Speaker 1: I Am all In again.
Speaker 2: Oh, let's just do.
Speaker 3: I Smell pop Culture with Easton Allen and I Heart
Speaker 3: Radio podcast.
Speaker 1: Hey everybody, Easton Allen, I Am all In Podcasts one
Speaker 1: of eleven productions iHeart Radio, iHeart Media, I Heart Podcasts.
Speaker 1: This is I Smell pop Culture? Do you smell pop culture?
Speaker 1: Do they smell pop culture? I Smell pop Culture. This
Speaker 1: is gonna be a lot of fun. Here's what we
Speaker 1: do on the show. If you're just joining us for
Speaker 1: the first time. We love Gilmore Girls. We love the
Speaker 1: pop culture references in Gilmore Girls. They tie the show
Speaker 1: into a greater world and that is part of why
Speaker 1: we love it. But sometimes you gotta go a little deeper.
Speaker 1: So here's what we're doing. We're picking out some of
Speaker 1: our favorite pop culture references from the entire of Gilmore Girls,
Speaker 1: and we're going to explore them on a granular level
Speaker 1: that you can only do with a podcast. We're going
Speaker 1: to talk to the people that made these pop culture
Speaker 1: references into a piece of pop culture. We're going to
Speaker 1: talk to the stars, the writers, the producers, the singers,
Speaker 1: We're talking to them all baby, And this week we're
Speaker 1: doing something really really exciting. This is This is something
Speaker 1: that you may or may not be familiar with, a
Speaker 1: little show called cop Rock. I know what you're thinking,
Speaker 1: what's cop Rock? What is that? Imagine if you watched
Speaker 1: Law and Order, but then they started sinking Broadway level,
Speaker 1: Broadway level songs, Broadway level productions, television drama at the
Speaker 1: highest level. This is truly a big swing. And if
Speaker 1: there's something I love, it's a big swing. I love
Speaker 1: big risks. I love when people try a crazy idea,
Speaker 1: and that is what they did with cop Rock. This
Speaker 1: show premiered on ABC in nineteen ninety. It ran for
Speaker 1: eleven episodes. It was canceled, It was abruptly canceled. It
Speaker 1: was not met with with good reviews. This show was
Speaker 1: truly bizarre, but an incredible show nonetheless. And here is
Speaker 1: why it connects to Gilmore Girls. We're going to season five,
Speaker 1: episode thirteen, Wedding Bell Blues. This is the cold open
Speaker 1: before the theme song plays. Laura is at Luke's. They're
Speaker 1: talking about his boat. You know, he's trying to buy
Speaker 1: stuff for his boat, and he's getting really frustrated because
Speaker 1: he's talking to the guy from the catalog and everything's
Speaker 1: on back order, so he's really frustrated, as Luke tends
Speaker 1: to be, and he tells Laurai he's going to come
Speaker 1: by later to work on the boat with what he has.
Speaker 1: You know, he's waiting for a bunch of stuff to
Speaker 1: come in, but he's going to come by and work
Speaker 1: on the boat. And she says, yeah, that's fine' Rory
Speaker 1: spending the night. We're having a cop Rock marathon. And
Speaker 1: then they talk about some other stuff, and then before
Speaker 1: Lorela leaves the coffee shop, Luke says, hold on, did
Speaker 1: you say cop Rock marathon? And Lurlai says, yeah, I
Speaker 1: got them all on tape, trying to figure out you
Speaker 1: seeing me? So Laura La big cop Rock fan. She
Speaker 1: has all eleven episodes on tape. You can get all
Speaker 1: eleven episodes of cop Rock on a DVD from Shout Factory.
Speaker 1: This show has a cult following now. People love it.
Speaker 1: I love it. I watched a lot of cop Rock
Speaker 1: prepping for this. I admittedly I did not know what
Speaker 1: it was until you know, I was doing research for
Speaker 1: this show. I love Coprock. I am a huge cop
Speaker 1: Rock fan. Now I hope you are too. We're going
Speaker 1: to talk to one of the stars of cop Rock
Speaker 1: Peter on Aroti. He played Detective Vincent LaRusso, who's kind
Speaker 1: of the de facto main character of Cop Rock. He
Speaker 1: his storyline is kind of like a main thread throughout
Speaker 1: the eleven episodes. And if you see him, google Peter
Speaker 1: on Arotti if you can't place his face. He has
Speaker 1: been in everything. He has been in Swat, he was
Speaker 1: in This Is Us, He's in Good Fellas for Crying
Speaker 1: Out Lad. This guy is so cool and he's done
Speaker 1: so many incredible things in Hollywood, and I'm so interested
Speaker 1: in his perspective about what it was like to make
Speaker 1: something like Cop Rock. What was it like to go
Speaker 1: into this like dramatic police procedural, but then also have
Speaker 1: to learn singing and dancing in certain cases? And how
Speaker 1: do they make this show? How is this? Randy Newman
Speaker 1: wrote all the songs for the pilot. Randy Newman's in
Speaker 1: the theme song. They had incredible people working on this show.
Speaker 1: I can't wait to hear about it all. We're going
Speaker 1: to talk to Peter Onati here in just a second,
Speaker 1: and I hope you stick around because it's real. It's
Speaker 1: a lot of fun here on I smell pop culture.
Speaker 1: We're having a blast let's do it. Hey, everybody, it's
Speaker 1: I Smell pop Culture on the Iamlin podcast. We're so
Speaker 1: excited about this. We're talking to one of the stars
Speaker 1: of cop Rock. Peter Onoati is with us. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much for doing this. Peter, it's so nice to
Speaker 1: meet you.
Speaker 2: Thanks for asking.
Speaker 1: So okay, let's just get right into it. Let's let's
Speaker 1: talk cop Rock here. It's it's such a wild idea,
Speaker 1: and that's why I love it. It's such a big swing.
Speaker 1: It was such a like nothing really like it had
Speaker 1: been done before. How did you get involved?
Speaker 2: Well, I had just moved out here. My wife was
Speaker 2: pregnant and had our first son while we were here
Speaker 2: in eighty eight, and I had just come off of
Speaker 2: my first real TV job was Katenally back in New
Speaker 2: York at the Etsullivan Theater, the last season of Katenally.
Speaker 2: And I only been to business a couple of years.
Speaker 2: I don't know if you know my background, but I
Speaker 2: have an MBA. I was an advertising park avenue you know,
Speaker 2: for four years before that, and the whole other twelve
Speaker 2: years in the business world. Anyway, I get out here
Speaker 2: and my then agent, Kay Lieberman and now manager because
Speaker 2: she took over. A managing company called me and said,
Speaker 2: you sing right, I go no, no, I'm you know.
Speaker 2: She goes yes, you do you sing? I said, well,
Speaker 2: I sang at a couple of my friend's weddings from
Speaker 2: college and you know, a couple of family friends. I said,
Speaker 2: but no, I'm not a singer. You know. She goes no,
Speaker 2: you sing? I said, Okay, I sing, you know. And
Speaker 2: so I get this audition for cop Rock. And the
Speaker 2: funny thing was my wife grew up in Santa Barbara.
Speaker 2: She's good friends with a guy who was probably I
Speaker 2: think he still is or was the longest running phantom
Speaker 2: on Broadway, Howard mcgillan is his name. Incredible voice, incredible
Speaker 2: musical actor. And Howard came out from New York and
Speaker 2: had had an audition from this before I ever even
Speaker 2: heard of it, so I, you know, didn't pay any
Speaker 2: attention to it, you know. And I went off to
Speaker 2: do a movie with Nick Cage and Tommy Lee Jones
Speaker 2: and Sean Young called Firebirds. When it came back from that,
Speaker 2: I got this audition for cop Rock. And so the
Speaker 2: scene was actually the scene in the pilot where I
Speaker 2: testify in court. And it was a great of course
Speaker 2: it's Botchko. So it was the great writing, you know.
Speaker 2: And after I did that, you know, they called me
Speaker 2: back again and had me read it again, and then
Speaker 2: they said, okay, you you know, we need you to sing,
Speaker 2: and I went okay, I said, you know, I had
Speaker 2: only done one actually singing audition in New York. This
Speaker 2: was before I was in the business. While I was
Speaker 2: still at McCall's magazines. My wife got me a singing
Speaker 2: audition at the Public Theater for something called Lenny and
Speaker 2: the Heartbreakers. And it was so embarrassing, that's a but.
Speaker 2: So I didn't know what to do. So I picked Uh.
Speaker 2: I picked a really simple song that I knew, an
Speaker 2: old song blue Monday from from uh a Fats Domino.
Speaker 1: Yes, yes.
Speaker 2: So I get in there and the accompany is playing
Speaker 2: He's going d D bom bomp, and Mike Post, who
Speaker 2: was ahead of music, goes, no, no, man, man, this
Speaker 2: is Fats Domino. You can't play it like that. And
Speaker 2: I said, Mike, give him a break. Hunt it says
Speaker 2: Antoine Domino on the sheet music. How's he gonna know?
Speaker 2: You know? So I get up there and I'm going
Speaker 2: blue Monday, How I hate bloom Monday, you know, and
Speaker 2: and I do my thing right. So I'm like, Okay,
Speaker 2: this is uh never gonna happen, you know. But it
Speaker 2: was great fun to do. And so I get another
Speaker 2: call back to do it again, and Randy Newman was
Speaker 2: there because Randy Newman did the music in the pilot.
Speaker 1: Wow, and he's in the theme.
Speaker 2: Oh no, Randy music. Yeah, the pilot music is quite incredible,
Speaker 2: especially the last moment the pilot, which I think is
Speaker 2: one of the best moments in TV history. We could
Speaker 2: talk about that later too. So I did it and
Speaker 2: I ended up getting the role of Vincent LaRusso, which
Speaker 2: was not a regular role at the time. So we
Speaker 2: filmed the pilot. I don't sing in the pilot, and
Speaker 2: the story was and Steven Boschko told me this visit
Speaker 2: LaRusso was supposed to be in for only four episodes
Speaker 2: and then sing a love song to his gun and
Speaker 2: blow his head off. Yeah.
Speaker 4: Wo.
Speaker 2: So Mike, Well, and as an actor coming out from
Speaker 2: New York and I want to do features, I'm going, Wow,
Speaker 2: this is the way to go out of television if
Speaker 2: you want to do features, right.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So we did the pilot and all of a sudden
Speaker 2: ABC called botch go and says, we can't lose this character.
Speaker 2: You have to figure out something. Sign them up. We're
Speaker 2: gon We're gonna keep this character. So I ended up
Speaker 2: being a regular, And it ended up that the thirteen
Speaker 2: or twelve episodes that we shot were mostly around my
Speaker 2: crime of killing a cop killer and my courtroom drama
Speaker 2: and coming back to the forest and all that stuff.
Speaker 2: I shipp back up at one point and say that
Speaker 2: during the audition process they called me back and said
Speaker 2: and wanted me to read for the captain, which Larry
Speaker 2: Joshua got. Larry Joshua accomplished musician he had who was
Speaker 2: in a rock band. He has a great voice, that
Speaker 2: great gravelly voice that he is, And so I went great,
Speaker 2: because this is a regular role, right, didn't get it,
Speaker 2: didn't didn't do it. And then they, like I said,
Speaker 2: they gave me the russo and that all worked out
Speaker 2: and then it was it was funny because I was
Speaker 2: the last one of the original ensemble to sing. I
Speaker 2: didn't sing till the fourth episode. Wow, two more songs, Yeah,
Speaker 2: two more songs and the rest of it, and it
Speaker 2: was it was hard. The first one where I sing,
Speaker 2: I started in a holding cell outside the court.
Speaker 1: Can't keep a good man down.
Speaker 2: Yes, and it goes into you know, the prison. Yeah,
Speaker 2: well those were real prisoners. Yes, I'm going buy these
Speaker 2: guys singing and if you look, you can read the
Speaker 2: guy's lips. He's going you homie, And I'm like, holy shit,
Speaker 2: I gotta maintain. Plus I'm worried about my singing and
Speaker 2: i gotta be singing in front of these guys, right,
Speaker 2: So but it all worked out. It was it Actually,
Speaker 2: I don't really like my voice that much, but the song,
Speaker 2: the the theatrical nature of the song really worked well
Speaker 2: for the piece, uh, you know, and so that that
Speaker 2: was kind of cool.
Speaker 1: And but I love that sequence. That's crazy. It was
Speaker 1: a real prisoner.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they were real prisoners, man. And here's what's funny
Speaker 2: because there's also a scene in the prison where this
Speaker 2: guy approaches me. I'm a cop and a regular, you know,
Speaker 2: regular area of the prison, and this Latino guy approaches me,
Speaker 2: you know, and challenges me and you know, a boom,
Speaker 2: I flip him around, I choke him, I put him down,
Speaker 2: you know, or in a shower, and I'm like, to
Speaker 2: these guys, okay, anybody else you know, Yeah, well, this
Speaker 2: guy was tatted up, and I mean he looked like
Speaker 2: a gangster. Right. Well, he was an actor, but he
Speaker 2: was a good actor, but he looked really looked the part.
Speaker 2: And he had a job downtown LA in a play.
Speaker 2: So he left before we finished the scene because he
Speaker 2: had to get done, and you know, and so they
Speaker 2: shot one, just one thing on my side, and then
Speaker 2: I get off and I get out of the shower
Speaker 2: and I go in and I put my clothes on
Speaker 2: the I'm driving out the prison. And they got him
Speaker 2: bent over the car, his own car. They got him
Speaker 2: bent over, and they're frisking them because he was so
Speaker 2: late for his call time that he went in his
Speaker 2: prison guard. He drove his own car, right, and he
Speaker 2: looks at me and he goes, Peter, tell him, who
Speaker 2: I am. I I never seen a guy before. Come on,
Speaker 2: come on, I said, no, no, come on, guys, I said,
Speaker 2: you think a guy would drive out in his prison outfit?
Speaker 2: And he said and his prison guards go, oh yeah,
Speaker 2: they would, you know. But oh, I scared the ship
Speaker 2: out of him, I know. But like guy, I could
Speaker 2: I could not take advantage of that, right, And he
Speaker 2: I think he barely made it on time, all because
Speaker 2: because the prison was like out in near Santa Clarita
Speaker 2: and he had to go all the way to downtown.
Speaker 2: Lad is half hour call. So that was kind of funny.
Speaker 2: But that was sort of the you know, the craziness
Speaker 2: surrounding that first number, you know. And and then the
Speaker 2: other one was when I'm about to go to jail
Speaker 2: and it's my birthday and they gave it this jazzy
Speaker 2: bluesy number where the stripper comes and she's dressed like
Speaker 2: a cop, and man, I tell you, I honestly God.
Speaker 2: Now it's thirty what thirty two years later, and I
Speaker 2: have done a lot of work. I've had a couple
Speaker 2: of my own series. I just came off big splashy
Speaker 2: series and swat and everything as a regular. I don't
Speaker 2: think I've ever had a more wonderful creative challenge than
Speaker 2: that show. You know.
