Speaker 1: We spent quite a bit of time together recently and
Speaker 1: with our well, Susan was not with us, so I
Speaker 1: was gonna say with our significant others, but Susan was missing.
Speaker 1: But we learned something about Writer's wife, Alex that came
Speaker 1: up in conversation, and then the same thing was reiterated
Speaker 1: the next day also by Writer and Will and I
Speaker 1: then talked about it on the way.
Speaker 2: Home, like, wow, what is it Alex?
Speaker 1: Alex said when we so, Alex is a great cook
Speaker 1: and she loves food, which and it's one of the
Speaker 1: many things I love about Alex because I also love food.
Speaker 1: I don't love to cook as much, but I love food,
Speaker 1: So I can talk about food with Alex for a
Speaker 1: long time time. And then Alex was talking about how
Speaker 1: she doesn't like a casual, on the go dinner, like
Speaker 1: if she has to have a casual kind of on
Speaker 1: the go dinner that doesn't involve a whole setup and
Speaker 1: a sit down, she feels like it ruins her day,
Speaker 1: like that's a bad day if she doesn't have a
Speaker 1: good dinner.
Speaker 2: And then she mentioned she.
Speaker 1: Was talking about she was gonna send me some recipe ideas,
Speaker 1: and I said, oh, you don't do a taco Tuesday, and.
Speaker 2: She goes, I hate tacos, and I was like, what's
Speaker 2: huh hate tacos?
Speaker 3: Like, what.
Speaker 2: About tacos? Exactly?
Speaker 1: It's kind of a bunch of really good stuff in
Speaker 1: a really good thing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, Like what's really do not like about it?
Speaker 2: And I thought huh.
Speaker 1: And then we talked about what it is and she
Speaker 1: was like, I just feel like tacos are not a
Speaker 1: sit down worthy meal.
Speaker 2: And I was like, okay.
Speaker 1: I started I was asking her about home state tacos. Yeah,
Speaker 1: She's like, I like him for breakfast, that's fine. And
Speaker 1: then the next day writer said, I hate tacos.
Speaker 4: Tacos really the biggest problem with this is that we
Speaker 4: live in like Taco Central. We live in East La Highland,
Speaker 4: the greatest, the greatest tacos, the straightest street tacos ever.
Speaker 5: We have a friend for his fiftieth.
Speaker 4: We went on a taco crawl with a professional taco guy,
Speaker 4: taking us to all the different street tacos. We had
Speaker 4: cheek tongue like all these amazing guacamullys or different salt
Speaker 4: it was, and I could not care less. We were
Speaker 4: just like, okay, we'll go along.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I just don't.
Speaker 5: I'm just tacos.
Speaker 3: This is not you know.
Speaker 5: I think maybe it's it's an embarrassment of riches. I
Speaker 5: don't know, like everywhere I wear the Taco shirt.
Speaker 1: Okay, you wear the Taco shirts, wear shirt the product.
Speaker 6: I mean, it was so funny because we're like we're
Speaker 6: sitting in the airport yesterday. It's just like, why do
Speaker 6: they tell you that he hated tacos.
Speaker 4: It's it's such a big thing for so many of
Speaker 4: our friends because like that's what we do, especially with kids.
Speaker 4: You go to tacos, you make tacos, and you go
Speaker 4: get tacos down the street, and like everybody in La
Speaker 4: like they.
Speaker 5: Have the best tacos. Uh, And we're always like no,
Speaker 5: can we can we do something?
Speaker 6: Is it just tacos? Do you like Mexican food?
Speaker 5: I don't really like Mexican food, though.
Speaker 4: I liked California Northern California Mexican burritos and if anybody
Speaker 4: knows like the Mission District burritos.
Speaker 5: I'm blanking on some of the names, but like San
Speaker 5: Francisco style britos, which you can't find in La.
Speaker 2: Explain San Francisco.
Speaker 4: It's a gigantic it's it's basically there's nothing. I don't
Speaker 4: know exactly what's super special about it, except that it's
Speaker 4: just the flavor profile, like whatever they do in San
Speaker 4: Francisco and farther north, like what I grew up with
Speaker 4: the places of assholes called Viva Mexico that I grew
Speaker 4: up going to. They're just they're just giant burritos with
Speaker 4: you know, normal like I usually do vegetarian. But then
Speaker 4: there's also you know this carnitas and chicken, but tons
Speaker 4: of guacamole, sour cream, cheese.
Speaker 5: But there's something.
Speaker 4: I think it's the rice and beans, this particular flavoring
Speaker 4: of the rice and beans that you just don't find
Speaker 4: in La.
Speaker 5: Oh and I still haven't found it in La.
Speaker 4: If anybody's listening, please tell me where I can get
Speaker 4: a San Francisco style burrito in LA. I will, Oh
Speaker 4: my god, I'm so But other than that, like you know,
Speaker 4: the La, there's two models of La Mexican restaurants. There's
Speaker 4: like really traditional Mexican restaurants where they're like those dark
Speaker 4: caves that you go into, you know, like style, right,
Speaker 4: And usually I enjoy the.
Speaker 5: Food, but I just like my stomach just can't handle it.
Speaker 5: I have such a black boys stomach. I'm such a
Speaker 5: I don't like spicy things. And then, yeah, tacos, you know,
Speaker 5: street tacos. It's like I'd rather go sit down somewhere
Speaker 5: and haven't meal.
Speaker 6: That's right, you were gonna be the first one to
Speaker 6: tap when we go on hot ones. Finally, Oh my god,
Speaker 6: I can't know.
Speaker 4: I can't do anything spicy because even if I enjoy
Speaker 4: it while I'm eating it, my stomach will be in
Speaker 4: so much pain for days.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's not worth it.
Speaker 2: What else do you hate?
Speaker 5: Writer?
Speaker 2: Let's get a few more things out of the way.
Speaker 3: What else?
Speaker 1: We know a few things will hate. We've already done that.
Speaker 1: You guys heard me go on about art, so I
Speaker 1: don't have to share anymore.
Speaker 2: What else do you hate?
Speaker 7: Writer?
Speaker 5: I just feel like I've said I hate a lot. Yeah, jazz?
Speaker 6: So then wait, I'm sorry, because Daniel and I on
Speaker 6: Wednesday are going to Taco Jazz Night? Are you not
Speaker 6: going to be where?
Speaker 2: You're not coming Taco jazz night?
Speaker 5: I'll be at this sushi poetry reading a.
Speaker 1: More or less honestly, will and I will go to
Speaker 1: that Insteady, that sounds good too, I.
Speaker 6: Won't listen to the poetry, but I'll be all day long. Yeah,
Speaker 6: I don't care. Yeah what rhymes with with Sabbi my friend?
Speaker 6: That's all I gotta know.
Speaker 2: Welcome to Pond meets World. I'm Danielle Offishal, I'm right
Speaker 2: or Strong, and I'm Wilfordell.
Speaker 1: If nineties tgif Programming was a baseball team, Boy Meets
Speaker 1: World would have hit in the eight spot. Sure we'll
Speaker 1: get run opportunities and some highlight worthy sacrifice buns, but.
Speaker 5: None of this makes any sense to me, no idea.
Speaker 6: I'm with you, I'm with you.
Speaker 1: Just go to sleepwriter, But the truth is, don't look
Speaker 1: for any electric power and four hundred and fifty foot
Speaker 1: home runs from us. We were the last position player
Speaker 1: before the terribly hitting pitcher, so we knew our role
Speaker 1: and were thankful to be in the majors. But this
Speaker 1: week's guest he was the clean up hitter, the franchise player,
Speaker 1: the young man behind the world renowned Family Matters character
Speaker 1: Steve Erkele, a role that was originally cast to be
Speaker 1: a one and done appearance and then turned into a
Speaker 1: cultural phenomenon. Over nine seasons, he was the face.
Speaker 2: Of Erkele Dolls and Erkle Oh's.
Speaker 1: But most importantly, he was the face of a successful
Speaker 1: and rare black family sitcom on Network TV. In addition
Speaker 1: to the iconic and lovable Nerd, he'd voice Sonic the
Speaker 1: Hedgehog and the early animated renditions of the character, and
Speaker 1: appear on shows like Bones, Castle, and Psych, eventually also
Speaker 1: appearing on Dancing with the Stars and next up for this.
Speaker 2: Busy man, the soon to.
Speaker 1: Be released Star Wars Skeleton Crew on Disney Plus. He
Speaker 1: also just released a memoir, Growing Up Arkle, finally telling
Speaker 1: his story and detailing the peaks, valleys, and plateaus of
Speaker 1: fame and fortune.
Speaker 2: So this week on Pod Meets.
Speaker 1: World, we are thrilled to welcome a Hall of Fame
Speaker 1: nineties kid actor and a well adjusted grown up in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four, It's jilliel White.
Speaker 7: Yeah hear me?
Speaker 6: Yeah? Do you hear us?
Speaker 5: I can hear you?
Speaker 7: Just fine?
Speaker 2: Okay, good welcome.
Speaker 1: We are so excited to have you here with us.
Speaker 1: Even though Boy Meets World aired after you, I still
Speaker 1: feel like you are just are very very strong lead.
Speaker 2: In and you are now you still are. Did you
Speaker 2: even know Boy Meets World existed?
