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Speaker 1: Right then and there, I go, oh, we should do

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Speaker 1: an episode. There's what do you mean? We should do

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Speaker 1: an episode where we send you to Italy as you

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Speaker 1: and you come back as me. I saw it happened

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Speaker 1: to my friend ray He comes running up to me, Phil,

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Speaker 1: have you had Giulato?

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Speaker 2: Welcome to episode five point fifty six with Phil Rosenthal,

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Speaker 2: the creator of Everybody Loved Raymond, also the star of

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Speaker 2: Somebody Feed Phil And then dude, I love the show.

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Speaker 2: When they tried to take Raymond over to Russia on Netflix,

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Speaker 2: would you watch that?

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Speaker 1: Experting Raymond? Guess?

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Speaker 2: It was so good and how a lot of the

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Speaker 2: humor just didn't translate, like Russian humor was so different

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Speaker 2: and like on the nose, almost corny, and when they

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Speaker 2: would try, like the humor of America audience when you

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Speaker 2: get it, Yeah, but they'd.

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Speaker 1: Be like, oh, you have big nose. Great show. So

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Speaker 1: this was super cool.

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Speaker 2: And the fact that he still likes talking about Everybody

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Speaker 2: Loves Raymond passionately. Yeah, because you never know. Some people

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Speaker 2: when they do something from a long time ago and

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Speaker 2: they get super successful from it and then they start

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Speaker 2: on other projects, they don't always like to go back

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Speaker 2: because they're like, well, that's not all I'm about, But

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Speaker 2: that wasn't the case here, Like, he gave us so

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Speaker 2: many great stories.

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Speaker 1: I gotta say I loved him. I really enjoyed him. Man.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, really one of my favorite guests that we've had

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Speaker 2: in a long time. His second cookbook, Phil's Favorites, is

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Speaker 2: out now. They're opening up diner soon, and the cast

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Speaker 2: of Everybody Loves Raymond will reunite for a thirtieth anniversary

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Speaker 2: special on November twenty fourth, seven pm Central on CBS.

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Speaker 2: So here, he is one of our favorite guests in

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Speaker 2: a long time, and I would recommend too to go

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Speaker 2: check out the video. It's just different, Like he was

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Speaker 2: just so charismatic. So you can watch this as well

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Speaker 2: on our YouTube at Bobby Bones channel. All right, here

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Speaker 2: he is Phil Rosenthal.

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Speaker 1: Phil.

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Speaker 2: Let me start by saying, I'm a big fan of

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Speaker 2: you and multiple avenues. This is exciting for me because

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Speaker 2: you know, in Nashville, like I know everybody, so I

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Speaker 2: don't really get to be a fan.

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Speaker 1: I don't know you. This is cool. Well I don't

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Speaker 1: know you either, but I'm a fan of yours already.

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Speaker 1: What shows matter to you is THK goodness. I watch

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Speaker 1: a lot of TV because I was short and skinny,

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Speaker 1: and if I went outside, I would get hit. And

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Speaker 1: so TV was my friend that didn't hit me. And

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Speaker 1: I loved it and I could be with my quote

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Speaker 1: unquote friends on TV. So you know, I watch Honeymooner's reruns.

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Speaker 1: Me too.

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Speaker 2: I think I've seen every Honeymooners rerun. It would come

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Speaker 2: on eleven o'clock. Hysterical, right, Jackie Gleeson and Arc Carney. Yep, yeah,

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Speaker 2: that's who I was emulating at home.

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Speaker 1: I found that I could stay up late with my

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Speaker 1: parents and their friends if I could imitate the people

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Speaker 1: I saw on TV. So I would imitate Art Carney

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Speaker 1: and they thought it was hysterical, like a four year

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Speaker 1: old is imitating this, and I just that got in

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Speaker 1: deep for me. I'm like, oh, I wanted. I didn't

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Speaker 1: know there was writing, directing, and producing. I just thought

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Speaker 1: that guy's funny. I'll be like him. My dad was

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Speaker 1: wany too. I wanted to be like it and the Honeymooners.

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Speaker 1: We can jump to Dick Van Dyke Show, All the Family, Uh,

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Speaker 1: Mary Tyler Moore Show, Taxi, the Odd Couple. Do you

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Speaker 1: remember that? I do? Yeah? So good? And then later

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Speaker 1: like Roseanne the Cosby Show of the eighties. Can't say Cosby,

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Speaker 1: but uh, there's great stuff out there. The Office is

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Speaker 1: you know, more recent, just great stuff. And most of

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Speaker 1: it was filmed before a live studio audience, which I

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Speaker 1: also loved because you could you felt like you were

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Speaker 1: it was an evening in the theater. And I carried

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Speaker 1: that over to Raymond. So all those things had a

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Speaker 1: great influence on me.

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Speaker 2: You wanted and you were in front of the camera

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Speaker 2: or on stage at first in.

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Speaker 1: High school and college. Yeah, because I didn't know about

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Speaker 1: writing and directing.

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Speaker 2: So did you fall in love with it? Yes, more

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Speaker 2: so than the actual performance part of it.

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Speaker 1: I was struggling in New York. You know, it's such

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Speaker 1: a big star in high school and college in the plays,

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Speaker 1: and then I moved into New York City to pursue it,

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Speaker 1: and no one had called New York to tell them

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Speaker 1: what a big star I was in high school. And

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Speaker 1: so I don't have to tell you. If you graduate

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Speaker 1: with a theater degree, the whole world is open to you.

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Speaker 1: I was. It was open to me to be to

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Speaker 1: sell farm and implement cleaner on the phone, cold cold calling.

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Speaker 1: This part of the world and most of the time

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Speaker 1: people would tell me to go enjoy myself, but not

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Speaker 1: in those words the opposite. Yeah, yes, so just terrible

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Speaker 1: job after job. And then after about seven eight years

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Speaker 1: of not getting anywhere were you auditioning line, I couldn't

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Speaker 1: even get an agent. I didn't know how. There's no

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Speaker 1: like rule book for how to do this stuff. And

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Speaker 1: of course it's who you know and who, and I

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Speaker 1: didn't know anybody, and the rejection every day. I wasn't

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Speaker 1: used to it. I didn't have the stomach for it.

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Speaker 1: But then some friends of mine and I wrote a

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Speaker 1: show for ourselves to be in. And I can't stress

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Speaker 1: enough to everybody watching or listening the importance of riding

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Speaker 1: your own ticket. And no matter what feel, because they're

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Speaker 1: not waiting for you. Nobody's waiting for you. This fantasy

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Speaker 1: of being discovered is a fantasy. You have to do

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Speaker 1: it yourself. You want to make a podcast, make a podcast,

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Speaker 1: by the way, we're born now with a studio in

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Speaker 1: our pockets. You want to make a video, make a video.

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Speaker 1: You're not gonna go viral immediately, but you keep doing it.

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Speaker 1: You get better and better and better. We've never had

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Speaker 1: the greater tools for success. We didn't have any of that,

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Speaker 1: and so we wrote a show for ourselves to be

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Speaker 1: in and wouldn't you know what that took off. And

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Speaker 1: at the same time, another friend of mine who had

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Speaker 1: been a writer, showed up at my apartment with a

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Speaker 1: word processor and said, we're gonna this nineteen eighty seven

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Speaker 1: or eight. We're gonna write a screenplay. I said, I

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Speaker 1: don't know anything about it. He goes, I know the structure.

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Speaker 1: You're funny. Let's write a screenplay together. And we did,

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Speaker 1: and we sold it to HBO right away. Wow. Sometimes

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Speaker 1: the world tells you what you're supposed to be, but

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Speaker 1: you don't know until you try it. So yes, literally

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Speaker 1: wrote my own ticket. What was the show? The HBO show?

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Speaker 1: You sold? The HBO movie was never made because we

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Speaker 1: wrote it with Alan Arkin in mind. He was our

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Speaker 1: favorite actor. It was a suburban detective story called Shulman,

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Speaker 1: and HBO bought it right away, and when they asked us,

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Speaker 1: who do you see as Shulman? We said Alan Arkin

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Speaker 1: and they said he doesn't open a movie, and it

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Speaker 1: was dead right there. Never never got made. But listen,

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Speaker 1: that's the story of I think ninety percent of all

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Speaker 1: scripts did that give you the confidence though, Yes, And

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Speaker 1: so I moved to Hollywood to pursue sitcom writing.

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Speaker 2: Wait, so you just moved so you had a little nebble,

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Speaker 2: a successful nebble exactly, so you're like, let's let's hit

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Speaker 2: it while it's well.

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Speaker 1: I had a little push because someone saw me in

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Speaker 1: this play that we wrote for ourselves. An agent, first

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Speaker 1: agent to take an interest in me. He said, if

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Speaker 1: you moved to Hollywood, you will never stop working as

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Speaker 1: an actor. And I packed a bag and moved to Hollywood,

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Speaker 1: and I never started working as an actor because, believe

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Speaker 1: it or not, there are people who make up crap

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Speaker 1: in Hollywood. They just say whatever. I don't know why

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Speaker 1: he did this or some power trip or whatever. He

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Speaker 1: had no intention of like working for me or doing anything.

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Speaker 1: He just said it. It was crazy. But why go

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Speaker 1: out of your way to build up a kid's you know,

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Speaker 1: hopes and then not follow through. But listen, that's I

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Speaker 1: don't have to tell you. There's a lot of bullshit

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Speaker 1: out there.

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Speaker 2: You're sitcom writing now, Yeah, you moved to Hollywood?

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Speaker 1: Is that I got a partner. We wrote a sample script,

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Speaker 1: people liked it, we were hired immediately. It was just

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Speaker 1: the world is telling me what I'm supposed to do.

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Speaker 1: I had a natural affinity for this because I had,

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Speaker 1: you know, Malcolm Gladwell, ten thousand hours of something before

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Speaker 1: you're an expert. I had thirty thousand hours of TV watch.

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Speaker 1: But is that weird to have seven eight years of

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Speaker 1: no and only no, and then all the sudden yes,

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Speaker 1: it's like, hey, we like, let's see it at you.

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Speaker 1: That's crazy. I wouldn't trust it. I feel like that

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Speaker 1: is like candid cameras. I thought it would go away

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Speaker 1: at any moment. But again, it's you. You get a

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Speaker 1: job writing on sitcoms, you are at the lowest level

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Speaker 1: when you start. In fact, I had a partner, so

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Speaker 1: we're literally splitting a salary. But you're in, So are

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Speaker 1: you excited? It's still more money than I ever saw

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Speaker 1: in my life. And I'm in the business that I've

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Speaker 1: always dreamed of being in. And it didn't matter that

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Speaker 1: I wasn't performed because the world is saying, maybe you

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Speaker 1: should write schmuck. Oh, so I do it? What sitcoms?

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Speaker 1: Did you get on it first? You won't believe it.

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Speaker 1: I get to Hollywood in nineteen eighty nine, just as

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Speaker 1: they're about to make a sitcom for Robert Mitcham. Do

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Speaker 1: you know who Robert Mitcham is. I don't think if

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Speaker 1: I'm a sitcom guy, you shouldn't. The audience didn't think

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Speaker 1: of him as a sitcom guy either, and it was

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Speaker 1: gone after seven episodes. But I learned a lot about

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Speaker 1: how to make us it come. You can learn that

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Speaker 1: on any job, and certainly this was crazy. The reason

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Speaker 1: they did a sitcom for Robert Mitcham is because they

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Speaker 1: remember TV movies, so they made a TV movie with him,

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Speaker 1: and it did so well that they couldn't leave it alone.