Speaker 1: I love it. Yeah, that's exactly what I wanted to
Speaker 1: hear because it's such an It's such a cool idea,
Speaker 1: I think, And I just love how like when your
Speaker 1: face was something like that, how how you saw it
Speaker 1: as a cool creative challenge. I love that.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well listen, everybody, everybody, if you look at that
Speaker 2: original cast. Everybody went on to be a regular in
Speaker 2: another showy quality cast and without the music. The drama
Speaker 2: was was NYPD caliber. It was absolutely NYPD and Hill
Speaker 2: Street Blues caliber drama. And you know what, it went
Speaker 2: well in the urban areas, but in a suburbs van
Speaker 2: and in a flyovers they just didn't I remember. So
Speaker 2: they have this event called the upfronts, right every year
Speaker 2: when the new shows get picked up. They like, swat
Speaker 2: we did it at Carnegie Hall. They bring the whole
Speaker 2: cast out and introduce the stars to all the potential
Speaker 2: advertisers right and to your affiliates and everybody else. It's
Speaker 2: a big deal. It's a lot of fun. Well, the
Speaker 2: one out in LA, because I wasn't a regular. I
Speaker 2: didn't go to the one in New York. But I
Speaker 2: went to the one in LA because they had made
Speaker 2: me a regular in the meantime, and I was sitting
Speaker 2: at a table with the affiliates of Sioux City, Iowa. Okay,
Speaker 2: Now these are the affiliates. These are the guys that
Speaker 2: want you want to love your program because my show
Speaker 2: Pop Rock is at ten o'clock show and that leads
Speaker 2: into their news. They don't want to lose any audience. Right,
Speaker 2: oh yeah, Well the four Tops sang and that was
Speaker 2: the same year the Twin Peaks came out on ABC,
Speaker 2: So it was Twin Peaks, it was cop Rock, it
Speaker 2: was you know. So we're at these upfronts for Top Singing,
Speaker 2: and they showed the last scene of the pilot episode
Speaker 2: of cop Rock, which is Kathleen Wolhoyd singing a Randy
Speaker 2: Newman lullaby to her baby and selling it for two
Speaker 2: hundred dollars drug money into adoption. I'm telling you, you
Speaker 2: look at this thing. You look at it, look at
Speaker 2: it on YouTube. I don't think there's a better moment
Speaker 2: in television. I really don't that moment. Know, there was
Speaker 2: a bunch of Coprock moments that didn't work, but that moment,
Speaker 2: and you could have heard. You could hear it. You
Speaker 2: could have a pin drop, right yeah. Well, this guy
Speaker 2: from SIUs City, Iowa leans over the table and he goes,
Speaker 2: oh hell, she wouldn't sing when she sells her baby.
Speaker 2: And I went, okay, we're screwed.
Speaker 1: Oh man, this guy, don get it.
Speaker 2: We're screwed, you know. Uh yeah, And so we went
Speaker 2: into it was you know, and and you know, who
Speaker 2: was responsible for giving Stephen the green light on on
Speaker 2: cop Rock.
Speaker 1: That Bob Iger, Bob Iger, current CEO Disney, in fact.
Speaker 2: That Steven's memorial. Bob came up to me that they
Speaker 2: had closed off part of the Fox area where Steven's
Speaker 2: building was, and Bob Iyger comes up to me, he goes, Peter,
Speaker 2: Bob Byger. I go, yeah, I know, he goes, I
Speaker 2: was just talking to somebody about Coprock. The other girl,
Speaker 2: I said, I thought picked somebody about cop Rock all
Speaker 2: the time, you know. I said, thanks for the you know,
Speaker 2: for the opportunity man, you know, and and we laughed
Speaker 2: about it, and you know, and that was it. But
Speaker 2: that was his twin Peaks, cop Rock, all that stuff
Speaker 2: was him when he was head of ABC, you know.
Speaker 2: And uh and so even he remembers it. It's probably
Speaker 2: his biggest failure too. But uh but it was uh
Speaker 2: uh yeah, and and I you know, oh god, there
Speaker 2: was it was. And here's a very interesting thing too,
Speaker 2: or at least I find it interesting now because I've
Speaker 2: been into business for a while and I had never
Speaker 2: really I I had never really done summer stock, you know,
Speaker 2: where people know each other for the whole summer and
Speaker 2: they do all different roles and they're hanging together. I
Speaker 2: never did anything like that. I went from the world
Speaker 2: into acting and and started to work, you know, so
Speaker 2: I never did all that other stuff. In other words,
Speaker 2: I did I had no binding history with the people
Speaker 2: I was working with. I didn't know how to socialize
Speaker 2: in that atmosphere. But the amazing thing about cop Rock
Speaker 2: was that people showed up on their days off to
Speaker 2: watch somebody else sing, or somebody else's number or big scene.
Speaker 2: That's most we were. And that's when I say now
Speaker 2: that I've never seen that in any other cast, whether
Speaker 2: it was my own show or somebody else's show, I've
Speaker 2: never seen that happen, you know. And here's here's the
Speaker 2: phenomenal thing about Copyright that no one knows. Every one
Speaker 2: of those songs was recorded live. Not one of them
Speaker 2: was looped or anything else.
Speaker 1: Okay, I read I wanted to ask you if that
Speaker 1: was real, because I read that I could not believe
Speaker 1: that it that that was I'm like, you'd sing it live,
Speaker 1: like that's crazy.
Speaker 2: We're staying it live. The camera The camera was on
Speaker 2: a dolly, you know, doing its thing. There was a
Speaker 2: playback of the background music and you were miked and
Speaker 2: you sang, you know, I was miked underneath that prison,
Speaker 2: guarb I was miked. The camera dolly was on, and
Speaker 2: on the dolly was a little speaker with you know,
Speaker 2: with the background music for I Can't Keep a Good
Speaker 2: Man Down, the same thing for the for to Live
Speaker 2: and Die a Cop and the last one, which I forget,
Speaker 2: I forget the name of that one, but no, it
Speaker 2: was all live, and there was a big recording truck
Speaker 2: outside the soundstage, and if you had to do it over,
Speaker 2: you'd do it over. In fact, a friend of mine,
Speaker 2: Stephen DePaul, became a very prominent director in television, has
Speaker 2: written a couple of books. Now. He was one of
Speaker 2: Bruce Springsteen's roadies Wow. But he was also friends with
Speaker 2: Billy Finkelstein. They had gone to college together or knew
Speaker 2: each other, and so Billy hired him as a producer
Speaker 2: on cop Rock because he knew that end of things.
Speaker 2: And Steven came into me one time. I forget which
Speaker 2: song it was, I'm pretty sure it was to Live
Speaker 2: in Die cop and he said, not one of those
Speaker 2: takes is different. I went, yeah, I'm sorry man, He goes, no, no, no,
Speaker 2: that's good, you know, I said, oh okay, I said,
Speaker 2: because in acting you want to do a little if
Speaker 2: the director wants you to do, you want to get a
Speaker 2: little difference. And he sad you. I goh shit, I'm sorry,
Speaker 2: and he goes, no, no, no, I can blend anything.
Speaker 2: I take a piece of anything, because they're all the same,
Speaker 2: you know. I didn't know that was a good thing,
Speaker 2: you know. And yeah, and oh man, it was. I
Speaker 2: can't think of a bad moment except when Steven came
Speaker 2: in and said we were canceled. You know, I really
Speaker 2: think although I and I remember saying to Steven and
Speaker 2: to Greg Hoblett, hey, why don't we this is my
Speaker 2: MBA in marketing, right, And that's exactly what they called
Speaker 2: me onto. I said, why don't we do this? Why
Speaker 2: don't we film one of the songs from the upcoming episode?
Speaker 2: But let's put I was friends with Paula Abdul at
Speaker 2: the time. All right, let's get one of these Let's
Speaker 2: get Paul Abdul to do a song one week, Let's
Speaker 2: film that song ahead of time, let's release it on
Speaker 2: MTV and say this is what's coming up on cop Rock.
Speaker 2: And they're like, shut up with your NBA marketing bush.
Speaker 2: I'm like, no, man, I said, come on, you know,
Speaker 2: let's you know, And I'm telling you I think that
Speaker 2: would have saved the show. Yes, you get Paul Abdul,
Speaker 2: you get who the hell else was around that? Do
Speaker 2: you know that you can? You can find this on YouTube.
Speaker 2: There are two numbers that Cheryl crow sings background in
Speaker 2: what Yeah. Cheryl Crowe is on cop Rock.
Speaker 1: The talent in this show is just I cannot believe it.
Speaker 1: Like every time I read another like person that worked
Speaker 1: on it yeah or was involved, it's yeah.
Speaker 2: And I'm still good friends. By the way, we had
Speaker 2: two Academy Award winners on the music writing staff. We
Speaker 2: had a guy I'm still friends with. He was just
Speaker 2: supposed to come out last week with the fires. He stayed.
Speaker 2: He's down in New Orleans now. But Donnie Markowitz wrote
Speaker 2: Time of My Life for Dirty Dancing Oh My God.
