Saturday Night Live gives Fort Collins an intro shout-out, The Big Bang Theory plugs Coors

Nasim Pedrad as Gloria Allred.

In today's edition of Colorado references on network TV shows, we have two prominent entries -- one from the latest episode of The Big Bang Theory, a show hilarious enough to be surviving a switch from Mondays to Thursday, and Saturday Night Live, whose writers presumably grew so accustomed to mentioning Fort Collins during the heyday of the Balloon Boy that they're keeping it up in the new season.

Jim Parsons as Sheldon Cooper.

The Big Bang Theory's latest dealt with the bizarre relationship between Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons) and Amy Farrah Fowler (Mayim Bialik). Amy proves so irritating that Sheldon's crew -- Leonard (Johnny Galecki), Howard (Simon Helberg) and Raj (Kunal Nayyar) -- hole up with Penny (Kaley Cuoco) -- at her place. There, the often mute (around women) Raj loosens up thanks to a Coors, which tastes so delicious that he launches into a reverie about "Rocky Mountain spring water," which Howard manages to convince him comes from Philadelphia -- because that's where the movie Rocky was set. Raj buys it, then demands that Penny hit him with another silver bullet.

If Coors paid for this plug, it was money well spent. Too bad CBS didn't break out the clip for individual viewing (other highlights from The Big Bang Theory can be viewed by clicking here).

A couple of days later on Saturday Night Live, the October 9 salvo kicked off with a skit entitled "Ask Gloria Allred," in which cast member Nasim Pedrad portrayed the spotlight-addicted celebrity lawyer as she answers viewers' questions -- all of which focus on her vile character. At one point, "Kevin from Fort Collins, Colorado" asks, "Tell me, Gloria. Has a more disgusting creature than you ever walked the face of the earth?"

"I don't know the answer, Kevin," Pedrad replies, with deafeningly oblivious perkiness. "I suppose that because man in his present form has been around for about 250,000 years, there must have been somebody, but I really can't say for sure."

Fun fact: When my wife and I lived in West Hollywood back in the Eighties, Allred was in such a rush to get somewhere that she nearly ran my beloved off the road -- which probably explains why I found this skit so satisfying. Page down to watch it: