I love Due South, but since I’ve been living in Toronto, it’s painfully obvious that the series was filmed here, not in Chicago (despite the exteriors in the opening credits).
In a lot of episodes, you can see Canadian flags flying in the background, the CN Tower, TTC streetcars, etc.
Yep, it’s a much shorter list of TV shows that were set in Chicago and actually shot in Chicago as well. The Chicago Code was a notable, if short-lived, example. Boss was as well, I’m pretty sure. Oh, yeah, also the short-lived and lamented Jeremy Piven vehicle Cupid.
Good point, fiddlesticks. For shows both *set *in Chicago and *filmed *in Chicago, the list gets very short. And IMHO, *Crime Story * (season one) and *Chicago Code * (season only) are the best of the best of that short list.
Chicago Fire is filmed in Chicago, and makes great use of the city for locations. Also, a lot of the guest actors are from the Chicago theater scene. It makes a nice change from The Good Wife, which is filmed in New York.
The block next to mine is very picturesque and gets used a lot for filming that show. Which means MY block gets the honor of being lined with trailers for 48 hours at a stretch.
This is the first thing that came to my mind.
Chicago Hope - a really good hospital show that got overrun by St. Elsewhere. It had a good cast including Marty Patinkin, Mark Harmon, Christine Lahti, Peter MacNicol, etc and great guest stars. It ended production in 2000.
Bosom Buddies has an opening shot with the boys running along a beach with palm trees. Definitely a California location - even the architecture in the long shots is clearly of that La La land look.
Also Early Edition. And Buck Rogers is set in New Chicago where the L train is replaced by that one flying shuttle but thing.
I loved that show when I was a kid and the Family Matters show was a spin off and so that show was also set in Chicago as well as Mary-Kate and Ashley’s Full House follow up named Two Of A Kind. 
God bless you and them always!!!
Holly (a day one fan of the girls)
I also recall reading the Pittsburgh hypothesis.
Pittsburgh is correct. There is a a very rough area known as the “Hill District.” Steven Bochco went to college in Pgh, at what is now Carnegie Mellon.
but, you could still fill a couple of pages with references to Buffalo streets and institutions. I’m sure the writers and etc. drew on many diverse places and situations to create the believable montage.
Well, that makes sense, cause a lot of Chicogoans are people from Toronto that liked the cold, but it just wasn’t dirty enough.
No one has mentioned the first half-season of Crime Story with Dennis Farina? One of the best series ever, and it took me back to the Chicago where I used to spend my summers as a kid.
It was mentioned in post #11.
I always figured Hill Street Blues was set in Isola.
Hoarding: Buried Alive just featured someone in Chicago.
Chicago Fire has been renewed.
How many TV shows, especially sitcoms, are really set anywhere? If you’d never been to either city and someone told you Perfect Strangers was set in Indianapolis, how long would it take you to notice it wasn’t?
Anyone remember a short-lived comedy called The Loop about a young executive at a Chicago-based airline and his circle of wacky friends and coworkers?
I liked it, and Mimi Rogers was especially milfy.