30 Rock. King of Queens. Friends. Seinfeld. The Apprentice. Without a Trace. Heroes. Only 2.5 percent of Americans live in New York City. So why does it seem like half of the shows on TV are set there?

By the very nature of the business, most of the folks who get hired as writers for television hail from either New York or Los Angeles. Those who grew up in Gotham naturally write about what they know: riding the subway, rooting for the Yankees, and playing stickball as a kid. They’re comfortable in a crowded environment where citizens may seem a bit indifferent on a larger scale, but who manage to develop tight neighborhood groups and friendships on a smaller one. By contrast, Los Angeles is far more suburban and sprawling, connected by miles of freeway, with folks commuting in their own little microcosms (cars).

Urban dwellers in Chicago, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Toronto and many foreign cities can identify more with the daily grind of riding a crowded bus or train and living in an apartment (like New York) rather than a ranch-style home with a fenced back yard (like L.A.). And those same tightly-packed city folks are the ones who watch more TV than their rural counterparts and are the target demographic of advertisers.

New York has the added bonus of being home to some eight million very diverse inhabitants in a small geographic area. The craziness of it all makes for some interesting television. No situation is too improbable in New York, whether it involves finding a Soup Nazi, a psychic pet chiropractor, or a completely impromptu encounter with a bona fide celebrity.