Speaker 1: Really now, really.
Speaker 2: Really now really Hello and welcome to really No Really
Speaker 2: with Jason, Alexander and Peter Tilden, who suggests that if
Speaker 2: you subscribe to our show, you'll swell with joy as
Speaker 2: you say out loud, did I do that?
Speaker 1: And speaking of that famous line?
Speaker 2: Jaliel White is an actor, producer, author, and screenwriter who
Speaker 2: is best known as the speaker of that iconic line
Speaker 2: Steve Erkele on the ABC sitcom Family Matters. Erkell is
Speaker 2: a role he played from the age of twelve until
Speaker 2: he was twenty one. In this episode, Jialiel discusses his
Speaker 2: instant immense fame and how he dealt with the hostility
Speaker 2: it caused within.
Speaker 1: His new TV family.
Speaker 2: He also explains the effect an all white writing staff
Speaker 2: had on an all black cast and his feelings about
Speaker 2: Seinfeld and what that sitcom meant to nineties kids of color.
Speaker 2: Julia also reveals why Family Matters could never exist again
Speaker 2: and what happened when a studio boss told him to
Speaker 2: con seal the man bulge in an aging Erkle's pants.
Speaker 1: Really no Really, here's Jason and Peter. So there are
Speaker 1: those I'm not one of them.
Speaker 3: There are those that would say in the pantheon of
Speaker 3: television icons. I might have a a small place.
Speaker 4: Or you're playing my own little ship, playing the Huble
Speaker 4: thing little.
Speaker 3: I might have a small shelf between Carol O'Connor, you know,
Speaker 3: Alan all. But but I started as as an adult.
Speaker 3: We have a gentleman on today who you probably know
Speaker 3: his actual name.
Speaker 1: But if I said Steve Arkle, I have a feeling,
Speaker 1: and here's what remedia among us would go, Steve Kle.
Speaker 4: And the thing's so fascinating about his career and how
Speaker 4: big he got and how he got big and how
Speaker 4: he got cast. I mean, it's so multi tier. But
Speaker 4: there really no really for me, was because everybody knows
Speaker 4: Erkele kees and icon in that pantheon.
Speaker 1: It's one of those characters that well, the thing that.
Speaker 4: Got me though I never thought of that there really
Speaker 4: not really was that he did that character from age
Speaker 4: twelve to twenty one, and I go, he was twenty
Speaker 4: one when he was doing Rkle and the network's giving
Speaker 4: him notes like cover up your balls, right, I don't
Speaker 4: think the network gives us. They never did that in
Speaker 4: the shows.
Speaker 3: We actually I was told to cover yes. In the
Speaker 3: eighth season of Seinfeld, they said, cover up your balls.
Speaker 3: I don't know why I love I.
Speaker 1: Love your guy.
Speaker 4: We got it. Hey, there's so many questions I want
Speaker 4: to ask.
Speaker 1: It is remarkable. Here's the thing.
Speaker 3: It's remarkable to me on a number of levels, what
Speaker 3: Julia has been able to do. First of all, to
Speaker 3: maintain a character that began as a child. When you
Speaker 3: meet characters on television that begin his children, there's a
Speaker 3: certain charm that a child has right as the actor.
Speaker 3: It grows up more often than not the thing that
Speaker 3: made you attracted to that character kind of and also
Speaker 3: they outgrow.
Speaker 4: As you grow older. You learned resentment, you learn so contracted.
Speaker 3: The character had staying power for as long as it's amazing.
Speaker 3: That's one thing. Then we hear, unfortunately, just tragic stories
Speaker 3: of of to have the kind of stardom that that
Speaker 3: Juliel had at an early age. I mean I was
Speaker 3: in my thirties and it messed with my head to
Speaker 3: be a kid and undergo it.
Speaker 1: It's a really.
Speaker 3: Very off putting thing for most kids, and most people
Speaker 3: who have become child stars.
Speaker 1: Grow up and they have real emotional problems in life.
Speaker 4: Well, also, you saw The Troubles, the documentary The Dark side,
Speaker 4: which just Nickelodeon what went on there? But why am
Speaker 4: I talking to you if you're sitting right there because
Speaker 4: you're paid to not much. But I think it's audit.
Speaker 4: I think it is in order.
Speaker 3: Live Julia White, good to see you right here in
Speaker 3: this studio all the way.
Speaker 1: From soon to be Why don't.
Speaker 4: You get that stock? Why don't you believe out? Is
Speaker 4: that we believe that out already? Thanks? Kay good. It's
Speaker 4: real smart and Jason who lives at and his daughter
Speaker 4: going to you know, it's I couldn't wait to get you.
Speaker 4: In the book, it's called grown Up with a Forward
Speaker 4: by Item Standler. Congratulations, thank you, so many questions first
Speaker 4: of all, but the interesting thing you were supposed to
Speaker 4: be on Cosby that started out as you were going
Speaker 4: to be, I mean to the point where you thought
Speaker 4: you were signed right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they named the character Rudy after you were going
Speaker 1: to play Rudy.
Speaker 5: The character was already Rudy.
Speaker 6: There were only boys auditioning role and at the last minute,
Speaker 6: this little girl comes walking in and it was came
Speaker 6: down between me and her in front of Brandon Tartakov
Speaker 6: all people.
Speaker 5: He rest in peace.
Speaker 4: You came in as a one time shot like an
Speaker 4: episode thirteen on a show that wasn't chuggling along was okay?
Speaker 4: One was okay and you popped? But could you talk
Speaker 4: about if you can get back into your twelve year
Speaker 4: old head? What did that feel? What was that like?
Speaker 4: How did you find out that it wasn't going to
Speaker 4: be one? What exploded? Was it at the table?
Speaker 1: Read?
Speaker 4: Was there audience response? Because that I don't understand how
Speaker 4: that all of a sudden took off and they when the.
Speaker 5: Light bulb lit up, it was audience response.
Speaker 6: But the thing I love about it when I look
Speaker 6: back on it and I talk about it extensively in
Speaker 6: the book is I had no expectation and I'm trying
Speaker 6: to get back to that now as an adult, I
Speaker 6: wanted to say a genesis, that's it.
