Line #102 Main/EverytownAmerica


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Everytown_America_7585.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:300:''[[Music/JohnMellencamp "Ain't that America?"]]''[[note]]Photo taken in Pomeroy, UsefulNotes/{{Ohio}}[[/note]]]]
3
4	->'''Clark:''' It always takes folks from the city a bit of time to decompress. Fortunately for you, this weekend Smallville is holding the annual Corn Festival. We'll get to see the Corn Queen Pageant, the Husk-Off, the Corn-o-rama, popcorn, cream corn, corn on the cob; ''we'' are in luck.\
5	'''Lois:''' Oh, be still, my heart.
6	-->-- ''Series/LoisAndClarkTheNewAdventuresOfSuperman'', "The Green, Green Glow of Home"
7
8	Basically, if an American film or TV show doesn't take place in a famous big city, it will be set in some version of Everytown, America. Everytown, America is a usually fictional town or small city containing pastel suburbs, a single elementary[=/=]HighSchool (depending how old the main characters are) with the same name as the town, and a main street or town square of some kind. [[AdvertisingCampaigns Everyone likes hot dogs, apple pie,]] and [[EverybodyOwnsAFord Chevrolet]]. Mandatory attire is flannel with blue jeans, or a bolo tie [[FatSweatySouthernerInAWhiteSuit if you're rich]]. Most people will be friendly except for the PointyHairedBoss, the AlphaBitch or the JerkJock. Anyone worse than that will be an invader from some big city or TheGovernment. It is often a CloseKnitCommunity, and almost EveryoneWentToSchoolTogether. Usually (though not always), the members of this community identify as (or are at least [[AmbiguouslyChristian implied to be]]) some variety of Christian, and they all attend the same [[UsefulNotes/AmericanChurches church]].
9
10	''Where'' is Everytown? Well obviously it's in {{Eagleland}}, but if the specific state is given at all, it's particularly likely to be somewhere in [[HollywoodNewEngland New England]], the [[FlyoverCountry Great Lakes States]], or [[SweetHomeAlabama the rural South]]. Expect it to have [[HeatWave hot summers]] all [[CicadianRhythm abuzz with cicadas]], and [[DreamingOfAWhiteChristmas snow on Christmas]].
11
12	NothingExcitingEverHappensHere (or at least it didn't until the [[LovecraftCountry aliens / vampires / witches]] / [[UsefulNotes/ColdWar commies]] / [[FunnyForeigner weirdos]] showed up). The town's history, if discussed at all, will probably be very simple (usually it will have been named after whoever founded it -- there might be [[OurFounder a statue of him]]) and everyone living there will be familiar with the story. The characters may become routinely involved in city affairs, which will usually consist of convincing the city council not to tear down some historic building or to clean up the local park so all the children can happily play there. The townsfolk can cause it to be a QuirkyTown, but just about everybody you meet will be [[MinnesotaNice friendly and polite]]. It's usually the home of TheAllAmericanBoy and the GirlNextDoor.
13
14	For such an average place, Everytown seems to become a CityOfAdventure surprisingly often, and occasionally masks a TownWithADarkSecret. If featured in a TV series fond of [[SpecialGuest Special Guests]], celebrities may visit the town a disproportionate number of times.
15
16	To be fair, there ''are'' a lot of towns like this in the U.S.A. (particularly from New England to the Midwest), 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.
17
18	Together with DownOnTheFarm, this is one of the main components of FlyoverCountry, though that trope is usually more dismissive than idealized. The IdyllicEnglishVillage is the equivalent trope in works set in England. See also WhereTheHellIsSpringfield, with which this trope often overlaps. Contrast with NoCommunitiesWereHarmed, which involves a fictionalized version of a specific real city, and InformedLocation, in which a real location is mentioned but irrelevant. If the character goes to an equally vague business in this town, then it's a BusinessOfGenericImportance.
19	----
20	!!Examples:
21
22	[[foldercontrol]]
23
24	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
25	* ''Manga/MailOrderNinja'' has Cherry Creek, Indiana. Population: 23,745.
