Speaker 1: Hey, you're listening to pod land now.
Speaker 2: H I am Fred Armison.
Speaker 3: And I'm Kerry Brownstein and this is AO rewatch.
Speaker 2: Hey Landy or rewatch podcasts.
Speaker 3: All right, so now we are going to talk about
Speaker 3: season one episode one, Yes, which we should note was
Speaker 3: not the original first episode. So this is not when
Speaker 3: we talk about us shooting a pilot for IFC to
Speaker 3: determine whether to pick up or not. This first episode,
Speaker 3: the Farm is not the original pilot. So yeah, that's
Speaker 3: a fact we'll get when we get to the episode
Speaker 3: one oh two, which is the real pilot. We will
Speaker 3: talk about that. And to me, that one looks and
Speaker 3: feels like the pilot. Oh yeah, this has a polish
Speaker 3: for a first episode that is kind of a cheat
Speaker 3: because it really was the second thing we ever shot. Yes,
Speaker 3: And the reason it became the first episode is Lauren
Speaker 3: and uh, there's the cold open is dream of the
Speaker 3: nineties and it's a it's a thesis statement essentially. We
Speaker 3: didn't think of it at the time like that, but
Speaker 3: Lauren saw it and was like, of course, this is
Speaker 3: the first episode. And it took some finangling with IFC.
Speaker 3: They really did not want this as the first episode.
Speaker 3: They wanted the pilot, the real pilot, as the first episode,
Speaker 3: and I mean I could, I could.
Speaker 2: You know, I'm glad it turned out this way. I
Speaker 2: could see the well, I guess we can't really get
Speaker 2: into that second episode of the pilot episode yet because
Speaker 2: that's that has put a bird on it. Yeah, so
Speaker 2: I could see how that does also seem like it's
Speaker 2: a statement of some kinder But still.
Speaker 3: This is such a huge I mean, it's just such
Speaker 3: a big song, and I feel like it also sets
Speaker 3: up an identity for Portland and for the show, and.
Speaker 2: Just it's a real proper intro. It's a proper in
Speaker 2: the other thing is like and there's a lot of
Speaker 2: Lauren stuff, but I also feel like something that Lauren
Speaker 2: is great at, I'm like, you've got to trust him,
Speaker 2: you know, Like I'm like, Lauren Michaels is saying that
Speaker 2: this should be the first episode. That's enough, you know.
Speaker 2: So okay, dream of the nineties John's basic idea. And
Speaker 2: I remember, like I think the song was written little
Speaker 2: by little, like he had a concept of it, and
Speaker 2: I think you wrote it with him and then maybe
Speaker 2: asa to Connie.
Speaker 3: Yeah it was but I remember though, So okay, so
Speaker 3: we're now writing in Portland, right, So we're up in Portland,
Speaker 3: were writing the bulk of the season after writing originally
Speaker 3: the real pilot, the original pilot we wrote in La
Speaker 3: So now in Portland. I just remember Jonathan coming in
Speaker 3: one morning and he's been in Portland now like a
Speaker 3: couple of weeks. This is like late in the season
Speaker 3: that we write this song, and he's like, I just
Speaker 3: having this thought about Portland, like it's so nineties, like
Speaker 3: it just seems stuck. Like he it took him being there, yes,
Speaker 3: to write this song or to come up with this idea,
Speaker 3: which I think is important, Like we would not have
Speaker 3: come up with this when we were still just writing
Speaker 3: in Los Angeles, like it was boots on the ground, experiential, observational. Yes,
Speaker 3: and so yeah, he started like this idea started percolating.
Speaker 2: I'm remembering that I hadn't thought about this before. Our
Speaker 2: writer's room in Portland was under a sort of convention
Speaker 2: center hotel. Yes, yeah, sort of, and it was kind
Speaker 2: of run down, not a nightmare, but sort of like
Speaker 2: you know, it wasn't glamorous.
Speaker 3: It has been torn down since. Okay, In the fact,
Speaker 3: most of the writers' rooms we've ever worked in Portland
Speaker 3: since been torn down, so I think fair enough to
Speaker 3: say that it was, you know, near derelict. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3: And did we even have a writer's assistant, which is
Speaker 3: like a common thing and a writer room. It's like,
Speaker 3: I don't know, I don't think we did.
Speaker 2: I was Alice was Alice Mathias was a version of
Speaker 2: a writer's assistant. I don't know if she had that title, but.
Speaker 3: Yeah, she was there. She was a small room. Yeah,
Speaker 3: yeah for a show. This was a small writer's room.
Speaker 3: So yeah, so John comes in with this idea, we
Speaker 3: start talking about it. We start, you know, the verses
Speaker 3: are essentially your character Jason, right, yeah, Jason from LA
Speaker 3: is your character, and you're sort of telling my character.
Speaker 3: You're regaling me with the story of like what the
Speaker 3: city is like. And each verse, each spoken verse, you're
Speaker 3: sort of outlining all the ways that it's unlike other cities.
Speaker 2: Yes, and there's like a build up to it. There's
Speaker 2: like a sort of every every line is like builds
Speaker 2: up a little bit more. And how excited I am
Speaker 2: about this place called Portland? Yeah, and what you're you know,
Speaker 2: watching the show we shot Portland for LA that first
Speaker 2: scene in LA, and I remember when we were shooting it,
Speaker 2: it didn't seem convincing to me. I was like, shouldn't
Speaker 2: we shoot this in LA. That's that's where I was
Speaker 2: sort of ignorant of, like, how all you need is
Speaker 2: that opening shot of the you know, the you know
Speaker 2: LA from a distance, that's all you need. But for
Speaker 2: some reason, I was like, but of course it looks
Speaker 2: it's fine. It's just two people on the street. Yeah.
Speaker 3: I remember the costume designer, like a man Anita putting
Speaker 3: me in like a juicy couture that was for a
Speaker 3: shorthand for someone in LA, like juicy cuture and uggs.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And I had this sort of I had like a
Speaker 2: beanie like a hat, yeah, which is very La sort
Speaker 2: of you know, it's like nighttime La, where.
Speaker 3: Yeah, like pulled pretty far back on your head yeaheah.
Speaker 3: And so yeah, you're telling me about it, and some
Speaker 3: of the beats in the song or you know, that's
Speaker 3: when we get to the line Portland is where young
Speaker 3: people go to retire, Yes, which is a line that
Speaker 3: you think is from Nick Kroll, But now that's maybe apocryphal.
Speaker 3: I remember we've talked about it, but You're like, then
Speaker 3: maybe he said it wasn't right. He claimed he didn't
Speaker 3: say that originally, right.
Speaker 2: I thought we got it from him, and then he yeah,
Speaker 2: he wasn't so sure.
Speaker 3: Yeah. We also talk about clowning and the Jim Rose yeah, sideshow, Yeah,
Speaker 3: all these sort of nineties things.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, which really resonated with me. Anyway. When I
Speaker 2: watch it, I'm like, I mean, I'm so nostalgic about
Speaker 2: that time that I get such a good feeling when
Speaker 2: I'm watching it, like, oh yeah, that's right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I just remember so for the actual the stuff
Speaker 3: that isn't when we're walking along the streets with the
Speaker 3: part where we get to the chorus yeah, and you're
Speaker 3: down there on the waterfront with a cast of thousands.
