Republicans may not have rebranded themselves “Knotheads,” and the left might not yet have succeeded in removing “In God We Trust” from the penny nor in adding “Abortion Now” to their party name - but our politics have become hyperpolarized, with the extremes more potent than ever before.īlatant segregation isn’t as much a problem as it was five decades ago and an armed band of Bantus are unlikely to form a separatist state anytime soon - but racial tensions have ratcheted up, and talk of shifting the balance of power along racial lines dominates national discussion. While the details differ, the sociopolitical backdrop Percy paints - one in which “Americans have turned against each other” along political, racial and religious lines - should seem eerily familiar today, even though the book was published in 1971 and is set in the mid-1980s. Also within the visitors center, you can get maps and information about filming locations and a walk of stars that they have through town.For the contemporary reader, working through Walker Percy’s Love in the Ruins is likely to induce something along the lines of déjà vu. I don’t know anything about The Vampire Diaries other than when I got back home and told the rest of the family it was filmed there, my 17 year old daughter was not happy that she wasn’t with us. Outside the center are town signs from ‘Sparta’ from Heat, as well as ‘Mystic Falls’ from The Vampire Diaries. The morning we stopped at the Visitors Center, there was a group of about 40 people embarking on a guided tour of the The Vampire Diaries sites. It seems as this is now by far the most popular show filmed there, as it was more recent and has a huge following. One thing that we learned, was that the The Vampire Diaries was also filmed in Covington. Inside there is a treasure trove of information about the town and filming sites, in addition to tons of artifacts from the film productions. The next morning we stopped at the Visitors Center in town. ![]() We pulled off the road into a driveway blocked by a fence, but i was enough to get a good image of the site.Ĭovington / Newton County Visitors Bureau – 2101 Clark Street SW Unfortunately, I have been unable to find a still image from the show to compare what it looked like back then to today, and it is also private property so it is difficult to get close to the site. To me, the mill site is very iconic just from the surrounding nature and the angles that the crew would film from. Several events throughout the filming of the series occurred in or around this site. This is actually in Porterdale, GA just outside of Covington. Our first stop on the way into town was at a location often referred to in Heat as ‘the old mill’. ‘The Old Mill’ – In the Heat of the Night – Main Street, Porterdale, GA Add in anything Burt Reynolds, and we have a winner! So, what this means for me is that except for a three year gap in the mid 1980’s, I was watching shows filmed in or originally based in Covington from the ages of 3 to 19. The first few episodes of HOTN were filmed in other cities, but by December of 1988, all future episodes were in Covington. In the Heat of the Night premiered in 1988 and ran through 1995. ![]() The Dukes of Hazzard was first broadcast in January of 1979, and ran through 1985. If any single one of these productions had been filmed there, it would be worth the trip for us, but all combined makes this an even more special place. ![]() For us, Covington is somewhat of a ‘holy grail’ site to visit, as it was the home to the first 5 episodes of The Dukes of Hazzard (which were the best ever), several seasons of In the Heat of the Night, the scene in Cannonball Run where Burt Reynolds and Dom DeLuise land their plane off the town square to grab more beer, and countless other shows and movies. We’d been there before in 2011, and had longed to return when we could spend a little more time. As part of our trip through Georgia earlier this summer, we spent a night in Covington, GA.
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