Burn Notice Can Stay in Coconut Grove, As Long As It Blows Everything Up UPDATED | Cultist | Miami | Miami New Times | The Leading Independent News Source in Miami, Florida
Navigation

Burn Notice Can Stay in Coconut Grove, As Long As It Blows Everything Up UPDATED

See City Commissioners Plan to Evict Burn Notice from Coconut Grove; and Burn Notice Eviction Not Up for Public Debate.Things have been pretty tense lately between Coconut Grove locals who support keeping the TV show Burn Notice filming in their neighborhood, and city commissioners who want to evict the production...
Share this:

See City Commissioners Plan to Evict Burn Notice from Coconut Grove; and Burn Notice Eviction Not Up for Public Debate.

Things have been pretty tense lately between Coconut Grove locals who support keeping the TV show Burn Notice filming in their neighborhood, and city commissioners who want to evict the production from its filming home base at the Coconut Grove Convention Center in order to demolish the building and build a park in its place.

Wait, did somebody say demolish? In a story about a show where things blow up spectacularly? You guys, the answer has been in front of us all along: give Burn Notice another year, and let them burn the place to the ground when they're done.

That's exactly the proposition commissioner Marc Sarnoff made to the show's producers last week, the Miami Herald reports.


The proposal is this: Burn Notice gets a one-year extension on its lease at the convention center, delaying plans for the park. In return, the show's responsible for the $500,000 task of tearing down the building in whatever way it chooses -- including a possible season- or series-ending literal blowout.

Sarnoff, letting his superfan flag fly for a rare moment, told the Herald, "How cool would it be for them to blow up the convention center in the last episode?"

We don't always agree, Sarnoff. But in this we are united: Explosions are awesome.

The deal's not a sure thing yet -- it has to be approved by the Miami Commission, accepted by the show's producers, and green-lit by Burn Notice's parent company, Fox Television Studios. Burn Notice has not yet commented on the proposal.

UPDATE: CBS4 reports that Sarnoff issued a statement confirming that Burn Notice executive producer Terry Miller has agreed to his proposal. The plan must still be approved by the Commission and Fox.

UPDATE: Just kidding! Fox Television Studios responded to our request for confirmation with the following statement from Bob Lemchen, Senior Vice President, Production:

While we remain hopeful that an agreement can be reached with the City of Miami to keep Burn Notice in production in its current Coconut Grove location, no such agreement has been reached at this time. Mr. Sarnoff did offer terms under which production could remain at Coconut Grove; these terms are under review but at this juncture we are not even close to terms that TVM Productions can accept. Negotiations will continue, but the studio concurrently is exploring alternative production locations, including within Florida as well as outside the state.
The CBS4 report cited above has been removed from its website.

Follow Cultist on Facebook and Twitter @CultistMiami.

KEEP NEW TIMES FREE... Since we started New Times, it has been defined as the free, independent voice of Miami, and we'd like to keep it that way. Your membership allows us to continue offering readers access to our incisive coverage of local news, food, and culture with no paywalls. You can support us by joining as a member for as little as $1.