A place to discuss the settings shows take place in, how they influence the shows, and how they relate to their real-life counterparts.
One of the most interesting uses of settings has been in the CSI franchise. The Las Vegas setting of the original helped it stand out from other cop shows, and although there are many, many problems with CSI: Miami, the setting is definately not one of them. Which makes it all the more disappointing that the third series will be CSI: New York, in a setting so overused for television that I always expect the different sets of characters to start bumping into each other. I mean, think what could have been: CSI: New Orleans, CSI: Prudhoe Bay, CSI: Fallujah - the episodes write themselves!
Of course, choosing an overused setting is better than not choosing a setting at all. I don't believe Tru Calling has ever revealed where it's set - hence jokes about The City.
Speaking of Canada, one of the oddest uses of a setting I've seen was a promo for "Da Vinci's Inquest":
"In New York in 1999 there were 1000 homicides."
"In Toronto, Canada, there were four."
"So when a murder happens, this guy wants to know about it."
I've always thought there was something wrong with that logic....

Well, it may not have worked for Tru Calling, but Highlander never officially declared its setting either, I don't believe, yet it is now so firmly established that it takes place in Seacouver that to suggest otherwise is to invite derision from some quarters (myself, I've been known to stop reading crossovers that try to get around the tricky "how-do-they-come-together" aspect be claiming that HL takes place in the setting of Show 2). My point is, viewers are perfectly happy to forgive lack of concrete setting - even turn it into a fun in-joke - but the show has to give them a reason to do so, and from what I hear Tru Calling hasn't done that.

As for shows where the setting is key, what about fish-out-of-water shows like Keen Eddie and Due South? In DS especially, I never realised what a big part of the show Fraser's run-down apartment and lousy neighbourhood had become until the third season premiere burnt the place to the ground and had him move into his office, leaving his neighbourhood and his neighbours behind. I missed the spartan apartment and ugly staircase, dammit!

Exactly. For several years (until everyone online and their brother ran it into the ground), The Simpsons had a great running gag of never exactly stating where Springfield is. This led to some of the better in-jokes in the show.

Lisa: No, Dad, Springfield is here (begins to point at the map)

Bart gets into the "shot" so that we can't see where Lisa is pointing.

Bart: Hey, watcha doing, studying geography?

On the other hand, Tru Calling is still relatively new, so they may yet start having some fun with it.

They're playing on the belief Canadians have that we value individual life more than americans and so would investigate a murder more seriously. Not that anyone would out-and-out say that mind you, but its implied whenever we talk about health care, guns, drugs, poverty, war, etc. So as Canadians, we should want to watch this show because it helps us feel a bit superior.

What I find really weird about that promo was that the show is so obviously set in Vancouver, the city is practically a character on the show. Da Vinci is based on a real guy, who was well known and is now Vancouver's mayor. They used very specific locations that vancouver isn't famous for, but everyone here knows about (like Pigeon Park, you just say those 2 words to a vancouverite and its worth a thousand words). Even the missing sex trade workers became part of the show. And there is nothing more hateful to Vancouverites than Toronto stealing our thunder - so why would they use Toronto to promote the show? BTW, Vancouver area has a lot of murders.

I always thought that Highlander used it 1/2 of the season in Paris settings very well. It rarely felt touristy.

Mary Tyler Moore and WKRP used the difference between medium cities and mega-cities very well. Minneapolis and Cinncinnati felt livable and distinct which was interesting since they were both mostly filmed in LA.

Crossing Jordan has occasional moments of creative geography, but I think still does a better "Boston" setting than Ally McBeal or The Practice ever did. Still, if you want real Boston, the series Spenser, For Hire was the best of the lot.

As a Northwesterner, I both loved and loathed Seattle as a character in "Frasier." Loved it because it's a wonderful place and it was cool to see a show set there. It's come a long way since "Here Come The Brides."

But to convey Seattle-ness, the show depended on rain and coffee and Space Needle, rain and coffee and Space Needle. I'm sure similar shorthand is used to signify all settings, particularly when the show isn't actually filmed there: stock footage of famous skyline/monument/geographical feature. It reduces a great setting to a small joke, good enough for the masses. Or something.

On the other side of the Northwest spectrum, the obviously-Vancouver locations of "Smallville" just crack me up. Ah, the green, misty fir forests, the vast urban deepwater harbor, the snow-peaked mountains of Kansas!