Speaker 2: And Amanda McBroom was on the writing staff. She wrote
Speaker 2: the rose oh my God, both Academy Award winners. Those
Speaker 2: songs both won the Academy Award. And then there was
Speaker 2: a whole bunch of other writers that were great too.
Speaker 2: And the other cool thing was that there was a
Speaker 2: lot of session singers in town here that never got
Speaker 2: their faces on camera, you know, and all of a sudden,
Speaker 2: you know, here they are like singing in the background,
Speaker 2: popping up. Carl Anderson, Carl Anderson, rest in peace. Carl
Speaker 2: was the judge in the pilot episode where they sing
Speaker 2: that Randy Newton that silly song. He's guilty, Judge, He's guilty.
Speaker 2: R Carl is the judge. Carl played Judas in the
Speaker 2: movie Jesus Christ Superstar.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, wow, Yeah, Carl.
Speaker 2: Carl Anderson is it was a major voice, you know,
Speaker 2: and he did one or two more episodes. But yeah,
Speaker 2: And then there was guy Lewis Price, I think was
Speaker 2: his name. He was touring with the Temptations at the time. Uh,
Speaker 2: but there was and and these these musicians out here
Speaker 2: were like, wow, wow, what a great thing to do.
Speaker 2: You know. Everybody was psyched just to you know, come
Speaker 2: and play.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's uh, it's so crazy. I have so many
Speaker 1: more questions for you. We're gonna take a really quick
Speaker 1: break here on I smell pop culture. Stick around, everybody,
Speaker 1: this is I smell pop culture. Peter Onoati with us, Uh,
Speaker 1: the star of Cop rock. I I'm so curious.
Speaker 2: Like watching one of the stars of Hey.
Speaker 1: As far as i'm you're the main character of that show.
Speaker 1: If you ask me, it's this is a Vince Lariso's story. Uh.
Speaker 1: When I watch your performance, I'm so curious. Like preparing
Speaker 1: for a role, a typical role, you know, you read
Speaker 1: your lines, you you think about what the the you know,
Speaker 1: what's the character experiencing this has the added challenge of learning.
Speaker 1: You gotta learn songs and dancing. What was the preparation
Speaker 1: like before you film? Like, like, how would you get this?
Speaker 1: You get a copy of the song to learn? How
Speaker 1: did that work?
Speaker 2: Yeah, you gotta you got a cassette tape with the
Speaker 2: music and the words done by one of the writers
Speaker 2: that or two of the writers that wrote it. You
Speaker 2: studied that, you know, and usually for somebody like me.
Speaker 2: It was my first time. They'd try to schedule it
Speaker 2: later on in the uh in the you know, in
Speaker 2: the episode, I mean it was an eight days that's
Speaker 2: another thing. We did four songs in episode and only
Speaker 2: a regular eight day shoot like a regular drama, our drama.
Speaker 2: That's all that's insane and everything recorded like we said live.
Speaker 2: So my preparation didn't change at all from my preparation
Speaker 2: to do a character. You know, whatever it is in
Speaker 2: my background that I could call upon, and for this
Speaker 2: I could call upon a lot. My uncle, Pat Depalmer,
Speaker 2: was the chief of police in my hometown. My father
Speaker 2: was a part time cop when he was younger. You know,
Speaker 2: I have a lot of there. Both were marines, you know,
Speaker 2: I got all kinds of that stuff in it. None
Speaker 2: of them sang. But the thing that I found, which
Speaker 2: was a great it was an acting lesson for me,
Speaker 2: was because I wasn't that confident of my voice. I
Speaker 2: knew I could carry a tune, but I wasn't like
Speaker 2: Anne Bobby or Paul mccrane or any of these guys
Speaker 2: who could sing. And I had trained voices, you know,
Speaker 2: I had to bury myself in my character. This was
Speaker 2: really my character's inner voice singing out. So I wasn't
Speaker 2: performing some of those some of those numbers were performed
Speaker 2: like musicals and had dancing and stuff. Most of my
Speaker 2: numbers were quite introspective and really voices of the inner character,
Speaker 2: you know. And and so it wasn't that hard to
Speaker 2: prepare for because I didn't because I have to tell
Speaker 2: you something in my mind, people like Anne Bobby who've
Speaker 2: done musicals and stuff, there's a switch in your body
Speaker 2: as an actor that you have to be able to
Speaker 2: flip to do a musical, to be able to blow
Speaker 2: away all reality and to overact and to do I
Speaker 2: don't know if it's called overacting, but to really really present.
Speaker 2: I don't know that I have that talent. But like
Speaker 2: I said, Aunt Bobby could, and you know, and and
Speaker 2: a few other people you know who had performed, know
Speaker 2: even as even as rock musicians, you know, like Larry had,
Speaker 2: Larry Joshua had a band, Jimmy McDaniels hit a song
Speaker 2: already in theater, Paul mccrane of course fame. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, he's brilliant, and you know, so so so
Speaker 2: my preparation and plus the fact that I was not
Speaker 2: that accomplished an actor. I've only been into business a
Speaker 2: couple of years, so I I had to depend on
Speaker 2: my own natural process and just make the music fit
Speaker 2: in to that, you know, And so it did I
Speaker 2: think it fit in? Well?
Speaker 3: I don't.
Speaker 2: Again, I'm not I'm not a big fan of my
Speaker 2: voice and whether I hit the right notes. But each
Speaker 2: time at least in my numbers and a bunch of
Speaker 2: other numbers too, But I felt that in my numbers
Speaker 2: that it worked. It worked in the show.
Speaker 1: You know, I love hearing that you looked at it
Speaker 1: as like this is the character expressing their inner thoughts
Speaker 1: through the songs. It comes across so well that way,
Speaker 1: And I mean personally, like you keep saying you don't
Speaker 1: like your voice, Like I mean, you know, I've seen
Speaker 1: you in Good Fellows, I've seen you in Swat, like
Speaker 1: I've seen all this stuff. And when I watched Cop Rock,
Speaker 1: I was like, oh my god, he's got the voice
Speaker 1: of an angel too. Who was this guy?
Speaker 2: I wish?
Speaker 3: You know?
Speaker 2: Who's a singer in my house? Is my wife? She was?
Speaker 2: She was an actress when I met her, and she
Speaker 2: has an amazing voice. She's she's become a writer, producer,
Speaker 2: all our lives together. She you know, she was on
Speaker 2: shows like Big Love, Good Advice. She started out. She
Speaker 2: was actually nominated for an Emmy her first job here.
Speaker 2: Her and her partner Meei Freedman Jenet Collins is her name.
Speaker 2: Her and her partner meet me Freeman, were nominated for
Speaker 2: an Emmy on the first show that they wrote on
Speaker 2: here in Hollywood, which was in Living Color.
Speaker 1: Oh, they wrote Wow.
Speaker 2: They wrote the first season of In Living Color with
Speaker 2: Wow people. Yeah so, but but but the asign is
Speaker 2: that she has an incredible voice and probably perfect pitch.
Speaker 2: You know. I wouldn't know because I don't have perfect pitch.
Speaker 2: But uh, and I'm I'm the jerk who gets the
Speaker 2: thing on TV. You know.
Speaker 1: So you do, you do cop Rock and then you
Speaker 1: go on to work with Stephen Bosco a lot, Civil Wars,
Speaker 1: Murder one, some ny PD Blue episodes. Was cop Rock?
Speaker 1: The first role you had where you played a member
Speaker 1: of law enforcement?
Speaker 2: Yes? Yeah, all I did before that was was Kate
Speaker 2: and Alley. You know, that was it. That was the
Speaker 2: first one. And this interesting thing happened after Pop Rock
Speaker 2: was canceled. Stephen called me up, and this is how
Speaker 2: new I was in the business. Calls me up my
Speaker 2: trailer and he says, ABC's gonna call you about a
Speaker 2: holding deal. I went, Okay, what's that. Well, they're going
Speaker 2: to pay you a certain amount to hold you for
Speaker 2: an ABC show. And I went, they do that?
Speaker 3: You know?
Speaker 2: Because yeah, they do that?
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 2: So, so I'm sitting around waiting for an ABC show
Speaker 2: and I get called to do I met with Stephen Cannell.
