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You know, I completely forgot about the show American Dreams, which is centered around a white family of 6 living in West Philadelphia in the early 1960s. Some of it has a legitimate feel: The Bandstand footage, using a PTC trolley, the bandstand cameras with "WFIL-TV" on them.
But other than that, it doesn't have that Philadelphia feel. Philly had more of a feel than this show, and Philly was also shot in Hollywood. One of the most glaring examples to me of the made-up-ness: The family's older children attend a school called East Catholic, which does not exist. In the last episode, East Catholic was playing for the city football championship against Washington High, which appeared to be a primarily black school.
Philadelphia does indeed have a Washington High, in the Far Northeast. But I would imagine that in 1963, there was no black person within 5 miles of that school. And I would assume that at that time, most kids still went to their neighborhood school.
Of course, I've been wrong before...
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