These famous TV shows were made in Miami. Do you remember them?

Miami Herald

5 days ago

Miami is more than 'Miami Vice.'
Although the 1980s show put the Magic City's transformation on the TV map, Miami has long been a place where the cameras take action.
The 1960s were a heady time for TV shows filmed in Miami. 'Surfside 6.' 'Flipper.' 'Gentle Ben.' Studios in Miami also housed nationally known shows including '¿Qué Pasa, U.S.A.?' And even if you weren't born or watching TV yet, you may have heard about Jackie Gleason's variety show at the old Miami Beach Auditorium.
MORE: 'The Great One' Jackie Gleason had a big role in South Florida. Take a look
Here is a look back, through the Miami Herald archives, at some of the TV shows that called Miami home:
The '60s through the '80s
Published April 8, 2002
Network television first came to South Florida in 1953, when the CBS variety show Arthur Godfrey and His Friends began broadcasting regularly from Miami Beach. And things have been getting weirder ever since.
Godfrey was most famous for firing singer Julius LaRosa on the air. (He said it would teach LaRosa 'humility.') He lost his pilot's license for buzzing an airport tower with his DC-3, called Ed Sullivan a 'dope,' and referred to newspaper columnist John Crosby as 'a fatuous ass.' The Miami Beach city elders, properly impressed, named a street after Godfrey.
Other highs and lows in the long and peculiar mating dance between television and South Florida:
▪ In 1960, Surfside Six became one of the first dramatic programs to be shot here. Troy Donahue starred as one of three detectives who worked out of a houseboat anchored across from the Fontainebleau Hotel. Surfside Six was practically a carbon copy of another ABC show, 77 Sunset Strip, that was a surprise success for the network. In a sort of bizarre thank-you note from South Florida, the city of Sunrise located its police department at 77 Sunset Strip.
▪ The Jackie Gleason Show, a fixture on CBS since 1952, moved to Miami Beach in 1964 and stayed there until its demise in 1970. Though he regularly threatened to send costar Audrey Meadows 'to the moon,' Gleason managed to avoid firing anyone on the air or strafing any airports and was rewarded by Miami Beach with a whole theater that bears his name.
▪ Flipper debuted in 1964 on CBS, featuring America's first transgendered television star: The dolphin was a boy on TV, but in real life he was really a girl named Suzie. Three years later, producer Ivan Tors also made Gentle Ben, the tale of a 650-pound bear who was, fortunately, relatively genial.
▪ The cops on Miami Vice (NBC, 1984-89) were as confused in their own way as Flipper. Not only did Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas routinely fall in love with women who turned out to be murderous cocaine vixens, they spent most of their time arresting people among the photogenic Art Deco buildings in Miami Beach, where they had no jurisdiction.
City Desk
Published June 13, 1998
So — were you bored to sleep or titillated to distraction with City Desk, the cinema verite show about the Miami Herald's inner workings that debuted on WAMI Miami-Channel 69 this week?
Both of the above, said a handful of high-profile newsmakers the Herald asked to watch the show and informally review it. They found it fascinating, dull, uplifting, downgrading. Siskel and Ebert themselves couldn't have disagreed more heartily.
In Monday's premiere, Herald crime reporter Frances 'Frenchie' Robles covered the murder of a young man, allegedly by a younger male friend — and had discussions with editors over whether to include in her story the angle that the two might have been sexually involved.
Some reactions to the show:
▪ Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jim Naugle : 'I thought it was very realistic, the way it portrayed things. It was neat to see the interaction between the reporter and the editors. How they decide what to go with in the story. People don't usually get that insight.'
▪ Former Miami Mayor Xavier Suarez : 'I had grave, grave concerns about the ethics of the thing, the lack of sensitivity in the way very sensitive topics were treated by editors.'
Suarez stressed, in agreeing to review the show, that he had two potential conflicts of interest — that he might have a show of his own on Channel 69 at some point, and that, as mayor, he had had a run-in with the reporter, Robles.
'I cannot imagine it as an ongoing feature. It's just not enough to fill a half hour,' Suarez said.
▪ Joe Angotti, a Miami TV producer and consultant and former NBC News executive : 'I thought it was good entertainment but bad journalism. I think it was distorted because the camera was there. And I criticize how the editor focused more on the frivolous, entertaining part and not so much on what might have been duller but more realistic reporting techniques.
'Frenchie is a good reporter. Her conversations on the phone with the police and the unnamed source, her frustration about getting them to talk, that was good stuff. That's what police reporting is like.'
'Technically, as television, it was a first-rate program. It's not an easy thing to do, and they did it very well.'
