Season Three, Behind the Scenes: “INTERROGATIONS”
TRANSCRIPT

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Mission Voice
Good morning, agents-in-training. As part of your EMF field work, you must be prepared to face brutal interrogations from enemy factions. You must be strong, you must be inscrutable, and above all - you must be silent. As an example of what NOT to do, here is the cast and crew of Mission: Rejected spilling their guts to one another. Back stories revealed, relationships explored, everyone's souls laid bare. Except for me, of course. I'll only talk to
Christiane Amanpour.

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MUSIC: THEME MUSIC

Mission Voice
Mission: Rejected. The story of the world's most unlikely podcasters...The Porch Room. Tonight's episode..."Interrogations."

MUSIC FADES

Michael DeAngelis
All right, welcome, everyone to our third behind the scenes special, our season three wrap up. I'm Michael DeAngelis. I'm the co creator, one of the writers, and one of the directors of Mission Rejected. And I'm here today with a huge group of our cast and crew. And before we dive into this, I thought everyone would really quick introduce themselves so we could put a name to the voice.

Kirk White
Well, hello, everybody. My name is Kirk white, and I play Chet Phillips.

Pete Barry
All right. Well, I am Pete Berry, one of the co-creators of Mission Rejected and I'm with

Jill Ivey
Jill Ivey, one of the performers in Mission Rejected.

Bob Killion
I'm Bob, I play The Admiral and also a host of other characters. Very happy to be here, passing it on to Nazli.

Nazli Sarpkaya
Hi, guys. I'm Nazli Sarpkaya and I play Mackenzie McGrath.

Faith Dowgin
Okay. Hi, I'm Faith Dowgin and I play Zelda Anders.

Dave Stanger
And I'm Dave Stanger and I play Bowden Moncrief.

Paige Klaniecki
Hi, my name is Paige Klaniecki and I voice Gloria Kovack and I also have been on the writing team for the past two seasons.

Ashley Banks
My name is Ashley Banks. I play Athena O'Brien. And that's it. You're welcome. Next up is Chris.

Chris Klaniecki
Hot Potato received. My name is Chris Klaniecki. I use he/him/his pronouns and I played skip Granger, who also uses he/him/his pronouns. John, last but certainly not least, usually first.

John Dowgin
I am John Dowgin. I am the third of the co-creators of Mission Rejected and I am most familiar to the listeners as Dr. Biff Studebaker, Professor Emeritus of Psychopharmacology at the University of Phoenix.

Michael DeAngelis
It's so great to be with everybody. So for the listeners, what we've done is...I put everybody's name into an internet Secret Santa matchup, so that we would we would get random pairings and just see what kind of conversations with spring out of them. And first up, we have the perfectly matched Chet Phillips and Athena O'Brien, Kirk and Ashley.

Kirk White
Ashley, I have a question for you.

Ashley Banks
All right, Kirk. Hit me with it.

Kirk White
I'm gonna I'm gonna talk about your process. With with doing the show and such, did you have a strong visual in your head as to what Athena would look like? And did she differ when she was Ocean Girl?

Ashley Banks
I did not have a strong sense of what Athena looked like early on, mostly because I really didn't know much about who Athena would be beyond just her existence. But I now have a very clear version of her - she she's really into the aesthetic of being a villain. I think she's gone through different phases of of trying out different villain aesthetics, you know more of a Maleficent, more of a modern James Bond spy, you know your variety of villain flavors. And, and now I think she's settled for something a bit more modern, but definitely erring on the side of the purples and the blacks and she definitely has a capelet. This is very important: a capelet. Just constantly, yeah, just constantly swishing. Not long enough to actually get caught in anything, but enough to give you that little bit of dramatic flair whenever she walks around. And if you want to hear more about the extensive conversations that I and some of our fans have had about what it looks like, you should join our Discord because it is definitely something we put a lot of thought into. But Ocean Girl, Trixie, was just the opposite in every way. We're talking bright colors, Hawaiian prints, probably blonde. I once saw a fan art where she was wearing roller skates, which I think is wildly impractical in terms of being on a cruise ship, and therefore, absolutely perfect.

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Faith Dowgin
So, Dave, how would Bowden propose to Gloria?

Dave Stanger
Oh, man. So I think obviously theatrics have to be involved in some capacity. I could see him being the kind of guy that would invite her if he's starring, like, in "Lear", like he was, and then stop the production to get down on one knee because he's got the spotlight and he's got the love of his life. That's, that's everything Bowden ever wanted, ever. So I think that's his methodology if he were to do it.

Faith Dowgin
Okay, so some big production involving a production, of course,

Dave Stanger
And he's also kind of the center of attention, you know, so... So yes, yes. Yeah, that's, that's our Bowden.

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Pete Barry
So Jill, you've just so impressed me over the years with the range of voices. I'm wondering if that's a thing that you did that you've always done as an actor or...

