TV Shows with a strong "regional" sense

[Zeldar]

I'm toying with the idea of a poll to try to find how TV shows with a strong "regional" feel compare in terms of authenticity and effectiveness.

The two I think of as good examples of that sort of thing are The Sopranos (New Jersey) and Justified (Kentucky). I know there are others where the setting is important to the mood of the show, Dexter in Miami for one. But I'd like to get a good list of such shows to build a poll from.

Defunct shows like Chicago Code and Detroit 1-8-7 are worth considering, as is the current Blue Bloods, but my view on them is that the "regional" aspect is not as strong there.

Other shows? Discussion?

[jali]

Friends, Seinfeld, 30Rock, Rhoda, Will and Grace, Spin City, Mad Men all did pretty good NYC to me.

[Zeldar]

Friends, Seinfeld, 30Rock, Rhoda, Will and Grace, Spin City, Mad Men all did pretty good NYC to me.

It may just be a bit of jadedness on my part, but I tend to dismiss the NYC and LA "regionalism" component, unless it's stressed as a main feature of the show. One exception I can think of is the excellent Southland where LA is essential to how the show comes across. I'm not arguing with your list, and would certainly include them in the poll, but I see them as not all that strongly tied to place as other shows. Thanks for the response.

[ZipperJJ]

The Middle takes place in Indiana. They often talk about different towns in Indiana and the dad is a huge Colts (NFL) and Hoosiers (NCAA) fan. And the title of the show refers to "the middle of the country."

Hot in Cleveland is always throwing Cleveland-specific shout outs out there. From Amish Country to the Cavs. Same with The Drew Carey Show.

It's often said that NYC is one of the primary characters on Law & Order (the original).

[blondebear]

Hawaii 5-0
Magnum, P.I.

[pancakes3]

pawnee is pretty central to parks and rec.

chicago is a new "cool" city for sitcoms now. both Happy Endings and Whitney drop chi-town references.

and of course, the Office put Scranton, Pa. on the map.

[madmonk28]

The Wire.

[Quimby]

Lots of shows are set in New York but of sitcoms I would say Seinfeld and How I met Your Mother felt the most New York.

[Zeldar]

Does Breaking Bad rely on the Desert Southwest (Albuquerque to be more precise) for much of its mood and feel?

Does The Killing need Seattle to work?

Does Bones have to be set (for at least some of its inter-agency squabbles) in DC?

Asked another way, if you didn't know where the city or town in which the show is supposedly set was Town-X or City-Y, would it even matter for how the show comes across?

[Zeldar]

The Wire.

Got to be on the list! Thanks!

[Sigmagirl]

My Name is Earl never revealed its actual location, but it was very good at establishing a sense of place. I think it fits the OP's "strong regional sense."

[Darth Sensitive]

King of the Hill is very North Texas.

[It's Not Rocket Surgery!]

Burn Notice definitely feels very "Miami".

Going back, both The Waltons and Little House On The Prairie established strong senses of place, as did the (even older) Andy Griffith Show.

[Biffy the Elephant Shrew]

Although the specific town is fictional, the rural Alaskan setting is sine qua non to Northern Exposure.

[RealityChuck]

Homicide: Life on the Streets

[Zeldar]

Burn Notice definitely feels very "Miami".

Going back, both The Waltons and Little House On The Prairie established strong senses of place, as did the (even older) Andy Griffith Show.

Good examples. In case it wasn't obvious in the OP, I would prefer the poll to be based on "contemporary" or "modern day" shows, thereby excluding Westerns for the most part. Present day Westerns could be included if the place is significant. Breaking Bad comes as close as any show I watch regularly to be in that category, but it's hard for me to think of it as a "western" per se.

[SciFiSam]

In Life on Mars the location was almost as integral to the plot as the time.

[Zeldar]

My Name is Earl never revealed its actual location, but it was very good at establishing a sense of place. I think it fits the OP's "strong regional sense."

As I have yet to watch the first episode of the show, I'll take your word for it.

[DeweyDecibel]

Breaking Bad is set in New Mexico. I've spent very little time in that part of the country, but the show relies on the desert, the mexican border, and the general region quite strongly. I'm trying to picture the show set elsewhere, and it's really a different show. That may be a way to get at your question - move the show to another setting, how much has to change?

It's also my impression that people from the area think it is quite accurate, regionally.

[Morbo]

Portlandia may as well get a starring credit.

[Zeldar]

Through post #20 here's an unedited summary of shows mentioned (some more than once):

====================

The Sopranos (New Jersey)
Justified (Kentucky)
Dexter in Miami
Chicago Code
Detroit 1-8-7
Blue Bloods -- NYC

Friends -- NYC
Seinfeld -- NYC
30Rock -- NYC
Rhoda -- NYC
Will and Grace -- NYC
Spin City -- NYC
Mad Men -- NYC

Southland -- LA

The Middle -- Indiana
Hot in Cleveland
The Drew Carey Show -- Cleveland
Law & Order (the original) -- NYC

Hawaii 5-0 -- Hawaii
Magnum, P.I. -- Hawaii

parks and rec -- pawnee

Happy Endings -- chicago
Whitney -- chicago
the Office -- Scranton, Pa.

The Wire -- Baltimore

Seinfeld -- NYC
How I met Your Mother -- NYC

Breaking Bad -- Desert Southwest (Albuquerque)
The Killing -- Seattle
Bones -- DC

My Name is Earl -- wherever

King of the Hill -- North Texas

Burn Notice -- "Miami"

The Waltons -- ?
Little House On The Prairie -- ?
Andy Griffith Show -- ?

Northern Exposure -- Alaska

Homicide: Life on the Streets -- Baltimore

Life on Mars -- ?

