Speaker 1: I guess what, mango? What's up? Well, so I've been
Speaker 1: waiting for days to ask you this question, But have
Speaker 1: you ever heard of the Tony danzas syndrome? Is that
Speaker 1: where you just walk around a house yelling Angelo. I
Speaker 1: think it's one variation of it, but not the one
Speaker 1: I'm talking about here. So this is something that our
Speaker 1: friend Ken Jennings came up with. He coined this term,
Speaker 1: and it's when an actor plays a character with their
Speaker 1: same name, or at least their same first name in
Speaker 1: movies or TV shows. And so Ken gave it that
Speaker 1: name because Tony Danza is, you know, kind of the
Speaker 1: king of this and I know you could probably think
Speaker 1: of a couple examples, but he actually start as a
Speaker 1: fictional Tony in no less than ten movies and five
Speaker 1: separate TV shows. Yeah, I mean I guess who's the boss?
Speaker 1: Good cough Like It's true. I didn't even think about that.
Speaker 1: Lots of other shows too, But it actually started when
Speaker 1: he was playing the role of Tony Banta on Taxi
Speaker 1: and so the character was supposed to be named Phil Banta,
Speaker 1: but because Danza had actually been working as a professional
Speaker 1: boxer at the time of his casting, and this was
Speaker 1: kind of his first big acting gig. The producers changed
Speaker 1: his character's name because they were worried that he wouldn't
Speaker 1: remember to respond to any name but his own, so
Speaker 1: Tony Danza syndrome. But anyway, it's a pretty fitting way
Speaker 1: to kick off the episode because today's show is all
Speaker 1: about Tony's. Let's dive in today their podcast listeners, Welcome
Speaker 1: to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson, and as always
Speaker 1: I'm joined by my good friend man guess Hot Ticketer
Speaker 1: and sitting behind the soundproof glass holding up a boombox
Speaker 1: as he blasts Tony Tony, Tony, and it's actually on
Speaker 1: a cassette tape. I don't know if you've noticed this
Speaker 1: right outside the window. That's our PALIN producer, Tristan McNeil,
Speaker 1: and he's always so prepared for these shows, but I
Speaker 1: have in it. I was a little surprised when I
Speaker 1: saw him show up with the boom box, but anyway,
Speaker 1: I go. I kicked this off with a fact about
Speaker 1: Tony danzim and today's episode is of course filled with Tony's.
Speaker 1: But where do you want to go with it? Here? Well,
Speaker 1: how about a fact about Anthony Hopkins? Who isn't generally
Speaker 1: my go to Tony, but I I stumbled into some
Speaker 1: really fun research about Sounds of the Lambs this week,
Speaker 1: and there's some strange things about how he got into
Speaker 1: that movie. So apparently Hopkins got the script, but he
Speaker 1: almost didn't read it because he thought it was a
Speaker 1: kids movie. He assumed Sounds of the Lambs just had
Speaker 1: to do something with like puppets or animals or something,
Speaker 1: which is kind of funny. But I guess his agent
Speaker 1: or whoever for some pressure on him to read it,
Speaker 1: and he fell in love with the Hannibal Electric character.
Speaker 1: So this is actually what he told Empire Magazine quote.
Speaker 1: I read the script and boom, I knew intuitively how
Speaker 1: to play him. I thought of him as a combination
Speaker 1: of Katherine Hepburn crewman Capodi and How from two thousand
Speaker 1: one Katherine and How trying to figure that one out,
Speaker 1: I don't, I don't quite understand that mash up. But
Speaker 1: but okay, yeah, I mean it is super weird, but
Speaker 1: it obviously worked. And the most interesting thing to me
Speaker 1: that I actually never picked up on is that the
Speaker 1: whole movie, he's only on screen for about sixteen minutes.
