Recap: Central Park Comic Con @ Home 2021 Panel
This year’s Comic Con @ Home panel for Central Park brought co-creators Loren Bouchard and Josh Gad together with cast members Leslie Odom Jr. and Tituss Burgess, as well as writers/producers Kelvin Yu and Steven Davis. Even though the panel was virtual again this year, and actually recorded a month or two ago, Loren started out by stressing the importance of fan interaction. Since the main point of Comic Con is talking with fans, he made sure to bring on a group of them for fan questions towards the end.
But before that, the cast and crew discussed a number of topics amongst themselves. Josh and Loren talked about the inspiration for Birdie, the show’s imperfect narrator, and how they are both big fans of the way narration is used in Disney’s Robin Hood movie. Some of the cast members discussed how they relate to their characters; Leslie said that he’s not quite as wonderful as Owen, but that he looks up to him as an idealized form of fatherhood. Tituss said that he had a more difficult time of connecting with the family dynamic, since he’s an only child, but that in season two he’s leaned into it to a greater extent.
Even though none of the guests were women, the writer/producers present talked about developing Paige as a working mom who is able to provide for her family both monetarily and emotionally. Steven and Kelvin both come from families with working mothers, and they said that it’s great to be a part of portraying that in a medium where the mom is traditionally relegated to more of a stay-at-home role.
Music is one of the most important parts of Central Park, and there were plenty of teases for guest songwriters this season. Loren dropped some big names such as Regina Spector, Ingrid Michaelson, Rufus Wainright, They Might Be Giants, and even Danny Elfman as people contributing songs for the show’s second season. While Loren was never a huge musical nerd, Josh talked about the necessity of reviving musicals as a genre and how he hadn’t felt like musicals were represented well on TV up to this point.
Next up was the fan Q and A, where a number of interesting questions were brought up. While some may assume that much of Josh’s narrator character dialogue is improvised, he revealed that it’s just good writing and he basically just delivers what he’s given. Tituss shared that his favorite song to record was Weirdos Make Good Superheroes—a tune penned by none other than Sara Bareilles! Leslie was asked about his favorite musical TV shows, and while he likes it whenever a TV show can incorporate tunes, he specifically was impressed by Family Guy’s usage of a musical song in an episode.
In true Central Park fashion, the panel finished up with a clip of Bitsy and Helen singing a trippy song called Groovy after ingesting some special substances. Much like the show itself, the Central Park panel was filled with music and merriment—the second season is currently airing on Apple TV+ now, so remember to check it out to see what all the fuss is about.
