History Main / TelevisionGeography

** It's a plot point that the majority of the Autobots can't fly (EarlyInstallmentWeirdness aside); they only gain a flying team member capable of transporting the others partway through the first season in the form of Skyfire, who rarely appears in the following seasons. Despite this, oftentimes the only indication of how the Autobots travel to far-off locations (sometimes on other continents entirely) is that they drive dramatically out of their headquarters and have arrived at their destination after a scene transition, implying that they drove all the way there regardless of how impractical and/or time-consuming it would be.

* ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' suffers from this horribly. For instance, Forks, UsefulNotes/{{Washington}} is described as being a gloomy town. The real Forks is just as sunny as any other town.

*** Then there's the infamous honeymoon on the "west coast of Brazil"...

** Not to mention that apparently you can get from Forks [[ArtisticLicenseGeography to Alaska]] in sixteen hours. On (apparently) one tank of gas. That's almost two and a half thousand miles—Edward would have had to be travelling at supersonic speeds. The UsefulNotes/{{Alaska}} (or Al-Can) Highway is so long and so remote that they have (or used to have) checkpoints; when you leave one, they radio ahead to the next to tell them you're coming. If you don't show up in a certain amount of time, they go looking for you to make sure you're not dead. This simply cannot be done in sixteen hours.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/MisterT'' episode "Fortune Cookie Caper", Creator/MrT and the gang visit [[NewYorkCity|New York]]'s Chinatown district--which is wall-to-wall old-China style architecture, very wide streets, rickshaws, few people, and ''no cars'', parked or otherwise. (The gang is able to parallel park a full-length bus.) The real New York City Chinatown is, if anything, the exact opposite of all these things. That's just the beginning of an episode full of laughable New York geography (riffed [[http://www.agonybooth.com/mister-t-fortune-cookie-caper-part-1-3567 here]]).
* In ''[[Franchise/TransformersGeneration1 The Transformers,]]'' it was a plot point that (EarlyInstallmentWeirdness aside) most of the Autobots could not fly. They didn't gain any flying team members capable of carrying the others until Skyfire joined late in the first season, and he rarely appeared in the second season. None the less, whenever the Autobots had to get to Africa or South America or Asia in a big hurry, they would all drive dramatically out of their H.Q., we'd cut to the next scene... and there they would be at their destination! Did they ''drive'' there? Nobody knows.
** For that matter, it's never clear just [[WhereTheHellIsSpringfield where]] their American desert with a volcano in it is. By contrast, in the comic book, Mt. St. Hillary is clearly a stand-in for Mt. St. Helens in UsefulNotes/{{Washington}} state, and the surrounding territory is appropriately green, not a desert.

* Other exceptions: ''Anime/EdenOfTheEast'' has very accurate landscapes even in UsefulNotes/{{New York|City}} and UsefulNotes/WashingtonDC, and ''LightNovel/{{Durarara}}'' is very accurate in its portrayal of Ikebukuro, down to the vending machines. ''Anime/DarkerThanBlack'' is another good one.

* In Citroën's "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMQnPWjK5pE Unmistakably German - Made in France]]" ad, the final insult on its UsefulNotes/{{Prussia}} take on Germany is getting Berlin's geography wrong. The car pulls up outside the Brandenburg Gate. The guy gets out, the camera switches to show the other side - which clearly shows the Olympic Stadium, which is quite a way away from the Gate.

* The ''TabletopGame/WerewolfTheApocalypse'' module "Rite of Passage" appears to be set in some scrunched-up alternate version of UsefulNotes/{{Canada}} that is barely the size of UsefulNotes/{{Mexico}} and bears little resemblance to the real one. Among other things, it describes a village in northern Saskatchewan as being "nestled in the fog-shrouded mountains"[[note]]there are no mountains in Saskatchewan[[/note]] and "mere 150 miles from Toronto"[[note]]1,500 miles would have been more believable[[/note]].

* There is an arcade game showing a scene of a helicopter flying through massive skyscrapers and listing the location as "Green Bay, Wisconsin". The tallest building in Green Bay is the 10-story St. Vincent's Hospital, as seen in [[http://www.olej.com/community.asp this picture of the skyline]].

