Speaker 1: People just often cast me as a lawyer, doctor divorce
Speaker 1: or a murderer. You know, I killed the bunch of
Speaker 1: husbands one year, and I'm various. I've heard three three,
Speaker 1: three husbands in one year, because you know, it's all
Speaker 1: in there. We all have all this stuff. It's just
Speaker 1: tapping into it and making it real large and then
Speaker 1: there you are. I mean, who hasn't been piste off
Speaker 1: by the husband or there was at some point. Hi,
Speaker 1: I'm Wendy Alec and I've been on television for seventy
Speaker 1: five years. Hello, Hello, and welcome everybody back to Off
Speaker 1: the Beat. I am once again your host, Brian Baumgartner.
Speaker 1: Today is a good day. I mean I could be
Speaker 1: described as giddy in fact, because today Wendy Malick is
Speaker 1: joining me on the podcast. In truth, don't tell anybody else.
Speaker 1: She's one of my favorites. She has had quite the career.
Speaker 1: She worked as a model and also briefly in politics
Speaker 1: before even starting to act. And speaking of acting her
Speaker 1: acting career, incredible does not even begin to describe it.
Speaker 1: Wendy has quite the range. She has worked on everything
Speaker 1: from sitcom's like Frasier two, animated projects like bo Jack
Speaker 1: Horseman and the Emperor's New Groove, and how rare is this?
Speaker 1: Wendy has appeared in not one, not two, but three
Speaker 1: television series that ran for at least six seasons, the
Speaker 1: groundbreaking HBO comedy Dream On Hot in Cleveland with Betty
Speaker 1: White and not the Awards Are Everything, but Wendy was
Speaker 1: nominated for two Emmy's and a Golden Globe for her role.
Speaker 1: Unjust shoot me. Honestly, this entire podcast could be devoted
Speaker 1: to just listing her accomplishments. But I do want you
Speaker 1: to actually hear from Wendy, so I won't do that,
Speaker 1: at least not this time. With that, please welcome my
Speaker 1: friend and two time co star, the legendary Wendy Malick.
Speaker 1: Bubble and Squeak I love it, Bubble and Squeak, Bubble
Speaker 1: and Squeaker Cookie every month left over from the Nut People. Hello,
Speaker 1: how are you? I'm good? How are you? I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm so spectacular now that I'm talking to you. I
Speaker 1: don't think that you realize this. I've started doing this
Speaker 1: podcast specifically so that I can talk to you. How
Speaker 1: many times I've just said that? I have said that
Speaker 1: exactly zero od times? Well, it's it sure is. It's
Speaker 1: sure is a pain in the ask to get on
Speaker 1: your stupid Google thing. This is not made for people
Speaker 1: over sixty, I have to tell you. It's also not
Speaker 1: made for me either, But I luckily had a tons
Speaker 1: of did you start did you start doing this? During
Speaker 1: COVID Steve, you stay here, stay here, stay Sorry, I
Speaker 1: have dogs. There may be noise. I can't control this,
Speaker 1: so no, that's totally I hear you have a zonkey
Speaker 1: or a donkey, a miniature donkey, miniature donkey. Uh. We
Speaker 1: have three horses now down to three. Yeah, three horses,
Speaker 1: one minuature donkey and two dogs. Used to be eight
Speaker 1: of them, but now it's the horri of attrition. We're
Speaker 1: all getting older, so as they go, we don't replace
Speaker 1: them as much as we used to. Does the miniature
Speaker 1: donkey does it like? Does it walk through your house?
Speaker 1: Oh no, no no no. He stays down in his stable,
Speaker 1: but he will put his head on your shoulder and
Speaker 1: lift his little leg up and try to sit on
Speaker 1: your lap. And I have friends who come over just
Speaker 1: for that experience because it's it's pretty pretty fabulous. That's awesome. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he looks like Shrek. He looks like the Shrek Donkey.
Speaker 1: He looks like Donky. Yeah he does. He talks like
Speaker 1: Eddie Murphy though he doesn't talk, but he he speaks
Speaker 1: to you with his eyes. That's that's Phoebe in the background.
Speaker 1: L L Yeah, yeah, good girl, good baby. Um. When
Speaker 1: I was going back and I was, I was researching you.
Speaker 1: And I'm not expecting you to remember, by the way,
Speaker 1: because I was reminded, do you know that we've worked
Speaker 1: together twice on two different shows? You're never going to
Speaker 1: get it were No, I wasn't on dream On. I
Speaker 1: wasn't lucky enough to be in dream On. I was
Speaker 1: on kind of my first significant um like kind of
Speaker 1: lead guest star roles. It aired like maybe the week
Speaker 1: that The Office started was actually aired, but now we
Speaker 1: had shot The Office like a year before. Jake in Progress.
Speaker 1: You were on Jakin Progress. That was the strangest show.
Speaker 1: It was a very odd show, but but it had
Speaker 1: its moments. There was some interesting time. I didn't have
Speaker 1: much to do with you. I was Julie Bowen's high
Speaker 1: school college boyfriend. Wow was Julie Moan on that crazy?
Speaker 1: It's so crazy? At this point, how many like short
Speaker 1: lived shows we've done and you kind of they kind
Speaker 1: of blurred together after a while. Yeah, I've ended up
Speaker 1: working with around a bunch of different things over the years,
Speaker 1: but always a pleasure to see you. Even remember you
Speaker 1: being on that show? Well I didn't. I didn't fully either, Okay,
Speaker 1: So I want to go I want to go back.
Speaker 1: I want to go back back. You grew up in
Speaker 1: or around Buffalo, right, like Niagara Falls ish Well, I
Speaker 1: mean Diagara Falls is not too far, but a suburb
Speaker 1: of Buffalo Williamson, Okay. And it's Mike Michael o'doonnni who
Speaker 1: once said, um, you know, you can take the girl
Speaker 1: out of Buffalo, but you can never take Buffalo out
Speaker 1: of the girl. And I know where that is a
Speaker 1: badge of honor because people from Buffalo are very tough
Speaker 1: but friendly, and they drink well and they make the
Speaker 1: most out of difficult situations. They're survivors. Well you have
Speaker 1: to be, Yeah, you do, you do. It's a very
Speaker 1: hard place to live, and it doesn't have all of
Speaker 1: the cultural advantages of Chicago, but you have the same
Speaker 1: kind of weather, which is very challenging. But I have
Speaker 1: to say, every time I go back, I'm reminded of
Speaker 1: how much I like those people that I came from,
Speaker 1: even though I wanted to get out really early. Honestly, Okay,
Speaker 1: this town is way too small for me. I gotta go.