Speaker 1: I mean, the character is super memorable, but apparently it's
Speaker 1: only fourteen percent of the movie's run time, and apparently
Speaker 1: it's it's one of the shortest lead performances to ever
Speaker 1: win an Oscar. It's probably something that bugs Sean Connery
Speaker 1: because he was actually the top pick for the role
Speaker 1: until he turned it down because he said it was
Speaker 1: too revolting. Really, he was given he wanted, they offered
Speaker 1: him that role. That's pretty interesting alright. Well, speaking of
Speaker 1: actors who've turned down roles, one of Tony Shaloub's most
Speaker 1: beloved roles is that of Adrian Monk. And if you've
Speaker 1: watched the show Monk, you know that this character is
Speaker 1: this kind of quirky private detective. He's got O c. D.
Speaker 1: But Schaloub wasn't the first choice for the role. ABC
Speaker 1: actually wanted to hire Michael Richards, which is it's kind
Speaker 1: of weird when like when you hear who turns down
Speaker 1: these roles, it's hard to picture them. But you know,
Speaker 1: Seinfeld had just ended and they thought pulling Cramer for
Speaker 1: the role would be huge. But after this long song
Speaker 1: and dance, Richard passed on the project because he felt
Speaker 1: that the character wouldn't allow for enough comedic possibilities. But
Speaker 1: here's the funny part. So once Michael Richards wasn't attached
Speaker 1: to it, ABC lost interest. They decided to pass, and
Speaker 1: thankfully the USA Network swooped in to take a chance
Speaker 1: on the show with saloub and the starring role. But
Speaker 1: here's what makes the story extra satisfying. So Tony schlub
Speaker 1: had actually auditioned to play Kramer on Seinfeld years the
Speaker 1: part went to Richards. So in a weird way, the
Speaker 1: actors have been passing roles back and forth for decades.
Speaker 1: That's so weird. And there's such different actors. You know,
Speaker 1: you don't really imagine them replacing one, not imagine either
Speaker 1: in the other's role. But you know what else's funny
Speaker 1: is that I feel like Kramer or Michael Richards after
Speaker 1: Seinfeld his first show was a detective show. I don't
Speaker 1: know why why Monk in particular wasn't funny enough for him.
Speaker 1: But there's this great story I read this week about
Speaker 1: Tony Braxton, and it's really about how Tony Braxton was discovered.
Speaker 1: So this is years before she recorded on Break My Heart.
Speaker 1: She was attending Bowie State University for a teaching degree
Speaker 1: and then one day on her way to school, she
Speaker 1: stopped to gas up her car and and she started
Speaker 1: singing to herself, and the gas station attendant hurt her
Speaker 1: and he broached her, and apparently he was this aspiring songwriter.
Speaker 1: This guy's name was William Petaway Jr. And he asked
Speaker 1: if he could work with her on some demos, and
Speaker 1: I guess she agreed, and within a few months, Braxton
Speaker 1: had actually decided to set aside teaching and became a
Speaker 1: professional singer instead. And it's just such an unbelievable story,
Speaker 1: but this is how she explained it to NPR quote.
Speaker 1: I got five dollars I borrowed from my dad, and
Speaker 1: I went to the gas station in Annapolis, Maryland, and
Speaker 1: I had a plan. I was going to put three
Speaker 1: dollars in my gas tank and keep two dollars for lunch.
Speaker 1: And this gas attendant comes up to me and he's
Speaker 1: staring at me, and I'm thinking, okay, a little weird.
Speaker 1: But then he says, all of a sudden, are you
Speaker 1: a singer? And he says, no, really, I've seen you
Speaker 1: sing around the city. I'm a producer and I would
Speaker 1: love to do some demos for you. And of course
Speaker 1: I'm thinking this is a line. He might be crazy.
Speaker 1: He works at a gas station, but sometimes in life,
Speaker 1: you're at the right place at the right time, you
Speaker 1: have to take risks. And it turned out to be legitimate.
Speaker 1: He was the guy who co wrote the songs that
Speaker 1: Millie Vanilli were just starting to get some attention for
Speaker 1: in Europe. Is that crazy? Like like it goes from
Speaker 1: this gas station story somehow, like he gets this song
Speaker 1: picked up by Millie Vanilli And I don't know, it's
Speaker 1: just all amazing to be enough said. I mean, at
Speaker 1: that point in my life, I was a huge Millie
Speaker 1: Vanilli fan. I have bought the singles, you know all that.
