The mayor of Minneapolis’ putdown of “The Mary Tyler Moore” show got me interested in local reactions to shows or movies set in your area. Does having a show set in your area make you and other local residents want to watch it? Are there any shows especially beloved or hated by locals? And what do those shows get right or wrong about your area?
The only recent film set here (Synecdoche, NY) got no reaction whatsoever.
The Alphabet Killer was not just set in Rochester, but was also filmed here. I don’t think anyone living here had any idea that any movie filming had occured until the thing was on DVD.
Since appearing on DVD it’s been reasonably popular locally, but everyone I know who’s seen it chuckles at the weird geography of movie Rochester. For example, the sleepy town of Webster is depicted as a bustling city with multiple skyscrapers (or at least very tall buildings) and a huge downtown area. Needless to say, neither exist.
I live in L.A. … so … well … .
There are zillions of movies set in New York City. Usually the location doesn’t matter.
However, I find it especially grating when an actor tries to do a New York accent and fails: Johnny Depp in Donny Brasco.
It is also a rare treat when the accents and location shots are completely authentic New York: The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974 version)
I live in Chicago, where, according to Hollywood, there is nothing but ghettos and skyscrapers. Frequent obvious errors are roads going where they don’t, intersections of parallel streets and trains connecting that don’t connect or going to parts of town they don’t go.
Oh, and our train cars have seats in parallel rows, not the bench seats up against the length of the car. For some reason, that one bugs me more than most errors.
I’m also bugged by the red stripe on curbs indicating no parking. They’re yellow here, but on at least one studio’s “Chicago Lot”, they’re painted red, so it shows up quite a bit. The only red curbs I’ve seen here are on the grounds of the VA medical center.
It would always make me intrigued. There was some short film in the local news due to them filming it in a closed classic style diner in our town. I never got to see that film. She Devil was filmed partly in my my town (Port Jefferson) - Meryl Streep’s mansion is our famous Pink Mansion.
It’s disappointing though, when they use your setting in name only. The comic book series Testament is partly set at Stony Brook University, which is near my town and where I went to school, but other than the name, there is nothing at all about the depiction that resembles the campus.
Outside Providence was a good represenation of the area and the people. Everything else I’ve seen was crap. The people who actually live here know how to pronounce the names of the cities and towns. I’m pretty sure the movie Idiocracy was based on Rhode Island, if that is true I would consider it an accurate representation. Family Guy is the show most associated with RI these days. Most of our characters are not so well drawn or erudite though.
I live in New York City, but it doesn’t make me more or less inclined to watch a show that’s set here. (Unless I saw it filming! I almost went to Mr. Popper’s Penguins for that reason.) Honestly, I wish fewer things were set here - based on TV and Hollywood, you’d think there were only 4 or 5 places in this country.
Why would the mayor put down “The Mary Tyler Moore Show”? 
It always made Minneapolis look good…
I don’t just live in Arkansas, but in the Ozarks. I don’t think I have to say any more.
When they were rebuilding Upper Wacker Drive, it was maybe 40 feet above Lower Wacker, not a mile and a half as shown in “The Blues Brothers.” And I knew the Illinois Nazis jumping off point, having made that wrong turn. It did look like a mile and a half, as all you could see was lake.
At the bottom is yet another impound lot I rescued my daughter’s car from. This weekend I give up and take possession, as the co-signer.
Well I have to give up on the movie US Navy Seals … where to begin…
They live in a condo in the southern end of the Va Beach strip on Atlantic Ave. Being SEALS, they are stationed at the Ampib base, which is more or less at the northeast end of the Va Beach strip on Shore Dr [apparently officially named Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek - Fort Story]. So, their commute in took them to the James River Bridge, where Charlie Sheen decided to swim to work by jumping out of the jeep, off the bridge into the James River. If you actually look at a map of tidewater, he would then have to swim down the mouth of the James River, past down the entire length of the Naval Air Station, through the Hampton Roads Beltway bridge and tunnel at the mouth, hang a right and go past Ocean View [a slummy beach area] and finally to the Amphib Base. Why they couldn’t just drive up the Blvd to the Amphib Base in the first place is beyond me. I guess they just like detouring through Portsmouth or something.
A chief and his fiance are at the chapel for a wedding, all the SEALs are in the wedding party. There is no way in hell any female will let a wedding halt just as they were about to go down the aisle for a recall … they would have done the quick and dirty version and then the guys would have bailed out. Then she would not have been left high and dry when he got killed in the op.
SEALs do not have units comprised of just officers and chiefs. Someone has to take orders.
Sorry, having lived in tidewater for almost 8 years, and having lived with a SEAL I have serious problems watching the movie without throwing stuff at the screen.
[I much more enjoy NCIS, though their submarine episode causes mrAru and I to laugh…]
If that’s the scene I’m thinking of that was actually filmed in Milwaukee. It’s where 794 ends at the lake and was unfinished at the time. You can see a Summerfest stage in the background here.
But you’re right, it was only about 40 feet up, not a mile.
Lois seems to have a pretty good RI accent; Peter sounds like he’s from New York.
No Country For Old Men nailed the bleak isolation of the Trans Pecos area of Texas. Ruggedly beautiful, it can also test your mettle in any number of ways. If you get in trouble or die, it doesn’t care, you just become part of the story. The movie captured the refreshing simplicity of some of it’s residents too. From the sheriff to the motel clerk, all those characters I’ve met several times before.
Another movie that gets that Texas region and it’s inhabitants right, albeit with a decidedly lighter atmosphere, is Fandango. Como te llama, your mama…
A third that gets life here in the 50s right was Hud. Spot on.
There was a lot of excitement among Chicagoans about Chicago Code because of the location filming.
More than geographical problems, the Californication of all dialogue disturbs me. Not every place has a “Hall of Records” or a “DMV” or “red zones” or “minimalls.”
The one thing I really do like and respect about NCIS is that not everybody in the Navy in that show is a pilot or on a submarine. They’ve got supply clerks, dentists, programmers, etc.
Yeah. Omaha has undergone a LOT of changes in the past few years. When you point out where “things used to be”, you can back it up by pointing out that you could see the old landmarks in Citizen Ruth, *To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything Julie Newmar *or About Schmidt. In a few years, I suppose we’ll be saying the same thing about Up in the Air.
The RI accent is kind of a mix of Boston and Brooklyn. Just remove the R from some words, and stick it in others. There is plenty of CT Yankee and that Newport Howell as mentioned in another thread. Plus the unintelligible gibberish and mispronunciation of French names. We’re pretty diverse for a state smaller than a postage stamp.
But the whole NCIS division is unnecessary. The vast majority of investigations are about people trying to kill NCIS members. Get rid of the group and there wouldn’t be anything to investigate.