Speaker 1: Oh, I watched Balloon Farm.
Speaker 2: Will, what did you say?
Speaker 1: I was like, I go, I grabbed idiot.
Speaker 3: I was like, Will says, there's a really crazy movie
Speaker 3: we should watch, and we had so.
Speaker 4: Much fun farm.
Speaker 5: Tell me about balloon Farm.
Speaker 1: Oh, balloon Farm is a Magical World of Disney.
Speaker 4: It's a wonderful Disney that we did, done magical rewind Ye.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Then, and so we're Will and I were getting together
Speaker 3: to record in the City or a pod Meats World episode,
Speaker 3: and I don't know, somehow he was.
Speaker 1: Like, oh, you want to see an unhinged movie.
Speaker 3: And indies really into watching bad movies, Like ever since
Speaker 3: we watched Goblins two or you know what was it
Speaker 3: called Trolls Too, which should have been called Goblins. Ever
Speaker 3: since we watched that, he's like obsessed with watching, you know,
Speaker 3: really bad movies and having fun.
Speaker 1: So, yeah, we watch balloon Farm.
Speaker 2: Painted it is.
Speaker 4: It is about a dust bowl farm. And then Rip
Speaker 4: Torn shows up, okay to Mara Wilson is on the farm.
Speaker 4: He shows up and starts growing balloons.
Speaker 3: Oh, and everybody is so happy to have balloons, like
Speaker 3: they're starving, like they're literally it's a dust bowl, Like
Speaker 3: there's there's there's no one able to grow crops, but
Speaker 3: he grows balloons and changes everybody's lives.
Speaker 4: And sells them for ten dollars a piece, to the
Speaker 4: point where one family buys so many they lose their farm.
Speaker 4: The weirdest a balloon, Yes.
Speaker 3: And we're like, just you're sitting there trying to understand,
Speaker 3: like the logic of this movie. It's okay, So like
Speaker 3: it's based on a book, and you could tell it's
Speaker 3: like a probably from the nineteen fifties or forties, because
Speaker 3: it's like very old timey idea of like basically like
Speaker 3: magic comes to and uplifts the spirits of these sad,
Speaker 3: depressed people.
Speaker 1: Like that's the idea is like Willy.
Speaker 3: Wonka showed up and like made their life magical and
Speaker 3: then he disappears into the sunset.
Speaker 1: But the logic of it is like, but these they
Speaker 1: need food.
Speaker 5: Right, imagine.
Speaker 4: Why he eventually Well, do you want me to ruin
Speaker 4: the movie for you?
Speaker 6: I can if you want, I'm probably you know what,
Speaker 6: let me check my calendar. I'll let you know if
Speaker 6: I'm going to be able to get to Balloon Farm,
Speaker 6: I will not be able to get to Balloon Farm.
Speaker 4: So what what then happens is Mara Wilson uses the
Speaker 4: rest of the town's water supply to grow her own
Speaker 4: balloons on his farm, which are water balloons that sounds
Speaker 4: to hie up into the to the sky and pop
Speaker 4: and rain. So then everyone can do crops. But the
Speaker 4: thing that makes no sense is one of his pieces
Speaker 4: of magic, which again we talk about a nauseum, a
Speaker 4: magical rewind is he'll like, he'll have one lemon, and
Speaker 4: he'll put it in a container in a picture, and
Speaker 4: then all of a sudden it's lemonade and he has
Speaker 4: one coffee. That is what happens.
Speaker 6: Puts if you open lemons and put water on it.
Speaker 4: No, it's just one. He doesn't even cut it up.
Speaker 4: He's just and then as somebody walks by, it turns
Speaker 4: in pecan one per So I'm like, why is he
Speaker 4: doing that with corn and the crops they're actually trying
Speaker 4: to grow or money. And so for the book, though writer,
Speaker 4: we did the deep dive. By we, I mean producer
Speaker 4: Jensen did the deep dive. And what it is is
Speaker 4: that they added like the book was just a kid's
Speaker 4: very kid's friendly, five or six year old book about
Speaker 4: a guy who grows balloons. And then they added all
Speaker 4: the stuff about like the evil corporations coming in, people
Speaker 4: losing their farms, like that was just added for the movie.
Speaker 4: And apparently the gem which we could not find is
Speaker 4: there was a we saw it for a fuzzbucket. There
Speaker 4: is a series of these movies that are introed by
Speaker 4: Michael Eisner, right, and he'll he'll do like a fifteen
Speaker 4: literally like a fifteen minute or ten minute on camera
Speaker 4: intro where he's like walking on Disneyland, no where, he's
Speaker 4: just talking of BC on a set. And so apparently
Speaker 4: the one for Balloon Farm opens with him doing like
Speaker 4: a ten minute thing on hot air balloons, which the
Speaker 4: movie is not about at all.
Speaker 6: Oh my gosh, so is the part of the lesson?
Speaker 6: Still trying to figure out the lesson is part of
Speaker 6: the lesson. A give a man of fish, you feed
Speaker 6: him for a day. Teach a man to fish, you
Speaker 6: feed him for life. With the water like that, once
Speaker 6: they figured out how to make rain, they were then
Speaker 6: able to have crops.
Speaker 3: It's more like like allow some magic and whimsy into
Speaker 3: your life. Because everyone in the town is suspicious of
Speaker 3: this new guy. And when he's growing and mar Wilson
Speaker 3: is like much more welcoming and like able to see.
Speaker 6: So they took a Santa story exactly and they made
Speaker 6: it about me.
Speaker 4: But the.
Speaker 2: Shows up.
Speaker 1: But the actresses that plays the mom is amazing. What's
Speaker 1: her name from Rozanne?
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4: The cast is incredible. It's Laura Metcalf. Yes, it's Laurie Metcalf,
Speaker 4: marl Wilson. Mean, it's like a really good cast, but
Speaker 4: it is shot so poorly.
Speaker 1: It's that weird. It's that weird video.
Speaker 3: Moment where like video was so bad still but so
Speaker 3: much cheaper than film that there was just they just
Speaker 3: shot on video and it just looks it looks sped up,
Speaker 3: like the frame rates all messed up, so it looks
Speaker 3: like it's a sixty frames per second with this like
Speaker 3: cropped bat and yet they're trying to do camera moves.
Speaker 3: But you're just like it's just it's so it's dated
Speaker 3: in the worst way. Like it's like, just shoot this
Speaker 3: on film. Please shoot this on film, or don't try
Speaker 3: and make it a movie. Just shoot on video like
Speaker 3: a Boy Meets World episode, like you know, don't. But
Speaker 3: instead it's like trying to be a movie and you're like, oh,
Speaker 3: it's so painful to watch.
Speaker 4: The director was Ay, a man named William Deer who
Speaker 4: started on music videos, did Cheap Trick, Michael McDonald all
Speaker 4: that stuff, then did directed. His first film was Harry
Speaker 4: and the Hendersons and then he did the alowsome Richard
Speaker 4: Grico movie If Looks Could Kill?
Speaker 1: So this is my guy. He that was a notorious flop, but.
Speaker 2: He wrote it.
Speaker 4: He wrote The Rocketeer, and he did J. T. T's
Speaker 4: movie The Wild America.
Speaker 1: Acution for him.
Speaker 4: A bunch you and we were in this. Yeah, so
Speaker 4: this guy was Yeah. I mean when you got Harry
Speaker 4: and the Henderson's and If Looks Could Kill, come on
Speaker 4: blon Farm. Yeah, that's that's one for the ages.
Speaker 3: So he was like a really popular director. I was
Speaker 3: wondering why this cast was attached to this movie. I
Speaker 3: was like, this is an incredible because Mara at the
Speaker 3: time was like the number one kids actor.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's so.
Speaker 4: And then you got the cop who's gone on to
Speaker 4: become famous. But he was like in a different movie
Speaker 4: with his character.
Speaker 3: It was like every time he's like trying to make
Speaker 3: it it is for sure a pet detective and you're.
Speaker 1: Like it's not working.
Speaker 3: There's work where everyone else is in a like Dustball movie.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Like it was so strange. He like came in
Speaker 4: and he's like, I'm the sheriff and I got and
Speaker 4: you were going like, oh oh, he's doing a different films.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 5: He saw Disney and was like, I know what they want. Yes, Yes,
Speaker 5: welcome to Pod Meets World. I'm Daniel Fishl, I'm Rider Strong,
Speaker 5: and I'm Wilfordal.
Speaker 6: We have interviewed what feels like hundreds of child actors
Speaker 6: throughout the years on Pod Meets World, but today we
Speaker 6: are chatting with someone who took it one step further.
Speaker 6: He was a baby actor at just three months old.
Speaker 6: He made his TV debut on a Lily Tomlin special
Speaker 6: and then he got real lazy and he didn't work
Speaker 6: again until he was six, with a small part on
Speaker 6: Little House on the Prairie. Then came the guest star
Speaker 6: cycle on shows like Highway to Heaven, Family, Ties, Say Elsewhere,
Speaker 6: and Love Boat.
Speaker 5: Will just lit up like a.
Speaker 4: Christmas Tree Television Royalty.
