Not just Adele: Pop culture references to Modesto abound in TV, film over the years
You thought Adele name-dropping Modesto on the song “Wild Wild West,” from her new album, “30,” was cool?
Undeniably, it is. But references to Modesto in television, movies and music date back almost 60 years. The Central Valley city has popped up in pop culture in all sorts of unexpected places.
The following is a list of some Modesto’s mentions, from major to majorly obscure.
1963: “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World,” film; Jonathan Winters’ trucker character drives the Modesto-to-Yuma run.
1965-1969: “The Big Valley,” TV series; Western starring Barbara Stanwyck and Lee Majors is set in and mentions the Stockton/Modesto area.
1972-1977: “The Streets of San Francisco,” series; Michael Douglas’ San Francisco detective was from Modesto.
1972: “Holiday Hotel,” song; Loggins and Messina single includes the lyric “destined for Modesto.”
1973: “American Graffiti,” film; native son George Lucas’ ode to cruising is based on Modesto, but filmed in Petaluma, and the city is mentioned by name only in the epilogue.
1980: “Make-Up and Faded Blue Jeans,” song; Merle Haggard single mentions working in a “downtown Modesto” Holiday Inn in the first line.
1982, Henry Weinhard’s beer commercial: The TV spot for the Oregon brewery shows two employees in the cab of a delivery truck, driving through a California city. The guy in the passenger seat marvels, “Boy, Los Angeles is a big place, isn’t it?” To which the driver replies, “This is Modesto.”
1985: Murphy’s Romance,” film; Sally Field’s divorced mother character is from Modesto.
1994: “Modesto,” song; Beck track from his album “Stereopathetic Soulmanure” makes vague reference to “contaminated lawns” and “browsing through the supermarket town.”
1996: “Larger Than Life,” film; Bill Murray’s motivational speaker character misses his Modesto speaking date while on a cross-country trip to deliver an inherited elephant.
1998: “Celebrity Skin,” rock album art: Courtney Love’s band Hole used a black-and-white photo of the Modesto arch in liner notes for its album.
2001: “The Man Who Wasn’t There,” film; Billy Bob Thornton’s character goes with his wife to a wedding reception for a cousin who just married a “vintner out near Modesto” in the Coen Brothers’ film noir.
2002: “Saturday Night Live,” series; Matt Damon-hosted season première episode features the actor as a park ranger from “the Shawndale Ranch in Modesto, California.”
2003: “The Simpsons,” series; Krusty the Clown runs for Congress and blackmails a fellow congressman, who says he’ll be ruined if “they hear about this in Modesto.”
2003: “Animal House: Where Are They Now?” DVD; a mockumentary to go with the “Double Secret Probation Edition” DVD release of the 1978 cult classic reveals Bruce McGill’s D-Day character is living secretly in Modesto.
2004: “The Perfect Husband: The Laci Peterson Story,” TV movie; the USA network movie starring Dean Cain about the real-life crime was set in Modesto but was primarily filmed in San Diego.
2004: “CSI,” series; lead character Sara Sidle looks up a court case on her abusive mother and the records are from Modesto.
2004: “Modesto Is Not That Sweet,” song; Brooklyn-based indie band The Hold Steady released the song with some bitter lyrics about an ex-love interest who wound up in Modesto.
2004: “Retro Dance Record,” song; Oakland hip-hop artist Mac Dre rapped “For you, I’d walk to Modesto” in the song off his “The Game Is Thick, Vol. 2” album.
2005: “Supernatural,” series; a character’s “uncles from Modesto” are introduced in the pilot episode.
2006: “7th Heaven,” series; one of the series stars must decide between attending college of playing minor-league baseball with the Modesto Nuts.
2006: “Jeez Louise,” song; Modesto indie band Grandaddy included a lyric about being “shacked up at Modesto Inn” in its song off the album “Just Like the Fambly Cat.”
2007: “Zodiac,” film; real-life Bay Area serial-killer drama includes a scene set on “Highway 132, near Modesto” and shows The Modesto Bee on screen.