Speaker 3: Oh? Very much. So you can really you guys, and
Speaker 3: you ever brought into replaces, you guys right in replaces
Speaker 3: now that I understand it the way I understand it now, yeah,
Speaker 3: I get it, but I would.
Speaker 2: Love to hear that. Please explain that to us.
Speaker 3: No.
Speaker 8: So, so, all the shows on TGIF were originally all
Speaker 8: the shows on TGIF were originally owned by one of brothers.
Speaker 8: And this is the part of the business, guys, that
Speaker 8: you know, we were never privy to as young performance.
Speaker 8: And when it became legal for Disney to begin making
Speaker 8: their own content for their own network, that was illegal
Speaker 8: before nineteen ninety six, you could not do that network
Speaker 8: add to order their their properties from other studios.
Speaker 7: That that's what creates a fair market in capital.
Speaker 8: So once they were allowed, the big crunch happened, and
Speaker 8: then Universal merged with NBC, and Disney bought up ABC
Speaker 8: and they all start the all started hustling to own
Speaker 8: their for verticality.
Speaker 7: They wanted to get rid of us.
Speaker 8: So the first show that they did that was in
Speaker 8: house cooked was was was Bringing a Teenage Witch And
Speaker 8: Melissa is a genius. Her mom is a gangster. Yes,
Speaker 8: her mom is a complete gangster. And uh, they got
Speaker 8: the rights to uh Sabrina and they did a movie
Speaker 8: of the week.
Speaker 3: For proof of for proof of.
Speaker 7: Concept, Yeah, yep.
Speaker 6: For Paula bought it for a dollar. She walked in
Speaker 6: and she bought it for a dollar for.
Speaker 8: Proof of concept, and then she marched herself in there
Speaker 8: and she sold that concept to to ABC Disney Touchstone
Speaker 8: at the time, and they're like, great, you're you're going
Speaker 8: to replace Family Matters and step by step because we
Speaker 8: own you guys.
Speaker 7: So that's so.
Speaker 8: I think a lot of times sometimes people don't understand
Speaker 8: the business something and how that affected us. So if
Speaker 8: I had been owned by let's say, Disney, then I
Speaker 8: probably would have ended up working with you guys or
Speaker 8: doing co promotion. If I had gotten off of Warner
Speaker 8: Brothers books and said, hey, I've had a big little
Speaker 8: tantrum holdout or something and said I'm not working anymore
Speaker 8: unless my contract is with Disney for future future endeavors.
Speaker 3: But you know, I.
Speaker 8: Didn't have none of us people kids, none of us
Speaker 8: had representation that would ever stick their neck out.
Speaker 7: For a kid and to piss off business affairs. No
Speaker 7: kidding Me's not happened.
Speaker 1: Yes, I mean that is leading into my My next
Speaker 1: question was, I would love to imagine between Will's genius
Speaker 1: brain and your genius brain. Could we imagine an Eric
Speaker 1: and Erkle crossover moment?
Speaker 2: Please? What would that crossover have been.
Speaker 3: If?
Speaker 8: I'll tell you if, if, if somehow my contract had
Speaker 8: changed immediately after after Disney brought ABC and I became
Speaker 8: more of a Disney employee, Yeah, I promise you that
Speaker 8: would have happened.
Speaker 6: Yea, yeah, yeah, I think it would have too.
Speaker 5: Immediately. Yeah, And we never did a crossover with you.
Speaker 8: We didn't do a crossover because you were owned by
Speaker 8: two different studios.
Speaker 5: Wow, shees.
Speaker 7: Meanwhile, I did a crossover with everybody.
Speaker 8: They put me on step by step, they put me
Speaker 8: on full, they put because those are all Wanner Brothers shows.
Speaker 8: So that's why it's like sometimes it's tough and you
Speaker 8: just gotta got to take it on the chin with
Speaker 8: fans and people, well why didn't you and why didn't you?
Speaker 8: Like guys, it was all different back then. It was
Speaker 8: about ownership. It was about you know, companies growing and
Speaker 8: gaining control and.
Speaker 7: All this other stuff.
Speaker 3: And it's like, you know, at the end of the day,
Speaker 3: we were kids having fun exactly.
Speaker 2: I wouldn't have.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't have known the first thing about that me neither. No,
Speaker 1: you and I both have something other than just being
Speaker 1: on a T G I F show in common. Both
Speaker 1: Urkle and Topanga were originally intended to be one time
Speaker 1: guest stars on.
Speaker 3: The case.
Speaker 1: That we also found that out. Recently we had Danica
Speaker 1: McKellar on and she playing Winnie Cooper. It was the
Speaker 1: same thing for her. She was also supposed to be
Speaker 1: a one off episode.
Speaker 3: Yeah, do you imagine that show without Winnie exactly?
Speaker 8: So?
Speaker 2: Do you remember your audition for Steve Rkle.
Speaker 7: I remember it very very well, I really do. Nobody
Speaker 7: wanted the job.
Speaker 8: Everybody wanted the job of the Q kid that was
Speaker 8: supposed to, you know, the good looking kid, and Laura
Speaker 8: had the big crush on because they thought that would
Speaker 8: be a recurring like it's some type of boyfriend care right, and.
Speaker 5: You know that.
Speaker 7: It just it just went the way it went. It was.
Speaker 7: I remember the first time I went, nobody dressed up
Speaker 7: as a nerd.
Speaker 3: I did.
Speaker 8: I talked about that in my book, and nobody dressed up.
Speaker 8: And then in the second audition, all of a sudden,
Speaker 8: I had two or three guys dressed up as me.
Speaker 7: I'm like, oh man, it's messed up.
Speaker 8: I dressed up last time for the first one, and
Speaker 8: and and now I got copycats. So what I did
Speaker 8: to try to give myself steal a leg up was
Speaker 8: I walked into the room and I introduced myself to
Speaker 8: the producers aste vertical in character.
Speaker 7: I never I never let them meet delete break it.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so great.
Speaker 7: I just walked right in and just and just start
Speaker 7: playing a character.
Speaker 5: And how old were you at this point?
Speaker 7: I was twelve?
Speaker 6: Wow? What year was this? What year did step did?
Speaker 6: Did family?
Speaker 7: Where you were?
Speaker 8: Some of you were not even born, you were your
Speaker 8: fathers some of you No, it was eighty nine.
Speaker 6: I remember this because you'll never I'm sure never remember
Speaker 6: this because it was just a day in your life,
Speaker 6: but it was an hour of your life. But to me,
Speaker 6: it was magical. So I was on a Nickelodeon show
Speaker 6: at the time in New York, and once a year
Speaker 6: they would fly us out to interview the big stars
Speaker 6: of the television shows that we all grew up watching.
Speaker 6: And I went to the set of Family Matters. Oh,
Speaker 6: and I interviewed you and a number of the other
Speaker 6: actors and It was the first time I was ever
Speaker 6: on a sitcom set, and it was sitting watching one
Speaker 6: of your run throughs that made made me go, this
Speaker 6: is what I need. I have to do this, I
Speaker 6: have to be here.
Speaker 7: I don't know why, but I do slightly remember that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you, but we would have people sometimes.
Speaker 8: As a guest watch out run through. Obviously that ever happened.
Speaker 7: We were just as excited to perform for you as
Speaker 7: you may have been to watch us. So I'm sure
Speaker 7: I greeted you and was like, so so I did.
Speaker 6: Oh no, you were very you were very all. Everybody
Speaker 6: was very very sweet. We interviewed you, Reginald vel Johnson,
Speaker 6: we've introyed some of your cast members, and it was
Speaker 6: just a magical day in my life and career. You
Speaker 6: were very, very nice to me, but it was what
Speaker 6: I was.
Speaker 7: One of the biggest compliments I got was just recently.
Speaker 8: Actually, I ran into Ashton and Mela at a at
Speaker 8: the opening of Into Its Dome here in La and
Speaker 8: Mila was like, I have to pay you a big compliment,
Speaker 8: and I'm like, oh, Mila, Kuna said a big compliment.
Speaker 5: Information.
Speaker 8: I met you at the l Capitan Theater and I
Speaker 8: just recognized you and I said hi. And I had
Speaker 8: not even done like one major job yet, I was
Speaker 8: still trying to break into the business. And you just
Speaker 8: said the most encouraging things to me. When my agent,
Speaker 8: I guess her agent was with her at this at
Speaker 8: this screening, and you just talked to me like I
Speaker 8: was already in the business.
Speaker 7: I just I thought that was It was such a
Speaker 7: huge compliment to.
Speaker 8: Me because to a certain degree, I know I'm a performer,
Speaker 8: but I kind of feel just like destined to be
Speaker 8: in this business. My parents never tried to put me
Speaker 8: in this business for any other reason. They're making money
Speaker 8: to go to college. We had no like sneaky ulterior
Speaker 8: motives about anything. So I've always been able to just
Speaker 8: see other talent, no matter where they were in their growth,
Speaker 8: you know, Like you know, there's so many people I
Speaker 8: became friends with before they even blew up. Lamar and Morris,
Speaker 8: who just won an Emmy. I met that dude at
Speaker 8: a friends giving. I just thought he was the funniest
Speaker 8: guy at the friends giving before he'd ever done a
Speaker 8: single commercial, And before I know what, I look up
Speaker 8: in two years and he's got ten national commercials on
Speaker 8: the air and he's going on a new girl. So
Speaker 8: I really take pride in having met people who have
Speaker 8: gone on to become something in this business because it
Speaker 8: reminds me it's still a spiritual journey, this thing of
Speaker 8: being able to communicate with people.
