Created and produced by Allan Marcil, Dick Berg, and David Beaird, the show was intelligent, funny, and filled with literary allusion (*gasp* "what's that?" you say. "Literary what?") . It was such a magical experience and aired so briefly (a mere 13 episodes!), that fans still search for it as though dreamers trying to recapture a dream. Yet real it was and in the words of Savannah, if you're looking for copies of the show, then...
"You've come to the right place, you pretty thing"
I have all thirteen episodes which I put on four disks (3 on 3 and 4 on 1).The quality is very good considering they are copied from VHS and that the show was aired 19 years ago. Compared to the ioffer disks that are out there (a friend bought a copy before I got a computer that could burn copies) the picture is better- the sound track is better- they are just better. (One reminder however, since the show was aired and recorded onto VHS in the 90s and can not be digitally enhanced, they will not have the quality on an HD TV as on an older TV set or on a computer.) They come with jeweled cases, covers, and inserts. I ask $16 dollars for the set + $4 for shipping and handling in the U.S. which can be paid by paypal or my snail mail (USPS). Overseas shipping will obviously be more but is possible.
I make the disks as they are requested so I begin making them when I hear from you. (If you choose to pay by snail mail, I generally wait until the check arrives before I get started on the disks so it can take longer to get to you than paypal.) If you want to use paypal, I invoice you when they are ready and mail them as soon as the payment is received. If you need the disks shipped overseas, please let me know at the time of the order. If you're interested drop me an email at Danette.Baltzer@gmail.com with "Key West" in the subject or click on "ASK ME ANYTHING", let me know how you want to pay and we'll go from there!
Also, once you get them, I love hearing about what you remember about the show and what you think about it after all these years. I love comments! If you post a comment simply sign in as a "guest" and then it will allow you to post.
twitter.com/danetteb:
Just thirteen episodes:
The Pilot episode (January 19, 1993)
Second Day in Heaven (January 26, 1993)
The Great Unknown (February 2, 1993)
Less Moonlight (February 9, 1993)
Pieces of a Man (February 16, 1993)
The Greening (February 23, 1993)
Act of God (March 2, 1993)
Gimme Shelter (March 9, 1993)
Crossroads (March 16, 1993)
We the People (June 1, 1993)
Compadres (June 8, 1993)
The System (June 15, 1993)
Heavy Metal, Heavy Hearts (June 22, 1993)
*Created by: David Beaird, Allan Marcil, & Dick Berg
#key west #David Beaird #Dick Berg #Allan Marcil
I use lightscribe disks that are burned with a scene from the show
The covers have various pictures from the episodes that are on each disk.
They come in jewelled cases and inside inserts are included which have the KW logo and episodes listed.
#Key West Television show #Fisher Stevens #Jennifer Tilly #1993 Fox TV show
Fisher Stevens……Seamus O’ Neill (13 episodes)
Jennifer Tilly………Savannah Sumner (13 episodes)
Denise Crosby…….Chaucy Caldwell (13 episodes)
Brian Thompson…..Sheriff Cody Jeremiah Johnson (13 episodes)
Leland Crooke…….Paul ‘Gumbo’ Beausoleil (13 episodes)
T.C. Carson……….Abednigo ‘Jo Jo’ Nabuli (13 episodes)
Ivory Ocean………Roosevelt ‘King’ Cole (11 episodes)
Kim Myers………….Dr. Reilly Clark (9 episodes)
Geno Silva…………Hector Allegria (7 episodes)
Lara Piper………….Rikki (7 episodes)
Michael Covert……Hunter Farmer (7 episodes)
Also appearing (although not pictured)
Jennifer Barlow…….Flame (10 episodes)
Maria Canals-Barrera…..Fig (4 episodes)
Joy Hawkins……….Annie (4 episodes)
Donna Kimball……..Isadora (4 episodes)
Reuben Rabasa……Alonzo (2 episodes)
#Fisher Stevens #Jennifer Tilly #Denise Crosby #Key West #Brian Thompson #Leland Crooke #T.C. Carson #Ivory Ocean #Kim Myers #Geno Silva
There are only thirteen episodes but some live with you. I’ve listed five of my favorites within the pages of this site… what are yours?
