Deep CT/NY Connections to HBO’s ‘I Know This Much is True’

I've been an HBO subscriber since the 70's, and in my opinion, HBO has produced some of America's finest original television programming. I've spent countless Sunday nights glued to the tv, watching The Wire, The Sopranos, Game of Thrones, and now, I Know This Much is True. It's a brutally honest, slow-paced tv series that features Mark Ruffalo in a dual role portraying twin brothers. Right from one of the opening shots, the locations in the show seemed familiar, and I recognized the Mid-Hudson Bridge in Poughkeepsie. I've heard of the author of the book that the tv series is based on, Wally Lamb before, so I did a little digging and found that the author and the tv series has very deep roots in this particular area of Connecticut and New York that we live in.

Let's start with the author, Wally Lamb. According to Wikipedia, Lamb is a native Nutmegger, born in Norwich. Lamb is an alumni, and former professor at UConn, and he was also a nominee for Connecticut Teacher of the Year when he worked at Norwich Free Academy. Lamb is very well known for his work with the inmates at York Correctional Institution in Niantic, and he won a lifetime achievement award from the Connecticut Center for the Book.

Lamb published I Know This Much is True in 1998. The book is set in the fictional Connecticut town of Three Rivers, which according to Wiki is based upon Lamb's hometown of Norwich and the surrounding SE CT cities and towns.

The TV series was actually filmed all around the Hudson Valley, I mentioned the Mid-Hudson Bridge earlier. There have been scenes that were filmed at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie (Standing in for UConn), Vassar Brothers Hospital, Stewart International Airport in Newburgh, Awosting Falls, Wappingers Falls, New Paltz, and Kingston.

I'm a member of the 'You know you lived/live in Danbury if..' group on Facebook, and fellow member and fan of the show Marc Catone posted that he noticed the name of a bar in the show's 3rd episode mentioned The Dial Tone Club, and wasn't that place in Danbury? Made me wonder if Lamb wandered out to this area and had some inspirational moment? Great catch though Marc, my ears always perk up when anything Connecticut is mentioned on national shows.