NYC the real star onscreen in this fall’s TV lineup
Forget the likes of Christina Ricci and Steve Buscemi: The real star in this fall’s television lineup is New York City.
A recordbreaking 23 television shows are filming in the Big Apple this season, eight of them new. On top of that, 13 movies are currently shooting in New York this month alone.
When Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that the city is hosting more of Hollywood than ever, he attributed that growth to a 30 percent tax credit — $420 million each year — the state offers to productions that make New York their home. Filming is vital to the city’s economy, Bloomberg said. A show like “Pan Am,” for example, which films in Steiner Studios in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, might employ 400 people.
And it means people like Scott McCarrey get a paycheck. McCarrey, 26, a writer’s assistant on “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” is one of the 100,000 New Yorkers employed by the film and television industry.
McCarrey said he was hired after “Law & Order” moved their writing staff from Los Angeles to New York.
Now, instead of juggling jobs, he’s a staff writer’s assistant researching storylines. Without “SVU,” he said, he’d be back to lower-paying gigs.
“It’s nice, because the show is set in New York,”?he said. “And it helps to have people here, who actually live in the city, writing about the city.”
Major boost to economy
The entertainment industry contributes $5 billion to the city’s economy, Bloomberg said, and 4,000 businesses get revenue from filming — such as lumber yards, car services and costume houses.
Marilyn Dejesus, 41, a payroll accountant on “Gossip Girl” and “CSI: NY,” said those shows employ about 300 and 200 people each week, respectively.
As for when productions leave New York? “Those couple of hundred people are scrambling for the same job as the next couple of hundred people that are on another show,” she said.
Follow Alison Bowen on Twitter @AlisonatMetro.
