The Flop House - FH Mini 133 - Cinematic Cities

Episode Date: July 26, 2025

We all know movies where "it's like the city is another character," and we understand what that means when a location has a big personality like New York, Tokyo, or Paris... but what about the more unknown cities out there? Elliott helps us brainstorm some filmic personalities for less-heralded locationsTickets for Flop TV Season 3 are ON SALE STARTING TODAY! Watch our once a month (Sept-Feb) video livestream show where we discuss a movie, do an "informative" presentation, answer questions from the chat, and toss in a few pre-produced video surprises! It's like a TV version of our show, but more so! This year the theme is FLOPSTERPIECE THEATER, and we'll be discussing one significant bad movie per decade from the 2000s back to the 1950s! Dip your toe in with a single-show ticket, or get a discount with a full season pass!Subscribe to our NEWSLETTER, “Flop Secrets!

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Flophouse Mini. That's what we call our alternate week episodes where we do something a little bit different than watching a bad movie and talking about it. And that's right, today we're doing something a little different, but related. This is an episode of your favorite movie podcast that's all about locations, The Map House.

That's right, welcome to the map house. I'm your host Elliot Kalin and joining me are my regular special guests, Dan McCoy and Stuart Wellington. They'll say hi in a minute, but first let's hit that theme song. Dan, it then that then that then that map house in the middle of your ears. Map house. What you're listening to right here. Map house talking places in the films map house

Fire ceramics in a kiln map house. We love to talk movie locations map house films are the cheapest of vacations So go on a map house I could go like that This is the cast that we do the things with the stuff and they I didn't know any I didn't couldn't think of lyrics for The part in the song where you talk really fast MapHouse is brought to you of course by Hodor's travel guide the only travel guide endorsed by the simple-minded stable boys of Winterfell and Randy McNasty America's most trusted name and maps for perverts now Dan Stewart Thanks so much for joining us today on MapHouse. How are you feeling today? And where are you coming from? I

Feel great now that I heard those two jokes about travel guides. I'm coming from my home, Brooklyn. Yeah, since this is the Map House, what's the address here, Dan? It's 123 Fake Street in any town in Brooklyn, USA. So Map House is, of course, like I said, the movie podcast about locations. And today's episode of the Map House is gonna be all about cities as characters in movies. Now, I feel like the last couple of movies

that got on the Flophouse were really specific about their locations. We watched Pool Man, in which Los Angeles felt like a character in the story. We watched Captain America Brave New World in which Washington, D.C. actually had more personality than any of the human characters in the movie. And so today I wanted to talk about

cities that feel like characters. And there's a bunch of famous cities and there are a lot of movies. And I bet if I named them, you guys could tell me what kinds of characters they've been in the movies or how you think of them as a character in a story. You guys want to start off doing that, a little brain exercise? Sure, I think I understand. Okay, sure. So like, for instance, New York,

what kind of character is New York in the movies? You know, brash, old, it's where you go to succeed. You know, it represents glamour and glitz and an urban life. And an endless labyrinth of late night delights and terrors. Oh, very well put. Very well put. Now, perhaps you might say similar things, but I don't know. What about Paris? What kind of character is Paris in the movies? You know, it's the city of lights, it's the city of romance.

It represents... It's a little exotic. Yeah, sophistication. Someone call it a labyrinth of late night delights. Yeah, sure. I could call that as well. Sometimes the sand is full of sharks. But Paris is mostly a romantic place. You can already hear the accordion music and the crunching on longbread, right?

What about London though? When London is a character in the movies, what is London like? It's foggy, it's rainy. Jack the Ripper's probably going around doing something nasty. Not something good. He's not giving candy to children and helping elderly people across the street. That's for sure.

That's true. I mean, modern London is a little harder to classify, I think. But... You're saying that wasn't... A lot of high street shops. That wasn't an up-to-date London idea, the Jack the Ripper one? No, that was a bit more of a Victorian vision of London. Okay, and what about Miami? What's Miami like when it's a character in the movies?

Fast cars. Yeah, full of drug dealers. Butts wearing swimsuits. Clubs. Butts going to clubs. What else are the Butts doing in Miami these days? Are they sitting in cars, going to clubs. What else are the butts doing in Miami these days? Are they sitting in cars, going to clubs? What else are they doing? Yeah, they're in cars with comedians getting coffee. Interesting.

That's what you think of as Miami. Okay, interesting. I don't know, it's just a thing. And so, what about Tokyo? When you think of Tokyo as a character in movies. Drift. Drift. Word association. Overwhelming. Kind of high tech, right?

Yeah. Crowds. Umbrellas. Danger from Yakuza. And every now and then a giant monster. Neon lights. Neon lights, yeah. And finally, Rio de Janeiro.

You shouldn't have used up butts Carnival filled with butts talking birds With those talking birds there They're interested but confused Okay, so those are big cities Those are some of the biggest cities in the world and there are a lot of movies set there and it's a very clear idea Each time each one of those you guys had a very clear idea of what the character of that city is like But I was thinking there's a lot of smaller cities that don't get as much attention from the movies There are dozens maybe hundreds, maybe thousands of movies about New York and Los Angeles. There's only one movie about Columbus, Indiana

It's called Columbus. I highly recommend it. It's a very good movie, but it doesn't give us a great idea of what the Gestalt character of Columbus is. I mean, we know it has a lot of architectural landmarks because that's part of what the movie is about, but we don't have as much of a sense of it from the movies.