Speaker 1: When did you leave? Did you leave early? I mean
Speaker 1: after high school. I only went back summers, but my
Speaker 1: parents lived there throughout. My dad died in the spring
Speaker 1: at a hundred and one. My mom is still alive,
Speaker 1: and she'll be ninety three this summer, and she's there,
Speaker 1: so I go. We go back and not rent this
Speaker 1: little farmhouse um every other month and go see her,
Speaker 1: and I see old friends from high school and my youth.
Speaker 1: So you're back, You're back quite a bit? Then, Yeah, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I've been. I've been back quite a bit, particularly these
Speaker 1: last few years as my parents have gotten older. Yeah.
Speaker 1: But I used to go back every summer, and we
Speaker 1: had a wonderful cottage on like Gary on the Canadian side,
Speaker 1: and uh, it's beautiful. I mean, you know, it's crazy people.
Speaker 1: It's always like, okay, hit me with your best shot.
Speaker 1: When you say here from Buffalo. It's like, just go ahead,
Speaker 1: have your way with me. But in fact, it's quite
Speaker 1: a wonderful place to grow up. When did you get
Speaker 1: the bug or get an idea that you want to pursue?
Speaker 1: I was pretty young. Yeah. My my grandmother was an
Speaker 1: opera singer before she had kids. We have a rather
Speaker 1: they're quite an undergening family. But they always they had
Speaker 1: like the musical comedy albums of everything, and I would
Speaker 1: act out and dance and sing all of them whenever
Speaker 1: I could, And on the walking down the beach, I
Speaker 1: used to pretend I had an orchestra behind me. When
Speaker 1: i'd go on vacation with my family, I would pretend
Speaker 1: I was from another country and I didn't know them,
Speaker 1: and then I'd called me over and then my whole
Speaker 1: cover would be blown. But I think I wanted a
Speaker 1: more glamorous life than I had, so I invented it. Right.
Speaker 1: Did you do like theater in high school? Or oh? Yeah?
Speaker 1: And then I and if it wasn't, I didn't have
Speaker 1: enough to do at school, then I just made up
Speaker 1: place and I directed them and put myself with all
Speaker 1: the neighborhood kids and made my younger sister and brother
Speaker 1: probably carry lights or have a minor role. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: were always a star. I was the eldest, and I
Speaker 1: kind of yeah, I kind of directed things, and as
Speaker 1: they say, I still tend to do that, but they're horror. Okay,
Speaker 1: this is what we're gonna do. Uh. You started professionally
Speaker 1: modeling first, Is that right? Yeah? My mother was a
Speaker 1: model in New York before she got married. She went
Speaker 1: off and lived at the Barbazone for women, and dad
Speaker 1: went and said, no, please come back and marry me
Speaker 1: and let's have babies. And she did. But she modeled
Speaker 1: just sort of part time as we were growing up,
Speaker 1: and dragged me along and I thought, oh, this is
Speaker 1: pretty fun. And I got on a team word at
Speaker 1: one of the at one of our department stores, and
Speaker 1: it was great. That's how I could afford to buy
Speaker 1: my own clothes and save some money. And so it
Speaker 1: wasn't until years later when I was in New York
Speaker 1: making seventy five a week doing dinner theater at Club
Speaker 1: Banet in New Jersey, and someone approached me in the
Speaker 1: tickets line and Times Square instead, Have you ever modeled?
Speaker 1: I said, yes, this a matter of fact, in high
Speaker 1: school in Buffalo, in glamorous Buffalo, I did. They said,
Speaker 1: I think you'd be right for will Almina. You should
Speaker 1: come see her. And I went and visited with her,
Speaker 1: and she said, yeah, you belong here. You just have
Speaker 1: to practice not smiling crooked, and don't ever tell anybody
Speaker 1: that you're twenty five, because it's way too old to start.
Speaker 1: So I I spent the next five years pretty much
Speaker 1: traveling the world. It was just the best way to
Speaker 1: see the world. Lived in Paris, went to the Orient,
Speaker 1: worked in Africa. I mean it was really this was like,
Speaker 1: you know, this late seventies, and it was It was
Speaker 1: a great time. It was entertaining, It was a very
Speaker 1: very excellent time. Yes, I don't remember sleeping very much,
Speaker 1: and a lot of wine was drunk, for sure. But
Speaker 1: I just I'm a good clothes horse. So I got
Speaker 1: to do all of the collections and then they'd send
Speaker 1: me off to some beach somewhere to get tan real
Speaker 1: fast and do editorial stuff and great fun. Now I
Speaker 1: have to I have to ask you. I'm assuming this
Speaker 1: is before this you were working for Jack Kemp. You
Speaker 1: worked for this, this was what in your early twenties.
Speaker 1: I was no, this is right after college. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: I guess I was saying. It was like and he
Speaker 1: we used to to ski with his family. He was
Speaker 1: our congressman, and my dad was a supporter of his,
Speaker 1: and we were off skiing with them one time and
Speaker 1: he said, listen, when you get out of out of college,
Speaker 1: if you want to come and just see what DC
Speaker 1: is like, let me know and you can come and intern.
Speaker 1: And I thought, what a great opportunity. And it was
Speaker 1: during Watergate, so it was just a really exciting and
Speaker 1: crazy time to be in d C. It was I'm
Speaker 1: really glad I had the experience that they did. It
Speaker 1: very clear that I did not want to be in politics,
Speaker 1: but I got to see it from the inside. It
Speaker 1: was pretty pretty cool. And he was very tolerant of
Speaker 1: the fact that I was wearing a George McGovern button
Speaker 1: and OK, but every day that would be like a
Speaker 1: new scandal and another shoe would drop, and it was
Speaker 1: it was pretty thrilling. Wow, how was that working then
Speaker 1: for a Republican senator or congressman during Watergate? That's that's crazy. Yeah.
