Excerpt from Shot in Vancouver: Adventures in Hollywood North by Sam Wiebe (2026), with permission from Arsenal Pulp Press.
“Close-up on the face of Nick Adonidas. He is about 40, wiry, and swarthy with a thick mane of black hair turning silver at the temples and a dense moustache … There is something about him of the pirate, something of the poet, a raffish charm and style not unlike that of a city tomcat, totally free and living by his wits.”
These opening lines from the first script of The Beachcombers could apply to its star, Bruno Gerussi, and also, with a few minor tweaks, to Danger Bay’s Donnelly Rhodes. Both larger-than-life actors brought considerable experience to their family-friendly shows.
Shot in Gibsons, The Beachcombers (1972–90) ran for 18 years, making it one of the longest-running series in Canada. Danger Bay (1983–90) was a CBC/Disney co-production that became one of the first Canadian shows to air on a U.S. cable network. Both shows provided young talent with opportunities and helped define an era of homegrown Canadian TV.
The Beachcombers was created by Marc and L.S. Strange, a husband-and-wife writing team who’d been tasked by producer Philip Keatley with pitching a family-friendly half-hour show to the CBC.
“The guidelines were set in stone—father figure, mother figure, three kids, one of them Native,” Marc Strange wrote in Bruno and the Beach. The Stranges came up with Molly’s Reach, set at a coastal diner catering to boat operators who salvaged logs for the mills. Keatley, who’d produced CBC Vancouver hits like Cariboo Country and The Manipulators (starring Marc Strange), insisted on shooting on location in the town of Gibsons and changed the show’s name to The Beachcombers.
Playing Nick Adonidas, the adventurous and romantic captain of the Persephone, was Bruno Gerussi. Born in Medicine Hat, Alberta, Gerussi grew up in New Westminster and moved east, making his name in theatre and radio. An American casting director once tried to hire him to play a Mafioso; Gerussi told a journalist, “If I had wanted to be an Italian gangster, I would have stayed in Vancouver.”
Rae Brown played Molly Carmody, owner of Molly’s Reach café. Former Second World War bomber pilot Robert Clothier played Nick’s rival, Relic. Jackson Davies played Constable John Constable, a young Mountie. David Suzuki and Chief Dan George guest-starred, and actors who appeared early in their careers included Bruce Greenwood, Helen Shaver, and Ryan Stiles.
Pat John, a 17-year-old from the shíshálh Nation, was cast as Jesse Jim, Nick’s salvaging partner and one of the first recurring Indigenous characters on Canadian TV. A residential school survivor who lost his mother at an early age, John became a cultural icon almost overnight. But after an altercation with police that ended with six shots fired at John’s station wagon before it crashed into 30 feet of water, the CBC fired John. Or tried to. “If they take that kid out, if they throw him to the dogs, then I go too,” Gerussi said. John remained on Beachcombers until its cancellation.
“For a whole generation of West Coast writers, it was our start on TV,” writer Ian Weir said. More scripts were commissioned for Beachcombers than aired, and with no season arc, episodes could veer between zany adventure, comedy, drama, and heartwarming family programming. For Weir, “The show worked best when it was embracing its larger-than-life quality.”
Drew Hayden Taylor grew up watching the show, and with his season 17 script, he became one of the first Indigenous screenwriters in Canada. “I’ve had some horrible experiences with other series where they take what you’ve written and turn it inside out,” Taylor said. “The people at Beachcombers were quite respectful, and I would say 90 per cent of what I wrote was there. It was an entirely pleasant experience and a great way to break into the business.”
“When the show ended in 1990, I would go on American sets, and there would be Beachcombers alumni on every one,” Jackson Davies said. One alum, Robert McLachlan, went on to be a cinematographer on Game of Thrones and Yellowstone.
Though two Beachcombers specials aired in the 2000s, the CBC’s refusal to air reruns is a sore spot. Yet the show remains in the public consciousness. The Indigenous network APTN still airs Beachcombers, and on his podcast, Conan O’Brien related a story of travelling to Gibsons to meet Pat John.
“We were the series that was loved by the audience, not the industry,” Davies said.
The son of playwright Ann Henry, Donnelly Rhodes survived a hardscrabble childhood, working on oil rigs and the docks of Duke Point and serving in the Royal Canadian Air Force before becoming an actor. Unlike Gerussi, Rhodes went to the U.S., appearing in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and on Mission: Impossible before returning to Vancouver for Danger Bay.
Created by Peter Dixon and Paul Saltzman, Danger Bay debuted in 1983. Rhodes turned down higher-paying jobs in the U.S. to play “Doc” Roberts, a marine biologist and single father. The Roberts family, including son Jonah (Christopher Crabb), daughter Nicole (Ocean Hellman), and an otter named Danger, dealt with environmental threats such as poaching and pollution.
The Vancouver Aquarium and the waters and coastline around the city provided the setting. The Roberts children took the “school boat” to class, and marine wildlife like otters and octopuses were often as important as the human co-stars. Jerry Wasserman guest-starred on an episode directed by Deepa Mehta, playing the affectionate owner of a pot-bellied pig. Rhodes was “kind of a legend,” said Wasserman.
Sam Wiebe photographed by Mel Yap.
Margaret Langrick also appeared on several episodes and remembers Rhodes as “kind of a fun uncle for all the young actors in town … Donnelly had a very fancy, lovely home in Deep Cove with a boat, and a dock, and a hot tub, and a sauna … He hosted some pretty epic parties there.”
Danger Bay ran for six seasons in 23 countries and on the Disney Channel. After its cancellation, Rhodes remained in Vancouver, starring on Da Vinci’s Inquest and Battlestar Galactica. In 2006 he was awarded the Earle Grey Award for lifetime achievement. “I walk in the rain,” Rhodes said in 2002, explaining his affection for the West Coast. “This is where I intend to finish off my time in this world.” Rhodes died in 2018.
Danger Bay and The Beachcombers were both cancelled in 1990, ending an era of West Coast Canadian shows with international reach. The two family-friendly series tackled issues such as environmental sustainability and Indigenous rights while serving as a training ground for actors, writers, and crew still working today. The two shows, like Bruno Gerussi and Donnelly Rhodes, left an indelible mark on B.C.’s film and TV industry.
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