THE RETURN OF THE BEACHCOMBERS | Will we finally see it?

As October approaches, so does the 50th anniversary, of an incredibly important part of not only television history, but the Canadian identity, that being the 50th anniversary of the original premier of “The Beachcombers” on Canadian television.

I have a very personal connection with the series. For around six years now I have been in-and-out researching and obsessing over this iconic series. For those who are unfamiliar, the Beachcombers follows Nick Adonodas (played by Bruno Gerusi) and his partner Jesse Jim (Pat John), who work as beachcombers, scouring the seas and coasts of Gibsons, Vancouver looking for stray logs and salvage. Their main competition is Relic (Robert Clothier), a rough and rouge grump always trying to put one-over on the two and steal their jobs. On dry-land is Molly who owns The Reach, a restaurant on the pier, where our main heroes live. Often stories revolve around everyday life in Gibsons, and or adventures that Nick and Jesse face in the open waters. It's hard to describe in just a few sentences (which I am definitely not doing justice to), but it's such a joy to follow the adventures of this colourful cast, all while taking in beautiful landscapes of the Sunshine Coast. And It’s amazing how just the idea of “Greek and First-Nations guy salvaging logs”, which in theory doesn’t sound like the most engaging show, manages to pack a whole lot of entertainment and heart, and all at the same time capturing the essence of Canada. The series premiered in 1972, ran for 19 seasons, and ended in 1990. Although later documentaries and spin-offs of the show were made, not much came from the original production. 

Despite the fact that Beachcombers is celebrated as the longest running Canadian Drama series of all time, and one of the first series to feature a First-Nations character in lead role (that being Jesse Jim, played by Pat John who passed July 2022), the series is virtually impossible to watch as of 2022. You might have been lucky enough to catch the CBC run two episodes for their 50th anniversary in 2002, where the show was the most requested-to-see drama (which beat out Street Legal and King of Kensington among others), or maybe you saw reruns of later produced episodes when they aired on APTN, or the now-defunct SUN-TV. But if you missed those, you’re out of luck.

You’re probably thinking, in this day and age everything is streaming, this must be available there? Well it was briefly, in Canada, only one single episode has ever been available for a short period of time, that being Season 4’s Invisible Relic from 1975, released on the CBC’s website for the 40th anniversary of Beachcombers in 2012 (almost 10 years ago as of writing this). Besides that (or if you lived in the United States, where a select 13 episodes from the late 80’s are available to stream on Amazon Prime) the series has not been available at all.

Even in Germany, DVD distributor PIDAX (who specialize in releasing vintage TV series) attempted to release a DVD with the first 15 episodes of season 1 but were unfortunately unsuccessful, this time citing rights issues.

You’d assume it’s copyright issues killing everything here, they want to do it, but they can’t. But it’s not. The CBC owns (at least in Canada) distribution rights for the show. They have denied this many times, but it's plain fact. I mentioned prior that a single episode that was released on the CBC website, how did it get there? Those previously mentioned reruns on SUN-TV featured a message of “Produced and Distributed by Canadian Broadcasting Corporation” pinned to the end of each episode. And even cast member of the show, Jackson Davies, who I had the pleasure of talking with on my podcast, even confirmed all this, and added that CBC just has to pay the actors their duties. So why hasn’t CBC done anything?

Well, my original draft of this article ends here. I was going to rant about the CBC and the lack of an actual release of this series, and possibly, unwillingness to work with other companies to get their material to the public, but that ends here (sort of), and I’ll try my best to explain why.

At this point I think it’s time I bring up the efforts of the previously mentioned Jackson Davies. For those familiar with Beachcombers you’ll instantly recognize Davies’ for playing Constable John Constable, local cop to the show, and often a comic relief. Davies’ is one of the last surviving members of the main Beachcombers cast and has been a champion in promoting the series into the 20th century, and getting it released.

One of his creations was the ‘Friends of the Beachcombers’ Facebook group, which consists of over five-thousand members from around the world. This group not only serves as a space for Beachcombers fans to discuss and share memories of the show, but has been an excellent way to display how much of a worldwide interest still exists for this series. You can find almost daily posts of fans expressing their love for the program, but disappointment that they can’t view the show at all. But maybe soon that won’t be the case.

Recently Davies’ shared some amazing news, CBC is now working to have six episodes of the Beachcombers up for the 50th anniversary of the series, on their free streaming service CBC Gem. Of these episodes are Partners (the first/premier episode), Sunset (the final episode), and four other (at the moment) unknown episodes from the 70’s and 80’s.

Now this isn’t a confirmation that this will be happening, Davies says that “CBC Gem is working on streaming” and not “CBC Gem has these ready to go for October 1st''. But I am extremely positive about this, I think the fact that CBC are now actually trying to do this is fantastic. If you previously read my blog on the aforementioned failed German DVD that never materialized, I ended it off on a very negative note by noting we might never see the show, but I feel much more confident now, and quite excited.

As for myself, I will be patiently awaiting October 1st, where hopefully we will once again be able to meet the Beachcombers, and have a warm Saturday evening at Molly’s Reach.

Friends of the Beachcombers Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2298458331

I'd like to use this final part of the article to give my deepest condolences to the John family after the passing of Pat John in July of this year. Jesse (the character Pat played) is probably one of my favorite characters on Beachcombers, and brought so much character to the show that no one else could have.