Due South

:This article concerns the television program. For the television listings magazine, see Due South Magazine

Coordinates	6°7′55″N1°13′22″N
Show name	Due South
Caption	Due South title screen
Format	Comedy-drama
Runtime	45 minutes
Creator	Paul Haggis
Starring	Paul GrossDavid MarcianoCallum Keith Rennie
Country	Canada
Network	CTV CBS BBC
First aired	September 22, 1994 (Canada)9 May 1995 (UK)
Last aired	March 14, 1999 (Canada)1 November 1999 (UK)
Num seasons	4
Num episodes	67
List episodes	List of Due South episodes

Due South is a Canadian television police comedy-drama, created by Paul Haggis, produced by Alliance Communications, and starring Paul Gross, David Marciano, and latterly Callum Keith Rennie. It ran for 67 episodes over four seasons, from 1994 to 1999.

Set in Chicago, the show follows the adventures of Constable Benton Fraser (Paul Gross), a Mountie of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), who is attached to the Canadian consulate, but works with Detective Raymond Vecchio of the Chicago Police Department to solve crimes, assisted by Fraser's companion Diefenbaker, a deaf white wolfdog. From season three, Fraser works with a Detective Stanley Kowalski (Callum Rennie), who is placed in the department to impersonate Detective Vecchio who goes on an undercover assignment.

The premise of such a working relationship is established in the pilot episode when Fraser is temporarily posted to Chicago to assist Vecchio in the investigation of the murder of Fraser's father, who was also of the RCMP. In the process of finding them, he also exposes an environmental corruption scandal involving some members of the RCMP, causing much embarrassment and loss of jobs in his native Northwest Territories, which leaves him persona non grata in Canada and within the RCMP and posted permanently to Chicago. After higher than anticipated ratings, Due South was turned into a continuing drama series with its first season launching late in 1994. It was the first Canadian-made series to earn a prime time slot on a major US network. However, CBS moved its time slot continuously, and often preempted it with other programs, so maintaining an audience was a challenge.

After the 24-episode first season, CBS cancelled the series. But due to the show's success in Canada and the United Kingdom, the production company raised sufficient money for a second 18-episode season which ran from 1995 - 1996. The show was once again shown on CBS in late 1995 (CBS ordered an additional five episodes but aired only four of them), but again in 1996, CBS refused to renew the series.

After a one-year hiatus, CTV revived the series in 1997 with international investment (from the BBC, ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG in Germany, and the French company TF1), and it ran for two further seasons, until 1999. In the United States, seasons three and four were packaged together as a single third (26 episode) season for syndication. The post-1997 episodes have been labelled a spin-off from the original series by some references, but were in fact titled Season Three and Season Four. Despite critical acclaim and a consistently warm reception by American audiences, Due South never became a huge hit in the United States; however, it was one of the most highly rated regular series ever aired on a Canadian network. The show remains popular in the United Kingdom, and became one of the few non-British shows to gain a primetime weeknight slot on BBC One, despite suffering from erratic scheduling In the UK, Due South was screened on Tuesday nights at 8pm from 9 May 1995, earning critical acclaim with comparisons to Northern Exposure and ratings of over eight million until a switch to Fridays at the same time in June, before being pulled from the schedule completely in July and returned to Tuesdays in September 1995. Series two aired Saturday nights at 7.05pm from 27 July 1996 and fared similarly well, but was again pulled from the schedules in October, with five episodes of the season remaining. These were later shown in the same slot in January 1997. The BBC co-financed the third season but struggled to find a suitable slot on Saturday nights for it and only five episodes of the series were shown in May and June 1998 with a remainder stuffed in daytime slots over Christmas 1998. The final season broadcast from May to November 1999 was moved to BBC Two and consistently performed well with ratings of over two million viewers, regularly appearing in the top ten weekly shows for the channel despite only occupying an early-evening Monday timeslot. Upon the end of the series in 1999, BBC Two immediately began to screen repeats, and the series was also rescreened on ITV3 in 2006 and from October 18, 2010, again on BBC Two

Story overview

The basic premise of the series centres on an Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) constable named Benton Fraser (Paul Gross) who travels to Chicago to solve the murder of his father; this is how he first meets his soon-to-be partner, Ray Vecchio (David Marciano), a tough, streetwise cop. Accompanied by his half-wolf Diefenbaker (who adopted Fraser after saving his life, and is deaf, but can read lips), the investigation leads Fraser to uncover a plot by a company building a dam that is slowly killing the environment. This leads to the dam being shut down and many people losing their jobs. He also implicates corrupt members of the RCMP in the affair. This along with the loss of so many peoples' jobs makes him persona non grata in Canada, and he chooses to live in Chicago. This plot line is referred to repeatedly during the series, and from season three on he introduces himself to many by saying:

I first came to Chicago on the trail of the killers of my father and, for reasons which don't need exploring at this juncture, I have remained, attached as liaison to the Canadian consulate.

Benton Fraser is the archetypal Mountie, dogged, polite, and compulsively truthful; the themes of the series often featured his rigid moral code being tested by the cynical realities of Chicago life. Being overly polite, Fraser's probably best known short quotes were: 'thank you kindly'; when he found himself in trouble – an understated 'oh dear'; and when faced with contradictory circumstances from other characters – an all knowing and eloquently stated 'understood'. A little more unusual is his encyclopedic knowledge of virtually everything, however obscure (this is attributed to his grandparents having been librarians), a range of uncanny abilities, most notably his ability to sniff and lick refuse from the streets to gain clues about crimes, the way he can fall into a dumpster or other waste heap and emerge completely spotless and unwrinkled, and the way every woman he encounters falls madly in love with him, including his boss Margaret (Meg) Thatcher and Ray's sister Francesca; his total obliviousness to this, and the fact that he rarely pursues any of the offers the ladies extend to him, is part of his charm.

