Speaker 1: Still the Place with Laura Layton, Courtney Thorn Smith.
Speaker 2: And Daphne's Aniga and iHeartRadio podcast.
Speaker 3: Well, you guys, I.
Speaker 2: Know it's weird, exactly what we were hoping for.
Speaker 4: We really opened it.
Speaker 3: It really is.
Speaker 5: We are here on Still the Place with our friend
Speaker 5: Grant show.
Speaker 2: We've been talking about you, by the way, well.
Speaker 3: Sorry in a good way.
Speaker 5: We were so excited to have you on as our
Speaker 5: first guest for the podcast. Your character was the bridge
Speaker 5: to launch Melrose Place, bridging from nine two to oh,
Speaker 5: and it just made perfect sense that we to talk
Speaker 5: to you first, and we were so excited to so.
Speaker 2: Grant, I don't even know on the nine O two
Speaker 2: one oh show, were you a regular there?
Speaker 4: Did you come in at the end of it?
Speaker 3: No, they cast me from Melow's Place, and then knowing
Speaker 3: that they were going to put that character on nine
Speaker 3: on two to zero sort of to springboard Melrose Place.
Speaker 3: It wasn't the spin off, It wasn't you know, any
Speaker 3: of that kind of thing. It was like they knew
Speaker 3: this all going in. And then I did three episodes
Speaker 3: of nine two and oh and you played Jake.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but what was your how did you get tied
Speaker 2: up with the high school.
Speaker 3: I was like building a gazebo for Kelly's family in
Speaker 3: her backyard building and then what would now be illegal and.
Speaker 4: We're going to be talking about that is the age.
Speaker 5: Yes, we don't blame you for that.
Speaker 4: Personally.
Speaker 3: Well, I think we only kissed, but still, you know,
Speaker 3: not good.
Speaker 1: No, we were saying that when we were watching the
Speaker 1: pilot and I thought it had been so long, and
Speaker 1: I thought, as you guys are coming to kiss, I thought, well,
Speaker 1: surely he's going to say, oh, I couldn't possibly are
Speaker 1: too young? And then you're kissing him, Like, oh my god, Yeah.
Speaker 6: We all hot?
Speaker 3: Is it that we are more sort of and maybe
Speaker 3: rightly so? I don't want to put a judgment more
Speaker 3: to the other on it, but like more prudish now
Speaker 3: than thirty years ago.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, we definitely we thought weird.
Speaker 2: I mean my whole body was just like, oh god,
Speaker 2: this is so not right because we're here in twenty
Speaker 2: twenty four. And then we talked to Jenny Garth because
Speaker 2: we did their podcast, and we asked, how did you
Speaker 2: feel doing that? Did it feel like he was too
Speaker 2: old for you?
Speaker 3: She's like, no, well we weren't We were relatively contemporaries.
Speaker 3: I mean were we were actually both adults, So.
Speaker 5: She was over eighteen and then she was just eighteen
Speaker 5: and she said, didn't she you know, so just eighteen?
Speaker 3: That's not that crazy and real life, but it's not.
Speaker 1: It's the high school thing. Like I was watching the
Speaker 1: scene in the second episode when you're being so sweet
Speaker 1: at the door. You weren't a physical mismatch like you
Speaker 1: guys were a gorgeous couple. It's the high school thing
Speaker 1: that's the thing that's hard.
Speaker 3: To get it right. Like she he was I don't know,
Speaker 3: twenty five, and she was seventeen or sixteen, I don't know.
Speaker 1: Any getting younger every time.
Speaker 3: Well, now you think put it in those terms, it's
Speaker 3: like it that's creepy.
Speaker 2: So were you at ten or twenty years? That's what
Speaker 2: everything is now? Like the husband's sixty and the wife's
Speaker 2: thirty eight or something.
Speaker 5: And were you aware of the weirdness, like we asked
Speaker 5: you to watch the episode before coming here and that
Speaker 5: did it bring that back?
Speaker 1: Or like has that all?
Speaker 2: Has that beened something in her mind about.
Speaker 3: That at all? Really, because she was a grown up,
Speaker 3: ptent professional actress, I didn't really think much of it
Speaker 3: at the time we were shooting. When I watched it,
Speaker 3: I was like, oh, yeah.
Speaker 5: Yeah, well that's what we're finding is like watching the
Speaker 5: episodes now, so many of the things we can't even remember.
Speaker 5: But also just it just straight it just hits different now.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, yeah, I mean, and also like this was
Speaker 3: the first year, it was different than what the show became.
Speaker 3: I think I liked it. I liked the lot of
Speaker 3: what happened in that episode was kind of corny and
Speaker 3: a little hokey in places, but for the most part,
Speaker 3: I thought it was a really solid episode.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's what we're saying. It was really sweet. So
Speaker 1: what was your auditioning process, Like, do you remember it?
Speaker 3: Yeah? I know. I think that they had seen like
Speaker 3: like literally thousands of guys, and I remember I don't
Speaker 3: remember my auditions. I think it was kind of normal.
Speaker 3: You know, you go and do you do your initial
Speaker 3: and then you do another one for you know whoever
Speaker 3: that next level level is, and then the one for
Speaker 3: the producers, and then then then your screen test. I
Speaker 3: think that was relatively normal. But I do remember while
Speaker 3: I was doing that, I'm auditioning for other things all
Speaker 3: over town, and they were holding auditions for Jake. Almost
Speaker 3: everywhere I went. It was like, there's more auditions for Jake.
Speaker 3: There's more, Yeah, they really it was a wide like.
