Speaker 1: Hey there, Fana Ritos, and welcome to an all new
Speaker 1: episode of How Rude Tana Ritos. As you know, there's
Speaker 1: an actress who's appeared on Full House more than once,
Speaker 1: but as two completely different characters. She was first introduced
Speaker 1: as Becky's sister Connie, then came back as Karen, and
Speaker 1: will eventually appear as Connie again. Talk about whiplash and
Speaker 1: if that isn't wacky enough, this isn't the only TV
Speaker 1: show where she has played multiple characters. What Debbie Gregory
Speaker 1: herself is joining the podcast today to tell us all
Speaker 1: about her roles on Full House and how this opportunity
Speaker 1: came to be. So please give a warm welcome to Debbie.
Speaker 2: Do you hear me? Guys?
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, Hi, there you are.
Speaker 2: We can hear you.
Speaker 4: Okay, can you see me?
Speaker 1: I can't see you, but I can hear you. And
Speaker 1: Jody just went to do a she went to get
Speaker 1: a coffee or find a microphone, one or the other.
Speaker 4: I don't know. I already see that cookie jar.
Speaker 2: Oh I know.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've got all my Full House swag behind me.
Speaker 2: What do you have?
Speaker 3: You have your hat?
Speaker 4: I have a hat. I still have this little fanny pack.
Speaker 1: Fanny pack. Yes, I have the fanny pack. I don't
Speaker 1: think I have the hat. I am jealous. Where did
Speaker 1: I put that hat? These are wrap party gifts. I'm
Speaker 1: assuming you have a.
Speaker 4: Real practical Christmas gift that everybody probably needed.
Speaker 1: A messenger bag. Yes see, I like the practical gifts.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: It's like, there's only so many water bottles you need,
Speaker 1: but a messenger bag.
Speaker 4: Love it, I know, and I know it's storage. I
Speaker 4: have a denim jacket and a Bomber baseball jacket. And yes,
Speaker 4: it's never gonna die. No never, You're going to have
Speaker 4: it in your heart and in the universe forever. Yeah.
Speaker 1: The fans are the fans are so loyal that they
Speaker 1: are just keeping this train going.
Speaker 3: We love it. They love it. We're very excited to
Speaker 3: have you on the show today.
Speaker 4: This is so honored and I'm so shocked that you
Speaker 4: even want me on the show. That's so crazy.
Speaker 3: Oh no, we were like, do you think Debbie would
Speaker 3: come on the show?
Speaker 4: No, it's so funny how everybody makes well. They make
Speaker 4: such a big deal about the two characters, like.
Speaker 3: Okah, this has been a big topic.
Speaker 1: This has been a big topic, and we've only gotten
Speaker 1: to your second your second episode of the five you
Speaker 1: were on on Full House, so we just saw you
Speaker 1: as Karen in the Greatest Birthday Party, Oh.
Speaker 2: My god, the circus.
Speaker 4: I just watched it. Whenever Maddie contacted me, I was,
Speaker 4: I'm so impressed with your whole podcast. I've been listening
Speaker 4: since you.
Speaker 2: So I love you. Yeah, it's been it's been really fun.
Speaker 2: But yeah it was. We were like, I was like,
Speaker 2: wait a minute, she looks really familiar, and then it
Speaker 2: was like, wait that it was. It was one of
Speaker 2: It was a great Full House esque moment, like such
Speaker 2: an eighties nineties sitcom moment in the soap op remote
Speaker 2: where it's like just don't yeah, we know you'd see.
Speaker 3: The handle about it away.
Speaker 2: We're gonna yeah. But it was great and definitely something
Speaker 2: that the fans UH love to pick up on.
Speaker 4: But you know, I think that happened a lot like
Speaker 4: I was on an I was on Hearts of Fire
Speaker 4: with the John Ritter and Market Post and I was
Speaker 4: first a guest star in their DC location and they
Speaker 4: were going to set me up with Billy Bob Thornton's character,
Speaker 4: and then the show moved to Uh, oh my gosh,
Speaker 4: where they moved to. The producers were from I don't know.
Speaker 4: They're from the South somewhere. So they moved moved to
Speaker 4: the newspaper, local newspaper, and then I was their secretary,
Speaker 4: so I came back as another character. Got it. It's
Speaker 4: so interesting. And then on Full House, I think Jeff's secretary,
Speaker 4: Robin was on a few times.
Speaker 3: She's she's yeah.
Speaker 1: We've seen her once as one of the ripper parties.
Speaker 1: She was rocking out with her tambourines.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that was like right around the time I was
Speaker 4: on the Greatest Birthday.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, Yeah, that's exciting. That is so cool.
Speaker 1: Well, we first see you as Connie, who is Becky's sister,
Speaker 1: also the mother of Howie, who Michelle gets very obsessed with.
Speaker 2: Very fast. I don't know if you I don't know
Speaker 2: if you heard the Howie episode I watched.
Speaker 4: Oh I heard, yeah.
Speaker 2: Totally, okay, okay, yeah, Howie.
Speaker 3: Forty seven times.
Speaker 1: Forty seven times Michelle says Howie, Howie.
Speaker 4: And I said three words, two of which was probably Howie. No.
Speaker 4: I think I said something like that it's a cute
Speaker 4: couple or something. I have no line. So it's so
Speaker 4: funny that fans would even remember that little part.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, the fans are shows over. I mean again,
Speaker 2: we know nothing compared to the fans they are. They
Speaker 2: are guiding us through much of the much of the episodes.
Speaker 2: But yeah, they definitely they definitely picked up on that. Now,
Speaker 2: how I mean, I'd love to hear your story, you know,
Speaker 2: three full house days. I heard that weirdly. Phil Donahue,
Speaker 2: who just passed, uh this past week, is he the
Speaker 2: person who initially encouraged you to start acting? And yeah, really,
Speaker 2: how did that?
Speaker 4: Okay, I'll give you a brief. I always wanted to
Speaker 4: be a producer and okay, and in high school, Okay,
Speaker 4: my best friend to this day, I'm going to see
Speaker 4: you're in San Clemente. Is Karen Miller?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 4: Okay, so I know. So we went to high school
Speaker 4: together and then her father was the executive producer of
Speaker 4: The Mike Douglas Show. And then he had to transfer
Speaker 4: from Miami. We lived in Miami, Okay, transferred to Philly,
Speaker 4: and so Karen lived with me our senior year, so
Speaker 4: she didn't have to miss being with all our friends
Speaker 4: and stuff.
Speaker 2: So then, of Karen, she's such a Karen Miller was
Speaker 2: one of the producers on Full House and has sort
Speaker 2: of stayed in contact. I know my mom has talked
Speaker 2: to her throughout the years. We you know, followed each
Speaker 2: other on social media and stuff. But anyway, for those
Speaker 2: of you wondering who Karen is, she was a lovely, wonderful,
Speaker 2: incredible producer that was on the show when we were
Speaker 2: young and was always super sweet and kind as.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you should have her on.
Speaker 2: We should, Yeah, we should get Karen absolutely.
Speaker 3: Okay, that's a great idea.
Speaker 4: Dad was in Miami and we almost died. Karen and
Speaker 4: I found out that Casey and the Sunshine Band was
Speaker 4: going to be on Michael Mike Douglas show.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yea.
Speaker 4: That's like before your time and you weren't born, so we.
Speaker 2: Know, but I mean I know of Casey and the
Speaker 2: Sunshine Band.
Speaker 4: Yeah, okay, yeah. Well, so we skipped school to go
Speaker 4: to this Mike Douglas taping and got to meet Casey
Speaker 4: and I thought I was going to die and we
Speaker 4: took pictures with him and it was just so fun.
Speaker 4: So they college, and I want to be I want
Speaker 4: to do that. I wanted to you know, do TV television,
Speaker 4: and so I majored in broadcast journalism at University of Florida. Okay, yeah,
Speaker 4: and I I took off my junior year to go
Speaker 4: intern at a TV station in Miami called w TVJ.
