TV shows set in cities that get city features horribly wrong

[Big John]

Despite higher budgets, any film that doesn't actually use London for London, looks wrong.

Likewise in the US for Chicago more than most other cities.  Chicago tends to have very specifically different streetlights and traffic signals to anywhere else in North America.  It's easy to pick out when a producer uses Toronto (as used in Blues Brothers 2000) as a stand in for Chicago (as used in the original Blues Brothers movie).

Mostly.  But the scene where they drive off the unfinished bridge was shot in Milwaukee with the then-unfinished Hoan Bridge.

[SteveG1988]

For a movie. Close Encounters of the third kind gets indiana all wrong. they used the former toll booths of the vincent thomas bridge in LA for the ohio turnpike/indiana toll road

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MW3KJUa8FQ

[nyratk1]

Royal Pains, even though it's set in the Hamptons, does film some stuff there. But most of it is filmed further west on Long Island. Huntington, Oyster Bay, Long Beach and my hometown of Bellport are some frequent shooting locations. And my brother (who works at a local Stop and Shop) met Henry Winkler while he was out here.

That's a lot better than the places that use British Columbia or Ontario for everything. If I see another yellow signal with all yellow backplates on a mast arm...

[cpzilliacus]

I have seen an assortment of freeways in California depicted as I-95 and the Capital Beltway.

[kj3400]

Reminds me of Live Free or Die Hard which had a scene in Washington, but was filmed in Baltimore on Calvert St (for some reason the lights were facing the wrong way) and then like the very next scene had it filmed in LA. And then a chase scene that was supposed to be in Baltimore on the Beltway was in California (not sure where). Don't even get me started on where they filmed what was supposed to be the Social Security Administration.

[vtk]

Both In The Heat of The Night and Dukes of Hazzard were filmed in Covington, GA.  One took place in a fictional town in Mississippi and the other took place in the right state (although you do not hear where Hazzard County is located  and its state's capital city is called "Capital City") as we all could figure out its in Georgia.  Many producers like to film in other places hundreds or thousands of miles away if a town could just about pass.  In the south many towns look a like, so whether MS, AL, or GA you would have the same type of business district or courthouse.

Back to Smokey And The Bandit where the setting was to be Texarkana, Texas.  The primary premise of the movie was that both Bandit Darvill (Burt Reynolds) and Cledus Snow (Jerry Reed) had to drive to Texarkana to pick up Coors Beer as it was illegal east of Texas in the 70's.   In reality the Texas county that Texarkana is located is a Dry County and does not sell alcohol!  That is why the Arkansas side of US 71 is located with many liquor stores to get business from the Texas side of the city.

I was able to guess Dukes of Hazzard was in Covington based on a route marker seen downtown, and a hunch that a reference to the Yellow River was accurate.  Kind of surprised they never did an episode about Boss Hogg trying to profit somehow from the construction of I-20.

In Smokey & The Bandit, they didn't buy the beer in Texarkana.  They stole it from a Coors warehouse.  I'd say that's still plausible, uunless "dry county" means you can't have a distribution warehouse storing beer either.

[Rick1962]

One of my favorite goofs from "Revolution":  the Martins Ferry, Ohio lighthouse!

[roadman65]

About Smokey And The Bandit, one other thing to mention is the fact that they featured the town to be more sparsely populated as the intersection where Bandit picked up Frog was in a semi rural area.  Now remember this was under Sheriff Buford T. Justice's jurisdiction, so they yet crossed back into Arkansas, so it depicted to be somewhere in between the populated stretch of town and the State Line.

In reality the most populated part of town is along the State Border, as US 71 straddles it north of US 67 & 82 with the Downtown on the actual line as well.  Therefore you could not have the city the way its depicted as in the movie by an almost longshot!

In Dallas, the TV show, you have it depict a fictional Braddock city and county as a suburb of Texas' third largest city.  Technically though you could say that Braddock is supposed to be Plano, and its county is the one where the actual ranch is located just a few miles east of Plano.  Therefore it is common to bend things a little with names in movies and on TV shows including Andy Griffith changing the name of Pilot Mountain, NC to Mount Pilot in his sitcom and even create Mayberry out of nothing, but his actual version of the town about Pilot Mountain itself.

The Dukes of Hazzard though gets things wrong in another matter as with roads.  If you noticed on the show that all rural roads in Hazzard County are not paved.  I think in all counties in the US (except Kenedy County in Texas) have a good road network and if there are non paved roads they're usually back roads throughout rural America.  Kenedy County has US 77 as its only major road while there are no other numbered routes intersecting in its borders as its only connected to the rest of the state road network via US 77.  The situation in Hazzard would actually at best, with the roads that is, be more close to Kenedy County, TX.

