Best TV Shows Set in New York City

This is an off-kilter drama series starring James Spader as a disgraced former U.S. Navy officer wanted by the FBI who keeps a blacklist of global criminals that he sometimes shares with the FBI. Much of the series is set in the five boroughs of New York City, including scenes in Madison Square Park and at the Whitney Museum.

Each season of this anthology horror-drama series takes place in a different city – Los Angeles, New Orleans, Provincetown, etc. Its 11th season, which premiered in mid-October, is the first to feature New York City. Set in the 1980s, and concerning the serial murders of gay men and the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, the season was filmed entirely in Manhattan and Brooklyn and the surrounding area, including Westchester County

A multiple Emmy-nominee, “Only Murders” is a comedy-drama starring funnymen Steven Martin and Martin Short, with pop singer-actress Selena Gomez as their cohort. All three are residents in a classic Upper West Side apartment building (exteriors are filmed at the real-life Belnord Apartments on Broadway and 86th Street). The series is shot entirely in Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx, and parts of Long Island, and many buildings and streets are recognizable.

“Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” a spinoff of the original “Law & Order,” is a long-running crime drama series set in New York City. The New York County Supreme Court stairs are often seen on the show. Other locations that are among those frequently seen in the series include Foley Square, One Police Plaza, and Union Square.

The Emmy Award-winning series focuses on 30-something Piper Chapman (Taylor Schilling), a public relations executive living in New York City who is sentenced to 15 months in jail for transporting a suitcase containing drug money for a friend, and serves her sentence at a women’s federal prison in upstate New York.

“Ray Donovan,” starring Liev Schreiber in the title role, is about a fixer who helps celebrities cover up their misdeeds. For the first five seasons, Donovan is based in Los Angeles, but in the last two, he has moved to New York City, and many scenes were shot in office buildings and bars in Brooklyn and in such famous Manhattan locations as Times Square, Central Park, and Rockefeller Center.

Winner of 16 Emmys, “30 Rock” (the address is real, and the home of NBC studios at Rockefeller Center), is a comedy created and starring Tina Fey as the head writer of a sketch comedy show (inspired by “Saturday Night Live”) dealing with unpredictable performers and arrogant bosses. Besides Rockefeller Center, scenes were shot on Riverside Park, Harlem, and various locations in midtown Manhattan.

The premise of “How I Met Your Mother,” which won 10 Emmys, is about a father recounting to his children – via flashbacks – the journey he and his friends took ultimately leading up to him meeting their mother. Among the New York City locations shown on the program is the fictional MacLaren’s pub, which was inspired by McGee’s Pub on West 55th Street.

The cutthroat world of high finance is the focus in this New York-centric drama about a U.S. district attorney (at least at first) and his efforts to bring down a ruthless billionaire hedge fund manager and then, when that billionaire is forced into exile, to counteract the efforts of another billionaire, this one seemingly benign. The entire New York area features at various times in the show, including Midtown, the Upper West Side, Tribeca, and Wall Street, as well as Brooklyn, Queens, and Yonkers City. There are also scenes set in such iconic New York restaurants as Gramercy Tavern, Union Square Café, Peter Luger, Sushi Nakazawa, and Daniel.

The series is based on a British show of the same name. It’s about a New York City detective in the 21st century who while investigating a crime is hit by a car and transported back to the year 1973. The series cast included Jason O’Mara, Harvey Keitel, Michael Imperioli, and Gretchen Mol and was filmed at various locations around Manhattan.

This is an animated series is about a young man bitten by a radioactive spider who acquires proportional spider-like abilities and fights crime as a superhero in New York City while trying to maintain a normal life.

Though this Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning espionage thriller series followed Los Angeles-based counter-terrorist expert Jack Bauer and was set mostly in that city, its eight and final season was set in New York – sort of. In fact the entire season was filmed in the L.A. area, with stock footage and special effects allowing viewers to see the Manhattan skyline, the Hotel Chelsea, the UN Building, the George Washington Bridge, and numerous recognizable street scenes.

“Fringe” is about a FBI agent who works with an institutionalized scientist and his son in order to figure out unexplained phenomena. One episode features an alternate universe plotline in which the 9/11 terrorist attacks occur, but the World Trade Center is not destroyed. Though some of the series is filmed in Manhattan and on Staten Island, most of it is shot in Toronto and Vancouver.

As the title indicates, this comedy crime series, starring Andy Samberg, is set in a fictional police precinct in Brooklyn. While most of the Emmy-winning series was shot in Los Angeles, the real 78th NYPD precinct in Brooklyn provided the establishing shots for the 99th precinct.

