The Bermuda Triangle in Popular Culture

By Marissa Stambaugh

The Bermuda Triangle is a well known phenomenon in popular culture that refers to an area in the Atlantic Ocean roughly bound by Miami, Puerto Rico, and Bermuda where ships and planes disappear under mysterious circumstances. What exactly causes these disappearances varies from telling to telling but common explanations include aliens, government conspiracies, the lost city of Atlantis, sea monsters, and magnetic fields. The Bermuda Triangle phenomenon began appearing in magazine articles in the 1950s under a variety of different names such as the Devil’s Triangle, the Limbo of the Lost, HooDoo Sea, etc., however, it was Vincent Gaddis who first coined the phrase “Bermuda Triangle” in his 1964 article in Argosy magazine titled, “The Deadly Bermuda Triangle.”1 The increased popularity of the Bermuda Triangle was part of a larger cultural trend that some have referred to as a “paranormal boom.”2

The paranormal boom of the 1960s saw a rise in beliefs such as those related to the supernatural and occult, the paranormal, government conspiracies, extraterrestrials, demons.3 Many experts have attributed the boom to the tumultuous social and political climate of the 1960s.4 These subjects often share significant overlap in how they are treated by believers and skeptics, the way they are presented, where they are presented, and the sort of logical fallacies that crop up in the presentations. Additionally, being a believer for one subject is often a predictor for believing in another; for example, a person who believes in aliens is more likely to also believe in the conspiracy theories.5 As such, these subjects will often overlap with each other in a way that can be difficult to separate them. For instance, it is almost impossible to analyze aliens in popular culture without also addressing government conspiracies to some degree, as most iterations rely on government cover-ups as an explanation as to why, if the aliens are on earth, they are not public knowledge (ex. Men in Black, a 1997 film about a secret agency that monitors extraterrestrial life on Earth and hides its existence from the public). Within the Bermuda Triangle myth specifically, an example of this overlap is the idea that alien abductions are more common in the Triangle because it is home to “… a secret US Navy base in the Bahamas linked to aquatic alien activity referred to as Underwater Area 51.”6 This connection becomes especially important when considering the historiography surrounding the Bermuda Triangle.

The Bermuda Triangle exists as a gap in the scholarship; there is very little scholarly engagement directly with the Bermuda Triangle, especially within the discipline of history. The scholarly sources that do exist often engage directly with the myth–positing or debunking theories–rather than how the myth is presented in popular culture. This problem can be overcome by taking advantage of the connection the Bermuda Triangle has with related phenomena (conspiracy theories, aliens, etc.) and examining how scholars have analyzed those topics in order to use similar frameworks to examine the Bermuda Triangle.

This essay examines why the myth of the Bermuda Triangle developed, how the myth evolved from its earliest to its most recent appearances, and what the myth reflects about popular culture. It argues that when the Bermuda Triangle was first written about, it was treated with credibility, credibility it lost after being debunked by Larry Kusche. Unlike its counterparts, the Bermuda Triangle lacked key characteristics (relevancy, a lack of satisfactory alternate explanations, etc), which taken in combination with a social and political climate that was much less turbulent than the 1960s, meant it was far less capable of weathering this debunking. The decreased credibility of the Bermuda Triangle and its corresponding core base of believers was reflected in how the Bermuda Triangle appeared in popular culture in a variety of key shifts: The Bermuda Triangle went from being at center-stage in its appearances to being relegated to a feature of the conflict or setting, often as a plot device; notable appearances shifted from predominantly nonfictional to fictional genres; it shifted from appearing predominantly as a stand-alone piece (such as a movie) to predominantly as a piece of a larger work (such as an episode of a show); its audience shifted from predominantly adults to predominantly children. Due to the Bermuda Triangle’s lack of staying credibility after its debunking, it slowly lost its appeal as a real conspiracy theory, simultaneously cementing itself as a piece of pop culture, especially in children’s media.

Michael Shermer’s book, Conspiracy: Why the Rational Believe the Irrational, examines why people believe in conspiracy theories and claims that there are three overarching reasons: Proxy Conspiracism, Tribal Conspiracism, and Constructive Conspiracism. Proxy Conspiracism is the term for when an individual case in a conspiracy might not be true but the overall idea addressed by the conspiracy is;7 for example, this time, there was no human meat in the hamburgers from employees losing fingers to the meat grinder, but the overall idea of a corporation cutting corners at the expense of its employees and customers is true.8 As such, they will continue to believe in conspiracies of this nature. Tribal Conspiracism is the loyalty to the group and fellow believers as a way to signal to them that they are part of the in-group; a person may not believe wholeheartedly that the moon landing was fake, but by saying it was, they can signal to others that they are the right kind of person. Loyalty to the group is more important than being completely accurate. Constructive Conspiracism is the idea of better safe than sorry; this brand of sunscreen might not actually be giving anyone cancer, but why risk it? These are the three primary reasons Shermer isolates and addresses in his book as being the basis for why people believe so strongly in conspiracy theories and he uses them to explore individual conspiracies and trends within them, such as the 1960s boom which most famously produced the “two gunmen” conspiracy around the JFK assassination as well as the boom starting around 20169 with the QAnon conspiracies,10 the killer clown sprees,11 and the 2020 presidential election.12

Much of what Shermer argues is backed up by a psychological chapter by Emillio J. C. Lobato and Corinne Zimmerman, “The Psychology of (Pseudo)Science: Cognitive, Social, and Cultural Factors,” in the book, Pseudoscience: The Conspiracy Against Science. Lobato and Zimmerman also observe an increase in pseudoscientific thinking and argue that there are many factors that contribute to an individual’s likelihood of believing in pseudoscience, such as teleological thinking (the belief that things exist for a purpose; e.g. giraffes have long necks for reaching tall leaves), essentialism (certain characteristics are “inherent” to a group; e.g. swimmers have big feet), bandwagoning (people are more likely to follow the beliefs of the group they subscribe to, or trust information that aligns with what they already believe), and the inherent trusting nature of people (as a general trend, people will believe something unless given a reason not to).13 Many of these reasons are similar to the ones outlined by Shermer, most notably the connection between Tribal Conspiracism and bandwagoning.

