Shows were the location was never revealed

[nomadcowatbk]

The Brady Bunch
The Wonder Years
The Simpsons
King of the Hill (no exact location in Texas, except 3 hours from Houston)

 

[KML0224]

Beavis and Butthead was also set in Texas, without ever saying which city the two troublemakers hung out in. As for The Simpsons part of why Springfield was chosen was because there's 26 of them around the United States. That was enough to have the contest as to which Springfield would get the premiere of The Simpsons: The Movie. It ended up being shown in Vermont.

 

[Bob1370]

Hill Street Blues (exterior shots taken in Chicago, but street names and geographical references were taken from show creator Stephen Bochco's home town, Buffalo, NY)

 

[nomadcowatbk]

Daria (the Beavis and Butt-Head spinoff)

 

[firepoint525]

The Brady Bunch
The Wonder Years
The Simpsons
King of the Hill (no exact location in Texas, except 3 hours from Houston)

Remember that Brady Bunch episode in which they specifically mentioned that a letter to them was addressed as "city"? They definitely went out of their way on that show to try to make themselves "anywhere, USA."

And Wonder Years featured schools named for presidents, or at least presidential candidates, like Robert Kennedy Junior High, another feature that helps a show's setting to be "anywhere, USA."

Freaks and Geeks, believed to be set in the Detroit suburb of "Chippewa," but never made clear. Also featured a "presidential" high school, McKinley High School.

Giligan's Island, never really made clear where the island was, only that it was about 350 miles from Hawaii.

 

[cd637299]

"Benson".....even though he worked for a governor, he was always the governor of "this state."

cd

 

[cd637299]

[Re "Gilligan's Island," isn't it true that in one episode they were listening to KGU radio? Or am I hallucinating?]

cd

 

[SfanGoch]

The Brady Bunch
The Wonder Years
The Simpsons
King of the Hill (no exact location in Texas, except 3 hours from Houston)

Remember that Brady Bunch episode in which they specifically mentioned that a letter to them was addressed as "city"? They definitely went out of their way on that show to try to make themselves "anywhere, USA."

And Wonder Years featured schools named for presidents, or at least presidential candidates, like Robert Kennedy Junior High, another feature that helps a show's setting to be "anywhere, USA."

Freaks and Geeks, believed to be set in the Detroit suburb of "Chippewa," but never made clear. Also featured a "presidential" high school, McKinley High School.

Giligan's Island, never really made clear where the island was, only that it was about 350 miles from Hawaii.

If anyone remembers, there was a lot of N.Y. Jets paraphernalia visible in the brothers' room in "The Wonder Years". One of them even wore a Jets jacket in some episodes. During the mid-late 1960s, being a Jets fan wasn't something that somebody became unless one lived in the N.Y. area. I'd say that the show took place in a suburb in the N.Y. metropolitan area.

 

[dhett]

The Brady Bunch
The Wonder Years
The Simpsons
King of the Hill (no exact location in Texas, except 3 hours from Houston)

Remember that Brady Bunch episode in which they specifically mentioned that a letter to them was addressed as "city"? They definitely went out of their way on that show to try to make themselves "anywhere, USA."

And yet, guest sports celebrities were from LA teams (Don Drysdale: 1970, Deacon Jones: 1971). Despite their efforts, it seemed quite clear that the show was set in suburban Los Angeles.

 

[dhett]

And Wonder Years featured schools named for presidents, or at least presidential candidates, like Robert Kennedy Junior High, another feature that helps a show's setting to be "anywhere, USA."

If anyone remembers, there was a lot of N.Y. Jets paraphernalia visible in the brothers' room in "The Wonder Years". One of them even wore a Jets jacket in some episodes. During the mid-late 1960s, being a Jets fan wasn't something that somebody became unless one lived in the N.Y. area. I'd say that the show took place in a suburb in the N.Y. metropolitan area.

The Wonder Years was based on the creator's experiences growing up in Huntington NY, on Long Island, but the studios wanted its setting to be, as firepoint puts it, "anywhere, USA." There were a few clues, however, that it was set in California.

http://www.peter-reynders.de/WY/Wonder17.htm

 

[Ultimajock]

Re "Gilligan's Island," isn't it true that in one episode they were listening to KGU radio? Or am I hallucinating?

...I'd think they'd be tuning in KGMB (the Honolulu CBS affiliate) rather than KGU (the NBC affiliate)...

 

[Corky Marlowe]

King of the Hill (no exact location in Texas, except 3 hours from Houston)

Isn't it Arlen, Texas?

 

[mleach]

Beavis and Butthead was also set in Texas, without ever saying which city the two troublemakers hung out in. As for The Simpsons part of why Springfield was chosen was because there's 26 of them around the United States. That was enough to have the contest as to which Springfield would get the premiere of The Simpsons: The Movie. It ended up being shown in Vermont.