Jill Ivey
I grew up in Texas, I did not grow up in a part of Texas where accents are particularly heavy. I grew up in El Paso, and generally if you're in El Paso, and you have an accent, it's because English is your second language. It's that, like, there's a very distinct kind of pattern to what's sometimes referred to as the Chicano accent. So I didn't, I didn't grow up with a Texas accent. But I grew up hearing a lot of different different accents. And then I had family from East Texas and from Central Texas. And I started to notice that oh, there's not even just one Texas accent. There are a lot of different Texas accents. And this was around the time that like Tiny Toons and Anamaniacs were also getting to be popular so so I just kind of started to pick up like different, different voices. And I also realized that I was kind of a sponge for it. So if I spent a long time talking to somebody with an accent, I frequently picked it up. Now, all of that being said, I'm actually I don't think of myself as somebody who's particularly good at accents. I think I mostly do voices. Because I remember when you tried to get me to do an Australian accent, when you originally you did envision Lexus being Australian, I think the best I could do was like Dick Van Dyke and Mary Poppins, cockney, so right on the spot rewrites of that character. But..

Which came out amazing that we were on the phone, like, talking: "Okay, well, what if it's like a Valley Girl?" Yeah, we came up with a couple of different ideas. And then I think it was that like, vocal growl, like that. You were just like, oh, yeah, that that works. That crackling sound, which I know

Pete Barry
We were just cracking up over the phone. We're like, Okay, well, this is definitely - if it's making us laugh...

Jill Ivey
And I know that in our season two outtakes there is just a take of me making a very long crack for it's like, 20 seconds long. Yeah. But so so I think that, you know, I had, I had younger sisters, and I did theater, and I got to where like, I could kind of just kind of pick up and imitate other people that I was around. And so so Lex's voice that we do is it's, it's based largely on somebody that I know, and I'm not gonna say who, with some, with some other other elements of other people coming coming in, and I just like I have, I have a lot of ability to just kind of change the intonation and tone of my voice. And it's, it's fun. So that was a very, very long answer to your question.

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Ashley Banks
So Chet, is a great character, very important to many different aspects of the series. But I feel like, um, whereas with some of the other characters, we get more internal dialogue, we get more of his motivations, and things like that. We don't always get that with Chet. So I guess what I would love to hear from you is, what do you think, is an aspect of Chet's personality that you feel is really strongly established when you think about the character but which the rest of us may not actually know as much about because it doesn't make its way into the, into the show?

Kirk White
Oh, my God, that's an actor question. Wow.

Ashley Banks
I'm sorry.

Kirk White
No, I love that. So when I started sort of doing it, I didn't know what I was doing. I'd never done any kind of voice stuff before. And I'd certainly never done anything, were you kind of acting in a vacuum. So you have to just sort of put it all together. And I was remember reading Michael Caine's "Acting for the Camera" book when he's like, Oh, no, you have to create your entire performance and give it with whether they give you anything or not. So I was really delving into that. And so I think, for Chet, the thing that I really wanted to put out there and then I made a morph from Tom Cruise, and then somewhere that I don't know, when happened, I changed to Harrison Ford. And I don't know how or why this happened. But I started pointing a lot when I was doing the recording. And as soon as doing that it like a lot of stuff unlocked for me. So I think the aspect of Chet - now I will attempt to answer your question - that I think the beauty of Chet, in general is, the facade of "I'm the best." But the moments where the facade cracks and the real insecurities come out, and I think that as the story progressed, especially with the falling in love, the whole, that whole arc, really started seeing the insecurity come out. And so what I would hope maybe, and this was what I thought very challenging, because obviously, if you're doing it with a camera on you, you can show those kinds of cracks. But I hope that some of the real fear of Chet came through in certain moments of not being good, not being worthy, not being the best, being obsolete, of everything like that. Does that make sense?

Ashley Banks
It absolutely does. And I would just like to assure you that I'm compared to Athena, obviously, he's not.

Bob Killion
John P. Dowgin. First of all, I'm so impressed that you had Dr. Studebaker's credentials all really down.

John Dowgin
It's one of my favorite lines I ever wrote. So yeah.

Bob Killion
I figured you had that on the wall next to you or something, just reading off of it, you know.

John Dowgin
My, uh...Ashley, Ashley said that the fan art was one of her proudest moments. One of my proudest moments is I recently learned we have a fan in the Philippines, who named one of her cats Studebaker.

Bob Killion
Well, yeah, my question for you, John, is now that Mission Rejected has finished his third season, you know, how do you how does it feel? How does it feel to be done with season three? And what do you treasure most about this experience the past few years?

