rick Green.  You may notice a lack of actresses and that's because The Red Green Show, at least this early in its run, was strictly male, which probably made it easier to skewer male-oriented shows.
 

The special features are skimpy at best.  There’s an introduction to the series by Smith, profiles of the Red and Harold characters, and biographies of Smith and McKenna.  The video and audio are adequate with the discs looking and sounding essentially like they do on PBS. Overall, there are a lot of funny moments in The Red Green Show, and the episodes, especially from seasons one and three, pass quickly.  The humor, even when insults are flying, is never mean-spirited, and the cast chemistry is outstanding: Smith and McKenna especially hum along like a well-oiled machine.  The Red Green Show probably isn’t for everyone—it’s not exactly cutting edge hilarity here--but it is consistently chuckle-worthy, especially if you like drier, lightly absurd jokes.