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Speaker 1: Welcome to desperately devoted Think of us as your favorite

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Speaker 1: neighbors as we chat about life and relationships, all.

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Speaker 2: While we revisit the iconic show Desperate Housewives together.

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Speaker 1: I'm Terry Hatcher, I'm Andrea Bowen, and I'm Emerson Tenny.

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Speaker 1: You know how when you connect with an old friend

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Speaker 1: that you haven't seen in a long time, and you

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Speaker 1: have that feeling of where you just pick up right

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Speaker 1: where you left off and the best, it's the best feeling.

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Speaker 1: So today I have that feeling because and you super

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Speaker 1: Desperate Housewives fans, you are going to be so excited

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Speaker 1: for this. We have a guest here, a very special guest,

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Speaker 1: somebody who you might not immediately recognize their name, but

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Speaker 1: you will recognize the influence that this person had on

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Speaker 1: the show because it was everywhere from the cast to

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Speaker 1: the music, from the way it looked on screen, I mean,

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Speaker 1: from dealing with the network stuff that went on behind

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Speaker 1: the scenes that nobody's ever heard of. This person was

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Speaker 1: one of two people that helped it get there and

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Speaker 1: keep it there, and he was one of the two

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Speaker 1: executive producers that had everything to do with getting this

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Speaker 1: show made. Of course, everyone's familiar with Mark Cherry, right,

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Speaker 1: So it's about time that you get to meet the

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Speaker 1: man behind so much else that happened on this show.

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Speaker 1: He has been my friend from the beginning, and I've

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Speaker 1: missed him desperately. He went off after the first season

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Speaker 1: to be the president of NBC Universal International Studios, which,

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Speaker 1: by the way, produced a little show called Downton Abbey,

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Speaker 1: among other great shows. So we are so very desperately

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Speaker 1: devoted to him for being here with us today bringing

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Speaker 1: his unique and encompassing perspective. Everyone please go crazy and welcome.

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Speaker 1: Executive producer Michael Etelstein.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it's so great to see all of you. I mean,

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Speaker 3: it's been twenty years. Basically until a couple weeks ago,

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Speaker 3: I hadn't seen Emerson since what you were seven? Yeah,

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Speaker 3: you were thirteen. Andrea, Yeah, and you look amazing. And

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Speaker 3: then Terry it's it's I can't believe it.

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Speaker 1: It's it's been so great to reconnect. It just it

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Speaker 1: really and we're going to get into all the stuff

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Speaker 1: that's come up for us. But I'm it's crazy kind

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Speaker 1: of the timing of us reconnecting and us doing this podcast,

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Speaker 1: and it makes so much sense for you to be

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Speaker 1: here because by the way, Andrew and I don't remember anything.

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Speaker 1: And not only that, Like, I think people have these

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Speaker 1: assumptions that we know more than we know, just because

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Speaker 1: we were on the show and we really were such

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Speaker 1: a little part of it and really only in front

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Speaker 1: of the camera, Like I wasn't even ever in a

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Speaker 1: writer's room, do you know what I mean? Like, I

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Speaker 1: think there's assumptions that I know much more than I know.

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Speaker 1: So I'm glad you're here to help reveal stuff that

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Speaker 1: I know our fans are going to want to know about.

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Speaker 4: It's like, the first season was centered around a mystery

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Speaker 4: on the story of the story on the street. But

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Speaker 4: this is kind of like our first season one mystery.

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Speaker 4: We can't wait here everything you have to show.

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Speaker 1: To surprise us. So let's just can we just start

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Speaker 1: at the beginning, which is, how the hell did you

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Speaker 1: get involved with this thing?

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Speaker 3: So at the time, I was producing a show for Touchstone,

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Speaker 3: which is Disney's television armor. It was then and my show,

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Speaker 3: which was called Threat Matrix, was coming to an end.

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Speaker 3: It didn't get picked up for another season, and the

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Speaker 3: studio Josh Berry, who was amazing, sent me the script.

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Speaker 3: I was so busy producing another show. I didn't read

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Speaker 3: it for six weeks. Oh wow, and it sat on

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Speaker 3: my desk and Josh finally is like, dude, are you're

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Speaker 3: going to read the script? And so I read it

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Speaker 3: then and I immediately thought, this is the most amazing

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Speaker 3: pilot script i'd read.

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Speaker 1: That's my recollection of I'm a little vague on where

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Speaker 1: I was. I somehow picture that I was poolside. I

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Speaker 1: think it was in Tucson. I was at a hotel.

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Speaker 1: I don't know why that comes to my mind, but

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Speaker 1: I do remember saying to my manager at the time,

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Speaker 1: this is like the best script I've ever read. I'd

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Speaker 1: do anything to be any of these women in this show.

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Speaker 3: Well, it's interesting because that script was so popular and

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Speaker 3: as you know, in Hollywood explain to your listeners. So

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Speaker 3: in Hollywood, you know, most times with big actresses like yourself,

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Speaker 3: it was offer only. And what that means is the

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Speaker 3: actor won't come in and read, and the only thing

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Speaker 3: you can do is make them an offer, and you

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Speaker 3: have to hope that you cast the show properly. We

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Speaker 3: had decided Mark myself and the director had decided that

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Speaker 3: everybody had to come in and read, which was highly unusual.

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Speaker 1: Can I tell you something. I actually love reading, I

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Speaker 1: love auditioning. I've never been one of the actresses that

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Speaker 1: had even for the smallest parts. And my reasoning is

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Speaker 1: because I don't want to show up this on the

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Speaker 1: set and have the director whose vision I'm trying to

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Speaker 1: execute go, that's not how I see it like that's

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Speaker 1: I didn't see it like that, right. I want to

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Speaker 1: have the exchange of bringing my creativity and my talent

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Speaker 1: to a producer and a director's so that we can

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Speaker 1: be like, oh, yeah, she's going to be able to

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Speaker 1: deliver what it is that you want.

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Speaker 3: Well, and you were absolutely fearless because I think we

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Speaker 3: made you auditions seven times.

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Speaker 2: Wait yeahs wait why so many times?

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Speaker 3: You know? It was interesting some of the some of

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Speaker 3: the decisions were instantaneous some of them. So you know,

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Speaker 3: we saw Eva and I know you guys have talked

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Speaker 3: about this. Eva was cast first. She came in. She

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Speaker 3: was supposed to be a supermodel. She's obviously not tall,

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Speaker 3: and we just decided, okay, aside from that, she's it.

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Speaker 3: And she really, you know, wasn't famous at that point. Marca.

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Speaker 1: She gives tall though.

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Speaker 3: Great energy, and we shot her. If you look at

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Speaker 3: the runway sequence. We shot her from below to make

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Speaker 3: her look taller, but again, it really doesn't matter. Once

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Speaker 3: once the audience connects with a character, they do they

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Speaker 3: don't really care. So Eva was cast first. Marcia came

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Speaker 3: in for Mary Alice because Marcia was studying psychology if

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Speaker 3: I remember, and really wasn't interested in being a full

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Speaker 3: time actress again. And we convinced her as a group

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Speaker 3: to you know, audition for for Bree and thank god

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Speaker 3: we did it. It's unbelievab. Yes, we'll come back to

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Speaker 3: the finale because there's a great moment for her, and

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Speaker 3: then you know, let's see. We we cast Felicity. Felicity

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Speaker 3: was the network actually said to us they didn't need

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Speaker 3: to audition her. She was so hot coming off of

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Speaker 3: an Aaron An Aaron Sorkin show. ABC was desperate for her,

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Speaker 3: and we basically said, right, we're not going to cast

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Speaker 3: anybody who doesn't read. So Felicity came into our little

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Speaker 3: office in Burbank and she came in covered in like

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Speaker 3: baby food, and literally I don't think she actually dressed

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Speaker 3: for the part. I think she just came in as

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Speaker 3: being a mom or a young mom walked in did

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Speaker 3: the scene was like, oh my god, yes that's Lynette,

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Speaker 3: and I literally ran out of the room, called the

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Speaker 3: network and we started making her deal.

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Speaker 5: Wow that quickly, Yes it was and.

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Speaker 3: We we didn't have to take her to network. And

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Speaker 3: then you know, there was there was one other person

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Speaker 3: we were considering for you know, the role and for Susan. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: My memory of my last audition, which I feel like,

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Speaker 1: is accurate. And I don't know if I went up

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Speaker 1: the elevator at ABC with the other person that was

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Speaker 1: trying to do my role, or if like we we

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Speaker 1: traded off, like she went up as I came down

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Speaker 1: or whatever. But I do remember my my last audition

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Speaker 1: being so good that when I left, I was like, well,

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Speaker 1: at least I didn't screw that up. Like if they

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Speaker 1: don't cast me, then they don't cast me. But it's

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Speaker 1: not because you like I forgot my lines or I

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Speaker 1: didn't do a good job, or I was having a

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Speaker 1: bad day, or like I recall it being a kind

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Speaker 1: of a knocked it out of the park audition and

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Speaker 1: just the kind where you can be like if I

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Speaker 1: don't get it, I don't get it.

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Speaker 2: I remember you telling me that story, and I think

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Speaker 2: about that. Sometimes when I pitch a movie, like the

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Speaker 2: two times I've been hired, the two movies that I've

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Speaker 2: really been hired, I guess it's been hired to write.

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Speaker 2: I have had that feeling where I've left the pitch

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Speaker 2: and I've thought of that moment because you've told me

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Speaker 2: about it, and I've been like, well, I kind of

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Speaker 2: already know that this like exists in the world in

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Speaker 2: front of me, and now the pieces are coming into place,

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Speaker 2: and if I don't get it has nothing to do

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Speaker 2: with anything that I did.

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Speaker 5: Are we named that way? Are we naming the other actors?

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Speaker 3: I will say this in fairness to her. She was brilliant.

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Speaker 3: She was not American, and when she did when she

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Speaker 3: did comedy with an American accent, she lost that twinkle.

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Speaker 3: And she was really good and really surprising because you

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Speaker 3: wouldn't have thought of her for that role. But at

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Speaker 3: the end of the day, so I don't even remember

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Speaker 3: us bringing somebody else to ABC, and I remember you

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Speaker 3: know you you had canceled. We actually had an ABC

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Speaker 3: audition set up for you and you canceled it, which

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Speaker 3: was unheard of, Like actors never canceled network read throughs

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Speaker 3: or auditions and you weren't whatever. I don't know if

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Speaker 3: you weren't feeling well or whatever, but we wanted you

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Speaker 3: enough that we rescheduled, I think for the next day

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Speaker 3: or the day after, and you came in and the

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Speaker 3: rest was history.

