The Kitten, the Witches and the Bad Wardrobe Willow & Tara Forever

by **Still Waters Run Deep** » Mon Mar 25, 2002 9:28 pm

Where is Sunnydale? - a question that's always intrigued me.

OK Ok I know it's in California, but where exactly?

I seem to remember a comment either in BtVS or Angel about Sunnydale being in northern California and I know that Buffy moved there from LA, but I've always had the impression that Sunnydale is near the Bay area of SF, San Jose, Santa Cruz or somewhere like that.

Also in *Anne* Buffy was working in the City - LA or SF?

I know its a generally dumb question but its bugging me

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Still Waters Run Deep

*Chief Grader of Miss Kitty fantastico's cat litter*
*Willow and Tara's Official Duvet*
*Buffy's registered Doormat*

[This message has been edited by Still Waters Run Deep (edited August 12, 2001).]

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by **Unregistered(d)** » Mon Mar 25, 2002 9:28 pm

The bulk of evidence would suggest that it's roughly where Santa Barbara is in the real world.

a) Santa Barbara is two hours on the freeway from Nieman Marcus.
b) Santa Barbara is on land that used to belong to the Chumash Indian tribe.
c) Santa Barbara is near Oxnard, which is how far Xander got the summer after graduation.
d) The stock shots of Sunnydale that are used in the show are of Santa Barbara.

I think there are other examples, but those are the ones I can remember.

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Remember the Kitten Board Mantra: "Joss is nuts about Tara, Willow/Tara and Amber!"

"Nothing excites me more than the possiblity that I might fail." - Joss Whedon

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by **Unregistered(d)** » Mon Mar 25, 2002 9:28 pm

No Sunnydale is very much Southern Califonia, not sure but I think it about 20 miles north or south of LA.

And "Anne" was set in LA.

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by **Unregistered(d)** » Mon Mar 25, 2002 9:28 pm

In the book "Unseen: the burning" (which a lovely Kitten lady sent to me, hurrah!) Sunnydale is pretty close to LA. But it's an interesting topic. I've always wondered where it might be located.

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by **Unregistered(d)** » Mon Mar 25, 2002 9:29 pm

I am pretty sure it's north, so Santa Barbara it is.

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by **Unregistered(d)** » Mon Mar 25, 2002 9:29 pm

I'm casting my vote for Santa Barbara;sounds good to me

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"My heart doesn't stutter" -Tara

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by **Unregistered(d)** » Mon Mar 25, 2002 9:29 pm

I've always figured it had to be somewhere between Santa Barbara (to the south) and San Luis Obispo (to the north). Out of the greater LA area, but only a couple of hours away.

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by **Unregistered(d)** » Mon Mar 25, 2002 9:29 pm

Agreed that Sunnydale is definitely set in Southern Cal. There is, however, a real California town called Sunnyvale that is Northern Cal- right outside San Jose.

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Tracy

Hear that Baby? You're my always.

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by **Unregistered(d)** » Mon Mar 25, 2002 9:30 pm

Are we so sure that 'Anne' was set in LA ? I don't recall hearing it during the ep, maybe in the script ? Or are we just assuming that because of Lily/Anne ? She could have moved out of town after a while, gone to LA and start that teen-shelter thingy.
It's just that it doesn't make that much sense to me, Buffy running away from all her freinds and family, only to settle ina city where she lived for years and is extremely familiar, and where her father still lives.... Kinda ruins the whole point, doesn't it ?

Rose, wondring...

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by **Unregistered(d)** » Mon Mar 25, 2002 9:30 pm

Los Angeles is very very big. It's entirely possible for Buffy to have grown up in one part of town and then disappear in a completely different part of town where nobody knows her.

That's my take on the city, anyway.

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by **Unregistered(d)** » Mon Mar 25, 2002 9:30 pm

Well Bob, I *was* under the impression that it was, indeed a big city.*g* And it's true, I mean of course I don't think her father lived anywhere near the place she crashed at at the time - what I meant was, I felt that when she ran away after Becoming, she didn't want to be Buffy anymore, it was too hard, and Buffy had killed Angel - so she left all those who knew and loved Buffy and took off to be Anne. But LA is a part of Buffy's past, and I thought she wanted to run forward, erase all that she was. Or maybe it's LA cause after all they shoot in LA, and well it's just more simple*g*

Rose

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by **Unregistered(d)** » Mon Mar 25, 2002 9:30 pm

Always assumed it was LA, even before Anne turned up on Angel. Although not able to recall them specifically saying it was LA. As Bob said, though, the LA area is HUGE, and in some ways a perfect place to get lost if ya need/want to get gone. And Buffy did live there, so it might not have felt quite so unfamiliar as if she'd, say, taken off to someplace back East.

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Tracy

Hear that Baby? You're my always.

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by **Unregistered(d)** » Mon Mar 25, 2002 9:30 pm

About LA, I went to high school in Los Angeles. When I left high school, I left high school, never wanted to hear from anyone there ever again. Anyway the point is that in six years of living here again, I have never run into anyone from high school. Not a one and my high school had 3000 kids.

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by **Unregistered(d)** » Mon Mar 25, 2002 9:33 pm

And every time someone mentions that book, I think of the line " The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't." *g*

You were right Bob, it's really hard to forget that line.

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by **Unregistered(d)** » Mon Mar 25, 2002 9:34 pm

quote:
Originally posted by FrenchRose:
Rose, who won't try anymore jokes. Not geography related ones, anyway.

Go ahead try all the jokes you wish. Give me a clue though put a smile next to them please? That way I will not be cluesless.
For my part I will watch more eps so I can tell when a reference is being made to the program.
gypsyfoot
who has lots of humor go awry

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Willow smiles and Tara blows out the candle!

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by **Unregistered(d)** » Mon Mar 25, 2002 9:34 pm

Hey gypsyfoot, sorry about that, didn't mean to be rude or anything, I'm just popping in and out of the board (well, you see what I mean) every now and again, and maybe I'm answering a bit curtly these days. No hard feelings I hope.

Rose, ashamed now.

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by **Unregistered(d)** » Mon Mar 25, 2002 9:34 pm

I dunno where Sunnydale is but the strangest part of the whole thing has been that LA has less residents then Sydney Oz who would have thought

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by **Unregistered(d)** » Mon Mar 25, 2002 9:34 pm

Well something needs to be understood about Los Angeles. Most of us when we say Los Angeles, we don't mean Los Angeles City itself, but Los Angeles County. I may tell you I live in LA but I really don't, that's not the name of the city but we are within the same vicinity and are part of the same county, i.e. city services apply to all of us (we have the same educational and tranportation agencies and city government). So the mayor of LA is my mayor. So while I don't live and work in Los Angeles City, I do live and work in Los Angeles county. I am a teacher. My employer is Los Angeles Unified School District cause it's part of the county.

It's like I learned while I was in NY manhattan is the only city there that can have the addy of New York, New York. But brooklyn is still NY right? So Los Angeles city is the only one that can have Los Angeles, California as the addy (and I did once when i was a kid) but other cities are in Los Angeles County.

Los Angeles the city is almost 4 million people, but Los Angeles county is nearly 10 million, 9,802,800 to be exact. Check out this link for info on LA county and what we are talking about when we speak of Los Angeles.

[This message has been edited by xita (edited August 13, 2001).]

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by **Unregistered(d)** » Mon Mar 25, 2002 9:34 pm

Hee hee, the LA pride parade.

Oh Rose your Belgium comment gave me a good chuckle, I missed the reference to Xander, but well I'm Dutch and we love to joke about Belgium (and vice versa I am sure).

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by **Unregistered(d)** » Mon Mar 25, 2002 9:35 pm

quote:
Originally posted by Gadget:
I dunno where Sunnydale is but the strangest part of the whole thing has been that LA has less residents then Sydney Oz who would have thought

Really? I'd always been told that Sydney was a lot like LA, only with [i:43dde12d1c] less [/i:43dde12d1c] people. Hmmm... go figure. How many peeps live in Sydney nowadays?

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"...the hardest thing in this world is to live in it..."
~Buffy, The Gift.

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by **Unregistered(d)** » Mon Mar 25, 2002 9:35 pm

Hmm, I'm pretty sure LA has more people than Sydney. Don't have exact figures though, so I could be wrong....

Edited cause it seems Sydney has about 4 million people, so they are about the same size then....
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CalebRoss.com
Nathan West Online

[This message has been edited by Tara (edited August 13, 2001).]

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by **Unregistered(d)** » Mon Mar 25, 2002 9:35 pm

we had a discussion about the location of sunnydale a few months ago. the definitive bit of evidence is the map of santa barbara county on the wall of the mayor's office which shows up pretty clearly in at least 2 episodes of season 3.

some of the establishing shots of the dorms on campus are from uc santa cruz, where marti noxon went to college.

[This message has been edited by fell (edited August 13, 2001).]

