Fictional Wisconsin

Steve Prestegard

Jul 7

The reported release of a Barbie movie (don't ask why) made someone point out that Barbie apparently comes from Willows, Wis.

Where? Back in 2020 Tyler Maas wrote:

As Wisconsin was waiting to officially go blue in the Presidential Election, the Richland County locale with a population of around 500 people took its sweet ass time processing its estimated 300 ballots. Ultimately, Willow finally got around to doing so around 3 p.m. on Wednesday, the state's 10 electoral votes went to now-President-elect Joe Biden, and the southwest Wisconsin town immediately faded back into obscurity.

Though Willow, Wisconsin's stint of relevance was justifiably quite short, it was long enough to inform us of a strange fact that was somewhat related to the tiny town's name. While waiting for the state to find and process its ballots, excellent Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter (and fun/informative Twitter follow) Mary Spicuzza tweeted about a fictional city called "Willows"—yes, with an S at the end—which is the apparent birthplace of Barbara Millicent Roberts. You probably know her better as "Barbie."

We've written about fictional Wisconsin places in pop culture before, but this factoid about the iconic doll's Badger State connection totally eluded us until Spicuzza brought it to our attention. Figuring we weren't alone in learning that Barbie lore claims a fake Wisconsin city as her hometown, we tried to dig a bit deeper to learn more about Willows. Here's what we found out.

Willows was founded by some weirdos called the "Founding Fathers Of Willows"
Though the city's eponymous tree certainly has an important role in the history of Willows (more on that later), we have to mention the Founding Fathers Of Willows. The guild was composed of both men and women, who apparently hid a treasure somewhere in town. There are a bunch of plaques scattered throughout the city, which serve as clues to help people find that treasure. According to a Barbie movie Wiki page, one of the plaques opens up a tunnel that leads to a cave, an underground lake, and a vault. We know that Wisconsin has a ton of lakes, but this is the first secret underground lake we're aware of in the state.

Willows is famous for its willow trees
Legend states the fictional city that's now known for its abundance of willow trees started with but one weeping willow. However, from that single tree sprouted a great deal of others. Each year, Willows hosts a carnival-style festival called Willowfest. Riveting stuff.

There are conflicting details about Barbie's time in Willows
Since things like a consistent story arc and character continuity aren't always paramount in children's entertainment, Barbie's backstory—and how that backstory aligns with Willows—doesn't always match up. What we can say for sure is that Barbie was born in Willows and spent at least part of her childhood there. After that, it gets murky. Some story lines say Barbie and her family moved to Malibu when her youngest of three sisters (Chelsea) was an infant. Other sources suggest she stuck around long enough to attend Willows High School and be on the school's cheer leading team. Her grandmother still lives in a quaint house in the outskirts of Willows.

Willows is probably a small-ish city
In recent films like Barbie & Her Sisters In The Great Puppy Adventure and Barbie & Her Sisters Puppy Rescue, the Roberts siblings return to their former hometown. While there, they go to The Willows Museum, an ice cream shop, and City Hall (where the mustachioed Mayor Jenkins presides). There's also a clocktower and a willow-shaped fountain that's a popular attraction. Based on the clips we've seen of the movies (sorry, there's no way in hell we're paying to watch these!), it looks like a quaint little place with an historic downtown, some modern amenities like a dance studio, and impressive bikeability. Most buildings seem to be brick. We've found no mention of its location within the state or its population, but it looks to be a quaint town with a lot of charm. Like Burlington without the underlying racism or Lake Geneva without the chain restaurants and FIBs.

Mattel once made a "Willows Wisconsin Series"
Wanting to "give a glimpse into Barbie doll's life before Malibu," Mattel made a Willows Wisconsin Series that, for the most part, served as a way to showcase Ms. Roberts in some vintage wardrobe. Beyond the classic cocktail dress and swimwear straight out of 1959, there's also a nod to her rural roots with a "picnic" outfit complete with a cherry blouse and bluejeans. There's also a "Busy Gal" Barbie that we don't necessarily feel the urge to talk about here in 2020.

