AS SEEN ON TV: WILLIAM MURDOCH

WILLIAM MURDOCH

CREATED BY:

Maureen Jennings

PORTRAYED BY:

Yannick Bisson

AS SEEN IN:

'The Murdoch Mysteries'

TV STATUS:

Recastaway

TV DIMENSION:

Earth Prime-Time

From Wikipedia:

Murdoch Mysteries is a Canadian drama television series that airs on Citytv, featuring Yannick Bisson as William Murdoch, a police detective working in Toronto, Ontario in the 1890s. The television series is based on the Detective Murdoch series of novels by Maureen Jennings.

The series takes place in Toronto in the 1890s, following eccentric Detective William Murdoch (Yannick Bisson) of the Toronto Constabulary who solves many of his cases using methods of detection that were unusual at that time. These methods including fingerprinting, human-blood testing, surveillance, and trace evidence.

WILLIAM MURDOCH

(Peter Outerbridge)

Yannick Bisson is the official version of Detective Murdoch for the main Toobworld, but he was not the first actor to play the role. That honor goes to Peter Outerbridge in three very well made TV movies that preceded the series.

You know how it feels when you switch for the first time to skim milk, or to Diet Coke, or in my case from Clear Choice Red Raspberry to Clear Choice Red Raspberry with the Stress Relief Formula? You're hesitant at first, but then you can't ever picture going back.

In a way that's how it is for me with Detective Murdoch. I thought Outerbridge was brilliant in the role and really enjoyed the other actors in his version of the stories. However, I think it was always doomed to be a limited run (just from the fact that Colm Meaney played Inspector Breckenreid). It tells a complete story in a way, setting up Murdoch and his forensic pathologist lady love in a relationship that had "Happily Ever After" written all over it.

Because I liked Outerbridge so much in the role, I was hesitant to try the new series with Bisson in the role.  But the 'Mudoch Mystery' series expands on the lives of everyone in the storyline and so deserves to be the representative for Toobworld.

BCnU!