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Speaker 1: Oh so grateful and.

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Speaker 3: Well, listen, I mean we are. I've been rewatching episodes

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Speaker 3: which I haven't looked at in twenty years. And the nuance,

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Speaker 3: the subtlety, the vulnerability, the ability to be just hilariously

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Speaker 3: hilariously funny. And I know you guys have talked about

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Speaker 3: what it's like the naked scene, which was still one

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Speaker 3: of the greatest moments I think in TV to pull

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Speaker 3: that off in the complexity of it and also be

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Speaker 3: completely charming and vulnerable and sweet and.

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Speaker 1: So tell us about you were saying like that. There

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Speaker 1: was a lot to the timing of it that I

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Speaker 1: think I've totally forgotten that we You had the script

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Speaker 1: in January, so.

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Speaker 3: I got the script. So here's what happened. So, so

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Speaker 3: you know, Mark Cherry had been a sitcom producer and

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Speaker 3: had never produced a scripted drama, which is a very

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Speaker 3: different way of filming. So you know, when you shoot

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Speaker 3: a sitcom, it's multi camera, you shoot everything is sort

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Speaker 3: of on a proscenium and you're done. As you guys know,

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Speaker 3: scripted television, there's a whole other thing. You shoot in

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Speaker 3: one direction, you turn around, you shoot the other way,

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Speaker 3: Because you have to deal with all the lighting, etc.

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Speaker 3: And it's technically just very, very challenging to make a drama.

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Speaker 3: So the studio felt like Mark needed a partner, and

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Speaker 3: the person who was supposed to be his partner got

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Speaker 3: a job executive producing General Hospital because Chuck Pratt was

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Speaker 3: a longtime soap opera guy, and because Chuck wasn't available,

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Speaker 3: it created an opening. Mark met a few producers and

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Speaker 3: I think to this day that I was probably the

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Speaker 3: least offensive or the one And to be candid with you,

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Speaker 3: the studio was very concerned about Mark being a gay

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Speaker 3: man and me being a gay man, and I had

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Speaker 3: to go have a meeting and kind of pitch my

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Speaker 3: take on the show because they were honestly afraid at

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Speaker 3: the time the show would become campy.

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Speaker 6: Oh that's so interesting, yeah.

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Speaker 3: And so it was like that was the elephant in

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Speaker 3: the room that I addressed in my meeting, And to me,

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Speaker 3: when I read the script, I had two images in

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Speaker 3: my head it was American Beauty meets Edward Scissorhand.

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Speaker 6: Love the references.

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Speaker 2: Wow.

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Speaker 3: And so when you see the show, because American Beauty

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Speaker 3: kind of showed us what was lurking behind our neighbors doors,

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Speaker 3: and it won the Oscar and it was such a presence.

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Speaker 3: I mean, it's hard to remember because it's you know,

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Speaker 3: we're going back, you know, twenty plus years. I remember that,

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Speaker 3: and yeah, it was brilliant. And then the idea of

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Speaker 3: this suburban world that Tim Burton created with Edward Scissorhand,

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Speaker 3: where it was you know, we're going to take you

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Speaker 3: to some very dark places, but if we keep it

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Speaker 3: really bright, we can take the audience there. So that's

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Speaker 3: what I pitched.

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Speaker 2: Wo wait, I have a question. Is that why Danny

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Speaker 2: Elfman did the music?

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Speaker 3: I mean Danny Elfman we got very lucky because at

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Speaker 3: that point in time, he'd only done The Simpsons for TV.

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Speaker 3: So Danny did only the main title. He didn't do

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Speaker 3: any of the episod Yes, so he did our main title,

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Speaker 3: which was you know, iconic and absolutely amazing.

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Speaker 2: I just associate him so much with Timberton, and because

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Speaker 2: he's scored so many of his films that that's so

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Speaker 2: interesting that that's a reference.

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Speaker 3: And he got it and it's his first take on

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Speaker 3: the theme song was a little less resolved and a

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Speaker 3: little darker. And we sat with him and talked with him,

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Speaker 3: and he's such a genius. I had to go. I

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Speaker 3: was sent with the network notes to go, you know,

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Speaker 3: give notes.

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Speaker 1: To explain to a musician that you want it subtenly changed.

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Speaker 3: It's so interesting because the way he built it was

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Speaker 3: it kind of built without a resolve a musical and

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Speaker 3: what he did. So I had to go give Danny Elfman,

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Speaker 3: like one of the greatest composers of all time, musical

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Speaker 3: notes and like you go over and I went to

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Speaker 3: his house and in the basement and to Danny's credit, goes, oh, yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 3: you just want to resolve, and he just looked at me,

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Speaker 3: not up and down. I watched him change one hundred

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Speaker 3: lines of music, Like he literally sat there, changed one

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Speaker 3: hundred lines of music, you know, instrument parts right, and

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Speaker 3: then push play and I'm like, yeah, that's good. Wow.

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Speaker 3: He just did it right in front of my eyes

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Speaker 3: in like the space of a half hour. And then

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Speaker 3: it came back to bite me a little bit because

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Speaker 3: when we went to go score the sound. You know

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Speaker 3: that that opening. We did it on the Warner Brothers

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Speaker 3: a lot on their big orchestral stage, and Danny wanted

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Speaker 3: twenty more musicians or something like. His agent called me

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Speaker 3: because Danny needs more musicians and Disney which week we

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Speaker 3: can get into, you know, before the show had gone

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Speaker 3: on the air, Disney was very very conscious about spending.

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Speaker 1: Money, right, Okay, So, which is why.

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Speaker 3: You were in Flip.

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Speaker 5: Flops history solved? Can we also touch on how Charles

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Speaker 5: McDougall got involved.

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Speaker 3: Sure, that's a good story.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, okay, great, let's talk about Charles McDougal so much

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Speaker 4: you can see.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, So in January I'm hired, Okay, and then you

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Speaker 3: know or maybe it's yeah, I guess beginning of January

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Speaker 3: or late so it had to be late December. I

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Speaker 3: think I was hired because we started filming like the

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Speaker 3: third week in January. Yeah, we delivered in March. No, No,

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Speaker 3: we started prep in January and then we started filming

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Speaker 3: in March.

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Speaker 1: Okay, that sounds right.

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Speaker 3: So yes, So I was probably hired in January, and

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Speaker 3: the first job I had was to go with Mark

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Speaker 3: to a director's home and talk about the script, and

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Speaker 3: this was a big feature film director who was who

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Speaker 3: had a huge, huge romantic comedy movie that everybody knows.

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Speaker 3: And we go and have a meeting and then my

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Speaker 3: phone rings about five or six hours after he says, right,

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Speaker 3: you seem like a lovely guy, but I can't work

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Speaker 3: with him. Oh okay, and so we quit. Wow, And

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Speaker 3: we were in that frantic And what people don't realize,

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Speaker 3: and what's changed so much about TV now is that

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Speaker 3: you know, pilot season. Every studio was producing pilots, every

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Speaker 3: network was producing pilots. So you are chasing talent like crazy.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, your case was always it was always built around this.

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Speaker 3: You would January to March.

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Speaker 1: In January to March, you would find out if you

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Speaker 1: got picked up in May. Then you would start shooting

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Speaker 1: your year series like August, September earlier. Yeah, and then

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Speaker 1: you would do that through April. You would have a

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Speaker 1: little break and then you would do it again.

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Speaker 6: So you're chasing your cast.

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Speaker 1: It's all getting shot at the same time.

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Speaker 3: The hunger games of hiring people.

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Speaker 1: Now, of course it isn't like that because everyone is

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Speaker 1: desperate for a job. Yeah, pretty much. Yeah, anyway, started

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Speaker 1: to cut your no.

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Speaker 3: You're not, and so it's it's so what happened was

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Speaker 3: there was a vacuum and the network wanted a big

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Speaker 3: film person and I'm like, you know, we make TV.

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Speaker 3: We need someone who understands TV. And then we had

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Speaker 3: to go a little bit deeper because going back to

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Speaker 3: two thousand and four, no one had mixed drama and

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Speaker 3: comedy on American television. And I know we won, you know,

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Speaker 3: awards and comedy categories, but you know, the show was

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Speaker 3: really not a comedy and it wasn't a drama. It

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Speaker 3: was entirely its own thing. And so I started to

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Speaker 3: think about who knows how to mix comedy and drama,

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Speaker 3: and the Brits and watching British television had been doing

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Speaker 3: it for years absolutely, and Charles had directed a British

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Speaker 3: program called Queer as Folk, which was a really complicated mix.

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Speaker 3: It was a realistic look on sort of gay life,

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Speaker 3: but it was funny, it was real. He'd also done

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Speaker 3: Sex in the City, and so the fact that he'd

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Speaker 3: done sex in the City made me and I checked

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Speaker 3: with my friends who were producers there, and they said

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Speaker 3: they were very happy with the film. They had everything

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Speaker 3: they needed. The challenge with Charles was at Disney. He'd

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Speaker 3: done some directing for them and had gone wildly over budget,

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Speaker 3: and the studio didn't want to hire it, okay, and

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Speaker 3: so and everybody wanted to feature film person and somehow,

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Speaker 3: some way, I kind of just kept twisting arms until

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Speaker 3: they agreed to hire Trump.

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Speaker 1: You know when Desperate Housewives was at its best is

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Speaker 1: when it was writing this tone of I love your

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Speaker 1: examples of American beauty meets Edward Scissorhands is sort of surreal,

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Speaker 1: comedic but also grounded and emotional. And when I think

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Speaker 1: it wasn't great is when it dipped off into sort

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Speaker 1: of more slapsticky, less consistent, you know, with the characters.

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Speaker 4: Like too much of one or the other, because that

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Speaker 4: balance that that's where it's magic, really lie.

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Speaker 1: And Charles was just all over that. I think he's

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Speaker 1: so tremendously talented.

