Weeds (TV Series) - Production

Production

The show is inspired by crime series such as The Shield and The Sopranos, in the sense of the antivillain serving as the protagonist while retaining an individual moral code, which usually goes against the norms of society. The title, according to Kohan, refers "to a lot of things", including marijuana and widow's weeds; however, it mainly alludes to "hardy plants struggling to survive." The basic premise, as illustrated by the lyrics of the opening song from the first three seasons as well its eighth, satirizes off-color characters struggling with faux suburban reality, in which everything is "all style, no substance". According to Kohan, she first pitched the series to HBO, which dismissed it. Robert Greenblatt invested in the show and Showtime later approved.

Jenji Kohan, whose credits include Tracey Takes On..., Mad About You, and Sex and the City, is the executive producer of the series, alongside Roberto Benabib, of Little City fame. Kohan serves as showrunner and head writer; she has written each season's premiere and finale episode. According to Kohan, when asked who "runs the writer's room," she said that she and Benabib "tag team". The writer Matthew Salsberg and director Craig Zisk joined the writing team as executive producers in later seasons; however, Zisk departed the series after season five. Since then Mark A. Burley, director Scott Ellis, and Lisa I. Vinnecour have been added to the writing team as executive producers. By season eight, writers Victoria Morrow and Stephan Falk have moved up the ranks as co-executive producer.

The exterior scenes for the show's first two seasons were shot almost exclusively in Stevenson Ranch, a suburban area of Santa Clarita Valley, California. The shot of the large fountain and Agrestic sign seen in the introduction of seasons 1–3 was shot at the corner of Stevenson Ranch Parkway and Holmes Place. The name "Stevenson Ranch" was digitally replaced with "Agrestic" (and with "Majestic" and "Regrestic" in later episodes). The overhead satellite picture displayed at the beginning of the show's introduction (seasons 1–3) is of Calabasas Hills, a gated community in Calabasas, California. The shot of the "It's A Grind" coffee shop in the introduction (seasons 1–3) is of an It's A Grind in Castaic, California. The show was originally filmed at Red Studios, previously known as Ren-Mar studios. The show moved to Universal Studios in Los Angeles for season 7, where it is noted on the studio tour. A version of this Wikipedia page served as the introduction for the season 5 episode titled "Where the Sidewalk Ends".