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Speaker 1: They just weren't going to make a sitcom out of

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Speaker 1: that premise, which was he was a homeless guy who

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Speaker 1: pretended to be some recently orphaned kid's grandpa. Sounds hilarious,

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Speaker 1: you know what, There is a funny way to do

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Speaker 1: that if the old guy hates little kids and dogs,

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Speaker 1: but it now has to be grandpa. But as soon

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Speaker 1: as we went on the air, they neutered him by

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Speaker 1: making him wear an apron around the house and arrange

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Speaker 1: the flowers in the first moments of the show because

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Speaker 1: they wanted him to be likable, which is the worst

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Speaker 1: word in television. So that doesn't pan out, except it

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Speaker 1: does because now as I get another Now, yeah, you

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Speaker 1: just had a job, and now I go from job

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Speaker 1: to job. I did that for five years, and then

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Speaker 1: I got a video cassette of a comedian who had

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Speaker 1: been on Letterman once for five minutes, and Letterman said,

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Speaker 1: there should be a sitcom for that guy. Letterman had

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Speaker 1: a production deal at CEBs so he could develop shows

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Speaker 1: for comedians. Is that worldwide? Pants? It is? And I

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Speaker 1: meet Ray and we hit it offa So how did

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Speaker 1: you get a video?

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Speaker 3: Like?

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Speaker 2: I feel like there's a lot of world right there

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Speaker 2: that you just went YadA YadA YadA to no.

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Speaker 1: No. The way it works in Hollywood, it really is

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Speaker 1: that simple. They're sending out you know, once once there's

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Speaker 1: a comedian. That's all they do is try to get

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Speaker 1: a sitcom at this time anyway, So their people are

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Speaker 1: always sending their material to writers to create a show

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Speaker 1: for the because look at all the comedians who Seinfeldt,

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Speaker 1: you know, found Larry David Rose and found her people.

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Speaker 1: Cosby had writer all every comedian, Rob Williams, you know,

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Speaker 1: sitcom for him. Comedians are looking for sitcoms. That's the

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Speaker 1: big payoff, right, So you got the tape. I get

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Speaker 1: the tape. I remember I saw that performance when it

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Speaker 1: was on because I watched Letterman every night. I said, sure,

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Speaker 1: I'll take that meeting. He must have met with a

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Speaker 1: dozen guys. His first choice wasn't available. He wanted someone

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Speaker 1: from Friends because that was the hip new show and

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Speaker 1: I was the opposite of that. And yet I saw

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Speaker 1: potential in his actual life. He really had twin boys

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Speaker 1: and older daughter really lived close by to his parents,

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Speaker 1: who always butted into his life. His older brother really

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Speaker 1: was a police sergeant who was divorced and was jealous

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Speaker 1: of him. And my joke is he finished telling me

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Speaker 1: this and I said, well, I don't think there's anything

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Speaker 1: there we can use. But no, I saw, Listen, he's

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Speaker 1: not an actor. Why not surround him with the stuff

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Speaker 1: that's familiar to him? And what I didn't know about

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Speaker 1: the characters and stories and personalities of his family, I

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Speaker 1: filled in with mine.

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Speaker 2: Was he receptive to you making it? And I don't

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Speaker 2: want to say not cool, but yes, no he was receptive.

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Speaker 2: But no, nobody thinks that their family's cool, is my point?

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Speaker 1: Like absolutely, In fact, his first suggestion when I said

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Speaker 1: that's let's do this your family. By the way, his

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Speaker 1: material was coming from his family and being a new dad,

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Speaker 1: but he didn't see the value in it right away.

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Speaker 1: He said, can't we just do a show where I

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Speaker 1: sit like in a diner with my friends and we

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Speaker 1: cracked jokes, and I said, first of all, there is

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Speaker 1: that show. It's called Seinfeld. The second of all, I'm

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Speaker 1: the wrong guy for that because I need a story.

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Speaker 1: All the shows that I emulated, I found the strength

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Speaker 1: in story beginning, middle end and family because I had

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Speaker 1: a young family too, and I had my parents. Even

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Speaker 1: though they lived three thousand miles away, they were as

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Speaker 1: intrusive as could be. That's a you know, the parents

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Speaker 1: living across the street is the great metaphor for everybody's

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Speaker 1: parents around the world. We just filmed our thirtieth anniversary

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Speaker 1: reunion special of the show that's going to be on

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Speaker 1: November twenty fourth on CBS, and it was one of

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Speaker 1: the most beautiful, touching moments of my life to get

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Speaker 1: together with these people. They recreated the entire kitchen and

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Speaker 1: living room set of Everybody Loves Raymond. You'd think that

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Speaker 1: they never touched it, that it's been sitting there for

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Speaker 1: thirty years. It was just beautiful and really funny to

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Speaker 1: share the clips, even outtakes and stuff. So I hope

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Speaker 1: people watch that. It was really fun to do. And

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Speaker 1: Ray became He went from being skeptical of my sensibility

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Speaker 1: to embracing it. And I learned a lot from him

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Speaker 1: because his number one thing in his act and in

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Speaker 1: his just philosophy was to always be as real and

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Speaker 1: true as possible. I was a little more what we

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Speaker 1: would call sitcomy than he was, but we met in

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Speaker 1: the middle. So in other words, there would be things

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Speaker 1: that you do to be funny in a sitcom because

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Speaker 1: you're nowhere without the jokes, right, They're the bread and

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Speaker 1: butter of a sitcom. Gotta be funny. That's job one.

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Speaker 1: But even more important than that is the relatability. And

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Speaker 1: that includes not doing anything that would not happen in

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Speaker 1: real life. And we can we know the shows that

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Speaker 1: break that rule all the time, and subconsciously, not even consciously,

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Speaker 1: the audience watches a show and something in your brain

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Speaker 1: goes that would never happen, and you kind of disconnect

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Speaker 1: from your loyalty to that show. But if you believe

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Speaker 1: that everything could happen, nothing. It's not slightly exaggerated. But

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Speaker 1: if you believe that it could happen, then you and

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Speaker 1: that includes dramatic moments too, because life is not all hahaha.

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Speaker 1: It bonds you to the characters and makes it relatable

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Speaker 1: and it becomes your favorite show. So that was a

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Speaker 1: filter you guys had to constantly adjust. Just kept in mind.

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Speaker 1: And when we're writing it, when we hit that bump

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Speaker 1: and I don't buy that. I don't think, by the way,

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Speaker 1: it can be as simple as yet. People don't really

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Speaker 1: talk that way. That's I hear the writer, I hear

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Speaker 1: the writing in that line. It shouldn't sound like writing.

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Speaker 1: It should sound like a guy to talking or your

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Speaker 1: mom talking. You mentioned that you quit twice before it

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Speaker 1: even took off. I did. First time was as we're casting,

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Speaker 1: I'm told the head of the network wants to cast

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Speaker 1: this actress as the wife is Deborah Yeah, And I said, oh,

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Speaker 1: I know who that is. I think she's completely wrong

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Speaker 1: for that part. I just don't see it. And the guy,

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Speaker 1: the executive said, you didn't hear me. I said, the

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Speaker 1: head of the network wants and if you don't take her,

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Speaker 1: you don't have a show. So it's a longer story,

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Speaker 1: but I was going to quit. You were that committed

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Speaker 1: to it being right. It has to be right. I'd

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Speaker 1: done enough sitcoms to know, Oh, there's a million ways

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Speaker 1: to screw this up. There's only one way to get

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Speaker 1: it right. It has to feel right. And I'm writing

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Speaker 1: about my family, so it's very important that it's right.

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Speaker 1: This is my one shot to write about my family.

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Speaker 1: I'm getting. I'm getting, you know, this golden opportunity. The

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Speaker 1: best advice I ever got about anything was as I'm

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Speaker 1: writing the pilot to Raymond, I ask a great old

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Speaker 1: show runner, someone who created the Mary Tylmore Show and

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Speaker 1: The Cosby Show of the eighties and other shows too,

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Speaker 1: named Ed Weinberger. I say to him any advice. He goes, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: do the show you want to do, because in the

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Speaker 1: end they're going to cancel you anyway. Wow, that's great advice.

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Speaker 1: That really, because I can't tell you how many times

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Speaker 1: I've seen writers take all the notes from the network.

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Speaker 1: They don't, by the way, know anything. They they're business people.

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Speaker 1: They take all the notes. Why because they just think

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Speaker 1: if they take all the notes, they'll get on the

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Speaker 1: air and then they can do what they want. That

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Speaker 1: never happens because usually, you know what does happen, Your

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Speaker 1: show doesn't get on the air. Why because you made

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Speaker 1: it bad? Why because you took all their notes. So

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Speaker 1: do the show you want to do, because yes, they're

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Speaker 1: probably going to cancell you anyway, because most shows don't succeed.

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Speaker 2: Whenever that becomes a problem and they want to put

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Speaker 2: someone in that Debora role that you didn't want. Yes,

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Speaker 2: did you already have your Debora? So you just knew

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Speaker 2: it wasn't right. It wasn't you were fighting for somebody specifically.

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Speaker 1: I had three You go with three candidates, you go

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Speaker 1: to the network and you present them. They literally auditioned.

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Speaker 1: Three other actresses auditioned and this is for every part,

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Speaker 1: and then the studio and the network, since they're paying

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Speaker 1: for it, they have some say. But I was going

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Speaker 1: to quit. I was going to quit that day. I

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Speaker 1: even met with this actress. I got her to read

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Speaker 1: for me. She was ten times worse than I thought

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Speaker 1: she would be, And I knew I was quitting that day.

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Speaker 1: But I spoke to the president of the network and

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Speaker 1: I told him that I love this actress and that

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Speaker 1: I met her and she's lovely and I wanted to

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Speaker 1: marry her myself, but then she read for me, and

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Speaker 1: I have to be honest, it's just not what I wrote.

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Speaker 1: I think she could do it, but I also think

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Speaker 1: that we could do better. And the president network said, oh,

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Speaker 1: that was just an idea. But I was really going

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Speaker 1: to quit that day. I gave it my best shot,

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Speaker 1: but I was quitting. Now flash forward to we filmed

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Speaker 1: the pilot. We oh, Patty Heaton comes in two weeks

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Speaker 1: later to our office. She nails the part. She's perfect,

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Speaker 1: bringing a network done that easy, that quick because she

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Speaker 1: was right. Now, we film the pilot, goes well well

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Speaker 1: enough that we get picked up. They're going to put

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Speaker 1: it on TV. It's going to be a series. Now

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Speaker 1: my agent calls me, congratulations. They just want to know

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Speaker 1: who's going to run the show. I said, well, I

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Speaker 1: assume me. They said you you never ran a show before.

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Speaker 1: I said yeah, but they like the pilot right enough

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Speaker 1: to pick it up. The series. I'll do more like that.

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Speaker 1: You don't understand this is a million dollar, multimillion dollar operation.

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Speaker 1: Now they're not going to entrust you to it. I said, oh, well,

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Speaker 1: then I quit because I'm not going to work for

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Speaker 1: someone else on my own show, because I know what happens.

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Speaker 1: This becomes this person show and they run it the

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Speaker 1: way they want to and it won't be right. And

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Speaker 1: I've seen this before, so quit. Tell me you're always quitting.

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Speaker 1: Don't get excited, he says, let me talk to him. Okay,

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Speaker 1: good news. He comes back. They're going to bring in

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Speaker 1: someone who's had experience running shows to run it with you.

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Speaker 1: I said, oh, if you put it that way, I

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Speaker 1: quit because it's still going to be that person's show.

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Speaker 1: And he goes, don't fool around. They're serious. They're doing

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Speaker 1: the show and you can either be part of it

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Speaker 1: or not. I said, I quit, and I'm not pretty serious.