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Speaker 3: It was so brilliant. He came to set every day

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Speaker 3: with a shot list. He handed it out to us,

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Speaker 3: he handed out to the camera team, and he was

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Speaker 3: wildly prepared. I mean, at one point I saw him

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Speaker 3: skulking through the bushes looking at angles and things like

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Speaker 3: in his suits. Because you guys talked about he always

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Speaker 3: wore suit. English directors wore suits. I mean the thing

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Speaker 3: I love about English directors. And I went over to

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Speaker 3: London and you know, and built NBC's business there. English

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Speaker 3: directors are trained both in camera and in acting. And

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Speaker 3: a lot of times in the US TV directors either

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Speaker 3: come out of the the the talent acting part and

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Speaker 3: then become a director, or they come out of the

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Speaker 3: camera world and become a director. But the English directors

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Speaker 3: really have both raft and in fact, when we did

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Speaker 3: the thing with Oprah where she came on our show, yeah,

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Speaker 3: you know, Charles, I brought Charles back because we had

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Speaker 3: to cut Oprah into all these scenes from the first

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Speaker 3: season and it was so technically challenging that we needed

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Speaker 3: a director who could actually understand the technical challenge and

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Speaker 3: do all that. And so remember we we had we

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Speaker 3: worked Oprah an eighteen hour day.

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Speaker 6: Oh my, I'm so excited to see this.

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Speaker 3: So it's on. You could google it to Oprah Winfrey

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Speaker 3: with Stereia Lane, folks. So we made it. We made

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Speaker 3: an eight minute movie where Oprah came on. It was

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Speaker 3: for the Oprah Winfrey Show. And I took the guys

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Speaker 3: and that's where the guys went on Oprah with that movie.

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Speaker 5: Oh Okay, and then we didn't get to have Charles back.

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Speaker 3: Charles, I think was a brilliant pilot director, and I

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Speaker 3: don't think Charles had any desire to to kind of

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Speaker 3: be an episodic director.

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Speaker 1: It's a different beast like the directors of pilots, and

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Speaker 1: this is not unusual. They'll put their stamp all over it,

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Speaker 1: and because they have that bit of extra time to

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Speaker 1: almost treat it like a mini movie. But then the

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Speaker 1: pace of episodic television, it just doesn't offer them the

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Speaker 1: room to create I think the way that they want to, right,

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Speaker 1: That's why it's a different It's almost like a I

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Speaker 1: don't want to say cookie cutter, because I love some

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Speaker 1: of the really great episodic directors we had on our show,

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Speaker 1: but like it definitely is you get less time and

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Speaker 1: less ownership of your vision.

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Speaker 3: Well, the pilot, I think we shot for fourteen or

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Speaker 3: fifteen days, Yeah, which was a long for a drama pilot.

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Speaker 3: Then now it's nothing because the whole world has changed.

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Speaker 3: But you know, a typical episode of Desperate was supposed

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Speaker 3: to fit into eight days, and it never really did,

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Speaker 3: so we ended up having second units.

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Speaker 1: And we you know, okay, so since we're there, and

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Speaker 1: since we're not going to spend five hours on this

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Speaker 1: episode of the podcast, you don't know about it, even

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Speaker 1: though I think there's stuff to fill it. But since

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Speaker 1: we're there, I know, you and I when we were

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Speaker 1: having dinner, you mentioned and I had kind of forgotten

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Speaker 1: about this too when the thing kicked off. So when

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Speaker 1: we got picked up and we re started shooting the season,

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Speaker 1: that was in June or right June or yeah, I.

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Speaker 3: Think it was probably June.

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Speaker 1: And so it was, you know, it was shooting episodes

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Speaker 1: of the show from June until September before we knew

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Speaker 1: that it was a hit.

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Speaker 3: It went on the air in October the beginning. It

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Speaker 3: went on the air late, so the beginning of October.

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Speaker 1: Okay, And so all that time, and you can talk

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Speaker 1: to this better because you reminded me, and I think

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Speaker 1: this is insane. In the beginning. You know, people think

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Speaker 1: that actors are like so spoiled and so like they

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Speaker 1: get all the glamour things. They had the housewives sharing

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Speaker 1: a double trailer, like honeywagon kind of trailer, so like

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Speaker 1: we just had these half room trailers that were connected.

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Speaker 1: But because we were so far behind because it was

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Speaker 1: such a huge show to shoot. They added a second unit,

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Speaker 1: and the trailer would go with whoever was on the

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Speaker 1: first unit, and the second unit wouldn't have a trailer,

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Speaker 1: And so there were or a hairdresser or there.

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Speaker 3: You'd have a hair dresser. You wouldn't have somebody who

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Speaker 3: knew how to do your hair.

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Speaker 1: This is unheard of for the leads of a show

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Speaker 1: to not have the hairdresser and the makeup artist and

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Speaker 1: their trailer with them when they're working on a regular basis.

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Speaker 1: It wasn't like a one off one day, can we

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Speaker 1: get through this? It became a like and you remind

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Speaker 1: I totally forgotten about this, and you reminded me of

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Speaker 1: all this, and it just it brings back how from

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Speaker 1: the beginning there was drama that that created that we

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Speaker 1: had nothing to do with.

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Speaker 3: There's no question. And I think part of what's interesting

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Speaker 3: is is in retrospect, you know, the show was a

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Speaker 3: massive hit once it hit the air, but if you

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Speaker 3: go back and look at Disney and ABC in particular,

437
00:22:18,560 --> 00:22:21,639
Speaker 3: they hadn't launched a successful show in five years. The

438
00:22:21,680 --> 00:22:24,320
Speaker 3: company was losing probably hundreds of millions of dollars a

439
00:22:24,400 --> 00:22:27,120
Speaker 3: year on pilots and TV shows that weren't getting picked

440
00:22:27,160 --> 00:22:30,240
Speaker 3: up to future seasons. So from their point of view,

441
00:22:30,640 --> 00:22:34,399
Speaker 3: you know, they they they were really struggling financially. And

442
00:22:34,440 --> 00:22:36,320
Speaker 3: I went on to run a studio, so I understand

443
00:22:36,320 --> 00:22:39,600
Speaker 3: the pressures of making your budget work and hitting your numbers.

444
00:22:40,720 --> 00:22:44,920
Speaker 3: The thing that was interesting was we never had enough

445
00:22:45,080 --> 00:22:48,359
Speaker 3: money in those first thirteen episodes to actually make the show.

446
00:22:48,880 --> 00:22:51,720
Speaker 1: We finally have answered why I had my own wardrobe and.

447
00:22:51,640 --> 00:22:54,880
Speaker 3: Why so there was never enough money? It was there

448
00:22:54,960 --> 00:22:57,760
Speaker 3: was we were. We were George Perkins, who I know

449
00:22:57,800 --> 00:22:59,800
Speaker 3: you guys have talked about who is our amazing line

450
00:23:00,600 --> 00:23:03,320
Speaker 3: and who you know built the crew with Charlie Scurris.

451
00:23:03,320 --> 00:23:06,200
Speaker 3: I mean there are two of like the nicest, most honest,

452
00:23:06,240 --> 00:23:10,000
Speaker 3: hardworking people and super talented because they would try to

453
00:23:10,040 --> 00:23:12,920
Speaker 3: figure out ways to make things work. But we were

454
00:23:13,000 --> 00:23:16,919
Speaker 3: making that show with like scotch tape and holding it

455
00:23:16,960 --> 00:23:18,679
Speaker 3: together any way we could.

456
00:23:18,840 --> 00:23:20,639
Speaker 1: I put some on my boobs for that.

457
00:23:22,520 --> 00:23:27,360
Speaker 3: Small house after we went into the say yes, it was.

458
00:23:27,280 --> 00:23:29,480
Speaker 1: A very small amount of tape I was allowed to use.

459
00:23:29,920 --> 00:23:32,440
Speaker 3: I mean, as I understand that you were the fearless

460
00:23:32,480 --> 00:23:35,240
Speaker 3: one who kind of decided how you wanted to do it.

461
00:23:35,320 --> 00:23:38,040
Speaker 1: I did because I mean my motivation though, and this

462
00:23:38,119 --> 00:23:40,680
Speaker 1: is kind of how I look at everything was kind

463
00:23:40,720 --> 00:23:43,600
Speaker 1: of in being considerate of the director of that. I

464
00:23:43,720 --> 00:23:46,359
Speaker 1: wanted them to be able to shoot it from any

465
00:23:46,400 --> 00:23:48,720
Speaker 1: angle that they I didn't want the steady cam guy

466
00:23:48,960 --> 00:23:51,400
Speaker 1: to have to be like, oh I caught her underwear,

467
00:23:51,720 --> 00:23:53,600
Speaker 1: that's not that SHOT's not going to work. You know.

468
00:23:53,640 --> 00:23:55,520
Speaker 1: I just wanted to be like, let me just make

469
00:23:55,520 --> 00:23:56,560
Speaker 1: this easy on everybody.

470
00:23:56,720 --> 00:23:59,360
Speaker 3: I'm amazed the camera crew could even pull focus that day.

471
00:23:59,560 --> 00:24:05,240
Speaker 3: I mean everybody, everybody was, you know, in awe, and

472
00:24:05,240 --> 00:24:07,640
Speaker 3: and the film speaks for itself. I mean, it's got

473
00:24:07,640 --> 00:24:09,800
Speaker 3: to be one of the great comedy performance, isn't you.

474
00:24:09,960 --> 00:24:20,080
Speaker 1: Oh thank you? So. Circling back to there wasn't a

475
00:24:20,080 --> 00:24:22,240
Speaker 1: lot of money there was, you feel like, how did that.

476
00:24:22,240 --> 00:24:26,040
Speaker 6: Affect your experience, you know, in the studio and on set.

477
00:24:26,200 --> 00:24:29,280
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, I was young, and I was

478
00:24:29,320 --> 00:24:32,040
Speaker 3: in my mid thirties. I mean I'd produced you know,

479
00:24:32,200 --> 00:24:36,000
Speaker 3: two pilots previously, and I had a show that had

480
00:24:36,040 --> 00:24:39,040
Speaker 3: made sixteen episodes. But we really wanted this to work.

481
00:24:39,560 --> 00:24:41,879
Speaker 3: And you do what you have to do, and you

482
00:24:41,960 --> 00:24:44,720
Speaker 3: have to figure out what battles to fight, what battles

483
00:24:44,760 --> 00:24:47,280
Speaker 3: not to fight, And it's like anything else in life.

484
00:24:47,280 --> 00:24:51,440
Speaker 3: But we George and I were really holding the show

485
00:24:51,480 --> 00:24:54,240
Speaker 3: together with the money we had. Every week was a fight.

