For anybody who doesn’t know, referring to a place or an organization or a group of any kind as “a Peyton Place” is basically saying that they’re respectable on the outside but really a pit of vipers. It’s a reference to a mega bestselling roman a clefby Grace Metalious and the hit movie and hit TV seriessaid novel inspired.
I’m 45 and Peyton Place craze is actually a little bit before my time: I’ve never read the novel, I saw the movie on TV once, and I’ve never seen an episode of the TV show. However, the movie and TV show of Harper Valley PTA were popular when I was a teenager (even though the song was more than a decade old) and the (even then more than a decade old) song on which they were based contained the lyrics
Peyton Place is used a lot in pop culture to refer to a place that’s superficially pleasant or at least harmless but not so secretly dysfunctional with hypocrisy, backstabbing, sordid sex, etc… Stephen King, who grew up in New England in the 1950s when the novel (set in a small New England town) was the hottest book on the planet, makes references to it frequently in his writings.
But, cultural touchstones do have expiration dates. The last two or three times I’ve used Peyton Place metaphorically people younger than I am don’t know what I’m talking about. Apparently Peyton Place has evaporated into the ether.
So what is a current fictional (or even non-fictional) place- TV, movie, whatever, that if you compared a place to it would mean the same as saying “this is just a little Peyton Place”?
The closest I can think of is Wisteria Lane from Desperate Housewives, though I’m loathe to use that since I’ve never watched the show and as I understand it the scandals are mostly among bored upper middle class ‘desperate houswives’, while Peyton Place kind of cut across all spectrums. Plus, as I understand it D.H. is mainly about adultery; Peyton Place had all kinds of severe sordidness (one of the first bestsellers to deal with incest/molestation/abortion in fact).
I’ve really never heard of Peyton Place (that I can remember), so just going on what you’ve said, Desperate Housewives/Wisteria Lane sounds like a good synonym. Sure, they’re upper class, but I don’t see why it couldn’t be applied to anyone. Also, the show covered a lot more then just adultery. It ran the gamut from murder to one mother keeping her mentally disabled child tied up in the basement.
I was going to suggest something to do with the Stepford Wives, but I think Wisteria Lane does a much better (and more recent) job.
A possibility, although 20 years old, might be Twin Peaks or the analogous town in David Lynch’s Blue Velvet. The latter was more hinted at than stressed, and the former may not have been as blatant as what you’re looking for.
Off topic, but… Roseanne Barr at one point was interested in doing a movie or miniseries about Grace Metalious’s life. She’d have been good in the '90s, there is a definite resemblance (Roseanne / Metalious), and you can see the appeal: both women went from borderline poverty to huge-fame/huge-fortune/“interesting” romantic decisions/superrich dysfunction in a relatively short time. However, Metalious died (of alcoholism) at 40 so Roseanne is now too old to play her.
It would still be a good project for somebody. I’ve never read the novel but I know she based it, at times very closely, on people she knew and how its success affected her is a total morality tale.
Oh, this takes me back. My mother used to watch Peyton Place - it was on after I went to bed - AND she had a hardcover edition of the book. When I was finally old enough to be left alone at home during the school holidays, I pulled the book out and read it. It was racy, even for the '60s but maybe that’s because I was so naive. Who knew ‘whore’ started with an aitch sound?
Also somewhat off topic, but the alt-country band Southern Culture on the Skids does a great cover of that song. They leave the Peyton Place in, but change the last line to “and you’re all full of Harper Valley shit”.
One time at the library I managed to talk two little old ladies out of checking out the Blue Velvet DVD. They thought it was about the song, they said.
But come to think of it, they might’ve been wanting to (genteely) get their freak on, and I blew their cover.
I suspect that there isn’t a modern equivalent with the same resonance that Peyton Place had, simply because, even though hypocrisy still exists, there is much more openness about talking about the nasty stuff these days.
Also, common cultural references are diminshing. There are so many channels/watching options available these days, terms aren’t recognized across the spectrum the way they used to be. Not nearly as high a percentage of people nowadays would get the reference to Wisteria Lane as would have gotten the reference to Peyton Place back then.
Well, if the little old ladies were like my 89 year old mother, they would have hated the movie. Mom figures that she has earned the right to kinder entertainment.
I used “Melrose Place” when that show was relevant. I think a reference to “Mad Men” would be most apt, but Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue.
One place I worked had people sleeping together left and right, and I actually said, “It’s a regular* Peyton Place*.” Maybe now, I would say “It’s a regular* Real Housewives*.”
I would also use “Real Housewives” and then add where ever it is I’m talking about. If I’m talking about work it would be “Real Housewives of CPA LLP” or the PTA would be “Real Housewives of School District 12” Makes it more personal.
