''The Adventures of Timothy Pilgrim'' was a children's television serial consisting of ten 15-minute installments which originally aired in 1975 on Canada's
TVOntario
TVO (stylized in all lowercase as tvo), formerly known as TVOntario, is a Canadian Public broadcasting, publicly funded English-language educational television network and media organization serving the Canadian province of Ontario. It operates ...
and was rerun countless times afterward over the next decade on TVO as well as on other Canadian educational channels and
PBS.
Plot
The title character is a
shoeshine boy who travels back 100 years in time by means of a magic trunk and meets Zachariah Gibson, a travelling salesman and showman who peddles
elixir
An elixir is a sweet liquid used for medical purposes, to be taken orally and intended to cure one's illness. When used as a dosage form, pharmaceutical preparation, an elixir contains at least one active ingredient designed to be taken orall ...
s and tonics. Episodes are based on the pair's travels between the worlds of the 1870s and 1970s.
Both characters face challenges in their respective times - Timothy is an orphan who squats in an abandoned warehouse and makes a living shining shoes and doing odd jobs at a neighbourhood diner owned by Wilma. He is bullied by the neighbourhood thug, Barney, who demands $5 from Timothy for the right to work on "his" corner. He is also friends with Ol' Coop, a cobbler.
Zachariah Gibson is a travelling salesman who sells medicinal cure-all elixirs of dubious quality out of his wagon. However, he is stuck on the land of a hostile property owner as a wagon wheel needs repairing and his horse has either run off or been stolen. Zachariah feels that people don't like him and that he cannot trust anyone.
The two form an unlikely bond across time that teaches Zachariah the value of friendship.
Production
The show's 1970s scenes were filmed in
Toronto
Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...
's west end on
King Street and in abandoned factories and warehouses in and around what is now
Liberty Village. The 19th century scenes were shot in
Kleinburg, Westfield Heritage Village in
Rockton, Ontario and at the Helliwell House of
Todmorden Mills in Toronto.
Cast
* Paul Culliton - Barney
* Joey Davidson - Timothy Pilgrim
*
David Hemblen - Zachariah Gibson
* Jack Mather - Ol' Coo
* Arlene Meadows - Wilma
Episodes
#Zachariah Gibson's Magic Trunk
#Escape to the Future
#Past Meets Present
#The Missing Half-Penny
#Trapped in the Past
#A Thief at Large
#The Escaped Prisoner
#Zachariah's Pioneer Remedy
#Did Barney Do It?
#Returning Home
External links
TVArchive.ca: ''Adventures of Timothy Pilgrim''*
Opening sequence on Youtube
1970s Canadian children's television series
TVO original programming
1975 Canadian television series debuts
1975 Canadian television series endings
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