Speaker 1: So I don't know if you guys have checked out
Speaker 1: Shifting Gears yet. It's Tim Allen and Kat Denning's new
Speaker 1: sitcom on ABC, but I got to direct an episode
Speaker 1: of it in their first season. They did ten episodes
Speaker 1: in their first season. I directed episode number four. It
Speaker 1: was written by It was amazing, really, it was such
Speaker 1: a great week. The episode I directed was written by
Speaker 1: an incredible writer named Morgan Murphy, who is so funny.
Speaker 1: She used to do stand up. She actually still does
Speaker 1: stand up, but she's a stand up comedian. She's written
Speaker 1: on Abbot Elementary. She's incredible. She's a wonderful writer. The
Speaker 1: show runner is Michelle Nader, who's also wonderful. Was one
Speaker 1: of the showrunners of Two Broke Girls Did Dollface, so
Speaker 1: she's known Kat Dennings for a while. And then me
Speaker 1: as the director, and then Tim Allen and we looked
Speaker 1: around and it was like Tim surrounded by all these people.
Speaker 2: We were like, Tim, is this is this your favorite?
Speaker 3: Do you love this?
Speaker 2: Do you love that?
Speaker 4: Everywhere you look it's just all these women around you,
Speaker 4: And he was like, you know, it was pretty great,
Speaker 4: So yeah, it was.
Speaker 2: It was really fun. I had such a great experience
Speaker 2: on it.
Speaker 1: I'll say I was a little nervous going into it because,
Speaker 1: you know, I've never worked with Tim Allan. I had
Speaker 1: met Tim Allen when I was a kid, when I
Speaker 1: would go visit, you know, Jonathan on the Home Improvement set.
Speaker 3: Yeah, when you were dating Home Improvement, right when.
Speaker 2: I dat Jonathan.
Speaker 3: I don't know what any of.
Speaker 1: The rest of that was, but yeah. But so I
Speaker 1: had never worked with him, and he's obviously a huge star.
Speaker 1: And I had never worked with or met Kat Dennings,
Speaker 1: but I had communicated with her via Twitter many a
Speaker 1: years ago and knew that she seemed wonderful. But you
Speaker 1: never know when you until you meet somebody like, oh,
Speaker 1: are we going to connect? And they have Shifting Gears
Speaker 1: has a very well known director named John Pasquin, who's
Speaker 1: a producer on the show as well, and he is
Speaker 1: directing most of the episodes. If I'm not mistaken, he's
Speaker 1: directing seven out of their ten episodes, and then the
Speaker 1: other three episodes. I got one, and another very well
Speaker 1: known director named Victor Gonzalez got too, and so I'm
Speaker 1: direct I was the first director outside of John Pasquin
Speaker 1: to come in and direct an episode of the show.
Speaker 2: And everyone's used to John. Everyone loves John.
Speaker 1: John's a producer, and I knew that John was going
Speaker 1: to be there and was going to be overseeing me,
Speaker 1: and I just I was very nervous.
Speaker 2: I was like, oh my gosh.
Speaker 1: And suddenly all the confidence you have as a director,
Speaker 1: you're like, why am I feeling so like? No one
Speaker 1: by the way made me feel like I shouldn't be confident.
Speaker 3: If anything, it was the impostor.
Speaker 2: Yes, I just started thinking like, this is it, this
Speaker 2: is what I find out. I don't know what I'm doing.
Speaker 1: This is the moment it's all gonna come crashing down.
Speaker 1: And yeah, I was really I was really nervous. And
Speaker 1: then every single day just got better and better and
Speaker 1: better until we had the live studio audience tape night,
Speaker 1: which is so it's everything, you guys, remember it.
Speaker 2: It's everything and more.
Speaker 1: And Tim had said, listen, I want to have a
Speaker 1: nice intro setup. So while I was there, they built
Speaker 1: they built a rod in front of their existing sets
Speaker 1: that has a gorgeous burgundy curtain that drops down. They
Speaker 1: did up lights in front of it, and they made
Speaker 1: a sign that says the name of the show, Shifting
Speaker 1: Gears and they put it out there for intros and
Speaker 1: curtain call and they do a gorgeous introduction. The audience
Speaker 1: was great, thrilled to see them. Cat Dennings, I sorry
Speaker 1: to Jensen and sorry to Cat dennings husband. I want
Speaker 1: to marry Kat Dennings. I am truly in love with her.
Speaker 1: She is the dream of all dreams. We absolutely connected.
Speaker 1: It was like hard to find time to work because honestly,
Speaker 1: I just wanted to sit there and talk to her
Speaker 1: about all things life, all things jewelry.
Speaker 2: It was really such an incredible way.
Speaker 3: You're a huge Boy Meets World fan.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 1: She gave us the nicest compliment and just a very
Speaker 1: casual conversation. She said, you know, I think it was
Speaker 1: watching Boy Meets World that sparked my love of comedy.
Speaker 1: And she said, and I've rewatched the show several times
Speaker 1: since then, and every time I think, this is so
Speaker 1: funny and this is so good and so yes. I
Speaker 1: wanted to pass that compliment along to you guys, because
Speaker 1: she was a big Boy Meets World fan and is
Speaker 1: just she's She's a unicorn.
Speaker 2: Truly, she's a unicorn.
Speaker 1: She's just incredible that everything doesn't miss a beat is
Speaker 1: a nice person, fun to be around. Oh anyway, she's
Speaker 1: my new obsession.
Speaker 2: Just love her anyway. It was a really great experience.
Speaker 1: If you haven't checked out Shifting Gears, I highly recommend
Speaker 1: that you do. I think they're really doing something very
Speaker 1: special there, which is tackling very relatable modern day subjects
Speaker 1: like what do you do when you have a family
Speaker 1: member who has completely opposing views to you, how do
Speaker 1: you live under the same roof, how do you manage relationships?
Speaker 1: How do you comfort each other when you are regularly
Speaker 1: butting heads. They also my episode was a big episode
Speaker 1: about how you handle grief and how grief comes in
Speaker 1: waves and is never really a one time thing you
Speaker 1: deal with. It will keep rearing its ugly head and
Speaker 1: it's really beautiful.
Speaker 2: It's a really great show.
Speaker 1: So if you haven't checked it out, I highly recommend
Speaker 1: you check out Shifting Gears on ABC. It's Tuesday nights
Speaker 1: at eight pm. And yeah, so I'm excited about that opportunity,
Speaker 1: So check it out.
Speaker 3: It's good for you.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much.
Speaker 3: Got I missed that rush of running in front of
Speaker 3: an audience.
Speaker 1: Yeah you, We'll have to do it again. It's it's
Speaker 1: everything you remember, it's like.
Speaker 6: Yeah, there's no feeling like it. I mean, there's truly
Speaker 6: no feeling like you sitting by I remember. That's one
Speaker 6: of the things I people always ask me, like, what
Speaker 6: do you miss most about doing the show?
Speaker 7: What is it?
Speaker 6: Is it?
Speaker 3: What you know anything? What do you miss most about it?
Speaker 6: And I think the thing I missed most is sitting
Speaker 6: backstage with all of you, with the audience out.
Speaker 3: There you can hear at the time.
Speaker 6: For us, it was Mitch and he's warming up the
Speaker 6: crowd and you can hear them and they're chanting sometimes
Speaker 6: they're stomping their feet and we're all back there just
Speaker 6: with each other, and you know you're about to do
Speaker 6: a show. It is an energy like no other. It
Speaker 6: just doesn't exist anywhere else. And it's I think I
Speaker 6: miss that moment more than anything else.
Speaker 3: Is just all of us together before the show starts.
Speaker 2: It was just magical. Really was Welcome to Pod Meets World.
Speaker 3: I'm Daniel, I'm right or Strong, and I'm Wilfredell.
Speaker 1: Before this week's guest even joins our zoom, he is
Speaker 1: Pod Meets World Royalty. We've gotten emails that sign off
Speaker 1: with the saying people have yelled it at us at conventions.
