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Whoever said television is a glamorous business obviously never visited Stuckeyville. You can't blame them, exactly. Stuckeyville, the small Ohio town where the charming NBC television show Ed takes place, doesn't actually exist. But you can still get there if you try.
To find Stuckeyville, you must turn your back on the centre of the world--New York City and its corridors of American power--and drive northwest. As you cross the grand swoop of the Hudson River, you'll feel the warmth of New Jersey's verdant embrace. Behind you, the mammoth metropolis will fade from view like an anaconda soundlessly slipping into a tropical lagoon. A few minutes on a narrow road will bring you to a low-slung beige bunker from the 1950s, unremarkable except for a neon sign atop the roof that reads: Stuckeybowl.
You have arrived. This disused bowling alley on the outskirts of Northvale, N.J., is where Ed is filmed and where Stuckeyville comes to life. The eastern half of the building is a real working bowling alley and the other half shelters additional sets for Ed.
This unlikely television production hub shares a parking lot with a hardware and lumber store next door. Large men in tool belts and work boots stomp in and out, narrowly avoiding the 18-wheeler that's noisily backing up to belch out its weekly load. Across the street, an American flag hangs listlessly in the front window of the local legion hall.
You want glamour? Go to L.A. or chase your tail back to New York, because here--about 30 minutes from the Rockefeller Center headquarters of NBC in midtown Manhattan--TV is a blue-collar profession. There are no Hollywood trappings to be found. No armed security guards, no stretch limousines cruising up to enormous gates, no spoiled divas pleading for protection from the assaultive paparazzi and frenzied public.
Crouched on the front stoop of Stuckeybowl, actor Rachel Cronin crunches the butt of a Natural American Spirit cigarette beneath her running shoe. "It's really great," she says, flashing mesmerizing green-gold eyes toward the parking lot. "There are no walls or barricades. People just walk through here and do their business. People drive by when you're walking to lunch. They'll honk and wave, but it's kind of like we're...