Speaker 1: How are you, Donald Faison.
Speaker 2: You know I'm gonna be honest with you.
Speaker 1: Yes, we don't want you to lie. No one wants lies.
Speaker 2: I'm good.
Speaker 3: I'm living to dream. I've got a lot of hardware
Speaker 3: in my house and I kind of like it.
Speaker 1: What's the hardware. Oh, it's animation gear.
Speaker 2: I got a shit ton of animation gear. Like, I
Speaker 2: got a lot of stuff.
Speaker 3: First of all, shout out to the people that like
Speaker 3: A Like A Studios and the people at Stupid Buddy
Speaker 3: Studios who have been very supportive of my animation and
Speaker 3: the things that I want to do with animation, and
Speaker 3: Rob Ronning and his team of puppeteered puppet makers and
Speaker 3: stuff like that. Thank you to a whole bunch of people,
Speaker 3: Brad Schiff, all your mentors, all my mentors, all my buddies.
Speaker 3: It's a small community, but it's a very helping community.
Speaker 3: And because of this, I now have a junior, a
Speaker 3: compact junior motion control rig, and I have something that's
Speaker 3: called a jetpack that you put on the back of
Speaker 3: puppets that helps with subtle movements. And this is because
Speaker 3: of the people at Leika and the people at Stupid
Speaker 3: Buddy Studios.
Speaker 1: Wow, so you have a real like so the motion
Speaker 1: control camera rig is going to allow you you to
Speaker 1: move the camera and crane up and down as you're animating.
Speaker 2: Correct.
Speaker 3: What happens is I program it to do what I
Speaker 3: wanted to do before I film. It's a lot of
Speaker 3: blocking obviously, but then with animating, instead of having to
Speaker 3: worry about with the camera and the focus and all
Speaker 3: of that, because that's already pre set. Now I can
Speaker 3: now just focus on the animating and.
Speaker 2: The story I want to tell.
Speaker 1: That's that's amazing, dude. It's like you're a you're an
Speaker 1: artist who got a very fancy new instrument. Let's say
Speaker 1: you're a guitarist and you've got a very very fancy
Speaker 1: new guitar.
Speaker 3: You know what, It reminds me of godday you got
Speaker 3: your first movie camera, where you were like, I can
Speaker 3: freaking make a movie on my own right now.
Speaker 1: I know. And I took a lot of pride too,
Speaker 1: and a good person. There were there were shots from
Speaker 1: my Red Kimodo that were in the movie, yes, and
Speaker 1: I was very pleased that it looked as good as
Speaker 1: it did. My own camera were some of the shots
Speaker 1: were shot from that. If you saw the movie, all
Speaker 1: the shots of Florence swimming in the beginning, that was
Speaker 1: all just my my red Kimodo, which is a beautiful camera.
Speaker 3: Those are some great shots. To really think about it, like, yeah,
Speaker 3: you know what I mean. It opens the movie.
Speaker 1: It opens the movie.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Donald, that's amazing.
Speaker 1: I'm going to Europe to visit our friend Josh Raiden.
Speaker 2: I like this. These are the things that I don't like.
Speaker 1: But you're not coming. Well, you you can't. You never
Speaker 1: want to do stuff.
Speaker 2: I've got kids, Yeah, you do have kids.
Speaker 1: Well, Josh Reiden and I don't have kids. So we're
Speaker 1: going to hang out together in Europe.
Speaker 2: Where in Europe?
Speaker 1: Well, we're first I'm.
Speaker 2: Going where can where can the people find you?
Speaker 1: Well this will come out long after I'm gone, but
Speaker 1: we're starting in Stockholm, where Josh is a regular and
Speaker 1: I've been to Stockholm a couple of times and it's
Speaker 1: a beautiful city. And and then we're gonna work our
Speaker 1: way through. We're going to go to Paris, and then
Speaker 1: there's a dot dot dot about what we do next.
