Gone but not forgotten . I remember watching this series as a kid . It was shown on Friday nights . However the channel chose to broadcast the supposedly most pivotal ones of all 3 seasons . Every week my friends and I would tune in and see the search for yet another cursed antique.
The premise was simple : 2 distant cousins inherited an antique shop by their late uncle Lewis Vendredi . Lewis had made a pact
with the devil as a result the merchandise was cursed and all the objects had magic powers which managed to corrupt their users and killed people in gruesome gory ways . The cousins have to retrieve the artifacts and stop the spread of Satan 's " unholy tide " .
The casting was very successful . The faces of the leads were memorable and likeable . John D. Le May portrayed the cute and sweet
Ryan Dallion , Louise Robey was his cousin Micki Foster (one of the most gorgeous redheads ever to appear on screen) . They were assisted
by the middle aged , grey haired , bearded , occult - know - it - all old friend of Lewis , Jack Marshak ( Chris Wiggins was a perfect choice for this father figure/wise philosopher role ) .
Although every episode had the same storyboard pattern ( a person discovers the object , uses it , the leads become suspicious , more murders take place , the leads are hot on the user 's tail etc ) you simply couldn 't resist to see the magic powers of each antique and the consequences on the user 's life . 10 years later I managed to spot reruns and watched almost all the episodes . The objects either killed and gave something in exchange (with very slight exceptions such as the cursed pipe with the lethal smoke or the sheriff 's badge which simply killed people) or were activated with the spread of the victim 's blood on its surface ( the make up suitcase , the car keys etc ) . The grant was usually money (e.g. the tattoo needles) , beauty (the golden compact mirror in "Face of Evil") , career success (the box gloves), lust and desire from persons of the opposite sex (the Cupid statue) or special powers like electrokinetic abilities (the electric chair) , temporal stasis (the time freezing pocket watch), time travel (the slides projector) , healing strength (the indian rattle) and even resurrection from the dead (the Coin of Ziocles) . The writers' message was clear : a deal with the Satan never pays . He will trick you into selling your soul but he will NEVER give you exactly what you want . Most of the objects had unpleasant side effects . The most characteristic example was the "Sweetest Sting" episode where the customers had to buy the blooded honey continuously to retain their youth.
After two successful years of antique hunting , John D. Le May opted to leave . He was replaced by another young man called Johnny Ventura (played by Steven Monarque) . To this day I can 't understand why Johnny was hated so much and regarded as the culprit for the untimely cancellation of the show . He was an ordinary person with his weaknesses and faults and a refreshing change . Although Ryan was sorely missed let's be honest : the real stars were the antiques , OK ?
Some episodes declined from the usual gimmick and focused on the 3 leads : the result was usually splendid . The first season finale " Bottle of Dreams " with the egyptian urn who caused horrifying memories of older objects to resurface , the second season premiere "Doorway to Hell" in which uncle Lewis wanted to resurrect and possessed the body of a small crook , and the infamous episode "Wedding in Black" with the hallucinating crystall sphere in which the leads are trapped and confront the Devil himself face to face . Some of the episodes were very poor to awful ( the 2 part "Quit of Hathor" , " Night Hunger " , "Better Off Dead" with the silver syringe ) and most of the episodes were so - so ( the pool stick , the garbage disposer ) . Others were small masterpieces . My personal favourites include : the radio which manifested fears scaring the victims to death , the mephisto ring which killed with electrocution , the indian rattle which suffocated people to death , the box gloves which produced a shadow killer , the "Faith Healer" with the healing glove , the photo camera which produced evil clones in "Double Exposure" , the Coin of Ziocles episodes and "Repetition" with a cursed cameo amulet habited by the spirit of a dead person ( the ONLY object without ANY benefit : a pure curse so powerful that knocked the 3 leads out of the episode almost totally !!!) But the best would have to be "Year of the Monkey" with the 3 magic monkey statues with so much plot and so many characters which exploited the potential of the premise to maximum . There was no real end to the series so I believe that a film remake is possible , probably in 10 or more years with a different cast . However there are episodes I have missed . The greatest loss for me of course was " THE PROPHECIES I & II " which are rumoured to be good and was the last appearance of Mr Le May . Therefore 10 years later , I still live in the same frustrating and sad ignorance . Eventually what happened to Ryan ??? I never knew (sniff!)
