HBO crews film iconic images of Joliet for series pilot of ‘American Blue’

Crews were in Joliet on Monday for the first time to film a pilot show for the proposed HBO TV series “American Blue.”

The series, if approved for production, will depict the lives of police officers using the city of Joliet as the setting for the stories it tells.

The creator of the series, Brian Udovich, is a native of Joliet.

Many of the crew members and extras involved in the filming on Monday also have local roots.

Plainfield resident Senica Billingsley, the first assistant director for the show, said she was proud to have “American Blue” filmed close to home in Joliet.

An unmarked police pickup truck waits along Jackson street to film a scene on Monday, April 27, 2026 in Joliet. HBO began filming the pilot for “American Blue” that follows a police chief retuning to Joliet to take over the police department. — An unmarked police pickup truck waits near the Jackson street bridge to film a scene on Monday, April 27, 2026 in Joliet. HBO began filming the pilot for “American Blue” that follows a character who returns to his hometown of Joliet to join the police department. (Gary Middendorf)

“I’m just really proud of what we’re doing,” Billingsley said during a lunch break for the filming on Monday. “I love the stories that the series is going to tell.”

“American Blue” will not be your typical crime drama.

“It’s really about the lives of the officers,” Billingsley said. “I feel that’s a story no one’s really told.”

[ Photos: HBO begins filming new police show in Joliet ]

The experience of police officers is being told with a local angle to such a degree that Joliet Police Department squad cars were used in the filming.

Iconic images of Joliet also were filmed.

St. Joseph Catholic Church, in downtown Joliet, is illuminated with new lights on Wednesday, April 22, 2026. (Gary Middendorf)

Those images included St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, built downtown in 1905 and just this year illuminated with a lighting system that was turned on for the pre-dawn filming crews looking for Joliet images for “American Blue.”

Billingsley described the church as “gorgeous this morning.”

“The sun was rising behind it,” Jim Nieciecki, a retired Prospect Heights firefighter who serves as medic for the HBO film crew, said of the church. “It looked really cool.”

The church was not the only local image that captured the imagination of the HBO film crews.

A barge on the Des Plaines River going under a raised drawbridge, a scene that typically evokes groans from Joliet motorists, captured the imagination of the film crews.

An actor dressed as a Joliet police officer walks along the 500 block of North Bluff street between filming on Monday, April 27, 2026 in Joliet. HBO began filming the pilot for “American Blue” that follows a police chief retuning to Joliet to take over the police department. — An actor dressed as a Joliet police officer walks along the 500 block of North Bluff street between filming on Monday, April 27, 2026 in Joliet. HBO began filming the pilot for “American Blue” that follows a character who returns to his hometown of Joliet to join the police department. (Gary Middendorf)

“That’s really iconic – to have the bridge rising and see the barge going through," Nieciecki said.

The Monday morning filming “went very well,” he said. “No injuries, which I’m happy about.

Nieciecki is on hand in case of filming injuries, which are not unusual, he said.

Stunt actors were involved in the Monday morning filming, which involved a domestic altercation in public as police intervened.

“Bad Guy One,” which Nieciecki said is how he is described in the script, is thrown to the ground at the Jackson Street Bridge, creating an opportunity for injury that at times happens in filming.

An unmarked police pickup truck turns down North Bluff street during the filming of a scene on Monday, April 27, 2026 in Joliet. HBO began filming the pilot for “American Blue” that follows a police chief retuning to Joliet to take over the police department. — An unmarked police pickup truck turns down North Bluff street during the filming of a scene on Monday, April 27, 2026 in Joliet. HBO began filming the pilot for “American Blue” that follows a character who returns to his hometown of Joliet to join the police department. (Gary Middendorf)

But the domestic altercation at the Jackson Street bridge went off without any injuries other than scratches to one of the several stunt actors involved.

Robert Demakis, assistant location manager for the Joliet scene, seemed satisfied with how it turned out.

Demakis arrived at 1 a.m. to begin preparing the filming. Security crews had already been on North Bluff Street overnight to secure parking, he said.

Dozens of trucks from the film crew were parked along North Bluff Street leading to the Jackson Street Bridge. Scores of film workers were there, too, along with extras hired to be in the filming.

The pilot would establish both the main characters and Joliet as the scene of the show.

“A lot of it is establishing Joliet as a character, as well as establishing the main characters of the show,” Demakis said.