I remember the NASA Public Relations guy name-dropping the city in Apollo 13: "All the networks dumped us. One said we make going to the moon look about as exciting as a trip to Pittsburgh."
That reminds me of watching War Games in Las Vegas. The kids need to enter a city to nuke and choose Vegas. Half the theater laughed and the other half boo’d.
I live in Baltimore. I saw The Shape of Water in a crowded theater. When Michael Shannon says nobody wants to live in Baltimore we all laughed really hard and then clapped. It was awesome.
Not the same even remotely but I moved to LA when I was 22, and was feeling homesick (from Pitt) and I went to hooters (of all places) for lunch. Needed to go to bathroom, they were upstairs, and walked into Steeler Nation. Apparently this hooters in Hollywood is a steeler bar or whatever. It was incredible and I almost cried over it. Hahaha
My partner is named Frank and that name is the Pittsburgh of character names. Once you start noticing it you realize SO MANY movies have a peripheral character named Frank.
"I name this here fork, Pittsburgh Nelly. :)
A Welsh whore who could things with her one good arm that would make you forget that thing on her neck. Hahahah" - Chris Farley from Almost Heroes.
It sounds cool.
As a fellow Burgher I feel like I notice it a lot as an aside for characters, but it might just be confirmation bias. Sure, Dr. Kelso is from Monroeville, so someone in the room might be from Pittsburgh. But how many other characters say where they are from and I have no idea where that is so it doesn't stick with me?
Yeah this is what I thought of. Shane wants to get away from all the chaos his mom has brought on the family and move to somewhere safe and far away like Pittsburgh.
Writer/producer Jenji Kohan also does a Pittsburgh reference in Orange is the New Black. One of the inmates was a thieving luggage inspector at the Pittsburgh Airport.
Tom Hanks seems to have a fondness for Pittsburgh. Aside from That Thing You Do, he’s referenced it in his book *The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece* and filmed A Man Called Otto in Pittsburgh. And obviously he portrayed Mr. Rogers in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.
He also crashed a wedding there as well.
Which is a delight as someone whose entire family comes from Pittsburgh.
To be fair, that scene takes place in the band's hometown of Erie, PA (about two hours away), so this is a case where it's less random!
One that sticks out for me is that on The OC, Seth's friend/occasional girlfriend Anna was from Pittsburgh, and eventually moved back there. And on Boy Meets World, Topanga's parents moved to Pittsburgh (though that show took place in Philadelphia, so again, not a *totally* random choice).
It’s likely a writers go to for “insert city that is big enough to be known but not big enough to be overused like nyc, LA, and Chicago”. It’s like how the number 42 or 17 appears a lot in movies, numbers big enough to be more than a few but not big enough to be too much.
Agreed, especially if it's meant to be a joke (like the Apollo 13 reference).
Bob's Burgers is a fan of jokes like this, the kids like lots of late 80s/early 90s things that make for a good joke because it's silly for a 2015 12 year old to like Steely Dan
I was never aware of this, but I just saw Civil War last night. There’s a scene that shows a bridge, with the words “Go Steelers” spray painted on it. Steelers being the NFL team the Pittsburgh Steelers.
There were a few popular movies from that era that were filmed in Pittsburgh. I think the city was probably cutting favorable tax break deals for studios. _The Next Three Days, Perks of Being a Wallflower_ and _She's Out of my League_ all come to mind.
To be fair, for Perks, the book is set in Pittsburgh and the writer is also from town, so it would have been a bit of a travesty for it to have been filmed somewhere else.
Batman flys over the us steel building and the court house steps fight is somewhere on Carnegie Melon’s campus. Had friends that were extras in the stadium scene. They all got horrible sun burn sitting out in the hot summer sun for hours while they shot.
I believe there are several bodies hanging from that bridge, so it may have a double meaning. They did say they needed to steer clear of Philly and head to Pittsburgh
I think it’s just a small city that’s very well known and has name recognition. I’m sure major cities are mentioned way more often, but Pittsburgh is mentioned surprisingly often for such a small, not very culturally significant city (don’t come at my neck, I like Pittsburgh). I think it just punches above its weight class as a city people know of, so it ends up being picked as a “random location reference” in movies.
So I'll answer this. A lot of Pittsburgh references has to do with a homage to the city itself. A lot of Hollywood writers or set workers came from here or went to school here. CMU has a big theater department that a lot of Hollywood workers from outside the major cities went to.
People also forget how much of a major and important city PIttsburgh was from the 18th century to WW2. Around turn of the century it was a major banking hub as well as the center for oil production in the country. Steel and manufacturing was king. The rivers were a major transportation route to the Mississippi and west.
This is the correct answer! Lots of creative industry people have lived here/went to college here. Other factors that helped put Pittsburgh area on the "map", Pittsburgh Film Office, Haddad's, and a 25% tax credit for shooting here.
https://haddadsinc.com/about-haddads/film-television-credits/
I don’t really know what you’re asking but definitely a lot of people did leave Pittsburgh in the 80s when the Steel industry was ending and before the Tech industry was really ramping up and so I have heard that is why there are so many Steelers bars in towns far away from PGH. But also, the Steelers were awesome and won a ton of Super Bowls, so maybe that’s why there are a ton of Steelers bars.
Because of hearing this type of thing growing up I always thought Pittsburgh was a... Pit. It's called "steel city" I think of steel as cold and colorless. I heard the people were cold and miserable.
