Speaker 1: Something that that I've It comes up on my Instagram
Speaker 1: feed every once in a while, I think because of
Speaker 1: the body's world. But I've also seen this before and
Speaker 1: you can find it on YouTube. Have you guys ever
Speaker 1: watched Henry Thomas's audition for ET. We've talked about this.
Speaker 1: It's yeah, we talked about this. It's it's daggering.
Speaker 2: I haven't seen it.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, it's so wonderful. He's like eight or
Speaker 1: nine years old. He's improvising with the casting director and
Speaker 1: they're just The casting director is just, you know, pretend
Speaker 1: you have an alien in your house and you don't
Speaker 1: want to give him over to the government, and they
Speaker 1: just improvise and he is so present, he's so real.
Speaker 1: And then at the end of the audition you can
Speaker 1: hear Spielberg say, well you got the job, kid, and
Speaker 1: it's it's incredible. But it just made me think about, like,
Speaker 1: do you guys have like a favorite child actor performance
Speaker 1: like all time? Like, hands down, this is the best.
Speaker 1: I mean, Henry thomasin ET is up there for me,
Speaker 1: you know, but I thought you.
Speaker 3: Met like our own performances if we had r moment,
Speaker 3: So you met, you meant a different kid.
Speaker 1: I mean when you watch movies or TV shows, like,
Speaker 1: when you look back, what do you have, like a
Speaker 1: you know, because there's been there have been kids who
Speaker 1: won Academy Awards or nominated, and I think it's a yeah,
Speaker 1: do you have of course?
Speaker 3: I mean, well there's a there's a bunch, And for me,
Speaker 3: they were never I mean, the performances were great, but
Speaker 3: it was more like and I want to do that
Speaker 3: or I want to be in that kind of movie
Speaker 3: kind of moment. Like there was an amazing movie that
Speaker 3: meant so much for me when I was a kid
Speaker 3: called The Experts, no Explorers, excuse me, called the Explorers, Explorers,
Speaker 3: Young River, Phoenix unfortunately the third kid who we don't
Speaker 3: know who that is, but it was it was three
Speaker 3: great young performances in this really cool movie where they
Speaker 3: get the first half of that movie is amazing.
Speaker 1: Once they get to space, it's really weird. It's still
Speaker 1: good though.
Speaker 3: I love it because again for me, it was about
Speaker 3: they finally meet the alien who's learned everything by watching TV.
Speaker 1: And so my whole life is about watching TV. That
Speaker 1: makes sense to you. So it was oh so performances
Speaker 1: like it was a fact. It was very goonies. It
Speaker 1: was like I was gonna says, is another one? Where
Speaker 1: is another one? Stand by Me? You know those performances
Speaker 1: in stand By Me? It's those one for me easily.
Speaker 1: And I you know, like because when I was thinking
Speaker 1: about this question, I remember this article that I read
Speaker 1: years ago that that talked about how child how child
Speaker 1: characters are written in movies and TV, and often they're
Speaker 1: reduced to like one or two things. It's like either
Speaker 1: they are a kid that is like a completely not
Speaker 1: understandable character. They're like crazy, they're just making noise and
Speaker 1: being chaotic, or they're written as a mini adult like
Speaker 1: they are a precocious you know, they're they're they're more
Speaker 1: sophisticated than they So it's like kid characters tend to
Speaker 1: only have one of those two modes. And so you know,
Speaker 1: and I was thinking about like Tatum O'Neil and Paper Moon,
Speaker 1: which is one of my favorite movies of all time.
Speaker 1: She's incredible, she won the Academy Award for it, but
Speaker 1: it's kind of a false character. It's not like a kid.
Speaker 1: It's one of these precocious adults in a little kid's
Speaker 1: body characters. So I was trying to think of movies
Speaker 1: where kids were just kids like me. Stand By Me
Speaker 1: is the gold standard because it's like in stand By Me,
Speaker 1: they are you can see all four of them are
Speaker 1: just in real time being kids with each other. They're
Speaker 1: not being It's so realistic for how twelve year olds
Speaker 1: actually talk to each other. And at the time, I mean,
Speaker 1: when I first discovered it, I mean, and I don't
Speaker 1: think this is news to anybody, but like River Phoenix
Speaker 1: was my hero, you know, like basically that's who I
Speaker 1: wanted to be as an actor. But now when I
Speaker 1: look back and stand By Me, Jerry O'Connell steals that movie.
Speaker 1: He's the youngest and he is so amazing, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm so happy to like call Jerry a friend
Speaker 1: now because you know, I worked with his wife and
Speaker 1: and and I just he is so good in that
Speaker 1: movie because he's the most present, he's he's all the
Speaker 1: comic relief and there's just no pretense about like what
Speaker 1: he's doing. He just steals the whole movie.
Speaker 3: So you want to see other other great child performances
Speaker 3: where kids are just kids, go back and watch your
Speaker 3: original Bad News Bears.
Speaker 1: Oh you know, I've never seen it. Oh, it's so good.
Speaker 3: Tatamonial, such a good movie. How about me, Danielle, do
Speaker 3: you have kid performances that you like?
Speaker 4: I agree obviously with both of you. Those all of
Speaker 4: those performances are incredible. But to add a more recent
Speaker 4: one into the mix, I would like to say Brooklyn
Speaker 4: Prince in The Florida Project.
Speaker 2: Did you guys see The Florida Project?
Speaker 5: Oh?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, movie though.
Speaker 4: Very tough movie, but her performance is amazing. And then
Speaker 4: also I do not remember the actress's name, but after Son,
Speaker 4: the kid in after Son.
Speaker 1: See I see that one either. I gotta see that right.
Speaker 2: So, I mean those are a little more recent.
Speaker 4: They're both gut wrenching movies, but truly unbelievable performances.
Speaker 1: That is it.
Speaker 3: Abigail Breslin from Little Miss Sunshine too, another amazing prmans
Speaker 3: all the way around. Yeah there are some. Yeah, there
Speaker 3: have been some some killer ones.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Been great? Yeah? Interesting.
Speaker 2: Well, welcome to Pod Meets World.
Speaker 3: I'm Daniel Fishel, I'm Right or Strong, and I'm Wilfredell
Speaker 3: And it is a big week for Pod Meets World Live.
Speaker 3: We're back on the road and in three new cities.
Speaker 3: So join us this Friday, October thirteenth, ew Friday the
Speaker 3: thirteenth Spooky in Cleveland, Ohio at the Mimi Ohio Theater,
Speaker 3: or Saturday October fourteenth, which isn't spooky at all, in
Speaker 3: Toronto at the Queen Elizabeth Theater. And then we're going
Speaker 3: to close out the weekend on Sunday Night, which is
Speaker 3: of course October fifteenth in Pittsburgh, where we're all just
Speaker 3: hoping Danielle is going to walk in the rain, and
Speaker 3: that is of course, at the buy Ham Theater.
Speaker 1: Tickets are still available for all three shows.
Speaker 3: It's going to be so much fun, and they're available
Speaker 3: now at pod Meeting Worldshow dot com. It's also your
Speaker 3: chance to come out and hang out with Danielle Ryder
Speaker 3: and I and dress up in costume because we're gonna
Speaker 3: be picking a winner for each show and you are
Speaker 3: absolutely going to love the prize. Oh, speaking of prizes,
Speaker 3: we got new March.
Speaker 1: That's right. It has been a while.
Speaker 3: Ooh, that was a weird merch that all felt strange
Speaker 3: my throat. Anyway, it's been a while. So we've taken
Speaker 3: the most important word in the history of the podcast
Speaker 3: in Sourco and made the official shirt. There's an illustration
Speaker 3: and definition printed right on front. You have to see
Speaker 3: it to believe it. It's exclusively available online now at
Speaker 3: Podmeetsworldshow dot com. It is the perfect way to tell
Speaker 3: everyone I'm listening to podmeets World and I know this
Speaker 3: very very very specific inside joke. You can see all
Speaker 3: of our March and all of our tour dates while
Speaker 3: you're there. Once again, it's all at podmeets worldshow dot com.
Speaker 1: Come on out. We can't wait to meet you.