Speaker 4: So I worked for public affairs down there, and then
Speaker 4: I worked for a remember PM magazine.
Speaker 2: I was a little bit like.
Speaker 4: A precursor to Entertainment Tonight Act Yeah yeah, okay evolved
Speaker 4: into more just you know, pop parazzi stories, but it
Speaker 4: used to have more content. And so then I went
Speaker 4: back to college. Oh when I left, you know, interns
Speaker 4: always get offered a job and they're like, Okay, come
Speaker 4: back when you graduate. So I went back my senior
Speaker 4: year and worked on everything television, Like I was a DJ. Oh,
Speaker 4: I was a DJ for a little bit, and then
Speaker 4: I worked at the Tables station and then I had
Speaker 4: a show called Come Together and I reported and produced that.
Speaker 4: And after I don't know how long, I guess I
Speaker 4: was there, like one year, Playboy magazine came and I
Speaker 4: went to interview them and they were like, I said, oh,
Speaker 4: what are you looking for? And he's like, oh, blonde
Speaker 4: hair and blue eyes, something like you. And I said, no,
Speaker 4: I'm not doing it, and so he goes, oh, you
Speaker 4: can be dressed, and I said, all right. So I
Speaker 4: was in the Girls of the SEC in nineteen eighty
Speaker 4: one and then all I would say, I wouldn't even
Speaker 4: give Playboy anything because I didn't want to tarnish my
Speaker 4: reputation as a broadcast serious journalist. And all they wrote
Speaker 4: is Wie wants a career in broadcasting. And that's the
Speaker 4: way it is. And that's like what Walter Cronkite used to.
Speaker 2: End all his right.
Speaker 4: So anyway, I digress. I went to Miami produced the
Speaker 4: show called Am South Florida Okay, and then that got canceled.
Speaker 4: It was in the eighties, and Phil Donahue hired me
Speaker 4: to freelance produce for him for two months. He was
Speaker 4: coming down to Florida and he said, oh, I know
Speaker 4: you're out of a job, and so he hired a
Speaker 4: couple of us from our show and for two months,
Speaker 4: and he couldn't take me back to Chicago. And he
Speaker 4: just looks at me and he's like, you know, you
Speaker 4: should really go in front of the camera. And I
Speaker 4: was like, oh, well, what time is it. I don't
Speaker 4: have a job. Okay, I'll try it.
Speaker 2: And that's right.
Speaker 4: Crazyly how I got in front of the camera so crazy.
Speaker 4: I go to California, Karen's there page at CBS and
Speaker 4: I'm like, Karen, you know, can I talk to the
Speaker 4: casting director over there about going from behind the camera
Speaker 4: to in front of the camera And She's like, yeah, sure,
Speaker 4: come in. So it was the casting director for Capital,
Speaker 4: the soap opera.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 4: I walked in like on a Thursday and said, hey,
Speaker 4: you know, told her my story and she hands me
Speaker 4: a script and says, read that line. And it was
Speaker 4: like one line and she goes, oh, well, you wear
Speaker 4: a bathing suit on television. I'm like yes, And so
Speaker 4: on Monday morning, be here and wear a bathing suit.
Speaker 4: And I got apart. I got one line on Capitol,
Speaker 4: and so that got me crazily into the right business.
Speaker 2: Yeah did you do? Like? Was it a repeat on Capital?
Speaker 4: Was recurring? It was a recurring part on Capitol. And
Speaker 4: then Young and Less hired me after them, and I
Speaker 4: was somebody's I don't I never really watched the show,
Speaker 4: but I was somebody's light attendant on her private jet
Speaker 4: a blog. I don't know what her character's name was,
Speaker 4: but yeah, So then I did those and then I
Speaker 4: got an agent who said, oh, don't you soaps do
Speaker 4: like sitcoms and commercials, and so I started doing that.
Speaker 2: So many people in this business start off in soap operas.
