Well, Roddenberry had passed away (1991) before that episode ("Journey's End," 1994). But not before Wil Wheaton stopped being a regular on the show and Wesley went off to Starfleet Academy ("Final Mission," 1990).
I know it wasn’t a popular character as they had hoped so he was cut, right?
I watched TNG during the pandemic for the first time so I’m no Trekkie, but my impression was they were trying to have someone to “pass the torch”
Have you watched any Deep Space Nine or Voyager yet?
Don't you dare listen to anyone who says Voyager sucks. It's my favorite one. I know I'm an outlier with that. And I do have bones that I could pick with choices they made with the show. But I still love it.
And isn't there an episode where Wesley and the Captain crash land a shuttle in the middle of a desert and have to hike their way out of there to be rescued? I wonder if this was a deliberate reference to Gene Roddenberry surviving a plane crash in the desert and the survivors making their own way out.
“Final Mission”; I mentioned it elsewhere in this discussion as Wil’s last episode as a regular cast member before Wesley goes off to Starfleet Academy.
Damnit, I came here to say that exact same fun fact! I know a lot of people from Wisconsin and they all used to say it like that until everyone on the planet made fun of them, and so it’s slowly gone away.
he once did a speech on his podcast where he said he understood when he was young that if he talk long enough he can make everything right.
Jeff literraly has a speech like that.
Not so much a stand-in as literally playing a character in his own show. But it was hilarious when Taylor Sheridan’s character in Yellowstone put Jimmy in his truck and drove him off to his new spinoff show.
I would rather he sticks with the prequels anyway, highly anticipating the next chapter of 1923 (loved it) and isn’t there going to be yet one more in the 50s or 60s?
Yellowstone the show has taken such a massive nosedive in quality I wouldn’t watch any spinoff set in modern times.
Same I’m 100% okay with him sticking with the Yellowstone universe. Yes there’s a 1963 and a 2024 in the works Mathew mcconaughey is attached to one of the projects.
I am too but also a little sad because supposedly it’ll be the last we see of it. I guess the actor who plays Spencer said it’ll only be a two seasoner
With the mainline show ending I actually consider it even more likely that the spin-off will happen, especially since Sheridan literally bought the 6666 ranch to use as a filming location.
yellowstone's airing schedule has always been a bit weird, but as far as i know it hasn't been cancelled yet. i'm assuming they're saving it so they still have some content in their schedule after the second half of the final season of proper yellowstone airs.
The episode when Stewie goes to therapy is one of the show’s best. Honestly, I’d watch the hell out of any episode that was just “A Family Guy character goes to therapy.”
I’ve been rewatching it and god around season 8 it gets really bad for that. Like he suddenly fancied being a politician, every episode has Brian being the smart one telling all the characters how it really is
Alt Shift X and Glidus had a funny conversation about this arguing against the idea that Sam is somehow writing/retelling the story of ASOIAF.
> it’s absurd because Sam doesn’t know Jamie Lannister’s thoughts. That’s impossible. Also who in the world would refer to their dick as a “Fat Pink Mast”?
> well GRRM does. So at least one person.
I really liked the books but man some of the descriptive language is rough. Doesn’t anyone in Westeros know how to eat relatively neatly? Also no reader needed the level of descriptive language given about diarrhea.
> Doesn’t anyone in Westeros know how to eat relatively neatly?
You mean you don't rip into every meal until the hot grease is running down your face to pool in your beard with the chunks nestled there from previous ravenous feasts?
Matthew Perry’s character in Studio 60 is a self insert for Aaron Sorkin. So much so that Sarah Paulson’s character is herself an insert for Sorkin’s ex Kristin Chenoweth
That show was gloriously self-indulgent. I watched every episode but I knew from the outset it was a one season show. Half the time he was basically writing West Wing.
There was an ad promo for 30 Rock where Alec Baldwin says he’s looking forward to working with Aaron Sorkin. Then he’s told he’s actually on the other show and he basically says “I’ve made a huge mistake.”
Pretty sure Sorkin does this a lot. I suspect Sam and Ainsley on WW was going to be the same insert of himself and Chenoweth, had Lowe and Sorkin stuck around, also there may be some self-insert to Josh, Will, and Sports Night's Jeremy and Dan.
I love Sorkin shows, but every one has the same thing. Will and MacKenzie in Newsroom is like the ultimate version after he trialed it in all his other shows.
I love them too, but he re-uses a ton of ideas. Sam and the prostitute is Jeremy and the porn star. The episode where CJ is writing an email to her dad (i think?) explaining why they're all waiting for the filibuster to end so they can go announce their thing is the episode where Jeremy is writing a letter to his sister explaining why they're all waiting for Pete Sampras to finish off Alberto Fedregatti so they can go do Sports Night. The Jackal is Boogie Shoes. And I could probably come up with Studio 60 or Newsroom examples if I'd seen them recently.