All of that was more than I (1) ever knew or (2) cared to know about Barbie's apparent (fictional) Wisconsin origins.

Fictional Wisconsin (a subject I covered in my previous life as a business magazine editor during a period when several films were being shot in Wisconsin) has been a setting for fiction outside of Barbie, as Maas explores because ...

Despite being placed directly between coasts and in the thick of a region of America that's commonly reduced to "flyover country," Wisconsin manages to be cast in film and on television fairly often. Whether as means of acknowledgement from expats now making good in Hollywood, or a destination point decided in a meeting populated by half-assed executives who have never crossed into the Badger State border, Wisconsin has served as the site for dozens of TV and movie productions. Long running sitcoms like Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, and That '70s Show are obvious ones. And yes, we remember when Bridesmaids showed the Hoan Bridge and that apartment exterior in Bay View for a few seconds.

Milwaukee Record risked the purity of our Netflix recommendation algorithm, thumbed through the public library DVD collection, and searched for a Blockbuster Video that was still in business to find 10 more Wisconsin settings—some fictional, others poorly depicted—in television and film.

The Young and the Restless, Genoa City (1973-present)
The Genoa City that most housewives, unemployed people, and second shift workers have known as the site of their favorite soap opera since 1973 couldn't be more different than the actual 3,000-resident and 2.3-square-mile town of the same name that's nestled against Wisconsin's southern border. Y&R's depiction of Genoa City is generous—boasting the headquarters of four international corporations, a national newspaper, penthouses, skyscrapers, two hospitals, a prison, and innumerable other trappings of high society. The real Genoa City is recovering from the excitement of last week's Lions Club Bingo and is preparing for a mock tornado drill Thursday. To our knowledge, no professional athletes have dropped by recently.

The Great Outdoors, Pechoggin (1988)
John Hughes had a habit of basing the majority of his iconic films in his longtime home of Chicago. However, the filmmaker's John Candy-starring classic, The Great Outdoors, saw his still-Chicago-based characters vacationing in Perhcoggin, a fictional FIB paradise in Wisconsin's north woods. Locals have grown accustomed to the stereotypical Illinois tourists (portrayed expertly/aggravatingly by Dan Aykroyd), gritting their teeth as visitors support the economy of the bear-laden "hole in the earth" by go-karting, eating at the A&W, horseback riding, and sipping Point and Leinenkugel's beer at the Potowotominimac Lodge. The entire film was actually shot in Bass Lake, California.

Step By Step, Port Washington (1991-98)
This has been covered elsewhere before, but we must repeat: THERE ARE NO ROLLERCOASTERS IN PORT WASHINGTON! Unless, of course, you count actual Port Washingtonian Dustin Diamond, who has been a bit of an emotional rollercoaster since his days playing "Screech" on all incantations of Saved By The Bell.

Picket Fences, Rome (1992-96)
While we'd be lying if we said we watched racy CBS drama Picket Fences during its mid-'90s heyday, we can confidently say it doesn't reflect anything even close to rural Wisconsin morals. Based in a 2,700-person town in Adams County called Rome (but shot entirely in southern California), murder, bank robbery, and sexualized controversy saw the central Wisconsin locale burning through eight mayors in four seasons.

Life With Louie, Cedar Knoll (1994-98)
For the better part of the 1990s, the comedian Louie Anderson was among the biggest names in comedy, with crossover capabilities into the realms of film, television, and even animation. From 1994 to 1998, Anderson's cartoon Life With Louie ran on FOX. While the 39-episode series was semi-autobiographical, the show swapped out the namesake's St. Paul, Minnesota roots for the invented Wisconsin town of Cedar Knoll. Some episodes chronicle local staples like deer hunting, blizzards, and watching the Packers, but the plotlines are usually broad and accessible. That said, it's a family cartoon (that actually won two Emmys!) projected through a Midwest lens, complete with his folksy mother making references to fish fry, casserole, and Piggly Wiggly in her distinct Great Lakes region lilt, and his dad complaining about shoveling.

