WEBVTT - Some Time With...Joel Zwick (Part 1) 0:00:17.800 --> 0:00:22.320 Hey, fan, Rito's welcome to how Rude Tanaritos, our guest today, 0:00:22.440 --> 0:00:25.639 is a phenomenal director and producer who we were lucky 0:00:25.720 --> 0:00:28.640 enough to work with on both Full House and Fuller House. 0:00:29.240 --> 0:00:29.840 He has a. 0:00:29.800 --> 0:00:33.160 Wide array of TV shows, films, and Broadway shows under 0:00:33.159 --> 0:00:37.599 his belt, with his career spanning over four decades. We 0:00:37.640 --> 0:00:40.240 can't wait to talk to him about his memories from 0:00:40.240 --> 0:00:43.760 that very first episode of full House all the way 0:00:43.800 --> 0:00:45.080 to his time on Fuller House. 0:00:45.440 --> 0:00:46.280 Please welcome. 0:00:47.000 --> 0:00:50.360 Joel's a wick, Hi, Joel. 0:00:50.560 --> 0:00:53.560 Or look at you, as handsome as ever. 0:00:53.880 --> 0:00:56.520 I'm younger, younger, I'm working on being younger. 0:00:56.560 --> 0:01:01.320 Indeed you are Benjamin Button. Actually you're a completely in reverse. 0:01:01.440 --> 0:01:04.160 At some point, I'm going to start to diminish myself 0:01:04.200 --> 0:01:07.119 by one year at every birthday and see how long 0:01:07.200 --> 0:01:07.560 I can go. 0:01:08.360 --> 0:01:10.440 Yeah, I love it. I like it. 0:01:10.480 --> 0:01:11.320 Good idea. 0:01:11.520 --> 0:01:13.679 Hi, it's so good to see you. 0:01:15.000 --> 0:01:17.120 So just so you know, we kind of just jump 0:01:17.200 --> 0:01:20.480 right into the interview, so we're just gonna welcome to 0:01:20.560 --> 0:01:21.479 the show, Joel. 0:01:22.000 --> 0:01:24.240 I think it's great. I think it's so fabulous that 0:01:24.280 --> 0:01:28.520 the legend of full House has existed this many years. 0:01:28.560 --> 0:01:30.040 I mean, how many years ago do we do this 0:01:30.120 --> 0:01:32.120 thirty five years or something like that. 0:01:32.280 --> 0:01:36.160 Thirty thirty seven, thirty seven, I think, yeah, yes. 0:01:36.160 --> 0:01:38.759 Andrew, when did you come into the series. I'm trying 0:01:38.800 --> 0:01:41.320 to think, is I don't believe I directed your first appearance? 0:01:41.319 --> 0:01:43.000 Do you believe I did? I don't. 0:01:44.480 --> 0:01:47.360 I should know this, but my first episode was the 0:01:47.360 --> 0:01:51.200 first day of school, Stephanie's first day of kindergarten and 0:01:51.680 --> 0:01:53.560 DJ and Kimmy's first day of fifth grade. 0:01:54.200 --> 0:01:56.120 We just looked at it. Was it episode two to three? 0:01:56.520 --> 0:01:58.720 It is episode three, first season. 0:01:58.720 --> 0:02:00.360 I could have been there for the first few before 0:02:00.400 --> 0:02:02.880 I had to go back to Perfect Strangers, which was. 0:02:02.960 --> 0:02:06.000 Much's right, that's right right next door. 0:02:06.080 --> 0:02:11.440 We have been telling everyone about your storied career of 0:02:11.720 --> 0:02:16.200 directing and everything, and it's really I mean, it's super impressive, 0:02:16.200 --> 0:02:20.240 but Perfect Strangers family matters. You directed the movie My 0:02:20.280 --> 0:02:24.040 Big Fat Greek Wedding, which is just such a hit. 0:02:24.120 --> 0:02:28.640 We love of second sight, Fat Albert, and you started 0:02:28.680 --> 0:02:29.200 in theater? 0:02:29.520 --> 0:02:32.840 Really was where you came from? Uh? 0:02:32.880 --> 0:02:36.040 And I just I would love to hear a little 0:02:36.080 --> 0:02:38.639 bit about the background of Joel's Wick. 0:02:38.840 --> 0:02:40.720 Well, boy, okay, you ready for this? 0:02:40.960 --> 0:02:41.800 Like how did you start? 0:02:41.840 --> 0:02:45.160 Like what made you decide to come to Hollywood and 0:02:45.200 --> 0:02:47.640 get in this crazy business, and then how did you 0:02:47.680 --> 0:02:50.320 eventually wind up with this weird family? 