Speaker 3: It was like this very big music video. I only
Speaker 3: come in at the end of that video, so I
Speaker 3: was not there like all day, you know, I had
Speaker 3: like a late call time and show up and it's
Speaker 3: just like this incredible production. It was the biggest thing
Speaker 3: we had done so far. Most everything else had been
Speaker 3: you know, in someone's house or in this you know,
Speaker 3: like a little shop, and it's us just like you know,
Speaker 3: a couple people. This is like one hundred background you know, actors,
Speaker 3: gay men's chorus, clowns and circus performers.
Speaker 2: So many people. I mean it was in costume.
Speaker 3: In costume, someone for every verse, you know, like if
Speaker 3: we mentioned like hot girl and glasses, we had the
Speaker 3: hot girls and glasses. We had people riding double ducker bikes,
Speaker 3: we had people juggling like. It was such an amazing
Speaker 3: set to walk on too. And it was really the
Speaker 3: first time that I just became aware of how Jonathan
Speaker 3: was just thinking of this show, not just as like Okay,
Speaker 3: it's you know, let's put up a couple cameras and
Speaker 3: catch people like improvising. It was like, no, this was
Speaker 3: a huge like production with you know, done very cheaply,
Speaker 3: but like he I'm very big, and he was always
Speaker 3: able to implement that. And we had such great production
Speaker 3: designer and Tyler Robinson.
Speaker 2: Who were in the video.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so Amanda Needham incredible costume designer. Yeah, you know again,
Speaker 3: are in fact a lot of our crew.
Speaker 2: In the foreground.
Speaker 3: Yeah, which is a very common recurring thing of our show.
Speaker 3: But it was really the first time that I thought, oh,
Speaker 3: I guess we're making something a lot bigger than I realized.
Speaker 3: And that the vision of it was going to be
Speaker 3: like much grander than I had imagined. I just couldn't believe.
Speaker 3: You know, there's like a crane, you know, all these
Speaker 3: things and yeah, and plus the song itself right like that,
Speaker 3: it wasn't you know. You and I had like written
Speaker 3: some incidental music for the show and we were just
Speaker 3: like in a studio with like a guitar, and like,
Speaker 3: all of a sudden, this sounded like a big pop song,
Speaker 3: you know, like very produced, very Yeah, it was. I
Speaker 3: think it really like set the tone for what like
Speaker 3: the ceiling could be that it was in. The ceiling
Speaker 3: was so much higher than I imagined. And even though
Speaker 3: we were making it in a city that wasn't you know,
Speaker 3: New York or London or LA. And you know, we
Speaker 3: didn't have New York or LA crew. We just had
Speaker 3: people who were nimble and inventive and scrappy and like
Speaker 3: you and I come from punk, like it's a scrappy medium.
Speaker 3: And I was like, oh my god, we get to
Speaker 3: make a scrappy show and this is the best kind
Speaker 3: of show that I can ever Like it was so
Speaker 3: in line with who we were. That was the moment
Speaker 3: that it really clicked for me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I same. By the way, especially with the backing
Speaker 2: tracks those songs being done, that was also beyond me
Speaker 2: that all of a sudden it was finished. When did
Speaker 2: you know? When was this recorded? When it was ready
Speaker 2: to go? And like you said, right, you know, right
Speaker 2: there by the river, this location that was perfect. Things
Speaker 2: that are really easy to take for granted. Yeah, and
Speaker 2: then the sort of I don't even remember who choreographed it,
Speaker 2: but the choreography and the setups of how people would
Speaker 2: walk towards the camera gigantic. Something was just the scale
Speaker 2: of it was so big. But I also remember for
Speaker 2: me it evoked this There's a Stranglers video for the
Speaker 2: song called Strange Little Girl, and at the end of it,
Speaker 2: there's this punk you know who's like walking with this
Speaker 2: whole crowd of people. So I just was like, oh,
Speaker 2: maybe this is a little bit like that Strangers video.
Speaker 2: Oh that's but yeah, same thing that everything was so complete,
Speaker 2: and that San Francisco joke at the end of it.
Speaker 2: It was great. That's a very specific thing.
Speaker 3: Yes, that is the thing I think we you know,
Speaker 3: we never know how much of a joke or a
Speaker 3: sketch an audience is getting but we never like we
Speaker 3: always assumed that they were intelligent and in the note
Speaker 3: or that they would like it either way. Like there's
Speaker 3: you know it operates like we liked it, operating on
Speaker 3: a very on multiple levels and being very specific, you know,
Speaker 3: like if you knew the like just subtle difference between
Speaker 3: like an SF punk.
Speaker 2: And a you know, thiercings.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's it's very true. Yeah, and I think that's
Speaker 3: something I always loved about The Simpsons. We end up
Speaker 3: later with the Simpsons writer, but how things just are
Speaker 3: operating on these multiple levels, like the references. You don't
Speaker 3: need to get the references. We're not trying to be
Speaker 3: too cool for anyone, but if you get the reference,
Speaker 3: it's like an extra Easter egg. Yes, yeah, and yes
Speaker 3: there's I feel like even down to like people and
Speaker 3: the crew, like they all also brought in those ideas.
Speaker 3: Like that's another thing about the show worth mentioning early on,
Speaker 3: like it was like best idea wins. Like our production
Speaker 3: design team they always pitched jokes, visual jokes, like you know,
Speaker 3: our ad would pitch lines like it was all hands
Speaker 3: on deck. It had to.
Speaker 2: Jokes.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it kind of had to be because we were
Speaker 3: shooting so quickly like that was that we we shot
Speaker 3: that video in a day easily, that would have been
Speaker 3: a you know, a two day shoot.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3: So yeah, so that's that's the that's the opening, and.
Speaker 2: I enjoyed, like also, who came up with some of
Speaker 2: the did you improvise some of those lines as we're
Speaker 2: walking along?
Speaker 3: A lot of it? I mean early on we should
Speaker 3: just say we had outlines for this guy. We even
Speaker 3: had scripts, but the scripts were so threadbare we did
Speaker 3: so much improvisation. Yeah, some some of it was improvised,
Speaker 3: like I gave up clowning years ago, like that one. Yeah,
Speaker 3: that's right, some of the but you know, and a
Speaker 3: lot of it was because of that. There's such a
Speaker 3: like a lot of heavy lifting from the editors. But this,
Speaker 3: I think also was one of the first ones we
Speaker 3: did that felt very we had to be locked in
Speaker 3: because there was a cadence, you know, the verses or
Speaker 3: a certain length. There had to be sort of a
Speaker 3: button at the end of each verse that led into
Speaker 3: the chorus, and also that that verse had to tie
Speaker 3: in with the lyrics of that part of the chorus.
Speaker 3: So this one, unlike say Feminist Bookstore which we'll get
Speaker 3: into in a second, which is much more meandering. Yes,
Speaker 3: like this felt like a little more.
Speaker 2: I don't know, structured and a great way to start. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and you know, I'm glad that. I'm glad that that
Speaker 2: decision was made.
Speaker 3: Same and yeah, also introduced the idea that we would
Speaker 3: be doing things with music, you know, like music was
Speaker 3: so important to us. Oh yeah, that's right, And it
Speaker 3: just it always was so intrinsic to the fabric of
Speaker 3: the show. So I think to start with something that
Speaker 3: said like, yeah, this will be part of the vernacular,
Speaker 3: I think was important too.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: It's even presented as a music video.
