Tag: hannah-waddingham

The Cars We’d Pick, Favorite TV Couples and Goodbyes with Ted Lasso

Anne went to the Pacers at Clippers game this week at Intuit in LA and we use Ted Lasso Season 2, Episode 11 to talk about cars we’d pick to start our fleet, name our favorite TV couples, and discuss if we’re any good at goodbyes. (hint: not really)

If money is no issue, what couple of automobiles do you want?

  1. 77 Trans Am with the eagle on it.
  2. 70 Chevelle
  3. Carolina Blue G Wagon
  4. Ford Raptor truck
  5. Escalade / Mercedes van

Favorite TV couples?

  1. Alex Keaten and Ellen Reed. Fox’s real wife Tracy Pollan. Bill Vera and the Beater’s song. Billy Vera and The Beaters “At this Moment.” What did you think I would do at this moment?
  2. Seinfeld and Elaine count?
  3. Jim and Pam
  4. Maddie and David on Moonlighting

Notes and Discussion Questions for Ted Lasso “Midnight Train to Royston” from Season 2, Episode 11:

  • Crowd chanting. Sam scores a hat trick. At least Nate looked happy for him. Rebecca texts him congratulations. Collin drives a lime green Lambo. Anne, if money was no object, what are a couple autos you would pick?
  • Keeley has an interview and photoshoot with Vanity Fair. Ted comes in to Rebecca’s office. Dr. Sharon is leaving. Ted is collecting cash. Higgins comes in. Edwin Akufo owns Ghana tech firm. Inherits 1.2 billion pounds. He’s coming for a visit.
  • Nate and Beard in the office. Will the kit man brings in Nate’s suit. Roy comes in and asks if his eyebrows are crazy. Ted comes in coaches office. Nate has a new tactic, a false nine. Nate says here we go again. His idea and Coach Lasso gets all the credit. The forest is a socialist community.
  • Out on the pitch, the team is working on a goodbye dance for Dr. Sharon. Beard says, “The team is not NSYNCH.” The album, No Strings Attached. Edwin Akufu’s helicopter arrives. He has people who shake hands for him. Weighted blanket. “Chop it up with Ms. Welton,” Ted says. I said that in a team meeting the other day! Dramatic pause by Beard. “That was it!”
  • Rebecca, Ted, Keeley, Higgins, meet with Akufu in Rebecca’s office. He wants to buy Sam. Edwin wants Sam to play in Africa. “A sad white man is still a white man.” Sam comes in. Edwin is willing to shake Sam’s head. Higgins wrote a play about a footballer who eats at a museum.
  • Nate was waiting in Keeley’s office. He wants help picking out a suit.
  • Roy goes to pick up Phoebe from school but school is out. She draws breasts for some reason. There’s an art fundraiser. Reminds me of the Buckley fundraiser. He offers to help the teacher set up the art.
  • Rebecca comes in and tells Ted she had an affair with Sam. Limbo, Ted says, great party game but terrible relationship status. Ted says Sam and Rebecca are already one of his favorite TV couples. Anne, what are your favorite TV couples. Ted tells Rebecca to listen to her gut and on her way down to her gut to check in with her heart. Ted reminds Rebecca a year ago she told him she hired him so that he would fail. They agree to meet again next year. Third season!
  • At the clothing store with Nate and Keeley. Keeley does a Roy Kent impression. Nate has on a plaid suit. The seller is concerned the crotch is too loose. They check it out intensely.
  • Ted thinks he’s running into Sharon’s office but she has left and Higgins has returned to his office. He says he knows everyone’s birthday: Liam Neeson, Tina Turner, Chuck Norris, Sharon Stone, and Osama Bin Laden. Ted is angry about the letters. Higgins, “Don’t let-her get away with it Ted.” Ted comes running back in. Love it when this happens. Anne, how are you at goodbyes? Let’s try to remember some.
  • Edwin and Sam at the museum. Edwin bought the piece. Edwin wants to make things better. Banksy is there.
  • Nate settles on an all black suit. Nate asks, Do you ever want to be the boss? She is straightening his tie. She pumps him up about fighting hard for there dreams. Go for it, she says and Nate leans in for a kiss. At least he is very apologetic. Why does he need to spit there?
  • Roy is still talking to the teacher. Roy asks why the other classes pictures are shit? The best teachers are the toughest ones. Who were your best teachers? She asks if he’s married. Roy says no. How about Karen the teacher’s sweater? What is on there? Looked like popsicles.
  • Ted waits outside Sharon’s apartment. Ted is really mad and talks about being abandoned. Is a bunch of cash a good gift? His wife left him… His dad left him… Ted agrees to read the stupid letter. LOL, he corrects her spelling. Funny to moved by a scene where I don’t know what the letter said. Friendship is a theme of Ted Lasso. She is going to Royston. Her train leaves at midnight. She asks him if he wants to go get a drink.
  • Edwin and Sam are out to eat eating South African food. Sam is the fourth person to know that Edwin is buying a team. He wants to build up the African club. Take all the time you need. You have 72 hours.
  • Roy arrives for the photoshoot. It’s at Keely’s house. Keeley is really nervous. Roy comes over and gives her a pump up speech. Reminds me of when she pumped him up before going on to be a pundit. They kiss. We get a montage of the photoshoot. Cut to Sharon and Ted in the pub. Cut to Sam walking through town. Roy and Keeley are told to look at each other. She says Nate tried to kiss her. Thank you for telling me. He was talking to Phoebe’s teacher for three hours. She tells him that Jamie told her he still loves her. Roy looks ready to cry.
  • Roy and Sharon play pinball. Favorite arcade games? Putting your name on a machine. The boys come up, You’re the shrink for the team, eh? The big guy is afraid of snakes. Anne, what are you afraid of? Ted left and wrote her a letter. (goodbye or the glass could be the pic)
  • Sam arrives home and Rebecca is on his doorstep. She says she hopes he doesn’t go.
  • Ted gets back to his apartment, which is seeming less like a premiere league coach’s apartment. Trent Crimm texts him that an article is running in the paper about the panic attack. Nate was his source. Ted decides not to comment.
  • Trent sends a bunch of short texts. I prefer one long text. That’s the end of the episode. I think that’s Radiohead at the end.

