Line #60 Main/HollywoodProvincialism


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4
5	->''It's the edge of the world and all of Western civilization\
6	The sun may rise in the east, at least it's settled in a final location\
7	It's understood that Hollywood sells Californication''
8	-->-- '''Music/RedHotChiliPeppers''', "Music/{{Californication}}"
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10	The UsefulNotes/UnitedStates is a large country of stunning diversity, but the film and television industries are largely confined to one little corner of it: the southern region of UsefulNotes/{{California}}, where Hollywood is. Writers tend to [[WriteWhatYouKnow write what they know]], and since they know Southern California, the rest of the country will often be inaccurately portrayed as being just like [[UsefulNotes/LosAngeles L.A.]] (And it'll [[TheMountainsOfIllinois look just like L.A.]], too.) Often, this happens just because it's cheaper to film in nearby locations than to spend money relocating staff to other parts of the country. Because of this, minute details about other locations tend to get written in media as [[ArtisticLicenseGeography being just like California, even when it's very different.]] This trope became especially prominent in American culture in the 1980s, when Los Angeles began to supplant UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity as the [[TotallyRadical "hip"]] place to be (though that has subsided in the decades since).
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12	This is arguably the reason why ItsAlwaysSpring. Also known as ''Californication'', which is the trope namer for a [[Series/{{Californication}} TV show]] and [[Music/{{Californication}} an album]] (and its TitleTrack) by Music/RedHotChiliPeppers. Especially as a TakeThat by residents of the [[UsefulNotes/TheOtherRainforest Pacific Northwest]]. Nonetheless, it can be inverted by having shows that actually are set in Southern California... but filmed in UsefulNotes/{{Vancouver}}.
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14	See also BigApplesauce. Subtrope of CreatorProvincialism and of CreatorsCultureCarryover, which happens when American media assumes that life and culture in other parts of the world is the same as in the United States. BritainIsOnlyLondon, FreeStateAmsterdam, ThirtySecondsOverTokyo, and the EiffelTowerEffect occur when a country is deliberately reduced by the writer to its most iconic city or just one landmark. NewYorkIsOnlyManhattan is when one city, New York City, is reduced to one iconic area within it. Contrast CanadaDoesNotExist, a weird Canadian inversion of this trope, and EaglelandOsmosis, where the omnipresence of American media leads non-Americans to believe that their country works just like America (or L.A., for that matter).
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16	Not to be confused with CaliforniaDoubling, which is about using specific parts of California as filming locations to represent specific settings.
17	----
18	!!Examples:
19
20	[[AC:Film]]
21	* ''Film/{{Devil}}'': Bowden, a detective in Philadelphia, refers to a possible murder as a "187." That's ''California's'' criminal code for homicide, not Pennsylvania's. This will not be the first time 187 is mentioned in this article, as it infiltrated into pop culture during LA's turbulent 90's.
22	* ''Film/KnightAndDay'': UsefulNotes/{{Boston}}-based June says "the I-93." The big interstate going through Boston is I-95. No, 93 goes through downtown Boston.
23	* ''Film/LoganLucky'': In Mellie's first scene, she gives an extended description of her commute in which she repeatedly refers to highways as "the [highway number]", something peculiar to Southern California and not West Virginia. The actress is from Southern California.
24	** That particular usage is not unusual in northern California, either, but doesn't seem common outside the state.
25	* ''Film/RealGenius'': An inversion; the age of consent in California is implied to be 16 instead of 18.
26	* ''Film/TransformersAgeOfExtinction'': A notable aversion of the age of consent version.
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28	[[AC:Literature]]
29	* ''Literature/SpocksWorld'': An hilariously odd variant. In a description of ''[[RefugeInAudacity Vulcan]]'', "Jim tended to think of it as southern California, but with less rain." [[note]]For those who have no idea why this is so funny, Capt. James T. Kirk hails from Iowa. Starfleet HQ is in California, but ''Northern'' California, not at all the same thing... Southern California averages about 35 rainy days per year near the coast in the winter and spring (less in the inland desert areas), with summer and autumn typically being rain-free or nearly so.[[/note]]
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31	[[AC:Live-Action TV]]
32	* ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'': Inverted in at least one instance. For a series that makes so many specific references to the Orange County area, it's surprising to hear Michael say that he's traveling on "Highway Five" instead of "the Five," as all native Southern Californians would do.