Speaker 1: When I was there, you know, it was sort of
Speaker 1: astonishing how quickly the whole thing unrabbled. But there was
Speaker 1: such momentum to like do the right thing on both sides,
Speaker 1: and that was when people stayed in DC for the
Speaker 1: weekends and they actually socialized together. Now everybody goes home
Speaker 1: in fundraises, but that was when they would work out
Speaker 1: deals and say, I'll help you with your bill, you
Speaker 1: help me with mine. And it worked. It actually really
Speaker 1: functioned in a strange way. And Jack was he was
Speaker 1: very moderate. He was really much more towards the center
Speaker 1: and had good friends on both sides. He would sort
Speaker 1: of not only did I have to stuff envelopes in
Speaker 1: the basement, which is like the most boring thing, but
Speaker 1: he'd sent me to take notes when they were merging
Speaker 1: the a f C and the NFC to form the NFL,
Speaker 1: so I got to go and sit in on these
Speaker 1: Senate hearings. That was really fun. And he'd take me
Speaker 1: to lunch in the Congressional dining room and introduced me
Speaker 1: to people. And he got a kick out of the
Speaker 1: fact that I was wearing this McGovern button every day
Speaker 1: to work to show how tolerant he was. But he
Speaker 1: was one of the good guys, he really was. Um.
Speaker 1: I admired people on both sides of the aisle. I
Speaker 1: thought it was so there was an interesting group there.
Speaker 1: It was particularly interesting to see all the young interns
Speaker 1: working in all the offices and on Friday nights they
Speaker 1: dimmed the lights and dance to Motown. It's like, wow,
Speaker 1: that's awesome, what an incredible experience to have. It was,
Speaker 1: it was it's all fudder, you know, it's all a fudder.
Speaker 1: It's like, I always feel like one of the hardest
Speaker 1: things if you were an actor, if you became too
Speaker 1: famous to be a people watcher, if you can spy
Speaker 1: on other people and steal from them, you know, I mean,
Speaker 1: you get some great stuff just from being in the room,
Speaker 1: if you're able to sort of candidly observe the characters
Speaker 1: around you. And I have a big file now, no,
Speaker 1: I'm sure. Okay, so you go, you have this incredible
Speaker 1: modeling career you're but pretending to be one or yeah,
Speaker 1: so what brings you into acting? From that light? Started
Speaker 1: out as an act just when I went to New York,
Speaker 1: that was the whole plan. But but but then you're
Speaker 1: only that just wasn't feeding the old travel bucket or
Speaker 1: buying me close, for getting me a decent apartment. So um,
Speaker 1: I decided I'll take this five years and just do
Speaker 1: this for a while. And I did, in fact, and
Speaker 1: came back and and got my first job. It was
Speaker 1: on a soap opera and I was nurse Jones. It
Speaker 1: was so boring, I can't even tell you. But um,
Speaker 1: that was my entry back into television and movies and
Speaker 1: and then slowly I was really really I'm a very
Speaker 1: late bloomer. I mean I never did dream on until
Speaker 1: I turned forty. And that was really my sort of
Speaker 1: entree into comedy, which kind of gave me my career. Right,
Speaker 1: So you you weren't really specifically interested in comedy. Oh
Speaker 1: I love comedy, No, I love it. But I just
Speaker 1: was tall and brune. But in the beginning, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: and um, and people just often cast me as a lawyer,
Speaker 1: a doctor divorce, or a murderer. You know, I killed
Speaker 1: the bunch of husbands one year, and various I've heard
Speaker 1: three three you killed three husbands in one year, because
Speaker 1: you know, it's all in there. We all have all
Speaker 1: this stuff. It's just tapping into it and making it
Speaker 1: real large and then there you are. I mean, who
Speaker 1: hasn't been piste off by their husband or there was
Speaker 1: at some point. That's so funny. I was thinking about
Speaker 1: that you you killed three husbands in one year. This
Speaker 1: is not a joke. This is back in my theater day.
Speaker 1: In one year, I played three women totally different projects.
Speaker 1: Totally because if you're highly developed, Feminine said, actually, it's
Speaker 1: because you have such beautiful skin. They figured they can
Speaker 1: throw out some hair on you and it's a dundee. Yes.
Speaker 1: So nineteen ninety Yes, Judith Tupper on dream On, this
Speaker 1: is an innovative People don't realize. I think now like
Speaker 1: changes the whole dynamic of television. I mean, it's HBO's
Speaker 1: first comedy series. Well there had been. There had been
Speaker 1: I think first in ten or something else that didn't
Speaker 1: really you know, it just didn't really connect. But this
Speaker 1: one was so innovative and so fresh. Although hardly anybody
Speaker 1: had HBO at the time, but everybody in our business did,
Speaker 1: so people noticed it, but it was still very under
Speaker 1: the radar. And I'm so sorry that they sold it
Speaker 1: to Fox because Fox tried to air it on a
Speaker 1: network and they had to take all the sex and
Speaker 1: the swearing out of it and put commercials in there
Speaker 1: and a laugh track, which was the kiss of death.
Speaker 1: It was because it was such a brilliant, innovative show,
Speaker 1: and so many shows borrowed from it after that. But
Speaker 1: when that aired with Larry Sanders. That kind of I
Speaker 1: think put HBO on the map for original programming. That
Speaker 1: was their first really big like wow, they brought something
Speaker 1: completely fresh to the dance. Yeah, I mean both of
Speaker 1: those two shows at the time. I mean aesthetically in
Speaker 1: terms of the comedy. I mean also just a comedy
Speaker 1: that had like you said, like sex was sort of inappropriate,
Speaker 1: dark and completely a grew to us. They take no
Speaker 1: bones about it. It was just like, you know, the
Speaker 1: neighbor would show up to braw sugar naked except for
Speaker 1: like a scuba mask and flippers. Was like what. But
Speaker 1: it was such a genius use of of all those
Speaker 1: clips at the Universal Oaned, you know, Martyr Coffin and
Speaker 1: David Crane figured out a way to use those that
Speaker 1: nobody had quite done before, and it was genius and
Speaker 1: we had the most amazing guests. I mean, over the years,
Speaker 1: everybody wanted to come play on that show. And we
Speaker 1: shot it in a warehouse in Sun Valley that you
Speaker 1: could hear gunshots tonight, and it wasn't it wasn't sound proof,
Speaker 1: so every time it would hail or rain hard, we
Speaker 1: just have to have to loop the entire scene. Really
Speaker 1: it was just crazy. Yeah. Yeah, And we used to
Speaker 1: shoot it in three days, and then they expanded to
Speaker 1: four and finally to five because I think Brian Benmam
Speaker 1: was going to have a nervous breakdown if they pushed
Speaker 1: him any harder. But it was a real gift to
Speaker 1: all of us. Yeah, you've said that it changed your life.
