Thank Tim Roebuck for this latest submission.  Seems that one of Stephen Harper’s relatives may have tried his hand in acting. Tim claims this is one of many test shots for the sitcom “Family Ties.” The actor, John Handsgood, who was up for the part of the father bears a striking resemblance to the current Canadian Prime Minister – Do you agree?

Tim says that he heard it from a good source, the reason Handsgood lost the part was that unfortunately he was constantly trying to upstage Michael J. Fox, who didn’t take kindly to the competition. The crew reported that often both Handsgood and Fox (both classically trained guitarists) would enter into impromptu “guitar-offs” backstage officiated by either Justine Bateman or (in a pinch) Tina Yothers. Tensions ran high as both played until literally their fingers bled. In the end it was Fox that would claim dominancy, as his smaller stature allowed him to capitalize on the rarely played 15 string guitar – a feat which both delighted and concerned Bateman and Yothers. In the end it was Handsgood’s oafish fingers that were his undoing. And, no we’re not talking about Jack Layton.

According to IMDB, John Handsgood never really went on to do much after losing the part to Michael Gross (a twix commercial and a pilot he wrote and filmed with John Ritter for Fox in ’94 entitled ” One Two (Many) Johns” – The show was focused on two members of an elite specialized ATV squad that end up going rogue after discovering corruption – Both Ritter and Handsgood played themselves – needless to say it never got picked up – despite having James Cameron sign on as an executive producer – you can still watch the pilot on youtube – some pretty crazy ATV jumping actually – they said Handsgood did all his own stunts – actually if you google “handsgood+atv” there is a J.Handsgood who runs a ATV stunt school in Wyoming, so it could have been Handsgood doing those stunts – I emailed the school to see if it’s him – it doesn’t say on IMDB).

Perhaps if John had gotten the part he would have been led down a career path mimicking that of esteemed actor Michael Gross.  It’s too bad, because I think you’ll agree when I say that it would have made Tremors a lot better (if that is even possible) if it was a Harper lookalike blowing a subterranean carnivorous worm’s head off with an elephant gun. And no, we’re not talking about Jack Layton.

Thanks Tim for your submission, for your keen eye you’ll be receiving a wall sized poster of John Cho signed by Kal Penn.

EDITOR UPDATE: The ATV stunt school in Wyoming is not John Handsgood, but Jayson Handsgood (no relation – or so he claims).  He assured me though that it was a common enough mistake. He doesn’t know what happened to the other John Hansgood.   John, if you’re reading this, please let us know if you’re all right.