Speaker 3: Yes, it says like Jason from La right as the artist.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, I guess going from there, it would
Speaker 2: be crazy to do this every time. But I guess
Speaker 2: we should talk about the opening credits too, because that's
Speaker 2: like the first time anyone's seen that. Yeah, And basically
Speaker 2: we had as a place holder for the theme song,
Speaker 2: feel It All Around. I washed out just because it
Speaker 2: was not a comedy song. It was like sort of melancholy,
Speaker 2: and you know, I just like the mood of it,
Speaker 2: and we all did. We all like this mood, so
Speaker 2: you know, it costs a lot to get a you know,
Speaker 2: a proper you know, a song. Yeah, so we just
Speaker 2: kept it until we couldn't live without it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and you and I meanwhile, we're working on a
Speaker 3: theme song. We went into a studio and we recorded
Speaker 3: a bunch of songs that ended up being more incidental
Speaker 3: music and transitional music. But everything we were doing did
Speaker 3: kind of feel like more like expected comedy. Like there
Speaker 3: was sort of a thing at the time where comedy,
Speaker 3: like if you listened to like the John Stewart The
Speaker 3: Daily Show or Colbert even going back to like Kids
Speaker 3: in the Hall, it's like guitar guitar riff, you know,
Speaker 3: was like comedy.
Speaker 2: It's edgy yeah, or it's ours.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and which is cool, It's totally fine, like all
Speaker 3: those theme songs. But I feel like we were not
Speaker 3: able to sort of even even skilled wise, that is
Speaker 3: just what we do, Like I'm the guitars, you play drums,
Speaker 3: Like we could have done something else, but that was
Speaker 3: kind of in our wheelhouse. But Yeah, as it often happens,
Speaker 3: you get really attached to the placeholder music, and it
Speaker 3: just had a vibe that I think we really loved.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it worked with the edited you know, the
Speaker 2: actual sequence itself.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and now I kind of can't obviously can't imagine
Speaker 3: any other version.
Speaker 2: No, Yeah, I remember or I was gonna say, like
Speaker 2: watching because I watched the opening credits again. You know,
Speaker 2: I still go to Portland and the credits are like
Speaker 2: still accurate as to like the coloring. It's just sort
Speaker 2: of there's like a hue to it all. Yeah, and
Speaker 2: I still get that same, you know, feeling because it
Speaker 2: there's like some emotion in those opening credits.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I credit again to the to the song.
Speaker 3: You know, I think, yeah, washed out, there's something there's
Speaker 3: heart in there, you know, there's something bittersweet too, Like yeah,
Speaker 3: to me even at the time, like it just there's
Speaker 3: a warmth to it. And also there's so many, you know,
Speaker 3: shots of local Portlanders and yeah, it just feels like
Speaker 3: it's it's such a like time capsule in some ways,
Speaker 3: but also just could be anywhere, any city at the
Speaker 3: same time, like it's so wonderfully Portland but also just
Speaker 3: looks like someone you know. And that's what I think
Speaker 3: we try to do a lot with like the background,
Speaker 3: you know, it's just have it feel like really textured,
Speaker 3: like these could be people, you know, these are your friends,
Speaker 3: these are you know, really build out that world. I
Speaker 3: think the credits do a good job of that.
Speaker 2: I'm guessing would have been Doug Lasson Hop and Daniel
Speaker 2: Graylandino and John maybe who edited that for season. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and also maybe obviously they're opening credits. Yeah, but anyway,
Speaker 2: so that, yes, that's the opening credits.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but worth yeah, worth mentioning because it was I mean,
Speaker 3: I guess, you know, maybe saying the obvious, but the
Speaker 3: first season of a show, especially we you know, we
Speaker 3: were producers on the show too, so all of these
Speaker 3: decisions are sort of there for us. And it's it's
Speaker 3: a lot, like you, a lot goes into it. And
Speaker 3: that might sound obvious, but it was just we didn't know,
Speaker 3: you know. It was like every little thing Yeah, and
Speaker 3: a lot of it are you know those things are
Speaker 3: happy accidents yep, and fall into place, and but yeah,
Speaker 3: it's you're building a world.
Speaker 2: And he stuck to it. He stuck to that. Those Yeah,
Speaker 2: those credits. So we'll go on to the you know,
Speaker 2: Colin Farm. Yeah, I guess like you, it's just not
Speaker 2: just a sketch. It's like a three parter. I think
Speaker 2: we used to think of the mass.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so the structure of the show is essentially a
Speaker 3: cold open. Then it would be the credits, and then
Speaker 3: we would have what was called like a wrap around sketch,
Speaker 3: like what's the you know, and every episode had a
Speaker 3: wrap around. It was a three part sketch beginning, middle,
Speaker 3: and end, and that kind of was the container for
Speaker 3: the show.
Speaker 2: Yes, and so based on we might have I think
Speaker 2: tried to write different sketches about ordering it a restaurant
Speaker 2: because our experience I remember, or my experience, there was
Speaker 2: always that whenever you order something, there was a lot
Speaker 2: of there was like a sort of like specialness to it,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean, Like is that the right word,
Speaker 2: you know, like preciousness preciousness yeah or not tradition, but
Speaker 2: like there was like it wasn't just like you just
Speaker 2: order something from a waiter. There was like a lot
Speaker 2: of explanation, a lot of storytelling, a lot of storytelling,
Speaker 2: a lot of this is you know, they would tell
Speaker 2: you what your experience was going to be for.
Speaker 3: Me, yeah, and the other thing and again so I
Speaker 3: you know, just to remind people what it's twenty eleven,
Speaker 3: so this has become pretty normal almost everywhere you go,
Speaker 3: but there was definitely kind of a shift into this
Speaker 3: kind of experiential, immersive restaurant going where you know, it
Speaker 3: was people trying to differentiate themselves like, well this restaurant.
Speaker 3: There was a lot of this was the first time
Speaker 3: you heard have you dined with us before? And you're like, no,
Speaker 3: but I've eaten at a restaurant, so you know, unless
Speaker 3: you're going to do something absolutely shocking here, like I'm
Speaker 3: pretty sure I know what's going to happen. But they
Speaker 3: always told you that as if like this was going
Speaker 3: to be this very bespoke experience. Part of that was
Speaker 3: to give you a background of the food, the food
Speaker 3: story yes, which again most of us don't need. And
Speaker 3: this was also when menus got very like narrative. It
Speaker 3: was like can I get the cliffs notes of this
Speaker 3: menu please? Like what's the short version of this menu?
Speaker 3: And then these you know servers memory seeing so much
Speaker 3: like to tell you this story, so yes, and.
Speaker 2: Also trying to be casual so it was proper and
Speaker 2: then just casual at the same time, like yeah, just
Speaker 2: so you know, this is what we do and and
Speaker 2: you're right it is. You do see it a lot
Speaker 2: more now even and not fast food, but there's like,
Speaker 2: you know, there are sort of fast foodish places right
Speaker 2: like you a little story.
Speaker 3: In fast casual because everything's about like, well, what's your story?
