Where did Joanie Love Chachi?

23 min readDec 21, 2016

Where were your favorite TV shows set? Which cities “hosted” the most shows and which were the best in each city? I answer those questions in this exhaustive post about television history and pop culture. And yes, you will find out where Joanie and Chachi tried to be rock stars.

Los Angeles : Detectives for hire

Los Angeles and the surrounding area have been the setting for the most TV shows.

Logistically it makes sense for television shows to be set in southern California: the studios are there, the actors are there, the weather is beautiful. Probably 2/3 of the shows in this article that were set somewhere else, where actually shot on sound stages in Hollywood. Jerry Seinfeld’s exterior scenes were shot on a “New York City street” built in LA.

The first thing you notice when you look at the list of TV shows set in LA is how many of them are about detectives, cops, private investigators, or law enforcement teams.

Here’s the list of choices for reporting or locating a missing person in LA:

Private investigators Stu Bailey and Jeff Spencer (77 Sunset Strip)
Officers Pete Malloy and Jim Reed (Adam-12)
Barnaby Jones, PI (Barnaby Jones)
Private detective Joe Cannon (Cannon)
Sabrina Duncan, Kelly Garrett, and Jill Munroe, three talented and beautiful private detectives (Charlie’s Angels)
Motorcycle cops Frank “Ponch” Poncharello and Jon Baker (ChiPs)
The crumpled yet brilliant Det. Columbo (Columbo)
Partners Joe Friday and Bill Gannon, two hard-working police detectives (Dragnet)
Jet-setters Jonathan and Jennifer Hart, amateur detectives (Hart to Hart)
Tough private eye, Joe Mannix (Mannix)
Maddie Hayes and David Addison of the Blue Moon Detective Agency (Moonlighting)
Kensi Blye or G. Callen, special agents of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS: Los Angeles)
Sgt. Pepper Anderson (Police Woman)
Lt. “Hondo” Harrelson, Sgt. “Deacon” McKay and the Special Weapons and Tactics unit (S.W.A.T.)
Flamboyant detectives David Starsky and “Hutch” Hutchinson (Starsky & Hutch)
Private eye Jim Rockford, a specialist in missing person and cold cases (The Rockford Files)
Detective Vic Mackey of an experimental division of the LAPD (The Shield)

And if you get into trouble with the law you can go big firm (LA Law) or turn to trusted lawyer Perry Mason. Need someone to fund your legal battle? How about Jed Clampett from Beverly Hillbillies?

45 TV shows set in Southern California

The City That Never Sleeps : Where Ralph Kramden yelled at Alice, and Kramer pestered Jerry

There are five New York boroughs: Manhattan, the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, and Staten Island. According to my research I found 38 television shows that have been set in New York or New York state and have lasted at least a few seasons. There are likely more, but I got the big hits here.

Ralph Kramden could have been your bus driver in New York City.

Seinfeld: Where did they live?
Jerry’s apartment was located at 129 West 81st Street in the Upper West Side. George’s parents’ home (where he briefly lives) is in Flushing, Queens. Elaine lives at 16 W. 75th Street, a few blocks south of Jerry. Of course, Kramer lives across the hall from Jerry and uses that close proximity to his advantage.

Is Seinfeld the best sitcom ever? It’s certainly among the best when you consider writing, cultural impact, and commercial success. In fact, no other TV show has ever earned more money than Seinfeld. But I have a different choice for best sitcom ever, which I’ll reveal later in this article.

Shows set in Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the hip, trendy part of the city. Shows set here have included Welcome Back, Kotter and The Cosby Show. One show starred a standup comedian who seemed like a weirdo, and the other show starred a standup comedian who seemed like a saint. Neither of those assumptions was correct.

Shows set in Manhattan
Manhattan is where TV execs like to place their shows in the Big Apple. No fewer than ten shows have been in this NYC borough, including:

The Odd Couple: which featured one of the best one-two punches in TV history in leading men Jack Klugman and Tony Randall.
Diff’rent Strokes: a story about a millionaire who adopts two black kids from a poor and desperate situation and struggles with incorporating them into his life.
Night Court: an underrated show that was created by the folks who did Barney Miller and has some of the same setup and humor.
How I Met Your Mother: ran from 2005 to 2014 and 208 episodes, teasing the audience with the identity of the main character’s eventual wife. In some ways groundbreaking, in other ways self-important and annoying.

