Cop show ‘Glades’ has Fla. flavor

July 5, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

By DAVID FISCHER

Associated Press Writer

PEMBROKE PARK, Fla.

Detective Jim Longworth will find out soon what Florida residents and visitors have known for a long time: It’s a weird place.

“The Glades,” a police drama set to premiere Sunday on A&E (10 p.m.), follows a Chicago detective who relocates to South Florida, expecting to slide into a cushy job with plenty of time to hit the beaches and golf courses. But he quickly realizes that life isn’t going to be as simple or as relaxing as he thought it would be.

Besides being set in South Florida, the show is filmed in the Fort Lauderdale area — most Florida-themed shows, like “CSI: Miami,” are filmed primarily in California. The USA Network’s “Burn Notice,” which recently began shooting its fourth season in Miami, is the only other show filmed totally in Florida.

The Glades’ creator and executive producer, Clifton Campbell, grew up near Miami and knew he couldn’t capture South Florida’s essence anywhere else.

“I’ve noticed a lot of shows that try to be set there without actually shooting there, and it’s always sort of rankled me a little bit,” Campbell said. “So I decided that I wanted to set a show there, not just in South Florida, but in my South Florida, the part of the world that I grew up in, that I think is just as stunningly attractive and interesting and weird and cool as South Beach.”

Clifton’s South Florida — for the purposes of the show — is the fictional town of Palm Glade. As a detective with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the show’s protagonist covers an area that includes beautiful beaches and gator-infested swamps.

By filming in South Florida, Campbell said the environment will be like another character on the show. Soundstages were built in an industrial space in Pembroke Park, a Fort Lauderdale suburb, but Campbell said they generally shoot outside on location five days a week.

Campbell acknowledged that they probably could have faked Florida in California or somewhere else, but they wouldn’t have been able to do nearly as much location shooting.

“I don’t know if the entire world or country would notice the difference, but anyone who’s been to Florida would know,” Campbell said. “You could cheat it and get away with it. But that’s what you would be doing, getting away with it.”

Regardless of the setting, the show’s success or failure could ultimately hang on how audiences respond to its lead, Matt Passmore.

As an Australian, Passmore said he’s just as much a fish-out-of-water as Longworth.

“I’m an Aussie playing a Chicago cop who’s down in Florida,” Passmore said.