486
00:24:54,520 --> 00:24:57,320
Speaker 3: Every there was stuff with a studio breathe, you know,

487
00:24:57,400 --> 00:25:00,400
Speaker 3: coming and like you know, standing there by the t rock,

488
00:25:00,560 --> 00:25:02,359
Speaker 3: you know, to buy the to pull the plug you

489
00:25:02,400 --> 00:25:06,359
Speaker 3: know on the generators. Wow, because we were shooting you

490
00:25:06,400 --> 00:25:10,000
Speaker 3: know things next days. Yeah, And in fairness, we didn't

491
00:25:10,000 --> 00:25:13,760
Speaker 3: do anything wrong. The show had a massive appetite. It

492
00:25:13,840 --> 00:25:17,520
Speaker 3: was a big show, huge cast. I mean really unusual

493
00:25:17,760 --> 00:25:19,600
Speaker 3: that you know, you'd be lucky to have two or

494
00:25:19,600 --> 00:25:22,280
Speaker 3: three leads on a TV show. We had a bunch

495
00:25:22,280 --> 00:25:24,080
Speaker 3: of leads. Then we had a bunch of co leads,

496
00:25:24,119 --> 00:25:27,880
Speaker 3: and we had I think fourteen series in some capacity

497
00:25:27,960 --> 00:25:30,640
Speaker 3: series regulars, whether they were a series regular in their

498
00:25:30,680 --> 00:25:32,960
Speaker 3: deal or not, but we had to track them. Plus

499
00:25:32,960 --> 00:25:35,640
Speaker 3: we had a bunch of young kids, which presents its

500
00:25:35,680 --> 00:25:38,080
Speaker 3: own challenges because you can't shoot that. You can't work

501
00:25:38,119 --> 00:25:40,040
Speaker 3: an eight hour day with a bunch of young kids,

502
00:25:40,320 --> 00:25:44,040
Speaker 3: let alone a fourteen hour day. Yeah, And so at

503
00:25:44,040 --> 00:25:46,760
Speaker 3: the time we were just doing everything we could to

504
00:25:46,840 --> 00:25:49,960
Speaker 3: get to air because we thought that we had something

505
00:25:50,600 --> 00:25:53,560
Speaker 3: unique and special and then fortunately, you know, the ratings

506
00:25:53,640 --> 00:25:55,920
Speaker 3: came out and I think they were the biggest ratings

507
00:25:56,000 --> 00:25:57,520
Speaker 3: in er It was enormous.

508
00:25:57,680 --> 00:26:01,400
Speaker 4: Wow. So with that amount of oversight when it came

509
00:26:01,440 --> 00:26:03,760
Speaker 4: to budgeting and things like that. I know we've we've

510
00:26:03,760 --> 00:26:05,760
Speaker 4: talked about it from how it felt as actors on

511
00:26:05,800 --> 00:26:08,400
Speaker 4: the show, and we've talked about like the little bits

512
00:26:08,440 --> 00:26:11,600
Speaker 4: that we sort of surmised, Like we mentioned Terry and

513
00:26:11,640 --> 00:26:14,080
Speaker 4: maybe Nicolette's nipples being a problem at one point that

514
00:26:14,119 --> 00:26:16,320
Speaker 4: maybe you've got notes on Uh huh, do you have

515
00:26:16,400 --> 00:26:17,199
Speaker 4: more to say on that?

516
00:26:17,520 --> 00:26:20,280
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, I think they were concerned about advertisers

517
00:26:20,359 --> 00:26:24,040
Speaker 3: and they and so so and I at the time

518
00:26:24,040 --> 00:26:26,320
Speaker 3: pushed back and I said, we're doing a show about women,

519
00:26:26,400 --> 00:26:30,359
Speaker 3: but we don't like women's bodies. And you know, I

520
00:26:30,400 --> 00:26:33,040
Speaker 3: didn't win that argument. And what we ended up doing

521
00:26:33,240 --> 00:26:35,719
Speaker 3: was in post production blurring them out a little bit,

522
00:26:35,800 --> 00:26:36,560
Speaker 3: or painting them out.

523
00:26:36,720 --> 00:26:39,360
Speaker 5: Oh my gosh, wow, you had your nipples blurret out.

524
00:26:39,480 --> 00:26:40,720
Speaker 6: I wonder who had that job.

525
00:26:41,480 --> 00:26:41,640
Speaker 2: Yeah.

526
00:26:41,760 --> 00:26:43,639
Speaker 3: By the way, so the audience understands the women were

527
00:26:43,680 --> 00:26:47,800
Speaker 3: wearing clothes, it's just you know, they wanted, you know,

528
00:26:47,840 --> 00:26:49,320
Speaker 3: in scenes I guess where you didn't want to wear

529
00:26:49,320 --> 00:26:51,080
Speaker 3: a bra. You didn't feel it was appropriate to.

530
00:26:51,040 --> 00:26:53,560
Speaker 1: It was always wearing a bra. But I think when

531
00:26:53,560 --> 00:26:56,199
Speaker 1: it's cold, your nipples get hard and then you know

532
00:26:56,280 --> 00:26:58,639
Speaker 1: they poke out through the shirt. I mean what is

533
00:26:58,960 --> 00:27:01,639
Speaker 1: interesting is as we were watching it, and maybe you

534
00:27:02,080 --> 00:27:06,080
Speaker 1: listened to this, I did bring up like, wow, I

535
00:27:06,160 --> 00:27:09,720
Speaker 1: kind of loosely remember being told can we put your

536
00:27:09,800 --> 00:27:12,919
Speaker 1: nipples away somehow because they're causing a problem and it

537
00:27:12,960 --> 00:27:15,800
Speaker 1: costs extra money to have to air brush them out,

538
00:27:16,600 --> 00:27:20,960
Speaker 1: like and me thinking, you know, from my point of view,

539
00:27:21,080 --> 00:27:22,960
Speaker 1: I'm not doing that, Like that's not a big deal.

540
00:27:23,200 --> 00:27:26,919
Speaker 1: But it's because I'm in my body, like I'm wearing

541
00:27:26,960 --> 00:27:31,359
Speaker 1: a bra, I'm wearing a shirt like that feels normal

542
00:27:31,400 --> 00:27:33,439
Speaker 1: to me. It did like asking me to put like,

543
00:27:33,560 --> 00:27:36,240
Speaker 1: you know, gauze over my nipples or something like that,

544
00:27:36,600 --> 00:27:37,920
Speaker 1: it starts to feel.

545
00:27:37,600 --> 00:27:40,639
Speaker 3: Like what, I just have an issue with it. And

546
00:27:41,080 --> 00:27:45,200
Speaker 3: in fairness, listen, I I can't say it enough. We're

547
00:27:45,200 --> 00:27:49,000
Speaker 3: doing a show about women. There's nothing wrong with the

548
00:27:49,000 --> 00:27:51,560
Speaker 3: woman's body. These are dressed women. This is not a

549
00:27:51,640 --> 00:27:55,160
Speaker 3: nudity issue, right, So for me, it was something that

550
00:27:55,240 --> 00:27:57,000
Speaker 3: you know, I lost that fight. You don't win fights

551
00:27:57,040 --> 00:27:59,800
Speaker 3: with standards and practices. I've only won one in my

552
00:28:00,080 --> 00:28:02,480
Speaker 3: entire career when I was at CBS, and it came

553
00:28:02,520 --> 00:28:03,880
Speaker 3: back to bite me in the bus.

554
00:28:03,960 --> 00:28:06,520
Speaker 2: Well, I'm curious. So you're for the first you know,

555
00:28:06,640 --> 00:28:09,600
Speaker 2: thirteen episodes. You're doing this on a shoe string scotch

556
00:28:09,640 --> 00:28:12,160
Speaker 2: tape budget. You don't know if it's going to be successful.

557
00:28:12,440 --> 00:28:14,960
Speaker 2: Then the ratings start coming in, then the show blows up.

558
00:28:15,560 --> 00:28:19,920
Speaker 2: How did that change your working experience?

559
00:28:20,160 --> 00:28:24,879
Speaker 3: It helped, and it made everything harder because suddenly the cast,

560
00:28:25,000 --> 00:28:28,879
Speaker 3: in particular, there was not a free moment of time.

561
00:28:29,000 --> 00:28:32,520
Speaker 3: ABC had not had a hit in so long, and

562
00:28:32,600 --> 00:28:34,720
Speaker 3: that year, as you guys remember, it's been written about,

563
00:28:34,960 --> 00:28:38,080
Speaker 3: Bill Carter wrote a book called Desperate Networks, and it

564
00:28:38,160 --> 00:28:41,400
Speaker 3: talked about how ABC went from fourth place to first place,

565
00:28:41,440 --> 00:28:44,760
Speaker 3: and on the back of Desperate and loss, and then

566
00:28:44,880 --> 00:28:50,200
Speaker 3: Gray's Anatomy came mid season, and so you know, suddenly

567
00:28:50,400 --> 00:28:54,400
Speaker 3: we were so in demand. So we did two Oprah show,

568
00:28:55,240 --> 00:28:59,240
Speaker 3: we did every weekend. You know, the girls were being

569
00:28:59,280 --> 00:29:01,160
Speaker 3: in Forgive me for calling you the girls. I hope

570
00:29:01,160 --> 00:29:03,760
Speaker 3: that's OK. They were back in twenty twenty two thousand

571
00:29:03,760 --> 00:29:06,880
Speaker 3: and four, so I guess, you know, you gardeners can

572
00:29:06,920 --> 00:29:08,720
Speaker 3: have you know, we could have pedophilia and not talk

573
00:29:08,800 --> 00:29:11,360
Speaker 3: about it because it's two thousand and four, and God

574
00:29:11,400 --> 00:29:13,200
Speaker 3: did that make me uncomfortable.

575
00:29:12,680 --> 00:29:16,200
Speaker 5: Watching those Yeah.

576
00:29:14,960 --> 00:29:17,720
Speaker 3: So we can come back to that. But but suddenly

577
00:29:17,840 --> 00:29:20,840
Speaker 3: everybody is in demand. And you have to understand, ABC

578
00:29:21,080 --> 00:29:25,960
Speaker 3: went from like not having any water running to being

579
00:29:26,240 --> 00:29:29,920
Speaker 3: like gushing in success. And suddenly it didn't just translate

580
00:29:30,360 --> 00:29:33,880
Speaker 3: to you know, for Desperate Housewives or Lost or Grays.

