By Amanda N. Wegner | Top Photo by Holly Leitner; other photo credits as noted in caption
Visitors and residents to the Lake Geneva area should feel a bit safer with Lt. Jim Dangle keeping an eye on the lake and local community. Or maybe not.
Writer and actor Tom Lennon (the man behind the hit comedy “Reno 911!” and its too-short-shorts-wearing lead character, Lt. Dangle), along with his wife, Jenny Robertson and their son, now call Geneva Lake’s south shore home. With a long-time connection to the area that dates to Lennon’s childhood, the couple decided to leave the hustle of Los Angeles at the height of the pandemic and moved here for a quieter, richer life. “It’s just a magnificent place, Lake Geneva,” says Lennon. “I don’t think you’ll find any other place in the country quite like this.”
A LIFELONG CONNECTION TO THE LAKE
Lennon is originally from Oak Park, Illinois, and grew up visiting his grandmother in the summers in the Geneva Lake area, first at a rented house in Fontana’s Buena Vista Club, and later at the home she purchased in the nearby Glenwood Springs subdivision. Eventually, Lennon’s parents bought a house in Williams Bay. “We are a big, Irish family,” he explains. “We ended up spending all of our summers and lots of our winters at the house in Glenwood Springs. And that’s really when I got my bond with the lake, coming here in the ‘80s and ‘90s.”
His grandmother’s house in Glenwood Springs was the same one that Robertson visited when Lennon first brought her to the area early in their relationship. (They also went to the Walworth County Fair on that trip.) In fact, she explains, that visit was the first time she had ever been to Wisconsin. “I grew up in Cincinnati,” Robertson says. “My family didn’t get to travel as much, but when we did, it was always south and east, so I had never been to Wisconsin — I had never even been to Chicago! — until I met Tom in 2000.”
Lennon’s time in the area in his youth helped forge a love for the area. “Being here made me love two things,” he says. “I love being at the lake, but the main thing it made me love was being at the lake in the wintertime. It’s my favorite time at the lake by a factor of like 10.”
“We’re winter lake people,” adds Robertson. And that comes on the heels of living in Los Angeles for 20 years. “We moved here after living in hot, hot Los Angeles, where the weather never changes. And so, our first full year here in 2020, all the memories from childhood and the seasons came rushing back.”
FINDING SUCCESS IN HOLLYWOOD
Their years in Los Angeles may have been devoid of seasons, but it brought Lennon and Robertson a lot of professional success in the movie industry. Lennon says he started out in high school “very involved” in theater, which led him to NYU for college. Initially, he thought he would be a serious stage actor, but that changed when he became part of a comedy group called The State, which he is still part of. “I have basically spent the rest of my life — or at least my life so far — both in comedies and writing comedies,” he says.
That includes writing movies — that have actually been made. “When you’re a writer, you have to clarify, ‘movies that got made,’ because a lot of people write movies, but not everybody writes movies that get made,” Lennon explains. “Those are very different things.” He has also written several TV shows, in part with his work with The State. That includes “Viva Variety,” a sketch comedy show that aired on Comedy Central, which eventually led to the show he is perhaps best known for: “Reno 911!”
“Reno 911!” is a partially improvised comedy that features a ragtag team of somewhat incompetent police officers responding to 911 calls; it was originally conceived as a comical parody of the show “Cops.” Co-created by Lennon along with Robert Ben Garant and Kerri Kenney-Silver, it ran for six seasons on Comedy Central. After a 10-year hiatus, it was revived for another two seasons on other platforms. There are also three “Reno 911!” movies. The success of “Reno 911!” led to other high-profile acting roles for Lennon: a guest appearance on “Friends” as Joey’s Hand Twin; Matthew Perry’s best friend in the movie “17 Again”; and, recently, the German scientist Harold von Braunhut in Jerry Seinfeld’s star-studded directorial debut, “Unfrosted.”
Robertson has also worked as an actress, first in theater and then film. After spending a year at Actors Theatre of Louisville in Kentucky, she pursued an acting career in New York for 10 years. Lennon was also there around the same time, and while they had many mutual friends, they never met. It was not until each moved to California, around the same time, that they first connected.
“I never studied film; I had never even thought about how a film was made,” says Robertson. “Like Tom, I thought I would do dramatic theater the rest of my life and live in the Village in an apartment with four other actors. Obviously, that’s not how it turned out.”
That’s not how it turned out at all, and Lennon says that, based on the amount of fan mail they receive, Robertson is the real star power of the family. Most notably, she played Millie in the 1988 romantic sports comedy hit “Bull Durham,” alongside Kevin Costner and Susan Sarandon. “She gets 100 times more fan mail than me,” says Lennon, giving his wife a loving smile. “Jenny was in a very, very, very big movie that looms large in many people’s minds.”
