Speaker 1: Well, thank you so much everybody for joining us on
Speaker 1: this amazing park Opper episode. I say it every week,
Speaker 1: and I say it every week, and I say it
Speaker 1: every week. Magical, amazing, incredible episode. But we keep getting
Speaker 1: these guests that are just the best, whether they're in
Speaker 1: front of the camera, They've written the script, they directed,
Speaker 1: in this case, created two of the most popular shows
Speaker 1: in the history of the channel.
Speaker 2: That changed the channel. They ibserved the channel into being
Speaker 2: what we all love the Channel as it is today
Speaker 2: like this with these were two big, big, big, big projects.
Speaker 1: I would argue one of them helped to change the
Speaker 1: channel and the other one changed all of pop culture. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it's huge, huge, what this man is responsible for.
Speaker 1: And we're so honored to have him here. We're not
Speaker 1: going to wait another minute before we bring him in
Speaker 1: because I don't want to leave him waiting because he's
Speaker 1: just awesome and I'm so glad it's here. So can
Speaker 1: you please help us welcome the creator of not only
Speaker 1: that So Raven, but a little show called Hannah Montana
Speaker 1: Michael Porrez. Hello, Hello, are you. I'm fine? Thank you
Speaker 1: so much for joining us.
Speaker 3: Wow, my pleasure. I even wore my Hannah hat.
Speaker 1: I love it.
Speaker 3: I dove off a little bit and all of that.
Speaker 1: I love that. Well, don't put on a different color.
Speaker 1: We might not recognize you.
Speaker 3: That's true.
Speaker 1: So we just reviewed the Hand of Montana movie, and
Speaker 1: we are so honored to have you here to explain
Speaker 1: how this juggernaut not only changed the channel but changed
Speaker 1: all of pop culture. Really, I mean it became a job,
Speaker 1: but it really did. I mean, it became It's put
Speaker 1: it this way. I had I'd never seen the show.
Speaker 1: I had never seen the film, but obviously knew everything
Speaker 1: about Hannah Montana because it was in the zeitgeist. I mean,
Speaker 1: it was everybody knew about it. So, I mean, before
Speaker 1: I guess we get into that, we always like to
Speaker 1: start with our guests of how did you find Hollywood?
Speaker 1: Get into Hollywood? What was your origin story to finding
Speaker 1: this amazing business of show?
Speaker 3: You know, it was always a part of me. My
Speaker 3: grandfather was in the business of going back. He was
Speaker 3: actually a pioneer in the business who his my great
Speaker 3: grandfather started the first moving picture theater in Brooklyn.
Speaker 1: Oh you're kidding.
Speaker 3: And even before that, I'm related to my mother's name
Speaker 3: and my grandfather's name was Harry Thomas, but that is
Speaker 3: shortened for Thomaschevsky. And there was a Yiddish theater out
Speaker 3: of Russia with Boris Tomashevsky. So I kind of come down.
Speaker 3: In fact, Michael Tilson Thomas, the famous conductor, is a
Speaker 3: second cousin. I've never met him. So it was always
Speaker 3: in me. My uncle wrote, I don't know if you
Speaker 3: remember something called the Bowery Boys.
Speaker 1: And course, of course Wrin Tin.
Speaker 3: Tin doctor killed there the Green Hornet. You know, I
Speaker 3: was the spoiled little brat that got to go on
Speaker 3: to the bat Cave set, you know, and the Green
Speaker 3: Hornet and I and I went on the Bonanza set
Speaker 3: and everything.
Speaker 1: And did you meet Bruce Lee?
Speaker 3: Yes? I did. I was with my uncle and we
Speaker 3: were driving and it was bor like, hey, Bruce, come
Speaker 3: on over here. They met my nephew, you know, and
Speaker 3: he came over, a really nice guy, you know. But yeah,
Speaker 3: it was always in me. I thought, you know, good
Speaker 3: Jewish kid. You know, I'm going to go to college.
Speaker 3: I'm going to be a lawyer. It never worked. I
Speaker 3: dropped out once. Three times. I dropped out. I went
Speaker 3: to U see Santa Barbara. I went to UC Berkeley.
Speaker 3: I dropped out three times. Then I joined a comedy
Speaker 3: troupe in Berkeley, and then when I was around twenty three,
Speaker 3: I moved to La to be a stand up comic.
Speaker 1: Okay, wow, we've heard now this is such an interesting
Speaker 1: path to writing and creating because we've heard a number
Speaker 1: of people saying that they started doing stand up.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and the first and I was doing that. It
Speaker 3: wasn't for me. The world at least then. I don't
Speaker 3: know if it's the same world now. The world then
Speaker 3: was very drug oriented and lots of cocaine and all
Speaker 3: of that. That's not mean. And I started to I
Speaker 3: always loved sitcoms, you know, Marry Taller, Moore Show, Bob
Speaker 3: Mark Show, all those things, and so I started writing sitcoms.
Speaker 3: And surprisingly, the person who helped me first, when he
Speaker 3: was still a writer, he was not a stand up comic,
Speaker 3: was Gary Shandling.
Speaker 1: Really yeah.
Speaker 3: He was writing Welcome Back Cotter and Sanford and Son,
Speaker 3: and he would take my scripts and hand them back
Speaker 3: to the old marked, you know. And he was getting
Speaker 3: out of writing while I was getting in writing, and
Speaker 3: of course he was going into stand up comedy. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And then the Gary Shandling Show, and then Larry Sanders
Speaker 1: and then everything that followed after that.
Speaker 3: Wow all true. As a matter of fact, my last
Speaker 3: stand up gig, the thing that finally did it for
Speaker 3: me to say bye bye. There was a comedy store
Speaker 3: in Westwood, Yeah a time, and I was going to
Speaker 3: go on the open mic, right, and I have a
Speaker 3: little five minute routine and all this kind of stuff.
Speaker 3: And there was like thirty people there and it was
Speaker 3: twelve and I was going to go on in five
Speaker 3: minutes until somebody walked in the room, right, and they
Speaker 3: wanted to go on, assured me they'd only be ten minutes,
Speaker 3: don't worry about it. And that guy was David Letterman.
Speaker 3: And it was not David Letterman. It was David Letterman
Speaker 3: when he was on I think Mary Tyler Moore had
Speaker 3: a very failed variety show and he was on that
Speaker 3: and he went on ten minutes became fifteen, which became
Speaker 3: a half hour, which became forty five minutes. He left.
Speaker 3: Literally twenty six people left with him, and I was
Speaker 3: stuck with the four remaining drunk.
Speaker 1: Oh man, maybe this isn't for me.
Speaker 3: Yeah, maybe God is finally saying, do you get the message?
Speaker 3: How much do I have to tell him?
Speaker 1: Oh? Yeah, how do you get that? So was it?
Speaker 3: Was?
Speaker 1: It then an instant transition to Okay, I'm going to
Speaker 1: go right, I'm going to be a writer. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: focus primarily on writing.
