Development FX ordered a
pilot for
The Bear in March 2021, to be written and directed by series creator and co-showrunner
Christopher Storer. In October 2021, FX greenlit the series for a full-season order, scheduled for a 2022 premiere date. The season was produced by
FX Productions (FXP), with
Hiro Murai, Nate Matteson,
Joanna Calo and Josh Senior serving as executive producers.
Matty Matheson, who portrays Neil Fak in a recurring role in the season, serves as a consulting producer. The sandwich shop interior is copied from the
Chicago restaurant
Mr. Beef on Orleans Street, in
River North. Storer was a frequent patron and a friend of the owner's son.
Casting portrays chef Carmy Berzatto in the series.|230x230px On May 21, 2021, it was announced that
Shameless star
Jeremy Allen White would be starring in the pilot for
The Bear in the leading role, alongside co-stars
Ebon Moss-Bachrach,
Ayo Edebiri,
Lionel Boyce,
Abby Elliott and Matheson. In October 2021,
Liza Colón-Zayas was announced to be joining the main cast, with Matheson and
Edwin Lee Gibson starring in a recurring capacity. The season features many guest stars, including
Oliver Platt,
Joel McHale and
Jon Bernthal. Joanna Calo told
The Hollywood Reporter after the launch of season one, "We were looking for surprising people, the most exciting people, and people with kindness at their center as a way to ground some of the sharper edges of the show. And Lionel [Boyce] and Ayo [Edebiri] were people Chris had worked with in different ways. And Ebon [Moss-Bachrach] was someone that we both really admired and kind of just found through the casting process. All the people that we cast were willing to read, which was a really interesting process to navigate. And that wasn't even about them, showing us how good they were, we knew how good they were. But it was a way for us to meet them and talk to them and see if they wanted to work with us and see if they kind of could have a shared energy." According to Calo, "One of the things that changed greatly ended up not being put into the final pilot. We wrote a big explosion for Jeremy [Allen White], getting at this thing that happens in kitchens, which is that the hot temperatures and the close quarters and the abusive cycles often lead chefs to yell at each other. There was this big moment for Jeremy to freak out at everyone. If you've seen the series, there are moments like that later on. When we made the pilot, we decided that we were able to draw that out for longer, but I do think that it showed FX what Jeremy could do and what the show could be. And that was something exciting to them. And also Sydney [Adamu] was supposed to appear first in episode three. And I loved her and I said, 'let's get her in.'" The period covered by season 1 is not explicitly delineated, but it seems to begin in June 2022. "Brigade" takes place in November 2022. The events of "Review" and "Braciole" (and possibly "Ceres") take place back-to-back.
Filming Several scenes for the pilot were filmed on location at Mr. Beef, although a set was built for the kitchen scenes. The pilot was filmed in summer 2021. Principal photography for the season began in February 2022, and wrapped on March 31, 2022, in Chicago. Storer directed five of the eight episodes, with the other three being directed by Calo. The seventh episode of the season, "
Review," features an 18-minute
long take. According to cinematographer Andrew Wehde, episodes two through eight of season one were shot over 27 days (two fewer days than had been scheduled) with "about 18 days in that primary set [at
Cinespace Chicago], and then we were out at the original Mr. Beef and elsewhere around the city for the remaining eight or nine days." The pilot was "shot
widescreen, 2:39." According to Wehde, "We started realizing the pilot lived in its own world. The show was going to be its own thing. We shot tests before principal [photography] of season one, and we were pulling grabs of widescreen and
1:85. It started to feel timeless at 1:85. We felt 1:85 worked great."
Editing According to film editor Adam Epstein, "We were blessed-slash-cursed with an absolutely massive amount of B-roll...We had six hours of them doing the full beef process, or four hours of Chicago at dusk, and at night. We had shots of the kitchen when it was messy, and when it was clean. It was really purposeful and specific, and that enabled us to bring some interesting ideas and transitions into the episodes."
Music The songs used in the season 1 trailer are "Three Way Split" by Dick Walter and "
Via Chicago" by
Wilco. Josh Senior told Uproxx, "We did the music for the show on Saturdays. We would shoot during the week and edit. And then on Saturdays, Chris and I would text each other songs that we would then play over cuts that didn't have music, or had different music in it." Executive producer Josh Senior and composer
Jeffrey Qaiyum first met when Qaiyum taught a hip-hop theater class at
Lehigh University. Senior then began hiring him for various production projects, leading up to
The Bear. Qaiyum, in turn, brought in
Johnny Iguana: "I use
session musicians when
scoring and I wanted to use only Chicago people for
The Bear. Johnny Iguana is one of the greatest piano/organ players alive. He's a Chicago legend and has played in the
Junior Wells band and was quite big regionally with a band called
Oh My God. His current band is
the Claudettes. I used Johnny Iguana a lot in season one and when we were discussing the vibe for season two, I got him involved in a more official capacity and we co-wrote many of the themes for S2." According to Block Club Chicago, "Qaiyum and Iguana were often asked to compose music with similar tones and beats per minute to popular songs the show's producers wanted to use but couldn't afford." == Release ==