1. Pieces of a Man: The opening notes of this episode are quiet and full of the pensive thoughtfulness that fills the screen as the show progresses. A character is introduced and quickly expires, but leaves behind gifts for the people of the island that keep his presence vibrantly alive as surely as a closeup. Seamus, the new boy on the block, has never met the crazy old man in a “natty plaid jacket, red shorts and calvary boots” but is charged with the task of writing the obituary for the residential stranger and finds the task complicated by King Cole’s instructions to write about someone he knows in addition to disposing of the ashes of the deceased.
In a moment that never ceases to tighten my throat with a choked back sob, King Cole is perched on a chair on the sands of Zachary Taylor beach, blindly pinpointing his inherited gun at the heavens and aiming for the clay pigeons Seamus is propelling. Cole used to be the launcher, we discover, and was paid .10 for an hour of launching, but was given a “lifetime between the powder” At Cole’s direction Seamus slingshots the disks into the Key West blue sky and bullet after bullet sails wildly off and into the ocean. Finally, the bullet finds it’s mark and Cole launches himself out of his chair with his indigenous laughter, waves his arms and firearm at the heaven and exclaims, “Did you see that Bertram? They mighta kept the eyes but we got that clay bird! Oh Bertram, we did it!”
And yours?
#Key West #Pieces of a Man #seamus
(Final moving moments of ‘Act of God’ Click to listen. Bankie Banx singing ‘Edge of Darkness’ from his album Mighty Wind)
While shooting the show in August 1992, the Florida Keys were under a Hurricane warning and cast and crew of ‘Key West’ (at least those that had sense) were hurriedly evacuated. Hurricane Andrew ultimately missed the island itself but the hurricane hit Homestead, Florida (150 miles north of the small island) and southwest Louisiana, killing 61, injuring 10,375 and causing over 1 billion dollars in damages. It was a devastating event for the modern U.S. shoreline (that is until Hurricane Katrina taught us a new level of devastation) and as few as 10 years ago, the gateway to the Keys was still recuperating from the battering they took in the wee hours on the 24th of August. The event was so moving to the writers of the show that it was quickly written into the show’s first season allowing their characters to move through the drama they’d personally experienced.
At the epicenter of our drama, Seamus, our New Jersey hero, is excited about the possibility of a little excitement on the island when news of the hurricane is first broadcast. He dons toga and “garland” (really just a scarf of some sort) and parties his way around the island until the seriousness of the situation begins to sink in. Maybe it was time to leave, he waffles as he frantically searches for his clothes. What’s your panic, man? His Rastafarian friend soothes him, it’s just a little wind. His emotions are tossed like the waves… should he go?… should he stay? Hemingway would stay to experience the full gamut of emotions and life. Yes, but Tennessee Williams wold go and start on his next play. In a final attempt to evacuate he finds that he has waited too long and he is forced to wait out the storm in the ramshackle bar known as Gumbos with the rest of the islanders. As he sits in the candlelit room, surrounded by frightened and worried friends listening to the quiet pluckings of the nearby guitar, he ponders the mystery of nature, of death… of life,
Stumbling in the shadows at the edge of the darkness
Picking up the pieces of your dreams
Burning eyes still searching for that speck or spark
Pouring tears to cool a fiery heart
But I know ‘cause I’m sure
I’ve been there before
Stumbling in the shadows at the edge of a heartbreak
Picking up the pieces of your dreams
Burning eyes searching for that speck or spark
Pouring tears to cool an aching heart
You should know ‘cause I’m sure
You’ve been there before
You should never ever be someone who feels to tough to cry
It helps to cool the achin’ in your heart
And there isn’t any reason for you not to try
to feel and find your way out of the dark
to feel and find your way out of the dark
So there isn’t any reason for you not to try
to feel and find your way out of the dark
to feel and find your way out of the dark
“That was the night that I learned about my mortality. I looked around and realized that everyone in the room was going to die. Just maybe not tonight…but I did learn that we are all always at the station and the trains are always leaving.”
#Bankie Banx #Danette #Key West TV #Act of God #Edge of Darkness
Ivory Ocean (aka Cole… King Cole) passed away at the end of December. It’s fitting to recall his line in ‘Act of God’ as the islanders face their mortality…
“We are all standing at the station. The train is always leaving and the soul checks it’s watch and wonders if its his time to go.”
#Ivory OCean #King Cole #Key West
If you have stumbled upon this blog, you are probably in search of an elusive dream… you recall a show that you saw in the 90s, 1993 to be exact and to be specific, January 19, 1993. You may have missed several episodes but ghosts of the show stayed with you and now you are hoping to find copies of the show (and you’re in luck, by the way! read the heading for purchasing/contact information) so that you may reacquaint yourself, once more, with the group of characters that gathered in the place known as ‘Gumbo’s End of the World Bar and Grill’.
