waltt@shark.UUCP (Walt Tucker) (02/21/84)
Just to clarify myself (I'll admit some of these reasons might be a little
sketchy) and to give you my reasoning:
The camera pan shows a fairly large, fairly old, industrialized city.
Most of the building are low profile, with no major skyline (in that
particular pan), but with some smokestacks. Other hints in the show,
such as the high heat and high humidity in the summer, and a little
snow in the winter (I'll come back to this later) seem to indicate a
city in the Northeast United States. Also, definately the inner city of
a major metropolitan area.
I ruled out New York for a couple of reasons. One, obviously not Manhatten
because of the absence of tall buildings (check out the camera pan at the
beginning). That would mean Queens or Brooklyn. There is a suspicious
absence of a New York (read Brooklyn) accent. Not once have I heard
subways mentioned :-). I'm not too familiar with New Jersey, so I can't
entirely rule that out.
I ruled out Boston because in the show, the city they are in gets too
hot in the summer and not cold enough in the winter (ever see any more
than a few inches of snow covering the ground in any episode?). Also,
again no accent.
I've only been to the monument area of Washington, DC (and Arlington), so
it could be some industrialized area (say the SE quadant -- at least the
railroad tracks are in the right place) that I''m not familiar with. The
climate would fit -- hot summers and mild, wet winters (some snow but not
too much). Also, the people don't have funny accents :-). But, in the
opening shot, the river is in the wrong place.
If you look around the cities I've mentioned, Norfolk and Richmond, Va
are too small and too far south. Definately not a Canadian city.
Pittsburg, Buffalo, and anything else I can think of is too small.
Now, for Philadelphia. In the opening shot, the river looks right.
The climate is right. People don't have New England or Brooklyn accents.
They use trains and not subways (wasn't that Amtrak at the beginning?). And,
even though I've only been there once (and only for a day), it *looks*
like Philidelphia.
-- Walt
P.S. -- Some of my reasoning could be faulty. I've only been to the
Northeast US once. ariels@orca.UUCP (Ariel Shattan) (02/21/84)
As it happens, there was recently (last week) an blurb on PM Magazine (or Faces and Places) that said that HSB was based on The Hill, an area of Philly that Steven Bochco (or whatever his name is, you know, the head writer and creator) remembers from his days at Carnegie-Mellon. They showed him and four other HSB people who are alumni going back to CM for a homecoming. Included were the actress who plays Faye, the actors who play Belker and Renko, and another writer. I believe the magazine show said that they all knew each other in college at CM. The segment showed the actor who plays Belker finally getting his diploma, which the school wouldn't give him because he owed >$400.00 worth of parking tickets. They didn't say whether he finally paid up. Also, I think I caught that the actress who plays Faye and Steven B. are married, but I'm not sure. So, Walt, you're right, sorta, since the segment did quote S.B. as saying he didn't want to set the show squarely in any city, but only imply a city with certain characteristics. Ariel Shattan ..!tektronix!orca!ariels
moriarty@uw-june (Jeff Meyer) (02/21/84)
This is a great question, one I've worked on for some time, and I tend to agree with ariel, as it seems pretty definate that it's Philly... but one thing. During the hot weather, I remember Joe and Lucy heading to the beach (or talking about it) several times. Never having been to Philly, is this remarkable or what? I seem to remember Hill & Renko doing the same. Oh, Yes, Steve Bocho & Barbara Bosson (Fay) are married. Comments withheld. Trivia Is My Business | Currently residing in | UUCP: -jwm- | {...decvax!}tektronix!uw-beaver!uw-june!moriarty | ARPANET: AKA MORIARTY | moriarty@washington
rs55611@ihuxk.UUCP (Robert E. Schleicher) (02/23/84)
There are two questions to ask in regard to HSB's location: 1. Where is it supposed to take place? 2. Where is filming done? I can't make any comment on where the Hill is supposed to be, and I think I've read that the producers specifically don't mention it so as to make the show applicable to any big city (although presumably in the Northeast or Midwest), for greater audiance identification. As to filming, day to day filming is done mostly in the LA area, and all of the interior shooting is done in LA, where the station house set(s) are. Periodically, the crew goes to Chicago for the shooting of "bulk" quantities of outdoor shots, particularily car scenes, etc., to be used over a number of episodes. For example, the opening car scenes are shot in Chicago, as are any scenes actually showing large amounts of snow. (Then, for closeups, fake snow is used in LA) As someone pointed out, there have been scenes showing I-90/I-94, which run together only in Chicago area. Also, I've recognized street names (from signs, not from dialog), the occasional building (some long shots have shown the Sears Tower in the background), etc. Bob Schleicher ihuxk!rs55611 AT&T Bell Laboratories
ken@ihuxq.UUCP (ken perlow) (02/24/84)
-- >>> As someone pointed out, there have been scenes showing I-90/I-94, >>> which run together only in Chicago area... NOT TRUE. They converge in Madison, Wisconsin, and stay together for over 50 mi, after which 94 heads NNW toward Eau Claire, 90 due W toward La Crosse. Of course, in Madison or its environs, HSB would not be necessary. Just the ramblings of a displaced Madisonian. Got to get back to my co-op. -- *** *** JE MAINTIENDRAI ***** ***** ****** ****** 23 Feb 84 [4 Ventose An CXCII] ken perlow ***** ***** (312)979-7261 ** ** ** ** ..ihnp4!ihuxq!ken *** ***
rkp@drufl.UUCP (Pierce) (02/24/84)
Carnegie-Mellon is in Pittsburgh!
rob@ctvax.UUCP (02/25/84)
#R:shark:-53500:ctvax:43900001:000:546
ctvax!rob Feb 23 21:18:00 1984
That's a giveaway. In Philly, you go to "The Shore", i.e. the New Jersey
coast, not "the beach".
My belief was that HSB took place in an imaginary instantiation of the generic
package MIDWEST_CITY. Real instantiations are Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland
etc. I understood some of the external footage is shot in LA.
Isn't the opening cityscape a bit flat for Pittsburgh?
btw, my local station prempted HSB for the Dean Martin Celebrity Roast!
Grrrr,
Rob Spray
uucp: ... {decvax!cornell!|ucbvax!nbires!|allegra!parsec!}ctvax!rob
chan@hpfcla.UUCP (11/14/85)
For what it's worth, the "Hill" in "Hill Street Blues" comes from
the Hill district: A slum area in downtown Pittsburgh. Note that the
creator of HSB (Steven Bochco) and many of the cast members went
to Carnegie-Mellon (in Pgh).
-- Chan "occasionally homesick for 'the burg'" Benson
{ihnp4 | hplabs}!hpfcla!chan
Hewlett-Packard Company
Fort Collins, CO
(303) 226-3800 x3892
As usual, HP has nothing to do with what I say here.