Think about it! Manchester has always had a reputation as England's "2nd City" and if anything the gay scene of "Liberty Street" presented on the show seems more akin to a more cosmopolitan city like Chicago than Pittsburgh. Also I think its far easier to pass off Toronto as Chicago then pass off Toronto as Pittsburgh!
Your thoughts?
[deleted]
Pittsburgh was chosen as the American counterpart of Manchester because they both have a gritty working class with an industrial background in coal and steel. Stuart/Brian have risen above this background but they never really leave it behind. That's why neither of them move in higher social circles and still hang around with their best friends from childhood. It's also one of the reasons that they don't move on to greener pastures in London/New York. They are grounded by the cities of their birth.
http://i43.tinypic.com/2mda2o.jpg
http://bit.ly/GIA9PI
I get that aspect! However I highly doubt Pittsburgh has a gay scene that would be on such a grand scale like they show on QAF. Or have a scene where 95% of the gays look like underwear models!
shareTrue. That part of the show was a fantasy (one of many), but I think Cowlip acknowledged that aspect in various interviews. The UK version was much more realistic in terms of the types of men you would generally encounter in your average gay scene.
http://i43.tinypic.com/2mda2o.jpg
http://bit.ly/GIA9PI NSFW
^^ exactly.
Manchester doesnt equate to the British the same as what Chicago does to the Americans. The town doesnt matter, its the symbolism.
They didnt want a major US city... thats too obvious and misses the point of the whole show. People are people. You have a LGBT population/scene in just about every town, regardless of size....not just the big cities.
Chicago would be as hokey as Polk st in SF or West Palm Beach.
And FYI... The Pitts has a legendary gay scene, especially for Drag.
I think it was a perfect choice.... opened a lot of eyes of people who only thought you had 'gay areas' in the major cities.
Even southern metropolitan cities, like Memphis and Atlanta, have gay villages, even though those areas are much more religious and conservative. I always though it would have been cool to set the show in San Fransisco in The Castro.
shareKeeping the show in a smaller city, makes for more personel community.
share[deleted]
[deleted]
[deleted]
Chicago is too huge. I'm sure the gay scene is much more diffuse (and more people would be familiar with it than with the gay scene in Pittsburgh). They needed a place that was urban enough to have gay bars and discos, but small enough for gay life to have a center. How would anybody know who the hottest gay man in Chicago is? In Pittsburgh it's a little more credible that there might be such a person.
The Republican Plan: repeal all reform; collect payoffs; go yachting (but not in the Gulf).
[deleted]
Well, remember, we don't have a class system in America in the way they do in Britain. We're not a classless society, but it's not quite the same.
The Republican Plan: repeal all reform; collect payoffs; go yachting (but not in the Gulf).
You have to look at Brian's father to see the class element and see the background that he has shed. Brian's dad is definitely working class and belongs to a union. A lot of guys, especially those whose fathers were steel workers in Pitts., followed their fathers into the foundries in the era Brian comes from. The other characters are middle class compared to the UK version, but the backgrounds of the other UK characters wasn't really shown since the characters were so minor.
I also thought Pittsburgh worked because it was a semi-big town near NYC, but not big-time like NYC, with the right industrial roots compared to New York's urban glamour (like Manchester is to London). Boston or Philadelphia may be a better match for distance from NYC, but they wouldn't have worked as well with the other elements.
I'm sure I read an interview with Cowlip once where they discussed choosing Pittsburgh because it's industrial roots were similar to Manchester's. Can't remember where I read that though.
http://i43.tinypic.com/2mda2o.jpg
http://bit.ly/GIA9PI NSFW
I don't think moving it to Chicago would've made even Brian and Justin interesting.
shareAs was said, Chicago is way too big. If our characters were in Chicago there would not just be one gay dance club, there are many. In a city like Chicago it is a regular event to check out new bars/clubs popping up all the time, even ones that cater to the gay culture, and there is always an energy of what's hip and new, you would not see these guys going to the same club every night, especially a person like Brian. Further in Chicago and any large cities there are many what I would say cross-over type of establishments, that definitely cater to the gay culture, but also attract a lot of hetero clientele, where the younger more liberal hetero enjoys drag shows for example, and you don't have only a strict division only "gay bars" and "hetero bars" there is a vibrant "gray" area. In choosing an average mid-level city you get the clashes of culture where a gay couple making out on the street gets them negative remarks (like with Justin in his pink posse) that just aren't as prevalent in a large city like Chicago where most residents couldn't care less if they saw that on Michigan Avenue, and where the gay culture is really more of an actual subculture designated to its own space away from the rest of the culture and rampant homophobia exists outside of it like the Pitts of QAF, which though Chicago does have a Boys Town neighborhood the gay culture is hardly confined to that space alone like is the Liberty Avenue they portrayed in QAF.
sharebump for superfluous threads
GQ MoFo
http://i49.tinypic.com/1zlsu3k.jpg
[deleted]
[deleted]
[deleted]
[deleted]
[deleted]
[deleted]
[deleted]
Moved up to prevent another "Why Pittsburgh?" thread.
shareI think Pennsylvania was a great place to base this show. Whenever I watch QAF, it just feels like Pittsburg. Anywhere else wouldn't have really been the same, though it probably wouldn't have mattered anyway given the fact the show was filmed some where in Canada.
shareThough it's a little off topic, must say that I enjoyed the many outdoor winter scenes throughout the show. Something that was only possible due to having both the setting and the location shooting in cold climates.
share[deleted]
My sister hung out with gay men while in high school and I heard them talk about gay life in Chicago as we grew up in its suburbs. Chicago would not work with the dynamic as it is sort of a regional mecca for gays from all of the neighboring states, NY and SF would be even worse as they are national gay meccas. On the show the characters are almost always locals who are stuck there, it would seem just TOO convenient for Justin to grow up in SF. Chicago is just way too big, after wising up to the reality of gay people due to my sisters friends (before that "The Blue Oyster Bar" in the Police Academy movies was what I thought gays were like) I noticed that gay oriented businesses flying the rainbow flag went on for miles on the North Side, much more than the fictional Liberty Avenue on the show.
share