Support Overthinking It by becoming a member for $5/month!

In the 21st century, Dame Maggie Smith was celebrated for her portrayals of Hogwarts’s Professor McGonagall and Downton’s Dowager Countess Violet Crawley. But decades before that, she won two Oscars for movies that are now so obscure you can watch them for free on YouTube. What ties together her body of work is a delightful ability to express everything her character can’t say, and to show us how a sense of duty and propriety can restrain us but also empower us. Pete and Belinkie discuss her career highlights and especially California Suite, which won her a second Oscar in 1978 but has not aged well at all (Bill Cosby jokes about drugging someone with sleeping pills, yikes). Wrather makes a special appearance to update us on parenthood and tell us about seeing Dame Maggie on stage.

Download (MP3)

Subscribe: iTunes Other Apps

Episode 848: She Was Always What Was Going On originally appeared on Overthinking It, the site subjecting the popular culture to a level of scrutiny it probably doesn't deserve. [Latest Posts | Podcast (iTunes Link)]