| Tropical Heat | |
|---|---|
Tropical Heat title card |
|
| Genre | Action Comedy |
| Created by | Sam Egan |
| Starring | Rob Stewart Carolyn Dunn Ian Tracey |
| Opening theme | "Anyway the Wind Blows" |
| Composer(s) | Fred Mollin |
| Country of origin | Canada |
| Language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 3 |
| No. of episodes | 66 (List of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Location(s) | Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, Eilat, Israel, Pretoria, South Africa |
| Running time | approx. 60 min. |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | IO International, SafriTel |
| Original run | April 8, 1991 – October 18, 1993 |
| Chronology | |
| Followed by | Criss Cross |
Tropical Heat (aka Sweating Bullets) was a Canadian TV series produced in cooperation with Mexico and Israel that aired between 1991 and 1993 (and in the US eventually as part of the CBS umbrella series Crimetime After Primetime).
The plot revolved around private investigator, ex-DEA agent Nick Slaughter who after arriving in the fictional resort town of Key Mariah, Florida and setting up a detective agency there, met up with local tourist agent Silvie Girard to solve a variety of different cases.
The series ran for three seasons totaling 66 episodes. Season one was filmed in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico due to tax breaks the production was eligible for under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Season two was filmed in Eilat, Israel. Season three was filmed in Pretoria, South Africa, with some sequences shot on the Isle of Mauritius.[1]
Lead actor Rob Stewart purportedly met his bride in Mexico during filming of the first season.
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The series was particularly popular in Serbia, where it gained cult status. In a tumultuous social environment – with UN trade embargo imposed on the country and civil war raging nearby – Nick Slaughter's character became, jokingly, a tongue-in-cheek role model and eventually even a symbol of oppositional politics, particularly among the urban youth. It was broadcast on four Serbian television stations – TV Politika, NS+, RTS 3K, and RTV Pink – during the 1990s and rerun numerous times. Aside from its dry humor and exciting plot, the show was extremely well received because its idyllic tropical island atmosphere was an absolute contrast to mid-1990s Serbia. The reruns in the then-isolated country made the show immensely popular, turning it into a minor national cultural phenomenon.
The "movement" to establish Nick Slaughter as a symbolic national hero probably began in the Belgrade suburb of Žarkovo where, brilliantly posted by unknown idle-minded author, the first now-legendary graffiti "Sloteru Niče, Žarkovo ti kliče" ("Nick Slaughter, Žarkovo hails you", which rhymes in Serbian) appeared on walls. Soon afterward during the massive months-long protests throughout winter 1996/1997 against the election fraud perpetrated by Slobodan Milošević and his party at the November 1996 local elections, the slogan "Slotera Nika, za predsednika" ("Nick Slaughter for President", also rhymes in Serbian) became popular on banners and badges as a symbol of opposition to the regime. Another popular slogan was "Svakoj majci treba da je dika, koja ima sina k'o Slotera Nika" ("Every mother should be proud to have a son like Nick Slaughter"). Serbian punk band Atheist Rap paid a tribute to the series' protagonist in the song "Slaughteru Nietzsche" with its graffiti-based chorus "Sloteru Niče, Srbija ti kliče" ("Nick Slaughter, Serbia hails you") on their 1998 album Druga liga Zapad.
Many local bars, taverns, and summer patios in Serbia got named "Tropical Heat", in honour of Nick Slaughter and the popular TV show. They were usually located along the rivers, to resemble "The Key Mariah Spirit".
Apparently, nobody associated with the show was aware of its extraordinary popularity in Serbia until December 2008 when Canadian actor Rob Stewart who played Nick Slaughter in the series accidentally discovered it by stumbling upon a Facebook fan group named "Tropical Heat/Nick Slaughter" with some 17,000 (mostly Serbian) followers. After familiarizing himself with the cause and the circumstances of his Serbian fame, now mostly unemployed 48-year-old Stewart, along with a filmmaker friend Marc Vespi and his sister Liza, decided to attempt to make a documentary on the subject titled Slaughter Nick for President.[2] To that end, they contacted the band Atheist Rap and it was soon arranged for Rob to appear on stage as their guest at the To Be Punk Festival in Novi Sad on June 6.
By late March 2009 the news got leaked to Serbian press and several media outlets carried items that Rob Stewart will be coming to Serbia in May or early June as guest of Atheist Rap in order to film a documentary on his character's popularity in the country during the 1990s.[3][4][5] In the meantime, Stewart and his partners also got in touch with Srđa Popović, former activist of Otpor!, the Serbian student movement that played a significant role in eventually bringing down Milošević. On June 3, 2009, Stewart/Slaughter arrived in Belgrade to a hero's welcome with enormous media attention afforded to his visit.[6][7][8][9][10][11] With Atheist Rap and Popović as their hosts and guides through Serbia, and in between the documentary shooting schedule, Stewart made the media rounds, appearing on talk shows (Piramida[12] and Fajront Republika[13]), giving interviews, and making public appearances such as planting of the maple trees in Žarkovo with John Morrison, Canadian ambassador to Serbia.
As a result of their June 2009 stay in Belgrade and Novi Sad, a 6-minute documentary promo was put together and entered in the Roma Fiction Fest in Rome, Italy on July 8, 2009 under the "work in progress" section.[14]
Tango Entertainment released the complete series on DVD on January 8, 2008 in an 9-disc set entitled Tropical Heat: Sweating Bullets Complete series.[15]