Speaker 6: Plus two Disney original movies that Will is going to
Speaker 6: have to look into, Mister Boogady and Bride of Boogady.
Speaker 2: Whoa I tell Yes, Uh huh.
Speaker 6: And then in nineteen eighty seven, at just thirteen years old,
Speaker 6: a once in a generation character came his way when
Speaker 6: he was cast as Bud, the youngest of two children
Speaker 6: born to Al, a shoe salesman, and Peg Uh Peg.
Speaker 5: That show the.
Speaker 6: Hall of Fame controversy, magnet culture shifting sitcom Married with
Speaker 6: Children would become one of the longest running sitcoms in
Speaker 6: American TV history, running for eleven seasons and two hundred
Speaker 6: and fifty six episodes, helping lift Fox from laughable alternative
Speaker 6: to bonafide competitor to Network TV.
Speaker 5: How Big Was Married with Children.
Speaker 6: The show, which at its peak averaged twenty million viewers
Speaker 6: per episode, was remade in Argentina, Armenia, Bulgaria, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Mexico, Russia, Turkey,
Speaker 6: the United Kingdom, and Brazil, where their title tried translated
Speaker 6: to the War of the Pintos.
Speaker 4: What are they the Pinto Family?
Speaker 5: I don't know.
Speaker 6: I'm married with Children translated to the War of the Pintos.
Speaker 6: I don't Know in Brazil and now approaching its fortieth anniversary,
Speaker 6: the cast has been reuniting last year for a sold
Speaker 6: out show at the Wiltern and just last month at
Speaker 6: the Orpheum as part of the Netflix Is.
Speaker 5: A Joke Festival.
Speaker 6: All this and he somehow found himself as a West
Speaker 6: Coast hip hop pioneer, bringing rap music and NWA to
Speaker 6: the Sunset Strip.
Speaker 5: This week on Podme's World.
Speaker 6: From a show that critics called zestily lowbrow, sex obsessed,
Speaker 6: utter trash, and the crudest comedy on primetime television, It's
Speaker 6: Bud Bundy aka Grandmaster b David Faustino.
Speaker 2: Hey, guys, how are you never get an outdoor interview?
Speaker 2: This is awesome to enjoy my backyard. I love it
Speaker 2: out here and it's shady, so that's nice. I just
Speaker 2: moved and like one of the prerequisites is I had
Speaker 2: to have a backyard.
Speaker 5: Which, yeah, some backyard space.
Speaker 2: Oh my god. Yeah, I love it. So tell me
Speaker 2: because I just sat down, like I didn't look at
Speaker 2: what's what? Tell me a little bit about the show,
Speaker 2: just if you can.
Speaker 5: About our podcast.
Speaker 6: Yeah, sure, So we are a boy meets World rewatch podcast.
Speaker 5: We do two episodes a week.
Speaker 6: The first the first episode a week is us going
Speaker 6: through scene by scene of an episode in chronological order,
Speaker 6: starting with episode one, we've made it all the way
Speaker 6: through season seven.
Speaker 2: Oh wow.
Speaker 5: And then our.
Speaker 6: Second episode of the week is an interview episode, and
Speaker 6: we have interviewed all the writers and producers and props
Speaker 6: and hair and makeup and guest cast and background actors,
Speaker 6: anyone we've been able to pull who was directly connected
Speaker 6: to Boy Meets World. And then also we expand on
Speaker 6: that to anyone who was a child actor, anyone who
Speaker 6: was on a show around the same time we were people.
Speaker 2: Going through every crew member and.
Speaker 1: Here you are.
Speaker 2: That's so while because I'm doing something very similar. It's
Speaker 2: it's it's it's uh so it's interesting to talk about
Speaker 2: that because I I didn't I really didn't know you
Speaker 2: guys were doing. That's so cool because I'm doing one
Speaker 2: where I have the audience in on the show. We'll
Speaker 2: have like you know, it's it's it's like a mod
Speaker 2: cast we call like a member's only podcast, and so
Speaker 2: you become a member and then you know, you get
Speaker 2: to come to the Zoom parties. I we just started
Speaker 2: ours like uh two months ago, so we do it
Speaker 2: bi weekly.
Speaker 4: Who are you doing it with?
Speaker 2: So it's myself and my my partners who like you know,
Speaker 2: help me create the platform and everything, and my co
Speaker 2: host a guy named Darren Blat, But I have like
Speaker 2: so like the first week we had Amanda Burs, who
Speaker 2: played the neighbor on Mary with Children, and then we
Speaker 2: had we had the the No Mam Guys, which was
Speaker 2: like Al was like, you know, a group of guys
Speaker 2: that he hung out with, and then we had Ed O'Neill.
Speaker 4: Sure next week, So I'm sorry, but Amanda was your
Speaker 4: first differ jumping right in, Amanda was your first guest.
Speaker 4: Wasn't Amanda one of the few people that there was
Speaker 4: a quote unquote problem with? Isn't you were You were
Speaker 4: famously now with me, But weren't you one of the people,
Speaker 4: not only one of two people not invited to her wedding?
Speaker 2: Yes, but I also was like I was also really
Speaker 2: young and really immature, and like, you know, I can
Speaker 2: see why she might not have wanted to invite me.
Speaker 4: But that's I'm just saying, that's really cool that you
Speaker 4: guys have reconnected and that she came on.
Speaker 1: Your show and everything.
Speaker 2: That's awesome, totally fine. I mean Ed and her have
Speaker 2: a little bit more of a beef than I than
Speaker 2: we do. But like even when Ed was on. We
Speaker 2: told him, I told I didn't tell him Amanda had
Speaker 2: been on yet, perfectly because I thought, okay, I got
Speaker 2: him to do the show, and I don't want to
Speaker 2: do anything to screw that up. So I told him
Speaker 2: while we were doing it, and he's like, oh yeah,
Speaker 2: I mean he didn't. He talked very nicely of her.
Speaker 2: But there's that great clip. I don't know. I'm guessing
Speaker 2: you've seen it because you're talking about it, where he's
Speaker 2: he's being interviewed by like TV Academy or something like that,
Speaker 2: where he goes into he goes at length into this
Speaker 2: whole ordeal that the two of them have and it
Speaker 2: gets funnier and funnier.
Speaker 4: I actually, no, I haven't one I saw. I just
Speaker 4: saw a clip of you talking about the wedding.
Speaker 2: Oh you must. You must find it and watch it.
Speaker 5: We will look that up.
Speaker 1: That's great.
Speaker 2: So that's why, that's why this is actually the the
Speaker 2: the name of the show I do. It's called The
Speaker 2: Bundy Club. So so cool.
Speaker 5: So do you watch the episode with the fans?
Speaker 2: So we what we do is we take an episode,
Speaker 2: so we don't go in chronological order like you guys.
Speaker 2: It just depends on like what guests we have, and
Speaker 2: we let the guests pick the episode or episodes in
Speaker 2: this case, like tomorrow, I have David Garrison, who played
Speaker 2: the first Marcy's husband and and and so he's on
Speaker 2: and that's really cool. It's really cool. Like fans were
Speaker 2: going crazy about him, like they went crazy for Ed,
Speaker 2: but it's almost like they're more like, oh my god,
Speaker 2: like Steve no and so he got So he's We
Speaker 2: picked a few episodes as three episodes that we're doing
Speaker 2: tomorrow night, and so the fans watch it, right, the
Speaker 2: homework is to watch it and then we all come
Speaker 2: together and we break the episode down in that that's awesome.
Speaker 6: Yeah, well, before we jump into talking about the Netflix event,
Speaker 6: I did want to say, you might be the person
Speaker 6: who started acting the youngest to ever appear on our show.
Speaker 2: How did three months old? I would hope?
Speaker 6: So I was did you find yourself sharing a credit
Speaker 6: with Lily Tomlin before you even had your first tooth?
Speaker 2: You know? Well, the funny thing about that is is
Speaker 2: I actually played her daughter. So I always say that's
Speaker 2: how small my penis was. From the they hired me
Speaker 2: as as a as a daughter. But yeah, she so
Speaker 2: she's like the setup of that. Okay, I'll go back
Speaker 2: a little bit. My dad was a costumer, uh for
Speaker 2: you know, his whole career. He was that's what he did.
Speaker 2: And uh and my older brother, who's eleven years older
Speaker 2: than me, like, was this beautiful child. I don't know
Speaker 2: where he came from, but he was just like, you know,
Speaker 2: really just and uh, this guy was producing a commercial,
Speaker 2: was like, oh my god, this kid, I gotta So
Speaker 2: that's kind of how it started. And so we all
Speaker 2: at one time or another, there's four of us were
Speaker 2: you know, actors. We're all still in the business. And
Speaker 2: one of my brother now that that brother, he's like,
Speaker 2: you know, he's like the audio main mixer for like,
Speaker 2: you know, the Voice and American Idol. He's got two Emmys.
