Popular Network TV Show Just Made Fun of Minnesota Again
A popular network TV show just had a little fun... at the state of Minnesota's expense, of course.
The Land of 10,000 Lakes has had its share of moments on national TV over the years. Way back in the '70s, the Mary Tyler Moore Show was set at the fictitious TV station WJM-TV which was located in Minneapolis. In the '90s, the sitcom Coach took place at equally fictitious Minnesota State University, home of the Screaming Eagles.
Duluth was featured as the setting for the first season of the FX TV show, Fargo, which aired back in 2014. And, of course, Grey's Anatomy continues to make a vague reference to our own Rochester, apparently site of 'The Clinic' (a reference to Mayo Clinic, right?) where the character, Meredith Grey, is working on groundbreaking research on Parkinson's Disease this season.
Grey's never mentions Rochester specifically, they just say 'Minnesota.' (Although they DID shoot some scenes on location in the Med City for a story arc a few years ago.) But this current Fox TV show also just mentioned the North Star State-- while making fun of us in an extended scene.
9-1-1 is a drama that's in its fifth season on Fox and features a character (Bobby Nash) who's a captain with the Los Angeles Fire Department. Nash is a Minnesota native who once worked for the St. Paul Fire Department. This makes sense, seeing as Peter Krause, the actor who portrays Nash, was born in and grew up in Minnesota, in Alexandria.
In a recent episode this season (Season 5, Episode 11 titled 'Outside Looking In') Nash makes a comment about something being so superficial that only LA residents would care about it, which causes another member of his team to ask:
So what would they care about in Minnesota, Cap? Cheese?
That character (nicknamed 'Buck') was mixing us up with our neighbors to the east in Wisconsin, of course-- an error Nash quickly points out, saying:
That's Wisconsin, Buck. In Minnesota, we care about the official State Grain: wild rice.
And Nash was right: wild rice actually IS the official state grain of the state of Minnesota. This isn't the first time Capt. Nash has referenced the Bold North, either; last year in season 4, he mentioned that he'd like to retire and spend his time fishing-- something embedded in him, he explained to his wife, because he grew up here in Minnesota.
You can check out the promo for 9-1-1 below, and keep scrolling to check out some other famous folks who were born here in Minnesota as well!
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