Until 2 years ago, I lived in Tucson for 10 years. I just heard of this series, because of the news about the plane crash.
Were there many scenes that could identify Tucson? Or any references to any area things such as: UofA, DFAB, the Saguaro parks, the 4 malls, the lack of expressways, the heat, the 2 zoos, local businesses, etcetera?
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This kids either went to Sabino High or Sahuaro High school. Thats all I remember.
shareI was a big fan of the show. It came on after I had moved away from Tucson (my hometown) and was living in L.A. I watched it all the time.
the show was filmed in Southern California and there was very little mentioned about physical identifiers of Tucson. They may mention the Santa Catalinas or something here and there, but a lot of generalities ("the mall" for example).
One of the really cool things, though, was when they were at a school football game or something like that, there were sponser banners at the school and they had banners of the Tucson Citizen and Eegee's. They may even have had a Lucky Wishbone banner, too. Screw the zoo and all that stuff... EVERY Tucsonan knows Eegee's and Lucky Wishbone... haha.
two of the many restaurants I miss.
shareI live in Tucson currently. I remember the attempts at local references would feel really awkward. For instance, I recall one character saying "River Road" a few times as opposed to just "River." They previewed it at my high school when I was still going there and I felt that it bared little resemblance, in appearance or feeling, to actually living here.
shareIt was filmed at Sunset-Gower Studios in Hollywood, but they did have a film crew go to Tucson and get a few shots to edit in now and then. I have to say, GFT took more pains to be like Tucson than "Medium" takes to be like Phoenix.
("Medium" is filmed in Hollywood, too; and it looks nothing at all like Phoenix. Even when they go out into the desert, it's clearly the California desert.)
At any rate, they did show several shots of Tucson locations, like when David was trying to learn how to drive, the bank where his mom went to work (corner of Country Club and Broadway), etc.
What I appreciated most were the little things, like somebody else mentioned, such as the eggee's cups or real editions of the Arizona Daily Star at the breakfast table. They had a picture of Lute on the fridge.
I was a big fan of the show and thought it was pretty darn funny. I always get a big laugh out of the moment when the tio throws a match on the patio and it blows up. "Why didn't you tell me your dad was weeding!" Joaquin used gasoline to kill weeds between the flagstones.