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 See the dusty peaks of the Rocky Mountains towering over
pipelines? Take a drink.
The Rockies are 900 miles away from Williston, epicenter of
North Dakota's oil industry and a city that inspired the "Blood
& Oil" producers to craft a television show centered on a
modern-day version of a gold rush.
All of the show's minor errors about life in the second-largest
U.S. oil producing state could be forgiven, locals said, if
"Blood & Oil" would only do something about those mountains, a
jarring misrepresentation of a state where the highest point is
less than a mile above sea level.
Despite referencing North Dakota at every turn, the show was
filmed in Utah for "creative and logistical" reasons, Josh Pate,
the show's co-creator, told Reuters.
At least "Dallas," the 1970s hit show that first brought the
money and power of the oil business into America's living rooms,
was shot where it was set: Texas.
"We looked into filming in North Dakota, but there are more
resources in Utah," said Pate.
High-altitude Utah offers a 25 percent tax rebate for film
crews; flat and windy North Dakota, meanwhile, offers nothing.
"I wish they would have filmed it here to bring some additional
economic development," said Ron Ness, president of the North
Dakota Petroleum Council, an industry trade group for oil
companies like Continental Resources Inc, the inspiration for
Briggs Oil, the fictitious company run by star Don Johnson's
character.
Yet despite drawing heavily on the experiences of North Dakota's
oil boom, ABC did very little to market the show to the very
people upon which it is based.
While New York City buses and subway billboards have been
plastered for weeks with the faces of Johnson and co-star Chase
Crawford, Williston's billboards hawk pizza, workers
compensation attorneys and Chinese food, not the major
prime-time television drama.
Not that the lack of marketing mattered: "Blood & Oil" had to
compete with the Denver Broncos-Detroit Lions football game
during its Sunday night timeslot, presenting stiff competition.
Williston's Buffalo Wild Wings location, the city's largest bar,
opted for NFL football, showing the Denver Broncos' 24-12 win
over the Detroit Lions.
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An informal survey of 40 Williston residents, including the city's
chamber of commerce president, several city commissioners and even a
few oilfield executives, showed that more than three-quarters didn't
even watch the premier.
Still, more than 6.3 million Americans did, according to preliminary
estimates from Nielsen, including Williston Mayor Howard Klug.
"It's good entertainment, that's all I'll say," said Klug.
"Obviously, the show's creators haven't been to Williston."
TENSION
What the show's creators have done, though, is mixed oil patch
tensions with Hollywood panache.
Crawford's character makes a curt reference to flaring - the
wasteful burning of natural gas - within the show's first 30
seconds, serendipitous timing as the state last week gave oil
companies an extension to curb the practice.
Crawford's character and his wife, played by Rebecca Rittenhouse,
find a studio apartment for a whopping $2,000 per month, an
occurrence still quite common here.
Rittenhouse's character gets a job as a pharmacist despite dropping
out of pharmacy school after only two years, joking that's all the
experience she needs to work in the oil patch. But pharmacists must
complete their education and be licensed to practice in North
Dakota.
In the premiere's final scene, Johnson's character wrestles with an
assailant in thick, black crude oil leaking from a nearby storage
tank. In reality, North Dakota oil is a light amber color akin to
thickened apple juice.
"I like the show so far, but I'm just anticipating that my family
back in California is going to ask, 'Is this really what North
Dakota is like?" said Tyana Grayson, a Williston real estate
manager.
(Reporting by Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Steven R. Trousdale and
Alan Crosby)
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