Locals can't wait to tune in "Key West"
Key West Citizen - 01/19/93
By Vernon Silver
Citizen Staff Writer

Tonight, Robert "Roofman" Carr will be watching to see if he's famous - or on the floor of a Hollywood film editing room.

And he won't be the only one on the island tuning in when the Fox TV show "Key West" hits the air tonight at 9. Like Carr, a lot of folks here want to see if their bit parts as extras made the final cut.

For the filming, Turtle Kraals, where Carr is general manager, was turned into "Gumbo's", a fictional watering hole in this fantasy version of the southernmost island.

"A lot of people who work here were in it", Carr said Monday, as he eagerly anticipated the first, hour-long installment of the show. "We'll have all the TV's on."

With eight tiny screens glowing around the bar, Carr expects this to be a locals event at the marina-side restaurant.

"Most of the people in the neighborhood watched it being filmed," he said, and they're real curious how it turned out.

"Key West" is the story of a New Jersey factory worker whose life takes a sudden upturn. "After he won the lottery", says the ad in TV Guide, "he went looking for the perfect place to live out his fantasies…"

"He found it", the ad continues, "Key West. The wildest, weirdest, most wonderful place on earth."

"It's definitely going to help the tourist trade," said Key West Mayor Dennis Wardlow. "It's going to portray a live and let live, laid back attitude."

"It's like when we did the Conch Republic secession. You can't pay for that kind of exposure." Wardlow said, "It's great that Key West is making the national scene and I hope it will be as successful as Northern Exposure." The Mayor is set to attend a viewing party at the Ocean Key House where he will name today "Key West Day".

At the Turtle Kraals, though, Carr just wants to see his face on the tube. In his scene, he's one seat over from the guy in the sailor uniform watching exotic dancers wiggle and shake.

For two days last spring, the cast and crew took over the restaurant, and even brought in a crocodile, one of the animal actors in the show. When they came back this summer they built a set for Gumbo's to film the rest of the series.

"It was fun work", Carr said, "having to sit in one place watching the wiggling and shaking and he got paid $116 for the two days. But he's not one to be star struck. I wouldn't want to do it all the time", he said.