Speaker 1: And then she called me back and she was like,
Speaker 1: you know, Judd is really insistent that they want to
Speaker 1: make this character a series regular if the show gets
Speaker 1: picked up. I think you should just do it. I
Speaker 1: think it's brilliant. Had you read the script? Yeah, I
Speaker 1: did not understand it at all. I'M NOT gonna lie.
Speaker 1: I'M NOT gonna lie. Totally, Brian, totally. I was like,
Speaker 1: don't get it, I don't get what the tone of
Speaker 1: this is. I was so confused by it. Hi, my
Speaker 1: name is busy Phillips and I'm a human person in
Speaker 1: this world. I don't know what I am. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: hello there everybody, and welcome friends to another episode of
Speaker 1: off the beat. It's me, as always, your host, Brian Baumgartner, and,
Speaker 1: as you just heard in that sneak peek, I have
Speaker 1: my conversation today with a woman who makes me laugh,
Speaker 1: busy Phillips, a woman who has been, well, busy get it,
Speaker 1: winning hearts on screen since well, since she first appeared
Speaker 1: as Kim on cult favorite freaks and Geeks, a show
Speaker 1: whose legacy it only lasted one season, but some could
Speaker 1: say it is the precursor, it is the the grand
Speaker 1: parent to the office. Since then, she's been on everything,
Speaker 1: Dawson's Creek, Cougar town, white chicks, and last year she
Speaker 1: became an esteemed member of the incredible girls five. Ever,
Speaker 1: she also had a late night television show, busy tonight,
Speaker 1: that we talked about, and her podcast I was just on.
Speaker 1: Busy Phillips is doing her best. She is one of
Speaker 1: my favorites. We're going to deep dive into the brain
Speaker 1: today of busy Phillips. Bubble and squeak. I love bubble
Speaker 1: and SQUIG, bubble and squeaker cookie every moon looked over
Speaker 1: from the nut people. What's up, busy? Hi Brian, how
Speaker 1: are you doing? I'm good. How are you? I'm good.
Speaker 1: It was my kid's first day of school today. Oh today,
Speaker 1: I know, New York is weird. Wow, okay, a random Wednesday. Well,
Speaker 1: yesterday it was like an open house kind of day
Speaker 1: for the kids, so maybe it was sort of technically yesterday,
Speaker 1: but not really, like they just went and saw their
Speaker 1: classrooms and then today was like the real start. Well,
Speaker 1: that's nice, I guess. Did you get emotional? No, I have.
Speaker 1: My kids are old. Okay, what are they doing? Tours
Speaker 1: of the room. Then my older one doesn't do like
Speaker 1: my older one is in middle school but my little
Speaker 1: one is in fourth grade and they still do it
Speaker 1: in fourth grade so that they can like see their classroom,
Speaker 1: know where they're going on the first day. Like New
Speaker 1: York is just so different than Los Angeles. It's crazy
Speaker 1: and obviously, obviously, but like I didn't realize that both
Speaker 1: kids like get themselves, like they get themselves to school. Oh,
Speaker 1: they walk or they well, my older kids walks and
Speaker 1: then the little one takes a bus. Wow, I know,
Speaker 1: big kids, big kids, big kids. I know, I know,
Speaker 1: it's nuts. It's nuts. Um, well, we call this in
Speaker 1: the business tip for TAT. I came on your podcast,
Speaker 1: which was a delight. Thank you for doing that. No,
Speaker 1: I heard I is the best, the best. That's what
Speaker 1: people are saying. Yeah, the best guest ever on busy
Speaker 1: Phillips is doing her best. Uh, and now I am
Speaker 1: so excited to talk to you, but I want to
Speaker 1: start back earlier than that. When did you when did
Speaker 1: you start becoming involved in the arts or thinking you
Speaker 1: might want to perform or be an actor? Well, I mean,
Speaker 1: I think, like many of us, it was a thing
Speaker 1: that I always had since I was a very, very
Speaker 1: small person. You know, I've been a parent now for
Speaker 1: a long time, but you know, it really is a
Speaker 1: parent a parent, a parent as a parent. It's a
Speaker 1: parent to a parent, a parent as a parent. Um that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: some kids just gravitate towards being the center of attention,
Speaker 1: wanting to perform, wanting to dress up, wanting to do
Speaker 1: shows and things, and I was very much that kid.
Speaker 1: I also had, uh, pretty intense lisp when I was little,
Speaker 1: like little, little kid, and by the time I was
Speaker 1: in second and third grade it was still hanging on
Speaker 1: and that's when like speech therapists get involved and I
Speaker 1: think my mom felt like it was a really good
Speaker 1: opportunity to sort of combine a thing that she saw
Speaker 1: that I had an interest in with, you know, making
Speaker 1: sure that I could say my s is and my
Speaker 1: th h s and my rs correctly. So, you know.
Speaker 1: So so I got sort of you know, she put
Speaker 1: me in some you know, little kid theater programs and
Speaker 1: extracurricular stuff. I was never a kid that was very
Speaker 1: sporty about you well, as I've gotten older I've become
Speaker 1: way more athletic, but I was like not I didn't
Speaker 1: want to move. I was like very happy to be
Speaker 1: in a cold theater. I also grew up in Arizona.
Speaker 1: Brand you don't want to play softball in a hunter
Speaker 1: antent decree heat, and they do. I know, the golf
Speaker 1: they're like yeah, let's go out, we'll tee, we'll tee
Speaker 1: it off at six thirty and it's already a hundred
Speaker 1: and two. No, I mean I like I played softball
Speaker 1: for two years in elementary school and it was so
Speaker 1: hot and I like all the pictures of me are
Speaker 1: just like in the outfield laying down like trying to
Speaker 1: not pass out from heat exhaustion. So I was very
Speaker 1: happy to be in a cold, air conditioned black box
Speaker 1: theater and I was really lucky because we found, through
Speaker 1: my best friend emily bb, this very cool children's theater,
Speaker 1: small children's theater school or whatever in in Scottsdale called
Speaker 1: actors lab of Arizona, and they had their like kid
Speaker 1: and teen program and the woman that ran it was
Speaker 1: really cool, like she just didn't do the usual kid plays,
Speaker 1: you know, like she had us write monologues about our
Speaker 1: feelings and stuff. Like she really was like into it
Speaker 1: and I just knew that I wanted to do it.
Speaker 1: I like was very adamant from, I mean, I want
Speaker 1: to say, like fourth or fifth grade, that I was
Speaker 1: going to move to L A and be an actor
Speaker 1: and be in movies and beyond TV shows. Fourth or
Speaker 1: fifth grade, you were already there. Yes, yeah, yeah, that's cool.
