WEBVTT - Jeff Sherman Meets World 0:00:17.680 --> 0:00:22.400 I definitely, um, I ruined sixth cents for everybody I 0:00:22.440 --> 0:00:25.119 went to the movie theater with, Really did you? I 0:00:25.160 --> 0:00:27.319 called it? I called it? Called it too, but I 0:00:27.360 --> 0:00:30.120 called it. But I also be like, well, I think 0:00:30.480 --> 0:00:31.880 I remember we were on the set of Boy in 0:00:31.920 --> 0:00:33.440 Metore when that movie came out, like we were working. 0:00:33.440 --> 0:00:35.280 I remember we were all talking about it. We were 0:00:35.320 --> 0:00:37.480 all like, oh, let's you know, And so I think 0:00:37.520 --> 0:00:39.319 I knew that there was a twist, Like I think 0:00:39.320 --> 0:00:42.040 I went into the theater knowing that, you know, something 0:00:42.040 --> 0:00:44.239 big is going to have or be revealed. But I 0:00:44.280 --> 0:00:46.280 just leaned over and I was like, why aren't they 0:00:46.320 --> 0:00:48.279 talking about the fact that he's dead? Like why has 0:00:48.360 --> 0:00:50.640 nobody talked about that? Because it actually happens. I mean, 0:00:50.640 --> 0:00:52.840 if you watch the movie, he died in the opening, 0:00:53.080 --> 0:00:55.120 he gets shot and then it like cuts to him 0:00:55.200 --> 0:00:57.279 later and I was like, Oh, he's dead and now 0:00:57.280 --> 0:00:58.880 he's he hasn't talked to it, and I was like, 0:00:58.880 --> 0:01:00.760 why are they acknowledging that. I was like, Oh, that 0:01:00.920 --> 0:01:06.039 that's that's a twist. I remember it, I think not 0:01:06.120 --> 0:01:08.480 even thinking it was a twist because what happened was 0:01:08.520 --> 0:01:11.720 the first trailer I ever saw for that movie was 0:01:11.800 --> 0:01:14.640 the little kid going I see dead people and then 0:01:14.640 --> 0:01:16.800 cutting right to Bruce Willis. So I went, okay, so 0:01:16.880 --> 0:01:19.240 Bruce Wellis is dad Like, that's I thought they wanted 0:01:19.280 --> 0:01:21.160 you to know that. It wasn't like to me they 0:01:21.160 --> 0:01:23.760 were hiding anything. And that was the only time I 0:01:23.760 --> 0:01:26.240 ever saw that trailer. Then they changed that trailer because 0:01:26.240 --> 0:01:28.440 obviously other people were like, all right to Brucellis's dead. 0:01:28.600 --> 0:01:31.039 So to me, it wasn't a twist. Oh man, you 0:01:31.040 --> 0:01:33.040 guys seem like fun people to go to the movies. 0:01:34.959 --> 0:01:38.040 You know who was really big at ruining movies was Ben. 0:01:39.440 --> 0:01:42.400 Ben would ruin movies left and right, because he would 0:01:42.480 --> 0:01:44.840 you would be talking about a film that just came out, 0:01:44.920 --> 0:01:47.280 like I remember Wag the Dog just came out and 0:01:47.360 --> 0:01:49.760 I really wanted to see Wag the Dog. Great, you know, 0:01:49.880 --> 0:01:53.280 cool concept, amazing cast. And I said to Ben, He's like, 0:01:53.280 --> 0:01:54.320 what are you doing this weekend? I was like, Oh, 0:01:54.320 --> 0:01:56.520 I'm gonna go see Wag the Dog. He just went 0:01:56.760 --> 0:02:00.480 I can't believe they killed him at the end, and 0:02:00.520 --> 0:02:03.360 I was like, dude, are you kidding me? Like what 0:02:03.400 --> 0:02:04.760 do you do? And he would do that all and 0:02:04.760 --> 0:02:06.840 it was it wasn't. He wasn't being malicious. He was 0:02:06.880 --> 0:02:09.320 just being like talking about it, like, yeah, I can't 0:02:09.360 --> 0:02:10.840 I can't believe that they killed him. At the end, 0:02:10.880 --> 0:02:13.120 I was like, I just told you, I haven't seen it. 0:02:13.280 --> 0:02:16.880 I just said that. So he did that several times. 