Corner Gas set quickly becoming a corner embarrassment

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This article was published 10/07/2009 (6094 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ROULEAU, Sask. — The pumps may have gone dry on Corner Gas, but the TV show’s set is still fuelling a debate in the town that stood in for the fictional community of Dog River, Sask.

Officials in Rouleau, Sask., near Regina, say the exterior set for the show’s filling station is falling into disrepair since production on the Gemini-award winning series ended last fall.

That’s bad news for the community and Corner Gas fans, Rouleau Mayor Allen Kuhlmann said Thursday.

"We have a lot of tourists who are really disgusted with the state that the set is in and the fact that there’s no access and it’s just kind of been abandoned," said Kuhlmann.

The Rouleau set has been a tourist attraction since Corner Gas started airing in 2004. People from across Canada and around the world made the trek to Rouleau, population 400, to pose next to the red and yellow pumps.

But Kuhlmann said the pumps are gone, there’s now yellow tape around the building, the windows are boarded up and the weeds are overgrown.

"It’s a shameful thing for people to come from different parts of Canada to see the state that this thing is in and then they blame the town of Rouleau for it being like that," said Kuhlmann.

Kuhlmann said the town is frustrated, but can’t take action because it doesn’t own the property. He said the television company Prairie Pants Productions, which leases the land, needs to allow someone to use the property because it’s a tourist attraction.

But Corner Gas executive producer Virginia Thompson said the set looks the way it always looks when the show is not in production.

"It’s boarded up for a really good reason," said Thompson.

"The set was designed as a set. It was not designed as a tourist destination and it’s never actually been a tourist destination," said Thompson.

 

— The Canadian Press