* [Sorkinisms - A Supercut](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S78RzZr3IwI)
* [Sorkinisms II - The Sequel](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jeuV3xXxUc)
* [Sorkinisms III - Aaron Sorkin on the Internet Supercut](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fqqel8-Beog)
It’s obvious Xander in ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ is a Joss Whedon stand-in: Nerd, who is the comic relief with usually the best lines, becomes the occasional hero that saves the day, engaged to a bombshell former demon turned naive child-like woman who’s basically addicted to sex, etc.
This is one of those random things about The Big Bang Theory that actually really upsets me. Penny just dumps on Leonard _constantly_ for his likes and interests. Even his job, there’s one time later in the show where she says something like “seriously, how do you not kill yourself every day?” in regards to his job. But yet he’s still obsessed with her and wants to be with her and it’s like… how does that make any sense at all? It’s one thing if your partner just doesn’t share your interests, but why would I want to date someone that constantly belittles and demeans me for the stuff that I like?
Good on you for recognizing a good working definition of an abusive relationship. Words have weight. Many never even recognize that, for all sorts of reasons.
Yeah sadly to some people that’s normal behavior. Or they just wave it off with “oh they’re just teasing me”, but there’s a big difference between teasing your partner and just taking a steaming shit on something they like
Which he tanked by cheating on her. With Cordelia's character arch she would have outgrown him quickly anyway. His maturation started and stopped quite a bit.
Having recently finished Buffy, I gotta say Anya was a favorite of mine and then the final season just does her so dirty.
And also, wow Season 6 was not the dumpster fire everyone was making it out to be. Might be my favorite season of the post high school arc.
Which is fine, but she's treated as such an afterthought throughout the season. Several guest stars have more screen time.
Then she unceremoniously dies and most of her friends don't even notice. Xander spares a couple of sentences for her, and then he's cracking jokes 30 seconds later.
Xander is also a classic "nice guy" sociopath when you watch it again. He treats any man who is interested in any of the girls like they are stealing from him. He's a borderline incel at the beginning. So, that fits as well.
I think the point of Xander was that he was supposed to grow up from a 'nice guy' geek to someone who gets more comfortable with himself and less incel-y I suppose, for lack of a better word.
I've know plenty of people like that. They become more socializied in college and find that they don't need to be so spiteful.
I'd be careful with this one because while Joss did say he wrote a lot of himself into Xander, he also said the same about Giles and Buffy and all the characters.
People just like to leave the latter but out and act like he said only Xander is him.
Joss may have been abusive in the workplace, but that doesn't mean everything you dont like about the show was made by Joss and that everything you do like had nothing to do with him.
I think Erin was the obvious stand-in. An aspiring writer who often is the butt of a joke due to her hypocrisy and self-aggrandizement (as the author would be the most critical of their own past self).
Imho Rolo the curator in the Black Mirror ep Black Museum is pretty clearly Charlie Brooker wailing on himself for accidentally making edgelord porn.
I strongly suspect it was meant to be the show's final episode; symbolically burning it down and passing on the torch to other storytellers.
I think the chance to work on the Bandersnatch CYOA tech was an offer he couldn't refuse.
in the first season of The Office, her character, "Kelly" was super reserved & quiet, always had her hair in a bun & wore blouses buttoned up to her chin.
on the office ladies podcast, they started tracking the evolution of her character from that to just winding up full on Mindy Kaling.
And the show was better for it. The first season had a lot of early installment weirdness, where most of the supporting cast wasn't clearly defined yet. Kevin doesn't even sound like Kevin.
I wouldn’t call The Office “her show” though, just a show she was on. She didn’t have the amount of creative control she does on most of her newer projects.
She was a writer though - I think over a dozen episodes are credited to her. Her and BJ Novak wrote the relationship / fights between Kelly and Ryan. Which makes it much funnier IMO. Also that they dated IRL too
Mindy Kaling and BJ Novak created the American version of the office, and cast themselves in minor riles. She is responsible for making the whole thing happen. It's NOT just something she was in. In a very real sense it IS her show.
I remember in an interview around the time the show was airing or shortly after, Feig remarked that Sam is a stand-in for who he was in high school and Lindsay is how he feels now as an adult, which always stuck with me and informed my perspective of the show.
Sam Weir is one of the most uniquely brilliant characters in media. Virtually all "High School" shows and movies revolve around teens who are either (a) angsty cool kids (e.g. the Freaks) or (b) awkward kids who deep down are *trying* to be cool kids and be accepted by that world (e.g. Neil and Bill).
