References to Duluth in Film/TV or Other Media

The 2005 Duluth Art Institute Riot

Academic and Critical Excerpts, collated and footnoted by the Richardson brothers (Jim and Allen Richardson) (more…)

The Richardson brothers in the book “Haunted Minnesota”

This post could also be called “Bigfoot and Us.”

Starting in 1998, my brother Allen and I wrote a “weird science” column called “Gonzo Science” for the alternative Duluth newsweekly Ripsaw. (more…)

Fargo Duluth Montage

The first season of the comedic crime-drama television series Fargo is peppered with references to Duluth, a few of which are collected in the montage above. No part of the series was shot in Duluth, though one scene has the Aerial Lift Bridge inserted into it and has a sort of Garfield Avenue feel. (more…)

Filmed in Duluth: Christmas Break-In

Filmed in Duluth in April 2018, Christmas Break-In is now on Netflix and Youtube Movies. Shot at Marshall School and other locations around town, it features Danny Glover, Denise Richards and Cameron Seely. (more…)

TV pilot for “The Dealership” set at Kari Toyota in Superior

TV pilot set in Superior debuts on Amazon - Superior Telegram | News, weather, sports from Superior Wisconsin Viewer feedback could decide fate of 'A Dealership Christmas' superiortelegram.com

“Iron Will” movie video with Duluth annotations

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Rt0CSmUt4E

The adventure drama Iron Will premiered on Jan. 14, 1994. Much of the film was shot in Duluth and areas near Duluth from Jan. 11 to April 1, 1993. The annotations below are a guide to spotting familiar people and locations. (more…)

Todd Slauson from Duluth, Minnesota

Fifteen years ago today — Aug. 20, 2004 — the movie Garden State premiered. Near the beginning of the film, Zach Braff’s character Andrew Largeman is threatened by his boss.

You have two tables. You are 30 minutes late. And if I ever say this again, your job will go to … Todd Slauson from Duluth, Minnesota.

Duluth author part of Jeopardy! clue

What is Lake Superior? According to the television game show Jeopardy! and host Alex Trebek, it’s the place where “the lives of 3 women centuries apart intertwine upon the shores” in Duluth author Danielle Sosin‘s The Long-Shining Waters. The answer/question was part of episode #8030, which aired Friday, July 5, on the CBS network. (more…)

Meatballs clip with Duluth pennant in background

It was 40 years ago today — June 29, 1979 — that the screwball summer camp film Meatballs premiered in theaters. In one scene, Tripper and Rudy (Bill Murray and Chris Makepeace) have a conversation while a Duluth pennant hangs in the background.

This week on the Richardson Brothers podcast

The Richardson Brothers In addition to other content, these are mostly short stories set in a fantasy Duluth where scientists have destabilized probability; Duluth becomes a city of wonders. Originally published under various titles in Duluth's "Transistor," these are stand-alone vignettes from a comic dystopia of corruption, ultraviolence, and delusion. The Richardson Brothers are Jim and Allen Richardson. richardsonbrothers.libsyn.com

New Duluth-based fiction vignettes on the podcast: “I Destroyed the Universe,” “Intimations of Time’s Imaginings,” and “Menno Zwonk, Amish Outlaw: Monkey Porn.”

Duluth Homegrown on Rockin’ the Suburbs podcast

https://embeds.audioboom.com/posts/7226155-rarities-bob-mould-paul-westerberg/embed/v4?eid=AQAAAEinrFwrQ24A
 

Duluth’s Homegrown Music Festival gets five minutes of attention on Rockin’ the Suburbs, a “podcast dedicated to exploring all forms of rock and pop music, from the perspective of two music-crazed suburbanites, Jim Lenahan and Patrick Foster.” (more…)

Doughboys on Duluth: “Campaign in the Ass”

Doughboys, the podcast about chain restaurants, mentions Duluth in episode 77, “Cold Stone Creamery with Kevin T. Porter,” released Nov. 2, 2016. (more…)

Some youth pastor in Duluth is having the craziest sex

The podcast Omnibus! with Ken Jennings and John Roderick references Duluth in the March 12 episode “Tippi Hedren’s Fingernails.”