Speaker 1: What Oh? Yeah, because it got you into comedy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I know. I was the straight man for him the
Speaker 1: first couple of episodes, and then they sort of found
Speaker 1: out that I was funny and decided to make my
Speaker 1: character not the together psychologist, but she's actually way more
Speaker 1: erotic than anybody else in the whole shows. And you
Speaker 1: started to see the little fractures in her, in her personality,
Speaker 1: and and that just makes it so much more fun
Speaker 1: to play. I had a blast with that. I read something.
Speaker 1: I did not know this, and I feel like I
Speaker 1: know everything about you, having having been obsessed with me
Speaker 1: for all these years, having created a podcast just so
Speaker 1: that we can do this. You go, you go listen
Speaker 1: to the openings. I've never said that for I read
Speaker 1: that you audition for Diane Cheery. Okay, was this is like?
Speaker 1: Did you come close? I don't know. I didn't get it,
Speaker 1: so that's the endgame. I also got it. Had a
Speaker 1: screen test with George Lucas and Steven Spielberg for for
Speaker 1: Um Grace and Raiders of the Lost Dark, Yes, in
Speaker 1: their hotel room, and I guess Stephen had seen me
Speaker 1: in an Excedrin commercial and that's how he used to
Speaker 1: find unknown actresses and had me come in and I
Speaker 1: chatted with them and they thought it was great and
Speaker 1: said come back and we'll put you. We'll give you
Speaker 1: a screen test next week. And I came back and
Speaker 1: it was anyway, it's a long story, but anyway, clearly
Speaker 1: I didn't get that one either, which really pissed me off.
Speaker 1: But I did a terrible audition, which I was unprepared for.
Speaker 1: But that's a whole other story, and I don't like
Speaker 1: to look back in anger, right right. Did you have
Speaker 1: many auditioned meetings in hotel rooms. I've had one. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, they used to do that, and these guys
Speaker 1: were fine. They weren't creepy at all, it was they
Speaker 1: really weren't. They were lovely and they have big suite,
Speaker 1: which is where they does sound. Really they probably wouldn't
Speaker 1: do it now because it just just could be accused
Speaker 1: of something. But they were lovely. Okay. Yeah, I don't
Speaker 1: know how many I've had in her I don't think
Speaker 1: a lot, but certainly in the eighties that happened more often.
Speaker 1: I think that was that was a leftover from the
Speaker 1: old days and without the extra Yeah. Yeah, so this
Speaker 1: starts a relationship with you. By the way, dream on.
Speaker 1: I know, I'm skipping Cheers, but you end up going
Speaker 1: to work on Fraser Um hilarious and memorable. SERI you
Speaker 1: did ten twelve episodes or something, right, Yeah, I was
Speaker 1: in the last season. It was after Just Shoot Me Wrapped,
Speaker 1: and I had some friends who are writers on that show,
Speaker 1: and they said can she sing? And I said, you know,
Speaker 1: not very well and they said, that's actually perfect if
Speaker 1: you're not that good. So I found the perfect wig
Speaker 1: and uh and went in and I remember the day
Speaker 1: I went in and met with all the writers there,
Speaker 1: and it just felt like one of those things that
Speaker 1: was meant to be. It was so much fun and
Speaker 1: he was so delightful. I have to say, John John
Speaker 1: Mahoney was so yummy. He's he's such a fine actor,
Speaker 1: but he also was an incredible singer, dancer, and we
Speaker 1: got to do a whole dream sequence of buzzby Berkeley
Speaker 1: like dance thing and for our wedding. It was just
Speaker 1: it was such a gift and they all were so gracious,
Speaker 1: And of course then Jane and I ended up being
Speaker 1: together on hot in Cleveland. After that, I said, good,
Speaker 1: I said, I used to be your mother in law,
Speaker 1: now in your roommate. Uh, well, I have to I
Speaker 1: have to ask you first about just shoot me to
Speaker 1: me one of my favorite female performances in all of comedy.
Speaker 1: And I mean that sincerely, Nina van Horne. What's your
Speaker 1: process for creating character? How do you approach that? Is
Speaker 1: it all about the writing or talk to me a
Speaker 1: little bit about But I mean that's you know, that's
Speaker 1: the map. And if you have a great map to
Speaker 1: uh finding out what makes her tick, that's such a
Speaker 1: You got most of it right there. And Steve Levitan
Speaker 1: said when I met with him, he said, I was
Speaker 1: looking for a Wendy Mallec type, you know, someone who
Speaker 1: you could believe had been a model and just has
Speaker 1: a great sense of comedy and comedic timing said, And
Speaker 1: then I realized maybe we should just get and he said,
Speaker 1: and you know, and she's sort of kicking and screaming
Speaker 1: her way into turning fifty. And you know, I just
Speaker 1: so loved this character from the first time I read
Speaker 1: the pilot, and I thought, this is a woman who
Speaker 1: has so many parallels to my own life, except that
Speaker 1: I'm moderate and she's not. I can't tell you how
Speaker 1: many people have come to me over the years and said,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, I'm so much like Nina. You have
Speaker 1: no idea, And I said, well, then you need to
Speaker 1: get into rehab immediately, because there's no way that woman
Speaker 1: would have still been a lot today that my husband
Speaker 1: often described her as an idiot savant. She had great style,
Speaker 1: excellent style. You know, she just acted like it was
Speaker 1: five forever and really didn't get that you have to
Speaker 1: sort of change with the times and that you can't
Speaker 1: get away with murder like forever. Right. I mean, I
Speaker 1: think that's the genesis of my question here, here's how
Speaker 1: I view that character. And I think that there are
Speaker 1: certainly elements in your other work, but what what I
Speaker 1: felt like you were so genius at and found something
Speaker 1: so specifically different than anybody else that I've ever seen before,
Speaker 1: where it was high status but an idiot, right like
Speaker 1: that like of like embracing that high status cy I
Speaker 1: do the opposite, right, I'm just an idiot. It's just
Speaker 1: it's just trance apparently an idiot, and try to find
Speaker 1: a love ability within that idiocy, which you you very well,
Speaker 1: you're a love pidious. Well, thank you, thank you. I
Speaker 1: hope that was saying you know, there is there is that.
Speaker 1: I think what you're getting at is there's just enough
Speaker 1: of overlap between Nina and me and having had some
Speaker 1: very similar situations and the circumstances and experience over the years,
Speaker 1: that I could tap into my own experience of all
Speaker 1: that and then think, what if you had absolutely no
Speaker 1: filters and unapologize and no and no compass and you
Speaker 1: were really still having a good time and not concerned
Speaker 1: about any of that, that it's still kind of working
Speaker 1: for you, and so you just sort of don't see
Speaker 1: the problem, and living like you lived twenty thirty years ago,
Speaker 1: you're just going to keep doing it until you probably dropped.
