The Dream of the '90s Is Dead

"When I visited Portland, my hometown, this past August, I attended a friend's reading series held at a corner bar in North Portland, the neighborhood where much of Portlandia was filmed. The bar sells old cassette tapes and serves $5 local microbrews on tap. The host, who was in from Brooklyn and had never been to Portland, introduced a local comedian as the final reader. As he drumrolled her to the stage, he announced into the microphone, 'And she played a part in a show, maybe you've heard of it, called Portlandia!'
"The audience stared at him. Then a man sitting in back wearing an Adidas T-shirt cupped his hands to his mouth and yelled, 'Nobody likes that show!'"

As Portlandia comes to an end, Britta Lokting at New York discusses the show's impact on its eponymous city.