Speaker 1: Where would it be if it wasn't at the studio?
Speaker 3: You know. I just remember like being at other places
Speaker 3: being thinking this is odd that there were auditions.
Speaker 1: And then do you remember the meeting is Jake that
Speaker 1: he was Jake?
Speaker 4: Do you remember meeting Aaron and what that was like?
Speaker 4: Was it his office? Probably?
Speaker 3: You know, I didn't meet like like I know Andrew did.
Speaker 3: I don't know if you guys did. I did not
Speaker 3: meet him like that. He was in the screen test
Speaker 3: room with everyone else like him. I'm sure I shook
Speaker 3: his hand, but I don't remember. It wasn't like I
Speaker 3: didn't go to his office until I was on the
Speaker 3: show really unless the screen test was there. It was
Speaker 3: so long ago. Do you remember that couch?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 3: That went on forever and then turned the corner.
Speaker 5: The world's most giant sectional couch.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well yeah, in the cigar the cigar it was.
Speaker 3: An orange couch, wasn't it?
Speaker 4: Was it orange or like brick red?
Speaker 3: It was in that it was this weird like early sixties,
Speaker 3: late fifties color classic.
Speaker 2: Wow, and did you so?
Speaker 5: You said you were auditioning for a bunch of other stuff,
Speaker 5: like did you did you? Was this the role you wanted?
Speaker 5: Were you like there.
Speaker 3: Was another job? I don't know. I don't remember if
Speaker 3: I actually had an option to take it or not,
Speaker 3: but there was a medical show that either they were
Speaker 3: about to get into the screen test negotiation for or
Speaker 3: it was like I kind of had to make a
Speaker 3: choice between the two. It was an obvious choice. It
Speaker 3: was not going to do some unknown, untested medical show.
Speaker 3: When this show we knew was it Partners?
Speaker 1: Does that sound familiar?
Speaker 3: That sure does?
Speaker 5: Wow?
Speaker 1: Okay, because my audition story bringing it back to me
Speaker 1: finally was that that I didn't I auditioned, audition, didn't
Speaker 1: get it, and then they said we're going to put
Speaker 1: you on something, And they gave me the script for
Speaker 1: Milor's place, a stack of scripts.
Speaker 3: You didn't get Partners?
Speaker 1: You were that you were like, they were like, we
Speaker 1: want him for both, so you win this story.
Speaker 3: I don't know. I don't know that they wanted me
Speaker 3: because it's too long ago in my brain, but it
Speaker 3: was like it was in there.
Speaker 1: It wasn't back and back did you know that week
Speaker 1: when you're back and back and back for that show.
Speaker 1: I wonder, I wonder if we did cross paths and
Speaker 1: we just don't remember you were having the same sort of.
Speaker 2: Ye drama escalating Grant. I'm wondering if you felt this
Speaker 2: part of Jake. And I don't know how much they
Speaker 2: had you read or there was to read, but if
Speaker 2: you felt like a similarity to you, is that why
Speaker 2: you resonated, you think, or.
Speaker 3: Or just it is probably why I got the job
Speaker 3: because I was an angry young man and so was Jake,
Speaker 3: and you know, I mean I think it just I
Speaker 3: don't know that I was aware of that, or maybe
Speaker 3: it would have been so angry and your abs.
Speaker 5: I think you were cast for your abs on.
Speaker 3: The motorc Well, I've been riding motorcycles since I was
Speaker 3: like ten, Okay, so I don't believe I owned one
Speaker 3: at the time I got the show. But as soon
Speaker 3: as I got the show.
Speaker 4: I couldn't afford it. So then you got the show,
Speaker 4: then you bought a hand.
Speaker 3: I mean immediately, it is the first thing I did.
Speaker 1: I let you drive it to work.
Speaker 3: Yeah. They never said a word to me about it. Wow,
Speaker 3: they never did. I was kind of surprised, But that's
Speaker 3: amazing because I would have been like, you know, f off,
Speaker 3: but you know I'm going to ride my bike. Wow,
Speaker 3: because you had one too, I did.
Speaker 4: I got one much later after I rode with you
Speaker 4: on yours.
Speaker 2: I told the story last time of the Then I
Speaker 2: wanted my own, no offense, but I got those sports stores.
Speaker 3: I just got rid of my bike that I bought that. Yeah,
Speaker 3: well not just maybe three or four years ago, I
Speaker 3: guess long as my daughter's ten. The first time I
Speaker 3: got on it after my daughter was born, I was done.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I wasn't scared. It wasn't like I was afraid of
Speaker 3: getting injured. And none of those thoughts came in my head.
Speaker 3: It just was like, this isn't fun anymore.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I get's interesting.
Speaker 3: It wasn't even that clear. It just was this is
Speaker 3: no longer.
Speaker 2: Fun, yea, yeah, everything changes.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So when you were when you did the part on
Speaker 1: nine or two and O did you three episodes on
Speaker 1: nine two and oh? How did that feel going on
Speaker 1: to that set? What was that set?
Speaker 2: Like?
Speaker 3: You know, I never watched that show. I just knew
Speaker 3: how big the hype was. And Luke like we both
Speaker 3: our first jobs were across the hall from each other
Speaker 3: in New York. So I'd known Luke for a very
Speaker 3: long time. We dated the same woman. Oh not at
Speaker 3: the same time, almost at the same time. So like
Speaker 3: I'd known him for a long time. So that was
Speaker 3: he was welcoming, and that was made things a little easier,
Speaker 3: you know. But you're also like thirty and cocky and
Speaker 3: you know, think you have like so I wasn't intimidated.
