Speaker 1: This episode was recorded on June eighth, twenty twenty three.
Speaker 2: How often do you update the apps on your phone?
Speaker 3: I have them set to update automatically.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it just does it automatically.
Speaker 2: But then why will I look at because I'll look
Speaker 2: down at that my phone occasionally and it'll say like
Speaker 2: that you have sixty two updates, and it'll just I'll
Speaker 2: have to then actually go in and say update.
Speaker 4: All okay, Grandpa, go to settings, Like what's a setting?
Speaker 5: First of all, you're you're using an iPhone, right, You're
Speaker 5: not like danding out without um, yes, I'm annoying every
Speaker 5: everyone in everybody's dad.
Speaker 1: You don't have a superior phone. You have a normal,
Speaker 1: janky phone, got it? Okay?
Speaker 5: Okay, you go, yeah, you just go to settings, man,
Speaker 5: and you just put it like it has like a
Speaker 5: whole updates area, and I swear you just type like automatically,
Speaker 5: and then then it'll do it at night while you're
Speaker 5: correct like, well, no, that's what I'm hoping it does
Speaker 5: that and it sings to me and it tucks me
Speaker 5: in and it keeps me safe.
Speaker 2: That's what I'm hoping my phone does as well. For
Speaker 2: the money I'm paying, that's what it better do. With
Speaker 2: how expensive these things are nowadays, it better curl me
Speaker 2: and hold me at night.
Speaker 6: I mean, come on, I've been.
Speaker 5: Trying so hard to institute like a putting the phone
Speaker 5: down when I walk in the house rule, and I've
Speaker 5: like discussed since the moment India was born. And now
Speaker 5: he's old enough to actually call me out on it.
Speaker 5: He'll be like, dat, why are you looking at your phone?
Speaker 4: Oh it's the worst. It's the worst feeling to be
Speaker 4: called out.
Speaker 7: Well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, speaking of tech, have you guys seen the new
Speaker 1: Apple VR headset vision pro. I think it's called No
Speaker 1: my gosh, you guys. So Jensen is on the side
Speaker 1: of it.
Speaker 3: Doesn't look dumb. It looks cool.
Speaker 1: Okay, it is exactly what you would think of a
Speaker 1: VR looking, you know, headset thing you wear across your eyes.
Speaker 1: And then it's like but so when you put it
Speaker 1: on it apparently you be it becomes a three d
Speaker 1: oh eastern look at that.
Speaker 3: Okay, So there it.
Speaker 1: Is, right, But then the view for you inside is
Speaker 1: that it's your environment. So it's your house, like your
Speaker 1: correct augmented reality, and then all of your apps in
Speaker 1: front of you, so now it's you know, any one
Speaker 1: of those movies we've seen where the apps and that's
Speaker 1: exactly what you can do now, you can just flick
Speaker 1: your wrist. But in the advertisement for it, every single person.
Speaker 3: Is alone in their house.
Speaker 1: See Jensen's wearing my Mantai masks that.
Speaker 6: I see you with.
Speaker 4: Looks awesome, dude, it's so cool.
Speaker 6: That works.
Speaker 4: So cool.
Speaker 2: Does anybody else remember when your parents used to tell
Speaker 2: you don't get that close to the screen because it's
Speaker 2: bad for your eyes. Now we're wearing the screen on
Speaker 2: our feet, we wear the.
Speaker 3: Screen on your face.
Speaker 1: And then the people who they show that aren't alone,
Speaker 1: it's like, oh, you can see them and they can
Speaker 1: see you. So you can see out of it, like
Speaker 1: if you were sitting in a room.
Speaker 5: Almost like you were really next to each other. It
Speaker 5: like it's almost like you were seeing each other in
Speaker 5: real life.
Speaker 3: Oh my exactly.
Speaker 1: So then the other thing is the fact that you
Speaker 1: can see your own place. I'm like, don't most people
Speaker 1: not want to be in their own house?
Speaker 3: Like, wouldn't you kind of.
Speaker 6: Be like one thousand dollars to be in my living?
Speaker 3: I put I paid thirty five hundred.
Speaker 1: Dollars for this VR headset and like it to still
Speaker 1: look at my crappy apartment happen.
Speaker 4: Man, we've been primed.
Speaker 5: I mean, think about the way the pandemic accelerated our
Speaker 5: comfort with video conference. Yeah, you know, like this would
Speaker 5: have been unheard of for me to think that we
Speaker 5: were actually going to have a conversation to talk to each.
Speaker 6: Other, and now we do it every week, yes, yeah,
Speaker 6: twice a week. And it's also become going.
Speaker 2: It's just become normalized because what we're saying is we
Speaker 2: haven't seen each other in a while and be like,
Speaker 2: see you tomorrow, and it's still like I haven't seen
Speaker 2: you guys in a while.
Speaker 6: So it's yeah, it's weird. But the other thing room's
Speaker 6: gotten smaller.
Speaker 1: Is that we when we first started this podcast, we
Speaker 1: were all in one hundred percent agreement that it needed
Speaker 1: to be in person, that our.
Speaker 3: Energy, that are what you know.
Speaker 1: And by the way, there is some stuff that's really
Speaker 1: great about being that you can't duplicate on zoom, but
Speaker 1: about eighty five percent of it ninety percent we can,
Speaker 1: and it just became so much easier, so much easier.
Speaker 5: So yeah, I don't know, it's just there's this amazing
Speaker 5: passage that David Foster Wallace wrote, I forget what book it.
Speaker 5: I think it might have it might have been its
Speaker 5: own essay or no, I think it was in Infinite Jess.
Speaker 4: It's like you can look it up.
Speaker 5: It's amazing, he wrote, you know, because it's it takes
Speaker 5: place in the future, and it's just an analysis of
Speaker 5: why video conferencing didn't take off, like didn't become a thing.
Speaker 5: And he's you know, he's writing this in the nineties,
Speaker 5: like way before the technology existed, but he predicts that
Speaker 5: like what we why we will not adopt video conferencing,
Speaker 5: And he's absolutely right. It's what happened when like FaceTime
Speaker 5: came out. It was like people used it to like
Speaker 5: look at their babies, right, and then that was about it,
Speaker 5: like nobody else used But then, you know, what he
Speaker 5: describes is like how you can tell when somebody's not
Speaker 5: listening to you when you're looking at them, like when
Speaker 5: they get a little bored, right, Whereas like on a
Speaker 5: phone call, there was like the natural habit you just
Speaker 5: you assume somebody was engaged with it even while they
Speaker 5: were like making the dinner or whatever. And that was
Speaker 5: like that sort of disembodied voice. Actually made for a
Speaker 5: cool social engagement that like zoom requires like the the
Speaker 5: constant listening face or the nod air and it requires
Speaker 5: a lot more energy. Right, But I think you know
Speaker 5: he was correct and that it wasn't going to be adopted,
Speaker 5: But then the pandemic just made it happen like it
Speaker 5: was the only option.
Speaker 4: It was our social life for so.
Speaker 6: Long, and it very quickly.
Speaker 2: Do my danielle ficial impression of when I can tell
Speaker 2: she's not listening and she and she's writing somebody else.
Speaker 2: Watch and you see the hands got like you can
Speaker 2: see you tell she's typing and.
Speaker 3: I'm still looking at you. He's looking at you.
Speaker 6: But when is it going and she's totally talking to
Speaker 6: somebody else?
Speaker 4: It's the funny.
Speaker 6: I'm like, oh, yeah, Daniel's in a whole nother conversation
Speaker 6: right now.
Speaker 5: I don't think I can do that. I can't type,
Speaker 5: and like, do you want to be that's.
Speaker 1: Because you have a terrible iPhone And on my Android,
Speaker 1: I have a swipe text feature where all I have
Speaker 1: to do is.
Speaker 5: Drag me jumping into people's text conversations and ruining them.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I know, we can't.
Speaker 4: We can't tap back to Danielle.
Speaker 2: I tried were up that personal zoom yesterday all of us,
Speaker 2: and the zoom ended and I tried to FaceTime you
Speaker 2: all and I had to send like what do you
Speaker 2: go through?
Speaker 6: Nine levels? Like I was going to Nora.
Speaker 2: D And both people had to turn the keys at
Speaker 2: the same time to launch the missile to get Danielle.
Speaker 2: It was ridiculous. Where we're at gon for daniel fit like,
Speaker 2: oh man, So yeah, that was We'll talk about it later.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Grandpa, bring your phone over and I'll hook you up. Okay.
Speaker 4: Also, just google this.
Speaker 5: I'm sure there's answers for all the.
Speaker 4: What's a Google?
Speaker 3: Put your VR headset on and ask you what Hey.
Speaker 4: I'm on a zoom with you.
Speaker 6: It's like I'm really in this room.
Speaker 3: Still Welcome to Pod meets World.
Speaker 6: I'm Daniel Fischel, I'm right or Strong, and I'm Wilfordell.
Speaker 1: As we enter season three of Boy Meets World, it's
Speaker 1: difficult to brace for what's to come when you don't
Speaker 1: really remember much. But we did know one thing this
Speaker 1: season around. We were about to meet the coolest new
Speaker 1: character Boy Meets World has seen so far, and he
Speaker 1: was going to be played by an actor who was
Speaker 1: just as cool. Imagine being fourteen years old as I was,
Speaker 1: and they introduce you to the newest teacher on the show,
Speaker 1: who was also the lead singer of a popular SKA
Speaker 1: reggae band, dresses like he just left a VIP table at.
