Hop aboard the NYC TV & Movie Tour and the Central Park TV & Movie Sites Tour to see locations from TV shows like Broad City on Comedy Central.
Broad City was created by Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson. It started as a web series, which ran from 2009 to 2011, and ran for five seasons from 2014 to 2019 on Comedy Central. The series is based on Glazer and Jacobson’s real life friendship and their attempt to make it in New York City.
The series follows friends Ilana and Abbi, fictionalized versions of themselves but still two Jewish Americans in their twenties. Their life is full of crazy adventures about their spontaneous lives in NYC on a budget. Ilana is lazy and always looks for an opportunity to skip work at her sales company, following a hedonistic lifestyle. Abbi is a bit different and tries to make it as an illustrator while working at a gym on the side. However, most of the time she gets tangled up in strange things Ilana is doing.
In the series, there are a few cast members that keep on returning in the lives of Ilana and Abbi. One of them is the boyfriend of Abbi’s (never seen) roommate Melody, Matt Bevers (John Gemberling), who is always in Abbi’s apartment in Queens and practically lives there for free, eating her food and always on the couch. This results in hilarious moments between Abbi and Bevers.
Across the hall lives Jeremy Santos (Stephen Schneider), an attractive man who Abbi has a crush on for most of the series. Everytime Jeremy gets close to Abbi, she gets nervous and doesn’t know what to say.
Abbi works at Soulstice, a parody of gyms like SoulCycle and Equinox, and her boss Trey Pucker (Paul W. Downs) is a nice guy, who is a hardcore health and fitness enthusiast. Most of the series he has Abbi clean things in the gym and doesn’t let her become a fitness instructor, oblivious to her feelings. In season 3 Abbi and Trey start dating and Abbi tries to keep this a secret from Ilana.
Lincoln Rice (Hannibal Buress), a successful pediatric dentist has a friends-with-benefits relationship with Ilana. Lincoln wants more from their relationship, but Ilana has commitment issues. He is a nice and easy going guy, who is also friends with Abbi.
There are multiple locations that the characters frequent throughout the series. Madison Square Park is used for different occasions throughout the five seasons, one as Ilana tries to scrounge up money to go to a Lil Wayne concert on the steps of the Admiral David Glasgow Farragut statue by trying her hand at bucket drumming. This is also where Lincoln calls it quits with Ilana later in the series.
Soulstice in the show is actually Chalk Gyms in real life, where Abbi works (er, cleans everything). From puke to pubic hair, it can get messy. The gym is located on North 9th Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
When Abbi has to pick up a package at the pickup point from UPS, she has to go North Brother Island. The trip to the inaccessible island is hilarious, as the island doesn’t exist in real life. Everyone who has ever been to Maspeth, the actual location of the UPS hub, understands the irritation and frustration to get there. When Abbi arrives on the island, the only way to pick up the package is when you have a proper ID and you can only pick it up between 12pm – 2:15pm.
When Ilana wants to have a new look, she goes to The Pleasure Chest, together with her brother Eliot (Eliot Glazer, Ilana’s real life brother), to try something a little more seductive. The Pleasure Chest is a chain, but the girls visit the one in the West Village (which is also a stop on the Sex and the City Hotspots Tour!)
When the girls are on their way to a wedding outside NYC, they have to take public transit to get there. They first arrive at Grand Central Terminal, only to realize their train tickets actually leave from Penn Station across town.
Abbi and Ilana walk pass Gramercy Park and dream about going in the private park, but they have no key to get in. One of the rich nearby residents starts to choke on a sandwich, and the girls must comedically give him the Heimlich maneuver through the fence. After the man still doesn’t let Abbi and Ilana in the park, they walk away as he starts choking a second time. Gramercy Park can be found between Park Ave and 3rd ave on 21st street and is Jessica Jones’ neighborhood in the popular Netflix series. You can stop at this park on The Super Tour of NYC.
In Season 2, you can see Abbi and Ilana hanging out at the fountain in Washington Square Park. Washington Square Park and other sites from Broad City can be seen in our NYC TV and Movie Tour.
Another popular hangout for the girls is the biggest park in Manhattan, Central Park. See sites where Abbi and Ilana visit, like Bethesda Terrace, on the Central Park TV & Movie Sites Tour.
There is even a mobile game based on the series, named: Broad City: High Score!
Broad City has been nominated twice for Best Comedy Series at the Critics Choice Awards, with Ilana Glazer also being nominated twice for her role. In addition, both girls shared a nomination in 2017 for Best Comedic Performance at the MTV Movie & TV Awards.
* In an effort to stay current, we are constantly updating our tours with new locations and cannot guarantee the presence of locations mentioned on our site. If you have a particular interest in locations from a specific TV show or movie, please let your tour guide know and we will do our best to accommodate your request.