User:Aeong/survival
This is a draft page for a (hopefully) future article, something I can revise/format to wiki standards and correct information until it is ready. Currently there are normal links in place of citations. This will be changed once the article is near completion.
TITLE: S*U*R*V*I*V*A*L (partially found/lost public access show, 1981-1987)
Mugshot of Trevor Winthrop Baines
Status: Partially Found
Date found: 2006, 11/30/23, 2024
Found by: Daniel Barrow, rs.matr1x, Aggressive_Ad
This article has been tagged as NSFL due to its discussion of paramilitary operations and murdering political opponents. The content is fictional, but in many ways mirrors the current political instability in North America..
S*U*R*V*I*V*A*L (sometimes referred to as "CATACLYSM") was a Canadian public access show that ran in the 80's on Winnipeg channel VPW-11, sometimes at 11:30PM CST. The show was created by Guy Maddin and Greg Klymkiw. It was a mock talk show filmed by the fictional paramilitary cult S*U*R*V*I*V*A*L N*O*R*T*H. In each episode, cult leader "Trevor Winthrop Baines", a man wearing a crude purple mask and survival gear screams and rants at the viewer about the "inevitable" Nuclear Apocalypse. Joined by him are similarly dressed members of his cult. Together they give you often questionable advice on surviving the apocalypse, tell stories, do book and gun reviews, break out into musical numbers, and just do whatever the creators felt like doing each episode.
Archival History
It is claimed that sometime after VPW-11 was purchased by Shaw Cable in 2001, all archives the station had of this show were destroyed or recorded over. In 2006 Show creator Guy Maddin told a researcher that he had no personal archives of the show other than a few buried tapes that were likely rotted past the point of no return. He also claimed that people had uploaded clips of the show have been uploaded to youtube, but none of those old clips have been found. If they survived, they are likely buried under Youtube's search algorithm.
The researcher who contacted him however, did find recordings of the show and compiled them into a 10~ minute long segment for his documentary "Winnipeg Babysitter" (2006). In 2012 this compilation was uploaded to youtube and gained some exposure on reddit. For 11 years, this was the only publicly known footage of the show.
On November 30, 2023, Youtube User rs.matr1x uploaded a 57:48 minute long video containing 3 episodes of the the show, with the third one containing incomplete footage. When asked, rs.matr1x claimed that they found them by "pure happenstance".
Later in 2024, Reddit user Aggressive_Ad posted an archive.org link to 3 episodes of the show, 2 newly discovered, 1 containing a slightly longer but still incomplete recording of the third episode in rs.matr1x's video. They claimed the recordings were from the original betamax recordings of the show. Aggressive_Ad did not respond to any inquiries when contacted by the original writer of this wiki article.
All episodes containing the footage from the Winnipeg Babysitter compilation appear to have been uploaded to the internet.
Episode Format
The run time of each episode appears to be inconsistent. While the format of each episode is never set in stone, most follow a somewhat consistent formula: Due to complaints from local officials, later episodes of the show begins with a disclaimer, and then transition to a scrolling marquee containing a message to the viewers and details about the episode. After which, the episode transitions to Trevor, who is silent at first and often staring at the camera. After a long pause, Trevor lets out an ear piercing rant introducing the viewers to his show. Afterwards he brings on his (often reoccurring) guests. at random intervals, the show will do a musical break, with some music composed by the showrunners. Some of these may be original songs, others are parodies of existing songs such as "Controller" by Oingo Boingo. Some episodes end with music, others skip to a message at the end.
Trevor's Kidnapping
In the past, Greg Klymkiw, the actor for Trevor, got into a violent altercation with his father once the latter found out about his involvement in the show. Greg went into hiding for a period of time, and the show handled this by making a story where Trevor was kidnapped by his treasonous fellow cult member "General Niel". Guy Maddin, playing the character "Concerned Citizen Stan", possibly hosted the show his absence, and it has been confirmed that he read ransom notes Trevor's kidnapper sent. None of the episodes where this happened have been found, however later episodes reference this event.
Known Episodes
It is not publicly known how many episodes were produced for this show. The episodes are presented in incomplete order, and have been given unofficial nicknames by lostmedia wiki contributors to differentiate each episode.
| Unofficial Nickname | Status | Airdate | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| "A Great Man" | Partially Found | ? | Only 15:56 Minutes of this episode have survived |
| "Trevor Hates The X-MEN" | Partially Found | ? | |
| "Dwindling Faith" | Partially Found | ? | Episode references Trevor's kidnapping, making it a later episode. |
| "Northern Survival" | Found | 1985 | in this episode, co-host Slieve Gullion claims to have written a book called "Northern Survival". This is not true, as the actual book he shows in his hands was released prior to recording, written by a different author, and contains no information about apocalyptic survival. |
| "God Complex" | Found | 1987 |