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Television Geography (view source)

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* In the beginning of [[The Wild Stallion]], Miranda Cosgrove's character narrates that she grew up in Cleveland, with an aerial view of a city that is obviously Boston, with shots of the Back Bay, the New England Aquarium, and the Tobin Bridge.
* By contrast, [[Cedar Rapids]] was filmed in Ann Arbor, Michigan instead of the titular city.
* ''[[Leap Year]]'', apart from its appalling [[Oireland]] setting, uses atrocious geography. Anna's flight from Boston to Dublin is diverted to Wales due to weather, although London is a major international hub and a much more obvious place in which to divert the plane. Then, she gets a ferry from Wales to Dingle -- DingleDingle—Dingle being on the ''southwest'' coast of Ireland, ignoring the regular Holyhead-to-Dublin ferry. Dingle is shown as a tiny village when it's actually a moderately-sized town. Then, her journey from Dingle to Dublin passes the Cliffs of Moher and the Burren, neither of which would be anywhere near her route.
* The [[Chase Scene]] is especially prone to [[Television Geography]]. San Franciscans can go on for hours about ''[[Bullitt]]''.
** In ''Bullitt''s chase scene, it seems like ''every'' time they take a right turn onto a downhill street, there's a beige Volkswagen Beetle parked on the right with its back to the camera, in the same spot every time...
** An interview about the first Bourne movie had someone [[Lampshade Hanging|noting]] that the famous car [[Chase Scene]] took a very unconventional route through Paris.
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* ''[[Alien vs. Predator]]: Requiem'' is set in Gunnison, Colorado, a small mountain town of about 5,500 people. The establishing shot of the town is much, much larger than that, as they shot it in Canada at a town with 15x its population.
** Furthermore, Gunnison, Colorado is a semi-arid climate with sagebrush as the predominate vegetation, but ''Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem'' shows massive temperate rainforest trees with moss hanging from the branches. And the storm sewer system is vastly oversized. Humans, aliens, and even a dog use the sewer system like an underground tunnel. Unless it's a CDOT box culvert bridging a creek, the largest possible sewer pipe is maybe 12 or 18 inches in Gunnison.
* In a rare example of a film actually being shot in the location it's set in, ''[[Almost Famous]]'' was filmed in San Diego, California, and several recognizable local landmarks and businesses are visible throughout the movie -- althoughmovie—although, as the film was shot in 2000 and set in 1971, some of the businesses shown had not yet been established, and others operating at the time that had closed since 1971 were not present.
* ''Annapolis'', set at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, was rather obviously not filmed there.
* Wherever the remake of ''[[Assault on Precinct 13]]'' was filmed, it sure wasn't Detroit! Can somebody show me which ghetto was grown over by that forest?
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* In ''[[No Way Out]]'', there's the (nonexistent) Georgetown Metro stop, with the DC Metro being portrayed by the Baltimore Metro.
* Exactly whose mega-mansion was depicted in ''[[Out of Sight]]''?
* As with the TV show ''Inspector Morse'', films set in Oxford (England) tend to frequently play fast and loose with geography -- charactersgeography—characters in ''The Oxford Murders'', for instance, step out of a pub onto the sidewalk in front of a lingerie store on the other side of the road.
** Morse has, for instance, stepped from a cobbled street in the town centre to a park two miles away.
** The Isis (the Oxford stretch of the River Thames) gets similar treatment in the rowing film ''True Blue'', when the climactic race scene jumps randomly back and forward on the river, changing directions occasionally and at one point teleporting to Marlow, 25 miles away in a straight line and much further if you follow the river. Given they seem to have filmed (most of) the race on the fairly short stretch of river that it was supposed to be set on, it must be down to odd dramatic editing choices rather than any lack of care on the director's part.
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** Not to mention the fact that Tesla's Lab was in a very flat, comparably treeless portion of town as compared to the steep sloped, heavy woodlands depicted.
* The indie movie ''A Problem with Fear'' is supposedly set in the Calgary subway. Calgary doesn't have a subway, and if it did the ads in the subway would likely not be in French, as they were in the movie. One wonders why they didn't just set the damn thing in Montreal.
* It's terribly obvious they filmed ''[[Resident Evil: Apocalypse|Resident Evil Apocalypse]]'' in [[Toronto]]. An opening shot in the theatrical version shows the CN Tower, and the climax of the movie occurs at another famous landmark -- Torontolandmark—Toronto's uniquely designed City Hall. Granted, a city so much like Raccoon City doesn't exist.
