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Reno 911! Takes on Miami
by Robert Urban, February 23, 2007
Thomas Lennon Thomas Lennon and Nick Swardson in Reno 911!: Miami

Since its debut in 2003, Comedy Central's hit Reno 911! has grown from a spoof of Cops into a cult favorite and a cash cow. This Friday, the half-hour comedy makes the move to the big screen when Reno 911!: Miami premieres, starring the same cast that makes the TV series so side-splittingly funny, including Thomas Lennon as the gay-seeming (and sometimes actually gay) Lt. Jim Dangle.

Dangle is known for his trademark short shorts; his campy, '70s-era "Bruno" mustache; his not-so-secret gay crush on straight fellow officer Deputy S. Jones (Cedric Yarbrough); and his hilariously inappropriate flirtations with male crime suspects, witnesses and Reno citizens. Dangle himself is the ongoing object of desire for his goofy, dimwitted, fag hag co-worker, Deputy Trudy Wiegel (Kerry Kenney-Silver).

Indeed, the show features a considerable amount of gay-related content in each episode (there is also a repressed lesbian cop character, Deputy Cherisha Kimball). And while gay characters on many television shows are often stereotyped as witty and urbane, on Reno 911! they are pretty much just comic trailer trash like the rest of the cast.

AfterElton.com recently talked with co-creators and co-stars Robert Ben Garant (who plays Deputy Travis Junior), Thomas Lennon and Kerry Kenney-Silver about the TV and film versions of Reno 911! Taking a cue from Sacha Baron Cohen, who insisted on doing all interviews for Borat while in character, the cast of Reno 911!: Miami arrived at Fox News headquarters in New York dressed in their police uniforms.

Upon entering the interview room, Lennon, in costume as Lt. Jim Dangle, looked around and quipped, "So, this is where they decide on all the evil we unleash upon the world …" Needless to say, jaws dropped everywhere. Lt. Dangle, Deputy Junior and Deputy Wiegel spoke in the inane, improvisational style that is Reno 911! about their experiences in Miami, the Reno gay community and Junior's status as a sex symbol.

AfterElton.com: How did you find the culture of Miami compared with that of Reno?
Thomas Lennon as Lt. Jim Dangle:
Well, first off, they call it "cultura." You gotta adapt. They are a slippery people.

Kerri Kenny-Silver as Deputy Trudy Wiegel: They're all covered in delicious cocoa butter —

Dangle: — and lube. And we are decades behind them in rollerblading technology.

Wiegel: And waxing! They are an impressively hairless bunch.

Robert Ben Garant as Deputy Travis Junior: I don't know about "culture," but there's a tremendous amount of tits and ass down there.

AE: [to Wiegel] What is it that you see in Lt. Dangle, who is openly gay, over all the many straight guys out there you could fall in love with?
Wiegel:
Well, you've seen him in those shorts. The question is: What don't I see in him!

Travis: About two inches — there ain't much you don't see.

Wiegel: Oh, there's more than two inches. I've snuck into the shower. Seriously, what I see in Jim is a charisma and a pizazz for life that comes out in such a wonderfully musical way. Reno kills you inside, but Jim makes me want to live for just one hour more each day.

Dangle: I'd be fine if she didn't live that one hour more. Trudy's mother was also her first cousin, so she's not as fast on the uptake as the average citizen.

Wiegel: Sometimes I'm faster on the uptake, because I have more than one personality. One is always ahead of the others, and then all 13 have to catch up.

Dangle: Trudy played a prank on me the other day. We call it "corpse bride." I just woke up, and there she was in my bed in a see-through wedding gown, holding a bouquet of dead flowers.

Wiegel: It wasn't actually a real wedding gown. I made it out of a see-through vinyl shower curtain.

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