John Dowgin
It feels like we just started last week to me in so many ways, which I think is a good thing. It means it's not getting old. How do I feel? I feel I feel content and pleased and I'm happy that I'm happy that this thing we came up just bantering back and forth in Austin, Texas in 2018 after leaving a podcast seminar at the Austin Film Festival. I'm happy that it's brought this group together and it's it's made us all - we've become friends. We enjoy each other's company and we enjoy working together. I certainly enjoy working with you guys. I'm...my favorite my absolute favorite moment. The one moment I treasure the most of all. The one moment I laughed harder doing this than I ever have it anything else was when we recorded the Blockbuster video episode in season two, where everyone's personalities had switched, and McGrath was Skip, and Skip was McGrath. And we wrote it. We basically just wrote a scene for Skip and McGrath and then switched the character names is essentially what we did. But when when they got to record it now Nazli and Chris, were trying so hard to mimic each other and they were so afraid of getting it wrong that I'm sure you guys remember what we ended up doing was just Chris would read Nazli his line and the Nazi would parrot it back exactly the way he said it.

Nazli Sarpkaya
I loved recording. That was so fun.

John Dowgin
Then Nazli would read Skip's lines and Skip... Skip just read them back exactly as she said. Oh, it was that was the most joy I've ever gotten out of this process. And it's a process that I've gotten a lot of joy out of that was that was the highlight for me. So my question for you, Bob, is there a voice you have ever tried to do that you can't do? Because I I can't think of a single thing we've thrown at you in three years that you haven't turned around in exemplary fashion, including Sylvester Stallone. On my on my random whim. Is there ever is there a voice you have tried to do that you just can't do?

Bob Killion
Well, it's funny that you say that because I feel like a couple of other ones that I've done for the show. I really didn't feel like I quite got it. I mean, Noam Chomsky, like, I don't I did a voice like it wasn't Noam Chomsky. It was a voice you know, but I also you know, I really actually I didn't think I was gonna have a hard time with it, but I had a really hard time with Orson Welles. And I like, you know, I was like playing, you know, I was playing clips and I was reading it back and I would like maybe have it a little bit, but then, you know, I was I had it I was having a really hard time. But yeah, you know, I think it's hard to do voices that aren't very unique, you know, if there's not some, like really obvious, like, sort of way that a person talks or like a, you know, really silly, like quirk about their voice, it's that that can be really hard. So, but I appreciate you saying that, because yeah, I feel like a lot of parts. I feel like I didn't quite get them, you know?

Michael DeAngelis
No, I don't think anyone else feels that way.

John Dowgin
When I came up with when I came up with Jambo I was on vacation, and I was I texted Mike and Pete I said, "Do we have anybody who can do a Stallone?" And Mike was like, "Give me an hour." And he replied, yeah, "We have a Stallone."

Bob Killion
Well, it's funny. I've actually recorded myself doing Sylvester Stallone before that show. I, one year from my dad, like as a joke. My brother helped a little bit too. We did a whole like series of spoof recordings of like NPR, like shows, and there was one that was like an interview and I did like Sylvester Stallone for it. So it was like I had actually done it before.

John Dowgin
Excellent.

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Faith Dowgin
I have a question for Dave. So Bowden is a wealth of useless pop culture references and I need to know if you to have as a deep knowledge of random vague pop culture references to or do you find yourself sometimes wondering like, what has John Dowgin given me to say? What...what musical theater minutiae has J. Michael foisted upon me?

Dave Stanger
I have to confess I often have to Google a lot of the references given to me. I'm not I am by no means a good source of anything current going on, nor have I ever been. I am. I'm an eighty year old trapped in a seventy year old's body. I do not keep up with the kids these days. But, but, but it's it's fun to learn. It's a lot of fun. So yeah, yeah, good question. Awesome. I have a question for you, Faith. Okay, if we were to make a movie version of Mission Rejected, obviously, you were the perfect Zelda, but if you had to cast any celebrity, at any point in their career to play Zelda, who would you cast?

Faith Dowgin
So John and I have actually talked about this because we're nerds. Um, so John, actually, especially after we saw Suicide Squad, John and I thought that um, Viola Davis would make a really amazing Zelda Yeah, she's very kick ass she's very take no prisoners. I think that um, because I do have a deep and a biting pop culture knowledge. I also think that Tyne Daley from like her Cagney and Lacey years would be a very interesting Zelda so...

Dave Stanger
Excellent choices. Excellent. I could see both of them playing that I I oftentimes pictured Meryl Streep, but I think I I think I...I think Tyne Daley is a beautiful choice.

Faith Dowgin
We all want - every actress - wants to imagine that Meryl Streep would play her.

Dave Stanger
I'd want Meryl Streep to play me.

Faith Dowgin
Exactly. So back at you, who do you think would be like the quintessential Bowden?

Dave Stanger
Yeah, so when Michael and I were first talking about the character, he said that he often pictured a younger Alec Baldwin when he was writing for him. So I sometimes picture of Baldwin circa like Hunt for Red October, Beetlejuice era Baldwin, but okay, I could also see maybe a younger Rob Lowe or Rob Lowe right now, because he is an immortal who doesn't age, but I think someone of that ilk, you know, a chiseled aging pretty boy who can do comedy. I think anyone who falls under that category would probably do a pretty decent Bowden.

Faith Dowgin
I agree. I would I would happily listen to either of them do that roll while also still wishing that it was you.

