Director's Notes: 214 - The Comet's Tail

Growing up the most disturbing show on television, for me, was Three's Company. Like a lot of 80s children, I enjoyed sitcoms. Who's the Boss, Punky Brewster, Growing Pains, all that.

But good god, Three's Company made me so tense. it was the ultimate sitcom, in that it was a comedy built entirely on situational misunderstandings. A classic sex farce, really. And it twisted my guts watching lie pile upon lie upon lie. "Someone just say clearly what's going on, and none of this would be an issue!" I wanted to shout at the characters.

To this day, I'm still uncertain why Three's Company and dialed-up sitcoms like it made me so anxious, and I think it was entirely to do with the relentlessness of ignorance. Every single person was see/hear/speak no evil in hopes that all problems would just go away.

I still can't watch Curb Your Enthusiasm or Nathan For You because of similar issues.

That said, there are components to these types of shows that I really love. In short bursts, not for 30 minutes at a time.

One of my favorite comedy tropes is Guy Who Is Not Listening. Green Acres (another sitcom

based entirely around a person who is miserable in their environment) used this bit some. It's tried and true, and it's the perfect structure for a character like John Peters, you know, the farmer?

Cecil Palmer is usually the straight man in Night Vale dialogue scenes, allowing the other characters to be the wacky foil. And so it is with this episode.

It was great to have Mark Gagliardi back as John. Mark so perfectly drawls the voice while still giving John Peters a deeper awareness of the world than his twang might immediately suggest. I've actually started thinking of John as someone with such an active mind that he has a hard time focusing on others' conversations.

Or maybe he just has bad cell service out in the Ag district.

-Jeffrey Cranor
Sept 15, 2022