The Beachcombers
The longest-running English-language show on Canadian TV looks just awful. How could it be otherwise, with this premise, as detailed in their Wikipedia entry.
The Beachcombers followed the life of Nick Adonidas (Bruno Gerussi), a Greek-Canadian log salvager in British Columbia who earned a living travelling the coastline northwest of Vancouver with his partner Jesse Jim (Pat John) aboard their logging tug Persephone tracking down logs that had broken away from barges and logging booms. Their chief business competitor is Relic (Robert Clothier) (whose actual name is Stafford T. Phillips), a somewhat unsavoury person who will occasionally go to great lengths to steal business (and logs) away from Nick. The series also focused on a supporting cast of characters in Nick's hometown of Gibsons, often centering on a café, Molly's Reach, run by Molly (Rae Brown), a mother figure to virtually all the characters in the series (including Relic). Molly had two grandchildren living with her, Hughie (Bob Park) and his younger sister Margaret played by Nancy Chapple in the first season then by Juliet Randall from the second season onward.
There are some full episodes on YouTube if anyone is brave enough to watch. Maybe a Canadian WU-vie will fill us in!
Comments
I used to watch the show avidly when I was a kid *cough* back in the seventies. About all I can remember about it now was there was always a LOT of logs. At the time it was about the only Canadian show you could see on Australian television, which may have been why I found it so interesting, unless it was the logs...
Posted by RobW on 08/06/17 at 10:05 AM
Great nostalgic memories, RobW! Thanks for the log-centric recollections!
Posted by Paul on 08/06/17 at 10:55 AM
"At 387 episodes, it is the third longest-running dramatic series ever made for English-language Canadian television."
Posted by Anastasia Beaverhausen on 08/06/17 at 11:09 PM
Thanks for the correction, Anastasia. Not sure now where I picked up that factoid about longest-running.
Posted by Paul on 08/07/17 at 11:29 AM
It just seemed like it had run forever.
Having grown up and lived in the metro Detroit area, I've always had access to the CBC, plus one or two other Canadian channels at various times. I remember seeing this show and always thought it looked terrible, so I never really watched it.
If you'd like to find some good Canadian TV, " The Red Green Show" or "This Hour Has 22 Minutes" were more to my liking, to name two off the top of my head.
Having grown up and lived in the metro Detroit area, I've always had access to the CBC, plus one or two other Canadian channels at various times. I remember seeing this show and always thought it looked terrible, so I never really watched it.
If you'd like to find some good Canadian TV, " The Red Green Show" or "This Hour Has 22 Minutes" were more to my liking, to name two off the top of my head.
Posted by Robb of Warren on 08/08/17 at 01:30 PM
That show makes me feel good - especially the ones with Jackson Davies.
Posted by Kevin Douglas Shinduke on 04/03/20 at 05:27 AM
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Category: Ineptness, Crudity, Talentlessness, Kitsch, and Bad Art | Nature | Natural Resources | 1970s