I’ve always wondered about the popularity of King of the Hill outside of Texas because it features so many Texas specific (Central Texas/Austin specificallly) situations. It’s one of the most regional TV shows I can think of…
My Connecticut cousins told me when this first aired that I mightn’t get this show because it contained so much Texan humour. Well it was and is popular here and anything we don’t get doesn’t much spoil our enjoyment of it. 
Family Ties was set somewhere around Columbus, OH, and occassionally the show would make references to something in Ohio. Usually, however, the location was little more than a set prop, like a bowl on a table.
WKRP in Cincinnati made some references to events that happened in the area. The most famous one being the fatal stampede at The Who concert.
OK, I’ll bite, what is wrong with that picture?
I’m guessing it has something to do with PA blue laws. Do they not permit alcohol and tobacco to be sold in the same place?
In an episode of The Man from UNCLE, the villain’s headquarters “in the Austrian Alps” was obviously the Griffith Observatory in downtown L.A.
Even in that show they couldn’t always get out of SoCal. The “traffic school” episode guest-starring Chris Rock comes to mind. Do they even HAVE traffic school like that in Texas?
I was going to mention this one. WKRP was very popular in Cincinnati, because they made sure to use the geography of the city (even though there were no location shots), because they made fun of Kentucky and Dayton, and because they added little touches like Bailey’s Xavier University sweatshirt.
Another show like that was The Mary Tyler Moore Show in Minneapolis. The Super Bowl episode was especially good.
In the moviie’s defense I know several Pennsylvanians who don’t get Pennsylvania’s alcohol laws. It involves “state stores,” which sound especially Stalinist when you consider that Pennsylvania is a commonwealth.
People like to see their hometowns on TV, sure. It backfires on shows like Queer as Folk, which is set in “Pittsburgh”, aka Toronto. The characters never drive over any bridges. Pittsburgh is a very distinctive-looking city, and you’d know if they ever filmed even the tiniest little shot on location. In the three seasons I watched they never did.
The funny thing is, in one episode they all went to New York City and they showed shots of New York! And then they went home to Toronto.
I didin’t see that episode, what was the traffic school like? We have lots of different options here: all day things at Denny’s, comedy routines, etc. If it was a comedy show traffic school, yeah, we have those. When you get a ticket, you get tons of flyers in the mail advertising those places. Mike Judge is from here and keeps it pretty Austin-ish…
In fact, shows set in New York are quite often, if not almost always, shot in LA, the “Law and Order” serieses being notable exceptions.
Attending regional (Equity) theater around here, one fun way to pass the time before curtain is to play “What episode of Law & Order was this actor on?”
The Drew Carey SHow made an effort to be authentic - Drew actually grew up around Ceveland. I remember every once in a while they would film some scenes there (like the opening credits, where you could see my office in the background). I was living in Cleveland when he filmed the “Browns Stadium” episode and had thousands of people show up to be extras. The show’s dialogue was peppered with authentic statements - like references to “those snobs from Shaker Heights” and referenced to the west side vs. east side fued, and even the first theme song “Moon over Parma”.
I was living in Parma and working in Cleveland when the show was at its popular peak (relatively speaking.) My impression was that it was more popular there than in the country in general.
…Actually it is nowhere near downtown. Its in Hollywood.
Re: LA inside jokes
An episode of Veronica Mars this season had Weevil working at a carwash named “Jumbos Clown Wash”. This was a reference to the LA bikini bar “Jumbos Clown Room”
I remember an article I read (no cite, sorry) about regionalism, or rather the lack of it, on American television shows. It pointed out early episodes of Cheers as an example of regionalism possibly hurting a show. During the first year, Cliff and several of the background regulars spoke with very thick Bostonian accents, and references were made to specific Boston locales (such as Coach talking about the notorious “Combat Zone”). Of course, during its’ first year, “Cheers” ranked dead last in the nielsen ratings, despite fantastic critical reviews. As the series progressed, Cliff’s accent becomes markedly less pronounced, there are fewer & fewer references to specific Bostonian landmarks (even though it is a major tourist city), and ratings shot up.
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia seems to have a lot of location shoots and makes note to little things of the area. Like mentioning a Wa Wa opposed to a 7-Eleven. But I’m not from there so I can’t really say. Any thoughts from people who are actually from/live in Phily?
OK. We have them in CA, but not in MA where I grew up. It seemed like a very LA thing to me, and I didn’t know they had them in Texas as well. Ignorance fought.
<Total Hijack>BTW, if you ever need traffic school in SoCal, and they don’t let you do the online one (I’m looking at YOU, Fullerton!), I recommend the Pizza4U Great Comedians Traffic School. The good news: the comedians are at the club you get a discont coupon for to use later, not teaching the school pretending that it’s any less soul-crushingly boring than it is. Even better news: they do in fact serve you pizza right there during the midday break.</TH>
From what my brother told me, the exact opposite was true (he’s lived there 30 years). The show’s mutilation of the geography would drive local Miamians crazy (stuff like driving on South Beach, make a turn and be at the Metro Zoo; that didn’t actually happen in an episode, but similar screw-ups were common.
In my brother’s circle (business and social), the show was disliked.
Yep, every liquor store in the entire state is owned by the government (hence “state store”) and staffed by civil servants. They don’t sell tobacco (until a few years ago they didn’t sell anything that wasn’t alcohol).