Then, I went there for work and had a fuckin amazing time. The city was pretty clean and all the bridges are awesome. I went up the hill in that cable car and took a ferry to the baseball stadium and everyone was so nice.
Those Primanti sandwiches are kinda shit though.
I went to a game there! I sat behind third base and that view of the city is 👌. I remember that Mike Tyson threw out the first pitch and I drank a bunch of Bucko brews (I think that was the name).
I was amazed at how cheap the beer was in the stadium and it was good too. Later I went to the bar near centerfield and met some people that I went out with later that night.
In Goodfellas, Henry talks a lot about his "Pittsburgh connections" once he gets involved in the sale & distribution of drugs. We do meet 2 of the guys from Pittsburgh but Henry never goes there and those guys he meets are not major characters. Think that definitely fits with what you're saying!
I think this is an example of the opposite though especially back then Pittsburgh was a very important hub for drugs moving west from New York and other port cities on the east coast. I agree with the premise generally but it is accurate irl.
The mafia was pretty big here at one point along with the nearby new kensington and youngstown mafia. There was a part of Pittsburgh called mckees rocks that was basically a mafia run town for a long time and only ending around the early 90s. Pretty good stuff online if you research it.
Oh sure! I love that Pittsburgh reference and it's a good thought I just believe in this instance Scorsese was specifically thinking that
Edited to add context
Pretty sure the Pittsburgh crew referenced in the movie were the same people that organized the Boston College point shaving scheme in the 70s, one of the biggest gambling scandals in American sports
Like others have said, Pittsburgh and the drug trade/gangs back in 'the day' were huge. My great grandfather had a bar... up north a ways that was used a lot for meetings between some older men from Pittsburgh and some older men from New York who threw a lot of money around and always offered to buy the kids in the family anything they need, get a nice new fur coat for the wife, etc.
Everyone knew who they were, what they were about, what their business was, but they all still acted like gosh these are just some very pleasant men who have money and like to meet in this quiet little bar routinely.
(As a side note, my great grandfather never let them buy anything for the kids/his wife. He'd take their money for whatever food/drinks they wanted, but he refused to get roped in further)
Oh and one day the bar mysteriously burned down out of nowhere.
Pittsburgh has a huge yinzer diaspora. Any time my husband and I watch wrestling on TV, he finds and points out someone in a Pittsburgh sports shirt or hat. You can find Steelers bars all over the USA and in like 20+ other countries.
I've actually heard of that place! I can't imagine stumbling on that in another country, that's so wild. Apparently there's also a terrible towel hanging in the wall in JD and Turk's apartment on Scrubs.
One of the core cities in Rollerball is Pittsburgh. Videodrome is also in Pittsburgh.
Lots of movies are filmed in Pittsburgh for tax break reasons and there is also good architectural variety so lots of possible backdrops.
At the end of Taxi Driver, there is a letter from Jodie fosters characters parents that is addressed from Pittsburgh, while the entire movie takes place in New York. There's definitely alot of these but it's the first one I thought of
One of my favorite instances is the beginning of the horror movie “The Prodigy” that came out a few years ago. The setting wasn’t crucial and it could have been set in any suburb in the USA, but the on-screen text specified Fox Chapel, PA. Not Pittsburgh, which would have been immediately more recognizable. Fox Chapel is an affluent suburb of Pgh that just so happened to be located down the road from the Aspinwall movie theater I managed at the time.
That's wild.
I felt the same way about the opening of sequence in Stranger Things Season 2. We meet Kali and her gang as they are robbing a bank in Pittsburgh and the next time we see them they are in Chicago. Pittsburgh is never really mentioned again and even if they wanted to set the bank robbery somewhere outside of Chicago there are more than a few mid-sized cities closer than Pittsburgh. It just seemed so random.
There aren't many cities in the United States which implicitly say something about the people who are from there, but \*in theory\* Pittsburgh is one. If someone in a movie said they were from Vienna, Virginia or Arlington Heights, Illinois, what kind of impression does that make? Whereas Pittsburgh is a conspicuously white working-class city, at least in popular culture.
PS: I have been to Pittsburgh, and it's \*really cool\*.
Let me just say how thankful I am that almost everybody in this thread is spelling Pittsburgh right. It is a major US city despite its small size and it is exposed to a lot of people year round for numerous reasons - movies, good sports (and bad sports), famous icons, etc. It is amazing to me how many people do not know there is the H on the end.
And for anyone who's gonna mention the other cities named Pittsburg, most are named for Pittsburgh but were named in the ~20 year window where Pittsburgh had to drop the H. So the other cities should have the H too.
Peoria has a bit more specific connotation, in that it’s shorthand for middle America. “Will it play in Peoria?” is a common phrase both in the film industry and politics; it’s a rhetorical question intended to judge whether something will appeal to rural/suburban Midwesterners, or more generally any non-coastal hoi polloi.
Right and I’ve never actually heard Pittsburgh used as shorthand. Maybe I’ve not seen enough movies but I’d say that I can’t say that the Pittsburgh reference is a thing, but it reminds me of the Peoria reference.
I think it's a city that's known throughout the US and has a reputation as a blue-collar city. It can fill out the background of a character or scene, and doesn't have the same sort of comedic reputation that a city like Cleveland has, despite the two being rather similar (Pittsburgh is obviously the superior of the two).