▪ Opa-locka Mayor Robert Ingram : 'I noticed that the young lady at the scene did her part to get the story based on information in the field. But when she was back in the office, the editors, the people who were not there, were trying to shape her story. They should edit the material, not shape it.'
Flipper
Published May 17, 1996
Flipper, the TV show, was a huge hit during the 1960s and gave dolphins celebrity status.
The show was filmed at the Miami Seaquarium with five female dolphins -- Patty, Scotty, Susie, Squirt and Kathy -- playing Flipper. Mel Blanc, the voice of Bugs Bunny, did the dolphin squeaks and whistles.
Burn Notice auction
Published Aug. 28, 2013
By Douglas Hanks
How much would a fan pay to own the spoon Jeffrey Donovan used for eating yogurt on Burn Notice? At the moment, $70, but stay tuned.
As Burn Notice nears its series finale next month, the show has begun auctioning off its props, wardrobe and set furniture, a liquidation that marks the end of one of the most successful television runs in Miami's recent history.
Most of the furnishings went up for auction Tuesday at the show's old studio at the Coconut Grove Convention Center. Wednesday features online bidding for items expected to be prized fan souvenirs, including the custom-made yogurt containers and spoons that Donovan's Michael Westen kept stocked in his home fridge by the Miami River. The current top bid for those snacking relics: $70. 'From what I hear, one of the higher things to be bid on is the spoon for the yogurt,' Guy Perpignand, 30, said after taking a photo of himself behind the wheel of Westen's signature 1973 Dodge Charger at the Grove expo center. It was one of three 1973 Dodge Chargers on display Tuesday, revealing the kind of duplication needed for continuity purposes as the car got shot, battered, burned and blown up throughout seven seasons of the show.
The premium on cutlery from the show, not to mention the $110 someone is willing to pay for six used Hawaiian shirts worn by Bruce Campbell's Sam Axe, speak to the strong ratings and long life of Burn Notice. One of the most popular series on basic cable, Burn Noticeoften finished in the Top 10. Its premise of a laid-off (or 'burned'') spy forced to return home to Miami helped anchor USA Network's brand of light-andbright adventure shows - including Psych, Royal Pains and Covert Affairs.
When the series finale airs on Sept. 12, it will be the 111th episode - the same number of shows Miami Vice filmed in Miami during the 1980s. In fact, despite its thriving telenovela industry, and many promising starts (see: Charlie's Angels and 8th & Ocean), Miami has spawned few successful television series outside the realm of reality TV.
When Burn Noticewas renewed in 2007, it was the first English-language series filmed in Miami to win a second season since Vice wrapped in 1990. Dexter and CSI: Miami, two hit shows set in Miami, actually filmed in Los Angeles.
Tuesday's in-person auction was expected to last all day as the J. Sugarman Auction Corp. led some 200 bidders and spectators through a plodding tour of the show's mostly pedestrian relics. Sofas, credenzas, bar stools, ottomans, rugs, bookshelves, ceramic knickknacks, floor lamps, table lamps, desk lamps - each week, Westen and his crew made their way through a fictional Miami, and each stop had to be furnished.
'I find it amazing how many things they have accumulated just for one TV show,' said Eric Merz, as he and his wife, Pamela, eyed the expanse of auction goods filling the former convention center.
The two Burn Notice fans had been checking out prop machine guns tucked away in a store room, and had hoped to bid on a souvenir. There were a few visible besides the cars: two prop tombstones for Michael's younger brother, a script by show creator Matt Nix, the Porsche driven by Westen ally Jesse Porter.
But the auction was moving slowly as furniture resellers and deal-seekers competed for items that carried no hint of their stints on prime time.
'A leather couch for $125 is a very good deal,' an amazed Jackie Quintella, of Key Biscayne, said after coming out the winner of an auction that lasted less than two minutes. She later snagged a humidor for $70.
A Sugarman executive said proceeds go to the show, which is owned by Fox Television Studios. USA didn't renew Burn Noticefor an eighth season. Though ratings were strong, production costs had gone up and Burn Notice was losing its lease at the Convention Center.
State taxpayers helped subsidize the show's profits: Burn Notice was the No. 1recipient of Florida productive incentives, collecting millions during its sevenyear run. At noon on Wednesday, the online auction for the real souvenirs begins.
Early bidding is under way, and some of the pricing certainly reflects premiums only a fan would pay. A menu and set of coasters from the fictional Carlito's off Biscayne Bay, where Westen led planning sessions over mojitos, can't be had for less than $120.
A Zippo lighter used by Sharon Gless's ever-puffing Madeline Westen is also priced at $120. The 'key' to Porter's Porsche cost $40 at last check. The car itself (with the real key): $16,250.
