TV shows set in cities that get city features horribly wrong

[vdeane]

*sees the quibbles about Star Trek canon and laughs in Doctor Who*

Doctor Who is famously wibbly-wobbly timey-whimey.  Star Trek is theoretically more serious, but as I mentioned, my complaint is NOT with them moving the Eugenics Wars (and, as I said, it basically canonized a headcanon I already had), but with how they managed to botch up the timeline of their own attempt at doing so and making their stated objective even further away (I think it's safe to say that, with their being a bridge that doesn't exist in reality, that Star Trek is the history of some other universe and not "our history", yet they were trying to make it so that it could still be "our history"; it's comical how much they failed at that because they can't do math).  Seriously, they couldn't even keep the timeline of the episode straight within the episode, and if we take the mid-21st century line as the correct one, it boggles the mind that there's time for Khan to grow up, have the Eugenics Wars/World War III, and still have First Contact in 2063.

Writers not being able to do math is an issue all over the place.  There are similar issues with Harry Potter and the geography of Worm, and probably every other piece of media if one looks hard enough.  Like I said, the skills of actually writing a story and doing the analysis necessary to keep worldbuilding consistent are mutually exclusive.

[WillWeaverRVA]

*sees the quibbles about Star Trek canon and laughs in Doctor Who*

Doctor Who is famously wibbly-wobbly timey-whimey.  Star Trek is theoretically more serious, but as I mentioned, my complaint is NOT with them moving the Eugenics Wars (and, as I said, it basically canonized a headcanon I already had), but with how they managed to botch up the timeline of their own attempt at doing so and making their stated objective even further away (I think it's safe to say that, with their being a bridge that doesn't exist in reality, that Star Trek is the history of some other universe and not "our history", yet they were trying to make it so that it could still be "our history"; it's comical how much they failed at that because they can't do math).  Seriously, they couldn't even keep the timeline of the episode straight within the episode, and if we take the mid-21st century line as the correct one, it boggles the mind that there's time for Khan to grow up, have the Eugenics Wars/World War III, and still have First Contact in 2063.

Writers not being able to do math is an issue all over the place.  There are similar issues with Harry Potter and the geography of Worm, and probably every other piece of media if one looks hard enough.  Like I said, the skills of actually writing a story and doing the analysis necessary to keep worldbuilding consistent are mutually exclusive.

That Star Trek/Doctor Who comic crossover needs to become canon so you can wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey a lot of the inconsistencies in Star Trek away. It's canon in the Doctor Who universe, but not in the Star Trek universe.

[bing101]

https://filmmareisland.com/
If one is wondering where some of the "San Francisco and Oakland" scenes are filmed it is in Vallejo, CA.
Vancouver has been the other place where the San Francisco scenes are filmed.
This is like when Toronto is a stand in for Chicago and New York in movies.

https://filmmareisland.com/the-island/

https://www.visitvallejo.com/film-office/solano-county-feature-film-history

https://www.imdb.com/search/title/?locations=Mare%20Island,%20Vallejo,%20California,%20USA
https://www.visitvallejo.com/film-office/solano-county-locations/mare-island

[SP Cook]

Come to think of it, when DID Northern Virginia begin to take on the largely suburban character that defines it today? I would assume sometime in the 50's, shortly after World War II, like the suburbs in many other cities. However, it seems right that Northern Virginia might have gotten a jumpstart in that regard - at least pertaining to inner-ring suburbs like Arlington, Alexandria, and Fairfax, what with the Pentagon being built in 1941, along with the fact of workers at federal agencies needing somewhere to live, especially starting in the 1930's New Deal era and the war that began right afterwards - a period during which many new agencies were created. Anyway, some insight would be appreciated, if anyone can provide it.

An old, but good, book on the subject is "Washington Goes To War", by the late David Brinkley (he was the Brinkley in NBC's Huntley-Brinkley News and later moved to the Sunday talking head show on ABC) . 

