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Molly's Reach

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Former fictional restaurant in The Beachcombers
Molly's Reach in 2012

Molly's Reach was a fictional restaurant in the real community of Gibson's Landing, British Columbia, during the nineteen years the Canadian television series The Beachcombers was set there. The series ended in 1990, and the building is now a real restaurant.

The show's fictional restaurant was named after the character who owned it, who served as a mother-figure for other characters. A reach is a geographical term for a section of a river. As the town cafe and natural meeting point, where Nick also rented a room as office space for his salvage company, much of the drama happened in and immediately around Molly's Reach.

The original structure was built in 1931, and served a variety of purposes, including a second hand store, a general store, a hardware store and a liquor store, prior to serving as a set for the television show. After the show ended it was turned into an actual restaurant.

The Beachcombers was the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's longest running series, one which was re-sold in fifty foreign markets, and fans of the show, both foreign and domestic, seek out the restaurant. The restaurant's walls bear many photos featuring the show's cast and crew. In 2016 the Vancouver Sun called the restaurant Gibsons' "most prominent landmark". It is located in the middle of town on the main highway, just up the street from the government dock.

A made-for-TV movie, The New Beachcombers, to mark the thirtieth anniversary of the original series first episode, revolved around a fictional fight to prevent the restaurant being torn down and replaced by condominiums.

The building was put up for sale on September 22, 2019.

The building was reused for location shooting in the 2024 crime drama series Murder in a Small Town, with producer Nick Orchard commenting that "The fun thing is that we are calling it Molly’s Reach. We’re not pretending it’s anything else but Molly’s Reach."

References

  1. Tristin Hopper (2015-04-13). "Ryan Reynolds hit by a car in Vancouver, won't talk to CBC about it unless they bring Beachcombers back". National Post. Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Retrieved 2019-02-20. 'There's quite a few people that ask why they can't get a box set — it's in high demand,' said a staffer at Molly's Reach, the Gibsons, B.C.-based café that figured heavily in the series and is now a pilgrimage site for Beachcombers fans.
  2. ^ "Forty years later: The Beachcombers premiered Oct. 1, 1972". City News 1130. Gibsons Landing, BC. 2002-10-06. Archived from the original on February 21, 2019. Retrieved 2019-02-20. The Beachcombers premiered October 1st, 1972 and the final episode aired December 12, 1990, making it the longest-running dramatic series ever made for English-language Canadian television.
  3. Sophie Woodrooffe (2018-11-23). "Beachcombers' Colonel Spranklin remembered at Molly's Reach". Coast Reporter. Archived from the original on 2019-02-21. Retrieved 2019-02-20. Gibsons restaurant Molly's Reach is a living museum dedicated to The Beachcombers, the hit CBC television series that aired for nearly two decades starting in the 1970s. A new photograph of one of its minor characters has been added to the collection.
  4. "Gibsons split over proposed hotel and condo development". CBC News. 2015-10-02. Archived from the original on 2019-01-17. Retrieved 2019-02-20. Move over Molly's Reach, George wants in at Gibsons Landing as development proposal leaves locals divided.
  5. Joanne Blain (2016-07-29). "New Gibsons project speaks to town's roots". Vancouver Sun. Archived from the original on 2019-02-21. Retrieved 2019-02-20. The town named after him, now home to more than 4,000 of the 30,000 or so people who live on the Sunshine Coast, is no doubt best known as the setting for the iconic Canadian television show The Beachcombers. Molly's Reach, the café featured in the series, is still the most prominent landmark in town.
  6. "The New Beachcombers". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 2019-02-20. The New Beachcombers breathes new life into a beloved Canadian icon as new characters Scott, Donna and Katt unexpectedly reunite after a ten-year absence from Gibsons', only to find themselves still enmeshed in a romantic triangle and on opposite sides in the battle to save Molly's Reach.
  7. Little, Simon (September 22, 2019). "Molly's Reach, iconic restaurant of 'Beachcombers' fame, up for sale". Global News. Retrieved September 23, 2019.
  8. Michael Gurney, "Art Beat: ‘Murder in a Small Town’ shoots at Molly’s Reach". The Coast Reporter, February 23, 2024.

49°24′06″N 123°30′20″W / 49.40158°N 123.50546°W / 49.40158; -123.50546


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