Speaker 1: I mean it's interesting that your mom had that insight,
Speaker 1: that idea of like Oh, okay, so this is an
Speaker 1: issue you're having. Well, let's dive into the pool, like
Speaker 1: let's do this and and challenge you in that way,
Speaker 1: knowing that you may have feelings about performing or whatever,
Speaker 1: but that's very cool. Yeah, I mean my mom also
Speaker 1: was a former. My mom wanted to be an actress
Speaker 1: when she was young and was the star of all
Speaker 1: the school plays. My older sister is four years older
Speaker 1: than me and she also did like school plays in
Speaker 1: theater and when she was in college was, you know,
Speaker 1: in a bunch of shows in college. Um, so it
Speaker 1: was like it's definitely like a thing in our in us,
Speaker 1: in our family, you know. And just to be clear, though,
Speaker 1: for your listeners who don't know me, maybe I'm not
Speaker 1: related to anyone famous, but like sometimes a lot of
Speaker 1: times people think that I'm part of like the famous
Speaker 1: Phillips is from the Mamas and the Papas, like those Philips,
Speaker 1: that Phillips Family. I'm not. My Mom's a realtor. She
Speaker 1: ended up not being an actor. My Dad's an engineer,
Speaker 1: but you know what I mean, like we were just
Speaker 1: people who like to perform. Yeah, so she was. She
Speaker 1: was always very encouraging and I think she felt like
Speaker 1: her parents kind of put the Kai Bash on her
Speaker 1: dreams of becoming an actor, and so she did not
Speaker 1: want to do that to me or my sister and
Speaker 1: she was always super encouraging and supportive, and both my parents.
Speaker 1: But like really my mother was like, you know, my
Speaker 1: friend Jenny jokes that my mom was like the ultimate
Speaker 1: stage mom, and I would say, like that is true
Speaker 1: in some respects, but honestly, like when my sister decided
Speaker 1: to stop doing it, it wasn't a thing, like it
Speaker 1: was just like okay, that you're doing something else now.
Speaker 1: She really just wanted to support us in whatever was
Speaker 1: making us happy. You know what I mean? Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: I've never talked about it or even thought about this before,
Speaker 1: but there's going to be a call to my mom later.
Speaker 1: I think my mom might be the same as your mom.
Speaker 1: I mean she was a singer, and I think it
Speaker 1: may have been her parents that discouraged her as well,
Speaker 1: because I've never talked about this. My grandparents, who were
Speaker 1: still alive at the time that I moved to Los Angeles,
Speaker 1: told my mom that I shouldn't move to Los Angeles
Speaker 1: because everyone does drugs out there. Sure. Well. Well, to
Speaker 1: be fair, Brian, how how many parties have we been
Speaker 1: at where we're just doing the drugs, you and me,
Speaker 1: just in the corner? Um I. How did you get
Speaker 1: the name busy? You have different answers. I want the
Speaker 1: real answer here. The real answer is that it was
Speaker 1: it was just like a very natural nickname from Elizabeth
Speaker 1: because I was a very busy little baby and my
Speaker 1: sister is like four years older than me. I have
Speaker 1: a babysitter. I had a babysitter in Chicago, where I
Speaker 1: was born and lived the first five years of my life,
Speaker 1: who was always calling me busy bath. So then it
Speaker 1: just became and it was like immediate. It was by
Speaker 1: the time I was a year old old. In my
Speaker 1: baby books, everywhere it just calls me busy. At first
Speaker 1: it's like, well, busy Beth is learning how to crawl,
Speaker 1: like busy Beth and then by the time or busy, busy, bath,
Speaker 1: not busy, Lizzy, busy, Liz, busy Beth, and then by
Speaker 1: the time I'm a year old, it's just busy, and
Speaker 1: then it was busy ever since. So yeah, there you go.
Speaker 1: You heard it here. That's the real story, that's the truth.
Speaker 1: So you were doing theater very, very early on. What
Speaker 1: what led you to L M U, Loyola Mary Mount,
Speaker 1: Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California? Well, a couple
Speaker 1: of things. Number One, you know, all teenagers think they
Speaker 1: know everything, which is the best and worst part of
Speaker 1: being and having a teenager. Let me tell you, Um,
Speaker 1: but I knew, but what I knew about being a
Speaker 1: professional actor was that if you wanted to do TV
Speaker 1: and film, you went to L A, and if you
Speaker 1: wanted to do theater or musical theater, you went to
Speaker 1: New York. L A was also very close to where
Speaker 1: I grew up and went to hi Scottsdale. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: I auditioned and got into CAL arts to their Conservatory
Speaker 1: Theater Program. But I had a few friends from high
Speaker 1: school who had graduated a couple of years earlier than
Speaker 1: me who were in the Undergrad Film Department at Loyal
Speaker 1: and Marymount University and at the time I graduated from
Speaker 1: my school in at the time, elm you was like
Speaker 1: quite small. It's not. Now it's like this huge school.
Speaker 1: It's so crazy to me and my mom because my
Speaker 1: family is like, historically speaking, Catholic. My mother like loves
Speaker 1: the JESUITS FOR THE EDUCATION. So I was I was
Speaker 1: auditioning for Cal Arts, which is where I thought I
Speaker 1: was going to go. I had applied to a s
Speaker 1: U as like a backup, and my mom was like
Speaker 1: you really should just look at l m you. You
Speaker 1: already have friends there. It's in L A. It's not
Speaker 1: Kell Erts is like in Valencia. You're not gonna this
Speaker 1: isn't what you want. My Mom's not wrong, by the way.
Speaker 1: So I went from my audition. I flew out by myself.
Speaker 1: My friend Eric, he picked me up, he drove me
Speaker 1: to my audition and then we went back to L
Speaker 1: M U and I turned in my application there and
Speaker 1: like looked around the campus and spent the day there
Speaker 1: and I met Gloria Calderon Kellett that day. I met
Speaker 1: just a bunch of people and I I don't know
Speaker 1: if I met Linda Cardellini that day. But I but
Speaker 1: I met her as soon as I got there because
Speaker 1: she was already a legend at that school. She was
Speaker 1: already a legend. Yeah, for sure. Well, she was like
Speaker 1: working like professionally, working before freaks, before even freaks and Geeks.
Speaker 1: And so Linda's four years older than me, Um, but
Speaker 1: she had taken a gap year to work, but she
Speaker 1: was still like living with her college roommates off, like
Speaker 1: right off campus, and everybody was in ALD in the
Speaker 1: theater department. And so before I even met Linda, I
Speaker 1: knew who Linda was because it was like, oh, well,
Speaker 1: Linda Cardalini's working. She was on boy meets world. So
Speaker 1: she was she was like sort of a legend already
Speaker 1: by the time I got there. And then really she's
Speaker 1: why I you know, she's why I did freaks and Geeks,
Speaker 1: which is like a whole other crazy I'll tell you
Speaker 1: that in two seconds. So, but but I just spent
Speaker 1: the day there at l m U and then flew
Speaker 1: back and I was like I really liked it. I
Speaker 1: really liked it, and part of the deal with calerts
Speaker 1: was that you sign up to be in this conservatory
Speaker 1: acting program and you're not supposed to audition or work
Speaker 1: for the four years that you're in that program, and
Speaker 1: I just felt like I'd been waiting since fourth grade
Speaker 1: to be an actor. I was like I can't do that,
Speaker 1: like I need to be able to do it if
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do it. And I'm so grateful that I
Speaker 1: like thought that way and and I'm you know, and
Speaker 1: my mom, I think, was happy that I was getting
Speaker 1: that Jesuit Education. I don't for two years anyway. But yeah,
Speaker 1: so then I got you know, so then I was
Speaker 1: I was at l m U, and then I was
Speaker 1: very focused on getting representation, figuring out how to do that.