Speaker 5: My dad made it.
Speaker 6: My dad made a deal with me that whenever I
Speaker 6: booked a job, I could get one of anything I wanted.
Speaker 5: And now that I'm a parent, what a genius move.
Speaker 6: Because I didn't like going on auditions anymore because they
Speaker 6: were starting to become too infrequent and they were disrupting
Speaker 6: my basketball practices. And as a black kid with braces
Speaker 6: at five foot four, the calls just weren't coming in
Speaker 6: in the in the seventh grade, so I didn't get
Speaker 6: an audition like maybe once every six weeks. And so
Speaker 6: I'm like, you know, my mom didn't like me having
Speaker 6: one foot in and one foot out because auditions come up,
Speaker 6: you gotta go like tomorrow. You know, they don't give
Speaker 6: you a lot of time to go on an audition,
Speaker 6: even back then. So my dad said, Gail, he doesn't
Speaker 6: see what's in it for. Because my parents never told
Speaker 6: me how much money I ever made from any of
Speaker 6: my jobs. I didn't find out how much money I
Speaker 6: was earning until I was fifteen. So I did seventy
Speaker 6: episodes of that show and never knew how much money
Speaker 6: I was ever making.
Speaker 5: So my dad said, Gail, just give him something. You
Speaker 5: know he needs something.
Speaker 6: And he said, well, what if you ever book a job,
Speaker 6: you get one of whatever you want.
Speaker 5: And so think about it.
Speaker 6: Back then, right in Circuit City, Fedco Radio Shack, Toys
Speaker 6: of Rust, these are my places foot locker that I
Speaker 6: want to go buy something at the top of the shelf.
Speaker 6: One hundred ninety nine bucks absurd, right, a lot of
Speaker 6: money to spend, you know, when you translate that to
Speaker 6: the initial pay, the residuals. It's nothing. So I was
Speaker 6: fired up. All I wanted was the saga genesis I
Speaker 6: do the show. A fraternity shows up that week for
Speaker 6: our taping and chance my character's names and in between
Speaker 6: all the scenes that I wasn't in. And what's what
Speaker 6: I really love about that memory was we filmed at
Speaker 6: the Lorimar Lot which is now the Sony Lot, and
Speaker 6: we parked our car at the main structure where all
Speaker 6: of the crew parks because we weren't cast, so we
Speaker 6: didn't give one of the fancy parking spots. And I
Speaker 6: remember walking back pretty much with members of the audience.
Speaker 6: They were like, man, you did a great job man,
Speaker 6: because they're walking back to their cars that I was
Speaker 6: walking back to my car, and you know it was.
Speaker 5: It wasn't any greater of an exercise.
Speaker 6: Then I hit my mark and I made them laugh
Speaker 6: and I got my sake genesis, and that's it.
Speaker 5: I wish it were deeper.
Speaker 4: And then they reached out to your family right away
Speaker 4: that oh.
Speaker 5: The negotiation was basically taking place.
Speaker 6: That Saturday and snow and then I was in class
Speaker 6: at Huntington Junior High in sam Ma Reno and I
Speaker 6: got called out of class and it was my mom
Speaker 6: telling me get home work because for the week they're
Speaker 6: bringing you back.
Speaker 4: So okay. So the next thing I want to ask
Speaker 4: is this. I heard you talk about how they put
Speaker 4: this together. There was the Jefferson so there were a
Speaker 4: hit black show or a couple of black shows. So
Speaker 4: they started pulling people in to try and form the show.
Speaker 4: And these people are all I think you said, they
Speaker 4: were all told they're going to be the start.
Speaker 6: Well that's kind of my theory when I look back
Speaker 6: on it, and I realized why certain feelings might have
Speaker 6: been hurt in the beginning. Now that I understand what
Speaker 6: the TV development process is, I usurped all of that. Right,
Speaker 6: some people resent when you've done that, But I was
Speaker 6: a kid.
Speaker 4: But how does a twelve year old kid then got
Speaker 4: a twelve year old kid who's in a whatever, we
Speaker 4: pick a number one to ten, hostile environment, they're not happy?
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was how did.
Speaker 4: You handle that? Did you know it at the time?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 5: You know, it was.
Speaker 6: Like I said, it's well documented that I wasn't well
Speaker 6: received by the adults in the beginning. However, I just
Speaker 6: I like to give them some props because you don't
Speaker 6: do two hundred and fifteen episodes and it's all through hostility,
Speaker 6: you know, they came around. I made them laugh like
Speaker 6: I made anybody else laugh on set. We had great memories.
Speaker 6: I think one of my greatest memories of at least
Speaker 6: being with the adults, particularly with Reggie and who played
Speaker 6: Carl and Joe Marie, was when we shot two episodes
Speaker 6: in Paris in nineteen ninety six. We were the first
Speaker 6: black show to ever shoot episodes in Europe, and that
Speaker 6: was that was a big deal, and.
Speaker 5: So we were there for ten days.
Speaker 6: I was I was there for a little bit longer
Speaker 6: because the producers brought me in so I could have
Speaker 6: some fun in Paris first because I was in every scene.
Speaker 5: So once we started working, they had whole days. I
Speaker 5: had no whole days.
Speaker 6: But that was the time, I remember where that was
Speaker 6: the height of our bonding, you know, that was our
Speaker 6: whole cast, the top of Jules Verne twelve thousand dollars
Speaker 6: meal saying like there was no there was no infighting
Speaker 6: going on back and so sometimes I like to help
Speaker 6: them even remember you had a good time making this.
Speaker 3: Great and we came around when most young actors are
Speaker 3: casting as something. They're cast for an essential thing that
Speaker 3: they bring to the table. You know they're not They're
Speaker 3: not They're not becoming chameleons. They're not transforming into a
Speaker 3: character that they don't walk around in. But you know
Speaker 3: you ain't hercle and you never were. How did you
Speaker 3: what made you think I need to do something for this?