A dossier of prop papers labeled as the 'original Burn Notice' issued to Westen had been bid up to $240.
'If we could scoop up dust and display it properly, we could sell it,'' said Scott Grasso, owner of the Sugarman auction company. 'It's a memento.'
Burn Notice blast
Published Aug. 30, 2009
By Carli Teproff
It started with a deafening boom. Then came the powerful flames taking over the wooden planks of a North Miami bridge.
Before long the fire was under control.
With that, Burn Notice -- a show that revolves around a CIA operative working in Miami -- finished up shooting an action-packed scene in North Miami's Arch Creek nature preserve on Aug. 17. The episode, which is part of the show's third season, will air in February or March.
'It was a very controlled explosion,' the show's producer Terry Miller said. 'Everything was left the way it was when we got there.'
Leonard Ferretti, who takes frequent walks along the nature preserve trials, was surprised when he encountered the Burn Notice crews - and was told they would be setting off explosives.
'They couldn't find anywhere else to shoot?' asked Leonard Ferretti, who lives nearby. 'It's like an oxymoron to blow up a bridge in an environmentally protected area where there are fish, birds and other animal life.'
City officials and show representatives say the fire was closely monitored and no wildlife was threatened.
City spokeswoman Pam Solomon said TVM Productions, the production crew that shoots Burn Notice for 20th Century Fox, received all the necessary permits to film the scene. North Miami police officers were also on hand during the shoot.
'This is not something they can just do without clearance from the city,' Solomon said.
The bridge blow-up was actually a bit of Hollywood magic.
Miller - who would not reveal too much about the episode -- said that crews built an extension on the existing Northeast 135th Street bridge for the explosion. The show's main character, Michael Westen - played by Jeffrey Donovan -- rigs the bridge as a diversion. The existing bridge was not compromised, Miller said.
'The preserve was perfect for what we were looking to do,' Miller said.
North Miami is not new to the spotlight. From the days of Miami Vice to the many commercials shot in residential neighborhoods, Solomon said the city frequently welcomes production crews.
'It is good exposure for the city,' she said.
Burn Notice has filmed scenes throughout Miami-Dade, including the Coconut Grove Expo Center, Crandon Park Beach, Marine Stadium and locations in downtown Miami and the Miami River.
The area that was used for the Burn Notice scene was recently designated as the Arch Creek East Environmental Preserve, which includes a 13-acre tract of waterfront property. The parcel abuts Florida International University's Biscayne Bay Campus.
As part of the agreement for using the parcel, the show donated $1,000 to the city to set aside for the nature preserve.
North Miami City Councilman Scott Galvin, who represents the Arch Creek area, said he was thrilled the show filmed in the city.
'I'm a huge fan,' he said. 'I think it will be really neat to be able to say, 'Hey that's North Miami.' '
Grand Hotel
Published Oct. 13, 2019
By Madeleine Marr
The TV show that had its start in South Florida is no more.
ABC's 'Grand Hotel' was canceled thanks to (always the killjoy) low ratings.
The pilot was shot at the famed Fontainebleau Miami Beach hotel back in May 2018.
Executive producer Eva Longoria told the Miami Herald the iconic property, known on the show as the Riviera Grand Hotel, was the perfect location for the decadent nighttime soap.
'We fell in love with the Fontainebleau,' she said. 'The look is exactly what we wanted to portray. We were lucky we got to use this amazing space: the gold wall, the Sinatra ballroom, the lobby, staircase to nowhere. To be in the same room where Elvis played and to have actors on the same stage... We were so happy to do it all in one location like this.'
The fact that there will be no season 2 after ending on Sept 9 with a huge cliffhanger is not making many fans happy. The lead character, the family run hotel's owner Santiago Mendoza (Demián Bichir). Hello, J.R. Ewing 2.0.
On the show's official Facebook page, a number of viewers vented about the tragic news
'I'm so sad that Monday night is approaching and there won't be a new episode of this show! Talk about withdrawal...going to rewatch on demand.'
'Soooo p---ed the show has been canceled. They should at least let shows do an ending for the people who have invested their time watching it. It was a great show. It delivered suspense and great acting.'
'Grand Hotel better get renewed. I need to find out who shot him and hoping he's still alive. They better not leave us hanging.'
Want passion?
There's even a petition on Change.org. A fan named Brandon Vethanayagam wants support to get Netflix on the case, and renew 'Grand Hotel.'
'We love the chemistry between the characters,' reads the site. 'We also want to know who shot Santiago and the motive behind it as well as what happens to the rest of the characters!!!'
So who did the dirty deed?
'We left it with a number of possible suspects,' executive producer Brian Tanen told TVLine. 'It felt like half of the cast was angry with him.... We were really hopeful that we could do a Season 2 and play out that question.'
