Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to c Sicily, Alaska, a Northern Exposure podcast. I'm Anne Flynn Terrell. I'm a cabaret performer and MC. I'm Caleb Cohart. I'm a documentary and commercial filmmaker.
Speaker: I'm Amy Gerlich. I own and run a improv and sketch comedy theater in Denver, Colorado. This is a podcast where we talk about Northern Exposure and how it's affected our lives. And we have some amazing special guests.
Speaker: Season 6, episode 20. Bus stop. Couple extra S's. i never got that. and I can't figure out why the extra S. It made no sense.
Speaker: I thought I was missing something and I just accepted it and moved. us yeah I was like, at this point, it's um a game of endurance finishing the show. So it's like you yeah you just have to plow through. You just move through.
Speaker: Because we need to introduce more What do we want to call it? um Bermuda Triangle Geography? Perhaps is what I was describing it as in my head. I got pretty angry at not the beginning of the episode because the beginning of the episode sees ah fan favorites Eric and Ron welcoming Michelle into their home because Michelle is going to, she's going to be like a triple threat. She's going to produce direct interviews and assist with the production of a theatrical show being bus stop. And then all of a sudden, Ron turns into a stage mom, a dance mom, and starts strong arming Michelle because he's funding the final step to get the production on its legs. And he kind of like does the the strong handshake. Eric better get the part. Classic. It felt like a so ah scene from Step Up.
Speaker: Step Up 2, Northern Exposures. I feel like I've seen this storyline a million times. Yeah. it It exists in real life. I remember when I was doing a lot of musical theater and the theater I was at, Music Man was coming through. And this was my dream. I've always wanted to play the Music Man.
Speaker: And... um It came through brand new artistic director at this theater that I worked at all the time. So not only was he the artistic director that ran the entire theater, he also decided, you know what? I'm going to direct this one.
Speaker: No problem. He's the artistic director. He gets to direct it. You know what? I'm going to cast myself as the music man in this one. Didn't even hold auditions for the main role. Like just straight up like artistic director, director, lead role.
Speaker: No auditions. i was like, oh my God. like it It happens. If you want it, you're going to get it. i mean, totally. like It's small town community theater. yeah You're going to get what you get. that's That's it. And I have seen some theatrical productions locally where...
Speaker: it was disturbing the amount of age difference between the two lead characters. but Not in an like illegal way, but in a way where you're just like, I know that this happens, absolutely, but in the guise of this theatrical show, the they're both supposed to be in high school.
Speaker: Yeah. like They're both supposed to be in high school. One of them has clearly like already collecting their AARP mail. It's gross. When we did Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, all of us in the all the men were like in their late twenty s All the girls were in high school. yeah so that was illegal. Not to mention that that show, if you're familiar with that show, deals with a lot of Me Too stuff anyway. So it's like, yeah let's go into the town and kidnap the underage women.
Speaker: I do love the idea of the theater bug, right? It's like when so the an idea of a show comes to a town, everybody has got to talk about the show they did, right? um And I also get these emails online.
Speaker: ah once a week. I just answered one before we got on here of someone who wants to take class, but they should probably skip level one because they did some theater in high school. It's been a while. They're rusty, but they don't want it to feel so easy. And I'm like, and i have to constantly remind myself that,
Speaker: We're in Denver and people think there's like no professionalism. There's no like there's can't possibly be anyone here that could teach me something.
Speaker: You know, it's just this it's and I used to get so angry about it. And now I just have accepted it. But we have a very important show to discuss, Amy, because bus stop can't happen alone. It involves the entire town, not at any like not at different times throughout the day, like you would imagine a theatrical production. Every time a rehearsal is happening, everything is happening in this show. There's also a subplot, which if you we want to talk about, great, that's fine.
Speaker: I can't stand talking about it. They keep shipping Chris and Maggie, who is Sherry in the in the show. Maggie is Sherry. um There's only four episodes left at this point. And I was really done with them just trying to bookend this couple together. They kept trying to push them together together.
