In Media and Popular Culture
- Phil and the town of Punxsutawney were portrayed in the 1993 comedy film Groundhog Day. The actual town in the film is Woodstock, Illinois. The movie was likely the biggest factor in Phil and the town's current popularity.
- In 1995, Phil flew to Chicago for a guest appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show, which aired on Groundhog Day, February 2, 1995.
- Phil was also the main attraction on an episode of the MTV series Viva La Bam. The episode was titled "Groundhog Day" and it aired on April 10, 2005. In the episode, street skater Bam Margera held a special race in honor of Punxsutawney Phil.
- Until 2009, Ty Inc. annually released a "Punxsutawney Phil" Beanie Baby to celebrate Groundhog Day. The toy is shown consistently wearing a top hat and bow tie in order to appear as a member of the Inner Circle. Three varieties are known to exist. The first is a consumer model with a black bow-tie (some have black or purple capes as well), which is available nationwide. A second, with a red bow-tie, is sold in a few stores in Punxsutawney itself, including at the Chamber of Commerce (both the red- and the black-tie versions benefit the Groundhog Club Inner Circle of Punxsutawney). The third version, with a silver bow-tie, is sold directly through the Ty Store online shop, raising funds for the Clearfield-Jefferson Red Cross. The "Punxsutawney Phil" Beanie Baby for 2009 (with a red bow-tie) was the last in the series; it was available only at the Punxsutawney Souvenir Shop.
- In 2010, a new text service was started to announce Phil's predictions. Mobile phone users could text the word "Groundhog" to the number 247365.
- The Pennsylvania Lottery uses an animatronic groundhog called "Gus", who bills himself in television commercials as the "second-most-famous groundhog in Pennsylvania" (as an unspoken nod to Phil) as their mascot for their instant scratch-off games.
- A tetraploid cultivated variety of daylily named "Punxsutawney Phil" was registered with the American Hemerocallis Society in 2003.
Read more about this topic: Punxsutawney Phil
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