Speaker 1: Misspelling with Tori Spelling and iHeartRadio podcast.
Speaker 2: You guys, this is so nice to have us all
Speaker 2: together again.
Speaker 3: Ish, it still feels like covid I'm going to if
Speaker 3: we're on a zoom and not in person, But we'll
Speaker 3: get to that at some point. We'll work our way
Speaker 3: up to and in person again, because it's been a
Speaker 3: long time. It feels like.
Speaker 2: Actually, last time.
Speaker 1: We were all together was Tori's birthday, fiftieth birthday, right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, didn't we have a Tori? I can't remember. We
Speaker 3: were talking about that idea of yours that we like,
Speaker 3: We had like an one or two in person work
Speaker 3: sessions at Chris's house, but I can't And there was
Speaker 3: one time where rufus my dog. I think he tried
Speaker 3: to titty fuck you. Actually do you remember that?
Speaker 4: Which time was this? That happens all the time and
Speaker 4: noses either in my.
Speaker 5: Gard but you were sitting on the floor in my
Speaker 5: in my living room. He came over and went to town.
Speaker 4: And I was like, oh, thank god they still work. Yeah,
Speaker 4: I still got them.
Speaker 3: Not only are you an animal lover, but the animals
Speaker 3: love you back.
Speaker 4: This is true, all four of us animal lovers.
Speaker 5: Yes, that is true.
Speaker 4: Okay, so we should tell my listeners how we all
Speaker 4: came together because we're family. Now we've done we're all
Speaker 4: super good friends, and we've worked on many projects together.
Speaker 4: We have so the four of us together, so we
Speaker 4: have on the podcast Chris Alborghini and Mike Chessler and
Speaker 4: Ruth and Seconda obviously who's always with me. And we
Speaker 4: originally came together because I was with Ruth Ann and
Speaker 4: she was my agent for what twenty five years, not
Speaker 4: at that.
Speaker 2: Time, but I ultimately was.
Speaker 4: At the time that we put soaories together. You were
Speaker 4: absolutely my agents, right.
Speaker 1: But I hadn't been twenty five years at that point.
Speaker 1: I was newly your agent.
Speaker 4: Okay, are you trying to make yourself seem me younger?
Speaker 2: But I was like, okay, fine.
Speaker 4: So Ruthanne was my agent for thirty six years and
Speaker 4: then one hundred years, one hundred plus. So it was
Speaker 4: the point in the program where I had done nine
Speaker 4: O two and zero, I had done Scary Movie too,
Speaker 4: and I was like, I need to create something for myself.
Speaker 4: I was out auditioning, had done a gazillion and one
Speaker 4: pilots that didn't go, and I wanted to create my
Speaker 4: own project.
Speaker 1: But remember the feedback was always that, oh, she's two chores.
Speaker 1: You were in each of these roles as characters. People
Speaker 1: could not either forget that you were Tori Spelling or
Speaker 1: believe you as somebody who was like financially struggling.
Speaker 2: And because people thought, what the story, I know, and
Speaker 2: then I.
Speaker 4: Proved them all wrong, and now I still can't get
Speaker 4: a job. But yeah, yeah, so anyway, yeah, exactly and right,
Speaker 4: And even though I got cast in that one pilot,
Speaker 4: the feedback was, oh, we have to cut that scene
Speaker 4: because they can't believe that Tory Spelling is rummaging through
Speaker 4: a sofa trying to find a quarter to contribute to
Speaker 4: her rent. It just isn't believable.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I remember, I remember one. I remember one where
Speaker 5: you you really wanted new shoes, like you were obsessed
Speaker 5: with getting this new pair of shoes that you couldn't afford.
Speaker 4: Right, it was like every pilot I was, you know,
Speaker 4: because at that time I was in my twenties and
Speaker 4: it was just like struggling with her roommate. And then
Speaker 4: I did Scary Movie two and Keenan Wayans, who directed it, said,
Speaker 4: you know what, I really feel like, you're really really funny,
Speaker 4: and I said, thanks. That means a lot because I've
Speaker 4: been doing, you know, a drama for ten years, but
Speaker 4: I feel like my comedy is my thing in physical comedy.
Speaker 4: And he said, you just need to create something that's you,
Speaker 4: like how Roseanne did, Like you know, if they can't
Speaker 4: believe that you would be in that place, make it
Speaker 4: a version of you. So he did initially give me
Speaker 4: that feedback. So we took that to heart and decided
Speaker 4: to do something. And then how did we meet you?
Speaker 3: Guys though, because we were also clients at the same
Speaker 3: agency at that time and we had met ruth Ann.
Speaker 3: I don't know on what contact we met, but ruth
Speaker 3: A said called us and said, I think you would
Speaker 3: really dig this project.
Speaker 5: But wait, I remember we actually met you another idea
Speaker 5: that you had and it was a good idea, but
Speaker 5: you didn't want you. You didn't choose us. You went
Speaker 5: with someone else. For me.
Speaker 3: I remember what the.
Speaker 4: It wasn't you, It was who No with Tori. So
Speaker 4: I went with toy. I went with Gavin polog Yeah,
Speaker 4: Gavin Polone, I believe is this correct? And he was
Speaker 4: producing it and I was playing another girl down on
Speaker 4: her luck, you know, like you know, but it was
Speaker 4: an idea and I had he was producing it, and
Speaker 4: I feel like he put on someone. It was an
Speaker 4: older gentleman, and yeah, it didn't have traction.
Speaker 5: I remember you pitched it as it was kind of
Speaker 5: my favoite year kind of thing.
Speaker 4: That's the one. He's right, And we developed it and I.
Speaker 5: Was on a flight with you from Boston. I didn't
Speaker 5: even know we were on the flight, and I remember
Speaker 5: getting off the airplane at Lax and I saw you
Speaker 5: walking towards me, and I was like, toy, I didn't
Speaker 5: know if you were going to remember me. And to
Speaker 5: your credit, even if you didn't remember me, you acted
Speaker 5: like you did and you gave me a big hug,
Speaker 5: and I thought, I like that, girl.
Speaker 4: I know I'm really good at that. I've been trained
Speaker 4: well my whole life. Spakine, you make it. That's literally
Speaker 4: like since I was a kid, when like like PTSD,
Speaker 4: when I was like five, and be at like some
Speaker 4: huge like spelling like network party and people will be like, do.
Speaker 2: You remember me?
Speaker 4: And I'd be like, of course.
Speaker 5: So it's just like cute.
Speaker 1: But what I remember is when we sat down to
Speaker 1: talk about the idea of doing a show that kind
Speaker 1: of makes fun of yourself.
Speaker 4: You know, this is long before Herb or I.
Speaker 2: Mean, any of those shows.
Speaker 4: It was before Curb.
Speaker 6: Correct, No, it was because no, because if you remember,
Speaker 6: actually when we made So Notorious the series, we had
Speaker 6: most of the Curb crew, Like we had that are
Speaker 6: fantastic mind producer Aaron O'Malley, We had Dale Stern, we
Speaker 6: had Bill she he'd like and.
Speaker 3: The great.
Speaker 4: The wardrobe stylist.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yes, so it was like we actually that's the
Speaker 3: only that's a big reason we were able to do
Speaker 3: So Notorious.
Speaker 4: Okay, so you're right, you're right, yep.