26	* ''Anime/SDGundamForce'': Neotopia features a lot of American motifs from Mark's terrible country music, to everybody playing catch in the park, to even a giant ferris wheel statue of the mayor herself that resembles the Statue of Liberty! If that doesn't make it America maybe Shute knowing the existence of Ypsilanti, Michigan might.
27	[[/folder]]
28
29	[[folder:Arts]]
30	* A recurring motif in the art of Creator/NormanRockwell.
31	[[/folder]]
32
33	[[folder:Comedy]]
34	* On ''Creator/TheFiresignTheatre'''s album ''How Can You Be in Two Places at Once When You're Not Anywhere at All?'', Mr. and Mrs. John Q. Smith comes from Anytown U.S.A.
35	[[/folder]]
36
37	[[folder:Comic Books]]
38	* Riverdale of ''ComicBook/ArchieComics'' is one of the quintessential American towns of comic franchises, being an upbeat, close, and particularly small community. The Riverdale that appears in [[Series/{{Riverdale}} the television series of the same name]], however, is a much darker example.
39	* ''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 like this.
40	* Blue Valley. Home of Wally West before and during his Kid Flash days before he became Franchise/TheFlash and relocated to Keystone City.
41	* ComicBook/{{Naomi\|DCComics}}'s hometown Port Oswego is located in Oregon and is a sleepy little town. NothingExcitingEverHappensHere is what everyone says about the place. Including the people who live there.
42	%% * Greendale of ''ComicBook/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch''.
43	* ''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.
44	* Timmy Turbo, ''ComicBook/TomStrong'''s number one fan, seems to live in ''Anytown'', USA. Though some stories feature him in Millenium City.
45	[[/folder]]
46
47	[[folder:Fan Works]]
48	* In ''Fanfic/HellsisterTrilogy'', Kara's foster parents Fred and Edna Danvers live in Midvale, a average-looking town located in Illinois.
49	* 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.
50	* ''Fanfic/{{Unfrozen}}'': Where Liz and Sasha Jamison hail from, heavily implied to be somewhere in the Midwest or heartland due to travel time from their home to Florida.
51	[[/folder]]
52
53	[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
54	%% * Radiator Springs in ''Franchise/{{Cars}}''.
55	* Rockwell, Maine in ''WesternAnimation/TheIronGiant''.
56	[[/folder]]
57
58	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
59	* Parodied in ''Film/TheAdventuresOfRockyAndBullwinkle'', where the protagonists pass three ''identical'' small towns during their cross-country trip. Naturally, the characters {{lampshade}} this.
60	%% * Carvel, in the ''Film/AndyHardy'' films of the 1930s and '40s.
61	* Hill Valley, California in the ''Franchise/BackToTheFuture'' films, especially when we see it in 1955, when the film goes out of its way to flood viewers with as much '50s Americana imagery as possible. The manner in which it has been [[ViceCity corrupted]] in the [[AlternateTimeline alternate 1985]] is used to demonstrate the BadFuture that Marty accidentally created.
62	* Creator/RussMeyer's ''Beneath The Valley of the Ultra-Vixens'' was set in "Smalltown, USA."
63	* 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 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.
64	* 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.
65	* The town in ''Film/EdwardScissorhands'' is 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).
66	* ''Film/ETTheExtraTerrestrial'': While the town Elliot lives in is never mentioned, he points to Northern California on a map when showing E.T. where they live. (The actual house is in the L.A. neighborhood of Sunland-Tujunga at the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains.)
67	%% * Bomont, Utah in ''Film/{{Footloose}}''.
68	%% * Grandview, USA in ''Film/GrandviewUSA''. Filmed in the middle of Illinois.
69	%% * Kingston Falls, Pennsylvania, heavily based on Bedford Falls, from ''Film/Gremlins1984''.
70	* ''Film/GroundhogDay'' has Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, the town where Phil Connors gets stuck.
71	* ''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.
72	* 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.
73	* ''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.
74	* 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.
75	* The resort island of Amity, New York in ''Film/{{Jaws}}''.
76	* ''Film/{{Jumanji}}'' is set in Brantford, New Hampshire.
