History Main / EverytownAmerica

-->-- ''Series/LoisAndClark'', "The Green, Green Glow of Home"

[[folder:Film -- Animation]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Aquamania}}'', Goofy's hometown is called Anytown.
-->'''Narrator:''' This could be any town, anywhere, anytime.

* This was the exact design philosophy that Creator/MattGroening had when designing Springfield of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''. He wanted it to seem like a generic town that could be located anywhere in America, so that any American, regardless of where they're from in the country, could relate to Springfield. In fact, the reason ''why'' he named the town "Springfield" is because it was the most common name for an American town, with 34 states having at least one Springfield. It's also why the state that it's located in is as ambiguous as possible, to the point that [[WhereTheHellIsSpringField there is an entire trope revolving around it]]. With that said, given the nature of the show, most of the characters are caricatures of people you might find in other towns.

* ''Literature/TheMagicSchoolBus'': What little that's seen of Walkerville suggests it's the average American town, albeit with access to quite a few more scientific places than others, such as an observatory.
%% * Radiator Springs in ''Franchise/{{Cars}}''.

* Played surprisingly straight in ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark''. Only occasionally does anyone wonder why so much seems to happen in an otherwise anonymous Colorado town, and no explanation is ever given.
* Middleton, home of ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'', besides appearing to be a hotbed of science labs and the odd SupervillainLair. Part of a tri-city area including Lowerton and Upperton, and a case of WhereTheHellIsSpringfield. WordOfGod says its somewhere in between California and Colorado given the mountains seen in the background.
* Danville of ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' and its successor ''WesternAnimation/MiloMurphysLaw''.
* The show ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'' takes place in the fictional city of Hillwood, Washington.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'' is set in Dimmsdale, California ([[WhereTheHellIsSpringfield Previously somewhere in New England]]). An average American town filled with weirdness, in part because of Timmy Turner and his fairies.

* Frostbite Falls, Minnesota, even after ''WesternAnimation/RockyAndBullwinkle'' got famous.

* Hazelnut of ''WesternAnimation/PepperAnn''.
* Royal Woods, Michigan where the ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'' takes place.

* Bluffington from ''WesternAnimation/{{Doug}}''. Doug's family is unusual, in that they moved there from a nearby city called Bloatsburg; most of Bluffington's residents grew up there, and their families have lived there for generations.

* The WesternAnimation/{{Goofy}} short "WesternAnimation/{{Aquamania}}" has Goofy's (Mr. X) hometown called Anytown.
-->'''Narrator:''' This could be any town, anywhere, anytime.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheGiftOfWinter'' and its sequel ''WesternAnimation/WitchsNightOut'' also take place in a town called Anytown, though it's not directly related to the Anytown Goofy lives in.
* Plainville from ''WesternAnimation/ChalkZone'', located in Minnedakota County.

* Davistown, Pennsylvania in ''Podcast/DoneDisappeared''.

* Wistful Vista of ''Radio/FibberMcGeeAndMolly'', and Summerfield in its spinoff ''Radio/TheGreatGildersleeve''.

* ''Radio/AdventuresInOdyssey'': Originally envisioned as a one-street town, Odyssey has grown rather large for a "small town" in the past twenty-five years, but still maintains a quiet dignity about it.

* Fagan Corners, Vermont in ''Series/Daredevil2015'', Karen Page's hometown.

* Springfield on ''Series/FatherKnowsBest''.

* Mayfield of ''Series/LeaveItToBeaver''.

* Madison of ''Series/OurMissBrooks''.

* Pickford in ''Series/PhilOfTheFuture''.
* Rosewood, Pennsylvania of ''Series/PrettyLittleLiars''.

* Westbridge, Massachusetts of ''Series/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch''.

