Sometimes it’s frustrating being loyal to a television show.
You spend hours getting involved in the characters; you rearrange your evenings to watch the show; you might even go so far as to actually learn how to program the VCR so you can tape the show when you’re not around.
That type of loyalty should be reserved for shows like CBS’ “Due South.”
The action-adventure series about a displaced Canadian mountie, Benton Fraser (played by the engaging Paul Gross), living in Chicago has frequently been called a “pleasant surprise.” But slotted at 7 p.m. on Thursdays against NBC’s powerful duo of “Mad About You” and “Friends,” the show was viewed as a likely casualty of the ratings war.
But something “pleasant” happened. “Due South” was a modest hit, landing solidly behind the “Mad”/”Friends” tandem in second place in that time period.
The plots were well-written, stylish and charming. Even the music matched the show’s whimsical tone. The episodes had a feel reminiscent of early “Northern Exposure.”
(One episode found someone asking Fraser how he came to live in Chicago; he said it would take two hours to explain, a sly reference to the show’s two-hour pilot).
The key is Fraser, who is assigned to the Canadian consulate but always manages to get involved in the cases of a wiseguy Chicago cop (David Marciano).
Fraser is unfailingly polite and friendly, always ready with a “thank you kindly”; he is oblivious to women’s attraction to him; and his crime-solving techniques, honed from years of tracking criminals in the wilds of Canada, always come through. Not only does he have a wolf as a companion, his pooch is deaf with a strong will to do what he wants.
“Due South” made a strong case for coming back next season, so it was worthy of your loyalty, right?
Ah, but this is network television.
In one of the more bizarre moves of the recently announced 1995-’96 television schedule, CBS canceled “Due South,” moving long-running hit “Murder, She Wrote” from Sundays to 7 p.m. Thursdays.
A CBS spokeswoman says that although there are “many of us here who wish it was returning . . . the truth of the matter is that (“Due South”) wasn’t able to build the kind of audience we need to be competitive.”
She adds that CBS has two new programs debuting on Thursdays, “The Client” and “Courthouse,” which need the type of lead-in that a “Murder, She Wrote” can provide.
But again, this is network television. There’s still a chance for “Due South,” however slim.
After being off CBS for several weeks, it’s coming back Friday at 8 p.m. on WBBM-Ch. 2, starting with a really great two-hour episode, and followed by two new shows scheduled for June 9 and June 16.
A spokeswoman for the show said that if the ratings are good for these three episodes, CBS may bring “Due South” back as a midseason replacement next year.
The show deserves to return just on the strength of Friday’s episode, entitled “Victoria’s Secret,” co-written by creator and executive producer Paul Haggis. Haunting and moving without losing any of the show’s off-beat humor, it’s about the return in Fraser’s life of the love of his life,
Years ago Fraser tracked Victoria, who was involved in a bank robbery. He fell for her after they were stranded for days in the mountains with no supplies or shelter during a storm. Fraser, who could have let her escape, did his duty and brought her back to justice.
“She’s the only woman I ever loved. I put her in prison,” Fraser says in the episode. “Duty is a poor excuse.”
Whatever “Due South’s” fate, the upshot is how loyalty is repaid: You get into a show that no one really thought had a chance, that does well, only to see it junked in the name of higher ratings.
Kind of makes you want to rethink your loyalties, doesn’t it?
– Where’s the remote: After about an hour into TNT’s “Tecumseh: The Last Warrior,” you finally figure out why a movie was made about the Native American war chief in the first place. Problem is the movie, co-executive produced by Francis Ford Coppola and premiering Sunday at 7 p.m., is two hours long.
This portrait of the Shawnee leader–who traveled across America during the early 19th Century in an effort to enlist other tribes to band together and protect their lands from being gobbled up by the United States government–is uninspiring most of the time; a true sense of the man does not emerge until near the end.
“They’ve stolen everything from us: Our homes, our religion, our children,” Tecumseh (Jesse Borrego) says defiantly. “All they have left us is hate.”
It’s too bad that fire wasn’t felt throughout the entire movie, part of a series of TNT Original dramas that highlight key events in Native American history.
