History Main / NoCommunitiesWereHarmed

* ''Anime/LupinIIITheWomanCalledFujikoMine'' has all of the names of real countries and places replaced with barely disguised substitutes (e.g. Astria for Austria, Yamerica for America, and so on). It's quite odd considering that the previous ''Manga/LupinIII'' series have had no issues with freely using real locations.

* ''Literature/ManiacMagee'' is set mainly in Two Mills, Pennsylvania, a fictional small town on the Schuylkill River. The nearby towns mentioned, such as Bridgeport, exist in RealLife.

* Likewise, Creator/StephenKing's fictional Maine locales all have clear real-world analogues: Derry is Bangor, Castle Rock is a mix of Durham and Lisbon Falls, and Jerusalem’s Lot is probably a mix of Falmouth, Windham, and Cumberland.

* Likewise, Creator/StephenKing makes it clear that Derry is Bangor, Castle Rock is a mix of Durham, Maine and Lisbon Falls, Maine, and Jerusalem’s Lot is probably a mix of Falmouth, Windham, and Cumberland, Maine.

* Ed [=McBain=]'s ''Literature/EightySeventhPrecinct'' series of police procedurals are set in Isola, a district of an unnamed, fictional city closely resembling New York. Isola includes many features of Manhattan, and the other districts mentioned are clear stand-ins for New York City's other four boroughs.

* ''{{Cybergirl}}'' is set in the fictional River City, but doesn't bother covering up the fact that it was filmed in Brisbane (popularly nicknamed the River City, due to being named after the Brisbane River). There were a few obvious inaccuracies: the River City Museum is in fact the Brisbane Powerhouse in New Farm (itself a mini-cultural centre), although the geography of the place is itself accurate. The Top Dog building, however, was invented for the series.
* The city and state where ''HillStreetBlues'' took place were never explicitly identified, though it clearly resembled Chicago.

* Some elements of Highland in ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtHead'' are based in Albuquerque, NM, including the schools (there's a real Highland High there, after which both the school and the city were named), which was the city where Mike Judge grew up.

* ''DynomuttDogWonder'' takes place in "Big City".

* San Ventura in ''SevenWonders'' by AdamChristopher. An author's note at the start establishes that it is [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial definitely not]] San ''Buena''ventura.
* Brichester, centre of Creator/RamsayCampbell's CampbellCountry, [[https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.books.ghost-fiction/NGYgR3ZaTWw according to]] WordOfGod, gradually became "Liverpool in all but name".

* Richard Powell's ''Pioneers Go Home!'' took place in the Florida-{{expy}} state of Columbiana.

* Richard Powell's ''Piomeers Go Home!'' took place in the Florida-{{expy}} state of Columbiana.

* [[WhereTheHellIsSpringfield Springfield]] from ''TheSimpsons'' is largely based on creator Matt Groening's home town of Portland, Oregon, with elements of Olympia, WA, where he attended college. (The city square with its statue of Jebediah Springfield, to cite one example, is highly reminiscent of Olympia's Sylvester Park.)\\\
Its location is a running gag in the series, with writers finding obvious delight in [[WhereTheHellIsSpringfield throwing in more and more conflicting hints on it]]. Fans even started a whole game of trying to strong-arm all these references together, to find [[SeparateSimpsonsGeographyThing where the hell is that town]] ''[[SeparateSimpsonsGeographyThing for real]]''? Semi-officially, though, Springfield is located in a fictional state of North Tacoma.\\\
To make matters more interesting, West Springfield is the size of Texas and Oklahoma ''put together'' -- needless to say, there's no way it can exist for real, and was likely the very intention behind this. And in case you're wondering, the "North Tacoma" bit comes from Homer's driver's license in an early episode, and is yet another reference to Groening's Northwest upbringing (as in Tacoma, Washington).\\\
The creators threw even more fuel on the fire by actually announcing a state during the "Behind the Laughter" episode. But they made several versions, each saying a different state. Flanders threw another monkey wrench into the works by listing the states that border Springfield. States that are nowhere near each other (like ''Maine'' and ''Nevada'') and have vastly different geographies.\\\
[[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] (most blatant example) in the episode "Blame it on Lisa": Ronaldo says he wanted to write to Lisa, but he did not know what state Springfield was located in. Lisa replies with something like "It is a bit of a mystery, but if you put the clues together, you can figure it out." The original area code is 636, which is west St. Louis county in Missouri, but the split is 939, which is in ''[[MindScrew Puerto Rico]]''.

** The webcomic ''Webcomic/MegaTokyo'' employs LampshadeHanging on this, as there is an entire police division dedicated to rebuilding Tokyo after the numerous disasters.

* In the ''Anime/ExcelSaga'' anime, the CityOfAdventure, F City in F Prefecture, is a thinly veiled stand-in for the real-life Fukuoka City in the Fukuoka Prefecture of Japan. [[Manga/ExcelSaga The original manga]] actually calls the city its proper name, and even in the anime, the map of F City is that of Fukuoka.

* There is dispute over which is TheDCU's NewYorkCity -- [[Comicbook/{{Superman}} Metropolis]] or [[{{Batman}} Gotham City]]. Both are named after NY nicknames. FrankMiller said that Metropolis is [=NYC=] in the daytime, and Gotham is [=NYC=] at night; Denny O'Neil said that Metropolis is New York above 14th Street, and that Gotham City is New York below 14th Street. It should be noted that TheDCU also has an ''actual'' New York City, although it is reportedly a much smaller, less (ahem) metropolitan burg than its real-world counterpart (and, for that matter, than Metropolis and Gotham, leading to its nickname "the Cinderella City" in ''[[SevenSoldiers Seven Soldiers of Victory]]''). Right now, the JusticeSocietyOfAmerica forms much of NYC's superhero community, and the city was the target area for the Anti-Monitor's bid to destroy the Multiverse (again) during the [[GreenLantern Sinestro Corps War]] arc.
** In the sourcebook for the Mayfair Games' DCHeroesRPG, Metropolis is set in Delaware and Gotham City in New Jersey. For a while, that sourcebook was treated as official canon, and even today, a comic page will occasionally include a peak at a map showing Gotham City clearly located in what would be New Jersey -- but with no actual state names visible.

* ''Film/ForrestGump'' is from Greenbow, a fictional town in Alabama which basically could be any rural small town in Alabama (there are real ones named Greenville and Greensboro).

* Many places in ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' have Roundworld parallels: Ankh-Morpork as London, Klatch as the Middle East, the Agatean Empire as China, Fourecks as Australia, Llamedos as Wales, Uberwald as Eastern Europe/Transylvania/Germany, and Howondaland as Africa, to name a few.
** Although they're often parallels to more than one place: the Empire has some Japanese elements, Lancre while based on Pratchett's childhood in Bucks is really anywhere rural, and WordOfGod is that Ankh-Morpork is "Renaissance Florence, 18th century London, 19th century Seattle and modern New York". [[AndZoidberg And medieval Tallinn]].

* ''Literature/TheEgyptGame'' basically takes place in Berkeley, California with the names filed off. Within the story, the city is never named and the local university is only ever referred to as "the university".

** In what appears to be a trend, ''Rookie Blue'' is also filmed in Toronto, with scenes of the skyline, icluding the CN tower, signs for well-known streets, badges with crowns on them, mentions of landmarks, neighborhoods and even the climate in the dialogue.

* The original ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'' had Liberty City, San Andreas and Vice City, which roughly resemble New York City, California and Miami. When the series was moved to full 3D, ''GTA III'', ''Liberty City Stories'' and ''IV'' were set in Liberty City (though the Liberty City from ''IV'' is different from the one in the previous games), ''Vice City'' and ''Vice City Stories'' were set in the eponymous city, and ''San Andreas'' was expanded into an entire Vice State with three cities: Los Santos (UsefulNotes/LosAngeles), San Fierro (SanFrancisco), and Las Venturas (Las Vegas), with the countryside being largely a mix of California and Nevada. GTA V returns to Los Santos (Los Angeles), with the rest of San Andreas being rumored.

* The city in which the City Escape and Radical Highway levels of ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2'' takes place is somewhat San Francisco-esque... except, of course, for the [[ChaosArchitecture Chaos City Planning]].

Of course, the creators threw even more fuel on the fire by actually announcing a state during the "Behind the Laughter" episode. But they made several versions, each saying a different state. Flanders threw another monkey wrench into the works by listing the states that border Springfield. States that are nowhere near each other (most notably ''Maine'' and ''Nevada'') and have vastly different geographies.\\\

* ''BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' is set in "Sunnydale, CA" but the location most resembles Santa Barbara (sunny weather, beach, mountains, ubiquitous red tile roofs, mid-sized city close to but away from the Los Angeles area) which, incidentally, lies right next to a small town called Summerland. However, some fans believe that JossWhedon based it on Santa Cruz where he went to college. However, Santa Cruz is close to the San Francisco Bay Area and has a distinctive culture that doesn't resemble that of Southern California.

* In inFAMOUS, the second iteration is based on New Orleans. One of the game's areas, interestingly if not tragically, is flooded.

* ''Webcomic/OutThere'' has Portstown for UsefulNotes/{{Boston}}, Los Vicios for [[VivaLasVegas Las Vegas]], Arch City for Sandbox/StLouis, and Oceanic City for Atlantic City. The reason according to WordOfGod is so that any discrepancies between the depictions of the cities and their RealLife counterparts will not be distracting. (It could also seem odd to have a character like Wally Green be a player for the St. Louis Cardinals if there's no real life player by that name on the team. Putting him on a fictional team seems more consistently fictional.)

* The town in ''PrincessTutu'' (called Golde Krone in text shown in the anime, but translated as Kinkan in the Japanese audio and Gold Crown in the English dub) is based heavily on the German town of Nördlingen. In fact, almost all of the locations in the anime can be found in the town itself.

* The first three levels of ''MetalGearSolid4'' take place in "the Middle East", "South America" and "Eastern Europe", respectively, with the dialogue awkwardly tiptoing around naming any actual nations or cities.
* Accidentally averted by ''VideoGame/{{Prototype}}'', with Hope, Idaho. There IS a small town in Idaho named Hope. Disturbing fail.
** Unlike ''VideoGame/InFamous'', which takes place in a expy of Manhattan, ''Prototype's'' action takes place in a very accurately-mapped Manhattan.
*** Speaking of inFAMOUS, the second iteration is based on New Orleans. One of the game's areas, interestingly if not tragically, is flooded.

** And ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto: London 1969'' was set in, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin erm]], [[BritainIsOnlyLondon London]].
** While none of the VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto games have taken place in it, there are several references to Carcer City, where the game {{Manhunt}} does take place (Which are both made by Rockstar Games). According to a news segment from GTA III, Carcer city is "nearby" to Liberty City.
* ''CityOfHeroes'' takes place in the fictional Rhode Island metropolis of Paragon City; similarly, ''City Of Villains'' takes place in the Rogue Isles, a chain of islands northwest of Bermuda. [[AllThereInTheManual The background]] goes into depth to explain it's an AlternateHistory, where Paragon City is basically New York in a different place.
* Several missions in ''ModernWarfare2'' take place in nondescript locations like "Northeastern Virginia" (obviously in the [[spoiler:DC]] commuter belt, though). or "near Petropavlovsk". Averted in the [[spoiler: Moscow]] and [[spoiler: UsefulNotes/WashingtonDC]] missions.

* Tokyo Field from ''[[BackyardSports Backyard Baseball 2007]]'' is just Tokyo Dome.

* Most {{Soap Opera}}s are set in indiscriminate locations:
** Pine Valley, Pennsylvania in ''AllMyChildren'' and Llanview, Pennsylvania from ''OneLifeToLive'' (both Philadelphia suburbs)
** Port Charles, New York in ''GeneralHospital'' (on Lake Ontario between Buffalo and Rochester)
** Though Salem in ''DaysOfOurLives'' has explicitly never had a state named, everyone's always rooting for the Cubs and Bears and taking quick trips to Chicago, implying it's a large Chicago suburb.
** Genoa City, Wisconsin in ''TheYoungAndTheRestless'' (totally unlike the real city of the same name)
** Springfield in ''GuidingLight'' (no relation)

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' has Sunnydale, California, a large town or small city (it's never really clear, but "Chosen" shows it as a city for sure). Sunnydale is never stable for long enough to stand in for a real city. Unless there really is a landlocked city with a bustling seaport. The occasional map or bird's eye view of Sunnydale uses Santa Barbara, which at least is in appropriate relation to Los Angeles. (But it's doubtful there are any big caves in California.)
** There is an actual town called Sunny''vale'' near San Jose, so the "bustling seaport" could just be a minor tributary of San Francisco Bay. The city of Stockton, which is nearby, also has a landlocked seaport courtesy of a wide river channel connected to that same bay, so Sunnydale could be Stockton instead.

* For most of the film ''Speed Dating'' the city, or even the ''country'' it is set in is unclear -- Ireland is vaguely implied, but it could be England, Scotland or Wales, or even New Zealand. Accents are heavily toned down, names generic (eg. "the City university"), landmarks and newspaper headlines are obscured and very few clues afforded. Despite the crime related plot we never even see police cars or the front of police uniforms - those would have given it away. A throwaway shot ten minutes from the end reveals it to have been set in [[spoiler: UsefulNotes/{{Dublin}}]].