Rhode Island in the Limelight: Television

Rhode Island in the Limelight: Television

Which city was described as a pit? Where did Agent Mulder's family spend their summers?

Old television showing static
Image source: radiotvnut/videokarma.org.

Up until the last few years, television has had very little use for Rhode Island. Now, every other show seems to be set in the Ocean State. Is it because of the Providence Renaissance? The natural beauty of our coastline? Our lovable accents? Below we've tried our best to list every television show with a Rhode Island connection, however tenuous. If you know of one we've missed, drop us a line at stuffie@quahog.org.

For further information on television production in Rhode Island, see the Rhode Island Film and Television Office website.

Warning: Here there be spoilers!

Last Edited
2019-05-21

A Bear for Punishment

(1951) cartoon

Rhode Island is often the punch line of jokes, perhaps for no better reason than its own improbable existence, as in this Warner Brothers cartoon starring the Three Bears:

Junyer Bear: I will fill your favorite pipe for you, dear old dad, Pa. G-U-N-P-O-W-D-E-R, duh, "tobacco." I am a good speller, I am. C-A-T, "dog." B-A-T, "Rhode Island."

Cartoons in this era were originally produced as short subjects to be viewed at movie theaters, but heck, we grew up with them on television, so we include them here on the television page.

Rhode Island reference at 1:34:

Last Edited
2019-06-14

Adventures of Superman

(1952-'58) adventure series

Contrary to popular belief, the Industrial Trust Tower (1927) in Providence was not the model for the Daily Planet. The newspaper's building exterior in the series is actually Los Angeles City Hall, completed in 1928. Although the structures share a similar style, they were designed by separate teams of architects.

Black and white exterior view of Industrial Trust Building
Providence's Industrial Trust Tower. (Circa 1928 postcard).

Last Edited
2019-06-14

Gilligan's Island

(CBS, 1964-'67) situation comedy

Wikipedia notes that Thurston Howell III is a resident of Newport, or at least implies he spent some of his formative years there. The entry on his wife, Lovey Howell, further allows that the wealthy couple owns residences in every state.

Thurston Howell III and Lovey.
The Howells. (Tumblr).

Last Edited
2019-09-08

The Munsters

(CBS, 1964-'66) situation comedy

Another joke at the expense of Rhode Island (and noted short actor Mickey Rooney) comes from this show's season one, episode three, entitled "Walk on the Mild Side." Grandpa (Al Lewis) shows off his "enlarging machine," invented to make grandson Eddie (Butch Patrick) taller:

Grandpa: Why, with this machine, I could make Rhode Island the size of Texas. We'll make millions, and I'll make them bigger! I could even make the world's biggest Mickey Rooney!

The episode originally aired October 8, 1964.

Grandpa, Eddie, and Marilyn Munster discussing Grandpa's invention
(midnitereviews.com).

Last Edited
2019-06-26

Dark Shadows

(1966-'71) gothic soap opera

Newport's Seaview Terrace (aka the Carey Mansion, aka Burnham-by-the-Sea) provided some of the eerie exterior atmosphere for Collinsport, Maine's, Collinwood Mansion in this cult-classic gothic soap opera. The crashing waves seen in the opening sequence are said to have been filmed at Ochre Point, on the shoreline property of the Breakers mansion. Another Newport location was reportedly the Black Pearl Restaurant on Bannister's Wharf, which in the series was called the Blue Whale.

Screenshot of Dark Shadows opening credit sequence
(Youtube).

The connection between these and other real-life and fictional places was highlighted in a 1999 documentary called Dark Shadows on Location.

Postcard of Burnham-by-the-Sea
This postcard dates from the period of 1950-'68, when the mansion was "Burnham-by-the-Sea, summer vacation school for girls..."

Last Edited
2024-02-10

Super Chicken

(ABC, 1967) cartoon series

George of the Jungle was brought to us by the same twisted minds that created Rocky and Bullwinkle, and like that Cold-War classic, it included segments starring supporting players. One of these was Super Chicken, which chronicled the adventures of the titular character and his sidekick, a lion named Fred. In the second episode, September 16, 1967's "One of Our States is Missing," an evil villain tows Rhode Island out to sea. The episode is riddled with Rhode Island jabs and jibes, beginning with a scene in which an airliner comes in for a landing in Providence:

Pilot: Ladies and gentlemen, fasten your seatbelts, we are about to land at Providence, Rhode Island.
Co-pilot: Chauncy, are you sure that's Providence?
Pilot: What's it look like?
Co-pilot: Looks to me like there's nothing there.
Pilot: That's Providence all right. Set 'er down, Edgar.

Last Edited
2020-04-03

Wacky Races

(CBS, 1968-'70) cartoon series

Based on the 1965 film The Great Race, this cartoon series follows eleven sets of odd characters as they vie to win races with their equally bizarre vehicles. The villain of the piece is Dick Dastardly who, along with his sometimes faithful dog Muttley, takes every opportunity to cheat. Many of the episode titles are a play on words of place names, and it was the title "Rhode Island Road Race" (first aired on November 9, 1968), that brought the show to our attention.

The episode itself has dang little to do with Rhode Island (beyond an early reference from the narrator that the racers are on their way to Rocky Road, Rhode Island), and the title was clearly chosen merely in order to use a pair of alliterative homophones. Still, the endlessly repeating background scenery is vaguely reminiscent of New England, with stone walls, split-rail fences, farm houses, fields, steepled churches, and covered bridges rolling by. About half-way through the episode the racers roar into Big Town, population 50,000. There, Dastardly directs one racer into a subway, then detours everyone else onto the girders of a partially built skyscraper.

It's ultimately pointless to try to discuss the correlations between a cartoon and the real world (after all, this is a medium where an anvil dropped on someone's head merely raises a very tall bump), but we can at least agree that the writers of this episode were completely unfamiliar with Little Rhody.

Screenshot of Dick Dastardly in his car
(dailymotion.com).

Last Edited
2020-05-12

All My Children

(ABC, 1970-2011) soap opera

Rhode Island Monthly dutifully reported in its June 1992 issue that "the characters [of] Dr. Chuck Tyler and his wife, Donna, are leaving the fictional town of Pine Valley for... Rhode Island, where Dr. Tyler is assuming the post of chief of medicine at none other than Rhode Island Hospital." When contacted by the magazine, the actual chief of medicine at the hospital, Dr. Albert Most, seemed to take the news of his replacement in stride. "It might be a job exchange," he mused. "I've always had my eyes on a career in the soaps. The trade might satisfy both of us."

Last Edited
2020-05-12

The Odd Couple

(ABC, 1970-'75) situation comedy

Igor sitting up in his casket
Igor. (horrorhostgraveyard.com).

Site visitor Bob alerted us to the existence of an episode with a Rhode Island reference; eferruci came up with the episode title, "The Odd Candidate" (S5E7, aired October 24, 1974); and Len filled us in on the specifics:

Felix has persuaded Oscar to run for city council and, as part of the campaign, has arranged for Oscar to appear on a Saturday morning TV show on which old horror movies are shown. The host of the show is a Dracula knock-off played by Guy Marks who spends most of his time between commercials in a coffin. After one commercial break during a movie called, "The Monster That Ate Rhode Island," he sits up enthusing about the picture. And then he says, "Didn't you just love the part where he spits out Providence?"

Thanks, guys!

Last Edited
2020-06-03

All in the Family

(CBS, 1971-1979) comedy series

All in the Family cast photo
(Wikipedia).

In an episode from 1976, "The Draft Dodger," Archie asks a friend of Mike and Gloria's where he's from:

Gloria: He's from up north, north of Niagara Falls.
Archie: Oh! Over by Rhode Island way?

A friend of ours who pointed this episode out to us noted, "Very authentic use of Rhode Island in a geography conversation, I thought."

Last Edited
2020-06-03

America: A Personal History of the United States

(BBC and NBC, 1972-1973) documentary series

Here's an odd one—who knew that a documentary series about the history of the United States could survive more than a few episodes on network television? This one apparently did, and even managed a complete run of thirteen episodes, "ending with the social upheavals and counter-culture revolutions of the 1960s and 70s," according to IMDb. Rhode Island made an appearance in one of the episodes—probably episode 9, "Money on the Land," about the rise of wealth in the United States—with scenes shot at Marble House in Newport.

Narrated and co-written by Alistair Cooke, this series still occasionally shows up on PBS.

Last Edited
2020-07-28

Bridget Loves Bernie

(CBS, 1972-'73) situation comedy

Bridget Loves Bernie photo
(rottentomatoes.com).

"Greener Pastures," the final episode of this controversial (at the time) show had Bernie Steinberg (David Birney) considering relocating from New York City for a job in Rhode Island.

It would be interesting to know why the writers chose Rhode Island as the Steinbergs' possible new home. The controversial reputation of the show stemmed from the inter-religious, inter-class marriage of the main characters, working class Jew Bernie and rich Catholic Bridget (Meredith Baxter Birney). Rhode Island historically has been a haven for persons with minority beliefs. Connection? Random pick? Or was Rhode Island chosen for the usual reason, because of its utility as a punch line?

Last Edited
2022-07-02

Saturday Night Live

(NBC, 1975—) live variety show

SNL season 24 logo
(logos.fandom.com).

This long-running late-night live sketch comedy institution has taken a number of jabs at the Ocean State over the years.

From the March 22, 1997 show:

Linda Richman (Mike Meyers): Talk amongst yourselves. I'll give you a topic: Rhode Island, neither a road nor an Island. Discuss.

From the November 13, 2010 show:

Seth Meyers: Voters in Rhode Island rejected a proposition last week to change the state's official name from The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations to just Rhode Island, but I think people are just going to keep calling it "Connecticut's foreskin."

From the January 17, 2015 show:

Colin Jost: A new survey shows that the state with the most marijuana use is Rhode Island. Which explains Rhode Island's official state motto, "But if it's an island, where does the road go?"

From the April 14, 2018 show:

The establishing shot for the "drag brunch" segment, featuring host John Mulaney, is of Newport's Brick Alley Pub.

From the November 6, 2021 show:

A segment titled "Wake Up Rhode Island" features a meteoroloist who spent so much time preparing a silly, Thanksgiving Day-themed rap that he failed to predict a deadly nor-easter.

From the April 8, 2023 show:

A sketch about host Molly Shannon's Sally O'Malley character taking over as the Jonas Brothers' new choreographer is established with a still shot of a recognizable Providence cityscape: the Courtyard by Marriott Providence Downtown Hotel, the Omni Providence Hotel, and GTECH Center, as seen from the vicinity of Waterplace Park. The original photo is from the flickr photostream of a photographer named David Wilson, and is also used on GTECH's Wikipedia page.

SNL S48E17 screenshot.
SNL S48E17. (Screenshot).