581
00:29:34,240 --> 00:29:37,560
Speaker 3: It was also Good Morning America. So you know, Diane

582
00:29:37,560 --> 00:29:41,560
Speaker 3: Sawyer did a special. They would they wanted everything they

583
00:29:41,640 --> 00:29:45,560
Speaker 3: could get of the women, and and you know, I

584
00:29:45,680 --> 00:29:49,440
Speaker 3: felt terrible at the time because you know, we forget

585
00:29:49,440 --> 00:29:52,000
Speaker 3: that we were in a paparazzi era in two thousand

586
00:29:52,040 --> 00:29:55,400
Speaker 3: and four. You guys had no privacy. You were followed

587
00:29:55,840 --> 00:29:58,360
Speaker 3: off the studio lot, followed to your homes. I mean,

588
00:29:58,400 --> 00:30:01,080
Speaker 3: you'd had success before, so you were aware of how

589
00:30:01,120 --> 00:30:01,719
Speaker 3: to manage it.

590
00:30:01,800 --> 00:30:04,480
Speaker 1: And we were followed home from the hospital when Emerson

591
00:30:04,600 --> 00:30:07,280
Speaker 1: was born, like they've literally followed us in.

592
00:30:07,400 --> 00:30:10,120
Speaker 3: And so you at least had like, you know, gates

593
00:30:10,160 --> 00:30:12,840
Speaker 3: around you, you had a private area, you could go

594
00:30:12,880 --> 00:30:15,360
Speaker 3: home to Marsha had a little picket fence, I mean,

595
00:30:15,400 --> 00:30:17,400
Speaker 3: and they would just stare and shoot pictures of her

596
00:30:17,400 --> 00:30:21,120
Speaker 3: through the windows. And so, you know, I don't think

597
00:30:21,280 --> 00:30:26,920
Speaker 3: anybody was prepared to take care of you guys properly,

598
00:30:27,000 --> 00:30:29,480
Speaker 3: to give you the rest you needed to make sure

599
00:30:29,480 --> 00:30:31,240
Speaker 3: you had security. I mean, I think it would be

600
00:30:31,280 --> 00:30:33,200
Speaker 3: done so differently. But we live in a world where

601
00:30:33,200 --> 00:30:36,040
Speaker 3: we don't have mega hits like that anymore. There's no

602
00:30:36,120 --> 00:30:39,680
Speaker 3: show that everybody watches at nine o'clock on Sunday night.

603
00:30:39,840 --> 00:30:43,520
Speaker 4: Were there was conversations being had or not even I

604
00:30:43,640 --> 00:30:44,040
Speaker 4: try to.

605
00:30:44,200 --> 00:30:47,120
Speaker 3: I mean, I think it was a different time. And again,

606
00:30:47,320 --> 00:30:51,520
Speaker 3: I you know, it's it's hard because everybody felt like, well,

607
00:30:51,520 --> 00:30:54,600
Speaker 3: they're lucky, like they're lucky because they're on a hit

608
00:30:55,200 --> 00:30:58,680
Speaker 3: and this is great for them, and everybody feels lucky

609
00:30:58,680 --> 00:31:00,920
Speaker 3: to be on a hit. But you could be lucky

610
00:31:00,960 --> 00:31:04,200
Speaker 3: on a hit, and you can also be exhausted or

611
00:31:04,600 --> 00:31:08,760
Speaker 3: be you know. You know, Marcia couldn't go to the supermarket,

612
00:31:08,960 --> 00:31:10,480
Speaker 3: you know, she was being followed. She had to go

613
00:31:10,480 --> 00:31:13,480
Speaker 3: in full hair and makeup because Papa Razzi were dying

614
00:31:13,520 --> 00:31:17,360
Speaker 3: to get a shot of the women not looking like

615
00:31:17,440 --> 00:31:21,400
Speaker 3: they were perfect and it was a lot of pressure forever.

616
00:31:22,080 --> 00:31:24,480
Speaker 5: Yeah, I can imagine.

617
00:31:24,800 --> 00:31:28,920
Speaker 1: So you I know, you were talking about Danny Elfman

618
00:31:29,040 --> 00:31:34,080
Speaker 1: and he only did the the trailer, I mean, the

619
00:31:34,120 --> 00:31:38,480
Speaker 1: main title music. But I felt like, first of all

620
00:31:38,520 --> 00:31:43,000
Speaker 1: Wassteria Lane itself was a character in the show as

621
00:31:43,120 --> 00:31:46,000
Speaker 1: strong as any cast member, and I would love to

622
00:31:46,080 --> 00:31:49,800
Speaker 1: know how Universal got chosen and how that street in

623
00:31:49,840 --> 00:31:53,280
Speaker 1: particular became Wasteria Lane. But also, like I know, you

624
00:31:53,320 --> 00:31:55,520
Speaker 1: were really involved with the music throughout the show, and

625
00:31:55,520 --> 00:31:58,520
Speaker 1: I feel like that has such a central part in

626
00:31:58,560 --> 00:32:01,840
Speaker 1: its success of it the way it looked. Can you

627
00:32:01,920 --> 00:32:02,840
Speaker 1: tell us about that?

628
00:32:03,120 --> 00:32:05,280
Speaker 3: Sure? So, I mean, I think going back to my

629
00:32:05,480 --> 00:32:09,200
Speaker 3: initial statement about sort of American Beauty meets Edward Scissorhands,

630
00:32:09,320 --> 00:32:12,440
Speaker 3: it was it created a picture or I had a

631
00:32:12,560 --> 00:32:15,440
Speaker 3: vision for what the show should be. And in fairness

632
00:32:15,440 --> 00:32:17,640
Speaker 3: to Mark, I mean Mark, I would say, if you

633
00:32:17,680 --> 00:32:20,040
Speaker 3: look at our roles, he was the architect. He wrote

634
00:32:20,040 --> 00:32:23,560
Speaker 3: this amazing script. And then, as you guys know, because

635
00:32:23,600 --> 00:32:26,040
Speaker 3: you read a lot of scripts, somebody has to take

636
00:32:26,160 --> 00:32:30,960
Speaker 3: that script and turn it into you know, film, and

637
00:32:31,080 --> 00:32:34,400
Speaker 3: in television, you know, in a feature film, the director

638
00:32:34,440 --> 00:32:37,720
Speaker 3: does that. In television the producers are much more involved.

639
00:32:38,160 --> 00:32:41,120
Speaker 3: So it was we got very lucky that my previous

640
00:32:41,200 --> 00:32:45,160
Speaker 3: show had gone down, because we inherited an amazing crew,

641
00:32:45,600 --> 00:32:48,479
Speaker 3: and the crew stayed with the show for many, many years,

642
00:32:48,560 --> 00:32:50,960
Speaker 3: and so those guys hit the ground running. So we

643
00:32:51,000 --> 00:32:53,640
Speaker 3: had a brilliant art department. We already had a working

644
00:32:53,720 --> 00:32:57,080
Speaker 3: relationship because I knew them well, and so we scouted

645
00:32:57,120 --> 00:33:00,360
Speaker 3: a bunch of neighborhoods around LA and what quickly became

646
00:33:00,400 --> 00:33:02,640
Speaker 3: a parent was we need to own a cult to

647
00:33:02,720 --> 00:33:06,880
Speaker 3: sack and in success, nobody wants, you know, camera crews

648
00:33:07,000 --> 00:33:09,320
Speaker 3: and people filming in their neighborhood at four o'clock in

649
00:33:09,320 --> 00:33:12,000
Speaker 3: the morning. So then it really starts to narrow down.

650
00:33:12,040 --> 00:33:14,920
Speaker 3: Where could we do this. We talked about building everything

651
00:33:14,960 --> 00:33:18,680
Speaker 3: at Disney Range, okay, and and that wasn't going to

652
00:33:18,760 --> 00:33:22,160
Speaker 3: be No, that didn't turn out to be practical. We

653
00:33:22,200 --> 00:33:24,160
Speaker 3: looked at the Warner Brothers a lot, because they have

654
00:33:24,240 --> 00:33:27,240
Speaker 3: that little lot of houses you know from sixties television,

655
00:33:27,240 --> 00:33:30,280
Speaker 3: fifties and sixties television. And then you know, I said,

656
00:33:30,320 --> 00:33:32,920
Speaker 3: why don't we go look at Universal and that street

657
00:33:33,000 --> 00:33:36,120
Speaker 3: hadn't been touched. It was dilapidated. So one of the

658
00:33:36,160 --> 00:33:39,600
Speaker 3: things we had to do was repaint and freshen up

659
00:33:39,720 --> 00:33:42,600
Speaker 3: and dress an entire street, you know, and that's a

660
00:33:42,680 --> 00:33:45,440
Speaker 3: multi acre set. I mean that again, TV shows at

661
00:33:45,440 --> 00:33:49,000
Speaker 3: that time did not have the budgets they have now, right, so,

662
00:33:49,200 --> 00:33:51,160
Speaker 3: you know, no one had made a Game of Thrones then,

663
00:33:51,680 --> 00:33:54,000
Speaker 3: and so so the idea that we were going to

664
00:33:54,560 --> 00:33:57,560
Speaker 3: dress up a whole neighborhood, paint every single house, find

665
00:33:57,720 --> 00:33:59,760
Speaker 3: you know, and give it a look. And I know

666
00:33:59,800 --> 00:34:02,239
Speaker 3: you as we're talking about some of the sets, some

667
00:34:02,320 --> 00:34:04,680
Speaker 3: of those houses are just facades. There's nothing in them.

668
00:34:05,120 --> 00:34:07,160
Speaker 3: And some of them we had to build sets and

669
00:34:07,200 --> 00:34:09,960
Speaker 3: try to you know, put breeze I think dining room

670
00:34:10,000 --> 00:34:12,800
Speaker 3: inside one of them, living room. And so we just

671
00:34:12,920 --> 00:34:15,400
Speaker 3: kind of faked it until we got stage space.

672
00:34:15,920 --> 00:34:16,400
Speaker 1: Wow.

673
00:34:16,719 --> 00:34:18,719
Speaker 5: Yeah, because when did that happen? When did we get

674
00:34:18,800 --> 00:34:19,360
Speaker 5: the stages?