Pseudoscience: the Conspiracy Against Science is not the only source from the psychological discipline discussing pseudoscience and conspiratorial thinking because psychology has extensively researched subjects such as belief in the supernatural and irrational. For instance, Jennifer A. Whitson and Adam D. Galinsky ran studies finding that lacking control over one’s situation can increase illusory pattern perception in their journal article: “Lacking Control Increases Illusory Pattern Perception.” They defined illusory pattern perception as behaviors including seeing images where there are none, believing in/creating conspiracy theories, and adherence to superstitions.14 The connection between feeling a lack of control over a situation and conspiracy theories is also an idea brought up by Shermer, who states that conspiracy theories are more likely to emerge in the wake of events that create significant unrest and chaos (ex. the JFK assassination).15

Psychology offers a long history of the study of belief in the irrational, a trend Peter Lamont takes full advantage of in his book, Extraordinary Beliefs: A Historical Approach to a Psychological Problem. Lamont believes that to understand why people believe in extraordinary things it is necessary to do so from an interdisciplinary approach. By analyzing psychological explanations through a historical lens, it will be easier to see what people thought of as extraordinary, those who believed in the extraordinary, and why they did so. Lamont concludes that in the broadest sense, people believe in the extraordinary when ordinary explanations feel inadequate.16

Lamont is not the only one who believes this matter calls for interdisciplinary study, as a similar sentiment is expressed in the book, The Paranormal: Who Believes, Why They Believe, and Why it Matters. The author, Erich Goode, takes a sociological perspective of the situation and claims multiple threads in human history combine into the modern belief in the paranormal, and that often it is directly related to religion and the belief in such.17 The connection this issue has to religion is also discussed in the book Paranormal Nation: Why America Needs Ghosts, UFOs, and Bigfoot where Marc E. Fitch argues that because there is less mythology and religion in the world–some due to science, some due to disillusionment–people will come up with new supernatural phenomena to believe in when they cannot rely on much else.18 The need to believe in something when there seems to be no logical explanation is an idea that can be connected back to the lack of control causing superstitious behaviors and beliefs. People dislike not knowing why something happens; it often causes feelings of distress connected with loss of control.19 Fitch explicitly connected the assassination of JFK and the rise of UFO stories, noting like many of the others, that this was an explicit example of the turmoil in the 1960s that caused a “paranormal boom.” After the assassination of JFK, not only was there an abundance of conspiracy theories surrounding the shooting, but UFO stories started becoming more popular. The American public was experiencing severe unrest and chaos, causing them to turn to supernatural beliefs to settle themselves.20

The rise in paranormal beliefs and their inclusion in popular culture is explored by the book, The Paranormal and Popular Culture: a Postmodern Religious Landscape, edited by Darryl Caterine and John W. Morehead. In the introduction, Caterine sets up the rest of the book by arguing that the 1960s in America saw a return of the occult caused by the general public’s faith in the rational being shaken. Similar to the other sources, this was attributed to sociopolitical upheaval and the emergence of political and countercultural movements. There was a rise in devil imagery, demonic possession, aliens, space, vampires, and zombies in popular culture during this “paranormal boom.”21

In The Paranormal, Goode argues there is a clear correlation between what people believe and what appears in the media; i.e. the media can influence what people believe, just as what people believe influences what appears in the media.22 When it comes to the paranormal, most entertainment media will be biased towards the believer, as the presence of the paranormal is far more entertaining than its absence.23 This can influence who a film makes its heroes and its villains. Aliens, for instance, have been both malicious invaders and benign travelers; Goode argues how aliens are depicted in media will reflect what society fears in that moment; for example, during the Cold War, aliens were predominately evil, reflecting a society fear of invasion and outsiders.24 The government will often feature as an antagonist force in these movies, hiding the existence of aliens from the public until it is nearly too late. As aliens become more sympathetic, the government becomes more antagonistic.25 In many popular culture examples, scientists are often aligned with the government in these cases, helping to cover up and experiment on aliens.26 This particular blend becomes more popular in moments when the American people have cause to distrust their government; for example, after the Watergate scandal.

The idea that what appears in media reflects the attitudes of the culture that creates it is hardly a unique one. In the book, Beasts of the Deep, multiple chapters focus on specific oceanic themes and argue how they represent specific themes. The ocean and the creatures that lie within have been used to represent a myriad of different fears and attitudes: fear of the unknown,27 the consequences of pollution,28 mourning and regret.29 Like aliens, whether the ocean is sympathetic or antagonistic will often ebb and flow depending on which themes are being used.30 These are themes that often appear in depictions of the Bermuda Triangle, with the fear of the unknown often reoccurring. Oftentimes, the Bermuda Triangle examples will not go into detail on possible explanations for the mysterious disappearances in order to lean into the unknown and mysterious aspect of it. There is no explanation which is why the unknown is scary. Fear and distrust of the government, more specifically the Navy as they are the branch of the government most involved in Bermuda Triangle incidents, is also common. In its earliest depictions, the Navy either comes off as malicious (covering up what is going on in the Triangle) or incompetent (unable to explain what has happened to the vanished vessels). Examining these themes the way Hackett and Harrington have done can reveal these sorts of insights into the Bermuda Triangle myth.

The Bermuda Triangle first started appearing in written sources as a phenomenon in the 1950s after journalists were investigating losses at sea, most notorious of which was Flight 19 (a team of Navy Bombers that disappeared on a training flight in 1945).31 These appearances are short, often being in the form of magazine articles, and nonuniform, because although they were all referring to the same phenomena, they were all using different names. E.V.W. Jones referred to it as “a limbo of the lost” in his article in the Associated Press.32 George X. Sand referred to it as a “watering triangle bounded by Florida, Bermuda, and Puerto Rico.”33 It was not until 1964 that the Bermuda Triangle was finally coined by Vincinet Gaddis in Argosy Magazine.34 Though other titles would still be used–a notable example being a 1971 documentary titled The Devil’s Triangle featuring Vincent Price–“Bermuda Triangle” would be the title that stuck.

These early appearances focus mostly on the mysterious element of the disappearances, relying on the fear of the unknown to appeal to their audiences. They follow a similar formula: first they introduce a victim and how everything appeared to be normal, nothing out of the ordinary, before they were never seen again. Most do not bother going into detail about possible explanations, though they will sometimes include a throwaway line vaguely referencing aliens, magnetic disturbances, or something along the lines of: “the sea guards her secrets well.”35 These are also the sources where the navy is depicted as incompetent rather than malicious, as it is often highlighted that, despite their expertise, the Navy has no answers for the disappearances.