0:02:16.919 --> 0:02:18.880 I remember where he just ruined a movie to where 0:02:18.919 --> 0:02:21.920 you just couldn't talk to about films anymore. Okay, I 0:02:21.960 --> 0:02:24.680 have to talk to him about movies after I've seen them. 0:02:24.720 --> 0:02:27.399 But yeah, what are your Here's a good question, since 0:02:27.400 --> 0:02:30.840 we've talked about concerts and all that kind of stuff, Danielle, 0:02:30.840 --> 0:02:33.960 what are your favorite movies that you were brought backstage 0:02:33.960 --> 0:02:39.880 at hang out with you? To hang out with? Your 0:02:39.919 --> 0:02:43.080 favorite sets of the were the dinosaurs behind the scenes, 0:02:43.080 --> 0:02:49.640 to dress apart where they next house? Your favorite movies 0:02:49.680 --> 0:02:53.440 of all time? Um? Man, my favorite movies of all time. 0:02:54.200 --> 0:02:57.320 I feel a lot of sentimental attachment to the Wizard 0:02:57.360 --> 0:02:59.600 of Oz because I knew growing up it was my 0:02:59.639 --> 0:03:05.280 mom's favorite movie, and so I think, um that has 0:03:05.400 --> 0:03:07.920 as I've gotten older, has become sentimental to me that 0:03:08.000 --> 0:03:11.560 it's my mom's favorite movie. Uh. I mean, honestly, I 0:03:11.600 --> 0:03:15.880 think my favorite movie is Good Fellas, So great you 0:03:15.919 --> 0:03:18.359 have to watch it every time. It's on kind of movie. Yes. 0:03:19.480 --> 0:03:22.200 I think we've talked about this before and Writer has 0:03:22.240 --> 0:03:24.880 commented that, like, most of your favorite movies are the 0:03:24.880 --> 0:03:27.520 movies you saw during that like really pivotal teenage time 0:03:27.560 --> 0:03:30.680 of your life. I think Good Fellas is my favorite 0:03:30.680 --> 0:03:33.000 movie because it was the first maybe it was the 0:03:33.040 --> 0:03:37.080 first like adult movie I watched as I was becoming 0:03:37.120 --> 0:03:41.240 an adult, and I was like, oh, I understand cinema. 0:03:41.320 --> 0:03:51.680 Now let's talk Italian neo realism. Let's do it. So 0:03:51.720 --> 0:03:54.920 I think that's fine, that's fine. Oh my god, what 0:03:54.960 --> 0:03:58.320 do you got? Writer? You have so many favorite movies. 0:03:58.360 --> 0:04:00.440 But I would say I stand by me is like 0:04:00.720 --> 0:04:03.800 up there, Spirited Away. It's probably one of my favorite movies. 0:04:04.240 --> 0:04:08.400 Jason Marston, film of your favorite Jason Marston. That's right, Yeah, yeah, no, 0:04:08.480 --> 0:04:12.000 that's it's that's still top movie for me. Uh yeah, 0:04:12.040 --> 0:04:15.040 I don't know. The more obscure one that um, I 0:04:15.080 --> 0:04:18.200 should maybe mentioned this movie called Margaret. Uh. It's a 0:04:18.240 --> 0:04:21.039 wonderful film. It's been like re released actually as a 0:04:21.080 --> 0:04:24.240 director's cut. I like both versions. It's it's a kind 0:04:24.279 --> 0:04:27.080 of a famously disastrous film, and that they couldn't. The 0:04:27.080 --> 0:04:29.880 studio wouldn't release it. They kept re editing it, uh, 0:04:29.920 --> 0:04:32.000 and they finally released. There's two versions out there. I 0:04:32.040 --> 0:04:35.320 would say both of them are unbelievable, um and a pack. 0:04:35.360 --> 0:04:39.720 One is the Star. It's like, yeah, it came out late. 0:04:39.880 --> 0:04:41.920 It came out. It was made actually like right after 0:04:41.920 --> 0:04:44.080 September eleventh, I want to say, like two thousand five 0:04:44.160 --> 0:04:46.840 ish or six, But then it didn't come out for years. Um, 0:04:46.880 --> 0:04:48.400 and so then it just kind of flew under the radar. 0:04:48.440 --> 0:04:51.240 But I'm I just think it's a brilliant film. So 0:04:51.400 --> 0:04:55.360 that's my my recommendation for people looking. Yeah, I thought 0:04:55.400 --> 0:04:56.920 of another one that I love. That's something I saw 0:04:56.920 --> 0:04:59.800 as an adult, Defending your Life. It's one of the 0:04:59.800 --> 0:05:03.280 best movies. I did not see that movie until I 0:05:03.320 --> 0:05:07.320 was in my late thirties. Are you kidding? Yeah, pivotal 0:05:07.400 --> 0:05:11.000 childhood movie. Man, did I love that movie? So Good 0:05:11.040 --> 0:05:13.359 Fellow isn't Defending your Life. They're like, right, they're about 0:05:13.360 --> 0:05:15.320 the same