Speaker 1: But we have some time to play.
Speaker 2: Go to go to London.
Speaker 1: I may I've been in London the most of all,
Speaker 1: so I'm trying to get outside of my box. I
Speaker 1: got this new Do you see this G Shock watch
Speaker 1: I got? Isn't that cool?
Speaker 2: Is that from our shot shock spots around?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 1: I wish they did. I I have some fancy watches,
Speaker 1: and people told me don't wear fancy watches, uh traveling
Speaker 1: because you'll get your arm cut off. So wait, well,
Speaker 1: you know if you have a fancy, nice watch, you're
Speaker 1: you're sort of a target for being robbed obviously, So.
Speaker 2: You think they're gonna rob you just because you're Zach Raft?
Speaker 1: No, No, just because if I was wearing a nice
Speaker 1: watch like a dummy walking around the wrong place at
Speaker 1: the wrong time, I could be have my arm cut off.
Speaker 1: So I want to keep my hands.
Speaker 2: Got it.
Speaker 1: So my friend, who's a big watch guy, said, oh,
Speaker 1: just go get a cool G shock and let me
Speaker 1: tell you something. G Shock is not a sponsor of
Speaker 1: this podcast, but they should because look how cool this
Speaker 1: thing is.
Speaker 2: It's pretty nice. It's pretty nice g Shock watch. Goddamn,
Speaker 2: what's going on?
Speaker 1: Joel?
Speaker 2: How are you living Man? I'm great.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2: Took a breath to say it, and everything next hel
Speaker 2: Joel living Man?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I followed Joel on Instagram. It looks like she's
Speaker 1: living her best life from the Instagram fields things. But
Speaker 1: I guess that's true for everyone, right, we all post
Speaker 1: like the best shot. Yeah, I I don't.
Speaker 2: I don't.
Speaker 3: I don't appreciate the person that's just like, I'm gonna
Speaker 3: post all my bullshit on Instagram.
Speaker 2: I appreciate the person that's like, I'm gonna fake it.
Speaker 2: I appreciate you.
Speaker 1: You don't wann't want to see negativity, You're gonna mute negativity.
Speaker 1: I like to see you. Show me something made me.
Speaker 2: Laugh, show me, make me happy, inspire me.
Speaker 1: I sent Donald the funniest fucking meme, which I'm not
Speaker 1: even gonna talk about this on the on the podcast.
Speaker 1: It's too it's too x rated even for us. But
Speaker 1: that ship is funny. Boy.
Speaker 2: You send me a couple that have been like, oh ship.
Speaker 1: I'm talking about the one, the one, the one that
Speaker 1: was related to kind of lingis Oh my god, h
Speaker 1: listen Donald. I send Donald so many memes and he
Speaker 1: doesn't reply to motest. But once in a while I
Speaker 1: got an L O L and I feel like I
Speaker 1: want a prize. You get a ha ha yeah, ha
Speaker 1: ha ha ha and also if you put a bee
Speaker 1: before it, baha ha ha ha, it's even harder. I
Speaker 1: am sorry. They didn't pick up a Shoka ah Sosca.
Speaker 2: Did they cancel Ahska too, didn't they?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 5: Acolyte canceled the Accolte.
Speaker 2: Oh, we'll get a second season.
Speaker 1: Get that right for me. I may have fucked that up.
Speaker 2: No, that's fine, don't worry about it. You could say
Speaker 2: that ship. I don't want to.
Speaker 1: I don't want to make mistakes. But uh, they canceled
Speaker 1: the Acolyte the Acolyte, Okay, but they didn't know.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna be honest with you now that it's gone,
Speaker 3: Thank goodness, they canceled that ship.
Speaker 1: Well, I guess all. I guess all the mega fans
Speaker 1: agreed with you, Donald because they they it's.
Speaker 3: Not about it's listen. I'm gonna just say one thing.