[Rothman]

*sees the quibbles about Star Trek canon and laughs in Doctor Who*

Doctor Who is famously wibbly-wobbly timey-whimey.  Star Trek is theoretically more serious, but as I mentioned, my complaint is NOT with them moving the Eugenics Wars (and, as I said, it basically canonized a headcanon I already had), but with how they managed to botch up the timeline of their own attempt at doing so and making their stated objective even further away (I think it's safe to say that, with their being a bridge that doesn't exist in reality, that Star Trek is the history of some other universe and not "our history", yet they were trying to make it so that it could still be "our history"; it's comical how much they failed at that because they can't do math).  Seriously, they couldn't even keep the timeline of the episode straight within the episode, and if we take the mid-21st century line as the correct one, it boggles the mind that there's time for Khan to grow up, have the Eugenics Wars/World War III, and still have First Contact in 2063.

Writers not being able to do math is an issue all over the place.  There are similar issues with Harry Potter and the geography of Worm, and probably every other piece of media if one looks hard enough.  Like I said, the skills of actually writing a story and doing the analysis necessary to keep worldbuilding consistent are mutually exclusive.

That Star Trek/Doctor Who comic crossover needs to become canon so you can wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey a lot of the inconsistencies in Star Trek away. It's canon in the Doctor Who universe, but not in the Star Trek universe.

Pfft.  Oh, you're one of those Doctor Who fans that thinks the comics and Big Finish dramas are canon..

[thenetwork]

I know I mentioned before that I Dream of Jeannie showed Mountains in Florida and Cocoa Beach as a major city.

And many of the outdoor scenes around the "Cape Kennedy (Canavaral)" NASA facility were actually shot at Edwards AFB in California.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

I know I mentioned before that I Dream of Jeannie showed Mountains in Florida and Cocoa Beach as a major city.

And many of the outdoor scenes around the "Cape Kennedy (Canavaral)" NASA facility were actually shot at Edwards AFB in California.

Recently I was watching Murder, She Wrote with my mom and notied that while the show is set in Maine, there was a reflection of palm trees in the window of a boat they were investigating.`

[Bruce]

Almost everything ever set in Seattle: they failed to fully disguise the Vancouver street signs, or acknowledge local geography.

[bing101]

https://decider.com/2020/09/01/cobra-kai-filming-locations-atlanta/

The TV series Cobra Kai is filmed in Atlanta but the storyline is in Los Angeles. Its a case of a "Los Angeles" location filmed in Atlanta.


https://www.atlasofwonders.com/2020/08/cobra-kai-house-filming-location.html

[Henry]

Almost everything ever set in Seattle: they failed to fully disguise the Vancouver street signs, or acknowledge local geography.

Not quite so:

Remember the TV series Frasier? One view of his apartment is of the Space Needle (well, the middle part anyway), so it's presumably in a very tall building. However, when the show started, no such buildings outside the office towers were built to that height, and now they're all over the map.

[triplemultiplex]

Seriously, they couldn't even keep the timeline of the episode straight within the episode, and if we take the mid-21st century line as the correct one, it boggles the mind that there's time for Khan to grow up, have the Eugenics Wars/World War III, and still have First Contact in 2063.

They still got one year to screw up the canon around the Bell Riots.

[kkt]

Seriously, they couldn't even keep the timeline of the episode straight within the episode, and if we take the mid-21st century line as the correct one, it boggles the mind that there's time for Khan to grow up, have the Eugenics Wars/World War III, and still have First Contact in 2063.

They still got one year to screw up the canon around the Bell Riots.

The trekkers ought to hold a convention for the first week of September next year.  I wonder if anyone is planning it.

[Bruce]

Almost everything ever set in Seattle: they failed to fully disguise the Vancouver street signs, or acknowledge local geography.

Not quite so:

Remember the TV series Frasier? One view of his apartment is of the Space Needle (well, the middle part anyway), so it's presumably in a very tall building. However, when the show started, no such buildings outside the office towers were built to that height, and now they're all over the map.

Frasier might have contributed to a boom in condos facing the Space Needle, as the famous view from his unit is basically Kerry Park (which has mid-rise apartments around it). Doesn't mean it was horribly inaccurate about Seattle, especially the weather (depicting downpours that we don't get except in a blue moon).

[Henry]

Almost everything ever set in Seattle: they failed to fully disguise the Vancouver street signs, or acknowledge local geography.