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Speaker 1: But you weren't pushing you weren't bluffing I am. You

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Speaker 1: really didn't want to do it as they were wanting

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Speaker 1: it to be. It took all the courage I could

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Speaker 1: muster to say this, because I love this show. I

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Speaker 1: loved what we built, even just for that pilot, and

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Speaker 1: it was my family. I had no true I felt

385
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Speaker 1: like I had no choice. You're pushed to the edge

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Speaker 1: of the cliff. I have to jump. I have to.

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Speaker 1: I cannot live with it this way. It would be

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Speaker 1: a nightmare to me to have this thing I care

389
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Speaker 1: about compromised. Compromise too much. And I quit. And I

390
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Speaker 1: spent three days living in the world where they're doing

391
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Speaker 1: my show without me. How that feel terrible? Depressing. The

392
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Speaker 1: third day, my agent calls, guess what, They're going to

393
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Speaker 1: let you run the show yourself. I said, really, wow?

394
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Speaker 1: Why The head of the network like, how you handle

395
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Speaker 1: the thing with that actress. So that first time I

396
00:21:40,960 --> 00:21:43,520
Speaker 1: was going to quit, he saw my conviction, and he

397
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Speaker 1: saw that I was not an asshole about it, that

398
00:21:46,400 --> 00:21:49,040
Speaker 1: I was deferential to him. And you know, I didn't

399
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Speaker 1: say fuck you, I'm doing whatever I want. I'm still

400
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Speaker 1: a person, And they saw something. I guess it's called integrity.

401
00:22:03,680 --> 00:22:10,119
Speaker 1: You know again, it doesn't work if you're bluffing. They

402
00:22:10,200 --> 00:22:12,560
Speaker 1: might call your bluff And then you didn't really want

403
00:22:12,600 --> 00:22:15,240
Speaker 1: to quit, But did you played it as a card game?

404
00:22:15,400 --> 00:22:16,040
Speaker 1: That's stupid.

405
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Speaker 2: I quit because I had no other choice to make

406
00:22:20,119 --> 00:22:23,520
Speaker 2: in revisionist history it is. That show launched and it

407
00:22:23,560 --> 00:22:26,000
Speaker 2: was a massive success, and you were nominated and one

408
00:22:26,040 --> 00:22:29,200
Speaker 2: tons of awards at the end the first season, first

409
00:22:29,200 --> 00:22:33,199
Speaker 2: couple of seasons. Was there ever, Rocky Waters, Absolutely, I

410
00:22:33,240 --> 00:22:34,959
Speaker 2: wrote a whole book about the journey.

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Speaker 1: It's called You're Lucky or Funny How Life Becomes a Sitcom,

412
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Speaker 1: And it was my way of paying this forward where

413
00:22:40,720 --> 00:22:44,399
Speaker 1: you can take stuff where we think our lives aren't

414
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Speaker 1: worth talking about even let alone writing a sitcom about them.

415
00:22:48,840 --> 00:22:52,119
Speaker 1: But it's how to take your life and you're what

416
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Speaker 1: you consider a mundane existence and turn it into something

417
00:22:56,080 --> 00:23:02,560
Speaker 1: very useful like a sitcom. Right the first season, not

418
00:23:02,600 --> 00:23:06,159
Speaker 1: only was it really hard to figure out what the

419
00:23:06,240 --> 00:23:09,320
Speaker 1: show was, the tone of the show, the stories for

420
00:23:09,400 --> 00:23:12,760
Speaker 1: that first season. That's really the hard work because you're

421
00:23:12,760 --> 00:23:16,600
Speaker 1: building the foundation of a house, and who knows what

422
00:23:16,680 --> 00:23:18,119
Speaker 1: the house is supposed to be. You have to have

423
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Speaker 1: a good vision of what that house is going to

424
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Speaker 1: look like when it's done. Not only did we have

425
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Speaker 1: all those pressures, but we actually had a saboteur, a

426
00:23:29,800 --> 00:23:32,679
Speaker 1: studio executive from one of the studios. We were produced

427
00:23:32,680 --> 00:23:36,480
Speaker 1: by two studios, Lettermans and HBO for CBS, so a

428
00:23:37,520 --> 00:23:41,240
Speaker 1: lot of cooks in the kitchen. One guy was telling

429
00:23:41,359 --> 00:23:44,199
Speaker 1: Ray Romano behind my back that I should be fired

430
00:23:44,280 --> 00:23:47,880
Speaker 1: because he wanted to run a show, especially the show

431
00:23:48,040 --> 00:23:50,920
Speaker 1: that was already running. Just he wanted to just walk

432
00:23:50,960 --> 00:23:53,320
Speaker 1: in and take over. How did you know that was happening?

433
00:23:53,600 --> 00:23:56,760
Speaker 1: Ray told me? And thank god, Ray was the way.

434
00:23:56,800 --> 00:24:01,119
Speaker 1: He was a good decent human being because even if

435
00:24:01,119 --> 00:24:04,440
Speaker 1: he didn't trust me immediately, I didn't trust me immediately either,

436
00:24:04,880 --> 00:24:07,119
Speaker 1: but he understood that we were on the right track

437
00:24:07,560 --> 00:24:12,000
Speaker 1: and he stuck with me. Has your favorite episode changed

438
00:24:12,359 --> 00:24:14,440
Speaker 1: the longer that the show has been off the air.

439
00:24:15,160 --> 00:24:19,880
Speaker 1: That's a great question. There are favorites. We talk about

440
00:24:19,920 --> 00:24:23,560
Speaker 1: them in the special. Actually, one of my favorites is

441
00:24:23,880 --> 00:24:27,399
Speaker 1: for a sentimental reason. We do a flashback episode at

442
00:24:27,400 --> 00:24:31,040
Speaker 1: the end of each season. It was our way of

443
00:24:31,080 --> 00:24:33,800
Speaker 1: doing a fantasy show without the blogoney, of doing a

444
00:24:33,840 --> 00:24:37,480
Speaker 1: fantasy show where anything goes. We did a flashback which

445
00:24:37,520 --> 00:24:43,800
Speaker 1: gives you the kind of fantasy element with while staying real. Right. So,

446
00:24:44,160 --> 00:24:48,520
Speaker 1: my favorite one of these was how Ray and Debrah Met.

447
00:24:49,000 --> 00:24:53,200
Speaker 1: And that's a hard show to do because you're seeing

448
00:24:53,240 --> 00:24:56,560
Speaker 1: the inciting incident of the whole world of the show,

449
00:24:57,240 --> 00:25:01,480
Speaker 1: and the actors they were just so fantastic, so funny

450
00:25:01,560 --> 00:25:04,280
Speaker 1: and touching. You laughed and cried at the same time.

451
00:25:04,320 --> 00:25:06,320
Speaker 1: It was so beautiful to me, Like the.

452
00:25:06,240 --> 00:25:08,600
Speaker 2: Hairstyles were so funny in those episodes es of when

453
00:25:08,600 --> 00:25:10,400
Speaker 2: They're back and Robert has a mustage.

454
00:25:10,520 --> 00:25:13,159
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, and like he shows the yeah yeah yeah.

455
00:25:13,200 --> 00:25:16,359
Speaker 1: So that's fun to do and could that happen of course,

456
00:25:16,800 --> 00:25:21,760
Speaker 1: but you're having the fantasy fun without doing a phony fantasy.

457
00:25:22,080 --> 00:25:23,760
Speaker 1: Did your parents ever get to see your success?

458
00:25:23,920 --> 00:25:24,040
Speaker 4: Oh?

459
00:25:24,160 --> 00:25:28,120
Speaker 1: Yeah, they only died like five years ago. Yeah. Were

460
00:25:28,160 --> 00:25:28,919
Speaker 1: they super proud of you?

461
00:25:29,760 --> 00:25:32,200
Speaker 2: Or did they understand what was happening? Because my mom

462
00:25:32,240 --> 00:25:34,080
Speaker 2: didn't get to see much of mine. Yeah, and I

463
00:25:34,080 --> 00:25:36,440
Speaker 2: don't think she would have. She didn't get it because

464
00:25:36,480 --> 00:25:37,800
Speaker 2: she's from a very you know, we grew up in

465
00:25:37,800 --> 00:25:40,879
Speaker 2: a trailer park. So when I'm in California or I'm

466
00:25:40,960 --> 00:25:43,640
Speaker 2: Nashville doing like she was proud because she could see

467
00:25:43,640 --> 00:25:44,480
Speaker 2: me on television.

468
00:25:44,600 --> 00:25:47,640
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think that was cool to her.

469
00:25:48,000 --> 00:25:49,800
Speaker 2: But I don't think she really got it because I

470
00:25:49,800 --> 00:25:51,000
Speaker 2: didn't get until I got in it.

471
00:25:51,920 --> 00:25:55,640
Speaker 1: I get it. My parents were German immigrants. They had

472
00:25:55,720 --> 00:25:59,199
Speaker 1: old world values. When I told you I sold that

473
00:25:59,240 --> 00:26:05,640
Speaker 1: screenplay that first time in nineteen eighty eight, I call

474
00:26:05,720 --> 00:26:08,440
Speaker 1: my parents. My father thought, oh my god, this is

475
00:26:08,480 --> 00:26:12,360
Speaker 1: the American dream. Because we got paid. I had three

476
00:26:12,440 --> 00:26:15,080
Speaker 1: hundred dollars in the bank. We got paid seventy thousand

477
00:26:15,160 --> 00:26:19,640
Speaker 1: dollars A fortune, A fortune. I was suddenly a thousand

478
00:26:19,640 --> 00:26:24,639
Speaker 1: eyre And I tell my dad and he's like dancing around.

479
00:26:24,880 --> 00:26:26,399
Speaker 1: And my mother gets on the phone. Why is your

480
00:26:26,440 --> 00:26:30,360
Speaker 1: dad so happy? Because we sold the screenplay? That's wonderful,

481
00:26:30,359 --> 00:26:31,840
Speaker 1: She says, what do you get for something like that?

482
00:26:31,920 --> 00:26:34,440
Speaker 1: I said, seventy thousand dollars and the phone went silent.

483
00:26:35,800 --> 00:26:38,920
Speaker 1: I said, Ma, She goes, do you know we've worked

484
00:26:38,920 --> 00:26:43,960
Speaker 1: our whole lives to have that in the bank. So yes,

485
00:26:44,040 --> 00:26:48,520
Speaker 1: she's proud, But what are the values of this country?

486
00:26:48,800 --> 00:26:52,520
Speaker 1: You write some jokes on paper when people really work

487
00:26:52,600 --> 00:26:56,359
Speaker 1: for a living. Yeah, and you are rewarded like that,

488
00:26:56,800 --> 00:27:00,800
Speaker 1: And we worked our whole lives hard work. So it

489
00:27:00,840 --> 00:27:04,120
Speaker 1: was a little bit of like you little shit. Yeah.

490
00:27:04,160 --> 00:27:06,560
Speaker 2: When I first made any money, I bought my mom

491
00:27:06,920 --> 00:27:10,720
Speaker 2: a couple acres and a trailer. Oh and teeth because

492
00:27:10,720 --> 00:27:12,159
Speaker 2: I never had good teeth, so these are all these

493
00:27:12,200 --> 00:27:16,120
Speaker 2: are fake teeth and so but I remember, like, that's

494
00:27:16,160 --> 00:27:18,200
Speaker 2: the most meaningful thing I felt like I've ever bought

495
00:27:18,800 --> 00:27:21,560
Speaker 2: was when I had money to buy my mom and

496
00:27:21,640 --> 00:27:22,199
Speaker 2: new trailer.