Speaker 3: They were stepping into waters that were just a little
Speaker 3: too deep. They were stepping into the lore of Darth's
Speaker 3: plagus the Wise. And if you're gonna do that, you
Speaker 3: have to really really I don't want to hear the
Speaker 3: I don't want to hear about his apprentice. I want
Speaker 3: to hear about the You.
Speaker 5: Know you're a sexy ass apprentice. That's crazy, Donald eighty
Speaker 5: five the reason.
Speaker 6: Taking off his don't.
Speaker 2: This listen? Listen?
Speaker 3: There was one episode of that show that was worth
Speaker 3: watching everything else. I'm sorry it was very slow paced.
Speaker 3: You could have tied all of that into one episode.
Speaker 2: Many issues.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, you know what, I've been watching that I
Speaker 1: we had Tony hal On and I I went back
Speaker 1: and I started watching the final season of VIEP because
Speaker 1: I don't think i'd seen it, And man, that is
Speaker 1: the funniest show ever. Like that is the funniest ever.
Speaker 1: I will tell you that. I can't think of a
Speaker 1: half hour common you that has more laugh out loud
Speaker 1: humor per minute than VEEP. It's just it's insane, the amount.
Speaker 1: It's just all it is set up joke, set up joke,
Speaker 1: joke joke joke, set up joke, I setup joke.
Speaker 2: It's like, my question, my question is this by season?
Speaker 2: Are you saying this? Are you saying as a whole
Speaker 2: in general? I'm saying because there are certain seasons of
Speaker 2: the Office that are fucking lights out compared on Televison.
Speaker 1: Now, yeah, they're both, they're both. We're talking about you know,
Speaker 1: we're talking about rarefied air. We're talking about some of
Speaker 1: the funniest shows of our of our lives. I think
Speaker 1: Veep is one of the funniest comedies I've seen in
Speaker 1: my adult life. Half hour comedies. Yeah, the cast is
Speaker 1: just unbelievable, and they get away with saying the most horrid,
Speaker 1: crazy shit because everyone's a bad person. They're all such
Speaker 1: horrible people that they have license to say the most inappropriate,
Speaker 1: insane shit. It's brilliant writing. And Tony Hale is so funny.
Speaker 2: My god, the one that says the least.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's like, he's like the only nice person and
Speaker 1: he's the only angel. Well, I'm so thrilled we have
Speaker 1: Henry Winkler on today. I mean, this is a big honor.
Speaker 1: I mean, Donald and I Donald and I grew up
Speaker 1: at the time when this, when you know, Happy Days
Speaker 1: was a really important show. I mean, I can't speak
Speaker 1: for you, Don, but in my life, it was a
Speaker 1: really important show. And then I and then the fact
Speaker 1: that he has had gone on to have so much
Speaker 1: other success and other things makes me just so happy
Speaker 1: for him. He's known as like literally being the nicest
Speaker 1: guy in Hollywood.
Speaker 3: Dude, He's one of my mentors and he probably doesn't
Speaker 3: even know he's one of my mentors. That's how amazing
Speaker 3: Henry Winkler is, you know what I mean, like one
Speaker 3: of my first Like listen, you know me, Zach.
Speaker 2: You know how I take a lot of things.
Speaker 3: I don't take a lot of things serious things that
Speaker 3: I should take really seriously.
Speaker 2: I fucking kind of like, hey, you know, it is
Speaker 2: what it is, right, It's just how I am.
Speaker 3: Yes, and I did that, and we're going to talk
Speaker 3: about this with him, obviously, But I did that when
Speaker 3: I was shooting and clueless. They were like, yo, Henry
Speaker 3: Wikelers coming in to direct for the week. Everybody, this
Speaker 3: is a great time. You're gonna have a It's going
Speaker 3: to be amazing. And I went out that night and
Speaker 3: partied at a club until like four o'clock in the morning,
Speaker 3: and and missed my call time by like an hour
Speaker 3: and walked to and and they called me. They woke
Speaker 3: me up with a phone call and I run to
Speaker 3: you know, I get my car, I drive to Paramount,
Speaker 3: jump out of my car, put on all of this,
Speaker 3: all my clothes, put my makeup on, you know you
Speaker 3: and deep ship when the makeup artists ain't saying shit
Speaker 3: to you, and the make it close just looking at.