Additionally, it should be noted that the 1980-'81 cast included Charles Rocket, a RISD alumnus who was a leading light in the early-1970s Providence arts and performance scene. He worked as a news reporter at WPRI Channel 12 for a time before joining SNL. He performed a number of impressions and characters on SNL, and hosted a recurring filmed segment called "The Rocket Report," but he is perhaps best remembered for dropping the F-bomb at the end of the February 21, 1981 show, for which he was dismissed.

Last Edited
2023-04-11

The Adams Chronicles

(PBS, 1976) miniseries

A large part of the complicated logistics involved in shooting this thirteen-part series included taping in various locations around Rhode Island. Newport's Marble House stood in for the court of Louis XVI at Versailles, for instance, and other Newport mansions were used for scenes that took place in England, France, Holland, and Saint Petersburg. Providence streets passed for Boston streets, and a farmhouse on Jencks Road in Foster represented one in Braintree, Massachusetts. Providence's John Brown House also got some screen time, and according to Kim Klyberg (whose father, Al, was director of the Rhode Island Historical Society at the time), "My Dad... was a nervous wreck that some hot light would come crashing down and torch the place!"

Screenshot of Dorrance House, Foster.
The Captain George Dorrance House (c1720 and c1750) at 257 Jencks Road in Foster served as John Adams' Braintree farmhouse. (E1, "John Adams, Lawyer").

Last Edited
2020-07-15

This Old House

(PBS, 1979—) home renovation series

This Old House logo
(www.thisoldhouse.com).

The latter half of season 33 focused on the renovation of the home of Geoffrey Allen and Michelle Forcier, a modified 1925 Cape situated on Barrington Beach in Barrington. The ten episodes ran from January 26 to March 29, 2012. Other location filming took place in Bristol; Matunuck, South Kingstown; Newport; Providence; Smithfield; and Warren. Hurricane Irene makes an appearance in S33E18, S33E19 includes segments on quahogging and a traditional Rhode Island clambake, and a side trip in S33E20 features the Newport mansion The Elms.

S33E17, The Barrington Beach House: An Introduction

S33E19, The Barrington Beach House: Building a Clambake!

Rhode Island must have turned out to be very production-friendly, because the show returned for seasons 40, 41, and 42, working on a Jamestown bungalow, a Westerly ranch, and a Narragansett cottage (46 Robinson Street), respectively. The S40 episodes aired from October 6, 2018, to February 9, 2019; S41 from October 6, 2019, to January 26, 2020; and S42 from November 1, 2020, to February 21, 2021.

S40E1, The Jamestown Net Zero House: The Net Zero Bungalow

S41E1, The Westerly Ranch House: A Ranch Out Westerly

S42E5, Seaside Victorian Cottage: Project Interrupted

Last Edited
2023-04-14

Unknown Production

(1979)

"1978 Nov. 30. For a 90-minute TV drama on Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a pioneer feminist, the Green Inn was catapulted back to 1867 to a small saloon in Kansas."—www.narragansetthistoricalsociety.com, March 27, 2017.

Green's Inn postcard
"Green's Inn. Narragansett Pier, R.I." Built in 1887, it was closed in 1975 and destroyed by fire in 1980. It was located at 175 Ocean Road. (Circa 1900-'10 postcard).

Last Edited
2023-03-16

The Dean of Thin Air

(PBS, 1983) Docudrama

Whitehall, 2016
Whitehall, Middletown. (July 23, 2016).

This hour-long production from WSBE-TV tells the story of the life and work of philosopher George Berkeley. Berkeley, who lived in Newport (now Middletown), Rhode Island, from January 1729 to September 1731, developed the theory that the physical world exists only in our perception of it. During his brief stay in Rhode Island, he bought a farm, built a house (Whitehall, which is still standing), and wrote the bulk of Alciphron, a defense of Christianity against free-thinking.

According to Dean writer and associate producer Frank Muhly, "The Dean is set in the early part of the eighteenth century and scenes take place in Ireland, England, and the colonies. We used the following Rhode Island locations for the piece: Smith's Castle in North Kingstown for scenes in England and Ireland; Casey Farm in Saunderstown for Ireland; The Elms in Newport for London; Whitehall, Berkeley's house in Middletown, as itself."

Last Edited
2023-04-16

The Cosby Show

(NBC, 1984-'92) situation comedy

Cosby Show logo
(seeklogo.com).

Season six began with Huxtable daughter Denise (Lisa Bonet) showing up on her parents' doorstep with a new husband, Lieutenant Martin Kendall (Joseph C. Phillips), and his four-year daughter Olivia (Raven-Symone). S6E4 found the couple traveling to the naval base in Newport to check out military housing. But removing the Kendalls from the confines of the Huxtable home so quickly didn't suit the producers' comedic agenda, and so of course, no one ended up moving to Rhode Island after all.

In S8E23, "Some Gifts Aren't Deductible," aired April 23, 1992, Cliff Huxtable (Bill Cosby) is seen wearing a Providence College sweatshirt throughout the episode.

Screen shot from S8E23
(kabeleins.ch).

Last Edited
2023-04-05

Murder, She Wrote

(CBS, 1984-'96)

Murder, She Wrote title card
Murder, She Wrote title card. (Wikipedia).

We're informed by Marcia W., who messaged us on Facebook on May 9, 2018:

I am watching an old episode ("Incident in Lot 7") of Murder, She Wrote. A body has just been discovered in the Universal Studios' building that had been used as the Bates' house in the movie, Psycho. One of the characters described his regard for the dead man, "If I had to tell anyone that I liked the guy, I'd get struck by a bolt of lightning the size of Rhode Island."

"Incident in Lot 7," S8E13, aired January 19, 1992.

Last Edited
2023-03-16

Commercial: The Christmas Gift

(1986)

Kingston Station, 2007
Kingston Station. (Jack McCabe, circa 2007)

Jack McCabe (posting on Facebook on June 7, 2022), told how he witnessed the filming of a commercial at the Kingston Train Station in West Kingston in 1986. He recalled it as being for "a John Denver Christmas special." Possibly he meant The Christmas Gift, a made-for-TV movie starring John Denver that was released on December 21 that year. The movie was filmed in Colorado, so it's unclear why a commercial for it would have been filmed in Rhode Island, but perhaps someone else out there will recall more details.

Filming inside Kingston Station, 1986
Interior shooting. (Jack McCabe, 1986).

Exterior filming, Kingston Station, 1986
Exterior shooting on the platform. (Jack McCabe, 1986).

Jack was working in the station in some capacity at the time, and he further noted that "I had some time to chat with the talents on their break. Although I was on duty I was pushed out of the office much of time by the film crew so they could get their work done. They took good care of us and [we] even had access to the food table."

Craft services, 1986
Sometimes there is such a thing as a free lunch. (Jack McCabe, 1986).

Last Edited
2023-04-16

America's Most Wanted

(Fox, 1988-2011; Lifetime, 2011-'12; Fox, 2021-present)

This venerable cops 'n' robbers show focused on Rhode Island a number of times. The first that we're aware of was a 1997 show on the apprehension of alleged killer Anthony Fitzroy Patterson. Patterson was mistakenly identified by a Most Wanted viewer as another alleged murderer, Dudley Forbes. When police attempted to question him, he fled in a car, injuring twelve people in a frantic ride through downtown Providence. AMW film crews recreated the chase on location a short time later, for an episode that aired on November 22, 1997. As the Providence Phoenix's Philippe and Jorge noted, "...some might find it odd that, after scaring hordes of downtown regulars out of their gourds, the whole fiasco was recreated again for television. But hey, if we want to be in the big leagues, this is the kind of stuff we gotta do."

The next intersection of the worlds of AMW and Rhode Island was when two fugitives, Tracey Lee Poirier and Pamela Kay Trimble, were arrested in Cranston and Providence on September 28, 1998. Convicted murderer Poirier had escaped from the Oregon Women's Correctional Center in Salem, Oregon, with the assistance of Trimble, a former guard at that facility. After the August 28, 1998, escape was featured on AMW, a tip led the FBI to Rhode Island. Poirer was apprehended by Providence detectives at Crugnale Bakery and Pizza in Cranston, where she had been hired (through an employment agency) as a temporary employee, and Trimble was picked up at a sausage shop called Baun Sou Nam, located on Sutton Street in Providence. A followup story on the capture was told on the October 10, 1998, show.

In early May 2005 AMW spent three days in Newport collecting footage for a segment on convicted rapist and fugitive Ronald Fischer. A Newport Superior Court jury convicted Fischer, a former East Greenwich anesthesiologist, in absentia on April 28, 2005, on two counts of first-degree sexual assault and one count of second-degree sexual assault, for the rape of a Westerly woman aboard his yacht, The Lion King, at Portsmouth's Hinckley Marina in April 2003. Possibly sensing which way his trial was heading, Fischer fled Rhode Island just days prior to the verdict. The segment aired on May 14, 2005, but despite an estimated audience of ten million viewers, there have been few leads, and Fischer is still at large as of July 2021.

A brief segment aired on August 6, 2006, trolling for information on the whereabouts of two men wanted for the murder of 24-year-old Pawtucket resident, Jessica C. Imran, and attempted murder of her friend, 28-year-old Julie Lange, in Imran's Lawn Avenue apartment July 27th. Suspects Barry Offley, 19, of Woonsocket, and Alonzo P. Shelton, 28, of Central Falls, were subsequently captured in a housing project in Ocala, Florida, September 7, 2006.

The August 26, 2006, show profiled alleged child-molester James W. Bell. He's accused of inappropriate actions with three girls, aged nine to thirteen, while employed at the Newport County YMCA in Middletown between 2000 and 2003. He was arrested in Washington state in August 2003, brought back to Rhode Island, and then released on bail in October. A new order for his arrest was issued when he failed to appear at a pretrial conference in Newport Superior Court on July 15, 2004. In April 2015 he was captured again in Washington, where he was held pending extradition back to Little Rhody.

Jonathan Quaweay's alleged crimes were profiled on the June 13, 2009, broadcast. Quaweay disappeared after allegedly shooting three people at the Sportsman's Inn and Gentleman's Club in Providence on March 24. After the story aired a viewer tip led U.S. Marshals to the Atlanta, Georgia, apartment where Quaweay was hiding out. Arrested, he was taken to the Fulton County Jail to await extradition back to Rhode Island.

Last Edited
2021-07-04

Ciao Italia

(PBS, 1989—) cooking series

For the show's 2001 season, host Mary Ann Esposito traveled to Italian-American and Italian-Canadian cities in search of food good enough to come home for, landing in Providence for show #1003. There, Mary Ann rode in a Venetian gondola with then-Mayor Buddy Cianci, then helped out while Cianci prepared his Aunt Anna's eggplant parmesan casserole for the television viewing audience.

View Buddy's segment:

Ciao Italia Executive Producer Paul Lally recalls that "Buddy was gracious, bombastic, and fun to be with. Just before we filmed in his kitchen he phoned his great-Aunt Anna to make sure he got the recipe right. [Then] he and Mary Ann cooked up plenty of eggplant. A memorable occasion to say the least."

