Highways / Signs in Movies, TV Shows, and Videos

[Pete from Boston]

Has anyone mentioned the opening theme to The Rockford Files?  Lots of LA area freeway scenes from the early 1970s. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yg1Cx26-928

I never pay attention to anything but that sweet, sweet Pontiac and my favorite TV music there is.  I'll have to take it in a little more in depth.

[freebrickproductions]

The movie, "Hail, Caesar!", has an old US 101 shield paired with an old CA 1 shield in one scene.

[roadman]

Has anyone mentioned the opening theme to The Rockford Files?  Lots of LA area freeway scenes from the early 1970s. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yg1Cx26-928

I never pay attention to anything but that sweet, sweet Pontiac and my favorite TV music there is.  I'll have to take it in a little more in depth.

The opening theme in the link is from the later years of the show.  However, neither that nor the original opening have what I'd call "lots" of freeway scenes.  In fact, one of the driving scene in the link is on the PCH.

[StogieGuy7]

Has anyone mentioned the opening theme to The Rockford Files?  Lots of LA area freeway scenes from the early 1970s. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yg1Cx26-928

I never pay attention to anything but that sweet, sweet Pontiac and my favorite TV music there is.  I'll have to take it in a little more in depth.

The opening theme in the link is from the later years of the show.  However, neither that nor the original opening have what I'd call "lots" of freeway scenes.  In fact, one of the driving scene in the link is on the PCH.

It shows several freeway BGS', so I am not sure how you have a nit to pick with my comment. There are several (at least 4 or 5) quick flashes showing vintage signage.  I took a screen shot of one, but can't seem to post it because I can't seem to post an image. 

[Ingsoc75]

Another one from Doctor Who, although this one is a little less authentic. It's supposedly in "Nevada U.S.A."

It's a NY state speed limit sign weird combo thingy.

[Rothman]

Another one from Doctor Who, although this one is a little less authentic. It's supposedly in "Nevada U.S.A."

It's a NY state speed limit sign weird combo thingy.

And a Buckaroo Banzai reference.

[noelbotevera]

At the fadeout after 2:12:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAAL4pOos_w

There's several button copy stop signs in the old style. There's more on the wall if you keep watching until 2:27.

[wphiii]

This is something that has bugged me for a long time:

In the opening credits of Groundhog Day, there's a few seconds of the van driving along a road on top of a ridgeline with houses on both sides an expansive view in the background. Does anyone have any idea where this is??? (Starting ~0:23 into the embedded YouTube clip)

https://youtu.be/jFswLuB06KU?t=23s

The list of filming locations on the movie's IMDB page are all in Illinois and don't appear to include the long shots of the van driving, because Pittsburgh itself isn't mentioned, either.

[mrsman]

from the super bowl

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYeM-8hO3hM

Amstutz Expressway at 0:46

I don't get why the bus is labeled "Newclarke Transit" at 0:32 when it is very clear that the opening shots take place in Chicago's loop.

[Kniwt]

From the first episode of Hulu's new series "11.22.63," based on the Stephen King novel. This scene is supposedly set in 1960 ... hmmm.

[Pete from Boston]

Just saw Close Encounters for the first time in a while.  Couple of nice fake button copy signs for  the mythical "Harper Valley," as well as the infamous "Ohio State Line" toll booth its neon "STOP."

[english si]

Reign of Fire has this to-spec, albeit highly charred and defaced, sign of the A5

Though it's apparently considered a goof, it works in terms of direction of travel between Northumberland and London in a post-dragon rampage England - the A5 ~66 miles away runs parallel to the M1 that, had you taken the 'London' sign at Hook Moor, rather than continued with 'The South' you'd be on - a blockage could divert you to the A5 in Northants. Such a sign (which would be at the turn off for Nether Heyford (where my great-aunt and -uncle used to live) near M1 J16 if it did), however, doesn't exist.

[english si]

Looking back at the thread to see whether I had already posted that last one, I found this,

The new Harry Potter film has the Dartford Tunnel featuring in it for a bit.

Which reminded me of last April's meticulous double checking to be certain for this post answering some scouse scunner (with classic Liverpudlian chip on shoulder) HP fanboy wouldn't believe me that it wasn't all filmed in a tunnel that is 4 lanes single-bore despite clearly being twin bore of 2 lanes each. They still wouldn't believe me after I corrected them about tunnel widths. They did 1 nights of shooting in Liverpool, that was not used at all (instead using Bovvy Market Bovingdon Aerodrome to recreate the road crash).

But it reminded me that I hadn't mentioned that, in the same film, they also camp under the Second Severn Crossing for no reason other than as part of the Visit Britain sequence. Despite the M4 there being totally and utterly uniconic as a bridge (the better bridge is the original), rather than the boundary.


As a boundary it features quite a lot in James Corden TV series Gavin & Stacey about a 'international' romance between someone in Essex and someone in Wales. Most memorably when they only had £5, rather than the (then) £5.10 toll and so break into the country.