Speaker 6: Hey everyone, it's Sophia Bush, host of the podcast Work
Speaker 6: in Progress. Yes, I am thrilled to tell you that
Speaker 6: Work in Progress is back for a third season. My friends,
Speaker 6: it has never been more important than right now for
Speaker 6: us to have all of these big conversations together. We
Speaker 6: are going to get educated, a little bit enlightened, and
Speaker 6: we will definitely be entertained. I started Work in Progress
Speaker 6: because I'm a curious person, and I realized there are
Speaker 6: so many people I get to speak to that are
Speaker 6: fascinating and rare, and so I thought, why not take
Speaker 6: these conversations out into the world. I'm going to be
Speaker 6: having deep chats with thought leaders, newsmakers, celebrities, entertainers, authors,
Speaker 6: elected officials, and more. You can join us and listen
Speaker 6: to work in Progress on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 6: or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Speaker 4: One of the funnier aspects to doing this podcast is
Speaker 4: that certain sayings or pieces of dialogue or catchphrases from
Speaker 4: our time on Boy Meets World that have followed us
Speaker 4: for over thirty years in our personal lives are now
Speaker 4: being shared with you, making the inside part of inside
Speaker 4: jokes a bit more outside. Whether it's the kids want
Speaker 4: to jump? Or is he mad? Or even Strafty Bright.
Speaker 4: The little secret things that meant a lot to us
Speaker 4: now mean a lot to a lot of us, and
Speaker 4: that is something we never could have predicted coming into
Speaker 4: Pod meets World. And this week we meet someone who
Speaker 4: not only creatively affected almost every episode of Boy Meets World,
Speaker 4: but one of his major life moments created a sentence
Speaker 4: that the child stars of this show would yell at
Speaker 4: each other for years and even now as adults, almost
Speaker 4: like a pre Internet meme amongst friends. That sentence is
Speaker 4: Steve's having a baby. But we will get more into
Speaker 4: that later. Steve Hayfer turned usc education and early twenties
Speaker 4: job at Universal Studios into a wildly impressive sitcom career,
Speaker 4: starting as a PA on The Fresh Prince of bel
Speaker 4: Air and eventually becoming the stage manager for Boy Meets World,
Speaker 4: where he was so beloved he was given the chance
Speaker 4: to direct his first episode of TV season seven's As
Speaker 4: Time Goes By and He Has Never Looked back. Steve
Speaker 4: went on to direct over thirty episodes of the highly
Speaker 4: influential Nickelodeon variety show All That, then almost forty episodes
Speaker 4: of I carly Tons of Zoe One oh one, Drake
Speaker 4: and Josh, Victorious, Sam and Kat, Game Shakers, and most
Speaker 4: recently another thirty five episodes of Henry Danger. Are we
Speaker 4: responsible for his success being the first cast he ever directed, Yeah,
Speaker 4: I feel good saying that thanks for asking, and though
Speaker 4: I doubt he will have a baby with him today,
Speaker 4: we are excited to welcome a mainstay behind the scenes
Speaker 4: of Boy Meets World and a legend behind the camera.
Speaker 4: This week's Pod Meets World guest is Steve Hayfer.
Speaker 5: Hello, we can hear you.
Speaker 1: You got to turn that camera. I know it's not
Speaker 1: responding like us when you try to get us on set.
Speaker 1: We just blink at you.
Speaker 3: See you you too, You dude, are.
Speaker 2: We one of those cast pictures behind you?
Speaker 5: Uh no, but you are?
Speaker 1: Yes? Yes, O.
Speaker 7: Love that.
Speaker 5: Yes, my son put that one together for me. So yeah,
Speaker 5: it's in a special place, dead center over my credenza.
Speaker 2: I love that.
Speaker 1: Oh that's the best. And you almost never get to
Speaker 1: hear credenza anymore.
Speaker 3: I know, we don't know that because it's it's wonderful,
Speaker 3: it's perfect.
Speaker 5: Well, god knows, Ikea doesn't use that word.
Speaker 7: Different.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Oh, Steve, thank you so much for being here
Speaker 4: with us.
Speaker 5: Oh, it's a pleasure. It's a pleasure. So good to
Speaker 5: see you all. I've seen Danielle probably the most recently.
Speaker 5: I saw Will way back at my fortieth birthday party.
Speaker 5: And yeah, and Rider Bobby, it's been forever.
Speaker 1: I don't I don't think i've seen you since rap,
Speaker 1: like right, maybe we've had lunch after the like maybe
Speaker 1: within the couple of years after the show, but.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and I don't remember. I did a pilot with Shiloh,
Speaker 5: your brother, and Betty White and Marie Osmon, and I
Speaker 5: think you might have dropped by, but I'm not even
Speaker 5: one hundred percent sure that was after we wrapped.
Speaker 1: That might have been like, yeah, yeah, that was still
Speaker 1: during boy, Yeah we're still shooting.
Speaker 3: So wow.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I saw Steve because Steve was the one of
Speaker 4: the first people I ever shadowed when I when I
Speaker 4: was attempting to become a director, and Steve let me
Speaker 4: shadow him and he was the absolute best, and he
Speaker 4: gave me all kinds of pointers and tips and tricks
Speaker 4: and and uh and sent me on my way.
Speaker 5: It was I remember that week. It was one of
Speaker 5: the most chaotic weeks backstage. There was drama that you
Speaker 5: don't even know.
Speaker 2: I would love to know.
Speaker 5: I'm not even completely privy to it, but it was
Speaker 5: one of those weeks and I would have loved to
Speaker 5: have set and just talked with you more and more.
Speaker 5: But it was one of those things.
Speaker 1: Yeah, crazy, Yeah. Steve was also a lot of people
Speaker 1: don't know.
Speaker 3: Steve was also the third leg of the Will Tony
Speaker 3: Steve tripod.
Speaker 1: We would be.
Speaker 3: Playing golf and doing all that, so we were out
Speaker 3: quite a bit with with Hayfer as well. So yes,
Speaker 3: it was uh, it was fun.
Speaker 5: And sometimes you and Tony were out without me and
Speaker 5: you were telling me you were coming back or weren't going
Speaker 5: to be able to make it to a run through.
Speaker 1: Just stress you up, just stress.
Speaker 3: Tony and I are playing the horrible trick on Steve,
Speaker 3: which is oh man. We thought it was so funny
Speaker 3: until that door opens and there's Steve's face like, what
Speaker 3: are you doing to me?
Speaker 7: And we felt so bad.
Speaker 1: We felt so bad after that.
Speaker 5: Oh my, yeah, And I was like a weird parent.
Speaker 5: I was like, I'm glad you're saying, but.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, I'm just disappointed in you both.
Speaker 3: It was like, oh no, no, exactly exactly.
Speaker 4: So Steve, we like to start with all of our
Speaker 4: guests kind of at their origin story. So do you
Speaker 4: remember your job at Universal Studios? Do you have any
Speaker 4: great That's where you started right as a PA. Do
Speaker 4: you remember that experience?
Speaker 1: Well?
Speaker 5: I originally started as a tour guide. I was pointing
Speaker 5: out the Rubber Shark and the Psycho House and everything,
Speaker 5: and that was during my senior year at USC. I
Speaker 5: needed some money and so that was a good gig
Speaker 5: and they were flexible with hours and all that. But
Speaker 5: so then I made contacts there and started as a
Speaker 5: set PA for the show Coach. They were finishing up
Speaker 5: their first full season, because I believe they were a
Speaker 5: mid season replacement show, but they really had hired me
Speaker 5: to do a pilot just you know, so I was
Speaker 5: answering phones and helping the ads on set stuff like that.
Speaker 5: That pilot was called have a Nice Day. It was
Speaker 5: about the seventies. Really funny didn't get picked up and
Speaker 5: then six seven years later that seventies show, so it's
Speaker 5: all about timing.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 5: But then those producers took me to another show, which
Speaker 5: was The Fresh Prince of bel Air, so I got
Speaker 5: to experience that it was Brandon Tartakoff's last show that
Speaker 5: he brought to NBC or that shepherd through NBC. I
Speaker 5: stayed with them for two years, did regular production assistant work,
Speaker 5: some post production is set to work, and then those
Speaker 5: producers got me into the Directors Guild to be second
Speaker 5: second ad or at that time third stage manager, to
Speaker 5: run the background for a sitcoms that started Patty LaBelle,
Speaker 5: Morris Chestnut, Vivika fac Dwayne Martin and that was called
Speaker 5: Out All Night. That only lasted for about thirteen episodes.
Speaker 5: But that's where I really got to know Lynn McCracken better,
Speaker 5: who I had met at Fresh Prince, and then she
Speaker 5: had this new project and she said, I really want
Speaker 5: a male second for me because she had a regular
Speaker 5: female Renie Holmes, who's a fantastic ad So because you
Speaker 5: guys mean, Will ryder Ben and Lee Norris were going
Speaker 5: to be the main guys, and so she just wanted
Speaker 5: a male figure in the ad team, so she brought
Speaker 5: me on. Arlene Grayson beloved. Arlene had a friend also
Speaker 5: who she wanted to be the second. So that guy
Speaker 5: who was also named was Steve. He was there for
Speaker 5: the first three weeks, I believe, our first run of three,
Speaker 5: and then either he got another gig or something. But
Speaker 5: I also know his way of working in Lynn's way
Speaker 5: of working were two different things also. So then anyway,
Speaker 5: then I moved up from running background for your first
Speaker 5: three weeks up to the second ad position and then
Speaker 5: season three is when it became your first AD. And
Speaker 5: after Arlene passed, Karen McCain had become our main producer,
Speaker 5: so she and I kind of went through trial by
Speaker 5: fire together and so I always have fond members of Karen.
