General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

IKEA Heights

IKEA Heights is an American comedy web series, a parody of soap operas, that was filmed covertly inside the IKEA furniture store in Burbank, California, in 2009 without the company's knowledge or permission. It was created by David Seger and Paul Bartunek for Channel 101, a monthly short-film competition and screening series, and ran for seven episodes of roughly five minutes each between May 31, 2009 and January 31, 2010.¹^•²^•³

Key fact	Detail
Format	Parody soap opera; seven episodes of about 5 minutes each³
Original run	May 31, 2009 (episode 1) to January 31, 2010 (episode 7), on Channel 101²
Filming location	IKEA store in Burbank, California, shot guerrilla-style without the store's knowledge¹^•⁴
Creators	David Seger and Paul Bartunek; written by Seger, Spencer Strauss, Bartunek, and Tom Kauffman¹
Principal cast	Randall Park, Whitney Avalon, Matt Braunger, Tom Kauffman, Jess Lane, Wade Randolph, Abed Gheith, and Del Shoopman¹
Premise	The citizens of a town called Ikea Heights live inside an IKEA store and are aware of it, but never comment on the absurdity⁵
Reception	IMDb rating of 8.2/10 from 451 votes⁶

Spoilers

Premise and episodes

The show plays as a spoof of television soap operas, in the manner of a Telemundo melodrama. Its characters live in a society called Ikea Heights that exists inside an IKEA store; they know where they are but never remark on the ridiculousness of the setting. Plots involve a sexually humiliated hero and his amnesiac brother, a wife who keeps messing up the sheets in the bedding department, a smothering murder committed in the pillow department, and a detective who sits at his desk in the office furnishings department.⁴^•⁵

The seven episodes, as listed by TheTVDB, ran as follows:²

Episode 1 (May 31, 2009): the opening melodrama shot in the Burbank store.
Episode 2 (June 28, 2009): Detective Mathis investigates the murder of Thomas Jespens, walking up to unassuming IKEA attendants and asking for clues.²^•⁵
Episode 3 (June 26, 2009): James and his brother seek buried treasure while Mathis pursues the elusive Federico Babis.
Episode 4 (August 30, 2009): James returns with the treasure, but things at home have gone terribly wrong.
Episode 5 (September 27, 2009): James Melville looks for love while Detective Mathis tries to curb the Ikea Heights drug problem.
Episode 6 (October 25, 2009): a Halloween episode in which Ikea Heights is overcome with zombies.
Episode 7 (January 31, 2010): the story of the founding of Ikea Heights.

A special, "Internet Sensation," followed the series' spread online.²

Production

The series was made as an entry for Channel101.com's monthly video competition.⁴ Seger and Bartunek wrote the script, cast the show, and began shooting inside the Burbank store without asking permission. According to a Los Angeles Times report from September 2009, Seger, then 26, put wireless microphones on his actors and shot as fast as possible; the crew had been collared only once by store staff by that point. When employees asked what they were doing, the crew said they were doing a photo series, and the employees replied, "OK, just make sure it doesn't mention IKEA."⁴

The store's room displays served as ready-made sets, which made the production cheap and original. Filming took place during the store's opening hours, with ordinary shoppers sometimes wandering into the background of scenes.³^•⁷ Actress Whitney Avalon later explained that after press coverage informed IKEA of what the crew was doing, filming the final episodes became especially interesting: "We were told that photos of our characters were hanging in the surveillance office. It was so much fun!"⁸

Cast

The series is known for early appearances by actors who went on to larger careers. Randall Park, later known for The Interview, played James Melville and other roles including Ezekiel Ikea and Lucas Melville.¹^•³^•⁸ Whitney Avalon played Candace Melville and Mary, and comedian Matt Braunger played Detective Ron Mathis and Grandpa Mathis.³ The ensemble also included Tom Kauffman, Jess Lane, Wade Randolph, Abed Gheith, and Del Shoopman.¹

Release and response

Episodes appeared on YouTube between 2009 and 2010, and the first episode drew 136,160 viewings by September 2009, enough that the Los Angeles Times asked how IKEA could walk away from that attention.⁴ The Burbank store had a history as a backdrop for unauthorized comedy: in 2006, Sean Sahlin had shot a parody of MTV's The Real World there, and the store had also furnished the IKEA-funded web series Easy to Assemble starring Illeana Douglas.⁴

IKEA's reaction was tolerant. Madeleine Löwenborg-Frick, a spokesperson for the Canadian branch of IKEA, said the company considered the series funny but would have preferred to learn about such initiatives in advance, adding that unauthorized filming in its stores was not a good thing.⁹ In 2010 an IKEA spokesperson commented in a tone between serious and joking: "It's funny, we all think so. We like their sense of humor, and we treat our marketing initiatives with the same attitude. But filming in our stores without permission is not good. There are official channels for it, so if you want to film in IKEA stores, you can do it that way."⁸

The series found a second life about a decade after release, when renewed online attention made it a viral case again; all seven episodes remained available on YouTube, and episodes 1 through 6 were also on Vimeo in better quality.⁸^•⁷ A documentary about the project also exists.⁸

Context in IKEA-themed comedy

IKEA Heights belongs to a strand of pop culture in which the store itself becomes a setting or a character. The Burbank shoot followed earlier guerrilla projects in the same store, and the series' premise exploits the store's maze-like showrooms, which other works have used for comedy, from Dave Days' 2009 Fireflies parody to the 2009 film (500) Days of Summer, in which the leads play at being a couple among the displays.⁴^•⁵

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Unscripted, reality, and web-native series › Web-native and streaming-original series › Early English-language web series (1997–mid 2010s)

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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