Speaker 3: And how did you find that guy that voice, that persona,
Speaker 3: that Sega genesis?
Speaker 5: I just I'm telling you I but.
Speaker 3: Did you actually think, Oh, if I just walk in
Speaker 3: even though I'm five for him, that's not going to be.
Speaker 6: So the essence of me, Jason is I'm a little
Speaker 6: amateur athlete and I love to find ways to just win.
Speaker 6: I don't care if we're playing ping pong or board
Speaker 6: game whatever. It's like, we got we gotta win, huh.
Speaker 6: And And I so when I saw the character description
Speaker 6: called for a nerd, I knew I was on the
Speaker 6: shorter end of life. And I literally I had a
Speaker 6: growth spread on the show that saved my life. I
Speaker 6: grew nine inches between fifteen and seventeen. And when I
Speaker 6: would get called to play, you know a kid who
Speaker 6: stole something, or a tough kid or something like that,
Speaker 6: was like they were looking at me and like, get
Speaker 6: out of here, kid, John Singles is about to make
Speaker 6: some movies to take care of that.
Speaker 5: For us in the next few years.
Speaker 6: I really felt like I could get this role, and
Speaker 6: so that fired me up. I just I looked on
Speaker 6: the page and like, I can do that. So then
Speaker 6: my character references actually were where I was starting to
Speaker 6: at that point just look at other people and just
Speaker 6: try to impersonate them. So I had a VHS tape
Speaker 6: of the Best of Saturday Night Live, and Martin Shortt
Speaker 6: was on that doing Ed Grimley. So I popped in
Speaker 6: that tape and I just started borrowing his mannerisms. And
Speaker 6: so the reality was, and I didn't think about this
Speaker 6: at the time, but because I was black and because
Speaker 6: it was the nineties were then like we have today,
Speaker 6: nobody really caught on to this kid doing a bad
Speaker 6: Ed Grimley or and pee Wee Herman mashup, and so
Speaker 6: it became my own. And also, quite frankly, nobody would
Speaker 6: even give me the intellectual capacity to even think to
Speaker 6: reference that.
Speaker 5: And do it.
Speaker 6: So me, I love and I've always loved hearing when
Speaker 6: when an actor had an actual reference, like like Johnny
Speaker 6: Depp the pick the guy from the Rolling Stones Richard.
Speaker 6: So like, when I heard that story, I was like, Yo,
Speaker 6: that's what I did.
Speaker 5: With ed River.
Speaker 4: There's another layer that in at that point in television
Speaker 4: history your writing staff, you have black shows with all
Speaker 4: white writers. Did that help the ercle character because they're
Speaker 4: writing a nerd from their experience of in the white
Speaker 4: world what a nerd would be.
Speaker 6: So I think that's part of the the frustration examining
Speaker 6: the show.
Speaker 5: Looking backwards.
Speaker 6: You have to respect what television was, and you have
Speaker 6: to respect how much we've grown, you know, and there's
Speaker 6: no need to castigate it back this just no, it
Speaker 6: is what it was, and you know it was. If
Speaker 6: ABC wanted a family show, they didn't say, oh, we
Speaker 6: want white producers. They just went to the most proven
Speaker 6: producers they actually go to, and they just would happen
Speaker 6: to be white at that time.
Speaker 1: Got it.
Speaker 6: Now we've evolved to a different era where oh, nobody
Speaker 6: would think to put on a black show that didn't
Speaker 6: have black writers because that would be authentically insulting.
Speaker 5: But at the time that wasn't the thinking.
Speaker 6: So getting back to your something you brought up about
Speaker 6: the adult leads, I feel like when they conceived the show,
Speaker 6: they went to Miller Boy at ABC and they said,
Speaker 6: all right, we need a black family show.
Speaker 5: So they did the the tried.
Speaker 6: And true thing, pick a character off of an existing
Speaker 6: show and let's do the spinoff. So they went to
Speaker 6: Joe Marie and she was the elevator operator on Perfect Strangers,
Speaker 6: and so of course that's a big moment. Further, this
Speaker 6: is your show, your show, just your show, Oh my god,
Speaker 6: my own show. She's thinking, okay, but then behind the scenes,
Speaker 6: executives being executives, trying to reduce risk and hedge their beds.
Speaker 5: We need some more star power though. We got to
Speaker 5: add to her, you know.
Speaker 6: But they gotta be careful going out getting too big
Speaker 6: of a star because now that star is gonna want
Speaker 6: to change maybe aspects of the show that mill Boy would.
Speaker 5: So they got to go and hire an actor and
Speaker 5: not a star.
Speaker 6: So okay, and even back then, you know what, what
Speaker 6: black actors or stars are you going to get the
Speaker 6: short list? They get Reginald vel Johnson from Diard. Right, oh,
Speaker 6: this makes perfect sense. But to show you their lack
Speaker 6: of creativity, they actually make the guy wear the same
Speaker 6: uniform that he wore and die hard on our shot. Right,
Speaker 6: you're kidding me, right, I don't know what that conversation was.
Speaker 6: I'm exhibiting it like a professor, not looking back, and
Speaker 6: I'm going, oh, I see exactly what took place here.
Speaker 6: So you throw them all on the set and now
Speaker 6: and now for the big cherry on top. You give
Speaker 6: them all white writers who don't understand much about black
Speaker 6: nuanced comedy at all.
Speaker 4: Congratulations.
Speaker 6: So they get on the set and they start quarreling
Speaker 6: with each other, right, like I wouldn't say it.
Speaker 5: There's literally an episode of Family Matters.
Speaker 6: I went back during pandemic and I started watching the
Speaker 6: early episodes. I wasn't in because obviously during pandemic you
Speaker 6: only have time to watch yourself. So so an early
Speaker 6: episode wasn't in and Tema Hopkins enters the door as
Speaker 6: Aunt Rachel. She throws up in the front door. She says,
Speaker 6: after a long dad work. She goes oivey, not authentic.
Speaker 4: Wow, And I'm like.