675
00:34:19,520 --> 00:34:21,319
Speaker 3: When? When when the show got picked up, we got

676
00:34:21,320 --> 00:34:23,759
Speaker 3: more stages and we started building and we realized once

677
00:34:23,800 --> 00:34:25,960
Speaker 3: the show became a hit, you know, the network realized

678
00:34:25,960 --> 00:34:27,520
Speaker 3: it was in the studio, realized it was going to

679
00:34:27,560 --> 00:34:28,480
Speaker 3: be around for a while.

680
00:34:29,120 --> 00:34:32,600
Speaker 1: But you know, I mean talk about like sustaining like

681
00:34:32,719 --> 00:34:36,759
Speaker 1: that with Steria, Lane is still on the Universal Tram tour. Yeah,

682
00:34:37,120 --> 00:34:38,600
Speaker 1: like I mean, it's a highlight.

683
00:34:38,800 --> 00:34:40,160
Speaker 5: It's a huge draw.

684
00:34:40,480 --> 00:34:42,799
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a huge draw. Isn't that crazy that you

685
00:34:42,880 --> 00:34:46,360
Speaker 1: created this. I wouldn't say a neighborhood that didn't exist.

686
00:34:46,560 --> 00:34:48,880
Speaker 3: I think we had an idea that, you know, and

687
00:34:48,960 --> 00:34:51,160
Speaker 3: Mark and I actually did talk about the fact that

688
00:34:51,480 --> 00:34:54,719
Speaker 3: we decided together that with Steria Lane, we were never

689
00:34:54,800 --> 00:34:57,960
Speaker 3: going to give it a location, right, and and the

690
00:34:58,040 --> 00:35:02,960
Speaker 3: sets were iconic, I mean, the network liked it. But

691
00:35:03,000 --> 00:35:05,359
Speaker 3: then I would get phone calls where I get these

692
00:35:05,400 --> 00:35:07,759
Speaker 3: panic phone calls where they'd see the dailies, which is

693
00:35:07,760 --> 00:35:09,920
Speaker 3: the film that comes out every day. The street's too

694
00:35:09,960 --> 00:35:13,040
Speaker 3: bright or it's too prettier, there's too many flowers. So

695
00:35:13,400 --> 00:35:15,920
Speaker 3: I would, you know, So I would go, okay, and

696
00:35:15,960 --> 00:35:18,520
Speaker 3: I would get in my golf cart and I would

697
00:35:18,640 --> 00:35:21,040
Speaker 3: drive up from the production office, you know, putt putt

698
00:35:21,080 --> 00:35:22,960
Speaker 3: putt up and around the hill and get into a

699
00:35:22,960 --> 00:35:27,840
Speaker 3: stereo lane. I would literally remove one flower and I

700
00:35:27,880 --> 00:35:29,920
Speaker 3: would and I would call the network back and I

701
00:35:29,960 --> 00:35:32,799
Speaker 3: would say, listen, guys, you know totally hear you. I

702
00:35:32,840 --> 00:35:36,640
Speaker 3: went up there myself. I pulled it back and you

703
00:35:37,200 --> 00:35:40,600
Speaker 3: have to realize, like there's there's so much fear and

704
00:35:40,760 --> 00:35:44,480
Speaker 3: anxiety that goes into a show before it goes on air, right,

705
00:35:44,840 --> 00:35:47,040
Speaker 3: And this is true of every show I've ever worked on.

706
00:35:47,120 --> 00:35:50,520
Speaker 3: There's just a tremendous amount of second guessing by everybody

707
00:35:50,560 --> 00:35:52,080
Speaker 3: because who have you met who doesn't think they have

708
00:35:52,120 --> 00:35:52,760
Speaker 3: a good opinion.

709
00:35:53,800 --> 00:36:03,319
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was just talking to my manager about this.

710
00:36:03,320 --> 00:36:07,640
Speaker 2: There's so much scared filmmaking because especially you know, you

711
00:36:07,719 --> 00:36:08,600
Speaker 2: only have so much money.

712
00:36:08,719 --> 00:36:10,560
Speaker 6: Studios have mandates they want to meet.

713
00:36:10,640 --> 00:36:14,480
Speaker 2: And everyone is like, how can we hit every box

714
00:36:14,520 --> 00:36:17,160
Speaker 2: that we're supposed to hit and not offend anybody? And

715
00:36:17,600 --> 00:36:20,000
Speaker 2: I mean, I think what's amazing is that you created

716
00:36:20,000 --> 00:36:22,719
Speaker 2: something so distinct even with all of those factors.

717
00:36:22,920 --> 00:36:25,600
Speaker 3: I think, listen, we had a vision. We had an

718
00:36:25,640 --> 00:36:31,000
Speaker 3: amazing team of people, and it starts with mark script

719
00:36:31,120 --> 00:36:33,240
Speaker 3: and that script to the you know, I rewatched the pilot,

720
00:36:33,239 --> 00:36:36,040
Speaker 3: which I hadn't seen in twenty years. The script is

721
00:36:36,200 --> 00:36:39,520
Speaker 3: so stellar. It has so many good move moments. Every

722
00:36:39,640 --> 00:36:42,560
Speaker 3: single scene in that script does something for the show.

723
00:36:43,000 --> 00:36:47,200
Speaker 3: And to set up four characters plus Edie plus each

724
00:36:47,239 --> 00:36:51,200
Speaker 3: of the guys, and you knew who every character was,

725
00:36:51,239 --> 00:36:55,400
Speaker 3: every adult character was in that pilot, and then you

726
00:36:55,760 --> 00:36:58,799
Speaker 3: I mean Andrea. I mean, my god, your performances were

727
00:36:58,880 --> 00:37:03,040
Speaker 3: are It's funny because now I've met the grown woman,

728
00:37:03,239 --> 00:37:05,600
Speaker 3: But to think about that, you were just a kid,

729
00:37:05,640 --> 00:37:09,080
Speaker 3: and you were so natural and so funny and so

730
00:37:09,360 --> 00:37:12,480
Speaker 3: good and so charming, and the relationship you had with

731
00:37:12,520 --> 00:37:14,959
Speaker 3: your mom where you kind of knew all her insecurities

732
00:37:14,960 --> 00:37:18,400
Speaker 3: and loved her anyway and brought that. And so to

733
00:37:18,480 --> 00:37:22,960
Speaker 3: Mark's credit, I mean, he wrote a masterpiece. My job

734
00:37:23,120 --> 00:37:25,960
Speaker 3: then became to keep everybody from touching the script before

735
00:37:25,960 --> 00:37:26,800
Speaker 3: we started shooting.

736
00:37:27,600 --> 00:37:30,160
Speaker 1: Yeah, were there people at the studio that wanted it change.

737
00:37:30,239 --> 00:37:33,000
Speaker 3: After the read through, which was three days before we filmed,

738
00:37:33,000 --> 00:37:36,920
Speaker 3: they gave a bunch of notes, and I remember the

739
00:37:36,920 --> 00:37:38,960
Speaker 3: studio had brought me in and I had to turn

740
00:37:39,000 --> 00:37:41,200
Speaker 3: to my friends at the studio and say, I'm sorry,

741
00:37:41,200 --> 00:37:43,279
Speaker 3: you don't get to give notes now. And they said

742
00:37:43,600 --> 00:37:46,960
Speaker 3: what I said, We're locked. I mean, the director is prepped,

743
00:37:47,520 --> 00:37:49,680
Speaker 3: You've had the script for nine months. Now is not

744
00:37:49,800 --> 00:37:51,520
Speaker 3: the time to give notes. And I think they were

745
00:37:51,520 --> 00:37:56,279
Speaker 3: initially concerned about Breeze dialogue was very heightened to a

746
00:37:56,360 --> 00:37:59,400
Speaker 3: Los Angeles audience. You know, she's pleased as punch, her

747
00:37:59,480 --> 00:38:03,560
Speaker 3: little her little expressions in euphemisms. I think to Los

748
00:38:03,640 --> 00:38:11,279
Speaker 3: Angeles executives felt unnatural, and to Mark's credit, like he

749
00:38:11,400 --> 00:38:14,640
Speaker 3: was his ear was leaning and picking up something else,

750
00:38:14,680 --> 00:38:17,120
Speaker 3: which was you know, the genius of the show is

751
00:38:17,160 --> 00:38:19,279
Speaker 3: that people in Blue states could watch it and think

752
00:38:19,320 --> 00:38:22,120
Speaker 3: they were watching something that was satirical, and people in

753
00:38:22,160 --> 00:38:24,680
Speaker 3: red states could watch the exact same show and connected

754
00:38:24,719 --> 00:38:27,319
Speaker 3: the characters in a totally different way. And I think

755
00:38:27,400 --> 00:38:31,239
Speaker 3: Mark's neutrality about how he wrote his characters allowed that

756
00:38:31,320 --> 00:38:31,760
Speaker 3: to happen.

757
00:38:31,920 --> 00:38:34,960
Speaker 1: Wow, that is really a good observation. I really agree.

758
00:38:35,000 --> 00:38:37,920
Speaker 1: And I but I have to say I've said a

759
00:38:37,920 --> 00:38:41,480
Speaker 1: lot of Marcia Marsham Marshall because she's so great. Yeah,

760
00:38:41,480 --> 00:38:44,920
Speaker 1: but I can't think of anybody else that could have

761
00:38:45,040 --> 00:38:49,200
Speaker 1: taken those, as you say, kind of strange still more

762
00:38:49,600 --> 00:38:56,759
Speaker 1: stilted words and somehow ground them into a humanity that

763
00:38:56,880 --> 00:39:00,840
Speaker 1: actually came out of her mouth and made you believe

764
00:39:00,880 --> 00:39:01,479
Speaker 1: it now.

765
00:39:01,360 --> 00:39:04,600
Speaker 3: Because on one level her character seems really heightened. Yeah,

766
00:39:04,600 --> 00:39:09,720
Speaker 3: And on another, to your point, you you really connect

767
00:39:09,840 --> 00:39:12,520
Speaker 3: with her and she breaks your heart. I mean, you

768
00:39:12,520 --> 00:39:14,680
Speaker 3: know when Rex asked for a divorce and through the

769
00:39:14,719 --> 00:39:19,040
Speaker 3: whole first season and you know, he she really really

770
00:39:20,520 --> 00:39:24,400
Speaker 3: I think was approaching everything as this is this is

771
00:39:24,440 --> 00:39:27,480
Speaker 3: a real person. This is somebody who who has who's

772
00:39:27,520 --> 00:39:30,040
Speaker 3: done everything in her life that she thought was right

773
00:39:30,080 --> 00:39:32,080
Speaker 3: and was going to make her happy and she wasn't.