77	* ''Film/TheKnightBeforeChristmas'' is set in the fictional Bracebridge, Ohio where time traveling 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.
78	%% *''Franchise/TheMask''
79	%% ** Edge City in ''Film/TheMask'', although it's not a small town by any means.
80	%% ** Fringe City in ''Film/SonOfTheMask''.
81	%% * Smalltown, USA, in ''Film/TheMuppets2011''.
82	* Parodied, justified, lampshaded, then [[ZigZaggingTrope played with till it can't play no more]] in ''Film/{{Pleasantville}}''. The trope was a basketball, and ''Pleasantville'' was the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlem_Globetrotters Harlem Globetrotters]].
83	* Cuesta Verde, California in ''Film/{{Poltergeist\|1982}}''. It is in fact filmed in the small town of Simi Valley, west of UsefulNotes/LosAngeles. ''Film/PoltergeistIITheOtherSide'' has Alta Dena fill in for the home in Arizona. {{Subverted}} in ''Film/PoltergeistIII'' with UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}} playing as itself.
84	* In ''Film/PowerRangers2017'', Angel Grove is depicted as this, in contrast to the original series' more metropolitan setting.
85	%% * Denton, Ohio in ''Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow''.
86	* Woodsboro, California in the ''Film/{{Scream}}'' films. Creator/WesCraven 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.
87	[[/folder]]
88
89	[[folder:Literature]]
90	* Played with in ''Literature/SixteenThirtyTwo'' by Eric Flint. Grantville is just like this -- which means it is very different to Everytown, 17th Century Germany.
91	* ''Literature/AmericanGirl'' averts this for all but a few historical characters.
92	** Samantha initially lives in New Bedford, NY, which is based on the real town of Mount Kisco and named after the nearby town of Bedford.
93	** Molly lives in Jefferson, Illinois.
94	** Courtney lives in Orange Valley, CA, which is based on the San Fernando Valley.
95	* Stoneybrook, Connecticut in ''Literature/TheBabySittersClub''. It's said to be close to Stamford, which is also close to New York City.
96	* The ''Literature/BadNewsBallet'' series is set in the town of Deerfield, Ohio, stated to have the Curtiss-Dobbs Air Force Base nearby. While there are many places called "Deerfield Township" and the real Wright-Patterson Air Force Base located in Ohio, both appear to be fictional.
97	* ''Literature/DandelionWine'' takes place in a small mid-Western town. Creator/RayBradbury based Green Town on his own hometown of Waukegan, IL.
98	* ''Literature/TheDreamsideRoad'' has Nimauk, an average rural American town for most of the year that becomes widely relevant during the ten day Wintertide Festival.
99	** The story hints that Greenwell was this, before being morphed into Fort Mayhill by [[ApocalypseHow societal destabilization]].
100	* ''Literature/HerCrownOfFire'': Well, Australia. Narralong, Rose and Tyson's hometown, is fairly non-descript.
101	* 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.
102	* [Undisclosed] in ''Literature/JohnDiesAtTheEnd'', which is distinguished only by having a considerably higher than average population of the mentally ill. The film version features scenes at the abandoned Shorewood (Illinois) mall, implying that the main plot takes place approximately an hour's drive southwest of Chicago in the vicinity of Joliet.
103	* Creator/StephenKing: Derry, Castle Rock, and Jerusalem's Lot are this, and each situated fully in LovecraftCountry.
104	* 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.
105	* 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.
106	* ''Literature/NightmaresAndDreamscapes'': Rock and Roll Heaven, Oregon in "You Know They Got a Hell of a Band". It is described as looking exactly like a Creator/NormanRockwell painting.
107	* [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstructed]] in ''Literature/RabbitRun'' in the generic middle-class suburb of Mount Judge, Pennsylvania. As Updike noted, "My subject is the American Protestant small-town middle class. I like middles. It is in middles that extremes clash, where ambiguity restlessly rules."
108	* Carrolton in ''Literature/SpyGearAdventures'' is a generic suburban town, which for some reason is the location of a spy gadget warehouse and several conspiracies.