Speaker 1: But there was just something about that chemistry with those
Speaker 1: five people that I always tell people people when they've
Speaker 1: asked me, why do you think that one really worked?
Speaker 1: And we are still such good friends after all this time,
Speaker 1: and was so hard to lose George last year, who
Speaker 1: was like the anchor of all of it. Um. But
Speaker 1: I think it was one of those great things that
Speaker 1: you never know if you have it until you're all
Speaker 1: in the room together, like you had with the Office.
Speaker 1: It's like everyone occupies a different place in this universe,
Speaker 1: but all the planets makes sense, and you can believe
Speaker 1: they belong in the same universe, but they're all totally specific.
Speaker 1: Nobody overlaps each other. Really, it's kind of you all
Speaker 1: have your own space, and you all make each other
Speaker 1: better and more interesting, and each relationship is its own
Speaker 1: unique relationship. Right. I had this conversation a year or
Speaker 1: so ago with Kevin Riley, actually, who I don't know
Speaker 1: if you know what. He was happy. I know him
Speaker 1: very well and we were on board together for ages
Speaker 1: two and he was with NBC all those years. Yes,
Speaker 1: and I love him. I think he's so so smart.
Speaker 1: And he talked about the history of workplace comedies, right,
Speaker 1: And part of the conversation about the Office was people
Speaker 1: were saying which I'm sure was similar to at least
Speaker 1: dream On back when you started with, which was like
Speaker 1: this is so different this is weird, and the cameras moving,
Speaker 1: and what he said to me was, he goes, I
Speaker 1: don't understand what people are talking about. It's a workplace comedy,
Speaker 1: which has been a staple on television forever. And I
Speaker 1: think there are shows like Just Shoot Me. I mean,
Speaker 1: Mary Tyler Moore sort of started the whole thing where
Speaker 1: it just follows in the succession. And the thing that
Speaker 1: is what you just said, which is what all of
Speaker 1: those shows share, is an ensemble of characters that fit
Speaker 1: together perfectly, or at least try to fit together perfectly.
Speaker 1: All have sort of a different you know, well you
Speaker 1: high status idiot or whatever, like all the characters that
Speaker 1: sort of fit together that bring that sort of special ensemble, yeah,
Speaker 1: and provide and provide conflict. It's it's like just a
Speaker 1: mini it's a many world that you create where there
Speaker 1: are people who are going to rub up against each
Speaker 1: other and and you know, be attracted to each other
Speaker 1: and drive each other insane. And yeah, it's it's like
Speaker 1: that little microcons them and so many of them. Taxi
Speaker 1: was another one that just worked so beautifully and over
Speaker 1: the years, and I think, you know, at first, I
Speaker 1: really was sort of taken aback doing a single camera comedy.
Speaker 1: I thought, what are we going to miss not having
Speaker 1: the audience doing that? But then something else is allowed
Speaker 1: to happen when you move into single camera stuff. I
Speaker 1: missed the audience leaving that, but I also appreciate that
Speaker 1: you can allow for much more nuanced I think that
Speaker 1: was one of the great things about Frasier is that
Speaker 1: they often ended a scene where you were left feeling
Speaker 1: a little unsure of what was going on. And it
Speaker 1: wasn't always you know, leaving you on a high note
Speaker 1: on a joke. Sometimes you just have to sit with
Speaker 1: it and sort of, yeah, what when did you realize
Speaker 1: that it was going to be the massive success that
Speaker 1: it was? Was it early on? Did it catch on
Speaker 1: pretty quickly? Just shoot me? Um? Yeah, that happened pretty fast.
Speaker 1: We were kind of we kind of were in the
Speaker 1: top ten there for a while, and then they kept
Speaker 1: moving us around at different timeslots, and eventually it kind
Speaker 1: of ruined it. But um, and I have to say,
Speaker 1: like so many shows that go on for that long,
Speaker 1: we had seven seasons, and some seasons were stronger than others.
Speaker 1: You know, there were times where I felt like it
Speaker 1: became more of a sophomoric kind of you know, that
Speaker 1: going for the low hanging fruit, the sex jokes, which
Speaker 1: you know are fun, but after a while you want
Speaker 1: something a little deeper. But there were seasons where it
Speaker 1: was just some of my favorite stuff. I mean, the
Speaker 1: two I think of always for me were when they
Speaker 1: did the A and E biography of Nina van Horne,
Speaker 1: which was what a present for an actor to have.
Speaker 1: For some of you have built your whole bible. This
Speaker 1: is where you come from. You were an orphan. You
Speaker 1: were first discovered by this guy from New York in
Speaker 1: the middle of Arkansas or something, and they put you
Speaker 1: on a seed catalog thing, and that opened up your
Speaker 1: modeling career. I mean, the whole thing was so completely outrageous,
Speaker 1: but we had everybody in that. It was just it
Speaker 1: was so much fun. And Eileen Cohn and her husband
Speaker 1: wrote the one where it was a word of the
Speaker 1: day calendar, and David Spade and Rico Colin Toni their
Speaker 1: characters decided to give me a fake sort of word
Speaker 1: of the day. So I just made up these words
Speaker 1: that were complete gobbledy book and went on like NPR
Speaker 1: and started talking to a feminist and being a real
Speaker 1: show off about it, and I completely and Larry Miller
Speaker 1: was the host and he fell madly in love with
Speaker 1: me and allowed me to just carry on with all
Speaker 1: this gobbledy book that meant nothing, but it was such
Speaker 1: a smart, wonderful script, and I that kind of stuff
Speaker 1: made me so happy. Yeah, would you say that comedy
Speaker 1: is your favorite thing to do? Now? It's pretty damn
Speaker 1: fun when the writing is great, I have to say,
Speaker 1: but I love it all. I love things where you
Speaker 1: get to bring it all to the dance. And that's
Speaker 1: one of the things in talking about, you know, moving
Speaker 1: to single camera that you get a chance to bring
Speaker 1: in a lot more colors. I think, although really good
Speaker 1: situation comedies even multi camps a lot of times. I
Speaker 1: remember the first time I realized that was I think
Speaker 1: watching a taxi episode and I thought, oh my god.
