raisinbran20 asked
NEW YORK — As far as TV is concerned, much of the country outside of Los Angeles and New York City is flyover territory. Those two cities account for just under half of the fictional settings for prime-time television shows going back to 1948, according to a new study by a media agency. California and New York state are settings nearly 60 percent of the time — even though those states make up less than 19 percent of the nation's population. Alex Keaton of 'Family Ties' (search) lived in Columbus, Ohio (search), and Mary Richards of 'The Mary Tyler Moore Show' (search) worked at a newsroom in Minneapolis (search), but TV characters are much more likely to join the 'Friends' (search) crew for coffee at Central Perk. 'I knew a lot of shows seem to be in New York and L.A., but I didn't expect it to be so concentrated,' said Rob Frydlewicz of Carat Insight, a company that studies TV trends for advertisers and conducted the research. Of the 1,696 cable and network series where the setting was known (some, like NBC's 'Scrubs,' don't make clear where they're from), a whopping 601 called California home and 412 were set in New York state, the study found. Wind-swept North Dakota has never had a prime-time show of its own, while Alabama, West Virginia, New Hampshire, Delaware and Vermont had one each. One theory for the coastal concentration is simple: that's where most TV writers, producers and executives live, so they create what they're familiar with. The landmarks and large populations of the big cities are also important, said Nina Tassler, CBS entertainment president. 'Both Los Angeles and New York are rich in diversity, culturally and ethnically, so you have great sources to go to for unique stories,' she said. CBS turned to New York for the third installment of its 'CSI' series; the first two are in Las Vegas — suddenly a hot TV venue — and Miami. All three of NBC's 'Law & Order' dramas are set in New York, and so will the fourth when it pre
140 answers · 0 comments
Answer this yourself in the app
See how this splits by age, gender, and region in the app.
