Seven times before, I’ve reeled off a series of movie and TV moments referencing New Haven.
Here’s part eight, whose runtime, I’m pleased to report, is about two hours and 44 minutes shorter than the eighth Mission: Impossible.
Community (2009), S1E5, 8:44: Craig Pelton, dean of Greendale Community College, is always looking for reasons to tout a school that, as one student puts it, is “not even the best community college in our community.” So, when another student is accused of cheating, Pelton knows exactly where to hold the hearing: next to the pool, where he can show off Greendale’s most impressive new asset. “Alright, I am convening this disciplinary tribunal at our state-of-the-art judges’ table, which has its own built-in sound system. So take that, Yale!”
New Girl (2014), S3E20, 0:49: The episode opens with Nick, Winston, Schmidt, Jess, Cece and Coach playing a round of True American, a national history-themed drinking game whose rules are comically opaque both to viewers and the core cast’s latest house guests. The gameplay this time is particularly hard-drinking, culminating in Schmidt face-up on a table, a bottle of liquor poised above him. “My name is Eli Whitney, and I created the cotton gin!” Schmidt declares, prompting a chorus of “Gin! Gin! Gin!” while Cece pours an ungodly amount of non-cotton gin straight into his mouth. The scene cuts to the gang sleeping in a tangle, about to wake up to hangovers the size of the famous New Havener’s place in American history.
Claim to Fame (2024), S3E1, 12:30: New Havener Adam Christoferson, founder of Musical Intervention downtown and nephew of New Haven-born ’80s/’90s love balladeer Michael Bolton, was a contestant on season three of Claim to Fame, a reality competition that gathers people with famous relatives and challenges them to figure out each others’ celebrity connections. Christoferson (pictured above) gets short shrift during the initial intros, but the producers make up for it during the next segment, a talent show, where Christoferson goes first and longest. Downplaying his own talent as a musician in order to throw his competitors off the scent, he kicks around a Hacky Sack, improvs a one-man play and bangs some drums rather than grabbing a guitar and a mic—which, he tells the producers, would be a “dead giveaway” given how much he sounds like his famous uncle.
Shaun of the Dead (2004), 21:19, 1:13:30, 1:15:59: This hilarious sendup of zombie movies and human sluggishness sees London dead-ender Shaun trying to step up and prove his worth during an undead outbreak. In one of many missteps, he leads a group of other bumblers to pretty much the one place he ever goes that isn’t home or work: The Winchester, a pub named for the antique New Haven-made rifle hanging above the bar. As literal zombies crash through the many large windows of this poorly chosen fortress, we see that the gun actually works, albeit not very well in the hands of these figurative undead.
Dirty Dancing (1987), 6:36: Was there a time when Yale and Harvard men were poached for the summer by sleazy mountain resort owners who wanted them to wait on tables and seduce their guests’ daughters? Set in 1963 but made in the ’80s, when I guess moviegoers were less immune to wacky premises, the film uses the waiters—among them a sociopathic Yale med student—as elitist foils for the resort’s workaday dance instructors. But the main difference, as far as the boss is concerned, is that the serving staff are secret gigolos, told they can “romance ’em any way you want,” while the dance teachers must “keep your hands off!” The whole dynamic is more of a stretch than Baby’s famous finale leap into Johnny’s arms.
After the Hunt (2025, forthcoming): “A college professor finds herself at a personal and professional crossroads when a star pupil levels an accusation against one of her colleagues and a dark secret from her own past threatens to come to light,” the IMDB summary tells us. But the tension-ratcheting trailer, featuring Julia Roberts, Andrew Garfield and Ayo Edebiri and viewed nearly 10 million times so far, tells us something more: It’s set in New Haven. Despite being shot in London, the screen flashes with facsimiles of settings around town—Three Sheets, Beinecke Plaza, Phelps Gate, Chapel West Wine & Liquors and Alternate Universe—along with what looks, out of focus, like an Atticus thermos. Set for limited release on October 10 and going wide a week later, something tells me a lot of New Haveners will opt to see their city, or at least something like it, in the theater.
Written by Dan Mims. Image features Adam Christoferson in season 3 of Claim to Fame.
