Although filmed in Los Angeles, the series is set in a generic unnamed inner-city location with a feel of a U.S. urban center in the Midwest or Northeast. Steven Bochco had intended this fictional city to be a hybrid of Chicago, Buffalo, and Pittsburgh, the 'East River' comment notwithstanding.
The urban assault vehicle is manufactured by Nishitsu Corporation. This is the same Japanese corporation as in The Destroyer set of novels starring Remo Williams.
The title is a rhyming parody of the 1971 song "(I Never Promised You A) Rose Garden" written by Joe South and sung by country singer Lynn Anderson reaching number one on the country chart.
Lt. Hunter drives the just-delivered Nishitsu Panda north up the 200 block of S Los Angeles St in LA's Little Tokyo district, then turns right onto E 2nd St. to pass the then almost-new Matsuzakaya department store, before turning off the road into a parking lot in what is nowadays the middle of the Wakaba LA apartment complex.
Furillo tells Hunter that his tank was found stripped and gutted in the "East River." This should settle the debate on where the location of the show takes place as the East River is in New York.