Detroit References in Movies and Television

**313WX** · August-06-15, 05:37 PM

I saw a Match Game '78 episode the other night on Buzzr, and one of the Super Match Questions were "Detroit [[blank)." The contestant said "Detroit Tigers" and Richard Dawson [[the celebrity she selected to match her) said "Detroit Lions."

**G-DDT** · August-20-15, 06:43 PM

Again....not too happy with how I come across this idiocy lately, but it seems the "age of the Seth" has been most unfriendly to Detroit, and Adult Swim is the channel to see it.

On an episode of Robot Chicken where a parody [[?) of Hurricane Katrina occurs with the Smurf village, Anderson Cooper is there to report on it. The scrolling ticker reports underneath slyly run the report "Redskins beat Detroit 55-1. 'We sure got smurfed!' says Detroit". Another Lions gag occurs with this Thanksgiving episode of Family Guy:

**Hypestyles** · August-21-15, 10:51 AM

In the Straight Outta Compton movie, a sequence is included of the band's 1989 performance in Detroit at Joe Louis Arena, where a confrontation with police occurred. In real life, Gary Brown was among the officers. http://www.freep.com/story/entertain...rena/31496317/

**G-DDT** · August-23-15, 01:16 PM

My brief late-night channel-surfing bouts are getting freaky results:

Dumb & Dumberer to had Harold & Lloyd going to some science symposium called KEN [[like TedX) where a Shinola Detroit kiosk could be seen in the background.

The In Laws had a scene with Arkin & Falk's characters making deals with an insane dictator who calls forward some armed personnel to handle some goods. The dictator remarks: " These are the BEST security men in the world. The used to work for J.C. Penney... in Detroit!"

**G-DDT** · August-25-15, 11:47 PM

Sigh-again....although I've never seen an episode of "American Dad" in it's entirety, I caught the beginning of one that depicted the chameleon-like alien, Roger, in past flashbacks, disguised as a rollergirl hogging a pinball game at a rollerdisco in 1975 Detroit. Then I found thishttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNm4ViHpMgI

**G-DDT** · September-04-15, 10:28 PM

Speaking of chameleons, Woody Allen's character in Zelig had to make humble reparations for all of his impersonation shenanigans: "My deepest apology goes to the Trochman family in Detroit. I...I never delivered a baby before in my life, and I... I just thought that ice tongs was the way to do it."

**G-DDT** · September-11-15, 11:54 PM

Right within the first episode of the television series "Fargo" [[which has been re-airing lately to prep folks for a whole new batch), The two main villainous characters share a can of Faygo in a Hospital waiting room. The flavor?-ugh! grape.

**G-DDT** · September-13-15, 03:59 PM

Takes forever to load up, but if you advance to 2:58, Che makes a swipe at Detroit's Power Outage problems http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-li...1-of-2/2832825 Didn't someone say they had a copy of "The Force of Energy"? I would mention lyrics sung later in the show referring to Detroit by that plastic what's her face [[the one who can only sing in a simpering, sultry Kesha-like ghetto whine, which really isn't singing at all) but feh...

**mtburb** · September-24-15, 06:16 PM

Here's another one.

Bayside High School, the setting of Saved By The Bell, has the Tigers as their mascot. The Bayside Tigers logo looks very similar to the older Detroit Tigers logo.

**Knightmessenger** · October-27-15, 05:09 PM

Hardball, a movie starring Keanu Reeves as taking over an inner city baseball team in Chicago I think.
They get to go to a mlb game and sure enough, they sit in the upper deck at Tiger Stadium.

Didn't the Island use the People Mover as part of their set or filming? I remember reading a newsletter about the 20th anniversary in 2007 and they said there was a movie that used the train to help create their high tech futuristic trains because it was better to use some real reference than all CGI.

The wikipedia page for the RenCen lists several examples where it was used for filming or appeared.

Detroit 1-8-7

A new video game for PS4
http://www.engadget.com/2015/10/27/d...tic-dream-ps4/

**Junjie** · October-28-15, 06:37 AM

Originally Posted by Knightmessenger

A new video game for PS4
http://www.engadget.com/2015/10/27/d...tic-dream-ps4/

Between that and Deus Ex, "videogames by French-speaking developers about near-future biotech boomtown Detroit" is on the way to becoming its own subgenre. Kind of neat though!

**Detroitguy** · October-28-15, 10:06 AM

The newly released movie, Goosebumps starts out with a scene with a mother and son moving from New York City to a small town. The son asks his mother if she could have found a job as vice-principal in a better place like North Korea, Guantanamo Bay or Detroit.

**SDCC** · October-28-15, 10:59 AM

Originally Posted by detroitsgwenivere

Rooster Cogburn [[1975). John Wayne to Hawk: "Well now, I'll get you a.. fair trial and a fine hanging. Might even get you life at the Federal house in Detroit, they'll teach you to read and write there. Course the rest of it ain't so good..."