Time moves on, and so do mayors, so 2008 brought us an episode filmed in the kitchen of Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline. The theme was "Entertaining with the Mayor," and Esposito helped hizzoner make enough antipasti to serve a passel of post-Columbus Day Parade guests. Italian-style cold meat products were supplied by Daniele, Inc., and other ingredients were provided by Eastside Marketplace.

S18E21: Recipe #3: Stuffed Red Pepper Boats:

Ciao Italia, in its thirtieth season as of 2023, is the longest-running cooking series in America. The series was filmed at the studios of Rhode Island PBS beginning in 2001, when Esposito was invited down from New Hampshire by Rhode Island legislators who saw a chance to spotlight Providence's Italian heritage. Most of each season's twenty-six episodes are shot in one marathon two-week session. For the first eighteen seasons the show's set was a duplicate of Esposito's own kitchen back in New Hampshire, but in 2008 she got a brand new, bigger kitchen set. All of the design, materials, and labor to build the set were donated by Rhode Island companies—HSI Construction, Kenneth Castellucci and Associates, Douglas Lumber and Home Center, and Ann Huntoon Design.

Production left Rhode Island PBS after the summer of 2015.

Last Edited
2023-03-22

Cops

(Fox, 1989-2013, 2023; Paramount, 2013-'20; Fox Nation, 2021-'22) reality series

Cops logo
(amazon.com).

Film crews spent about eight weeks riding with Providence police officers in the summer of 1995. The visit yielded footage for four episodes for season nine:

November 9, 1996, S9E9, "Providence, Rhode Island 1"
November 16, 1996, S9E10, "Providence, Rhode Island 2"
November 23, 1996, S9E11, "Providence, Rhode Island/Boston, Massachusetts 1"
December 21, 1996, S9E14, "Providence, Rhode Island/Boston, Massachusetts 2"

Some highlights of one of the Providence-centric episodes: a nighttime domestic violence call brings us to an Elmwood neighborhood back yard where a guy is threatening to stab himself. He's apparently been mixing valium, Tylenol, alcohol, and mental illness to fine effect. Learning that the responding officer's name is Sergeant Campbell, he yells, "Do you make soup? Whyn't you go back 'n' make soup!?"

Another call elsewhere in Providence is about "sounds in the attic." The responding officer is greeted at the door by a little old lady, but our first glimpse of her tips us off that she ain't no ordinary ol' biddy. Her lipstick is applied far too generously and the hint of a very thick, very dark unibrow (or maybe a really big melanoma), lurks behind her bangs and Coke-bottle glasses. Her voice is like a rock crusher in low gear. The upstairs room proves to be empty, but the lady assures the officer she heard something, and that "they're planning to capture me." The clincher is the half-leering, half goggle-eyed look she gives the camera as the officer turns to leave at the end of the segment. Must be seen to be believed.

The SGQ (Shirtless Guy Quotient) for this episode is two.

Last Edited
2023-04-04

Life Goes On

(ABC, 1989-'93) drama series

Life Goes On DVD cover
(IMDB).

We're told that in S4E15, "Bedfellows," the character of Becca (Kellie Martin) expresses a desire to attend Brown University. Or maybe she decides she doesn't want to attend Brown University. Could both be true? We're sure there is a rabid Life Goes On fan out there who can set us straight.

Last Edited
2023-04-04

The Simpsons

(Fox, 1989—) animated comedy series

Simpsons title screen
(youtube).

In S10E7, "Lisa Gets an 'A'," (aired November 22, 1998), a series of events leads to Lisa being unprepared for what should have been a simple test. As she draws blank after blank she begins to imagine that her failure will result in being locked out of first-choice Harvard, and that she will have to attend (shudder) Brown University instead, like bus driver Otto. Brown ('81) alumnus and Simpson's writer Ian Maxtone-Graham takes credit for chosing his alma mater as Lisa's less-than-top choice: "I chose Brown because I went there, and I felt like the school could take a joke," Maxtone-Graham wrote in an email to The Brown Daily Herald.

S10E7: "Not Brown!"

In S15E2, "My Mother the Carjacker," (aired November 9, 2003), an encrypted message in the newspaper reveals that Homer's mother, Mona, did not die in a fiery bus crash as everyone believes: "Homer. Your mother loves you. I escaped from the bus the moment before it plunged off the cliff. I then hitched a ride from a nice young couple. We had lunch at a lovely diner. They had clam chowder, Rhode Island style. I never knew there was such a thing! And the crackers kept on coming..."

In S18E6, "Moe'N'a Lisa," (aired November 19, 2006), Homer is greeted by a passel of law enforcement vehicles after having driven drunk all the way from Springfield to the Word Loaf Literary Conference in Vermont. "Wow," exclaims Homer, "troopers from every state in New England!" A tiny trooper on a Big Wheel responds, "Including Rhode Island. We're a small state but we give big tickets!"

Last Edited
2023-04-17

Bob Vila's Home Again aka Bob Vila

(1990-2007) syndicated home improvement series

The second half of the eleventh season (2000) of this popular home improvement show is given over entirely to profiles of eleven properties being renovated in Providence's Elmwood neighborhood. The first episode includes a short history of Elmwood Avenue. One of the featured houses is the 1896 Colonial Revival/Victorian at 203 Lexington Avenue, owned by Mark and Christina Macheska.

Season 11, Episode 1:

Last Edited
2022-06-23

Law and Order

(NBC, 1990—) crime series franchise

Law and Order logo
(Wikipedia).

per Marcia W. on Facebook, January 10, 2018:

Law and Order periodically references Rhode Island. I've heard them use Rhode Island, Providence, and Westerly. It's usually where the bad guys try to create an alibi, e.g., "I went to...," "I was in..."

In one SVU episode, a stalker stayed on the first floor at a Providence hotel. He bypassed the door entry system by climbing out a window. He then drove to New York, raped his victim, and got back into his room the same way. It was only when the detectives went to the hotel that they realized how he carried out his crime.

Last Edited
2023-03-17

Blossom

(NBC, 1991-'95) comedy drama

Blossom cast.
(IMDB).

Blossom's (Mayim Bialik) brother Anthony (Michael Stoyanov) moves with his family to Rhode Island in S5E18, "The Departure." The fact that show creator Dan Reo grew up in Cranston may have something to do with this narrative choice.

Last Edited
2022-06-21

Sightings

(Fox, 1991-'93; syndication, 1994-'96; Sci-Fi Channel, 1996-'97) paranormal series

S4E7, aired October 22, 1995, includes a segment titled "Consumed by Vampires." The piece retells the story of purported Rhode Island vampire Mercy Brown, featuring state folklorist Michael E. Bell and Mercy Brown decendent Louis Peck.

Last Edited
2023-04-05

Better Days

(pilot, 1992) situation comedy

Better Days script.
Better Days pilot script. (eBay).

This was a pilot for CBS that never got picked up. Set in Providence, it was about "Eddy Procacini [Peter Dodson], a street-smart hustler who suddenly becomes father to his sister's orphaned 12- and 13-year-old children." Show creator Dan Reo (also the creator of Blossom) grew up in Cranston and based the main character on a Cranston East High School classmate. The principal set was the Miss Providence Diner, an eatery owned by Eddy's father, from which Eddy ran a number of shaky business deals from a bank of pay phones. In a Providence Journal article about the show, Reo admitted the accents wouldn't be authentic because he didn't think a New Jersey actor could imitate a Rhode Island accent. He also mentioned that he had called George's of Galilee to find out how much they charged for clam cakes, because the diner was going to have clam cakes on its menu. "They said, 'We don't give out that information on the phone.' I said, 'What? It's a state secret? How much are your clam cakes?!'"

Actual production took place on a California soundstage, but a second-unit crew came to Cranston in March 1992 for some exterior shots. For Eddy's house they filmed the front of 19 Briarcliffe Road, a house belonging to Cranston Fire Department Captain Bruce Shaw. The Miss Providence was based on the Miss Cranston on Oaklawn Avenue, but the set built to represent the diner didn't match the exterior of the real restaurant, so a historical photo of a defunct Woonsocket diner (possibly O'Connor's) was used for the exterior establishing shot. A diner modeled on Haven Brothers was originally considered, but it was just too small to be a workable sitcom set.

Note: The Miss Cranston Diner was heavily damaged by fire in 2014. The business moved to a nearby strip mall, and the original diner was demolished in 2015.

Last Edited
2022-06-02

The Trials of Claus von Bulow

(1992) documentary

The title is pretty self-descriptive of the contents. Not much known about it in terms of if, when, or where it aired, although indications are it was made for British television. A review by C. Wys on www.amazon.com says that it "...features quite a good portion of actual trial footage from the Rhode Island courtrooms... You can see the jury as they are addressed by the prosecution and defense, and you can hear and see the verdict read in real time. Interviews with [attorney Alan] Dershowitz and Mr. von Bulow, as well as footage of Sunny's children and home, and news footage from the 1980s are all included."

Here's a clip:

Last Edited
2023-04-06

The X-Files

(Fox, 1993-2002, '16, '18) sci-fi drama series

X-Files logo

Special Agent Fox Mulder's (David Duchovny) family owns a cottage in Quonochontaug. This spells trouble for Assistant Director Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) when he can't pronounce it:

Skinner: Agent Mulder, we've just received a call here that might cause you some alarm.
Mulder: What is it?
Skinner: Your mother has been admitted in a hospital in serious condition, in a small coastal town in Rhode Island called... Quono...
Mulder: Quonochontaug? I'm on my way.

S3E24, "Talitha Cumi," broadcast May 17, 1996.

Screenshot
(Screenshot, S3E24).

If you're not a Rhode Islander, you can be forgiven for thinking that Quonochontaug is a made-up place name, but it's a real beach community in Charlestown. It's also a Native American word that means "black fish."

Last Edited
2023-11-22

The Buccaneers

(BBC-WGBH, 1995) mini series

The Buccaneers promo photo
(IMDB).

This was the first BBC mini-series to be shot on American soil. Based on an unfinished novel by Newport resident Edith Wharton, the story follows five rich New York girls who travel to England in search of titled husbands. Action that took place in Saratoga Springs, New York, in the novel, was switched to Newport for the film. Shooting took place in Newport over two weeks in May 1994.

Locations that are featured prominently in the production include Château-sur-Mer (sitting room and dining room), Marble House (ballroom), The Elms (conservatory), and The Ledges, a white Victorian at 66 Ocean Drive owned by resident Fred Cushing. When the heroines descend the staircase to be introduced to society, that's Marble House. The scenes under the copper beech tree are at Château-sur-Mer. The scenes at the beginning and end of the program, with the girls on the lawn, are at Fred Cushing's. Bellevue Avenue, covered with a layer of gravel and dirt for exterior scenes with horse-drawn carriages, stood in for 1873 New York and Saratoga.