109	* 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 the same trope.
110	* Sweet Valley, California, from ''Literature/SweetValleyHigh''.
111	[[/folder]]
112
113	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
114	* Rutherford, Ohio of ''Series/ThirdRockFromTheSun''.
115	* 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.
116	* Mayberry, North Carolina of ''Series/TheAndyGriffithShow'' and ''Series/MayberryRFD'' (and referenced in ''Series/GomerPyleUSMC''); stated to be 60 miles from Raleigh, NC.
117	* Subverted with Sunnydale, California in ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''. [[spoiler:The whole point of founding the town was for a cultist to create the [[HellGate Hellmouth]]]].
118	* ''Series/Daredevil2015'': Karen comes from Fagan Corners, Vermont, a town she describes on her first date with Matt as being less than 400 people and where the most ethnic food was french fries. She doesn't like talking about her life before she came to the big city, given what happened that caused her to leave town: she was an addict, shagging a dealer named Todd Neeman, and who deferred going to Georgetown twice because she knew her father and brother wouldn't be able to run the family diner without her. One night, after a heated argument, her brother burned down Todd's trailer and Karen shot Todd with the gun in his truck as he tried to kill Kevin with a tire iron. While driving home with Kevin afterwards, Karen took her eyes off the road to argue with him at a bad time and ended up crashing into the guardrail of a bridge, flipping the car over several times and killing Kevin (while high, which didn't help).
119	* Fairview in ''Series/DesperateHousewives'', located in the fictitious [[FictionalProvince Eagle State]].
120	%% * Springfield on ''Series/FatherKnowsBest''.
121	* 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.
122	* 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.
123	* Riverview, Ohio, Lt. Hector Canfield's oft-mentioned hometown on ''Series/ItsAboutTime''.
124	* Mayfield of ''Series/LeaveItToBeaver'' appears to be a stereotypical American small town.
125	* 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."
126	* Cabot Cove, Maine in ''Series/MurderSheWrote'', when you ignore the murders that happen every other week.
127	* 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.
128	* 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.]]
129	%% * Madison of ''Series/OurMissBrooks''.
130	* Pawnee, Indiana, of ''Series/ParksAndRecreation'' is a medium-sized town in the Midwest that is not particularly rural or metropolitan.
131	%% * Pickford in ''Series/PhilOfTheFuture''.
132	%% * Rosewood, Pennsylvania of ''Series/PrettyLittleLiars''.
133	* Millwood in ''Series/PrettyLittleLiarsOriginalSin'' is a small, blue-collar town in Pennsylvania.
134	%% * Westbridge, Massachusetts of ''Series/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch''.
135	* In the "The Serenity Now" episode of ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'', Kramer [[ItMakesSenseInContext turns the front of his apartment into an "Anytown USA" performance piece]], right up to him talking and acting like he's living in an Everytown America in the middle of summer.
136	* Charming in ''Series/{{Sons of Anarchy}}'', and the Sons want to keep it that way.
137	* {{Invoked}} in the ''Series/StarTrekStrangeNewWorlds'' episode "Hegemony" where the colonists of Parnassus Beta deliberately design a quaint, Midwestern-style town to live. Then the Gorn show up and everything goes to hell.
138	* Hawkins, Indiana, in ''Series/StrangerThings'', an anonymous, small Midwestern town where nothing ever happens, comes off as an obvious Spielberg homage.
139	* ''Series/Warehouse13'': The eponymous warehouse is located in an Unincorporated Unnamed Settlement, in South Dakota, known as Univille.
140	[[/folder]]
141
142	[[folder:Music]]
143	* "Everyday America" by Music/{{Sugarland}} has it right there in the title. The song follows a couple through high school and growing up in such a town.
144	* Parodied by ''Music/TomLehrer'' in "My Home Town", from ''Music/SongsByTomLehrer''. It starts out talking about the town as a "place where no-one wears a frown" populated by "extra-special just plain folks", but when it starts getting specific, it turns out that the "just plain folks" include murderers, arsonists, pornographers, and a kindly parson who did something the narrator refuses to even talk about.
145	* "Small Town" by Music/JohnMellencamp is ostensibly about his native Seymour, Indiana, but honestly it could as well be anywhere given how universal the lyrics are.
146	* "Small Town USA" by Music/JustinMoore is about a town of this sort, reflecting the common small-town themes of country music.
147	* Referenced in "Where I'm From" by Jason Michael Carroll:
148	-->I said I'm from the front pew of a wooden white church\
149	The courthouse clock, it still dont work\
150	Where a man's word means everything\
151	Where moms and dads were high school flings\
152	Gave their children grandmother's maiden name\
153	Yes, it may not sound like much\
154	But it's where I'm from
155	[[/folder]]
156
157	[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
158	* ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' takes place in a generic small town that's never explicitly identified, but there are hints that Creator/BillWatterson based it on his hometown of Chagrin Falls, Ohio (just outside of Cleveland).
159	[[/folder]]
160
161	[[folder:Podcasts]]
162	* Davistown, Pennsylvania in ''Podcast/DoneDisappeared''.
163	* Bluff Springs, Nebraska in ''Podcast/AVeryFatalMurder''.
164	[[/folder]]
165
166	[[folder:Radio]]
167	* ''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.
168	* Wistful Vista of ''Radio/FibberMcGeeAndMolly'', and Summerfield in its spinoff ''Radio/TheGreatGildersleeve''.
169	* Lake Wobegon, Minnesota in ''Radio/APrairieHomeCompanion'', where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average.
170	* Many, many radio series were set in such a town: ''Radio/LumAndAbner'' (probably more rural than this trope), ''Series/FatherKnowsBest'', ''Radio/OurMissBrooks'', ''Radio/TheAldrichFamily'', ''Radio/TheBurnsAndAllenShow'', etc.
171	[[/folder]]
172
173	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
174	* ''TabletopGame/{{Fiasco}}'': One of the basic settings in the game is "Main Street", characterized as an American small town.
175	* While the setting of ''TabletopGame/{{Unmasked}}'' can be altered and changed to suit the GM's taste, the default setting is Boundary Bay, New York, a small town on northern Long Island which comes fully fleshed-out.
176	* ''Kids on Bikes'' can technically be set in any small town in the world at any time before modern communications, but the examples given and general assumption of play is "American podunk town in the '80s or '90s", as in the movies and shows that inspired it. Players develop the town and its history themselves before play starts.
177	[[/folder]]
178
179	[[folder:Theater]]
180	* ''Theatre/{{Thirteen}}'': Appleton, Indiana is 'The Lamest Place in the World,' at least according to Patrice.
181	* Bomont, Texas in the [[AllMusicalsAreAdaptations stage musical]] of ''Film/{{Footloose}}''.
182	* Angel's Roost, Washington in ''Theatre/TheGoldenApple''. It lies in the shadow of Mount Olympus, but that's only significant as a MythologyGag (though the state of Washington really does have a mountain named that).
183	* Big Cherry in ''Theatre/TheMinutes'' is initially presented as such -- a quaint, beautiful town that the unassuming Mr. Peel moves his family to for the safety and sense of community -- until it's revealed to be a TownWithADarkSecret.
184	* River City, Iowa in ''Theatre/TheMusicMan''
185	* Grover's Corners in ''Theatre/OurTown''.
186	[[/folder]]
187
188	[[folder:Theme Parks]]
189	* Main Street, U.S.A at the various Ride/DisneyThemeParks.
190	[[/folder]]
191
192	[[folder:Video Games]]
193	* [[FirstTown Onett]], from ''VideoGame/EarthBound1994'' is the quintessential '80s Amer- er, [[EagleLand Eaglandian]] town, replete with school, burger joint, arcade, City Hall and gang of street toughs. And a meteor, but we don't talk about the meteor. See also [[DeepSouth Twoson]] and Threed for variations on the theme, but Onett plays it to the hilt.
194	* Podunk, from ''VideoGame/EarthBoundBeginnings'' is a prototype of Onett.
195	* ''VideoGame/SecretOfEvermore'' also starts in the town of Podunk. It's a popular name.
196	* The events of ''VideoGame/DeadRising'' mainly take place in the eponymous mall of Willamette, Colorado.
197	* ''VideoGame/BioShockInfinite'''s Columbia is at first glance a beautiful piece of turn-of-the-century Americana floating in the sky. It's gradually subverted however in that the rotten truth is just beneath the surface.
198	* Motorville from ''VideoGame/NiNoKuni'' is a spot-on pastiche of one despite being produced by [[Creator/Level5 a Japanese video game company]] in co-operation with [[Creator/StudioGhibli a Japanese anime studio]] known for heavy heavy European artistic influences, and the English version is mostly voiced by British actors.
199	* The main setting of ''VideoGame/TheEvilWithin2'' is Union, a MentalWorld designed by [[TheIlluminati MOBIUS]] to evoke this trope in an effort to keep the test subjects calm and complacent as part of their scheme to TakeOverTheWorld. [[spoiler:That is until Stefano, Theodore and Myra's collective psychosis pollute the carefully constructed mindscape, slowly turning it from this to a TownWithADarkSecret, devolving into an EldritchLocation MonsterTown before it [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt collapses entirely]].]]
200	* ''VideoGame/TheSeventhGuest'' series takes place around the fictional Harley-on-the-Hudson, a small community with a motel, a cafe, and wilderness trails to hike on. Not far from here is the Stauff Mansion where most of the puzzle-solving gameplay and additional cutscenes take place.
201	* According to Creator/WillWright, the first ''VideoGame/TheSims'' deliberately had an "American television culture" aesthetic (that is, a stereotypical US sitcom aesthetic) both in order to make the game feel familiar to most people around the world and to make a satire of contemporary US ideals.
202	** While the sequels have introduced more varied worlds -- including desert towns, bustling cities, paradisiacal islands, and European and Asian inspired towns -- each game still includes a default world that follows this trope:
203	*** ''VideoGame/TheSims2'' has Pleasantview.
204	*** ''VideoGame/TheSims3'' has Sunset Valley.
205	*** ''VideoGame/TheSims4'' has Willow Creek.
206	*** Additionally, most spin-offs from the series (like ''The Sims Life Stories'', ''The Sims Pet Stories'', or the console versions of the first three games) take place in a similar small town American-esque setting.
207	* Almost every game by Creator/DONTNODEntertainment is set in one of these towns:
208	** ''VideoGame/LifeIsStrange'' has Arcadia Bay, Oregon.
209	** ''VideoGame/TellMeWhy'' has Delos Crossing, Alaska.
210	** ''VideoGame/TwinMirror'' has Basswood, West Virginia.
211	** ''VideoGame/TheAwesomeAdventuresOfCaptainSpirit'' has Beaver Creek, Oregon.
212	** ''VideoGame/LifeIsStrange2'' initially averts this trope, with the start of the story taking place in suburban Seattle. However, the RoadTripPlot of the season eventually leads the protagonists to several of these, the most classic example being the aforementioned Beaver Creek in Episode 2.
213	** Though Creator/DeckNine have now taken over the ''Franchise/LifeIsStrange'' franchise from DONTNOD, they're keeping the spirit of this trope going with Haven Springs, Colorado in ''VideoGame/LifeIsStrangeTrueColors''.
214	[[/folder]]
215
216	[[folder:Webcomics]]
217	* Generictown of ''Webcomic/TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob.''
218	* Pleasant Prairie in ''Webcomic/TalesOfGnosisCollege''.
219	* Belleville of ''Webcomic/PennyAndAggie''.
220	* Moperville, Illinois, of ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive.''
221	* Springfield in the contemporary arc of ''Webcomic/ArthurKingOfTimeAndSpace'', which has the same relation to the big city of Camelot as ''Series/{{Smallville}}'''s Smallville does to Metropolis. In one strip, Arthur compares it to [[Film/ItsAWonderfulLife Bedford Falls]].
222	[[/folder]]
223
224	[[folder:Web Original]]
225	* Hello, ''Roleplay/{{Mayfield}}!''
226	* Blog/OffThePageAndIntoLife is set in the good, wholesome town of Pageson, where everything looks like it came from either 1950 or 1990. [[HatedHometown The teenage cast can't]] ''[[HatedHometown stand]]'' [[HatedHometown it.]]
227	* ''WebAnimation/TheMusicFreaks'': Rosemeadow City, the setting of the series. Has a high school exactly named after the city, where almost all the characters go to.
228	[[/folder]]
229
230	[[folder:Western Animation]]
231	* The WesternAnimation/{{Goofy}} short "WesternAnimation/{{Aquamania}}" has Goofy's (Mr. X) hometown called Anytown.
232	-->'''Narrator:''' This could be any town, anywhere, anytime.
233	* Elwood City in ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'', filled with references to Marc Brown's hometown of Erie, Pennsylvania.
234	*
235	Plainville from ''WesternAnimation/ChalkZone'', located in Minnedakota County.
236	* Cleveland, Virginia ([[WhereTheHellIsSpringfield supposedly]]) for ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor''.
237	* The main characters of ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog'' all live in (the middle of) 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.
238	* 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.
239	* 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 talking earthworm in an alien power suit.
240	* Peach Creek of ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy''. The craziness that ensues there is usually from the Eds' antics.
241	* ''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.
242	* Quahog, Rhode Island, a fictional New England town in ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy''.
243	* ''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.
244	* The show ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'' takes place in the fictional city of Hillwood, Washington.
245	* 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.
246	* Arlen, Texas, a fictional suburb of Dallas, from ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill''.
247	** 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.
248	* Royal Woods, Michigan where the ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'' takes place.
249	* ''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.
250	* Moralton, the capital of Statesota in ''WesternAnimation/MoralOrel'' which also happens to be in the exact center of the country.
251	* Hazelnut of ''WesternAnimation/PepperAnn'' is a generic yet relatable town.
252	* Danville of ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' and its successor ''WesternAnimation/MiloMurphysLaw''.
253	* Boxwood Terrace from ''WesternAnimation/ReadyJetGo'', located in Washington State. It has a retro-futuristic 1950s-60s vibe to it. The architecture screams 50s but the town is also a hotbed of scientific research, and happens to have an alien family living in it. Despite the sci-fi elements and the EccentricTownsfolk, it's just like any other American town.
254	* Frostbite Falls, Minnesota, even after ''WesternAnimation/RockyAndBullwinkle'' got famous.
255	* 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 a 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.
256	* 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.
257	[[/folder]]
258
259	[[folder:Other]]
260	* Real-life versions of this sort of place are beloved by market researchers and political pollsters searching for a representative cross-section of the American populace. The city of Peoria, Illinois is probably the most famous for this, serving as the origin of the {{vaudeville}}-era phrase "will it play in Peoria?", while Muncie, Indiana was the site of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middletown_studies Middletown studies]] in the 1920s and '30s that played a major role in shaping sociologal research for decades to come. More recently, small cities like Albany, New York; Boise, Idaho; Greensboro, North Carolina; and Santa Barbara, California have become popular as Everytowns, America for this purpose.
261	* Many New England towns [[EnforcedTrope enforce]] this style by keeping most businesses small and local as much as possible. It's not unheard of for such towns to limit or even ban fast-food joints and other chain stores, as well as have lots of community events like parades. Check out [[https://www.instantstreetview.com/@42.35081,-71.861526,313.88h,-3.6p,1.75z,rEStDniGuV1NEj1vhHDSEw Holden, MA]] for an example.
262	* As ''LetsPlay/AceAttorneyWithAnActualLawyer'' demonstrates, many bar examination questions set themselves in fictional everytowns with few specified geographical features beyond the state itself. On a wider scale, questions that ask hypotheticals about federal law are sometimes set in fictional every'''states''' for similar purposes. The Anytown, OH that most of the Let's Play's questions take place in qualifies more as a CityOfAdventure and {{Cloudcuckooland}} than a true everytown, though.
263	[[/folder]]

Context Main / EverytownAmerica