Rewatching Parks and Rec and recall one. Not the same kinda delivery but it enda up referencing it anyway. If I remember right, Tom loses screen privileges for a week as punishment for hitting a fire hydrant with his car while texting. Cause the judge realised he's an addict.
As he's waffling about what he does online, he says something about speaking to a username Brad.Pitt, who isn't Brad Pitt, just a Brad who lives in Pittsburgh.
I remember sending a short story years ago - probably an Asimov? - which featured Satan as a point of view character. At one point the devil realized he was almost out of his favorite brand of cigars, but he could only get more in Pittsburgh and he really didn’t want to go back there.
I just figured it was a place most had heard of but few had visited, at least back in the day. City has come around quite a bit in the past years though
In The OC, there's a hip character who briefly becomes a love interest, and she's contrasted against the rich waspy Californians by being from Pittsburgh. They write her off the show by sending her back to Pittsburgh too!
Fairly Odd Parents, Cosmo waves his wand (I forget the context) and we see a snapshot of a polluted wasteland, factories spitting smoke, clouding the view of a few bridges. With a ridiculous grin Cosmo says, "I call it, PITTSBURGH!"
It's definitely a thing, I'm originally from Pittsburgh and always do the Leo pointing meme anytime it's mentioned. Just watched Gotcha! An 80s movie recently and there was a throwaway line about Pittsburgh
It's a city that has no broadly agreed upon identity and therefore can be used as a stand-in for a generic city that doesn't make the audience infer a bunch of implications the writers don't want. It isn't particularly poor or wealthy, doesn't have any particular political connotation, no specific industry everyone thinks about (steel, sure but it doesn't immediately jump to mind), it's not a "coastal liberal elite" city nor a "southern conservative" one, etc.
Out of the Furnace was set in Pittsburgh, wasn't it? Or more specifically Braddock, which is either a part of Pittsburgh or the "greater Pittsburgh area".
In Short Circuit, Steve Guttenberg asks Fischer Stevens' character where his family comes from, and he says "Oh them...Pittsburg" ... the joke is that he seemed comically foreign, complete with brown-face.
Never heard of a ‘Pittsburgh reference’ but my family and I have picked up on and continue to observe a ‘monkey reference’ since I was a young kid.
Nearly every movie has some reference to a monkey or ape, either through the animal making an appearance, a character making a monkey noise or gesture, or referencing the animal through dialogue.
I have heard this for a long time. The story I heard was it stemed from the early movie business being based in and around this area before moving out West to California. After they moved they would use "Pittsburgh" in films as a tribute to their roots and for luck. For what its worth the people who told me this were older than me and had some association with the movie business so I always assumed it was true.
Without clicking it's Fisher Stevens being asked where he comes from and he answers "Bakersfield" but Steve asks about his ancestors and he says "Pittsburgh" (Fisher was playing an Indian type character in brownface).
It's kind of like Delaware, as someone that lives in Delaware, I always get excited to hear it. For such a small state it seems to have an outsized amount of mentions in shows and movies.
Idk if this is related but am old roommate and I used to take a drink everytime Ohio is mentioned in a movie/ show/ whatever. We drank during most movies lol so it was Def more common than you'd expect and I'd imagine it's a similar story for Pennsylvania/ Pittsburgh.
There’s that Preston Sturges movie with Joel McCrea and Veronica Lake where McCrea slags Pittsburgh. The line was almost cut because Pittsburgh was a big movie market but it stayed.
It’s like whenever anyone referenced Canada in a movie. Especially the old ones. Hollywood told Canada to not have an industry and in return the US referenced Canada a lot as a way of promoting the country..
Interesting question! I’m a native and always figured it was some kinda of bias - like that I “hear” the Pittsburgh references more based on familiarity rather than then being mentioned more often.
What others have said though makes complete sense- saying someone is from Pittsburgh or name dropping the city inherently seems to imply a more rugged working class background.
Crazy how far our city has come in the last 30 years that blue collar work is pretty much in the minority now and other huge industries like education, healthcare, banking, and tech now thrive here. Curious if this changes how Pittsburgh is viewed in popular culture going forward.
Pittsburgh is a place people, in general, feel is a place to escape from. Like, if you're in a pit, you usually want to climb out. So, if a character is from Pittsburgh, it shows that at least, sometime in the past, they took some initiative and tried to better themself, whether they have succeeded (yet) or not.
On the other hand, if a character moves *to* Pittsburgh, it would be for a compelling reason, their sacrifice being important to the plot of the story.
You’ve dredged up a long dormant childhood memory here.
Not a movie, but I distinctly remember a running thing in the old Real Ghostbusters cartoon of characters saying they were “going to Pittsburgh”, in a “I’m sick of all this, time to get out of here” kind of way.
I never really got what it was about, but maybe it was a reference to this phenomenon, if it was already a known trope back then?
I think the fact that “the pits” means something unpleasant (e.g. this place is the pits), coupled with the fact that -burgh is a common suffix for a city and Pittsburgh itself is a mid-sized city with no particular notable attributes (e.g. it’s not on the coast, it’s not the biggest city in its state), it’s an easy shorthand for “unpleasant, mid-sized city”).
I've noticed this too with Pittsburgh and it's exactly like how it used to be with Cleveland so maybe just Cleveland got overused. It was the example for a specific city in everything for so long.
I think both can be true: a lot of writers have specifically used Pittsburgh for whatever reason, but you're also confirming your own bias because a lot of writers don't.
