TV discovers a San Diego star: O.B.

In “Terriers,” a new cable drama set in Ocean Beach, former “Life” police captain Donal Logue plays a hapless private detective and former “True Blood” psychopath Michael Raymond-James plays a recently reformed petty thief. And Ocean Beach? It just plays its own funky self.

A recent shooting day found Operation “Terriers” hunkered down in a battered alley between Mallory’s Consignment Shop and the Apple Tree supermarket, where director Adam Arkin led the cast and crew through two short scenes while Ocean Beach life swirled all around them.

Planes roared overhead. Shoppers stepped over cables and rattled their Apple Tree bags. Two barefoot surfers wound through the alley, keeping their boards as far away from a mint-condition 1967 Chevy Impala as the narrow space would allow.

It was noisy, busy and not particularly Hollywood-friendly, which suited the Hollywood folk just fine.

“What I like about O.B. is that you have this real big counterculture feel, and you have a lot of travelers, so you get this real cultural edge. But then you also have this laid-back California vibe,” Logue said.

“It’s a great place for these characters, because this is also a big city, and they are riding around in that shadow world. Here, you have the beauty of the waves and you have a city underbelly, and it’s fascinating to explore.”

Its characters may be low-rent types, but “Terriers” — which debuts on FX in September — is a big boost to the local economy. It is the first nonreality series to shoot in San Diego since the short-lived CBS dramedy “The Ex List” decamped in 2008. The 106-member crew includes 75 to 80 locals, and 20th Century Fox Studios estimates it will spend at least $17 million in San Diego by the time it wraps up production on the 13 “Terriers” episodes.

But if you asked the cast and crew to put a price tag on the O.B. factor, they would probably settle on “priceless.” A shaggy comedy-drama named after the tenacious dog breed, “Terriers” is about two fringe-dwellers torn between getting their lives in shape and avoiding reality altogether. And with its old-hippie vibe, anarchic spirit and eclectic population, this small beach community has an on-screen presence that is larger than life.

“Ocean Beach has become a character in the show that is just as big, if not bigger, than Donal and I,” said actor Raymond-James, who has been sharing a Mission Beach house with Logue during filming. “There is a bit of a scruffiness and scrappiness about our characters that fits right into O.B.”

Since it began shooting in San Diego in February, “Terriers” has used locations as diverse as the Del Mar Fairgrounds, the Ascot Shop in La Jolla and Ray Street Studios in North Park. The biggest piece of the action takes place in Ocean Beach, where the mom-and-pop stores, neighborhood bars and lived-in bungalows serve as the ideal home base for these wayward guys.

“The town was not originally written as O.B., but as a beach community that had not become overly commercialized,” said Los Angeles-based executive producer Shawn Ryan, whose other TV projects include “Lie to Me” and “The Shield.”

“We looked at locations stretching all the way south to Mexico and all the way north to San Francisco, but the city of San Diego and Ocean Beach in particular seemed just perfect. It’s kind of a miracle that O.B. exists in the way it does, and we incorporated that into the story line in of our characters really caring about the preservation of the town and that way of life.”

Filming in Ocean Beach is good for “Terriers,” but living with a production crew hasn’t been easy for all the natives. When the O.B. Rag blog wrote about the production of the pilot episode last summer, response from locals ranged from super stoked (“You can’t tell me it won’t be awesome to say to a friend, ‘Hey, watch this show, my house is in the background!’ ”) to totally ticked. (“A crew member parked in front of my driveway. The whole street is available for them. Jerk.”)

“The O.B. folks are a real grass-roots, ‘Keep Out Corporate America’ bunch, and I think they’re unaware of the good things that filming does,” said Ted Caplaneris, owner of the Old Townhouse Restaurant on Newport Avenue, which is featured prominently in the series.

Thanks to the “good chunk of change” he received from Fox, Caplaneris was able to invest in a much-needed new refrigerator and upgrade his exhaust system.

“We’re in a recession, and I think everyone should be welcoming the notoriety,” he said. “Look at ‘Top Gun’ and the Kansas City Barbeque. They shot that dive bar scene there almost 25 years ago, and people still show up so they can take their picture there. I hope that happens with us.”

Could TV success spoil Ocean Beach? Logue sure hopes not. Logue was born in Ottawa, Canada, and now lives in Los Angeles, but he spent eight formative preteen and teen years in El Centro, where he developed a love for San Diego beach communities that makes him proud enough of his on-screen home to worry about it a little.

“I feel protective about this place because I’ve always been aware of how special it is,” Logue said before heading out to the Apple Tree for an evening shoot that would last past midnight. “We’ve had a good relationship with O.B. on this show, and I hope they feel well represented. Although I’m sure most of the residences would rather be a well-kept secret from the world.”