Speaker 5: But so that was kind of it.
Speaker 4: That is, that is quite a story to go from
Speaker 4: tram guy to you know, on Fresh Prince to running
Speaker 4: a stage within three four years.
Speaker 5: Uh, yeah, you're probably closer to four or five. Yeah, five,
Speaker 5: But yeah I was. I was the most blessed person
Speaker 5: on earth, that's for sure.
Speaker 1: I remember you told me a story.
Speaker 3: Didn't you tell me a story once about how you
Speaker 3: weren't When you're a tour guide, you're not supposed to
Speaker 3: point out the ambulance building.
Speaker 1: Yes, why can you tell a little bit about that?
Speaker 5: Yeah? It was Steven Spielberg's a production company for those
Speaker 5: who don't know, And it was this cool Adobe building
Speaker 5: just looked different than all the others, still universal buildings,
Speaker 5: And if trams got stopped there due to filming happening
Speaker 5: on the back lot, sometimes trams would get backed up
Speaker 5: and you might be stopped right there in front of
Speaker 5: the road that leads your right to amblin. You can
Speaker 5: see it, and I guess they worked it out so
Speaker 5: you wouldn't point it out, and people wouldn't try to
Speaker 5: sneak on the lot to go, because this is right
Speaker 5: in the height of VT had just come out, and
Speaker 5: you know, he was Jaws had already been out close encounters.
Speaker 5: He was at the height of his popularity back then,
Speaker 5: So I think it was more of just a security measure.
Speaker 5: But of course, most tour guides were famous for doing
Speaker 5: things they shouldn't be doing on their last tram. Ever,
Speaker 5: when they knew that they were quitting and they were leaving,
Speaker 5: and they would do all sorts of things like point
Speaker 5: out amblin. Or one guide walked through the Red Sea,
Speaker 5: got on, says follow me, and he led the tram
Speaker 5: through the Red Sea as it was partying. Another took
Speaker 5: his shoes and threw it into the ice tunnel, which
Speaker 5: is just like a big clothes dryer. And so for
Speaker 5: the next eight trams that went through, these shoes would
Speaker 5: go up the side and tumble back down, and go
Speaker 5: up the side and tumble back down. And that's what
Speaker 5: everybody got treated to. That was gig.
Speaker 2: Were you there when they were filming the Burbs?
Speaker 5: Yes, they just did soundstage work for the most part.
Speaker 5: I don't think they're out on the back lot too much.
Speaker 5: So what we got to see other than the call sheet.
Speaker 5: We get everybody's call sheet that day, so we knew
Speaker 5: who was filming. Norman ly your head, you know, the
Speaker 5: Jeffersons and simmer Spoons, always going on murder, she wrote
Speaker 5: night Writer. Once in a while air Wolf would show
Speaker 5: up there the A team was always off campus somewhere,
Speaker 5: so we never see them. But it was a lot
Speaker 5: of fun.
Speaker 1: So that's awesome.
Speaker 2: Do you still remember the tramscript?
Speaker 5: Oh? Jeeze. If I had an old fashioned I would
Speaker 5: probably recall more than I care to realize.
Speaker 4: Oh man, I also want to talk to you about
Speaker 4: the show you mentioned out All Night starring Patty Leabelle
Speaker 4: Moor's Chestnut, Vivica A Fox, Taj Maury and then you
Speaker 4: guys had appearances by TLC, Mary J. Blige, Dion Warwick,
Speaker 4: Gladys Knight, Luther Vandross Boys to men, Marky Mark and
Speaker 4: Bobby Brown just to name a few.
Speaker 1: Yeah, who only went thirteen? I know, why did that
Speaker 1: only go thirteen? With all those people in oh?
Speaker 5: Then because her premise, her premise was that she was
Speaker 5: a nightclub owner, and so there was always about gearing
Speaker 5: up for whatever is happening at the club that week,
Speaker 5: and then somebody would come on, you know, whether it's
Speaker 5: Natalie Coledyon, Warwick, Luther, Vanjos, everybody that Daniel just mentioned.
Speaker 5: And so that was fun we got to see them,
Speaker 5: but it also brought its own version of chaos every week,
Speaker 5: you know, because they their reps and their people had
Speaker 5: different agendas and the way they handle things. But we
Speaker 5: always had lots of of people in the club and
Speaker 5: that was my gig, was trying to you know, run
Speaker 5: the background there and learned a lot about crowd management
Speaker 5: on that show.
Speaker 4: Did you have a favorite guest star or a favorite
Speaker 4: story from that show?
Speaker 5: From that show, Dion Warwick was fantastic. I just remember
Speaker 5: loving her. Luther Randress was a lot of fun. He
Speaker 5: was it was hard to contain. He was almost like
Speaker 5: the dog on up that he'd be talking to you
Speaker 5: and all of a sudden you'd see somebody he'd recognize
Speaker 5: to go oh, and he go running on. You know,
Speaker 5: wait wait, wait, no, we were heading to this set
Speaker 5: because they literally need us in ten seconds. You know,
Speaker 5: things like that for dealing with us as kids, exactly
Speaker 5: nothing prepares you for you guys.
Speaker 4: So Lynn McCraken is the one who brings you over
Speaker 4: to boy Meets World. Do you remember first meeting us
Speaker 4: and first working with us? What were your first impressions
Speaker 4: of all of us?
Speaker 5: Oh? Absolutely, well, then stands out first because Ben is Ben,
Speaker 5: and then was this little ball of energy with curly hair,
Speaker 5: and I had just met Michael Jacobs two three times
Speaker 5: before our first table read, and Uh, I was doing
Speaker 5: There's something about Ben that seems familiar, and then the
Speaker 5: two of them were in the room at the same time.
Speaker 5: It's like, ah, but you guys were great. Uh, each
Speaker 5: and every one of you writer I connected with fairly
Speaker 5: quickly because we both come from Sonoma County, California. He's
Speaker 5: from the Sebastopol area. I'm from Santa Rosa and UH,
Speaker 5: so that you know, that was an instant connection. But
Speaker 5: Will I got, as he mentioned, I got to know
Speaker 5: him better because he was out of school before you
Speaker 5: guys were, and so he would hang out with us
Speaker 5: on the patio, meaning me and Kathy g Gongorio and
Speaker 5: d D and either Beth or Tracy whoever happened to
Speaker 5: be there working on the set that that year.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 5: And I remember Will trying to teach me how to
Speaker 5: play magic the gathering, and which was exercise and futility
Speaker 5: on his part, but she tried. Danielle, I remember your
Speaker 5: week especially well, just because of your story and everything
Speaker 5: that surrounded the part of Tapanga, and I feel so
Speaker 5: bad I don't remember the original actress that much because
Speaker 5: Topanga is you you were a topanga And I do
Speaker 5: remember Michael and I think it was Bludman and bus
Speaker 5: Gang came by our office and talked to me and
Speaker 5: Lynn just briefly, and I think they know pretty much.
Speaker 5: They had their mindset about what was going, but they
Speaker 5: were just doing their due diligence. And they're saying Danielle
Speaker 5: and Marlow was it Marlow who was also yeah, being considered.
Speaker 5: They said, you've dealt with them on set and everything.
Speaker 5: How are they? And we were going, They're fantastic, They're great.
Speaker 5: And we talked about Danielle saying she's just so focused,
Speaker 5: she's so into the project. She's MARTA's heck, and we
Speaker 5: couldn't imagine anybody better. But we love Marla too. But
Speaker 5: we could tell they had their they had their decision
Speaker 5: made at that point. It was just one of those
Speaker 5: little things though.
Speaker 2: I love that. I love that's a that's a little
Speaker 2: aspect of it.
Speaker 4: I never knew where it was like there were even
Speaker 4: there were even conversations with you guys about just like,
Speaker 4: before we move forward with this.
Speaker 2: Do you have any dirt on her? Is there anything
Speaker 2: anything anything bad about her? We should know?
Speaker 1: And you were like, no, parents, really is what a
Speaker 1: lot of time?
Speaker 5: Right?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 1: Kids? What are the parents like on set? Because if
Speaker 1: they're obnoxious, then that kid is going to be a problem,
Speaker 1: you know, yes.
