Michigan shoutout on Modern Family

Submitted by SBo on
Tonight on the show, Luke is going through the college application process, and he's being rejected from all of his choices. Claire, his mom, says (about a fictional school), "it's not like they can super-reject him, although that is the exact term Michigan used." Thought it was pretty funny.

M Go Dead

March 15th, 2017 at 11:14 PM ^

Without seeing it and all the context, this quote seems like it could be a compliment or an insult. Michigan is seen as super arrogant around the country, and this could be playing into that hand.

Time to employ the microwave cams in the modern family writer's room.

Eskimoan

March 15th, 2017 at 11:17 PM ^

just,started watching the movie "Why Him" with Brian Cranston and James Franco, Michigan shout outs through the whole thing, the family is all from the Detroit area and the parents are Michigan grads

Mr. Yost

March 16th, 2017 at 12:38 AM ^

Is Modern Family still good? I stopped watching when whats her name was cheating on her boyfriend and going back and forth with this fall in love with the nanny storyline. It was just weird and the shows weren't funny.

Those first 4 years or so, that show was legendary. After that I sort of lost interest, the characters got boring.

In a similar vein, Blackish is a lot like those early seasons of Modern Family with different actors and a few more "serious" episodes (which are actually EXTREMELY well written for a family comedy).

That said, I don't really watch anything but sports regularly. I just wait until someone says something is good or something has acclaim level reviews and then I go binge watch it. I hate waiting for the next week for a show when half of it is commercials. I get my fill of  that with Michigan Football.

FrankX

March 16th, 2017 at 8:28 AM ^

Garret, the PR advisor was wearing the classic "MICHIGAN" blue t-shirt.

It seems fitting to have a Michigan presence on a show named BLUE Bloods.

BlueHenBlue

March 16th, 2017 at 8:51 AM ^

I graduated 20 years ago, and I probably would be rejected too nowadays. Of course, my SAT scores would be ~50 points higher, my grades inflated, and I'd have access to brain drugs like Adderall.

Kermits Blue Key

March 16th, 2017 at 10:57 AM ^

After The Dude sleeps with Maude, she asks about his personal life, and he mentions that he was one of the authors of the Port Huron Statement (the original, not the compromised second draft). The primary author of the Port Huron Statement was Tom Hayden, a University of Michigan student and member of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). Because SDS was an intercollegiate society, one cannot for sure conclude whether The Dude attended Michigan or not.

NRK

March 16th, 2017 at 12:56 PM ^

The Dude is based off Jeff Dowd, a friend of the Cohen brothers. The make reference to this also at another point when the Dude says he was a member of the Seattle Seven (of which Dowd was a member), which was a group in (not surprisingly) Seattle. He also grew up in CA, so the tie to the UM is at best through being associated with Hayden (who was from UM, as you note).

Wikipedia Link for Jeff Dowd

The timing doesn't really match up since the first Port Huron statement was written in 1962 and Seattle Seven were arrested in 1970, but I suppose he could have either been really young at the Port Huron Statement writing or older when a member of the Seattle Seven. 

 

Either way it's a fun tie in to counterculture of the '60's.

softshoes

March 16th, 2017 at 1:22 PM ^

Blue Bloods also did a Michigan shoutout last week. Tom Seleck's top PR guy is taking a day off and wearing a Michigan sweatshirt. Maybe Tom had some input since he's proud of his Michigan roots.

JoeMich

March 16th, 2017 at 2:00 PM ^

The Blue Bloods shoutout is because Greg Jbara, who plays DPCI Garrett Moore, is a Michigan alum. On his FB feed he told us to expect something along this line prior to the show airing.

He's very proud of his Michigan roots (the state and the school), having grown up in Westland. He routinely does shoutouts on social media for UM- and Detroit-related events.

Go Blue!!!

class86

November 29th, 2018 at 9:22 PM ^

I saw the episode tonight because the UM-UNC is my priority! Not only did the writer use the harbaugh "nervous bird" line but in the Epilogue scene, pritchard has the players hydrating with Milk.... another shoutout to Harbaugh.

 

notably; Both Ed O'Neil and Eric Stonestreet have been on the Rich Eisen multiple times.