Speaker 3: I was like, I probably thought I was overqualified.
Speaker 1: Like they have me.
Speaker 5: Well, it was it was clear that you were older,
Speaker 5: yeah too and.
Speaker 1: Staid like that. Yeah, maybe not feel like a little
Speaker 1: bit more some of the older castmates. I mean, wasn't
Speaker 1: Iron in his late twenties been?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was thirty, so old was Luke wasn't?
Speaker 4: Aren't you guys?
Speaker 3: I think he? I think they were all like four
Speaker 3: or five years show.
Speaker 5: Okay, And so you mentioned you had been on a show,
Speaker 5: you'd been working in New York and so where like
Speaker 5: where were you? Like, where was your career?
Speaker 3: I went so late to study theater arts because they
Speaker 3: didn't have any idea what to do. I was like, well,
Speaker 3: they have a theater arts program. At it's UCLA. It's
Speaker 3: in LA and you know that's where they make movies.
Speaker 3: So I went there and in my last quarter I
Speaker 3: was auditioning just to get practice, and I got a
Speaker 3: soap opera in New York. I thought it was like
Speaker 3: three months because I had such a crap agent he
Speaker 3: misinformed me. I went there, started the three months and
Speaker 3: they were like, you know, you know, you're here for
Speaker 3: three years. So I finished out that contract, went to London,
Speaker 3: study for a year, came back from London, started doing
Speaker 3: theater out of New York. And then occasionally I would
Speaker 3: go out. I'd get a job in LA. I like
Speaker 3: a small job. I'd go out in LA and do
Speaker 3: that job. Then I come back to New York and
Speaker 3: spend all my money because it's so expensive there. Eventually,
Speaker 3: like nineteen ninety, I think, so this is the first
Speaker 3: job was in eighty two, I believe. And then in
Speaker 3: nineteen ninety I moved to LA and that's when all
Speaker 3: like it's like wow, there's all these pilots, which weren't
Speaker 3: all casting in New York. So it was like, you know,
Speaker 3: two years of constantly, you know, either auditioning or getting
Speaker 3: a pilot. That doesn't go. I think I did. I
Speaker 3: think I got a pilot each year that didn't go.
Speaker 2: And then finally, so you're really like New York and
Speaker 2: London trained Lambda Lamba right, yeah, so.
Speaker 4: New York And did you do a lot of theater
Speaker 4: in New York?
Speaker 3: I did? I got I did thea that cast out
Speaker 3: of New York and then went outside, like I did
Speaker 3: some theater in North Carolina, North Carolina and Cleveland and
Speaker 3: you know, anyway, just around. I did one show. I
Speaker 3: did one Broadway show that I understand on and I
Speaker 3: was the only understudy that didn't get to go on.
Speaker 3: I understudied Matt Dylan in a play about Vietnam called
Speaker 3: The Boys of Winter. Oh okay, Don Moffett and oh
Speaker 3: yeah sounds righting Raims.
Speaker 1: Wow, Matt Dylan, Would you want to do that now
Speaker 1: or do you want to go back into theater.
Speaker 3: I'd love to And you did do some Yeah, I've
Speaker 3: gone back back and forth, and it was crazy. It
Speaker 3: was twenty years ago the last time I did professional theater.
Speaker 3: I was like shocked when I went to re up
Speaker 3: my equity membership, like, oh my god, yeah, it's just
Speaker 3: I'd love to. It's just it's like I'm living in
Speaker 3: Atlanta right now, and it's.
Speaker 1: Hard, it's impractical.
Speaker 3: Yeah, a ten year old and my wife is on
Speaker 3: a show, and yeah, you know so I'm interested. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and I'm pushing in that direction. I don't see that.
Speaker 3: I don't see the path yet for it.
Speaker 2: You can't really make plans in this business, can you.
Speaker 2: Everything just changes.
Speaker 1: Well, even talking about pilot season. There used to be
Speaker 1: a pilot season like that's gone. That used to make sense.
Speaker 1: I was talking to a friend of mine whose son's
Speaker 1: an actor. Now they did six episodes and they had
Speaker 1: him on hold for eighteen months, like we used to have.
Speaker 1: You knew by July if you'd be working the next year.
Speaker 1: The rules are all gone now.
Speaker 4: It's do they pay him for those?
Speaker 3: All those?
Speaker 1: He did not pay him for those.
Speaker 3: In our last contract. Yeah, well I did, because you
Speaker 3: know that you do now nowadays they're doing like a
Speaker 3: streamer show. You could do eighty's and even if you
Speaker 3: do eight for four years, they want to hold you.
Speaker 3: And that when eight episodes takes what three and a
Speaker 3: half four months? Yeah, then you want to hold.
Speaker 2: You for the twelve You cannot. I can't make a
Speaker 2: living in that anymore.
Speaker 4: Things were different back then. Another that's a major.
Speaker 1: Well, well, that's one of the things we're talking about.
Speaker 1: When when we did the first episode, was doing thirty
Speaker 1: two episodes a year. That's so insane. Now we're so lucky,
Speaker 1: as hard as it was, like, we're so lucky we
Speaker 1: did that and made that money because now it's even
Speaker 1: if you're a regular in a series, it can be
Speaker 1: hard to make a living, which is crazy, but we
Speaker 1: really lucked out in the timing.