497
00:27:23,240 --> 00:27:25,800
Speaker 1: Were you able to do that with your parents? I

498
00:27:25,880 --> 00:27:29,000
Speaker 1: was able to buy them a car. I was able

499
00:27:29,040 --> 00:27:33,960
Speaker 1: to towards the end of their life. My mom loved the opera,

500
00:27:34,840 --> 00:27:37,160
Speaker 1: so I bought them an apartment across the street from

501
00:27:37,160 --> 00:27:40,800
Speaker 1: the Metropolitan Opera House in a minute, Wow, and her

502
00:27:40,880 --> 00:27:44,240
Speaker 1: last like seven years were in heaven. I called it

503
00:27:44,280 --> 00:27:49,280
Speaker 1: pre heaven because she could volunteer at the opera across

504
00:27:49,320 --> 00:27:54,800
Speaker 1: the street and go to every rehearsal with her idols.

505
00:27:55,560 --> 00:27:56,760
Speaker 1: That was everything.

506
00:27:58,640 --> 00:28:00,880
Speaker 2: Like that makes me emotional hearing that, like to put

507
00:28:00,920 --> 00:28:04,960
Speaker 2: her in a place that made her happy, fulfilled.

508
00:28:05,320 --> 00:28:08,600
Speaker 1: I owe them everything. Not only were they incredibly supportive

509
00:28:08,600 --> 00:28:14,479
Speaker 1: and loving and quote unquote normal, but they were crazy

510
00:28:14,600 --> 00:28:20,159
Speaker 1: enough to be a complete source of comic material my

511
00:28:20,280 --> 00:28:24,440
Speaker 1: whole career. Those parents on everybody that was dreaming, that

512
00:28:24,520 --> 00:28:28,920
Speaker 1: comes from somewhere, So a lot of that stuff. So

513
00:28:29,040 --> 00:28:33,760
Speaker 1: Frank Barone, well, I would say that the character of

514
00:28:33,840 --> 00:28:37,000
Speaker 1: Frank Barone was a little more like raised dad than mine,

515
00:28:37,320 --> 00:28:40,120
Speaker 1: But a lot of the one liners and things my

516
00:28:40,200 --> 00:28:44,440
Speaker 1: dad was totally capable of, and some of the storylines

517
00:28:44,480 --> 00:28:47,720
Speaker 1: even but my mom was really a great inspiration.

518
00:28:48,640 --> 00:28:51,280
Speaker 5: Let's take a quick pause for a message from our sponsor,

519
00:29:00,120 --> 00:29:02,320
Speaker 5: and we're back on the Bobby cast.

520
00:29:02,880 --> 00:29:05,560
Speaker 1: We invested in a restaurant. Oh so you're not very

521
00:29:05,560 --> 00:29:07,680
Speaker 1: bright like me. I know, I know.

522
00:29:08,000 --> 00:29:11,280
Speaker 2: We are getting some residual checks, but it is nowhere

523
00:29:11,320 --> 00:29:14,000
Speaker 2: near where maybe I hoped it would be. And people

524
00:29:14,040 --> 00:29:16,960
Speaker 2: had said to me, don't jump into a restaurant because

525
00:29:16,960 --> 00:29:19,640
Speaker 2: they often don't make money. Right, so why are you

526
00:29:19,800 --> 00:29:22,120
Speaker 2: doing your like me? I just jumped in as a team,

527
00:29:22,240 --> 00:29:24,440
Speaker 2: as a part of one. But you're opening your own diners.

528
00:29:24,440 --> 00:29:26,680
Speaker 2: You shouldn't do it for money. Well, that's a good

529
00:29:26,680 --> 00:29:28,960
Speaker 2: philosophy of life, right. The best things that come to

530
00:29:29,080 --> 00:29:33,960
Speaker 2: us are never because we needed the money. I quit

531
00:29:34,040 --> 00:29:36,840
Speaker 2: Everybody Loves Raymond twice before it went on the air

532
00:29:37,400 --> 00:29:39,000
Speaker 2: because I cared about it.

533
00:29:39,040 --> 00:29:43,600
Speaker 1: I loved the business so much. I love every part

534
00:29:43,600 --> 00:29:47,880
Speaker 1: of show business except the business. But I loved doing

535
00:29:47,920 --> 00:29:51,720
Speaker 1: plays and just being trying to be funny my whole life.

536
00:29:51,880 --> 00:29:54,720
Speaker 1: High school. I don't know if you were you ever

537
00:29:54,760 --> 00:29:56,960
Speaker 1: in the school place I was. I was Danny Zuko

538
00:29:57,000 --> 00:30:01,080
Speaker 1: and Greece. Time of your life. It is the most

539
00:30:01,120 --> 00:30:04,560
Speaker 1: fun that moment where you see your name on the

540
00:30:04,600 --> 00:30:07,240
Speaker 1: list that you made it, that you were cast. We

541
00:30:07,440 --> 00:30:10,600
Speaker 1: chase that feeling the rest of our life. Because nothing

542
00:30:10,640 --> 00:30:13,840
Speaker 1: felt as validating or as good or proud of yourself

543
00:30:13,880 --> 00:30:18,040
Speaker 1: and just the feeling that you belonged. It's a long

544
00:30:18,080 --> 00:30:22,760
Speaker 1: winded way of saying, I invest in restaurants, and I've

545
00:30:22,760 --> 00:30:24,840
Speaker 1: been doing it for like twenty years. So you've invested

546
00:30:24,880 --> 00:30:28,600
Speaker 1: in multiple restaurants, at least twenty five thirty restaurants. Wow,

547
00:30:28,760 --> 00:30:33,920
Speaker 1: because I'm really not very bright. But my wife and

548
00:30:33,920 --> 00:30:36,800
Speaker 1: I we support the arts. So just like I'm talking

549
00:30:36,800 --> 00:30:40,880
Speaker 1: about the high school play, we support arts education in school.

550
00:30:40,960 --> 00:30:44,240
Speaker 1: It's the greatest thing in our lives that we have

551
00:30:44,360 --> 00:30:49,719
Speaker 1: that background that made us who we are today. And

552
00:30:49,800 --> 00:30:54,680
Speaker 1: so restaurants to me, chefs are artists too. It's my

553
00:30:54,800 --> 00:30:58,680
Speaker 1: favorite because we get to eat it the work. This

554
00:30:58,800 --> 00:31:02,080
Speaker 1: restaurant is under you, like this is yours is the

555
00:31:02,080 --> 00:31:04,560
Speaker 1: first one I'm building from the ground. Voul. Yeah, why

556
00:31:04,880 --> 00:31:06,760
Speaker 1: just now are you doing your own? I wanted it

557
00:31:06,800 --> 00:31:11,520
Speaker 1: for years because I went to in the seventy feedfill

558
00:31:11,600 --> 00:31:15,400
Speaker 1: we filmed in Maine, and I went to a little

559
00:31:15,440 --> 00:31:18,440
Speaker 1: diner in Biddeford, Maine. I don't know if you saw

560
00:31:18,440 --> 00:31:22,440
Speaker 1: that episode, but it's an old railroad dining car that

561
00:31:22,600 --> 00:31:26,200
Speaker 1: was bought by the engineer after it went out of commission.

562
00:31:27,000 --> 00:31:30,280
Speaker 1: He put it on a vacant lot, left the menu

563
00:31:30,320 --> 00:31:32,720
Speaker 1: exactly it as is because he loved the dining car

564
00:31:32,760 --> 00:31:35,160
Speaker 1: in the train. So it's fifteen seats at a counter.

565
00:31:35,240 --> 00:31:37,960
Speaker 1: That's all it is. Now the old man dies and

566
00:31:38,000 --> 00:31:40,160
Speaker 1: it sits empty for a while. Two chefs from the

567
00:31:40,200 --> 00:31:42,800
Speaker 1: Grammercy Tavern, one of the best restaurants in New York City,

568
00:31:42,800 --> 00:31:45,480
Speaker 1: they come up. They take over this thing. They leave

569
00:31:45,520 --> 00:31:49,520
Speaker 1: the menu exactly the same, but they elevate it by

570
00:31:49,840 --> 00:31:53,120
Speaker 1: using the best possible ingredients, the best eggs they could find,

571
00:31:53,280 --> 00:31:57,800
Speaker 1: the best bread they could make, the best condiments, homemade everything,

572
00:31:59,480 --> 00:32:02,600
Speaker 1: just elevating the diner experience. What if you had the

573
00:32:02,640 --> 00:32:06,600
Speaker 1: best waffle you ever had? So there it is, and

574
00:32:06,760 --> 00:32:09,560
Speaker 1: I eat there, and I swear it stayed with me

575
00:32:09,640 --> 00:32:11,520
Speaker 1: that whole season, and I went around the world, right

576
00:32:11,640 --> 00:32:14,120
Speaker 1: like you kept thinking about that one experience. Yes, because

577
00:32:14,320 --> 00:32:18,280
Speaker 1: it was like that ratitui moment where the critic eats

578
00:32:18,320 --> 00:32:20,520
Speaker 1: the ratitude at the end and what happens. He zooms

579
00:32:20,560 --> 00:32:24,040
Speaker 1: back to childhood and it's his mom making him that

580
00:32:24,120 --> 00:32:26,840
Speaker 1: same dish. So we know diner food, by by the way.

581
00:32:26,960 --> 00:32:30,360
Speaker 1: The guy goes, I go, this is incredible. This is

582
00:32:30,400 --> 00:32:33,560
Speaker 1: such an achievement what you've done here, because every single

583
00:32:33,760 --> 00:32:35,680
Speaker 1: thing I had at the diner that day was the

584
00:32:35,680 --> 00:32:38,880
Speaker 1: best of that thing I ever had. He goes, well,

585
00:32:38,880 --> 00:32:41,520
Speaker 1: it's a pretty low bar meaning diner food. What's the

586
00:32:41,520 --> 00:32:45,760
Speaker 1: big No, No, no, it's the highest bar. Why because we

587
00:32:45,800 --> 00:32:48,320
Speaker 1: all know this food. Every one of us is a

588
00:32:48,360 --> 00:32:52,400
Speaker 1: diner expert, because it's with us, our whole lives. That

589
00:32:53,560 --> 00:32:56,880
Speaker 1: thing about seeing your name on the list that you

590
00:32:56,960 --> 00:33:00,000
Speaker 1: made it into the school play, it's actually the same

591
00:33:00,720 --> 00:33:05,360
Speaker 1: that transportation back to childhood. That's what happens when you

592
00:33:05,400 --> 00:33:10,000
Speaker 1: eat an amazing burger in a diner or a milkshake.

593
00:33:11,040 --> 00:33:13,280
Speaker 2: Right, So what kind of standards are you gonna put

594
00:33:13,360 --> 00:33:16,080
Speaker 2: this is your own diner. But yeah, you've been everywhere, Yes,

595
00:33:16,600 --> 00:33:18,280
Speaker 2: you've even been to what you say, the greatest diner

596
00:33:18,280 --> 00:33:19,200
Speaker 2: that you've ever experienced.

597
00:33:19,600 --> 00:33:21,080
Speaker 1: What kind of standards are you are you holding to

598
00:33:21,120 --> 00:33:22,880
Speaker 1: your own diner? We want to make the best diner

599
00:33:22,920 --> 00:33:25,960
Speaker 1: in the world. It's really that simple. That is the goal.

600
00:33:26,960 --> 00:33:29,440
Speaker 1: I don't know if we can achieve that, but I

601
00:33:29,520 --> 00:33:32,440
Speaker 1: have one of the best chefs in America behind it,

602
00:33:32,480 --> 00:33:35,840
Speaker 1: which is her name is Nancy Silverton and She has

603
00:33:35,920 --> 00:33:39,520
Speaker 1: some amazing restaurants in La. She invented Labre of Bakery,

604
00:33:39,560 --> 00:33:45,480
Speaker 1: which is kind of worldwide. M I just her palette

605
00:33:45,520 --> 00:33:51,640
Speaker 1: is unbelievable. Excuse me. I got excited talking about the diner.