Speaker 3: I didn't even get there at the same time. Okay, okay,
Speaker 3: you know. And so after that I kind of put
Speaker 3: everything to writing and the script. Again, I don't I'm
Speaker 3: dating myself. But the script that finally got me in,
Speaker 3: broke me into getting some good opportunity was a spect
Speaker 3: Barney Miller. I did, oh great show, which I adored
Speaker 3: that show. It's probably one of the better things I've
Speaker 3: ever written.
Speaker 1: I think, well, it's one of I mean, it's one
Speaker 1: of the best shows in the history of television.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I would agree with that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, oh man, that's great. So, so did you
Speaker 1: were you a staff writer for Barney Miller or do
Speaker 1: you write?
Speaker 3: I never, I never. I never was able to get
Speaker 3: the script to Barney Miller.
Speaker 1: Oh, it was just for you to spec.
Speaker 3: Yeah. And I was a waiter in Beverly Hills at
Speaker 3: a place called r J's, the rib Joint, and it
Speaker 3: was a really popular sawed us on the floor. I
Speaker 3: wore jeans and a T shirt. But it was the
Speaker 3: in place, and so I would I met my I
Speaker 3: got my first agent by waiting tables. I got my
Speaker 3: first pitch meeting by waiting tables. Wosh, because I would
Speaker 3: wait tables and use my kind of joke kind of
Speaker 3: thing to always joke around with the customers, and I
Speaker 3: had a good time. And then when they would ask me,
Speaker 3: so what are you doing, I'd say, well, I'm trying
Speaker 3: to get into writing. Well, I happen to know blah,
Speaker 3: and do you have anything? And I'd go down to
Speaker 3: my locker and I'd get my spec Barney millscript.
Speaker 1: You're kidding me now, you're.
Speaker 2: Telling me you had the like iconic Hollywood dream when
Speaker 2: people come they get a waiting job and you literally
Speaker 2: just get the doors open to you because you're this
Speaker 2: amazingly nice guy who's funny, and someone asks you, how
Speaker 2: can I help you?
Speaker 3: That That was basically you know, I'm talking. You know.
Speaker 3: This wasn't like, Oh, I get a waiter job and
Speaker 3: two months later I'm on staff, get a waiter job,
Speaker 3: and six years later, you know, I got my first opportunity.
Speaker 3: And it was literally on eight when it was the
Speaker 3: first year of the Disney Channel. Surprisingly wow, And it
Speaker 3: was a show called Boy. I haven't talked about this.
Speaker 3: This was a show called dream Finders. This is Ron Miller,
Speaker 3: Walt Disney's son in law, was still head of the company. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and so it was the first it was failed. We
Speaker 3: did a whole lots of like, I don't know what
Speaker 3: might have done, twenty episodes something like that. I never
Speaker 3: saw the light of day, right, and then that was
Speaker 3: my volley there and then I went in from that,
Speaker 3: I got more prime time opportunities.
Speaker 1: Now, do you mind if I asked not to? You said,
Speaker 1: you've you're dating yourself. But I'm just I'm very curious
Speaker 1: because our fans who listened to this podcast are obviously
Speaker 1: big Disney Channel fans. So you say it was the
Speaker 1: first year of Disney Channel. What year is that.
Speaker 3: That's a really good question. If I had to guess,
Speaker 3: it's probably in the early eighties.
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, eighty two eighty three ish kind of area.
Speaker 3: Okay, but I'm really not sure. But it was the
Speaker 3: it was the first year of the Disney Channel, okay,
Speaker 3: you know, and so we were going to use a
Speaker 3: lot of things in Epcot. They flew us out to
Speaker 3: look at Epcot. It was like Epcot was open. I
Speaker 3: think maybe a year or two at that time.
Speaker 1: Yes, we just heard nineteen eighty three was the first
Speaker 1: year of UH.
Speaker 2: And I remember them. There was always a big picture
Speaker 2: of Epcot that would come around on the Disney I
Speaker 2: was a Disney Channel kid. I don't remember a world
Speaker 2: without it at all, and so I remember that Epcot.
Speaker 2: There was always like a like a big vision of
Speaker 2: it that came on the channel a lot. So that
Speaker 2: makes that that's cool that you guys were sent there
Speaker 2: and it was like a part.
Speaker 3: Of your There was like nobody there. Wow, So the
Speaker 3: whole place was there was their crowd. No, people didn't
Speaker 3: want to go Topcot. They were over there the Magic Kingdom.
Speaker 1: That's right. That the Epcot was going to close at
Speaker 1: one point, they said in the eighties there was a
Speaker 1: real chance that was going to shut down.
Speaker 3: That's right.
Speaker 1: Okay, So then you went from there to you said
Speaker 1: more primetime shows, which can I ask some of the shows.
Speaker 1: I'm a television fanatic, So.
Speaker 3: My my my first actual credits were like different strokes
Speaker 3: call a show called Love Sydney.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 3: I had Tony Randall in it. Alice did one there,
Speaker 3: and I did a couple of Who's the Boss scripts.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, my first big staff primetime job was
Speaker 3: I was was on the last two seasons and I
Speaker 3: got this while I was on the last two seasons
Speaker 3: of Facts of Life. Oh, come on, and I got
Speaker 3: this where you know here I am, you know, thirty
Speaker 3: thirty one year old Jewish guy. All his friends are
Speaker 3: either doctors or lawyers or they're becoming successful business people.
Speaker 3: And and I'm sitting there hoping my unemployment doesn't run
Speaker 3: out as I'm still trying to find the big job.
Speaker 3: At the time, I was developing something with a friend
Speaker 3: of mine's mom. My friend was Bruce Kylish. His mom
Speaker 3: is Irma Kalish, who was, as a woman, a pioneer
Speaker 3: in comedy, television, comedy writing. Wow, it didn't work, but
Speaker 3: then she got hired to run Facts of Life and
Speaker 3: brought me over. That's how my big break happened. Based
Speaker 3: on relationships. It wasn't based on being submitted or anything
Speaker 3: like that. You know, we're in a business where the
Speaker 3: first rule is there are no rules. Yeah right, you
Speaker 3: don't know where it's going to come from. So that
Speaker 3: was my first thing. So I was on two seasons
Speaker 3: of that and then it was not picked up right
Speaker 3: for that? That was like eight season, wasn't picked up
Speaker 3: for a ninth Why because it only had a twenty
Speaker 3: five share. In other words, the entire audience was watching
Speaker 3: this show, and at that time that wasn't to know.
Speaker 1: No, that's incredible. You know how a bunch people would
Speaker 1: freak if they got a twenty five share for anything
Speaker 1: but the super Bowl? Right now? Yeah, no one, no one.
Speaker 3: Just an amazing thing, isn't it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Well, I have to let you know that I
Speaker 1: became an actor and knew I had to become an
Speaker 1: actor and started professional when I was ten. And one
Speaker 1: of the reasons was different strokes wo, so mash different
Speaker 1: strokes and family ties are. I knew what I had
Speaker 1: to do with my life. But Gary Coleman on different
Speaker 1: Strokes was.
