# American Sit-coms that never took place in America. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 16, 2016, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-sit-coms-that-never-took-place-in-america/743342 "2016-01-16T19:38:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2016, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-sit-coms-that-never-took-place-in-america/743342/101 "2016-01-17T21:23:21Z")
> [@Horatio\_Hellpop](#): > > Excluding the opening and closing scenes, _The Love Boat! Fantasy Island._ Okay, they were both hour-long, but I hesitate to call either one a drama. I’m not sure I’d call them comedies either. They were stories told within a framing device; and those stories could be comedies, dramas, or something else entirely. I don’t think these shows can be easily classified as comedy or drama. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_John\_Marcej](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Richard\_John\_Marcej](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_John_Marcej)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2016, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-sit-coms-that-never-took-place-in-america/743342/102 "2016-01-17T21:27:37Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > IMDB doesn’t list him for F Troop. Hard to believe there was a 60s sitcom he wasn’t in. F Troop was a real showcase of 60s stars, you’ll find Henry Gibson, J. Pat O’Malley, Julie Newmar, Jamie Farr, Lee Meriwether, Vic Tayback, Harvey Korman, and Don Rickles in that lot. I think Storch played a dual part in at least one episode and he may have looked and sounded much like Scotti doing that. Well to be fair F-Troop only lasted two seasons. If they’d stuck around any longer I’m sure Vito would have made it out to Fort Courage some way. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2016, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-sit-coms-that-never-took-place-in-america/743342/103 "2016-01-17T21:43:11Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > > [@Horatio\_Hellpop](#): > > > > Excluding the opening and closing scenes, _The Love Boat! Fantasy Island._ Okay, they were both hour-long, but I hesitate to call either one a drama. > > I’m not sure I’d call them comedies either. They were stories told within a framing device; and those stories could be comedies, dramas, or something else entirely. I don’t think these shows can be easily classified as comedy or drama. I read somewhere that these shows were written so there were three storylines in each episode; one was humorous, one serious and one romantic. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2016, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-sit-coms-that-never-took-place-in-america/743342/104 "2016-01-18T15:43:55Z")
> [@Washoe](#): > > Still outside the United States, though. If you want to get really, _really_ nitpicky, there was the episode in which Hawkeye and BJ (or maybe it was Trapper; I can’t remember if it was one of the earlier episodes or not) find and watch Frank’s wedding home movie. There was also a home movie sent by Radar’s mom to him. (She was played by Burghoff…who actually made a convincing older woman, while still bearing a strong ‘family’ resemblance, thankfully.) ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2016, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-sit-coms-that-never-took-place-in-america/743342/105 "2016-01-18T15:57:44Z")
See post 93. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2016, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-sit-coms-that-never-took-place-in-america/743342/106 "2016-01-18T16:34:05Z")
92 also. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2016, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-sit-coms-that-never-took-place-in-america/743342/107 "2016-01-18T19:14:58Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Charles Emerson Winchester was stationed in Tokyo when they first introduced him, if I’m not mistaken. No, he was actually in Boston. The back story was that his chief of surgery pulled strings to get him drafted, to get out of repaying his cribbage debts. I remember it as a startlingly out-of-context scene, being set in a US hospital. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2016, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-sit-coms-that-never-took-place-in-america/743342/108 "2016-01-18T19:57:00Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > No, he was actually in Boston. The back story was that his chief of surgery pulled strings to get him drafted, to get out of repaying his cribbage debts. I remember it as a startlingly out-of-context scene, being set in a US hospital. That was Boston??? :eek: Why would the Army search for a replacement for Frank Burns halfway around the world??? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2016, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-sit-coms-that-never-took-place-in-america/743342/109 "2016-01-18T20:12:45Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > That was Boston??? :eek: > > Why would the Army search for a replacement for Frank Burns halfway around the world??? 😕 They didn’t. He got drafted. I believe that’s how Hawkeye and Trapper ended up there and they were both from New England. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2016, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-sit-coms-that-never-took-place-in-america/743342/110 "2016-01-18T20:21:14Z")