The special charm of Queens
There have been three half-hour sitcoms set in Queens and they each lasted quite a while.

The Honeymooners ran from 1951 to 1956 and was the #2 show in the U.S. at its peak. It was born as a radio sketch and was usually filmed as a one-stage show like a play.

From 1971 to 1979, All in the Family dominated the TV landscape, topping out as the #1 show for five consecutive years. With Carroll O’Connor’s Archie Bunker as the central star, the show revolutionized television as it confronted the topics of race, gender, and class. The acting and writing were as good as we’ve ever seen on the small screen.

And then there was The King of Queens, in many ways a modern version of The Honeymooners. The main character was an everyman working a grunt job with a foul-mouthed wife and a goofy friend and no kids. The King of Queens lasted nine seasons and more than 200 episodes. It was not a ratings success: never breaking the top twenty.

Somewhere in New York City
Want New York’s finest? Pick from Cagney & Lacey, CSI:NY, Law & Order, and NYPD Blue. Or choose a sweet-talking street-wise wise-guy like Kojak.

Comedy super hits Friends and I Love Lucy were set in New York City. So was Mad About You, Will & Grace, and Taxi, which literally drove around the city that never sleeps.

Rhoda moved to New York, as did The Jeffersons. Both were never the same again.

The overrated Everybody Loves Raymond took place on Long Island, as did Growing Pains. Greenwich Village was home to the neighborhood’s favorite police precinct in the quirky but sweet Barney Miller, and the two single ladies starting all over again in Kate & Allie.

New Rochelle hosted The Dick Van Dyke Show (the best sitcom of the 1960s), and Flushing had The Nanny.

Which was better? New York or LA?
For geographic reasons, southern California was home to more shows than New York, especially after the industry moved to the west coast. But which city had the better shows?

As outlined above, LA is best for cop dramas. NCIS: Los Angeles is better than NYPD Blue. Charlie’s Angels is sexier than Cagney & Lacey. Advantage LA.

But when it comes to yucks, go to the Big Apple. Seinfeld beats Two and a Half Men. Friends is better than The Brady Bunch. When it comes to comedy, it’s really not close: New York is George Carlin hilarious, while LA is Dane Cook.

38 TV shows set in New York City and surrounding area

Best Shows for each State

The Midwest : You’re Gonna Make It After All…

The Mary Tyler Moore Show is the greatest situation comedy in television history. It was the first show to feature a single woman working in a career. It was the first show to shuttle in a series of “dating prospects” for the main character, a tactic sitcoms are still copying to this day. Without The Mary Tyler Moore Show, there would have been no 30 Rock. It was the first show to successfully and consistently air interesting and funny dialogue for fully developed characters in the workplace. In that way it influenced shows like Barney Miller, Taxi, Murphy Brown and even Cheers. It was the first show to spin off three shows that lasted (Rhoda, Phyliss, and Lou Grant). It launched the careers of nearly every major member of the cast: Ed Asner, Ted Knight, Gavin McLeod, Valerie Harper, Betty White, and Cloris Leachman all went on to anchor successful programs on the small screen. The show took on the women’s liberation movement, sexual identity, gender politics, sexism, and many other important issues. But it did so while being entertaining and funny. As you’ll see below, TMTM, which was set in Minneapolis, was also immensely influential.

From 1976 to 1985, for nine seasons, Linda Lavin starred in Alice, a popular program on CBS that was based in Mel’s Diner in a suburb of Phoenix, Arizona. The series was sort of a lower middle-class single-mom version of The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
From 1975 to 1984, for nine seasons, Bonnie Franklin starred in One Day at a Time, a popular program on CBS that was based in Indianapolis, Indiana. The series was sort of a lower middle-class single-mom version of The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
From 1978 to 1982, for four seasons, Gary Sandy starred in WKRP in Cincinnati, a popular program on CBS that was based in Cincinnati, Ohio. The series was almost an exact male version ripoff of The Mary Tyler Moore Show. The theme song was reminiscent of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and of course the setting was a media company in a midwestern city.
From 1993 to 1998, for five seasons, Brett Butler starred in Grace Under Fire, a popular program on ABC that was based in Missouri. The series was sort of a divorced single-mom version of The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
From 2009 to 2015, for seven seasons, Amy Poehler starred in Parks and Recreation, a popular program on NBC that was based in fictional Pawnee, Indiana. The series was sort of a upper middle-class, yuppie version of The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