Speaker 3: What are you talking about? Willis was?
Speaker 1: I just saw him and I went, I have to
Speaker 1: do that. And Dana Plato was my first ever on
Speaker 1: screen crush. I mean it was. These were so important
Speaker 1: to me, so, oh man, I can do Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: the coolest thing ever. So then how do you go
Speaker 1: from there to finding your way to then back to
Speaker 1: the channel and creating shows for them.
Speaker 3: Well here's the non glorified road. But after Facts of Life,
Speaker 3: I ended up getting a job on staff of a
Speaker 3: show called Good Morning, Miss Bliss okay, which was an
Speaker 3: ABC show. ABC did not pick it up past thirteen
Speaker 3: I think it was, and NBC picked it up and
Speaker 3: it became Saved by the Belt Okay. So I was
Speaker 3: on the first season of Save by the bet Geez
Speaker 3: after that, but still I didn't want its programming. I
Speaker 3: didn't want to do that.
Speaker 2: I was going to ask you because, like, were you
Speaker 2: feeling drawn to kids programming or at that point.
Speaker 3: What happened was I was drawn to employment.
Speaker 1: Under working yeah, you know.
Speaker 3: And then I got an opportunity coming off of that
Speaker 3: into more primetime shows when a friend of mine, Bob Meyer,
Speaker 3: started to get pilots and things, you know, and he
Speaker 3: got something called Me and the Boys and that lasted
Speaker 3: eighteen episodes, something called Joe's Life that lasted thirteen episodes.
Speaker 4: I was.
Speaker 3: I was on a show called out of This World
Speaker 3: on staffed.
Speaker 1: My my it was out I'm sorry. Was out of
Speaker 1: this World the one where she puts her fingers together
Speaker 1: and stops time. Yeah yeah, okay, yeah, because an alien,
Speaker 1: you know alien, yes, okay.
Speaker 3: And that all led to again Bob Meyer, who I
Speaker 3: worked with, I'm getting a job running Sybil okay, and
Speaker 3: he brought me on and so that was my first
Speaker 3: really kind of high profile staff job. And then from
Speaker 3: there I got onto Veronica's closet, geez, And you think
Speaker 3: everything's going well, and from there Wick Wall, all of
Speaker 3: a sudden, no work, right, And I'm doing my development
Speaker 3: and I'm writing this thing or trying doing that way
Speaker 3: and that. And then I heard that the Disney Channel
Speaker 3: was looking to do their first four camera shop. Right, Well, me,
Speaker 3: I want to work. I said, I'm going to get
Speaker 3: a meeting over there. And a friend of minority had
Speaker 3: a meeting over there and we both had meetings, both unsuccessful. Right,
Speaker 3: all my primetime friends are basically saying, what the hell
Speaker 3: are you doing? Geez? You don't give up on Braunt
Speaker 3: if you go there, I mean, come on, you know,
Speaker 3: and you know, because it wasn't the popular place to go.
Speaker 2: Yeah, We've had We've had interviews with actors, you know,
Speaker 2: adult actors that said, you know, making making that choice
Speaker 2: to go to Disney was it was a crap shoot,
Speaker 2: and that's not like it was, but it.
Speaker 3: Was following just that's where there was opportunity, right, And
Speaker 3: that worked into well what if you know, what if
Speaker 3: a kid could see around the corner? Because my my
Speaker 3: whole thing has always been in anything I write is
Speaker 3: always about the truth first, relatability first, Why am I
Speaker 3: writing it first? And then I'll lay on the funny.
Speaker 3: I always say to everybody, I'm so not concerned about funny.
Speaker 3: I'm concerned about the truth and being authentic. And if
Speaker 3: I can do those things, I can make anything funny, right.
Speaker 3: You know, I learned from Barney Miller and you know,
Speaker 3: Mary Chyler, Moore, Bob Newhart. They weren't the stories told
Speaker 3: weren't funny, it's how they did them and the reactions
Speaker 3: and the relationships. And so that led to that, and
Speaker 3: that led to my life in kids program which, by
Speaker 3: the way, I far prefer it's so much fun working
Speaker 3: with kid actors who want to learn right and and
Speaker 3: that are so jazz that you do that, you do
Speaker 3: what you know. But adult friends, if I was on
Speaker 3: Civil over on yeah I saw your show. Yes, it's okay.
Speaker 3: You never go oh, man, I really saw the last
Speaker 3: episode of So Funny. You don't get that. You just
Speaker 3: go yeah, yeah, you know, But with kids, they run up,
Speaker 3: they hug you. I mean, why why isn't that better?
Speaker 2: Yeah? And you and you get a chance to implement
Speaker 2: like really good messages, especially the Disney Channel, like good
Speaker 2: morals and good decision making and all of that is
Speaker 2: just it's magic.
Speaker 3: It's a higher responsibility because you have to write clean.
Speaker 3: You can't go for the cheap joke. And my whole
Speaker 3: thing is, I don't want to write anything. I wouldn't
Speaker 3: let my kid watch. Yeah, right, And on both times
Speaker 3: when I'm doing this kind of programming, I'm a dad first,
Speaker 3: I'm a parent first. I'm a producer second, right, you know.
Speaker 3: And so as far as where I am in those sets,
Speaker 3: because a lot of things have been talked about about
Speaker 3: all that stuff not on my set. You know, I
Speaker 3: can't control what happens off my set, but I sure
Speaker 3: as he can control what happens on it, you know.
Speaker 3: And you know I've always had including myself, I know, rule,
Speaker 3: you know, that's a great role. Nobody is that good,
Speaker 3: including me, right, you know? With you, Yeah, and especially
Speaker 3: in kids programming, you're in it. There's the door. You
Speaker 3: can be replaced.
Speaker 1: Yeah we all can. Yeah, yeah, we all can all
Speaker 1: the time. So then you're you go into Disney. Is
Speaker 1: is your first pitch that's so raven?
Speaker 5: No?
Speaker 3: God, what what I think? My first pitch was a
Speaker 3: time travel okay, and it almost went but then it didn't. No,
Speaker 3: it almost went, but I think they had something else
Speaker 3: phill of the future. Ah, there you go, they had
Speaker 3: something else, and so they liked it almost almost almost know,
Speaker 3: well what else? And then Susan Sherman and I got
Speaker 3: together and came up with the premise of that's so raven.
Speaker 3: It wasn't that so raven? You know, she was casting
Speaker 3: initially she was the best friend. Oh wow, she was
Speaker 3: so good that we redeveloped the whole We got picked up,
Speaker 3: but we redeveloped the whole thing and put her as
Speaker 3: the star and found a mom and a dad and
Speaker 3: a brother. You know, in kids programming, you know, the
Speaker 3: one thing you learn is it's the talent. The talent.
Speaker 3: The talent writing is great, you need to be really
Speaker 3: well well written, but the writing you can't treat. The
Speaker 3: writing is precious. Writing has to follow the talent and
Speaker 3: mold to the talent to get the most out of
Speaker 3: the kids that are playing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean and what I mean, what what a
Speaker 2: superstar MVP to cast because she had an amazing career
Speaker 2: already at that point.
