Bay City is the setting of the television soap opera Another World.

Location

Until the early 1980s, it was not known which state Bay City was in. Generically, the show was just set in the midwest. It was at this time that the writers specified that Another World was located in Bay City, Illinois. The city on the show is not related to Bay City, Michigan, where many viewers assumed Another World took place.

Originally a tiny hamlet, the town became the headquarters for Cory Publishing. The magnate, Mac Cory (played by Douglass Watson) started publishing the magazine Brava here. His daughter, Iris, continued the tradition when Mac died, starting a magazine called Sophisticate.