The Beachcombers - Series Overview

Series Overview

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 centring around 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.

The series' pilot show was called "Jesse's Car" and was turned down by CBC for broadcast. The first show to air was called "Partners" and described how Jesse and Nick formed their business ties.

During the run of the series, storylines became more complex as the characters developed. Many episodes focused on Nick's Greek heritage.

The series made Bruno Gerussi a highly visible star on Canadian TV, and between 1975 and 1984 he hosted a second series, Celebrity Cooks which aired initially on the CBC and later the rival Global network.

The series' title was shortened to Beachcombers in 1988 (with the CBC announcing that the intent was to give the aging show a fresh new look), coinciding with the replacement of the show's original theme music with a new composition. Subsequent funding cutbacks at the government-supported CBC, however, led to Beachcombers being cancelled even though it was still popular in its homeland and had been syndicated around the world, though attempts to revamp the series by giving it more suspenseful storylines and making it more action-oriented had met with much fan criticism.

Music for the long-running series was composed and orchestrated by Canadian composer and producer Bobby Hales and later by Vancouver-based composer, Claire Lawrence. Numerous Vancouver-area musical artists appeared on the soundtracks of this long-running series, including Cos Natola.

The show was an active window into Canada's multicultural heritage. Gerussi's character, Nick Adonidas, as noted, was a Greek (Gerussi himself was of Italian heritage and born in Alberta) and one storyline in a later season chronicled Nick's return to his homeland, while Clothier's character, Relic, was of Welsh ancestry. Other characters included Nick's Native business partner and friend Jesse Jim (Pat John), and RCMP Constable John Constable (played by Alberta-born Jackson Davies).

Jackson Davies, Pat John and Charlene Aleck were the only original cast members who had speaking parts in the show's follow-up television movie The New Beachcombers, produced in 2002, which was an unsuccessful pilot for a revived series. Bob Park (Hugh) and Dion Luther (Pat) appeared in cameo roles. By this time, Gerussi, Clothier, and Brown had all died. A sequel, A Beachcomber's Christmas, was also produced, though this too failed to spark a new series.

A short-lived spin-off television show called "Constable Constable" ran in 1985. The show was based on Jackson Davies's Beachcombers character Constable John Constable. The series was filmed in Vancouver and starred Jackson Davies and Walter Learning.

A documentary about the show called "Welcome Back to Mollys Reach" aired in 2002. On July 27–29, 2007 former cast and crew gathered in Gibsons, British Columbia for the show's 35th anniversary.