Speaker 1: But toy, you came in with a scrap book of
Speaker 1: every article that had been written to you about you,
Speaker 1: a good, bad, whatever, that your dad had collected and
Speaker 1: he put together this amazing scrap book and it well
Speaker 1: he had put like.
Speaker 4: The good ones. But yeah, that's fine pitch meeting.
Speaker 1: You took that to pitch meeting, and I feel like
Speaker 1: that initially is what you know, got NBC to pick
Speaker 1: it up or to develop it.
Speaker 4: Yeah. You know me, I'm always prepared and diy queen
Speaker 4: and I like to come in with stuff because I
Speaker 4: feel like it sets the bar higher and gets the
Speaker 4: more invested. So I did take a chance, and my
Speaker 4: dad had a scrap book. Is back then tabloids were paper.
Speaker 4: I guess they still kind of exist, but there wasn't
Speaker 4: like it was all over the internet. And he had
Speaker 4: started once with like me on the car like inquirer,
Speaker 4: and like he didn't really get like the bad ones
Speaker 4: because he used to say, like bad press is good press.
Speaker 4: So there was like the Haunting Globe one where it
Speaker 4: started all the plastic surgery rumors that I still this
Speaker 4: is so annoying you guys, Like I like fifty one,
Speaker 4: like I need to get like botox and like and
Speaker 4: like I still I haven't filled my lips in like
Speaker 4: two years, like they're not these are mine at this point,
Speaker 4: and like someone still took a picture of me the
Speaker 4: other day and it was like Tori's turned into a muppet,
Speaker 4: which I'm not mad at. Like I know which one
Speaker 4: they're talking about, and I really like her. I always
Speaker 4: wanted to be her for Halloween. So what's her name?
Speaker 3: Not miss Piggy?
Speaker 4: No fuck you?
Speaker 3: No, well I said, not miss Piggy. Oh I know
Speaker 3: it's one, the one that's Mary Travers from Peter Paul
Speaker 3: and Mary is.
Speaker 4: With that one, that one which I mean it's I'd
Speaker 4: rather get her than Wendy Williams, which I often get
Speaker 4: confused with. So I'm moving up. But yeah, just the
Speaker 4: other day or like, Transformation Toys had more plastic surgery
Speaker 4: and I'm just like, I haven't. But it all started
Speaker 4: with that Globe article saying I'd had so much plastic
Speaker 4: surgery and like I'd had cheecken plants and ribs removed.
Speaker 4: And I was a seventeen year old girl that had
Speaker 4: a nose job, and I was like, oh my god.
Speaker 4: My dad was like it's okay. It was on the cover,
Speaker 4: and he was like good. You know, bad press is
Speaker 4: good press. And this two shell pass. Next week. They'll
Speaker 4: be on to someone else next week. There was a
Speaker 4: new cover, but that one cover triggered a lifetime of
Speaker 4: tabloid fodder of people thinking I'm like plastic surgery queen. Anyway,
Speaker 4: so that was in there, and then there was like
Speaker 4: a whole bunch of other stuff. There was that article
Speaker 4: where someone had taken paparazzi. I was like eating and
Speaker 4: someone had taken picture of me getting up, and it
Speaker 4: was like basket weave like plastic chair and it made
Speaker 4: imprints on my legs and it was like toy spelling
Speaker 4: has tons of cellulite.
Speaker 2: And I remember that one.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I remember that one.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it was like that was in there, and then we.
Speaker 5: Used that one on the show we did, we recreated
Speaker 5: that in the show.
Speaker 4: So I'm blanking on the others, but.
Speaker 3: It was like, I remember the one. The one you
Speaker 3: I think this was the last one you showed was
Speaker 3: a tabloid picture of you picking your nose in the car.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, actually that one actually was picking my nose.
Speaker 4: All the others are actually false, but that one, yeah,
Speaker 4: yelled it. Sorry, cars, they're just like us. They picked
Speaker 4: their nose.
Speaker 5: That was the moment I think Mike and I both
Speaker 5: were like, okay, we want to do this, like when
Speaker 5: you were like, yeah, I can't stop picking my nose
Speaker 5: in the car.
Speaker 4: No, Oh my god, I'm never getting a date after this.
Speaker 3: At this point I knew, I mean, I was based
Speaker 3: on her independent movies Trek in the House of Yes,
Speaker 3: Like I was pretty much like agnostic on Beverly Hills
Speaker 3: nine to Tuana, which I may have never even.
Speaker 1: Seen gilt that, but yeah, okay, I.
Speaker 3: Was just trying to give you a Complimentory, because there's
Speaker 3: a lot of insults coming now. I know.
Speaker 4: You know it's hard for me to take compliments.
Speaker 2: So well, you're the right crowd.
Speaker 4: Great, So it is true. I had done trick and
Speaker 4: gone to Sundance. I had done House of Yes again,
Speaker 4: went to Sundance Critical Acclaim like. I was like, this
Speaker 4: is it, this is my moment, and you know, Little
Speaker 4: Engine that Could. It was like great, great, great, and
Speaker 4: then like okay, start back over, like go out audition
Speaker 4: and we can't see here's anything but tory spelling. It's like,
Speaker 4: but I have all this work that you said you love,
Speaker 4: but I'm not getting the jobs. And then scary movie too.
Speaker 4: I was like, yes, this one's it and nope. So yeah.
Speaker 4: I came in with all the scrap books of all
Speaker 4: the like tabloid fodder, and I was like, you know what,
Speaker 4: if they're all going to make jokes about me and
Speaker 4: laugh at me, I'm going to beat them to the
Speaker 4: punch and be on board with it and be self deprecated.
Speaker 4: I also came in with my pug, Memei LaRue, and
Speaker 4: I also came in with a tank that I had printed.
Speaker 4: Do you remember what it said, I.
Speaker 5: Didn't know, I don't something like, yes, yes, I dressed
Speaker 5: my dog. What else?
Speaker 3: Something about the mansion, the dog.
Speaker 4: It was all about tabloid stuff, and at the time,
Speaker 4: the tabloids and made a big deal about how Shannon
Speaker 4: and I didn't get along, but there was never It
Speaker 4: was just tabloid stuff. So we just went for all
Speaker 4: the tabloid headlines. And I think it said something about
Speaker 4: the manner about I don't know, please find that, and
Speaker 4: I wore it to all of pitch meetings.
Speaker 3: I think I might have because you gave us a
Speaker 3: copy of that notebook too. I think I might have
Speaker 3: that in a box. I'll clean out the box and
Speaker 3: share it with you if I find it.
Speaker 4: Thank you, because you know I can't find anything that
Speaker 4: I've kept. Remember we Okay, So we originally pitched the show.
Speaker 4: We decided we wanted to do it, and then we
Speaker 4: went into pitch meetings with networks. I believe, am I
Speaker 4: wrong here? We went to NBC, ABC, CBS box and nope,
Speaker 4: what was the one that used to be Channel thirteen
Speaker 4: WB And then we went to what was Channel thirteen.
Speaker 4: It became like a real network. Channel thirteen started. I
Speaker 4: did a pilot for them. Like anyway, the only reason
Speaker 4: I'm bringing it up is because we pitched it every network.
