#musicials

[doctorwyvern]

i’m going to be the first disabled elder price and it’s gonna be awesome

[moonshadowslament]

hedwig would drink so much redbull she would start roblox lagging irl

[secretceremonies]

Liza Minnelli around 1965

[historyhermann]

A Cyclone of Calamity: "Milo Murphy's Law" is An Exciting Sci-Fi Comedy

Zack, Milo, and Melissa

What if someone creates a cyclone of calamity wherever they go? Milo Murphy's Law answers that question, with Milo always prepared for the unexpected and turning any disaster into an adventure!

Reprinted from The Geekiary, my History Hermann WordPress blog, and Wayback Machine. This was the twenty-sixth article I wrote for The Geekiary. This post was originally published on January 12, 2022.

Milo Murphy's Law is an animated comedic action-adventure animated series by Jeff "Swampy" Marsh and Dan Povenmire. Both also created the acclaimed musical comedy series, Phineas and Ferb, which ran for four seasons. Milo Murphy's Law is much more than a simple television series where anything that can go wrong will go wrong, i.e. murphy's law. It is Milo's world in more ways than one.

As a warning, this recommendation discusses some spoilers for Milo Murphy's Law.

Milo Murphy's Law centers around three characters: Milo Murphy (voiced by "Weird Al" Yankovic), Melissa Chase (voiced by Sabrina Carpenter), and Zack Underwood (voiced by Mekai Curtis). It follows adventures of Milo and his best friends as misfortune follows him wherever they go. But, he remains upbeat, carrying a backpack which always has what he needs for any eventuality. We later meet his mom Brigette (voiced by Pamela Adlon), an architect, and his dad, Martin, who is a safety inspector.

The story is from Milo's perspective as he faces obstacles. This includes an arrogant student named Bradley (voiced by Vincent Martella) and a self-described safety czar named Elliot (voiced by Christian Slater). He gives himself the mission to stop Milo no matter what, although often he is far from successful.

The series begins as a comedy almost from the get-go with physical slapstick humor. Zack, a new kid who once was part of a boy band known as the Lumberzacks, soon becomes Milo's best friend. He joins Melissa, a long-time friend of Milo, whose father, Richard, works as a firefighter. He later learns just roll with it and be for Milo when he needs help.

This differentiates it from Phineas and Ferb, which set in the same town. In that show, Phineas and Ferb engage in a grand new project every day of the summer. Milo, on the other hand, causes calamities everywhere he goes, using a backpack his babysitter, Veronica, gave him.

Milo's dog, Diogee (voiced by Dee Bradley Baker) plays an important part in his adventures. Although Milo tells him to go home, a running gag throughout the show, he helps Milo when he or his friends are in a tight spot.

A funny plotline is continual speculation whether or not a teacher with a Romanian accent, Kyle Drako (voiced by Michael Culross) is a vampire. One of Milo's classmates, Chad Van Coff (voiced by Django Marsh) is completely convinced that Drako is a vampire, but it is never said whether Chad is right. It is up the audience to decide it for themselves. There are also funny jokes about plot holes and flashbacks throughout the show.

The show divides itself between Milo's time at Middleton Middle School, the town of Danville (above ground and underground), and the wider world. This includes adventures through time itself! This isn't immediately evident from the beginning of season 1. It becomes more of a plot point when four agents from the Bureau of Time (Vinnie Dakota, Balthazar Cavendish, Savannah, and Brick) become recurring characters in the series.

The first two, voiced by Dan and Marsh, are time travelers tasked with stopping the pistachio from becoming extinct. The latter two, voiced by Ming-Na Wen and Brett Dalton, are secret agents also from the future who travel in a time-traveling limousine. Mark Hamill plays the annoyed superior of Dakota and Cavendish, Mr. Block. Time travel plays an important part in this series, often as a subplot, so much that both agents are later banned from time travel altogether.

Other agents consider the two bumbling agents, Dakota and Cavendish, a joke. They prove themselves when they end up saving the world from mutant pistachios, known as Pistachions, with Milo's help. Of course, they don't get credit for this, as their boss doesn't remember this due to the altering of the timeline and still talks down to them.

As a person who likes time travel in fiction, and a long-time fan of Futurama, this pulled me further into the series. Dakota and Cavendish are both from "the 70s". Dakota dresses in a 1970s track suit while Cavendish dresses like a person from the 1870s. Some fans have even shipped both characters together based on their interactions during the show, as they act as best buds in the show itself.