Speaker 6: And I say this like, I had to play it
Speaker 6: back again. I was like, are you serious? He throws
Speaker 6: up at the door, just like this guy right.
Speaker 1: Over here, Jason.
Speaker 5: She says, ohivey and Listen.
Speaker 6: She put her heart and soul into that oid Vey
Speaker 6: you could tell too, like Teba was a company woman.
Speaker 4: Wow, was working on a lot of levels. I was
Speaker 4: working on a lot of levels for her, right, wow, wow.
Speaker 5: Wow.
Speaker 6: When I talk about the show and how I've gone
Speaker 6: back and taken it apart, like like Legos, I'm like,
Speaker 6: I was just the last guy that made sense out
Speaker 6: of Oise.
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh my god.
Speaker 4: But the writers must have found it easier to if
Speaker 4: somebody during an episode doesn't deliver the way they think
Speaker 4: they should, the entire writer's room goes let's now write
Speaker 4: more for that when it diminished that they punish people
Speaker 4: behind the scenes, and people don't realize that that goes on.
Speaker 5: It's my faith. Listen, it's are you kidding me?
Speaker 6: Of course, I mean it's it's it's one of the
Speaker 6: bigger jokes that most people would never be privy to.
Speaker 6: But a lot of the writers' rooms don't even think
Speaker 6: a lot of the actors are.
Speaker 1: Good, right right, Oh yeah, I've heard there'll.
Speaker 6: Be a regular cast member and it's like, oh, she's awful,
Speaker 6: she can't deliver that line.
Speaker 5: Okay, make it something different. But they keep that to
Speaker 5: themselves and that's how a lot of you know.
Speaker 6: Unfortunately, I think kids who grow up as being a
Speaker 6: family member on a show grow up with an overinflated
Speaker 6: idea of their acting ability. And that's because they had
Speaker 6: to be pacified to be in episodes of the show.
Speaker 6: But nobody ever pulled them aside and said, hey, don't
Speaker 6: you take some classes in the off season. Do you
Speaker 6: want to continue to act? You want to act in theater?
Speaker 6: Do you want to do this on Broadway? Don't you
Speaker 6: get with this person? Nobody ever thinks to elevate their
Speaker 6: skills or ask them if they want to do this
Speaker 6: long term, beyond just this show?
Speaker 1: And what was How did that relate to you?
Speaker 3: Were you aware that that you wanted to continue to
Speaker 3: forge a path in this and how? Because I'm sure
Speaker 3: I invite you, and I'm sure you will correct me
Speaker 3: if I'm wrong. You seem to have come out of
Speaker 3: child's stardom more intact than most child actors do, not
Speaker 3: only intact spiritually, but as you have a I think
Speaker 3: you have a pathway in this business that's wide open
Speaker 3: to what.
Speaker 1: You want to do.
Speaker 3: And you know, thank you, well, you have to do
Speaker 3: what we all have to do these days is we
Speaker 3: can't sit and wait for somebody to do annoyingt this.
Speaker 1: We have to create something and bring it to them.
Speaker 3: But you're actively doing that and it feels like the
Speaker 3: doors are wide open, and that would make you sort
Speaker 3: of breathing rare air. How did you How did you
Speaker 3: chart that course with family or on your own?
Speaker 6: You know, I'm not going to pretend like it wasn't
Speaker 6: difficult at times. Talk about those times specifically in the book,
Speaker 6: like I didn't feel like I became an adult and
Speaker 6: I started learning about people in the world to the
Speaker 6: show inded the day the show inded, there were certain
Speaker 6: individuals that delighted in letting me know you've been canceled
Speaker 6: and we don't have to treat you that way anymore. So,
Speaker 6: like I said, man, at the at the end of
Speaker 6: the day, I got it. I got a great mom
Speaker 6: and dad who, for all of their shortcomings not knowing
Speaker 6: certain aspects of the business, they had one instinct that's
Speaker 6: just a miracle if it lands in your life, and
Speaker 6: that was we're gonna protect our son. And my mom
Speaker 6: she was obsessed with not leaving me alone on a
Speaker 6: movie studio lot, so she was a hover MoMA, and
Speaker 6: you know, I'd be in a bathroom sneaking a donut
Speaker 6: before table reading because.
Speaker 5: She didn't like me to have sugar on the set.
Speaker 6: And these were what I was worried about, is my
Speaker 6: mom lurking around the corner seeing me eat a donor.
Speaker 4: She was always there, oh, because she was the kids
Speaker 4: and the kids who in watching that. It was hard
Speaker 4: to watch The Dark Tide. I don't watch that if
Speaker 4: I felt like though that the kids who got abused
Speaker 4: were the ones whose parents.
Speaker 6: Weren't around bingo. And it's like, I don't say bingo.
Speaker 6: Also we're here having a conversation. But I don't say
Speaker 6: that to diminish what that is. I just say that
Speaker 6: to say, you know, I really wish our media would
Speaker 6: sometimes just let up off of the kids that had
Speaker 6: a harder time, because would you make fun of somebody
Speaker 6: else who came from an alcoholic parent background or a
Speaker 6: background where they had to overcome parents who quite frankly,
Speaker 6: just didn't have it in them.
Speaker 4: Well, and also I can see it in this business.
Speaker 4: It's so addicting and talks. You know that a parent
Speaker 4: would think when you take your kid to a set,
Speaker 4: there's a teacher there there's adults around. Oh, I don't
Speaker 4: need to be here because I feel pretty comfortable that
Speaker 4: my child will be in good hands, not knowing at
Speaker 4: all the agendas and who those people are in their
Speaker 4: backgrounds and what's going on.
Speaker 6: So about the background checks they didn't do back then,
Speaker 6: Oh my god, I absolutely know. We worked around predators
Speaker 6: and people who had records in rap sheets and what
Speaker 6: do you are you kiddy? Darius told me one of
Speaker 6: the funniest stories. He doesn't mind, by the way, the
Speaker 6: guy who play Eddie Winslow. I will never call people
Speaker 6: by our character names. But Darius told me one of
Speaker 6: the funniest stories. Had no idea that the prop master,
Speaker 6: at least one of our early prop masters, would just
Speaker 6: leave beers for him in the prop room, because I
Speaker 6: guess he had walked in on her doing something she
Speaker 6: should have been doing, and her way of rewarding him was, Hey,
Speaker 6: if you want.
