"How I Met Your Mother": "Glitter"

Fans of "How I Met Your Mother" know that Ted Mosby (played by Columbus native Josh Radnor) is from Cleveland. That's thanks to series co-creator Carter Bays, who is a Shaker Heights native. But the Nov. 15 episode amped up the Cleveland content, as you can especially see at the 17:07 mark of the online version of the episode here. Ted's old Cleveland friend Punchy (Chris Romanski) comes to visit and, while watching TV, asks, "Do you guys get 'Big Chuck and Lil' John' out here?" Of course, a truly attentive Clevelander would know that Chuck and John's show ended production in 2007. Not that Punchy seems all that attentive. Read more!

"RED": Look Out, Cleveland

"RED" is a nice, entertaining action comedy -- I mean, how can you go wrong with a movie with Helen Mirren as a cheerful assassin? And then you add Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, Brian Cox, Ernest Borgnine, Richard Dreyfuss . . . and the delightful Mary-Louise Parker. Liked it. But that's not why we're here.

We're here because Frank, the retired agent played by Willis, lives in Cleveland. A grubby part of Cleveland. Nice closeup of a garbage can. And I like to think that it underscores the matter-of-factness of NE Ohio folks when Frank's house is shot to rubble and no one appears to make a fuss.

Although those early scenes are set in Cleveland, the movie was reportedly shot in and around Toronto and New Orleans. Read more!

"CSI: Crime Scene Investigation"

On the Nov. 11 episode, a water well explodes. Nick tries to recall a time when a river in Ohio caught fire. Ray notes that it was the Cuyahoga, by Cleveland, and that he had a cousin there; the cousin said the water oozed -- and the burning river helped lead to the Clean Water Act. Which is somewhat true. (The fire also helped inspire Earth Day.)

And all that brings back memories of this:

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