Shot on a huge (for its time) ten million dollar budget, the series was watched by approximately sixteen million potential British tourists when it first aired.

Last Edited
2022-07-05

Star Trek: Voyager

(UPN, 1995-2001) sci-fi series

In the two-hour series finale, entitled "Endgame," it is revealed that in an alternate future, Ensign Harry Kim (Garrett Wang) will be Captain Harry Kim. His starship? The USS Rhode Island (NCC-72701 for you geeks out there). The episode first aired in the United States on May 23rd, 2001.

Illustration of USS Rhode Island
(Pinterest).

The top comment in a thread on this topic in the Rhode Island subReddit came from techsavior: "None of the pilots know where the turn signals are. The galactic speed limit is just a suggestion. There's at least a dozen NY System stands and Dunkin's on every deck. The plasma conduits transport 'Gansett and Del's. The lounge is named after Buddy Cianci. There's a statue of Roger Williams in every crew quarters. There was a petition to Starfleet to change the registry to NCC-401."

Last Edited
2023-04-08

Antiques Roadshow

(WGBH, 1997—) antiques appraisal show

Antiques Roadshow logo.
(WGBH Boston).

On August 21, 1999, WGBH's beloved Antiques Roadshow chose the Rhode Island Convention Center in downtown Providence as a stop on its nationwide tour. The two one-hour shows that resulted premiered on February 21 and 28, 2000, and featured visits to the Nightingale-Brown House on College Hill and the Rhode Island School of Design Museum, respectively. The biggest find of the day turned out to belong to a woman from Chepachet, whose jeweled jade-and-gold box, made at the Edward Farmer Studio in New York, was valued at $80,000 to $120,000.

AR returned to the Rhode Island Convention Center on June 18, 2005. Rhode Island was chosen as one of only five stops for AR's tenth season, and the only stop in the Northeast. Local profiles featured Rose Island Lighthouse, the Culinary Archives and Museum, and the Providence Jewelry Museum. The collected footage aired in three parts on Boston's Channel 2 on May 8, 15, and 22, 2006.

A September 19, 2017 visit to the grounds of Newport's Rosecliff mansion was set to be the show's first all-outdoor shoot, but passing remnants of Hurricane Jose forced a change to an outdoor/indoor event. Aired over three episodes (S22E17, 18, and 19) on May 14, 21, and 28, 2018, the shows featured "segments narrated off-camera by Mark Wahlberg about [Rosecliff's] construction, history, and features, as well as those of neighboring mansions." The coolest appraised item in our opinion was the wooden paroramic viewer box, containing two thirty-foot rolls illustrated with "Excursion Views of Narragansett Bay and Block Island," circa 1878. The appraiser valued the object at $6,000-$8,000.

Example of a panorama viewer box.
An example of an "Excursion Views of Narragansett Bay and Block Island" panorama viewer box. (Bonhams auction house).

Digitized copies of similar rolls, courtesy of Paolo and Larry DePetrillo, can be found here (East Bay) and here (West Bay).

Last Edited
2022-05-16

City Confidential

(A&E, 1998-2005; 2021-present) true crime series

City Confidential title screen
(IMDB).

City Confidential strives to emulate the content and tone of scandal sheets from the 1940s and '50s for a modern audience and largely succeeds. We're aware of three episodes of this lurid true crime series that are set in Rhode Island.

The first, titled "Newport: Chaos in the Castle," aired November 24, 2003, and concerns the brouhaha over adopted son Kevin Tinney's bid for his "due share" of the Belcourt Castle estate. The episode includes lots of shots of mansions, the harbor, Fort Adams, the Casino, the New York Yacht Club, Thames Street, the White Horse Tavern, Bowen's Wharf, Cliff Walk, etcetera. At one point narrator Paul Winfield misidentifies the Newport Bridge as the Narragansett Bay Bridge. Among the talking heads enlisted to help pad out the hour are Trudy Coxe, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of the Preservation Society of Newport County; Anita Rafael, Curator of the White Horse Tavern and founder of the Newport on Foot tour company; Harle Tinney; Kevin Tinney; lawyers for both sides; and Superior Court Judge Frank Williams.

Fans of garish analogies will find a few good ones here: "Like an aging trophy wife visiting her plastic surgeon, the Preservation Society tries to stop time right down to the smallest detail"; "Like a trust fund baby partying through her inheritance, the money ran out"; "Like a debutante with a drinking problem, there's plenty of dirt lurking behind the pristine facades that line Bellevue Avenue."

A second episode concerns the disappearance and murder of Ernest, Alice, and eight-year-old Emily Brendel of Barrington on September 20, 1991. Narrator Paul Winfield, though not his usual sonorous self (he had suffered a stroke in recent months), spends most of the hour pounding home the idea that Barrington is an affluent, lily-white suburb where Things Like This Just Don't Happen. "Being better than the rest of Rhode Island is something the good people of Barrington take for granted," he slurs portentously, "though they don't like to brag about it." An interview with the owner of Imagine Gift Shop, touching on the local controversy over whether her blue fiberglass cow is a sculpture or a commercial sign, paints the town fathers as a bunch of pedantic, elitist prigs. Shots of boats, golf courses, nice houses with neatly trimmed lawns, and fit, beautiful people walking, riding, and roller blading on the bike path contribute to the continual beating of a dead horse. Rather than eliciting sympathy for the victims, the overall tone of the piece seems to be saying that, damn their eyes, those rich bastards deserved it.

Contrary to the narrative uttered over the many shots of Country and Mathewson roads, Barrington doesn't actually have any gated communities—not to mention that such a thing would be at odds with the whole nice town premise. In another sloppy detail, there's a shot of "ransom money" that features bundles of $100 bills, but the bands wrapped around the bundles are for one-dollar bills.

When the show actually gets around to telling the story of the murder, locations we're shown include the Brendel home at 51 Middle Highway, murderer Christopher Hightower's house at 1 Jones Circle, Primrose Hill School (which Emily attended), Newport Creamery, Barrington Town Hall, the Barrington Professional Building (where Ernest Brendel had an office), Brickyard Pond, Bayside Family YMCA (where Hightower picked up Emily), Brown University's Van Wickle Gates, and the Rhode Island Court House in Providence. Archival local news and police video and interviews with principal players add some much-needed authority. The show first aired on January 1, 2004.

The third episode first aired November 20, 2004. "Providence, RI: The Mayor and the Mob" covered the career of Buddy Cianci and his downfall in Operation Plunder Dome. The production company visited Providence in mid-June, collecting lots of local color, including the Providence Place Mall, Federal Hill restaurants, WaterFire, Buddy's former home at 33 Power Street, and City Hall. The show also made use of local television footage of various high (and low) points of Buddy's career, as well as interviews with persons close to the action, like Providence Journal investigative reporter Mike Stanton, Channel 12 investigative reporter Jack White, comedian (and Plunder Dome courtroom artist) Charlie Hall, WHJJ radio talk show host Arlene Violet, Cianci defense attorney Richard Egbert, the FBI's undercover witness Antonio Freitas, federal prosecutor Craig Moore, and FBI agent W. Dennis Aiken. The one person missing was Cianci, who declined to be interviewed—probably because he was in prison at Fort Dix, New Jersey, at the time, serving a five year, four month sentence for racketeering conspiracy. More importantly, he wouldn't have been allowed to wear his toupee on camera.

Last Edited
2023-04-01

Dawson's Creek

(The WB, 1998-2003) drama series

Dawson's Creek logo
(distractify).

The McPhee family, who entered the series at the beginning of season two, moved to the fictional Cape Cod town of Capeside from Providence following the death of oldest son Tim. Daughter Andie (Meredith Monroe) has inherited mental health problems exacerbated by her brother's death, and at the end of season two she returns to Providence with her father so she can see a therapist there.

Last Edited
2023-04-14

Cold Case Files

(A&E, 1999-2006; Netflix, 2017—) true crime series

Cold Case Files splash
(Wikipedia).

One half hour of the September 23, 2006, show, titled "Deadly Stroll," was devoted to the case of Jeffrey Mailhot, Woonsocket's serial murderer. During 2003 and 2004 Mailhot preyed on prostitutes he picked up on Arnold Street, brought back to his apartment, strangled, dismembered, and disposed of in trash bins around the city. He's known to have killed three women; the escape of another, Jocilin Martel, led to his arrest. Locations used in the episode include Arnold Street, the Central Landfill in Johnston (where remains of the third victim, Stacie K. Goulet, were found), the Woonsocket police station where Mailhot was held and where he confessed, and the Licht Judicial Complex in Providence where he pleaded guilty in early 2006. The landlord of Mailhot's apartment at 221 Cato Street wouldn't give permission to film inside, so producers had to settle for filming on the street itself.

Last Edited
2023-04-03

House Hunters

(HGTV, 1999-present) real estate series

If watching other people shop for real estate is on your top ten list of life's pleasures, this show is for you. And if, additionally, you're a real Rhode Island-o-phile like us, there are six episode you won't want to miss:

S19E13, "Planting Rhode Island Roots," aired March 18, 2007. Recent college grad Stacy Kish is so done with her cramped little apartment near the airport, and can't wait to begin paying the mortgage on her own little slice of heaven. She enlists the help of realtor Alayna Berek who guides Stacy through three Warwick properties: a single-level condo, a semi-detached townhouse, and a regular townhouse. After much agonizing, Stacy chooses the semi-detached and, presumably, lives happily ever after. The episode includes a montage of Warwick scenes, and a scene with Stacy and some of her friends hanging out at an empty Grille on Main in East Greenwich.

S25E8, "Renting in Rhode Island," aired May 18, 2008. Lisa Davis and her kids, Rachel and Ryan, tired of the rental rat race, tour three Cranston properties—all of which have pink bathrooms. One of the properties, according to a Quahog reader who was surprised to see a familiar house in the episode, is located on the corner of Rangely Road and Crestwood Court. "I recognized our neighbors' house directly across on Rangely and then the exterior of the house next door, the featured home," she told us. "I also remember all three of the prospects in this episode having pink bathrooms and the buyer... asking if all the bathrooms in Cranston were pink. We laughed as our home had a pink and black bath, which we renovated to black and white! Anyway, we knew that the featured house contained a lower-level in-law suite (because we had met the couple who lived in that apartment). Oddly, the in-law suite was neither shown nor mentioned. As the camera panned the outside area, we saw a portion of our roof. The buyer did not choose our neighbors' house. What is really strange about this is neither we or any neighbors noticed a film crew around the neighborhood."

S68E5, "Swim Instructor Wants Home Near Beach in Narragansett, Rhode Island," aired September 28, 2012. HGTV episode description: "Swim instructor, Jaimie, is ready to move out of her sister's place and into a home of her own. She wants a three-bedroom home with a large yard for her dogs. Since she enjoys open-ocean swimming, Jaimie wants her home as close to the beach as possible. But with just $250,000 to spend in one of New England's most sought-after coastal enclaves, she's in for a wake-up call."