Speaker 1: The phrase Steve's having a baby went from a thirty
Speaker 1: year old inside joke to a memory we now share
Speaker 1: with all of you, said with the perfect amount of
Speaker 1: enthusiasm and yet the type of efficiency you'd expect from
Speaker 1: one of our favorite stage managers while talking about one
Speaker 1: of our other favorite stage managers. It's a phrase we
Speaker 1: will say to each other until the day that we die,
Speaker 1: and now maybe you'll remember for just as long until
Speaker 1: we die.
Speaker 2: And we have this week's guest to thank for it.
Speaker 3: Anything for sleep. See how Daniell equates it.
Speaker 1: I'm telling you he completes a holy trinity of sorts.
Speaker 1: The third interview of three stage managers that have special
Speaker 1: places in our hearts. He worked on the show for
Speaker 1: four and a half seasons, joining us not only near
Speaker 1: the beginning of his career, but from a legendary Hollywood
Speaker 1: family that made him a veteran before he even started
Speaker 1: working professionally. After leaving Us, he'd first a d for
Speaker 1: so many impressive shows, including a little program called How
Speaker 1: I Met Your Mother, where he worked for their entire
Speaker 1: run and got to direct for his first time during
Speaker 1: their fifth season, and with How great.
Speaker 2: He was on set.
Speaker 1: It came as no surprise to us that he went
Speaker 1: on to direct for shows like How I Met Your Father,
Speaker 1: The Thunderman's One Day at a Time, Men at Work,
Speaker 1: nine JKL, and School of Rock. And he's still out
Speaker 1: there helping make people laugh now on NBC's Happiest Place.
Speaker 1: An ironic title for a guy who brought smiles to
Speaker 1: our set every day. Please welcome to Pod Meets World.
Speaker 1: A man who can announce anyone's time of labor. It's
Speaker 1: Michael Shay. Are you wearing your Boy Meets World jacket?
Speaker 7: I am wearing my boy That's really nice.
Speaker 3: That's the good one.
Speaker 7: Aged.
Speaker 3: You haven't aged at all. My god, you look the same.
Speaker 3: He really does.
Speaker 7: It's only been like almost thirty years.
Speaker 2: Oh, it's pretty crazy. So good to see you, So
Speaker 2: good to see you.
Speaker 1: It is your first podcast appearance, but with the amount
Speaker 1: of times we have yelled Steve's having a baby, it's
Speaker 1: almost like you've been with us the entire time.
Speaker 8: It came up our second episode. We were recording our
Speaker 8: second episode and for some reason, Steve's having a baby
Speaker 8: came up, and yeah, that's become our catchphrase. The whole
Speaker 8: world over.
Speaker 7: I am here to go over the origin story of
Speaker 7: Steve a baby. Yeah, it's so exciting.
Speaker 1: Tell me tell the boys the story you told me.
Speaker 1: Michael Shaye and I ran into each other recently. He
Speaker 1: is working on Happy's Place for NBC and I was
Speaker 1: directing over at Lopez versus Lopez, and so they were
Speaker 1: NBC had a very nice like celebration of their comedies
Speaker 1: and Michael and I ran into each other there and
Speaker 1: you told me a very funny story about people stopping you.
Speaker 2: About that about that phrase, Oh.
Speaker 7: I two or three people have stopped me. Jaxon said,
Speaker 7: tell me tell me you're on You're on the podcast.
Speaker 7: You're on the podcast. And Isaaca app Taker is one
Speaker 7: of the executive producers of How I Met Your Father.
Speaker 7: He's a great writer and he loves Boy Meets World.
Speaker 7: Everything is Boy Meets World and his partner Elizabeth, and
Speaker 7: so every time it was on, he'd come down a
Speaker 7: stage and go, have you listened to the latest?
Speaker 9: Have you listened to that's correct?
Speaker 7: And Kelly Vaughan Harris also is one of the producers.
Speaker 7: I get so much attention when I go to a meeting,
Speaker 7: and I said, well, I was on Boy Meets World
Speaker 7: and heads turned. People come into the office, they want
Speaker 7: to hear everything. So I just feel very fortunate to
Speaker 7: have done on the show.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 2: So tell us.
Speaker 1: I think you came to us pretty early on in
Speaker 1: your career, right you You started on Full House.
Speaker 7: I did do a little Full House and we were
Speaker 7: day playing, like on Home Improvement, Full House, those kind
Speaker 7: of shows, And then I got lucky and started with
Speaker 7: the as a third on Boy Meets World. I think
Speaker 7: it was the second season, which I think this Jackets
Speaker 7: from the wonderful Arlene Grayson, producer was I remember her
Speaker 7: handing these out. But I was doing the background and
Speaker 7: David Humor was directing, and he wanted some he wanted
Speaker 7: everything in control, you know, David. And so we were
Speaker 7: on Stage two at Disney. It's a gigantic stage over there.
Speaker 7: You had trailers in the back. You were in school
Speaker 7: on the back with David and Wesley, and I was
Speaker 7: in another trailer with with these kids who were background,
Speaker 7: and we had a great season. I came in halfway
Speaker 7: through second season, and then the third season I started
Speaker 7: as the second stage manager.
Speaker 8: So was Lynn McCracken the first stage manager that okay, yeah,
Speaker 8: she did it all the way through the second season,
Speaker 8: I guess, and then was Steve already on board as
Speaker 8: the second stage manager.
Speaker 7: Was on board as the second So you guys both.
Speaker 8: Everybody just went up when Lynn left.
Speaker 7: And lucky enough to I was able to do that
Speaker 7: and then stayed the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth, and
Speaker 7: then I came back to do the seventh one episode okay,
Speaker 7: which turns out to be my favorite episode of all
Speaker 7: time as time goes by.
Speaker 3: Oh, yeah, I don't know what that was, Steve.
Speaker 8: That's the one that Steve steh he came in to
Speaker 8: take over him while he was direct.
Speaker 7: And it was I just watched it the other night.
Speaker 7: It is so good.
Speaker 2: Is it?
Speaker 3: Oh, we're not there yet. We're not there down there
Speaker 3: yet as a block.
Speaker 7: I'm telling you guys, you all look so fabulous in it.
Speaker 7: And it's so funny and and uh, it was just
Speaker 7: William Russ. It's just so funny with William did to
Speaker 7: get there and it's just so good.
Speaker 1: Okay, So will you do us a favor and explain
Speaker 1: for our dear listeners what is the job of both
Speaker 1: So that you said the third stage manager was working
Speaker 1: with the background, and when we talked to d D.
Speaker 2: D D explain that a little bit to us too.
Speaker 1: What is the job description of the second a D
Speaker 1: or the you know, the second stage manager.
Speaker 7: Well, it's a lot of paperwork. Of course, we have
Speaker 7: to put a call out and then do a production
Speaker 7: report at the end of the day. It's taking the
Speaker 7: first ad schedule and making it work, you know, Okay,
Speaker 7: you I remember were getting you know, you guys were
Speaker 7: in school a lot, and I remember going upstairs and
Speaker 7: waiting for you to get out of school and everyone
Speaker 7: to rehearsal. And really, I think any stage manager it's
Speaker 7: kind of setting the stage for the playground, if you would,
Speaker 7: if you will, for creative people to come down and play.
Speaker 9: Yea.
Speaker 7: So we're just kind of like creating the boundaries of that.
Speaker 7: You know, if you need to go go to costumes,
Speaker 7: or if you need to go to hair and makeup,
Speaker 7: we're scheduling that and then getting you there basically. So
Speaker 7: I remember a lot of times, you know, chasing you
Speaker 7: guys upstairs at CBS Radford rooms were upstairs. They were
Speaker 7: once we had cars.
Speaker 8: Everything got really and then we would like leave and
Speaker 8: take a long lunch lunch.
Speaker 7: I do remember that. I do. So really this the
Speaker 7: stage manager is just part of the production team, you know,
Speaker 7: and just making sure facilitating it and making sure everything's
Speaker 7: getting done. Really of being serviced to the creative team,
Speaker 7: you know, the directors, the writers, the actors.
Speaker 1: Wow, and so what when you first started working? What
Speaker 1: was your very first job? And were there child actors?
Speaker 1: Did you always work with child actors? Were we difficult
Speaker 1: to work with?
Speaker 9: Oh?
Speaker 7: No, no, absolutely not. You know, I kind of grew
Speaker 7: up in this business a little bit. So, you know,
Speaker 7: I spent a lot of members Silver Spoons great shows.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, Ricky Schroeder.
