Let’s get right to it: You can live in any town or city from any movie or TV show. It can be a fictional place (Springfield, Pawnee, etc.) or a fictionalized version of a real place (the Friends version of New York where three underemployed service workers can afford an apartment big enough to play Frisbee golf in). Whatever you want. Have at it. Simple enough, right?
Or is it?
You see, even just a cursory examination reveals that most of the settings of our favorite shows and movies would not be fun places to live at all. Examples: Justified and Game of Thrones are a blast to watch, but the same things that make the shows great (gratuitous violence, eloquent schemers, massive civic unrest) make their settings — Harlan and Westeros, respectively — less than ideal places to make your home. That right there is the rub. Big loud drama is great to visit for an hour a week, but not nearly as fun when you’re living it. It’s just too much. My point is that you need to choose carefully here. You don’t want a dragon burning down your home and/or small business, you know?
With all that said, I’m going with the version of Bel-Air as depicted in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, mostly because it seemed like everyone but the Banks family lived a very stress-free life and was incredibly wealthy. That’s all I really want out of life. To be a stress-free millionaire. Or maybe to live on The Love Boat. OR BOTH. I don’t think I’m being unreasonable here.
Here are some answers for the staff.
Dan Seitz:
Eureka, from the Syfy show of the same name. Yeah, you might get sucked into an alternate reality, or your home might blow up, but it’s basically a bunch of nerds being unleashed to make a small town the way they want to. That’s just awesome.
RoboPanda:
Fictional place that’s been in movies or TV shows? I choose Heaven. Wait, scratch that. I choose Robot Heaven, from Transformers. Yeah. Kickin’ it with Shia in Robot Heaven.
Andrew Roberts:
I think I’d personally go for places like Twin Peaks or Rapture from Bioshock. I like the idea of getting the best of both worlds, where I can be bad and good in the same day. There’s the fun, quirky side of things, but the flip side is dark and demented. I could also go with any sort of sky-based town, like Cloud City or The Jetson’s hometown, even if the reasons why we’re living in the clouds are fairly grim.
Dustin Rowles:
Mayberry, North Carolina — What’s not to love about Mayberry? Your aunt will fuss over you and make you pies; the town drunk lets himself into jail when he’s too drunk to drive; you get haircuts every other day just so you can shoot the breeze with the barber; and you get to spend your ample free time fishing, whistling, and skipping rocks. It’s like finding out that Paradise is stocked with fried chicken and sweet tea.
Josh Kurp:
I’d like to live in a world where someone who looks Adam Sandler or Kevin James ends up with someone who looks like Salma Hayek or Maria Bello. But that’s probably a little TOO crazy. So, let’s go with where Adventure Time takes place. Bacon pancakes AND anthropomorphic cinnamon buns? Sold.
Stacey Ritzen:
I think the fictional place I’d most like to live in Sunnydale, CA — pre-apocalypse. I know, I know, but hear me out here. True, Sunnydale High had the highest mortality rate of any high school ever so you’d be risking death at every turn, but at least things would never be boring. For example. At my high school graduation I had to walk with a girl because there were more girls than boys in my graduating class, but at the Sunnydale High 1999 high school graduation they fought the principal who turned into a snake monster.
In this scenario I would also have to be a teenager and not someone in her mid-30’s, but f*ck it. Whenever I turn on an old episode of Buffy I feel way more nostalgic than I ever did for my own stupid high school, which was sadly lacking in the vampire department.
Kris Maske:
Chicago is a top five US city. No one denies this. But if the Happy Endings version of Chicago were real it would clearly hold the number one distinction all its own. In the sitcom world that I pretend still exists Chicago never gets bitterly cold, your friends all live within walking distance of your favorite bar, and everyone with a semi-successful career can afford a two thousand square foot apartment. If that was real Chicago I’d be there during every season and not just visiting in the summer.
As always, yours below.