Wisconsin
Two powerhouse sitcoms were set in Milwaukee: Happy Days and its spinoff, Laverne & Shirley. Both shows were created and produced by Garry Marshall, and both won or were nominated for many awards. Probably no other TV show creator developed more memorable characters than Marshall, who gave us Richie Cunningham, Potsie, Ralph Malph, and of course The Fonz on Happy Days alone. Then there was Laverne, Shirley, Lenny and Squiggy, and Mork from Ork, who had his own hit show after coming to life as a dream sequence on Happy Days.

Shows set in Ohio
The Drew Carey Show followed many of the same rules set down in The Mary Tyler Moore Show blueprint: lovable characters on a show revolving around the title character and his work life/home life balance. There was also the family unit shows 3rd Rock From the Sun, a sitcom difficult to categorize that was well ahead of its time in terms of writing and pace, and Family Ties, a good-enough sitcom set in Columbus.

Minnesota and Michigan
Dobie Gillis (Minneapolis/St. Paul), Coach (somewhere on a college campus in Minnesota), and Little House on the Prairie (19th century Minnesota wilderness) are three shows that called The Gopher State home.

So far, Detroit has been home to only one lasting show: Home Improvement, the sitcom vehicle for comedian Tim Allen, a Michigan native.

Other shows from Illinois
A pair of programs: Father Knows Best and Roseanne (which could have been called Mother Knows Least), were set in Illinois but not in Chicago. Roseanne and her brood lived in the fictional town of Lanford. Dad Jim Anderson (played by Robert Young in more than 200 episodes) and his family lived in Springfield.

Pennsylvania
Two critically acclaimed sitcoms were set in Pennsylvania: It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and The Office (Scranton). Both are love em or hate em shows with clever writing and unique setups, the first an ensemble without a redeeming character, the second a mock documentary.

19 TV shows set in rural Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin

Flyover Country : Cowboys and aliens

Some of the weirdest television shows have been set in America’s Old West. From cowboys (U.S. Marshal Matt Dillon) to aliens (Mork from Ork), we’ve seen some crazy things in flyover country.

Comments on a few shows in these states:

Alaska was home to sitcom Northern Exposure, which earned 57 award nominations in only five years on the air from 1990 to 1995.
The previously mentioned Alice served eggs and bacon with an attitude at a greasy spoon on a dusty highway outside Phoenix, Arizona.
Three fine dramas have been set in New Mexico: McCloud, Breaking Bad, and it’s spinoff prequel Better Call Saul. In McCloud, Dennis Weaver’s title character actually moved to New York, but he hailed from Taos.
Bonanza was the second-longest running western in TV history, running from 1959 to 1973 and 431 episodes. It took place in Virginia City, Nevada.
Only one show has been set in the sparsely populated North Dakota, that being Fargo. Wyoming also had only one, the western Cheyenne.
The prize for worst shows has to go to Oregon, which served as the backdrop for cult favorite Portlandia and Hello, Larry. The latter show, starring McLeon Stevenson, is considered by some to be the worst sitcom in TV history. And that’s saying a lot, seeing as how they once gave Rob Schneider his own show called iRob.
The big state of Texas has not done well with TV shows. Dallas was one of the most successful prime time soap operas in history, ushering in a wave of that type of program. Then there was Flo (a spinoff of Alice), Walker, Texas Ranger, and the animated King of The Hill.
I’m sure there have been other shows set in Seattle, but Frasier (strangely the only spinoff from Cheers) is the only one worth mentioning. It lasted 11 seasons, just like Cheers, and 264 episodes featuring the talented Kelsey Grammer.

20 TV shows set in Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Nevada, North Dakota, Oregon, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming

Country Folk : Where did Opey go to school?

Arkansas
As far as I can tell, only one show: Evening Shade, has been set in Arkansas, and it’s about a football coach. The show was so southern in charm that each episode ended with a “moral” told by one of the characters.

