S28: Kate Flannery: Can Meredith Mambo?

[OnceSane]

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Actor, comedienne and singer Kate Flannery is best known for her nine seasons as Meredith the drunk on NBC's The Office. She has recently been seen on Young Sheldon on CBS and has been heard on Cartoon Network's OK K.O.! and Steven Universe. She has guest starred on FOX's Brooklyn Nine-Nine and New Girl, ABC's American Housewife, Comedy Central's Another Period, Hulu's All Night and the FOX NFL pre-game show on Riggle's Picks. Flannery was in the Tribeca Film Fest's Tenured and Slow Learners, and in the critically acclaimed 4th Man Out on Netflix. She stars in the HBO short Emergency Contact, How to Get Girls, Dial a Prayer with William H. Macy and the Sundance hit Cooties with Elijah Wood. Flannery is currently singing with Jane Lynch in their anti-cabaret act Two Lost Souls, where they did a residency at The Carlyle Hotel in New York. Flannery is featured on Jane Lynch's Christmas album A Swingin Little Christmas, which reached #6 on the Billboard Top 100 charts. She has toured with Lynch for the past four years, playing at the Kennedy Center, Joe's Pub and in 40 cities over the past two years. Flannery's original cult comedy lounge act, The Lampshades, plays comedy festivals and Hollywood regularly.

Dancing with Pasha Pashkov.

[spanana]

I love Kate on this show and I am enjoying her, her dancing and her partnership with Pasha.  One of my fave couples in a long time, no matter how long she lasts.  

But one thing that dawned on me today that I find refreshing, is I feel like it's rare that we have a woman on this show past the age of 40 whose story doesn't revolve around motherhood and their family.  Of course most of them have careers in addition to family, but there are often dedicated dances to children and etc.

I know that may sound harsh and there is absolutely nothing wrong with women having kids and a family and wanting to talk about it on DWTS, so that isn't a dig at anybody who has been on the show.  People make their own choices in life and there is no wrong choice in that sense, but I also feel like the women as mothers is also the expected norm for women past a certain age and those that don't have kids are seen as weird.

All that said, I kind of find it refreshing to see a "older" woman on this show whose story is basically that she was a late bloomer whose career really got started in her 40's and she met her partner in her 40's and she's just happily living life.  Again, not a dig but mothers but also just that motherhood isn't the only option for women to be happy and fulfilled.

[LBS]

@spanana 100% agree. It is nice change.  Very nicely worded.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

ITA with all of the above. And even if you put aside all the motherhood stuff, it's also nice to see a female contestant past the age of 50 make it this far! Off the top of my head, Jennifer Grey, Kirstie Alley, and Marie Osmond are the only women over 50 who made it to the finals. Ricki Lake and Tonya Harding were in their 40s.

[spanana]

4 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

ITA with all of the above. And even if you put aside all the motherhood stuff, it's also nice to see a female contestant past the age of 50 make it this far! Off the top of my head, Jennifer Grey, Kirstie Alley, and Marie Osmond are the only women over 50 who made it to the finals. Ricki Lake and Tonya Harding were in their 40s.

I agree. I don't expect her to get to the finals, even though I'd like that and I keep expecting her to hit B2 every week and I truly don't know if the judges would keep her over other younger contestants in the B2.  Probably not. I think they would keep her over Karamo probably, but  they would probably save almost everyone else over her which would be disappointing.  So she's in a situation where in order to stay she really needs to stay out of the B2.  Of course they would keep her over Spicer, but he's never hitting the B2.  So that said I expect her to go home every week and I wouldn't be surprised if it happened next week (but please no!).  On top of that she's saddled with the Sean and Karamo group dance team.

I really wonder where she's at in the votes though.  Like is she just hovering high enough to keep her out of the bottom so far?  I do think she's started to strike a chord with maybe some of the older viewers at home and I can see why she would be appealing to them story wise.  From what I saw online this week, I see people resonating with the fact that she worked as a waitress for 30 years and quoted whatever she said about it not being a punishment to have to work a another job while chasing your dreams.  I could see where she might be appealing in that she very much has an every woman vibe to her who has worked hard and paid her dues.

I also really hope she gets some sort of career boost or role on a comedy show out of this.  I've always been an Office fan so knew of her, but now I really love her and want to see her career thrive.

She's also on the Kelly Clarkson show next week.  Hopefully Pasha got to go too.

[boyznkatz]

What's surprising is I didn't know who she was at the start of the season, but my teenage son did. Do teens watch reruns of the office?

I do think she is making the finals. Like Spanana said, she's a rare older woman who didn't come in with a "mom" storyline. I think that was Christie's role, but now that she's gone, that audience would probably go to Kate.

[spanana]

19 minutes ago, boyznkatz said:

What's surprising is I didn't know who she was at the start of the season, but my teenage son did. Do teens watch reruns of the office?