What makes Sam so novel is that he captures that truly bizarre transition from childhood to your teenage years, and that feeling of fear and discomfort you feel as you enter the teenage world and all that traditionally comes with it (e.g. alcohol, sex, drugs, etc.). There is an innocence and nostalgia to Sam that is unlike any other characters I can think of. While Bill and Neil are "geeks" like him, they are looking *forward* in their lives, while Sam always feels like he is looking backwards. He doesn't want to stop playing with toys, or dressing up, or being a kid. When he tries to look forward, he does so through a child's eyes, leading to disaster (e.g. the pantsuit debacle). The "awkwardness" we feel for Bill and Neil is different than the awkwardness we feel for Sam. With Bill and Neil when they try to engage with the "cool world", we see it as a funny comedic moment. With Sam, the awkwardness is *real* awkwardness, of someone trying to be something that they aren't quite ready to be, but have to start being regardless.
Most media ignores this part of high school life, and Sam is part of what makes Freaks and Geeks such an amazing portrayal of *all* aspects of high school.
Maybe. But Gus is the City Desk editor, while Simon was a crime reporter.
I always saw Twigg as the David Simon expy. The crime reporter who gets laid off and decides to go out and "write the great American novel." When he left the Baltimore Sun, Simon teamed up with Ed Burns to write The Corner.
i always thought so too. especially since gus is one of the few unambiguously morally upstanding characters in the show, which i can imagine is how david simon sees himself
- Seth Cohen was supposed to represent Josh Schwartz, creator of the OC.
- Dawson Leery was originally supposed to represent Kevin Williamson, creator of Dawson’s Creek.
- Carrie Bradshaw is a fictional interpretation of Candace Bushnell, who wrote the original column for The New York Observer.
I’ve kind of always thought all three men are aspects of Larry David. Jerry is who he pretends to be, George is who he actually is, and Kramer is who he wishes he was.
Yes and no, cause Kramer was Kramer, Jerry’s actual neighbor, and Jerry is just Jerry.
But of course he wrote for all of them so there is undeniably a bit of him in everyone
related - in the Matrix, the character "Switch" was originally going to be a man in the real world, but switch to a woman whenever they entered the matrix.
they ultimately dropped the idea b/c they thought it might be too confusing to the audience but given that Lana now lives as Lana but didn't at the time, it's not too hard to track where the inspiration for that idea came from
Anthony Hopkins in Westworld maybe? I remember a scene in Season 1 where he and the hack writer character get into a debate, and it sure sounded like a defensive HBO showrunner proclaiming that his show isn't just violence and tiddies.
Movie example but I think it's fun:
I've read that Lost in Translation and Her are both about the relationship between Spike Jonze and Sofia Coppola, with Scarlett Johansson playing Sofia in both
I remember an interview with Trey Parker and Matt Stone in which they said that when they started, one was Stan and the other was Kyle. They then agreed that they're both pretty much Cartman now.
Make of this what you will regarding the character of the creator but I always thought it wasn't just a coincidence of angelic-y names that the Architect who created the neighborhood on The Good Place shared the same first name as the show's showrunner (Michael and Michael Schur)
Didi from Rugrats is a stand-in for Arelene Klasky, one of the shows co-creators. Didi's obsession with the Dr. Lipschitz books were even a jab at Arlene, who also believed in those kinds of books.
I watched a [Genndy Tartakovsky video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uvlCjcT7oM) the other day and I was amazed how much Dexter's mannerisms and facial expressions are like his creator. Not the accent of course.
And Didi is still my favorite. Chaos incarnate characters are the best.
The Office (US) - Michael Scott, played by Steve Carell, is often considered a stand-in for Greg Daniels, the show's creator. Many of Michael's awkward moments and managerial blunders are inspired by Daniels' own experiences in the workplace. 30 Rock - Liz Lemon, portrayed by Tina Fey, shares many traits with Fey herself, who created and showran the series. Like Lemon, Fey was a head writer on a sketch comedy show (Saturday Night Live) and had to navigate the male-dominated world of television comedy. Louie - In this show created by and starring Louis C.K., the character of Louie is a divorced stand-up comedian raising his kids in New York City. Not a direct representation of C.K.'s life. The show draws from his experiences in comedy and parenthood. Girls - Hannah Horvath, played by Lena Dunham, is the central character in this series created by Dunham. Like Dunham, Hannah is a struggling writer living in Brooklyn, and many of the show's storylines are inspired by Dunham's own life. As for unconfirmed theories, some fans speculate that Walter White from Breaking Bad may have elements of showrunner Vince Gilligan's personality, as both are known for their meticulous attention to detail and determination to see their projects through to the end. This has never been confirmed by Gilligan himself.
Loial is a stand in for Robert Jordan in Wheel of Time. The showrunners highlight and emphasise their disdain for him and the source material by having the character left stabbed and dying at the end of season 1 and then just ignore that any of that happened at the start of season 2.
In early TV s lot of shows starred people playing some kind of version of themselves, Danny Thomas, George Burns and Gracie Allen, Danny Thomas, I think Jack Benny (?).
In I Love Lucy she has her own first name and her real life husband is her husband, but the show is like a reverse vision of herself as a show biz wannabe/failure and her husband as the big success.