Real Housewives of Miami
Published March 1, 2011
By Madeleine Marr
As The Real Housewives of Miami enters its second episode Tuesday night (10 p.m. on Bravo), we are starting to get a feel for the six castmates. We recently chatted with the mother of two teen sons, magazine editor Alexia Echevarria, on a conference call. The 43-year-old is known as the 'Cuban Barbie.''
What do you think of the other 'Housewives'' franchises?
I really enjoyed watching Beverly Hills. We can learn from all of them. I have similarities with Nene in Atlanta because I can relate to her that she has a son that's a teenager and the problems she might encounter.
How is your show different?
We go to all the fabulous places and mingle with different people. We're putting Miami in a positive light.
Was your family supportive?
In the beginning, it was almost divorce time, but my husband [Herman] is now my biggest fan. My kids are super excited. And my work [she is executive editor at Venue], everybody is looking forward to all the opportunities.
How is the Miami cast unique?
The Latin culture and the Latin girls. The way we speak, the way we look, the way we move.
Do you use a lot of Spanglish?
Absolutely. I think in English, but then the word comes out in Spanish. [That's why] they do the subtitles.
How did you get primped for filming?
I have a hair and makeup person and I love clothes and I love fashion so I had a lot of things to wear. It's not because I went out of my way to make it that way. That's just part of who I am and how I am.
How do you think you were portrayed?
In the beginning I started off shy. But the [other castmates] didn't give me a chance to talk. I wasn't competing for camera time or for attention.
How do you like the fame?
We choose to do this. It just comes with the territory [but] it does scare me a little bit because I love my privacy.
¿Qué Pasa, U.S.A.?
Published Dec. 24, 2017
By Carlos Frías
Juana and Pepe Peña want to know qué pasa, Miami?
New York actress Ana Margarita Martínez Casado was surprised when a Miami cousin called to congratulate her on reprising her role as Juana in a stage production of '¿Qué Pasa, U.S.A.?,' the 1970s sitcom that made Martínez Casado famous.
One problem: Martínez Casado knew nothing about it. 'Niña, what are you talking about?' she answered.
In West Miami, retired actor Manolo Villaverde is angry enough to start thumping cocotazos to the head.
For the last month, his neighbors have been asking him about '¿Qué Pasa, U.S.A.? Today ... 40 Years Later.' After seeing the pictures used to promote the play, they assumed he's returning to his TV role as Pepe Peña, the patriarch of the first bilingual family on television.
If that's what they thought when they paid as much as $200 for tickets to one of nine shows at the Adrienne Arsht Center in May then they are going to be disappointed, he tells them.
'What happens when the theme song plays, the curtain goes up and then come the questions, 'Where is Juana? Where is Pepe?' ' Villaverde said. 'It's not a bitterness I feel but a hurt. What hurts is they're using our images and making it seem like we're the ones that are going to be in it.'
The actors - along with writers and creators of '¿Qué Pasa, U.S.A.?' - say this stage production is the latest indignity from WPBT-2, the South Florida public television station that co-produced the original series with a federal grant from 1977-1980.
'¿Qué Pasa, USA?' was supposed to be a sort-of after-school special to help recently arrived Cubans and their first-generation children adapt to life in a new country with a bit of levity. Instead, it became the 'Modern Family' of South Florida on a fraction of a Hollywood budget. It was the first bilingual sitcom on television, built on a cast of professional Cuban writers and actors in exile, and it launched the careers of several new ones, including Steven Bauer, who went on to co-star in 'Scarface.' The show also featured the screen debut of Andy Garcia.
By the time its four-year, 39-episode run was up, it had won six regional Emmys and was being broadcast on 121 different stations across the country. The New York Times wrote that the show 'puts many commercial productions in the genre to shame,' and the Los Angeles Times praised it as 'genuinely funny, though it treats generational and cultural problems with respect and dignity.'
Meanwhile, the cast and crew signed government contracts with the Department of Education that ensured the show would be free for educational purposes - and forfeited their rights to royalties. But that has not prevented WPBT-2 from using the show over the past 40 years to promote its station, sell thousands of DVD box sets, and now, to co-produce a stage show at Miami's premier venue.
Over the years, the station told donors that contributions would help them create more shows like '¿Qué Pasa, U.S.A.?' But the station has never produced another series like it. And the cast never saw another dime.
'What I would like for people to know is that because of contracts signed 40 years ago, the actual, original talent hasn't gotten a penny more,' said Luis Santeiro, the show's head writer. 'Something that was supposed to be a not-for-profit production has ended up making money for quite a few others that had nothing to do with the show's success.'