** [http://torontoist.com/2008/10/reel_toronto_resident_evil_apocalypse/ This] takes the entire thing apart.
{{quote|Despite the economic turmoil, Scotiabank's Racoon City expansion plans were unaffected.}}
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* ''[[Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home]]'' generally wreaks havoc with the geography of the San Francisco Bay Area. A particularly notable moment comes when Kirk and Spock have just left the Cetacean Institute in Sausalito (for which the Monterey Bay Aquarium, well to the south of the Bay Area, is obviously being used). Gillian Taylor pulls over to offer them a lift back into San Francisco. In the background is the Golden Gate Bridge in all its glory, and they are already unmistakably on the San Francisco side of the bridge.
* ''Taking Lives'' is set in Montreal, which you can tell from the establishing shot of... the [http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chateau_Frontenac Château Frontenac]. Oh, dear.
* The [[Tom Hanks]] vehicle ''Turner and Hooch'' includes a conversation scene that repeatedly switches back and forth between two camera angles -- oneangles—one angle looking out at Moss Landing Harbor, and the other, looking inland at Pacific Grove, twenty or thirty miles south.
* ''[[You've Got Mail]]'' takes place in New York but the Golden Gate Bridge is visible when Tom Hanks is walking his dog, Brinkly.
* There is an [[Alfred Hitchcock]] thriller in which the American protagonist comes to Stockholm to receive a Nobel Prize. In one scene he falls off the Symphonic Hall into Lake Malaren, which in fact is about a kilometre away from that building. Also, the seasons are wrong: the Nobel Prizes are awarded in early December when Lake Malaren is about +4 degrees Celsius. If you fall into it, the cold will paralyze you in seconds.
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* The ''[[King Kong]]'' rip-off A.P.E. was set in South Korea. For some reason, despite being filmed in Korea and being co-financed by a Korean film company, they did few establishing shots of Seoul. Instead, two characters simply sit in the backseat of a car and describe Seoul landmarks as they come (the main train/subway station, city hall, the capitol, etc.) In order to see all of these landmarks, they would spend a couple hours driving in different directions.
* The ''[[Green Lantern (film)|Green Lantern]]'' film takes place in fictional Coast City, but there are a lot of recognizable New Orleans landmarks in several scenes. Then again, almost every DC Universe city is a disguised version of a "real world" city. (Just ''which'' city, though, is sometimes [[Fan Wank|open to debate]]...)
* In ''[[The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension]]'' has a number of these scattered throughout. For instance, palm trees are visible in front of what is alleged to be the New Brunswick, NJ police headquarters. And Grovers Mills, NJ -- inNJ—in reality a rural area made up mostly of farmland and residential districts -- looksdistricts—looks like a giant industrial park.
* ''[[The Descent (film)|The Descent]]'' is supposedly set in the American south, but the flora in the external shots is glaringly incorrect, especially the overhead shots of the pine trees. It was filmed in Scotland, which has a completely different conifer species predominating.
* ''[[Jingle All the Way]]'' is set in the [[Twin Cities]], but occasionally can't decide ''which'' of the two cities it's in. In one scene, the action jumps from Rice Park (in downtown St. Paul) to background shots of downtown Minneapolis (about 9 miles away).
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== [[Literature]] ==
* ''[[Left Behind]]'' describes Turkey as being in ''Western Europe''. [http://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2008/05/09/lb-speakerphone/ Slacktivist's page] includes a handy map to demonstrate that is not, in fact, the case.
* Kafka's unfinished book "Amerika" features some serious geographical anomalies -- likeanomalies—like the city of Boston being located "just across the Hudson River" from New York City, or having a character try to travel from New York to San Francisco by heading EAST. Scholars are divided as to whether this was intentional surrealism or Kafka just not doing his homework.
* ''[[Twilight (novel)|Twilight]]'' suffers from this horribly. For instance, Forks is described as being a gloomy town. The real Forks is just as sunny as any other town.
** The story acts like Forks is every cliche about England having way to much rain and clouds in just one town all the time. Its more likely slightly overcast some of the time.
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* ''[[Dead Like Me]]'' is nominally set in Seattle, but they never made any effort to disguise the fact that it was actually Vancouver. They often would do beautiful pans across the city and its landmarks.
* Lampshaded in ''[[Due South]]'', which is set in Chicago but filmed in Toronto. When they did an episode set in Toronto... they filmed it in Chicago. That's fair, isn't it?
* In an episode of ''[[The Facts of Life]]'', set in Peekskill, New York, Mrs. Garrett brings in the newspaper -- thenewspaper—the ''Los Angeles Times'', which is not usually found on the porch in New York.
* Averted in ''[[Forever Knight]]''. The [[Pilot Movie]] took place in the usual Unnamed American City, but the series, filmed in Toronto, was explicitly set in Toronto.
* The substitution of Vancouver for an unnamed city in the US Northwest (presumably Seattle) is so common that the term "Seacouver" is the setting's unofficial name. ''[[The Sentinel (TV series)|The Sentinel]]'' and ''[[Highlander the Series]]'' are examples.
