fictional towns

[crainbebo]

Llanview on One Life to Live. And of course, my favorite, "Cicely, Alaska" on Northern Exposure which was actually...Roslyn, WA. 90 min. drive from Yakima and still home to the Roslyn Cafe camel mural, The Brick, and gift shops.

 

[marklungo]

Stafford, Indiana was where Dr. Richard Kimble and his ill-fated wife lived in The Fugitive .

 

[Mark Roberts]

Of course, CA, AZ, NM and TX are filled with street and development names that are not even in correct gender agreement like Calle De La Sol.

But Los Lunas, NM is correct! It was named after family whose surname was Luna (one of whose members became a powerful politician in Territorial New Mexico and who was one of the writers of the state's present constitution). In modern Spanish, it would be "Los Luna" but New Mexico preserves a lot of older usages.

 

[Mark Roberts]

And then there's Indian English. I can chance upon a random website, and if it's from India, it jumps out at me. It's hard to describe. But the phrase "do the needful" is incredibly efficient and conveys a lot of meaning in just those three words.

I once needed to write a set of cybersecurity policies governing my employer's offshore operations. There were a lot of discussions about using "must" versus "should". In India, "should" is apparently a more forceful modal auxiliary compared to American or other versions of English, and "must" comes off as rather rude.

 

[IM42A]

But Los Lunas, NM is correct! It was named after family whose surname was Luna (one of whose members became a powerful politician in Territorial New Mexico and who was one of the writers of the state's present constitution). In modern Spanish, it would be "Los Luna" but New Mexico preserves a lot of older usages.

I recall driving by the entrance to a farm or ranch near Chimayo, and the gate was emblazoned with "Los" followed by the family name, with no "es" or "s", don't recall the name but it would be like "Los Garcia" rather than "Los Garcias".

In Spanish-speaking countries, the show with Homer, Marge, and Bart is called "Los Simpson".

 

[Mark Roberts]

I recall driving by the entrance to a farm or ranch near Chimayo, and the gate was emblazoned with "Los" followed by the family name, with no "es" or "s", don't recall the name but it would be like "Los Garcia" rather than "Los Garcias".

That's the modern usage, yes.

In Spanish-speaking countries, the show with Homer, Marge, and Bart is called "Los Simpson".

In Spain, it was dubbed.

A fun fact about Los Lunas: Bo Diddley lived there during the 1970s.

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

13 Reasons Why: Here's Where The Show Was Filmed (& Where It's Set)

It was vague for a reason!

screenrant.com

Evergreen, California in the TV show "13 reasons why" is really filmed in places like Vallejo, Benicia, San Rafael, Crockett and Mill Valley.

While some key scenes were completed with soundstages, 13 Reasons Why filmed around Northern California. Vallejo, California, was the key location for filming scenes at Monet's coffee shop, The Crestmont Movie Theatre, Baker's Drug Store, and the mall. Of course, most of the exterior of the buildings were redone to fit the fictional setting. Other California towns featured in the series were Benicia, San Rafael, Crockett, and Mill Valley. Liberty High was fictional but the scenes were shot inside a real school. The production team used Analy High School located in Sebastopol, California.

On two separate occasions, filming for 13 Reasons Why was halted because of California wildfires.

 

[CentralFL]

Just about every American daytime soap opera was set in a fictional city in an unnamed state:

Search for Tomorrow -- Henderson
The Doctors -- Madison
Love of Life -- Rose Hill
Another World -- Bay City
Somerset -- Somerset
As the World Turns -- Oakdale
General Hospital -- Port Charles
Port Charles -- Port Charles

etc., etc.

Also, The Vampire Diaries was set in Mystic Falls, Virginia.

Young and the Restless -- Genoa City

 

[IM42A]

Llanview on One Life to Live. And of course, my favorite, "Cicely, Alaska" on Northern Exposure which was actually...Roslyn, WA. 90 min. drive from Yakima and still home to the Roslyn Cafe camel mural, The Brick, and gift shops.

And don't forget Twin Peaks from the eponymous TV series. My wife and I once went to North Bend, Washington, where TP was partially filmed, and it's just like the show, minus the eccentrics (though they may have had eccentrics we just didn't meet). We had lunch at the Mar-T Diner, with of course a slice of cherry pie and a cup of coffee.

 

[davideduardo]

That's the modern usage, yes.

I don't recall from my High School literature and language classes that there was any other disagreement in the expression of plural family names. And my high school was in Quito, Eucador.

 

[davideduardo]

In Spain, it was dubbed.

In all Latin America, TV is dubbed and does not use captions. This is in part due to the lower literacy rates and also because most families until very recently did not have big enough screens to read captions easily.

