History Main / FromNewYorkToNowhere

* ''Film/BagdadCafe'' plays with this trope. The protagonist, who is a [[UsefulNotes/TheSixteenLandsOfDeutschland middle-aged Bavarian lady from Rosenheim]], gets stranded in Bagdad, a middle-of-nowhere hick town in the Californian desert. While Rosenheim can hardly be described as a major city (being a remote market townlet in the Upper Bavarian province, with a population barely scratching the 60,000 mark), at least it's ''[[CreatorProvincialism in Bavaria]]'' (and a relatively well known locale amongst most Germans, who were the film's intended primary target audience). Bagdad, meanwhile, is a semi-fictional podunk town that is intended to be obscure by any metrics, especially for a Bavarian fish out of water.

* ''Film/BagdadCafe'' plays with this trope. The protagonist, who is a [[UsefulNotes/TheSixteenLandsOfDeutschland middle-aged Bavarian lady from Rosenheim]], gets stranded in Bagdad, a middle-of-nowhere hick town in the Californian desert. While Rosenheim can hardly be described as a major city (being a remote market townlet in the Upper Bavarian province, with a population barely scratching the 60,000 mark), at least it's ''[[CreatorProvincialism in Bavaria]]'' (and a ''well known'' locale amongst most Germans, who were the film's intended primary target audience). Bagdad, meanwhile, is a semi-fictional podunk town that is intended to be obscure by any metrics, especially for a Bavarian fish out of water.

* ''Film/OutOfRosenheim'' plays with this trope. The protagonist, who is a [[UsefulNotes/TheSixteenLandsOfDeutschland Bavarian from Rosenheim]], gets stranded in Bagdad, a middle-of-nowhere hick town in the Californian desert. The thing is that Rosenheim is itself a remote market townlet in the middle of Upper Bavaria (with a population barely scratching the 60,000 mark) - but at least it's ''[[CreatorProvincialism in Bavaria]]'' (and a ''well known'' locale amongst most Germany, who were the film's primary target audience). Bagdad, meanwhile, is a fictional podunk town that is intended to be obscure by any metrics, especially for the Bavarian protagonist.

* ''Series/HometownChaChaCha'': Everyone is surprised when the lovely Hye-jin leaves the high-powered Seoul for Gongjin, a tiny village in the middle of nowhere.

* This is a recurring theme in ''VideoGame/Persona4'' thanks to its setting of the small rural town of Inaba, with several characters having recently moved there from bigger cities. These include the protagonist, who is living with his uncle for a year while his parents work overseas, Yosuke Hanamura, whose dad was assigned to manage a new branch of a large department store chain that recently opened in town, and Tohru Adachi, a detective who was transferred as punishment for some sort of screw-up. Both Yosuke and Adachi struggle with the resulting SmallTownBoredom, [[spoiler: which in the latter's case drives him to become a SerialKiller.]]

* This is a recurring theme in ''VideoGame/Persona4'' thanks to its setting of the small rural town of Inaba, with several characters having recently moved there from bigger cities. These include the protagonist, who is living with his uncle for a year while his parents work overseas, Yosuke Hanamura, whose dad was assigned to manage a new branch of a large department store chain that recently opened in town, and Tohru Adachi, a detective who was transferred as punishment for some sort of screw-up. Both Yosuke and Adachi have to deal with the resulting SmallTownBoredom, [[spoiler: which in the latter's case drives him to become a SerialKiller.]]

* The French movie ''Film/BienvenueChezLesChtis'' combines this with GrimUpNorth when a bureaucrat from Marseille (a major city in southern France) is reassigned to a small town on the north coast. His FishOutOfWater antics occupy the first half of the movie until he starts liking it there, the second half involves his moving up there because he'd been playing up the negative aspects to her (and his new friends and coworkers play up the "uncultured hicks" stereotypes when they throw a barbecue to welcome her).

* ''Theatre/{{Thirteen}}'': After his parents divorce when it turns out [[spoiler: [[YourCheatingHeart his father was having an affair]]]], Evan and his mom move from New York to the small town of Appleton, Indiana. Evan struggles with adapting to a new school in a completely new environment (the year he is supposed to have his Bar Mitzvah, no less), but finds TrueCompanions in the town by the end.

* ''VideoGame/DivinityOriginalSinII'': The player character finds Meistr Siva in the DyingTown of Driftwood, where she was unceremoniously retired after the "Mistake" that cut short her illustrious career in the Divine Order. She still speaks wistfully about the great city of Arx where the Order is based.

* The player character in ''VideoGame/StardewValley'' starts off as an office drone in the city before answering the CallToAgriculture and moving to the farmlands near Pelican Town.