606
00:33:54,520 --> 00:33:57,720
Speaker 1: So when I came home from Maine. She lives in

607
00:33:57,760 --> 00:34:00,560
Speaker 1: my neighborhood. I said, told her all about could we

608
00:34:00,560 --> 00:34:02,360
Speaker 1: have something like this in our neighborhood. She was in

609
00:34:02,440 --> 00:34:04,920
Speaker 1: like that. We've been friends for thirty years because I

610
00:34:04,960 --> 00:34:08,600
Speaker 1: invested in Motza and a couple of who are the places,

611
00:34:08,880 --> 00:34:12,120
Speaker 1: and we're friends. She was in. She gets it. We

612
00:34:12,160 --> 00:34:14,440
Speaker 1: want to keep our neighborhood. We have this little Mayberry

613
00:34:14,480 --> 00:34:19,960
Speaker 1: street in the center of our town called the Larchmont Boulevard,

614
00:34:20,040 --> 00:34:23,759
Speaker 1: and I see it gentrifying. I see it starting to

615
00:34:23,840 --> 00:34:26,680
Speaker 1: load up with a lot of stores that I don't know.

616
00:34:27,719 --> 00:34:29,759
Speaker 1: I don't know who go. I don't never you must

617
00:34:29,800 --> 00:34:32,960
Speaker 1: have this here, a lot of chochkey stores and little

618
00:34:33,000 --> 00:34:37,960
Speaker 1: perfumeries and stuff that there's nobody ever in there, and

619
00:34:38,400 --> 00:34:41,160
Speaker 1: the soul of your neighborhood can go. The diners are

620
00:34:41,160 --> 00:34:44,160
Speaker 1: disappearing from America. I don't know what your diner scene

621
00:34:44,200 --> 00:34:46,560
Speaker 1: is like here in Nashville. In the South, it's a

622
00:34:46,600 --> 00:34:49,439
Speaker 1: lot of waffle house that's like a diner, so it's

623
00:34:49,600 --> 00:34:54,279
Speaker 1: like it's diner esque, but I think you go and

624
00:34:54,320 --> 00:34:58,799
Speaker 1: it's comfortable very much. So we're not talking about the

625
00:34:58,840 --> 00:35:01,000
Speaker 1: best food you ever had.

626
00:35:01,760 --> 00:35:03,879
Speaker 2: You're talking about the most familiar food you ever had,

627
00:35:03,920 --> 00:35:07,000
Speaker 2: which then makes it the best because you know exactly

628
00:35:07,000 --> 00:35:09,320
Speaker 2: what to expect and you get it and.

629
00:35:09,200 --> 00:35:11,879
Speaker 1: It's a It's like your old sock or something, right,

630
00:35:11,960 --> 00:35:13,719
Speaker 1: It's like that. That's just how it is.

631
00:35:13,800 --> 00:35:16,279
Speaker 2: Yeah, Like I have memories of going to and when

632
00:35:16,280 --> 00:35:18,480
Speaker 2: I went to college, I was working full time and

633
00:35:18,560 --> 00:35:20,160
Speaker 2: driving an hour two and from work, and I would

634
00:35:20,160 --> 00:35:23,600
Speaker 2: stop at a waffle house. And this is not a

635
00:35:23,600 --> 00:35:26,560
Speaker 2: waffle house plug, not a sponsor. But my association with

636
00:35:26,680 --> 00:35:29,640
Speaker 2: that place is not that it was a five star

637
00:35:30,400 --> 00:35:32,120
Speaker 2: the greatest food ever why we go, but it was

638
00:35:32,160 --> 00:35:35,560
Speaker 2: like the greatest time of my life, and I connect

639
00:35:35,600 --> 00:35:36,000
Speaker 2: it to that.

640
00:35:36,080 --> 00:35:38,040
Speaker 1: So when I drive by that, I still feel that.

641
00:35:38,160 --> 00:35:44,560
Speaker 2: It's It's what I imagine your motivation is for creating

642
00:35:44,600 --> 00:35:46,360
Speaker 2: your own You're creating community.

643
00:35:46,440 --> 00:35:49,920
Speaker 1: Diners are centers of the community, and if that disappears,

644
00:35:49,960 --> 00:35:52,480
Speaker 1: maybe we lose our community, and then maybe we lose

645
00:35:52,960 --> 00:35:54,960
Speaker 1: our town. And maybe we lose our country.

646
00:35:55,719 --> 00:35:57,480
Speaker 2: Do you feel like you've gotten to be more of

647
00:35:57,560 --> 00:35:59,600
Speaker 2: a and I say this in a positive way, food snob.

648
00:36:00,080 --> 00:36:03,440
Speaker 2: You have become completely Even your brand is now food

649
00:36:03,680 --> 00:36:05,279
Speaker 2: because I think you're probably doing this before I even

650
00:36:05,320 --> 00:36:06,760
Speaker 2: knew you were into food before feed.

651
00:36:06,520 --> 00:36:08,560
Speaker 1: Fill, before the cook books. I loved it.

652
00:36:08,719 --> 00:36:11,000
Speaker 2: Yes, so you've been doing it a long time. I

653
00:36:11,000 --> 00:36:12,720
Speaker 2: have only known you to do it for a decade

654
00:36:12,840 --> 00:36:13,040
Speaker 2: or so.

655
00:36:14,160 --> 00:36:17,800
Speaker 1: I don't think I'm a snob. I'm a lover of food,

656
00:36:17,800 --> 00:36:20,879
Speaker 1: an enthusiast. Yes, certain things are better than others. Yes,

657
00:36:20,960 --> 00:36:24,440
Speaker 1: certain things like I don't think you know. Once you

658
00:36:24,600 --> 00:36:28,879
Speaker 1: learn a little bit about let's say fast food, you're

659
00:36:28,920 --> 00:36:29,680
Speaker 1: not going.

660
00:36:30,400 --> 00:36:42,880
Speaker 3: The Bobby Cast will be right back. This is the

661
00:36:42,880 --> 00:36:43,640
Speaker 3: Bobby Cast.

662
00:36:44,520 --> 00:36:47,600
Speaker 2: Where in your life did the food infatuation happen. Was

663
00:36:47,640 --> 00:36:50,279
Speaker 2: it as a kid and then you were able to

664
00:36:51,760 --> 00:36:56,360
Speaker 2: really invest yourself in once you became, you know, successful

665
00:36:56,360 --> 00:36:58,360
Speaker 2: in your career or did you find a love for

666
00:36:58,440 --> 00:37:01,440
Speaker 2: it as you were becoming successful in your career.

667
00:37:01,480 --> 00:37:04,520
Speaker 1: I think I always loved it. I just growing up

668
00:37:04,719 --> 00:37:06,880
Speaker 1: in my parents' house, I was not in an environment

669
00:37:06,960 --> 00:37:09,520
Speaker 1: where this love was able to flourish. Why do you

670
00:37:09,520 --> 00:37:12,480
Speaker 1: say that what was home like, uh not good food not.

671
00:37:12,920 --> 00:37:14,840
Speaker 1: Both parents worked, We didn't have a lot of money.

672
00:37:14,960 --> 00:37:18,239
Speaker 1: My mom barely had time to get home and make

673
00:37:18,360 --> 00:37:21,360
Speaker 1: anything for the two monkeys that she had as children.

674
00:37:21,719 --> 00:37:28,200
Speaker 1: And you know, nor did she have the real talent

675
00:37:28,320 --> 00:37:31,640
Speaker 1: or passion for doing it. So I love my mother.

676
00:37:32,040 --> 00:37:34,680
Speaker 1: I loved my father. They were the most supportive, greatest

677
00:37:34,719 --> 00:37:39,000
Speaker 1: people in the world. They just weren't chefs. A steak

678
00:37:39,760 --> 00:37:45,840
Speaker 1: was punishment because it was the driest, cheapest cut of

679
00:37:45,880 --> 00:37:50,240
Speaker 1: meat that they could afford. My mom had a setting

680
00:37:50,280 --> 00:37:53,760
Speaker 1: on the oven for shoe that's when it was done.

681
00:37:53,920 --> 00:37:57,520
Speaker 1: And we ate this and we couldn't it hurt my

682
00:37:57,640 --> 00:37:59,920
Speaker 1: jaws as a six year old to true this thing,

683
00:38:00,160 --> 00:38:03,160
Speaker 1: and I wasn't allowed to leave the table until I finished,

684
00:38:03,560 --> 00:38:08,960
Speaker 1: so a punishment. When I moved into New York City

685
00:38:09,000 --> 00:38:12,160
Speaker 1: after college, some friends of mine said, come on where

686
00:38:12,200 --> 00:38:15,240
Speaker 1: the boss has taken us to the steakhouse, Gallagher Steakhouse

687
00:38:15,280 --> 00:38:19,240
Speaker 1: in Midtown. Great steakhouse. I said, oh, I don't like steak.

688
00:38:20,280 --> 00:38:23,239
Speaker 1: They said, well, you should come anyway, because this is

689
00:38:23,280 --> 00:38:25,560
Speaker 1: the best one. You probably have never had a steak life.

690
00:38:25,960 --> 00:38:29,960
Speaker 1: I said, who would like steak from where? I? Was

691
00:38:30,000 --> 00:38:34,359
Speaker 1: coming from. Why would you eat this? They said, come,

692
00:38:34,360 --> 00:38:36,640
Speaker 1: maybe you'll get something else if you don't like it. Well,

693
00:38:36,680 --> 00:38:41,400
Speaker 1: this steak came out to the table, sizzling, thick, juicy, red,

694
00:38:41,600 --> 00:38:43,839
Speaker 1: charred on the outside. The most gorgeous thing you ever

695
00:38:43,880 --> 00:38:48,680
Speaker 1: saw is say, I literally said, that's steak. You recognize it?

696
00:38:49,440 --> 00:38:53,760
Speaker 1: Not in my life twenty three years old before that happened.

697
00:38:54,719 --> 00:38:57,160
Speaker 1: And then you know, it's like in the Wizard of

698
00:38:57,160 --> 00:38:59,080
Speaker 1: Oz when she opens the door and now the movie's

699
00:38:59,080 --> 00:39:02,759
Speaker 1: in color. That was an epiphany. That was one of them.

700
00:39:02,840 --> 00:39:05,399
Speaker 1: The other was I never had garlic before I went

701
00:39:05,440 --> 00:39:08,239
Speaker 1: to college. I had pasta with sauce. The kids are like,

702
00:39:08,280 --> 00:39:10,320
Speaker 1: why are you freaking out? Because it's the most delicious

703
00:39:10,320 --> 00:39:13,360
Speaker 1: thing I ever had. It's just pasta and sauce. I said, no, no, no,

704
00:39:13,960 --> 00:39:15,879
Speaker 1: what are these chopped up little white bits in there?

705
00:39:16,160 --> 00:39:19,719
Speaker 1: They said, what garlic? I said, that's garlic. I heard

706
00:39:19,719 --> 00:39:20,560
Speaker 1: of it, never had it.

707
00:39:21,680 --> 00:39:24,680
Speaker 2: Did you have like an exploration of food when you

708
00:39:24,719 --> 00:39:26,600
Speaker 2: started to realize there were more foods out there. It

709
00:39:26,600 --> 00:39:28,120
Speaker 2: almost feels like kids when they go to college and

710
00:39:28,120 --> 00:39:30,560
Speaker 2: they're like drugs and sex and all this stuff they

711
00:39:30,560 --> 00:39:32,000
Speaker 2: didn't get to do when that was food.