S98E5, "Young Providence Buyers Battle Over Loft vs. Single Family Home," aired March 4, 2015: HGTV episode description: "Dylan and Jenica are looking for their first home in Providence, Rhode Island. He's set on a loft, or an income property, in the heart of downtown. She has her eyes on a single family colonial in the suburbs, with a formal dining room and good space for her to give voice lessons."

S156E1, "Situated in Scituate," aired December 12, 2018: HGTV episode description: "Two buyers searching outside of Providence are like oil and water. From the need for a pool to picking a design style, their wish lists just don't mix. But with four kids and a limited budget, they'll have a lot of compromising to do." Verde Vineyards in the adjacent town of Johnston is a featured location.

S156E12, "Picky in Providence," aired January 29, 2019: HGTV episode description: "A Providence, Rhode Island, couple wants to buy a vintage home. But while he appreciates the ornateness of a Victorian, she finds them creepy and would prefer the simplicity of a Craftsman."

Believe it or not, there's more of this incredible edge-of-your-seat drama just waiting to be seen. With several seasons being chucked in the can each year, there are (as of April 2021) 199 seasons of House Hunters to look at.

Last Edited
2021-04-10

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation

(CBS, 2000-'15) crime drama

CSI logo
(Wikimedia Commons).

In S12E3, "Bittersweet," aired October 5, 2011, the team attempts to unravel the identity of a corpulent corpse who drowned in a vat of chocolate:

Angie Salinger (Kelly Hu): That's Tristan Duran. Now, him I know, every inch.
Morgan Brody (Elizabeth Harnois): Then you can confirm the birthmark on his left butt cheek. The one in the shape of Rhode Island.
A.S.: Absolutely.
Greg Sanders (Eric Szmanda): Chad Ellis has a birthmark, too. Only now it's the size of Texas.

Last Edited
2023-04-06

Gilmore Girls

(The WB, 2000-'07) comedy-drama series

Gilmore Girls title screen
(Wikipedia).

The Providence Journal plays a small part in episodes 18 and 20 of the seventh season. Rory Gilmore (Alexis Bledel) declines a job opportunity with the Journal in anticipation of a possible internship with the New York Times. But that doesn't work out, and when she finds out the Chicago Sun-Times isn't hiring either, she calls to beg for the Journal job, without success.

Last Edited
2019-06-05

The Amazing Race

(CBS, 2001-present) travel competition series

Season 10 (September 17 to December 10, 2006), included father-daughter team Duke (of Narragansett) and Lauren Marcoccio (of Warwick). They were eliminated at the end of the third leg of the race. Duke is the owner and operator of My Little Town, purveyer of nostalgic ornaments and keepsakes.

Jordan and Daniel Pious, of Barrington.
Jordan and Daniel Pious, of Barrington. (cbs.com).

Season 16 (February 14 to May 9, 2010), was won by brothers Jordan and Daniel Pious, of Barrington. Michael Naylor, of Warwick, and Louis Stravato, of Bristol, were eliminated in the eleventh leg. Naylor and Stravato are Newport and Providence police detectives, respectively.

Season 23 (September 29 to December 8, 2013), was won by Jason Case, of Attleboro, Massachusetts, and Amy Diaz, of Providence.

Olivia "Olive" Beauregard of Providence made it to ninth place in Season 29 (March 30, 2017 June 1, 2017).

As of Season 33 (2022), The Amazing Race has not yet filmed in Rhode Island. The only New England state visited so far is Massachusetts (in Season 17).

Last Edited
2022-11-24

The Best of...

(Food Network, 2001-2005) food and travel series

The show featured the Ocean State in it's second and sixth seasons:

  • S2E9, La Petite Auberge Restaurant, Providence
  • S2E10, Fire and Ice, Providence
  • S2E37, Agora, Providence
  • S2E48, Chez Pascal, Providence
  • S2E59, Scialo Brothers Bakery, Providence
  • S6E4, Salvation Café, Newport
  • S6E11, The Black Pearl and Hot Dog and Chowder Annex, Newport
  • S6E12, Flo's Clam Shack, Middletown
  • S6E14, Cheeky Monkey Café, Newport
  • S6E16, The Chanler at Cliff Walk's Spiced Pear Restaurant, Newport
  • S6E18, Aunt Carrie's, Narragansett
  • S6E28, Castle Hill Inn and Resort, Newport
  • S6E32, Castle Hill Inn and Resort, Newport

We actually learned something from one of the Castle Hill Inn episodes—in Rhode Island, "Happy Hour" is illegal. To get around the law, the Inn hosts "Social Hour" instead. Who says semantics are overrated?

Last Edited
2022-05-30

America's Walking

(PBS, 2002-2003) health and fitness series

Episode 111, "Trails to Fitness," was shot in Cranston and Providence.

From the episode description on pbs.org:

Trail Steward Linda Heroux of Cranston, Rhode Island was 60 lbs. overweight and began walking at a trail across town. After getting tired of driving to the trail everyday, she decided to maintain a trail of her own near her house.

The Providence-based East Coast Greenway Association is a system of trails and greenways maintained all along the East Coast; ECGA representative David Dionne discusses their work and how long-distance trails are sure to be the recreation of the future.

A visit to Providence, Rhode Island which has made a remarkable comeback in recent years. Its revitalized waterfront is a lovely place to walk.

Last Edited
2021-09-24

American Idol

(Fox, 2002—) talent search series

American Idol logo.
(wikimedia commons).

Season eleven included South Kingstown singer Erika Van Pelt, who made it to tenth place before being eliminated on March 22, 2012. Her first appearance was in the second episode during auditions in Pittsburgh, which aired July 15, 2011. The episode prior to her elimination included a profile of Erika that showed her home in the Green Hill neighborhood of South Kingstown and a shot of Wakefield's Main Street.

Last Edited
2022-05-16

The Bachelor

(ABC, 2002—) reality series

The Bachelor logo.
(bachelor-nation.fandom.com).

Warwick resident Krisily Kennedy (Miss Rhode Island USA 2003) graced the Spring 2005 (S7) season of the show, making it all the way to the final two before being rejected, in the May 16 finale, in favor of a nurse from Texas.

In one episode, cameras followed the twenty-five-year-old Kennedy back to Warwick for a visit with her family. Her grandmother, Kathy Kennedy, danced a bump and grind with Krisily, then advised her grandaughter that sleeping with the Bachelor (Charlie O'Connell) would give her an edge over other contestants. All right, grandma!

Here's how other Rhode Island contestants have fared:

  • S5, Karen Lindsay, a former Miss Rhode Island (1999). Eliminated in week four (5th place).
  • S15, Jackie Gordon from Newport. Eliminated in week six (7th place).
  • S17, Lauren Marchetti from Cranston. One of seven eliminated in the week one rose ceremony.
  • S26, Jill Chin from Scituate. One of three eliminated in the week five rose ceremony.

Last Edited
2022-05-17

All-American Festivals

(Food Network, 2003-2007) food series

S5E4, "Chowder Festival," finds us in Newport, where perpetual eleven-year-old Jim O'Connor hosts a look at the 2004 Newport Chowder Cook-Off. Greg Davenport of Davenport's Bar and Grill, East Providence, talks about his lobster, shrimp, fish, clam, and scallop chowder. Bill Sousa of The Mooring Restaurant, Newport, shows off his scallop chowder. We see some second unit shots along the Newport waterfront and around the harbor, then we join Bill Silks and Todd Carreira as they harvest oysters. Bill Squid demonstrates quahogging. Then back to the festival, where Jim "helps" judge clam cakes.

The results: Chelo's clam cakes are the number one choice for the third year in a row. The Mooring takes second place in the Creative Chowder category, edged out from first by San Francisco's Blue Mermaid Chowder House. Davenport's secures first place for their Seafood Chowder, and in the Clam Chowder category it's Captain Parker's Pub from West Yarmouth, Massachusetts.

The episode aired on January 4, 2006.

Last Edited
2021-02-09

The Bachelorette

(ABC, 2003-'05, 2008—) reality series

The Bachelorette logo.
(allears.net).

In S15E4, host Chris Harrison announces the location of the next group date: "It might be the smallest state in the union, but it's where the rich and powerful play. Okay, you guys are heading to Newport, Rhode Island!" The guys stay at Gurney's Newport Resort and Marina, and play a rugby game at Fort Adams with the Newport Rugby Club. Bachelorette Hannah Brown has evening conversations with the dude-bros at Linden Place in Bristol. The next day includes a lobster fishing date near Sakonnet Light, dinner at the White Horse Tavern, a concert at the Jane Pickens Theatre, and a cocktail party at Belcourt of Newport. The episode began filming in Newport on March 21, 2019, and aired June 3. Aardvark Antiques provided props for the show, including a pair of monumental lions.

Only a handful of Rhode Island contestants have taken part in the series:

  • S6, Jay Resmini from Barrington. One of eight eliminated in the week one rose ceremony. Prior to elimination he was featured in a brief profile in which he visited his parents' home in Barrington, Barrington town hall, and the inside of a Providence courthouse. Resmini is a lawyer with his father's firm, Resmini Law Associates.
  • S7, Michael Burns from Providence. One of seven eliminated in the week one rose ceremony.
  • S11, Jared Haibon from Warwick. Eliminated in week seven (4th place).

Last Edited
2022-05-18

Ciao America with Mario Batali

(Food Network, 2003-'04) cooking series

Ciao America title card, cropped
(watch.plex.tv).

Batali (or his producers) was sufficiently impressed with Little Rhody's cuisine scene that he slipped segments filmed here into at least three episodes of this short-lived show.

In S1E8, "Italian Snack Food" (aired December 10, 2003), Mario's looking for an Italian snack, and, among other places, he's drawn to Rhode Island.

The segment begins with a shot from Providence's Memorial Boulevard, looking past the Meeting House of the First Baptist Church in America and up the Moshassuck River. Mario's then shown ambling down Atwells Avenue, past Andino's Restaurant.

Suddenly the camera's inside a "no-frills joint called Caserta Pizzeria." Instead of saying "caSURda's," like anyone from Rhode Island would, though, he says "caSEARta PIZaREEuh" (rolling the Rs). It's rather disconSEARting, reminiscent of the way that normally white-bread NPR reporters in the '80s would refer to the conflict in "Nichhhhhhhhhoragua."

Mario's idea of an Italian snack is Caserta's "signature stuffed pizza," the Wimpy Skippy, which is really a spinach pie stuffed with cheese and pepperoni. Mario helps make some, and we learn that Caserta's goes through two tons of cheese and 500 pounds of pepperoni in a week—probably about the same as Mario himself. The secret to the popularity of Caserta's crust, says baker John Campagnone, lies in one of the ingredients. "Rhode Island water makes it good," he claims, somehow managing to keep a straight face.