Speaker 1: She's so good. And when she was coming off of Cosby,
Speaker 1: wasn't she.
Speaker 2: With mister Cooper? She was little in Cosby? She had
Speaker 2: kny with mister Cooper. I feel like she had quite
Speaker 2: a bit of a good run on Fresh Prince of
Speaker 2: bel Air as well. She was right, she had like
Speaker 2: a I mean, she's just she's just amazing. She's been
Speaker 2: working was teeny tiny, She's for Disney.
Speaker 3: You know how she came into the room audition wise,
Speaker 3: she just came in the room. It's just you know,
Speaker 3: and it was like okay, and it was it was like, well,
Speaker 3: what scene would you like me to do? Okay? Uh,
Speaker 3: can you do the second scene? Sure? And then you
Speaker 3: do this I'm ready, Oh geez and nail it. Yeah,
Speaker 3: no script, no pages? Well can you do the fifth one? Okay?
Speaker 2: Wow?
Speaker 3: Railed it like it was really like I was kind
Speaker 3: of just blown away. And we went for her as
Speaker 3: Chelsea Wow. Because the original girl was Caucasian.
Speaker 1: What do you remember the original title was it called
Speaker 1: That's so Chelsea.
Speaker 3: No, it's called absolutely Psychica. That's a title that the
Speaker 3: executive there at the time, Adam Bennette, came up with. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I remember, yeah, so wow.
Speaker 2: You know, you know, because the channel at that time
Speaker 2: the leads were Caucasian. There was no one at that
Speaker 2: point that that was that was the head of the
Speaker 2: show that was casing a different ethnicity.
Speaker 1: So she was.
Speaker 2: It was groundbreaking to put her in it and have
Speaker 2: her be the lead, and there just wasn't anyone better
Speaker 2: that was ever going to do it. The Braven just
Speaker 2: nailed it out of the bark.
Speaker 3: But the reality is this was all about following the talent.
Speaker 3: Had nothing to do with the fact that she was
Speaker 3: African American did not play at all. It was she
Speaker 3: was the best that walked in the room, right, She
Speaker 3: was the best one, and that's why, you know, we
Speaker 3: rejiggered everything. It was following the talent and no other reason.
Speaker 3: The same you know with Miley, I'll tell you Miley
Speaker 3: wasn't Miley. You know, initially fantastic. What I had created
Speaker 3: initially was a Jewish girl from New York. Oh wow,
Speaker 3: that's what she was. That's what Hannah Montana was and
Speaker 3: her father was a studio musician, right okay, And then
Speaker 3: Miley was, you know, sent in videotapes after videotapes after
Speaker 3: videotape auditions, and we kept saying no, you know, because
Speaker 3: she was so great. We had this big show. We
Speaker 3: can't put it all on there. But her auditions got
Speaker 3: better and better and better, and so Disney, the generous
Speaker 3: people they are that, well, she can come out of
Speaker 3: an audition in front of us as long as they
Speaker 3: pay for it. Then she came out and unlike Raven,
Speaker 3: you know, Miley came into the room going how you
Speaker 3: doing right? But the character was supposedly somebody that was
Speaker 3: kind of kind of insecure and shy until they got
Speaker 3: on stage, right. Well, Miley was the opposite of that.
Speaker 3: She read and was not the best one, but she
Speaker 3: was so genuine and authentic and she just took it
Speaker 3: and made the rolled her own. We had another person,
Speaker 3: her name was Danielle Something I think, who nailed every joke, everything,
Speaker 3: everything right. But there was something that the camera just
Speaker 3: adored about Miley. So we decided that we were going
Speaker 3: to roll the dice and take a chance on on
Speaker 3: Miley and then we we here after we decide that
Speaker 3: can we talk to you guys for a minute, and
Speaker 3: Billy Ray wants to come in audition, and it was
Speaker 3: like a lot of us were kind of going like.
Speaker 1: Oh, he's way too old to play Hannah Montana.
Speaker 3: Yes, exactly him. We were going like, oh, come on,
Speaker 3: we don't want Achy breaking Heart to be the dad
Speaker 3: we're going to be able to act, you know, And
Speaker 3: and we said sure, shared delighted, and he came in
Speaker 3: and to our surprise, absolutely nailed it.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: But even more than that, he got Miley from Here
Speaker 3: to hear Oh right, because you can't buy that chemistry?
Speaker 1: No, you can't. Is it?
Speaker 3: Was it?
Speaker 1: Daniella Monet? Yes, Okay, there we go. I was looking
Speaker 1: back at my notes. There was a number of people
Speaker 1: that audition for Hannah Montana that were have gone on
Speaker 1: to do huge things.
Speaker 2: Jojo is one of them, and she was a like
Speaker 2: she had a mega hit at that point.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Wasn't Ali from Ali and Aj one of them as well?
Speaker 1: I thought I thought Ali might have been one, or
Speaker 1: I'm not quite she.
Speaker 2: Would have been perfect age at that time.
Speaker 3: Hundreds, Yeah, I know.
Speaker 2: I can't even imagine how many you guys auditioned because
Speaker 2: I was around with the Cheetah Girls as this was
Speaker 2: I was at the upfront when Hannah Montana got introduced
Speaker 2: to you know, the world industry, in the world, and
Speaker 2: I mean it was the energy of everyone, Gary Marsh,
Speaker 2: every single person that was there from everyone was so amped,
Speaker 2: like they had this like heavy hitter into the game.
Speaker 2: This was like gonna blow up the world, and it did,
Speaker 2: so I know, even just the audition process had to
Speaker 2: have been grueling. You guys saw probably everyone that had
Speaker 2: an agent at that point.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was an exciting time. But you know, and
Speaker 3: I kind of missed that, this is when the ideas
Speaker 3: that were generated over there were It was about the idea.
Speaker 3: It was about discovering new talent. Wasn't about redoing anything
Speaker 3: or playing anything safe. Everything they had took a chance,
Speaker 3: right High School Musical took a big chance that was
Speaker 3: incredibly courageous, and all the stars lined up because we
Speaker 3: premiered right after they did. It wasn't by design. You know,
Speaker 3: you had these two things that came out of a
Speaker 3: box and what like that, and that set the stage
Speaker 3: for Hannah that just it just picked that up and
Speaker 3: what like that. Yeah, it was really quite exciting.
Speaker 2: Well it was also Hannah itself was really courageous too,
Speaker 2: in the sense that Disney had not done to think
Speaker 2: of an episodic type show and having a music, big
Speaker 2: performance type aspect was I know, something that they were
Speaker 2: really concerned on how they were going to pull that off,
Speaker 2: you know, with budget and how to how to do that.
Speaker 2: And I remember that being a thing as it was
Speaker 2: going around, and the end result was great. I mean
Speaker 2: it was it made sense. It was like you know,
Speaker 2: but that was a big thing because they hadn't done
Speaker 2: a big musical production outside of that point from the movies.