To signal "Kansas farm country," Smallville gives us establishing shots of cows and a barn, CGI cornfields, and, oh yeah: Tornadoes!

To me, the question is, is the setting relevant to the story and characters, or could the story be set anywhere? In Smallville, the farm setting is actually relevant some of the time--small-town values and farm life are part of Clark Kent's development, and Lex Luthor had to be an urban fish out of water for the friendship dynamic to work. The Crane Brothers' over-the-top urbanity was just right for Seattle but wouldn't have worked in New York or Amarillo.

Tru Calling, on the other hand, really could take place in Any City.

Law and Order has always done a great job of incorporating its New York setting (including their trips to Jersey). I'm no longer a particular fan of the show, but I really appreciate how they use the character of the city and the freedom it give them to do out-door shoots and move around.

My friend has commented how weird it is to watch One Tree Hill after watching Dawson's Creek because they shoot in the same town, sometimes using the same sets and locations. Every so often she'll point something out that is totally lost on me having never seen DC. The other odd inconsistency is that they can't seem to decide just how big this town is. They keep talking about how it's such a small town, but then they'll show a shot that makes it look like at least a small city.

I'm in San Francisco, and Charmed makes me angry all out of proportion to their offenses. My favorite(?): Prue, on her way to the Haight, parks in the lower Tenderloin, intending to walk the rest of the way. It's only a few miles, over some middling steep hills. No problem for the young witch on the go. Also no problem is finding convenient, free(!) street parking, anywhere in the city, anytime of day. Mere mortals tend to take public transit because it's faster, cheaper, and easier most of the time.

And there's the foliage, the streets, the attitudes, the ambient temperatures. The scenes with actors in them are as Angeleno as LA Law. It's all intercut with gorgeous helicopter footage of San Francisco. Love that helicopter footage. But it just makes for a nastier jar when they then cut to a stand of scrub manzanita they're claiming is Golden Gate Park. Why on earth didn't they just set the damn show in LA and be done with it?

I hate how the soap operas do New York and Los Angeles type things in their little hick town surroundings. I mean, a makeup conglomerate in the middle of Genoa City, Dairy Country? Puh-leeze. Fashionistas in a little Illinois burg called Oakdale? What-ev.

I live just outside of Bucks County, PA, the setting for All My Children. I didn't realize until I started watching the show that we had an ocean, an international airport, and the occasional mountain.

Soaps are also always having characters take trips to scenic downtown Europe. Sometimes France or Italy, but generally just Europe. The whole thing.

I can deal with a show's setting not looking totally realistic for financial and time issues. But when there are flat out "could have been avoided" errors, that bugs me to no end. For example, an early episode of The X-Files took place in and around Sioux City, Iowa. I grew up 45 miles from Sioux City and then lived there for several years. So there were lots of innacuracies I saw, such as the public library not looking like it really does or it not being right across the street from the sheriff's department or no bluffs being seen while Mulder and Scully were driving out of town. I was able to easily shrug those things off because it simply wasn't feasible for the show to actually film in Sioux City.

But when they passed a road sign that had Lake Okoboji misspelled as Lake Okobogee? No excuse whatsoever, espcially since Okoboji was also a major setting of the episode. If you are going to use a real place, look at a freaking map at the very least!

The funny part about One Tree Hill and Dawson's Creek is that Tree Hill is supposed to be a coastal town in North Carolina-- the backgrounds fit into the picture perfectly-- whereas DC's Capeside was supposed to to be in Massachusetts. Somehow the palmettos and the intra-coastal waterway bridges just don't add to the story. And I believe that in the entire six seasons we never saw snow but only a handful of times.

"And there is nothing more hateful to Vancouverites than Toronto stealing our thunder - so why would they use Toronto to promote the show?"

My apologies, they actually said Vancouver and I misremembered.

I grew up in San Diego, where they shot "Silk Stalkings". Problem--it was supposed to take place in Miami.

I rarely watched the show, but it was disconcerting to see familiar landmarks and then be confronted with a "Miami P.D." patrol car.