Speaker 3: The Dresden Lounge.
Speaker 1: And was working on some little indie comedy with his
Speaker 1: friends about trying to find work in Hollywood called Swingers.
Speaker 1: To say we were all in awe of the guy
Speaker 1: would be an understatement, and the fans loved the newest
Speaker 1: edition to John Adams High just as much as we did,
Speaker 1: even though it never really felt like the writers knew
Speaker 1: exactly what to do with him, but other writers sure did.
Speaker 3: He'd go on to appear in almost one hundred and.
Speaker 1: Thirty episodes of Becker, and show up on Grey's Anatomy,
Speaker 1: Reno nine to one, one, Scandal, Better Call Saul, and
Speaker 1: most recently, the TV reboot of A League of Their Own,
Speaker 1: Not to mention the movie High Fidelity and that little
Speaker 1: indie movie I mentioned Swingers that ended up defining an
Speaker 1: entire generation. But none of that means anything today because
Speaker 1: we're going to focus on the sixteen.
Speaker 3: Episodes of Boy Meets World.
Speaker 1: He appeared on as the new media are hire and
Speaker 1: mister Turner's best friend. Mister Eli Williams. Please welcome to
Speaker 1: Pod Meets World. Still the coolest guy in the room
Speaker 1: until he says it's dead anyway and leaves. Alex stays air, Yes,
Speaker 1: you sound great.
Speaker 7: Look at professional looking people. How's it going guys?
Speaker 4: Good for you?
Speaker 7: You know, I think I'm all right good? A right,
Speaker 7: I'm feeling good this morning. Wow. Man, great to see
Speaker 7: your face.
Speaker 3: I wish I could give you a hug.
Speaker 1: I feel it feels so weird to just not be
Speaker 1: able to give you a giant hug.
Speaker 3: I'm feeling some take Okay, good you feel you feel
Speaker 3: the hug vibes.
Speaker 7: Maybe maybe I should turn the heat on. I don't know.
Speaker 1: Yes, man, we have been so looking forward to talking
Speaker 1: to you.
Speaker 3: We have been.
Speaker 1: We've had so many great guests on the show, but
Speaker 1: we really from the time we started, we were like,
Speaker 1: oh man, I just can't wait to get to season
Speaker 1: three and talk to Alex.
Speaker 8: Wow.
Speaker 7: So that's how you're doing it. You're doing it season
Speaker 7: by season.
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, by episode, episode by episode.
Speaker 5: We're only we've only watched at this point We've only
Speaker 5: watched three episodes of season three three, so we've only
Speaker 5: seen you in two, and that first one super awkward.
Speaker 4: It is so not you, not you. It's just like
Speaker 4: they didn't introduce you. You're just like there.
Speaker 7: Well, the thing is I was also super awkward.
Speaker 3: So so Alex did watch the two same episodes we've seen.
Speaker 5: Okay, okay, okay, good because that first one was like
Speaker 5: we were watching this. The next one it was like, oh, okay,
Speaker 5: now they're introducing this character, like why.
Speaker 4: Which should have been the first one.
Speaker 2: Yeah, But like when you're just it is apartment, you're like, Okay,
Speaker 2: now we know you apparently yes.
Speaker 7: And now there's someone new.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And I think they wanted to say, obviously, we're trying
Speaker 1: two friends up boy meets World, where they wanted to
Speaker 1: have that, you know, late twenties cool friendship storyline going.
Speaker 3: But it would have been.
Speaker 1: Nice to know who this guy was instead of just
Speaker 1: being like so it was a little odd that they
Speaker 1: that they did it that way.
Speaker 3: Do you remember your audition for Boy Meets World.
Speaker 7: Here's the thing I will say though, Boy Meets World
Speaker 7: was the innovator for the idea of a teaser because
Speaker 7: that's what that was.
Speaker 9: It's like you're doing up here, just gone right, yeah,
Speaker 9: the mass Man, Yeah, it was.
Speaker 2: It was like, well, at least in the second episode
Speaker 2: they're going to have him at.
Speaker 6: All, Okay, an interesting choice. Yeah, it was so weird.
Speaker 7: It was.
Speaker 6: It was so bizarre.
Speaker 7: But do I remember the audition, yes, Okay, No, I
Speaker 7: don't remember which audition I remember, right. I remember were
Speaker 7: getting the call going yeah, all right, yeah, all right, yeah,
Speaker 7: I'll go in on this show, you know, jaded actor
Speaker 7: at twenty four. However, I was like, yeah, yeah, I'll
Speaker 7: go in, I'll go in. And I think I remember
Speaker 7: being shocked getting a call back or something, and then
Speaker 7: meeting Michael Jacobs and all the writers and it was
Speaker 7: hilariously if I remember correctly, and yeah, I told you guys,
Speaker 7: my memory sucks in general. But if I remember correctly,
Speaker 7: what I love about the writers on that sure that
Speaker 7: they all had watched me work, which was kind of
Speaker 7: like this this you know, it was a combination of
Speaker 7: rooting for you as well as being in awe of
Speaker 7: what you're doing. Yeah, so I remember that, And I
Speaker 7: also remember Michael Jacobs and he did this at the
Speaker 7: audition as well as many times when we were shooting
Speaker 7: where he'd do that thing where he'd pulled me over.
Speaker 7: He was like, yeah, that was good, but you just
Speaker 7: read this same joke three times in a row, so
Speaker 7: there there are variations. And I was like what And
Speaker 7: then I remember him pointing out the variations and I
Speaker 7: was like, well, I'll be damn okay, let's try it again.
Speaker 7: And I think he did that for one of the auditions,
Speaker 7: which was really cool too.
Speaker 2: At least he did that for you. For us, he
Speaker 2: would give us sounds. He'd go, you're going blah blah
Speaker 2: bah oh okay, sorry to.
Speaker 3: You, like you understood English, which.
Speaker 1: You wanted them bah blah blah blah blah music note exactly.
Speaker 7: You know, that's kind of how I work. It's about rhythm, right.
Speaker 1: But you know what else you talk about that look
Speaker 1: that they had, because I'd never really thought about that before.
Speaker 1: But you know what else it was that we've now
Speaker 1: discovered with doing the podcast is how much they paid
Speaker 1: attention to who all the actors were as people to
Speaker 1: try to extract, to try to write specific for them.
Speaker 1: So part of that eagerness you saw behind their eyes
Speaker 1: was what what are his strengths what are his strengths,
Speaker 1: what are his strengths?
Speaker 4: Come up with this character and how do we get.
Speaker 5: A character more like do they have did you have
Speaker 5: any like actual character before?
Speaker 4: Like what was there a sense that before.
Speaker 7: You If I remember what it was, it was just like,
Speaker 7: you know, it was like cocky, No, that's exactly what
Speaker 7: I remember. I remember my notes to myself was like, oh,
Speaker 7: this guy thinks his poop does not stink, right, right, Okay,
Speaker 7: That's what I remember, And so that was definitely acting.
Speaker 5: That's what comes across in the second episode with PHOENI, Right.
Speaker 7: That's what it was. It's like this insecurity being covered
Speaker 7: by this sense of ego and arrogance and you know,
Speaker 7: he's a puppy dog, you know. Yeah, if I remember,
Speaker 7: that's what I remembered going into it, thinking.
Speaker 2: That would have been nice if they showed that at
Speaker 2: all in the first episode, even slightly. But the thing
Speaker 2: that was cool at least was so the thing I
Speaker 2: remember most about your first the first episode is that
Speaker 2: we had a really what we call a wu audience.
Speaker 2: So it was like every time you'd say something, people
Speaker 2: would go wooo.
Speaker 6: So yeah, it was by your first line. It was
Speaker 6: like they were already.
Speaker 1: They were super behind you, even though they had no
Speaker 1: idea who you were. They were like this guy, I
Speaker 1: love him.
Speaker 7: Yeah, it was a funny thing. When I was watching
Speaker 7: it too, I was like, wow, I just like shot
Speaker 7: out of a cannon. I know exactly.
Speaker 4: Yep, yes, yeah.
Speaker 5: Season three started with a bang, that's for sure, Alex.
Speaker 5: How much sitcom had you done before Boy Meets World?
Speaker 7: You want to hear the funny thing? Boy Meets World
Speaker 7: was the first sitcom I think I was not fired
Speaker 7: from really, although I only did one season, so I
Speaker 7: had a minute going, hey, wait a minute, yeah, but yeah,
Speaker 7: because I'd had like issues, like i'd go do a
Speaker 7: day or two and they'd be like, yeah, don't, don't,
Speaker 7: don't come for the reader.
Speaker 4: Really yeah, And so I had passage. Man, you gotta
Speaker 4: get fired.
Speaker 7: Man, you know. And of course it's like, hey, well
Speaker 7: you know what I got paid for? Old episode, right right?
