The Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge is hosted by Long and Short Reviews. This week’s topic is: book/movie/TV show set in or near your town.
I can’t think of a lot of books set here in Las Vegas, however, I know that Vicki Peterson set her Celestial Blues and Signs of the Zodiac series here. She was also born here and was even a showgirl at one time. Having met her on a couple occasions, I can see why – she’s exceptionally pretty and very personable.
Also, the farther I get into the Harry Bosch books, the more I see that he spends a lot of time in Sin City. I haven’t come across any actually set here yet, however, but I’m only five books in, so maybe in the future?
There are probably more movies than I care to recount that have been set here, so I’m going to skip that bit. For this post, my nerdy heart is going to focus on TV shows.
First, there’s the obvious: the original CSI, Las Vegas, and then the classic Vegas starring Robert Urich. Fun side notes: they often filmed Vegas on the same street as the bank my mother worked in back then. In addition, Las Vegas sometimes featured guest appearances by both Wolfgang Puck and former Las Vegas Mayor, Oscar Goodman.
Second, you have the fun and informative shows which are often my favorite. Pawn Stars, which is set in a local pawn shop that deals in a lot of antique and unusual items. I love the fact that they often pull in local experts to authenticate items brought into the shop, explaining their history. In conjunction with this is American Restoration, a show about an antiques restorer. Rick, from Pawn Stars, sometimes brought things to Rick at Rick’s Restoration, so that he could resell them later. Again, American Restoration also delved into the history of the items being restored.
Lastly is probably my favorite – Tanked. The show followed brothers-in-law Brett and Wayde as they make massive, custom tanks for customers all over the country. They talk about proper maintenance of the tanks, the different types of fish, and all sorts of fun things. Unfortunately, they have since gone out of business, which is a shame. Another interesting side note: the company I work for helped build the office they moved into a few years before they disbanded.
Nerdy Reader Girl 
It’s cool that your company helped build an office for the Tanked people. What a shame that they later went out of business.
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I thought so, too. We take plumbing for granted, but seeing what they needed for it all was kind of cool. Agreed, but one of the owners and his ex-wife (who was the sister of the other owner) had a bit of a fallout that I think caused them to close shop.
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Lots happens in Vegas. It must be a fascinating place to live in.
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Indeed it does! I’ve been here almost my entire life at this point, so it’s just life to me. But from the outside, I’m sure it looks interesting!
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I’m surprised there aren’t TONS more books, etc., set there. You’d think it would be an amazing place for stories of all kinds!
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I’m sure there are a lot more books/movies, but I was working and didn’t want to go down too much of a rabbit hole! But I agree – I always thought it’d be a great place to set a vampire series (movie, TV, book) because of the 24 hour nature of the town. Plus, in the summer, there’s so much residual heat during the nighttime, you’d feel warm even if you were undead. LOL
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That’s a really interesting (and broad!) selection of books and shows. I’ve only been there once, and it seems like it would be a deeply weird place to actually live. (I don’t mean that in an insulting way; I like weirdness.)
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I thought so, too, which is fun! And no insult taken – it can be a very odd place to live at times. I can’t really explain it since I really haven’t spent a lot of time living anywhere else, but it’s just not like anywhere else, for better or for worse.
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I would love to see Las Vegas some day. It sounds like a great place to visit.
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It can definitely be a lot of fun!
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