The most memorable movies and TV shows set in classic New York

There are a few Martin Scorsese films on this list without including all his NYC period pieces. That said, we had to include Gangs of New York. He went to great lengths to recreate 1860s New York…and then let Cameron Diaz do that accent.

The classic King Kong from the ‘30s is not a period piece. It’s a contemporary film. That movie is set in 1933, just like Peter Jackson’s remake. He sets the action in vintage New York City, at least after they get off the island, but the special effects are a bit more robust this time around.

Julian Fellowes did big things for a bygone England with Downton Abbey. Now, he’s turned his attention to New York. His new HBO show The Gilded Age is set in 1880s New York City when it was a booming metropolis. Of course, he’s still doing his classic “upstairs, downstairs” thing, but this time, America style.

No, this isn’t a show about the glory days of Patrick Ewing. Instead, it’s about the Knickerbocker Hospital in 1900. Clive Owen stars as John Thackery, an opium addict who is also a surgeon at a time when medicine was much less advanced. Steven Soderbergh directed every episode, and it can be as brutal as most horror movies.

Do you know when people complain about New York City being too “nice” and “safe” now? The people who watch Taxi Driver and wish things were still like that? The Deuce is a throwback to that era. It’s set in a Times Square that would be unrecognizable now. The show was co-created by David Simon of The Wire fame, and while it wasn’t as popular, it still had those Simon touches.

Scorsese did an 1860s New York film about violence and territorialism. Before that, he did a costume drama set in 1870s New York. It’s based on the famed Edith Wharton novel of the same name and featured an early collaboration between Scorsese and Daniel Day-Lewis. Fittingly, he was also in Gangs of New York as a very different character.

It’s considered by many the best film of all time. It won Best Picture, and so did its sequel. While there are detours to Las Vegas and Italy, most of the action is in New York. You feel ensconced in the streets of 1940s NYC in this crime epic.

The Coen Brothers decided to do a screwball comedy — or at least their take on it — and figured they’d set it in a period where such movies were more popular. The Hudsucker Proxy is set in 1958 and features Tim Robbins as a recent denizen of New York who works his way up the ladder at Hudsucker, though not always ethically.

OK, one last Scorsese film. We could have mentioned Goodfellas or a few other movies, but The Irishman feels the most immersed in bygone New York. The fact feels more like a true biopic than Goodfellas helps. Scorsese got Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Joe Pesci to all show up for his massive, sprawling film. It would have been a fitting coda to his career, but Scorsese is still working.

The Coens return to New York but a very different aspect of it. This film is set in the Greenwich Village folk music scene. Oscar Isaac had a breakthrough role as the titular musician, a ne’er-do-well, and misanthrope who makes his way around New York, mainly because he has nowhere to go and lost a cat.

New York used to be the hub of television, and it was the place where the game show Twenty-One was filmed. Robert Redford’s underrated film is based on the real game show scandals that rocked the television industry in the 1950s. It also involves a bit of class stratification in the city, as Queens resident Herb Stempel is asked to give way to blue-blooded Columbia professor Charles Van Doren.

First, we’re glad Patricia Highsmith’s novel was republished under the title Carol. The Price of Salt would have been a hard sell. This tale of a torrid, forbidden love affair between two women (Rooney Mara and Cate Blanchett) in 1950s New York is immaculately shot by Todd Haynes. The movie made New York at Christmas in 1952 feel beautiful.

New York is a hub for immigrants. That’s been true since basically the birth of the city. In Brooklyn, Eilis Lacey comes over from Ireland to the titular borough to try and make her way in her new country. The fact Saoirse Ronan plays Lacey helps. For once, she got to use her native Irish accent.

Steve Rogers, a.k.a. Captain America, was famously from Brooklyn. However, most of the action in Captain America: The First Avenger occurred overseas during World War I. Agent Carter, the TV show spun off from that film, keeps the action in New York City. Well, at least for the first season. In the second season, Peggy Carter heads out to Los Angeles, which is a classic move.

This Emmys-devouring comedy show is extremely indebted to classic New York City. It feels like it makes a lot out of its setting. Of course, if you are going to have a show built on the entertainment industry, you have to choose from a couple of cities. It feels fitting that Midge Maisel begins as a New York housewife and ends up working in the world of standup comedy. Only in New York, as they say.

We’re starting to realize just how many movies are set in 1950s New York. Why do people love it so much? At least it makes sense for My Favorite Year. The movie’s protagonist is a writer for the variety show of a Sid Caesar stand-in. That’s very 1950s New York. Benjy Stone convinces his boss Stan Kaiser to have his favorite actor Alan Swann have a cameo on the show. Benjy is put in charge of wrangling Alan, who unfortunately happens to have a bit of a drinking problem.

With so many period gangster films being set in New York, a parody movie was inevitable. You know, with a “Weird Al” Yankovic theme song and everything. Michael Keaton, just before his breakout into superstardom, plays Johnny Kelly, a New York boy that gets swept up in the world of crime.

Another immigrant tale, although this one involves mice. Fievel Mousekewitz and his family emigrated from Russia to the United States, only to get separated. Fievel has to make his way around New York looking for his family. In the sequel, he headed West because even mice do that.

Michael Mann makes high-octane action movies and crime flicks. So naturally, he made The Insider, a movie about…whistleblowing on the tobacco industry and the TV show 60 Minutes? It was an unusual choice for him, but it got a Best Picture nomination, so it worked. Based on a true story, the film sees a lot of the action in New York, where CBS and 60 Minutes were based. The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal are both involved. Also, Christopher Plummer plays Mike Wallace and does quite a good job.

The Insider starred Russell Crowe, and he co-stars in American Gangster as well. The film is about the true story of New York drug kingpin Frank Lucas, played by Denzel Washington in this movie. Ridley Scott shot the movie all over New York to bring this story to the screen. Though it was no longer 1968, the city still did a solid job playing itself.