In Austin Powers ii, Mustapha crashes off a cliff next to a red phone box. Despite the presence of a red phone box, the road bears a striking similarity to the California coastal road.
It was there as part of the gag which was done in all three movies. In Hollywood, whenever they need 'England' its usually a dark dreary night street scene...cobbled streets & gas lamps. No, seriously. In the 90's, an episode of the New Adventures of Superman had him come to the UK...so cue establishing stock shot of London, then, that old movie set of London on the back lot of Universal Studios you saw on the tour & in 100 TV shows and...yes...gas lamps. Hollywood producers think we're at least a century behind the USA.
On ye olde (older than Accy) UK telly, 1960's shows with night scenes oddly are always dark enough so people can hide but bright enough to cast shadows and they can all see perfectly on cloudless 'nights', presumably, with the full moon up. This is, of course, the old trick of shooting in daylight & over-exposing the film.
In TV shows like the Avengers, characters always
live alone in massive country houses with driveways the size of Wembley arena and have about 30 bedrooms.
In most US shows, everyone can park directly outside where they need to be because of no yellow lines, bus stops, other vehicles, roadworks etc.
In shows like the X Files, no-one
ever thinks of switching the light on but resort to hunting the villain in the warehouse etc by using those 50,000 lumen torches they get from somewhere. And the villains always drive about in huge black SUV's with the windows tinted....black.
. I always loved the 101 variations of falling off an impossibly high cliff....with the little cloud of dust as he hits the ground
. And when they beam down, someone tends to walk past a few seconds earlier but fails to see anything!. In Star Trek: Strange New Worlds first episode, this prompts Captain Pike to ask 'Why is it always an alley?' as they materialise.