Speaker 1: In twenty two minutes, this show has almost brought me
Speaker 1: to tears. It touched me so and made me laugh
Speaker 1: out loud. And that's an extraordinary feat with commercials, so
Speaker 1: you know, and now and now, how network is competing
Speaker 1: with cable is almost impossible. I mean, if you have
Speaker 1: a breakout show, it's pretty crazy. I'm the principal on
Speaker 1: Young Sheldon, which is doing very well, but it's one
Speaker 1: of the few sort of and that again as single camera.
Speaker 1: But but I think when you have to compete with
Speaker 1: with shows they can do like twelve a year, and
Speaker 1: I work on some of those, and they really get
Speaker 1: to fine tune and hone them more and you don't
Speaker 1: have to deal with the commercials and you can watch
Speaker 1: whatever you want to and you know it. Certainly, I
Speaker 1: think in a lot of ways, they've been a gift
Speaker 1: to us. But it's just changing the way it used
Speaker 1: to be when you stand around the water cooler, if
Speaker 1: anybody actually did that and talked about what you saw
Speaker 1: the night before, I think those days are over. No,
Speaker 1: I think so too, because honestly, I really think that
Speaker 1: sports is the only thing that does that anymore. Seems
Speaker 1: to be the only thing that people watch live. And
Speaker 1: that's the difference. As you can talk about squid game
Speaker 1: or you know. But it's all sort of gradual. I
Speaker 1: haven't seen it yet, don't. Oh, I'm on episode two.
Speaker 1: I'm you know, so you can't. You can't sort of
Speaker 1: engage in the same way. It's like, oh, last night
Speaker 1: at nine o'clock, we were all watching right to shoot
Speaker 1: me or whatever. Yeah, yeah, yeah, And in a way
Speaker 1: I'm sorry about that because as we have become more
Speaker 1: homebodies in the last two years too and not going
Speaker 1: you know, I was thinking about we went back to
Speaker 1: Disney Hall when they reopened this season, and I just
Speaker 1: was so thrilled to be in that hall with all
Speaker 1: those people sharing that glorious music. And I was just
Speaker 1: at the Ammonds and the other night and and the
Speaker 1: same thing of those shared experiences of our culture and
Speaker 1: things that make us laugh, that inspire us, that bring
Speaker 1: us to tears. All of that that shared humanity is
Speaker 1: something that we are so lacking, and I think it's
Speaker 1: it's part of how we got to where we are
Speaker 1: right now, with this kind of lack of common purpose
Speaker 1: and of all being in it together. You know, we
Speaker 1: we physically haven't been in it together for so long. Yeah. No,
Speaker 1: you're absolutely right, And it's not just you know, it's
Speaker 1: not I mean, you bring up live performance events, certainly
Speaker 1: there's that, but even the experience of going to a
Speaker 1: movie on Saturday night and you're sitting with a hundred
Speaker 1: other people and you're laughing or you're you know, yeah,
Speaker 1: that sort of communal experience. Somebody tell me, and I'm
Speaker 1: not sure who this was, and maybe it's not even true,
Speaker 1: but I love the idea of it. But someone said
Speaker 1: they had researched this and done some some experiments, and
Speaker 1: they found that in live theater, the audience can get
Speaker 1: caught up in it and after a certain period of time.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's in a drama, I don't know, maybe it's
Speaker 1: across the board. They actually their heartbeats get in sink
Speaker 1: because you are kind of breathing at the same time,
Speaker 1: and you hear that that sort of community or laugh
Speaker 1: or whatever it is, but that it's like girls who
Speaker 1: are roommates get their period at the same time. But
Speaker 1: there's something about that. Whatever yourself, you're aware of it.
Speaker 1: Three times you were you were in okay, yeah, sorry, okay,
Speaker 1: I'm now I'm going to get in trouble. You're also
Speaker 1: doing a ton of voiceover work. I have been doing
Speaker 1: more of that the last few years. Enjoy that, the
Speaker 1: experience of creating a character that way. Probably love it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: of course, I still am so physical. I'm always using
Speaker 1: my whole body in my hands and all of this,
Speaker 1: and they always have to tell me not to move
Speaker 1: around so much because I'm making too much. I love it. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, my two favorites have been probably have been
Speaker 1: bo Jack Courseman, where I got to be his mother
Speaker 1: and they gave me such a great storyline and it
Speaker 1: was so heartbreaking, and I mean, those guys are just geniuses.
Speaker 1: And I'm doing one for Disney called The Owl House
Speaker 1: and it's such a groundbreaking story. I play this fabulous
Speaker 1: wish and she's got one snaggle tooth. She's just really fun.
Speaker 1: She's like Rosalind Russell the Witch, but with the snaggle
Speaker 1: tooth thing. But in it, the young girl who's the
Speaker 1: sort of lead character who who goes down in the
Speaker 1: down Under. It's kind of like Alice in Wonderland. She
Speaker 1: goes through the rabbit hole and ends up in this
Speaker 1: this other land, the Boiling Aisles, and wants to become
Speaker 1: a witch. And I take her under my wing that
Speaker 1: she becomes attracted. She's like thirteen, has a girlfriend and
Speaker 1: kisses her. And I mean, young kids are so thrilled
Speaker 1: that there are people who reflect right, young lesbians and
Speaker 1: young witches and uh, and it sort of just gives
Speaker 1: people a chance to see someone who maybe is kind
Speaker 1: of like them out there, and it's been it's been
Speaker 1: a culturally a very interesting thing for Disney to do. No,
Speaker 1: I don't know if they're going to keep us in there,
Speaker 1: but I think after what's going on at Disney World,
Speaker 1: it would be a very good idea. Yeah, yeah, it's
Speaker 1: very fun. And speaking of what you, I do the
Speaker 1: same thing with my hands and my moving right stuff.
Speaker 1: And when all you have is your voice, you realize
Speaker 1: that you're using your face and you're just you know
Speaker 1: when I run when I yeah, I mean it's that's
Speaker 1: how you emote. Yes, you got to work with one
Speaker 1: of the greats very recently, hot in Cleveland. I don't
Speaker 1: mean me, by the way, Betty White, but Betty White. Um,
Speaker 1: by the way. I'm sorry to interrupt my question to
Speaker 1: say something else that this also occurs to me an
Speaker 1: actor's dream three different shows that go over six seasons,
Speaker 1: one seven, I mean, how well actually to be to
Speaker 1: be fair, dream on I think was only five, but
Speaker 1: we still got to a hundred and thirty shows or
Speaker 1: whatever it was. I well, you know what's funny, and
Speaker 1: this is from memory right here. I saw a hundred
Speaker 1: and twenty and I and I think it's six because
Speaker 1: I went what I did the reason I'm saying this,
Speaker 1: and by the way, you should remember not me as
Speaker 1: I was going it was twenty episodes a year like that.