Speaker 2: It was not done on a show at that point.
Speaker 3: The thing that I wanted to bring to it is,
Speaker 3: you know, hey, let's do something about a music star
Speaker 3: and isn't it great to be famous and out in
Speaker 3: the world. And as I said, where I come from
Speaker 3: is I think that's that's fine, but it's not relatable.
Speaker 3: It's not a human condition, you know, And so was
Speaker 3: born Well, what if that's a secret and she wants
Speaker 3: to be treated like a regular girl, And what if
Speaker 3: that was because when she was starting to get famous,
Speaker 3: she had a best friend at the time that started
Speaker 3: to treat her differently, right, and that friendship went confluently
Speaker 3: when and so that's why Hannah the whole split personality
Speaker 3: was born. That's far more interesting. You know. Right now,
Speaker 3: I'm going to a lot of colleges and stuff and
Speaker 3: guesting talking about Hannah, and you know, these you know,
Speaker 3: really smart people come up to me and go, you
Speaker 3: don't know what it meant to me? Yeah, thisisode. I
Speaker 3: was going through this and this and this, and then
Speaker 3: I saw that episode and she can get through that.
Speaker 3: I can get through that, you know, was like, oh
Speaker 3: my god, it's at all the work developing stories the
Speaker 3: way we did paid off. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, I mean here's a perfect example. So I'm obviously
Speaker 1: I am a forty eight year old man. I had
Speaker 1: not watched Hannah Montana growing up. I did not. I
Speaker 1: knew I knew what it was because again it was
Speaker 1: in the zeitgeist, but I'd never seen it before. So
Speaker 1: we had just watched the movie, and I, being the
Speaker 1: curmudgeon that I am, I have had a difficult time
Speaker 1: getting over the fact that no one recognized her when
Speaker 1: she just put on a wig. Okay, Superman right exactly. So,
Speaker 1: as I'm saying this on the podcast, we have a
Speaker 1: chat going next to us of all the producers. I
Speaker 1: had five or six producers that were all all women
Speaker 1: and all the right age, writing in how could you
Speaker 1: be thinking this? This is what we I mean, just
Speaker 1: jumping to the defense of Hannah Montana. This meant so
Speaker 1: much to people, it did. It meant so much to people.
Speaker 2: It really did change Ada.
Speaker 3: I'll tell you and well maybe it's a known story,
Speaker 3: but it might be an unknown story, but I'm going
Speaker 3: to tell it anyway. Please at the end without mentioning names,
Speaker 3: Disney wanted us to wrap up the end by saying
Speaker 3: that Miley Cyrus wakes up and there's Billy and her
Speaker 3: real mom, and she says, I just had this crazy dream, okay,
Speaker 3: and that was Hannah Montana, right okay? And I said, no.
Speaker 1: No, what.
Speaker 3: You can't do that. You know, the fans and everybody
Speaker 3: that it meant so much to to tell them it
Speaker 3: was all a dream is wrong. I want to send
Speaker 3: the message that there's start of end, there's college, and
Speaker 3: you know which one do you pick? And I wanted
Speaker 3: her to pick college because you can always go back
Speaker 3: start him or whatever. And I will say to you
Speaker 3: that it came down to one person which way that
Speaker 3: was going to go right, because Disney really wanted their
Speaker 3: way right and I really wanted my way. The deciding
Speaker 3: factor was Miley. Yeah, Miley said, I'll go either way,
Speaker 3: but I I I whatever Michael wants right. And it
Speaker 3: was really quite something.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 3: You had this girl stand up and and really take
Speaker 3: a thing, and so she gave me what I wanted
Speaker 3: and what it was in my head and that's why
Speaker 3: it ended that way.
Speaker 1: That's wonderful. Now, was there ever pushback by Disney or
Speaker 1: anybody at the beginning about the wig, like you got
Speaker 1: to change her look more than just the wig or
Speaker 1: the way. If you saw the pilot I did.
Speaker 3: The pilot had the worst wig in it. It was
Speaker 3: so bad they cheaped out. So I was crazy because
Speaker 3: that wig looked like she was like what a like?
Speaker 3: You know, all she needed was she was a fifty
Speaker 3: year old chorus girl doing in Vegas, you know, but.
Speaker 2: We appreciate that about the movie. The wig in the
Speaker 2: movie was so good.
Speaker 1: It was a good wig.
Speaker 2: It was a good and the.
Speaker 3: Wig in the series, for the most part, was a
Speaker 3: really good wig. They went from spending one hundred and
Speaker 3: fifty dollars, right, who I think the wig in the series,
Speaker 3: and so they had to get a couple of them.
Speaker 3: Might have been at the time fifteen hundred, yeah, something
Speaker 3: like that. Yeah, and so they finally had a good wig,
Speaker 3: but the wig and they got almighty. The wig in
Speaker 3: the pilot was awesome.
Speaker 2: Did you guys when you shot that first season? The
Speaker 2: performances were obviously all shot in one or two days
Speaker 2: or whatever whatever, but they were together, right, she did
Speaker 2: one routine after another. Was that that that was later
Speaker 2: on because that wig was even better than the actual
Speaker 2: pilot pilot wig, the one that's in the opening credits
Speaker 2: and then when she comes out and doesn't quickly that
Speaker 2: was later on in the season, right, Yeah, just the
Speaker 2: episode with the wig, the one wig.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, we actually got the first four or five
Speaker 3: episodes not in front of an audience.
Speaker 2: Oh, really want the.
Speaker 3: Kids to get used to each other. And so then
Speaker 3: when we were super in front of the audience, and
Speaker 3: that was like the fifth or sixth episode, everything just.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, right, there's nothing like the energy of an
Speaker 1: audience show.
Speaker 3: No. But the one thing that we you know, I
Speaker 3: had a whole lot of fun teaching Miley was had
Speaker 3: a hold, you know, and how to listen and how
Speaker 3: to wait for that laugh. She was so eager. She
Speaker 3: knew everybody's lines, and so when somebody was talking to her,
Speaker 3: she wasn't listening to what they were saying. She was going,
Speaker 3: when they're done, I get to talk.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And so she wasn't putting expression on her face
Speaker 4: and reacting and knowing, you know, you've got your line,
Speaker 4: the camera's on you.
Speaker 3: You're in control, right. It's like getting ready to make
Speaker 3: the punch, you know, but you've got to really feel it.
Speaker 3: I had this thing with her where I would go
Speaker 3: out and I would say, Okay, I'm going to make
Speaker 3: it simple. I want you to listen to the person talking.
Speaker 3: I want to see your expression, your attitude on your
Speaker 3: face about what you think about what they're saying, right,
Speaker 3: and then I want you to say your line, because
Speaker 3: if you do all those things, your line's crazy. You're
Speaker 3: going to get the laugh. It's crazy. This is the
Speaker 3: important stuff. It's like, you know, building a house on
Speaker 3: a really bad foundation, or building it on a good foundation.
