Beachcombers still classic Canadiana
Beachcombers was born under a magical shooting star — and that star was Paul Henderson.
Beachcombers debuted on Sunday, Oct. 1, 1972. Just days earlier, Henderson had scored his famous goal against the Soviet Union live on CBC TV.
“Canada won on Thursday. The Beachcombers was on Sunday. So all of the sudden Canadians had a sense of ‘You know what? We’re someone. We’re world beaters,’” recalls Beachcombers star, historian and chief cheerleader Jackson Davies.
Davies says that Beachcombers (which had “the” removed a few years before its cancellation in 1990) was created by Marc Strange and his wife Ella, who dreamt up the idea of creating a made-in-Canada version of Zorba the Greek.
The proudly Italian Bruno Gerussi was cast as the proudly Greek Nick Adonidas, who was paired with First Nations first mate Jessie Jim (Pat John) to run the salvage boat, Persephone.
Robert Clothier was cast as their nemesis, Relic, a fellow beachcomber with a quick temper and a quicker boat. The meeting place for everybody was local waterfront café Molly’s Reach, played by local waterfront café Molly’s Reach.
Davies still recalls hearing about the show on CBC Radio just before its debut and thinking it sounded like … a disaster.
“It’s about a Greek guy and a native guy and they pick up logs? This is going to last a week!” Davies laughs again at the memory. “I was out by a bit.”
Canada’s longest-running drama series was cancelled in 1990 just a year before it would have caught Gunsmoke for the title of longestrunning TV drama anywhere.
Reel West editor Ian Caddell has written extensively about how Beachcombers helped launch B.C.’s film and TV industry. Caddell said: “When the Americans were looking for locations in the early 1980s, they could see that B.C. and other areas were competitive. But B.C. had experienced crew members thanks to Beachcombers, which at that point had been in operation for about a decade.
“Our reputation during the ’80s and ’90s was spurred by Beachcombers alumni who went on to make significant contributions to both local and international productions.”
Davies also lists some of the cast members whose careers began chasing logs. “Chief Dan George, Ryan Stiles, Bruce Greenwood, Winston Rekert and all these other guys.”
Davies is delighted and somewhat baffled by the show’s enduring fan base, noting that a petition at TVArchives.com (tvarchive.ca/ petition/) has collected more than 2,000 signatures to bring back the show.
Davies joined Beachcombers for its third season as an unnamed RCMP officer paired with actor Terrence Kelly — now one of B.C.’s most acclaimed stage actors. Over the years, Davies not only gained a name — Constable John Constable — but became one of the most recognizable cast members. After the show was cancelled in 1990 and revived for two TV movies (featuring SCTV star Dave Thomas as the new owner of Molly’s Reach), it was Davies who became the face of the series. Gerussi died in 1995, and Clothier died in 1999.
Interviewed shortly after the show’s cancellation in 1990, Clothier described the decision to remove “the” from the title as “fatuous,” and blamed CBC brass “in the East” for the changes that led to its demise.
“They took hold of it and decided they wanted to slick it up and to modernize it. And I think in so doing they destroyed the innocence that the thing had,” Clothier said at the time.
But the original memories have never vanished. Says Davies: “A woman — she was probably like a 30-year-old woman — stopped me in the street one day, smiling. And she said, ‘I just remember getting into my PJs and snuggling up with my dad and watching Beachcombers on Sunday night. It was our night, together.’
“I probably should have walked away from that franchise a long time ago, but I get thousands of emails from Beachcomber fans all over the world, so I realize how important it was, and still is.”