Breaking Bad -- New Mexico

Portlandia -- Oregon

==================

If I have incorrectly or incompletely misplaced a show's setting, please correct me.

[Simplicio]

I can't picture the Simpson's being set anywhere other then the State that Springfield is in.

[Morbo]

I hesitate to mention any recent show set in San Francisco, b/c they are comically *not* filmed there. Charmed, Monk and from what I've seen Alcatraz don't lift a finger to have a strong regional sense.

[Zeldar]

I hesitate to mention any recent show set in San Francisco, b/c they are comically *not* filmed there. Charmed, Monk and from what I've seen Alcatraz don't lift a finger to have a strong regional sense.

Excellent point! From what I've read, very little of Justified's footage is filmed on location in Kentucky or surrounding states, but rather in California. The glaring shots of hills with no trees are just some of the problems with place authenticity, and it's more in the dialects and mannerisms that give the show whatever "regionalism" it can claim.

Perhaps another thread dealing with this aspect of non-NYC and non-LA "locations" might be fun to explore. Meanwhile, let's allow the phony actual locations to slide in favor of the supposed ones.

[Novelty Bobble]

Just for fun, you might try "Auf Wierdersehen Pet"

An early eighties drama/com set on a building site in Dusseldorf and featuring a bunch of migrant UK workers. It has the benefit of a young Timothy Spall (and in one episode, Ray Winstone) and a fine collection of regional accents. Brummie, Geordie, scouse, cockney and west country brogue.

As the geordie lads would say......."Its git canny like!" (trans. "it is a program of fine quality)

[Bridget Burke]

King of the Hill is very North Texas.

And generally Texas enough to make a lot of sense in Houston...

[BrassyPhrase]

And generally Texas enough to make a lot of sense in Houston...

KOTH. That's a show that could not be set anywhere else and make sense.

And though I think Mike Judge is from the Dallas area, there's enough Austiny and Houstony things in to keep it very general Texas.

I have a friend that taught English in Japan for several years and he would watch KOTH when he was feeling homesick.

[astorian]

I grew up in a speciic neighborhood in New York City, but rarely felt as if most TV shows set in New York really captured my neighborhood or accurately portrayed the kind of people I gew up around.

The Honeymooners certainly captured Bensonhurt, Brooklyn, in the Fifties.

All in the Family OCCASIONALLY rang true... I definitely knew a lot of real people in Astoria who talked like Archie. But there was way too much the show DIDN'T get right about Astoria (Archie never seemed to run into any GREEKS, for one thing!).

[Happy Lendervedder]

"Home Improvement" was set in (Tim Allen's home region of) metro Detroit. But all of the Detroit references made on the show always seemed forced, like Tim was just basically doing shout-outs to the people back home.

[Tim R. Mortiss]

Nobody has mentioned CSI and Las Vegas yet? They make the city a central character.

[poker in the rear]

Twin Peaks

[Dr. Rieux]

Petticoat Junction and Green Acres both got the ambience of Hooterville just right.;)

[Purd Werfect]

Corner Gas used Saskatchewan to the extent that the locale was seemingly almost a character on the show.

Streets of San Francisco showed SF to good advantage.

M*A*S*H really evoked the mountains around southern California.

[Zeldar]

Twin Peaks

Absolutely! Got to be there.

M*A*S*H really evoked the mountains around southern California.

This one wins the thread! :D

[RealityChuck]

Dragnet (the 50s and 60s versions) -- Los Angeles.

[Musicat]

All in the Family OCCASIONALLY rang true... I definitely knew a lot of real people in Astoria who talked like Archie. But there was way too much the show DIDN'T get right about Astoria (Archie never seemed to run into any GREEKS, for one thing!).Well, Archie wasn't exactly a frat brother, doncha know.

[DCnDC]

I've never known any show to ever get DC right. It's always just a quick establishing shot of monuments or exteriors of buildings, then you're magically whisked away to L.A., or Vancouver, or anywhere else but DC.

Understandable, due to the difficulty of filming anything in DC, but it's always completely obvious that they're definitely NOT shooting here. They even fuck up the surrounding area. It's always apparent that the producers/writers are just looking at a map and randomly picking names of cities/towns. I especially enjoy how they seem to think that anywhere inside the Beltway, or even out to Annapolis (X-Files, I'm looking at you), is just a 20 minute drive.

[bouv]

Always Sunny in Philadelphia, despite being mostly filmed in L.A., is still pretty good about keeping a strong "Philly" presence in the show. The Gang is always talking about Phillies, the Eagles, using local slang, etc...

[Don Draper]

Dallas

[Wheelz]

chicago is a new "cool" city for sitcoms now. both Happy Endings and Whitney drop chi-town references.I've since stopped watching Whitney, but it took me about 6 episodes to realize that it was supposed to be set in Chicago. Other than the occasional Blackhawks jersey, there's nothing Chicago about it at all. Haven't seen Happy Endings so I can't comment.

Currently, Mike & Molly is the most authentic Chicago-based show for my money. The creator (Mark Roberts) and one of the exec producers (Mark Gross) are both ex-Chicagoans, and there are a lot of little touches -- Old Style beer, mentions of less-famous city landmarks and neighborhoods, convincing establishing shots -- that give it a decidedly Chicago feel.

In the defunct hospital drama department, I thought ER did a halfway decent job of capturing the city, especially in the earlier seasons; Chicago Hope less so.

[JohnT]

I received for Christmas the entire series run of Friday Night Lights, which is supposed to be a pretty good representation of West Texas culture.

I don't know yet because I'm currently working through Six Feet Under, which is LA through-and-through.

[kushiel]

Corner Gas used Saskatchewan to the extent that the locale was seemingly almost a character on the show.


*shakes fist* You beat me to it! It was like looking in a mirror.

