Speaker 1: Still the Place with Laura Layton, Courtney Thorn Smith.
Speaker 2: And daphnews Aniga and iHeartRadio Podcast.
Speaker 3: Welcome Tomorrow's minute.
Speaker 1: We have a very very exciting guest today, Jack Wagner, but.
Speaker 2: The most fun troublemaker on set whatever show you're doing.
Speaker 4: You know what a reputation. I love it.
Speaker 3: Have your ears been burning?
Speaker 5: Because you have come up a few times on our
Speaker 5: podcast and we've talked about how much fun everybody talks
Speaker 5: about fun stories with Jack and either you trying to
Speaker 5: sabotage make us laugh.
Speaker 2: And you know any of that.
Speaker 5: But yeah, we're so happy to have you for this
Speaker 5: Melrose Minute, and we're hoping that we're going to get
Speaker 5: a longer session with you because there's way more stories
Speaker 5: to tell and.
Speaker 4: To do that for sure.
Speaker 1: Are we're going to get a much longer Melrose Hour
Speaker 1: with you, Yes, in person, in person. But this is
Speaker 1: really to talk about your show.
Speaker 3: It's finale on Sunday, right.
Speaker 4: Right, Yeah, So thanks for having me to be able
Speaker 4: to promote this Sunday. You know, the season finale. The
Speaker 4: show is called When Calls the Heart on the Hallmark Channel,
Speaker 4: and it's so funny to be with you guys, you know,
Speaker 4: because it's such a opposite type of material than Melrose Place,
Speaker 4: which was pretty racy, right, and bed scenes and backstabbings
Speaker 4: in this and this is family friendly television. So it's
Speaker 4: just a heart heartwarming show. And it's about a pioneer
Speaker 4: talent at the turn of the century as a based
Speaker 4: on a book by Janet Oak and about a school
Speaker 4: teacher who leaves the big city and goes to the
Speaker 4: pioneer to become a school teacher.
Speaker 2: And it's got a huge following doc I mean, it's
Speaker 2: a phenomenon. It's like Hallmark's biggest show.
Speaker 4: I think it is, you know, and I know you
Speaker 4: guys can relate to this because of the series you've
Speaker 4: been on and especially the show we were so blessed
Speaker 4: to be on melrose Place. When you have that core
Speaker 4: fan base and they call themselves girls that hashtag parties
Speaker 4: party Sweet and we sweet with them and have tweeted
Speaker 4: for twelve years live during the episodes on X and
Speaker 4: so I think that really has endeared I think us
Speaker 4: as it's humanized us to the audience and they're just
Speaker 4: a very loyal fan base.
Speaker 1: Well, it's incredible. So we have loyal fans, right, they'll
Speaker 1: still come up to you. I'm wearing my heart in
Speaker 1: honor of the Hearties. I went down the rabbit hole
Speaker 1: with the Hardy family reunion, and I am so envious
Speaker 1: of everyone who gets to be there.
Speaker 3: This is the one from last year.
Speaker 1: The woman made a quilt and she made actual three
Speaker 1: D buildings image of the building from the quilt.
Speaker 3: There were friendship bracelets.
Speaker 1: I was watching it thinking, what an extraordinary community to
Speaker 1: be a part of.
Speaker 3: It's incredible.
Speaker 4: That's a good word Courtineys community, because that's that's really
Speaker 4: the foundation I think of this show. Right. It's really heartwarming,
Speaker 4: and of course there's comedy. You know, I wouldn't really
Speaker 4: be involved in anything if I couldn't find comedy in it.
Speaker 3: You'll find it, so it does.
Speaker 4: It's really a cute, funny show with romance and very
Speaker 4: very really touches your heart.
Speaker 3: Have you been on all twelve years?
Speaker 2: Jack?
Speaker 4: Yeah? I came on because of Lori Lachlin. You know,
Speaker 4: her husband is a buddy of mine, you know, from golf,
Speaker 4: and so she's like the golf course she goes. You know,
Speaker 4: I'm on the show. You should really check this out
Speaker 4: because they had just done a Hallmark movie, so I
Speaker 4: went to one of their events and met the producer
Speaker 4: and I joined at the towards the end of season one.
