Brent Butt has wrapped the final episode of Corner Gas, just as work on his next comedy for CTV and The Comedy Network readies to shoot in Vancouver.

The net announced Thursday that the next would-be series from the veteran comic, Hiccups, will shoot its pilot later this month, putting Butt’s wife and Gas cohort Nancy Robertson in the role of a children’s author with emotional issues.

‘She responds to everything like a four- or five-year-old,’ says Butt of the lead character, Millie. Not just anger — though fits of rage will apparently be a big part of the humor — but happiness, sadness, the whole gamut.

Casting is underway in Toronto and Vancouver for, among other roles, the utterly unqualified ‘life coach’ who is hired to help Millie sort out her life. Casting directors are Lewis Kay in Toronto and Stuart Aikens in Vancouver.

Butt is behind the camera this time, doing multiple duty on the project as writer, showrunner and executive producer through his Vancouver company Sparrow Media. Sparrow’s new hire Laura Lightbown (Da Vinci’s Inquest) and David Storey (Corner Gas) will also executive produce. Storey will also direct.

‘I’ve had the idea for a long time,’ Butt tells Playback Daily. ‘When the network approached me about a new show, that was one of the ideas we wanted to pursue. I approached Nancy and she liked the idea of the character.’

Corner Gas filmed its final episode last week in Saskatchewan. Butt is keeping the details under wraps, though he sounds especially pleased with its final shot. ‘I don’t want to give anything away, but it ends with a shot — something we haven’t done before — but still within the context of the show. It’s the very last shot.’

Butt and Robertson played boss and employee on Corner Gas, playing off each other with a good deal of shared screen time. But because of his other projects — he’s returning to touring as a comic and is writing a feature for Brightlight Pictures — he says he’s not likely to make any appearances in Hiccups.

‘Never say never, but I wouldn’t hold my breath,’ says Butt.