Sophie the Sub (partially found production material of cancelled Canadian children's TV series; 2002)

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Pugwash Underwater Adventures.jpeg

A promotional image featuring the original Pugwash design.

Status: Partially Found

Sophie the Sub, also known as Pugwash's Underwater Adventures, was a Canadian educational children's series that was going to be a spin-off based on one of the supporting characters from the regional show Theodore Tugboat. Though when the production company went bankrupt, the show sank into obscurity.

Summary

Pugwash is one of many recurring characters from the CBC production Theodore Tugboat who was essentially a mini-submarine that travelled the world with her salvage ship, Stewiacke, taking photos off the underwater coasts. Her name was derived from the Nova Scotia village of the same name ("Pugwash" is a derivation of the native Mi'kmaq word 'pagwe'ak,' which means "Deep Water") and after production on the show ended, her model was displayed in Halifax's Maritime Museum of the Atlantic among other screen-used models and set pieces from the show. Despite only appearing in three episodes of Theodore Tugboat's fifth and final season, the production company, Cochran Entertainment, had bigger plans for her character as in May 2001, they announced that a spin-off series for Pugwash was ordered for CBC Playground, now known as CBC Kids. The show's format would've been 40 three-minute interstitials held together by a narrative structure, varying between self-contained or packaged episodes, that would teach kids about the wonders of marine life.[1] The original Pugwash model would be used for the show's production, though it would receive a dramatic makeover where instead of just having two eyes and eyebrows on the head, it received a more traditional Theodore Tugboat faceplate with a nose and mouth that could change to match her perceived expression. Along with this, her name and the show's title were changed to Sophie the Sub; though according to this Twitter post from April 3rd, 2022, Sophie was actually the early concept name for the character.[2]

The show was supposed to air in the mid-season of 2001-2002, first on CBC Playground, now known as CBC Kids; and would've possibly made its way over to USA's PBS Kids like its predecessor did. Though due to bankruptcy of Cochran Entertainment in April 2002, which also affected some of their other planned productions, Sophie the Sub was never put on broadcast and as for the prop itself, it was never returned to the Maritime Museum; meaning it was either sold to a private collector, lost, or destroyed. Interestingly, until the "walk-through" section of the Theodore Tugboat exhibition was turned into a gift shop, an empty display case to the left of Northumberland the submarine could be seen; meaning that it was most likely where Pugwash/Sophie used to be exhibited.

Resurfacing

For almost 22 years, it was assumed that no episodes of Sophie the Sub would reemerge after the downfall of Cochran Entertainment or if the show was even filmed as aside from the promotional image above, no commercials or other publicity stills have been shown to prove the show's existence. However, on April 1st, 2022, the official Twitter page for Tugboat's Landing, a fan community dedicated to the behind-the-scenes history of Theodore Tugboat, published a post-reading "we have an episode of sophie the sub;" accompanied by a blurry image of a laptop showing a screenshot of what looks like Pugwash, but with a complete face.[3] Though the timing may have made it seem like an April Fool's prank, they were indeed telling the truth as the next day, they uploaded a 2-minute excerpt of "Join In," an episode from Sophie the Sub's first and only season, onto YouTube. In it, the submarine observes sea-life like flatfishes and has a rather-lengthy encounter with a beluga named Wilma. Although mostly complete, the clip featured temporary narration by Andrew Cochran, the creator and showrunner of Theodore Tugboat; and whether Denny Doherty would've done the final vocals like he did for the original series as the Harbour Master is a mystery.

As of writing, this clip is the only piece of media to resurface from Sophie the Sub's production, though none of the other episodes have yet to be discovered, nor is it known if they were ever filmed prior to April 2002. This can also be said for the pilot episode as "Join In" is referred to as episode 102 and any details about its plot are unknown. Where and how exactly Tugboat's Landing got the 3-minute clip from is a mystery, though its possible that the source might have even more remnants of Sophie the Sub waiting to be unveiled for the public, but only time will really tell.

Gallery

A 3-minute excerpt of the Sophie the Sub episode "Join In".

External Links

References