Speaker 7: So I was on that set a lot, which is
Speaker 7: at Universal Stage like forty three I think or something
Speaker 7: like that. So, and then I went to New York
Speaker 7: and I did a little soap operas there as an
Speaker 7: actor and then as a stage manager there One life
Speaker 7: to live so happened everywhere and anywhere?
Speaker 1: Really, Well, let me let me explain. So you you
Speaker 1: mentioned that you grew up in the industry. You come
Speaker 1: from quite a successful showbiz family. Your father, Jackshay, directed
Speaker 1: some of the most legendary sitcoms of all time, including
Speaker 1: one hundred and ten episodes of The Jeffersons and ninety
Speaker 1: one episodes of Silver Spoons and later became the president
Speaker 1: of the DGA from nineteen ninety seven to two thousand
Speaker 1: and two and then on this.
Speaker 8: Yes, I never knew any of that. I remember seeing
Speaker 8: you at DGA events once I got into the DGA.
Speaker 8: I remember seeing you and then you explained like, oh,
Speaker 8: I'm like a guy at the DGA, like my dad
Speaker 8: ran this. I was like, what are you talking about?
Speaker 8: So crazy to learn it. I had no idea when
Speaker 8: we worked with you back.
Speaker 7: Then, and that's that's just my dad.
Speaker 4: I know your mom Patricia, Yes, yes, she was a
Speaker 4: three time Human Eitis Award nominated screenwriter working on All
Speaker 4: in the Family, Cagney and Lacy and so much more.
Speaker 2: So that's so cool.
Speaker 7: You're making me blush. And it's really their love story.
Speaker 7: You know, they met in nineteen fifty two. I believe
Speaker 7: my mom was in college here in La at Immaculate Heart,
Speaker 7: and my dad went to a play that she was
Speaker 7: in and then working on, and the love story began,
Speaker 7: and you know they just went from there. So so cool.
Speaker 7: It is a Hollywood story.
Speaker 1: So growing up and being on set, did you always
Speaker 1: know you wanted to work in the entertainment industry. Did
Speaker 1: you start as an actor? Tell us your origin story,
Speaker 1: the start of your entertainment career.
Speaker 7: Well, I don't know if it's entertainment career, but yes,
Speaker 7: The Wonderful World of Disney had a Sunday night movie
Speaker 7: called and it was called The Monster of Strawberry Cove, Okay,
Speaker 7: And I was eight and my dad was directing, so
Speaker 7: I got to be in that. And then you know,
Speaker 7: I little parts. You know you're in there.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 7: He would do a pilot and there would be what
Speaker 7: we called an under five during the time, and I'd
Speaker 7: get to do the under five or something.
Speaker 6: Weren't you in eighteen again with George Burns? Oh my,
Speaker 6: I mean it's one of the good, the greatest films ever.
Speaker 7: I loved the movie. And I and Yep, Lady Orderly
Speaker 7: and the old woman who I get to work with.
Speaker 7: Every once in a while they pull the covers back
Speaker 7: and I go, she likes it that way. And then
Speaker 7: I continued down the gurney hall, you know, so I
Speaker 7: got to do that. I was the King of one liners.
Speaker 7: I was in Hell Hath No Fury with Loretta Switt
Speaker 7: from Mash oh yeah, yeah, well yes, yeah, hell hath
Speaker 7: no fury and I played a used car salesman, so
Speaker 7: a lot of those small, small roles. But then I
Speaker 7: moved back from New York looking for a job and
Speaker 7: I started stage managing and did home improvement kid married
Speaker 7: with Chill Wren, did a few other shows, and then
Speaker 7: I got lucky and I landed on boy Meet's World.
Speaker 7: That's yeah, thank you for bringing on my parents. I
Speaker 7: love talking about them. They're just it really truly is
Speaker 7: a love story.
Speaker 2: So great are they are?
Speaker 3: They both still with us, They.
Speaker 7: Are both passed, which even you know when they do pass,
Speaker 7: just all you do is want to talk about them.
Speaker 2: So yes, so I.
Speaker 7: Get to do that.
Speaker 6: So were you when you were starting in the industry.
Speaker 6: Were you more drawn to being in front of the
Speaker 6: camera or did you know you were always going to
Speaker 6: end up like your dad, like, you know, behind the
Speaker 6: scenes and directing things and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 7: A little bit of both. I think I had more
Speaker 7: in front of the camera desires when I was young,
Speaker 7: even when I become an old guy, you know, and
Speaker 7: he's there. But I think you know, a director or writer,
Speaker 7: an actor, all those creative places is where I wanted
Speaker 7: to be you know, so yeah, yeah, but I started
Speaker 7: as an actor. I remember seeing some being in the
Speaker 7: audience of seeing some warm up and I went, oh,
Speaker 7: I could I'd like that job. Oh I never got there,
Speaker 7: but I saw myself as acting, and I went to
Speaker 7: New York and went to Circle in the Square and
Speaker 7: did some off off off Broadway before I returned to
Speaker 7: Los Angeles. But it was all a wonderful time.
Speaker 1: So what do you what do you think some lessons
Speaker 1: you learned from your parents about making TV? What do
Speaker 1: you think are some lessons you brought with you then
Speaker 1: into your role as stage manager on Boy Meets World.
Speaker 7: You know, they might have come later on in my life,
Speaker 7: the lessons, but I don't. I think they definitely came
Speaker 7: from my father and my mother. But you know, leave
Speaker 7: your ego at the door.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I got a.
Speaker 7: Stage And that's a big one because constantly we're talking
Speaker 7: and figuring out things. So that was a big one.
Speaker 7: Is always leave your door, leave your eager at the door.
Speaker 7: And I tell you, when I walk onto a stage,
Speaker 7: I just look around a lot of mornings and I
Speaker 7: just go, I get to do this, Yeah, I get
Speaker 7: to do this. And you know. I'll quote my friend
Speaker 7: Sean Wheeler. He would come up to me and say, Mike,
Speaker 7: they feed us, we laugh all day, and they give
Speaker 7: us a check at the end. And really it's when
Speaker 7: you learn, when you figure out, oh, this is a
Speaker 7: great place to be, just you're grateful, and that's probably
Speaker 7: what is a big lesson for me. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So you were on our show for four and
Speaker 2: a half seasons, right.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I think so? Yeah, what are.
Speaker 2: Some of your favorite memories?
Speaker 1: Will save Steve's having a baby, I want the whole
Speaker 1: story about that at the end, But other than Steve's
Speaker 1: having a baby, what are some of your favorite memories
Speaker 1: from from your time on Boy?
Speaker 7: Well, I do remember laughing a lot, absolutely. But when
Speaker 7: I got a chance to talk to Steve Hayfer last
Speaker 7: week a little bit and the audience show was crazy incredible.
Speaker 7: I mean it was just was it Mitch who did
Speaker 7: the w Ye Mitch Danielle. It was like the Beatles
Speaker 7: have arrived. I don't know if you remember this, but
Speaker 7: but I would follow you out and you would say
Speaker 7: a loo to the audience, and I mean that we
Speaker 7: had everybody and they were just it was for me,
Speaker 7: it was the beginning of how intense audience shows can be. Now, yeah,
Speaker 7: you're probably used to it now with Lopez versus Lopez
Speaker 7: and and just keeping that audience energy up. I came
Speaker 7: from like audiences being kind of watch and just when
Speaker 7: the light come on, applause and left. Yeah, but I
Speaker 7: remember the audience shows being just.
Speaker 8: Some raucous yea.
Speaker 7: Raucus is the word.
Speaker 8: Because they were young too. I mean, we think about it,
Speaker 8: you know, and I think, yeah, whenever the audience showed up,
Speaker 8: it was like, oh, right, we're a show, We're a
Speaker 8: hit show. There are there there are fans out there,
Speaker 8: because you know, we would walk through the world and
Speaker 8: nobody would recognize No adults recognize us anywhere, so we
Speaker 8: you know, but when you got around kids, it was
Speaker 8: a different story teenagers.
Speaker 7: Wasn't there an entire family that would show up every week?
Speaker 6: We have a family, yeah, the Sheer family. Yeah, they
Speaker 6: would come on every week, yep.
