It seems like almost all TV shows are set in New York anymore. Any show that isn’t set in New York seems to mention the city it’s based in more often.(for example, the Drew Carey Show mentions Cleveland alot) Why is it so many shows are based in New York, anyway?
The Big Apple is where it’s at for anyone that is someone. I know that leaves me out and evidently you too.
History, tradition, demographics, a few other reasons.
The early TV networks were all step-children of the radio networks that were centered in and broadcast from New York. New York had a lot of theatres in which to record game shows, sit-coms, soap operas, and variety shows (most of which were recorded before live audiences). Combine the presence of the corporate offices, the technology of the recording studios, and the availability of venues and you wind up creating a tradition.
As the largest city (located in the heart of the most populous section of the country), you also had a built-in audience for any show that wanted “local appeal.” In addition, even today New York is “where its at” for a large number of industries. If you want to portray a show “at the center of things” (be it the fashion industry, the publishing industry, the banking industry, or just night life), New York provides the “expected” backdrop. If you want to have a crime or legal drama, New York can be counted on to not be “out of place” for a particular crime (other than cow-tipping).
There are a few reasons really. First, New York City tends to be a very larger market for television, and producers feel that if an audience can identify with a program for whatever reason, then that audience is likely to tune in.
Second, a good number of the creative types who do the show are drawing from their own experiences to create said show and a good number of these individuals got their starts in the City.
Third, Hi Opal!
Finally, to a lesser extent surely, Hollywood has an established New York City set that can be used easily, which make life a lot less troublesome than creating an Oklahoma City.
There are however, a number of different settings, Atlanta, for both Designing Women and the lawyer thing with Andy Griffith. Miami for Golden Girls and Miami Vice, Dallas for Dallas and Walker, Texas Ranger, Boulder for Mork and Mindy, Denver for Dynasty, Phoenix for Alice, Honolulu for Magnum P.I., Hiwaiian Eye, Hiwaii 5-0, LA for LA Law, Dragnet, Adam 12, CHIPS, You already mentioned Clevland. And of course there are always Springfield and Mayberry.
Big cities allow for a lot more latitude in stories. More “wacky stuff” happens there.
Because:
(1) all of the networks are headquartered in New York
(2) Many of the network executives, writers, etc. in L.A. either come from New York or wish they were in New York
(3) Many people in New York believe that everybody else pines to live in NYC, if only they could, because
(4) New Yorkers consider themselves to live in the center of the universe.
Also that stuff about standing sets, not having to go out of town to shoot convincing exteriors, and the unavailablity of a decent pastrami sandwich or egg cream outside New York City.
Just as well; they get other cities all wrong, anyway.
Like Jesse, for example, which is set in Buffalo.
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When street names are used, they tend to be real names, but their locations aren’t correct; you’ll hear locations like “the corner of Delaware and Harlem,” which run parallel to each other, about 10 miles apart.
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The stock shot of Jesse’s house is actually that of a two family house (a strange vernacular form called a “two-flat semi-bungalow” among local architecture historians).
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The sign in front of the house identifies the corner of Lisbon Avenue and Suffolk Avenue, smack in the middle of a neighborhood that is majority African-American.
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The last roadworthy VW Bug in Buffalo rusted away in 1979.
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No Buffalo accents at all. If you never heard a Buffalo accent, consider yourself lucky.
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The “student clinic” is Hayes Hall at UB, which houses the urban planning department.
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There are no women in Buffalo that look like Christine Applegate. Due to a sedentary lifestyle and ethnic diets, Buffalonians tend to be “healthy.”
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Very little “typical Buffalo behavior” – i.e. sports fanaticism (except in the credits), chicken wing and pizza eating, and so on.
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The Polish bar has no Polish people in it – it’s all young folks. The median age of the bar crowd in Cheektowaga is about 60.
Here’s another closely related question: Has there ever been a major show based in St. Louis? There’s been, of course, New York, several in California, some in Chicago, other major cities, but I can’t think of any from St. Louis. St. Louis is one of the biggest cities in this country, why aren’t there any shows based there?
You’ve obviously forgottten “Lucas Tanner” and “The John Larroquette Show”, both of which were set in the Mound City.
Speaking as someone whose family is from St. Louis and has relatives there, I would dispute the term “major city” for St. Louis.
Even after all that, I still think Buffalo makes out better than Atlanta. Or any southern city on TV, for that matter. What kind of alternate universe was Matlock set in? And don’t even get me started on Designing Women; I think that series did more to set back the south than Dukes of Hazzard ever did.
