Popular Culture

Conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly leads an unexpected fight against the Equal Rights Amendment movement during the 1970s.

In episode 5, they head to Los Angeles for a debate and feature a distressed Sign accurate for the 1970s setting.

A group of aspiring actors and filmmakers in post-World War II Hollywood try to make it big – no matter the cost.

A faded television actor and his stunt double strive to achieve fame and success in the film industry during the final years of Hollywood’s Golden Age in 1969 Los Angeles.

The Hollywood Sign is destroyed in a mudslide on Fox’s hit drama 9-1-1 in Season 4 Episode 2. As featured in this clip.

A seemingly ideal day turns disastrous when California’s notorious San Andreas fault triggers a devastating, magnitude 9 earthquake, the largest in recorded history. As the Earth cracks open and buildings start to crumble, the Hollywood Sign is swiftly destroyed.

In season 1, episode 6, titled “Our A-Story is a “D” Story”, the main character, Bojack Horseman (voiced by Will Arnett) steals the “D” from the Hollywood sign. As a result, native Angelenos subsequently refer to the area as “Hollywoo” (since the “D” from the sign is missing). The conclusion of the episode sees the “D” accidentally destroyed in a helicopter crash near the Hollywoo Hills Super-Max prison.

The tornado blows the letters of the Sign away. One of them crushes an aspiring actor just after he says, “my mother always told me Hollywood would kill me”.

Los Angeles, 1949: A secret crew of police officers led by two determined sergeants work together in an effort to take down the ruthless mob king Mickey Cohen who runs the city.

In the first scene of the movie, it shows the Griffith Observatory then the camera zooms over to the Hollywoodland Sign.

Seven Psychopaths is a 2012 British black comedy film written, co-produced and directed by Martin McDonagh. It stars Colin Farrell, Sam Rockwell, Woody Harrelson, Tom Waits, and Christopher Walken. The film marks the second collaboration between McDonagh and Farrell, following 2008’s In Bruges.

Argo is a 2012 American thriller film directed by Ben Affleck; it is a dramatization of the “Canadian Caper” based on an article published in 2007, in which Tony Mendez, a CIA operative, led the rescue of six U.S. diplomats from Tehran, Iran, during the 1979 Iran hostage crisis.

Set in 1987 Los Angeles, Drew and Sherrie are two young people chasing their dreams in the big city. When they meet, it’s love at first sight, though their romance will face a series of challenges.

Rockstar knocked it out of the park once again with this monster hit title, which frames its deeply detailed plotline within hyper-realistic Los Angeles settings drawn from historical 1940s photographs. As you might expect, the Hollywood Sign is a ubiquitous sight in the game and is seen in its original form, reading “Hollywoodland.”

…We’re going at it tonight tonight
There’s a party on the rooftop top of the world
Tonight tonight and we’re dancing on the edge of the Hollywood sign
I don’t know if I’ll make it but watch how good I’ll fake it
It’s all right, all right, tonight, tonight…

The follow-up song to Rebecca Black’s monster viral video hit “Friday” finds the young ingenue basking in the glow of sudden fame, complete with a Hollywood fantasy sequence and a beauty shot of the Sign.

Mila and Justin climb over the fence guarding the Sign and sit and talk in the second O until a L.A.P.D. chopper shows up.

...We're cruisin' tonight, We got the roof back,

Mulholland Drive,

We're at the top, yeah

Pulling off,

Gettin' lost in the city lights,

Take it to the Hollywood sign...

Katy Perry’s high sugar content video for “California Gurls” centers around Snoop Dogg playing a board game called “Candyfornia: Face the Sugar Daddy’s Dice to Free the Queens of Candyfornia,” in which Katy Perry is the game piece. The game board is a large 3-D super-confectionary trip through the landmarks and topography of California, including the Hollywood Sign rendered in delicious Red Vines atop three large ice cream hilltops…

…My heart goes boom as the stars go blue,Like a sea of cell phone lights,The moon gets light as the sun goes down,Somewhere behind the hollywood sign,Have you ever felt like your living in the shadows?Have you ever felt kept down?I know sometimes that it feels like a battle,But it can turn around…

20th Century Fox knows that nothing says “showbiz” like the Hollywood Sign, which is why the world-famous icon is now being used to open all of the studio’s releases … Looks like we’ll be seeing even more of the Hollywood Sign at the movies in the very near future!