Speaker 1: That may be true because after yeah, after the first year,
Speaker 1: because the first year we did like, you know, six
Speaker 1: or ten or something, so probably after that we picked
Speaker 1: up on it. But as a cable show, yeah, no,
Speaker 1: that was I think they just realized they hit paid dirt.
Speaker 1: They just went right, let's keep cramming these things for
Speaker 1: sure right now. But to back to your question about Betty, Betty,
Speaker 1: I will forever be great to have turned sixty on
Speaker 1: that show. When she was turning ninety, that was such
Speaker 1: a gift. And Jane and Val were both on the
Speaker 1: verge of their fiftieth We all, you know, we were
Speaker 1: so stunned that anybody wanted to do a show about
Speaker 1: women of our age anyway, like to build it around
Speaker 1: us and not just be the mom or the boss
Speaker 1: or the whatever. Being with her. She had such a
Speaker 1: total renaissance of her career, not that she ever stopped working,
Speaker 1: but this was after Saturday Night Live and the Snicker's
Speaker 1: commercial and to be around her and see what was
Speaker 1: going on with this woman who was going to turn
Speaker 1: nine the next year was such a revelation for all
Speaker 1: of us. It was like, Wow, we're not done. My
Speaker 1: next birthday will be the beginning of my third act.
Speaker 1: And that was such a different way of framing how
Speaker 1: I have gone forward since then to realize that, you know,
Speaker 1: it's so much of it as your attitude and in
Speaker 1: your head and if you you know, stay vital and
Speaker 1: love what you do and leave it on them at
Speaker 1: every time, and try to be to be a good
Speaker 1: soldier and play with with others nicely, which I do
Speaker 1: because I love sets, I love collaborating, I love being
Speaker 1: on set with people, and I wanted to be enjoyable
Speaker 1: for everybody. And I think when people show up and
Speaker 1: they're prepared and they are happy to be there, there's
Speaker 1: no reason why you can't have a blast and make
Speaker 1: good stuff, you know. I just feel so blessed to
Speaker 1: have this career and to still be doing it at
Speaker 1: my age. But I I really credit Betty with my
Speaker 1: having faith and uh and not freaking out about about
Speaker 1: my age. She really was an enormous mentor in that
Speaker 1: way to so many women everywhere. Yeah, and the experience also,
Speaker 1: I mean I was there. I know you saw obviously
Speaker 1: so much more. But what was so incredible to me
Speaker 1: about watching her at ninety or whatever it was when
Speaker 1: those cameras came on, she always found a way to yep, exactly, Yeah,
Speaker 1: she came alot, came alot, and she was radiant, that woman.
Speaker 1: There was something about her face and her eyes, but
Speaker 1: she had those amazing dimples and her eyes just sparkled.
Speaker 1: And when you look during all the tributes when she
Speaker 1: died and you saw her, especially when she was around Alan,
Speaker 1: who every time she talked about in her eyes with water,
Speaker 1: and she just she was so madly in love with him.
Speaker 1: They were so wild about each other, but she still
Speaker 1: had it. And she was someone you just couldn't take
Speaker 1: your eyes off. Is it off of You're not supposed
Speaker 1: to end with enough, But for whom you could not
Speaker 1: take off your was trying to help you, for whom
Speaker 1: you could not take off your eyes. No, that doesn't
Speaker 1: make sense. That's definitely you know what I'm saying. And
Speaker 1: kind and generous, humble and now she just she she
Speaker 1: was the real package and you could really see that.
Speaker 1: Nobody ever had an unkind word to say about Betty
Speaker 1: ever Is there anyone Hollywood that you would like to
Speaker 1: work with? Is there is there any dream person out there?
Speaker 1: So many? Yeah, I just but anybody who wants to
Speaker 1: work with me, I'm here, yes, okay, I mean everyone
Speaker 1: will know that now now now there, so so I
Speaker 1: am available for work and yes, no, I have to say,
Speaker 1: it's been really fun now playing the mother of grown
Speaker 1: up people to know I'm a grandmother. There's something kind
Speaker 1: of free about getting to this stage that maybe you
Speaker 1: don't sweat the small stuff as much. He recently played
Speaker 1: a d A in a movie and I thought, Okay,
Speaker 1: this is where the challenging part is, when you have
Speaker 1: to know that that kind of legally stuff and do
Speaker 1: the final argument to the jury and on that ship right,
Speaker 1: so that stuff in the medical stuff. It's always been
Speaker 1: a little tricky for me. But I do love still
Speaker 1: just jumping in of a bunch of people and seeing
Speaker 1: seeing how good we can make it. I recently did
Speaker 1: a movie in Hawaii that I produced on and so
Speaker 1: I'm helping with editing, which is really fun. It's like
Speaker 1: a whole different hat to wear. And helped with casting it.
Speaker 1: And the premise was they never found Amelia Earhart's body.
Speaker 1: So what if she survived that crash and went and
Speaker 1: lived under an assumed name in Hawaii and it is
Speaker 1: now the eve of her eightieth birthday? Okay, and you're
Speaker 1: editing it now. Yeah. And I got to play Amelia,
Speaker 1: so that was pretty interesting. And that's like a different
Speaker 1: hat to wear, which I love. And I'm also writing.
Speaker 1: So I wrote a short play that got produced and published,
Speaker 1: and so it's kind of like, what's the worst thing
Speaker 1: that can happen? You can fall on your face, but
Speaker 1: trying new stuff when you're in your third act. I
Speaker 1: highly recommend it. It keeps things very interesting and then
Speaker 1: you have an alternative. You know, things slow down in
Speaker 1: one area you can kind of plug into another one. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Have you directed? I have to acted readings, but never
Speaker 1: any long form of anything. No desire. Possibly possibly, I
Speaker 1: think perhaps something that I write. Like I wanted to
Speaker 1: direct the play that I wrote, but I was working
Speaker 1: here and couldn't and it was on the East Coast.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I could see directing something of my own,
Speaker 1: but I don't think I would direct an act in something. Okay,
Speaker 1: well you did when you were a kid, I did well,
Speaker 1: and who knows, Maybe I'll get there again and just
Speaker 1: think I can do everything. I'll write it, i'll direct it,
Speaker 1: i'll shoot it, I'll do it all. But that idea
Speaker 1: of collaboration, to me is one of the most desirable
Speaker 1: aspects of working because I have no intention of retiring
Speaker 1: because I like what I do too much. I like
Speaker 1: I have no interest in doing on one woman show
Speaker 1: because I wouldn't know who to debrief with at the
Speaker 1: end of the night. You know, who do you say,
Speaker 1: see on the ice too? Um, that's just that's not
Speaker 1: why I do this. Yeah, you know I've done three Really,
Speaker 1: were any of them women? Any of them women? You
Speaker 1: were going to say that. I knew you were gonna
Speaker 1: say that. No One. One though, was an hour and
Speaker 1: forty five minutes in with an Irish accent, and I
Speaker 1: don't really do accents, by the way, So that went well.