Unfortunately, the series doesn't include any outward LGBTQ characters. Even so, Swampy said that "some characters" in Milo Murphy's Law and Phineas and Ferb are part of the LGBTQ community but he did not specify which characters. This inspired some to make fan art. Additionally, there are over 380 fics on Archive of Our Own which ship Cavendish and Dakota together as "Dakavendish."

Fans of Doctor Who would love this series. There is a whole sub-story focused around a sci-fi franchise known as Dr. Zone, based on Doctor Who. Milo and his sister Sara (voiced by Kate Micucci) are big fans. The creator of the franchise, Orton Mahlson (voiced by Jemaine Clement) is even inspired by Dakota and Cavendish. His sidekick, in the episodes is a Time Ape voiced by Sophie Winkleman.

Milo Murphy's Law has some diversity in its cast. This includes Zack, Nolan Mitchell, and Marcus Underwood, characters voiced by Black men. A Black woman also voices Eileen Underwood.

A Cuban-American actress named Chrissie Fit voices Amanda Lopez. She was originally planned to be a white character, but was changed at Disney's urging. The executives told Dan and Swampy to make the show more diverse. The show also includes actors of Malaysian, Chinese, and Jamaican descent, specifically Wen and Olivia Olson.

Amanda is perfectionist like Pearl in Steven Universe. She unexpectedly falls in love with Milo, who also likes her back. While they are never directly shown as in a romantic relationship, there are romantic feelings between the two of them. This is curious since Amanda likes order and Milo causes chaos everywhere he goes. They especially show how they feel about one another in the second season, with Amanda even getting jealous when other girls are nice to him, and giving him a kiss on the cheek in another episode.

The same is the case for Milo's dad, Martin (voiced by Diedrich Bader). He is a safety inspector but is affected by murphy's law as much as his son. It's as much an oxymoron as Homer Simpson being the safety inspector at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant in The Simpsons. In the latter case, the building becomes unsafe the second he leaves the building.

Milo responds to Amanda's request to dance

Milo and Amanda are the not the only ones to express romantic feelings toward each other. There is a slow-burn romance between Melissa and Zack, and Sara has a crush on Neal, who works at a comic shop. Maulik Pancholy, an actor of Indian descent, voices the latter character.

Pancholy also voices a recurring character in Phineas and Ferb, Baljeet. Both shows merge together at the beginning of season 2 after a crossover episode, where characters from each show work to defeat the Pistachions. Prof. Doofenshmirtz, Perry the Platypus (i.e. "Agent P"), Major Monogram, and Carl appear as recurring characters in Milo Murphy's Law. As a result of the crossover, Doof crashes at Milo's house until he gets kicked out for being a nuisance.

Even Vanessa Doofenshmirtz, voiced by Olivia Olson, reappears in one episode. Voicing Vanessa was Olson's first major animated role before she voiced Marceline the Vampire Queen in Adventure Time. In fact, this role was one of the reasons that Pendleton Ward, the Adventure Time creator, brought her in to voice Marceline in the first place! If there had been no Vanessa, there wouldn't have been no Marceline, at least not as we know her today.

Events in Milo Murphy's Law and Phineas and Ferb also connect them together. For instance, Melissa is afraid of rollercoasters because of scheme by Phineas and Ferb. There are many other background details and events similar to both series.

By the show's second season, Swampy and Dan voice at least seven characters together. Other characters are voiced by talented actors like Greg Cipes, Alyson Stoner, Mackenzie Phillips, Sarah Chalke, and Larine Newman.

In the last half Milo Murphy's Law's second season new villains appear: a group of aliens known as Octalians. Milo's negative probability ions interest them and they try to capture him, hoping to save their planet from destruction. Joanna Hausmann, Odessa Adlon (Pamela Adlon's daughter), Brock Powell, John Ross Bowie, Cedric Yarbrough, and many others, voice these aliens.

Like many Disney shows aimed at children, music fills the episodes of Milo Murphy's Law. There are over 60 songs in seasons 1 and 2, along with 25 songlets. This pales in comparison to Phineas and Ferb, which almost has a musical number in every single episode. Even so, its catchy opening theme gets you in the mood to watch every episode.

The music accompanies the wonderful animation and background art of the series. It's not as detailed as a series like Arcane, but it is strong enough to move the story forward. It keeps you inside of Milo's world for each 22 minute episode, usually divided into two segments. The show also doesn't try to take itself too seriously, poking at the construction of animated shows throughout its run.

Some episodes criticize Silicon Valley tycoons and brainless consumers. Others have futuristic devices and robots. There are more fundamental themes in the series, such as the importance of family, self-acceptance, and identity. Some focus on the weight of adult responsibilities, which Prof. Doofenshmirtz called "adulting," while others focus on themes such as historic preservation, environmental protection, and automation.

