Matthew Belinkie, Peter Fenzel, Mark Lee, John Perich, and Matthew Wrather introduce the concept of Overthinking for the benefit of new listeners, and discuss Grown-Ups 2, Chip ‘n’ Dale Rescue Rangers, and the plays of William Shakespeare.
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Your Panel
- Matthew Belinkie
- Peter Fenzel: @fenzelian
- Mark Lee: @goestotwelve
- John Perich: @perich
- Matthew Wrather: @mwrather
Further Reading
- Galavant
- “Schwarzenegger ‘F*** You’: Did Gov Send Lawmaker Obscene Message Through Acrostic Poem?”
- “Meet the Two Guys Who Are Doomed to Watch ‘Grown Ups 2’ for Eternity” from Vice
- Title Announcements
- “171 Starbucks” by Mark Malkoff
I’ve listened to the vast majority of the podcasts, but one inside joke I’ve never known the origin story of special guest Harvey Fierstein.
Oof. I’d be hard pressed to tell you. I think that’s one for the OTI completists.
I know it was Fenzel who said something about opening a playbill for the musical RENT and finding a piece of paper that says “tonight the role of Angel is played by Harvey Fierstein.” For the life of me I can’t remember the context though.
This was probably in reference to my actual experience of seeing Rent on Broadway back in I think 1997 or early 1998, when Angel was played by an understudy – I think Tony-winner Wilson Jermaine Heredia was still with the production at the time (although much of the original cast was gone), and I had the sense that him not being there was a big deal, but I didn’t know enough about the show to care or be disappointed. It was still great.
But those little slips of paper you get in the Playbills are really funny – this is one of the few areas of life where people you’ve never met communicate with you by slipping your surprisingly little slips of paper.
And I definitely think, in retrospect even if it wasn’t my thought at the time, that it would be really funny to announce a BIG change in the show on one of those slips. Like with an understudy the performer is generally going to be pretty similar to the original star in how they conceive of the part, and on Broadway there isn’t much risk that the understudy for a big part in a big show is going to be a less-than-excellent musical theater actor.
But, hey, I know you don’t know me, just between you and me, here’s a little slip of paper that you will maybe find in the program you got or maybe will drop on the floor and never read, but tonight Urinetown is about Batman. You’re welcome.
The time: October 24, 2011. The place: Overthinking It Podcast, Episode 173: “Triumph the Insult Comic Dog of the Will”. (The hyperlink to the show notes: http://www.overthinkingit.com/2011/10/24/otip-episode-173/ )
Having hosted the previous week’s episode, Fenzel was bringing out the self-deprecating humor routine, saying that listeners finding him in Wrather’s place must have felt like a Broadway audience would feel upon discovering that Harvey Fierstein was understudying for Jai Rodriguez.
Well actually, DEMONA is voiced by Deanna Troi on “Gargoyles.” Desdemona is a completely different character and voiced by CCH Pounder.
Totally awesome and hilarious point taken!!
Gargoyles is pretty much the Kevin Bacon to everything good in media.
Gargoyles I’ve found, is generally 1, sometimes 2 steps away from virtually everything I like.
Just from CCH Pounder you get to Law and Order, NCIS, The Shield, Batman (She did voice work in several games), The X-files, Robocop, Quantum Leap (which also gets you into Star Trek even if the majority of the cast of TNG/DS9 weren’t already in the show)
It’s insane the star power Gargoyles ended up pulling in.
Ed Asner (Gets you into damn near everything), John Rhys-Davies (gets you into Indiana Jones), Matt Frewer (Psi Factor, Hercules), Tim Curry, Tony Shaloub, James Avery, James Saito gets you to Home Alone, Die Hard and Ninja Turtles.
I actually feel as though Gargoyles is the nexus of nerdy pop culture.
Well, ac…duh. I had so many wellactuallies but I forgot every one them. Damn. The only thing I remember is thinking to myself every time someone explained ins and outs of OFT: LOL, n00bs.
If the new podcast deal brings new listeners to your fold (and you deserve it, no doubt) can we, old timers, be podcasts hipsters, listening to new episodes on vinyl, complaining how current panel is lacking Shana, pine for Old, Better Times?
Yes. The true old-schoolers can also talk about how the podcast hasn’t been any good since Natalie Baseman left.