From The Big Bang Theory to Mad Men: How to Make the Blanket That’s Featured in All Your Favorite TV Shows

What do Punky Brewster and Parks and Rec have in common with It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia? Very little, except for one “objectively unattractive” blanket that’s made an appearance in every virtually TV show you’ve ever loved.

Slate’s Laura Bradley launched an investigation into that blanket (“Why Do TV Characters All Own the Same Weird Old Blanket?”) which she first noticed strewn across the back of Amy’s couch The Big Bang Theory.

“The more I looked for it, the more I saw it everywhere,” she writes. “It turns out that this blanket has been a staple of television sets for decades.” She spotted it in scenes from Taxi, Roseanne, Mad Men, It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia, Jane the Virgin.

With heightened awareness for “granny square afghans” I found it in the opening credits for the second season of Punky Brewster, on the chair cushion below Brandon:

Also behind Rachel and Monica in a scene from Friends, atop Will Smith on The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, and in Ann Perkins’ apartment on Parks and Recreation.

In each scenario, the blanket, in all its handmade glory, marks its owner as someone with middle- to lower-middle-class roots, with a penchant for the practical over the pretty—someone who finds comfort (either mental, physical, or both) from being wrapped up in something that could have been passed down by a grandma.

If you don’t have a crochet-hook-wielding grandma but could use some comforting, you’re in luck: You should be able to master the granny square in an afternoon.

Once you have a handle on the basics, you start casting “sunburst” (or multicolor) squares, which you eventually join together to make a granny-square afghan.

And of course for the comfort-seeking DIY-averse, there are plenty of brand-new and vintage granny-square afghans on Etsy.

Read the full Slate article here.