TV Show filming to end soon
Key West Citizen - 12/09/92
By Vernon Silver
Citizen Staff Writer

It's almost showtime for "Key West".

The island's namesake TV show is set to hit the air next month. In the meantime, the cast and crew who have been filming here on location are set to wrap things up by the end of next week.

Originally set to air in October, the Fox television show will not premiere until January 19, said a spokesman for Viacom Entertainment, which is producing the show.

Many of the early reviews of the show's pilot compared "Key West" to a warmer "Northern Exposure" mixed with a creepy "Twin Peaks."

It is set to go up against ABC's hit "Roseanne."

The show is based on the adventures of a fellow who wins the lottery in New Jersey and then comes here to make it as a writer. He, of course, meets all sorts of offbeat Key West types in the process.

According to the press packet these folks are like your next-door neighbors.

There is "Bingo, a Rastafarian roustabout with an eye for the ladies and a penchant for black magic; Gumbo the beleaguered Cajun bartender whose pet crocodile has a mind of it's own; scintillating Savannah, a true public servant helping Key West's young men come of age," not to mention Cody, "the surfing, philosophizing Sheriff who teaches aerobics to convicts on the beach.

And step aside, Captain Tony, this Key West's mayor, Boone Pembroke, is "the kind of man you'd vote for unless of course you read the tabloids.

If none of this means anything to you, take heart. Good news is that the traffic tie-ups will be gone for good a week from Friday when the show people are set to pack up and take off.

Actually, not all of them are leaving. Every show needs extras, the people who walk by, acting naturally during a scene, or as random faces in a crowd. "Key West" employed several locals as extras, who will wait until January to see their "showbiz" buddies again – on the tube.

If the show is a success, some have speculated, it could forever alter the island. Business people hope the publicity will boost tourism. Some have worried that Hollywood writers will distort life on an island that is already strange enough.

You gotta tune in to find out.