Thanks for checking out this episode of the Torg Stories Podcast!

Trophies for Winning Nothing: Ted Lasso Season 2, Episode 2

We’re using the TV show Ted Lasso to spark conversation. This week we discuss if it’s ever time to give up on a player, heavy is the head that wears the visor, our favorite books, and I tell my Pat Conroy story.

Ted Lasso Season 2, Episode 2 summary with observations and discussion questions. The episode was titled “Lavender.”

  • We open with the dating reality show called Lust Conquers All during which former Richmond player and boyfriend to Keeley is kicked off the show. We cut to a talk show in the vein of the Today Show during Jamie is being interviewed. He is called a loser on the show and is also informed that his old team Manchester City doesn’t want him back. Question: Do you watch these dating shows?
  • Cut to the Richmond coaches offices where Beard has spent the night after his girlfriend thew his keys in the river. Ted runs out of the office. Later, we find out that he has gone to ride the lawn mower. Nate goes off on the kit manager, whose name I think is Will Kitman!!!, for adding a lavender smell to the team’s laundry. Question: everyone is picking up on Nate? No one challenging him yet?
Ted rides lawn mower to help with his Sciatica
  • Keeley arrives to the Richmond practice facility with Roy. Is that a G Wagon? I think those start at $148k. Roy barrels out of the parking lot before anyone can speak to him. Question: any trouble adjusting to the time when sports were over for you?
  • Doc-tor Sharon has been hired for the rest of the season to work with the team and sports psychology. There’s a funny bit with Ted and Director of Football Operations Leslie Higgins. Check in with me. You don’t have to check in with me.
  • Cut to Jamie at his agency. Almost no one wants him for anything. He seems to have an offer for a reality television show where he’d take ecstasy everyday. Question: any reality show watching for you? I watched last season of American Idol. Does that count?
  • Ted barges into Doc-tor Sharon’s office with biscuits and is scolded. Ted refers to Santa Monica as a godless place, in part because there are people there who don’t eat sugar. Ted does a bit about video games where he was depriving himself of something that just makes him happy. Question: what makes you happy?
  • Ted goes to see the owner Rebecca and he gives her her biscuits that he actually just tried to give to Sharon. Rebecca notices the bite out of the biscuit but eats it anyway. Rebecca doesn’t sound like she is on board with not eating sugar. They ask each other if they have anything to get off their chest.
  • “Isn’t that why we have friends? To burden them with our insecurities and anxieties?” – Rebecca
  • Jamie follows Keeley for her whole lunch hour because he wants to talk. He’s deleted her number. He tells her he wants to come back to Richmond to play for the team.
  • We’re back with Roy and his girls youth football team. One of the girl’s moms has bought participation trophies. The girls are really excited. Roy says, “It must be nice to just burn through cash,” and “Enjoy your trophies for winning nothing.”
  • Roy returns home from his game to find Keeley laying in bed and watching his retirement speech. Keeley pushes Roy again to become a pundit. She says he’s different now that he’s not around the game. I hear the word “oi” again and take the time to look it up. It’s a harsh exclamation to get someone’s attention.
Jamie and Ted meeting shared on social media