These articles push the Bermuda Triangle further into public consciousness, which can be demonstrated as it began appearing within other related phenomena, in this case almost exclusively sources on aliens. M. K. Jessup includes some tales of the Bermuda Triangle in his book focusing on aliens, The Case for the UFO.36 Donald E. Keyhoe and Frank Edwards would echo the alien explanations in their respective books (The Flying Saucer Conspiracy and Stranger than Science).37 These sources paint the Navy in a far more malicious light, as a government conspiracy/cover-up is almost necessary to explain why aliens are not public knowledge if they are indeed flying around. These sources also illustrate the early connection between the Bermuda Triangle and aliens.

The popularity of the Bermuda Triangle continued to rise through the 1960s, peaking in the 1970s with the publishing of Charles Berlitz’s book, The Bermuda Triangle: An Incredible Saga of Unexplained Disappearances in 1974.38 Berlitz’s book was a major bestseller, selling over fourteen million copies worldwide, and is what many agree cemented the Bermuda Triangle in the public consciousness.39 Soon after it was published, Fleetwood Mac released a song titled “Bermuda Triangle” on their 1974 album Heroes are Hard to Find.40 Berlitz’s book is the first larger work (e.g. a book rather than an article) that focuses solely on the Bermuda Triangle while also going into detail about possible explanations rather than leaving it simply as a mystery. Five out of nine chapters are reserved to exploring the possible explanations for the strange disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle. In the first of these chapters titled, “Is There a Logical Explanation?,” Berlitz explores the normal phenomenon that people have put forward as explanations: storms, human or mechanical error, magnetic fields, etc. However, he deems them unsatisfactory, arguing that they are dismissive and underwhelming in the face of all the examples of mysterious disappearances (Ex. How does human error explain a ship found in perfect condition, but missing its crew? How do storms explain the disappearances on clear days?).41 Berlitz instead cites other explanations such as aliens, the Lost City of Atlantis, time-space warps, and other worlds.42 Berlitz puts significant emphasis on aliens, which is not surprising seeing as he also writes about them specifically.43

These early examples cement key themes as well as a rotary of classic victims that will almost always be included in iterations of the Bermuda Triangle. The most notorious Bermuda Triangle victim remains Flight 19, but others include the USS Cyclops (a naval cargo ship that disappeared in 1911), the Douglas DC-3 (a passenger plane leased to Airborne Transportation, Inc. flying from San Juan, Puerto Rico to Miami, Florida that disappeared in 1948), and the SS Marine Sulphur Queen (an oil ship refitted to carry liquid sulfur that disappeared in 1963).44 As stated, these examples also cement the fear of the unknown as well as the Bermuda Triangle’s connection to aliens in the myth.

The increased interest and widespread popularity of the Triangle inspired Larry Kusche, a librarian at Arizona University, to write a book challenging the prevailing supernatural narratives around the Triangle titled: The Bermuda Triangle Mystery: Solved in 1975. Kusche was disheartened by the spread of what he saw as willful ignorance and lack of critical thinking that went into the propagation of the Bermuda Triangle myth. He wrote his book to encourage people to look for the logical explanation as he believed that everything has one, “if we only work hard enough to find them.”45 Kusche’s work is an anthology of all the various Triangle victims organized by year. He points out that previous authors writing on the subject of the Bermuda Triangle often incestuously cite each other rather than going back into the records for evidence, and that when he does, he finds that most of the time, key details are either missed or intentionally left out to make the stories more mysterious (e.g. stormy weather is reported as clear skies). Kusche argues that when the facts are accurately collected and analyzed, human or mechanical error can reasonably be attributed to most of the disappearances.46

The Bermuda Triangle, unlike its related phenomena, was much more vulnerable to being debunked, so Kusche’s book, an unflinching argument towards the concrete rather than the supernatural, was responsible for a great decrease in buzz surrounding the Triangle. To prove that aliens do not exist, one would have to prove an absence, something that is nearly impossible to do. To prove a conspiracy theory does not exist, one would have to have the government come forward with transparency, something–even when accomplished–could just be brushed off as part of the cover-up. Similar problems exist for ghosts, sea monsters, psychics, and the Devil. To prove that ships and planes are not mysteriously disappearing, however, all one would have to do is provide a convincing enough explanation, which is exactly what Kusche was able to do. As Lamont argued in his book, Extraordinary Beliefs, people are more inclined to look for a supernatural or extraordinary explanation when the ordinary one is not satisfactory. Indeed, Berlitz said as much explicitly in his chapter on the “Logical Explanations.”47 By giving a satisfactory explanation, Kusche took away much of the mysterious nature of the Triangle, something intrinsic to its themes. The Bermuda Triangle could not rely on Proxy or Constructive Conspiracism, as once the alternative explanation is given, they do not apply. With the social and political climate stabilizing, people no longer needed an outlet for the turmoil as desperately. The only key factor left that could still apply was Tribal Conspiracism, which is observed when only the devoted believers like Berlitz remain committed to the credibility of the Bermuda Triangle.

The decreased credibility of the Bermuda Triangle does not mean that it disappears from the nonfiction genre, as Goode pointed out, the mystical version of events is often more entertaining than the reality which biases media towards the believer,48 but this is when the Bermuda Triangle began to shift from appearing as a stand-alone piece to a part of a larger work. Before Kusche’s book was published, the Bermuda Triangle appeared on its own merit. It appeared as a stand-alone book like Berlitz’s The Bermuda Triangle or John Wallace Spencer’s Limbo of the Lost. It had full length documentaries like The Devil’s Triangle (1971). After Kusche’s book, the Bermuda Triangle appeared predominantly as a part of a larger piece, most often as an episode in a show, and even these were less common. The Bermuda Triangle had an episode on, In Search of…(1977),49 a show devoted to unsolved mysteries, as well as its reboot in 2019;50 though the reboot episode was received more positively than the original.51 Both of these examples try to expand upon the Bermuda Triangle myth instead of relying solely on the established victims; ex. A radio station got a strange call from someone in the Bermuda Triangle which made many listeners feel like they suddenly did not fit in their skin.52 This was likely done in an attempt to distance themselves from what had been debunked. The Bermuda Triangle also appears in an episode of Buzzfeed Unsolved: Supernatural (2018). The Buzzfeed episode follows the Berlitz book very closely, simply more concise, including a smaller subset of victims and the explanations are kept to the highlights.53 All of these shows are focused more generally on mysteries and/or the supernatural, supporting the idea that it is the Bermuda Triangle’s connection to these concepts that allows it to stay relevant. Also notice how most of these examples are relatively recent. After its debunking by Kusche in 1975, the Bermuda Triangle was less appealing as a nonfiction concept. The only stand-alone documentary to come out post-Kusche is also written by Berlitz: The Bermuda Triangle (1979); in which he doubles down on his beliefs about the Triangle without addressing Kusche’s work at all.54 This fits with the idea of belief perseverance (the tendency to commit even more to an idea once it is challenged) discussed by Shermer and Lobato and Zimmerman.55

