美国国家公共电台 NPR 'Portlandia' Is Ending, And Portlanders Are OK With That

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MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

"Portlandia" begins its eighth and final season tonight on IFC. The sketch¹ comedy TV show put Portland on the map as the capital of earnest urbanism at a time when words like artisanal and locavore were sweeping² the nation. It was an image Portlanders embraced and struggled with. Oregon Public Broadcasting's Aaron Scott has the story.

AARON SCOTT, BYLINE³: There was a time when saying you lived in Portland, Ore., would get a response like, that's above California, right? But now, says Fiona McCann of Portland Monthly magazine, people not only know where the city is. They inevitably⁴ ask...

FIONA MCCANN: Is it just like the show?

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FRED ARMISEN: (As Jason, singing) Dream of the '90s is alive in Portland.

SCOTT: "Portlandia" first premiered the "Dream Of The '90s" sketch in late 2010. It starred co-creators Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein with a host of circus artists and hipster types.

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ARMISEN: (As Jason) Remember when people were content to be unambitious, sleep till 11 and just hang out with their friends, when you had no occupations whatsoever⁵, maybe working a couple hours a week at a coffee shop?

CARRIE BROWNSTEIN: (As Melanie) Right. I thought that died out a long time ago.

ARMISEN: (As Jason) Not in Portland. Portland is a city where young people go to retire.

SCOTT: The early sketches⁶ lovingly skewered⁷ the city's progressive optimism and keep-Portland-weird mindset in ways that locals joke bordered on the documentary...

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BROWNSTEIN: (As Nance) I guess I do have a question about the chicken if you could just...

SCOTT: ...Like this infamous⁸ sketch about a couple at a farm-to-table restaurant asking after their chicken's provenance⁹.

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DANA MILLICAN: (As Dana) His name was Colin. Here are his papers.

BROWNSTEIN: (As Nance) OK - looks great.

ARMISEN: (As Peter) He looks like a happy little guy who runs around.

MK GUTH: The chicken episode cracks me up to this day...

SCOTT: That's Portland artist MK Guth.

GUTH: ...Partially¹⁰ because I can kind of (laughter) see myself a little bit in it, you know? And so I'm like, oh, wow, look; I am the person who knows where my eggs come from.

SCOTT: The show channeled a national zeitgeist. It seemed like everywhere, people were pickling things...

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CARRIE BROWNSTEIN AND FRED ARMISEN: (As Lisa Everson and Bryce Shivers) And we can pickle¹¹ that.

SCOTT: ...Making jewelry¹²...

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BROWNSTEIN AND ARMISEN: (As characters, singing) She's making jewelry now.

SCOTT: ...And putting a bird on it.

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BROWNSTEIN: (As Lisa Eversman) What a sad little tote bag. I know. I'll put a bird on it.

SCOTT: Portlandia co-star Carrie Brownstein says the show is meant as a send-up of things she and Armisen loved.

BROWNSTEIN: "Portlandia" was specifically not called Portland because it implied a heightened version of place. It implied an ideology¹³, a mindset, a way of life.

SCOTT: The show's TV audience peaked in the second season, but its sketches soared across the Internet, reaching millions. Tiara Darnell started watching "Portlandia" while in the Peace Corps¹⁴ in Morocco.

TIARA DARNELL: It just seemed like a really cool place to go and sort of figure myself out. That wasn't the only reason I moved to Portland or to Oregon, but it would be not truthful¹⁵ to say it didn't have some impression on me.

SCOTT: But after moving, Darnell realized there were things she hadn't noticed about the show.

DARNELL: I could probably count on one hand how many episodes actually have a black person even in it even as an extra. And so it lends itself to this notion that Oregon and Portland are very white and there's no black people here. And for a while, that weighed on me.

SCOTT: Darnell says it took a year or two for her to really connect with the black community in Portland. The city's popularity boomed and not just because of the show. The cost of housing rose, and the dream of the '90s started to sting when that part-time barista job no longer covered rent and your favorite dive bar was bulldozed for high-end condos.

"Portlandia" became a target for anger. The most public backlash came from In Other Words, the feminist¹⁶ bookstore the show used for one of its most well-known ongoing¹⁷ sketches.

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ARMISEN: (As Candace) "A New Girl Order."

BROWNSTEIN: (As Toni) That's a top-selling author. Do we want that in here?

ARMISEN: (As Candace) No, we want bottom-selling authors.

SCOTT: In 2016, In Other Words posted a blog entry accusing "Portlandia" of mocking trans people, ignoring people of color, spurring gentrification and being bad for business. Board member Nam Kennedy says that visitors drawn¹⁸ by the show rarely turn into customers.

NAM KENNEDY: They'll stand outside and - or, like, stand in our doorway¹⁹ and mock some of the things that we advertise on the space.

SCOTT: Portland Monthly's Fiona McCann says it often felt like people weren't able to differentiate²⁰ between Portland and "Portlandia." And locals grew tired of being made fun of.

MCCANN: Pretty soon it started to feel to me like the same joke over and over again.

SCOTT: That said, McCann and others are grateful for the laughs "Portlandia" did provide, even if they're also happy to see it come to an end. For NPR News, I'm Aaron Scott in Portland.