"Due South" has come back from the dead--again. You won't need to lick dirt, sniff a rat's breath or employ any other of the more unorthodox methods of Constable Benton Fraser (Paul Gross) to find the delightfully quirky Canadian-made adventures of this downright upright Mountie in the wilds of Chicago. But U.S. viewers may need to learn some traditional detective tricks and exercise their VCR-setting skills.
The series, created in 1994 by Paul Haggis ("EZ Streets") and produced by Toronto-based Alliance Communications, begins the first of its two new 13-week seasons in Canada on Sept. 154, in the perfect time slot: 7 p.m. EDT on the CTV network. But we Yanks may have to get home early or stay up late to see the 22 new episodes being syndicated around the country by PolyGram Television, beginning the week of Sept. 15. The day and hour it airs are left to the discretion of each local station. PolyGram promises that, by today, scheduling information should be up and running on the official website (www.duesouth.com), or check local listings for the day, time and station near you.
As of last week, stations covering 87% of U.S. households had signed up, including those in 49 of the top 50 markets. This is quite an achievement, considering that--this time--the American market was an afterthought.
After CBS pulled the show for the first time in 1995, Robert Lantos, Alliance's chairman and CEO, tightened the budget but kept producing episodes for the Canadian market, where it was an award-willing mega-hit and source of national pride. (from the beginning it was filmed north of the border, with an artificially begrimed Toronto substituting for Chicago.) "I run a pretty sizable company, and most of it is business," Mr. Lantos said in an interview late last month. "From time to time, I have a project I care about and take pride in, and 'Due South' is one of those projects.
CBS then brought he show back to the States, only to kill it off again in the late spring on 1996, only a few weeks after it sent critics a press release stressing that it was "exceptionally proud of 'Due South'" and noting that in its regular Friday night time slot, the show continued "its dramatic ratings improvement compared to its predecessors." (It had actually performed even better in its earlier Thursday night berth.) SO what made the network lower the boom? Both Mr. Lantos and Bob Sanitsky, president of PolyGram Television, say that ratings weren't the reason. While the series was never a chart-topper in the States, it got canceled because Jeff Sagansky's 1994 departure for Sony Corp. of America meant that, almost from the beginning, "Due South" lacked a champion at the network.
The second time around, Mr. Lantos said "enough is enough" and was willing to let the series die. Production was shut down, the cast and crew began looking for--and finding--other work, the sets were liquidated. But "somewhat to my surprise Mr. Lantos says, international broadcasters came to him, offering to help make a third season feasible without U.S. involvement. "Due South" was been seen in more than 60 countries, where its mix of action, wry wit and disarming innocence--not to mention its weekly tweaking of American arrogance--has proved quite popular. (For the current season, Alliance is producing the series in association with CTV, the BBC and Germany's Pro Sieben Media AG. According to Mr. Lantos, the Canadian government covers about 15% of the show's production costs.)
In October of last year, Mr. Lantos began the process of putting the show back together again. After the two cancellations, the usual option agreements that tie actors to series had lapsed; but without its star Paul Gross, "Due South" could have no third season.
"I had moved on, and as far as I was concerned it was over," Mr. Gross recalled recently. But Mr. Lantos is a born salesman, and after "lots of persuasive arguments" the uncommonly handsome 38-year old actor, whose resume lists several plays produced in Canada, as well as a few episodes and some music for the series, agreed not only to don the red serge suit but to write a few of the third-season episodes and take on the added duties of executive producer.
Mr. Gross has written the season's first episode, which includes appearances from Fraser's deaf, lip-reading wolf-dog Diefenbaker (named after the late P.M.); his beautiful boss at the Chicago consulate, Margaret Thatcher; and his dead father (Gordon Pinsent), who often returns, in full dress uniform, for a father-son chat. The script cleverly deals with the departure from the series of David Marciano ("Civil Wars," "The Last Don"), who played Fraser's volatile American sidekick, Det. Ray Vecchio, and the arrival of the constable's new, ruggedly attractive American foil, played by Canadian Callum Keith Rennie. (It is hoped that Mr. Marciano will appear in a few episodes this season.) And what of those liquidated sets? Both Fraser's and Ray's homes fall victim to a crazed "performance arsonist."
Luckily, the series has found a home once again in the U.S., though it got a late start looking. Mr. Sanitsky, who started as PolyGram Television's first president on April 1st, is a dig "Due South" fan and saw it as an attractive syndication prospect. He contacted Mr. Lantos soon after taking office, and on May 15--at least four months later than is customary in the industry--began shopping the program around. He says many stations plan to move the show to more attractive time slots as openings in the schedule crop up. Messrs. Sanitsky and Lantos are hoping "Due South's" core audience, immense by syndicated-show standards, will find the program, aided by press attention, the many fan-run "Due South" websites, and a modest advertising budget. And Mr. Sanitsky pledges that all 22 episodes will air in the U.S. this season, no matter what.
As Constable Fraser would say, "Thank you kindly."
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