At the beginning of the show the hosts talk about reasons to get married and note it might assure more frequent sexual intercourse. Around the 4-minute mark, Jennings refers to an unmentioned source — “what the numbers say” — and comments that “far from the stereotypes about cold marriage beds, in fact, married people are having more and better and freakier sex than all of us. Some youth pastor in Duluth is having the craziest sex.”

Duluth Reference on The Passage

The latest Duluth mention on a national television show is in season 1, episode 3 of the new Fox series The Passage, which aired on Monday night. (more…)

Reference to Duluth on American Crime Story

Season two of American Crime Story, which dramatizes the five murders committed by Andrew Cunanan and is subtitled The Assassination of Gianni Versace, features a quick Duluth mention. The character David Madson is portrayed as an award-winning student at the University of Minnesota Duluth, which is sort of true. (more…)

Hey there, Duluth, you hear us?

National Public Radio’s Scott Simon begins the Nov. 17 “Saturday Sports” segment on Weekend Edition asking: “Anybody here want to host the 2026 Winter Olympics? Hey there, Duluth, you hear us? Are you just going to stand there with your hands in your pockets?”

Jonathan Richman – “They’re Not Tryin’ on the Dance Floor”

Jonathan Richman, founder of famed proto-punk band the Modern Lovers, dropped a Duluth reference on his third solo album, 1991’s Having a Party with Jonathan Richman. (more…)

If you’re a grandma in Duluth …

We missed it in 2015, but here’s a belated clip of Lance Armstrong on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast dropping a reference to Duluth.

Duluth featured on Supernatural again

Last night’s episode of Supernatural took place in Duluth. The episode “Gods And Monsters” aired on the CW network.

This isn’t the first time Duluth has been featured in the long running show. The second season’s “Born Under a Bad Sign” episode had a character who was working at a Duluth bar. Several episodes have featured other Minnesota towns, such as Hibbing and Stillwater.

Cheers: “They don’t like the food at the airport in Duluth”

It’s been mentioned a few times in “Duluth reference” posts on PDD, but the clip has never been featured. So here it is, the cold open from season 2, episode 20 of Cheers. (more…)

It’s really Duluth out there

This clip features a Duluth reference from the 11th season of Mystery Science Theater 3000, released in 2017. It’s from episode 199, which features the 1987 movie Cry Wilderness.

Former Duluthian Emily Lewis to appear on Jeopardy!

A 2011 alum of the College of St. Scholastica will appear on TV’s Jeopardy! game show on Tuesday, Jan. 30. The program airs at 5 p.m. in Duluth on the CBS affiliate KBJR channel 6.2.

Emily Lewis graduated from St. Scholastica with three majors — mathematics, economics and finance. She currently lives in San Diego, where she works as a merchandise planner for Petco.

Jeopardy! is a pre-recorded program and the Jan. 30 episode has already been shot, but Lewis isn’t allowed to share any details about her appearance before the air date.

Rick Steves offends his Duluth friends

The Nov. 18 episode of Travel with Rick Steves has a brief and not terribly flattering mention of Duluth … though it’s not all that insulting either. The episode is titled “Gili Islands; All-Season Australia; Open Phones: Memorable Travels.”

During the open phone segment, Steves chats with “Brad” from Portland, Ore., who has done ten “home exchanges.” That means Brad and his family have traded houses with other families while traveling. The discussion quickly turns to the notion of convincing someone from Paris to exchange a home with someone who lives in … “no offense … Duluth.”

Weak-willed Duluthian changes opinion

For the 14th time (by Perfect Duluth Day’s count) The Onion has published a story with a Duluth dateline.

The headline reads: Weak-willed coward changes opinion after learning he was wrong

According to the story, “33-year-old coward Benjamin Dyer gave in and changed his opinion … instead of doubling down on his previously held belief like a real man.”

Duluth reference on “The Deuce”

According to Perfect Duluth Day’s highly reputable sources, the HBO series The Deuce recently made a reference to Duluth.

In episode #2 a prostitute named Lori, who is a new arrival in New York City via Minnesota, is about to be arrested when her pimp stabs the cop and explains the guy is not really a cop. He searches the guy and finds rope and other torture instruments, then says, “We ain’t in Duluth no more, Dorothy.”

Find a clip of the scene to win the internet for a day.