same type of Well, do you have an 0:05:15.320 --> 0:05:17.280 easy answer? I I do. I have a couple of 0:05:17.320 --> 0:05:19.440 Defending your Life is definitely on my list. I come 0:05:19.520 --> 0:05:22.440 to my hotel sometime, will paint it um, yeah, it's 0:05:22.480 --> 0:05:25.279 just one of the best movies ever. But my I 0:05:25.279 --> 0:05:27.640 mean my knee jerk reaction will always be the original 0:05:27.680 --> 0:05:30.679 Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, which is odd because 0:05:30.720 --> 0:05:32.799 we were just talking about how I don't like musicals, 0:05:32.800 --> 0:05:34.279 and I don't think you do either, Danielle. It just 0:05:34.320 --> 0:05:36.640 takes me, takes me out of the thing when everybody 0:05:36.640 --> 0:05:40.520 starts singing um. But also the movie that I showed writer, 0:05:40.720 --> 0:05:42.360 and I think you made it about twenty minutes before 0:05:42.360 --> 0:05:45.400 you fell asleep, but you liked the first twenty manages Ishtar, 0:05:46.000 --> 0:05:50.640 which is a pivotal, pivotal film. Oh it's so good. 0:05:50.680 --> 0:05:53.880 It is talk about Hollywood legendary disasters. It's considered one 0:05:53.880 --> 0:05:55.600 of the worst movies of all time, and it's just 0:05:55.800 --> 0:05:58.760 not it's it's been reevaluated. A lot of people think 0:05:58.760 --> 0:06:01.560 it's actually a classic. Yeah, and so everybody, my brothers 0:06:01.560 --> 0:06:04.719 and I always joked that everything we liked as young 0:06:04.760 --> 0:06:07.560 adults has now become hips. So we would sit bourban 0:06:07.640 --> 0:06:11.359 and watch Istar. Before anybody liked bourbon or Ishtar, and 0:06:11.360 --> 0:06:13.520 now everyone's like, I'm going to the bourbon Ishtar night. 0:06:13.560 --> 0:06:17.240 We're like, come on. So we were we were hipster 0:06:17.360 --> 0:06:21.719 and cool before any of that happened. Um. But yeah, 0:06:21.760 --> 0:06:24.760 so though, I mean those films are up. The Defending 0:06:24.760 --> 0:06:28.080 Your Life is one of the best movies just ever made. 0:06:28.920 --> 0:06:30.240 And the thing that was funny is right when I 0:06:30.240 --> 0:06:34.080 moved to l A, the person who played um uh 0:06:34.279 --> 0:06:40.400 Meryl Streeps lawyer like her defender uh was sold me 0:06:40.480 --> 0:06:43.119 a car. He was He was working at the local 0:06:43.120 --> 0:06:45.880 BMW dealership for my first little tiny car, which is 0:06:45.920 --> 0:06:48.440 actually how how Defending Your Life starts. It's him buying 0:06:48.440 --> 0:06:52.360 his first BMW and it was that was so he 0:06:52.480 --> 0:06:54.520 I sat down across room and I went, you were 0:06:54.520 --> 0:06:56.120 in Defending Your Life and you went, yeah, I was. 0:06:56.640 --> 0:06:59.039 It was the first it was a good taste of 0:06:59.160 --> 0:07:00.960 l A where it was like, hey, we're actors. Yeah, 0:07:01.120 --> 0:07:03.240 welcome to Hollywood. Yeah, you know, you do what you 0:07:03.279 --> 0:07:06.880 can now a lot of actors are real estate agents. Yeah. 0:07:08.080 --> 0:07:10.560 You kind of got to perform, right, Yeah, you gotta 0:07:10.560 --> 0:07:13.920 have your head shot out there. Yeah. And also it's like, 0:07:14.360 --> 0:07:16.920 you know you can. Your schedule is like dependent on 0:07:16.960 --> 0:07:19.200 how many clients you have. So if you're like in 0:07:19.240 --> 0:07:22.800 a really busy season of auditioning, or if you're currently 0:07:22.840 --> 0:07:26.360 on a job, you just don't take clients. Yeah. I 0:07:26.400 --> 0:07:29.280 won't say his name, but the real estate agent that's 0:07:29.280 --> 0:07:33.200 sold Danielle his house sold you your house. Danielle is 0:07:33.280 --> 0:07:36.960 like one of He's a local legend. The guy like 0:07:37.240 --> 0:07:39.440 I know he's on. Every time I have to write 0:07:39.480 --> 0:07:41.679 a grocery list, I write it over his face because 0:07:41.680 --> 0:07:44.080 he drops it off at your house the little notebooks, 0:07:44.120 --> 0:07:46.400 and we always joke like there he is, there he 0:07:46.480 --> 0:07:51.440 is so yeah. Yeah, And having name recognition helps you 0:07:51.480 --> 0:07:54.880 know as as a real estate agent. Well, welcome to 0:07:54.880 --> 0:07:57.559 Pod Meets World. I'm Danielle Fischel, come right or strong? 