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Speaker 1: Oh hey, guys, welcome to this spinoff episode of The

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Speaker 1: Daily Zeitgeist. We're calling The Iconograph, a show about icons.

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Speaker 1: My name is Jack O'Brien. I co founded the website

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Speaker 1: cracked dot com, and for the past seven years, I've

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Speaker 1: co hosted a daily show with the comedian Miles Gray

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Speaker 1: about the Zeitgeist. In regular episodes of that show, we

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Speaker 1: cover what's happening in our shared consciousness, our zeitgeist, through

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Speaker 1: the news and pop culture of today. But on Monday

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Speaker 1: mornings on The Iconograph, we're covering the zeitgeist through our icons. Basically,

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Speaker 1: the stars of our shared consciousness years after they existed.

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Speaker 1: You can say their name and everyone knows what you're

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Speaker 1: talking about. If I say good one Einstein, my seven

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Speaker 1: year old son knows I'm sarcastically making fun of him

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Speaker 1: for saying something dumb. And when I say good one, Urcle,

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Speaker 1: he knows I'm making fun of him for saying something smart.

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Speaker 1: I'm calling him a nerd. And those are our first

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Speaker 1: two episodes. We started last week with Einstein, a singular

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Speaker 1: historical figure whose iconic status was sort of unavoidable based

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Speaker 1: on who he was and what he did. Episode two,

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Speaker 1: we're covering an icon whose popularity I think is interesting

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Speaker 1: for how impossible it was to predict and how difficult

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Speaker 1: it is to explain all these years later. I was

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Speaker 1: trying to think of a modern equivalent for Racle and

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Speaker 1: this is the best I could do, and.

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Speaker 2: It's not good.

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Speaker 1: But imagine if when the Rizzler hit peak fame a

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Speaker 1: couple of years ago, he just kept getting more and

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Speaker 1: more famous for like I guess, like two to three years,

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Speaker 1: instead of giving way to six seve and like Italian

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Speaker 1: brain rotten shit, it was just the Rizzler. Just all

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Speaker 1: those things were the Rizzler. It was just the Rizzler

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Speaker 1: all the way down. That was basically the Erkle era.

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Speaker 1: At the end, as always, I'll be back from my

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Speaker 1: no No, No, no note book dump, where I get to

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Speaker 1: all the interesting stuff I didn't have time for in

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Speaker 1: the episode. But let's get right into it here. I

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Speaker 1: am talking to Miles and special guests Jackise Neil about

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Speaker 1: our icon number two, Steve Urkle, Hello the Internet, and

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Speaker 1: welcome to this spinoff episode of Dirt Alley Zeitgeist, which.

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Speaker 2: We're calling the Iconograph.

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Speaker 1: Instead of looking at the Zeitgeist through current events, we're

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Speaker 1: reconstructing it through the powerful pop cultural work. Truxes that

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Speaker 1: are that are our icons.

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Speaker 2: Are are our are our eye are our.

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Speaker 1: We use these historical figures and famous characters to create meaning,

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Speaker 1: to build identity, to see where we've been, to look

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Speaker 1: at something we've just done, turned to the people around us,

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Speaker 1: and ask the fundamental human question, did I do that?

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Speaker 1: Much more popular than the original pitch, Dear God, what

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Speaker 1: have I done?

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Speaker 2: That's right.

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Speaker 1: In the second episode, we're doing the Aracle Baby Circle,

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Speaker 1: a one off background character on an eighties and nineties

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Speaker 1: sitcom who resonated with America's share consciousness so powerfully that

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Speaker 1: he immediately became the star of not just his show,

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Speaker 1: but American pop culture. I'm joined as always by my

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Speaker 1: co host.

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Speaker 2: Mister Miles.

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Speaker 3: Yes, I doing the intro like dailies. I guess it

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Speaker 3: puts pressure on me to feel like I have to

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Speaker 3: sing something when I got to sing nothing.

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Speaker 2: I'm in the building.

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Speaker 1: I'm here unless you know all the words to the

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Speaker 1: song that a company is doing the Oracle, in which

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Speaker 1: case you're more than welcome.

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Speaker 2: Definitely not definitely.

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Speaker 1: Involves rhyming the word elvis with pelvis uh and if

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Speaker 1: that brings anything to mind. Myles, We're thrilled to be

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Speaker 1: joined in our third seat by an award winning podcast host, writer, producer, actor,

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Speaker 1: you know from Grand Crew How I Met Your Father,

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Speaker 1: also the host of the truly great live show comedian Clash.

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Speaker 2: It's Jackiesney.

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Speaker 3: Don't get crowd control Eitherible Yes, don't star of crowd

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Speaker 3: Control Stars crowd Control so rare.

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Speaker 2: Yes this day and age.

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Speaker 4: Yeah sees in the guy's nice page as a tradition

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Speaker 4: under grand is.

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Speaker 2: Almost imprinted on my brain.

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Speaker 1: Shots from anything in the eighties and nineties is the

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Speaker 1: fade out? Like I think it was a helicopter shot

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Speaker 1: where you're like seeing the family eating dinner through the

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Speaker 1: window of family matters and then it like pulls back

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Speaker 1: over the whole neighborhood. Oh yeah, you're like, whoa, this

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Speaker 1: is taking place in the real world.

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Speaker 2: This is Chicago. How did you use that?

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Speaker 5: I used to pass that house up like I would

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Speaker 5: when my mom moved to the North Side of Chicago,

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Speaker 5: where I was living before I moved to LA I

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Speaker 5: would ride my bike to her house and like the

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Speaker 5: street to go up she lived on.

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Speaker 2: She lived off of like Wellington.

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Speaker 5: This is where the family Matters house was still in

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Speaker 5: this original and they changed it a little bit.

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Speaker 1: You ever look in the window to see if they

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Speaker 1: were in that.

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Speaker 2: The front door.

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Speaker 1: If we're graphing icons, as the name suggests, iconograph Erkele

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Speaker 1: would be pretty far from our first episode subject Einstein

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Speaker 1: on the icon matrix Einstein. Uh, it's pretty clear why

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Speaker 1: he became famous. Erkele was like a pandemic America suddenly

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Speaker 1: came down with, like a virus that so much. Should

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Speaker 1: invent a phrase for when something becomes popular and spreads

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Speaker 1: like a virus. I don't, but I feel like that

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Speaker 1: would be a valuable thing. But yeah, one day he

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Speaker 1: was a background character with a planned one episode arc.

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Speaker 1: They were he was in one episode, and then the

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Speaker 1: next day he was fucking everywhere. And I'm curious why

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Speaker 1: we think that happened. Uh, But I want to ask

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Speaker 1: first both of you guys, what what do you guys

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Speaker 1: remember of the Erkele era.

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Speaker 2: The Oracle era for me?

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Speaker 3: Because when did The Family Matters debut, like nineteen ninety

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Speaker 3: eighty nine, eighty nine, Yeah, okay, so I was by

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Speaker 3: the time I was watching.

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Speaker 2: I think for me it was probably like.

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Speaker 3: Just seeing that like a black people show and the

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Speaker 3: coolest person was like a young guy on it, even

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Speaker 3: though it wasn't a nerd or whatever. That was kind

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Speaker 3: of my first I think, because at the time I

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Speaker 3: was consuming every show that had black people in it

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Speaker 3: because they were only like four, but this was like

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Speaker 3: one of the few that I watched a lot. And

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Speaker 3: then my grandparents were prolific background actors on Fan, so

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Speaker 3: I always used to watch two to think see if

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Speaker 3: I would seeing my grandmother or my grandfather pop up

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Speaker 3: on the show, and this will probably come up with somebody.

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Speaker 3: They were very good friends with Jalil White because he

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Speaker 3: moved out here and didn't really have a lot of

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Speaker 3: close family, and my grandparents were kind of like his

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Speaker 3: adopted like la family for a time while he was

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Speaker 3: sharing the show.

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Speaker 2: I met, Yeah, I met.

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Speaker 3: I've met Jalil many times when I was a kid,

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Speaker 3: because he would be at my grandparents' house and people

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Speaker 3: thought I would, uh, well, my grandparents didn't have a

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Speaker 3: hoop there, and at the time he.

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Speaker 2: Was like fucking like nineteen, I was like a fucking boy.

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Speaker 3: He was kind of like, yeah, it was like it was.

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Speaker 3: It definitely felt like a make a wish kind of thing.

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Speaker 3: He's like, hey, how you been, and then we'd have

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Speaker 3: cookies and cream ice cream, and then he'd leave, and

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Speaker 3: then I like.

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Speaker 2: My grandparents are the coolest people ever.

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Speaker 1: There's a clip of on Colbert where he asks Jamie

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Speaker 1: Lee Curtis, who's been famous since she was like a child,

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Speaker 1: if she ever asked anybody for an autograph, and she

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Speaker 1: starts laughing and can't control herself, and then her one

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Speaker 1: word answer. He's like, who was it?

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Speaker 2: She's like rkle Academy Award winner.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, She's the only person she ever asked for an

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Speaker 1: autograph was an Arkle.

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Speaker 2: That's what about you, jackies man.

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Speaker 5: It's so funny because like family matters in itself, Like

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Speaker 5: we just called it the Arkle Show growing up. Yeah,

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Speaker 5: so like we didn't even call it family matters anymore.

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Speaker 2: It was like, what you watching? I'm watch an rkle

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Speaker 2: bro Yeah, I just meant the show you arkles on? Yeah,

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Speaker 2: urkles On man is urkle On? Oh yeah, erkle is on.

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Speaker 5: So it was big in my household, sure, because and

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Speaker 5: that was also, you know, just a big time in

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Speaker 5: black TV culture. So for me, it didn't stand out

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Speaker 5: as anything special or different because in the nineties late

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Speaker 5: eighties and throughout the nineties, we had so many black

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Speaker 5: television shows on TGIF for NBC or whatever. So yeah,

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Speaker 5: it was just another It was just like, oh, yeah,

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Speaker 5: this is the full house black show. This is the

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Speaker 5: version of full House for black people, right that we

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Speaker 5: get and then yeah, man, we were just invested in

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Speaker 5: Arkle and everybody else became supporting.

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Speaker 1: Very quick, like it was one episode to the next like, well,

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Speaker 1: we're going to talk about it. But it's crazy just

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Speaker 1: how little they had planned and how he just came

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Speaker 1: in and was so good immediately. This is like child

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Speaker 1: actor was so fucking good that they immediately were like,

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Speaker 1: so this is the show, right right? But yeah, so,

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Speaker 1: Family Matters was initially created. It was launched in eighty nine.

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Speaker 1: It was initially created in response to the success of

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Speaker 1: The Cosby Show, which premiered in eighty four and skyrocketed

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Speaker 1: to become the most watched sitcom on TV, and every

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Speaker 1: studio at the time wanted a quote black family show,

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Speaker 1: which I've always hears my Cosby Show. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

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Speaker 1: So the Cosby Show is kind of an interesting representation

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Speaker 1: of like how mainstream white culture wanted to make sense

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Speaker 1: of the black experience in the eighties, Like I feel

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Speaker 1: like the seventies you had the Jefferson's moving on up,

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Speaker 1: and then like Reagan's, America wanted to be like, well,

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Speaker 1: racism has been solved, no more questions your honor. They're

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Speaker 1: no longer moving up there, They've arrived. The Huxtables are rich.

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Speaker 1: Everything's good here. And there were also like multiple shows

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Speaker 1: where poor black children were adopted by rich white parents

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Speaker 1: and lived happily ever after in a fish out of

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Speaker 1: water scenario. You had different and Strokes and Webster that premise.

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Speaker 1: And so as the nineties are beginning, the makers of

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Speaker 1: Family Matters thought America was ready for maybe a more

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Speaker 1: like blue collar answer to the black experience in America.

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Speaker 1: Nothing too scary, you know. Carl, the father played by

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Speaker 1: Reginald val Johnson, was a cop. And it is with

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Speaker 1: a heavy heart I must report that a cap does

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Speaker 1: include Carl winslow Man.

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Speaker 5: We can have one exception, one exception he got through

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Speaker 5: Oh damn, you got all right?

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Speaker 1: Well, yeah, there's a fan theory that I want to

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Speaker 1: get to a little later on that he because he

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Speaker 1: was always playing cops. And there's a fan theory that

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Speaker 1: the cop character he played in Ghostbusters. Die Hard and

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Speaker 1: Carl Winslow are all the same cop, just seen at

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Speaker 1: different points. But yeah, the show was like for the

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Speaker 1: first I think it was eleven episodes, it was what

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Speaker 1: it set out to be. It was a world where

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Speaker 1: money did exist. Unlike in basically any other sitcom other

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Speaker 1: than Roseanne, I feel like the default sitcomcast of the

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Speaker 1: eighties and nineties did not really exist in a coherent

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Speaker 1: economic universe. They lived in like mansions or giant Manhattan apartments,

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Speaker 1: and like the only way to make sense of the

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Speaker 1: cast of Friends is that they all had rich parents,

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Speaker 1: like they had great apartments. They just hung out at

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Speaker 1: coffee shops. They occasionally worked, but like the Winslows had bills.

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Speaker 1: Episode one was about them having to deal with I

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Speaker 1: forget whose mother. It was maybe Carl's coming to live

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Speaker 1: in a house that they were like, this is already

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Speaker 1: too small for us. And in episode two Harriet loses

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Speaker 1: her job, so like that was what they were kind

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Speaker 1: of doing, like what Roseanne was, where like what if

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Speaker 1: people had bills to pay? In this show? It was

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Speaker 1: technically a spinoff of Perfied Strangers. Do you guys remember

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Speaker 1: Perfect Strangers.

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Speaker 2: All right, is were Harriet I kind of like weird.

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Speaker 1: So Harriet Winslow was the elevator operator at the Chicago

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Speaker 1: newspaper where Larry and Balki worked, and the reason she

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Speaker 1: loses her job is she catches Larry and Balki kissing

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Speaker 1: in the elevator and they get her fired instead of

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Speaker 1: confronting their dark secret.

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Speaker 2: That's not true, but I just wanted to.

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Speaker 1: I want a running theme of of cousins hooking up

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Speaker 1: because our first episode Einstein fucked and married his cousin.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, different times. Back then, Carl.

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Speaker 1: Also appeared on Perfect Strangers. There was an episode of

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Speaker 1: Perfect Strangers in which Larry and Balki helped Carl steak

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Speaker 1: out a mob boss. I feel like, just generally, like

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Speaker 1: any of our younger listeners who don't remember sitcoms, like

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Speaker 1: that is what sitcoms were.

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Speaker 2: Just the plotting was just.

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Speaker 1: Like they were making shit up like as they went,

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Speaker 1: which is how we got Urkle incidentally, but like, yeah,

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Speaker 1: they were like, all right, so in this one, Larry

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Speaker 1: and Balki are like helping a cop steak out the mafia.

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Speaker 1: But yeah, I guess it would seem Carl was not

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Speaker 1: just a cop. He was a cop who sucked shit

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Speaker 1: at his job. Since he used Larry and Balki to

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Speaker 1: help steak out the mob, yeah, that's probably not great.

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Speaker 3: Also his resources or like, yeah, you're taking down the mob,

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Speaker 3: talk to these two fucking goobers to help you with

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Speaker 3: your fucking k al.

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Speaker 2: Right, well in Chicago, by the way.

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Speaker 1: Right right right, Yeah, I do just want to bring

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Speaker 1: that up, Jaquise, you were growing up in Chicago at

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Speaker 1: the time. I feel like there was a real early

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Speaker 1: nineties moment for Chicago, like Racle Comes from Chicago, a

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Speaker 1: Home Alone took place in Chicago, and as I was

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Speaker 1: watching old episodes of Ercle or Family Matters, I saw

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Speaker 1: he had the same Jordan cut out as the kid

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Speaker 1: from Home Alone as Kevin does.

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Speaker 2: Like with hands on him.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it was just like they the early nineties in Chicago,

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Speaker 1: Like was just sometimes there's just a place where everything's

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Speaker 1: coming together, and like Rkele Home Alone and the Jordan

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Speaker 1: Bulls all happening in Chicago at the same time. Like

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Speaker 1: did you feel did you like look around, You're like, fuck, man,

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Speaker 1: things are happening here.

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Speaker 2: I live in the center of the universe.

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Speaker 5: I mean honestly, not not as much, but like I

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Speaker 5: think because especially at that age, like the bulls were

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Speaker 5: so big and like everything was so big because so

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Speaker 5: it was. And then you know, the parts of Chicago

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Speaker 5: that they show the most when they're doing like establishing

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Speaker 5: shots outside of the house are mostly like downtown Chicago

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Speaker 5: or and you know, I grew up on the South Side,

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Speaker 5: so for me, it was just like, oh, this is

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Speaker 5: just like like you said, like the center of the

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Speaker 5: universe almost where it's not even like this is in Chicago.

