History Main / FlyoverCountry

Setting a show or a novel here can be shorthand for [[TheFifties '50s-style]] [[TheFundamentalist social conservatism]], [[NothingExcitingEverHappensHere small-town insularity]], or [[PlaceWorseThanDeath a crushingly unhip, even dorky ambiance]] -- think ''Film/{{Pleasantville}}'' or ''NapoleonDynamite''. However, it gets used at least as often to inspire {{nostalgia|Filter}} for {{Eagleland}} Flavor #1, a friendly, down-home environment full of old-time family values where [[Radio/APrairieHomeCompanion all the women are strong, all the men are good-lookin' and all the children are above average]].

The southeastern US, while often considered part of the region, carries many of its own stereotypes. For those, see DeepSouth. The rough UsefulNotes/{{Australia}}n equivalent would be the Outback or, more broadly, the areas outside the "capital cities".

* St. Louis, Missouri

* {{St. Louis}}, Missouri

Needless to say, the truth is a little different. While the states of the central U.S. do skew more rural than urban, the cities therein are as cosmopolitan as any coastal town. There's plenty of culture, style, and nightlife to be found in cities like [[TwinCities Minneapolis]], KansasCity, or Omaha (a full list of oft-featured cities is included at the end), and they have a much lower cost of living than the coasts. And even some of the smaller towns, like Boulder, Colorado[[note]]where ''MorkAndMindy'' was set[[/note]] and Ann Arbor, Michigan[[note]]home of the University of Michigan[[/note]], have their own quirks. There are very few states in the US that don't have at least ''one'' significant metropolitan area.

* [[TwinCities Minneapolis and St. Paul]], Minnesota

Where do you live? [[BigApplesauce New York]]? Awesome. [[LosAngeles L.A.]]? Awesome. KansasCity? Uh... where is that, like, in Idaho or something?

Needless to say, the truth is a little different. While the states of the central U.S. do skew more rural than urban, the cities therein are as cosmopolitan as any coastal town. There's plenty of culture, style, and nightlife to be found in cities like [[TwinCities Minneapolis]], KansasCity, or Omaha (a full list of oft-featured cities is included at the end), and they have a much lower cost of living than the coasts. And even some of the smaller towns, like Boulder, Colorado[[hottip:*:where ''MorkAndMindy'' was set]] and Ann Arbor, Michigan[[hottip:*:home of the University of Michigan]], have their own quirks. There are very few states in the US that don't have at least ''one'' significant metropolitan area.

That all said the depiction of the landscape outside the cities can be quite accurate. The Midwest produces substantial portions of the global supply of corn, wheat, and soybeans (among other crops) so fields in every direction as far as the eye can see is an absolute truth for much of the area. Further more it is all very flat with no more then some low hills. Of course there are limits to this. What Hollywood thinks of as the Midwest holds well for much of Iowa, Kansas, and Nebraska. The farther from that though the more varied the geography almost every state touches mountains and dry badlands to the south and west, or the Great Lakes to the north.

->''A couple of guys in first class on a flight\\
From New York to Los Angeles\\

Who'd want to live down there in the middle of nowhere?''

* Pennsylvania (outside of UsefulNotes/{{Philadelphia}})[[note]]Pennsylvania itself has a mini flyover country. Political strategist James Carville once described it as "Philadelphia in the east, {{Pittsburgh}} in the west, and Alabama in the middle," referring to the central part of the state where coal mining, farming and industry make up the economic backbone. The nickname "Pennsyltucky" describes this region with either derision or SelfDeprecation.[[/note]]

The part about the boring landscape, however, is true for the Great Plains, which covers much of the region but not the whole thing. While the cities can be quite interesting, outside of the cities is mostly just hundreds of miles of corn, wheat, and soybeans, broken by the occasional vast and ungodly foul-smelling cattle feedlot. Things do change once you hit Indiana, however, as it and everything to the south and east have a fair deal of hills, ravines, and forest, providing slightly more to look at from the highway than cornfields.