0:07:57.880 --> 0:08:03.800 And I'm will Fredell. So today we have another guest, 0:08:04.080 --> 0:08:07.920 a very exciting guest. Uh. We are going to be 0:08:07.960 --> 0:08:12.120 talking to Jeffrey C. Sherman. He was a writer and 0:08:12.160 --> 0:08:14.480 a producer from Boy Meets World who wrote a total 0:08:14.520 --> 0:08:17.960 of fourteen episodes and was a producer on sixty six episodes. 0:08:18.280 --> 0:08:21.400 He was also a story editor for twenty four episodes. Again, 0:08:21.480 --> 0:08:25.560 we've talked about these writing credits that that you just 0:08:26.040 --> 0:08:28.360 what are they going to mean? Yeah? What do they mean? 0:08:28.360 --> 0:08:31.560 Are you? It's a pay bump. It's like a certain 0:08:32.080 --> 0:08:34.760 a certain a new authority over the other writers. I 0:08:34.800 --> 0:08:40.560 guess will do Do you have news for us? What? Well? 0:08:41.240 --> 0:08:44.600 Are you wearing a shirt? This is best grandpa, best 0:08:44.600 --> 0:08:50.520 grandpa ever? Do you something you'd like to share with us? No? 0:08:50.720 --> 0:08:52.560 I just imagine that would be the best grandpa ever. 0:08:52.600 --> 0:08:56.200 So I bought myself the teacher. He's caused playing grandpa. 0:08:57.000 --> 0:09:02.000 Their problem with I don't understand, bizarre, you just never 0:09:02.280 --> 0:09:09.199 I just that weekend was intense for me. I went 0:09:09.240 --> 0:09:11.719 backpacking and when I came home here he had this 0:09:11.800 --> 0:09:17.720 shirt for me. That's awesome, that's so cute. I didn't 0:09:17.760 --> 0:09:23.520 think so. Thank goodness, you're not um. And so in 0:09:23.559 --> 0:09:27.840 season one, Jeff Sherman wrote on the Fence and the Fugitive. Yeah, 0:09:28.480 --> 0:09:37.480 so let's please welcome Jeff Sherman. Hi, it's Bethany Frankel. 0:09:37.720 --> 0:09:39.920 My time on the Wheelhousewives of New York is a 0:09:39.920 --> 0:09:42.079 few years behind me, and now I'm ready to put 0:09:42.080 --> 0:09:45.280 the wheel back into the real Housewives. That's where my 0:09:45.320 --> 0:09:49.160 new podcast Rewives comes in. This isn't your typical rewatch podcast. 0:09:49.360 --> 0:09:52.720 I'm watching only the most iconic episodes from all cities. 0:09:52.880 --> 0:09:55.920 I'm sharing never before heard stories of what happened behind 0:09:55.960 --> 0:09:59.120 the scenes. And I'm not just pulling in cast members 0:09:59.200 --> 0:10:01.520 for postgame and now lissis, I'm doing something a little 0:10:01.520 --> 0:10:03.760 bit more interesting. If you've ever seen an episode of 0:10:03.800 --> 0:10:05.920 The wheelhouse Wives, and you know the drill, But beyond 0:10:05.960 --> 0:10:10.720 throwing drinks and leg there are lessons about marriage, divorced friendship, money, parenting, 0:10:10.920 --> 0:10:13.600 and fame if you have the right minds, analyze and 0:10:13.679 --> 0:10:17.240 dig deeper. So I'm bringing on unexpected thought leaders and 0:10:17.240 --> 0:10:19.960 celebrities to get their take on the chaos this season. 0:10:20.000 --> 0:10:22.920 I sit down with Elizabeth Moss, Kevin Neal and Jusie Orman, 0:10:23.000 --> 0:10:25.600 Griffin Johnson and more. You think that there isn't much 0:10:25.600 --> 0:10:28.520 to learn from flipping tables and yanking wigs, but that's 0:10:28.520 --> 0:10:32.000 where you're wrong. Listen to Rewives with Bethany Frankel on 0:10:32.120 --> 0:10:35.080 the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast or wherever you 0:10:35.120 --> 0:10:50.280 get your favorite podcasts. How are you good? So good 0:10:50.320 --> 0:10:52.920 to see you guys, So good to see you. Look great? 