Due South is an award-winning Canadian television police drama created by Paul Haggis and produced by Alliance Communications (now part of Alliance Atlantis), first airing in 1994. It followed the adventures of a fictional MountieBenton Fraser and his wolf companion Diefenbaker, living and working in Chicago. Fraser's methods, usually more sensitive and understanding than is typical for police work, gave the series a reputation for well-rounded characters.
Due South originally debuted as a made-for-television movie aired on CTV in Canada and CBS in the United States. After higher than anticipated ratings, Due South was turned in to 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 U.S. network.
After the 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 series which ran from 1995-1996. The show was once again shown on CBS in late 1995, 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, Pro Sieben 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 season for syndication. The post-1997 episodes could be considered a spinoff from the original series, but were in fact titled as Season Three and Season Four of the original series. 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 highest-rated regular series ever aired on a Canadian network and remains highly regarded and popular in the United Kingdom. In the UK Due South is currently being shown on ITV3.
Story overview
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The basic premise of the series is a Royal Canadian Mounted Policeconstable named Benton Fraser (Paul Gross) who, accompanied by his deaf half-wolf, Diefenbaker, goes to Chicago to solve the murder of his father. The investigation leads Fraser to uncover a plot by a damming company that is slowly killing the environment. This uncovering leads to the dam being shut down and many people losing their jobs. He also implicates members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in the affair. This along with the loss of so many people's jobs makes him decide that he is not wanted in Canada and he decides to stay in Chicago. This whole plot line is very often brushed over as he often states,
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.
His partner in Chicago is Ray Vecchio (David Marciano), a tough, streetwise cop. Marciano did not appear in the post-1997 episodes, save for the first and last episode, 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, an interesting parody of the Chuck Cunningham syndrome. Marciano did return for the series finale, in which Vecchio ran off to Florida with Kowalski's ex-wife.
The show falls somewhere between a cop show and a comedy show. Although superficially following the police drama format, the comedy derives from the outrageous plots, the self-mocking Canadian and American stereotypes, and the occasional fantasy elements (such as the regular visits paid to Fraser by the ghost of his dead father), all played with absolute deadpan by the actors. Much of the comedy, as well as setting much of the tone of the show, was provided by Fraser's supernormal detective ability. For instance, in one episode, Fraser tracks down a suspect by smelling the breath of a rat to detect which brand of cooked ribs it had been eating.
Cast
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Awards
Over the four-season run of the series, Due South and its cast and crew earned a number of awards. Most significantly, the show earned 53 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:
Winner
Award
Paul Gross
Gemini, Best Actor in a Continuing Leading Dramatic Role (1995)
Gemini, Best Performance by an Actor in a Continuing Leading Dramatic Role (1996)
Gordon Pinsent
Gemini, Best Performance by an Actor in a Guest Role in a Dramatic Series (1996)
Gemini, Earle Grey Award (1997)
Brent Carver
Gemini, Best Performance by an Actor in a Guest Role Dramatic Series (1998)
Wendy Crewson
Gemini, Best Performance by an Actress in a Guest Role Dramatic Series (1998)
Production Awards
Gemini, Best Dramatic TV Series - (Paul Haggis, Kathy Slevin, Jeff King) (1995)
Gemini, Best TV Movie - (Paul Haggis, Jean Desormeaux, Jeff King) (1995)
Gemini, Best Writing in a Dramatic Series (Kathy Slevin and Paul Haggis for The Pilot) (1995)
Gemini, Best Dramatic Series - (Paul Haggis, Jeff King, Kathy Slevin, George Bloomfield) (1996)
Gemini, Best Writing in a Dramatic Series - (Paul Haggis and David Shore for Hawk and a Handsaw) (1996)
Gemini, Best Direction in a Dramatic or Series - (Jerry Ciccoritti for Gift of the Wheelman) (1996)
Gemini, Best Sound - (Brian Avery, Allen Ormerod, Keith Elliot, Michael Werth, Jann Delpuech for Victoria's Secret) (1996)
Gemini, Best Dramatic Series - (Jeff King and Bob Wertheimer) (1997)
Gemini, Best Writing in a Dramatic Series - (Paul Gross, Robert B. Carney, John Krizanc for Mountie on the Bounty - Part 2) (1998)
Gemini, Best Visual Effects - (Jon Campfens, Barb Benoit, John Cox, Mark Savela for Call of the Wild, Part 2) (1999)
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 original theme for the show was written and composed by Jay Semko, after which, working with Jack Lenz and John McCarthy, he went on to score the first two seasons of Due South. In November 1996, the first album was released containing seventeen 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 and fourth seasons Semko returned once again to complete the second soundtrack. The second soundtrack album was released in June 1998 containing sixteen tracks from the final two seasons.
Books
Due South: The Official Companion by Geoff Tibballs was published in May 1998 containing basic information on the series and cast and brief episodes synopses up to the end of the third season. Another illustrated companion, Due South: The Official Guide by John A. Macdonald, was published in December 1998. It contains some interviews with the characters and bios of the cast.
A number of paper-back novelizations of a selection of episodes by Tom McGregor were later published including, Death In The Wilderness based on the pilot movie, An Invitation to Romance based on the episodes An Invitation to Romance and Gift of the Wheelman, All The Queen's Horses based on All the Queen's Horses and Red, White or Blue, and Vaulting North based on North and Vault.
The first season DVD released in the UK
Video/DVD releases
The pilot two-hour movie was originally released on VHS in 1996, but individual episodes had been released prior to this throughout 1995 on VHS with two episodes per tape. Finally, in 1998, the season three and the season four two-part finales were released. In November 2002, the Due South Giftset was released containing the pilot movie and episodes Mountie on the Bounty and Call of the Wild.
In 2002, Alliance Atlantis began releasing the series on DVD, starting with the first season in Canada, followed by releases in the US. The final season was released in Canada in 2005, and part of the season three and four combination in the US. In the UK, the first season was released in January 2006 , with planned releases for the remaining seasons.
Episodes
The following is a list of titles of the broadcast episodes broken down by seasons:
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| colspan="3" align="center" style="font-size: 90%;" | Detective Ray Vecchio | Detective Stanley "Ray Vecchio" Kowalski
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| colspan="3" align="center" style="font-size: 90%;" | Lt Harding Welsh | Detective Jack Huey | Detective Thomas E Dewey | Detective Louis Gardino | Elaine Besbriss | Francesca Vecchio
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|- bgcolor="lightgreen"
| colspan="3" align="center" style="font-size: 100%;" |Due South Episodes
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| colspan="3" align="center" style="font-size: 90%;" | Season 1 | Season 2 | Season 3 | Season 4