Speaker 6: Well, you met me, so.
Speaker 1: You mentioned that, just kind of intuition almost, of knowing
Speaker 1: to walk into the room and to address to introduce
Speaker 1: yourself as Steve Rkle.
Speaker 2: Where do you think that came from.
Speaker 1: By the time Family Matters came around and you were twelve,
Speaker 1: you had already had quite a bit of experience right
Speaker 1: in the in the industry.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 8: I auditioned plenty. I'd done about fifty national commercials. Wow,
Speaker 8: I had full of television guest spots. Shows you guys
Speaker 8: that wanted to remember the Jeffersons, Mister Belvidere or stuff. Yes,
Speaker 8: and but really, honestly, I was just a kid that
Speaker 8: was desperate to get a freaking Saga Genesis, and I
Speaker 8: was really pissed off those guys dress like me.
Speaker 7: It wasn't deep. I'm a competitive dude, you know. I
Speaker 7: got to grab some more rebounds to win the game.
Speaker 7: That's just who I am as a person, and you.
Speaker 8: Know, people were just like, that's such genius method acting whatever.
Speaker 8: It was like, Nah, these guys copy my steeves. So
Speaker 8: I just I had to do something.
Speaker 5: At the next level.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I mean what you didn't know at the time is
Speaker 4: that you probably already had the part. Just knowing that
Speaker 4: they have actually informed those other guys to dress like
Speaker 4: you means that you had already defined the character.
Speaker 5: You know, like you had that part the second you
Speaker 5: want to.
Speaker 7: By the way, I tell her, never do that again.
Speaker 7: She's just literally probably the most delicious plate of food while.
Speaker 1: You're podcasting the middle of a podcasts, go ahead.
Speaker 2: Eat your waffle.
Speaker 6: No one will mind to say, I'm advocating now for
Speaker 6: we all get waffles podcast new thing.
Speaker 2: Everyone loves to hear people too.
Speaker 6: That an apple slice?
Speaker 2: Did she peel the apple for you? Is that is?
Speaker 6: Oh my god?
Speaker 5: Nice?
Speaker 6: Nice?
Speaker 2: Or do you you.
Speaker 3: Know?
Speaker 5: But we did well?
Speaker 2: Is amazing? This is phenomenal.
Speaker 1: O my god, apples, peeled apples and waffles every morning.
Speaker 2: Listen, you are living the life.
Speaker 1: So we have talked a lot on this podcast about
Speaker 1: never really feeling like our jobs were very safe as
Speaker 1: child actors for at least the first couple of years
Speaker 1: of the show, we were always thinking, yeah.
Speaker 2: We're lucky to be here. They oh my gosh, this
Speaker 2: is such a blessing.
Speaker 1: We are just an and every week of not being
Speaker 1: fired feeling a little bit.
Speaker 2: Of like a who okay, not this week. When did
Speaker 2: you have that feeling?
Speaker 1: And if so, when did you start to realize, oh,
Speaker 1: Rkle is here to stay.
Speaker 3: Dah, you're gonna laugh at this, but we got play.
Speaker 7: It was all by design to always make all of
Speaker 7: us feel yeah.
Speaker 8: Yeah, And you know it was smart to some degree
Speaker 8: because it kept egos in check. But I believe there
Speaker 8: was a point, probably after even the second season or
Speaker 8: somewhere around there, where we had multiple year pickups that
Speaker 8: were understood between the studio and the network.
Speaker 2: And we're just not told I'll never.
Speaker 3: Forget, I'll never forget doing a a another series on UPN.
Speaker 7: And one of our coworkers after probably about I don't
Speaker 7: know about the fourth or fifth episode, he bought a
Speaker 7: new car. Remember those land cruisers were a big deal.
Speaker 7: Oh yeah, he bought a land Cruiser.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 8: He came pulling up and I remember one of the
Speaker 8: producers tapping me on the elbow and was like you see,
Speaker 8: you see he just bought a new Land Cruiser.
Speaker 7: I guess we got him for a steal next year.
Speaker 8: It's a diabolical business that way, and it's really unfortunate
Speaker 8: that that discourse and that conversation is not more average.
Speaker 7: Yeah, sometimes when I have these kinds of.
Speaker 8: Conversations with people like I actually probably wouldn't, but I
Speaker 8: know you guys are savvy bets and bets and you've
Speaker 8: been through the you know, the ring or two.
Speaker 7: So it's fun for me to.
Speaker 8: Kind of exchange and be like, Okay, well what do
Speaker 8: you know? Here's what I but you know that feeling.
Speaker 8: I talk about it in my book Growing Up, Check
Speaker 8: it out.
Speaker 6: We have lots of work, so I'm just proud of that.
Speaker 7: Not everybody does the audio, but I did my own audio.
Speaker 8: But there's this whole section I talk about that because
Speaker 8: I had lunch with Leslie Moon best I was. I
Speaker 8: was really lucky at a young age with some of
Speaker 8: the head honchos that I would regularly have a brunch
Speaker 8: with or a lunch. And I remember when Friends was
Speaker 8: going through their negotiation, and I talk about that negotiation
Speaker 8: in my book because he was just sharing me, sharing
Speaker 8: with me details that if they knew, maybe they would
Speaker 8: have behaved differently. So everything is just a is a
Speaker 8: pyramid of information, and Daniel, they made a point to
Speaker 8: make you feel that way at the bottom of the pyramid,
Speaker 8: even though you mattered so much to the show.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, And we have also talked a lot on the
Speaker 1: podcast now about how much we have realized.
Speaker 2: People in power.
Speaker 1: Had to gain by knowing we did not feel comfortable
Speaker 1: talking to each other about things.
Speaker 7: Oh yeah, divided conquer, total divided conquer.
Speaker 8: And I remember there was a to answer your question
Speaker 8: more directly though. I remember there was a banner placed
Speaker 8: above our audience and it said congratulations on your first.
Speaker 3: One hundred episodes. And I'm like sixteen years old at
Speaker 3: this point, so.
Speaker 7: I'm like our first right, And I knew it.
Speaker 8: Wasn't a TYPEO. So that really was my indicator that
Speaker 8: wait a minute, what's going on here when you say
Speaker 8: congratulations on your first one hundred episodes?
Speaker 7: But every season, around the eighteenth or nineteen episode, they
Speaker 7: you know, they said, well we heard from the network today.
Speaker 1: Yeah we're bash right right right, yeah, or we're on
Speaker 1: the bubble and everyone's going to need to not everyone's
Speaker 1: going to need to take a pay cut. Everyone's going
Speaker 1: to not you know, we're notagotiate next year now exactly.
Speaker 8: So all of that was by coordinated design to keep
Speaker 8: people in their places. You know, you should talk to
Speaker 8: Miam b Alex sometimes. Man, her Blossom stories are the
Speaker 8: most gangster stuff I've ever heard. Sometimes it's not even
Speaker 8: a white, black, or gender issue. It's just you know,
Speaker 8: youth being taken advantage of for what they didn't know.
Speaker 8: You know, she didn't make very much money off of Blossom,
Speaker 8: but she's such a you know, a destined person that
Speaker 8: she made up for it on Big Bang No Bit.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Now, Family Matters ended up doing two hundred and fifteen
Speaker 1: episodes amazing, So that banner was absolutely true. That wasn't
Speaker 1: even just wishful thinking. You guys did multiples of one
Speaker 1: hundred episodes.
Speaker 4: That's incredible, No, and we knew that by the time
Speaker 4: we came in, So we were we Our first season
Speaker 4: was ninety three. Yep, you guys were the rock off.
Speaker 4: You were the reason that TGIF was allowed to have
Speaker 4: new shows like ours come in and so like, you know,
Speaker 4: if we had ever talked, if anybody had ever asked
Speaker 4: us we'd have been like, well, family matters is set
Speaker 4: for forever, like that's not going anywhere. It's yeah, I
Speaker 4: mean to get rid of us, and you're no, they
Speaker 4: were relying on you. They were you know, the whole
Speaker 4: night was basically, you know, an experiment that Disney was
Speaker 4: playing because they could rely on your show.
Speaker 5: That's crazy.
Speaker 7: And then it became you.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, well then Sabrina.
Speaker 4: Really, I mean, like so we we we always had
Speaker 4: our audience like sort of eking out.
Speaker 5: But we were Touchstone. But we weren't. You know, Disney.
Speaker 5: ABC didn't own Disney until ninety six.
Speaker 8: I'm saying that's the greatest thing that ever happened to
Speaker 8: you guys, can remember we do remember you guys being
Speaker 8: on behind us. Once Disney bought ABC, it was like
Speaker 8: you were.
Speaker 6: Made and everyone else was Yeah jeez.
Speaker 8: Acquisition alone extended you guys existence probably by about four
Speaker 8: to five seasons.
Speaker 6: Yeah, probably, yeah, probably, except when we were three seasons
Speaker 6: in so as somebody who you you came on as
Speaker 6: a guest star quickly essentially took over as the lead
Speaker 6: of the show. What now I know, but you did.