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Speaker 5: It's just kind of like, yeah, even Roseanne was said

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Speaker 5: in Illinois, which is not in Chicago.

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Speaker 2: But like everything felt like.

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Speaker 5: So relatable to me because they were like, oh yeah, man,

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Speaker 5: like everybody lives here.

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Speaker 1: There's other cities now. I guess you wouldn't notice it

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Speaker 1: as a kid. You would just be like, yeah, of

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Speaker 1: course it's set here. Why wouldn't it be set here?

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Speaker 5: And then the shows that weren't set there were not

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Speaker 5: set there, famously, like The Fresh Prince of bel Air, right, you.

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Speaker 1: Had to say, you'd like to say where it was

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Speaker 1: said if it wasn't set in Chicago exactly cheers. They

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Speaker 1: had to keep emphasizing that it was Boston. Yeah, guys, sorry,

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Speaker 1: we wish we could be in Chicago. So the executive

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Speaker 1: producers of Perfect Strangers and Family Matters were Tom Miller

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Speaker 1: and Bob Boyette. They also executive produced Full House and

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Speaker 1: The Hogan Family. I don't know if you remember the

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Speaker 1: Hogan Family. It was called Valerie, and then they got

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Speaker 1: into a contract dispute with the actors playing Valerie just

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Speaker 1: killed her in a brutal car accident in season one.

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Speaker 1: In season two and then like the first I still

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Speaker 1: remember the first episode of season two was them like

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Speaker 1: being like, what did you find anything in the car

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Speaker 1: wreck of Moms that we could keep as a keepsake?

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Speaker 1: Like they were combing through the car accident that killed her.

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Speaker 2: Oh, they weren't nothing to see here, Like let's play

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Speaker 2: with her with her belongings. Dan.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, But they ruled the TGIF lineup Miller Boyette, which

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Speaker 1: was a I believe we call it a ratings bonanza

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Speaker 1: in the early nineties. And I just want to put

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Speaker 1: the ratings numbers into context here because this was a

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Speaker 1: time of monoculture that I feel like young people today

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Speaker 1: probably can't even conceive of. So TGIF was watched by

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Speaker 1: more people than watch anything on TV today. The most

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Speaker 1: watched TV show in twenty twenty five is Monday Night Football,

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Speaker 1: which averages sixteen point seven million viewers for the entire

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty five season. So like Family Matter starts out

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Speaker 1: as like a medium sized hit and then season two

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Speaker 1: it really takes off once they're like it's the artical show. Guys,

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Speaker 1: everybody get on board or we're fucked here. Every season

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Speaker 1: one through seven was watched by more on average viewers

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Speaker 1: than watch Monday Night Football in twenty twenty five. It

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Speaker 1: was like anywhere between twenty six point four million viewers

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Speaker 1: and eighteen point four It was like crazy numbers.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, it would be like top numbers for shows now

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Speaker 5: would be considered like I think we might have to

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Speaker 5: cancel this show.

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Speaker 2: Oh yeah back.

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Speaker 5: In the nineties and even partly of the two thousands,

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Speaker 5: and I no TV has changed and shit, but.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, because like what ncis is it a five point

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Speaker 3: six million five point six So they took Family Matters

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Speaker 3: off the TGIF lineup for averaging fourteen million.

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Speaker 1: That was when they were like, fuck, we're out of

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Speaker 1: juice here. Then it switched over to CBS, and CBS

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Speaker 1: aired it for one season and it was considered a

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Speaker 1: complete disaster. It pulled in eight point one seven million,

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Speaker 1: which again would be higher than any like NCIS, which

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Speaker 1: is like widely seen as like a massive hit today.

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Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, jeez, crazy man.

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Speaker 1: Yeah and yeah, Brian's pointing out the US population in

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Speaker 1: nineteen ninety two was two hundred and fifty five million,

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Speaker 1: so they were pulling in. Yeah, the ratings numbers were

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Speaker 1: at its peak, sixteen percent of the American population were

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Speaker 1: watching Family Matters every weekend.

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Speaker 3: That's actually like the most mind blowing, like aside from

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Speaker 3: everything else we were going to learn about our oracle.

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Speaker 3: I'm the idea that no show comes close to like

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Speaker 3: the concentration of like viewership of like broadcast television show

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Speaker 3: from the nineties even today because of just everyone's attention

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Speaker 3: being fractured in a million places.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I think my numbers are off, but that's

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Speaker 1: because so a ratings ratings points I think are the

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Speaker 1: percentage of people who have TVs. So it's the percentage

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Speaker 1: of TVs that are the share of people who have

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Speaker 1: TVs who are watching it. So yeah, it peaked at

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Speaker 1: sixteen percent of all TV viewers were watching Family Matters.

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Speaker 5: But you said, but you said it was being watched

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Speaker 5: by at his peak, what like twenty something plus million house.

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Speaker 1: Twenty six point four million households on average. That's still

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Speaker 1: not over the course of the season. That was just

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Speaker 1: like who was tuning in to watch Eracle.

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Speaker 5: Everything that's that's adding in like the bad the bad season.

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Speaker 5: So like on average, that show still pulled in for

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Speaker 5: the time era, it was in ten percent of Americans

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Speaker 5: watching television, Yeah, watching that show, Like that's crazy.

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Speaker 1: But everybody was going home like this is what you

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Speaker 1: did on Friday night.

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Speaker 2: If you went generationally, if you asked people that are

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Speaker 2: thirty six and older, say you wusch family matters, I'm

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Speaker 2: sure that's like you're gonna get an eighty percent return.

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Speaker 1: Okay, everybody watched it at some point, Like I remember,

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Speaker 1: like I was just going back through and like checking

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Speaker 1: out stray episodes, Like when our researcher Dave Ruse would

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Speaker 1: like mention a thing, I would like go look it

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Speaker 1: up on YouTube. I'd be like, oh, yeah, I remember

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Speaker 1: this episode. There are like hundreds of episodes of the show.

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Speaker 6: And I watched so many of them.

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Speaker 1: So the first episode of the show was repurposed from

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Speaker 1: an old script for Happy Days, and we'll get to

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Speaker 1: how Family Matters is kind of similar to Happy Days

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Speaker 1: in some ways. But again, Arkle did not exist. In

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Speaker 1: the first episode. It was Harriet carl Eddie, a teenage

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Speaker 1: son who was obsessed with girls, Laura, a teenage daughter

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Speaker 1: who was obsessed with grades, Judy the youngest daughter who

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Speaker 1: disappeared without explanation in the middle of season four. She

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Speaker 1: was just like last scene, walking down the aisle of

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Speaker 1: a wedding as a flower girl, and then she just

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Speaker 1: went away. And then Rachel, Harry's younger sister, who also

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Speaker 1: left after the fourth season, and then Richie, Rachel's son.

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Speaker 1: But Rkle didn't exist. Didn't appear until the twelfth episode

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Speaker 1: of Family Matters, and he was supposed to be a

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Speaker 1: one off character. I think they called him Erkle the Alien.

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Speaker 1: The script says a boy Laura's age approaches their table.

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Speaker 1: He is Steve Rkele, a Rick Moranus type. He has

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Speaker 1: a plastic pocket protector full of pens and carries a briefcase.

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Speaker 1: And I went back and watched this scene and he's

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Speaker 1: so good. He's just like nailing. First of all, he

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Speaker 1: didn't actually have glasses, but he's nailing, like being unable

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Speaker 1: to like see shit around him. He comes up, She's like,

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Speaker 1: take a hike, ercle, she'd rather eat worms, and he says, oh, okay,

402
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Speaker 1: some other time. Then and then walks off, and then

403
00:22:03,040 --> 00:22:07,119
Speaker 1: Laura says geek city. And then and then, because of

404
00:22:07,200 --> 00:22:12,959
Speaker 1: some classic sitcom shenanigans, Carl accidentally invites Racle to go

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Speaker 1: to the dance with Laura, thinking that he's helping guess

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Speaker 1: what he's not. She actually was planning on going with

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Speaker 1: a guy that she likes better. It should be mentioned

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Speaker 1: Carl fucking hates Steve Verkle the second he meets her,

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Speaker 1: like everybody hates everybody hates hercle right away. This was

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Speaker 1: a type of This was like sort of a stock

411
00:22:33,480 --> 00:22:39,960
Speaker 1: sitcom character, which was a neighborhood or like a neighbor

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Speaker 1: kid who is friends with one of the kids and

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Speaker 1: then everyone else is just like fuck you.

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Speaker 2: Kimmy Gibbler. Yeah right, Do you remember Kimmy Gibbler from

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Speaker 2: They were so mean to her?

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Speaker 3: I think, yeah, what, what was the first show to

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Speaker 3: really kick that off? I guess it's just one of

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Speaker 3: those shared experiences like I was. I was a drifter

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Speaker 3: kid who would just show up a friend's houses in

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Speaker 3: the neighborhood and they're like, oh.

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Speaker 1: You were eating with us, Now, did you knock before

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Speaker 1: you came in, because that was one of the things

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Speaker 1: they never knock.

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Speaker 2: Showed up. Yeah, I wasn't.

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Speaker 3: I wasn't like kicking my feet up on the couch,

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Speaker 3: but like I would just going straight to like a

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Speaker 3: room and they're like, miles here, okay, all right.

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Speaker 1: So this is also an interesting thing that people might

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Speaker 1: not like. Younger listeners might not have an appreciation for,

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Speaker 1: was how much it was a live experience. And so

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Speaker 1: this is according to Julil White, who played Steve Urkle,

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Speaker 1: a group of white frat boys was in the studio

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Speaker 1: audience for that episode and kept chanting, we want the nerd,

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Speaker 1: We want the nerd. Wait for because they liked him

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Speaker 1: or they were or they were going to like kick

436
00:23:45,280 --> 00:23:45,760
Speaker 1: his ass.

437
00:23:45,760 --> 00:23:47,360
Speaker 2: No, it was like they liked.

438
00:23:47,160 --> 00:23:49,840
Speaker 1: They were that just the idea of they were like,

439
00:23:49,960 --> 00:23:54,119
Speaker 1: holy shit, bro, those frat boys are crazy about this

440
00:23:54,200 --> 00:23:58,040
Speaker 1: guy Nerd out. So the producers immediately decided to write

441
00:23:58,119 --> 00:23:59,919
Speaker 1: Urkle into every episode moving forward.

442
00:24:00,080 --> 00:24:02,639
Speaker 3: Wait, is that based off of the audience response or

443
00:24:02,800 --> 00:24:03,720
Speaker 3: the race.

444
00:24:03,480 --> 00:24:06,439
Speaker 1: Based off of the audience response. Everybody was like you

445
00:24:06,480 --> 00:24:09,040
Speaker 1: can hear there's like a different quality to the live

446
00:24:09,080 --> 00:24:12,080
Speaker 1: studio audience when he comes on, Like the laughs are

447
00:24:12,160 --> 00:24:15,080
Speaker 1: just like people are going fucking crazy for this.

448
00:24:15,280 --> 00:24:18,000
Speaker 2: H have to use the lab chock yeah, yeah, yeah,

449
00:24:18,040 --> 00:24:19,080
Speaker 2: you love them. Oh.

450
00:24:19,119 --> 00:24:21,880
Speaker 3: So the producers are probably behind camera looking at each.

451
00:24:21,800 --> 00:24:23,320
Speaker 2: Other like holy shit.

452
00:24:25,119 --> 00:24:28,160
Speaker 5: This Like I was just talking about this with someone recently,

453
00:24:28,240 --> 00:24:31,760
Speaker 5: how this is such a good example of how TV

454
00:24:31,960 --> 00:24:36,440
Speaker 5: used to be written, where you could get the responses

455
00:24:36,600 --> 00:24:40,200
Speaker 5: of the audience in the building and like the viewing

456
00:24:40,320 --> 00:24:42,760
Speaker 5: public and be like, I think we need to pivot

457
00:24:42,840 --> 00:24:46,000
Speaker 5: before the season was over, because like they would start writing,

458
00:24:46,440 --> 00:24:50,159
Speaker 5: like there were so many episodes of television episodes, especially sitcoms,

459
00:24:50,640 --> 00:24:53,440
Speaker 5: where you know the season would be premiering while they're

460
00:24:53,480 --> 00:24:57,440
Speaker 5: still writing and filming the last five to ten episodes

461
00:24:57,560 --> 00:24:59,320
Speaker 5: of the of the season.

462
00:24:59,320 --> 00:25:02,679
Speaker 2: And like there were will never be another Arkle like

463
00:25:03,119 --> 00:25:05,400
Speaker 2: it happened. Oh yeah, not.

464
00:25:05,480 --> 00:25:07,240
Speaker 5: In this way, but because you you would have to

465
00:25:07,280 --> 00:25:10,280
Speaker 5: wait to season two to even get this phenomenon and

466
00:25:10,280 --> 00:25:11,879
Speaker 5: then they have to be reinjured. But they got to

467
00:25:11,920 --> 00:25:15,080
Speaker 5: reintroduce they got to introduce him as a main character

468
00:25:15,240 --> 00:25:19,520
Speaker 5: organically from season one where they get to pretend like

469
00:25:19,600 --> 00:25:20,400
Speaker 5: this was there.

470
00:25:20,720 --> 00:25:23,639
Speaker 3: Right right, I meant that, yeah, we mean this was

471
00:25:23,640 --> 00:25:25,920
Speaker 3: was Yeah, And when I came up with Erkle, I

472
00:25:26,000 --> 00:25:27,760
Speaker 3: knew they wouldn't be able to handle it to at

473
00:25:27,800 --> 00:25:29,359
Speaker 3: least twelve episodes into the season.

474
00:25:29,760 --> 00:25:30,840
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah.

475
00:25:30,920 --> 00:25:33,960
Speaker 1: One of the producers also knew that they'd struggled when

476
00:25:34,040 --> 00:25:37,239
Speaker 1: after just two Arkle episodes had aired, he saw some

477
00:25:37,359 --> 00:25:41,000
Speaker 1: kids rklelizing at the mall, which was walking around with

478
00:25:41,040 --> 00:25:44,800
Speaker 1: their pants hiked up, imitating Erkle, and he was like, again,

479
00:25:45,200 --> 00:25:48,040
Speaker 1: without the Internet, the way you'd learned something went viral

480
00:25:48,240 --> 00:25:50,919
Speaker 1: was seeing kids like doing it at the mall, and

481
00:25:50,960 --> 00:25:55,199
Speaker 1: you're like, holy shit, I think we've got something klizing.

482
00:25:55,480 --> 00:25:57,640
Speaker 2: But yeah, the guy, the guy come up with that term.

483
00:25:57,720 --> 00:25:58,879
Speaker 2: These kids were erklizing.

484
00:25:59,160 --> 00:26:01,399
Speaker 1: He put it in quote, So I think that was

485
00:26:02,600 --> 00:26:07,400
Speaker 1: you see these kids these days irkalizing. So Bickley and Warren,

486
00:26:07,560 --> 00:26:09,920
Speaker 1: who ended up being like kind of the main showrunners

487
00:26:09,960 --> 00:26:14,480
Speaker 1: and creative forces behind the show, were veterans of happy

488
00:26:14,560 --> 00:26:18,720
Speaker 1: days and the way that like, in addition to the

489
00:26:18,760 --> 00:26:22,040
Speaker 1: frat boys freaking out and yelling we want the nerd

490
00:26:22,119 --> 00:26:24,359
Speaker 1: and then being like more nerd, the reason that I

491
00:26:24,400 --> 00:26:26,800
Speaker 1: think they were prepared to do that is because this

492
00:26:26,920 --> 00:26:29,640
Speaker 1: is exactly what happened on Happy Days with the Fons.

493
00:26:30,000 --> 00:26:32,399
Speaker 1: In the first few episodes of Happy Days, the Fons

494
00:26:32,480 --> 00:26:35,480
Speaker 1: doesn't speak. He's like this kind of background character who's

495
00:26:35,520 --> 00:26:38,600
Speaker 1: just like the epitome of cool. And then by the

496
00:26:38,680 --> 00:26:42,480
Speaker 1: end of the first season he's such a huge part

497
00:26:42,480 --> 00:26:45,560
Speaker 1: of the show and such a cultural phenomenon that they

498
00:26:45,640 --> 00:26:49,480
Speaker 1: considered renaming the show Fonzie's Happy Days. And so they

499
00:26:49,800 --> 00:26:53,760
Speaker 1: were basically ready to pivot right away because they'd seen

500
00:26:53,800 --> 00:26:56,400
Speaker 1: it happen before. But it's just so weird that like

501
00:26:56,640 --> 00:27:00,439
Speaker 1: in the whenever the fuck Happy Days was on, like

502
00:27:00,640 --> 00:27:03,800
Speaker 1: the thing that everybody wanted to see was like a

503
00:27:03,840 --> 00:27:08,439
Speaker 1: thirty six year old guy playing a cool high school student,

504
00:27:08,840 --> 00:27:10,240
Speaker 1: and now it was just like.