The examples of the Bermuda Triangle in popular culture that remain stand-alone pieces are almost exclusively examples that are aimed specifically at children. There are hundreds of these sorts of sources. A few of them include Dorling Kindersley’s Level 3 reader: The Bermuda Triangle (2000),56 Megan Stine’s Where is the Bermuda Triangle (2018),57 and Jim Sapiros’s Mystery of the Bermuda Triangle Explained for Kids (2021).58 Most of these sources will either leave out the explanations, merely discussing victims (similar to the early magazine article examples) or, if they do have explanations, they will lean into the logical explanations of the Triangle while still leaving the door open to the supernatural explanations. The audience shift towards children reflects the decreased credibility of the Bermuda Triangle as children are a less discerning audience and it is more socially acceptable for children to believe in things that are not real than it is for adults. 

Interestingly, there has been a recent resurgence for the Bermuda Triangle as a stand-alone piece of media in the nonfiction genre. A documentary series focused on the mysteries surrounding the Bermuda Triangle was released in 2018 by the BBC titled, Secrets Of The Bermuda Triangle.59 The History Channel released The Bermuda Triangle: Into Cursed Waters, another documentary series, in 2022.60 The resurgence in interest in the Bermuda Triangle, enough to warrant show length productions, could fit into a larger trend observed in the historiography. As stated within, many of the scholarly sources specific to related phenomena (conspiracy theories, pseudoscience, paranormal belief) were written because they observed an increase in activity in those fields post-2016. Many argued that, just as there had been a boom in activity around the 1960s because of social political unrest, so had there been after 2016.61 The evidence collected here supports this idea and shows that the Bermuda Triangle overlaps with its related phenomena.

Kusche’s debunking of the Bermuda Triangle had ramifications for its fictional appearances as well; not only does it also begin to shift from a stand-alone to a part of a whole and from an adult audience to a child one, but it also moves from being a central focus of its appearances to being a feature of the conflict or setting. More often than not, the Bermuda Triangle is used as a plot device more than anything else. Just before Kusche released his book, a movie titled, Satan’s Triangle, was released. Satan’s Triangle (1975) was a made-for-television movie about rescuing a derelict schooner from the Devil’s Triangle (despite what the title implies, the Bermuda Triangle is referred to exclusively as either “the Devil’s Triangle” or “the Devil’s place” for the entire runtime of the movie). The twist of this movie is that the Devil was responsible for all the mysterious happenings in the Triangle, something he accomplished by impersonating multiple main characters over the course of the movie.62 Because the Devil was the main antagonist, the movie relied not only on the traditional fear of the unknown but also fear of sin and retribution. It is also one of the only iterations of the Bermuda Triangle to specifically focus on the Devil as the explanation for the Triangle, despite the many that refer to the Bermuda Triangle as either the Devil’s Triangle or Satan’s Triangle. This movie has the Bermuda Triangle as its focus, is a stand-alone piece, and is not aimed specifically at children. The only other iteration of the Bermuda Triangle to do so in this time period was The Bermuda Triangle (1978). The Bermuda Triangle (1978) was a thriller based on the Berlitz book following the Marvin family and crew aboard the Black Whale III who were sailing into the Triangle to attempt to take photos of the underwater Lost City of Atlantis.63

Many of the similarities between these movies line up with classical elements of the Bermuda Triangle myth. Both movies reference the classic rotary of victims. Both ships initially fail to send out distress signals despite their best efforts, referencing magnetic fields (a common feature in early examples of the Triangle) as a possible explanation. Both include references to the related phenomena, in this case demonic possession and aliens (demonic possession is one of the tropes that became popular in the 1960s boom, and especially so after the commercial success of The Exorcist in 1973.64 Both movies have a moment in which the main cast could have escaped their doomed fates had they heeded the warning of the believer, but instead listen to the skeptic characters who insist that the Triangle is nothing more than superstition and the disappearances are usually due to human or mechanical error. In this way, these two examples line up very closely with the early examples of the Bermuda Triangle, acting as fictionalized accounts of what could have happened. However, though Satan’s Triangle saw moderate success, The Bermuda Triangle (1978) was deemed a massive failure.65 The lack of commercial success of these movies, in combination with Kusche’s debunking, likely contributed to the shift away from stand-alone pieces with the Bermuda Triangle at the focus outside of children’s media after this point. Because despite the fact that the Bermuda Triangle remains common in popular culture, it becomes relegated to either be a minor part of the story (acting as only part of the setting, aspect of the conflict, and/or a plot device) or as a cultural reference.

Airport ‘77 (1977) and Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) are two examples of the Bermuda Triangle beginning to appear as an element of the conflict and as a cultural reference, as both feature the Bermuda Triangle but are focused on a different subject. Airport ‘77 is the third movie in the Airport film series, a series focusing on airplane disasters66  and Close Encounters of the Third Kind is a movie about aliens and UFOs.67 In Airport ‘77, the Bermuda Triangle is part of the inciting incident wherein the co-pilot of a luxury airplane and his co-conspirators hijack a plane to steal precious artwork being transported aboard the aircraft. The plan was to make the plane look as though it disappeared into the Bermuda Triangle by beginning to fly low where radar won’t be able to detect them. This plan backfired when flying that low decreased visibility, causing the co-pilot to clip an offshore platform and crash the plane into the ocean. The rest of the movie focuses on how the passengers will be rescued now that their plane is submerged, unable to send distress signals, and miles away from their last known location.68 In Close Encounters, the Bermuda Triangle features as one of the many examples of alien activity on Earth; e.g. Flight 19, last seen in the Bermuda Triangle in 1945, is found in perfect condition, abandoned in the Sonoran Desert in 1977. The SS Cotopaxi (an American bulk carrier that disappeared mysteriously in 192569) is similarly discovered in the Gobi Desert. The men aboard these vessels are later returned by the aliens, having not aged a day.70 Both of these movies were fairly popular and well-known, meaning that the Bermuda Triangle must have been well-known enough at this point that it would not have been a narrative risk to include important plot elements that rely on the audience knowing what the Bermuda Triangle is and how it functions. This is especially true of Close Encounters, which relies on not just the Bermuda triangle being well-known, but also its most famous victim, Flight 19.