Dave Stanger
Right back at you.

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Nazli Sarpkaya
So if anybody follows Chris on Instagram, actually, yeah, listeners, please follow Chris at @chrismakesnoms. You are a great cook. And I can see that you do all sorts of dishes. No, seriously. But um, I would like to know two things. One. A dish that you made. That was surprisingly good. Like you didn't think it would be that good when you were making it. But it turned out to be amazing. And a dish that you thought would be great, but it was a total fail. And what did you guys do with it?

Chris Klaniecki
These are both fantastic questions. Spoiler alert, half of the questions that I have here are also about food because I was prepping Nazli questions!

Nazli Sarpkaya
We share that.

Chris Klaniecki
All right. So I think I will share that the cooking sort of voyage, if you will, but like I've been on for a long time at this point. really started with a lot of fun and support and, and willingness to fail forward with Paige. We lived in a house together with a couple of housemates. And we would, about once a week, do a team cook have something the rule was always there for to do something new, there needs to be a chance that we might fail. So we're not gonna be like, let's do a cook. All right, great. It's boxed pasta and tomato sauce, you know, like, let's try something different. Go off book and see what we can do. So that was really entertaining, and really rewarding and helped a lot. I would say to your, your first part of your question, the dish that I thought at the time was like really going to belly flop and ended up being quite great. Was I think our first attempt at cooking together at all as adults. We were making a chicken and ham pie out of a Harry Potter cookbook, chicken and ham pie. And we went and we did like a handful of things wrong with the shop like we got chicken, I think with bone in it and it was supposed to be without bone. So like the poundage was all wrong. We use the wrong size pan and we ended up sort of calling it as it stitched together Derpshire pudding but the Derpshire pudding was one of my favorites ended up tasting really really good despite everything like we didn't have enough crust so we just like put little dollops of crust like on top like it was like it was a cheese on top of pizza like a margarita pizza through the oven but it was really great. And it didn't fail and I think that's one of the reasons why I like it so much. It was a surprise success.

Nazli Sarpkaya
Did you make it again?

Chris Klaniecki
We did chicken and ham pie several more times different like versions of filling and and it was never Derpshire pudding, it looked like pies the next time we did it never quite hit that like that really homemade slapdash feel that you could never quite recreate was good. So I thought was gonna be great and was a debacle? Caroline, my fiancee, she is a vegetarian. And one of the first times she was coming over to visit for a meal, I wanted to make her chili. And I was basing it off of a turkey and bean chili recipe. And this is the first time I had attempted this recipe. And I figured okay, like let's make a double batch that will just double all the ingredients. There will be leftovers, I can either throw us the week will replace the cover one pound of turkey and one pound of beans. That's okay, we'll replace the one pound of turkey with beans, then double that will be four pounds of beans. And then the other things that go into it too. And for those of you who have made things with beans before, you might know that there is a difference between a pound of wet beans and a pound of dry beans...

Nazli Sarpkaya
Oh my god.

Chris Klaniecki
...and I got dry beans. I got four pounds of dry beans and I brought it up and I said Okay, gotta soak these overnight, so I'll do that. So I put four pounds of dry beans into the largest Dutch oven that I had, and left it out overnight. And I came downstairs the next morning, and it was overflowing with beans all over the counter. I got out a measuring cup to put this into a container. It was 32 cups of beans. I had 32 cups of beans. And I was like well I guess we're gonna do the double batch then. So I went forward with the recipe with 32 cups of beans. It was two Stock Pots completely filled with mostly beans. It was not chili at all. It was just like way too many beans. It tasted a beans. It smelled of beans for like a week in that kitchen. Caroline was very polite. She said it's good. And it her her tone of voice very much conveyed like oh he tried. And I have never had worst chili in my life.

Michael DeAngelis
I wish our listening audience could have seen Nazli's face as Chris told that story because it was as if she was watching the scariest movie she had ever seen. Just the horror, the the hand over the mouth, the wide eyes it was, you know...

Nazli Sarpkaya
I also can't watch those shows like Nailed It where everybody's messing it up...

Chris Klaniecki
Oh yeah!

Nazli Sarpkaya
I can watch those shows. It's not enjoyable. It's so horrifying. I like watching shows where people are exceeding like their own expectations with the cake that they're making. So -

Michael DeAngelis
Alright, season four...McGrath goes on Nailed It.

Nazli Sarpkaya
Oh no!

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Jill Ivey
But what about you because you also do a ton of voices in the show. So like, where did...and you do do some accents So like, where does all of that come from?

Pete Barry
Well, again, like I think I feel like the same as you that I'm like that it's more voices than accents. I think you know, Monty Python was like you do - "Oh Dennis, there's some lovely filth down here" - when you're in high school, I think when I was in grade school, I mean, like, we just hung around doing, l ike, I grew up in my great schools in the early 80s. So it was this mainly, you know, "America My name is Ronald Reagan," like Ronald Reagan was definitely the first one you did. And Howard Cosell. We had Howard Cosell and we had Ronald Reagan and then basically yeah, like Yeah, I was big into cartoons. And I think you get you know the Simpsons if you you know, you do Professor Frink or your no one wants, you know, I mean, I think actually, I think I used Professor Frank in one of the episodes as one of the things. So what I really want to ask you is how bad was Tex Amarillo?