505
00:27:10,560 --> 00:27:14,080
Speaker 2: Nerd, nerd. Yeah, shit, the nerd, we want the nerd,

506
00:27:15,160 --> 00:27:16,720
Speaker 2: the nerd. Yeah.

507
00:27:16,920 --> 00:27:19,639
Speaker 5: It's cool though, because Erkle was like, for me, the

508
00:27:19,720 --> 00:27:24,359
Speaker 5: three top black characters in the nineties were Martin Fresh, Friends,

509
00:27:24,560 --> 00:27:27,639
Speaker 5: will Smith, Fresh, Prince, and Erkele and Over, like they

510
00:27:27,680 --> 00:27:31,159
Speaker 5: were all so different. Like Martin was like, you know,

511
00:27:31,320 --> 00:27:34,960
Speaker 5: he was like the fun, goofy character that like, I

512
00:27:35,000 --> 00:27:37,560
Speaker 5: wish I could like be as funny as Will was,

513
00:27:37,680 --> 00:27:40,640
Speaker 5: like the suave cool dude that I wish I could

514
00:27:40,640 --> 00:27:42,439
Speaker 5: be and get all the girls and the honeyes that

515
00:27:42,480 --> 00:27:43,119
Speaker 5: he was getting.

516
00:27:43,520 --> 00:27:47,120
Speaker 2: And Erkele was probably more close to well.

517
00:27:47,000 --> 00:27:49,840
Speaker 5: Yeah he was wild, but like he was more close

518
00:27:49,880 --> 00:27:52,560
Speaker 5: to how some of us probably felt, which is like

519
00:27:52,920 --> 00:27:55,119
Speaker 5: kind of like an outcat. So it was like a

520
00:27:55,240 --> 00:27:58,280
Speaker 5: nice connection. Even though he was so nerdy, it was

521
00:27:58,320 --> 00:28:02,080
Speaker 5: also like, oh, like this nerdy duke can like harass

522
00:28:02,160 --> 00:28:05,760
Speaker 5: this girl like on that.

523
00:28:06,720 --> 00:28:08,840
Speaker 2: Was sexual harassment.

524
00:28:08,480 --> 00:28:11,640
Speaker 5: Maybe a sexual harassment, and people still like him because

525
00:28:11,640 --> 00:28:13,920
Speaker 5: he's a nerd, which is probably problematic.

526
00:28:14,000 --> 00:28:17,440
Speaker 2: It is probably like still we're joking.

527
00:28:17,520 --> 00:28:20,800
Speaker 5: But like the cool thing about Rko, it was like

528
00:28:20,840 --> 00:28:22,840
Speaker 5: it was like, oh shit, this is a black character

529
00:28:22,840 --> 00:28:26,720
Speaker 5: that I can connect to that feels attainable, unlike being

530
00:28:26,840 --> 00:28:27,720
Speaker 5: poor Smith.

531
00:28:27,480 --> 00:28:29,920
Speaker 2: Yeah, or mar Lawrence for sure. Yeah. And he was.

532
00:28:29,920 --> 00:28:34,560
Speaker 1: Never like he there's definitely like a peppy lupew element

533
00:28:34,760 --> 00:28:38,880
Speaker 1: to his character in that like his main overall like

534
00:28:39,040 --> 00:28:42,280
Speaker 1: motivation is Laura and his love for Laura.

535
00:28:42,560 --> 00:28:45,080
Speaker 2: But he's never up in her.

536
00:28:45,160 --> 00:28:47,920
Speaker 1: You know, he's never like inappropriate like he you know,

537
00:28:47,960 --> 00:28:50,240
Speaker 1: he's never he's never like physically at least in that,

538
00:28:50,440 --> 00:28:52,840
Speaker 1: you know, episodes that I remembered, he was just kind

539
00:28:52,880 --> 00:28:55,080
Speaker 1: of like she would be like, you're a nerd and

540
00:28:55,120 --> 00:28:57,080
Speaker 1: then he'd be like next time. Then you know. That

541
00:28:57,240 --> 00:29:00,600
Speaker 1: was kind of they they had the interact, they had

542
00:29:00,640 --> 00:29:04,520
Speaker 1: the dynamic nailed down from the first episode that he

543
00:29:04,640 --> 00:29:07,400
Speaker 1: was just sort of this unshakable.

544
00:29:07,360 --> 00:29:09,920
Speaker 3: I think that's what also is kind of relatable, because

545
00:29:09,960 --> 00:29:12,640
Speaker 3: not everybody is like will Smith is going to pull

546
00:29:12,720 --> 00:29:14,920
Speaker 3: up you know, doing.

547
00:29:14,720 --> 00:29:16,760
Speaker 2: That thing and then they're like, oh, will.

548
00:29:16,760 --> 00:29:20,760
Speaker 3: He Like most people, I feel like rkle and bodies

549
00:29:20,800 --> 00:29:23,600
Speaker 3: are like having a crush on somebody that you were like, man,

550
00:29:23,640 --> 00:29:25,680
Speaker 3: I'm I'm I might as well be rkle here. I

551
00:29:25,840 --> 00:29:27,840
Speaker 3: just like this person. And it was just kind of

552
00:29:27,920 --> 00:29:30,000
Speaker 3: sort of done in this harmless way that also felt

553
00:29:30,040 --> 00:29:33,480
Speaker 3: like relatable but also could be like funny and you know,

554
00:29:33,960 --> 00:29:36,840
Speaker 3: empowering on some level that it was like it was

555
00:29:36,840 --> 00:29:40,760
Speaker 3: empowering in cell men everywhere, but like more so that

556
00:29:40,840 --> 00:29:43,440
Speaker 3: it's like yeah, it's no, yeah, sometimes look your rkle

557
00:29:43,560 --> 00:29:45,960
Speaker 3: you know, and that's all right because Rkle's.

558
00:29:45,680 --> 00:29:50,479
Speaker 1: Smart and get to where they like start incorporating they're like, actually,

559
00:29:50,560 --> 00:29:53,840
Speaker 1: rkle can be anything. Once he steps into this machine

560
00:29:53,840 --> 00:30:00,360
Speaker 1: machine yeah, with spinning wheels and dials on it.

561
00:30:00,480 --> 00:30:04,240
Speaker 5: He become a slightly laying version of a cool guy

562
00:30:04,560 --> 00:30:06,000
Speaker 5: yeah something.

563
00:30:06,080 --> 00:30:08,960
Speaker 2: Yeah, so smooth. Cocaine is a hell of a drug,

564
00:30:09,640 --> 00:30:11,000
Speaker 2: but it basically.

565
00:30:10,680 --> 00:30:16,040
Speaker 1: The show immediately changed its format to being a type

566
00:30:16,040 --> 00:30:20,440
Speaker 1: of sitcom that has an alien character in it, you know,

567
00:30:20,640 --> 00:30:25,920
Speaker 1: like more Mork and Mindy Balki on Perfect Strangers. Alf Literally,

568
00:30:26,320 --> 00:30:29,040
Speaker 1: you know, he could just be this like sort of

569
00:30:29,040 --> 00:30:32,719
Speaker 1: bizarre off the wall character, and the writers were like,

570
00:30:32,760 --> 00:30:37,480
Speaker 1: we felt very freed from that and was there for it.

571
00:30:37,800 --> 00:30:42,160
Speaker 2: Oh for how malleable Erkle could be just as a character. Yeah,

572
00:30:42,200 --> 00:30:44,840
Speaker 2: I will say the one thing that is a little.

573
00:30:44,640 --> 00:30:50,280
Speaker 1: Bit, uh, a little humpy in the whole ercle ubra

574
00:30:50,920 --> 00:30:55,520
Speaker 1: is doing the The Erkle dance is very dick forward.

575
00:30:56,400 --> 00:31:00,440
Speaker 2: It is very like it's very due to Erle and yeah,

576
00:31:00,680 --> 00:31:01,120
Speaker 2: dick out.

577
00:31:01,240 --> 00:31:04,120
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's just pumping your dick out, which like part

578
00:31:04,120 --> 00:31:07,520
Speaker 1: of it is that he is, you know, a person

579
00:31:07,520 --> 00:31:10,000
Speaker 1: who walks with his pelvis out like a dork. But

580
00:31:10,080 --> 00:31:13,320
Speaker 1: then there's a lot of humping the air, which was

581
00:31:13,360 --> 00:31:15,720
Speaker 1: the which was our custom at the time, that was

582
00:31:15,720 --> 00:31:18,400
Speaker 1: how we danced. Yeah, it was like a dog that

583
00:31:18,480 --> 00:31:20,720
Speaker 1: just got done humping something and then got pulled off.

584
00:31:21,200 --> 00:31:22,360
Speaker 2: Well, keep umping it.

585
00:31:22,640 --> 00:31:26,480
Speaker 3: Humping was just such a prevalent word back then too,

586
00:31:26,720 --> 00:31:29,640
Speaker 3: Like we were saying humping a lot, you know, ain't

587
00:31:29,640 --> 00:31:32,600
Speaker 3: know humping around there was just yeah, it was it

588
00:31:32,640 --> 00:31:34,680
Speaker 3: was that time where we weren't quite putting together. What

589
00:31:34,720 --> 00:31:37,360
Speaker 3: are you doing with your hips? Exactly a bunch of.

590
00:31:39,520 --> 00:31:40,120
Speaker 2: To this song.

591
00:31:42,560 --> 00:31:45,960
Speaker 1: So, uh, just a little bit about Julia White and

592
00:31:46,040 --> 00:31:49,160
Speaker 1: Miles maybe you could talk about your experiences with him.

593
00:31:49,200 --> 00:31:52,560
Speaker 1: But he grew up in La started acting in commercials

594
00:31:52,600 --> 00:31:54,120
Speaker 1: when he was three years old.

595
00:31:54,480 --> 00:31:56,120
Speaker 2: So there's a Toys r Us.

596
00:31:56,080 --> 00:31:58,920
Speaker 1: Commercial and an Oreos commercial where he's just like, you know,

597
00:31:59,080 --> 00:32:01,680
Speaker 1: this adorable kid, and I watching it, I was like,

598
00:32:01,680 --> 00:32:05,040
Speaker 1: oh shit, Like I definitely remember the Toys r Us ad.

599
00:32:05,280 --> 00:32:06,959
Speaker 1: It was like the I don't want to grow up,

600
00:32:06,960 --> 00:32:10,120
Speaker 1: I'm a Toys r Us kid. He's like, I just

601
00:32:10,160 --> 00:32:12,840
Speaker 1: didn't realize this kid was like in my life from

602
00:32:12,920 --> 00:32:16,800
Speaker 1: my earliest memories. He was basically, you know, always there.

603
00:32:17,240 --> 00:32:18,840
Speaker 1: I think he was about the same age as me.

604
00:32:19,000 --> 00:32:21,320
Speaker 1: So there's only one set of footsteps on the beach.

605
00:32:22,160 --> 00:32:26,120
Speaker 1: I turned back around, was carrying me the whole time.

606
00:32:26,280 --> 00:32:28,120
Speaker 5: I didn't even know he was the voice of like

607
00:32:28,240 --> 00:32:33,080
Speaker 5: Sonic until after Family Matters, right right, yeah, Like.

608
00:32:33,200 --> 00:32:36,320
Speaker 2: And I was like, wait, Racle's a voice Family Matters.

609
00:32:36,400 --> 00:32:38,320
Speaker 2: And also the fact that we don't even call him

610
00:32:38,320 --> 00:32:39,000
Speaker 2: by his real name.

611
00:32:39,560 --> 00:32:39,800
Speaker 1: I know.

612
00:32:40,320 --> 00:32:42,680
Speaker 5: I mean, you know now if I mentioned my dude,

613
00:32:42,680 --> 00:32:45,160
Speaker 5: but whenever you put me back in Family Matters time,

614
00:32:45,240 --> 00:32:46,120
Speaker 5: he's just Oracle.

615
00:32:46,360 --> 00:32:50,920
Speaker 2: Yeah, because I think that speaks to the iconicness.

616
00:32:50,960 --> 00:32:58,160
Speaker 3: What's the word you're going to use here, yeahs iconicography, Yes, exact, Yes,

617
00:32:58,440 --> 00:32:59,920
Speaker 3: that's it. I just speaks to it when you're like,

618
00:33:00,200 --> 00:33:02,320
Speaker 3: I'm sorry, sir, you are Erkele.

619
00:33:03,040 --> 00:33:05,600
Speaker 2: Yes, but I do know your real name, but it's

620
00:33:05,640 --> 00:33:07,280
Speaker 2: just kind of your reputation precedes you.

621
00:33:07,720 --> 00:33:09,640
Speaker 1: So he was twelve when he first read for the

622
00:33:09,680 --> 00:33:12,800
Speaker 1: role of Steve Erkele. His mom was focusing a lot

623
00:33:12,800 --> 00:33:15,680
Speaker 1: of energy on his acting career, and she always made

624
00:33:15,680 --> 00:33:19,760
Speaker 1: sure that he came dressed for auditions in the character's role.

625
00:33:19,920 --> 00:33:23,400
Speaker 1: And so she like picked up some two small pants

626
00:33:23,480 --> 00:33:25,480
Speaker 1: that she was about to donate to a yard sale

627
00:33:26,040 --> 00:33:28,680
Speaker 1: and dressed him in like a tucked plaid shirt, snap

628
00:33:28,720 --> 00:33:34,239
Speaker 1: on suspenders, and borrowed his dad's oversized prescription glasses, so

629
00:33:34,280 --> 00:33:37,280
Speaker 1: he didn't even wear glasses, which he is really good

630
00:33:37,280 --> 00:33:40,760
Speaker 1: at acting like he can't see anything for being someone

631
00:33:40,800 --> 00:33:42,200
Speaker 1: who he's fucking nailing.

632
00:33:42,960 --> 00:33:44,520
Speaker 3: Well, I'm sure if you grew up with a parent

633
00:33:44,560 --> 00:33:47,720
Speaker 3: with glasses that big, you're probably you're used to writing

634
00:33:47,760 --> 00:33:48,800
Speaker 3: them because they can't.

635
00:33:48,800 --> 00:33:50,120
Speaker 2: He's serving the world.

636
00:33:50,240 --> 00:33:54,560
Speaker 1: Yeah, and his inspiration was a combination of Peewee Herman

637
00:33:54,600 --> 00:33:58,800
Speaker 1: and Ed Grimley, Martin Schwartz's hyperactive character who wore hyped

638
00:33:58,840 --> 00:34:02,120
Speaker 1: up pants. I feel like Grimley. That's where the similarities.

639
00:34:02,600 --> 00:34:04,880
Speaker 1: I mean, maybe there's like some of the physicality in it,

640
00:34:04,920 --> 00:34:08,360
Speaker 1: but Ed Grimley is a Martin Short character, and he

641
00:34:08,440 --> 00:34:10,840
Speaker 1: just sounds like Martin Short. He's just got real Martin

642
00:34:10,880 --> 00:34:11,560
Speaker 1: Short energy.

643
00:34:11,719 --> 00:34:14,200
Speaker 3: I mean the physicality definitely now that I think of,

644
00:34:14,280 --> 00:34:16,640
Speaker 3: Like how Ed Grimley is kind of stiff.

645
00:34:19,080 --> 00:34:22,759
Speaker 1: First, kind of you know, every room he enters, he

646
00:34:22,920 --> 00:34:25,840
Speaker 1: enters dick first. As they said about Oracle.

647
00:34:26,440 --> 00:34:30,600
Speaker 2: Yeah, how you become the man Jack? Jack? Why do

648
00:34:30,640 --> 00:34:32,920
Speaker 2: you try it sometime? Yeah? You know, next time I

649
00:34:32,960 --> 00:34:36,280
Speaker 2: see you, they could go for me, think of imagine.

650
00:34:35,880 --> 00:34:38,680
Speaker 1: Actually enter it like with with my dick tucked back,

651
00:34:38,920 --> 00:34:41,080
Speaker 1: just like very very frightened, hunched over.

652
00:34:41,239 --> 00:34:43,960
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're gonna kick me in the in the aren't you.

