History Main / DownOnTheFarm

To Hollywood writers, the [[FlyoverCountry midwestern United States]] consists mainly of farms and towns of fewer than 10,000 people. The only cities of note are UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}} and UsefulNotes/{{Detroit}}. The cities of [[UsefulNotes/TwinCities Minneapolis]], [[UsefulNotes/StLouis St. Louis]], {{UsefulNotes/Cleveland}}, UsefulNotes/{{Milwaukee}}, Cincinnati, UsefulNotes/KansasCity, and UsefulNotes/{{Indianapolis}} only appear if the writer feels like being different.[[note]]This might seem like a large list, but the odds of any ''one'' of these cities appearing in fiction are relatively slim. And for reasons known only to Hollywood, the city of Columbus, Ohio is never seen in media outside of college sports, despite being one of the largest and most affluent cities in the region.[[/note]] In the minds of most TV and film writers, the [[{{Arcadia}} idyllic culture]] of ''Series/LittleHouseOnThePrairie'' persists into the 21st century.

* ''Manga/NonNonBiyori'' is set entirely in a rural rice growing community that is '''six''' hours by bullet train from Tokyo, has a school with a total of only five students, where no one locks up their houses, public buses comes by once every couple of hours and [[SceneryPorn a view of the mountains to die for]]!

* ''Film/ASimplePlan'' is set in rural Minnesota. Hank is one of the few college graduates of the town. His brother Jacob wants to buy a farm with his share of a money they found, but Hank thinks he is being ridiculous as neither of them know anything about farming.

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* Deployed clumsily in Season 4 of ''Series/TwentyFour'' when six terrorists casually hijack a nuclear missile convoy in [[TheMountainsOfIllinois "the mountainous terrain"]] of eastern Iowa. Dialog indicates that the 24verse's Midwest lacks any and all of the communication technology, surveillance measures and rapid response capabilities that Los Angeles-based CTU take for granted.

** Averted in later seasons when we learn that Metropolis is only a long commute away from the Talon apartment and the Kent's Farm, close enough that Lois, Jimmy, Chloe and Clark can work in the city while still living in the titular town, meaning Metropolis in this version is probably more closely compared to Kansas City than New York. Smallville itself is largely depicted as this trope though.

** And then there's the episode where Dave and Bill get stuck in Lambert International Airport in St. Louis Missouri, and everyone is ''extremely'' nice and helpful. Dave, of course, is nice to them, but Bill treats them like jerks because he thinks they don't know how to be mean. Eventually, the St. Louisans give him a "Show-Me Hello", which is just a punch in face. Bill learns that Midwesterns can be just as jerky as people from the coasts [[BewareTheNiceOnes when pushed far enough]]. He takes comfort in this, noting that "deep down, we're all the same". Dave rolls his eyes.

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''. Lampshaded by Riley Finn when he describes to Buffy the farm he grew up on, and admits he's making it sound like a [[AmericanGothicCouple Grant Wood painting]]. Later when Buffy finds out Riley is a secret agent, she naturally assumes this is all a front. Riley says that no, he really did grow up on a small farm in Iowa.

* ''ComicBook/TheFinalPlague'' has the John family farm, which is located near Leigh, Iowa.

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* ''ComicBook/KnightsOfTheDinnerTable'' is set in Muncie, Indiana but largely averts this trope as it is portrayed as a typical mid-sized city: albeit one with more than its fair share of quirky inhabitants. However, every so often there are references to bizarre goings-on in the rural areas outside the city. These were more common when Bob was working for Harness & Hoe insurance. It is worth noting that strip creator Jolly Blackburn attended Ball State University in Muncie.

* ''Film/OurDailyBread'' is about a CityMouse who goes off to work his wife's uncle's farm, because it is UsefulNotes/TheGreatDepression and he has no better options. He winds up recruiting a real farmer and various tradesmen to work the farm with him, and they eventually establish a socialist commune.