Speaker 7: But I think Boy Meets World was the first one
Speaker 7: where I was like, the second episode, I was like
Speaker 7: I'm back, Oh okay, third episode, I was like really
Speaker 7: still man, Yeah, so I think I've done. I think
Speaker 7: I did an episode. No, I know, I think I
Speaker 7: did two sitcoms. I did an episode of Free Spirits
Speaker 7: and a Different World, which is hilarious. You know the
Speaker 7: great thing about getting older guys is like when people
Speaker 7: throw your old work at you and you go, oh yeah,
Speaker 7: and then I yeah, I think I did something else where.
Speaker 7: I was shooting a pilot and yeah, got fired after
Speaker 7: like you know, four or five days. I'm like, guys,
Speaker 7: we're about to tape.
Speaker 1: Are you sure you want to fire me the day
Speaker 1: before we shoot it?
Speaker 7: Yeah? Yeah, And you know what hindsight is twenty twenty
Speaker 7: because I was like, man, I'm glad that didn't go
Speaker 7: anywhere exactly.
Speaker 6: That happens quite a bit.
Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, So yeah, Boy Meets World was my first,
Speaker 7: like steady, okay, let's learn the craft of doing a sitcom. Wow.
Speaker 1: You know, I feel like in every article we read
Speaker 1: about swingers, we hear about this just very cool group
Speaker 1: of guys Jon Favre, Vince Vaughn, Ron Livingston, Adam Scott,
Speaker 1: Mike White, all just trying to make it in Hollywood
Speaker 1: and going to failed audition after failed audition in hopes
Speaker 1: of ending up.
Speaker 3: On a sitcom.
Speaker 1: Can you explain what that scene was like, especially considering
Speaker 1: that all those names like run Hollywood.
Speaker 7: Now you want to hear the funny you know, I
Speaker 7: was shooting that while we were doing the show.
Speaker 6: I knew it was your car. I remember it was
Speaker 6: your car that Vince Vaughn.
Speaker 4: Drives in the movie.
Speaker 7: It was kind of cool because I remember going, man,
Speaker 7: I'm living the dream. I'm like, I'm doing the sitcom
Speaker 7: during the day, which is awesome, and then at night,
Speaker 7: I'm hanging out with the boys, you know, doing this
Speaker 7: other game you know, which he wrote for us, right,
Speaker 7: you know what I'm saying. I mean, you guys remember me.
Speaker 7: That was like Swingers. Me was the caricature of me
Speaker 7: times ten. I wish I could be that cool. Okay,
Speaker 7: it was, yeah.
Speaker 4: No, you were that cool even telling me about Swingers,
Speaker 4: because I remember you said, you said, I'm doing this
Speaker 4: little movie called Swingers, and I was like, what is it.
Speaker 5: You're like, you'll hear about it, you knew, And then
Speaker 5: of course I did, like the next year going to
Speaker 5: the movie theater.
Speaker 4: I was like obsessed, like, oh my god, that's the
Speaker 4: boy that I was. You were just like you'll hear
Speaker 4: about Yeah.
Speaker 7: I remember any a day coming into work, like you
Speaker 7: don't don't talk to me really tired.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I remember talking to you one day on
Speaker 1: set and finding out when you were like, yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: in a band, the Hecats.
Speaker 3: I was like the Hadcats because I.
Speaker 1: Was like fourteen, I knew nothing about anything in your world.
Speaker 3: You were just so cool.
Speaker 2: So you had you done PCU by the time you
Speaker 2: got to Boy Meets World you did right. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: because I recognize you walked down That was one of
Speaker 2: my favorite movies at the time.
Speaker 7: Yes, I guess, yeah, you know, it's funny. I look
Speaker 7: at my life. I'm so bizarre. It's it's set up
Speaker 7: like by what era job I had, as well as
Speaker 7: what my hair was doing. Oh yeah, so uh PU
Speaker 7: was before Boy Meets World and then I cut my
Speaker 7: dreads off and then I was able to get apart.
Speaker 7: Like on Boy Meets World. It was very like this
Speaker 7: is what where you're gonna be. You're gonna be a musician.
Speaker 4: That's all you're gonna play, right, you know?
Speaker 7: And so yeah, pcus before and that's how I met
Speaker 7: Favreau and Vince and all those guys. Yeah, that must
Speaker 7: have been like a year or two before.
Speaker 6: I think it was a great movie.
Speaker 2: And I just remember you walking onto the set and
Speaker 2: me thinking to myself like, oh man, I'll say I
Speaker 2: love PCU. He's coming on to play Tony's friend, Tony's
Speaker 2: my good friend. We got it, We got a third
Speaker 2: for the crew, Like this guy is gonna be And
Speaker 2: then by about the second day we're together, it's like,
Speaker 2: this guy's way too cool to hang.
Speaker 3: Out with.
Speaker 6: And this is never going to happen.
Speaker 2: Stop trying to hang out with him. He's never gonna
Speaker 2: hang out with you. It's not going to happen.
Speaker 7: Well, I just remember what tripped me out about you.
Speaker 7: I was like, I remember like talking to you, and
Speaker 7: I was like, this dude is way smarter than I thought.
Speaker 10: Yes, because he'd be like breaking out some like theories
Speaker 10: and talking about Navy seals up and I was like,
Speaker 10: what I was in that brain of yours, you know, getting.
Speaker 7: All that's up there. I was like, oh, there you go.
Speaker 6: Well sweet, So that's what it was.
Speaker 2: I was too smart to hang out with you. It
Speaker 2: wasn't too cool, Yeah, right, I did. I tried for
Speaker 2: like the first two episodes. I was like, this is
Speaker 2: never gonna happen.
Speaker 4: Never, never.
Speaker 7: Happened. Maybe in the back of my head, I was
Speaker 7: like I don't want to be a bad influence. They
Speaker 7: don't want to see my daughter.
Speaker 3: We heard that a lot.
Speaker 4: Yeah, because you were like you were twenty five.
Speaker 7: You said twenty five, twenty six.
Speaker 4: Yeah, my god, that's not that much older than us.
Speaker 4: But no, you know the difference between fifteen and twenty.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Like I was fourteen at the time, and.
Speaker 6: I was probably eighteen or nineteen at the time.
Speaker 11: Fifteen fifteen, Yeah, okay, Yeah, it's kind of crazy because,
Speaker 11: like thinking about it, it's like you guys have been
Speaker 11: professionals forever and like, you know, I moved out to
Speaker 11: at eighteen, and I was.
Speaker 10: Like you guys, And now that I think about it,
Speaker 10: it's basically we're all like learning everything at the same time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, right, r came first for you when you came
Speaker 1: out to LA. Was it a music draw or was
Speaker 1: it acting?
Speaker 7: No, No, acting has been my first, Like, you know,
Speaker 7: since I was a little kid. You know, acting was
Speaker 7: the draw. Like I went to performing arts in New York,
Speaker 7: you know, the Fame School. Yep. It's funny because you know,
Speaker 7: I wanted to audition for stuff and my mom was
Speaker 7: like no, no, no, I'm like okay, sure, sure. Years later,
Speaker 7: I come to find out. I was like, why wouldn't
Speaker 7: you let me go to auditions? She was like, it's
Speaker 7: not that I didn't want you to. I just couldn't
Speaker 7: take off work. I'm like, oh, wow, well that makes sense.
Speaker 7: And so yeah, I went to performing arts. I booked
Speaker 7: a job. My senior year, I booked The Pilot. Almost
Speaker 7: got kicked out of high school because you're not allowed
Speaker 7: to do profession from the work right when you go
Speaker 7: to PA and so I was like, man, I forget you.
Speaker 7: That's why I'm here. Came out to La, shot the Pilot,
Speaker 7: went back to school. This is hilarious. Well it's not really,
Speaker 7: But went back to school, almost got kicked out. My
Speaker 7: grades sucked, But the show got picked up and we
Speaker 7: were supposed to start shooting, you know whenever it starts
Speaker 7: like in the summer again. But then the nineteen eighty
Speaker 7: eight writers started happening. Oh here's a good thing. Because
Speaker 7: of that strike, I was able to go to summer school,
Speaker 7: get all my credits. Oh nice, So I am officially
Speaker 7: a high school grad. And then literally the strike was over,
Speaker 7: got on a plane, came to LA and started working.
Speaker 3: Unbelievable.
Speaker 4: That's great good timing.
Speaker 3: Yes, exactly.
Speaker 2: That's when I was there eighty like eighty six to
Speaker 2: eighty nine in New York. Was it was a magical
Speaker 2: time in the industry.
Speaker 6: It really was. Yeah, that was a great time in
Speaker 6: the city.
Speaker 2: There was just a vibe to the city that was
Speaker 2: so it wrapped you in this piss smelling.
Speaker 6: Hug and show and it was awesome. It was just
Speaker 6: full of life and it was it was magical.
Speaker 7: I really was the smell of subway in the morning.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 6: Absolutely, it was great.
Speaker 7: It was school life for me because, like I said,
Speaker 7: we're you know, Pa, we're all like drama geeks. Imagine
Speaker 7: a whole school and it's nothing but geeks, music geeks,
Speaker 7: drama geeks, dance geeks, and we're all like, Hi.
Speaker 6: Yeah, where you went?
Speaker 7: I have a whopper?
