TV series shoots in Valley Stream

Stars Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu were in Valley Stream for the shoot.

Courtesy CBS

Vapor Junction was the site of the shoot last Friday.

Nick Ciccone/Herald

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Scenes from an episode of the CBS series “Elementary” were filmed at a store on Rockaway Avenue last Friday. Fans of the show and curious passersby stopped to catch a glimpse of the show’s stars, Lucy Liu and Jonny Lee Miller.

“They’re so funny,” Jennifer Hillman said of the on-screen interaction between Liu and Miller. Hillman lives in Lynbrook but attended South High School. She had the day off, and decided to hang out near the set when she heard that one of her favorite shows was filming there.

Ann Curley was shopping at Morris Variety, on Rockaway Avenue, when she learned of the shoot, and she brought her granddaughters to the set. Curley said she watches the show with her granddaughter Emily every week.

The series, which premiered in September 2012, is a modern take on Sherlock Holmes, with the detective living in present-day New York City. Early on, audiences were reluctant to accept another Holmes spinoff that would compete with the BBC’s “Sherlock,” but Curley, a fan of both shows, said, “They’re so different.” Now in its fourth season, the show is expected to air new episodes through the spring. The Valley Stream scene will appear in an episode slated to air on Sunday, April 10.

Sam Sharma, 28, is one of the owners of Vapor Junction, at 165 Rockaway Ave., where the crew filmed inside and outside. The e-cigarette and hookah shop opened last year. Sharma said that his store was chosen after the production company had visited a few dozen other smoke shops around New York City and Nassau County over the course of three weeks. The store’s design and products matched what the company was looking for, and Sharma signed a contract.

“It was interesting,” he said of the experience. “The store gets publicity and it’s probably going to be good for business. We feel lucky that they liked the store — the way we designed it and everything.”

The crew prepared the store, with its sleek glass shelves and neon lights, last Thursday, and filming began the next morning and lasted through the afternoon, with the section of Rockaway Avenue between Valley Stream Boulevard and Jamaica Avenue closed during the shoot. A prop van with a fake logo was parked across the street from Vapor Junction, where the exterior scenes were filmed.