Speaker 3: I can't believe crazy. I did five years on the
Speaker 3: remake of Dynasty. We just wrapped. Yeah, two years ago
Speaker 3: we did twenty two and that that's a lot, truly. Yeah, yes,
Speaker 3: so thirty two. I'm amazed we were that much younger.
Speaker 1: We had energy, Yeah, yeah, because we and the cast
Speaker 1: got bigger and bigger and bigger. Remember like one year,
Speaker 1: I think we had fourteen regular cast members. So then
Speaker 1: you got some some space.
Speaker 5: So what is your recollection like when you first started Melrose, Like,
Speaker 5: do you remember like meeting the rest of the cast
Speaker 5: and what was your take and what do you what
Speaker 5: do you.
Speaker 3: Remember when we all went to the soundstage for the
Speaker 3: first time and we saw that they had dug a
Speaker 3: swimming pool into the stage and we were all like, Okay,
Speaker 3: we're gonna be here for him.
Speaker 4: Pretty cool.
Speaker 1: Well, we were sold for thirteen. I remember when we
Speaker 1: shot the credits. Yes, I remember meeting everybody on Melrose
Speaker 1: at Johnny Rocketts.
Speaker 3: You remember, no o.
Speaker 5: You remember that to tell us all about So.
Speaker 3: We were standing on the corner right in front of
Speaker 3: Johnny Rockets.
Speaker 4: Do we think he was like his character?
Speaker 3: Some guy pulls up on his motor right on the corner.
Speaker 3: Some guy pulls up on his motorcycle right next to
Speaker 3: the curve, and he starts reving his engine, and you
Speaker 3: guys all started kind of laughing. And I looked over
Speaker 3: and I went, I went, hey, they're laughing at you,
Speaker 3: not with you. Remember anyway, what they're laughing at you?
Speaker 3: Not with you?
Speaker 5: So you picked a fight?
Speaker 3: Yeah, he jumped office fight. He gets in my face.
Speaker 3: I'm look, I'm working right now, and see all those
Speaker 3: guys over there. All those guys are with me. So
Speaker 3: you might want to wait till we've done work in
Speaker 3: and then you can finish this. He goes and he
Speaker 3: sits down at Giant Rockets and he waits. He starts waiting,
Speaker 3: and then I find out that it is the son
Speaker 3: of this actor who is like one of the most
Speaker 3: like cool, macho like dudes, Steve McQueen, Steve mcca.
Speaker 5: Okay, but wait a second, he's stuck around fight.
Speaker 3: No, no, I find out that Steve McQueen's son.
Speaker 5: How did you find that part out?
Speaker 3: I don't know. Somebody told me, and I'm like, I'm
Speaker 3: not gonna fight with Steve McQueen's you had the back,
Speaker 3: I'm not going to do it. It's like, I'm not
Speaker 3: He's like one of my biggest heroes ever. So I
Speaker 3: went over and I told him, I said, listen, I'm
Speaker 3: not going to fight you. You might as well just
Speaker 3: go home. It's not going to happen.
Speaker 4: Did you apologize?
Speaker 2: We would, you know, Chad McQueen is who it was.
Speaker 3: Years later we had run into each other and you know,
Speaker 3: we we made you know, we hugged it out and nice.
Speaker 2: That's an amazing Hollywood story, just like shooting on the side.
Speaker 4: On Melrose Avenue. You guys were shooting.
Speaker 2: Right, yeah, and that you almost got a fight with
Speaker 2: Steve McQueen's son, who's just hanging out on motorcycle and
Speaker 2: you're shooting your TV show.
Speaker 1: Nobody really were. It was one of those things where
Speaker 1: people were filming us, so they were like, who are
Speaker 1: you were on the show, and then they would take
Speaker 1: pictures with us, even and they had had cameras, there
Speaker 1: were no phones. People wanted to take pictures just in case,
Speaker 1: just in case. Obviously we were then just in case
Speaker 1: we came. But I remember feeling pretty cool and all walking.
Speaker 3: Yes, we spent we spent a month doing pre publicity
Speaker 3: for that show. Remember like all that stuff up in
Speaker 3: like Tapanga or wherever it was with that we did
Speaker 3: for that magazine and all those super cool shots that
Speaker 3: we did.
Speaker 1: And but that was after it started taking on.
Speaker 3: Was it no? No, because because Amy was in that Yeah.
Speaker 1: I remember shooting was Entertainment Weekly, Yeah, and that was
Speaker 1: I think I might have that somewhere. I should find that.
Speaker 3: I think it was even before the air show this
Speaker 3: show aired.
Speaker 4: I think so did a lot of Entertainment Weekly.
Speaker 1: There was a lot of you're right, they were so
Speaker 1: excited because we were a spin off. There was all
Speaker 1: this buzz and then it's sort of like fizzled until
Speaker 1: Heather came came on. And then that really the Heather
Speaker 1: came on and and Michael. That was funny watching the
Speaker 1: second episode, is that you were so angry and Michael
Speaker 1: was so nice.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and then as you become like the tough guy
Speaker 6: with the heart of gold, and he becomes just like
Speaker 6: the bad guy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was fun to see where we started. Wasn't
Speaker 1: it fun to watch?
Speaker 3: It was? It was really really fun to watch. I
Speaker 3: had a lot of big emotions.
Speaker 1: Actually, what were your big emotions?