Jill Ivey
I love what that entire episode because again, like there are different Texas accents. And so So if if it had been just like, you know, I mean, the same way that there are different London accents, right? But like, if if you were trying to do a posh accent, and you screwed it up, then like it would have been very clear. But Texas because you know, Texas is sighs everything's so spread out. And then also you get into the cities where they're, like fewer people have accents anymore as cities become larger and more cosmopolitan. And then you've got you know, up near the Oklahoma border sounds really different from when you're like, way down southeastern Texas near the Louisiana border. And so I just kind of listened to it is like all right, I know there there are different I just kind of like text text has been around a lot of different parts of Texas.

Pete Barry
So there was someone out there who sounds like Tex Amarillo and anyone from Texas who wants to tell me where Tex is from I'd love to know.

Jill Ivey
Not Amarillo, I will tell you that.

Chris Klaniecki
If you could have only one of the following starches in your diet for the rest of your life, foregoing the other three, of these four: rice, noodles, potatoes, or bread. Which would you choose? You're still allowed to have fruits and veggies and stuff. But when it comes to starchy foods, your food has to come from the one you pick. That means you pick noodles, no more hoagies or sushi or french fries, etc.

Nazli Sarpkaya
(GASP) So when you say bread that includes sandwiches, pizza...

Chris Klaniecki
It does. It does.

Nazli Sarpkaya
Oh you're mean!

Ashley Banks
That's a really cruel question!

Nazli Sarpkaya
This is a very cruel question. And I will tell you, when I first moved to New York, I decided to start a paleo diet. So I got rid of all of the rice and the bread and noodles and I was only eating sweet potatoes because you also can't even like beans on the Paleo diet. And I have to tell you, it got really boring. And I just yeah, like I didn't know what to eat. Because when you take out all of those you realize 90% of your diet is those starches. This is hard. Rice is very versatile. You can turn it into a lot of things. And I can make things with rice flour as well. Now that I think about it, any type of baked good, or even bread. Bob's Red Mill has great rice flour mixes, guys. So as long as I get yeast and rice flour, maybe I should pick rice. Although I do love potatoes, all kinds. I like white potatoes. I like sweet potato. Ah, I'm gonna go with rice. Because I can Yeah, do a lot of things with it. But um, I do not like you for taking everything else away from me.

Chris Klaniecki
Before we continue that, Nazli, first and foremost, you were very brave to answethat question. Thank you so much for playing along. This is a question that Paige and I have asked many people on many occasions. I actually over the pandemic, I was running a newsletter for my office and if you participated you could participate in what I called the Starch Cup. Our people voted and we saw like across the office, which was the most popular the for starches. So I've got a fair amount of data at my fingertips.

Nazli Sarpkaya
Oh, I would love to know!

Chris Klaniecki
...and my vote is the same as yours for the same reasons that you said. Rice is the most versatile you have the most access to so many cuisines you can find your way over to bread like things if you want to have like you know, rice sort of like burgers for example you can you can get there. The other three are really difficult to leave but I feel like if you were trying to find a lot of variety for like the rest of your for your flavor pallet that like rice is a really great way to get there.

Nazli Sarpkaya
I'm glad we're on the same page. Also like sushi. How can I ever give up sushi?

Chris Klaniecki
The sushi with like the cucumber wrapping instead of the rice is good as a change but it's just it's not you can't eat that.

Nazli Sarpkaya
No, that's not real sushi no

Paige Klaniecki
Spoken like a true McGrath

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Dave Stanger
So I have another question for you, Faith. I was very impressed with your bartending skills when we did our live performance of Mission: Projected. Those those look delicious. If you were meeting Zelda at a bar, what would be Zelda was drink of choice and what would Faith be drinking?

Faith Dowgin
Oh, that's a really good question.

Dave Stanger
You can tell a lot about a person by that.

Faith Dowgin
So I don't think that Zelda is like a fruity drink person. And I don't think she's like a, like a vodka person. Zelda wants, like, Zelda wants her alcohol. She wants to taste it. She wants whatever she's drinking to be very spirit forward. So I think that Zelda would I think Zelda would love my recipe for a Chocolate Cherry Old Fashioned.

Dave Stanger
That sounds delicious.

Faith Dowgin
It's awesome. It is a demorra sugar cube with four dashes of chocolate bitters, four dashes of cherry bitters, muddle it up a little so till you know the sugar dissolves in the bitters. And then just pour in two and a half ounces of really good bourbon or rye, and stir it up over a big ice cube a large format ice cube so that it melts very slowly. And there you go.