That wasn’t Boston. Emerson was already a major and the superior who owed him ~$632 in cribbage debts was a colonel who appeared in a later episode set at the 4077th. The aforementioned scene of Radar waiting at an airport and meeting a pretty nurse took place in Tokyo, according to the wiki summary. She was headed home to Missouri while he was returning to the 4077th, presumably after taking leave in Tokyo. A later episode makes reference to Radar meeting Hunnicutt’s wife and daughter at an airport in San Francisco, but this was not depicted. As far as I know, aside from home movie footage, no scene in the _MASH_ series was set in the United States. ---
**Author:** ![epbrown01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2016, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-sit-coms-that-never-took-place-in-america/743342/111 "2016-01-18T20:34:16Z")
Episodes with Matt LeBlanc playing himself is set in LA but shot in the UK (entirely, I think). While the cast playing Californians have spot-on accents, everyone but LeBlanc and the other Americans are too pale. I see a character and immediately know the credits will say Nigel or Gemma based on that alone. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2016, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-sit-coms-that-never-took-place-in-america/743342/112 "2016-01-18T21:00:05Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > That wasn’t Boston. Emerson was already a major and the superior who owed him ~$632 in cribbage debts was a colonel who appeared in a later episode set at the 4077th. That’s my recollection, too. Both men were already in uniform and presumably stationed at the same military hospital. As for the airport scene, I remember that the trip home took days, and they had already left Korea. Yes, Peg met Radar at the airport in SF and Erin asked if he was “Daddy?” Which, of course, put BJ into one of his “moods.” ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2016, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-sit-coms-that-never-took-place-in-america/743342/113 "2016-01-18T21:04:47Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > As for the airport scene, I remember that the trip home took days, and they had already left Korea. Yes, Peg met Radar at the airport in SF and Erin asked if he was “Daddy?” Which, of course, put BJ into one of his “moods.” That did not happen onscreen, though. It was described in a letter BJ got from home. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2016, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-sit-coms-that-never-took-place-in-america/743342/114 "2016-01-18T21:09:11Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > The aforementioned scene of Radar waiting at an airport and meeting a pretty nurse took place in Tokyo, according to the wiki summary. She was headed home to Missouri while he was returning to the 4077th, presumably after taking leave in Tokyo. Noooooo… Radar never went on leave that I recall. 😕 He had already left the 4077th and was on his way home. He’d gotten a hardship discharge because his Uncle Ed had died. That was the end of the story arc, and the last time we saw him. Missouri, Oklahoma … I knew it was someplace in the heartland. He and the nurse made a date to drink grape Nehi together sometime. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2016, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-sit-coms-that-never-took-place-in-america/743342/115 "2016-01-18T21:10:14Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > That did not happen onscreen, though. It was described in a letter BJ got from home. That is correct. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2016, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-sit-coms-that-never-took-place-in-america/743342/116 "2016-01-18T21:44:52Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Noooooo… Radar never went on leave that I recall. 😕 He had already left the 4077th and was on his way home. He’d gotten a hardship discharge because his Uncle Ed had died. That was the end of the story arc, and the last time we saw him. The [wiki summary](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Bye,_Radar) (and my refreshed recollection) say otherwise. -The 4077th generator breaks down and Klinger discovers the backup generator has been stolen. Radar is not present to wrangle a replacement from somewhere. -Radar is at a Tokyo airbase, waiting to return to the the 4077th. He meets a pretty nurse who is on her way home and arranges to meet her after the war. -Radar returns to the 4077th, tries to get a replacement generator, fails. -Radar learns his uncle has died and that Potter has started the paperwork to give Radar a