Tell Us Now: 18 Places Movies & TV Get Wrong

The Hollywood writers don't always get locations correct
Tell Us Now: 18 Places Movies & TV Get Wrong

It's no secret that television, movies and media generally get a lot of things wrong. Historical inaccuracies. Cultural portrayals that just seem off. You name it. The thing is, people rarely notice unless they are familiar with the subject. The thing is nothing gets under people's skin more than when a popular show or movie gets a place they love all wrong. Oh boy does it happen, though.

We already asked which locations Hollywood got accurate so it only makes sense we (as being uncreative hacks the occasional mean commenter says we are) would ask readers on Facebook, “How did a movie/TV show inaccurately depict where you live?” The most common grievance was including inaccurate landscape in the background shots, but here are 18 of the most popular inaccuracies.

Despite what Full House would have you believe, there aren't just parking spots WHEREVER in San Francisco. Don't even get us started on the ways Sandusky, Ohio was totally misrepresented in Tommy Boy…

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San Francisco

... TELL US NOW. SAN FRANCISCO FULL HOUSE Erica C. says, Every show or movie set in San Francisco (Full House, Too Close for Comfort, Mrs. Doubtfire, Ant-Man, Venom, etc) always show a person pulling up to where they were headed and there is a parking spot right in front. Absolutely 100% false! There is never any parking on the streets of San Francisco...especially right in front of your destination. CRACKED.COM

Muncie, IN

... TELL US NOW. MUNCIE, IN PARKS & REC Charles S. says, I went to school in Muncie, IN. Parks and Rec properly described the city but with less meth. CRACKED.COM

New England

... TELL US NOW. NEW ENGLAND ONCE UPON A TIME Steph C. says, Once Upon a Time has no idea how New England works. There's an episode where they drive from Maine down to Logan Airport in Boston to catch a plane to NYC. Not only did they pass several airports to get to Logan, but with the amount of time they spent waiting to get on the plane, they could have EASILY just driven the whole way. It honestly would have been easier. CRACKED.COM

Sandusky, OH

... TELL US NOW. SANDUSKY, ОН TOMMY BOY John S. says, Sandusky is shown as a rural town with nothing do other than cow tipping. In reality, Sandusky is a prominent city and home to Cedar Point, frequently ranked as literally the best amusement park in the world. Also, at one point someone is seen buying a plane ticket from Sandusky to Cuyahoga Falls. Neither city has a major airport and are less than a two hour drive away from each other. CRACKED.COM

Norfolk, VA

... TELL US NOW. NORFOLK, VA NCIS Helena А. says, I'm from Norfolk, VA (an area often depicted in the show, NCIS.) I love how every time they go to Oceana Naval Base, there's mountains in the background. CRACKED.COM

Australia

... TELL US NOW. AUSTRALIA KANGAROO JACK James H. says, Several movies show characters picking up a rental car outside Sydney airport and driving to 'the Outback,' even saying the characters were in Alice Springs on the same day they arrived. Alice Springs is approximately 2773 KM (1723 miles) from Sydney by road and would take over 30 hours driving to reach in the best scenario (minimal traffic or disruption.) CRACKED.COM

Scranton, PA

... TELL US NOW. SCRANTON, PA THE OFFICE Jeni J. says, I lived in Scranton. No one as normal as Jim and Pam have ever lived in Scranton. The rest wasn't too far off. We didn't have a Chili's though. CRACKED.COM

San Jose, Costa Rica

... TELL US NOW. SAN JOSÉ, COSTA RICA JURASSIC PARK AKAS Geroge G. tells US, The first Jurassic Park movie depicted San José, Costa Rica, in the beach. It is actually more than a hundred kilometers from the coast, in a valley over 1100 mts over the sea level. CRACKED.COM

Maine

... TELL US NOW. MAINE IT Jameson F. says, Stephen King movies almost always take place in Maine, yet none of the actors in any of the films ever seem to get the Maine accent right (closest was Fred Gwynne in the original Pet Sematary). It always ends up being a Boston or central Massachusetts accent. New England is made of six separate states (Maine included), and the only one with Boston accents is Massachusetts. CRACKED.COM

Ohio

... TELL US NOW. OHIO GLEE 00 Brad J. says, Glee was set in Lima in Northwest Ohio near the Indiana border. Rival Glee clubs were from Akron (near Cleveland) and Westerville (near Columbus) and characters would leisurely drive to or from those towns on school days even though they're both at least two hours from Lima. CRACKED.COM

New York City

... TELL US NOW. NEW YORK CITY FRIENDS Terance S. says, Friends depicts someone working in a coffee shop living in a nice place near Central Park. If you work in a coffee shop, you can't afford to live in a cardboard box near Central Park. CRACKED.COM

Portland, Oregon

... TELL US NOW. PORTLAND PORTLAND THURSDAY FOX NEWS Conrad F. says, Fox 'News' depicted Portland Oregon as a ruined desolate city that was mostly burned to the ground. Actually most of the protests were in a 2-block radius around the federal building and stores were closed and boarded up because of stay-at-home mandates from Covid. CRACKED.COM

Minnesota

... TELL US NOW. MINNESOTA FARGO Jake S. says, The movie Fargo screwed over every Minnesotan who now has to deal with out-of-staters doing terrible impressions of US until the end of time. And no, we hardly ever put people in wood chippers. The last person we did it to was Tim, but he deserved it. CRACKED.COM

Denmark

... TELL US NOW. DENMARK THE PRINCE & ME Jacob В. says, The movie The Prince and Me shows Denmark with a king (we have a queen) who is involved in running the country. We are a constitutional monarchy, the monarch is not involved in government. CRACKED.COM

New Orleans

... TELL US NOW. NEW ORLEANS THE BIG EASY Barry G. says, The New Orleans accent is always Southern or Cajun in Hollywood movies, when it's neither. CRACKED.COM

Iowa and Nebraska

... TELL US NOW. IOWA BLESS THIS MESS EARLY BIRD HE 00 HICK FEED belwith Megan M. says, First episode in, they are driving on the highway in lowa, towards Nebraska. When it pans, it shows these great big mountains between lowa and Nebraska. I laughed so hard and stopped watching at that point. There are bluffs between Council Bluffs and Omaha but they are hardly the monstrous mountains they depicted. Too ridiculous. CRACKED.COM

Los Angeles

... TELL US NOW. LOS ANGELES 24 Steven S. says, Perpetually, characters on this show are always '20 minutes away' from CTU headquarters. Almost nothing in Los Angeles is 20 minutes away; it is a very large urban area. CRACKED.COM

Latin America

... TELL US NOW. LATIN AMERICA COCO Angel N. says, All movies that depict Latin America...even Disney... They continue to show US as if we were only jungle or small towns, they rarely portray the cities, guess what, we have wifi and all that. CRACKED.COM
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