Dave Stanger
You had me a chocolate, but you throw. That's a win win. Right there. Those are two things. That sounds phenomenal.

Faith Dowgin
Yeah. So I think that I think that that is what I would order. And then I think that I would say to Zelda like you really should try this. So..

Dave Stanger
Nicely done.

Michael DeAngelis
All right. So that means Paige, we're up.

Paige Klaniecki
Right-o.

Michael DeAngelis
So lay lay lay it on me.

Paige Klaniecki
All right, well, we'll keep this first question related to the podcast. When you and the others set out to create this podcast, were there any particular themes or larger ideas that you wanted to explore? And if so, how are these themes informed of the story that you have ended up telling? And have they evolved at all over the course of the past three seasons,

Michael DeAngelis
I just think that because we write characters that are really well defined, that are really dedicated to their jobs, that are really dedicated to making the world a better place and loving each other, that that just comes through in the episodes. And any social themes, or broader themes just come out of that. And I don't think...I can't speak for Pete and John, but mostly when I'm writing, I'm not trying to make a specific point, I think most of the time. Just a general, just a general worldview.

Paige Klaniecki
Yeah, thank you. That's super interesting, because I mean, I feel like a friend recently introduced the idea of like, kind of media, to me is the terminology he used. There's kind of a renaissance of it, people are really embracing shows like Ted Lasso, Schitt's Creek, The Great British Bake Off that just have like, you know, kindness imbued in their veins. And I feel like the show you guys have created, it's sitting really nicely in that echelon of content that people are just craving right now. But at the same time, you have been able to, like, you know, share the the amount of cynicism that you have for you know, the failures of our government over the past several years or society. And so walking that line between, you know, being kind and like promoting that sort of worldview, but also, I guess, expressing discontent where it is warranted, I think, is a really cool balance. You guys are struck and something I've really enjoyed. Thanks.

Michael DeAngelis
Thanks a lot. And I yeah, that I think that's right. I think people are really embracing and ready to embrace more this idea of a kind media because the world is terrible and we've had - and I think even if the world wasn't terrible, which it is - I think that we've sort of come out of a decade of shows like Breaking Bad and Mad Men and Sopranos that focused on questionably moral people or illmoral people. That, and I'm not saying this was a bad thing. I loved those shows. And they were complicated, beautifully written characters. But like, man, let what if what if we were nice to each other instead of selling meth, right?

So Pete and John and I all have our little recurring characters, but you're a regular in every episode, your main character, and you're a writer. So how has that experience been? Do you...do you find it really easy to write for Gloria? Or is it harder to write for Gloria? Like does...is there another character that comes to you very easily? Like, what is? What is that intersection between actress and writer?

Paige Klaniecki
Oh, interesting. I think Gloria I've really enjoyed writing the scenes, or like really digging into like, who she is, as a character, like on a deeper level. I, in season, the most recent season, there was a scene between her and Bowden where they talked about, like, you know, when they're when they're essentially like, in the midst of coming back together, they've broken up because they were separated because of the, because the Oceanology takeover and so they're kind of just like laying all the cards on the table, you know, and trying to figure out like, why, why does it feel weird, not the back together, but they're not together anymore. It's still kind of awkward. And I just really enjoyed that scene. And I remember like, feeling, feeling very, I think I felt like I had a very clear idea of where they were both coming from, like it was felt very clear to me. And I think rooting, my perception of these characters in like those heavier moments has been a lot of fun. And then like, adding all the layers and the jokes on top, but I think my understanding of them comes from this like, place of how they feel about each other. Not just Bowden and Gloria, all the characters and how does Skip feel about McGrath and vice versa. And I think that's, you know, what you're just talking about, like the relationships between these people they all love each other is one of the special things about this show. And so I think that's where I try to approach most of the writing from.

SFX: TRANSITION

Jill Ivey
How does how does composing for audio dramas, specifically for Mission Rejected work?

Pete Barry
Again, a lot of the way I compose is just play, you know, I think that's how it comes out. You set down a beat, or in the case of, you know, Johnny Onebuck, it was like violins or cellos, boom, boom, boom, you know, something like that. So yeah, and you set that out, and you just fill it out. Again, I, I guess...I've written a lot of music for this show. It's not the most polished stuff. It's a lot of it is just like, I just do it very quickly. I don't have much time to work on it. I think the thing I'm the most proud of, and again, maybe not the most polished, but I think the thing I love the most is the end of Episode 206, which is Lex and Chet and everyone attacks Athena's Island for the first time. And so it's the theme song is going It's like they're gonna do a thing. And then all of a sudden, it just changes into the dun dun like and there's a sudden change to like, oh, wait, something's happening. And then it goes down. And it's like (makes ticking noises) and there's such, I like how there's such a, just just drama and conflict in that and then he gets caught and it stops. And it's like DA-NAH a and the trumpets. I managed to get like those real (make trumpet sound) and the fall. That's like, oh, you know, Quinn falls in the volcano was it like "AHHHH!" I don't know why, but I just love that. That moment. And then 207 starts up, and then just picks right up again. Like the end of 207 is like a thing is like, "Oh, well, well, what's in here?" It's like, "oh, they're still dangling into this lake." So yeah, it's, I think 206 and the end of 207. Those are some of my favorites. Although Johnny Onebuck, I did like how that turned out.