Speaker: yeah So I'm happy to discuss it. I'm not happy to discuss it. We'll discuss it when it comes up. I was talking to Zach about it today, which he loves when I talk about a show he's ever seen. um But I was telling him about how that it's so forced in these last few episodes. um And it's like, it's almost like they they carved the episodes around this storyline to make it work. And it's like very uncomfortable. And you could tell that
Speaker: Janine Turner is like really using her acting chops to get through it. But you could, there's just this sense, this air that neither of them want this to be a thing.
Speaker: Yeah. They both know it's wrong and it's not one of those. It's so wrong. It's right situations either. It's just, it's so wrong. It's wrong. I do love Marilyn as the stage manager.
Speaker: I, that makes perfect sense for her I love whenever I am a stage manager, I'm a Capricorn. I lean into the organization of it. I love that. But so Holling is the doctor. Like, every everybody has a role. And generally, that's why you choose a show. Because, like, you have to look at the pool of people that you are casting. And then you have to choose a show around that. Yeah.
Speaker: Makes sense. It makes sense. But for $1,000, they're putting on a serious production. They have costumes being custom fitted yeah for them. What else do they have to do?
Speaker: Run to town. Run to town. ah Are you going to talk about the cast list moment? Go for it. I feel like I'm going to say way more about this episode than you guys. I just love a good cast list moment. I love, like, it's one of my favorite things to see is people, like, running to a list to see and the just disappointment and the elation in some people's face. It's, like, so many emotions happening at once. And I feel like it's, like,
Speaker: That is, that is like theater folk, you know, like seeing that and like getting excited about it, ah about seeing that scene.
Speaker: um i think, you know, that you're, you're one of those people, right? um Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I just thought it was so fun. That was unfortunately nothing i ever got to experience because by the time I got into the theater, I was out of school. So it wasn't, there was nowhere to post it Like by the time i was auditioning and getting roles, they would call you to offer you the role. And then after all the leads or all the characters had accepted, then they would call you if you didn't get in to reject you. But they always waited until everybody accepted before they would call to reject you in case they had to go with their B plan, you know?
Speaker: Even in college, they would post cast lists and you would have to go to the theater to yeah see it. Yeah, i just i I started even after college, so I didn't and never got the cast list moment. So disappointing.
Speaker: Oh, I got the heartbreaking castless moments. I also got the, I got the part before the people who were older and who like should have gotten the part moments, but that happened younger. So I was jaded. um But I also got the role in theater after college where I thought you had to play it cool. Like I thought you couldn't get really excited. So when I was offered the role in a show, I was like, thank you very much. I appreciate the opportunity. Yeah.
Speaker: And I remember the director being like, I don't know if she wants to do this. They were like, she sounded very aloof. And I was like, i thought that was supposed to I thought that's what you were supposed to do. I thought you were supposed to play it cool.
Speaker: See, I got um i've got always to disappointed because I wanted to be a theater kid so bad, but I was just a comedian and never knew it. So, like, I never got parts I wanted.
Speaker: i i always had a rivalry with with somebody, and they would always get the part I wanted, and it was... Brutal. And i remember i got some good parts in high school because my theater director liked me a lot. But, um man, college.
Speaker: College was rough. Rough for me. And that's the time in my life when... the professor took me outside because I was hysterically crying from not getting a part that was double cast. oh Oh, where they were doing something fun with having two different, to and I was like, and my rival got one, one of the roles. So I was like, how, how is this even possible? This was like my senior year.
Speaker: yeah And, um, when I was in Humboldt and then I went and did a senior year in New York, but, My professor took me outside and he goes, you should be a comedian.
Speaker: And I was so offended. So offended. i didn't. ah Honestly, I didn't know, you know, improv, what improv was. i just thought ah he meant stand up comedian. And I was like.