Three Facebook pages and two Instagram handles create daily memes of the Peñas and pitch box sets. WPBT-2 manages one of those Facebook accounts, where you can buy the series for $100 with an annual station membership. Video clips of the family - Pepe smacking son Joe over the head, Abuela rolling her eyes, daughter Carmen going out on a date with a 'super chaperone' - keep the Peñas alive for another generation of Cuban Americans.
But for the cast, those clips are bittersweet reminders that they don't control their fates.
WPBT-2 says it uses the show - and any proceeds from it - to advance the public station's mission of serving the arts in South Florida.
'We're well within our rights to do anything we want with it [the show],' said Jeff Huff, COO of South Florida PBS, which owns WPBT-2 and WXEL. 'We're well within our rights to work with this theater company or any other company.'
Those who wrote the show and brought the characters to life aren't so sure Huff is right. They say WPBT-2 owes the original cast a debt of gratitude, at least, and, at most, a cut of the money the station has made over the years.
'It's just wrong,' said Bernard Lechowick, who directed all but one episode of '¿Qué Pasa, U.S.A?' and went on to a career writing and directing shows such as 'Knots Landing.' 'It's wrong not to give some kind of acknowledgment for their contribution. And the way you acknowledge that in this business is with money.'
'I gave birth to them!'
'¿Qué Pasa, U.S.A.?' might never have happened if not for the free money.
Jose 'Pepe' Bahamonde was the director of bilingual programs at Miami-Dade Community College's downtown campus when he got a call from a colleague who was writing a grant proposal for a government-funded television show at WPBT-2.
What was then called the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare wanted to fund a series of television shows - local and national - to address issues minorities faced in public schools, especially so soon after the end of segregation.
Television could be used for more than entertainment. It could be used to educate children and help them grow up without prejudice, Sen. Walter Mondale testified as he introduced legislation to create a program under the Emergency School Aid Act called ESAA-TV. He pointed to the success of public television show 'Sesame Street,' which research showed had helped children learn and connect socially with others of different backgrounds.
This is the sort of show the late Manny Mendoza, a professor of social science at Miami-Dade Community College, wanted to create when he co-wrote a proposal with his partner, Julio Avello, and WPBT-2. He approached Bahamonde about making the show happen as executive producer.
The show, Mendoza wrote in his proposal to the government, would be bilingual and involve three generations of a Cuban-American family in Miami. He loved 'All in the Family,' and thought a sitcom was a great way to broach serious topics with a smile.
The fictional family would face issues that South Florida families were facing in real life: the language barrier, race, changing cultural norms for their children, dating, teenage pregnancy, religion, sexuality. In short, what many South Florida recent arrivals - and the locals who received them - were facing in a changing Miami.
Bahamonde, who had a master's in comparative linguistics, had worked on several local shows, including the first show that Channel 23 produced in Miami. He set about finding a head writer to write a pilot. He landed on Luis Santeiro, who had just left another ESAA-TV produced show, 'Carrascolendas,' shot in Texas.
When Santeiro, who fled Cuba as a child and grew up in Coral Gables, spoke with Bahamonde, he was overcome by this story of a family much like his own.
With his house full of brothers and sisters and extended family, he walked to the Coral Gables library and spent the next week writing the pilot on a yellow legal pad. It was the story of a girl, Carmen, coming of age and turning 15 - torn by her parents and abuelos' desire for her to have a big debutant ball, and her own, more American desires. Santeiro called the episode 'Fiesta de Quince.'
'I knew right away, 'This is the guy,'' Bahamonde said.
All the characters were named after Bahamonde's own family and hailed from his family's home of Guanabacoa, Cuba.
'I gave birth to them!' Bahamonde said. 'People forget with time.'
When his secretary, Rita Perez, said, 'Ay, qué pasa that we can't come up with a name for this show?' Bahamonde knew he had a title.
''Qué Pasa' was a phrase Americans knew,' he said.
Miami was ripe with talent to cast the Peñas. Most of the show's older actors had worked at CMQ, the major radio and television broadcasting station in Cuba before the revolution.
Villaverde, who played Pepe Peña, had learned at the heel of the late Luis Oquendo, the show's abuelo, whom he called a friend and mentor. Martínez Casado, who played the mother Juana, was stage-trained in opera and zarzuelas. And Velia Martínez, who played the Spanish-speaking, holier-than-thou grandmother set in her ways, was born in Tampa, fluent in English and a longtime actress in Mexico and Cuba.
'Qué Pasa' was a chance for Rocky Echevarría to put his film school instruction at the University of Miami to work as young Joe Peña before changing his name to Steven Bauer to pursue Hollywood. And for Ana Margo, who grew up in her parents' theater production company, it was a paying pastime while she attended UM.