Alabama
I can also only find one TV show taking place in Alabama, and surprise(!) it’s not about football. B.J. and the Bear emerged out of the trucker/CB radio craze of the late 1970s. It lasted for just 48 episodes and it was hard to stomach, but kids loved the chimpanzee who was named “Bear” after Alabama football coach Paul “Bear” Bryant. So there’s your football connection.

Georgia
When anyone thinks of TV shows and The Peach State, they immediately remember The Dukes of Hazzard, the Confederate States answer to The Cosby Show. The show was so hillbilly and redneck, it made the people of Mayberry look like urban hipsters. Despite it’s cultural popularity, the show that featured the “General Lee” and Daisy’s tight-ass jean shorts only finished in the top ten in three of their seven seasons in fictional Hazzard County, GA. The show may have been “Hee Haw on wheels”, but it was forgettable. Other shows set in Georgia had more success.

Critics hailed Andy Griffith in his TV series return as Ben Matlock, a criminal defense attorney working out of Atlanta. Matlock was on the air for nine seasons and 195 episodes. It also spawned a spinoff, Jake and the Fatman, which gave William Conrad (Cannon) his return to stardom on the small screen and went on for more than 100 episodes.

The queen of Georgia-based series was Designing Women, which succeeded on all levels. The show and the ensemble female cast were nominated or won several awards and lasted seven years starting in 1985. Fast fact: the house shown in the intro to Designing Women was actually located in Arkansas.

Louisiana
As far as I can tell, only one show that lasted more than a season (NCIS: New Orleans) has been set in The Big Easy.

Mississippi
Quick: For which TV show did Carroll O’Connor receive an award from the NAACP? If you guessed All In The Family, you are incorrect. O’Connor received two NAACP Image Awards for his work on In The Heat Of The Night, a crime drama set in fictional Sparta, Mississippi. In this series, O’Connor was able to pull off three things that are rarely if ever done. First, he overcame the stereotype of playing one of the most famous TV characters in history (Archie Bunker). Second, he pivoted from playing a bigot to playing a sympathetic white police chief in a racially divided southern town. Lastly, he earned Emmy Awards for playing the lead in a drama after having done the same for a situation comedy in All In The Family.

North Carolina
There is no place called Mayberry in North Carolina. But the small, rural town was an idyllic home that served as an attractive diversion for TV viewers from 1960, just a few weeks before John F. Kennedy was elected, to 1968, when Americans were struggling to make sense of the race riots breaking out in cities across the country. The Andy Griffith Show spawned two spinoffs: Gomer Pyle, USMC (set in San Diego) and Mayberry RFD, which essentially replaced the parent show. Between his work as Opey on The Andy Griffith Show and Richie Cunningham on Happy Days, Ron Howard was on television from ages 6 to 14 and 20 to 30 for approximately 419 episodes of television.

Virginia
The show A Different World was a spinoff from the most successful sitcom of the 1980s, The Cosby Show. It was set in Virginia where Cosby’s daughter Denise is attending fictional Hillman College, a historically black college.

The Waltons bucked trends and lasted for nine seasons despite debuting as the industry was purging rural-themed shows like The Andy Griffith Show, Green Acres, Gomer Pyle, USMC and others. The show about the Walton Family located near Schuyler, Virginia on fictional Walton Mountain, was an American story being told by an unseen narrator. It climbed to #2 in Nielsen Ratings in its second season but failed to match that success in later years when it survived due to a loyal following and critical acclaim. It received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series in 1973 and several actors won or were nominated multiple times for their work on the show.

West Virginia
We know a lot about Hooterville, but we don’t know exactly where it was located. The best guess is somewhere in rural West Virginia. But it’s possible Petticoat Junction and Green Acres, the two shows set in Hooterville, were actually in the western part of the U.S. If we only knew for sure, we could make a run to Drucker’s Store to see Sam for some bacon licorice or dehydrated chickens, two items actually mentioned on the shows.

11 TV shows set in Arkansas, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia

Chicago : You’re almost happy to go to the hospital

If you’re a TV character and you’re going to break your leg, you want to do it in Chicago. Or if you’re a nurse and want to meet a handsome doctor, Chicago is the place. The city has been home to two of the most successful medical dramas in TV history.

The hour-long drama ER debuted in 1994. It was set in the emergency room at the fictional County General Hospital. It won 23 prime time Emmy Awards and tackled many sensitive issues. It lasted for 15 seasons and 331 episodes, the longest run of any American medical drama in history. It also launched the career of movie star George Clooney.

