98 Hard Knocks

[C Glide]

I just published Hard Knocks on my location site: http://www.miamivicelocations5.org/page15.html

[Tom]

Great work, thanks!

The casino and gambling scenes were all shot as Woody's. These areas with the green glass tiles were also used in Too much, too late (scene with Izzy).

[miamijimf]

Tom,

 

Which scene is the casino scene?  By gambling scene I assume you mean where Stan loses at cards.

 

Thanks

[Tom]

Tom,

 

Which scene is the casino scene?  By gambling scene I assume you mean where Stan loses at cards.

 

Thanks

The casino scene is very early in the episode. Kevin is gambling and Switek urges him to go home to prepare for next day's important game.

Your assumption for the gambling scene of Switek is correct.

[C Glide]

Woody's is my top suspect for the casino scenes but I have not been able to find anything to confirm this. The unique ceiling should be identifiable. I have not gone there yet to see if I could confirm anything. I also suspect the agent's office and balcony were there but can't post w/o confirmation.

[Matt5]

I just published Hard Knocks on my location site: http://www.miamivicelocations5.org/page15.html

 

 

Well done Jeremy great detail on the teaser Ocean Drive scenes

[miamijimf]

Woody's is my top suspect for the casino scenes but I have not been able to find anything to confirm this. The unique ceiling should be identifiable. I have not gone there yet to see if I could confirm anything. I also suspect the agent's office and balcony were there but can't post w/o confirmation.

 

Charlie, your insistance on verification is one of the things that makes your site so great.  But if my memory serves me correctly Tom has original Vice documentation that shows where the scenes were scheduled to be filmed.  Right Tom?  

Edited April 10, 2015 by miamijimf

[Matt5]

Charlie, your insistance on verification is one of the things that makes your site so great.  But if my memory serves me correctly Tom has original Vice documentation that shows where the scenes were scheduled to be filmed.  Right Tom?  

 

Great post Jim 

[Tom]

Charlie, your insistance on verification is one of the things that makes your site so great. But if my memory serves me correctly Tom has original Vice documentation that shows where the scenes were scheduled to be filmed. Right Tom?

I don't have the production notes of this ep, but from another where they filmed at Woody's. And the background with the greenish glass tiles looks exactly like in Too much, too late where we know for a fact that lots of scenes were shot at Woody's (interior and exterior). Location logistics in Hard Knocks and the visual similarity are good enough for me. I tried to find interior photos from Woody's on the internet to appease Charlie's doubts by hard evidence, but no luck... Edited April 10, 2015 by Tom

[C Glide]

I will have to watch Too Much Too Late to see what Tom Is referring to. I know he is likely right about Woody's and it has long been suspected by me as the location but I would rather have it listed as unknown then get it wrong and think I had it right. As unknown it keeps the pressure on to identify the location.

[Tom]

I will have to watch Too Much Too Late to see what Tom Is referring to. I know he is likely right about Woody's and it has long been suspected by me as the location but I would rather have it listed as unknown then get it wrong and think I had it right. As unknown it keeps the pressure on to identify the location.

I am referring to the interior bar scenes with Crockett, Tubbs and the two together with Izzy in Too much, too late.

[Matt5]

Yes that scene was indeed shot at The Savoy 

[Matt5]

Watched this good episode last night. From the teaser of this January 1989 episode on 15th St and Ocean Drive In Miami Beach.  

1989 and 2018 images, I like these screen shots as they show The Haddon Hall Hotel( now closed) on Collins at 15th and The Bancroft - we rarely saw these buildings on Miami Vice.

Edited June 11, 2018 by Matt5

[Tom]

Am 11.4.2015 um 02:37 schrieb C Glide:

I will have to watch Too Much Too Late to see what Tom Is referring to. I know he is likely right about Woody's and it has long been suspected by me as the location but I would rather have it listed as unknown then get it wrong and think I had it right. As unknown it keeps the pressure on to identify the location.

Ok, as @C Glide will soon update a lot of episodes for locations and @daytona365 has reminded me in another location thread about the unknown agent´s office in this episode, I try to match and link all these locations (Hard Knocks: agent office, casino scenes; Too much, too late: C&T&Izzy in bar) with Woody´s (also heavily featured in Baseballs of Death as per daily production reports).

There are several scenes I dissected in this episode: the agent office, Goodman´s lunch at the huge executive room, the casino scenes.