Speaker 6: You were you were the face of the show, your
Speaker 6: face of tgif was there any resentment from any of
Speaker 6: the actors you were working with that you know, it
Speaker 6: kind of became your show.
Speaker 7: I mean, you know, that's that's a.
Speaker 8: Question that I've fielded thousands of times, and so as
Speaker 8: a courtesy to my my, my, my former co stars,
Speaker 8: you know, I it was clearly bumpy in the beginning,
Speaker 8: but we really did become a family, you know, and
Speaker 8: I think any animosity that I felt from the kids
Speaker 8: was more because of chatter that they were hearing from adults.
Speaker 2: Totally.
Speaker 7: I've long forgiven Kelly and Darius.
Speaker 3: You know, we are like brothers and sisters, Kelly, Darius,
Speaker 3: and Laura and Eddie in particular, you know, because I
Speaker 3: see our adolescents our childhood as.
Speaker 8: One quite frank, and it's so much better. I'm just
Speaker 8: in a space to tell so much more fun stories
Speaker 8: about the stuff that we did as teenagers growing up
Speaker 8: side by side. You know, I couldn't drive. I remember
Speaker 8: I met a girl at an award show and I
Speaker 8: was sixteen, and I was just taken by her. And
Speaker 8: in the moment that I got her number on a napkin,
Speaker 8: the original tender, right, I realized I was like, oh,
Speaker 8: I can't drive, and I'm like, I've been on this
Speaker 8: show and just doing you know, schoolwork and whatever. In
Speaker 8: I here, I am sixteen and I can't drive, and
Speaker 8: the idea of my mother taking us anywhere was out of.
Speaker 2: The question, not happening.
Speaker 8: I went to work the next day and I asked Darius, Darius,
Speaker 8: by the way, it's only six months different in age
Speaker 8: from me, and most people don't know.
Speaker 7: So you know, Eddie.
Speaker 3: Winslow and Steve were only six months apart in age
Speaker 3: in real life, and Garius like and thirty pounds driving
Speaker 3: his mom to work in a fresh BMW at fourteen
Speaker 3: years old out a licenress.
Speaker 2: Oh my god.
Speaker 8: Darius was a character on our set that I think
Speaker 8: translates better as a character on screen, quite frankly. And
Speaker 8: I was like, yo, man, like can you drive me
Speaker 8: on my date? And He's like, looks at me like
Speaker 8: I'm not a chauffeur, Like she got a friend. And
Speaker 8: that's that's where the story begins in my book.
Speaker 1: Oh man, I love it so much.
Speaker 2: So where did the cadence for did I do that?
Speaker 2: Come from?
Speaker 1: Will also had a catchphrase on Boy Me World. He
Speaker 1: didn't know it at the time. That it was a catchphraise,
Speaker 1: but over the years it has become one. But in
Speaker 1: the script it would just be Feenie. And he took
Speaker 1: that word Phoeni and turned it into what we now
Speaker 1: know as the Phoenie call. And it just came from
Speaker 1: the deep recesses of Will's comedic mind.
Speaker 2: Where did did I do that come from? For you?
Speaker 7: You're so smart? Deep recesses. You should have been a
Speaker 7: late night journalist, baby, you should be a lawyer. Gave
Speaker 7: it up in this damn sitcom.
Speaker 3: No, you know what.
Speaker 8: They tried a million darn catchphrases, and the first one
Speaker 8: that they ever tried really was Steve would just bump
Speaker 8: into inanimate objects, uh at end table or a lamp
Speaker 8: knocking over and be like and say excuse me.
Speaker 3: That was excuse me.
Speaker 8: Then they tried to borrow one that was already in existence.
Speaker 7: I fall in and I can't get up. We did
Speaker 7: that one for a while. We did about three of them,
Speaker 7: and just did I do that?
Speaker 8: Just stuck And it's just it's one of those things
Speaker 8: you you lob them out to the audience and.
Speaker 7: You know it's you.
Speaker 3: It's back. Then was completely about the immediate audience.
Speaker 5: Reaction.
Speaker 7: Yeah, has had live studio audience to tell you in
Speaker 7: real time what was working. There was no social media,
Speaker 7: there was no you didn't.
Speaker 8: Hear from I think that's the thing I miss most
Speaker 8: about our era though, of televisions.
Speaker 7: We didn't have to hear from haters.
Speaker 1: Rights board, people who hated us or disliked us, or
Speaker 1: thought our show was terrible.
Speaker 8: It's like, you thought our show was terrible, you didn't watch,
Speaker 8: or maybe you were a TV critic and you bashed us.
Speaker 8: And we were kids anyway, so I'm sure they told
Speaker 8: you the same crap they told us.
Speaker 7: All those critics don't know what they're talking about. Look
Speaker 7: at our ratings. And then that was That was the
Speaker 7: end of it.
Speaker 8: And now you're an adult and you're like, no, no, no,
Speaker 8: you got some of these critics. Got to like your
Speaker 8: stuff if you want to ever get to the gold
Speaker 8: and globes, you know.
Speaker 3: So we weren't really taught.
Speaker 7: That way at all.
Speaker 8: But catch rises had just sent me a love out
Speaker 8: to the audience, and they latch onto it, and they
Speaker 8: latch onto it, and for us, by the third or
Speaker 8: fourth tribe, they caught on to Did I do that?
Speaker 2: Oh my god, man, you're absolutely right.
Speaker 1: I remember when we came back and did Girl Meets
Speaker 1: World and the hardest, you know, I went into it thinking, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm so excited to be an adult to help guide
Speaker 1: these kids through this journey. And sure they're social media now,
Speaker 1: but you know, I didn't really know how that was
Speaker 1: going to play into it. And then I remember doing
Speaker 1: our first live studio audience taping and the kids walking
Speaker 1: off stage after doing their curtain call and picking up
Speaker 1: their phones and already seeing the people who had been
Speaker 1: in the audience reading the things they had been posting about,
Speaker 1: things they liked, things they didn't like, tensions they thought
Speaker 1: they were picking up on between the kids.
Speaker 2: And here we had just finished a show.
Speaker 1: They should be on such a high of what they
Speaker 1: had just accomplished and how much fun they had and
Speaker 1: the whole journey of the week, and all of them
Speaker 1: and their faces dropping.
Speaker 2: Oh they said that this wasn't funny. It's like, oh no.
Speaker 5: Even worse to me is that the writing staff is
Speaker 5: also checking all of that. So it's like the.
Speaker 4: Creativity of the show itself is now being made, and
Speaker 4: this is across the board is now being made in
Speaker 4: response to the audience's reaction in real time.
Speaker 3: But again our audi but are our writer? Are all
Speaker 3: of those you know, are all of those immediate responses authentic?
Speaker 5: Exactly?
Speaker 8: Some of those people are just epping with you and
Speaker 8: play a game of choose your own adventure with somebody
Speaker 8: they don't even particularly even care about totally and affecting
Speaker 8: it because it's like they.
Speaker 3: Want to be heard.
Speaker 8: Like have you ever responded to somebody who left a
Speaker 8: negative post on lack on your babe? Like you just
Speaker 8: couldn't resist and you're like, I'm going back at this
Speaker 8: pool right and the person's.
Speaker 7: Like, oh my god, like you really hit me back.
Speaker 2: You're a human being exactly you are feeling.
Speaker 7: It's like you just said the most biting, hurtful.
Speaker 8: Rest on a come if you don't know me at all,
Speaker 8: and really you only did it as big to get
Speaker 8: me to actually see you.
Speaker 7: Oh man.
Speaker 8: That's that's a sad psychological existence, and it's around us hugely.
Speaker 7: We were on set, guys, we were present.
Speaker 3: You know, I'm dripping while.
Speaker 7: We're cracking jokes on each other, you know, you know
Speaker 7: we're trying.
Speaker 3: When we got cars, Oh man, I used to love
Speaker 3: to go to city walk that was our thing. Yes,
Speaker 3: And it was like we didn't even have time to eat.
Speaker 7: We just wanted to get there, park our car and
Speaker 7: just walk around, and then.
Speaker 8: We had to rush back to the set, like you know,
Speaker 8: you're not getting a city walk for Warner Brothers in
Speaker 8: an hour having a real time.
Speaker 3: We would literally go there just to order something and
Speaker 3: feel fancy and be like, can we take it to go?
Speaker 2: Those are the days we'd go see a movie. We'd
Speaker 2: walk around. Now we'd go see movies at the end
Speaker 2: of our work days, not in the middle of the day.
Speaker 8: Well, okay, I'm asking to admit something that most people wouldn't.
Speaker 8: But back back in the day, we would sometimes go
Speaker 8: to the mall to be recognized.
Speaker 6: At the mall all the time.
Speaker 2: I was just there anyway. Also, I was at the
Speaker 2: Topanga mall, so.
Speaker 8: It was, oh my gosh, you could not have ever
Speaker 8: step foot in the Topanga mall.
Speaker 5: She choose to go mall.
Speaker 1: It's my closest mall, and they should do their advertise
Speaker 1: the mall with your face.
Speaker 3: You go to the Topago mall.
Speaker 2: She chooses that that's my favorite spot.
