THE CRAZY ONES – Season 1 Episode 7 – SPOILERS

An interview with Ad Age Magazine which calls her “aloof and standoffish”, leads a gift basket for Sydney from a former co-worker named Danny Chase, along with his new CD which features a song called “Sydney, You’re So Fine“. Dozens of stalker jokes later, as Sydney heads to the restroom to pee, Danny (Josh Groban) turns up at Syd’s office and asks her to lunch. She responds coldly, spurning his attentions. This leads to the BEST GELLAR MOMENT of the episode.

SYDNEY: [upset, watching a dejected Danny leave] “I don’t have to pee anymore”
LAUREN: “I always wonder where it goes when that happens.”

Simon sells Danny’s song about Syd as a jingle for Australian tourism, and breaks the news to Sydney in his office, which contains a smaller version of the red robot we saw in earlier episodes. Syd has to tell Simon that she was rather rude to the fellow, and Lauren adds: “It was the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen, and I spend a summer interning with Japanese whalers.”

The gang goes to Danny’s release party to try to buy the song, and Andrew is supposed to pose as Sydney’s boyfriend, but instead chats up two women (Michelle Arenal and Stefanie Wood), and it turns out that Danny has not only fallen out of love with Syd, he’s written another, bitter song about the rejection. (Groban needs to release the two songs about Sydney as a single, under the name Danny Chase.)

SNL CONNECTION

Danny’s dressing room is in the Men’s room next to a urinal and toilet stall. On the wall, a bit of graffiti says “CHRISTINA – tiene dedos de MONSTRO” which is Spanish for “Christina, you have monstrous fingers.” It could be just graffiti, but there might be a Gellar connection. In 2002 (12 October to be specific) Gellar played Christina Aguilera in an SNL skit. Aguilera is known to have extremely small fingers (this was discovered when someone bought her an engagement ring in 2005) and she does speak Spanish.

During the episode, we get to see Wolk, Williams, and Linklater as they pitch (in drag) a campaign based on the film Priscilla, Queen of the Desert to the Australian Tourist Board (represented by Eddie (Ron Bottitta) and Grant (Jonno Roberts). Eddie and Grant have never heard of the Oscar-winning film, but THE CRAZY ONES gets points for mentioning it. It turns out that Simon was traumatized on his last trip to Australia, and hates the place.

HISTORICAL NOTE: On the Rachel Ray Show (27 September 2011) discussing RINGER, and talking about identical twins:
GELLAR: “Could you imagine having someone that looked exactly like yourself? That would be creepy.”
RACHEL RAY: “You wouldn’t want one.”
GELLAR: “Just a drag impersonator. I’ve always wanted one of those.”

In the outtakes at the end of the episode we get to see Gellar impersonating a drag artist.

After Simon makes a deal with Danny to buy his song, he has to sell the deal to Sydney, and does so in a scene that nicely illustrates how admen work. With leading questions he finds out what Sydney remembers of the night he came back from his long Australian trip, and then spins a tale in which his daughter’s kindness to him is responsible for his current sobriety. Sydney, now feeling better about herself, goes along with her dad’s deal.

At the end of the episode, Simon, singing about Australia with Danny, decides that it might have been New Zealand where his great final bender happened, but earlier, his Australia story involved an eastern grey kangaroo, and those are not native to New Zealand.

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NOTES

Stefanie Wood (attractive redhead) was a model in the film I DO, written and produced by David W. Ross, about a gay Brit living in New York who marries his lesbian best friend to remain in the country then actually falls in love. I DO is available on iTunes.

Jonno Roberts was Agathon in XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS (Season 3 Episode 3).

James Wolk (Zach Cropper) will play Craig in the film YOU MUST BE JOKING, about a paralegal named Barb who is reunited with a former best friend named Billy who is now a ballet dancer and decides to pursue her dream of being a comic.

Josh Groban (Danny Chase) will next appear on television as Dirty Dave in HAPPYLAND, an MTV series (they have ordered 8 episodes) set in a theme park and set to air sometime next year.

Michelle Arenal, one of two women that Andrew chats up in the club, has appeared in two films. She played someone named Michelle in ONE HOUR FANTASY GIRL (2009), and was the girl on Zohan’s shoulders in YOU DON’T MESS WITH THE ZOHAN.