0:02:50.680 --> 0:02:53.160 Okay, I can. I got a system here, I've how 0:02:53.200 --> 0:02:54.920 to tell I've been trying. As you get older, you 0:02:54.960 --> 0:02:58.040 start to try to desperately put together the pieces of 0:02:58.080 --> 0:03:01.600 your life as to what exactly, and that made the difference. 0:03:01.880 --> 0:03:04.600 And for me, it came down to connections. It was 0:03:04.639 --> 0:03:08.160 all about the luck of connections, because connections sometimes have 0:03:08.320 --> 0:03:10.440 nothing to do with who you are, but where you 0:03:10.520 --> 0:03:13.320 are at what time you're there, and those kind of things. 0:03:13.600 --> 0:03:16.560 So basically I started out at three and a half 0:03:16.600 --> 0:03:18.840 years old. My mother tells me I used to sing 0:03:19.000 --> 0:03:23.400 Jimmy Durant the imitations for their Marjon game, and the 0:03:23.440 --> 0:03:25.480 women loved that, so they'd invite me every time they 0:03:25.520 --> 0:03:27.360 started a Majong game to sing a little bit of 0:03:27.400 --> 0:03:29.200 Inky Dinky doo or something like that. 0:03:29.639 --> 0:03:31.959 And then when I wish I could have seen that, 0:03:32.080 --> 0:03:33.799 to be a fly on the wall of three and 0:03:33.840 --> 0:03:36.600 a half year old joels Wick singing in a majong game, 0:03:36.680 --> 0:03:38.200 please stop it. 0:03:38.600 --> 0:03:40.040 And then this is already amazing. 0:03:40.080 --> 0:03:42.920 Junior High School went on to Junior High School where 0:03:43.360 --> 0:03:45.440 I was very lucky. There was a teacher there who 0:03:45.520 --> 0:03:49.120 loved operettas, and she decided on her own wasn't part 0:03:49.160 --> 0:03:52.040 of the school program. She would put on an operetta 0:03:52.200 --> 0:03:55.080 every year. So I was in the for two years there. 0:03:55.080 --> 0:03:57.200 In the first year I did the Mercado and I 0:03:57.240 --> 0:04:00.480 played Coco, and the second year I played Si Slick 0:04:00.480 --> 0:04:02.960 in Nordy Marietta. And there was a young girl who 0:04:03.000 --> 0:04:05.120 was in the cast, not one of the stars, one 0:04:05.160 --> 0:04:07.760 of the three little maids from school are we purpose 0:04:08.040 --> 0:04:10.840 one of those girls. And we came to Madison High 0:04:10.840 --> 0:04:14.360 School and rock and roll hit nineteen fifty three. We 0:04:14.480 --> 0:04:17.799 entered Madison High School and rock and roll was starting 0:04:17.839 --> 0:04:22.320 to explode, and babe, wait, this little girl decided she 0:04:22.640 --> 0:04:24.320 was going to be a rock and roll singer end 0:04:24.320 --> 0:04:25.919 of it, and she was going to have a do 0:04:26.080 --> 0:04:28.960 op group at Madison High School, just like virtually every 0:04:29.040 --> 0:04:32.440 high school in Brooklyn had a due op group. And 0:04:32.720 --> 0:04:34.479 so we had a do op group. We called ourselves 0:04:34.520 --> 0:04:38.640 the co Signs. We met in a math class, the 0:04:40.080 --> 0:04:44.560 Yes And then eventually this young lady who was Carol 0:04:44.680 --> 0:04:48.720 Klein separated from the group and became Carol King. So 0:04:48.800 --> 0:04:52.360 I wash my god, Carol King, Yeah, I understand that 0:04:53.200 --> 0:04:53.799 to your. 0:04:53.760 --> 0:04:57.400 Like great one of the greatest songwriters of all time. 0:04:57.880 --> 0:05:00.480 But that's that's coincidence. I mean, how does that happened? 0:05:00.839 --> 0:05:02.960 I did not realize you were in a do wop 0:05:02.960 --> 0:05:04.640 group in high school with Carol King. 0:05:04.839 --> 0:05:05.080 Joe. 0:05:05.640 --> 0:05:06.520 Oh my god. 0:05:06.560 --> 0:05:09.280 So any rate, So Carol we went and all we 0:05:09.320 --> 0:05:11.760 moved on to in high school, she introduced me to 0:05:11.800 --> 0:05:14.880 this very this guy became my best friend, Roy Levine. 