Something's Podda Cast

**Something's Podda Cast** is a miniseries on the films of Nancy Meyers. This miniseries is preceded by the Podback Mountcast miniseries on the films of Ang Lee. It is followed by the Podward Scissorcast miniseries on the films of Tim Burton.

Blankies asked for it, they voted in droves for it, and now here it is!

## Summary

Blank Check March Madness was indeed truly mad, because when the smoke cleared and the Twitter votes were tallied the result was a blowout victory for Nancy Meyers. As the 2018 tournament proceeded she won every new matchup by a bigger margin than the last, felling every higher seed until all had kneeled before this juggernaut.

So what's the story on Nancy Meyers? First off she's from West Philadelphia, born and raised. Okay, fine, Drexel Hill is very far west... whatever. She once had a cheesecake-making business, how about that? She started really making her mark in Hollywood as the writing half of a writer/director team with Charles Shyer, writing several movies in the 80's while he directed them; later they became a couple and were married. This Hollywood teamwork continued through the 90's too, and all the while she was building relationships with some star actors (that would come in handy in casting her own movies later). Meyers and Shyer separated shortly after Nancy's directorial debut... but together they had two daughters, one of whom is now a movie director too; we'll see if that fact comes into play during this miniseries.

Nancy finally got the chance to direct on her own with a 1998 remake of *The Parent Trap*. It ended up being a pretty decent hit with audiences, and from there she got more opportunities to work with bigger and bigger stars, and bigger and bigger budgets. And her reputation for perfectionism may be rivaled only by David Fincher. She really is a blank check kind of director!

It's not going to be a lengthy miniseries, but it surely will more than make up for it in unpredictability and weirdness. What are the career narratives for all of the huge stars in these movies? Are there some recurring themes or plot devices or character types that Nancy tends to write into her work? Have some of these comedies aged poorly (playing on social mores as they do), or are they more relevant than ever?

The big question: How did these movies get such big budgets in this era of Hollywood, despite having nothing to do with superheroes? Wait, the CGI budget for *The Holiday* was how much?!!?? And what does Griffin's sister Romilly Newman have to say about all the luxe cooking environments on screen, in the eagerly-anticipated "Romilly's Kitchen Corner" segments?

### Milestones and Ephemera

* Nancy Meyers posted about her March Madness victory on Instagram. She wrote:
> @nmeyers: "I seem to have won something on @reddit. Can anyone explain? I’ve been internet free for the week. (Try it sometime!) Anyway, can anyone fill me in?"
>
>
* Producer Ben nickname: **The Hozliday**.

## Episodes

The speaker symbol (🔊) provides a link to the audio. Special features episodes with the check symbol (✔️) have been released from behind the paywall.

## Ranking Her Filmography

* The blankies' rankings were compiled at the conclusion of the miniseries, in the voting thread found on the r/Blankies sub-reddit, where the results were later posted.
* Scribbadee doo ba doop!