Speaker 4: I went in and told true stories, and a lot
Speaker 4: of the stories were so far out there they couldn't
Speaker 4: be put into a primetime sitcom. But you know, I've
Speaker 4: told them now in my books and and on my podcast,
Speaker 4: Like we told the Charlie Sheen story, and we told
Speaker 4: about everyone that lived in my apartment building. We talked
Speaker 4: about Farah Fawcet and Rodney Dangerfield and everybody, and Charlie
Speaker 4: Sheening to escape like through my laundry room and all
Speaker 4: of them. Because yeah, so all of that, and everyone
Speaker 4: laughed and they were like there was a little bit
Speaker 4: of like is this real? Like is she okay making
Speaker 4: these jokes? And most of it was like on me,
Speaker 4: the jokes on me. But I feel like, I'm I
Speaker 4: think it was upian. So I mentioned that one because
Speaker 4: I remember when we left, Mimi LaRue took a shit
Speaker 4: on their front door, and I was like, because that
Speaker 4: alle's not going to work out. But I feel like
Speaker 4: they did make an offer. Yeah, they tried. They tried,
Speaker 4: so we inevitably ended up doing it for NBC.
Speaker 3: This might be two Inside Baseball, But Chris and I
Speaker 3: had met with you at UTA and we were like,
Speaker 3: we love it. And then Ruthanne called and said, you know,
Speaker 3: we're just gonna go out and pitch this and then
Speaker 3: when we get it set up, we'll kiss you guys in,
Speaker 3: which was like, that's great because we didn't have to
Speaker 3: go out on all those pitches, because that's.
Speaker 4: All I thought you were with me. You were with me.
Speaker 3: We were not with you? Were I?
Speaker 5: Actually you and ruth Anne.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And Ruthan just called us and said, we have
Speaker 3: multiple offers. We're too I think we're gonna go with NBC.
Speaker 3: And we actually had a deal at NBC at that time,
Speaker 3: so it was perfect, Like it was great.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that is not too Inside Baseball. That is great
Speaker 4: because it just jogged my memory. I didn't even remember that.
Speaker 4: I just assume since.
Speaker 5: We you guys went out, you know, we already we
Speaker 5: had a pilot at NBC that year with Dennis Hopper
Speaker 5: and then so we didn't even think we were going
Speaker 5: to be able to do it because we already had
Speaker 5: the Dennis Hopper thing. And then it turned out out
Speaker 5: they were much more excited about your thing than the
Speaker 5: dunnis Hopper thing and we wrote both that year and
Speaker 5: you're you know our show was the one that went.
Speaker 4: So originally we titled it Notorious, and I think I've
Speaker 4: done it like, you know, notorious lowercase t O R
Speaker 4: I in the middle uppercase, which we ended up changing
Speaker 4: the name because we couldn't legally get notorious right.
Speaker 7: Well, I thought it was the song, remember it was,
Speaker 7: it was, it was once we went to v H
Speaker 7: one NBC, let us call it notorious.
Speaker 5: When v H one picked it up, there was some
Speaker 5: like criminal show, like some.
Speaker 4: Okay, so we wait, let's go back.
Speaker 1: So well, remember the Maynard was the executive who bought
Speaker 1: the show. He was under Jeff Ducker at the time,
Speaker 1: and they bought the show and we shot the pilot
Speaker 1: and it was phenomenal and.
Speaker 2: We were like, sure it was going to get order.
Speaker 4: Chris and Mike wrote the pilot, which was brilliant, and
Speaker 4: they were so kind. I mean, although it was loosely
Speaker 4: based on my life, not embellished at all, no creative
Speaker 4: license there. You know, you guys were kind enough to
Speaker 4: allow an actress to come in and be a part
Speaker 4: of the writing process, which was the first time anyone
Speaker 4: had allowed me to do that.
Speaker 5: Okay, and I have to jump in with something, and
Speaker 5: it's going to be a compliment because I like making
Speaker 5: you uncomfortable, Tory. But but you know, Christ and Mike
Speaker 5: wrote the pilot, but we wrote it with Tory spelling
Speaker 5: and we and we broke out. You know, the entire
Speaker 5: plot of that first episode was based on all these
Speaker 5: ridiculous things that happened in your life, and the three
Speaker 5: of us very much broke that story together in I
Speaker 5: think it was in an afternoon at my house. I
Speaker 5: remember like it was yesterday, because it all just clicked.
Speaker 5: We all kind of just bounced off of each other
Speaker 5: very quickly, and it it. You know, you don't always
Speaker 5: have that feeling when you're trying to write a pilot
Speaker 5: and you're like, oh God, is this good? Is this good?
Speaker 5: And the three of us just kind of all it
Speaker 5: just meshed, and Tory when she applies herself as very
Speaker 5: good writer.
Speaker 3: I mean, we also agreed on a lot of things.
Speaker 3: It's a very specific sensibility and I felt like we
Speaker 3: were very much on the same page about almost everything,
Speaker 3: like from casting to production issues and all that. But
Speaker 3: we also I feel like a key part of the
Speaker 3: pilot being so much fun and good was we all
Speaker 3: agree to We were all huge strangers with Candy fans,
Speaker 3: and we want Peter Lauer to direct. So we got
Speaker 3: Peter lower who completely got it and we've worked with
Speaker 3: him many times since. He's such a great director. And
Speaker 3: maybe this is jumping ahead, but like the one, we
Speaker 3: were trying to get all these celebrities and for one
Speaker 3: reason or another, like you know, it's that game that
Speaker 3: you always played. But the person who was sort of
Speaker 3: like our holy grail was Faara Faucet because she was
Speaker 3: actually in real life to your next door neighbor. And
Speaker 3: I remember we had to go through this incredible courtship.
Speaker 3: My favorite thing is is that we met. We had
Speaker 3: a meeting at your apartment, which is literally next door
Speaker 3: to Farah's, and she was like an hour late, and
Speaker 3: I'm like very impatient. I was sitting there like, well,
Speaker 3: can't we just go and knock on her door? Like
Speaker 3: what is going on?
Speaker 2: You're like, I need a snack? Does we have anything
Speaker 2: to eat?
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, Tory had put out I remember Tory
Speaker 3: put out a plate. It wasn't the most Again I
Speaker 3: hate to say, Tori, it was like crud de te
Speaker 3: and then like cubes of cheese. It was like up
Speaker 3: at like Gelsons or something would be my guess, but.
Speaker 4: I miss Gelson's like oursons now. But uh huh, I
Speaker 4: keep going.
Speaker 3: I just remember Sarah. Sarah was eating chunks of cheese
Speaker 3: and then she's just like she was saying she started
Speaker 3: coffee allergic to cheese. But that was just like it was.
Speaker 3: It was very surreal for us because obviously we Charlie's
Speaker 3: Angels was such a seminole thing when we were kids,
Speaker 3: and Sarah was just like everywhere, and to just meet
Speaker 3: her in person, and you know, she was this very
Speaker 3: you know sweet, you know in her own head, just
Speaker 3: a very you know, she's really interesting, funny.
Speaker 5: He was funny, like she was willing to play along.
Speaker 3: She could.
Speaker 5: Definitely she had a slight, funny, dark side tour that.
Speaker 4: Was so sweet. We should tell the backstory. So if
Speaker 4: you have not seen So Notorious or read about this
Speaker 4: story in my book. It's interesting because I talk about
Speaker 4: potatoes a lot. It keeps coming up, like it was
Speaker 4: like the final straw on the end of my marriage.
