Speaker 1: I grew up in a gaming family.
Speaker 2: Like everybody, it's board games, like all the time, board games,
Speaker 2: and it's one of those things that like can be
Speaker 2: exhausting to other people who have to get invited.
Speaker 1: To my house and have to play board games.
Speaker 2: And it's also sometimes a little exhausty for me because my
Speaker 2: parents like to buy brand new board games all the
Speaker 2: time and spring them on us, and they try and
Speaker 2: find things that are either like it's just hard to
Speaker 2: hit the sweet spot with a growing child because you're
Speaker 2: either getting a game that's too advanced and he doesn't
Speaker 2: want to play it, or it's way too simple and
Speaker 2: you're like Snakes and Ladders just sucks or shoots. It's
Speaker 2: just like these games, you know, like sometimes the candy
Speaker 2: Land is the dumbest, Life is the worst.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, I hate it.
Speaker 3: You a winner at the game anyway? Buy a dog?
Speaker 1: Is that the commercial?
Speaker 4: Really?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Get get married, maybe have babies. Yeah you don't.
Speaker 5: Oh my gosh, no, I don't think i've ever heard.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So my parents bought this game and they brought it
Speaker 2: or they bought it. They bought it at Christmas and
Speaker 2: we were gonna play it. And I was just like
Speaker 2: This is the dumbest thing ever, this game.
Speaker 1: How is this a game? This should not be a game?
Speaker 1: Ends up being the funnest game in.
Speaker 2: The World's gonna play it with you, guys. And here's
Speaker 2: why it's a dumb game. There's no losing in this game.
Speaker 2: There's no points there.
Speaker 3: So it's for the younger generation. Yes, trophies for everybody.
Speaker 3: It just showed up.
Speaker 1: All it is is quick, quick, quick, the whole thing.
Speaker 2: I set a timer and then if like, let's say
Speaker 2: it's Will's turn, I'm gonna set this timer. I think
Speaker 2: the timers for like thirty seconds, maybe a minute, okay,
Speaker 2: And then I pull out these cards and I have
Speaker 2: to ask you to name three things. Each card is
Speaker 2: named three things, so, oh, three things mice would be
Speaker 2: really good at. You have to name three things that
Speaker 2: mice would be really good.
Speaker 5: At, legitimately or no wrong.
Speaker 1: Answers, Okay.
Speaker 2: The only thing is to not have an answer and
Speaker 2: to take too long. So it's how many cards can
Speaker 2: you get through before the timer runs out?
Speaker 3: Odd?
Speaker 1: No wrong answers, Just don't stop talking.
Speaker 3: Wait, I'm going go, oh God. Three bad places to
Speaker 3: bring a fish the desert, the sky, and the.
Speaker 1: Forest, Three things you can say to a bank robber.
Speaker 3: A nice mask, Hey, don't put that gut in my face,
Speaker 3: and can I help you with that bag of money?
Speaker 1: Three silly reasons to throw a fit.
Speaker 3: Danielle is always late, riders, Internet is screwing up, and
Speaker 3: we all sound like we're recording out potatoes.
Speaker 1: Three places to wear cool sunglasses.
Speaker 3: Outside at the beach, on an airplane.
Speaker 1: Three pieces of advice for a con artist.
Speaker 3: Commit to the bit. Costumes will make it happen, and
Speaker 3: a fake nose will get you far. Three ways to
Speaker 3: defeat a clown in battle punching, stabbing, shooting. Three things
Speaker 3: that was great, dude, you did better than almost everybody
Speaker 3: in my family.
Speaker 5: Oh my gosh, that's so good.
Speaker 2: Five six, I think like we we max out around five.
Speaker 1: Would be amazing. All right, Danielle, you're ready, so good?
Speaker 5: Okay, okay, I'm ready. Also, I am not late.
Speaker 2: Don't think about it. Don't think about it. There's the
Speaker 2: only wrong answer is not answered. Three new ways to
Speaker 2: pronounce your name.
Speaker 5: Donielle, Fichelle, doniel Fichelle, and Danny Fish.
Speaker 1: Three things that make a party lame.
Speaker 5: People drinks and snacks terrible.
Speaker 1: Three terrible materials to make a boat out of, uh.
Speaker 5: Cotton, linen, and DVDs. Three reasons a dog might bark squirrels,
Speaker 5: firecrackers and guns.
Speaker 1: Three things you would not want to be locked in
Speaker 1: a room.
Speaker 5: With spiders, Wilfred l and and cats.
Speaker 2: Physical three physical traits an alien could have ears, long fingers,
Speaker 2: and green slime. Three ways to impress a movie star.
Speaker 5: Fancy, Oh my god.
Speaker 1: I think you beat Will?
Speaker 3: What? Two?
Speaker 1: Three, four? Tied at six?
Speaker 2: Isn't it funny that the second you try and get clever,
Speaker 2: like the second you're Wilfred Ellen.
Speaker 5: I couldn't pick up with anything else after?
Speaker 2: It was so funny is that you said three things
Speaker 2: a dog might bark at and those three could have
Speaker 2: been the next one because the next one was what
Speaker 2: you don't want to be locked in a room with.
Speaker 1: I was like just say the same thing because like squirrels.
Speaker 3: Wow, So who won? When you guys are playing?
Speaker 2: I usually did, or mere Indy, because like it's it's
Speaker 2: about your ability to just like turn your brain off
Speaker 2: and to just talk, which guess what kids can do
Speaker 2: really well?
Speaker 1: And like, yeah, you guys are amazing.
Speaker 2: I knew it was gonna be because you play like
Speaker 2: when you play with my parents and they literally get
Speaker 2: through like three cards because it's just like they're they're
Speaker 2: trying to be clever or they're just trying to think
Speaker 2: of the right answer, and it's like the whole game
Speaker 2: is just how do we turn your brain off and
Speaker 2: try and get through this as quickly as possible, And
Speaker 2: then you get really upset with a person takes too
Speaker 2: long to read the card.
Speaker 1: And then the real problem is.
Speaker 2: Like people get caught up on one answer for everything,
Speaker 2: so they'll be like, put it up your butt and
Speaker 2: then like that, you know, then everybody realizes that that's like
Speaker 2: so funny that they're just gonna say that for everything,
Speaker 2: three things you can do with the light bulb, and
Speaker 2: then then you get caught You're like that's I can't
Speaker 2: just keep doing that.
Speaker 3: So it's quite quick. Yeah, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick,
Speaker 3: dumbest game ever.
Speaker 1: I love it so much.
Speaker 2: It's the greatest party game. It's like just how much
Speaker 2: can you turn your brain off and just go with it?
Speaker 1: And like it's.
Speaker 3: Genuinely hard for me, Like William amazing at this game.
Speaker 1: Amazing his weight.
Speaker 2: Would have been like yeah, but it's also it goes
Speaker 2: through a curve like it starts off. Everybody's pretty slow.
Speaker 2: You guys started off really fast. Usually people start off
Speaker 2: only able to get like three or four. Then they
Speaker 2: get good up to like five ish, and then you
Speaker 2: start overthinking it and go back to like two because
Speaker 2: in your brain's like, well now I've I've run out.
Speaker 1: It's so fun to play.
Speaker 4: That's funny.
Speaker 5: That is good. I know there were a couple of
Speaker 5: times that like I would say something like when I
Speaker 5: said green slime. Then as you were reading the next question,
Speaker 5: I thought was that's not an that's not a bit,
Speaker 5: that's not a like, And then I was like.
Speaker 1: Just keep going talking.
Speaker 3: By the way, yes you're not late uh normally, which
Speaker 3: is good. But also being locked in a room with
Speaker 3: me would be awesome.
Speaker 5: I know that is true. I just wanted to get
Speaker 5: back at your kind and.
Speaker 1: That's why I keep it. It's a little bit because
Speaker 1: you're thinking about it.
Speaker 5: It's like, how do I what I'm gonna say something
Speaker 5: mean about you say something? Say something mean me, I.
Speaker 1: Say something mean fatty mcfatty fast.
Speaker 5: Yeah, in a room with you, even though we spend
Speaker 5: time together all the time. Well, that was really fun. Writer,
Speaker 5: I enjoyed that game. Thank you for sharing it with us. Quick, quick, quick,
Speaker 5: We'll do it again. Welcome to bod meets World.
Speaker 3: I'm Daniel Fisher, I'm Braderstrom, and I'm Wilford Dell, Ron
Speaker 3: Stoppable Eric Matthews.
Speaker 1: Left.
Speaker 5: For the past three years we have participated in what
Speaker 5: we originally called a rewatch podcast, but have only recently
Speaker 5: found out it is technically public trauma counseling. We have laughed,
Speaker 5: we have cried, we've suppressed, we've disassociated, but above all else,
Speaker 5: we've grown. And this week's guests new book, I Choose Me,
Speaker 5: Chasing Joy, finding purpose, and embracing reinvention might just be
Speaker 5: the spiritual literature needed for this journey. She found fame
Speaker 5: in nineteen ninety when she was cast as Kelly Taylor,
Speaker 5: the iconic, perfect on the surface, complicated underneath high schooler
Speaker 5: on Beverly Hills nine two one oh, a cultural phenomenon
Speaker 5: that not only pushed Fox from Laughingstock to Powerhouse Network,
Speaker 5: but sent everyone on the show into an orbit beyond fame.