2008: “Criminal Minds,” series; an episode of the CBS show opens with a murder in Modesto and the team of FBI profilers travels to the city to capture “The Highway 99 Killer,” who was actually murdering victims across the Central Valley along the railroad tracks.
2008: “Jericho,” series; after a nuclear apocalypse, The Modesto Bee is now the “second-largest paper in California.”
2008: “St. Modesto,” song; Death Cab for Cutie guitarist Chris Walla releases the song with lyrics that include references to the Valley and Altamont.
2008-2014: “Sons of Anarchy,” series; FX crime drama about an outlaw motorcycle club is set in the fictitious Central Valley town of Charming but makes reference to happenings in Modesto throughout its run.
2009: “Monsters vs. Aliens,” film; DreamWorks animated 3-D feature opens in Modesto when a meteor strikes the city and starts the action.
2009: “Up In the Air,” film; George Clooney’s corporate downsizer says he is in “Newark on the 12th, Modesto on the 13th,” when trying to coordinate schedules.
2009: “Janky Promoters,” film; comedy starring Ice Cube and Mike Epps as a pair of inept music promoters trying to pull together a Young Jeezy concert is set in Modesto.
2009: “The Mentalist,” series; Sacramento-based crime procedural on CBS has the lead character chide a Modesto city councilman’s wife that she is in “the big city” now.
2009: “Entourage,” series; HBO show about the ins and outs of Hollywood mentions “40 idiots from Modesto” who didn’t like a TV pilot.
2012: “Up All Night,” series; Maya Rudolph’s TV-host character shows a somewhat positive review (“They said they’d seen far worse.”) from The Modesto Bee on screen and says, “Thanks, Modesto Bee.”
2013: “The Internship,” movie; Vince Vaughn/Owen Wilson comedy has its characters visit an old-age home in a city called Modesto Colony.
2015: “Looking,” series; HBO show about a group of gay friends living in San Francisco has characters take a road trip to Modesto for a family funeral and was filmed in town for some scenes.
2015: “American Crime” series; ABC drama is set in Modesto and used a few background images of the city, while most filming was done in Austin, Texas.
2017: “Glorious,” music video; Rapper Macklemore actually came to Modesto, where his grandmother lives, and recorded the music video with her in and around the city.
2019: “The Magicians,” series; Characters from the Syfy fantasy series about a secret institution that teaches magic wind up in Modesto when there’s a terror attack on the Modesto Valley College Library and walk into a convenience store selling “Famous People of Modesto Jar Candles” with images of “Deadwood” actor Timothy Olyphant, ”Buffy the Vampire Slayer” alum James Marsters and “Star Wars” mastermind George Lucas.
2020: “Saturday Night Live,” series; Modesto made its second appearance on the sketch comedy series in a skit called “The Sands of Modesto” featuring guest host Daniel Craig in a soap opera send-up that also spoofed the early COVID-19 outbreak.
2020: “Star Trek: Lower Decks,” series; The Paramount+ show is the first animated comedy in the “Star Trek” universe and features the character Ensign Brad Boimler (voiced by Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan’s son Jack Quaid), who hails from Modesto.
2020: “Ratched,” series; The Netflix drama based on the infamous Nurse Ratched from “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” features Sarah Paulson as the title character who goes on a road trip with her girlfriend (played by Cynthia Nixon) that makes a pit stop in Modesto to watch a puppet show called “Lew Klassen’s Marionette Theatre.”
2021: “Wild Wild West,” song; Adele name drops Modesto in a bonus track about her moving from London to Los Angeles on her acclaimed new album “30.”
2022: “Scream,” movie; Two of the main characters in the latest installment of the horror film franchise hail from Modesto. The characters, played by Melissa Barrera and Jack Quaid, start the movie while in the Stanislaus County city, before heading to the fictional California town of Woodsboro where all the mayhem unfolds.
This story was originally published November 26, 2021 at 6:00 AM.
