Any mystery devised by mortal minds can be solved, therewith.
October 21, 2012 9:38 AM Subscribe
The Adventures of Shirley Holmes is available online in its entirety. Filmed in Winnipeg and set in the fictional Canadian town of Redington, The Adventures of Shirley Holmes followed the work of Sherlock's teenage great grand-niece and her friend Bo Sawchuk, with classmate Molly Hardy (Moriarty) serving as a recurring antagonist. Known for its intelligent characters, the show's original 52 episode run has been translated into nine additional languages and aired in over 80 countries.
The show is not available on DVD or VHS, and both of the original production companies have folded. However, the fansite Shirley Holmes Central is still active, and includes newspaper clippings and episode guides.
The show is not available on DVD or VHS, and both of the original production companies have folded. However, the fansite Shirley Holmes Central is still active, and includes newspaper clippings and episode guides.
I'm working my way through the series right now, having only seen an episode or two during the original airing. Still, "The Case of the Maestro's Ghost" won a Writer's Guild of Canada award for best screenplay, and wouldn't be a bad place to start.
posted by Orange Pamplemousse at 11:09 AM on October 21, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by Orange Pamplemousse at 11:09 AM on October 21, 2012 [1 favorite]
Fair enough. Maybe it's in the Friendship is Magic demographic, which I can't get into myself, but there are lots of adult fans there too.
posted by smorange at 11:19 AM on October 21, 2012
posted by smorange at 11:19 AM on October 21, 2012
Looks like it's split between "you'll love this because it's awesome" and "you'll only love this for nostalgia's sake". I've never heard of it before, so I'm going to give it a go by checking out the episode that's been recommended in the comments.
posted by waltzingalong at 12:12 PM on October 21, 2012
posted by waltzingalong at 12:12 PM on October 21, 2012
I never saw this show before, but I'm quite liking it. The pilot is pretty iffy (that's not how insurance works) but it does a decent job introducing the principals. I skipped ahead to the Maestro episode mentioned above, which is much better. Then I just kept going (currently a few episodes into season two.) It's a better Holmes adaptation than Elementary.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 5:56 PM on October 21, 2012
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 5:56 PM on October 21, 2012
ChurchHatesTucker, that was the inspiration for this post. I watched the first episode of Elementary recently, and remembered seeing the opposite-gender Holmes/Watson pairing done so much better in Shirley Holmes.
As an aside, the curator of the fansite has also uploaded most of the episodes to youtube.
posted by Orange Pamplemousse at 7:05 PM on October 21, 2012 [1 favorite]
As an aside, the curator of the fansite has also uploaded most of the episodes to youtube.
posted by Orange Pamplemousse at 7:05 PM on October 21, 2012 [1 favorite]
Hey, I remember this! It turned out to be quite good, like most of the Canadian children's shows I watched. Thanks, Orange Pamplemousse.
posted by undue influence at 7:14 PM on October 21, 2012
posted by undue influence at 7:14 PM on October 21, 2012
Orange Pamplemousse, I'd go so far as to say that their backstory for the "Watson" makes Sherlock look lazy.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 7:47 PM on October 21, 2012
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 7:47 PM on October 21, 2012
Hi. Just like to say a heartfelt thanks for the promotion of my Shirley Holmes Central site, and of the show through the mention here. I hope that those you you who remember seeing the series over a decade ago enjoy revisiting it, and for those who may never have heard of the show (and don't worry, there'll be many of you !), I hope you enjoy watching, and finding out more about it.
For those of you asking, if I had to recommend one episode to watch it would also be 'SH.107: The Case of the Maestro's Ghost - this is the episode that really sets up the dynamic between Shirley and Molly. Other episodes in seasons 1 - 3 that focus on Shirley / Molly are SH.102 (where Molly is introduced), SH.109, SH.211, SH.213, SH.303 and SH.305 - indeed, those final three listed eps can be watched as a trilogy as the scripts reference the previous episodes.
Also, just to clarify, all 52 episodes will be available for download and watching on YouTube - presently I'm re-encoding the season 3 eps, and will finish with season 4 later in the year. In the meantime, the majority of episodes are available.