Speaker 2: And I always say, somebody in the family had to
Speaker 2: get an Emmy, right, I say, can you let me
Speaker 2: borrow one of them? You know? And then and then
Speaker 2: I just kind of fell in line, and uh, you know,
Speaker 2: and uh in that in that episode or that show,
Speaker 2: I guess it was the Lily Tomlin special. She was
Speaker 2: she's like a clown at the circus, I guess. And
Speaker 2: she's rushed to the hospital to have a baby, and
Speaker 2: her baby's a clown, and I'm that clown. And here
Speaker 2: I am still a clown.
Speaker 5: Very far now an adult clown.
Speaker 4: Though an adult clown three months old. It's gonna be
Speaker 4: tough to beat that one.
Speaker 2: I think. I think it's it goes down in the records.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, unless some unless somebody's ultrasound is actually used
Speaker 4: in the show. I think you're gonna, you're gonna, you're
Speaker 4: gonna take that title.
Speaker 2: Sit on that person.
Speaker 6: Well, after that role, you waited until you had really matured.
Speaker 6: You waited until about six years old to pursue acting
Speaker 6: full time.
Speaker 2: Was is that right? It could be?
Speaker 6: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 6: Were you were your parents still on board? Were your
Speaker 6: siblings still in it too?
Speaker 2: Like?
Speaker 5: Was everybody just gung ho about it from the get go?
Speaker 2: Yeah? We all really, like we enjoyed it, you know,
Speaker 2: and it was it was it was always fun to us,
Speaker 2: and like, you know, we'd get to travel the world
Speaker 2: because of it, Like my mom and I were extremely close,
Speaker 2: Like we we went all over the Middle East, Europe, Hawaii, like,
Speaker 2: you know, we got to travel and and it was
Speaker 2: it was a lot of fun. And uh, we you know,
Speaker 2: we really enjoyed it. And you know, it's funny you
Speaker 2: say that because I, as I was saying about the watch,
Speaker 2: you know, rewatching the episodes that we watched with the fans,
Speaker 2: I was watching one because David Garrison picked one of
Speaker 2: the ones, and it's called Buck Staves of the Day.
Speaker 2: We go like, uh, we go camping, and one of
Speaker 2: the kids that we take camping is my little brother
Speaker 2: who's six years younger than me, and he's in. He's
Speaker 2: in a few episodes. Actually, they brought him in like
Speaker 2: to four or five episodes, and that was one of
Speaker 2: the ones he did when he was super young. So
Speaker 2: we're all, you know, but he works in audio with
Speaker 2: my other brother. They may have made the right choice there. No,
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 4: Is it four boys or do you have a sister too?
Speaker 2: One sister and three boys? Gotcha girl? Yeah?
Speaker 3: Well, so it's so interesting because like we all like
Speaker 3: by the time our show was up and running, there
Speaker 3: was sense of like normal life that like acting had
Speaker 3: sort of pulled us away from. But it sounds like
Speaker 3: for you you were just always in the business, like
Speaker 3: your family, so there was no like alternative.
Speaker 1: There was no like normal life, was there.
Speaker 2: Yeah? No, that was really it. I mean, you know,
Speaker 2: I'd go back to school. I went to this little
Speaker 2: Catholic school in Burbank called Saint finbarr On all of there,
Speaker 2: and you know, I would always it always. It always
Speaker 2: struck me how many kids were not actors. Like to me,
Speaker 2: it's like you just said, it's like it was so normal,
Speaker 2: that was our lives and like, you know, everybody, we
Speaker 2: sort of knew it would would. And then you go
Speaker 2: back to my school and like I was like the
Speaker 2: only kid that was an actor in that whole you know, school,
Speaker 2: and so consequently, you know, I was never like great
Speaker 2: at sports. I was never the cool kid. I was never,
Speaker 2: but I I got along with everybody, like I was
Speaker 2: that guy who melded all the people. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 2: part of it was that, you know, I'd come back
Speaker 2: and they'd see me in this commercial or that show
Speaker 2: or you know, and and uh so bye bye by
Speaker 2: kind of by that way, I was popular with the kids.
Speaker 2: But what was interesting is when I really hit it
Speaker 2: big with married with children, and I tried to like,
Speaker 2: you know, they say that, you know, fame doesn't change you,
Speaker 2: it changes the people around you. And maybe some of
Speaker 2: that's true. Maybe some of it's not. But it was
Speaker 2: very strange when I after success really hit and I
Speaker 2: tried to hang out with some of these guys. They
Speaker 2: I could tell there was like this weird like they
Speaker 2: were waiting for me to be a jerk. You know.
Speaker 2: I tried my hardest to sort of you know, hang
Speaker 2: out with them again, and it never. Some of those
Speaker 2: guys just they weren't able to to. I don't know, yeah, guys,
Speaker 2: it was very strength. So so I dropped them all,
Speaker 2: and now I have new friends.
Speaker 4: You got good friends. Was there ever a time between
Speaker 4: you know, six and married with children when you were like,
Speaker 4: I don't think this for me. Maybe I'm just going
Speaker 4: to be a regular person. I don't want to be
Speaker 4: an actor. No.
Speaker 2: The only times I would ever maybe have those thoughts
Speaker 2: is when I would, you know, as you guys know well,
Speaker 2: is when I would get really close on an audition
Speaker 2: and I would call back, call back, call back, and
Speaker 2: then you know, you're between it's between you and three guys,
Speaker 2: and I'd lose it. I would take that really hard,
Speaker 2: and I would like cry in my bed and be
Speaker 2: in a position and and and and and then I went,
Speaker 2: my you do I want to do this. But I
Speaker 2: always just got back out there and just kept swinging,
Speaker 2: you know, for for every every every strike you get,
Speaker 2: for every for every thirty strikes you maybe hit one
Speaker 2: out of the park. Yeah, definitely, That's just the way
Speaker 2: it goes. You know.
Speaker 6: Well, that early run of shows you appeared on is
Speaker 6: pretty historic little house on the Prairie Highway to heaven
Speaker 6: saying elsewhere. But I know Will is going to want
Speaker 6: to hear everything about Family Ties.
Speaker 4: Michael J. Fox and Family Time. It's like one of
Speaker 4: the reasons I became an actor.
Speaker 2: That show was fun because I was a fan too.
Speaker 2: That That's the cool thing is I was already a
Speaker 2: fan of that show is one of those shows I
Speaker 2: would watch and so getting to get on getting to
Speaker 2: be on that was like, I was like, holy, you know,
Speaker 2: like you said, Michael J. Fox and Justine and this
Speaker 2: is a this is a weird story that they may
Speaker 2: not want me to tell, but oh well, I remember
Speaker 2: because I was nine when I did that, and I remember,
Speaker 2: you know, I was a fan. And I don't know
Speaker 2: how long this last. I had this scene where I
Speaker 2: would I'd enter the house with the two of them
Speaker 2: and I remember, We're like you know, you're at the
Speaker 2: front door and you're out off the set and you're
Speaker 2: off camera. I remember, I just I just remember them
Speaker 2: like making out furiously like you know, and then and
Speaker 2: then it was like q enter like again. I don't
Speaker 2: know how long that lasted with them. It was probably
Speaker 2: just a little fling or whatever. Justine and and Michael. Yeah,
Speaker 2: wow cool. It was just like, what's going on here?
Speaker 2: I thought you guys were brother and sister when I
Speaker 2: see how it goes here. That's so.
Speaker 6: Was your dream always to get on a weekly sitcom?
Speaker 1: Was that?
Speaker 2: Like?
Speaker 5: For Will? That was just always the goal?
Speaker 2: Yes, okay, I mean that's what you know, because you know,
Speaker 2: you can see the kids who have these series right
Speaker 2: in our world.
Speaker 4: It was like there are series like how do you
Speaker 4: do that?
Speaker 2: Amine? You're fine? And and so I really wanted that
Speaker 2: bad and I you know, I did several pilots and
Speaker 2: I did the show that went for five episodes that
Speaker 2: no one saw, you know, I did the gamut and
Speaker 2: then uh, you know, Mary with Children had and it
Speaker 2: was already so they had hired two other kids to
Speaker 2: play Budd and Kelly and shot the pilot and everything.
Speaker 2: So when we when we did land it Christina and
Speaker 2: I it was already sold. So it was like, you know,
Speaker 2: it was it was crazy. And now those are the
Speaker 2: days of like answering machines. And I remember going to
Speaker 2: Network and you know they you know how they do,
Speaker 2: They pair people up, and they paired Christina and I
Speaker 2: up and and then so by the time we drove
Speaker 2: from Fox, you know, my mom was driving me obviously
Speaker 2: from Fox to back to our house in Burbank. We
Speaker 2: got home, There's one message and it was blinking and
Speaker 2: I was like, Emma was my agent saying that I
Speaker 2: had had booked.
Speaker 6: Yeah, gosh, those are the good old days when you
Speaker 6: could come home and see a message and not know
Speaker 6: what it is and be excited. Now it's like the
Speaker 6: second you wouldn't have even made it to your car
Speaker 6: before you would have known the answer.
Speaker 2: You know, that's how it goes, right, Yeah, everyone in
Speaker 2: a different direction. That's my favorite.
Speaker 5: I love that one. So then they just reshot only
Speaker 5: the Bud and Kelly scenes after they cast you guys.
