TV shows set in cities that get city features horribly wrong

[NE2]

Indiana has mountains, sort of. http://www.in.gov/dnr/forestry/4819.htm

[PHLBOS]

Another aviation/airport fail from Cheers:

In the 5th season episode where Carla buys her new house (near the airport (Logan/BOS)) but is reluctant to move in under the premise that it was haunted (hence, the cheap purchase price); towards the end of the episode she & Cliff (who referred her to the house) spend the night there to quell any of Carla's fears are awakened by a loud roar and a blinding light.  Cliff realizes that on certain weather conditions, planes have to land on Runway 2-9er (phrase taken from the 1970 movie Airport aka Runway 29); a runway that supposedly is oriented in line w/Carla's house.  However, there is no Runway 29 at Logan; BOS' runways are:

4L-22R
4R-22L
9-27
14-32
15L-33R
15R-33L

Aerial map of BOS (Logan Airport)
http://goo.gl/maps/SiExn

One look at the above-map and one can easily tell that there are no homes located directly after any of the runways; Logan Aiport is bascially a penninsula.

[kkt]

Indiana has mountains, sort of. http://www.in.gov/dnr/forestry/4819.htm

Those are "hills", and not very big ones at that.

[PHLBOS]

Forgive me for bumping an old thread, but recently having re-watched the original Smokey and the Bandit movie, there is a reference to an Interstate 82 in Arkansas. 

It's the scene where another trucker (CB handle: Silver-Tongue Devil) warns the Bandit (Burt Reynolds) of a roadblock set-up by two Arkansas County Mounties along Interstate 82.  Looking at a road map; he obviously was referring to US 82. 

[Brandon]

Forgive me for bumping an old thread, but recently having re-watched the original Smokey and the Bandit movie, there is a reference to an Interstate 82 in Arkansas. 

It's the scene where another trucker (CB handle: Silver-Tongue Devil) warns the Bandit (Burt Reynolds) of a roadblock set-up by two Arkansas County Mounties along Interstate 82.  Looking at a road map; he obviously was referring to US 82. 

"Interstate" is an old term for the US highways, referring to their interstate status.  Even AASHO discussed them as interstate highways with the Joint Board on Interstate Highways (1925).

[PHLBOS]

Forgive me for bumping an old thread, but recently having re-watched the original Smokey and the Bandit movie, there is a reference to an Interstate 82 in Arkansas. 

It's the scene where another trucker (CB handle: Silver-Tongue Devil) warns the Bandit (Burt Reynolds) of a roadblock set-up by two Arkansas County Mounties along Interstate 82.  Looking at a road map; he obviously was referring to US 82. 

"Interstate" is an old term for the US highways, referring to their interstate status.  Even AASHO discussed them as interstate highways with the Joint Board on Interstate Highways (1925).

While true in principle; by 1976-1977 (when the movie was made & released respectively), the modern Interstate system was around long enough to convey a distinction/difference.

Another aviation-related gaffe: In the movie Catch Me If You Can; during the early part of the movie, the DiCaprio character (Frank Abagnale) makes reference to landing on a Runway 42 at LaGuardia Airport (LGA) while seated on a flight.  Not only is there not a Runway 42 at LGA; no airport has a runway bearing such a number because all airport runway numbers are assigned by compass headings (degrees divided by 10, 1-36).

[GaryV]

How about the GPS ad (Garmin?) that showed a moose on the verge of I-10?

[english si]

This season of 24 has been pretty crazy wrt the spacial geography of London. it starts with Jack in Shepherds Bush Market, getting picked up at the Thames somewhere like Chelsea or Millbank (can't remember what the buildings were. It's a bit far, especially given the time that has elapsed, but vaguely plausible and understandable scene setting). Then they say they picked up x miles SW of London, which would put it somewhere near Hampton Court (totally insane and neither fits the pictures, the time given, Bauer's lack of exhaustion, the fact he hadn't managed to get into a vehicle after 15 miles of running, that he'd have crossed the river twice already and run through miles of suburbia and parkland and avoided capture in these open environments) - totally unnecessary geography fail.

Then there's the idea that you could drive 10 miles across Inner London at non-3am times and take less than an hour!