Thanks again,
Damon
posted by damonford at 1:45 AM on October 22, 2012 [6 favorites]
For those of you asking, if I had to recommend one episode to watch it would also be 'SH.107: The Case of the Maestro's Ghost - this is the episode that really sets up the dynamic between Shirley and Molly. Other episodes in seasons 1 - 3 that focus on Shirley / Molly are SH.102 (where Molly is introduced), SH.109, SH.211, SH.213, SH.303 and SH.305 - indeed, those final three listed eps can be watched as a trilogy as the scripts reference the previous episodes.
Also, just to clarify, all 52 episodes will be available for download and watching on YouTube - presently I'm re-encoding the season 3 eps, and will finish with season 4 later in the year. In the meantime, the majority of episodes are available.
Thanks again,
Damon
posted by damonford at 1:45 AM on October 22, 2012 [6 favorites]
Watched The Case of the Maestro's Ghost last night. I had never heard of Shirley Holmes until yesterday. I can't think of a TV-for-teens-and-tweens show that I was as impressed with. Many thanks, damonford, for making these available, and thanks to Orange Pamplemousse for posting them. I think I'll be watching all of these sooner or later.
posted by bardophile at 2:12 AM on October 22, 2012
posted by bardophile at 2:12 AM on October 22, 2012
Hi Damon!
Thanks for making everything available online. I hope we haven't been too hard on your bandwidth.
If you don't mind my asking, how did you get access to such high quality footage? Even the older encodings seem DVD quality, but I didn't find mention of even a VHS release.
posted by Orange Pamplemousse at 5:26 AM on October 22, 2012
Thanks for making everything available online. I hope we haven't been too hard on your bandwidth.
If you don't mind my asking, how did you get access to such high quality footage? Even the older encodings seem DVD quality, but I didn't find mention of even a VHS release.
posted by Orange Pamplemousse at 5:26 AM on October 22, 2012
Bandwidth should be fine - I believe my hosting plan allows unlimited data transfer (it says so anyway) - so I'm not concerned at all - not sure how that translates for everyone in download speeds if the site is busy - hopefully is not affecting anyone too much.
It's true there has been no official release of the show either on DVD or VHS - personally, I've had VHS of all the episodes recorded from cable back in the late 90's / early 00's, but was never in a position to make them more widely available. I also remained hopeful that an official release would be forthcoming at some point - or, failing that, that there was someone, somewhere, who was in a better position that I to convert the shows.
Which did happen actually - and led to me being able to make Season 4, and several Season 3 episodes available in 2010. And while there were plans for that person to continue work on converting the remaining episodes, that failed to eventuate. So, with an official release seemed less and less likely, I decided I had to find a way to get the show out there.
The show is also available on YouTube with German dubbing - and I personally think the video quality is higher than I have, and looks (to me) more recently recorded. Most, if not all the episodes are available too, and if you've not seen them yet, search 'Leppi TV Shirley Holmes' and check them out.
If you trawl the net you'll find people willing to sell you a DVD copy of the series - I know the offers are out there - but every episode is also going to be fully available on SHC and YouTube in what I hope is a quality and format most fans will be satisfied with.
posted by damonford at 6:31 AM on October 22, 2012
It's true there has been no official release of the show either on DVD or VHS - personally, I've had VHS of all the episodes recorded from cable back in the late 90's / early 00's, but was never in a position to make them more widely available. I also remained hopeful that an official release would be forthcoming at some point - or, failing that, that there was someone, somewhere, who was in a better position that I to convert the shows.
Which did happen actually - and led to me being able to make Season 4, and several Season 3 episodes available in 2010. And while there were plans for that person to continue work on converting the remaining episodes, that failed to eventuate. So, with an official release seemed less and less likely, I decided I had to find a way to get the show out there.
The show is also available on YouTube with German dubbing - and I personally think the video quality is higher than I have, and looks (to me) more recently recorded. Most, if not all the episodes are available too, and if you've not seen them yet, search 'Leppi TV Shirley Holmes' and check them out.
If you trawl the net you'll find people willing to sell you a DVD copy of the series - I know the offers are out there - but every episode is also going to be fully available on SHC and YouTube in what I hope is a quality and format most fans will be satisfied with.
posted by damonford at 6:31 AM on October 22, 2012
Doggone, I read that as the Adventures of Shirley Jones.
posted by kinnakeet at 6:38 AM on October 22, 2012
posted by kinnakeet at 6:38 AM on October 22, 2012
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posted by smorange at 11:09 AM on October 21, 2012