Television and film in New Jersey

There is a long history of television and film in New Jersey, which is considered the birthplace of the movie picture industry.[1][2][3][4][5]

Film and television "firsts"

The roots of the industry started in Newark with Hannibal Goodwin's patent of nitrocellulose film in 1887.[4] Motion picture technology was invented by Thomas Edison, with early work done at his laboratory in West Orange. Edison's Black Maria, the world's first movie studio, is where the first motion picture to be copyrighted in the United States, Fred Ott's Sneeze, was shot.[6][7]

The Centaur Film Company of Bayonne was the first independent movie studio in the USA. America's first motion picture industry started in 1907 in Fort Lee and the first studio was constructed there in 1909.[8][9][10] Alice Guy-Blaché, widely considered to be the world's first female film director, worked in the borough. Oscar Micheaux's film The Exile, the first African-American sound film, was filmed in Fort Lee along with many other Micheaux films.[11]

Fred Wesley Wentworth was commissioned in 1914 by Jacob Fabian to build the Regent in Paterson, one of the first theaters built exclusively for the exhibition of moving pictures.[12][13][14] The nation's first drive-in theater opened at Airport Circle in 1933.

DuMont Laboratories in Passaic, developed early sets and made the first broadcast to the private home, documented in Passaic: Birthplace of Television and the DuMont Story (1951).

New Jersey Motion Picture and Television Commission
Main article: New Jersey Motion Picture & Television Commission

The New Jersey Motion Picture & Television Commission was established in 1976.[15][16]

Many television shows and motion picture films have been filmed in New Jersey,[17][18][19] with incentives offered by the state.

When Governor Phil Murphy took office in 2018 he reinstated the New Jersey Film & Digital Media Tax Credit Program, which had been suspended by the previous adminsitration. It was expanded in 2020. The benefits include a 30% tax credit on film projects and a 40% subsidy for studio developments.[20][21] Murphy signed legislation in January 2023 increasing the state's digital media content production tax credit to 35% of qualified expenses purchased through vendors in South Jersey and Mercer County. In addition, the bill increased the cumulative annual limitation on digital media content production tax credits from $10 million to $30 million. Beginning in fiscal year 2025, the bill also allows an additional $100 million in tax credits for New Jersey film-lease partners from tax credits authorized under other incentive programs.[22]

Studio complexes
Filming at the Pathé American studio in Jersey City Heights (1912)

Fort Lee is home to America's first motion picture industry.[23][24][25] A large number of early films, many silent, were shot at studios and on location in and around the town. With the first constructed in 1909, there were 11 major studios in Fort Lee by 1918.[26][27]

The floor space and height of the Jersey City Armory has led to its use as a temporary studio for many projects.[28] The expansive floor and high ceilings of the Teaneck Armory has been used for numerous film shoots.[29]

In 2010, a new Studio City New Jersey was opened in Trenton.[30][31][32] and in 2011, the Ironbound Film and Television Studio was opened in Newark.[33][34]

After the closure of the Meadowlands Arena as a sports and entertainment venue, NBC leased the space and converted it to a major film studio in 2019.[35]

Criterion Group converted a warehouse in Jersey City to the state's largest film studio named Caven Point Studio;[36] it has with three soundstages.[37] In February 2021, Palisade Stages opened its 23,000 square feet studio in Kearny. Supor Studio City in Harrison was converted from seven existing buildings into studios.[38] Another studio opened on Kearny Point in 2022, 10 Basin Studios.[39]

As of 2021, other studio development projects are being considered in Bayonne, Jersey City, Linden, Newark, Malaga and Atlantic City.[38][2] In October 2021, Netflix announced its intention to bid for a redevelopment of a 289-acre parcel at Fort Monmouth to turn it into Netflix's second-largest production complex.[40] In March 2022, Township of West Orange announced a partnership with, a studio design and development company, MBS Group, to redevelop properties adjacent to Thomas Edison's Laboratory to build up to eight sound studios.[41] Also in the same month, the construction of a major studio at Bergen Point was announced. Called 1888 Studios, it will be the largest in New Jersey and the largest ground-up movie studio complex in North America.[42][43]

In 2022, the city of Newark announced that a major new film and television production studio to be called "Lionsgate Newark Studios," would open in 2024 on the 15-acre former Seth Boyden Terrace housing project site at 101 Center Terrace in the Dayton section in the city's South Ward. Lionsgate Newark will partner on public relations and community affairs with the New Jersey Performing Arts Center.[44][45][46]

Film festivals
Main article: List of film festivals in New Jersey

Labor unions and entertainment guilds

A large swath of the state is within the "thirty-mile zone" around Columbus Circle in New York, allowing productions to save on travel cost obligations because a shoot is in the same zone as personnel's residences. Entertainment industry labor unions use the studio zone to determine per diem rates, work rules, and workers' compensation for union workers. Portions of Hudson, Essex, and Bergen counties are in the 8-mile SAG-AFTRA zone running from same location.

