South Beach (2006 TV series)
Encyclopedia
South Beach is a primetime television drama that ran from January 4, 2006 until February 22, 2006 on UPN
. Created by Matt Cirulnick, one of its executive producer
s was singer/actress Jennifer Lopez
. The program was panned by critics and shunned by viewers, finishing 152nd in the Nielsen TV ratings rankings for the 2005-06 season. It was canceled after eight first-run episodes. South Beach was produced by 44 Blue Productions
.
There are currently no plans to release South Beach on DVD
from Paramount Home Entertainment.
who decide to move to glamorous South Beach
in order to seek out better opportunities. Vincent has aims of meeting with beautiful women and getting ahead by any means necessary, while Matt supposedly only wants to make enough money to go back to university
, since his dad blew his college fund. However, as it turns out, Matt has other reasons for going to South Beach as well.
Several years previous, Matt was dating Arielle. However, he broke up with her so as to not interfere with her dreams of being a superstar fashion model
and pushed her to Miami. There, Arielle met and fell in love with Alex Bauer, the young manager of Nocturnal, South Beach's hottest nightclub
. Nocturnal, in turn, is located inside the glitzy Hotel Soleil, where models, celebrities, and other members of the rich and famous regularly spend their sojourns at South Beach. The Hotel Soleil is owned by Alex's mother Elizabeth, a shrewd businesswoman who believes her son is weak and does not have a head for business. On top of that, Elizabeth seems to have a penchant for dating younger men that are her son's age.
Matt's arrival in South Beach caused friction with Alex, who was jealous of his previous relationship with Arielle. Elizabeth didn't help things when she gave Matt a job at the Hotel Soleil (thus ensuring that he and Arielle would be seeing a lot of each other) and evidently also had an eye for him as well. Things culminated in a fight between Alex and Matt at Nocturnal; however, Alex ultimately apologized to Arielle about the fight, and Matt agreed to respect Alex and Arielle's relationship.
Vincent, meanwhile, originally took a job at the Hotel Soleil as a "spray boy" for female guests who were tanning poolside. However, he soon fell into the dubious employ of one Robert Fuentes, an investor in the hotel who happens to have links to Miami's underworld, and plans to use them to gain greater control of the operations of the hotel. For some time, Fuentes has been pressuring Elizabeth to establish a casino
in the Hotel Soleil, but she constantly rebuffs him.
Matt and Vincent came to South Beach to escape their dull existence. One thing's for sure: their existence is never going to be normal again.
, South Beach was not welcomed by critics. The Miami Herald said that, "Cannibalism is about the only thing missing from this delirious new trashfest of hard bodies and soft brains." The Washington Post's headline for the show was "Bang, Bang, Bling, Bling, Blah, Blah." The writer called the show "vacuous... preposterous and pretentious." The Seattle Times said, "The dialogue's awful, ranging from clichés ("I don't want to work in my uncle's restaurant the rest of my life") to quotations ("First you get the money, then you get the power, then you get the women") to product placements ("Anybody got a Red Bull
?").
The show was one of the lowest-rated on television. It ranked 152nd out of the 156 original series produced for network television in the 2005-2006 season.
South Beach was canceled when it was announced that the new The WB
/UPN hybrid network, The CW
, would not renew the show for additional seasons. It was the final show produced by Paramount Television
.
Frequent guest stars:
Special guest stars:
UPN
United Paramount Network was a television network that was broadcast in over 200 markets in the United States from 1995 to 2006. UPN was originally owned by Viacom/Paramount and Chris-Craft Industries, the former of which, through the Paramount Television Group, produced most of the network's...
. Created by Matt Cirulnick, one of its executive producer
Executive producer
An executive producer is a producer who is not involved in any technical aspects of the film making or music process, but who is still responsible for the overall production...
s was singer/actress Jennifer Lopez
Jennifer Lopez
Jennifer Lynn Lopez is an American actress, singer, record producer, dancer, television personality, and fashion designer. Lopez began her career as a dancer on the television comedy program In Living Color. Subsequently venturing into acting, she gained recognition in the 1995 action-thriller...
. The program was panned by critics and shunned by viewers, finishing 152nd in the Nielsen TV ratings rankings for the 2005-06 season. It was canceled after eight first-run episodes. South Beach was produced by 44 Blue Productions
44 Blue Productions
44 Blue Productions is a production company founded in 1984 by Rasha and Stephanie Drachkovitch. 44 Blue is a top supplier of reality, documentary, lifestyle and action-adventure programming producing more than 1000 hours for leading US broadcast and cable outlets including A&E, Animal Planet, HBO,...
.
There are currently no plans to release South Beach on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
from Paramount Home Entertainment.