Speaker 3: Just a lot of like real nostalgia, and there was
Speaker 3: like such a it was such a time of potential,
Speaker 3: and you know that just that reliving that feeling of
Speaker 3: potential was just really you know, had a lot of
Speaker 3: like and you know, as you're in your sixties now,
Speaker 3: it's like their potential has changed. So there was a
Speaker 3: lot of like like joy and also loss in the
Speaker 3: sense that that doesn't exist anymore and it can't exist anymore,
Speaker 3: but also the joy of having had it. It was
Speaker 3: just a lot of really big.
Speaker 2: Emotion, really good point grant, really insightful. I feel like
Speaker 2: and I'm not even have we've only watched too but
Speaker 2: I did see a few before it, and I feel
Speaker 2: like the same, you know, and that she was so
Speaker 2: young while seeing myself and I'm watching We're watching Courtney
Speaker 2: now and you guys. But to relate to yourself that way,
Speaker 2: it is, it's pretty profound, because it was profound. I
Speaker 2: lately I've been seeing time as like people that were
Speaker 2: losing people our age are a little bit that we
Speaker 2: used to look up to. You know, they're dying, you know,
Speaker 2: we're getting older and the life and the life, I mean,
Speaker 2: the world has changed so much.
Speaker 4: But to go back and see it.
Speaker 3: Through youth and so well recorded and so seminal a
Speaker 3: time in my life, so you know, I have deep
Speaker 3: emotional memories about it. Yeah, it's a big deal.
Speaker 5: Well it's exceptional that we even have the video footage
Speaker 5: of those years in our lives, which are for everyone
Speaker 5: such an important period of time. Yeah, but it's captured
Speaker 5: on film and we get to go back and look
Speaker 5: at it.
Speaker 3: And it was a huge social event, you know what
Speaker 3: I mean. We were involved in something that not a
Speaker 3: lot of people get to do.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I'm a nostalgia. I don't have the sad part. I
Speaker 1: feel like because I feel like I can look back
Speaker 1: at that time and it was such a sweet time.
Speaker 1: I'm so much happier now in my life and in myself,
Speaker 1: like I also see my insecurity and my fear, and
Speaker 1: I go, wow, it's so nice to be older and
Speaker 1: grounded and in my body. And I really do, like
Speaker 1: I love my life so much. I almost felt like
Speaker 1: I couldn't quite be in it because I wasn't quite
Speaker 1: in my body yet at that time.
Speaker 4: Nobody in their twenty eight seeing.
Speaker 1: You guys now getting to spend the time see you today,
Speaker 1: spend the time with I'm Lauren Dafney. It's so nice
Speaker 1: to be together, like as friends without the noise, because
Speaker 1: there was so much noise. There's so much attention and
Speaker 1: noise and this like created competitiveness that isn't here now.
Speaker 1: It's like, I'm just so happy to be with you guys.
Speaker 1: So it's nice to get too.
Speaker 3: Do you mean competitiveness between you guys, because I never
Speaker 3: saw any of that.
Speaker 1: No, no, no, but I felt this need to prove myself.
Speaker 1: There was sort of like this this intensity and this
Speaker 1: competitiveness was from the outside in. But there were publicists
Speaker 1: and stories and this kind of stuff, and I just
Speaker 1: don't have that anymore. I'm just happy to spend this
Speaker 1: time and connect with you guys. So that's my overwhelming feeling,
Speaker 1: which is so like I'm watching it and I'm texting Andrew,
Speaker 1: and my real feeling about this is I'm so excited
Speaker 1: that we all get to spend time together again now
Speaker 1: that we're all in such a different suite place in
Speaker 1: our lives. So for me, it wasn't like there's all
Speaker 1: this potential I felt. I think I felt more pressure
Speaker 1: then that I don't feel now like I'm really enjoying
Speaker 1: my life today in a way I couldn't then because
Speaker 1: I was like, oh am I going to be What's
Speaker 1: going to happen? It's like and I was like, I'm good,
Speaker 1: It's good, I'm good. This is so much fun to
Speaker 1: be together and do this.
Speaker 2: That is a gift of getting older, isn't it. Yes,
Speaker 2: I mean that is.
Speaker 4: It's just there.
Speaker 2: I just want to say that if there's any I know,
Speaker 2: most of our fans are probably our age.
Speaker 4: Well, I'm your age.
Speaker 2: You guys are younger, yeah, a lot younger, just a
Speaker 2: little bit. Well, but I feel like our fans are
Speaker 2: kind of our age. I mean there is a younger
Speaker 2: group too that I think watches. But you know, I
Speaker 2: just hope that everyone, I think that everyone in our
Speaker 2: audience being that age, they feel the same thing, which
Speaker 2: is partially why I was excited about doing this. You
Speaker 2: know that we all deserve a little reprieve from the
Speaker 2: world today and like to go back and to when
Speaker 2: we all have potential, when we're all we're young and
Speaker 2: and watching Meloe's Place and just the nineties in general,
Speaker 2: there's just a projection that it was easier and lighter
Speaker 2: and colorful. And I don't know, that's what I that's
Speaker 2: what I project onto those times from the outside the nineties,
Speaker 2: you know, and like you goofed up, but that was
Speaker 2: taken care of and there'd be next week and I
Speaker 2: don't know, things were just it's just to me, that's
Speaker 2: a that's a gift of this podcast at this age,
Speaker 2: to your point to enjoy with the audience. Does anyone
Speaker 2: know what I'm saying with the audience to go back
Speaker 2: to a time nostalgia, you know, And.