And I started thinking, there's so many small cities that don't get movie attention, but if they did, what would, and some of the movies have been shot in, what's the character that they should have? So I took a look at the US News and World Report list of the 250 best places to live in the United States, and I thought, let's take a look at them and use our movie brains to figure out

what kind of character these cities would be in a movie to give Hollywood a head start. Now we're going to go through all 250, so I hope you guys are ready. No, I'm just kidding. We'll go through about nine of them. But I thought, let's start with the number one city on the list.

Are you guys ready to use your movie imaginations, your knowledge of movies and your creativity to figure out what is the character of this city? And I'll give you some, I can give you some facts about the city but I mostly want us to just say, what's the feel? What does this feel like? Okay.

So number one on the list of course is Johns Creek, Georgia, population 78,937. According to US Mules and World Report, this is the best place to live in the United States. Some things I can tell you about it. It has a humid subtropical climate. It has the Metro Atlanta area's only fully professional symphony orchestra,

the Johns Creek Symphony Orchestra. There's the annual food festival, the Taste of John's Creek. There's six golf courses. According to Wikipedia, this is a quote from Wikipedia. It is one of the most culturally diverse cities in the state and nation, representing many countries and cultures from around the world. So John's Creek, Georgia, population less than 80,000,

one of the most culturally diverse cities in America and perhaps the world. They've had a fire department since 2008. And there are movies that have been shot there that include Parental Guidance starring Billy Crystal, and Strip Club Massacre, I assume, not starring Billy Crystal. So guys, John's Creek-

I'm glad you hedged your bets on that. I haven't seen it, so I don't know for sure, but I'm going to guess. I'm just adding that one to my watch list on Letterboxd. Yeah, so Johns Creek, Georgia, what kind of character would the city be in a movie? I would say it feels like it would be like a gentrified, like up and coming suburbs with, you know,

a modest but bustling downtown area. Okay, so how does that represent, in a movie, what kind of story would you tell? How would the city play into that story? Maybe there's like, see originally you said humid. Yeah, humid, subtropical climate, yeah. My mind went to like, some sort of like, oh yeah, like a, well yeah, maybe a noir, a sweaty noir.

I was thinking like a Southern Gothic, which could have like an overlap, but then everything you said made it sound very cosmopolitan. So maybe maybe the way to food festival, it's one of the most diverse cities in America, according to Wikipedia. Yeah. Maybe the way to do it is have one of those, uh, the seedy underbelly, of things. Yeah. It wasn't shot there, but I keep imagining what was that movie with Ben Affleck where he was breeding snails and he killed Tracy Letts?

Deep Water. Deep Water, was that it? Yeah, yeah. Is it that kind of thing? Sexy snails. Sexy snails, yeah. So, okay, so John's Creek you're imagining is kind of like, it's almost like a blue velvet type place

where there's like a seedy criminal underbelly underneath. Maybe it's involved with the taste of John's Creek annual food festival, I don't know. But okay. Either that or like you have two rivals at the food festival that are like a mix of like a keeping up with the Joneses, but also like an element of trying to defeat their rival at the food festival.

Or it could be, you know, like a little Italy situation where it's a romance set against the backdrop of the food festival. I forgot about that movie that we did on the podcast about the competing Canadian pizza places, right? Yeah. So, okay, so John's Speed Georgia, you can go eat, Hollywood, you can go one of two ways

with it. It's either like a, an up and coming gentrifying suburb that has a seedy criminal underbelly, or it's a place where love can come even between the children of competing food merchants at the at the food festival. Let's slip a little bit farther down the list for our next city. You guys did a great job. Let's go to number four on the list. This is Fishers, Indiana, population 103,711. Now now Stuart you're an Indiana boy. Are you familiar with this town?

I'm a Hoosier know where is this? Is this a Indianapolis suburb? It is a suburb of Indianapolis. It has a Continental climate. This is a humid but continental Is this on the north side or a south side where is this I don't know it's don't know. It was a town until 2015 when it officially transitioned to be a city. Previously in 1998, voters had defeated a referendum to become a city. So there's a little bit of a controversial history about whether it's a town or city.

What's the name of this joint? That's called Fishers, Indiana. Home ownership rate, 81.9%. And you may know this already, Stuart. It's home of the Indie Fuel Minor League Hockey Team and the Hoosier State Instigators Basketball Team. So guys. Yeah, so this is on the north side of Indianapolis.

It's just east of Carmel, which is another very affluent suburb. And you mean Caramel? Nope, they remove the A. Oh, okay. Don't need it. Strange, you think you mean Caramel. Nope, they removed the A. Oh, okay. Don't need it. Strange, you think they could afford it. Also, if I were driving from Indianapolis, aka Nap Town, to my hometown, Fort Wayne, Indiana,

I would drive through Fishers. Wow. Interstate 69. So this is, I feel like a real connection. So we've heard of Flyover Country, this is drive through city. Yep. So you've heard of flyover country. This is drive through city. Yep. So you've ever taken that?

