From their experience in television, they began pitching their idea for Stranger Things, which Dan Cohen eventually brought to Shawn Levy. With Levy's 21 Laps production company on board, the show was quickly picked up by Netflix.[2][7] The show is set in the 1980s Indiana and is an homage to '80s pop culture,[8] inspired and aesthetically informed by the works of Steven Spielberg, John Carpenter, Stephen King, and George Lucas, among others.[9][10]