Lots of memories linger in this little building that, on first glance is little more than a shack— more than I could possibly mention— but if you happen upon the still erect building you might just hear the echoes of Gumbo’s speech as he talks about his little CiCi and how she could grab you by your funny bone and not let go.
Or in the corner, you might almost get a glimpse of Flame as she snakes across the dance floor…
Outside there are whispers that recall you to the episode where Seamus was brooding to Gumbo about whether Laurel is his one true love, see the pair meander back up to the bar where they will undoubtedly share a beer…
And though the place has little, other than the framework, and this picture
to remind visitors of the atmosphere of excitement and creativity that once inhabited this building…
Nevertheless: if once you have listened to Savannah’s erotically infused tones whispering to Seamus “You’ve come to the right place, you pretty thing. It’s magic here. There are angels in the spray, wizards in the palm trees, and elves in the seashells. And they all look very favorably on struggling young writers.” and heard King Cole’s guffaws as he says, ”We are all standing at the station. The train is always leaving and the soul checks it’s watch and wonders if its his time to go”or watched as Sheriff Cody carries in a friend who has been lost in a storm, you will never see the hut at the back of Coconut Mallory property simply as a former set of a favorite show. It will always have a feeling of familiarity that reminds you of home.
And if you listen very carefully, you will see them still, dancing and talking and breathing…somehow.
#Gumbo's #Coconut Mallory #Seamus #Key West
Savannah: Alright, I’m outa here. I gotta cherry waitin in the morning. Gotta keep my strength up. Oh my, who are you?
Jo Jo: Newspaper reporter person.
Savannah: A writer?
Seamus: Yeah, some days… Sort of… No.
Savannah: Having a little trouble gettin’ that first novel between the covers?
Seamus: How’d you know?
Savannah: You’ve come to the right place, you pretty thing. It’s magic here. There are angels in the spray, wizards in the palm trees, and elves in the seashells. And they all look very favorably on struggling young writers.
"Savannah meets Seamus for the first time in Gumbo’s End of the World Cafe.
#pilot episode #key west #Jennifer Tilly #Magic
Pray for Rain is a San Francisco music production company and recording group specializing in film soundtracks most prominently headed by Dan Wool. The show’s theme song was originally named “Sex and Politics at the end of the World” (as was the show) and can still be located on their site under that name.Dan Wool describes the song as a “Celtic-Caribbean mash-up” or “Caribbean Sunnyshine.” It features Michael Spiro on percussion, Jonathon Segal on Mandolin, Violin and Accordion, and Angela Carsner on Flute. Prior to their work on Key West, their filmography included Sid and Nancy and Straight to Hell but their music continues on with a total of two and a half decades of television and movie magic.
Dan has most graciously given his permission for the music of the show to be played on this site and if you go to this link: http://www.dwool.admo.net/admo_tempfiles/keywest,
you’ll hear more of the songs that have become as much a part of the magic that is Key West as the show itself and as an added bonus you can hear other songs the group has worked on at http://www.prayforrain.com/index.htm All for the low, low price of… FREE!
#Pray For Rain #Key West
#Key West
Sheriff Cody (Brian Thompson) in ‘The Greening’ Key West
#Key West #Brian Thompson #Danette Baltzer #Fisher Stevens #The Greening
The discs arrived just before Christmas! Truly a gift! It’s been over 25 years and it amazes me that the characters and themes explored in the episodes still have an impact on me. So now, this series is no longer a lost treasure, but a collection to be treasured always! Thank you for making these available!
We are SO HAPPY to get the copy of “Key West” that you sent us!!! It’s a GREAT show and we were very sorry to it go away. We must have looked for it for years, until we found you. And the quality is very good. We are now able to share it with friends who have not gotten the chance to see it in the past. THANKS so much! Greg & Jill Delezynski
Driving down through the Keys to Key West you can almost see the islands through the eyes of a young man who’s just quit his job at the factory in New Jersey and driven south to be a writer. You can feel his desire to live on the island at the end of the world, the place he’s always dreamed of. You see it with the same newness as he does… he always dreamed of going to the island where Ernest Hemingway lived and you can almost hear him say again “Writers write from their spinal cords, not their brains, it’s the electricity that counts, you got to plug in. You got to hotwire. You got to go straight to the source.”
#Key West #pilot episode #seamus