You think you've driven through Fishers? I'm sure I've driven through it. No question. So let's use that personal experience, this authentic personal experience. Fishers Indiana, what kind of character is it in a movie? Seems boring. Yeah.

I'm not a Hoosier, but I'm from one state over, Illinois. Small town, living in Illinois. Again, this is not a small town. There's 103,000 people living in the city. It's a city that's a suburb of a bigger city. I'm guessing there are multiple very good malls. Cheesecake Factory. Probably.

We'll be hearing about a city later that has a couple of malls, but this I don't know for sure. Well, you know what? Let me bring up some more information about Fishers. I spent a lot of time though in the bustling Midwestern metropolis of Peoria, I was going to say that the immediate thing that suggests to me is like a suburbia style, like bored, disaffected youth hanging out in parking lots sort of thing, which was a lot of my youth.

All right. So I think that's true. I think and you know, a little bit of the haves and the have nots, the, you know, the rich kids and the townies versus the rich kids. Does it help to tell you that the that the in the area, in 2020, top employer was Hamilton Southeastern Schools. I guess the school district is the big employer. Number 10, US Foods employees in 2020 employed 320 people. There's also the Geist Reservoir where you can fish and water ski. So is that where like the teams...

You can water ski? Apparently. I mean, if the boat's fast enough, yeah. If I don't know how to water ski, will I learn just by doing it there? Unfortunately, no, I don't think so. But unless maybe that's... Maybe it's a children's movie about a magical water skiing lake. I don't know. I don't think you've seen Cocoon.

Cocoon's where Wilford Brimley learns to fucking water ski from alien pods, right? The alien pods are pulling him along the water, yeah, he's got two on his feet as the skis Yeah, you wouldn't believe how young I actually am in this movie I'm younger than Tom Cruise is in the Mission Impossible movies so Fish is in the industry stunts to us. Yeah, so we're saying it's kind of a boring place that teens want to escape in the movie. But there might also be an alien lake. How was Don Amici?

Don Amici was significantly older than Wilford Brimley. He was very old. I mean, he had been a movie star in the 40s. So, let's see, Don Amici, how old was he made a cocoon? So Don... And his first name's Don or is that a title? You're right. It's possible that that was his mafia name, you know, or just as a Spanish landowner. No, his name is Dominic Felix Amici So he was born in 1908. So we need to cocoon. He was only 77, you know

And how old was Wilford Brimley? Wilford Brimley at the time in 1985. Let's see. Wilford Brimley was 51 years old. Guys, I hate to say it, but that's a pretty problematic age gap, right? Yeah. But in love scenes, you wouldn't worry about it. I mean, that was when Wilford Brimley was like,

he was getting a lot of controversy for appearing with men as the love interest were much older than him. Yeah. Because Wilford Brimley had a thing for older men. That's fine. Don Amici, of course light a thing for older men. That's fine Donna Michi, of course A lot of great movies. Anyway, we should do a Donna Michi mini sometime. He was in a lot of stuff Anyway, so fishers Indiana. I think we've covered that pretty well

We know that it has to do with cocoon and waterspins Fisher Stevens Yeah, right. Yeah, well, it's fishers, right? It doesn't have an apostrophe in the name, but I have to assume that it was originally fishers Indiana like the Indiana that belonged to Fisher Stevens. Yeah. Mm-hmm Yeah, let's move. We'll do two more before we take a quick break. Let's go to now We're going now in North Carolina way to number five on the list. This is Kerry, North Carolina population a hundred and seventy four thousand nine hundred sixty one just shy of a hundred seventy five thousand you'll get there Kerry If you want to hear some about it, It's got a humid subtropical climate It's home to the world's largest

More humid stuffs coming up it's home to the world's largest privately held software company in 2021 It was named the safest mid-sized place to live in the United States And the cat the carry drainage base it includes three creeks the crab tree the States and the cat, the Carrie drainage base. It includes three creeks, the crab tree, the Swift and the walnut. There's a Kellogg's factory there. It also, there's a nonprofit that promotes the use of cotton in the area. And it also has the three Venkateswari temple, which serves the Hindus of the research triangle section of North Carolina. It's home to the North Carolina courage women's soccer team. And they have shot a number of movies there, including parts of Iron Man 3,

and also a movie called Top Spin, about people competing to be on the Olympic ping pong team. So guys, Kerry, North Carolina, what kind of movie character is it, from what we've heard? Well, as soon as you say it's like voted the safest place, it makes me think of like Rebel Ridge or something, where the local police department departments skewing the numbers. Okay, so this is like a or like a or like a what the world's end or whatever where aliens

have come in and they're taking over. Yeah, I mean, I mean, I could see aliens coming in to take over that software company or perhaps the the locus of the cotton lobbying that Kerry, North Carolina is Dan, what do you think? Is that what comes to your mind? Either corrupt cops or aliens, or is there anything else that feels more Kerry specific? Man, was Alien Nation aliens and corrupt cops? I don't think they were corrupt cops.

