Created by Andrew Wreggitt
“Corporate crime, my ass.”
When television’s Tom Stone made its debut back in February 2002, I couldn’t help thinking “Wow! A promising new P.I. show — from Canada! And it’s set in Calgary!”
Even better? It turned out to be pretty good.
TOM STONE, naturally, was the hero — a fast-talking ex-cop, ex-oil rig worker and ex-con (he was caught embezzling) who gets out of jail by promising (reluctantly) to go undercover for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
You know. The Mounties. The “Always Get Their Man” guys. The Horsemen.
His handler is eRCMP Corporal Marina Di Luzio, a straight-laced commercial crime specialist from Toronto who also happens to be a nationally ranked amateur boxer. But Marina herself is one step removed from official sanction, working in an “unofficial capacity” as an independent investigator, working out of, but not answerable, to the RCMP’s Calgary commercial Crimes Unit.
Which puts Stone even further off the books.
So I’m not sure what Stone’s official standing, if any, actually is. As it is, he’s acting like a personal investigator for Di Luzio, who has a grudge or two to settle. Put it down to TV logic, I guess, but the end result makes for some good television. Quirky and off-kilter humour always strikes a chord or two with me, a guy who’s always on the hunt for something good in the P.I. vein to watch.
Of course, it helped that Stone was just a regular Canadian guy, some hoser who had just stepped out of a Molson Canadian ad or something. Strictly a beer and Tim Hortons kinda guy, he lived in a trailer (very Rockford!) out in the boonies, was dating a horse trainer, drove a shit-brown 1985 Camaro, and his prized possession was a Lanny MacDonald hockey card. Occasionally too slick for his own good, maybe, which of course rubbed by-the-books Di Luzio all kinds of the wrong way, yet there were definitely some sparks flying. Suffice it to say the leads Chris William Martin as Stone and Janet Kidder (Margot’s niece) as Di Luzio had some kind of chemistry going for them.
Also to its credit? The show didn’t try to pretend to be some gormless possibly American city — it made great and unapologetic use of local colour, gleefully playing up the contrasts between Calgary’s high-gloss business deals and it’s aw-shuck’s roots as Cowtown.
As the PR gleefully pointed out, “Tom Stone is a departure for Canadian drama on many levels. It is the first time that a national one-hour prime-time dramatic series has been set in Calgary. Indeed, Calgary’s characters are central to the whole premise of the series, and their interactions can be seen as a metaphor for the city itself. Tom Stone and its characters are full of dichotomies and juxtapositions crashing against each other to form an interesting and engaging whole.”
Adding considerable depth to those characters was actor Stuart Margolin, who served as both co-star and sometime director (he did the two-hour debut). Margolin, besides being a noted TV director, is of course best known as Angel in The Rockford Files and Bernie Fox in Mom P.I. He plays Jack Welch, Stone’s larcenous, Scotch-swilling buddy, a former wildcatter turned slick wheeler dealer. There’s also a looney tune landlady (and former exotic dancer), Sherry Goodstriker, whom Tom has to deal with, played by Carmen Moore. And there’s a definite sense of playfullness in some of the stunt casting, which included spots by NHL player Jarome Iginla and ex-Canadian politician Preston Manning.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Creator Andrew Wreggitt was a writer for the popular CBC shows North of 60 and the long-running The Beachcombers. Unfortunately, Tom Stone never achieved that kind of popularity and after two seasons of so-so ratings (and syndication in the State as “Stone Undercover”), the CBC pulled the plug, leaving three unaired episodes in the can.
EVIDENCE
- Marina: “They don’t have anything to eat in Calgary that doesn’t have hooves.”
Her superior: “No, they have vegetarian there. It’s called ‘chicken’.” - Tom: “Hey, how’d you know I was in jail?”
Sherry: “Hey, I was a stripper, not a ballet dancer.”
UNDER OATH
- “Tom Stone has much to recommend it. Its plotlines about corporate crime are fascinating, and the scripts are compelling an detailed. As a setting for a TV series, Calagary is as interesting as its foothills are picturesque. Best of all, the show’s lead actors are wonderful.”
— Alison Cunningham-McMillan (TV Times)
TELEVISION
- TOM STONE
(aka “Tom Stone Undercover”)
(2002-03, CBC)
9 60-minute episodes
Premiere: February 24, 2002
Created by Andrew Wreggitt
Concept by Tom Cox, Doug McLeod, Jordy Randall, Andrew Wreggitt
Writers: Andrew Wreggitt, Peter Lauterman, Andrew Rai Berzins
Directors: Stuart Margolin, Alan Simmonds, Tom Braidwood, Stacey Curtis
Creative Consultant: Paul Quarrington
Executive Producers: Doug McLeod, Tom Cox
Producer: Jordy Randall
Starring Chris William Martin as TOM STONE
and Janet Kidder as Marina Di Luzio
Also starring Stuart Margolin as Jack Welsh
Carmen Moore as Sherry Goodstriker
With Ken Pogue, Andrew Airlie, Diana Reis, Greg Lawson
Guest stars: Timothy Webber, Art Hindle, Jason Priestley, Jarome Iginla , Donnelly Rhodes, Terence Kelly, Nola Auguston, Timothy Webber, Greg Lawson, Reg Tupper , Stephen Hair- SEASON ONE
- “For the Money (February 24, 2002; 2 hour episode)
- “Solidarity Forever” (March 4, 2002)
- “Good Cop, Bad Cop” (March 11, 2002)
- “Sunny Side of the Street” (March 18, 2002)
- “The Man Who Knew Too Much” (March 25, 2002)
- “Little Bitty” (April 1, 2002)
- “Dead Dog Rain” (April 15, 2002; 2-hour episode)
- SEASON TWO
- “Deal” (November 3, 2002)
- “The Last Go Round” (November 10, 2002)
- “Cold Comfort” (November 17, 2002)
- “Royalty” (December 1, 2002)
- “The Grand Alliance” (December 8, 2002)
- “Live by the Sword” (January 12, 2003)
- “Pants on Fire” (January 19, 2003)
- “Busted Shoulder” (January 26, 2003)
- “Its All Fun and Games” (February 2, 2003)
- UNAIRED EPISODES
- “La Sonnambula”
- “The Bomb”
- “Cash Call”
FURTHER INVESTIGATION
- The Maple Leaf Rag
Other Canadian Eyes
Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.