Speaker 7: And they were people would come to watch. Yeah, it
Speaker 7: was quite an event. And and there was a dance
Speaker 7: member a number that you guys did I love it.
Speaker 7: There was so much to that, so I remember that
Speaker 7: very fondly. I remember, you know, you know, Steve and
Speaker 7: d D. They were just so fabulous to work with.
Speaker 6: Ye.
Speaker 7: But I remember going to the wrestling episode doing the
Speaker 7: wrestling episode, Yes, I don't think I was. Man.
Speaker 8: You having to send me and Ben back out there.
Speaker 7: Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3: I never forget you just being like you gotta go
Speaker 3: back because we.
Speaker 8: Had to do an extra take and we all we
Speaker 8: all thought we wouldn't have to do it. Abandoned me
Speaker 8: just so terrified and seeing your face.
Speaker 7: Like yelling yeah. But also Vader said, before the audience
Speaker 7: was there and it was a real audience, I mean
Speaker 7: it wasn't.
Speaker 2: We didn't exactly.
Speaker 7: And Vader said, before we go out, he said, hey,
Speaker 7: you know they tend to throw things at us and
Speaker 7: try the way out, and I'm like, and then it's like,
Speaker 7: so we're ducking, We're running. It was crazy.
Speaker 1: Perhaps you can clear something up for us. Will seems
Speaker 1: to have a memory that for a part of the show.
Speaker 1: At some point some of the audience that was brought
Speaker 1: in for our live tapings were inmates literal.
Speaker 3: Like one work release or prisoner.
Speaker 7: Be surprised, really, I would not be. I'm not going
Speaker 7: to confirm that, but I would not be surprised.
Speaker 8: Would that have been for our Wednesday tapings because remember
Speaker 8: we started doing Wednesday audiences because we normally had a
Speaker 8: Thursday night show. But then we started bringing in an
Speaker 8: audience for our Wednesday tapeings. It was like a smaller audience,
Speaker 8: and I thought they were busting in kids like from schools,
Speaker 8: and Will thinks that they were inmates.
Speaker 7: I could go along with that. I don't know.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, oh.
Speaker 10: My gosh, will you finally have you have a little
Speaker 10: bit of support have caught years and rations of I
Speaker 10: mean it could have been young, juvenile inmates.
Speaker 3: I have no idea.
Speaker 7: I love you. But also I remember such a family
Speaker 7: feel to the show.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, and there's nothing like jail to make you
Speaker 1: feel like family.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 1: When I think jail, I think family.
Speaker 7: I mean on stage, you know, yeah, feeling of family
Speaker 7: when we did an audience show.
Speaker 1: So yes, those were those were some of the best
Speaker 1: days we have talked so much about. There's that unimitable
Speaker 1: energy of a live studio audience where it's just all
Speaker 1: the work you've done throughout the week as a family,
Speaker 1: like you're talking about, where all week it's just us
Speaker 1: and how you know you and Steve and Dee d
Speaker 1: And and Mark Pabson were kind of our first audience.
Speaker 1: You're the people to see the show, and you let
Speaker 1: us know if it's funny, and we work on it
Speaker 1: all week and then that audience.
Speaker 8: That was really Yeah, that's what I remember, you know,
Speaker 8: the sense of like comfort that we had just we
Speaker 8: are small, little you know, dozen people, I mean, and
Speaker 8: especially near the end when we were switching directors constantly,
Speaker 8: it was like, you guys, you and Steve were like
Speaker 8: really our rocks, you know, as far as like who
Speaker 8: the faces we saw every day and who knew us
Speaker 8: the best and knew our routines.
Speaker 7: You know.
Speaker 6: It was amazing how how fast the stage went from
Speaker 6: feeling empty and cavernous to tiny impact because you we
Speaker 6: would go from there be like you, like writer said,
Speaker 6: there'd be fifteen of us on stage total, the whole
Speaker 6: the whole crew, everything all day just in this echoe
Speaker 6: chamber to you know, running out the show and then
Speaker 6: all of a sudden, there's hundreds of people there. There's
Speaker 6: people backstage, there's people getting food, there's people and all
Speaker 6: of a sudden it's this tiny little area.
Speaker 3: It was in credible how it changed so fast.
Speaker 7: Yeah, during the beginning of the week. It starts on
Speaker 7: a page and then you guys bring life to it,
Speaker 7: and then all the elements come and all the production
Speaker 7: teams start working. And I have to say I did
Speaker 7: look at some episodes. The costumes were amazing. Yeah, you
Speaker 7: guys looked fabulous in it, and it was so well written,
Speaker 7: and then you guys get a hold of it and
Speaker 7: make it so much better throughout the week. And that's
Speaker 7: what's great about half hour sitcoms.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's so much fun.
Speaker 1: Okay, so let's tell the full story about Steve's having
Speaker 1: a bank.
Speaker 7: I don't know, but I think it was a very
Speaker 7: topanga Christmas, was it not?
Speaker 3: Thank you Roch.
Speaker 7: I think it's the one hundredth episode.
Speaker 3: I believe never even thought about it.
Speaker 1: We did talk about have we passed our hundredth episode,
Speaker 1: yet at this point we didn't know exactly which one
Speaker 1: it would have been. But you're right, it would have
Speaker 1: been around the time of a a very manga Christmas.
Speaker 7: I think so. I think so, and I think.
Speaker 5: It was my I tend to do this even to
Speaker 5: this day, is kind of say something odd and everyone
Speaker 5: does the switch pan over, you know, the head turn,
Speaker 5: and it kind of just stops him for a moment
Speaker 5: and then we can get.
Speaker 7: Back on track and start working. So yes, it was
Speaker 7: my attempt to do that, just to have everyone kind
Speaker 7: of like, okay, subtle and it worked, and it did
Speaker 7: didn't work. I heard it continued on.
Speaker 8: So I still to this day, if I'm trying to
Speaker 8: get my son out the door, I.
Speaker 7: Quote you, I'll be like, help.
Speaker 6: Us out, help us, help us out, and let's.
Speaker 8: Go out the door.
Speaker 3: Help us out, help us out. I still say, because.
Speaker 7: It's like I think of you every day because I
Speaker 7: just love it. It's the best way because.
Speaker 8: It's like, come on, we're all in this together.
Speaker 7: Help us. Just like you said, you get everybody.
Speaker 8: On the same page with like calling out something. It's
Speaker 8: it's an important part of the job to like, you know,
Speaker 8: your rallying the troops. You're like, we gotta go do this,
Speaker 8: we gotta all be moving, help us out.
Speaker 7: I love it, really is that, Yeah, exactly. Oh god,
Speaker 7: that was so much fun because I think I came in,
Speaker 7: I had already left and this was I think a
Speaker 7: later season, right, No, No, I'm sorry, I was there,
Speaker 7: and then Steve was just having of course having a
Speaker 7: baby that week right, but uh, but no, I continue
Speaker 7: on saying saying those lines. Uh, you know, is everybody happy?
Speaker 7: You know, you got a lot of Every morning I
Speaker 7: start with saying hello one to one of the Dolly
Speaker 7: Grips on my show, I've done it for the last
Speaker 7: since how I Met your mother? So and I go, uh,
Speaker 7: good morning, Billy. We got a lot of work to
Speaker 7: ed to day and it just your voice.
Speaker 8: Hit the notes exactly. It's like bringing me right by.
Speaker 7: Scenes to do. But we've got a lot of work
Speaker 7: to today. So Melissa Pieterman on my show Now Happiest
Speaker 7: Place Loves to Go, we got all through.
Speaker 4: Yeah, announcing the run through time one thirty run through,
Speaker 4: just letting.
Speaker 7: The actors and all the departments know we got some
Speaker 7: stuff to do before.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: It helps focus everyone in a way that doesn't feel
Speaker 1: like you're trying to stop the fun. You're just trying
Speaker 1: to focus the energy, which is you know, especially on
Speaker 1: a cast with a lot of young actors, it can
Speaker 1: be like hurting sheep. And if you are, if you
Speaker 1: make them feel bad or like they you know, you're.