Speaker 5: I love it much better celebrity than me and Will
Speaker 5: and will to be not.
Speaker 3: A low self esteem day. You can take a scroll
Speaker 3: around the Topega mall.
Speaker 2: That's exactly right.
Speaker 1: If I'm ever feeling bad about myself, I just take
Speaker 1: a walk around the bathing, bathing in the warm glow
Speaker 1: of the of the fame. Okay, I want to talk
Speaker 1: to you about Rock and Jock basketball. None of us
Speaker 1: ever played in those games, but you have some amazing
Speaker 1: photos online of like taking Reggie Miller to the whole
Speaker 1: and warming up with Mark Wahlberg and Will Smith.
Speaker 2: What do you remember from those games?
Speaker 8: Rock and Jock was awesome. MTV never really liked me,
Speaker 8: to be quite honest. It was just a testament to
Speaker 8: the success of the show that I even ended up
Speaker 8: in the game, and also to the infancy of Rocking Job.
Speaker 8: The first the first celebrity basketball players they got to
Speaker 8: participate in Rocking Job, where Dan Marley, Reggie Miller, spud
Speaker 8: Web Wow, yes right, And it was like there might
Speaker 8: have been like two of the Vloody d boch Yes Floody.
Speaker 7: It was so new and it didn't pay.
Speaker 8: So the top guys, you know, your Jordan's and your
Speaker 8: Magic's and your Barclays, were.
Speaker 7: Like, I don't even know what that is.
Speaker 8: And the idea of also playing which celebrities was brand new.
Speaker 8: Nobody had done that before. So I hooped and I
Speaker 8: the ball.
Speaker 3: They were I think.
Speaker 8: I think I ended up there because MTV never really
Speaker 8: saw me as their brand. So even after that first year,
Speaker 8: I never got invited back. Nobody really noticed that because
Speaker 8: the first year is your proof of concept and now
Speaker 8: you get to get some cooler people.
Speaker 7: And but the cool thing about my year was this
Speaker 7: was the year that Mark Wahlberg was still Marky Mark
Speaker 7: of the Funky Bunch. And so I remember at halftime,
Speaker 7: this guy I had never heard of.
Speaker 8: Him, Well you know, Marky Mark was going to perform
Speaker 8: at halftime, And so I'm sitting there at halftime and
Speaker 8: I wait for him to do his thing. And he
Speaker 8: jumps out there with a couple of brothers and it's
Speaker 8: a real urban set, like I almost expect a black
Speaker 8: guy to be rapping like this. He takes his shirt off.
Speaker 8: Girls start going crazy because he's real bumpy, all right.
Speaker 8: So the girls started going crazy and I'm watching this
Speaker 8: deck to Spun Web and Blade de Bag was like,
Speaker 8: oh man, this got pretty good, and all of a.
Speaker 3: Sudden, he drops his freaking drawers. He just literally just
Speaker 3: drops his pants all the way down to the ankles
Speaker 3: and it's hopping around in his calvins, rapping, and I'm like,
Speaker 3: back then, I'm like, oh, he's gonna get in trouble.
Speaker 8: Yeah, like, this can't be.
Speaker 3: I'm already thinking, like a little little seasoned, little producer
Speaker 3: or whatever. I'm like, this broadcast standard and practices tell
Speaker 3: you something that is the greatest defiance television protocol, perhaps
Speaker 3: in the history of Hollywood. Still, I remember that dude
Speaker 3: was on Calvin kleinb billboards.
Speaker 7: All around town so fast after that.
Speaker 8: Any notion that I had that he was gonna get
Speaker 8: in trouble, let's just say he was not treated like
Speaker 8: Jane and Jackson was. She did like this.
Speaker 2: Exactly. Yeah, not the same treatment.
Speaker 3: She didn't get it. She didn't get a Victoria Secret
Speaker 3: deal out of that. You got a calvic line.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, my god.
Speaker 7: So that's about a big memory from from Rock and Jock.
Speaker 7: And they barely wanted me, but I had.
Speaker 8: A fantastic time. And yeah, because I couldn't find my
Speaker 8: limousine at the end of it. I remember that was
Speaker 8: when I learned that they only care about the limousine.
Speaker 3: Picking you up. They don't get you can never find
Speaker 3: your car. At the end of those awards.
Speaker 6: Shows, it was like you had to call Darius again,
Speaker 6: like Darius.
Speaker 3: Up.
Speaker 1: There is also an infamous clip online that I would
Speaker 1: love to hear about where you teach the Erkle dance
Speaker 1: to be Arthur at the American Comedy Awards and you
Speaker 1: are such a.
Speaker 2: Pro in it. What do you remember about doing that?
Speaker 7: You know, it's funny.
Speaker 8: That's one of those kind of things where I look
Speaker 8: back at and I kind of have mixed feelings. I
Speaker 8: do because be author was Comedic Royalty, and she was
Speaker 8: such a nice lady.
Speaker 7: She was so nice to me that and all of
Speaker 7: Comedic Royalty was in that room.
Speaker 8: However, that's one of those moments where people are actually
Speaker 8: laughing at you and not with you. Because our brand
Speaker 8: of comedy that I was doing at the time, that
Speaker 8: family comedy, it was.
Speaker 7: More seen as.
Speaker 8: It was more seen as what a farce, how funny
Speaker 8: it is to have be dance with this little phenomenon
Speaker 8: kid in this way, So her participation was taken to
Speaker 8: be funny by the elite, whereas my participation was looked
Speaker 8: at to be the gimmick portion.
Speaker 7: And I've always said that where I'm like, you know,
Speaker 7: I understand.
Speaker 8: Comedy on such a level that I'm blessed to not
Speaker 8: that I'm a genius, Like I just get it, like
Speaker 8: I get tone and intonation and things like that, and
Speaker 8: I love.
Speaker 7: That's why I love certain stand ups to this day.
Speaker 8: I just want to see my boy Dave Chappelle in
Speaker 8: New York this weekend and I watched him. I watched
Speaker 8: him do Boston and Austin watch him do New York
Speaker 8: back to back nights. Having that ability to watch the
Speaker 8: difference in the crowds and how he has to change
Speaker 8: his sets based on the region. That's the kind of
Speaker 8: stuff I study, really when it comes to comedy. And
Speaker 8: in that moment, it was like, you know, I really
Speaker 8: wish that.
Speaker 3: That I had been able to perform with more people
Speaker 3: who have been considered comedic elite.
Speaker 8: Because then it would have been oh, he has the
Speaker 8: chops to when you're seen on screen with them, it's
Speaker 8: different and my man, Yes, So there were there were
Speaker 8: too many moments like that where we were just good, participate,
Speaker 8: fitting people.
Speaker 3: And we had fun. And when I look back on
Speaker 3: and it's like, oh, I'm the.
Speaker 8: Joke in that dance right right, whereas b is the
Speaker 8: the irreverent comedic artist that's doing this with.
Speaker 5: The kid right.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Wow, that's really insightful.
Speaker 1: So during your book tour, you have talked about how
Speaker 1: you passed on the Family Matters reboot, which you know,
Speaker 1: maybe we should have talked to you and gotten some advice.
Speaker 1: But what is the craziest project you have said no to?
Speaker 1: When they asked you to be Arkle as an adult?
Speaker 7: Diane Sawyer, you missed your call and I'm putting it
Speaker 7: out there.
Speaker 3: While this woman up, I no wanted to chick but retire,
Speaker 3: and they charge you money anyway.
Speaker 2: You can get me for a steal.
Speaker 7: Don't say that, don't You don't need to know how
Speaker 7: much you're walking around.
Speaker 3: Me and to pay them all.
Speaker 6: Congratulations on your first hundred episodes, Danielle.
Speaker 8: Okay, so first of all, I have I'm continuing to
Speaker 8: set the record straight and every platform I possibly can't.
Speaker 8: I was never offered a reboot really, okay, there was
Speaker 8: no script, there was no producer attached. They made Fuller House,
Speaker 8: and you know, our top executive producer, you know, really
Speaker 8: was kind of showing me a different side of himself
Speaker 8: unfortunately than I was really sad to see because I'm
Speaker 8: really brought up just admiring this guy and putting him
Speaker 8: on a pedestal my entire life. And he just came
Speaker 8: to me with a blind studio contract and said, you
Speaker 8: will get paid half the amount of money you got
Speaker 8: paid for your you know, your on your last day
Speaker 8: on the show, and you know we're gonna make thirteen
Speaker 8: episodes if we sell the show, and going to create
Speaker 8: the show.
Speaker 7: And I'm like, so, I don't get to see a script,
Speaker 7: I don't have a hand in who are going to
Speaker 7: be the showrunners.
Speaker 3: Nothing.
Speaker 8: You just think in your silly mind that my life
Speaker 8: might be so bad right now that I'll just take
Speaker 8: half of what I made and you get to come
Speaker 8: back to me in a holding deal within six months
Speaker 8: and tell me when I have to report to work.
Speaker 3: Right So, when I fraged like.
Speaker 8: That with people, it's like, guys, that total ain't that's
Speaker 8: not a reboot, and b that's not a fair offer,
Speaker 8: and and and I don't want people think. Oh and
Speaker 8: the worst part about it was he he then said, well,
Speaker 8: you know, Herod and carl And and Aunt Rachel, they'll
Speaker 8: stop by from time to time, so it's hurtful to
Speaker 8: me when I have to hear the adults sometimes talk
Speaker 8: about how difficult I was, and it's there and I'm like, guys.