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Promotional posters for this film show Milla Jovovich striding over the Hollywood Hills past a blasted, weathered “H” from the Sign.

The Sign appears in the background during a soccer match.

The Sign looms large in this coming-of-age biopic about 70’s teenage band The Runaways, including a scene where the band hangs out behind the letters of the Sign.

No movie about star struck teens going to Hollywood would be complete without a mandatory shot of the Sign, and this popular Disney Channel Original Movie is no exception. The landmark also figures large in the promotional Bus Tour mini-films made for the film, as the film’s stars are taken on a special tour of glamorous Hollywood sights.

The Sign plays a part in the opening credits as Victoria Justice sings. Look for the Sign several times in the background and near the “Hollywood Arts” performing arts high school. You can also see the Sign in several quick edits between scenes in the show.

The opening credit sequence for this ill-fated late night variety show, which depicted a whirlwind tour of the most important landmarks of Los Angeles, included a nighttime tracking camera shot of the Sign from behind silhouetted against the LA skyline.

Two music videos from the Finnish band ‘The 69 Boyz’ feature the Hollywood Sign.  The videos were directed by Bam Magera of Jackass fame.

…I hopped off the plane at LAX with a dream and my cardiganWelcome to the land of fame, excess, whoa am I gotta fit in?Jumped in the cab, here I am for the first timeLook to my right, and I see the Hollywood sign…

A young man awakens from a four-year coma to hear that his once pure high-school sweetheart has since become a pinup star. He and his girl-crazed best friend decide to take a cross-country road trip to crash a party at the Playboy mansion and win back the girl. The Hollywood Sign has a cameo as the guys near L.A. and are about to pull up to the mansion.

A teenager discovers he’s the descendant of a Greek god and sets out on an adventure to settle an on-going battle between the gods. The Sign appears towards the end, as the gate to Hades!

Aspiring designer Bruno arrives in Hollywood amid glitz, glamour, and the Hollywood Sign.

In this 2009 TV miniseries, an enterprising young woman navigates the professional waters of Beverly Hills in order to land the hottest producer in town, fully unaware that she is about to get in way over her head.

The Hollywood Sign can be seen at the end.

Another thrilling game from Rockstar, allowing players to buy the hottest cars and race them through hyper-realistic Los Angeles settings, complete with traffic, weather, and the police. The Hollywood Sign is seen in all its glory in the game, as well as on the packaging, letting players know exactly where they are as they drive.

…I’m gonna lose my mindGet 30 inch spinners and pimp my rideGo back in time, be there that night and save 2 Pac’s lifeThen pay my fine for getting caught f***ing on the Hollywood signI got the game on lockI’ll have a bottle and a glockwith biceps like The RockBuy Tom’s soul back from Rupert Murdoch…

This latest version of a venerable television franchise includes many passing references to the Sign, and the cast uses the Sign as a backdrop for a documentary film they are shooting. In addition, Season 3 sees one character (Jasper) throwing himself off the “H” and narrowly escaping death.

Bolt arrives in Hollywood and takes in a gorgeous view of the whole city with the Sign prominently in the background. While he stands there, two aspiring Hollywood writer pigeons approach Bolt to pitch a bird-brained script idea for his next movie.

Near the end of the movie, where Carl is jogging with Allison and her yoga/jogging/photography group at the Griffith Park Observatory, the Hollywood Sign can be seen setting the stage in the background.

The Sign has a cameo near the middle of the movie when an establishing shot shows the home where Jason Lee lives with the Chipmunks.

The Sign can be seen in the background (an animated version of this can be seen in the credits).

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In the 2007 season’s fourth episode, titled “The Kindness Of Strangers,” Claire and a date fly over to the Hollywood Sign at night and sit on top of the letter “H.”   Claire purposefully falls off the “H” to test and see if her date will swoop in and rescue her (he does, thankfully).