653
00:34:44,160 --> 00:34:46,399
Speaker 2: He's walking and grabbing his ankles.

654
00:34:46,440 --> 00:34:51,960
Speaker 4: Weird, But even that's right.

655
00:34:52,600 --> 00:34:54,360
Speaker 1: He doesn't know how he came up with the nasally

656
00:34:54,440 --> 00:34:57,360
Speaker 1: high pitched voice and the snorting laugh. He just says

657
00:34:57,360 --> 00:35:01,640
Speaker 1: he was temporarily possessed, which that is what you hear

658
00:35:01,680 --> 00:35:05,319
Speaker 1: from people like in these moments of inspiration where they're

659
00:35:05,360 --> 00:35:07,040
Speaker 1: just like, I just like went out of my body

660
00:35:07,480 --> 00:35:10,839
Speaker 1: for fifteen seconds and he like came back and the

661
00:35:10,880 --> 00:35:14,520
Speaker 1: casting director and producers were all cracking up, and uh,

662
00:35:15,239 --> 00:35:17,680
Speaker 1: that that's how Erkele was born.

663
00:35:18,080 --> 00:35:18,560
Speaker 2: Essentially.

664
00:35:18,760 --> 00:35:21,480
Speaker 3: I love the idea that that was he went out

665
00:35:21,480 --> 00:35:24,920
Speaker 3: of body to do Urkle, like it was divined from God.

666
00:35:24,760 --> 00:35:32,279
Speaker 2: Or it was. It was, oh, my god, the sound

667
00:35:32,280 --> 00:35:36,640
Speaker 2: of an angel. The sound of an angel. My god. Yeah,

668
00:35:36,760 --> 00:35:38,800
Speaker 2: oh god, I'm so at.

669
00:35:38,680 --> 00:35:40,760
Speaker 3: Least are we are we going to get an update

670
00:35:40,800 --> 00:35:43,120
Speaker 3: on his finances by the end of this recording?

671
00:35:43,480 --> 00:35:48,359
Speaker 1: No, I did he I do know, like sort of yeah,

672
00:35:48,480 --> 00:35:51,520
Speaker 1: sort of, but he could have made more money there.

673
00:35:51,640 --> 00:35:54,080
Speaker 1: At a certain point, they like wanted to launch a

674
00:35:54,360 --> 00:35:58,799
Speaker 1: Saturday Morning cartoon for him, and ABC was like, you know,

675
00:35:58,840 --> 00:36:01,080
Speaker 1: ABC's I don't know they were owned by Disney at

676
00:36:01,080 --> 00:36:03,640
Speaker 1: this time, but they were. They were like, no, you

677
00:36:03,680 --> 00:36:07,520
Speaker 1: work for us. We don't want the character to become overexposed,

678
00:36:09,480 --> 00:36:13,719
Speaker 1: which is yeah, some bullshit, but yeah. When he was

679
00:36:13,760 --> 00:36:16,919
Speaker 1: doing it a read through, every like nobody could keep

680
00:36:17,480 --> 00:36:21,480
Speaker 1: stay in character. Everyone's just like he when he looks

681
00:36:21,480 --> 00:36:25,120
Speaker 1: into Kelly Williams, who played Laura's eyes and says his

682
00:36:25,120 --> 00:36:28,040
Speaker 1: first line she like broke, and was like, where'd you

683
00:36:28,080 --> 00:36:31,160
Speaker 1: get this guy?

684
00:36:32,480 --> 00:36:34,799
Speaker 2: Oh? Man, I just loved it. Was so good as

685
00:36:34,840 --> 00:36:37,720
Speaker 2: a kid, because he's a kid, you know, first thing,

686
00:36:37,719 --> 00:36:40,320
Speaker 2: and to do like a character.

687
00:36:40,400 --> 00:36:43,200
Speaker 3: It's not like you're you're getting direction and it's like

688
00:36:43,400 --> 00:36:45,399
Speaker 3: this is what Erkle does. It's like he's a nerd

689
00:36:45,480 --> 00:36:49,000
Speaker 3: or whatever. But your version of that is so transcendent

690
00:36:49,000 --> 00:36:53,200
Speaker 3: that people are like, oh my god, man, yes, kid

691
00:36:53,239 --> 00:36:53,719
Speaker 3: his own show.

692
00:36:53,800 --> 00:36:57,960
Speaker 1: The only inspiration was a Rick moranis type, right, Rick

693
00:36:58,040 --> 00:37:03,120
Speaker 1: moranis can eat ship. This guy's killing it.

694
00:37:00,719 --> 00:37:04,360
Speaker 2: Uh. Miranda's great too.

695
00:37:04,440 --> 00:37:07,080
Speaker 3: I mean because like, what what Mirandas are they? I mean,

696
00:37:07,120 --> 00:37:10,359
Speaker 3: I get Mirandas is always wearing glass like that. Oh yeah, gosh,

697
00:37:10,360 --> 00:37:12,040
Speaker 3: Bushers yeh, because any of the chunk the Kids came

698
00:37:12,080 --> 00:37:13,160
Speaker 3: out in eighty nine, so it wasn't that.

699
00:37:13,280 --> 00:37:18,560
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, the Kids. Yeah, he had some erkle in him, but.

700
00:37:18,880 --> 00:37:21,480
Speaker 5: Uh yeah, it's like to say that meek, but like

701
00:37:21,520 --> 00:37:24,320
Speaker 5: the way he embodied it though with just the walk

702
00:37:24,400 --> 00:37:28,919
Speaker 5: and like they always he he is to me, which

703
00:37:28,960 --> 00:37:33,319
Speaker 5: I also find this funny. Rkle is like one of

704
00:37:33,360 --> 00:37:35,919
Speaker 5: the prototypes for like a SpongeBob SquarePants.

705
00:37:36,360 --> 00:37:40,560
Speaker 2: Yeah just like yeah, so.

706
00:37:39,200 --> 00:37:44,719
Speaker 5: So definitively like nerdy or his own like brand of

707
00:37:44,880 --> 00:37:46,200
Speaker 5: person us.

708
00:37:47,080 --> 00:37:49,560
Speaker 2: You can't do it to him, you can't tell that ship.

709
00:37:49,920 --> 00:37:50,920
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah.

710
00:37:51,640 --> 00:37:54,560
Speaker 5: And then he'll have moments where he like relates to

711
00:37:54,640 --> 00:37:58,280
Speaker 5: you and like, oh, this is not a nerdy relatable relatability,

712
00:37:58,320 --> 00:38:01,439
Speaker 5: but he comes right back to who he is, and

713
00:38:01,560 --> 00:38:03,960
Speaker 5: like it's so funny because I was watching an episode

714
00:38:04,080 --> 00:38:06,560
Speaker 5: of Urkle of family Matters.

715
00:38:06,400 --> 00:38:11,839
Speaker 2: That's okay in this house, in this house, in his

716
00:38:11,880 --> 00:38:12,399
Speaker 2: little car.

717
00:38:12,960 --> 00:38:15,560
Speaker 5: He's in this little car that he had, which was

718
00:38:15,600 --> 00:38:18,919
Speaker 5: like a Beatles Oh yeah, that was like the front

719
00:38:19,600 --> 00:38:22,920
Speaker 5: from the front. Yeah, and like he's listening. He was like,

720
00:38:23,000 --> 00:38:29,360
Speaker 5: I'm listening to my favorite song and it is the

721
00:38:29,640 --> 00:38:31,000
Speaker 5: it's the SpongeBob music.

722
00:38:31,280 --> 00:38:37,920
Speaker 2: Oh shit is that music?

723
00:38:38,080 --> 00:38:40,640
Speaker 5: And this is like four years before SpongeBob, four or

724
00:38:40,680 --> 00:38:42,480
Speaker 5: five years before Smongebob even came out.

725
00:38:42,960 --> 00:38:45,279
Speaker 2: Uh, And I was just like, this has to be Like.

726
00:38:45,239 --> 00:38:48,319
Speaker 5: Stephen Hillenberg, I think was the creator of SpongeBob's name.

727
00:38:48,600 --> 00:38:50,960
Speaker 5: I think he had to like have Rkle in his

728
00:38:51,040 --> 00:38:52,240
Speaker 5: mind when he was creating.

729
00:38:52,360 --> 00:38:54,680
Speaker 2: I mean, nobody SpongeBob.

730
00:38:54,280 --> 00:38:57,360
Speaker 1: Nobody didn't have Irkle in their mind after the early nineties,

731
00:38:57,400 --> 00:38:59,399
Speaker 1: you know who was alive at that time. Like that's

732
00:38:59,520 --> 00:39:03,560
Speaker 1: the thing about iconic character like this is that it

733
00:39:03,719 --> 00:39:08,279
Speaker 1: becomes like I always talk about how Jim Belushi or

734
00:39:08,320 --> 00:39:11,959
Speaker 1: not Jim Belushi, John Belushi, like going back, I never

735
00:39:12,120 --> 00:39:14,399
Speaker 1: you know, that was before my time. And then when

736
00:39:14,400 --> 00:39:17,040
Speaker 1: I go back and like watch his movies or his

737
00:39:17,239 --> 00:39:18,359
Speaker 1: SNL stuff.

738
00:39:18,400 --> 00:39:19,960
Speaker 2: I don't find it that funny.

739
00:39:20,120 --> 00:39:24,319
Speaker 1: And I think it's because he was so iconic that

740
00:39:24,800 --> 00:39:28,240
Speaker 1: people like Chris Farley built their shit like on top

741
00:39:28,280 --> 00:39:31,520
Speaker 1: of his, and so it was like an evolved version

742
00:39:31,520 --> 00:39:34,040
Speaker 1: of that. And so it was almost like I had

743
00:39:34,080 --> 00:39:37,960
Speaker 1: seen the thing that was built after the person had

744
00:39:38,040 --> 00:39:42,399
Speaker 1: like digested and like kind of created something new out

745
00:39:42,440 --> 00:39:45,319
Speaker 1: of that. And I wonder if that's because they've tried

746
00:39:45,360 --> 00:39:48,359
Speaker 1: to bring Urkle back, like he the character made a

747
00:39:48,360 --> 00:39:51,080
Speaker 1: cameo and like a Scooby Doo cartoon and stuff like that,

748
00:39:51,560 --> 00:39:54,480
Speaker 1: and it seems like it didn't take. And I just

749
00:39:54,560 --> 00:39:59,160
Speaker 1: wonder if, like he was so iconic so everywhere that

750
00:39:59,239 --> 00:40:03,759
Speaker 1: like he's just and sort of absorbed into all other

751
00:40:04,560 --> 00:40:08,440
Speaker 1: culture to the degree that it's just like we've already

752
00:40:08,480 --> 00:40:11,080
Speaker 1: seen the evolution of RCLE.

753
00:40:11,320 --> 00:40:14,120
Speaker 3: I wonder if this is also because like our idea

754
00:40:14,160 --> 00:40:17,440
Speaker 3: of a nerd has evolved so much since then, Like

755
00:40:17,800 --> 00:40:21,360
Speaker 3: it's not like the geek pocket protector type people that

756
00:40:21,560 --> 00:40:24,200
Speaker 3: like Revenge of the Nerds, then that gives way to Urkle,

757
00:40:24,840 --> 00:40:27,400
Speaker 3: and then now we're like, I maan a fuck a nerd.

758
00:40:28,200 --> 00:40:29,319
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's kind of.

759
00:40:29,239 --> 00:40:31,600
Speaker 3: Like hostile because we kind of like it's a stand

760
00:40:31,600 --> 00:40:34,239
Speaker 3: in for like Silicon Valley people in a weird way.

761
00:40:34,400 --> 00:40:36,680
Speaker 2: They fucked it up. They fucked her for everyone.

762
00:40:36,719 --> 00:40:39,879
Speaker 3: It's not the same quite, it's not just it's just

763
00:40:39,920 --> 00:40:42,440
Speaker 3: I think it's just culturally our perspective on like the

764
00:40:42,480 --> 00:40:45,960
Speaker 3: nerd is different, where like yeah, and Rkle was empowering

765
00:40:46,000 --> 00:40:47,520
Speaker 3: and now we're like we're kind.

766
00:40:47,360 --> 00:40:49,200
Speaker 2: Of off like to be like this smokefucker is a

767
00:40:49,239 --> 00:40:50,759
Speaker 2: nerd kind of thing, like.

768
00:40:50,800 --> 00:40:53,640
Speaker 5: You know, you know what the nerds are now, it's

769
00:40:53,760 --> 00:40:57,480
Speaker 5: kind of almost like Stefan uh right where and not

770
00:40:57,840 --> 00:41:01,399
Speaker 5: like I know he was portrayed to belt or Kell,

771
00:41:02,120 --> 00:41:06,080
Speaker 5: Stephan Urkel, but he, in my opinion, he was what

772
00:41:06,280 --> 00:41:09,560
Speaker 5: a nerds idea of what a suave person would be,

773
00:41:10,160 --> 00:41:11,160
Speaker 5: right right right.

774
00:41:11,080 --> 00:41:13,520
Speaker 1: Like Donald Trump is a poor person's idea of what

775
00:41:13,560 --> 00:41:16,720
Speaker 1: a rich person is. Like she is the nerds version

776
00:41:16,760 --> 00:41:21,400
Speaker 1: of what a guy is. He's Stephan Urkel, right, you

777
00:41:21,400 --> 00:41:22,839
Speaker 1: know what I mean? And you're like, might I get

778
00:41:22,840 --> 00:41:23,440
Speaker 1: the fuck out.

779
00:41:23,320 --> 00:41:23,719
Speaker 2: Of here with this?

780
00:41:26,640 --> 00:41:32,040
Speaker 1: Elon Musk thinks Stephan Urkell is so fucking cool. He

781
00:41:32,160 --> 00:41:34,960
Speaker 1: watches clips of Stefan Urkel before he walks into her

782
00:41:35,040 --> 00:41:37,560
Speaker 1: room just to get into I mean.

783
00:41:37,600 --> 00:41:40,960
Speaker 3: Because the other thing, just to Jackiees's point, is he

784
00:41:41,480 --> 00:41:45,720
Speaker 3: also made being a quote unquote nerd not a bad

785
00:41:45,800 --> 00:41:47,719
Speaker 3: thing at all. In fact, he showed you that you

786
00:41:47,760 --> 00:41:51,480
Speaker 3: could be so secure in yourself that people could insult

787
00:41:51,480 --> 00:41:53,680
Speaker 3: you to your face and you just found a way

788
00:41:53,719 --> 00:41:55,400
Speaker 3: with your words to be like, okay, and that's what

789
00:41:55,440 --> 00:41:58,520
Speaker 3: you think, I'm fucking I'm still here, yeah, And that

790
00:41:58,760 --> 00:42:00,359
Speaker 3: I think is also we were just not used seeing

791
00:42:00,360 --> 00:42:03,440
Speaker 3: that kind of archetype for a character is to be like, yeah,

792
00:42:03,640 --> 00:42:04,319
Speaker 3: I think that.

793
00:42:04,480 --> 00:42:08,360
Speaker 1: He came around in some form as Steve Rkle today,

794
00:42:08,600 --> 00:42:11,680
Speaker 1: and it was the same performance, like it's so winning

795
00:42:11,960 --> 00:42:14,600
Speaker 1: and so lovable that like all the shit we're talking about,

796
00:42:14,640 --> 00:42:18,200
Speaker 1: like you know, associating with Silicon Valley. I don't think

797
00:42:18,239 --> 00:42:22,560
Speaker 1: people would have that like he he would be okay.

798
00:42:22,640 --> 00:42:24,880
Speaker 1: I think he could do all right out of the

799
00:42:24,880 --> 00:42:28,040
Speaker 1: context of you know, a show that when you watch it,

800
00:42:28,040 --> 00:42:29,880
Speaker 1: it's pretty it's pretty old.

801
00:42:30,040 --> 00:42:31,040
Speaker 2: It feels old as fuck.

802
00:42:31,120 --> 00:42:33,640
Speaker 1: I felt like I was watching old footage of people

803
00:42:34,200 --> 00:42:36,120
Speaker 1: down at the boat dock waving at a boat.

804
00:42:36,280 --> 00:42:38,480
Speaker 2: You know, it's like this is used to be entertainment.

805
00:42:39,280 --> 00:42:40,719
Speaker 2: Waited three hours to do that too.

806
00:42:40,880 --> 00:42:44,040
Speaker 1: Yeah, we waved for three hours even though the boat

807
00:42:44,080 --> 00:42:44,719
Speaker 1: was gone.

808
00:42:45,480 --> 00:42:48,960
Speaker 2: Waiting watched it crushed over the horizon. H Yeah.

