Possum Lake

Possum Lake is a fictional town in Northwestern Ontario, Canada which is the setting for The Red Green Show. Although Dalton Humphrey, portrayed by actor Bob Bainborough, refers to the "county of Possum Lake" when he introduces Harold Green (Patrick McKenna) as the new Public Relations person when McKenna returned to the show (episode 211, "New Job in Town"), most episodes call Possum Lake a "town". Red Green once ran for the position of mayor of Possum Lake (episode 169, "The Mayor Race"), a position usually associated with municipal rather than county government (there are also no counties in Northern Ontario).

Possum Lake is named after the adjoining lake, which is very polluted and full of discarded motors and car parts. As pointed out in many episodes of the show, it barely qualifies as a lake. In episode 107, "X Marks The Spot", the lake appears as vaguely 'possum shaped in an aerial photo, which implies the source for its name.

Possum Lodge, home base for the Red Green Show, has dock facilities on the lake, although viewers never see the lake and the lodge at the same time. The lake does appear in episodes that include marina operator Glen Brackston (episode 23, "Canoe Jousting" and many others) and bush pilot Buzz Sherwood near his floatplane "Beauty" tied up to a dock on the lake (episode 70, "The Possum Olympics", for example). Several episodes also have segments featuring water taxi captain Hap Shaughnessy on Possum Lake.

The nearby town of Port Asbestos, mentioned in many episodes but never seen by viewers, has more people than Possum Lake, and more and larger retail businesses. Some Possum Lake residents view Port Asbestos as a rival, especially for tourist dollars.

In episode 297, "Rain Man", Red Green accidentally vaporized the entire lake after misfiring a cannon he had built to seed the clouds and create rainfall. He did, however, touch off a huge thunderstorm in Port Asbestos, ending the region's drought. The lake suffers other mishaps such as getting covered with a pink foam (episode 44, "The Sudsy Lake") and carbonation from high-tension power lines (episode 77, "The Hydrogen Project") or becoming magnetized from everybody's car batteries (episode 52, "Magnetic Lake").

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