Yes, very much.  The Office is a bit omnipresent right now both in terms of streaming and on television and I've noticed in the last year or two that teenagers and young 20 somethings have become obsessed with binging the show.  So I think that helps her in a way.  While I expect it's more of the older people voting for her, she is from a show that has appeal to different generations.

I also think that is part of the surprise of her on this show too because people only know her as Meredith, the kind of schlumpy, alcoholic, mess of a character so nobody expected her to have an ounce of grace and etc.  As she said to Tom one week, Meredith moved like a lumberjack.

[boyznkatz]

33 minutes ago, spanana said:

Yes, very much.  The Office is a bit omnipresent right now both in terms of streaming and on television and I've noticed in the last year or two that teenagers and young 20 somethings have become obsessed with binging the show.  So I think that helps her in a way.  While I expect it's more of the older people voting for her, she is from a show that has appeal to different generations.

Yeah, I think my son's friends watch it as well, along with other older shows. I'm always amazed when he recognizes more peeps from DWTS than I do. LOL!

[kitcloudkicker]

8 hours ago, boyznkatz said:

Yeah, I think my son's friends watch it as well, along with other older shows. I'm always amazed when he recognizes more peeps from DWTS than I do. LOL!

Yeah, it got really big on Netflix with the teen crew. Billie Eilish - 17 years old with one of the best selling albums of the summer - sampled one of the episodes in one of her songs. Here she is getting quizzed by Rainn Wilson on office trivia 

[spanana]

I don't know if there are even young people in the ballroom, but it's also always interesting to me that some of the sitcom stars from shows people are obsessive over get bigger ballroom fan reactions than maybe potentially bigger stars.  Creed Bratton from The Office was there for Kate this week and her comment on the photo she posted made it sound like he caused a bit of a stir in the ballroom.  She's had somebody different from the show each week.

I think in general there is also something about people from long running tv shows that it makes viewers feel closer to them than say a movie star in a way.  Just because you see them so much more often and usually from the comfort of your own home, though I realize how people experience movies has changed.

I guess I count some of our pros as young people.  Pasha and Daniela were Office obsessed.  I think Alan is too.  And I don't know if they watched The Office, but Witney and Lindsay flipped out when Kate had Jim O'Heir there from Parks & Rec.

[spanana]

Talking to myself, but this semi answers the question about The Office popularity.  Kate & Pasha were on Access Hollywood today and according to the hosts, The Office is officially the most streamed show ever on Netflix and I'm willing to bet a lot of the people doing the streaming aren't old.

https://www.accessonline.com/videos/would-kate-flannery-join-an-office-reboot

Cute interview.  Also her sister died of breast cancer right before the season and she said she got the DWTS offer when she was driving home from her sister's funeral.

[Bridget]

As a high school teacher, I can confirm what many students are watching...because I hear random comments like “Assistant TO the regional manager” in the classroom and it’s always funny!

Off the top of my head, a lot of teenagers  love “Friends”, “The Office”, “Parks and Rec” and “Grey’s Anatomy.” They haven’t yet discovered the joy that is “30 Rock”, but I remain hopeful.

I was chatting to the cashier at Kohl’s last week and the topic of TV shows came up because I bought a shirt with the “Friends” TV show logo. She was probably 20 or 21 years old, but she told me that she is dying to get the DVD boxed sets of the aforementioned comedies, along with “The Middle.” 

I guess millennials aren’t really too bad. That was my takeaway. 🤣

I personally lost my mind when I saw Kate’s friends, Stanley from “The Office” and Jim O’Heir from “Parks and Rec”, in the audience!!

[lavenderblue]

More like Gen Z -- I'm a 30+ millennial and watched most of those shows, including The Office, in real time! (Finding many of its themes more resonant now than in college, I do wonder what teens are specifically getting out of it.)

Kate's grace really tells you what a great physical performer she is, because she absolutely transformed her body movement for Meredith, even in background moments. The surprise really has been one of the most fun things about her run.

[spanana]

I love their partnership and they just compliment each other all the time.  Cute.  Pasha says they have something special prepared for next week so I don't know what that means.  The only thing I can think of is if she was dedicating something specifically to her sister that passed recently.  Next week isn't a theme week.

Pasha also talks about how to him the rumba is the hardest of the dances so figures if she can get through that she can get through anything.  I'd put samba up there, but I get his point because rumba is so slow so it's deceptively difficult and magnifies every flaw.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Pdeq9Jee-o

Dancing aside, they are still my fave duo in a long time.  IMO they are best matched partnership this season.

[spanana]

Can ABC put this woman in a tv show in the near future?  I would like her back on my tv sooner rather than later.  Signed, a fan.

[MMLEsq]

We went to the Dancing With the Stars Live Tour this past week (at the Hard Rock in Hollywood, FL) and Kate was the special guest.....definitely an improvement over last year's tour where we ended up with Grocery Store Joe as the special guest.  Kate danced a few dances with Pasha and also came out and did some "hosting."  GSJ seemed to be there just to be the butt of jokes -- I can't even remember if he actually did any dancing.