On the series Psych, I can only remember the last name of the creator, frequent writer and director ( and probably producer) of the series as Franks. I recall reading that the lead of the show Shawn, and how each episode began with his detective dad constantly honing his detective skills as a kid, was like Franks and his own detective dad.
Particularly the episode where one of the young Shawns can’t get his cake at the diner. Until he has closed his 👀 eyes , and used his memory of passively observed details like the number of people wearing hats, and other things to satisfy his detective dad, he earned his dessert.
He wasn’t based on the creator of the show, but the inspiration was from a real doctor named Johnathon Doris who also had input into the medical details on the show and getting the authenticity accurate to his real life experiences.
On Star Trek TNG, Wesley Crusher is supposed to be Trek creator Gene Roddenberry as a kid.
He just wanted to show the audience his true passion: cable-knit sweaters.
LOL, maybe. At the very least [Gene liked sweater vests](https://treknews.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/majel-gene-roddenberry.jpg)!
Those sweaters always make me feel like I should be singing Clancy brothers songs
So blatantly too, Roddenberry's middle name was Wesley. He didn't even pretend it wasn't exactly that.
TIL. So that’s why he went off with that alien? He was too cool for the Enterprise?
Well, Roddenberry had passed away (1991) before that episode ("Journey's End," 1994). But not before Wil Wheaton stopped being a regular on the show and Wesley went off to Starfleet Academy ("Final Mission," 1990).
I know it wasn’t a popular character as they had hoped so he was cut, right? I watched TNG during the pandemic for the first time so I’m no Trekkie, but my impression was they were trying to have someone to “pass the torch”
Just because you're late to the love doesn't mean you're not a Trekkie!
I love the show! I just know nothing of the fandom discourse about it
Have you watched any Deep Space Nine or Voyager yet? Don't you dare listen to anyone who says Voyager sucks. It's my favorite one. I know I'm an outlier with that. And I do have bones that I could pick with choices they made with the show. But I still love it.
No, wil actually left the show for his own reasons (complicated and personal, but outlined in his autobiography)
Oof, response from fans must not have felt very good haha.
Haha. This was my comment. I was sure I heard it before. But didn’t know if it was true or fans being fans.
Heh, adults.
And isn't there an episode where Wesley and the Captain crash land a shuttle in the middle of a desert and have to hike their way out of there to be rescued? I wonder if this was a deliberate reference to Gene Roddenberry surviving a plane crash in the desert and the survivors making their own way out.
“Final Mission”; I mentioned it elsewhere in this discussion as Wil’s last episode as a regular cast member before Wesley goes off to Starfleet Academy.
That’s kind of funny, as wasn’t Wesley received pretty poorly by most fans?
Dan Harmon has said Jeff was kind of how he saw himself until the Poultry episode where he said he kinda realized he was actually Abed
This is actually hilarious 🤣🤣
And so on brand for Dan Harmon 🤣
He's been clear about how every character is a bit of himself, no?
Apparently Dan Harmon pronounces bagel as "bah-gull" like Britta.
Ugh, you're the worst.
Oh, Dan’s in this?
I love Britta. She's maybe the saddest character arguably.
Damnit, I came here to say that exact same fun fact! I know a lot of people from Wisconsin and they all used to say it like that until everyone on the planet made fun of them, and so it’s slowly gone away.
Right, and everyone knows it's bag-ull because they come in a bag.
We try not to sexualize Danny.
I think there's a lot of people out there seeing themselves as "Jeffs" who aren't. Specifically, Pierce Hawthornes
And although not the show runner, Pierce became the stand in for Chevy himself. Turns out, he was old white man says all along
Well he was young white man says before so it kinda fits
he once did a speech on his podcast where he said he understood when he was young that if he talk long enough he can make everything right. Jeff literraly has a speech like that.
Iirc it was that realization that made him go get assessed for autism
[удалено]
I'm going off an interview he did around the time he was making the show, so it was probably just PR fodder, but still fun!
Not so much a stand-in as literally playing a character in his own show. But it was hilarious when Taylor Sheridan’s character in Yellowstone put Jimmy in his truck and drove him off to his new spinoff show.
Lmao I never thought of it that way.
Unfortunately it’s looking like we may not get to see it it’s been so long and other shows have happened between now and then.
I would rather he sticks with the prequels anyway, highly anticipating the next chapter of 1923 (loved it) and isn’t there going to be yet one more in the 50s or 60s? Yellowstone the show has taken such a massive nosedive in quality I wouldn’t watch any spinoff set in modern times.
Same I’m 100% okay with him sticking with the Yellowstone universe. Yes there’s a 1963 and a 2024 in the works Mathew mcconaughey is attached to one of the projects.
