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{{trope}}
[[File:Everytown_America_7585Everytown America 7585.jpg|framethumb|300px| Ain't that America?]]
 
 
Where most [[Steven Spielberg]] films take place.
 
Basically, if an American film or TV show doesn't take place in a famous big city, it will be set in some version of '''Everytown, America'''. Everytown, America is a usually fictional town or small city containing pastel suburbs, a single elementary/[[High School]] (depending how old the main characters are) with the same name as the town, and a main street or town square of some kind. [[Everybody Owns a Ford|Everyone drives a Chevy]] and has a fondness for apple pie. Most people will be friendly except for the [[Pointy-Haired Boss]], the [[Alpha Bitch]] or the [[Jerk Jock]]. Anyone worse than that will be an invader from some big city or [[The Government]].
 
[[Nothing Exciting Ever Happens Here]] (or at least it didn't until the aliens/vampires/witches/whatever showed up). The town's history, if discussed at all, will probably be very simple (usually it will have been named after whoever founded it -- thereit—there might be [[Our Founder|a statue of him]]) and everyone living there will be familiar with the story. The characters may become routinely involved in city affairs, which will usually consist of convincing the city council not to tear down some historic building or to clean up the local park so all the children can happily play there.
 
For such an average place, Everytown seems to become a [[City of Adventure]] surprisingly often, and occasionally masks a [[Town Withwith a Dark Secret]]. If featured in a TV series fond of [[Special Guest|Special Guests]]s, celebrities may visit the town a disproportionate number of times.
 
To be fair, there ''are'' a lot of towns like this in the U.S.A., but it also taps into a very powerful vein of nostalgia about what kind of town many Americans ''wish'' they lived in.
 
{{examples}}
 
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* Riverdale of ''[[Archie Comics]]''.
** Greendale of ''[[Sabrina the Teenage Witch (Comic Book)|Sabrina the Teenage Witch]]''.
* Smallville, childhood hometown of [[Superman]]/hometown of the [[Silver Age]] [[Superboy]]. Less so in ''[[Smallville]]'' the series.
* Blue Valley. Home of Wally West before and during his Kid Flash days before he became [[The Flash]] and relocated to Keystone City.
 
== [[Film]] (Live Action) ==
* Bedford Falls, New York in ''[[Its a Wonderful Life|It's Aa Wonderful Life]]''.
* The resort-island of Amity, New York in ''[[Jaws (Filmfilm)|Jaws]]''.
* Hill Valley, California in the ''[[Back to Thethe Future (Filmfilm)|Back to The Future]]'' films.
* The unnamed town featured in ''[[ETE.T. the Extraterrestrial (Film)Extra-Terrestrial|ET the Extraterrestrial]]''.
* Cuesta Verde, California in ''[[Poltergeist (Filmfilm series)||Poltergeist]]''.
* Parodied, Justified, Lampshaded, then [[Zig -Zagging Trope|played with till it can't play no more]] in ''[[Pleasantville]]''. Basically, the trope was a basketball, and ''Pleasantville'' was the [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlem_Globetrotters:Harlem Globetrotters|Harlem Globetrotters]].
* Parodied in the ''[[Rocky and Bullwinkle]]'' movie, where the protagonists pass three ''identical'' small towns during their cross-country trip. Naturally, the characters [[Lampshade]] this.
* The town in ''[[Edward Scissorhands]]'' is pretty much like this trope (Exceptexcept for the out-of-place Gothic mansion on a hill in the centre, and the fact that some people are not as nice as they seem in the beginning).
* Carvel, in the ''[[Andy Hardy]]'' films of the 1930s and '40s.
* Edge City in ''[[The Mask (Filmfilm)|The Mask]]''.
* Fringe City in ''[[Son of the Mask]]''.
* Sherwood, Ohio in ''[[Heathers]]''.
* Smalltown, USA, in ''[[The Muppets (Filmfilm)|The Muppets]]''.
* Woodsboro, California in ''[[Scream (Filmfilm)|Scream]]''.
* Bomont, Utah in ''[[Footloose]]''.
 
== [[Literature]] ==
* In [[Bill Bryson]]'s ''The Lost Continent'', he goes off across America in search of the quintessential small town (an idea he most likely got from the famous Universal Studios backlot). He starts out thinking the best examples will be in the Midwest, but discovers they're mostly in [[New England]] and the [[Deep South]].
** He eventually decides that he'll just have to start picking out his favorite bits of the towns he's passed through and create his own ideal [[Everytown, America]], which he dubs Amalgam.
 