0:05:15.200 --> 0:05:18.919 Roy Levine directs mcbird in nineteen sixty seven, which was 0:05:18.960 --> 0:05:23.320 a major off Broadway hit and problem because it basically 0:05:23.839 --> 0:05:27.159 made the claim that Lyndon Johnson was responsible for the 0:05:27.200 --> 0:05:29.919 death of John F. Kennedy. So that was pretty political 0:05:30.360 --> 0:05:32.919 and basically my phone was tapped for the seven months 0:05:32.960 --> 0:05:36.279 I was in that show, and I was basically, you know, 0:05:36.360 --> 0:05:39.160 an aide or a crony of a cronies that would 0:05:39.160 --> 0:05:42.200 come on stage and say, sire, they're waiting for you, 0:05:42.200 --> 0:05:44.360 you know that kind of stay. And I sat there 0:05:44.400 --> 0:05:46.520 and at that point I thought maybe I was going 0:05:46.560 --> 0:05:48.440 to be an actor. I really never thought about it 0:05:48.520 --> 0:05:51.040 much because in sheep said, baby Brooklyn, you didn't have 0:05:51.080 --> 0:05:53.640 any dreams of that kind. Of stuff going on other 0:05:53.640 --> 0:05:55.279 than Carol, who knew she was going to be a star. 0:05:55.360 --> 0:05:59.159 God bless her. But anyway, so they sent me off 0:05:59.400 --> 0:06:03.560 to with Roy Levine to Midbird. In Midbird I met 0:06:03.560 --> 0:06:07.799 an actor named Andy Robinson who played the Aquarius killer 0:06:07.800 --> 0:06:10.960 in Dirty Harry. That was his big right and we 0:06:11.040 --> 0:06:13.480 became very good friends. And he one day was going 0:06:13.520 --> 0:06:16.480 to join a LaMaMa troop at Lomama, which was one 0:06:16.480 --> 0:06:19.960 of the great experimental theaters. Yes, yes, so he called 0:06:20.000 --> 0:06:21.680 me up and said, come on, you want to join 0:06:21.720 --> 0:06:24.360 LaMaMa with me? And I at that point had had 0:06:24.400 --> 0:06:27.800 a nervous breakdown because I realized I couldn't become an actor. 0:06:27.880 --> 0:06:30.360 I wasn't good enough. I had no idea what these 0:06:30.360 --> 0:06:32.599 people were doing that made them so good. But it 0:06:32.640 --> 0:06:34.719 was a hell of a cast that had Stacy Keach 0:06:34.760 --> 0:06:38.920 and Rue McClanahan and cleveonn Little and Bill Devane at 0:06:39.000 --> 0:06:41.240 Bardy who were just coming out of colleges all over 0:06:41.279 --> 0:06:44.880 America who were politically inspired to do this particular show 0:06:44.920 --> 0:06:49.240 about Lyndon Johnson. So that was that. So Andy got 0:06:49.240 --> 0:06:52.039 me to LaMaMa. And Andy was also the key to 0:06:52.160 --> 0:06:54.200 something I didn't so I couldn't really act much at 0:06:54.240 --> 0:06:56.320 LaMaMa because even in the troop I was in, I 0:06:56.400 --> 0:06:58.680 was not one of the good actors. So Andy at 0:06:58.680 --> 0:07:01.719 one point wrote a play called Last Chance Saloon, and 0:07:02.040 --> 0:07:04.520 he decided I was going to direct it. Now he 0:07:04.560 --> 0:07:07.360 had never seen me direct anything. I had only directed 0:07:07.480 --> 0:07:10.480 one thing in my life, and I thought that if 0:07:10.480 --> 0:07:12.560 I didn't direct this, the troop was going to break up, 0:07:12.560 --> 0:07:15.440 and Lumama was becoming very important to me. So I said, okay, 0:07:15.480 --> 0:07:18.119 I'll direct it. Well, the damn thing played the west 0:07:18.160 --> 0:07:21.040 coast of London, it played all over Europe. It became 0:07:21.080 --> 0:07:23.160 a major hit. I came back to America. I was 0:07:23.160 --> 0:07:27.160 a director. Oh my go now I was directing. I 0:07:27.200 --> 0:07:29.640 still had no goals. There were just no goals involved 0:07:29.680 --> 0:07:31.760 with this. I didn't know that there was any place 0:07:31.800 --> 0:07:33.480 you could go with this kind of a thing. But 0:07:33.560 --> 0:07:36.320 I was a director, and I directed the LaMaMa Plexus group. 