33	* ''Series/{{Bones}}'': Although this show is set in DC, the characters refer to highway numbers with "the" before the number. No one in DC does this except transplants from Southern California.
34	* ''Series/{{Castle\|2009}}'': In "The Third Man", in Alexis' jealousy over her father's attention, she mentions that her classmate wants him. She then says that she's seventeen, "but she'll be legal in three months!" The age of consent in New York is seventeen.
35	* ''Series/{{Community}}'': The show is set in Colorado, but the Dean's car has a California plate with "California" replaced with "Drive Safely."
36	* ''Series/CriminalMinds'': In "Exit Wounds", the BAU travels to a remote Alaskan town to help the local Sheriff's department catch a spree killer. In real life there is not a single sheriff department in Alaska: their duties are covered by the Alaska State Troopers, who are never mentioned in the episode.
37	* ''Series/Detroit187'': In the title itself: 187 is the police code for murder...in California, not Michigan.
38	* ''Series/{{Eastwick}}'': Investigations are done by the local Sheriff. In Rhode Island, as well as most New England counties, Sheriffs are ceremonial positions.
39	* ''Series/{{House}}'': The daughter of a clinic patient tells House that [[JailBaitWait he only has to wait six months until her 18th birthday to have sex with her]]. In reality, House could have had sex with her a year and a half earlier, as the age of consent in New Jersey is 16.
40	* ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'': Pops up from time to time. For example, characters frequently claim the age of consent to be 18, while it's actually 17 in New York.
41	* ''Series/{{Insatiable}}'': Regina is arrested for sleeping with Brick, who's seventeen. In Georgia, the age of consent is 16. Unlike some other examples, this one is a major plot point.
42	* ''Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia'': Dennis starts listening to one of his sex tapes in his car, and both present-day Dennis and tape-Dennis panic when the girl says she's only sixteen. That is indeed the age of consent in Pennsylvania, so he wouldn't have gotten in any trouble whatsoever. To be fair, it may just be Dennis's personal limit.
43	* ''Series/MarriedWithChildren'': In the very first episode they refer to a local radio station as "K-Rock." That'd be for stations West of the Mississippi. All local radio and TV stations in Chicago (the location of the series) have call signs beginning with a W.[[note]]There's a possibility that "K-Rock" is a station nickname (for example: WXRK in New York went by the name "K-Rock" during the '80s and '90s).[[/note]]
44	* ''Series/TheNanny'': The show is set in New York, but in one episode Fran is holding a cup from In'n'Out Burger, a restaurant chain that exists only in the southwest U.S.
45	* ''Series/{{Patriot}}'': A womanizing Luxembourgian detective tells a little girl that he has nothing to say to her until she turns 18. He's obviously intending to say that she has no value until he can have sex with her, but the age of consent in Luxembourg is 16, not 18, as it is in California.
46	* ''Series/ParksAndRecreation'': Pawnee does not resemble a small town in central Indiana so much as it does an outer suburb of LA. This applies both to its [[TheMountainsOfIllinois appearance]] but also the size and overall affluence of the town itself. Also, pretty much nobody has a Hoosier accent.
47	* ''Series/PointPleasant'': It was a big deal in New Jersey that this show was set on the Shore. Then we found out that Hollywood's idea of the Jersey Shore was basically "Southern California, but with lighthouses and boardwalks instead of palm trees."
48	* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': In one episode Dean tackles a man who is stated to be the local District Attorney. The closest thing that Tipton, Indiana (where the episode takes place) has is a Prosecuting Attorney.
49	* ''Series/{{Veep}}'': In "Oslo," Selina wants her daughter to get married in Europe in order to avoid U.S. community property laws. Divorce is governed by the state of residency, not the jurisdiction where the ceremony is performed. Catherine and Marjorie appear to be New York residents. Unlike California, New York is not a community property state. So this also counts as HollywoodLaw.
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51	[[AC:Music]]
52	* The Music/RedHotChiliPeppers song "Music/{{Californication}}", quoted atop this page, mentions this -- another good line is "''Little girls from Sweden dream of silver-screen quotations''".
