Line #2 UsefulNotes/LosAngeles


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/los_angeles_city_downtown_sunset_tijds4lt4zvzuqlk.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:''"[[Recap/TalesFromTheCryptS2E7TheSacrifice What you're looking at is the money, pussy, and bullshit capital of the Western world.]]"'']]
3
4	->''"Hiding up in the mountains\
5	Laying low in the canyons\
6	Goin' nowhere on the streets\
7	With their Spanish names\
8	Makin' love with the natives\
9	In their Hollywood places..."''
10	-->-- '''Music/BillyJoel,''' ''"Los Angelenos"''
11
12	%% One quote is sufficient. Please place additional entries on the quotes tab.
13
14	Los Angeles, the City of Angels, Tinseltown, La La Land, or simply L.A.-- or, its (probable)[[labelnote:*]]Historians have uncovered evidence of a bunch of different renderings of the long name used by the Spanish, with the ''Nuestra Señora'' portion especially seeming to be optional based on whoever was mentioning the place.[[/labelnote]] original name, [[OverlyLongName El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles del Rio de Porciúncula]] [[note]]"The City of our Lady, the Queen of the Angels, of the River of Porciúncula". ''Porciúncula'' is sometimes misreported as meaning "piglet", but it's actually the Spanish version of ''Porzioncola'', the name of the Italian chapel where the Franciscan order was founded. The river had been named by Franciscan friars[[/note]]. Regardless of what you call it, Los Angeles is one of the world's most famous cities and home to the heart of the UsefulNotes/UnitedStates' film and television industry. It is the second largest city in the country behind only UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity, though it gets bonus points for being the largest metropolitan area in the US contained entirely within a [[UsefulNotes/{{California}} single state]].[[note]]Greater New York is spread over '''four''' states ([[UsefulNotes/NewYorkState New York]], Connecticut, UsefulNotes/NewJersey, and UsefulNotes/{{Pennsylvania}}), while Greater Chicago includes portions of Southeastern UsefulNotes/{{Wisconsin}} and Northwestern Indiana.[[/note]] Los Angeles County is the most-populous county in the US, with almost twice as many people as #2, [[UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}} Cook County, IL]].[[note]]Los Angeles County contains 87 other cities, 15 of which have over a hundred thousand people each - Los Angeles itself is less than half of the county's population. Even if all five NYC counties (the boroughs) combined into one--which, they technically already ''are''--LA County would be larger.[[/note]]
15
16	!!A Quick History
17
18	Los Angeles was first built in 1781 by Felipe de Neve as an outpost for travelers, cattle ranchers and the Spanish military, but mainly as a city for the Tongva people. In fact, Downtown Los Angeles was the site of the Tongva capital, Yaanga, [[note]]''Yaa'' means "poison oak", ''nga'' means "place", a suffix also seen in familiar Tongva-derived place names like Cahuenga, Cucamonga and Topanga[[/note]] for centuries. Although planned on a grid, the massive hills nearby forced the streets to radiate out medieval-style from a central marketplace. Despite a tiny population, the town was staggeringly diverse[[note]]This would turn out to be a CharacteristicTrope of the city[[/note]], and by the time of the UsefulNotes/MexicanAmericanWar, it housed as many Italians, Chinese and Americans as native Mexicans.
19
20	Los Angeles was the site of a single battle, which lasted 45 days and was an American defeat. New, square city blocks were laid out alongside awkwardly shaped farmland that was to be maintained right downtown. This plan failed spectacularly. Either way, LA essentially became [[TheDeepSouth Dixie]]-west, with a mostly southern, pro-slavery population. This was so pervasive that in the Civil War, fortresses were built to keep people from trying to invade (culturally very Northern) San Francisco.
21
22	The Southern Pacific railroad managed to change all this. In 1869, a railway was built to the harbor at San Pedro and the population exploded. An arguably bigger change came in 1913, when the city completed the Los Angeles Aqueduct, securing its ability to grow far beyond its natural limits. (It's been estimated that the Los Angeles Basin, in its natural state, has only enough water to support a population of about 200,000.) The city finally came of age in 1917. That year, many local institutions were formed, Los Angeles became the largest city in California and the 10th largest in the United States. It boasted a vast metropolitan rail system (today's [[UsefulNotes/LosAngelesMetroRail Metro Rail]] taken up to eleven) as well as a finely tuned municipal system, which together gave LA the biggest, best public transit system in the world. For what happened there, see ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit''. LA's golden age was at the end of this era, which many people know from FilmNoir.
23
24	Los Angeles began to decline in TheFifties as crime increased, inner-city neighborhoods fell into disrepair, and huge numbers of people fled to the suburbs.[[note]]Because of its vast land holdings, population nominally continued to increase, but even today there's a '''major''' distinction between the suburban ''West Side'' and ''Valley'' and the more traditional, landlocked "City."[[/note]] Tom Bradley was elected as the nation's second African-American big-city mayor in 1973 and held office for [[LongRunner two straight decades]], overseeing the city surpass UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}} as the country's #2 city. However, things didn't really pick up. Symptoms of what would later be known since as AIDS would be discovered in 1981 (the city's bicentennial), and L.A. has since been one of the original top three highest reporting American cities for it--next to New York and now just before San Francisco--in descending order. The 1984 Olympics were a highlight,[[note]]Los Angeles is the only American city to host the Summer Olympics twice; the first time was in 1932, though Olympic Boulevard was named three years before that. It will also become the only American city to host the Summer Olympics three times come 2028.[[/note]] but eight years later came another low point in the city's history: the 1992 Riots, which kicked off shortly after four LAPD officers were acquitted of using excessive force on Rodney King during his arrest after they were videotaped beating him by a man with a camcorder. The local and national news played this tape many, many times on TV between the arrest and eventual trial and acquittal, leading many to believe the court had let police officers get away with an obvious violent crime. The riots over it got so bad at one point that the governor of California requested assistance from the Army and Marines to restore peace, and Bradley retired not long after.[[note]]If one were to watch Hollywood movies from this time, you might suspect that the city had been irrevocably torn apart by this. In fact, it could be argued that the riots brought people together, as their scope and the perceived lack of police response (choosing instead to retreat to the richest areas) left everyone in danger.[[/note]]
25
26	While 1992 was a definite low point, things generally started to improve in the city proper since then. The old rail system began rebuilding in TheNineties (construction has sped up ''significantly'' since the Great Recession) and people no longer ''need'' cars in the inner city like they once did. The subprime mortgage bust, rise of telecommuting, and creation of more jobs in former "suburbs" in Orange County and the Inland Empire have likewise helped to reorient some of the region's troublesome traffic patterns, but they have also led to greater concerns of even more people and money being drawn out of the city proper in the coming years.
27
28	!!Geography and Culture
29
30	Los Angeles has been described as the biggest ''small town'' in the country instead of its second-largest city due to its fairly unique urban geography. It sprawls almost 45 miles (75 km) from north to south, and spreads about 30 miles (50 km) east to west, with a mountain range forming a belt in the middle of the geographic footprint. As with many cities in the American West, it experienced explosive growth after UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. With the rise of car culture at the same time, Los Angeles raced outwards in all directions, blanketing the land with {{Suburbia}}. To cope with the sheer vastness of the place, the local lexicon splits the megalopolis into a patchwork of neighborhoods, former cities that voluntarily merged to access the city's water[[note]]Hollywood is the most well known, but other examples include Venice Beach, Century City, Westwood, Encino, Van Nuys, and Sherman Oaks[[/note]], and still-independent cities completely surrounded by L.A. on all sides[[note]][[Music/StraightOuttaCompton Compton]], Inglewood, Santa Monica, East Los Angeles, [[{{Gayborhood}} West Hollywood]], [[ItCameFromBeverlyHills Beverly Hills]], Culver City, Burbank, Pasadena, and El Segundo[[/note]].
31
32	Generally, Los Angeles is divided into the following areas:
33
34	* Downtown L.A., the primary business center of the city.
35	* East L.A., a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood most renown for [[Creator/CheechAndChong Cheech Marin's]] movie ''Film/BornInEastLA''. It's adjacent to the separate cities of the San Gabriel Valley (San Gabriel, Rosemead, and Alhambra), a major East Asian settlement.
36	* Northeast L.A., consisting of Eagle Rock, Glassell Park and Highland Park, and sometimes Los Feliz and Silver Lake (which are also sometimes lumped in with Greater Hollywood) and Echo Park (also lumped in with Hollywood and/or Downtown). Glendale and Pasadena are sometimes included here, but are separately incorporated cities.
37	* South L.A., formerly and infamously known as South Central. The famed neighborhood of Watts is part of it. Many locals also lump the separate cities of South Gate, Lynwood, and Compton in with the area.
38	* The Harbor Area, with the L.A. neighborhoods of San Pedro, Harbor City and Wilmington rubbing up against the cities of Long Beach and Carson.
39	* The Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), recognizable for its Space Age Theme Building, adjacent to the city of El Segundo.
40	* The South Bay, the stretch of coast between Long Beach and LAX/El Segundo. There are many definitions of what belongs in the area, but generally they center on some combo of the L.A. neighborhoods of Marina Del Rey, Playa Del Rey and Westchester along with the cities of Redondo Beach, Torrance, and the Palos Verdes Peninsula.
41	* Greater Hollywood, consisting of Hollywood, East Hollywood, West Hollywood (including the Sunset Strip), and the Hollywood Hills, but not North Hollywood which is in the San Fernando Valley.
42	* Wilshire Boulevard and the Miracle Mile, including the La Brea tar pits.
43	* The Westside, the second major business center of the city. Typically includes Venice, Century City, Westwood and Bel Air. Beverly Hills, which split from L.A. and incorporated as a separate city in 1914, is wedged between here and Greater Hollywood.
44	* The San Fernando Valley, a large valley northwest of the L.A. Basin, popularized in the '80s with the ValleyGirl. Confusingly, San Fernando itself is a separate city. The cities of Calabasas and Hidden Hills are sometimes lumped in with the southwestern neighborhoods of the Valley (Woodland Hills, West Hills).
45	* The Crescenta Valley, north of L.A. and east of the San Fernando Valley, most famous for the city of Burbank.
46
47	Surrounding all these unique neighborhoods is a vast region of neighboring cities often referred to as "Greater Los Angeles", a nearly continuous urban unit that stretches out into Ventura, Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino Counties in well over 30,000 square miles of sprawl. Don't worry, it can be rather confusing even for the millions who live in this region; this article focuses on L.A. proper and its internal cities. For more information on those outlying cities, you'll have to visit the UsefulNotes/{{California}} page.[[note]]For census purposes, the Los Angeles metropolitan area comprises just L.A. and Orange Counties, with the others being their own entities that are grouped together into a "Greater Los Angeles region area". Residents disagree over where exactly "Los Angeles" ends, what sections of the "Inland Empire" in Riverside/San Bernardino (which the census counts as its own massive metro) are really part of it, and whether the whole of Southern California including San Diego is really just one big megacity. Further confusing things, people from the neighboring high desert to the north, past the San Gabriel Mountains, refer to Greater Los Angeles colloquially as "Down Below", even though vast tracts of that desert are actually part of Los Angeles County.[[/note]]
48
49	A nice advantage to this sprawl is that most of the city isn't especially crowded or cramped compared to many others of its size. Most houses have at least a small backyard, and the climate lends itself well to gardening. Bordered by Pacific Ocean on one side, LA has glorious weather for most of the year, is full of sunshine and trade-winds, and is also relatively insect-free. Los Angeles is also one of the United States' great food cities, with food trucks being a common form of dining for people of all neighborhoods and economic classes, a practice that the city encourages rather than trying to get rid of, and chefs such as Roy Choi being HouseholdNames. Sometimes described as "the least European city in America", Los Angeles' cultural roots are overwhelmingly Latin American, Asian, and Middle Eastern. Owing to the postwar boom and its unique automobile culture, Los Angeles can be described as the home of the drive-thru. Name a fast-food chain subjected to BurgerFool style parody, and odds are it was founded somewhere in the greater L.A.-O.C.-San Diego area. A ''handful'' of such chains include UsefulNotes/McDonalds, Taco Bell, Del Taco, Jack in the Box, Wienerschnitzel, Fatburger, In-n-Out, Rubio's, El Pollo Loco, Tommy's, and Carl's Jr.
50
51	But before you pack your bags and move, take into account that this package, especially in the city proper, comes with a side order of mediocre air quality,[[note]]This being due largely to Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley being a basin surrounded by mountains and experiencing frequent atmospheric inversion layers that trapped hydrocarbon emissions closed to the ground. Actually, the air quality used to be much, ''much'' worse, so much so that it was often used as a comedy gag (no pun intended). But thanks to strict air quality laws passed in the '60s and '70s, air quality in the L.A. area has greatly improved and this is now on its way to becoming a DeadHorseTrope.[[/note]] famously bad traffic, expensive real estate, and all the headaches that come with sharing 500 square miles (~1,000 square kilometers) with millions of your fellow human beings, all of whom want your parking spot. L.A. is sometimes called the "City on Wheels"--public transportation is far, ''far'' behind most cities its size and walking anywhere in Los Angeles is ill-advised. You ''really'' need to buy a car to live here, and because of the decentralized nature of the sprawl, long work commutes of 50 miles or more are common.
52
53	When you visit, be sure to look for the Hollywood sign, the Hollywood Bowl, the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels (sometimes called [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Mahony the Taj Mahony]], after a bishop purported to have [[SmallNameBigEgo an inflated sense of self-worth]]), the Walt Disney Concert Hall (don't call it The Gehry Hall, no one will know what you're talking about), Santa Monica Pier, [[Series/{{Baywatch}} Venice Beach]], and the fantastic shopping in the Fashion District of Downtown LA--which is polluted, noisy, and a concrete jungle, but the prices are ''so'' good. The actual skyline of Los Angeles is relatively small for a city of its size (the common expression is that while New York built ''up'', L.A. built ''out''); there are still quite a few notable skyscrapers spread out across the landscape. Lots of other attractions and tourist traps associated with Los Angeles (such as Ride/{{Disneyland}}) are located in outlying Orange County, which is technically part of the L.A. metro area but is culturally rather distinct.
54
55	[[HollywoodCalifornia The film district]] is mostly in the [[ValleyGirl San Fernando Valley]] nowadays; the neighborhood of Hollywood itself is mostly tourist attractions and below-the-line parts of the industry (editing, effects, props, lighting, post-production). Creator/{{Disney}} and Creator/WarnerBros' studios are all in the Valley, with Creator/{{Paramount}} the only studio still physically based in Hollywood (though Creator/{{Sony}} is also on the Westside). Creator/{{Universal}} is based just outside Hollywood in - wait for it - Universal City.[[note]]Yes, Universal Studios Hollywood is mostly a theme park, but they still do actual shoots on the property - mostly commercials and stuff for NBC shows, since Comcast owns both NBC and Universal. The executives at Universal work in the large skyscraper nearby at the bottom of the hill.[[/note]] The Valley is also the center of the American adult entertainment industry (the {{Creator/HBO}} series ''Pornucopia'' estimated that 90% of all American porn is produced or shot there), leading to monikers like "Porn Valley" and "Silicone Valley". The non-filming parts of The Industry may, of course, be done anywhere, but KirksRock is conveniently located just a half hour's drive to the north.
56
57	Los Angeles has its own electric power company, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, which is separate and distinct from Southern California Edison, the power company used in most of the other cities in Southern California.[[note]]Pasadena, for example, like Los Angeles, has its own DWP.[[/note]] The link between water and power is due to the fact that nearly ''all'' of LA's water comes from the other side of a mountain range. Most of the city's water does not have to be pumped—the Los Angeles Aqueduct operates solely by gravity, using a mixture of surface canals and tunnels. Because of this, the city can use that water to run hydroelectric generators, both along the route and at the reservoirs where it stores the water. By contrast, many of the city's suburbs, which get their water from a project built and run by the state of California, ''do'' use water that has to be pumped over at least one mountain range, and sometimes more than one. Pumping all that water uphill takes an enormous amount of electric power, and the water rushing downhill on the LA side runs hydroelectric generators to get most of that power back. As part of the project, the state maintains reservoirs at the top of the hill, running the uphill pumps during the night hours (when power is cheaper), and sending the water downhill during the daytime hours (where the same power could be sold back at a profit). This setup played a crucial role in the movie ''Film/{{Chinatown}}''.
58
59	Every July, the Los Angeles Convention Center hosts Anime Expo, aka AX, the largest anime-themed FanConvention in North America, with an attendance of 81,000 in 2014. Because of the convention's ties with the anime and video game industries, many anime localization announcements, as well as some video game announcements, are made at the various industry panels held at AX. Also held at the LACC is the annual UsefulNotes/ElectronicEntertainmentExpo, otherwise known as E3. A trade show rather than a convention, with only those in the game and game journalism industries allowed to attend, E3 is where many video game companies demonstrate and showcase their upcoming games and game systems.
60
61	If you want to confuse a local, ask about the [[DownLADrain Los Angeles River]]. You've probably seen it. If you watched ''[[Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay Terminator 2]]'' you may remember the scene where the T-1000's semi truck crashes off of the road and chases John Connor down a concrete drainage channel with an inch of water in it. That would be "El Rio de Los Angeles." It was also the location of the big race scene in ''Film/{{Grease}}'', and an emergency space shuttle landing in ''Film/TheCore''.
62
63	The famous Griffith Observatory (and Griffith Park itself), located 8 miles north-west of the civic center overlooking Hollywood, has been in more films than most actors have. It is the site where Arnold arrived by time warp in ''Film/TheTerminator'', where ''Film/TheRocketeer'' blasted off to fight Nazis on a blimp, where the ''Film/Transformers2007'' perched, where ''Series/MacGyver1985'' lived in the show's pilot, and where Creator/JamesDean had his famous knife fight and shoot-out in ''Film/RebelWithoutACause''. It also appears in ''Series/CharliesAngels'', ''Film/YesMan'', ''Franchise/{{Dragnet}}''... you get the idea. Just down the road a bit is the famous tunnel where Marty fought Biff in ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartII'', also serving as the entrance to [[Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit Toon Town]], and down the hill a bit is the entrance to the [[Series/Batman1966 Adam West-era Batcave]].
64
65	Angelenos' most famous VerbalTic is probably using the definite article before freeway numbers: "Take the I-5 to the I-10, and get off just before you hit the 605." Another one to listen for is that they tend not to use "Hollywood" as a metonym for the TV and movie business, as opposed to a place name. One might live in Hollywood, but you'll work in "the Industry."
66
67	!!Major Sports Teams
68	Metro Los Angeles is one of only two metro areas in the US that has at least two teams in each of the "big five" professional sports leagues. (The other, of course, is UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity.) Sports fandoms run deep, but are notoriously fickle at times.
69
70	!!! UsefulNotes/MajorLeagueBaseball
71	* The '''Los Angeles Dodgers''' are the city's main Major League Baseball team, arriving in 1958 from Brooklyn (to the eternal dismay of many Long Islanders). They have carried on the old Brooklyn tradition of EveryYearTheyFizzleOut - the Dodgers have now lost more World Series than any other team (14), over half of those to their old cross-city rivals, the New York Yankees. Their strongest rivalries are with the Yankees and the other team that they once shared New York with, the UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco Giants. The Dodgers' first decade in Los Angeles was their best as a team, earning three World Series titles in 1959, 1963, and 1965, in large part due to legendary pitcher Sandy Koufax. They were often competitive through the 1970s and early 1980s, but only managed one World Series win in the strike-shortened 1981 season. After Kirk Gibson's "One Good Swing" in 1988 led the way to a title, it took them nearly 30 years to even get back to the World Series. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, they performed with consistent indistinction, but a new ownership group in the early 2010s led to them consistently winning their division but no World Series championship until the COVID-shortened season of 2020, the franchise's seventh World Series championship. Their home field, Dodger Stadium, is now the third-oldest in Major League Baseball, and is isolated on top of mountainous Elysian Park, a location famous for being wonderfully central yet frustratingly inaccessible. Incidentally, Los Angeles has produced more active MLB players than any other city.
72	* The '''Los Angeles Angels''' ... don't actually play in Los Angeles. At least, not anymore. Founded in 1961 by Music/GeneAutry, and taking their name from a minor league team that used to play in LA until the Dodgers arrived, they initially did play in LA itself until they got their own ballpark in Anaheim, at which time they renamed themselves the California Angels, a name they used for the next 30 years. When the stadium was renovated in the mid 90s, the city of Anaheim insisted on them adopting "Anaheim" as part of their name (even though the "Angels" part is a clear reference to LA). The team, at the time owned by Disney, became the Anaheim Angels, but when current owner Artie Moreno bought them, he wanted to emphasize the team as an LA-metro area team, so he brought back the Los Angeles Angels name, with "of Anaheim" tacked on to the end (and rarely used). Eventually that was dropped. The team has largely had streaks of solid years mixed between periods of middle of the pack finishes, though they did win the 2002 World Series. Current star Mike Trout is a frequent candidate for best all-around player currently in the game, and Japanese star Shohei Ohtani achieved perhaps greater prominence for his recent performance as a starting pitcher ''AND'' full-time designated hitter; before the 2024 season, he signed with the Dodgers for the largest contract in sports history.
73
74	!!! UsefulNotes/NationalFootballLeague
75	* The '''Los Angeles Rams''' have had a traveled history. They initially started in Cleveland but moved to Los Angeles in 1946 as the first ever professional sports team on the West Coast. The Rams won the NFL Championship in 1951 and stood as one of the NFL's most star-studded teams for many decades; fittingly for a Hollywood team, they were the first football franchise to have all of their games televised. They played at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum until they ''also'' moved to Anaheim in 1979. They kept the "Los Angeles" name until 1995 when, after several years of decline and competition from the city's other sports offerings, they packed up and moved to St. Louis... just two months before their biggest competition, the Raiders, also left town. The franchise won its only Super Bowl in Missouri but returned to LA in 2016 when NFL owners approved the Rams to move back to Los Angeles after the city had gone two decades without a pro football team. The team played at the Coliseum until the 2020 opening of [=SoFi=] Stadium, the most expensive sports venue ever built, in Inglewood; the next year, they won the Super Bowl, finally bringing a Lombardi Trophy back to Los Angeles after a long drought.
76	* The '''Los Angeles Chargers''' were founded in the AFL in 1960 but moved to San Diego one year later. After spending the overwhelming majority of their existence there (but spending two decades as Southern California's only NFL team), the Chargers came back to LA in 2017, playing in Carson at the current home of the LA Galaxy until joining the Rams at [=SoFi=] Stadium for 2020. While both of L.A.'s current NFL teams have somewhat struggled to rebuild their fanbases in L.A, the Chargers' relative lack of success compared to the Rams, coupled with the lack of a preceding history in the city, have left the "Bolts" struggling to carve out their own dedicated fanbase.
77	* The '''Las Vegas Raiders''' played in LA from 1982-1994 and still have many Angelenos' hearts despite having moved back north to Oakland, having brought the city its first Super Bowl back in the '80s. They also presented plans to move to LA in the mid-2010s, but with most NFL owners and executives solidly of the opinion that three teams are too many in one market, the Raiders ended up as the odd man out and went to UsefulNotes/LasVegas instead.
78
79	!!! UsefulNotes/NationalBasketballAssociation
80	* The '''Los Angeles Lakers''' are one of the city's two basketball teams. Relocated from Minneapolis in 1960s, they have consistently been among the best teams (with 12 championships in Los Angeles) and many of the game's biggest stars (Jerry West, UsefulNotes/WiltChamberlain, Creator/KareemAbdulJabbar, Magic Johnson, Creator/ShaquilleONeal, Kobe Bryant, and UsefulNotes/LeBronJames, to name just a few). The Lakers made their arena, the Forum in Inglewood, world famous before they moved to the also-iconic Crypto.com Arena (recently renamed from Staples Center) downtown.
81	* The '''Los Angeles Clippers''' are Los Angeles' ''other'' NBA franchise. Their home arena is the Intuit Dome, located in Inglewood not far from [=SoFi=] Stadium. From 1999 to 2024 they shared Crypto.com Arena with the Lakers, making it the only venue at the time that hosted two NBA teams. Relocated from San Diego in 1984 (hence the naval nickname), the Clippers were famous for being one of the worst teams in basketball (they've never won a championship), largely because they were owned by cheapskate slumlord Donald Sterling until he was caught on tape spouting blatant racism and was forced to sell. Microsoft co-founder Steve Ballmer spent $2 ''billion'' dollars to buy the team (which, again, was a laughing stock, second-rate team). Now they've seriously stepped up at becoming a significant player in the league (though they'll likely never fully escape the shadow of the Lakers), capping it off with building the Intuit Dome as their new arena and moving out of Crypto.com Arena.
82
83	!!! UsefulNotes/NationalHockeyLeague
84	* The '''Los Angeles Kings''' are Los Angeles' NHL franchise. Like the Lakers, they played in the Forum before moving to what's now Crypto.com Arena. Created in 1967, the Kings labored in relative obscurity, though they started to become well known in 1982 with the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracle_on_Manchester Miracle on Manchester]] and exploded in popularity when [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayne_Gretzky#.22The_Trade.22 "The Trade"]] brought UsefulNotes/WayneGretzky, the greatest hockey player of all time, to the Kings; effectively turning Los Angeles into one of biggest cities for hockey overnight. They came close to getting a Stanley Cup win in 1993, if it weren't for Marty [=McSorley=] being [[NeverLiveItDown called for an illegal stick]]. After their ConMan manager Bruce [=McNall=] was forced to sell the team in 1994, the Kings went through a period between EveryYearTheyFizzleOut and ButtMonkey for the next 2 decades. Starting in the 2010s, they [[TookALevelInBadass took a MAJOR level in badass]], managing to win the Stanley Cup in 2012 and 2014 and become one of the most dominant teams in the NHL.
85	* Like baseball and (formerly) football, the LA area's second NHL team [[RunningGag also plays in Anaheim]] (in fact, their arena is across the street from the Angels' ballpark). The '''Anaheim Ducks''' were originally named for [[Film/TheMightyDucks a Disney movie]]. Seriously. After the movie turned out to be a big hit, Disney decided to buy an NHL expansion team and named them the "Mighty Ducks of Anaheim", which would be all sorts of ridiculous... except the team actually drew well and performed pretty solid for an expansion team. After Disney sold the team and the name was shortened, they really took flight, winning the Stanley Cup in 2007 and being regular playoff contenders.
86
87	!!! UsefulNotes/MajorLeagueSoccer
88	* The '''LA Galaxy''' has been in the league since it began play in 1996. Even before Major League Soccer developed a large following nationwide, the Galaxy was ''the'' best-known team in the country, due in part to Los Angeles' built-in fandom of immigrants from Latin America and later due to the signing of British soccer icon David Beckham. The post-Beckham years saw them pick up a few more international stars, with Sweden's Zlatan Ibrahimović the most notable. They're also the most decorated franchise in the league, with 5 MLS Cups, 4 Supporters' Shields, 2 US Open Cups, and even a CONCACAF Champions League title in 2000, making them the only American team to earn a bid to the FIFA Club World Cup (even if it was canceled that year). The Galaxy play at Dignity Health Sports Park in the outlying industrial suburb of Carson.
89	* '''Los Angeles FC''' are one of the newer squads in the league, taking the pitch for the first time in 2018, but they came out firing on all cylinders, reaching the playoffs in the first three seasons of their existence and also winning the Supporters' Shield in 2019. LAFC missed the playoffs in 2021, but came back with a vengeance in 2022, not only taking the Supporters' Shield but also claiming the MLS Cup. Unlike the Galaxy, LAFC plays in the city itself, hosting their home games at BMO Stadium in South Central LA. With LAFC's strong showings thus far, it's easy to forget the ''other'' time MLS tried having a second team in the area...
90	* '''Chivas USA''' was established in 2004, sharing the Galaxy's home field, but folded ten years later due to poor performance and lack of interest. The owner was the also the owner of the Liga MX club in Guadalajara, and assumed fans of that team in LA would flock to the MLS team (even the name "Chivas" is the nickname of the Guadalajara team). But between there not being nearly as many fans in LA as he thought, failing to understand that fans of other Mexican teams would actively shun a team with ties to a rival club, and advertising that was divisive in pushing away non-Mexican Angelenos, the club quickly turned into an embarrassment for the league and the owner was bought out.
91
92	!!! Womens' Professional Leagues
93	* LA is also home to teams in the two most prominent women's professional leagues:
94	** The '''Los Angeles Sparks''' are founding members of the WNBA, first playing in the inaugural 1997 season. They were originally sister team to the Lakers, but were sold off in 2006. The Sparks still share Crypto.com Arena with the Lakers and (for the time being) Clippers. Three-time WNBA champions (most recently in 2016), some of their more notable past and present players include USC alums Lisa Leslie (later part of an ownership group that sold out in 2013) and Tina Thompson, Candace Parker, and sisters Nneka and Chiney Ogwumike. The team still has a number of Lakers connections—Magic Johnson is part of the current ownership team, and their list of head coaches includes former Lakers Michael Cooper (twice) and Derek Fisher (the current head coach), as well as Kobe Bryant's father Joe.
95	** '''Angel City FC''' was announced in 2020 as California's first entry in the National Women's Soccer League, with a start date of 2022. It's sharing BMO Stadium with LAFC; during its first season, it held home matches in the early-season NWSL Challenge Cup at Titan Stadium on the Cal State Fullerton campus. For 2023, all home matches, including those in the Challenge Cup, are at BMO Stadium. Right now, the club is best known for its literal army of owners, quite a few of whom have pages on This Very Wiki. The lead investors include Creator/NataliePortman and Internet billionaire Alexis Ohanian, husband of tennis great Serena Williams (who has a smaller ownership stake of her own). Other members of the ownership group include Creator/UzoAduba, Creator/SophiaBush, Creator/JessicaChastain, Creator/JamesCorden, Creator/AmericaFerrera, Creator/JenniferGarner, Creator/EvaLongoria, other celebrities who don't have pages yet, and a large cast of prominent sports figures.
96
97	!!! College Sports
98	* No discussion of LA sports would be complete without mentioning the two major universities in the city, the University of California, Los Angeles (located in Westwood) and the University of Southern California (located south of Downtown), both of which are referred to almost ''exclusively'' by their initialisms of UCLA and USC. (Just be careful with the latter one in the DeepSouth, as it can also refer to the University of South Carolina.)
99	** The '''UCLA Bruins''' are best known for their men's basketball team, which is almost always strong but never quite as dominant as in the late '60s and early '70s, where they won championship after championship under legendary coach John Wooden and at one point had a winning streak that spanned three seasons; however, they're good at more than just basketball, ranking #2 in Division I history in both men's team championships across all sports and in women's team championships across all sports as well as #2 in men's and women's combined. Men's soccer, women's gymnastics and softball are also sports they've exceled at over the years. Their football team plays home games at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.
100	** As for #1 in men's championships? That'd be the '''USC Trojans''', best known for their [[UsefulNotes/CollegiateAmericanFootball football]] team, which has been strong for much of the 21st century, notably during a stretch in the mid-2000s that got vacated due to improper benefits given to a star player. They're also historically strong in baseball, women's basketball and swimming and diving. Their football team plays home games at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, just south of campus.
101	** There are two other NCAA Division I athletic programs within the city limits: the '''Cal State Northridge Matadors''', representing California State University, Northridge (CSUN) in the San Fernando Valley, and the '''Loyola Marymount Lions''', representing Loyola Marymount University (LMU) on the Westside (near LAX). CSUN's strongest sports are softball and track, while LMU is best-known for their Cinderella run to the Elite Eight in the 1990 NCAA men's basketball tournament.
102
103	!!Los Angeles in Fiction
104	Los Angeles itself is often a metaphor for ''change'', as both a positive and a negative force. People come to Los Angeles, in reality as well as in fiction, to reinvent themselves.
105
106	Like UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity, LA has appeared in thousands of works of fiction and every reader here has probably had or has an LA-based show on their regular watch list.
107
108	[[foldercontrol]]
109
110	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
111	* ''Anime/KaleidoStar'' is nominally set in Los Angeles.
112	* ''Anime/GreatPretender'' has its first arc take place in Los Angeles where the main cast swindles a Hollywood director.
113	* In the ''Literature/{{Oreimo}}'' season 1 OVA's, [[spoiler: Kirino goes to do track and field training in LA. Her brother briefly visits her in there to persuade her to return back to Japan]].
114	[[/folder]]
115
116	[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
117	* ''WesternAnimation/Cars1'': The final race is at their {{Expy}} of the Los Angeles Coliseum.
118	* ''WesternAnimation/CatsDontDance''
119	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Turbo}}'': First half takes place in Van Nuys.
120	[[/folder]]
121
122	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
123	* ''Film/TwoThousandTwelve'': The apocalypse is fully established when the whole of downtown LA sinks into the sea. [[ApocalypseWow In the most over-the-top way possible]].
124	* ''Film/FiveHundredDaysOfSummer''
125	* ''Film/ACinderellaStory''
126	* ''Film/{{Absentia}}''
127	* ''Film/AkeelahAndTheBee''
128	* ''Film/AlvinAndTheChipmunks''
129	* The 1994 remake of ''Film/AngelsInTheOutfield'' switched the setting from Pittsburgh to Los Angeles, with the then-California Angels replacing the Pittsburgh Pirates from the original 1951 version.
130	* ''Film/Babylon2022'': Specifically set in 1920s Los Angeles.
131	* ''Film/BartonFink''
132	* ''Film/BattleLosAngeles'': Ironically, not actually filmed in LA, but in Louisiana (which has the postal abbreviation LA). References an incident during World War II when antiaircraft guns opened fire on an unknown object, though in movie it's a PresentDay AlienInvasion.
133	* ''Film/BladeRunner'' and its [[Film/BladeRunner2049 sequel]]
134	* ''Film/TheBigLebowski''
135	* ''Film/TheBigSleep''
136	* ''Film/BoogieNights''
137	* ''Film/BornInEastLA'': At the start, anyway.
138	* ''Film/BoyzNTheHood''
139	* ''Film/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': The San Fernando valley.
140	* ''Film/{{Captain Marvel\|2019}}'': The title heroine lands here when she first arrives on Earth.
141	* ''Creator/CheechAndChong''
142	** ''Film/UpInSmoke''
143	* ''Film/{{Chinatown}}''
144	* ''Film/TheCraft''
145	* ''Film/Creed'': The protagonist is raised in L.A. but moves to UsefulNotes/{{Philadelphia}} early in the film.
146	** ''Film/CreedII'': Some of the film's conflict comes from Creed's decision to move back home.
147	** ''Film/CreedIII'': In some ways sets out to make L.A. as big a character as Philly was to the Franchise/{{Rocky}} franchise, culminating in the film's final fight being a "Battle for Los Angeles" held in Dodgers Stadium.
148	* ''Film/{{Collateral}}''
149	* ''Film/{{Constantine}}''
150	* ''Film/CrownVic''
151	* ''Film/DarkBlue''
152	* ''Film/Detonator2003''
153	* ''Film/DieHard''
154	* ''Film/DragMeToHell''
155	* ''Film/Drive2011''
156	* ''Film/EarthGirlsAreEasy''
157	* ''Film/EdWood''
158	* ''Film/EncinoMan''
159	* ''Film/EscapeFromLA'' is set in a dystopian future where The Big One (the next big West Coast earthquake, rumored to hit a 10 or more on the Richter scale, which is supposed to happen "any day now") hit, splitting California in two. Los Angeles has become an island where those who break the laws of an [[OppressiveStatesOfAmerica America gone fascist]] are sent.
160	* ''Film/TheFall''
161	* ''Film/FallingDown''
162	* ''Film/TheFastAndTheFurious''
163	* ''Film/{{Hardcore}}'' first (and largest) California city that George C. Scott's Jake Van Dorn travels to while looking for his missing daughter (San Diego is next and followed by ending in San Francisco) who got into that state's porno scene.
164	* ''Film/HowToKillYourNeighborsDog''
165	* ''Film/IndependenceDay'': Los Angeles is just one of the many cities that are destroyed by the aliens in this film, but aside from one shot of a post-attack New York, L.A. is the only city that gets focus in the aftermath of the attack.
166	* ''Film/GetShorty''
167	* ''Film/GrandCanyon''
168	* ''Film/{{Hancock}}''
169	* ''Film/{{Heat}}''
170	* ''Film/HollywoodHomicide''
171	* ''Film/InlandEmpire''
172	* ''Film/InsideDaisyClover'': "Angel Beach" is Santa Monica in anything but name, and the "Swan Studios" are actually Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank.
173	* The ''Film/IronMan'' film series bases Stark Industries out of LA, and Tony Stark's cliffside Malibu home is straight from the comics' LA period.
174	* ''Film/ItsAlive''
175	* ''Film/JackAndJill''
176	* ''Film/TheKarateKid'': takes place in Reseda.
177	* ''Film/KillerOfSheep'' -- a memorable portrait of the urban poor of the Watts ghetto in the late 1970s
178	* ''Film/KissMeDeadly''
179	* ''Film/LAConfidential''
180	* ''Film/LAStory''
181	* ''Film/LaLaLand'' is one big love letter to the city. Angelenos will have fun identifying all of the locations in the film.
182	* ''Film/LAWithoutAMap''
183	* ''Film/LakeviewTerrace''
184	* ''Film/LethalWeapon'' and its sequels.
185	* The film ''Film/LosAngelesPlaysItself'', done by Thom Anderson, takes a look at Los Angeles as it is shown in the movies -- not Los Angeles pretending to be other cities. There is a marked divide between Los Angeles and Hollywood (even though technically Hollywood is within Los Angeles city limits) - Hollywood seems to find a perverse delight in destroying Los Angeles every chance it gets - ''Film/Armageddon1998'', ''Film/IndependenceDay'', you name it. They'd do it more, but the dearth of tall buildings makes it somewhat anticlimactic to watch. The film also suggests that only a city with an inferiority complex would allow itself to be called L.A. so frequently.
186	* ''Film/{{Magnolia}}''
187	* ''Film/{{Memento}}''
188	* ''Film/MulhollandDrive''
189	* ''Film/{{Nightcrawler}}''
190	* ''Film/OnceUponATimeInHollywood''
191	* ''Film/OJMadeInAmerica'' – A documentary centering on the life and criminal cases of Creator/OJSimpson, with much of the story focusing on his life in L.A., most notably his highly publicized murder case.
192	* ''Film/PrettyWoman''
193	* ''Film/PulpFiction''
194	* ''Film/Quarantine2008''
195	* ''Film/TheRocketeer''
196	* ''Film/RepoMan''
197	* ''Film/ReservoirDogs''
198	* ''Film/RushHour'' and the middle part of ''Rush Hour 2''
199	* ''Film/ResidentEvilAfterlife'': Alice and Claire lands on the roof of Los Angeles County Jail, where 6 survivors have holed up there since the start of the ZombieApocalypse. All the undead in Los Angeles have congregated on the walls of the prison. Prior to this, Chris Redfield - the brother of Claire imprisoned by the survivors - was stationed in the prison as part of the U.S. military's offensive against the zombies. Once the military pulled out, Chris was left behind. Much of L.A. at this point is SceneryGorn, with the famous Hollywood landmark and the skyline of Downtown L.A. in flames.
200	* ''Film/SanAndreas'' (no relation to ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas''): Los Angeles and the rest of California's coast (yes, even UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco) get destroyed spectacularly.
201	* ''Film/SingingInTheRain''
202	* ''Film/TheSoloist''
203	* ''Film/{{Songbird}}''
204	* ''Film/{{Speed}}''
205	* ''Film/StreetKings''
206	* ''Film/SunsetBoulevard''
207	* ''Film/TheSandlot'' and its sequels take place in the San Fernando Valley.
208	* ''Franchise/{{Terminator}}''
209	** ''Film/TheTerminator''
210	** ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay''
211	** ''Film/Terminator3RiseOfTheMachines''
212	** ''Film/TerminatorGenisys''
213	* ''Film/ThisIsTheEnd''
214	* ''Film/ToLiveAndDieInLA''
215	* ''Film/TheTrip1967''
216	* ''Film/UnderTheSilverLake'': which, oddly enough, takes place mostly near the protagonist's apartment in the Silver Lake neighborhood. As the protagonist's investigation continues, he finds himself all over the Los Angeles area.
217	* ''Film/ValentinesDay''
218	* ''Film/{{Volcano}}''
219	* ''Film/WhatEverHappenedToBabyJane''
220	* ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'', kind of a kid-friendly story of ''Chinatown''. The film invents a new city within 1930's Los Angeles, "[[FantasticGhetto Toontown]]", where all your favorite cartoon characters live, before they head out to work in the studios. However, Toontown is privately owned, and in danger of being bought out and turned into an eight-lane freeway.
221	--> '''Eddie Valiant''': "Who needs a car in LA? We've got the best public transportation in the world!"
222	* ''Film/TheWood'' (actually takes place in the suburb of Inglewood).
223	* ''Film/YesMan''
224	* ''Film/ZabriskiePoint'': Notable for its extensive location shooting of Los Angeles circa 1970, and it's a virtual time capsule in that it features buildings and landmarks like the art-deco Richfield Tower that are no longer there.
225	* ''Film/{{Zombieland}}'': LA supposedly has the last zone free of zombies. And also hosts Creator/BillMurray.
226	[[/folder]]
227
228	[[folder:Comic Books]]
229	* ''ComicBook/TheAvengers'':
230	** The ''ComicBook/WestCoastAvengers'' from the mid-1980s to mid-1990s, as well as ''ComicBook/IronMan'' and ''ComicBook/WonderMan'' in that period, as both title characters were members of the team, though Iron Man had moved to California before the formation of the "Wackos", with Tony Stark building a new company from scratch in LA.
231	*** A RunningGag early on in ''Wonder Man'' had Simon's showbiz and civilian friends asking him how he could survive in LA without a car. He ''could'' just use his jet belt to fly anywhere, of course, but the thought of being able to drive ''others'' around town had never occurred to him.
232	** ''ComicBook/AvengersAcademy'' is likewise based out of LA, and sees a crossover with the Runaways.
233	* ''ComicBook/CaptainCarrotAndHisAmazingZooCrew'': The comic often featured Los Antelopes, Califurnia, Earth-C's Los Angeles. Los Antelopes' various neighborhoods and suburbs were often featured in stories, including Saint Bernardino (San Bernardino), Bel-Airedale (Bel-Air), Beaverly Hills (Beverly Hills) and Follywood (Hollywood), the latter where the Zoo Crew's headquarters were located.
234	* ''ComicBook/{{Hawkeye}}'': [[Characters/MarvelComicsKateBishop Kate Bishop]], the second Hawkeye, starts operating out of LA near the beginning of her solo career, eventually getting [[ComicBook/Hawkeye2016 her own book.]] This leads into ''ComicBook/WestCoastAvengers2018''.
235	* ''ComicBook/{{Manhunter}}'': The series follows Federal Prosecutor Kate Spencer, who is based out of LA.
236	* ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'': One of the major plot points is the fact that the kids are in LA and not NYC. It turns out that the city's relative dearth of superhuman activity is due to the Pride secretly controlling the whole city, and their defeat is followed by an EvilPowerVacuum.
237	[[/folder]]
238
239	[[folder:Literature]]
240	* Most Franchise/{{Zorro}} stories take place in the Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles, the Spanish settlement that would grow into the metropolis as we know it.
241	* The Literature/PhilipMarlowe novels of Creator/RaymondChandler, including ''Literature/TheBigSleep'' and ''Literature/TheLongGoodbye''. Chandler was a poet before diving into hard-boiled detective fiction, and it shows in his narrative descriptions of the City of Angels.
242	* Creator/MichaelConnelly has written a long series of mystery and detective fiction novels in the Raymond Chandler spirit, most of which are set in Los Angeles and which display a deep familiarity with the city's history and culture.
243	* The Alex Delaware novels of Creator/JohnathanKellerman and the Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus novels of Faye Kellerman. Since the Kellermans are husband and wife, their characters have had at least one CrossOver.
244	* Many of LA-native Creator/HarryTurtledove's short stories and novels. In particular, ''Literature/TheCaseOfTheToxicSpellDump'', and "Counting Up/Counting Down" are full of references to San Fernando Valley landmarks.
245	* The majority of ''Literature/SnowCrash'' is set in Los Angeles. (Geographically, at least. ''Politically'', it's mostly set in [[BalkanizeMe Mr. Lee's Greater Hong Kong, Cita di Cosa Nostra, The Farms of Cloverdell, The Clink, and, very occasionally, the United States of America.]])
246	* The main characters of Literature/AWindNamedAmnesia visit L.A early in the story.
247	* In ''Literature/ShanghaiGirls'', sisters Pearl and May Chin move to Chinatown in 1938.
248	* In ''Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians'', Percy and his friends travel to L.A.--- which is the current location of the Underworld. The narrator further describes the city in the most negative terms imaginable, which makes one wonder whatever happened to Rick Riordan in Los Angeles to make him hate it so.
249	* In ''Literature/TheyThirst'' by Creator/RobertRMcCammon, a group of hostile vampires takes over the city via sandstorm.
250	* Michael Tolkin's book ''Literature/ThePlayer'' is a satire of "The Industry" with the main character an immoral film executive trying to find out which screenwriter is threatening him. Robert Altman directed the film adaptation, with shots all over the City of Angels.
251	* Los Angeles is posited as a sort of Casablanca for every conspiracy, cult, and secret society on the planet in the comedy neo-noir ''Literature/MrBlank'' and [[Literature/GetBlank its sequel]].
252	* ''Literature/CityOfDevils'' takes place in L.A. Granted, it's an alternate 1955 Los Angeles where nearly everyone is a b-movie monster, but the city is recognizable.
253	* The ''Literature/ElvisCole'' series of detective novels by Robert Crais feature L.A. heavily in most of the books, and with [[DescriptionPorn highly detailed scenery descriptions]] constant throughout the books.
254	* The ''Literature/AhrimanTrilogy'' takes place largely in San Pedro, the suburb of L.A. down by the port.
255	* The events of ''Literature/TheDarkArtifices'' series take place in L.A., as the main characters live in the Los Angeles Institute and their job is to keep peace among the supernatural communities of the greater Los Angeles area.
256	* ''Literature/TheDayOfTheLocust'' (and its film adaptation) is a story of HorribleHollywood in which protagonist Tod Hackett is creating a painting in which Los Angeles' angry, bored, mostly transient population sets the city ablaze.
257	* ''Literature/WhiteOleander'' (and its film adaptation) By L.A. native Janet Fitch tells the story of Astrid Magnussen, who spends her entire teenage years bouncing around a series foster and group homes all around the greater L.A. metro area. The city, the environment, and the inhabitants of L.A. are eloquently described here.
258	* ''Literature/TheMouseWatch'' starts in Los Angeles. The Skamperskys live in the area, and the first Bernie sees of the Mouse Watch is the L.A. office.
259	[[/folder]]
260
261	[[folder:Live Action TV]]
262	* ''Series/TwentyFour'': The first six seasons were based out of LA.
263	* ''Series/Adam12''
264	* ''Series/{{Angel}}'', plus the occasional episode of its parent series, ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''.
265	* ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment''
266	* ''Series/{{Baywatch}}'' and ''Series/BaywatchNights''
267	* The setting of ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'' is nearby Pasadena.
268	* ''Series/BurkesLaw''
269	* ''Series/TheCloser''
270	* ''Series/CodeBlack'', set in the Angels Memorial Hospital of LA
271	* ''Series/{{Colony}}'': Alien invaders basically turn LA County into [=WW2=] France.
272	* ''Series/{{Columbo}}''
273	* ''Series/{{Cybill}}''
274	* ''Series/{{Delvecchio}}''
275	* ''Series/{{Dollhouse}}'' is based in LA as well. Native New Yorker Creator/JossWhedon likes his adopted city as a setting.
276	* ''Series/DoogieHowserMD'' is set in the Westside neighborhood of Brentwood.
277	* ''Franchise/{{Dragnet}}'', as mentioned in the OpeningNarration: "This is the city: Los Angeles, California."
278	** Naturally, the radio show and TheMovie were set there too.
279	** The famous L.A. smog was used as a sight gag on ''Series/TheTonightShowStarringJohnnyCarson'' in the famous "Copper Clapper Caper" sketch, as Creator/JackWebb gave his famous "This is the city" line, and they showed a photo of a smog-shrouded L.A. from the 50s.
280	* ''Series/{{Emergency}}''
281	* ''Series/TheFreshPrinceOfBelAir'' takes place in the titular L.A. neighborhood.
282	* ''Series/TheGeorgeLopezShow'' takes place in the San Fernando Valley.
283	* ''Series/HannahMontana'' takes place in the neighboring beach town of Malibu.
284	* ''Series/{{Insecure}}'' takes place in and around LA and does a lot of SceneryPorn of it. In particular, the gentrification of Inglewood is a minor plot point.
285	* ''Series/{{Jonas}} LA''
286	* ''Series/KamenRiderDragonKnight''
287	* ''Series/TheLAComplex'' has fun with this; after Abby's [[TheAllegedCar Alleged Car]] is towed in the pilot, she becomes possibly the first major character in a set-in-LA series to use public transportation regularly. Note that the show is made by people who live [[UsefulNotes/{{Toronto}} elsewhere]].
288	* ''Series/LaBrea: The pilot opens at the titular tar pits, which are swallowed in a sinkhole in the opening of the pilot. The main characters end up in a primeval world while the rest of their family stays in LA.
289	* ''Series/LALaw''.
290	* ''Series/LawAndOrderLA''
291	* ''Series/{{Lucifer}}'', with copious use of the Los-Angeles-as-change metaphor noted above.
292	* ''Series/{{Mannix}}''
293	* ''Series/MartialLaw''
294	* ''Series/MenOfACertainAge'' is set and filmed in Granada Hills, out in The Valley.
295	* ''Series/ModernFamily''
296	* ''Series/NCISLosAngeles''
297	* ''Series/NewGirl'' is possibly the only television show set in Downtown Los Angeles (the Arts District, to be exact) that isn't about cops or lawyers.
298	* ''Series/NoahsArc''
299	* ''Series/NUMB3RS''
300	* Most episodes of ''Franchise/PerryMason''.
301	** Though not the 1980s–1990s TV movies, most of which were set in UsefulNotes/{{Denver}}.
302	* ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' with the city of Angel Grove, explained by California being founded by the [[AlternateHistory British]] [[UsefulNotes/TheBritishEmpire Empire.]]
303	** And while they had adventures worldwide, the ''Series/PowerRangersOperationOverdrive'' team is based in San Angeles.
304	* ''Series/TheRockfordFiles''.
305	* ''Series/SixFeetUnder''
306	* ''Series/{{Southland}}''
307	* ''Series/RowanAndMartinsLaughIn'' was filmed in "Beautiful Downtown Burbank".
308	** As was ''Series/TheTonightShowStarringJohnnyCarson''.
309	* ''Series/ThreesCompany'' took place in Santa Monica, which is surrounded on three sides by Los Angeles.
310	* ''Series/{{V 2009}}''
311	* ''Series/{{Victorious}}'' takes place in Hollywood.
312	* ''Series/{{You}}'' had it's second season take place in LA, using the LA-as-change metaphor for [[TheSociopath Joe's]] entire reason for moving there.
313	* ''Series/YoureTheWorst''
314	* ''Series/Zorro1957''
315	* ''Series/Zorro1990''
316	[[/folder]]
317
318	[[folder:Music]]
319	* 24/7 Spyz: "El Lame".
320	* Music/BadReligion: "Los Angeles is Burning".
321	** Indeed, their first studio album was called ''How Could Hell Be Any Worse?'' (which receives a CallBack in the above song). The cover image was just a shot of L.A.
322	* Music/BillyJoel: "Los Angelenos".
323	* Music/Blink182's ''California'', an album themed around California in general, has a song titled "Los Angeles", and the name appears prominently in its lyrics.
324	* The Briggs: "This is LA".
325	* Creator/CheechAndChong: "Born in East LA".
326	* Concrete Blonde: about half of their songs, but "Still In Hollywood", "Roses Grow" and "God Is A Bullet" more than most.
327	* Music/CountingCrows: "Goodnight L.A.", "Come Around".
328	* Music/TheDoors: "LA Woman".
329	* Music/TheEagles: "Life in the Fast Lane" and "Hotel California".
330	* Music/EaglesOfDeathMetal: "Wannabe in LA".
331	** Frontman Jesse Hughes told ''The Sun'' January 30, 2009: "You know when you're someplace and you want to be somewhere else. But when you're not in that place, you want to be there. That's LA. It has its skeletons but when you leave it, s--t, all you want to do is go back."
332	* Music/FrankSinatra: "LA is My Lady". Compared to "My Kind of Town" and "New York, New York", it seems Los Angeles got the short end of the stick when it comes to Sinatra homages to American cities. This synthesizer driven funky crooner number will throw off both the biggest Sinatra fans and proudest Angelenos.
333	* [[Music/ThePixies Frank Black]], "Los Angeles".
334	* Music/FrankZappa was born in Baltimore, but moved to the high desert exurb of Lancaster as a teenager, and started his career in Echo Park. References to LA are ubiquitous in his work, from "Trouble Every Day" (written about the Watts riots) to ''Music/JoesGarage'', which takes place "in a garage in Canoga Park" to "Valley Girl" to the live album ''Just Another Band From L.A.''...
335	* Funeral Party: "New York City Moves to the Sound of LA". Not an indictment or glorification of either city, just an observation on the continuous, free-flowing nature of music and popular culture itself.
336	* Music/GunsNRoses: "Welcome to the Jungle".
337	** ''(from Songfacts)'' This song is about Los Angeles. It exposes the dark side of the city many people encounter when they go there to pursue fame. Guns N' Roses knew this side of the city well: in 1985, they lived in a place on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles that they called "Hell House." The house was often filled with drugs, alcohol and groupies.
338	* Music/HollywoodUndead: "No Other Place"
339	* Music/MyChemicalRomance: "Battery City" is a ridiculously thinly-veiled version of Los Angeles in the so-called [[Music/DangerDaysTheTrueLivesOfTheFabulousKilljoys "Dangerverse"]].
340	* Music/MeatLoaf: "Los Angeloser".
341	* Music/PanicAtTheDisco: "LA Devotee"
342	* Music/{{Rancid}}: "L.A. River". It's about people coming to LA, not making it out and getting caught up in all sorts of bad stuff. The LA River is the backdrop.
343	* Music/RandyNewman: "I Love LA".
344	** Newman was asked to write a song about Los Angeles as a theme to the 1984 Olympics held there. Instead, he wrote a tongue-in-cheek "homage" to the car-cruising, sun-worshipping LA culture, complete with mentions of a "Big nasty redhead" and a "Bum down on his knees." LA officials didn't think this was the image they wanted, but Newman released the song anyway. For a while it was the adopted theme song for the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team. (''from Songfacts'')
345	** Also plays when the LA Dodgers win at home.
346	* The Music/RedHotChiliPeppers make a lot of Los Angeles references in their songs, which may or may not be coded drug references.
347	* Music/XUSBand: "Los Angeles". This song is about a very racist woman who feels compelled to leave the city for a less diverse environment.
348	* Songs about how much Los Angeles sucks seems to be a popular theme for indie rockers from the [[UsefulNotes/TheOtherRainforest Pacific Northwest]].
349	** Music/DeathCabForCutie has "Why You'd Want To Live Here" off of ''The Photo Album'', asking the obvious question. Ironically, lead singer Ben Gibbard ended up moving to Los Angeles; apparently, marrying Creator/ZooeyDeschanel is the reason why one might want to live in LA.
350	** Music/TheDecemberists have "Los Angeles, I'm Yours", a delightfully snarky attack on the lifestyle of certain Angelinos. The song was penned while lead singer/songwriter Colin Meloy was visiting his sister, who lives there. Hmm....
351	* [=LA=], [=LA=], Baby! by the Music/TheJonasBrothers for ''Series/{{Jonas}} [=LA=]''.
352	* Music/{{Tool}}'s song "[=Æ=]nema" is one giant TakeThat at the city which fantasizes about it being buried beneath an ocean. This song is an {{Homage}} and ShoutOut to Creator/BillHicks, as mentioned below.
353	* Music/TupacShakur, "To Live and Die in L.A."
354	* Music/KendrickLamar featuring Music/DrDre, "Compton".
355	* Music/ThirtySecondsToMars, "City of Angels"
356	* The Royal Crown Revue song, "Watts Local", is about the railroad line that ran from Long Beach to Watts from 1904 to 1958, part of the original 'Red Line' streetcar line service operated by Pacific Electric Railway (now part of Metro Rail's Blue Line). The song calls out several of the stops along the line:
357	-->Alameda, Wilmington, 103rd\
358	Firestone is fine\
359	Don't forget to stop at Imperial\
360	On the old Red Line
361	* Music/TomPetty's "Free Fallin' " is very San Fernando Valley-centric, flat-out mentioning "the Valley" and Reseda, plus Ventura Boulevard (more or less the Valley's main street) and Mulholland Drive (basically the boundary between the Valley and Greater Hollywood).
362	[[/folder]]
363
364	[[folder:Stand Up Comedy]]
365	* Creator/BillHicks, born in Georgia and raised in Texas, spent several years in Los Angeles and never tired of reminding his audience how much he hated it. ''Arizona Bay'' is a borderline ConceptAlbum which repeatedly comes back to the subject of how much better off the country and the world would be if Southern California sank into the Pacific.
366	[[/folder]]
367
368	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
369	* ''TabletopGame/DemonTheFallen'': Los Angeles is an important spot in the fluff, being the city where the ex-ArchangelLucifer himself has resided since its foundation (the city name is the clue).
370	* ''TabletopGame/InNomine'': Los Angeles is depicted as a haven for demonic influence, with no angelic tethers and few (if any) angels stationed there. (The angelic equivalent is San Francisco.) It is a particular stronghold for the servants of Nybbas, Prince of the Media, who have been digging into the movie industry for a long time in an effort to suck all artistic integrity out of it, but most of the major Princes have an agent or two running around.
371	[[/folder]]
372
373	[[folder:Video Games]]
374	* The English translation of the Franchise/AceAttorney series takes place in Los Angeles - only implied at first, but made explicit in ''Spirit of Justice''. (The Japanese version, on the other hand, takes place in an unnamed Japanese city).
375	* The setting of 2014's ''Videogame/BattlefieldHardline''.
376	* ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOpsII'': The city was invaded by Cordis Die forces after [[BigBad Raul Menendez]] took control of the US military drone network.
377	* The expansion to ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert2'' (''Yuri's Revenge'') has the second Allied mission in Los Angeles, where the player has to stop Yuri from using the airwaves to mind control civilians and feed them to his Grinders. ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert3'' has an Imperial mission based in nearby Santa Monica, also with the objective of utilizing media presence.
378	* ''VideoGame/{{D}}'' is initially set inside of a hospital in downtown Los Angeles where director Richter Harris murdered several people in cold blood; his daughter Laura arrives there to try and talk some sense into him. However, once inside, she is seemingly transported by a strange blob to a medieval castle, which turns out to be an alternate reality created by Richter's mind. Laura is returned to L.A. unharmed in the [[MultipleEndings good ending]].
379	* ''VideoGame/DukeNukem3D'' and ''VideoGame/DukeNukemForever'' (first half) take place in Los Angeles during an AlienInvasion.
380	* ''VideoGame/Fallout1'': The city was devastated by nukes during the Great War, and is known as the "Boneyard" among the survivors.
381	* ''VideoGame/FutureCopLAPD'' gives the LAPD a TransformingMecha and a [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot whacked-out]] crime wave in [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture the future]].
382	* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas'': One of the game's three cities is a FictionalCounterpart called Los Santos, mostly consisting of Downtown, the beaches, and the violent ghettos Carl "CJ" Johnson calls home. It's pretty accurate as most of the major landmarks are there and accounted for, even if they are under a different name.
383	* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'' is also set in Los Santos albeit updated to fit the more contemporary setting, prominently featuring the still-violent ghettos Franklin Clinton is trying to escape from, the affluent suburbs of Vinewood (the GTA-verse equivalent of Hollywood) where Michael De Santa languishes in luxury with his dysfunctional family, and the desert countryside (based on the area around Salton Sea) where the psychopathic Trevor Phillips stalks the streets.
384	* ''VideoGame/LANoire'' is, logically, set here. The map's pretty realistic, too (One of the first things Team Bondi had to do was remove the freeways.) They used over [[ShownTheirWork 180,000 photographs to map out the entire city.]]
385	** Although they added the anachronistic palm trees (they would have been saplings at the time of the game, just planted) for aesthetic's sake.
386	* In 2020, a track based on Los Angeles called Los Angeles Laps was added to ''VideoGame/MarioKartTour''.
387	* ''Los Angeles Shark'', the sixth and final game of the ''VideoGame/MiamiShark'' series, has you play has a shark causing destruction in Los Angeles.
388	%%* ''VideoGame/MidnightClub LA''
389	* ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}'' has a map set in a ThemeParkVersion of Hollywood, with the attacking team trying to escort the limo of Omnic BMovie director Hal-Fred Glitchbot to his trailer within the time limit, while the defending team must prevent that from happening.
390	* In ''Police 911'', the Japanese version begins in Tokyo and ends in Los Angeles. In the North American version, [[CulturalTranslation it's the other way around]].
391	%%* ''VideoGame/PoliceQuest4OpenSeason'' along with ''SWAT 1-3''
392	* The final course of ''R4: VideoGame/RidgeRacer Type 4'', Shooting Hoops, is hosted in Los Angeles.
393	* ''[[VideoGame/SanFranciscoRush Rush 2: Extreme Racing USA]]'' features the Los Angeles track. Unlike the other courses, which have a "Fog" setting, L.A. replaces the fog with ''smog''.
394	* The final level of ''VideoGame/SplinterCellPandoraTomorrow'' takes place at LAX Airport, where Sam Fisher has to stop a terrorist's attempt to spread smallpox there.
395	* ''[[VideoGame/TonyHawksProSkater Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3]]'' has a level set in downtown Los Angeles (recreated for ''Underground 2''), while ''American Wasteland'' is ENTIRELY set in L.A.
396	%%* ''VideoGame/TrueCrimeStreetsOfLA''
397	* ''VideoGame/TwistedMetal'' (1995) is set in Los Angeles during the [[NextSundayAD Christmas Eve of 2005]]. While most of its sequels take a WorldTour approach, they also tend to feature at least [[RevisitingTheRoots a starting level]] set in L.A.[[note]]To be specific, ''Twisted Metal 2'', ''3'' and ''Head-On''. ''4'' is the only globetrotting sequel without a L.A. level[[/note]]. Most of the levels in the 2012 {{Reboot}} are also heavily or explicitly based in Los Angeles.
398	* ''VideoGame/VampireTheMasqueradeBloodlines'' is set in and around LA, with sections taking place in Santa Monica, Downtown, Hollywood and Chinatown. In addition to the vampires, it features zombies in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery and a werewolf in Griffith Park.
399	* L.A. appears have been converted into some sort of space colony in ''VideoGame/XenobladeChroniclesX'', and is now known as [[NewNeoCity Neo Los Angeles]].
400	[[/folder]]
401
402	[[folder:Web Original]]
403	* ''WebVideo/AgentsOfCracked'' is set in and around Cracked's real-life offices in L.A., and features the Santa Monica Pier in its opening credits.
404	* The ''Fansadox'' series ''The Great Invasion'' is placed in an LA [[ChinaTakesOverTheWorld invaded by China]].
405	* ''AudioPlay/WereAlive'', an audio drama about a ZombieApocalypse is set in downtown L.A.
406	* ''Roleplay/BehindTheVeil'' takes place mainly in LA and the surrounding areas, and the city itself has an AnthropomorphicPersonification in the form of the Lady of Angels.
407	[[/folder]]
408
409
410	[[folder:Western Animation]]
411	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'': the Warner sibs lived on the Warner Brothers lot, in Burbank; Slappy and Skippy Squirrel also lived in Burbank.
412	** When Rita and Runt go to Poland in "Puttin on the Blitz", Rita sings that it doesn't look like Burbank, more like Van Nuys.
413	** Slappy also does a parody of the song, "Little Old Lady from Pasadena," called "Little Old Slappy From Pasadena."
414	* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'': Patchy the Pirate lives in the LA neighborhood of Encino in the San Fernando Valley.
415	* ''WesternAnimation/DanVs'' takes place in the Van Nuys neighborhood.
416	* ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones'' often features "Hollyrock," the prehistoric version of Hollywood. The adult Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm live there in several 90s TV-movies.
417	* ''WesternAnimation/GarfieldAndFriends'': When ''ComicStrip/{{Garfield}}'' narrated a tale about barbarians, he described the place where they lived as a Los Angeles without Mexican stores.
418	* Like the film it follows, ''WesternAnimation/{{Turbo}}: F.A.S.T.''
419	* ''WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil'' Marco Diaz and his family live in the fictional neighborhood of "Echo Creek", which sounds similar to the real neighborhood, Echo Park, in Central LA. It's never specified that this is LA, but there are many giveaways to this fact including sightings of neighborhood signs for Silverlake and Hollywood, the Santa Monica Pier and the La Brea tar pits which are changed to the mud pits.
420	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}}'': The human protagonists lived in Los Angeles before getting teleported to different parts of the eponymous Amphibia; a large part of season 3 takes place on Earth in Los Angeles.
421	[[/folder]]
422	----
423	Be sure to try the taco trucks!

Context UsefulNotes / LosAngeles