Speaker 5: A beer, I always leave you one.
Speaker 4: Wow.
Speaker 5: And so he always had car bloss and go get
Speaker 5: beers out of.
Speaker 4: The proper room, because yeah, he had a deal going all.
Speaker 6: Right here, I am trying to dodge my mom sneaking donuts, and.
Speaker 4: You're taking all this in by the way you ended up.
Speaker 4: You ended up writing writing an episode or several two episodes.
Speaker 6: I'm so proud of those episodes that they were both
Speaker 6: the highest rated episode for each respective see.
Speaker 4: Which is incredible. And also because there was no internet there.
Speaker 4: Do you remember. I remember Mickey I interviewed Mickey Donalds
Speaker 4: and the monkeys were huge whatever, And I said, when
Speaker 4: did you realize how big they were? I said, well,
Speaker 4: there's no internet. I didn't know, he said. I went
Speaker 4: Christmas shopping from my family at the mall and I'm looking,
Speaker 4: I'm wondering, who's here that people are running to, and
Speaker 4: I realized they were running to me, and I had
Speaker 4: to run out to my car because I had no
Speaker 4: idea that it spread. Did you have any idea?
Speaker 6: So that's how you you know, that's how you know
Speaker 6: you're famous. Back then, you were the last one to
Speaker 6: know you were famous. You stepped off a plane, you
Speaker 6: checked into a hotel. I remember the first, the first
Speaker 6: inkling that things were different was I did Regis and
Speaker 6: Kathy Lee and I stayed at the Park Regency on
Speaker 6: on Park Avenue, and for our family that was a
Speaker 6: big deal.
Speaker 5: You know, you only heard.
Speaker 6: About Park Avenue from different strokes at that point. Now
Speaker 6: here we are where we're staying here, and we checked
Speaker 6: into our room. The phone rang and my dad answered,
Speaker 6: and my mom's putting away our clothes and my dad
Speaker 6: just like, uh huh. He's having this long conversation and
Speaker 6: finding My mom's like, who are you talking to? And
Speaker 6: he's like, yeah, it's it's a fan. He's really a
Speaker 6: big fan of Jalil's. And somebody had found out that
Speaker 6: this is where I was going to be staying for
Speaker 6: the appearance on the Regis the next day and called
Speaker 6: our room and wanted to talk to me, and my
Speaker 6: dad gave me the phone, and my mom freaking lost it.
Speaker 5: She's like, could my dad get my dad's brain?
Speaker 6: At that time, he's just like this man is just
Speaker 6: saying all these wonderful things that my son should hear
Speaker 6: about himself.
Speaker 7: He's not thinking dead. You've been stocked and again, and
Speaker 7: he gave me the phone. I talked to the guy
Speaker 7: for a couple of minutes and thank you very much.
Speaker 7: And my mom's like, don't you ever you hand that
Speaker 7: phone again?
Speaker 1: Do it?
Speaker 4: Well?
Speaker 3: You know, because that that transitional moment, You're right, I
Speaker 3: clocked mine. I was doing entertainment tonight, just barely in
Speaker 3: our third season entertainment tonight. I said, yeah, we'll interview
Speaker 3: you'll be our fourth guest or whatever. And they're shooting
Speaker 3: b roll on the street, just me and the whoever
Speaker 3: the person interviewing me was. And this van drives by,
Speaker 3: and they're shooting b roll on the.
Speaker 1: Street, just me and the whoever the person interviewing me was.
Speaker 3: And this van drives by. It's a black family and
Speaker 3: a girl I put her at nine years old, ten
Speaker 3: years old, leans out the window and shouts, I love you, George,
Speaker 3: And I went, how was she watching? How are well?
Speaker 3: I'm doing a show first of all that appeals to
Speaker 3: a black family and a nine year old child. What
Speaker 3: is happening here? And that's when I went old, I'm
Speaker 3: not aware of quite what, and and then that change.
Speaker 3: But for you, what I have never been able to
Speaker 3: understand is I would not have handled child stardom well.
Speaker 3: I had all kinds of complex ego issues to figure out,
Speaker 3: personality issues to figure out took years and years of therapy.
Speaker 1: I'm still in therapy trying to figure out all out.
Speaker 1: But how did it? I know you had a good
Speaker 1: you had good parents, and they stayed at your side.
Speaker 3: But that kind of notoriety, that kind of power on
Speaker 3: a set for a young person can set them off
Speaker 3: in away, and then it's not reality. And then reality
Speaker 3: hits in. When the show gets canceled, the world changes.
Speaker 3: How did you navigate this journey?
Speaker 6: It's not just good parenting, I'm telling you though, It's
Speaker 6: all about intentions. And also, you just brought up something
Speaker 6: that I absolutely have to throw into this conversation that
Speaker 6: it was a shock for you for a black girl
Speaker 6: to say George in your mind, a black girl couldn't
Speaker 6: be watching. Let me tell you, let me tell you
Speaker 6: something screw with these TV networks. Tell you when you syndicate.
Speaker 6: First of all, that's a big, big, big deal. That's
Speaker 6: a far bigger deal than just streaming. Okay, your show
Speaker 6: appealed to far more minorities and blacks than you realize.
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, I.
Speaker 6: Used to get in trouble with my own showrunner because
Speaker 6: you guys came on Thursdays. That was our block and
Speaker 6: tape today. So we did our we tape, we filmed
Speaker 6: our show, and we were a film show. We actually
Speaker 6: had thirty five million film, a three camera film. We
Speaker 6: filmed our show on Fridays, so we came to work
Speaker 6: on Fridays on Seinfeld highs. Oh Man, this fool is
Speaker 6: selling muffins without the top man. Oh Man, it was
Speaker 6: like and George, George and Steinbrenner last night. Oh man,
Speaker 6: it was like, so I'm coming. I'm literally coming to
Speaker 6: work every day partially in my in my like age
Speaker 6: sixteen seventeenth, that's when you gots are just killing. And
Speaker 6: it was like, I'm looking at Kramer now as my
Speaker 6: role model. Wow, because I'm seeing the spastic nature of
Speaker 6: his character, and I'm also watched the evolution of his
Speaker 6: character because it wasn't nearly as spastik in the beginning,
Speaker 6: and neither was mine. And that's something that just kind
Speaker 6: of happens once the audience starts to hang on to
Speaker 6: every word because they love you before you've even spoken.