Speaker 5: I think we've talked about it before that like what's
Speaker 5: specific about watching this show is that people it evokes
Speaker 5: where they were in their life at that time, because
Speaker 5: they weren't they were watching it with someone and they
Speaker 5: were watching it at a certain time. And so I
Speaker 5: know we've all heard from friends like Wow, just watching
Speaker 5: those episodes brings back a lot for the audience too,
Speaker 5: because they'll say, I remember where I was and who
Speaker 5: I was watching with at that time, and it brings
Speaker 5: them back to their era of the twenties and so
Speaker 5: like we were going through what we were going through
Speaker 5: as people, but we were also going through show together.
Speaker 5: So to have that memorialized on screen that we get
Speaker 5: to revisit it and stuff.
Speaker 2: I think the nostalgia is well and.
Speaker 3: I think anytime you're having a deeply nostalgic moment, it's
Speaker 3: going to be bittersweet.
Speaker 2: Anytime, Yeah, because it's gone.
Speaker 3: And our memories of things are always heightened. Like I
Speaker 3: believe we always remember things as better than they were
Speaker 3: in a way because you forget, you drop, I do.
Speaker 3: I drop all the sort of negative stuff and I
Speaker 3: hold on to the kind of positive stuff. So nostalgia
Speaker 3: has that, but it's also it's always very bittersweet.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 5: How do you do you feel like Melrose specifically? Do
Speaker 5: you think it changed your life? Like, how do you
Speaker 5: think it changed your life? What was that?
Speaker 3: Like? What about you guys? But it turns it it
Speaker 3: dictated the rest of my career. You know, not necessarily
Speaker 3: for better or for worse. But I had a career.
Speaker 3: I was going to work continued as long as I
Speaker 3: put the effort in. I was going to continue to
Speaker 3: work for as long as I wanted to because of
Speaker 3: Melrose Place.
Speaker 1: Do you find because I find still that's what people
Speaker 1: remember me from. Like if someone says to me, like,
Speaker 1: you look familiar, I could list the things I've done
Speaker 1: in order I just go Malro's place.
Speaker 4: So well, that's it.
Speaker 1: Like, because it was, like we've talked about, was a
Speaker 1: time in their lives. I lived in that apartment, I
Speaker 1: watched it with my friends, I watched it in college.
Speaker 1: It's like a part they have nostalgia for, not just
Speaker 1: that time in their lives, but the show and what
Speaker 1: the show meant connected to their college, high school experience.
Speaker 3: It was sort of the last era of you know,
Speaker 3: watercooler television.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but do you find that that's what people recognize?
Speaker 3: It depends in the age group, Like, yeah, because I
Speaker 3: did Dynasty for so long. Like anybody like I don't know,
Speaker 3: thirty five, forty or younger, they're going to say Dynasty.
Speaker 1: Really yeah, oh that's fast.
Speaker 2: So you know, if they're your age or if they're yeah,
Speaker 2: you know that much be the agent.
Speaker 5: Are you finding those to be also the same audience,
Speaker 5: like do they know you from Dynasty and from Momos
Speaker 5: or is it oh no, they discovered you.
Speaker 2: Okay, so they are younger because Dynasty was CW.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was mostly Netflix, which we.
Speaker 4: Got to join you on, Laura.
Speaker 3: Literally, don't make people watch it on CW. Seriously, two
Speaker 3: hundred and fifty thousand. Wow, I know right.
Speaker 1: Well, you said that's big Internationally it was big.
Speaker 4: I think it Soflix.
Speaker 3: On Netflix it would consistently be every time it dropped,
Speaker 3: it would be in the top ten for like a month.
Speaker 1: Crazy, that's so cool every time it dropped meaning a
Speaker 1: new season. Yeah, oh was it fun? Did it feel
Speaker 1: Melrose placy at all?
Speaker 3: Not at all?
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 3: Because no one watched it in America, so like we
Speaker 3: didn't get any of that. Like it was very It
Speaker 3: was an international show, but the.
Speaker 1: Drama, the sort of heightened drama, didn't have the same
Speaker 1: feels a.
Speaker 3: No, it's yeah and no, it had a very it
Speaker 3: was very different feel. We were we were self aware,
Speaker 3: whereas Meldoe's place was not. So we knew we were
Speaker 3: doing tongue in cheek in some comedy. We would do
Speaker 3: the exact storylines of the original show from our own perspective. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: I mean, like you know the story where it was
Speaker 3: kidnapped baby and it was taken up to the building
Speaker 3: and we're all on the roof of the building and
Speaker 3: then the baby the person who kidnapped the baby was crazy,
Speaker 3: threw the baby off the roof and it turns out
Speaker 3: it was a doll. We did the whole thing exactly
Speaker 3: like that. It was crazy standing on top of a
Speaker 3: roof in the middle of Atlanta in the middle of winter.
Speaker 3: It was freezing cold, so throwing dog it was a doll.
Speaker 3: It was a doll.
Speaker 2: Well, Graham, let's use that segue. What about our storylines?
Speaker 2: But were some of them one of the ones that
Speaker 2: stood out for you? For Melrose's place for Jake, Oh my,
Speaker 2: I don't remember that.
Speaker 3: You remember being in the middle of the ocean because
Speaker 3: my boat grew up?
Speaker 4: There was a boat. Yeah, there's a boat explosion. Yeah,
Speaker 4: the blew up.
Speaker 3: She had a lot of bad luck.
Speaker 1: On the show. Jake had romances with each of us.
Speaker 3: You were the first one, and of the people on
Speaker 3: the show other than Amy and if I'm not mistaken
Speaker 3: by the.
Speaker 1: Time I before I show, I was at the end.