Speaker 3: You know, and it's like that it's so endemic now,
Speaker 3: but this felt like a way of differentiating between you know,
Speaker 3: a certain kind of restaurant and like the old, like
Speaker 3: the old and new. This was like the dividing line here. Yeah,
Speaker 3: lots of like what's the origin, what's the provenance of
Speaker 3: the food, and you know, obviously people genuinely starting to
Speaker 3: care like where is this coming from? Like you know,
Speaker 3: is this like what's the environmental and ecological impact? Is
Speaker 3: like is this humanely sourced?
Speaker 2: And you know all that and is it local.
Speaker 3: Local exactly how how local is it? So with all
Speaker 3: of that in mind, I think, and having that be
Speaker 3: really prevalent and newly prevalent, we started, you know, talking
Speaker 3: about this and I think you're right. I think there
Speaker 3: were certain ideas that we had disparate sketches, and then
Speaker 3: we started to sort of coalesce that into like, well,
Speaker 3: what if we just did one sketch that was about
Speaker 3: all of these things ordering, ordering, and another thing in
Speaker 3: terms of like these wrap rounds, these three parts, is
Speaker 3: that we often started, as this one does, with a
Speaker 3: grounded premise or as you know, grounded mostly grounded premise,
Speaker 3: and then of course we deviate from there. But usually
Speaker 3: the part one is like, Okay, we're starting somewhat in reality,
Speaker 3: which we do. Here we go to a restaurant. We're
Speaker 3: introduced to two characters, and.
Speaker 2: I would say new characters even though it's the first
Speaker 2: episode we hadn't done them before.
Speaker 3: Were in under Yeah, So Peter and Nance a couple. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and I guess because it's you and I. Like most
Speaker 3: of our characters, many of our recurring characters are couples. Yes,
Speaker 3: you know, married or friends or but this was kind
Speaker 3: of a classic married couple, no friction, no friction. This
Speaker 3: is like the least the couple with the least amount
Speaker 3: of friction.
Speaker 2: Yes, And did you see them around, Like wow, they
Speaker 2: really seem to get along.
Speaker 3: Just the other day, I was walking my dog and
Speaker 3: a couple was holding hands. They were in their seventies,
Speaker 3: and I was like, wow, that's so much dedication. It's
Speaker 3: pouring rain, hand hand out exposed, like yeah. I just
Speaker 3: thought like, wow, this is it's very sweet. It also
Speaker 3: makes me, for some reason angry, which is like every
Speaker 3: other character like the reaction to that. Yea, for no reason.
Speaker 3: I'm so happy for them my thought, you know, may
Speaker 3: they die holding hands, like I want that for them.
Speaker 3: But at the same time, like I'm just so perplexed.
Speaker 3: But and I think that's often where we build characters from,
Speaker 3: is things that we don't like how and why, Like
Speaker 3: let's embody that for a while. Yeah, and Peter and Nance, Yeah,
Speaker 3: I mean they are so cloying. They just melt into
Speaker 3: each other.
Speaker 2: There's soft and they're also not even particularly you know,
Speaker 2: like it's not like this erotic trip of like how
Speaker 2: hot they are for each other. It's just comfortable and comfortable.
Speaker 2: They just love each other. And it really I felt
Speaker 2: like that was something that was I just that existed
Speaker 2: in Portland. Was like it's all fine.
Speaker 3: Yeah, especially embodied by them. Yeah, frictionless is definitely the
Speaker 3: right word. And you kind of didn't know where one
Speaker 3: ended in the other.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Even their clothes are kind of flowing loose. Yeah,
Speaker 2: they're not hippie, no heart edges, no heart edges.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And they're at this restaurant and they they really let
Speaker 2: ordering linger, oh boy, as opposed to let's just get
Speaker 2: our food, it's let's make this an appointment.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they have a lot of questions. The weight person
Speaker 3: is played by Dana Milliken. This was her first role
Speaker 3: on the show, and she became a recurring actor on
Speaker 3: the show. She played many In fact, she never played
Speaker 3: this character again, but she is a local Portland actor.
Speaker 3: She was on a reseason. Yep, we adore Dana and
Speaker 3: to her credit and to the credit of almost everyone
Speaker 3: on the show, no script. You know, she had a
Speaker 3: few lines, but everything that you see, at least ninety
Speaker 3: nine percent of it is her absolutely improvising. Yeah, playing
Speaker 3: it straight, playing it straight the whole time, which is
Speaker 3: exactly the assignment for that. This is also I would say,
Speaker 3: for Peter, you have a Peter stammers. He has a stutter. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and you do that for the first time here. Yeah,
Speaker 3: And I don't think it was something that certainly wasn't
Speaker 3: in the character description. You just you picked a word
Speaker 3: and you sort of let it roll and you had
Speaker 3: a hard time getting it out, and then that became
Speaker 3: part of who he was.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, I remember like as I was watching it too,
Speaker 2: I was like, what was I going for like who
Speaker 2: that's what pretentious to say. Well, but like I remember
Speaker 2: thinking that maybe he looked a little bit like either
Speaker 2: like or it was a little bit like either Chevy
Speaker 2: Chase or Martin Short, like a mix of them doing something.
Speaker 2: So that's kind of what that was a little bit.
Speaker 3: And I remember thinking, as I was rewatching this that
Speaker 3: you still had more of your Fred voice here than
Speaker 3: you do later.
Speaker 2: That happens in a lot of sketches.
Speaker 3: Yes, and you know, I do the same thing where
Speaker 3: we sort of we didn't know which characters would be reoccurring,
Speaker 3: and so some characters we never had time to develop further,
Speaker 3: but these characters we recurred over and over again. But yes,
Speaker 3: I think my version of Nance also becomes more pronounced.
Speaker 3: It's like the more we sort of grew into each other,
Speaker 3: even as a couple, a couple of Peter Nance, Yes,
Speaker 3: the more we started playing off the other person's you know,
Speaker 3: sort of you know, little syrapy nature. But yeah, so
Speaker 3: we ask Dana where we want to order a chicken,
Speaker 3: and she brings out the paperwork for this chicken.
Speaker 2: Who is this chicken specifically.
Speaker 3: And the chicken's name is Colin. Yeah, and we decide
Speaker 3: that we need to go and really investigator, really investigate.
Speaker 3: And he's from a local farm nearby. So we leave
Speaker 3: the table and say we're going to be right back.
Speaker 2: And we even say like, just hold these seats, hold
Speaker 2: these seats while we go on this little trip.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and we had off.
Speaker 2: Talking about Peter and Nance. I don't know if this
Speaker 2: ever happens with you, but you know, sometimes when with memory,
Speaker 2: I do sometimes like we'll sort of fill in the blanks.
Speaker 1: And later in.
Speaker 2: The existence of Portlandia, we ran into a couple who
Speaker 2: was out and I think they were walking their dog
Speaker 2: or something, and we're very much like Peter and Nance.
Speaker 2: So somehow I always think like, oh, maybe they were
Speaker 2: kind of based on them, which is impossible.
Speaker 3: Because you met them afterwards.