Bottom line: there is no clear evidence for Woody´s being used for the casino scenes (or  the bar scene inTMTL), it is rather unlikely, as Woody´s had no elevator and there was one in the casino. The glass blocks in TMTL and HK do not match, neither do the round columns in TMTL. TMTL allegedly filmed a lot at the Mayfair complex (due to report of a member I read on the forum being in Miami that day). In TMTL the bar Crockett is sitting at is also rounded with a black marble surface (compared to Baseballs of Death pic below), but in TMTL there are no glass tiles at the bottom of the rounded bar corpus. So, that´s no match either. No other clear matches of Woody´s with TMTL bar or HK casino.

But: there is proof that the agent´s office and the casino scenes were filmed at the same location (the overhead white patterns match exactly) that must be a quite high office building with elevator and a high inner yard with a unique white concrete shape or pattern as briefly seen when the agent takes the plunge.

My best suspect for casino and lunch room is Greenberg Taurig Building 1221 Brickell.

We see its exterior when Switek sweeps in from his van and it might match with the elevator and the modern inner yard architecture, at is was built in 1986, but I have not been able to find any significant interior pics of Greenburg Taurig. Also no pics of Woody´s anywhere...?!

Maybe @Matt5 has some interior pics from Savoy (Ex Woody‘s) to compare?

 

 

 

Edited June 19, 2020 by Tom

[Tom]

Comparing the office scenes in Hard Knocks (third pic) and in Fruit of the poison tree (first two pics) I would say that is the same office/location.

And for Fruit of the Poison Tree we know that the office scenes -and the garage scenes- were filmed inside/at the Greenberg Taurig Building 1221 Brickell Ave) 

 

[Tom]

Am 19.6.2020 um 11:35 schrieb Tom:

But: there is proof that the agent´s office and the casino scenes were filmed at the same location (the overhead white patterns match exactly) that must be a quite high office building with elevator and a high inner yard with a unique white concrete shape or pattern as briefly seen when the agent takes the plunge.

My best suspect for casino and lunch room is Greenberg Taurig Building 1221 Brickell.

We see its exterior when Switek sweeps in from his van and it might match with the elevator and the modern inner yard architecture, at is was built in 1986, but I have not been able to find any significant interior pics of Greenburg Taurig. Also no pics of Woody´s anywhere...?!

Below are pics from Bank Popular inside 1221 Brickell Ave (Greenberg Taurig Building). I think that is enough proof that all the casino and agent office scenes were indeed filmed inside there?

All matches, from the overhead pattern to the glass block walls to the silver railings to the high atrium that we partially see when the agent fell to death.

Elevators are there too. I think the last, third picture below shows exactly the filming location of the casino (one of the pics above with the elevators marked)

Edited June 23, 2020 by Tom

[daytona365]

18 hours ago, Tom said:

Below are pics from Bank Popular inside 1221 Brickell Ave (Greenberg Taurig Building). I think that is enough proof that all the casino and agent office scenes were indeed filmed inside there?

All matches, from the overhead pattern to the glass block walls to the silver railings to the high atrium that we partially see when the agent fell to death.

Elevators are there too. I think the last, third picture below shows exactly the filming location of the casino (one of the pics above with the elevators marked)

Dude, you're a maniac! A crusader against any unknown location.  Do you ever sleep? I'm picturing you sitting in front of your computer 24/7 with match sticks holding up your eyelids. And how did you get these photos? I was trying to find interior pics of the Greenberg Traurig building too, but to no avail.

Anyway, another one solved thanks to your relentless efforts. That's truly amazing. I wonder what you're going to do when there are none left...maybe you should try to make this a profession in case you haven't already.

So...glass blocks are not just for scumbag lawyers but also for sleazy bankers....

Edited June 24, 2020 by daytona365

[Tom]

vor 18 Minuten schrieb daytona365:

Dude, you're a maniac! A crusader against any unknown location.  Do you ever sleep? I'm picturing you sitting in front of your computer 24/7 with match sticks holding up your eyelids. And how did you get these photos? I was trying to find interior pics of the Greenberg Traurig building too, but to no avail.

Anyway, another one solved thanks to your relentless efforts. That's truly amazing. I wonder what you're going to do when there are none left...maybe you should try to make this a profession in case you haven't already.

LOL thanks! You’re right that location sleuthing takes a lot of time but these interior pics I found in 5 minutes by google search after not finding anything the day before. They are on yelp (customers have uploaded them I assume).

