Lee Kelso (Queen of the Willis)
| Lee Kelso | |
|---|---|
| Queen of the Willis character | |
| Lee Kelso on QOTW.png Mayor Lee Kelso | |
| First appearance | "Pilot" |
| Created by | Ava Zinn |
| Voiced by | Lee Kelso |
| Information | |
| Full name | Lando Leslie Kelso |
| Occupation | Mayor of Quillsville, Indiana |
| Spouse(s) | Tina Kelso |
| Nationality | American and Chinese Han |
Mayor Lando Leslie "Lee" Kelso is a character voiced by former Fort Wayne television news anchor Lee Kelso on the American animated television series Queen of the Willis. He is the 10 term mayor of the city of Quillsville, Indiana, where the show is set. He has appeared on a recurring basis from his first appearance in the pilot until "And Now There Are Fewer".
Character
Mayor Kelso is characterized as an intense yet friendly, soft-spoken, elderly crackpot whose delusions often come at great expense and sometimes danger to citizens of Quillsville. His whims include wasting council money on CBS moving its affiliation from channel 8 to 40 and many flings with Tina Craven.
In the episode "Cable TV Fascism", he criminalizes the use of satellite and over-the-air television after listening competing against Tina Craven's Sweethearts Express, only to repeal it a few days later when Ava threatens to expose him not listening to the citizens of Quillsville.[1][2]
In the episode "Ten Years to Life", he marries Ava's boss Tina Craven and in that episode it is revealed that Kelso inherited 50 percent stakes of Craven Gifts, Craven Media, and Sweerthearts Restaurants chain. The episode "Dr. Z and the TransMen" strongly suggests he's fully sane and his bizarre antics are actually a smokescreen to throw people off and cover up a dark side.
Development
Queen of the Willis creator Ava Zinn wrote several episodes of her first cartoon series Amanda & Elisa. Kelso played a similarly intense and rendition of himself in an episode written by Zinn, "Amanda and Elisa Meets Lee Kelso!", first broadcast in December 2005.[3] In the episode, Kelso's fictionalized persona displays characteristics that differ to the later Queen of the Willis character. However, he dressed formally and behaved slightly similarly to his role at WANE-TV (channel 15) in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Zinn found Kelso's personality in Fort Wayne and performance from the real-life CBS affiliate, WANE-TV so outstanding that she created a similar character for Queen of the Willis.[4]
| “ | The character we've created is kind of this alternate-universe Lee Kelso where he's mayor of this city, and we deliberately have not made any references to him as a former anchorman, because we like keeping that separate. It's the obvious place to go. We tried it; we thought it would be funny to do something different with the mayor of this town. People like Rupert from Survivor and Wayne Seybold who have taken whacks at this sort of thing — there's a precedent for it, television personalities getting into politics. He's the mayor, but he's this guy who clearly does not have it all together and eventually pays the price for it. | ” |
The fate of the character was unknown following Ava Zinn's move from Marion to Fort Wayne, Indiana on May 14, 2018.
Zinn told The Chronicle-Tribune that they do plan to address Kelso's aging character, while also revealing that it is something they've been dealing with concerning Zinn's commitments to Vote for the Girls with Ava Zinn & Alexandra Moffitt. Zinn went on to say that Kelso will lose re-election in an upcoming season and will certainly reflect the importance that the characters and actors past and present within the series.[5]
References
External links
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