Cultural References
Rover has become an icon of the series, and has been referenced numerous times in popular culture, such as in the Simpsons episodes "The Joy of Sect" (where it envelops Hans Moleman) and "The Computer Wore Menace Shoes" (in which Homer simply pops it with a plastic spork, thus prompting Number 2 to question its effectiveness). The DVD box set of the series includes an advert for Renault cars (not Rover cars, as has been widely reported), in which a man in Prisoner style clothing escapes from The Village by outmaneuvering a version of Rover depicted not as a balloon, but a large solid white ball.
The writers of the television series Lost have made mention on numerous occasions that the Rover was the inspiration for the "Smoke Monster."
Rover appeared in the 1984 CP/M edition of Crowther, Woods' Colossal Cave text adventure game, either in the Vault (player gives wrong magic word) or the Computer Center (player takes posters from the wall).
In Mystery Science Theater 3000's presentation of Laserblast, Tom Servo identifies an inflated white pool toy as "Rover from The Prisoner!"
In Xavier Mauméjean's short story, "Be Seeing You!", from the second volume of the Tales of the Shadowmen anthology series, the original Rover from 1912 is made of metal and propelled by steam, and is stated as being designed by the character of Cavor from H. G. Wells' novel The First Men in the Moon.
Rover appears in Liverpool quartet Clinic's video for their single 'Harvest.'
Read more about this topic: Rover (The Prisoner)
Famous quotes containing the word cultural:
“A society that has made “nostalgia” a marketable commodity on the cultural exchange quickly repudiates the suggestion that life in the past was in any important way better than life today.”
—Christopher Lasch (b. 1932)