A WRITER’S LIFE AND A PARENT’S LIFE
Robertson decided to stop acting after their son was born, noting that the roles she was auditioning for weren’t worth the time away from her young son. “I would have to drive across town to audition and miss a whole day of my son’s life. And I’d hear him out there, taking his first step with the babysitter while I’m getting my hair done. I didn’t want to miss that.”
As for “Reno 911!”, Lennon says he still writes and performs on the show “here and there,” but much of what he does now is writing movies and books, including the Ronan Boyle young adult novel series, which features a young recruit to the Irish leprechaun police force. He’s adapting the first novel into a movie. “But as they say,” he notes, “these things take time.”
He says that Lake Geneva is the perfect backdrop for the quiet, creative space needed for this pursuit. “A lot of people think of me as an actor, which certainly I am,” he says. “But for most of my career, 70 percent of what I’ve really done is writing. It’s easier to do [this work] here because the days are really peaceful. It’s a very, very good place to write.”
A “GO-GO” FOR CHARITY
Lennon’s “Reno 911!” character is so beloved that he keeps a few spare costumes on hand to reprise his role as Lt. Dangle for local charity events. “Yep, I’ve got a few in a closet,” he explains. “They’re all slightly different sizes because we’ve been doing it for so long. We started doing the show when I was 28 … luckily some of the shirts have a little stretch in them,” he adds with a chuckle.
The couple often focuses on events that support law enforcement or local safety charities, as it dovetails well with the character. “We have good law enforcement agencies here,” he says. “We’re friendly with them, and my general rule is that if law enforcement asks me to do it, the answer is always, ‘Of course.’” Last year, Ted Pankau, director of the Water Safety Patrol, asked Lennon to step into character to help get people’s attention at the Patrol’s annual Nautical Night Benefit and Auction.
“I was the hype man — ‘Pay attention! This is the police!’” Lennon laughs. “Apparently, we did break a record that night, so I wonder if I will be asked to do it again. It’s a very long night, for sure. And it’s a very tight outfit.”
The first year the couple was in the area, the manager of the Lake Geneva Walmart asked Lennon if he wanted to do a book signing at the store. He declined the book signing but said he’d do a charity event instead.The manager suggested Lennon work at a register dressed as Lt. Dangle, and allow people to donate to the Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin. “I was like, ‘Yeah, absolutely, let’s do that,’” recalls Lennon. “But it was probably the hardest day of work of my entire life. And mostly because I’m terrible at math. It was a very long day. I have a lot of respect for the Walmart cashiers.”
Of course, not everyone recognizes Lennon’s keystone character. For instance, he shared the story of working as a bartender, in costume, on Gage Marine’s wooden yacht, the Matriarch, as part of a Water Safety Patrol fundraiser.
“I go over to Bill Gage’s house — he and his wife are the kindest people — and we were having a great laugh,” Lennon remembers. “Then we get on the boat and pick up all the guests, who, you know, purchased a night on the boat for a commensurate amount of money. And as I see them coming down the gangway, I know for a fact, from the look on their faces, that not one of these people has ever heard of the character of Lt. Dangle. They all think I’m either some sort of actual police officer or maybe a Chippendales dancer. Not one hint of recognition. So basically, I was just a real bartender, but in short go-go shorts, with a gun.”
“EVERYTHING YOU NEED AND NOTHING YOU DON’T”
Regardless of how these events land, one thing remains clear: Lennon and Robertson are deeply appreciative of and committed to the Geneva Lake community. And while the couple still travels back to Los Angeles occasionally, “for all extents and purposes, we’re here full-time now,” says Lennon.
The couple is enthusiastic about the area, listing the many things they love about it, including the great people, the amenities and the recreational and entertainment options available. They’re frequent visitors to the local library and Lake Geneva’s Emagine movie theater, which Lennon describes as, “hands-down the best movie theater in America.”
They are also huge fans of Tristan Crist’s magic show in Lake Geneva; Lennon enthuses that the finale of Crist’s new show is the best magic they’ve ever seen. They are also friends with the site director at Black Point Estate and regularly attend events there. Robertson loves the farmers’ markets and raves about Sandy’s Upscale Consignment in Walworth. And then there’s the Owl Tavern. “It is probably our favorite little tavern in America,” says Robertson.
Fontana’s Little Bar and Oakfire Pizza in Lake Geneva are top favorites as well. “This area has everything you need and nothing you don’t,” says Lennon.
It’s also inherently beautiful, adds Robertson: “I was driving to Elkhorn yesterday, and I was getting tears because it was just so beautiful. The sky. Everything is so green. That’s never going to happen in Los Angeles. You’re never going to get something like this. It’s just such a beautiful place … it’s really the best place to be.”