Speaker 6: Were you from New York?
Speaker 7: Yeah?
Speaker 6: From the city.
Speaker 7: Grew up in Queen's. Always went to school in the city,
Speaker 7: you know. So the son of my from the first
Speaker 7: my parents came from Haiti in sixty seven and then
Speaker 7: I popped out a couple of years later. The Restless History.
Speaker 6: It's so fun.
Speaker 1: So you came in as a new teacher and mister
Speaker 1: Turner's best friend.
Speaker 3: What do you remember about working with Tony Quinn.
Speaker 7: Burst off his hair, Yes, all about the.
Speaker 3: Hair man bullet, the power mullet.
Speaker 7: It was like and it was just like did it
Speaker 7: have its own credit?
Speaker 2: It should should have it should Basically it wasn't even
Speaker 2: hair band. It was like early eighties had it was
Speaker 2: like Rio Speedwagon hair.
Speaker 7: And what people need to know. It was always perfect people.
Speaker 7: There was never a hair out of place.
Speaker 1: No, it was gorgeous, a glorious name.
Speaker 7: Yeah. I remember Tony just being a real cool just
Speaker 7: like taking me under his wing. It's like, no, we're
Speaker 7: really good family hair. You just have fun. You know.
Speaker 7: One of my favorite things. I think you guys started
Speaker 7: singing that with me where I discovered a song called
Speaker 7: corn bread Earl and me. Yeah, and I kept on
Speaker 7: changing the words of Tony queen.
Speaker 4: That's right, Like, oh my god, that's.
Speaker 7: We did.
Speaker 4: You're unlocking like a core memory it is.
Speaker 6: Oh that's so funny.
Speaker 7: And it rolled so trippingly off the tunnel.
Speaker 3: Had you had you ever worked with kids before?
Speaker 7: No considering I was one myself. Yeah, you know what
Speaker 7: you know, here's a funny thing. Now that I think
Speaker 7: about it, I remember the whole time going I don't
Speaker 7: know if anybody's gonna buy me as a.
Speaker 4: School because you've grown up.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I'm like, I don't buy it. And then I
Speaker 7: was thinking about it. How old was what was Bill
Speaker 7: Daniels when we were doing it? Because I and eight,
Speaker 7: you know, he was probably like my age he.
Speaker 6: Was he was sixty five.
Speaker 1: He's ninety six now, thirty years ago, sixty six six
Speaker 1: to sixty eight when you were there, he was sixty
Speaker 1: eight years old.
Speaker 6: Yeah, right, yeah, right.
Speaker 7: Wow, man, Yeah, what an experience. It's wow. Okay, things
Speaker 7: are starting on the lot. Guys.
Speaker 2: You when you do your when you put your your
Speaker 2: age you are now to when we were doing Boy,
Speaker 2: and you look at all the writers, all the producers.
Speaker 2: I think I'm older now than ninety percent of the
Speaker 2: people that.
Speaker 6: Worked on one.
Speaker 2: That's insane and it's just weird when you do that.
Speaker 2: When you're like Michael, I think was what in his
Speaker 2: late thirties early forties when Boy and he must have
Speaker 2: been right, I think it's got to be what sixty
Speaker 2: five now sixty six.
Speaker 3: I think he's probably close to seventy.
Speaker 6: Okay, close to so, say he's seventy so he was
Speaker 6: forty eight.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're forty seven now, right, right, So, I mean
Speaker 2: it's just so weird to think that we were all
Speaker 2: the people, all the adults in charge, were younger than
Speaker 2: most of us are now.
Speaker 7: Really weird.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm how aware of Bill Daniels were you? Like,
Speaker 4: did you know his career? Did you know him on?
Speaker 7: Man?
Speaker 5: Well, I had no clue because I was a kid, man,
Speaker 5: I mean, besides the kid from Night Rider. I had
Speaker 5: no idea.
Speaker 7: You can just start.
Speaker 3: There, man, exactly, Yes.
Speaker 7: You start there and either go backwards or forwards.
Speaker 6: Yeah, it was awesome sometimes.
Speaker 7: I'm just like to say it for me, Michael.
Speaker 1: Michael, were you as intimidated by Bill Daniels as we
Speaker 1: all were?
Speaker 7: Oh? Absolutely, absolutely absolutely. And then it started obviously getting easier,
Speaker 7: like because I just asked him questions, so when did
Speaker 7: you start the business? Yeah, how did you do this?
Speaker 7: And then like him telling me that he was a
Speaker 7: dancer and like with bo Jingles and stuff that blew
Speaker 7: my mind. And then I was like, right, so tell
Speaker 7: me about seventeen seventy six, right, you know, John Adams,
Speaker 7: I get it.
Speaker 6: That was always a good way in with Bill.
Speaker 2: He would always talk about the industry, talk about acting,
Speaker 2: talk about the craft. So anytime you were kind of like,
Speaker 2: I don't know what to talk about, jumping into that
Speaker 2: was a great starting off point with him.
Speaker 7: Yeah, and then like every once in a while because
Speaker 7: I like my one of the things I do, like
Speaker 7: you know, in between takes or whatever, like just I
Speaker 7: do fake tap dance and stuff just for myself. I
Speaker 7: don't know how to tap, but I do that. And
Speaker 7: then he'd joined in on it.
Speaker 5: A video of the.
Speaker 7: D's start talking and he telled me about Bojangles and
Speaker 7: stuff like what you were doing. You were you were
Speaker 7: song and dance man first.
Speaker 6: Yeah, when he five five or six, I mean he was.
Speaker 6: And he never told us. He would never jump in
Speaker 6: and tell us about that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was cut yeah, and even and that wasn't
Speaker 2: until later. Especially, he didn't want us to know. I've
Speaker 2: talked to him about this. He did not want us
Speaker 2: to know he was a child actor.
Speaker 6: Oh wow, he said, I don't.
Speaker 2: I didn't want you to look at me like a
Speaker 2: resource for how to be a child act or. I
Speaker 2: wanted you to look at me as just another actor
Speaker 2: and part of the cast, as opposed to oh, you
Speaker 2: did what I did.
Speaker 6: He didn't for some reason, just didn't want that.
Speaker 7: That's actually pretty smart, actually, yeah, journey.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's also a great way to keep all the
Speaker 1: little smelly kids away from you.
Speaker 4: Self protection. Just did not want question.
Speaker 7: Me.
Speaker 4: I am so different from you.
Speaker 7: That's how good he is. He was able to trick
Speaker 7: you into thinking he was looking up for Yep, he's
Speaker 7: actually just looking up for his own damn. Now that's
Speaker 7: what you call years in the business.
Speaker 4: Yep, that's true.
Speaker 3: We've all learned to do it now. We learned from
Speaker 3: the best. So did you?
Speaker 1: Adam Scott was in a few episodes in season two
Speaker 1: and then also did an episode in season three.
Speaker 3: Were you in the episode when he was in? Did you?
Speaker 3: Was he the only person you knew that was a
Speaker 3: part of the show.
Speaker 7: Yeah, And it was funny, like, yeah, yeah, I'd seen
Speaker 7: him on the show. And then it was funny because
Speaker 7: I guess we lived in the same neighborhood for a
Speaker 7: while years later, and so like, oh, what's up, Oh
Speaker 7: what's up there? You know? Yeah?
Speaker 3: Who else were some of your peers at the time.
Speaker 7: I don't even I don't even know.
Speaker 2: I don't You introduced me to Jeremy Piven. I remember
Speaker 2: that at an at an ABC party. You know, every
Speaker 2: year at the beginning of the show, they would always
Speaker 2: have these ABC parties in some strange location, Yeah, like
Speaker 2: the Ladea tar Pits or Libret of tar Pits or
Speaker 2: something like that. And you and I were sitting there
Speaker 2: talking and somebody tapped you on the shoulder and turn
Speaker 2: around with Jeremy Pip and You're like, hey, I want
Speaker 2: you to be will And I was like and he
Speaker 2: was like, yeah, hey, how you doing. And he gave
Speaker 2: you a big hug, and you guys talked. I was like,
Speaker 2: I'll be over here if you need any drinks. But
Speaker 2: it was it was I was like, all right, cool
Speaker 2: met Jermy Piven, like all right, you introduce me.
Speaker 3: Well, did you go to a Hepcat show.
Speaker 6: I don't think I did.
Speaker 4: I might have.
Speaker 6: I don't think I did.
Speaker 2: I didn't go out a whole lot as they would say,
Speaker 2: which was another reason why I think Alex was like, yeah,
Speaker 2: we can't be friends.
Speaker 6: It was like you want to come hang out the
Speaker 6: oak Wood.
Speaker 2: No, It's just we were different people, you know, you know,
Speaker 2: you had a life and stuff. I hadn't found that yet,
Speaker 2: So no, I never Actually, I don't think I ever
Speaker 2: went to a Hepcat show Again, I may have once.
Speaker 3: I can't remember some.
Speaker 7: Reason, I'm feeling that you guys did, but.
Speaker 3: I feel like I did. I did too.
Speaker 6: Then we then we went together me where would it
Speaker 6: have been?
Speaker 4: Where were you playing?
Speaker 7: Like what kind of like we were doing House of
Speaker 7: Blues a lot.
