Does anyone else like trying to figure out what locations were used in TV shows or movies?
This is a little hobby of mine sometimes, comparing the scenes to Google Maps and such. Sometimes there is info online about them, sometimes not.
Sometimes I keep an eye out for street or interstate signs and can find them that way.
I also for some reason find it interesting when the characters are driving vehicles. I try to envision what it was like to film the scene and what the actor
or actress thought about it.
In older films you see "fake" driving scenes where the images are just projected. Whereas I guess most more modern shows and movies
have the vehicle moving, either via flat trailer, or actually driving the vehicle on the road.
There was some discussion here about the mediocre 1976 made-for-TV movie "Smash-Up on Interstate 5". The crash scenes obviously were filmed on a not-yet-opened segment of some other freeway in the Los Angeles area, either I-210 (which is mentioned in the Wikipedia article about the flick (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smash-Up_on_Interstate_5)) or perhaps I-15.
The movie "The Blind Side" was set in Memphis but was filmed in Atlanta -- you could tell from the font used on the street signs.
Vancouver frequently stands in for American cities in location shooting; Montreal less frequently but one film had the "PFK" sneak through in a scene filmed at a Quebec KFC.
One just up US 50 from me: the opening credits scene in "Bonanza" was shot in this meadow between US 50 and Lake Tahoe:https://goo.gl/maps/f4BXVQx2WA69Pj9s9 (https://goo.gl/maps/f4BXVQx2WA69Pj9s9)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCU0lkWX7S4
The shot of David Canary at the very end of that is at the main shooting location up in Incline Village. Parts of the sets there were maintained as a small theme park until the early 2000s. That location was here (thus the "Bonanza Parking Lot" sign): https://goo.gl/maps/AtorytFsKSEsYtFa6 (https://goo.gl/maps/AtorytFsKSEsYtFa6)
For Blues Brothers, the scene where the car flies off the incomplete freeway bridge was filmed in Milwaukee.
From living in the New Orleans area it's always interesting to watch NCIS:New Orleans and figure out where the episodes were filmed. It's pretty easy to tell from the street signs -- blue with upper- and lower-case lettering is in the city of New Orleans, while green with all upper-case letters is in Jefferson Parish (Metairie, Jefferson, Harahan, Gretna, etc.). And one episode featured a local grocery store on the Northshore (Acquistapace's Covington Supermarket) as part of the subject of the show.
There was an episode of The West Wing that was set in Indiana, but I noticed some highway signage that definitely wasn't from Indiana. I eventually figured out that it was in Pennsylvania.
In the 2012 remake of Red Dawn, you can see where the North Korean tanks on a Freeway in Washington State. the Freeway scene was filmed on the flyover from NB I-75 to NB i-75 (Fisher to Chrysler freeway) in Detroit.
edit: freeway scene from the trailer. https://youtu.be/nGoe7BdGdlg You can see the northern end of I-375 and the left exit from Southbound I-375. the exit ramp goinf off to the left of the clip is from Northbound I-375 to Southbound I-75 and M-3.
There are videos/websites that show the present-day filming locations of The Blues Brothers and Smokey and the Bandit in excruciating detail, to name but two.
I believe the aforementioned car chase scene filmed in Milwaukee was the only exterior scene not filmed somewhere in Illinois.
On the other hand, all of Smokey and the Bandit was filmed in Georgia, despite taking place at various locations between Atlanta and Texarkana.