References to Duluth in Film/TV or Other Media Posts

Dusty Slay jabs Great Lakes Aquarium on Tonight Show

Dec 01, 2021 No Comments

Last night comedian Dusty Slay appeared on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallen and at the end of his monologue launched into a story about a visit to the Great Lakes Aquarium. The story, which begins at the 3:15 mark in the clip above, concludes with Slay asking a “fish expert” at the aquarium whether fish sleep. To not spoil the punchline, let’s just say he gets a Yogi Berra-style response.

Slay does not mention the Great Lakes Aquarium by name, but as a story on Mix 108’s website notes, “he’s certainly not referencing World of Fish.”


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Meredith from Duluth

Oct 21, 2021 No Comments

The neo-noir film Lonely Hearts was released 15 years ago today — Oct. 21, 2006. In the clip above, John Travolta and James Gandolfini — as detectives Elmer Robinson and Charles Hilderbrandt, respectively — disregard a letter from “Meredith from Duluth.”


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The Gentleman Out of Duluth

Sep 15, 2021 No Comments

Have you heard about the gentleman out of Duluth who developed his own word processor? You should have heard about him seven years ago in episode 9 of the television drama Halt and Catch Fire.

The clip above features the Duluth mention, which aired on the AMC cable network on July 27, 2014.


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Terry Carnation, fresh off the boat from Duluth

Aug 19, 2021 No Comments

The podcast Dark Air with Terry Carnation dropped a reference to Duluth in episode 9, titled “The Haunting of Emily’s Hair.”

Rainn Wilson plays the part of Terry Carnation, host of a fictional late-night AM radio talk show on the paranormal. In the episode he meets director Jason Reitman, who wants to make his screenplay, but ultimately Carnation ends up being “splooged in the face by the cynical abuse of shallow corrupt patriarchy that is show business.” You know, “like many a would-be ingénue fresh off the boat from Duluth, Minnesota.”


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PDD Quiz: Duluth Movie Mentions

Aug 15, 2021 No Comments

Calling all film buffs and trivia nerds: this quiz is for you! Test your knowledge of movies that name drop Duluth (a perusal of the PDD tag References to Duluth in Film/TV or Other Media might help you cheat study).

The next PDD quiz will review the month’s headlines; it will be published on Aug. 29. Submit question suggestions to Alison Moffat at [email protected] by Aug. 24.

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Artificially Perfect Duluth Day: The Microsoft Flight Simulator

Aug 05, 2021 No Comments

Microsoft’s Flight Simulator came out on the Xbox last week and allows players to fly anywhere in the world, including Duluth. It combines information from Bing maps with an algorithm that builds 3D representations of the landscape, creating shapes and textures when data is missing or incomplete.

The video below shows a simulated flight over Park Point.

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Straight Outta Congdon

Aug 05, 2021 No Comments

A caller identifying as “Jebadiah from Duluth, Minn.” made it onto the Aug. 4 episode of the podcast Yo, is this Racist? The show, hosted by Andrew Ti and Tawny Newsome, answers questions from listeners about whether given subjects are an example of racism or not.

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Grandma Esmeralda, all the way from Duluth

Jul 08, 2021 No Comments

 
In “Kiss Me Cat,” a 1953 Looney Tunes short from Warner Brothers, the burly bulldog Marc Antony helps the tiny cat Pussyfoot learn the art of catching mice. At the 4:50 mark, Duluth gets a mention.


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Great Lakes Aquarium art on Superstore

Jun 14, 2021 1 Comment

It was nearly impossible to notice, but there was a glimpse of Duluth in the series finale of the NBC sitcom Superstore. The episode, titled “All Sales Final,” aired March 25. It concludes with a scene of the character Amy Sosa putting her children to bed. For just a few seconds, a piece of Great Lakes Aquarium art by Daymark Designs, a Duluth-based graphic arts company, is shown in the background.

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Duluth: The Improvised Soap Opera

Jun 09, 2021 No Comments

An improvised soap opera about Duluth, featuring actors from around the world connected by Zoom, premiered May 23 on YouTube. Episodes can be viewed on the World Improv Network’s YouTube channel.

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Duluth reference on the Judge John Hodgman podcast

Jun 07, 2021 No Comments

As part of Perfect Duluth Day’s long-running quest to document every reference to the city, no matter how minor, I add this entry, discovered today while catching up on the fake internet court podcast Judge John Hodgman, where pressing issues are decided by Famous Minor Television Personality John Hodgman, Certified Judge.

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Driftwood Dan from Duluth

May 13, 2021 No Comments

The 1999 movie Los Enchiladas! drops references to both Duluth and Superior. It’s not clear whether the character Driftwood Dan lives in Duluth or merely collects driftwood in Duluth, where his mother resides.

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Video Archive: Norway’s royal couple given stirring welcome

Apr 22, 2021 No Comments

Although Crown Prince Olav and Princess Martha of Norway did visit Duluth in 1939 for the dedication of Enger Tower, the footage in this silent film seems to all have been shot in Los Angeles a month earlier. Nevertheless, images of Duluth News Tribune stories are splashed across the screen at the start of the film.

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Flight 3247 to Duluth

Apr 15, 2021 1 Comment

In what must be the most trivial Duluth reference ever reported on Perfect Duluth Day, we note that season 6, episode 4 of the animated television show Archer includes a scene at a Chicago airport where the flight information display system shows a scheduled Duluth departure as “on time.”


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Frosted Flakes in Duluth

Mar 15, 2021 3 Comments

Duluth gets a quick and silly mention in the March 13 episode of Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me!, a weekly radio show produced by WBEZ in Chicago and National Public Radio. At the tail end of the clip embedded above, the panel talks about the virtues of pizza for breakfast instead cereal and jokes that people never argue about which city has the best cereal, resulting in the crack, “You haven’t had Frosted Flakes until you’ve had Frosted Flakes in Duluth.”


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