# Attitudes toward shows/movies set in your area **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 8, 2011, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attitudes-toward-shows-movies-set-in-your-area/588263 "2011-07-08T02:47:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2011, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attitudes-toward-shows-movies-set-in-your-area/588263/41 "2011-07-13T00:50:12Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > Slap Shot with Paul Newman… …is a great movie, but even though the old ladies in my Friday Night Movie group are mostly Scandinavian, they probably wouldn’t appreciate it. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2011, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attitudes-toward-shows-movies-set-in-your-area/588263/42 "2011-07-13T00:54:14Z")
There was a CTV sitcom set in Calgary, I never saw it. Canadian sitcoms, by and large, are pretty awful. Even for sitcoms. But I like seeing movies filmed around here. Superman, the first two X-Men movies, Brokeback Mountain, Open Range come to mind. They all really show off the local scenery to great effect. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2011, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attitudes-toward-shows-movies-set-in-your-area/588263/43 "2011-07-13T01:05:13Z")
Major irritant: there’s a new show set in Alabama called _Hart of Dixie_ about a doctor (named Hart) who sets up practice somewhere (I gather) in rural Alabama. I don’t have hight expectations for it since its ads use a picture of [Oak Alley](http://www.oakalleyplantation.com/img/top-oap-photo.jpg), which is by some accounts the most photographed privately owned house in America and located on the banks of the Mississippi in Vacherie, Louisiana nowhere NEAR Alabama. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2011, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attitudes-toward-shows-movies-set-in-your-area/588263/44 "2011-07-13T01:48:52Z")
We have tons of film crews here (East London), and ignore them. Something or other was being filmed at my daughter’s school for about a year and a half before I thought to ask a worker what it was, then promptly forgot. However, I do like it when I happen to see my manor on TV or film. The TV show Luther even set a major scene in a vacuum cleaner shop I’d recently used. That did kinda bring it closer to home. ---
**Author:** ![LH75](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lh75/32/4438_2.png) [@LH75](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LH75)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2011, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attitudes-toward-shows-movies-set-in-your-area/588263/45 "2011-07-13T02:33:21Z")
> [@StusBlues](#): > > 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_. If we’re lucky, downtown won’t float away… ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2011, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attitudes-toward-shows-movies-set-in-your-area/588263/46 "2011-07-13T04:02:58Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > Something or other was being filmed at my daughter’s school for about a year and a half before I thought to ask a worker what it was, then promptly forgot. Fox had an early reality show about American teens set in the HS in the same district as the one My Wife attended, but less overcrowded and downscale. Around that time there were kids driving Excaliburs to school. Highly representative of America’s teens. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2011, 7:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attitudes-toward-shows-movies-set-in-your-area/588263/47 "2011-07-13T07:34:20Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > Slap Shot with Paul Newman back in the 70’s was partly filmed in the War Memorial auditorium here, we had (have) quite a hockey team. It was a big thing for this mid-sized city. It’s the kind of overlooked place that, when mention is made on TV or in movies, there is a big newspaper article next day, all about how the name of the city was mentioned on the teevee last night. Hi, **salinqmind**. I’m from Johnstown, too, and I remember when they filmed Slapshot very well. I used to see a lot of Jets games and was acquainted with Dick Roberge, their coach, who played a referee in Slapshot. The movie All the Right Moves, with Tom Cruise and Craig T. Nelson, was filmed there, too, and made me feel very homesick when I saw it. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2011, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attitudes-toward-shows-movies-set-in-your-area/588263/48 "2011-07-13T16:20:28Z")