* Animator Creator/DonBluth grew up on a farm and several of his films involve them; ''WesternAnimation/BanjoTheWoodpileCat'', ''WesternAnimation/TheSecretOfNIMH'', ''WesternAnimation/RockADoodle'' and ''WesternAnimation/{{Thumbelina}}''.

* Appears to be somewhat averted in the Amy Poehler comedy ''Series/ParksAndRecreation'' which takes place in a fictional Indiana town, though the characters all seem to act as quirky as the guys on ''TheOffice,'' the creators of which had a hand in this show as well, so don't know if that's a good or bad portrayal.

* US Acres, again, in ''WesternAnimation/GarfieldAndFriends''. For that matter, the life of Jon's [[http://garfield.nfshost.com/1988/01/26/ hayseed folks]] in ''{{Garfield}}'' (the two farms are canonically neighbors). Jim Davis is a native son of Muncie, Indiana.

This comes from the pre-1950's idea of life in the Midwest as it actually used to be. Since then, however, much of the region has been urbanized or at least suburbanized (that famous Prairie is probably a strip-mall now), but the image has persisted despite being a mostly [[DeadHorseTrope idealized]] version of [[RealLife modern]] times. In old theatrical cartoons with farm settings, the soundtrack may include such {{standard snippet}}s as "Old [=MacDonald=] Had a Farm", "Chicken Reel" or "Turkey in the Straw". And of course, HilarityEnsues when the CityMouse tries to fit in.

It is a part of FlyoverCountry and you can expect it to cross into WildWilderness if it's a remote part of the country, or to dip into SweetHomeAlabama even if it's set in the Midwestern region. Can overlap with EverytownAmerica if it's near or set around a town. Do not confuse it with it DeepSouth (that is a trope dealing with social structure and people not the region itself), or a 'countrified version' of {{Suburbia}}, as this trope exemplifies the openness of an area, sparseness of population, and lack of housing.

It is a part of FlyoverCountry and you can expect it to cross into WildWilderness if its a remote part of the country or to dip into SweetHomeAlabama even if its set in the Midwestern region, can over lap with EverytownAmerica if its near or set around a town. Do not confuse it with it DeepSouth, that is a trope dealing with social structure and people not the region itself, or a 'countrified version' of {{Suburbia}} as this trope exemplifies the openness of an area and sparseness of population and lack of housing.

* In the Franchise/DCUniverse, pretty much any presentation of Franchise/{{Superman}} (be it comics, movies, [[Series/{{Smallville}} live-action TV]], or in the DCAnimatedUniverse) is bound to depict Clark Kent's ([[ComicBook/KingdomCome only rarely]] [[DoomedHomeTown doomed]]) hometown of Smallville this way.

* In ''Literature/ThePrincessDiaries'', Mia�s maternal grandparents and cousin Hank from Indiana stay with her. They're from a farm, talk like hicks, and for Domini's Pizza in a city famous for diverse restaurants (though Hank is very handsome and ends up becoming a model). Interestingly, while the book stereotypes Hoosiers as if the author had never met any, the author herself is from a bustling Indiana city.

* "''GreenAcres'', we are there....!" Dun nuh, d-dun nuh, dun dun!
* Deployed clumsily in Season 4 of ''[[Series/TwentyFour 24]]'' when six terrorists casually hijack a nuclear missile convoy in [[TheMountainsOfIllinois "the mountainous terrain"]] of eastern Iowa. Dialog indicates that the 24verse's Midwest lacks any and all of the communication technology, surveillance measures and rapid response capabilities that Los Angeles-based CTU take for granted.

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* In ''Literature/ThePrincessDiaries'', Mia’s maternal grandparents and cousin Hank from Indiana stay with her. They're from a farm, talk like hicks, and for Domini's Pizza in a city famous for diverse restaurants (though Hank is very handsome and ends up becoming a model). Interestingly, while the book stereotypes Hoosiers as if the author had never met any, the author herself is from a bustling Indiana city.

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* Lampooned ''repeatedly'' by ''TheOnion'', a satiric newspaper founded in Madison, WI. Examples of its self-referential mockery of the Midwest: "Rural Nebraskan Can't Handle Frantic Pace of Omaha." "Rural Illinois' Sexiest Moms." [with a picture of an overweight Soccer mom].

-->--'''''Website/TheOnion: Our Dumb World'''''

To Hollywood writers, the [[FlyoverCountry midwestern United States]] consists mainly of farms and towns of fewer than 10,000 people. The only cities of note are UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}} and UsefulNotes/{{Detroit}} (Detroit's particularly popular for crime dramas, for [[WretchedHive obvious reasons]]). The cities of [[UsefulNotes/TwinCities Minneapolis]], [[UsefulNotes/StLouis St. Louis]], {{UsefulNotes/Cleveland}}, UsefulNotes/{{Milwaukee}}, Cincinnati, UsefulNotes/KansasCity, and UsefulNotes/{{Indianapolis}} only appear if the writer feels like being different.[[note]]This might seem like a large list, but the odds of any ''one'' of these cities appearing in fiction are relatively slim. And for reasons known only to Hollywood, the city of Columbus, Ohio is never seen in media outside of college sports, despite being one of the largest and most affluent cities in the region.[[/note]] In the minds of most TV and film writers, the [[{{Arcadia}} idyllic culture]] of ''Series/LittleHouseOnThePrairie'' persists into the 21st century.

* In the DCUniverse, pretty much any presentation of Franchise/{{Superman}} (be it comics, movies, [[Series/{{Smallville}} live-action TV]], or in the DCAnimatedUniverse) is bound to depict Clark Kent's ([[ComicBook/KingdomCome only rarely]] [[DoomedHomeTown doomed]]) hometown of Smallville this way.

* Creator/JamesJones was born and raised in Robinson, Illinois (population 6,000) and wrote famously about WorldWarII (see ''From Here To Eternity'' and ''The Thin Red Line''), but he also wrote ''Some Came Running'', in which his hometown is [[TakeThat not portrayed very positively]].

* Dave of ''{{Newsradio}}'' is often mocked on for coming from Wisconsin:

* Hiromu Arakawa's new manga series ''Manga/SilverSpoon'' takes place in Hokkaido (considered the 'farming' prefecture in Japan), and is about farming.

** Another example is when Peter claimed the Sticks Downey character from ''HappyDays'' was "the only Negro in the state of Wisconsin." This, despite Milwaukee (where ''Happy Days'' took place) being over 40 percent African-American. Then again, this is probably more a shot at the lack of diversity on ''Happy Days'' than a shot at Wisconsin itself.

* James of ''SpinCity'' is a naive Wisconsin farmboy who often refers to cheese, cows, and milk when speaking. One time, after getting conned once again he asks rhetorically if he has a sign on his chest that says that he's a simpleton and to take advantage of him before opening his jacket to reveal an "I Love Wisconsin" T-Shirt.

* Woodrow Tiberius "Woody" Boyd from ''{{Cheers}}'', native of Hanover, Indiana. He seems to take to the big city well enough. Though most references to his family paint them as stereotypical rubes, this is subverted in one episode when Woody reveals that they found the pretentious film Diane created about his life in Boston "derivative of Godard." (Fun fact: the character was named "Woody" before Woody Harrelson was cast.)

* Linda Zwordling from ''BetterOffTed''. Naturally, she jokes about staying in Wisconsin and majoring in Cheese sciences.
* Bailey from ''TheSuiteLifeOnDeck'' is from the town Kettlecorn, Kansas.

* ''The Musical of Musicals: The Musical!'' parodies this in its first musical, "Corn!", whose setting is [[Theatre/SouthPacific "Kansas in August."]] Big Willy sings of being so fond of farming that he's now "in love with a wonderful hoe."