809
00:42:49,000 --> 00:42:52,799
Speaker 1: I'm not sure why necessarily why it happened, other than

810
00:42:52,960 --> 00:42:56,440
Speaker 1: like super talented, Like there's a bunch of good articles

811
00:42:56,480 --> 00:42:59,400
Speaker 1: for like The New Yorker wrote about it and said

812
00:42:59,400 --> 00:43:02,360
Speaker 1: he was like, you know, always knocking shit over, snorted

813
00:43:02,400 --> 00:43:05,720
Speaker 1: when he laughed, but constant good cheer powered by White's

814
00:43:05,719 --> 00:43:08,880
Speaker 1: admirable comic timing and shameless mugging made him a favorite

815
00:43:08,880 --> 00:43:11,320
Speaker 1: of audiences and quickly a permanent member of the cast,

816
00:43:12,280 --> 00:43:16,000
Speaker 1: and Julia White says he was seemingly oblivious. Steve would

817
00:43:16,040 --> 00:43:19,759
Speaker 1: just keep coming around, uniquely self assured in his own mind.

818
00:43:19,800 --> 00:43:22,520
Speaker 1: Which was the thing that like Steve Erkele and Stefan

819
00:43:22,640 --> 00:43:25,960
Speaker 1: or Kel had is they were both very confident, you know.

820
00:43:26,640 --> 00:43:28,840
Speaker 1: He also says he was not just smart, he was brilliant.

821
00:43:28,880 --> 00:43:31,479
Speaker 1: He seemed to take in and immediately dismiss whatever people

822
00:43:31,520 --> 00:43:32,000
Speaker 1: thought of him.

823
00:43:32,080 --> 00:43:33,840
Speaker 2: Yeah, he was like an inventor. He was like a

824
00:43:33,960 --> 00:43:37,319
Speaker 2: child inventor. It's a genius. Yeah, yeah, super genious. Yeah,

825
00:43:37,360 --> 00:43:38,439
Speaker 2: we'll get to that part.

826
00:43:38,560 --> 00:43:41,920
Speaker 1: Because they did like kind of really explore the studio

827
00:43:41,960 --> 00:43:46,200
Speaker 1: space with with Erkele being the alien character.

828
00:43:46,400 --> 00:43:46,600
Speaker 2: Thing.

829
00:43:46,640 --> 00:43:48,600
Speaker 1: They were like, all right, so Erkele's got a time

830
00:43:48,680 --> 00:43:49,840
Speaker 1: machine in this one.

831
00:43:50,040 --> 00:43:52,799
Speaker 3: Right exact quickly like Happy Days. They had to jump

832
00:43:52,840 --> 00:43:53,920
Speaker 3: the shark two at some point.

833
00:43:54,040 --> 00:43:57,680
Speaker 1: Yeah, they they did that shit quick. They didn't wait

834
00:43:57,800 --> 00:44:00,640
Speaker 1: very fast, very long. They were like, all right, Steve,

835
00:44:00,680 --> 00:44:03,440
Speaker 1: in this one, you're a robot for some reason.

836
00:44:03,640 --> 00:44:04,719
Speaker 2: All right, cool? Cool?

837
00:44:05,000 --> 00:44:08,239
Speaker 1: The catchphrase did I do that? He said it for

838
00:44:08,280 --> 00:44:11,319
Speaker 1: the first time in the second episode he was in

839
00:44:12,040 --> 00:44:16,240
Speaker 1: after Laura's first date. He was like, I was trying

840
00:44:16,239 --> 00:44:18,080
Speaker 1: to figure out how they did it, because I actually

841
00:44:18,080 --> 00:44:22,400
Speaker 1: watched an earlier episode and the cold open was Steve

842
00:44:22,520 --> 00:44:26,080
Speaker 1: Rkle coming in and trying to lift weights with Eddie

843
00:44:26,640 --> 00:44:28,759
Speaker 1: and then like getting pinned under the thing. So I

844
00:44:28,760 --> 00:44:32,280
Speaker 1: think they just like immediately went and shot cold opens

845
00:44:32,400 --> 00:44:35,359
Speaker 1: that they could stick at the front of other episodes

846
00:44:35,520 --> 00:44:39,040
Speaker 1: with Erkele in them, And the very first one of

847
00:44:39,080 --> 00:44:42,319
Speaker 1: that they did Eddie. This is kind of weird for

848
00:44:42,520 --> 00:44:46,680
Speaker 1: Eddie's character, who's, you know, just into girls and sports

849
00:44:46,719 --> 00:44:52,200
Speaker 1: and stuff. He's making a model ship on the dining

850
00:44:52,280 --> 00:44:55,280
Speaker 1: room table and Ericle knocks it over and then says,

851
00:44:55,440 --> 00:45:00,160
Speaker 1: did I do that? And that was the second an

852
00:45:00,239 --> 00:45:03,840
Speaker 1: episode and it became his catchphrase, despite the fact that

853
00:45:03,880 --> 00:45:07,000
Speaker 1: they also tried I fallen and I can't get up.

854
00:45:07,600 --> 00:45:09,759
Speaker 2: Yeah, they tried that for me and you love me,

855
00:45:10,000 --> 00:45:16,800
Speaker 2: don't you? Something with cheese? Got any cheese cheese?

856
00:45:28,440 --> 00:45:31,200
Speaker 1: So yeah, Miles to your point about jumping the shark

857
00:45:31,360 --> 00:45:33,759
Speaker 1: and how people are like happy days used to be good,

858
00:45:33,760 --> 00:45:36,400
Speaker 1: and then they there was an episode where like Phonsie

859
00:45:36,400 --> 00:45:39,160
Speaker 1: had to jump a shark on a shark tank on

860
00:45:39,239 --> 00:45:42,880
Speaker 1: a motorcycle, and that's when it got ridiculous. Family matters

861
00:45:42,920 --> 00:45:46,560
Speaker 1: went pretty quick down that path. He went from being

862
00:45:46,640 --> 00:45:50,440
Speaker 1: like a smart, kind of sciencey kid to just Einstein

863
00:45:50,800 --> 00:45:56,839
Speaker 1: level creations. He created a life lifelike Arkle, bought a

864
00:45:56,880 --> 00:46:00,560
Speaker 1: cloning machine where there could be two Erkle and they

865
00:46:00,600 --> 00:46:04,080
Speaker 1: actually the split screen was pretty good. Yeah, I guess

866
00:46:04,080 --> 00:46:08,040
Speaker 1: more like Nikola Tesla than Einstein. To Brian's point, as

867
00:46:08,040 --> 00:46:09,960
Speaker 1: you talked about in the first one, Einstein wasn't like

868
00:46:10,000 --> 00:46:13,160
Speaker 1: really an inventor. He was more of a high thought

869
00:46:13,320 --> 00:46:20,680
Speaker 1: have a time travel watch and the Ercle transformation Chamber,

870
00:46:20,719 --> 00:46:23,000
Speaker 1: which I watched an episode with it, and I was like,

871
00:46:23,040 --> 00:46:26,640
Speaker 1: oh shit, I remember just every detail about this one.

872
00:46:27,000 --> 00:46:29,040
Speaker 1: It's it's kind of it kind of reminds you of

873
00:46:29,080 --> 00:46:32,080
Speaker 1: the thing that Jeff Goldblum goes into in The Fly.

874
00:46:32,560 --> 00:46:35,000
Speaker 1: But then they have like little spinny things on the

875
00:46:35,040 --> 00:46:38,320
Speaker 1: outside that are just like look like they're made of cardboard,

876
00:46:38,640 --> 00:46:39,040
Speaker 1: that are.

877
00:46:38,960 --> 00:46:42,200
Speaker 3: Just I feel like it was just a metallic silver

878
00:46:42,320 --> 00:46:43,720
Speaker 3: spray painted porta potty.

879
00:46:43,920 --> 00:46:50,880
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, like Nickelodeon like gadgets on it. Yeah, exactly exactly.

880
00:46:50,960 --> 00:46:53,279
Speaker 2: It was like some sheets on doubled there. Yeah, it

881
00:46:53,360 --> 00:46:54,000
Speaker 2: was like hot.

882
00:46:54,400 --> 00:46:56,480
Speaker 1: They had high enough level of production that they could

883
00:46:56,520 --> 00:46:58,759
Speaker 1: do split screen stuff and like have two Steves. But

884
00:46:58,800 --> 00:47:02,240
Speaker 1: then the information Chamber looked like shit, you're.

885
00:47:02,080 --> 00:47:04,879
Speaker 3: Like literally like that is a porta potty that you've

886
00:47:04,920 --> 00:47:07,200
Speaker 3: just spraypainted put lights around the front of.

887
00:47:07,600 --> 00:47:10,120
Speaker 2: Didn't he also wasn't he able to splice his DNA

888
00:47:10,480 --> 00:47:13,280
Speaker 2: or something because there's the one who became Bruce Lee. Yes,

889
00:47:13,400 --> 00:47:13,880
Speaker 2: so that's what.

890
00:47:14,160 --> 00:47:19,760
Speaker 1: Yeah, the Transformation Chamber gave him access to becoming characters

891
00:47:19,880 --> 00:47:24,520
Speaker 1: like Bruce Lee Erkele, an ass kicking, fairly racist version

892
00:47:24,520 --> 00:47:26,560
Speaker 1: of Erkele three appearances.

893
00:47:26,719 --> 00:47:33,000
Speaker 3: I felt seen though in that episode back on TV.

894
00:47:33,239 --> 00:47:35,279
Speaker 2: Fine, there you go, I'll take it. I'll take it.

895
00:47:36,719 --> 00:47:40,000
Speaker 1: Tried to get even smarter for an MIT Admissions interview,

896
00:47:40,680 --> 00:47:44,200
Speaker 1: and create turned himself into Einstein Erkele, who for some

897
00:47:44,239 --> 00:47:48,920
Speaker 1: reason morphed into Elvis Erkele. He just became Elvis because

898
00:47:48,920 --> 00:47:50,800
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure it was just like they were like, Steve,

899
00:47:50,840 --> 00:47:53,920
Speaker 1: you have a good Elvis, right, right, right, and then

900
00:47:55,200 --> 00:47:59,640
Speaker 1: it accidentally transformed Carl into Carl Erkele. Laura had a

901
00:47:59,680 --> 00:48:03,880
Speaker 1: Laura Rakele episode Reginald val Johnson, like a very seasoned

902
00:48:04,000 --> 00:48:07,000
Speaker 1: stage actor, so that, you know, was probably like, well,

903
00:48:07,040 --> 00:48:09,879
Speaker 1: I should like have fun too, You should probably take

904
00:48:09,880 --> 00:48:11,920
Speaker 1: advantage of the fact that I'm a great actor.

905
00:48:12,400 --> 00:48:14,560
Speaker 3: You think you're doing that around the writers, He's like,

906
00:48:14,640 --> 00:48:16,400
Speaker 3: you know, I could do Rkle too, right, you know,

907
00:48:16,640 --> 00:48:20,920
Speaker 3: And they're like, whoa's.

908
00:48:19,120 --> 00:48:23,160
Speaker 1: Ernie kem peel sketch where it's like the producer of

909
00:48:23,200 --> 00:48:25,279
Speaker 1: the show is like doing coke in his office and

910
00:48:25,360 --> 00:48:27,799
Speaker 1: then Reginald Vell Johnson like comes in and it's like.

911
00:48:28,360 --> 00:48:29,400
Speaker 2: You motherfucker.

912
00:48:29,719 --> 00:48:33,359
Speaker 1: This was supposed to be a serious family sigam when

913
00:48:33,400 --> 00:48:36,000
Speaker 1: it's become and then like an evil version of Verkle

914
00:48:36,080 --> 00:48:39,120
Speaker 1: comes out and kills everybody. And then that gave rise

915
00:48:39,200 --> 00:48:43,800
Speaker 1: to Stefan Erkel, the smooth alter ego of Steve Erkele.

916
00:48:44,280 --> 00:48:46,839
Speaker 1: He hadvents a serum called cool Juice that can alter

917
00:48:46,960 --> 00:48:50,360
Speaker 1: his DNA. His goal is to win Laura's heart, and

918
00:48:51,239 --> 00:48:53,960
Speaker 1: which is kind of sad. It's like, yeah, I always

919
00:48:53,960 --> 00:48:57,400
Speaker 1: felt like he was self loving, you know, but instead

920
00:48:57,480 --> 00:49:01,440
Speaker 1: he tried to shed his personality to impress a girl. Uh,

921
00:49:01,680 --> 00:49:04,400
Speaker 1: don't don't do that, guys. She should love you for

922
00:49:04,480 --> 00:49:05,200
Speaker 1: who you are, and.

923
00:49:05,200 --> 00:49:06,680
Speaker 3: I just want to tell those I wish I could

924
00:49:06,719 --> 00:49:08,680
Speaker 3: go back in time and tell my young self a

925
00:49:08,760 --> 00:49:12,080
Speaker 3: porta potty is not an oracle transformation chamber, even.

926
00:49:11,880 --> 00:49:14,960
Speaker 2: Though it looks the same. Try jumping in and everything.

927
00:49:16,160 --> 00:49:18,960
Speaker 2: For me, Yeah, for me, it was a.

928
00:49:18,960 --> 00:49:22,560
Speaker 1: Great metaphor that prepared me for drinking alcohol for the

929
00:49:22,640 --> 00:49:24,680
Speaker 1: first time and how I felt about myself.

930
00:49:24,880 --> 00:49:26,759
Speaker 2: For me, a human waste that got on me when

931
00:49:26,760 --> 00:49:29,040
Speaker 2: I jumped into a porta potty, which I'm kind of

932
00:49:29,120 --> 00:49:34,560
Speaker 2: like ja Keith O'Brien as hell.

933
00:49:37,640 --> 00:49:42,160
Speaker 5: Then I can play Jack O'Brien. Yes, I'm a season actor,

934
00:49:42,200 --> 00:49:43,360
Speaker 5: but I can play some man know.

935
00:49:43,440 --> 00:49:45,400
Speaker 2: What to do with my hands. I can do O'Brien.

936
00:49:45,520 --> 00:49:48,439
Speaker 2: Watch this, do you guys?

937
00:49:48,520 --> 00:49:52,120
Speaker 5: Remember, though, I gotta talk about First of all, he

938
00:49:52,200 --> 00:49:54,480
Speaker 5: also played his like girl cousin.

939
00:49:54,880 --> 00:49:58,600
Speaker 2: Yeah, at one point, uh huh, he went full clumps

940
00:49:58,880 --> 00:50:01,800
Speaker 2: and did like full family problem.

941
00:50:02,760 --> 00:50:06,440
Speaker 5: The worst episodes of television of all time is when

942
00:50:06,520 --> 00:50:09,680
Speaker 5: he played like his cousin.

943
00:50:09,480 --> 00:50:13,200
Speaker 1: The cousin Eugene original Gangsta dog Erkele.

944
00:50:14,080 --> 00:50:14,279
Speaker 2: Yeah.

945
00:50:14,400 --> 00:50:18,560
Speaker 1: I watched the scene where he is confronted by Carl

946
00:50:19,600 --> 00:50:23,680
Speaker 1: That and he like makes points about police harassment and

947
00:50:24,239 --> 00:50:29,319
Speaker 1: Carl comes back with some very uh buy the book

948
00:50:29,440 --> 00:50:33,200
Speaker 1: respectability politics about how like I wouldn't be harassing you

949
00:50:33,320 --> 00:50:35,920
Speaker 1: if you didn't if you would pull your damn pants up,

950
00:50:36,600 --> 00:50:39,560
Speaker 1: which is interesting for him because the first time he

951
00:50:39,640 --> 00:50:43,719
Speaker 1: met Erkele like that his is mugging around Erkele in

952
00:50:43,800 --> 00:50:46,400
Speaker 1: the first scene when he meets him, he just immediately

953
00:50:46,520 --> 00:50:50,600
Speaker 1: is like ugh, like it's was like got his pants

954
00:50:50,840 --> 00:50:54,040
Speaker 1: is like the energy that he's giving. But yeah, there's

955
00:50:54,280 --> 00:50:58,080
Speaker 1: Myrtle Erkele, which is his girl cousin. Uh, and then

956
00:50:58,160 --> 00:51:02,840
Speaker 1: Cornelius Eugene original Gangsta dog Rcle. Keep in mind that

957
00:51:02,920 --> 00:51:07,000
Speaker 1: the show was written and produced almost entirely by white people.