Speaker 2: I mean a lot. Yeah, oh well you you have
Speaker 2: me do maybe, yeah, gosh John John Brotherton John.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Definitely a lot of people in this business start,
Speaker 2: you know, in the world of soap operas. And I
Speaker 2: will say, my hats always go off to soap opera
Speaker 2: actors because it's a it is a it's a grind,
Speaker 2: it's it's every day. It's a lot of different stuff
Speaker 2: thrown at you every day.
Speaker 1: So yeah, it's a great training ground for new actors
Speaker 1: though you know, it's a trial by fire, just throw
Speaker 1: you in there.
Speaker 4: And and sitcoms are right after that. I mean, I
Speaker 4: mean every day, five days of tell, four days a week.
Speaker 2: And then yeah, yeah, it definitely is it's it has
Speaker 2: its own I mean, you know, I think we always
Speaker 2: talk about, like, well, single cam has its own thing
Speaker 2: because those days can be like thirteen fourteen hour days
Speaker 2: and they're you know long, and you're on location and whatever.
Speaker 2: There's there's nice pluses and minuses, you know, pros and
Speaker 2: cons to each sort of thing. But what how long
Speaker 2: did you were you doing that before you then like
Speaker 2: kind of got your first sitcom gig. Was it pretty
Speaker 2: quick or did you find yourself?
Speaker 4: So I moved out there in eighty six and then
Speaker 4: I was doing the soaps and I don't know, do
Speaker 4: you want to hear the tea met Jeff?
Speaker 2: Okay?
Speaker 1: Right, you can share whatever you you can edit it
Speaker 1: out if.
Speaker 2: You can always be like that, or we'll be like
Speaker 2: I have Jeff here we go.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, go for it. I don't think he
Speaker 3: listens to this podcast.
Speaker 2: So you're saying he does sometimes. I went to lunch
Speaker 2: with Hey, yeah he does sometimes, but it's fine, no,
Speaker 2: go for it.
Speaker 4: I hope he gives us his blessings.
Speaker 2: You know he will, Oh my god, he does. Jeff
Speaker 2: is yeah, yeah, he loves the podcast. He loves us.
Speaker 2: So yeah, it's more all good.
Speaker 4: And I just I just spoke with him a few
Speaker 4: months ago. I know he had a surgery and.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah he's doing better. I went to lunch with
Speaker 2: him on Tuesday and he's he's doing great.
Speaker 4: So yeah yeah, so so.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know we love Jeff, but we know what
Speaker 2: we know Jeff, So what's the tea.
Speaker 4: Oh well, so I went with Karen to I was
Speaker 4: on my way to move to New York in summer
Speaker 4: of eighty seven. Okay, it takes me to the screening
Speaker 4: of his movie Summer School, all right, right, okay, And
Speaker 4: but I was on my way. I was leaving. Uh,
Speaker 4: I had you know, I was in love and I
Speaker 4: thought I was going to marry this guy in New York.
Speaker 4: And so whatever I was, nothing really happened, and then
Speaker 4: I had Uh. I flew to New York, only lasted
Speaker 4: there a year, came back. I was in the commissary
Speaker 4: with Karen, I think, and we I don't know what happened.
Speaker 4: So I had.
Speaker 2: I had no idea that you guys met through Karen.
Speaker 2: I had. I like I had. I didn't know that
Speaker 2: piece of of of the puzzle.
Speaker 3: It's all yeah, I didn't either.
Speaker 4: It's all her fault.
Speaker 3: She's the matchmaker.
Speaker 4: Now she wasn't. She wasted the match maker.
Speaker 3: She was just there, Okay, yeah, don't go.
Speaker 2: She was probably like this is a terrible idea, right right, yeah,
Speaker 2: She's like you're gonna go, right, yeah. I've had tons
Speaker 2: of friends like that. They're like, no, separately, you guys
Speaker 2: are don't forces.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but we did. And it was anyway, So I
Speaker 4: think that episode Baby Love was just a weird episode.
Speaker 4: And I was just around and he said, oh, do
Speaker 4: you want to this part? It was like one line.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, it was. It was a quick one.