discharge. Radar, feeling the 4077th still needs him, is ambivalent. He starts to train Klinger to replace him, half-heartedly. -Klinger manages to steal a generator. Hawkeye rips into Radar for wanting to stay in Korea. Radar prepares to leave. -The unit arranges a farewell party but it is interrupted by the arrival of wounded. He briefly encounters various characters and exchanges brief goodbyes with each. -Radar walks briefly through the empty compound, leaves the unit and that’s the last we see of him. His later encounter with Hunnicut’s wife and daughter is described, not depicted. As a further afterthought, the episode “Deluge” is padded with contemporary newsreel footage, some of which (including a scene with a cat that plays ping pong) was filmed in the U.S. In another episode the characters watch footage of the 1951 pennant race, shot at the Polo Grounds in New York. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2016, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-sit-coms-that-never-took-place-in-america/743342/117 "2016-01-18T21:49:31Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > The [wiki summary](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Bye,_Radar) (and my refreshed recollection) say otherwise. > > -The 4077th generator breaks down and Klinger discovers the backup generator has been stolen. Radar is not present to wrangle a replacement from somewhere. > > -Radar is at a Tokyo airbase, waiting to return to the the 4077th. He meets a pretty nurse who is on her way home and arranges to meet her after the war. > > -Radar returns to the 4077th, tries to get a replacement generator, fails. > > -Radar learns his uncle has died and that Potter has started the paperwork to give Radar a discharge. Radar, feeling the 4077th still needs him, is ambivalent. He starts to train Klinger to replace him, half-heartedly. > > -Klinger manages to steal a generator. Hawkeye rips into Radar for wanting to stay in Korea. Radar prepares to leave. > > -The unit arranges a farewell party but it is interrupted by the arrival of wounded. He briefly encounters various characters and exchanges brief goodbyes with each. > > -Radar walks briefly through the empty compound, leaves the unit and that’s the last we see of him. His later encounter with Hunnicut’s wife and daughter is described, not depicted. > As a further afterthought, the episode “Deluge” is padded with contemporary newsreel footage, some of which (including a scene with a cat that plays ping pong) was filmed in the U.S. In another episode the characters watch footage of the 1951 pennant race, shot at the Polo Grounds in New York. Okay, so it was on the eve of his departure. Did they offer any explanation for his being in Tokyo, other than he was on leave? ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2016, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-sit-coms-that-never-took-place-in-america/743342/118 "2016-01-18T21:54:35Z")
> [@epbrown01](#): > > Episodes with Matt LeBlanc playing himself is set in LA but shot in the UK (entirely, I think). While the cast playing Californians have spot-on accents, everyone but LeBlanc and the other Americans are too pale. I see a character and immediately know the credits will say Nigel or Gemma based on that alone. This is the reverse case. I can’t think of a sitcom offhand but there have been shows shot in British Columbia instead of the US to save money. Psych was done that way and comes close to a sitcom. There were some scenes in Episodes shot in LA after the first season, but I don’t know what, possibly all background. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2016, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-sit-coms-that-never-took-place-in-america/743342/119 "2016-01-18T21:55:49Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > That wasn’t Boston. Emerson was already a major and the superior who owed him ~$632 in cribbage debts was a colonel who appeared in a later episode set at the 4077th. The way I remember it, Winchester and his superior were playing cribbage when the phone rang. On the other end was Potter (I think), looking for a replacement for Burns. The other officer started to say something like “I can’t spare anyone” when Winchester smarmily announced his arithmetic was wrong and he was owed more than he’d originally figured. At this point, the superior officer said “I have just the man for you, Colonel,” and Winchester was at the 4077th the next day. BTW, $600 back then was \*\*a lot \*\*of money. Today, it would be at least several thousand dollars. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2016, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-sit-coms-that-never-took-place-in-america/743342/120 "2016-01-18T23:23:42Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > … Emerson was already a major … Charles. [del]Danger[/del] Emerson is his \*middle \*name. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-sit-coms-that-never-took-place-in-america/743342.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-sit-coms-that-never-took-place-in-america/743342.md?page=7)