ATLANTA FILLS IN AS …
Atlanta is now a hot spot for scripted dramas. A few are actually set in the metro area such as Starz’s “Survivor’s Remorse” and NBC’s “Constantine.” But most have the city masquerading as somewhere else. Here’s a sampling:
ABC’s “Resurrection” — fictional Arcadia, Mo.
Fox’s “Red Band Society” — Los Angeles
The CW’s “Vampire Diaries” — fictional Mystic Falls, Va.
BET’s “The Game” — San Diego
Sundance’s “The Red Road” — fictional Walpole, N.J.
OWN’s “The Haves and the Have Nots” — Savannah
Lifetime’s “Devious Maids” — Beverly Hills, Calif.
AMC’s “Halt and Catch Fire” — Dallas
TV PREVIEW
“Hindsight,” 10 p.m. Wednesdays, VH1
“If you can go back and change one thing in your life, one decision, one answer, one mistake, what would you do?”
That’s main character Becca narrating the new VH1 drama “Hindsight,” which debuts Wednesday. The show, shot in Atlanta, is fictionally based in New York City.
The premise is simple: A 40-something woman about to marry for a second time wonders what would have happened 20 years earlier if she had done things differently. So voila! She wakes up and finds out it’s 1995, not 2015. And it’s her wedding day from her first marriage.
Executive producer Emily Fox peppers the first episode, naturally, with references to that era (“Say Anything,” a pre-“Grey’s Anatomy” Patrick Dempsey, knee socks and giant flannel shirts). And that pilot airing features songs from the era by Ace of Base, Alanis Morissette, EMF and the Cranberries.
“It wasn’t originally supposed to be about the ’90s,” Fox said. “It was really about this universal desire to know about what would have happened if you had chosen door A instead of door B.”
The idea first came up in 2009 and was supposed to go back just 10 years. But when the show finally got developed and the year approached 2015, Fox went back a few years further and picked 1995. Why? It was the middle of a time she felt was “antediluvian Garden of Eden happy.”
This was pre-9/11 when the economy was strong, jobs were plentiful, terrorism was not top of mind and the Internet was a fresh, new thing. “The 1990s became the dynamic backdrop to the show,” Fox said.
Becca is played with a sweet naturalism and accessibility by Laura Ramsey, a relatively unknown actress with credits such as “Mad Men” and “White Collar.”
“She’s not the wacky, out there, kooky one,” Fox said. “She spent much of her life running away from her adventurous side.” Rather, her best friend Lolly (Sarah Goldberg) is much more out there.
Becca grapples with regrets in 2015 that included not just her failed marriage but her estrangement from Lolly.
In many ways, Fox said the show is as much a love story between Becca and her best friend as it is with Becca and any of her guys. "I loved the idea of doing a show not just about a girl and a guy but two good female friends," she said. And they are interested in why she jumped time, not so much the mechanics of time travel. "They both believe there is a reason why this is happening," she said.
The pilot episode is lighthearted and fast-paced, but this exact conceit has not been used before on a popular TV show. “I’m glad it’s not a carbon copy of anything,” Fox said. “It’s its own animal. The cast joked that it was like ‘Ally McBeal’ meets ‘The Edge of Tomorrow.’ Weird combo! There are elements of ‘Peggy Sue Got Married’ and ‘Back to the Future’ with the time leap.”
Fox said she enjoyed spending the fall in Atlanta and loved using Piedmont Park as a stand-in for Central Park. Piedmont Park was designed in part by the sons of Frederick Law Olmsted, creator of New York City’s most famous park. “It’s such a believable facsimile,” she said, “and it happens to be a beautiful park in its own right.”
The show also conjured up old Mac Classics, beepers, CD Walkmans and clogs from that era. “That’s what eBay was made for!” she said.
For what it’s worth, eBay was created in 1995 as well.
