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

The Orlando Show: "The DAIM Reunion"

"It's your thing, do what you wanna do..." 

Once upon a time in a land far, far away... Orlando, Florida- two idiots decided to start their own talk show.  Here's the origin to that idea, the very FIRST shot of said idiots on camera:

... that was 2006.  What would follow over the course of the next few years would be an Internet sensation that never quite found its way to a viral status.  A show about Orlando with a nearly incomprehensible storyline involving sibling rivalry, friendship, sex, a Canadian king and a president of Orlando, French villains with names like Fingers and Madame X, a Mad Scientist who kidnaps girls and turns them into ducks, lawyers who use the Jedi force, a magician who can explain time travel with a napkin, a superhero who fights evil with his face and rides a magical lion... and that's just the beginning.

The OSHOW cast: Jason Anders, Rob Volpe, Elizabeth Hubley, Ryan Cipriani, Keith Ulmer, Aaron Rank, & Andrea Cox.

It has been nearly four years since the entire cast of The Orlando Show have gathered together in one room, and this weekend we reunited to record what would end up being a 4 1/2 hour podcast in which we reminisce about the OSHOW, re-telling the entire narrative as well as behind-the-scenes stories.  In an honest effort to make sense of the madness, it seems we may have only confused it further... but at least it was fun.

Download The Orlando Show: "Reunion Podcast" on iTunes HERE

-OR-

Listen to The Orlando Show: "Reunion Podcast" on YouTube below:

Sponsored by DAIM

The Orlando Show (Memorable Quotes)

 The Orlando Show (Memorable Quotes)

"DAIM!"

"I'm biodegradable."

"Save water, shower with a friend."

"I've seen a chicken satisfy a horse!"

"I was David Sanborn to love you."

"Raft In a Jar: The Anecdote When You Can't Float."

"The flowers here smell like beer. At least they do when we get drunk and throw up on them."

"I ain't the brains, I'm the iron man."

"Have you thought about sitting on a football and seeing if you can get to the laces?"

"Do you trust Lizzie sexually? Because she can be on my show if not."

"Superface Transmitted Disease."

"Attention Dragon: Shut up."

"Scorpion woman, you've returned."

"Sweet turtles swimming in the sea!"

"Jet lag? There's no jet lag in time travel."

"We didn't really get much mail for being gone 50 million years."

"I am a Barbie girl, okay?"

"It doesn't matter what you put in me, you're not getting anything out of me."

"Super Jump!"

"Wait! I've gotta take my picture with the Betty White statue!"

"Celebrate Maple Syrup Fantastic Day."

"I've created it! The vile toxin that it be- once she ingests it, she will be among the feathered people."

"Am I talking loud? I slept by a dumpster and have an inner ear infection."

"That doesn't light my fancy."

"You'll know your Battery Acid Chili is setting in once there is an iridescent brown glow. If you're using ingredients from the Chernobyl site, you should be seeing more of a radioactive green."

"Think prehistoric!"

"For my motivation I'll need a whole backpack full of wine!"

"It's Disney security. We don't have a permit... run!"

"Never again will Canadian bacon be referred to as ham. We're done with that."

"This one is for you Rob. This one is for you Jason. And this one... I don't know what it's for. But we had extra money, so I bought one."

"It's Superface on his magical lion!"

"King Tall, I found them... and I'm gonna f**k these motha f**kers up."

"Let us bridge your gaps."

"And now we're going to show you why flowers are fun."

"Halt unbelievers!"

"How could I be so careless?"

"You know damn well where Canada is!"

"Canada has a back door?"

"It already smells like beer, hockey, and pine trees."

"Damn dirty Canadians!"

"Let's open up our own coin-operated laundry mat!"

"How can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat?!"

"I will now go into hiding... like Napoleon. Except he's a lot shorter than I am. But I will have my revenge on The Orlando Show. I will get you, my pretties. King Tall out."

"I can't believe Charli was blown up with a nuclear warhead."

"What kind of super hero wears a Boston hat?"

"Fingers, if you wanna be with me you're gonna have to go straight... from crime, that is."

"A date with Rob? Do you like his Aladdin skin complexion?"

"I'm gonna bust a cap in your ass, now get off my playground!"

"Brace yourself, crackers!"

"Would you like some Nerds? They're good for you."

"Tupperware Party!"

"I think I just made some liquid nitrogen."

"So you hosers think you can get Charli out of the Old West, eh? Not while there is still beer in my veins!"

"I love Uncle Sam more than any woman I have ever known."