Speaker 1: That's a that's pretty amazing. All well, here's a story
Speaker 1: that's equally unbelievable to me. And it's about Tony Collette,
Speaker 1: who's been in everything from The sixth Sempts to Little
Speaker 1: Miss Sunshine Too, you know, several other hits. And you
Speaker 1: might wonder how good an actress she is, but she's
Speaker 1: actually such a good actress that when she was a kid,
Speaker 1: she faked appendicitist to get out of going to school
Speaker 1: or something like that, and the doctor actually operated on herselves.
Speaker 1: I mean she might be a good actress, but you
Speaker 1: do have to question that a little bit. And and
Speaker 1: of course nowadays she thinks of this as this total embarrassment.
Speaker 1: But still that's impressive. I mean, that is a big
Speaker 1: commitment to the role, right And apparently after the surgery,
Speaker 1: the doctor came out sort of you know, sheepish lee
Speaker 1: and said that they had removed it but that it
Speaker 1: was only slightly infected. That's ridiculous and actually pretty hard
Speaker 1: to top. I don't know if I have a fact
Speaker 1: that's better than that one. But here's a super, super
Speaker 1: weird one that I only found out about through Gabe,
Speaker 1: But it's about Tony the Tiger, who was apparently plagued
Speaker 1: by lew demands from the furree community. And there's lots
Speaker 1: of evidence of this on Twitter. So basically, if you
Speaker 1: look at just about any tweet from the official Tony
Speaker 1: the Tiger Twitter account in the last three or four years,
Speaker 1: you'll find like dozens of replies from this fan base.
Speaker 1: And you know, some of them are pretty benign. They
Speaker 1: say things like Tony, I want to smooch you. But
Speaker 1: then there are a whole lot more that are less
Speaker 1: family friendly and we can't hear in this episode. But
Speaker 1: in two thousand sixteen, Tony started blocking the counts from
Speaker 1: anyone who was hitting on him. But this only enraged
Speaker 1: the free community and and suddenly they started flooding the account.
Speaker 1: And then on January sixteen, Tony tweeted, I'm all for
Speaker 1: showing your stripes, feathers, et cetera, but let's keep things
Speaker 1: great and family friendly. Cubs could be watching. So unfortunately,
Speaker 1: many commentators didn't really honor this request, and eventually the
Speaker 1: real Tony Tiger Twitter account was taken down. It was
Speaker 1: relaunched as a more generic Frosted Flakes account and when
Speaker 1: where the tweet aren't actually written from the mascot's perspective,
Speaker 1: so it gave actually sent me the story. He had
Speaker 1: this great line about it. He wrote, Apparently we're just
Speaker 1: not mature enough as a species to handle a Twitter
Speaker 1: page that's hosted by a buff cartoon. Tiger's just not
Speaker 1: ready for that. Maybe one day we're not there. Yeah, alright,
Speaker 1: Well here's something I'd never realized. But did you know
Speaker 1: that the Tony Awards were actually named for a woman.
Speaker 1: So it's this actress, Antoinette Perry. She was born in
Speaker 1: Colorado in and actually I learned this from our pala,
Speaker 1: Aaron over at Mental Flaws. But Tony, who spelled her
Speaker 1: name with an eye, which is of course not how
Speaker 1: the award is spelled. She always knew that she wanted
Speaker 1: to be an actress, and she wrote about this. So
Speaker 1: here's what she says. She says, when I was six,
Speaker 1: I didn't say I'd become an actress. I felt like one.
Speaker 1: No one could convince me I wasn't. So she joined
Speaker 1: her uncle's troupe and over the years worked as a
Speaker 1: director and a producer. You know, roles really only men
Speaker 1: were getting at the time. She founded the American Theater Wing,
Speaker 1: so when she passed away, the award was created in
Speaker 1: her honor so that she would always be remembered. And
Speaker 1: while the original Tony Awards were these giant scrolls that
Speaker 1: they'd hand out to winners, they later got you swapped
Speaker 1: out for the medals that were used to Now I'd
Speaker 1: love to see those scrolls. That's crazy. Well, we've got
Speaker 1: two more Tony facts to go, but before that, let's
Speaker 1: take a quick break. Welcome back to Part Time Genius.