I just googled for "1221 Brickell+interior" and on the first google picture page you see one of the three pictures with this link: https://www.yelp.com/biz/popular-bank-miami-5. No mystery here, except you should be aware of how the google algorithm works. In essence, it is possible that only small changes in search terms (other keywords or even the order of words) might influence the outcome. When I tried the day before with "1221 Brickell+office" I only got garden variety office pics from the building.

I also found out that cross referencing in google picture search yields amazing results (you click on a picture in google and from there you find another that is related to it but sometimes not shown on the first google page).

Good question what I am gonna do if all locations are found. Only the trickiest ones will be left by nature so I doubt we will find all of them. Current count is 24 left (if nobody finds other unknown locations missing in our list). 
 

This IS my profession. Kinda. I work in analytics. I am not a data scientist but I know how our specialists work and I like to work systematically. That helps enormously with location hunting and trains my brain for work related matters.
 

 

Edited June 24, 2020 by Tom

[Tom]

As we and @C Glide always want to know exactly where scenes were filmed and not just approximately:

All three scenes filmed here can be exactly pinpointed on these two pictures of the Greenburg Taurig interior atrium (Ground level, branch of a bank, pictures of July 2017) that show the same room, but from different angles (please take the lady with the white pants at the counter as reference point!). 

1. Horowitz (agent) office and the plunge after the struggle with Switek. This was filmed in the corner next to the rounded glass block wall on the second level. When the plunge takes place we see a white diagonal crossbeam above Switek. This cross beam is there and pinpoints exactly where that took place, but view on it is accurately blocked by the blue middle column in one of the pics.

2. The gambling scenes (several gambling tables visible). In the background we see the elevators, overhead balcony and its pattern underneath and the glass block wall right of it. 

3. The blue column in the middle of the room was also there when VICE filmed, but the column was white and they smartly filmed around it, so that it is hardly seen. In one short scene the broad side of the column is clearly behind Switek (when he talks to Kevin ....

...and this is exactly the only scene we cannot fully see on these 2017 location pictures because the column blocks our view: where Switek wants to stop Kevin from celebrating, right of Kevin is a straight glass block wall, left is kind of a bar. But as this scene was filmed with shot and countershot technique and Switek is standing on the ground level with the broad column side behind him, it is clear where Kevin and the straight glasswall was.

P.S. the low white wall we see in some gambling scenes, e.g. right before the elevators, was obviously removed, as it is not on any of the pictures.

 

Edited June 25, 2020 by Tom

[Tom]

Final scene: the second building on the backside of 7615 Harding Ave has been razed since then. On the historic aerial we can clearly see where Kevin and Stan came from the back street and Stan headed towards the stairs. In between was a huge tree. 

Today, only the building facing Harding Ave is still there (renovated apartment building) and the second building is gone, as is the tree. An unattractive wasteland remains instead.

 

Edited March 2, 2021 by Tom

[Tom]

The Sasson hotel complex at 2001 Collins Ave, vis a vis the Gayety/Burlesque stretch before demolition in the early 2000s. I stayed there myself onca as they had clean and cheap rooms and good food for a student´s budget.

Edited March 3, 2021 by Tom

[airtommy]

Near the end, Switek is sitting in his car making a call.

This location can be found.  If you zoom in on the top left corner, you can see a far off ~20 story building and short white building nearby with something on the corner of its roof.

[Tom]

vor 4 Stunden schrieb airtommy:

Near the end, Switek is sitting in his car making a call.

This location can be found.  If you zoom in on the top left corner, you can see a far off ~20 story building and short white building nearby with something on the corner of its roof.

I already tried that but haven’t found anything yet. Of course it’s findable because there is another clue, the broad main street left of Switek. This combination (broad street plus 15+ story Highrise) means that it needs to be somewhere in Miami Beach, at Collins or Harding Ave, close to other locations in this episode or on Biscayne close to studio. This is a convenience location for a short snippet of filming.

PS the powerline mast indicates a N-S street which Collins, Harding and Biscayne would match too.

Edited April 18, 2021 by Tom

[Tom]

Regarding that short Switek phone scene:

no 20 story high-rise found anywhere on Collins, Harding or any other place around other locations in Miami Beach, Downtown and Biscayne around studio. 

[airtommy]

This was filmed near the studio.  Maybe here:  https://goo.gl/maps/KXGVXAAjc5d2d6Eb9

The high rise is Bayview Towers on San Souci Blvd.  It will be tough to pinpoint the location because things have changed in that area, similar to that odd clip in Buddies: