Superman was already an adult when he made his debut in 1938, and his Clark Kent alter ego was a reporter for the Metropolis Daily Star. He didn't start at the Daily Planet until after his radio interview. His backstory included details of his childhood in Smallville, but those specifics didn't start until the 1940s. It was mentioned that Smallville located in the Midwest, in a sleepy farming town. Smallville and Metropolis are now only a short drive apart thanks to later improvements. A significant metropolis, Metropolis had a port, airports, sizable railroad terminals, several newspapers, and radio stations. Was New York the setting? Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, who created Superman, were both from Cleveland, Ohio, and it was there that the character first appeared and developed.

Despite the fact that the city is obviously in the United States, Toronto, Canada, was a major influence on Shuster's original skyline for Metropolis. The initial comic strips were created in Cleveland with the intention of having them printed in a neighborhood newspaper. The imaginary Metropolis was developed when the comic strips were instead published as comic books. The location of Metropolis in New York State was established in Superman #2, which was published in 1939. However, there have been a variety of assertions made about Metropolis' real location, including one from the 1970s that put it in Delaware, across the bay from Gotham City, with bridges connecting the two. DC Comics officially acknowledged Metropolis' location as New York in 2019. Fans continue to argue.

Metropolis is unmistakably based on New York City, regardless of whatever state it is located in, as it features the Statue of Liberty in its port and the United Nations among its many other institutions. Smallville has also relocated on occasion, sometimes being located in Iowa or Kansas and other times being just a few hundred miles from Metropolis. Smallville was designed to instill Clark Kent/Superman with midwestern American values, whereas Metropolis served as the large, dangerous city in the original Superman stories. Since then, he as well as his fellow superheroes and the settings in which they function and live have all undergone numerous reconstructions.

• Location: fictitious location

Shangri La came to represent purity, genuine joys, and a quiet living. Peyton Place changed for the worst. Peyton Place, which first appeared in a book in 1956, was a composite of numerous villages in New Hampshire. Peyton Place's calm exterior veiled adultery, murder, abortion, incest, social inequities, and other topics at the time that were taboo. Book was denounced by religious authorities and moralists due to its extremely contentious subject matter, and as a result, it sold a lot of copies. Additionally, it gave rise to a daytime soap opera, two movies, a sequel novel, and a primetime television series. Peyton Place eventually evolved into a two-word expression for shady dealings, scandalous activity, and other similar actions.

The only information provided about the town's location in the book was that it was in New Hampshire, close to the Vermont state line. Later, Peyton Place in Massachusetts was found on television. Both the movie and the television program had to deal with censors, so they were far less sexually explicit than the book. The majority of the movie was filmed in Camden, Maine, a charming New England town that has continued to capitalize on its association with Peyton Place. But Grace Metalious, the book's author, did not draw her ideas for the fictitious town and its sleazy activities from the movie. She thought it was lame because it didn't include some of the most scandalous things she had written.

Gilmanton, where Metalious grew up and penned the book, as well as the adjacent towns of Laconia, Belmont, and Alton, helped to define Peyton Place. The fame she gave her hometown didn't make it feel good. Her kids were harassed at school and she got anonymous threats. A few of the book's more graphic scenes were based on actual occurrences in Grace's life in Gilmanton. The community that served as the main backdrop for the most of the novel and its later adaptations keeps its distance from Peyton Place and the wandering daughter who gave it its name.

• Location: New Hampshire

Shangri-La initially appeared in James Hilton's 1933 book Lost Horizon. The fictitious location was found by Hilton in Tibet's Kunlun Mountains. It was featured in a 1937 motion picture starring Ronald Colman. In both the movie and the book, Shangri-La is a lamasery that is completely hidden from the outside world and protected from the extreme cold by steep mountains that surround the valley in which it is located. However, the lamasery is furnished with modern conveniences like plumbing equipment made in Akron, Ohio. The four English air crash survivors who are led there by postulants soon discover that the valley slows down aging. It also had a piano and a harpsichord. Some of the lamasery's residents have lived there for more than 200 years.

The book gained enormous popularity in the 1930s and, when it was published as Pocket Book #1 in 1939, became the first mass-marketed paperback book. Although the story concept had been utilized in other books, including Rudyard Kipling's The Man Who Would Be King, which had been published many years before, there was obviously no hidden utopia in the Himalayas. Through the novel, the movie, and the numerous remakes, Shangri La came to be associated with an enigmatic location where people may live happily and stress-free. In 1942, Franklin Roosevelt gave the name Shangri La to his brand-new retreat in the Catoctin Mountains. Camp David is the name used today.

Since then, several times and in a variety of entertainment mediums have adopted the idea of an undiscovered utopia hidden from civilization. Unfortunately, there isn't one, or at least none has ever been discovered. The name is used in several locations, presumably with good intentions. There is a Shangri La in Tibet, which was given the name in 2001 to encourage travel. Ancient Tibetan manuscripts were Hilton's source for the work and they also contain the name. The lamasery in the secret valley hasn't been located despite multiple excursions and claims made by cities that they are the mythical Shangri La.

• Location: fictitious location

The numerous small, charming towns and villages that border the New England shoreline from Connecticut to Maine are well-known. One of them was Cabot Cove, the made-up residence of Jessica Fletcher from the television series Murder, She Wrote. Jessica became well-known around the world for her work as a freelance murder mystery author. In her make-believe world, she spent her free time solving homicides that appeared to be beyond the reach of the authorities. She had the chance to hone her detective abilities at Cabot Cove, Maine, which provided an endless stream of enigmatic murders at a rate that made the little community the undisputed champion of the world, at least in terms of homicide rates.

The small seacoast town in New England may have drawn inspiration from any number of settlements in Maine, but the California coast served as the location for the movie's stand-in. Jessica Fletcher's house was one of the sets in Mendocino, and most of the exterior sequences were filmed in Universal City's sound stages. Though some fans of the program have attributed it to Penobscot Bay, Kennebunkport, or Boothbay Harbor, Cabot Cove was not modeled on a specific Maine community. Cabot Cove is a fictional town that was modeled after a small New England coastal community, joining the equally fictional Maine villages of Spruce Harbor (Orphan Train) and Crabapple Cove (M*A*S*H).

The distinction with Cabot Cove is that it had one of the highest murder rates anywhere in the globe over the twelve seasons of its fictional existence. Of course, not all of the murders Jessica looked into took place in Cabot Cove. She frequently traveled to different places to investigate homicides, working in Hawaii with Thomas Magnum. Nevertheless, a 2012 story in the British newspaper Daily Mail claimed that Cabot Cove had a homicide rate higher than Honduras. Honduras had the highest murder rate ever officially recorded at the time. It makes sense that not many cities want to be known as the communities that inspired Jessica.

• Location: Maine

Originally, The Flintstones were largely an animated adaptation of Jackie Gleason's The Honeymooners. Ralph and Ed were replaced by Fred and Barney, while their wives Wilma and Betty took the place of Alice and Trixie. Though they didn't reside in a Brooklyn walk-up, The Flintstones and Rubbles did. They resided in Bedrock, a medium-sized city that in the original series offered a lot of amenities for a place of its size. Although the location of Bedrock was never made known, several hints allow for conjecture. Although the presence of palms and desert-like scenery would seem to place it in the American Southwest, Christmas programs revealed that Bedrock was covered with seasonal snow during the holidays.

The current Stone Age family was supposedly two days' trip from Rock Vegas, which is likely Las Vegas, in one episode of the original series. Another had them traveling many hours to Indianrockolis, which would locate Bedrock in the American Midwest if the latter corresponds to the modern Indianapolis. It appeared to be an ordinary 1960s mid-sized American city. Barney had an undefined area of employment, but both he and Fred held blue-collar positions. In a quarry, Fred had a job driving a brontosaurus crane. Both showed the prevailing clichés of the Midwest at the time, including joining a Lodge (the Loyal Order of Dinosaurs, later renamed the Loyal Order of Water Buffalo), playing pool and bowling, and getting married to stay-at-home wives.

Many of the midwestern cities of the time could have served as inspiration for Bedrock. Where it wasn't, we know more about than where it was. Given that the Flintstones and Rubble frequently visit the beach and that the city has a yacht club, it may have been close to the Great Lakes. To serve the tourist industry, Bedrock City opened near Custer, South Dakota, in 1966. It is currently closed. As of the time of writing, a Bedrock in Arizona is still open.

• Location: fictitious location

Many people believe that Gotham City—home to Batman and a variety of masked villains—is modeled after New York City. After all, Gotham is a common nickname for New York. At least initially, Bruce Wayne/Batman did not reside in Gotham but rather in the opulent Wayne Manor, which is located outside of the city. Batman frequently traveled by car to Metropolis to meet with Superman. It's been asserted that Metropolis is modelled on New York.

They cannot both be headquartered in the same city. Some people think that Cleveland, where Superman's writers Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster lived, served as the inspiration for Metropolis. According to that notion, Buffalo, New York, can serve as the inspiration for Gotham City because the two cities are the necessary distance apart.

Despite competing locations, there is significant evidence to support Gotham City's placement in New Jersey. On one is an Atlantic coast with Gotham. The concept is supported by a number of references from earlier Batman comics, including one in which Robin and Batgirl travel over the Hudson County Highway. There is a Hudson County in New Jersey. A site 20 miles north of Gotham is mentioned as being on the Jersey Shore in a 1983 comic. That would put Gotham on the Atlantic, north and east of Atlantic City. Additionally, there is proof that Gotham City was modeled after Newark, New Jersey. Another mention places Gotham on the Delaware in the state's southwest.

Wherever Gotham is, it is obvious that Bob Kane had New York in mind when he created the Caped Crusader based on the size of its harbor and the city itself. Unless, of course, Chicago was on his mind. Philadelphia, perhaps Although Kane was schooled, bred, and born in New York City. The early volumes included a cityscape that mimicked the old New York skyline. Therefore, even if the fictional Gotham City may be located in New Jersey, Delaware, or Illinois, it is most likely the real Gotham that served as the inspiration for Batman's home.

• Location: New Jersey

The Tower Treasure was the first book to feature The Hardy Boys. The brothers, Frank and Joe Hardy, were the creations of a number of Stratemeyer Syndicate authors. They were the offspring of a well-known retired New York detective who operated as an independent investigator. The boys took on some of their father's cases themselves while helping him in others. They were high school students who resided in Bayport, on Barmet Bay, and possessed a speedboat, an iceboat, motorcycles, and their own car, all of which they paid for with money they received as incentives. It was never made clear where Barmet Bay or Bayport were. The original 38 novels were reworked in the 1950s and 1960s (which made them terrible), but no new hints as to Bayport's location were provided.

It is a city on a bay that is fed by a river, and the bay has islands and cliffs close to where it empties into the ocean. It has a harbor, an airport, and a train station from where it takes roughly two hours to go to New York. According to that, it appears to be in Connecticut, New Jersey, or Long Island. In reality, Long Island has a Bayport. However, the 38 original novels of the series, all of which are out-of-print and hard to locate, accurately describe the fictional Bayport, and the real Bayport is quite similar to that description. One of the reasons why the Hardy Boys Series was so popular in the second half of the 20th century was because of the wonderful haven kids could escape to in those novels' Bayport on dreary summer afternoons.

• Location: Washington County, Minnesota

Only two seasons of Twin Peaks' original run, from 1990 to 1991, were produced; however, a third season was produced in 2017. In addition, it inspired a major motion picture, countless books, and a devoted following. The fictional town of Twin Peaks is described in the show's pilot episode as being five miles south of the Canadian border and twelve miles west of the state line, placing it in the northeastern portion of Washington's Salmo-Priest Wilderness. Numerous places were chosen for filming, and ever since, they have capitalized on their association with the program. Three towns now claim to be the "genuine" Twin Peaks.

A "Welcome to Twin Peaks" road sign was extensively featured in the program's opening titles. 2017 saw the installation of a similar sign with the same inscription in Snoqualmie, Washington. Fans from all over the world go to Snoqualmie every year, according to the city's official website, eager to view the locations where the show was filmed. Not to be outdone, North Bend, Washington, likewise asserts its identity as the "genuine" Twin Peaks, even going so far as to declare an official yearly "Twin Peaks" holiday.

The Fall City Roadhouse in Fall City, Washington, is cited as the place where the young people of the made-up town liked to hang out in Twin Peaks. Devoted fans may easily tour all of the other locations utilized to film the show in and around Seattle. In reality, it has developed into a significant tourist destination for the area, with tour guides appearing in publications as far away as Great Britain.

• Location: fictional Washington town

A "small hotel called the Shady Rest" is connected to the town of Hooterville, which is located about 25 miles away, by the Hooterville Cannonball railroad. The Beverly Hillbillies, Petticoat Junction, and Green Acres are three CBS comedies from the 1960s that include scenes from Hooterville. Eva Gabor's Lisa Douglas, who appeared in the latter program, first referred to the town as Hootersville before CBS censors corrected her.

The Sam Drucker-run general store/post office served as a crucial hub for the three performances. The Zip Code for Sam's post office was 40516 1/2. A zip code for the Lexington, Kentucky area is 40516. The Hillbillies and Green Acres episodes that frequently mention Bug Tussle provide another hint. Unbelievably, there is an actual place by that name in Kentucky, not far from the Tennessee state line. There are actually at least three other "Bugtussles" throughout the country.

The evidence strongly suggests that the fictional Hooterville was located in Kentucky, close to the Tennessee border, notwithstanding Granny's claims that she spent her formative years in Tennessee's Great Smoky Mountains. However, additional allusions in the three shows indicate that the village is located somewhere else, such as the Smoky Mountains, the Ozarks, or possibly North Dakota. They traveled to Hooterville whenever they went back to visit.

Therefore, it is generally safe to assume that Hooterville was situated within a 25-mile radius of Eldon, placing it smack dab in the middle of Missouri close to the Lake of the Ozarks. There may seem to be little consensus regarding Hooterville's location. Few places claim to have been the inspiration for it, which is understandable given the relatively strange personalities that populated all three of the episodes in which it appeared.

• Location: Lexington, Kentucky

There has long been speculation that Andy Griffith's hometown of Mount Airy, a village in western North Carolina five miles or so from the Virginia state line, served as the inspiration for Mayberry, North Carolina. Although Mount Airy appears to be much more modern and larger than the Mayberry in which Andy and Barney patrolled the town with a single squad car and almost everyone knew one another, the Andy Griffith Show was so popular that it led to the development of a tourist industry centered around its connection to the fictional Mayberry.

Only one traffic light, one long distance phone line, one interstate bus line stop, and in the final season, a railroad station with a sign proclaiming a population of 5,360 were present in the fictional Mayberry. Floyd, a barber, and Wally's gas store and garage, which Gomer Pyle subsequently worked at after Gomer left town to enlist in the Marines, are the only ones we are aware of. According to Griffith himself, Pilot Mountain, not his hometown, was the town that served as the true inspiration for the bucolic Mayberry. Pilot Mountain was and is considerably smaller than Mount Airy, more in keeping with the made-up community portrayed in Mayberry, RFD and The Andy Griffith Show.

However, Mount Airy makes the most of its fame as the place where Griffith spent his formative years by hosting events and tourism destinations centered around Mayberry. Some of the locals refer to it as Mayberry. Other communities imitate it, and the connection to the made-up town plays a big role in local attractions. However, the backlot of Desilu Studios in Culver City, California, as well as other adjacent locales, served as the Mayberry where Andy, Barney, Opie, Aunt Bee, and their friends had their adventures. No scenes for The Andy Griffith Show or Mayberry, RFD were filmed in North Carolina.

• Location: North Carolina