0:07:36.360 --> 0:07:39.160 We were called in a number of shows, and one 0:07:39.160 --> 0:07:41.280 of the shows I was also teaching at the time, 0:07:41.320 --> 0:07:44.280 and I was teaching at Queen's College and Wheaton College 0:07:44.320 --> 0:07:47.840 and Brooklyn College and all over the place. This theoretical 0:07:47.920 --> 0:07:50.840 work that my LaMaMa troop was doing, which if you 0:07:50.920 --> 0:07:52.640 know or don't know. It's based on the work of 0:07:52.720 --> 0:07:55.600 Jersey Grotowsky, who were in the Polish lab theater, and 0:07:55.640 --> 0:07:59.280 he had this idea that if you trained actors like athletes, 0:07:59.680 --> 0:08:02.640 so they could stay in the moment and not think 0:08:02.680 --> 0:08:04.840 about whether they have craft or no craft, or what 0:08:04.880 --> 0:08:07.680 their craft is about. Somehow, that's what you aspired to 0:08:07.720 --> 0:08:09.400 get him in the moment, which was one of the 0:08:09.400 --> 0:08:11.480 things that was phenomenal with you guys, because you were 0:08:11.480 --> 0:08:13.760 always in the moment. You had no idea, there wasn't 0:08:13.760 --> 0:08:14.200 a moment. 0:08:14.360 --> 0:08:17.480 I mean as kids, that's that I look at kids 0:08:17.520 --> 0:08:19.040 all the time and I just there. 0:08:19.400 --> 0:08:19.600 You know. 0:08:19.840 --> 0:08:21.480 I was out at a restaurant the other day and 0:08:21.480 --> 0:08:22.679 this kid was just twirling around. 0:08:22.680 --> 0:08:25.520 What I was like, Oh, to be so in the moment, 0:08:25.560 --> 0:08:26.200 and but. 0:08:26.240 --> 0:08:28.400 Like, that's the goal as an actor, right is to 0:08:28.600 --> 0:08:29.480 just be so free. 0:08:29.720 --> 0:08:32.320 That's amazing. So basically, once I had picked up that 0:08:32.440 --> 0:08:36.600 little information, I realized that I would say I became 0:08:36.640 --> 0:08:39.079 a director and directed a number of shows for US 0:08:39.240 --> 0:08:41.520 and taught at various colleges. In one of the colleges 0:08:41.559 --> 0:08:43.719 I taught at was Queen's College, and one of the 0:08:43.840 --> 0:08:46.120 kids who am a student of mind three of them. 0:08:46.120 --> 0:08:49.120 Actually students of mind were Lowe Gans, Mark Rothman, and 0:08:49.160 --> 0:08:52.720 Greg Antonacci. Now they Greg Antonacci, who was a tough 0:08:52.720 --> 0:08:57.920 little Italian kid, basically just infused himself into my Lemama workshops. 0:08:58.040 --> 0:09:01.040 He wasn't invited, He just showed up and basically Greg 0:09:01.080 --> 0:09:05.200 wrote a show called Dance with Me, which I directed, choreographed, 0:09:05.240 --> 0:09:08.200 and was in. By the way, that's something you want 0:09:08.200 --> 0:09:10.040 to do again? It was really questionable. 0:09:10.440 --> 0:09:13.720 Yeah that's I'm like, wow that that yeah. 0:09:13.559 --> 0:09:16.760 The hill rate. I got a Tony nomination for Best 0:09:16.880 --> 0:09:20.520 Choreography and a Drama Desk nomination for Best Director of 0:09:20.559 --> 0:09:24.040 a Musical. So but and Greg. Meanwhile, through Mark Rothman 0:09:24.080 --> 0:09:26.240 and Lowell Gans, who had already made it out to 0:09:26.320 --> 0:09:29.319 Hollywood with their own story of connections, he went out 0:09:29.320 --> 0:09:32.160 to Hollywood to play a running role in Laverne and Shirley, 0:09:32.480 --> 0:09:35.679 and eventually he moved on to a continuing role in 0:09:36.640 --> 0:09:40.760 It was an Adam Arkham Adam Arkhams show a past 0:09:40.800 --> 0:09:43.800 eighty you Lose names, but it was an Adam busting. 