Bobby Fischer - in Popular Culture

In Popular Culture

• The musical Chess, with lyrics by Tim Rice and music by Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson, tells the story of two chess champions, referred to only as "The American" and "The Russian". The musical is loosely based on the 1972 World Championship match between Fischer and Spassky. In later versions of the show, "The American" is named "Freddie Trumper" and "The Russian" is "Anatoly Sergieveski".
• During the 1972 Fischer–Spassky match, the Soviet bard Vladimir Vysotsky wrote an ironic two-song cycle "Honor of the Chess Crown". The first song is about a rank-and-file Soviet worker's preparation for the match with Fischer; the second is about the game. Many expressions from the songs have become catchphrases in Russian culture.
• The 1993 film Searching for Bobby Fischer uses Fischer's name in the title even though the film is actually about the life of Joshua Waitzkin. Outside of the United States, it was released as Innocent Moves. The title refers to the search for Fischer's successor after his disappearance from competitive chess, and for a talent like Fischer's in the author's chess-playing son. In the book on which the film is based, the narrator/author actually looks for Fischer for a brief period and imagines what he would say to him if found. In an unpublished 1997 manuscript, Fischer complained that he had not "received one thin dime for the totally exploitative Paramount Pictures 'rip-off' full-length feature film".
• Bobby Fischer is mentioned in Milan Kundera's novel, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting.
• A 2005 episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent, "Gone" is based on Bobby Fischer.
• An episode of the Nickelodeon program Hey Arnold! featured a character called Robbie Fisher, a skilled Chinese checkers player and obvious parody of Bobby Fischer.
• Bobby Fischer is mentioned in a Saturday Night Live skit on January 20, 1996: Will Ferrell and Cheri Oteri, acting as Spartan cheerleaders, repeat the line "Bobby Fischer, where is he? I don't know!? I don't know!?" in one of their cheers.
• In an episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show called "The Good-Time News" aired on September 16, 1972, Mary tries to develop a new format for the news, saying that most modern newscasts have two anchormen and all they have to do is "find someone who is warm and endearing enough to balance Ted." Newsroom boss Lou Grant replies, "I don't think Bobby Fischer wants to do television."
• The Prefab Sprout song "Cue Fanfare", from the album Swoon, includes the lyric: "When Bobby Fischer's plane touches the ground / He'll take those Russian boys and play them out of town / Playing for blood as grandmasters should."
• Progressive metal band OSI recorded the song "OSIdea 9" featuring audio clips of Fischer's rambling interview with a radio station after his arrest in Japan. In the interview Fischer asserts that the U.S. government will torture and murder him as soon as he is extradited back to the country.
• Post-rock band iLiKETRAiNS's song "A Rook House For Bobby" is about Fischer's absconding from the American legal system
• In the Arli$$ episode "End Game", which aired on August 18, 2002, Arliss and Stanley try to persuade a reclusive former chess champion called Bobby Salmon (an obvious reference to Bobby Fischer) to get back into the game.
• An HBO original documentary entitled Bobby Fischer Against the World, directed by Liz Garbus premiered on June 6, 2011. The ninety-minute documentary explores the complex life of the troubled genius.
• An episode of the Canadian series Endgame shows the main hero (genius chess player Arkady Balagan) replaying "The Game of the Century" with himself and trying to defeat "Bobby Fischer". When he changes a tactic of Donald Byrne, he concludes that even if he (Donald) had changed his tactic he would have lost, and admires the talent of 13-year-old Bobby.
• Bobby Fischer is mentioned in the Big Bang Theory episode "The Werewolf Transformation" when Penny beats Leonard at chess and her playing abilities are compared to the grandmasters, despite not knowing any of the pieces' names and calling them such things as the "lighthouse" and "pointy head guy".