One evening before ER came on the air for the first time on NBC, Chicago Hope debuted on CBS. Eventually the two new medical dramas squared off in the same time slot. ER prevailed, but Chicago Hope lasted for six seasons and 141 episodes. The NBC show was just more hip. ER had Clooney, Chicago Hope had Mark Harmon. Hope felt like the show your mom would watch.

Other Chicago-based TV shows:

The crime drama Hill Street Blues remains one of the most well-crafted TV shows in history. It pioneered the idea of a large ensemble cast, later performed well by The West Wing and others. There’s some controversy over whether or not Hill Street Blues was actually set in Chicago. Technically, the show never mentions what city it’s in, but police cars used in the series are identical to Chicago police cars and the entire show has a very deliberate Midwestern feel.
The best sitcom set in Chicago has been The Bob Newhart Show, which added “Hi Bob!” to the American lexicon.
Then there’s Good Times, Mike & Molly, Webster, Perfect Strangers (and its’ spinoff Family Matters), five second-rate comedies set in the Windy City. Good Times is the best of the group, starring breakout star Jimmy Walker in a role that was very popular in the 1970s. Similarly, Webster’s Emmanuel Lewis became a star in the 1980s during that show’s six-year run.
Where did Joanie love Chachi? Well, technically their romance began in Milwaukee on Happy Days, but the two shared an apartment in Chicago on Joanie Loves Chachi. The terrible spinoff somehow lasted 17 episodes over two seasons.
A special place in TV history belongs to My Three Sons, a fine show that was set in fictional Bryant Park, a suburb of Chicago. The show centers on Steven Douglas, played by Fred MacMurray, a widower with three sons. This show aired 380 episodes in twelve seasons. It’s unique in that on one network, was cancelled, and found a home on a rival network for the final seven seasons. While it was never a ratings smash, My Three Sons was sweet, wholesome entertainment for a long time.

12 TV shows set in Chicago

Washington D.C. : Fake presidents and silly spies

Predictably, the shows based in D.C. have revolved around the government, either crime fighting spies and espionage, or the White House. The best drama based in D.C. is NCIS, currently in its 15th year on the air. It’s spawned two spinoffs (NCIS: Los Angeles and NCIS: New Orleans). It’s one of the longest-running scripted dramas in television history and has won numerous accolades.

Two comedies have been based in our capitol: Get Smart and Veep. Both focus on bumbling lead characters, the former a spy, the other the actual Vice-President (and later President) of the United States. Both are hilariously funny, but in different ways. Get Smart is harmless fun, featuring an iconic comic performance by the talented Don Adams. Veep is riotously funny while also being scary funny at the same time. It’s disturbing to realize that the self-absorbed, greedy characters on the show are close to the reality of what we get in government. Both shows had clever writing.

My favorite show from The Beltway is Mission: Impossible, which aired for seven seasons and more than 170 episodes. Each show was like a mini-spy movie, usually employing ingenious plot devices and twists.

Both JAG and Homeland, as well as 24, are dramas built on the foundation of crime, investigation, intrigue and American patriotism. Of course 24 revolutionized TV by broadcasting minute-by-minute episodes that mirrored real-time.

Two successful shows have been built around Presidents: House of Cards and The West Wing. But the feel of the shows couldn’t be more different: The West Wing, which starred Martin Sheen as POTUS, was soft and policy-based with a liberal sensitivity; while Cards is grungy, manipulative, and violent, held up by a POTUS played by Kevin Spacey. The latter is better but it’s future is in doubt after the dismissal of Spacey for actions that strangely didn’t matter to people when they were voting on a real president.

Let’s not forget about The Six Million Dollar Man, a show which starred Lee Majors as Steve Austin, a former astronaut who’s turned into a superhuman after an accident. This is the sort of X-Men type stuff audiences would love today. The show was campy and had some terrible writing, but it was immensely popular. It was good enough, or maybe financially successful enough, to spawn a spinoff (The Bionic Woman). This show actually had the balls to air an episode in which the lead character becomes friends with a “misunderstood” Bigfoot. Yes, really.

