Chris ForanMilwaukee Journal Sentinel
Point Place is back on the map — well, back on television's map, anyway.
The fictional Wisconsin city that was the "setting" for the long-running sitcom "That '70s Show" is back in the sequel. Debuting on Netflix Jan. 19, "That '90s Show" brings a new generation — literally, as in the teenage kids whose parents were teenagers in the first show — to the same town, and even the same basem*nt. But this time, the franchise gives its biggest hint ever about where Point Place might be in the Badger State.
But Point Place is just one Wisconsin locale, real or made up, that serves as the setting for a TV show. Here are 20 cities, actual and imagined, that are homes to TV programs.
TV shows set in actual Wisconsin cities
TV shows set in Milwaukee
‘Happy Days’
Fonzie and friends put Milwaukee on the map, TV-wise. From 1974-’84, Richie Cunningham, Potsie and all the rest hung out a backlot version of Brew City (though you can occasionally see a Milwaukee Braves pennant on the wall). But some of the show’s creations were inspired by Milwaukee; Arnold’s Drive-In was inspired by the Milky Way, a drive-in on Port Washington Road in Glendale (now the home to Kopp’s Frozen Custard), a favorite hangout of one of the show’s executive producers, Milwaukee native and Nicolet High School grad Thomas L. Miller.
RELATED:Thomas L. Miller, the TV producer whose Milwaukee upbringing inspired 'Happy Days,' has died
RELATED:Milwaukee filmmaker taps nostalgia, and heart, in ABC documentary 'Happy Days of Garry Marshall'
‘Laverne & Shirley’
The first “Happy Days” sequel was, like the original show, set in Milwaukee when it launched in 1976. Laverne DeFazio and Shirley Feeney even had the ultimate Milwaukee job: They worked in a brewery. But at the start of the show’s sixth season (1980), Shotz Brewery let go its entire bottle-capping department, so the girls (and, weirdly, all of their friends) moved out to California, where they hung on for three more seasons.
‘A Whole New Ballgame’
Corbin Bernsen, who played overpaid prima donna Roger Dorn in the filmed-in-Milwaukee baseball comedy “Major League,” played a former big-leaguer turned broadcaster hired by a Milwaukee TV station in this short-lived midseason replacement that aired on ABC for eight episodes in 1995.
‘Patriot’
In this Prime Video series, Michael Dorman plays a slightly unhinged intelligence officer who has been charged with nothing less than preventing Iran from achieving its nuclear aims. The agent builds his cover story by working for an industrial piping company based in Milwaukee, which splits time with all sorts of exotic locales in this series that first streamed from 2015 to ’18.
'Dahmer: Monster — The Jeffrey Dahmer Story'
The 2022 miniseries about the serial killer is set in Milwaukee, with a number of actual city locations mentioned. But it was shot in Los Angeles.
Also: Milwaukee is a destination, and an occasional plot point, in a handful of episodes of both “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” and “Supernatural.”
TV shows set in Stevens Point
‘Liv and Maddie’
The Disney Channel series about twin sisters — one's a child star who has come back home after years in Hollywood, the other’s a sports-happy tomboy, both played by Dove Cameron — is set in Stevens Point. The show’s executive producer, Andy Fickman, knew Stevens Point because his grandparents lived there, and he wanted a small-town setting for the show, which ran from 2013-’17.
TV shows set in Port Washington
‘Step by Step’
Patrick Duffy and Suzanne Somers play the parents of a newly blended family living in Port Washington in this sitcom, which aired from 1991-’98.
TV shows set in Wisconsin Dells
‘American Dreamer’
Robert Urich played a globe-trotting network TV reporter who, after his wife dies, decides to pack up the kids and pursue his version of the title dream by heading to a small town — Wisconsin Dells, to be exact — and write about “real people” for a Chicago newspaper in this short-lived NBC sitcom. Despite a cast that included Carol Kane and Milwaukee Repertory Theater alum Jeffrey Tambor, it lasted only one season, in 1990-’91.
TV shows set in Madison
‘The George Wendt Show’
Former “Cheers” barstool veteran and Chicago comic actor George Wendt inexplicably moved to Madison — well, his character did — in this sitcom about a pair of brothers who own an auto repair shop and have a “Car Talk”-type radio show on the side. The show lasted just eight episodes in early 1995.
‘Battleground’
Set mostly in Madison, this faux-documentary series goes behind the scenes of a Senate campaign race in Wisconsin. Streaming service Hulu’s first scripted series, “Battleground,” with Madison native Marc Webb (“500 Days of Summer”) among its executive producers, ran for 13 episodes in 2012.
TV shows set in Verona
'Adventures in Dairyland’
Mouseketeers Annette Funicello and Sammy Ogg traveled to a farm in Verona to film an eight-chapter serial that first aired on “The Mickey Mouse Club” in 1956. The Disney-produced serial was partly funded by the American Dairy Association.
TV shows set in Racine
‘Raising Miranda’
James Naughton plays a construction contractor in Racine struggling as a single dad to raise his 15-year-old daughter Miranda in this 1998 sitcom, which lasted just nine episodes.
