Phyllis Diller had a love affair in late 1980, but you won't find it in the obituaries that followed her death at 95 last week. The daffy doyenne of raucous, self-mocking comedy fell in love with Victoria, a place she called home for a week in November.The wacky, wild-haired comedian was here to shoot Take-Off, a pilot for a comedy series that, well, didn't take off."This is the first time I've been to Victoria. It's lovely. It's so safe," she told the Times Colonist, long before the term "needle exchange" was uttered in a city now known for its street issues."And the people are so polite. I love Canadians!"Local film crews were said to have doubled over with laughter at some of Diller's antics at Craigdarroch Castle, around a waterfall in the Crystal Gardens featured in a Fantasy Island sendup and at the University of Victoria during the weeklong shoot."Oh, it was bad," laughed Bruce Davies, curator of Craigdarroch Castle. "She wasn't happy with some of what she had to do."In a Gone With the Wind spoof, an actor posing as Rhett Butler picked up a beautiful woman at the bottom of the staircase."The higher they got, the older she got," Davies recalled. "By the time they got to the third floor, [Diller] was cackling and the actor was breathing heavily and also turned green."When Davies praised her goodnatured performance, Diller responded: "You like that? That's all I do, you know."The hour-long show also lampooned Jaws and The Muppets, and featured a pot-bellied character in a Superman outfit called Fang, the name of the fictional character - a composite of Diller's ex-husbands and others - she skewered in her standup act.For the Fantasy Island bits, Diller gamely donned a green wig, grass skirt and five leis."We had an amazing spread of food set up," said Davies, recalling scenes she did with an actor mimicking Ricardo Montalban."There was a trained pig - a heavily sedated piglet, actually - with its face in a plate of milk beside fine silverware."The big sight gag - are you ready for it? - contrasted this with Diller snorting oatmeal from a trough, pig-like."My sense was she was annoyed by the foolishness of the production," said Davies, noting she had very little dialogue.Diller shot Take-Off here before flying to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to appear as a guest concert pianist with its symphony."This is fun," she maintained despite the gruelling schedule. "I enjoy working. I like to show off whatever talent I have."Diller also delivered her own take on Miss Piggy, and played an activist trying to save pigs from being an endangered species.If Diller, then 63 but looking younger, had reason to complain, she did a good job of hiding it, observers said."I guess I can survive anything," she said after rehearsing and doing multiple takes for hours. "I've had two divorces. I have several beaus now but nothing serious. I'm too busy to get serious."Take-Off wasn't the only TV special shot at Craigdarroch Castle. A year later, Cheryl Ladd showed up to shoot sequences for a music video titled Cold as Ice, including one in which she danced down the castle's staircase wearing leather lingerie.The castle was also seen in Stuart Margolin's HBO crime drama The Glitter Dome and Spooky House, the Ben Kingsley family feature local crews didn't soon forget - mostly because of a jaguar that urinated big-time while descending the staircase.Coal baron Robert Dunsmuir's 19th-century mansion was most recently seen in a film starring itself. DVD copies of Victoria's Castle, Robin Adair's documentary chronicling its fascinating history, can be purchased in its gift shop.- - -SKY'S THE LIMIT: If the names Levi Sampson and Suzanne Teresa sound familiar, they should. Sampson is the visionary young businessman whose employee-ownership model helped save Nanaimo's Harmac Pacific pulp mill from being shut down in 2008 - a vision then adopted by CHEK Television. He's now president of Harmac, CHEK's chairman of the board, and part owner of both companies.Teresa, a former model, is an acclaimed, globetrotting photographer whose ST Photoworks Inc. has clients including actors, models, TV personalities and CEOs in markets such as China, Hong Kong, Australia, Singapore, London and Los Angeles.You could say this couple was made for each other, which they are - on a homegrown lifestyle TV series, anyway.They're co-hosts of Sky's the Limit, CHEK-TV's new original program directed by Victoria's Arwen Hunter.In the half-hour series that premières Sept. 17 at 8: 30 p.m., the co-hosts will navigate the world of business travel, offering an insider's look at the history, customs, food, lifestyles and notable industries of cities around the world.Aimed at professional and family travellers, it's an inspiring look at our global village through the eyes of young [email protected]
