Why Not Just Film In Boston?

There is a long tradition of television shows being based in the great city of Boston, MA. But, here's the thing that drives me crazy about most of them: they were filmed no where near the city of Boston, the state of Massachusetts or even the Eastern Time Zone. Instead, most of them are filmed on lots in California with the occasional between scene cut-away shots of the Prudential Center or Fenway Park just to remind you where you should pretend this is all taking place. Any scenes taking place inside will have the occasional Red Sox poster in the background or some guy in a Patriots hat named Sully (and you do not want to get me started on Hollywood's pathetic attempts at Boston accents) because that's what everyone who is not from here thinks about when it comes to Boston. The problem really gets noticeable whenever the characters are on the streets because you can tell that it is clearly California by either the weather or the architecture. It never looks like Boston. There is a certain grittiness to the city that can't be replicated.

Now, I know that the funding ran out on the large movie studio that was supposed to be built in Plymouth (saved a very nice golf course in the process, if that's any consolation), but that doesn't mean the area doesn't have any place to film a show. I'm sure we could find the space if a production company was interested. I would imagine that a movie is a much larger undertaking and those are filmed in the area all the time, so why not a TV show? Clearly people want to base shows in the city, so why not actually film in the area, use the actual familiar landmarks (not just a picture of one) and use actors from the area so that the accents don't make it sound like everyone from here is related to the Kennedys? Honestly, I bet you end up with a better show in the process.

-So, yesterday half of the Kentucky Wildcats declared themselves eligible for this year's NBA Draft. This was not unexpected, because most people felt that if the NBA didn't have an age limit these kids would have tried to go straight from high school to the NBA. Now, personally I don't care one way or another what happens at the University of Kentucky, but I would have to think that this is a dangerous path to go down for the basketball team. First off, with the exception of Carmello Anthony at Syracuse, there is not a great tradition of one-and-doners being able to capture an NCAA Championship. Teams need a couple seasons to really gel and learn to win together. But, the other issue is that it puts a ton of pressure on the coaching staff to recruit well every single year. You can't afford to have a bad recruiting class when you turn over half your roster every year and the half that remained was the benchwarmers who never played. It's a very thin margin for error. If Calipari can't pull in three or four McDonald's All-Americans to fill the void made by all the guys leaving early then Kentucky is going to go from a highly ranked team to one that will struggle to make the tournament.