Speaker 3: So listening expression, that's a great foundation. So when you
Speaker 3: say that line, you done nail it right. And she
Speaker 3: finally got it to a point where I would go,
Speaker 3: I'd be starting getting out of my chair to go
Speaker 3: on to the set, and she'd say, I know, and
Speaker 3: I would come back and sit down. That's it.
Speaker 2: Wow. It seems like she was just really ready to
Speaker 2: be a sponge and absorb everything that she could, learn,
Speaker 2: everything that she could to keep going. She had such
Speaker 2: huge dreams, but she knew that she had to get
Speaker 2: steps to get there.
Speaker 3: You know. She seems she was living the life of
Speaker 3: the character. Yeah, where she was living. You know, as
Speaker 3: it got more popular and more popular, you have more
Speaker 3: false friends, Yeah, coming out of the woodwork treatingly.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 3: And you know, it was smart of her because what
Speaker 3: her parents were saying, what I was saying to her
Speaker 3: was hold onto the people that knew you before.
Speaker 1: Yep, right, hugely important, right.
Speaker 3: That treat you like like, go, okay, you're a star.
Speaker 3: That's nice. Yeah, I'm exec producing the biggest show in
Speaker 3: kids television, and I have friends of mine that are
Speaker 3: still saying, oh shut.
Speaker 1: Up, yeah, yeah, really those are and those are the
Speaker 1: friends that are always going to be there, and there's
Speaker 1: still ones that matter. Well, you said, as you were
Speaker 1: getting more popular, when did you realize what the show was.
Speaker 3: I realized that in the first reason, Oh did you when?
Speaker 3: And it wasn't the show. It was going to the
Speaker 3: first concert, okay. And when you walked out and you
Speaker 3: heard the screams, I've never heard something that loud and
Speaker 3: that high pitched and that and you look and you
Speaker 3: went like, oh my god.
Speaker 2: And you look around and every single kid has seven
Speaker 2: pieces of.
Speaker 6: Merchandise, like not one shirt, like an adults like the bandana,
Speaker 6: the lantern, the book, the everything, until.
Speaker 3: You've heard that sound and when that is when I
Speaker 3: really realized what it was. Yeah, before that.
Speaker 1: But I mean the number the numbers for the channel
Speaker 1: were monster, weren't they They were right out of the
Speaker 1: gate massive.
Speaker 2: But it felt like everyone at the channel knew this
Speaker 2: was going to happen. I mean, yes, there was a gamble,
Speaker 2: but it just seemed like everyone was behind it and
Speaker 2: believed in this brand that they were about to kick off.
Speaker 2: They all just felt it was right and it was
Speaker 2: the right timing and it was just set up so well.
Speaker 2: And I mean, now that you've explained why, it's like, wow, yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, I mean, you guys, And then continued to
Speaker 2: have a ton of guest stars.
Speaker 1: Well, that's what I wanted to ask you about it.
Speaker 1: I'd like to name a couple guest stars for you,
Speaker 1: if that's okay, and I'd like you to tell me
Speaker 1: if you remember what it was like to work with them.
Speaker 1: So we've got to start with one of the greatest
Speaker 1: of all time, Dolly Parton.
Speaker 3: Fabulous. You know a lot of people are are different
Speaker 3: when you there, and they're not their personas sure everything
Speaker 3: you expect Dolly Parton would be. She wash, that's wonderful.
Speaker 3: It was the sweetest person all she said whenever it
Speaker 3: was saying, So what can we get you? Can we
Speaker 3: have anything in your dressing room? Can we get you flowers?
Speaker 3: Can we better? You want some makeup, you want to
Speaker 3: work anything? You want? Anything you want, right, darling, all
Speaker 3: I need is a dressing room in a toilet. Yes,
Speaker 3: that was it. She got everything else. She was delightful,
Speaker 3: not a bad thing to say. She is everything you
Speaker 3: think she would be, not to disappointing at all. She
Speaker 3: was great.
Speaker 1: So how about Selena Gomez.
Speaker 3: Selena Gomez was then pretty darn shy.
Speaker 1: Really, I don't believe that.
Speaker 2: I can believe that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and you know you would give her notes and
Speaker 3: would be very quiet and what have you. And she
Speaker 3: went and she did her thing. She she didn't have
Speaker 3: any I don't know if she was a star really
Speaker 3: when she was on. Her show was just starting, but
Speaker 3: there was no attitude or anything. She was Again, my
Speaker 3: memory was she was just very very quiet and the
Speaker 3: opposite of my I think she was a little nervous
Speaker 3: because her show was just starting and she's on this show. Yeah,
Speaker 3: but I don't have anything. I didn't really get to
Speaker 3: know her all that well. But she seemed like a
Speaker 3: sweet kid.
Speaker 1: How about the Jonahs brothers.
Speaker 3: Jonah's brothers were all nice, you know, they were all
Speaker 3: nice guys. Yeah, you know, quite honestly acting.
Speaker 1: You know, but they they're rock stars.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they didn't come with any attitude, you know, if
Speaker 3: you had a note, why don't you try this? Or that.
Speaker 3: They were very nice to do it, but acting wise,
Speaker 3: you know, not the not the best ones. And I
Speaker 3: think they all knew it right.
Speaker 2: Yeah. They I feel like they were so realistic of
Speaker 2: again wanting to wanting to learn, how taking notes, how
Speaker 2: can I be better? Absolutely?
Speaker 3: And also a very very solid family.
Speaker 1: Yeah that's hugely important, which is very very important. Am
Speaker 1: I getting this right, was Larry David on the show?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: What was that? Like?
Speaker 3: That was great? You know, he's he called Steve Peterman,
Speaker 3: who I was co running the show with, and they
Speaker 3: he wanted tickets, you know, to come with his daughter
Speaker 3: see the show. And maybe it sent up down on
Speaker 3: stet and all this.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it.
Speaker 3: Was just I think Curb was in the first year,
Speaker 3: two three years, something like that. And then Steve says,
Speaker 3: what you want to be on the show? You know,
Speaker 3: and by the recounting was what you know, wait a minute, wait,
Speaker 3: wait wait yeah, well, well can you be on the
Speaker 3: show here? We can write you in something. Well, I
Speaker 3: have Curb, I have Curb, I have Curb. Give me
Speaker 3: a minute, give me, I'll call you back. Right. He
Speaker 3: changed his whole schedule for right to come with his
Speaker 3: two daughters to guest star on the show. And you
Speaker 3: know the bit was, you know, he's waiting and I
Speaker 3: think a Chinese restaurant with his two daughters in embarrassing right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so you know it was a kick.
Speaker 3: I mean, you have this guy who's fricking genius, yeah
Speaker 3: to your show asking you do you have a line
Speaker 3: here for you?
Speaker 1: That would be great?
Speaker 2: Wow?
Speaker 1: And what about finally the rock.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, the sweetest Oh thank you God, you
Speaker 3: just saved Sabrina right there, he would have ripped up
Speaker 3: like a girl. We had makeup, we had nails, and
Speaker 3: he did anything we wanted.
Speaker 1: Oh that's great, anything you want.