I live in Chicago, and love my adopted city. > [@WhyNot](#): > > I live in Chicago, where, according to Hollywood, there is nothing but ghettos and skyscrapers. The movie _High Fidelity_ was excellent for showing the (or at least a) Real Chicago. The places the main character hung out were real places where he would hang out - Lounge Ax, the Double Door, the Green Mill - and the apartment he lived in was a totally believable Chicago apartment. > [@](#): > > 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. The worst example was the “make love on a real train” part of _Risky Business_. Yeah, let’s bribe the driver to take the Skokie Swift down around the Loop, out the Green Line and through the Blue Line tunnel. On the other hand, I really with the Balboa stop featured in _The Fugitive_ actually existed. That would come in so handy. > [@](#): > > 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. Ridden on one of the new cars? > [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#): > > I’m a sucker for any movie or show set in Chicago (especially if it is also filmed here). I loved \*The Chicago Code, \*and I thought they nailed a lot of the nuances of the local culture (geographic anomalies like “West Ashland” notwithstanding). I enjoyed watching the town done up as Gotham City, and look forward to seeing it demolished in _Transformers 3_. My wife and I were wandering around through the murkier parts of Chicago, walking along Lower Randolph (a street that appears to actually be below the level of the lake) and came across them shooting _Batman Begins_. We got to hang around and see the Batmobile. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2011, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attitudes-toward-shows-movies-set-in-your-area/588263/49 "2011-07-13T19:21:16Z")
Movies in San Francisco are almost always comically wrong with their locations. The famous **Bullitt** chase is all over the place, **Star Trek IV** has a lovely scene where the whale lady gives them a lift from Sausalito back to San Francisco…while walking along Marina Drive in San Francisco, Benjamin is driving the wrong way across the upper span of the Bay Bridge in **The Graduate** , etc etc. **Monk** is without question the worst offender - not just with geography, but with local laws (bars open until 5am), jurisdictions (SFPD investigating cases all over the Bay Area), etc. Just about the only movie I can think of that was fairly accurate geographically was **Dirty Harry** - and even then Scorpio managed to limp from [Mt. Davidson to Kezar Stadium](http://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=Mount+Davidson+Cross,+San+Francisco,+CA&daddr=Kezar+Stadium,+Kezar+Drive,+San+Francisco,+CA&hl=en&sll=37.160317,-95.712891&sspn=50.516564,91.845703&geocode=FV7XPwIdL32z-CmvlY9m3H2PgDGjUm9-ggID6A%3BFfRGQAIdjH-z-CEQWrBzA7R-vw&mra=ls&z=14) with a knife sticking out of his leg. As for TV, nobody really cared about **Nash Bridges** , and they cared even less when Don Johnson started drunmkenly sexually harrassing people at local bars and restaurants. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2011, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attitudes-toward-shows-movies-set-in-your-area/588263/50 "2011-07-13T21:18:30Z")
_Chase_ was filmed and Texas and set at least nominally in Houston (covers across Texas). I tuned in and gave it a chance partly because of this. Didn’t stick with it because the plot and characters sucked, but they weren’t too bad with setting or feel. Both versions of _True Grit_ are set in south-east Oklahoma and western Arkansas, but filmed in other locations. The John Wayne version was filmed in Colorado, the new version in Texas and New Mexico or Arizona (forget which). Neither of them really get the look right, though both are otherwise watchable movies. (The mountains of Oklahoma do not look like the Rockies. Nope.) Then there’s some atrocious movie I can’t remember the name of that had Ted Danson in it, where the plot has a theft of a supercomputer from NASA in Houston. They filmed the movie in the LA area. I don’t recall there being any mountains around Houston. Not even in the background. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2011, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attitudes-toward-shows-movies-set-in-your-area/588263/51 "2011-07-13T23:05:41Z")
> [@Morbo](#): > > Movies in San Francisco are almost always comically wrong with their locations. The cool thing about San Francisco is that apparently everybody there lives in those [Victorian rowhouses](http://www.sweetorangehousing.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/postcard_row_6242.jpg). Elsewhere in the country most people live in Craftsman Bungalows with completely modern interiors, but they don’t have views of a bay. ---
**Author:** ![syncrolecyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f08c70/32.png) [@syncrolecyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/syncrolecyne)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2011, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attitudes-toward-shows-movies-set-in-your-area/588263/52 "2011-07-13T23:24:25Z")
Every time I see El Paso/Far West Texas in a film - usually a brief bit like in “Kill Bill,” it is a dusty, cowboy town, full of sunburned, drawling cowpunchers. Well it is dusty here…but most people around here either speak with a general American accent or …Spanish. ---
**Author:** ![interface2x](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@interface2x](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/interface2x)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2011, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attitudes-toward-shows-movies-set-in-your-area/588263/53 "2011-07-13T23:45:31Z")
> [@Mr\_Downtown](#): > > 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.” We don’t have the DMV here? Then where did I go to get my license? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Downtown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mr\_Downtown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Downtown)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attitudes-toward-shows-movies-set-in-your-area/588263/54 "2011-07-14T12:57:13Z")
