Behind the Scenes

The Greatest (Antiques) Show on Earth

by Christie McDonald

(First appeared in the January/February 2005 edition of Antiques and Collectibles Showcase)

When host Valerie Pringle says that the Canadian Antiques Roadshow is the greatest indoor show on earth, she’s right. No other show combines so many exciting elements: fabulous venues, incredible stories, amazing treasures. And no other show does it all in front of the watchful eye of a television camera.

At the time executive producers John Brazill and Mark Pedersen joined forces in 2001 they had no idea that recreating the show made famous by the BBC would be such an arduous process. (The BBC show debuted in 1977, the PBS version in 1996.)

But somehow the two men, both former executives with CBC, found their way through all the complications and by early 2004 were ready to embark on the first ever Canadian Antiques Roadshow tour.

As easy as that? No, not exactly.

Making the Canadian Antiques Roadshow is actually a relatively complex balancing act. Two intrinsically connected but separate things happen at any given venue: members of the general public are given a free appraisal by an expert and a television show is made. Out of the hundreds of people who show up at each venue, about fifty items are chosen to be taped and possibly included in the final product.

But it takes an awful lot of effort to get to the point where items are vetted and filmed.

First Mr. Brazill and Mr. Pedersen had to choose the seven cities and venues for the inaugural tour. (Seven is not a random number; each season consists of 13 episodes and the goal was to be able to get two episodes per city. The seven cities chosen for the 2004 show included Saint John, Halifax, Gatineau, Toronto, Saskatoon, Calgary and Vancouver.)

Home base is Saint John, New Brunswick. In an office there, Senior Producer Duncan Lamb began the onerous task of hiring producers, researchers, production assistants and technicians. Generous tax credits from the New Brunswick government made it advantageous to hire as many local people as possible. But it also meant that all those people had to be traveled and accommodated across the country.

Another crucial element of the show is the appraisers. Unlike both the British and American versions, the Canadian Antiques Roadshow was starting at square one. That necessitated a lot of phone calls and name gathering before the executive producers pulled together a team of energetic, knowledgeable and personable appraisers. For television, appraisers need the perfect marriage of expertise and personality.

When the initial group of 20 gathered in Saint John for the first show (May 5) the producers knew they had something special.

Arms and Militaria expert Ross Wilson said: “By the time we had wrapped the first show and had assembled for the de-briefing I felt that I had known the other experts for years.
We all got on so well and during the show no one had any compunction about approaching any of the others for advice. There was an enormous amount of respect for each other’s fields of expertise. It was refreshing to be with experts who weren't afraid to say they did not have a clue what something was.”

The appraisers had a difficult job. Not only did they have to identify items of interest and pitch those items to a producer without giving anything away to the client, (spontaneity is the key to producing good television) they then had to present the information in front of a camera in an interesting, entertaining and relatively brief way.

Saskatchewan-based appraiser Lindsay Anderson recalled his first on-camera appraisal of Hardanger violin made in Saskatchewan during the Second World War.

“I went over and over in my head exactly what I was going to say about this very interesting instrument. I was still pondering during makeup how I was going to approach and deliver my now, what seemed to be, two hour recitation on the item’s history. I believe it was at about this time that the first wave of panic overtook me. I can't say all this in two minutes. Okay, okay, not a problem, just get the story from the owner, (hopefully there is one) and then point out a few relevant facts about the instrument. More ensuing panic: Does it show? What am I doing? What ever I did say when the camera was on seemed to get us to the point of the owner telling their story behind the violin. The story was much better than the dry facts I could tell them regarding the instrument and its Norwegian history.”

Ultimately, the Canadian Antiques Roadshow is about the stories, a fact that John Brazill has believed all along.

“The show is chock full of Canadian stories from coast to coast. I think the show does a good job of reflecting Canada back to Canadians in the way we always thought it could and would,” he said.

All the appraisers have favourite stories. Morris Zimelstern, from Montreal, recalled the story of one young client who came with his grandmother and brought two bronze statues.

“After examining the bronzes I explained the origin and year and the young man's eyes opened wide with excitement. After determining the values, the only thing he was able to say was "We are rich!" Yet even at his age he told me, after he came down to earth, that he will never sell the bronze statues because his grandmother gave them to him.”

“There were many people who really pulled out the stops for us and brought out some amazingly wonderful objects,” said Bill Kime, an expert from Toronto. “I couldn't help but attribute some of that to the power of television. I do quite a lot of appraisal days or clinics, but I don't usually get to see that calibre of treasure very often. People had gone to enormous lengths to bring things to us. One gentleman brought us a fabulous, colourful Venetian glass chandelier. It was quite large and he'd taken it down from the ceiling of his dining room, built a crate for it and hauled it around the block and through the theatre with a sack barrow, tinkling all the way. We all had a look at it and it was wonderful. It had been purchased originally from Tiffany's and none of us had seen anything quite like it.”

Even more amusing to Mr. Kime was the woman who brought an ashtray. “I just cracked up when I saw it and asked her what on earth she'd been thinking of! She told me she always watches the British show and in her excitement at getting tickets for this one, she had forgotten to bring anything and had just grabbed the ashtray off her friend's coffee table on the way to the theatre. She'd waited for six hours, and she'd had a great time. So many people were simply there for the experience,” he said.

Lee Caswell was excited by things that didn’t even pass his tables.

“Sometimes I wasn't receiving things that were that unusual,” said Mr. Caswell, “but all I had to do was look around the room. I was blown away by some of the objects at some of the other tables. Those lucky dogs....”

All the appraisers know that it’s vital to show each and every person and their item the respect they deserve. Roadshow participants often wait several hours in line for their opportunity to share their item and their story, a fact not lost on the appraisers.

“The excitement and exuberance these people had for their things was amazing,” said Douglas Stocks. “And they weren’t just excited to show their items to us, they were having just as much fun sharing their things with the other people standing in the line with them.”

But that’s what makes the Canadian Antiques Roadshow such an amazing experience. Not everyone is going to have a painting worth a half a million dollars (like the Henry Nelson O’Neill appraised by Uno Langmann in Vancouver) or an expensive Ruskin vase (appraised by Bill Kime in Toronto), but everyone has a story to tell.

“The Canadian Antiques Roadshow is really stories about people and families,” said Mr. Stocks. “These objects are just the symbols of those lives.”

The Canadian Antiques Roadshow premieres on CBC Television January 12 at 8 p.m. For more information about the show visit www.canadianantiquesroadshow.com