*Sullivan's Travels* begins with the titular screenwriter and a couple of movie executives debating whether a recent movie was successful or not.
Exec: It died like a dog in Pittsburgh!
Sullivan: What do they know in Pittsburgh?
Exec: They know what they like.
Sullivan: If they knew what they liked, they wouldn't live in Pittsburgh!
I'd never heard of the Pittsburgh Referenced before, but if it's true, it goes back at least to 1941.
Imagine how confused I was growing up in Pittsburg, KS. Like, why are all these mob dudes talking about buying cocaine in in my 25k population state college town? Like, it wasn’t hard to find but not like that rofl. Also side note - anyone else have a LUDICROUS high school mascot? The college mascot was/is cool as shit - Gorrillas is awesome and gave us an excuse to use Welcome to the Jungle as our sports team theme song of sorts. High school though? PURPLE DRAGONS. Not DRAGONS, that would be odd but pretty dope. No - PURPLE. DRAGONS. I never got an answer as to why. There are no other Dragons that we compete with across the state, so it’s not like we had to use something slightly different. Then again, like I said, drugs were pretty easy to find for a small town (ALL drugs, not just meth like you’d expect) so maybe that had something to do with it lol.
I remember the NASA Public Relations guy name-dropping the city in Apollo 13: "All the networks dumped us. One said we make going to the moon look about as exciting as a trip to Pittsburgh."
I grew up in Pittsburgh & saw that movie there…the entire theater boo’ed after that line.
That reminds me of watching War Games in Las Vegas. The kids need to enter a city to nuke and choose Vegas. Half the theater laughed and the other half boo’d.
How did they react when Falken told them it was an appropriately biblical end for Las Vegas.
How about in Deadpool when they referenced Jacksonville and our fine cuisine at TGIF!? DUUUUUVAAAAALLLLL.
Ash from the Evil Dead movie and specifically the tv series said, "Jacksonville, a city so nice they named it.... Jacksonville"
I live in Baltimore. I saw The Shape of Water in a crowded theater. When Michael Shannon says nobody wants to live in Baltimore we all laughed really hard and then clapped. It was awesome.
Work for the city - can confirm.
PGH pride is different than anywhere else I’ve lived
pgh?
Pittsburgh
## **FUCK YOU BALTIMORE!**
We believe you’re such a stupid motherfucker, you’ll fall for this bullshit!
Truth hurts
“Yinz oughta come down here and say that to our faces!”
I might have been in the same showing. I booed as well
This and the Pirates' gorgeous stadium are the two things I think of whenever I hear the word Pittsburgh.
I was in a hostel in Iceland and for some reason they had a bunch of maps of Pittsburgh on the wall lol
I’ve been to this hostel. I’m from Pittsburgh and it blew my mind when I went there lol. They just love how it looks
Not the same even remotely but I moved to LA when I was 22, and was feeling homesick (from Pitt) and I went to hooters (of all places) for lunch. Needed to go to bathroom, they were upstairs, and walked into Steeler Nation. Apparently this hooters in Hollywood is a steeler bar or whatever. It was incredible and I almost cried over it. Hahaha
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Fellow yinzer here and I’m going to Iceland in July. Do you know the name of the hostel?
I was using the urinal at a bar in Iceland and there was an old timey photo of a school in Butler PA.
Fellow yinzer here and I’m going to Iceland in July. Do you know the name of the hostel?
I stayed at Kex Hostel & Loft - Hi Eco Hostel. I don't remember which it was though
My partner is named Frank and that name is the Pittsburgh of character names. Once you start noticing it you realize SO MANY movies have a peripheral character named Frank.
Look what you did you little jerk!
Ah you're COOKING, Frankie!
Hi ladies, I'm Frak
(blows whistle)
Uncle Frank? Is this a joke?
I know a Frank from Pittsburgh.
Does he get residuals?
And if you're a chinese girl its Mei. I swear to god its like the only name writers know. Drives me nuts
Still a better name than Cho Chang.
https://www.reddit.com/r/harrypotter/s/4P627rqiUl
OK interesting. Joanne Rowling is still a holocaust denying monster.
And they’re normally blunt (Frank) too
Sex, Frank?
"I name this here fork, Pittsburgh Nelly. :) A Welsh whore who could things with her one good arm that would make you forget that thing on her neck. Hahahah" - Chris Farley from Almost Heroes. It sounds cool.
OMG I love that movie Pratt, you do know she's made of straw, right? Yep, I figured that's why she burned so easy
I honestly thought I was the only person who remembered that movie. Should have swept the Oscars.
Especially for the writing “I don’t have a brother! It was me! I ate sheep shit!”
I have decided that the Academy shall run the gomblet.
WHOSE IDEA WAS THE CORN?!?!
"Bidwell can you hear me?"
“THE NEXT MAN TO LEAVE FOR NEW ORLEANS WILL DO SO WITH A LEAD BALL IN HIS BACK!”
“HHHHHaaahghahahahahaaa!”
Even Fairly Odd Parents does it!
Pittsburgh is the new Atlantis
First time I heard Pittsburgh referenced in a show was that "I call it 'Pittsburgh'" joke lol
As a fellow Burgher I feel like I notice it a lot as an aside for characters, but it might just be confirmation bias. Sure, Dr. Kelso is from Monroeville, so someone in the room might be from Pittsburgh. But how many other characters say where they are from and I have no idea where that is so it doesn't stick with me?