Speaker 2: We met them after right, But maybe it's to say
Speaker 2: that I think somewhere I did notice couples like that
Speaker 2: in Portland.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I will say that I think a lot of
Speaker 3: our characters, and obviously when we get to each character
Speaker 3: we can talk more about this, but are based on
Speaker 3: people we know, or are iterations of ourselves, Like we
Speaker 3: talk about that all the time. How like there's just
Speaker 3: some facet of our personality and where I'm like, if
Speaker 3: I only like highlighted this part of myself, like the
Speaker 3: part of myself that's really frustrated and short tempered, then
Speaker 3: I would be this character. If I only highlighted this
Speaker 3: part of myself, I would be like this. And I
Speaker 3: think that's a place that we came from, was not
Speaker 3: making fun of people, not looking at someone and saying Haha,
Speaker 3: aren't they weird or strange or eccentric? But oh, I
Speaker 3: can see myself in that. I know who this person
Speaker 3: is because when I'm in a certain situation, I'm I'm
Speaker 3: like that, and like, let's build a character around if
Speaker 3: I only did that or you only died that. And
Speaker 3: then it's especially putting them together. How would we play
Speaker 3: off each other if we were like that? And I
Speaker 3: think a lot of it, you know, like they remind
Speaker 3: me of my parents' friends.
Speaker 2: Sure well you know growing up.
Speaker 3: But yeah, but I agree that Peter and Nance like
Speaker 3: I feel like we know them. That's often where I
Speaker 3: came from, Like I know this person. Yeah, I've been
Speaker 3: around this person or I've felt myself doing something like this.
Speaker 2: And I am a sucker for like, even though it
Speaker 2: seems like we're making fun of those restaurants. I'm a
Speaker 2: sucker for those places. That's where any city I go to,
Speaker 2: I go to whatever seems the most you know, farm
Speaker 2: to table or whatever it's called. Now that same, all
Speaker 2: those graphics and all that stuff, that is where I'm headed.
Speaker 2: So I don't look at it like from like, hey,
Speaker 2: we'll get over yourself. It's not like that. It's more
Speaker 2: like every city, Yeah, that's where I end up in
Speaker 2: a place like that.
Speaker 3: No, it's true. I think the ethos of the show
Speaker 3: even early on, was like, let's explore something like it's
Speaker 3: it comes from a place of curiosity, you know, not
Speaker 3: not a place of derision. It's just like, yeah, I
Speaker 3: want to know more about this, like I want to
Speaker 3: understand it, whether it's something that we already participate in
Speaker 3: or not. You know, like what what makes this place tick?
Speaker 3: What makes this person tick?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: So yeah, so here an announce.
Speaker 2: Announce And in part two of this wrap around, we
Speaker 2: go to the farm in my real.
Speaker 3: Car that's right in my Volvo that I had at
Speaker 3: the time, and that was up.
Speaker 2: In the hills of around around Portland.
Speaker 3: Yeah me West Hills. And remember there was a guy
Speaker 3: he's not there was a guy who has a cameo
Speaker 3: in this who that year was voted like Portland's Hottest
Speaker 3: farmer remember that. It was like I didn't even know
Speaker 3: we had that competition anyway, Just just a little easter
Speaker 3: egg for the people. Also, our makeup person Jessica Needham
Speaker 3: is in the scene, our costume resigner a Manda need Hm,
Speaker 3: and a handf of other again, just so many, so
Speaker 3: much crew in the background.
Speaker 2: But this Ashby is in it.
Speaker 3: Ashby is in it.
Speaker 2: It was in many episodes in the sketches.
Speaker 3: Are these all these? All these women play the wives
Speaker 3: of Aliki, who is the head farmer called Leader played
Speaker 3: by Jason Sudikis.
Speaker 2: I'm going to say also about you know, shooting things
Speaker 2: and not knowing how things work. I was still under
Speaker 2: the impression that you needed at the time footage of
Speaker 2: us driving when are we gonna do? Us? Looking for director?
Speaker 2: And I really learned on Portlandia about like you don't
Speaker 2: need any of that stuff. Once we arrive, of course
Speaker 2: they're you know, yeah, I can't believe I ever was questioned. Oh,
Speaker 2: I mean I didn't question. I was just sort of like, oh,
Speaker 2: I guess we're just here. But works perfectly.
Speaker 3: Fine, Yeah, listen, I'm in the same boat. Like, there's
Speaker 3: so much you learn about editing and filmmaking by just
Speaker 3: being around it all the time. Yeah, like you know,
Speaker 3: things that you take for granted and you know, it's
Speaker 3: just like, yeah, the process is revealing itself to you.
Speaker 3: And I felt really surprised a lot too, just in
Speaker 3: the early days because it's so new, and you know,
Speaker 3: for our listeners that might sound ignorant, but there's actually
Speaker 3: something really wondrous about kind of being surprised, you know,
Speaker 3: as you're going along and just yeah, like not it's
Speaker 3: also a good thing to demystify for people, like, you know, yes,
Speaker 3: there are definitely people who know exactly what they're doing,
Speaker 3: but a lot a lot of people, especially in TV
Speaker 3: and film and working on set, you learn as you go.
Speaker 3: You know's there's people that have the knowledge beforehand, but
Speaker 3: even those people are learning and every day is very different.
Speaker 3: You know, things are thrown at you, but it's it's
Speaker 3: like a big machine that requires everyone like working and yeah,
Speaker 3: and we're just one small part of that. So a
Speaker 3: lot of things we would just show up on set too,
Speaker 3: like because we're done with the writing, you know, now
Speaker 3: we're just in acting mode. And we would show up
Speaker 3: to set and I was all amazed, I should say too,
Speaker 3: as like what how it went from page to screen?
Speaker 3: You know, like something we would write, a little thing
Speaker 3: you put in the script. Yeah, and then all of
Speaker 3: a sudden you're like, oh my god, here are like
Speaker 3: here's this farm and everyone's in these like the same
Speaker 3: outfits because they're you know, in this cult. Yeah, in
Speaker 3: this cult. Yeah, that was you know, running you know, Jason,
Speaker 3: I don't I think I don't even know if we
Speaker 3: had seen him beforehand that day, Like sometimes I feel like.
Speaker 2: That's the first time we saw him was on set,
Speaker 2: although I mean I worked with him a bunch. Yeah,
Speaker 2: And I gotta say he is so funny, Yes, in
Speaker 2: this and watching it again, there's little things he does
Speaker 2: this just so just this smooth character. There's this one
Speaker 2: thing he does where you say your name and he
Speaker 2: sort of leans into you to say, like what was that?
Speaker 2: I'm sorry one more time, you know, and so funny
Speaker 2: and so good. It's just like this sort of all
Speaker 2: he's doing, all that character is doing, is just finding
Speaker 2: an excuse to sort of lean into you a little bit. Yeah,
Speaker 2: oh man, it's so good.
Speaker 3: And another thing that occurs here that becomes, you know,
Speaker 3: a theme that we repeat in a tool we use
Speaker 3: is incidental like background music. Yes, you know, and every time,
Speaker 3: you know, Peter Nance, we're getting shown around the farm
Speaker 3: by this young woman and she keeps pointing out a
Speaker 3: leaky We haven't met him yet and he's far off,
Speaker 3: and every time we look at him, there's just this
Speaker 3: little this this cue this music cue.
Speaker 2: Yes, it's like sixties psychedelic.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and it's sort of intoxicating. You can see us
Speaker 3: like sort of entranced by this guy wanting to get closer.