Speaker 1: So you were going to school, but you were also
Speaker 1: in the business to like, yeah, you were trying to
Speaker 1: find an agent and you were trying to work even
Speaker 1: as you started school. Yeah, there were a few of
Speaker 1: us in the theater department that were kind of like
Speaker 1: savvy in that way, you know. And I felt like
Speaker 1: it was already too late. I felt like I had
Speaker 1: already like at eighteen and I was like I've already
Speaker 1: missed the book, you know what I mean, like I'm
Speaker 1: already it's already too I've already missed it. But you
Speaker 1: know Colin Hanks? Yeah, I was gonna ask. Were you
Speaker 1: friends with him as well or you guys was my boyfriend,
Speaker 1: he was your boyfriend. Yeah, you didn't know that for years. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we met my first semester, freshman. I don't read US weekly,
Speaker 1: don't listen, but Brian, it also like so predates like
Speaker 1: celebrity gossip. Yeah, it does kind of, because also we
Speaker 1: weren't famous. We were just like two random lmu students
Speaker 1: who like got on teen shows at the same time.
Speaker 1: No one cared. There's nothing and we're really good friends
Speaker 1: now as adults, which is the greatest twist of life
Speaker 1: and faith. So that's fantastic. But yeah, we met freshman year,
Speaker 1: like my first semester, and started going out. We were
Speaker 1: really like we did noises off together. He was the director,
Speaker 1: I was Vicky and I had done some like like
Speaker 1: had tried to get an agent in Arizona, which was
Speaker 1: you know, anytime you're like in one of those smaller
Speaker 1: towns and markets, it's not that there's not stuff to
Speaker 1: be done or work to be done, it's just it's
Speaker 1: a little it's not comparable to what you do. Well, right,
Speaker 1: any most of the most of the interesting stuff. They
Speaker 1: end up casting out of L A or New York anyway.
Speaker 1: So you have an agent that you can't get you
Speaker 1: access to anything. That's that's I mean typically, typically, not always.
Speaker 1: I had done this like industrial type job for Mattel
Speaker 1: toy company, playing a live Barbie doll. Oh my God,
Speaker 1: I want the footage. No, because it was like it's
Speaker 1: the toy fair and you weren't allowed to film anything,
Speaker 1: and also before cameras and phones and camera phones. But
Speaker 1: I actually wasn't Barbie. I was they made a doll
Speaker 1: from the TV show and movie clueless. They made a
Speaker 1: share horrowitz doll. Yes, and so then they dressed me
Speaker 1: up like that and then they would bring in the
Speaker 1: toy buyers and I would do a whole fifteen pages
Speaker 1: of like sales projections and stuff, but in character as
Speaker 1: share horro wins, and I killed I was like I
Speaker 1: was I really killed it. And I went to New
Speaker 1: York twice to do the toy fair for Mattel and Um,
Speaker 1: there were tons of Broadway actors because it was like
Speaker 1: nine to four. The job was like nine to four
Speaker 1: and you got paid. I mean I worked at California
Speaker 1: Pizza Kitchen and those two weeks of being a Barbie
Speaker 1: for Mattel, I think I made four thousand dollars. Like
Speaker 1: as an seventeen year old, I was like that's nothing
Speaker 1: to sneeze at. It was a lot of money. But
Speaker 1: because of that I had become sort of friends with
Speaker 1: this actress named Lisa Guerrero and then ended up being
Speaker 1: like a sports like a football commentator. Yeah, okay, I
Speaker 1: feel like you know who she is. I know who
Speaker 1: that is. Yes, I was inside edition now or something. Okay,
Speaker 1: I don't know. Again, I told you I don't read
Speaker 1: US weekly, alright, and I literally don't think any of
Speaker 1: these things would be in US weekly. I think that.
Speaker 1: I don't think there is a publication that would come
Speaker 1: to this. This is just for your podcast. Anyway, she
Speaker 1: was very sweet and she took me out to lunch
Speaker 1: and she was like, well, you'll need representation. She was
Speaker 1: the one that told me what the steps were and
Speaker 1: then she very sweetly introduced me to her manager at
Speaker 1: the time, and this woman was like sure, well, let's see,
Speaker 1: let's try, and from there, you know, I auditioned for
Speaker 1: an agency and thankfully I had that Calart's audition in
Speaker 1: my back pocket. Just went in and did my calarts
Speaker 1: audition anyway and they've ended up signing me. And it's
Speaker 1: like at every point when I was you know, I
Speaker 1: was eighteen and then nineteen when I got freaks and Geeks,
Speaker 1: but at every point it was very much like I
Speaker 1: could tell the people around me were like well, let's see,
Speaker 1: let's okay, sure, let's just see, and the whole time
Speaker 1: I was like you'll see, oh, you're gonna see. How
Speaker 1: did you meet the folks on Freaks and Geeks? Was
Speaker 1: that through your agency? Did they do their job? Oh
Speaker 1: my God. Well, what I'm failing to bring up to
Speaker 1: you is that the pilot season of was like the
Speaker 1: year after Dawson's Creek, was the hugest hit of all time,
Speaker 1: and literally every network had seven teen shows that they
Speaker 1: were trying to make. So the timing for someone my
Speaker 1: age who could play sixteen, who didn't have been better.
Speaker 1: I had ninety, something like nine five auditions and callbacks
Speaker 1: in the span of three months. Unbelie unbelievable. And also, Brian,
Speaker 1: this is before email and I had to drive from
Speaker 1: L M U on the four or five to sunset
Speaker 1: plaza to pick up my scripts and sides from my
Speaker 1: agent's office. They would leave them downstairs in a giant
Speaker 1: box for all of their actors and you would go
Speaker 1: and you would flip through and find your name and
Speaker 1: find your package. It was like I was nonstop living
Speaker 1: in my car. I lived in my car. And so
Speaker 1: I had auditioned for Alison Jones and had gotten pretty
Speaker 1: far but hadn't tested, but had gotten like done a
Speaker 1: good job for Roswell, which was the show that Colin
Speaker 1: ended up getting, and she brought me in for freaks
Speaker 1: and Geeks and I read right for the producers for that.