Feckless quoted:

If we had CSI:Toronto, or CSI:Wichita, or CSI:Pruhoe Bay, there just wouldn't be as many possible stories to do as with CSI: New York. I guess they had to hedge their bets and go with the numbers. Still, I agree, NYC is overused. Maybe Chicago would have worked. We don't see many series centered in the Windy City.

I've had a love/hate relationship with Wisconsin settings.

Love: Happy Days and, as I understand it (never really watched it), Laverne and Shirley. Because it was in the area. My brother went to see a movie recently (Helenville, in case you're interested) solely because it was filmed in this area.

Hate: The trend after they invented focus groups and demographics. Now it's all beer, cheese and cows, to the exclusion of nearly everything else. Anyplace else in the Midwest? Replace 'beer' with 'corn'. Miss Alli will back me up on this.

Add another hate to that...it's makeup conglomerate central. You have Newman and Jabot to thank for that.

mtvcdm, I grew up in WI, so I'm also sensitive to the vaguaries of Wisconsin as a location. The worst was when the boys on That 70s Show took a day trip to Canada for beer, with the implication that they drove from the mythical Point Place to "Canada" in a couple hours. It doesn't help that Point Place is apparently near Kenosha and Madison, but not Milwaukee (huh?), but show me where Canada and Wisconsin share a border, let alone an easily reached border.

Another good one was when Crossing Jordan sent Woody home for a funeral in Chippewa Falls. It was an outdoor service... at the base of a large mountain. Yeah, Wisconsin, in the foothills of the Rockies.

As a current NJ resident, I can never work up any enthusiasm for the supposedly classic Sopranos episode "The Pine Barrens" because? Those were not f'ing pine barrens. They actually drove to upstate NY to film it, when the actual pine barrens were closer. (Plus, we don't pump our own gas in New Jersey. It's against the law. Even mobsters don't bother breaking that law.)

This is an old example, but I used to get a kick out of trying to figure out where Hillman on A Different World took place. It was obviously in Virginia, but the references they made made in clear the writers had no clue about our state. For example, they would reference Virginia Tech and Averett colleges, both in the southwestern part of the state. Then Whitley would say something about being 45 minutes away in Richmond (which is actually more like three).

Of course since Virginia is so seldom used in TV, it was our obsession when a show actually was set here.

Has there been any major shows in Virginia?

Agreed. I remember one whole season of Boston Public where the only clue that the series took place in Boston, and not some other Northeastern city that wasn't Boston, was Harry asking Ronnie, "So, how about those Patriots?" I mean, where's a show that incorporates Boston landmarks? Where's the North End? The South End? The T? Faneuil Hall? Quincy Market? Etc.?

MisterMcGee asked:

When I first saw this topic, the first show that I thought about was Line of Fire, which was set in Richmond. They actually shot on location in Richmond and did a pretty good job of incorporating the city into the plotline.

I wish more shows that are supposed to be set somewhere other than "generic locale in southern California" or "New York City" or my favorite, "Canadian city that is supposed to be some real US city" would actually shoot on location. Otherwise, don't bother setting the series somewhere other than these locations. If you can only afford to shoot in Vancouver, why not just set the show there? Then you can at least take advantage of the local landmarks. Just don't try to convince us that Vancouver is actually some city in the US midwest.

And I'm glad that TPTB decided to set One Tree Hill in a mythical NC coastal town. It makes way more sense to see those locations in that context than it did to pretend that they were somewhere along the Massachussetts coast (Dawson's Creek).

Thanks! How could I have forgotten Line of Fire? Yes, they did a fine job with the Richmond landmarks as well as incorporating Norfolk and the seaboard mentions.

A few years back during the missing-Carl storyline on Young and the Restless, they featured Norfolk including a pretty-up to date Norfolk skyline shop. It was mildly exciting at the time.

Wasn't Major Dad set on a military base in Virginia, or am I thinking of North Carolina?

I think Early Edition did a great job incorporating Chicago into its storylines and using the city as a backdrop. There were lots of times when you could see the street signs in the shots and know where they were, even if you didn't completely recognize the area. They used shots on the El and at the stations a lot, which I thought was cool, although I never saw any of the shooting when I lived there. I think EE used its setting as well as, if not better than, any show ever. Chicago was almost like another character on the show.

Major Dad was set in SoCal, I believe San Diego.

The Waltons was set rural Virginia, not too far from Charlottesville. Since the series creator was from there, the geographic references were very good.