Speaker 3: Wow yeah, and twelve years much. How often are you
Speaker 3: in Vancouver? How long is the season?
Speaker 4: It's July to November.
Speaker 3: That's perfect, Yeah.
Speaker 4: You know, because it's they've built a pioneer town in Vancouver.
Speaker 2: Is it in Vancouver?
Speaker 4: After Vancouver? Vancouver Langley? I remember, Daphne, we saw you
Speaker 4: at the at the airport, remember.
Speaker 2: Us, Jack and I was trying to look up. We
Speaker 2: did two other movies, I think, both in Canada as well,
Speaker 2: or at least one of them.
Speaker 4: We worked together more after Melrose, So we did work
Speaker 4: together on Melroe's Place, right, Daphne, I know, I.
Speaker 2: Mean I survived Melrose because I didn't have to deal
Speaker 2: with Peter Burns.
Speaker 5: I don't know where could I handled your That was
Speaker 5: some of the best part.
Speaker 4: It was we had in the doctor's office.
Speaker 3: Coming up with oh my god, Oh my gosh. That
Speaker 3: was some of the best.
Speaker 4: Pencil pencil sharpener day and apple.
Speaker 2: Right, there was at some point I think it was
Speaker 2: a spy and basically Jack Wager's doing the pendulum. You're
Speaker 2: starting from the darkest of the dark comedy to the
Speaker 2: Hearty's like in one career.
Speaker 4: Yeah, totally, it does. It does remind me a bit
Speaker 4: of U General Hospital in the eighties. Right well, that
Speaker 4: was kind of my big break. And that fan base
Speaker 4: of that soap opera is still there.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 4: I still get called Frisco probably more than oh my
Speaker 4: goshly so as you guys know, when when a fan base,
Speaker 4: you know, love starts to fall in love with the characters,
Speaker 4: it's very real for them and it reminds me a
Speaker 4: little bit of a GH fans back in the eighties.
Speaker 3: Oh, that's amazing.
Speaker 1: We talked about the community for a second. I was
Speaker 1: thinking about last year, all my girlfriends and I watched
Speaker 1: The Residents separately together.
Speaker 3: It was so much fun, and going down the rabbit hole.
Speaker 1: Of this convention, I just thought they get that all
Speaker 1: the time, Like these people they connect. There's a show
Speaker 1: there's heart to heart ease, which just how incredible.
Speaker 3: So they have this, they maintain this all.
Speaker 1: Year, this connection around this show, and I think it's
Speaker 1: extraordinary cause I think we're all really looking for community,
Speaker 1: and what a sweet.
Speaker 4: One to find. Good point, Courtney, I think this show
Speaker 4: resonates with people given our you know, political temperature in
Speaker 4: the country for the last ten years or more. Right,
Speaker 4: I think people look for something that's safe, you know,
Speaker 4: and something we don't show blood, we don't show sex,
Speaker 4: we don't show nudity, we don't use profanity. But yet
Speaker 4: we can shoot a gun.
Speaker 2: You know, a miracle you were cast.
Speaker 3: If you really think about it.
Speaker 2: You have good agents. I mean, thank god for Laurie.
Speaker 3: Have they not met you, Jack? Did they know you?
Speaker 3: I mean golf?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 4: Okay, but right, yeah, we're all still full of them, right, girls.
Speaker 5: Twelve years they still don't know.
Speaker 1: And you guys must be like a family to the
Speaker 1: cast at this point. That's a long time to be.
Speaker 1: You probably have an apartment there. It's kind of on
Speaker 1: location for six months.
Speaker 4: Yeah, a little bit. Yeah, I live in the apartment
Speaker 4: side of a hotel. But it's like this, you know,
Speaker 4: when you see you know, people you've worked with, it's
Speaker 4: like high school friends. You know, you seem to reconnect
Speaker 4: immediately and go down memory lane and like it's like
Speaker 4: no time has passed. The strange part about the blessing
Speaker 4: of this show is it's like we're returning to school
Speaker 4: every year. I mean, we talk about it as a
Speaker 4: cast in the green room, you know, twelve seasons and
Speaker 4: it hasn't been announced, but it's I think we're going
Speaker 4: to get thirteen. You know. It's almost like we show
Speaker 4: up and we pinch ourselves and just really, uh listen.
