Terry Lane (Taking the Falls)

Created by ??

Taking the Falls was a short-lived Canadian comedy/drama TV series about mouthy, brash private detective, TERRY LANE, who works with Catherine McVicar, a straight-laced hot-shot corporate lawyer working together in the tourist town of Niagara Falls, Ontario.

Terry was played by Cynthia Dale, the popular star of the long-running Canadian legal drama Street Legal, and hopes must have been high. And she did bring a sort of spunky charm (she referred to it at the time as her “tough bitch routine”) to the role of the ex-cop drummed from the force for use of “excessive” force, who finds herself reduced to doing repo work.

But spunk wasn’t enough.

The madcap laughs that were supposed to ensue never really arrived. Really, this was just another tired retread of the Moonlighting/Odd Couple formula, with the usual two completely mismatched partners. Of course, because the two leads were women and this was the nineties, any possibility of romantic tensions was gone before it could begin.

Too bad. That might at least have distinguished this one from the herd. Although, honestly, having seen several episodes back when it aired, it would have taken more than that.

The show’s lacklustre writing, cardboard characters and disappointing so-so production values didn’t help. Amazing, really, considering all the potential for contrasting the raw natural beauty and awesome power of the the falls with perhaps the ugliest, tackiest city north of Las Vegas. But since shots of the actual city or the falls were almost totally absent (save, of course, for the opening credits), it didn’t really matter–the whole thing could have been cobbled together in a Toronto studio–and probably was.  As one online wag put it, it “could just as well have been called Taking Hamilton.”

Looking back, it’s perhaps not so surprising there’s so little information available on this show–last time I peeked, Dale isn’t even listed as the star on the IMDB’s entry for the show, and the creator of this mess is still unlisted.

TELEVISION

• TAKING THE FALLS
  (1995-96, CTV)
  13 60 minute episodes
  Premiere: September 23, 1995
  Director: Michael Kennedy
  Cinematography by Larry Lynn
  Produced by Peter Mohan
  Supervising producers: Eric Norlen, Christine Shipton
  An Alliance Communications Corporation Production
  Starring Cynthia Dale as TERRY LANE
  and Sandra Nelson as Catherine McVicar
  and Alex Carter as Domenic DiFranco
  Guest stars: Ken James, Geordie Johnson, Jennifer Dale (as Terry’s sister), Tamara Gorski, Nicholas Lea, Mark Wilson, Patrick McKenna, Don McKellar, Cynthia Preston, Carolyn Dunn, Gordon Currie, Barry Flatman, Carl Marotte, Nigel Bennett, Deborah Duchene
  • SEASON ONE
  • “Taking the Falls” (September 23, 1995; pilot?)
  • “A Tough Room” (September 30, 1995)
  • “A Tale of Two Sisters” (October 7, 1995)
  • “Easy Money” (October 7, 1995)
  • “Tears of a Clown” (November 18, 1996)
  • “Elvis has Left the Building” (December 16, 1995)
  • “The Marrying Man” (December 30, 1996)
  • “Made of the Mist” (1995)
  • “Paying the Bill” (1995)
  • “Skin and Bones” (1995)
  • “Last Rite” (1996)
  • “From Russia with Love” (February 1996)
  • “Where There’s a Will” (1996)

FURTHER INVESTIGATION

• Ontari-ari-ari-o Eyes
  Private eyes from Ontario, including Toronto.

Report respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.