Speaker 3: No, then we came back around to it. There was
Speaker 3: something in the beginning of the show, because I remember
Speaker 3: it was like, oh, I'm going back for seconds.
Speaker 4: Sloppy second.
Speaker 2: I believe me.
Speaker 4: Joe I was your life.
Speaker 3: That's right, it was.
Speaker 4: But then she came on.
Speaker 1: You guys were together.
Speaker 3: But she came on the season middle of season one, right.
Speaker 1: Listen together before Billy and.
Speaker 3: I don't think there was some flirtation catalyst. I think
Speaker 3: it might have been. There was some I don't remember exactly,
Speaker 3: but I know I.
Speaker 2: Can't wait to get to those episodes.
Speaker 3: That sounds right to me. It sounds to me like
Speaker 3: maybe there was some flirtation with you and I and
Speaker 3: that's what got Billy to come around, similar to his
Speaker 3: flirtation with what was her name in the episode two.
Speaker 2: That Marcy the taxi girl so furious about it. She
Speaker 2: was great, she was great the last episode.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: No, but Corney's running into her.
Speaker 1: I've run into a probably thirty times since the show,
Speaker 1: and remember each other from meloth I run under her everything.
Speaker 3: She was terrific.
Speaker 5: We're giving her all sorts of props and yes, Jensen
Speaker 5: Jensen Daggett.
Speaker 3: Okay, what a name.
Speaker 4: But we'll have to.
Speaker 5: I mean, I'm so glad we have the opportunity to
Speaker 5: rewatch all of our episodes so we can clarify these storylines,
Speaker 5: because obviously we all have questions. You have a recollection,
Speaker 5: like I think I was.
Speaker 1: With think Jake was with everybody in the apartment.
Speaker 2: Oh for sure at some point, for sure.
Speaker 1: Oh so sure it was in my contract.
Speaker 2: But by the way, we kept talking about Jake as
Speaker 2: a stand up guy. That's like Laura's favorite thing. He
Speaker 2: was a stand up guy, but he was a lay
Speaker 2: down guy. This guy just laid down.
Speaker 5: Well, but he would stick up for people in a way.
Speaker 5: That's like that was the thing right and wrong and
Speaker 5: I'm gonna yeah, like defending the lady and in the
Speaker 5: unemployment office, I.
Speaker 3: Remember that, you do. My daughter was watching with me
Speaker 3: when that scene came on, and she went, as soon
Speaker 3: as I pushed that cash, no, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 5: No no, doesn't want to see it, doesn't want to
Speaker 5: see it.
Speaker 4: I don't want to see a fight.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Oh my god.
Speaker 5: It's so funny to see things through the eyes of
Speaker 5: our children, because they do not feel comfortable watching this
Speaker 5: or like another version of us that they just don't
Speaker 5: want to.
Speaker 2: What about you bear chested and she's like, daddy, put
Speaker 2: some clothes on.
Speaker 3: She's daddy, you got a six pack?
Speaker 2: That is your daughter? Why do you think your shirt
Speaker 2: was off?
Speaker 4: Okay, we have a.
Speaker 2: Question because I don't remember seeing this, But did you
Speaker 2: ever work out or do those push ups that guys
Speaker 2: would do like before?
Speaker 3: No, we never did.
Speaker 4: That, worked with and they'll do push ups right before.
Speaker 1: Well no, because we had these genetically gifted guys like
Speaker 1: Grant and Andrew. You eat nine doughnuts and then go
Speaker 1: do a topless just so your body just doesn't make found.
Speaker 3: It still doesn't.
Speaker 1: I'm still oh you poor baby, Yeah, you poor, how
Speaker 1: you suffer.
Speaker 3: It is a little different, though, it is.
Speaker 4: Yeah, okay, all.
Speaker 5: Right, weren't Yeah, let me let me get.
Speaker 2: A violin because Grant six packs all these year thirty
Speaker 2: years later.
Speaker 4: It's a little bit different anyway.
Speaker 5: So okay, so you remember the boat blowing up and
Speaker 5: shooters like burns, something burned.
Speaker 2: Down the motorcycle motorcycle shop, yeahtorcycle shop.
Speaker 3: Yeah, maybe shooters stick stuck around. Maybe nothing happened to shooters.
Speaker 2: That was like the last thing I remember the motorcycle
Speaker 2: shop burned down to dineer somewhere.
Speaker 5: Did you take anything, did you keep anything? Do you
Speaker 5: have any like memorabilia, keep sakes, anything like clothes?
Speaker 3: I mean I had a basement full of you know,
Speaker 3: Melose place bags and melos place CDP players place hats
Speaker 3: in Melos place. You know that felt followed me around
Speaker 3: for decades. Yeah, right, I just had that kind of crap.
Speaker 3: And I didn't take anything of the set.
Speaker 5: I think my sister in law still has shooters glasses
Speaker 5: in her cabinet.
Speaker 3: That's cool.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she inherited those.
Speaker 3: See. I was fascinated by, like when I found out
Speaker 3: about all the art installation stuff that was stuck in there.
Speaker 3: Although yes, no idea they tricked us those people the
Speaker 3: only time they tricked us on that whole show.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the only time, the only time, what do you.
Speaker 3: Mean art installations? Installations was like I think was like.
Speaker 4: Political t shirts.
Speaker 5: But Mattah in the art department would just like slip
Speaker 5: down it.
Speaker 3: But it was but it was a whole big plan
Speaker 3: with the like they'd come to them and the producers
Speaker 3: were aware of it, and it was a whole.