Speaker 5: Was that weird?
Speaker 2: No, it was pretty pretty easy. And normally, I mean
Speaker 2: that set was you know, and and I think ed
Speaker 2: and Katie and Christina all, you know, attest to this.
Speaker 2: It's like they all say, there's never been a there
Speaker 2: was never a job before or never been a job after.
Speaker 2: That was quite like you know, thes Ron and Michael,
Speaker 2: they were just these like hilarious anything goes guys. They
Speaker 2: were just the greatest guys guys, and just it was
Speaker 2: just a fun and besides the little beef with Ed
Speaker 2: and Amanda, like there was no I don't know, it
Speaker 2: was just anything goes. It was very fun and open
Speaker 2: and we didn't over rehearse anything, and it just it
Speaker 2: was just a wonderful set to be on. It really was.
Speaker 3: And how did you guys feel about Fox at the time,
Speaker 3: because Fox was still kind of new, unproven, right, you
Speaker 3: guys were part of the reason that it became what
Speaker 3: it became. But did it feel like you were on
Speaker 3: like a sort of rebel.
Speaker 2: Well, no, it felt like because you know, again, we
Speaker 2: all talked about how we all wanted to be on
Speaker 2: series as actors, right, right, And that was the sort
Speaker 2: of caveat. Is that the right word. I'm not sure
Speaker 2: it was like that. It was like the oh, but
Speaker 2: it's but it's beyond it, but no one will see it.
Speaker 2: And that was the truth. For three years. And I
Speaker 2: always tell this story and you probably heard me tell
Speaker 2: it before, but I you know, I I had worked constantly,
Speaker 2: but never was no one ever went, hey, that's the guy.
Speaker 2: And you know, we all want that fame. It's in
Speaker 2: us that we all kind of want recognition for what
Speaker 2: we do. And like season two, or maybe it's end
Speaker 2: of season one. I remember I went to the mall
Speaker 2: and I had this married with Children T shirt and
Speaker 2: you know, like the first two seasons, no one watched
Speaker 2: the show. They went back and watched it later, and
Speaker 2: I remember wearing this T shirt to the mall with
Speaker 2: my friends and not a single person was like, oh,
Speaker 2: I want no one And I remember going, fucking, it's
Speaker 2: never gonna happen with this. And then you know, the
Speaker 2: third season it caught fire and then it was like
Speaker 2: then I went through that phase where I was like
Speaker 2: a teenager, an awkward teenager in this crazy amount of fame,
Speaker 2: and I did for about three or four years. I
Speaker 2: hated being recognized unless it was on my terms, when
Speaker 2: I wanted it, where I wanted it. But for the
Speaker 2: most part, I just was like I was pretty miserable
Speaker 2: until I learned to embrace it. Like eighteen, you know,
Speaker 2: I was just like I yeah, and you know, people
Speaker 2: will try to come give me love, and I was
Speaker 2: super guarded, like you know, how dare you like what?
Speaker 2: It was just so weird, It was so weird, and
Speaker 2: then I, like I said, I learned to embrace it.
Speaker 2: And then from then on it was just it was fun,
Speaker 2: you know. Yeah? Yeah?
Speaker 6: Were you a precocious teenager and were you always wise
Speaker 6: beyond your years? Because obviously Bud took a certain type
Speaker 6: of child actor, like not just anybody could play that part.
Speaker 5: Did that did it fit you as a person somewhat?
Speaker 2: Yeah? And I heard this story not until I watched
Speaker 2: Michael moy because I was I had him. I had
Speaker 2: him on a podcast I was doing years ago, Michael Moore,
Speaker 2: one of the creators, one of the two creators, and
Speaker 2: I watched some you know videos, and I watched him
Speaker 2: in an interview. Go what did he say? He said? Uh,
Speaker 2: he said he had you know, he had this this
Speaker 2: sweet personality and smile, but with the devil in his eyes.
Speaker 2: And I was like, okay, I'll take that. Yeah, so
Speaker 2: I guess on some level, yeah, and we you know,
Speaker 2: they write for us. Right after a while, they write
Speaker 2: for all of us and like our strengths and and
Speaker 2: so you know, you kind of meld yourself with what
Speaker 2: they're writing, and then they start to write for you,
Speaker 2: and so yeah, absolutely, you know, it's definitely a part
Speaker 2: of who I am.
Speaker 6: Tell us a little bit about the family dynamic, because
Speaker 6: so much of the magic of married with children was
Speaker 6: the core for.
Speaker 5: And how you all meshed.
Speaker 6: What do you remember about those early days and getting
Speaker 6: to know Ed and Christina and Katie.
Speaker 2: I mean, it was so great because again we were
Speaker 2: on this fledgling, fledging, fledgling network that no one knew,
Speaker 2: and you know, the writers would make fun of it
Speaker 2: on the show all the time. Like a couple of
Speaker 2: times they'd be like, you know, he'd say we were
Speaker 2: watching TV, and he'd say, like, assume Fox, you know,
Speaker 2: assume Fox network position we'd have like you know, like
Speaker 2: antennas and like metal, you know, right, So they would
Speaker 2: poke fun of that a lot, and they do it
Speaker 2: all the time with like what the announcer would say
Speaker 2: on the television that we were supposed to be watching,
Speaker 2: And so they poked a lot of fun. But we
Speaker 2: would go to these you know, the first two seasons
Speaker 2: they would have us go to these like mall openings,
Speaker 2: and we'd be sitting there at these tables and nobody
Speaker 2: knew who we were. We'd get like these random few
Speaker 2: people who were like rabid watchers, but other than that,
Speaker 2: no one. So we kind of went through it together,
Speaker 2: and none of us were really famous yet at all,
Speaker 2: so it was like we were all in it together.
Speaker 2: And was speaking of David Garrison, like, who played the neighbor.
Speaker 2: He was a very That guy's a great actor. He's
Speaker 2: a brilliant actor. Came from stage, went back to stage
Speaker 2: and has been in New York doing stage ever since
Speaker 2: to this day. And I learned a lot from Ed
Speaker 2: and him. You know, I would always ask them for like,
Speaker 2: you know, it's this, and David would help and give me,
Speaker 2: you know, adjustments, and then I just started, you know,
Speaker 2: copying ed a lot in his mannerisms and what he
Speaker 2: did because he was always just hilarious to me, and
Speaker 2: that really worked. And so we were all in it together.
Speaker 2: And you know, Christina and I we're in the same
Speaker 2: school room together. We were at the Sunset Gower Lot
Speaker 2: where'd you guys shoot Boy Meets.
Speaker 6: World, Disney KTLA and CBS Radford, got.
Speaker 2: It, got it. So you know, you know where we're
Speaker 2: on Sunset Gower, it's this like a little lot, but
Speaker 2: that did everything. Buildings were falling apart, like it was
Speaker 2: just so like and yet Who's the Boss was there
Speaker 2: and all of these big shows and I was already
Speaker 2: Who's the Boss fan, and you know, as most of us,
Speaker 2: you know, had this horrific crush on on Alyssa. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and and I remember because it was like our school
Speaker 2: room and then like two doors down was Alyssa and Danny,
Speaker 2: you know, Pentato and uh and I remember just you know,
Speaker 2: they they talk about being tongue tied, and I literally,
Speaker 2: I like I learned what that that the definition of
Speaker 2: tongue tiede meant when I like would try to talk
Speaker 2: to her because I was literally I was like my
Speaker 2: birds wouldn't come out, you know, And I had this
Speaker 2: painful crush. But yeah, it was, it was. It was
Speaker 2: a great experience. You know, I'm still we're still all
Speaker 2: extremely close to this day, like super close, you know,
Speaker 2: like I see Katie constantly all the time, and her
Speaker 2: and her husband Kurt and I are very close and
Speaker 2: and ed and I mean we were all just extremely close,
Speaker 2: we're on the same text threat and we're we're always talking, and.
Speaker 4: So yeah, you talk about oh right, I was just
Speaker 4: gonna say, you talk about how good all the actors are.
Speaker 4: I started at the Hartford Stage in Connecticut, which is
Speaker 4: a great stage, in nineteen eighty six. I was ten
Speaker 4: and two years before. The first play I ever saw
Speaker 4: there was of Mice and Men where he's playing Lenny,
Speaker 4: and he was so good. It was like at eight,
Speaker 4: I was going, oh my god, this guy's amazing.
