TV/Movies Megathread

[Sheilbh]

And there's the BBC Smiley series - Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy used Glasgow for the Eastern bloc. Skipped the second book which is largely in south-east Asia because that's too expensive and just re-located Ricky Tarr from Hong Kong (I think - or maybe Istanbul) to Lisbon

[Barrister]

I think I mentioned how I was watching The Good Place with my younger boys.  We finally got to the final episode.

It was quite striking and frankly unusual that on a TV-show budget they actually went to Athens and Paris to shoot some of the scenes for the finale, and not just use stock footage / CGI / closed sets.

[The Larch]

And any place can be Mexico if you shoot with an orange filter on. 

[The Larch]

I think I mentioned how I was watching The Good Place with my younger boys.  We finally got to the final episode.

It was quite striking and frankly unusual that on a TV-show budget they actually went to Athens and Paris to shoot some of the scenes for the finale, and not just use stock footage / CGI / closed sets.

Parks & Rec, from the same people, also did some episodes on location in London and other parts of the UK. Michael Shur doesn't mind spending the money.

[Syt]

And there's the BBC Smiley series - Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy used Glasgow for the Eastern bloc. Skipped the second book which is largely in south-east Asia because that's too expensive and just re-located Ricky Tarr from Hong Kong (I think - or maybe Istanbul) to Lisbon

I read The World According To Garp around the time I moved to Vienna. Irving spent some time in Vienna, and it shows up in several of his stories. I was really disappointed when I watched the movie made after the book that moved the sections set in drab post-war Vienna in 70s New York.

(Though Hotel New Hampshire was truer to the book and had part of it set in Vienna )

As a kid I loved the 80s show "Auf Achse." It was about German truck drivers delivering cargo in (mostly) foreign countries, and getting involved in various adventures trying to fulfill the contract. It was one of the most expensive German shows of its time, because it was shot on location in countries all over Europe and the world (a much bigger deal then than now, and often requiring on the fly changes if local authorities refused to grant filming permits) - Greece (before it was in the EU), Finland, South Africa, Chile, Mexico, Turkey, Thailand, CSSR, Poland, Hungary, ...

[Syt]

And any place can be Mexico if you shoot with an orange filter on. 

I was looking up some of the filming locations on the Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul wiki (did you know that Season 1 Jesse Pinkman's house is IRL around the corner from Chuck McGill's house ). And yeah, all Mexican locations are firmly within New Mexico.

It's not as bad as MacGyver having a chase on "German" roads which are clearly in California.

[The Larch]

And any place can be Mexico if you shoot with an orange filter on. 

I was looking up some of the filming locations on the Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul wiki (did you know that Season 1 Jesse Pinkman's house is IRL around the corner from Chuck McGill's house ). And yeah, all Mexican locations are firmly within New Mexico.

It's not as bad as MacGyver having a chase on "German" roads which are clearly in California.

As long as they only show desert locations I don't really thinks it matters much. 

Cities/Towns is something else, though.

[Syt]

Special mention to National Lampoon's European Vacation which was actually shot on location. (It even included German stage icon and Cologne original Willi Millowitsch.)

[Sheilbh]

It's not as bad as MacGyver having a chase on "German" roads which are clearly in California.

"It's remarkable how England looks in no way like Southern California"

[The Larch]

As a kid I loved the 80s show "Auf Achse." It was about German truck drivers delivering cargo in (mostly) foreign countries, and getting involved in various adventures trying to fulfill the contract.

I recently saw an episode of a documentary on German truckers. It was basically a bunch of fat middle aged dudes in cargo shorts driving all over Europe, having lunch in roadside bars in Sweden, taking ferries to Mallorca and complaining that Italian factory workers were far too slow loading and unloading their trucks. 

[Malthus]

Actually, I always find it fascinating how foreign productions fictionalize other countries (i.e. not filming on location but trying to dress up some other place to look like what it's supposed to be). Vienna is known for it. The Moscow scenes for the Clint Eastwood movie Firefox were filmed in Vienna. Likewise, Vienna stood in for Prague in a Bond movie. In Young Indiana Jones, on the other hand, Prague stood in for 1908 Vienna, so - balance?

Also count in how Vancouver / Toronto have stood in for countless US cities...

They made fun of that a bit in the Resident Evil franchise. It was filmed in Toronto; the city in the movie was called "Raccoon City" - instantly recognizable as a perfectly acceptable alter ego for Toronto! Might as well be called "Raccoon City", they outnumber us here.

[Barrister]

It's not as bad as MacGyver having a chase on "German" roads which are clearly in California.

Another fave - how much "Korea" looked like southern California in MASH...

[Syt]

As a kid I loved the 80s show "Auf Achse." It was about German truck drivers delivering cargo in (mostly) foreign countries, and getting involved in various adventures trying to fulfill the contract.

I recently saw an episode of a documentary on German truckers. It was basically a bunch of fat middle aged dudes in cargo shorts driving all over Europe, having lunch in roadside bars in Sweden, taking ferries to Mallorca and complaining that Italian factory workers were far too slow loading and unloading their trucks. 

Nah, the show sold itself more like this (intro to season 3):

[Syt]

It's not as bad as MacGyver having a chase on "German" roads which are clearly in California.

Another fave - how much "Korea" looked like southern California in MASH...

I recall that was lampshaded in the MAD Magazine spoof.

[The Larch]

As a kid I loved the 80s show "Auf Achse." It was about German truck drivers delivering cargo in (mostly) foreign countries, and getting involved in various adventures trying to fulfill the contract.

I recently saw an episode of a documentary on German truckers. It was basically a bunch of fat middle aged dudes in cargo shorts driving all over Europe, having lunch in roadside bars in Sweden, taking ferries to Mallorca and complaining that Italian factory workers were far too slow loading and unloading their trucks. 

Nah, the show sold itself more like this (intro to season 3):

Gloriously 80s indeed. 

But I could do with more moustaches.

Btw, that show sounds like a kitsch version of "The wages of fear".