TV Land: A Guide to America's Television Shrines, Sets, and Sites [Paperback]

Robin Keats (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1995

From Metropolis, Illinois, to the real "little house on the prairie" to the Twin Peaks murder scene, here are more than two dozen sites where television series were actually filmed and which today have visitor centers and tourist amusements. Includes six easy-to-read, archival maps. 65 illustrations.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

TV Land lives! The familiar territories of video--Andy's Mayberry, the Flintstones' Bedrock, the Cartwright's Ponderosa--aren't mere figments of the imagination. They're all out there, sort of, and you can explore them with the help of this amusing, exhaustive guide of an amazing number of real, unreal and semireal locales of American TV programming. Some are authentic, such as Mt Airy, NC, Andy Griffith's boyhood home and the inspiration of fictional Mayberry. Others, like the 40-acre, Arizona version of prehistoric Bedrock, are boldly ersatz tourist attractions. But all get an affectionate look-see by the author Robin Keats, including photos.

From Booklist

Quite an accumulation of settings used in American TV shows has piled up over the years. It's about time for a guidebook. Keats briefly describes a variety of such sites and displays them roughly geographically (shows in which the setting changed from episode to episode [e.g., The Fugitive] appear in a special section). Besides real places like New York City, Keats introduces us to "TV Land Grave Sites" and, in short lists, such staple stomping grounds as TV high schools. Roy Rogers' frequent destination, Mineral City; the mythical coastal Maine towns Schooner Bay (of The Ghost and Mrs. Muir) and Cabot Cove (of Murder, She Wrote); Sheriff Andy's Mayberry, North Carolina; and the ubiquitous midwestern town called Central City-Mayfield-Springfield all appear. Star Trek's Captain Kirk's hometown, Riverside, Iowa, does not, however, and neither do Hooterville, Pixley, and Bugtussle (second edition, Mr. Keats?). But heck, the book's an enjoyable, memory-provoking trip down TV Land's memory lane, anyway. Mike Tribby

Product Details

• Paperback: 174 pages
• Publisher: St Martins Pr; First Edition edition (July 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312131941
• ISBN-13: 978-0312131944
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,928,518 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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