By zestybuzz 
Within the wake of the latest passing of beloved director/part-time weatherman David Lynch, it is price remembering that one in all his finest abilities was his performing. He at all times nailed it in his live-action performances, be it as Gordon Cole in “Twin Peaks” or as John Ford in “The Fabelmans,” however he introduced his A-game to voice performing, too. Working example: The 2016, season 15 episode of “Household Man,” “How the Griffins Stole Christmas.” Lynch would not play a significant function, however he does pop up in a cutaway that asks the query, “What if as a substitute of Santa Clause coming down the chimney, it was David Lynch? The result’s one thing that any “Twin Peaks” fan can certainly recognize:
What’s good about this cutaway is that the writers of it clearly appear to have really watched Lynch’s work and might make particular jokes about it. On social media, you may typically see folks try and joke about Lynch’s work they usually’ll make it clear that “Lynch = bizarre” is essentially the most thought they’ve put into it, however I assume it is secure to say that not less than one “Household Man” author is a real Lynch fan. And that is smart: “Household Man,” like most Seth MacFarlane-created works, is a present obsessive about popular culture from the ’80s and ’90s, and “Twin Peaks” is without doubt one of the most iconic works to come back out of that interval.
It completely matches that “Household Man” would need Lynch to visitor star on their present. The true query is why David Lynch would need to act for “Household Man,” a present that seemingly has little in frequent with Lynch’s most well-known works. His look on “Household Man” was not fairly on the identical stage of absurdity as John Waters cameoing in an “Alvin and the Chipmunks” film, however it’s nonetheless somewhat unusual.
Earlier than Lynch did Household Man, he starred on The Cleveland Present
Some Lynch followers could also be shocked to find that Lynch was a recurring character on all 4 seasons of “The Cleveland Present.” He performed the bartender Gus, a man who was odd but pleasant, and who additionally certain appeared to have plenty of eccentric qualities in frequent with Lynch himself. When it comes to how a lot prominence bartenders have in cartoon exhibits, Gus is a step beneath Moe Szyslak from “The Simpsons” however positively given extra character than Jerome or Horace in “Household Man.”
In a 2010 Leisure Weekly interview, “The Cleveland Present” creator Mike Henry stated he wasn’t certain if Lynch was even conscious of the “Household Man” universe earlier than signing onto the collection, however that he needed the eccentric director concerned anyway. As he defined:
“I’m an enormous David Lynch fan. I’ve been vastly impressed by his true uniqueness. Again within the day, after I was attempting to determine what I needed to do after school, I noticed ‘Wild at Coronary heart’ and I received in my automotive and moved to California. I figured if this man might do one thing this bizarre and hilarious and superior then I’ll go for it. You recognize, I talked to him on the telephone, I instructed him in regards to the present, and he was fully down. And so he is our eccentric bartender.”
As for what Lynch himself considered the present? Henry revealed, “I talked to him the opposite day and he stated that he had seen a pair and that we have been doing ‘nice work.’ So I am simply going to take that at face worth.”
Assuming Lynch was being legit, what was it that appealed to him about “The Cleveland Present” anyway? The present was not, as “Household Man” itself would level out after it was canceled, a very well-received collection. In a 2010 tweet, Lynch gave a short clarification for why he took on the challenge: “Mike Henry requested me to do it, so I stated sure.”
Why Lynch might preferred Household Man and The Cleveland Present a lot
Lynch by no means elaborated a lot on his causes for saying sure to roles within the “Household Man” prolonged universe (all whereas saying no to voice work in “Gravity Falls”), however past Mike Henry’s request, one potential attraction is “Household Man” creator Seth MacFarlane’s real love of musicals. “Household Man” could also be sarcastic and edgy, certain, however MacFarlane has a pure love for music and he’ll typically pause the entire present to do an elaborate musical quantity. Peter singing the whole thing of “Shipoopi” in an in any other case non-musical episode is pure extravagant self-indulgence and one thing that breaks each primary rule of screenwriting, however “Household Man” did it anyway. “The Cleveland Present” wasn’t fairly as massive on musical sequences, however could not resist doing them sometimes, both.
There’s nothing that screams “Lynchian” about MacFarlane’s love of music, precisely, however it does share a central a part of Lynch’s attraction: MacFarlane’s work, very like Lynch’s, is just not as ironic or as cynical as its status suggests. “Household Man” is not making enjoyable of the outdated musical sequences they’re parodying, simply as Lynch genuinely does appear to like small-town American life, even when it may appear at first look like he would not. (Lynch additionally loves himself a musical non-sequitur.)
One other potential attraction of “Household Man” to Lynch is the present’s fixed feuding with the networks, and its fixed willingness to mess with the viewers. Like how ABC saved interfering with the manufacturing of “Twin Peaks,” Fox notoriously mishandled “Household Man” in its early seasons. And very like how sure “Twin Peaks” viewers complained on the time in regards to the bizarre surreal stuff just for Lynch to double down, “Household Man” viewers would complain about these longwinded Conway Twitty asides just for “Household Man” to maintain on doing them. “Household Man” and David Lynch might not have a ton in frequent, however not less than they each wish to thumb their noses at tv norms. When pondering why Lynch would need to cameo on the present two years after “The Cleveland Present” was canceled, there is no scarcity of affordable explanations.