0:10:53.240 --> 0:10:56.400 Oh thank you? Thanks? Yeah you too. Jeff. Let's go 0:10:56.440 --> 0:10:59.400 back to the beginning of your time on Boy Meets World. 0:10:59.559 --> 0:11:02.920 How did you become a writer on the show. Well, 0:11:02.920 --> 0:11:04.880 I had been a screenwriter. I had written a couple 0:11:04.960 --> 0:11:08.560 of movies. I wrote some of the Creek for Ryan Pictures. 0:11:09.120 --> 0:11:10.960 I wrote another movie I didn't get credit on but 0:11:11.000 --> 0:11:16.480 thankfully because it sucked. But it was called The Soldier. Uh, 0:11:17.120 --> 0:11:19.120 that was my first kid. I did both of those 0:11:19.120 --> 0:11:22.320 with an old writing partner named Doug Grossman. Anyway, so 0:11:22.440 --> 0:11:25.400 I went along and as writer will tell you, I've 0:11:25.400 --> 0:11:27.559 been listening and I know you've had the same frustrations 0:11:27.559 --> 0:11:29.240 and Will and Will and I have gone through this 0:11:29.360 --> 0:11:32.400 together too. You write a lot of screenplays and maybe 0:11:32.440 --> 0:11:35.000 went out of ten goes. So I was writing a 0:11:35.040 --> 0:11:37.839 lot of screenplays that were, you know, we're for studios 0:11:37.880 --> 0:11:41.280 and different things, and I get eight drafts in or 0:11:41.320 --> 0:11:43.640 twelve chefs in, and then they go, well, you know, 0:11:43.679 --> 0:11:46.040 we've moved on from that of the studio had the change. 0:11:46.640 --> 0:11:48.719 So I had a friend named Anne Johnson, a J. 0:11:48.880 --> 0:11:51.559 If you remember a J, of course I remember a J. 0:11:51.760 --> 0:11:54.520 She was awesome and she was the girlfriend of a 0:11:54.520 --> 0:11:57.280 good friend of mine, John mcmure at the time. And 0:11:57.360 --> 0:12:00.199 she said she wrote a script of mine called Oh Pere. 0:12:00.240 --> 0:12:04.000 I have three of them behind mere um. And she said, 0:12:04.040 --> 0:12:05.880 you know, I worked for this guy, Michael Jacobs, And 0:12:05.880 --> 0:12:08.800 I said, I don't really watch TV anymore, and she said, well, 0:12:08.800 --> 0:12:10.560 you should watch some of the stuff he did my 0:12:10.640 --> 0:12:13.840 two dads. He does dinosaurs right now, but he's got 0:12:13.880 --> 0:12:16.400 this new show and I'd like to show him the 0:12:16.440 --> 0:12:18.880 script of yours, oh pair, to see if, if you know, 0:12:18.920 --> 0:12:22.000 maybe it was interested. It wasn't totally interested in television 0:12:22.040 --> 0:12:24.880 at the time, so um anyway, so I gave it 0:12:24.920 --> 0:12:27.040 to Mike. She gave it to Michael. Michael loved it, 0:12:27.080 --> 0:12:28.800 tried to get it set up at Disney and they 0:12:28.800 --> 0:12:31.760 didn't buy it. So he called me and he said, listen, 0:12:31.800 --> 0:12:35.240 I've got this new project that's called you know Fred 0:12:35.360 --> 0:12:38.640 Savage from from the Wonder Years. I said yeah. They said, well, 0:12:38.679 --> 0:12:41.040 his younger brother Ben is a sort of a rising 0:12:41.040 --> 0:12:43.240 star and he's got a deal. So I developed the 0:12:43.280 --> 0:12:45.880 show around him, called the Ben Savage Show, which I 0:12:45.920 --> 0:12:48.640 thought was a Ben Savage pilot. I thought that was 0:12:48.760 --> 0:12:52.400 very aptly named and U So I watched it and 0:12:52.559 --> 0:12:54.880 it kind of fit my sensibilities because I've done a 0:12:54.880 --> 0:12:58.360 lot of youth comedy movies and things like that, screenplays, 0:12:58.360 --> 0:13:02.200 and and the character kind of reminded me of me 0:13:02.240 --> 0:13:04.880 as a kid, a little bit um the Jewish kid 0:13:04.920 --> 0:13:07.880 in a non Jewish family. Oh, by the way, will 0:13:07.920 --> 0:13:10.920 I've heard the part of Jewish. Thank you, thank you, 0:13:11.200 --> 0:13:14.800 thank you, very honored. So so Michael said. He called 0:13:14.840 --> 0:13:16.760 me and he said, would you like to maybe work 0:13:16.760 --> 0:13:18.360 on this? And I said, well, I don't know. He 