Creator of Netflix’s ‘Outer Banks’ — who’s from NC — explains show’s geography snafu

North Carolinians have been giggling since the phenomenally popular Netflix series “Outer Banks” suggested landlocked Chapel Hill can be reached by boat from the coast.

It’s actually 250 miles west of the Atlantic.

But series producer Jonas Pate — a Raeford, N.C. native who lives in Wilmington — wants it known that it was not artistic license nor geographic ignorance that led to the slip.

It was an editing oversight, he said in a phone interview.

“I don’t want people to think that we don’t know Chapel Hill isn’t near the coast. Maybe I’m over thinking this, but we’re super proud of it, we bleed North Carolina and we want it to reflect well on our state,” Pate told McClatchy News.

“In the original script, they took a ferry from an island to the coast, then took an Uber to Chapel Hill. But that scene of them getting into the Uber and driving to Chapel Hill was cut, and never even shot. We cut it not realizing it would imply Chapel Hill was on the coast.”

The end result has been a series of jokes on social media at the expense of a show that has become an international hit during the coronavirus pandemic, when millions are being forced to stay home. COVID-19 has infected more than 2.6 million and caused 185,000 deaths worldwide as of April 23, according to Johns Hopkins University.

“The world reaction has been insane,” Pate said. “What’s most gratifying is you are having many different age groups watching it together: Grandparents to 10 year olds. And that’s a nice thing, given this terrible thing we’re going through as a country now.”

The show’s plot follows “a group of teenagers from the wrong side of the tracks (who) stumble upon a treasure map that unearths a long buried secret,” according to IMDb.

Pate, who created the show with his brother, Josh Pate, says the series was written ”as a love letter to the coast.” However, Netflix insisted on moving production to South Carolina after North Carolina adopted the contentious HB2 “bathroom bill” to keep transgender people from accessing facilities based on their gender identity.

The law was repealed in 2017, though some provisions remain in effect through the end of 2020, including “a moratorium preventing local governments from passing their own non discrimination ordinances,” The Charlotte Observer reported.

Pate says he and the show’s cast understand the hubbub generated by the ferry route detail and they’re maintaining their sense of humor about the ribbing.

“The cast and I have sent these articles (about the ferry route) back and forth to each other. We have even thought about getting T-shirts with a ferry line on them from Kill Dare Island to Chapel Hill,” he said, noting the fictitious Kill Dare Island on the show merges the names of Kill Devil Hills and English colonist Virginia Dare.

“I hope North Carolina starts to see film as a legacy business, like pork or tobacco. it has been here since the early ’80s and we were once known as the Hollywood South. We should reclaim that.”