Speaker 2: You like mm hmm, you dumb ass motherfucker.
Speaker 1: Right right to be associated with your right.
Speaker 3: You know, you're in deep ship. So I get all
Speaker 3: my shit on and I run the set and Henry
Speaker 3: b lines right towards me, and I'm.
Speaker 1: Like he was directing the episode, directing the.
Speaker 2: Episode, and I'm like, oh shit, here we go.
Speaker 3: And I'm like, first of all, I get very combative
Speaker 3: when when people try to fucking authority, you know, when
Speaker 3: people are.
Speaker 2: I hate authority. So you never noticed that, right, So
Speaker 2: when anybody tries to fucking you know, puff up, I
Speaker 2: puff back. That's just how I am.
Speaker 3: Right, So he comes up to me and I'm ready
Speaker 3: to puff back and he hits me with the kind
Speaker 3: of shit.
Speaker 2: Ever, we're not gonna do this here. We're not going
Speaker 2: to have an argument. You're late.
Speaker 3: We need to get to work and we need to
Speaker 3: catch up. So whatever it is that you've got going on,
Speaker 3: let's put that behind us. Let's get on set, and
Speaker 3: let's give it our best.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, And I'm like, oh shit, like he
Speaker 2: just completely diffused me everything.
Speaker 3: Like I'm ready to fucking fight the Fonds and this
Speaker 3: motherfuckers like chill, chill.
Speaker 2: Let's fucking right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so we do the shit.
Speaker 3: He not only is pitching me jokes, he not only
Speaker 3: is giving me different rhythms on how to act, he's
Speaker 3: also freaking talking to me like I'm like, I'm a
Speaker 3: human being, like instead of just you know, a lot
Speaker 3: of these actors, a lot of directors see actors a
Speaker 3: certain way.
Speaker 1: He was talking and you were young. You know you're
Speaker 1: saying he was talking to you like a peer, not
Speaker 1: a kid.
Speaker 2: Not a kid, right, all right?
Speaker 3: And so from that moment on, he and I have
Speaker 3: had a relationship that I said that I look at
Speaker 3: it as a mentorship.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 2: He might not see it that way, but he's done
Speaker 2: so much for my life. We'll leave it at that.
Speaker 1: All right. Well, I'll tell you let's bring him in.
Speaker 1: Henry Winklers here everybody time.
Speaker 2: Do you want to kind of stamp.
Speaker 6: Six seven stories? I'm not sure we made about a
Speaker 6: bunch of talks and nurses. I said, he's a story.
Speaker 5: So YadA ra here, yeada here, Oh there they.
Speaker 1: Are, Oh my, oh my goodness, Henry Winkler. I'm it's
Speaker 1: so I don't know that we've ever met in person.
Speaker 1: But my name is Zach and I'm a massive fan
Speaker 1: of yours.
Speaker 4: Zach. We met at a an affair for children's hi.
Speaker 2: V Yes, at the Elizabeth Glazer p Ads.
Speaker 3: Yes, that's right, you were with You came with me
Speaker 3: actually that year, and we've had Wilder with us and
Speaker 3: I introduced you.
Speaker 1: Oh, yes, that's right. Well, we've just been talking because
Speaker 1: we do a little pre thing before the show, Henry,
Speaker 1: and we've both been talking about how much you and
Speaker 1: your career have meant to us. Wow, and in lots
Speaker 1: of different ways which we'll go into, but from the bottom,
Speaker 1: from my most sincere heart, it's an honor to have
Speaker 1: you on the show and to you Wow.