Speaker 1: And so I went in and it was like Jake,
Speaker 1: Paul Judd and Alison obviously, and I read the Lindsay
Speaker 1: Audition sides. Kim Kelly wasn't a character. Yeah, then, right
Speaker 1: before I was about to leave, Paul was like Hey, busy, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, we have this other part. Would you mind
Speaker 1: taking a look at this and just coming back in
Speaker 1: and reading it for us? Uh, it might be interesting.
Speaker 1: You know when they do that to you, and on audition,
Speaker 1: I'm sure, and you're like a little bummed because you
Speaker 1: read for the lead and they're like here's this other
Speaker 1: part that we don't even know what it is, but
Speaker 1: why don't you look at that? And they're like another
Speaker 1: thing I'm not getting. And all I could think of,
Speaker 1: because the audition was in the Palisades, was that I
Speaker 1: was going to have to drive back on the four,
Speaker 1: oh five to L M U, and I was and
Speaker 1: it was getting like later and later, and at a
Speaker 1: certain point I was like, Oh, fuck it, I'm ready.
Speaker 1: I just want to go, like I need to go,
Speaker 1: I gotta get out of here, and so it's like
Speaker 1: essentially it was essentially a very cold read and that
Speaker 1: was it. That was it. Amazing. Did wait. Well, you know, normally,
Speaker 1: like when it's a series regular, you test at the network, right,
Speaker 1: but they Kim Kelly was just a guest star for
Speaker 1: the pilot. They didn't, they hadn't made it a series
Speaker 1: regular part. And my agents were like, we don't want
Speaker 1: you to do this because you're getting so much attention,
Speaker 1: like and so much you're getting so close on things
Speaker 1: that we want you to wait for a series regular role.
Speaker 1: We think you could like land some really good series
Speaker 1: regular role and you don't want to take yourself out
Speaker 1: of the rest of pilot season because you're working on
Speaker 1: a show, right. But then I went to Pick Up,
Speaker 1: I think Colin at the airport and Linda was also there,
Speaker 1: picking up her roommate actually, and she had just gotten
Speaker 1: the part and she knew that they had they wanted
Speaker 1: me for Kim Kelly, and she was like, Dude, can
Speaker 1: you believe it? I'm I got freaks and GEEKS. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna do it. You gotta be Kim Kelly, and I
Speaker 1: was like, I know, I was just talking. I just
Speaker 1: it's so exciting, like I just my agents were feeling like,
Speaker 1: I don't know, and she's like no, no, no, do
Speaker 1: this show. You gotta do this with me. It'll be
Speaker 1: so much fun. We'll have so much fun. And I honestly,
Speaker 1: in that moment I was like yeah, of course I'm
Speaker 1: sucking doing it. Like why would I not do I
Speaker 1: already know this girl who's Rad and like I want
Speaker 1: to be best friends with anyway. Why would I not
Speaker 1: do this? And so I called my manager, Lorraine, and
Speaker 1: I was like I really want to do this, and
Speaker 1: she's like, I'm gonna Call Judge, I'm gonna find out
Speaker 1: what the deal is, and then she called me back
Speaker 1: and she was like, you know, Judd is really insistent
Speaker 1: that they want to make this character a series regular.
Speaker 1: If the show gets picked up, I think you should
Speaker 1: just do it. I think it's brilliant. And so, because
Speaker 1: of like Lorraine, my manager at the time, and Linda Cardalini,
Speaker 1: I was like, I had no idea what I was doing.
Speaker 1: Who knows what anything is, you know, they're like Judd
Speaker 1: apataw from sick in the head. I'm like, I don't
Speaker 1: know what the funk that is like. Had you read
Speaker 1: the script? Yeah, I did not understand it at all.
Speaker 1: I'M NOT gonna lie. I'M NOT gonna lie. Totally, Brian, totally.
Speaker 1: I was like don't get it, I don't get what
Speaker 1: the tone of this is. I was so confused by it.
Speaker 1: And then I remember they cut together. We had a
Speaker 1: pretty long shoot for the pilot. I mean it's a
Speaker 1: period piece and it's involved and those were the those
Speaker 1: were the olden days of Hollywood where they really spent
Speaker 1: a ton of money and like they were shooting on film,
Speaker 1: you know. And after we wrapped the pilot that evening,
Speaker 1: in the cafeteria of the school we were shooting at,
Speaker 1: they rolled out like a little a v Cart and
Speaker 1: they had cut together. The editors had just put together
Speaker 1: like a tiny little mishmash of the show for all
Speaker 1: of us to see what we've been working on, which, honestly,
Speaker 1: also in retrospect, is so special because so yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean if your show doesn't get picked up, the crew
Speaker 1: literally never sees the show. I mean, I don't know
Speaker 1: about you, I've done pilots that I still haven't seen, right, right,
Speaker 1: I mean I've done shows that I've never seen, but
Speaker 1: that's a different issue. That is a different issue, I
Speaker 1: would say. But anyway, it was so special and I
Speaker 1: remember watching this thing that they put together and they
Speaker 1: had the come sale away song, you know, like Crescendo, Ng,
Speaker 1: and I got full chills and I was like this
Speaker 1: is what we've been doing. Oh my God, this is real.
Speaker 1: Like my mind, I'M gonna start crying, but like my
Speaker 1: little brain was blown like this is what I've wanted
Speaker 1: to do since I was a baby, and there I
Speaker 1: am and I don't even look like me and I
Speaker 1: don't sound like me and it's real. Yeah, that was
Speaker 1: that wow. Were you away are at that moment that
Speaker 1: the show was special or doing something new, or did
Speaker 1: your little brain not comprehend that at the at the time?
Speaker 1: I mean that whole experience is so has had so
Speaker 1: many different incarnations of what it was and what it
Speaker 1: is and what it continues to be. So it's funny,
Speaker 1: you know, like we had such an amazing time while
Speaker 1: we were doing it and the freedom that Judd and
Speaker 1: Paul and Leslie Gladder, like all of our directors, they
Speaker 1: gave us such a gift that we were all way
Speaker 1: too inexperienced and young to understand at the in the moment,
Speaker 1: I think. But we all enjoyed it very much. I
Speaker 1: mean I don't remember, aside from like my personality conflict
Speaker 1: with Franco, like I don't remember ever having like a
Speaker 1: complaint about anything having to do with it. Late nights
Speaker 1: were Super Fun. Early Mornings were Super Fun. We would
Speaker 1: hang out, we would go to swingers and get food
Speaker 1: at midnight. After we wrapped like together, we would go
Speaker 1: to birds on Franklin where segull convinced me that the
Speaker 1: scientology building had a tower of terror ride inside of it,
Speaker 1: and I believed him for like ten minutes. I really
Speaker 1: thought it was true, and south was like come on,
Speaker 1: it's not true and I was like, I don't know,
Speaker 1: it looks like it has one of those rides in it,
Speaker 1: you know, like a drum. I was like what, we
Speaker 1: don't know anyway. Um, so it's really fun, you know.