But they're drinking rotten milk. Is that what corrupt cops do? These cops are as rotten as the milk they drink to get drunk because they're aliens. And it's spoiled milk, I know. Don't write in and complain. You know who has a hard time on the alienation planet? Barbers. Dan, you're saying? No, I was just going to say that I totally zoned out on the description of this city because my brain was going to medical anxiety

as it often does in spare moments. Are you doing okay, Dan? Do we need to set what this may be about? I hope so. Yeah, yeah. Okay. So, humid subtropical climate. Yeah.

This is Fishers, Indiana. No, no, we're doing Cary, North Carolina at this point. Cary, North Carolina. Named after Harry Cary. Named after Harry. Or Cary Mulligan. Yeah, both. Itamed after Harry Carrey or Carrey Mulligan. Yeah, both. It was named after both of them. And Jim Carrey.

It's spelled like none of them. The most famous Carrie. Carrie Fisher. Who's the most famous? Grant, I would say. Grant, right? It is spelled like Carrie Grant's name. So maybe Carrie Grant's in the movie or the big AI.

Carrie Russell. There's no Carrie Russell. It's spelled and pronounced differently. Anyway, so Carrie, North Carolina. I feel like this is a wash. We have, we didn't get it. We didn't get this one. Let's move on to, if only North Carolina could get another bite of this apple.

Oh, and it does because number seven on the list is Apex, North Carolina. Population. That name is too cool. Yeah, too cool. It's population 65,091. What's its climate like? You guessed it, humid. It's located pretty close to Cary, North Carolina, so maybe let's double for both.

Apex's city motto is the peak of good living. It's got a historic train depot from the 19th century. In 2015, it was named the number one place to live by Money Magazine. I guess they didn't care that in 2006 there was a chemical explosion at a waste processing facility that caused 16,000 people to evacuate. Luckily no one was seriously hurt. Guess what? There's some famous residents of Apex, North Carolina. Do you want to hear about some of them? Yeah, yeah. Notable residents include Susan Higginbotham, the historical fiction author. There's also Justin Jettica, known as the human Ken doll

for the numerous plastic surgeries that he's also Justin Jettica, known as the human Ken doll for the numerous plastic surgeries that he's had in his life. The lack of penis. I do assume. And of course, Jason Alexander, the race car driver, not from Seinfeld, he spells it differently. Jason Alexander is from Seinfeld, he's of course from New Jersey.

Are they twin brothers? No, they're not twin brothers. So Apex, North Carolina, from what you know, what kind of movie is Apex, North Carolina the character in? What does it feel like in this? What kind of character is this city in this movie? It's all based on the Waste Plant Explosion. Like you gotta have a Toxie or something.

No, that's the direction you're going with it. I was like, oh, is this going to be like, you know, a China syndrome or like an Aaron Brock bitch, like a kind of a, you know, a drama about, you know, a company doing wrong and people uncovering it. And what's the city like? What makes it apex that this is happening at?

You know, how does the city, how is it personified, you know? That everybody's super competitive, that they're all perfect versions of human beings. Yeah, the apex. So only the best, only the best, most perfect people can live there. And so when the chemical explosion happens, it's like, oh no, our best people are threatened by this. The city that has such high standards, suddenly what happens when it falls below those standards? Yeah, maybe that's what's the insidious thing

that's going on is that there's some sort of engineering out of like the lower persons and that leads to this insidious company, something goes wrong with them. Then like a Toxie has to show up and beat up all these beautiful people. Oh wow, okay, so it's the ugliest among us is fighting the most beautiful among us.

Which one's the hero? Toxy is, right? Yeah, of course he is. So, do you guys have any other ideas based on that for Carrie, North Carolina? We didn't really come up with much for Carrie. I mean, are you trying to put a slate together, Elliot, of films? You know, there's... Look, the North Carolina Film Board has hired me to really get some movies going in in the in the research triangle

Area of oh, no, that's that's a yeah the research triangle area of North Carolina So I got a pitch for you. It's a slice-of-life comedy starring Carrie Elwes Carrie Mulligan Carrie Russell and Jim Carrey, okay, and they are all hanging out in Carrie, North Carolina And what's it called? Carrie Carrie on Okay, and they are all hanging out in Cary, North Carolina. And what's it called? Carrie to carry on Where you the sequel to the the airport airport movie. Oh, you're going that way I was saying it was one of the British the old British carry-on Comedy, yeah those ones. It's carry-on Carrie. Well, maybe it's a mix of both

It's a comedy version of carry-on the thriller set set in carry, North Carolina with all these carries Oh carrying Maybe there's some carrying involved. Yeah, probably Or the spider-man villain carrying well guys, I think we figured it out for those for those cities. Let's take a short break I'll let your brains have a rest while I say a word about our sponsor today unless Dan Do you want to the sponsor spot today? No, no I thought you were getting it to read the sponsor spot today? No, no, please. I saw you get your phone and I thought you were getting it to read the sponsor, but you're just checking your emails or whatever. No, I'm getting, excuse me, I'm getting it to promote flop TV season 3 later on.

Okay, that sounds good, that sounds good. All right, so let's talk about our sponsor today. Today's episode is sponsored by Factor. Look guys, summer's here. It's summertime. My oldest son is at sleep-awayake camp. My younger son is at day camp. It's time for me to have the time to do the things I want to do that I can't do when my kids are around making me do stuff. And the number one thing that is taking up the time with those kids, cooking. Cooking their meals. These kids are hungry all the time. They're constantly eating. Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum. And I got to cook those meals

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and use code FLOP50OFF to get 50% off plus free shipping on your first box of factor meals. That's a great deal, 50% off. Chop 50 on your first box of Factor Meals. That's a great deal. 50% off. Hey, chop 50 off with flop 50 off. Dan, what a great slogan. That's what we should be saying. Yeah, chop 50 off with flop 50 off.

That's code FLOP50OFF at factormeals.com slash flop 50 off for 50% off plus free shipping. FactorMeals.com slash flop 50 off with code FLOP50OFF for FactorMeals.com slash flop 50 off with code flop 50 off for Factor Meals. Flop 50 off. You got it right, Stuart. You did it. Hey, I want to say a few words about Flop TV Season 3, which is a thing that's gonna be coming up. It's gonna be happening every first Saturday of the month, from September through February.

That's six episodes, and our usual time slot of nine p.m. Eastern, six Pacific, and if I have my release schedule right, this should be releasing this mini on July 26, which is when we're going to be putting the tickets on sale. Tickets will be live to buy. On July 26th.

Yeah. You go to theflophouse.simpletics.com. That's TicsTix. And you can get tickets there either $7 for an individual show, if there's just one, if you're just, if there's just one special movie that you like. You just want to dip your toes in the water of flop TV. Or if you want to watch the whole season,

you can get a season pass. And I don't know why you wouldn't, come on. For $35, that's a discount, that's like one episode free basically. If you buy the season pass, it's like you're stealing one episode of FlopTV from us. And you're gonna feel so good about that. Like you got one over on the Flop Boys.

Yeah, fine. Cause you hate us. Take them down a peg. We think we're so cool, yeah. We're doing, the theme this year is Flopsterpiece Theater. We're going back in time decade by decade, picking one, I wouldn't say representative flop necessarily, although some of them are kind of representative

of the times that they were made in. Just like one significant flop of that decade. It's gonna be The Adventures of Pluto Nash for the 2000s, Jack Frost with Michael Keaton for the 90s, for the 80s, Xanadu, the 70s, Zardas, the 60s, Doctor Dolittle, the musical with Rex Harrison that sort of destroyed the big Hollywood musical for a while, and for the 50s,

a biggie, Plan 9 from Outer Space, directed by Ed Wood. Yes, the same Ed Wood of the film of the same name. I mean, he wasn't actually in it, but it was about him. It's about him, yeah. And I just rewatched it recently, it's a great movie. Yeah, so again, that's a- Ed Wood, that is. Plan 9 is a terrible movie. Again, that's theflophouse.simpledix.com

if you want to join us this season for Flop TV, season three. ["Flob TV Theme Song"] for Flop TV Season 3. Hey, I'm Alan McLeod, the host of Walking About, and I'm here with Adam. Hello. You know, as a member of the month, you're the member of the month, you'll be getting a $25 gift card to the Maximum Fund store. Holy moly.

Oh yeah. I can't wait. Thank you so much for supporting this show and the network. Happy to do it. What made you decide to become a member? I just said, you know, these people give me so much entertainment and joy and fun in my life. I gotta, I gotta support them somehow. The outpouring of love and support that these folks, I mean, they made me me maximum fun member of the month for crying out loud If you want this stuff to keep going then support it. Well, so nice to meet you Adam Thank you very much. Everybody. Keep up the good work. I mean it. I'm not just blowing smoke become a max fun member now at

maximum fun org slash join Remember now at MaximumFun.org slash join. Good evening. Thanks for tuning in to 101.1 Max Fun. It's midnight here on Host to Coast and we've got Sarah from Michigan on line one. Hi, I'm calling in for some help. I used to love reading, but between grad school, having kids and the general state of the world,

I can't seem to pick up a book and stick with it anymore. Sarah, this is an easy one. Just listen to Reading Glasses, a podcast designed to help you read better. Brea and Mallory will get all the pressure, shame, and guilt out of your reading life. You'll be finishing books you love in no time. Great. That sounds amazing. Also, I do think my husband is cheating on me with Mothman.

Can you help me with that one? Ooh, I don't think they cover that. Reading Glasses, every Thursday on Maximum Fun. Can you help me with that one? Ooh, I don't think they cover that. Reading glasses every Thursday on Maximum Fun. Right now, we're coming back to this episode of the Map House. We just got a couple more cities

that we're gonna look at real quick to see what we can do for them. So let's go to number 10 on that list of best places to live in the United States. And this is Troy, Michigan, population 87,452. Guys, let me tell you a little bit about Troy, Michigan that might help. It's the 13th largest municipality in Michigan. It's home to both the Somerset Collection Mall and the Oakland Mall.