Speaker: I could not believe I had spent so much time and money at different schools learning this craft. And someone was basically saying to me, like, you're you're just always going to be silly.
Speaker: but Like, that's what I heard. And I was like, you're out of your mind. You're out of your mind. So when I got to New York, I just did, like, weird experimental theater. And, like, I was always doing, like,
Speaker: something that wasn't the norm. Cause I was like, maybe this is it. Just, just flat out denying myself for as long as I could until I finally was like, fine, I'll go, i guess I'll go audition for comedy.
Speaker: And then they were like rolling out the red carpet being like, walk down. And I'm like, how dare you put me in this?
Speaker: i am an artist. It was a struggle. it was a struggle.
Speaker: But luckily at that time you weren't a Denver delusional artist. So you knew. You were like, all right, there's something here. I'll take the class. I'll take level one. Yeah, that's right. I mean, there's there's plenty of people here in Denver that are not delusional. um but And I don't mean delusional like their art is bad. I mean, delusional in a sense that they that people in LA and New York are not.
Speaker: Like people in LA and New York, I know it's the weirdest thing. I think I've got to think, though, it's because one, those both of those cities are very real and they're going to cut you down.
Speaker: And. There's an actual opportunity there there, there's there's no opportunity in Denver, if you to disagree. not You have to leave Denver for the opportunity. like You're not going to get cast in Saturday Night Live or ah a major motion picture or a television show if you are an improviser in Denver.
Speaker: Yeah, but that's not what I'm talking about. Like, I feel like if we get too deep into it, we're going to completely avoid talking about this episode. Let's dig in. That's what Anne was trying to do the whole time She was distracting us.
Speaker: Anne, how dare you? Your plan is working. C'est moi? I would never. I would never never. This episode is just filled with things that I want to talk about.
Speaker: I will say I'm very – I was very excited when I saw what the theater was. ah We're at the old barn where they build cars. Yeah. They build but boats. They store dead bodies. The doors never close.
Speaker: And now it's a community theater with – complete with trap door and costume and set storage. Yeah. yeah This was mind-blowing. This is – And I've noticed in later episodes and prior episodes, it's also the indoor playground. So this is probably the most versatile building in this town. I think it rivals the church. I think it surpasses the church. I wondered actually if something didn't happen to the set for the church in like around when they were filming this and they had to use the B plot like the church makes sense to produce a play at the church makes sense to have a nursery at the barn doesn't necessarily make as much sense so i feel like something might have happened like the church actually needed to be used for something at that time so they had to go to b plot or b location this is what we were talking about before you got on and that i think david chase just systematically like pissed people off enough where they couldn't use any sets for like the last few episodes yeah so
Speaker: The production is going terribly. in our Our poor Chris is having another artist's block. And I feel like he just pulls into his grab bag of what am I going to be blocked by this time?
Speaker: And it's just like the existential dread. I do kind of like Eric turning into a diva though. I loved it. Such the worst type. I've been in so many shows and I know we all have. We have all been in so many shows with an Eric type. oh yeah It's like Oh, they've, they've of course done everything. Uh, they're going to, they're going to give up their current profession to go back into it because of this one community theater role. It's great. Yeah. You know, I've been thinking about giving it all up again. You know, I've been thinking about digging back into, and yeah, they start smoking again because they're in it. Like, yeah, it was so entertaining watching him. I was like, Oh my God, I know this person so well. And at times I have been this person. Sure. i think the thing the thing that annoyed me about it was they made so much fuss about him not actually being good.
Speaker: And then when he actually performed, I was like, he's fine. yeah Yeah, he's fine. He's not terrible at all. Like they should have made him wildly bad. In my opinion, it should have been. Oh, you mean like Chris? Yes, like Chris. Yes. It has been as bad as Chris.
Speaker: Yep. But no, no, Chris is horrific. And I do like watching actors, good actors play a character playing something poorly. Yeah. I like watching.