Speaker 5: Yes, well, I I have been so blessed with because,
Speaker 5: as you guys now, I worked for over twenty years
Speaker 5: in Nickelodeon. After I was done with you guys, and
Speaker 5: so you know, kild Show, Kid Show, Kids Show, Kid
Speaker 5: Chow a lot of parents and uh your groups of parents.
Speaker 5: I would stand up against any of the shows that
Speaker 5: I was on, but I was very fortunate that the
Speaker 5: majority of the parents that I had were fantastic in
Speaker 5: Nickelodeon as well. But I remember you guys coming in
Speaker 5: in the early days and everybody's getting dropped off by
Speaker 5: their respect of parents, usually in a minivan of some sort,
Speaker 5: and you come in, sleepy, we take you to school.
Speaker 5: He starts a very hard, complex day. And then I
Speaker 5: remember cut to the final season where you guys were
Speaker 5: all driving your own BMW's Mercedes things like that, and
Speaker 5: Ben was running a little late, as he and Matthew
Speaker 5: tended to do once in a while on season seven,
Speaker 5: and so Dde was like Ben's rennie Ldia. I said, okay, Dad,
Speaker 5: will go out and wait for him this time. So
Speaker 5: I went outside and Ben comes rolling in at whatever
Speaker 5: he was driving at the time. Park said, next to
Speaker 5: all you guys. He gets out and he looks at
Speaker 5: all cars, and he looks at me, goes, we've changed
Speaker 5: a lot over the years, haven't we absolutely outside, absolutely
Speaker 5: get inside?
Speaker 1: Yes, it was yeah, we we we We can't say.
Speaker 1: Ben and Matt towards the end had a more pliable
Speaker 1: relationship with the schedule than some other people there.
Speaker 3: And that's not to say that they were, you know,
Speaker 3: would show up hours late, but you know, fifteen twenty
Speaker 3: minutes here or there was not unheard of.
Speaker 1: But that's funny because also I was. I was going
Speaker 1: to college back then too, so like at that point
Speaker 1: I was like coming from class and I would show
Speaker 1: up late. I remember. So I'm curious, like in a
Speaker 1: weird way. It probably got harder to wrangle us as
Speaker 1: we got older, yeah.
Speaker 5: But understandably so. And it was stuff that I could predict.
Speaker 5: And you guys came to me, you said, I've got this,
Speaker 5: this this so I could shape the day, you know,
Speaker 5: or have d d you know, shape the day to
Speaker 5: be a little more accommodating to what was going on
Speaker 5: and still meet our needs. And you guys always upheld
Speaker 5: your ends of the bargain, even Matthew and Ben. And
Speaker 5: it was a little easier than when you're young. When
Speaker 5: you guys are so young, you don't even know what
Speaker 5: you're doing. Half the time. You're just going on impulse,
Speaker 5: You're going on hormones, You're going on a lot of things. Yeah,
Speaker 5: so you guys are a little more like you know,
Speaker 5: cats trying to herd cats. But you guys, you guys
Speaker 5: are always trusting. You guys were always well, they're not
Speaker 5: going to ask us to do this, and that's something
Speaker 5: that really needs to be done. And we would try
Speaker 5: not to ask extra things of you guys because we
Speaker 5: wanted you to have free time, have the time where
Speaker 5: you could just be kids and screw around together and
Speaker 5: laugh and whatever. And that was hopefully going to make
Speaker 5: a better working environment and a better experience for you guys.
Speaker 3: Well did I mean, I can tell you that the
Speaker 3: working environment aspect of it. You know, I'll speak for myself.
Speaker 3: If there was anything on the set that I had
Speaker 3: a problem with, and that was rare. You were always
Speaker 3: my go to guy like you, you made it you
Speaker 3: made it that place where it was like we knew
Speaker 3: that we could go.
Speaker 1: We've we've said the same thing with like Jeff McCracken.
Speaker 3: There are certain people on the set where it was like,
Speaker 3: if we had any problem, we knew it was a
Speaker 3: completely and totally safe space. And for me, especially because
Speaker 3: you and I spent a lot of time together and
Speaker 3: played golf, it was like you were if anything.
Speaker 1: Happened, you were always the first person that I would
Speaker 1: go to.
Speaker 3: And yes, yeah, I just want to thank you for
Speaker 3: that because you always made it a very very safe,
Speaker 3: open kind of environment to where there wasn't anything we
Speaker 3: could go and we couldn't say to you.
Speaker 1: Do you have a very specific story about Steve, don't you?
Speaker 1: Which one about overhearing overhearing some crew? Yeah? I do.
Speaker 1: I didn't know if we want to get into that.
Speaker 1: I mean, I guess it's a great It's well, it
Speaker 1: just shows you. It just shows you how the kind
Speaker 1: of the difference.
Speaker 3: It was first season, right or no, no, no, it
Speaker 3: was it was right around when the Subway episode was Okay,
Speaker 3: it might not have been that week, but it was.
Speaker 3: If it wasn't, it was the week after because the
Speaker 3: same person I remember having a weird conversation with that week.
Speaker 1: So it was either a week or week after that.
Speaker 1: There was a crew member and I.
Speaker 3: Walked out and Danielle and Ben were I wouldn't say
Speaker 3: talking to this person. I'd say this person was talking
Speaker 3: to them and he was having a very very in
Speaker 3: depth conversation about how to receive oral pleasure outside of
Speaker 3: a nightclub. Oh my gosh, to Danielle and Ben, who
Speaker 3: I think Danielle's fourteen at the time. And I went
Speaker 3: right to you, like right to you, and I was like, Steve,
Speaker 3: this is not good.
Speaker 1: This guy's bad news.
Speaker 3: You're like which one? And I just pointed him out.
Speaker 3: Never saw the guy again. It was just that fast
Speaker 3: and that like, Okay, I don't know if you remember
Speaker 3: this or not.
Speaker 5: I had forgotten, but now that you're mentioning it, I
Speaker 5: sure do remember it now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I have no memory of it at all.
Speaker 7: Yes, it was.
Speaker 3: It was one of those things where it was just
Speaker 3: like oh my, oh my god, you know, and I
Speaker 3: think I went up to you and again, being the
Speaker 3: son of two lawyers, I was like, this dude's liability.
Speaker 3: You know, this is not a good thing, and you
Speaker 3: were I just remember you're just very calm, very like.
Speaker 1: But that's how it always was.
Speaker 3: You were never going to explode, you were never going
Speaker 3: to It was just like, o hey, let's talk about it,
Speaker 3: let's figure out what's that.
Speaker 1: It was great. So yeah, I don't think people, I
Speaker 1: mean probably people outside of the industry have no clue
Speaker 1: how difficult the AD position is and how essential it is.
Speaker 1: It's it's you know, it's it's The eighties are the
Speaker 1: unsung heroes of the entire film industry and television industry,
Speaker 1: because you know, it's it's a position where you are,
Speaker 1: you know, you have the director who is making creative decisions,
Speaker 1: figuring out shots, and but somebody has to actually run
Speaker 1: the stage and actually has to make sure the trains
Speaker 1: run on time, the actors show up. There's so many
Speaker 1: moving parts and and so often the AD is good
Speaker 1: at that aspect of the job. But then is just
Speaker 1: an awful person to deal right, not that they're stressed
Speaker 1: out and they're so emotional and they're you know, they're
Speaker 1: just they're just screaming and yelling and it creates a chaotic,
Speaker 1: very stressful environment. And so the magic you know, somebody
Speaker 1: like you, Steve who can be a great manager, get
Speaker 1: everybody in line, earn everybody's respect, and still be kind
Speaker 1: and still be positive and still make people laugh and
Speaker 1: like keep everybody on a like that is I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, I just took it for granted because I
Speaker 1: was a kid. I didn't know the second I moved
Speaker 1: into other sets and I saw, you know, oh, man,
Speaker 1: the first ad makes or breaks the show, and like
Speaker 1: you made the show man. It was always just we
Speaker 1: knew we were We knew we were safe, we knew
Speaker 1: we were taken care of everything, went to schedule everybody,
Speaker 1: and you were also a friend. You were fun to
Speaker 1: be around you. So you managed to like maintain authority
Speaker 1: without being awful, which is really hard.
Speaker 3: And you look like you said it's exactly like you
Speaker 3: said where it was like when Tony and I played
Speaker 3: the pranks or stuff like that. If the worst we
Speaker 3: would get is like disappointed dad, And that's what you want,
Speaker 3: you know, somebody screaming at you. You just don't hear anymore.
Speaker 3: But the hey, guys, you know, I'm glad you're safe.
Speaker 1: But that was the oh, like we disappointed in the world.
