Dan Gross: Phillie Phanatic rocks the set of '30 Rock'
TOM BURGOYNE, the Phillie Phanatic's best friend, says the Phanatic didn't know his "30 Rock" episode was airing last Thursday until "The Phanatic got a text from Swoop." The Phanatic and the Eagles' mascot are buds.
TOM BURGOYNE, the Phillie Phanatic's best friend, says the Phanatic didn't know his "30 Rock" episode was airing last Thursday until "The Phanatic got a text from Swoop." The Phanatic and the Eagles' mascot are buds.
Burgoyne said he and the Phanatic spent about 5 hours in October shooting the scene in which Alec Baldwin's character Jack Donaghy gets the Phanatic, TastyKake, soft pretzels and other Philly staples to impress a visiting Kabletown (Comcast) executive. Due to a mistake, the Phanatic ends up on the wrong floor and massages Judah Friedlander's character.
Burgoyne says Upper Darby native Tina Fey was happy to meet the Phanatic and told him she was glad the show was able to land him since the script had to be approved by Major League Baseball. "I told her the Phanatic would love to be on every week," he said.
Teen wins show, record deal
Congratulations to East Falls' Michael Woodard who won The Hub Network's "Majors & Minors" last night. The 14-year-old singer beat out 11 other young performers to win the show on which the kids learned from musicians such as Brandy, Jennifer Hudson, Will.i.am, OneRepublic's Ryan Tedder, Adam Lambert, Jordin Sparks, and Sean Kingston and won a recording contract with RCA Records.
Woodard attends the Meredith School in Queen Village and performed original music on the show. Woodard won a "Stars of Tomorrow" competition at the Apollo Theater and sang thenational anthem before the U.S. Open and President Obama's rally in Germantown last year.