Speaker 1: And I think and when the show was over and
Speaker 1: it became clear like that it was going to be over, over,
Speaker 1: I wasn't ready for it to be and I wanted
Speaker 1: it to continue. I was really, really sad and really
Speaker 1: disheartened and and and I did feel in a moment
Speaker 1: already like, but we made something so good. Why is
Speaker 1: this hat why is this fair? I mean, and again
Speaker 1: that's the best lesson you can learn as an actor.
Speaker 1: It's like, actually doesn't matter, Babe. Right, Paul said it
Speaker 1: was ahead of its time a little bit. I mean
Speaker 1: in terms of the cringe comedy. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: Judd's now made a career out of very similar toned things.
Speaker 1: It launched so many careers and and really pioneered a
Speaker 1: new way of doing television. That is uh, you know,
Speaker 1: I think a lot of shows, including the office. Oh,
Speaker 1: a great debt of gratitude too. Um. Yeah, I remember
Speaker 1: feeling that it was ahead of its time, like I said,
Speaker 1: like I read it and didn't understand it. You know,
Speaker 1: I didn't understand tonally what it was supposed to be.
Speaker 1: It wasn't until I actually saw it that I was like,
Speaker 1: Oh shit, this is awesome and I think it's really
Speaker 1: a testament to how the people in charge treated us
Speaker 1: with so much respect. And we were kids and maybe
Speaker 1: at moments didn't deserve it, but they really treated us
Speaker 1: like experts in our field and real collaborators in making
Speaker 1: this thing, and it changes everything when you get to
Speaker 1: work with people who respect you. Yeah, I've been on
Speaker 1: both sides of that like line, where I've worked for
Speaker 1: people who just definitely don't respect me and I'm there
Speaker 1: to like service what they want to be done or
Speaker 1: how they want it said. And I have no joke
Speaker 1: heard actors like that I was working with being referenced
Speaker 1: as talking props. Yeah, that's a Bummer, you know, that
Speaker 1: really takes the fun out of it. But like for
Speaker 1: me to go from doing really fun creative theater programs
Speaker 1: and then getting to be a part of a show,
Speaker 1: a network television show, were these adults in charge. And,
Speaker 1: by the way, that is the funniest thing to me,
Speaker 1: which is that I thought that Judd and Leslie were
Speaker 1: literally fifty years old. Leslie is like three years older
Speaker 1: than me. Were like essentially the same age, but she
Speaker 1: was like they were like married, they had a baby,
Speaker 1: they were like old people and and then like cut
Speaker 1: to five years later, we're like hanging out with each
Speaker 1: other in Hawaii and I'm like wait, what's happening? We're
Speaker 1: they say, Oh my God, you were like my dad
Speaker 1: and mom and no, but isn't that so weird? Like
Speaker 1: when you're a kid, when you're a teenager, people who
Speaker 1: are twenty five seem like grown up, and then when
Speaker 1: you were eight you're like hanging out with fifty year
Speaker 1: olds and you're like, we're all the same age, just fine, anyway.
Speaker 1: I just it was just but the fact that they
Speaker 1: trusted us and took us seriously and took our ideas
Speaker 1: seriously and never made us feel less than for being
Speaker 1: actors or teenagers an incredible gift and a thing that
Speaker 1: honestly shaped the way that we all have turned out. Like,
Speaker 1: I think for most of us that was our first
Speaker 1: experience professionally, like even in the case of like Linda
Speaker 1: Jason and Franco, who had worked a little bit before that,
Speaker 1: this was like their biggest thing that they had done,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? And I think just having
Speaker 1: that environment really shifted the way that we approached the
Speaker 1: rest of our careers and what we wanted for ourselves
Speaker 1: and like what we were how we were going to
Speaker 1: do it. That's awesome. That's so great to hear and
Speaker 1: makes so much sense that having that nurturing and creative
Speaker 1: environment early on doesn't make you in a way Um
Speaker 1: over it. Yeah, I mean, well, I think I look,
Speaker 1: like I said, that year was where were you were?
Speaker 1: You already in L A in shortly after. I did
Speaker 1: theater for a long time, so I was I didn't
Speaker 1: get here until two thous so, like there were a
Speaker 1: lot of people my age that we all started out
Speaker 1: at the same time, and I do think that what
Speaker 1: happens after, you know, is a reflection of how you
Speaker 1: were treated when you first enter this business. It's hard
Speaker 1: for me when especially young actors deserves so much better
Speaker 1: than the treatment that they receive. Even if you don't
Speaker 1: end up, like pursuing for the rest of your life
Speaker 1: this thing, I think it really shapes you fundamentally and
Speaker 1: I think there's just been, there just has been so
Speaker 1: much mistreatment of kids and teen and young adult performers,
Speaker 1: you know, but I got lucky, boy, did I get lucky.
Speaker 1: You did and you know, we got to talk about
Speaker 1: immediately transitioning off of this show. You have a great
Speaker 1: experience and and very shortly you get on like the
Speaker 1: biggest show of all time for kids, Dawson's Creek. How
Speaker 1: was that experience? It was different. It's different. It was
Speaker 1: different and I you know, like again directly after freaks
Speaker 1: and GEEKS was tough. I didn't work a ton and
Speaker 1: I was out there like puffing it, you know, and
Speaker 1: that pilot sea, the next pilot season, was one of
Speaker 1: those years. I tested and didn't get, I think, like
Speaker 1: Nine Network TV shows and I was like, well, I
Speaker 1: guess this ship is over, like and then, and you know,
Speaker 1: and then you're looking. I'm looking at my friends from
Speaker 1: freaks and GEEKS and it's like Franco is, James Dean, seagulls,
Speaker 1: like the lead of some fucking thing. Linda's Da Da,
Speaker 1: Dada Da, like it just was like I felt like
Speaker 1: a failure. I felt like such a failure. And John Kasten,
Speaker 1: Jake Kasden's younger brother, who was a writer on freaks
Speaker 1: and Geeks, he went to Dawson's creek and it was
Speaker 1: that transitional time for a teen show where they're going
Speaker 1: to college, and so he was like I have the
Speaker 1: best idea. I think you need to be on Dawson's Creek,
Speaker 1: and I was like that's a little bit like when
Speaker 1: your mom calls you and tells you like I think
Speaker 1: you should be on seven rents, and I'm like, Oh,
Speaker 1: you do. Yeah, that's a great idea, mom. Maybe I
Speaker 1: should be on severance. Okay, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: Like it's like your parents like, or like your friends
Speaker 1: from back home like pick like the biggest show ever
Speaker 1: and they're like it's so, why aren't you on hacks?