Speaker 2: He wanted me to do the commission. Do you remember
Speaker 2: the show?
Speaker 1: Oh y, yes, yeah, Michael Ticholas, Yes.
Speaker 2: Chicky did it, which is it was a great show
Speaker 2: for him.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well I turned it down because it was in Vancouver
Speaker 2: and my kids were like four and two, and so
Speaker 2: I said, no, I can't go to Vancouver for twenty
Speaker 2: five weeks a year, you know. Plus it wasn't an
Speaker 2: ABC show and I had this holding deal with ABC,
Speaker 2: so I figured something might come my way, you know.
Speaker 2: And in the meantime, Civil Wars comes around, and I
Speaker 2: asked Steven, I said, you know, would you consider me
Speaker 2: for Civil Wars? And then he called me and he said, yeah,
Speaker 2: I got this role for you, but it was a
Speaker 2: lesser role. It was like a private investigator, you know
Speaker 2: that work for Charlie Howell and the firm. And then
Speaker 2: I got a call from somebody else to do another lead.
Speaker 2: So I called Stephen back and I go, hey, you're
Speaker 2: my mentor. These guys are all calling me about doing leads,
Speaker 2: and you want me to do this secondary role. I said,
Speaker 2: would you consider me for the lead? He goes okay,
Speaker 2: you know, And so I came in and I read,
Speaker 2: and I loved the law. I had two semesters of
Speaker 2: law undergraduate and two semesters in graduate school from my MBA.
Speaker 2: I loved the law. I just was not as conscientious
Speaker 2: an individual to go to law school and study I could.
Speaker 2: One of my best friends in college, his name is
Speaker 2: tom Vinaski. Tommy and I were co captains of the
Speaker 2: football team. Tommy was from Shamokin, Pennsylvania. Cole Town boy. Yeah,
Speaker 2: nothing but football and.
Speaker 1: Cole Okay, sounds like it.
Speaker 2: Yeah. He graduate, waited and went on to law school,
Speaker 2: and he just now retired as a federal appeals court
Speaker 2: judge Obama had appointed him. Okay, that was Tommy. I
Speaker 2: could not do what Tommy did you know? I could
Speaker 2: not be But I love the law. I loved the
Speaker 2: idea of having to legislate morality. How do you write
Speaker 2: in sentence form how to behave morally or what is
Speaker 2: morally right? What is morally wrong? And what kind of
Speaker 2: what kind of penalties? You know? So the law always
Speaker 2: interesting me. I loved it, you know, And and so
Speaker 2: Stephen had me read and then then it looked like, yeah,
Speaker 2: I got it. Right, and then they're looking for the
Speaker 2: female lead and they can't find the female lead. So
Speaker 2: Greg Homlet, who was Stephen's best guy for he did
Speaker 2: all his pilots, calls me up once. He says, what
Speaker 2: do you think about Mario Humingway? And I said, well,
Speaker 2: I said, that would be an incredible thing for the
Speaker 2: you know, for the commercial success of the show. You know,
Speaker 2: screw you and your NBA shit. You know, come on, guys,
Speaker 2: you asked me.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm sensing a theme here.
Speaker 2: Yeah, right. So, so Mary All got the job, and
Speaker 2: then then Debbie Maser got the job. And Debbie and
Speaker 2: I were in Goodfellas. We never knew each other, but
Speaker 2: she had a nice, big role in Goodfellas, you know,
Speaker 2: so we and then David Marciano was on, and David
Speaker 2: and I grew up probably ten miles away from each
Speaker 2: other in New Jersey, so we could finish each other's
Speaker 2: you know, jokes and sense. So Civil Wars was wonderful.
Speaker 2: And to be able to to actually, some of the
Speaker 2: best lawyers are actors, so to be able to be
Speaker 2: an actor playing a lawyer who's being an actor in
Speaker 2: a summation speech was really cool, you know. But It
Speaker 2: was brutal, sometimes these couple of pages of summation speeches
Speaker 2: that you had to memorize and stuff. But I loved
Speaker 2: it and I loved it, and that show in particular
Speaker 2: Civil War, because it was civil law, it was about
Speaker 2: family law. It was really, really, really visceral in the
Speaker 2: way it tore people apart or put people together. And
Speaker 2: years after that, I do this regular benefit in Omaha, Nebraska,
Speaker 2: so far away from me culturally and philosophically, with wonderful people.
Speaker 2: Even years after that, I've been doing it for twenty
Speaker 2: some years or more. Actually, people will come up to
Speaker 2: me and cite particular episodes of Civil Wars because maybe
Speaker 2: they were going through a divorce at the time, or
Speaker 2: a custody battle, or caring for an elder parent. Whatever
Speaker 2: it was. Really it was another show that was beyond
Speaker 2: its time. It was very hard. Network almost put it
Speaker 2: on because it was so dark, you know. Uh. In fact,
Speaker 2: the pilot episode, the pilot episode had to be reshot okay,
Speaker 2: because my scenario was I was defending a guy whose
Speaker 2: wife asked him for a divorce. He was he was
Speaker 2: a schmat the guy he was in the you know,
Speaker 2: in the uh uh in New York in you know,
Speaker 2: the garment district. She was young and she was taking
Speaker 2: advantage of him and everything. And you know who played
Speaker 2: the guy who? Jerry Stiller.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, And I wish that.
Speaker 2: This film could be found someplace, yes, because you should
Speaker 2: see Jerry Stiller's dramatic acting. It was incredible, and it
Speaker 2: was so incredible that it was too damn dark. And
Speaker 2: the network said, oh, sorry, we can't use it. You
Speaker 2: gotta you gotta do another story. So they ended up
Speaker 2: filming another story where I'm defending a woman who's who's
Speaker 2: who's divorcing her husband, and her husband is played by
Speaker 2: Dennis Franz and Dennis is possessed by Elvis, and he
Speaker 2: was talking like Elvis, and he says, I love you silly.
Speaker 2: She goes, my name is not silly. Your name is
Speaker 2: not Elvis. It's Murray Seidelman. You're a coffee salesman, you know.
Speaker 2: And it was so wonderfully dramatic and poignant, and of
Speaker 2: course Dennis fran.
Speaker 5: Dennis friends, you know, oh yeah, And they went through
Speaker 5: I mean they went they built the they built the
Speaker 5: big spread eagle uh costume that Elvis.
Speaker 2: Wore for this awesome amazing. So that was the pilot episode,
Speaker 2: and uh, they still felt it was too dark, they
Speaker 2: you know, So we got two seasons out of it.
Speaker 2: But that was it, you know. And then uh, I
Speaker 2: came back for Murder one, and then I came back
Speaker 2: as a regular for Murder in the first where I
Speaker 2: got to work with Felton Todd Felton, Oh yeah, so,
Speaker 2: but Stephen always and then I came back for that
Speaker 2: arc on NYPD. You know. The funny thing was the
Speaker 2: second season of Civil Wars. Stephen sent the pilot episode
Speaker 2: of NYPD down to my trailer. He says, read this,
Speaker 2: tell me what you think. So I read it and
Speaker 2: I said, well, the lead character has an Irish name.
Speaker 2: Are we not working together anymore? He said, screw you.
Speaker 2: You got your own show. And we had not been
Speaker 2: dropped yet. We were still waiting to see if we
Speaker 2: had gotten picked up. And sure enough, we got dropped
Speaker 2: right after, you know, and I said, you so. But
Speaker 2: but Stephen was wonderful to me. You know. I spent
Speaker 2: a lot of time before he died. I spent some
Speaker 2: time with him and and his wife, his ex wife, Barbara.
Speaker 2: I was friends with her, and we go and see
Speaker 2: her she's she's gone now too. Barbara died a couple
Speaker 2: of years ago. But they were real, real cheerleaders for
Speaker 2: me coming in. They didn't know who No one knew
Speaker 2: who I was. I mean, Jimmy McDaniels came off a
Speaker 2: Broadway to do cop Rock, Paul mccrane, you know, fame
Speaker 2: and everything else. Ronnie Cox established you know, a terminator
Speaker 2: or whatever else he was in, you know, and Bobby
Speaker 2: had come off Broadway, so they didn't really know. They
Speaker 2: actually thought, I think that I was a Shakespearean actor
Speaker 2: that they'd never heard of. I know Shakespeare from my
Speaker 2: left arm, you know. In fact, one time I was
Speaker 2: just telling a friend of mine. We were filming Firebirds
Speaker 2: with Tommy Lee Jones, and the two of us were stuck.
