The hiatus of Paragon Entertainment’s Forever Knight was a stroke of luck for Catherine Disher, who plays Natalie Lambert, a forensic pathologist and friend to vampire/cop Nick Knight. As a result, she has been able to stay home with her new baby.

The series, which ran late-night on cbs but was canceled when the network brought in David Letterman, will be up and running again March 15 because Paragon has sold it to syndication.

The show is being resurrected because there is almost a cult following in the U.S., says Disher. She says computer hacks in the u.s. generated a lot of electronic mail. Although Disher hasn’t seen any scripts yet, she says the show might change in one respect: ‘cbs really emphasized the cop aspect and I think many of the fans were attracted to the show because of the vampire. So I think without cbs’s restrictions on us we can explore that area more.’ She adds that the fans want to see her character and Nick kiss.

Disher, like many Canadian actors, started her career at the National Theatre School in Montreal. ‘After I graduated from there, all I thought of doing was theater. Television came to me by accident,’ she says. But after taking a tiny role in Night Heat, she hasn’t looked back.

For her role in Forever Knight, Disher did her homework. ‘Because I was playing a pathologist, I called up the city morgue and talked to the public relations person there who was more than helpful. He turned out to be one of the investigating officers on the Susan Nelles case. He gave me a personal slide show and took me on a tour of the morgue. It was disgusting and fascinating at the same time. A macabre sense of humor permeates that place.’ KM