A lot of shows had tried to get off the ground in Miami before 'Qué Pasa' took off. For the actors, it was welcome work.
'We used to say Miami is the city of pilots because a lot of pilots got made but no shows,' Martínez Casado recalled during a phone call from her home in New York, where she has continued to work for the Spanish Repertory Theater for almost 30 years.
The entire first and second season - 20 episodes - were made with ESAA-TV's grant of $250,000 a year. That's $25,000 an episode to pay writers, actors, the director, makeup and hair artists, prop masters and secretaries. The next two seasons, the grants rose to $300,000 a season.
By comparison, Carroll O'Connor in the lead role of Archie Bunker in 'All in the Family' was making $200,000 an episode.
'The contracts were una miseria, a pittance,' Martínez Casado recalled. 'But the series brought us a lot of joy and positivity. I was happy to have done it.'
Bahamonde stretched the budget. WPBT's employee lounge, with a vending machine, was the green room. Props came from Bahamonde's house and wardrobe from his closets. Villaverde remembers sitting on the sink in the men's bathroom while someone did his makeup. He convinced musician Dennis Alonso Brito to write the theme song for pennies. And the artwork, from the photography of the cast to title graphics, a friend kicked in for free.
Santeiro's pilot aired in May 1977 and by January of the next year, the show had gone national - and the country loved it. It was reviewed in dozens of publications across the country.
'The acting is as good as, and often better than, you'll find on any sitcom on the air,' the Houston Post wrote that January.
'Juana and Pepe Peña may become the next Ozzie and Harriet - Latin style,' People magazine wrote.
The show even sparked think pieces about a changing America in The New York Times and Newsday - but there was a catch.
Because the series was for ESAA-TV, the government mandated that the cast's contracts include a buyout for all future royalties. This way, ESAA-TV could make the shows available free to any public or commercial television stations without the stations having to pay royalties. The only cost was copying and delivering the tapes.
No one expected a government-funded PBS show to become a runaway success - and that might have been the fatal flaw for '¿Qué Pasa, U.S.A.?'
The reason 'Qué Pasa' went off the air is mundane. Head writer Santeiro joined the writer's guild in 1978, and a contract dispute with WPBT meant he could not return to write the final six episodes. He went on to become one of the longest running writers for 'Sesame Street,' sharing in 14 daytime Emmys.
In the meantime, ESAA-TV changed the rules. A show could no longer simply reapply for a grant; it had to apply as a new project.
Either WPBT could apply for another regional grant and continue 'Qué Pasa,' or it could apply for a national grant, with payouts in the millions of dollars - but with a completely different show. 'Qué Pasa's' premise didn't fulfill the grant's requirements for a national audience.
WPBT and Mendoza's Community Action & Research decided to go for the big money - effectively killing '¿Qué Pasa, U.S.A.?' They took a shot with two new projects, with Bahamonde as the executive for both. Lechowick collaborated on a pilot for 'Hot Stuff,' centered around college kids in a campus cafeteria. Santeiro returned to write a treatment for 'South Side,' involving teenagers of different races and backgrounds in a public high school.
Neither won the grant. '¿Qué Pasa, U.S.A.?' went off the air - and no one noticed.
WPBT continued to play reruns, but in a time before the internet, there was no public outcry.
'If there had been more people asking, 'Where is 'Qué Pasa?' We want it back,' if there had been a Twitter storm, it would've helped. But there were no calls to the station,' said Shep Morgan, a former WPBT-2 executive who helped produce the show. 'The Cuban-American community, at least publicly, seemed to let it fade away. To me, that was always surprising.'
The show might simply have faded into a footnote in television history if not for advances in technology.
In 1997, Galavision, the international cable arm of Univision with more than 10 million viewers on 528 cable systems, used '¿Qué Pasa, U.S.A.?' as a way to introduce new, prime-time television programming focused on English-speaking and bilingual audiences.
Back-to-back reruns of '¿Qué Pasa, U.S.A.?' ran as a lead-in to 'Funny is Funny,' an in-house produced bilingual comedy series starring comedian Carlos Mencía that went on to amass critical acclaim, and the talk show 'Cafe Ole with Giselle Fernandez,' a veteran journalist on English television.
In effect, 'Qué Pasa' - which Galavision got for free as part of the decades-old agreement with ESAA-TV - became an unpaid commercial for the new shows.
A Galavision executive, Michelle Bella - director of marketing and communications for Galavision, all but took ownership of the program on the press release distributed widely.
'The success of our bilingual comedy program '¿Qué Pasa, U.S.A.' on Galavision has enabled the network to segue into a bilingual programming block,' she wrote at the time. 'Galavision's Spanish-language programming appeals to every member of the U.S. Hispanic family.
