 |
A lifetime supply of free beer doesn't last as long as you might think.
But actor Jeff Douglas is still enjoying lingering fame from his days as Joe Canadian in those I am Canadian beer commercials. In town to promote new History TV series Ancestors in the Attic -- which debuts on Wednesday -- Douglas said he still appreciates the Joe effect.
"I have some friends who are incredibly talented performers who do not work," Douglas said.
Nor do they travel around the country on somebody else's dime, learning fascinating facts about Canadians who are, for the most part, history.
Shooting since February, Douglas, 35, has discovered he's related to a crew member but says the genealogy is not as interesting to him as the biographical nuggets the show digs up.
For example, when a Kenora woman wanted to know about her grandfather -- a family pariah for abandoning his wife and three kids -- the show discovered the man was a First World War hero who, suffering post-traumatic stress, may have been lost.
He eventually ended up in England, where he married and had another family.
In another segment, a Newmarket, Ont., woman confirms she's related to one William Pattenden, an indentured 15-year-old English farm worker who confessed to killing his abusive female sponsor in Manitoba in the late 1800s. William got a mandatory death sentence, but it was commuted, and he lived long and prospered enough to spread his genes around.
The 15-part series looks at about 45 stories -- a B.C. woman thinks she's related to Pocahontas; a Toronto woman wonders if cannibals had her missionary ancestor for dinner (perhaps with a nice chianti and some fava beans); and one man wants to trace the original owner of his baby, a 1931 Ford Roadster.
There are also pop quizzes -- did you know, for example, that Prime Minister Stephen Harper is related to Trailer Park Boys' Ricky?
Douglas says History was looking to attract a younger demographic when he was hired to host series Things That Move last year. And when she same production company went to work on Ancestors in the Attic, he was in like Flynn.
He says the Joe Canadian connection got him in the door initially but says few even at the height of his Joe fame in 2000, few people recognized him in person -- although close friends and family shared in fringe benefits.
When he and his Colombian-born wife Ana Marie got married in 2001, the beer was free and plentiful.
"Certainly my wedding was a happy affair. "