[LINK] "Canada's Batman of the Balkans"
Jul. 28th, 2009 05:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rfmcdonaldThe Globe and Mail's Julia Belluz explores how Rob Stewart, star of the early 1990s Canadian television show Tropical Heat, became a huge star in Serbia.
It turns out that in the 1990s, Tropical Heat was as popular a television show as any of the South American telenovelas imported at the same time, and as common as any of the nationalist propaganda shows, too. The character even became an icon in the anti-Milosevic opposition movements.
Globalization works in unexpected ways, doesn't it? That's why I like it.
Stewart starred as Nick Slaughter, a pony-tailed, hairy-chested private investigator who worked on an island, amid beautiful women in bikinis. He was embarrassed by his acting on the “cheesy show” – which he describes as “a B-version of Magnum, P.I.” and which lasted for only three seasons – until he logged onto Facebook last December and found a fan group called “Tropical Heat/Nick Slaughter” with some 17,000 (mostly Serbian) followers.
[. . .]
With his neighbour, artist and neophyte filmmaker Marc Vespi, and Vespi's sister, Liza, Stewart went to Serbia last month to film a documentary called Slaughter Nick for President that explores his superstar alter ego.
In Belgrade, they were met with public hysteria. A series of media scrums awaited their arrival, along with groups of fans in tropical shirts (Slaughter's wardrobe staple). Photographers snapped away and then jumped in front of the cameras themselves to get a picture with their national hero.
The anticipation in Serbia had been building since March, when it was leaked to the press that Stewart would perform with a Serbian punk band at its 20th-anniversary concert. “It broke out all over the papers that Nick Slaughter was coming to Serbia,” says Stewart. “It was overwhelming.”
Stewart's Serbian host, prominent political activist Srdja Popovic – whom Stewart had contacted through Facebook – says that after a national newspaper published a photo of him with Stewart, “within 15 minutes, I got 300 calls – everybody asking, ‘Will you introduce me to Nick Slaughter?' and ‘I want a photo with Nick Slaughter.' I couldn't live my normal life.”
It turns out that in the 1990s, Tropical Heat was as popular a television show as any of the South American telenovelas imported at the same time, and as common as any of the nationalist propaganda shows, too. The character even became an icon in the anti-Milosevic opposition movements.
Globalization works in unexpected ways, doesn't it? That's why I like it.