[C. Montgomery Burns]

Mystery Science Theater 3000 always kept pretty close to its low budget, small market Twin Cities origins. Even the movie seemed very simple in its production values.

[SciFiSam]

Through post #20 here's an unedited summary of shows mentioned (some more than once):

====================

The Sopranos (New Jersey)
Justified (Kentucky)
Dexter in Miami
Chicago Code
Detroit 1-8-7
Blue Bloods -- NYC

Friends -- NYC
Seinfeld -- NYC
30Rock -- NYC
Rhoda -- NYC
Will and Grace -- NYC
Spin City -- NYC
Mad Men -- NYC

Southland -- LA

The Middle -- Indiana
Hot in Cleveland
The Drew Carey Show -- Cleveland
Law & Order (the original) -- NYC

Hawaii 5-0 -- Hawaii
Magnum, P.I. -- Hawaii

parks and rec -- pawnee

Happy Endings -- chicago
Whitney -- chicago
the Office -- Scranton, Pa.

The Wire -- Baltimore

Seinfeld -- NYC
How I met Your Mother -- NYC

Breaking Bad -- Desert Southwest (Albuquerque)
The Killing -- Seattle
Bones -- DC

My Name is Earl -- wherever

King of the Hill -- North Texas

Burn Notice -- "Miami"

The Waltons -- ?
Little House On The Prairie -- ?
Andy Griffith Show -- ?

Northern Exposure -- Alaska

Homicide: Life on the Streets -- Baltimore

Life on Mars -- ?

Breaking Bad -- New Mexico

Portlandia -- Oregon

==================

If I have incorrectly or incompletely misplaced a show's setting, please correct me.

Life on Mars is set in Manchester (England). There was a US remake, but it tanked.

[Oakminster]

That 70s Show seems pretty Wisconsin to me. Lots of Packers fans, the Canadian border, the iconic "Hello Wisconsin" at the end of the song....

The Andy Griffith Show--rural North Carolina

Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley--Milwaukee

[Oakminster]

Missed edit window.

Cheers--Boston

Mork & Mindy--Denver

Roseanne--Michigan

The Bob Newhart Show-Chicago

Saturday Night Live--NYC

[panamajack]

Coming at it another way, The Mentalist does a halfway decent job at portraying different locations the show takes place in. They aren't always very accurate, but it gives a good sense that they need to actually work over a large area (and to help dispel the idea that California = LA).

Nash Bridges was a show that used its San Francisco location well. Instead of belaboring the point in the show, they simply shot it there, and the accuracy gave it authenticity. It's not just location shooting that made this work; by comparison the short-lived emergency/rescue show from a few years back (whose name escapes me) that spent a lot on location shots still failed to establish a sense of place.

[Ike Witt]

Missed edit window.

Cheers--Boston

Mork & Mindy--Denver

Roseanne--Michigan

The Bob Newhart Show-Chicago

Saturday Night Live--NYC

These shows could be set anywhere IMHO and not lose anything. Except for maybe Roseanne, which really had to be set in the rust belt somewhere.

[Chefguy]

Missed edit window.

Cheers--Boston

Mork & Mindy--Denver

Roseanne--Michigan

The Bob Newhart Show-Chicago

Saturday Night Live--NYC

But those first four took place mostly in indoor settings, without much reference to the cities in which they took place. WKRP was supposed to be in Cincinnati, but you never saw the city or the characters' interactions with it. Same for Frasier in Seattle.

ETA: Or what Ike Witt said.

[FordTaurusSHO94]

I'm willing to argue that King of the Hill is set solidly in Central Texas, within an hour of Austin. Somewhere just north of it. The landmarks put it there.

[postcards]

All in the Family OCCASIONALLY rang true... I definitely knew a lot of real people in Astoria who talked like Archie. But there was way too much the show DIDN'T get right about Astoria (Archie never seemed to run into any GREEKS, for one thing!).
And his house number (704 Hauser St) wasn't hyphenated, as are all house numbers in Queens.

My contributions: NYPD Blue and Rescue Me.

[Zeldar]

Okay, people, we're going to have one largish poll from all this. I want some guidance on at least these issues:

1) Should there be some preliminary polls heading toward an ultimate one?
2) Should there be a multiple choice structure?
3) If so, what's a reasonable number of "honor system" choices?
4) Just exactly do we want to be polling?
4a-- Which show(s) capitalizes best on "sense of place"?
4b-- Which show(s) depends most on its regional aspect?
4c-- Which show(s) would suffer most from being set in a different locale?

Input needed!

[Oakminster]

But those first four took place mostly in indoor settings, without much reference to the cities in which they took place. WKRP was supposed to be in Cincinnati, but you never saw the city or the characters' interactions with it. Same for Frasier in Seattle.

ETA: Or what Ike Witt said.

In Cheers, Sam and Coach both have ties to the Red Sox organization--Sam is a washed up pitcher trying to cash in on his sports fame to make the bar profitable. He wasn't that great a player, so the only place he could do that would be Boston.

[Crawlspace]

Missed edit window.

Cheers--Boston

Mork & Mindy--Denver

Roseanne--Michigan

The Bob Newhart Show-Chicago

Saturday Night Live--NYCRoseanne is set in Lanford, IL. There's really no regional sense in the show aside from them being Bears and Bulls fans. It's just supposed to be generic Midwest.

[JohnT]

Friday Night Lights was set in Midland/Odessa Texas.
The Waltons was set in the Appalachian mountains of Virginia
The Andy Griffith Show was set in North Carolina, specifically, Mount Airy, NC

[JohnT]

But those first four took place mostly in indoor settings, without much reference to the cities in which they took place. WKRP was supposed to be in Cincinnati, but you never saw the city or the characters' interactions with it. Same for Frasier in Seattle.