Speaker 5: She spent ten years at Beverly High, facing drug addiction, pregnancy,
Speaker 5: and amnesia, all while spending weekends at the peach Pit
Speaker 5: and helping launch spinoffs like Melrose Place and Models Inc.
Speaker 1: Wait.
Speaker 3: They were in high school for ten years, they went
Speaker 3: to college, they went to Occidenta was the location for
Speaker 3: their Cold Day, Okay.
Speaker 5: Get Yeah, then rebooting it all to revisit the character
Speaker 5: in two thousand and eight for the self Aware spinoff
Speaker 5: nine O two one OH. She'd later co star with
Speaker 5: Amanda Bynes on the sitcom What I Like About You
Speaker 5: and Make It all the way to the semifinals with
Speaker 5: partner Derek Huff on season five of Dancing with the Stars. Plus,
Speaker 5: she's a fellow podcaster with I Choose Me and her
Speaker 5: own rewatch endeavor nine O two one MG, both here
Speaker 5: at iHeart, and she's an entrepreneur with her own lifestyle
Speaker 5: and clothing line sold exclusively on QVC and Yes. Her
Speaker 5: newest memoir, slash Self Help Manifesto, invites the reader into
Speaker 5: her real story of growing up on TV and facing
Speaker 5: Hollywood's impossible beauty standards, all while facing loss, heartbreak, and
Speaker 5: the challenge of motherhood. She's seen it all, and now
Speaker 5: in her fifties, she's aging with confidence and just learning
Speaker 5: to put herself first. Sounds familiar right well, let's commiserate
Speaker 5: now with our guest this week, a TV legend, Jenny Garth. Hello, writer, Hi,
Speaker 5: good to see you. Thank you so much for coming
Speaker 5: on our podcast. Our conversations you and I are usually
Speaker 5: confined to me telling you how cute your code is.
Speaker 5: At an iHeart party. That's usually the extent of conversation.
Speaker 5: It's a passing. I'm like, you're so cute. So we
Speaker 5: wanted to start by talking about your book, I Choose
Speaker 5: Me Chasing Joy, finding purpose, and embracing reinvention. What was
Speaker 5: it about turning fifty that made you want to look
Speaker 5: back on your journey with a new perspective.
Speaker 4: Well, I don't know if I wanted to. I kind
Speaker 4: of like forced you. Funny, you kind of reach an
Speaker 4: age where you got to make.
Speaker 6: Assessments and figure things out. You got to look back
Speaker 6: and you got to think what do I want next?
Speaker 6: You know, I mean we can't otherwise just I was
Speaker 6: just in a place of like wandering around lost with
Speaker 6: really no direction and no kind of like passion for much.
Speaker 6: I was just really searching. So at fifty I kind
Speaker 6: of thought, you know, I have from fifty to sixty,
Speaker 6: like like, let's see what I can do.
Speaker 4: Yeah, let's like dig in find all the.
Speaker 6: Places of things that I've always wanted to do but
Speaker 6: never pushed myself or never you know, really was brave
Speaker 6: enough to try. And so that's kind of of what
Speaker 6: was the catalyst for doing the Exchoose Me podcast, doing
Speaker 6: the clothing brand, and then the book and the Women's Summit,
Speaker 6: Like it's all sort of like under this this beautiful
Speaker 6: umbrella of choosing yourself, and I'm you know, just loving
Speaker 6: that everything's kind of connected back to the one thing
Speaker 6: that feels aligned for me and feels purpose driven and
Speaker 6: feels like I'm making a difference in people's lives, maybe
Speaker 6: one by two or one by one or whatever it is,
Speaker 6: but like it feels more more intentional than just like
Speaker 6: waiting for my manager to call me and say, hey,
Speaker 6: there's an audition you could put yourself on tape for, right, right.
Speaker 2: So yeah, no, I feel like that's the acting curse, right,
Speaker 2: especially when you're a young actor. It's like you just
Speaker 2: get into the habit of waiting for that opportunity to
Speaker 2: come and then maybe you'll get the part, or maybe
Speaker 2: you won't. Then Yeah, I feel like in some ways,
Speaker 2: maybe we were all a little slower to learn to
Speaker 2: take care of ourselves in the regard of like go
Speaker 2: get your own, create your own opportunities.
Speaker 4: You know, do you think did you guys feel that,
Speaker 4: Because I've talked about that before.
Speaker 6: I felt like I had a ten year bubble of
Speaker 6: my life of like my personal development, my like choosing.
Speaker 4: What I wanted to do in life gone.
Speaker 6: I feel like I'm ten years behind people that went
Speaker 6: to the normal route and went to college and like
Speaker 6: rapped themselves out.
Speaker 2: But then in other ways we were more mature, right
Speaker 2: because we were like working full time and in working
Speaker 2: with adults who are older than it.
Speaker 1: So it's like it's this weird paradig or contradiction. You know.
Speaker 6: It was like you here, you have three house payments,
Speaker 6: right and four employees, but you don't know how.
Speaker 3: You're really much Yeah, all right.
Speaker 5: I think doing this podcast, an unexpected result for us
Speaker 5: has been the realization that we have all apparently blocked
Speaker 5: some things out. So when you were looking back on
Speaker 5: your life, is that something you noticed you had also experienced?
Speaker 4: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 6: I mean there's childhood stuff that I blocked out that
Speaker 6: you know, you don't really you don't really want to
Speaker 6: go that far back and that deep. But I really
Speaker 6: believe that you have to just kind of reveal all
Speaker 6: your secrets or at least to yourself, and then be
Speaker 6: selective about things.
Speaker 4: That you want to move forward in the conversation. But
Speaker 4: I found that.
Speaker 6: I, you know, I had this memory issue too, So
Speaker 6: I always thought like I was heading for some early
Speaker 6: diagnosis or something because I have a very bad brain,
Speaker 6: like my memory. So it was something that I was
Speaker 6: curious about before I even started writing the book, like
Speaker 6: why is my brain like this? And why can't I
Speaker 6: remember huge chunks of my life?
Speaker 4: I experienced that to have a picture.
Speaker 6: If I see a picture, I'm like, oh, that's I
Speaker 6: kind of see that moment that that photo was taken in,
Speaker 6: but I don't really have anything around it. So always
Speaker 6: just really curious about, like why my brain is dialed
Speaker 6: in that way?
Speaker 3: Ye Were you always that, I mean even when we
Speaker 3: were you know, when you were younger, Did you have
Speaker 3: trouble remembering you know, earlier in your life or was
Speaker 3: this something that was happening more later.
Speaker 4: I don't remember, will I think I didn't. I think
Speaker 4: I was. When I was.
Speaker 6: Closer to it, it was fresher, But then just I've
Speaker 6: got so like lightning speed on every front in my
Speaker 6: world that I think, you know, I always say I
Speaker 6: don't have enough gigabytes for that, Like I just feel
Speaker 6: like it's really crowded in there with that that I
Speaker 6: don't need to remember and things that I do need
Speaker 6: to remember, like what time my interview is with you guys.
Speaker 5: Too, Right, Yeah, totally totally understand. You're just coming off
Speaker 5: of the I Choose Me tour with a big blowout
Speaker 5: in Los Angeles, a second annual live women's empowerment event,
Speaker 5: and just some of the guests who were there, Naomi Watts,
Speaker 5: Amanda Klutes, Sarah Shahi, Valshchmurkowsky who heard that women were
Speaker 5: going to be there and showed up. This was a
Speaker 5: massive undertaking. How did it go and did you have
Speaker 5: a nervous breakdown?
Speaker 4: I think it was amazing. Last year we did it.
Speaker 6: We had an incredible slew of guests last year, one
Speaker 6: of them being Nest Naomi Watts, and then this year
Speaker 6: we had Bozema, Saint John all the way to Valschmarkowsky,
Speaker 6: Tyler Merritt, just some really and then of course my
Speaker 6: beautiful friend doctor Daniel Aman who's the neuroscientist about brain health.
Speaker 6: He came and just really kind of dropped the mic
Speaker 6: and gave everybody in the room some really serious things
Speaker 6: to start thinking about as far as longevity and taking
Speaker 6: care of our brain. So I loved having him there.
Speaker 4: But it is this.
Speaker 6: Weird like I build for it all year and then
Speaker 6: all of a sudden, it's a week away and everybody's
Speaker 6: panicking and we don't have the cups and where's the backdrop,
Speaker 6: and who's gonna be clout? Like it's a it's all
Speaker 6: hands on deck for a good solid two weeks probably,
Speaker 6: But it went off without a hitch, incredible, Like I
Speaker 6: heart helps me produce it on the ground, so it
Speaker 6: goes off like you know, jingle ball or some like miraculous.