  • Jamie meets Ted in the pub. He has saved the little plastic toy soldier Ted gave him a long time ago. He tells Ted the soldier is named Ted and after pausing adds that he named him after Ted Danson in the TV show Cheers. The pub owner Mae seems to be in favor of Jamie’s return and she tells off the fans who stare from the other end of the bar. “Old people are so wise,” Jamie says, “they’re like tall Yodas.” We get a fair amount of Star Wars references in this show. Ted tells Jamie it’s not a good idea to rejoin the team.
  • Did you know Sudeikis / Ted is the nephew of George Wendt, Norm on Cheers? (son of Wendt’s sister) George 76 and still alive.
  • At practice the next day, Sharon observes. The training is especially chippy. The players have seen a picture of Ted and Jamie at the bar and assume he is returning to the team. Sam goes off on Ted. Ted admits everyone on the team is better than him at everything unless anyone wants to play finish that Jimmy Buffet lyric. Sam retreats to the locker room. They have a long talk about the team which includes Sam having a good dad. Turns out Leslie Higgins has heard the whole thing as he moves his work area all over the clubhouse. Bring Jamie back? What are the challenges?
  • It’s in the show that Ted knows there is a Twitter account for his mustaches. Click here to connect to that.
This Twitter account for Coach’s mustache got a mention in the show
  • Roy tries being a pundit. He needs reassurance from Keeley before he goes on. He walks out to “Anarchy in the U.K.” by the Sex Pistols. He’s blunt and bold on air including saying players showed “abject terror, like children waiting in line for the handsy Father Christmas.” He makes a splash. Anne, how does that life look, somebody like Terry Bradshaw or Stephen A. Smith?
  • Ted calls the staff of men the Diamond Dogs. This is not so unlike my college “Brothers in Pursuit.” They discuss bringing Jamie back. Ted notes we talk in sports a lot about never giving up. He asks shouldn’t this include people too? Beard notes Jamie is like “poop in the punchbowl.”
  • Ted comes across Sharon leaving the practice facility. It is after dark. Here we see both have worked long days. Sharon tells Ted what a good job he is doing but challenges him on all of the matches without a win. She says Ted can call her Doc. She tells him that her favorite book is the Prince of Tides. She also says, “Heavy is the head that wears the visor.”
Jamie Makes Return to Richmond Club to play for Coach Lasso
  • Last scene of the episode: Sharon, Keeley, Rebecca, and Leslie are talking in the owner’s office. Leslie is distracted by something he sees on the field. It is snowing outside. Heavy metal music plays. Cut to Jamie walking down the tunnel and out on to the field in the snow to Queen’s song “Tear it Up.” Jamie has returned to play for Richmond.

What are your favorite books? Ted’s was The Fountainhead. Doc’s was Prince of Tides. A few of mine…

  1. High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
  2. Love is a Mix Tape by Rob Sheffield
  3. Wonderboys by Michael Chabon
  4. The Death of the Great Santini by Pat Conroy (also A Losing Season)
  5. The Sportswriter by Richard Ford

Finish that Jimmy Buffet lyric:

  1. But at night I’d have these wonderful dreams, some kind of sensuous treat, not zucchini fettucini or bulgar wheat…but a big warm bun and a huge chunk of meat
  2. You got fins to the left, fins to the right and… you’re the only girl (or bait) in town.
  3. Nibblin’ on sponge cake, watchin’ the sun bake…all of you Parrotheads covered with oil.
  4. This morning, I shot six holes in my freezer, I think…I’ve got cabin fever. (Boat Drinks)