Greater City Providence

Also starring Providence as Philadelphia

That pilot that was shooting in town a few months ago got picked up for the fall by ABC. Called Body of Proof, it looks dreadful; trailer:

I’m all for the economic development that filming in Rhode Island brings, but can Hollywood stop mutilating our fair city with Photoshop please?

Would it be so bad to set the show in Providence, does the story change at all from making Philadelphia = Providence instead? Barring that, why use Providence skyline shots, if you are not setting the show in Providence, just use Philadelphia skyline shots. These Frank-idence Photoshop disasters are just so silly.

Jef Nickerson

Jef is Greater City Providence's co-founder, editor, and publisher. He grew up on Cape Cod and lived in Boston; Portland, Maine; and New York before settling in Providence. In addition to urbanism, Jef is interested in art, design, and ice cream. Please feel free to contact Jef if you have any question or comments about Greater City Providence.

17 comments

  • Exactly! Its great, but why not let Providence be Providence? Change the skyline, but let the show take place here… !

  • Do you mean the show as a whole looks bad or is it just the photoshop setting thing?

  • Aren’t there like 30 shows out there now where someone who doesn’t typically solves crimes, solves crimes?

    I’ll probably watch it just to see the Providence scenes, then it will become my favorite show, but it looks painful.

  • I think the show as a whole looks lame, and ABC must not think it’s anything special airing it on Friday nights.

    That photoshop job is terrible! Why bother doing that? People from Providence will recognize GTECH, the Westin, and the mall with unknown buildings behind. People from Philly will recognize their skyline hidden behind unknown buildings. Not to mention it just looks really stupid. Worse shows have done better jobs at showing skylines of their cities. They could have easily filmed the Philly skyline in a one day shot and not have to worry about photoshopping it into Providence’s skyline. I’m just glad they didn’t use the main portion of our skyline.

  • So, the Medical Examiners office is supposed to be about 5 times as big as the westin?

  • ProJo talks to Steven Feinberg, executive director of the R.I. Film & TV Office and he has this to say:

    Since the show will now be filmed in Rhode Island, there’s a question of whether the show’s storyline will be set in Rhode Island.

    “I think that is in discussion as we speak,” Feinberg said.

    Hopefully, if they decide to set the show in Providence, that will be the end of the crazy Photoshopping.

  • It was kinda lame. I loved the shots of Providence, but it TOTALLY did not look like Philly at all. Even when they threw in the images of the Philly skyline, it was terrible. At one point, they showed them down on the river with just the Providence skyline behind them. It was just silly to have it take place in Philly, why not just make it take place in Providence?

  • I read an article the other day. The writer is from Philadelphia, so that is the primary reason for the setting. They were set to film in Philadelphia but had an issue with the local Teamsters that they could not resolve. So our tax intensives drew them here. The location was not changed in the move.

    The Teamsters issue, according to the film board in Philadelphia has been resolved. So I don’t know if that means season two (if there is one) could possibly film in Philadelphia.

  • I’m not holding my breath for a second season. Heck, I’ll be surprised if there are more than the 3 episodes already announced. Maybe it’ll get better…

    I gotta say, though, this show really shows Providence as Providence (aside from the silly inserted Philly skylines behind Providence).

  • So the show has been holding its own. It has contantly been winning the 10:00 hour slot, overall and 18-49. This week it finished 2nd in 18-49 to Parenthood’s season finale. Looks like they shot the most recently aired episode on Benefit St, and Blue Cross’ headquarters doubled as a hospital. Didn’t hurt that Mad Men’s Christina Hendricks had a role alongside her husband Geoffrey Arend (aka Dr Ethan Gross) this week. My wife and I actually saw them together earlier this year at Local 121.

    http://www.tvline.com/2011/04/ratings-parenthood-finale-glee-dwts/

  • …and Rhode Island gets used for a tax credit and left for dead, once again. I guess I wouldn’t mind so much, if we hadn’t been a stand-in for a totally different city in the first place.

    If you want a tax break to film here, you really should give us credit in the show, so that when you skip town there’s some benefit to the host city. Why the shame?

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