Change Your Image
Noam DePlume
Reviews
The Adventures of Timothy Pilgrim (1974)
Five dollars!
I remember this one. I caught it in rerun land somewhere in the late 80s.
If this ever gets remade as a feature-length film, I hereby nominate Atom Egoyan as director. He's really good at those doing those time-jumpy things.
Listen to the City (1984)
My tax money gets wasted again
"A man wakes up from a 20-year coma and teams up with a young musician and poet to fight corporate crime." That's what the TV guide blurb used to say.
I remember the only thing more common than seeing this on TV in Canada throughout the late 80s (functioning as the usual CanCon timeslot filler that nobody watches) was seeing the soundtrack record at every public library branch. There was no need to place a hold on it, it was always conveniently available. It's THAT Canadian.
Despite Jim Carroll as the disoriented coma patient (neat casting), as well as two of my 80s crushes, Riff Randall and Spoons bassist Sandy Horne (who will forever be the crimped hair of my dreams), there's nothing much going on here. Full of left-wing utopian dreams that muddle around and go nowhere. Oh well, at least the Parachute Club aren't in it.
Readalong (1975)
The reason why talking inanimate objects scare me
I learned a lot from this educational show, but I also paid a price for that knowledge. If you think the sight of shoes talking, rows of detached houses talking and a skeleton named Boneapart singing and dancing (and talking) is harmless, you obviously never saw this show at a young, impressionable age. This, along with those old Parkay margarine ads where the margarine tub says "you know!", is what made me extremely paranoid of supposed inanimate objects today. Thanks a lot, TVOntario.
Read All About It! (1979)
Fine edutainment/entercation from Canadian public television
**MAY CONTAIN PLOT SPOILERS, BUT WILL NOT SPOIL ANY OF THE FUN**
No plot summary necessary here, as the fine fellows below have already completed the task. Besides, if you're reading this, chances are that you've seen the show and know how great it is anyway!
I deliciously anticipated the opening moments, in which a recap of the previous episode would be typed out s-l-o-w-l-y on the screen for what seemed to be forever. Sure I had a bad attention span, but it wasn't that hard to remember what happened in the last episode!
I also distinctly remember the eerie analog music and sound effects as the teleporter/tabletop thing was switched on, and those hypnotic strobe lights and the dry-ice smoking action. Crazy.
Yes indeed, Dunedin (sp?) was quite the instrument of evil. And I always knew there was something fishy going on with mayor Don Eden, although I'm not sure what gave it away, was it the guy's name or that he looked exactly like Dunedin (minus the make-up and lack of body)
My favourite is the first season, though the second does incorporate the ability to travel through space and time involving olde Fort York (located
in the middle of busy downtown Toronto). In the end, the gang finally visits Mr. Evil Floating Head's intergalactic home, travel around in a spacecar (which reuses the identical set over and over, kind of shamelessly but economically it works!). Then they answer some grammar questions and save the world.
I am attempting to track down and locate the cast members of this show for a film project of my own, which pays great tribute to this show. I haven't been able to get in touch with them, but then again I haven't really tried. If you know them, or actually are one of them, please send me a message. Especially Lynne.
The Last Chase (1981)
Fine Canadian tax shelter production
This was a staple of 1980s Canadian television, not because it's particularly good (though I like it), but because it was made with Canadian dollars. Thus allowing it to fit in with the country's strange (to non-Canadians anyway) Canadian Content broadcast regulations.
Lee Majors takes time out inbetween his Six Million Dollar Man/Fall Guy gigs and races around the countryside near my neck of the woods, while Chris Makepeace blows the head off a statue real good and Burgess Meredith talks to his kite. All this, plus a decent supporting role from Harvey Atkin as the orgy-frequenting conformist co-worker who frowns upon Lee's free-thinking spirit. What's not to like?
Adding to the enjoyment is playing the game of "spot the location" and comparing places I've been to to how they're shown in the movie. The sight of dozens of extras bicycling around the Yorkdale shopping centre on their way towards a big clean Utopian bubble city (or a matte painting of it, anyway) always raises a smile.
Avoid the Mystery Science Theater 3000 version of this, it's really not funny, although the last line "aw, no wonder it sucks, it's Canadian!" is a good one.