‘Atlanta’ Forced a Popular Restaurant Chain to Add a New Food to Its Menu
Popular TV shows have an underestimated influence on everyday situations. For example, Rick and Morty popularized Szechuan sauce when one-half of the titular characters, Rick, sang the sauce praises. In the episode, Rick mentioned how good Szechuan sauce (which was made in 1998 as a Mulan promotion) was and made the sauce a considerable success for the chain.
Donald Glover‘s Atlanta has plenty of highlights, but its influence on pop culture is one to behold. The series is so popular that it forced a well-known restaurant chain to add a new item to its menu because of the meal’s popularity on the show.
Glover trojan-horsed his way into TV with ‘Atlanta’
Atlanta is a comedy-drama created by the talented Glover. The show centers on two cousins trying to forge their paths in life while navigating life’s hardships and relationships. Atlanta follows Glover’s character Earn as he seeks to redeem himself in front of his daughter’s mother and family.
The show also follows Earn’s cousin Alfred, a Princeton University dropout-turned-rapper. Earn’s struggles in life and success see him alternating between living with his girlfriend and parents. However, after realizing that his rapper cousin is about to hit it big in his career, Earn desperately tries to get into Alfred’s good books to secure a good life for his daughter and himself.
Trojan-horsing is a concept in Hollywood that not every show creator likes to admit. It involves selling the network one thing that they all know about but introducing a whole different concept inside the story. According to Vulture, Glover reportedly tricked FX into thinking that the series would follow along the lines of a hang-out show.
The star admitted that he lied about what the show would be about and hoped that everyone would enjoy it once he delivered the show’s hidden story.
Is there going to be a Season 3?
Atlanta broke expectations after its premiere. When the show debuted in 2016, it received a warm reception, with critics and audiences praising it. Rotten Tomatoes gave the series an excellent 97% rating, with many calling it “refreshing.”
Atlanta remained consistent with the ratings in its second season and has gotten even better since its debut. However, after season two, the show experienced a drought as it’s almost been three years since the show’s creators put out a new season. Additionally, fans have been eagerly waiting for the third season for nearly two years.
However, it seems fans can rest easy as rumors have it that there will be a third season that will “be the best one yet.” There is a high likelihood that Atlanta will continue its story from the second season, with Alfred and Earn embarking on a tour in Europe.
FX has reportedly renewed the show for two more seasons, and series creator Glover promises fans that the two seasons will make up for the delay. The show’s third season was slated to come out in 2019, but the star’s busy schedule forced showrunners to push the date back. The Coronavirus impeded production on the show as well, but filming began early this year, which means fans can expect new episodes later in the year.
The show made a meal so famous, a restaurant chain had to add it to its menu
Anyone who’s watched Atlanta knows that J.R Crickets, the restaurant referenced in the show, is an actual restaurant. However, the meal mentioned consistently in the series, the Lemon Pepper wet chicken wing meal, was never on the menu in real life.
Mental Floss reports that J.R Crickets had to incorporate the meal into its menu because people kept ordering it after watching it on the show. Interestingly, Glover based the dish on an item from another restaurant but ultimately gave J.R Crickets more business with the reference on the show.