0:09:43.559 --> 0:09:47.280 Busting lotten screwed then because I can't remember now, I 0:09:47.360 --> 0:09:48.560 know you were in good shape. 0:09:49.040 --> 0:09:52.679 So we did Busting Loose together and I came out 0:09:52.960 --> 0:09:55.000 to visit him because I had done a show a 0:09:55.080 --> 0:09:57.679 review that was playing in Chicago for a year and 0:09:57.720 --> 0:10:00.520 then moved on to Las Vegas in another production. So 0:10:00.559 --> 0:10:03.480 I was about forty minutes out of Los Angeles by playing, 0:10:03.760 --> 0:10:05.320 and I had some time, so I thought I'd come 0:10:05.320 --> 0:10:07.560 out and visit Greg and see what's going on. And 0:10:07.640 --> 0:10:10.560 at that point, so Greg, so, I'm watching these rehearsals 0:10:10.960 --> 0:10:12.960 for a couple of weeks in the stand, just watching 0:10:12.960 --> 0:10:15.840 these rehearsals, and doesn't seem like it seems like a 0:10:15.920 --> 0:10:19.760 little play for a twenty two minute play. So basically 0:10:20.040 --> 0:10:22.600 Greg gets in his head you that I should direct 0:10:22.600 --> 0:10:26.000 the sitcom. And I said to Greg, wait a second, 0:10:26.120 --> 0:10:29.160 I'm a theater director. I don't direct sitcom. 0:10:29.280 --> 0:10:33.600 And he said, well, if sitcom really is theater theater. 0:10:34.160 --> 0:10:37.920 I finally found that out as I got myself inebriated 0:10:37.960 --> 0:10:41.080 that night and got myself thinking, wait a second. First 0:10:41.120 --> 0:10:42.679 of all, you don't know if they're going to get 0:10:42.679 --> 0:10:44.520 the job, too. You don't know if you'd like the 0:10:44.600 --> 0:10:46.839 job once you get it. So basically they got to 0:10:46.880 --> 0:10:50.640 do the paint. One of my major beliefs was that 0:10:50.720 --> 0:10:53.040 you just got to take the shots. You can't turn 0:10:53.080 --> 0:10:57.320 down opportunities because it may not be in exactly the 0:10:57.320 --> 0:10:59.719 direction you wanted to go, but it may eventually get 0:10:59.760 --> 0:11:02.360 you to that place just taking a different route. But 0:11:02.440 --> 0:11:04.600 the fact that since I didn't have any goals anyway, 0:11:04.640 --> 0:11:07.079 it didn't make any difference to me what I was doing. 0:11:07.440 --> 0:11:09.760 So he set me up at this meeting at Paramount 0:11:09.920 --> 0:11:12.920 with this lady named Judy Copage, a very nice lady 0:11:12.960 --> 0:11:16.480 who was running casting for Powamount for directors getting them 0:11:16.520 --> 0:11:19.400 placed on the Paramount shows in that day. So I 0:11:19.400 --> 0:11:21.760 went into her and literally, this is an interview you 0:11:21.760 --> 0:11:23.920 cannot do today. And I'm not sure how I got 0:11:23.920 --> 0:11:25.599 away with it at that time, but I walked in. 0:11:25.720 --> 0:11:27.800 I said, listen, I'm not going to tell you that 0:11:27.840 --> 0:11:30.920 I can direct sitcom because I've never directed a sitcom, 0:11:31.080 --> 0:11:33.120 but I was watching for the last couple of weeks 0:11:33.200 --> 0:11:36.440 and in my estimation and monkey can direct sitcoms. And 0:11:36.480 --> 0:11:38.719 she looked at me, she said and made a call 0:11:38.760 --> 0:11:41.240 immediately to this guy Tony bar at CBS and said, 0:11:41.360 --> 0:11:43.439 I've got this guy. I wanted to direct an episode 0:11:43.440 --> 0:11:46.280 of Busting Loose. And that was my interview, and I 0:11:46.440 --> 0:11:49.240 basically had this episode of Busting Loose, and now the 0:11:49.280 --> 0:11:52.600 producers were concerned, well, you know, he's never done anything. 