Speaker 6: He was just hitting the door and there is just
Speaker 6: you know, he could just start twitching and they would
Speaker 6: just starting and guess what, I could do the same thing.
Speaker 6: So I saw that in him, and I fell in
Speaker 6: love with Seinfeld and I would watch you guys religiously.
Speaker 6: But as I got older, and even being in college,
Speaker 6: I found it annoying that people would think, oh, you
Speaker 6: watched Seinfeld.
Speaker 5: I'm like, dude, don't do that.
Speaker 6: Don't put I know New York Undercover was on at
Speaker 6: the same time, and Martin and Living Single, and I
Speaker 6: catch those shows.
Speaker 5: How I catch them too.
Speaker 6: But I've always thought black culture is treated very monolithic
Speaker 6: in Hollywood.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and it's a delight to hear you note that.
Speaker 6: That was a black girl, because I'm here to tell
Speaker 6: you there's a lot of black girls and Hispanic girls
Speaker 6: and Puerto Rican girls that grew up loving some George
Speaker 6: canstinno oh.
Speaker 1: And I've met him.
Speaker 3: It was just a I had assumed I had underestimated
Speaker 3: my own show. I thought, yep, we had a very
Speaker 3: niche on It's very specific. I said, it's not going
Speaker 3: to appel the women. It's going to be guys who
Speaker 3: live in big cities and they're from like twenty one
Speaker 3: to thirty five years, so they're the only ones that
Speaker 3: they're going to get.
Speaker 6: I could see it in the formula. You guys hit
Speaker 6: your stride once they got rid of the stand ups. Well, yeah,
Speaker 6: that's when they determined that they got rid of the
Speaker 6: stand up. That's when the show took off. But again,
Speaker 6: people don't understand what we go through. The stand up
Speaker 6: is how you sold the show.
Speaker 1: Right, That was the idea, that was the whole anchor.
Speaker 6: He'll extend the story from his stand up and not
Speaker 6: even realizing dude, that's just slowing it down.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 3: The premise of the show, the early premise was how
Speaker 3: does the stand up create this material?
Speaker 4: I would care we'll.
Speaker 1: Show the day and then the stand up it'll be
Speaker 1: a bump.
Speaker 3: And then they realized, well, first of all, Jerry said,
Speaker 3: I'm doing stand up I've never done in a club.
Speaker 1: I don't like this, then feel good.
Speaker 3: I wouldn't. I wouldn't perform this material. And that's really
Speaker 3: what it was. He said, I didn't write the stand up.
Speaker 3: I wouldn't do this stand up. Okay, but that's how it.
Speaker 3: But then they had confidence that the show could stand
Speaker 3: on it.
Speaker 5: By the time you guys finish, your suckers were doing
Speaker 5: like twenty two scenes.
Speaker 3: I was like, this is what I want to to
Speaker 3: get into it with you next is what was very
Speaker 3: clear from our interaction outside but also in just you know,
Speaker 3: reading what you're up to. So you're you're now a
Speaker 3: builder you're building stuff, You're making stuff.
Speaker 1: I mean, you're doing exactly what I tell all the.
Speaker 3: College students that go check out in New York or
Speaker 3: la I go just go home and build something.
Speaker 1: Make them come to you. What what's all the stuff
Speaker 1: you got? You got the book? I know you have
Speaker 1: a cannabis company or.
Speaker 6: So yeah, I started a the streets, created a strain
Speaker 6: called Purple Oracle, and I even saw myself name checked
Speaker 6: on Billions and all these different shows, and people would
Speaker 6: go to dispensaries and they would send me, you know,
Speaker 6: you know, they would send me text message and be like,
Speaker 6: hey man, you're getting paid money off this. Because people's
Speaker 6: idea of what we get paid off of and what
Speaker 6: we don't is absolutely insane. All right, So I formed
Speaker 6: a company called It's Purple Right, and it was actually
Speaker 6: kind of a joke. It's purple on and when people
Speaker 6: see us, they think they're being discreet, but they're not.
Speaker 6: They're staring and they're whispering, and it's hert cole.
Speaker 5: Look, it's hert cole.
Speaker 4: It's tricle.
Speaker 5: And so I just wanted to have something to say
Speaker 5: back if I ever caught them and be like, it's
Speaker 5: not oracle. It's purple, and.
Speaker 4: That was just the.
Speaker 5: Cannabis cover.
Speaker 6: We profess to make the best purple Oracle, and I'll
Speaker 6: be damned if I'm prevented from selling purple Oracle as
Speaker 6: a strain off.
Speaker 1: This this drive. So there's the book, there's the cannabis line,
Speaker 1: what else, what else you got?
Speaker 4: We talked about it a little.
Speaker 6: Bit about it flip side. I'm a game show host
Speaker 6: on the flip side. I love flip Side. It's it
Speaker 6: allows me to connect with an older demographic. And then
Speaker 6: after that, I'm doing some fun stuff online. I started
Speaker 6: this little talk show it's just called Just a Minute
Speaker 6: with Julie White, and it's it's just we do a
Speaker 6: whole entire late night show in less than a minute.
Speaker 4: That's it, and it's funny.
Speaker 1: It was really fun.
Speaker 4: We watched it with John Sally and because as you
Speaker 4: know comedy and you know timing and you know cutting,
Speaker 4: you managed to do a good setup. You managed to
Speaker 4: then give whatever joke you were doing content. Then you
Speaker 4: went to a mini commercial. You've got a commercial in
Speaker 4: the minute and half. The boat and fantasy organically kind
Speaker 4: of fit the tone of the thing, and then you
Speaker 4: closed it out because if it's viral, who needs the show?