Speaker 3: To let Steve down, that was like the worst thing
Speaker 3: ever so, yeah, certainly appreciate that.
Speaker 5: That was great. Yeah, well, it's the it's the greatest
Speaker 5: gift and the curse of working in kids television. I'm
Speaker 5: sure many of your guests have already said this, but
Speaker 5: it's watching you guys do these amazing things at such
Speaker 5: a young age. But then you grow up and it's
Speaker 5: so fun to watch you grow up. But then it
Speaker 5: forces the show to end because you're now not kids anymore,
Speaker 5: and you've gone off and you're like, oh, and so
Speaker 5: I've gone through, you know, seventeen eighteen versions of these
Speaker 5: kids going through and it kills me, but especially you guys,
Speaker 5: because you guys were the first. You are arguably the best.
Speaker 5: I used to get in trouble by Josh Peck all
Speaker 5: the time because I tell one meets World stories on
Speaker 5: the sense of track and Josh, because we'd be doing
Speaker 5: something and you go, oh, this reminds me, and sometimes
Speaker 5: these guys are doing this, and then it got to
Speaker 5: be a running joke and we get to something and
Speaker 5: Josh ability have a funny boy meets world story for
Speaker 5: Steve's I ought.
Speaker 4: Now we've got podcast beef with Josh.
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, well what you mentioned before that we would
Speaker 3: that I tried to play teach you to play Magic,
Speaker 3: which led Ryder and I this random memory.
Speaker 1: Do you remember we had a.
Speaker 3: Card printed up for you that was on your podium,
Speaker 3: the kel Jorian Frost Beast.
Speaker 1: I think we actually called you the Kills.
Speaker 5: For a little too long. I think, yes, Oh my god, man,
Speaker 5: I remember you guys writing on my script too, next
Speaker 5: to all my cues that I'd have, and you'd write
Speaker 5: que the something something monkeys or que the whatever, and
Speaker 5: like okay, writer and will have been here. And then
Speaker 5: Matthew started in later because he saw you guys. He
Speaker 5: was like, okay, what's going on?
Speaker 1: He did the same thing we did just twenty minutes later.
Speaker 7: I love me, Maddie.
Speaker 2: When did you get the bug to direct?
Speaker 1: Like?
Speaker 2: At what? In what you know?
Speaker 4: You said like season three ish was around the time
Speaker 4: that you became our first ad.
Speaker 2: At what point then did you.
Speaker 4: Start thinking, ooh, director, I want to I want to
Speaker 4: get to that. And then how did you end up
Speaker 4: getting the opportunity to direct her for episode?
Speaker 5: I don't know exactly where it came. It was just
Speaker 5: a slow growth process because I was just having so
Speaker 5: much fun doing what I was doing and as you
Speaker 5: guys said it was. It was a busy enough job,
Speaker 5: so I was just kind of focused on that or
Speaker 5: going home to my family after. Those are kind of
Speaker 5: my big draws of attention. But then somewhere, as I
Speaker 5: guess maybe season five, just started to think about what
Speaker 5: if I was doing the how would I approach it.
Speaker 5: It was just more like self quizzing, self testing, how
Speaker 5: would you handle this situation? And so for because I
Speaker 5: have these wonderful people to observe, and mostly David Trainer
Speaker 5: and Jeffy Cracken, but we get you know, David Kendall
Speaker 5: once in a while, and you know, it's a really
Speaker 5: good people. John Tracy did early on did a show
Speaker 5: or two, and I did some pilots with John as well.
Speaker 5: So it was a wonderful array of approaches and personalities
Speaker 5: to draw from. And then on other shows I'd seen
Speaker 5: other guys, but this was a nice, up close personal
Speaker 5: I knew all the people involved. So then an episode
Speaker 5: became available in season seven, and so I talked to
Speaker 5: Karen and they said, hey, you know, I know, but
Speaker 5: if nobody else comes up, would Michael and you even consider?
Speaker 5: And she said, well, I already have and I've already
Speaker 5: brought your name up, and as I really it was
Speaker 5: just yeah, just in passing. But now that I know
Speaker 5: that you want to let me talk about specifics with
Speaker 5: him about this show. And so it just kind of
Speaker 5: came around that way and the next thing I knew,
Speaker 5: things started moving very quickly.
Speaker 1: Wow, that was a big episode, That's what I was
Speaker 1: gonna say. How did you say? I mean, when you
Speaker 1: got the script for what is arguably one of our most.
Speaker 3: Bizarre in depth artistic I mean, it was there was
Speaker 3: nothing normal about that episode at all.
Speaker 1: Were you freaked out when you read the same episode
Speaker 1: you're gonna do it?
Speaker 5: And it was a first time writer too, it was
Speaker 5: Erica Montafo was part of the Disney Fellows program, so
Speaker 5: it was her first script.
Speaker 6: Me.
Speaker 5: I seem to do that a lot. Karen McCain first
Speaker 5: time producing me that you know, I find these situations.
Speaker 5: But it was all possible because of you guys. Of
Speaker 5: even though Michael wasn't really there that much that week.
Speaker 5: I remember Bob Tischler was kind of the one who
Speaker 5: was present at that time. But because of Karen, because
Speaker 5: of Russell, because of the crew, you know, and my
Speaker 5: team and all stepping up. They carried me along and
Speaker 5: it was a long night because I was piecing together
Speaker 5: and it was involved. But I was so thrilled that
Speaker 5: everybody got to do their own thing and it was
Speaker 5: really Danielle's story and that was a lot of fun.
Speaker 5: And then you headed up the b story, the detective aspect,
Speaker 5: but everybody got to do their own thing. And I
Speaker 5: remember talking about with Ben about, you know, just be
Speaker 5: of the bog Guart thing. Don't try to do a
Speaker 5: bog Guart imitation, and he's like, oh, thank god. You know,
Speaker 5: she was stressing about it all weekends, like no, no, no, no,
Speaker 5: I don't think we should go there, and just everybody.
Speaker 5: I remember Trina just loving her her wardrobe that she had.
Speaker 5: And one of my favorite shots still with the exception
Speaker 5: of daniel being sucked into the vortex, is Writer. When
Speaker 5: we introduced Writer and him pouring the shot that just
Speaker 5: kept going and going and going, and that Writer just
Speaker 5: the first time, I said, yes, keep that, that is
Speaker 5: so great.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and then you do it, and then you do
Speaker 3: the doesn't he do the the two finger gun salute too?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 1: It was great ya Isaac, Isaac, so fun. Then I
Speaker 1: just remember I had never seen Calsablanca, like any of
Speaker 1: the references. I just remember being like, what are we doing? Okay,
Speaker 1: just I'll just tell me where to go, what to do.
Speaker 1: But I remember it being an incredibly smooth week. Like
Speaker 1: I remember because at that point we were we were
Speaker 1: getting a lot of new directors. It was sort of
Speaker 1: like a lot of actors turned directors or a lot
Speaker 1: of favors like friends of Michael would suddenly show up
Speaker 1: and be directing, and they didn't all go well, and
Speaker 1: I remember being very frustrated and starting to feel like
Speaker 1: we were sort of a petri dish for uh other,
Speaker 1: you know, for people to try directing. And when you
Speaker 1: got your shot and it was a complicated episode, we
Speaker 1: were all so happy and it went so well, and
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, now somebody who actually knows what
Speaker 1: they're doing is stepping into this role, and like who
Speaker 1: deserves it? It was such a great feeling. Yeah.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so you're basically saying, you guys are much more
Speaker 5: delusional than I ever thought.
Speaker 7: Let's put it this way.
Speaker 3: You had you had mastered then then you had mastered
Speaker 3: the art of not letting us see the craziness you
Speaker 3: were going through.
Speaker 1: That might have been it because it was.
Speaker 7: It was it.
Speaker 3: I mean everything about that week with the huge sets,
Speaker 3: we had tons of extras.
Speaker 1: They were. One of the thing I remember about the
Speaker 1: Cosablanca set, especially the actual restaurant set, was how deep
Speaker 1: it was.
Speaker 3: I mean we had a lot of very kind of
Speaker 3: shallow sets of the boys bedroom stuff like that, there'd
Speaker 3: be some depth to them, but this was one that
Speaker 3: you want to It went all the.
Speaker 1: Way back, which just changes everything.
Speaker 3: And so we're looking at all these were shooting in
Speaker 3: hallways that hadn't been there. We're doing special effects. I mean,
Speaker 3: the whole thing is in black and white. It was
Speaker 3: just one strange thing. After I was like, yeah, I
Speaker 3: give it to Steve Great.