Perhaps most blatantly awful is the idea that you can exit a station and board the tube at the next stop. Even with a car, that's rather difficult even if the stations were at ground level (you need some sort of junction to slow the train down to do that normally). More so when the next stop (Waterloo) is a massive station with deliberately long distances to the platforms to do some crowd control. It will easily take you, running, 4 minutes (the time the train takes) to get from the entrance of Waterloo station to the northern line platforms underneath (unless you have mastered a route through the maze and there are no people - in which case you could get it down to two) - and I've not factored in the drive or the exit from Kennington.

Oh, and while we're on Waterloo station - showing pictures of it 'busy' as there's an exodus on and it being quiet for Waterloo is rather funny (seriously - it's meant to be 8pm, but those stairs look only as busy as they are at the quieter time of 11pm)...

And that's before I get to residential streets just round the corner from Trafalgar Square, seeing Wembley Stadium so prominently from Dalston/Hackney, etc, etc.

But we can forgive a lot of that nonsense, as the shortened season means a condensed lot of action without the normal amount of over-silly twists, or time spend with characters doing nothing while we wait for people to get places - there's no cougars or amnesiac walks here!

[vtk]

Forgive me for bumping an old thread, but recently having re-watched the original Smokey and the Bandit movie, there is a reference to an Interstate 82 in Arkansas. 

It's the scene where another trucker (CB handle: Silver-Tongue Devil) warns the Bandit (Burt Reynolds) of a roadblock set-up by two Arkansas County Mounties along Interstate 82.  Looking at a road map; he obviously was referring to US 82. 

"Interstate" is an old term for the US highways, referring to their interstate status.  Even AASHO discussed them as interstate highways with the Joint Board on Interstate Highways (1925).

While true in principle; by 1976-1977 (when the movie was made & released respectively), the modern Interstate system was around long enough to convey a distinction/difference.

That doesn't stop people from calling US routes Interstates even in the 21st century.

[The Nature Boy]

I watched an episode of "Criminal Minds" a couple of years ago that began with the premise that someone had rammed into a building at the Port Huron, MI/Sarnia, ON border crossing. The scene was depicted as a forested land border.

The problem? The Blue Water Bridge is the only way from Port Huron to Sarnia.

[jeffandnicole]

This season of 24 has been pretty crazy wrt the spacial geography of London. it starts with Jack in Shepherds Bush Market, getting picked up at the Thames somewhere like Chelsea or Millbank (can't remember what the buildings were. It's a bit far, especially given the time that has elapsed, but vaguely plausible and understandable scene setting). Then they say they picked up x miles SW of London, which would put it somewhere near Hampton Court (totally insane and neither fits the pictures, the time given, Bauer's lack of exhaustion, the fact he hadn't managed to get into a vehicle after 15 miles of running, that he'd have crossed the river twice already and run through miles of suburbia and parkland and avoided capture in these open environments) - totally unnecessary geography fail.

Then there's the idea that you could drive 10 miles across Inner London at non-3am times and take less than an hour!

Perhaps most blatantly awful is the idea that you can exit a station and board the tube at the next stop. Even with a car, that's rather difficult even if the stations were at ground level (you need some sort of junction to slow the train down to do that normally). More so when the next stop (Waterloo) is a massive station with deliberately long distances to the platforms to do some crowd control. It will easily take you, running, 4 minutes (the time the train takes) to get from the entrance of Waterloo station to the northern line platforms underneath (unless you have mastered a route through the maze and there are no people - in which case you could get it down to two) - and I've not factored in the drive or the exit from Kennington.

Oh, and while we're on Waterloo station - showing pictures of it 'busy' as there's an exodus on and it being quiet for Waterloo is rather funny (seriously - it's meant to be 8pm, but those stairs look only as busy as they are at the quieter time of 11pm)...

And that's before I get to residential streets just round the corner from Trafalgar Square, seeing Wembley Stadium so prominently from Dalston/Hackney, etc, etc.

But we can forgive a lot of that nonsense, as the shortened season means a condensed lot of action without the normal amount of over-silly twists, or time spend with characters doing nothing while we wait for people to get places - there's no cougars or amnesiac walks here!

I'm still waiting for Jack to go to the bathroom!

[1995hoo]

Forgive me for bumping an old thread, but recently having re-watched the original Smokey and the Bandit movie, there is a reference to an Interstate 82 in Arkansas. 

It's the scene where another trucker (CB handle: Silver-Tongue Devil) warns the Bandit (Burt Reynolds) of a roadblock set-up by two Arkansas County Mounties along Interstate 82.  Looking at a road map; he obviously was referring to US 82. 