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** An early episode also has a prospective Pattern event ostensibly happen in South Station, but is filmed in a claustrophobic building that doesn't remotely resemble the high-vaulted and open South Station. On top of that "The Box" has a scene take place in Kent Street Station, underground. Except Kent Street is on the C line, ''above ground,'' and isn't a station so much as, well, a stop.
* ''[[Happy Days]]'' frequently displayed palm trees in what was supposed to be Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
** I think you're thinking of ''[[Laverne and Shirley]]'', which moved to California in its later seasons. And of course the iconic episode where Fonzie [[Jump the Shark|did something that changed everything]]. (He did end up moving to a "singles community" in the final episode with a vaguely Polynesian theme and ''fake'' palm trees-- atrees—a sad end for what was once the coolest man in America.)
* The original ''[[Hawaii Five-O]]'' averts this (somewhat) by being mostly filmed in Hawaii. (Exception: "The Singapore File," where Hawaii played Singapore - although the two-part "Once Upon A Time" and the two-hour episodes "Nine Dragons" and "The Year Of The Horse," respectively set mainly in California, Hong Kong and Singapore, averted this trope.) The reboot not so much, despite also being filmed in Hawaii.
** Like rushing on to Ford Island to get to a ship docked in Honolulu Harbor.
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* In the first episode of ''[[Shoebox Zoo]]'' (little-known BBC kids' programme), the protagonist and her father leave a small independent cinema (The Dominion, a real cinema in Edinburgh, Scotland) and in the very next shot are walking down Cockburn Street two and a half miles away.
* ''[[Simon and Simon]]'', set in San Diego, but mostly filmed in Los Angeles, aside from a few inserts here and there. And they did things like taking Balboa Avenue (which does exist in S.D.) to reach Balboa Park (which also exists, but Balboa Avenue does not go to it, or past it, or anywhere near it). Oops.
* ''[[Sliders]]'' -- nominally—nominally set in San Francisco, yet clearly actually filmed in Vancouver -- isVancouver—is notorious for this. One memorable example features the nonexistent Van Ness [http://www.bart.gov/ "BART"] station.
** In the premiere, Quinn leaves his Midwestern-looking neighborhood (you don't see many brick houses in California, for a reason) and jogs across Golden Gate Park to the Berkeley campus. Meanwhile Rembrandt, needing to get to Candlestick Park -- whichPark—which is due south of his home on Telegraph Hill -- inHill—in a hurry, proceeds due west on Lombard Street.
*** In fairness to the show, however, production was shifted to Hollywood from season three onwards. Cue [[California Doubling]] (though most of the show still had them basically in California).
* In ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' (filmed in Vancouver) episode "Memento Mori", Cameron Mitchell is on a highway presumably in Colorado (as that's where Cheyenne Mountain is). The roadsign says "Surrey", and there's no Surrey in Colorado.
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* The first 5 seasons of ''[[The X-Files]]'' were filmed in Vancouver. On David Duchovny's insistence, they relocated to Los Angeles. At least a few fans complained that the new, sunny location didn't have the same gloomy atmosphere as its more northern predecessor.
** One episode of ''[[The X-Files]]'' features a train rolling through an area of jagged hills, scrub brush, and very little green vegetation of any sort. In Iowa, of all places, where basically the entire state is green because if there's available land, somebody's planted corn or soybeans on top of it.
** The episode "Chimera" is set in Vermont in early April. The establishing shot opens onto an Easter picnic. The grass is a vivid bright green, and the children are running around in short-sleeved shirts and jeans or shorts, as are their parents. This is hilarious for any Vermont native (any New England native) because the temperature in Vermont in early April hovers in the mid-30's and there is usually still a good amount of snow on the ground. And even if there isn't snow, the grass is certainly not green. It's called "mud season" for a reason. This seems so ironic, too, for the episode, since other details--likedetails—like area code and zip code (the fictional town Bethany is given real town Bethel's zip code) were correct. And of course, the vegetation is all off for Vermont, the result of filming in California.
** The season 2 episode "Die Hand Die Verletzt" is set in New Hampshire, with many shots filmed in the woods. There is only one problem. Seasons 1-5 were filmed in Vancouver, which has a temperate rainforest feel, while New England has a temperate broadleaf/mixed forest. In other words, those who live in New England can easily spot that most of the trees and ferns simply do not grow in New Hampshire.
* The ''McCloud'' episode "Night of the Shark" was set (and filmed) in Sydney, Australia (unlike the later "London Bridges," which despite involving London wasn't shot there). One scene shows McCloud dashing across the Sydney Harbour Bridge into the city centre. Except that he is going across the bridge in the wrong direction and would actually be heading away from the city.
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** Taking place all over the US but being filmed in LA gives Criminal Minds this problem quite often. In ''Roadkill'' they even invented a whole highway.
