Friend of Forman and Fez on That 70s Show / TUE 3-29-22 / Onetime movie studio rival of MGM / Rocky outcrops / Ancient statesman known as the Censor / Valuable violin informally

Constructor: Jamey Smith

Relative difficulty: Easy (easiest Tuesday puzzle I've done in a long time, easier than most Mondays)

THEME: toponyms — specifically, toponyms that are also metonyms for industries:

Theme answers:

• NASHVILLE (18A: "The country music industry")
• K STREET (20A: "The lobbying industry")
• SILICON VALLEY (26A: "The high-tech industry")
• MADISON AVENUE (42A: "The advertising industry")
• DETROIT (51A: "The automotive industry")
• HOLLYWOOD (54A: "The film industry")

Word of the Day: toponym / metonym (see ... all the theme answers) —

Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics (from Ancient Greek: τόπος / tópos, 'place', and ὄνομα / onoma, 'name') is the study of toponyms (proper names of places, also known as place name or geographic name), their origins and meanings, use and typology. Toponym is the general term for a proper name of any geographical feature, and full scope of the term also includes proper names of all cosmographical features.   

Metonymy (/mɛˈtɒnəmi/) is a figure of speech in which a thing or concept is referred to by the name of something closely associated with that thing or concept. [...] A country's capital city or some location within the city is frequently used as a metonym for the country's government, such as Washington, D.C., in the United States; Ottawa in Canada; Tokyo in Japan; New Delhi in India; Downing Street or Whitehall in the United Kingdom; and the Kremlin in Russia. Similarly, other important places, such as Wall Street, Madison Avenue, Silicon Valley, Hollywood, Vegas, and Detroit are commonly used to refer to the industries that are located there (finance, advertising, high technology, entertainment, gambling, and motor vehicles, respectively). Such usage may persist even when the industries in question have moved elsewhere, for example, Fleet Street continues to be used as a metonymy for the British national press, though many national publications are no longer headquartered on the street of that name. (emph. mine) (wikipedia)

There's not much to this. It's just a bunch of toponyms that stand for industries. That is literally all that it is. There are six such toponyms. . . and . . . ta da!? This is one of the thinnest themes in recent memory. It's a list. An arbitrary list. The only thing about it that's even slightly playful (i.e. puzzle-worthy) is the way the themers are clued—in quotation marks, as a way of indicating that this is how the industry is known colloquially. Otherwise, list of random toponyms. It's so easy, the solving experience doesn't even last long enough to be irritating. The puzzle feels like it's barely there at all. The very definition of a "placeholder" puzzle. "We gotta put something puzzle-shaped in this space ... so sure, this'll do, why not?" The puzzle doesn't even do you the courtesy of teaching you the word "toponym" (if you didn't already know it), or "metonym" for that matter. Also, 2/3 of its answers appear to have been lifted straight from the list of such answers in wikipedia (see above). We get KSTREET instead of WALLSTREET, but that's only for reasons of symmetry. Otherwise, the themer list is virtually identical. I don't know what there is to say about this theme. Here it is! I wish there were better news about the overall grid, but there's not, really. It's somewhat below-average fare, in large part because it's almost all 3s 4s and 5s. CANOODLE is a fun word (38D: Make out), but that funness isi offset by the much less fun DIETPLAN (4D: Nutritionist's offering), and nothing else in the grid really rises to the level of notice. There's just not a lot of substance, nothing to really engage your mind or satisfy your desire for wordplay or trickery or anything. This is a display-model puzzle. Like the books and stereo equipment in department store furniture displays which, on closer inspection, aren't really books or stereo equipment at all. They just look like those things from a distance.