LA Transforms Into Iowa for the Final Season of ‘Veep’

Los Angeles has over the years provided the backdrop for all sorts of television shows and movies: Westerns, science fiction, war movies and cops-and-robbers. In recent weeks, a corner of the county has been transformed into something else: the state of Iowa in the midst of a presidential campaign.

The cast and crew of “Veep” have descended upon the San Fernando Valley to film episodes of the final season of the HBO series. Its main character, Selina Meyer, played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus, is making a bid for the presidency; and what road to the White House doesn’t lead through Des Moines? (No spoiler alerts here because — well, we don’t know what happens next season.)

Among the locations: the Underwood Family Farms in Moorpark, which has been tricked up to look like a fair.

“They already had a bunch of animals and farm stuff like giant pumpkins, and we added a few rides, as well as games and deep-fried foods on a stick,” said David Mandel, executive producer of “Veep,” whose lively Instagram feed has been offering a running chronicle of the adventure.

With its scrubby hills and mountains, Los Angeles — particularly the San Fernando Valley and the Santa Monica Mountains — has easily lent itself to shows like “Gunsmoke,” “Bonanza,” “Batman” and “M*A*S*H.” But Iowa?

Mandel said it wasn’t hard to make Los Angeles look like Iowa, “as long as you don’t see palm trees or the mountains.” He said the director of the show, Morgan Sackett, is from Iowa and had a decided idea on exactly how things should look.

For those who haven’t been, the Iowa State Fair is one of the great pleasures of Des Moines, and it is an inevitable stop for political candidates from both parties. It is big and sprawling.

Mandel said that while the state fair inspired the scene, he couldn’t quite replicate it.

“Because of the time of year we are saying and because we can’t do something as big at the state fair, we made it more of a smaller county fair that the candidates are visiting as part of their Iowa campaign,” he said.