TNT Remembers "The Orlando Show"

This weekend the cast of The Orlando Show got together to record a "reunion" podcast and talk about what we created.  Ryan Cipriani, who played TNT on the show, sent me this email the next day.  After crying like a big softie while reading it, I asked his permission to post it online.  Below is something that ANYONE who ever calls friends together to do something creative always hopes to hear but rarely, if ever, does.  If you played any part in bringing this show to life you better keep the tissues close by.

- @CommanderAnders  

Jason,

It's a little after 2 in the morning and I just finished listening to the podcast on YouTube... I was moved.  I had forgotten how much fun and how much insane creative energy came out of that group of people and what an incredible blast we had just being young, idealistic, underpaid, over motivated and ultimately monumentally stupid bunch of wannabes who were armed with nothing more than what started as a simple vision and a low budget video camera.  I did, and still truly do believe in what we created and accomplished together, and a part of me will always regret never seeing the show arc past what it did.  Since I could not stay to give my final thoughts and offer an ending, here is how I think I figured we might always go out when the inevitable funeral bell rang and we all felt it was time to grow up and move on.  God forbid we ever loose our inner Orlando Show characters and feel this was a complete waste of time, but just to tie it up, this is what I had thought would make a suitable conclusion.

Orlando Show episode 4.1: The Christmas Special

We covered every major event and holiday in and around Orlando except for my favorite, Christmas.  Given the scope of everything that happened to us on the show and between us outside, it only seems relevant that it would be a spoof on "It's a Wonderful Life."  The episode would begin much as we left off, with Rob and Jason filming a dull, lackluster, worn out coverage of Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party.  Neither of their hearts are in it anymore.  Budget cutbacks, war threats and inconsistent cast members have stolen the breath out of The Orlando Show.  In his most desperate hour, Jason deletes all the raw footage of the show and wipes it from existence.  He's then visited by an appropriately ridiculous angel who shows him the fate of the characters had the show never existed.  

Rob and Jason working creative-less, corporate desk jobs.  Superface closing his P.I. business and selling weight loss pills as a telemarketer.  Bonnie migrating south with a family of ducks.  TNT hocks his guitar to pay for a sweater vest and a poodle.  Andrea and King Tall separate and alone because they never get over their mutual hatred for Orlando.  The President becoming the chairman of a hair loss committee support group.  The Canadian General a spokesperson for AA.  It's in these bleak moments that Jason realizes The Orlando Show had transcended its original purpose of bringing Orlando to the rest of the world, and had in fact altered the course of fate for those involved and setting them on the paths of the rest of their lives.  

With the magic of the angel, Jason and Rob rewrite history to undo the destruction of the show and in a grand reunion, the cast meets out on their most used and favorite set, New York Street at the Disney Hollywood Studios for the Spectacle of Dancing Lights.  TNT is finally unmasked, removing his sunglasses in sheer awe of the twinkling Christmas lights.  Peace is finally declared between Canada and Orlando.  The camera pulls back on the cast gazing out at the lights with "Fairytale of New York" playing in the background.  After a fade to black, there's a final curtain call scored by "It's Your Thing" with an "Animal House-style/ where-are-they-now?" segment  based on our own real lives.  Rob is happily married and working as a piano player.  Jason is planning on moving to Los Angeles to continue his career in television and film.  Andrea and King Tall are living happily ever after.  TNT is working towards becoming a legendary musician.  Even the Canadian General has found someone who can put up with his maniacal ways and has settled down.

The point being, The Orlando Show is and always will be more than just a ridiculous manifestation of a show about a show.  It was the stroke of destiny that brought us all together in the first place, and for one bright, shining moment gave us something to hope for and look forward to when we were all little more than a group of confused, on our own twenty-somethings from every corner of the country with no one else but ourselves to turn to.  Truly this might be the defining moment of my transition years: that period between first cutting out into the world, and the moment of finally finding a place in it.  

Perhaps not all of us have quite found our way yet, but the Northern Star we can always look back on and say "This is where it all began..." no matter where we inevitably end up in our lives, has to be those iconic moments we first stepped onto the digital screen.  This is a project I will forever be proud to be associated with.  It never will again be what it first was, because we never will again be the people we first were when it was created.  But as we grow and change, The Orlando Show will grow with us and in our own ways we all go on to carry the legacy of our characters to new heights.

Despite the fact the net result of all our filming was basically nothing, I think the gross result of the memories we created outweighs this.  The Orlando Show was our adult yearbook moment, that one thing we can point to, laugh at, and go "Do you remember when?"  Epic failure?  Certainly not.  Great success?  Not a chance.  Somewhere in between, well hey, that's where the truth always is.


It's your thing.  Do what you want to do. 

-TNT