Tallahassee in popular culture

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Tallahassee has been represented well in popular culture through the years, moreover, Tallahassee has had more than its share of exposure and references in television programs, popular music, film, and the news for a city of its population. From Bing Crosby to Stephen King's The Green Mile to the hit television series Lost.

1 Popular music
2 Theater
3 Film
4 Television
5 News
6 Attribution
7 References

[edit] Popular music

1947: Bing Crosby releases the single titled, Tallahassee, with the Andrews Sisters. Within the song is the lyric: "When you see land all green and grassy ... sit down and rest your chassis, you're in Tallahassee."
1959: Freddy Cannon releases a single titled, Tallahassee Lassie. Dick Clark subsequently used it on American Bandstand for a dance contest.^[1]
1969: Johnny Cash releases the album titled: At San Quentin, the song Wanted Man with the lyric, "Wanted man in Tallahassee."^[2]
1976: Aerosmith releases the album Rocks. In the song Last Child with the lyric, "Take me back to a south Tallahassee." ^[3]
1982: The soundtrack for the film "Spring Break" has a song called "Hooray For The City" by Jack Mack & The Heart Attack which lists Tallahassee among several cities mentioned in the lyrics.^[4]^[5]
2002: The Mountain Goats release the album, Tallahassee. It is composed entirely of songs from the perspective of a couple living in Tallahassee.
2002: Rap duo dead prez mention Tallahassee in their song "Sellin' D.O.P.E." off Turn off the Radio: The Mixtape Vol. 1.
T-Pain Popular R&B artist T-Pain stands for "Tallahassee Pain," a reference to his growing up in the state's capital.
2007: T-Pain releases the CD Epiphany. The song titled Tallahassee Love .^[6]
Summa Coom Laude Up-and-coming Nu-Jazz band. With the hit single "My Wad", they have sold out many shows across Leon County. .^[7]

[edit] Theater

August Wilson's Century Cycle plays include references to Tallahassee in Joe Turner's Come and Gone and Fences.

[edit] Film

1986: The Deliberate Stranger is televised in May of that year. The film depicts the life of serial killer Ted Bundy who terrorized the Chi Omega sorority house in Tallahassee.
1991: Fried Green Tomatoes is released in theaters. In the film, the fictional town of Whistle Stop, Alabama is served by the Tallahassee & Albany Railroad running through it. This railroad never existed, a nod to Tallahassee.
1993: True Romance is released in theaters. Written by Quentin Tarantino, Tallahassee is mentioned as the home of Alabama Whitman played by Patricia Arquette.
1999: The Green Mile is released in theaters. Written by Stephen King and produced by Frank Darabont. The character Eduard Delacroix, a Cajun prisoner played by Michael Jeter, who is about to be executed is told that Mr. Jingles, his pet mouse, will live in Mouseville.
- Dialogue: Brutus "Brutal" Howell played by David Morse says, "How about Mouseville?" Eduard Delacroix played by Michael Jeter says, "Mouseville?" Brutal replies, "Tourist attraction down in Florida. Tallahassee, I think. Is that right, Paul? Tallahassee?" Paul Edgecomb played by Tom Hanks says, "Yeah, that's right. Tallahassee. Just down the road apiece from the dog university." (transcribed from DVD)
2006: Hacking Democracy, a documentary is released on DVD after premiering on HBO. Tallahassee became the site of the Hursti Hack proving Diebold voting machines can be hacked and altered to steal an election. Tallahassee comprises a large amount of the running time.
2008: Recount, an HBO made-for-TV movie, was filmed partly in Tallahassee during November of 2007. It chronicles the Florida vote recounts in the weeks after the 2000 U.S. presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore, and the December Supreme Court ruling that gave Bush the White House. Starring Kevin Spacey, Laura Dern, Ed Begley, Jr., Denis Leary, and John Hurt, the movie will be aired on HBO sometime in August 2008.