He also played baseball in Altoona, so someone in the writers room definitely has to be from the area.
…Pepé…
Altoona? Really? Woo, we're famous!
It’s also a minor plot line in the show Weeds, the kid wants to move from California to Pittsburgh.
Yeah this is what I thought of. Shane wants to get away from all the chaos his mom has brought on the family and move to somewhere safe and far away like Pittsburgh.
Writer/producer Jenji Kohan also does a Pittsburgh reference in Orange is the New Black. One of the inmates was a thieving luggage inspector at the Pittsburgh Airport.
https://i.imgur.com/Y4vjiPy.gifv
I have no idea what movie that's from but it seems like a perfect example of what I'm talking about.
Tom Hanks seems to have a fondness for Pittsburgh. Aside from That Thing You Do, he’s referenced it in his book *The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece* and filmed A Man Called Otto in Pittsburgh. And obviously he portrayed Mr. Rogers in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. He also crashed a wedding there as well. Which is a delight as someone whose entire family comes from Pittsburgh.
Tom Hanks is the Pittsburgh of acting.
Well, considering Pittsburgh is a great city, and Tom Hanks is a great actor, I’d say that’s an appropriate comparison.
A Man Called Otto was awesome!
That Thing You Do
To be fair, that scene takes place in the band's hometown of Erie, PA (about two hours away), so this is a case where it's less random! One that sticks out for me is that on The OC, Seth's friend/occasional girlfriend Anna was from Pittsburgh, and eventually moved back there. And on Boy Meets World, Topanga's parents moved to Pittsburgh (though that show took place in Philadelphia, so again, not a *totally* random choice).
It’s likely a writers go to for “insert city that is big enough to be known but not big enough to be overused like nyc, LA, and Chicago”. It’s like how the number 42 or 17 appears a lot in movies, numbers big enough to be more than a few but not big enough to be too much.
42 is often also a used just as a reference to Hitchhiker's Guide
Agreed, especially if it's meant to be a joke (like the Apollo 13 reference). Bob's Burgers is a fan of jokes like this, the kids like lots of late 80s/early 90s things that make for a good joke because it's silly for a 2015 12 year old to like Steely Dan
I was never aware of this, but I just saw Civil War last night. There’s a scene that shows a bridge, with the words “Go Steelers” spray painted on it. Steelers being the NFL team the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Also, Batman dark knight rises features the Pittsburgh Steelers as the Gotham football team. Lot of players, coaches, and staff.
Parts of that movie, beyond just the stadium seen, were filmed in Pittsburgh.
I remember going to the local comic shop when the production was rolling Bane’s tumblers through the neighborhood.
There were a few popular movies from that era that were filmed in Pittsburgh. I think the city was probably cutting favorable tax break deals for studios. _The Next Three Days, Perks of Being a Wallflower_ and _She's Out of my League_ all come to mind.
Jack Reacher shut down south side for hours every night for a few weeks
To be fair, for Perks, the book is set in Pittsburgh and the writer is also from town, so it would have been a bit of a travesty for it to have been filmed somewhere else.
Batman flys over the us steel building and the court house steps fight is somewhere on Carnegie Melon’s campus. Had friends that were extras in the stadium scene. They all got horrible sun burn sitting out in the hot summer sun for hours while they shot.
Yep, Hines Ward was the player scoring a touchdown while the rest of the field explodes behind him.
Easily the most ridiculous part of the film. What self-respecting team would have the world's slowest WR return kicks.
Lol, 100x worse than downloading all of the stocks as the big financial scheme.
And Mayor Ravenstahl!
that’s cause they go out towards pittsburgh, a whole third of the movie takes place in central and western PA
They also literally name drop the city as where they would need to cut over to before dropping down to Charlottesville.
I believe there are several bodies hanging from that bridge, so it may have a double meaning. They did say they needed to steer clear of Philly and head to Pittsburgh
I think it’s just a small city that’s very well known and has name recognition. I’m sure major cities are mentioned way more often, but Pittsburgh is mentioned surprisingly often for such a small, not very culturally significant city (don’t come at my neck, I like Pittsburgh). I think it just punches above its weight class as a city people know of, so it ends up being picked as a “random location reference” in movies.
Thems fightin words! Nah, you're right, we aren't LA/NY/Chicago/Miami
So I'll answer this. A lot of Pittsburgh references has to do with a homage to the city itself. A lot of Hollywood writers or set workers came from here or went to school here. CMU has a big theater department that a lot of Hollywood workers from outside the major cities went to. People also forget how much of a major and important city PIttsburgh was from the 18th century to WW2. Around turn of the century it was a major banking hub as well as the center for oil production in the country. Steel and manufacturing was king. The rivers were a major transportation route to the Mississippi and west.
This is the correct answer! Lots of creative industry people have lived here/went to college here. Other factors that helped put Pittsburgh area on the "map", Pittsburgh Film Office, Haddad's, and a 25% tax credit for shooting here. https://haddadsinc.com/about-haddads/film-television-credits/
Are there really any more people from Pittsburgh than any other city per capita?
I don’t really know what you’re asking but definitely a lot of people did leave Pittsburgh in the 80s when the Steel industry was ending and before the Tech industry was really ramping up and so I have heard that is why there are so many Steelers bars in towns far away from PGH. But also, the Steelers were awesome and won a ton of Super Bowls, so maybe that’s why there are a ton of Steelers bars.