712
00:39:32,040 --> 00:39:37,839
Speaker 1: You're a mistake in garlic. Yes, that was a nice boy. Yes, uh, well,

713
00:39:37,880 --> 00:39:43,120
Speaker 1: I loved I just loved exploring. And then also in

714
00:39:43,120 --> 00:39:46,120
Speaker 1: my early twenties, I got a courier flight to Europe,

715
00:39:46,320 --> 00:39:50,880
Speaker 1: and boy was that change. Curier flight means you're a

716
00:39:51,120 --> 00:39:55,000
Speaker 1: courier someone who's taking stuff over. So you were taking

717
00:39:55,040 --> 00:39:58,640
Speaker 1: something over of somebody, and it was DHL DHL. Before

718
00:39:58,680 --> 00:40:03,920
Speaker 1: they had cargo planes, I'm talking nineteen eighty three, they

719
00:40:03,960 --> 00:40:07,840
Speaker 1: would send all their cargo as a passenger's excess baggage.

720
00:40:08,200 --> 00:40:11,160
Speaker 1: You were only in charge of the luggage tags, thirty

721
00:40:11,200 --> 00:40:15,239
Speaker 1: of them in an envelope like this. And when you

722
00:40:15,320 --> 00:40:18,520
Speaker 1: get off the plane in let's say Paris, there's going

723
00:40:18,560 --> 00:40:20,640
Speaker 1: to be a guy holding a DHL sign and you

724
00:40:20,680 --> 00:40:23,040
Speaker 1: give him the luggage tags. Your flight is free. You're

725
00:40:23,040 --> 00:40:25,760
Speaker 1: going to do it back to New York two weeks later.

726
00:40:26,000 --> 00:40:28,720
Speaker 1: That's your time. They're not paying you, but the flight

727
00:40:28,800 --> 00:40:32,120
Speaker 1: is free. You're like, this is the best job in

728
00:40:32,160 --> 00:40:36,080
Speaker 1: the world. I had maybe two hundred dollars to spend

729
00:40:36,120 --> 00:40:39,480
Speaker 1: for the two weeks. I didn't have much money at all,

730
00:40:39,560 --> 00:40:43,080
Speaker 1: but oh my god, you get a baguette and some cheese,

731
00:40:43,120 --> 00:40:44,960
Speaker 1: in Paris. You sit in the park, You're King Louis.

732
00:40:45,000 --> 00:40:52,000
Speaker 1: You're as good as anybody. And the point was made clear. Travel, travel, travel, travel,

733
00:40:52,280 --> 00:40:54,400
Speaker 1: and the food and when I got other food in that,

734
00:40:54,520 --> 00:40:57,520
Speaker 1: I mean mind blown. It's the most mind expanding thing

735
00:40:57,560 --> 00:40:59,600
Speaker 1: we can do in life, is travel. Do you like

736
00:40:59,640 --> 00:41:00,479
Speaker 1: to go? Yeah?

737
00:41:00,520 --> 00:41:04,279
Speaker 2: And I've only in the past seven eight years. Yeah,

738
00:41:04,640 --> 00:41:07,279
Speaker 2: had the money to travel. I never travel growing up.

739
00:41:07,320 --> 00:41:09,279
Speaker 2: I grew up in a very rural town in Arkansas. Yes,

740
00:41:09,520 --> 00:41:13,200
Speaker 2: never left the state, so never traveled. And then I

741
00:41:13,239 --> 00:41:15,759
Speaker 2: started traveling to places that I saw on television because

742
00:41:15,760 --> 00:41:16,680
Speaker 2: I would go by myself.

743
00:41:17,040 --> 00:41:17,440
Speaker 1: Wow.

744
00:41:17,560 --> 00:41:20,840
Speaker 2: So I went to London because friends went to London

745
00:41:21,120 --> 00:41:24,120
Speaker 2: and did that. I went to Japan because Full House

746
00:41:24,680 --> 00:41:25,279
Speaker 2: Is that right?

747
00:41:25,440 --> 00:41:25,640
Speaker 1: Yeah?

748
00:41:25,680 --> 00:41:28,200
Speaker 2: I went to Hawaii because Brady Bunch, you know when

749
00:41:28,360 --> 00:41:29,759
Speaker 2: they have to throw the relay.

750
00:41:29,880 --> 00:41:31,520
Speaker 1: I guess these shows make a difference.

751
00:41:31,640 --> 00:41:35,320
Speaker 2: I went to Italy because of Raymond in the episode

752
00:41:35,320 --> 00:41:37,880
Speaker 2: where he eats the because I feel like and just

753
00:41:37,960 --> 00:41:42,200
Speaker 2: generally I'm that version kind of cranky and like didn't

754
00:41:42,239 --> 00:41:43,680
Speaker 2: want to really do anything.

755
00:41:43,760 --> 00:41:45,160
Speaker 1: I want to be comfortable and want to know.

756
00:41:45,480 --> 00:41:48,120
Speaker 2: Yeah, And there's the episode specifically, and I remember the

757
00:41:48,120 --> 00:41:51,759
Speaker 2: moment because I, you know, with Italy. I associate this

758
00:41:51,800 --> 00:41:54,880
Speaker 2: specific episode where Raymond's like, it's like pizza and he's like,

759
00:41:54,880 --> 00:41:56,320
Speaker 2: give me, let me, let me have another piece, and

760
00:41:56,320 --> 00:41:58,759
Speaker 2: he's standing at that good night. That's like, that is

761
00:41:58,840 --> 00:41:59,160
Speaker 2: why I.

762
00:41:59,080 --> 00:42:01,120
Speaker 1: Went to Italy for the first time. And what'd you think?

763
00:42:02,520 --> 00:42:05,560
Speaker 2: I thought people were lying honestly because it sounds too

764
00:42:05,600 --> 00:42:08,680
Speaker 2: good to be true. Two things, Yeah, how flavorful. It's

765
00:42:08,840 --> 00:42:11,120
Speaker 2: very much a full, different flavor of the food. And

766
00:42:11,160 --> 00:42:13,400
Speaker 2: also people would say, you can eat all this food

767
00:42:13,840 --> 00:42:15,839
Speaker 2: and not put on weight, like you could eat carbs

768
00:42:15,840 --> 00:42:17,239
Speaker 2: and not put on weight. And I'm like, there's no way,

769
00:42:17,320 --> 00:42:19,960
Speaker 2: Like this is just what people say, and I found

770
00:42:19,960 --> 00:42:24,960
Speaker 2: that it was exactly right. One, it's a completely different,

771
00:42:25,040 --> 00:42:28,880
Speaker 2: full flavor, one that I've never experienced, a freshness, an

772
00:42:29,040 --> 00:42:33,160
Speaker 2: ingredient freshness, preach and again, and I'm not somebody who

773
00:42:33,160 --> 00:42:35,920
Speaker 2: knows a lot about food. And then I would always

774
00:42:35,920 --> 00:42:38,359
Speaker 2: try to stay away from the pastas or the big

775
00:42:38,360 --> 00:42:40,520
Speaker 2: carbs because I would have, you know, a television show

776
00:42:40,600 --> 00:42:44,000
Speaker 2: and got to stay thin. And yeah, it didn't matter

777
00:42:44,160 --> 00:42:46,839
Speaker 2: because the ingredients were so fresh. You could eat all

778
00:42:46,880 --> 00:42:50,000
Speaker 2: the pasta you wanted and you're all good it was.

779
00:42:50,600 --> 00:42:54,239
Speaker 1: It blew my mind. What about people who go to

780
00:42:54,520 --> 00:42:56,839
Speaker 1: Italy and look for the McDonald's and eat.

781
00:42:56,920 --> 00:42:58,560
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's crazy, and I think I would have been

782
00:42:58,600 --> 00:43:01,960
Speaker 2: that if I had not discovered even the gas stations.

783
00:43:02,200 --> 00:43:04,799
Speaker 1: It's right, it's you stop at a gas station on

784
00:43:04,840 --> 00:43:07,840
Speaker 1: the road, there's a full pork ketta behind the glass.

785
00:43:07,960 --> 00:43:09,719
Speaker 1: Don't even know what porqette is, but there's one of those.

786
00:43:09,760 --> 00:43:13,120
Speaker 1: That's right. It's a it's a like a roast pig. Oh, yeah,

787
00:43:13,120 --> 00:43:16,640
Speaker 1: there's that. They roll in. They have spices and pork

788
00:43:16,719 --> 00:43:17,880
Speaker 1: ketta por ketta.

789
00:43:18,000 --> 00:43:23,239
Speaker 2: Yes, the gas better food than most rest Yes, yeah,

790
00:43:23,280 --> 00:43:25,520
Speaker 2: I know it's and it's a way of life. If

791
00:43:25,560 --> 00:43:27,680
Speaker 2: people would have said that to me, I would have said,

792
00:43:27,719 --> 00:43:31,000
Speaker 2: you're lying, yes, But then I experienced it and we go.

793
00:43:31,120 --> 00:43:32,920
Speaker 2: We've been back. It's like one of our favorite places

794
00:43:32,920 --> 00:43:34,960
Speaker 2: to go now, my wife and me too, because it

795
00:43:35,000 --> 00:43:36,080
Speaker 2: is the number one for me.

796
00:43:36,200 --> 00:43:39,880
Speaker 1: Yeah. Uh. That episode of Raymond that you just mentioned

797
00:43:40,360 --> 00:43:44,799
Speaker 1: actually led me to somebody feed field because ray when

798
00:43:44,840 --> 00:43:47,400
Speaker 1: I asked him in between season one and two of

799
00:43:47,480 --> 00:43:51,160
Speaker 1: the show where he was going on his hiatus, he said,

800
00:43:51,280 --> 00:43:54,120
Speaker 1: I go to the Jersey toore And I said, well,

801
00:43:54,160 --> 00:43:56,400
Speaker 1: that's nice. Have you ever been to Europe? Because it

802
00:43:56,560 --> 00:43:59,560
Speaker 1: changed my life? Say, isn't there? I said, why not?

803
00:43:59,600 --> 00:44:03,520
Speaker 1: He goes. I like the Jersey Shore, so like all

804
00:44:03,560 --> 00:44:06,160
Speaker 1: of us, right, we need that little push sometimes. I said, oh,

805
00:44:06,320 --> 00:44:07,799
Speaker 1: right then and there, I go, oh, we should do

806
00:44:07,800 --> 00:44:10,200
Speaker 1: an episode. Here's what do you mean. We should do

807
00:44:10,200 --> 00:44:12,560
Speaker 1: an episode where we send you to Italy as you

808
00:44:12,680 --> 00:44:16,520
Speaker 1: and you come back as me, someone who's excited about travel,

809
00:44:16,560 --> 00:44:19,000
Speaker 1: and especially Italy and the food in Italy and the

810
00:44:19,000 --> 00:44:23,080
Speaker 1: people in Italy and Italy. Took me three or four

811
00:44:23,200 --> 00:44:27,360
Speaker 1: years to convince him to get on that plane. He

812
00:44:27,360 --> 00:44:29,600
Speaker 1: didn't want to fly either, he's a little afraid of flying.

813
00:44:31,000 --> 00:44:33,799
Speaker 1: But when he went. The best part of that episode

814
00:44:35,160 --> 00:44:37,399
Speaker 1: was the arc of the character that I wrote, God

815
00:44:37,440 --> 00:44:39,239
Speaker 1: doesn't want to go, complains the whole time, and then

816
00:44:39,320 --> 00:44:42,960
Speaker 1: gets it. I feel like I lived that arc too.

817
00:44:43,040 --> 00:44:47,840
Speaker 1: That's great. Yeah, I saw it happened to my friend Ray.

