\u201cDexter\u201d ended after its eighth season in 2013, but Showtime recently announced it would bring the show back with eight new episodes and for a moment, it looked like an opportunity for Long Beach to rack up some more sweet, sweet cash from Hollywood.<\/p>\n
But viewers of the show\u2019s final episode will recall that the show\u2019s eponymous main character wound up as a lumberjack in Alaska, and while it may be interesting to see what Dexter Morgan can do with a professional-grade chainsaw and ax, the setting is too much of a stretch for Long Beach to play.<\/p>\n
But the city has been a film-location hot spot long before \u201cDexter,\u201d and it will continue to be one long after. No TV series is indispensable to a city that\u2019s hosted hundreds of TV series episodes and hundreds of feature films and thousands of television commercials.<\/p>\n
Like virtually every facet of the human experience, filming in Long Beach, or any other city that\u2019s come to rely on the occasional check from showbiz to supplement its budget, has been hit hard\u00a0 and shut down by the coronavirus. Location filming in Long Beach went dim, if not dark, for a bit of February, and continued through March, April, May, and half of June, before cameras slowly started rolling again. About a quarter of the year was tossed onto the cutting room floor.<\/p>\n
And while some quick ads were shot in Long Beach in early summer, things are slowly returning to, if not pre-COVID level, then at least to bringing a bit of walking-around money to the department in charge of bringing in money from film work and special events in the city, which has been further crippled by the ongoing cancellation of any sort of event that involves a gathering of more than a handful of people.<\/p>\n
\u201cThings are starting back up now in terms of filming,\u201d said Tasha Day, manager of Special Events and Filming in Long Beach. \u201cWe\u2019ve had a bunch of commercials since the governor eased restrictions in June.\u201d<\/p>\n
Among the companies using Long Beach as a backdrop since June, according to Day, are Hyundai and Honda, both on West Broadway and Maine Avenue by the 710 Freeway, and at the nearby courthouse; Volkswagen at some residences on First Street in Bluff Park and on Broadway at Linden Avenue; McDonald\u2019s at Drake Park and Junipero Beach; a Ford commercial on The Promenade; and Infiniti at the Civic Center Plaza.<\/p>\n
And TV shows are inching back into town as well. \u201cBosch,\u201d a longtime local staple, was at Community Hospital. The AppleTV+ sci-fi series \u201cFor All Mankind,\u201d based on the idea that the space race between Russia and the U.S. had never ended, spent some time at the Boeing hangar, Day said. Also filming here in the post-COVID era was the sports drama \u201cAll American\u201d taking advantage of the currently vacant Community Hospital, and the USA network\u2019s \u201cStraight Up With Steve Austin,\u201d in which the WWE legend chats with other sports stars, filmed at Alamitos and Granada beaches.<\/p>\n
And \u201cGoliath\u201d is coming back for a fourth season, she said. The Amazon Prime series featuring Billy Bob Thornton makes use of Long Beach in several shots for the show, set mainly in Santa Monica. Also coming back to town soon will be the cast and crew for the 12th season of CBS\u2019s \u201cNCIS: Los Angeles,\u201d a series that\u2019s spent a lot of money in Long Beach over its run. Most recently, \u201cLucifer,\u201d the urban fantasy crime series that was dumped by Fox and renewed by Netflix, filmed at Downtown\u2019s Hamburger Mary\u2019s on Oct. 21.<\/p>\n
With the Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center still virtually shut down, the complex has been cashing in on Hollywood as well. In happier times, the place was generally pretty busy with filming, and now it\u2019s picked up a couple of projects that remain under wraps with non-disclosure agreements signed, said the facility\u2019s general manager Charlie Beirne. One thing that\u2019s known is that one of the projects is a Netflix comedy special filmed at the Terrace Theater plaza, though the talent\u2019s names are being kept quiet.<\/p>\n Additionally, the center\u2019s acres of unused parking areas have been getting work as a site for filmers\u2019 base camps, which, because of COVID restrictions, can no longer be set up in public areas.<\/p>\n All film crews now bring along their own COVID compliance officer to make sure that everything is done safely.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen they were filming the comedy special we all got tested for COVID twice a day,\u201d said Beirne. \u201cAnyone who came near the place was tested. The compliance officers are extremely safe and proactive in how everything is handled.<\/p>\n Day, of the special events department, said when film companies apply for a permit, they have to submit COVID prevention plans that go to the city\u2019s Health Department for approval. Companies also must sign a COVID form<\/a>, which includes the usual precautions as well as such things as setting up handwashing facilities with running water, soap and paper towels, strategically placing hand-sanitizer stations around the work area and sanitizing locations with EPA-registered disinfectant methods after film work is completed.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/img.lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/27112717\/1027-Filming-2-1110x644.jpg\")
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