[UPDATE: I am going to try and divert attention away from this thread. This was only meant to express concern and unease on Nate’s radio silence before episode 1303 came out, but I now fear it may draw unnecessary hate toward Kelsey, who deserves absolutely none of that. If the mods or whoever can delete this thread, please feel free to do so, and sorry if it may have complicated things.]
I dunno, it’s probably just in my own head. But this whole situation with Nate Begle just disappearing without even really a peep about it from the crew is making me slightly uncomfortable. I mean, they spent both live tours and the entire crowdfunding campaign just hyping him and the rest of the new cast up, but then one day he’s poof gone, and the only word we get is that he’s “no longer involved”. I don’t know if they’re redubbing the episodes he filmed as Crow or what, but I just feel weird that a cast member was so hyped up and is now being swept under the rug. Was there bad blood between him and the crew? I’d have to assume so, given that the message about his departure didn’t even say that they wish him well. I’m sorry, I don’t mean to cause drama. I hate it, we all hate it, but this has just been weighing down on me in the weeks since they announced his departure. Emily, Conor, Yvonne, & Kelsey are all hilarious, and I’m so glad they all get the opportunity to be on the show proper, they deserve all the love in the world. But I still just feel uncomfortable not knowing if Nate left on bad terms or not. Again, sorry for spoiling the hype for anyone, but I just had to get this off my chest…
Personally I would refrain from contacting Nate through that just to bug him about this. This is obviously a personal matter that he doesn’t want to discuss or he would have made it public. All signs point toward him wanting to keep it private. It could have been a falling out or it could have been something deeply personal in his life, either way that his right to privacy. If he wants to open up about it in the future, he will. But let it be his choice.
I imagine the Kickstarter will make a statement eventually, though expect it to be vague and formal, while also welcoming Kelsey to the team. It might be frustrating to know so little, but honestly we didn’t know many details about Joel’s departure until 2008 so that’s just the way these things work.
I’m seconding the recommendation to not contact Nate through his business to ask him about this. If he wants to tell us, he knows how. If there’s an NDA or something like it preventing him from talking, then the kind thing is to not put him in a situation where someone is asking for information he can’t share.
It’s important to remember that, to a degree, this is just another job. We’d like them to be friends, sure, but they’re coworkers first. Sometimes an employment situation just doesn’t work out for one, or all parties involved.
Yeah, I’m gonna have to second-third-fourth-fifth-infinite the recommendation of not directly contacting any of the players/personnel about this. If it’s our business, it’ll be made our business.
If it’s NOT our business, well, to borrow the words of Bill Corbett’s Crow from his debut episode: “Just let it lie.”
I get being uncomfortable by the unknown. But the folks who need to know are in the know about what went on and that’s where we should leave it. No one owes us an explanation on a recast and it would be very insensitive to reach out to anyone to query.
As uncomfortable as you may be, just imagine how uncomfortable it may be to those who are actually involved. I’m wishing to best to everyone.
Oh, I had absolutely no intention AT ALL to directly contact Nate. The man clearly wants his privacy, and I think we should ALL respect that. I dunno, I’m just left uneasy by what seems to be a genuine apathy about him from the crew. The fact that nobody on the crew has even wished him well is making me feel conflicted. Am I supposed to feel good that he’s gone? Was he a bad person? I understand this must be an extremely awkward situation for everyone involved, but it just leaves me personally uneasy if something bad did happen, and they let us all wish him well and cheer him on in ignorance.
As long as the show makes me laugh, I’m not too concerned about who is in the cast. When the original shift from Joel to Mike happened, I missed Joel, but Mike was funny, so I was fine with it. Same with switching from Trace to Bill for Crow. And then the totally new cast for the Netflix series. They’ve all given me hours of enjoyment and I’m sure Kelsey will too.
Again, I adore all the cast members of this show. What I’ve seen of Kelsey from the tour is phenomenal, and it looks like she’ll play really well with the rest of the crew. I dunno, I just really personally needed somewhere to vent about all this. It’s just been weighing down on my mind these past few weeks, and I needed to get it out there somewhere. I don’t want to come in here and smash everyone else’s hype in a million pieces on the floor. No party like this needs a pooper. The radio silence about Nate has been putting a damper on how I feel personally.
You’re entitled to your feelings. However, in the absence of information, maintaining charity for all is my policy because we often don’t even know what we don’t know so there’s way more holes than we’re even aware of. Heck, even with information, it’s best to hold space for people. Things happen. Decisions are made. In the end, we’re all just humans looking for connection and acceptance.
Fred Rogers was fond of a quote from his friend and mentor Dr. Margaret McFarland: “Anything human is mentionable, and anything mentionable is manageable.” So I’m glad you spoke about your anxieties about all this. You’re heard and you’re okay.