Speaker: i like watching people who do something well do it poorly on purpose. it So the lollipop guild mayor. I think the Lollipop Guildmare is actually pretty good. But that's why you like him. that's He's like a four-year-old that's been thrown out on the stage and they're like, perform.
Speaker: but he He gets very anxious.
Speaker: He gets very scared. Dear reader, you have to decide why I like the Lollipop Guildmare character so much. um Does Maurice have dogs again all of a sudden? Does he? Well, as Maurice is starting to talk about or not talk about the Oklahoma that never happened, he like hurries away and says he has hungry dogs to feed.
Speaker: I don't know if this is just like trope. I don't think he ever didn't have dogs. I think you only see them like once or twice. Maybe they have a kennel. His dogs are exactly like Randy.
Speaker: They exist in the universe, but we never really see Randy, but yet we always see Shelly and Hauling. Yeah, poor Randy. Eric's delusions grow greater, which I love, and he's going to move to the bright lights of Seattle.
Speaker: He's going to big. He's going to go big in the... This was peak grunge. This was... Seattle was happening. Yeah. But not for the community theater scene. but This was this was peak grunge.
Speaker: And who knows? Maybe he would have been the new lead singer of Nirvana. Who knows? ah But then he comes clean. Eric finds out that Ron paid for his role.
Speaker: It's i I don't know if I would find that really charming or very disheartening, but maybe a little bit of both. Yeah, absolutely. If I found out that somebody somebody paid to get me a role in something that I really enjoyed and really loved doing.
Speaker: i don't i don't i don't think I would find it charming. Really? Yeah, I would be eviscerated I found i would be so eviscerated if i find if i found out For instance, I'm on the pros team at Chaos Bloom. And if I find out that Margarita paid Amy to put me on the pros team, I'm done.
Speaker: I'm done. Oh my God. You what mean? It's like, yeah, I would just be like so ruined as a human if I thought I had accomplished this thing on my own merits and talents and hard work.
Speaker: And then I find out that my spouse... was paying for me all along. But what if it's just a gateway drug? Like what if they pay for you to get in and then it turns out you are really good and then you make it on your own merits?
Speaker: Which is what happened in this episode. Yeah. I would be doing it as a newly single man probably. Yeah, but like when's the teton when's the next time the town is goingnna actually do anything? um It does act like a virus, though. like i I can't get over the costuming. like I've always wanted a full costuming department. And I will say I did a performance at Miner's Alley a while ago that was like a pop-up event. They have the most incredible costume and set shop. It's so nice. It's kind of what I've always dreamed of for a theater.
Speaker: They've got it on lockdown. So all of you Miner's Alley fans out there, Congratulations. Your costume and set department are incredible and enviable and I love it. But this was, they have no rooms. I just loved every scene where they were making props, moving set pieces, yeah building things actively when people were also walking on it. it was big Osha Houser, but...
Speaker: It felt very the show it felt very like high school tech tech week. Exactly. It felt like a lot of the high school plays I'd done. I loved, too, that like Hayden built the set and forced perspective so the doors on the back of the set were like three feet tall, four feet tall, so everybody had to duck to go through them. It was so beautiful. i love like They leaned into... like I wrote this note about this whole play. I was like, this is a dramatized dramaturgy of full drama.
Speaker: I loved it. it was like They leaned into it so much. That would be exactly how they described it. And then like the cliques that formed the Eric, k Chris and Holling are all the playboys that tell themselves how good they are while they're drinking. And they talk about how great that each other is like they they do the big old back pats to each other. i just... The puke on his jeans made me laugh so hard.
Speaker: i was like, what a weird... detail for them to put on there. Yeah. It's like they were so drunk. Yeah. This really does lean into like the the craft of what these people do. Like you were talking about costuming before and man, if you like, yes, this was a dramatization of a community play, but it really does speak to like the craft behind what they were doing on this show. I brushed it briefly. i got to do, i was in this contest where I won. It was for Netflix. And we got to go to New York and compete in front of a live audience and on the Today Show and everything.