Speaker 1: It was a lot of work. It's interesting that you
Speaker 1: say that, because I found it really, really difficult. Now,
Speaker 1: I had close collaborations with the directors and even designers
Speaker 1: on some of that, but it's not the same. And
Speaker 1: I think in our business, well, especially in comedy, I
Speaker 1: think that collaboration that give and take, that even if
Speaker 1: it's not straight improv is yeah. Yeah. And then even
Speaker 1: in the doing of it, particularly in live theater, the
Speaker 1: tennis game you play with each other, and how you
Speaker 1: can bail each other out of trouble and surprise each other,
Speaker 1: there's just it's it's that's so delicious, and that's something
Speaker 1: I wouldn't I wouldn't want to trade. You've talked about
Speaker 1: it a little bit. You have a lot of animals.
Speaker 1: You love animals. I've heard that it was written that
Speaker 1: you said that was horrible sentence, that you wanted to
Speaker 1: be a vet if you weren't an actor. You've done
Speaker 1: advocacy work with Humane Society and other animal organizations. What
Speaker 1: sparked this love or interest? Is this life long or
Speaker 1: is this oh? Yeah? Yeah. My older sister growing up
Speaker 1: was a colleague Bonnie. Yeah, she was my first best friend.
Speaker 1: You know, I have always preferred the company of animals
Speaker 1: to people pretty much, uh more consistently. You know, I
Speaker 1: love I love. I love people too, but they are
Speaker 1: much easier to love and they forgive you everything and
Speaker 1: know they're my crew. And I feel this is such
Speaker 1: a gift that I got to end up living on
Speaker 1: a ranch and I get to live with animals. No,
Speaker 1: they're they're my my best needs for sure. And it's
Speaker 1: interesting because my I probably would have gone into veterinary medicine,
Speaker 1: but I sucked it science and I also love theater,
Speaker 1: so I had, okay, theater science, and Matthew, you can't
Speaker 1: three science, and that we'll have to go this way.
Speaker 1: So it was it was by necessity. But my daughter
Speaker 1: is Um had started out being an aspiring thespian was
Speaker 1: pretty good, and she's now in college at bart and
Speaker 1: she's pre med and going to be a vet and
Speaker 1: equine vet. She's been riding was five years old. But yeah,
Speaker 1: she said, you know, I was thinking about it, and
Speaker 1: I know how lucky you feel you are that you
Speaker 1: get to work at the thing you love. But I've
Speaker 1: also seen your friends who get so frustrated because they
Speaker 1: just don't have enough to make a living. And I
Speaker 1: think I would be so depressed if that were me,
Speaker 1: she said. But the other thing I love is animals,
Speaker 1: and there is a real need for equine vets. You know,
Speaker 1: there are a lot of small animal vets. But she's
Speaker 1: worked every summer and a return to Freedom of Horse
Speaker 1: Saint Wild Horse Sanctuary and really gotten her feet wet.
Speaker 1: She's like fold little horses, and she stuck her hand
Speaker 1: into wounds and cleaned them out and she doesn't have
Speaker 1: any problem with that. And she she said, I want
Speaker 1: to do this. So she's now immersed in science and
Speaker 1: math and looking at a long road ahead. But it's
Speaker 1: so great that she figured out that where she belongs.
Speaker 1: Would you do that? Stick your hand up there, and yeah,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, I'm I'm pretty I'm pretty fearless when it
Speaker 1: comes to I will touch all things animal. They don't
Speaker 1: gross me out at all. It's so different from people. Okay,
Speaker 1: I want to leave that one alone. Um, congratulations on
Speaker 1: all the projects you have coming up. I cannot imagine
Speaker 1: you as an eighty year old Amelia Earhart, but I'm
Speaker 1: going to watch it. Nonetheless, I actually kind of seld it.
Speaker 1: I think, yeah, imagine me with white eyebrows, blue eyes,
Speaker 1: white hair, a few age spots. But I didn't need
Speaker 1: too much. All I had to do is look down
Speaker 1: a lot net. I was amazing how little it took
Speaker 1: a little it took um truly, Wendy, thank you so much.
Speaker 1: It it is not a line, It is not bs.
Speaker 1: You just make me laugh. It's really It's truely, it's
Speaker 1: as simple as that. And even though I forgot that
Speaker 1: we worked together before HUT in Cleveland, I think I
Speaker 1: was just too nervous that I thank you for coming
Speaker 1: and talking to me. I know, Brian, you make me
Speaker 1: laugh too, so it's mutual. There you go, all right,
Speaker 1: Wendy Malick, thank you. You're welcome. You know, Wendy, it
Speaker 1: was an absolute pleasure having you on the podcast. In
Speaker 1: case you can't tell, I'm a big fan. I cannot
Speaker 1: tell you how much this conversation has meant to me.
Speaker 1: You are, in fact, one of the great ones. To
Speaker 1: the rest of you, well, you're great too, and I
Speaker 1: will see you next week for another episode of Off
Speaker 1: the Beat. In the meantime, like subscribe, I follow at
Speaker 1: Off the Beat. You know the drone. All right, we'll
Speaker 1: talk to you soon. Off the Beat is hosted an
Speaker 1: executive produced by me Brian Baumgartner, alongside our executive producer
Speaker 1: Lang Lee. Our producers are Diego Tapia, Liz Hayes, Emily Carr,
Speaker 1: and Hannah Harris. Our talent producer is Ryan Papa Zachary.
Speaker 1: Our theme song Bubble and Squeak, performed by my great
Speaker 1: friend Creed Bratton, and the episode was mixed by seth Olandski.