774
00:39:32,120 --> 00:39:34,400
Speaker 3: And again, that was the genius of the show, that

775
00:39:34,480 --> 00:39:37,720
Speaker 3: each of the women had gone down a path before

776
00:39:37,880 --> 00:39:39,719
Speaker 3: before the show started and thought they were going to

777
00:39:39,760 --> 00:39:43,080
Speaker 3: find happiness, and that each of them we meet them

778
00:39:43,120 --> 00:39:46,200
Speaker 3: in this moment in time where each of them is

779
00:39:46,239 --> 00:39:48,839
Speaker 3: confronting what does happy look like? And I think that's

780
00:39:48,880 --> 00:39:51,760
Speaker 3: why the show resonated not just with women in America,

781
00:39:51,800 --> 00:39:54,560
Speaker 3: but also with a lot of men. And at one

782
00:39:54,600 --> 00:39:57,520
Speaker 3: point we had that crazy thing where Edie did the

783
00:39:57,560 --> 00:39:59,879
Speaker 3: Monday Night Football spot that caused.

784
00:40:00,160 --> 00:40:01,160
Speaker 1: Oh, oh my gosh.

785
00:40:01,480 --> 00:40:03,360
Speaker 5: Oh wait, no, there was a thing in a locker

786
00:40:03,440 --> 00:40:04,760
Speaker 5: room right, Oh my gosh.

787
00:40:04,760 --> 00:40:07,040
Speaker 3: I totally forgot about this thing and it blew up.

788
00:40:07,040 --> 00:40:08,840
Speaker 3: But when they came and pitched it to us, ABC,

789
00:40:09,000 --> 00:40:11,319
Speaker 3: Monday Night Football called me and said, we want to

790
00:40:11,360 --> 00:40:13,000
Speaker 3: do this thing, and you know, we want to help

791
00:40:13,080 --> 00:40:16,280
Speaker 3: you know your show, and we have more men watching

792
00:40:16,400 --> 00:40:19,239
Speaker 3: our show than you have watching Monday Night Football, So

793
00:40:19,320 --> 00:40:20,960
Speaker 3: let's just reset the conversation.

794
00:40:21,320 --> 00:40:21,640
Speaker 2: Wow.

795
00:40:22,040 --> 00:40:24,560
Speaker 1: Wait, well, I'm sort of loosely remembering this. She did

796
00:40:24,600 --> 00:40:25,840
Speaker 1: a commercial in a.

797
00:40:25,760 --> 00:40:27,160
Speaker 5: Towel in a locker room.

798
00:40:27,239 --> 00:40:29,280
Speaker 3: Yes, it was a promo and I haven't I haven't

799
00:40:29,400 --> 00:40:32,640
Speaker 3: watched it. I can't. But it caused it caused a scandal.

800
00:40:33,000 --> 00:40:35,200
Speaker 3: It was sexual, you know. And I don't think she

801
00:40:35,360 --> 00:40:37,640
Speaker 3: did what was scripted. It wasn't anything she did. It

802
00:40:37,719 --> 00:40:40,239
Speaker 3: was what everybody decided that she should do.

803
00:40:40,360 --> 00:40:43,640
Speaker 4: And it was because of it being on Family Night football, right,

804
00:40:43,719 --> 00:40:45,640
Speaker 4: I mean, that's why it was so scandalous.

805
00:40:46,080 --> 00:40:48,280
Speaker 5: I don't think it in and of itself was very offensive.

806
00:40:48,480 --> 00:40:51,880
Speaker 1: Do you have like when you sit this far away

807
00:40:52,040 --> 00:40:54,080
Speaker 1: and you like look at it and you go like.

808
00:40:56,040 --> 00:40:56,640
Speaker 5: I did that.

809
00:40:57,280 --> 00:41:00,000
Speaker 1: I was a part of that. Do you have things

810
00:41:00,160 --> 00:41:05,840
Speaker 1: that you that like either scenes or moments or or

811
00:41:06,120 --> 00:41:09,880
Speaker 1: or or struggles that you conquered over that like you

812
00:41:09,880 --> 00:41:11,560
Speaker 1: you are proud of them? Or and do you have

813
00:41:11,640 --> 00:41:15,040
Speaker 1: things that you like just want to be like, I'm

814
00:41:15,080 --> 00:41:18,320
Speaker 1: so glad that I can just put that to rest

815
00:41:18,360 --> 00:41:19,240
Speaker 1: and walk away.

816
00:41:19,680 --> 00:41:23,280
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, you know, Desperate was was a wild

817
00:41:23,360 --> 00:41:25,600
Speaker 3: time in my life because I was very young as

818
00:41:25,640 --> 00:41:31,719
Speaker 3: a producer and as an executive, and it it allowed me.

819
00:41:31,840 --> 00:41:34,640
Speaker 3: I'm grateful that that script came into my life and

820
00:41:34,719 --> 00:41:37,840
Speaker 3: allowed me to showcase what I was capable of do it,

821
00:41:37,960 --> 00:41:40,840
Speaker 3: just like the script allowed you guys as actors to

822
00:41:40,920 --> 00:41:43,759
Speaker 3: showcase what you were able to do. Mark and I

823
00:41:43,960 --> 00:41:48,560
Speaker 3: always had different visions of the show, and tonally, his

824
00:41:48,840 --> 00:41:53,480
Speaker 3: taste was more comedic than mine. And what ended up

825
00:41:53,520 --> 00:41:57,160
Speaker 3: happening over the course of the first season was, you know,

826
00:41:57,560 --> 00:42:00,839
Speaker 3: my I was cutting those first thirteen upsodes because Mark

827
00:42:00,960 --> 00:42:04,240
Speaker 3: was so far behind in writing that basically the editorial

828
00:42:04,280 --> 00:42:07,359
Speaker 3: fell to me. And then, you know, and there were

829
00:42:07,400 --> 00:42:10,239
Speaker 3: times where there'd be a gag or something that he

830
00:42:10,360 --> 00:42:14,120
Speaker 3: loved that I just thought was silly, and I'd take

831
00:42:14,160 --> 00:42:17,960
Speaker 3: it out, and so there was a schism forming between

832
00:42:18,000 --> 00:42:21,000
Speaker 3: the two of us. Case wise, from the beginning.

833
00:42:21,760 --> 00:42:25,840
Speaker 1: I understand that I mean I yeah, and I understand

834
00:42:25,840 --> 00:42:30,600
Speaker 1: that I mean I as as I said, like I

835
00:42:30,680 --> 00:42:34,920
Speaker 1: feel like tonally it was could be very good. And

836
00:42:34,960 --> 00:42:37,600
Speaker 1: then there were definitely episodes, maybe not so much in

837
00:42:37,640 --> 00:42:41,080
Speaker 1: the first season, but like it you know, would dip

838
00:42:41,120 --> 00:42:43,520
Speaker 1: into like this doesn't really make sense or this is

839
00:42:44,080 --> 00:42:44,960
Speaker 1: too can't be well.

840
00:42:45,000 --> 00:42:50,960
Speaker 4: It's hard work to maintain that specific tightrope of that

841
00:42:51,120 --> 00:42:55,480
Speaker 4: balance between the comedy, the drama, the mystery, the surrealism.

842
00:42:56,160 --> 00:43:00,560
Speaker 4: You know, it's not an easy thing to maintain, imagine

843
00:43:00,600 --> 00:43:03,040
Speaker 4: from all different sides, but it is the thing that

844
00:43:03,200 --> 00:43:06,200
Speaker 4: was so special about the show. And I think that

845
00:43:06,400 --> 00:43:10,320
Speaker 4: so many people, even me at thirteen, I remember people

846
00:43:10,360 --> 00:43:13,040
Speaker 4: telling me after they watched the show that the tone

847
00:43:13,600 --> 00:43:17,920
Speaker 4: was so unique and people just loved that about it.

848
00:43:18,120 --> 00:43:20,319
Speaker 3: And what's interesting is, so I watched the pilot again,

849
00:43:20,320 --> 00:43:23,360
Speaker 3: and the pilot had a different composer than our series composer,

850
00:43:23,880 --> 00:43:25,920
Speaker 3: and so one of the things that we had to

851
00:43:26,000 --> 00:43:29,400
Speaker 3: do was invent a new sound because dramas on TV

852
00:43:29,480 --> 00:43:32,680
Speaker 3: were scored with drama soundtracks and comedies were scored with

853
00:43:32,719 --> 00:43:37,719
Speaker 3: comedy soundtracks, and Desperate had to let the audience know

854
00:43:37,800 --> 00:43:40,400
Speaker 3: that things were ironic at times, or things were not

855
00:43:40,560 --> 00:43:44,080
Speaker 3: what they seemed, or a character who's doing something straight

856
00:43:44,120 --> 00:43:46,640
Speaker 3: down the middle, Oh, you've got to think about that.

857
00:43:47,080 --> 00:43:49,640
Speaker 3: And so, you know, the composer of my previous show

858
00:43:49,719 --> 00:43:52,960
Speaker 3: is a guy named Steve Jablonski. Steve was introduced to

859
00:43:53,000 --> 00:43:55,520
Speaker 3: me through Hans Zimmer, who was the greatest of the

860
00:43:55,600 --> 00:43:59,520
Speaker 3: great and Steve was composing our score and he had

861
00:43:59,600 --> 00:44:04,000
Speaker 3: done a demo for Desperate Housewives, and I think Mark

862
00:44:04,080 --> 00:44:06,480
Speaker 3: had felt at the time that I had hired too

863
00:44:06,480 --> 00:44:09,319
Speaker 3: many of my production people. And by the way, in

864
00:44:09,360 --> 00:44:11,880
Speaker 3: fairness to him, this was his project. He got saddled

865
00:44:11,880 --> 00:44:15,600
Speaker 3: with an entire crew, he got saddled with an art department,

866
00:44:15,719 --> 00:44:19,960
Speaker 3: I mean, and and so he chose a composer for

867
00:44:20,000 --> 00:44:23,000
Speaker 3: the pilot, and we realized that wasn't the right composer.

868
00:44:23,280 --> 00:44:26,440
Speaker 3: He chose another composer, realized it wasn't the right composer.