Speaker 4: The most important thing for me, and I know you
Speaker 4: guys know this for yourselves as well as myself, and
Speaker 4: that is that the actors and directors were all seasoned
Speaker 4: enough now where we collaborate on the material. You know,
Speaker 4: I'm able to call the showrunner when something's not right,
Speaker 4: if they missed something, if it's not funny, and they
Speaker 4: trust me, and so it's such a great work environment
Speaker 4: that I know you guys appreciate it and also do yourselves.
Speaker 4: When you can collaborate on set and make something better,
Speaker 4: you know, raise the bar.
Speaker 3: And so that's the trust factor. I'm knowing each other
Speaker 3: so well.
Speaker 2: And you know when we started this jack, you know,
Speaker 2: we were like, yeah, we got along, and my other
Speaker 2: side of my brain was how.
Speaker 3: Did everyone did redone really get along?
Speaker 2: In Melvoe's place?
Speaker 3: And then I've remembered, uh yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean the biggest disappointment for interviews that I did
Speaker 2: from Melrose onwards. Was that there was no drama really,
Speaker 2: you know, there was no like that was on screen.
Speaker 2: We got paid to do that, you know what I mean?
Speaker 4: Right, Yeah, I agree with you.
Speaker 2: There was a trust there and yeah, depending on each
Speaker 2: other and a fun I mean your stuff with Laura
Speaker 2: as Sydney and you was Peter and Michael.
Speaker 3: In that office was like a whole other.
Speaker 2: I mean that was like amazing comedy and.
Speaker 4: They're get a little bubble there. Yeah, But I think
Speaker 4: you're right, definitely, there really is when you when the
Speaker 4: cast gets along, and I think it all like for us,
Speaker 4: it's all sort of dripped down from Heather, you know,
Speaker 4: when you're when you're kind of lead, has got it
Speaker 4: together and is kind and loving. I think that that
Speaker 4: kind of like drips down from the top, even producers. Right,
Speaker 4: we didn't have you know, jerks that were exacts. We
Speaker 4: had really good dudes. You know.
Speaker 1: Yes, you're right, Yeah, anybody who acts out looks ridiculous
Speaker 1: when number one on the call sheet is as lovely
Speaker 1: as Heather is was and is. We just talked to
Speaker 1: her a few weeks ago and it was amazing. She
Speaker 1: looks exactly the same, She sounds exactly the same funny
Speaker 1: and charming and reverence.
Speaker 3: The two of you on together, because that would be amazing.
Speaker 5: Lucy and Ricky and we have this funny thing where
Speaker 5: like we weren't the three of us weren't around for
Speaker 5: the final seasons and you know you were. So there's
Speaker 5: a whole different flavor of the show that you haven't
Speaker 5: experience of and probably even maybe a more recent memory
Speaker 5: of than the time that we associate with because of
Speaker 5: those years or whatever.
Speaker 3: And it's it was, you know, for a show to go.
Speaker 5: For seven years at all is miraculous, which is why
Speaker 5: like your twelve year run on When Calls the Heart
Speaker 5: is even you know, more amazing.
Speaker 3: And but like you.
Speaker 5: Must have had like this feeling of a couple of
Speaker 5: different air of the time on Melrose even Yeah, I think.
Speaker 4: So because of the cast had shifted, especially towards the
Speaker 4: last year or so. I think they were trying to.
Speaker 4: I think we can all feel when something maybe coming
Speaker 4: to an end right on a series, and so it
Speaker 4: felt like it there. So I felt really honored to,
Speaker 4: you know, have the last scene of the show to
Speaker 4: be you know, Heather and I having bought this Island
Speaker 4: and faked our death and doing our vows and walking off,
Speaker 4: you know, on the beach in the sunset. Was like, wow,
Speaker 4: what an honor. You know, it's kind of carry you know,
Speaker 4: the old guard into the last scene of the show. Right,
Speaker 4: So I agree we lost the cast and it felt
Speaker 4: like it was coming to an end, and it was.