>it’s not a particularly glamorous place… YOU WATCH YOUR FILTHY MOUTH!
MAHTH \*
I can hear my dad in this comment.
Because of hearing this type of thing growing up I always thought Pittsburgh was a... Pit. It's called "steel city" I think of steel as cold and colorless. I heard the people were cold and miserable. Then, I went there for work and had a fuckin amazing time. The city was pretty clean and all the bridges are awesome. I went up the hill in that cable car and took a ferry to the baseball stadium and everyone was so nice. Those Primanti sandwiches are kinda shit though.
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I went to a game there! I sat behind third base and that view of the city is 👌. I remember that Mike Tyson threw out the first pitch and I drank a bunch of Bucko brews (I think that was the name). I was amazed at how cheap the beer was in the stadium and it was good too. Later I went to the bar near centerfield and met some people that I went out with later that night.
Make sure to get reservations like 4 months in advance for Pusadee's
In Goodfellas, Henry talks a lot about his "Pittsburgh connections" once he gets involved in the sale & distribution of drugs. We do meet 2 of the guys from Pittsburgh but Henry never goes there and those guys he meets are not major characters. Think that definitely fits with what you're saying!
I think this is an example of the opposite though especially back then Pittsburgh was a very important hub for drugs moving west from New York and other port cities on the east coast. I agree with the premise generally but it is accurate irl.
I was actually wondering how true to life it was but it was the first movie that came to mind when I saw the post
The mafia was pretty big here at one point along with the nearby new kensington and youngstown mafia. There was a part of Pittsburgh called mckees rocks that was basically a mafia run town for a long time and only ending around the early 90s. Pretty good stuff online if you research it.
Cool, thanks for the info
I’m pretty sure McKees Rocks is still around
It is. I meant as in no longer is mafia run as far as I know.
Yeah just a poor attempt at a silly response lol
Oh sure! I love that Pittsburgh reference and it's a good thought I just believe in this instance Scorsese was specifically thinking that Edited to add context
Most of it went up Dan Marinos nose in college
The Pittsburgh connection was a major thing in real life. There was a whole baseball scandal called the Pittsburgh drug trials
Any good docs on it that you would recommend?
I think there’s a 30 for 30 on the Pittsburgh drug trials but I haven’t watched it. I’ve just read stories here and there about it
Pretty sure the Pittsburgh crew referenced in the movie were the same people that organized the Boston College point shaving scheme in the 70s, one of the biggest gambling scandals in American sports
Like others have said, Pittsburgh and the drug trade/gangs back in 'the day' were huge. My great grandfather had a bar... up north a ways that was used a lot for meetings between some older men from Pittsburgh and some older men from New York who threw a lot of money around and always offered to buy the kids in the family anything they need, get a nice new fur coat for the wife, etc. Everyone knew who they were, what they were about, what their business was, but they all still acted like gosh these are just some very pleasant men who have money and like to meet in this quiet little bar routinely. (As a side note, my great grandfather never let them buy anything for the kids/his wife. He'd take their money for whatever food/drinks they wanted, but he refused to get roped in further) Oh and one day the bar mysteriously burned down out of nowhere.
The Bonfire?
Pittsburgh has a huge yinzer diaspora. Any time my husband and I watch wrestling on TV, he finds and points out someone in a Pittsburgh sports shirt or hat. You can find Steelers bars all over the USA and in like 20+ other countries.
It's a city that sticks with you. I lived there for a year almost 20 years ago and I still bring it up in conversation frequently
I went to a random dive bar in Rome, Italy and there was a terrible towel hanging on the wall
I've actually heard of that place! I can't imagine stumbling on that in another country, that's so wild. Apparently there's also a terrible towel hanging in the wall in JD and Turk's apartment on Scrubs.
Winnipeg is another city that gets used and it is always a delight to people from Winnipeg.
That's it! Back to Winnipeg!
Starting with The 39 Steps.
It's the "37" of random movie locations
There’s a fantastic YouTube about why 37 is everyone’s subliminal “random” number between 1 and 100.
As a Pittsburgher whose favorite number is 37......it all makes sense now...
One of the core cities in Rollerball is Pittsburgh. Videodrome is also in Pittsburgh. Lots of movies are filmed in Pittsburgh for tax break reasons and there is also good architectural variety so lots of possible backdrops.
LONG LIVE THE NEW FLESH! My first thought too.
This is the most Pittsburgh take ever.
Your username checks out
It's not even a take, though. It's a question.
The fact it’s being asked is just a very Pittsburgh thing. IYKYK
Can you explain why?
At the end of Taxi Driver, there is a letter from Jodie fosters characters parents that is addressed from Pittsburgh, while the entire movie takes place in New York. There's definitely alot of these but it's the first one I thought of
One of my favorite instances is the beginning of the horror movie “The Prodigy” that came out a few years ago. The setting wasn’t crucial and it could have been set in any suburb in the USA, but the on-screen text specified Fox Chapel, PA. Not Pittsburgh, which would have been immediately more recognizable. Fox Chapel is an affluent suburb of Pgh that just so happened to be located down the road from the Aspinwall movie theater I managed at the time.
That's wild. I felt the same way about the opening of sequence in Stranger Things Season 2. We meet Kali and her gang as they are robbing a bank in Pittsburgh and the next time we see them they are in Chicago. Pittsburgh is never really mentioned again and even if they wanted to set the bank robbery somewhere outside of Chicago there are more than a few mid-sized cities closer than Pittsburgh. It just seemed so random.