ETA: Or what Ike Witt said.

I disagree about Cheers and SNL. Cheers was obviously Boston, with Sam being an ex-Red Sox player, constant references to Boston sports (Celtics, Bruins, and of course the Sox) and so much of the humor in SNL is NYC-specific: A comedy skit show based in, say, Atlanta would have never come up with a sketch like "Coffee Talk" or the NPR skits.

[pseudotriton ruber ruber]

Seinfeld sucks as a NYC show.

Some of the exteriors, like Jerry's apartment, were shot in LA and look it.

The street sets look nothing like Manhattan--they look like sets. The parking space where George and Mike what's his name are competing, for example, for looks nothing like a Manhattan street.

And don't get me started on the interiors. Jerry's apartment is far too spacious for a struggling comedian. He'd need three roommates for a place that big. (Unless he's a multimillionaire comic like Seinfeld, which Seinfeld isn't).

[Maggie the Ocelot]

No mention yet of Miami Vice?

[Ike Witt]

I disagree about Cheers and SNL. Cheers was obviously Boston, with Sam being an ex-Red Sox player, constant references to Boston sports (Celtics, Bruins, and of course the Sox)

But Cheers could easily be set in Chicago or New York or Toronto or Cleveland or any number of cities if you just change the ball club Sam played for. It was important that Sam was a former up ballplayer, not that he was a former Red Sox.

[TBG]

My Name is Earl never revealed its actual location, but it was very good at establishing a sense of place. I think it fits the OP's "strong regional sense."


They did reveal the location, Camden County. They never named a city, but I just figured they were in some sort of unincorporated area or something. Anyway, they're near enough to Natesville that Patty the daytime hooker can go over there for her Gambling Incognito meetings.



Roseanne--Michigan


Roseanne was set in Lanford, Illinois. David and Mark's mother moved to Michigan at one point, which was basically just a plot point for David moving in with the Connors, but that's the only time Michigan figured into the show at all that I can recall.

[DCnDC]

They did reveal the location, Camden County. They never named a city, but I just figured they were in some sort of unincorporated area or something. Anyway, they're near enough to Natesville that Patty the daytime hooker can go over there for her Gambling Incognito meetings.

Greg Garcia, the show's creator, has said it is loosely based on Waldorf, Maryland. There are a lot of Maryland references in the show (such as Hagerstown, Cumberland, Shady Grove, and Frostburg University) but he prefers that it be seen as "Anywhere, USA."

[Simplicio]

And don't get me started on the interiors. Jerry's apartment is far too spacious for a struggling comedian. He'd need three roommates for a place that big. (Unless he's a multimillionaire comic like Seinfeld, which Seinfeld isn't).

TV-Seinfeld is successful enough to be pitching a TV show to NBC, to appear on latenight TV shows, etc. He's not really "struggling". He's depicted as being relatively wealthy (granted not as wealthy as real-life Seinfeld). He flies first class, buys his dad a luxury car, etc.

[oliversarmy]

A minor correction, but it goes to the OP: Mork and Mindy was set in Boulder, not Denver.

[zagloba]

Roseanne was set in Illinois, not Michigan.

[missred]

The defunct NBC show, Wings was set on Nantucket. The island and, to a lesser extent, coastal Massachusetts were essential to the character of the show.

[Chefguy]

Wagon Train

Gunsmoke

Rawhide

Little House on the Prairie

Hell, most westerns.

[delphica]

Holly Hunter's Saving Grace is set in Oklahoma City, and pretty much the entire overall plot arc of the series was about how people dealt with the aftermath of the bombing of the Murrah Building.

[Lamia]

That 70s Show seems pretty Wisconsin to me. Lots of Packers fans, the Canadian border, the iconic "Hello Wisconsin" at the end of the song....As was discussed in a recent thread, Wisconsin does not share a land border with Canada. I don't think there's anyplace in Wisconsin that's less than about a 3-4 hour drive from Canada, and from southern WI it's more like 8-10 hours.

I lived in Wisconsin for a good portion of the time That '70s Show was on the air, and while they did reference a number of real locations I don't remember ever feeling the show had a particularly strong grasp of the region. It's basically just Small Town, USA. Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Brazill) tells me that the fictional town of Point Place, WI, was in fact inspired by Dunkirk, NY, where one of the show's co-creators grew up. Looking at a map, I see that Dunkirk is actually pretty close to the Canadian border -- only about an hour and a half from Niagara Falls.

[cochrane]

In Plain Sight always makes emphasis of its location in Albuquerque. And Royal Pains uses its setting in the Hamptons to make it look like an exclusive vacation spot for the rich and pampered.

[grude]

I always found King Of The Hill to be a pretty accurate capture of the Houston Suburbs, with some odd details slightly off. But some was so spot on and without context I wonder what people think of it(the Laos immigrants for example) that are not familiar with the area.

[cochrane]

I always found King Of The Hill to be a pretty accurate capture of the Houston Suburbs, with some odd details slightly off. But some was so spot on and without context I wonder what people think of it(the Laos immigrants for example) that are not familiar with the area.Arlen is actually based on Richardson, TX, a suburb of Dallas.

Cite (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_of_the_hill#Setting)

[Oakminster]

As was discussed in a recent thread, Wisconsin does not share a land border with Canada.

Ouch. I think that one gives me the record for most errors/wrong things said in a two page thread.

[Capt. Ridley's Shooting Party]

Coronation Street's Manchester setting is pretty integral to the program.

The Red Riding trilogy's setting in Leeds, West Yorkshire was definitely integral, seeing as the story was interwoven with the story of the hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper and has hints of the Moors Murderers.

[etv78]

Reading the mentions of King of the Hill, I believe the show could've been set in ANY "red state" and the show changes little, if at all.