0:13:18.400 --> 0:13:21.079 showed me the pilot it was good, and read the script, 0:13:21.640 --> 0:13:23.840 so I said, yeah, yeah, maybe. He said, well, you know, 0:13:23.880 --> 0:13:25.960 if I bring you in, I have to bring you 0:13:26.000 --> 0:13:30.280 in at the lowest um level of staff, which is 0:13:30.360 --> 0:13:33.040 something called the term writer. And the term writer means 0:13:33.080 --> 0:13:36.520 you don't get credit on the show. Every show, even 0:13:36.520 --> 0:13:38.160 though you're sitting in the room and pitching, you're doing 0:13:38.200 --> 0:13:41.280 everything everybody else. Now, I had gone to us L 0:13:41.320 --> 0:13:43.880 a film school. I was an English major prior to 0:13:43.920 --> 0:13:46.960 that at Berkeley, I was a writer. I've worked with Madonna, 0:13:47.040 --> 0:13:49.640 I've worked with I've done all this stuff, and I 0:13:49.720 --> 0:13:52.920 come in on the lowest writer on the total room, right, 0:13:53.480 --> 0:13:56.760 and I've never worked on staff. I think I'm about 0:13:58.080 --> 0:14:00.720 mid thirties at this time. So I had all this 0:14:00.840 --> 0:14:02.719 experience and I knew how to do basically all the 0:14:02.800 --> 0:14:06.040 stuff that you do on the show. Um. So Michael 0:14:06.080 --> 0:14:07.760 liked that about me. He said, I if you're good 0:14:07.760 --> 0:14:09.840 on the staff, I'll move you up quickly. Anyway. The 0:14:09.840 --> 0:14:12.520 first day I'm walking in, it's at Disney Studios. Now, 0:14:12.559 --> 0:14:14.520 I grew up on that lot. As I mentioned, my 0:14:14.520 --> 0:14:17.280 my father and uncle are the Sherman brothers who wrote 0:14:17.320 --> 0:14:19.800 a lot of the scores for Disney Murry Poppins, Jungle Book. 0:14:20.560 --> 0:14:25.360 Um Winning to play Bang Bang elsewhere anyway, So I 0:14:25.480 --> 0:14:28.520 lived on this lot. I grew up there. So I'm 0:14:28.520 --> 0:14:30.600 walking across and I see this buddy of my works 0:14:30.680 --> 0:14:35.280 and TVs right ry and sarcastic, and his name is 0:14:35.360 --> 0:14:37.880 Richard Dave. We used to be poker players together, play 0:14:38.000 --> 0:14:40.360 in the game. And we're walking up and I said, 0:14:40.360 --> 0:14:42.560 I'm a little nervous about this because I've never really 0:14:42.560 --> 0:14:45.440 written on staff. What should I expect because it can 0:14:45.480 --> 0:14:48.240 be brutal. He's walking up to the thing because it 0:14:48.400 --> 0:14:50.280 just started. Depends on the people that are in the 0:14:50.360 --> 0:14:52.600 room and if it's gonna be nice. And so we 0:14:52.680 --> 0:14:55.120 walk into the animation building, which is where we all 0:14:55.600 --> 0:14:59.600 began working on that show. And we're walking up the 0:14:59.720 --> 0:15:01.880 stair and he keeps going on all this stuff. And 0:15:01.920 --> 0:15:04.040 if you remember, there are glass stories in the hallway 0:15:04.080 --> 0:15:07.160 that looked into Michael's but we looking at all the 0:15:07.280 --> 0:15:09.040 writers are kind of gathered there and we got that. 0:15:09.160 --> 0:15:11.200 He said, so anyway, it'll probably fine. He looks in 0:15:11.280 --> 0:15:14.400 the door, my friend Richard. He goes, oh, they look horrible, man, 0:15:14.480 --> 0:15:19.600 good luck, And so I went in, not knowing him 0:15:19.640 --> 0:15:23.880 really what to expect. But it was it was like 0:15:23.960 --> 0:15:27.280 walking into probably one of the best parts of my life. 0:15:29.160 --> 0:15:33.360 And uh um, it was weird because I think I had, 0:15:33.520 --> 0:15:35.400 you know, such a TV addict as a kid. I 0:15:35.600 --> 0:15:38.680 watched every night my childhood watching family shows is like 0:15:39.120 --> 0:15:41.320 and it kind of shows him. What I wrote was 0:15:41.400 --> 0:15:44.720 Dennis the Menace leave it to Beaver, you know the 0:15:44.760 --> 0:15:47.280 Donna Reich show, Father knows Best those That was my 0:15:47.720 --> 0:15:50.240 I'm a little bit older than