Speaker 1: We we're talking facts about Tony's So we only realized
Speaker 1: that during our break, but I guess you and I
Speaker 1: both chose to do our final fact on Anthony Bourdaine.
Speaker 1: Did you actually read that oral history that g Q
Speaker 1: put together did? That was pretty incredible. It was amazing,
Speaker 1: you know, the whole thing, like like how shy he was,
Speaker 1: that he was clumsy, Like I love the fact that
Speaker 1: like they got this detail that he shows up to
Speaker 1: meetings twenty to twenty five minutes early, you know, and
Speaker 1: and uh, his friends always would try to show up
Speaker 1: earlier to beat him, but he'd just be there in
Speaker 1: the lounge with like a cup of coffee in the newspaper.
Speaker 1: It's pretty great. But you know, I was curious how
Speaker 1: he got into food, and apparently it came from this
Speaker 1: encounter with a French oyster fisherman when he was a kid.
Speaker 1: And I guess his family had gone to France and
Speaker 1: they wound up staying at a house right next door
Speaker 1: to the fisherman. So one day during their stay, the
Speaker 1: gentleman takes the Bourdain's out on his boat and after
Speaker 1: sailing for a while, he offers them some fresh caught
Speaker 1: oysters for lunch, and something I guess just clicked with Bourdaine.
Speaker 1: So this is how he describes in his book Kitching Confidential. I,
Speaker 1: in the proudest moment of my young life, stood up smartly,
Speaker 1: grinning with defiance, and volunteered to be the first. I
Speaker 1: took it in my hand, tilted the shell back into
Speaker 1: my mouth, as instructed by the now beaming Miss Saint
Speaker 1: Your and with one bite and a slurp, wolfed it down.
Speaker 1: It tasted of sea water, of Brian and flesh and
Speaker 1: somehow of the future. I just love that. I was
Speaker 1: also reading about the other meal he loved besides oysters,
Speaker 1: and that was the breakfast he ate whenever he was
Speaker 1: home in New York City. Apparently he loved going to
Speaker 1: Barney Green Grass and and he ordered what he called
Speaker 1: the best breakfast in the universe, which was eggs grambled
Speaker 1: with nova Scotia locks and a bagel with cream cheese.
Speaker 1: And on the day he passed away, at the staff
Speaker 1: of the deli set out his usual breakfast at the table,
Speaker 1: and it was as a tribute, and the deli's owner,
Speaker 1: toul ci n then it's a sad day. He touched
Speaker 1: a lot of lives. TV makes you famous, but he
Speaker 1: never acted that way. Wow, that's heartbreaking. That's really sweet
Speaker 1: that they did that. But al right, well, after talking
Speaker 1: about two things Tony Bourdaine loved, maybe we should end
Speaker 1: on a food that he really hated. So, I mean,
Speaker 1: this guy had tried all kinds of things, and you know,
Speaker 1: some things that he acknowledged not loving, including the lightly
Speaker 1: grilled wart hog rectum in the media, but he claimed
Speaker 1: that one of the most stomach churning foods he had
Speaker 1: ever eaten was the chicken McNugget. What I feel like,
Speaker 1: that's outrageous. Maybe you didn't have it with changes everything. Well,
Speaker 1: here's what he told the A V Club about his experience.
Speaker 1: He said, given the choice between reliving the ward hog
Speaker 1: experience and eating a McNugget, I'm surely eating the McNugget.
Speaker 1: But at least I knew what the word hog was,
Speaker 1: whereas with the McNugget, I think it's still an open question.
Speaker 1: Scientists are still one. Well, I guess you can't fault
Speaker 1: him for that, but you know, I'm still blown away
Speaker 1: by your story of Tony Collette taking her appendicitis, you know,
Speaker 1: and feeling the doctors. I I do think you get
Speaker 1: the trophy for that today really was impressive. Well, thank
Speaker 1: you and from Gabe, Tristan, Mango and me. Thanks so
Speaker 1: much for listening the two Lake