TV shows that put your city on the map

[Razor]

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

Preceding that, Ironside starring Raymond Burr. late 60s - early 70s

Pushing my memory on that one!..Both Ironside and Maude are as far back as I can remember as a kid..Oh ya..S.O.A.P, and even that game show "Truth or Consequences" (vaguely).

Not a tv series, but having visited Philadelphia one extra long weekend, I kind of felt that the Movie Silver Linings Playbook captured the essence of that city..Does Anyone from Philly concur?..Maybe the brownstones/row houses shown in that movie?

[pico44]

Originally Posted by Crawford

And Maude was probably a decent 70's-era depiction of upper middle class liberal & Rockefeller Republican Westchester County.

It took place in Tuckahoe, an archetypal NY-area railroad suburb.

I can’t believe theres a TV show I’ve never heard of. Especially because it sounds like it’s about my life. New York has a lot of shows. Some good, some bad. Most bad. Some are brilliant masterpieces. I’ll stick to those

Sopranos
Seinfeld (kills me that it was filmed in LA—it actually could have been better if it had a real New York feel)
Succession
High Maintenance
Sesame Street
Saturday Night Live (not every season obvi)
Late Night with David Letterman (especially the old NBC days)
Lat Night with Conan O’Brien
The Cosby Show
Law and Order (I stopped watching in the 90s so I’m not sure how it held up, but it was pretty great back then)
Louie

And in the “not quite ‘brilliant masterpiece’ but still ‘great‘ category”
Broad City
Bored to Death
Barney Miller
Dr Katz Professional Therapist
Futurama
Sex in the City
The Daily Show and The Colbert Report
Mad Men
Master of None
How To with John Wilson

[Steely Dan]

Nothing formed my impressions of Brooklyn more as a child than "Welcome Back Kotter". What an awesome show!

I can still remember the "Welcome to Brooklyn, America's 4th largest city" sign from the opening credits.

It wasn't til I was older that I came to realize that Brooklyn wasn't actually its own independent city.

And given Brooklyn's incredible growth over the previous decade, it won't be very long at all until it passes Chicago to become "America's 3rd largest city"!

[ue]

TV Shows don't really put Canadian cities on maps, except maybe Toronto. Same with film (except there I'd also include Montreal). Reasonably sized and important Canadian cities like Ottawa and Edmonton essentially have zero films or TV shows set there. It's especially odd for Ottawa, seeing as it's pretty distinctive and the national capital. Sure, you could go on about name recognition among Americans, but one sure way to change that is to just make something about Ottawa, and it still doesn't prevent Canadian film/TV from making stuff in Ottawa. Outside of Toronto/Montreal, the only important and/or popular films to prominently features Canadian cities that come to mind are:

Vancouver - Are We Done Yet?
Calgary - Cool Runnings
Winnipeg - My Winnipeg
Quebec City - I Confess

For TV it's not much different. Halifax has Trailer Park Boys, Vancouver has Continuum and Beachcombers (technically just outside Vancouver in the Sunshine Coast), and that's about it.

[suburbanite]

No real reason for an American show to feature a second tier Canadian city. Basically have to have a Canadian show that somehow takes off South of the border. Trailer Park Boys is probably the best example, although part of its widespread appeal is that apart from some of the accents, hockey and pop culture references, it could just as well be a trailer park in nowhere Alabama instead of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.

What's surprised me the most is seeing the fairly large niche American audience for Letterkenny, given that it is as distinctively Canadian as you can get.

[ue]

Yeah but again you can just have stuff made in Canada for Canadians set in a place like Ottawa or Edmonton. Kim's Convenience is very Toronto and wasn't made with Americans in mind, even if it somewhat took off down there. If popular films can be set in smaller places like Edinburgh or Bruges then why not these Canadian cities?

Also Hollywood considers Canada as part of its "domestic market" but doesn't really treat it as such except for movie releases and tax credits for filming the next Chicago drama.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by ue

TV Shows don't really put Canadian cities on maps, except maybe Toronto. Same with film (except there I'd also include Montreal). .

Not in English anyway.

Montreal is featured in a ton of French-language TV programs and series each year.

It's probably featured in more productions annually than Toronto even.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by ue

Reasonably sized and important Canadian cities like Ottawa and Edmonton essentially have zero films or TV shows set there. It's especially odd for Ottawa, seeing as it's pretty distinctive and the national capital.

Yes, given that it's the political capital one would think there would at least be some series set in Ottawa.

But Canadian politics don't seem to interest producers or viewers that much.

I do remember this one (short-lived, only 6 episodes) and there may have been a few others:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snakes...ers_(TV_series)

Quebec series in French sometimes have an Ottawa angle if federal politics is part of the plot (and then the city is featured) but they are almost all primarily set in Montreal or somewhere in Quebec.

[ue]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Not in English anyway.

Montreal is featured in a ton of French-language TV programs and series each year.

It's probably featured in more productions annually than Toronto even.