Speaker 3: And you know, we end up using the editors and
Speaker 3: you know, the directors would make this choice to just
Speaker 3: use that music all the time. And same with cutaways
Speaker 3: of like reaction shots from background. You see that a
Speaker 3: lot here. But yeah, to speak to you what you're
Speaker 3: saying about Jason, the other thing I noticed he did
Speaker 3: that's really brilliant is he decided he made a choice
Speaker 3: that he would treat Peter and Nance differently. So Peter,
Speaker 3: he sees as he's is like the weaker character, right,
Speaker 3: He's really playing to your like vanity, right, you know,
Speaker 3: Peter says in the first part one, you know of
Speaker 3: his eyes and you know he immediately says, any right,
Speaker 3: your eyes and then nance he sort of is like
Speaker 3: nagging the whole time, like he's sort of putting her down.
Speaker 3: He like kind of has her number. Yeah, and like
Speaker 3: he just made this choice to treat each of us differently,
Speaker 3: and it was so much smarter than just seeing us
Speaker 3: as like this monolith. He really sort of comes at
Speaker 3: us and like just it really created a much richer
Speaker 3: dynamic I thought for something that's.
Speaker 2: So short, Yeah, I also understood how he would be
Speaker 2: a cult leader or whatever that yes, because it wasn't
Speaker 2: it wasn't the stereotype or the cliche of a long
Speaker 2: haired yeah you know, yeah, that kind of wisdom. It
Speaker 2: was this other thing that that even today I'm like, hey,
Speaker 2: I want to follow that guy.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And then jumping into that uh that third part of
Speaker 2: the wrap around that jump that he's dying. Yes, I
Speaker 2: thought I assumed that somewhere there was going to be
Speaker 2: a scene of him going on, I don't feel so
Speaker 2: well or you know, I'm dying right away, deathbed that's
Speaker 2: all you need.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I think, you know again part of that
Speaker 3: learning curve, like you know, they say with like fiction
Speaker 3: or short stories, like you know, enter the scene late
Speaker 3: and leave early. And that is so true with sketch
Speaker 3: as well, like you just you don't need heads or tails,
Speaker 3: like let's just get right to the meat of it.
Speaker 3: And yeah, we kind of had to. We sort of
Speaker 3: learned how to do that, and certainly our editors I
Speaker 3: think early on really helped us. We started to write
Speaker 3: more like they edited because they were like, oh my god,
Speaker 3: this is so like, let's just let's cut this in that. Yeah.
Speaker 3: So yeah. So the you know, it's this big deathbed scene,
Speaker 3: which was so great. That's all that was. We just are,
Speaker 3: you know there all of his wives now including me
Speaker 3: and Peter and Nance are sitting around this deathbed. And
Speaker 3: then he finally dies and this fell is broken. We
Speaker 3: realize we've been in a cult. We look down, we
Speaker 3: see that we're wearing these long.
Speaker 2: Skirts, and back we go to the restaurant.
Speaker 3: Back to the restaurant, and we decide to order something else.
Speaker 2: I think we order salmon or something yeah, fish, salmon.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, and it you know again that kind
Speaker 3: of sort of the going back to like how he
Speaker 3: structured things. It was sort of like grounded, absurd, surreal.
Speaker 3: That's how I always think of it, like if you
Speaker 3: were to in general terms, you know, so it ends
Speaker 3: kind of it very heightened, you know, Dana suspends her
Speaker 3: disbelief that we would you know, O. Sensibly it's been
Speaker 3: years later, but we returned to the same table as
Speaker 3: if she's just been waiting for us the whole time. Yes,
Speaker 3: and continue our order.
Speaker 2: Going back to that first part, the fact that she
Speaker 2: had that folder with all that information, well, it's kind
Speaker 2: of a really good move that she's not just a
Speaker 2: straight person of like you guys are crazy. Yeah, it's
Speaker 2: a little bit like we're all engaging in whatever this is.
Speaker 3: And again that you know, credit to the art department
Speaker 3: prop wise, I mean they like for us too, you know.
Speaker 3: The props really I think helped because with sketch, you know,
Speaker 3: you don't have a lot of time. We would sometimes
Speaker 3: shoot like three or four sketches a day, completely different characters,
Speaker 3: different setups, different wigs, hair makeup. I mean, a prop
Speaker 3: can be the thing that just brings you right into
Speaker 3: you know the characters. You know, same with clothing, same
Speaker 3: with a you know, like a hat or piece of
Speaker 3: you know whatever, glasses, but it really you need that shorthand.
Speaker 3: And I think that our department was really good at
Speaker 3: visual storytelling. You know, they were the ones that gave
Speaker 3: her that, you know, the folder with you know, she went,
Speaker 3: let me get Collins paperwork. She comes back, there's a
Speaker 3: little photo of a chicken. You know, we didn't we
Speaker 3: didn't write that into the script. So there's a lot
Speaker 3: of additional stuff. So yeah, and that one, I will say,
Speaker 3: you know, there's certain Portlandia sketches that people still bring
Speaker 3: up and that you know, in a way that I
Speaker 3: feel so lucky to have been part of, like became
Speaker 3: part of like cultural parlance. And definitely, like sometimes when
Speaker 3: I go to restaurants, and especially during the years PORTLANDA
Speaker 3: was airing, people would always some people would be self
Speaker 3: conscious as they took my order because they were like,
Speaker 3: oh god, I know it's like I'm telling you this thing.
Speaker 3: But the whole call in the chicken and you know,
Speaker 3: asking about the origin review food definitely became a thing
Speaker 3: that you know, port Landy was part of that conversation.
Speaker 3: But specifically this sketch, it might be.
Speaker 2: At number one for like a reference that someone was definitely.
Speaker 3: Top five, I think, Yeah, But Yeah, so that was like, yeah,
Speaker 3: I liked that. It was a lot and definitely Peter
Speaker 3: Nance love and I'm not even sure why we went
Speaker 3: back to them, but we did. And you know, it's like,
Speaker 3: again a lot of things we weren't saying, oh here,
Speaker 3: We didn't start out writing the show and said here
Speaker 3: are the ten characters at all. No, you know, like,
Speaker 3: here's the ones we'll write for they that was very organic.
Speaker 2: Peter Nance just are really a good template for a
Speaker 2: lot of sketches where we don't need them to be
Speaker 2: too opinionated about anything. Yeah, I want to say also,
Speaker 2: I want to add that the element of wigs for
Speaker 2: every season was an issue in a good way since
Speaker 2: the pilot, since the where just like the music that
Speaker 2: we chose, we didn't want that to be too comedy ish.
Speaker 2: We also didn't want the whigs to be too comedic.
Speaker 2: So it took a while. And this is like a
Speaker 2: budget conversation where we had the really you know, ratchet
Speaker 2: up a little bit of like we really need good wigs.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and so you brought the people from unl It
Speaker 3: brought the best of the best.
Speaker 2: That's right, Jodi Manquso, who I think it was just
Speaker 2: hur at first and then she ran in gen But
Speaker 2: it's a kind of it's a secreting. It is just
Speaker 2: a good I mean, there's many great ingredients, but that
Speaker 2: ingredient was an immediate visual one.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, I mean I think in general everyone was
Speaker 3: punching about their weight. I mean, obviously Jody was high,
Speaker 3: like best of the best, but coming to Portland and
Speaker 3: working on much different like with different resources and fewer resources,
Speaker 3: everyone was really like doing a lot of fantastic work. Yes,
Speaker 3: also just pointing out we had we didn't have dressing rooms.