* Quite a few ''VideoGame/HarvestMoon'' protagonists start out as city dwellers before [[CallToAgriculture getting their hands on the farm]] (sometimes through inheritance, other times they buy it willingly). Successfully integrating yourself among the townsfolk is part of the game.

* In ''Literature/TheBabysittersClub'' Stacey's parents decide to move from Manhattan to her mother's hometown of Stoneybrook, CT in the hopes that a slower pace of life would improve her diabetes, as well as remove her from the bullying and ostracization she was receiving from her former friends in the city after her diabetes complications worsened. Luckily for Stacey, she almost immediately finds TrueCompanions in the other members of the Babysitter's Club, and becomes quite popular in Stoneybrook with her "sophisticated" persona. Though she misses the big-name stores, her former sitting charges, and her best friend Laine in New York, Stacey ends up liking Stoneybrook so much that after [[spoiler: her parents get divorced she decides to live with her mom in Stoneybrook rather than with her dad in the city]].

* Native [[BigApplesauce New Yorkers]] Sabrina and Daphne relocate to the small town of Ferryport Landing to [[RaisedByGrandparents live with their Granny Relda]] after their [[ParentalAbandonment parents mysteriously disappear]] in ''Literature/TheSistersGrimm''. [[spoiler: Turns out, the EccentricTownsfolk of are actually Main/FairyTale characters]].

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLongLongHoliday'': In the summer of 1939, siblings [[{{Bookworm}} Ernest]] and [[CheerfulChild Colette]] travel with their parents from their home in Paris to visit their grandparents in a small town in Brittany for a short holiday visit. Then France enters UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. When their father enlists and their mother has to go to Switzerland to recover from [[TheDiseaseThatShallNotBeNamed tuberculosis]], the siblings end up being raised by their grandparents in the small town until at least the ending of the war in 1945. Ernest (and Colette much less reluctantly) grows to love the town, and especially their TrueCompanions The Robinsons.

* ''Series/OnceUponATime'': Boston bail bonds collector Emma Swan moves to the [[TownWithADarkSecret strange little town]] of Storybrooke, ME after forming a connection with and Storybrooke resident Henry. [[spoiler: Turns out that Storybrooke is populated by characters, with Emma discovering she is actually the [[ReallyRoyaltyReveal child of]] Literature/SnowWhite and PrinceCharming, and the only one who can save Storybrooke from the clutches of [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen the Evil Queen]]]].

* ''Series/OnceUponATime'': Boston bail bonds collector Emma Swan moves to the [[TownWithADarkSecret strange little town]] of Storybrooke, ME after forming a connection with and Storybrooke resident Henry. [[spoiler: Turns out that Storybrooke is populated by characters, with Emma discovering she is actually the [[ReallyRoyaltyReveal child of]] Literature/SnowWhite and PrinceCharming, and the only one who can save Storybrooke from the clutches of [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen the Evil Queen]].

* After his parents divorce when it turns out [[spoiler: [[YourCheatingHeart his father was having an affair]]]], Evan and his mom move from New York to the small town of Appleton, Indiana. Evan struggles with adapting to a new school in a completely new environment (the year he is supposed to have his Bar Mitzvah, no less), but finds TrueCompanions in the town by the end.

* In ''Literature/TheBabysittersClub'' Stacey McGill's parents decide to move from Manhattan to her mother's hometown of Stoneybrook, CT in the hopes that a slower pace of life would improve her diabetes, as well as remove her from the bullying and ostracization she was receiving from her former friends in the city after her diabetes complications worsened. Luckily for Stacey, she almost immediately finds TrueCompanions in the other members of the Babysitter's Club, and becomes quite popular in Stoneybrook with her "sophisticated" persona. Though she misses the big-name stores, her former charges, and her best friend Laine in New York, Stacey ends up liking Stoneybrook so much that after [[spoiler: her parents get divorced, she decides to live with her mom in Stoneybrook rather than with her dad in the city]].

* In ''Literature/TheBabysittersClub'' Stacey McGill's parents decide to move from Manhattan to her mother's SmallTown hometown of Stoneybrook, CT in the hopes that a slower pace of life would improve her diabetes, as well as remove her from the bullying and ostracization she was receiving from her former friends in the city after her diabetes complications worsened. Luckily for Stacey, she almost immediately finds TrueCompanions in the other members of the Babysitter's Club, and becomes quite popular in Stoneybrook with her "sophisticated" persona. Though she misses the big-name stores, her former charges, and her best friend Laine in New York, Stacey ends up liking Stoneybrook so much that after [[spoiler: her parents get divorced, she decides to live with her mom in Stoneybrook rather than with her dad in the city]].