Speaker 8: Just confrontational anyway, Yes, hey, hey, pay attention. You know,
Speaker 8: if you're like calling people out individually. It can go
Speaker 8: wrong so quickly. You need to be like, it's all
Speaker 8: of those we're all in this together, and I'm working hard,
Speaker 8: you're working hard, and it's so great. I've definitely I've
Speaker 8: missed that on other sets, you know, Like I remember
Speaker 8: leaving Boy Meets World and going onto other sets and
Speaker 8: like people are yellers in like a really negative way,
Speaker 8: like stage managers who just want to bark at people
Speaker 8: or call somebody out individually, and it never works. You
Speaker 8: had such a great tone. You and Steve and Dedie
Speaker 8: all just created such a positive environment. It always felt
Speaker 8: fun and like it never felt like we were being
Speaker 8: shushed or told to like focus. It was just like
Speaker 8: we're all doing this together.
Speaker 2: It was so good.
Speaker 7: Yeah, it was a lot of fun, and the spirit
Speaker 7: of fun is so important for rehearsal and shooting, especially
Speaker 7: if you're creative. You know, you can't be stifled that way.
Speaker 7: So it's it's important to keep that fun and then
Speaker 7: keep the ball moving exactly, cameras rolling, and it's that
Speaker 7: combination that really works, especially on a half hour. It's
Speaker 7: really just if they're having fun on stage, then the
Speaker 7: audience is having fun watching it. So Yeah, that's always
Speaker 7: important to remember, for at least for me to remember. Yeah.
Speaker 6: There there's also something really interesting that I don't think
Speaker 6: I realized until I was much older, where we've talked
Speaker 6: about how a lot of the drama or anything that
Speaker 6: was going on upstairs in the writer's room with producers
Speaker 6: was kept from us.
Speaker 3: We were purposely that was never thrown in our face.
Speaker 6: Nobody wanted us to deal with that drama, and it
Speaker 6: was really the three of you that were the buffer
Speaker 6: and the barrier between that world and our world.
Speaker 3: And I'm just.
Speaker 6: Curious if you remember any times where it was like, Okay,
Speaker 6: this is happening, but we're gonna do this instead, and
Speaker 6: we're gonna talk to the kids like this because we
Speaker 6: don't want them to know what's going on over here.
Speaker 7: Yeah. I knew there was stuff going on, but you know,
Speaker 7: they were all great writers up there, sure, and they
Speaker 7: would come down for run through. I don't really remember
Speaker 7: anything that was too crazy, you know that we had
Speaker 7: to keep you guys from. It was pretty straightforward. I
Speaker 7: mean when they came down, they wouldn't come down during
Speaker 7: the day. I don't think we saw no or Howard
Speaker 7: or Nolment or anybody and then so yeah, they would
Speaker 7: come down and then it would be all smiles, and no,
Speaker 7: I think they really I remember Judy Tole as a
Speaker 7: wonderful Yeah, she was amazing. She was so funny. But no,
Speaker 7: I don't remember holding back or anything like that.
Speaker 9: Okay, good, Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: You mentioned the wrestling episode and what that was like
Speaker 1: and how and those hardships. Do you have any other
Speaker 1: episodes that you remember standing out as maybe being hard
Speaker 1: to manage or just particularly difficult.
Speaker 2: For any particular reason.
Speaker 1: Are there any episodes that really stand out to you
Speaker 1: as being maybe disasters?
Speaker 5: No?
Speaker 6: Oh, I.
Speaker 7: Can't think of any. I do have my top five episodes.
Speaker 2: Okay, let's talk about your top five.
Speaker 3: Yes, please bring them out.
Speaker 2: Let's bring them out.
Speaker 7: Well, top five and you know, sixteen candles and four
Speaker 7: hundred pounds.
Speaker 2: Then okay, you're wrestling one right, yep, yep.
Speaker 7: And then I came across which I saw a little
Speaker 7: extra cameo of this one on Starry Night.
Speaker 8: You're in your Starry Night Rose to Hollywood?
Speaker 7: Do you remember remember watched it?
Speaker 2: Wait?
Speaker 3: Are you so Eric goes to Hollywood?
Speaker 1: When we is it like when we're talking about the
Speaker 1: when we're having the living room set and the camera
Speaker 1: pans out to the camera isle, are you there?
Speaker 7: I did see that, of course that but no, I'm
Speaker 7: outside when you roll up on the golf cart, I'm like,
Speaker 7: that's me.
Speaker 6: That's so funny, awesome, Oh man, that is such a funny.
Speaker 7: Will you were amazing, sweet, thank you amazing. So I
Speaker 7: was My wife and I were enjoying that episode the
Speaker 7: other night. It was so much fun. And then you
Speaker 7: with Bill Daniels, just the way with you just just
Speaker 7: just being around him.
Speaker 6: You just wanted to do everything you could to impress
Speaker 6: him and to not you know, like you just want
Speaker 6: to be okay around Bill.
Speaker 3: So yeah, man.
Speaker 7: And what a what a lesson in acting? I would imagine,
Speaker 7: Oh it was somebody like him.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you just had to watch him.
Speaker 7: Yep. So remember always being a real good guy and
Speaker 7: real uh tender heart you know. Yeah. But number three,
Speaker 7: of course a very pang Christmas, yes.
Speaker 6: Which I did research. You are one hundred percent correct.
Speaker 6: That was our hundredth episode. Was was very topanga Christmas.
Speaker 7: Yes, I got that from Steve Papers, So good props
Speaker 7: when you know, let's do yeah, no guts, no, Corey.
Speaker 8: Yes.
Speaker 2: The World War two episode, right.
Speaker 7: I love this and I remember this episode, and I
Speaker 7: remember the effects that we had and when Corey goes
Speaker 7: jumping over the wall and but my favorite line, oh
Speaker 7: my gosh, I've got flat feet and I'm too ticklish
Speaker 7: Will And I'm playing that over and over again the
Speaker 7: other night, going this is so funny. I mean, take
Speaker 7: something on the page.
Speaker 3: You make it so much pain, No, thank you.
Speaker 7: And then number one as time goes by, which was
Speaker 7: the Steve paper.
Speaker 3: Oh, I can't wait to see that one.
Speaker 6: I remember feeling really bad for Steve that week because
Speaker 6: great guy, amazing, but talk about thrown in the deep end.
Speaker 6: He just wanted to direct an episode. We all wanted
Speaker 6: him to direct an episode, and then the one they
Speaker 6: give him is this he omage black and white. There's
Speaker 6: a facts, there's a whole bunch of extras, there's new sets.
Speaker 6: I mean, I remember all of us just being like,
Speaker 6: oh my god.
Speaker 8: He was remember he's unflappable, and I remember it being
Speaker 8: totally cool.
Speaker 7: It was and he went on to such a great career.
Speaker 7: Betsy on the piano singing the song. I mean, I
Speaker 7: know you guys haven't gotten there yet, but.
Speaker 3: I remember that episode though, I fully remember that week.
Speaker 7: You led, You led everybody because you were the Raymond Chandler.
Speaker 6: That's the man. I remember Danielle and I having a
Speaker 6: great selling together, got to work together.
Speaker 3: Finally, I remember really enjoying.
Speaker 7: That brider behind the bar.
Speaker 8: You know, no recollection, no idea, and I've never seen Casablanca,
Speaker 8: so I had no idea. No, no, I'll watch it
Speaker 8: with how much you want for the film you've seen. It's
Speaker 8: one of you know, it's it's one of those things
Speaker 8: I've kind of absorbed without having to see it. But no,
Speaker 8: I've never watched it all the way through. I've seen,
Speaker 8: you know obviously, scenes and parts, and I know a
Speaker 8: lot about it.
Speaker 6: I'm shocked, shocked there's gambling in this establishment.
Speaker 2: Shocked.
Speaker 7: Oh man, amazing. And then Ben Ben in that episode
Speaker 7: would go, is everybody happy.
Speaker 9: And everybody have it?
Speaker 11: Rory man that those were my top five?
Speaker 6: Oh that's great.
Speaker 7: Yes, I love Look, you know going back and watching
Speaker 7: these episodes and they they stand up. I'm telling you,
Speaker 7: they are so funny. And these moments that you know,
Speaker 7: oh my gosh, you and Ben, I mean, you're like
Speaker 7: when you guys connect, daniel just amazing.
