References to Duluth in Film/TV or Other Media Posts

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.

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.

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.

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

“Iron Will” movie video with Duluth annotations

The adventure drama Iron Will premiered 25 years ago. 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.

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.

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

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

 

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.”

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.

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.

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.

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?”

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