For eight seasons, from 2006 through 2013, the serial killer serial-killer Dexter Morgan cut a bloody and violent swath through Long Beach in the Showtime series “Dexter.” And the violence paid off big-time for Long Beach, which took on the comfortable role of Miami, where much of the mayhem ostensibly took place.
The series used locations all over town: residences in Los Altos and Los Cerritos and Belmont Shore and Ocean Boulevard, in Shoreline Village, Mothers Beach, Schooner or Later, the Petroleum Club, Yankee Doodles, El Dorado Park, the Colorado Lagoon, Queensway Bay.
It used El Dorado Park, the marinas, Downtown’s Colonial Bakery and the water everywhere—at the Bay and in the Pacific where the murdering blood-spatter expert would frequently dump bodies off the side of his boat “Slice of Life.” In fact, “Slice” was the code name for the series, appearing in black letters on yellow signs directing crews to the latest location.
So many Long Beach citizens had the chance to wet their beaks on film money during those eight seasons, many are licking their chops at another shot at making some Hollywood money now that news is out that Showtime is taking up a new season of the series, starring Michael C. Hall in the title role.
“I’ve been getting a ton of calls from people wanting their homes to be used for ‘Dexter’ because they heard the show’s coming back,” said John Robinson, of Long Beach Locations, which made its share of money during the eight-year run of the show while it was in town.
The problem is, at the end of the last series, Dexter was heading off into the woods to take up a new life in relative isolation where he won’t be constantly tempted to slaughter people (who, admittedly, generally needed slaughtering, and viewers may have been guilty of feeling gratified as Dexter began wrapping a room in plastic).
And, while Long Beach is adept at playing a sunny, palm tree-lined oceanfront playground such as Miami, it doesn’t have the acting chops to take on a role as a small town in the wilds of New York. So, there are no roles for a Long Beach home, or anything else in town, for the new season, which is expected to debut this fall for a 10-episode run.
No spoilers here, though Dexter as a lumberjack should have easyaccess to a few of his favored implements such as axes, hatchets and chainsaws and other sharp objects, so yes, one may suspect that there will be blood.
The filming for the new series is taking place on the opposite coast, in western Massachusetts, which is playing the role of the fictional town of Iron Lake, New York, according to Gary Wayne, who faithfully and diligently tracks locations for “Dexter” and other productions at his website seeing-stars.com.
Note: This story has been updated to correct the current filming site and fictional town of the upcoming season of “Dexter.”