Speaker 4: What a that's a great way to start.
Speaker 2: Well, it's the truth. It is the truth you have.
Speaker 2: I mean, you've known me.
Speaker 3: I was twenty three years old when I was fresh
Speaker 3: and knew in this industry and almost directed me and
Speaker 3: and and you know, ever since I can remember, I've
Speaker 3: being in Hollywood, being in Los Angeles, you have been
Speaker 3: like the example of what it means to be a
Speaker 3: good person and a nice person and a you know,
Speaker 3: a smart person in Hollywood.
Speaker 4: So funny because I'm changing tomorrow. I've decided I've.
Speaker 1: Had it, Henry, Henry, you do have a reputation. I
Speaker 1: got to say, I just did another person's podcast today
Speaker 1: and I said, I have the honor of interviewing Henry
Speaker 1: Winkler later, and they said, you know, it's the rumors
Speaker 1: about him being the nicest person in the world are true.
Speaker 1: So you have you do have this reputation of being
Speaker 1: one of the nicest people in Hollywood.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but you know what I have to say, I've
Speaker 4: thought about that. I mean, I don't don't know that
Speaker 4: I'm nice. What I think I am as grateful. I
Speaker 4: think I just am so grateful that I get to
Speaker 4: do what I do, that I get to have this family,
Speaker 4: this life. That is amazing. That's what it is. And
Speaker 4: I have gratitude.
Speaker 1: Do you have to work on that or I mean,
Speaker 1: or it comes naturally to you.
Speaker 4: I know it because it's there. I mean, I thought
Speaker 4: about it and then I looked and I thought, oh,
Speaker 4: there it is. And it's always been there. You know.
Speaker 4: I wrote a memoir.
Speaker 1: Yeah, tell us the title of it.
Speaker 4: It's called Being Henry. I kept it very simple, and
Speaker 4: there's a picture of me so you can't miss it.
Speaker 4: And as I have to say that in a few
Speaker 4: months it comes out in paperback.
Speaker 1: And everybody, and you mean the audiobook, by any chance,
Speaker 1: I did.
Speaker 4: Now I'm so dyslexic that most actors, what do they
Speaker 4: take like a day and a half to read a
Speaker 4: big talk a book. They allowed me not one hundred hours. Wow,
Speaker 4: they gave me one hundred hours.
Speaker 2: So you guys are really go through it and do
Speaker 2: it in your voice and everything.
Speaker 4: You're not to go back over it because I left
Speaker 4: words out right?
Speaker 2: That's fine? Is that common with most actors? There are
Speaker 2: a lot of us out there with dyslexia, Like I
Speaker 2: have dyslexia bad too.
Speaker 4: Well. One out of six children on the earth have
Speaker 4: some sort of learning challenge. You know. What is so
Speaker 4: extraordinary to me is that the the man who is
Speaker 4: running for vice president, mister Wallas, has a son who
Speaker 4: is learning challenge, who is nonverbal, and people attacked him
Speaker 4: for getting so emotional about his dad. Yeah, that's insane.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was upsetting. I mean yeah, I saw that too.
Speaker 1: That was really horrible. When did you realize you were
Speaker 1: a dyslexic? How did how did you figure it out?
Speaker 4: My step son Jed, who came into my life when
Speaker 4: he was four in the third grade. He could not
Speaker 4: write a report on the Hoping Nation. We took him
Speaker 4: to visit the Hope in Arizona because he was studying
Speaker 4: Native Americans in school. And he's so verbal, he's so funny,
Speaker 4: and I said, well, come on, you go back in
Speaker 4: your room and do it. And we finally had him
Speaker 4: tested and everything they said about him was true about me.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: So how old were you thirty one?
Speaker 3: Wow?
Speaker 4: So until already one? I thought I was just stupid. Wow.