818
00:44:47,960 --> 00:44:51,920
Speaker 1: He comes running up to me, Phil, have you had Gilato?

819
00:44:53,800 --> 00:44:56,680
Speaker 1: And I saw him change and now he goes all

820
00:44:56,719 --> 00:44:58,759
Speaker 1: the time. Right then and there, This was the year

821
00:44:58,800 --> 00:45:03,799
Speaker 1: two thousand. I said, oh, wow, what if I could

822
00:45:03,840 --> 00:45:07,160
Speaker 1: do this for other people? You know, there's no greater

823
00:45:07,280 --> 00:45:09,520
Speaker 1: high than turning people onto stuff you like. I'm guessing

824
00:45:09,560 --> 00:45:12,160
Speaker 1: that's why you do what you do, right, So we

825
00:45:12,200 --> 00:45:14,560
Speaker 1: all do this to an extent. It's great. That's how

826
00:45:14,560 --> 00:45:18,520
Speaker 1: you make friends, that's how you know. It's just my

827
00:45:18,600 --> 00:45:22,200
Speaker 1: tombstone will say he tasted everything. You should try it right.

828
00:45:23,239 --> 00:45:25,600
Speaker 2: Whenever you call this book Phill's favorites, because it's your

829
00:45:25,640 --> 00:45:29,600
Speaker 2: second cookbook, yes, but these Phils parentheses second favorites.

830
00:45:30,000 --> 00:45:34,239
Speaker 1: Oh that's funny. The first cookbook was called Somebody feed

831
00:45:34,280 --> 00:45:36,560
Speaker 1: Filled the Book, and it covered the first four seasons

832
00:45:36,560 --> 00:45:39,239
Speaker 1: of the show, the most requested recipes from everywhere we went.

833
00:45:40,200 --> 00:45:43,400
Speaker 1: And that's great. For the second one, we're covering the

834
00:45:43,480 --> 00:45:46,080
Speaker 1: latest four seasons of the show. But I wanted to

835
00:45:46,239 --> 00:45:50,480
Speaker 1: add friends, family, and the restaurants that I love in

836
00:45:50,520 --> 00:45:52,440
Speaker 1: my life that we haven't had on the show. So

837
00:45:52,600 --> 00:45:55,440
Speaker 1: in a way it is actually my favorite recipes.

838
00:45:56,920 --> 00:45:58,759
Speaker 2: Is it like when you record an album and let's

839
00:45:58,760 --> 00:46:00,880
Speaker 2: say some of my artist friends, they'll work thirty songs

840
00:46:00,880 --> 00:46:03,120
Speaker 2: and put twelve on there in the cookbook? Did you

841
00:46:03,160 --> 00:46:05,279
Speaker 2: have all these recipes and you slowly had to like

842
00:46:05,320 --> 00:46:06,360
Speaker 2: weed out the ones.

843
00:46:06,280 --> 00:46:08,200
Speaker 1: Put everything in? Oh you did? Oh yeah? And the

844
00:46:08,239 --> 00:46:09,879
Speaker 1: publishers are more and more and more. I'm like, oh,

845
00:46:09,880 --> 00:46:12,520
Speaker 1: how many can we have? You should have sixty recipes.

846
00:46:12,680 --> 00:46:15,719
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, I think we can do it. And yes,

847
00:46:15,800 --> 00:46:20,040
Speaker 1: I know there's enough for another book. U. But the

848
00:46:20,080 --> 00:46:23,399
Speaker 1: main thing is I love doing the show. The show

849
00:46:23,480 --> 00:46:27,720
Speaker 1: generates everything else for me, like the live tour, the books.

850
00:46:28,280 --> 00:46:29,640
Speaker 1: How'd you like doing the travel show? Because I had

851
00:46:29,680 --> 00:46:32,360
Speaker 1: one for a while and I think my crew was

852
00:46:32,360 --> 00:46:35,200
Speaker 1: a little too big. Really, how many people did you have?

853
00:46:35,760 --> 00:46:38,000
Speaker 1: Like fourteen? Yeah, that's a little big.

854
00:46:38,040 --> 00:46:40,440
Speaker 2: It felt a little large to where it was on

855
00:46:40,520 --> 00:46:43,520
Speaker 2: that geo. Oh yeah yeah, And so we traveled. It

856
00:46:43,560 --> 00:46:46,960
Speaker 2: was domestically, yes, I just felt like we couldn't get

857
00:46:47,000 --> 00:46:49,000
Speaker 2: to like the core of like the person we were

858
00:46:49,040 --> 00:46:50,520
Speaker 2: trying because of what I would do is I would

859
00:46:50,520 --> 00:46:53,279
Speaker 2: go and it was kind of a version of what

860
00:46:53,360 --> 00:46:56,759
Speaker 2: Mike Roade did, but kind of jackass but then kind

861
00:46:56,840 --> 00:46:58,840
Speaker 2: of who I am. Right, It was like an amalgamation

862
00:46:58,880 --> 00:47:01,600
Speaker 2: of like my favorite things. Yes, but how I would

863
00:47:01,640 --> 00:47:06,840
Speaker 2: present it and I found that our crew kept it

864
00:47:07,160 --> 00:47:07,880
Speaker 2: created a bit.

865
00:47:07,719 --> 00:47:08,320
Speaker 1: Of a barrier.

866
00:47:08,360 --> 00:47:10,040
Speaker 2: I was wondering, like, what was your cruise eyes when

867
00:47:10,080 --> 00:47:12,959
Speaker 2: doing these shows because it does feel so intimate we have.

868
00:47:12,960 --> 00:47:16,120
Speaker 1: Ten of us, and then we'd pick up the rest locally,

869
00:47:16,760 --> 00:47:19,200
Speaker 1: so we don't need to bring a sound guy because

870
00:47:19,280 --> 00:47:23,399
Speaker 1: sound is kind of objective. It's not the only thing

871
00:47:23,440 --> 00:47:26,960
Speaker 1: that's subjective is how you like the thing shot. So

872
00:47:27,120 --> 00:47:31,800
Speaker 1: three camera guys, local producer, our producer that we're bringing,

873
00:47:32,320 --> 00:47:38,239
Speaker 1: my brother who's the executive producer, and our director. So

874
00:47:38,360 --> 00:47:41,799
Speaker 1: I like having the same bunch of core guys, and

875
00:47:41,840 --> 00:47:47,959
Speaker 1: then we're happy to pick up fixers, transportation, everything else

876
00:47:47,960 --> 00:47:49,920
Speaker 1: we need locally. Would you get tired?

877
00:47:49,920 --> 00:47:51,759
Speaker 2: How many episodes you shoot in a row while being

878
00:47:51,760 --> 00:47:54,479
Speaker 2: out two at a time. Okay, so that's not so bad.

879
00:47:54,600 --> 00:47:56,960
Speaker 1: No. Once we did three and the crew was like,

880
00:47:58,239 --> 00:48:00,920
Speaker 1: you know, it's too much, And of course it is.

881
00:48:01,400 --> 00:48:04,799
Speaker 1: It's not for me. I show up and eat. You

882
00:48:04,920 --> 00:48:09,200
Speaker 1: liked it in the live shows Love why because I

883
00:48:09,239 --> 00:48:13,319
Speaker 1: had the stage craft experience. I had it, And this

884
00:48:13,520 --> 00:48:18,360
Speaker 1: is now combining everything my ability to tell his story

885
00:48:18,719 --> 00:48:22,319
Speaker 1: as a writer combined with the way I know how

886
00:48:22,320 --> 00:48:26,600
Speaker 1: to deliver it. Uh. Did you see Jimmy Kimmel last night?

887
00:48:26,600 --> 00:48:28,719
Speaker 2: I did a chance his talking about his band leader,

888
00:48:29,920 --> 00:48:31,200
Speaker 2: his friend slash band leader.

889
00:48:31,200 --> 00:48:32,960
Speaker 1: I should say that, Yeah, I know, this is this

890
00:48:33,040 --> 00:48:37,000
Speaker 1: is airing a little bit. It's all good, but I

891
00:48:37,000 --> 00:48:41,239
Speaker 1: don't think I've ever seen a more gorgeous, well thought out,

892
00:48:41,320 --> 00:48:44,799
Speaker 1: well delivered. This is extemporaneous. He's doing this.

893
00:48:44,920 --> 00:48:47,719
Speaker 2: While you emotional, which is hard to even seeast his

894
00:48:47,840 --> 00:48:50,640
Speaker 2: best friend from childhood, his whole life.

895
00:48:50,680 --> 00:48:52,640
Speaker 1: I could cry and think about it, but he was.

896
00:48:53,280 --> 00:48:56,640
Speaker 1: I just think he's heroic. Who I've never seen anyone

897
00:48:57,160 --> 00:49:02,960
Speaker 1: deliver like that on TV in a live situation. I

898
00:49:03,480 --> 00:49:08,240
Speaker 1: just thought it was absolutely amazing. Uh, what a gift

899
00:49:09,120 --> 00:49:12,480
Speaker 1: to be able to do that. And in a way,

900
00:49:12,520 --> 00:49:16,920
Speaker 1: he's lucky to have the outlet for it. But you know,

901
00:49:17,160 --> 00:49:18,960
Speaker 1: I think these guys, all the late night guys, I

902
00:49:18,960 --> 00:49:22,000
Speaker 1: think they're doing God's work right now. I think it's important.

903
00:49:22,080 --> 00:49:23,440
Speaker 1: It unites us in a way.

904
00:49:24,080 --> 00:49:27,279
Speaker 2: My hero has always been He's one of my White

905
00:49:27,280 --> 00:49:29,480
Speaker 2: Wells that I haven't met. But I was able to

906
00:49:29,520 --> 00:49:32,080
Speaker 2: watch him on television and see somebody looked a little

907
00:49:32,080 --> 00:49:35,319
Speaker 2: odd and think that guy has sensibilities that are like mine.

908
00:49:35,360 --> 00:49:38,120
Speaker 2: That's a little odd. I'm from the southeast, from the Midwest. Yes,

909
00:49:38,200 --> 00:49:39,080
Speaker 2: it was David Letterman.

910
00:49:39,560 --> 00:49:42,799
Speaker 1: Okay, so Letterman produced Raymond, So I got to know

911
00:49:42,880 --> 00:49:45,080
Speaker 1: him a little. I had to go and meet with

912
00:49:45,200 --> 00:49:48,520
Speaker 1: him to get the job. Can you give me a story?

913
00:49:48,640 --> 00:49:51,520
Speaker 1: I can. Can we take a minute break, take a minute,

914
00:49:51,560 --> 00:49:54,359
Speaker 1: take an hour. I'm an old guy, and take him

915
00:49:54,360 --> 00:49:56,879
Speaker 1: by to the bathroom right there. Thanks, the bathroom right there. Back.

916
00:49:57,320 --> 00:50:01,680
Speaker 5: We'll be right back, David st Let's take a quick

917
00:50:01,760 --> 00:50:13,280
Speaker 5: pause for a message from our sponsor, and we're back

918
00:50:13,520 --> 00:50:14,560
Speaker 5: on the Bobby Cast.

919
00:50:15,600 --> 00:50:18,239
Speaker 1: Okay, give me a great Letterman story to kind of

920
00:50:18,239 --> 00:50:24,479
Speaker 1: wrap us up here. So I'm I go to New York.

921
00:50:24,719 --> 00:50:27,040
Speaker 1: The Letterman Show is still going. I go to the

922
00:50:27,200 --> 00:50:30,719
Speaker 1: Ed Sullivan Theater. I'm like really nervous because I love,

923
00:50:30,880 --> 00:50:33,000
Speaker 1: Like I said, I don't miss an episode of that show.

