Beachcombers - a Canadian institution of almost two decades standing - will find a new life if producer Nick Orchard of Vancouver's Soapbox Productions has his way. Soapbox's pitch in the Banff Market Simulation for the New Beachcombers (budgeted at $500,000 for each of the initial 13 half-hour episodes) takes some elements of the original series that ran from 1971 to 1990 and uses them as a bridge to a substantially new cast of characters living in the same B.C. community of Gibson.

Orchard, who was production manager for three of Beachcombers' 19 years, and has been working on the new series' development for several months, has no plans for a straight revival of the old show, particularly since the actors who played the two principal characters have passed away.

"I am not proposing to simply redo the show that existed. This is actually a new series," he says. "I'm working with Jackson Davies, who played Constable John in the original series. He's going to be the one returning element of the original show. All other characters are new, but all the new characters will have a link to the past - they may be related to one of the original characters. There's still going to be the same nice warm fuzzy feeling to it. I want to give it a quirky side too, maybe in the manner of Northern Exposure."

The principal characters in the new series will be in their teens and mid-twenties, and there are no plans to replicate characters like Relic exactly: although there is always room for a lovable rogue in a small town. And running Molly's Reach will be none other than Mackenzie Brother Dave Thomas, who is acting as exec producer on the project along with Davies.

Orchard sees the show attracting a family audience. "We're aiming for kids aged six to eight and up. The whole age range because there are so many people who remember the old series fondly and would come back to it."

This returning audience is both a blessing and curse for a new show with so much to live up to, and is in part the reason Orchard's plans include the idea of leading into the new series with a $2.5-million MOW.

"When the first show goes on the air we will get a large audience who are coming back out of curiosity because they loved the original. The challenge for us is that episode has to be so darn good that people come back to watch what is pretty much a whole new series."

Apart from the CBC, which as the original series' home for 19 years is a natural for involvement in the new series, "we're looking for coproduction partners. It sold in 35 countries round the world. Beachcombers was very popular in Australia and hugely popular in Germany. They played episodes more often in Germany than in Canada - Germany liked the series so much that they even did their own version of it [an unrelated show set in B.C. called] Ritter's Cove."

"Just about everyone has a Beachcombers story because of its 19 years on the CBC," says Orchard. "Not only that, it's still highly regarded and remembered today. Two years ago, TV Guide did a poll of the most popular Canadian TV show and Beachcombers came second only to Hockey Night In Canada. *