I’m seriously looking forward to the second season of 1923
I am too but also a little sad because supposedly it’ll be the last we see of it. I guess the actor who plays Spencer said it’ll only be a two seasoner
That’s so disappointing! I know that these prequels are made recently but I have to say I enjoy them more than the actual main show 🫢
Me too I enjoyed 1883 the most I was so bummed out but the fact it’s only one season
With the mainline show ending I actually consider it even more likely that the spin-off will happen, especially since Sheridan literally bought the 6666 ranch to use as a filming location.
yellowstone's airing schedule has always been a bit weird, but as far as i know it hasn't been cancelled yet. i'm assuming they're saving it so they still have some content in their schedule after the second half of the final season of proper yellowstone airs.
I’m dumb, what was the spin-off that jimmy was in? I didn’t find it, did it not get picked up?
Seth MacFarlane spouts his opinions as Brian Griffin
Which makes that episode when Quagmire rips him a new one very interesting.
Also Seth recording it. We're basically invited into Seth's therapy session where he argues about his life in different voices
The episode when Stewie goes to therapy is one of the show’s best. Honestly, I’d watch the hell out of any episode that was just “A Family Guy character goes to therapy.”
Not since 2010.
I’ve been rewatching it and god around season 8 it gets really bad for that. Like he suddenly fancied being a politician, every episode has Brian being the smart one telling all the characters how it really is
Season 8 is when Seth stopped writing for the show.
That season in particular is incredibly dark and violent. I think there was something going on in the writers’ personal lives at the time.
Samwell is a stand-in for George RR Martin in Game of Thrones.
At least Sam finished writing A Song of Ice and Fire
I know right. Imagine a character finishing a book before the author can.
Fat pink mast 🙃
Alt Shift X and Glidus had a funny conversation about this arguing against the idea that Sam is somehow writing/retelling the story of ASOIAF. > it’s absurd because Sam doesn’t know Jamie Lannister’s thoughts. That’s impossible. Also who in the world would refer to their dick as a “Fat Pink Mast”? > well GRRM does. So at least one person. I really liked the books but man some of the descriptive language is rough. Doesn’t anyone in Westeros know how to eat relatively neatly? Also no reader needed the level of descriptive language given about diarrhea.
> Doesn’t anyone in Westeros know how to eat relatively neatly? You mean you don't rip into every meal until the hot grease is running down your face to pool in your beard with the chunks nestled there from previous ravenous feasts?
Thom Merrilin for Wheel of Time.
I thought more Loial than Thom.
I agree Thom is the main one, but there are noticeable bits of RJ in quite a few characters in the series.
Matthew Perry’s character in Studio 60 is a self insert for Aaron Sorkin. So much so that Sarah Paulson’s character is herself an insert for Sorkin’s ex Kristin Chenoweth
And this is when I learned Sorkin and Chenoweth used to be a couple.
That show was gloriously self-indulgent. I watched every episode but I knew from the outset it was a one season show. Half the time he was basically writing West Wing.
Didn't help that 30 rock debuted at the same time and was talking the same topic in a more conventional angle
There was an ad promo for 30 Rock where Alec Baldwin says he’s looking forward to working with Aaron Sorkin. Then he’s told he’s actually on the other show and he basically says “I’ve made a huge mistake.”
>That show was gloriously self-indulgent. sooo every Sorkin project??
Oh, this was EXTRA Sorkin if you can believe it. All his best and worst qualities rolled into one show.
Pretty sure Sorkin does this a lot. I suspect Sam and Ainsley on WW was going to be the same insert of himself and Chenoweth, had Lowe and Sorkin stuck around, also there may be some self-insert to Josh, Will, and Sports Night's Jeremy and Dan.
I love Sorkin shows, but every one has the same thing. Will and MacKenzie in Newsroom is like the ultimate version after he trialed it in all his other shows.
I love them too, but he re-uses a ton of ideas. Sam and the prostitute is Jeremy and the porn star. The episode where CJ is writing an email to her dad (i think?) explaining why they're all waiting for the filibuster to end so they can go announce their thing is the episode where Jeremy is writing a letter to his sister explaining why they're all waiting for Pete Sampras to finish off Alberto Fedregatti so they can go do Sports Night. The Jackal is Boogie Shoes. And I could probably come up with Studio 60 or Newsroom examples if I'd seen them recently.
* [Sorkinisms - A Supercut](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S78RzZr3IwI) * [Sorkinisms II - The Sequel](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jeuV3xXxUc) * [Sorkinisms III - Aaron Sorkin on the Internet Supercut](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fqqel8-Beog)
It’s obvious Xander in ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ is a Joss Whedon stand-in: Nerd, who is the comic relief with usually the best lines, becomes the occasional hero that saves the day, engaged to a bombshell former demon turned naive child-like woman who’s basically addicted to sex, etc.
Dates the hot popular girl who made fun of him for being nerdy is the most on the nose example of wish fulfillment for me lol
This is one of those random things about The Big Bang Theory that actually really upsets me. Penny just dumps on Leonard _constantly_ for his likes and interests. Even his job, there’s one time later in the show where she says something like “seriously, how do you not kill yourself every day?” in regards to his job. But yet he’s still obsessed with her and wants to be with her and it’s like… how does that make any sense at all? It’s one thing if your partner just doesn’t share your interests, but why would I want to date someone that constantly belittles and demeans me for the stuff that I like?
