(left) Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt in the original “Mad About You” series (right) Reiser and Hunt in the reboot Reiser’s level of cultural cool has also been raised by another retro role in the Amazon period-piece series “Red Oaks.” He plays Getty, a pompous and unlikable president of a New Jersey country club that again puts ’80s suburban culture front and center. “It was so subtle, even I didn’t get it, and I was in the movie,” says Reiser. Known for slipping hidden references and homages of the past into their shows, the Duffers even included a throwback to “Diner” in an episode when Owens offers his sandwich to Hopper, the good-guy police chief played by David Harbour. “A, that’s a hip father, and B, that’s a really wide cultural span to be influenced by ‘Diner’ and ‘Aliens’ and end up writing ‘Stranger Things,’” says Reiser. They did, but thanks to their father, they actually were fans of “Diner.” When he was cast as the sandwich-craving Modell in “Diner.” Given the retro creepiness of “Stranger Things,” he considered that the brothers may have seen him as the entertaining villain Carter Burke of “Aliens” from 1986. Reiser was flattered the Duffers even knew who he was considering they weren’t even born Sam Owens in “Stranger Things” | Photo: NETFLIX “So when it came to casting, they figured they’d just call me.” “They said while they were writing the script, they were calling him Dr. He was intrigued – his teenage son had turned him on to the sci-fi thriller that also stars talented South Jersey teen Gaten Matarazzo as Dustin. Reiser, who brings his stand-up show to Harrah’s in Atlantic City this month, barely had “Stranger Things” on his radar when he was approached by the Duffer Brothers. “It also makes it easy to spot – anyone under 25 who comes over to me, I know where they know me from.” “I love it,” Reiser says of his new younger fans. You’ll also see every cliché of ’80s culture that the Duffer Brothers, the show creators, could throw in. Sam Owens, sent in to do damage control during season 2 to a small Indiana town plagued with supernatural activities. That’s not exactly a theme that resonates with his growing fan base who’ve discovered Reiser on Netflix’s uber hot “Stranger Things” – not in his breakout role in 1982’s “Diner” or the ’90s hit sit-com “Mad About You.” In the new show, Reiser plays the mysterious government scientist Dr. In fact, the jokes that get the most laughs on the entertainer’s national comedy tour are all about life as an empty-nester dad. Paul Reiser doesn’t claim to have a pulse on youth culture. And as a secretive scientist in the Netflix series “Stranger Things,” the actor has attracted a new audience filled with viewers who have no idea he once was a hit on network television.
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