Orange juice from Newfoundland sounds like a joke, but it was a real thing!

Over the years, Newfoundland's premiers have tried to breathe new life into our provincial economy, and the '80s were no exception. Son of a Critch highlights a couple of the more memorable ventures of that era, from the disastrous attempt at making Newfoundland the cucumber capital of Canada to this season's hilarious "SeaPlus" factory for Newfoundland-made orange juice ("trace amounts [of real oranges] in every vat!"). In real life, many of these ventures were economic missteps. On TV, though? Comedy gold.

Newfoundland's history is rich with tales of misguided business ventures. Joey Smallwood, our first premier, was full of ideas to diversify the province's economy. Three of his short-lived enterprises were a rubber boot factory, a knitting mill, and a chocolate factory. 

Son of a Critch takes place in the 1980s when, under Premier Brian Peckford, we had no shortage of quirky government initiatives. I remember the cucumber years and the Sprung Greenhouse, seeing the glow in the night sky from as far away as Come by Chance. I remember Double Daylight Savings Time when my relatives in Labrador would play midnight rounds of golf.

And then there was the juice factory, which we see featured on Son of a Critch as SeaPlus juice. If, like me, you grew up listening to the radio in Newfoundland, you'll remember the voice of Mike Critch, whose voice was no less iconic than the faces of Knowlton Nash or Peter Jennings. Mark Critch recalls his dad's stint doing public relations for Sunnyland Juice Company. "I remember him being on the radio and promoting it in the episode and not getting many calls." 

Critch also remembers his mother running interference in support of her husband. "I hear a familiar voice on the radio saying how good it was. I poked my head out of my room and there was mom calling in!"

So who thought Newfoundland, of all places, should be the location for an orange juice company? Chuck Furey, Minister of Development and Tourism, spoke of the higher quality of juice made by combining orange concentrate material "with pure Newfoundland water to create an improved product for the consumer." This, in contrast to products imported into the province, which were "blended with water from Lake Ontario, Lake Erie and Lake Michigan or similar water sources in the United States." MHA Neil Windsor then asserted that, compared to bottled spring water produced on the mainland, "the water coming out of our taps tastes a hell of a lot better." In the TV version, SeaPlus juice made from Newfoundland tap water sparks the same level of pride in Mark's dad. 

And how about the taste? Was it as bad as the show depicts? "It was fine," says the real-life Mark Critch. "I grew up drinking Tang, so it was probably the closest thing to real juice we ever had in the house, now that I think about it."

"​​I remember our class going to the factory for a tour and everyone getting a sample. This was the same time when an Enterprise Education class was brought into the curriculum. I teamed up with another student and we rented a coffee machine from Executive Coffee and set it up in the lobby of the school. That was in the eleventh grade, though. The story has been shifted a little earlier in the Critch timeline here."

Like orange concentrate and tap water, fact and fiction blend with Mike Critch's involvement with the juice company. According to an interview with The Evening Telegram's Marcia Porter in the early 1990s, he was working at the time as a part-time public relations officer for Sunnyland Juice. But whereas the on-screen dad is caught in a comic conflict of interest as he promotes SeaPlus during his radio segments, the real-life Critch had already retired from broadcasting during his time working with Sunnyland. 

That same Evening Telegram article also makes a brief reference to Mike Critch's son, Mark, "a Grade 12 student at Holy Heart," who "likes to write and perform the way his father did so many years before." 

According to provincial public records, the Sunnyland company was dissolved in 2005. I've asked among my friends and social media contacts whether anyone remembers drinking Sunnyland juice. One person recalls orange drinks from the '90s "that burned your esophagus after you drank them." If Son of a Critch is historically accurate, that acidic beverage my friend remembers could well be the same one Mark's mom uses to "cut the grease" when she cleans her stove.

"Some things just get burned in," says Mark, who has mined so many of his real-life experiences for humorous Son of a Critch storylines. "I've been telling these stories to get laughs for years so I think that keeps the memory alive. And memory is a fascinating thing. The deeper you go on one story, the more doors get opened. One story reminds you of another and another door in your mind gets unlocked. It's a wonderful journey of rediscovery. "