'By offering a bilingual programming block, Galavision will now tap into the English-speaking bilingual Hispanics who encompass the remainder of the U.S. Hispanic family.'
Writer Santeiro was hosting a get-together at his New York City apartment when a guest who worked for Galavision at the time noted, 'Boy, your show is making tons of money for us,' Santeiro recalled him saying. 'I calmly replied, 'I'm the last person you should be saying that to because I'm not making any money from it - and neither should anyone else.''
Networks couldn't show ads during the show, but they could show them before and after. And the stars of 'Qué Pasa' weren't entitled contractually to any money.
'Qué Pasa was used and abused in ways not foreseen by ESAA,' Bahamonde said. 'The example from Galavision is a clear illustration of 'Qué Pasa' being used to make money indirectly.'
And that led to a new question: Who owned the rights to the show?
The shows were, in a sense, a property of the U.S government, which controlled their distribution. But they were also a co-production of WPBT-2 and Mendoza's nonprofit, Community Action & Research.
Santeiro remembers getting a call one day from the actress and singer Maria Conchita Alonso saying she had bought the rights to '¿Qué Pasa, U.S.A.?' from the late Manny Mendoza.
'But what exactly did you buy?' Santeiro recalls asking her.
The show's original director, Lechowick, says he was paid $5,000 to buy out his rights to the show. But neither Santeiro nor Bahamonde - nor anyone else that was part of the cast - received that buyout offer.
Then came the DVDs.
Since 2004, WPBT has been selling five-disc box sets of '¿Qué Pasa, U.S.A.?' for $100 with an annual station membership. And another internet company, Nostalgia Entertainment, which WPBT-2's legal team has been trying to shut down, has been selling box sets online for $39.
The actors don't see any of that money. They say they never even received copies of their own from the station. They understood that the contracts they signed kept them from seeing royalties, but the DVD sales struck them as a for-profit venture outside of their daytime educational contract.
'I don't like to be exploited. And as an actor, it happens all the time,' Martínez Casado said.
And now, there's the stage show.
The original cast and crew say the upcoming show, '¿Qué Pasa, U.S.A.? Today ... 40 Years Later,' exploits their work. They say the rights they might have given up shouldn't extend to this new work.
The show is being promoted through a new website, Instagram handle and Facebook page.
'Today, the abuelos are gone, the parents have become grandparents, and the kids have kids of their own,' reads the summary on the Arsht Center's ticket site. 'Now, it's up to the next generation to continue the Peña legacy, facing new challenges and forging a new future for the Peña household.'
However, of the original actors, only two ancillary characters, who played daughter Carmen's high school friends, have signed on to the show. The actress who played Carmen, Ana Margo, is said to be making a cameo. Villaverde and Martínez Casado were not asked to be part of the show. And the actors who played the grandparents have died.
WPBT-2 maintains that it has the rights to the show. Huff, who was a graphic designer on 'Qué Pasa,' said he had no comment on how the station resolved the issues of ownership.
'We are a nonprofit. Whatever proceeds we receive through the theater are going to further our mission,' Huff said. 'What we do is use the proceeds ... to create more quality programming.'
How the station is able to do so is a mystery to Julio Avello, who co-wrote the original grant as a Community Action & Research partner. The former Miami Dade College professor, living in Miami, said he also was left out of the loop by WPBT-2 and his late colleague, Mendoza, about who owns the show.
'You ask me and I ask you: How did this happen? This wasn't supposed to be like this,' Avello said. 'They want to steal the whole thing and not share the acknowledgment with Pepe and Luis who were the genius behind the show.'
Bahamonde said he called years ago to get copies of the original contracts only to be told by an official at the Department of Education that the ESAA-TV files had been destroyed in a fire. The Miami Herald contacted several government archives, none of which had copies of the original contract the station and its co-producer signed with ESAA.
'Although we have 2.5 million metadata records in our collection, we do not have ownership information on many of these programs, including 'Qué Pasa, USA,'' wrote Alan Gevinson, Library of Congress Project Director at the American Archive of Public Broadcasting.
Nelson Albareda, the stage show's co-director and executive producer with Loud and Live, said he approached Santeiro and Bahamonde about helping to put on the new show.
'I did this as a passion project. I wanted to bring it back and pay homage to it,' said Albareda, a Cuban American who grew up watching the show on reruns. 'This was about inclusion instead of exclusiveness.'
But the original creators said too many years of WPBT-2 merchandising '¿Qué Pasa, U.S.A.?' without acknowledging the original cast and actors made the idea unpalatable.