The pioneering sitcom “I Love Lucy” became the template for American television comedies. Lucille Ball plays the wife of bandleader (Desi Arnaz, Ball’s real husband). They live in a New York City apartment, where Lucy frequently puts herself into laughably awkward situations. The series takes place in New York City but it was one of the first to be shot in Los Angeles.

“The Knick” is a historical drama about the professional and personal lives of staffers at New York’s Knickerbocker Hospital, located in the city’s Harlem neighborhood, during the early 20th century. Many scenes were shot in Brooklyn.

“Person of Interest” is a science fiction crime drama. A burnt-out former CIA operative turned vagrant in New York City teams with a wealthy software genius who created a computer system for the U.S. government after the 9/11 terrorist attacks that monitors all electronic communications in order to predict future terrorist activities. The series was shot at Silvercup Studios in Queens and at other locations in Queens and Manhattan.

“The Punisher,” a revenge-themed series, was about a Marine veteran turned vigilante seeking to avenge the murder of his family who uncovers a criminal conspiracy in New York City. Some of the scenes were shot in Queens and Brooklyn.

Six-time Emmy-winning “Futurama” is about a pizza delivery boy who is accidentally frozen in 1999 and thawed out on New Year’s Eve 2999, and experiences an extreme version of today’s New York City.

The drama “Suits” is about a law school dropout on the lam after a drug deal gone bad who ends up working with one of New York City’s best lawyers. Although the series – which brought to prominence Meghan Markle, now England’s controversial Duchess of Sussex – takes place in New York City, and some scenes were shot there, most of the show was filmed in Toronto.

The misadventures of a couple of shepherds turned folk-rock musicians from New Zealand trying to make it in the Big Apple might not sound like a very promising subject for a series, but this sweetly funny, off-the-wall effort by Kiwis Jermaine Clement and Bret McKenzie – who have a real-life comedy-musical group with the same name as the show – quickly won a cult following. Many exteriors were shot on the Lower East Side, with the interiors mostly filmed at Steiner Studios in Brooklyn.

This is an Emmy-winning series about gay and transgender culture in New York City in the 1980s and 1990s, the society that shuns them, and the fear brought on by the AIDS epidemic. The series was filmed at parks in Brooklyn as well as at various sites in Manhattan.

“Impractical Jokers” follows four friends in New York who challenge each other to perform absurd stunts and dares. Many of the episodes were filmed on Staten Island, where the friends are from.

“Boardwalk Empire,” based on the life of Atlantic City political boss and criminal big shot Enoch L. Johnson, takes place mostly during Prohibition. Though the plot focuses on Atlantic City and its environs, many of the scenes are in lower Manhattan, where organized crime grew dramatically in the 1920s and ’30s

“Mr. Robot” starred Oscar-winner Rami Malek as a cyber-security engineer and vigilante hacker who tries to take down the corrupt corporation in New York City that employs him. Among the various locations where the series was filmed were Coney Island and Brooklyn.

The critically acclaimed “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” is about a young Jewish wife and mother living on Manhattan’s Upper West Side in the late 1950s and early ’60s who finds success as a comedian. The 20-time Emmy winner was shot in Manhattan and Brooklyn. The exterior shots of Mrs. Maisel’s apartment are of the Strathmore building on the Upper West Side.

“This Is Us” is a series about a unique set of triplets and their struggles. One of the triplets is an aspiring actor whose career takes him to New York City – though the series was shot almost entirely in Los Angeles.

“Mad Men,” set in 1960s New York City, is a stylish series about the quintessential Manhattan industry, advertising. There were a cavalcade of Gotham’s locations used for filming, among them Sardi’s Restaurant, the American Museum of Natural History, the Time-Life Building, Grand Central Oyster Bar, and The Plaza

Larry David created and stars in this fictionalized version of his own life, playing the co-creator and co-writer of a hit sitcom with awkward social skills. Though the show is set primarily in Los Angeles, the latter half of season 8 is set in New York City, David’s hometown. Central Park, Washington Square Park, the Loew Regency Hotel, City Hall Restaurant, and numerous other Manhattan locations are featured.

Thirteen-time Emmy winner “Succession” is loosely based on the Murdoch media conglomerate. The series focuses on the Roy family media empire, whose world is changed when the patriarch appears to be stepping down from the company. Among the New York City locations are the Woolworth Building, the Cooper Union, and the new Penn Station entrance in the Farley Post Office.

Few television shows are more closely associated with New York City than “Seinfeld,” a sitcom about four neurotic New Yorkers. Though Jerry Seinfeld’s apartment is identified as being on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, the exterior is actually a building in Los Angeles. Monk’s, the restaurant that figures in many episodes, is really an eatery called Tom’s Restaurant, located near Columbia University.