Speaker 4: I like chucked my baked potato across the room. Oh,
Speaker 4: and then like you know, at my fiftieth birthday party,
Speaker 4: there was like the thousand dollars baked potato, Like it
Speaker 4: was like we were all like should we save this?
Speaker 4: Can can we get this on eBay? Like it was
Speaker 4: like we were just trying to fit in, so we
Speaker 4: hate it. So it was. But there's a long running
Speaker 4: thing with potatoes in my life. And the story was
Speaker 4: that I was having there was a party at my
Speaker 4: house and my best friend, who's the dentist, doctor Kevin
Speaker 4: Sans he did my Veneers. Yeah, he's been on the
Speaker 4: podcast and back in the day he was my roommate
Speaker 4: and before he was sober, and he would have these
Speaker 4: crazy parties at our apartment, the Wilshure and Farah was
Speaker 4: my next door neighbor. And I'm blanking. But anyway, basically,
Speaker 4: oh my god, how am I blanking on my own story?
Speaker 5: What happened?
Speaker 4: Like they called from downstairs, that's right, they called up
Speaker 4: on like the bat line, like from the concierge, and
Speaker 4: they were like, Farah Fawcett wants to talk to you,
Speaker 4: your neighbor. And I was like, oh my god, and
Speaker 4: I was freaking out, and I was like I told
Speaker 4: Kevin not to have people over this late. I told
Speaker 4: Kevin to keep it down. There's like people are you know,
Speaker 4: they're partying and it's too loud, and now I'm going
Speaker 4: to get in trouble. And I'd known her my whole
Speaker 4: life because she worked for my dad and oh man,
Speaker 4: and I was like and I tried to like put
Speaker 4: everyone else on the phone and be like take the call,
Speaker 4: take the call, and everyone else was too messed up
Speaker 4: and they wouldn't get on the phone call because you know,
Speaker 4: I hate talking on the phone. So eventually I had
Speaker 4: to get on the phone call and I was like hello.
Speaker 4: I was like with my little voice and refresh my memory.
Speaker 4: But she was like, oh hi. She was like I
Speaker 4: was just wondering if I could borrow a potato, right yes,
Speaker 4: And everyone's like what does fairy flace At want? And
Speaker 4: I'm like, I'm like, you, guys, she's asking to borrow
Speaker 4: a potato. And my friend's like, oh, that's code. She
Speaker 4: hears that there's the party going over on over here,
Speaker 4: and it's code for pot potato. She wants hot, And
Speaker 4: I was like, what are you And they're like, invite
Speaker 4: her over. So I did invite her over, and sure
Speaker 4: enough she showed up and there were all these kids.
Speaker 4: And the funny part is she actually wanted a potato.
Speaker 4: She was like looking dinner and she I was the
Speaker 4: next door neighbor, and she was like, oh, she was
Speaker 4: just curious if I had a potato. But she couldn't
Speaker 4: have been cooler.
Speaker 5: Because she had carbs.
Speaker 2: I forgot. Did he stay?
Speaker 4: She stayed and stayed and dayed. She stayed. You guys
Speaker 4: and my friends all lost interest. I stayed with her
Speaker 4: to be the good host.
Speaker 2: And I was like and she.
Speaker 4: Wanted to see my apartments and I'm like, oh my god,
Speaker 4: it's is it clean? People are like smoking weed and
Speaker 4: people are drinking, and I was just like, this is
Speaker 4: a nightmare. Is she going to report me? She's super cool,
Speaker 4: but I turned into like a five year old, which
Speaker 4: was probably the last time I had seen her, which
Speaker 4: she did Charlie's Angels, and I was just like, oh
Speaker 4: my god, hi, and I was like, she's gonna call
Speaker 4: my dad, like I didn't even know, and here I
Speaker 4: am like a twenty eight year old woman, and I
Speaker 4: was like terrified. But so then she was like, oh,
Speaker 4: she wanted to see my closet and I was like, okay,
Speaker 4: and she came into my closet and literally was like
Speaker 4: looking around and appreciating everything, and it was like a
Speaker 4: nice moment, but I was so panicked. And then like
Speaker 4: an hour later, I was just like, like, someone, get
Speaker 4: your clauset out of here. Like I didn't know what
Speaker 4: to do. Not that I didn't want her there, but
Speaker 4: I was just like she stayed.
Speaker 3: Who was the rapper who lived in the building who
Speaker 3: went to jail and blanking.
Speaker 5: On his name?
Speaker 4: Oh right, And then she came to the couch and
Speaker 4: she hung out with my friends. I forgot that's right. Anyway,
Speaker 4: long story short, she never she had fun with my friends,
Speaker 4: and like we brought her snacks and stuff and then
Speaker 4: she left and she never got the potato. But yeah,
Speaker 4: it was just a potato. When we asked her, there
Speaker 4: was wait, it wasn't Notorious Bid. We actually lived in
Speaker 4: my building.
Speaker 2: Night it was night.
Speaker 3: It was Charlie Sheen.
Speaker 4: There was just such a Rodney Dangerfield, Carol Burnette, Sarah Faucet.
Speaker 3: Wow, completely random assortment of celebrities in this building.
Speaker 4: So anyway, at the time, even though I'm like blinking
Speaker 4: on specifics of the story now, like at the time,
Speaker 4: I like went into the pitch meetings and told this
Speaker 4: story like urbatim and that was one of the main
Speaker 4: stories that NBC was like, we love this story, and
Speaker 4: we actually the whole episode was the focal point was
Speaker 4: getting to that party, the climax of this party at
Speaker 4: my apartment in the in the pilot where Farah Fawcett
Speaker 4: comes and it's just like one thing after another goes wrong,
Speaker 4: and it was based on other things that had gone
Speaker 4: wrong in my apartment, like the sea monkey catastrophe and tragedy.
Speaker 4: And no one ever believes that, by the way, and
Speaker 4: it happened.
Speaker 7: No.
Speaker 4: First of all, they don't believe I kept sea monkeys
Speaker 4: alive for a year and a half. And then they
Speaker 4: don't believe that that was like my roommate like spilled
Speaker 4: them all.
Speaker 5: Over my bar. Need to ride up.
Speaker 4: I still miss them. But anyway, the network, it was
Speaker 4: really important we get fair of Flats because how can
Speaker 4: we tell the story without her, because it really happened,
Speaker 4: and we got her.
Speaker 3: It was a lot better we got her.
Speaker 5: I remember, we like gave up a set in order
Speaker 5: to be able to afford her. Really, yeah, yeah, there
Speaker 5: was a stand up. We were gonna we were gonna
Speaker 5: shoot at. It was a location we were gonna shoot
Speaker 5: shoot at. The improv with the scene. Remember you go
Speaker 5: to a stand up comic show not knowing that they're
Speaker 5: that they're totally gonna make fun of you the entire time, right,
Speaker 5: was this it's in it ended up being, It ends
Speaker 5: up being in the second episode I do it was
Speaker 5: Lisa Lampanelle. It was that you kind of lived in
Speaker 5: fear whenever you went to a stand up show with
Speaker 5: someone who started talking about celebrities, because you knew of
Speaker 5: that inevitably they were going to get.
Speaker 4: To you and right, and it was loosely based. Also,
Speaker 4: no tell me if I'm wrong, No, it wasn't. I
Speaker 4: guess when we went to see Chelsea Handler, Yes.