Not quite so:

Remember the TV series Frasier? One view of his apartment is of the Space Needle (well, the middle part anyway), so it's presumably in a very tall building. However, when the show started, no such buildings outside the office towers were built to that height, and now they're all over the map.

Frasier might have contributed to a boom in condos facing the Space Needle, as the famous view from his unit is basically Kerry Park (which has mid-rise apartments around it). Doesn't mean it was horribly inaccurate about Seattle, especially the weather (depicting downpours that we don't get except in a blue moon).

You're right.

[triplemultiplex]

I guess misty, Pacific Northwest rain doesn't translate well to the camera.

[Rothman]

I guess misty, Pacific Northwest rain doesn't translate well to the camera.

Ugh.  There's no rain like movie set rain.  They have to drench the actors to get it to show up on camera.

[kkt]

I guess misty, Pacific Northwest rain doesn't translate well to the camera.

I was put off by how much of the time on Frasier it's a bright sunny day outside.  Sure, we get those days sometimes, but cloudy and/or drizzly is much more common.  And in winter it ought to be dark from about 4 PM to 9 AM, so forget it being sunny when they're driving to or from work.

[Henry]

I guess misty, Pacific Northwest rain doesn't translate well to the camera.

I was put off by how much of the time on Frasier it's a bright sunny day outside.  Sure, we get those days sometimes, but cloudy and/or drizzly is much more common.  And in winter it ought to be dark from about 4 PM to 9 AM, so forget it being sunny when they're driving to or from work.

Blame it on Paramount (the original series' distributor), because most scenes from the show were shot on their soundstage. Then again, everything shot in Los Angeles that does not use Miami or any other warm-weather city as its setting tends to suffer from this inaccuracy problem.

For settings that suggest colder climates (such as Chicago), they'd need lots of ice, some sort of white powder acting as snow, and a full-blast air conditioner to pull off the winter scenes. Can you imagine something like this being attempted in late July or early August?

[bing101]

Perfect Strangers TV opening there is a freeway scene at :20 of the clip the show's premise is in Chicago but I know it was filmed in California. I just cannot ID which LA area freeway that was. My Guess would be CA-2 Glendale Freeway or CA-90 Marina Freeway given low traffic counts on average. I knew the show was filmed at the WB Lot in Burbank and the Chicago Scenes were either stock footage or they had the cast on tour at the time the show was made.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090501/locations/

[Big John]

^^ In the first season, when they switched scene they showed a building and a street pole with a traffic light.  It was a California spec with backplate.  Backplates aren't used in Chicago.  This was corrected in later seasons.

[index]

Surprised nobody has mentioned the way the show Outer Banks completely butchers NC's geography. The ferry from Chapel Hill, massive stony cliffs in the Outer Banks, and an abundance of huge, tropical palm trees to name a few.

[JKRhodes]

Movie, not TV show, but...

Bad Santa got Phoenix Police's uniforms and car striping wrong. Not remotely close.

[bing101]

Movie, not TV show, but...

Bad Santa got Phoenix Police's uniforms and car striping wrong. Not remotely close.

https://www.iamnotastalker.com/tag/bad-santa-filming-locations/
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0307987/locations/

Bad Santa was filmed in the LA area.
https://www.itsfilmedthere.com/2010/05/bad-santa.html

[abefroman329]

For settings that suggest colder climates (such as Chicago), they'd need lots of ice, some sort of white powder acting as snow, and a full-blast air conditioner to pull off the winter scenes. Can you imagine something like this being attempted in late July or early August?

I once worked as an extra on Chicago Med.  This particular scene was set in the winter, but filmed in August, and I got to see them make fake snow in preparation for it.

It's pretty much a matter of that and pretending you're not dressed entirely too warmly for August.

[triplemultiplex]

Fake snow is a distraction for those of us who live where it snows regularly. You become distinctly aware you are watching a show/movie.

What they get wrong is their fake snow has too much granularity.  Real snow doesn't have texture once it's on the ground. It's a smooth surface (most of the time).  To me, fake snow looks like someone emptied out the paper shredder or pulled the stuffing out of some furniture.
While I'm at it, when it's cold, you can see your breath.  But they almost never bother to do that when they're filming in fake cold.  That's another thing that pulls me out of a scene.  I'm always like, "Well it can't be that cold; you can't even see their breathe!"