Speaker 1: I'm like, I don't I actually don't know. I don't
Speaker 1: know why I'm not on hacks. I'm sorry to tell you,
Speaker 1: just not not on hacks. Um. So I was like okay,
Speaker 1: John Whatever. And sure enough, like a month later or something,
Speaker 1: I got a call and they're like they want you
Speaker 1: to be Katie Holmes, whom May I was like, Kasden,
Speaker 1: you've really fucking done it, and I went and I
Speaker 1: went to the WB, the former W B, and I
Speaker 1: tested for it and then I went to Wilmington's, North Carolina.
Speaker 1: I Love Wilmington's, by the way, I shot something there.
Speaker 1: Did like it? No, but but I was at a
Speaker 1: different point. I it now, I would probably love it.
Speaker 1: Are you kidding? It was at a different point in
Speaker 1: my life. I just started dating this guy that I
Speaker 1: was like really into in L A. I was twenty one.
Speaker 1: I didn't want to leave. No, I wanted to be
Speaker 1: with my friends. I was like this sucks, like I
Speaker 1: didn't know anyone in Wilmington's the cast. Like I got
Speaker 1: to the show and like they all seemed so over it.
Speaker 1: Oh did they? Yeah, I was gonna ask. Did you
Speaker 1: watch the show? No, that's the other thing. I had
Speaker 1: never seen it and it probably was difficult to stream
Speaker 1: it at that point in time. You know it was.
Speaker 1: You couldn't. I think somebody sent me literal VHS tapes
Speaker 1: to watch. Did you watch them or no, I didn't.
Speaker 1: I didn't. And you know what is crazy, Brian, I
Speaker 1: haven't even watched the ones I'm in. I didn't watch
Speaker 1: any of it. Really. Here's the thing. Michelle and I
Speaker 1: became very, very good friends on that show. That's where
Speaker 1: we fell in love with each other. But the cast
Speaker 1: was like on that show they were definitely they had
Speaker 1: been through the whole roller coaster ride. Of being on
Speaker 1: the cover of rolling stone and, you know, getting huge, paid,
Speaker 1: paid days for giant movies and then coming back to
Speaker 1: their twenty three episode seasons and being like exhausted. They
Speaker 1: were exhausted, I think, and I come in like all
Speaker 1: full of like so fucking happy a bit here let
Speaker 1: and everybody was like, all right, we're gonna need you
Speaker 1: to slow it down, a little bit, you know, and
Speaker 1: then I was like these guys suck, but they didn't.
Speaker 1: They were just I get it now, you know, I
Speaker 1: don't know. I have that thing like I wish I
Speaker 1: had spent less time, sad I wasn't with my boyfriend,
Speaker 1: you know, like I wish I had enjoyed the experience
Speaker 1: more a little bit. But whatever. stylistically, do you consider
Speaker 1: yourself a comedian? Um, I don't know, I don't I
Speaker 1: don't know. I don't know if I consider myself anything
Speaker 1: at this point. Brand okay, all right, I feel like
Speaker 1: I get the reason I asked is I feel like
Speaker 1: I get people refer to me as that sometimes. I
Speaker 1: don't know. You're a man. Is that right at least? So, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think so. I don't know. I think there is
Speaker 1: something about that that men get referred funny men. I
Speaker 1: mean with all humility. I say funny men, get referred
Speaker 1: to as a comedian. Is that a compliment? I think so,
Speaker 1: is it? It makes it like a job, like it's
Speaker 1: like you're like, you're good, you know, it's like your profession.
Speaker 1: You're good at it, your comedian interest thing. Okay, all right,
Speaker 1: you just taught me something. I don't know. Kind of
Speaker 1: take offense really well, like I'm like, well, but I'm
Speaker 1: an actor and I can be funny, but I can
Speaker 1: also be not. So you're going to win an Oscar. Remember?
Speaker 1: We told you that? No, I know, I'm waiting. I'm
Speaker 1: waiting for the call. Listen, we're gonna do it's I'M
Speaker 1: gonna slow burn you. I think we go. I think
Speaker 1: how it happens is it's an independent spirit award into
Speaker 1: an Oscar nom I like it. I'M NOT gonna I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna argue. It's you. It's your trajectory Um. After
Speaker 1: Dawson's Creek, you do a bunch of movies, mostly comedies,
Speaker 1: which was where that beautiful transition that went nowhere. White chicks. Yeah,
Speaker 1: very funny, maid of honor. He's just not that into
Speaker 1: you and many many more, uh, film versus television. I
Speaker 1: FOR FOR TV. Yeah, me too. Actually. Yeah, I prefer
Speaker 1: TV because I mean from a from an acting standpoint,
Speaker 1: in character development, like the payoffs are better and you're
Speaker 1: able to have bigger ARCS. I mean your chilly moment
Speaker 1: doesn't land in the movie version. You know, like if
Speaker 1: you're living with characters for an extended period of time,
Speaker 1: I mean hours and hour. Even if a show is
Speaker 1: only one season, it's still hours and hours and hours
Speaker 1: that you're spending with these people, you're able to just
Speaker 1: pull out different sides of the humanity and so I
Speaker 1: find I don't feel stuck playing types because I really
Speaker 1: feel like I get to dig into the people. And
Speaker 1: then in films you are sort of relegated to like
Speaker 1: what it is, you know. Yeah, you're like the funny
Speaker 1: best friend who like says three funny things in every
Speaker 1: scene and it's like then gives her the idea to
Speaker 1: do the thing and that's it. You know, like it's
Speaker 1: just it's not, as an actor, for me, not as fulfilling.
Speaker 1: I do love TV. Yeah, it's interesting and I got
Speaker 1: kind of like bombed when the movie stars realized that
Speaker 1: TV was where I was at I got a little
Speaker 1: bit like it was about the same time when I
Speaker 1: was when I decided and like publicly declared that I
Speaker 1: quit acting, which was, of course, bullshit, but I just
Speaker 1: was like, I mean, I can't fucking I'm now I'm
Speaker 1: up against reese witherspoon, ate Hudson. It was like, honestly,
Speaker 1: it was like there were a couple shows in like pilots,
Speaker 1: where I was like super interested in the pilot. This
Speaker 1: was right around when Cougar town was ending, and they're like, well,
Speaker 1: they're going to offer it to Kate Hudson and and
Speaker 1: I was like, okay, well, that's now we're out. I'm
Speaker 1: sucking out. I can't do this game because I you know,
Speaker 1: I can't compete on that level. Yeah, but listen, good
Speaker 1: news is there's lots of TV to go around. There's
Speaker 1: a lot of TV to go around. Uh, Cougar town
Speaker 1: critics choice television award winner. I won an award. I
Speaker 1: know you did. I'm just I know, but I'm still
Speaker 1: shocked by it. How was your experience on Cougar town?
Speaker 1: Do you have a good time? You loved it. I
Speaker 1: loved it. I loved it. I loved it. It was
Speaker 1: the perfect job at the perfect moment in my life.
