In the magical world of television, there is just a few metres between The Footy Show staring Sam Newman and the final series of a major US cable television series staring Liv Tyler and Justin Theroux.

There might even be crew working on the football show one day, and then the next day on HBO series The Leftovers.

Since April a team of US producers and actors have been based at the most desolate end of Melbourne's Docklands filming the last six episodes of The Leftovers, based on book by Tom Perrotta about a mass of humanity disappearing without explanation.

The first two seasons were filmed in New York and Texas, so how did HBO end up in the shadows of Melbourne's Skywheel?