Wimpy Skippy, 2006
A Wimpy Skippy. (January 22, 2006).

Batali: Where'd the name Wimpy Skippy come from?
Campanone: Wimpy Skippy, they were guys that hung out together on the Avenue, because they came here so often, the owners, what they did is they named one of their calzones after their two best friends.
B.: One was Wimpy and one was Skippy?
C.: Yes.
B.: Cool.

After proclaiming "This is the perfect snack food," Mario then appears at Al Forno for some high-falutin', thin-crust, fire-grilled pizza. It's one of those places where instead of shaking on spices, they squish a leaf and drop it on the top.

We couldn't help but notice, however, that Mario did not try (or even mention) Rhode Island's own pizza strips. The Food network shall be notified.

We haven't yet seen S2E3, "Menu of the Day" (aired February 18, 2004), in which the Ocean State supplies the local backdrop for a preparation of seafood ravioli.

S2E4, "America's Little Italys," however, we have seen. It first aired on February 25, 2004. The Rhode Island segment starts with Batali walking along with the automated post office in the background (Did he mail himself to Rhode Island? In a big, big box?). Suddenly he's slouching down Atwells Avenue to Mediterraneo (closed in 2015) where they add "a little American flair" to traditional antipasti. In this case, American flair means deep frying breaded mozzarella with basil and Parma ham in a li'l treat they call "mozzarella in a carriage," (Which sounds way classier than "Cheesy Camaro").

Mozzarella in a carriage makes cardiologists cry. Won't anyone think of the cardiologists?

(Of course it should be noted that, Batali having been swept up in the Me Too wave of the late 2010s, one is unlikely to come across any episodes of this or any other Batali show rerunning on broadcast, On Demand, or streaming service. So these contemporary descriptions, complete with cringy fat-shaming japes, will have to fill the void).

Last Edited
2023-03-17

Amazing Vacation Homes

(Travel Channel, 2004-2006) lifestyle series

One episode (S1E1, "Beach Homes," aired September 6, 2004) of this Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous knockoff, features one of Block Island's nouveau mansions, dubbed the Boat House by its owners, David Peters and Pam Hamilton. (It's referred to as "The Ark" on the show). David and Pam say they vacation on Block Island year 'round. While we don't doubt that they visit once in a while, the house, which was inspired by cruise ship design, is so spotless and empty it's obvious no-one really lives there. The segment includes footage of North Light, the Harborside Inn, Crescent Beach, Mohegan Bluffs, Old and New Harbor, Clay Head, and the Block Island Ferry, at least some of which is stock footage supplied by the Block Island Chamber of Commerce. The views of the island from the upper floors of the three-story Boat House are truly breathtaking. It's a shame we can't all afford to own such a home.

The Boat House, Block Island.
The Boat House, Block Island. (Ballard Hall Real Estate).

Last Edited
2020-07-19

The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch

(CNBC, 2004-2008) talk show

Three segments of a feature entitled "Will it Play in Peoria," in which average Joes give opinions on new products, were filmed at Doherty's East Avenue Irish Pub, 324 East Avenue, Pawtucket. The Modern Diner was the first choice for a location, but it proved to be too small. The segments aired on March 24, 25 and 27, 2008.

Last Edited
2022-06-08

Bridezillas

(WE TV, 2004-'13, 2018-) reality series

Bridezillas logo
(logos.fandom.com).

In S1E3 (aired June 21, 2004), New York couple Brooke and Charlie spend $250,000 getting married on Block Island, which the snotty, faux-posh narrator claims is "five miles off the coast of Connecticut." It's not really fair to call Brooke a Bridezilla, though, as this episode primarily features the wedding planner, Kate, and her cell phone.

Highlights of the three-day event include a clambake near the visitors' center with brie and raspberries, an imported French videographer having a hissy fit, and the last-minute chartering of a plane to deliver the disappointing wedding cake. The reception itself takes place at the Spring House hotel.

Last Edited
2022-07-02

Al Roker's Diner Destinations

(Food Network, 2005) travelogue

Using Providence's Johnson & Wales University Culinary Museum and Archives as a base, Al visits a number of diners around the country in this Food Network special (episode ARSP16). One of the featured diners is Pawtucket's Modern Diner, owned by 1977 Johnson & Wales graduate Nick Demou.

As of August 2005 the museum was showing the episode on a continuous loop as part of their Diners: Still Cookin' in the 21st Century exhibit. (The Museum closed permanently on February 27, 2017).

Last Edited
2020-07-12

Breaking Vegas

(History Channel, 2005) documentary series

Breaking Vegas DVD cover.
(foodnetwork.fandom.com).

An episode entitled "Counterfeit King" takes a look at Louis B. Colavecchio, a former North Providence tool-and-die maker who used his skills for evil. In 1996 he fashioned counterfeit slot machine tokens that were almost as good as the real thing, and used and distributed them in casinos in New Jersey and New England. He was arrested in Caesars Atlantic City Hotel Casino in December 1996 by the FBI and New Jersey State Police, and earned himself a twenty-seven-month federal sentence.

The episode first aired on April 5, 2005.

Upon his release from prison Colavecchio seemed to go straight for a while, running a business fabricating metal orthotic devices, but in November 2006 he was again arrested for allegedly making dummy slot machine tokens. Rhode Island State Police held an auction of his counterfeiting machinery in September 2008. Colavecchio, out on bail at the time, told a Providence Journal reporter that he might attend, saying, "I could tell [potential buyers] a lot of stuff. They may know how it works, but it's been, let me say, 'modified'... so some things are not exactly as they seem." No word on if the machinery sold, or to whom.

Last Edited
2022-06-30

Action Blast! aka MonkeyBar TV

(G4, 2006) animation series

This was a one-hour animation block bracketed by live action spots, and apparently (according to IMDB), some of those live action spots were shot at Club Ultra, 172 Pine Street, Providence, and the Providence Public Library. The show was produced by Pawtucket-based Hasbro, and was essentially a one-hour commercial for their Transformers and G.I. Joe properties.

Last Edited
2020-11-12

Brotherhood

(Showtime, 2006-'09) drama series

Brotherhood graphic
(IMDB).

Originally to be called Southie, then The Hill, Brotherhood is the first television series to be filmed entirely in Rhode Island. Shooting for the pilot began in Providence on August 30, 2004. Once the show was picked up, the remainder of the season was filmed between July 6 and November 16, 2005.

The number of recognizable locations and references used in this series is unprecedented in Rhode Island television history. It was said by at least one commentator that Providence amounted to a separate and distinct character in the NBC series Providence, but if the city was a bit player on that show, it's a headliner in Brotherhood, and the part it's playing is a dark one. Many have complained that it's just wrong that the show should be about Irish politicians and gangsters on "The Hill," when locals all know that Providence's Federal Hill was the home of the New England Italian Mafia for several decades. But we think grousing that Providence is playing against type is like complaining that Arnold Schwarzenegger isn't really an indestructible assassin robot from the future. Besides, the other location option was Toronto, so why not suspend your disbelief and enjoy the show?

The story centers around two Irish-American brothers, Tommy and Michael Caffee (Jason Clarke and Jason Isaacs)—one an up-and-coming politician, the other an ambitious gangster. The parallels with real-life brothers William and James J. "Whitey" Bulger of Boston are inescapable. As different as their life paths may seem, the Showtime series paints the brothers as very much alike, with each displaying varying shades of good and evil behavior.

A sneak preview of the pilot episode was given at Avon Cinema on Thayer Street on June 26, 2006, and the first season of the show began its run on Showtime on July 7, 2006. As of October 2006 (end of season one) it was estimated that Brotherhood had brought as much as $40 million to the local economy.

So much of Brotherhood's world is intertwined with the real world of Providence and Rhode Island that we decided to give it its own page. Visit The World of Brotherhood and explore.

Last Edited
2022-07-03

Cultivating Life with Sean Conway

(PBS, 2006-'10) outdoor living series

Cultivating Life book cover detail
(Amazon).

Host Conway used his former Nursery for Uncommon Plants at 3941 Main Road in Tiverton Four Corners as a production set for his show, and segments were often shot at locations around the state and in nearby Massachusetts and Connecticut.

Last Edited
2023-04-07

Decoding Disaster

(Discovery Times, 2006-'07) documentary series

Decoding Disaster title screen
(youtube).

This series got off to a rocky start when it examined "Nightclub Nightmares" in its first episode, dealing primarily with the February 20, 2003, West Warwick Station Nightclub fire in which 100 people died. The trouble stemmed from the use, without permission, of copyrighted footage shot by Channel 12 News at the nightclub as the fire began and patrons pushed for the exits. Especially in contention was disturbing footage of concertgoers piled in the front doorway. The show premiered February 26, 2006, prompting TVL Broadcasting, owner of Channel 12, to file a lawsuit in U.S. District Court.

Station Nightclub front steps, 2003
The front steps of the Station Nightclub. (February 25, 2003).

In a settlement reached in July of the same year, TVL agreed to license the video scenes used by Granada America, the production company behind Decoding Disaster, with the exception of one scene and the stipulation that the faces of fire victims be blurred.

About thirty-five minutes of the hour-long show are devoted to the Station tragedy. (The rest has to do with the E2 nightclub stampede in Chicago on February 17, 2003—the Channel 12 footage referenced above was, ironically, made for a news segment on nightclub safety in the wake of the E2 disaster.) In addition to the news footage, the episode includes survivor interviews, computer simulations, and physical recreations of the event with and without sprinklers. Visits to the nightclub site (then a vacant lot strewn with crosses, photographs, and mementos), and a memorial at St. Anne's Cemetery in Cranston round out the episode.

Last Edited
2023-04-17

Bristol's Fourth of July: A Celebration of History and Independence

(PBS, 2007) documentary

Parade screen shot
(rhodeislandpbs.blogspot.com).

The longest-running Independence Day celebration in the nation gets the documentary treatment in this film produced by Bristol native Mary Lou Palumbo. Interviews, vintage photographs, and archival film bring the old days of the parade, the Miss Fourth of July Pageant, the July Ball, and other associated events to life. Bristol's Fourth of July premiered on Rhode Island PBS on July 1, 2007.

Last Edited
2019-06-05

Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives

(Food Network, 2007—) food and travel series

Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives logo
(foodnetwork.com).

In episode S2E3, "Seaside Eats," host Guy Fieri stops in to Evelyn's Nanaquacket Drive-In in Tiverton to sample their fried clams, clam cakes, clear clam chowder, and lobster chow mein. "As wrong as it is," says Fieri about the last, "it's right."

