ARTICLES

Caseen has written features and essays for a number of outlets such as Rolling Stone, The A.V. Club, Decider, and more.

Some of his short-form work can be found here.

The Weird Al Show: The Complete Oral History Rolling Stone (September 13, 2017)

Al Yankovic can be described in a lot of ways besides "Weird." Most people know that he's a chart-topping singer-songwriter, a director-producer, a top-notch parodist, an author and a die-hard polka enthusiast. Even those who have followed his career closely, however, may have forgotten he was, for a brief moment, the host of a short-lived children's television show.

Howard the Duck: The Oral History Decider (March 11, 2016)

With another wisecracking, sarcastic, beer-drinking anti-hero based on a Marvel comic – Deadpool – recently breaking box office records, and the thirtieth anniversary edition of Howard the Duck upon us, the time is perfect to catch up with many of the principal cast and crew to look back at the making of one of the most infamous movies of all-time.

The Black Artists Behind Broadway’s ‘Shuffle Along' The Hollywood Reporter (February 23, 2021)

Shuffle Along first premiered on Broadway in 1921 and ran for 504 performances. In Footnotes: The Black Artists Who Rewrote the Rules of the Great White Way, Caseen Gaines transports readers to New York in the Roaring Twenties to tell the story of the artists behind the revolutionary production, the first Broadway show with an all-Black cast and creative team. This excerpt explores the challenges the original production faced and its effect on Broadway and race relations.

Big Bird Will Never Die, But Kids Should Know Who Caroll Spinney Was Fatherly (December 9, 2019)

Caroll Spinney once debated with Fred Rogers about breaking an illusion. But the loss of the performer who so shaped Big Bird’s character, the one that generations of children, parents, and grandparents grew up watching, feels like a significant passing; a moment to reflect back on Big Bird’s contributions to our own lives and our own understanding of death.

Playwright Glen Berger on why the surefire Spider-Man musical failed The A.V. Club (August 15, 2016)

Success is never a foregone conclusion. Glen Berger learned this the hard way when he was selected to collaborate with the successful Julie Taymor, Tony Award-winning director of Broadway’s The Lion King, and Bono and The Edge of U2 on a Spider-Man musical. Speaking with Caseen Gaines for The A.V. Club, Berger shares how things went wrong so quickly on what should have been a Broadway success story.

5 Essential ‘Twilight Zone’ Episodes For The Donald Trump Era Decider (July 4, 2017)

The Twilight Zone has become part of our national tapestry. There have been several imitators and unsuccessful reboots of the original series, yet none have been able to replicate the brilliance of the original 156 episodes, several of which dealt with the fear of the other, McCarthyism, and warnings about the dangers of anti-intellectualism and groupthink. Several episodes seem tailor made to speak to this moment in America’s history.

What Prince Taught Me About Life

Decider (April 22, 2016)

News of Prince's death sent reverberations around the world. As a lifelong fan of Prince, my initial reaction was to mourn. Prince was the consummate creative, both ahead of his time and timeless, celebrated and under-appreciated. He redefined what music could sound like and what black masculinity and sexuality could look and sound like. He shaped how music artists could be compensated for their work and sell direct to their consumers.

How the Back to the Future Cast and Crew Knew Eric Stoltz Would Be Fired Vulture (June 26, 2015)

As any true Back to the Future fan knows, Michael J. Fox was not the first actor cast as Marty McFly. That honor went to Eric Stoltz, an up-and-coming young method actor with significant buzz. Only a few weeks into filming, director Robert Zemeckis and writer Bob Gale realized something was wrong. In this exclusive excerpt from We Don't Need Roads, the people behind the film reveal what those odd few weeks on set were like.

‘A Christmas Story’ Doesn’t Actually Want You to Buy a Gun Fatherly (December 12, 2018)

The Twilight Zone is closely associated with several American holidays like the Fourth of July and New Year’s Eve, but during this festive season, save time to watch the two “very special episodes” episodes written by series creator Rod Serling that originally aired during Christmastime, which remain true to the series’ goal of speaking to true themes in society through innovative stories and compelling characters.

Why Roger Rabbit, An Animated (and Legal) Marvel, Would Be Impossible Today Inverse (August 19, 2019)

Who Framed Roger Rabbit? is a live-action film through and through, and it just so happens that at least half the cast is made up of animated characters. The film succeeded in achieving the impossible on screen, not only because of the way it blended the two realms but also by the sheer quantity of animated characters who made up the cast from competing companies. In today's shifting media landscape, could we ever see another project like Roger Rabbit again?

Why Pee-wee's big meta-nostalgic adventure works

The A.V. Club (March 15, 2016)

Much has been made online about Netflix’s attempts to capitalize on its audience’s hunger for nostalgic content. It’s no secret that children of the 1980s occasionally spend their disposable income reliving aspects of their childhood, but Pee-wee’s Big Holiday isn’t an example of Paul Reubens jumping on the bandwagon down Old School Lane. Instead, it marks a return to him claiming his space in a nostalgia wave he helped bring to shore over 30 years ago.