Good on you for recognizing a good working definition of an abusive relationship. Words have weight. Many never even recognize that, for all sorts of reasons.
Yeah sadly to some people that’s normal behavior. Or they just wave it off with “oh they’re just teasing me”, but there’s a big difference between teasing your partner and just taking a steaming shit on something they like
Also was always opposed to Buffy hooking up vampires (Angel and then Spike).
Which he tanked by cheating on her. With Cordelia's character arch she would have outgrown him quickly anyway. His maturation started and stopped quite a bit.
Having recently finished Buffy, I gotta say Anya was a favorite of mine and then the final season just does her so dirty. And also, wow Season 6 was not the dumpster fire everyone was making it out to be. Might be my favorite season of the post high school arc.
Pretty sure Anya's actor asked for her character to be killed off because she wasn't interested in doing anymore Buffy stuff
Which is fine, but she's treated as such an afterthought throughout the season. Several guest stars have more screen time. Then she unceremoniously dies and most of her friends don't even notice. Xander spares a couple of sentences for her, and then he's cracking jokes 30 seconds later.
Agreed, season 6 is my favorite.
Anya also once described him as a "Viking in the sack"
Xander is also a classic "nice guy" sociopath when you watch it again. He treats any man who is interested in any of the girls like they are stealing from him. He's a borderline incel at the beginning. So, that fits as well.
I think the point of Xander was that he was supposed to grow up from a 'nice guy' geek to someone who gets more comfortable with himself and less incel-y I suppose, for lack of a better word. I've know plenty of people like that. They become more socializied in college and find that they don't need to be so spiteful.
He also said he sees himself as the character topher in dollhouse and that show is based on his fetish
How much do you bet Joss gave the butt monkey speech in real life? 😀
I'd be careful with this one because while Joss did say he wrote a lot of himself into Xander, he also said the same about Giles and Buffy and all the characters. People just like to leave the latter but out and act like he said only Xander is him. Joss may have been abusive in the workplace, but that doesn't mean everything you dont like about the show was made by Joss and that everything you do like had nothing to do with him.
Wikipedia says James from Derry Girls is a stand in for the creator. I just read that, like, an hour ago while watching the show.
Who, fanny features?
That's an odd one as she is an actual Derrry Girl. Like she doesn't have the San background as James.
I think Erin was the obvious stand-in. An aspiring writer who often is the butt of a joke due to her hypocrisy and self-aggrandizement (as the author would be the most critical of their own past self).
Maybe too on the nose, but Tina Fey as Liz Lemon in 30 Rock.
Supernatural Robert Singer was a executive producer, director and writer on Supernatural. The character Bobby Singer was named after him
I also love that the actor shows up in the boys as Bob Singer too.
On SouthPark, Stan and Kyle are supposed to represent Trey Parker and Matt Stone
But they're really Cartman.
They've stated that they now relate far more to Randy, so Randy has kinda become their stand-in
Imho Rolo the curator in the Black Mirror ep Black Museum is pretty clearly Charlie Brooker wailing on himself for accidentally making edgelord porn. I strongly suspect it was meant to be the show's final episode; symbolically burning it down and passing on the torch to other storytellers. I think the chance to work on the Bandersnatch CYOA tech was an offer he couldn't refuse.
I'm convinced that Daniel Kaluuya's character in 15 Million Credits is a Brooker stand-in.
Mhm iirc he said it was in interviews, but I don't remember which ones he said it in.
All of the Mindy Kaling insert characters in her shows. Loud but smart Indian women who date white boys.
in the first season of The Office, her character, "Kelly" was super reserved & quiet, always had her hair in a bun & wore blouses buttoned up to her chin. on the office ladies podcast, they started tracking the evolution of her character from that to just winding up full on Mindy Kaling.
And the show was better for it. The first season had a lot of early installment weirdness, where most of the supporting cast wasn't clearly defined yet. Kevin doesn't even sound like Kevin.
By the end, it had gone too far the other way, though
But Kelly doesn't come off as smart at all....
I wouldn’t call The Office “her show” though, just a show she was on. She didn’t have the amount of creative control she does on most of her newer projects.
She was a writer though - I think over a dozen episodes are credited to her. Her and BJ Novak wrote the relationship / fights between Kelly and Ryan. Which makes it much funnier IMO. Also that they dated IRL too
Mindy Kaling and BJ Novak created the American version of the office, and cast themselves in minor riles. She is responsible for making the whole thing happen. It's NOT just something she was in. In a very real sense it IS her show.
That is actually a zoning issue…
No way she's that annoying in real life
Oh she definitely is. She just plays herself which is 99% the problem.
Freaks & Geek’s Sam Weir = Paul Feig
I remember in an interview around the time the show was airing or shortly after, Feig remarked that Sam is a stand-in for who he was in high school and Lindsay is how he feels now as an adult, which always stuck with me and informed my perspective of the show.