Yeah, when it comes to Quebec media, I'm somewhat more familiar with film than television, so I didn't want to speak to TV. But, it doesn't surprise me that Montreal features highly in French-speaking television. Quebec has a much more robust media sector than English Canada does - where the only city you could make an argument for having a decent handful of shows set in it is Toronto (but it still pales in comparison to similarly sized US cities, like San Francisco, Atlanta, Philadelphia...)

Originally Posted by Acajack

Yes, given that it's the political capital one would think there would at least be some series set in Ottawa.

But Canadian politics don't seem to interest producers of viewers that much.

I do remember this one (short-lived, only 6 episodes) and there may have been a few others:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snakes...ers_(TV_series)

Quebec series in French sometimes have an Ottawa angle if federal politics is part of the plot (and then the city is featured) but they are almost all primarily set in Montreal or somewhere in Quebec.

Considering there are many popular Canadian political podcasts (though not always focused on Ottawa politics per se) there clearly is an interest in consuming media that is about Canadian places. You'd think this would trickle into other sectors of media. I would say the situation has gotten a lot better for Toronto over the past decade, though. Even Pixar is setting its new film in the city, and it's very obvious about it! Couldn't imagine that 20 years ago.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by ue

Considering there are many popular Canadian political podcasts (though not always focused on Ottawa politics per se) there clearly is an interest in consuming media that is about Canadian places. You'd think this would trickle into other sectors of media. .

As you know there is actually a ton of stuff produced and set in Ottawa, but it is all news, public affairs and a bit of documentary.

Nothing fictional.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by ue

Yeah, when it comes to Quebec media, I'm somewhat more familiar with film than television, so I didn't want to speak to TV. But, it doesn't surprise me that Montreal features highly in French-speaking television. .

On any given weeknight I'd estimate that between the three mainstream Quebec TV networks, in prime time (7pm-10pm) there are probably about a half-dozen fictional shows and series set in Montreal that are aired.

[Urbannizer]

Austin

Real World Austin
911: Lone Star
Fear of The Walking Dead (Season 4)
Queer Eye (Season 6)
Twenty Something’s Austin

I’m sure there’s more

[Klippenstein]

Originally Posted by ue

Winnipeg - My Winnipeg

I love My Winnepeg. Perfect film to watch in the depths of winter.

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by ue

Considering there are many popular Canadian political podcasts (though not always focused on Ottawa politics per se) there clearly is an interest in consuming media that is about Canadian places. You'd think this would trickle into other sectors of media. I would say the situation has gotten a lot better for Toronto over the past decade, though. Even Pixar is setting its new film in the city, and it's very obvious about it! Couldn't imagine that 20 years ago.

A shame that it's (Turning Red) been relegated from a theatrical release to strictly a Disney+ release. I'm assuming here in Toronto we'll still get some theatre showings of it, but still disappointing.

Originally Posted by suburbanite

A niche show from back in the day (although each episode has a couple million views on Youtube so maybe it was more popular than I thought), but it probably actually showcased the City of Toronto the most, Kenny vs. Spenny.

Hated that show as a kid.

[Razor]

How about cities that never had any, but would make good candidates for a tv series?

Buffalo - (Police drama?)
Montreal ( comedy revolving a family run strip joint or restaurant?)
Pittsburgh?
etc.

[Pedestrian]

Redding, CA: Sons of Anarchy

They never really make the location of the show that clear but it seems to be in the Central Valley north of the Bay Area and NOT the state capital (Sacramento) so that pretty much leaves Redding.

[Pedestrian]

Originally Posted by pico44

I can’t believe theres a TV show (Maude) I’ve never heard of. Especially because it sounds like it’s about my life.

Maude was a 1970s classic about an upper middle class limousine liberal who felt the pain of every downtrodden group identified in the previous decade (the 1960s). She was kind of the polar opposite of Archie Bunker of Queens (and they were related in reality--same producer, Norman Lear--as well as in fiction (Maude was supposedly Edith Bunker's cousin)). It made Bea Arthur's career.

[benp]

Originally Posted by Razor

How about cities that never had any, but would make good candidates for a tv series?

Buffalo - (Police drama?)
Montreal ( comedy revolving a family run strip joint or restaurant?)
Pittsburgh?
etc.

Buffalo did have "Buffalo Bill" NBC TV series for 2 seasons, with Dabney Coleman as an egotistical talk show host on a Buffalo TV station.

Also, unfortunately, "Fraternity Life" on MTV featured UB, and multiple episodes of COPS showed the city at its seediest. I wonder if the MTV show had a role in UB becoming more of a "party school" than it had been in prior years.

Not called out as Buffalo, but in Hill Street Blues all of the street names and many neighborhood names used were locations in Buffalo (thanks to a show writer from Buffalo).

[ue]

Originally Posted by Razor

How about cities that never had any, but would make good candidates for a tv series?

Buffalo - (Police drama?)
Montreal ( comedy revolving a family run strip joint or restaurant?)
Pittsburgh?
etc.