These two movies set up two main trends in the way the Bermuda Triangle appears after this. Airport ‘77 set up “the bad guys were behind the Bermuda Triangle phenomena,” while Close Encounters set up the “using the Bermuda Triangle to explore [X] phenomena” plot device. Of the two, the “bad guys are responsible” is the more skeptical of the two tropes. Although it does not outright debunk the Triangle as a whole, it does debunk individual cases of it. In the Airport ‘77 example, the plane did not actually mysteriously disappear; it was hijacked to look that way.

The “bad guys are responsible” trope was the more common trend seen in the 1970s. Two notable examples include: Wonder Woman (1975-79)71 and The Scooby-Doo Show (1976-78).72 In season two, episode four of Wonder Woman, “Bermuda Triangle Crisis” (1977), Diana (aka Wonder Woman) and her coworker, Steve, go undercover in the Bermuda Triangle to stop Raymond Manta and his men, who are sinking ships to stop Operation Sea Harvest (a fictional US military operation testing nuclear warheads based on real US military operations in the Pacific testing nuclear warheads).73 In season three, episode two of The Scooby-Doo Show, “A Creepy Tangle in the Bermuda Triangle” (1978), weather planes are being abducted by aliens and Scooby and the gang become stranded on the island in the Bermuda Triangle they are using as their base. The gang, with the help of the Navy, manage to capture the aliens, revealing them to be weather scientists who are using the cover of the Bermuda Triangle to steal and resell the planes.74 These examples fit into the larger trends of the Bermuda Triangle in popular culture because they show the Bermuda Triangle featuring as part of the conflict rather than the central focus, are a piece of a larger work, and the Scooby-Doo episode is specifically aimed at children. However, they also fit the “bad guys are responsible” trope. This trope is more skeptical, which makes sense as these examples were directly following Kusche’s book which prompted skepticism.

Additionally, in the Scooby-Doo example specifically, the trend of the Bermuda Triangle being kept in popular culture by its connection to related phenomena can be observed. Scooby-Doo is centered around the gang running into aliens, monsters, ghosts, and other paranormal phenomena. The Scooby-Doo series has so many examples of the Bermuda Triangle because it fits in with these themes. For example, another Scooby-Doo Bermuda Triangle source is: Scooby-Doo! Pirates Ahoy! (2006).75 The gang is on a “mystery cruise” sailing through the Bermuda Triangle when they are attacked by ghost pirates who, in reality, are bad guys using the myth of the Triangle to loot a solid gold meteor from its waters. Many classic Bermuda Triangle themes are included in the ruse: glowing ocean water, sea serpents, and cameos from past victims: Flight 19 and the USS Cyclops. This example also fits in with the “bad guys are responsible” trope.

Another interesting connection between the examples directly after Kusche’s book is that both Airport ‘77 and “A Creepy Tangle in the Bermuda Triangle” go out of their way to credit the Navy in saving the day. In Airport ‘77, the Navy is able to rescue the passengers after Captain Gallagher is able to make it to the surface to send a distress signal. The closing scene includes the message: “The incident portrayed in this film is fictional; the rescue capabilities utilized by the Navy are real.”76 In “A Creepy Tangle in the Bermuda Triangle,” a naval officer rescues Velma, Daphne, and Fred from being drowned and, after the mystery is solved, sails them off the island on one of their cruisers.77 This is a push-back against the way the Navy appears in most of the early examples (ex. Gaddis and Berlitz), wherein the navy either comes off malicious (hiding secrets about the Triangle from the public) or incompetent (unable to rescue the vessels and/or explain what happened to them). This could also be seen as something that Kusche’s push towards skepticism could have caused, as many of his explanations show how the Navy is not involved in an elaborate cover-up.

The trope of the Bermuda Triangle being used as a plot device to explore related paranormal phenomena, on the other hand, exists a throughline in Bermuda Triangle appearances since the 1950s. As stated above, many of the early examples would use the Bermuda Triangle to explore concepts like aliens (The Case for the UFO, The Flying Saucer Conspiracy, and Stranger than Science) and continued to be used in examples like Close Encounters. However, aliens were not the only paranormal concept to be explored. One of the earliest Bermuda Triangle iterations to do this was the show, The Fantastic Journey (1977), centered around the space-time continuum. The main cast is an assembly of different people across different time periods that have all become trapped on an island in the Bermuda Triangle after traveling through portals called “Time Zones.”78 This is one of the few examples that kept the Bermuda Triangle relatively at the focus, while still exploring other concepts. It is also the only fictional show devoted to the Bermuda Triangle. The show was cancelled during its first season, shortening the original thirteen episodes to just ten, after struggling to find an audience because it was pitted against more popular shows at the time.79 Another example of this trend, came yet again from Scooby-Doo: The show, The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo (1985). In the sixth episode of its only season, “Ship of Ghouls,” the gang is tricked into traveling into the Bermuda Triangle by the running antagonists, ghosts: Weerd and Bogel, as it will reopen the Chest of Demons, releasing the ghosts they had captured up to that point.80

The Bermuda Triangle being used as plot device in general is a trend that continues through to the most recent examples, especially in children’s media. In two Disney Channel shows, the Bermuda Triangle features: Suite Life on Deck (2008) and Wizards of Waverly Place (2007). In Suite life on Deck, the Bermuda Triangle is used to explore another reality where the main characters, a set of twins, didn’t grow up with each other and were only recently reunited.81 In Wizards of Waverly Place, the Bermuda Triangle is a place where wizards’ magic does not work.82 The Bermuda Triangle was also used in two children’s book series: Shivers!: The Pirate Who’s More Terrified than Ever (2020) and Percy Jackson: The Sea of Monsters (2006). In The Pirate Who’s More Terrified than Ever, Shivers the pirate must voyage into the Bermuda Triangle to retrieve a key that will unlock the shackles of a sea monster that the evil pirate, Captain Crook, had captured to destroy Shiver’s town.83 The Bermuda Triangle is just used as “the most dangerous place on Earth” to make retrieving the key more difficult. In The Sea of Monsters, the Bermuda Triangle is where various sea-related problems that waylaid Odesseus (Scylla, Charybdis, the island of cyclops, Circe’s island, sirens, etc) have relocated.84 In this example, the Bermuda Triangle is used to contextualize the events of the Odyssey to a young modern audience who would likely recognize the Bermuda Triangle, but not the monsters from the Odyssey. All of these examples are both from children’s media and are a part of a larger set, and therefore fit into the overall trend identified about the Bermuda Triangle.