Speaker 6: I don't know what happens, but and I feel like
Speaker 6: the women in the room, it was a very like
Speaker 6: we all felt like we were absorbing good things, positive messages.
Speaker 6: And I feel like everybody who was there was there
Speaker 6: till the last minute, like listening and just taking it
Speaker 6: in and enjoying that. The camaraderie between the women, everybody
Speaker 6: kind of like minded looking for something what's next or
Speaker 6: how do I you know, prioritize myself. So it's just
Speaker 6: a great day of really important messages and people sharing
Speaker 6: their stories. Like you, you know, when we share our stories.
Speaker 6: I've certainly found like when I share my story, whether
Speaker 6: it was talking about the book or things in the
Speaker 6: book or whatever, I've always been very sharing, well not
Speaker 6: always but recently. But that's the thing. When we share
Speaker 6: our stories, we kind of have that moment of like, oh,
Speaker 6: I'm I'm That's how I'm dealing too, and now I'm
Speaker 6: like a little less alone. Maybe I should talk a
Speaker 6: little bit more openly about it. So it really it's
Speaker 6: just about my goal with doing the whole thing. I
Speaker 6: don't need to make one single dollar. I just like
Speaker 6: helping people. And that's the event that I feel like
Speaker 6: it has a lot of impact because we're together in
Speaker 6: the room and it's all like planned for that for
Speaker 6: you to leave with something tangible that you can take
Speaker 6: into your life.
Speaker 5: Is there anything you can share with us from your
Speaker 5: doctor friend? What's one brain health song we should be doing?
Speaker 6: But well, doctor and doctor Daniel Aman really did change
Speaker 6: how I thought of my brain health. I didn't think
Speaker 6: of my brain health before I saw him. I thought
Speaker 6: that I had a damaged brain. I thought, you know,
Speaker 6: maybe I'm going slipping into some unwonted territory with my brain.
Speaker 6: And he was able to do a spec scan and
Speaker 6: look at my actual brain organ and from there, you know,
Speaker 6: I've I've struggled with depression and anxiety my whole life
Speaker 6: since I was a teenager, and been on medications and
Speaker 6: on and off them, on and off them, and never
Speaker 6: you know, really struggling to find the right cocktail, if
Speaker 6: you will. And he was like, why would you why
Speaker 6: would a psychiatrists just give medication to a brain without
Speaker 6: looking at it, Like if you are going to the
Speaker 6: heart doctor and you you know, they need to look
Speaker 6: at your brain, give you an ultrasound and see where
Speaker 6: you're clogged in order to know how to proceed taking
Speaker 6: care of it. So that's kind of his whole passion
Speaker 6: about the brain is actually looking at it on a
Speaker 6: spec scan and he can see like areas of the
Speaker 6: brain of that are more active and less active. So
Speaker 6: there's incredible activity over here, which is kind of sucking
Speaker 6: all the activity from over here.
Speaker 4: And that is where we.
Speaker 6: Find a lot of imbalances as far as how to
Speaker 6: emotionally regulate, how to handle like if you're an introvert,
Speaker 6: how to handle situations where it's required for you to
Speaker 6: be an extrovert, Stress, anxiety, all those things, especially when
Speaker 6: you are sort of thrust into the to the spotlight.
Speaker 6: And I can only speak from my situation put you know,
Speaker 6: from the farm to like being that kind of globally famous,
Speaker 6: it has a very strong effect on certain synapses in
Speaker 6: your brain. I never would have thought about this like
Speaker 6: he has. He studied the brains of Justin Bieber and
Speaker 6: Miley Cyrus, like the biggest superstars on the planet, and
Speaker 6: can see significant areas that are overactive and significant areas
Speaker 6: that are underactive, and it explains so much about the
Speaker 6: things they are struggling with in their lives. So his
Speaker 6: work is really fascinating and I've learned a lot, but
Speaker 6: like one of the most important things I learned straight
Speaker 6: away was you have He's told me you have a
Speaker 6: beautiful brain.
Speaker 4: I was like, OK, you have two concussions. I can
Speaker 4: see two dense from let's figure out where those came from.
Speaker 6: So we were able to kind of like pinpoint things
Speaker 6: in my life. And then he said, and the best
Speaker 6: part is you can improve your brain health, like it's
Speaker 6: not This isn't just one way ticket to you're going
Speaker 6: to be slobbering in the corner. You can actually be
Speaker 6: super proactive about taking care of your brain.
Speaker 4: So all of that stuff.
Speaker 6: He's got great books too that are just like easy
Speaker 6: to understand, which was shocking.
Speaker 3: About saying taking care of your brain? Is it something?
Speaker 3: Is it more cognitive stuff like it it's exercises you do,
Speaker 3: or is it medication?
Speaker 6: Well both, it can be both. He likes to start
Speaker 6: with supplementation before he goes onto medication. For some people
Speaker 6: just need medicine. I happen to be one of those people,
Speaker 6: So I bu combo of supplements and medications, and it's
Speaker 6: just about keeping that balance, you know, and maybe you know,
Speaker 6: making sure you're regularly checking in on how your medication
Speaker 6: is working for you because things change, you know. But
Speaker 6: also just like moving your body is the number one
Speaker 6: thing you can do from a brain. I mean, you
Speaker 6: think we're all starting to get these messages now, so
Speaker 6: it's not talking, but like just going on a walk
Speaker 6: every day is not only good for how you feel
Speaker 6: and your physical being, but it's also good for your
Speaker 6: brain health. You know. He talks a lot about no alcohol.
Speaker 6: I stopped drinking because it's that important to me. And
Speaker 6: there's you know, other things that he talks about that
Speaker 6: you can do as well. Supplementation was a great place
Speaker 6: to start as well.
Speaker 3: Now, the pictures that you had taken of your brain,
Speaker 3: is it like a regular MRI machine where you have
Speaker 3: to go into the tunnel of doom.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's a little bit of a different tunnel of doom.
Speaker 6: Yeah. I don't know what it is, but it's it
Speaker 6: is kind of like that. It's quicker than an MRI, okay,
Speaker 6: and it's not noisy.
Speaker 4: It's much easier.
Speaker 6: And that's the really bad part about it is spec
Speaker 6: scans aren't covered under insurance. Of course, if you you know,
Speaker 6: if you're really struggling with addiction or with depression anxiety,
Speaker 6: memory issues, which I was. It was memory issues and
Speaker 6: that depression anxiety I was trying to figure out. When
Speaker 6: I went to him, it was worth it to me
Speaker 6: to have some answers that I could build upon to
Speaker 6: like figure things out moving forward.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've done that. I've done the scans the MRI,
Speaker 3: and it's like my doctor's like, now you just have
Speaker 3: to You're fine unless you deal with you know, in
Speaker 3: closed spaces or rhythmic banging, and I'm like, those are
Speaker 3: two of my triggers. So this, yeah, that's gonna be great.
Speaker 3: So okay, gotcha.
Speaker 5: Yeah, do you have a dream guest for an I
Speaker 5: choose me event?
Speaker 4: An event I've Actually I just saw Tiffany Hattish on
Speaker 4: What's the show where they take them out into the
Speaker 4: wilderness with.
Speaker 5: Bear oh good guy, air grills.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I just saw her.
Speaker 6: Doing that on my TV last night, and I just
Speaker 6: loved her attitude and I love the way she's like
Speaker 6: it seems like she parents herself, like she knows how
Speaker 6: to really take care of like her little self inside
Speaker 6: of her. And I'm her very inspirational. I would love
Speaker 6: to have her on.
Speaker 5: Okay, good, Well, let's get into your origin story a
Speaker 5: little bit. You grew up on a horse ranch with
Speaker 5: seven siblings. Were you guys filming little House on the prairie.
Speaker 6: No, it was only me and three of my sisters
Speaker 6: that lived on the farm.
Speaker 4: You know, everybody would come over on fourth of July and.
Speaker 5: Right, okay, but only four of you lived there all
Speaker 5: the time.
Speaker 6: Okay, my four half sisters and then my others are
Speaker 6: also half sisters, and brothers. So it's kind of like
Speaker 6: his hers and mine family, and I'm the mine, so
Speaker 6: I'm like Oliver. I kind of like to call my Oliver.
Speaker 6: I really like that at all from the Brady Bunch.
Speaker 6: But yeah, it was like we garden, We grew our
Speaker 6: own vegetables, and my my toys were animals, you know.
Speaker 4: My friends were My best friends were my horse and
Speaker 4: my dirt bike.
Speaker 6: So it's a pretty idyllic way to grow up in
Speaker 6: the middle of like cornfields in the Midwest. Yeah, I
Speaker 6: wish I could go back to it, quite honestly, I.
Speaker 5: Mean, yeah, yeah, I bet. And eventually in Arizona, you
Speaker 5: were discovered by a Hollywood scout, which is how most
Speaker 5: people are scammed. To be honest in your case, though
Speaker 5: this is actually real. How did your parents react when
Speaker 5: this guy said that you should be in la because
Speaker 5: you look like you should be a star.