With The Simpsons Matt Groening kinda implied during the 20th Simpsons Anniversarty Special that the basis of "Springfield" was directly/indirectly the city of Portland, OR such as Krusty the Clown was loosely based on real life Portland TV clown Rusty Nails ( Rusty was interviewed in the special actually ) and Rusty was on "channel 6" just like Rusty Nails who was on "channel 6 KOIN" as well as other Portland channels.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rusty_Nails ( The Simpsons connection is even mentioned ).

Several streets in Portland such as Flanders and Lovejoy became the last names of various characters in The Simpsons and Springfield Elementary School is modeled after a real life school..in Portland. The special even showed the Portland school and it looked a LOT like what one sees on The Simpsons.

 

[mleach]

Rusty was on "channel 6" just like Rusty Nails who was on "channel 6 KOIN" as well as other Portland channels.

My internet went down for a few minuters..correcting myself...Krusty was on Springfield's channel 6 with Rusty was on Portland's channel 6.

I guess it pays to be loosely based. The short lived ABC sitcom with Kelsey Grammar "Hank" though set in the fiction town of "River Bend, VA"..actually River Bend was really the real life Virginia towns of Winchester and Front Royal. One episode that had never aired had Hank ( Kelsey ) chatting with Randy Woodward who is a real life radio announcer in Front Royal-Winchester at local WZRV-FM 95.3 The River.

 

[azumanga]

King of the Hill (no exact location in Texas, except 3 hours from Houston)

Isn't it Arlen, Texas?

Yes, but where it exactly is was never implied. Though considering that it's 3 hours from Houston, it's practically anywhere as far north as Dallas and Tyler, southwest as San Antonio, south as Corpus Christi and west as Austin. Going east and northeast is out, as 3 hours from Houston goes into Louisiana.

 

[briancraig]

I think there were several other references in the Brady Bunch that indicated they were in Southern California. I don't think they tried to hide the California license plates on their cars and there was one episode where someone mentioned going out west and one of the kids said we already are out west.

The Partridge Family took place in fictional San Pueblo, California and I believe it was supposed to be in the Bay Area.

A couple of other cop shows took place in fictional California cities, The Rookies and Starsky & Hutch. This always bothered me, why not just say they were in L.A or San Diego.This made the shows seem fake and cheap to me. I think Baretta was set in Newark, New Jersey but I'm not sure they ever revealed this.

 

[azumanga]

A couple of other cop shows took place in fictional California cities, The Rookies and Starsky & Hutch. This always bothered me, why not just say they were in L.A or San Diego.This made the shows seem fake and cheap to me.

"SWAT" also took place in a California city, which was never identified; in fact, the closest to any identification was that the patches on the cops' uniforms said "LCPD".

"The Rookies", from the same producers, also came from an unidentified city; their insignia reads "SCPD", which stood for the "Southern California Police Department" (per a TV Guide article).

 

[Ultimajock]

The Partridge Family took place in fictional San Pueblo, California and I believe it was supposed to be in the Bay Area.

...I may be wrong on this one, but I thought the base community of The Partridge Family was revealed in the episode "Soul Club," which aired on ABC on 29 January 1971, as a gag line. It's the one where the Partridges are mistakenly booked into a Detroit nightclub where the management thought The Temptations were going to show up instead. In the process of the story, the Partridges agree to perform at a block party to raise funds to save the nightclub. One of that episode's gags has Shirley applying for the permit, and when she's asked where she lives, Shirley clearly responds (as I distinctly recall from the last time I saw the episode a few years back) "San Bernardino, California"...

 

[Markxxx]

A lot of the older shows had fictional towns

My Three Sons had Bryant Park. Mike is referred to have got married and took a job "back east," implying that Bryant Park isn't on the Eastern Seaboard. I don't know if they moved to LA or just a generic suburb of LA, later on.

Leave It To Beaver was set in Mayfield and it appears to be a suburb because in the early episodes Eddie implies his parents go "into the city," and you can't get quality stuff "out here." Beaver and the others plan on going to the ocean and going surfing, so Mayfield must be near an ocean of some kind

Donna Reed was set in Hilldale, and it seemed to be a smallish town but big enough for one hospital.

Father Knows Best was in Springfield. But I don't know much about where it was supposed to be.

Gilligan's Island had a lot of setting. In the episode where they have dual homing pigeon, it is 300 miles SW of Hawaii. But in another episode the Professer says they are "140° longitude, 10° latitude" Another episode gives their location at 110° longitude and 10° latitude".

 

[Bob1370]

"110° longitude and 10° latitude"

Wouldn't that have put Gilligan's Island somewhere about an hour's drive north of Quito, Ecuador?