* {{Denver}}, Colorado

->''Boasting some of the most spectacular public restrooms, gas stations, and 24-hour Hardee's drive-thrus in the country, America's Midwest is conveniently located between where you are and where you are going.''
-->--'''''TheOnion: Our Dumb World'''''

->''They've never drove through Indiana\\
Met the man who plowed that earth\\
Planted that seed, busted his ass for you and me\\
Or caught a harvest moon in Kansas\\
They'd understand why God made those fly over states''

* [[TheWindyCity Chicago]], Illinois[[hottip:*:Sometimes. It's big enough that many people consider it a separate entity, though it's still often looked down upon by some of the more provincial New Yorkers as a "wannabe" BigApplesauce.]]

* Pennsylvania (outside of UsefulNotes/{{Philadelphia}})[[hottip:*:Pennsylvania itself has a mini flyover country. Political strategist James Carville once described it as "Philadelphia in the east, {{Pittsburgh}} in the west, and Alabama in the middle," referring to the central part of the state where coal mining, farming and industry make up the economic backbone. The nickname "Pennsyltucky" describes this region with either derision or SelfDeprecation.]]

* [[NewYorkState Upstate New York]][[hottip:*:Technically outside the region, but often given the same treatment, especially by people from NewYorkCity.]]

[[caption-width-right:350:Beware the strange lande of unknowne]]

[[quoteright:330:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/newyorker_america_4403.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:330:People actually ''live'' out there? Who knew?[[hottip:*:This image is Saul Steinberg's famous (and oft-parodied) "View of the World From 9th Avenue" cover illustration for ''The New Yorker''.]]]]

* Pennsylvania (outside of UsefulNotes/{{Philadelphia}})[[hottip:*:Pennsylvania itself has a mini flyover country. Political strategist James Carville once described it as "Philadelphia in the east, {{Pittsburgh}} in the west, and Alabama in the middle," referring to the central part of the state with its coal mining and farming towns. The nickname "Pennsyltucky" describes this region with either derision or SelfDeprecatingHumor.]]

See DeepSouth which is an even more stereotyped region of the US, and TheOutback for the Australian equivalent.

They'd understand why God made those fly over states

[[caption-width-right:330:People actually ''live'' out there? Who knew?[[hottip:*:This image is Saul Steinberg's famous (and oft-parodied) "View of the World From 9th Avenue" cover illustration for ''The New Yorker''.]]

[[caption-width-right:330:People actually ''live'' out there? Who knew?]]

That's Flyover Country, or "the Heartland" -- American slang for the states which trendy coast-dwellers, whose existence relies entirely upon them, see only from the window of an airplane. Containing roughly half the country's population (if you're using a narrower definition) but much more of its landmass, this region includes everything between [[VivaLasVegas Las Vegas]] and [[TheWindyCity Chicago]] at a minimum -- and is often extended to everything east of the Sierra Nevada and [[Series/ThirtyRock west of the Alleghenies]] (if not the Hudson River). Sparsely populated, largely rural, and lacking in mediagenic glamour, it rarely shows up in works which attempt to appear trendy or up-to-date. It gets much more play in political circles, however, as the quirks of the American electoral system make appeals to smaller states essential. When one talks about the "red state/blue state" divide in American politics, this is what is meant by "red state".

Setting a show or a novel here can be shorthand for [[TheFifties '50s-style]] [[TheFundamentalist social conservatism]], [[NothingExcitingEverHappensHere small-town insularity]], or [[PlaceWorseThanDeath a crushingly unhip, even dorky ambiance]] -- think ''Film/{{Pleasantville}}'' or ''NapoleonDynamite''. However, it gets used at least as often to inspire {{nostalgia|Filter}} for {{Eagleland}} Flavor #1, a friendly, down-home environment full of old-time family values where [[APrairieHomeCompanion all the women are strong, all the men are good-lookin' and all the children are above average]].

That's Flyover Country -- American slang for the states which trendy coast-dwellers, whose existence relies entirely upon them, see only from the window of an airplane. Containing roughly half the country's population (if you're using a narrower definition) but much more of its landmass, this region includes everything between [[VivaLasVegas Las Vegas]] and [[TheWindyCity Chicago]] at a minimum -- and is often extended to everything east of the Sierra Nevada and [[Series/ThirtyRock west of the Alleghenies]] (if not the Hudson River). Sparsely populated, largely rural, and lacking in mediagenic glamour, it rarely shows up in works which attempt to appear trendy or up-to-date. It gets much more play in political circles, however, as the quirks of the American electoral system make appeals to smaller states essential. When one talks about the "red state/blue state" divide in American politics, this is what is meant by "red state".