Speaker 6: Well, he was actually doing a favor for a friend
Speaker 6: of his. He was filling in as a judge at
Speaker 6: this tiny little pageant, which I had gotten coerced into
Speaker 6: doing by my mom to try to get a scholarship
Speaker 6: for to go to school to become a dance teacher.
Speaker 6: So when I thought I was too, and this guy
Speaker 6: was there and he looked very fancy, but he also
Speaker 6: had his wife with him, which kind of give him
Speaker 6: give him a little more.
Speaker 4: Credit, I thought, exactly, credibility of a creep.
Speaker 6: Yeah, And he was coming off b the head of
Speaker 6: casting for ABC, and he had just moved to LA
Speaker 6: to open up his own management firm. And he said,
Speaker 6: you know, read this scene. Here's some sides. Let's meet
Speaker 6: over the buffet breakfast tomorrow and you can read these
Speaker 6: with my wife. And from there they said, yeah, there's
Speaker 6: something about you. We think you should look into it,
Speaker 6: like you should start studying acting or doing it in
Speaker 6: school or something. So I started taking acting lessons and
Speaker 6: mailing him the VHS.
Speaker 4: Tapes that we look forward.
Speaker 6: He would get them and then he would watch them,
Speaker 6: and then he would send back his notes. So it
Speaker 6: was a lot of process of that until he thought, well,
Speaker 6: I think, you know, why don't you come out for
Speaker 6: this pilot season.
Speaker 4: Give it a try.
Speaker 6: So my mom and I drove out from Arizona to
Speaker 6: LA and got a little apartment and got our Thomas
Speaker 6: Guide out and found our audition points.
Speaker 4: Every day.
Speaker 6: That was that, you know, I just kind of really
Speaker 6: interestingly rolled right into it.
Speaker 3: Are you were you a regular apartment kid or were
Speaker 3: you a Oakwood apartment kid?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 6: No, I never stayed at Oakwood. My kids went to
Speaker 6: Oakwood School, which is a whole nother situation, but oak
Speaker 6: Wood apartments. No, I had, like I think it was
Speaker 6: on Cold Cold Water Canyon right by the A M
Speaker 6: p M.
Speaker 4: There.
Speaker 5: Yes, So when do you have the nine O two
Speaker 5: one O audition? Where does that fall in your journey
Speaker 5: to La Gosh?
Speaker 6: I want to say not that long after I think
Speaker 6: I got I got. My first job was on a
Speaker 6: Disney movie called Teen Angel, which also starts uh huh
Speaker 6: that's where we first met. And then I did an
Speaker 6: episode of Growing Pains rahap one line, three words, one line,
Speaker 6: and then I did I got to star as Barbara
Speaker 6: Eden's daughter in a short lived show that she did
Speaker 6: with Don Murray. And I mean, yeah, so I was
Speaker 6: just like every day at work, just jaw on the
Speaker 6: floor watching these professionals work and how they, you know,
Speaker 6: handled the set and the crew. And I learned so much,
Speaker 6: like from the real pros of the industry.
Speaker 4: On that show.
Speaker 6: And then nine on two and okame like it just
Speaker 6: there was a it was pilot season and I had
Speaker 6: the opportunity to audition for one show and then another show.
Speaker 4: Had to pick one though.
Speaker 6: One was Kenny Ortega, something about dancing in a school.
Speaker 4: I don't know. It wasn't high.
Speaker 6: School music, like high school mus school. And then the
Speaker 6: other one was a teen drama set in Beverly Hills
Speaker 6: and it was produced by Aaron Spelling, and I thought, well,
Speaker 6: I always loved Aaron Spelling shows. I would love to
Speaker 6: get in front of him. That would be amazing, just
Speaker 6: because he's looking it be so cool, and so I
Speaker 6: opted to do that one.
Speaker 3: But way, you wanted to be a dancer, and it
Speaker 3: was Kenny or Tega.
Speaker 4: I know.
Speaker 6: That was the hardest part of it. I realized though,
Speaker 6: at my at my in my pageant moment when I
Speaker 6: met Andy, my manager.
Speaker 4: Who's still to my manager to this day.
Speaker 6: By the way, Wow wow wow, Yeah, we've been together
Speaker 6: for forty years.
Speaker 4: I realized I wasn't a very good dancer. So didn't
Speaker 4: take the crown on that one.
Speaker 5: So funny, and yet you wanted to be a dance teacher.
Speaker 3: That's what you know.
Speaker 5: If you can't do it, Yeah, exactly, Wow, I mean
Speaker 5: so much of Beverly Hills nine two one zero was
Speaker 5: this chic, gorgeous cast, possibly the best looking cast ever assembled.
Speaker 5: And in your book you talk at length about the
Speaker 5: public scrutiny you faced about your public appearance and the
Speaker 5: constant comparisons made between all of you. We have talked
Speaker 5: a lot about this on our podcast, especially about the
Speaker 5: nineties in Body Image. How do you reconcile all of
Speaker 5: that now? How do you look back on it?
Speaker 6: I look back on it like who the hell is
Speaker 6: protecting us? Like, yeah, you know, there was nobody was
Speaker 6: having conversations around how to protect the young people that
Speaker 6: were working in the industry from from.
Speaker 4: Those kinds of you know, like just minefields.
Speaker 6: You know, it was some constant minefield, and there was
Speaker 6: the sets were so loose and like everything goes, whatever
Speaker 6: happens happens, and nobody complains about anything. If you complain,
Speaker 6: you're uptight or say something you're up you know, so like, yes,
Speaker 6: you just learned to swim, you know, in in infested waters,
Speaker 6: and that's what I that's what I look back on.
Speaker 6: That time also very fun. I had a lot of fun.
Speaker 4: It was really crazy and like go, you know, going.
Speaker 6: To appearances, and being mobbed and like, what why do
Speaker 6: these people want to get at me?
Speaker 4: Like, I get it.
Speaker 6: They liked the show, but I didn't really understand it
Speaker 6: until I started doing the OMG recap show. We do
Speaker 6: a podcast for that, and I had to watch the
Speaker 6: show from the very first episode to where we're still
Speaker 6: in that show.
Speaker 4: By the way, we're in season eight. Mek it up.
Speaker 6: But now, like, what a show I ask a viewer.
Speaker 6: Now I'm a super fan, and of course I want
Speaker 6: to watch it every week. I want to know what's
Speaker 6: going to happen to these characters that I've now spent
Speaker 6: eight years growing up with. So I get it, and
Speaker 6: now it makes so much more sense. But being in
Speaker 6: it was a completely different story.
Speaker 3: Yeah right, Well, I mean I remember growing up watching
Speaker 3: that show and starting at the beginning, and it was
Speaker 3: distinctly a soap opera for me, Like, you know, that's
Speaker 3: that's what it came off as. Is it came off
Speaker 3: as like, first of all, it's set in this mythical
Speaker 3: land of Beverly Hills, and as a kid from Connecticut,
Speaker 3: it was like, oh my god, this is the greatest
Speaker 3: thing in the world. And then of course everybody's stunning,
Speaker 3: the Porsche and all that. It was just it was,
Speaker 3: it was. It was lolla.
Speaker 1: It was crazy.
Speaker 6: Nobody had seen what Beverly Hills looked like at that time.
Speaker 6: You didn't live in Beverly Hills and weren't bread and
Speaker 6: grown grown up, but the world wanted to know what
Speaker 6: it looked like. And that was one of the biggest
Speaker 6: the greatest parts of that show was just opening up.
Speaker 6: I mean, it made that zip code famous, but you
Speaker 6: know that all proceeded as like social media happened.
Speaker 4: Now I look famous, but that one just.
Speaker 6: Really what people attached to their their hearts, their childhoods,
Speaker 6: their teenage years, their years had such an impact and
Speaker 6: I get it now, Like I love the show. I
Speaker 6: always loved the show and I love on.
Speaker 3: It, but sure, but it did it made it made
Speaker 3: all other high schools suck because you were You're like
Speaker 3: sitting like, man, my high school is not like nine
Speaker 3: o two and oh at all, Like what the hell?
Speaker 6: No?
Speaker 3: But yeah, it was. It was. It was literally a
Speaker 3: cultural phenomenon. I mean it was also I remember it
Speaker 3: was was a merch machine. I mean I had friends
Speaker 3: that had like the girls had nine sheets and it
Speaker 3: was like everywhere was everywhere.
Speaker 4: It was everywhere. We Yeah, that's.
Speaker 6: Unfortunate for the cast because that was before we had
Speaker 6: to participate in any kind of benefits from that. So
Speaker 6: if you're sleeping on my face right now, Orne's face
Speaker 6: on your pillowcase, and yeah, we didn't get anything from
Speaker 6: that stun, it was still worth it. You know, there
Speaker 6: was a lot of systems that weren't in place in
Speaker 6: the early nineties as far as episodic residuals. All that
Speaker 6: stuff wasn't happening yet, so we we learned after the math.
Speaker 2: Yeah, did you enjoy it as an actor? I mean,
Speaker 2: were you excited? Because I mean I remember looking at
Speaker 2: that show and going, oh, these guys get to do
Speaker 2: some really meaty, dramatic fun stuff. Yeah, you get to act.
Speaker 1: I mean we were on a comedy show.
Speaker 2: You know, there's we also got opportunities because our show
Speaker 2: was was better than a lot of others. But I mean,
Speaker 2: I always wanted to be on a nine O two
Speaker 2: one oh style show. So were you enjoying?
Speaker 4: Yeah, you love. I didn't know.
Speaker 6: I had never met a girl from Beverly Hills except Tory.
Speaker 6: I had never been like I went to Beverly Hills
Speaker 6: once as a tourist.
Speaker 4: I never drove a.
Speaker 6: BMW, like I had no idea about this world that
Speaker 6: I was all of a sudden portraying. And then you know,
Speaker 6: as it went on, I think the writers got to
Speaker 6: know where sort of like my abilities, what was my path,
Speaker 6: what was my lane? And they really wrote to that,
Speaker 6: so I ended up getting When I was a little girl,
Speaker 6: I was called Puddles. That was my nickname. I cried
Speaker 6: a lot, like I'm gonna talk about it in my book.
Speaker 6: I say, you know, I talk a lot about women
Speaker 6: expressing their emotions and not losing their voices. And I say,
Speaker 6: when I was younger, my nickname was Puddles, and people
Speaker 6: would make fun of me for my emotions. As I
Speaker 6: got older, I heard, oh, you know, your emotions are
Speaker 6: too much, or like you know, just peoples of saying
Speaker 6: you're too emotional. And then now I've turned it into
Speaker 6: I'm emotion full and I consider it what greatest superpowers.
Speaker 6: So going to the show that like deep well of emotions,
Speaker 6: that I was always ready right there, always like wore
Speaker 6: my emotions on my sleeve. Really I was able to
Speaker 6: showcase like all my dramatic acting moments so they ended
Speaker 6: up putting Kelly all those dramatic moments. I mean it
Speaker 6: got spread out as the show went on, but like
Speaker 6: she was shot and burned and stocked, and I can't
Speaker 6: even remember all the things, like so many things. Every
Speaker 6: episode felt like an after school special was really getting
Speaker 6: you know, something bad happened, happening to her. So I
Speaker 6: actually loved it though, because I had never gone to
Speaker 6: you know, acting school or or like, you know, I
Speaker 6: wasn't trained. I was just a person there showing up,
Speaker 6: getting the script and thinking if I was this character,
Speaker 6: how would I portray her, how would it come out
Speaker 6: of me? How would it feel?
Speaker 4: And I love that feeling.
Speaker 6: I think I loved it most because I got to
Speaker 6: step out of my like confus losing shoes of my
Speaker 6: personal person and into this make believe world where I
Speaker 6: knew at the end of the scene somebody would call
Speaker 6: it cut and I wouldn't have to feel those things anymore.
Speaker 6: And so that became a beautiful like way to disassociate
Speaker 6: from reality. But at the same time, as an actress,
Speaker 6: it was so meaty all the time. I loved it.
Speaker 5: It's so crazy. I remember kind of like a big
Speaker 5: joke about the show. Maybe the SNL hook was that
Speaker 5: the majority of the cast was too old to actually
Speaker 5: be in high school. Was that a joke you guys
Speaker 5: also made behind the scenes. Was that something you guys
Speaker 5: were talking about the minute the show skyrocketed.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well actually it was hidden.
Speaker 6: Like the people that were older on the cast didn't
Speaker 6: joke about it, and.
Speaker 5: You don't want to didn't want to talk about it.
Speaker 6: They didn't want to lose their jobs, have any reason
Speaker 6: for the producers to look at them and say, oh,
Speaker 6: she does look older, Like, for instance, Gabrielle Carteris was.
Speaker 4: Older. She was probably older than all of us.
Speaker 6: For sure, Ian was older than all of us, older
Speaker 6: than his character Jason was older than his character Gabrielle.
Speaker 3: Though, became like when that came out and quote unquote
Speaker 3: came out, it became it was so ridiculous where you
Speaker 3: would hear things like, you know, she's playing a high schooler.
Speaker 3: She's forty seven years eight, Okay, still not usually what
Speaker 3: twenty four.
Speaker 4: That she was probably I think twenty six.
Speaker 3: Yeah exactly, And it was that's all you heard, though,
Speaker 3: like she's sixty two years.
Speaker 4: I mean, she's no play twelve years old?
Speaker 3: Right, were you were you close as a cast right
Speaker 3: away or because it's I mean, it seems like it's
Speaker 3: different when you're shooting a single camera show, where you
Speaker 3: might have days where you don't see some of your
Speaker 3: fellow actors. You know, hey, we're shooting these scenes today,
Speaker 3: we know, whereas we were always together, you know, we're
Speaker 3: kind of we're rehearsing every day. So I mean, were
Speaker 3: you close right away or did it take a while
Speaker 3: for everybody to kind of gell?
Speaker 6: Yeah, we were close instantly, like we were you know
Speaker 6: what it was single camera would show My gosh, can
Speaker 6: you remember back in those days how it took to make.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you're shooting a movie every day for ten years
Speaker 3: of exactly.
Speaker 6: So it was we were most often all there together
Speaker 6: every day because what if they needed to reschedule something,
Speaker 6: they would just keep us in our dressing room alley
Speaker 6: and you would just be at their disposal from six
Speaker 6: am to eight pm, you know. Yeah, And we were
Speaker 6: always together. And that was a whole small way, and
Speaker 6: all of our dressing rooms were off the small hallway.
Speaker 6: And it was in the sound stage in Van Uys, California,
Speaker 6: like by the railroad tracks and a porn studio we
Speaker 6: had there were we had no commissary to go meet
Speaker 6: anybody else in or anything lost us.
Speaker 4: They would bring us lunch.
Speaker 6: We wouldn't get out of there until it was dark like,
Speaker 6: so it was all consuming for for you know, it
Speaker 6: got better as the years ago went on, because they
Speaker 6: got better at scheduling and right being to the characters
Speaker 6: to try to kind of give some people some time.
Speaker 4: Away from set. But it was we were together a lot,
Speaker 4: and we were young.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I was gonna say, were you all over eighteen?
Speaker 3: Was there set school or.
Speaker 4: Cory and Brian were underage, so they were they went
Speaker 4: to school, Okay?
Speaker 6: On set, I was emancipated in order in order to
Speaker 6: do that show. I got emancipated so that I wouldn't
Speaker 6: have to There was not a lot of time for
Speaker 6: the I don't know, it was like something that forts
Speaker 6: me to do. I got emancipated, my parents let me
Speaker 6: do it, and then the bing I was an adult
Speaker 6: responsible things.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Well, one of the things you mentioned, you guys spending
Speaker 5: a lot of time together, that was another aspect. That
Speaker 5: was a lot of water cooler tabloidy talk. I think
Speaker 5: it was the first time I remember hearing about how
Speaker 5: a young cast was clashing, and a lot of that
Speaker 5: focused on how Shannon was a prima donna. How did
Speaker 5: you guys navigate that kind of tabloid talk while you
Speaker 5: were on set, especially since I'm sure most of it
Speaker 5: was probably extremely exaggerated.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, thank goodness, there was no social media then. Yeah,
Speaker 4: you know, so you had a wait for those papers to.
Speaker 6: Come out and print. I think that we were all young.
Speaker 6: I always because I made mistakes, Other people made mistakes.
Speaker 4: We were young. We were going up under unusual.
Speaker 6: Circumstances, high stress environment, highly competitive, no stability whatsoever, And
Speaker 6: anything that happened during those times has long been forgiven
Speaker 6: by any of us.
Speaker 4: I would imagine.
Speaker 6: I can't speak for other people, but for myself, Like, yeah,
Speaker 6: stuff went down, Like it wasn't always fun and great
Speaker 6: all the time, but it was part of the process
Speaker 6: of being in this situation the way we were. And
Speaker 6: I don't think, you know, there's no love lost. We all,
Speaker 6: at the end of the day have the greatest love
Speaker 6: for one another, like this invisible string that connects us.
Speaker 4: But yeah, it was hard to navigate.
Speaker 6: In the moment because we were not equipped to handle
Speaker 6: those kinds of complex relationships and the behaviors that went
Speaker 6: on because of the you know, not being developed completely
Speaker 6: right abilities, so a lot it was hard to navigate.
Speaker 6: And I write about a little bit of it in
Speaker 6: my book, but I don't, you know, there's still things
Speaker 6: that I didn't write about that.
Speaker 4: It's interesting once you open.
Speaker 6: The door and you start to like look into your past,
Speaker 6: then like you can't help but see, oh there's a
Speaker 6: little more light. I'm going to open a door a
Speaker 6: little bit more. So, even now after I've written the book,
Speaker 6: I'm like, wait a second, that's thinking more about that
Speaker 6: situation and then like, wow, the impact of that. You know,
Speaker 6: it's an interesting journey to like look back air life
Speaker 6: like that.
