I find
this fascinating:
The buildings once used to depict the fictional Saskatchewan town of Dog River in the popular television comedy Corner Gas have fallen into a worrisome state of disrepair, says the mayor of Rouleau, where the series was filmed.
(...)
[Mayor] Kuhlmann said windows were covered with plywood boards, and untended grass had overgrown the areas around the buildings, including the primary set of the gas station and Ruby's Cafe.
(...)
"We're not in the tourism business," said Virginia Thompson, president of Verité Films. "We've been able to raise funds independently to be able to make [the old set] as attractive as possible for our fans, but we can't go beyond that."
(...)
Kuhlmann said he does not understand why people associated with the site and the program are not interested in its value as a tourist destination. The town itself does not have the capacity to develop the site, he said.
(...)
Kuhlmann is especially bothered because prior to the program ending, the town had been promised that even after the departure of the production, there would be a legacy for the locals. However, he could never get details on what that would be.
(...)
Thompson told CBC News that it would cost a minimum $250,000 to renovate the site to make it suitable for tourists.
I don't know why this article interested me so much. I watched the show on occasion. It was fine, but I wasn't a huge fan. I visited the sets twice, since they're only about a half-hour from here. I went once because I figured they'd be something to see, and once more because folks I know were going and hey, I like tagging along.
But with that having been said, I really can't figure out what they should do with the site. It's a shame to squander whatever value is there as a tourist attraction, but if the $250,000 cost to renovate the site is accurate, I have no idea how you'd even make your money back, much less pay for the ongoing upkeep. So much of the sets are outdoors, with -40 winters and +30 (well, we can dream) summers. That's going to do some damage to any external attraction. And how, exactly, do they propose to charge admission to drive down Main Street?
For that matter - and this is almost as sacrilegious in Saskatchewan as saying I don't care about the Roughriders -
Corner Gas was just another TV show. Sure, it feels special to the people of Saskatchewan, especially those in Rouleau, but it didn't change the world. We're not talking about
The Simpsons or
M*A*S*H here. It ran for a half-dozen seasons. People generally liked it. Now it is gone. How much of a tourist attraction will the site be in, say, ten years? You could go to the Petro-Canada on Vic East and ask Dick Assman how much extra income some fleeting fame brings in... well, if that Petro-Canada was still in business.
I don't know what responsibility the production company has to the town. They should - because I get to make the decisions here - leave things how they found them, but I don't think they should be required to maintain the site in perpetuity. But "leave things how they found them" would, in this case, mean the demolition of the sets, and I don't think anyone's looking for that. I suppose they could take down the sets and move them to some kind of museum dedicated to the show, but you still run into the issue that I can't see it making the investment back, nor can I see it being interesting to people a few years from now. Plus, you wouldn't have the real sets and locations, just recreations thereof.
Still not sure why this interests me so. The lack of an easy answer?
In a related note, I think I hate every single person who comments on the CBC.ca news articles. It doesn't matter what they post; it's always awful. If not for the comments on YouTube videos, I'd think that the CBC site attracts the stupidest audience on Earth.
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
jameskalyn's journal