Last summer, Comedy Central’s cult-status TV show “Strangers with Candy” hit the big screen as a full-length film that pleased old fans and made some new ones. Now, the movie is available on DVD with fun features such as deleted scenes, filmmaker commentary and an original music video.
“Strangers with Candy” is a goofy, satirical spoof on the cheesy, unrealistic after-school specials of the ’70s and ’80s that always ended with a heartfelt lesson. Although the show lasted only three short seasons and ended six years ago, it has maintained a loyal fan base.
When the show’s creators – Amy Sedaris, Stephen Colbert and Paul Dinello – decided to turn the series into a feature film, they were faced with certain challenges.
“It was tough to find a balance,” Dinello said. “I wanted to make a movie that new fans could enjoy but stay true to the TV show.”
Dinello’s job on the film was quite the balancing act, as he not only co-wrote the film but also starred in it and directed it. He said someone else was set to direct the film, but when plans fell through because of scheduling conflicts, he took the job.
“It just kind of happened,” Dinello said. “Had I thought about it more, I probably would have had a nervous breakdown.”
The movie is a prequel to the series, beginning when Jerri Blank (Sedaris), a 47-year-old “former boozer, user and loser” who, after 32 years as a junkie whore and a few years in prison, returns home to find everything has changed.
Her mother died and her father remarried and subsequently slipped into a self-induced coma shortly after her disappearance. She thinks that if she picks up where she left off three decades ago by going back to high school, then maybe her dad will wake up.
Back at Flat Point High, she finds the people have changed but the problems are the same. She faces bullies, crazy teachers and the same pressure to be popular.
As alumnus of Chicago’s famous improvisational theater Second City, Sedaris, Colbert and Dinello used improv techniques to write the “Strangers with Candy” series and develop their outrageous characters. Colbert plays Chuck Noblet, an ignorant science teacher who has a secret homosexual relationship with art teacher Geoffrey Jellineck (Dinello). Dinello said his character was inspired by a teacher he had in high school who wore suede jackets and crashed high school parties.
“(Jellineck) imagines he can fit in seamlessly with the students, but he can’t,” Dinello said.
Accompanying the usual cast of unusual characters, which includes David Pasquesi as Stew and Greg Hollimon as Principal Blackman, are a host of celebrity cameos. Matthew Broderick plays Noblet’s rival Roger Beekman, a teacher who uses flashy performances to win science fairs. Sarah Jessica Parker stars as an apathetic and terribly inappropriate grief councilor, and Ian Holm makes an appearance as a doctor.
Even if you’ve seen the movie, the DVD is worth renting for the deleted scenes.
“They’re all scenes that I felt were good enough to put in the movie,” Dinello said.
“Some of them were heartbreaking to cut.”
One short but memorable deleted scene is a “sniper attack drill,” in which shots are heard and students in a hallway duck down screaming, then, after it’s announced the drill has ended, the students nonchalantly go on their way.
In a deleted scene titled “Packing,” Jerri is shoving her random belongings into a pillowcase. Dinello said he cut a hole in the bottom of the bag so it would appear that she had fit everything in one small pillowcase, but the gag didn’t go as planned. The camera catches everything falling out of the bag – to which Sedaris is apparently oblivious – and, if you listen closely, you can hear Dinello and the director of photography laughing as they film.