Speaker 2: So thank you.
Speaker 6: I have a question for you because I'm I'm I
Speaker 6: love television. I mean, I'm just a television halic. It's
Speaker 6: my it's my world, it's my was my best friend
Speaker 6: growing up. And it's so nice to be able to
Speaker 6: talk to somebody that was there back in the day
Speaker 6: on sitcom sets when sitcom was king as well it
Speaker 6: should be again, what can you tell us how different
Speaker 6: were the sets in you know, say the eighties, like
Speaker 6: Silver Spoons or the Jefferson's.
Speaker 3: How different were those sets then than they are now?
Speaker 7: Well, they were. They were so pascenium. They weren't that deep,
Speaker 7: you know, I mean I remember silver Spoons nowadays, I
Speaker 7: mean the sets are deep and there's hallways now. Yeah.
Speaker 7: But yeah, so they weren't that deep. There weren't that
Speaker 7: many swing sets, you know. I mean silver Spoons had
Speaker 7: had a Hamburger spot yep, that they all went to.
Speaker 7: But uh, and their living room I mean it's living
Speaker 7: living room comedy, right yeah, so uh and and all
Speaker 7: in the family and all those were living room comedies.
Speaker 7: The sets weren't that deep, so that's a big difference.
Speaker 7: Lighting was simpler and a lot more flat than it
Speaker 7: is now. And then we went from I mean three
Speaker 7: camera everyone calls it the three camera style to four
Speaker 7: camera and then even I think maybe on on Tim's
Speaker 7: news show that they have Tim Allen's new show they
Speaker 7: have maybe even have a fifth cam. I don't know,
Speaker 7: but he was the.
Speaker 1: One that they the jib plays as the fourth camera.
Speaker 1: It doesn't, it's it doesn't get added as a fifth.
Speaker 1: We can't have a fifth if we need it. But
Speaker 1: the jib is just one of the four cameras.
Speaker 7: Nottcha so uh, which is a game changer in terms
Speaker 7: of the beverage. But because you can cover a hallway
Speaker 7: or something like that, or upstage line, that makes it
Speaker 7: you know, we back in the day it was all
Speaker 7: you know, in front of the couch.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 7: It was all a couch comedy basically. But I think
Speaker 7: that was a big difference. There are a lot deeper sets, man.
Speaker 2: The tim the shifting gears sets are so deep, that's.
Speaker 6: What you're saying, Yeah, because you're right, silver spoons. I
Speaker 6: mean they're supposed to be in a luxury mansion.
Speaker 9: In the show.
Speaker 6: Two bedroom, which was the coolest thing in the world,
Speaker 6: was just like a bedroom. It's like it's a pretty
Speaker 6: basic bedroom so.
Speaker 7: The basic room where they walked into it's like, oh okay.
Speaker 3: Yeah right, yeah, never thought about that.
Speaker 7: And then the train that went down.
Speaker 3: Still the coolest thing ever.
Speaker 6: Oh, everybody wanted to every kid wanted to train in
Speaker 6: the room when you when you saw that.
Speaker 7: Oh, and then the pac Man machine and all the arcades.
Speaker 7: I have the pac Man machine in my office out here.
Speaker 3: Wait, you have the original Silver Spoons.
Speaker 7: Pack machine, the original pot wow.
Speaker 3: Television history right there was great.
Speaker 7: Yeah, And one of my kids friends came over and go,
Speaker 7: oh god, that's a pac Man machine. Oh man, they
Speaker 7: had one on Silver Spoon. I used to watch it
Speaker 7: all the time, like, that's the one on something.
Speaker 8: Did you take anything from Boy Me to World? Do
Speaker 8: you have anything from the set?
Speaker 7: Proper?
Speaker 8: Uh?
Speaker 7: Nobody. I my my son. He goes to Notre Dame.
Speaker 7: He wears the black Do you guys remember the black hoodie?
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, sure.
Speaker 7: He got a lot of play with that one.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah.
Speaker 7: Everyone would say that is the coolest sweatshirt. So the
Speaker 7: other night I said, do you know where that sweatshirt is?
Speaker 7: It's gone?
Speaker 3: Yeah some girls.
Speaker 7: Exactly exactly, But no, that was my treasure that I
Speaker 7: got from Silver spoons.
Speaker 2: That's incredible.
Speaker 6: So you had a son who went to Notre Dame,
Speaker 6: so you you're raising unintelligent children as well.
Speaker 7: He's graduating from Notre Dame this year, and then my
Speaker 7: other son is hopefully joining Notre Dame next year.
Speaker 6: Wow.
Speaker 2: That's wonderful.
Speaker 9: What happens man.
Speaker 1: We like to ask all members of the production staff
Speaker 1: that were able to interview, do you have any memorable
Speaker 1: interactions with William Daniels.
Speaker 7: Uh No. I used to meet him at the car
Speaker 7: a lot. I mean, you know, yeah, I.
Speaker 2: Just so he'd arrive and you'd be standing out this.
Speaker 3: Jaguar in his Jaguar every morning. Yeah.
Speaker 7: No, it's always very proper. I just remember him taking
Speaker 7: me to the side and for a Christmas gift and
Speaker 7: just and having that moment with him.
Speaker 2: Oh what was the gift?
Speaker 7: I think it was a bottle of Scotch, which I
Speaker 7: don't particularly drink. No, it was something like that. But
Speaker 7: I just remember having that one on one and I'm
Speaker 7: such a huge fan. Yeah, I'm still working with him.
Speaker 7: I'm such a huge fan. So to have that one
Speaker 7: on one with him, just for a moment.
Speaker 2: Was just yeah.
Speaker 7: Yeah, And I see him on with your podcast here,
Speaker 7: and it's so great to see him.
Speaker 1: He's still doing so well. He looks great. It's always
Speaker 1: We absolutely love seeing him every time we see him.
Speaker 1: Do you have a favorite director you liked working with
Speaker 1: on Boy Meets World?
Speaker 7: Well, I would say Jeff McCracken first of all. Let
Speaker 7: me back up Steve Afer.
Speaker 2: Of course, of course, Steve.
Speaker 7: Jeff McCracken comes to mind, you know, mostly I mean,
Speaker 7: did John Tracy come over there?
Speaker 8: I know, yeah, he did the pilot and then he
Speaker 8: came back for maybe two.
Speaker 7: Yeah. But David Traynor, Oh my gosh, I love working
Speaker 7: with David Trainor. Yeah, and I love to see him
Speaker 7: every once in a while as well. I know he's
Speaker 7: been on but love his style of directing. They were
Speaker 7: all so good, so I know, I don't know how
Speaker 7: many more you had during that time, but yeah, yeah,
Speaker 7: David Traynor and Jeff McCracken and the whole gang. Steve Hafer.
Speaker 1: You mentioned obviously that you got to talk to Steve
Speaker 1: last week. Do you keep in touch with anyone else
Speaker 1: from the show, Well, I do, and.
Speaker 7: I'm going Joey McLean McClean. I'm gonna mess up her
Speaker 7: last name. She was a background artist, and now she
Speaker 7: is a dialogue coach and a stand in. She worked
Speaker 7: all the way through How I Met Your Mother. Wow,
Speaker 7: happiest place over at right now at Universal and watching
Speaker 7: the episodes, you can always see her in the classroom.
Speaker 8: So really we have to know who she is. I
Speaker 8: think I'm remembering Okay, yeah, I want to see her
Speaker 8: face because I think it will come back.
Speaker 7: Oh my god, she's doing it and she's still working,
Speaker 7: you know, and still doing David. A couple of other
Speaker 7: stand ins are still you know, Ryan Wilcox I think
Speaker 7: was with us over there. Look, I'm mentioning all these names,
Speaker 7: but but there's still going at and standing in and
Speaker 7: doing dialogue coaching and getting a line every once in
Speaker 7: a while and really really still working.
Speaker 2: So please connect us to Joey We We would love to.
Speaker 1: We'd love to connect with her, see who she was
Speaker 1: on in the show and get a visual of he
Speaker 1: that would be really cool.
Speaker 7: She is when I see I watched a couple of
Speaker 7: episodes she's throughout.