Speaker 2: I can't. Oh man, you.
Speaker 1: Would have risen. You would have just crushed Sabrina.
Speaker 2: Oh no, I love him so much.
Speaker 3: He was nowhere. I mean, I can tell you some
Speaker 3: people that were poles. Now there's one, right, I gotta
Speaker 3: know doctor Phil really absolutely.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, that's a shame.
Speaker 3: You can talk to anybody in the car with my
Speaker 3: doing the scene. Miley tried to make small talk with him.
Speaker 3: He didn't engage. Oh wow, why are you here? Yeah,
Speaker 3: this was not a nice man, and maybe there was
Speaker 3: something else going on. But you're you're around kids. This
Speaker 3: should be fun.
Speaker 2: This is a kid, Yeah, like bring the kid with
Speaker 2: This list also has Austin Butler. So it had to
Speaker 2: have been when he was on the like very beginning
Speaker 2: of his career, right.
Speaker 3: I don't remember what did he I don't know, I
Speaker 3: don't know.
Speaker 2: It had to have been when he was really young.
Speaker 3: I'll tell you another jet. Well, Vicky Lawrence terrific on Prior.
Speaker 3: What a sweetheart, brilliant, just a total sweetheart. But I'll
Speaker 3: give you one of my favorite stories. And he wasn't
Speaker 3: on the show, but he brought his kid, Sylvester Stallone.
Speaker 5: You're kidding, Oh my gosh, the show and he said
Speaker 5: to me, you know, well, I gotta, I gotta, I
Speaker 5: gotta tell you, he said.
Speaker 3: Finally, finally I did something that impresses my kids. Oh
Speaker 3: my god, this is.
Speaker 1: Twice.
Speaker 3: Come on, I'm finally doing something.
Speaker 1: My whole life I was Cobra.
Speaker 2: So I do have to ask, because I remember, you know,
Speaker 2: the energy and things that were going on during this time.
Speaker 2: But what was it like during the Vanity Fair controversy
Speaker 2: and it was such a big deal. Was that stressful
Speaker 2: for you guys, you know, for the shows, like the
Speaker 2: writers and keeping like the integrity of what you guys
Speaker 2: had built at that point for the brand.
Speaker 3: It wasn't. We just kept doing what we did. Did
Speaker 3: I like it? Not? Really? Yeah, because it kind of
Speaker 3: flew in the face of the brand that was going on.
Speaker 3: But that's the kind of thing I stayed out of
Speaker 3: and I let them Disney and the parents handle that.
Speaker 3: Did I agree with it? Not No, not really. Did
Speaker 3: I let that invade and infect and you know, did
Speaker 3: I project that I was disappointed in Miley or anything
Speaker 3: like that? No? Did I lay more more of the
Speaker 3: responsibility on her parents?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah, well you have to.
Speaker 3: I had to move on and do my job and
Speaker 3: be there for her and all that. Like I said,
Speaker 3: on my side, I got what I wanted. I can't
Speaker 3: control what happens when I'm not on my.
Speaker 2: Set, right, Yeah, I think there is a point of allowing.
Speaker 2: You know, I'm sure you became a parental figure for
Speaker 2: a mentor, and there is a part of of that
Speaker 2: age that she's just in. When you're working with kids
Speaker 2: that are becoming teenagers into their adulthood, right, it probably
Speaker 2: felt like you had to let her go and make choices,
Speaker 2: and whether they were mistakes or not.
Speaker 3: You know, and look at the big effect that had nothing.
Speaker 1: That's the thing. If anything, it did exactly one thing
Speaker 1: you wanted to do.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean sure, there's a lot of those quote unquote
Speaker 1: Disney kids that want to break away from the Disney
Speaker 1: image and they'll do it in a big, splashy way,
Speaker 1: and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. I know,
Speaker 1: other Disney kids that have done nudity or that kind
Speaker 1: of thing, and it does it backfires, It just doesn't.
Speaker 3: You know. It's an interesting thing. You know. Miley is
Speaker 3: really instinctively smart, right, and so when you look at
Speaker 3: what she's doing, there's thought behind it.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And she's really smart and she makes her moves
Speaker 3: and you can see by how she has led her
Speaker 3: career up and up and up and up in the
Speaker 3: songs that she's doing and the choices she's making, and
Speaker 3: it's like, wow, way good for you, because so few
Speaker 3: that that hit that kind of stardom don't keep their
Speaker 3: heads on straight. Yeah she is. She is completely in
Speaker 3: charge of her career.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, she definitely is. So I have a question
Speaker 1: for you. Wait, love that you've been spending this much
Speaker 1: time with us. So one of the things we like
Speaker 1: we like to ask is it's your series you've got
Speaker 1: you did four seasons. Is there a favorite episode that
Speaker 1: you have is the one that sticks out for you
Speaker 1: as that's my favorite one?
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, you know, there's an episode that sticks sticks
Speaker 3: out to me because it's so I'm most proud of it. Okay,
Speaker 3: in the last season and we did an episode about
Speaker 3: the military and about military families and Miley going out
Speaker 3: with a guy who kept I think not Jake, it
Speaker 3: was the other one going out with a guy that
Speaker 3: kept canceling on her right, and she got in a
Speaker 3: little bit of a snitty fit about it. And then
Speaker 3: we find out the reason he kept canceling on her
Speaker 3: is his dad is in the military overseas and when
Speaker 3: he calls, he has to drop everything and take the call. Yeah. Right,
Speaker 3: And it was the about an appreciation, that appreciation of
Speaker 3: military families and the next time you see a kid
Speaker 3: who has a parent overseas serving, maybe you'll have a
Speaker 3: little bit more appreciation for it. Miley sang my favorite
Speaker 3: song was written by chen Nieman called bin Here. All along,
Speaker 3: we had real families on the set. We had real
Speaker 3: soldiers talking to the family and delivering messages, and it
Speaker 3: hit me that, you know, we're doing an episode. We're
Speaker 3: doing a children's program, a kids and family program. What
Speaker 3: other program could have done that story? Yeah, where you're
Speaker 3: doing something it's about something so serious and we can
Speaker 3: still be funny, but we're in the we're at a
Speaker 3: level where when our audience watched that show and they
Speaker 3: now have this kid who seems military or that or
Speaker 3: what have you, that they have a far larger appreciation
Speaker 3: for the sacrifice not only of the parent that's in
Speaker 3: the military, but of what the family goes through. That's
Speaker 3: the I'm most proud of.
Speaker 1: That amazing by the way, the care we just found
Speaker 1: out again from one of our mega fans producers that
Speaker 1: the character's name was Jesse.
Speaker 3: That's it. I will also tell you that where I'm
Speaker 3: most proud of Miley the performance she made that I
Speaker 3: just thought was like Lucille ball time, right, it was
Speaker 3: so good. We did an episode I forget what it
Speaker 3: was in second or third season about her getting paid
Speaker 3: a lot of money to advertise a product she hates. Oh,
Speaker 3: and we also established that when Miley lies, the character
Speaker 3: Miley Stewart lies, she just sweats just a little bit,
Speaker 3: just a little bit, right. And now she's on this
Speaker 3: Larry King kind of show and Larry King is asking
Speaker 3: about this product and she's starting to say how oh
Speaker 3: I love it and this and the other thing, and
Speaker 3: she starts to sweat from under the wig, right, And
Speaker 3: we said to her, smells like teens sellout that you know.
