Body of Proof aka Body of Evidence
(ABC, 2011-'13) drama series
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.
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.
