This Bud's for ...John.

[eliyes]

A lot of people have commented on how when we see John Sheppard drinking labeled beer (example: in "The Shrine") it's Budweiser, and they'd have thought that he'd have had better taste than that having been raised rich and traveled around the world some, etc. What they are failing to take into account is that Joe Flanigan, he who plays John, is the son of the (now retired) VP of the company that makes Budweiser.

This is partially due to Joe describing his dad as a farmer, I'm sure. He does own a farm. It's just that Joe hasn't totally gotten over that "painfully shy" thing that was the whole reason he got into acting in the first place, and, in case you hadn't noticed, tends to be close-mouthed about his private life to some degree whenever he can get away with saying less than the whole truth. It's easy to omit things when you're just showing up for a short interview segment in a morning talk show, for example.

Anyway, given that when we see John in civvies it's inevitably Joe's clothes that he wore to work that day (again, in "The Shrine", that evil panda T-shirt he's wearing as PJs is what Joe showed up to work in that day); given that the picture of a little boy with Evel Kneivel on John's nightstand is actually Joe as a kid; given that the skateboard and the surfboard are Joe's -- just, never be shocked when little details have to do with Joe, or are, at least, his doing. For example, the guitar? John has a guitar because Joe thought he was the kind of guy who could play guitar. Joe started learning to play the guitar in case it came up (and by his own admission, he sucks. Especially as compared to Jason.)

tl;dr The Budweiser product placement is out of respect to Joe's dad.

Also it's cheap and easy to get to the set. And probably wouldn't get them drunk filming (she said with typical Canadian beer-related arrogance, despite not drinking...)

Comments

[kimberlyfdr.livejournal.com]

The Budweiser product placement is out of respect to Joe's dad.

More out of respect for the family. They were supposed to be drinking Heineken in Shrine, but Joe took one look at that and said 'no, no, that won't work...my family won't allow that to work' and called up a company and had a pallet of the "right" beer delivered. I was pretty sure everyone in the fandom had heard that story by now (Chuck likes to tell it, Kavan told it once, I think even Jason and David told it once). The Flanigans have alot of money and can make things happen ;)

[eliyes.livejournal.com]

Really? XD That's awesome! And no, I hadn't heard that -- and obviously neither have the people I've seen bitching about the Bud in the first place.

[gaffsie.livejournal.com]

This is why I love Joe. Without him, Sheppard wouldn't have any personality at all outside of his heroic persona.

Personally, I thought it fit that Sheppard drinks Bud. His choice of drink is just another way for him to distance himself from his father.

[eliyes.livejournal.com]

Without Joe, John would be played by Ben Browder and be more of a martial arts guy. Apparently.

Personally, I thought it fit that Sheppard drinks Bud. His choice of drink is just another way for him to distance himself from his father.

I think being in the military and especially having been stationed in Afghanistan and then Antarctica, John would have drank any beer he could get his hands on when it was time for beer. And the great thing is that while this distances John from his dad, it brings Joe closer to his. ;3 Also, see the comment above this one.