{"id":196709,"date":"2026-03-18T18:33:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T18:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/196709\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T18:33:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T18:33:09","slug":"r-j-decker-brings-fort-lauderdales-weird-to-tv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/196709\/","title":{"rendered":"R.J. Decker brings Fort Lauderdale\u2019s weird to TV"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Scott<\/p>\n

Scott Speedman stars as the titular R.J. Decker, a disgraced former photojournalist who becomes a private investigator after a stint in prison. The show, which airs on ABC and is streaming on Hulu, takes place in Fort Lauderdale.<\/p>\n

Dana Hawley<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Disney<\/p>\n

When Carl Hiaasen wrote \u201cDouble Whammy,\u201d his 1987 satirical crime novel about bass fishing competitions, corrupt televangelists and murder, he figured his book was too wacky \u2014 perhaps too Florida \u2014 to get published.<\/p>\n

Decades later, Hiaasen was hit with another pleasant surprise when an ABC executive told him she wanted to turn that book into a prime-time TV show.<\/p>\n

The result was \u201cR.J. Decker,\u201d a crime drama set in Hiaasen\u2019s hometown of Fort Lauderdale, which premiered March 3. The premiere drew 3.69 million live and same-day viewers, making it ABC\u2019s most-watched 10 p.m. drama debut in over five years<\/a>, Deadline reported.<\/p>\n

Actor Scott Speedman stars as the titular R.J. Decker, a disgraced former photojournalist who goes to prison after beating up a guy who tried stealing his camera equipment. Two years later, Decker is a private investigator living in a Fort Lauderdale trailer park, solving weird mysteries and walking down Las Olas in a Hawaiian print shirt.<\/p>\n

Unlike other recent Hollywood attempts at capturing South Florida (like Netflix\u2019s \u201cThe Rip\u201d<\/a> which takes place in Hialeah but was filmed in New Jersey and Los Angeles) much of \u201cR.J. Decker\u201d was actually filmed on location with some scenes filmed in North Carolina. The first episode features a car chase scene filmed along Fort Lauderdale Beach and its signature white Wave Wall.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m glad they did because there\u2019s no place else that looks like that street,\u201d Hiaasen said.<\/p>\n

\"A A scene from ABC show \u2018R.J. Decker,\u2019 based on a Carl Hiaasen book. John Merrick Disney <\/p>\n

Hiaasen, a former Herald journalist and columnist who grew up in Broward, is known for his novels that embrace Florida\u2019s iconic weirdness, like \u201cHoot,\u201d the beloved children\u2019s book about kids saving owls, or his recent \u201cFever Beach,\u201d a political satire about a bumbling Proud Boy and a corrupt congressman.<\/p>\n

Hollywood usually shines the spotlight on Miami-Dade, but \u201cR.J. Decker\u201d keeps the focus on Broward.<\/p>\n

\u201cBroward County has its own brand of weirdness,\u201d Hiaasen said. \u201cIn Florida, there\u2019s almost nowhere you could shoot a TV series where you wouldn\u2019t have the material and the inspiration right there. […] I love that it\u2019s in Lauderdale.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hiaasen still has boxes of scripts of would-be adaptations of his novels that never came to light. Sometimes he says no to pitches, other times he says yes but the project never takes off. When Brianna Bennett, the ABC executive, approached him with the idea to turn \u201cDouble Whammy\u201d into a TV series, Hiaasen said he was struck by how much she loved the nearly 40-year-old book.<\/p>\n

After speaking with Bennett and head writer Rob Doherty, Hiaasen said the material was in good hands. He\u2019s credited as an executive producer, but really, he said, he\u2019s more of a Florida consultant.<\/p>\n

\"Author Author Carl Hiaasen\u2019s book \u2018Double Whammy\u2019 was adapted for television in the new ABC show \u2018R.J. Decker.\u201d Hiaasen, a former Miami Herald writer and columnist, set the story in Fort Lauderdale. Elena Seibert <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just watching from the sidelines. They\u2019ll call about factual things or some plot things that they want to do. \u2018Could this really happen?\u2019\u201d Hiaasen said. \u201cAnd I always say, \u2018It\u2019s Florida! Anything can happen. There\u2019s nothing that you can make up that won\u2019t happen eventually in Florida.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

While the general framing is true to the book, the TV version takes plenty of creative liberties, which Hiaasen is fine with. \u201cYou gotta let them do their thing,\u201dhe said. He noted that he\u2019s well-aware that certain parts of \u201cDouble Whammy,\u201d which he calls a \u201ctwisted little novel,\u201d would never make it to mainstream TV.<\/p>\n

For example, in the book, a bad guy tries to break into a mobile home and gets attacked by a pit bull, which he kills. But the dead dog never let go of his arm, so the bad guy is stuck with it for a while, even growing an emotional attachment to it, Hiaasen said.<\/p>\n

The first episode of the TV show pays some homage to that weirdness. A bad guy does get attacked by a dog named Tom Petty while trying to break into a mobile home, but Tom Petty survives and lets the bad guy go.<\/p>\n

The man behind R.J. Decker<\/p>\n

Decker and the shenanigans he finds himself in were inspired by Hiaasen\u2019s good friend and former Herald colleague Tim Chapman, a storied photographer<\/a> who covered the Jonestown Massacre in Guyana, Mariel boatlift, the drug wars in Colombia and Miami and plenty of other insane moments in history.<\/p>\n

\u201cCarl is the most observant person in the world. He is a real sleeper,\u201d Chapman said while puffing a cigar at his home in the Keys. \u201cHe\u2019ll see you do something or hear about something, and it\u2019ll show up in a book.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hiaasen and Chapman went on \u201cseveral hairy assignments\u201d together, like the time they snuck into the Bahamas disguised as fishermen to investigate corruption and drug dealing. Chapman recalled how he dumped a bunch of sharp fishing hooks over his camera bag to keep the Customs agents out. It worked.<\/p>\n

Sometimes Hiaasen got dragged into reporting adventures just because he happened to be in the car with Chapman, who would listen to the police scanner and drive white knuckled to the crime scene.<\/p>\n

\"Photographer Photographer Tim Chapman welcomes guests to HistoryMiami Museum during the opening of NEWSMAN: the Photojournalism of Tim Chapman on April 15, 2016. Chapman was the inspiration behind the protagonist of Carl Hiaasen\u2019s 1987 book \u2018Double Whammy,\u2019 which ABC adapted into a TV show that began airing in 2026. The show is also streaming on Hulu. Matias J. Ocner mocner@miamiherald.com <\/p>\n

Some subtle details in the show are true to things Chapman has either experienced or seen, he said, like Decker\u2019s connections in high and low places that help him solve mysteries. Even the first episode\u2019s car sex scene was true to life. \u201cOne time, I noticed this car rocking back and forth, and it was all foggy. I knocked on the window, and all I did was give him a thumbs up,\u201d he said, laughing.<\/p>\n

One line in the show stuck out to Chapman \u2014 when Decker explains how he sees the world and its hardships through the lens of his camera.<\/p>\n

Years ago, when Chapman was being interviewed by Rolling Stone about the shocking Jonestown Massacre photos, he was asked, \u201cHow do you put up with that?\u201d Chapman responded, \u201cI let my camera cover it. It\u2019s a mission.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scott Speedman stars as the titular R.J. Decker, a disgraced former photojournalist who becomes a private investigator after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":196710,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[91274,83895,249,91273,251,250,91272,83889],"class_list":["post-196709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-broward-county-weirdness","tag-carl-hiaasen","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-filming","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news","tag-r-j-decker-tv-show","tag-scott-speedman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196709\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}