FOXBURG, Pa. (EYT) — Imagine seeing actor Nathan Fillion as a police officer patrolling the streets of Foxburg or snacking on a sandwich at the Allegheny Grille. Imagine him getting robbed in a Foxburg bank.

Imagination is the key in Fillion’s role in the new ABC show “The Rookie,” and it all starts in Foxburg.

“Rookie” Producer Mark Gordon bought the life rights from a real-life Los Angeles cop who was the oldest rookie on the force when he began a few years ago.

Fillion, former star of “Castle,” plays the recently divorced John Nolan visiting a bank in Foxburg that gets robbed. Nolan decides to become a beat cop at age 40 and heads to Los Angeles. This is a chance for him to take a new direction.

According to Pittsburgh Post Gazette TV writer Rob Owen, Nolan is surrounded by other LAPD rookies who are half his age.

Series creator Alexi Hawley said he chose Foxburg because he was looking at a map and thought Foxburg looked like a good place for Nolan to be from; it is a small town, and John Nolan is a very blue-collar type of guy.

Imagination is a wonderful thing, but there are some differences between the real-life Foxburg and the TV version.

Foxburg Mayor Dick Garrard said Thursday he had not heard anything about the new series. Furthermore, Foxburg doesn’t have any banks within the borough limits.  It still isn’t known if the TV shoot will shoot any footage in Foxburg.

“We don’t have a police force. We used to hire the Emlenton Police to drive through town and cover any summons we needed to make. We don’t have one anymore and just defer to the Pennsylvania State Police. We were paying $700.00 a month for Emlenton to drive past (the) town and maybe get someone who might have grass growing over six inches high and give someone a summons.  That was the only reason we had them. Three years ago, the council decided not to pay it, and we don’t have any police coverage.”

Hawley said the real-life cop is from the area but wouldn’t identify the town.

“The idea of playing a character who is at a crossroads in his life and is willing to sort of throw everything aside and change his entire life without knowing how it’s going to work out was kind of a great jumping‑off point for a character,” Hawley explained.

“Obviously, the older you get, the harder a transition becomes. I do think that we are living in an age where there are plenty of people who are deciding that they want to change things up, even at a young age. I think it used to be that you would get a career and you would stick in it no matter what, and then maybe you’d get to your 40s and have a midlife crisis is what they call it. But I do think that it’s sort of a universal thing.”