Speaker 2: It's so interesting to me that, like the tabloids were
Speaker 2: writing about you guys because like we had, of course
Speaker 2: on set dynamics and drama, but nobody cared like for
Speaker 2: whatever reason. I guess because we were a kids show.
Speaker 2: And even though you guys were a teen show, for
Speaker 2: some reason, you captured the imagination of the adult world too, And.
Speaker 1: It's it's so interesting, and I guess it's because you guys.
Speaker 2: Were so edgy, right, like you were dealing with you
Speaker 2: were you were addressing teen issues in a way that
Speaker 2: adults were also watching and sort of keeping up with.
Speaker 2: But it's it strikes me as really weird now because
Speaker 2: I don't read about teenage actors nowadays, Like I don't
Speaker 2: know who does.
Speaker 1: It's so weird that that you.
Speaker 6: Don't do that, and I don't do that because we're
Speaker 6: too old and there are too many famous people now,
Speaker 6: so I can't keep up right, right, But you're I mean,
Speaker 6: you're right.
Speaker 4: Like I guess it just looked like sensational.
Speaker 6: It looked fantastical and it's, you know, an untapped world
Speaker 6: that nobody knew about. So and then it it you know,
Speaker 6: the writing pitted the characters against one another in a
Speaker 6: lot of ways, and then that would eke out into
Speaker 6: the audience, and then the viewers would attached to whoever
Speaker 6: they wanted to, whose teams beyond whether they were Brenda
Speaker 6: or Kelly or Dylan or Brandon or Brandon and Kelly
Speaker 6: or Brandon, you know, just like a million different teams
Speaker 6: to be on, which was really sad because that I
Speaker 6: think was more damaging the way they fed it to
Speaker 6: the audience, the viewers, and then the way the viewers
Speaker 6: kind of like, still to this day have people who
Speaker 6: hate me.
Speaker 4: Like character another character's boyfriend.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I'm always like and they actually call me words
Speaker 6: like ugly words. I'm like, wow, Okay, if you need
Speaker 6: me to explain it to you, I can, but just.
Speaker 1: Job television show.
Speaker 3: But I think you're right. You hear more quote unquote
Speaker 3: drama happening on drama sets than you do on comedy sets. Yeah,
Speaker 3: the drama is part of the show's the character, right,
Speaker 3: people want to add that drama to the real life.
Speaker 2: It's like a side effect of It's like, so you're
Speaker 2: doing your job well, You're drawing them into your characters
Speaker 2: so well.
Speaker 1: That then they're gonna want to know more about the actors.
Speaker 3: And it's like Danielle and I just heard this with
Speaker 3: a lot of the professional wrestlers, where it's like if
Speaker 3: you're a heel and you're so good at your jobs
Speaker 3: as a bad wrestler, then they hate you in real
Speaker 3: life as opposed to going like you're so good at
Speaker 3: your job that I hate you in the most wonderful way.
Speaker 3: It's more like you're an you're a villain because you're
Speaker 3: good at what you do. So yeah, it's really strange
Speaker 3: to watch it, but you would you'd hear about that
Speaker 3: all the time. Well, you know, they're dating in real life,
Speaker 3: or they got into a fight over this, But you
Speaker 3: never heard about stuff like that happening on the set
Speaker 3: of Elf, you know, you know what I mean. It
Speaker 3: was like, because it's a comedy, nobody, nobody cared. They
Speaker 3: kind of can just let that go where the drama
Speaker 3: surrounding your lives had to really be part of the
Speaker 3: drama surrounding what was going on, and it sold.
Speaker 4: The show they want to perpetuated.
Speaker 3: And then couple that with the fact that you've you've
Speaker 3: completely broken the mold and you're in the zeitgeist everywhere.
Speaker 3: I mean you are. You are pop culture in the
Speaker 3: early nineties, nine o two, you know.
Speaker 1: It's everywhere.
Speaker 3: I'll never forget. It made the news in Connecticut when
Speaker 3: Luke Perry went to a mall and they had to
Speaker 3: escort him out and there were people like trying to lunch,
Speaker 3: like looked like tens of thousands of people. It looked
Speaker 3: like the Beatles, And it was insane to watch this stuff.
Speaker 3: It was crazy.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean, we all got our share of that
Speaker 6: fear put into us of people crushing, the stages of
Speaker 6: people getting crushed and crying and like passing out, and
Speaker 6: you know, it was very traumatizing so many levels. But
Speaker 6: you know, the the bottom line is that now when
Speaker 6: people look back at the way they remember the show
Speaker 6: is so it's so touching, it's so yeah, it's really
Speaker 6: meant something to them, and it and so many people
Speaker 6: have said, like that got me through my teenage years.
Speaker 4: You were my friend. I did many friends, but I
Speaker 4: had you my.
Speaker 6: Wall and I watched the show and I wrote you
Speaker 6: letters and you wrote me letters back like we were.
Speaker 6: I was on it with the fan mail back then.
Speaker 6: You know, I could feel the people, the pain and
Speaker 6: the people and them wanting that connection, and it just
Speaker 6: had such a you know, I feel like a really
Speaker 6: important impact on a lot of people. So I love
Speaker 6: that about the show.
Speaker 3: Well, I think one of the other things that did
Speaker 3: is it, as you're saying, very few people knew like
Speaker 3: I could pull the curtain back on Beverly Hills. But
Speaker 3: at the same time, then it's showing that wow, they're
Speaker 3: going through the same thing in their high school that
Speaker 3: I'm going through in mind, even though they're in this
Speaker 3: mythical Land, So it kind of showed no matter where
Speaker 3: you do a great drama that takes place in a
Speaker 3: high school on Mars, the kids are still going to
Speaker 3: be going through the same thing they are in Iowa.
Speaker 3: So it was that that was the kind of thing
Speaker 3: where it's like, yeah, they're prettier than me, and they
Speaker 3: have nicer cars than me, and they have more money
Speaker 3: than me, but they also have exactly the same problems
Speaker 3: I do.
Speaker 6: And that was like leveling of like kind of that's
Speaker 6: how I felt. I still feel as a human, Like
Speaker 6: I talk about that because we're all here as humans
Speaker 6: on this earth trying to figure this experience out. None
Speaker 6: of us have directions or you know, nobody's really telling
Speaker 6: us what to do. At the end of the day,
Speaker 6: it's all our decision making. So I always talk about
Speaker 6: like just except like looking into one another's eyes as
Speaker 6: humanity and thinking, oh my gosh, you are just like me.
Speaker 6: Like it's just something so like community building about that.
Speaker 6: You know, unless you know you look at people and
Speaker 6: you just hate them, that's a.
Speaker 5: Whole Did you treat yourself to anything When the show
Speaker 5: took off and became a smash hit.
Speaker 4: Well, I treated other peop people to things. I you know,
Speaker 4: got my dad a truck.
Speaker 6: I bought a farm for my parents to live on
Speaker 6: because it made them happy. I got my first husband
Speaker 6: a Harley convertible corvette. At all, No, I didn't need
Speaker 6: anything but my dog on my lap. I got happy
Speaker 6: people around me, and I thought like, if I buy
Speaker 6: these people things, not my price much, but like then
Speaker 6: they're going to be happy and everybody's going to be great.
Speaker 6: You know, it's going to be copasetic. And I wasn't
Speaker 6: until I think after one of the like you know,
Speaker 6: they would send you to New York for the upfronts
Speaker 6: and you have to schmooz with the pr people and
Speaker 6: from the buyers all that.
Speaker 4: You know, the trill.
Speaker 6: I think there was a I was staying at a
Speaker 6: hotel and there was a jewelry shop connected to the hotel,
Speaker 6: like one of those like cures, little pretty little stores.
Speaker 6: And I did go in there once and I bought
Speaker 6: myself a pair of diamond earrings. I never wore them,
Speaker 6: I still, but I bought myself some earrings that were expensive.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I was like I should reward myself, even like.
Speaker 6: My last birthday, I just turned fifty four, and for
Speaker 6: a whole week, week and a half. I was like,
Speaker 6: I want to go shopping and buy myself something to
Speaker 6: like just say, you know you like.
Speaker 4: You deserve this? Why not?
Speaker 6: And I have never gotten it done that have been
Speaker 6: for for a while now.
Speaker 4: No, I don't know, it's just nothing important to me, honestly.
Speaker 3: What about something like are you still into animals? I mean,
Speaker 3: did you ever want to get yourself a horse?
Speaker 5: I have?
Speaker 1: Okay, so there you go.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I guess that would be but my we raised
Speaker 6: them on our farm up in the San Nenez Valley,
Speaker 6: so it's a community effort and I got I asked
Speaker 6: for a dog for Christmas this year. I was like,
Speaker 6: I don't want anything but except a little tiny puppy
Speaker 6: that I can travel with because I don't like traveling
Speaker 6: alone and I just like having like a little heartbeat
Speaker 6: with me and my husband and my daughter. Found a
Speaker 6: little puppy and daughter for me first.
Speaker 4: So sweet.
