Presenting the United States of Television
Do you know where the 'Two and a Half Men' live? Or where Tim "The Tool Man' Taylor was making his 'Home Improvement'?TV shows, particularly sitcoms, always seem to take place in a generic suburb (Just to save you a Google search, the settings of the aforementioned shows are Malibu, Calif. and Detroit, Mich.respectively). With the possible exception of programs that take place in New York or Los Angeles, most television shows seem to take place in "Anytown, USA."
Well, ponder the locales of your favorite TV shows no more. Last week, The Huffington Post published a map of the United States that linked every state to a movie. Now a blogger has created a similar map identifying every state with a TV show.
Obviously, some states have many TV shows set there. The creator of the map, Andrew Shears, indicated on his blog that he tried to choose the most well-known show for each state. Still, while 'Seinfeld' is a good choice for New York, one can't help but wonder if it was really the right choice.
The list of shows set in New York is too long for this article. Thankfully, Wikipedia has one. It could be easily argued that 'The Honeymooners,' 'All In The Family,' 'I Love Lucy,' 'The Cosby Show' and 'Friends' each had just as much cultural impact as 'Seinfeld.'
But with multiple choices, you could argue for any show over the other. While 'Roseanne' was one of the most popular sitcoms of its time, 'Married ... With Children' is also deserving of the Illinois spot.
Switching attention to California for a moment, it had '90210,' 'Arrested Development,' 'The Big Bang Theory,' 'Sanford & Son,' and 'The Monkees.' The state even hosts 'iCarly.' Is 'Baywatch' really the best representative of the Golden State? Since California is keen on celebrity governors, perhaps their next choice for the position should be David Hasselhoff.
Shears didn't always choose the most well-known or popular show, though. He chose 'Freaks and Geeks' over 'Home Improvement' for Michigan because he likes 'F&G' more.
So what do you think? For New York, California or any of the other states, is there a television show that is more worthy as representative of that state than the one currently in the diagram? Let us know in the comments.
Here is the map in question.


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