* Haven, Maine is not to be found anywhere in Maine except in the series ''Series/{{Haven}}'' (and a couple of Creator/StephenKing novels), but there is a North Haven in Maine. [[CaliforniaDoubling Ironically,]] the series was filmed in Nova Scotia, Canada.
* Cabot Cove, Maine in ''Series/MurderSheWrote'', when you ignore the murders that happen every other week.
* Crabapple Cove, Maine in ''Series/{{MASH}}''. Lampshaded in one episode where, as Hawkeye is bandaging up a soldier, he asks about things in the guy's town, like the annual harvest dance, and the little diner on the outskirts of town that serves the greasiest fries ever. When the soldier asks when he had been there, Hawkeye replies, "Never. I grew up in the same small town in Maine."
* ''Series/Warehouse13'': The eponymous warehouse is located in an Unincorporated Unnamed Settlement, in South Dakota, known as Univille.
* Pickford in ''Series/PhilOfTheFuture''.

* Storybrooke, Maine, the town created by The Dark Curse in ''Series/OnceUponATime'', is meant to look like one of these, but it wouldn't take long for an outsider to realize that [[TownWithADarkSecret something is off about it.]]
* Hawkins, Indiana, in ''Series/StrangerThings'', an anonymous, small Midwestern town where nothing ever happens, comes off as an obvious Spielberg homage.

* Rosewood, Pennsylvania of ''Series/PrettyLittleLiars''.
* Millwood in ''Series/PrettyLittleLiarsOriginalSin'' is a small, blue-collar town in Pennsylvania.
* Fagan Corners, Vermont in ''Series/Daredevil2015'', Karen Page's hometown.
* Fairview in ''Series/DesperateHousewives'', located in the fictitious [[FictionalProvince Eagle State]].

* Madison of ''Series/OurMissBrooks''.

* Mayfield of ''Series/LeaveItToBeaver''.
* Bryant Park, on ''Series/MyThreeSons'' for most of its run. In the eighth season, Steve Douglas is transferred and the family is forced to move to Los Angeles.

* Rutherford, Ohio of ''Series/ThirdRockFromTheSun''.

* Subverted with Sunnydale, California in ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''. [[spoiler:The whole point of founding the town was for a cultist to create the [[HellGate Hellmouth]]]].
* Wellsville of ''Series/TheAdventuresOfPeteAndPete''. Also an example of WhereTheHellIsSpringfield. One episode states that it's in Michigan; other episodes implies it is all over the map.
* Pawnee, Indiana, of ''Series/ParksAndRecreation'' is a medium-sized town in the Midwest that is not particularly rural or metropolitan.
* Stars Hollow, Connecticut of ''Series/GilmoreGirls'' fame is definitely this, however, it's somewhat a subversion of the actual trope, in that it IS perfectly normal.

* ''Franchise/{{Halloween}}'': Haddonfield, Illinois, the fictional town where the majority of the movies take place, is your typical "all-American" town with idyllic suburban streets, friendly townsfolk, and the local high school girls babysitting the little ones.
* Sherwood, Ohio in ''Film/{{Heathers}}''. This might be a deliberate ShoutOut to John Hughes's fictional Shermer, Illinois. On the DVD commentary, Daniel Waters notes that he grew up on Sherwood street, and the name is a nod to Sherwood Forest.

* In ''Film/PowerRangers2017'', Angel Grove is depicted as this, in contrast to the original series' more metropolitan setting.
* ''Film/GroundhogDay'' has Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, the town where Phil Connors gets stuck.
* ''Film/{{Jumanji}}'' is set in Brantford, New Hampshire.
* ''Film/TheKnightBeforeChristmas'' is set in the fictional Bracebridge, Ohio where time travelling knight Sir Cole Christopher Fredrick Lyons ends up in 2019 rather than his hometown and time of Norwich, 1334. This was filmed in a real city called Bracebridge in Canada. The movie presents it as a smallish town with a diner, a high school where Brooke Winters the other protagonist works as a science teacher, a supermarket and a community centre where Brooke volunteers as well as having it's own Christmas festival and a police department.