Speaker 2: Tommy Lee and I were stuck in the eight by
Speaker 2: eight camouflage net while Nick and Sean were filming because
Speaker 2: there were cameras going from like a mile around. Tommy
Speaker 2: Lee says to me, I won't direct you as Yago.
Speaker 2: I said, okay, I had to go home and figure
Speaker 2: out which Shakespearean play Yago was in. So like I say,
Speaker 2: oh that's good, I'll do that, you know, Yeah, sure,
Speaker 2: I can't. But so so I'm kind of theater a literate.
Speaker 2: I you know, like I said, I got my I
Speaker 2: got my I got my actor's equity card. My first
Speaker 2: actor's equity job was in the original play Talk Radio
Speaker 2: on Broadway.
Speaker 1: I'm so glad you brought that up. I love the
Speaker 1: movie Talk Radio. I've always wanted to see it on stage.
Speaker 1: And when I saw you had done that at the
Speaker 1: public theater, I was like, I got to ask him
Speaker 1: about that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was that was wow. I was in fact
Speaker 2: right at the time, I hadn't gotten Kate all yet.
Speaker 2: I was making good money doing commercials, really good money
Speaker 2: doing commercials. So I had only a commercial agent. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I had only a commercial agent. I need to have
Speaker 2: a legit agent to send me out for stuff. I
Speaker 2: was sending myself out for stuff that was in backstage
Speaker 2: or whatever. And so I get this auditioned for to
Speaker 2: do voices in talk radio, to do callers in talk radio,
Speaker 2: because I had some voiceover work. I was and then
Speaker 2: and I said to my commercial agents, I said, do
Speaker 2: I really want to do this? I mean, you know,
Speaker 2: I'm making thousands and thousands of dollars doing commercial Why
Speaker 2: do I want to do this public theater things. They went,
Speaker 2: are you out of your mind? Public theater? You go
Speaker 2: do that job. We'll get you commercial work. You just
Speaker 2: go do the job at the public. Right. So I
Speaker 2: had one scene on stage. The first opening scene is
Speaker 2: me and Zach Grenier. He's the financial guy and I
Speaker 2: play his engineer. And then I go off and I
Speaker 2: did like four other characters, you know, some of which
Speaker 2: I actually created. I brought to Eric came back and
Speaker 2: asked me, well, here's the audition was. So there was
Speaker 2: this guy. My wife loves this story. My wife and
Speaker 2: I used to go on west Ford Street in New
Speaker 2: York to this little place called the Bagel Restaurant, and
Speaker 2: every time we get in there, it's a guy would
Speaker 2: Our waiter would come up and he go, how are you.
Speaker 6: I haven't seen you in such a long time. You're
Speaker 6: looking at wedding. He says, you want to do Georg
Speaker 6: Jordan and I said yes. Then he goes, Casey, push
Speaker 6: to well done, Grasan Nasai.
Speaker 2: How about you, honey. Right, So I get one of
Speaker 2: these characters and I'm in the back and I use
Speaker 2: that voice and Eric stops and he comes back and
Speaker 2: he's looking around. He goes, who was I said it
Speaker 2: was me. He goes, no, I said, yeah, it was me,
Speaker 2: you know. And so Glenn, even in the movie is Latino.
Speaker 2: He wasn't Latino in the script. Wow and so, and
Speaker 2: then Eric needed another character. I said, well, you know,
Speaker 2: I do this. You know, I went to college in Pennsylvania.
Speaker 2: I've got Philadelphia accent, I've got Pittsburgh accent. I said,
Speaker 2: you know, I want to do truck you want he said,
Speaker 2: I want to do truck driver. I said, well, let's
Speaker 2: do truck driver with a Pittsburgh accent, you know, which
Speaker 2: I just did. And this is us. I was pretty
Speaker 2: much the only one that was allowed to do the
Speaker 2: Pittsburgh accident because it came through pretty well. But I,
Speaker 2: you know, I went to college with those guys, you know,
Speaker 2: spent time, you know, drinking and everything else. So so
Speaker 2: that was a character that we kind of created together.
Speaker 2: The bad thing was when Oliver Stone was auditioning for
Speaker 2: the movie. You come in with you bring three characters
Speaker 2: that you're going to do. So I came in. He said, well,
Speaker 2: what characters you want to do. I said, well, I'm
Speaker 2: gonna do Glenn, and I'm gonna do that. He goes, well,
Speaker 2: we already have a Glenn. I went, how could you
Speaker 2: have a Glenn? I The reason Latino is because I
Speaker 2: did it that way. How the hell could you have
Speaker 2: a Glenn?
Speaker 4: You know?
Speaker 2: Well, I didn't get any part in the movie. So,
Speaker 2: but one of the reasons that Oliver Stone did the
Speaker 2: movie was because John c McGinley, you know him, was
Speaker 2: in Platoon and Johnny was in Talk Radio in the play,
Speaker 2: so he got Stone to come up and see to
Speaker 2: play and then Stone worked it out with Eric and
Speaker 2: that's when they did the movie.
Speaker 1: You know, wow, yeah, yeah, I love it. Peter on
Speaker 1: Aati's with us. It's I Smell Pop Culture. I have
Speaker 1: more questions about some of your other roles. We're gonna
Speaker 1: get to here in just one second. We got to
Speaker 1: take a quick break. We'll play some commercials here. It's
Speaker 1: I Smell Pop Culture. My name's Easton Allen and we're
Speaker 1: here with Peter Onati from Cop Rock and okay, so
Speaker 1: the same year that he did cop Rock and actually
Speaker 1: maybe you can clarify the timeline here, but you're also
Speaker 1: being Goodfellas. You have such an incredible role in Goodfellas.
Speaker 1: Did you film that before Cop Rock or act.
Speaker 3: No.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Goodfellas came out in ninety. Cop Rock came out
Speaker 2: in ninety but Goodfellows was filmed almost almost at least
Speaker 2: a year before my son, my son, Sebastiano Sonny was
Speaker 2: born in March of eighty eight, I'm sorry, eighty nine,
Speaker 2: and I filmed Goodfellas in May of eighty nine. And
Speaker 2: here's an interesting story. So Jeanette and I were pregnant
Speaker 2: and she didn't want to have a baby in New
Speaker 2: York City, and you know, all my Italian relatives were
Speaker 2: scaring her in New Jersey. So we moved out to
Speaker 2: LA And it was a good time to do that
Speaker 2: because I had work and I wanted to move to
Speaker 2: LA anyway, because that's the next best place to go
Speaker 2: for your career. So I was on Kate Now. The
Speaker 2: very last day of shooting Kate Nolly last night was
Speaker 2: a Thursday night, and we shoot in front of a
Speaker 2: live audience at the Ed Sullivan Theater, which is now
Speaker 2: the David Letterman Theater. They want to go to, Okay,
Speaker 2: whatever it's called now, it's the at Sullivan Theater. Man,
Speaker 2: it's where the Beatles were in Elvis and.
