The premise was, an old antique dealer named Louis Vendredi (played by veteran actor RG Armstrong, Alfred Grimes, DYNASTY), who made a deal with the Devil... to sell cursed antiques for eternal life and wealth. But he broke the pact, and it cost him his life. The antique store was held in probate and defaulted to the closest relatives, two cousins by marriage: Michelle "Micki" Foster (singer, Louise Robey), and Ryan Dallion (John D. Le May). With Micki engaged, and Ryan, an art student, the two cousins wanted no part of the antique store and chose to liquidate the store selling off all the antiques. However, they were unaware that the objects were cursed, until an occult buyer for the store, Jack Marshak (Chris Wiggins), brought to their attention what their uncle was into.

Now started the triad's weekly efforts to get the items sold both by Uncle Louis, and themselves. The first object was a doll... that talked its owner, a little girl played by Academy Award Winning Documentarian Sarah Polley, into killing the adults who wouldn't let have her way.

Some soap stars were on it: Marj Dusay (Alexandra, Guiding Light), played a psychic who used a cursed television to communicate with the dead. Kate Reid (Aunt Lil, Dallas), played an aging classic Hollywood star whose husband used a curse reel of one of her movies to kill off young actresses. Jonathan Byner (Detective Donahue, SOAP) played a rival ventriloquist who tried to gain fame using a dummy reanimated by a cursed silk boutonniere. And Real Andrews (Taggert, General Hospital) was a rival gang member/car racer in an episode about an antagonist's cursed silver chain that attached to a blank car key allowing him to win races.

Also, the leading man from the esoteric "Strange Paradise" - Colin Fox, starred in multiple episodes about a quill pen that could write your demise, and a coin that determined "heads you lived, tails you died"...

It was fun Canadian horror, sometimes campy, other times sadistic, and the stuff of nightmares - but all of it exists on YouTube for your Halloween viewing 🎃

I remember it

Another one of those shows that kind of get wrecked by one of the leads leaving far too early.

I want to say that they started doing a bit more lore stuff towards the end? Though I believe it was even cancelled before they could finish their episode order for season 3. It's wild that it fell that much out of favor, but again, one of the leads were gone...

ETA: I think it also shows up on Pluto TV occasionally in some markets I believe.

Edited 5 hours ago5 hr by te.

15 hours ago, Lust4Life76 said:

The premise was, an old antique dealer named Louis Vendredi (played by veteran actor RG Armstrong, Alfred Grimes, DYNASTY), who made a deal with the Devil... to sell cursed antiques for eternal life and wealth. But he broke the pact, and it cost him his life. The antique store was held in probate and defaulted to the closest relatives, two cousins by marriage: Michelle "Micki" Foster (singer, Louise Robey), and Ryan Dallion (John D. Le May). With Micki engaged, and Ryan, an art student, the two cousins wanted no part of the antique store and chose to liquidate the store selling off all the antiques. However, they were unaware that the objects were cursed, until an occult buyer for the store, Jack Marshak (Chris Wiggins), brought to their attention what their uncle was into.

Now started the triad's weekly efforts to get the items sold both by Uncle Louis, and themselves. The first object was a doll... that talked its owner, a little girl played by Academy Award Winning Documentarian Sarah Polley, into killing the adults who wouldn't let have her way.

Some soap stars were on it: Marj Dusay (Alexandra, Guiding Light), played a psychic who used a cursed television to communicate with the dead. Kate Reid (Aunt Lil, Dallas), played an aging classic Hollywood star whose husband used a curse reel of one of her movies to kill off young actresses. Jonathan Byner (Detective Donahue, SOAP) played a rival ventriloquist who tried to gain fame using a dummy reanimated by a cursed silk boutonniere. And Real Andrews (Taggert, General Hospital) was a rival gang member/car racer in an episode about an antagonist's cursed silver chain that attached to a blank car key allowing him to win races.

Also, the leading man from the esoteric "Strange Paradise" - Colin Fox, starred in multiple episodes about a quill pen that could write your demise, and a coin that determined "heads you lived, tails you died"...

It was fun Canadian horror, sometimes campy, other times sadistic, and the stuff of nightmares - but all of it exists on YouTube for your Halloween viewing 🎃

I used to watch this when I was a kid. I remember thinking Mickey was cool, and I loved Ryan. I was upset when he was written out and I didn't watch much after that. The show was very frightening and I probably shouldn't have been watching but I did. I remember the scarecrow episode, and the one where the nerdy, ugly girl used her compact to kill other students so she could look better, and the electric chair episode, and one where they had to go around an old house smashing all the mirrors.

Years later I watched Polley's episode and she was excellent.

Mickey and Ryan probably had too much chemistry together to have been made cousins in the script.

4 hours ago, te. said:

Another one of those shows that kind of get wrecked by one of the leads leaving far too early.

I want to say that they started doing a bit more lore stuff towards the end? Though I believe it was even cancelled before they could finish their episode order for season 3. It's wild that it fell that much out of favor, but again, one of the leads were gone...

ETA: I think it also shows up on Pluto TV occasionally in some markets I believe.

I watched a video last year where they said that because the show was doing well, a decision was made to try to move the show to earlier timeslots. This got huge backlash from "family" groups due to the horror content. Rather than tone show down it ended.

Edited 58 minutes ago58 min by DRW50

I was only 13 when I started watching.

5 hours ago, te. said:

Another one of those shows that kind of get wrecked by one of the leads leaving far too early.

I want to say that they started doing a bit more lore stuff towards the end? Though I believe it was even cancelled before they could finish their episode order for season 3. It's wild that it fell that much out of favor, but again, one of the leads were gone...

ETA: I think it also shows up on Pluto TV occasionally in some markets I believe.

Oh, it was a culmination of things....

Back then we had no internet, and this being a syndicated television production from Canada, we had even less information about John D. Lemay leaving, and the abrupt cancellation. What has come about is John D. Lemay was ready to leave by season 3 due to the grueling, and it was intense from what I have read, shooting schedule.

That's why mid to late season 2, the character of Johnny Ventura, played by Steven Monarque is introduced and integrated so by the premiere of season 3 once Le May leaves, Monarque can pick up as the new hero. Johnny was a bit of a sceptic but became a believer really fast as he learned up close and personal how evil the cursed objects could be. His experience was similar to Micki and Ryan's early on, so it was fun to see him grow into his role... but by the time they could wrap up season 3, and ready for season 4 (I think the rumor was five seasons were planned), the show was cancelled... and this was not due to John D. Lemay - I think that would have impacted ratings, but the show was still doing okay in its syndicated markets...

The issue was the religious right, who started a petition against Friday the 13th the Series, and another anthology, Freddy's Nightmares, due to the uptick in violence. They wanted both shows removed from the airwaves and they succeeded. Though I found Friday the 13th the Series compelling, I won't deny after watching several episodes I need a cleanse of some kind - the violence escalated throughout the series, and yet, as a kid, I couldn't wait to see what the next cursed object was!