Mounties, BeaverTails, maple syrup ... "Corner Gas." After a successful six-year run it's only natural that loyal fans think of this CTV comedy hit as a true Canadian classic.

Launched in 2004 with modest hopes, "We went into this thinking let's just make a show that we really want to watch, because the odds are nobody else will," says "Corner Gas" creator and star Brent Butt.

But thanks to pudgy gas station proprietor Brent Leroy (Butt) and his quirky, culture-savvy posse in Dog River, Sask., "Corner Gas" nabbed almost 1.2 million viewers with its debut episode. That, as the 42-year-old Butt says, "Blew us away."

You're not alone, Brent.

"'Corner Gas' has kept Canadian families, including my own, laughing for the last six seasons," says Prime Minister Stephen Harper. In fact, the prime minister says, "the residents of Dog River are now part of Canada's comedy history."

From Canadian singer Michael Bublé to CTV's legendary news anchor Lloyd Robertson, something about "Corner Gas" appealed to a long list of celebrity guests and viewers.

"Corner Gas" became so entrenched in Canadian culture that Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall, and a former guest star on the show, named April 13 - the date of the show's final - "Corner Gas" day in that province.

The recognition is long overdue, say "CG" diehards.

From start to finish, the comic comings and goings of Brent and his oddball buds gave Canadian TV a new high - and not from all the gas fumes.

"I think the big reason why this show won viewers over was that it wasn't trying to be something it wasn't," Butt told CTV.ca.

"We weren't trying to be edgy. We weren't trying to be dark. And we certainly weren't trying to be counter culture or appeal to a specific demographic. There was no agenda for us outside of trying to be funny and that's what made it so authentic. People could see that authenticity and feel it," says the stand up-comic hailing from Tisdale, Sask.

Even as episodes played out against a backdrop of grain elevators and wheat fields Butt and company slipped wit and worldliness into their daily banter, as well as another all important element: Respect for the everyday Joe.

"Right from the start, one of our big mandates was not to make rubes out of our characters," says Butt.

"Every character we came up with was aware of the world. They had cellphones. They made pop culture references," says Butt.

From iconic TV figures such as "The Littlest Hobo" to jabs at The Hardy Boys, this kooky cast of Canucks was well-schooled in the world outside their city limits. Together they slung feisty barbs and pop culture zingers at us faster than Butt could whip a gas nozzle into a car.

"The notion of these simple people being backwards-ass hillbillies out in the sticks is just wrong," says Butt. "People who think that, you know, the urbanites who go through towns and look at all the 'quaint' country folk.... They don't realize that they are the goofs in a lot of ways, not the little guys they're looking making fun of."

As Butt says, "I can take you back to my home town to a buddy of mine who spent 20 hours a day in the fields. He knows more about the world and show business than anybody."

That ode to the ordinary bloke is, in the final analysis, what has really allowed "Corner Gas" to imprint itself on our "Home and native land" psyche and transcend TV demographics all across North America.

"Kids, teenagers, old people, the rich and the poor. We're all people. At the end of the day we want to be entertained," says Butt.

"If 'Corner Gas' succeeded at leaving a big cultural imprint on this country it's because the show brought a level entertainment to the table that people responded to. And you know what?" Butt asks with a laugh. "They didn't mind giving 22 minutes of their lives to the show every week. They liked the jokes. They thought it was funny. That's all they wanted."

Catch the final episode of "Corner Gas" on Monday, April 13 at 9:30 p.m. ET on CTV and 'A' (visit ctv.ca to confirm local broadcast times).