History UsefulNotes / Seattle

In media, thanks to the cheaper filming costs, [[StargateCity Vancouver, British Columbia]] is often used as a stand-in for Seattle or for unidentified parts of the USA resembling Seattle, leading to the term "Seacouver" for such settings.

Trails only {{UsefulNotes/Cleveland}} as the ButtMonkey of the U.S. sports world due to their spotty track record in regards to major league sports. (Three, count 'em, three, championships in the entire city's history[[note]]Two by the women's basketball team, the Seattle Storm, and one by the NBA team that moved. The University of Washington Football team won between two and four national titles depending on how one recons such things. And waaay back in the day, the Rainiers baseball team won a few Pacific Coast League pennants.[[/note]]. Many local football fans, however, will tell you that the Seahawks were the rightful winners of Superbowl XL, but were cheated out of it by one-sided officiating. This is a subject you should broach carefully, if at all.) In recent years, the situation has been particularly grim, with even the once-powerful University of Washington Huskies NCAA football team [[SeasonalRot having the worst single season record in history]], and the Seattle Supersonics NBA team being spirited away to ''Oklahoma City''. Not helping matters is the fact that the city is famous for coffee, computers, grunge music, liberal politics, and rain[[note]]though the rain, to be honest, isn't much worse in the city itself than it is on most the Eastern seaboard on average; the Olympic Peninsula on the other hand, right next door to the west of Seattle, is probably the wettest place in the continental United States[[/note]], which are decidedly at odds with the interests of the typical sports fan. The sports fans who ''do'' call the area home responded to the aforementioned pirating of their NBA franchise by latching onto Seattle Sounders FC, the newest [[TheBeautifulGame MLS]] expansion team, and making it one of the few teams in the league to regularly sell out the stadium. Qwest (now CenturyLink) Field, the home stadium to the Sounders and Seahawks, was from 2007 to 2010 true to the city's rebellious spirit by being the only stadium in the [=NFL=] to serve neither Pepsi ''nor'' Coca-Cola beverages on its grounds, [[TakeAThirdOption having instead]] awarded its concession to the locally-based Jones Soda company. The rights have since been granted to Coca-Cola, which definitely makes going to Sounders games a lot less fun.

* {{Wikipedia}} has [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Television_shows_set_in_Seattle a category]] for television shows set in Seattle. Some of these include:
* ''DarkAngel'': Filmed in Vancouver.
* ''DeadLikeMe'': Filmed in Vancouver.
* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' actor Armin Shimerman remarked that his character's home planet, a [[SwampsAreEvil soggy mudball]] called Ferenginar, "Looks a little like Seattle on a bad day." It even has a Space Needle (the "Tower of Commerce").
* ''Series/{{Frasier}}'': Filmed in Los Angeles, except for the 100th episode, which was actually filmed in Seattle. And the episode gets as much mileage out of Seattle landmarks as it can, including Niles getting a fish thrown at him in Pike Place Market and Frasier getting trapped on the Monorail on the way to the Space Needle.
** The view out of Frasier's apartment of the Space Needle doesn't exist. [[MonumentalView There's no such apartment]] with that view.
* ''GreysAnatomy''
* ''HighlanderTheSeries'': at one point it's outright called Seacouver.
* ''Series/ICarly''
* TheKilling
* ''Series/KyleXY'': [[RunningGag Filmed in Vancouver]].
* ''Series/{{Millennium}}'': Filmed in Vancouver.
* ''{{Reaper}}'': Filmed in Vancouver.
* ''Series/{{Smallville}}'': Vancouver doubles for Kansas, but one episode was set in the Seattle docks.
* ''{{The 4400}}'': [[OverlyLongGag Filmed in Vancouver]].
* ''TwinPeaks''
* ''Series/JohnDoe'', filmed in Vancouver, to the point that the TelevisionWithoutPity recapper just kept calling the city "Seacouver."
* ''AlmostLive'': Actually filmed in Seattle.
** Also BillNyeTheScienceGuy who got his start on the above.
* The second of the ''[[KolchakTheNightStalker Kolchak]]'' TV movies was set in Seattle, and several scenes were actually filmed there.
* The 1968-70 {{Western}} ''HereComeTheBrides''. Its theme song was "Seattle", a tribute to the city, and Perry Como's version became a Top 40 hit.

