Director's Commentary for “You know … like James Bond”

Hi. This is Sean Conner, director of “You know … like James Bond [1]” and you are [DELETED-listening-DELETED] reading the director's commentary. I'm doing this commentary because Spring [2] found this entry rather confusing. In retrospect, I can see why.

The title of this is an oblique reference to Sean Connery [3], perhaps best known as the original James Bond [4]. We also have a very similar name, only difference being a lack of an ending ‘Y’ on my name. And in 36 years, it's been surprising how few people make that connection, and persist in mispelling my name (S-H-A-W-N for instance) or mispronouning it (“sē‧awn” perhaps the worst botching of it—by a Drama Teacher no less!).

Anyway, the scene opens in medias res after I had answered the phone with “Technical Support, how may I help you?” (which is were the confusion starts)

**Michelle:** “Hi! This is Michelle from 97.3 WKRP The Party-Hearty Hip-Hop Happening Radio Station! Who am I speaking to?”

It was a marketing call from some radio station here in Lower Sheol—I honest don't recall which one, so I made one up. There is (I hope) no radio signal on 97.3—surprising given just how crowded our radio spectrum is with Clear Channel drone stations.

**Me:** “Hello. This is Sean.”

**Michelle:** “Sean. Is that S-H-A-U-N?”

**Me:** “No, it's S-E-A-N.”

**Michelle:** “Oh.” I could hear the disappointment in her voice. The call went downhill from there. No big deal—it was a marking call anyway.

See? Almost no one gets the Sean Connery connection. Okay, granted, here I didn't give my last name, but what with Sean Connery, Sean Penn [5], Sean Austin [6] (who played Sam Gamgee in the freaking Lord [7] of the Rings [8] Trilogy [9]), Sean Bean [10] (who was also in the freaking Lord [11] of the Rings [12] Trilogy [13]), Sean Combs [14] (okay, granted, he changes his name more often than Madonna changes her persona but still!) and Sean Young [15] (okay, so her heyday was 1982's Blade Runner [16] but she's still active) you'd think people would know how to spell Sean.

Sheesh!

Oh, and yes, there was a glitch. This wasn't a “marking” call, but a “marketing call.” How that one got past the test audience I'll never know.