you go. So when 0:15:50.440 --> 0:15:52.960 when I saw there was a fence and there was 0:15:53.000 --> 0:15:55.520 the annoyed guy over the fence and then there's this 0:15:55.600 --> 0:15:57.880 young kid, I kept thinking Dennis the Menace. And if 0:15:57.880 --> 0:16:00.480 you ever saw Dennis meth he always rocking, go hey. 0:16:00.680 --> 0:16:03.600 Mr Wilson startled him all the time. So I tried 0:16:03.640 --> 0:16:05.440 to do that with Feenie and Ben. In that first 0:16:05.480 --> 0:16:08.560 episode I wrote, which was the The Squirre Gun Show, 0:16:08.600 --> 0:16:12.160 that on the fence, and I have a couple of 0:16:12.160 --> 0:16:14.640 answers for you guys before we go anything else. I've 0:16:14.640 --> 0:16:16.960 been listening. I have something straight where you. I think 0:16:16.960 --> 0:16:19.560 I'm gonna solve a lot of your tanks. Okay, first 0:16:19.560 --> 0:16:22.720 of all, it's a side it's a side patio. The 0:16:23.160 --> 0:16:26.000 problem is we you know, when you shoot a show, 0:16:27.480 --> 0:16:29.800 basically what you do is you build a set and 0:16:29.840 --> 0:16:32.400 then you send out a crew to find a location 0:16:32.440 --> 0:16:35.160 house that you shoot for the exteriors. Now, that exterior 0:16:35.160 --> 0:16:38.280 house was right across from Radford as you used used 0:16:38.320 --> 0:16:41.800 to pass it every day on my walks. So the 0:16:41.880 --> 0:16:44.400 house was a really perfect kind of looking house, but 0:16:44.480 --> 0:16:47.280 it didn't configure with what we built on the set, 0:16:48.160 --> 0:16:51.240 so there was never the backyard was supposed to be 0:16:51.240 --> 0:16:54.359 behind that window in the living room. That was the backyard. 0:16:54.760 --> 0:16:57.240 It's an esser house. There's no real way to explain it. 0:16:57.800 --> 0:17:01.240 But that's a sideyard, all right, Why then, why was 0:17:01.280 --> 0:17:03.440 it written in the script as a backyard, and why 0:17:03.480 --> 0:17:06.080 does why does it? Why is it opposite the front door? 0:17:06.280 --> 0:17:10.439 Because it's it's a sickcom Listen, you know mr teacher, 0:17:10.720 --> 0:17:13.000 he was an English teacher. I'm sure he probably taught 0:17:13.040 --> 0:17:14.720 ballet at some point in the show, and I wasn't 0:17:14.720 --> 0:17:18.240 watching anymore. But it's just kind of, you know, it's 0:17:18.320 --> 0:17:21.800 it things. It's an abstract it's like jazz music. Just 0:17:21.920 --> 0:17:23.840 kind of it's, you know, this week, we need a 0:17:23.880 --> 0:17:26.240 little history and fusion of something, or we need to 0:17:26.359 --> 0:17:29.520 starlet litter, we need to grow over. So I'm not saying, 0:17:31.359 --> 0:17:33.760 did you guys actually just say anything. I didn't say 0:17:33.760 --> 0:17:36.159 anything about the side yard backyard debate. That was just 0:17:36.200 --> 0:17:39.800 answered correctly, by the way. I'm just pased. I'm sure 0:17:39.840 --> 0:17:42.080 the sideyard backyard never actually came up. But did the 0:17:42.160 --> 0:17:44.760 question of like what feeny is teaching actually come up? 0:17:44.920 --> 0:17:46.960 And did you just say that you said, like, it 0:17:47.000 --> 0:17:49.679 doesn't matter, We're just going to focus. Yeah, okay, But 0:17:50.000 --> 0:17:52.760 it was that they were they were in we were 0:17:52.840 --> 0:17:55.720 in a grade where we were supposed to have multiple teachers, right, 0:17:55.800 --> 0:17:58.040 or was the idea that he was a one Yeah, okay, 0:17:58.240 --> 0:18:00.080 you would have had multiple teachers, but we also a 0:18:00.200 --> 0:18:02.920 both the matter class or something. So it's like there's 0:18:02.960 --> 0:18:06.639 sort of a it's you know, it's it's like sitcoms 0:18:06.680 --> 0:18:10.600 are closer to a play than there are to a movie. Um, 0:18:10.680 --> 0:18:12.640 so you know, in a play, you know, you don't 0:18:12.680 --> 0:18:16.199 have you're not having planning shots. You know, kind of 0:18:16.320 --> 0:18:19.960 accept that that's what the the concede is is that 0:18:20.720 --> 0:18:24.040 you know, there's a few people and and uh and uh, 0:18:24.119 --> 0:18:27.639 you know, and and it's a side. It's a cy patty. 