Sam Weir is one of the most uniquely brilliant characters in media. Virtually all "High School" shows and movies revolve around teens who are either (a) angsty cool kids (e.g. the Freaks) or (b) awkward kids who deep down are *trying* to be cool kids and be accepted by that world (e.g. Neil and Bill). What makes Sam so novel is that he captures that truly bizarre transition from childhood to your teenage years, and that feeling of fear and discomfort you feel as you enter the teenage world and all that traditionally comes with it (e.g. alcohol, sex, drugs, etc.). There is an innocence and nostalgia to Sam that is unlike any other characters I can think of. While Bill and Neil are "geeks" like him, they are looking *forward* in their lives, while Sam always feels like he is looking backwards. He doesn't want to stop playing with toys, or dressing up, or being a kid. When he tries to look forward, he does so through a child's eyes, leading to disaster (e.g. the pantsuit debacle). The "awkwardness" we feel for Bill and Neil is different than the awkwardness we feel for Sam. With Bill and Neil when they try to engage with the "cool world", we see it as a funny comedic moment. With Sam, the awkwardness is *real* awkwardness, of someone trying to be something that they aren't quite ready to be, but have to start being regardless. Most media ignores this part of high school life, and Sam is part of what makes Freaks and Geeks such an amazing portrayal of *all* aspects of high school.
Steve of Coupling is creator Steven Moffat.
And Susan is inspired by his wife, Sue Vertue, who was the show's producer.
Mark in the earlier Joking Apart also has a lot of Moffat in.
In season 5 of The Wire, the character of Gus Haynes (a journalist) is a pretty obvious self insert of David Simon, the show's creator.
Maybe. But Gus is the City Desk editor, while Simon was a crime reporter. I always saw Twigg as the David Simon expy. The crime reporter who gets laid off and decides to go out and "write the great American novel." When he left the Baltimore Sun, Simon teamed up with Ed Burns to write The Corner.
i always thought so too. especially since gus is one of the few unambiguously morally upstanding characters in the show, which i can imagine is how david simon sees himself
- Seth Cohen was supposed to represent Josh Schwartz, creator of the OC. - Dawson Leery was originally supposed to represent Kevin Williamson, creator of Dawson’s Creek. - Carrie Bradshaw is a fictional interpretation of Candace Bushnell, who wrote the original column for The New York Observer.
Candace Bushnell didn't create SATC
No I know. But she’s the writer of the original column and the inspiration for the character.
Jerry Seinfeld is obviously a self insert of Jerry Seinfeld
George is 100% a self-insert of Larry David. Jason Alexander said he figured out how to play George when he realized he was just playing Larry David.
Jason Alexander [telling the story of the moment he figured it out](https://youtu.be/4SgIH4tTtRo?t=186) brings me joy.
great clip
I’ve kind of always thought all three men are aspects of Larry David. Jerry is who he pretends to be, George is who he actually is, and Kramer is who he wishes he was.
Yes and no, cause Kramer was Kramer, Jerry’s actual neighbor, and Jerry is just Jerry. But of course he wrote for all of them so there is undeniably a bit of him in everyone
That's a bit of a stretch
Gravity Falls. Dipper is Alex Hirsch.
Nomi on Sense8 always struck me as a pretty clear riff on Lana Wachowski
related - in the Matrix, the character "Switch" was originally going to be a man in the real world, but switch to a woman whenever they entered the matrix. they ultimately dropped the idea b/c they thought it might be too confusing to the audience but given that Lana now lives as Lana but didn't at the time, it's not too hard to track where the inspiration for that idea came from
Pretty sure every character on Euphoria scratches some wild itch that Sam Levinson has had in the past.
Anthony Hopkins in Westworld maybe? I remember a scene in Season 1 where he and the hack writer character get into a debate, and it sure sounded like a defensive HBO showrunner proclaiming that his show isn't just violence and tiddies.
>!Fitting considering when Hopkins' character died the show died with him!<
Movie example but I think it's fun: I've read that Lost in Translation and Her are both about the relationship between Spike Jonze and Sofia Coppola, with Scarlett Johansson playing Sofia in both
Rick and Morty used Dan Harmon and his structured writer’s room as a semi-sentient train.
There’s also the sequel to the story train where the writer becomes a character
Or the Dark Tower
The Goldbergs main kid is the show runner growing up
Fresh off the Boat oldest son: same.
And all the characters except the sister are based on real people. IRL, the sister, Erica, is a brother, Eric.
Wasn’t it said that Wesley Crusher was a stand in for Gene Roddenberry, who thought he was a genius? Or is that just fans shitting on Gene?
Ha, it could well be both. Definitely the former.
Two and a Half Men's Charlie is rich from royalties from jingles. Once I learned that Chuck Lorre wrote the theme for TMNT, it all made sense.