.

Yep. San Diego native here, and you're right. On the other hand, I had a hard time dealing with the fact that what was supposedly George Bush, Sr.'s favorite show was set not too far from me in Camp Pendleton. Sigh.

Oh, for the good old days of Simon and Simon. At least they got the city right. That 80's Show also took place there, but the less said about that show, the better.

"Wow, they're doing a show about what it was like to be a teenager in the 80's in San Diego! Just like me!"

Later:

"Wow. That was the worst depiction of the crowd I ran with that I've ever seen in my life"

Wow, Southern California? Why was I thinking the South? I guess it was because of Gerald McRaney, and the fact that I haven't seen the show in reruns for about a decade. The mind is rusty, I tell ya!

I think this might be my first post.
While Major Dad didn't start in VA --at some point they were transfered to a marine base somewhere in the western part of the state. As happy as I was to have a tv show set in Virginia, it really started to suck (more) after the move.

Home Improvementdid a fairly good job with Michigan in the episodes I saw. The sweatshirts from different colleges across the state were a running gag on the show, and it became something of a coup to get your school's sweatshirt on the show if you were in charge of that school's admissions office. I can remember them doing bits on all the lakes in the state, and Tim and whatshername Jill getting lost in the Irish Hills after US 127 turns into two lanes south of Jackson.


Homicide did a good job with their Baltimore location shots. It gave the show a very different feel from the usual NYC cop shows.


I'll also confess to an ongoing fondness for Miami Vice's good use of Miami and surrounds during that show's run. The architecture, the geographic flatness, and the humid climate all gave it a more authentic feel than it would have gotten if they'd shot it in San Diego.

Yeah, as a San Diegan, I can't decide what annoys me more: Shooting in San Diego and calling it something else (Miami doesn't have that good a zoo!) or having something take place in San Diego and getting it all wrong.

Love it or hate it (I hate it), Miami Vice was one of the most visually evocative shows ever. The location shooting had much to do with that.

Having grown up in the same town that Tim Allen did, the same town that the Taylors are supposed to have lived in, I can say that they did a really good job. There were enough references that you could actually narrow down where the house should have been to a three block radius. They mentioned the local lake (which is more of a poind), and I recall hearing them name the right middle and high school for the area.

I think one of the shows that best used its setting was (no surprise, what with the title and all) was Sex and the City.

John Melfi (the guy in charge of finding locations) and his group did a great job in getting the show access to hot restaurants, bars, and stores. I was watching one of the episodes with commentary yesterday and Michael Patrick King, one of the producers, mentioned that the restaurant Raw, where Samantha met Smith, was a fictional place. They used a really nice restaurant in Brooklyn, but the writers wanted one of the plot points to be the raw food. MPK said that was one of the rare times when they didn't go directly to a place.

I also liked shots of the actresses walking around the City.

I don't know if it's because they filmed in LA, but I think Friends should've made better use of NYC. I know it's harder to do exteriors when you're 3000 miles away from the setting of your show, but still. Why not then set the show in L.A.?

They actually filmed in the hallway of an apartment building on West Sheridan while I was living there. That was cool but jarring at the same time. I never wound up seeing the episode in question.

Tying together soaps and NYC, early Ryan's Hope does one of the most excellent jobs of using the NYC setting realistically that I've ever seen. The sets and apartments actually look like what you'd find here in NYC, i.e., they're matched to what the characters would realistically be living and working in. If someone has a studio apartment, things are stacked to the ceiling and it looks like you'd bring the whole thing crashing down if you spun around too fast instead of being all palatial. In the Ryans' apartment itself, the bedrooms look like a full size bed and a dresser will just about do it as far as what can fit. And people routinely talk about taking the subway, grabbing something at the deli and going to the park, etc....all things that people in NYC realistically do.

a big giant WORD to that, selkie. I loved everything about Homicide, but most of all the fact that it wasn't a "big" city like NYC, Chicago, LA, etc. Believe me, when a place like B'more can be ranked #1 in murders several years running, you know there's room for great storytelling with a very down home feel (o/t, if you haven't read the book, I highly recommend it).

I've been trying to research up on where the networks tend to set their programs, and while I've figured out locations for about 75% of the shows I'm trying to cover, I'm still missing a bunch. Shows that lasted for just a few episodes, especially.

