The first Canadian/Mexico co-production, it's produced by Accent Entertainment Corporation and Flores-Roffiel-Senyal in association with PGI and Global-TV.

There are certain logistical problems. Wardrobe has to be shipped from Mexico City or flown in from Los Angles or sometimes supplied by the cast. And for heaven's sakes, don't drink the water! The crew doctor, we were told, is a veterinarian.

Scorpions underfoot

The principal cast is fairly green. Bramalea native Rob Stewart, who has apprenticed on such series as Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Mount Royal and Hot Shots, has the lead role of Nick Slaughter a beach bum/private eye residing in Key Mariah, Fla., after having been booted out of the mounties and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

Nova Scotian Carolyn Dunn, who's so fresh-faced she can play a teen -- as she did as Jerry O'Connell's first love interest on My Secret Identity -- plays Nick's freshly pressed business partner, Sylvie Girard. She lives in a penthouse; he reads it.

Noted Canadian directors take turns at the helm. Hungarian-born Tibor Tackas, director of The Gate, takes the Mexican shooting site in stride, even though he had to chair his first production meeting sitting atop a table because of the scorpions underfoot.

"I found it more hazardous filming I, Madman in Russia because of the fallout from Chernobyl," says Tackas.

"Total Recall and Honey, I shrunk The Kids were filmed here. Anything that requires a lot of sets is done here because it's labor intensive."

Series produce Andras Hamori, who has acquired L.A. clout since his feature The Gate made a gazillion dollars, had expected to cast a burned-out, bulky, hulking Nick Nolte-ish kind of character as Nick, but went for Stewart's lean, GQ-gone-bad good looks instead.

"Nick is a bum in paradise. This is pure entertainment, everyone's fantasy. This guy is likable, he steps out of his apartment and walks two steps into the ocean. He doesn't have to shovel snow or close the button on his shirt. We created the world for Rob/Nick -- Key Mariah is the farthest key, you can see cuba. Everyone in trouble can come here."

Stewart thrives on the rigorous six-day-a-week shooting schedule and prefers to do most of his own stunts. And he has the scars to prove it.

We play Name That Scar. There's the scar he got from a Junior B hockey game when he was 17. It cost him a hockey career and a ruptured kidney.

The action sequences in the series struck no fear in Stewart. What "terrified" him was Mr. Knuckles, the face drawn on one of his digits that he calls his "misanthropic alter ego." Señor Wences with an attitude, if you will.

"It's a serious rick because Mr. Knuckles talks to me and it requires a suspension of disbelief. When Nick's mom left him at age 8, young Nick turned to a hand puppet he confided in."

"I was out for Hot Shots, but I didn't know anything about acting. Booth Savage got the part. I was number one choice for E.N.G., but they hired Mark Humphrey."

Finally, Stewart was number one with Bullets.

Money no priority

"My dad (a loans manager) is relieved I'm working. I'm 29 and I've been poor since I left home at 19 -- I own a guitar and a word processor. I slept outside beside a church on Avenue Rd. for two months late last fall until I finally got pneumonia. Yet I was happy, I had no concern with money at all, just like Nick."

Nick is -- and isn't -- like Stewart

"Nick is dark, unlike me. It's hard for me to be unhappy for more than three minutes. But he deals with pain casually."

As does Stewart, obviously.

"When I was 19, I used to instruct horseback riding in Oakville. I was an aggressive rider; I'd take the horses through the woods dodging the trees. Once I hit a tree, and completely separated my shoulder (another scar). I've got a sling, a pin in my shoulder and I'm on Demerol. But I'm back riding four or five days before Christmas and this horse bucks. It busted my knee, a lateral fracture."

And another scar.

"Guess I'm accident prone. Last Monday I got shot with a blank."

Rita Zekas

©The Toronto Star