The show falls somewhere between a cop show and a comedy show. Although superficially following the police drama format, the comedy derives from outrageous plots, the self-deprecating Canadian and the American stereotypes, and the occasional fantasy elements such as the regular visits paid to the Mountie by his father's ghost, whose advice varies between helpful and absurdly useless. When the latter, Benton is moved to ask 'Are there any psychologists in the afterlife? People who can help you?' The scenes are played deadly seriously by the actors. The tone of the show and much of the comedy derived from Fraser's supernormal detective ability. For instance, in one episode, Fraser tracks down a suspect by smelling the breath of a rat to determine the brand of barbecued ribs it had been eating. Another recurring gag is Fraser standing guard motionlessly in front of the Canadian consulate, while a passerby plays attempts to make him move or speak.

Marciano, the original Ray, did not appear in the post-1997 episodes, save for the first and last episodes, but was replaced by Callum Keith Rennie as Stanley Raymond Kowalski, a detective who was under orders to impersonate Vecchio while the real Vecchio was undercover. Marciano did return for the series finale, in which Vecchio ran off to Florida with Kowalski's ex-wife, Stella. In the last episode, Benton and his father's ghost finally solve Benton's mother's murder. This results in the ghost's departure. The series ends with Benton and Kowalski in search of the graves of the Franklin expedition. (This missing expedition to the far north is immortalized in Canadian folk song by Stan Rogers: 'Northwest Passage', which Paul Gross sings in the episode.)

Cast

Main characters

Soundtrack

The producers of Due South sought to showcase various Canadian artists within the show's episodes, with many of the featured tracks eventually being released on to CD soundtrack. The show's distinctive theme was written and composed by Jay Semko of the rock band The Northern Pikes (who recorded a version of the song with lyrics, played during the shows closing credits) working with Jack Lenz and John McCarthy, and bears a resemblance to the cascading chorus interlude from Deep Blue Something's Breakfast at Tiffany's. . Semko went on to score the first two seasons of Due South. In November 1996, the first album was released containing 17 tracks, one of which was an in-character soliloquy by Paul Gross on the subject of bravery, taken directly from the episode An Eye For an Eye.

When the show returned for its third season Semko returned once again to complete the second soundtrack.

Awards

Over the three-season run of the series, Due South and its cast and crew earned a number of awards. Most significantly, the show earned 53 Canadian Gemini nominations, winning 15 in total, including Best Dramatic TV series three years running (1995–1997). Paul Gross won Best Actor in a Continuing Leading Dramatic Role two years running (1995–1996) and creator Paul Haggis won Best Writing in a Dramatic Series the same two years running.

The following table summarizes awards won by the Due South cast and crew:

Critical reception

Fraser's methods, usually more sensitive and understanding than is typical for police work, gave the series a reputation for well rounded characters.

Fan conventions

A number of fan conventions were organized by Due South fans during the 1990s, the biggest and best known of which was RCW 139, so named after the recurring license plate number. RCW 139 was held annually in Toronto between 1996 and 1999, attracting approximately 300 fans from more than 10 countries in both 1998 and 1999. The convention featured games, discussion panels, a formal dinner, and guest panels. Numerous cast and crew members have attended, including David Marciano (1998), Paul Gross (1999), Gordon Pinsent (1998), Tom Melissis (1997, 1998, 1999), Tony Craig (1997), Catherine Bruhier (1998, 1999) and Jay Semko (1998, 1999). Furthermore, Draco (Diefenbaker) and his trainer, Gail Parker, were guests in both 1998 and 1999

After a nine year hiatus, the convention was revived in 2008, and was highlighted by guest panels from David Marciano, Jay Semko, Tom Melissis, Catherine Bruhier, and Gail Parker with Cinder, Draco's sister and stunt-double. Another convention was held in August 2010, highlighted by the participation of Paul Gross, Jay Semko, Tom Melissis, Camilla Scott, Tony Craig, Catherine Bruhier, and Ramona Milano.

The following is a list of RCW 139 conventions:

RCW 139 (1996)

RCW 139: Due It Again! (1997)

RCW 139: A Cop, A Mountie, and A Convention (1998)

RCW 139: Ride Forever (1999)

RCW 139: Toronto Holiday (2008)

RCW 139: Duesers' Day Off (2010)

References in other media

In the MMORPG City Of Heroes, budding superheroes can take missions from a 'Detective Frasenbaker', an apparently superhuman Mountie who moved to the fictional Paragon City while on the trail of his father's killers. Listening closely at the door of his temporary office will reveal the distinctive bark of a large dog. His presence is an in-joke and artist's signature by Canadian developer and longtime fan Melissa Bianco (aka 'War_Witch').

In the Vinyl Cafe story 'Cousin Dorothy', Dave's relative (albeit not technically his cousin) Dorothy comes to Toronto from England to attend a "Friends of Due South" convention.

The 2010 movie Barney's Version (film) includes a fake TV-Show called O'Malley of the South starring Paul Gross in a parody of his own character in Due South.

Notes and references

External links

A due South retrospective at PaulGross.org

BBC website, which lists due South as a cult television show

Home page of RCW 139: Duesers' Day Off, the world's only Due South fan convention

Category:1994 Canadian television series debuts Category:1999 Canadian television series endings Category:1990s American television series Category:Canada – United States relations Category:CBS network shows Category:Crime television series Category:CTV network shows Category:Royal Canadian Mounted Police in fiction Category:Canadian comedy-drama television series Category:Television shows set in Chicago, Illinois Category:Television series by Alliance Atlantis Category:Television series produced in Toronto Category:Television series revived after cancellation Category:Fictional portrayals of the Chicago Police Department Category:English-language television series