Stuck on small-town TV shows

For the creators of NBC's "Ed," the model for Stuckeyville was a town like Springfield on "The Simpsons" - one that could be anywhere. "For us it's [about] very human struggles, and ... an everyday place where people can relate to each other the way most of us do in life is just the perfect setting," says Rob Burnett, an executive producer for "Ed."

On the WB's "Everwood," the small-town message is less subtle: "The gift of community is that each one of us is absolved of the burden of completeness," intoned a preacher in a recent episode. "At every moment, we can lean on one another for the elements that we lack."

"Everwood" creator Greg Berlanti, was influenced by his own upbringing in a smallish community and by cultural influences like the novel "To Kill a Mockingbird." The result is his story about a New York neurosurgeon (played by Treat Williams) who relocates his family after the death of his wife. Mr. Berlanti says he tries to tackle the question, "What is a small town to each of us?"

It's a question that critics are increasingly asking as well. Common complaints include sappiness or hyper-quirkiness, which some say can take away from the story line or at the very least get tiresome. "Don't tell me it's Fall Harvest Hot Dog Day again," jokes Mr. Goodykoontz. Well, maybe not, but this week, mother and daughter Gilmore did enter a 24-hour dance marathon.

"The problem is, when you overplay your hand, instead of quirky it becomes cloying," says Goodykoontz, who also grew up in a small town. "Everwood" is "kind of sappy," he says - a label Berlanti can live with.

"I definitely think those elements exist on the show," he says, noting it's probably only about one-tenth of the content. A recent show on teens and a sexually transmitted disease has been requested by teachers as an educational tool. "Our appearance of being occasionally sappy actually allows us to deal with some really serious subject matter," Berlanti says.

Those who've lived in small towns say the shows offer a realistic, if somewhat exaggerated view of what life is like. Few people make rapid-fire references to pop culture as they do on "Gilmore Girls." But rural America is peppered with eccentric townsfolk and an abundance of festivals, where dressing up children as chickens is not out of the question. (See Harrisonburg, Va., for the annual Poultry Parade.)

In real life, not all towns come equipped with everything residents need. Or, in the case of "Gilmore Girls," the implication is that the residents have access to all the latest movies and music - which likely appeals to urbanites.

"People who live in cities ... really want to be reassured that there are smart, hip people in small [towns]," says Kembrew McLeod, a communication studies professor at the University of Iowa.

Sherman-Palladino says her show features city-like women living in a small town. But even people who are in small towns are connected to pop culture now thanks to technology, she says. Ultimately, though, any self-contained setting can serve as a hometown. "Taxi," the sitcom set in a New York cab office, is often mentioned as an urban take on a small-town community. The same argument could be made for "E.R."

If a show's relationships are set up correctly, says Sherman-Palladino, it doesn't matter if it's set in a city or a small town. "It's really about, 'Do you care about these people?' "

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