NBC’s drama Do No Harm starring Steven Pasquale as a surgeon who suffers from a dual personality premieres in January, 2013. The series is both set in Philadelphia and filmed there. The city hasn’t has an entire network series to do that since nearly ten years ago, with CBS’s Hack.
Philadelphia is frequently a location for major motion pictures, not the least of which is the award-winning Silver Linings Playbook. While it may have helped that the film stared Bradley Cooper who originally is from the Philadelphia area himself, the Pennsylvania Film Tax Credits didn’t hurt, either. However, those funds are limited and sometimes get caught up in political red-tape when they are up for renewal. As a result, many talented local actors miss out on the opportunity for work on major films and TV shows when production companies opt to shoot somewhere else instead.
Tax credits are the reason why the ABC series Body of Proof, which returns for its third season this February, was never filmed in Philadelphia, despite being set in the city of brotherly love. Its first season was actually filmed in Providence, Rhode Island. Then the series moved to Los Angeles, where it could take advantage of tax credits there.
Some TV shows set in Philadelphia do a week or so of location shoots. The principal actors complete scenes in front of Philadelphia landmarks from various episodes throughout the season while they are in town. The majority of the series, however, is still shot elsewhere. Cold Case (now on in syndication on ION) would do most of their filming in LA, but would come to Philadelphia a few times a year for these location shoots.
The comedy It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia has employed a similar strategy. While they have shot several scenes in Philadelphia, most of the episodes are made in Los Angeles. They do use some exterior establishing shots of real Philadelphia locations as well.
Exterior shots is the most cost-effective way for a TV show to establish a location, particularly when the show is shot almost exclusively on a set somewhere in Television City out in California. Hence the name, “Establishing Shots”. So next time you watch a TV show that’s supposed to be set in Philadelphia – or any other particular city – see if you can figure out if it was actually filmed there at all.
While it will be up to the TV networks and politicians to decide how long this new series Do No Harm will remain on the air, hopefully viewers can enjoy how the authentic backdrop the city of brotherly love can add to a show that’s set to take place in Philadelphia.
Colleen O’Brien has worked as a background actor on both Do No Harm and Cold Case. To learn more about what it’s like to be an extra, read her article “Playing in the Background”.