* Neko Case(Tacoma-- her song "Thrice All American' is about how lovably awful Tacoma is)

** WordOfGod has it that Seattle was singled out by the (Chicago-based) game designers because, at the time (80s), it wasn't sufficiently prominent in pop culture to constitute a trope of its own; thus, they could freely [[AssPull make stuff up]] about the area without most of their game's audience catching on. They were aiming for AliensInCardiff, not realizing how Grunge and various movies and TV series would elevate the city's prominence in the near future. Ironically, Jordan Weisman (the lead designer on the original ''Shadowrun'') would later move to Seattle, in part because of Microsoft acquiring FASA, and later to engage in game studio serial entrepreneurship.

* ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'': The city is never named, but according to WordOfGod it's an amalgam of Seattle, Portland, and [[BigApplesauce New York City]]. [[FridgeHorror Arnold's house is underneath]] [[ChaosArchitecture I-5.]]

** Springfield itself is an amalgam of several urban areas throughout the northwest, including Seattle as well Portland, Oregon (where Creator/MattGroening grew up), Olympia, Washington (where he went to school). On one instance, a letter addressed to the Simpsons had the state abbreviation "[=NT=]", which WordOfGod claimed stood for "North Tacoma".
** In "Homer the Krusty", Krusty gives a list of inherently funny place names, including Walla Walla, Cucamonga, and [[OddNameOut Seattle]].
** Krusty himself is (vaguely) based on long time television host and Seattle icon JP Patches.

A city situated on the eastern bank of Puget Sound in the [[TheOtherRainforest state of Washington]], and its surrounding metro area. Named for a 19th century Duwamish tribal chief from the region, who [[NewerThanTheyThink did not give an environmental speech often attributed to him.]] Home base of (or at least origin-point for) Microsoft, {{Nintendo}} of America, [[ValveSoftware Valve]], Starbucks, Boeing, Amazon and several other companies of note, and the birthplace of {{Grunge}} music (Music/{{Nirvana}} in particular, despite not being from here). Its landmarks include Pike Place Market[[note]]widely considered the ''real'' main tourist attraction, the Space Needle being little more than a giant tourist trap[[/note]], Pioneer Square (which pre-gentrification was the ''original'' SkidRow), [[AlienGeometries The Experience Music Project]], a half-mile Monorail constructed for the 1962 World's Fair which exemplifies {{Zeerust}} to a tee, the [[BeneathTheEarth Seattle Underground]] which was a partial inspiration for [[Literature/{{Discworld}} Ankh-Morpork]], and the Space Needle, also constructed for the World's Fair [[note]]:It looks a lot bigger in pictures than in RealLife, due to the fact that it's usually photographed from Queen Anne Hill, from an angle that makes it [[HitlerCam look taller than anything else in the skyline]], despite being relatively short and at least a mile north of downtown.[[/note]].

** WordOfGod has it that Seattle was singled out by the (Chicago-based) game designers because, at the time (80s), it wasn't sufficiently prominent in pop culture to constitute a trope of its own; thus, they could freely [[AssPull make stuff up]] about the area without most of their game's audience catching on. They were aiming for AliensInCardiff, not realizing how Grunge and various movies and TV series would elevate the city's prominence in the near future.

Trails only {{Cleveland}} as the ButtMonkey of the U.S. sports world due to their spotty track record in regards to major league sports. (Three, count 'em, three, championships in the entire city's history[[note]]Two by the women's basketball team, the Seattle Storm, and one by the NBA team that moved. The University of Washington Football team won between two and four national titles depending on how one recons such things. And waaay back in the day, the Rainiers baseball team won a few Pacific Coast League pennants.[[/note]]. Many local football fans, however, will tell you that the Seahawks were the rightful winners of Superbowl XL, but were cheated out of it by one-sided officiating. This is a subject you should broach carefully, if at all.) In recent years, the situation has been particularly grim, with even the once-powerful University of Washington Huskies NCAA football team [[SeasonalRot having the worst single season record in history]], and the Seattle Supersonics NBA team being spirited away to ''Oklahoma City''. Not helping matters is the fact that the city is famous for coffee, computers, grunge music, liberal politics, and rain[[note]]though the rain, to be honest, isn't much worse in the city itself than it is on most the Eastern seaboard on average; the Olympic Peninsula on the other hand, right next door to the west of Seattle, is probably the wettest place in the continental United States[[/note]], which are decidedly at odds with the interests of the typical sports fan. The sports fans who ''do'' call the area home responded to the aforementioned pirating of their NBA franchise by latching onto Seattle Sounders FC, the newest [[TheBeautifulGame MLS]] expansion team, and making it one of the few teams in the league to regularly sell out the stadium. Qwest (now CenturyLink) Field, the home stadium to the Sounders and Seahawks, was from 2007 to 2010 true to the city's rebellious spirit by being the only stadium in the [=NFL=] to serve neither Pepsi ''nor'' Coca-Cola beverages on its grounds, [[TakeAThirdOption having instead]] awarded its concession to the locally-based Jones Soda company. The rights have since been granted to Coca-Cola, which definitely makes going to Sounders games a lot less fun.

A city situated on the eastern bank of Puget Sound in the [[TheOtherRainforest state of Washington]], and its surrounding metro area. Named for a 19th century Duwamish tribal chief from the region, who [[NewerThanTheyThink did not give an environmental speech often attributed to him.]] Home base of (or at least origin-point for) Microsoft, {{Nintendo}} of America, Starbucks, Boeing, Amazon and several other companies of note, and the birthplace of {{Grunge}} music (Music/{{Nirvana}} in particular, despite not being from here). Its landmarks include Pike Place Market[[note]]widely considered the ''real'' main tourist attraction, the Space Needle being little more than a giant tourist trap[[/note]], Pioneer Square (which pre-gentrification was the ''original'' SkidRow), [[AlienGeometries The Experience Music Project]], a half-mile Monorail constructed for the 1962 World's Fair which exemplifies {{Zeerust}} to a tee, the [[BeneathTheEarth Seattle Underground]] which was a partial inspiration for [[Literature/{{Discworld}} Ankh-Morpork]], and the Space Needle, also constructed for the World's Fair [[note]]:It looks a lot bigger in pictures than in RealLife, due to the fact that it's usually photographed from Queen Anne Hill, from an angle that makes it [[HitlerCam look taller than anything else in the skyline]], despite being relatively short and at least a mile north of downtown.[[/note]].

* ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'': The city is never named, but according to WordOfGod it's an amalgam of Seattle, Portland, and [[BigApplesauce New York City]]. [[FridgeHorror Arnold's house is underneath]] the [[ChaosArchitecture Alaskan Way Viaduct.]]

* ''TenThingsIHateAboutYou'' is supposedly set in Seattle (the opening shots show the Space Needle), but was actually filmed mostly in nearby Tacoma.

* ''KyleXY'': [[RunningGag Filmed in Vancouver]].

* ''JohnDoe'', filmed in Vancouver, to the point that the TelevisionWithoutPity recapper just kept calling the city "Seacouver."

* ''Singles''. Filmed in 1990, right before the Grunge explosion of the early 90s, but not released until 1992.

* ''SayAnything''.

About half an hour to the south is the city of Tacoma (the "Tac" in [=SeaTac=] International Airport). It used to be a fairly industrial town, infamous for the horrible "Tacoma Aroma" produced by the city's paper mills, but has undergone revitalization in recent years due to increased port traffic, various downtown renewal projects, and an influx of consumer dollars from troops stationed at the burgeoning Joint Base Lewis-[=McChord=], an Army/Air Force facility just to its south. Even the former site of the ASARCO smelting plant is being turned into luxury housing (why anyone would want to live over a former toxic waste site is another question). Its most famous son is arguably the one-eyed glass artist Dale Chihuly, whose works are all over the city (even in one of the [=McDonald's=]). Unlike Seattle, Tacoma hosts no major league teams of its own, though the Mariners' triple-A affiliate (the Tacoma Rainiers) is regionally popular, and the Tacoma Dome (in addition to being a frequent {{WWE}} venue) has occasionally hosted Seattle's teams while their home venues were being renovated.

* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' actor Armin Shimerman remarked that his character's home planet, a [[SwampsAreEvil soggy mudball]] called Ferenginar, "Looks a little like Seattle on a bad day." It even has a Space Needle (the "Tower of Commerce").

A city situated on the eastern bank of Puget Sound in the [[TheOtherRainforest state of Washington]], and its surrounding metro area. Named for a 19th century Duwamish tribal chief from the region, who [[NewerThanTheyThink did not give an environmental speech often attributed to him.]] Home base of (or at least origin-point for) Microsoft, {{Nintendo}} of America, Starbucks, Boeing, Amazon and several other companies of note, and the birthplace of {{Grunge}} music (Music/{{Nirvana}} in particular, despite not being from here). Its landmarks include Pike Place Market[[note]]widely considered the ''real'' main tourist attraction, the Space Needle being little more than a giant tourist trap[[/note]], Pioneer Square (which pre-gentrification was the ''original'' SkidRow), [[AlienGeometries The Experience Music Project]], a half-mile Monorail constructed for the 1962 World's Fair which exemplifies {{Zeerust}} to a tee, the [[BeneathTheEarth Seattle Underground]] which was a partial inspiration for [[Literature/{{Discworld}} Ankh-Morpork]], and the Space Needle, also constructed for the World's Fair [[note]]:which looks a lot bigger on [=TV=] than in RealLife, due to the fact that it's usually photographed from Queen Anne Hill, from an angle that makes it look taller than anything in downtown. Oh, and by the way, the Space Needle itself is around a mile north of the rest of downtown.[[/note]].

* {{Wikipedia}} has [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Television_shows_set_in_Seattle a category]] for television shows set in {{Seattle}}. Some of these include:

** And in an ''[[WesternAnimation/TheItchyAndScratchyShow Itchy and Scratchy]]'' short. Itchy saws the top off the Space Needle, and it gets [[EyeScream stuck in Scratchy's eye]].

* Appears briefly in ''TheSimpsons Movie''.
** And in an [[ShowWithinAShow Itchy and Scratchy]] short. Itchy saws the top off the Space Needle, and it gets [[EyeScream stuck in Scratchy's eye]].
** Springfield itself is an amalgam of several urban areas throughout the northwest, including Seattle as well Portland, Oregon (where Matt Groening grew up), Olympia, Washington (where he went to school). On one instance, a letter addressed to the Simpsons had the state abbreviation "[=NT=]", which WordOfGod claimed stood for "North Tacoma".

[[caption-width-right:348:[[Series/{{Frazier}} Hey baby I hear the blues are callin'...]]

[[caption-width-right:348:Hey baby I hear the blues are callin'...]]

A city situated on the eastern bank of Puget Sound in the [[TheOtherRainforest state of Washington]], and its surrounding metro area. Named for a 19th century Duwamish tribal chief from the region, who [[NewerThanTheyThink did not give an environmental speech often attributed to him.]] Home base of (or at least origin-point for) Microsoft, {{Nintendo}} of America, Starbucks, Boeing, Amazon and several other companies of note, and the birthplace of {{Grunge}} music ({{Nirvana}} in particular, despite not being from here). Its landmarks include Pike Place Market[[hottip:* :widely considered the ''real'' main tourist attraction, the Space Needle being little more than a giant tourist trap]], Pioneer Square (which pre-gentrification was the ''original'' SkidRow), [[AlienGeometries The Experience Music Project]], a half-mile Monorail constructed for the 1962 World's Fair which exemplifies {{Zeerust}} to a tee, the [[BeneathTheEarth Seattle Underground]] which was a partial inspiration for [[Literature/{{Discworld}} Ankh-Morpork]], and the Space Needle, also constructed for the World's Fair [[hottip:* :which looks a lot bigger on [=TV=] than in RealLife, due to the fact that it's usually photographed from Queen Anne Hill, from an angle that makes it look taller than anything in downtown. Oh, and by the way, the Space Needle itself is around a mile north of the rest of downtown.]].

Trails only {{Cleveland}} as the ButtMonkey of the U.S. sports world due to their spotty track record in regards to major league sports. (Three, count 'em, three, championships in the entire city's history[[hottip:* : Two by the women's basketball team, the Seattle Storm, and one by the NBA team that moved. The University of Washington Football team won between two and four national titles depending on how one recons such things. And waaay back in the day, the Rainiers baseball team won a few Pacific Coast League pennants.]]. Many local football fans, however, will tell you that the Seahawks were the rightful winners of Superbowl XL, but were cheated out of it by one-sided officiating. This is a subject you should broach carefully, if at all.) In recent years, the situation has been particularly grim, with even the once-powerful University of Washington Huskies NCAA football team [[SeasonalRot having the worst single season record in history]], and the Seattle Supersonics NBA team being spirited away to ''Oklahoma City''. Not helping matters is the fact that the city is famous for coffee, computers, grunge music, liberal politics, and rain[[hottip:* : though the rain, to be honest, isn't much worse in the city itself than it is on most the Eastern seaboard on average; the Olympic Peninsula on the other hand, right next door to the west of Seattle, is probably the wettest place in the continental United States]], which are decidedly at odds with the interests of the typical sports fan. The sports fans who ''do'' call the area home responded to the aforementioned pirating of their NBA franchise by latching onto Seattle Sounders FC, the newest [[TheBeautifulGame MLS]] expansion team, and making it one of the few teams in the league to regularly sell out the stadium. Qwest (now CenturyLink) Field, the home stadium to the Sounders and Seahawks, was from 2007 to 2010 true to the city's rebellious spirit by being the only stadium in the [=NFL=] to serve neither Pepsi ''nor'' Coca-Cola beverages on its grounds, [[TakeAThirdOption having instead]] awarded its concession to the locally-based Jones Soda company. The rights have since been granted to Coca-Cola, which definitely makes going to Sounders games a lot less fun.

Is also the hometown of SirMixALot[[hottip:* : Actually, Tacoma is]], whose song "Posse on Broadway" was based on Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood.

Seen as trendy and bohemian by many thanks to grunge and ''{{Frasier}}''. Often used in fiction as a destination for a character being sent on a very long [[PutOnABus bus ride]].

* ''StarTrek'' actor Armin Shimerman remarked that his character's home planet, a [[SwampsAreEvil soggy mudball]] called Ferenginar, "Looks a little like Seattle on a bad day." It even has a Space Needle (the "Tower of Commerce").

* ''SleeplessInSeattle'', which suffers from a particularly egregious case of ArtisticLicenseGeography. (The pivotal moment all occur in [[BigApplesauce Manhattan]], anyway.)

* ''SleeplessInSeattle'', which suffers from a particularly egregious case of ArtisticLicenseGeography.

* ''StarTrek'' actor Armin Shimerman remarked that his character's home planet, a soggy mudball called Ferenginar, "Looks a little like Seattle on a bad day." It even has a Space Needle (the "Tower of Commerce").

* Webcomic/PvP - The characters in the comic relocated to Seattle simultaneously as their creator, Scott Kurtz, as he now works out of the Penny Arcade offices.
* In {{Homestuck}}, John Egbert and Jane Crocker both live in one of Seattle's southern suburbs. (21605 Fir Dr., Maple Valley, to be precise, [[ShownTheirWork which is an actual location]].) [[DoomedHometown Not that it matters.]]

* ''SurvivalOfTheFittest'': According to the mods, the students of v5 will be from a school in Seattle.