BASEketball, Milwaukee (1998)
Milwaukee was no doubt selected as the birthplace of the sport of BASEketball—in the underrated 1998 sports satire by the same name—as a nod from famed comedy writer/director David Zucker to his hometown. Trey Parker and Matt Stone's Milwaukee, though, is a cul-de-sac's dead end that evokes more of a Franklin or Oak Creek vibe than anything. Even now, Reel Big Fish would be a pretty big get for Milwaukee Beers house band. You just know that honor would be given to Pat McCurdy in real life.

A Minute With Stan Hooper, Waterford Falls (2003)
"This is the vanishing America, Molly. I bet these people never even heard of cappuccino," Newsline correspondent Stan Hooper (Norm Macdonald) tells his wife as the couple returns to Waterford Falls, 15 years after falling in love with the quaint (and not actually real) Wisconsin burg while passing by on their honeymoon. As new residents, the Hoopers endure an array of lazy TV tropes and a dizzying number of cheese references from a quirky small town populace that doesn't even realize he's famous. (His segment airs the same time as The Wisconsin Farm Report don'cha know!) Stan Hooper never caught on in Waterford Falls or with television audiences. Despite shooting 13 episodes, only six aired before the rare Macdonald misstep was cancelled. God only knows the dairy puns we missed.

Dawn Of The Dead, Milwaukee (2004)
Zombies are all the rage these days. George A. Romero's 1978 cinematic classic Dawn Of The Dead was among the first bits of undead entertainment. Even the 2004 remake was ahead of the game. Unlike its predecessor that was set in a rural Pennsylvania mall, the 21st century reprisal found Ving Rhames, Sarah Polley, Mekhi Phifer, and pre-Modern Family Ty Burrell taking refuge in a Milwaukee shopping center. Though set in Wisconsin (having Green Bay-born director Zack Snyder attached to direct could've had something to do with that), the Dawn Of The Dead remake was filmed in Thornhill, Ontario. The difference is apparent, as the mall is secluded and massive; it offers ample parking; it boasts tons of shops, and is full of people (both living and otherwise). The Shops Of Grand Avenue, on the other hand, looks like the aftermath of a zombie attack.

Mr. 3000, Waukesha (2004)
After calling it a career, Milwaukee Brewers star Stan Ross (played by the late Bernie Mack) went to live out the rest of his days in nearby Waukesha—or "WOE-KEE-SHA"—where he opened a series of businesses in one mini mall that were related to his then-assumed 3,000-hit milestone. The notion of a mini mall in Waukesha with a beeper shop (3000 Beeps), Chinese restaurant (3000 Woks), pet groomer (3000 Paws), and Mr. 3000 Sports Lounge is absolutely believable; the idea of any athlete staying in Milwaukee post retirement is nutty. Most players head to the airport directly from the locker room in the final game of each season.

Lars And The Real Girl, Unspecified (2007)
Arguably the finest film about a real man falling for a fake woman since 1991's Mannequin Two: On The Move, low-budget Ryan Gosling flick Lars And The Real Girl is just barely based in the Badger State. The heartthrob's titular character has a Wisconsin map plastered in his work cubicle, and that's where the direct acknowledgments in the film end. The implied host site is a diminutive Midwestern place (actually filmed in rural Ontario) surrounded by snow swept fields. There, the predominately white populace frequents bowling alleys; women in out-of-fashion sweaters gossip while eating fried food; and people attend banquets at the VFW. Oh yeah, and everybody is astonishingly cool with a dude pushing a rubber companion around town in a wheelchair. It would be insulting if the Wisconsin connection wasn't so underscored and if the subtle characterizations didn't ring so true to the way of life in various unincorporated pockets of the state.

I grew increasingly irritated with "Picket Fences" while it was on the air because of its obvious lack of research into Wisconsin. Tom Skerritt starred as the sheriff of the "town" of Rome, even though sheriffs are in charge of county law enforcement (or parishes in Louisiana) everywhere in the U.S. In one episode a judge forced minority students from Green Bay to be bused to Rome schools. Five seconds of research even in the pre-internet days would have revealed that (1) the biggest ethnic minority in Green Bay is American Indians, not blacks, but (2) change "Green Bay" to "Milwaukee" and it would have been completely believable.