During the last week of July 2009 Fieri visited Louis Restaurant, 286 Brook Street, Providence; Crazy Burger, 144 Boon Street, Narragansett, and Liberty Elm Diner, 777 Elmwood Avenue, Providence. If you want to go to any of these places and eat what Guy ate, check out Louis' barbecued chicken-and-cheese ravioli and granola pancakes; Crazy Burger's Pacific Rim spring rolls, Luna Sea Burger, and Whasuppy Burger; and Liberty Elm's fresh turkey sandwich with sprouts, jonnycakes, and coffee milk.

Louis' appears in episode S7E11, "Family Style," first aired on November 2, 2009. Crazy Burger is featured in episode S8E3, "Stacked, Stuffed and Loaded," first aired on January 18, 2010. Liberty Elm shows up in episode S8E8, "Comfort Food Classics," first aired on February 22, 2010.

Angelo's Civita Farnese (Braciola, sliced beef over pasta with a red sauce) and Mediterraneo (Spaghetti alle Vongole, linguine and clams) are featured in episode S15E6, "East Coast Comfort," first aired on September 24, 2012. Filming at these locations took place in early June of the same year.

S15E8, "Burgers, Noodles and Quahogs," (aired October 8, 2012) brings the platinum-coiffed commentator to Middletown and Anthony's Seafood, there to witness the creation of Anthony's chorizo stuffies and Kung Pao calimari.

The October 15, 2012, show (S15E9, "Handcrafted") featured Italian Corner Deli and Market in East Providence. Brasato, an Italian slow roasted beef sandwich with salsa Rossa, and a homemade tortelli Bolognese are presented.

Aunt Carrie's gets the Fieri treatment in the October 29, 2012, episode (S15E11, "Food Done Right"). Aunt Carrie's clamcakes and scratch-made strawberry shortcake are the real stars of the show. The excitable host practically creams his jean-shorts when he learns from owner Elsie Foy that the special clamcake flour is mixed in a cement mixer, and that the clamcakes are fried in beef shortening. "Whoh-ho!" he hoots. "That's why you rock this!"

Fieri's car in Aunt Carrie's parking lot
Fieri's red corvette at Aunt Carrie's, Narragansett. (S15E11 screenshot).

Edgewood Cafe, 1864 Broad Street, Cranston is featured in S15E12, "Pubs and Grub," (aired November 5, 2012).

The Louis Restaurant and Crazy Burger segments are recycled in S23E07, "East Coast Cruisin'," (aired September 23, 2015).

Last Edited
2023-04-21

The American Future: A History

(BBC2, 2008) documentary mini-series

This four-part BBC miniseries explores American history in the context of the run-up to the 2008 presidential election. Part three, "American Fervour," delves into how "faith has shaped American political life." One of the filming locations is Touro Synagogue in Newport, the oldest surviving Jewish synagogue building in the United States. The four episodes ran on October 10, 17, 24, and 31, 2008 in the U.K., and combined into two parts on BBC America on January 19 and 20, 2009, in the U.S..

Last Edited
2022-04-28

Caring for Your Parents

(PBS, 2008) documentary

Caring for Your Parents logo
(pbs.org).

Follows the stories of aging members of five Rhode Island families and how they are being cared for in their declining years. Featured locations include Brown University Center for Gerontology and Health Care Research, Providence; The Miriam Hospital, Providence; Rhode Island Hospital, Providence; Kent Hospital Wound Recovery Center, Warwick; Mansion Nursing Home, Central Falls; Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, Providence; and Woodpecker Hill Nursing Home, Coventry.

Original air date was April 2, 2008.

Last Edited
2022-07-14

Chasing Classic Cars

(Motor Trend, 2008—)

Chasing Classic Cars logo
(autospies.com).

The 2009 Concours d'Elegance in Newport is featured in S2E3, "Duesenberg Barn Find," aired October 13, 2009. The event, which takes place at Fort Adams, is essentially an up-up-scale version of cruise night at the local diner, with the moneyed class showing off their classic luxury automobiles and competing for prizes.

Last Edited
2023-03-16

Accidental Fortune

(TLC, 2009-2010) true story series

Best we can tell, this series tanked after three episodes. The premise was simple: tell the stories of ordinary folks who stumbled across valuable objects. The Rhode Island connection concerns Michael Westman, who, with friend Alan Golash, purchased a pearl brooch from a Newport antiques store for $14. One of the two purple pearls turned out to be one of the largest quahog pearls known, possibly worth as much as a million dollars.

A quick half-hour taping with Westman took place at Consignments Ltd, 597 Kingstown Road, Wakefield, on January 29, 2010, the original store having since gone out of business. The episode aired April 18, 2010.

Last Edited
2020-08-17

The Best Thing I Ever Ate

(Food Network, 2009—) food porn series

Best Thing I Ever Ate logo.
(foodnetwork.fandom.com).

This show has celebrity chefs and other notables gushing about extraordinary gustatory delights. As of 2022, Rhode Island cuisine has been singled out for mention in five episodes.

In S1E4, "Sugar Rush," chef Alex Guarnaschelli extols the virtues of Al Forno's Golden Delicious Apple Tart.

In S2E8, "Crunchy," the Fried Clams on a Roll and the Fish and Chips at Flo's Clam Shack in Middletown receive acclaim from chefs Chris Cosentino and Beau MacMillan, respectively. Aired February 19, 2010.

In S3E3, "Regional Favorites," host Guy Fieri sings the praises of hot wieners from Olneyville New York System. Aired June 14, 2010.

The show doubles down on the Al Forno love in S8E6, "Voted Most Popular," when cookbook author and food critic Katie Lee enthuses over their Corn Pizza. Portions of the segment resurfaced in the second episode of the 2020 limited spin-off series, All-Star Best Thing I Ever Ate.

In S9E13, "Back to School," Beau MacMillan goes into ecstasies over The Super Boffa Combo (a two foot long Italian grinder) from Edgewood Market in Cranston.

Last Edited
2022-06-01

Cupcake Wars

(Food Network, 2009-'17) reality competition series

Providence's Nancy's Fancies took part in this baking competition's third season, on the "Tim Burton Bake-Off" episode that aired on July 5, 2011. Owner Nancy Sepe and her daughter Nikki made it through to the third and final challenge, but did not win the contest.

NBC 10 Food TV Spotlight, July 6, 2011:

Last Edited
2023-04-08

Aerial America

(Smithsonian Channel, 2010-2019) documentary series

This beautifully shot series includes an episode for each state, and additional episodes focus on American regions and cities. Rhode Island's episode, E8, is forty-seven minutes of the Ocean State from the air, with a healthy dose of local history on the voice-over. As you might expect, the emphasis is on Newport and Providence, but there's a whole segment highlighting our many lighthouses, as well. The episode aired August 28, 2010.

The full episode is available for viewing on YouTube.

Last Edited
2021-05-03

American Pickers

(History Channel, 2010—) reality series

American Pickers logo.
(Facebook).

The town of Johnston doesn't find itself in the spotlight very often, but at least one Johnston business was illuminated in December 2010. Several businesses, actually—auction barn, carnival, auto repair shop, and frozen lemonade truck—all owned by Paul Ruotolo of Simmonsville Avenue. The show was the History Channel's American Pickers, and the draw was several buildings full of antiques, treasures, and junk collected by Paul's late father, Thomas "Okee" Ruotolo.

Hosts Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz spent Monday, July 19, 2010, climbing and digging through barns and outbuildings on the Ruotolo property, eventually emerging with a 1967 Triumph Bonneville motorcycle, a classic Evel Knievel pinball machine, and an antique wooden horse racing game. Not everything they bought was shown in the episode. "They bought a lot of stuff," Ruotolo told the Johnston Sun Rise. "They filled up a U-Haul." Also not seen on the show: when production stopped for lunch everyone chowed down on locally sourced Italian grinders. Mike and Frank had hoped to attend that night's auction, but they ran out of time.

If you're searching for the episode it's called "What's in the Box?," from S3E3, and it aired December 20, 2010.

Wolfe and Fritz returned to the Ocean State in late 2013 or early 2014, having been invited to pick the cast-offs from the renovation of Belcourt of Newport. S11E7, "Frank's Holy Grail," aired April 9, 2014.

S14E18, "Frank's Birthday," found the boys picking a former Indian Motorcycle shop at 75 Benefit Street in Pawtucket. There they found memorabillia related to a local motorcycle club, Jesse's Roamers, dating back to the 1930s, and they brokered a sale of motorcycles and memorabillia to the National Motorcycle Museum in Iowa. The episode aired February 24, 2016.

Last Edited
2022-05-16

Canterbury's Law

(Fox, 2010) legal drama

Canterbury's Law promo card
(usa.newonnetflix.info).

Only six of this stinker's contracted thirteen episodes were produced, and so it only appeared on-air from March 10 to April 18, 2010. Did the show fail because of subpar writing and unconvincing acting, or because the cinematic style incorporated unsteady cams, fast editing, and loud dialogue to lend a sense of artificial urgency? Or could it be that, for a show that purported to take place in Rhode Island (but was filmed in New York City) precious little Ocean State authenticity was on display?

The series was created by a guy named Dave Erickson who grew up in Raynham, Massachusetts, but worked summers in his dad's Warwick, Bristol, and East Greenwich sub shops. The title character, Elizabeth Canterbury (Julianna Margulies), is "a rebellious defense attorney who's willing to bend the law in order to protect the wrongfully accused." No Rhode Island accents are heard on the show because, according to Margulies, "People would have said, 'Huh?'"

In the pilot episode a skyline shot looks nothing like Providence and none of the landscapes or buildings look remotely Rhode Islandy. The only attempts at authenticity are a Providence police car and a Rhode Island license plate on Canterbury's car. When Fox is referenced, it's Boston's Fox 25 rather than Providence's Fox affiliate, WNAC 64. Even the one Rhode Island town mentioned—Claremont—is fictitious.

Canterbury's Law screenshot
One Providence police car doth not Rhode Island make. (S1E1, "Pilot," screenschot).

Last Edited
2022-07-13

Bar Rescue

(Spike TV, 2011-'16; Paramount Network, 2018—) reality series

Bar Rescue logo
(Wikipedia).

This show attempts to rescue failing bars through renovations, menu and personnel changes, etc. The September 15, 2013, episode (S3E20, "Barely Above Water") centered on Marley's on the Beach, a tavern located next door to Iggy's Doughboys on Oakland Beach in Warwick.

The episode was filmed in May 2013. Among the changes meant to bring Marley's back from the brink: a name change—to St. Michelle's Beach Club; upgraded patio furniture and dance floor; the addition of four outdoor fire pits; a revamped and expanded drink menu; and on-air termination of assistant manager Elese. Adding to the drama, some impromtu marriage counseling for bar owners Kevin and Michelle.

Post-production, the new name didn't stick (they compromised on Marley's Beach Club) and the drink menu continued to evolve, but the infrastructural changes remained and Elese stayed fired. Regardless, Marley's closed in November 2013, only two months after the episode aired.

Iggy's (which owned the building) soon re-opened the location as Iggy's Boardwalk. They're still in business as of 2023.

