Stranger Than Fiction! - P.A.W. Print - Philadelphia Arts Writers

Cast of Strangers with Candy: Left to Right,Stephen Colbert, Amy Sedaris, Paul Dinello. photo, Robert Nesti

It's like summer school that never ends.

I never did that poorly in high school. Yet eleven years later, faced with the prospect of continuing my education, I can't seem to figure any of it out. The bus leaves before I can locate a matching pair of shoes, I'm forced to board a later bus, and when I do finally get to school, hours late, I can only surmise where and when my next class will be. The next morning unfolds pretty much the same, with the added bonus of not having written a paper that's due in ten minutes.

By the end of the semester, I'm told I am doomed to repeat the history class I'd somehow forgotten. Just when the panic and shame become too overwhelming, I open my eyes.

The nightmare flees, but not before I glimpse the box of a DVD I had rented: Strangers with Candy. It suddenly occurs to me why I had laughed so uneasily the night before.

Recently released on DVD, Comedy Central's short-lived but wickedly funny Strangers with Candy was modeled on the same premise as my recurring nightmare. After years of having been "a user, a boozer, and a loser," the main character, Jerri Blank (Amy Sedaris), decides to give secondary education a second try. Her face orange from too much pancake makeup, the grimacing 40-something protagonist is strangely immature beyond her years.

Not helping matters at all are her self-absorbed history teacher Chuck Noblet (Stephen Colbert), and overly-sensitive art instructor, Geoffrey Jellineck (Paul Dinello) who becomes the brunt of much speculation as he floats about in breezy yellow tunics and cascading curls.

Paul Dinello cites two major influences in the creation of the bizarre comedy. In a recent interview Dinello confirmed that Strangers with Candy is the Sedaris/Colbert/Dinello take on the after-school special:

"We've always been fascinated with after school specials. We'd find it funny how they create a problem and then wrap everything up in the end. A lot of stuff on television does that: it creates this problem, and regardless of how...tragic the problem is they can wrap it up in 22 minutes."

At around the same time, Dinello recalls his amusement over an old documentary depicting a woman who had reformed her sordid life and made it a mission to speak at schools about her past. "I had seen that separately and we sort of married those two ideas," Dinello explains. The character of Jerri Blank would be patterned after this woman, with one major difference: while the documentary woman merely spoke at schools, Jerri actually attends classes and attempts, without success, to appear indistinguishable from her "peers."

Since the cancellation of Strangers with Candy, Colbert, Sedaris, and Dinello have pursued other projects, including Wigfield, a novel that they wrote and then adapted for the stage. Still, they have ever had Candy on the brain. Recently, to the delight of devotees of the series, they've announced plans to make it a feature-length film. Directed by Dinello, it will revisit and expand upon familiar scenarios and feature the same cast. Explains Dinello, appreciatively, "We're having a lot of people back because they were so nice to work with on the show." He then dangles a few more carrots in front of Candy enthusiasts: big names, such as Sara Jessica Parker of Sex and the City fame, and Matthew Broderick.

When asked to disclose the plot of the film, Dinello's voice darkens. "It's a big guarded secret!" Realizing my disbelief, he quickly rejoins, "No it's not! She [Jerri] has to win the state science fair in order to save her father, who's in a coma. But she's having trouble focusing because…she's torn between the popular kids and doing a good job at the science fair."

He also cryptically mentions that the film, tentatively set for release next spring, is both a prequel to the television series, and a sequel.

Paul Dinello offers poignant insight into the persona of the aptly-named Jellineck, my favorite character of the series. Thanks to his parents' preferences in cinematic material, Dinello grew up on a steady diet of Jack Lemmon and Errol Flynn films. I begin to realize how diametrically opposed these two actors are when Dinello recalls: "Did you ever watch Errol Flynn movies? When I'd look in the mirror I'd go, 'Well, you know what, I think you're closer to Jack Lemmon.'"

When playing self-conscious characters such as Jellineck, Dinello remarks, "I'd have him [Lemmon] in mind. He often played a lovable loser, he was always playing very vulnerable characters. . .That was more interesting to me than Errol Flynn, who-good luck finding any weakness."

I take this as a cue to confess, somewhat self-consciously, my oft-repeated high school nightmare. "In it, I'm the same age that I am now, which is, well, I graduated about eleven years ago…"

"Uh-hah?" he prompts, amused.

"And it's strange, I'm facing…getting locked out of my locker, and missing classes and things like that…"

And what he says next just explains the whole thing; wraps it up neatly as only a creator of after-school specials could. I think of the Strangers with Candy all-cast funky dance as credits roll. Perhaps it's the one with Jellineck as a cheerleader.

"I know! Isn't that funny? I do the same thing…for some reason, high school just looms larger than life, and we never can…escape it."