Speaker 4: It was sad you guys weren't there. Seriously, Oh thanks.
Speaker 3: For shutting it. It was strange that it went on.
Speaker 1: But that's the amazing thing about whind Calls the Heart
Speaker 1: that you guys are all still together, that you get
Speaker 1: to see each other every year. I love that moment
Speaker 1: coming back from the summer, right, it is like school,
Speaker 1: like you got your new school clothes and you're ready
Speaker 1: for the new year. And the other thing we've talked
Speaker 1: about script, Yeah, getting the newscript on Malo's Flakes.
Speaker 3: Remember it was like word perfect.
Speaker 1: We're all young, and we're all sort of green, except
Speaker 1: Daphne who done several movies, but we're all sort of green,
Speaker 1: and it was like exact words and were I love
Speaker 1: that you said that this is more collaborative because you're
Speaker 1: all grown ups, so it's nice to be.
Speaker 3: Heard and bring your experience into it.
Speaker 4: Oh you know what, Pa, I'll save my audition for
Speaker 4: Melrose and then.
Speaker 3: I'll save hour with you.
Speaker 2: We're gonna put you through the ring?
Speaker 4: Or don't you worry.
Speaker 5: When I come back and cannot wait? Do you think
Speaker 5: that the one calls the heart cast and crew? Do
Speaker 5: you think they see the same version of Jack that
Speaker 5: we saw?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 5: Are you like, do you have to temper sort of
Speaker 5: your like according to the role? Fun Do they have
Speaker 5: the same version of Jack?
Speaker 4: I think I would. I hate to say this, but
Speaker 4: I might have grown up a little bit. You know.
Speaker 4: Maybe my goal is to not to see how sarcastic
Speaker 4: I can be on set to make the crew laugh
Speaker 4: at anyone's expense, you know, maybe, But you know, I've
Speaker 4: always been a real believer in laughter really makes a
Speaker 4: set much more enjoyable, right, And I find sometimes the
Speaker 4: most emotional scenes, you know, clearly you're focused and you're connected,
Speaker 4: but it's almost like a funeral, you know, laughter seems
Speaker 4: to break the ice and you can you can open
Speaker 4: yourself up even for a more organic performance. Right. So,
Speaker 4: I've always been a real fan of of a component
Speaker 4: of having laughter around the set. I just think maybe
Speaker 4: I've maybe grown a little bit and it's not at
Speaker 4: every maybe my other actors expense deprecating.
Speaker 1: Do you remember this is my favorite memory of you
Speaker 1: that you always pretended you couldn't remember Heather's names.
Speaker 3: You'd be like, where's Helen? Where is Helen coming? Do
Speaker 3: you remember? That made me laugh? You know, for probably
Speaker 3: five years me laugh every single time.
Speaker 4: Good, I'll use my material until like it's finally like,
Speaker 4: really are we going with the Hell and Heather thing again? Seriously?
Speaker 4: Can't we come up with some new stuff? I love
Speaker 4: that your best audience, Courtney, You're my best Thank you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, she remembers.
Speaker 1: It still makes me laugh. It still makes me laugh
Speaker 1: thirty years later.
Speaker 5: I might actually have one of your headshots in my
Speaker 5: memorabilia box because when you're like distribute, I got one.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna love it up in your bedroom on the wall.
Speaker 4: But who did that cast photo one year where they
Speaker 4: put my face superimposed over the whole castles that time?
Speaker 4: Probably I think it was Thomas. Yeah, I don't know
Speaker 4: what mess like it? Yeah, between you.
Speaker 2: And Thomas, poor Laura, those ss all that you have
Speaker 2: to go to work with those two.
Speaker 3: Laura, I loved it.
Speaker 4: You were she was a champ. Laura's funny. She does
Speaker 4: call me so well.
Speaker 3: So funny.
Speaker 5: We have we have good stories that we have to
Speaker 5: hold because we have a whole big episode with you
Speaker 5: and so many fun stories I'm sharing. I think of
Speaker 5: more after after we say goodbye, after this Melrose minute.
Speaker 5: But the coolest thing is to have I haven't seen
Speaker 5: you in a million years, and it's like it was
Speaker 5: yesterday and it's been It's so fun to see your
Speaker 5: face and.
Speaker 4: See you guys look amazing. Fortney. We've seen each other
Speaker 4: at a few Hallmark. You were working over there for
Speaker 4: a while, so we've caught up here and there, and
Speaker 4: Daphne at the airport and Laura, you know this.
Speaker 3: When you're doing movies with Josie. Do you and Josie
Speaker 3: still do your Hallmark movies?
Speaker 4: Oh my gosh. You know, you know we did six
Speaker 4: of franchise of six wedding cool she is. You know,
Speaker 4: I never got to really note Josie on Melrose Place
Speaker 4: because you know, it really didn't work with her much.
Speaker 4: She's the quirkiest, funniest I mean, we just hit it
Speaker 4: off so much, you know, so we had this really
Speaker 4: nice run of movies. I I think, you know, there's
Speaker 4: a chance that we may be rebooting the franchise. You know,
Speaker 4: I'm in negotiation now, tell us.
Speaker 2: The name of it again.
Speaker 3: Wedding March, Wedding March, Okay.
Speaker 4: And so yeah, it was so great to work with
Speaker 4: Josie on such a different level. Yeah, side of the show,
Speaker 4: share memories and just these chapters, right girls of our lots.
Speaker 4: You know, it's sort of right now we're almost opening
Speaker 4: a new chapter together just as friends here, you know,
Speaker 4: because it's been so long.
Speaker 3: So well, that's been the best thing.
Speaker 1: We keep talking about that the best thing part of
Speaker 1: doing this podcast is seeing everybody again, and.
Speaker 3: It is so sweet because that time, as.
Speaker 1: You know, is so intense, and we're all so young,
Speaker 1: and to meet each other now when we're all so
Speaker 1: much lighter, Like that's what they don't tell you. As
Speaker 1: you get older, you feel lighter, you're happier, you don't
Speaker 1: take yourself as seriously.
Speaker 2: There was no time back then, there was no off
Speaker 2: stage like you know, all this get together this weekend.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: But also we were very earnest, like you were having
Speaker 1: a lot of fun, Jack, But I was very super
Speaker 1: earnest about the work, and I wish I could have
Speaker 1: been lighter, but now.
Speaker 3: We get to do it again. It's like we get
Speaker 3: this special do over. We're so lucky.
Speaker 4: Listen now to your defense and all of our defense.
Speaker 4: I don't think people really understand that we were doing
Speaker 4: thirty four episodes like two or three years. It's called
Speaker 4: double ups for the audience out there. Nuts have two
Speaker 4: production crews, two directors, and two different episodes going at once.
Speaker 4: Like that's that's insane. No serious.
Speaker 2: Always yeah, you're either sleeping, learning lines.
Speaker 5: Or on st We've talked about that a lot, and
Speaker 5: it's really hard to imagine. How many episodes do you
Speaker 5: do a season and when it calls the heart twelve, yes,
Speaker 5: that's like reasonable, but it takes.
Speaker 3: You three years to get as many episodes.
Speaker 1: So kids now, like kids now, will do a show
Speaker 1: on a streamer, they'll do six episodes. Then it could
Speaker 1: be two years before they do another season. And it
Speaker 1: sounds like a lot of money, but spread over two years,
Speaker 1: it's not as much. I mean, so I'm glad I
Speaker 1: did it when I was young. I could not do
Speaker 1: it today, there's no way.
Speaker 2: Thank god, we had Aaron Spelling who wanted to get
Speaker 2: into syndication faster.
Speaker 3: So yeah, but.
Speaker 5: Nobody's doing it, nobody's doing money to syndication.
Speaker 2: So he got us up to one hundred episodes very fast.