Since I seem to have hit a brick wall myself, I thought I'd do best to ask for help. States or cities or just regions of the country, any help is greatly appreciated. For all I know, some of these shows might be like "Desperate Housewives" or "Malcolm in the Middle," with no specific location. So here are the shows I can't figure out, with networks and the seasons they started in:

2004-05:
American Dad (Fox)
Living with Fran (WB)
Stacked (Fox)

2003-04:
Happy Family (NBC)
Jake 2.0 (UPN)
Rock Me Baby (UPN)
The Help (WB)
The Stones (WB)
Threat Matrix (ABC)

2002-03:
Do Over (WB)
Haunted (UPN)
Hidden Hills (NBC)
In-Laws (NBC)
It's Not About Me (NBC)
Lost at Home (ABC)
Miracles (ABC)
The O'Keefes (WB)
Oliver Beene (Fox)
The Pitts (Fox)
Regular Joe (ABC)
That Was Then (ABC)
Veritas (ABC)

2001-02:
Baby Bob (CBS)
Bob Patterson (ABC) - I think this may be LA
Danny (CBS)
Education of Max Bickford (CBS) - somewhere in New England
Ellen Show (CBS) - town of Clark, somewhere in the Midwest
Emeril (NBC) - LA?
Glory Days (WB) - somewhere in the Pacific Northwest
Imagine That (NBC)
Inside Schwartz (NBC)
Leap of Faith (NBC)
Raising Dad (WB)
Thieves (ABC)
Undeclared (Fox) - my gut tells me this had no specific state
Wolf Lake (CBS) - somewhere in the Pacific Northwest

2000-01:
Bette (CBS)
Cursed (NBC)
Freakylinks (Fox)
Freedom (UPN)
Geena Davis Show (ABC) - I think this might be suburbs of NYC
Gideon's Crossing (ABC) - somewhere in New England
Grosse Pointe (WB)
Kate Brasher (CBS)
Level 9 (UPN)
Three Sisters (NBC)
Tucker (NBC)

And to help make this post a little more meaty, here's some of what I've catalogued so far. Of the 200+ network shows that have premiered in the last five years, I've found shows set in 25 states and DC. At least 47 were set in California (over 30 of which were in the LA vicinity). 33 were in New York, though "Wonderfalls" looks to be the only one of those not set in or around NYC. Illinois has 9 so far, Pennsylvania and DC have 8 apiece, Washington state has 7, and Massachusetts and Nevada have 6 apiece. At the opposite end, Texas (the second most populous state) had just one show: "Reba."

I always assumed it was set in the Northern VA/DC area, but I don't know if I just made that up or if it was made explicit on the show.



Isn't Grosse Pointe a pricey suburb of Detroit?

Pasadena, California. There was an L.A. Times article the other day that stated that, although there was some evidence in the pilot: Christopher Lloyd's character is a retired Caltech professor, and they mentioned an actual downtown Pasadena intersection where the bookstore was supposedly located (Lake and Green streets, if I recall correctly).



You are correct -- the northern suburbs ("upstate" to Manhattanites). I can't remember if they ever specifically named a town.

I think some of the answers you seek may be in the last geography thread, http://forums.televisionwithoutpity.com/in...ic=3116807&st=0

Being a former resident of metro Atlanta, I always tried to get clues about exactly where Designing Women took place. I figured that since Julia and Suzanne were presumably from old money, they probably lived in Midtown or Buckhead. Charlene probably lived in an apartment not far from Sugarbaker's and Mary Jo more than likely lived in north Fulton, Cobb, or Gwinnett.

They did fairly well with the geography. One glaring exception was when Mary Jo was mugged in Sandy Springs, which is in Fulton County, and Suzanne made the comment that MJ was going to be "running all over Gwinnett County" looking for the mugger.

It sort of annoys me that more shows aren't set in the south. I figure they think that the actors have to have accents, which is absurd. I've never seen a show that takes place in Indiana, Wisconsin, Ohio, or Michigan where anyone speaks with the local accent, or any accent at all. Why should the south be any different?

Being a native and current resident of metro Atlanta myself, I also find myself irked at the lack of shows set in the South. In fact, that was why I started looking into this.

