I am visiting The City next Spring with my nephew, who is an avid fan of the TV show “Monk”. He would like to do a “Monk tour” of sites on which the show has been filmed.
I like the show well enough, but I haven’t seen it enough to have any ideas for this. All the exterior shots I remember are fairly unremarkable neighborhood or industrial areas.
I am, however, very familiar with the street plan of San Francisco.
Anyone have any suggestions?
Despite the fact that Monk is set in San Francisco, USA’s official website states that the show is filmed in Los Angeles (and was filmed in Canada for its first season).
In the episode a couple of weeks ago, where they were out in the street outside Monk’s apartment, some angles were clearly on location, presumably LA, while other angles were in front of a greenscreen with San Francisco composited in.
Yeah, they may use some 2nd unit footage for establishing shots (and try to use some local placenames and streets for “authenticity”), but I’m afraid the OP doesn’t have much to tour.
This website may be of some use–the entries on Vertigo, Bullitt, Dirty Harry and Star Trek IV are particularly good.
The top-of-a-hill-in-the-fog scene in the intro (I think it’s the intro) is about half a block from where I used to live, above Broadway in North Beach, probably Vallejo St. at Kearny, or possibly at Montgomery, looking SE I think.
There may be other establishing shots in the intro or the closing (is there a standard closing scene? I don’t remember) but this is the one that stood out for me, since I’ve walked that same walk so many times.
Roddy
There are some rare episodes in which Monk is shot in SF. Check this out for some great shots of Tony Shalhoub and the beauteous Traylor Howard doing their thing in SF. So Union Square would definitely be one prominent location where the Monk crew spent a day. It also appears that Monk’s flat is located at Taylor and Broadway.
Just walk around and touch all the parking meters
One episode showed them driving past the Giants’ PacBell/SBC/AT&T/TBD Park so you can include that in the tour. But yeah, there’s precious little Monk content actually filmed in SF.
Note that the people they encounter are dressed rather normally. What does that tell you?
So Union Square, Taylor/Broadway, Vallejo/Kearny, and Barry Bonds Field. Disappointing to hear there isn’t more, but that’s enough for a nice day. Thanks a lot, everyone!
Wow. Completely awesome. I love this board!!