One of the things I could never figure out about Designing Women was that the only cast member who actually talked like people in Atlanta really talk, was Jean Smart, who was the only non-southern member of the original cast. The accent everybody else put on just made my teeth hurt. Are southern accents really that hard to do? I’ve already lost mine, so I can’t tell anymore.
What about Boston and the rest of Massachusetts?
Boston Public
Boston Common
Dawson’s Creek
2 Guys and a girl
Ally McBeal
All Souls (I can’t believe I just happened to tune in the first time last week to re-run of the pilot)
Cheers
The Practice
Wings
St. Elsewhere
Sabrina The Teenage Witch
I’m sure there’s more, but these are the ones I thought of off of the top of my head and/or with a brief net search. There must be more supernatural ones placed there…Chicago has lots of shows too, as I found when looking up the locations of sci-fi series.
Two and sort of a third TV show were based for at least a time in my little town of Bloomington, IN (we have a population somewhere around 150,000 people… not bad for national exposure)
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Breaking Away- The Series… Shot in Georgia, but took place here.
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The Jeff Foxworthy Show- The first season took place in Bloomington.
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Doug- this animated show takes place in ‘Bluffington’ Indiana, but there are occasional references to things which are here in Bloomington. I have no idea why they didn’t just make it Bloomington.
We’ve also been featured not only in a few Basketball films (which makes sense since we were, until recently, the home of Coach Bobby Knight), but we seem to be the small town in Indiana that lots of people in movies are from. I’ve heard our town mentioned a LOT of times. I have no idea why.
When New York really, really was the center of the TV universe there was Boston Blackie (NBC, 1951 to 1953)
The Boston Blackie TV show startled viewers years later in reruns because the origional producers had shot the show on color film (thinking about the future when there wasn’t even an accepted broadcast color standard?).
Wassa matta, you gotta problem wid Noo Yawk? I don’ see nobody else aroun’ here wid no problems, so I’m thinkin’ maybe yer a wise-ass or sumpin’.
Hey, Tony, check out dis guy who don’ like Noo Yawk on TV. Hey, buddy, you a freak, or what? So you don’ like it here. So get lost arreddy and go back to Joisey or Kansas or wherever the hell you come from. See if they make a TV show about Des Moines, ya know?
Freakin’ guys comin’ in here, hey, Paulie, who let the jerkwad in, was that you?
I love it when people in cities over 100,000 refer to themselves as small towns. Small cities perhaps, but somehow I don’t think Mayberry had more than 5,000 people.
Also, has there ever been a TV show in Houston? It is the fourth largest city in the US. (Although it does have HUGE city limits)
There was a sitcom “Thea”, set in Houston; just lasted one season (93-94); Brandi was one of the kids on it.
The 80’s sitcom “Family Ties” was set in Columbus, OH, although there was practically nothing indicating this. I remember a “Discover Columbus” poster on the wall at the dad’s work, but no other references. Not that there is much that they could have used.
I’d say we’re a small town when compared with New York, Studoggie. We’re certainly not big enough to think that three separate TV shows would take place here.
There were a couple of short-lived tv shows in the late 80’s supposedly in Houston. One was about these 19th century cowboys that got lost in a canyon outside of houston and ended in modern times. What the FUCK are these people thinking. Houston is built on mostly flat, coastal prarie wetlands. I remember the debut show. They had the downtown Houston skyline superimposed on a desert. There are NO canyons nearby, and it is hardly an arid city. Yet these cowboys kept going around these hilly ranches outside of town. Unless they are really good rice farmers they wont make it.
Houston Knights was the other show. A New York cop going down to houston and talking it up at all those mechanical-bull honky-tonks and chicken-fried-steak restaurants. At least they actually filmed some outside scenes in Houston. I remember watching them go somewhere with local scenes that any native could tell goes by everywhere they should not go to get to the supposed destination.
Robocop II was also filmed in Houston. Interesting Montrose and old 4th ward areas were seen.
In addition to “Thea”, there was also the egregiously bad “Houston Knights” which ran on CBS, off and on, from 1987 to 1988.
It featured a “fish out of water” Chicago cop sent to Houston to avoid gangsters who were after him.
As opposed to the “fish out of water” RCMP officer sent to Chicago to avoid the wrath of other RCMP officers in Canada.
You would think these guys could look after themselves better.
Didn’t Matt Houston used to jet back and forth between L.A. and Houston in the first season of “Matt Houston”?
I think they were hoping for a double dipping of demographics to help the ratings.