Same lines were used in the reboot of True Grit w/ Jeff Daniels - 2010

**1953** · October-28-15, 03:35 PM

In North by Northwest, Cary Grant is in the Chicago train station when an announcer can be heard on the PA listing the cities headed east across Michigan, ending in Detroit.

Not sure if this was mentioned yet, but in Forest Gump, Forest is in a platoon in Vietnam with a GI named Cleveland, from DEE-Troit.

**G-DDT** · October-30-15, 11:02 PM

Though this does not count. The Home Star Runner site [[which is acting a little wonky right now) posted it's usual Halloween Toon Short with Strong Sad dressed up as Cameron [[complete with Red Wings jersey) from "Ferris Bueller's Day Off". http://www.homestarrunner.com/ween15.html

**G-DDT** · April-06-16, 03:46 PM

My brother pointed this classic out. It was from the short lived show he had on T.V., and this one obviously aired after Star Wars came out, so he was lucky to get a hold of some of the costumes. The one that made us bust out laughing was at 2:44 [[bad language by today's standard).

By the way, "One to go" was a line they would yell when someone at a shelter [[like the Drop-inn at Cincinnati) would start acting up, and they needed staff to kick the dude out.

**G-DDT** · April-06-16, 03:48 PM

Originally Posted by G-DDT

Sigh-again....although I've never seen an episode of "American Dad" in it's entirety, I caught the beginning of one that depicted the chameleon-like alien, Roger, in past flashbacks, disguised as a rollergirl hogging a pinball game at a rollerdisco in 1975 Detroit. Then I found thishttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNm4ViHpMgI

Blocked! Well, they can't all be winners.

**mtburb** · April-06-16, 04:52 PM

There is a November 1984 episode of Super Password [[the week where Betty White and Jon Bauman were the celebrity contestants and also the second-to-last week where Rich Jeffries was the announcer before Gene Wood took over for the rest of the show's run [[it may have been midway through the following week though)), Buzzr will air it in a few minutes as of this original posting) where Detroit was the subject of one of the puzzles.

It took them through all five clues for them to finally figure out that the five words [[Lions, Tigers, Cadillacs, Motown, city) together were all connected with Detroit itself.

Ironically enough, in it's original run Super Password was scheduled by NBC for noon, yet WDIV already had news in that timeslot, so they [[probably) never cleared Super Password.

**Milwaukee Junction** · April-06-16, 05:12 PM

The 2002 movie Narc was a good one with Ray Liotta. Set in Detroit, an undercover narcotics cop investigates the murder of another undercover. It didn't win any awards, but definitely allowed you to relate to what a January in Detroit is like. Although I think most of it was filmed in Toronto.

**313WX** · April-06-16, 05:28 PM

Originally Posted by mtburb

There is a November 1984 episode of Super Password [[the week where Betty White and John Bellman [[hope I got his surname right) were the celebrity contestants and also the last week where Rich Jeffries was the announcer before Gene Wood took over for the rest of the show's run), Buzzr will air it in a few minutes as of this original posting) where Detroit was the subject of one of the puzzles.

It took them through all five clues for them to finally figure out that the five words [[Tigers, Lions, Cadillacs, Motown, city) together were all connected with Detroit itself.

Ironically enough, Super Password was scheduled by NBC for noon, yet WDIV already had news in that timeslot, so they [[probably) never cleared Super Password.

That was Jon Bauman [["Bowzer"), not Bellman.

**mtburb** · April-06-16, 07:21 PM

Originally Posted by 313WX

That was Jon Bauman [["Bowzer"), not Bellman.

Corrected.

**EastsideAl** · April-06-16, 08:05 PM

One of the most ridiculous geographic mistakes I've ever seen in a movie was in the execrable Mel Gibson - Goldie Hawn vehicle "Bird on a Wire" where they make their escape from Detroit by getting on the ferry to Racine [[!?!).

...and sail away with the Vancouver harbor, mountains and all, in the background.

**G-DDT** · April-29-16, 09:40 PM

Oh my God.
OH MY GAWD!

Noone remembers where Kip's girlfriend, LaFawnduh, came from in the movie "Napoleon Dynamite"?

Ha-have w-we...[[shiver-gasp) all strayed so far from the path?!

**G-DDT** · April-30-16, 10:24 PM

Just finally got around to seeing "Rosary Murders". Very Detroit. Very Catholic.

I don't mind that it had the toned-out look of a late 70's/early 80's film. What did bother me is that it took the typically fictitious "Chessmaster" trope approach with the killer [[which was amusing with Dr. Phibes, but after "Se7en", every dang crime show felt that they had to have some OCD villain with lots creativity and lots of time on their hands to pull these things off. Getting really tired and really far-fetched.).