869
00:44:26,680 --> 00:44:30,040
Speaker 3: And then what ended up happening is really funny. Steve

870
00:44:30,120 --> 00:44:32,960
Speaker 3: Jablonski's music was in the Avid, which is the editing

871
00:44:33,000 --> 00:44:37,400
Speaker 3: machine that we could, and some editor found these tracks

872
00:44:37,719 --> 00:44:40,680
Speaker 3: and knew none of the politics. Oh wow, And so

873
00:44:40,719 --> 00:44:44,839
Speaker 3: he cut the episode that begins with going into the Furnace. Yeah,

874
00:44:45,120 --> 00:44:50,240
Speaker 3: you know, re insiderated. Uh, Steve had cut. The editor

875
00:44:50,239 --> 00:44:52,919
Speaker 3: had cut Steve's music, and Mark and Iron and edited.

876
00:44:52,920 --> 00:44:55,359
Speaker 3: Mark quen this music. This is the music. Who did this?

877
00:44:55,360 --> 00:44:59,160
Speaker 3: This is perfect? Oh and and the poor editor turns

878
00:44:59,160 --> 00:45:01,759
Speaker 3: and goes he looks in Steve Jablonski and Mark just

879
00:45:01,800 --> 00:45:05,279
Speaker 3: looks it. Uh oh, But Steve got the job. And

880
00:45:05,800 --> 00:45:08,399
Speaker 3: then Steve and I. So what happened is, you guys

881
00:45:08,440 --> 00:45:10,399
Speaker 3: would shoot all day. We'd go to set. I would

882
00:45:10,400 --> 00:45:12,320
Speaker 3: be there at call, which is like six in the morning,

883
00:45:12,360 --> 00:45:15,560
Speaker 3: six thirty. We would wrap at six to seven to eight.

884
00:45:16,000 --> 00:45:19,000
Speaker 3: I would then go into editorial to check on the scripts.

885
00:45:19,200 --> 00:45:22,399
Speaker 3: Then I would drive from the Universal all the way

886
00:45:22,440 --> 00:45:26,560
Speaker 3: to Steve's house in Santa Monica and we would And

887
00:45:26,600 --> 00:45:28,319
Speaker 3: he liked to work late at night, so from ten

888
00:45:28,360 --> 00:45:30,480
Speaker 3: or eleven at night till two or three in the morning,

889
00:45:30,520 --> 00:45:31,440
Speaker 3: we'd work on the music.

890
00:45:31,600 --> 00:45:36,320
Speaker 6: So did you not sleep for a year? Nine months?

891
00:45:37,600 --> 00:45:38,760
Speaker 1: Wow? Wow?

892
00:45:38,880 --> 00:45:41,040
Speaker 5: It is like having a baby. Then it is.

893
00:45:41,120 --> 00:45:45,239
Speaker 4: It's like you're building growing something for nine months, you know.

894
00:45:46,239 --> 00:45:48,920
Speaker 3: Like I said, it was magical because the work was

895
00:45:49,000 --> 00:45:53,360
Speaker 3: so good. We all wanted we all wanted success. Everybody

896
00:45:53,400 --> 00:45:55,520
Speaker 3: showed up. I mean I watched Terry come to work

897
00:45:55,840 --> 00:45:59,600
Speaker 3: incredibly sick sometimes and like I'm looking in the truck

898
00:45:59,640 --> 00:46:01,120
Speaker 3: with il I think she's good. I mean, we should

899
00:46:01,120 --> 00:46:03,719
Speaker 3: send her home, and she would say she's fine. She

900
00:46:03,719 --> 00:46:05,960
Speaker 3: would literally like hobble to set because she had a

901
00:46:06,080 --> 00:46:09,920
Speaker 3: huge fever. And then the minute they called action, the

902
00:46:10,000 --> 00:46:12,759
Speaker 3: magic showed up, the comedy showed up. It was like

903
00:46:12,920 --> 00:46:15,400
Speaker 3: nothing was wrong, and they'd say cut and you'd collapse

904
00:46:15,440 --> 00:46:17,839
Speaker 3: into your chair. And I don't know how you did it,

905
00:46:17,880 --> 00:46:22,160
Speaker 3: but you always managed to when when the work was happening.

906
00:46:22,480 --> 00:46:23,360
Speaker 3: That's what mattered.

907
00:46:24,680 --> 00:46:28,279
Speaker 1: I seem to recall Felicity saying to me once like,

908
00:46:28,840 --> 00:46:33,160
Speaker 1: what's wrong with you? You're always sick? And I at

909
00:46:33,160 --> 00:46:35,640
Speaker 1: the time I remember sort of feeling like, kind of

910
00:46:35,640 --> 00:46:38,520
Speaker 1: offended because I think of myself as a healthy person.

911
00:46:38,800 --> 00:46:41,080
Speaker 1: But when I look back on it now, I go, Yeah,

912
00:46:41,200 --> 00:46:45,000
Speaker 1: every mom I know that has a child between four

913
00:46:45,080 --> 00:46:49,640
Speaker 1: and ten years old is constantly sick because your kid

914
00:46:49,880 --> 00:46:53,680
Speaker 1: is bringing home every virus every other day from kindergarten

915
00:46:53,719 --> 00:46:55,920
Speaker 1: in first grade and second grade. And so yeah, I

916
00:46:56,080 --> 00:46:58,520
Speaker 1: probably was sick, and Emerson, it was your fault.

917
00:46:59,600 --> 00:47:01,319
Speaker 6: Well, well I am don't.

918
00:47:01,640 --> 00:47:04,279
Speaker 2: I'm so sorry, but I'm so happy that you have

919
00:47:04,360 --> 00:47:08,160
Speaker 2: such deep mental and physical fortitude that you were able

920
00:47:08,200 --> 00:47:08,839
Speaker 2: to rise up.

921
00:47:09,880 --> 00:47:12,600
Speaker 4: Well to rise up, Okay, I wanted because we had

922
00:47:12,640 --> 00:47:15,879
Speaker 4: mentioned obviously, Terry and I hadn't really rewatched the show

923
00:47:15,920 --> 00:47:18,280
Speaker 4: at all basically until we started this podcast.

924
00:47:18,320 --> 00:47:21,040
Speaker 5: Emerson of course is experiencing it for the first time.

925
00:47:20,840 --> 00:47:21,879
Speaker 6: And what a show it's been.

926
00:47:22,040 --> 00:47:23,440
Speaker 1: Yes, our finale, see.

927
00:47:23,320 --> 00:47:25,880
Speaker 4: There's so far there have been some really standout moments

928
00:47:25,880 --> 00:47:29,120
Speaker 4: from the first season. We've talked about obviously Terry's amazing

929
00:47:29,800 --> 00:47:32,359
Speaker 4: naked locked out moment, and the dinner party scene from

930
00:47:32,360 --> 00:47:35,720
Speaker 4: the same episode episode seven was a really big highlight

931
00:47:36,120 --> 00:47:39,680
Speaker 4: that we really loved. There's that amazing scene with Felicity,

932
00:47:39,800 --> 00:47:42,600
Speaker 4: the Lynette scene, the mental breakdown in the kitchen, that

933
00:47:42,680 --> 00:47:45,480
Speaker 4: felt like a really strong moment from the show. And

934
00:47:45,560 --> 00:47:47,920
Speaker 4: I know you said you haven't rewatched it really but

935
00:47:48,160 --> 00:47:49,480
Speaker 4: maybe did in advance of this.

936
00:47:50,000 --> 00:47:51,920
Speaker 3: You know, I didn't watch seven again, but I remember

937
00:47:51,960 --> 00:47:54,360
Speaker 3: it really well because it was the first time that

938
00:47:54,440 --> 00:47:58,520
Speaker 3: we actually veered from comedy into serious draw and that

939
00:47:58,520 --> 00:48:02,279
Speaker 3: that adderall storyline about a mom just wanting to compete

940
00:48:02,320 --> 00:48:04,600
Speaker 3: and just wanting to do good, which was I think

941
00:48:04,680 --> 00:48:07,960
Speaker 3: so relatable to so many women. But you know, to

942
00:48:08,000 --> 00:48:10,840
Speaker 3: the writer's credit, they took it down its natural path

943
00:48:11,160 --> 00:48:14,000
Speaker 3: and she finally had a breakdown, and again the network

944
00:48:14,080 --> 00:48:17,120
Speaker 3: was very concerned about this is a comedy, like what

945
00:48:17,120 --> 00:48:19,960
Speaker 3: are you guys doing? And when that's and that show

946
00:48:20,000 --> 00:48:23,000
Speaker 3: got a huge response from others and from women. I

947
00:48:23,000 --> 00:48:26,400
Speaker 3: think people really felt like they could see something that

948
00:48:26,960 --> 00:48:29,200
Speaker 3: rung true in their own life. And so from that

949
00:48:29,239 --> 00:48:31,600
Speaker 3: point on, I think we knew we could go where

950
00:48:31,640 --> 00:48:33,239
Speaker 3: we needed to go with the women as long as

951
00:48:33,400 --> 00:48:35,000
Speaker 3: it was based in something real.

952
00:48:35,360 --> 00:48:39,319
Speaker 1: Wow, that's that's amazing. And I will tell you what's

953
00:48:39,360 --> 00:48:43,279
Speaker 1: real and true our love for you, Michael Edlstein. Thank

954
00:48:43,320 --> 00:48:46,720
Speaker 1: you so much for being so generous with your time

955
00:48:46,880 --> 00:48:51,480
Speaker 1: and stories. It's been amazing and we will all be

956
00:48:51,640 --> 00:48:55,000
Speaker 1: coming back. Later this week, we will jump into episode

957
00:48:55,040 --> 00:48:59,640
Speaker 1: twenty three, the finale of season one. One wonderful day,

958
00:49:00,239 --> 00:49:02,279
Speaker 1: and I'm sure that it will be a wonderful day

959
00:49:02,480 --> 00:49:06,200
Speaker 1: as we meet some new neighbors on Westeria Lane and

960
00:49:06,239 --> 00:49:09,919
Speaker 1: we tie up loose ends. Or will we be able

961
00:49:09,960 --> 00:49:12,239
Speaker 1: to tie up loose ends. You'll have to wait and

962
00:49:12,280 --> 00:49:16,799
Speaker 1: see and join us next time because we are desperately

963
00:49:16,920 --> 00:49:17,960
Speaker 1: devoted to you.