[edit] Television

[edit] Curb Your Enthusiasm

2000-present - Curb Your Enthusiasm, in the series, Larry David's wife, Cheryl, is from Tallahassee and often makes references that her parents still live there. This typical of the show, which is often based in reality, as the actress Cheryl Hines grew up in Tallahassee.

[edit] Lost

2004-present - Lost, the television series aired on September 22nd, 2004 on ABC. Plot: During a routine trip from Sydney, Australia, to Los Angeles, Oceanic Flight 815 is blown off course and crashes on a remote, deserted island. The surviving passengers set up camp on the beach and try to make the most of what they think will only be a short time on the island.

[edit] Episodes

What Kate Did. Series episode #33. (Production Code: 209). Season 2, Episode 9. Aired November 30, 2006. Kate Austen played by Evangeline Lilly is buying a bus ticket and says, "Tallahassee one-way, please." Marshal Edward Mars played by Fredric Lehne says, "Tallahassee? I spent a week in Tallahassee one night. It's all strip malls and Waffle Houses. What's a pretty girl like you going to do down in Tallahassee?"^[8]
Lockdown. Series episode #41 (Production Code: 217). Season 2, Episode 17. Aired Wednesday March 29, 2006. Dr. Jack Shepherd played by Matthew Fox and James "Sawyer" Ford played by Josh Holloway are playing poker. Sawyer says, "Okay, I'll call you with the aspirin and raise you with a bottle of Amoxicilin." Jack says, "Do you even know what Amoxicilin is?" Sawyer replies, "You may have been to Phuket, Doc, but I've been to Tallahassee. Let's just say something was burning and it wasn't from the sunshine." ^[9]
The Man from Tallahassee. Series episode #61 (Production Code: 313). Season 3, Episode 13. Aired March 21, 2007. The man from Tallahassee is Anthony Cooper played by Kevin Tighe, father of John Locke played by Terry O'Quinn. In the episode, Ben played by Michael Emerson says to another man from his hospital bed, "Bring me the man from Tallahassee." Later John Locke says, "The man from Tallahassee - what is that? Some kind of code?"
The Brig. Series episode #67 (Production Code: 319). Season 3, Episode 19. Aired Wednesday May 2, 2007. Inside the land bound hull of a mid 1800s British slave ship, The Black Rock, James "Sawyer" Ford played by Josh Holloway confronts Anthony Cooper played by Kevin Tighe. Sawyer says, "How did you get here...to the island?" Cooper replies, "To the island, huh, huh, (chuckles). OK, I'm driving down I-10 through Tallahassee when 'bam' somebody slams into the back of my car. I go right into the divider at 70 miles an hour the next thing I know the paramedics are strapping me to a gurney stuffing me in to the back of an ambulance and one of them actually smiles at me as he pops the IV into my arm. And then nothing. Just black. And the next thing I know I wake up in a dark room tied up gag in my mouth and when the door opens I'm looking up at the same man I threw out a window, John Locke, my dead son." (transcribed from DVD)

In an ABC podcast, two of the executive producers, Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof, said about Tallahassee: "It just happens to be a nexus point where many of our characters have crossed paths." "Like a hellmouth?" Cuse asked. "Yeah, like a hellmouth," Lindelof replied. (Jeff Burlew, Tallahassee Democrat, March 23, 2007).

[edit] Jericho

2006-2008- Jericho (TV series), in the episode, "Black Jack", it was noted on the news board that Tallahassee, Florida survived, because, as the capital of Florida, it was supporting the president in Montgomery, Alabama.

[edit] News

December 8, 2000: United States presidential election, 2000 Florida results. At 4:00pm, the Florida Supreme Court, by a 4 to 3 vote, ordered a manual recount to be held in Tallahassee, under the supervision of the Leon County Circuit Court and Leon County Elections Supervisor Ion Sancho to be held in Tallahassee. The national news media anchors from CNN, CBS, NBC, ABC, as well as news teams from England, Germany, Japan and other countries were in Tallahassee.^[10]

[edit] Attribution

This original version of this article was taken from the Wikipedia article Tallahassee, Florida.

[edit] References