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah it was, she did not talk about you,
Speaker 3: but she didn't.
Speaker 4: So Mike and Chris Night, I mean for years, Oh
Speaker 4: couldn't shake that one. But anyway, in the in the cast,
Speaker 4: there were several characters based on real people in my life.
Speaker 4: So I had my roommate Kevin. We created the role
Speaker 4: of Pete, and then I had my best friend Maron.
Speaker 4: We create the role of Sissan, and then we had
Speaker 4: my best girlfriend who was Janie, who was a blend
Speaker 4: of I had a bunch of Jennifer, Jenny, Jodie, like
Speaker 4: a bunch of girls in my life that we based
Speaker 4: her on. And then I had a manager that actually
Speaker 4: was not based on ruth Anne, because ruth Anne was
Speaker 4: my agetin at the time, but the manager at the time.
Speaker 4: We thought it was a very funny role, and she
Speaker 4: took offence to it.
Speaker 5: Hilarious.
Speaker 4: It was hilarious and she took offense to it. I
Speaker 4: was like, this is this how you guys see me?
Speaker 4: And like, so Ruthann's like, oh my gosh, I don't
Speaker 4: care put my name on it. Tell her it's based
Speaker 4: on me. We're like, okay. So Ruthie Rose was created.
Speaker 5: And then this day we call ruth and Ruthie Rose.
Speaker 5: We do, we do?
Speaker 2: And I still answer to that.
Speaker 3: And this pilot, you know, Pilot was made for NBC
Speaker 3: and this was the time when NBC and networks were
Speaker 3: still where everything was at, and we saw such incredible
Speaker 3: talent for all of these parts. But the thing that
Speaker 3: really Clu, Chris and I away were some of the
Speaker 3: people that we met or auditioned for the part of
Speaker 3: Kiki Spurling. Wait, what was your Spellman, Kiki Spellman, your
Speaker 3: fictitious mother?
Speaker 2: Yes, and.
Speaker 3: The Ruthy Rose. We saw all kinds of like really,
Speaker 3: we met all kinds of interesting actresses that we were
Speaker 3: very starstruck by. I mean, I cannot believe the list
Speaker 3: of the names of the people that came through. Yeah.
Speaker 5: I remember they tried to make us change the name
Speaker 5: to Spellman, and they ended up letting us call. When
Speaker 5: we filmed it, we were able to use spelling. But
Speaker 5: there was there was that brief moment where everybody was named.
Speaker 4: Spellman, right, because the characters loosely based on my family
Speaker 4: were fictitious and very campi and over the top, based
Speaker 4: on what articles and things had come out, and a perception,
Speaker 4: and we really fed into that perception because it just
Speaker 4: it worked for this, you know. But Lonnie Anderson ended
Speaker 4: up playing the role of my fictitious mother, Kiky, and
Speaker 4: she was amazing to work with. But I remember Morgan
Speaker 4: Fairchild came in, Linda Gray like who else?
Speaker 2: Like it was.
Speaker 8: Oh, Quel Action Jackson, right, Michelle Phillips, Yeah, Michelle Phillips,
Speaker 8: Leslie and Warren remember.
Speaker 5: Susan Blakelee, Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3: All these amazing people for either some came, some were
Speaker 3: some were just meetings, not auditions, because they weren't auditioning actors,
Speaker 3: but and they were for both parts, for both Ruthie
Speaker 3: and for Keiky. But the other interesting thing was, of
Speaker 3: course all of these actresses, most of whom had been
Speaker 3: huge starlets in the seventies. Of course, every single one
Speaker 3: had worked with your father and had a.
Speaker 4: Story right right right, and that was that was, that was.
Speaker 5: I'll never forget that day as long as as I live,
Speaker 5: because we saw everybody kind of on the same day.
Speaker 5: And I just remember the waiting room in our crappy
Speaker 5: little production bungalow and looking from face to face to
Speaker 5: face to face and just thinking, I never thought I
Speaker 5: would meet one of these women in my lifetime. And
Speaker 5: there's the entire room of them. It was really incredible.
Speaker 4: Cons Icons sitting to me meet with us.
Speaker 5: Yeah, gosh, yeah.
Speaker 2: It says so much about how amazing that script was. Truly,
Speaker 2: three of you wrote a phenomenal script, hysterical.
Speaker 3: Well, thank you.
Speaker 4: We talked about Zachi, Oh yeah, Zach.
Speaker 3: And Joe.
Speaker 5: We should talk about jokes.
Speaker 3: Yes, I want to get in trouble.
Speaker 5: Oh my god, who cares.
Speaker 3: I think those casting people are still at NBC.
Speaker 5: You know what, they can deal with the fact that
Speaker 5: they made a mistake. They tried to make us fire
Speaker 5: Joe Manganello because they thought he wasn't attractive. I think
Speaker 5: they were wrong.
Speaker 4: Remember they was in the wording like he doesn't he's
Speaker 4: not he doesn't have star power, star quality.
Speaker 3: No, that wasn't. The word is he's just not sexy.
Speaker 3: He's creepy.
Speaker 4: He's creepy.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and this I can say this, but no, I
Speaker 3: don't want to say because I'm afraid you'll leave it
Speaker 3: in the podcast. But when when we had our first
Speaker 3: round of auditions for the part that Joe Manganella played,
Speaker 3: our casting actors brought in all of these very CW
Speaker 3: kind of pretty boys, and I that I think my
Speaker 3: note was along the lines of can we see some
Speaker 3: guys that look because Joe's character was somebody who was
Speaker 3: working on the crew of the fake Lifetime movie for
Speaker 3: the f Channel. Tori's character, I'd like to find a
Speaker 3: guy who looks like he's sort of you know, blue collar,
Speaker 3: would be working on a crew, not like he just
Speaker 3: came from having his hold bleached or something like. And
Speaker 3: that's how we got That's how the next success gentleman like,
Speaker 3: it was so odd. I mean he was great great.
Speaker 4: Good thing HR was different back then.
Speaker 5: Good thing HR was different. And also just to give
Speaker 5: credit to Mike, it was a very good description because
Speaker 5: it got us exactly who we wanted, by the way, like.
Speaker 4: So dreamy and hot. It's crazy to think that anyway. Yeah,
Speaker 4: but we're going ahead. Can you talk about Zach first?
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, Chris, do you want to talk about that?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 4: Yeah, So the role of my best friend Maron, who
Speaker 4: was my gay best friend, my usband in life, friends
Speaker 4: since we were fifteen. It was a real important role
Speaker 4: to me because he's like my partner in crime through
Speaker 4: life and that it was a really really great role
Speaker 4: and we saw a lot of people had it work.
Speaker 5: Next well, we saw a ton of people and nobody.
Speaker 5: Nobody was right and there were like some almost and
Speaker 5: you know sometimes you see a lot of people for
Speaker 5: a part and you start talking yourself into thinking, well,
Speaker 5: person could do it, and that there was no real
Speaker 5: slam dun. Yeah, And Zach Quinto came in to read
Speaker 5: for Pete, for the Pete character, and there was just
Speaker 5: something so lovable about him, and we kind of all
Speaker 5: looked at each other and then we looked at him
Speaker 5: and we're like, listen, we know you haven't prepared for this,
Speaker 5: but could you read the other part? Could you read
Speaker 5: for Sisan was the character's name, and he was game.
