Why are so many comedies in NYC?

[Broccoli]

I think it was a mistake to have the third CSI in New York- too many law-enforcement related shows there already. I would have gone for one of the Mid-western cities or maybe even Denver or Seattle (I'd go for a colder city since Vegas and Miami are hot cities...). But again, the whole CSI thing is getting old.

Pity that the rumor about a possible CSI: London didn't pan out. I would have watched that one.

Don't worry...you'll get Law & Order: London.

 

[Gil T.Azell]

I always thought NYC was used because it's a cultural melting pot.

If you remember the wackyness that was 'Night Court' and the range of strange characters that showed up there, having Comedies set in NYC seems to be the easy way out.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Because all the cool, funny and interesting people in this country live either in New York or California. Haven't you heard?

thier all moving to New Mexico now, they have used up L.A. and now the leaches are coming here to do the same to us

That's nice, New Mexico is very pretty. What shows are being filmed there now? Any sci fi? I think deserts are the best place for sci fi - the Vasquez Rocks phenomenon.

^^Plenty of shows have been set in or around Seattle, including Frasier, Twin Peaks, Millennium, Dark Angel, John Doe, Dead Like Me, The 4400, and Kyle XY. This is usually because the shows in question are produced in Vancouver, which is right next to Seattle and has the same climate. Other Vancouver-produced shows have been set elsewhere in the Pacific Northwest, including The Sentinel and Eureka.

But it's not because Seattle is this great place to set stories. It's because filming in Vancouver is cheap due to government subsidies, and Seattle is the US city easiest to pass off as Vancouver.

Twin Peaks is really the only show on that list that clearly was being filmed in a climate suited to the story, damp & foggy & creepy, but it wasn't Seattle, just some odd little Pacific Northwest town...Frasier could just as well have been set in San Francisco or NYC (any reasonably sophisticated city, but not Boston), and the others could have been set anywhere.

Stargate should be filmed in Colorado. They could use the real Colorado Springs location for the Cheyenne Mountain headquarters, and they'd have more access to a variety of climates - pine forests, prairies, and high desert areas - to create alien worlds that don't always look boringly alike. They wouldn't be far from Salt Lake and Bonneville Flats, which look like alien worlds anyway.

 

[Finn]

Grey's Anatomy's set in Seattle.

 

[Aragorn]

I think it was a mistake to have the third CSI in New York- too many law-enforcement related shows there already. I would have gone for one of the Mid-western cities or maybe even Denver or Seattle (I'd go for a colder city since Vegas and Miami are hot cities...). But again, the whole CSI thing is getting old.

I wonder why there wasn't a CSI: Los Angeles, since all three CSI shows are filmed there anyway.

 

[Trekker4747]

If there's one thing New York set shows have shown us, is that you can get a studio apartment for cheap and it comes with wacky neighbor included.

The magic of subleting. Monica subleted and rent controls. Monica subleted her apartment from her grandmother and Kramer his partment from Paul Buchman (of Mad About You.)

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I think it was a mistake to have the third CSI in New York- too many law-enforcement related shows there already. I would have gone for one of the Mid-western cities or maybe even Denver or Seattle (I'd go for a colder city since Vegas and Miami are hot cities...). But again, the whole CSI thing is getting old.

Pity that the rumor about a possible CSI: London didn't pan out. I would have watched that one.

Don't worry...you'll get Law & Order: London.

I heard about that. I hope BBC America shows it. If so, I might actually sign up for the extra digital cable tier.

 

[Christopher]

But it's not because Seattle is this great place to set stories. It's because filming in Vancouver is cheap due to government subsidies, and Seattle is the US city easiest to pass off as Vancouver.

I think you mean that Seattle is the US city easiest to pass Vancouver off as. And how does it refute my point? The poster I was responding to suggested, probably in jest, that it would be impractical to set a show in Seattle due to the difficulties in simulating the weather. My point was that since many shows are shot in a city right next door to Seattle with the same weather, it's therefore quite easy to match it. I didn't say anything about whether it was a good place to set stories.

Frasier could just as well have been set in San Francisco or NYC (any reasonably sophisticated city, but not Boston), and the others could have been set anywhere.

Yeah, and WKRP didn't have to be in Cincinnati, and Mary Richards didn't have to work in Minneapolis, and the Charmed Ones didn't have to live in San Francisco. So what? Every show's gotta be somewhere. Except for those that are set in entirely fictional locales such as Springfield and Hooterville. The point under discussion is not whether they needed to be in Seattle, but simply that they were, in refutation of the previous poster's assumption that Seattle-based shows were rare or nonexistent.

Stargate should be filmed in Colorado. They could use the real Colorado Springs location for the Cheyenne Mountain headquarters, and they'd have more access to a variety of climates - pine forests, prairies, and high desert areas - to create alien worlds that don't always look boringly alike. They wouldn't be far from Salt Lake and Bonneville Flats, which look like alien worlds anyway.

But is the infrastructure there? Is there a film studio with adequate facilities to support the production of a large-scale TV series? Are there people there with filmmaking skill and experience? Do the local laws make it cost-effective and practical to film there? This is a business, after all. Decisions have to be based primarily on what's best for the production logistics and budget, not what's most authentic to the story. The reason so many shows have been shot in Vancouver is because it's cheaper there and there's a good-sized production industry established there.

Of course, they did travel to the real Cheyenne Mountain on occasion to shoot stock footage for establishing shots (with the cooperation of the US military).