Prison Break at Fair Park

 

Prison Break was a hit show in the 00s that involved a group of guys breaking out of and into various prisons and then being on the run from, and sometimes working for, various government agencies.  It's better than it sounds.  

In season 2, the production moved to north Texas.  With other shows like Chase, The Good Guys, TNT's Dallas, it was a golden age for DFW television production.  In the 18th episode of the second season (2007), they took advantage of the great looking locations in Dallas' Fair Park, starting with "Jumbo," the Mammoth statue:

 The episode's story line involves the Prison Breakers needing to talk to some government dude but also feeling the need to make him jump through lots of hoops in order to make sure he's not bugged, being followed, or any other nonsense.  During the process, we get a pretty decent look at some of the Fair Park facilities.

 

Featured front and center were the weirdo sculptures in the lagoon and the swan paddle boats.  Our beleaguered fed was forced to wade in up to his neck to take care of any pesky electronics he might have one him.  From there he drip dries right into...

 

 

 ...the Women's Museum.  It closed down in 2011 but the building still hosts events and whatnot.  I have no idea if that multi-screen thing is still there or not but it's preserved in posterity in this episode.

After this the cat & mouse game came to a close, we get more brief glimpses of Fair Park, Deep Ellum, and other Dallas locations.  Check out the show if you want to see more of Big D on the small screen.

 

Dinner and a Show

The fourth episode of season 1 of Walker, Texas Ranger stars veteran character actor Bruce McGill (he played time cop Captain Braxton in Star Trek: Voyager and Al the Bartender/God in the last episode of Quantum Leap) as the bad guy who goes around town doing genuinely bad things.  One of his main stops is Brownie's Diner in the east part of Dallas:

In its heyday, Brownie's was a popular spot for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  It served up everything from Sanka to Flounder to Omelettes.  Take a minute to peruse the menu so you can decide what you would have ordered:

 I'd probably go with the coffee and Steak on a Bun.  As you can see below, not only is it no longer Brownies, the restaurant that replaced it is also closed down (must have been too many bad guys hanging around):

As Mr. Bad Guy leaves you can see the the Eckerd Drug Store and Motts...

...has been replaced by a Family Dollar and Check Cashing place:

Later in the episode there is some hubbub at an old school looking bank:

The building is located on the downtown square in McKinney, TX (north of Dallas).  It's a historic building that was a bank at one time but now it's an antique shop.

Here is the building's historical marker for your reading pleasure:

Of course Walker and his partner show up to put an end to the nonsense:

But unfortunately they didn't have time to visit downtown McKinney's many unique shops and restaurants (maybe they can plan a Saturday afternoon trip sometime):

A few roundhouse kicks later and McKinney was safe from Mr. Bad Guy...but for how long???