Main • Jack Marshak (played by
Chris Wiggins) : Jack Marshak is a former stage magician and an expert in the occult. He has travelled all over the world and he has diverse skills including bartending ("Cupid's Quiver"), picking locks ("Root of All Evil", "Pipe Dream", "Brain Drain"), ornamental metalwork ("Poison Pen"), and forgery (
ibid.). He has a great many peculiar old friends. In so far as the trio has a leader, he is it; the cousins often try to work without him but have to turn to him for aid ("Read My Lips", "Pipe Dream") and moral support ("Root of All Evil", "Face of Evil", "The Quilt of Hathor"). He renames the store "Curious Goods" ("The Inheritance"). : Jack had been married once and had a clairvoyant son, Peter, who died in a young girl's dream plane ("Bottle of Dreams"). When Jack was younger, his father disappeared, only to return ten years later. However, the man who came back was a spirit ("Midnight Riders"). Jack served in World War II and nearly died in a Nazi death camp ("The Butcher"). He was engaged to a scientist, who left him to do field research in Kenya. She shows up in his life years later, but gets killed shortly after they get re-engaged ("Brain Drain"). • Micki Foster (played by
Louise Robey) : Michelle "Micki" Foster inherits the store, which she co-owns with her cousin by marriage, Ryan Dallion. At first, Micki is a bit of a snob, a fashion plate, and fairly vulnerable. As the series progresses, Micki becomes stronger-willed, more independent, less materialistic, and darker in character. : Both her parents are still alive ("The Long Road Home"). Her mother, Catherine, is Irish and her father is English ("Shadow Boxer"). She has an irresponsible sister and a nephew, J.B., who is often left in Micki's care ("A Friend to the End"). She is engaged at the beginning of the show, but breaks it off in order to continue recovering cursed antiques ("Root of All Evil"). Her fiance, Lloyd, was not her first love ("Badge of Honor"), nor her last ("Master of Disguise"). Micki gets killed once when a cursed coin is used on her ("Tails I Live, Heads You Die"), but Ryan and Jack eventually trick the episode's antagonists into bringing her back to life. • Ryan Dallion (played by
John D. LeMay) : Ryan Dallion is Micki's cousin by marriage, and he also inherited the store. In the beginning he is portrayed as a failed art student and comics fan who obviously has ever-growing feelings for Micki as the series progresses in spite of her firm, consistent rejection. He is excited about fixing up the store, but Micki talks him into selling off the inventory, a decision they come to regret. Over time and experience, while maintaining his enthusiastic, cheerful and upbeat attitude, Ryan matures a great deal, evolving into a strong-willed, resourceful and independent young man who also has his own dark and sinister moments, not unlike Micki. Their relationship at first is cool but they grow to be very special to each other over time, especially after Micki's death in the beginning of the second season ("Tails I Live, Heads You Die"). : Ryan's relationship with his father, Raymond, was not a good one ("Pipe Dream"). His younger brother Jimmy died when Ryan was 10, and his mother, Elizabeth, ran out on them shortly after ("Scarecrow", "The Prophecies"). She returned just before Ryan went to France with Micki to help a comatose Jack. At the beginning of the third season, he is removed from the show by being transformed into a small child ("The Prophecies"). • Johnny Ventura (played by
Steve Monarque) : The naïve "kid" Jonathan "Johnny" Ventura is introduced toward the end of season two and replaces Ryan in the main trio in season three. He is first introduced as a vain, sleazy skirt-chaser with an eye for Micki ("Wedding Bell Blues"). The interest begins to wane, but briefly heats up again after he has matured through hard experience, when the two take a road trip to retrieve a cursed object and end up in a countryside house inhabited by a family of rural degenerates. ("The Long Road Home"). : Johnny's mother died before his introduction into the show; his father, Vince, was a security guard who got shot and killed on the job ("The Prisoner"). Johnny has been arrested three times: once for having "boosted a six-pack of beer" and once for breaking and entering (both in "Wedding Bell Blues"), and finally as a suspect in his father's murder ("The Prisoner"). He has useful friends (from his father) in the police force. His unsophisticated, easily tempted character contrasts with Jack and Micki, and the third season includes several "Johnny screws up" episodes ("Crippled Inside", "Bad Penny", "Hate on Your Dial"), even though he eventually learns from his mistakes and proves to be a valuable ally and loyal friend to them.
Supporting • Rashid (played by Elias Zarou) : Rashid is an
Egyptian mystic who helps the trio when they are dealing directly with Lewis' ghost, who tries constantly to re-enter the world of the living ("Bottle of Dreams", "Doorway to Hell"). Though mentioned more than actually appearing in the series, Rashid is very much competent in helping his old friend Jack and the cousins one way or another. : Always knowledgeable in occult, sometimes even more so than Jack, Rashid is most capable as Jack's psychic-link during his first trial against Lewis. The second would be more guidance as to help Jack enter a cursed mirror and lead the cousins out of Lewis' possessed house. : Rashid was the one to help Jack bring back Ryan and Micki from Lewis' clutches twice, and even revealed to them the fate of Jack's son. During the series run, Rashid only appeared in two episodes though there are several others where he was mentioned ("Vanity's Mirror" and "Voodoo Mambo" are examples). • Lewis Vendredi ("Uncle Lewis") (played by
R. G. Armstrong) : Lewis Vendredi is an antiques dealer who sells his soul to the Devil (Satan) in exchange for immortality, wealth, and magic powers, including the power to heal wounds ("Pipe Dream"). His agreement with the Devil requires him to sell cursed antiques from his store "Vendredi's Antiques" (later renamed "Curious Goods"). In the series' first episode ("The Inheritance"), having grown tired of being a puppet for the Devil, he breaks the pact and is killed and taken to Hell. His niece Micki and nephew Ryan inherit his store and are soon joined by Jack. His name, "Vendredi", is French for "Friday". : Except for the first episode, Uncle Lewis is always a pure-evil character, the principal recurring villain of the series. He appears in occasional flashbacks (for example, in "What a Mother Wouldn't Do", "Night Hunger") and as a malevolent ghost ("Hellowe'en", "Bottle of Dreams", "Doorway to Hell"). He is alleged to have been the leader of a witches' coven while he was alive ("Coven of Darkness"). ==Production==