…Till the next time that we meet at the top of the Hollywood Sign. Don’t leave me next to the pool bar where I’m all alone with the conscience of fate. I’ll choose my favorite beverage and vomit it up on the chest of my date. The names Baby, and in the spot light I’m a real lady but when the cameras off, I die slowly. I’ve got Entourage but they don't know me. Cuz I’m the ghost of the Hollywood Sign…

The opening credit sequence includes a helicopter tracking camera shot of the Sign with an added glowing effect.

A man decides to donate part of his liver to save his son’s life. They travel to California for the surgery. On the night before the operation, his wife takes pictures of the man and his son in front of the Hollywood Sign.

Jack Black arrives by bus in Hollywood to form the world’s most awesome rock band. He beams and takes in the scene while the Sign sets the stage behind him.

The Sign, which at the time of the film’s setting (1940) still read HOLLYWOODLAND, was near the site of the grisly Black Dahlia murder. It’s shown, accurately, with the “H” damaged, as it would have been before the Chamber of Commerce’s 1949 refurbishment.

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The opening credit sequence of this long-running behind-the-scenes look at Hefner’s famous Mansion includes a shot of the Sign. The Sign is also shown repeatedly in several episodes, including one where the girls ride horseback to the Sign.

A gorgeous helicopter shot of the Sign is seen in the opening credits.

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Aspiring actress Ellie (Watts) has to play a corpse in one scene with the Hollywood Sign in the background – but lying still proves a difficult task for her.

The Sign appears repeatedly in this Friends spin-off, usually during scene switches. Joey makes reference to the Sign in the first episode, where he comments that from his apartment he can see the “Ollywoo” sign — since his window has no view of the H or the D.

This game is set in a seedy fictional city called Los Santos, which takes the seedier side of Los Angeles to the extreme. Thankfully, the real Los Angeles is no where near as exciting as this game! High on a hillside overlooking the city, there is a sign modeled on the Hollywood Sign, reading “Vinewood.” Fantasy or not, the game designers obviously felt that even a fictional Los Angeles would look incomplete without a fictional Sign looming over it.

In the animated opening credits, the Hollywood Sign makes an appearance to set up the romantic comedy plot of a small town girl winning a date with a movie star.

This emmy-nominated TV movie depicts what would happen to Los Angeles in the event of a 10.5 earthquake. Given the magnitude of the quake, the damage isn’t that bad: Only one of the Ls and a W go toppling over the hillside this time. Heck, the Sign probably looked worse circa 1976.

The film’s villain (an immortal baby who never ages) has a secret lair inside of the Sign’s H.

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Our heroes arrive in a land far far away … as evidenced by a ridiculous FAR FAR AWAY Sign that’s similar in appearance to the Hollywood Sign.

A TV reporter sits in a chopper that is covering the tornados in L.A., including the one destroying the Hollywood Sign.

At the end of season 4, main characters Dr. Christian Troy (Julian McMahon) and Dr. Sean McNamara (Dylan Walsh) sell their successful, Miami plastic surgery business and relocate to the glitz and glamour of Hollywood.

The Hollywood Sign is shown in a most spectacular fashion, with great aerial shots of both it and a couple of far-away shots of the city below. The two doctors are shown simply hanging around the Sign. All this is set to Kool & the Gang’s ‘Hollywood Swingin’.”

The Bachelorette is a spin-off from the American competitive reality dating game show The Bachelor. In the 9th season, they had a dinner date sitting on top of the “L” in Hollywood.

The Hollywood Sign is featured in the opening credits of movie where two LAPD detectives who moonlight in other fields investigate the murder of an up-and-coming rap group.

Once again, the Sign sets the scene. At the very start of the movie, we hear a police radio requesting S.W.A.T. assistance, and the camera flies over the Sign into downtown Los Angeles to show a thrilling bank robbery taking place.

The criminal played by Edward Norton flies past the Sign in a helicopter.

There’s a fight with Sign in the far background.

The sign is seen as the girls enter Los Angeles for the first time, setting the stage for glamorous adventure.

Dr. Evil’s secret lair was built into the hill behind the Sign … Talk about your glamorous digs.