The Bermuda Triangle also starts to appear as a cultural reference for mysterious disappearances in popular culture. One example of this is an episode of Spongebob Squarepants titled, “Welcome to the Bikini Bottom Triangle” (2011). In the episode, the people of Bikini Bottom wake up to realize that some of their things are missing, which culminates in them realizing that some people are missing too. It turns out that sirens are using their song to activate a giant vacuum that sucks everything into “the Bikini Bottom Triangle.”85 Though the Bermuda Triangle is not mentioned by name, it is clearly being referenced with “the Bikini Bottom Triangle” and is being used as a colloquialism for things going mysteriously missing. Something similar is done in the show, How I Met Your Mother (2005-14). In at least two episodes of the series (season 5, episode 3 “Robin 101” (2009) and season 8 episode 23 “Something Old” (2013)) the Bermuda Triangle is used as a reference to the curb outside the main characters’ apartment. Whenever something is placed on the curb, it mysteriously disappears.86 Both of these examples rely on the audience having an understanding of the Bermuda Triangle and how it works for the humor of the situation to make sense and for the reference to land. Therefore this not only shows how the Bermuda Triangle has morphed from a paranormal theory to a cultural reference, but also how the Bermuda Triangle is still relevant to modern audiences, at least enough that it is part of shared culture.

What keeps the Bermuda Triangle from standing on its own very often in fiction likely has to do with the nature of the myth itself. The Bermuda Triangle is limited in relevancy as it technically only applies to an area of the ocean bound by Miami, Puerto Rico, and Bermuda. For the Bermuda Triangle to be relevant, the story must go to the Triangle, rather than the other way around. This is why it only appears in media that either already focuses on related concepts (like Scooby-Doo, or Wizards of Waverly Place) or in media already connected to the ocean (SpongeBob, Shivers!, Suite Life on Deck). This is not something that the related phenomena suffer from. Aliens, ghosts, and conspiracy theories are always relevant, because they can happen anytime, anywhere. The Bermuda Triangle cannot. This, in combination with the decreased credibility and the audience’s corresponding suspension of disbelief, means that the downward trend of the Bermuda Triangle after it first emerged makes sense.

In conclusion, when the Bermuda Triangle first appeared as part of the 1960s paranormal boom, it was because it was a phenomenon that people genuinely believed in and thought warranted investigation. It was treated with credibility and represented both the desire for discovery and the fear of the unknown. Because it lacked key traits that its related phenomena (aliens, conspiracy theories, time/space warps, ghosts, sea monsters, etc.) had, the Bermuda Triangle could not weather being debunked, causing it to shift in key ways: it became more common in fiction than nonfiction, it moved away from a stand-alone piece to a part of a larger whole, from center-stage to a plot device or cultural reference, and from a predominately adult audience to a predominately child one. The Bermuda Triangle’s connection to its related phenomena, most commonly aliens, was what helped to keep it relevant and in the public’s consciousness. It is also its connection to these paranormal phenomena that means that its resurgence in the nonfiction genre in recent years reflects the social/political turmoil of the time, the same way it did when it first emerged in the 1960s.

