Why Does 'TBBT' Call Caltech By Name, But 'Modern Family' Dance Around It?

On The Big Bang Theory, it’s obvious that the guys work at CalTech. They say the word “CalTech” all the time. There was even an episode where Sheldon showed Amy some of his Human Resources paperwork, and Amy read aloud the words “CalTech Human Resources.”

Over on Modern Family, however, while it’s obvious that Alex attends CalTech, they never say it. They just say “Alex’s college.” They did the same for the few episodes where Haley was in college, never actually saying the name of the place.*

Is there a legal or naming-rights issue at play here? Isn’t CalTech a public institution, and thus there wouldn’t be a need for a payment for naming rights (or whatever the industry term here is)?

*I maintain that Haley (and Phil) both went to Fresno State. The colors were red & white (like the real Fresno State), and the mascot was the Bulldogs (also like the real Fresno State).

Not that it answers your question but Caltech is not a public school.

It could simply be that Modern Family doesn’t want to use an identifiable school to pin down the geographical location of the series.

They definitely said CalTech while she was applying to schools, along with some other schools she was applying to - wasn’t the interview where she called the interviewer a bitch for Princeton? And in a recent episode they said she was applying to an internship at MIT - the one that was so intense the last intern was found wandering outside wearing nothing but their safety glasses. So they definitely do name drop schools on occasion.

That may be. It seems obvious that the show is set somewhere in Los Angeles but I don’t think they explicitly mention it. They did go on what seemed to be a day trip to Disneyland, though. Meanwhile, TBBT talks about about Pasadena frequently.

Last night’s MF rerun specifically mentioned CalTech. My guess is the writers simply don’t think it’s all that important to keep mentioning it. By contrast, CalTech and the JPL are central to a lot of TBBT stories.

Caltech (only the first letter is capitalized) is a private university and the diminutive name (full name is California Institute of Technology) is a registered trademark which is frequently used on official documentation; however, I don’t think there are many restrictions on a ‘fair use’ of the name in fiction as long as it does not portray a false or adverse image of the school. Caltech restricts filming on campus to only permitted photographers and videographers but I’ve never heard of them vigorously pursuing the use of their name in media and their faculty often provide scientific and technical support to movies and television.

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is actually an independent Federally Funded Research and Development Corporation (FFRDC) which is managed by Caltech for NASA. Most technical and administrative workers are therefore employees or contractors to Caltech rather than NASA. Again, JPL figures prominently in many fictional protrayals (amusingly often as a human spaceflight center which it specifically is not; JPL is largely primarily to uncrewed space exploration and Earth surveillance programs, although some of these support human spaceflight efforts) and as long as the lab is not portrayed in an unjustifiably negative light they tend to be liberal about allowing and even supporting fictional portrayals.

Many shows and films either use fictional or euphamistic names for institutions simply to create an in-universe distinction or avoid any potential legal conflict but there are several technical advisers from Caltech that actually support The Big Bang Theory. The school used to be fairly adverse to being explicitly portrayed in movies, hence why in Real Genius the Caltech-like school is referred to as “Pacific Tech” (and filmed at Occidental and CalPoly Pomona rather than on the Caltech campus), but the chief technical advisor for the film snuck in a bunch of “DEI” references that would be obvious to any alum (Darlington Electronic Instruments, Drain Experts, Inc, et cetera) as well as school-specific jargon (“purple tapioca”, the interstital “hyperspace” pathways within hovses).

Stranger

For those not from SoCal who are not aware of DEI.

I recall seeing several clear references in Modern Family, like the LAX sign outside the airport when they go to Hawaii. Also, there’s an early episode in which Gloria, Claire and the kids are hiking and, when they emerge from the trails, there are a few shots of a sign that identifies the park system.

In Saved By the Bell, when the kids graduated from high school they all went to “California University”, which was specifically mentioned as being across the Bay from San Francisco. As if to differentiate from the “University of California”.

Usually, if they mention someone attending a fictional or unnamed university, it’s because they want to show the person actually attending the school - for example, the “California University of Liberal Arts” on grown’ish (although, in the black’ish episode where they introduce the school, some faculty members are wearing “California University of Los Angeles” clothing); I am assuming by the initials that it is supposed to be UCLA. The same episode mentions a number of real schools, including USC.

In Numb3rs, one of the main characters was a professor at the fictional “CalSci”, the “California Institute of Science”. IIRC, on the DVD of the first season, the producers say they wanted to call it CalTech, which is was clearly intended to be, but CalTech’s lawyers said no. (Even though CalTech’s professors were disappointed that they couldn’t.) They did film some scenes at CalTech, I believe.

Maybe this was because there were some violent scenes in the plots that happened at CalSci.

A few of the establishing shots were of Caltech (the courtyard with Throop Oak across the reflecting pool in front of Millikan Library in particular) but none of the interiors. Caltech doesn’t permit filming while classes are in session so that tends to restrict commercial use; most of the time when you see the school, or a Caltech-like school, portrayed in film or TV it is actually filmed at Occidential College over in Eagle Rock becuase it has a similar Spanish Revival architectural theme.

Also, not to be overly pedantic but it’s “Caltech” not “CalTech”.

Stranger

So if you’re assigned to Dabney, to you just suck it up and live with abuse for the next four years (and beyond, even into your career in the space program or whatever)?

You basically get to ‘pledge’ your hovse during your first week, and most people get their first or second choice. (Caltech eliminated the Greek system and the institutional hazing that goes with it back in the ‘Twenties and replaced it with campus-supported houses or “hovses” as they call them, using the pseudo-Roman spelling) It is possible to switch hovses between terms but unusual; most Techers are pretty loyal to their hovse even after graduation, and each hovse has its own often very strange traditions and character. Caltech actually has a very small undergraduate population, usually somewhere around 900-1000 at any time, and hasn’t strived to massively grow its enrollment since it largely relies on its private endowment and healthy research culture (there are actually far more graduate students and post-docs than undergrads) for operating and improvement funds, so the small campus-supported hovse system works pretty well with something like 98% of undergrads living on campus for their entire period of study.

Anyway, Dabs in particular tend to be pretty proud of their heritage, and I can almost guarantee that every spacecraft and rover that has ever passed through JPL has a “DEI” etched somewhere on one or more of its components.

Stranger

I definitely have heard them mention Caltech several times on Modern Family.

How often have they used the word “Caltech” on The Big Bang Theory? It’s my distinct impression that they actually seldom mention it. They also don’t discuss the fact that they are in Pasadena that much. Mostly they don’t feel any need to mention it. Yes, on the occasions that they need to talk about it it’s clear what city they live in and what university most of them work at, but it’s not really discussed that much.

TBBT is unusual in regard to naming names. Cheesecake Factory and other restaurants. Websites, devices, etc.

Lots of shows just want to be able to mock things without worrying about lawyers getting involved. So they change it up.

I think Lorre and company know they can call the chair of the Caltech Physics Dept. “… a glorified high-school science teacher whose last successful experiment was lighting his own farts.” without legal concerns on the basis that no rational person would think that Dr. Gablehauser was based on the actual person.

An older college example: The Cosby Show spinoff A Different World was set at Hillman College, based on Spelman College (where Cosby’s daughters went). It was filmed at times at Spelman and the neighboring school Clark Atlanta.

The Cosby’s donated a lot of money to Spelman which named a building after Mrs. C. Which has become a problem, of course.