Speaker 3: The show that they he even pitched me didn't include you,
Speaker 3: right looking, So you.
Speaker 8: Think I've cut you out of some you know, opportunity
Speaker 8: to do a reboot and they have no plans to
Speaker 8: include you, you know, right, That's what I tell you, Danny,
Speaker 8: I said, it's about that information and how it goes down,
Speaker 8: and if you don't know what you don't know, you
Speaker 8: end up looking a little silly. So the worst job
Speaker 8: that I actually turned down, though, was celebrity rehab. Yeah,
Speaker 8: these efforts called.
Speaker 3: Me and we're like, you know, you know, Juliana doesn't
Speaker 3: have any substance abuse problems.
Speaker 7: And I went right around that, you know, we you know,
Speaker 7: we like, it's the demographic for our show.
Speaker 3: And they offered me more money.
Speaker 7: They basically were like, we'll.
Speaker 3: Pay you more to just save.
Speaker 5: Just just take these drugs for a week and then
Speaker 5: you're perfect, right.
Speaker 8: They don't the average person doesn't get it. And now
Speaker 8: we get to do this on a zoom from allations.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, we get offers every day to ruin
Speaker 3: our lives.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, yes, yes, and they come in email form exactly.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And you're so right that the most that the
Speaker 1: the the feeling really is have you been irrelevant long
Speaker 1: enough that now.
Speaker 2: You'll take us up on this?
Speaker 5: Yep?
Speaker 6: Yep?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 1: Are you feeling bad enough yet that I can that
Speaker 1: I can drop this in your email box and have
Speaker 1: you go, well, I guess I really should make some money.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's or you just want to stay in the
Speaker 4: industry because you know, we all to be freaking still
Speaker 4: lucky to be here.
Speaker 5: Yeah, have to be relevant and yeah.
Speaker 6: To play on that insecure, do whatever is asked of
Speaker 6: you just to be on camera, and that's just not
Speaker 6: the case for most of us. Like now we're I'm
Speaker 6: not going to do that. I can't believe they wanted
Speaker 6: you to fake a substance abuse problem to come on
Speaker 6: Celebrity Rehab. That's insane to me. Oh wow wow.
Speaker 2: It is also something we've talked about on this on
Speaker 2: this podcast.
Speaker 1: That another thing people don't really know is that we
Speaker 1: have careers outside of on camera work. If they think
Speaker 1: if they don't see us on their TV screen, we
Speaker 1: must be out of work as opposed to not working
Speaker 1: on camera anymore, which maybe we're out of on camera work.
Speaker 1: Maybe that's my choice, maybe that's because we haven't booked anything,
Speaker 1: who knows. But they also just assume you must be
Speaker 1: doing absolutely nothing, even though most of us have found
Speaker 1: ways of having fulfilling careers and jobs way outside of
Speaker 1: being on camera.
Speaker 8: It's funny of the I'm gonna use an actual space
Speaker 8: metaphor given my background, but by the time you see
Speaker 8: a star based on how much time it takes the
Speaker 8: light to travel, the.
Speaker 3: Star is dead.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 8: Yeah, So when you see a person on a talk
Speaker 8: show or whatever project that's come out, that project is
Speaker 8: long dead. Yeah, We've already done the work. So when
Speaker 8: you see me, actually, that's evidence of the work that
Speaker 8: I've long.
Speaker 2: Been doing exactly.
Speaker 7: Yeah, And people don't necessarily compute that.
Speaker 8: I think one of the toughest questions that I've never
Speaker 8: had good emotional responses to is when you're promoting something,
Speaker 8: and right on the heels of promoting something, people say, well.
Speaker 7: What else do you have coming up next?
Speaker 2: And I'm like, yeah, it took us two or three
Speaker 2: years just to get.
Speaker 5: This out just enough. Are you not entertained?
Speaker 2: Exactly have you worked with as an adult? Now have
Speaker 2: you worked with kid actors?
Speaker 1: And how do you think your experience having been a
Speaker 1: child actor has now shaped the type of actor you
Speaker 1: are as an adult.
Speaker 7: So it's funny.
Speaker 8: So I have two different experiences that are standout. I
Speaker 8: have several, actually, but I did a show called Me,
Speaker 8: Myself and I on CBS and it's started Jack Jack Blazer,
Speaker 8: Jack Dylan Gras and.
Speaker 7: He was one of the kids from it. Yes, So
Speaker 7: when it came out, I remember when we started the show.
Speaker 7: We started the show.
Speaker 8: It was basically a Wonder Years, but he was the
Speaker 8: center of it, except it was telling the story of
Speaker 8: one man's life at three different portions of his life,
Speaker 8: so at age twelve, at age thirty, and at age sixty.
Speaker 8: I think they made their mistake by doing the age
Speaker 8: sixty because Bobby Moonahan wasn't allowed to play himself at
Speaker 8: age sixty, and they hired John lear Ket to play
Speaker 8: Bobby Wanahan. And at Presto Or people were like, Bobby,
Speaker 8: why is the person playing you in their sixties eight
Speaker 8: inches taller than you. That's where that's where executives make
Speaker 8: the dumbest decision in the world. We have to sit
Speaker 8: on a stage and answer.
Speaker 2: For it exactly.
Speaker 6: Well, it's because that everyone knows in your mid fifties
Speaker 6: is when you have that eight inch s Grotzburg.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's.
Speaker 6: Come on, I can't wait.
Speaker 7: That deserves an apple.
Speaker 8: So the thing I noticed about Jack was when we started,
Speaker 8: he had like, you know, a couple hundred thousand followers
Speaker 8: when we did the pilot.
Speaker 5: By the time we.
Speaker 8: Got canceled after it came out, he had two million
Speaker 8: freaking followers.
Speaker 7: And guess what time our show was programmed on CBS. Wow,
Speaker 7: these freaking geniuses.
Speaker 8: Have the hottest, cutest little boy with perfect, freaking brown
Speaker 8: locks that.
Speaker 7: Little girls are loving everywhere.
Speaker 3: Their response to that is, let's.
Speaker 2: Put him on after their kids go to bed when
Speaker 2: they won't be able to watch him.
Speaker 5: Amazing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I got an other one kids I worked with.
Speaker 7: I worked on a show called The Big Show Show.
Speaker 7: I started The Big Show on Netflix, and I really
Speaker 7: enjoyed this show.
Speaker 3: I really did.
Speaker 8: I was the best friend again, but I actually kind
Speaker 8: of came up with a character and I had a
Speaker 8: different way of speaking and everything, and I was really
Speaker 8: enjoying it.
Speaker 3: And I was happy that it was the Big show
Speaker 3: show like Paul was such.
Speaker 8: A good guy, and it was interesting watching the kids
Speaker 8: get better week after week, and it was the business
Speaker 8: model was though that WWE was going to take some
Speaker 8: of their retired wrestlers and start making sitcoms around them.
Speaker 3: But Netflix and.
Speaker 8: WWE, I found out on an adult level, really were
Speaker 8: on the same page of.
Speaker 7: Who was going to pay for the lion's share of
Speaker 7: the show.
Speaker 8: I think WWE made a huge mistake, and this is
Speaker 8: where people get cheap and create problems for themselves. People
Speaker 8: were enjoying the show, but I could tell by the
Speaker 8: end of the show that this dynamic that was going
Speaker 8: on between the network and our showrunners, our two showrunners,
Speaker 8: one of them didn't even show up on the for
Speaker 8: the last taping, and that's always a telltale signed I'm like,
Speaker 8: sod the show when you're not even here.
Speaker 3: To watch us perform. At the last us outkay so at.
Speaker 8: Table reading not to say sorry a curtain call for
Speaker 8: the last episode. I just remember the kids crying because
Speaker 8: they were just tears were running down their faces in
Speaker 8: anticipation of like will we get picked up and will
Speaker 8: we ever see each other again? And that sucks because
Speaker 8: I'm like I know they are standing there.
Speaker 7: I was like, we're not coming back.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 7: I just my professional brain is kicking in.
Speaker 3: I was like, that other producer is not here tonight,
Speaker 3: and I know that it's been going on.
Speaker 7: In the background and we're not coming back.
Speaker 8: Yeah, And so that was It's tough when I'm watching
Speaker 8: kids enjoy them to that degree where it's like the
Speaker 8: last day of school for them and they're crying and
Speaker 8: it's like signed my yearbook kind of vibes right, and
Speaker 8: I'm like, damn, but I know you're not coming back.
Speaker 8: The last one that I'm actually I have good vibes
Speaker 8: for is I actually I'm in Disney Skeleton Crew. Yeah,
Speaker 8: I shouldn't say Disney Star Wars, Star Wars Universe Skeleton Crew.
Speaker 8: I don't talk too much about it because I really
Speaker 8: do like the focus to stay on the kids. Robbie
Speaker 8: and Ryan and Christia. They're just they're They're terrific kids.
Speaker 3: But when I tell you, the production value behind them
Speaker 3: is like, this ain't no sitcom. They see.
