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California Doubling: Difference between revisions
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{{quote|''"They really should change the name of Toronto to Fake New York For Use In Movies Only."''|'''James "[[Kibo]]" Parry'''}}
Any exotic foreign locale in a TV series is, due to budget or danger to the cast, likely to actually be somewhere in [[California]], such as [[
One of the most famous examples of this is in ''[[Star Trek (Franchise)|Star Trek]]'' (and all subsequent series), in which every planet they land on looks exactly like the [[
There is also [[Stargate City|Vancouver Doubling]] that is helpful with vast mountain forests, dry deserts and oceans nearby, Toronto has doubled for urban areas such as [[New York City]] and [[Chicago]] more times than it has actually represented itself, and Utah has been Vulcan, Mars, and the Old West.
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Another time that this may be necessary is if the original location (and this is true especially for period pieces) no longer looks like what it did in story. While obviously it might be a bit difficult filming an ancient Rome in Rome itself as the city resembles Caeser's city in name only, even more recent cases might need new areas, the London of today is quite different from the London of Victorian times and the early part of the twentieth century (thanks [[The Blitz|in no small part]] to the ''[[Nazis With Gnarly Weapons|Luftwaffe]]'', so many East European locations are substituted instead.
Of course this can lead to [[Television Geography]], as well as [[
This can have a very odd effect the first time one ''visits'' southern California. Upon seeing for the first time those scrub-covered hills and twisty roads, one gets a truly unearthly sense of deja vu. Have I been here before, you ask yourself? Then you realize that you have... on TV! For those who live in southern California, it is amusing to point out places one recognizes from TV shows. The most used location is Griffith Park, whose scrabble mountains can be seen in nearly every 1950's "jungle" movie, and ''[[MASH]]''.
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Contrast with [[Canada Does Not Exist]], where the shooting location actually affects the storyline.
{{examples
=== Australia Doubling ===
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* The movie ''The Russians are Coming'' (a comedy which revolves around a Soviet submarine running aground in Massachusetts) was filmed in California.
* ''[[Shazam|The Adventures of Captain Marvel]]'' (1941) was filmed in the deserts of Southern California, despite the fact that the first episode supposedly takes place in the jungles of Siam. In fact there seems to be some confusion between Thailand and the Middle East.
* In the movie ''[[Love Actually]]'', Colin travels to the city of Milwaukee, WI. However, the airport shown has a sign that says "Milwaukee International Airport" (the real one is "Mitchell Int'l"). The bar he goes to has California license plates and prominent Budweiser signs. Milwaukee is the home of Miller brewery, the chance of finding a bar that looks like the one in ''[[Love Actually]]'' is slim to none. * And [[Dreaming of a White Christmas|it's snowing]]. Even shows that are [[Freaks and Geeks|specifically set]] [[Glee|in the Midwest]] seem to [[
* The outdoor scenes in ''The Lost World: [[Jurassic Park]]'' have significantly more redwood trees than you'd expect from a equatorial island. This is because they were filmed near Eureka, CA (no, not [[Eureka|that one]]).
** Many of the Endor scenes from ''[[Return of the Jedi]]'' were also filmed near Eureka, in a place called [http://www.redwoodhikes.com/Grizzly/Cheatham.html Cheatham Grove]. The fallen tree that Luke ducks under while flying is still there. Scenes from the 1995 film ''[[Outbreak]]'' were also filmed in Cheatham Grove (not an example of doubling, though, since ''Outbreak'' was set in California).
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* ''[[Friends (TV)|Friends]]'' was set in [[New York City]], but was filmed in Burbank, California. However, the fourth season finale was shot on location, in London. On the other hand, "The One In Barbados" was more like "The One In Hollywood."
* A ''[[Gilmore Girls]]'' episode in which Lorelai and Rory visit Harvard includes scenes of the "campus" which are actually filmed at UCLA and Berkeley. Also, USC was Yale for Rory's graduation.
* ''[[Greek]]'': Set in central Ohio. Filmed in Southern California. You can tell because [[
* A multiple part episode of ''[[Growing Pains]]'' had the Seavers traveling to a Europe that at one point conspicuously resembled Catalina Island.
** According to Maura Tierney (who was on the show at the time) they were actually due to film in Europe, but Kirk Cameron ([[Sarcasm Mode|there's a shocker]]) vetoed it. (In his defence, he cited a fear of flying, but it can't have helped his popularity with the cast and crew.)
* ''[[Heroes (TV)|Heroes]]'' does a pretty good job of making [[Los Angeles]] locations double for New York, Las Vegas, India, Japan, etc. It's helped by frequent use of CGI backgrounds.
** Though it is worth noting that anyone who actually lives in Odessa, TX, will laugh hysterically at the idea that said city is anywhere near as green and hilly as it's seen on Heroes.
* ''[[
* ''[[JAG]]'' A series about the Judge Advocate General Corp, takes place in the greater DC area, but most of the location shooting is done in LA. The episodes show the cast wearing proper seasonal uniforms (at the time of airing) and does a remarkable job at averting this trope. Most ship scenes are filmed aboard actual US Navy ships or museum ships.
* The more recent seasons of ''[[Leverage (TV)|Leverage]]'' film in Portland, OR but are set in Boston.
* Particularly ridiculous in ''[[Little House On the Prairie (TV)|Little House On the Prairie]]'' which is set in Minnesota, a state not exactly known for its mountains or its long stretches of lush green summery weather.
* The "Korean" setting of ''[[
* In the original ''[[Mission Impossible]]'' it's astonishing how much of [[Cold War|Eastern Europe]] looks like LA and its environs, or how Soviet cars (namely the KGB use-only [http://www.oldrussiancars.com/archives/gaz-m-23 GAZ M23 Volga] and [http://www.oldrussiancars.com/archives/gaz-m13-chaika M13 Chaika]) look remarkably like [[The Taxi|civillian Checker A12 Marathons.]]