Here is a list of TV programs set in Georgia. The last Georgia-based show was "Arsenio" in 1997, though 1996 saw three shows in the state. I doubt the list is completely comprehensive, but it still only lists 12 Georgia shows over nearly 50 years of network broadcasting.

The South as a whole doesn't fare any better. In the last five years, I've only found five new shows (out of ~200) that qualify as being set in the South:

- "Jack & Bobby" - Hart, Missouri
- "Line of Fire" - Richmond, Virginia
- "One Tree Hill" - Tree Hill, North Carolina
- "Reba" - Houston, Texas
- "Rodney" - Tulsa, Oklahoma

There were also four shows set in Florida, but all four were in Miami. And I think Miami is part of "the South" about as much as Juneau is part of the West Coast. It's the least Southern city below the Mason-Dixon line.

- Rock Me Baby (UPN)
I think it was set in Colorado or Seattle. I remember mentioning those places.

- Oliver Beene (Fox)
Wasn't this set in NY?

- The Help (WB)
One of the Palm Beaches?

- Leap of Faith (NBC)
I always thought it was NY.

- Undeclared (Fox)
Southern CA?


Point Pleasant – NJ
Eve – FL. Miami to be exact.




You and Mr. Nice think alike. I think more shows need to be set outside NYC and LA period. There are other parts of the country you know.

Definitely Denver, CO. (I'm in Denver so that little bit of trivia stuck in my head.)

Yes, but the show was about the filming of a show set in Grosse Pointe. I think it was actually set in L.A.

Undeclared was set at the University of Northeast California (fictional, I believe) and Do Over was set in the vicinity of Boston.

Hee! As a California native, I feel confident in asserting that there isn't really anything in Northeast California, unless you're talking about lots of forest and/or Lake Tahoe (and, uh...Bigfoot). Now, Northwest Cali...that's a different story. Shout out to Humboldt State University, my alma mater! Go Lumberjacks!

Then again, I never watched Undeclared, so I could very well be talking out of my ass.

"7th Heaven" is in fictional Glen Oaks, CA, and Buffy was in Sunnydale. Which part of California were those supposed to be in?

Regarding the list above, I came across one site that said "Hidden Hills" was in suburban Philadelphia. But the real Hidden Hills is an upscale suburb of LA. I'm not sure what to trust.

I also expanded my search to shows that were cancelled in the last few years. Here's the list of my unsolved ones from that pack, most of which lasted at least a couple of years:

Daddio
Family Law - somewhere in Southern California
Norm
Popular - like "Undeclared," I suspect Kennedy High had no specific state
Seven Days - possibly DC
The Hughleys - possibly suburban LA
The Steve Harvey Show
Titus

To update my previous 'South Count,' I've so far figured the locations of about 60 shows that have aired in the last 5 years that didn't premiere during that time. The only shows out of these 60 set in the South are:

JAG - Falls Church, VA
King of the Hill - Arlen, TX
Malcolm & Eddie - Kansas City, MO
Profiler - Atlanta, GA

And "JAG" and "Profiler" are not unlike shows like "Alias," where the characters are based in a city, but most of the action takes place elsewhere. Still, it was nice in "Profiler" to see an Atlanta skyline on TV and hear references to places I've been.

Loren

The syndicated "Pensacola: Wings of Gold" ended in 2000, and I'd say it squeaks onto the Southern shows list. Pensacola is definitely a Southern city. ("The further north in Florida you go, the further South you get." as the saying goes)

You don't want to hear a show set in Indiana where they speak with the local accent - it's a nasal mutation of a southern accent, full of 'kin' for 'can', 'jist' for 'just' and other ugliness. I say this with love, because I am a Hoosier (who has worked hard to get rid of the accent).

ETA: AFAIK, there have only been two shows set in Indiana - One Day at a Time and Eerie, Indiana.

The mountains in the background always annoyed me. TV has a tendency to think that they can show a California beach and call it Florida. Wrong.



I know. It's the bane of existence for the multitudes of people from Tennessee and Kentucky who have relatives there (I'm not one of them, but my partner is, and I hear the bitching). Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan seem to bring out the vitriol.

I just don't understand why shows set in these regions have characters who speak standard American while anything southern has to be deep-fried and twangy. I think Roseanne came closest to the nasal Midwestern sound, even though she's from Utah. And don't get me started on all the shows that take place in Wisconsin.