Two malls? Yeah, as well as Troy Historic Village, a historic village. It used to have a newspaper called the Troy Eccentric, but I don't think it's published anymore. You know who went to high school there? Sutton Foster and Steven Ewan. So, some big stars went to high school there. Sutton Foster and Steven Ewan. So some big stars went to high school there. And movies shot in Troy include It Follows,

You Don't Know Jack starring Al Pacino as Jack Gavorkian, because as I've said before, the biggest shame you can have in America is to be portrayed by Al Pacino in a movie, whereas the greatest honor is to be portrayed by Tom Hanks in a movie. And also Whip It, the roller derby movie, and part of Dinner with Leatherface,

a documentary about Gunnar Hansen, who's shot in Troy, Michigan. So guys, Troy, Michigan, it's already in the movies. Little Hollywood they call it. Yeah, they call it the Hollywood of Michigan. So guys, what is the character of Troy, Michigan and what movie would really make the most of Troy, Michigan?

Movies have been set there, shot there, but what's the movie that really presents the character of Troy, Michigan? Now would Troy, Michigan be described as urban, suburban, or rural? Almost 88,000 people live there. I'm guessing it's more suburban than anything else. Oh, yeah?

You're like, urban, suburban, or ultra-urban? Yeah, yeah, it's a fucking shadow run arcology. Yeah, yeah, it's a fucking shadow-run arcology. Yeah, yeah, it's all mega blocks. It's mega city one, yeah, yeah. Maybe I'm just being influenced by, like, the wide variety of films shot there, but there's something about it that's saying, quirky and eclectic to me.

Like, make it into, like like sort of a Northern exposure, Sicily, Alaska style, you know, town where something weird's always happening. And I was thinking a classic suburban slasher movie. I think you could do a little bit of both. I don't think I've seen a slasher in a city like that where it's like kind of a weird, quirky city. I mean, with a newspaper called The Eccentric,

I feel like that brings in, it's a weird, quirky town and there's a slasher on the loose. The slasher was loose in Sicily, Alaska, or Austin, Texas or something like that, or Portland, Oregon, one of these cities that considers itself a weird city. They tried to get rid of the slasher in Austin, but I was like, keep Austin weird guys,

we want that guy out there murdering people. Leatherface is basically right. The Austin slasher. Yeah, this is part of the Austin character. We've got to make this a historically preserved landmark slasher. So okay, Troy Mischiella's support... He should be like some kind of like bat monster too, right? Because Austin's known for their bats. Guys, we're not talking about Austin.

I feel like Austin, Texas has its movies and has its characters. We don't need to give Austin any help, okay? Oh yeah, I got a text from Richard Linklater. He says, stay out of Austin. Stay in Troy. It's mine. Okay, so Troy, Michigan. It is a quirky little town

with a slasher running around in it. I like that for it. I love it. Okay, let's go to number 11 on this list. It's Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. Population 116,677. So I think this is the biggest of the cities we're going to be talking about. It has a- Pretty cool name. Yeah, it's a cool name.

It has a humid subtropical climate. Fuck off with this humid shit. I mean, every place is humid these days. Yeah, apparently everyone wants to be humid. It's the largest suburb of Tulsa. They've got a FedEx ground office. They've got a Bass Pro shop. They've got the Rima Bible Training Center.

Oh, pro. And you know what? You know what? It's not a Bass Amateur shop. No, amateurs need not apply. Professionals only. Bible training center. Pro. Pro. And you know what? You know what? It's not a bass amateur shop. Bass amateur shop. No, amateurs need not apply. Professionals only.

Oh, man. Now I need one of those fucking hats. When does a bass go pro? It's like, I've pretended to, you know, enough. I've worked hard to be a bass. Yeah. I think I've got to take some real money off of being a bass. I was a small mouth bass before, but now I think I'm a large mouth.

Yeah, I know all the words to that song that I have to sing when he pushed the button. Yeah. That's the, yeah. Take me to the river. Yeah. You know who went to high school there? Another Broadway legend, Christian Chenoweth,

went to high school in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. And movies shot in Broken Arrow include Tex with Matt Dillon, but neither of the two movies called Broken Arrow were shot or set in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma slap in the face to Broken Arrow Yeah, so guys Broken Arrow, what's its character? What's the movie? Yeah Well, it sounds like a big-ass city, right? It's pretty big. Yeah, it's a pretty big acid

Yeah, post to a big ass city, which I don't know which was really earlier. Yeah in Miami. Yeah It's a big bass city, which we were talking about earlier. Yeah, in Miami, yeah, of course. It's a big bass city too, they've got that bass grow shop. Oh, Christ. This is a big bass city, maybe there's something in there. I know that a fish ate Pittsburgh once, so... Yep, sure. Different city. Once.

Just once. Pittsburgh has all these great things to look for, but a fish eats your city once. Suddenly that's all they wanna make of it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, you said? Yes, Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. I see a modern, I'm seeing like a modern Western

in an urban environment, but you know, with the kind of Oklahoma Western feel. And what is that Oklahoma Western feel? You know, like tumbleweeds and shit. So with just any Western. Yes. So you're saying the city still has, this is a modern city of almost 120,000 people and there's still tumbleweeds rolling through it.

Yeah. I'm saying that the, it has the elements elements of a like a drifter coming into town sand city into this big city and Relatively, you know relatively simple lines of good and evil drawn. However, there is there's you know more to it and I don't know. So it's another city that has an underbelly Always a little belly similar to the first city we talked about, Johns Creek, Georgia.

