Sidestreet

For most of my fellow Americans Donnelly Rhodes was just a goof on SOAP. For me he was a Det. on the clean but mean streets of Toronto. This show seemed to foreshadow the person-on-the-ground feel of Hill Street Blues. In fact, when HSB first appeared, I thought it was an American adaption of Sidestreet. Many of the plots are fuzzy in my aging memory now. But I can tell you when I was a kid with a 10" Black and White TV I looked forward to few things more than an hour with the officers of Sidestreet. Kicking theme too. I believe it was Chuch Mangione (boy I feel old now) who performed it. Rivals anything Mike Post and Pete Carpenter could come up with. For me it will be a DVD instant buy when available.

The two early lead actors were replaced by Donnelly Rhodes of Da Vinci's inquest fame. Sargent Nick Raitt worked out of the Metro Toronto Police community service department. They handled cases that often required a different type of police work. Perhaps in response to grittier American police dramas of the time i.e. Starsky & Hutch, there are very few if any car chases. The episodes have a easy going feel to them. There is even an air of nostalgia to these shows. The Toronto of 25 years ago was a much different Toronto than of today. Free of the serious crime that a cop show like Starksy & Hutch could not avoid, there is an air of optimism in this upstart young city. Sidestreet loves to throw in that civic pride, never shying to throw in place names that really would only be familar to someone in Ontario,(Hamilton,Rosedale,Cabbagetown,Forest Hill.) Although not so odd today, most tv shows out of Canada at that time hid there "Canadianess"; perhaps for fear it wouldn't export well. Local landmarks were used to their fullest extent including the then knew C.N. Tower. Toronto was like our New York City or Los Angeles and we were going to celebrate her. Towards the end the show veered a little bit and started dealing with hard swallow situations i.e. Russian spies in Toronto etc. But overall an underated accomplishment in CBC television history.