While the last episode of Milo Murphy's Law aired on May 18, 2019, strong viewings of the show raise the possibility of the third season. There is a strong audience demand for the series and Dan has said that the show's success might "justify a couple of specials."

In the end, if you want to watch a show that will make you laugh with its absurdity and wacky storylines, then give Milo Murphy's Law a watch on Disney+. While you are at it, you can watch Swampy and Dan's first series, Phineas and Ferb, on the same streaming platform.

© 2022-2023 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

[writingwithcolor]

Including diversity where there may be little

Including diversity where there may be little: Black Radium Girls as example

post-scriptvm asked: [ask clipped for length]

I have an interest in the ‘Radium Girls’, groups of women who worked at studios in America from the late 1910s onwards painting radium onto clock faces, and later took their companies to court for the horrible impacts the radium had on their body. 

I want to make a musical, just for fun. I’ve decided to use a fictionalized version of events, with composite characters based on multiple different women, rather than one of the real-life groups and the actual women from them. It will be mostly set in New Jersey, in the roaring 20s. 

Neither of the two real-life groups I know of had any Black women in them, and I can’t see any Black women in any of the big group photos of the dial factories’ employees. But I know there’s a lot of Black history and culture in that time and place bc of the great migration and stuff, so I feel like if I’m not going to use the real life ladies, I should probably take the opportunity to also make some of them Black, bc making a whole cast of white ladies in the name of potentially wrong ‘historical accuracy’ seems like a bad thing.

My question is, should I? [ask clipped for length]

I wouldn’t be surprised if there were African American radium girls. Speculating People of Color/Women of Color’s involvement is far more realistic than portraying everyone as white. Go for it! 

Perhaps look into what other races were predominantly in the New Jersey area for inspiration, too.

Hidden History

This section features just a few examples of PoC in lesser known historical settings.

The histories of People of Color are highly and actively erased. Women of Color especially get their stories left to footnotes in the textbooks. You hear about certain amazing women again and again, but there’s so many others that don’t get their time of day.

Hidden Figures (book and movie) is a prime example of that erasure and lesser known history. To summarize: It’s “the powerful story of four African-American female mathematicians at NASA who helped achieve some of the greatest moments in our space program.”

Here’s another example:

Photo of female firefights on Pearl Harbor, 1941. Identities unknown

It would be nice to know more about these women, and i’ve seen inquiries from people requesting info from anyone who may know. This struggle to find details is a prime example of that erasure in itself.

Enemies in Love: A German POW, a Black Nurse, and an Unlikely Romance by Alexis Clark

The book pictured above is the true story of a Black nurse and German Prisoner of War who fall in love during World War II. They face many hardships (disowning from his family, racism, and shunning from towns) but stay together for their whole lives, marry, and have children (One of their sons highly informed the writing of the book!)

This book discusses the discrimination the Black soldiers and nurses faced. They struggled to even be allowed to serve their country, and were treated worse than POWs.

Video: The Unlikely Romance of a Black Nurse & German P.O.W. in WW II 

Research

Research “[RACE] + Firsts” and find many more examples of little unknown bits of history where they’ve been involved. 

First doesn’t mean it came without limitations, discrimination or hardships. But they happened, and many sooner than you’d think.

Explore beyond what you know about whitewashed history and learn the true stories of People of Color.

Making it “realistic”

People will question how “realistic” it is to feature a Black women in this position for the time period, unfortunately. It doesn’t hurt to provide an explanation until we get to a place where diversity isn’t interrogated when it shows up.

Giving her backstory. 

You can briefly explain the journey to the job, such as shortages due to a war. Take a look at those real world firsts for inspiration. 

Especially take a look at the specific region of the story. What firsts were there? Any government power influences? How did PoC break barriers to make the strides they did?

Use the web, but also go beyond. Seek books, historians, artwork. Search those “footnotes” for that one sentence mention. (That’s actually how the writer of Enemies in Love found their story. Just a quick sentence and a search for the story began. It helped that she was a journalist!)

Relationships with Peers: 

“I will cut off this right arm of mine before I will ever work or demand the ballot for the Negro and not the woman.” - Susan B. Anthony

White women weren’t, historically, welcoming to Black women. For example, white sufferists insisted Black women march in the back of the protests for, allegedly, both their rights.  You’ll need to decide how your Black woman is treated in this situation. 