So Broken Arrow, Oklahoma also has an underbelly to it. Dan, what do you think? I'm trying to think about what I know about Oklahoma. I've been there and I remember when I was a child, I was there and my impression was that it was very flat. And this is as a man who came from Illinois. Illinois, the central Illinois. So that's saying something. I know who can't come from Illinois. So that's saying something.

I know that my dad is from Oklahoma. He's an Okie. Is he from Broken Arrow, Oklahoma? No, he's from closer to where Killers of the Flower Moon actually happened. Was he one of the Killers of the Flower Moon? No, he was a child. It was after that happened. Children can be killers. That's true.

We've all seen the bad seed and problem child. It's true. Uh, but I guess I would say that I guess it should be like a fictionalized, uh, biopic about my dad. Yeah. Set in a city he didn't live in. Okay. I like it.

That sounds good. Yeah, sure. Uh, dad's really highlights, uh, where he went wrong, you know? Yeah. Father's flower moon or killers of the father moon. Yeah. where he went wrong, you know? Yeah, fathers of the Flower Moon. Or killers of the Father Moon. Yeah, where did your dad go wrong, Dan? You know, like many men of his generation,

he probably could have done with some therapy, just like emotional training, but he's a good guy. He seems overall like a good guy. I mean, your parents have always struck me as good people, so I don't know why you're making them a monster who killed the flower moon. You know, you asked. They're great. I asked you to answer, Dan.

It takes two to ask a question, one to ask and one to answer. Yeah. How did, yeah, but then if there's such good people, how did you guys end up like this? Moving on to the next city in the list, let's go to number 13. That's Ellicott City, Maryland population 77 336 Yes, I picked this one because it sounds like my name It's spelled with two L's and two T's the proper way now get what kind of climate Do you want to guess Ellicott City has it's fucking humid. You bet it's humid. It's humid subtropical climate

There's sporadic snowfall in the winter, but usually relatively light. It's a suburb of Baltimore It's called the heart and soul of Maryland because right in the center there I think it once housed a fairy tale themed amusement park called the enchanted forest. It's since closed It's also home to the oldest surviving railroad station America This is where the famous race took place in 1830 between the steam engine Tom Thumb and a horse We're technically the steam engine lost because it broke down But it showed people that steam power is will be a thing to reckon with in the railroad industry The army's passed through here several times during the Civil War, but I don't think they ever fought here

Notable residents according to Wikipedia include divine and Edward Snowden Yeah, I assume they were roommates at some point. Buddy comedy. Movies shot in Ellicott City include The Goddess, Crybaby, and The Blair Witch Project. So I feel like we're already backing into a movie where it's Divine and Edward Snowden together in some way. What is the character of Ellicott City? I'm thinking of the character of Ellicott is sort of like a fast talking, know it all, kind of a pain in the ass sometimes. Interesting, interesting.

I wonder what this is based in. Devoted family man, sort of workaholics. Always too busy for things, very stressed out, losing his hair. I think this is where my friend lives. I think my friend lives in Frederick, Maryland, which I think is a suburb of Ellicott. And this is where I drove down to play Warhammer with him and my fucking car broke down

and I got stuck there for a couple extra days. You know the character firsthand. I know the character firsthand. Playing where cars break down. I will say, I was not able to get my car fixed on a Sunday because all the mechanics were closed. So there's something terrifying about that. Yeah, so it's a religious place, maybe a little cultish potentially.

Yeah, it's the town that dreaded Sundays. Sundays? So Stuart, so let's build off. So it's the kind of town where you might, your car might break down, but you might get stuck there for a little bit. And then is it scary or you get caught in a kind of paranoid thriller of Edward Snowden, conspiratorial stuff, or is it that you get stuck there and you learn something new about your life

from Divine and the other, you know, quirky, loud and proud people there? I think I learned something about my life. I also was like, I didn't bring enough clothes to stay here a couple extra days and wash my underwear in the sink. So you learned to bring more clothes. I had to like walk around, it was really hard to find. There's really few, like the hotel I was in

was near a shopping center, but there's very few menswear stores, which was frustrating. Okay, so the city that might have been Ellicott, that you got stuck in, hard to get men's clothes there. It would explain, I mean, it's an interesting origin for Divine's personal style. It's hard to buy men's clothes there.

Okay guys, so I think we haven't really figured out Ellicott completely, but Dan, I liked the way you were... Something about the way you were describing made it sound really cool. Really cool and sexy. Yeah, I don't know why. It really appealed to me. This fast-talking, annoying, workaholic city. I think this is an example of my first-hand experience is actually a detriment because it limits my imagination. Yeah, that's a good point.

Sometimes it's better to be not bound by the experience. To be a fantasy. Yeah. I don't like the way Dan smiles when he says fantasy. I don't either. So there's one city left that... It's like how George R. R. Martin smiles when he says fantasy. Well, Dan is the author of several best-selling novels that will never be finished, sure. What? They're not going to be finished? I mean, get George on the job.