Speaker 4: He was like, yeah, I was in the room and
Speaker 4: read with the actress so we could instantly see if
Speaker 4: it clicked. And by the way, Pete was like the
Speaker 4: all American like streak guy, like you know, pussy hound,
Speaker 4: and like, so so was my gay best friend and yeah,
Speaker 4: so on the spot, Zach went and came back in
Speaker 4: and blew us away.
Speaker 5: Blew us away. Well, I don't know if you remember this,
Speaker 5: but we almost lost him to another pilot. Tory and
Speaker 5: I were on the phone with his agent all night.
Speaker 5: Do you remember this with zachon trying to got him
Speaker 5: to do with Zach's agent trying to get him to
Speaker 5: do our show instead of instead of the other one.
Speaker 4: So, if you don't understand what we're talking about, if
Speaker 4: it is too insidery, Basically, it was pilot season and Zach,
Speaker 4: who is an unbelievable actor, had gotten read for multiple things,
Speaker 4: had gotten offers for two pilots, it both, you know, comedies,
Speaker 4: and ultimately he had to choose which one he wanted
Speaker 4: to do, and we were like, there is nobody else
Speaker 4: for this role. He is the son. It was like
Speaker 4: it was perfect and we were just are you begging?
Speaker 5: Yeah, like we were begging. And we had to like
Speaker 5: put him on tape the next morning to get it
Speaker 5: sent to NBC because they were shut down that day
Speaker 5: for a diversity seminar or no, no, it was an
Speaker 5: ethics jar. They were shut down for and not from
Speaker 5: Mike and and they watched the tape. They watched the
Speaker 5: tape on their coffee break or something and and loved him.
Speaker 5: We were able to then offer it to him so
Speaker 5: that he didn't even get to test for the other part.
Speaker 4: We're right, okay, which at the time amazing, And he
Speaker 4: was understand like, once you're established and you're a big name,
Speaker 4: that's a luxury to be able to be straight get
Speaker 4: a straight offer. But at the time Zach was unknown,
Speaker 4: and you know, this is before Star Trek and you know,
Speaker 4: before everything for American Horsestory and just everything. Amazing. He's done.
Speaker 5: Yeah, he had been, he had he had been on
Speaker 5: twenty four. He had like a recurring on twenty four.
Speaker 6: That was this big thing.
Speaker 4: So when you're at that point, you go in and
Speaker 4: read and audition, and networks never sign off on you.
Speaker 4: You have to literally go and test for them. It's
Speaker 4: called in person. So to get them to even agree
Speaker 4: to let him go on tape and then they would
Speaker 4: sign off on him was a huge undertaking in itself.
Speaker 5: Correct.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, but we got him.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 5: So we had a great cast and and Janetta, you know,
Speaker 5: I gotta like mentioned Janetta Arnette as Ruthie Rose and
Speaker 5: Cleo King as Nanny was so funny, so good. I mean,
Speaker 5: I can still hear some of the lines, like they
Speaker 5: just they just they were just great.
Speaker 4: And we tortured poor James Carpinello with so much pizze stuff.
Speaker 5: The best he had to say, some of the most
Speaker 5: disgusting things, disgusting.
Speaker 4: I took it like a trooper. So we and let
Speaker 4: us just set the stage literally set the stage. We
Speaker 4: replicated my real apartment, my condo, the Wilshure, which was
Speaker 4: really shabby chic at the time, and we replicated it
Speaker 4: exactly on set, and it was pretty cool, like it
Speaker 4: had the same like kitchen and like everything was kind
Speaker 4: of laid out the exact same when you watch the
Speaker 4: show as my og apartments that I was living in
Speaker 4: when I actually filmed this. So we made the pilot.
Speaker 4: It was great, and then what happened.
Speaker 3: So then what happened is this was when NBC was
Speaker 3: part of GE, the huge conglomerate that also made airplane
Speaker 3: engines and power plants and all kinds of stuff. So
Speaker 3: every decision went through many, many layers and ultimately went
Speaker 3: to like the people who were making air conditioning and
Speaker 3: widgets and airline engines. So the pilot had a lot
Speaker 3: of support, and we were told we were getting picked
Speaker 3: up and had our travel booked to go to the upfronts.
Speaker 3: And I had great Hawa, Yeah, I was in Hawaii.
Speaker 3: So I was in Hawaii and there's like you have
Speaker 3: to come. It's like I got a call one day
Speaker 3: this is good news and bad news. You have to
Speaker 3: come back early because you're going to get picked up,
Speaker 3: and we booked your travel, change your travel. So I
Speaker 3: changed my flight so I could come back early to
Speaker 3: make the flight to the upfront. Then the next day
Speaker 3: they called and said, actually, sorry, it didn't happen. You
Speaker 3: don't have to But at least you don't have to
Speaker 3: come back you're in Hawaiian And I said, fine, but
Speaker 3: you better fucking pay for me to change my flight?
Speaker 4: Was your concern?
Speaker 5: Of course, Yeah, of course, of course, hello.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So yeah, every season networks. It's different now, but
Speaker 4: back then, you know, there were the main primetime networks.
Speaker 4: There were no streaming networks yet. We would have been
Speaker 4: thriving on a streaming net But I know, and I.
Speaker 5: Cory, you were at the Kentucky Derby, if memory served,
Speaker 5: and I was in I was in can Kuon and
Speaker 5: I you know, I was bummed that the show didn't
Speaker 5: get picked up, obviously, but I was also bummed because,
Speaker 5: like I felt like we had this creative connection that
Speaker 5: you know, we haven't always had on other shows that
Speaker 5: we've been on, where you know, it was just easy instantly,
Speaker 5: we kind of all the three of us all thought alike,
Speaker 5: and we found the same things funny, and we found
Speaker 5: the same you know, character attributes interesting. And the loss
Speaker 5: of that was like so upsetting to me that I
Speaker 5: remember leaving you because of course you didn't pick up
Speaker 5: your phone even back then, I remember calling you to
Speaker 5: I was at.
Speaker 4: The Kentucky Derby first time.
Speaker 5: Ever, Yeah, I know. And I remember leaving a voicemail
Speaker 5: on your answering machine where I started to cry, God,
Speaker 5: chriss drama.
Speaker 4: What you made that call to me?
Speaker 5: Correct I did?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was.
Speaker 2: I was the voice of doom.
Speaker 4: Yeah. I've gotten that call many times in my career
Speaker 4: for her, but clearly that was.
Speaker 2: One of the more devastating moments.
Speaker 4: You put your blood, sweat, tears, and we knew how
Speaker 4: it was Mike, and and uh yeah, we put so much.
Speaker 4: I mean just editing alone. Remember being that editing bait
Speaker 4: on like a Friday night, like all night long, we'd
Speaker 4: be there to almost like the sun was coming up,
Speaker 4: and again would come by and Vernon would come by.
Speaker 5: Remember Mike falling asleep.
Speaker 4: He would always fall asleep.
Speaker 3: And you have that picture taking pictures.