Speaker 5: So yeah, Michael was even worried about Michael was worried
Speaker 5: about that, I found out later and he said, are
Speaker 5: we going to be okay? And Karen like, it's Steve Yeah,
Speaker 5: and then she would come back down here, We're going
Speaker 5: to be okay. It was a departure for everybody. I
Speaker 5: think that's why everybody was maybe a little more rejuvenated.
Speaker 5: It was something out of the norm. Of course, we
Speaker 5: got to do something. I remember Walter Glover or DP
Speaker 5: at the time. You know, was thrilled that it was
Speaker 5: in black and white because then you got to try
Speaker 5: all this different kind of lighting that you wouldn't on
Speaker 5: a normal episode of White means World. So everybody came
Speaker 5: to play, and Danielle looked like you were built for
Speaker 5: that time period. The wardrobe, the hair, it's fantastic. Everybody
Speaker 5: was great. Maddie at the piano, Betsy's singing Bill with
Speaker 5: his fez, and.
Speaker 1: Jack, Rusty always doing he had the mustache the whole time.
Speaker 1: Rusty's just doing this the whole time. It was so
Speaker 1: that episode sticks.
Speaker 3: I can't wait to get there because that episode sticks
Speaker 3: out to me for so many different reasons, including that
Speaker 3: Danielle and I actually got to work together, which is nice.
Speaker 3: So she's there, we go, now she's back. But yeah,
Speaker 3: it was like that whole week was just a ton
Speaker 3: of fun. And you're right, I think after a while,
Speaker 3: you've done the same show week after week after week.
Speaker 3: The story's changed, but you're essentially doing the same show
Speaker 3: and playing the same characters. So to then just to
Speaker 3: take it out of that and do something so outland
Speaker 3: is so crazy. Uh it does it kind of It
Speaker 3: gives you that that morale, pep right when you need it.
Speaker 1: So it was that was a fun week.
Speaker 7: That was a really funny guy.
Speaker 2: I want to talk about Steve's having a baby.
Speaker 4: Steve's having a baby to you, there's so many things.
Speaker 4: One do you remember us saying that? Was it annoying?
Speaker 4: And how old is that baby?
Speaker 3: Now?
Speaker 5: That baby is about to turn twenty six in less
Speaker 5: than a month.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, that's not possible.
Speaker 5: And he's starting to attain his pilot's license, going through
Speaker 5: that step in order to be a commercial pilot. And
Speaker 5: we'll talk later whether you should fly that airline or not.
Speaker 5: Just kidding, wow, But yeah, but I remember being gone,
Speaker 5: you know, all the all week. But then Chase was born,
Speaker 5: I think the day before the audience show, and so
Speaker 5: we were all wiped out and everything, of course, but
Speaker 5: I wanted to be because it was the one hundredth
Speaker 5: episode and I wanted to be part of it, And
Speaker 5: so I came back to just run the floor for
Speaker 5: one small scene that I couldn't possibly screw up by
Speaker 5: not knowing what was going on, and it was some short,
Speaker 5: little three page scene down and dirty, and so I
Speaker 5: could just be part of it. But then everybody was
Speaker 5: going Steeves having a baby? What is this? I had
Speaker 5: to get caught up by Michael Say and all of
Speaker 5: you guys, what was going down?
Speaker 7: Baby Eves baby?
Speaker 5: And then that was my curse for the rest of
Speaker 5: our run because.
Speaker 3: We say it all the time, we still say it,
Speaker 3: Steeves out a baby.
Speaker 2: My gosh. So you were with us until the very end.
Speaker 4: Were you excited when the show ended because you knew
Speaker 4: now you were going to get to continue to pursue
Speaker 4: a directing career or were you sad to see boy end?
Speaker 5: I wanted to continue directing with you guys, and that
Speaker 5: darn Sabrina had to go leave t G I f
Speaker 5: because we would have come back with your news story
Speaker 5: and Michael had already relayed to me I would have
Speaker 5: gone a chance to probably do two more episodes of
Speaker 5: the following year. So that would have been fantastic to
Speaker 5: do the next two things with you guys again.
Speaker 3: So I think the way I'm sorry, I'm going to
Speaker 3: mean to interrupt, you were told that if Sabrina had stayed,
Speaker 3: we were going to do an eighth season.
Speaker 5: It was not a done deal, but ABC was leaning
Speaker 5: toward to my understanding, the way it was told to
Speaker 5: me that TJF would have stayed together if they had
Speaker 5: two anchor shows for the four slots. Uh. And since
Speaker 5: we were the original, obviously we were one. And if
Speaker 5: Sabrina had not jumped to networks, that would have given
Speaker 5: their second anchor, and they would have approached one more
Speaker 5: at least one more season with the new story of
Speaker 5: you guys, have you moved out?
Speaker 3: So it's Melissa's fault, then let's get her back out here.
Speaker 3: You blame mel because it's her fault. I just want
Speaker 3: to make sure that the blame is pointed squarely at
Speaker 3: Melissa John.
Speaker 5: I worked with her. I worked with her one week
Speaker 5: after Boy Meets World where she was directing, and I
Speaker 5: kept rubbing that into her. Okay, good, I'm happy to
Speaker 5: be here, but I'm only here because you screwed us
Speaker 5: all over.
Speaker 1: Okay, I'm glad. I'm glad that she got some miss
Speaker 1: for that.
Speaker 5: Good.
Speaker 1: I'm glad to hear that.
Speaker 4: I also want to talk to you about all that.
Speaker 4: I mean truly considered SNL for kids. I mean it's
Speaker 4: also another show that has aged incredibly well. I mean,
Speaker 4: the entire younger generation just says it completely shaped their
Speaker 4: sense of humor, so it must feel amazing to have
Speaker 4: uh I have had such a hand in that and
Speaker 4: introduced the world to Keenan and kel Amanda bynes Nick Cannon,
Speaker 4: Gabriel Iglesias.
Speaker 2: What are your memories from that show.
Speaker 5: I didn't initially get to work with the original cast.
Speaker 5: I was brought in when the show moved to Los
Speaker 5: Angeles from Florida and had the new cast, which involved
Speaker 5: Lisa Foyle's and Jack Desenna and some really really fun cast.
Speaker 5: Then Keenan came back and did a guest spot, so
Speaker 5: I worked with him then, and then I got to
Speaker 5: do the tenth anniversary special, so Keen and Michael both
Speaker 5: were there, and Josh came back, and you know, a
Speaker 5: lot of the original cast members, and so that was fantastic.
Speaker 5: I'd worked with Amanda on The Amanda Show just before
Speaker 5: I did Drake and Josh and all that. But it
Speaker 5: is definitely the Saturday Live for kids. It was fun
Speaker 5: having the music act and sometimes we'd have two on
Speaker 5: the same week and then we just record them both
Speaker 5: and then split them up in editing, so it was
Speaker 5: something different all the time. It was it kept you
Speaker 5: on your toes very much. We couldn't do the whole
Speaker 5: show live in front of the audience, being on the
Speaker 5: what we've always called the kid clock. It just didn't
Speaker 5: fit with your workday what the state of California would allow,
Speaker 5: and so there was a lot of pre taping and
Speaker 5: stuff like that. But it was fun. And I got
Speaker 5: to tell you, Keenan and kel together they bring a
Speaker 5: special brand of intuitive humor, improv just smart and two
Speaker 5: of the nicest guys you could ever meet. Also, that
Speaker 5: was a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: I can't remember did you do the episode that I
Speaker 1: was in?
Speaker 5: No?
Speaker 1: No, okay, okay.
Speaker 3: I couldn't remember who who directed the episode that I did.
Speaker 5: Yeah, no, And I was not too happy about it.
Speaker 1: That's right. You were off doing something else. I think
Speaker 1: that's right.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, or just a way on a trip on
Speaker 5: a week off or something like that. But yeah, yeah,
Speaker 5: I was.
Speaker 3: Like, what, So I have a question for you then,
Speaker 3: because most of your career has obviously been working with kids,
Speaker 3: and you've been doing it for twenty years after Boy
Speaker 3: Meets World ended, have you One of the things we
Speaker 3: talk about in this podcast a lot is just kind
Speaker 3: of growing up as a child actor. What it's like
Speaker 3: some of the challenges, some of the struggles, some of
Speaker 3: the great parts, some of the parts that aren't so great.
Speaker 3: Have you noticed a difference in child actors from the
Speaker 3: time you started to now with the advent of social media,
Speaker 3: with everything kind of going on, have you noticed the
Speaker 3: change on the set in what it's like to be
Speaker 3: a child actor.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think so, And it's always hard to put
Speaker 5: my finger on it, because I would I think the
Speaker 5: natural easy answer to be, you say, is they're a
Speaker 5: little more savvy and they know a little more coming in.