Speaker 2: You and I.
Speaker 3: So you know, a traditional show, you know, the stars
Speaker 3: of the show would have their own dressing rooms. We
Speaker 3: just we're in the back of the hair and makeup
Speaker 3: trailer in a camper, in a camper, yep. We never
Speaker 3: in fact, for all eight seasons, we never had our
Speaker 3: own dressing rooms. But definitely first season we were all
Speaker 3: together and along with the driver yep, yep, and his
Speaker 3: wife of the r V they were there and hair
Speaker 3: makeup costumes. We were all together all together, yep. And
Speaker 3: we never never had our own bathroom or yep. It
Speaker 3: was very threadbare.
Speaker 1: I mean.
Speaker 2: As it was happening, I think we also didn't know
Speaker 2: what the show was in a way, so I didn't
Speaker 2: have the argument in me at the time to be like,
Speaker 2: don't you know what this is. It was more like,
Speaker 2: I have no idea. This might be you know, too
Speaker 2: good for what. You know, Yeah, we're trying to accomplish.
Speaker 3: I think it helped the spirit of the show. You know,
Speaker 3: it felt very communal, and we also didn't want it
Speaker 3: to look or feel like it was taking place in
Speaker 3: sort of the usual you know, media centers.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yes, I.
Speaker 3: Mean not that I didn't want my own bathroom.
Speaker 2: We had to say. We really navigated it well. I
Speaker 2: don't think we ever got into the whole run. Nothing
Speaker 2: was ever weird about the the dressing room.
Speaker 3: You know, I literally shared the whole time.
Speaker 2: I never never was an issue. Was your order food? Yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, we had a break in between whatever.
Speaker 3: There was never a point where it was like, oh,
Speaker 3: season three we had to start. Yes, you know, they
Speaker 3: even weren't even talking to each other.
Speaker 2: No, no, yeah, or like hey, you know I kind
Speaker 2: of like this door closed, just just so you know,
Speaker 2: it was all yeah, totally fine.
Speaker 3: And by the way, the guest stars didn't have their
Speaker 3: own Nope, like we've already mentioned Jason Sudeikis. We'll get
Speaker 3: to other guest stars, including like Tony and Oscar winners.
Speaker 3: They also did not have their own dressing room, and
Speaker 3: everyone you know say it. We'll say it again and again,
Speaker 3: probably as we talked about them individually. People were a game.
Speaker 3: They came and like were able to adapt to the strange,
Speaker 3: you know, culture of the show. But yeah, people, that
Speaker 3: was Jason's dressing room too, was just yea, oh sorry,
Speaker 3: I'm in the back, you know. That was it that
Speaker 3: was changing and that when there was no hierarchy, there
Speaker 3: was no one person that, oh, they need their own
Speaker 3: dressing room. That just was what they were told before
Speaker 3: they got there, and it seemed okay with it.
Speaker 2: I think later what we would do is, because we
Speaker 2: had an airstream, one of those airstream trailers, we would leave.
Speaker 2: If a star was big enough, we'd be like, well,
Speaker 2: let's let's let them have it. That was our big.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but there was a back room in the airstream,
Speaker 3: and so they would let there was a door at
Speaker 3: least and they could change. But yeah, all right, well
Speaker 3: so let's just quickly I guess we chalked about the
Speaker 3: two main sketches, just like the other sketches in the show.
Speaker 3: So we had the cold open, part one of the farm,
Speaker 3: and then we do into the technology loop.
Speaker 2: Yes, technology loop, And I like watching this one because
Speaker 2: I identify with it still happening today.
Speaker 3: Yes, I mean, I don't want to say we were
Speaker 3: early adopters, but we definitely were already sensitive to the
Speaker 3: ways that tech was overtaking our lives and kind of
Speaker 3: hijacking our brains.
Speaker 2: And it didn't seem like it's really well edited. And
Speaker 2: it was also that one had the first bit of
Speaker 2: like digital fixing that I didn't even know is possible.
Speaker 2: At the end of the tech Loop, I sort.
Speaker 3: Of freeze over, oh right in your eyes.
Speaker 2: My eyes go up and my mouth goes down right,
Speaker 2: And that was all done. The editors did it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and then we here is the introduction of feminist bookstore, which,
Speaker 3: as Fred and I discussed, was predates the show. So
Speaker 3: here we are bringing Tony and Cannis into Portlandia. We
Speaker 3: changed the location so this we were working out of
Speaker 3: a real feminist bookstore on North Killingsworth called in other words,
Speaker 3: they were generous enough to let us use their store.
Speaker 3: We renamed it Women and women first, and our first
Speaker 3: customer Steve Buscemi, who another person will talk about. Hopefully
Speaker 3: we'll have him on the show because he comes back
Speaker 3: year after year. We love Steve. He ended up directing
Speaker 3: multiple episodes. But yeah, a classic feminist bookstore setup. Someone
Speaker 3: comes into the store, which is already an upfront and yeah,
Speaker 3: he wants to use our bathroom and we make him
Speaker 3: buy something.
Speaker 2: Yes, we make it difficult. Yeah. Whenever I watch the
Speaker 2: feminist book store sketches, it's almost like they just want
Speaker 2: someone to stay. Yea, even if it's confrontational, it's more
Speaker 2: like don't leave, No.
Speaker 3: You're Yeah, they're still holding them hostage even though you
Speaker 3: want them to leave. It's very confusing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, all improvised, all improvised.
Speaker 3: Yeah. And then adult Hide and Seek, which is a
Speaker 3: sketch that I really love. It also introduces Ellen Right
Speaker 3: Ellen Bloodworth, Yeah, whose plays the woman who Fred's character
Speaker 3: Stuart Right is interacting with, who's kind of a little
Speaker 3: bit disdainful, a little bit skeptical of adults acting like kids.
Speaker 2: You know, library really good, she was great, She was great.
Speaker 2: She really made us laugh.
Speaker 3: Yeah, local actress who based on this performance we brought
Speaker 3: back a year after year, and that happened a lot
Speaker 3: of times. You know, we had great background and local
Speaker 3: casting directors and they would bring in talent from all
Speaker 3: over Portland and many of them we just loved what
Speaker 3: they did and they became part of the part of
Speaker 3: the cast essentially. But Ellen was definitely one of those people,
Speaker 3: and you guys just had such an instant chemistry which
Speaker 3: I really like.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we definitely did. And she was just perfectly funny.
Speaker 3: She was really funny. Yeah, and then I think another thing.
Speaker 3: I yeah, anyway, I'll stop there, and then.
Speaker 2: What else do we have? That's it. That's all our sketches.
Speaker 2: So that's episode one.
Speaker 3: All right, Well, thank you so much for listening to
Speaker 3: our very first AO rewatch episode. This is very fun.
Speaker 2: It was. I really enjoyed getting to watch that again.
Speaker 2: Me too, And to talk about it. I feel like
Speaker 2: we haven't talked about it that much a little, but
Speaker 2: like not to this extent.
Speaker 3: We talk about it broadly, and we'll talk about it
Speaker 3: like sort of anecdotally, But to get Granular is really enjoyable.
Speaker 2: Agreed this fifteen years later or whatever it is the
Speaker 2: feeling of watching it now is I feel mostly good
Speaker 2: about the decisions we made, like things like the tech Loop.