Speaker 1: I had had my first kid. I really wanted to
Speaker 1: do something where I was going to be funny but
Speaker 1: where I wasn't carrying anything, because I had an infant
Speaker 1: right and I was a new mom and like twenty
Speaker 1: nine and felt literally insane. But I needed money and
Speaker 1: I wanted to work, and that was the thing too.
Speaker 1: Like I think there was a part of me that
Speaker 1: fought into that weird narrative that I think people have
Speaker 1: kind of stopped with, which was, like I had heard
Speaker 1: a lot from people, like once I became a mother,
Speaker 1: like it all just fell away. I didn't care about it.
Speaker 1: Went on my first audition one week after giving birth.
Speaker 1: I was like immediately wanted what I wanted before. I
Speaker 1: was like, where are my jobs? That's so funny. I
Speaker 1: have never, I have never told this story, but you
Speaker 1: just brought it up and it's the perfect transition. I
Speaker 1: now I didn't give birth, and let me say I
Speaker 1: understand it's not the same. Sleeping on a cot at
Speaker 1: Cedar Sign I, however, is no joke for a large man. Okay,
Speaker 1: let's just be very clear about that. I am not
Speaker 1: comparing the two experiences. I'm simply saying that is laying
Speaker 1: on a cot sleep, attempting to sleep on a cot,
Speaker 1: and I left the hospital and I think I had
Speaker 1: an animated show recording at nine in the morning that
Speaker 1: next day. So, yes, I get what you're saying. Doesn't
Speaker 1: it doesn't stop, it doesn't stop. Oh, Mark, my kid's Dad, mark,
Speaker 1: left me at the hospital to go have a meeting
Speaker 1: with Vince Vaughan about some movie that he and abby
Speaker 1: were writing for him. Like had no choice. was like
Speaker 1: you guys, good, you got it, I'M gonna I'll be
Speaker 1: back in like an hour and a half. Okay, sure, sure, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: do you think? Do you thing? Dude? Um. But so
Speaker 1: cougartown came around just in a perfect moment and it
Speaker 1: was the perfect show for me and I can't yeah,
Speaker 1: and I can't say enough nice things about Courtney Cox
Speaker 1: and also Bill Lawrence and Krista mill and Josh Hopkins
Speaker 1: and Um Ian Gomez and Dan Bird, I mean like
Speaker 1: Brian Van Holt, like everyone was incredible and we really
Speaker 1: had such an amazing time, but especially Courtney Cox is
Speaker 1: just the greatest. Exactly what you want as the star
Speaker 1: of a show, because you know we've all experienced other things,
Speaker 1: and she doesn't have to be as magnanimous and generous
Speaker 1: and lovely and hard working and nonstop as she is.
Speaker 1: She could just go live on her friends money. You know,
Speaker 1: I mean truly. You know, I thought you were going
Speaker 1: to say island or something more subtle. You were like, no,
Speaker 1: live on her friends money. No, the friends money, but
Speaker 1: I'm just you know, but she could be any version
Speaker 1: of anything and but she's literally the great she was
Speaker 1: the greatest boss, the best sort of mentor in terms
Speaker 1: of what that kind of leadership should look like, and
Speaker 1: I learned a lot just by like watching her and
Speaker 1: how she treated everyone around her with such respect all
Speaker 1: the time. That's awesome. That's that's so great to hear. Actually,
Speaker 1: I don't know her. I've met her, but I don't
Speaker 1: know her at all. So that's she also, it doesn't
Speaker 1: she doesn't pull any punches, like if it's you know,
Speaker 1: if there's an issue, like she is like, we need
Speaker 1: to discuss this and figure out how to solve it,
Speaker 1: like she's very much she's a boss. She's a boss,
Speaker 1: she's a great boss. She's a great boss. That's awesome.
Speaker 1: I mean, we could talk forever about all of your projects.
Speaker 1: I do want to get too busy tonight. What was
Speaker 1: your idea behind that? Wanting to adjust your career path
Speaker 1: a bit? and well, it's it was a huge change
Speaker 1: for you. What what was the impetus for that? Well,
Speaker 1: a bit it was burnout with the industry, part of
Speaker 1: the industry, and you know, I had done this pilot
Speaker 1: for Tina fey and it was so great. It was
Speaker 1: like me and Casey Wilson and Bradley Whitford Played Our
Speaker 1: dad and Luke Deltredici was the writer and was going
Speaker 1: to show run it, and Tina and Robert Carlack we're
Speaker 1: producing it, and the show was so funny and I
Speaker 1: was like this is it, like I this is it,
Speaker 1: like I'm so happy that I got the thing finally,
Speaker 1: like this is my thing, like I'm so grateful for this.
Speaker 1: And then it didn't get picked up in the most
Speaker 1: like unceremonious, weird fizzle of like they never it wasn't
Speaker 1: like one of those things where they were like it's
Speaker 1: not getting picked up, it's just they just kept holding
Speaker 1: onto it's so weird and heartbreaking, you know, and I
Speaker 1: was so heartbroken and I have been so heartbroken Brian
Speaker 1: for so many years over so many different projects, and
Speaker 1: I just was like why am I doing this to myself?
Speaker 1: This is like torture. And around that time, or a
Speaker 1: little bit earlier, I had started doing instagram stories and
Speaker 1: that had become this whole thing, like people were like
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, taking all this interest in me
Speaker 1: and there were articles. The New Yorker wanted to write
Speaker 1: an article about me and you know, there was all
Speaker 1: of this attention on that. And Eric Gurian, who produced
Speaker 1: this with Tina fe, called me and asked if I
Speaker 1: wanted to have lunch when they were like the Emmy's weekend.
Speaker 1: After that, pilot didn't get picked up. So a couple
Speaker 1: of months later and he was like we want to
Speaker 1: do something with you, like what do you want to do?
Speaker 1: What kind of show do you want to do? Like
Speaker 1: we want to figure something out, and I was like, Eric,
Speaker 1: I'm not doing it. I can't be an actor anymore.
Speaker 1: It's too much heartbreak. And he's like, well, you're obviously
Speaker 1: entertaining and you're super watchable. How many People Watch your
Speaker 1: stories every day? And I was like at the time,
Speaker 1: I mean this is fucking crazy. At the time it
Speaker 1: was like two and fifty thousand people a day. We're
Speaker 1: watching my fucking stories, which is nuts. Now it's like,
Speaker 1: I want to say it's like sixty five or something
Speaker 1: like that. You know so, but like no one was
Speaker 1: doing them and I just whatever. I got in on it.
Speaker 1: You pioneered it, pioneered it. I pioneered the way that
Speaker 1: everybody does it. I know it's so exciting that I
Speaker 1: did that. Um, thank you, thank you, and I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: but I was like, I don't know, but I'll let
Speaker 1: you know. Like I don't know what I'm doing, I
Speaker 1: don't know what the funk is that going to happen,
Speaker 1: but I'll let you know. And then I went to
Speaker 1: my manager at the time's birthday party. That was at
Speaker 1: the MERV Griffin estate in Palm Springs, and I got
Speaker 1: stoned and was like sitting out looking up at the stars,
Speaker 1: like and I turned to mark and I was like
Speaker 1: I have to have a late night talk show. That's
Speaker 1: what it is. I have to have a late night
Speaker 1: talk show, and he was like uh, okay, and I'm
Speaker 1: like no, it's like the perfect confluence of things. I
Speaker 1: love talking. I love having conversations with people about things.