The Hollywood Sign can be seen when Peter Appleton (played by Jim Carrey) arrives at HHS Studios.

This Hollywood-themed heist film has three washed up actors trying to steal $10,000,000 using their acting skills. In addition to the movie title, the film begins with a cool tracking shot of the Sign as a car with a trunk full of smuggled cocaine rolls past into Los Angeles.

The sign appears in the opening scene of the movie. It is featured on a “Greetings From” postcard that gradually dissolves into the actual Hollywood sign as lead character Joe Dirt (played by Spade) is driving through LA.

The Hollywood Sign appears in about 20 minutes in. It is shown after Naomi Watts arrives in Los Angeles.

The main plot of the movie is in Hollywood and the sign appears at the very beginning of the movie right before the scene with Cotton weary in his car.

In ‘That’s Lobstertainment’ (Episode #3, Season #8), the Planet Express crew flies to Hollywood to revive the career of Dr. Zoidberg’s formerly famous comedian uncle Harold Zoid. The Sign still stands proudly over LA, but the Capitol Records building seems to have been repurposed as a “Swap Meet.”

The video begins with singer Joshua Todd sitting on a perch and when the camera pans around, he’s seated in the crook of an ‘L’.  Then the band is set up and playing the song in front of the sign. At the second chorus, the sign bursts into flames and the band plays on, as ashes fall onto a star-studded (Tara Reid) movie premiere.

One of the actresses that Steve Martin’s character was hiring for his movie is sitting on a park bench underneath the sign.

It is a helicopter shot from behind the sign on Mt. Lee and the camera nearly passes through. The purpose of the shot is to establish the all-powerful presence of Hollywood as an industry, a place where anything can happen.

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The Sign (again depicted in its original Hollywoodland incarnation) serves as the perfect backdrop for this film about Orson Welle’s struggle to make Citizen Kane. The film is accurate in that the LAND portion of the Sign, which wasn’t scrapped until 1949, would have been standing during the time of Citizen Kane’s filming (1940-41). Still, the Sign would have looked much worse for wear than it appears here.

When Stan, Kyle, Eric, and Kenny see the R-rated Canadian movie “Terrance & Phillip: Asses of Fire”, they are pronounced “corrupted”. Kyle’s mom Sheila, with the rest of the parents, pressure the United States to wage war against Canada. The Sign is used as a backdrop when the Canadian Air Forces bomb the Baldwin brothers’ mansion. (Alec, Stephen, etc.).

A cult classic racing game that allowed players to test their driving skills on challenging tracks based on famous USA locations, including Los Angeles, New York, Seattle, Hawaii, and more. The Hollywood Sign features prominently in the Los Angeles track portion, as well as on the packaging.

Joe, the gorilla sits in the first O, overlooking L.A. at night and then leaves quietly (leaving the Sign intact!)

The film is about a man who discovers that what he thought was his life is, in fact, a TV show. His existential crisis is punctuated by a shot revealing that his hometown (Seahaven) is actually a set built inside of an enormous dome … located just north of the Hollywood Sign.

The Hollywood Sign appears toward the start of the movie with all the angels are standing on the Sign.

The Sign’s comedy calvacade continues. … Actually, the Sign isn’t featured in the film itself, but it’s the focus of a promotional poster. In the poster, Bean (Atkinson) proudly marches down Hollywood Blvd. with a giant O under his arm. In the background, we can clearly see the Sign — which now reads HOLLYWO D.

This comedy about a naïve young Mormon missionary who’s recruited to star in a sci-fi porn movie opens with a prominent shot of the Sign, under which the humorously obvious title card Hollywood, U.S.A. fades up.

In this hard hitting drama, the Sign appears approximately 7 or 8 minutes into the film in a very memorable and iconic way: a helicopter shot circling around the Sign at sunrise while Massive Attack’s “Spying Glass” plays in the background. Very evocative indeed.

Remarkably, the Sign is spared. It is, however, the compositional centerpiece of a shot featuring a tower (in the foreground) that’s knocked over to dam a river of molten lava.