The premise was simple : 2 distant cousins inherited an antique shop by their late uncle Lewis Vendredi . Lewis had made a pact
with the devil as a result the merchandise was cursed and all the objects had magic powers which managed to corrupt their users and killed people in gruesome gory ways . The cousins have to retrieve the artifacts and stop the spread of Satan 's " unholy tide " .
The casting was very successful . The faces of the leads were memorable and likeable . John D. Le May portrayed the cute and sweet
Ryan Dallion , Louise Robey was his cousin Micki Foster (one of the most gorgeous redheads ever to appear on screen) . They were assisted
by the middle aged , grey haired , bearded , occult - know - it - all old friend of Lewis , Jack Marshak ( Chris Wiggins was a perfect choice for this father figure/wise philosopher role ) .
Although every episode had the same storyboard pattern ( a person discovers the object , uses it , the leads become suspicious , more murders take place , the leads are hot on the user 's tail etc ) you simply couldn 't resist to see the magic powers of each antique and the consequences on the user 's life . 10 years later I managed to spot reruns and watched almost all the episodes . The objects either killed and gave something in exchange (with very slight exceptions such as the cursed pipe with the lethal smoke or the sheriff 's badge which simply killed people) or were activated with the spread of the victim 's blood on its surface ( the make up suitcase , the car keys etc ) . The grant was usually money (e.g. the tattoo needles) , beauty (the golden compact mirror in "Face of Evil") , career success (the box gloves), lust and desire from persons of the opposite sex (the Cupid statue) or special powers like electrokinetic abilities (the electric chair) , temporal stasis (the time freezing pocket watch), time travel (the slides projector) , healing strength (the indian rattle) and even resurrection from the dead (the Coin of Ziocles) . The writers' message was clear : a deal with the Satan never pays . He will trick you into selling your soul but he will NEVER give you exactly what you want . Most of the objects had unpleasant side effects . The most characteristic example was the "Sweetest Sting" episode where the customers had to buy the blooded honey continuously to retain their youth.
After two successful years of antique hunting , John D. Le May opted to leave . He was replaced by another young man called Johnny Ventura (played by Steven Monarque) . To this day I can 't understand why Johnny was hated so much and regarded as the culprit for the untimely cancellation of the show . He was an ordinary person with his weaknesses and faults and a refreshing change . Although Ryan was sorely missed let's be honest : the real stars were the antiques , OK ?
Some episodes declined from the usual gimmick and focused on the 3 leads : the result was usually splendid . The first season finale " Bottle of Dreams " with the egyptian urn who caused horrifying memories of older objects to resurface , the second season premiere "Doorway to Hell" in which uncle Lewis wanted to resurrect and possessed the body of a small crook , and the infamous episode "Wedding in Black" with the hallucinating crystall sphere in which the leads are trapped and confront the Devil himself face to face . Some of the episodes were very poor to awful ( the 2 part "Quit of Hathor" , " Night Hunger " , "Better Off Dead" with the silver syringe ) and most of the episodes were so - so ( the pool stick , the garbage disposer ) . Others were small masterpieces . My personal favourites include : the radio which manifested fears scaring the victims to death , the mephisto ring which killed with electrocution , the indian rattle which suffocated people to death , the box gloves which produced a shadow killer , the "Faith Healer" with the healing glove , the photo camera which produced evil clones in "Double Exposure" , the Coin of Ziocles episodes and "Repetition" with a cursed cameo amulet habited by the spirit of a dead person ( the ONLY object without ANY benefit : a pure curse so powerful that knocked the 3 leads out of the episode almost totally !!!) But the best would have to be "Year of the Monkey" with the 3 magic monkey statues with so much plot and so many characters which exploited the potential of the premise to maximum . There was no real end to the series so I believe that a film remake is possible , probably in 10 or more years with a different cast . However there are episodes I have missed . The greatest loss for me of course was " THE PROPHECIES I & II " which are rumoured to be good and was the last appearance of Mr Le May . Therefore 10 years later , I still live in the same frustrating and sad ignorance . Eventually what happened to Ryan ??? I never knew (sniff!)