0:18:27.720 --> 0:18:30.240 The other thing I'm gonna stream for you right now, Daniel, 0:18:31.280 --> 0:18:33.520 here's the real story of how Tapanga came to be. 0:18:33.600 --> 0:18:36.920 It's it's so much to do about nothing, but anyway, 0:18:37.440 --> 0:18:39.800 so it's it's it's not a simple answer, but the 0:18:39.840 --> 0:18:42.000 answer was Michael was not in his car drive and 0:18:42.040 --> 0:18:43.960 he remembers things sort of the way he likes to 0:18:43.960 --> 0:18:46.760 remember things. Um, But we were all sitting in the 0:18:46.880 --> 0:18:49.080 room and we pitched that it would be funny because 0:18:49.119 --> 0:18:51.680 Ben was sort of a square kid to have sort 0:18:51.680 --> 0:18:55.000 of the hippie girl come in and be spiritual and 0:18:55.000 --> 0:18:58.680 do all this. So that was brought up, and so 0:18:58.880 --> 0:19:00.879 we all were talking and we finally came up on 0:19:00.920 --> 0:19:03.199 this character, and everybody's going, well, what should we name? 0:19:03.280 --> 0:19:06.520 We should name her star String, Moon Pilot or you know, 0:19:06.600 --> 0:19:10.040 he's stupid name. And I was just going nuts because 0:19:10.440 --> 0:19:12.040 that was my era, you know, I grew up in 0:19:12.080 --> 0:19:13.680 that I grew up and I was the writer that 0:19:13.760 --> 0:19:16.080 grew up in l a of the people in the room. 0:19:16.119 --> 0:19:18.480 So I thought, who did I know that was cool? 0:19:18.560 --> 0:19:20.359 And I thought with three girls that I knew that 0:19:20.480 --> 0:19:23.840 lived into Panga Canyon. So I went, you know, growing 0:19:23.880 --> 0:19:26.520 up out here, you know, everybody that was cool was 0:19:26.720 --> 0:19:28.879 you know, grew up into Pangan. Michael goes to Panga. 0:19:29.600 --> 0:19:31.600 April Kelly, who was the other creator of the show. 0:19:31.880 --> 0:19:34.760 She she didn't like it at all, but Michael was 0:19:34.800 --> 0:19:37.200 set on it. He loved to I was just I 0:19:37.240 --> 0:19:42.760 think I also pitched to Mescal and to pangalos Peka Canyon. 0:19:45.320 --> 0:19:49.040 It could have been and the water cold cold water 0:19:49.119 --> 0:19:52.359 has been a little too on the head um, but 0:19:52.480 --> 0:19:56.720 so we uh, we went around and then April wanted 0:19:56.760 --> 0:19:58.959 to stand in her ground. That day had been pitching 0:19:59.040 --> 0:20:02.760 us an outside writer named Bill Lawrence, So she said, 0:20:02.760 --> 0:20:04.600 how about Lawrence because it's such a funny thing to 0:20:04.640 --> 0:20:08.400 go from Topega to normally and like Lawrence Okay had 0:20:08.480 --> 0:20:13.000 two more components added into Topango Okay. The first one 0:20:13.119 --> 0:20:15.840 was Susan Jansen, who was on staff and who was 0:20:15.880 --> 0:20:19.040 a brilliant writer. You know, she just wonderful and she 0:20:19.200 --> 0:20:23.479 was a very strong voice, very smart, very she was 0:20:23.640 --> 0:20:27.399 very much the voice of Topanga in that room, and 0:20:27.400 --> 0:20:30.480 we would pitch things out, and then the biggest component 0:20:30.480 --> 0:20:33.959 of all was Danielle, because Danielle came in and I 0:20:33.960 --> 0:20:37.320 remember I heard your thing about the horrible experience you had, 0:20:37.359 --> 0:20:41.080 and I get it, and I feel horrible about that. 0:20:41.119 --> 0:20:43.439 I remember it vividly, and I felt bad for you. 0:20:44.440 --> 0:20:46.320 But you came in and you were so kind of 0:20:46.359 --> 0:20:50.600 nervous that you were kind of just zipping through everything 0:20:49.600 --> 0:20:53.240 about in the audition. For us, it was sort of 0:20:53.760 --> 0:20:56.840 the nurse were getting to you. And Michael, you know, 0:20:56.960 --> 0:20:59.879