The People Who Make Pilgrimages to Pop Culture Landmarks

Have you ever wanted to take snaps on the same football field where Friday Night Lights’ Dillon Panthers used to toss the pigskin? What about stumble down the stairs from Exorcist? How about eat at that pizza joint from the opening credits of the Sopranos? (By the way, RIP Al Pawlowicz, aka the kindest purveyor of pizza ever). Or are you the pop culture equivalent of whatever you call those baseball fanatics who make a pilgrimages to every MLB stadium? If you answered yes to any and/or all of the ab0ve, The Onion’s A.V. Club has the online original travel series for you.

Pop Pilgrims is what Remote Control would look like if it was produced by Rotten Tomatoes and made for Travel Channel. Uber-geeks and cinephiles Dan Telfer and Brian Berrebbi share hosting duties as they travel in a pint-sized Fiat (which is also the show’s main sponsor) to 11 disclosed and one-fan decided metropolitan area. The two shoot three episodes in each city highlighting landmarks recognizable from the silver screen.

Their first stop is Die Hard’s Nakatomi Plaza (the building pwned by John McClane), which Los Angelinos also know as Fox Plaza. The Pop Pilgrims pick up film critic James Rocchi

who drops some serious yippee ki-yay knowledge about Nakatomi and also provides enough Die Hard context and commentary to make you believe the flick could be in the running as a dark horse candidate for most classic LA film of all time. If you subscribe to Cinematical, you’ll dig it.

Future stops on the 12 city, 36-episode tour include San Francisco, Memphis, New Orleans, Austin, Seattle, Portland, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Chicago, New York, and another destination determined by you. If you know a place of great pop cultural significance that you would like the Pop Pilgrims to explore, tell them its location and you could soon see it in streaming color on the A.V. Club accompanied by a nerdcore exegesis.

Pop Pilgrims is the latest web series to come from The Onion’s non-satirical offshoot. Other online originals include A.V. Club’s showcase of “obsessively compulsive pop culture lists” Inventory, ode to Found Footage, and movie and television review show A.V. Talk.