Hollywood California: Difference between revisions

{{quote|'''Danny Madigan:''' Where are the ordinary, everyday women? They don't exist because this is a movie!<br />

'''South Central''': Basically, [[Gangsterland|Gangstaland]]. Made famous by ''[[Boyz N the Hood]]'', the [[Gangsta Rap]] scene, and ''[[Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (Video Game)|San Andreas]]'', South Central is forever known in the hearts of concerned parents and rap aficionados alike as a hellish battleground between [[Gang -Bangers|rival gangs]]. Like some of the other [[Hollywood Atlas]] examples, South Central's plight [[Truth in Television|really happened]]. Recently, the Los Angeles government tried to rename the neighborhood "South Los Angeles" due to the negative connotations associated with South Central. (Seeing as how we're still calling it South Central, it didn't take.) The two most well-represented 'hoods in South Central are Watts (part of Los Angeles) and Compton (an independent city). Which one appears in a movie or TV show depends on whether it was made before or after the early '90s (before, and it's Watts, as the riots of 1965 were still in the audience's memory; after, and it's Compton, thanks to [[N.W.A.]] -- and—and since [[Sarcasm Mode|this is a family website]], no, we are ''not'' [[N-Word Privileges|saying what "N.W.A." stands for]]). See also East Los Angeles, a.k.a. the Eastside, a.k.a. South Central {{smallcaps|[[Recycled in Space|WITH HISPANICS!]]}} Which, incidentally, is becoming increasingly true of South Central itself, due to immigration.

'''Hollywood/[[Los Angeles]]''': The place where it all happens. If a major movie or TV show doesn't take place in the [[Big Applesauce]], then it happens here. In movies, it's a given that New York and Los Angeles ''must'' be the first two targets on any terrorists' or aliens' hit list. Used as a commentary on Hollywood, it's either the setting of [[Deconstruction|deconstructionistdeconstruction]]ist work about how harsh the industry is, or the setting of a fluffy comedy piece about how great it is. Either/or. As something of a side-trope, in [[Real Life]], Los Angeles boasts some of the most affluent neighborhoods in North America. Beverly Hills, Bel-Air, and Holmby Hills form what is called the ''"Platinum Triangle"'' of adjoining wealthy communities. Yeah... If you have a series where dramatic conflict centers on purchasing crystal goblets or handblown glass flutes, chances are it takes place here. See [[It Came From Beverly Hills]]. Helpful tip, [[The Fresh Prince of Bel -Air|should you be from West Philadelphia and you get in one little fight and your Mom gets scared; she could send you to live with your relatives here.]]

'''[[San Francisco]]''': Anchor of the Bay Area, the second largest urban area in California. San Francisco itself is known for its extreme liberalism, cable cars, high homosexual population, and its steep [[San Francisco|"stair streets"]] which make the perfect place for [[Hot Pursuit|Hot Pursuits]]s. Obviously, TV pokes fun at this. Occasional sub-trope: Marin County--[[Suburbia]], San Francisco-style! Lots of hills, redwoods, hot tubs, fern bars and aging hippies. It's worth noting that San Francisco is actually only the fourth largest city in California, but few non-residents even know this (after all, who cares about San Diego, the second largest city, and San Jose -- noJose—no one even knows the way to San Jose).

* Averted with [https://web.archive.org/web/20130808025738/http://www.hollisterco.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/HomePage?storeId=10251&langId=-1&catalogId=10201 the Hollister Co. brand of clothing]. While Hollister is a city in California, it betrays the brand image by being nowhere near the coast and is in fact in Northern California. Also the brand is named after fictional founder John M. Hollister.

* [[Green Lantern (Comic Book)|Green Lantern]]'s hometown of Coast City is a [[No Communities Were Harmed|fictionalized version of San Diego]], though it's officially hundreds of miles away in northern Cali.

* ''[[Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew (Comic Book)|Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew]]'''s headquarters are set in "Follywood, Califurnia", Earth-C's version of Hollywood, California. Other southern Califurnian cities and suburbs are mentioned through the series, including "Saint Bernardino" (San Bernadino), "Beaverly Hills" (Beverly Hills), and the dominant city itself, "Los Antelopes" (Los Angeles). The recent "Final Ark" miniseries starts off at a comic convention in the nearby city of "Sandy Eggo" (San Diego), which has various Earth-C versions of San Diego's neighborhoods, sports teams, etc.

* Kind of subverted and kind of played straight in ''[[Anchorman]]'', which was set in San Diego -- aDiego—a city that, in the movie's universe, was mostly characterized by the fact that it wasn't Compton, Hollywood, or San Francisco. It also contains several discussions of cool and uncool parts of the greater Los Angles area.

* ''[[Mulholland Drive]]'' and ''[[LAL.A. Confidential]]''.

* Subverted in the remake of ''[[The Parent Trap (1961 film)|The Parent Trap]]''. Hallie mentions that she lives in California. One of the other campers asks if she like, lives next door to a movie star or something. Hallie replies that she lives in Napa, which is in ''Northern'' California.

* Director Jon Favreau intentionally set ''[[Iron Man (Filmfilm)|Iron Man]]'' in Malibu, California rather than the [[Big Applesauce]] settings of previous Marvel movies.

* ''[[White Men CantCan't Jump]]''.

* [[The Wizard (Filmfilm)|The Wizard]] has the "Video Armageddon" video game tournament take place at Universal Studios Hollywood.

