The important thing to remember is that although the show was set in Duluth, it was filmed in Hollywood, so the only "Duluthiness" on display was whatever the writers thought life in Duluth must be like. That, plus the exterior shots that featured in the open and the transitions between scenes and locations (think exteriors of Monk's cafe or Jerry's apartment building on Seinfeld--same deal). Those exteriors were shot by Lance Parthe of Parthe Productions, now Parthe Inc., located in Superior. Knowing Lance, he probably has an old VHS of the shows lying around somewhere that he taped when the shows were broadcast. In fact, I'd bet on it.

I'm aware of your point, Barrett, but I'm not sure everyone is. Minneapolis has a statue where Mary Tyler Moore threw her beret on Nicollet Avenue that perpetuates the myth this was a Minnesota-based production (when I was growing up in the Twin Cities, I can't count how many visitors wondered if we'd ever seen Mary). But there have been occasional -- albeit rare -- exceptions. A lot of "Corner Gas" (a popular Canadian sitcom) was in fact shot in the dinky town in Saskatchewan where the exteriors were filmed, although a number of interiors were shot elsewhere in a studio. I predict that with the advent of more compact cameras and the way audiences have embraced shaky-cam and low-bar reality-TV production values, it's only a matter of time before somebody produces a hit TV sit-com that's not studio-based. It's already happening all over the internet.

Barrett, I think you're presumption that "sets are far cheaper and easier" applies to the past/present paradigm, and that's my point: the new generation of talent is not bound by convention: shooting in someone's living room, kitchen, coffeehouse, neighborhood, etc. is much cheaper than renting studio space, building sets, rigging elaborate lighting and hiring large production crews -- plus, thanks to reality TV and the internet, audiences are no longer demanding any of that (thank you "Cops!"). Tons of compelling, homemade, low-production-value stuff is exploding all across Youtube, etc. and eventually someone will have the writing/acting/production talent to cobble together a sitcom that has mass appeal, perhaps because it doesn't look and feel like what is traditional -- and the networks will fight like wolves to claim it as their own and slap their logo on it precisely because it was so cheap to produce. It happened with independent film ("Blair Witch"), it happened with publishing ("Fifty Shades of Grey"); TV is next.