Speaker 5: We had Brian Austin Green on the show recently, and
Speaker 5: one thing we really connected with him on was the
Speaker 5: blurring of the lines between David Silver and Brian, with
Speaker 5: the writers using real aspects from his life for his characters.
Speaker 5: That happened on our show, and writer didn't really love it,
Speaker 5: felt a little intrusive. Did you have that issue at all?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 5: Okay, yeah, I mean I did see that you had
Speaker 5: you faced drug addiction, pregnancy, and amnesia, possibly all in
Speaker 5: that order or all at once.
Speaker 6: So yeah, you know, multiple times there was the guy
Speaker 6: the cocaine with the boyfriend.
Speaker 4: I mean.
Speaker 6: I had done none of the things that my character, right, okay,
Speaker 6: but I was like, I have no idea how to
Speaker 6: pretend to snort cocaine.
Speaker 4: But here goes, here we go, give him my best shot.
Speaker 3: Was there ever in the ten years a storyline where
Speaker 3: you went, no, not doing it?
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 6: Not in the early years. Not in the first five years.
Speaker 6: Probably we had no control, no power, nobody listened to us.
Speaker 6: But then as the show, you know, they needed us
Speaker 6: more to not leave our contracts or whatever they saw
Speaker 6: that that could possibly happen or people got replaced or whatever.
Speaker 6: And also they knew, like they knew that I knew
Speaker 6: my abilities also, so I think that there were times
Speaker 6: when I would go in and say, I just I
Speaker 6: don't see this something my character would say or do
Speaker 6: or get herself involved with. Usually, you know, a lot
Speaker 6: of times like with a love interest. They would bring
Speaker 6: me in on casting because it was important that you
Speaker 6: know the person worked with the character and you know, chemistry, Yeah, chemistry.
Speaker 6: I mean I've said before I could have chemistry with
Speaker 6: a door knob because I just want to get the
Speaker 6: scene done and go home. But there there was there
Speaker 6: have been a couple of occasions where now watching the
Speaker 6: show back, I'm like, ooh, I'm not that good, Like
Speaker 6: I am mystery of that guy?
Speaker 1: That's so funny.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you have rewatched now tons of nine o two
Speaker 5: one o episodes for nine o two one OMG, what
Speaker 5: have you come away with watching the show with a
Speaker 5: twenty twenty six lens?
Speaker 4: Do you?
Speaker 5: You said you were a super fan.
Speaker 4: I'm a super fan. I cannot believe some of the
Speaker 4: things the show got away with.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and also just like knowing it's so cool to
Speaker 6: see me where I am in my life, like my
Speaker 6: personal development and growth, and then see how it was
Speaker 6: so stunted and it was so.
Speaker 4: It was so unfamiliar.
Speaker 6: I was making it up as I go, and you know,
Speaker 6: just like how to handle all that stuff on a
Speaker 6: personal level. So I have a very strong, like new
Speaker 6: sort of appreciation love for myself that young girl that
Speaker 6: was in those moments trying to figure all of that out.
Speaker 6: So this one one of the biggest, huge, just takeaways
Speaker 6: from watching the show back is really appreciating that young
Speaker 6: person playing that role, what she was managing in her
Speaker 6: real life too, but still showing up when they said
Speaker 6: action and you know, always being you know, what I
Speaker 6: was supposed to be, but just like a new just
Speaker 6: an understanding too of like why I have struggled with
Speaker 6: certain things in my life and where that might have
Speaker 6: come from. Like there's a lot of personal work aside
Speaker 6: from just a true appreciation for the.
Speaker 4: Show being what it was.
Speaker 3: You know, Yeah, was there ever a time you were
Speaker 3: considering leaving?
Speaker 4: I think maybe, like.
Speaker 6: See like when it was between eight and nine and ten,
Speaker 6: there were you know, those were the times when I
Speaker 6: would have the thoughts. But honestly, I really never had
Speaker 6: a strong desire to leave the show. Because I had
Speaker 6: a young daughter. I was able to take her to
Speaker 6: work with me. I was able to pay for our
Speaker 6: house and her needs, and I was appreciative of that.
Speaker 6: And you know, I come from you know, working middle
Speaker 6: class family where you work hard and you don't bite
Speaker 6: the hand that feeds you. You know, so I have
Speaker 6: a very strong work ethic, and I think that really
Speaker 6: kept me there to see.
Speaker 4: I love seeing things through to the end, you know.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you'd eventually go on to star on What I
Speaker 5: Like About You with Amanda Bynes, who also was a
Speaker 5: child star, did you ever feel like a big sister
Speaker 5: on set now in a position to have faced it
Speaker 5: and survived?
Speaker 4: Yeah? Absolutely.
Speaker 6: I mean when I met her, like the first day
Speaker 6: we worked together, I was turning thirty and she was
Speaker 6: turning sixteen, and we shared birth date, so huge different
Speaker 6: places in our lives.
Speaker 4: And I was actually a little nervous going in.
Speaker 6: And working with being the older one and working with
Speaker 6: a teenager like I had been before, and I thought, Okay,
Speaker 6: this is weird. But luckily my character was her older sister,
Speaker 6: so and they were silly. It was fun and it
Speaker 6: wasn't too too deep all the time. But I just
Speaker 6: working with Amanda at that young, like efferves an age.
Speaker 6: She was just hopping all over the place, and if
Speaker 6: we were filming something, and like you know when you
Speaker 6: film live like they'll the audience will hear music while
Speaker 6: you're like getting notes from the director and stuff, and
Speaker 6: she would hear a song that was playing, and she'd
Speaker 6: be gone, like that'd be it. She'd have to dance
Speaker 6: it out for the whole with the audience or whoever
Speaker 6: was around her, and we'd all just wait. But I
Speaker 6: learned to like, I love that about her, and it really,
Speaker 6: honestly sort of helped me as I started to become
Speaker 6: the mom of teenage girls. Like I was kind of
Speaker 6: nervous to be a mom of teenage girls, and I didn't,
Speaker 6: you know, it was a little bit of intimidated by
Speaker 6: people young, young people, you know, And so being around
Speaker 6: her really made me feel like, it's just it's gonna
Speaker 6: be fun and exciting, and it's so fun to watch
Speaker 6: them like live in the moment like she did.
Speaker 5: You have three beautiful daughters. What lesson have you taken
Speaker 5: from your own youth in front of the camera and
Speaker 5: then brought with you into parenting?
Speaker 4: Oh my goodness.
Speaker 6: Well as as I think being in front of the camera,
Speaker 6: being young and having all that responsibility, I learned that
Speaker 6: there's you. You have to be there. You cannot not
Speaker 6: show up for the job because there's a crew waiting
Speaker 6: for you, and they all want to go home to
Speaker 6: their families. And my girls, I cannot not show up
Speaker 6: for them because they need me that much too. Like
Speaker 6: it's it taught me, you know again that strong Midwestern
Speaker 6: sort of work ethic is in me, whether I.
Speaker 4: Want it or not.
Speaker 6: So I really work hard and try hard to be
Speaker 6: the best mom I can be, just like I've always
Speaker 6: tried to be the best at anything, best bring my
Speaker 6: best foot forward for anything I've ever done, so I think,
Speaker 6: you know. And then also just like learning that I'm
Speaker 6: not perfect and I make mistakes, whether it's in you know,
Speaker 6: on the set or as an actress or as a
Speaker 6: mom or whatever it is, and then finding along the
Speaker 6: way of my life the grace and the love for
Speaker 6: myself and the self sort of respect to give myself,
Speaker 6: you know, a break sometimes or give myself grace and say, yeah,
Speaker 6: you could have done that a little bit better, but
Speaker 6: there's tomorrow.
Speaker 4: Let's try for tomorrow. You know.
Speaker 5: I love that. I would be remiss if I didn't
Speaker 5: talk Dancing with the Stars with you for just one question.
Speaker 5: At the very least you were on season five and
Speaker 5: you made it all the way to the semi finals.
Speaker 5: Are you surprised by the show's revival at all?
Speaker 4: I can't believe that show's still on. I remember even
Speaker 4: one when it came.
Speaker 6: On and they asked me to do it. I'm season
Speaker 6: one and I was like, oh no, that's that's not vetted.
Speaker 6: Nobody knows how this is going.
Speaker 4: To go over. So I didn't do it until season
Speaker 4: three or five or whatever it was. I can't. I
Speaker 4: mean it was so I love watching it, but how
Speaker 4: I mean, that's a long time that show's been on. Yeah,
Speaker 4: that's a long time.
Speaker 6: I guess he's you know, it's the glitz, it's the sequence,
Speaker 6: it's the personal journey, the challenge that the contestants go
Speaker 6: through and having done it like it is hard.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it was Derek. You were partnered with Derek Coff.
Speaker 5: It was his very first season.
Speaker 6: Wow, He's gotten off of a plane from London where
Speaker 6: he was doing some London show and came directly to
Speaker 6: my house from the airport.