Speaker 2: And I think it's because at the time when we
Speaker 2: were shooting it, we knew it wasn't going to come
Speaker 2: out until six months later or something, so it wasn't
Speaker 2: that topical because of that. I like it it's a
Speaker 2: little evergreen.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I think that's one of the things that I
Speaker 3: keep sort of monitoring as I'm watching it, thinking, Okay,
Speaker 3: what is evergreen? What feels a little dated because of
Speaker 3: course times change, and often that is technology. And I
Speaker 3: remember that was a conversation we had at the time.
Speaker 3: You know certain things. Of course, you're never gonna like
Speaker 3: be able to be ahead of things. But I feel
Speaker 3: like that was a conscious decision we made, and whether
Speaker 3: it was politics or you know, certain references, like we
Speaker 3: wanted it to feel like timeless in a way. We
Speaker 3: wanted to be speaking to larger things in terms of
Speaker 3: just like, let's let's focus on who these people are,
Speaker 3: you know, and how they relate to their environment versus
Speaker 3: like the time period. Yeah, you know, but I it's
Speaker 3: that is something that I'm looking for when I'm watching
Speaker 3: just I'm excited when something does feel like, oh yeah,
Speaker 3: that's still relevant or even better, like we were ahead
Speaker 3: of the curve there on something. That's a good feeling. Yeah. Also,
Speaker 3: you know everyone looks really young.
Speaker 2: That part is yes, that's yeah, notable. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Also I remember our takes were really long, and I
Speaker 3: can see I remember our camera people like Feminist Bookstore especially,
Speaker 3: so like Tony and Cannice can improvise forever. Yeah, And
Speaker 3: I mean I just remember like the camera people who
Speaker 3: I think was TG and Aubrey that first year were
Speaker 3: would have to adjust. Of course, the camera is heavy.
Speaker 3: They weren't on sticks, they were like on their shoulders.
Speaker 3: And you can see sometimes the camera just tilts because
Speaker 3: the camera operators like no, I'm sorry, but now so
Speaker 3: I definitely see see that, and I just yeah. But
Speaker 3: for the most part, to me, like the wrap round
Speaker 3: sketches so far, like hold up, you know, like sometimes
Speaker 3: the individual ones, it's just such a sheer amount. I'm like, oh, okay,
Speaker 3: you know some of those I can take her leave.
Speaker 3: But I felt like this this episode felt strong to me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I feel the same. And technology wise, for however
Speaker 2: much things have changed, there are some things that I'm
Speaker 2: actually kind of surprised has stayed the same. The idea
Speaker 2: of texting, So then you know, there's in the tech loop,
Speaker 2: we're texting a lot, and you know, I'm kind of
Speaker 2: surprised that that's still the way we communicate that it's thumbs.
Speaker 2: I thought by now there'd be some other thing. But
Speaker 2: I'm glad. I'm glad it's that way. And I think
Speaker 2: there's even an iPad on the table there, so I'm like,
Speaker 2: all right, oh yeah, yeah, iPhone. That stuff is like
Speaker 2: we're still it's not which wouldn't be the worst thing
Speaker 2: in the world, but it's not so antiquated that I'm like, oh,
Speaker 2: I can't believe we've got right.
Speaker 3: What's what's interesting is, you know, we switch in that
Speaker 3: sketch to mindfi, which is how sort of speaking just telepathically,
Speaker 3: but then your brain still gets hijacked by ads, and
Speaker 3: to me, even though it's not literally like that, it
Speaker 3: does feel like we're in a version of that where
Speaker 3: like we're just never safe from being inundated with like
Speaker 3: you know, slog or brain rod or clutter. Yeah, like
Speaker 3: you know, so in that sense, it's true, like that
Speaker 3: has just been a continuum, like we've been on a
Speaker 3: slow decline since then. But yeah, I feel I can
Speaker 3: I can feel us getting our feet weather. There's all
Speaker 3: to me. I mean, you and I talk a lot
Speaker 3: about this, like and we make analogies to music. But
Speaker 3: you know, there's this is kind of our first album
Speaker 3: this season, and like, yeah, I like it. I think
Speaker 3: it holds up as a first album. Like to me,
Speaker 3: it has like some highs and then it has things
Speaker 3: that looking back, I'm like, Okay, that probably didn't work.
Speaker 3: But I feel like as a statement, it feels good
Speaker 3: coming out of the gate, Like there's little things I
Speaker 3: would do differently, but it feels like a debut album
Speaker 3: in a good way, the good kind of debut album
Speaker 3: where it's like, Okay, it's coming onto the scene. It
Speaker 3: has like it looks different to me, Like when I
Speaker 3: was watching it, I was like, this looks different than
Speaker 3: other sket shows. You know that like Yes started to
Speaker 3: come out after us, once all the networks that had
Speaker 3: turned us down decided that they were going to put
Speaker 3: out sket shows. You know. I think the closest thing
Speaker 3: that it looks like is probably Kids in the Hall definitely,
Speaker 3: because that was you know, shot in Toronto, so again
Speaker 3: was in La or New York. Had a slightly cinematic quality.
Speaker 3: To it and had that kind of shambalic quality to it. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I would say that's the closest like aesthetic analogue to it.
Speaker 2: Speaking of analog I think that because I like the
Speaker 2: you know, it's enough to say that it's it's a
Speaker 2: good debut album or first album, and but to get
Speaker 2: more specific, I for some reason what comes to mind
Speaker 2: is talking Head seventy seven. That's very much them. They're
Speaker 2: very talking even though they evolved being on that anyway.
Speaker 2: So that's that's that's usually what I think of where
Speaker 2: it feels like that kind of I think of that
Speaker 2: album specifically interesting. Maybe the Police's.
Speaker 3: First album, which is The Police is for.
Speaker 2: Some it's just it's just the Police and it has
Speaker 2: rock sanne Is on it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it has a big it.
Speaker 2: Has like yeah, it's like it's a definite beginning. And
Speaker 2: same with talking Heads where that has cycle Killer on it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it has like it creates a vernacular. It like
Speaker 3: it changes. But it also it's like, you know what
Speaker 3: a talking Head song is based on that album, where
Speaker 3: you know what a Police song is based on their
Speaker 3: first album? Yeah, like it wasn't they didn't keep like
Speaker 3: they they push forward, but it wasn't like an act
Speaker 3: of full like reinvention every time, which I feel like,
Speaker 3: you know, we do return to, like you see the
Speaker 3: DNA in these sketches, I think, yeah, we build upon.
Speaker 2: So that was episode one. I love getting to do
Speaker 2: this and I'm looking forward to the rest of it,
Speaker 2: to having guests you know that we've had on the show,
Speaker 2: that I've worked on the show. It's really fun for me,
Speaker 2: and I'm excited to do it me too.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm also very excited. I'm excited to hang out
Speaker 3: with you. I'm excited to keep rewatching these episodes and
Speaker 3: I'm unpacking all of it and going off on tangents,
Speaker 3: which we definitely will. And I'm excited to bring in
Speaker 3: some of the great guests that we had on the
Speaker 3: show and talk to them about their experience. And we're
Speaker 3: so grateful for our listeners and viewers, so very excited
Speaker 3: for this podcast series, the one.
Speaker 1: On one one one one one one one one
Speaker 2: One one one