Vendredi 13

A three season anthology horror series filmed in Toronto during the late eighties which told the story of two cousins and their friend, a specialist in occult research; the threesome chased after cursed antiques which were distributed from their store previously owned by their late Uncle Lewis Vendredi, a strange man who made a pact with the Devil.

Following the departure of the lead actor John D. LeMay at the end of the second season, the void was filled by his replacement Steven Monarque, originally introduced as a recurring character in the second season, and was added to the main cast as the new antique sleuth. The third season was cut short with 20 rather than 26 episodes though the series has made it to syndication and has a small but loyal cult following. John D. LeMay made an outstanding contribution to the series and his character as Ryan Dallion is clearly a favorite of all time among viewers. Ryan was never forgotten and was mentioned in passing by Robey, as Micki Foster, at the beginning of the third season episode "Demon Hunter" and later in "The Long Road Home". As well, footage from the second season episode "Tails I Live Heads You Die" was used at the beginning of the "Bad Penny" episode. It gave the impression that perhaps the character of Ryan would be re-written into the storyline at some point, but to our disappointment, it never happened.

Third season episodes had some of the best story lines, but unevenly distributed script and dialogue. The new character Johnny Ventura was underutilized. He rarely had lines. Too many scenes with two-way conversation only between Jack and Micki with Johnny just sitting in the background. Blame the story editor for this one! This, and lack of proper series closure, renders the third season a weak one.

Very little behind the scenes trivia and info. about the cast and crew are available regarding the series. Audio and/or video interviews would be an invaluable addition that could be presented via DVD release. Unfortunately, there's nothing official or rumored about this for the near future.

The choice of "Friday the 13th" as the title for this show was probably a major downfall, as a huge number of people (myself included) tuned in to the first show of the series expecting it to be based on the low budget slasher films of the same name. Unfortunately, at that time I was so disappointed and confused to find that it had nothing at all to do with the movies, I turned it off and didn't watch it again for a couple years. (Hey, I was 12 years old)

That said, beyond the title, this was a very good TV show, and very much a predecessor to things like The X Files. It had a similar tone to a lot of the horror/oddball shows of the day (like Tales from the Crypt, Tales From the Darkside, Monsters, etc.), but was the darkest and creepiest of all of them. The main characters, cousins Ryan and Micki played by John D. LeMay and the gorgeous and buxom Louise Robey, don't have any special magic powers or any of that nonsense. In fact, they are quite often frightened themselves when they get in over their heads.

The idea of searching for cursed items and getting them back safely from unsuspecting people is a very original and clever one.

If you manage to see this at some point, look for the first three seasons before LeMay's character was killed off, as Steve Monarque isn't as good and the writing started to go a little downhill as well.

Friday the 13th was one of Paramount's first entries into first-run syndication (it began the same year as Star Trek/Next Gen), and it quickly proceeded to find its late-night niche. In terms of horror and on-screen gore, it was remarkably graphic. At the same time, it maintained a strong sense of internal continuity, gave us several well-developed main characters, and after a rocky start, weekly presented an imaginative and interesting "cursed" antique. It can still be seen regularly on the Sci-Fi Channel.

F13th: The Series was fresh--with a fresh cast and guest stars every week. The storyline where John D. LeMay left the series has me shaking my head in disbelief to this very day. I think I speak for lots of faithful fans, we were made to feel total disbelief when Ryan regressed to a 10 year old boy. The ending to LeMays' storyline did everything but tie things in a neat package. If anything, it turned lots of fans away. Steve Monarque didn't have a chance. And we can thank the execs of Friday the 13th: The Series for that.

Having said all that, I'd still watch the series from beginning to end. When it was good--it was VERY good!! Need I say more?

This was one of my favorite shows of the late '80s. It featured a group of pawn shop owners trying to track down antiques that had been sold from their store. The trick was, these antiques had been cursed, and they wound up in the hands of people who more often than not were less than willing to let them go.

Part of the cursed antiques was, for the most part, they gave something in return when death or something horrible had happened. For example, a bunch of tattoo needles could be used to draw a tattoo on someone, and the tattoo would come to life and kill the person it was drawn on, upon which the owner of the needles would be given great fortune/luck. They wound up in the hands of a compulsive gambler who was in tremendous debt. Or a scalpel(which had once belonged to Jack the Ripper) needed to be recharged by killing someone, upon which it could work wonders during medical operations.

I was hooked (and partly obsessed) with this show when it was on, but have been unable to locate it on reruns. If anyone can, please drop me an email!

I look back with fondness at the characters too, with Ryan, the gorgeous Micki, and wise Jack.