If you’re in Illinois, you got your license at a Secretary of State branch office. ---
**Author:** ![Musky\_Moon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90db22/32.png) [@Musky\_Moon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musky_Moon)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attitudes-toward-shows-movies-set-in-your-area/588263/55 "2011-07-14T16:06:16Z")
The movie TAPS got just about everything wrong regarding both The military school it was filmed and the town of Wayne, PA. As a graduate of VAlley Forge Military Academy, I can point out so many rediculous things in that movie. My fellow cadets and I used to throw that movie in the VCR just for a good laugh. Also, the townies that the cadets have an altercation with early in the movie is silly too. The kids are portrayed as hickish yokels. Wayne is actualy a fairly affluent area. Granted, it’s Fictional military school set in a fictional town so they can portray them any way the want, but I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to explain to people that it was entirely fictional whenever I bring up that I went to school there. ---
**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:** [July 14, 2011, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attitudes-toward-shows-movies-set-in-your-area/588263/56 "2011-07-14T16:26:47Z")
Well there were conflicts with VFMA cadets and local shopkeepers. Several stores wouldn’t allow cadets in with their long coats which were ideal for concealing shoplifted items. ---
**Author:** ![Musky\_Moon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90db22/32.png) [@Musky\_Moon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musky_Moon)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attitudes-toward-shows-movies-set-in-your-area/588263/57 "2011-07-14T17:04:01Z")
Oh sure. There was conflict. I remember my fair share of altercations with local kids. That was real enough. I live in Wayne now and I know how much trouble a bunch of bored repressed teenage boys can be. But the way the town was presented in the movie was annoying to me. It came across as a little to bumpkin for my taste. Minor useless nitpick, but others here have expressed the same dissapointment. And the idea that any school would give minors weapons with live ammo AND let them ride into town with said wepons is rediculous. But, I think I’m straying too far from the OP. ---
**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:** [July 14, 2011, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attitudes-toward-shows-movies-set-in-your-area/588263/58 "2011-07-14T17:05:49Z")
Is Real Pizza still open? I was there in April and they were closed. I couldn’t tell if they were just remodeling, shut down, or moving. ---
**Author:** ![Musky\_Moon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90db22/32.png) [@Musky\_Moon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musky_Moon)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attitudes-toward-shows-movies-set-in-your-area/588263/59 "2011-07-14T17:12:12Z")
As far as I know it is. I’m a Pie in the Sky guy myself. ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attitudes-toward-shows-movies-set-in-your-area/588263/60 "2011-07-14T17:46:28Z")
The locals really like the movies that have been filmed here in Astoria. A mural was painted on the wall of Astor School for “Kindergarten Cop” that is still there and probably always will be. > **[Kindergarten Cop](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kindergarten_Cop)** > > Kindergarten Cop is a 1990 American action comedy film directed by Ivan Reitman and distributed by Universal Pictures. Arnold Schwarzenegger stars as John Kimble, a tough police detective working undercover as a kindergarten teacher to locate the wife and child of drug dealer Cullen Crisp (Richard Tyson), who are living under assumed identities. Pamela Reed, Penelope Ann Miller and Linda Hunt co-star. The original music score was composed by Randy Edelman. A direct-to-video sequel, Kindergarte Th... There was a recent “Goonies” reunion and fans still come from far away to see the Goonies house. > **['Goonies' fans descend on Oregon town to celebrate movie's 25th anniversary](https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/06/AR2010060603590.html)** > > ASTORIA, ORE. -- There is a compulsion, a yearning, a force that causes people to drive to this remote village, up the rocky coastline and through the hilly streets in weather that is almost always damp. They park near the olde shoppes and the... Other movies filmed in Astoria include Short Circuit, The Black Stallion, Free Willy, Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III, Benji the Hunted, The Ring Two, Into the Wild, The Guardian and Cthulhu. Not exactly Oscar material, but they brought a lot of money and fun to the area. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attitudes-toward-shows-movies-set-in-your-area/588263.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attitudes-toward-shows-movies-set-in-your-area/588263.md?page=4)