TORONTO -- He's gorgeous.
That was the reaction of many female fans, members of the U.S.-based Friends of Due South club, holding a convention at a midtown hotel to pay tribute to their very favorite TV show and its star Paul Gross.
Despite two cancellations, Gross will again play RCMP Constable Benton Fraser this fall in the filmed-in-Toronto series about the Mountie with the mysterious posting in Chicago.
Gross was also the star attraction at a rally on the grounds of the Ontario legislature on Friday. The event was held by the show's public-relations-conscious producers, Alliance Communications, to coincide with the convention.
About 200 fan club members, mostly American and mostly women, were joined by hundreds of others as Toronto Mayor Barbara Hall officially declared it Due South Day in the city.
They bought souvenirs, competed for best wolf howl and correctly answered obscure trivia questions tied to previous plotlines. Then, to squeals of delight from the crowd, a black-leather-jacketed Gross was escorted to an outdoor stage by two real red-uniformed Mounties on horseback.
"Best thing you ever exported!" gushed one Australian woman about the hunky Canadian actor who was joined by other cast members, including his new sidekick this year Callum Keith Rennie.
Rennie, usually a sombre actor in heavy roles, will portray Det. Stanley Kowalski (a nod to Streetcar Named Desire since his TV wife's name is Stella). Like his predecessor, the departed David Marciano, Rennie will be a rough-around-the-edges Chicago cop who will play off Const. Fraser's by-the-book Mountie as they get involved in various criminal cases.
Almost as popular was Draco, the dog that portrays Const. Fraser's trusty deaf, lip-reading wolf sidekick, Diefenbaker.
Due South has had a rocky history, including two cancellations by the U.S. network CBS where it became the first-ever Canadian series to crack the prime-time American schedule.
In addition to being CTV's highest-rated show ever and a winner of 15 Gemini awards, the series developed a massive cult following on the Internet. Alliance also secured funding from networks in Britain and Germany, where it is also a ratings-topper.
Robert Lantos, chairman and CEO of Alliance, said Due South was the victim of a series of management turnovers at CBS.
"It did better than eight or nine other CBS shows that are still on the air but it was an orphan and it paid the price," Lantos explained. "Except that its fans and other broadcasters continually came to its rescue and so it's still here."
Gross said the Americans like to claim their ratings procedures are based on bottom-line numbers but he suspects politics plays a role in the results.
"It's very, very arcane, it's very rococo and doesn't actually make a lot of sense," he said. "So I think they blew it, personally."
The new season will be carried in syndication in the U.S. where it will still penetrate more than 80 per cent of the market there, including many CBS affiliates.
In addition to acting and writing several of the scripts, Gross is also serving as executive producer this year.
"Most days it's OK, and then every once in awhile I feel like I shot an arrow into my forehead. It can be very onerous."
Annie Heitz of Annandale, Va., president of the thousand-strong international fan club, said those Canadians who are embarrassed by the series' indulgence in national stereotypes should understand the program pokes fun at cultures on both sides of the border.
"What these people don't realize is we're making fun of everybody in Due South and everybody gets to laugh at each other's foibles."