Jill Ivey
Johnny Onebuck sounded amazing.

SFX: TRANSITION

John Dowgin
Bob, what is the first voice you remember doing for an audience for somebody else?

Bob Killion
You know, growing up, we we always watched It's A Wonderful Life at Christmas time. And I think I got a lot of like doing voices and stuff from my dad. My dad does that a lot as well. And like, he and I would go back and forth doing like Jimmy Stewart. And it's a wonderful life. And so and I remember doing that, like, it might have been like a church event or something, but like just doing that voice and people being like, oh my gosh, like that's hilarious, but I was just mimicking my dad doing the voice. You know of like "Merry Christmas, Mr. Potter! You want the moon?" No, I just, you know, going on with that and, of course, loving that attention as as, as kids do, or also adults, right now...me. But yeah, I think that that might be that might be a first for me.

Ashley Banks
If you had to play Chet as a character that had been transported to a completely different genre of show, what genre would you want Chet to be in? And why?

Kirk White
I don't know that I can give you us adequate, why, but I would want that to be on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Ashley Banks
I mean, I think the why is pretty self evident. Yeah,

Kirk White
I don't know. I don't know that I could articulate the why other than it was something that I don't think they did on that. And it would be pretty sweet. To have Chet Phillips busting around Sunnydale, around the Hellmouth.

Dave Stanger
Now, you have a great deal of of live theater background. But you also have a great deal of voiceover background. Do you have a preference between the two? Do one enjoy one? Or the other? Do you have

Faith Dowgin
I think I prefer live theater. But there are definite perks sometimes to v.o.

Dave Stanger
That's a great answer. And I'm right there with you on all of it. I I've missed a great deal of the the interaction you have with an audience, you know, with the pandemic going on, and sort of lack of doing live theater, but I also think it's kind of the introvert in me that sort of loves being a voiceover artist , you know, it's entirely an imaginary imagined circumstances. You know, sometimes you don't even have your fellow actors. You just have to have everything going on in your brain. And so that sort of speaks to the, you know, the introvert in me that just loves to live in their own

Faith Dowgin
Yes, who just loves to go down their own little rabbit hole. I definitely enjoy that.

Chris Klaniecki
Nazli, if you suddenly found yourself passing through your hometown of Ankara. It's been years, maybe a decade since you were home. But here you are. And with just enough time for one meal, where would you go? And what would you have?

Nazli Sarpkaya
Oh, man, Ankara has really good doner...and doner is...actually, so in the states there's a Greek version of it, that's around that's called gyro. Um, that turning, you know, the meat...

Chris Klaniecki
Yeah, the meat spit

Nazli Sarpkaya
Yeah, the meat spit! But in Turkey...

Chris Klaniecki
It spins and spins.

Nazli Sarpkaya
Yes, it spins all day long. I mean, it's a, it's a very genius contraption, you cook only a very thin layer of the meat as it turns, so you only cut the meat that's cooked. And in Turkey, they cut it very thin, so thin that if you actually hold it up, you can see the other side. It's very, very thin. And it's delicious. And so they take this bread. They cut it into cubes, it's very soft. They put that like they cover a plate with that bread. And then pour some melted butter on it. And then they put layers and layers of this thinly sliced doner on top of it. And then they pour a very well seasoned tomato sauce on top. And then they bring it to you. And they ask, "Would you like more melted butter on top?" And you have to say yes, because it's, you know, my last meal apparently. My first and last. And it's actually called iskender, and that is something I just cannot have anywhere else. That would be

Michael DeAngelis
Of course, now sadly, you've sworn off bread because of Chris's previous question. So.....sorry.

Dave Stanger
I have a question about Mission Rejected. I know you're married to one of the writers. So you can you can go easy. But do you have a favorite episode that you've either worked on or that you want that you've listened to on a number of occasions?

Faith Dowgin
So my favorite episode is the episode that ended with the scene between me and Sarah on the bench.

Dave Stanger
Yes.

Faith Dowgin
I I was so grateful to J. Michael for giving Sarah and I that moment and to give Zelda that opportunity to to be vulnerable to because that is... so, I'm like I'm a crier as a person, Faith, but I'm also a person who tries really hard to make sure that everyone thinks I always have...have everything in control all the time. So I, you know, I have no idea where my husband, and his two friends who've known me for 30 years got the inspiration for Zelda. But um, so yeah, that's my favorite. That was my favorite episode, just to have that moment. But I like all of them.

Paige Klaniecki
What is the film that means the most to you, not because of what the film actually is, but because of the experience you had watching it.

