Seeing Things (TV series)

Seeing Things is a Canadian comedy-drama mystery television series which originally aired on CBC Television from 1981 to 1987. It was also seen in Europe, South Africa, Singapore, Spain, Australia and the United States.[1] In all, 43 episodes were produced. With the exception of "Seeing R.E.D." (90 minutes) episodes were one hour long.

The show starred Louis Del Grande as Louis Ciccone, a newspaper journalist who solves murders with the help of postcognitive visions. Louis can only control this ability by investigating clues given in a vision. (In some episodes, such as "Seeing the Country", he is able to stop visions from entering his mind.) Only when he discovers new information will further visions occur, which provide increasingly more detail until they finally reveal the murderer.

Del Grande (formerly an actor, writer, and co-producer of the hit sitcom The King of Kensington) was also the show's creator and writer.

The show also starred Del Grande's real-life wife Martha Gibson[1] as Ciccone's ex-wife Marge, who, even though she and Louie were separated, continued to help him with his cases. Marge even drove Louie around town (Louie, like Del Grande in real life, was too hyper to get a driver's license), though she initially rejected Louie's desire to rekindle their relationship (they finally became a couple again in the show's final season). Del Grande and Gibson were married, then divorced in real life; they had re-wed just before the series started.

The supporting cast included Janet-Laine Green as crown attorney Heather Redfern, as well as Frank Adamson, Lynne Gordon, Ivan Beaulieu, Murray Westgate, Louis Negin and Cec Linder.

Seeing Things was a hit, and guest-starred several celebrities, such as Ronnie Hawkins, Bruno Gerussi, Gordon Pinsent and Karen Kain. Another notable appearance is by Mark McKinney of The Kids in the Hall, who played a character working in a morgue in the episode "Different Point of View". The show won several awards. In 1983, Del Grande won an ACTRA Award for Best Actor in a Television Drama, and Sheldon Chad won an ACTRA award for Best Writer Television Drama for the episode "Seeing Double".

In Canada, it aired on Sunday evenings, typically drawing 1.1 million viewers. In the United States, it was broadcast by PBS.[1]

At the time it first aired, it was the "most successful home-grown program in Canada".[1]