Yale in Popular Culture - Television

Television

  • In an episode of The Flintstones entitled "Flintstone of Princestone", which originally aired on November 3, 1961, Yale is known as Shale and, at the end of the episode, they play a football game against arch-rival Princestone, which features new quarterback, Fred "Twinkle Toes" Flintstone.
  • On the CW show Gilmore Girls, Rory Gilmore, played by Alexis Bledel, attends Yale, after spending much of her educational career with her heart set on attending Harvard. She is admitted to Harvard and Princeton as well as Yale, and chooses the latter over the other two after much consideration. She drops out at the end of season five, but returns mid-way through season six. Her friend and rival Paris Geller (Liza Weil) also matriculates at Yale after being rejected from Harvard, and both become editors for the Yale Daily News during their time at the school.
  • In Mission Hill, Kevin dreams about going to Yale. The school is briefly shown, with a large number of students who are stereotypical nerds like Kevin himself.
  • Brad O'Keefe, from Grounded for Life, fictionally gets an interview with Yale, and is later granted admission. Lily Finnerty, also from Grounded for Life, gets an interview (by lying).
  • In the show The L Word, the character Bette Porter, played by Jennifer Beals, is a Yale graduate. Jennifer Beals graduated from Yale herself.
  • Aaron Sorkin characters Josh Lyman (The West Wing) and Simon Stiles (Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip) attended Yale Law School and Yale Drama School, respectively. An episode of The West Wing was framed around a Whiffenpoofs performance at the White House.
  • In episode "4F16" of The Simpsons, Montgomery Burns is revealed to have been a member of Skull and Bones. In several episodes Burns is seen wearing a white sweater with a the Yale "Y" or waving a Yale pennant. In another episode it is revealed that Sideshow Bob attended Yale and appears to have been a member of the rowing team.
  • The 2007 miniseries The Company follows the career of a young Yale graduate recruited into the CIA during the Cold War.
  • In the television series Gilligan's Island, Mr. Howell calls several different individuals "A Yale Man," most notably in the episode "Don't Bug the Mosquitos," in which he proclaims, "You, sir, look like Attila the Hun—or a Yale man!" to a Mosquitos band member.
  • In the teen movie It's a Boy Girl Thing, Nell Bedworth (played by Samaire Armstrong) dreams of going to Yale.
  • On Beverly Hills, 90210, class brain Andrea Zuckerman is admitted to Yale but decides to go to California University for financial reasons; she later is impregnated by a UCLA law student who had graduated from Yale College.
  • Norm Macdonald's character Stan Hooper on the ill-fated sitcom A Minute With Stan Hooper attended Yale.
  • On Boy Meets World, Topanga Lawrence gets accepted into Yale after being put on the waitlist.
  • On Gossip Girl, the character Blair Waldorf, played by Leighton Meester, fantasizes about Yale, her dream college. She even owns a bulldog named "Handsome Dan," the name of Yale's actual mascot.
  • On Frasier, Niles attended Yale.
  • In the short-lived ABC series Traveler, Jay Burchell is a Yale Law School graduate, Tyler Fog is a Yale School of Management graduate, and Will Traveler has a graduate degree in chemical engineering from Yale.
  • In the episode "No Chris Left Behind," from the show Family Guy, Chris is sent to the fictional and unfortunately-named Morningwood Academy. The school is a dead ringer for Yale. The most notable reference is the Pewterschmidt family's legacy membership in a secret society whose building is a direct copy of the "tomb" (society hall) of Skull and Bones. Other references can be found in the architecture of other campus buildings, the stereotypical personalities (especially that of James William Bottomtooth IV), and even a mention of Yale in the script.
  • On "Glee", Quinn Fabray decides to apply to Yale University for college for the theatrical program; she is subsequently accepted by Yale. In a future episode, Quinn claims she's looking forward her graduation at Yale as the best in her class.
  • In the Fox's TV show "Fringe", scenes are shots in Yale university instead of Harvard University

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Famous quotes containing the word television:

    “Television is an excellent system when one has nothing to lose, as is the case with a nomadic and rootless country like the United States, but in Europe the affect of television is that of a bulldozer which reduces culture to the lowest possible denominator.”
    —Marc Fumaroli (b. 1932)

    “All television ever did was shrink the demand for ordinary movies. The demand for extraordinary movies increased. If any one thing is wrong with the movie industry today, it is the unrelenting effort to astonish.”
    —Clive James (b. 1939)

    “It is among the ranks of school-age children, those six- to twelve-year-olds who once avidly filled their free moments with childhood play, that the greatest change is evident. In the place of traditional, sometimes ancient childhood games that were still popular a generation ago, in the place of fantasy and make- believe play . . . today’s children have substituted television viewing and, most recently, video games.”
    —Marie Winn (20th century)