Speaker 5: But you guys were really savvy. You guys were very prepared.
Speaker 5: So I don't know if that's exactly accurate, but there
Speaker 5: is something. I think they've just been exposed more to
Speaker 5: the behind the scenes stuff what goes on in a show,
Speaker 5: so maybe not everything catches them off guard as being
Speaker 5: something new and foreign as it might have for you guys.
Speaker 5: And so it makes me think, you know, way back
Speaker 5: when the Brady Bunch happening, and what was elect for
Speaker 5: those guys, when there was no other real standard and
Speaker 5: things to watch at that point. The I just no
Speaker 5: matter what generation it is of these shows, at what
Speaker 5: the young actor has to go through, and this is
Speaker 5: what the people don't realize that not only is the
Speaker 5: acting part, and that takes up a big part of
Speaker 5: the day. And a lot of people are savvy enough
Speaker 5: that they know about set school, but they don't know
Speaker 5: about the pr work that happens right after the post
Speaker 5: production adr work that happens, you know, all the time.
Speaker 5: So you guys are literally being taken here, here, there, there,
Speaker 5: and then you get home and you're supposed to learn
Speaker 5: rewrites that are coming through. And there is no time
Speaker 5: in the day for kid actors to be kids under
Speaker 5: most circumstances. And it's really sad. It's nice that they're getting,
Speaker 5: you know, financial a little financially secure at a much
Speaker 5: earlier age than most people do. It's nice that they
Speaker 5: are getting this worthy experience, and there's so many pausitives
Speaker 5: come out, but it's all earned, and it's earned to
Speaker 5: the end degree, and people don't realize that. And so
Speaker 5: when I see you guys who are normal, functioning, delightful
Speaker 5: people in society, that's not always the case on that
Speaker 5: perilous road that sometimes it eats people and spits people out.
Speaker 5: So I think also the new kids or the newer generation,
Speaker 5: they may be a little more prepared for that because
Speaker 5: I think their families are a little more prepared. I
Speaker 5: think they're managers or agents. If you have good agents
Speaker 5: who really care about the client, they're a little more
Speaker 5: depth at handling the whole situation. So I don't know
Speaker 5: if that really answers your question, but no, it does.
Speaker 3: It's interesting just to see kind of the progression of
Speaker 3: the child actor now. Yeah, I think is certainly different
Speaker 3: than it was back in the day.
Speaker 1: When people find out that you worked on Boy Meets World,
Speaker 1: what do they ask you?
Speaker 5: Inevitably they have a favorite, one of you guys is
Speaker 5: a favorite, and so what's right? Or like, what's Danielle like?
Speaker 5: And I get asked by the ones who really know
Speaker 5: the show, what was it like when daniel got her
Speaker 5: haircut at that frequently? And I say, you just don't know.
Speaker 1: That was what a hectic night.
Speaker 5: It was traumatic for me and I just had to
Speaker 5: stand there and have my arm around her shoulder. I
Speaker 5: wasn't the one who was doing this, and uh so, yeah,
Speaker 5: we get asked that, and we also get uh uh,
Speaker 5: a writer, A writer will as cool as they seem
Speaker 5: as I know they're cooler.
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, they were playing do you know, the kil
Speaker 1: Jeury and frostby magic, the gathering or playing magic the gathering.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, yeah, a lot of them don't know the
Speaker 5: things that you know. Writer is a perpetual student, you know.
Speaker 5: I still remember the day when Writer said, Hey, if
Speaker 5: I could just go to school the rest of my life,
Speaker 5: if I didn't need money to stay alive, you know,
Speaker 5: that's what I would do. I would just do that,
Speaker 5: And uh, will they don't know that the extensive amount
Speaker 5: of voice over work, I fairly big roles on very
Speaker 5: big projects that Will did, And they don't know that
Speaker 5: Danielle has now become this accomplished director herself, and so
Speaker 5: they just don't know the inner workings. And it's a
Speaker 5: it's always fun to relay that that news.
Speaker 1: Yeah, is there a week I won't even say an episode.
Speaker 1: Is there a week on Boy Meets.
Speaker 3: World for good or for bad? Excluding your directing debut? Yes,
Speaker 3: that's that stands out for you.
Speaker 5: I don't know about that. To me, it's it's all
Speaker 5: this amassing of these wonderful stories and memories that you
Speaker 5: just remember from you know, like Daniel's hair cutting week.
Speaker 5: I remember when we all found out that Steve Hibbert
Speaker 5: one of our beloved writers played the part of the
Speaker 5: gimp fiction.
Speaker 7: We all freaked out.
Speaker 5: I remember we were getting ready to start a run
Speaker 5: through and it was it was one of those first
Speaker 5: things where you guys were all about to make an
Speaker 5: entrance from something. So you're all behind the set and
Speaker 5: I think Jeff McCracken was directing, and he's like, and
Speaker 5: action and nobody came out, and he goes action, nobody
Speaker 5: came out, and then all of a sudden you hear
Speaker 5: Ben going Hibbert the Gimp, and then just all you
Speaker 5: guys are laughing from behind set, and all the writers
Speaker 5: is breaking up, and the network looking back, like what
Speaker 5: he's hilarious. And then Will had another moment. I remember
Speaker 5: when we were doing the Wilderness Store set and Rusty,
Speaker 5: who's usually rock solid on his lines, just was going
Speaker 5: up on a line, just could not get it right.
Speaker 5: And Rusky puts all this pressure on himself and he starts,
Speaker 5: you know, getting mad at himself, which is just making
Speaker 5: the situation worse. And so he literally like four takes,
Speaker 5: you know, had not gotten this line. He's like, oh,
Speaker 5: and he's getting out of somewhere in front of the audience,
Speaker 5: and so we we said again, we're going to start
Speaker 5: one more time, and then Will had the first entrance,
Speaker 5: so I just said, you know, checking with you to
Speaker 5: make sure you know that we were going again, like Will,
Speaker 5: are you all right? And then Will says, yeah, but
Speaker 5: what's Rusty's problem, which just bust everybody uprooke the curse.
Speaker 5: Rusty was fine on the next take because it just
Speaker 5: had interjected this humor. So it's, you know, it's stories
Speaker 5: like that. I remember cutting through behind the kitchen windows
Speaker 5: once during the take David Trainer's directing and Michael had
Speaker 5: rerunened something, but I wasn't. This is when I was
Speaker 5: the second ad, so I was backstage hair and makeup something,
Speaker 5: handling something, and something big came up. I had to
Speaker 5: get to Lynn out of the set. And all week
Speaker 5: long we'd rehearsed it one way and we were not
Speaker 5: looking toward the kitchen. We were way over body the
Speaker 5: refrigerator in the door going into the living room, and
Speaker 5: Michael had changed something. I didn't know you guys are rolling.
Speaker 5: I cut right past the window and I hear it
Speaker 5: cut and I'm like, oh no, that could only be
Speaker 5: for one reason. That was me and Lynn's like looking
Speaker 5: at me and David trainor came goes. If it is
Speaker 5: anybody else but you, I don't know. I'm so sorry.
Speaker 5: I'm going back now.
Speaker 3: Oh.
Speaker 1: You never want to be the person that ruins it.
Speaker 4: No, No, So Steve, having worked on so many successful shows,
Speaker 4: what do you think makes a show super successful versus
Speaker 4: a show that you know does a few episodes and
Speaker 4: then gets canceled?
Speaker 2: What do you think the secret sauces?
Speaker 5: It's that perfect blend between the writing staff and the cast.
Speaker 5: How can it be anything But it's the writers who
Speaker 5: initially create interesting characters that are going to take us places.
Speaker 5: But then they find the right cast who can take
Speaker 5: those words and breathe life times one thousand percent into them.
Speaker 5: And then the writing staff will take the cue from
Speaker 5: what the actor has developed and then start feeding into
Speaker 5: that path that has been laid by the actors. What
Speaker 5: is this character like? What does this character do? What
Speaker 5: are the course you know what? And then they start
Speaker 5: writing to those strains and when you find that perfect
Speaker 5: sweet spot. To me, that's it. And I know other
Speaker 5: shows get popular because of some big headlining star. Is
Speaker 5: there in the lead position? And people are tuning in
Speaker 5: for that, But for most of the shows, I think
Speaker 5: it's that other blend. Yeah, and you guys had it.
Speaker 4: Thirty years later, looking back at Boy Meets World, what
Speaker 4: do you think of all of it now? Do you
Speaker 4: have an overwhelming feeling like what you did? You ever
Speaker 4: think we'd still be talking about it this many years later.