They also discuss pretty much every service area on the M4 in England, and there's some good aerial shots of the M4 in Wales and the Second Severn Crossing, as well as using road signs as place informants quite a bit. The finale, sadly, kills all the roadgeek credit built up by having a hideous sign with two different directions (that the BBC used in the heavy promotion of it) that is wrong on so many levels.

[StogieGuy7]

This is something that has bugged me for a long time:

In the opening credits of Groundhog Day, there's a few seconds of the van driving along a road on top of a ridgeline with houses on both sides an expansive view in the background. Does anyone have any idea where this is??? (Starting ~0:23 into the embedded YouTube clip)

https://youtu.be/jFswLuB06KU?t=23s

The list of filming locations on the movie's IMDB page are all in Illinois and don't appear to include the long shots of the van driving, because Pittsburgh itself isn't mentioned, either.

The scenes in the opening credits certainly do look like they were filmed in the Pittsburgh area.  The town along the ridgeline looks very much like one of the communities that ring Pittsburgh (some are in valleys, but others are along the ridges between).  Nothing in those first scenes looks to have been filmed in Illinois, which is as flat as a pool table. Now, once the film gets to "Punxsutawney", you're actually looking at Woodstock, Illinois.  And, the scenes where the truck is stuck on the freeway in the snowstorm were filmed on the Amstutz Expressway in Waukegan, Illinois.   

[SignGeek101]

From the Simpsons. I don't know if animated shows count, but here goes:



Not bad, but not 100% correct. MB 9 doesn't intersect the Trans-Canada, and it uses the wrong shield. Reassurance shield isn't badly done though:

[keithvh]

I saw the movie "10 Cloverfield Lane" earlier today.  I won't give exact details (because it would be a partial spoiler), but there is a old-school U.S. Highway Cut-out sign that is shown.  The details are correct: while I do not think the movie was actually shot there in real life, there is a currently existing US highway that actually exists in the geographic part of America where the movie supposedly occurs.  That was pretty cool!

[kurumi]

Jay-Z reps I-95 in a 2015 show for Tidal*; photo in this NYT article: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/03/16/business/media/so-much-music-streaming-just-not-one-place.html

Pleeze Pleeze Pleezus sign up for Tidal; Kanye's running out of money :-)

[Kniwt]

Looks like an historical error in yesterday's episode of 11.22.63: The modern Do Not Enter sign wasn't introduced until the 1971 MUTCD.

[Mr. Matté]

Looks like an historical error in yesterday's episode of 11.22.63: The modern Do Not Enter sign wasn't introduced until the 1971 MUTCD.

How do you know that sign was created for that one-time use by the man on the grassy knoll to distract sleuthy roadgeeks from finding the real killer?

#ReopenTheWarrenCommission

[Thunderbyrd316]

Looks like an historical error in yesterday's episode of 11.22.63: The modern Do Not Enter sign wasn't introduced until the 1971 MUTCD.

And the traffic signal, particularly the ped. signal is of a style from far in the future as well.

[formulanone]

Map of New York featured in "I Left My Wallet in El Segundo" by A Tribe Called Quest:

(3:09-3:12 of video)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WILyWmT2A-Q

[Pete from Boston]

I just saw North by Northwest for the first time in years, and noticed that early on in the Lake Shore Limited ride, in the dining car, the newly-built Tappan Zee Bridge gradually nears out the window.

[D-Dey65]

Looks like an historical error in yesterday's episode of 11.22.63: The modern Do Not Enter sign wasn't introduced until the 1971 MUTCD.

I've seen plenty of them before 1971. Speaking of which, there's a big one in a scene from the 2001 made for TV movie "When Billie Beat Bobby."

That was the scene where Billie Jean King (Holly Hunter) and Rosie Casals (Elizabeth Berridge) are rushing to try catch the Bobby Riggs-Margaret Court match, and stop at the airport in Honolulu to try to get it on a pay TV. They end up getting something else, and one of what the get is a movie or TV show with that big overhead Do Not Enter sign right next to a Wrong Way sign. Anyone know what show or movie that was from?

[Pete from Boston]

Looks like an historical error in yesterday's episode of 11.22.63: The modern Do Not Enter sign wasn't introduced until the 1971 MUTCD.

I've seen plenty of them before 1971. Speaking of which, there's a big one in a scene from the 2001 made for TV movie "When Billie Beat Bobby."

That was the scene where Billie Jean King (Holly Hunter) and Rosie Casals (Elizabeth Berridge) are rushing to try catch the Bobby Riggs-Margaret Court match, and stop at the airport in Honolulu to try to get it on a pay TV. They end up getting something else, and one of what the get is a movie or TV show with that big overhead Do Not Enter sign right next to a Wrong Way sign. Anyone know what show or movie that was from?

[Tangent] I just realized in seeing this that any remaining coin-op TVs were rendered officially junk by the digital changeover.  The last ones I saw were in the Springfield, Mass. bus depot in the 1990s.  They had that almost elegant

T
  V

logo on them that implied this was a hint of class and luxury, an illusion gone from bus travel long before then.

[Rothman]

Makes me think of Adventures in Babysitting.  Weren't those the same coin-op TVs in the scene where Penelope Ann Miller's stuck in the bus station?