Speaker: And we made our own costumes for the original sketches. When we got to New York, they brought in like actual Broadway costumers and makeup artists to make us up like these movie characters that we were playing.
Speaker: My God, ah the level of craftsmanship when you get to the upper echelon of like New York and L.A., which is what this would have been doing. It's the it's the puke on the jeans thing. It's yeah the it's the little dirt. It's like these people are amazing. And so like you still there are glimpses of magic. And even when they're playing up the fact that this is cheesy community theater.
Speaker: They go so hard. i I'll bet you the craftspeople on this episode had blast.
Speaker: Two of my favorite things was Michelle going through the trap door because i used to be my that used to be my biggest fear. When i saw a stage with a trap door, I'd be like, I am going end up down there. And it's deep. If you go down, you're going down. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: And Hayden mouthing the lines went ah off to the side, like the person who never wants to be involved in the show. Because ah I remember in high school, all of our stage managers knew everybody's line.
Speaker: They knew everyone. So they could have gotten on in a moment's notice. But if you ask them, they'd be like, oh, no. And that's what Hayden was doing. He was like, no, not for me. But he was mouthing everybody's lines on the side behind the curtain. And I was like, this is so sweet. I love that. Yeah. And that's a great stage manager. Yeah. it's But did you guys ever perform with people who like they memorized your lines, too? So then when you would be doing a scene with them, they would be mouthing your lines back to you and you'd be like, why are you doing that? And they're like, doing what?
Speaker: Yep. Yep. I have worked with people. And I think most of the time, at least the people that I've worked with, they don't even notice. They just, some people, like that's how they memorize their lines is by memorizing all the lines. All of it. Yeah.
Speaker: Which is wild. um I would be fine just talking about the theatrical side of this episode and not ever delving into Phil. Yeah. Phil annoyed the crap out of me in this episode. Like Caleb level annoyed. um This guy.
Speaker: And also Michelle, they just recycled. They just recycled the old Joel scenario where it's like he worked so hard and got so and also hauling. They just mushed him together. Hauling used get real stiff and Joel got real tired and it's like Poor Michelle. She is underutilized and underwritten, I think, in general. She is yeah by far a superior actor to the guy playing Phil.
Speaker: ah But yet they lean lean into Phil a little bit. And I think, like, yeah, she really gets... She kind of gets shortchanged a lot in these episodes. And this one, too. Like, she had a lot of...
Speaker: Potential. But yeah, i I don't even think I wrote Phil notes because at this point I've started to just repress the fact that he's in the show. yeah I wrote that he gave her drugs, unprescribed medicine, which would have cost him his license. He gave her a Klonopin, which he did not prescribe.
Speaker: And I don't believe you should prescribe for your spouse. I don't know doctor stuff. But ah yeah, so she takes the Klonopin. and gets loopy AF.
Speaker: um there was There was this plot. So Oklahoma was the failed show that Maurice tried to put up years ago, and they find the sets for it and everything because there's allusions to it throughout. And I thought this was actually a really good tension building of like,
Speaker: Because Marilyn and Ruthann are hinting at it and You're like what's going on? What's going on? um And eventually it comes out that everything fell apart because theater changes people. And everybody, especially in a place like Alaska, where everybody goes to escape and be themselves. And then they get into this group.
Speaker: And that's what caused it to fall apart. ah thought that was I thought that was a really solid subplot and good tension building. i don't know what I meant by this. I wrote, it's true.
Speaker: Oh, there's a comma. Now I know what I meant by it. I said, it's true, man. the Theater changes you. I thought my note was, it's true, man. Theater changes you. I missed the comma. So important note.
Speaker: I had theater as virus. Yep. Me too. but a Theater is a bug. So it's like, that's what they, it's just another Sicily virus, bug, cold theater.
