Apparently we were foolish to believe the rest of the country saw our glorious state as more than a hot body in a red bathing suit.
A doctoral student in geography, Andrew Shears, came up with a nifty map (which appears after the jump) that appeared on his blog that identifies each of the 50 states by a television show. California's TV equivalent? Baywatch, of course.
That's better than what the East Coast's beach-centric state, Florida, ended up with–Golden Girls. Well, in Florida's defense, Betty White has had quite the resurgence as of late.
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Is it far-fetched to link the current state deficit to the demise of the show in the late '90s? Think about it: how many tourists did we lose when the show went to re-runs and it came out that starlet Pamela Anderson had Hepatitis C? A generation of tourists, mostly Europeans, booked flights and hotel rooms and Baywatch Tours in hopes of catching a glimpse of a hotty lifeguard or Huge-In-Germany David “The Hoff” Hasselhoff. That's a lot of dollars, cents and fanny-packs gone from beaches and boardwalks up and down LA County and even into OC.
We have to ask: Was Baywatch really the best choice? What about The Beverly Hillbillies? The Brady Bunch? Californication (come on guys, we know we consider that lifestyle somewhat appealing!)? Saved By The Bell? Alright, alright, Baywatch will do.