[jeffandnicole]

Bones is a show I like for not only showing many DC sites correctly (or relatively correctly...or close enough to get by), but the actors keeping true to their home city.  Booth (David Boreanaz) spent much of his life growing up in the Philly area, as his dad, Dave Roberts, was a longtime weather forecaster on Ch. 6 (ABC).  In several episodes, Booth is wearing sports-related clothing reflecting the Philly teams, not DC teams.

On the other hand, if you try to look for the White Castle in Cherry Hill where Harold and Kumar run into Doogie Howser, you won't find the restaurant, the cliff they fly off of, a rural 5 lane roadway, or acres and acres of nothing.  Kinda strange they even used an actual town name that exists, being that nothing else is remotely close to accurate.

The national news can suck as well.  During Superstorm Sandy last year, I happened to be in Florida.  The news kept showing pictures of the AC boardwalk being swept away.  I noticed though, there were no casinos in the shots.  The reality was the boardwalk that was destoryed was well north of the casinos, was already in bad shape, and the storm demolished what was already scheduled to be demolished (actually saving the city a bit of money on that particular project).  But since it was put into the nation's heads that the entire boardwalk was destoryed, the city and state then had to advertise the city & boardwalk (and many other vacation areas) were indeed open, on the very same channels that mis-reported the news in the first place.

[BamaZeus]

Reminds me of Live Free or Die Hard which had a scene in Washington, but was filmed in Baltimore on Calvert St (for some reason the lights were facing the wrong way) and then like the very next scene had it filmed in LA. And then a chase scene that was supposed to be in Baltimore on the Beltway was in California (not sure where). Don't even get me started on where they filmed what was supposed to be the Social Security Administration.

In Die Hard 2, it was supposed to take at Dulles Airport, but when Bruce Willis uses a payphone, it clearly says Denver Bell or something like that.

[vtk]

The Dukes of Hazzard though gets things wrong in another matter as with roads.  If you noticed on the show that all rural roads in Hazzard County are not paved.  I think in all counties in the US (except Kenedy County in Texas) have a good road network and if there are non paved roads they're usually back roads throughout rural America.  Kenedy County has US 77 as its only major road while there are no other numbered routes intersecting in its borders as its only connected to the rest of the state road network via US 77.  The situation in Hazzard would actually at best, with the roads that is, be more close to Kenedy County, TX.

I think rural counties had a lot less paved road mileage in the 70s than they do now.  And check out Lenawee, Monroe, and Washtenaw Counties in Michigan.  Just outside Metro Detroit, yet only the most important county roads are what city dwellers would call "paved".  And I'm talking about today.

Of course, if the USGS weren't shut down, we could settle this by fetching 70s-vintage topos of the area near Covington, GA.  Or, pay close attention to the first 5 episodes, which were shot entirely in Georgia.

[Duke87]

The Amazing Spiderman from earlier this year has several NYC related gaffes:
1) It shows a Q train "approaching Coney Island" in a tunnel. In the real world that train is above ground long before it gets to Coney Island. The fact that the type of subway car depicted in the movie has never run on the Q line in real life we will forgive since that's firmly in the "only railfans will notice" category.

2) In one scene Spider Man is shown jumping off of what clearly is the FDR Drive in Lower Manhattan. Immediately after he is shown swinging from webs under what is clearly the Riverside Drive viaduct up by 125th Street. Yay teleportation!

3) In the beginning of the movie with Peter Parker as a little boy, you can see a large green street sign hanging from a traffic signal mast arm in the background in one shot. Seems to have been actually shot in NYC but the presence of that sign in the shot is anachronistic: those overhead signs in NYC only started appearing circa 2005 and a young Peter Parker in the timeline the movie suggests would have been more like 15 years ago (~late 90s), so that sign should not be there!

[empirestate]

The Amazing Spiderman from earlier this year has several NYC related gaffes:
1) It shows a Q train "approaching Coney Island" in a tunnel. In the real world that train is above ground long before it gets to Coney Island. The fact that the type of subway car depicted in the movie has never run on the Q line in real life we will forgive since that's firmly in the "only railfans will notice" category.

2) In one scene Spider Man is shown jumping off of what clearly is the FDR Drive in Lower Manhattan. Immediately after he is shown swinging from webs under what is clearly the Riverside Drive viaduct up by 125th Street. Yay teleportation!

3) In the beginning of the movie with Peter Parker as a little boy, you can see a large green street sign hanging from a traffic signal mast arm in the background in one shot. Seems to have been actually shot in NYC but the presence of that sign in the shot is anachronistic: those overhead signs in NYC only started appearing circa 2005 and a young Peter Parker in the timeline the movie suggests would have been more like 15 years ago (~late 90s), so that sign should not be there!