Speaker 2: It was was the focus was all on Howie. You
Speaker 2: know what I mean. It was. It was the obsession.
Speaker 2: You were just the device which got the legendary Howie
Speaker 2: into the building. And then that didn't matter.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it required a lot of training.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: It did, it really did. It was a lot of
Speaker 2: It was a lot of work. And yeah, and then
Speaker 2: and then it turns out Howie what was was.
Speaker 1: A young one, a young child, twin girls, how I
Speaker 1: was played by twin girls.
Speaker 2: And then didn't she didn't didn't we say? She came
Speaker 2: back to to play something else?
Speaker 1: No, No, how he comes back in season four for
Speaker 1: the wedding, but he's recast as male actor as Okay,
Speaker 1: got it, That's what it was.
Speaker 3: That's what I was.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well that how Wee.
Speaker 4: They were such babies.
Speaker 2: It didn't matter, that's yeah, No, it didn't matter. It
Speaker 2: totally didn't matter. Had you done other sitcom stuff prior
Speaker 2: to Full House? Or was that your first That was
Speaker 2: your first sitcom one.
Speaker 4: I had only done. I did some commercials. I did
Speaker 4: a Budweiser commercial and I think a natural turky. No
Speaker 4: that was after. Yeah, I did some commercials. Oh god,
Speaker 4: I did a cigarette commercial even back then. Yeah, so
Speaker 4: I was like, I'm not inhaling, so I hope I
Speaker 4: mean obviously right, Yeah, But that was it between the
Speaker 4: soaps and a commercials. And then I had moved to
Speaker 4: New York and my agents hated me being there. They
Speaker 4: couldn't cast me in anything, and they said come back
Speaker 4: to LA and I was like, oh good, because it's
Speaker 4: not working out with this guy. So it all made
Speaker 4: that come back. And so I was in LA for
Speaker 4: ten years, doing sitcoms here and there and commercials.
Speaker 1: And so at this point, did did you prefer being
Speaker 1: in front of the camera or did you kind of
Speaker 1: miss being behind the camera As.
Speaker 4: A producer, I would have liked to have like figured
Speaker 4: out a way to do both. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and.
Speaker 1: Yeah there's appealing parts about each job that you don't
Speaker 1: get with the other job.
Speaker 3: Yeah for sure.
Speaker 2: Now, one thing, one interesting thing about Karen is that
Speaker 2: when we we first see her as the aunt to
Speaker 2: a kid, that's that's not Howie.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: Well, first year as as Connie, whose mom to Howie.
Speaker 2: Then we meet her as Karen, who is the aunt
Speaker 2: to a kid at Michelle's birthday party. Then we see
Speaker 2: Karen again in season three. Oh yeah, as the time right,
Speaker 2: but this time she's a dance teacher who dates Danny
Speaker 2: and ends up being a complete slob. Oh, so the
Speaker 2: story of Karen develops. Karen.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't know if Karen in the in the
Speaker 4: birthday episode is the same Karen even and you know, I.
Speaker 2: Ask it's a different Karen. It's a different Karen impersonating
Speaker 2: the other Karen because she's already in person Connie is
Speaker 2: already impersonating that Karen. And now that Karen has split
Speaker 2: and is now impersonating the Karen. That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: Soap operas. It was the eighties. Nobody it was like, fine,
Speaker 2: it doesn't matter, bring him back from the dead.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and I think that, but we have to ask
Speaker 4: Jack that question. Why. I mean, I'm grateful, and I
Speaker 4: of course, you know, loved being on the show as
Speaker 4: much as I could and so, but you know, I'm
Speaker 4: sorry to any fans who are like, so.
Speaker 2: No, this is great. Are you kidding?
Speaker 4: Characters?