Montreal
- drama series about arty undergrads from Anglo Canada who move to Montreal for McGill (kind of like Girls?)
- gritty noir-esque show
- a mini-series about the build up to Expo 67
- an acerbic comedy centred around a depanneur family business in the east end of the city
- a period piece about the Black community in the Old Southwest

Quebec City
- mockumentary style comedy about the ridiculous things service workers put up with in Old Quebec due to the tourists
- a drama that critically engages with the racist conservative Francophone element to the city

Saint John
- something that focuses on the working class community in Uptown and/or other old neighbourhoods in the city

Halifax
- see the arty undergrad pitch for Montreal but switch McGill for Dal or NSCAD
- retired fishing couple from an old rural coastal town move to Halifax and deal with the shock of that
- period piece about Black Loyalists

Ottawa
- a political comedy or drama
- high school sitcom set in Aylmer or Barrhaven, or a highly stylized Euphoria-esque drama about the kids of political elites in Ottawa
- A Nortel mini-series
- crime drama around the workings of CSIS
- deadpan comedy around the daily mishaps of a unionized government worker

(I'm ignoring Toronto)

Kingston
- dramedy of exiled Torontonians who couldn't get into UofT and are stuck at Queen's, getting into all kinds of debauchery

Hamilton
- working class family drama where the patriarch is a steel worker
- something with scientists at McMaster

Niagara Falls
- see the Old Quebec tourist pitch

Windsor
- something focusing on the medical workers who commute into Detroit
- A thriller or horror within the backdrop of an auto factory

Winnipeg
- A Louis Riel biopic series
- Period piece on the General Strike of 1919
- Moody horror/thriller where the ghosts of Indigenous peoples who'd been wronged by the city haunt it
- A comedy about competing suburban families in a bonspiel
- A show like 'Fargo' could easily have a season set in Winnipeg

Calgary
- Cop drama (the cowboy hats would be iconic)
- Mockumentary style comedy poking fun at the corporate oil sector
- Drama about a team of Olympians training at Canada Olympic Park
- High school drama set in Seton or Tuscany
- Something about the outdoorsy types who always end up in Banff or K-Country on the weekend

Edmonton
- Sitcom or mockumentary around the workers and shoppers at West Edmonton Mall
- Some comedy about hardcore NDP fans always running up against the ore conservative suburban and rural areas in the vicinity
- Vigilante show about organizers who work against racist cops who do things like throw homeless outside of LRT stations in -35 (could be lightly comedic, horror, thriller, suspense, or a combination)
- show about a young couple who moves into a 1950s bungalow neighbourhood with the purchase of a towering new skinny house who begin at odds with their neighbours but slowly come to be embraced by them

Kelowna
- I feel like a ridiculous show centring on rich housewives who spend too much time in the wineries would be fun

Vancouver
- Period mini-series about the building of the Lionsgate Bridge by the Guinness family to give purchasers in the British Properties access to their property
- Horror about getting lost in the Pacific Spirit Park in mid-November (it is drizzly)
- Something (comedy? drama?) about the children of Chinese immigrants who don't speak English in Richmond
- Period piece about the origins of Vancouver's Chinatown
- Comedy series with Bollywood elements centred in Surrey/East Delta's South Asian community
- Show about witty low-income Vancouverites who break into empty condos to sleep at night

Tofino
- Something with surfers

[MidTenn1]

NASHVILLE ~ MUSIC CITY

1968- 2021 CMA Awards (Country Music Association Awards Show, ABC, NBC CBS Primetime)
1969 to 1971 – Johnny Cash Show (ABC Network Primetime Entertainment at Ryman Auditorium)
1969 – 1992 Hee Haw (CBS, Prime Time Comedy and Music)
1970’s - Dean Martin’s Summer Variety Show
1974- 2016 Pop Goes the Country (Syndicated talk show on many stations around the nation)
1997 - NASHVILLE99 (Network Detective Drama)
1983 – 2000 Nashville Network (Cable Talk Show)
1983 – 2022 CMT (Viacom/CBS owned cable country music network)
2012 - 2022 Trisha’s Southern Kitchen (Food Network)
2012 – 2018 NASHVILLE (ABC Prime Time TV Drama Series)
2014 – Thicker Than Water (featuring me) (BRAVO Cable Reality Show)
2014 – Junior Doctors (BBC Network, Reality show follows Doctors making their hospital rounds
2015 – 2016 Masters of Flip (HGTV House flipping show)
2016 – 2017 Nashville Flipped (HGTV house flipping show)
2016 - 2022 – Chrisley Knows Best (Cable TV, moved to Nashville, spoof of reality shows)
2017 – 2019 Pickler & Ben (Syndicated talk show on many stations around the nation)
2018 – 2019 Flip or Flop Nashville (HGTV house flipping show)
2018 – 2020 Very Cavallari (Bravo Network, Reality Show)
2019 NFL Draft from Nashville (Live for three days ABC, ESPN, NFL National)
2020,2021 - ACM Awards (Academy of Country Music CBS Primetime)
2021 Extreme Curb Appeal (HGTV, 1 Full season in Nashville)
2021 Nashville’s Big Bash New Year’s Eve Show (CBS)
And so many syndicated shows broadcast of local channels

I'm sure there's more