When we watch TV we often wish we could be transported into the show and that has to do with many factors, one of which is the towns our favorite characters get to live in. Here is our list of the best fictional towns on TV!
Ever thought of escaping the trials of everyday life and moving to somewhere like Sunnydale in Buffy the Vampire Slayer? Sure, Buffy had to fight vampires but surely there are worse fates! Here is a list of the top best fictional towns and what made us want to live there.
Sunnydale – Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Located in SoCal may be one reason for the hot weather, but the prime spot on the Hellmouth, the portal towards a dark world of the supernatural, makes Sunnydale not such prime real estate. Your average town centered around the lives of its high school and college students, Sunnydale may be just right for you if you’re into living an unassuming lifestyle with potential danger lurking in every corner. I hope you have a stake handy!
Neptune – Veronica Mars
Southern California lives rent-free in the heads of more than a few screenwriters. Neptune is your average beach town, presumably located around Oceanside, where the show was originally filmed, and is vastly segregated by socioeconomic class by the last digits of one’s zip code. The seedy underbelly and dark secrets of the town are no match for Veronica, but I hope you have your wits about you and maybe even a taser if you want to take on a residence in one of Socal’s premiere fictional hotspots.
Pawnee – Parks and Recreation
Probably a controversial take, seeing as many of Pawnee’s residents are portrayed as lazy, incompetent, and headstrong, but Pawnee wouldn’t be a bad place to live and to start a candy factory or a soda company if that’s your persuasion. I say this because Pawnee has a highly lucrative corn syrup industry and its residents are hungry for products, and also because I imagine that those types of jobs likely make up the backbone of Pawnee’s workforce. As faulted as its residents may be, Pawnee is a hell of a place to start a family and have a real community, as it has a dedicated government, involved citizens, and frequently organized community events such as the Harvest Festival. And, I mean, who doesn’t want to go back and meet Lil Sebastian?
Point Place – That 70s Show
Similar to Pawnee, Point Place is somewhere you’ll likely find your place to settle and form strong community ties. But you know what’s severely lacking? Anything else to do! Surely that explains the constant trouble that Eric and the gang got up to just by sitting in their basement too often and inhaling all those smoke fumes.
Bluebell – Hart of Dixie
Ah, home of some of the most delectable homemade treats money can buy. Bluebell is the kind of place you pictured in storybooks about what growing up would look like back in the day. Truly a marvel for its place in the early 2000s, Bluebell took us back to old-school values and tried to emphasize what really mattered: making a home and community worth living in, potentially forever. I would definitely rent an Airbnb in Bluebell if I had the chance.
Capeside – Dawson’s Creek
Imagine walking outside of your door and being able to take a little rowboat to see your best friend/crush and that best friend/crush was Katie Holmes or James Van Der Beek? Insane.
But seriously, major props to Capeside for this one, because not only do you have the small-town New England vibes, you have this amazing group of friends to go with it. With a movie theater, local restaurant, and marina to offer the town, the kids have more than enough to keep them entertained. Of course that isn’t so much, and left to their own devices and with only each other, this circumstance lends itself to no end of dramatic and chaotic situations.
Stars Hollow – Gilmore Girls
There’s a lot that can be said about Stars Hollow and why it is an essential fictional town. But what is important to me in qualifying it is the local coffee shop. If you know anything about anything, it is HARD to be a local anywhere, even in a small town there is often so much tourism it’s hard to forge real connections with your baristas. But Luke’s has eclectic mugs, different colored decorations, a wide variety of food and eager Luke to chef up whatever it is his favorite customer desires. The coffee shop dynamic of Luke’s is by far the most compelling aspect of the town, as it speaks to a greater sense of knowingness and communal bond that is shared between residents, but without the sense of an in-group/out-group dynamic that ostracizes newcomers. 10/10.