* Similarly, Sweet Valley, California, from ''Literature/SweetValleyHigh''.
* In Creator/BillBryson's ''The Lost Continent'', he goes off across America in search of the quintessential small town (an idea he most likely got from the famous Universal Studios backlot). He starts out thinking the best examples will be in the Midwest, but discovers they're mostly in NewEngland and the DeepSouth. He eventually decides that he'll just have to start picking out his favorite bits of the towns he's passed through and create his own ideal Everytown, America, which he dubs Amalgam.
* Viciously parodied in Creator/StephenLeacock's ''Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town'' with the town of Mariposa, which is inhabited mostly by blithering idiots who can't do anything right. Also transposed to Canada (because that's where Leacock was from), but still basically the same trope.
* Played with in ''Literature/SixteenThirtyTwo'' by Eric Flint. Grantville is just like this -- which means it is very different to Everytown, 17th Century Germany.

* [[Creator/StephenKing Derry, Castle Rock, and Jerusalem's Lot]] are this, and each situated fully in LovecraftCountry.
* ''Literature/HerCrownOfFire'': Well, Australia. Narralong, Rose and Tyson's hometown, is fairly non-descript.
* New Zebedee, Michigan in ''Literature/TheHouseWithAClockInItsWalls'' is a quaint little American town which also happens to be home to a magical mansion owned by a wizard.

* Creator/SinclairLewis set ''Main Street'' in Gopher Prairie, Minnesota, an only slightly fictionalized version of his real childhood home of Sauk Centre. It is a decidedly negative take on this trope, portrayed as a land of smug, small-minded conservatism where the protagonist Carol can only find companionship in the town's outsiders. The residents of Sauk Centre recognized the parody and were not amused in the slightest, and so Lewis created the [[FictionalProvince fictional state]] of Winnemac, a pastiche of several Midwestern states, to set his later books in.

%% * Haddonfield, Illinois, in ''Franchise/{{Halloween}}''.
%% * Sherwood, Ohio in ''Film/{{Heathers}}''.

* ''Manga/MailOrderNinja'' has Cherry Creek, Indiana. Population: 23,745.

%%* Greendale of ''ComicBook/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch''.
* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'' comics have Smallville, childhood hometown of Superman/hometown of ComicBook/{{Superboy}}, and Midvale, childhood hometown of ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}. Less so in ''Series/{{Smallville}}'' the series.

* ''ComicBook/AstroCity'': In "Pastoral", Cammie -- a girl from Astro City -- gets sent to spend the summer with her cousins in the country. Caplinville, the small town she ends up in, feels very much like this.

* ComicBook/{{Naomi|DCComics}}'s hometown Port Oswego is located in Oregon and is a sleepy little town. NothingExcitingEverHappensHere is what pretty much everyone says about the place. Including the people who live there.

* In ''Fanfic/KaraOfRokyn'', the main character's adoptive parents live in a small, nondescript Midwestern town named Midvale. Although she moved out long ago, Linda still visits the town every so often.
* In ''Fanfic/HellsisterTrilogy'', Kara's foster parents Fred and Edna Danvers live in Midvale, a average-looking town located in Illinois.

* Bedford Falls, New York in ''Film/ItsAWonderfulLife''. A small, friendly town anchored by its trustworthy and generous Building & Loans institution, where everyone knows everybody else by name.
* The resort island of Amity, New York in ''Film/{{Jaws}}''.