Filmmaking programs

Rutgers University established the Rutgers Filmmaking Center in New Brunswick in 2011. Though it is a relatively new program, the program has been ranked highly among the nation's film schools.[47] Variety named it “one of the top programs in the United States."

Networks based in New Jersey
Further information: List of television stations in New Jersey
Further information: List of television stations in New York (by region)
  • NJ PBS (known as NJTV until 2021) is a statewide public television network owned by the New Jersey Public Broadcasting Authority and operated by Public Media NJ, a subsidiary of The WNET Group.
    • The New Jersey Network (NJN) operated public television until June 30, 2011, when it ended operations and its television stations were transferred to WNET.
  • Cable network CNBC originates most of its in-studio programming from Englewood Cliffs. Sister news network MSNBC broadcast from studios in Secaucus from 1997 until late 2007, when the network moved to Rockefeller Center's GE Building in a cost-cutting measure by parent company NBC Universal.
  • The MLB Network moved into the former MSNBC studios in Secaucus in 2009.[48]
  • MyNetworkTV flagship station WWOR-TV (Channel 9) is licensed to and broadcasts from Secaucus; former owner RKO General moved the New York-based station across the Hudson in 1983 in an unsuccessful attempt to retain the station's license.
  • WNET is licensed to Newark
Cable and Satellite
VHF stations (digital)
UHF stations (digital)

Television shows filmed in or set in New Jersey
Further information: List of television shows set in New Jersey
  • The Street "The first television series to be shot entirely in New Jersey..."[49]
  • Bar Karma
  • Cartoon Network's Adult Swim cartoon Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Toonami cartoon Megas XLR are both set in New Jersey.
  • FOX's animated sitcom Bob's Burgers is said to take place in the fictional town of Seymour's Bay, New Jersey, as indicated by several clues. Most notably that Linda has a stereotypical Jersey accent and New Jersey license plates are seen on several vehicles throughout the show.
  • The opening of the NBC comedy Ed was filmed in Hillsdale and Westfield, New Jersey.
  • In the animated television comedy Futurama, New Jersey is slandered many times by the characters. In one episode, Fry finds a seemingly ideal apartment while house hunting, but later comments, upon finding out that the home is located in New Jersey, that he found "not one place even remotely liveable". In another, when discussing the global garbage problem, a television ad states that "... landfills were full ... New Jersey was full ...", implying a lack of places to store garbage. Additionally, Robot Hell is located in Atlantic City.
  • The Fox show Point Pleasant was based on a fictional version of the town. (It was not shot on location within the actual town of the same name.)
  • The Bravo TV series Real Housewives of New Jersey is a reality show based on the daily lives of five New Jersey women living in Franklin Lakes.
  • The television drama The Sopranos depicts the life of a New Jersey organized crime family and is filmed on location at various places throughout the state. Series creator and writer-director David Chase grew up in Clifton and North Caldwell.
  • The Disney Channel Original Series Jonas is taken place in New Jersey on a fictional J.O.N.A.S. street.
  • The HBO series Boardwalk Empire, a historical drama set during the prohibition era, takes place in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
  • The HBO prison drama Oz was filmed in an old warehouse in Bayonne, with much of the series filmed around the now-defunct Military Ocean Terminal Base.[50]
  • The NBC drama Law and Order: Special Victims Unit filmed police station and courtroom scenes at NBC's Central Archives building in North Bergen,[51][52] and filmed other scenes throughout the county, such as a 2010 episode filmed at the Meadowlands Parkway in Secaucus.[50]
  • The television medical drama House is set in New Jersey and takes place at the fictional Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. Overhead images of the building are actually the Frist Campus Center at Princeton University.
  • In his comedy special What Am I Doing in New Jersey?, filmed at the Park Theater, George Carlin comments that he believes New Jersey deserves the title "Toll Booth Capital of the United States of America". He also suggests changing the state nickname from "The Garden State" to "The Toll Booth State".
  • The NBC show Ed was based in the fictional town of Stuckeyville, Ohio, but filmed in various locations in New Jersey. Stuckeybowl, one of the main settings of the show and where they also had numerous sets, was located in Northvale, New Jersey before it was demolished in 2006.
  • The Adventures of Pete & Pete, set in the fictional town of Wellesville in an unnamed state, was filmed in New Jersey. Originally, the school scenes were shot in Bayonne and the neighborhood scenes in South Orange, and Leonia. For the third season, production took place in Cranford. The occasional New Jersey Transit Bus or other such object in a shot would occasionally give this fact away.
  • NBC's medical drama Mercy is set in the fictional Mercy Hospital in Jersey City. The short-lived hospital drama was filmed at a warehouse in Secaucus, a private residence in Weehawken and a public school in Jersey City.[53]
  • The MTV reality show Jersey Shore (TV series) takes place in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as well as other South Jersey locales during seasons 1 and 3.
  • Cake Boss
  • The CW action-thriller television series Nikita is set in and around New Jersey.
  • Wake Up with Marci on CBS owned WLNY-TV 10/55 talk show empowering women url=Awards Winning TV Personality | Host | Show Creator | Executive Producer New Jersey
  • Nickelodeon's Rise Of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles often has the main characters (especially Leonardo) slander New Jersey, most notably in "The Evil League Of Mutants" and "Mystic Mayhem".