Speaker 1: Everybody, yeah, legendary.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so so we done filming Thursday night. Friday is
Speaker 2: Saint Patrick's Day. If you know anything about New York City,
Speaker 2: Saint Patrick's Day closes down and there's trunks all over
Speaker 2: the place, you know. And I have a two thirty
Speaker 2: flight out of JFK because my son is due to
Speaker 2: be born that next Monday. So it's Friday morning. I
Speaker 2: wait for my two thirty flight to go back to
Speaker 2: LA to help out my son's birth. I get a
Speaker 2: call from my agents, you have a callback for Scorsese
Speaker 2: and Rockefeller Center at twelve thirty for Goodfellas. So I
Speaker 2: called my wife and I said, I hope the babies
Speaker 2: laid because I would be okay. So, now here's the
Speaker 2: funny part. At that time, Scorsese was hiring for the
Speaker 2: small roles like I got real mob guys or cops
Speaker 2: who chased real mob guys. So we all had the
Speaker 2: same scene to read, and he if he liked you,
Speaker 2: he would just pick a roll for you, you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So I walk into the outer casting office and there
Speaker 2: and these guys sitting there with silver sweatsuits and patent
Speaker 2: leather sneakers, and they look at me and they go, hey,
Speaker 2: what are you reading for. I go, I got the
Speaker 2: science for Sonny Bamboo. He goes, you'll know him. I go, no,
Speaker 2: I don't know him. He goes, I know him. You
Speaker 2: don't look not like him. I said, well that's what
Speaker 2: the gamy. He goes, all right, God bless you kid. Right.
Speaker 2: So I'm not nervous enough. Now. I'd only been into
Speaker 2: business a few years, and I was used to doing
Speaker 2: what I did in the business world, which was to
Speaker 2: try and make the meeting mine. You know, then how
Speaker 2: would I make the meeting? Mind it's a commercial addition
Speaker 2: to a little something extra or whatever. So I'm going
Speaker 2: in the sea scorsesey, I'm like, hell, am I going
Speaker 2: to do that? Right? Well, it dawned, doesn't it that
Speaker 2: my grandfather last name is the exact same spelling without
Speaker 2: the s scot Ace. Okay, So I go in and
Speaker 2: I make up a story for Scorsese. He goes, you
Speaker 2: want to? I said, before we read, I need to
Speaker 2: ask you if we're related, because I said to my grandfather,
Speaker 2: Dana Tho Scorta as I said, I'm going to read
Speaker 2: for the great director Martin Scorsese today, and my grandfather said, wow,
Speaker 2: things way have a cousin a one time, we should
Speaker 2: take the S out of the name. Scorsese goes, really,
Speaker 2: really because we can't find our relatives. I'm going, oh,
Speaker 2: I'm screwed now. I made the whole thing up right.
Speaker 2: So I go, uh uh, well, where are you from?
Speaker 2: He goes, uh, We're from Sicily. I go, no fucking way,
Speaker 2: We're not Sicilian. What are you? I go, well, we're Napolitans.
Speaker 2: He goes, hey, you guys drink too early in the morning.
Speaker 2: You want to do that? I go, yeah, let's do it.
Speaker 2: I read the scene and I got a roll.
Speaker 1: Brilliant, absolutely brilliant.
Speaker 2: I love it.
Speaker 1: I mean, okay, so you get this role. You get
Speaker 1: beat up by de Niro and Ralio nearly fed to
Speaker 1: a lion. How many actors can claim that? I mean
Speaker 1: that incredible?
Speaker 2: It's an iconic scene. Actually, yes, and actually here's here's
Speaker 2: I'll tell you about the shooting of it later. But
Speaker 2: a couple of years ago, one of my good friends,
Speaker 2: Jerry Gel he's also the guy who handles my website
Speaker 2: and everything else, we were going to get some I
Speaker 2: had to get some pictures for autographs, and I walk
Speaker 2: into the local place here in Sherman Oaks and guy
Speaker 2: looks at me and he goes, I said, yeah, you know,
Speaker 2: of course I'm an actor coming for headshots, right. He goes, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 2: and Jerry goes, he was in Goodfellows. I goes, you
Speaker 2: weren't good He said, yeah, he said. I said, well,
Speaker 2: I'm the bookie that turns him in and that they
Speaker 2: throw to the lion. They tried to throw the lines.
Speaker 2: He goes. He goes, you know, he goes, Henry Hill
Speaker 2: before he he died, painted a whole bunch of scenes
Speaker 2: from Goodfellas, I said, and he said, I think he
Speaker 2: painted that scene right. So I go back to pick
Speaker 2: up the pictures and he's got a photo of Henry
Speaker 2: Hill's painting of my scene. Whoa, Now it looks like
Speaker 2: a third grader did it? Okay? So I go online
Speaker 2: and I find the original one, and I want to
Speaker 2: take a chance, but I can turn around. I've got
Speaker 2: the original Henry Hill painter of that scene, you know,
Speaker 2: here in in my office.
Speaker 1: That rules. Wow.
Speaker 2: So that's how iconic the scene was, you know, yes, so,
Speaker 2: But in the meantime it's funny because I get you know,
Speaker 2: I mean, we're filming in Brooklyn in Park Slope at
Speaker 2: like two in the morning. You know, I get in
Speaker 2: the car and De Niro goes, hey, doing I'm Robert,
Speaker 2: I'm Bobby de Narrow. I go, yeah, I know, he
Speaker 2: goes So. I started telling that story and my kid
Speaker 2: after my kid was one year son, he was one
Speaker 2: years old, he's I go through the narrow. He goes so.
Speaker 2: And so there was a really embarrassing part, you know,
Speaker 2: when they're punching me, you know, and I have to
Speaker 2: sell the punch, you know, to sell to make the
Speaker 2: stunt work. So they're filming from the front windshield, windshields out,
Speaker 2: they're filming and they're hitting me, and I got to
Speaker 2: go back, and I got to go back like this, Well,
Speaker 2: when you do a violent action at the time, I
Speaker 2: was studying martial arts, you know, there's sound with the
Speaker 2: violent action. Well I couldn't KII and I was like, god,
Speaker 2: you know, I couldn't. Well, I go back to friggin
Speaker 2: third grade. They go action and I go like this,
Speaker 2: They go cut. The sound man comes over, he goes,
Speaker 2: you don't have to put that, we can do it later.
Speaker 2: I'm like, oh fuck, I'm so oh my god, you know,
Speaker 2: and so that was part of it. And I was
Speaker 2: talking to Ray, and here's interesting thing.
Speaker 4: Right around that time, rain Man came out, okay, and
Speaker 4: I don't know if you know, but Rayleiota did a
Speaker 4: wonderful movie with Tom Holts.
Speaker 2: Called Dominic and Eugene. Yes, okay, it's almost the same
Speaker 2: sort of thing, him taking care of his you know,
Speaker 2: his brother who's handicapped. Tom Hols plays the handicapped brother.
Speaker 2: Such a superior movie to rain Man in that way.
Speaker 2: So I'm sitting here with Ray, it's three o'clock in
Speaker 2: the morning or whatever. I go, Ray, what's man? You know?
Speaker 2: Dominic and Eugene was such a better movie. And you
Speaker 2: know Dan rain Man, He goes, are you kidding me?
Speaker 2: He's Tom Cruise, Dustin Hoffman, Ray Liota, Tom Mollis. I said, okay,
Speaker 2: I get it, never mind, but yeah it was. And
Speaker 2: Ray grew up only a few miles away from me too,
Speaker 2: some New Jersey, I think. And I grew up in Boomton,
Speaker 2: New Jersey. And although if you live in Boomton, you
Speaker 2: say bouton.
Speaker 1: Oh, okay, bten So another one of your roles that
Speaker 1: I that I really just wanted to point out you
Speaker 1: were a wrestling coach on Sex and the City. In
Speaker 1: my opinion, one of the I'm a big Sex in
Speaker 1: the City fan. One of the best episodes my mother
Speaker 1: board myself and if anyone's listening, it's the one where
Speaker 1: Carrie breaks her laptop and just to get a new one.
Speaker 1: But but Peter, you were the wrestling coach. You got
Speaker 1: to be one of Samantha's boyfriends. I mean, what a
Speaker 1: great role to get.
Speaker 2: That was a great role. And actually the executive producer
Speaker 2: is an old friend of mine. I knew him from
Speaker 2: New York when he was a performance artist in a
Speaker 2: stand up comic. He had nothing going on, and he
Speaker 2: came out here and became a great writer on Murphy
Speaker 2: Brown and then he ended up running Sex in the City.
Speaker 2: Michael Patrick King.
Speaker 1: I just talked to him the other day. It's incredible.
Speaker 2: Oh, Michael's great. Michael and I go away, Michael's at
Speaker 2: my wedding.
Speaker 1: Wow, oh my god.