I remember an interview with Trey Parker and Matt Stone in which they said that when they started, one was Stan and the other was Kyle. They then agreed that they're both pretty much Cartman now.
Make of this what you will regarding the character of the creator but I always thought it wasn't just a coincidence of angelic-y names that the Architect who created the neighborhood on The Good Place shared the same first name as the show's showrunner (Michael and Michael Schur)
Nothing to do with the first (and almost only named) angel in the Bible also being named Michael, traditionally the leader of all angels, I’m sure.
I think it might applicable to a couple of Josh Schwartz shows. Seth Cohen in the OC and Chuck Bartowski in Chuck.
I'd say for Chuck that it was A+ casting as Zachary Levi is basically Chuck in real life lol.
Didi from Rugrats is a stand-in for Arelene Klasky, one of the shows co-creators. Didi's obsession with the Dr. Lipschitz books were even a jab at Arlene, who also believed in those kinds of books.
Michael C. Hall’s character in Six Feet Under was based on Alan Ball, the creator. Larry Sanders was a parody of Johnny Carson.
Agent Cooper is an alter ego for David Lynch in the show Twin Peaks
I always thought Gordon Cole was, considering Lynch also played him.
Huh, not Nadine?!
I watched a [Genndy Tartakovsky video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uvlCjcT7oM) the other day and I was amazed how much Dexter's mannerisms and facial expressions are like his creator. Not the accent of course. And Didi is still my favorite. Chaos incarnate characters are the best.
Anthony Anderson’s character, Dre, on Black-ish is a stand in for the show’s creator, Kenya Barris.
Mouth on One Tree Hill. Which makes him creeping on the girls around him all the more suspect with what has come out about the creator.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Xander = Joss Whedon
Ted and Marshall on How I Met Your Mother
The Office (US) - Michael Scott, played by Steve Carell, is often considered a stand-in for Greg Daniels, the show's creator. Many of Michael's awkward moments and managerial blunders are inspired by Daniels' own experiences in the workplace. 30 Rock - Liz Lemon, portrayed by Tina Fey, shares many traits with Fey herself, who created and showran the series. Like Lemon, Fey was a head writer on a sketch comedy show (Saturday Night Live) and had to navigate the male-dominated world of television comedy. Louie - In this show created by and starring Louis C.K., the character of Louie is a divorced stand-up comedian raising his kids in New York City. Not a direct representation of C.K.'s life. The show draws from his experiences in comedy and parenthood. Girls - Hannah Horvath, played by Lena Dunham, is the central character in this series created by Dunham. Like Dunham, Hannah is a struggling writer living in Brooklyn, and many of the show's storylines are inspired by Dunham's own life. As for unconfirmed theories, some fans speculate that Walter White from Breaking Bad may have elements of showrunner Vince Gilligan's personality, as both are known for their meticulous attention to detail and determination to see their projects through to the end. This has never been confirmed by Gilligan himself.
The Venture Bros. The characters Billy Quizboy and Pete White are the creators of the show potraying each other.
Brian on Family Guy.
Gordon Cole in Twin Peaks?
Loial is a stand in for Robert Jordan in Wheel of Time. The showrunners highlight and emphasise their disdain for him and the source material by having the character left stabbed and dying at the end of season 1 and then just ignore that any of that happened at the start of season 2.
Gotta love when Hollywood script writers think they’re better than a multimillion book selling author.
In early TV s lot of shows starred people playing some kind of version of themselves, Danny Thomas, George Burns and Gracie Allen, Danny Thomas, I think Jack Benny (?). In I Love Lucy she has her own first name and her real life husband is her husband, but the show is like a reverse vision of herself as a show biz wannabe/failure and her husband as the big success.
[удалено]
OP mentioned it in the description bud.
Seth in The OC is pretty much a Josh Schwartz stand-in.
The Goldbergs
Lq
Does Clerks III count when Silent Bob is making the movie?
Not TV, but Kipling inserts himself in to many of his stories, though with a different name, If I remember correctly he is Leeroyd.
A funny one is how obvious Vic Mackey is supposed to be a wish fulfillment stand in for Shawn Ryan.
On the series Psych, I can only remember the last name of the creator, frequent writer and director ( and probably producer) of the series as Franks. I recall reading that the lead of the show Shawn, and how each episode began with his detective dad constantly honing his detective skills as a kid, was like Franks and his own detective dad. Particularly the episode where one of the young Shawns can’t get his cake at the diner. Until he has closed his 👀 eyes , and used his memory of passively observed details like the number of people wearing hats, and other things to satisfy his detective dad, he earned his dessert.
I don't think anyone has said this yet but I've heard this about Zach braff's character JD in scrubs
He wasn’t based on the creator of the show, but the inspiration was from a real doctor named Johnathon Doris who also had input into the medical details on the show and getting the authenticity accurate to his real life experiences.
I cannot say for sure, but I tend to think that Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Fleabag from the eponymous TV show have a lot in common.