"Interstate" is an old term for the US highways, referring to their interstate status.  Even AASHO discussed them as interstate highways with the Joint Board on Interstate Highways (1925).

While true in principle; by 1976-1977 (when the movie was made & released respectively), the modern Interstate system was around long enough to convey a distinction/difference.

That doesn't stop people from calling US routes Interstates even in the 21st century.

There are also a fair number of people out there who insist that single-state 3dis are not "Interstate Highways" because they don't go into another state. The example that comes to mind is I-440 in Raleigh because someone at the office where I worked there insisted I-440 was "a loop, not an Interstate."

[jp the roadgeek]

Forgive me for bumping an old thread, but recently having re-watched the original Smokey and the Bandit movie, there is a reference to an Interstate 82 in Arkansas. 

It's the scene where another trucker (CB handle: Silver-Tongue Devil) warns the Bandit (Burt Reynolds) of a roadblock set-up by two Arkansas County Mounties along Interstate 82.  Looking at a road map; he obviously was referring to US 82. 

"Interstate" is an old term for the US highways, referring to their interstate status.  Even AASHO discussed them as interstate highways with the Joint Board on Interstate Highways (1925).

While true in principle; by 1976-1977 (when the movie was made & released respectively), the modern Interstate system was around long enough to convey a distinction/difference.

That doesn't stop people from calling US routes Interstates even in the 21st century.

There are also a fair number of people out there who insist that single-state 3dis are not "Interstate Highways" because they don't go into another state. The example that comes to mind is I-440 in Raleigh because someone at the office where I worked there insisted I-440 was "a loop, not an Interstate."

So what do they say about I-97?

[The Nature Boy]

I know people who insist that US-74 was "upgraded" to I-74. The average person is astoundingly uninformed about highways.

[roadman65]

Did the producers of Gunsmoke get their set of historic Dodge City, KS right?  I have been there and nothing the way their main street of Dodge on the show resembled the real Dodge City at all!  In fact Dodge is built on a hillside where the CBS show featured it on a flat ground.  They did at least get the fact right, though, that Dodge City is in Ford County in one of the episodes which I will credit them as many shows come up with fictional county names for well known cities like Dallas does with Braddock, TX in which the real Dallas, TX is not in (or even near) anything named Braddock.

[bing101]

Does anybody remember that CSI Miami was really filmed in Southern California. I remember this reference at some point.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2575988/locations?ref_=tt_ql_dt_6

Or this Silicon Valley TV show is partially done in Los Angeles. I guess this is to resemble the San Jose sprawl?

https://www.latlong.net/location/silicon-valley-locations-1196

[The Nature Boy]

Cheers was mentioned earlier in the thread so I'll mention something basic here:

As someone who has spent a decent amount of time in Boston, I would NEVER EVER EVER think of driving to the area where Cheers is located. Beacon Street along the Common is incredibly congested, overcrowded and parking is astronomically expensive. Despite these things, you would frequently hear characters talk about going to their car and driving. No one ever mentioned taking the T and rarely was a cab even mentioned. I assume that most (if not all) of the characters lived near or on a commuter rail, bus or a T stop.

Also, how in the hell did Cliff stop in Cheers mid postal route? Where did he park and how much money did he waste in doing so?

[roadman65]

Cheers was mentioned earlier in the thread so I'll mention something basic here:

As someone who has spent a decent amount of time in Boston, I would NEVER EVER EVER think of driving to the area where Cheers is located. Beacon Street along the Common is incredibly congested, overcrowded and parking is astronomically expensive. Despite these things, you would frequently hear characters talk about going to their car and driving. No one ever mentioned taking the T and rarely was a cab even mentioned. I assume that most (if not all) of the characters lived near or on a commuter rail, bus or a T stop.

Also, how in the hell did Cliff stop in Cheers mid postal route? Where did he park and how much money did he waste in doing so?

Cliff made the US Postal service to be a low paying job which is totally untrue in real life.  Just like on Three's Company where Jack made being a chef look like a bad career choice in general, when in fact Chef's make over 30 grand or more a year in real life.

Hollywood is not resourceful at all when it comes to getting local facts straight.

[The Nature Boy]

Cheers was mentioned earlier in the thread so I'll mention something basic here:

As someone who has spent a decent amount of time in Boston, I would NEVER EVER EVER think of driving to the area where Cheers is located. Beacon Street along the Common is incredibly congested, overcrowded and parking is astronomically expensive. Despite these things, you would frequently hear characters talk about going to their car and driving. No one ever mentioned taking the T and rarely was a cab even mentioned. I assume that most (if not all) of the characters lived near or on a commuter rail, bus or a T stop.

