Another milestone in Canadian television is reached with the 50th anniversary of the launch of The Beachcombers. Canadians coast-to-coast were still buzzing over Team Canada’s last-minute heroics over the Soviet Union in the Summit series when The Beachcombers premiered on CBC Television on October 1, 1972.
The series starred Bruno Gerussi as log scavenger Nick Adonidas and Pat John who played his young business partner Jesse — one of the first indigenous actors to co-star on a Canadian series.
In many ways, it addressed many of today’s most relevant issues, including land claims, indigenous rights and conservation. That’s the view of this week’s podcast guest on brioux.tv, Jackson Davies, who played Constable Constable on the series.
Davies was in over 250 episodes over 16 seasons as well as two reboot movies in the early 2000’s. He was deeply saddened by the death of John earlier this year at 69. “He had quite a sense of humour, and I loved making him laugh,” says Davies.
Here is a strange but true Beachcombers story: Conan O’Brien, before he became a late night talk show host, was on a visit to Vancouver with writer pal Greg Daniels (who went on to co-create the American version of The Office). The two of them happened upon a Beachcombers episode on the TV in their hotel room. They became so transfixed with John’s halting delivery and original TV presence that they tracked him down, and, posing as American producers, paid him a visit!
Davies tells that story and many more, including a look back at some of his later credits, including his work on Tom Greene’s notorious flick of the ’90s, “Freddy Got Fingered.” To listen in, simply click on the blue and white arrow above to link directly to the free podcast episode.
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