Speaker 4: We couldn't post, there's no posting, but there was. Yeah,
Speaker 4: I would take I'd be like Chris, like, I'm such
Speaker 4: a dude somewhere deep down, I'm like, take a picture
Speaker 4: of this. And it was like Mike sleeping. We'd always
Speaker 4: take pictures of Mike falling asleep. Granted it was like
Speaker 4: three in the morning, he'd been working all day and
Speaker 4: night like and it was just editing and he was
Speaker 4: on the couch. But like, take a picture of me
Speaker 4: flirting on Mike's face. Yeah, he does.
Speaker 3: Does one thing to put back maybe backtrack just a
Speaker 3: little bit that I think maybe Bears mentioned is the
Speaker 3: fact that we were all also ab Fab fans and
Speaker 3: we loved the way that ab Fab use little flashbacks,
Speaker 3: and that inspired us to come up with our own version.
Speaker 3: And I think I'm I think I mean to give
Speaker 3: most of the credit to Chris who came up with
Speaker 3: that every every flashback, but we led into a situation
Speaker 3: where Tara wasn't comfortable or trying to explain something weird
Speaker 3: or something that was off, and then she would say
Speaker 3: what they'd ask her, like, Tory, what the fuck why
Speaker 3: are you doing that? You go to the flashback and
Speaker 3: then you come back and Toy be like, I don't know,
Speaker 3: I know, yeah, I remember that.
Speaker 5: Brilliant that was specifically, that whole thing came out about
Speaker 5: because Tori, your story about how your mom used did
Speaker 5: take you to a little people shop to get shoes
Speaker 5: for true story, so like what they like for designer shoes?
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 4: I just told this story recently to someone and they
Speaker 4: were like, no, that existed. I'm like, oh yeah, and
Speaker 4: back when I was young, I'm fifty one, like there
Speaker 4: weren't shoes. So for Halloween costumes because like Nolan Miller
Speaker 4: who did the fabulous like Dynasty wardrobe and for every
Speaker 4: celebrity back then, huge stars and Elizabeth Taylor and like Betty,
Speaker 4: you know, everybody, and he would design my costumes for
Speaker 4: Hall of And I think he had told my mom
Speaker 4: there's a place at the time it was like in
Speaker 4: the Deep Valley and it was a little person's store
Speaker 4: that had shoes, so she would go. Instead of getting
Speaker 4: like shoes for a five or six year old, she
Speaker 4: was just able to get what like adult shoes and
Speaker 4: heels for five or six year old and she would
Speaker 4: take me there.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Yeah. And the network love of your story, the funny
Speaker 5: stories of you as a child, you know that and
Speaker 5: then making snow in the backyard and you know some
Speaker 5: of the more famous ones, and we were like, how
Speaker 5: can we incorporate those stories because the show takes place
Speaker 5: in the present time, and that's why we ended up
Speaker 5: doing the flashbacks, and it was always tied to you.
Speaker 5: You know, you were at Kitson and there was a
Speaker 5: little person you know, trying to reach something and you
Speaker 5: went off on the sales manager for not helping the
Speaker 5: person faster, and then your friends are like, what is
Speaker 5: up with that toy? And then we'd flash back to
Speaker 5: being little toy, a little person who, by the way,
Speaker 5: was played by the girl.
Speaker 4: From Harriel Winter Family. Yeah, I want to talk about
Speaker 4: quickly the call I cut at the Kentucky Derby. Now
Speaker 4: here's the thing. This was like we were praised. I
Speaker 4: just done this pilot. I was going to be back
Speaker 4: right like everybody is at NBC, and I was like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 4: my career's back. Everything's going great. I got invited to
Speaker 4: the Kentucky Derby. So I had been friends. We knew
Speaker 4: each other since we were like in our late teens
Speaker 4: with Rachel Zoe the stylist, but by that point she
Speaker 4: had become huge and it was like a fortune booker.
Speaker 4: But I was like, I need to look really good
Speaker 4: for my first Kentucky Derby because I'm gonna have, you know,
Speaker 4: a series on NBC this year and I'm back bitches.
Speaker 4: So I like booked her and went and she did
Speaker 4: all my clothes styled it anyway, when I got that bill,
Speaker 4: and I think she even gave me a discount because
Speaker 4: we had been long term friends. I was just like,
Speaker 4: it was wild, you guys. I think I spent like
Speaker 4: thirty thousand dollars to go to the Kentucky Derby and
Speaker 4: I had hats, an outfit and the styling and I
Speaker 4: was like, oh my god, this is amazing. And while
Speaker 4: I was there, like Lindsay Lohan was coming in to
Speaker 4: pick up her stuff and Nicole Ritchie was there, and
Speaker 4: I was just like, yeah, this is like the world
Speaker 4: I was supposed to be born into. I mean, let
Speaker 4: me rephrase that, whoa Fredi and slip. This is the
Speaker 4: world I was born into and now I'm back into
Speaker 4: this world. So granted, I'm at the Kentucky Derby, like
Speaker 4: dressed to the nines. It was like not the hat night,
Speaker 4: it was like the night before. So I'm in black
Speaker 4: tie and everything's done. I have this amazing using outfit
Speaker 4: on this ball gown. And I get a call from
Speaker 4: Ruth Anne because we were anticipating the official pickup, and
Speaker 4: I turk her call and you said you should go
Speaker 4: somewhere where you can hear me speak, and I'm like okay,
Speaker 4: And I was like, oh, she's about to tell me,
Speaker 4: like it's a go. So I go into the bathroom
Speaker 4: and there's bathroom stalls and I'm in the bathroom and
Speaker 4: you tell me the show did not get picked up? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 4: and instead they picked up it was between two My
Speaker 4: Name is Earl, which is an amazing show and had
Speaker 4: huge success for them in longevity.
Speaker 2: But I was just like it was devastating.
Speaker 4: It was devastating for me too, for all of us
Speaker 4: because it just it was so funny and smart and innovative,
Speaker 4: and it was just like we we didn't miss a
Speaker 4: beat here the cow, like the writing and it's just
Speaker 4: the wardrobe was so amazing.
Speaker 1: Everything about it. It was you know, even if the
Speaker 1: curb was already out. This was a really unique It
Speaker 1: was because that people hadn't seen before.
Speaker 4: Because everyone knew who Tory Spelling was exact, they perceived
Speaker 4: Tory Spelling to be Larry David is different. He came
Speaker 4: here from he was behind the scenes and then in
Speaker 4: front of the camp. This was different.
Speaker 1: The celebrity to be making fun of themselves and not
Speaker 1: just in a sketch on Saturday Night Live.
Speaker 4: But right I was like ball to the wall, Like yeah, anyway,
Speaker 4: and I remember afterwards, just being like devastated. And that's
Speaker 4: when I was sitting there and Tara Reid was there
Speaker 4: and she was in the next stall, and she was like,
Speaker 4: are you okay? And I was like, I'm not. Like,
Speaker 4: I just did a pilot and it just wasn't picked
Speaker 4: up and and I co created it and I'm so
Speaker 4: crowd of inn this is going to be my big thing.
Speaker 4: And I had known her for years, like through American Pie.
Speaker 4: We became friends and like after that and like part
Speaker 4: of like Hollywood, you know. And she was like, oh,
Speaker 4: she was like, you know what, we should do a
Speaker 4: show together. And we were laughing and like territory and
Speaker 4: I was like, oh, yeah, that would work. And yeah,
Speaker 4: so I remember that night. I was so I got
Speaker 4: wasted that night because I was so bummed. She took
Speaker 4: me to a few parties. I think that's the party
Speaker 4: where yeah, I flirted with Tom Brady and then sucked
Speaker 4: Usher's finger and I was like, I'm sorry, you guys,
Speaker 4: I'm having a moment here and my show just wasn't
Speaker 4: picked up. So everyone doing a break. If I'm letting
Speaker 4: loose too much?
