Actor Rob Stewart says the writers of the late-night CBS series Sweating Bullets are reconsidering his character's roving eye in this age of AIDS awareness.

A large part of the Monday night show's appeal is that it's a sexual fantasy of bikini-clad women and bare-chested men on the beach of a mythical Caribbean island called Key Mariah.

In 44 episodes, private investigator Nick Slaughter has had 44 girlfriends.

"Sometimes Nick may be sending the wrong message," Stewart said. "But we're showing the fantasy every American male dreams of."

Stewart met with the show's writers in Palm Springs recently to discuss his concerns.

The late-night time period allows Sweating Bullets to be somewhat racier than a prime-time show, but reconciling the series' sexual appeal to today's realities is a perplexing problem.

"One of the topics we talked about in Palm Springs was whether we are dealing with sex in a responsible way," said Stewart, who also is a writer-director for the show.

"AIDS is a major concern today ... but the show is still a fantasy," he said. "None of us really has the answers. We had six writers in the room, and at different times each took a different stance. Nick's going to be freewheeling at times ... We don't want to kill the concept of the show. Yet we don't want to send out the wrong message."

Stewart said one change under consideration is giving Nick a steady girlfriend.

Carolyn Dunn stars as Stewart's partner in this joint Canadian-Israeli production, but the two have yet to be romantically linked.

In Sweating Bullets, Stewart is an investigator who quit the Drug Enforcement Administration to follow a more carefree life.

This past season, the show's second, was filmed at the Israeli resort of Eliat on the Gulf of Aqaba, which opens onto the Red Sea.

"Where we'll film next season is a big mystery," Stewart said. "The first year we were in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. It's a joke. We're like a rock band on a world tour. We figure we'll go to another politically unstable country -- maybe Yugoslavia."

Stewart said he would settle for Nova Scotia in his native Canada; It was 110 degrees when he arrived in Eliat last fall. Winter temperatures generally range from 80 to 100 degrees, but it was the coldest winter in a hundred years.

"We had to dress like we were in the tropics," he recalled. "Desert cold is extremely cold. I had to go scuba diving."

Before Sweating Bullets, Stewart worked on various productions in Canada as an actor, writer and director. He also held down a number of other jobs, from singing in restaurants to department store maintenance man to building mobile homes.

"Then for a year and a half, I couldn't get any show business work." he said. "I was broke and $6,000 in debt. I was working as a bartender, but the tips were bad because of the recession. I couldn't even afford a haircut and my hair grew to a ponytail.

"I came to L.A. to audition for CBS for Sweating Bullets. I don't think it was my acting -- it was the ponytail. I offered to cut it, but they said no. I knew if I started with it, the ponytail would become a signature. It now reflects his attitude."

Stewart said he sees Nick as cynical and witty, and feels the character is like himself. He suspects the role was written with the wiseguy attitude of David Letterman or Bill Murray, but he didn't want to do it that way. He thought back to movies of the past and settled on William Holden in The Bridge On the River Kwai as a model.

"Nick's cynical for a reason -- he's anti-establishment," Stewart said. "We try to keep that tension. He sees a reason that something's wrong. That's why he's irreverent. I say his heart's in the right place and his mouth's in the wrong place."

"It's great that Nick is so much like me," he said. "I'd hate to have to work those hours and be Richard III."

Jerry Buck