User:Christopher Mann McKay/sd

San Diego in popular culture

• The film still regarded by many critics as the best of all time, Orson Welles' Citizen Kane, was partially filmed in and around Balboa Park. Some of the buildings were undergoing renovations, and while vacant, the interiors were used to represent Kane's expansive residence. The San Diego Zoo, fully contained within the park to this day, represented Kane's private menagerie.
• San Diego is the primary setting and filming location for the 1986 movie Top Gun about the real-life TOPGUN program. At the time the movie was made, the TOPGUN program was based at the former Naval Air Station Miramar, which is currently the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, in San Diego. The bar featured in the movie's piano scene, Kansas City BBQ, is on the corner of Kettner Boulevard and West Harbor Drive (near the Manchester Grand Hyatt hotel) and contains memorabilia from the film.
• Other military films and TV series have used the San Diego Naval and Marine bases, aircraft carriers, and other facilities for their projects over the past 50 years or so.
• San Diego and Los Angeles are part of the futuristic utopian megacity San Angeles in the 1993 movie Demolition Man.
• In the comic book series Aquaman, half of San Diego was plunged into the Pacific Ocean by an earthquake. A large number of survivors who were unwittingly mutated into water-breathers due to related illegal genetic experimentation have formed a community known as "Sub Diego" in the remains of the submerged portion of the city.
• The fictional city of Neptune, California (as portrayed in the hit television show Veronica Mars) is said to be a suburb of San Diego. The entire series is filmed in San Diego. Interior shots are filmed at Stu Segall Productions, while many exterior shots have been filmed in the San Diego suburbs of Ocean Beach, Normal Heights, North Park, La Jolla and Rancho Santa Fe. The real Oceanside High School is used as Neptune High School, and both the University of San Diego as well as San Diego State University have both been used as Hearst College.
• San Diego of the 1970s is the setting for the 2004 comedy film Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy starring Will Ferrell as Ron Burgundy. The Burgundy character is partially inspired by former San Diego television news personalities. In this film, they briefly discuss what to call people from San Diego, choosing between San Diegons and San Diegoites.
• Reggie Bush, former star USC and current New Orleans Saints running back, often etches the number "619" on top of his black under eye markings as a tribute to the area code of South San Diego county
• In Jurassic Park II, a T-Rex rampaged through the city. The city was used as the setting of the second half of the film, where a new theme park was to be built (inspired by the actual San Diego Wild Animal Park). Many of the II scenes were filmed in downtown, the harbor, and ports, though the street scenes were filmed in Burbank, CA.
• The season two finale of television series Quantum Leap, "M.I.A", was based around San Diego's Naval Base.
• Writer/Director Cameron Crowe attended University of San Diego High School and San Diego City College. He later went "undercover" at Clairemont High School as a student to observe the students, who were the basis for his book and screenplay Fast Times at Ridgemont High. The semi-autobiographical Almost Famous, which Crowe also directed and for which won the Oscar for Original Screenplay, shows numerous shots of San Diego, where main character William Miller grew up. Many of the concert scenes were filmed at the San Diego Sports Arena, the building used as a stand-in for other cities' venues as well. The opening shot of young Miller looking out over San Diego Bay was shot from the dorm rooms of the University of San Diego and the high school the fictional character attended was the University of San Diego High School located across the street from USD.
• In a 2002 episode of Without A Trace, several agents head to San Diego to investigate the disappearance of a businessman. Several subsequent episodes were filmed with San Diego as the named locale, or as the actual filming location standing in for another city.
• The double-Oscar winning film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World was partially filmed using real ships and replicas at Fox Studios in Ensenada, Mexico, (50 miles south of San Diego) and sailing off the coast. The HMS Surpise was subsequently acquired by the San Diego Maritime Museum and is available for the public to view at the Embarcadaro portion of San Diego Harbor. The film made its World Premiere party in San Diego, with the film screening on deck of one of the ships, and with the film's star Russell Crowe in attendance.
• Season 14 (2004) of The Real World was set in San Diego. The residents lived in Point Loma, and their nightlife escapades took place primarily in Pacific Beach.
• San Diego is home to the hit Nickelodeon series Drake & Josh. Most of the characters in the show live there.
• San Diego is the setting for the 1980s detective series Simon and Simon.
• Much of the movie Bring It On was filmed in various locations in San Diego, including several high schools (Academy of Our Lady of Peace) and San Diego State University.
• Scenes from the Academy Award-winning movie Traffic were filmed in San Diego. Most of the film takes place in and around San Diego and the bordering city of Tijuana, Mexico.
• World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) Wrestler and former World Heavyweight Champion Rey Mysterio represents his hometown of San Diego by calling his finishing move 619, the area code of San Diego.
• San Diego is the hometown of Damon Allen
• Raymond Chandler's last completed novel, Playback, was based in San Diego as he was living in La Jolla at the time.
• Feeder has a song named after the city.
• Singer Tom Waits recorded a song entitled San Diego Serenade on his album The Heart of Saturday Night.
• My Blue Heaven was set in a fictional suburb of San Diego, and some scenes were shot around the city.
• San Diego is also featured in two video games called Midnight Club 3:DUB Edition and Midnight Club 3:DUB Edition Remix.
• San Diego was the setting of one of the levels in the video game Tony Hawk's Underground.
• San Diego appears in the movie Scary Movie 4 as Detroit.
• The original novel Somewhere in Time was set in the Hotel del Coronado.