Speaker 6: I want to say we went.
Speaker 2: I went to the House of Blues one time, because
Speaker 2: I think that night, leaving the House of Blues on
Speaker 2: a whim, I got a tattoo.
Speaker 1: Wow, you only vaguely remember the evening huh.
Speaker 4: Well, because.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was right next to Sunset Strip tattoo where
Speaker 2: I got my first several tattoos was at the same place,
Speaker 2: and I believe I left and I was like, all right,
Speaker 2: I'm just going to get another tat, and the same
Speaker 2: guy gave me another tat.
Speaker 6: I believe that I wasn't with you for that, so
Speaker 6: I was OK that I think that was yes, So
Speaker 6: I believe I did.
Speaker 4: I believe I did too.
Speaker 1: But I also have a memory of going to a
Speaker 1: Hepcat show that was like years later, because, like I said,
Speaker 1: when you were on the show, I was only fourteen,
Speaker 1: So like, where was I going to a my parents
Speaker 1: were club.
Speaker 4: You were in fifteen.
Speaker 1: I was at least eighteen years old before I attended
Speaker 1: a nightclub, so I think I went.
Speaker 3: At least I waited until I moved out of my parents' house.
Speaker 1: At eighteen, and then I went. I had some respect,
Speaker 1: But yeah, I did. I know, I went to a
Speaker 1: show like around that time, which is cool to think
Speaker 1: about because like that means that even years after you
Speaker 1: were off the show, I was.
Speaker 3: We were still like, I'm going to go see Alex Man.
Speaker 7: I didn't tell you. I haven't told you guys, So
Speaker 7: this was actually cool. So I knew the show was,
Speaker 7: you know, good, and it was big and all that stuff.
Speaker 7: It didn't hit me until like maybe a year after
Speaker 7: leaving the show. We were on tour, and we're doing
Speaker 7: the Work tour, so we're going all across America, every
Speaker 7: crop cross section of life, you know, because work towards
Speaker 7: like SKA bands, punk bands, like you know, everything, hip
Speaker 7: hop and all that, and we do our set and inevitably,
Speaker 7: like every night, every day we finished the set, oh
Speaker 7: my god, hey man, Heapcat was really cool, but mister
Speaker 7: Williams and it was like every night. And then I
Speaker 7: remember one of the funniest ones. Was like, no, you
Speaker 7: don't understand what boy meets world meets us. It was
Speaker 7: this guy and his girlfriend. You don't understand what the
Speaker 7: show means to us. It's like, you know, it's like
Speaker 7: our days of our lives. It's our General Hospital and
Speaker 7: I will never forget that. Yeah. As he was saying that,
Speaker 7: I was backing away slowly, going.
Speaker 3: That's really nice.
Speaker 7: That's cool. But it was. And that's when it dawned
Speaker 7: on me, because you know, in my head, I'm like, God,
Speaker 7: we're just working, We're just what we do.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 7: No.
Speaker 5: We've talked a lot about how none of us really
Speaker 5: knew the reach of the show until years later.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 5: It's yeah, yeah, when we were on, we weren't like
Speaker 5: a huge hit. We were just kind of a drugging shit.
Speaker 7: Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Do you remember how many episodes you originally signed up for?
Speaker 4: Did you?
Speaker 3: Were you a series regular that through that season?
Speaker 7: It was, yeah, I was a serious regular. But like,
Speaker 7: what do they call it, like ten out of thirteen
Speaker 7: or something?
Speaker 3: Yeah, but you did sixteen?
Speaker 7: Yeah I did?
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah out of twenty three.
Speaker 3: Out of twenty four or something.
Speaker 7: Yeah, okay, yeah, yeah, that sounds about right.
Speaker 3: Look at you.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I was telling them story before we got on. That
Speaker 2: was very special to me. So it was years, several
Speaker 2: years after Boy Me Twelve finished, I was doing another
Speaker 2: show that wasn't very good. But actually I take that back.
Speaker 2: The show was okay, the cast was great, they were
Speaker 2: good friends of mine. But I was having a bad day.
Speaker 2: I remember specifically, I was having a very bad day
Speaker 2: and I'm sitting there and I look up and standing
Speaker 2: in between two of the cameras on rehearsal day, is
Speaker 2: you with your.
Speaker 6: Arms wide open?
Speaker 7: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Because you were doing Becker right next door, and I
Speaker 2: was doing a show called Random Years, and you saw
Speaker 2: me on the internal like monitors of rehearsal, and you
Speaker 2: came over and it was like my whole day brightened up,
Speaker 2: just all of a sudden.
Speaker 6: It was like, oh my god.
Speaker 2: And you came over and embraced me, and we sat
Speaker 2: there and hugged and talked for like twenty minutes, and
Speaker 2: my whole day turned around. And I don't think I
Speaker 2: ever told you how special and important that was to me.
Speaker 6: It really was.
Speaker 2: It just you turned my whole day around. It was incredible.
Speaker 2: It was just such a wonderful surprise. After all those
Speaker 2: years and it was amazing, really was.
Speaker 7: Man, that's awesome. I remember that too.
Speaker 4: What a lot was that on? Where were you guys? Paramount?
Speaker 2: So yeah, it was just such it was like, yeah
Speaker 2: it was that was very special to me.
Speaker 6: So yeah, it was really cool.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I know, that's so sweet.
Speaker 1: You know, I love those stories because how many times
Speaker 1: have you seen somebody out somewhere and your I always think, well,
Speaker 1: they're not going to know they're not going to remember me,
Speaker 1: like they're not yet. Oh yeah, like I'm just a
Speaker 1: They're not even know who I am. So I'm not
Speaker 1: even going to say anything. You like, talk yourself out
Speaker 1: of whether or not you should go up and say
Speaker 1: hi to somebody, But then every time you do, you're
Speaker 1: always like, I'm so glad I did.
Speaker 3: And in that case, you made the effort. You saw
Speaker 3: him on him monitor.
Speaker 1: You very easily could have been like, oh that was
Speaker 1: so many years ago, I'm not going to go say
Speaker 1: hi to Will, but you did, and he was having
Speaker 1: a bad day and it turned everything around and it's
Speaker 1: like something he remembers forever.
Speaker 6: It was awesome. Yeah, yeah, it was awesome.
Speaker 7: Yea. The moral of the story, folks, if you think
Speaker 7: of someone.
Speaker 3: Yes, that's exactly right.
Speaker 7: Moral.
Speaker 12: Hey guys, it's Jen Ashchwitz and Kevin McHale from and
Speaker 12: That's what you really missed podcasts.
Speaker 13: We are going through all six seasons of Glee and
Speaker 13: we are giving you the behind the scenes stories of
Speaker 13: what it was really like filming, the musical numbers and episodes.
Speaker 12: It's been so special to revisit the show that changed
Speaker 12: our lives with some of our closest friends and to
Speaker 12: share some of the most authentic and real experiences we
Speaker 12: had together, completely raw and unfiltered. Plus we chat with
Speaker 12: our co stars like Jane Lynch, Chris Kolfer, Heather Morris
Speaker 12: and Berilly, Harry Schamp, Junior court over Street, Josh Susman,
Speaker 12: Max Adler, Rome Rosemont, John Stamos, Alex Snull and Dot
Speaker 12: Marie Jones on the pod, and so many more to come.
Speaker 12: We have some exciting guests coming up.
Speaker 13: And we can't forget the behind the scenes crew who
Speaker 13: made it all happen. Our dear friends and literally the
Speaker 13: hardest working crew in Hollywood. From creators Ryan Murphy and
Speaker 13: I and Brennan, to directors, camera operators, musical directors. We
Speaker 13: are sharing all of our experiences on Glee.
Speaker 12: So meet us in the choir room at McKinley High
Speaker 12: and join us weekly on and that's what you really
Speaker 12: missed available wherever you listen to your podcasts.
Speaker 14: Hi, I'm Chris Harrison, host of the Most Dramatic Podcast Ever.
Speaker 14: I'm just like you, always looking for something interesting, heartfelt
Speaker 14: and entertaining to listen to. You know, look, maybe you
Speaker 14: used to watch a show every Monday night and now
Speaker 14: you have a lot of time on your hands and
Speaker 14: you're looking for something new, someone who's here for the
Speaker 14: right reasons. If you will, I've got you. Listen to
Speaker 14: the Most Dramatic Podcast Ever on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 14: or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Speaker 1: So, do you remember anything about being told that you
Speaker 1: weren't coming back for season four?
Speaker 3: Or were you not told?
Speaker 7: Like?
Speaker 3: How did that? Do you remember how that situation came about?
Speaker 3: I really don't, Okay.
Speaker 7: I really don't. Maybe maybe it's PTSD exactly know what
Speaker 7: it happened. Again, I don't if I recall, I don't
Speaker 7: think I found out right away. I think it was
Speaker 7: like it wasn't because I found out with other gigs
Speaker 7: about not coming back in a very shady way. I
Speaker 7: don't think I think this was up front, Okay, okay,
Speaker 7: I think it was above board. I think it was.