[Zeldar]

================ Message from Zeldar ====================

Okay, people, we're going to have one largish poll from all this. I want some guidance on at least these issues:

1) Should there be some preliminary polls heading toward an ultimate one?
2) Should there be a multiple choice structure?
3) If so, what's a reasonable number of "honor system" choices?

4) Just exactly what do we want to be polling?
4a-- Which show(s) capitalizes best on "sense of place"?
4b-- Which show(s) depends most on its regional aspect?
4c-- Which show(s) would suffer most from being set in a different locale?

================================================

Below is an unorganized edit of the posts through Post #73, with duplicate shows left in, in the order they appeared.

Should we have a breakdown of Comedies vs. Dramas? Maybe animated/cartoon shows separate?

I would hope that some preliminary polls (with 20-30 shows per poll) and 5 votes per person per poll, would help narrow down the eventual list to maybe 20 or so where there would be no more than 3 votes per voter for:

==== The Shows that make the best use of "feel of location" (or something along those lines)

Your Input needed! Your help would be great!

======================================================

The Sopranos (New Jersey)
Justified (Kentucky)
Dexter in Miami
Chicago Code
Detroit 1-8-7
Blue Bloods -- NYC

Friends -- NYC
Seinfeld -- NYC
30Rock -- NYC
Rhoda -- NYC
Will and Grace -- NYC
Spin City -- NYC
Mad Men -- NYC

Southland -- LA

The Middle -- Indiana
Hot in Cleveland
The Drew Carey Show -- Cleveland
Law & Order (the original) -- NYC

Hawaii 5-0 -- Hawaii
Magnum, P.I. -- Hawaii

parks and rec -- pawnee

Happy Endings -- chicago
Whitney -- chicago
the Office -- Scranton, Pa.

The Wire -- Baltimore

Seinfeld -- NYC
How I met Your Mother -- NYC

Breaking Bad -- Desert Southwest (Albuquerque)
The Killing -- Seattle
Bones -- DC

My Name is Earl -- wherever

King of the Hill -- North Texas

Burn Notice -- "Miami"

The Waltons -- ?
Little House On The Prairie -- ?
Andy Griffith Show -- ?

Northern Exposure -- Alaska

Homicide: Life on the Streets -- Baltimore

Life on Mars -- ?

Breaking Bad -- New Mexico

Portlandia -- Oregon

Simpson's -- the State that Springfield is in

King of the Hill -- North Texas/Houston/Austin/general Texas

The Honeymooners -- Bensonhurt, Brooklyn, in the Fifties.

All in the Family -- Astoria

"Home Improvement" -- metro Detroit

CSI -- Las Vegas

Twin Peaks -- Pacific Northwest

Petticoat Junction -- Hooterville
Green Acres -- Hooterville

Corner Gas -- Saskatchewan

Streets of San Francisco -- SF

M*A*S*H -- the mountains around southern California

Dragnet (the 50s and 60s versions) -- Los Angeles

Always Sunny in Philadelphia -- "Philly"

Dallas -- Dallas

Mike & Molly -- Chicago
ER -- Chicago
Chicago Hope -- Chicago

Friday Night Lights-- West Texas

Six Feet Under -- LA

Mystery Science Theater 3000 -- Twin Cities

Life on Mars -- Manchester (England)

That 70s Show -- Wisconsin

The Andy Griffith Show -- rural North Carolina

Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley -- Milwaukee

Cheers -- Boston

Mork & Mindy -- Denver

Roseanne -- Michigan

The Bob Newhart Show -- Chicago

Saturday Night Live -- NYC

The Mentalist -- different locations over a large area of California
Nash Bridges -- San Francisco

Roseanne -- in the rust belt somewhere

WKRP -- Cincinnati

King of the Hill -- Central Texas (within an hour of Austin -- somewhere just north of it)

NYPD Blue -- NYC
Rescue Me -- Boston?
Frasier -- Seattle

Cheers -- Boston

Roseanne -- Lanford, IL -- generic Midwest

Friday Night Lights -- Midland/Odessa Texas.
The Waltons -- Appalachian mountains of Virginia
The Andy Griffith Show -- North Carolina, specifically, Mount Airy, NC

Miami Vice -- Miami

My Name is Earl -- Camden County (unincorporated area or something)(loosely based on Waldorf, Maryland)

Mork and Mindy -- Boulder

Roseanne -- Illinois, not Michigan
Wings -- Nantucket (The island and, to a lesser extent, coastal Massachusetts)

Wagon Train -- western
Gunsmoke -- western
Rawhide -- western
Little House on the Prairie -- western

That 70s Show -- Small Town, USA -- Point Place, WI, was in fact inspired by Dunkirk, NY

In Plain Sight -- Albuquerque
Royal Pains -- the Hamptons

King Of The Hill -- Houston Suburbs -- Richardson, TX, a suburb of Dallas

Coronation Street -- Manchester

The Red Riding trilogy - Leeds, West Yorkshire

=================================================

[Acsenray]

Friends, Seinfeld, 30Rock, Rhoda, Will and Grace, Spin City, Mad Men all did pretty good NYC to me.

But those are all fantasy/farcical versions of New York and the majority of them were filmed in Los Angeles studios.

[Acsenray]

Louie - New York - one of the few comedies that really lives in its setting.

I especially enjoy how they seem to think that anywhere inside the Beltway, or even out to Annapolis (X-Files, I'm looking at you), is just a 20 minute drive.

Well, considering that Los Angeles is one of the small number of American cities whose traffic is worse than Washington's, maybe they just have a skewed sense of perspective.

That 70s Show seems pretty Wisconsin to me. Lots of Packers fans, the Canadian border, the iconic "Hello Wisconsin" at the end of the song....

Drew Carey - Cleveland Rocks!

