Today, we look at all of the Only Murders in the Building Season 4 opening title Easter Eggs.
In Pop Culture Easter Eggs, I share with you pop culture “easter eggs.” An easter egg is a joke/visual gag/homage/in-joke that is hidden in works that you are meant to find (just like an easter egg). They range from the not-so-obscure to the really obscure. So come check ’em all out and enjoy!
The excellent Hulu TV series, Only Murders in the Building, created by Steve Martin and John Hoffman and starring Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez, has a brilliant opening title sequence produced by Elastic, the same design firm that produced the iconic Game of Thrones opening credits (among many other credit sequences and other awesome design stuff).
The credits also include Easter Eggs hinting as to the plot of the episode in question. I collected all of the easter eggs for Season 1 and all of the easter eggs for Season 2, all of the eater eggs for Season 3, and now here is all of Season 4’s!
Obviously, SPOILERS AHEAD!
ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST
The first Easter Egg of Season 4 is a shadow of a jet, signifying their journey across the country to Hollywood in this premiere episode…
NOTE: Howard is now shown walking his dog in the opening credits, replacing the sequence from Seasons 1-2 of Bunny walking her animals, and Howard walking his cat in Season 3. I don’t think that’s an Easter Egg, but rather just a part of the credits now going forward, but it is worth mentioning.
GATES OF HEAVEN
This is a fairly simple one, as there is a ham shown in one of the windows, a reference to the ham that the residents of the west side of the Arconia eat out of a bathtub (there are other ham references, like the introduction of a pig, and a joke about Jon Hamm).
TWO FOR THE ROAD
This is another simple one, as at the top of the Arconia, we see two sets of chairs set out for Charles, Oliver, and Mabel, as well as the three actors who will be portraying them in the movie based on their podcast.
THE STUNT MAN
This is a tricky one, as there is a silhouette of a shamrock that flies up the side of the building as we introduce our lead characters, a reference to Glen Stubbins, Ben Glenroy’s former stunt double, who is Irish (played, of course, by Paul Rudd, who played Gilroy last season).
ADAPTATION
This is another one that is at least SLIGHTLY tricky, as there are “ghost” footprints at the start of the credits, a reference to the shoeprints that our detectives are trying to take to compare against the shoeprints left in Dudenoff’s apartment that they assume are tied to Sazz’s murder.
BLOW-UP
This is a simple one. The Brothers Sisters (Catherine Cohen and Siena Werber) use a Super 8 camera throughout the episode, and we see a film camera rolling at the top of the building…
VALLEY OF THE DOLLS
This is a simple one. Each of the main stars are shown wearing braided hair extensions in their windows…
This is because Oliver’s girlfriend wears braids, and Charles’ sister flirts with him, wearing braided extensions to flirt with him.
LIFEBOAT
This is pretty tricky one.
The lights go out in the building briefly, referencing the power outage that occurred when the incinerator was used both to incinerate Dudenoff’s body a few years back, and then Sazz’s later on…
ESCAPE FROM PLANET KLONGO
This one is straightforward, as Charles and Oliver are forced to go undercover as background actors on a big budget science fiction movie in an attempt to talk to the director of the film, Ron Howard. They are in a green screen scene, so the opening credits shows a green screen…
MY BEST FRIEND’s WEDDING
This one is straightforward, as the front of the building is decked out for Oliver and Loretta’s wedding (there is also a case of beer, but I don’t know that I’d even call that an “Easter Egg”…
Very clever stuff.
If you have suggestions for a future Pop Culture Easter Eggs, feel free to drop me a line at brian@popculturereferences.com.