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Footnotes

  1. Vincent Gaddis, “The Deadly Bermuda Triangle,” (Argosy, February 1964) 116-118. https://www.physics.smu.edu/~pseudo/BermudaTriangle/vincentgaddis.txt. ↩︎
  2. Darryl Caterine, “Introduction,” in The Paranormal and Popular Culture:a Postmodern Religious Landscape, ed. Darryl Caterine and John W. Morehead (Abingdon New York (N.Y.): Routledge, 2019), 5. ↩︎
  3. Darryl Caterine, The Paranormal and Popular Culture, 5. ↩︎
  4. Darryl Caterine, The Paranormal and Popular Culture, 5; Michael Shermer, Conspiracy: Why the rational believe the irrational (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2022) x-xi. ↩︎
  5. Erich Goode, The Paranormal: who believes, why they believe, and why it matters (Amherst, N.Y: Prometheus Books, 2012) 18; Emillio J. C. Lobato and Corinne Zimmerman, “The psychology of (Pseudo)Science: Cognitive, Social, and Cultural Factors,” in Pseudoscience: the Conspiracy Against Science, ed. Allison B. Kaufman and James C. Kaufman (Cambridge: MIT press, 2018) 22-34. ↩︎
  6. Buzzfeed Unsolved: Supernatural, season 2, episode 5, “The Strangest Disappearances In The Bermuda Triangle,” directed by Ryan Bergara, written by Ryan Bergara, featuring Ryan Bergara, and Shan Madej, aired May 5, 2017, on YouTube, 12:10, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOexiVyLSdw.  ↩︎
  7. Michael Shermer, Conspiracy: Why the rational believe the irrational (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2022) x-xi. ↩︎
  8. David Mikkelson, “Was a Finger Found in Wendy’s Chili?,” Snopes, March 24, 2005, Updated July 12, 2022, https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/finger-food/; Elise Hu, “A History Of Human Fingers Found In Fast Food,” NPR, May 17, 2012, https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2012/05/17/152923061/a-history-of-human-fingers-found-in-fast-food. ↩︎
  9. Shermer, Why the rational believe the irrational, x-xi. ↩︎
  10. QAnon is a wide-ranging series of conspiracy theories based off the idea that President Donald Trump is waging a secret war against elite satanist pedophiles in government, entertainment, business, and the media, it gets its name from an anonymous poster on the online message board 4chan claiming to have a high level security clearance known as “Q clearance,” Mike Wendling, “QAnon: What is it and where did it come from?,” BBC News, January 6, 2021, https://www.bbc.com/news/53498434. ↩︎
  11. A series of viral prank videos posted in 2016 led to a world wide panic over people dressing up in clown costumes and brandishing knives that led to police agencies in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia having to issue warnings relating to these pranks, Hillary McGann and Lauren Said-Moorhouse, “Creepy clown craze sweeps the globe,” CNN, October 10, 2016, https://www.cnn.com/2016/10/10/world/creepy-clown-sightings-global. ↩︎
  12. Following his defeat in the 2020 Presidential Election, President Donald J. Trump and several of his close advisors claimed that then-President Elect Joseph R. Biden, the Democratic Party, and/or some other conglomerate of other allies of Biden had stolen the election through widespread voter fraud. Trump’s claims of fraud have been refuted and dismissed by numerous people and groups including (but not limited to): election officials, Trump’s then Attorney General William Barr, and by governors in states such as Arizona and Georgia, while several legal cases stemming from these claims have been dismissed by judges, including the Supreme Court (see Texas v. Pennsylvania). Trump’s claims of fraud directly lead to acts of violence such as the January 6, 2021 attack on the United States Capitol Building where more than 1,000 of Trump’s supporters attempted to overturn the 2020 election by storming the Capitol Building after speeches given by Trump and his allies repeating claims of fraud while encouraging them to “fight like hell.” Despite being long disproven, President Trump and his allies have continued to claim that the 2020 election was stolen. Eric Tucker, “Trump repeats false claims over 2020 election loss, deflects responsibility for Jan. 6,” Associated Press, September 11, 2024, https://apnews.com/article/jan-6-trump-capitol-riot-debate-harris-trump-election-walz-vance-144e136901013ddc9c8fab6a1d2bdf07; Shermer, Why the rational believe the irrational, x-xi. ↩︎
  13. Emillio J. C. Lobato and Corinne Zimmerman, “The Psychology of (Pseudo) Science: Cognitive, Social, and Cultural Factors,” in Pseudoscience: the Conspiracy Against Science, ed. Allison B. Kaufman and James C. Kaufman (Cambridge: MIT press, 2018) 22-34. ↩︎
  14. Jennifer A. Whitson and Adam D. Galinsky, “Lacking Control Increases Illusory Pattern Perception,” Science 322, no. 5898 (2008): 115–17. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20144957. ↩︎
  15. Michael Shermer, Conspiracy, 51-53. ↩︎
  16. Peter Lamont, Extraordinary beliefs: A historical approach to a psychological problem (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2013) 1-33. ↩︎
  17. Erich Goode, paranormal who believes, why they believe, and why it matters, 18. ↩︎
  18. Marc E. Fitch, Paranormal nation: Why america needs ghosts, ufos and Bigfoot (Santa Barbara: Praeger, 2013) 6-7. ↩︎
  19. Michael Shermer, Conspiracy, 51-53. ↩︎
  20. Marc E. Fitch, Paranormal nation, 6-7. ↩︎
  21. Darryl Caterine, The Paranormal and Popular Culture:a Postmodern Religious Landscape, 5. ↩︎
  22. Goode, The Paranormal, 233. ↩︎
  23. Goode, The Paranormal, 236. ↩︎
  24. Goode, The Paranormal, 242. ↩︎
  25. Goode, The Paranormal, 243. ↩︎
  26. Ibid. ↩︎
  27. Jon Hackett and Seán Harrington, Beasts of the Deep : Sea Creatures and Popular Culture (Herts, United Kingdom: John Libbey Publishing, 2018) 42. ↩︎
  28. Hackett and Harrington, Beasts of the Deep, 27. ↩︎
  29. Hackett and Harrington, Beasts of the Deep, 11. ↩︎
  30. Hackett and Harrington, Beasts of the Deep, 2. ↩︎
  31. Jerome Clark, Unexplained!: Strange sightings, incredible occurrences, and puzzling physical phenomena (Canton, MI: Visible Ink Press 2013) 384. ↩︎
  32. E.V.W. Jones, “Sea’s Puzzles Still Baffle Men In Pushbutton Age,” (Associated Press, September 1950). ↩︎
  33. George X. Sand, “Sea Mystery at Our Back Door,” (Fate. October 1952) 11-17. ↩︎
  34. Gaddis, “The Deadly Bermuda Triangle,” 116-118. ↩︎
  35. Gaddis, “The Deadly Bermuda Triangle,” 116-118. ↩︎
  36. Jerome Clark, Unexplained! 385. ↩︎
  37. Ibid. ↩︎
  38. Charles Berlitz, The Bermuda Triangle: a saga of unexplained disappearances (New York: Doubleday, 1974); Clark, Unexplained! 384. ↩︎
  39. Ibid. ↩︎
  40. Fleetwood Mac, “Bermuda Triangle,” track 4 on Heroes are Hard to Find, Reprise Records, 1974. ↩︎
  41. Berlitz, Bermuda Triangle, 77-91. ↩︎
  42. Berlitz, Bermuda Triangle. ↩︎
  43. Dennis McLellan, “Charles Berlitz, 90; Linguist and Author on the Paranormal,” Los Angeles Times, January 1, 2004. ↩︎
  44. Charles Berlitz, The Bermuda Triangle, 12-62. ↩︎
  45. Larry Kusche, The Bermuda Triangle Mystery: Solved (Edison, NJ: Galahad Books, 2006) ix-xiii. ↩︎
  46. Kusche, The Bermuda Triangle Mystery: Solved, 1-16. ↩︎
  47. Lamont, Extraordinary Beliefs, 1-33. ↩︎
  48. Goode, The Paranormal, 236. ↩︎
  49. In Search of…, season 1, episode 4, “The Bermuda Triangle,” written by Alan Lansburg, directed by H.G. Stark, featuring Leonard Nimoy, aired April 27, 1977, on NBC, Alan Landsburg Productions. ↩︎
  50. In Search of…, n.s. season 2, episode 5, “The Bermuda Triangle,” produced by Zachary Behr, featuring Zachary Quinto, Nick Hutchings, and Philippe Rouja, aired November 8, 2019, on The History Channel. ↩︎
  51. “In Search of…,” IMbD, updated May 4, 2025, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8005322/. ↩︎
  52. In Search of…, season 1, episode 4, “The Bermuda Triangle,” 1977. ↩︎
  53. Bergara and Madej, “The Strange Disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle.” ↩︎
  54. The Bermuda Triangle, directed by Richard Friedenberg, written by Charles Berlitz, produced by James L. Conway and Charles E. Sellier Jr. (Sunn Classic Pictures, 1979), released January 4, 1979. ↩︎
  55. Shermer, Conspiracy, 1-33; Lobato and Zimmerman, Pseudoscience: the Conspiracy Against Science, 22-34. ↩︎
  56. Andrew Donkin, DK Readers L3: Bermuda Triangle (DK Children, March 8, 2000). ↩︎
  57. Megan Stine, Where is the Bermuda Triangle? (Penguin Random House, May 2018). ↩︎
  58. Jim Sapiro, Mystery of the Bermuda Triangle Explained for Kids (Amazon Digital Services LLC – Kdp, September 2, 2021). ↩︎
  59. Secrets of the Bermuda Triangle, directed by Matthew Ainsorth and Alec Lindsell, aired July 30, 2018, on BBC (BBC Studios, 2018). ↩︎
  60. The Bermuda Triangle: Into Cursed Waters, directed by Joe Brunette, aired November 22, 2022, on the History Channel (Lone Wolf Media, 2022). ↩︎
  61. Shermer, Conspiracy, 1-33; Lobato and Zimmerman, Pseudoscience: the Conspiracy Against Science, 22-34; Goode, paranormal who believes, why they believe, and why it matters, 18. ↩︎
  62. Satan’s Triangle, directed by Sutton Roley (American Broadcasting Company, 1975). ↩︎
  63. The Bermuda Triangle, directed by René Cardona (Corporación Nacional Cinematográfica (CONACINE), 1978). ↩︎
  64. Darryl Caterine, The Paranormal and Popular Culture, 5. ↩︎
  65. “The Bermuda Triangle,” 1978, IMbD, updated May 4, 2025, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078417/; “Satan’s Triangle,” 1975, IMbD, updated May 4, 2025, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073662/. ↩︎
  66. Airport ‘77, directed by Jerry Jameson (Universal Studios, 1977). ↩︎
  67. Close Encounters of the Third Kind, directed by Steven Spielberg (Columbia Pictures, 1977). ↩︎
  68. Jameson, Airport ‘77. ↩︎
  69. When Close Encounters of the Third Kind was released in 1977, the wreck of the SS Cotopaxi had not been found, however, it was positively identified off the coast of St. Augustine, Florida in 2020 by a team of researchers working for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Science Channel, and St. Augustine Lighthouse & Maritime Museum. Katherine J. Wu, “Lost Ship Rediscovered After Disappearing Near Bermuda Triangle 95 Years Ago,” Smithsonian Magazine, February 3, 2020, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/lost-ship-rediscovered-after-disappearing-near-bermuda-triangle-95-years-ago-180974109/. ↩︎
  70. Spielberg, Close Encounters of the Third Kind. ↩︎
  71. Wonder Woman, season 2, episode 4, “The Bermuda Triangle Crisis,” directed by Seymour Robbie, written by William Moulton Marston, Stanley Ralph Ross, and Calvin Clements Jr., aired October 7, 1977, on CBS (Douglas S. Cramer Company, and Warner Bros. Television, 1977). ↩︎
  72. The Scooby-Doo Show “A Creepy Tangle in the Bermuda Triangle,” season 3, episode 2, directed by Charles Nichols, aired September 16, 1978  (Hanna-Barbera Productions: released September 16, 1978 (US)). ↩︎
  73. Robbie, “The Bermuda Triangle Crisis,”. ↩︎
  74. Nichols, “A Creepy Tangle in the Bermuda Triangle,”. ↩︎
  75. Scooby-Doo! Pirates Ahoy!, directed by Chuck Sheetz, released September 10, 2006 (Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, 2006). ↩︎
  76. Jameson, Airport ‘77. ↩︎
  77. Nichols, “A Creepy Tangle in the Bermuda Triangle.” ↩︎
  78. Fantastic Journey, produced by Leonard Katzman (1977: Columbia Pictures Television). ↩︎
  79. John J. Joex, “Cancelled Too Soon: The Fantastic Journey (1977),” Cancelled Sci-Fi, https://www.cancelledscifi.com/2024/12/27/cancelled-too-soon-the-fantastic-journey-1976/. ↩︎
  80. The 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo, season 1, episode 6, “Ship of Ghouls,” directed by Arthur Davis, Oscar Dufau, Tony Love, Don Lusk, Ray Patterson (supervising director), Rudy Zamora, and Alan Zaslove, written by Misty Stewart-Taggart (story), Tom Ruegger (story editor), and Chuck Couch (special material), released October 12, 1985 (Hanna-Barbara Productions, 1985). ↩︎
  81. Suit Life on Deck, season 2, episode 11, “Bermuda Triangle,” directed by Phil Lewis, written by Danny Kallis, Jim Geoghan, and Pamela Eells, aired November 13, 2009, Disney Channel (Bon Mot Productions, 2009). ↩︎
  82. Wizards of Waverly Place, season 4, episode 22, “Ghost Roommate,” directed by David DeLuise, written by Todd J. Greenwald and Richard Goodman, aired October 14, 2011, on Disney Channel (It’s a Laugh Productions, 2011). ↩︎
  83. Annabeth Bondor-Stone and Connor White, Shivers!: The Pirate Who’s More Terrified than Ever, illustrated by Anthony Holden. Book 4 of Shivers! (HarperCollins; Illustrated edition (April 14, 2020)). ↩︎
  84. Rick Riordan, Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters, book 2 of Percy Jackson & the Olympians (Miramax Books: Disney Hyperion, April 1, 2006). ↩︎
  85. Spongebob Squarepants, season 7, episode 14b, “Welcome to the Bikini Bottom Triangle,” directed by Alan Smart, written by Stephen Hillenburg, Aaron Springer, and Dani Michaeli, aired February 1, 2011, on Nickelodeon (Nickelodeon: United Plankton Pictures, 2011). ↩︎
  86. How I Met Your Mother, season 5, episode 3, “Robin 101,” directed by Pamela Fryman, written by Carter Bays and Craig Thomas, aired October 5, 2009, on CBS; How I Met Your Mother, season 8, episode 23, “Something Old,” directed by Pamela Fryman, written by Carter Bays and Craig Thomas, aired May 6, 2013, on CBS. ↩︎