Speaker 2: Do you know the story behind that? And no, oh,
Speaker 2: that's funny you bring that up, because it wasn't until
Speaker 2: a couple of years ago I learned this. You know,
Speaker 2: they couldn't cast out. They had the whole family besides
Speaker 2: Christina and I had the kids, they had the neighbors,
Speaker 2: they had Peggy, but they couldn't find their Aul and
Speaker 2: they were searching everywhere, and they you know, all the
Speaker 2: funny guys that went out to like, you know, they
Speaker 2: thought Sam Kinnison there was who was the other actor
Speaker 2: you know, uh, Randy Quaid and all these guys that
Speaker 2: they just they just didn't you know, And and and
Speaker 2: Barry Diller at Fox really wanted somebody famous to carry
Speaker 2: this thing so much so it was sold for twelve
Speaker 2: more episodes. And Ron and Michael like didn't want anybody
Speaker 2: that that that Fox wanted. And Mark Hirschfeld, you know
Speaker 2: the casting director, Mark Hirschfelder, brilliant casting director, just the
Speaker 2: brilliant casting director. And he went to that play, uh
Speaker 2: and saw off mice and men and it was there
Speaker 2: that he went, this is our guy. And they tested him,
Speaker 2: and you know, Barry Diller, they they didn't want him,
Speaker 2: like at all, and they they they lost six of
Speaker 2: the episodes based on their decision to cast ed, and
Speaker 2: to their credit, they still went forward with six episodes
Speaker 2: and they they they did it, and you know the
Speaker 2: rest is history. Yeah. Well, it's also wild that you
Speaker 2: saw that play.
Speaker 4: Yes, that was I was say eight years old and
Speaker 4: I was on that same stage two years later in
Speaker 4: the Dolls House. But I mean at eight, I was like,
Speaker 4: who is this guy? I mean it was really incredible.
Speaker 2: Where is that? So? How big is that theater? Not big?
Speaker 4: It's probably thirty nine, yeah, ninety nine to maybe one
Speaker 4: hundred and fifty.
Speaker 2: Oh wow.
Speaker 4: But it's like you would you would look at the
Speaker 4: pictures of everyone that was up there, so when I
Speaker 4: did a Dolls House, it was David Stratharn and Mary
Speaker 4: McDonald and Jerry Bammon and Mark Lamos was the artistic director.
Speaker 4: I mean, it was a bunch of pretty outstanding. Yeah,
Speaker 4: a bunch of hats exactly. But the other thing a
Speaker 4: lot of people forget about Married with Children is that
Speaker 4: everyone credits Roseanne with kind of starting the blue collar
Speaker 4: family sitcom. Married with Children was a year earlier.
Speaker 2: We were first, right, Yeah, so it's one of these
Speaker 2: got noticed first, exactly.
Speaker 4: But that's the thing is when you go back and
Speaker 4: you look at that actual blue collar sitcom family, the
Speaker 4: bundies were for man, absolutely crazy.
Speaker 6: The working title of Married with Children was not the
Speaker 6: Cosby's which has a different definition now. But I wanted
Speaker 6: this show, obviously to push the envelope beyond anything the
Speaker 6: big three networks would allow.
Speaker 5: What did your parents think of the material?
Speaker 2: Well, that's funny, id you know everywhere I go, when
Speaker 2: I go to conventions or on the street, people will
Speaker 2: go like, you know, I'm serious, Like seven out of
Speaker 2: ten people were like, I had to sneak away and
Speaker 2: I couldn't watch it, and I got in trouble and
Speaker 2: was like and then you have the other the other
Speaker 2: few people are like, you know, we loved it. We
Speaker 2: watched it together as a family. I came from I
Speaker 2: told you I went to Saint Finbar. You know, I
Speaker 2: came from this kind of My mom wasn't, but my
Speaker 2: dad was this old school Italian Catholic, like you know,
Speaker 2: just you know, a little a little kind of crazy
Speaker 2: in that. And so they were always very supportive of
Speaker 2: of what I did and wanted me to work. And
Speaker 2: you know, they didn't spend my money and they were
Speaker 2: great in that aspect. But you know, watching the show
Speaker 2: around them after it was uncomfortable sometimes, you know, with
Speaker 2: some of the things because you know, you rewatch it
Speaker 2: and it's like Alan Peggy are making these like weird
Speaker 2: sex jokes while the kids are in the room. You know,
Speaker 2: it's just, yeah, it's bizarre. So that he got a
Speaker 2: little uncomfortable, but you know it was. It was a
Speaker 2: great job.
Speaker 4: And yeah, so yeah, well Kelly too. I mean the
Speaker 4: Kelly character to have a fat, quote unquote fast teenage girl.
Speaker 4: At the time, all this was like groundbreaking television.
Speaker 2: It was just so different, it really was. And like
Speaker 2: I said, rewatching these episodes, it's just like, my god,
Speaker 2: you know it was it was pretty you know, a
Speaker 2: lot of that you couldn't So in some aspects you
Speaker 2: could get away with more today, but in a lot
Speaker 2: you couldn't get away with a lot of the stuff
Speaker 2: we did. Yeah, man, but you were talking about Roseanne.
Speaker 2: It's funny because Ron Levitt, you know, one of the
Speaker 2: funniest people I've ever met to this day, he would say, like,
Speaker 2: you know, when he watched Roseanne at the end, they'd
Speaker 2: sort of like go up and they'd like, you know,
Speaker 2: they want to make love and they'd go, you know,
Speaker 2: have sex, and he'd always go, yeah, right.
Speaker 6: When did you know that the show was a hit,
Speaker 6: because even though the numbers were modest compared to established networks,
Speaker 6: you had a very engaged, young, passionate audience, and its
Speaker 6: position in pop culture was massive.
Speaker 5: Do you remember the moment you were like, oh, this
Speaker 5: is a hit.
Speaker 2: Well, two things come to mind. One was, you know,
Speaker 2: the woman in Detroit or not Detroit, Michigan named Terry Rocolta,
Speaker 2: who is you know, the the wife of some billionaire
Speaker 2: out there, very powerful and you talk about like, you know,
Speaker 2: the sort of humor of the show. She came into
Speaker 2: the room and watched her kids like cracking up at
Speaker 2: this this show, and so she sat down to see
Speaker 2: just what they were cracking up at and she was appalled.
Speaker 2: And just you know, she was very successful in pulling.
Speaker 2: She got Coca Cola, McDonald's and some other giant answers
Speaker 2: to pull with that. I mean, everybody made the press
Speaker 2: and it was all over and everybody's like, what are
Speaker 2: we not supposed to be watching? Ye, And that's when
Speaker 2: it become became sort of an overnight success. But for me,
Speaker 2: I was always in the you know, I got into
Speaker 2: hip hop music really young, like twelve years old, and
Speaker 2: you know, Marriywoo children was huge in the in the
Speaker 2: hood as we say, and in the hip hop community.
Speaker 2: And I started noticing it then because I would go
Speaker 2: to these hip hop shows and they like pulled me
Speaker 2: up on stage and want to put me in their
Speaker 2: videos and so it was very cool. That's what I really,
Speaker 2: you know, started noticing because like the hip hop community
Speaker 2: like just embraced it like it was you know, like
Speaker 2: it was their family. And ye, that was very cool
Speaker 2: for me.
Speaker 6: So during that time when politicians, wives and noprah are
Speaker 6: called the show filth, what is your reaction as a kid,
Speaker 6: Are you feeling scared like this isn't good for us,
Speaker 6: or do you pretty quickly realize like, oh, our ratings
Speaker 6: are going up, this is only good news for us.
Speaker 2: I think it was pretty much just good news. As
Speaker 2: a matter of fact, the producer sent that woman, Terry Ricolta,
Speaker 2: a thank you basket, like after the ratings skyrocketed. Yeah,
Speaker 2: they literally did.
Speaker 5: Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 1: That's awesome.
Speaker 2: That's pretty great. And Hustler magazine gave her up the month.
Speaker 2: So I mean, you know, what more can you ask for?
Speaker 4: Thought, I actually I thought that was a totally different
Speaker 4: thing on Hustler.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, I mean that's sort of the joke I think, right.
Speaker 5: Did you like how close an age are you to Christina?
Speaker 6: Did going through this experience bond you two in a
Speaker 6: way that's different maybe than with Ed and Katie just
Speaker 6: because you were closer in age?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean so we're only like two and a
Speaker 2: half years apart, and yeah, I mean we were super
Speaker 2: close because again, we were in the same schoolroom for years,
Speaker 2: and we would travel together, and you know it, we're
Speaker 2: kind of like brother and sister in a way where
Speaker 2: you like, you know, at some point, you're like quiet already,
Speaker 2: like yeah, enough stories about whoever, Like you know, you're
Speaker 2: the little little brother, and I'm sure my stories annoyed her,
Speaker 2: and but we were always we've become actually there was
Speaker 2: a time like you know, the show ended and kind
Speaker 2: of all in our separate ways, but we've actually become
Speaker 2: closer in a different way over the last like five
Speaker 2: ten years. Yeah. Yeah, we become you know, very very close,
Speaker 2: like as you know, friends and supporting each other and
Speaker 2: in different ways.
Speaker 6: I know he appeared on married with children, but you
Speaker 6: also became friends with Sam Kinnison, who was on top
Speaker 6: of the world at the time. What was he like
Speaker 6: both to work with and as a human?
Speaker 2: Oh my god, Sam was one of the greatest guys,
Speaker 2: like ever he you know, we spent so it was
Speaker 2: a two parter episode, so we spent two weeks with him.
Speaker 2: But him and I I don't know why, it was
Speaker 2: this weird thing. We became extremely close. Like I would
Speaker 2: like hang out at his house. He would take me
Speaker 2: to all the shows. I would introduce him at at
Speaker 2: at concerts, and he took a liking to me. And
Speaker 2: you know, at that time, I was pretty innocent, right,
Speaker 2: I wasn't like I'm I think I might have like
Speaker 2: smoked weed and maybe drank a little alcohol, but I
Speaker 2: wasn't doing any like drugs or anything. And he you know,
Speaker 2: you'd go to Sam's house and there'd be like, you know,
Speaker 2: there'd be like one hundred dollars bill over a mountain
Speaker 2: of cocaine this corner and that corner and this corner,
Speaker 2: and he'd always you know, have quailudes and all this stuff.
Speaker 2: And I never partook. You know, I went through my
Speaker 2: own thing later on, but I never I think, and
Speaker 2: I could be wrong, but I think there was like
Speaker 2: something about my innocence that he likes to have around.
Speaker 2: That's what I when I look back. But he was
Speaker 2: so cool. I remember I was at his house on
Speaker 2: my dad's birthday once on December tenth, and my dad
Speaker 2: was a huge Sam Kinnison fan, and I said, you's
Speaker 2: cool if we, you know, call my my dad. He's like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 2: you want a few screams, and you know he's like happy,
Speaker 2: and uh that's always. It was cool. He was a great,
Speaker 2: great big heart. You know, obviously he was a horrific addict,
Speaker 2: and you know he missed a few days uh at
Speaker 2: work and the Bruisers were not happy about that at all.
Speaker 2: You know, they weren't. They were pros and they didn't
Speaker 2: want that happening. And you know, he would miss a
Speaker 2: day and not realize that he didn't show up, and
Speaker 2: but then he would like he would try to he
Speaker 2: would try to make that right by like catering lunch
Speaker 2: from Chasin's and having Belly dancers come and you know,
Speaker 2: but I loved the guy, but you know, I know that,
Speaker 2: but the the final outcome, you know, he played the
Speaker 2: it was like a it was like it's a play
Speaker 2: on It's a Wonderful Life. It was called It's a
Speaker 2: Bundiful Life and you know how the angel comes comes
Speaker 2: back and show how everybody's life would be without you know,
Speaker 2: James Stewart character, and in this everybody's life was magical.
Speaker 2: You know, Elly was like him. Oh it was great.
Speaker 2: It was great. And uh, I remember there's you know,
Speaker 2: it was the first show Ted McGinley, who wasn't in
Speaker 2: the show yet, he just was a guest actor in
Speaker 2: this episode. And uh and in this episode he played
Speaker 2: the dad that i'll you know, the real dab of us.
Speaker 2: And I remember there's a scene in his last name
Speaker 2: was Jablonski, and so he's like, after we're like I
Speaker 2: love you, I love you, I love you more, he's like,
Speaker 2: let's get a wo Jablonski and we just this wo
Speaker 2: Jablonski and they turned to Edd and he's like, oh,
Speaker 2: Jablonski and it was just this funny, funny bit. But
Speaker 2: that's where we discovered Ted. And then he came back,
Speaker 2: you know, not too long after to play Marcy's new
Speaker 2: husband and who I love.
Speaker 4: I did a show with Ted and he's like the
Speaker 4: nicest guy in the.
Speaker 2: Planet, the greatest guy. He's so great. Yeah, and you know,
Speaker 2: he was a little pissed at me from minute because
Speaker 2: we did that first reunion, which I produced with my
Speaker 2: partner Ben, and he you know, it was it was
Speaker 2: it was the Bundyes, right, and you know Ed and
Speaker 2: Amanda had this thing going, and I knew he wasn't
Speaker 2: gonna do it with her, and I was like, not
Speaker 2: going to happen, and so I just kind of we
Speaker 2: made it the Bundies and I know, and so I
Speaker 2: heard that he was a little like, you know, myffed
Speaker 2: about that, and I wasn't sure if that was true.
Speaker 2: And I heard it from her and anyway, I way
Speaker 2: ended up talking and he's like, yeah, I was a
Speaker 2: little pissed about that, and so I said, you know,
Speaker 2: when we do this again, you know, it'll it'll you know,
Speaker 2: you'll be on the stage, regardless of if it looks
Speaker 2: weird or not that a man's not there. You got
Speaker 2: to be a part of it. So before you go
Speaker 2: on and for that, I will tell you that we
Speaker 2: had to postpone the last uh uh reunion due to
Speaker 2: Christina something that Christina is going through and but she's
Speaker 2: getting much better and it's just a postponement and it
Speaker 2: will be coming. I think like late fall is what
Speaker 2: we're looking at. But yeah, we had to postpone the
Speaker 2: Netflix one unfortunately her health. Yeah, okay.
Speaker 4: She By the way, you talked about Alisa Milano, who
Speaker 4: clearly for people of our age, you and I are
Speaker 4: very similar in age, so it was who's the boss?
Speaker 4: And and then you had Commando with Arnold Wrozenegger.
Speaker 2: I was just like, she was.
Speaker 4: The best, but then Christina kind of took over for
Speaker 4: a lot of us, where she became that kind of
Speaker 4: the next girl that everybody had a crush on. And
Speaker 4: I'm curious was because again we always say that we
Speaker 4: were blessed is the wrong word, but it was. It
Speaker 4: was a lot more beneficial for us as people and
Speaker 4: as actors that we got to go through all this
Speaker 4: without social media. So were you able to kind of
Speaker 4: see though, how Christina was becoming kind of like that
Speaker 4: a teen icon to boys across the country.
Speaker 2: Yes, but it was so weird, like I say, because
Speaker 2: it just so wasn't like that for me. You know,
Speaker 2: when we see people close up every day, we get
Speaker 2: to see their you know, quote unquote warts and pimples
Speaker 2: as they say, and it's like Christina had a lot
Speaker 2: of words. I'm kidding, No, No, I just never. It
Speaker 2: was just never. So it was kind of like I
Speaker 2: would just hear it from them, but I didn't really
Speaker 2: understand the gravity of what people were, you know. But
Speaker 2: I remember a few times being in New York and
Speaker 2: walking through the streets and some people saying some very
Speaker 2: colorful things about her, and which I won't to repeat,
Speaker 2: but a couple of them are hilarious. Yeah. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 2: she definitely became the girl right And looking back when
Speaker 2: I look at these episodes, like, god, she's gorgeous.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's stunning, but also like kind of a bat,
Speaker 4: which was the thing that was she was just that
Speaker 4: none of none of you were the mold of the
Speaker 4: sitcom family, none of you. And that's the thing that
Speaker 4: was so great about the Bundies, as you know, even Neighbors,
Speaker 4: there was not a single It's like they took every
Speaker 4: single sitcom paradigm and when we're going to do the
Speaker 4: opposite of this, yeah, and it's either going to work
Speaker 4: or it's not going to work, and it just it
Speaker 4: worked like Gangbusters. But it was one of those things
Speaker 4: where you couldn't have turned it on its head anymore.
Speaker 4: I mean, even in the later seasons where every the
Speaker 4: Brady bunch brought on Oliver, everybody tries to bring on
Speaker 4: a new little kid to make it young again, and
Speaker 4: and you guys brought on seven. It was just and
Speaker 4: they named him that because he was the seventh kid
Speaker 4: in the family and nobody wanted him, so they just
Speaker 4: gave him to the butt.
Speaker 2: It was just he was just seven.
Speaker 4: And so even that, like using the typical sitcom things
Speaker 4: and just going we're gonna do this so differently than
Speaker 4: anybody else has ever done it. It could have fit.
Speaker 2: Yes, how they ended the seven run. No, what what
Speaker 2: did they do with seven? I don't remember. Well, just
Speaker 2: the kid is so sweet, but you know, he just
Speaker 2: wasn't an actor. I mean, I don't. He just that
Speaker 2: wasn't his thing, and he didn't. It never took and
Speaker 2: the audience hated it, so they just stopped doing it.
Speaker 2: And then at one point we're like at the we're
Speaker 2: at the kitchen table and there's a milk cart and
Speaker 2: it zooms in. Have you seen me? It's great? Yeah,
Speaker 2: it was brilliant.
Speaker 6: Yeah, awesome, Like your own interests as a kid started
Speaker 6: to bleed over to Bud. So writer was into poetry
Speaker 6: and counting crows, and so then was his character Sean,
Speaker 6: you were a huge hip hop fan, and then so
Speaker 6: was Bud and in turn Grandmaster b. Yes, how did
Speaker 6: that come together? And were you at all weirded out
Speaker 6: by it the way writer was?
Speaker 5: Or did you love it?
Speaker 4: Oh?
Speaker 2: You were weirded out by it? Oh?
Speaker 1: Yeah, well yeah, because it was it was, Yeah, it was.
Speaker 3: It's a long complicated story, but yeah, no, it was
Speaker 3: definitely like parts of my life being taken without consulting,
Speaker 3: without me being consulted.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I get it, I get it. I feel that
Speaker 2: for me again, it was a nod to sort of
Speaker 2: what I loved, you know. Uh, the Grandmaster Beat character came.
Speaker 2: You know, this was early when hip hop was not mainstream.
Speaker 2: It just wasn't. It wasn't a mainstream people. A lot
Speaker 2: of people hate it and I embraced it early on.