Speaker 3: He said to her, no matter what happens, until you
Speaker 3: hear the director, you'll cut you keep going right, and
Speaker 3: so we turned it up right. He was coming down,
Speaker 3: she was, you know, with a going and stayed in character.
Speaker 3: I was falling off my chair so much because very
Speaker 3: few could just stay, stay there, stay there. This was
Speaker 3: Lucy oldball and.
Speaker 1: And rather chocolate chocolates, and it's why.
Speaker 3: It's I just adored that. That just sort of said, Okay,
Speaker 3: she's there, she's got it. Yeah, nothing we can do.
Speaker 1: That's amazing. Well, before we say goodbye to you, because
Speaker 1: this has been amazing again, I could hear television history
Speaker 1: stories for my entire life. I love this one of
Speaker 1: my favorite things. Ever, what do you hope new fans,
Speaker 1: because of streaming it comes around, it's never gone anymore.
Speaker 1: What do you hope new fans take away from Annah Montana?
Speaker 3: Well, you know, the exciting things about new fans for
Speaker 3: me is that they like it as much as the
Speaker 3: old fans liked them, and they're getting the same messages.
Speaker 3: Because one of the things that I was really a
Speaker 3: stickler on is I didn't want to do anything that
Speaker 3: was dated. I didn't want to do anything that was
Speaker 3: of the time politically or socially. I just wanted to
Speaker 3: do universal truths that were true when I was growing
Speaker 3: up and today and tomorrow, and just stayed with things
Speaker 3: that were incredibly solid and relatable. So I think the
Speaker 3: reason fans today really like it is it's it speaks
Speaker 3: to those fundamentals that are in all twelve year olds, yeah,
Speaker 3: and eight year olds and nine year olds and ten
Speaker 3: year olds. So you know, I'm just I love the
Speaker 3: fact that it's finding another audience. I think it's so cool.
Speaker 2: Yeah it is. And now the new audience, a lot
Speaker 2: of them probably have parents that were pans of it,
Speaker 2: and this is another like it's just like a two
Speaker 2: generational home happening. And they also have the stories of
Speaker 2: the grandparents telling them how they went and took their
Speaker 2: parents to a Miley Cyrus concert, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3: It's like, I mean all of those I mean I
Speaker 3: still get comments from just my time on say by
Speaker 3: the Bell, which was a big show for a lot
Speaker 3: of people.
Speaker 2: Short absolutely yeah, wow, well, thank you yes so much
Speaker 2: for joining us.
Speaker 1: This has been really really cool. I've enjoyed it a lot,
Speaker 1: learning the kind of behind the scenes, and I just
Speaker 1: have to get out of my own way when it
Speaker 1: comes to the wig. That's just me in my own way.
Speaker 1: That's all it is.
Speaker 3: I get it. Just a pilot, well, that's all that was.
Speaker 3: And then they spent a little money on a.
Speaker 1: Bed and then you're fine, Well, thank you so much
Speaker 1: for joining.
Speaker 2: Us, Congratulations for doing I mean, yeah, that's a raven.
Speaker 2: Hannah Montana, like we said, d legend, they let they
Speaker 2: change the channel. They like groundbreaking with with you know
Speaker 2: everything with that's a raven and then Hannah Montana it
Speaker 2: translated into pop culture of itself and it just was.
Speaker 3: You know, what's it's you know, it's a writer creators
Speaker 3: dream to get aboard something like that. It was really
Speaker 3: the highlight of my career. Really.
Speaker 1: Well, well, thank you so much. We'd love to have
Speaker 1: you back sometime. Yes, we want because I feel like
Speaker 1: there's a lot more stories we want to is okay, good,
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Thank you, Aye.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 1: I was literally texting with producer Jensen before about how
Speaker 1: I could listen to stories like that all day, all day,
Speaker 1: all day, from all the from Barney Miller, all the
Speaker 1: way on different strokes. I could just sit there and
Speaker 1: listen to the stories the other of my favorite Hollywood
Speaker 1: television stories ever, so I mean.
Speaker 2: What an evolution of him having you know, however much
Speaker 2: power and say when it came to certain things. So
Speaker 2: then what he got to do when it got to
Speaker 2: his time on hand in Montana and how much control
Speaker 2: and how much I mean, think about that mentor aspect
Speaker 2: of it getting put on Miley and Miley looking at
Speaker 2: him and going what do you want?
Speaker 1: What do you want to do? This was what do
Speaker 1: you want to do? Yeah, yeah, I'm here because of you.
Speaker 1: What do you want?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 2: And she by the time the show ended, think of
Speaker 2: the explosive like fandom she had. I mean, the star
Speaker 2: that she could have was. She could have just taken
Speaker 2: it and said this is what I want? Yeah, and
Speaker 2: instead she gave it to him.
Speaker 1: She could have said the most ridiculous thing in the
Speaker 1: world and they would have been like, you got it, Okay.
Speaker 1: She's like, no, no, this is he did this. What
Speaker 1: do you want to know? Yeah? Thank you so much
Speaker 1: for joining us, Michael, and thank you all for joining
Speaker 1: us to get a little bit of a behind the
Speaker 1: scenes to look at just how it's done. You know,
Speaker 1: you get me. This is from from the actual creator
Speaker 1: point of view, not a write, not just a writer,
Speaker 1: but somebody who created the entire thing.
Speaker 2: And the Hollywood dream does come true. Guys get water
Speaker 2: job do it for six years? And Sealer.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and originally about a Jewish girl from from New Jersey.
Speaker 1: The original Hannah Montana about a Jewish girl from New Jersey. Wow,
Speaker 1: so cool. Well, thank you everybody so much for joining us.
Speaker 1: And don't forget because I think if I'm not mistaken,
Speaker 1: which I probably am because I normally am, but actually
Speaker 1: I think this time I'm not. The next movie we're
Speaker 1: going to be doing is what can be considered kind
Speaker 1: of the first d com ever. But there's a big
Speaker 1: there's a big check mark next to it because uh,
Speaker 1: there there are some some questionable people. There's some people
Speaker 1: out there wondering if this is true or not. But
Speaker 1: it is kind of to some people considered the first
Speaker 1: ever dcom. We're doing next, which is nineteen ninety seven's
Speaker 1: Northern Lights starring Diane Keaton, So make sure to check
Speaker 1: out that review as well, And thank you so much
Speaker 1: for joining us. And when I take off my headphones,
Speaker 1: Jack again for just after talking to him, I h
Speaker 1: it's it wasn't a bad movie just by the premise anyway,
Speaker 1: Thank you everybody so much, and we will see you
Speaker 1: next time.
Speaker 3: Bye.