Speaker 4: I mean yeah. He also really liked actors, you know. Yeah,
Speaker 4: there's quite a few of us directed. And it was
Speaker 4: so nice to I know, I directed, and just everybody
Speaker 4: was you know, supported, Thomas and Rob and myself and
Speaker 4: whoever else directed. It wasn't like, you know, there was
Speaker 4: an ego attached. We all knew that it was a
Speaker 4: tough job, you know, and it was very cool, Aaron,
Speaker 4: I think to trust us and you know, to be
Speaker 4: you know, a team effort, right when.
Speaker 2: You get on a set and when you're on a
Speaker 2: well oiled machine and that's your first directing, that's amazing
Speaker 2: because you have because on One Tree Hill I had.
Speaker 3: Some of the actors they directed.
Speaker 2: They have the crew, they know, they have the fan,
Speaker 2: they have the script, they know, they have the friends
Speaker 2: they know, so it must have been it was there
Speaker 2: for you.
Speaker 4: Yeah, because you need the DP and you need them
Speaker 4: to pick the lens and what lens and what do
Speaker 4: you want and you tell them and then they kind
Speaker 4: of do the technical things that you really aren't seasoned on.
Speaker 4: You know, some people maybe, but I was a little
Speaker 4: green at it. I certainly was into the performance end
Speaker 4: of things in terms of acting and you know, working
Speaker 4: through a scene, et cetera. I love that component. But
Speaker 4: the other part, you know, the pre production post production.
Speaker 4: I never chased directing after that because I really just
Speaker 4: was too much of an actor, you know, I just
Speaker 4: didn't like the pre post part of the directing. You
Speaker 4: don't heart Yeah, no, you know, because it's a Canadian deal.
Speaker 4: They hire Canadian director because there's a twenty five percent
Speaker 4: tax break to shoot in Vancouver.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 4: So that's why you know, Hallmark, there's so many of
Speaker 4: their movies up there and a lot of their production
Speaker 4: up there.
Speaker 2: Jack, you've been up there so long shooting that can
Speaker 2: you did you get a Canadian car to work there
Speaker 2: as well? I know some American actors now can also
Speaker 2: work as maybe it's as Canadian or they can live there.
Speaker 4: I just they just tax the hell out of me
Speaker 4: up there and in America.
Speaker 3: That's just yeah, you just get to do that twice.
Speaker 3: That's about a privilege.
Speaker 5: Well, we're so excited that we got this excuse to
Speaker 5: see you and that we have every reason to see
Speaker 5: you again soon. So for now, we just want to
Speaker 5: remind everybody that your season finale of one calls the Heart.
Speaker 5: Season twelve finale is Sunday, Monday on Hallmark Channel.
Speaker 4: Yes, six pm East Coast, I think in nine pm
Speaker 4: West coast, you know in central.
Speaker 3: I think that's backwards.
Speaker 1: I think it's nine pm East coast, six nine pm
Speaker 1: West Coast. Yeah, we're not good at We don't have
Speaker 1: to be good at math.
Speaker 3: We don't have to. We're too pretty to be good
Speaker 3: at math.
Speaker 2: We don't have But this sounds logical.
Speaker 5: If it's nine pm on the East coast, it should
Speaker 5: be six pm on the west.
Speaker 2: Am I right?
Speaker 5: People?
Speaker 4: Are we helping you Jack?
Speaker 2: Are you enjoying yourselves with us?
Speaker 4: How?
Speaker 2: How we are at this?
Speaker 4: Ready? Me because of my arithmetic? Thank you?
Speaker 5: Yes, but we are happy to have you for your humor,
Speaker 5: into your handsomeness and always bringing joy.
Speaker 1: Can't wait to see you and hug you in person
Speaker 1: and tell you even longer and more.
Speaker 4: I can't wait to see you, guys. It's been so
Speaker 4: nice to reconnect like this. Thanks for having me and
Speaker 4: you know, promoting this and just letting me know when
Speaker 4: we're going to get together, maybe in a week or
Speaker 4: two I hope right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we're so excited.
Speaker 1: Thanks for coming, so good to see you.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Jack, Well, that was fun.
Speaker 2: Don't forget to see Jack in his season finale of
Speaker 2: one Calls a Heart on the Homer Channel this Sunday
Speaker 2: at nine o'clock eighth Central