958
00:51:08,239 --> 00:51:12,160
Speaker 3: Yeah, this feels like the kind of thing that would

959
00:51:12,160 --> 00:51:13,839
Speaker 3: happen to a lot of black sitcoms, is you would

960
00:51:13,840 --> 00:51:16,840
Speaker 3: get the like the real episode, like they had a message,

961
00:51:16,960 --> 00:51:19,359
Speaker 3: and then suddenly like you're like, I know, white people

962
00:51:19,400 --> 00:51:22,480
Speaker 3: didn't write this part, right, Like there is something here

963
00:51:22,560 --> 00:51:26,040
Speaker 3: maybe input maybe yeah, yeah, yeah, because that was that's

964
00:51:26,239 --> 00:51:29,279
Speaker 3: that's that. That sounds like the kinds of things black

965
00:51:29,280 --> 00:51:31,400
Speaker 3: people would talk about, but not something that would bubble

966
00:51:31,520 --> 00:51:34,440
Speaker 3: up like that ID picture a nineties white writers room

967
00:51:34,520 --> 00:51:37,320
Speaker 3: talking about because like you had those same moments in like,

968
00:51:37,600 --> 00:51:39,920
Speaker 3: every black show has those moments, and like and the

969
00:51:39,960 --> 00:51:42,160
Speaker 3: ones I've seen where the writers talk about it, you

970
00:51:42,280 --> 00:51:44,160
Speaker 3: can tell like a lot of those episodes end up

971
00:51:44,160 --> 00:51:46,759
Speaker 3: being collaborative with like the with the actors too, who

972
00:51:46,800 --> 00:51:49,000
Speaker 3: are kind of bringing their own perspective into the right yeam.

973
00:51:48,880 --> 00:51:50,759
Speaker 1: So I had that same thought that this was like

974
00:51:50,960 --> 00:51:54,880
Speaker 1: with input from the cast being like, and there were

975
00:51:55,320 --> 00:51:59,919
Speaker 1: plenty of episodes that took on more serious issues. There's

976
00:52:00,040 --> 00:52:02,799
Speaker 1: episode where Laura tries to get people to learn at

977
00:52:02,840 --> 00:52:05,399
Speaker 1: school about black history and is told to go back

978
00:52:05,480 --> 00:52:08,320
Speaker 1: to Africa and has the N word spray painted on

979
00:52:08,440 --> 00:52:11,680
Speaker 1: her locker. Yeah, Eddie gets pulled over by a racist

980
00:52:11,800 --> 00:52:15,480
Speaker 1: cop who is Carl's coworker, and he's like, are you

981
00:52:15,600 --> 00:52:18,440
Speaker 1: a why'd you pull my son over? And he's like,

982
00:52:18,640 --> 00:52:23,799
Speaker 1: I'm a racist cop. You can't prove anything, and then

983
00:52:24,200 --> 00:52:26,640
Speaker 1: Eddie and Laura get beat up by gang members. I

984
00:52:26,680 --> 00:52:29,160
Speaker 1: feel like that one might have been written by white

985
00:52:29,360 --> 00:52:32,240
Speaker 1: writers that they're like, these gangs are out of control.

986
00:52:32,360 --> 00:52:37,080
Speaker 5: They were just on a date to Tony Roma's yeah,

987
00:52:37,880 --> 00:52:40,400
Speaker 5: I look at the show like that too, or like this.

988
00:52:40,600 --> 00:52:44,080
Speaker 5: Whenever I watch shows like that and like you see

989
00:52:44,120 --> 00:52:50,480
Speaker 5: how Harriet comes down, who's played by Mary Mary Joe Peyton, Yeah,

990
00:52:51,520 --> 00:52:56,120
Speaker 5: who also was considered you know, a trained, well trained actor.

991
00:52:56,280 --> 00:53:00,400
Speaker 5: Yeah at that point, and I'm like, man, you know

992
00:53:00,480 --> 00:53:04,160
Speaker 5: because she eventually Joe Marie sorry Joe Marion yees, Joe

993
00:53:04,200 --> 00:53:08,080
Speaker 5: Marie Payton's apologies to that, to that icon. She left

994
00:53:08,120 --> 00:53:09,759
Speaker 5: the show in the last season because you're like, I

995
00:53:09,800 --> 00:53:11,000
Speaker 5: can't take this shit no more.

996
00:53:11,320 --> 00:53:11,440
Speaker 1: Man.

997
00:53:11,520 --> 00:53:14,040
Speaker 2: I'm just I'm almost like a fifth character on Yeah, wow,

998
00:53:14,840 --> 00:53:16,920
Speaker 2: do I do? I does my character only just come

999
00:53:17,000 --> 00:53:19,200
Speaker 2: down the stairs and say, now, what's going on? What's

1000
00:53:19,239 --> 00:53:19,560
Speaker 2: going on?

1001
00:53:19,719 --> 00:53:19,839
Speaker 6: Right?

1002
00:53:19,920 --> 00:53:25,279
Speaker 1: Yeah? I mean that is essentially what everybody got relegated

1003
00:53:25,360 --> 00:53:29,239
Speaker 1: to in the Erkele episodes, which were most of the episodes,

1004
00:53:29,280 --> 00:53:31,440
Speaker 1: and there were like really like there. I was watching

1005
00:53:31,880 --> 00:53:35,839
Speaker 1: the episode where do the arcle is the Arkle dance,

1006
00:53:35,880 --> 00:53:40,840
Speaker 1: which they tried really hard to make happen, the episode

1007
00:53:40,880 --> 00:53:44,120
Speaker 1: where he is like trying to spice up the dance

1008
00:53:44,160 --> 00:53:47,200
Speaker 1: and he's like, uh, Eddie hit it and like has

1009
00:53:47,239 --> 00:53:49,720
Speaker 1: somebody like play some music and then like started teaching

1010
00:53:49,760 --> 00:53:50,959
Speaker 1: everybody how to do the racle.

1011
00:53:51,960 --> 00:53:54,120
Speaker 2: Lorenz Tate is like a side character.

1012
00:53:54,320 --> 00:53:56,960
Speaker 1: He's the bully, right yeah, yeah, he's the bully, and

1013
00:53:57,000 --> 00:53:59,080
Speaker 1: I think he starts spiking the punch or something.

1014
00:54:00,760 --> 00:54:04,840
Speaker 2: But it's yeah, there's like great actors throughout and.

1015
00:54:05,120 --> 00:54:09,040
Speaker 5: Oh listen all the nineties shows, they like musical guests.

1016
00:54:09,520 --> 00:54:11,759
Speaker 5: They would have like concerts on these shows.

1017
00:54:11,800 --> 00:54:15,279
Speaker 2: I loved. I loved that shit about all these shows, right, yeah. Yeah.

1018
00:54:15,640 --> 00:54:18,520
Speaker 1: They also made him do the ercle like they would

1019
00:54:18,640 --> 00:54:21,880
Speaker 1: just so he in one episode, I think he creates

1020
00:54:22,239 --> 00:54:25,839
Speaker 1: a rocket and like flies into or no, a jet

1021
00:54:25,960 --> 00:54:30,440
Speaker 1: pack flies up and lands in Wisconsin and with the

1022
00:54:30,719 --> 00:54:33,919
Speaker 1: family from Step by Step and then there's a Step

1023
00:54:33,960 --> 00:54:36,440
Speaker 1: by Step episode with Erkele on it, like they were

1024
00:54:36,520 --> 00:54:39,120
Speaker 1: just using him wherever they could to like get the

1025
00:54:39,239 --> 00:54:41,560
Speaker 1: ratings up across the TGIF lineup.

1026
00:54:42,360 --> 00:54:42,879
Speaker 2: That's wild.

1027
00:54:42,920 --> 00:54:46,239
Speaker 3: They're like, they're like, to support your ailing ratings, We're

1028
00:54:46,280 --> 00:54:49,120
Speaker 3: gonna fly in our nerd from the main show in

1029
00:54:49,280 --> 00:54:52,040
Speaker 3: Via because he was on He was on Full House too,

1030
00:54:52,080 --> 00:54:54,760
Speaker 3: I remember, right, Yeah.

1031
00:54:54,680 --> 00:54:56,520
Speaker 1: It was kind of a weird one on Step by

1032
00:54:56,520 --> 00:54:58,680
Speaker 1: Step because I think the thing he does is he

1033
00:54:58,800 --> 00:55:01,680
Speaker 1: helps the youngest her who like looks like she's you know,

1034
00:55:02,080 --> 00:55:05,000
Speaker 1: seven years old, by like taking her the dance because

1035
00:55:05,040 --> 00:55:07,520
Speaker 1: she can't find a date. To the dance and then

1036
00:55:07,719 --> 00:55:10,680
Speaker 1: like spices up the dance by doing the arkle, which

1037
00:55:10,719 --> 00:55:14,879
Speaker 1: again very dick forward dance, like lots of humping the air,

1038
00:55:15,360 --> 00:55:17,759
Speaker 1: which again was their custom at the time, but makes

1039
00:55:17,800 --> 00:55:19,720
Speaker 1: sort of a weird fit. And so you can actually

1040
00:55:19,760 --> 00:55:22,239
Speaker 1: tell that they have like toned down the choreography a

1041
00:55:22,320 --> 00:55:26,480
Speaker 1: little bit for the seven year old dance. Maybe not

1042
00:55:26,600 --> 00:55:29,480
Speaker 1: this one, but I mean to the point of erkle

1043
00:55:29,600 --> 00:55:32,759
Speaker 1: was everywhere. They also made him do the arkle. At

1044
00:55:32,760 --> 00:55:36,759
Speaker 1: the beginning of the American Comedy Awards. He came out

1045
00:55:36,800 --> 00:55:40,760
Speaker 1: and made b Arthur do the arkle. But Milton Bradley

1046
00:55:40,800 --> 00:55:43,959
Speaker 1: put out a board game called Do the Ercle, which

1047
00:55:44,000 --> 00:55:47,120
Speaker 1: included a lyric sheet for the rakle dance with instructions

1048
00:55:47,200 --> 00:55:51,759
Speaker 1: to sing with a rap beat. Oh, sing with a

1049
00:55:51,920 --> 00:55:57,200
Speaker 1: rap beat in your heart. There was also erkele Oh's cereal.

1050
00:55:57,840 --> 00:56:00,560
Speaker 1: He had his own cereal. There was just those fruit

1051
00:56:00,600 --> 00:56:04,080
Speaker 1: loops but with banana and strawberry flavored. Yeah.

1052
00:56:04,960 --> 00:56:07,120
Speaker 2: Rings. It was nasty.

1053
00:56:07,640 --> 00:56:11,040
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was made by it was made by the

1054
00:56:11,120 --> 00:56:16,200
Speaker 1: good people at Ralston aka Ralston Purina find Yers of

1055
00:56:16,280 --> 00:56:16,880
Speaker 1: dog food.

1056
00:56:17,800 --> 00:56:21,680
Speaker 2: That's fucked up. I remember it was nasty. I was like,

1057
00:56:21,880 --> 00:56:24,000
Speaker 2: this is some bird food. I think we can repurpose

1058
00:56:24,040 --> 00:56:28,520
Speaker 2: as erkle O's. Do you remember the Erkle lunchbox? What

1059
00:56:28,600 --> 00:56:28,880
Speaker 2: do you mean?

1060
00:56:30,320 --> 00:56:30,440
Speaker 6: Very?

1061
00:56:30,600 --> 00:56:32,879
Speaker 1: I didn't remember it either, but there's apparently a very

1062
00:56:33,080 --> 00:56:35,320
Speaker 1: iconic Erkle lunchbox that everybody.

1063
00:56:35,480 --> 00:56:37,600
Speaker 2: Yeah I had was it? Was it him, just like

1064
00:56:37,760 --> 00:56:38,520
Speaker 2: with the look like.

1065
00:56:40,680 --> 00:56:43,880
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it had the National Museum of American History.

1066
00:56:44,440 --> 00:56:47,279
Speaker 1: It has the catchphrase did I do that at yep? I?

1067
00:56:49,440 --> 00:56:49,680
Speaker 2: Yeah.

1068
00:56:50,360 --> 00:56:53,839
Speaker 1: Every era of kids has their like things that are

1069
00:56:53,960 --> 00:56:57,840
Speaker 1: like the iconic for them. It's like paw Patrol for

1070
00:56:58,280 --> 00:57:01,840
Speaker 1: Arkle was just that for everybody from elementary school to

1071
00:57:01,880 --> 00:57:02,400
Speaker 1: middle school.

1072
00:57:02,400 --> 00:57:03,600
Speaker 2: I feel like it's.

1073
00:57:03,719 --> 00:57:06,480
Speaker 3: Yeah, but even like now, it'll never just be like

1074
00:57:06,600 --> 00:57:09,760
Speaker 3: it's just that one thing, Like there's like five things

1075
00:57:09,800 --> 00:57:11,560
Speaker 3: at all kids like now, you know what I mean,

1076
00:57:11,719 --> 00:57:14,239
Speaker 3: versus like the one thing when we were one thing

1077
00:57:14,920 --> 00:57:20,680
Speaker 3: Sesame Street, Ninja, Turtles, he Man, Arbie, my Little Pony

1078
00:57:20,760 --> 00:57:21,560
Speaker 3: or care Bears.

1079
00:57:21,760 --> 00:57:21,960
Speaker 2: Yeah.

1080
00:57:22,320 --> 00:57:24,360
Speaker 1: And I feel like Bart Simpson was like kind of

1081
00:57:24,760 --> 00:57:27,560
Speaker 1: the opposite because they were around the same time, and

1082
00:57:27,720 --> 00:57:30,400
Speaker 1: like Bart Simpson was also like doing the market of

1083
00:57:30,520 --> 00:57:35,120
Speaker 1: the same age, who was on T shirts and lunchboxes

1084
00:57:35,240 --> 00:57:38,560
Speaker 1: and everything. But so the Racle era came to an

1085
00:57:38,720 --> 00:57:42,400
Speaker 1: end after an eight season run. He was twelve when

1086
00:57:42,440 --> 00:57:45,520
Speaker 1: he started playing Racle, and the show was on the

1087
00:57:45,560 --> 00:57:48,040
Speaker 1: air for nine seasons. As you can see in the

1088
00:57:49,080 --> 00:57:53,360
Speaker 1: og Ercle episode, he's you know, by the end of

1089
00:57:53,400 --> 00:57:57,160
Speaker 1: the show's run, he's twenty one years old, and he

1090
00:57:57,640 --> 00:58:00,480
Speaker 1: complained to the producers that doing the Erkle voice was

1091
00:58:00,520 --> 00:58:03,520
Speaker 1: physically painful, which like I can only imagine like doing

1092
00:58:03,560 --> 00:58:06,320
Speaker 1: that for twenty something episodes a season.

1093
00:58:07,040 --> 00:58:10,480
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, yeah, especially as your voice is changing too. Yes,

1094
00:58:10,560 --> 00:58:12,360
Speaker 5: he was a kid when the show started.

1095
00:58:12,600 --> 00:58:15,240
Speaker 3: You're probably fighting it so hard because you know, what

1096
00:58:15,920 --> 00:58:18,800
Speaker 3: is he like barely a teenager when he starts and

1097
00:58:18,920 --> 00:58:22,160
Speaker 3: then not even twelve thirteen for real.

1098
00:58:22,280 --> 00:58:25,200
Speaker 1: Yeah, you have to ask Megan Kelly awigh in on this,

1099
00:58:25,360 --> 00:58:27,640
Speaker 1: but I think he's not technically a teenager, technically not

1100
00:58:27,760 --> 00:58:32,200
Speaker 1: a child. And like during the height like seventh season,

1101
00:58:32,280 --> 00:58:35,360
Speaker 1: it was still going really well, and there was like

1102
00:58:35,480 --> 00:58:39,200
Speaker 1: a reporter who was in the dressing room like doing

1103
00:58:39,240 --> 00:58:41,160
Speaker 1: a story on the show, and he was quoted as saying,

1104
00:58:41,240 --> 00:58:43,440
Speaker 1: and I do remember this coming out. If you ever

1105
00:58:43,600 --> 00:58:46,240
Speaker 1: see me do that character again, take me out and

1106
00:58:46,320 --> 00:58:48,120
Speaker 1: put a bullet in my head and put me out

1107
00:58:48,120 --> 00:58:53,240
Speaker 1: of My Misery, Julia White said, they were like grew to.

1108
00:58:53,280 --> 00:58:54,080
Speaker 2: Hate that character.

1109
00:58:54,360 --> 00:58:57,160
Speaker 5: Yeah, like because people would just be like, you know,

1110
00:58:57,520 --> 00:59:00,080
Speaker 5: there's a story of him driving on the street on

1111
00:59:00,200 --> 00:59:03,240
Speaker 5: saying like somebody is like, are going he just like

1112
00:59:03,320 --> 00:59:05,160
Speaker 5: goes off on him because he's like, that's not my

1113
00:59:05,280 --> 00:59:05,840
Speaker 5: fucking name.