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54	[[AC:Video Game]]
55	* ''VideoGame/SimCity 4'': An EasterEgg [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ks66cet.png appears]] more obscurely in the form of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawnchair_Larry_flight a man sitting on a floating balloons-strapped lawnchair]]. As Maxis is a Californian outfit, [[CreatorProvincialism it comes as no surprise why it's there]].
56	* The ''Series/{{Fallout}}'' games made by Interplay Entertainment were all set in or around Southern California on account of that being where the company is headquartered, whereas the Bethesda entries are generally set on the East Coast since they’re based in [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Bethesda]], Maryland.
57	** Amusingly when it came time to write the [[Series/Fallout2024 television series]] the first thing the writers decided was that it should be set in Southern California, but they ran into the issue that half the games took place there which limited the kind of stories they could tell (specifically, a fully-functioning civilization had sprung up, which didn’t gel with the “post-apocalyptic western” they were aiming for). Rather than move the setting somewhere else in America they simply hit the ResetButton by nuking LA again and moving the story back to square one.
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59	[[AC:Webcomic]]
60	* ''Webcomic/MenageA3'': Appears in one of the standard forms when Isabelle acts seductively toward Zii, and [[https://pixietrixcomix.com/menage-a-3/the-right-romantic-moment Zii says that she hopes that Isabelle is over 18]]. The age of consent in Canada is 16. This is a little odd because the comic is normally consistent at {{avert\|edTrope}}ing the trope, maintaining a subtle but distinctive Canadian flavor. Admittedly, this more than likely has more to do with the fact that no one would want to have sex with minors regardless of legal status.
61	* ''Webcomic/TreadingGround'':
62	** In 2003 [[https://og.treadingground.com/comic/006/ strip #6]] establishes the main plot: Rose has the hots for Nate, but the 21-year-old guy doesn't want to have sex with the 16-year-old girl until she's of legal age. After eight years (about one year in ComicBookTime), in which both characters have plenty of sex (just [[SleepsWithEveryoneButYou not with each other]]), they finally realise they are victims of Hollywood Provincialism; 16 is legal age in their state. So in 2011, [[https://og.treadingground.com/comic/251/ strip #251]] concludes the series with them holding hands... [[LeftHanging And still not having had sex together yet.]]
63	** {{Lampshade\|Hanging}}d [[https://og.treadingground.com/comic/242/ here]].
64	* ''Webcomic/QuestionableContent'': The newspost below [[http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=224 this]] strip implies that Ellen's about to turn 18. (And it's specifically stated [[https://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=231 five strips later]].) The age of consent in Massachusetts is 16. Later strips in the storyline make it less about legality than Steve just feeling weird about it.
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66	[[AC:Web Original]]
67	* Website/{{Cracked}}: Anything about teen sex seems to rely on Hollywood Provincialism, making British (and others) wonder what the preoccupation with 17-year-olds is.
68	* JournalRoleplay: LJ's servers were originally in California; when the Journal Roleplay community was on that site, this was the stated reason that sex games and some horror games had a lower age limit of 18.
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70	[[AC:Other]]
71	* TheMagicPokerEquation: In the past, the game in question will usually be "Five Card Draw." This probably has to do with the fact that it was the only legal form of poker in California for many years. It was supplanted by stud and community card variants in most other places before the end of the 19th century. The explosion in popularity of televised poker tournaments seems to have changed the preference to Texas Hold-Em.
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73	[[AC:Western Animation]]
74	* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'': At least two episodes feature characters buying Chocodiles at the store. Since the mid-'90s, Chocodiles have only been available on the West Coast (the show is set in Virginia).
75	* The ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' episode where Peter takes Stewie to Disney World features an ''Franchise/IndianaJones'' ride. There's one of those in Disney''land'', but not in any of the four parks in Florida. The fact that it's less than a day's drive from their hometown in Rhode Island might also count, as Disneyland ''would'' be a short drive from the show's studio.
76	%%* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': Most school districts in the United States either close down every school or don't close down any schools at all. However, it is common in Tim Long's native Canada for the principals of individual schools to decide whether school is cancelled.

Context Main / HollywoodProvincialism