== [[Live -Action TV]] ==
* Mayberry, North Carolina of ''[[The Andy Griffith Show]]'' and ''Mayberry, R.F.D.'' (and referenced in ''[[Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.]]''); stated to be 60 miles from Raleigh, NC.
* Mayfield of ''[[Leave It to Beaver]].''
* Cicely, Alaska of ''[[Northern Exposure]].''
* Rutherford, Ohio of ''[[3rd Rock Fromfrom the Sun]]''.
* Westbridge, Massachusetts of ''[[Sabrina the Teenage Witch (TV series)|Sabrina the Teenage Witch]]''.
* Subverted with Sunnydale, California in ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)|Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]''. {{spoiler|The whole point of founding the town was for a cultist to create the [[Hell Gate|Hellmouth]]}}.
* Wellsville of ''[[The Adventures of Pete and Pete]]''. Also an example of [[Where the Hell Is Springfield?]].
** One episode stated that it's in Michigan, if I recall correctly.
* Pawnee, Indiana of ''[[Parks and Recreation (TV)|Parks and Recreation]]'', creating an aversion of [[Down Onon the Farm]] at the same time.
* Stars Hollow, Connecticut of ''[[Gilmore Girls]]'' fame is definitely this, however, it's somewhat a subversion of the actual trope, in that IS perfectly normal.
* Haven, Maine is not to be found anywhere in Maine except in the series ''[[Haven]]'' (and a couple of [[Stephen King]] novels), but there is a North Haven in Maine.
** There's also Cabot Cove, Maine in ''[[Murder, She Wrote]]''; and Crabapple Cove, Maine in ''[[MASHM*A*S*H (television)|M*A*S*H]]''; and just when I was about to ask if everything is a cove in Maine, I remembered the very real and very pretty Christmas Cove, Maine.
* ''[[Warehouse 13]]'' is located in an Unincorporated Unnamed Settlement, in South Dakota, known as Univille.
* Pickford in ''[[Phil of the Future]]''.
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== [[Theatre]] ==
* Angel's Roost, Washington in ''[[The Golden Apple (Theatre)|The Golden Apple]]''. It lies in the shadow of Mount Olympus, but that's only significant as a [[Mythology Gag]] (though the state of Washington really does have a mountain named that).
* Bomont, Texas in the [[All Musicals Are Adaptations|stage musical]] of ''[[Footloose]]''.
 
== [[Video Games]] ==
* [[First Town|Onett]], from ''Videogame/Earthbound'' is the quintessential '80s Amer- er, [[Eagle Land|Eaglandian]] town, replete with school, burger joint, arcade, City Hall and gang of street toughs. And a meteor, but we don't talk about the meteor. See also [[Deep South|Twoson]] and [[There's No B in Movie|Threed]] for variations on the theme, but Onett plays it to the hilt.
* Podunk, from ''[[MOTHER 1 (Video Game)|Mother]]'' is a prototype of Onett.
* ''[[Secret of Evermore]]'' also starts in the town of Podunk. It's a popular name.
* ''[[Grand Theft Auto II]]'' takes place in Anywhere City. Unlike the cities in the first game, Anywhere City doesn't resemble any real city in particular.
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== [[Western Animation]] ==
* Springfield of ''[[The Simpsons (Animationanimation)|The Simpsons]]''.
* Elwood City of ''[[Arthur (Animationanimation)|Arthur]]''.
* Walkerville of ''[[The Magic School Bus (Literature)|The Magic School Bus]]''.
* Radiator Springs in ''[[Cars]]''.
* Played surprisingly straight in ''[[South Park (Animation)|South Park]]''. Only occasionally does anyone wonder why so much seems to happen in an otherwise anonymous Colorado town, and no explanation is ever given.
* Middleton, home of ''[[Kim Possible (Animation)|Kim Possible]]'', besides appearing to be a hotbed of science labs and the odd [[Supervillain Lair]]. Part of a tri-city area including Lowerton and Upperton, and a case of [[Where the Hell Is Springfield?]].
* The show ''[[Hey Arnold (Animation)|Hey Arnold!]]'' takes place in the fictional American city of Hillwood.
* ''[[The Fairly Odd Parents (Animation)|The Fairly Odd ParentsOddParents]]'' is set in Dimmsdale, California. An average American town filled with weirdness, in part because of Timmy Turner and his fairies.
* Subverted in ''[[Earthworm Jim (Animationanimation)|Earthworm Jim]]''. Terlawk, New Jersey has a crappy strip mall and a couple of old guys sitting on a porch predicting rain with their kneecaps, but every week they sit and not only watch the alien invasion, but explain that one or the other of them may have caused it. Also, they live next door to a giant earthworm in an alien power suit.
* Frostbite Falls, Minnesota, even after ''[[Wesern Animation/Rocky And Bullwinkle|Rocky Andand Bullwinkle]]'' got famous.
* Peach Creek of ''[[Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy (Animation)|Ed, Edd n Eddy]]''. The craziness that ensues there is usually from the Eds' antics.
* Hazelnut of ''[[Pepper Ann]]''.
* Quahog, Rhode Island of ''[[Family Guy (Animation)|Family Guy]]''.
* Langley Falls, Virginia, in ''[[American Dad (Animation)|American Dad]]''.
* Arlen, Texas, from ''[[King of the Hill (Animation)|King of the Hill]]''.
 
== Other ==
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:UsefulIndexed Notes/TheStates Unitedof StatesAmerica]]
[[Category:Small Towns]]
[[Category:Everytown America{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:TropeSettings]]
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