Public Notoriety
Over the years Seaside Heights has been used as the backdrop for numerous media productions. The most recent has been the filming of scenes for One Life to Live. The behind the scenes story of the soap opera's Seaside Heights production was documented in a film put together by Peter Smith. He is director of the borough's Office of Public Relations and is an award winning documentary director.
This film is interesting for many reasons. It offers behind the scenes footage of the making of a TV soap opera, scenes from the Seaside Heights' Boardwalk and the Barnegat Bay dock, and lots of commentary from Peter Smith....who in fact has a great blog about Seaside Heights.
Enjoy the video but do plan for this to take some time. The documentary is over 30 minutes long!
Seaside Heights and One Life to Live documentary
In and Out of Love and the Seaside Heights' Boardwalk
The video
About the Video and the Song "In and Out of Love"
The video features Bon Jovi and his band from the mid 80's. The song was from the 1985 album 7800° Fahrenheit, which was Bon Jovi's second album. When you see the video it leaves no doubt that this was the time of "big hair" bands. The central element of the video is the band performing on the Seaside Heights' boardwalk. The production was filmed at night at the Franklin Avenue stage and much of the footage is from this area of the boardwalk. Towards the end of the song there is a spoken line "you rockin the beach or what?" This is supposed to represent a shout out to the Seaside Heights Boardwalk crowd during the performance of the song but clearly the song recording is a studio production.
Scenes from Seaside Heights
- Bon Jovi and his band performing on the Franklin Avenue Stage
- a street scene at Dupont and Ocean Terrace, showing Steaks Unlimited
- Bon Jovi and the band strolling on the boardwalk during the day
- Bon Jovi and the band sitting on a bench on the boardwalk, hiding behind newspapers they pretend to be reading
- a brief scene on what could be Ocean Terrace
- Bon Jovi playing guitar while sitting on the beach, and a woman comes up and kicks sand on him
- Richie Sambora (I think) playing guitar in a beached Seaside Heights' beach patrol boat
- Bon Jovi standing against the wall of a building that could be on Ocean Terrace (anyone recognize that colorful building?)
- a woman diving into a pool (is this a Seaside Heights pool? does anyone know and could tell us?)
- a man meets woman "let me light your cigarette" scene at the Midway food stand
If anyone was there who saw the filming of the video or was part of the crowd, please leave a comment below and tell us what you remember from when Bon Jovi was in town.
Other notable presentations of Seaside Heights...
The Apprentice
The Apprentice filmed and aired highlights of a 72 hour/$20,000 remodeling job of a few rooms in the Surfside Motel.
MTV
Episodes of MTV's "True Life" the 1998 season of "MTV summer beach house" and 2002's "MTV's Shore Thing" were shot in and featured Seaside Heights.
Here is a blurb about a True Life episode.....
True Life is back in Seaside Heights, New Jersey for another wild summer at the Jersey Shore--only this time we're going to show you how the girls party "down" there. True Life: I'm a Jersey Shore Girl will follow three Jersey Girls with a rented summer share house and see how they try to maintain relationships in this fashion-obsessed, hormone-driven hotspot.
A scene from the MTV show "Busted" exposes someone taking a pink flamingo from a prize stand.
Michael Moore / Documentaries
Two Michael Moore documentaries include clips that were shot in Seaside Heights. The 2002 Bowling for Columbine shows the Shoot The Geek stand from the boardwalk (Dupont Avenue and The Boardwalk). Sicko, from 2007, shows scenes from Captain Hooks on Boulevard. The filming shows a February benefit that was held for Joe Piccurro from Toms River. Mr. Piccurro's, suffering from effects of working at ground zero after the 9-11 attack in New York, was featured as one example of the health care issues faced by people in the U.S.
Artie Lange
Scenes from the 2006 movie "Artie Lange's Beer League" were filmed here. Peter Smith appears as an extra in the film.