That's Flyover Country -- American slang for the states which trendy coast-dwellers only see from the window of an airplane. Containing roughly half the country's population (if you're using a narrower definition) but much more of its landmass, this region includes everything between [[VivaLasVegas Las Vegas]] and [[TheWindyCity Chicago]] at a minimum -- and is often extended to everything east of the Sierra Nevada and [[Series/ThirtyRock west of the Alleghenies]] (if not the Hudson River). Sparsely populated, largely rural, and lacking in mediagenic glamour, it rarely shows up in works which attempt to appear trendy or up-to-date. It gets much more play in political circles, however, as the quirks of the American electoral system make appeals to smaller states essential. When one talks about the "red state/blue state" divide in American politics, this is what is meant by "red state".

Setting a show or a novel here can be shorthand for [[TheFifties '50s-style]] [[TheFundamentalist social conservatism]], [[NothingExcitingEverHappensHere small-town insularity]], or [[PlaceWorseThanDeath a crushingly unhip, even dorky ambiance]] -- think ''Film/{{Pleasantville}}'' or ''NapoleonDynamite''. However, it gets used at least as often to inspire {{nostalgia|Filter}} for {{Eagleland}} Flavor #1, a friendly, down-home environment full of old-time family values where [[APrairieHomeCompanion all the women are strong, all the men are good-lookin' and all the children are above average]]. When used in media, it often overlaps with EverytownAmerica, DownOnTheFarm or the DeepSouth.

As mentioned above, if a show is actually based in one of the cities here, whether or not it's a subversion of this trope depends on how much research the writer has done (read: usually not much). However, the following locales in Middle America tend to feature highly in media:

See TheOutback for the Australian equivalent.

Needless to say, the truth is a little different. While the states of the central U.S. do skew more rural than urban, the cities therein are as cosmopolitan as any coastal town. There's plenty of culture, style, and nightlife to be found in cities like [[TwinCities Minneapolis]], KansasCity, or Omaha (a full listed of often-featured cities is included at the end), and they have a much lower cost of living than the coasts. And even some of the smaller towns, like Boulder, Colorado[[hottip:*:where ''MorkAndMindy'' was set]] and Ann Arbor, Michigan[[hottip:*:home of the University of Michigan]], have their own quirks. There are very few states in the US that don't have at least ''one'' significant metropolitan area.

* Pennsylvania (outside of UsefulNotes/{{Philadelphia}} and {{Pittsburgh}})[[hottip:*:PA itself has a mini flyover country. Political strategist James Carville once described it as "Philadelphia in the east, Pittsburgh in the west, and Alabama in the middle", referring to the central part of the state with its coal mining and farming towns. The nickname "Pennsyltucky" describes this region with either derision or SelfDeprecatingHumor.]]

* Pennsylvania (outside of UsefulNotes/{{Philadelphia}})[[hottip:*:This dichotomy also exists on a smaller scale within the state itself. Political strategist James Carville once described Pennsylvania as "Philadelphia in the east, {{Pittsburgh}} in the west and Alabama in the middle", the latter referring to the central part of the state with its coal mining and farming towns. The nickname "Pennsyltucky" describes this section of the state, carrying many of the same connotations within Pennsylvania that "flyover country" does within the US in general.]]

Needless to say, the truth is a little different. While the states of the central U.S. do skew more rural than urban, the cities therein are as cosmopolitan as any coastal town. There's plenty of culture and nightlife to be found in cities like [[TwinCities Minneapolis]], KansasCity, or Omaha (a full listed of often-featured cities is included at the end), and they have a much lower cost of living than the coasts. And even some of the smaller towns, like Boulder, Colorado[[hottip:*:where ''MorkAndMindy'' was set]] and Ann Arbor, Michigan[[hottip:*:home of the University of Michigan]], have their own quirks. There are very few states in the US that don't have at least ''one'' significant metropolitan area.