Speaker 4: He looked like a twelve year old Yeah, and I
Speaker 4: literally just laughed in his face. I was like, you're
Speaker 4: gonna be my dance partner. Looks like you're my son.
Speaker 4: And so we just had fun all the time.
Speaker 6: But I never ever ever could take him serious or
Speaker 6: like do those like romantic.
Speaker 4: Things and still to this day. I just saw him
Speaker 4: last week and it was just so fun. It's just
Speaker 4: the same feeling over again.
Speaker 6: But I think that that show was really showed me
Speaker 6: how strong I was. Yeah, and I was honestly, you know,
Speaker 6: no disrespect. But I was so happy when I got
Speaker 6: kicked off they ever, because I did not like that
Speaker 6: kind of stress and the spotlight.
Speaker 4: I I'm much more. I don't like that. It was hard.
Speaker 4: It was really even get hypnotized not pee my pants
Speaker 4: when they said undancing the Wolves, Like, excuse me, PCSD
Speaker 4: bumps right now, that's just fun.
Speaker 1: I know.
Speaker 2: I talked to an American Idol winner actually who he
Speaker 2: still when he hears that, he's like, I have a
Speaker 2: panic attack.
Speaker 4: I know what you're talking about.
Speaker 6: It like blacked out right, like blacking out, you don't
Speaker 6: remember anything? Is it just it's not I'm not the
Speaker 6: person that's like, hey, look at me, everybody like I
Speaker 6: love that.
Speaker 3: So it sounds like so much fun.
Speaker 4: I in really good shape for that moment. Yep, yeah,
Speaker 4: that's true.
Speaker 5: Well I love your focus on finally taking care of
Speaker 5: yourself at fifty. As women and mothers specifically, I think
Speaker 5: we get so lost in our roles and our expectations.
Speaker 5: If you could give advice to anyone who is listening, who,
Speaker 5: let's say, is just turning thirty and maybe they're ready
Speaker 5: to start a family, what advice are you giving.
Speaker 4: Them turning thirty.
Speaker 6: That's gotta I gotta rewind for them turning thirty. I mean,
Speaker 6: let go of the perfection that the desire or the
Speaker 6: unrelenting quest for perfection. Nobody's living an Instagram life in
Speaker 6: real life. Yeah, I think we forget that, and I
Speaker 6: certainly get doom scrolled in and start to feel bad
Speaker 6: about myself, like it's so useless and pointless, and just
Speaker 6: you know, do you don't try to live up to
Speaker 6: other people's expectations or standards. And what I say to
Speaker 6: everybody I meet, because this, I think is the core
Speaker 6: of the foundation of us surviving this experience is look
Speaker 6: in the mirror and find the little person inside of you.
Speaker 6: We all have it, no matter how old we are,
Speaker 6: how much we say that so woo woo. I don't
Speaker 6: want to talk to my inner child that is happening
Speaker 6: inside of you, that little person that was at some
Speaker 6: point abandoned by someone, maybe even abandoned by you, to
Speaker 6: reconnect with that little child inside of you and really
Speaker 6: sort of like take care of her or him, and
Speaker 6: just because that right there is like, once you tap
Speaker 6: into that relationship with yourself, even if it's your younger self,
Speaker 6: that's the most important love relationship you will ever have
Speaker 6: in your life. So you know what they say, all
Speaker 6: those stupid cliches, you can't fully love someone else until
Speaker 6: you love yourself one hundred percent true. And I heard
Speaker 6: that in my thirties, twenties, thirties and rolled my eyes.
Speaker 6: But knowing what I know, living the life that I've lived, like,
Speaker 6: that's the number one thing that I want people to know.
Speaker 6: Because you are on your own in this life, you
Speaker 6: were all you've got, and so making that connection as
Speaker 6: strong and that bond as strong as you can with yourself,
Speaker 6: it's most important.
Speaker 5: I love that. Thank you. You can pick up Jenny's
Speaker 5: book I Choose Me Chasing Joy, Finding Purpose and Embracing
Speaker 5: reinvention wherever books are sold, and her iHeart podcast I
Speaker 5: Choose Me is available wherever you get your podcasts. Thank
Speaker 5: you so much for joining us today. This was really
Speaker 5: lovely to talk to you.
Speaker 4: I enjoyed it. We've spent a long time in the making. Yes,
Speaker 4: seeing each other backstage and I just saw you, I think,
Speaker 4: didn't I in Vegas? I get confused?
Speaker 5: Were we Austin right south By Southwest said.
Speaker 4: We were there together. We passed, and yeah, so that
Speaker 4: we've come together.
Speaker 5: We're all under one roof. You were not under one roof.
Speaker 3: It brings you to really weird places, because the last
Speaker 3: time you and I sat down and talked, we were
Speaker 3: in the Brady bunch House. Really, that's so funny.
Speaker 5: You guys were in the Brady Bunch House. Writer and
Speaker 5: Jenny were in south By Southwest and I. She and
Speaker 5: I were at the iHeart Music.
Speaker 4: Awards or QBC headquarter, the.
Speaker 5: QBC headquarters, it could be anywhere, you never know.
Speaker 2: We need like a nineties teen actor handshake or something.
Speaker 4: Yes, yeah, like a secret wing or something exactly. I
Speaker 4: love it and we see each other so funny.
Speaker 5: Thank you so much for being here.
Speaker 4: It was great talking to you.
Speaker 5: We'll see you again in a weird place.
Speaker 4: Thank you.
Speaker 2: You know what, I honestly can't believe how much I
Speaker 2: loved the nine O two one oh cast over the
Speaker 2: last like year and a half. I've actually because we've
Speaker 2: always been around each other we've always been at events
Speaker 2: together and talking to them through our podcast and at conventions.
Speaker 1: In the last like two or three years.
Speaker 2: I have had so much fun connecting with them, and
Speaker 2: they're all very smart, very interesting people. They've all turned
Speaker 2: into like I don't know's that's like a shock to me,
Speaker 2: and I guess that's just a result of me having,
Speaker 2: you know, absorbed them in the tabloid sense, and of
Speaker 2: course I didn't read any of that stuff, but you
Speaker 2: just sort of know that there's drama and there's all this,
Speaker 2: and then to like actually talk to them and they're
Speaker 2: all so cool and down to earth, and I'm just like, God,
Speaker 2: I just fall I just fell for the trap that
Speaker 2: we all do, which is assuming that actors are like
Speaker 2: their characters or whatever.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 3: We also we really have no concept of how famous
Speaker 3: they were. Oh back in the day, it was they
Speaker 3: were on such another level, the same that it was.
Speaker 3: I could not imagine living that life and for meeting
Speaker 3: a movie for ten years they did essentially.
Speaker 2: But also they were like the first experience of seeing
Speaker 2: famous teenagers for me before I became one, So like
Speaker 2: they were like paving the way, and I remember being
Speaker 2: like that's crazy, what is happening? You know, and then
Speaker 2: sort of stepped into it myself, but on a much
Speaker 2: smaller scale.
Speaker 3: But like they were also in a very interesting way.
Speaker 3: They were kind of the bridge between the seventies and
Speaker 3: eighties child actor that ended up having lots of problems
Speaker 3: to then kind of I mean you never really heard
Speaker 3: about Jenny Garth got arrested last night, Like you didn't
Speaker 3: hear about that kind of stuff. So it was they
Speaker 3: they they went from they kind of were that bridge
Speaker 3: to being a more stable version of a teen child act.
Speaker 1: But didn't the tableaus want them to be unstable?
Speaker 2: Of course, I feel like they were milking the stories.
Speaker 3: None of it was true, or it was it was
Speaker 3: the smallest little thing, or it was a tiny little thing.
Speaker 3: I mean they were they weren't getting arrested, they weren't
Speaker 3: doing drugs, they weren't doing all this stuff where you were.
Speaker 3: Really it started in nineteen ninety I mean you had
Speaker 3: a lot of eighties stars and seventy stars, the different strokes,
Speaker 3: kids and all the stuff that were having really hard
Speaker 3: lives and they kind of started the you know, you
Speaker 3: can be a healthy teen child actor.
Speaker 5: Well, thank you all for joining us for this episode
Speaker 5: of Pod Meets World As always, you can follow us
Speaker 5: on Instagram pod Meets World Show. You can send us
Speaker 5: your emails pod Meets World Show at gmail dot com.
Speaker 3: And we've got March Nana Nat Nana Nan at March.
Speaker 5: March Podmeetsworldshow dot com will send us out.
Speaker 3: We love you all, pod dismissed. Podmeats World is nheart
Speaker 3: podcast producer and hosted by Danielle Fischel, Wilfredell and Ryder
Speaker 3: Strong executive producers, Jensen Karp and Amy Sugarman Executive in
Speaker 3: charge of production, Danielle Romo, producer and editor, Tara sudbachsch producer,
Speaker 3: Moore engineer and Boy Meets World super fan Easton Allen.
Speaker 3: Our theme song is by Kyle Morton of Typhoon and
Speaker 3: you can follow us on Instagram at Podmets World Show
Speaker 3: or email us at Podmetsworldshow at gmail dot com