Speaker 2: And so I'd have these guys come into the set,
Speaker 2: you know, I'd have like Ice Cube and Iced Tea
Speaker 2: and Easy E all these guys.
Speaker 4: You had nw A coming and visiting you on the set.
Speaker 2: Yes, I did. I did. Easy was the greatest. You know,
Speaker 2: he was a big marry with children fan and all
Speaker 2: these guys were And Drey never came to the set,
Speaker 2: but he did come to my club that I used
Speaker 2: to run. They did they impromptu. It's there was the
Speaker 2: greatest night of the club. And it just became impromptu.
Speaker 2: It wasn't planned anything, but Drey was there, Easy was
Speaker 2: there and Wren. It wasn't when Cube had already left
Speaker 2: at this point, but the three of them were there
Speaker 2: and they did this impromptu performance and it was just
Speaker 2: like God, it was the greatest thing ever. But they
Speaker 2: would see these guys coming, they be like, yo, what's
Speaker 2: Fustina what's happening here, you know what? And so they
Speaker 2: that's how the Grand Master b character started. I don't
Speaker 2: think they really consulted me. It just kind of happened.
Speaker 2: But I remember when they wanted to do my bedroom
Speaker 2: for the first time. They were like, you know what,
Speaker 2: how do you And I was like, and NAS's Illmatic
Speaker 2: uh album? It hadn't dropped. It was just dropping. And
Speaker 2: I knew about it, you know, a year or two
Speaker 2: in advance, just by being in that scene and the
Speaker 2: Source magazine and those guys, and so I was like,
Speaker 2: I want the Illmatic poster and they're like the who what?
Speaker 2: I was like, you just throw it up there. And
Speaker 2: then you know, when people saw that, they were just like, oh,
Speaker 2: you know. And even Nas, when I run into him,
Speaker 2: it's like crazy love and he has this quote in
Speaker 2: the La Times. He was like, you know, when we
Speaker 2: saw our poster up on Bud Bundy's wall, we knew
Speaker 2: we were about to flow.
Speaker 4: That's really cool man.
Speaker 2: So I still use the Moniker as my DJ name.
Speaker 5: Yep Graham.
Speaker 2: I do because people were like, you know, what is
Speaker 2: your DJ am gonna be? And and for so long
Speaker 2: I was like, no, that would be corny and people
Speaker 2: are like, you got to use it. It's just like,
Speaker 2: you know, you have it, just go with it.
Speaker 6: I was like, all, yes, we had Brian Austin Green
Speaker 6: on the podcast a little while back and we got
Speaker 6: into Ballistics, which is the underage club you ran on
Speaker 6: Sunset Boulevard here in Los Angeles. It was a real
Speaker 6: hangout for young Hollywood at the time. You mentioned that
Speaker 6: story about the impromptu hang and performance. Uh, would you
Speaker 6: say that's your favorite Ballistics story.
Speaker 5: I'm sure you have many, but.
Speaker 2: One of them one of them. First of all, I
Speaker 2: love Brian, you know, Brian one of the sweetest guys,
Speaker 2: and you know, we still remain not close, but we're
Speaker 2: always a text away, you know. And I love Brian.
Speaker 2: But I think the Knights, you know, that one stands
Speaker 2: out obviously about n w A. But well, what I
Speaker 2: loved about the club was, you know Will I Am,
Speaker 2: who was Will one X at the time. He uh,
Speaker 2: you know, people don't realize because he sort of went
Speaker 2: a pop version. But in my in my opinion, his
Speaker 2: pop is like great, you know, it's like, yep, he did.
Speaker 2: He's a he's a he's a magical guy. And but
Speaker 2: he was a battle rapper, and like a lot of
Speaker 2: people don't know that about Will. He was vicious and
Speaker 2: ruthless and he would he kept this uh the freestyle
Speaker 2: battle like he was the champion for like six months
Speaker 2: in a row. No one could beat him because he
Speaker 2: would just take people apart, kind of like eight mile
Speaker 2: from head to toe. And I remember the only time
Speaker 2: he lost. They brought in this kid, this young, like
Speaker 2: eight ten year old kid that was you know that
Speaker 2: they were kind of trying to build up. And I
Speaker 2: remember they wrote his wraps beforehand and like figured out
Speaker 2: a way to his own manager, what polo was behind
Speaker 2: this kid, and so they wrote these rhymes and they
Speaker 2: had this kid come and because he was so young,
Speaker 2: because the rhymes were so you know great, he actually
Speaker 2: won that night. Well Will came back the next week
Speaker 2: and didn't care this this kid was ten years old.
Speaker 2: He just destroyed this poor little kid and probably sent
Speaker 2: him home crying. And then he took the championship back.
Speaker 2: But he was just so he was so great. I
Speaker 2: knew he was going to be a star from like
Speaker 2: one of the few first few times I met him.
Speaker 2: I was like, this kid is going to be a star,
Speaker 2: Like no doubt in my mind. And they all met
Speaker 2: there by the way. None of them knew each other.
Speaker 2: They literally all met at ballistics.
Speaker 5: Wow, are you still listening to hip hop? Do you
Speaker 5: have any modern day favorites?
Speaker 2: Oh, it's funny, I was, I do. I have a
Speaker 2: lot of them, you know, I mean I love hip hop.
Speaker 2: I mean I have a lot of stuff I hate,
Speaker 2: you know, I I I sort of hate the direction
Speaker 2: hip hop went in in you know, the you know,
Speaker 2: I said he glorified drugs. It just it just become
Speaker 2: very I don't know. That's and it's one of the
Speaker 2: reasons people hate hip hop because they'll turn on you know,
Speaker 2: these like popular hip hop stations, and between every great
Speaker 2: song is like four horrible ones that are kind of unlistenable.
Speaker 2: And so I hate that. But there's still some really
Speaker 2: great stuff that's, you know, still out there, Like I
Speaker 2: like this Griselda movement.
Speaker 5: I love Griselda.
Speaker 2: I love Griselda. Benny the Butcher. I was just on
Speaker 2: a zoom call with a guy named Afro who don't
Speaker 2: get him confused with Afroman. He's not. He's a different guy.
Speaker 2: He's this dope underground like artist. He's only twenty eight
Speaker 2: he's battled, you know. He's a freestyle battler and so
Speaker 2: great and such a humble, cool guy. As a matter
Speaker 2: of fact, we just were on a Zoom meeting at
Speaker 2: twelve o'clock today and we're gonna we're gonna try and
Speaker 2: put together a little EP just for fun. So I
Speaker 2: love him, and and there's a lot of you know
Speaker 2: people I'm listening to that I like because I have
Speaker 2: to stay up on some of the new stuff just
Speaker 2: because of what I do for my hobby and my
Speaker 2: sort of second hustle, so I have to weed through
Speaker 2: a lot of crap. Though.
Speaker 5: Yeah, do you know Toby Wigway at all?
Speaker 2: I don't.
Speaker 6: Oh my gosh, you have to check him out. I'll
Speaker 6: send you a link. His wife also is a rapper.
Speaker 6: They're phenomenal separately and together and very very very good.
Speaker 5: You'll have to check them out.
Speaker 2: Where are they're from?
Speaker 5: Atlanta?
Speaker 2: Okay? Yeah, love to hear it. Please do.
Speaker 5: I will send it to you. Okay.
Speaker 6: I want to talk about these reunions a little bit.
Speaker 6: Where did the idea for the first one at the
Speaker 6: Wiltern come from?
Speaker 2: So it all quickly, It all birthed from a friend
Speaker 2: of mine, Ben Brocata, who's one of these sort of
Speaker 2: you know, he's an agent that does conventions and things
Speaker 2: like that. And we just started out as a as
Speaker 2: a you know, client agent relationship, but then we became
Speaker 2: friends and he always said, you know, we should get
Speaker 2: we should do this, we should do like a convention
Speaker 2: where we all do a signing together. And I was like,
Speaker 2: that's never going to happen, dude, Like Ed is never
Speaker 2: going to do that. Like I'd have people call me,
Speaker 2: these agents that would find me, and they'd be like, hey, listen,
Speaker 2: you know I want Ed to come out for one
Speaker 2: day in Florida for four hours. We'll pay him one
Speaker 2: hundred grand. So I'd be like, okay, sure, I'll call him.
Speaker 2: And i'd call him and I knew the answer, and
Speaker 2: he'd be like, yeah, nah, I don't want to do that,
Speaker 2: you know, like one hundred k. So he's never gonna
Speaker 2: do it. But what I did know about Ed, because
Speaker 2: I know Ed so well, is that he loves to
Speaker 2: tell stories. He's one of the greatest storytellers you can
Speaker 2: ever say. Well. He would keep us entertained for hours
Speaker 2: and hours and hours telling stories about Youngstown, Ohio and
Speaker 2: the gangsters. That he grew up around New York and
Speaker 2: like he would just you know, he was he's a
Speaker 2: great storyteller. So we kind of morphed into one of
Speaker 2: these ideas, well, what if we did, you know, like
Speaker 2: a thing where where he can be on stage and
Speaker 2: like he'd say, you know, I gotta have a barrier,
Speaker 2: and he doesn't mean He's like, yeah, he doesn't want
Speaker 2: to be too he doesn't want people like putting their
Speaker 2: arm around him. He's just not that kind of guy.