1114
00:59:06,200 --> 00:59:08,320
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's not my name.

1115
00:59:08,840 --> 00:59:11,880
Speaker 5: So you know, it kind of becomes like a curse

1116
00:59:12,960 --> 00:59:16,960
Speaker 5: as well to an actor, especially because nobody can see

1117
00:59:16,960 --> 00:59:19,880
Speaker 5: you as anything else, right, or the rest of your

1118
00:59:19,960 --> 00:59:23,480
Speaker 5: career generally, And he did not do well with that

1119
00:59:23,840 --> 00:59:26,480
Speaker 5: in his twenties and thirties, which.

1120
00:59:26,360 --> 00:59:30,920
Speaker 1: Yeah, for somebody who like carried a fucking sitcom, like

1121
00:59:31,120 --> 00:59:35,080
Speaker 1: incredibly popular sitcom on his shoulders like it was it

1122
00:59:35,200 --> 00:59:37,640
Speaker 1: was you, you would have thought there's a chance that

1123
00:59:37,720 --> 00:59:39,960
Speaker 1: he goes on to do other things, especially because you know,

1124
00:59:40,040 --> 00:59:43,040
Speaker 1: he didn't really look like Steve Rkle outside of things.

1125
00:59:43,160 --> 00:59:46,520
Speaker 1: But he's gone on to like the main thing he's

1126
00:59:46,560 --> 00:59:49,520
Speaker 1: doing now is he has a weed business, like he's

1127
00:59:49,560 --> 00:59:50,720
Speaker 1: a cannabis connoisseur.

1128
00:59:52,320 --> 00:59:57,560
Speaker 5: Story, Yeah about that, I think I think now I

1129
00:59:57,680 --> 00:59:59,600
Speaker 5: know this is probably not true at all, but I

1130
00:59:59,680 --> 01:00:04,760
Speaker 5: think go Ahead probably had a small hand and arcle

1131
01:00:05,520 --> 01:00:07,640
Speaker 5: like going to like the weed business.

1132
01:00:08,160 --> 01:00:08,400
Speaker 6: Wow.

1133
01:00:08,600 --> 01:00:10,520
Speaker 5: So I used to have a show called I used

1134
01:00:10,520 --> 01:00:12,960
Speaker 5: to have a show called Past That Blunt, right, and

1135
01:00:13,080 --> 01:00:18,200
Speaker 5: in February of twenty twenty, right before the pandemic, maybe

1136
01:00:18,320 --> 01:00:21,120
Speaker 5: two weeks a week before the pandemic hit. So this

1137
01:00:21,320 --> 01:00:23,760
Speaker 5: was one of the most irresponsible shows that happened around

1138
01:00:23,800 --> 01:00:26,560
Speaker 5: that time. But the show premise was it was all

1139
01:00:26,640 --> 01:00:30,680
Speaker 5: black cast. We would smoke a bunch of fucking weed backstage,

1140
01:00:30,760 --> 01:00:33,479
Speaker 5: we would come on stage perform an hour of comedy high,

1141
01:00:33,880 --> 01:00:35,919
Speaker 5: and we would also pass out weed in hot Box

1142
01:00:36,080 --> 01:00:38,440
Speaker 5: uc B Franklin, which is a theater in Los Angeles.

1143
01:00:39,480 --> 01:00:41,200
Speaker 5: That was the premise of the show. And it was

1144
01:00:41,240 --> 01:00:43,840
Speaker 5: a midnight show too, so it would be packed. It

1145
01:00:43,880 --> 01:00:46,120
Speaker 5: would be one hundred people in the room, just hot

1146
01:00:46,160 --> 01:00:49,240
Speaker 5: boxing for a theater while we're just having a good

1147
01:00:49,240 --> 01:00:52,840
Speaker 5: old black funny time. And my last guest for the

1148
01:00:52,960 --> 01:00:56,440
Speaker 5: last Past That Blunt before the pandemic hit was Jalill

1149
01:00:56,520 --> 01:01:01,160
Speaker 5: White and we use them so high, So High. He

1150
01:01:01,320 --> 01:01:07,240
Speaker 5: fell asleep on stage. He fell asleep on stage like

1151
01:01:07,400 --> 01:01:09,760
Speaker 5: he was performing with us and like he was ar

1152
01:01:09,800 --> 01:01:13,240
Speaker 5: monologist and our interviewer. And then he like sat down,

1153
01:01:13,520 --> 01:01:15,160
Speaker 5: like toward the second half of the show and he

1154
01:01:15,320 --> 01:01:18,200
Speaker 5: was just on stage sleep and his manager like tapped

1155
01:01:18,280 --> 01:01:20,000
Speaker 5: him and was like, come on, bro, we got to

1156
01:01:20,000 --> 01:01:22,800
Speaker 5: get it out of here, because he has said before

1157
01:01:23,000 --> 01:01:25,480
Speaker 5: like I don't smoke weed that much. I haven't smoked

1158
01:01:25,480 --> 01:01:28,080
Speaker 5: weed in a long ass time. It was his first

1159
01:01:28,120 --> 01:01:30,760
Speaker 5: time smoking it. And then lo and behold, less than

1160
01:01:30,800 --> 01:01:33,720
Speaker 5: a year later, here comes Purple Arkle and yeah, it's

1161
01:01:33,760 --> 01:01:38,880
Speaker 5: a wee business. So I think, damn, that was a

1162
01:01:39,000 --> 01:01:40,320
Speaker 5: spark for him passing that.

1163
01:01:40,320 --> 01:01:44,720
Speaker 2: I'm so high. It created a new career, career career

1164
01:01:44,880 --> 01:01:45,240
Speaker 2: for him.

1165
01:01:45,920 --> 01:01:49,160
Speaker 5: I know, listen, I know that that probably has nothing

1166
01:01:49,160 --> 01:01:51,080
Speaker 5: to do with it, but I'm attached to that that

1167
01:01:51,280 --> 01:01:53,960
Speaker 5: I got Rkle publicly into the I.

1168
01:01:53,960 --> 01:01:58,080
Speaker 3: Mean, I know that strain existed before, like this, Like

1169
01:01:58,160 --> 01:02:00,920
Speaker 3: I feel like from the two from the Ots is

1170
01:02:00,960 --> 01:02:03,000
Speaker 3: the first time I heard a purple racle as a strain.

1171
01:02:03,080 --> 01:02:06,479
Speaker 2: But yeah, business, no, no, no, this is just people

1172
01:02:06,600 --> 01:02:09,200
Speaker 2: being like this is that purple organis. People just named

1173
01:02:09,240 --> 01:02:10,200
Speaker 2: it whatever the fuck it was.

1174
01:02:10,600 --> 01:02:13,600
Speaker 3: But I don't doubt that you sending him off into

1175
01:02:13,680 --> 01:02:16,080
Speaker 3: lockdowns With that experience and a lot of time on

1176
01:02:16,200 --> 01:02:16,720
Speaker 3: his hands.

1177
01:02:16,560 --> 01:02:19,120
Speaker 2: He's like, you know what, maybe there's maybe there's something.

1178
01:02:19,200 --> 01:02:22,760
Speaker 1: Yeah, because now seven to ten Labs markets a strain

1179
01:02:22,840 --> 01:02:26,360
Speaker 1: called Purple Oracle featuring an image of Ercle as the logo,

1180
01:02:26,640 --> 01:02:28,160
Speaker 1: and he is involved in that.

1181
01:02:28,520 --> 01:02:32,920
Speaker 7: So he's finally getting loved him. Yeah, yeah, man, everybody

1182
01:02:33,000 --> 01:02:35,120
Speaker 7: loved it, and he was like this is dope, man,

1183
01:02:35,200 --> 01:02:38,720
Speaker 7: this is great. Everybody's and now he is like, fuck it,

1184
01:02:38,880 --> 01:02:40,040
Speaker 7: I'm in no wed business now.

1185
01:02:40,480 --> 01:02:41,440
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, all right.

1186
01:02:41,520 --> 01:02:44,440
Speaker 1: I just want to end with the fan theory about

1187
01:02:44,480 --> 01:02:48,160
Speaker 1: Reginald val Johnson. So he played a cop all over

1188
01:02:48,240 --> 01:02:54,040
Speaker 1: the place. He played a cop, most notably probably in Ghostbusters, Diehard,

1189
01:02:54,400 --> 01:02:58,560
Speaker 1: and Family Matters, among other places. He just looked great

1190
01:02:58,640 --> 01:03:01,760
Speaker 1: in a cop uniform and so people wanted him to

1191
01:03:01,800 --> 01:03:03,440
Speaker 1: be a copy was like on Kojak as a cop.

1192
01:03:03,520 --> 01:03:07,320
Speaker 1: But the fan theory is that those three biggest appearances

1193
01:03:07,400 --> 01:03:11,280
Speaker 1: are all part of the same fictional universe. So in Ghostbusters,

1194
01:03:11,880 --> 01:03:14,680
Speaker 1: his role is he basically takes the Ghostbusters from prison

1195
01:03:14,800 --> 01:03:17,520
Speaker 1: to city hall where they're talking to the mayor. And

1196
01:03:18,360 --> 01:03:20,480
Speaker 1: during that movie, you might remember that the way the

1197
01:03:20,520 --> 01:03:23,720
Speaker 1: Ghostbusters explain the haunting that's about to happen is with

1198
01:03:23,840 --> 01:03:26,400
Speaker 1: a twinkie, and they're like, if you take the size

1199
01:03:26,440 --> 01:03:29,600
Speaker 1: of this twinkie, the amount of ectoplasm that's in the

1200
01:03:29,640 --> 01:03:32,160
Speaker 1: city right now where this twinkie would actually be thirty

1201
01:03:32,240 --> 01:03:37,040
Speaker 1: blocks long, So just stow that away from memory. Ghostbusters

1202
01:03:37,080 --> 01:03:42,920
Speaker 1: happens and he gets the twinkie explanation, assuming based on

1203
01:03:43,000 --> 01:03:45,600
Speaker 1: the fan theory that they use to explain the size

1204
01:03:45,640 --> 01:03:48,760
Speaker 1: of the haunting that's coming. He then witnesses it's the

1205
01:03:48,840 --> 01:03:52,120
Speaker 1: same night that a giant snack food mascot attacks New

1206
01:03:52,200 --> 01:03:56,240
Speaker 1: York City kills presumably many people. By the time we

1207
01:03:56,280 --> 01:03:59,960
Speaker 1: see him in LA he's eating Twinkies like he knew

1208
01:04:00,400 --> 01:04:03,080
Speaker 1: he's it's his character's like main thing. He like walks

1209
01:04:03,200 --> 01:04:05,680
Speaker 1: up to the seven to eleven with like an armful

1210
01:04:05,720 --> 01:04:09,920
Speaker 1: of twinkies and John McClain asks him, like, what are

1211
01:04:10,200 --> 01:04:12,000
Speaker 1: what are in what's in those things? And he like

1212
01:04:12,120 --> 01:04:15,200
Speaker 1: knows all the ingredients by heart. And he's also shot

1213
01:04:15,240 --> 01:04:18,120
Speaker 1: a kid and is haunted by the memory of that kid.

1214
01:04:18,440 --> 01:04:20,680
Speaker 1: He just at one point is like shot a kid

1215
01:04:21,160 --> 01:04:25,840
Speaker 1: and Powell, yeah, we don't know. I don't think we

1216
01:04:25,960 --> 01:04:30,480
Speaker 1: learned his name. And Ghostbusters so based on this fan theory,

1217
01:04:30,760 --> 01:04:33,240
Speaker 1: after the events of Diehard and he shoots the main

1218
01:04:33,800 --> 01:04:36,320
Speaker 1: bad guy terrorist, he has to go into witness protection

1219
01:04:36,760 --> 01:04:39,200
Speaker 1: to hide from the terrorists since he shot and killed

1220
01:04:39,720 --> 01:04:42,080
Speaker 1: like the big bad one, they're getting by under their

1221
01:04:42,160 --> 01:04:45,960
Speaker 1: new names. When a magical neighborhood kid who would be

1222
01:04:46,000 --> 01:04:47,760
Speaker 1: about the age of the kid he shot in La

1223
01:04:48,200 --> 01:04:52,120
Speaker 1: starts bothering his family and he like can't get rid

1224
01:04:52,200 --> 01:04:56,120
Speaker 1: of him. He immediately hates hercle the first episode, like

1225
01:04:56,160 --> 01:04:59,680
Speaker 1: I said, he's just like constantly like like his face

1226
01:04:59,720 --> 01:05:02,760
Speaker 1: looks like he took a shot of malort anytime Urkle's.

1227
01:05:02,400 --> 01:05:04,800
Speaker 2: Around Wow our Chicago reference.

1228
01:05:05,000 --> 01:05:08,800
Speaker 1: Yeah, And even though everything Erkle does is adorable, he's like,

1229
01:05:09,040 --> 01:05:12,280
Speaker 1: the fuck is this? There are later episodes where Erkle

1230
01:05:12,440 --> 01:05:16,840
Speaker 1: becomes a haunted doll. So like magic exists in this universe,

1231
01:05:16,960 --> 01:05:20,560
Speaker 1: it uses time travel, so it could technically sit with

1232
01:05:20,680 --> 01:05:24,320
Speaker 1: the Ghostbusters universe. So the theory would be that Steve

1233
01:05:24,440 --> 01:05:28,480
Speaker 1: Rkle is actually the ghost of the kid who Al

1234
01:05:28,640 --> 01:05:32,960
Speaker 1: Powell shot, and his catchphrase is the one thing Al

1235
01:05:33,160 --> 01:05:36,360
Speaker 1: kept saying to himself the day that changed his life

1236
01:05:36,400 --> 01:05:39,080
Speaker 1: after he shot that kid who had a toy gun?

1237
01:05:40,040 --> 01:05:44,760
Speaker 2: Did I do that? Or Dear God, what have I done?

1238
01:05:45,160 --> 01:05:47,760
Speaker 2: I feel like that, you know? I want some gee,

1239
01:05:48,360 --> 01:05:53,040
Speaker 2: want some geese? I just swiss cheese.

1240
01:05:57,720 --> 01:06:00,160
Speaker 1: Uh the version of the fan theory. I've heard the

1241
01:06:00,320 --> 01:06:03,360
Speaker 1: like he after Diehard goes crazy and like the whole

1242
01:06:03,400 --> 01:06:05,160
Speaker 1: families in his mind. But I feel like it's better

1243
01:06:05,200 --> 01:06:07,080
Speaker 1: if it's just like he's a witness protection in the

1244
01:06:07,160 --> 01:06:11,120
Speaker 1: whole protection only magical thing is that it's it's Rkle

1245
01:06:11,280 --> 01:06:13,240
Speaker 1: is the ghost of the kid, like.

1246
01:06:13,280 --> 01:06:17,080
Speaker 3: That universe like where magic is real, but it's like

1247
01:06:17,440 --> 01:06:19,840
Speaker 3: not really being done in a fucked up evil way.

1248
01:06:20,080 --> 01:06:21,720
Speaker 3: It's like, I don't know, this one kid kind of

1249
01:06:21,760 --> 01:06:26,120
Speaker 3: makes himself a weird Bruce Lee guy. Uh, there's some magic.

1250
01:06:26,200 --> 01:06:28,000
Speaker 3: This guy's haunted by a kiddie shot. I mean, at

1251
01:06:28,080 --> 01:06:30,960
Speaker 3: least a cop is being haunted for their bad deeds somewhere.

1252
01:06:31,120 --> 01:06:31,320
Speaker 2: Yeah.

1253
01:06:31,680 --> 01:06:34,160
Speaker 1: Yeah, not all ghosts are bad in the Ghostbusters universe,

1254
01:06:34,240 --> 01:06:38,520
Speaker 1: and that's true. I'm just a slimmer Jaquis. Thank you

1255
01:06:38,600 --> 01:06:40,760
Speaker 1: so much for joining us. Where where can people find you?

1256
01:06:40,880 --> 01:06:42,000
Speaker 1: Follow you all that good stuff?

1257
01:06:42,680 --> 01:06:42,919
Speaker 2: Hell?

1258
01:06:43,240 --> 01:06:46,160
Speaker 5: Yes, I always love going back to the nineties. Shout

1259
01:06:46,200 --> 01:06:50,680
Speaker 5: out to Lil White and Irk Man. Also Justice for

1260
01:06:50,840 --> 01:06:52,800
Speaker 5: I can't even remember her name, but Erkle got so

1261
01:06:52,960 --> 01:06:54,400
Speaker 5: popular on that show.

