Comments on: How Berkeley can you be on TV?

By: Parenthood: Another season of NBC’s version of Berkeley – Berkeleyside

Tue, 20 Apr 2010 23:47:12 +0000

[...] the show first came on, Berkeleyside pointed out that it didn’t really feel like Berkeley. The characters were too white, their houses were too [...]

By: Max Denner

Max Denner — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:31:04 +0000

One other thing – I wouldn’t assume “Berkeley Coffee” is Peet’s. Much more likely to be an independent cafe. I’d guess Berkeley Espresso, especially since it’s across the street from Oscar’s where one scene was shot.

By: Peggy Scott

Peggy Scott — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 22:13:18 +0000

“LA white? hardly, but gotta love that bay area smugness….”
LA white as in TV Laura, it’s a TV show, as in FICTION. What we watch on commercial TV is not census data (just in case you haven’t noticed.). They don’t call it LA LA Land for nothing.

By: Rachel A.

Rachel A. — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 14:30:19 +0000

Where’s the two-mom family?

By: Max Denner

Max Denner — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 04:59:07 +0000

The “gleaming downtown plaza” is City Hall Plaza in Oakland. Also, that was genuine Berkeley weather – they filmed late last April during a week of sun and 90 degree temperatures. But I agree that it didn’t really capture the Berkeley vibe.

By: Sarah Henry

Sarah Henry — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 00:53:12 +0000

Lance, I don’t know of a Golden Dragon Seafood Restaurant in either SF or Oakland’s Chinatown…but there is one by that name in L.A.

As for the manicured kiddie baseball scenes, I’m with you on that one too. Nothing like the low-key Berkeley Bears, which my son played on for a few years.

Peggy, you’re so right: The whole episode was missing any authentic basic Berkeley grunge — though some may see that as a nice escape from reality.

I’m no authority on whether or not Berkeley teens get picked up for pot possession but I suspect local police have more serious stuff to deal with.

By: Thomas Lord

Thomas Lord — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 22:39:58 +0000

Lance,

I’ve seen teens hauled in by the cops for being jerkwads but with the official excuse of pot possession. It’s not at all easy to bring about – the kids really have to work hard at it, going far out of their way to be jerks. But it can happen. Probably nothing like whatever was depicted in the show but it can happen. I would guess, though I’ve never personally seen it, that sometimes it happens because some cop as a bad attitude or a bad day or a bad perception.

(I watched about 30 seconds of the show and got bored and went back to work. :-)

By: laura menard

laura menard — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 21:40:55 +0000

LA white? hardly, but gotta love that bay area smugness….

“As of the 2000 US Census, the racial distribution in Los Angeles was 46.9% White American, 11.2% African American, 10.5% Asian American, 0.8% Native American, 0.2% Pacific Islander, 25.7% from other races, and 5.2% from two or more races. 46.5% of the population was Hispanic or Latino (of any race).”

By: Peggy Scott

Peggy Scott — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 21:12:57 +0000

The light! That is what bugged my 16 yo daughter and me – too much light! We love those sunny days but helloooo – they are RARE. It looks like LA because it is too darn sunny and too darn white. The whole look was missing that basic Berkeley grunge – fog, pavement, hair. Oh well, it looks like LA because it IS LA. Still…I kinda enjoyed it. So bust me. (I’m sure someone will. And that’s OK – because that is how it is here.)

By: Lance Knobel

Lance Knobel — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 18:03:15 +0000

Here are some grumpy responses to the episode’s setting in “Berkeley”.

The Chinese restaurant that character Sarah (played by Lauren Graham) goes to for a date didn’t look like anything that would dare to be in the Bay Area, to say nothing of food-obsessed Berkeley. The baseball fields that Max played on were more manicured than anything I’ve seen in the Noll/Soll league. The gleaming downtown plaza where Adam (Peter Krause) works didn’t even remotely resemble reality. I agree with you, as well, about that tie. Who does that?

And I’ve never heard of teenage kids in Berkeley being hauled to the police station in Berkeley for marijuana possession, one of the plot moments last night.

But is that just me? Let us know what you thought of prime time television’s portrayal of “Berkeley”.