Speaker 2: They know it's perfect. This is the brilliance of Full House,
Speaker 2: and the brilliance of eighties television is that it just
Speaker 2: didn't matter. It was like, it's fine, don't worry about it. Well,
Speaker 2: you know, because there was so much time in like
Speaker 2: a season went, you know, twenty two, twenty four, twenty
Speaker 2: six episodes once a week, Like somebody you saw in
Speaker 2: the beginning of season two, they could have come back,
Speaker 2: and you were like that sort of vaguely for whatever,
Speaker 2: like it didn't. You're like, oh, I saw him on
Speaker 2: another show or something. It didn't. It's not like when
Speaker 2: you watch him now, like back to back, you're like,
Speaker 2: wait a minute, yeah.
Speaker 4: Because back then we would run the show and then
Speaker 4: we would run a rerun maybe in the summer, and
Speaker 4: then saw the show again. And now it's crazy And
Speaker 4: I have three children. Now you're twenty five, twenty four,
Speaker 4: and twenty two, and wow, my twenty five year old
Speaker 4: was a baby, a youngster old enough to know right.
Speaker 4: I loved watching Full House, except whenever I kissed Danny
Speaker 4: rid of any block it so nobody would see his
Speaker 4: mom kissing another.
Speaker 2: Man, and oh my god, that's hysterical.
Speaker 4: He didn't get it. He didn't. He was like young enough,
Speaker 4: he knew I was kissing another man, but he didn't
Speaker 4: get it was television and.
Speaker 3: Right right, make believe.
Speaker 2: Yes, well, kids, you don't.
Speaker 3: You don't want to see your mom or dad kiss
Speaker 3: anybody like each other, anybody.
Speaker 2: You're like, you're not a human. You're like, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: you're not. You don't have real feelings and people and things. Yeah. Now,
Speaker 2: so did your kids grow up than watching watching Full House?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 4: Sure, I mean I was. I was a celebrity in
Speaker 4: their school. Are you kidding?
Speaker 2: And oh, you know, it was really.
Speaker 4: Fun too, because oh my gosh. Okay, so Bob was
Speaker 4: great at donating stuff for me, and I reconnected with him.
Speaker 4: I don't know how he remembered this, but we were
Speaker 4: at a Broadway show and it was intermission, and so
Speaker 4: I was in the lobby area and all of a sudden,
Speaker 4: some when he comes up and whispers in my ear,
Speaker 4: I was rolling your socks while we were kissing. Was like.
Speaker 2: Holding socks behind my back.
Speaker 4: I said that to him, and oh, okay, well we
Speaker 4: were kidding, and you know, he remembered that. He remembered
Speaker 4: that and he recognized me, and it was so fun
Speaker 4: and he was just as awesome as and then we
Speaker 4: connected and he gave me scripts and photos whenever I
Speaker 4: needed anything. And he came to Tampa to do the
Speaker 4: you know a bit at the Improv and it was
Speaker 4: right around my birthday in September, so I rallied up
Speaker 4: sixty friends and just took over the place for one
Speaker 4: of his shows.
Speaker 2: And oh, that's amazing.
Speaker 4: It worked so fine, and he was he roasted me,
Speaker 4: to know when my my ex husband was so mad,
Speaker 4: like he wouldn't even meet Bob after the show, and
Speaker 4: I was like, dude, he's he's making it all up.
Speaker 4: I never I never even touched I mean nothing.
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, that's.
Speaker 2: Comics and I loved it.
Speaker 4: He was great.
Speaker 2: Hey, thanks so much for listening to part one of
Speaker 2: our interviews, So make sure and tune in for part
Speaker 2: two of our interviews. In the meantime, make sure that
Speaker 2: you're following us on Instagram so you can get those
Speaker 2: fun behind the scenes picks and and all kinds of
Speaker 2: new stuff and that is at how Rude Podcast. You
Speaker 2: can follow us on Instagram or you can send us
Speaker 2: an email at howarudpodcast at gmail dot com. Don't forget
Speaker 2: to like and subscribe to the podcast wherever you're listening,
Speaker 2: so that you can get the newest episodes as soon
Speaker 2: as they come out. Oh remember, everybody. The world is small,
Speaker 2: but the house is full of Karen's and Connie's endless.
Speaker 2: I can't wait to see the next one. She's in
Speaker 2: yep and who she appears as? And socks behind your back.