0:11:52.640 --> 0:11:54.679 So Greg said, I'll tell you what. I'll write a 0:11:54.720 --> 0:11:58.440 script and he'll direct my script. And so he was 0:11:58.480 --> 0:12:01.960 living at that time with Annie Potts Lovely any yes, 0:12:02.320 --> 0:12:04.680 oh yes, And so basically was a showby that was 0:12:04.720 --> 0:12:07.360 hopefully going to be a pilot for her for Annie 0:12:07.400 --> 0:12:09.839 Potts and Greg and Tanacci. So I directed it and 0:12:09.920 --> 0:12:13.360 it went fairly well, and I icily started to figure 0:12:13.400 --> 0:12:15.920 out the craft. I worked with the editor. I couldn't 0:12:15.920 --> 0:12:18.320 care about anybody else. The editor would tell me, no, no, 0:12:18.400 --> 0:12:20.800 you can't go from that shot to that shot. You 0:12:20.840 --> 0:12:22.920 can't do that. This is the way it goes. Because 0:12:22.920 --> 0:12:24.439 in those days we were using what was called the 0:12:24.559 --> 0:12:27.720 three headed movieola because it was all film and tape. 0:12:27.760 --> 0:12:30.240 Yet by the time you got around we were on tape. 0:12:30.360 --> 0:12:33.640 But essentially and basically was just three things learned. He'd 0:12:33.679 --> 0:12:35.960 mark out the cuts from from from real to real, 0:12:36.480 --> 0:12:39.400 and so I learned the idea of how this was supposed. 0:12:39.000 --> 0:12:42.240 To go, which I mean that for directing for TV 0:12:42.320 --> 0:12:44.439 and film, that's really what it is is knowing what 0:12:44.720 --> 0:12:47.160 you what shot you have to get because you're like, oh, well, 0:12:47.160 --> 0:12:49.600 we can go from here to hear. But if you 0:12:49.640 --> 0:12:52.160 have no connective tissue and you don't see how the 0:12:52.200 --> 0:12:54.559 person got from over here over here, all of a 0:12:54.600 --> 0:12:57.240 sudden they teleport and it looks really weird. And those 0:12:57.280 --> 0:12:59.280 are the things that like, you don't think about that 0:12:59.360 --> 0:13:02.200 you have to. It's not the theater where you can 0:13:02.240 --> 0:13:04.480 see everything. You have to make sure that people's eyes 0:13:04.480 --> 0:13:05.720 are going, where the action is. 0:13:05.760 --> 0:13:09.160 In the right direction, absolutely correct. So basically I realized 0:13:09.160 --> 0:13:12.280 that what I've always been was I finally realized that 0:13:12.320 --> 0:13:15.360 I was a systems person. I was in a visionary. 0:13:16.160 --> 0:13:18.080 You don't have to be a visionary to do Full 0:13:18.160 --> 0:13:20.800 House Family Matters or any of those shows, but a 0:13:20.840 --> 0:13:24.840 system person helps finding out the most efficient way to 0:13:24.960 --> 0:13:27.960 do the work that needs to be done. And part 0:13:28.000 --> 0:13:30.520 of that was I started to believe that the key 0:13:30.720 --> 0:13:33.000 was to let everybody be the best they can be, 0:13:33.440 --> 0:13:35.920 not to tell them what to do, but enable them 0:13:35.960 --> 0:13:38.240 to be the best. They could be very easy with 0:13:38.360 --> 0:13:41.000 kids because they're gonna do what they're gonna do, you know, 0:13:41.040 --> 0:13:42.800 But when it gets to adults, Yeah, how do you 0:13:43.120 --> 0:13:46.880 don't direct John Stamos or Bob Dagger or Coo Yer. 0:13:47.480 --> 0:13:49.000 There's no direct for these people. 0:13:49.480 --> 0:13:52.960 Well, I mean, for many reasons, there was no directing them. 0:13:53.040 --> 0:13:56.280 But I actually I told the story. 