You might face the following from peers, superiors, or others:

Hesitation to work or interact with her

Curiosity and intrigue (The “Other”

Unsure of how to approach or be friends with her  

Microaggressions

Blatant racism 

Your musical doesn’t seem like it is meant to focus too heavily on the hardships. It begs a mention, but just how much is up to you.

Call the Midwife, period racism example

Call the Midwife (BBC) is set in East End London, Late 1950s, early 1960s. The show features a Black midwife named Lucille Anderson. There’s a shortage on nurses so Caribbean nurses were being called in to support the growing population. 

Call the Midwife is from a midwife, Jennifer Worth’s, memoir, so it’s based on history.

Check out this short clip: Nurse Lucille Anderson - Call the Midwife 

Lucille on Call the Midwife (Take notes!)

The show handles racism and microaggressions very well. It’s not overdone.

Lucille is accepted by her peers and is especially close to one of the girls.

There’s an episode where she actively faces blame and discrimination during a case. It’s a major story line of the episode. 

She does face occasional micro-aggressions where she is othered, but it is not every single time she is on screen and not every episode. 

Her peers talk to her about her experiences and in the case where she had an aggressive family member to deal with, they tried to protect her by reassigning her from the family. Lucille asks to handle it her way and they respect her decision.

Lucille can mostly perform her job and have peace, and is treated kindly by patients.

She has a personality, a romantic life, family & friendships.

It’s about 90% allowing her to exist, 10% navigating racism/microaggressions. That’s a comfortable, realist balance for such a story and setting. 

If you want to check out how they handled these issues for yourself, the show is on Netflix as of this post (2020). She’s introduced in Season 7. (I highly recommend watching this show from the beginning. I cry like every episode, and the diversity of several ethnic backgrounds picks up a lot mid season!)

I’ll kick you three scenarios for your Black radium girl:

Peer Acceptance, Initial Hesitation 

awkward friendliness & initial hesitation, perhaps more fear of the unknown vs. hostility

Upon having interactions and talking to her, they become comfortable and accept her. It could take just one simple conversation. Perhaps they’re more used to listening to Black music or have Black staff who work for them, but haven’t had an equal one-on-one experience with WoC without a power dynamic or service involved. Now, with a Black fellow radium girl thrown in a similar situation as them, they could develop kinship.

This might not describe every one of the woman at all. Others might be just fine with her with no awkwardness.

Types of racism experienced: 

some micro-aggressions (likely ignorance from peers)

no major racism experienced

Most Peer Acceptance, Racism From Some Peers

Most peers have no problem with her, even if they have their initial awkwardness. 1-2 more aggressive racists who don’t want her there. 

Sometimes everyone else gets along, but there’s that 1 bully and their minion, and they feed off each other. If the BS isn’t tolerated by the other girls, it could shut them up to make peace or at least behave themselves. It’s likely someone like this would remain hatefully stubborn, but would grimace from the corner if outnumbered.

In the case you create a situation where someone is hostile to the Black girl but learns better: real apologies and efforts should be made if this occurs. It also doesn’t excuse their past behavior. Read our posts on redemption arcs for more info. We’re not fans, personally.

In an intense racial situation, it would be nice if the girls (with sense) protected and defended her instead of standing idly by. They’re strong enough to rise up against the agencies who poisoned them, so they can fight for their fellow radium sisters if one’s being targeted. 

Types of racism experienced: 

several micro-aggressions

maybe 1 major incident 

Peer Acceptance, Racism from Other People

Radium girl acceptance within, but experiences racism from others she interacts with on/off the job. 

The Call the Midwife example fits this one. Lucille’s peers are comfortable with her. It’s some of the ladies she care for and/or their families that may have negative things to say or show hesitance. 

I’ll repeat what I said above: it’d be nice if the girls protected and defended her and didn’t stand by idly. Solidarity is important for establishing kinship and trust when it comes to white - woc friendships. 

Types of racism experienced: 

could vary from some to several micro-aggressions 

maybe 1 major incident

Balancing race issues in the musical 

Give the intersections of your Black girl’s situation proper attention. You can achieve this without overdoing it or making her whole arc about facing racism.

Perhaps the Black radium girl(s) has a song to express major woes, like segregation and poor treatment, or experiencing dismay over even less of a fighting chance in this fight for their rights.

If anyone does know anything but radium girls of color, please share! 

–Mod Colette

[medicangels]

No one:

Absolutely no one:

Me at 2am trying to sleep: cRAP HOLe, YEah thats mE. I’m seven aND I’m mALE

[lostinthememory13]

I should probs finish watching 21 Chump Street that I started like a year ago lmao 😂😂😂