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NYC TV Production Booms As Gritty Neighborhoods Disappear

New York Times City Room, Tuesday, August 23, 2011 1:01 PM

Once upon a time, say the 1950s, New York City was a bastion for prime-time TV programming. So it goes again -- and to tout the fact that 23 of this season's prime-time series are being filmed in city studios, Mayor Mike Bloomberg showed up at Steiner Studios in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, which blogger Adriane Quinlan notes once "bustled with ships." There, Bloomberg stood on a set made to recreate the Pam American World Airways terminal, which once stood at an airport named Idlewild -- now JFK.

Bloomberg noted that the producers of ABC's "Pan Am" have also used the streets of New York to recreate Berlin in the 1960s. But, according to Katherine Oliver, commissioner of the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment, while once there were "gritty neighborhoods" in New York, she now has trouble helping producers find them because "they don't exist anymore." Guess they've moved to Vancouver or Toronto?

Read the whole story at New York Times City Room »

television, tv

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