Though I was not a regular watcher of "That '70s Show" from what I saw it did a better job of portraying '70s Wisconsin. Red Forman, for instance, is a big fan of the Green Bay Packers, no doubt because of his being a native and from the Packers' glory days of five NFL championships and the first two Super Bowl wins in the '60s. I don't recall if any episode mentioned how horrible the Packers were during the setting of the show, though.

The most famous example of fictional Wisconsin for those of us from the '80s was when Madison became the home of "Grand Lakes University":

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel adds some more:

The fictional Wisconsin city that was the "setting" for the long-running sitcom "That '70s Show" is back in the sequel. Debuting on Netflix Jan. 19, "That '90s Show" brings a new generation — literally, as in the teenage kids whose parents were teenagers in the first show — to the same town, and even the same basement. But this time, the franchise gives its biggest hint ever about where Point Place might be in the Badger State.

But Point Place is just one Wisconsin locale, real or made up, that serves as the setting for a TV show. Here are 20 cities, actual and imagined, that are homes to TV programs.

The fictional Wisconsin city that was the "setting" for the long-running sitcom "That '70s Show" is back in the sequel. Debuting on Netflix Jan. 19, "That '90s Show" brings a new generation — literally, as in the teenage kids whose parents were teenagers in the first show — to the same town, and even the same basement. But this time, the franchise gives its biggest hint ever about where Point Place might be in the Badger State.

But Point Place is just one Wisconsin locale, real or made up, that serves as the setting for a TV show. Here are 20 cities, actual and imagined, that are homes to TV programs.

TV shows set in actual Wisconsin cities

TV shows set in Milwaukee

'Happy Days'

Fonzie and friends put Milwaukee on the map, TV-wise. From 1974-'84, Richie Cunningham, Potsie and all the rest hung out a backlot version of Brew City (though you can occasionally see a Milwaukee Braves pennant on the wall). But some of the show's creations were inspired by Milwaukee; Arnold's Drive-In was inspired by the Milky Way, a drive-in on Port Washington Road in Glendale (now the home to Kopp's Frozen Custard), a favorite hangout of one of the show's executive producers, Milwaukee native and Nicolet High School grad Thomas L. Miller.

'Laverne & Shirley'

The first "Happy Days" sequel was, like the original show, set in Milwaukee when it launched in 1976. Laverne DeFazio and Shirley Feeney even had the ultimate Milwaukee job: They worked in a brewery. But at the start of the show's sixth season (1980), Shotz Brewery let go its entire bottle-capping department, so the girls (and, weirdly, all of their friends) moved out to California, where they hung on for three more seasons.

'A Whole New Ballgame'

Corbin Bernsen, who played overpaid prima donna Roger Dorn in the filmed-in-Milwaukee baseball comedy "Major League," played a former big-leaguer turned broadcaster hired by a Milwaukee TV station in this short-lived midseason replacement that aired on ABC for eight episodes in 1995.

'Patriot'

In this Prime Video series, Michael Dorman plays a slightly unhinged intelligence officer who has been charged with nothing less than preventing Iran from achieving its nuclear aims. The agent builds his cover story by working for an industrial piping company based in Milwaukee, which splits time with all sorts of exotic locales in this series that first streamed from 2015 to '18. ...

'Liv and Maddie'

The Disney Channel series about twin sisters — one's a child star who has come back home after years in Hollywood, the other's a sports-happy tomboy, both played by Dove Cameron — is set in Stevens Point. The show's executive producer, Andy Fickman, knew Stevens Point because his grandparents lived there, and he wanted a small-town setting for the show, which ran from 2013-'17. ...

TV shows set in Wisconsin Dells

'American Dreamer'

Robert Urich played a globe-trotting network TV reporter who, after his wife dies, decides to pack up the kids and pursue his version of the title dream by heading to a small town — Wisconsin Dells, to be exact — and write about "real people" for a Chicago newspaper in this short-lived NBC sitcom. Despite a cast that included Carol Kane and Milwaukee Repertory Theater alum Jeffrey Tambor, it lasted only one season, in 1990-'91.

