Please check out our list of what we consider the best Florida TV shows both set and filmed in Florida. We want to bring attention to important tax credit legislation that we hope is included in the special session in the Legislature in June.
Television series used to not venture very far from Los Angeles and New York. Moving a production that films half the year from the studios’ bases was considered too expensive a proposition. Things have changed, though, as tax breaks have encouraged TV series to explore new locales.
First, it was cult hits like Northern Exposure, The X-Files and Friday Night Lights that filmed away from L.A. and N.Y.C., but lately, mega-hits such as The Walking Dead (shot in neighboring Georgia) film on the road as well.
Here, too, Florida was a pioneer, with a pair of 1960s family favorites filming in the Sunshine State. Both made our Top Five. As with the movie criteria, the series had to be set and substantially filmed in the state to make the list.
For more information on a TV series, expand each panel by pressing its title.
Miami Vice
Bloodline
Flipper
Dexter
Gentle Ben
VERY HONORABLE MENTIONS
The Jackie Gleason Show (1960s version). This series might be the first television show to double as an economic development vehicle. Filmed mostly at the Miami Beach Auditorium, Gleason and his announcer referred to their host city as the “sun and fun capital of the world.” The show was credited with spurring a boost in South Florida tourism.
Burn Notice ran from 2007 to 2013 on USA Network and was an excellent drama set and filmed in Miami.
NOT FILMED HERE
There are a number of great shows that were set in Florida but never filmed here (outside a few establishing shots). Among the best (in alphabetical order): Cougar Town, CSI: Miami, Golden Girls, I Dream of Jeannie and Invasion.
Stay tuned for our Top 10 Florida Movies to see who made the cut!