Speaker 2: I feel like back then, I don't know about these
Speaker 2: nonprofits that you're talking about, but like, don't you remember
Speaker 2: a product placement was like a new thing and they
Speaker 2: just took everything because it was like free money, you know,
Speaker 2: Evyon Bottles and just product was like a thing back then,
Speaker 2: and then it got really into it and then.
Speaker 4: Before you know it, I remember like, hold.
Speaker 2: This Dunkin Donuts like this, So they can't.
Speaker 3: Do that on that show.
Speaker 4: No, no, we didn't do it. It was very limit somewhere.
Speaker 2: I remember Denise used to get like jewelry from all
Speaker 2: the new you know, jewelry makers and all the new
Speaker 2: designers would send us those clothes and all that.
Speaker 4: But do you.
Speaker 1: Guys remember that at about ten thirty every morning they'd
Speaker 1: bring out a tub of tuna fish? Oh yes, I
Speaker 1: remember that.
Speaker 5: That choice.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you came in late, and if you were
Speaker 1: in it when it came out, you sort of adjusted it.
Speaker 1: If you came in at like eleven, you.
Speaker 4: Who don'ty minutes?
Speaker 3: You all? I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't don't memory because that's not a.
Speaker 2: Last starving by then, but we're like, if you have
Speaker 2: a love scene, please, but the crew were starving you know.
Speaker 1: Just like remember Heather been Jack trying to eat the
Speaker 1: most disgusting thing before they're kissing.
Speaker 3: Have you seen Heather recently?
Speaker 4: Yes?
Speaker 3: You have?
Speaker 4: Yeah, Oh wow, we've been. We're going to see you
Speaker 4: in Florida. It'll be great.
Speaker 2: We're going to do just for those listening, we're going
Speaker 2: to be doing a nineties con in Daytona, Florida, September thirteenth, fourteenth,
Speaker 2: and fifteenth that weekend. I'll just pop that in.
Speaker 5: It's a little fun. So what do you remember about
Speaker 5: shooting that scene or just that shot of the refrigerator
Speaker 5: opening and the light coming out of there.
Speaker 3: I don't remember much. I was saying, like I know that,
Speaker 3: I don't remember if it was even in a scene.
Speaker 3: I don't remember if it was like let's shoot some
Speaker 3: stuff for the for the title sequence, or if that
Speaker 3: was pulled from a scene. I I just don't remember.
Speaker 4: We'll look for it.
Speaker 5: That's worth well, now it's unforgettable.
Speaker 2: Did they tell you that was going to be on
Speaker 2: every thing shot?
Speaker 3: It was like one of those they were constantly having
Speaker 3: to do that stuff. Like I remember standing over an
Speaker 3: air conditioning unit with the air.
Speaker 5: Blowing on and they had to put like probably a
Speaker 5: special light in the fridge for when you opened.
Speaker 1: It, like like the like yeah, watching the pilot episode
Speaker 1: and then later on Andrew opens a refrigerator door, I'm like, nice,
Speaker 1: nice everything.
Speaker 2: Ever it is Melrose places.
Speaker 1: We know they're throwing extra jackets on us, like you
Speaker 1: can wear a sheet. Hey, guys, take your shirt off.
Speaker 5: We were surprised to find that the guys were in
Speaker 5: a constant state of shirtlessness.
Speaker 3: Episode, Like, I do remember being shirtless a lot, but
Speaker 3: I don't remember being this shirt everyone.
Speaker 1: About at a certain point, at a certain point you
Speaker 1: said I'm not doing another scene in the shower. I
Speaker 1: remember you guys saying enough enough ready, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was just like better them than me, Like yeah,
Speaker 2: he could face that way.
Speaker 1: Aaron Spelling knew like he knew what the audience was
Speaker 1: and he and.
Speaker 4: I think the star probably something to do.
Speaker 1: No, but it was pretty clothes on the women, yeah
Speaker 1: for sure, and no hats on the men was kind
Speaker 1: of the note.
Speaker 3: It just made me think of something else. It shot
Speaker 3: a whole lot better than I remember it being shot too. Yes,
Speaker 3: I'm surprised. I was surprised at how well it was shot.
Speaker 3: It was film that's true, But I'm just talking about
Speaker 3: how the shots were set up. I remember being cran
Speaker 3: close ups like this, but it wasn't later.
Speaker 1: Well, this is the beginning, remember Later it was over
Speaker 1: to close up, over to close up. So in this
Speaker 1: second episode, do you remember the scene when you had
Speaker 1: your sunglasses on?
Speaker 3: Yep?
Speaker 1: Do you remember if that was your choice? Because you
Speaker 1: were thinking that was and then Aaron, no more sunglasses ever,
Speaker 1: I'm sure.
Speaker 3: I remember something about I don't remember who it was.
Speaker 3: You were a hat?
Speaker 2: Yeah, at gum because of the famous Barbis Dreisen's story
Speaker 2: of faking having gum. I'm like, I'm going to show
Speaker 2: them I'm really from New York. I'm going to be
Speaker 2: chewing gum and wearing a hat, I guess. And Aaron
Speaker 2: was like, whatever that is, get rid of it.
Speaker 4: We're reshooting.
Speaker 3: And then also we had a scene where we were
Speaker 3: shooting in the pool and there were extras there, and
Speaker 3: then that came back. No no, no, no no no, the
Speaker 3: only people at this pool.
Speaker 5: Well, we will be having you back. We are so
Speaker 5: glad that you flew out and come and sit on
Speaker 5: the couch and shot with us until next time.
Speaker 2: I'm still the place