Synopsis
Vincent and Matt are two friends from BrooklynBrooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
who decide to move to glamorous South Beach
South Beach
South Beach, also nicknamed SoBe, is a neighborhood in the city of Miami Beach, Florida, United States. It is the area south of Indian Creek and encompasses roughly the southernmost 23 blocks of the main barrier island that separates the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay.This area was the first...
in order to seek out better opportunities. Vincent has aims of meeting with beautiful women and getting ahead by any means necessary, while Matt supposedly only wants to make enough money to go back to university
University
A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
, since his dad blew his college fund. However, as it turns out, Matt has other reasons for going to South Beach as well.
Several years previous, Matt was dating Arielle. However, he broke up with her so as to not interfere with her dreams of being a superstar fashion model
Model (person)
A model , sometimes called a mannequin, is a person who is employed to display, advertise and promote commercial products or to serve as a subject of works of art....
and pushed her to Miami. There, Arielle met and fell in love with Alex Bauer, the young manager of Nocturnal, South Beach's hottest nightclub
Nightclub
A nightclub is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night...
. Nocturnal, in turn, is located inside the glitzy Hotel Soleil, where models, celebrities, and other members of the rich and famous regularly spend their sojourns at South Beach. The Hotel Soleil is owned by Alex's mother Elizabeth, a shrewd businesswoman who believes her son is weak and does not have a head for business. On top of that, Elizabeth seems to have a penchant for dating younger men that are her son's age.
Matt's arrival in South Beach caused friction with Alex, who was jealous of his previous relationship with Arielle. Elizabeth didn't help things when she gave Matt a job at the Hotel Soleil (thus ensuring that he and Arielle would be seeing a lot of each other) and evidently also had an eye for him as well. Things culminated in a fight between Alex and Matt at Nocturnal; however, Alex ultimately apologized to Arielle about the fight, and Matt agreed to respect Alex and Arielle's relationship.
Vincent, meanwhile, originally took a job at the Hotel Soleil as a "spray boy" for female guests who were tanning poolside. However, he soon fell into the dubious employ of one Robert Fuentes, an investor in the hotel who happens to have links to Miami's underworld, and plans to use them to gain greater control of the operations of the hotel. For some time, Fuentes has been pressuring Elizabeth to establish a casino
Casino
In modern English, a casino is a facility which houses and accommodates certain types of gambling activities. Casinos are most commonly built near or combined with hotels, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships or other tourist attractions...
in the Hotel Soleil, but she constantly rebuffs him.
Matt and Vincent came to South Beach to escape their dull existence. One thing's for sure: their existence is never going to be normal again.
Ratings and reviews
Similar to UPN's Fall 2005 effort Sex, Love & SecretsSex, Love & Secrets
Sex, Love & Secrets is a television series on UPN. It aired in North America during September and October 2005. The show was created by Michael Gans and Richard Register...
, South Beach was not welcomed by critics. The Miami Herald said that, "Cannibalism is about the only thing missing from this delirious new trashfest of hard bodies and soft brains." The Washington Post's headline for the show was "Bang, Bang, Bling, Bling, Blah, Blah." The writer called the show "vacuous... preposterous and pretentious." The Seattle Times said, "The dialogue's awful, ranging from clichés ("I don't want to work in my uncle's restaurant the rest of my life") to quotations ("First you get the money, then you get the power, then you get the women") to product placements ("Anybody got a Red Bull
Red Bull
Red Bull is an energy drink sold by the Austrian Red Bull GmbH, created in 1987 by the Austrian entrepreneur Dietrich Mateschitz. In terms of market share, Red Bull is the most popular energy drink in the world, with 3 billion cans sold each year. Dietrich Mateschitz was inspired by an already...
?").
The show was one of the lowest-rated on television. It ranked 152nd out of the 156 original series produced for network television in the 2005-2006 season.
South Beach was canceled when it was announced that the new The WB
The WB Television Network
The WB Television Network is a former television network in the United States that was launched on January 11, 1995 as a joint venture between Warner Bros. and Tribune Broadcasting. On January 24, 2006, CBS Corporation and Warner Bros...
/UPN hybrid network, The CW
The CW Television Network
The CW Television Network is a television network in the United States launched at the beginning of the 2006–2007 television season. It is a joint venture between CBS Corporation, the former owners of United Paramount Network , and Time Warner's Warner Bros., former majority owner of The WB...
, would not renew the show for additional seasons. It was the final show produced by Paramount Television
Paramount Television
Paramount Television was an American television production/distribution company that was active from January 1, 1968 to August 27, 2006.Its successor is CBS Television Studios, formerly CBS Paramount Television...
.