0:13:55.920 --> 0:14:00.760 To someone the other day of the time, that that you, 0:14:00.960 --> 0:14:06.040 we all got in trouble, and that yes, yes, you 0:14:06.080 --> 0:14:09.199 were so pissed at every well you were so pissed 0:14:09.200 --> 0:14:10.400 at the adults, but. 0:14:10.320 --> 0:14:11.920 You you know, you went that's it. 0:14:12.120 --> 0:14:15.160 Everybody upstairs up to the you know, to the conference room, 0:14:15.200 --> 0:14:16.520 and so the whole cast. 0:14:16.280 --> 0:14:21.440 Went bitting around, including the baby. Everyone was like, okay, 0:14:21.560 --> 0:14:23.560 so we showed up. Joel walks in the room, He's like, 0:14:23.680 --> 0:14:26.160 not the kids, not the kids. They're fine, The kids 0:14:26.200 --> 0:14:26.840 are doing fine. 0:14:27.480 --> 0:14:29.840 To the adults, I couldn't do what I wanted to 0:14:29.880 --> 0:14:31.880 do the kids were in the room. But the fact 0:14:32.040 --> 0:14:34.680 is I had a great story about you, Jody. I 0:14:34.680 --> 0:14:36.960 don't know if you're aware of the story, because it's 0:14:36.960 --> 0:14:39.760 a wonderful story. It was basically, we were doing an 0:14:39.800 --> 0:14:41.640 episode of something at this time. You couldn't have been 0:14:41.720 --> 0:14:44.120 much more than five and a half years old. Maxim 0:14:44.960 --> 0:14:47.400 so his first season kind of stuff, and we're about 0:14:47.400 --> 0:14:49.960 to do your scene you were in and I get 0:14:49.960 --> 0:14:52.640 a quote she's not available she's in the bathroom. I said, 0:14:52.640 --> 0:14:54.960 what do you mean, she's in the bathroom. I'm about 0:14:55.000 --> 0:14:57.200 to do a scene. Go go knock on the door 0:14:57.240 --> 0:14:59.080 and tell her to get out of the bathroom. So 0:14:59.240 --> 0:15:01.400 somebody goes to knocks on the door and Jody get 0:15:01.400 --> 0:15:04.400 out of the bathroom. I'm not finished, that's what they hear. 0:15:04.640 --> 0:15:07.640 I'm not finished. So basically he came back out and said, 0:15:07.680 --> 0:15:10.000 she says she's not finished. I said, well, you go 0:15:10.080 --> 0:15:12.720 tell her to get finished and come out immediately. And 0:15:12.840 --> 0:15:15.200 they went back and he knocked again, and you said 0:15:15.200 --> 0:15:17.560 to the door, listen, if you come by to knock 0:15:17.640 --> 0:15:20.280 one more time, I'm not coming out at all. And 0:15:20.360 --> 0:15:22.920 it was at that point that I realized that the 0:15:23.080 --> 0:15:26.120 entire industry was run by the children. That basically, if 0:15:26.120 --> 0:15:28.240 a child is in a bathroom and needs to go potty, 0:15:28.520 --> 0:15:30.840 you cannot see this. The scene is over. 0:15:30.960 --> 0:15:34.440 You're working with children and animals. What needs to happen 0:15:34.520 --> 0:15:35.720 needs to happen, and. 0:15:35.560 --> 0:15:38.040 That's in the order that it needs to happen. So 0:15:38.120 --> 0:15:40.040 that was, yes, that was it taught me the loss. 0:15:40.120 --> 0:15:41.200 My god, that's hilarious. 0:15:41.280 --> 0:15:44.320 The enormous industry is running and this one girl is 0:15:44.360 --> 0:15:47.160 stopping the industry simply because she's going to the bathroom. 0:15:47.160 --> 0:15:49.760 I had to go, yeah, I guess a good potty. 0:15:49.840 --> 0:15:50.840 You'll call it a ten to one. 0:15:50.880 --> 0:15:52.280 But maybe you were taking a ten too. 0:15:52.400 --> 0:15:54.000 I mean, who knows. I was five and a half. 0:15:54.040 --> 0:15:55.840 Whatever needed to happen, he happened. 0:15:55.600 --> 0:15:57.600 That's right. But I loved your attitude about the fact 0:15:57.640 --> 0:15:58.600 you knock one more time. 0:15:58.720 --> 0:16:00.760 I'm not knock one more time, and you know on 0:16:00.800 --> 0:16:04.160 that that's just who I am. You've asked me one 0:16:04.160 --> 0:16:07.520 more time, didn't see how it goes one more time. 0:16:07.560 --> 0:16:10.040 You haven't changed to Joe. It's good to know, though. 