* A notable aversion with the works of [[John Steinbeck (Creator)|John Steinbeck]], many of which are set in the agricultural Salinas Valley, Monterey Bay area and San Joauquin Valley, [[Write What You Know|where he grew up.]] It's now known as Steinbeck Country, despite the fact that his portrayals were rarely flattering (a possible [[Truth in Television]], even now, 70 years removed from the Great Depression). Of course, now that [[Redemption Equals Death|he's dead]] and [[Dead Artists Are Better|acclaimed as one of the greatest American writers ever]], they're happy to name schools, cultural centers and whatever else they can think of after him.

* Every season of ''[[Twenty Four|24]]'' revolves around an attack against, or originating in, Los Angeles. Other places have been visited or referenced. One season focused on Palmdale, an isolated but large desert community about 20 miles outside the Greater Los Angeles Area, so that the show could {{spoiler|nuke it. If you're not a part of the Big Three, you're expendable. To be fair to the terrorists, they didn't originally plan on targeting Palmdale.}}

* Averted in ''[[The Mentalist]]''. The crimesolving team is part of the [https://web.archive.org/web/20090222000427/http://ag.ca.gov/cbi/ California Bureau of Investigation], and so its cases tend to focus on smaller cities in California where the local law enforcement are less prepared to deal with exceptional crimes.

* In ''[[Star Trek (Franchise)|Star Trek]]'' Starfleet Headquarters/Academy is based in San Francisco. ''[[Star Trek IV: theThe Voyage Home (Film)|Star Trek IV the Voyage Home]]'', in fact, was set mostly in 1986 San Francisco.

* ''[[Charmed (TV)|Charmed]]'' is set in San Francisco. Lots of witches, demons, and the like... one could argue that it's California's version of New Orleans. It was, however, clearly filmed in LA. Even the exterior for the manor obviously wasn't shot in SF. A house that, if it were actually in San Francisco, none of the character could even afford the property taxes on. While set in San Francisco it also failed to correspond to any of the standard San Francisco tropes, seemingly less out of aversion than out of a laziness to even stereotype (e.g. all of the characters own cars and drive everywhere despite living in a very dense urban environment where parking is at a premium).

* ''[[Beverly Hills, 90210]]''

* ''[[The OC]]'' is a hilariously extreme version of this, in that only Orange County is [[Hollywood California]] while Chino is a pit of darkness so foul that characters routinely squint their eyes when they arrive in the completely different locale of Orange County.

* The early seasons of ''[[Lost (TV)|Lost]]'' included a surprising number of references to specific cities in Orange County. John Locke lived in Tustin and worked in an Irvine company that Hurley owned.

** Most of the main characters either lived in LA before the crash, lived in LA after leaving the island, or were on their way to LA specifically -- asspecifically—as if LAX isn't just a layover for most people coming to the U.S. from Australia. For example: Jack (pre- and post-island), Kate (post-island), Hurley (pre- and post-island), Sun and Jin (on their way there), Claire (on her way there), Locke (pre-island), Sayid (post-island), Shannon and Boone (split time between LA and NY pre-island).

* ''[[Arrested Development (TV series)|Arrested Development]]'' is set in the OC (don't call it that); the Bluth banana stand is in Newport Beach.

** Interestingly, ''[[Sonic Adventure 2 (Video Game)|Sonic Adventure 2]]'', which features this city, has two stages called "Highway 101" and "Highway 280". Neither of them look like their [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/:U.S._Route_101_in_California Route 101 in California|real-life]] [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_280_%28California%29:Interstate 280 (California)|counterparts]]; instead they're generic-looking causeways set over the ocean.

* Due to being in the ''[[Old World of Darkness (Tabletop Game)|World of Darkness]]'', L.A. in ''[[Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines]]'' isn't very nice...but superficially at least it is quite flashy.

* As a west-coast city with a large red bridge, Jump City of ''[[Teen Titans (Animationanimation)|Teen Titans]]'' is also obviously a thinly veiled version of [[San Francisco]].

* The city of ''[[Monsters, Inc.]]'' contains a reference to the San Francisco skyline (most notably the [TransAmerica] "pyramid" building), which makes sense considering Pixar studios is located in nearby Alameda County.

** ''[[Up (Filmanimation)|Up]]'' features the ice cream store Fenton's, which has a location in Oakland.

* ''[[The Mighty B!]]'' takes place in San Francisco.

* ''[[Jackie Chan Adventures (Animation)|Jackie Chan Adventures]]'' is set in San Francisco, specifically Chinatown, and makes use of the Golden Gate Bridge and Transamerica Pyramid in its opening credits.

* ''[[The Simpsons (Animationanimation)|The Simpsons]]'' episode about The Radioactive Man movie. In the ending, Hollywood is portrayed as a ''[[Utopia]]''.

* ''[[Totally Spies!]]'' has [[Valley Girl]] protagonists in Beverly Hills. And if it weren't for all the supervillains and such, it'd be an awesome life.

* Going to California by [[Led Zeppelin (Music)|Led Zeppelin]].

* Obviously, Hotel California by the Eagles, though the generally upbeat song has a [http[wikipedia://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotel_California_Hotel California (song) |little bit darker meaning.]]

[[Category:Hollywood California{{PAGENAME}}]]

[[Category:TropeIndexed States of America]]