Speaker 2: So for a fraction of what he would make, you know,
Speaker 2: one of these conventions and signings, we approached them with
Speaker 2: this idea to go up on stage and tell stories,
Speaker 2: is how I sort of worded it. And I thought
Speaker 2: he'd be the hardest one to get on board. He's like, oh,
Speaker 2: well that sounds kind of fun. You know, let's let's
Speaker 2: see if Katie and and Christina. So it became once
Speaker 2: he was on board, which was like simple, then you know,
Speaker 2: it was easier to get Katie and Christina to do it.
Speaker 2: They were a little more difficult to get on board
Speaker 2: than Ed was. He was immediately like, let's do this.
Speaker 2: It sounds like fun, it sounds like and it was
Speaker 2: exactly what I knew it would be. He went on
Speaker 2: stage and you told a bunch of great stories that
Speaker 2: captivated the audience and and it was great, you know, and.
Speaker 5: That you raised money during that one for Race to
Speaker 5: Erase Ms.
Speaker 2: Right, yeah, I've I've been going to the Race to
Speaker 2: Erace Ms for thirty three years in.
Speaker 5: A row, oh my gosh.
Speaker 2: And you know, and it was before obviously Christina was
Speaker 2: diagnosed in and I've been a huge part of that
Speaker 2: when it was a race. Did you guys ever go
Speaker 2: to that?
Speaker 5: No, I don't you know what I may have. I
Speaker 5: may have in the past.
Speaker 6: I it's been a long time, but I do think
Speaker 6: there was a time as a teenager I went.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, it was the greatest event in the world.
Speaker 2: It started out as this ski race, that's what it
Speaker 2: was like fail and like all the greatest places, and
Speaker 2: then of course it was a logistical nightmare and so
Speaker 2: they yeah, finally became uh like a gala at the
Speaker 2: at the Century Plaza Hotel. But I so missed those days.
Speaker 2: But you know, I'm still big part of that. Nancy
Speaker 2: Davis is a close friend, you know, and it's it's
Speaker 2: always been dear to me, so that obviously when when Christina,
Speaker 2: when this went down, we were like, you know, what's
Speaker 2: the what's the perfect uh cause to raise a little
Speaker 2: bit of money for us? Not we raised the time,
Speaker 2: we raised some money for them, but.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and it obviously sold out, so uh, you couldn't
Speaker 6: have been too shocked by by that reaction considering all
Speaker 6: of you were involved.
Speaker 5: But what did that shocked?
Speaker 2: But I was like, I think they were because you know,
Speaker 2: Katie and I are the only two who do the conventions.
Speaker 2: Like Katie finally did one. She loved it and she realized,
Speaker 2: you know, she can make money, and so I think
Speaker 2: she knew. But I think Ed and Christina were you know,
Speaker 2: we we pulled, you know, they picked us up and
Speaker 2: we all went to the uh separately, but they picked
Speaker 2: us up in cars and we all pull up and
Speaker 2: the Wiltern was just it was like it was like
Speaker 2: you were going to like a I don't know, like
Speaker 2: a Beatles concert or something crazy like back then. It
Speaker 2: was like a buzz with lines of people with wearing
Speaker 2: the nomam shirts and dressed like Alan Peggy and it
Speaker 2: was just it was the the energy was insane and
Speaker 2: I don't think I mean, I was even blown away
Speaker 2: a little bit. But I don't think they were knew
Speaker 2: what was coming. You know. It was it was quite
Speaker 2: you know, and it sold out like in two days, right,
Speaker 2: which was which was also kind of wild, but it
Speaker 2: was a blast. I think they were all which is
Speaker 2: why they all were like, yeah, let's do another that.
Speaker 2: We were set up to do that, and then unfortunately
Speaker 2: we had we put that on hold for a little while.
Speaker 2: But you know, even any when he came on my show,
Speaker 2: I was like, you know, how's he going, you know?
Speaker 2: And he was so great. I said, you only have
Speaker 2: to stay for an hour. He stayed for the full
Speaker 2: two hours, and of course told stories to all the fans.
Speaker 2: And this one woman from Germany who actually posted on
Speaker 2: the site shameless plug it's Bundy clubbed but we have
Speaker 2: you know, these members posting area and she she did
Speaker 2: this three part post that goes on and on and
Speaker 2: on about how she, you know, on her own without
Speaker 2: her husband because her husband's like, what are you? Are
Speaker 2: you crazy? She came out here, had never been to
Speaker 2: Los Angeles and made the journey and was super nervous
Speaker 2: about it. And she tells the story. But she got
Speaker 2: to talk to Ed on this zoom call and she
Speaker 2: wrote this like speech that she wanted to tell him.
Speaker 2: She started tearing up through it, and Ed was super to.
Speaker 2: All of us were like, oh my god, this is
Speaker 2: extremely touching, you know, and it was great to have
Speaker 2: him on. You know, it was really cool that he
Speaker 2: did it. And he's very loyal and he's just a
Speaker 2: you know, he's a good dude.
Speaker 5: That's so great.
Speaker 6: Yeah, well, congratulations on the Bundy Club. Where can people listen?
Speaker 6: I know you mentioned the website Bundy club dot com.
Speaker 6: Where can people find your podcast?
Speaker 5: And it's a zoom oh.
Speaker 2: Yes, So you just go to Bundy club dot com.
Speaker 2: You sign up. There's like different levels of membership. You
Speaker 2: can go for free if you want, or you know,
Speaker 2: it goes up. But and then you know, you get
Speaker 2: to come on. I have Poulli's Shore coming on because
Speaker 2: he did it. He's a fan fave of One of
Speaker 2: his episodes is just so fun. He played you Al
Speaker 2: has to go work in like a fast food joint
Speaker 2: and Polly plays his boss and it's hilarious. People love this.
Speaker 2: So he's coming on, but I think that will anyway.
Speaker 2: Bundy club dot Com just sign up and then you
Speaker 2: can come to the zoom thing and you get to
Speaker 2: like you After we do the interview, people get to
Speaker 2: come on. We kind of I think there's like a
Speaker 2: thing where if you do a lot of posting and
Speaker 2: you were like first in line to ask questions and
Speaker 2: come in the zoom. It's like a system. But it's fun,
Speaker 2: a lot of fun. People love it and I love it.
Speaker 2: I have a lot of fun doing it.
Speaker 1: That's a great idea.
Speaker 4: It sounds it's almost like a virtual convention.
Speaker 2: It's really cool. It's a trick. It's a trip, it
Speaker 2: really is. Yeah.
Speaker 6: Well, that's great and we look forward to hearing more
Speaker 6: about the upcoming Netflix reunion special hopefully later this year.
Speaker 6: We will keep an eye out for that. Well, thank
Speaker 6: you so much for joining us today. It's so wonderful
Speaker 6: to talk to you.
Speaker 2: That was a lot of fun. Yeah, thank you guys.
Speaker 2: It's good to see you. Glad you guys are all together.
Speaker 2: It's kind of rare, right that we all, like a
Speaker 2: lot of us stick together. That's kind of cool.
Speaker 5: I know, it's great.
Speaker 6: Congratulations on the new house too. I love the dogs
Speaker 6: in their little coyote vests. They're they're spiky vests.
Speaker 2: Oh you can see. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, that's awesome. I'm
Speaker 2: gonna go do some laundry in my new laundry.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Fun.
Speaker 4: As long as they're drainage, you're fine.
Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 6: That's so cool that they're all that close and of
Speaker 6: just like a group chat.
Speaker 5: It's really great.
Speaker 4: They also, I mean they between them and the Simpsons,
Speaker 4: they made a network, literally built a network. It was
Speaker 4: we come on ABC or people going on CBS. I mean,
Speaker 4: it's something that's got the heritage of sometimes one hundred years,
Speaker 4: eighty years. They built the network.
Speaker 6: They were the first ever sitcom on Fox and only
Speaker 6: the second show ever was that crazy?
Speaker 4: Was Simpsons the first one.
Speaker 5: I think it has to be God, that's nuts.
Speaker 4: The second show ever on an entire network, which is
Speaker 4: which then now, if anybody thinks of networks, there's four, yeah,
Speaker 4: and there was three everyone now knows for yep, And
Speaker 4: they were the second show ever. That's nuts, Yeah, God crazy.
Speaker 6: Thank you all for joining us for this episode of
Speaker 6: Pod Meets World. As always, you can follow us on
Speaker 6: Instagram pod Meets World Show. You can send us your
Speaker 6: emails Pod Meets World Show at gmail dot com.
Speaker 5: And we've got merch.
Speaker 4: Merchan marriage merchan marriage. It's an institute.
Speaker 2: You can't stuck.
Speaker 5: I'll tell you.
Speaker 1: You can't have one.
Speaker 6: Pod Meets Worldshow dot com. We love you all, pod dismissed.
Speaker 6: Pod Meets World is an iHeart podcast produced and hosted
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