Friday The 13th: The Series: Season 3

There has always been a certain strange relationship between movies and television. Once the studios realized both formats would be around for the foreseeable future they found both to be lucrative income streams. As such there has been a certain degree of fluidity between the media with television series begetting movies and popular films being re-tooled for the small screen. One of the most popular and persistent horror franchises took a shot at TV in a rather odd manner. ‘Friday the 13^th’is a franchise starting in 1980 moving through a dozen film and a recent reboot this persistent tale of terror chronicled the gory explodes of the un killable monster in a hockey mask; Jason Voorhees. Usually when a movie is transported to TV at least a few aspects of the film are retained, some characters, a setting, something to tie the two different presentations together. In 1987 ‘Friday the 13^th’: The Series premiered with a bit of a break with tradition; the only element of the film franchised that made the transition was the title. There was no mute madman wielding deadly sharp objects at unsuspecting teen. The setting was in Canada, far removed from the bloody shores of Crystal Lake. Although this has occurred a couple of times before but this is by far one of the best known examples. This show was originally broadcast through first run syndication typically during the post nightly news late night time slot. My wife and I were far more likely to catch an episode of this than tune into Carson. The series lived most of its existence on the dreaded bubble of cancellation but the lower bar for the time slot allowed it to hang on for three seasons. Starting in the later part of season two there was a casting change that would be fully implemented in the season considered here, the third and final season.

The statement that there was no connection between this series and the films is not actually completely accurate, the series creator, Frank G. Mancuso Jr. served as the producer for the main sequels of the film, parts 2 through 8 inclusive. This at lease afforded some legitimacy for the use of the title. The format of the series was along the lines of an anthology with each week’s story held together but a central premise and main characters. This did allow for each episode to have a different flavor and twist to help keep things fresher than usual. Vendredi’ Antiques was a curious little shop specializing in extremely rare items. It is not that the merchandise offered here was especial old or the items were exceptionally well crafted. What made the unique was the fact that they were cursed, pure evil in their nature. The original owner of the store, Lewis Vendredi (R.G. Armstrong) made a pact with the devil for the usual perks but in return his store would distribute items with a perchance for murder and eternal condemnation for the purchaser. When Lewis attempted to renege on his part of the infernal bargain the devil claimed his soul. The store, renamed to Curious Goods, was left to a pair of cousins, Ryan Dallion (John D. LeMay) and Micki Foster (Louise Robey). Along with family friend and noted expert on the occult, Jack Marshak (Chris Wiggins) they go through the shop’s record to retrieve the demonic items and place them safely in a mystically guarded vault in the store’s basement.

Towards the end of the second season the writers began to mix thing up a bit. First they brought back Uncle Lewis, well at least his ghost. Since the romantic chemistry between Micki and Ryan never caught on (even though they were cousins by marriage) they introduced a new potential love interest for the lively redhead, Johnny Ventura (Steve Monarque). This egocentric womanizer initially sets his eye on Micki but thankfully nothing ever comes of it. He would become a series regular in the third season after the departure of Ryan following a particularly intense bout with evil over in France. Johnny, for all his posturing, is naïve and initially unprepared for the enchanted objects. Each one would seem to grant a boon of some sort to the possessor but typically the cost is the life of an innocent person. For example a young woman is raped by a group of frat boys becoming crippled while trying to get away. She is given an antique wheelchair that slowly returns the use of her limbs but for this to happen one of her attackers has to die. Since Micki and Jack are out of town chasing another item this becomes Johnny’s first time going solo against a cursed item. This anthology format kept the series from falling into a rut but unfortunately the downside is the stories become the freak of the week and a bit predicable. In this method of presentation allowed for the introduction of the item and its victim followed by the team rushing in towards the end to save the day. The DVD is pretty basic with technical specification not up to contemporary standards but I have to note that when up-converted on my Blu-ray play and letting the audio be reprocessed through my receiver it cleaned up enough to be enjoyable. Considering this was a short lived night series it holds up better than I anticipated.

Posted 06/19/2010