Upper West Side

The Upper West Side is a neighborhood of the borough of Manhattan in New York City that lies between Central Park and the Hudson River.

In film, television, and the arts

The Upper West Side has been a setting for many movies and television shows because of its pre-War architecture, colorful community and rich cultural life. Ever since Edward R. Murrow went "Person-to-Person" live, the length of Central Park West in the 1950s, West Siders scarcely pause to gape at on-site trailers, and jump their skateboards over coaxial cables and it seems that one or another of the various Law & Order shows is taking up all the available parking spaces in the neighborhood. Woody Allen's film "Hannah and Her Sisters" captures that quintessential Upper West Side flavor of rambling high-ceilinged apartments bursting at the seams with books and other cultural artifacts.

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Lately, sections of the UWS have become known to those in the Modern Orthodox Judaism community as the epicenter of singles socializing. Although the Upper West Side continues to house some secular Jews who do not keep kosher and who value their cultural Jewish identity more than their religious identity, they are quickly being priced out of the expensive real estate market.

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Movies

• The Apartment (1960)
• Cruel Intentions 3 (2004), takes place at an Upper West Side prep school
• ' (1995), includes a scene set outside the subway station at 72nd St. and Broadway
• Ghost Busters (1984), the opening of the movie, when a library is overrun with ghosts, is actually at Columbia University and the building where Sigourney Weaver's character lives is 55 Central Park West, at 66th St.
• Home Alone 2 (1992) takes place in Central Park, and in a townhouse on 95th St. as well as other locations throughout New York.
• Keeping the Faith (2000), various church locations http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0171433/locations
• Kissing Jessica Stein (2002)
• Panic Room (2002), takes place on West 91st Street
• Rosemary's Baby (1968), apartment building in movie is The Dakota
• Single White Female (1992), apartment building in movie is the Ansonia
• Vanilla Sky (2001), car accident at center of movie happens in Riverside Park, near 96th Street http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0259711/locations
• West Side Story (1961), takes place in tenements where Lincoln Center is today, around 66th Street
• You've Got Mail (1998), used many UWS locations, such as the park at 72nd Street and Riverside Drive. The DVD of movie includes an interactive tour of the neighborhood. The storyline is also in some degree appropriate to the area because two well-loved UWS independent bookstores, Shakespeare & Co. and Eeyore's, were driven out of business in the late 1990s when they were sandwiched by two branches of a national chain bookstore. Another amusing sidelight relating to the local character of the movie was the scene in which the two principals enter a movie theater. The multiplex exists, and the sub-theater in which they go to watch the movie later showed You've Got Mail.
• Various Woody Allen movies
• The end of Annie Hall involves a shot of the Thalia Theater at 95th and Broadway.

Television

• Law & Order - often used Upper West Side and Morningside Heights locations near Columbia University for filming.
• Seinfeld - Jerry in the series lived at 129 West 81st St., and the series used exteriors from locations such as Tom's Restaurant and H&H Bagels. Seinfeld himself is an owner of an apartment in the Beresford at 81st Street and Central Park West.
• Sex and the City - used many locations including Gray's Papaya and Zabar's.
• Will & Grace - Will lives in 155 Riverside Drive, Apartment 9C. Jack lives in 155 Riverside Drive, Apartment 9A.

Music

• "Classical Rap" - this parody by Peter Schickele, on his album "P.D.Q. Bach: Oedipus Tex & Other Choral Calamities", describes the travails of living on the Upper West Side, as a Yuppie chants hip-hop lyrics to a classical instrumental background.
• Tom's Diner - A song by Suzanne Vega focusing on a woman on a rainy morning at Tom's Restaurant at 112th and Broadway.