 

[Mark Roberts]

I don't recall from my High School literature and language classes that there was any other disagreement in the expression of plural family names. And my high school was in Quito, Eucador.

I get the feeling things were looser in the 17th and 18th century, particularly in a distant, isolated frontier outpost like New Mexico.

Other examples: Los Chávez (which does comport with modern usage), Los Cisneros, Los Diegos, Los Gabaldones (Gabaldón family), Los Luceros (Lucero family), Los Montoyas (Montoya family), Los Pachecos (Pacheco family), Los Padillas (Padilla family), Los Trujillos (Trujillo family, settlement now part of the city of Belen).

Source: The Place Names of New Mexico, revised edition, by Robert Julyan (1998, University of New Mexico Press).

 

[Mark Roberts]

In all Latin America, TV is dubbed and does not use captions. This is in part due to the lower literacy rates and also because most families until very recently did not have big enough screens to read captions easily.

That makes sense.

In the Netherlands, subtitles are used. Since English fluency is widespread there, viewers often make a game out of detecting errors in the subtitles of American and British programs...which are somewhat notorious for being inaccurate.

 

[Greg Goodfellow]

"As The World Turns" was set in Oakdale, Illinois, including fictional TV station WOAK.

WOAK was supposed to be the real-life call letters for an actual station in Oak Hill, West Virginia, but the “K” on the hand-written application was confused with “Y”, thereby the back story for WOAY, once derisively referred to as “Worst On Air Yet,” but is still family-owned and with a rich broadcasting history.

 

[IM42A]

I don't recall from my High School literature and language classes that there was any other disagreement in the expression of plural family names. And my high school was in Quito, Eucador.

I'm probably being thick as a plank here, but are you saying that, in your high school, the correct usage that was taught, would have been "Los Garcia", or "Los Garcias"? IOW, is "Los", plus the singular form of the name, the modern standard through the Spanish-speaking world?

French acts similarly, such that it would be "Les Trudeau", "Les Macron", and so on.

 

[IM42A]

WOAK was supposed to be the real-life call letters for an actual station in Oak Hill, West Virginia, but the “K” on the hand-written application was confused with “Y”, thereby the back story for WOAY, once derisively referred to as “Worst On Air Yet,” but is still family-owned and with a rich broadcasting history.

Until recent years, that station was truly painful to watch. Its news department is still the landing spot for journalism graduates fresh out of college (interesting to wonder what would have happened if AJ Clemente had committed his faux pas there instead of North Dakota, West Virginians tend to be a pretty chill bunch and they might just have laughed it off, or the preachers might have thrown a fit), but it's far better than it used to be. They also had George Strange and Bob Brunner, who were already well-known from the neighboring Charleston-Huntington market which has viewership throughout much of BBOH.

WVVA in Bluefield is a class act all the way, very good for a market the size of BBOH. WVFX isn't bad either, same basic look and feel as sister Nexstar station WOWK.

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

The Partridge Family lived in the fictitious town of San Pueblo, California.

"San Pueblo" was an ill-considered attempt to make up a Spanish-sounding name. "San" is Spanish for "saint", and "pueblo" either means "people" or "town/village". It doesn't make sense.

Brain teaser for everyone here: what do The Partridge Family and Green Acres have in common? Hint: it's in the opening credits. I just noticed this the other night on MeTV.

San Pueblo has gotta be a parody name of San Pedro the Los Angeles area District where the Port of Los Angeles is located. But there's another city with San and P as the first Letter. The closest one is San Pablo in Northern California. One can imply it's a mix of both if one isn't aware of the specific references of San Pueblo.

San Pedro, Los Angeles - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

San Pablo, California - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Signal Geek]

I'll add the faux-Alaska town of Cecily in "Northern Exposure" (forgive me if it was mentioned earlier). The series was actually shot at a town in the state of Washington.

 

[crainbebo]

I mentioned Cicely, Alaska earlier. (Roslyn, WA, in reality, just above Cle Elum and 80 mi E of Seattle)
North Bend, for me, was a place to get gas at the TA truck stop and jump back on I-90 to go east. I've never been to North Bend to sightsee.

 

[davideduardo]

I'm probably being thick as a plank here, but are you saying that, in your high school, the correct usage that was taught, would have been "Los Garcia", or "Los Garcias"? IOW, is "Los", plus the singular form of the name, the modern standard through the Spanish-speaking world?

Los Garcia. "Apellidos" or surnames can not have a plural. "Los miembros de la familia Garcia" is plural in the "members" term, but not in the last name(s).

A correct Latin American last name might be "García Ordoñez" and it would look silly to say "Los Garcias Ordonezs".

French acts similarly, such that it would be "Les Trudeau", "Les Macron", and so on.

I believe all romance tongues do that. My French and Italian and Portuguese are fading after decades of little use so I am not an expert now.