* ''<nowiki>[[Spooks: Code 9]]</nowiki>'' was filmed [[Oop North|in Yorkshire]], so when they needed a flashback scene for someone driving from London, they just used a nearby motorway junction. The direction of the shot implies it was the series' actual location was bombed.
* Even live sporting events aren't immune from [[Television Geography]]. In September 2011, [[ESPN]] aired what they claimed was a shot of the skyline of Madison, Wisconsin during a football game between the University of Wisconsin and the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. However, as CNBC's Darren Rovell [http://www.whosay.com/darrenrovell/photos/64273 noted], it was actually stock footage of the skyline in Minneapolis, Minnesota -- 230Minnesota—230 miles northwest of Madison.
** What made it even funnier is that it wasn't the first time that Minneapolis substituted for Madison -- theMadison—the same mistake was made in 2008 on a website. But not just any website... [http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2008/12/oops_wisconsin.php a website run by the state of Wisconsin].
* [[The Hardy Boys Nancy Drew Mysteries]]: the episode "Voodoo Doll" is just ''painful''. Despite having a stock footage opening shot of the real Bourbon Street in New Orleans during Mardi Gras...the Hollywood backlot not only didn't bother to make buildings that looked like New Orleans, but the ep also refers to addresses that don't exist and has the Hardys wandering through a wide, spacious, bury-them-below-ground cemetery...never mind that cemeteries in NOLA in the Quarter are all bury-them-above-ground due to the high water table and jammed-packed.
* [[Dog the Bounty Hunter]] seems to have suffered as of late this trope. For example, during Baby Lyssa's arrest episode, it appears that Leland and Beth are going in opposite directions from where they're intending to go on the H-1 Freeway via the dialogue. And when they went to Maui to apprehend a fugitive, they seem to be on streets that are blocks away from their intended locations.
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== Music ==
* Canadian folk song "This Land of Ours" contains the line: "I have walked on the sand of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland." The Grand Banks are a site where ocean currents converge and are especially good for ''fishing''; you may well have walked on the sand there, but it would have required SCUBA gear and significant weights.
* [[Billy Joel]]'s song "The Ballad of Billy The Kid" includes the lines "And his daring life of crime/Made him a legend in his time/East and west of the Rio Grande." Years later, Joel shamefacedly admitted bungling his geography -- thegeography—the Rio Grande flows west to east, and you can only be north or south of it.
 
 
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* The ''[[Twilight 2000]]'' adventure module "The Black Madonna" is supposedly set in Czestochowa in Poland.
** Though, to be fair, apparently some writers did ''go'' to Krakow. In the middle of Cold War. To write a gamebook. Twenty years of post-Communist development and a conspicuous lack of [[World War III]] later, [[Shown Their Work|the geography and some of the descriptions are still recognisable.]]
* The ''[[Werewolf: The Apocalypse]]'' module "Rite of Passage" appears to be set in some scrunched-up alternate version of Canada that is barely the size of Mexico and bears little resemblance to the real one. Among other things, it describes a village in northern Saskatchewan as being "nestled in the fog-shrouded mountains"<ref>there are no mountains in Saskatchewan</ref> and "mere 150 miles from Toronto".<ref>1,500 miles would have been more believable</ref>.
 
 
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== [[Western Animation]] ==
* [[Lampshade|Lampshaded]]d in ''[[Assy McGee]]''. The series supposedly takes place in Exeter, New Hampshire, a small town, but it is depicted as a crime-ridden metropolis.
* Not exactly geography, but in one episode of ''[[Gargoyles]]'', King Arthur enters Westminster Abbey...by a door that does not exist. The Chapel of Henry the VII is recognisable enough, but the rather significant King Edward's Chair is on the wrong side, against a wall that also does not exist (the chair, at least, did still contain the Stone of Scone at the time the episode would've been written, however).
* Averted in ''[[The Simpsons]]'', which takes great care to get geography down accurately when they visit a major city and to include proper landmarks; for instance, having been released from prison in Tokyo, they are seen to walk away from the Tokyo Police Headquarters (a very distinctive building).
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** And Springfield is somehow in a state that borders on Ohio, Nevada, Maine, and Kentucky, all at once.
*** All at one point too with a recent episode {{spoiler|where someone tries to murder Bart while standing in another state and steps to another state each time cops from said state show up.}}
*** Which was a [[Shout-Out]] [[Brick Joke]] to an earlier episode ([[wikipedia:Itchy %26& Scratchy Land|"Itchy & Scratchy Land"]]<ref>which aired back in [[The Nineties|1994]], [[Archive Panic|kiddies]]</ref>), where the Simpsons stop at Five Corners National Monument (a parody of [[wikipedia:Four Corners Monument|the real-life Four Corners Monument]]) on their way to the park.
{{quote|'''Lisa''': "Aw, haven't we stood in five different states long enough?"
'''Homer''': ''[[Man Child|(petulantly)]]'' "No." }}
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