Several reporters and/or columnists at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette may have created an all-star list for the top ten places in television land.

Friday, December 17, 1999

Several reporters and/or columnists at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette may have created an all-star list for the top ten places in television land. Then again, maybe it was just one person who created this list of familiar places, both real and fictitious, based on the popular television programs of the the past and present. Anyway, the listing I’m passing along came from a reprint in the Oct. 4, 1999, issue of the Syracuse, N.Y., Post-Standard.

Leading this list is Mayberry, N.C. This fictitious, almost perfect small town was the 1950s setting for &uot;The Andy Griffith Show.&uot; And who can forget Aunt Bee, Sheriff Andy Taylor, little Opie, Deputy Barney, Floyd the Barber, Otis and all those other fine folks who still live on and on in rerun land?

Second on the list is another fictional town, Cicely, Alaska. That’s where Dr. Joel Fleischman supposedly practiced medicine in a really remote village. In reality, &uot;Northern Exposure&uot; was filmed in a town near Seattle, Wash.

The third place on the list is big and very real New York City. There’s no doubt about this locality being used as the setting for both &uot;Seinfeld&uot; and &uot;Friends.&uot; However, the listing of &uot;Beauty and the Beast&uot; as a television program based on the sometimes unbelievable life in the &uot;Big Apple&uot; has me confused. I’ve never encountered this particular program during all my futile channel surfing for something worth watching.

Boston places fourth for being the city of choice for &uot;Cheers,&uot; &uot;St. Elsewhere,&uot; &uot; Spenser: For Hire,&uot; &uot;Ally McBeal,&uot; and &uot;The Practice.&uot;

What may be surprising is seeing Los Angeles in fifth place. This city, plus New York City and Chicago, seem to be used for all too many of the locales for all too many television productions.

The magical listing for the California city, according to the folks in Pittsburgh, is &uot;L. A. Law,&uot; &uot;Beverly Hills 90210,&uot; &uot;Marcus Welby, M.D.&uot; &uot;Dragnet,&uot; &uot;Lou Grant,&uot; &uot;Fresh Prince of Bel Air,&uot; and &uot;It’s Like, You Know.&uot; (Hey, it’s like, you know, how about the &uot;Beverly Hillbillies?&uot;)

Did I mention the foolishness with big city settings for television shows? Well, in sixth place is Chicago with its connections to &uot;E R,&uot; &uot;Chicago Hope,&uot; &uot;Newhart,&uot; and &uot;Early Edition.&uot;

&uot;Newhart,&uot; incidentally, refers to the first series of shows. The setting for Bob Newhart’s second series was a New England small town inn near the place where those rustic brothers, Larry, Darrell and Darrell, lived.

Minneapolis makes this list in seventh place on the basis of just one excellent television production from the past, &uot;The Mary Tyler Moore Show.&uot;

I’m not sure as to how Seattle/Twin Peaks were named together for the eighth position in this odd listing. Seattle is a mighty real place, as we all discovered because of the recent WTO riots. Yet, where’s the Seattle connection for Twin Peaks as a town (or suburb) and &uot;Twin Peaks&uot;as a television show? Anyway, &uot;Frazier&uot; was the basis for the Seattle listing.

Springfield is on the list because of &uot;Father Knows Best&uot; and &uot;The Simpsons.&uot; Now there’s a real contrast in television programming.

The mention of Springfield brings up a very valid question. Which one of the towns, large or small, with this name is supposed to be associated with either one of those two television productions? Is it the Springfield in Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont or Virginia? I’m just wondering, that’s all.

Last on the list is still another fictitious place, Glenoak, the setting for &uot;7th Heaven.&uot;

Somehow lost or overlooked in this obviously biased list of television program places is Detroit, the locale featured in &uot;Home Improvement.&uot;

I’m sure if we all take the time to think about it there are other places which could have replaced one or more on the listing of television towns, real or fictional, made by those folks in Pittsburgh.