10 TV shows set in Washington D.C. and Baltimore

San Francisco : NoCal NoGood TV

When Dharma & Greg is the best show ever set in your city, you have a problem. That sitcom earned six Emmy nominations and lasted five seasons, but it hardly held up to other 1990s heavyweights like Seinfeld, Friends, or even Mad About You, all set in New York.

A spinoff that should have never been allowed out of the pitch meeting was Phyliss, starring Cloris Leachman in the title role as the character from The Mary Tyler Moore Show. It was the second of at least three spinoffs from TMTM, following Rhoda (a much better show) and preceding Lou Grant (also much better and the only drama of the TMTM children).
Another spinoff, Trapper John, M.D. was more worthwhile than Phyliss. In this spinoff we see Dr. John McIntyre nearly three decades after his discharge from M*A*S*H*. By that time he’s mellowed and is working as the chief of surgery at SF Memorial Hospital. Now that I think about it, this solid drama starring Pernell Roberts (Bonanza)is more worthy of the “Best TV Show set in San Fran” title than Dharma & Greg, even if Trapper was less successful.
Hotel, Suddenly Susan, and Full House: don’t have much to say about these forgettable shows. Ditto Falcon Crest and Silicon Valley.
Starring Raymond Burr, Ironside is the type of show you didn’t expect to see on television in the 1960s and 1970s. The star was a relatively unexciting middle-aged former detective-turned consultant in a wheelchair. He wasn’t going to chase the bad guys or get in any fights, ala Mannix or James Rockford. But credit for the eight years of success of this show rests on the shoulders of Burr, who had built a great relationship with the American viewing public in his previous role as Perry Mason (which was based down the coast in LA). Between the two shows, Burr appeared as the star in 470 episodes of TV.
Talk about star power: The Streets of San Francisco (has there ever been a cooler TV show name?) had both Karl Malden and Michael Douglas when it began a five-year run in 1972. They played sharp-dressed, hard-nosed detectives.
There’s something about San Francisco and movie stars. In McMillan & Wife, Rock Hudson teamed with Susan Saint James in the title roles. McMillan is the SF Police Commissioner (do Malden and Douglas from Streets work for him?) and Saint James is his attractive fashion plate wife. This show was part of NBC’s “wheel series” with Columbo and McCloud, also cop shows.

11 TV shows set in San Francisco and northern California

The Northeast : One show was just a dream

The upper Northeastern States have an image problem. People there are considered stuffy and snooty. The rest of America pictures them wearing high-neck sweaters and slurping maple syrup for breakfast. But the shows set there have been very diverse:

In Providence, which is set in that Rhode Island town, a cute family shares a home that’s haunted by the dead mother, who gives life advice to her daughters.
The popular comedy Bewitched was set in Westport, Connecticut, where Darrin Stephens lives with his beautiful wife Samantha, who happens to be a witch. Darrin commutes to New York to his job with McMann & Tate, a Madison Avenue advertising agency. A lot of people forget this, but Bewitched was one of the most successful TV shows in history. It stayed near the top of the Nielsen ratings for eight seasons from 1964 to 1972 and survived the transition from black-and-white to color and the loss of a major cast member (Darrin).
Judging Amy (Hartford), Who’s The Boss? (Fairfield), and Gilmore Girls (Stars Hollow) were all set in Connecticut. As was Orange Is The New Black (at the Danbury Correctional Facility). As far as I can tell, Orange is the only long-running TV show to be set inside an American prison. Hogan’s Heroes was in a concentration camp located in Germany during World War II, but it wasn’t nearly as titillating.
The prime time soap opera/comedy Soap was based in the fictional community of Dunn’s River, Connecticut. The show broke a lot of ground, including having the first openly gay character. It’s clever use of satire and extended in-jokes and story lines influenced later comedies like The Office, Arrested Development and others.
Only one show has been set in Maine: Murder, She Wrote, one of the most successful programs in history. It ran for twelve years and was in the top ten each year, it spawned TV movies and a spinoff and continues to do very well in syndication. Not bad for a show starring a senior citizen author.
A singular show has been set in Vermont: Newhart, the second hit for comedian Bob Newhart, which ran eight seasons and 184 episodes. In the finale it was revealed that the show was a dream from the mind of Newhart’s character in The Bob Newhart Show (set in Chicago), which ran six seasons and 142 episodes in the 1970s. In all, (counting his third eponymous show titled simply Bob) Newhart starred in 359 episodes of his own sitcoms. I think only Lucille Ball and Raymond Burr have done more, among actors who were in two or more shows.

