Originally Published 12.14.08
Franks and Beans makes its glorious return with episode 19, “Is it Cold in Here?”, the first of what hopefully will be a long, universe-altering sting of episodes over the next few months (or whatever). As you might have noticed, we do tend to go through phases where certain blocks of episodes share a particular theme, and this is no different. This is in no ways intentional – I guess I like to come up with different variations of similar topics. Whereas previous episodes centered around singing and music, these new episodes have food as a main prop. And where terrible violence plays an important role in episodes past, the current batch features…well, more violence. I guess that says something about me and my writing style. Or just about me. Hey, did I mention that this episode has an oven in it?
Speaking of things that generate relative amounts of heat, we begin this episode with the image of a sleeping Jeff, only – and get this – I’m NOT sleeping: I’m only PRETENDING to sleep. I only mention this because of my award-worthy performance as “guy sleeping on the couch”. Did you see that sudden jerking as I fake-awake? The sleep-induced rubbing of the face? The stumbling throughout the living room, as if I was truly groggy from an impromptu nap? That’s called acting, folks, and it’s not something you can learn. You either have it or you don’t.
What I’m saying is, I tried.
Moving along, I’d like to take a moment and talk about the writing process on Franks and Beans for a few seconds, and what Larry and I each bring to the process. I find, the longer that we work together on this project, that we are both comfortable with different aspects of the production as a whole, and that includes the writing portion. I am the type of person who needs a quiet room with no distractions, time to prepare, think, write and rewrite. This is when, I think, I am at my funniest. I have my moments, but as a whole I’m not a spontaneously funny guy. Larry, on the other hand, doesn’t add much to the initial scripting process, but he always manages to catch things during the filming process that I’d never think of, and this episode is a good example of that.
In any given episode – at least after we had gotten a few of them under our belts – you’ll find obvious and not-so-obvious nods to previous jokes. I’m a fan of these, whether they work well in the context of the next episode or not, as long as they don’t ruin the show we’re working on at the moment. Larry, as he enters the house after I’ve managed to crawl into the oven, takes his jacket off and throws it over the railing that leads downstairs, a fairly obvious reference to our very first episode, “High School”. This gem of an easter egg was added at the last moment at the behest of Larry – it’s something that I’m often too absorbed to think of during filming, but it’s a testament to what Larry always seems to catch.
Larry can also be seen putting on a sweater as he comes to check on his ill-fated pizza a little later on – he thought that this would be “the obvious thing to do” if he were cold. The distinction between this calm rationale and my character’s deadly impulsiveness is one of the factors that drives this episode, and was also a brainchild of Larry’s, for which I must respond…have more children, Larry. In your brain.
In regards to the visual effect of me putting myself in a warm oven (one of my mother’s worst nightmares, let me tell you), I’m reminded of the DVD commentary on “The Weird Al Show”. If you don’t remember this program, don’t worry – it was a one season, 13-episode bust, but as I am a collector of everything “Weird Al” Yankovic, I own it and love it (the commentary is, in all seriousness, worth buying the box set for, though). During the commentary, Al and his various guests discuss the problems they had with CBS during filming, especially when it came down to “imitateable behavior” on the show. That is, they were strongly discouraged from showing things like someone smashing plates on their head or shaving their eyebrows, as children watching the program (this was Saturday-morning fare) might be encouraged to duplicate the stunts. This served as an endless headache for those working on the show, though they usually managed to find a way to sneak a few undesirable clips in during any given episode.
It is with this mindset that I watch “Is it Cold in Here?”. Though Franks and Beans is listed under “clean comedy” in the Funny or Die rank and file, and I generally feel that it lives up to that billing, I don’t intend it for a younger audience – if nothing else, I can imagine my parents catching me watching sometime similar 15 years ago and taking away my internet privileges (did we have the internet back then?). But even so, I still chuckle to imagine the reaction we’d get if this episode were played on television with children anywhere in a 50-foot radius. I sometimes fret about playing the “Milkshake” song or wearing Steelers gear in an episode, but showing me willingly entering an oven would probably get us sued faster than either of those infringements.
This episode – 19 episodes in, at that – features a first here on Franks and Beans: we actually have our first production-inspired purchase on display. If you couldn’t guess, it’s the sad-looking pizza that Larry so gracefully slides out onto the oven tray. On my way to Larry’s house – er, the studio – in the morning, I get a call. “You should go ahead and buy a pizza,” Larry suggested, as it was an integral prop for the upcoming episode. If the pizza looks like it cost a dollar fifty, that’s because it did – I bought the cheapest pizza that I possibly could. We ate the pizza (surprisingly good, all things considered) but saved the box, knowing that a moment such as that should be saved for posterity. We’re thinking of putting it up on eBay. Really. Eventually.
Another exciting feature to this episode hasn’t actually been seen yet. That’s because in just another week or so from this posting, we’ll release the special, extra-featureish EXTENDED EDITION for your viewing pleasure. The ending you see here is exactly what we had in mind for “Is it Cold in Here?”, but this new addition just adds a little more oomph, I think. Look for that soon.
Finally, we come to the ever-present “NO!” ending, in which we see Larry dressed up as a character from the best movie I’ve ever seen EVER, The Dark Knight. Rest assured, Larry didn’t concoct this getup just for F&B, but it certainly serves its purpose. Here’s a fun fact for you fans out there – Larry is a maniac when it comes to Halloween costumes and costume parties (hence the earlier Hulk Hogan ending), and this selection stacks up there with the best of them…though He-Man might still be my favorite.
Franks and Beans 