Motion pictures filmed in New Jersey
On location in Newark, 2004

Locations
Further information: List of films set in New Jersey

See also

References
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  3. "Book Details".
  4. Spehr, Paul C. (1977), The Movies Begin: Making Movies in New Jersey, 1887-1920, The Newark Museum, ISBN 9780871001214
  5. Koszarski, Richard (2004), Fort Lee: The Film Town, John Libbey Publishing, ISBN 0-86196-653-8
  6. "A Sneeze Caught on Film". American Treasures of the Library of Congress. Retrieved March 17, 2007.
  7. "Edison: The Invention of the Movies". Kino.com. Retrieved October 12, 2017.
  8. "Fort Lee Film Commission - Fort Lee, NJ". FortLeeFilm.org. Retrieved October 12, 2017.
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  12. "Fabian Theater". Cinema Treasures. Retrieved November 22, 2014.
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  14. "KEY CLIENT—JACOB FABIAN". fredwesleywentworth.com. Retrieved October 10, 2014.
  15. "/njfilmorg/". Themaldiveshotels.com.
  16. NJ.com, Bobby Olivier | NJ Advance Media for (February 22, 2019). "41 blockbuster movies you didn't know filmed in New Jersey". nj.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  17. "NJ filmography". Nj.gov. Retrieved November 12, 2021.
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  19. Kannapell, Andrea (October 4, 1998). "Getting the Big Picture; The Film Industry Started Here and Left. Now It's Back, and the State Says the Sequel Is Huge". The New York Times. Retrieved October 12, 2017.
  20. Bergeron, Tom. "Every state is looking to take business from Georgia — here's why N.J. has legitimate chance to do so". ROI NJ. Retrieved April 7, 2021.
  21. Marcus, Samantha (June 3, 2018). "Murphy wants to reverse Christie on this hot issue: Jersey Shore!". NJ Advance Media for NJ.com.
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  28. Including Robert De Niro's A Bronx Tale, the Faye Dunaway thriller Eyes Of Laura Mars, Laura Brannigan's music video "Self-Control",< name="NJTMC-1996-10">"Studio Productions In New Jersey : New Jersey a Studio Center? Temporarily and Permanently!". New Jersey Television and Movie Commission. October 1996. Archived from the original on July 12, 2002. Woody Allen's Deconstructing Harry,"Getting the Big Picture; The Film Industry Started Here and Left. Now It's Back, and the State Says the Sequel Is Huge". The New York Times. October 4, 1998. Terry Kinney's Diminished Capacity, "Diminished Capacity". Jclist.com. Retrieved January 5, 2011. and A Perfect Murder by Andrew Davis. "Shooting the Apple", A Perfect Murder, Warner Brothers, 1998
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