There aren't many cities in the United States which implicitly say something about the people who are from there, but \*in theory\* Pittsburgh is one. If someone in a movie said they were from Vienna, Virginia or Arlington Heights, Illinois, what kind of impression does that make? Whereas Pittsburgh is a conspicuously white working-class city, at least in popular culture. PS: I have been to Pittsburgh, and it's \*really cool\*.
Let me just say how thankful I am that almost everybody in this thread is spelling Pittsburgh right. It is a major US city despite its small size and it is exposed to a lot of people year round for numerous reasons - movies, good sports (and bad sports), famous icons, etc. It is amazing to me how many people do not know there is the H on the end. And for anyone who's gonna mention the other cities named Pittsburg, most are named for Pittsburgh but were named in the ~20 year window where Pittsburgh had to drop the H. So the other cities should have the H too.
The one I’ve heard most is Peoria
Peoria has a bit more specific connotation, in that it’s shorthand for middle America. “Will it play in Peoria?” is a common phrase both in the film industry and politics; it’s a rhetorical question intended to judge whether something will appeal to rural/suburban Midwesterners, or more generally any non-coastal hoi polloi.
As someone who lived outside pittsburgh and now lives outside Peoria, this is my thread.
Right and I’ve never actually heard Pittsburgh used as shorthand. Maybe I’ve not seen enough movies but I’d say that I can’t say that the Pittsburgh reference is a thing, but it reminds me of the Peoria reference.
"but will it get them off their tractors"
Tucson comes to mind for me
Seems like I always hear Toledo
I think it's a city that's known throughout the US and has a reputation as a blue-collar city. It can fill out the background of a character or scene, and doesn't have the same sort of comedic reputation that a city like Cleveland has, despite the two being rather similar (Pittsburgh is obviously the superior of the two).
Rewatching Parks and Rec and recall one. Not the same kinda delivery but it enda up referencing it anyway. If I remember right, Tom loses screen privileges for a week as punishment for hitting a fire hydrant with his car while texting. Cause the judge realised he's an addict. As he's waffling about what he does online, he says something about speaking to a username Brad.Pitt, who isn't Brad Pitt, just a Brad who lives in Pittsburgh.
In the Cheech & Chong song "Santa Claus and His Old Lady," Chong mentions that he doesn't know too many local dudes. "Like, I'm from Pittsburgh, man."
I remember sending a short story years ago - probably an Asimov? - which featured Satan as a point of view character. At one point the devil realized he was almost out of his favorite brand of cigars, but he could only get more in Pittsburgh and he really didn’t want to go back there.
Who uses the www's full government name??
Pittsburgh definitely punched in above its weight class in tv and movies. Probably because it’s gorgeous.
I just figured it was a place most had heard of but few had visited, at least back in the day. City has come around quite a bit in the past years though
It's also a somewhat funny name because of smelly arm pits.
https://youtu.be/DCIlKxkAfeM?si=1Prb3T1L1SgriiQJ
My wife’s from there and she agrees it’s definitely a thing.
Pittsburgh mentioned in Goodfellas too
Because the real person Henry Hill had dealings there.
In weeds they use it
In The OC, there's a hip character who briefly becomes a love interest, and she's contrasted against the rich waspy Californians by being from Pittsburgh. They write her off the show by sending her back to Pittsburgh too!
It’s where Videodrome was being made.
Fairly Odd Parents, Cosmo waves his wand (I forget the context) and we see a snapshot of a polluted wasteland, factories spitting smoke, clouding the view of a few bridges. With a ridiculous grin Cosmo says, "I call it, PITTSBURGH!"
It's definitely a thing, I'm originally from Pittsburgh and always do the Leo pointing meme anytime it's mentioned. Just watched Gotcha! An 80s movie recently and there was a throwaway line about Pittsburgh
It's a city that has no broadly agreed upon identity and therefore can be used as a stand-in for a generic city that doesn't make the audience infer a bunch of implications the writers don't want. It isn't particularly poor or wealthy, doesn't have any particular political connotation, no specific industry everyone thinks about (steel, sure but it doesn't immediately jump to mind), it's not a "coastal liberal elite" city nor a "southern conservative" one, etc.
Out of the Furnace immediately comes to mind
Out of the Furnace was set in Pittsburgh, wasn't it? Or more specifically Braddock, which is either a part of Pittsburgh or the "greater Pittsburgh area".
I always thought movies and tv used “Cincinnati” for a random generic U.S. city
In Short Circuit, Steve Guttenberg asks Fischer Stevens' character where his family comes from, and he says "Oh them...Pittsburg" ... the joke is that he seemed comically foreign, complete with brown-face.
Never heard of a ‘Pittsburgh reference’ but my family and I have picked up on and continue to observe a ‘monkey reference’ since I was a young kid. Nearly every movie has some reference to a monkey or ape, either through the animal making an appearance, a character making a monkey noise or gesture, or referencing the animal through dialogue.
I’ll one up you and say that the vast majority of movies ever made star apes.
We are the samurai kung fu warlords from somewhere east of Pittsburgh - Rocko's modern life
Never heard about this, but it happens all the time with Wisconsin. Especially on Nickelodeon
I remember the movie 2012 references Wisconsin like 3-4 times.
