:: Today's soundtrack: John Cougar Mellencamp "Small Town" ::
It seems to me like Hollywood has no idea of what a small town truly is. If you look back at the television shows which take place in supposed "small towns" they hardly seem all that small at all!
The bumpkin-rural community of Twin Peaks has a population of 51,000! Look at Smallville, even. SMALLville isn't all that small! In its first episode, we see the Welcome to Smallville sign and it's population is over 45,000!! My town is probably under a THIRD of that! These are about as big as the largest city in the state I live in!
Sunnydale and Twin Peaks have their own shopping malls, too! I don't know about you other small town dwellers, but my town doesn't have one. In fact, it's over a 40 minute drive to the nearest mall, and that one is puny. Over 3 hours to get to good size mall for me.
Sunnydale was referred to as a "one Starbucks town," well I hate to tell you, but real small towns are "NO Starbucks towns"! What's with these towns on TV and their cool coffee houses anyway? I don't think there is a small town in my whole state that has a cool coffee house anywhere in it. There aren't any in the three surrounding communities where I live, anyway.
Not only coffee houses, but cool teen-friendly type hang outs, too! There ain't no "Bronze" type joints anywhere within 2 hours of where I live. There aren't even any places with live entertainment on a regular basis, only special occasions.
It just grates me that these shows are all about the small town image without any of the actual small town substance. Where're the shut down mills and factories? The unemployment line a mile long? The half empty and dilapidated main street? The pot holes that go unfixed?
It seems to me like Hollywood producers have vaguely heard of small towns and are basing there locales on a rumor they once heard about these lovely quaint little towns without ever having set foot in the real thing.
William (small town boy)