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by **Unregistered(d)** » Mon Mar 25, 2002 9:35 pm

quote:
Originally posted by FrenchRose:
Hey gypsyfoot, sorry about that, didn't mean to be rude or anything, I'm just popping in and out of the board (well, you see what I mean) every now and again, and maybe I'm answering a bit curtly these days. No hard feelings I hope.
Rose, ashamed now.

Rose,
My last post was to apologize without saying I apologize.You were right from the beining, it was I who did not understand.
You were not rude, nor should you be ashamed. Let me take responsibility for any misunderstanding and you can graciously accept my apology (please).

p.s. we had better be careful, the moderators might think we are using this thread as our own private chat room.
gypsyfoot

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Willow smiles and Tara blows out the candle!

[This message has been edited by gypsyfoot (edited August 13, 2001).]

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by **Unregistered(d)** » Mon Mar 25, 2002 9:35 pm

Actually, I think the dorm exteriors are from UCLA, while the names of all the dorms are named after dorms/schools in UC Santa Cruz.

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by **Unregistered(d)** » Mon Mar 25, 2002 9:36 pm

quote:
Originally posted by Tara:
Hmm, I'm pretty sure LA has more people than Sydney. Don't have exact figures though, so I could be wrong....

Edited cause it seems Sydney has about 4 million people, so they are about the same size then....

Actually, "Los Angeles" is a county as well as a city. Beverly Hills, for example, is legally a different city but you can go from one to the other without noticing. Same for Hollywood. And Santa Monica is often considered part of LA, even though it isn't (although LA's bus system will take you there). The greater LA Area is big, I mean really big you may think its a long way down the street to the chemists but that's peanuts compared to LA listen...!

Er, sorry. [i:a801db9f30]Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy[/i:a801db9f30] flashback...

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"O let my name be in the Book of Love.
If it be there, I care not of
That other book Above...
Strike it out! Or write it in anew.
But let it be in the Book of Love!"
--Omar Kyam

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by **Unregistered(d)** » Mon Mar 25, 2002 9:36 pm

I remember back in 1994 when we had the Northridge earthquake - the TV news was telling the world that a million people were without power and water, and my parents were freaking because in Indianapolis, where they live, one million people is the entire city. Here it's just a blip.

Los Angeles County actually stretches as far north as Santa Clarita and the Lancaster/Palmdale area where the space shuttle lands sometimes and where the desert scenes from "Restless," "Forever" and "Spiral" were filmed.

Some people using "Los Angeles" or "LA" in the colloquial sense will also throw in other cities which are not in Los Angeles County but nevertheless are considered part of the LA megalopolis (yes, that really is a word). When I leave on my trip Wednesday morning I'll be flying out of the Ontario airport, which is in San Bernadino County. When you go to Disneyland you're in Anaheim, which is in Orange County. Yet in both cases you could still say you're in "LA" and people would understand what you meant.

Bottom line - what people understand as "LA" is very very very big and thus it would be no trouble at all for Buffy to disappear here even if she had grown up here.

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by **Unregistered(d)** » Mon Mar 25, 2002 9:36 pm

Yes, as I said in my earlier post about LA city vs. LA county, even without counting adjoining counties, ventura, orange etc. LA county has about 10 million people.

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by **Unregistered(d)** » Mon Mar 25, 2002 9:36 pm

Errrrrr...I think I now know.

I have decided that for myself I will consider Santa Barbera to be Sunnydale in the Buffyverse.

Of course, since we are talking about the *Buffyverse* LA might exist but S Barbera does'nt.

Oh and thanx all, esp Bob who put in the most convincing argument on behalf of SB.

Hwyl a Sbri
I'm also pretty sure that in Anne, no reference was made to a particular city just *the City*

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Still Waters Run Deep

*Chief Grader of Miss Kitty fantastico's cat litter*
*Willow and Tara's Official Duvet*
*Buffy's registered Doormat*

[This message has been edited by Still Waters Run Deep (edited August 13, 2001).]

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by **Unregistered(d)** » Mon Mar 25, 2002 9:37 pm

I missed the map of Santa Barbara County in the Mayor's office. I'll have to go back and look again. Nice job of spotting it, fell!

Someone should also check their tapes of "Amends" and "Hush" and any other episode where Sunnydale makes the TV news, because I have a vague memory of a map being shown on the TV screen pointing out where Sunnydale is.

[This message has been edited by BBOvenGuy (edited August 13, 2001).]

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by **Unregistered(d)** » Mon Mar 25, 2002 9:37 pm

Hey, Dr.G, you're right!
Belgians also like to joke about Holland.

But, then again, we also like to joke about Belgium.
(It's a shitty country anyway, hate the bad weather and crappy government)

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