…He said do you know where Carson lives
So we drove up to Malibu
Cruisin’ down Sunset Strip
I let him steal a kiss or two
Under the Hollywood sign
I tried to hide a smile as I whispered low
I wanna be the first to tell you
Here we say Rodel, not rodeo…

From our contributor: Protagonist Flynt gets told “There’s only one place for your kind . . . ” (or something like that), then the film cuts to a helicopter shot that circles the Hollywood sign! When I saw it in NYC, the audience roared and applauded! The camera pans back as the helicopter circles around to show the Flynt Building on Wilshire Blvd. in the same shot. (Director Milos Forman won the Golden Globe for this movie.)

As the aliens are introduced to us by the director he gives us a great shot of the Hollywood sign to make sure that we know where the alien invasion is taking place. (Contributed by Angel Frost)

This barbed satire of L.A. (and, in turn, American) pop culture features a shot of the Sign with the Hollywood hills on fire in the background –a poignant image of just how badly things have gone in Los Angeles’ future as imagined by Carpenter.

The Sign is featured during the first and final shots of the film as part of a wide-angle pan. The purposefully artificial-looking, miniaturized depiction of Hollywood serves as the perfect introduction to Wood’s world.

There’s a hilarious scene in which Robin Hood arrives at the coast of England. How do we know? A giant Hollywood Sign-style sign spells out ENGLAND on the distant hillside. It was the Sign’s first comedic role … but not its last.

Again, the Sign is used to establish setting — in this case, a dystopian, violence-wracked future Los Angeles.

The Hollywood sign appears briefly when Mac and Fraser arrive in California in a pickup truck.

The movie features a great scene where Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. ride horses up to the sign (Fairbanks even takes a leak on the sign) and discuss the rising tide of Americanism sweeping the country as Fairbanks proceeds to climb the sign and even performs some gymnastics on one of the letters as the camera pulls back to reveal the entire “Hollywoodland” sign. (Contributed by Leslie A. Turner)

In the poster picture, they added Doc to the front of the Hollywood Sign.

The film offers the other alternate explanation for the loss of the LAND portion of the Sign: Villain Neville Sinclair (Dalton) crashes into them with a faulty rocketpack. Whatever else she achieves during her career, Jennifer Connelly will almost certainly go down in history as the only actor/actress to star alongside the Sign in two films in the same year.

The film’s epilogue features Frank Whaley as Jim. As he reads a book, he fantasizes that the Sign’s letters transform to read “Jimwood.”

Depicted in its original “Hollywoodland” form, the Sign is used to efficiently communicate place (Los Angeles) and time (relatively early in the 20th century) during an establishing scene in the film.

There is a framed picture in The Peach Pit of the sign reading “Hollywoodland.” (Contributed by Meredith Gardner)

The Sign also appears in the final episode of the 92-93 season, which is a graduation episode. In the opening scene, the gang is gathered at a viewpoint of the Sign. At the end of the show, we see a banner created by the gang hanging over the Sign that reads “W BEV HI’ 93.” All created with Hollywood magic, of course!

Will Smith was still primarily a rap star when he was first featured in this hugely popular Hollywood fish-out-of-water series. The show’s rap intro featured Will Smith hailing a funky taxi upon his arrival in Bel Air, which he enters right below the Sign. The cab driver seen in the credits is actually Quincy Jones, executive producer of the show.

Belinda Carlyle wasn’t the only former member of the Go-Gos who went on to a successful solo career. Punk guitarist Jane Wiedlan, who penned their hit “Our Lips Are Sealed,” released 4 solo albums of her own with some respectable chart success. Her last charting single “World on Fire” was accompanied by a steamy video filled with pyrotechnics as her music and attitude literally burned up the screen. Shot in many Hollywood locations, the Sign is seen in the backdrop in several spots and then bursts into flames as a finale.

In this made-for-TV remake of 1974’s EARTHQUAKE, the Hollywood Sign comes crumbling down letter by letter as one of many victims of a huge quake.

The movie opens with a helicopter shot that comes up the back side of the Hollywood Hills meant to recall the jungle setting of the first movie. Then the helicopter flies over the hills to reveal the city of L.A. in the distance, and the Hollywood sign.