Bates Motel is an American drama television series developed for television by Carlton Cuse, Kerry Ehrin and Anthony Cipriano, produced by Universal Television for A&E. The series, being a "contemporary prequel" to the 1960 film Psycho, depicts the life of Norman Bates and his mother Norma prior to the events portrayed in Hitchcock's film, albeit in a different fictional town ("White Pine Bay, Oregon," as opposed to the film's "Fairvale, California") and in a modern, 21st-century setting. The series begins after the death of Norma's husband, when she purchases a motel located in a coastal Oregon town so she and Norman can start a new life.