Speaker 7: I'm pretty sure it was disappointing. I think for me
Speaker 7: when it happened, I remember going, oh, that sucks, but hey, okay,
Speaker 7: that freeze up some time, right, And like, I think
Speaker 7: after that is when I started, you know, touring a
Speaker 7: lot more with the band, because I had to miss
Speaker 7: a lot of shows. Yea, even when when I was
Speaker 7: doing Becker, like, I had to leave the band completely
Speaker 7: for a couple of years. And so I think, once again,
Speaker 7: it's that hindsight thing where you're like, Okay, this sucks,
Speaker 7: but now I can do this for a while and
Speaker 7: not more. Unfortunately, you know, I've got money in the bank.
Speaker 3: Yeah right, yeah, praise you up to tour with music.
Speaker 7: Yeah, exactly. And you know, for a while, that's where
Speaker 7: I looked at it too. I was like, Okay, I
Speaker 7: make a living acting, so I can go do music,
Speaker 7: and if I don't get paid as much, it's fine
Speaker 7: because I still get this right, go out and do that.
Speaker 2: You're That's the same thing they said about like River Phoenix,
Speaker 2: as he was a musician with a great day job. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and that's kind of like if music is your passion,
Speaker 2: that's what it is. It's like I'm making just enough
Speaker 2: acting to keep me in music.
Speaker 6: Which is which is pretty important.
Speaker 2: So I have a question for to to kind of
Speaker 2: help educate our dear listeners. Okay, what so Becker huge show,
Speaker 2: one hundred and thirty episodes you did, it was, you know,
Speaker 2: with Ted Danson and some of the best in the business.
Speaker 2: What other than salty language, what are some differences you
Speaker 2: noticed from being on a show with all adults and
Speaker 2: being on a show with a younger cast.
Speaker 7: Well, we stayed a lot later.
Speaker 4: And a half hours a day.
Speaker 7: Yeah, what is the difference? First off, for me personally,
Speaker 7: it was it was that thing of like we said,
Speaker 7: didn't have to watch the bad language, didn't have to
Speaker 7: watch my steps as much, right, which is a difference.
Speaker 7: The humor. We could do some darker things, and I
Speaker 7: think that that was the other thing too, I was
Speaker 7: being able to do that kind of stuff that we
Speaker 7: could Envoy meets World. I mean, I will tell you
Speaker 7: the same learning experience I got from both shows, which
Speaker 7: started on Voy Meets World but then really took shape
Speaker 7: for me personally on Becker was learning how to treat
Speaker 7: guest cast no, because you know, it's easy to be
Speaker 7: like is my shield. I don't know if I can
Speaker 7: curse on here, but I don't know.
Speaker 3: Absolutely go off.
Speaker 7: And I'm boy me. Tworlds was one of the places
Speaker 7: where I think it clicks for me. It's like, oh no, yeah,
Speaker 7: we're the core group here, but these people around us
Speaker 7: helped build this world. Because they're building this world with us,
Speaker 7: I have to treat them as if well, I have
Speaker 7: to treat them with respect because they are with us.
Speaker 7: Once I got on Becker, I really learned how to
Speaker 7: do that hardcore to the point like every cast, get
Speaker 7: every guest cast, I don't care how big or small.
Speaker 7: Thank you so much for coming out and playing with us,
Speaker 7: you know. And I learned that from Ted especially as well.
Speaker 7: It's just like, you know, we look good because you
Speaker 7: make us a little bit right, you know. So that
Speaker 7: was a big thing both shows. Yeah, I think that's it.
Speaker 7: I mean, because it's funny because writers. I love writers
Speaker 7: because no matter what show, no matter what genre, with writers,
Speaker 7: I can see what they look like when they were kids.
Speaker 7: Writers have this thing, you know, on any TV show
Speaker 7: you work on, you hang with them, and then all
Speaker 7: of a sudden you'll see them on the playground. I'm like, oh,
Speaker 7: I remember you. I remember your archetype. You know.
Speaker 4: All that's true, isn't it.
Speaker 7: Yeah, you can see it, you know, And you're like, okay,
Speaker 7: And for some reason that makes me like, hey, guys,
Speaker 7: what are we doing? What are we playing with today? Right?
Speaker 7: You know?
Speaker 1: You know, you know what I love like from our perspective.
Speaker 1: And I guess I'll just speak for myself, but I
Speaker 1: think I can speak for the other two as well
Speaker 1: when I say that one of the things we so
Speaker 1: appreciated and got so lucky with on Boy Meets World
Speaker 1: is that none of.
Speaker 3: You treated us like little kids.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 1: You when I just asked you, like when weill asked you,
Speaker 1: what's the difference between working with kids, It had nothing
Speaker 1: to do with like like you, we were your peers
Speaker 1: as we were, we were fellow actors. We never felt
Speaker 1: like you guys talked down to us, or thought lesser
Speaker 1: of us, or ostracized us in any way for being kids.
Speaker 3: There were the.
Speaker 1: Natural barriers, of course, of like you know, we were
Speaker 1: in the school room and you guys were going to
Speaker 1: play golf or you know where you wouldn't you know,
Speaker 1: tell us about your dating exploits. There were those like
Speaker 1: appropriate boundaries, but as exactly but as professionals, we were all.
Speaker 1: You made us all feel like we were on your
Speaker 1: same level, which is really special because because I know
Speaker 1: other you know, child actors who worked on other shows
Speaker 1: and were on regular shows full time didn't have that experience,
Speaker 1: and we just we were so lucky and like just
Speaker 1: so lucky. You guys were the people we had to
Speaker 1: learn from.
Speaker 7: Plus, you know, it's well, I mean, give yourselves credit
Speaker 7: as well, because you hear horror stories about you know,
Speaker 7: actors or their children, and none of you were like that.
Speaker 7: You guys are actually like, hey, you know, I'm gonna
Speaker 7: be a kid. Yeah, I'm gonna be a kid, you know.
Speaker 7: I think at one point Ben asked me some some
Speaker 7: lady questions, like about love, and I was like, yeah,
Speaker 7: I think I'm gonna back away from this conversation. He's
Speaker 7: like yeah, I think. It was like yeah, I'm thinking
Speaker 7: about this girl, what do you think of this? And
Speaker 7: I was like, that's that's cool, that's that's cool. I'm
Speaker 7: gonna go and have a cigarette.
Speaker 2: It is it's basically like he was saying to you,
Speaker 2: this show is our general hospital.
Speaker 6: You're like, uh huh, thank you very much.
Speaker 2: The girl that's well, that was one of the other
Speaker 2: things that I didn't know if you wanted to get
Speaker 2: into it a little bit. But one of the other
Speaker 2: things I loved about you showing up on the show
Speaker 2: is for the first time, a might a smoking buddy.
Speaker 7: I know I did.
Speaker 6: I finally had a smoking buddy with me. Let's go
Speaker 6: grab a cigarette.
Speaker 3: Come on, Yes, gods.
Speaker 7: I've changed since then, But have you?
Speaker 6: I am Do you still smoke? Yeah, I'm nine years
Speaker 6: nine years without.
Speaker 7: Good on you, man.
Speaker 3: Well, do you.
Speaker 1: Want to share anything that worked for you? Since Alex
Speaker 1: said he's working on it is, do you is there
Speaker 1: anything you want to share that may work?
Speaker 6: And you know I did.
Speaker 2: The thing that worked for me was I went to
Speaker 2: a vape with with a high nicotine charge and then
Speaker 2: I backed they backed the nicotine off, and then when
Speaker 2: I was at zero, I was at zero for like
Speaker 2: a month, and then I've traveled somewhere and I forgot the.
Speaker 6: Vape and I never picked it up again. And that
Speaker 6: was nine years ago.
Speaker 7: Tailor Handy. Now it's like, now it's I'm at the
Speaker 7: point of taking the pause before the action.
Speaker 4: Okay, well that's good, you know, but.
Speaker 7: It doesn't always work. I'm like, yeah, but man, I know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Sue and I joke about that and I'm always like, God,
Speaker 2: it's such a filthy habit and I miss it every day.
Speaker 6: Every day.
Speaker 7: Every day I can see, like I smoke more when
Speaker 7: it's a bad golf game.
Speaker 6: Oh yeah, Essentially it's all the time for me.
Speaker 7: I'll go to the golf course with three packs of cigarettes. No,
Speaker 7: I don't.
Speaker 4: Oh my yes.
Speaker 2: So we always One of the on running things we
Speaker 2: have in the show is we want to build a
Speaker 2: time machine and go back and change some things from
Speaker 2: the show. I'm going to force our friendship when I
Speaker 2: go back in time. That's what it's going to be.
Speaker 2: I'm hanging out with you all. You're gonna be like,
Speaker 2: who is this?
Speaker 10: Katie?
Speaker 4: Will not leave me alone? You would have had to
Speaker 4: have left oak Wood apartments? Will would be?
Speaker 6: It would have been so scary and dangerous.
Speaker 7: What would have happened? Will? Will you call that a
Speaker 7: shoe shot?
Speaker 8: I'm trying, Yeah, sir, Oh that's so funny.
Speaker 7: Too close, too close? I said, eight paces behind.
Speaker 2: Gosh, and then you and I. Here's the other thing
Speaker 2: that a lot of people don't know. I'm not sure
Speaker 2: you even remember this. You and I did a pilot
Speaker 2: together after Boy Mets World that you ended up coming
Speaker 2: to my house to shoot with Jeff Sherman wrote a
Speaker 2: pilot that starred Larissa Olenic, that's right.
