NextSharkNextShark.com
Latest Newsletter🍵 Ming-Na Wen honoredRead

Article

Someone Secretly Filmed an Entire ‘Soap Opera’ at IKEA Years Ago and it’s Magnificent

    Asian America Daily - in under 5 minutes

    Get our collection of Asian America's most essential stories, to your inbox daily, for free!

    Unsure? Check out our Newsletter Archive

    IKEA Heights” had all the trappings of a typical soap opera: romance, intrigue, mystery, some eerie plot-twists, and a trippy intro reminiscent of those 90s era shows.

    But while this seven-episode gem of a series is merely a spoof of the genre, it deserves more love than it received when it first came out and went kind of viral back in 2009.

    The cliche-filled, laugh-a-minute series by Los Angeles filmmakers Paul Bartunek and David Seger, is made even more special by the fact that it was filmed entirely at IKEA in an outlet in Burbank, California.

    The show’s stellar cast consists of some of today’s hottest TV stars such as Randall Park of “Fresh Off The Boat,” Whitney Avalon of “The Big Bang Theory,” and Matt Peters of “Orange Is The New Black.”

    Shot in the course of one year, the scenes of the show were ingeniously set up in IKEA’s varied departments, making clever use of displayed items for sale as props. This is certified guerrilla filmmaking as all the scenes were shot without the store’s permission.

    “The store doesn’t know we’re there,” Seger told the Los Angeles Times in 2009. “We’ve had employees ask what we’re doing and we say we’re doing a photo series. They say, ‘OK, just make sure it doesn’t mention IKEA.’ We lie and say OK.”

    The show, created for website Channel101.com, recently resurfaced online and earned itself some new fans.  

    Hooked yet? Here’s another one:

    To find out where the treasure’s buried, check out ThisisChannel101’s YouTube channel.

    Support our Journalism with a Contribution

    Many people might not know this, but despite our large and loyal following which we are immensely grateful for, NextShark is still a small bootstrapped startup that runs on no outside funding or loans.

    Everything you see today is built on the backs of warriors who have sacrificed opportunities to help give Asians all over the world a bigger voice.

    However, we still face many trials and tribulations in our industry, from figuring out the most sustainable business model for independent media companies to facing the current COVID-19 pandemic decimating advertising revenues across the board.

    We hope you consider making a contribution so we can continue to provide you with quality content that informs, educates and inspires the Asian community. Even a $1 contribution goes a long way.  Thank you for everyone's support. We love you all and can't appreciate you guys enough.

    Support NextShark

    Mastercard, Visa, Amex, Discover, Paypal