Cut to my recent move to Philly. Or more accurately, a borough just outside Philadelphia. I was at my internship, chatting with the other interns while organizing fabric samples, when I learn that one of the other interns grew up in the borough next to me--and both being fairly small, they are practically the same town. Upon this discovery, she mentions that she went to Upper Darby high school. "Oh that's cool" I say, "I live right down the road from Upper Darby High." "Did you know that Tina Fey went to Upper Darby high school?" she says, like it's NO BIG DEAL. "Whaaaat???" I says. "It's true" she says. And it is:
Fey attended Cardington Elementary School and Beverly Hills Middle School in Upper Darby. By middle school, she knew she was interested in comedy, even doing an independent-study project on the subject in eighth grade. Fey attended Upper Darby High School, where she was an honor student, a member of the choir, drama club, and tennis team, and co-editor of the school's newspaper. (Information provided by NNHit).
Where before I was a mere fan, now I am borderline obsessed. Here, in my small neck of the woods, is the birthplace of comedic greatdom. I remember the first time I passed Beverly Hills Middle School and I thought: This is NOT Beverly Hills. Little did I know...little did I know (even though Fey actually lives and writes in New York, she is in show business--herego, she is inevitably tied to Beverly Hills). After some very unproductive internet stalking, I unsuccessfully find her childhood home. I find a Donald Fey listed on whitepages.com but am not willing to pay $39.95 to get his address and information. My husband has silently endured my aw everytime we pass UD High. "Yup" he says after I mention for the umpteenth time that "Look! That's where Tina Fey went to High School." This folks, is love. I know I have a problem, and I'm working to overcome it. But what I wouldn't give to see the front yard where that horrible attack on her face happened. To meet her teachers and hear of her nerdom that made her what she is today. What I wouldn't give.
Apparently some of her classmates are now teachers at Upper Darby High School. I was told, by my intern friend, that her gym teacher was classmates with her and that Fey wrote the character of Gretchen Weiners after her. "And she's a gym teacher now?" I asked. This did not seem like the inspiration for the fictional daughter of the inventor of Toaster Strudel. "Well yeah, kinda, she's jewish and was really popular but then she got in an accident and it disfigured her face..." she trails off. And now she's a gym teacher. And that made me wonder...
One day I was walking with Hubster (I was showing him the WOODS I found near our house...) and we were passed by a very loud bus. On the back of the bus was a very large picture of Tina Fey as part of an advertising campaign for 30 Rock being rerun on our local cable channel Phl17. This bus runs RIGHT by Upper Darby high school. I wondered, as her glasses clad face rolled away, of what her classmates think of her now. Do they resent her? Are they happy for her? Do they even care?
There is an episode of 30 Rock where Liz goes back to her High School reunion with Jack (who ends up being mistaken for one of her classmates and decides to go along with it, giving the hilarious line: "Rich 50 is middle class 38" in response to Tina's exasperation in the disparity of their ages). Anyway, Liz is resentfully attending because she believed herself to be the typical she'sallthat/neverbeenkissed/highschoolnerdcinderella story where everybody mistreated her because she was a dork and then later became successful. Then it turns out that everybody hated her because she said super mean and sarcastic things because she THOUGHT they were being mean to her. It's a pretty hilarious typical 30 Rock turn on situational irony and nostalgia for those of us who were also huge nerds in high school. Ahem.
Anyway, if this part of 30 Rock was in fact, autobiographical, like SOME of her writing is. Then I would feel really bad for her classmates who have to see her semi-scarred face every time they make their morning commute, or head into the city, or ride the subway. It's a really big ad campaign.
No comments:
Post a Comment