But those first four took place mostly in indoor settings, without much reference to the cities in which they took place. WKRP was supposed to be in Cincinnati, but you never saw the city or the characters' interactions with it. Same for Frasier in Seattle.

Actually, WKRP did have some level of Cincinnati/Ohio references -- the Who concert, Reds caps -- Strangely enough, both Gary Sandy and Gordon Jump were from Dayton.

Family Ties - It was in Ohio, with references to both Cincinnati and Cleveland.

These shows could be set anywhere IMHO and not lose anything. Except for maybe Roseanne, which really had to be set in the rust belt somewhere.

But, yeah, this is the major point. Most traditional sitcoms might make passing references to localities, but they in no way capture a regional feel. Or culture. They're all just Hollywood Generic America with some regional set dressing. I can't think of any three-camera studio sitcom that really captures the locality that it's set in.

[Swords to Plowshares]

I've watched a half-dozen random episodes of How I Met Your Mother and didn't know it was set in NY. Felt like it could have been any big city.

I think Burn Notice does Miami a tad bit better than Dexter, although they need more Cubans on the show.

[Zeldar]

Confession time: I have personally seen less than 1/3 of these shows; almost none of the sitcoms and none of the animated/cartoon ones.

I'm happy to leave the thread as a discussion and listing of shows, but if there's to be some poll(s) to follow, I'm at your mercy. Seriously. :)

[postcards]

Rescue Me -- Boston?


NYC.

[Zeldar]

Rescue Me -- Boston?
NYC.

Much obliged.

[Zeldar]

Here's a sorted lost of the shows named through Post #81 Today, 09:22 AM

The dupes (as best I could do) have been removed except for the shows where I don't know enough to select the right "location."

I would appreciate any help in putting the 80+ shows in some categories to make polling easier or more logical.

Until there's a way to cope with the number in more meaningful bites, I'm waiting for help.

=================================

All in the Family -- Astoria (NYC?)
Always Sunny in Philadelphia -- "Philly"
The Andy Griffith Show -- North Carolina, specifically, Mount Airy, NC
Blue Bloods -- NYC
The Bob Newhart Show -- Chicago

Bones -- Washington, DC
Breaking Bad -- Desert Southwest (Albuquerque, New Mexico)
Burn Notice -- Miami
Cheers -- Boston
Chicago Code -- Chicago

Chicago Hope -- Chicago
Corner Gas -- Saskatchewan
Coronation Street -- Manchester
CSI -- Las Vegas
Dallas -- Dallas

Detroit 1-8-7 -- Detroit
Dexter -- Miami
Dragnet (the 50s and 60s versions) -- Los Angeles
The Drew Carey Show -- Cleveland
ER -- Chicago

Family Ties -- Ohio, with references to both Cincinnati and Cleveland
Frasier -- Seattle
Friday Night Lights -- West Texas
Friday Night Lights -- Midland/Odessa Texas
Friends -- NYC
Green Acres -- Hooterville

Gunsmoke -- western
Happy Days -- Milwaukee
Happy Endings -- Chicago
Hawaii 5-0 -- Hawaii
Home Improvement -- metro Detroit

Homicide: Life on the Streets -- Baltimore
The Honeymooners -- Bensonhurt, Brooklyn, in the Fifties
Hot in Cleveland -- Cleveland
How I met Your Mother -- NYC
How I Met Your Mother -- could have been any big city
In Plain Sight -- Albuquerque

Justified -- Kentucky
The Killing -- Seattle
King of the Hill -- North Texas/Houston/Austin/general Texas
King of the Hill -- Central Texas (within an hour of Austin -- somewhere just north of it)
King Of The Hill -- Houston Suburbs -- Richardson, TX, a suburb of Dallas
Laverne & Shirley -- Milwaukee
Law & Order (the original) -- NYC

Life on Mars -- Manchester (England)
Little House on the Prairie -- western
Louie - New York
Mad Men -- NYC
Magnum, P.I. -- Hawaii

M*A*S*H -- the mountains around southern California
The Mentalist -- different locations over a large area of California
Miami Vice -- Miami
The Middle -- Indiana
Mike & Molly -- Chicago

Mork & Mindy -- Denver
Mork and Mindy -- Boulder
My Name is Earl -- Camden County (unincorporated area or something)(loosely based on Waldorf, Maryland)
Mystery Science Theater 3000 -- Twin Cities (Minnesota?)
Nash Bridges -- San Francisco
Northern Exposure -- Alaska

NYPD Blue -- NYC
The Office -- Scranton, Pa.
parks and rec -- pawnee
Petticoat Junction -- Hooterville
Portlandia -- Oregon

Rawhide -- western
The Red Riding trilogy - Leeds, West Yorkshire
Rescue Me -- NYC
Rhoda -- NYC
Roseanne -- Michigan
Roseanne -- in the rust belt somewhere
Roseanne -- Lanford, IL -- generic Midwest
Roseanne -- Illinois, not Michigan

Royal Pains -- the Hamptons
Saturday Night Live -- NYC
Seinfeld -- NYC
The Simpsons -- the State that Springfield is in
Six Feet Under -- LA

The Sopranos -- New Jersey
Southland -- LA
Spin City -- NYC
Streets of San Francisco -- SF
That 70s Show -- Small Town, USA -- Point Place, WI, was in fact inspired by Dunkirk, NY

30Rock -- NYC
Twin Peaks -- Pacific Northwest
Wagon Train -- western
The Waltons -- Appalachian mountains of Virginia
Whitney -- chicago

Will and Grace -- NYC
Wings -- Nantucket (The island and, to a lesser extent, coastal Massachusetts)
The Wire -- Baltimore
WKRP -- some level of Cincinnati/Ohio references

[Acsenray]

Trailer Park Boys -- the Maritimes

[astorian]

I thought The Rockford Files definitely captured part of what defined Southern California in the Seventies.