Speaker 1: So so then you moved into directing. When did you
Speaker 1: get to direct your first episode?
Speaker 7: I think it was the fourth season of How I
Speaker 7: Met Your Mother? Okay, and then stayed, of course with
Speaker 7: the show, but got a couple you know, here and
Speaker 7: there throughout the seasons, and then made the rounds and
Speaker 7: did the whole all the various shows and then yeah,
Speaker 7: just keeping at it, you know, I go back and
Speaker 7: forth from first ad to director. Yeah, as long as
Speaker 7: it's a creative process and someone's making me laugh, I
Speaker 7: will show up.
Speaker 6: Yeah, well, how I met your mother is? I mean,
Speaker 6: the cast over there were just so good and so funny.
Speaker 6: What was it like directing them because I mean, my god,
Speaker 6: they've all gone on to do incredible things just because
Speaker 6: they were so talented.
Speaker 3: Wasn't ensemble? What was that like?
Speaker 7: Well, it truly is a lot of fun. And what
Speaker 7: we did was we shot three days out of the week. Really,
Speaker 7: we do our production meeting and a kind of a
Speaker 7: bit of a rehearsal on Monday Tuesday. We'd put the
Speaker 7: whole entire thing up on it on its feet, and
Speaker 7: a lot of it was outside on the back lot
Speaker 7: of Fox, and a lot of it was scheduling because
Speaker 7: you know, Jason Siegel was doing movies. They were all
Speaker 7: you know, Neil had a busy schedule, Kobe had a
Speaker 7: busy schedule, on. Alison had a big, busy schedule, but
Speaker 7: Pamela Freeman really helmed the majority of those episodes. I
Speaker 7: think she directed pretty much somewhere near two hundred sez. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 7: But the show could not have been done without her,
Speaker 7: without just sensibility and her comedy sense and her ability
Speaker 7: just to like get get the scene and know that
Speaker 7: she had it and then move on me when I
Speaker 7: was doing and I'm like, let's go again. But it
Speaker 7: was a lot of fun directing all those guys, and
Speaker 7: and we still keep in touch, and it's it's just
Speaker 7: a great group.
Speaker 6: Do you think please help me out here, help help
Speaker 6: me out Michael, Please. Do you think sitcom will ever
Speaker 6: get back to where it was back in the day.
Speaker 7: That is a great question, and I pondered that question
Speaker 7: a lot. Actually, I'm hopeful. I'm hopeful. Uh you know,
Speaker 7: I could go really to take a deep dive in it.
Speaker 7: It's it's the new stories that are coming. As long
Speaker 7: as people are telling new stories and we have some
Speaker 7: writers who can get the cadence and the rhythm of
Speaker 7: a sitcom, you know, I'm very hopeful because it's all
Speaker 7: about the new stories about what's happening in the latest
Speaker 7: living room or bedroom or wherever that living room comedy sense.
Speaker 7: I think we went a you know, far away from it,
Speaker 7: and I think we're coming back. And I think a
Speaker 7: lot of children's television, you know, with all the effects
Speaker 7: and all those things kind of came in, you know,
Speaker 7: Lopez versus Lopez. It's people talking in a living room. Yeah,
Speaker 7: father daughter stuff. You know. I'm so lucky to be
Speaker 7: on Happy's place because they are such great writers and
Speaker 7: the whole group over there. It's people coming to a
Speaker 7: bar and talking and making funny.
Speaker 8: Yeah.
Speaker 7: My favorite thing is making funny, you know. Yeah, things
Speaker 7: like that when you find it on the page. I'm
Speaker 7: telling you, Boy meets World, you can imagine it on
Speaker 7: the page. And then when you guys got it, I
Speaker 7: don't know where you guys got all this incredible timing,
Speaker 7: you know. I mean it was from even from season
Speaker 7: two three. This you guys just took something on a
Speaker 7: page and made it so good. It had a lot
Speaker 7: of great elements. So yes, I'm hopeful.
Speaker 9: Yeah, me too, Me too.
Speaker 7: I think you guys should go pitch a story to Isaac. Isaac,
Speaker 7: and it's not a bad idea, yeah idea, because I
Speaker 7: think you know, our audiences are of our TV audiences
Speaker 7: are you know, yes, our age but forties, you know
Speaker 7: all that.
Speaker 1: So yeah, well a lot of our a lot of
Speaker 1: our Boy Meets World fans were also How I Met
Speaker 1: your Mother fans and so could you share a favorite
Speaker 1: behind the scenes memory or story from that show? So
Speaker 1: for everyone listening just to hear a BTS story from
Speaker 1: another show they love that isn't ours.
Speaker 7: Oh my gosh, so many stories. We had such great
Speaker 7: departments there. I mean I remember that I had. It
Speaker 7: was an episode that I was doing. They had to
Speaker 7: take a tie and a bird had to swing down
Speaker 7: and grab the tie's going out, and I'm like, no,
Speaker 7: my dear, how we're going to shoot this. I don't
Speaker 7: know what's going to work. And our prop department was
Speaker 7: able to figure it out, fake bird coming and grabbing
Speaker 7: it and then swinging it out, and it looked real
Speaker 7: and it was just amazing.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh.
Speaker 7: You know, we went on location. After location, we went
Speaker 7: to Zooma Beach and shot a great episode there with
Speaker 7: Kobe Smolder singing a song. I remember a rain scene
Speaker 7: where they come out after the hurricane, I think, and
Speaker 7: they're dancing in the rain, and that's not the easiest
Speaker 7: thing to shoot, yeah, because we don't want to dry
Speaker 7: them off, but you know, going uh and of course
Speaker 7: they're like, get move on on this. That was a
Speaker 7: lot of fun. Just Oh. My favorite is we're on
Speaker 7: the back lot. Kobe has to be on a BMX
Speaker 7: bike and jump over a series of cars. Oh my gosh,
Speaker 7: and how is this going to work? And it's a stunt,
Speaker 7: it's a crazy stunt. And we had this stunt person
Speaker 7: and I'm talking at least four cars, five cars, b
Speaker 7: AMX bike running running stop hold, you know, get the
Speaker 7: stunt person in and do it. And then of course
Speaker 7: the one hundredth episode, we're on New York doing a
Speaker 7: dance number. It was unbelievable. We did it. And we'd
Speaker 7: have to shoot this stuff in three days, two days,
Speaker 7: maybe we'd have a day on the back lot, come
Speaker 7: back in. We had forty or fifty pop scenes like
Speaker 7: they were just quick pops, and then we'd surround those
Speaker 7: with scenes from the apartment or scenes from the apartment
Speaker 7: the bar, and then intercut with these pop scenes. So
Speaker 7: it was it was a to do every week.
Speaker 8: You guys ever shot in front of an audience with
Speaker 8: that show.
Speaker 7: Ever shot in front of an audience, It's always quite
Speaker 7: the challenge and schedule. I mean they were such a
Speaker 7: busy cast. Yeah, yeah, doing their own projects and promoting
Speaker 7: the show, which I'm all like, you know, when people
Speaker 7: come for interviews and things like that, I'm like, no,
Speaker 7: the more promotion a show can get better for everybody. Yeah,
Speaker 7: keep it going.
Speaker 6: Did the stunt person actually jump cars on a BMX bike?
Speaker 7: Yeah, That's what I was amazed about, you know. And
Speaker 7: I'm always crossing my as the first aide. Of course,
Speaker 7: my fingers just going, you know, and then did we
Speaker 7: get it? Did we get it? No, let's go again.
Speaker 7: And then of course the rain. We had rain. They
Speaker 7: loved to shoot. They would love to write the rain,
Speaker 7: whether it was inside on the stage or outside. I
Speaker 7: can't let my actors get drenched without wah, getting drenched.
Speaker 7: I had my little yellow cap on, my little yello
Speaker 7: at the jacket, you know, and Allison would wave.
Speaker 8: Me in like, come on, come on, get the water, get.
Speaker 7: Wet like the rest of us. We're all running around.
Speaker 7: But things with just working with animal working with dogs
Speaker 7: on the Huhed episode, you know, and they have to
Speaker 7: go on queue to something and for it to happen.