Speaker 1: I have so many friends. There aren't enough women that
Speaker 1: have these shows. Like this is just stupid and it's
Speaker 1: you know. So from that perspective, from a feminist perspective,
Speaker 1: I was like, let's even the playing field. Since Chelsea left,
Speaker 1: like no one has a nightly show. So I called
Speaker 1: Gurian and I told him that's what I wanted to
Speaker 1: do and he's like, well, I don't I don't know
Speaker 1: if Tina and I are going to be I don't
Speaker 1: know if we're the fit for that. We've never done that.
Speaker 1: I don't know if that's what we want to do
Speaker 1: right now. And I was like, okay, we'll just bring
Speaker 1: it up to her. Let her know. He's like okay.
Speaker 1: Then I went and took a meeting at my agents
Speaker 1: at the time and they brought in like the brows
Speaker 1: that do the talk show part of the agency. I
Speaker 1: don't even know what that's called, hosting and hosting probably,
Speaker 1: and they were very, I don't know, non committal, I
Speaker 1: would say, like Christian. They were disinterested. They were like like,
Speaker 1: they were like, I mean, we could try to set
Speaker 1: you up with like maybe like a season showrunner that
Speaker 1: does this, and then we could like come up with
Speaker 1: a concept and then we could go pitch it. I
Speaker 1: don't I don't know when. I was like you guys
Speaker 1: really are not listening to me. I'm going to do
Speaker 1: a late night talk show because the ghost of Merv
Speaker 1: Griffin told me when I was stoned that that's what
Speaker 1: I'm doing. And they were like okay, and no joke.
Speaker 1: Four days later the phone rang and it was Eric
Speaker 1: Gurrey and and he's like, well, I've got some news
Speaker 1: and I was like what and he's like, I think
Speaker 1: Tina and Dave miner just sold your late night talk
Speaker 1: show to e over the phone. Amazing and literally, like
Speaker 1: that's how it fucking happened like that. Tina had some
Speaker 1: because her general, you know, her overall deal, is at universal,
Speaker 1: and she had some call with e and they said, well,
Speaker 1: we really want to get back into like a late
Speaker 1: night talk show space and Tina was like, well, have
Speaker 1: I got the show for you? and that was it, ma'am.
Speaker 1: Within I would say like a month and a half,
Speaker 1: like the deal was done and then within four months
Speaker 1: we started like developing it and then we were greenlit
Speaker 1: in August, I think, and then it premiered in October,
Speaker 1: like almost exactly one year after the merv Griffin thing.
Speaker 1: Crazy good experience. Oh, I loved doing the show. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we had the best time. It was fantastic. We had
Speaker 1: a real casey stange, and I, who we do our
Speaker 1: podcast together and she was my showrunner for the show and,
Speaker 1: you know, we really had a vision for what we
Speaker 1: wanted it to be and we wanted it to be
Speaker 1: different and for different a different audience than what other
Speaker 1: late night shows have been. I didn't want to like
Speaker 1: parent anyone else's style and I wanted to make it
Speaker 1: for I literally wanted to make a show for me,
Speaker 1: like something I would enjoy watching, you know. And I
Speaker 1: felt really strongly about doing it multiple nights a week
Speaker 1: because I think that it was like a little bit
Speaker 1: of a challenge and a trial by fire and but
Speaker 1: I think we got the show up and going really
Speaker 1: so much faster than we would have if we were
Speaker 1: doing it like once a week, you know. Um, and
Speaker 1: I was, I'm really proud of it. I really am
Speaker 1: proud of it. I love like loved it and I
Speaker 1: loved our guests and everybody who came on the show
Speaker 1: would leave and say something incredible like, honestly, this is
Speaker 1: the best experience I've had on a talk show ever.
Speaker 1: You know, like it was just Super Fun and we
Speaker 1: were really sad. I was really, again, really sad, really
Speaker 1: heartbroken when it was over, because I thought that by
Speaker 1: taking control of it and being creatively in control and
Speaker 1: an executive producer and like I was very involved with
Speaker 1: every aspect of it, for some reason I thought I
Speaker 1: would be better prepared for like, yeah, I was not. No. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: I'm so happy for you that you had the experience. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and maybe again. Is that done? I mean, sure, I didn't.
Speaker 1: I'm at this point now where I'm like, I'll do it,
Speaker 1: I don't know, whatever what may, I'll do anything. Who knows? Again,
Speaker 1: like you said, am I a comedian? Like, I don't
Speaker 1: know what I am, Dude. I'm just like, I'm here,
Speaker 1: I'm here. You're well, you're I don't know if you're
Speaker 1: a comedian or not. Like I said, I don't even
Speaker 1: I struggle with like those types of labels. But do
Speaker 1: you do stand up? No, that's the thing to meet
Speaker 1: comedian means stand up. I agree. Yeah, now you're changing story. Okay, fine,
Speaker 1: I am changing my story. I know you are. That's
Speaker 1: what I just I just called you out on it, busy,
Speaker 1: God bless it. I uh so enjoy talking to you.
Speaker 1: You really make me laugh. So, comedian or not, that's
Speaker 1: that's that's really all I'm looking for. Good luck figuring
Speaker 1: out what you want to do next. I know it
Speaker 1: will be incredible and I appreciate so much you're coming
Speaker 1: to talk to me. I'm so happy too. I love
Speaker 1: talking to you, I love seeing you. Thank you. Thanks,
Speaker 1: Brian Busy. That was incredible. Yeah, I'm still laughing. Thank
Speaker 1: you for stopping by. To those of you out there listening,
Speaker 1: it has been a pleasure hanging with you this beautiful Tuesday,
Speaker 1: or or whatever day it is that you're listening. I'M
Speaker 1: gonna be back next week, on Tuesday, same time, same place,
Speaker 1: with another amazing guest, a guest who, by the way,
Speaker 1: stars in one of my recent favorite television shows. Can
Speaker 1: you guess what it is? I'll give you a hint.
Speaker 1: He is a bad, bad man. We'll see you next week.
Speaker 1: Off The beat is hosted an executive produced by me,
Speaker 1: Brian Baumgartner, alongside our executive producer Langley. Our producers are
Speaker 1: Diego Tapia, Liz Hayes, Hannah Harris and Emily Carr our
Speaker 1: talent producer is Ryan Papa Zachary, and our intern is
Speaker 1: Sammy Katz. Our theme song bubble and squeak, performed by
Speaker 1: my great friend Creed Bratton Mumm