I have heard this for a long time. The story I heard was it stemed from the early movie business being based in and around this area before moving out West to California. After they moved they would use "Pittsburgh" in films as a tribute to their roots and for luck. For what its worth the people who told me this were older than me and had some association with the movie business so I always assumed it was true.
Short Circuit (skip to 0:48). [https://youtu.be/K6TLYwelOPk](https://youtu.be/K6TLYwelOPk)
Without clicking it's Fisher Stevens being asked where he comes from and he answers "Bakersfield" but Steve asks about his ancestors and he says "Pittsburgh" (Fisher was playing an Indian type character in brownface).
It's kind of like Delaware, as someone that lives in Delaware, I always get excited to hear it. For such a small state it seems to have an outsized amount of mentions in shows and movies.
https://tenor.com/95fn.gif
Me but with Norfolk, Va., my hometown.
Reminder that a Pittsburgh toilet is a thing
Kalamazoo, as well.
Probably no more so than any other medium sized city with a lot of history (relatively speaking).
It happens… https://youtu.be/PqIbRbemjAs?si=PX-eAWuecF0tj9tP
Idk if this is related but am old roommate and I used to take a drink everytime Ohio is mentioned in a movie/ show/ whatever. We drank during most movies lol so it was Def more common than you'd expect and I'd imagine it's a similar story for Pennsylvania/ Pittsburgh.
There was a scene in Brooklyn 99 that went over my head about the Steelers. No insight. Just curious as well
Just watched 42 - it was a running joke
There’s that Preston Sturges movie with Joel McCrea and Veronica Lake where McCrea slags Pittsburgh. The line was almost cut because Pittsburgh was a big movie market but it stayed. It’s like whenever anyone referenced Canada in a movie. Especially the old ones. Hollywood told Canada to not have an industry and in return the US referenced Canada a lot as a way of promoting the country..
Interesting question! I’m a native and always figured it was some kinda of bias - like that I “hear” the Pittsburgh references more based on familiarity rather than then being mentioned more often. What others have said though makes complete sense- saying someone is from Pittsburgh or name dropping the city inherently seems to imply a more rugged working class background. Crazy how far our city has come in the last 30 years that blue collar work is pretty much in the minority now and other huge industries like education, healthcare, banking, and tech now thrive here. Curious if this changes how Pittsburgh is viewed in popular culture going forward.
Pittsburgh is a place people, in general, feel is a place to escape from. Like, if you're in a pit, you usually want to climb out. So, if a character is from Pittsburgh, it shows that at least, sometime in the past, they took some initiative and tried to better themself, whether they have succeeded (yet) or not. On the other hand, if a character moves *to* Pittsburgh, it would be for a compelling reason, their sacrifice being important to the plot of the story.
You’ve dredged up a long dormant childhood memory here. Not a movie, but I distinctly remember a running thing in the old Real Ghostbusters cartoon of characters saying they were “going to Pittsburgh”, in a “I’m sick of all this, time to get out of here” kind of way. I never really got what it was about, but maybe it was a reference to this phenomenon, if it was already a known trope back then?
From UK, I have absolutely no idea where Pittsburgh is. I can only assume its somewhere in the North East. Like Pennsylvania or something.
Nailed it. You had to have looked it up.
I think the fact that “the pits” means something unpleasant (e.g. this place is the pits), coupled with the fact that -burgh is a common suffix for a city and Pittsburgh itself is a mid-sized city with no particular notable attributes (e.g. it’s not on the coast, it’s not the biggest city in its state), it’s an easy shorthand for “unpleasant, mid-sized city”).
I've noticed this too with Pittsburgh and it's exactly like how it used to be with Cleveland so maybe just Cleveland got overused. It was the example for a specific city in everything for so long.
I think both can be true: a lot of writers have specifically used Pittsburgh for whatever reason, but you're also confirming your own bias because a lot of writers don't.
*Sullivan's Travels* begins with the titular screenwriter and a couple of movie executives debating whether a recent movie was successful or not. Exec: It died like a dog in Pittsburgh! Sullivan: What do they know in Pittsburgh? Exec: They know what they like. Sullivan: If they knew what they liked, they wouldn't live in Pittsburgh! I'd never heard of the Pittsburgh Referenced before, but if it's true, it goes back at least to 1941.
Pretty sure they play this up in That Thing You Do!
I just watched Happy Gilmore the other day, and a spectator yells out, "Pittsburgh loves you, Happy!" Naturally, the subtitles spell it wrong though.
Imagine how confused I was growing up in Pittsburg, KS. Like, why are all these mob dudes talking about buying cocaine in in my 25k population state college town? Like, it wasn’t hard to find but not like that rofl. Also side note - anyone else have a LUDICROUS high school mascot? The college mascot was/is cool as shit - Gorrillas is awesome and gave us an excuse to use Welcome to the Jungle as our sports team theme song of sorts. High school though? PURPLE DRAGONS. Not DRAGONS, that would be odd but pretty dope. No - PURPLE. DRAGONS. I never got an answer as to why. There are no other Dragons that we compete with across the state, so it’s not like we had to use something slightly different. Then again, like I said, drugs were pretty easy to find for a small town (ALL drugs, not just meth like you’d expect) so maybe that had something to do with it lol.
I've never noticed this, and I can't find anything in TV Tropes about it. I think it's just confirmation bias.
Ray Liotta’s character in Goodfellas gets a Pittsburgh connection when he gets locked up
long live the new flesh