# What TV show best represents NYC?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-show-best-represents-nyc/624580>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [June 9, 2012, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-show-best-represents-nyc/624580 "2012-06-09T02:30:40Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\
**Post date:** [June 11, 2012, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-show-best-represents-nyc/624580/21 "2012-06-11T21:37:54Z")

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I was born and raised in Queens, and among the shows that captured (at least big parts of) the New York City I knew were…

1. _ **The Honeymooners** _

2. _ **Barney Miller** _

3)\*\*\* The Odd Couple\*\*\*

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**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\
**Post date:** [June 11, 2012, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-show-best-represents-nyc/624580/22 "2012-06-11T21:55:20Z")

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> [@etv78](#):
>
> Never been there, but I’d nominate _Law & Order_

That’s what first came to mind for me.

The original, to be sure. No bloody svu, ci or tbj.

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**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\
**Post date:** [June 11, 2012, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-show-best-represents-nyc/624580/23 "2012-06-11T23:21:50Z")

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> [@SpoilerVirgin](#):
>
> Everybody views T.V. Land from their own perspective. I always loved the quote from writer/producer Jay Tarses. He couldn’t understand why _Roseanne_ was the number one show on T.V., while his show, _The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd_ (about a divorced woman living in New York, sort of an updated Mary Tyler Moore Show) was tanking. He said something like “Roseanne isn’t realistic. Everyone I know can relate to Molly Dodd.” I was a fan of both shows, but I definitely identified more closely with the characters and situations in Roseanne than the ones in Molly Dodd. But to a writer from NYC, the whole world looked liked his sitcom.

Well, if he actually said this, he was dead wrong. I was born and raised in NYC. Raised my family there and still live less than a mile away from the county line and Molly lived in a totally different New York than I did. You could have put Roseanne in Rosedale, Queens and nobody would have noticed the difference.

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**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2012, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-show-best-represents-nyc/624580/24 "2012-06-12T01:39:22Z")

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\*How I Met Your Mother \* feels a bit more representative of NYC to me than _Friends_. At least the NYC of young, white professionals.

The thing about Friends is they almost NEVER drink. They just always hang out in that dumb coffee shop. In fact, there was an episode where they were worried their one-episode-only friend “Fun Bobby” had a drinking problem. There just always seemed to be a niave innocence about the Friends characters that was inconsistent with a bunch of 20-something Manhattanites.

The HIMYM gang, however, seem to live in that bar. And my experience young people in NYC love to drink.

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**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2012, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-show-best-represents-nyc/624580/25 "2012-06-12T03:02:12Z")

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Does nobody remember Taxi?

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**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2012, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-show-best-represents-nyc/624580/26 "2012-06-12T06:45:32Z")

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The first apartment I lived in when I came to NYC had the EXACT SAME SINK as The Honeymooners.

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