924
00:50:33,960 --> 00:50:37,600
Speaker 1: You go up to the sixth floor and his assistant says,

925
00:50:38,239 --> 00:50:42,600
Speaker 1: right in there, and I go in. And when you

926
00:50:42,680 --> 00:50:46,080
Speaker 1: go into David Letterman's office, his desk is facing the

927
00:50:46,120 --> 00:50:48,160
Speaker 1: wrong way. In other words, you come in the door

928
00:50:48,200 --> 00:50:51,960
Speaker 1: and you're behind his desk. And I look at this

929
00:50:52,040 --> 00:50:57,680
Speaker 1: and I'll go that's odd. And just then he comes

930
00:50:57,680 --> 00:51:00,960
Speaker 1: in behind me. I go, oh hi, and he goes

931
00:51:01,000 --> 00:51:03,239
Speaker 1: have a seat, and he gestures for me to sit

932
00:51:03,800 --> 00:51:07,120
Speaker 1: at the desk. Behind the desk. I said, not behind

933
00:51:07,160 --> 00:51:10,200
Speaker 1: the desk. He said, absolutely behind the desk, like it's

934
00:51:10,360 --> 00:51:14,480
Speaker 1: my office, my meeting. He and his other producers sit

935
00:51:14,600 --> 00:51:20,160
Speaker 1: in the chairs in front of the desk. So I go, well,

936
00:51:20,200 --> 00:51:21,759
Speaker 1: the first thing I'd like to do is throw you

937
00:51:21,800 --> 00:51:25,080
Speaker 1: all the hell out of my office. And this is

938
00:51:25,120 --> 00:51:33,800
Speaker 1: how seasoned comedy people laugh at a line like that. Huh,

939
00:51:33,960 --> 00:51:37,280
Speaker 1: that's it, and I'm a nervous wreck. David Letterman sits

940
00:51:37,320 --> 00:51:40,640
Speaker 1: to the side. He's sitting in a chair kind of

941
00:51:40,719 --> 00:51:45,239
Speaker 1: like this, but he's leaning it back against a bookcase.

942
00:51:45,320 --> 00:51:50,759
Speaker 4: Now the bookcase has a stereo, and the stereo is

943
00:51:50,920 --> 00:51:56,120
Speaker 4: blasting heavy metal music that they do not turn down.

944
00:51:56,800 --> 00:52:01,960
Speaker 1: So I have to talk like this to them. I

945
00:52:02,040 --> 00:52:04,200
Speaker 1: thought it was the weirdest thing. No one offered to

946
00:52:04,200 --> 00:52:06,279
Speaker 1: take my coat. It was freezing outside. I had a

947
00:52:06,360 --> 00:52:10,120
Speaker 1: winter coat. They just sit there and they're like looking

948
00:52:10,160 --> 00:52:14,080
Speaker 1: at me like this, and they go, so, tell me

949
00:52:14,120 --> 00:52:16,000
Speaker 1: what you think the show is. And I said, well,

950
00:52:16,040 --> 00:52:21,280
Speaker 1: it's basically Ray's personality, and I'm taking the real elements

951
00:52:21,320 --> 00:52:24,560
Speaker 1: of from his actual family because it seems really funny

952
00:52:24,560 --> 00:52:27,040
Speaker 1: to me. And I explained the situation and I said,

953
00:52:27,040 --> 00:52:28,920
Speaker 1: what I don't know, I'm filling in with my family

954
00:52:29,080 --> 00:52:33,799
Speaker 1: and they nod like this, and Letterman goes, uh, just

955
00:52:33,840 --> 00:52:37,720
Speaker 1: don't embarrass us, and I said, oh, that's very nice.

956
00:52:37,800 --> 00:52:39,719
Speaker 1: I said, that's what I tell my kids when I

957
00:52:39,760 --> 00:52:43,120
Speaker 1: drop them off to school every morning. And he goes, huh,

958
00:52:45,320 --> 00:52:50,279
Speaker 1: and I leave that, And you know, they were They

959
00:52:50,320 --> 00:52:52,080
Speaker 1: were in a way treating me as if I had

960
00:52:52,080 --> 00:52:55,759
Speaker 1: the job already, because saying just don't embarrass us is

961
00:52:55,840 --> 00:53:00,759
Speaker 1: like saying, go ahead, go do it. But I gotta

962
00:53:00,800 --> 00:53:04,160
Speaker 1: be honest. That was the audition. I didn't know he

963
00:53:04,280 --> 00:53:09,040
Speaker 1: had to sign off on me. After that initial meeting,

964
00:53:09,520 --> 00:53:12,600
Speaker 1: I heard from David Letterman a grand total in the

965
00:53:12,719 --> 00:53:18,839
Speaker 1: nine years we were on, a grand total of i'd say,

966
00:53:19,000 --> 00:53:23,360
Speaker 1: all together, five minutes worth of time. They were not involved.

967
00:53:23,600 --> 00:53:28,000
Speaker 1: He didn't know really about sitcoms. He would send us

968
00:53:28,000 --> 00:53:31,520
Speaker 1: a top ten list for our gag reel for a

969
00:53:31,600 --> 00:53:34,279
Speaker 1: rap party. At the end of each season. He would

970
00:53:34,320 --> 00:53:38,719
Speaker 1: maybe call and say congratulations on the Emmy. But when

971
00:53:38,760 --> 00:53:41,640
Speaker 1: he was going off the air a few years later himself,

972
00:53:45,160 --> 00:53:47,799
Speaker 1: Ray had an opportunity. He'd been on the show many

973
00:53:47,840 --> 00:53:52,560
Speaker 1: many times since Raymond was on, Ray had the opportunity

974
00:53:52,600 --> 00:53:56,160
Speaker 1: to go on Letterman in the final weeks and say

975
00:53:56,200 --> 00:53:58,640
Speaker 1: thanks right, and I thought, you know what, he gave

976
00:53:58,719 --> 00:54:01,120
Speaker 1: me a pretty good life too. I should at least

977
00:54:01,120 --> 00:54:03,600
Speaker 1: call and leave a message. I call and leave a message.

978
00:54:04,000 --> 00:54:07,440
Speaker 1: Can you tell Dave that I called and I wanted

979
00:54:07,480 --> 00:54:10,280
Speaker 1: to say thank you? Do you know that in that week,

980
00:54:10,400 --> 00:54:14,239
Speaker 1: his last week of being on the air, maybe the busiest,

981
00:54:14,280 --> 00:54:18,760
Speaker 1: most crucial week of his career, he called me back

982
00:54:19,080 --> 00:54:23,080
Speaker 1: and we talked for twenty minutes and he was absolutely

983
00:54:23,160 --> 00:54:27,160
Speaker 1: lovely and charming and gracious. I couldn't have asked for more.

984
00:54:27,200 --> 00:54:29,680
Speaker 1: And I have seen him since then and he's always

985
00:54:29,760 --> 00:54:31,920
Speaker 1: very kind. As a matter of fact, you'll see him

986
00:54:31,960 --> 00:54:33,960
Speaker 1: on the CBS special.

987
00:54:34,080 --> 00:54:37,600
Speaker 2: He's on the special. My final question, how hard was

988
00:54:37,600 --> 00:54:38,320
Speaker 2: it to end the show?

989
00:54:39,600 --> 00:54:44,120
Speaker 1: Well, it's hard because you create a family, meaning the

990
00:54:44,160 --> 00:54:45,880
Speaker 1: family of people that you work with, one hundred and

991
00:54:45,920 --> 00:54:49,880
Speaker 1: fifty people. So we knew it was time to end.

992
00:54:49,920 --> 00:54:52,000
Speaker 1: You want to get off the stage before somebody says, hey,

993
00:54:52,000 --> 00:54:54,759
Speaker 1: you should get off the stage. And so that was

994
00:54:55,719 --> 00:54:59,360
Speaker 1: being a student of sitcoms, I knew we should end well,

995
00:55:00,320 --> 00:55:03,640
Speaker 1: an end before we become lousy, because maybe then the

996
00:55:03,680 --> 00:55:07,400
Speaker 1: show will have greater lasting value. We all know the

997
00:55:07,440 --> 00:55:11,319
Speaker 1: shit sitcoms that stayed past their prime, so I didn't

998
00:55:11,320 --> 00:55:13,480
Speaker 1: want to be that way, So it was easy to

999
00:55:13,680 --> 00:55:17,080
Speaker 1: say we're done. It was hard to leave my friends,

1000
00:55:17,600 --> 00:55:19,640
Speaker 1: that's the hard part. But that shouldn't be the reason

1001
00:55:19,640 --> 00:55:23,480
Speaker 1: you stay, especially you know, if you if you respect

1002
00:55:23,520 --> 00:55:29,480
Speaker 1: your audience, your good time, and your cash payout shouldn't

1003
00:55:29,520 --> 00:55:32,399
Speaker 1: be the reason you stay.

1004
00:55:33,280 --> 00:55:36,400
Speaker 2: This has been awesome. Thanks for being so generous, Thanks stories,

1005
00:55:36,560 --> 00:55:38,360
Speaker 2: Thank you. I good luck with the diner.

1006
00:55:38,600 --> 00:55:40,879
Speaker 1: Thanks. Hopefully one day I hope you can get there.

1007
00:55:41,120 --> 00:55:43,480
Speaker 2: Your ankle I want to yes when I hobble in

1008
00:55:44,680 --> 00:55:46,040
Speaker 2: with my pickleball injury.

1009
00:55:46,440 --> 00:55:46,600
Speaker 1: Uh.

1010
00:55:46,680 --> 00:55:49,360
Speaker 2: Yeah, this has been super cool for me. Mike, anything

1011
00:55:49,400 --> 00:55:52,200
Speaker 2: for Phil, thank you for so much great TV over

1012
00:55:52,200 --> 00:55:54,960
Speaker 2: the Yeah, Mike, you're nice too. There's like so many

1013
00:55:54,960 --> 00:55:57,880
Speaker 2: episodes that associated with like my childhood and growing up

1014
00:55:57,920 --> 00:55:58,439
Speaker 2: watching it.

1015
00:55:58,440 --> 00:56:00,680
Speaker 1: It's awesome to get to meet you. Oh, thank you,

1016
00:56:00,760 --> 00:56:03,239
Speaker 1: my friend. Yeah, thank you, thank you, all of us.

1017
00:56:03,280 --> 00:56:05,560
Speaker 1: We're like crying, We're like thanking you and crying. I

1018
00:56:05,600 --> 00:56:05,920
Speaker 1: love it.

1019
00:56:06,280 --> 00:56:10,000
Speaker 2: So Phil's favorites, the cookbook. It is out now and

1020
00:56:10,040 --> 00:56:11,640
Speaker 2: we're not not to talk about it. But when you went,

1021
00:56:11,719 --> 00:56:13,600
Speaker 2: when you took the show to Russia, one of my

1022
00:56:13,680 --> 00:56:15,960
Speaker 2: favorite limited series that I've ever seen.

1023
00:56:16,000 --> 00:56:18,239
Speaker 1: I thought that led to somebody feed Phill as well

1024
00:56:18,239 --> 00:56:20,200
Speaker 1: because that was my first time on camera as well.

1025
00:56:20,239 --> 00:56:23,759
Speaker 2: It was so good. Thank you, Yes and Sporting. I

1026
00:56:23,800 --> 00:56:25,480
Speaker 2: think we've done ten minutes just saying you're so good

1027
00:56:25,520 --> 00:56:28,400
Speaker 2: and we love you. So there he is, Phil Rosenthal,

1028
00:56:28,520 --> 00:56:28,840
Speaker 2: thank you

1029
00:56:29,960 --> 00:56:32,440
Speaker 3: Thanks for listening to a Bobby Cast production