Cast
Regulars:- Marcus ColomaMarcus ColomaMarcus Coloma is an American actor and musician of Hawaiian and Italian descent.-Career:Coloma has appeared on television in Point Pleasant as Father Tomas and on the short-lived series South Beach as Matt Evans. Coloma has also guest starred on several television shows including the CW drama One...
as Matt Evans, the main protagonist of the show. A Brooklyn native, he moves to South Beach with his best friend Vincent in order to seek out better economic opportunities, as well as check up on his ex-girlfriend, Arielle Casta. - Odette YustmanOdette YustmanOdette Juliette Annable , better known by her birth name Odette Yustman, is an American actress.-Early life:...
as Arielle "Ari" Casta, a fashion model in South Beach and Matt's ex-girlfriend. After moving to Miami, she falls in love with Alex Bauer, but still has feelings for Matt, which she doesn't find easy to get over. - Lee Thompson YoungLee Thompson YoungLee Thompson Young is an American actor. He is perhaps best known for his teenage role as the title character on the Disney Channel television series The Famous Jett Jackson...
as Alex Bauer, the manager of South Beach's hottest nightclub, Nocturnal, and Arielle's boyfriend. He is very suspicious of Matt, as he feels Matt is trying to rekindle his relationship with Arielle, and also has a strained relationship with his mother, Elizabeth, who feels he is incapable of properly running a business. - Chris JohnsonChris J. JohnsonChris J. Johnson is an American actor.Born in Stoneham, Massachusetts, Johnson had a supporting role as a young agent in XXX: State of the Union. Johnson also played the lead in Three Blind Mice and Daydream Believer. His other film credits include Straight-Jacket, Cursed and Fifty Pills...
as Vincent, Matt's best friend who moves with him to South Beach. Vincent is always on the prowl, looking for beautiful women to fall into bed with. He is hired to work for Robert Fuentes after the latter takes notice of his competence, reliability, and loyalty. - Giancarlo EspositoGiancarlo EspositoGiancarlo Giuseppe Alessandro Esposito is a Danish-born American film and television actor and director.-Early life:Esposito was born in Copenhagen, Denmark to an Italian father and African-American mother. His mother was an opera and nightclub singer from Alabama, who once appeared on the same...
as Robert Fuentes, a Cuban-American gangster with legitimate business interests; He is an investor in the Hotel Soleil.He hires Vincent as an employee of his after Vincent informs Fuentes of a turncoat within his organization. Fuentes is a strong believer in the occult, and sees spirits as his guiding influences. Fuentes is an organized crime figure, yet we witness his sentimental attachment to a cigarette lighter given to him by his grandfather. - Vanessa L. WilliamsVanessa L. WilliamsVanessa Lynn Williams is an American pop-R&B recording artist, producer, dancer, model, actress and showgirl. In 1983, she became the first woman of African-American descent to be crowned Miss America, but a scandal generated by her having posed for nude photographs published in Penthouse magazine...
as Elizabeth Bauer, the owner of South Beach's glitziest hotel, the Hotel Soleil, and the mother of Alex. Elizabeth believes Alex is weak and oblivious to the way the business world works. She also angers him by hiring Matt to work in the hotel as her chief security specialist.
Frequent guest stars:
- Adrianne PalickiAdrianne PalickiAdrianne Palicki is an American actress best known for her role as Tyra Collette on the NBC television series Friday Night Lights.-Early life:...
as Brianna, a blonde fashion model who has dreams of making it big in the fashion world. Brianna is Arielle's best friend, and has recently been getting sexually involved with Vincent. - Meghan OryMeghan Ory-Life and career:Ory was born in Victoria, British Columbia and attended Royal Oak Middle School and then Claremont Secondary School. After receiving the Fine Arts Award for Acting from Royal Oak in 1996, she began pursuing a career in acting...
as Maggie Murphy, the spunky brunette bartender with an angelic singing voice at the Hotel Soleil. An ex-girlfriend of Alex's, Maggie has recently been pursuing a relationship with Matt, much to the chagrin of Arielle.
Special guest stars:
- Shawn MichaelsShawn MichaelsMichael Shawn Hickenbottom , better known by his ring name Shawn Michaels, is an American television host and retired professional wrestler. He presents the Outdoor Channel show MacMillan River Adventures, and is currently signed to WWE, where he has served in an ambassadorial role since December...
as El Guerrero
Episodes
| # | Title | Date Aired |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | "I Always Tell the Truth Even When I Lie" | January 4, 2006 |
| 2 | "I'm Not Your Baby" | January 11, 2006 |
| 3 | "I Want What's Coming to Me" | January 18, 2006 |
| 4 | "Every Day Above Ground Is a Good Day" | January 25, 2006 |
| 5 | "Who Do You Trust" | February 1, 2006 |
| 6 | "I'll Do What I Wanna Do" | February 8, 2006 |
| 7 | "The S.B." | February 15, 2006 |
| 8 | "It Looked Like Somebody's Nightmare" | February 22, 2006 |
Interview
- Vanessa Williams Goes "South", Actress-Mom Role In New UPN Series CBSNews.com (January 11, 2006)