Speaker 5: I wasn't sure. I sure, I knew it was something
Speaker 5: of quality, was something of substance, and you know, once
Speaker 5: again not to keep referencing the Pretty Bunch, but you
Speaker 5: know that had this longevity that people always talked about
Speaker 5: and idolized, and it's like, well, why can't this show
Speaker 5: be like that? It has characters that you love as
Speaker 5: a fan, It has stories that deliver a message that
Speaker 5: brought a lot of import to a lot of people's lives,
Speaker 5: or might have helped solve a question that they had
Speaker 5: about their own lives. And so those are two big
Speaker 5: key components. So I sure hoped that it would. And
Speaker 5: then when Girl Meets World came around, I said, well,
Speaker 5: that's just gonna lock this in. And now with this podcast,
Speaker 5: I hear more about Boy Meets World now, possibly than
Speaker 5: I did in the first five years. After we were done. Wow,
Speaker 5: and so kudos to you, guys. I mean, this show,
Speaker 5: this podcast is wow. It's taken off.
Speaker 4: We feel very we feel very fortunate with it, and
Speaker 4: we're so happy that you came up with the idea
Speaker 4: for it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, thank you for coming up with this.
Speaker 2: I thank you. We I don't.
Speaker 4: I'll never forget the day you I'll never forget the
Speaker 4: day you made the phone call and said, you know, guys,
Speaker 4: I think I think the three of you should start
Speaker 4: a podcast.
Speaker 3: And you don't get enough credit for it, and we
Speaker 3: don't give credit where credit is due.
Speaker 1: We really do like to give so we're not.
Speaker 5: For maybe I had one too many old fashions.
Speaker 2: And anybody but writer will give credit to anyone but writer.
Speaker 5: I can tell that there's one of your reactions. It's
Speaker 5: not quite the same as the other kid eat.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 5: Anytime, anytime I can come up with great ideas for you, guys,
Speaker 5: you just let me know. I love that.
Speaker 1: We really do.
Speaker 5: Well.
Speaker 4: Steve, thank you so much for being here with us,
Speaker 4: that it was so good to reconnect with you. I
Speaker 4: would love to try to arrange a lunch for the
Speaker 4: four of us to where we could actually spend some
Speaker 4: more time just catching up with you. You have been one
Speaker 4: of the people, and there are surprisingly and maybe not
Speaker 4: surprisingly because you know the people we worked with.
Speaker 2: But when you have people that you.
Speaker 4: Can look back on in your life, especially when you
Speaker 4: were a kid, that were like true pillars of somebody
Speaker 4: you knew you could count on, who made you feel safe,
Speaker 4: who you could rely on, who you could tell things to, Like.
Speaker 2: We have a lot of those from the show.
Speaker 4: We actually you know, the more we bring crew on
Speaker 4: and cast on and we talk to them and we
Speaker 4: say we always knew we could go to you. That
Speaker 4: far out weighs the number of people we go never
Speaker 4: really liked that person, you know, but you are one
Speaker 4: of those people, and truthfully of one of the people
Speaker 4: at the forefront. Like if we had to put together
Speaker 4: a short list of three to five, you'd be on
Speaker 4: that list for each and every one of us. And
Speaker 4: we knew how seriously you took your job. We knew
Speaker 4: how seriously you took protecting us, and you made our
Speaker 4: day to day fun even when we were pistols and
Speaker 4: not showing up on time or going through something in
Speaker 4: our lives.
Speaker 2: We knew that we needed to do better.
Speaker 4: Because we didn't want to let you down, but you
Speaker 4: also never made us feel bad about ourselves, and we
Speaker 4: owe you an enormous debt of gratitude and a big
Speaker 4: thank you for that.
Speaker 5: Oh well, thank you. That means the world to me,
Speaker 5: coming from three people who are still very very very
Speaker 5: dear to me. And I've always said the friends, I
Speaker 5: don't like picking favorites of shows and everything, but you
Speaker 5: guys are right there.
Speaker 2: I wasn't gonna ask, but I'll take it.
Speaker 5: I do have three casts that I am very very
Speaker 5: partial to, and you are one of those three. For sure.
Speaker 1: I'll take I'll take top I'll take top three.
Speaker 2: I'll take top three.
Speaker 5: I like that three absolutely, all.
Speaker 2: Right, Steve, But we'll be we'll be in touch for
Speaker 2: a lunch soon.
Speaker 5: That sounds great. I'll let you know next time. I'm
Speaker 5: in LA since I lived way up in Washington State.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you live in Washington State now, I do.
Speaker 5: I can see Portland, Oregon from my house, so I'm
Speaker 5: south as far south as you can get. But is it.
Speaker 3: Easier to hit the Fairway wood up there than it
Speaker 3: was down here in La?
Speaker 5: No, because it's so rainy. I played like twice a year.
Speaker 5: It's always raining.
Speaker 4: Well, we will be in Portland sometime next year. We
Speaker 4: will also let you know when that happens, and maybe
Speaker 4: you just hop on over to Portland and we'll get lunch.
Speaker 5: Then that's that's an easy dude.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, great, thank you.
Speaker 5: It's great to see you, to see you, oh.
Speaker 4: Man, so much fun to reconnect. Can you believe Steve's
Speaker 4: having a baby is going to be twenty six?
Speaker 1: No, and a pilot some day you get so jealous.
Speaker 1: Welcome to whatever airlines. This is Steve's having a baby.
Speaker 1: And we know you have your choice.
Speaker 7: Of all the like what's.
Speaker 1: Gonna be just we don't even know his name is
Speaker 1: just having a baby. It's Steve's having a baby. That's
Speaker 1: what we know. You have your choice of Steve's having
Speaker 1: a Baby's guys.
Speaker 4: Could do you think we could convince Steve's having a
Speaker 4: baby to just be our pilot. We need to get
Speaker 4: we somehow need to There's a few things we have
Speaker 4: to figure out, like, you know, a plane and all
Speaker 4: that stuff.
Speaker 1: But becoming billionaires first spye a plane.
Speaker 4: Well that was really great to see him, and yeah,
Speaker 4: what a what a guy.
Speaker 1: It was so funny to hear his voice even more
Speaker 1: than seeing, because it was always his voice that ran
Speaker 1: our stage. He would be in the headphones, he would
Speaker 1: be announcing things, all right, everybody, and he would count.
Speaker 2: We would be looking at each other exactly.
Speaker 4: We would have to be looking at each other and
Speaker 4: in the stage, and he was right, you know, right
Speaker 4: off camera. And so the sound of his voice is
Speaker 4: a cue for us to do a million different things.
Speaker 7: Yes, yeah, and so.
Speaker 4: Yes, the sound of his voice just feels like I
Speaker 4: have to do something. I'm running late, especially the reason
Speaker 4: we have anxiety over dressing.
Speaker 1: We're rolling. We're on a bell.
Speaker 7: Oh, we're on a bell.
Speaker 1: Okay, Yeah, because I mean people, don't you when you're
Speaker 1: rolling a set, they ring a loud bell and all
Speaker 1: these red lights flash above every door, so nobody comes
Speaker 1: in or out of the sound stage. Yeah, going on
Speaker 1: a bell that means that I do.
Speaker 3: I just got a little a thank you for Like,
Speaker 3: I don't know my lines and I missed a cue.
Speaker 1: I'm having a waking actors dream right now. It's horrible.
Speaker 1: You have to stop walking because you could even hear
Speaker 1: people walking backstage. So it's like if you're at the
Speaker 1: craft service table and we're on a bell, you have
Speaker 1: to stand still with your snack in your hand. So funny.
Speaker 1: Oh man, oh Man.
Speaker 4: Well, thank you all for joining us for this episode
Speaker 4: of Pod Meets World. As always, you can follow us
Speaker 4: on Instagram pod Meets World Show. You can send us
Speaker 4: your emails pod Meets World Show at gmail dot com.
Speaker 2: And we have merch.
Speaker 1: Help us out. Steve's buying some.
Speaker 4: Merch Podmeetsworldshow dot com runch why writer send us out,
Speaker 4: writer writer.
Speaker 7: Stop right?
Speaker 1: What We love you all? Pod dismissed. Pod Meets World
Speaker 1: is an iHeart podcast produced and hosted by Danielle Fischel,
Speaker 1: Wilfernell and Ryder Strong executive producers, Jensen Karp and Amy
Speaker 1: Sugarman Executive in charge of production, Danielle Romo, producer and editor,
Speaker 1: Tara Sudbox producer, Jackie Rodriguez, engineer and Boy Meets World
Speaker 1: super fan Easton Allen. Our theme song is by Kyle
Speaker 1: Morton of Typhoon. You can follow us on Instagram at
Speaker 1: Podmets World Show or send us an email at Podmetsworldshow
Speaker 1: at gmail dot com.