Speaker 6: And I was in it, and you were in it
Speaker 6: the way he was. And weren't you. Weren't you dressed
Speaker 6: like a chicken? That's what it was.
Speaker 2: Okay, just remember you and a giant in my living
Speaker 2: room and you in some giant costume yea.
Speaker 7: From that.
Speaker 5: SpongeBob you know it.
Speaker 7: Bill did. Let me let me tell you about the glory.
Speaker 6: I do this little film called Oh That's so funny?
Speaker 3: Do you ever do you bet from that time?
Speaker 6: Will I bet you Sherman does? I'll bet you Sherman.
Speaker 4: And I'm seeing him tonight.
Speaker 6: I'm actually seeing him tonight, So yeah, that's so funny.
Speaker 7: Send him some love. WI.
Speaker 2: His wife, Wendy Leaveman, is a stand up comedian and
Speaker 2: she's performing in Burbank tonight with a whole group of people,
Speaker 2: and and Susan and I are going.
Speaker 6: So yeah, Yeah, it's gonna be great.
Speaker 7: Yeah. I gotta get back in touch with those folks
Speaker 7: like Jeff and I were hanging for a minute and
Speaker 7: that kind of I ended up working with Howard bust
Speaker 7: Gang on a pilot. Yeah, didn't get picked up, but
Speaker 7: it was one of those things. And I think if
Speaker 7: I recall, he had yeah, some of the Boy Meets
Speaker 7: World writers were helping me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, man, and maybe Matt Nelson.
Speaker 7: Not Matt, although it was great because I used to
Speaker 7: see Matt all the time in the valley too. Yeah yeah, man, yeah, are.
Speaker 4: You still in the valley?
Speaker 3: Are you in the valley?
Speaker 7: No? No, no, no no no.
Speaker 3: I've said, why were you running into him in.
Speaker 7: The valley because I had friends out there and coffee.
Speaker 6: You still do, Alex, you still have friends.
Speaker 4: Just avoid the valley never never.
Speaker 6: Oh that's so funny.
Speaker 3: Well, we can put you in touch with all those people.
Speaker 7: F y. Yeah, just reached out to me too on Instagram.
Speaker 3: That's not surprising.
Speaker 15: Yeah, it's it is high time, I think for a
Speaker 15: full Boy me World party reunion, everyone getting together somewhere, drinks, food.
Speaker 5: We said we were going to do it when we
Speaker 5: reached the end of season one, and we didn't say
Speaker 5: we should do it.
Speaker 4: I mean, I'm I'm happy to host it my place
Speaker 4: man to do it.
Speaker 1: So well, I have to ask, do you still get
Speaker 1: recognized for Boy Meets World at all?
Speaker 7: Uh? Huh to you? You know, it's funny. Streaming is
Speaker 7: hilarious because before streaming, like you know, you know how
Speaker 7: that somebody looks at you and you start walking towards
Speaker 7: you and they're like, okay here. I used to be
Speaker 7: able to tell what they recognized me from. So I'd
Speaker 7: be like, oh, I do not know you? Yes, that's it.
Speaker 7: If not know you, yeah, beckerl Oh And then like
Speaker 7: I could, you could always tell the Boy Meets World folks,
Speaker 7: which is great. But then streaming happened, and so now
Speaker 7: I can't tell ye people know me from. I'm like,
Speaker 7: what the what the who?
Speaker 3: It's probably all of it.
Speaker 7: Yeah, and it's funny. I didn't realize it's all Disney.
Speaker 2: I'm like, okay, it's very similar for all.
Speaker 6: Are you still playing are you still playing music?
Speaker 7: Uh huh? We actually just played The Will Turn last week.
Speaker 10: Wow.
Speaker 6: Yeah yeah, so we can go to a Hapcat show.
Speaker 7: Still we're still at a gun all right, We're still
Speaker 7: at it. We got our walkers, and we can get
Speaker 7: matching tattoos and matching tattoos.
Speaker 4: After you're now the you're the broken hepcats.
Speaker 6: Thank you very much. I broke my heap.
Speaker 5: Well wow, he had to repeat it. He had to
Speaker 5: reformulate it because he said broken hecats. We all were like, okay,
Speaker 5: but then, yeah, that's that's where should name your next door.
Speaker 4: I broke my head. I broke my head.
Speaker 7: There was once where we did a couple of years
Speaker 7: as ago, but I don't remember. It was the first
Speaker 7: time I was like, oh, yeah, we're getting older. Like
Speaker 7: we used to go on to it and be like, Yo,
Speaker 7: when's this, where's that? You got this? You got that?
Speaker 7: Who's that? And then one of these tours was like,
Speaker 7: hey man, did you bring any beat twelve? Hey, do
Speaker 7: you have any one of those moments like I'm sipping
Speaker 7: pee on Okay, it's.
Speaker 2: Happening here, we are, here, we are for those guys.
Speaker 6: Now that's awesome.
Speaker 1: Okay, Well, before we let you go, I absolutely have
Speaker 1: to talk about the Simpsons, otherwise my husband will kill me.
Speaker 1: You have had a very successful voiceover career four years,
Speaker 1: much like will you are a superhero.
Speaker 7: Man I'm just trying to stay in there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, right on the Simpsons, Yes, Simps. But you are
Speaker 1: now the voice of Carl and Lou. What has that
Speaker 1: legacy been?
Speaker 7: Like? Man, it's first off, I'm still going is this happening?
Speaker 7: I guess that's you know what, guys, I think that's
Speaker 7: just how I go through life. I'm like that this
Speaker 7: is really happen.
Speaker 6: That's how you know you're doing well.
Speaker 4: That's the joy of it.
Speaker 7: Yeah, No, it's been great. I mean there are a
Speaker 7: bunch of times on my really, I'm just like when
Speaker 7: I was I'm buying bro I'm still here, Okay. I
Speaker 7: mean it's been great. I mean it's you know, what
Speaker 7: a gift, what a what a blessing. When it came up,
Speaker 7: you know it was the right time, you know, it
Speaker 7: was you know, as we've all been living through this
Speaker 7: bizarre time, so it made complete sense. And it's been Yeah,
Speaker 7: it's just been a joy. It's you know, you know
Speaker 7: what it's like. You know how when you read a script,
Speaker 7: you know how rare it is when you read something
Speaker 7: you actually laugh out loud while you're reading. Yeah, and
Speaker 7: so to read something and be like oh snap, I
Speaker 7: just kind of and then like we'll do the table
Speaker 7: reads and you know, it's still all zoom at this point,
Speaker 7: but I'm in awe.
Speaker 6: Yeah, it's nuts all.
Speaker 7: Watching people do what they do, you know. Yeah, and
Speaker 7: to just have like a part of that, I'm completely grateful.
Speaker 7: And you know, even when we when we record with
Speaker 7: the directors and the writers are able to kind of
Speaker 7: the way Mike Jacobs was like, you see that joke there,
Speaker 7: you put these two together and turns into three different things.
Speaker 7: They're the exact same way where they just understand comedy
Speaker 7: and also understand the characters. So it's been a great,
Speaker 7: great experience.
Speaker 6: You know, it's amazing.
Speaker 7: That was a really nice sound by the kind of ramble,
Speaker 7: but it was a nice one.
Speaker 3: That I.
Speaker 2: Felt it we're talking about the Simpsons, I mean you're
Speaker 2: talking about arguably the most crisp comedy writing that's been
Speaker 2: on television for thirty five year impression.
Speaker 4: I mean, yeah, it's incredible.
Speaker 2: I mean it's and when you you know, I've always
Speaker 2: said I've been very lucky my voice over career, but
Speaker 2: I've never been one of those people that does twenty voices.
Speaker 2: So when you're sitting with those people and you're just going,
Speaker 2: how are you playing nineteen people in a row?
Speaker 6: It's you just it's like, how.
Speaker 7: Is this happening? Exactly? I'm like, you know my VEO stuff.
Speaker 7: I'm like, all right, I know my lanes. I can
Speaker 7: meet too. I can do that and that's me time.
Speaker 7: But then you watch you know, I always go back
Speaker 7: to mel Blank. I'm like, he did all those characters
Speaker 7: by himself.
Speaker 4: Yeah, in a room.
Speaker 7: And you'll watch these cats do this when we're doing
Speaker 7: the Simpsons. I'm like, they're just playing against each other yep,
Speaker 7: by them.
Speaker 6: So it's it's nuts. It's absolutely no, I do that.
Speaker 6: One of the coolest things being crazy.
Speaker 7: They do that, and.
Speaker 6: It's called being a billionaire exactly.
Speaker 12: Yeah, yeah, I love that.
Speaker 1: Our final question for you is now, almost thirty years later,
Speaker 1: how do you look back on your time at Boy
Speaker 1: Meets World?