* Parodied, justified, lampshaded, then [[ZigZaggingTrope played with till it can't play no more]] in ''Film/{{Pleasantville}}''. Basically, the trope was a basketball, and ''Pleasantville'' was the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlem_Globetrotters Harlem Globetrotters]].
* Parodied in ''Film/TheAdventuresOfRockyAndBullwinkle'', where the protagonists pass three ''identical'' small towns during their cross-country trip. Naturally, the characters {{lampshade}} this.
* The town in ''Film/EdwardScissorhands'' is pretty much like this trope (except for the out-of-place Gothic mansion on a hill in the centre, and the fact that some people are not as nice as they seem in the beginning).
%%* Bomont, Utah in ''Film/{{Footloose}}''.
%%* Carvel, in the ''Film/AndyHardy'' films of the 1930s and '40s.
%%* Edge City in ''Film/TheMask'', although it's not a small town by any means.
%%* Fringe City in ''Film/SonOfTheMask''.
%%* Haddonfield, Illinois, in ''Franchise/{{Halloween}}''.
%%* Grandview, USA in Grandview USA. Filmed in the middle of Illinois.
%%* Kingston Falls, Pennsylvania, heavily based on the above Bedford Falls, from ''Film/Gremlins1984''.
%%* Sherwood, Ohio in ''Film/{{Heathers}}''.
%%* Smalltown, USA, in ''Film/TheMuppets2011''.
%%* Denton, Ohio in ''Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow''.
* Woodsboro, California in the ''Film/{{Scream}}'' films. Creator/WesCraven notably insisted on filming the [[Film/Scream1996 first movie]] in the US rather than in budget-friendly UsefulNotes/{{Vancouver}} like the film's producers, Bob and Harvey Weinstein, wanted to, as he wanted Woodsboro to feel unmistakably American.
* In the "making of" book for the ''Film/DiaryOfAWimpyKid'' film, it is stated that they were looking for this kind of town. Ironically, that town happened to be in the suburbs of UsefulNotes/{{Vancouver}}, a ''Canadian'' city.
* ''Film/TheHumanComedy'' is set in Ithaca, CA, a fictional small town with a stereotypical Main Street and small independently owned stores, the kind of town where a kid who's lost in the street is immediately recognized and sent back to his brother. It also has a surprisingly variegated mix of ethnicities, including Russians, Hispanics, and Greeks. This is because the whole movie is a propaganda effort encouraging American patriotism and participation in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII.
* Mainhead in ''Film/{{Colossal}}'' is this, contrasting with the opening scenes set in New York and the monster scenes set in downtown Seoul. Apparently there's one bar, one convenience store, one school, one playground, and just about everyone knows each other. This is a shockingly dark version of this trope, as characters see being stuck in Mainhead for their entire lives as a sign of failure due to how small and dull it is.
* Creator/RussMeyer's ''Beneath The Valley of the Ultra-Vixens'' was set in "Smalltown, USA."

%%* Radiator Springs in ''Franchise/{{Cars}}''.

To be fair, there ''are'' a lot of towns like this in the U.S.A. (particularly in the Midwest and Great Lakes states), so there's TruthInTelevision. However, it also taps into a very powerful vein of nostalgia about what kind of town many Americans ''wish'' they lived in.

[[TruthInTelevision To be fair, there]] ''[[TruthInTelevision are]]'' [[TruthInTelevision a lot of towns like this]] in the U.S.A. (particularly in the Midwest and Great Lakes states), but it also taps into a very powerful vein of nostalgia about what kind of town many Americans ''wish'' they lived in.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

%%* Elwood City of ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}''.

* The show ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'' takes place in the fictional American city of Hillwood.

%%* Royal Woods, Michigan on ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse''
%%* Quahog, Rhode Island of ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy''.
%%* Arlen, Texas, from ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill''.
%%** In fact, subverting this trope is where the episode dealing with Arlen's founding gets most of its humor from. Arlen was originally known as Harlottown, named after the brothel it was founded around, which is a far cry from its current Everytown image. Hank Hill is not pleased when the city decides to push this angle to promote tourism.

* The main characters of ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog'' all live in Nowhere, Kansas. Except this whole town (if not ''the entire planet'' in this universe) is really an EldritchLocation where monsters and all sorts of surreal happenings occur on a nigh-daily basis.
* Subverted in ''WesternAnimation/EarthwormJim''. Terlawk, New Jersey has a crappy strip mall and a couple of old guys sitting on a porch predicting rain with their kneecaps, but every week they sit and not only watch the alien invasion, but explain that one or the other of them may have caused it. Also, they live next door to a giant earthworm in an alien power suit.

* In the "making of" book for the ''Film/DiaryOfAWimpyKid'' film, it is stated that they were looking for this kind of town. Ironically, that town happened to be in the suburbs of Toronto, a ''Canadian'' city.

* Stoneybrook, Connecticut in ''Literature/TheBabySittersClub''. It's said to be close to Stamford.