* In one ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' episode, Brian and Stewie visit UsefulNotes/{{Munich}}, and drive in a tour-bus past Munich's [[http://tourismus.meinestadt.de/images/image.php?origin=gallery&id=185325&type=O Old Town Hall]], the [[http://www.mission-base.com/pictures/0404munich/big/muenchen-sendlinger-tor.jpg Sendlinger Tor]] and the [[http://www.mission-base.com/pictures/0404munich/big/muenchen-mariensaeule.jpg Mariensäule]], which are all presented next to each other on a medieval intersection. This couldn't be further from the truth - not only are there hardly any truly medieval buildings left in Munich, but the Mariensäule is in front of the ''new'' Town Hall building [[http://www.tropicalisland.de/germany/bavaria/munich/images/MUC%20Munich%20-%20Marienplatz%20with%20Old%20Town%20Hall%20and%20Mariens%E4ule%20or%20column%20of%20the%20Virgin%20Mary%20at%20its%20center%203008x2000.jpg a hundred meters away from the old one]] (and all three buildings are on the central Marienplatz square, not on some intersection), while the Sendlinger Tor is almost an entire kilometer away from the Marienplatz.

** After the Rapture, Buck goes through an ordeal of chartering random planes and making several stops to get from UsefulNotes/{{Chicago]] to UsefulNotes/{{New York|City}}. The journey winds up taking him many, many hours more than if he had just rented a car and driven it, even assuming he detoured around wrecks. Then when he gets to Manhattan, he walks what is described like ten miles, but in reality is less than two.

* Other exceptions: ''Anime/EdenOfTheEast'' has very accurate landscapes even in New York and Washington DC, and ''LightNovel/{{Durarara}}'' is very accurate in its portrayal of Ikebukuro, down to the vending machines. ''Anime/DarkerThanBlack'' is another good one.

* ''Anime/LupinIIIPartII'' has an episode set in San Francisco, that implies the San Francisco Bay and the Golden Gate Bridge are within walking distance.

* There's a bit in the second arc of ''Manga/DeathNote'' where the characters allegedly go to UsefulNotes/LosAngeles but the scenery actually looks more like the Arizona desert.

** After the Rapture, Buck goes through an ordeal of chartering random planes and making several stops to get from Chicago to New York. The journey winds up taking him many, many hours more than if he had just rented a car and driven it, even assuming he detoured around wrecks. Then when he gets to Manhattan, he walks what is described like ten miles, but in reality is less than two.
* [[Creator/FranzKafka Kafka's]] unfinished book ''Amerika'' features some serious geographical anomalies — like the city of Boston being located "just across the Hudson River" from New York City, or having a character try to travel from New York to San Francisco by heading EAST. Scholars are divided as to whether this was intentional surrealism or Kafka just not doing his homework.
* ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' suffers from this horribly. For instance, Forks is described as being a gloomy town. The real Forks is just as sunny as any other town.

** In the first movie, which was filmed in Oregon, the scene at the river is clearly on the wrong side of the state borders.
** Not to mention that apparently you can get from Forks [[ArtisticLicenseGeography to Alaska]] in sixteen hours. On (apparently) one tank of gas. That's almost two and a half thousand miles—Edward would have had to be travelling at supersonic speeds. The Alaska (or Al-Can) Highway is so long and so remote that they have (or used to have) checkpoints; when you leave one, they radio ahead to the next to tell them you're coming. If you don't show up in a certain amount of time, they go looking for you to make sure you're not dead. This simply cannot be done in sixteen hours.
* ''Literature/SherlockHolmes'' is a regular offender. [[Creator/ArthurConanDoyle Conan Doyle]] was a Scot with little knowledge of London, and it shows; it's quite impossible to establish the location of 221b Baker Street because Conan Doyle had no accurate knowledge of the area and simply made it up, and many of Holmes' journeys around London are no better. The "opium den" in Limehouse is clearly taken from generic period fiction.

* Book 5 of ''Literature/TheDarkTower'' series by Creator/StephenKing has a character in Detroit looking out on Lake Michigan. While Detroit is ''in'' Michigan, it's on the Detroit River. The nearest large body of water is Lake St. Clair, 6 miles north of the downtown. Lake Michigan is on the opposite side of the state.

* Along those same lines, "The Night Chicago Died" by Paper Lace features the lyric, "Daddy was a cop on the east[[note]]Though in fairness, this could be a reference to the downtown and adjacent rough areas of the city, which lie just west of Lake Michigan and thus east of the rest of the city. Or, it could refer to a community area on the city's south side, bordering on Indiana, that's actually called [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Side,_Chicago East Side]], from its position in relation to the Calumet River.[[/note]] side of Chicago." In the words of one respondent to Creator/DaveBarry's Bad Songs survey, "There IS no east side of Chicago; just an awfully, awfully big lake. Daddy would've needed scuba gear to walk the beat."
* Music/BillyJoel's song "The Ballad of Billy the Kid" includes the lines "And his daring life of crime/Made him a legend in his time/East and west of the Rio Grande." Years later, Joel shamefacedly admitted bungling his geography -- the Rio Grande flows west to east, and you can only be north or south of it. Actually averted since it flows North-South inside New Mexico, where the real-life UsefulNotes/BillyTheKid committed many of his crimes.
* "Don't Stop Believin'" by Music/{{Journey|Band}} tells a tale of a "city boy, born and raised in South Detroit." Depending on where you are in Detroit, "South Detroit" is either in Canada or in the area on the U.S. side of the Detroit River known locally as "Downriver". Either way, it's probably not what the San Francisco-based band was going for.

* The ''TabletopGame/WerewolfTheApocalypse'' module "Rite of Passage" appears to be set in some scrunched-up alternate version of Canada that is barely the size of Mexico and bears little resemblance to the real one. Among other things, it describes a village in northern Saskatchewan as being "nestled in the fog-shrouded mountains"[[note]]there are no mountains in Saskatchewan[[/note]] and "mere 150 miles from Toronto"[[note]]1,500 miles would have been more believable[[/note]].
** Likewise, the origin New Orleans by Night book for ''TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade'' is somewhat infamous for referring to "the subways of New Orleans". Not only is it blatantly wrong--New Orleans' trolleys are all above ground--it's not even plausible. Most houses in southern Louisiana don't have basements and the dead can't be buried six feet under due to the groundwater, and we're supposed to believe the city could sustain a ''subway''?

* In one ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' episode, Brian and Stewie visit Munich, and drive in a tour-bus past Munich's [[http://tourismus.meinestadt.de/images/image.php?origin=gallery&id=185325&type=O Old Town Hall]], the [[http://www.mission-base.com/pictures/0404munich/big/muenchen-sendlinger-tor.jpg Sendlinger Tor]] and the [[http://www.mission-base.com/pictures/0404munich/big/muenchen-mariensaeule.jpg Mariensäule]], which are all presented next to each other on a medieval intersection. This couldn't be further from the truth - not only are there hardly any truly medieval buildings left in Munich, but the Mariensäule is in front of the ''new'' Town Hall building [[http://www.tropicalisland.de/germany/bavaria/munich/images/MUC%20Munich%20-%20Marienplatz%20with%20Old%20Town%20Hall%20and%20Mariens%E4ule%20or%20column%20of%20the%20Virgin%20Mary%20at%20its%20center%203008x2000.jpg a hundred meters away from the old one]] (and all three buildings are on the central Marienplatz square, not on some intersection), while the Sendlinger Tor is almost an entire kilometer away from the Marienplatz.

* Averted ([[WhereTheHellIsSpringfield ironically]]) in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', which takes great care to get geography down accurately when they visit a major city and to include proper landmarks; for instance, having been released from prison in Tokyo, they are seen to walk away from the Tokyo Police Headquarters (a very distinctive building).
** Played straight in the first episode where the family goes to Brazil. Most of the whole thing takes place in Rio de Janeiro, but when Homer is kidnapped there, next time he and the criminals are seen is in the middle of the Amazon rainforest, then they later set up a ransom exchange in Rio again, which would be like being kidnapped in Florida, taken to be held hostage in the Rocky Mountains, then freed in Florida anyway.
* Lawndale in ''WesternAnimation/{{Daria}}'' is somewhere where snowy mountains, a coastline and a desert are all within a day's driving distance. Somewhere on the West Coast of the United States seemed reasonable... then they drove up to Boston on a day trip in ''Is It College Yet?''.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/MisterT'' episode "Fortune Cookie Caper", Creator/MrT and the gang visit New York's Chinatown district--which is wall-to-wall old-China style architecture, very wide streets, rickshaws, few people, and ''no cars'', parked or otherwise. (The gang is able to parallel park a full-length bus.) The real New York City Chinatown is, if anything, the exact opposite of all these things. That's just the beginning of an episode full of laughable New York geography (riffed [[http://www.agonybooth.com/mister-t-fortune-cookie-caper-part-1-3567 here]]).

** For that matter, it's never clear just [[WhereTheHellIsSpringfield where]] their American desert with a volcano in it is. By contrast, in the comic book, Mt. St. Hillary is clearly a stand-in for Mt. St. Helens in Washington state, and the surrounding territory is appropriately green, not a desert.

** Many people, most notably former Governor General Michaëlle Jean, have mistakenly referred to the view of the Rocky Mountains from Vancouver. Those would be on the other side of the province, actually. The mountains around Vancouver are the North Shore Mountains, part of the Pacific Ranges.

* Exception: ''Manga/GunsmithCats'' took great pains to get Chicago just right, down to minute details. Of course, it's an animated series for which the cost of location shoots is a non-issue. (They did, however, take the unprecedented step of sending the entire animation team there before even beginning production, to get a sense of the city and take reference photos themselves.)

* ''Anime/BakutenShootBeyblade'' had a tournament in Sydney, Australia. Some characters decide that they want to have private conversation in [=S3E21=], so they meet ''five minutes later'' on top of Uluru. To those outside Australia, to get from Sydney to Uluru they would have to go over 2000 km (or over 1200 miles).

* A Chapman University informational flyer shows a simple map of California and several of its cities. The cities are depicted in positions wildly different from their actual positions. San Diego is depicted as being far inland instead of being near the ocean and much farther north than it really is, San Francisco is shown at the southern end of San Francisco Bay instead of at the bay's exit channel to the ocean, Sacramento is shown too far west, Santa Barbara is shown too far north and west, Los Angeles is shown too far north, and Orange, the very city the university is located in, is shown too far east.

* "Don't Stop Believin'" by Music/{{Journey}} tells a tale of a "city boy, born and raised in South Detroit." Depending on where you are in Detroit, "South Detroit" is either in Canada or in the area on the U.S. side of the Detroit River known locally as "Downriver". Either way, it's probably not what the San Francisco-based band was going for.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Rio}}'' averts with its depiction of Rio de Janeiro. [[WesternAnimation/{{Rio 2}} The sequel]], however, meshes many distant parts of TheAmazon at walking distance (which the director admits was intentional).

* ''Anime/LupinIIIRedJacket'' has an episode set in San Francisco, that implies the San Francisco Bay and the Golden Gate Bridge are within walking distance.

* Billy Joel's song "The Ballad of Billy the Kid" includes the lines "And his daring life of crime/Made him a legend in his time/East and west of the Rio Grande." Years later, Joel shamefacedly admitted bungling his geography -- the Rio Grande flows west to east, and you can only be north or south of it. Actually averted since it flows North-South inside New Mexico, where the real-life UsefulNotes/BillyTheKid committed many of his crimes.

* In Citroën's "Unmistakably German - Made in France" ad, the final insult on its UsefulNotes/{{Prussia}} take on Germany is getting Berlin's geography wrong. The car pulls up outside the Brandenburg Gate. The guy gets out, the camera switches to show the other side - which clearly shows the Olympic Stadium, which is quite a way away from the Gate.

* During the original ''ComicBook/SecretWars'', one of the chunks that made up the Beyonder's artificial world was a “suburb of Denver.” Not only did the writer not even bother to name that suburb, but the artist gave it brownstones and standard Eastern seaboard apartment buildings, generic city streets, etc.—and even Denver doesn't look like that, let alone any of the suburbs. Needless to say, Colorado readers rolled their eyes.