* ''[[Monk (TV)|Monk]]'' is set in San Francisco and filmed in Culver City. There are buses with the word CULVER written in five-foot-high orange letters that went through the end of the [[Cult]] episode. One episode has Monk wander his way to the train station after three nights of sleep deprivation. The station used for the shot was clearly the LA Union Station, leading the audience to wonder just how far Monk had wandered off.
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* ''[[The Office (TV)|The Office]]'' had one episode taking place in Winnipeg, but shot in California. In fact, while they have occasionally filmed exteriors for the U.S. version at real Scranton, Pennsylvania locations, most of the show is filmed near L.A.
* ''[[Pretty Little Liars]]'' is set in the fictional Pennsylvania town of Rosewood and filmed on location... in California. (Unlike many, many examples of this kind, this is actually mentioned on the show's end credits.)
* ''[[Roswell]]'' heavily featured [[
* ''[[Silk Stalkings]]'' was set in Palm Beach, Florida, but filmed mostly in San Diego. See also [[The Mountains of Illinois]].
* As alluded to in the opening, it's pretty rare for ''Star Trek'' to shoot outside of California. All the TV shows have been filmed entirely in California and no ''Trek'' production has filmed outside the United States. Much like Vasquez Rocks, Griffith Park has been used many times as many planets over the years. Only five of the eleven films have filmed any scenes outside California. These are the only exceptions to California doubling in the entire series:
** ''[[Star Trek:
** ''[[Star Trek VI the Undiscovered Country (Film)|Star Trek VI the Undiscovered Country]]'': A second unit filmed long distance shots in Alaska with doubles for [[William Shatner]], [[DeForest Kelley]], and Iman.
** ''[[Star Trek Generations (Film)|Star Trek Generations]]'': Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada was the surface Veridian III
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* Inverted in the film ''[[Crash (Film)|Crash]]'', which was set in LA, but filmed many of its exterior shots in ''Germany''. There's also an upcoming Crash series, which is continuing the tradition by using Albuquerque for LA.
** Maybe the movie was filmed with German money. ''The Machinist'' was set in LA, but filmed in Barcelona, because it was made with Spanish money.
*** This, by the way, is why the film's title is in Spanish on [[
* ''[[The Bourne Series|The Bourne Ultimatum]]'' had a scene set in Moscow during the events of ''The Bourne Supremacy'' (which was filmed in Moscow during that film). To avoid having to get an entire crew to Moscow again, they created a snowy Moscow in East Berlin, which was mostly rebuilt by Stalin and so looked much like the architecture of Moscow.
* In ''[[Maverick (Film)|Maverick]]'', the climactic poker game is set on a riverboat steaming the Mississippi River south of St. Louis. Anyone familiar with the area knows that the exterior scenes of the riverboat were shot somewhere very, very different from the Mississippi River south of St. Louis (probably on a river in the Pacific Northwest).
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* ''[[Me Myself and Irene]]'', set in Rhode Island, was at least partially filmed in Vermont.
* ''[[Doomsday]]'' uses mostly South Africa to stand in for post-apocalyptic Scotland.
* ''[[
* ''Did You Hear About The Morgans?'' is about a couple who are put into the Witness Protection Program and sent to Wyoming, which is actually New Mexico subbing for Wyoming. I guess they didn't want to be accused of [[In Plain Sight|copying]].
* Winnipeg has found itself to be an excellent substitute locale for a number of other places, frequently Chicago.
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* ''Beaver Falls'' is about three British teenagers who get to work at the title summer camp in California. There are at least three real places in the US called Beaver Falls, exactly none of which are in California - and in the case of the camp, California was played by South Africa (and most of the "Americans," this being a British-Canadian-South African co-production, weren't played by actual Americans).
* The TV movie ''The Deadly Tower'', about the Charles Whitman snipings, was filmed in Louisiana because the University of Texas (where the killings took place) understandably wouldn't let production take place there.
* ''The Highwayman'' (a Glen A. Larson series) was set around America but filmed in Arizona; [[Monk|Lee]] [[Diagnosis Murder|Goldberg]] wrote of the episode "Send in the Clones," "Phoenix badly, and obviously, stood in for New York locations (with [[The Mountains of Illinois|palm trees in Central Park!]]) in this sloppily shot [[Poorly
* The pilot for ''[[The Lying Game]]'' was filmed on location in New Mexico; production for the series shifted to Texas. The series is set mainly in Phoenix and Las Vegas (with stops in Los Angeles).
* The ''[[Girls (TV)|Girls]]'' episode "The Return" has Hannah go back to her family in what purports to be East Lansing, [[Michigan]]. It appears to be one of the more suburban areas around [[New York City]]; it certainly looks like nothing like East Lansing.
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* ''[[The Sopranos]]'' was set and filmed mostly in New Jersey. According to the creator, when he was trying to pitch the show to networks, various executives would often lose interest when he said that he wanted it filmed in New Jersey. He was later contacted by a producer from HBO, who was interested in the show specifically because the creator wanted it set in Jersey.
* Averted in ''Flashpoint'' which is set, for once in a generic ''Canadian'' city. Although all the Toronto scenery and extras wearing Toronto police uniforms and driving Toronto police cars and Toronto EMT vehicles and reading a fictional newspaper called the ''Toronto Interpreter'' sort of ruin the whole "generic" bit.
* ''[[
** Internal scenes set at NBC Studios on the titular 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan are actually filmed at Silvercup Studios in Queens.
* ''[[Sons of Anarchy]]'' is filmed in central California, and actually takes place there.
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