Speaker 7: I'm just I'm like all bright eyed because you know,
Speaker 7: big smiles because of it. If an animal actually does
Speaker 7: what it's supposed to do, it's just an amazing feat.
Speaker 1: So, yes, Michael, I want you to you can admit
Speaker 1: something to us. Now tell me it's thirty years later.
Speaker 1: You can feel comfortable telling us the truth. Did you
Speaker 1: hate the Backstreet Boys bit that the guys did during
Speaker 1: the live taping because it would completely screw up the schedule?
Speaker 7: No? Absolutely, I would. That's the fun of it all. Okay,
Speaker 7: that's the fun of it all. No, I was. I've
Speaker 7: never been maybe early on in my career about a
Speaker 7: time time it's like and of course you guys are
Speaker 7: a lot of a lot of actors are under time schedules.
Speaker 7: They yeah, finished, but never No, I think that is
Speaker 7: the fun of it all, you know, to arrive and
Speaker 7: just for something like that to happen so organically and yeah,
Speaker 7: and to be able to laugh and see the audience reaction,
Speaker 7: Oh my gosh, so much fun.
Speaker 2: Yeah it was. It was so much fun.
Speaker 1: And once it became like a regular part, it was
Speaker 1: just okay, time to account for this extra twenty or
Speaker 1: thirty minutes in.
Speaker 8: The camera, the cameras, everybody starting the stage.
Speaker 7: Yeah, it was. It was an evening. I'm telling you
Speaker 7: every every tape that was in the evening so much fun.
Speaker 1: If you had to give a pitch to our listeners
Speaker 1: about joining the industry in the field of being a
Speaker 1: stage manager or a first d D today, what would
Speaker 1: you say.
Speaker 7: That's a great question. I uh I. When there's a
Speaker 7: new PA or someone in the office, I always go,
Speaker 7: you know, what do you want to do? What do
Speaker 7: you you know? And if they say I want to
Speaker 7: be on the floor as a stage manager first a
Speaker 7: d H, you're going to stand on your feet for
Speaker 7: a long time. Yeah, it's a lot of hours on
Speaker 7: your feet, and you're always pushing something up the hill,
Speaker 7: you know. In terms of getting it done, I mean,
Speaker 7: the week is scheduled and we have to get the
Speaker 7: week done. But I would truly say, it's just going
Speaker 7: to be just such a fun ride. Yeah, if you can,
Speaker 7: especially in the sitcom world, you know, I mean I
Speaker 7: wouldn't even if I was asked to. I don't think
Speaker 7: I'd ever go a d as single camera or even
Speaker 7: you know, a television show. You know, I'm qualified to
Speaker 7: do it, but I have no desire to do something
Speaker 7: like that because you're not laughing every day.
Speaker 6: So there's such an energy, there's such an energy to
Speaker 6: doing a sitcom that it's if we lose that, we're
Speaker 6: going to be losing such an important part of this
Speaker 6: entire industry. It is the perfect combination of a play
Speaker 6: in your home every week and it can just be
Speaker 6: fun and oh my god, we can't lose that.
Speaker 3: We can't lose it.
Speaker 7: One hundred percent of how I feel because it is
Speaker 7: and it's a creative thing that we do for a week.
Speaker 7: We put up a play every week is what we
Speaker 7: you know, and it just gets better and better. So
Speaker 7: I would I would encourage them if they were, you know,
Speaker 7: to stay in sitcom basically, yeah, because I think a
Speaker 7: lot that you know, I think writers spoke about it.
Speaker 7: Ads can be very kind of very narrow minded, but
Speaker 7: in half hour sitcoms, boy, what a joy if you
Speaker 7: can get if you can get in there and enjoy
Speaker 7: that ride, it's there's nothing like it showing up to
Speaker 7: a place, I mean really and just be this is
Speaker 7: what I get to do today. Yeah, such a great thing. Man.
Speaker 1: Well, Michael, thank you so much. For sharing your time
Speaker 1: with us today. It was so good to see you
Speaker 1: and give you a hug face to face. A few
Speaker 1: weeks ago or time I don't understand anymore. It may
Speaker 1: have been even a couple of months ago.
Speaker 3: But I don't need you to direct.
Speaker 1: An episode, you know, and I yes, I got to
Speaker 1: come over to Happy's place and see you.
Speaker 2: But also we would love to see you.
Speaker 1: Outside of even just a work environment. We'd love to
Speaker 1: take you to lunch or something. We'd love to see
Speaker 1: you face to face. Thank you so much for being
Speaker 1: here with us today.
Speaker 7: This was thanks for having me guys, so.
Speaker 2: Thank you, So happy you came by. Thank you as
Speaker 2: always great to see you. See you again soon.
Speaker 7: Wow, Thanks bye bye.
Speaker 2: Thanks for wearing your boy mes World merch too.
Speaker 1: I love that jin it andn't funny? He really does
Speaker 1: look and sound exactly the same. He looks the same, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean the voice. I get that people's voices don't
Speaker 1: often change that much, but I mean.
Speaker 3: He looks the same. It's weird.
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, so much fun I also feel like he's
Speaker 6: a total kindred spirit when it comes to sitcom, where
Speaker 6: he's just you know, he loves it. He gets it.
Speaker 6: He wants it to continue, and he's like, no, I'm not.
Speaker 6: I can go on and do other stuff.
Speaker 3: I'm not.
Speaker 6: This is this is what I love in this industry.
Speaker 6: And man, I feel exactly the same way.
Speaker 8: I love how production oriented his brain is, Like how
Speaker 8: you know, because it was like we asked him about
Speaker 8: like when you asked him about the set, what were
Speaker 8: those sets? Like in my mind, you were asking a
Speaker 8: sort of social question like what is you know, what
Speaker 8: was the what was the environment?
Speaker 3: Yeah, and so he was like he went physical.
Speaker 8: He was like there were deeper and he described all
Speaker 8: the production concerns, which is like right, because that's what
Speaker 8: he's been living in and like, yeah, even when we
Speaker 8: asked him behind the scenes moments like the bird and
Speaker 8: the tie and the rain, and it's like yes, because
Speaker 8: you know that's you. That's where his brain has just
Speaker 8: had to be for thirty plus years. It's like when
Speaker 8: you're in the stage management or the directing chair, that's
Speaker 8: that's what you're so much of your day taken up
Speaker 8: with that. Where it's like for us, because we're watching
Speaker 8: the show now, we're looking at the end product, which
Speaker 8: is the writing, the you know, the finished storytelling and
Speaker 8: then we experienced the storytelling from the inside as actors,
Speaker 8: so it's like we kind of don't have that in
Speaker 8: between phase. Now I feel like, you know, I've gotten
Speaker 8: it by directing or working on sets again, but as kids,
Speaker 8: we never had it. And so it's so cool to realize, like, right,
Speaker 8: he and Steve and Dedey and all of our directors
Speaker 8: were just working so hard on this whole other, like
Speaker 8: brain like perspective, this whole other point of view that
Speaker 8: we just didn't even think was there. It was just
Speaker 8: just happened, you know.
Speaker 6: I had that moment again at this this selfish actor
Speaker 6: moment as he's talking, He's like, well, we had to,
Speaker 6: you know, get out a call sheet and everything. I
Speaker 6: was like, oh, that's right. You had to fill out
Speaker 6: a call sheet every single.
Speaker 8: Reports. Yeah, I mean think about it. It's crazy.
Speaker 7: Yes, so much work.
Speaker 1: Thank you all for joining us for this episode of
Speaker 1: Pod Meets World. As always, you can follow us on
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Speaker 8: Writer?
Speaker 2: Send us out?
Speaker 8: We love you all, pod dismissed. Pod Meets World is
Speaker 8: an iHeart podcast producer hosted by Danielle Fischel, Wilfredell and
Speaker 8: Ryder Strong executive producers Jensen Carp and Amy Sugarman Executive
Speaker 8: in charge of production, Danielle Romo, producer and editor, Tarasubasch producer,
Speaker 8: Maddie Moore, engineer and boy meets World Superman Easton Allen.
Speaker 8: Our theme song is by Kyle Morton of Typhoon. Follow
Speaker 8: us on Instagram at podmets World Show, or email hello
Speaker 8: us at Hodbeats World Show at gmail dot com.
Speaker 6: M