What show the audience will see when the play opens in the spring is a mystery to them. Bahamonde, who recommended a former student to write the script, said he didn't want to know anything about the story.
Villaverde and Martínez Casado have tried to put the past behind them. Villaverde continued to act after the show ended, most notably as abuelo on the Nickelodeon children's show 'Gullah Gullah Island.' They have vivid memories of their days on set and have kept in touch occasionally over the years. But they have buried Pepe and Juana Peña.
'How can I not feel resentment?' Villaverde said. 'I don't need the money. What I would like is some kind of acknowledgment.'
Jackie Gleason Show
Published June 30, 2006
Each week during his 1960s CBS variety show from 'the sun and fun capital of the world,' Jackie Gleason proclaimed: 'The Miami Beach audience is the greatest audience in the world!'
'He yelled it and everybody heard it,' said Gleason's widow, Marilyn, who still lives in Fort Lauderdale. 'That was part of his genius.'
Show-biz genius or PR hype by The Great One?
Modern-day audiences can judge for themselves. This week, the Gleason family has released nine uncut episodes of The Color Honeymooners on DVD.
The Color Honeymooners are actually one-hour, musical-comedy episodes of The Jackie Gleason Show, which taped weekly at the old Miami Beach Auditorium through 1970.
'The Jackie Gleason Theater today was a barn at the time,' Marilyn Gleason recalled. 'They had Saturday night wrestling.'
Then, the city of Miami Beach, WTVJ-TV founder Mitchell Wolfson and publicist Hank Meyer sold Gleason on South Florida. It didn't take much convincing to get the powerful TV star (an avid golfer) to leave New York, where he broadcast his program from the same Broadway theater as Ed Sullivan and now by David Letterman.
Gleason's variety show ran live from 1952 through 1957 and taped from 1962 through 1970.
During the 1955-56 TV season, Gleason took the show's most popular sketch, The Honeymooners, and turned it into a filmed 30-minute sitcom starring himself as Brooklyn bus driver Ralph Kramden; Audrey Meadows as his wife, Alice; Art Carney as sewer worker Ed Norton; and Joyce Randolph as Ed's wife, an ex-stripper named Trixie. Those 39 episodes are among the most famous in television history, rerun constantly and now also on DVD.
In the summer of 1964, Gleason made a highly publicized 36-hour train trip from New York to Florida, when he and more than 100 actors, dancers, musicians, crew members and their families moved south for the TV show. A documentary about 'The Great Gleason Express' is included on the new DVD.
According to the documentary, Miami Beach at the time estimated that Gleason's working in South Florida was worth $9 million a year in publicity alone. Every show opened with a dramatic ocean view of the skyline from a seaplane approaching the Beach.
Marilyn Gleason, 80, now confesses: Each week, millions of TV viewers actually saw the skyline of Bal Harbour.
Marilyn - sister of Gleason show choreographer June Taylor - first fell in love with Jackie in the early 1950s. Gleason had been long-separated from his first wife, Genevieve, a Roman Catholic who wouldn't give him a divorce.
Eventually, Marilyn gave up on Gleason and moved to Chicago, where she married businessman George Horwich in 1961. Their son, Craig Horwich, was born in 1963. George Horwich died in 1972 and the next year Marilyn and Craig moved to South Florida.
Marilyn and Gleason reunited and finally married in 1975. Twelve years later, Jackie Gleason died of cancer at age 71.
Gleason's TV legacy lives on. His family plans to release at least three more sets of Color Honeymooners DVDs in the next year or so.
The current set includes the first nine Honeymooners episodes of Gleason's 1966 TV season. The shows - about the Kramdens' and Nortons' trip to Europe - are musical remakes of sketches originally done on live television in the 1950s, said Craig Horwich, who is now archivist for Jackie Gleason Enterprises.
Other show changes: Entertainers Sheila MacRae and Jane Kean played Alice and Trixie.
'It was quite an experience,' said Kean, who at 82 is still making films and performing on cruise ships. 'Jackie didn't like to rehearse very much. . . . You'd do the reading the first week. You'd go home and memorize [the script] on your own. You'd come in the day of the shooting and block it.'
Sometimes things didn't go as scripted: lines were forgotten, props didn't work and doors wouldn't open. No problem. Gleason insisted they just keep taping.
'He never redid things,' said Kean, who lives in Los Angeles. 'His theory was that you don't laugh twice at the same joke.'
So what about those Miami Beach audiences? Were they the greatest?
'They were,' swears Kean, adding that the crowds 'went crazy' every time she and other cast members made an entrance. 'It's a wonderful feeling when 3,000 people applaud and laugh like they did - without one of those signs that said, 'Laugh now.' '