Michael DeAngelis
There was a movie going experience that I will say solidified, or elevated my friendship with Pete. That went, we went from friends to best friends. And it was we went (Pete laughs) Oh Pete's turning on his camera "Like, what are you talking about?" So Pete and I were doing a summer stock production of Guys and Dolls, which was great. And we were having a lot of fun. We're in a lot of fun together. And we as as happens in the theater, sometimes there's a love triangle. And, and I liked a girl she liked Pete and it was it was it was getting awkward. But one day, on a weekday, there was going to be a party. I don't remember...like people were going to somebody's house or going to go do a big thing. Like the whole cast went. And I said to Pete, well, you know, let's go and Pete said, Let's not. Let's, let's you and me go see The Iron Giant. It's a beautiful story. And I don't think we specifically talked about anything, but there was something. Again, there was something about the emotion coming out of that movie, when we left that theater. Dude, like, nothing was ever going to come between us. I can't. I can't really articulate it better than that. We went in as friends and we came out as best friends.

Paige Klaniecki
I think I think if there's a movie that can do that, if you told me it was The Iron Giant, it would not surprise me like The Iron Giant is incredibly special movie and like the hour 20, hour 20 minute mark, like that hits you hard. Just Oh, gosh. Yeah. Highly recommend anyone who hasn't seen it.

Michael DeAngelis
All right, I Paige. I feel like I have a lot of questions for you. How did how has or does growing up in Springfield influenced your writing? Because I think it really does for me, though, I'm not entirely sure I could articulate it.

Paige Klaniecki
That's a very good question. And a tough question. I understand why why? It sounds like you also don't have a clear answer.

Michael DeAngelis
Like, I think I know the answer is yes. But could I...

Paige Klaniecki
Yeah, it's not the same as like, I know, some people, you know, grew up somewhere and like they tell stories about that location. And it's I'm not writing stories about about Delco. I don't think that I'm Delco enough to do it. I don't think I could. I do I think retroactivly and I don't think I knew this at the time growing up in Delco, like, but Chris has, you know, I guess like put it into my mind that I often start thinking about myself in terms of like, where I fall on the bell curve of, you know, where's the average person - what they think about this movie - and like, am I on one side of the bell curve? Or the other side? And why might that be? And so I think in Delaware County, I was not in the middle of the bell curve. I, you know, was was a dork who liked theater and movies and got along just fine. I didn't have you know, a tragic childhood or anything, but I definitely don't think I was in a, in the majority in a lot of ways.

Michael DeAngelis
Right.

Paige Klaniecki
And I think that I continue to think about myself or in terms of where I fall on the bell curve, and like, my awareness of, you know, how my opinions are the same or different, or how my perceptions of things are the same or different. And I think that informs a little bit about how I write because I do think that I I don't want to necessarily be writing something that everyone has the same perception on because like, I I don't need to! Someone else did. I don't have anything to say about that, that someone already hasn't thought about. People underestimate I think the impact that our own expectations have on us. I think that it you know, fuels a lot of like how things play out like our expectations... we talk about this with movies. Like expectation going into a movie, I think can impact how much you like it, and just I think that that also it matters on a larger scale when you go into certain experiences and like who you think you're going to be at a certain age. Who are you when you actually are at that age like that also like impacts who you are, the expectations you have impact who you become. But you don't necessarily become the person that you expect.

MUSIC: THEME MUSIC

Mission Voice
Well, there it is. Your moment of Zen from Gloria Kovak. Mission Rejected was created by Pete Barry, J. Michael DeAngelis and John Dowgin, This episode was written and directed by J. Michael DeAngelis. Interviewing each other were Ashley Banks and Kirk White, Jill Ivey and Pete Berry, Bob Killion and John Dowgin, Nazli Sarpkaya and Chris, Klaniecki, Dave Stanger and Faith Dowgin, and J. Michael DeAngelis and Paige Klaniecki. Music and sound effects by Pete Berry. If you enjoyed this peek behind the scenes know that our Patreon supporters receive an extended version of this episode, as well as an ongoing look at development of the season. To support us for as little as $1 a month visit missionrejected.com and click support us. It's like the price of a cup of coffee every day. This has been a Porch Room production copyright 2022 Extraordinary Missions Limited.

MUSIC FADES

Michael DeAngelis
I have a question for Dave.

Dave Stanger
Yes.

Michael DeAngelis
Do you remember your answering machine message your junior year at Muhlenberg...and will you sing it for me? I remember it.

Dave Stanger
(Singing to the "William Tell Overture") You have reached Dave Stangers's phone but unfortunately he's not at home so leave your message at the tone he will get back to you! And then it went on from there...

Michael DeAngelis
It went on it went on! (Sings) You have reached Dave Stagner's telephone unfortunately he's not at home just leave your message at a tone! And it went on until the thing beeped. I feel like Dave was trying to get you not to leave a message.

Faith Dowgin
Dave the introvert was trying to get you to just hang up and not try to talk to him.

Dave Stanger
That's probably also true.

MUSIC: STINGER

Transcribed by https://otter.ai