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Philly readies for its next TV closeup

SO DOES A TV SHOW that's filmed entirely in Philly look different from one that only pretends it's here? We won't be able to see how we look in our latest closeup until NBC's "Do No Harm" premieres in early 2013. Until then, there's always "Hack," the 2002-04 drama starring Philadelphian David Morse and Andre Braugher ("Last Resort"). Its 40 episodes are now available for streaming on Netflix.

SO DOES A TV SHOW that's filmed entirely in Philly look different from one that only pretends it's here?

We won't be able to see how we look in our latest closeup until NBC's "Do No Harm" premieres in early 2013. Until then, there's always "Hack," the 2002-04 drama starring Philadelphian David Morse and Andre Braugher ("Last Resort"). Its 40 episodes are now available for streaming on Netflix.

Also on Netflix (as well as on Amazon Instant Video): Steven Bochco's "Philly," a legal drama starring Roxborough's Kim Delaney that mostly filmed in southern California, on a set with surprisingly realistic City Hall interiors, including one of its massive staircases.

Both shows have more Philly cred than ABC's "Body of Proof," in which Dana Delany plays a Philadelphia medical examiner. Its first season filmed in Rhode Island - where the tax credit was the lure - before moving to Los Angeles when California acted to recapture runaway productions.

Setting it in Philly "was really, truly a lack of imagination," admitted "Proof" creator Christopher Murphey, who's from Bala Cynwyd.

"I was sitting here at my computer. . . . I just thought, 'OK, exterior, Schuylkill River, Philadelphia,' you know, and it just went from there."

- Ellen Gray