TV shows set in La Crosse
‘Off Pitch’
This 2013 VH1 reality series gives the spotlight to the Grand River Singers of La Crosse, “the only all-adult ‘Glee’-inspired community show choir in the country.”
TV shows set in fictional Wisconsin cities
‘That ‘70s Show’ / ‘That ‘90s Show’ — Point Place
Debate over where the original series’ hometown, Point Place, really was in Wisconsin has raged since the show debuted in 1998 (it ran till 2006); contenders ranged from Stevens Point to Green Bay to Pleasant Prairie. But the sequel series, which launched in January 2023 on Netflix, drops a major that Point Place could be in the Kenosha metroplex.
‘The Young and the Restless’ — Genoa City
The long-running daytime soap opera has been set in Genoa City, Wisconsin, since its debut in 1973 — but not the actual Genoa City, Wisconsin. The real deal is in Kenosha and Walworth counties, on the Illinois border. Reportedly, the show’s creators, William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell, adopted the name after passing by the village going from their home in Chicago and their summer vacation destination, Lake Geneva.
‘Picket Fences’ — Rome
The town sheriff (Tom Skerritt) and his wife, the town doctor (Kathy Baker) had their hands full with the high-quirk quotient community of Rome, Wisconsin, in this offbeat, well-reviewed CBS drama. Despite multiple time-slot changes, the show hung on for four seasons, from 1992-’96, and won 14 Emmys. But the show’s fictionalized Rome isn’t connected to either of Wisconsin’s actual communities named Rome — one in Adams County, the other in Jefferson County.
‘Aliens in America’ — Medora
A Muslim exchange student from Pakistan lives with a Christian family in Medora, Wisconsin, in this Fox sitcom, which lasted one season in 2007-’08. Oak Creek native Amy Pietz played the family’s well-meaning mom.
‘Life With Louie’ — Cedar Knoll
Comedian-actor Louie Anderson dipped into his childhood for the stories in this animated series, which ran for three seasons starting in 1994. Anderson, who died in 2022 at age 58, was born in Minneapolis, but he set this series in the made-up town of Cedar Knoll, in what appears to be northern Wisconsin.
‘The Waverly Wonders’ — Eastfield
Football Hall of Famer Joe Namath plays, oddly, the winless basketball coach at Waverly High School, in Eastfield, Wisconsin, in this 1978 sitcom. The NBC show was sacked after just nine episodes.
‘A Minute With Stan Hooper’ — Waterford Falls
Norm Macdonald plays a Manhattan-based TV newsmagazine commentator who, after years of doing minute-long features on “regular” small-town folk, decides he wants to relocate to one of those places and work remotely. He chooses Waterford Falls, Wisconsin, a town he and his wife drove through en route to their honeymoon. It turns out the town isn’t as idyllic as he thought. Neither was the show; despite a cast that also included Penelope Ann Miller, James Whitmore, Garret Dillahunt and Fred Willard, the show lasted just 13 episodes on Fox in 2003.
‘The Brighter Day’ — New Hope
This inspirational-themed daytime soap opera centered on the doings of the Dennis family, led by Rev. Richard Dennis. The show started on radio in 1948 and made the jump to television in 1954. For much of its TV run — the daytime drama aired until 1962 — it was set in the small town of New Hope, Wisconsin.
‘Dead of Summer’ — Stillwater
Camp Stillwater, a summer camp in the fictional Wisconsin town of the same name, is the setting for this 1980s-set horror series, which lasted just one season on Freeform in 2016.
‘My Talk Show’ — Derby
Cynthia Stevenson plays the host of a local cable talk show whose program — shot in her living room — unexpectedly gets a national syndication deal in this quirky sitcom set in Derby, Wisconsin, “the hat capital of the world.” The syndicated show, launched in 1990, ran for 65 episodes.
‘Women in Prison’
A comedy set in a women’s prison? Sure. This 1987-’88 Fox sitcom follows a woman (Julia Campbell) who’s sent to “Bass Women’s Prison” somewhere in Wisconsin after her cheating husband frames her for shoplifting. Even with a pretty impressive cast — among them, Peggy Cass, CCH Pounder and Wendie Jo Sperber — the show lasted only one season.
‘Hoppity Hooper’ — Foggy Bog
A frog, a bear and a fox get into some sometimes-shady adventures in this animated series by the great Jay Ward (“Rocky & Bullwinkle”), with an incredible voice cast (including Paul Frees, Hans Conried and Bill Scott). Sponsored by General Mills, the Saturday morning cartoon show ran on ABC for 52 episodes over three seasons.
'Araiguma Rasukaru' / 'Rascal Raccoon' — Brailsford Junction
Edgerton, Wisconsin, writer Sterling North’s beloved book “Rascal,” about a small-town boy who adopts a baby raccoon, was adapted for Japanese television in 1977. Like the novel, the animated series is set in Brailsford Junction, Wisconsin, which is based on North's hometown of Edgerton. The 52-episode series reportedly has been blamed for an exploding raccoon population in Japan.
Sources: IMDb.com, “The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946-Present,” by Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh; “Tune in Yesterday,” by John Dunning; Journal Sentinel files; The Young and the Restless Fandom Wiki; Soaps Fandom Wiki
