Carol Burnett, Lizzy Caplan, Gaius Charles, and Amy Sherman-Palladino
Plus a trip down memory lane thanks to Robert Duncan McNeill
This week included a deep dive into WTF with Marc Maron (which had mysteriously stopped showing up in my app), a little time travel, doubling up on saying no, and opening my mind when it comes to ghost stories.
A good chunk of my podcast listening happens on the treadmill, and let me tell you something: It’s very challenging taking notes on my phone at the same time. I had a lot to jot down this week and I’m very surprised I never fell off the damned thing.
Carol Burnett reiterates Jane Fonda on Wiser Than Me
Please go listen to Julia Louis-Dreyfus talk to Carol Burnett. Do I even need to tell you this?
Carol said the exact same thing as Jane Fonda: “No” is a complete sentence.
In contrast, I also heeded the opposite advice when I heard Scott Mantz interview William Shatner for The Enterprise Incidents and Shatner said to “say yes to everything.” That inspired me to go to a social gathering I was very anxious about, and it worked out great. But I think, for women in particular, there is ALSO an important lesson in saying no without the apologies and the caveats. Sometimes, it’s just no.
Julia always asks her guests what advice they’d give to their 21-year-old selves, and Carol said she wouldn’t give any! She’s the first person to say that and given the life she’s lived, it fits. She also mentioned that she has some (daily?) Wordle conversations and comparisons with Charlize Theron and Allison Janney. At 90, she is still full of surprises.
Catching up with Marc Maron
I don’t know why I stopped seeing new episodes of WTF with Marc Maron in my feed; I almost missed his interview with Amy Sherman-Palladino, who I’ve been captivated by ever since seeing her on a panel for The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel at the Paley Center in NY years ago.
I’m a huge Gilmore Girls fan and I also liked Bunheads, so I’ve always thought of her as the creative force running shows with her equally awesome husband Daniel. But wow, did she have stories about her pre-showrunner days. She worked on Roseanne and Veronica’s Closet, both of which were filled with… personalities.
She talked about why she and Daniel left Gilmore Girls (which will resonate with anyone paying attention to the WGA strike), casting Luke Kirby as Lenny Bruce on Maisel, and quietly slipping out when Roseanne and Tom Arnold started making out while they had a house full of guests.
After that, I went digging into the archives to see who piqued my interest; my binge included wonderful interviews with Octavia Spencer (from January), Elizabeth Banks (November 2022), and Quinta Brunson (also November 2022) Highly recommend each one.
Lizzy Caplan’s so smart!
When I was pregnant with my first kid, all the pregnancy websites touted the importance of having extensive birth plans. At the time, I remember briefly dabbling with the idea, then abandoning it. (Same for labor classes: When I was starting labor and already loaded up on the ‘walking epidural’, my doctor asked if I’d taken any labor classes. I said no. “I’ll just tell you how to do it,” she said cheerfully.)
Lizzy Caplan was on Armchair Expert this week, and she made me laugh out loud when she talked about having the same experience. She says she asked her doctor about a birth plan, and the doctor said the plan was to come in and have the baby when it was time. We had the same plan!
I know very little about Lizzy Caplan except that she is an excellent podcast guest. I haven’t watched her latest TV show, Fatal Attraction, but I completely agreed with her take on the movie and my heart both warmed and squeed when she talked about her co-star Joshua Jackson (who I fell in love with on Fringe) being protective of her during their explicit sex scenes—which I clearly need to watch. And I’d totally forgotten she was Janis in Mean Girls!
Sometimes fan questions are the best questions
The Office Ladies are reviewing a meh-ish episode this week (“Spooked”), but a fan wrote in to ask the team (that includes Sam and Cassi as well as Angela and Jenna) if they believed in ghosts or not. I thought they’d all say no, but three said yes, and Cassi, who said no, still had a creepy and unexplainable story. Crazy!
Gaius Charles, plus Kyle Chandler is an acting genius
Last week’s It’s Not Only Football: Friday Night Lights and Beyond had a terrific interview with Gaius Charles, who played Smash Williams. (I was kinda bummed Mae wasn’t there, but I loved it nonetheless.) He’s a fascinating guy and I envy him his quiet, calm certainty.
This week is an episode review (of the season 1 finale), and as always, I learn a lot when they compare the script to the final scene. It’s always a treat when Scott Porter reads a long scene loaded up with dialogue and compares it to what ended up happening onscreen: Kyle Chandler replaced it all with a perfect facial expression and maybe half a sentence. Brillant.
(For the record, they also talk about a fantastic scene in the same episode where he does the script exactly as written, word for word, and delivers it beautifully.)
I came back to add this after finishing the episode: If you are a Friday Night Lights fan, there’s some fascinating info about how they originally planned to end the season I love this podcast
The Delta Flyers brings back memories
They’ve been talking about the Voyager 7th season episode “Workforce” this week, which is one of my favorites. I was thrilled that Robbie McNeill loved it as much as I do—and for all the same reasons.
But then what was even MORE fun was that he talked about his early days as a waiter in New York City, when he worked at a bustling spot on the upper west side called Ernie’s.
Even before I moved to NY, my dad used to take us to Ernie’s all the time when we visited! I loved the food and the palpable excitement in the restaurant itself. I didn’t know at the time that there were celebrities there, but I could feel the energy and I was always happy to go. It closed way back in 2003, but Robbie worked there in the early 1980s and I was definitely there many times then too. I wonder if we were ever there at the same time.
If you love “Workforce” like I do, this will not disappoint.
Speaking of the Delta Flyers…
We had Garrett Wang on our podcast this week! He was so much fun. He cleared up a rumor that he couldn’t be on Picard because Prodigy “owns” Voyager characters, he talked about what he took from the set, he did very funny impressions of his former co-stars, and answered our goofy questionnaire.
Yes. Yes we do.
See you next week!