Speaker 7: A great learning experiences, a great growing experience. It you know,
Speaker 7: it was it was a weird time too for me personally,
Speaker 7: because I think internally I was still trying to figure
Speaker 7: myself out. So as much light as there was, there
Speaker 7: was also dark going on. But to be able to
Speaker 7: go through it, you know, and have a place to
Speaker 7: come to where I could just hang was awesome and
Speaker 7: you know, like I said, if it wasn't for that,
Speaker 7: there would be no this, you know. So it was
Speaker 7: great and I still quote Bill Daniel's one of my
Speaker 7: favorite lines of all. I still sing Tony Tyler Quinn.
Speaker 7: But one of the other things, there was one episode
Speaker 7: you did where I think I stole like some fruit
Speaker 7: or something like that, and Bill had the most wonderful
Speaker 7: line and delivery, which I say at random now, which
Speaker 7: is uh that mango man, and that'll just pop up
Speaker 7: out of nowhere, you know, how you got stuff like yes,
Speaker 7: real life, you know, and you know I'll be in
Speaker 7: the VEO booth trying to get something right, not mango man. Okay,
Speaker 7: I got it. I think it was all my real too.
Speaker 1: I love that, and I I know I said that
Speaker 1: was my last question for you, but you touched on
Speaker 1: it twice talking about the darkness, and because we love
Speaker 1: what we do on this podcast for having people on
Speaker 1: and they talk about the funny and they talk about
Speaker 1: the good, but they also talk about that and we
Speaker 1: everyone can benefit and learn from it. Do you care
Speaker 1: to touch on it all, any of the personal darkness
Speaker 1: that was going on for you and.
Speaker 7: There's a lot of self doubt. You know. We're actors, actors,
Speaker 7: we're sensitive some some bitches, we're freelance. Yeah, you know.
Speaker 7: What always gets me And this is something you know,
Speaker 7: I'll be honest, I still struggle with and work on.
Speaker 7: Is I'm in a profession where I say, I have
Speaker 7: to say, Man, I'm the best, I'm the best. Like me, please.
Speaker 4: Yeah, hire me please.
Speaker 7: Yeah. It's a it's a weird thing to reconcile and
Speaker 7: like you know, you know, especially you know when we
Speaker 7: were doing the show. Well, I was five, six, seven
Speaker 7: years in the business. I'd already had you know, modicums
Speaker 7: of success, but scared of it.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you'd also, like you said, had some failures, been
Speaker 1: fired from some sitcoms.
Speaker 7: Yeah, you know, and so the stuff to work out,
Speaker 7: you know, yeah, like the party a little bit back
Speaker 7: then too, and so about balancing it out, you know.
Speaker 7: And I think that's just part of growing things. I
Speaker 7: think that's the human experience, as I say, you know, and.
Speaker 6: It is though it's it's weird.
Speaker 2: It's a bizarre business where you've got this combination of
Speaker 2: ego and imposter syntem where it's like I need to
Speaker 2: be on the set because I deserve it, I don't
Speaker 2: deserve it.
Speaker 6: And it's all in the same emodent. It's very strange.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I know we talked about when Boy Meets
Speaker 1: World was over for you and you you then took
Speaker 1: that time to go travel with music and stuff. But
Speaker 1: also it was then four years before you did High Fidelity, which, wow,
Speaker 1: come out, come out with another project with a bang
Speaker 1: with High Fidelity. But you know, over the course of
Speaker 1: four years, how much of that time was you saying
Speaker 1: I don't want to do another project, I'm focusing on
Speaker 1: music versus how much of it was Do you think
Speaker 1: was it hard to get work after Boy Meets World.
Speaker 7: I think I'm not sure what the what the percentages
Speaker 7: was both of them were there? Yeah, Because sometimes I'd
Speaker 7: be like, I'm not getting work. All right, let's get
Speaker 7: on the work, let's get on the road. I don't
Speaker 7: care forget this reason. And the funny thing is it's
Speaker 7: what did I was listening to Smartlus or something and
Speaker 7: they said it perfectly, that's Texian difference, right, And that's
Speaker 7: when the work happens. And so I'd go on tour
Speaker 7: and I'd come back, even with Becker if I remembered, Yeah,
Speaker 7: we got this great audition for it. Yeah, I can't
Speaker 7: make it. And I think I changed my audition like
Speaker 7: four or five times, you know, until I finally want you. Yeah,
Speaker 7: And that's what it is. It's like, it's the same thing.
Speaker 7: I book a ticket to Thailand. Oh, I got the
Speaker 7: movie that I always wanted.
Speaker 2: I was just going to say that, there's the old adage,
Speaker 2: if you want the audition, you want the part book
Speaker 2: a non refundable planet.
Speaker 7: I've been trying out a lot lately. It doesn't work
Speaker 7: as much.
Speaker 4: Now you're just stuck with all these vacations.
Speaker 5: I've been traveled the world for two years, just like.
Speaker 7: Man. But yeah, I mean, that's what it is. It's
Speaker 7: just finding that balance, man. And the great thing is
Speaker 7: I had a moment of going, do I still love
Speaker 7: being an actor or do I just need to get
Speaker 7: paid pay the bills? And then when I had that
Speaker 7: realization that I still love being an actor, I was like, Okay,
Speaker 7: that's it. We're good. That's awesome.
Speaker 6: Voiceover does that really well? Where you are.
Speaker 2: It's you and a microphone and it's pure acting, and
Speaker 2: you walk out of the booth.
Speaker 6: It's like the perfect golf shot.
Speaker 7: You go.
Speaker 6: I love this and it does. It just brings it
Speaker 6: right all back to you.
Speaker 4: It really does.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I'm so pure about it.
Speaker 7: I can go under the booth in a mood.
Speaker 6: And now it is perfect.
Speaker 4: It's just so good.
Speaker 6: I just played Superman like it's the greatest thing ever.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's awesome. So yeah.
Speaker 2: Voiceover does that For any actor out there who's wondering, God,
Speaker 2: do I want to do this anymore? Just start playing
Speaker 2: with some voices. You'll see how happy you get, how quickly. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's amazing.
Speaker 1: Wow, Alex, thank you so much for spending your time
Speaker 1: with us here today. We have really truly been so
Speaker 1: looking forward to reconnecting with you. And aside from doing
Speaker 1: a Big Boy meets World in person reunion, we will
Speaker 1: see you at a Hepcat show work. Yes, we will do.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for being here. So much love
Speaker 1: to you.
Speaker 3: We will.
Speaker 1: We will immediately pick a date and and uh make something,
Speaker 1: make something happen because we need we need to do it.
Speaker 3: I thank you.
Speaker 7: I like it.
Speaker 4: So good to see you man.
Speaker 6: Wow, Thank you Alex. We're going to see you soon,
Speaker 6: right to work.
Speaker 3: Thank you bye? How great is he.
Speaker 6: Forgot that?
Speaker 2: Energy sometimes, you know, I just you forget that energy
Speaker 2: when you're not around it.
Speaker 6: And it's just so awesome.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this was one of my favorite conversations we've had too.
Speaker 7: He really was.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: It's amazing when when somebody like that opens up about
Speaker 5: being insecure at all, because it comes across.
Speaker 3: As the most secure members I know.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's what I remember about him coming on to
Speaker 5: Boy Metro is like just just he belonged there, and
Speaker 5: he was always cool and always comfortable, and it's so
Speaker 5: weird to think that he was like a twenty five
Speaker 5: year old business a.
Speaker 6: Lot of way he was twenty five, and I couldn't
Speaker 6: believe that. That's amazing. I thought he was older than that.
Speaker 4: Of course they were a old that's the thing. Everybody
Speaker 4: was like twenty plus was old, you know.
Speaker 3: Right right, and adults who knew everything.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah of course. Yeah, so cool.
Speaker 5: I wish I could go back, and just like the
Speaker 5: dynamic between him and Tony must have been super interesting.
Speaker 5: They're both incredibly nice people, but completely different lifestyles totally right,
Speaker 5: Like Tony was already married, had a kid already. Yeah,
Speaker 5: but he was, you know, and he's very religious, he's
Speaker 5: very clean, cut, and I imagined that Alex at that
Speaker 5: time was not as clean cut.
Speaker 3: It was very different life.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so it's so, but I'm sure they got along
Speaker 5: because totally you know, but very different lifestyles.
Speaker 4: So on it.
Speaker 1: Well, thank thank you all for joining us for this
Speaker 1: episode of Podmeets World. As always, you can follow us
Speaker 1: on Instagram pod Meets World Show. You can send us
Speaker 1: your emails Podmeets Worldshow at gmail dot com, and we
Speaker 1: have merch. This march is dead anyway, Podmeetsworldshow dot com
Speaker 1: will send us out.
Speaker 4: We love you all, pod dismissed.
Speaker 2: Pod Meets World is an iHeart podcast produced and hosted
Speaker 2: by Danielle Fischel, Wilfordell.
Speaker 6: And Ryder Strong.
Speaker 2: Executive producers Jensen Karp and Amy Sugarman. Executive in charge
Speaker 2: of production, Danielle Romo, producer and editor, Taras Sudbach, producer,
Speaker 2: Jackie Rodriguez, engineer and Boy Meets World superfan Easton Allen.
Speaker 2: Our theme song is by Kyle Morton of Typhoon and
Speaker 2: you can follow us on Instagram at Podmeets World Show
Speaker 2: or email us at Podmeets Worldshow at gmail dot com