ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, December 7, 1995 TAG: 9512070098
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: TOM SHALES
Every now and then, through some puckish, flukish twist of fate, the good guys win. Such appears to be the case with the Friends of Due South, a nationwide group organized last spring to protest CBS's decision to cancel the series ``Due South'' and lobby the network to put the series back on again.
Ta-dah! ``Due South'' returns to the CBS schedule Friday night at 8 EST). In announcing the about-face, CBS Entertainment President Leslie Moonves, who arrived on the job just about the time ``Due South'' went south, said in a statement, ``I was a fan of `Due South' last season because it was a good, fun, buddy-cop show with two solid stars. I was sorry when I got here that it was gone, and viewer mail tells me I wasn't alone.''
There was, apparently, a ton of viewer mail thanks to the Friends of Due South, which sprang up in indignation when CBS announced a fall schedule with no ``Due South'' on it. Friends took to the Internet, and soon there were five separate web sites devoted to scuttlebutt about the show and complaints about CBS's decision.
It did seem odd that CBS would dump ``Due South'' while at the same time renewing a series called ``Touched By An Angel,'' the ratings for which weren't any better than ``Due South's'' were - not terrible ratings, but not great, either. Why did CBS opt for ``Angel'' over ``South''? Partly because ``Angel'' is produced by CBS Entertainment, and so the network stands to make more money from the show. ``South'' is produced independently.
Thus the renewal of one show and the cancellation of another had nothing really to do with the quality of either program.
When ``Due South'' returns Friday, Paul Gross and David Marciano will be back in their roles of Constable Benton Fraser and Detective Ray Vecchio, an odd-couple Chicago cop team consisting of equal parts innocent optimism and cynical pessimism. Fraser is the optimistic half, a Canadian Mountie transplanted to Chicago for reasons long since forgotten. He believes that justice will always triumph, that human beings are basically good, and that a Mountie is never too busy to help a little old lady across the street.
Fraser has come to symbolize the way things used to be, or the way we'd like to think they used to be, in a less hostile, less urbanized, less industrialized America. He seems to embody all the most endangered values: decency, honesty and compassion.
In the re-premiere, Fraser and Vecchio find themselves trapped inside a bank vault while a robbery is under way. Before long, and don't ask how, the vault is filling up with water as part of Fraser's master plan to foil the thieves. Vecchio fails to see the wisdom of this plan as the water reaches his Adam's apple and isn't much comforted when Fraser says, ``You know, Ray, there are worse things than dying.'
Though brightly written by Kathy Slevin and nimbly directed by Steve DiMarco, this isn't the best episode of ``Due South'' ever. For one thing, the character of Vecchio has become so nasty and coarse that it's hard to sympathize. Even so, the series remains a sure-fire picker-upper. Spending an hour each week with Constable Fraser gives you the encouraging feeling that maybe the world isn't going straight to hell after all.
As part of their campaign, Friends of Due South deluged a certain TV critic, namely this one, with candy treats from all over North America. Before he knew it he was up to his eyeballs in Tootsie Rolls, HoHo's, Gummi Bears and other assorted yummy-yummies. As a result, his weight ballooned to an unsightly 1,000 pounds.
Actually, that's an exaggeration, and he only did it so that if you ever see him you'll say, ``Gee, he looks pretty good for a half-tonner.'' And if he also seems a tiny bit less bitter and ornery than usual, it's because ``Due South'' is back on the air.
- Washington Post Writers Group
LENGTH: Medium: 71 linesby CNB