He doesn't seem that intent on doing it. But I've read all these books and he's not going to finish them? Maybe he will. Maybe he'll hire somebody else to finish them someday. It's okay. Maybe you, Stuart. That would be amazing. There would all of a sudden be some really cool characters introduced

that look a lot like me. And I would be, and all the babes would be like, he's the best. And all the dudes are like, he's scary and tough and cool. And I'd be like, hell yes, Stu, it is cool. And what's the title of this concluding Game of Thrones volume that you're going to, or Song of Ice and Fire volume that you're going to write? Yeah.

Fire of Stu's. What? Okay. A pot of stews. Let's come with that. So this last one, see, we're going to talk about, this is number 31 on this list. Again, there's 250 cities on this list. We couldn't cover them all. Maybe we'll, you know what?

Next year, maybe we'll set some incredibly high pledge goal. And if we reach it, we'll talk about all 250 cities on this list. But it would have to be that we'd have to get like 30,000 new and new and upgraded subscribers or 50,000. And then we'll just live stream us going through all of them. Exactly. So question, so this is city number 31, West Des Moines, Iowa. Not to be confused with Des Moines, Iowa. Or East Des Moines. That's true. Or north or south. Population 71,794, climate, you guessed it,

humid continental. Fucking A. In 1915, a major auto race was held here, and a couple people were killed accidentally during the race. Until 1937, though, it was called Valley Junction, but voters changed the name to West Des Moines because they thought it sounded more prestigious

and glamorous. West Des Moines, they wanted all the glamor of Des Moines, Iowa. So Microsoft has a number of data centers there, including one of the locations where Chet GPT was trained. So it is evil. And I don't know what movies were shot there because when I tried to research it,

I kept getting movies that were shot in regular Des Moines and not in West Des Moines. Again, it's a different place than Des Moines. So guys, what is the character of West Des Moines and what kind of story are we telling about it to bring out that character? Evil AI. You already touched it. Okay. What were you going to say?

I mean, the fact that you couldn't find anything for West Des Moines because of Des Moines, I was always thinking, you know, like overshadowed, feeling like unappreciated sort of... Yeah, the kind of thing that would lead them to create an evil AI. Yeah, of course. Yeah. Take the revenge. So West Des Moines is always living in the shadow of regular Des Moines. an evil AI. Yeah, of course. Yeah. Take the revenge. So West Des Moines is always living in the shadow of regular Des Moines. It's the little brother of the two, yeah. And so it's a place full of resentment, seething with resentment. If you live in West Des Moines, please write in and let me know if the city seethes with

resentment. Yeah. It's like I went to school with this kid who was from Youngstown, Ohio, and he would always talk about how Youngstown, Ohio was like really dangerous and tough and it had a really big murder rate It did and he was like when he was a kid. He was like the murder rate was so high They called it little Chicago until Youngstown's murder rate exceeded Chicago's and they started calling Chicago big Youngstown I'm like I do not think Called it that. Youngstown I guess.

From what I understand it's accurate. So guys I think we figured out a lot of these cities. Again to repeat what we decided. Johns Creek, Georgia, number one greatest place to live in the US according to US News and World Report. That is going to be a seedy underbelly. Too human for me, sorry. Orom romantic comedy. Fishers, Indiana, number four on the list. We didn't really, what did we come up with for Fishers?

Fisher Stevens. Like Fisher Stevens hangs out there. Yeah, I guess so. Goes fishing. Slice of Life, I think that was Slice of Life, teens trying to escape, yeah. Then there's number five and number seven, Cary, North Carolina, Apex, North Carolina.

Cary is full of caries, and Apex was the place where Toxy is fighting off the people made people made too beautiful. Then Troy, Michigan. We talked about it's a quirky little town, little city. That's also got a slasher broken arrow, Oklahoma, which is kind of a modern day Western with a moral boundaries being crossed and tumbleweeds and professional bass. Ellicott City, Maryland is basically me, but a city and divine is there hard to buy men's clothes and West Des Moines,

Iowa is of course resentful about the shadow cast by Big Des Moines. So if you live in any of these, yeah, if you live in any of the cities, tell us how good we did. Did we accurately describe your city? Is that the kind of movie you want to see about the place you live? any of these cities, tell us how good we did. Did we accurately describe your city? Is that the kind of movie you want to see about the place you live? I would love to hear about it. Just write to Elliot Kalin, care of Dan McCoy, real address TBD. Dan, just include your real address later on.

We'll do. And we will be happy to find out how right or wrong we were. That is, of course, this episode of The Map House, a subsidiary podcast of the flop house Hollywood there you have it You got a whole slew of new city characters to start setting movies in Courtesy of me Elliot Cailin and my cohorts Dan McCoy and Stuart Wellington I'd like to of course thank Alex Smith our producer. He goes under the name how old Doughty when he's recording

Music and magic online the music is magical and the magic is musical He doesn't actually do magic, but he's a really talented musician We are a podcast of the Max Fun Network Please try the other Max Fun shows if you like silliness and information about cities Maybe you never thought about before until next time. This has been the map house Join us next week for the regular flop house. Goodbye and good locating to you Bye Actually, I should I should have said place be with you Goodbye and good locating to you. Bye. Actually, I should have said, please be with you.