The sequel was shot recently in Rochester, where the intersection of Main and Clinton stood in for 57th and 8th in Manhattan. They fully redressed Rochester with authentic NYC-issue signage, trash cans, and vehicles, and will probably add a lot of buildings in CGI. Obviously, a lot of care was put into making the location appear authentic, yet so many slip-ups always seem to make it through in these films. I always wonder if the set dressing crews get mad at other departments such as editing, for screwing up all the attention to detail they worked so hard at.

[Duke87]

I dunno. Item 1 is more a script/screenplay error than a set dressing error. Item 2 was probably intentional artistic license so they could have both the lower Manhattan skyline in the background and a lofty viaduct to swing under (in the real world it would be one or the other but not both). As for item 3, there is no way in hell anyone who did not grow up in NYC and is not a roadgeek would notice such a thing. Through careful attention getting the present day correct is easy. But getting the past correct is difficult since things like "that spec of sign wasn't introduced until 5-10 years after this is supposed to take place" simply will not get noticed or be known to anyone on the movie staff. As such, trivial anachronisms like this are common.

[NE2]

holy crap Mozart's son was riding a bike before bikes were invented in Monty Python

[agentsteel53]

I was watching an episode of Supernatural the other day (first season, can't remember the episode) but I seem to recall a dusty little two-laner in a forest, supposedly in east Texas, being captioned as "interstate 35". 

I also remember an episode in Missouri receiving a California-style US-6 cutout.

[broadhurst04]

There was an episode of the Andy Griffith Show where Aunt Bee decides to take flying lessons. The action in the series takes place in Mayberry, NC. Mayberry is not a real place, but NC is a real state; however, if you look at that episode the airport scenes were obviously shot in southern California. The mountains in the background are too tall to be in NC.

[Scott5114]

I also remember an episode in Missouri receiving a California-style US-6 cutout.

My girlfriend is big into Supernatural, and she paused it to show me the cutout. (Although she said it was Colorado, not Missouri.) It was season 9, episode 1, if anyone wants to check.

[agentsteel53]

My girlfriend is big into Supernatural, and she paused it to show me the cutout. (Although she said it was Colorado, not Missouri.) It was season 9, episode 1, if anyone wants to check.

they must've recycled it.  this is from Season 1, Episode 13.

at least Colorado would have used such a sign!

[Duke87]

One of the opening scenes of 42 from earlier this year captions a two lane road that Jackie Robinson's team's bus is driving down as "Interstate 69, Arkansas, April 1945".

That is so wrong on so many levels.

[hotdogPi]

One of the opening scenes of 42 from earlier this year captions a two lane road that Jackie Robinson's team's bus is driving down as "Intestate 69, Arkansas, April 1945".

That is so wrong on so many levels.

With the misspelling, too? Did they really forget the r in interstate in the movie?

[roadman65]

I like when they use different neighborhoods of the same city and promote that as the one.  For example, the Golden Girls, which is to take place in Miami, uses one of the beach communities of either Dade or Broward Counties in Florida which are in South Florida where Miami is the epicenter of, but it is not Miami proper.   I know its because the average person thinks of the Atlantic Ocean when thinking of Miami, but in reality Miami does not touch the ocean.

Ironically, the first season of the show does have a different opening sequence that shows Downtown Miami as it is more suited.

Another note is the Maude program, a spin off of All In The Family, featuring Bea Arthur (star of Golden Girls), as the liberal female version of Archie Bunker, it shows not only the original West Side Highway when giving credit to Bea, but a trip across the George Washington Bridge to get to Tuckahoe from Manhattan.  The GWB leads into New Jersey where Tuckahoe is on the same side of the Hudson River and is accessible via NY 9A, I-95, and the Bronx River Parkway.  In this case the landmarks of the area are used to depict what the author (Norman Lear no doubt) wants, but is using them out of context.

[NE2]

the liberal female version of Archie Bunker

So she poos all the time and campaigns for Hillary because Obama's black?

[cpzilliacus]

There was an episode of the Andy Griffith Show where Aunt Bee decides to take flying lessons. The action in the series takes place in Mayberry, NC. Mayberry is not a real place, but NC is a real state; however, if you look at that episode the airport scenes were obviously shot in southern California. The mountains in the background are too tall to be in NC.

The forested areas around "Mayberry" were totally incorrect for any state in the East. 

[PHLBOS]

One of the opening scenes of 42 from earlier this year captions a two lane road that Jackie Robinson's team's bus is driving down as "Intestate 69, Arkansas, April 1945".

That is so wrong on so many levels.

With the misspelling, too? Did they really forget the r in interstate in the movie?

I believe the typo was on Duke87's end.  I was about to comment on that route number fail as well but forgot what number was used.  Adding insult to injury the caption showed up just when the bus was pulling into a single-pump gas station.