Speaker 2: When he was still living in New York in a
Speaker 2: place called the Doorway to Hell. Yeah, this little apartment,
Speaker 2: you know, and Michael calls me, he goes, hey, how'd
Speaker 2: you like to do five sex scenes with Kim Cattrell.
Speaker 2: I said, naw, I'm going to wash my hair.
Speaker 1: I'm busy.
Speaker 2: I said to you, if you fly me out, yeah,
Speaker 2: I'll do it right. So, and I think it was
Speaker 2: supposed to go maybe for another couple of episodes. I
Speaker 2: would love to have done it like that, But so
Speaker 2: the the idea was that towards the end there she
Speaker 2: was starting to have trouble climaxing right, And so they
Speaker 2: had these They had a sort of a Comma Sutra
Speaker 2: sheet or something. And Michael knew because Michael and I
Speaker 2: had done an improv workshop together where I had lifted
Speaker 2: him up over my head like this, because I wrestled
Speaker 2: in high school and in college, is you know, And
Speaker 2: so he thought of me right away, and he just
Speaker 2: called and offered me to roll. So we're looking at
Speaker 2: all these positions and stuff like this, and it happened
Speaker 2: to be my forty eighth birthday. And Kim looks at
Speaker 2: me and says, thank you for doing it. She goes,
Speaker 2: you wouldn't believe some of the guys they get in here. Sometimes.
Speaker 2: She goes, I'm so happy to have a real actor.
Speaker 2: Blah blah blah. I said, Kim, it's my birthday and
Speaker 2: I can't think of anything better than the bank five times,
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, She goes, it's your birthday.
Speaker 2: I go, yeah, but this is the last scene. I
Speaker 2: didn't say anything. Done. Now, I don't want to hear
Speaker 2: any crap about right, blah blah blah. So I get done.
Speaker 2: I go back to my dressing room and put my
Speaker 2: clothes on. Right, I get out. It was a silver
Speaker 2: cup or something out in Queens. I'm going to my
Speaker 2: car to get brought back into the city and this
Speaker 2: pa starts running towards me. She had sent out for
Speaker 2: a carvel birthday cake for med amount of time.
Speaker 1: Wow, okay, I love that.
Speaker 2: And then the other thing that happened that was really
Speaker 2: funny was during the five scenes or four scenes where
Speaker 2: ever the hell it was so Kim, because she does
Speaker 2: all the sex stuff, has like a cup for her
Speaker 2: leading men. It's like a brack cup, so appliable, it's
Speaker 2: not it's totally hard, and it's unclear straps so you
Speaker 2: can't see, you know. So there was one time where
Speaker 2: we're kind of going at it and the cup pops
Speaker 2: in and pops out. She goes, oh, and I said,
Speaker 2: that wasn't me, that was the cup. You know, she goes, well,
Speaker 2: maybe I liked it. I go, well, I hope you do,
Speaker 2: because we got another four hours of this shit and
Speaker 2: we kind of stayed friends, were in touch once in
Speaker 2: a while, and there was an article actually out about
Speaker 2: the top one hundred guys she had six with and
Speaker 2: I made it in dinner under fifty I think something
Speaker 2: like that. But it was great. It was great fun,
Speaker 2: and I wish it had lasted more because she was
Speaker 2: great and I got to the show right around you
Speaker 2: know shows when I did Kate Now, it happened to
Speaker 2: when shows go on for a while sometimes camps sort
Speaker 2: of developed. I don't know why. Maybe some of the
Speaker 2: actresses or actors want more lines. Could be anything political
Speaker 2: or set wise or whatever it is money I but
Speaker 2: camps developed, you know, same thing. I'm Kate Nelly. Susan
Speaker 2: and Jane were best friends when they started the show.
Speaker 2: When I finished the show with them, they were friends,
Speaker 2: but they weren't as close as they were in the beginning.
Speaker 2: And I don't think anything to do with either of them.
Speaker 2: I think it's some people came in to run the
Speaker 2: show that Jane didn't like, and Susan was like always happy,
Speaker 2: So it's gonna work out. It's gonna work out, you
Speaker 2: know whatever. But camps developed, and in I sense that
Speaker 2: when I got to Sex and the City too, you know,
Speaker 2: so that's all right. My camp had Kim Coatrell.
Speaker 1: And it hey not bad places to be.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so Peter, this has been so much fun. So
Speaker 1: in Gilmore Girls, Coprock is referenced when Laura, the main character,
Speaker 1: she's gonna have a Coprock marathon with her daughter Rory,
Speaker 1: and she brags that she has all the episodes on tape.
Speaker 1: And I was curious, you know, you have you have
Speaker 1: three sons. Is there like a show or something that
Speaker 1: you like to watch with your kids that maybe when
Speaker 1: they were growing up you would watch on a marathon
Speaker 1: something like that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And we never did any marathon stuff because boys
Speaker 2: were always so busy, you know. Yeah, I mean we
Speaker 2: you know, special events, special movies and things like that.
Speaker 2: In fact, there's a movie I just sent to a
Speaker 2: friend of mine just has a little baby. He was
Speaker 2: my next door neighbor and now he moved to New York.
Speaker 2: There was a beautiful movie. Well, my kids used to
Speaker 2: love Totuo.
Speaker 1: Okay, oh yeah, all right.
Speaker 2: I don't think I ever watched the whole thing, you know.
Speaker 2: But I have a granddaughter now, she's fourteen months old.
Speaker 2: But there's this little movie. It's called The Snowman. It
Speaker 2: was a short and it's an Academy Award nominated short
Speaker 2: from Canada.
Speaker 1: I know exactly what you're talking about, you know what,
Speaker 1: the beautiful.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no view dialogue, just an amazing, amazing journey and that.
Speaker 2: And I just sent it to this guy next door
Speaker 2: who had the who has this little boy? And uh
Speaker 2: and I give it to people who, you know, when
Speaker 2: when I first have their kids, because it's a wonderful
Speaker 2: first movie, even if they can't speak, it's just the
Speaker 2: images and the sound is wonderful. But I don't remember,
Speaker 2: because you know what, there were be times when I'd
Speaker 2: sit down with the boys. Oh, you got to see
Speaker 2: this movie. It's a mad, mad, mad mad world. They're like,
Speaker 2: what the hell is it? Out of here? Right? Or
Speaker 2: you know anything? You know, even Young Frank is that
Speaker 2: they all go back to now they're like that, oh
Speaker 2: Young frank'sty Oh that I go. Yeah, now, you know.
Speaker 1: I could put you on early Yeah, Oh my god,
Speaker 1: it's so funny. Uh. Peter, thank you so much for
Speaker 1: your time today. This has been so much fun, and
Speaker 1: everyone cop rocks on YouTube. I hope everybody listening goes
Speaker 1: and watches it. It's truly a magnificent pro and I'm
Speaker 1: so grateful that you made it and you were part
Speaker 1: of it. It's just it's it's incredible. It should have
Speaker 1: gone for many seasons.
Speaker 2: Yes, and I think you can still get that whole
Speaker 2: the whole collection of the episodes on shout Factory, Yes,
Speaker 2: I think, but yeah, yeah, And most of the YouTube
Speaker 2: stuff is all the singing.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 2: I don't know that you know that there's much of
Speaker 2: the acting on there, but there's some of the acting
Speaker 2: in the singing, like we were talking about, But it's there,
Speaker 2: and it's it's pretty funny to watch. And you can
Speaker 2: see why the show went down because when it worked,
Speaker 2: it worked really well. When it didn't work, it ted,
Speaker 2: you know, tanked, you know, so, but it was And
Speaker 2: Steven said it best. He said, I'm proud that I
Speaker 2: did it. He goes, it was the most creative thing
Speaker 2: I've ever done. He goes, I don't think I'd want
Speaker 2: to do it again.
Speaker 1: So wow, thanks so much. Hope you have a great
Speaker 1: rest of your day.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 2: You two. It was great, so much.
Speaker 3: Dot everybody, and I'll forget.
Speaker 1: Follow us on Instagram at i Am all In podcast,
Speaker 1: and email us at Gilmore at iHeartRadio dot com