Canadian Railroads > "Rookie Blue" and Toronto

After seeing a Go Transit train and what appeared to be an LRV on last night's "Rookie Blue" season finale on ABC,
I began to wonder, is this series suppose to be based in Toronto? The police cars are not marked with a city. The
arm patches are hard to read on TV. Does anybody who is a fan of this program ever recall clues being given as to where they
are suppose to be??

Frank30

Toronto and Ontario in general, have been huge beneficiaries of the film credit program offered by the government. Film your movie or TV show here, and we'll give you lots of goodies.

The cop cars and the shoulder badges are extremely close to Toronto PS's. There is no "15 Division" in Toronto - there are Divisions 11-14, so it's pretty obvious why the screenwriters picked 15 - but the radio chatter and police terminology is very much Toronto-based, as are the street names used.

The show is just Americanised enough to be credible to a US audience, but those of us living in the Big Smoke think of it as a show about Toronto cops.

- Paul



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/22/14 15:22 by crs1026.

There was a great line in Aaron Sorkin's cancelled show "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" about Toronto doubling for other North American cities.

Bradley Whitford's character said something like "Toronto doesn't even look like Canada! It looks like Boston California!"

~ BZ

Notch16 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> There was a great line in Aaron Sorkin's cancelled
> show "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" about Toronto
> doubling for other North American cities.
>
> Bradley Whitford's character said something like
> "Toronto doesn't even look like Canada! It looks
> like Boston California!"
>
> ~ BZ


My wife and I happened on a film scene for an American movie in Toronto. To make this realistic, the set dressers had carefully scattered litter in the street, wrote some graffiti on a wall, etc. All of which was duly removed so Toronto could look like Toronto again.

And don't forget Silver Streak, still my favourite partly-shot-in-Toronto film.

With the current makeover going on at Union Station, it's gaining a historical value.

- Paul

The show "Flashpoint" was another Toronto production.
The show "Motive" is a Vancouver production.

Nothing new about Canadian cities "subbing" for various cities in the US.

At one point a few years back, Robert Duvaall, a Texan, complained bitterly about having to go to Alberta to film a movie supposedly set in Texas.

Will MacKenzie
Dundas, ON

I agree lots of shows filmed in Canada.

Some were filmed in Vancouver, to name a few and what city van stood in for.

X-Files - Wash D.C. stand in
Fairly Leagal - San Francisco
Falling Skies - Eastern US
Fringe - New York & Boston

I believe that Rookie Blue and Flashpoint all make no doubts that its supposed to be Toronto. Or then again growing up in Michigan in the era of pretty much come and go as you please
across the border perhaps I just felt like Toronto was a distant US cousin and recognize it too easily to over look cover-up attempts.

Kris

There was also a short lived late night police TV series about 30 years ago called "Night Heat". It was supposed to be Los Angeles but was also filmed in Vancouver. It only lasted a season or two and I dont think any of the cast was very famous. I thought it was pretty cool though. It was filmed entirely at night.

Gary

SN711 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> There was also a short lived late night police TV
> series about 30 years ago called "Night Heat". It
> was supposed to be Los Angeles but was also filmed
> in Vancouver. It only lasted a season or two and I
> dont think any of the cast was very famous. I
> thought it was pretty cool though. It was filmed
> entirely at night.

Actually, Night Heat was filmed in Toronto ... and yes, it was a great show! Much better than most of the so-called cheap "reality" crap we see today!

Will MacKenzie
Dundas, ON

Jackie Chan's "Rumble in the Bronx" was also filmed in Vancouver. The mountains in the background in a few scenes do not look anything like the Hudson Valley.

A NYC Cab stripped in the Bronx? No.....that’s Toronto Union Station in the background.

I forget what movie is was for now but we watched them filming it on Front Street back in Sept 2008.

---

One more.

Several years ago there was a 30 minute program honoring a police officer each week for a heroic act. An Ohio Highway Patrol Trooper was picked and he had to drive his cruiser to Toronto so they could recreate the event which happened south of Columbus.

DaleR

There was also "Due South" about a (Canadian) Mountie stationed in Chicago, with Toronto standing in for the windy city.

The final scenes of the last episode of series 1 "Victoria's Secret, Partt 2), took place at Toronto Union Station (as Chicago), with a departing train of stainless steel cars, complete with Park Car trailing.

Also there was McGyver and Stargate SGI in the Vancouver area!

Mike Bannon
St Catharines, ON

algoma11 Wrote:
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> Also there was McGyver and Stargate SGI in the
> Vancouver area!

Many of the HGTV home remodeling and home fix up shows are done in the Toronto metro. You see the Canada and Ontario credits at the end of the show. Same for a few of the Food Network (US) shows.