1262
01:06:54,600 --> 01:06:55,760
Speaker 2: We can't remember her name.

1263
01:06:55,920 --> 01:06:59,520
Speaker 5: They regulated that they regulated that girl to the upstairs bedroom.

1264
01:06:59,560 --> 01:07:05,600
Speaker 5: Machine never came back downstairs. Family matters j H Jamie Foxworth. Yeah,

1265
01:07:05,840 --> 01:07:08,400
Speaker 5: she was like, yo, man, we we can't have more

1266
01:07:08,560 --> 01:07:09,320
Speaker 5: kids than we need.

1267
01:07:09,600 --> 01:07:12,680
Speaker 3: You got Yeah, dang, she's the youngest and she's your age, Jack,

1268
01:07:12,800 --> 01:07:16,760
Speaker 3: that's what Yeah, Oh ju she's she's forty five.

1269
01:07:16,920 --> 01:07:19,200
Speaker 2: Yeah, damn man. Yeah yeah.

1270
01:07:19,560 --> 01:07:23,680
Speaker 1: Judy also catches some serious strays and heracles biograph and

1271
01:07:23,920 --> 01:07:28,280
Speaker 1: Julia White's like memoir. Yeah, He's like, she never liked me.

1272
01:07:29,120 --> 01:07:33,160
Speaker 1: She she would just uh and she I know she

1273
01:07:33,320 --> 01:07:35,640
Speaker 1: was young, but like I guess by the later seasons,

1274
01:07:35,680 --> 01:07:37,360
Speaker 1: he was like she was she was mean, and she

1275
01:07:37,560 --> 01:07:40,200
Speaker 1: like didn't want to ever do the schoolwork that we

1276
01:07:40,320 --> 01:07:42,520
Speaker 1: had to do on set, you know, because you're basically

1277
01:07:42,640 --> 01:07:43,880
Speaker 1: going to school on the set.

1278
01:07:43,960 --> 01:07:46,280
Speaker 2: What a fucking nerd. He was dropping a dime on

1279
01:07:46,360 --> 01:07:50,320
Speaker 2: her for not doing set school. Yeah. Twenty thirty years later.

1280
01:07:50,560 --> 01:07:53,160
Speaker 1: Hey man, I still hate THEO were mean to me

1281
01:07:53,280 --> 01:07:55,200
Speaker 1: when I was in when I was a kid.

1282
01:07:55,160 --> 01:07:58,400
Speaker 2: You know, especially the ones that were younger than you.

1283
01:07:58,520 --> 01:08:01,600
Speaker 3: Bro you could oh yeah, yea yeah exactly. She gets

1284
01:08:01,680 --> 01:08:03,600
Speaker 3: like our PhD, she's been working on you. He goes

1285
01:08:03,640 --> 01:08:07,480
Speaker 3: to the graduation like boom, she.

1286
01:08:07,440 --> 01:08:09,320
Speaker 2: Wouldn't even do work. She won't even do the work

1287
01:08:09,360 --> 01:08:09,800
Speaker 2: on set.

1288
01:08:12,240 --> 01:08:16,040
Speaker 5: That uh, man appreciate y'all appreciates ho'all having me talking

1289
01:08:16,080 --> 01:08:19,240
Speaker 5: about Steve rkle Icon that he is. Find me everywhere

1290
01:08:19,520 --> 01:08:25,880
Speaker 5: online at Jackie's Neil and jackiesneil dot com. Also, yeah,

1291
01:08:25,960 --> 01:08:28,400
Speaker 5: man got a lot of shits. Crop Control got a

1292
01:08:28,439 --> 01:08:31,920
Speaker 5: season two, so yeah, it's gonna be filming so soon. Yeah,

1293
01:08:32,120 --> 01:08:35,360
Speaker 5: Comedian Clash coming to a city near you, probably be

1294
01:08:35,400 --> 01:08:36,400
Speaker 5: going back on tour next year.

1295
01:08:36,680 --> 01:08:39,960
Speaker 2: Amazing, so good. Everybody should go check it out. Miles

1296
01:08:40,000 --> 01:08:42,120
Speaker 2: where can people find you? At Miles of Gray?

1297
01:08:42,800 --> 01:08:45,320
Speaker 3: And then that the other shows you already know you

1298
01:08:45,400 --> 01:08:48,639
Speaker 3: are in this feed you're listening to now, all right,

1299
01:08:48,880 --> 01:08:50,840
Speaker 3: and God bless you if you don't know about the

1300
01:08:50,880 --> 01:08:53,320
Speaker 3: Daily zeit Geist and you just listening to this episode.

1301
01:08:53,200 --> 01:08:53,800
Speaker 2: Yeah, there you go.

1302
01:08:54,200 --> 01:08:57,240
Speaker 3: She's not what it usually Statistically, there is someone who

1303
01:08:57,240 --> 01:08:59,000
Speaker 3: be like, check out this Daily zeite Geist to hear

1304
01:08:59,400 --> 01:08:59,960
Speaker 3: like they didn't talk.

1305
01:09:00,040 --> 01:09:02,160
Speaker 2: Come back Monday. We'll be doing more shit like this

1306
01:09:02,280 --> 01:09:04,320
Speaker 2: every Monday. Fascinating arkle facts though.

1307
01:09:04,439 --> 01:09:07,519
Speaker 1: All right, so I guess there's this Daily Zeitkeuy show

1308
01:09:07,560 --> 01:09:08,920
Speaker 1: that's just about Erkle facts.

1309
01:09:12,120 --> 01:09:14,320
Speaker 2: But this is your favorite show. Yeah, well that's not

1310
01:09:14,600 --> 01:09:18,400
Speaker 2: what they would normally do, see iconic except forget it.

1311
01:09:18,479 --> 01:09:21,519
Speaker 2: Yeah it's an arch show. All right, Thank you guys.

1312
01:09:23,680 --> 01:09:27,439
Speaker 2: All right, that was iconograph number two. Steve Erkele.

1313
01:09:27,760 --> 01:09:30,960
Speaker 1: Couple research things I didn't get to uh for the

1314
01:09:31,200 --> 01:09:35,120
Speaker 1: No No No note book dump. He was named Steve

1315
01:09:35,240 --> 01:09:38,680
Speaker 1: Verkle was named after a real guy. Uh, and that

1316
01:09:38,920 --> 01:09:42,360
Speaker 1: real guy claims it ruined his life. But it kind

1317
01:09:42,400 --> 01:09:44,200
Speaker 1: of feels like one of those things where it could

1318
01:09:44,240 --> 01:09:47,680
Speaker 1: have been all in his head. So since Erkele was

1319
01:09:47,720 --> 01:09:50,600
Speaker 1: supposed to just make one appearance on Family Matters, the

1320
01:09:50,640 --> 01:09:52,760
Speaker 1: writers didn't put a lot of thought into his name,

1321
01:09:52,960 --> 01:09:55,720
Speaker 1: and one of the producers, Michael Warren, thought it'd be

1322
01:09:56,360 --> 01:09:59,040
Speaker 1: cute to name him after one of his longtime friends,

1323
01:09:59,080 --> 01:10:01,920
Speaker 1: a fellow writer produce her named Steve Erkele e er

1324
01:10:02,040 --> 01:10:06,120
Speaker 1: k e L. And when Erkele, of course took off

1325
01:10:06,240 --> 01:10:10,960
Speaker 1: like a rocket, Erkele er k El found himself with

1326
01:10:11,120 --> 01:10:13,920
Speaker 1: one of the most famous names in America. And he

1327
01:10:15,120 --> 01:10:17,280
Speaker 1: he claims that it like really messed him up. He's

1328
01:10:17,320 --> 01:10:21,360
Speaker 1: like The La Times interviewed him and he said, last

1329
01:10:21,400 --> 01:10:23,559
Speaker 1: week at a bank and insino. They even balked at

1330
01:10:23,640 --> 01:10:26,880
Speaker 1: depositing cash. The teller looked at the deposit slip and

1331
01:10:26,920 --> 01:10:29,080
Speaker 1: then she looked at me. Then she looked at the

1332
01:10:29,160 --> 01:10:32,360
Speaker 1: slip again. Then she looked over at the manager. I

1333
01:10:32,479 --> 01:10:35,760
Speaker 1: actually don't believe. I don't think. I think this is

1334
01:10:35,880 --> 01:10:38,519
Speaker 1: like could be an example of like a Tim Robinson

1335
01:10:38,640 --> 01:10:42,240
Speaker 1: character whose chair breaks and people laugh and he's suddenly

1336
01:10:42,280 --> 01:10:44,840
Speaker 1: convinced every time someone laughs in a room that he's in,

1337
01:10:45,439 --> 01:10:49,720
Speaker 1: they're laughing because his name is Erkele. But Warren, the

1338
01:10:49,760 --> 01:10:53,040
Speaker 1: Family Matters producer, felt really bad about it. He said

1339
01:10:53,080 --> 01:10:55,599
Speaker 1: this has caused a number of awkward situations for Steve.

1340
01:10:55,720 --> 01:10:58,160
Speaker 1: It's made his life difficult. Had I known this would

1341
01:10:58,200 --> 01:11:00,280
Speaker 1: go on for years, I wouldn't have used his name.

1342
01:11:00,400 --> 01:11:02,960
Speaker 1: I'm going to be very careful about naming characters after

1343
01:11:03,240 --> 01:11:06,400
Speaker 1: my friends in the future. Good Life, lesson, and then

1344
01:11:06,720 --> 01:11:09,360
Speaker 1: just a couple more theories on like why, and I

1345
01:11:09,400 --> 01:11:13,600
Speaker 1: don't think it's any one reason. I do think in

1346
01:11:13,880 --> 01:11:16,320
Speaker 1: many ways it comes back to race, as so many

1347
01:11:16,400 --> 01:11:19,680
Speaker 1: things in American culture do. He became popular at a

1348
01:11:19,800 --> 01:11:23,800
Speaker 1: time when America was like interested in black culture, but

1349
01:11:24,240 --> 01:11:28,320
Speaker 1: they didn't want any of the difficulties caused by systemic racism,

1350
01:11:28,600 --> 01:11:31,000
Speaker 1: and Brian the editor in the Chat called him the

1351
01:11:31,080 --> 01:11:34,280
Speaker 1: most unthreatening black character you could possibly come up with.

1352
01:11:34,640 --> 01:11:36,720
Speaker 1: But yeah, this we were coming out of an era

1353
01:11:36,880 --> 01:11:39,920
Speaker 1: of white monoculture. A few years after the start of

1354
01:11:40,240 --> 01:11:42,680
Speaker 1: Family Matters, Do the Right Thing came out and you

1355
01:11:42,760 --> 01:11:46,760
Speaker 1: know classic film that's in the Library of Congress Climaxes

1356
01:11:46,840 --> 01:11:49,960
Speaker 1: with a race riot, and critics at the time were like, hmm,

1357
01:11:50,560 --> 01:11:52,800
Speaker 1: too angry. That part didn't make sense.

1358
01:11:52,840 --> 01:11:54,400
Speaker 2: Why would he do that? He's so mad?

1359
01:11:55,080 --> 01:11:57,360
Speaker 1: And then a few months later the La riots happened,

1360
01:11:57,680 --> 01:12:01,000
Speaker 1: and yeah, even then people know it wasn't nominated for

1361
01:12:01,000 --> 01:12:03,800
Speaker 1: a Best Picture that year, even though it should have been,

1362
01:12:03,960 --> 01:12:07,679
Speaker 1: and I think Driving Miss Daisy won Best Picture. Also,

1363
01:12:08,200 --> 01:12:11,280
Speaker 1: some people credit the character of Racle with popularizing the

1364
01:12:11,439 --> 01:12:15,759
Speaker 1: archetype of black nerd. There's a podcast that claims without Rkle,

1365
01:12:16,080 --> 01:12:19,840
Speaker 1: there would be no Obama, which that's not at all

1366
01:12:19,960 --> 01:12:21,680
Speaker 1: how I view Obama, but that was.

1367
01:12:23,360 --> 01:12:26,920
Speaker 2: Their take on it. And I mean Jaliel White has

1368
01:12:27,000 --> 01:12:27,760
Speaker 2: said that.

1369
01:12:27,880 --> 01:12:30,639
Speaker 1: When you know the reaction at the time when Erkele

1370
01:12:30,800 --> 01:12:32,840
Speaker 1: kind of became massive in nineteen ninety one, the New

1371
01:12:32,920 --> 01:12:36,240
Speaker 1: York Times ran an article about the first unapologetically nerdy

1372
01:12:36,360 --> 01:12:40,519
Speaker 1: black male character on TV, and Jaliel White has said

1373
01:12:40,560 --> 01:12:44,840
Speaker 1: he's heard from tons of self professed black nerds who

1374
01:12:45,280 --> 01:12:48,759
Speaker 1: felt seen by Erkele's character. But he also just thinks,

1375
01:12:49,000 --> 01:12:51,320
Speaker 1: and I think it's all of these things, but I

1376
01:12:51,439 --> 01:12:56,200
Speaker 1: do think that he created something truly original and important.

1377
01:12:56,920 --> 01:12:59,920
Speaker 1: In his book, Juliel White says there was no prototype

1378
01:13:00,080 --> 01:13:02,559
Speaker 1: for who he was. All TV characters and this is true,

1379
01:13:02,640 --> 01:13:05,320
Speaker 1: having worked very briefly in TV. All TV characters are

1380
01:13:05,360 --> 01:13:08,639
Speaker 1: created based on something that previously worked. Webster was created

1381
01:13:08,680 --> 01:13:11,479
Speaker 1: by ABC because of the character Arnold on different strokes.

1382
01:13:11,920 --> 01:13:14,240
Speaker 1: While a great many of the storylines from Family Matters

1383
01:13:14,320 --> 01:13:17,360
Speaker 1: might have been borrowed from previous family themed television shows,

1384
01:13:17,760 --> 01:13:20,599
Speaker 1: Steve was unlike any character ever brought to life by

1385
01:13:20,640 --> 01:13:24,920
Speaker 1: a black performer on television. And importantly, this kind of

1386
01:13:25,000 --> 01:13:28,840
Speaker 1: singular new creation that wasn't based on anything else was

1387
01:13:29,080 --> 01:13:31,920
Speaker 1: a complete accident. You know, the good stuff has to

1388
01:13:32,200 --> 01:13:36,600
Speaker 1: sneak in through the cracks in the solid foundation they

1389
01:13:36,640 --> 01:13:39,400
Speaker 1: think they're building. And you know, they thought he was

1390
01:13:39,479 --> 01:13:42,479
Speaker 1: one off joke and had to be told by the audience, no,

1391
01:13:43,120 --> 01:13:44,360
Speaker 1: this is your show.

1392
01:13:44,600 --> 01:13:45,400
Speaker 2: We want the nerd.

1393
01:13:45,880 --> 01:13:48,160
Speaker 1: And finally, because I don't think we got to it

1394
01:13:48,200 --> 01:13:51,200
Speaker 1: in the conversation, to answer the question of whether Ercle

1395
01:13:51,920 --> 01:13:57,519
Speaker 1: would have been on the Epstein flight logs, there's some troubling.

1396
01:13:58,160 --> 01:13:58,320
Speaker 2: You know.

1397
01:13:58,479 --> 01:14:04,320
Speaker 1: He was a scientist primarily motivated by horniness, but there

1398
01:14:04,400 --> 01:14:07,599
Speaker 1: was a sweetness to him and he didn't need access

1399
01:14:07,720 --> 01:14:09,960
Speaker 1: to the low led Express because he had a jet pack.

1400
01:14:10,360 --> 01:14:13,160
Speaker 1: So I'm going with no, Erkle would not have been

1401
01:14:13,200 --> 01:14:15,040
Speaker 1: in the flight logs. If he was a real person

1402
01:14:15,360 --> 01:14:21,200
Speaker 1: existing in the modern world. Erkele Elvis definitely on there. Unfortunately.

1403
01:14:21,840 --> 01:14:23,280
Speaker 2: All right, that is going to do it.

1404
01:14:23,520 --> 01:14:26,840
Speaker 1: We are back later today with another episode of the

1405
01:14:26,920 --> 01:14:31,480
Speaker 1: Daily Zeitgeist, and back a week from today with iconograph

1406
01:14:31,600 --> 01:14:35,080
Speaker 1: number three, and back a week from today with iconograph

1407
01:14:35,200 --> 01:14:39,200
Speaker 1: number three about Miss Piggy with Jamie Loftus.

1408
01:14:40,080 --> 01:14:41,559
Speaker 2: We will talk to you all then Bite