Speaker 5: Can you Then for a second, I think I remember
Speaker 5: I remember the ushering that.
Speaker 2: To bring it up, can we go into a little
Speaker 2: detail on the usher finger incident? How did that happened?
Speaker 5: Exactly? Chris. What I remember is being in cancuon feeling
Speaker 5: so bad about this. Then the news had broke and
Speaker 5: I knew that Tory knew, and then I saw something
Speaker 5: on Perez Hilton or one of those things, and I
Speaker 5: was like, oh God, now she's sucking us hers finger.
Speaker 4: We it was captured. I thought I was the only
Speaker 4: one that knew about it and told you.
Speaker 5: No, like it was no, no, no, it was it
Speaker 5: was it was somewhere.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Actually that also reminds me this was the time when
Speaker 3: Perez Hilton was just like it. He was just huge
Speaker 3: at this point in time, and he was obsessed with
Speaker 3: Tori on this show, and didn't he come to set
Speaker 3: and like pitch ideas or something.
Speaker 4: That's yeah, I think we were going to have him.
Speaker 4: I later went on to have him on my reality
Speaker 4: show and we've since stayed friends. But like, yeah, you're right,
Speaker 4: I don't know. We were like, uh, Tara Reid introduced
Speaker 4: me to Tom Brady. She was like, I'm gonna take
Speaker 4: you to this party and then we were with Kid
Speaker 4: rock and it was just one of those things. It
Speaker 4: was like one and one of these things is not
Speaker 4: like the other. It was just the entire night, I
Speaker 4: was just like, God, this sucks because this show is
Speaker 4: based on these crazy stories that happened in my life
Speaker 4: that no one would believe. Here it just wasn't picked
Speaker 4: up and I'm living it right now. And all I
Speaker 4: wanted to do was tell Mike and Chris, like, Uh,
Speaker 4: this just happened with this person, this person, Let's write
Speaker 4: it into an episode because it was brilliant, like the
Speaker 4: show wrote itself. And yeah, and it wasn't picked up.
Speaker 4: But anyway, I don't know. We're at some party and
Speaker 4: we're dancing and I was dancing with Usher and I
Speaker 4: feel like he put his finger to my lips and
Speaker 4: I sucked it. I'm not not at that Usher's hot,
Speaker 4: but like, yeah, it didn't go any further than that.
Speaker 2: And then.
Speaker 4: Anyway, but the next day it was the Kentucky Derby.
Speaker 4: So I'm in my huge hat, I've had a night,
Speaker 4: I'm hungover, and my show was just not picked up.
Speaker 4: So I'm at the Kentucky Derby and the whole time
Speaker 4: I'm not focused on the Kentucky Derby and in fact,
Speaker 4: all my friends are there and they're betting on the races,
Speaker 4: and like everyone the horses were behind me. So many
Speaker 4: jokes there, But I was focused because I was on
Speaker 4: the phone. And that's when I had to call Zach
Speaker 4: and he was like, oh my gosh, what's going on?
Speaker 4: And is there a chance? Ruth and we were on
Speaker 4: the phone, and we were that day even though it
Speaker 4: was like a Saturday. We were like, we got to
Speaker 4: call another network. We got to call just call a network.
Speaker 4: We can't let this go like Monday morning.
Speaker 2: But like, by the way, by the way, back then,
Speaker 2: you could just call another network.
Speaker 1: I mean that it was about like using one against
Speaker 1: the other and who did you know at what place?
Speaker 2: I mean, I wish it was still like that, but.
Speaker 4: I just remember like calling Zach and calling James and
Speaker 4: like reassuring them being like, no, this isn't the end,
Speaker 4: Like this show is going to get picked up. I
Speaker 4: promised them. And anyway, long story short, the show did
Speaker 4: get picked up. The pilot, we got it made it
Speaker 4: VH one, which was at the time they had no
Speaker 4: It was the first scripted show correct yep, yep, which
Speaker 4: to our demise as well. But it was they took
Speaker 4: a chance on us, and they thought it was the
Speaker 4: perfect project to launch them into script scripted. But so
Speaker 4: we did a season, ten amazing episodes, amazing and it
Speaker 4: at the end of those ten episodes, we were told
Speaker 4: it just wasn't working, even though we like the write
Speaker 4: ups were like it's always a kiss of death and
Speaker 4: critics like crazy, we.
Speaker 5: Got grave reviews. Each one was was a company that
Speaker 5: they had the best intentions. They they want you know,
Speaker 5: they really thought they were going to go into the
Speaker 5: scripted programming business. And they they they spent a lot
Speaker 5: of money on our show, even though for us, because
Speaker 5: we were used to network, we were used to much
Speaker 5: higher budgets, so we were doing things with much less
Speaker 5: money than any of us had ever done anything with.
Speaker 5: But to them, it was more money than they'd ever
Speaker 5: spent on anything. Yeah, and and and as much as
Speaker 5: they loved the show, you know, they put us on
Speaker 5: first of all, at ten o'clock on was it a
Speaker 5: Sunday Night? Sunday Night rais Anatomy at which which you
Speaker 5: know was was the number one show on television. Yes,
Speaker 5: and yeah, and I think at the end of the day,
Speaker 5: it was just too expensive for them to you know,
Speaker 5: try to try to continue and every foray that they
Speaker 5: ever had and descripted in later years because we did
Speaker 5: another one with them many years later, they just they
Speaker 5: get too scared of spending the money, and ultimately that's why,
Speaker 5: you know, that's why it went away.
Speaker 4: I remember at the time being like, oh, you know,
Speaker 4: because it was like, oh, I'm doing this great show.
Speaker 4: It's going to get picked up. Oh didn't get picked up.
Speaker 4: Oh but the show A little engine that could. It's
Speaker 4: going to be now on VH one. We're doing a
Speaker 4: series first season, and everyone's like, great, is it going
Speaker 4: to be picked up after that? Like same combo at
Speaker 4: the end of the season, like James and Zachie were like,
Speaker 4: what do you think, And I'm like, you guys, not
Speaker 4: a chance. This isn't getting picked up. And I just
Speaker 4: remember at the time being like, well, my joke was,
Speaker 4: you know, they're they're more interested in doing like reality
Speaker 4: where like someone's like a contestant shitting in the corner
Speaker 4: and you get going on a date, which I believe
Speaker 4: was based on a show Flavor of Flave had where
Speaker 4: he was trying to find love. Flavor flav right, and.
Speaker 5: Yes, I remember.
Speaker 4: Literally she was standing there for so long waiting, you know,
Speaker 4: like to see if he was gonna pick her, and
Speaker 4: she they didn't let her go to the bathroom that
Speaker 4: she literally ship herself And that was like big TV.
Speaker 4: And it's like wow, and we're writing like our asses off, and.
Speaker 9: It's calling and being like why did we bother writing scripts?
Speaker 9: Why didn't we just have her shit on the floor
Speaker 9: to do what if we did
Speaker 4: Of course I would