Speaker 4: Just cut out, cut out the middleman.
Speaker 1: Let's just do the clip. What where are you? Ten
Speaker 1: years from now?
Speaker 5: Oh wow, ten years from now, I'd like to be
Speaker 5: producing a lot more.
Speaker 6: At this point, I'm just as excited about identifying talent
Speaker 6: as I as I was about being talent when I
Speaker 6: was young. It's fun to see somebody that's younger than you,
Speaker 6: that's faster than you. That's it's they got it. They
Speaker 6: got the you know what I'm saying message they did,
Speaker 6: They're gonna. You know, it's fun to look at Wimby
Speaker 6: coming to the NBA. It's fun to look at this
Speaker 6: kid Cooper Flag got a duke and no he'd be like, oh,
Speaker 6: he got it. You know.
Speaker 5: That's what I'd really like to be doing, is just
Speaker 5: paying it forward at a huge level.
Speaker 4: So curiously, I know why people write books because they
Speaker 4: it makes you. You go through a process and the
Speaker 4: book has a lot in there. What do your hope
Speaker 4: happens to flow when you go on the book tour?
Speaker 4: What do you want the outcome to be for the book?
Speaker 4: What do you want the takeaway?
Speaker 5: Well, you know, the dream for me was.
Speaker 6: Everybody's talked about reboots, and I was never officially offered
Speaker 6: a reboot. I just want that to be I was
Speaker 6: never officially offered. I was offered an opportunity to sign
Speaker 6: a blind contract with the studio and then they would
Speaker 6: go off and make the reboot. Okay, so that's be
Speaker 6: clear about that. And I said, no, I'm not turning
Speaker 6: down the opportunity to work with you guys, because executives
Speaker 6: come and go.
Speaker 1: For me.
Speaker 6: The show that I want to make is inspired by
Speaker 6: the book. I feel like they've missed an opportunity to
Speaker 6: make a great wonder years that's said in the nineties.
Speaker 6: I just want to be a conduit to talk about
Speaker 6: all the things in the nineties and what my childhood
Speaker 6: was like. I don't think you can get a kid
Speaker 6: to the Emmys or the Golden Globe by playing Steve
Speaker 6: Verkle Junior. Because Laura and Steve had a kid. That's
Speaker 6: a Twitter pitch. It's corny, that's not that that that's
Speaker 6: that's right, that's low grade. But to have a kid
Speaker 6: who wanted to get a Sega Genesis, went on an audition,
Speaker 6: grabbed a VHS for inspiration, got nervous at the end
Speaker 6: because he saw other boys that stole his outfit and
Speaker 6: started dressing like him for the callback and said, I'm
Speaker 6: gonna go in here and add and raise the bar
Speaker 6: another level. And I'm just never gonna let him meet
Speaker 6: jal Ill. That's what I did on my callback for
Speaker 6: for Steve Verkle. I walked in, I introduced myself as
Speaker 6: Steve Verkle to Bill and Michael because I just.
Speaker 5: Wanted an edge.
Speaker 6: I was just a I just wanted an edge. I'm like,
Speaker 6: that's an awesome pilot man, and it's it's weird to
Speaker 6: have to say it out. It's fun to say it
Speaker 6: to you guys, but it also is a little insecure
Speaker 6: where it's like, is.
Speaker 4: This because you're ready to get kicked the teeth?
Speaker 6: But I know that works, and I know that works
Speaker 6: because the character serves as a conduit for revisiting nineties
Speaker 6: values what they were and what they are not any longer.
Speaker 6: And my two parents also, who have such an amazing
Speaker 6: story of what it is to have a a a
Speaker 6: child star just land at the center of their universe.
Speaker 4: Thank you for coming on. I think the books you've
Speaker 4: been called cover your balls, but that's that's okay. I
Speaker 4: just think it says so much about the network about
Speaker 4: how you had says it all.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I could talk to you guys all day of day.
Speaker 4: What a what a cool guy, you know, interesting personality
Speaker 4: and very small art and very aware of what he did,
Speaker 4: what he was and what he wants to beat.
Speaker 1: And you know it.
Speaker 3: I don't know why it's so banal to say, but
Speaker 3: it makes the work he did as that character even
Speaker 3: more spectacular because you go, he's nothing like that character.
Speaker 3: This was a guy who figured out at twelve, Oh,
Speaker 3: if I do a little bit of Marty Short and
Speaker 3: a little bit of this, I can make them. I'll
Speaker 3: wear the glasses and I'll do the thing. I mean,
Speaker 3: this is a really sharp, sharp kid man.
Speaker 4: Yes, and also, like he said, he's competitive. I know
Speaker 4: we didn't get to it, but he was playing he
Speaker 4: was playing basketball at the lot with George Clint. He
Speaker 4: can pick up games and he's not that tall. Like
Speaker 4: he said, he just wanted to win. He wanted to
Speaker 4: win and really competitive. And while he was here he's
Speaker 4: shooting stuff. There's like no downtime with him now that
Speaker 4: he doesn't for the joy of doing. He really enjoys it.
Speaker 1: I didn't quite know I was going to ask you
Speaker 1: a question.
Speaker 4: I knew he would be interesting. But he in one
Speaker 4: of the interviews given I want to get your take
Speaker 4: on this, he said, the biggest joy for him is
Speaker 4: when people come up to say, you were my childhood.
Speaker 4: What do people say about George? Now you get a
Speaker 4: lot of hey George, can't stand you though, But what's
Speaker 4: the thing that warms your heart when people come up.
Speaker 1: We've talked about it. It's it's the.
Speaker 3: It's the people who come up to say that the
Speaker 3: show and or I got them through something really difficult.
Speaker 3: You know, I've talked to people who have lost parents
Speaker 3: or lost children, or you know, I had devastating illnesses.
Speaker 1: I've talked to soldiers who were serving overseas and.
