It's been 20 years since the Coen Brothers talked Fargo with CBC

Snow-caked highways and big skies: the desolate winter landscape of Fargo the TV series can feel all-too familiar at times, especially if you know Alberta.

For its last two seasons, the TV homage to the Coen Brothers movie of the same name has used locations around the Calgary area, subbing towns including Strathmore, Fort McLeod, Didsbury and High River, Alberta for the American mid-west — and as the show's creator, Noah Hawley, told reporters on a recent conference call, they'll return to the province for Season 3. "It's certainly our plan," he said.

When Fargo — the movie, that is — debuted in theatres 20 years ago, Canadians were getting the same feelings of recognition.

(The heck d'ya mean that's not Highway 2?!)

It was enough that on this day in 1996, when CBC Television's Midday interviewed Joel and Ethan Coen about the new film, a project that took them home to Minnesota, host Tina Srebotnjak had to ask them about it.

Their jokey response, however, was about as cold as tossing your business partner in a wood-chipper.

"It sure resonates, Joel, for Canadians, because this kind of brutal winter that you see there is so part of our life," the host begins, speaking to the Coens via satellite. "Do you have a sense of how that bleak landscape, that cold geography has formed you?"

Joel's reply: "It is true that growing up in Minneapolis was in many respects a surreal experience. Our mother would kick us out of the house when it would be 20 degrees below zero and say go out and play. And at the time we wouldn't think anything of it but it's obviously damaged us somehow."

Adds Ethan: "Maybe it made us dullards, you know. Lack of visual stimulation. Sensory deprivation."

Watch the full interview, which explores how the brothers collaborate on their projects — and their fascination with "kidnapping stories," a theme they revisited again this year with the Old Hollywood comedy Hail, Caesar!. 

One disclaimer, though, if you've never seen the movie, don't watch until the end. Midday discusses one of Fargo's final scenes with the Coen Brothers.

In 1996, the concept of "no spoilers" hadn't been invented yet.

For more throwbacks like this one, visit the CBC Digital Archives.