0:16:10.080 --> 0:16:11.840 It's good to hear those stories where I go, oh, no, 0:16:12.000 --> 0:16:13.520 this is that's just my true self. 0:16:13.560 --> 0:16:15.560 That's exactly who you were at any rate. So that 0:16:15.680 --> 0:16:19.680 was it. So I started working sitcoms primarily because I 0:16:19.720 --> 0:16:21.600 was lucky in that the first thing I got to 0:16:21.640 --> 0:16:25.080 do was busting loose and pretty much out of the 0:16:25.080 --> 0:16:29.920 Gary Marshall chain, right, and so so I was doing 0:16:30.040 --> 0:16:32.320 there was nothing else for me to do. I went 0:16:32.360 --> 0:16:34.200 back to New York, I did a play, which was 0:16:34.200 --> 0:16:36.960 a disaster, and then I came back to California because 0:16:37.000 --> 0:16:40.000 I wrote to Lowe gans and Mark Ruthman saying, listen, 0:16:40.160 --> 0:16:42.000 I'm thinking of coming out again. You're think you got 0:16:42.000 --> 0:16:43.920 any work for me, because they thought they did pretty 0:16:43.920 --> 0:16:46.000 good on The Busting Loose and they were doing at 0:16:46.000 --> 0:16:48.440 that time a new show that Ted Knight was doing, 0:16:48.760 --> 0:16:51.760 coming off of the Mary Tyler Moore Show, right the 0:16:51.760 --> 0:16:54.880 Ted Night Show, And so basically they gave me an 0:16:54.880 --> 0:16:59.000 episode to direct and to keep me around. They allowed 0:16:59.040 --> 0:17:01.920 me to actually act in an episode where I played 0:17:01.960 --> 0:17:05.840 a bunny farmer, Yes, a bunny farmer, a farmer that 0:17:05.960 --> 0:17:09.320 actually raises bunnies. And it was a dating show, you know, 0:17:09.400 --> 0:17:11.920 one of those things. So basically, so I was doing 0:17:11.960 --> 0:17:14.679 some various there's ten minute things we used to do 0:17:14.760 --> 0:17:17.679 that were to try to sell a pilot before we 0:17:17.720 --> 0:17:20.480 did the entire thing. And I was doing something that 0:17:20.600 --> 0:17:23.320 eventually turned out to be Angie but when I with 0:17:23.720 --> 0:17:26.320 Donna pescal But when I did it, it was just 0:17:26.640 --> 0:17:28.320 a ten minute No, I don't know what the hell 0:17:28.320 --> 0:17:30.000 it was, but I did it. And at the end 0:17:30.000 --> 0:17:32.440 of the thing, I came out and this big tall 0:17:32.480 --> 0:17:34.640 man comes up to me and says, I let you work, 0:17:34.640 --> 0:17:36.160 and I said, well, thank you. I had no idea 0:17:36.160 --> 0:17:37.680 who he was. He says, I'm going to give you 0:17:37.720 --> 0:17:40.280 a shot with the girls next season. And I had 0:17:40.280 --> 0:17:42.600 no idea who the girls were, and I still had 0:17:42.600 --> 0:17:44.879 no idea who this guy was. But it was Gary 0:17:44.920 --> 0:17:47.679 Marshall offering me a chance to direct Laverne and Shirley, 0:17:48.560 --> 0:17:50.680 And so I found out, Oh yeah, So I had 0:17:50.680 --> 0:17:52.639 to go home and I had to research what the 0:17:52.680 --> 0:17:55.359 hell all this was because I'd never seen a sitcom, 0:17:55.400 --> 0:17:58.439 particularly a theater. Person in New York is not sitting 0:17:58.440 --> 0:18:01.200 home watching, you know, the Merry Time the More Show. Particularly, 0:18:01.560 --> 0:18:03.680 So they gave me a shot and I went back 0:18:03.720 --> 0:18:06.440 and I was directing the first the third season of 0:18:06.520 --> 0:18:10.960 Lavernon Shirley when it was the number one show in America. Wow, 0:18:11.160 --> 0:18:13.280 I mean that you can't that when that happens, it's 0:18:13.359 --> 0:18:15.639 just what are the art? But at any rate, it 0:18:15.680 --> 0:18:18.879 worked out well for me because the girls, who you 0:18:18.920 --> 0:18:21.119 don't tell what to do either. You didn't tell Penny 0:18:21.160 --> 0:18:23.560 and Cindy how to make I mean, you had to 0:18:23.560 --> 0:18:25.240 be out of your mind to try to do that. 0:18:25.640 --> 0:18:27.919 So they liked me because I had a New York energy, 0:18:28.440 --> 0:18:32.359 and they taught me the system, especially Penny Marshall taught 0:18:32.400 --> 0:18:35.000 me the system. She would walk on to a stage 0:18:35.359 --> 0:18:37.040