Speaker 7: This was one of the biggest sets I've ever been
Speaker 7: on in my career. And you know, I get to
Speaker 7: do my pul QW because I'm a pirate, you know.
Speaker 7: But it's just like for me, it's it's so enjoyable
Speaker 7: for me.
Speaker 8: I remember just being in between takes and just you know,
Speaker 8: have conversations with them and this or that and you
Speaker 8: know who's a better rapper and get there. There's still
Speaker 8: such kids, you know, and I'd see like boxes of
Speaker 8: empty crumble outside of their classroom and be out as
Speaker 8: hell in the classroom, and I'm like, well, I know what,
Speaker 8: it's loud in the classroom, look at all the crumbled
Speaker 8: in consum.
Speaker 7: Gets so nostalgic to look at them work. I cheer
Speaker 7: for them.
Speaker 8: It's like I'm working alongside them, but I'm like, I
Speaker 8: hope you get a chance to do it big enough
Speaker 8: that the business doesn't play, you know, you get a
Speaker 8: chance to put away enough money, you get a chance
Speaker 8: to do enough episodes that it it wasn't a swing
Speaker 8: and a miss or a bunt.
Speaker 7: But you know, it's like the guys from Stranger.
Speaker 3: Things, they're set, you know, like right right, like they
Speaker 3: did it where it's like okay, yeah, they got to
Speaker 3: work like everybody else to move on to their next project,
Speaker 3: but they're set.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 8: It landed in such a way that they're all icons,
Speaker 8: and I'm hoping that for these kids too, because they
Speaker 8: deserve it.
Speaker 6: Well, it looks great. I mean, I'm the resident nerd
Speaker 6: here and looking at all the you know, Star Wars shows.
Speaker 6: We were just talking this weekend actually about how it's
Speaker 6: like they've kind of lost the Star Wars vibe. And
Speaker 6: then I saw the trailer for Skeleton Crew and I
Speaker 6: was like, Yeah, that's the vibe. That's what I'm looking
Speaker 6: for right there. That's the Star Wars we're looking for.
Speaker 6: So I think this could be, you know, I don't know,
Speaker 6: but I'm hoping it is the success that Star Wars
Speaker 6: needs right now because it looks like a whole It
Speaker 6: was like, it's like that vibe of Gooni's but in space,
Speaker 6: you know. So that's something that I think is lacking
Speaker 6: in the Star Wars world. So I think it's going
Speaker 6: to be. I mean, if you haven't seen the trailer rider,
Speaker 6: it looks.
Speaker 7: John Watson, John Wats is a badass creator.
Speaker 8: You know, they're just I don't know, Like I said,
Speaker 8: I told you guys at the beginning, I kind of
Speaker 8: have an eye for people who just have the thing
Speaker 8: and just being on set with him and the two
Speaker 8: Chris is the executive producers. They know what they want,
Speaker 8: and I don't think people understand. For as much as
Speaker 8: we get criticized or what we may or may not
Speaker 8: have done in our careers, we're only as good as
Speaker 8: the people we get to work for.
Speaker 7: Do you know how many people I've worked for who
Speaker 7: had no idea what they.
Speaker 3: Wanted or even how to achieve it? And you know
Speaker 3: it early on set well, like oh this do it
Speaker 3: on the right.
Speaker 8: This was the complete opposite, Like you know, Lee Isaac
Speaker 8: Chung was one of our directors, the director Twister. This dude,
Speaker 8: just his handling of a set of this size and magnitude,
Speaker 8: it's just you're just you're all watching him, like I
Speaker 8: love it when the stars of our project are not
Speaker 8: the people on the screen.
Speaker 7: It's the cinematographer, it's the.
Speaker 8: Director, it's this guy doing the sound in the doing
Speaker 8: the musical score. When that happens, my job is easy, I.
Speaker 7: Say, my mind.
Speaker 1: And like you said, as we've was, we've all talked
Speaker 1: about one of the hardest parts about being an adult actor.
Speaker 1: You don't think about it when you're a kid, but
Speaker 1: once you are an adult and you realize man every
Speaker 1: It takes all of these people to make a project,
Speaker 1: and not all of these people are necessarily.
Speaker 2: Doing a great job. But I'm the face of it.
Speaker 2: I'm the one who has to go out and speak
Speaker 2: for it. I'm the one who gets asked the questions.
Speaker 1: And now all of this is on my shoulders, and
Speaker 1: people think I'm somehow responsible for all of it, and
Speaker 1: and that becomes a really like, oh, I don't I don't.
Speaker 2: Want to take that on.
Speaker 1: So when you, like you said, when you look around
Speaker 1: and you go look at these superstars, it make you
Speaker 1: feel a lot more comfortable being the face of something.
Speaker 7: I think it makes me. I'm super comfortable.
Speaker 8: And the best part is I'm not the fast Listen,
Speaker 8: I'm a supporting pirate, right But I don't think you know,
Speaker 8: I always want people to understand that everything I've ever
Speaker 8: done in my.
Speaker 7: Career has been about the audience experience.
Speaker 8: You know.
Speaker 3: It's it's we get joy when we know you enjoyed
Speaker 3: what we've done. Yeah, and it didn't croach on our
Speaker 3: dignity anyway. You know, reality TV.
Speaker 8: Ushered in a different era that says, hey, how can
Speaker 8: we humiliate you and call it good TV?
Speaker 7: I'm like I don't want to be a part of
Speaker 7: car wreck entertainment.
Speaker 8: Like that's not socially responsible, it's not even good for
Speaker 8: my own mental health.
Speaker 7: I got asked to be in some I won't say
Speaker 7: the name of the show. I mean, you're pretty much guessed.
Speaker 8: But it was one of those kind of like you know,
Speaker 8: boot camp type shows where they wanted us.
Speaker 3: To live, you know, in you know, Belgium or whatever,
Speaker 3: in some place where with only rocks that look like
Speaker 3: an area that should be in Game of Thrones, and
Speaker 3: we're submerged in water and tortured with Chinese you know,
Speaker 3: Chinese torture or whatnot.
Speaker 8: And it's like, okay, how much And it was like, okay,
Speaker 8: I didn't even say how much. I said, let me
Speaker 8: see the original show from Europe. That no, I said,
Speaker 8: I don't even want to know how much you're offering.
Speaker 8: Let me see the original show from Europe. I saw
Speaker 8: the way they would torture any dudes, and I'm like,
Speaker 8: so you expect me to leave my daughter, move to
Speaker 8: Belgium or wherever and be tortured for six weeks. And
Speaker 8: by the way, they don't give you all the money
Speaker 8: unless you lax. If you have like, you know some issues, you.
Speaker 7: Need to get off the show early in two weeks.
Speaker 7: You're not getting the you know, the dangle two hundred
Speaker 7: thousand whatever.
Speaker 3: So I turned it down and came back with five.
Speaker 7: Hundred thousand, six hundred thousand.
Speaker 3: I was like, this is crazy.
Speaker 7: You will pay me more to see me be abused
Speaker 7: on screen and just do what I love at the
Speaker 7: clip that I know it should be done.
Speaker 6: Yeah, well, if that, it'll just be a bunch of
Speaker 6: child actors doing hunger games. Yes, I mean that's where
Speaker 6: that's where hap is. Just let's see what's that you
Speaker 6: guys are going down?
Speaker 2: Yes, he's lasting til the end.
Speaker 6: Yes.
Speaker 5: Oh man.
Speaker 2: Well, now you have written Growing Up Arkle, a memoir,
Speaker 2: and I want to.
Speaker 1: Know before I want to know about the book and
Speaker 1: all of that, but I want to know what was
Speaker 1: the process like for you? What was your writing process?
Speaker 1: Did you how did you plan out your chapters? I
Speaker 1: want to know, like the nitty gritty details about you
Speaker 1: as an author, What was your process?
Speaker 8: Like, I've been writing since I was seventeen, So I
Speaker 8: made the mistake and I'll own it of not getting
Speaker 8: into books earlier.
Speaker 7: But you know, you can want to be in an industry.
Speaker 8: But if you don't have a champion in that industry, yeah,
Speaker 8: you're probably going to start in that industry well below
Speaker 8: where you should. So you know, people say why now,
Speaker 8: and I'm like, well, because this, certainly, this opportunity beats
Speaker 8: anything that would have happened to me if self published.
Speaker 7: Right, you know, you you can't fight the machine.
Speaker 8: And I was very fortunate that between the two publishing houses,
Speaker 8: I started writing down basically just answers to questions people.
Speaker 7: Have answered asked me all the years.
Speaker 3: By the time I just answered those in literary form,
Speaker 3: I had enough for a book proposal.
Speaker 7: And then there was a process where the.
Speaker 8: Different publishing houses, three in particular, came forward, but one
Speaker 8: just stood out, Simon and.
Speaker 7: Schuster above all. It was like, we really liked the proposal,
Speaker 7: and you know, we just you know, we want to
Speaker 7: make you a very special project. A lot of late
Speaker 7: nights writing.
Speaker 8: I'm a game show host now with the flip side,
Speaker 8: so you know, sometimes I'd have to do deal with
Speaker 8: edits after six episodes in a day, so that part
Speaker 8: wasn't necessarily so fun. You know, once somebody pays you
Speaker 8: to do something, now you're on their deliverable time schedule. Yes,
Speaker 8: you know, that's that's where it becomes a job again.