[Labdad]

"Law and Order was not only set in NYC, it was pretty much filmed on location there.

On the other hand, "Designing Women" was set in Atlanta, and I never got any sense of Atlanta from that show.

[MyFootsZZZ]

The Beverly Hillbillies :D

[Beware of Doug]

It may just be a bit of jadedness on my part, but I tend to dismiss the NYC and LA "regionalism" component, unless it's stressed as a main feature of the show. One exception I can think of is the excellent Southland where LA is essential to how the show comes across. I'm not arguing with your list, and would certainly include them in the poll, but I see them as not all that strongly tied to place as other shows. Thanks for the response.I agree. New York and LA are usually just used to add plausibility and "realness" to a show - and LA is a distant second, mostly in shows where showbiz is looking at itself.

It's all probably intended to go down easy with media industry people. For many, NY/LA simply is the real world, with NY realest of all.

[Quimby]

Seinfeld sucks as a NYC show.

Some of the exteriors, like Jerry's apartment, were shot in LA and look it.

The street sets look nothing like Manhattan--they look like sets. The parking space where George and Mike what's his name are competing, for example, for looks nothing like a Manhattan street.

And don't get me started on the interiors. Jerry's apartment is far too spacious for a struggling comedian. He'd need three roommates for a place that big. (Unless he's a multimillionaire comic like Seinfeld, which Seinfeld isn't).

There's a lot of truth to his but for me, the characters scream New York which over shadows everything else.

[Krokodil]

I thought The West Wing nailed DC in a way that 227 and The District didn't. There have been some other DC-set shows that really dropped the ball, the most notorious being Wonder Woman (No palm trees line Massachusetts Avenue). NCIS occasionally surprises me with convincing settings in the Virginia suburbs. The X-Files rarely did; I couldn't think of a single building in Takoma Park that could house the Lone Gunmen's HQ. Murphy Brown got DC pretty well. That's My Bush did not.

I enjoyed Newhart a lot, but wonder if any Vermonters recognized themselves among those odd characters. I did like the witches' coven his wife accidentally joined that one time ("If you wanna be a witch, ya gotta marry the devil!").

Seattle had a wonderful sketch comedy show 20-odd years ago called Almost Live which not only caught the vibe of the city, but skewered specific neighborhoods and suburbs pretty deftly. It was kind of the Portlandia of its day. The show was briefly repackaged for Comedy Central, but all the regionalisms were bleached out of it and a lot of viewers had to wonder what the big deal was. At least Bill Nye, Science Guy spun off of it.

SCTV sure had a regional sense, though I guess it's a little patronizing to call Canada a "region."

[Beware of Doug]

I grew up in a speciic neighborhood in New York City, but rarely felt as if most TV shows set in New York really captured my neighborhood or accurately portrayed the kind of people I gew up around.

The Honeymooners certainly captured Bensonhurt, Brooklyn, in the Fifties.

All in the Family OCCASIONALLY rang true... I definitely knew a lot of real people in Astoria who talked like Archie. But there was way too much the show DIDN'T get right about Astoria (Archie never seemed to run into any GREEKS, for one thing!).Also: What was Archie's ethnicity? You might say Irish because of O'Connor. And the character's accent and xenophobia ring true with the workingclass Irish stereotype. But he bitched about the Micks and Catlickers right along with everybody else he bitched about.

Another show set in New York, but not admitting it, was Laverne and Shirley, which took place in either the Milwaukee section of Brooklyn or the Brooklyn section of Milwaukee.

[Acsenray]

Murphy Brown got DC pretty well.

It think it could easily have been set in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, or Minneapolis. The exterior establishment shot of the network building was definitely not in Washington, D.C.

[astorian]

Another show set in New York, but not admitting it, was Laverne and Shirley, which took place in either the Milwaukee section of Brooklyn or the Brooklyn section of Milwaukee.


Well, the show was created by Garry Marshall, an Italian-American from Chicago... but Garry cut his teeth in show biz writing jokes for Jewish Borscht Belt comics like Phil Foster (he repaid Foster years later by giving him the role of Laverne's Dad). Hence, even when Marshall's shows are set in the Midwest, they ofen have an unmistakeably New York Jewish feel.

[astorian]

Also: What was Archie's ethnicity? You might say Irish because of O'Connor. And the character's accent and xenophobia ring true with the workingclass Irish stereotype. But he bitched about the Micks and Catlickers right along with everybody else he bitched about.




That's a very fair point. The anti-Catholic jokes MAY have been a carryover from the old British series Til Death Do Us Part. They certainly don't make much sense in a blue-collar New Yorker.

After all ,Archie was supposed to have grown up in New York City in the 1920s and 1930s. By then, New York was ALREADY heavily Irish and Italian.

In the British series, Alf Garnett was a working class Protestant to whom Catholics were some kind of exotic invaders who threatened to change the makeup of his neighborhood. But Catholics certainly weren't exotic outsiders in New York during the time of Archie Bunker's childhood.

I was born in 1961- so, when I was a kid, Astoria was largely Irish and ITalian, with a large number of elderly German Lutherans still hanging on. By the time I was in high school, the Irish were mostly gone, and the neighborhood was overwhelmingly Greek and Italian.

As I said, I grew up among a lot of people who talked like Archie Bunker! THAT part rang true. But the show NEVER gave any kind of feel for the ethnic makeup of the neighborhood. All those years in Astoria, and Archie never made a single crack about those greasy Greek neighbors and their smelly souvlaki stands???

[Typo Negative]

PSYCH is set in, and appears to be filmed in, Santa Barbara.