Marley's employees, Iggy's owner Dave Gravino, comment on behind-the-scenes shenanigans, September 27, 2013

Last Edited
2023-05-05

Body of Proof aka Body of Evidence

(ABC, 2011-'13) drama series

Body of Proof logo
(abc.com).

The first season of this series—nine episodes—was filmed entirely in Rhode Island, even though the show is set in Philadelphia. Subsequent episodes also included scenes previously shot in Little Rhody, but the majority of the production moved to L.A. for seasons two and three.

Shooting for the pilot episode began on March 16, 2010, and continued through the end of the month. S1E1 includes the following locations: Fox Point Marina, north of the hurricane barrier (at 1:26); The GTECH Building as the Philadelphia County Medical Center ((at 2:58) this is a stock shot used in all the episodes; you can see the Weston Hotel next door, with three other buildings Photoshopped in, and Waterplace Park in the foreground); Todd Fleming's (Jeffrey Nordling) office is in the real-life offices of Providence law firm Brown Rudnick, 121 South Main Street (at 4:03; filmed March 20); Woman jogging westward on Smith Street (at 14:13); Mathewson Street United Methodist Church serves as an Overbrook halfway house (at 16:44); Aspire Restaurant, 311 Westminster Street (at 27:45; filmed March 23 and 24); the plaza at One Financial Plaza, outside the old Hospital Trust tower (at 29:33); the Washington Street exterior of the Providence Public Library as the Philadelphia Police Department ((at 44:50) another stock shot; variations of this view show up repeatedly throughout the series); the former Blue Cross Blue Shield building across Green Street from Cathedral Square (at 45:49); Megan Hunt's (Dana Delany) condo is at 100 Fountain Street—you can see the Providence Journal building out her window (at 57:00).

Also reportedly used for this episode (but not readily apparent onscreen): an East Side neighborhood; the Turk's Head Building; Burnside Park; the CCRI campus in Lincoln, and the Newport mansion Champ Soleil (filmed March 25).

The pilot episode premiered on March 29, 2011.

Once the show was picked up, production on the other eight episodes took place from late July to mid-December of 2010. Sound stage and production offices were located in a "former office building and lumberyard just north of Warwick Mall." Additional locations included Providence's Waterplace and India Point parks; the iconic Tri-Store Bridge on Clemence Street in Providence; and Marble House in Newport. Grayrock Mansion off Angell Road in Cumberland was used as a suspect's house (filmed July 23). Rehearsals for a scene with two women fighting were reported taking place on August 13 at the Todd Morsilli Clay Court Tennis Center, Roger Williams Park (standing in as Penn Hill College). Other sites filmed around the same time: Rhode Island College, Providence; Bold Point Park, East Providence; Iron Works Tavern and Twist, Warwick; and downtown Woonsocket. In S1E7, "All in the Family," the home of Maureen Lodge on Watch Hill Drive in East Greenwich was used as the scene of a murder. Blithewold in Bristol played the family home of a wealthy victim in S1E8 (filmed October 5). November 8 to 13 filming took place at Red Rock Farm in Foster, with horses and riders from Pine View Farm and Equestrian Center, Peeptoad Road, Scituate. The production was spotted filming on Empire and Washington Streets and in "a second-floor unit in the Cosmopolitan residences on Fountain Street... above Murphy's Deli and Bar" in Providence on November 16. The Woonsocket Call reported that S1E13 began filming December 3, with Pawtucket listed as a location. Since season one only had nine episodes, this presumably turned up in a season two episode.

One early episode included a flashback with a vintage 1970s Philadelphia police car. The prop was created in two days by Johnston resident Paul Ruotolo "out of an LTD that wasn't running and had flat tires." After its moment in the spotlight, Ruotolo displayed the car in the parking lot of his auction house on Simmonsville Avenue for a number of months.

Replica Philadelphia police car, 2010
(August 29, 2010).

Dr. Elizabeth Laposata, former chief medical examiner for Rhode Island Hospital, was a medical adviser for the show. S1E6, "Society Hill," features two married Trinity Rep actors, Phyllis Kay and Richard Donnelly, as husband-and-wife Jim and Suzanne Pollato.

Last Edited
2022-06-24

Chase Belafonte's "Working Title"

(2011) web series

Title screenshot
Screenshot. (Chase Belafonte's "Working Title," Episode 1).

This started out as a 2009 48-Hour Film Project submission and blossomed into a five-part web series. The premise has a documentary film crew following the actors and crew on an independent film production. Most of the initial short was filmed at Optic Sugar design studio, Branch Avenue, Providence, while the fight scenes were filmed at Prospect Park. The web series was filmed in and around the converted mill building in West Warwick that served as 12 Guage Pictures' studio.

Links to the webisodes:
S1E1, "The Contracts," aired January 1, 2011.
S1E2, "The Scripts," aired February 1, 2011.
S1E3, "Becky, Take Your Top Off," aired March 1, 2011.
S1E4, "Internviews," aired April 1, 2011.
S1E5, "World's Best Episode," aired May 1, 2011.

View the original 48-hour film project submission:

Last Edited
2023-03-16

Dance Moms

(Lifetime, 2011-'19) reality series

Dance Moms title card
(Amazon).

A show about dance class students, but named for their hovering mothers. IMDB claims that, although the show is set in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, some part of it was filmed in Providence. Perhaps the moms took their hoofing progeny on the road at some point.

Last Edited
2023-04-09

Restaurant: Impossible

(Food Network, 2011-present) dining/renovation series

S1E2: Chef Robert Irvine helps owner Jerry Porcaro bring Mount Pleasant institution Mainelli's (1366 Chalkstone Avenue, Providence) back from a living death. Providence Journal food critic Gail Ciampa had a part in the show and she confirmed in a column that appeared in advance of the January 26, 2011, airing that much of the episode, despite its veneer of "reality," was heavily scripted. For instance, many problems that had already been solved by Pocaro were trotted back out to increase the before and after differences; a scene in the ProJo offices with Ciampa was staged for effect; and menu prices were set by producers at about double what Mainelli's usually charges. Filming took place in August 2010.

Despite renovations and a revamped menu, Mainelli's closed for good in early 2012. An incident on March 5, 2011, in which a car crashed through the side of the restaurant and into one of the remodeled dining rooms probably didn't help.

Last Edited
2022-03-23

Cheap Eats

(Cooking Channel, 2016-present) food tourism series

"...host Ali Khan... has just 12 hours to find the best deals for breakfast, lunch, a snack and dinner—on a budget of only $35." Here's what he found in S3E11, "Providence Eats," (aired September 20, 2017):

  • Duck and Bunny, 312 Wickenden Street; Portuguese sweet bread French toast with maple berry compote. ($9)
  • The Sandwich Hut, 1253 North Main Street; meatball grinder. ($7.95)
  • G Pub, 61 Orange Street; stuffie ($4).
  • Ogie's Trailer Park, 1155 Westminster Street; Everything But the Kitchen Sink Tater Tots ($12).

Total: $32.95.

Last Edited
2020-04-22

Long Lost Family

(The Learning Channel, 2016-'18)

This series reunites family members who, through various unfortunate circumstances, have been separated for decades. S1E7, "Everything Your Parents Told You Was a Lie," features Benjamin from Providence, who's looking for his birth mother. Recognizable locations include the Rhode Island State House, Roger Williams National Memorial, the old State House, a view looking east on Route 195 (including the India Point pedestrian bridge), Prospect Terrace, State Street, a view of Providence at the head of the Providence River from Point Street Bridge, and Waterplace Park. The episode was filmed in autumn of 2015, and aired April 17, 2016.

Last Edited
2019-07-08

Forensic Files II

Forensic Files II

(HLN, 2020-'22) true crime series

Forensic Files II title card
(Wikipedia).

Episode 16 from season three, titled "Tell No Tales," follows the investigation into the death of 70-year-old Fernando "Captain Fredy" Silva aboard his boat, the Star Capella, in waters off Warwick. A macroburst on August 4, 2015 set his boat adrift, and although the harbormaster was able to recover the boat afterwards, the body wasn't discovered until eleven days later.

Talking heads include: former Assistant Medical Examiner Dr. Priya Banerjee; Warwick Beacon Editor and Publisher John Howell; Warwick Police Detective J.P. Toussaint; former Special Assistant Attorney General Matthew Lamountain; and Warwick Police Detective Sargeant Scott Robillard.

Screenshot of Captain Fredy
"Captain Fredy" Silva (Screenshot from Forensic Files II, S3E16).

Last Edited
2023-04-09

Good Burger 2

(2023)

Good Burger 2 teaser
(nickelodeon.fandom.com).

March 31, 2023: "Rhode Island Film and TV Office Executive Director Steve Feinberg confirmed... that discussions [were] being finalized for the filming [of the sequel to the 1997 comedy Good Burger] to take place in Rhode Island."—GoLocalProv.

April 27, 2023: "North Providence residents received a flyer saying part of the movie will be filmed at the old Friendly's restaurant on Mineral Spring Avenue, which closed its doors in 2019."—abc6.com.

May 2, 2023: "The Rhode Island Film and TV Office officially announced production has begun... scheduled to commence filming May 18, 2023 in various locations across the Ocean State."—RI Film Office press release.

May 3, 2023: North Providence Mayor Charles "Lombardi said the town has also reached an agreement with the film producers to rent out the former public safety complex at 1967 Mineral Spring Ave. That agreement is set to last for the next two months."—The Valley Breeze.

May 18, 2023: "The filming of 'Good Burger 2' began... [today]. The movie production caught the attention of almost everyone driving on Mineral Spring Avenue, with many pulling over to take pictures of the old Friendly's restaurant, ...as well as holding out hope they'll catch a glimpse of some of the actors in the movie. The Rhode Island Film and Television Office even recruited Rhode Islanders to be actors and extras."—abc6.com.

May 22, 2023: "Olneyville New York System's second restaurant on Reservoir Avenue in Cranston was actually considered for the filming location of Good Burger 2, said [ONYS owner Greg] Stevens. But since it is a working restaurant and it would have had to be shut down for filming, the cost would have been too expensive. Renting the vacant former Friendly's restaurant in North Providence was more cost-effective..."—Providence Journal.

May 22, 2023: The Facebook page What's Going on in Smithfield reported that filming was taking place in a Smithfield neighborhood.

May 23, 2023: "...shooting is taking place... in Providence's Wayland Square. The crew was setting up a shot shortly after 8am at the intersection of Wayland Avenue and Medway Street."—GoLocalProv.

May 24, 2003: The Boston Globe reports that Google Maps now shows 1883 Mineral Spring Avenue as the location of "Good Burger."

June 26, 2023: "The production of Good Burger 2 has wrapped...—wpri.com.

August 22, 2023: The first teaser trailer drops, and Providence's Wayland Avenue is front and center:

October 30, 2023: The first "official" trailer drops:

Last Edited
2023-10-30