Also, how in the hell did Cliff stop in Cheers mid postal route? Where did he park and how much money did he waste in doing so?

Cliff made the US Postal service to be a low paying job which is totally untrue in real life.  Just like on Three's Company where Jack made being a chef look like a bad career choice in general, when in fact Chef's make over 30 grand or more a year in real life.

Hollywood is not resourceful at all when it comes to getting local facts straight.

Maybe Cliff spent most of his salary paying to park in Boston.

[roadman65]

Or to get his historic facts wrong by paying the wrong history buff.

[The Nature Boy]

Or to get his historic facts wrong by paying the wrong history buff.

Cliff's mom was shown to have the same propensity for getting facts wrong. I assumed that he was just passing along BS that he got from his mother.

[ixnay]

NYC (or the east coast) does not paint curbs red

Ocean City, MD does.

ixnay

[jeffandnicole]

Cheers was mentioned earlier in the thread so I'll mention something basic here:

As someone who has spent a decent amount of time in Boston, I would NEVER EVER EVER think of driving to the area where Cheers is located. Beacon Street along the Common is incredibly congested, overcrowded and parking is astronomically expensive. Despite these things, you would frequently hear characters talk about going to their car and driving. No one ever mentioned taking the T and rarely was a cab even mentioned. I assume that most (if not all) of the characters lived near or on a commuter rail, bus or a T stop.

Also, how in the hell did Cliff stop in Cheers mid postal route? Where did he park and how much money did he waste in doing so?

Cliff made the US Postal service to be a low paying job which is totally untrue in real life.  Just like on Three's Company where Jack made being a chef look like a bad career choice in general, when in fact Chef's make over 30 grand or more a year in real life.

Hollywood is not resourceful at all when it comes to getting local facts straight.

That's because Hollywood is Hollywood.  If they were interested in getting facts straight, movies would be quite boring. 

[The Nature Boy]

Cheers was mentioned earlier in the thread so I'll mention something basic here:

As someone who has spent a decent amount of time in Boston, I would NEVER EVER EVER think of driving to the area where Cheers is located. Beacon Street along the Common is incredibly congested, overcrowded and parking is astronomically expensive. Despite these things, you would frequently hear characters talk about going to their car and driving. No one ever mentioned taking the T and rarely was a cab even mentioned. I assume that most (if not all) of the characters lived near or on a commuter rail, bus or a T stop.

Also, how in the hell did Cliff stop in Cheers mid postal route? Where did he park and how much money did he waste in doing so?

Cliff made the US Postal service to be a low paying job which is totally untrue in real life.  Just like on Three's Company where Jack made being a chef look like a bad career choice in general, when in fact Chef's make over 30 grand or more a year in real life.

Hollywood is not resourceful at all when it comes to getting local facts straight.

That's because Hollywood is Hollywood.  If they were interested in getting facts straight, movies would be quite boring.

But they often get local facts wrong where getting them correct would have no impact on the story being told. For someone who knows the area, getting stuff wrong just results in them being unable to suspend disbelief and enjoy the movie/show.

[kkt]

Cheers was mentioned earlier in the thread so I'll mention something basic here:

As someone who has spent a decent amount of time in Boston, I would NEVER EVER EVER think of driving to the area where Cheers is located. Beacon Street along the Common is incredibly congested, overcrowded and parking is astronomically expensive. Despite these things, you would frequently hear characters talk about going to their car and driving. No one ever mentioned taking the T and rarely was a cab even mentioned. I assume that most (if not all) of the characters lived near or on a commuter rail, bus or a T stop.

Also, how in the hell did Cliff stop in Cheers mid postal route? Where did he park and how much money did he waste in doing so?

Maybe as a carrier he got to know a lot of people, including someone who paid for a reserved space but was never parked there during the day and told Cliff he'd be welcome to park there?

Cliff made the US Postal service to be a low paying job which is totally untrue in real life.  Just like on Three's Company where Jack made being a chef look like a bad career choice in general, when in fact Chef's make over 30 grand or more a year in real life.

30 grand is not that much if you live in an expensive city or expect to support a family.

Hollywood is not resourceful at all when it comes to getting local facts straight.

Mostly they're just not motivated.  People who know the area may laugh at them for getting it wrong, but it doesn't stop them from watching.