TV shows set in Madison

'The George Wendt Show'

Former "Cheers" barstool veteran and Chicago comic actor George Wendt inexplicably moved to Madison — well, his character did — in this sitcom about a pair of brothers who own an auto repair shop and have a "Car Talk"-type radio show on the side. The show lasted just eight episodes in early 1995.

'Battleground'

Set mostly in Madison, this faux-documentary series goes behind the scenes of a Senate campaign race in Wisconsin. Streaming service Hulu's first scripted series, "Battleground," with Madison native Marc Webb ("500 Days of Summer") among its executive producers, ran for 13 episodes in 2012.

TV shows set in Verona

'Adventures in Dairyland'

Mouseketeers Annette Funicello and Sammy Ogg traveled to a farm in Verona to film an eight-chapter serial that first aired on "The Mickey Mouse Club" in 1956. The Disney-produced serial was partly funded by the American Dairy Association.

TV shows set in Racine

'Raising Miranda'

James Naughton plays a construction contractor in Racine struggling as a single dad to raise his 15-year-old daughter Miranda in this 1998 sitcom, which lasted just nine episodes.

TV shows set in La Crosse

'Off Pitch'

This 2013 VH1 reality series gives the spotlight to the Grand River Singers of La Crosse, "the only all-adult 'Glee'-inspired community show choir in the country."

TV shows set in fictional Wisconsin cities

'Aliens in America' — Medora

A Muslim exchange student from Pakistan lives with a Christian family in Medora, Wisconsin, in this Fox sitcom, which lasted one season in 2007-'08. Oak Creek native Amy Pietz played the family's well-meaning mom.

'The Waverly Wonders' — Eastfield

Football Hall of Famer Joe Namath plays, oddly, the winless basketball coach at Waverly High School, in Eastfield, Wisconsin, in this 1978 sitcom. The NBC show was sacked after just nine episodes.

'The Brighter Day' — New Hope

This inspirational-themed daytime soap opera centered on the doings of the Dennis family, led by Rev. Richard Dennis. The show started on radio in 1948 and made the jump to television in 1954. For much of its TV run — the daytime drama aired until 1962 — it was set in the small town of New Hope, Wisconsin.

'Dead of Summer' — Stillwater

Camp Stillwater, a summer camp in the fictional Wisconsin town of the same name, is the setting for this 1980s-set horror series, which lasted just one season on Freeform in 2016.

'My Talk Show' — Derby

Cynthia Stevenson plays the host of a local cable talk show whose program — shot in her living room — unexpectedly gets a national syndication deal in this quirky sitcom set in Derby, Wisconsin, "the hat capital of the world." The syndicated show, launched in 1990, ran for 65 episodes.

'Women in Prison'

A comedy set in a women's prison? Sure. This 1987-'88 Fox sitcom follows a woman (Julia Campbell) who's sent to "Bass Women's Prison" somewhere in Wisconsin after her cheating husband frames her for shoplifting. Even with a pretty impressive cast — among them, Peggy Cass, CCH Pounder and Wendie Jo Sperber — the show lasted only one season.

'Hoppity Hooper' — Foggy Bog

A frog, a bear and a fox get into some sometimes-shady adventures in this animated series by the great Jay Ward ("Rocky & Bullwinkle"), with an incredible voice cast (including Paul Frees, Hans Conried and Bill Scott). Sponsored by General Mills, the Saturday morning cartoon show ran on ABC for 52 episodes over three seasons.

'Araiguma Rasukaru' / 'Rascal Raccoon' — Brailsford Junction

Edgerton, Wisconsin, writer Sterling North's beloved book "Rascal," about a small-town boy who adopts a baby raccoon, was adapted for Japanese television in 1977. Like the novel, the animated series is set in Brailsford Junction, Wisconsin, which is based on North's hometown of Edgerton. The 52-episode series reportedly has been blamed for an exploding raccoon population in Japan.