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NYC Police Dept-Manhattan South-Filmed in LA

posted 9 years ago by Catdubh
10 replies | jump to latest

I don't have a problem with the story line taking place in NYC and the actual series being shot mostly on location in LA. What I have a problem with is the obvious shots, which CLEARLY depict the streets of downtown LA, and then trying to pass them off as street shots in Manhattan. I've lived in LA most of my life, and have visited NYC, countless times, and spent an entire summer in NYC, and MANY of the street shots, which are supposed to be NYC are LA, and it is very obvious, they were shot in LA. It is very distracting! This is especially true in the 5th season.

Jack's not dead! Jack would never die without telling me, first!

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[–] Andrew_S_Hatton 9 years ago

Interesting comments, I have never been to the USA but Kojak was often part of my TV life 40 years ago & reruns now are fascinatingly reminding me of the styles back then. I particularly like the 'real life', street scenes; cars, clothes and furnishings etc., etc..

I have just watched a 1975 episode; S 3 Ep 13, "A House of Prayer, a Den of Thieves" which features NY & Las Vegas. According to the only User Review written, it was unique because it features a Las Vegas Detective & was a pilot programme for a new series of programmes which were never actually made.

Maybe the TV company was planning to either replace Kojak with a similar series that they could actually film contemporary exterior scenes in the neighbourhoods near the studios or they were just trying to get an extra programme into the schedules.

They seemed to have gone to great expense with a helicopter night flying, and also actually filming at a major convention centre with a full audience for just a few short sequences.

[–] Catdubh 9 years ago

Actually, 90% of the television shows (even current ones) are filmed here in LA, and on location in Los Angeles. 20th Century/Fox Studios lot (which has changed hands, over the last 75 years) has a very realistic NYC street setting on their lot. Kojak was filmed in limited aspects or episodes, in NYC but used the NYC setting in the lot of the studio, as well.
My point was, the producers made no great efforts to conceal or edit the obvious street shots in Los Angeles, when the story line calls for the streets of NYC.
Several episodes of Kojak were filmed in other cities and set in other cities, such as, Las Vegas. There are at least two episodes where Kojak travels to Las Vegas, in the story line.
As far as the night shot of the helicopter goes, and the expense incurred; that was a common film shot in the 70's and 80's; helicopters flying over city lights, at night during a chase scene. It was sort of a fad. Again, studio lots with edited city scenes were used for helicopter chases, at night. It isn't that popular today because it is not as realistic (Police don't pursue suspects, at night in helicopters as much as they used to.) and several actors died during helicopter chase scenes. Vic Morrow was tragically killed in a helicopter chase scene. Boris Sagal (Katey Sagal's father) died in an accident with a helicopter, which was used in filming. He exited the helicopter the wrong way, and ran into one of the tail rotor blades.

Jack's not dead! Jack would never die without telling me, first!

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[–] djmaraio 9 years ago

Any life-long NYer could tell the difference that the latter part of the Kojak series the exterior shots are not NYC-Manhattan South. Earlier in the series, pretty much all ext. shots were NYC/Manhattan. Obviously, they did this as a cost-cutting move, but it ruined it for me. No hollywood lot can ever duplicate a NYC street.

[–] djmaraio 9 years ago

Vic Morrow didn't die in a helicopter chase scene. A helicopter fell on him and 2 kids and decapitated them during filming of the twilight zone-the movie. The unedited video is on youtube. It had something to do with an explosion during the scene

[–] speculator-1 9 years ago

Actually you are both right.

The helicopter low, was chasing Vic while he was holding the kids.
The special effects explosion went off behind the chopper, pushing it forward, making the pilot lose control.
The rotor blades came in at Vic's neck height ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djVBzrucNLY

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[–] 9 years ago

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[–] nlfan-1 9 years ago

I know what you mean. The worst thing I don't like is when they have scenes that are clearly on the backlot of the studio. Then again, Universal tended to do that a lot with their shows (like with Ironside) to save some money.

[–] Zebra 3 9 years ago

not so clear, but still LA.

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[–] Catdubh 9 years ago

not so clear, but still LA.

I have to respectfully disagree with you. I have lived in LA almost my entire life, and there are countless shots of Korea town, The Wilshire district, near downtown, there are even a few shots of blue street signs in the back ground. NYC does not have blue street signs; LA does.

It is very obvious to me, and honestly, I wasn't trying to notice until it became intrusive that the street shots weren't NYC.

Jack's not dead! Jack would never die without telling me, first!

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[–] MrBlondNYC 9 years ago

Yeah, they didn't really try to hide that in old TV shows. You can see LA streets in Baretta (which was supposed to be New York or New Jersey), Hill Street Blues (which was supposed to be a Northeast/Midwest city), even Dallas (which was supposed to be... Dallas). Most people didn't know the difference back then. They've done a better job in recent shows by filming in Downtown LA and hiding the street signs.

That 20th Century Fox "New York" lot looks straight out of the old Humphrey Bogart movies. I don't think they've updated it since then. Every time I see it, I chuckle like "which street is that supposed to be?"

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