[Acsenray]

I suspect that Curb Your Enthusiasm gives you a pretty solid feel of life with the rich Hollywood side of Los Angeles culture -- the places they go, the things they do. So I'd say it's strongly regional, although the behavior displayed therein is farcical.

[Registered at Last]

A few Canadian shows are unabashedly regional:

Older shows:
The Beachcombers - Coastal British Columbia
King of Kensington - Toronto - Kensington to be precise
Da Vinci's Inquest - Vancouver

Current ones:
Being Erica - Toronto, show website even has a map pinpointing where in various plot events occur
Republic of Doyle - St. John's Newfoundland
Little Mosque on the Prairie - Saskatchewan

[SciFiSam]

That's a very fair point. The anti-Catholic jokes MAY have been a carryover from the old British series Til Death Do Us Part. They certainly don't make much sense in a blue-collar New Yorker.

After all ,Archie was supposed to have grown up in New York City in the 1920s and 1930s. By then, New York was ALREADY heavily Irish and Italian.

In the British series, Alf Garnett was a working class Protestant to whom Catholics were some kind of exotic invaders who threatened to change the makeup of his neighborhood. But Catholics certainly weren't exotic outsiders in New York during the time of Archie Bunker's childhood.

I was born in 1961- so, when I was a kid, Astoria was largely Irish and ITalian, with a large number of elderly German Lutherans still hanging on. By the time I was in high school, the Irish were mostly gone, and the neighborhood was overwhelmingly Greek and Italian.

As I said, I grew up among a lot of people who talked like Archie Bunker! THAT part rang true. But the show NEVER gave any kind of feel for the ethnic makeup of the neighborhood. All those years in Astoria, and Archie never made a single crack about those greasy Greek neighbors and their smelly souvlaki stands???

Anti-Irish jokes might have been a carry-over, but I don't really remember any from TDUP and they wouldn't have been about them being Catholic. Catholics also weren't exotic outsiders in London even 90 years ago.

[magellan01]

I'm surprised that no one mentioned Taxi yet, for NYC.

Also:

I Dream Of Jeannie—Coco Beach
Northern Exposure—small Alaskan town
Superman—NYC
Batman—Gotham City ;)

[astorian]

Anti-Irish jokes might have been a carry-over, but I don't really remember any from TDUP and they wouldn't have been about them being Catholic. Catholics also weren't exotic outsiders in London even 90 years ago.

Not being English, I couldn't say.

I only know that, while

1) There are places in the Southern U.S. where fundamentalist Protestants still view Catholics with suspicion (even viewing them as "not really Christian"), and

2) In the Eighteenth century, there were many American Protestants who demonized Catholics as foreign troublemakers (the phrase "Rum, Romanism and Rebellion" comes to mind)...


Such anti-Catholicism was long dead and gone in the Northern states by the time Archie Bunker was supposed to be born. His anti-Catholicism never made much sense.

I thought MAYBE it might have made more sense in the character of Alf Garnett... but maybe not.

[SciFiSam]

Not being English, I couldn't say.

I only know that, while

1) There are places in the Southern U.S. where fundamentalist Protestants still view Catholics with suspicion (even viewing them as "not really Christian"), and

2) In the Eighteenth century, there were many American Protestants who demonized Catholics as foreign troublemakers (the phrase "Rum, Romanism and Rebellion" comes to mind)...


Such anti-Catholicism was long dead and gone in the Northern states by the time Archie Bunker was supposed to be born. His anti-Catholicism never made much sense.

I thought MAYBE it might have made more sense in the character of Alf Garnett... but maybe not.

Not really. On the mainland, Catholic vs. Protestant hasn't been an issue for a few hundred years. Anti-Irish certainly, especially in Alf Garnett's time, with the IRA and all, but it's not a religious thing - at least, not in anti-Irish jokes. Anti-Catholicism is not one of the -isms you'd expect a bigot to adhere to.

Actually, technically the PM can't be Catholic, and the monarch can't be one or marry one. The latter makes some sense, since the monarch is the head of the Church of England, but the former is an anachronism that doesn't really carry over into everyday life and I bet it'll be fixed soon enough.

The one Alf Garnett scene I remember in a church is when he was asking the vicar, tentatively, whether in the afterlife he'd be reunited with his second wife or his first and was really worried about it; it was quite touching.

I just looked up a couple of Alf Garnett clips and it was like Daily Mail commentators come to life. :D

[pancakes3]

I suspect that Curb Your Enthusiasm gives you a pretty solid feel of life with the rich Hollywood side of Los Angeles culture -- the places they go, the things they do. So I'd say it's strongly regional, although the behavior displayed therein is farcical.

By the same HBO token, I would imagine that Entourage is also. However, I've never lived in LA.

[Sampiro]

The outdoor shots on Walking Dead remind me a lot of where I grew up. They're filmed in rural Georgia, I grew up in rural Alabama, basically the same countryside, and the not-really-dead/not-really-living people wandering around just kind of clinch it.

[Oslo Ostragoth]

Reading the mentions of King of the Hill, I believe the show could've been set in ANY "red state" and the show changes little, if at all.

I hugely disagree with this - the show has a very "Texas" feel to it.

[magellan01]

I hugely disagree with this - the show has a very "Texas" feel to it.

I agree. Definitely Texas.

[CrazyCatLady]

Missed edit window.

Cheers--Boston

Mork & Mindy--Denver

Roseanne--Michigan

The Bob Newhart Show-Chicago

Saturday Night Live--NYC

It's odd you'd point out Roseanne as having a strong sense of place as being Michigan, what with it being set in Illinois.

[FordTaurusSHO94]

Definitely Texas and confirmed that it's near a dam along the Colorado river. That puts it somewhere between Buchanan and Marble Falls, IMO.

[notfrommensa]

Newhart was definitely Vermont (or at least Northern New England)