Beijing: Tiananmen Square and/or the adjacent Forbidden City
Knoxville, Tennessee: The Sun Sphere (now known as the Wig Sphere, according to the Simpsons)
Orlando: that big buckminster fullerene at Epcot
Dallas at night: The lit up ball and the building with the green criss-crossed lights.
Austin: The shot across the river looking at the stepped-looking building.
Las Vegas: the Strip
Sydney: The Opera House & the Harbour Bridge (they’re right next to each other, more or less)
Christchurch (NZ): Christchurch Cathedral
Hong Kong: The Bank of China Tower and The Peak
Kuala Lumpur: Petronas Towers
Singapore: Raffles Hotel
Edinburgh: Edinburgh Castle
Macau: The Ruins of St. Paul’s
Bombay: Gateway of India
Thank you. I didn’t know I had been to Brussels before I read your post (saw it when I was very young).
Even though it isn’t technically in the city of Los Angeles, Santa Monica Pier is a representative shot I see on TV all the time when a sporting event is here in LA.
Nashville - AT&T Tower (formerly known as the BellSouth Tower) locally known as the Batman Tower.
Memphis - The view of St. Jude Hospital when coming across the Mississippi River from the west.
In establishing shots for L.A., lately I’ve often seen the U.S. Bank tower downtown (that round skyscraper). Other than that it’s often some neighborhood or nearby city as required by the story, e.g. Rodeo Drive, Santa Monica pier, South Central, etc.). Oh, and the LAX Theme Building is used very often when a story has a character flying in.
Cleveland - Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Free Stamp (World's Largest Rubber Stamp, Cleveland, Ohio)
Tucson or Phoenix- saguaro cactus, ocotillo cactus, cholla cactus, etc.
Bangkok - Grand Palace
Philadelphia - City Hall, One and Two Liberty Place
Taipei - Taipei 101
Beijing - Temple of Heaven
Tokyo - Mt. Fuji
Seoul - Namdaemun
St. Petersburg - Peter and Paul Fortress
Another one you see on the travel posters for Bangkok is Wat Arun, or the Temple of Dawn. But I can’t seem to find a good photo of it right now.
Springfield - Tire Fire
Agra (or just “India”) - Taj Mahal
Your funny-looking-building-on-the-water makes Milwaukee resemble Cleveland and our funny-looking-building-on-the-water (the left is the back of the Rock Hall, the right is the Great Lakes Science Museum).
Buenos Aires - El Obelisco
Jerusalem was nailed by Kyla.
Haifa – the Bah’ai gardens
Interestingly, I don’t really think there’s a good “iconic” representation for Tel Aviv…
Buffalo – Wings being fried/sauced/baked at the Anchor Bar, still shot of Niagara Falls (which of course is not even in Buffalo)
Any Buffalo Bills game shown on TV will have these two B-rolls, guaranteed. This is because Buffalo has nothing worth showing on TV, probably including the Bills.
Niagara Falls – Well, duh. Plus, The Maid of the Mist.
Pittsburgh- Grandview Avenue
Kansas City is a shot of Downtown as viewed from the Kansas City Scout Statue at Penn Valley park or a shot of the Nelson-Atkins Museum front lawn showing “Shuttlecocks” by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen.