History CaliforniaDoubling / California

* ''Series/HappyDays'' is set in Milwaukee, but was shot entirely in Hollywood. The same can be said about its spinoffs.

* From ''Series/PowerRangersNinjaStorm'' onwards, the ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' franchise has been shot in New Zealand, despite the show continually taking place in California. With some exceptions (Jason David Frank, Kevin Duhaney, Jeffery Parazzo, et al), most of the actors in Power Rangers come from New Zealand and the surrounding countries. It is evident in some of the shows, as they have to attempt to speak their lines in American accents. The exception to this is the 1995 [[Film/MightyMorphinPowerRangers movie]], which was shot in Australia, but the in-film location is Angel Grove, California, and the alien planet of Phaedros (sp?).

** The first season was produced in British Columbia, which is why all the minor roles are filled by very Canadian-sounding Californians... [[CanadaEh eh]]?

* If you live near the Trona Pinnacles, you will see the road leading out of the Center of the Galaxy in Film/StarTrekV.

* ''Series/{{Suspect}}'': Mostly averted; they were able to shoot all the scenes in Washington, D.C. that they needed to, save for a few indoor scenes which they shot in a Canadian studio.

* ''Series/{{Castle}}'' is set in New York. Only the pilot was actually filmed there. The episode set in Los Angeles takes advantage of that fact.

* ''Franchise/StarWars'' is no stranger to California Doubling with a grove of redwoods used to shoot the scenes for ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi''. The advent of live action ''Star Wars'' TV shows in the 2020's on Creator/DisneyPlus saw a rise of California Doubling. Notably with Tython in ''Series/TheMandalorian'' and Mapuzo in ''Series/ObiWanKenobi'', both seemingly shot in desert locations out of Los Angeles. Fortunately seems to be avoided in ''Series/[[Andor}}'', which did shooting in Britain.

* ''Series/{{Frasier}}'' is set in Seattle but is filmed in LA. The sole exception is [[Recap/Frasier
S05E05The1000thEpisode The 1000th Episode]] (of the ShowWithinAShow, not the actual show), which was commemorated in Seattle with a Frasier Crane Week celebration (a clip of which serves as TheTag). Incidentally the in-universe portrayal of Seattle bears little resemblance to the real thing - among other discrepancies there are apparently society pages in the newspapers, dozens of fancy delicatessens, and distinct districts like a “paper district.” It’s essentially New York set in Seattle filmed in LA.

* According to ''Film/BeingJohnMalkovich'', the UsefulNotesNewJersey Turnpike (where you're spit out after spending 15 minutes in John Malkovich's head) has palm trees and oil rigs in the background.

* ''Film/KillingZoe'' takes place entirely in UsefulNotes/{{Paris}}, UsefulNotes/{{France}}. With the exception of two tracking shots that plat over the opening/closing credits, it was filmed completely in L.A. Because the movie takes place almost entirely indoors and features a large French cast, it would have been pointless to go to France in the first place.
* Stockton CA has been used for a large number of movies and TV, mostly because it doesn't look much like LA/Southern CA. Prime examples, the roadbuilding scene in ''Film/CoolHandLuke'' (shot just outside of town on 10-mile road) and the "Eastern College" in ''Film/TheSureThing'' (which is actually University of the Pacific).
* ''Film/ArmyOfDarkness'' is quite, ''quite'' blatantly not shot in whatever quasi-British kingdom it's set in (it was filmed in Bronson Canyon and [[KirksRock Vasquez Rocks National Park]], both of which are in California).

* In the movie ''Film/LoveActually'', Colin travels to the city of UsefulNotes/{{Milwaukee}}, UsefulNotes/{{Wisconsin}}. However, the airport shown has a sign that says "Milwaukee International Airport" (the real one is "Mitchell Int'l"). The bar he goes to has California license plates and prominent Budweiser signs. Milwaukee is the home of Miller brewery, the chance of finding a bar that looks like that are slim to none.
* The outdoor scenes in ''Film/TheLostWorldJurassicPark'' have significantly more redwood trees than you'd expect from a equatorial island. This is because they were filmed near Eureka, CA (no, not [[Series/{{Eureka}} that one]]).

** Not exactly true, as a good portion was actually filmed in [[UsefulNotes/GeorgiaUSA Georgia]].

* ''Film/{{Halloween|1978}}'' is set in the fictional town of Haddonfield, Illinois, but filmed around Burbank, California. The palm trees in the background make this more obvious. [[Film/HalloweenII1981 It's sequel]] and [[Film/{{Halloween 2007}} the reimagening]] from Music/RobZombie were also filmed in California instead of Illinois.
** ''[[Film/Halloween4TheReturnOfMichaelMyers 4]]'', ''[[Film/Halloween5TheRevengeofMichaelMyers 5]]'', and ''[[Film/HalloweenTheCurseOfMichaelMyers 6]]'' were filmed in Utah, the [[Film/HalloweenResurrection final original film]] was shot in Vancouver, and [[Film/HalloweenII2009 the sequel to Zombie's reimageing]] was mostly filmed in UsefulNotes/{{Atlanta}}, Georgia (with some additional filming in Connecticut and LA).

* In ''Film/HomeAlone2LostInNewYork'', all the scenes that take place at Kevin's uncle's house in Manhattan were shot in Hollywood, CA, while the scenes with Kevin's family in Miami were shot in Malibu.
* ''Dawn Patrol'', a World War One movie set in pancake-flat Belgium and northern France, has some very anachronistic and easily recognizable Southern California hills in all of the flying scenes.
* The Hopalong Cassidy B-Westerns of the 1930s and '40s were set in just about every Western state, with visits to Argentina and Arabia. All these places looked curiously similar, because they were all shot in the same stretch of California's Sierra Nevadas.
* ''Film/GungaDin'', an adventure film set in Northen India, used the exact same locations as many Hopalong Cassidy movies. Supposedly, even some genuine Indians were tricked into thinking the movie had been filmed in India.
* Creator/CharlieChaplin made California double for UsefulNotes/{{Germany}} and UsefulNotes/{{France}} in his 1917 movie ''Film/ShoulderArms'', taking place during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. This may be one of the earliest examples of this trope, and has two visual giveaways: The mountains around Hollywood, and cars running in the background. Germany in the 1910s didn`t have motorways yet, but California clearly had some in the greater Los Angeles area.

* The conspicuous desert that is supposed to pass for small town Indiana in ''Film/NorthByNorthwest'' is actually near Bakersfield.

* ''Film/{{Patriot Games}}'': The highway that is supposed to be Route 50 in Maryland is clearly a freeway somewhere in Southern California.

* ''Series/HappyDays'' is set in Milwaukee, but was shot entirely in Hollywood, California. The same can be said about it's spinoffs.
* Both ''Series/{{Matlock}}'' and ''Series/{{Profiler}}'' were set in or around Atlanta, GA. Were it not for establishing shots, dialogue references, and the opening credits of 'Matlock', no Atlantan would know this.
* ''Series/TwentyFour: Redemption'' features several African jungle scenes set in what are clearly eucalyptus groves -- while the eucalyptus tree is unknown across all but a few regions in Africa, it grows wild in much of California. The show's seventh season takes place in UsefulNotes/WashingtonDC, but the (partial) California Doubling becomes obvious when you see palm trees and dry brown hills.

* ''Series/{{Angel}}'' had a few episodes supposedly set in places like Rome and U.K. For the U.K. one, they went to a forested area of northern California but were still disappointed at how little it looked like the English countryside. Minutes before they were to film, however, a fog bank rolled in and gave the setting a much more UK feel.
* The fourth-season premiere of ''Series/{{Bones}}'' was set and filmed in London. However, the show set in UsefulNotes/WashingtonDC, with special locations such as Washington State, Las Vegas, and New Orleans, has NEVER left California to shoot any of those episodes. An episode set in Baltimore, complete with Baltimore accents ("Welcome to Bawlmer"), had the opening scene was clearly filmed at the Sepulveda Dam.

* ''Series/ColdCase'' has occasional location shots in Philadelphia, but has many scenes clearly filmed in LA: the architecture that is supposedly "Germantown" or "the River Wards" has no business anywhere that gets harsh winters. UsefulNotes/LosAngelesMetroRail has stood in for the Broad Street Subway at least once, as well. Any scene involving the cops standing outside their workplace is a bit strange since it's the same building that the FBI's LA bureau uses in ''Series/{{Numb3rs}}'', shot from below the bridges.

* ''Series/CougarTown'' is set in Florida. Some of suburban Florida superficially resembles the Southern California, but the palm trees are actually quite different. Remember, there are two mountain ranges, multiple river valleys, a few hundred miles of ocean, and a ''desert'' between Florida and LA.

* The ''Series/{{CSI}}'' franchise is famous for this with all three of its shows doing the majority of their filming in Cali, only filming in the actual places they're set in (Las Vegas, Miami and UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity) when they have to. An early episode had the [[http://www.janm.org/ Japanese American National Museum]] doubling for a police station, but didn't bother editing out the sign over the gift shop, and a more recent episode had Grissom and Catherine walking through [[http://www.citywalkhollywood.com/ Universal City Walk]] subbing for The Strip.

* ''Series/{{Dexter}}'' took place in Miami, but was filmed mostly in Long Beach, CA.
* ''Series/DrQuinnMedicineWoman'' substituted Southern California for the Colorado mountains... poorly. Especially with such sights as the cast climbing the gentle, rolling slopes of Pike's Peak, lush with the dry brown grass of summer.
* ''Series/TheDrewCareyShow'' was set in [[UsefulNotes/{{Cleveland}} Cleveland, Ohio]], but filmed in Burbank, California.

* ''Series/{{Friends}}'' was set in UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity, but was filmed in Burbank, California. However, the fourth season finale was shot on location, in London. On the other hand, "The One in Barbados" was more like "The One in Hollywood".

** The beach scenes set at Martha's Vineyard in season 6 were filmed in Malibu, California.

* A multiple part episode of ''Series/GrowingPains'' had the Seavers traveling to a Europe that at one point conspicuously resembled Catalina Island.
** According to Maura Tierney (who was on the show at the time) they were actually due to film in Europe, but Kirk Cameron - [[SarcasmMode there's a shocker]] - vetoed it. (In his defence, he cited a fear of flying, but it can't have helped his popularity with the cast and crew.)

* ''Series/HowToGetAwayWithMurder'' was set in Philadelphia but was definitely set on the other side of the country. Middleton University was [=USC=] with a paint job, and Annalise's house/practice was in the West Adams neighborhood as well.

* ''Series/{{Roswell}}'' heavily featured KirksRock for the wilderness scenes, while the town itself was actually Covina, CA.

* From ''Series/PowerRangersNinjaStorm'' onwards, the ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' franchise has been shot in New Zealand, despite the show continually taking place in California. With some exceptions (Jason David Frank, Kevin Duhaney, Jeffery Parazzo, et al), most of the actors in Power Rangers come from New Zealand and the surrounding countries. It is evident in some of the shows, as they have to attempt to speak their lines in American accents. The exception to this is the 1995 [[''Film/MightyMorphinPowerRangers'' movie]], which was shot in Australia, but the in-film location is Angel Grove, California, and the alien planet of Phaedros (sp?).

* The 2021 [[Creator/DisneyPlus Disney+]] series ''Turner and Hooch'', the DistantSequel to [[Film/TurnerAndHooch the 1989 film of the same name]], is set in California, but was filmed in UsefulNotes/{{Vancouver}}.

* From ''Series/PowerRangersNinjaStorm'' onwards, the ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' franchise has been shot in New Zealand, despite the show continually taking place in California. With some exceptions (Jason David Frank, Kevin Duhaney, Jeffery Parazzo, et al), most of the actors in Power Rangers come from New Zealand and the surrounding countries. It is evident in some of the shows, as they have to attempt to speak their lines in American accents.

* ''Francise/PowerRangers'' does this a lot for alien planets. Up until the end of ''Series/PowerRangersWildForce'', the show was shot in California.

* From ''Series/PowerRangerNinjaStorm'' onwards, the ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' franchise has been shot in New Zealand, despite the show continually taking place in California. With some exceptions (Jason David Frank, Kevin Duhaney, Jeffery Parazzo, et al), most of the actors in Power Rangers come from New Zealand and the surrounding countries. It is evident in some of the shows, as they have to attempt to speak their lines in American accents.

* Much of the theme park in ''Film/BeverlyHillsCopIII'' were filmed nowhere near Beverly Hills - still in California, but farther north. Most of the theme park scenes were filmed at California's Great America in Santa Clara, just south of San Francisco.
* According to ''Film/BeingJohnMalkovich'', the New Jersey Turnpike (where you're spit out after spending 15 minutes in John Malkovich's head) has palm trees and oil rigs in the background.

* Spoofed in ''Film/AustinPowersTheSpyWhoShaggedMe''; as Austin and Felicity Shagwell drive through what is ostensibly the British countryside, along a desert highway with the ocean visible in the background, Austin remarks "You know what's remarkable? That England looks in no way like Southern California!" The only concession towards making what is obviously southern California even ''remotely'' like England is the addition of a red phone box next to the road, and having them driving on the left-hand side of the road.

* ''Film/PhoneBooth'' is filmed on possibly the only LA street which could plausibly pass for Manhattan. However, the effect is blown in long shots when you can see the skyscrapers ending after a few blocks.
* ''Film/KillingZoe'' takes place entirely in Paris, France. With the exception of two tracking shots that plat over the opening/closing credits, it was filmed completely in L.A. Because the movie takes place almost entirely indoors and features a large French cast, it would have been pointless to go to France in the first place.

* ''Film/ArmyOfDarkness'' is quite, ''quite'' blatantly not shot in whatever quasi-British kingdom it's set in (it was filmed in Bronson Canyon and Vasquez Rocks National Park, both of which are in California).
* The movie ''Film/TheRussiansAreComingTheRussiansAreComing'' (a comedy which revolves around a Soviet submarine running aground in Massachusetts) was filmed in California.
* ''Film/TheAdventuresOfCaptainMarvel'' (1941) was filmed in the deserts of Southern California, despite the fact that the first episode supposedly takes place in the jungles of Siam. In fact there seems to be some confusion between Thailand and the Middle East.
* In the movie ''Film/LoveActually'', Colin travels to the city of Milwaukee, WI. However, the airport shown has a sign that says "Milwaukee International Airport" (the real one is "Mitchell Int'l"). The bar he goes to has California license plates and prominent Budweiser signs. Milwaukee is the home of Miller brewery, the chance of finding a bar that looks like that are slim to none.

* The Tennessee scenes in ''Film/DeathProof'' were filmed in California, unlike the Texas scenes which were actually filmed in Texas.

** Not exactly true, as a good portion was actually filmed in Georgia.

** ''[[Film/Halloween4TheReturnOfMichaelMyers 4]]'', ''[[Film/Halloween5TheRevengeofMichaelMyers 5]]'', and ''[[Film/HalloweenTheCurseOfMichaelMyers 6]]'' were filmed in Utah, the [[Film/HalloweenResurrection final original film]] was shot in Vancouver, and [[Film/HalloweenII2009 the sequel to Zombie's reimageing]] was mostly filmed in Atlanta, Georgia (with some additional filming in Connecticut and LA).

* ''Film/RoadHouse'' takes place in Missouri (At least, it's implied. [[WhereTheHellIsSpringfield They don't say whether "outside Kansas City" meant Kansas City, Missouri, or Kansas City, Kansas]]). However, during the scene where the car dealership gets smashed up, there are signs for Los Angeles and Bakersfield in the background.

* ''Franchise/StarWars'' is no stranger to California Doubling with a grove of redwoods used to shoot the scenes for Film/ReturnOfTheJedi; but the advent of live action Star Wars TV shows in the 2020's on Disney+ saw a rise of California Doubling. Notably with Tython in Series/TheMandalorian, and Mapuzo in Series/ObiWanKenobi both seemingly shot in desert locations out of Los Angeles. Fortunately seems to be avoided in the upcoming {{Series/Andor}} which did shooting in Britain.

* ''Franchise/StarWars'' is no stranger to California Doubling with a grove of redwoods used to shoot the scenes for Film/ReturnOfTheJedi; but the advent of live action Star Wars TV shows in the 2020's on Disney+ saw a rise of California Doubling. Notably with Tython in Series/TheMandalorian, and Mapuzo in Series/ObiWanKenobi both seemingly shot in desert locations out of Los Angeles. Fortunately seems to be avoided in the upcoming Series/Andor which did shooting in Britain.

* ''Series/MadMen'', which mainly takes place in 1960s Manhattan, was shot in Los Angeles (except for the pilot episode, which was shot in New York City).

* ''Series/MadMen'', which mainly takes place in 1960s Manhattan, was shot in Los Angeles(except for the pilot episode, which was shot in New York City).