9 TV shows set in Connecticut, Maine, Rhode Island, and Vermont

Boston : Where Everybody Knows Your Name…

There’s something about Boston and lawyers. Three top legal shows were set against the backdrop of the city: Boston Legal, The Practice, and Ally McBeal, which was basically Moonlighting set on the East Coast.

The other two Boston shows are the brilliant medical drama St. Elsewhere, one of the most underrated dramas of all-time, and Cheers, arguably the best sitcom in TV history. For a city its size and importance, Boston has had few TV shows, but it’s done pretty well in the quality category.

Our final Massachussetts show is the sitcom Wings, which was based in Nantucket.

6 TV shows set in Boston and other towns in Massachusetts

Miami : Vice, vice baby

Six of the eight shows set in Florida took place in Miami, which is apparently the place to be. The exceptions are I Dream of Jeanie, which was in Cape Canaveral, and the fantastic Bloodlines, a Netflix Original about a family that “did a bad thing.”

Let’s dispatch quickly with Empty Nest and Dave’s World, two mediocre sitcoms, the first a spinoff of another Florida TV show, the second a misguided vehicle for writer/humorist Dave Barry. Both shows could have been located in hell, for all they’re worth.
Probably no other TV show is more identified with its city than Miami Vice (Cheers and Boston is the most likely challenger to that title). When it hit the air in 1984 it influenced fashion, music, hair styles, etc. It’s also a polarizing show: people either love it or hate it. Like The Dukes of Hazzard, viewers either “got it” or never tuned in.
Of course there’s a CSI franchise set in Miami.
Both the warm, cuddly Golden Girls and disturbing Dexter were set in Miami, and you can’t find two shows more dissimilar than that in one city.

8 TV shows set in Florida

New Jersey : Why aren’t their more good mafia TV shows?

Organized crime has been a popular genre ever since it became, well…organized. New Jersey has been the home to many “mob” related films, but television has only produced one hit mafia show, The Sopranos, which was excellent. Many consider it the best television show of all time.

Why has TV developed so few shows about mafia families? There are two primary reasons, as I see it: (1) the mob is complicated, which doesn’t lend itself to a 30-minute or even a 60-minute bite-size TV show. And (2) it’s hard to sustain sympathy for a series built around a violent criminal. Viewers would much rather watch The F.B.I. (which aired for nine seasons from 1965 to 1974) catch the bad guys than the bad guys get away with it.

So how do we explain the enormous commercial and critical success of The Sopranos? It took the special qualities that a premium cable channel like HBO offers to make the show a hit. The language, sex, and violence could be shown to a modern audience in a way that could never be done before. That, and the superb casting of James Gandolfini as the Italian-American crime boss Tony.

Each of our four New Jersey-based TV shows features a strong, talented leading man:

Tony Soprano and his troubled family lived in North Caldwell, a borough in northwest Essex County in Jersey, west and south of Paterson.
Baretta starred Robert Blake, a talented actor who became a real-life criminal. The iconic 1970s show was set in Newark.
In House, Hugh Lurie plays Dr. Gregory House, an egotistical pill-popping diagnosis expert. He works at a hospital in Princeton, N.J.
Boardwalk Empire is sort of like seeing Tony Soprano 60 years earlier, during the era of Prohibition in Atlantic City. But this time it’s Steve Buscemi as a corrupt figure working from inside the system rather than as an outsider.

4 TV shows set in New Jersey

Hawaii : The best little islands for television

For two decades, from 1968 to 1988, there was a hit TV show based in Hawaii, the 50th state.

When Hawaii-Five-O finally aired its last new episode in 1980 it had been the longest-running cop show in TV history, having lasted twelve years. The phrase “Book Em, Danno!” and the theme music became pop culture legend. This show took place in Honolulu, on the main island of Oahu.
Tom Selleck became a superstar for his portrayal of Thomas Magnum, a hairy-chested hunky private eye living on Oahu in the guest house of a fastidious millionaire in Magnum, P.I. from 1980 to 1988.

2 TV shows set in beautiful Hawaii