Brooklyn, NY – The streets of Borough Park were abuzz this past Monday, as a major television production took to 13th Avenue for the filming of an upcoming episode, which included a casting call for people to portray chasidic men and women. Dozens turned out for the chance to work as paid extras on the set of the show Blue Bloods, a police drama series portraying an Irish American family of police officers who are NYPD members, which airs weekly on Friday nights.
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The episode being filmed deals with a murder in the family of a prominent chasidic rabbi, with police officers navigating the unique challenges of investigating a crime within the tight knit Chasidic community.
Video credit: Shimon Gifter.
“When you do an episode in a specific community, there are things that might appear unusual or strange to the outside observer and it is easy to stress the apparent differences but our intention here was to show the similarity between the Irish-American family of police officers and that of a chasidic rabbi’s family ” Ian Biederman executive producer and one of the writers told VIN News.
“So much is the same in different cultures: the relationships, how people love each other and how they deal with loss. Those things all exist in every community and we wanted to portray the commonalities of these two varied cultures, despite their obvious differences. Maybe on the outside the chasidic community seems different than that of the Irish American police officers we are portraying, but deep down inside we are all very much the same.”
Filming in a chasidic community was integral to capturing the flavor that was crucial to the episode, according to Biederman.
“There was no place else in the world that we could have shot this and done it right,” explained Biederman. “We wanted the look, the feel, the sounds and the accents to be authentic and we never could have accomplished that using actors to portray chasidim. We needed the right feel and a specific population and you can really feel the flavor of the chasidic community coming through all over the film. It teems with life and the feel of the place.”
Production staff at Blue Bloods reported that despite never having seen their show, members of the Borough Park community greeted them and their crew with open arms.
“Everyone was so welcoming and cooperative ,” said Biederman. “It was just fabulous. People were so courteous and they asked great questions. Clearly this was something they don’t see every day.”
One scene for the episode was filmed inside Krausz Hatters on 12th Avenue and featured one of Blue Blood’s lead actors donning a shtreimel, something Biederman termed “a moment not to be missed.”
Future filming is scheduled for January 9th, 10th and 14th and as the episode is officially set in Williamsburg, producers aren’t ruling out the possibility that they may shoot some footage there as well.
According to Amy Miller, director of publicity for Blue Bloods, approximately sixteen chasidic extras were hired for the shoot with an additional fifty four actors dressed up as chasidim. The episode, titled Men in Black, is scheduled to air on February 8th. Blue Bloods is currently in its third season and fifty four episodes have been aired to date.
Photo credit: Eli Wohl
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a charpa and a busha that hemishe stores helped them , and that so called fruma yingerleit and vaber would stand around and watch , i bet these are the same ppl that dont accept others children in to a mosod they control
oh how far we have fallen
PURIM
This was right outside from where I work. I loved watching them film. I should mention, though, that it was pathetic to see how many people in BP actually have nothing to do all day. I never want to hear a complaint again about “nareshkeit” being posted in VIN or complaints about the secular world because the chassidim clearly loved watching this as much as I did.
Curiosity killed the cat!?
This is not the first time that a movie has been filmed in the Chassidic community in NYC, which had stories about Chassidim. The movie “A Stranger Amoung Us” (1992), and “The Chosen” (1982), also had scenes filmed in Williamsburg.
Great story. But lets wait and see how they betray us on the TV show. The verdict is yet to come
At last, a sympathetic yet accurate portrayal of the real people of BP.
The red headed goy looks authentic. The shorter guy with the white beard next to him in the picture, eh, not so much. He’s probably the murderer.
what is this trash. everyone go home!!! its not going to be good for the kehilla. Does anyone even know how theyll portray us?? its never good.
Ohh, what a small world! I see two actors that I know all dressed up as Hossids. The scary part is their beards and payos look so real that I didn’t recognize them right away.
The same interest is found in construction machinery. No big deal.
Oy vey iz mir what moviesare they making?murder not in bp.
in 1992 a film directed by sidney lumet ,whose father baruch acted in the yiddish theater, was partially also filmed in boro park on 16th ave.they needed extras for the wedding dance scenes.perhaps one of the large warehouses on 39 street could be converted(no pun intended)into a movie studio which could produce KOSHER films ,documentaries,and children’s educational programs.and get the
never- working class into job$ while doing kiddush hashem programming.
anyone with ties to spielberg for that venture ?maybe the boro pres ?
RELAX PPL ITS A DUMB MOVIE!!! TAKE IT EASY
I just hope any non-Jewish actors dressed as Yidden didn’t stop off to have lunch at a treif place.
could actually be a Kiddush HaShem !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is an embarrassment to my community that none of us work and can spend all day watching! The goyim will think we still live in the 1700’s in Europe!
Love this show, watch it every week (on Hulu) BUT, there was one error. The chasidishi man’s wife was walking next to him – a no-no always a step or two behind.
Great costumes. I can’t tell the fakers dressed up as frum yidden from the fakers dressed up as frum yidden.
I saw the one with the red beard workinmg as a mashgiach at a simcha IN BP the other night. If the women are carrying pocketbooks it’s a weekday and the men are wearing streimlach? Why?
Only one of them seem to be authentic to me. The guy in the orange beard seems like any typical chosid. The others look quite fake (some more, some less) The black bearded guy in the streimel looks good too, but the sunglasses just x seem to match the garb (on a shabbos day)
I’m a real chasidisha woman and never heard of walking a step behind my hub, dunno where u ppl. take that from.
Oy siz git tzizayn a yid in bp theese days you can be a fake yid now all yearound:)
Next will be mixed dancing up and down 13th ave. Mark my words
most look incredibly fake, if i didnt know there was a movie shoot going on i would have call the joint terrorism task force because i would have suspected that someone was trying to infiltrate the community.
PS no one but no one use such a type of baby carriage anymore.
reply #25 , thanks for giving me a good laugh
It happens to be a great show with not a lot of violence. It’s about a family of police officers.Tom Selleck is the lead actor (hope you’ve heard of him) as the Chief of Police. The main detective on the scene was Donnie Wahlberg. He was really nice when I chatted with him. A real mentch.
Not so surprising there are plenty of frima actors portraying themselves as frima yidden when they think Hashem is looking and when they think he isn’t looking they are the biggest lowlifes in the world. We never have to worry about WHO we are talking to if we remember that we are always speaking in front of Hashem!!! Why do people keep forgetting that?
Never seen or even heard of the show, but your comments have me on the floor laughing! In Williamsburg & BP you see women wearing turbans all the time, esp. waiting at the bus stop or running to the corner grocery.
I would never walk behind my husband unless he’s trying to run ahead & I can’t catch up! We’re partners, we walk side by side. That’s really a ridiculous comment.
I hope Sherrel’s (my favorite store for sheitel coverings) gets some good publicity. Maybe BP will become the new South Street Seaport for tourists! YAY!
I must confess, I’m curious to see this episode. When will it be shown? I’ll have to see if I can download it.
#47 don’t you think if i know that his father’s name is baruch i would know where the wedding scene was filmed especially since i almost was an extra on the set ? !
can someone provide a link to where this eposode can be watched?
I saw the show, it is a Shandah. They are sooooooooooooooooooooooooo way off on how Chassidim really are. Mannerisms are off,the names they gave the actors are odd for Chassidim. Stupid things like the chassidish woman can’t take a business card from a male,which is not accurate, also comments from the police officers on the show are demeaning to Chassidim and Jews in general.pathetic