"The detective formerly known as Ray Vecchio or the current detective known as the former Ray Vecchio?"
So, to start off the new season, all they had to do was explain Ray Vecchio's "disappearance"! Other shows faced with such a major cast change either kill off the character or simply slot the new actor in and pretend that nothing has changed. due South chose the second course - only with panache, wit and tongue jammed firmly in cheek. Written by Paul Gross, the opening episode, Burning Down the House, contains flashes of US playwright Sam Shepard's influence. For example, the reference to Buck Frobisher as "a legendary Mountie, who bore an uncanny resemblance to Canadian actor and comedian Leslie Nielsen" subtly blurs the interface between reality and fiction and lets the characters stand briefly with one foot in the viewers' world and one in the due South universe. And there is an added note of topicality when Fraser Snr comments that Leslie Nielsen "has yet to receive the Order of Canada".
The episode starts with Ray Vecchio phoning Fraser at his remote holiday location in Canada to say that he won't be able to pick Fraser up at the station on his return. When Fraser does return to Chicago, he finds his apartment building destroyed by fire and a stranger at the 27th District answering to the name of "Ray Vecchio", while everyone else at the police station seems unaware of any change. As Fraser gathers evidence that this blond man is not Ray Vecchio, they become involved in an investigation into a performance arsonist. As they work the case, the truth is eventually revealed - Ray Vecchio has gone undercover with the mob - and it is up to Ray Kowalski to protect his cover by working at the 27th.
Although the change of partner inevitably gave the show a different tone, all due South's trademark features continued to shine through - the wit, warmth and surrealism remaining intact as well as the central dynamic of the relationship between the Mountie and the Chicago cop. And Callum's introduction as Stanley Raymond Kowalski brought a renewed edge and revitalised the show's premise.
As Paul said in an interview for TV Zone in January 1999:
"We couldn't really replicate the same relationship shared between Fraser and Vecchio. Ray is an outgoing, in-on-the-scene sort of guy. Kowalski, however, is kind of a loner. I think if there is any difference in terms of the way we brought Fraser and Kowalski together it was in addressing the fact that Stanley is a bit of an outsider like Fraser is. So due South became more about a pair of outsiders as opposed to an outsider and an Everyman."
Paul is frequently asked to compare David and Callum's work on the show. At the RCW 139 Convention in August 1999, he said:
"Their approaches to acting were completely different . . . .but it's kind of like asking somebody to compare a BMW and a Porsche. They're equally great cars, but they're just different."
In the early episodes of the new series, such as Strange Bedfellows, Eclipse and Asylum, details of Ray Kowalski's past are gradually revealed and the relationship with Fraser developed. But Vecchio himself is not forgotten. His presence is retained by frequent reminders of Kowalski's reason for being at the 27th. This is highlighted in episodes such as Dead Guy Running, a story focusing on the lengths to which Fraser and Kowalski are prepared to go in order to protect Ray Vecchio's cover and clear his name of a brutal murder.
"A letter of marque came from the King, To the scummiest vessel I'd ever seen."
From the outset, due South revelled in challenging the viewer with references to literary and movie classics. Hitchcock in particular seems to have been a favourite - the plot of Letting Go echoing Rear Window, a Psycho-style shower scene in The Duel, the use of North by North-West as a counterpoint to the plot in Victoria's Secret, and the skilful use of Hitchcock's 'McGuffins' in Chicago Holiday and Invitation to Romance. And Shakespeare's works were quoted in many episodes.
This tradition was maintained into the new season, with Perfect Strangers putting an up-dated spin on the plot of Strangers on a Train, the doomed love story of Abelard and Heloise featuring as a back-drop in Say Amen, while Paul Gross and Bob Carney took the idea one stage further in the ambitious Mountie on the Bounty. This audacious plot takes a famous scene from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and transplants it, followed by the knowingly cheeky line, "Does this conversation seem strangely familiar?" from Kowalski.
With pirates, treasure, real and fake ghosts, sea-shanties, a detachment of naval Mounties, a great song 32 Down on the Robert Mackensie, and, the pièce de resistance, the replica Bounty which had been used in the Marlon Brando film, Mountie on the Bounty is a daring and ambitious ending to the third season. Even though this episode has its share of wacky humour, it also deals with serious issues, in this case environmental pollution of the Great Lakes, as well as charting the regeneration of mutual trust between Fraser and Kowalski after a rift in their relationship.
But the star of this episode in some ways remains the boat:
"We were on the Bounty one afternoon coming in, and the sun was setting and the whole crew was way out on the yards, pulling in sails. Everyone was grinning like a fool. It was spectacular." - Paul Gross at the RCW 139 Convention in August 1999