Speaker 3: They would put on the show and they would find
Speaker 3: a way back to some laughter and joy, and they
Speaker 3: cared enough to come share that with you.
Speaker 4: So, mister GOHI yes, hello, hello, sorry to do sorry
Speaker 4: to do seiinfel talk there. But I had Jason here.
Speaker 1: I figured why not, right, you should well listen.
Speaker 8: Now we know that we just have to wait for
Speaker 8: the growth bert to happen, to reinverate.
Speaker 1: Now, the one thing I did want to get to is.
Speaker 8: Of course, his character Racle was one of the most
Speaker 8: famous really nerds of television history.
Speaker 1: Where did the word nerd come from?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 1: Is it an first of let me ask this? Is
Speaker 1: it an anagram for something? Maybe?
Speaker 8: Maybe I will say it's unclear, there's no definitive answer.
Speaker 1: But that is actually one of the top five I
Speaker 1: can see. It's like, not entirely or not exactly regular dude. Well,
Speaker 1: what is nerd? Spell backwards? Oh? Uhr?
Speaker 4: And that got us what spell backwards?
Speaker 1: Whats on again? What does it mean? I don't know. Yeah.
Speaker 8: One of the ideas of nerd came from college slang,
Speaker 8: from spelling drunk backwards. So nerd or nerd I guess
Speaker 8: that k would be silent. Nerd was sort of a
Speaker 8: underground sort of thing. But the most popular, and.
Speaker 1: Again there's very little evidence one where the other.
Speaker 8: But the most popular is and because it appears before
Speaker 8: anywhere else is a doctor seuss Entry in the nineteen
Speaker 8: fifty book If I Ran the Zoo. But that was
Speaker 8: just basically one of those sort of nonsense phrases that happened.
Speaker 1: To include the word nerdy. Know.
Speaker 8: Within the next few years it became very popular as
Speaker 8: what it would later become with other words such as
Speaker 8: scurve meaning the same thing.
Speaker 1: But that one, of course, did not stand the test
Speaker 1: of time.
Speaker 4: Wow, catch up, prevenge of not so much.
Speaker 3: When you want to play a little game. Sure, here's
Speaker 3: what I was thinking. There are actors that get get
Speaker 3: defined as a one character.
Speaker 1: Oh thing.
Speaker 3: So I'll either give you the actor, you name the character.
Speaker 3: I'll give you the character. You name the actor. See
Speaker 3: if we can do it? All right, Rupert Grint?
Speaker 4: Oh, but that's from Harry Potter.
Speaker 1: What's the character?
Speaker 4: I don't know?
Speaker 1: Who played? John snow herv Schleckman David do you want
Speaker 1: to play? Yeah, he's been in a bunch of things.
Speaker 1: He's very popular. Yeah, but if you say the name
Speaker 1: Kit Harrington, they're gonna go John.
Speaker 3: George Reeves, Superman, Superman, a lot of films, a lot
Speaker 3: of TV Superman.
Speaker 1: Name any other movie the Bella Lagosi was in.
Speaker 4: But he also played Frankenstein in one movie too, because
Speaker 4: he played Yeah, because somebody was in a cheap movie.
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, I thought it was the wolf Man. I
Speaker 1: thought he was the on.
Speaker 3: Alan Alda. What's the one role that everybody What was
Speaker 3: the name of Hawkeye peers. This man did so much,
Speaker 3: so many movies, so much TV Archie Bunker, what.
Speaker 4: An amazing, amazing Yeah, all right, yep, how do you
Speaker 4: switch that? Watch the reversial bye bye bye bye bye
Speaker 4: bye all right to you?
Speaker 1: Ye really?
Speaker 2: As another episode of Really No Really, it comes to
Speaker 2: a close. I know you're asking what actors have played
Speaker 2: a single role the longest. Well, before we do the
Speaker 2: roll call, let's thank our guest.
Speaker 1: Julia White.
Speaker 2: You can follow Julia on his website Julia White dot com,
Speaker 2: on Instagram, X and Facebook. He is at Julia White
Speaker 2: and look for his book Growing Up Ercle. Find all
Speaker 2: pertinent links in our show notes, our little show hangs
Speaker 2: out on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and threads at Really No
Speaker 2: Really Podcast, And of course you can share your thoughts
Speaker 2: and feedback with us online at reallynoreli dot com. If
Speaker 2: you have a really some amazing factor story that boggles
Speaker 2: your mind, share it with us, and if we use it,
Speaker 2: we will send you a little gift.
Speaker 1: Nothing life changing, obviously, but it's the thought that counts.
Speaker 2: Check out our full episodes on YouTube, hit that subscribe
Speaker 2: button and take that bell. So here updated when we
Speaker 2: release new videos and episodes, which we do each Tuesday,
Speaker 2: so listen and follow us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple
Speaker 2: Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. And now the
Speaker 2: answer to the question what actors have played a single
Speaker 2: role of the longest Well, When an actor is lucky
Speaker 2: enough to land a winning role with staying power, there
Speaker 2: are usually few reasons to walk away, and here are
Speaker 2: a few actors who have stretched.
Speaker 1: A winner for the longest time.
Speaker 2: Murska Hargaateay has been bringing in the purpse on Law
Speaker 2: and Order SVU for over twenty four seasons and five
Speaker 2: hundred episodes. Kelsey Grammar has been playing doctor Fraser Crane
Speaker 2: on one show or another, from Cheers to Fraser for
Speaker 2: over twenty years. The Great Peter falk Don to a
Speaker 2: wrinkled raincoat and foiled Murders Colombo, a role he played
Speaker 2: in various series and incarnations for nearly thirty five years.
Speaker 1: But the hands down.
Speaker 2: Winner has to be everyone's favorite Frog Kermit, who has
Speaker 2: gray star television screens for a staggering sixty seven years. Really,
Speaker 2: No really is coming up on the end of two seasons,
Speaker 2: hardly a contender to beat Kermit, But then again, it's
Speaker 2: not Easy, Being Green, Really No, Really is production of
Speaker 2: iHeartRadio and Blase Entertainment