Speaker 8: My first draft I hated, I absolutely hated.
Speaker 6: Like.
Speaker 3: It was probably about a solid week of what the
Speaker 3: hell have I done? So I'm just I'm honest. I'm
Speaker 3: like you.
Speaker 2: You know, if you.
Speaker 7: If you turn in any if you try to bring
Speaker 7: some of your past papers you turned into school, tell
Speaker 7: me if you'll like them.
Speaker 8: All right, But after about two weeks of really dealing
Speaker 8: with my editor, now.
Speaker 3: Oh okay, put this here, we were this here, put this.
Speaker 7: With their okay, now, I started to see the magic
Speaker 7: of this thing for me.
Speaker 8: It really started to become a book about going from
Speaker 8: the journey of being humble to being aware. And I
Speaker 8: think those two things don't have to be mutually exclusive.
Speaker 8: You can be a kind person and you can still
Speaker 8: be very aware of people.
Speaker 7: Around you who do not have good intentions for you.
Speaker 7: And as child actors, I think you guys know exactly
Speaker 7: what I mean.
Speaker 8: Where we are, we are taught to be such troopers,
Speaker 8: to tough it out to deliver when we haven't even
Speaker 8: been given the goods to deliver.
Speaker 3: That is like and I'm like writer, I can see
Speaker 3: you perking up at this right, and I'm like, we've
Speaker 3: been We've.
Speaker 8: Been conditioned that way to not feel like we even
Speaker 8: have the option to say no.
Speaker 7: That doesn't work for me. I've never even had a.
Speaker 8: Moment on a set, no matter how bad it got
Speaker 8: or how bad I knew the project would end up
Speaker 8: being where I said, excused myself from production, where I said,
Speaker 8: I'm sorry, I know this is gonna suck, so I'm
Speaker 8: gonna bow out, take your money back, I'm gone.
Speaker 3: The child after brain.
Speaker 7: To me is like you ruin.
Speaker 2: We could get there, we can do it, we can
Speaker 2: say this yes.
Speaker 3: And that's part of the therapy that I'm even.
Speaker 5: Just avoiding conflict, yeah, just aborting contest. Feel like I
Speaker 5: couldn't make waves, Yeah, of course not.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, No, It's like you're you're you're as a
Speaker 4: child actor, you're the best thing you do is to
Speaker 4: like go along, to get along, to deliver your and
Speaker 4: And I remember just watching like older actors and being like, wow,
Speaker 4: they're they're making so many much conflict. In retrospect, they
Speaker 4: were standing up for themselves in really proper ways most
Speaker 4: of the time. But I was like, you know, I
Speaker 4: wasn't until I was an adult, I was like, I
Speaker 4: don't have the tools to stand up for myself. I'm
Speaker 4: so scared of conflict on set, which is conflict is
Speaker 4: part of the process, Like you should have different opinions
Speaker 4: and different you know, it's a collaborative art form.
Speaker 5: But no, I always had in my mind like, yeah,
Speaker 5: I gotta be a trooper.
Speaker 1: The trooper is the number one compliment as a kid
Speaker 1: that you want to hear. Oh, so easy to work with.
Speaker 1: Such a trooper takes direction. Well, yeah, we have all through.
Speaker 1: Certainly this podcast has been incredibly therapeutic for us of
Speaker 1: being able to look back and it.
Speaker 2: Could have gone one of it could have gone the
Speaker 2: other way.
Speaker 1: Instead of it feeling cathartic and healing, it could have
Speaker 1: been absolutely traumatizing. And I think because of the closeness
Speaker 1: of the three of us and the bonds that we
Speaker 1: have and our ability to look back and say, yes,
Speaker 1: that is that was the reality of the situation, or no,
Speaker 1: you're remembering it wrong and here's what's been going on,
Speaker 1: it's been really good for us. So I hope that
Speaker 1: the book has felt like that for you and that
Speaker 1: there was so much healing.
Speaker 7: It certainly has.
Speaker 2: Okay, good.
Speaker 1: Well, I can't wait to get a copy of it
Speaker 1: next time I see you. I'd like for you to
Speaker 1: sign it for me.
Speaker 2: Would you do that for me?
Speaker 8: Absolutely? You should have my information anyway. I'll make sure
Speaker 8: you get it all right.
Speaker 5: Thank you?
Speaker 7: Well, should mean I've run to him a million times?
Speaker 6: Yeah, I think I do. I'll check, but I'm pretty sure.
Speaker 3: Are you kidding me?
Speaker 7: Absolutely? That's that's easy. I'm not going to make you
Speaker 7: jump through agents and manage.
Speaker 2: It for that well, even I might have to, it's
Speaker 2: worth it. I would love that.
Speaker 1: I really hope that we get a chance to see
Speaker 1: you in person. There is something, as I mentioned, with
Speaker 1: us doing the podcast and it feeling cathartic.
Speaker 2: There is such a.
Speaker 1: Just a connectedness we all feel when we talk to
Speaker 1: people like yourself, when we talk to Candice Cameron, when
Speaker 1: we talk to Danica mckeller, people who have been doing
Speaker 1: it since they were kids, all of the child actors
Speaker 1: we've had on the show, and there is there's a
Speaker 1: shared history and a shared it's like a fraternity, it's
Speaker 1: a and it is there's just a knowing and it's
Speaker 1: a nice feeling to have that shared history with people
Speaker 1: and to be able to have these kinds of conversations,
Speaker 1: and I think we're making the industry a better place
Speaker 1: for the kids who are coming up underneath us because
Speaker 1: we're able to talk about the fact that divide and
Speaker 1: conquer is a thing, and you know that you need
Speaker 1: to be on top of your agents because they may
Speaker 1: not even be looking out for your best interest. It's
Speaker 1: just I really, I really think it's a it's a
Speaker 1: service that we can that we can share. And it
Speaker 1: has been so wonderful to talk to you. We really
Speaker 1: thank you for spending your time with us this morning.
Speaker 1: Look for Skeleton Crew on Disney Plus and his memoir
Speaker 1: Growing Up Arkle.
Speaker 2: We're so honored to have you here today, Julia. It
Speaker 2: was great to see you. Hope to see you again soon.
Speaker 2: Enjoy that waffle you earned it.
Speaker 3: Thank you man. You guys are awesome. Seriously, we'll make
Speaker 3: sure they have my number.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, all right, yes, well, thank you in touch,
Speaker 2: Thank you bye day.
Speaker 1: It never ceases to amaze me how how much how
Speaker 1: little we all knew, yeah back then, about the way
Speaker 1: it worked.
Speaker 6: You're also told constantly and you're just lucky to be here,
Speaker 6: like not only it's like, hey, don't make ways don't
Speaker 6: do anything. We can't there's no more money, there's anything.
Speaker 6: You should just be proud to be here and be
Speaker 6: doing this, and so all of us there is that
Speaker 6: kind of combination. I mean, we hear that all the time.
Speaker 6: You know, there's no more money, there's no more this,
Speaker 6: or it's yeah.
Speaker 4: It was so interesting to hear like that sort of
Speaker 4: basic institutional division that I didn't think about, right, because
Speaker 4: it's like, oh, we're all on tjif it was like,
Speaker 4: but right, but which ones did we do crossovers with?
Speaker 5: They were other Disney shows.
Speaker 6: There's like yeah, right, right.
Speaker 1: We had a question before about like why wouldn't we
Speaker 1: have ever done anything with Sister Sister? Oh because there
Speaker 1: wasn't enough money to be made for one company, right,
Speaker 1: So none of the whole thing.
Speaker 6: And I love how you hear how he speaks about
Speaker 6: it now, where he's kind of it seems like he's
Speaker 6: had an awakening and is like, no, I'm an adult
Speaker 6: in this business and I'm I now know what to do.
Speaker 6: And there's times where he's being labeled difficult, right because
Speaker 6: he's actually asking questions and taking control of his career.
Speaker 6: And now that well, you know, the child actor doesn't
Speaker 6: want to do a reboot. It's like, wait, you want
Speaker 6: me to sign a blind contract without a script, and
Speaker 6: I'm just supposed to sit on my hands for half
Speaker 6: the money. But now I'm somehow difficult to work with
Speaker 6: because I won't just sign your contract. I mean, things
Speaker 6: like that just drive me crazy. It's insane. Yeah.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 1: It also is such a good lesson in at the
Speaker 1: things you say no to actually do more for your
Speaker 1: career than the things you say yes to.
Speaker 2: You know, the power of a well placed no.
Speaker 6: Huge.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 6: They don't watch you until they can't have you. Yeah,
Speaker 6: all of a sudden they want you. Yep, that's just
Speaker 6: the way it is. So yeah, man, what a business.
Speaker 1: Well, thank you all for listening to this episode of
Speaker 1: Pod Meets World. As always, you can follow us on
Speaker 1: Instagram pod meets World Show. You can send us your
Speaker 1: emails pod meets World Show at gmail dot com and
Speaker 1: we have merch Did I merch that pod meets World
Speaker 1: show dot com?
Speaker 8: Uh?
Speaker 2: Writer? Send us out.
Speaker 5: We love you all, pod dismissed.
Speaker 4: Pod Meets World is an iHeart podcast producer and hosted
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