Vintage Toronto’s mean streets, as seen on TV
While New York and Chicago are globally recognized as the settings of countless classic crime films, Toronto’s mean streets were always better portrayed on TV.
These six programs now function as grainy Polaroids of an era when the city was grim and gritty, and sleazy neon lights adorned the “sin strip” of Yonge St., marking a runway of potential urban strife with an embattled police force on the edge. Wojeck, CBC Dr. Steve Wojeck (admirably played by John “Delta House!” Vernon, best remembered from Animal House) was Toronto’s salty crusading coroner and also the first Polish hero on TV in North America. Based on the real-life stories of Morton Shulman (who went on to get his own infamous talk show on Citytv), Wojeck navigated the landscape of incendiary social issues (native rights, corruption, fascist police, racism) on the rain-slicked streets of late-1960s Toronto, with no weapon other than his furious, Gatling-gun vocabulary. The Collaborators, CBC More funky stylings from the CBC, The Collaborators chronicled the often-volatile relationship between fo- rensic scientists working in the Metropolitan Toronto Police Department and the hard-boiled detectives and street cops on the front line. Incongruities from this violent series include everything from chainsmoking judges with overflowing ashtrays in their offices, ubiquitous brown-and-orange flared trousers with bushy sideburns worn by the detectives, seatbelt-less high-speed chases with yellow police cars and a gallery of bizarre villains that ranged from gay Nazi bikers to roaming gangs of mute children. The New Avengers in Canada, CTV The followup to the cult Swinging Sixties tele-fantasy series The Avengers set four episodes in Toronto, all of them firecrackers. From assassins taking people out atop the CN Tower to bullet-spraying villains commandeering a Toronto Star delivery van along the lakeshore to genetically engineered Russian supermen battling the greatest chin in boxing history, local legend George Chuvalo, this truly bonkers series did more with Toronto’s varied locations in four episodes than most series have done in four decades. Night Heat, CTV Shot locally but co-produced by CBS in America as part of its notorious late-night “Crimetime After Primetime” block of gruff police shows, Night Heat never named Toronto as its setting but made brilliant use of the downtown core and all of its noirish trappings.
Apair of no-nonsense cops team up with a newspaper reporter (whose column is titled “Night Heat”) to combat crime, never afraid to skate just outside the law in a post- Dirty Harry moral vacuum. Night Heat also immortalized our 1980s skyline in its memorable opening credits, which featured a punchy theme song from Domenic Troiano (the James Gang, the Guess Who). T&T, Global Red-hot off the success of The A-Team, Laurence “Mr. T” Tureaud followed it up with this low-key liveaction crime drama produced by Toronto animation house Nelvana. Substituting his trademark machine guns and bling for a shrewd legal mind, Mr. T is T.S. Turner, an exboxer who was accused of a crime he didn’t commit (sound familiar?). Working with his public defender Amanda Taler, T helps wrongly accused criminals in Toronto traverse the often heartless legal ecosystem (failing that, he still had his blazing fists). Forever Knight, CTV Toronto homicide cop Nick Knight is actually an 800-year-old vampire, who works the night shift as he is naturally allergic to daylight. Nicely balancing supernatural elements with the police procedural, Forever Knight remained a cult hit during its run but sadly missed out on the resurgence of vampires in popular culture ( Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel on TV, Blade and Underworld series in film) in the late 1990s.