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Pop Culture Happy Hour: Typecasting, Tony Soprano, And The Chicken Dance

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First, this week, you will hear the production skills of our pal Nick Fountain, filling in for Jess Gitner, who for some reason thinks she can go on vacation. (Whatever, Jess Gitner.)

With Nick's help, we begin the week by remembering the great, great James Gandolfini, whose contributions to the prestige television we now enjoy cannot be overstated. We use Gandolfini as a jumping-off point for a chat about typecasting in general — about range and style and fitting your persona into a variety of roles.

It's entirely coincidental (really!) that in this big week for legal marriage, we spend our second segment talking about the ins and outs of wedding culture. (We taped on Monday.) Should you hire a band or a DJ? Should you pick your own music? Can you walk down the aisle to "A Whole New World"? Stephen's terrific advice column on this point in his Good Listener feature is our beginning, and then all of a sudden there is a lot of music and I cannot stop laughing, so enjoy that.

As always, we close with what's making us happy this week. Stephen is happy about pancakes — really! But he's also happy about Monday's news story. Trey is happy about ... well, I'm going to let Trey explain it. Glen is happy about a movie, as well as about his podcast tour. And I am happy about a fine live piece of storytelling (you can also read more here), the little cartoon hearts around my head, and a terrific documentary that's available on demand.

Find us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter: me, Stephen, Glen, Trey, producer Jess, and esteemed producer emeritus and music director, Mike Katzif. And, of course, you can follow Nick, who helped us out this week and without whom you would not be hearing a show.

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Linda Holmes is a pop culture correspondent for NPR and the host of Pop Culture Happy Hour. She began her professional life as an attorney. In time, however, her affection for writing, popular culture, and the online universe eclipsed her legal ambitions. She shoved her law degree in the back of the closet, gave its living room space to DVD sets of The Wire, and never looked back.