Speaker 1: And when you were learning scripts, when you were auditioning
Speaker 1: back in the seventies, was that extra hard for you
Speaker 1: to memorize into into to learn reading.
Speaker 4: Around the table? When you know, when we have our
Speaker 4: first reading, the entire crew can hear what is going
Speaker 4: to happen that week. I would stumble. I would mess
Speaker 4: other actors up with their timing because I never gave
Speaker 4: them their cue. Memorizing was easy. So what I couldn't
Speaker 4: do reading wise, I could do in memorizing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's interesting. I worked with an actor recently who's dyslexic,
Speaker 1: and he said, oh, at the table reads, I have
Speaker 1: to be off book I have to memorize it otherwise
Speaker 1: I'll mess up all my jokes. And I and and
Speaker 1: I get so nervous. So he was memorizing it for
Speaker 1: the table read, so he was battling that too.
Speaker 4: I had to.
Speaker 2: I had to. I actually had to tell on the
Speaker 2: last project I worked on.
Speaker 3: I had to tell them Listen, I have a really
Speaker 3: hard time putting words together when I read them. Uh So,
Speaker 3: table reads, you know, either get me the script early
Speaker 3: or or I'm gonna I'm gonna mess it up a lot.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna mess up a lot. You know, I'm gonna
Speaker 3: have to go back. And you know, for the most
Speaker 3: part they did. But when it was right away, oof,
Speaker 3: it's it's it's it's really it would be really hard.
Speaker 3: It's it's embarrassing, but it's also it's like, well, shit,
Speaker 3: it's my it's my thing. And you know, some days,
Speaker 3: I have days like everybody else. Some days you have
Speaker 3: days where it works and you're and you're able to
Speaker 3: focus on the on it. But then there's days where
Speaker 3: it's like, oh, I'm killing everybody right now and they
Speaker 3: think I'm illiterate, and really it's something.
Speaker 4: Yeah, But then all of a sudden your performance speaks
Speaker 4: for itself, right right, you know that you I think
Speaker 4: that and you didn't ask me, but I will just
Speaker 4: mention it. I think you should just let that go
Speaker 4: because it just doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 6: We're you know it.
Speaker 4: People have got different problems, and you have overcome yours
Speaker 4: in that you are an improvosure. You've got great energy
Speaker 4: on the screen, the two of you together, even when
Speaker 4: it's not necessarily an entertainment but a commercial. You guys
Speaker 4: are connected at the hip. It's funny, it's watchable over
Speaker 4: and over and over again. That comes from spirit, and
Speaker 4: that's what you have to be grateful for.
Speaker 1: Yes, thank you for saying it's true.
Speaker 3: It's true, but it means it means a lot coming
Speaker 3: from I almost changed my plan.
Speaker 2: You are I wish you would have.
Speaker 1: We'll still take you. We can get your special deal.
Speaker 2: We listen, we can work on this.
Speaker 1: Listen. Most people come up to Donald and I and
Speaker 1: ask us details about the about the team of the plans,
Speaker 1: and we don't know what that. We don't know. We
Speaker 1: just say we're in the commercials you know, for you,
Speaker 1: but for you, Henry, we'll go figure out what best plan,
Speaker 1: what we can do.
Speaker 4: You know. I did a commercial last year for I
Speaker 4: Care because my father in law had uh uh geographic atrophy,
Speaker 4: and so I did this just saying, go to the
Speaker 4: go to the doctor and check your eyes. And Dick
Speaker 4: Van Dyke, out of the glue, called me up. He said,
Speaker 4: I have this. Do you know any more than I do?
Speaker 4: I said, oh my god, I wish I did.
Speaker 1: No, Donald, I've had this thing. I walk around New
Speaker 1: York City and people, you know, most people are like,
Speaker 1: you know, if they say something you know, they say,
Speaker 1: you know, whenever they compliment you for a thing they like.
Speaker 1: But occasionally people be like, thhose commercials are so funny
Speaker 1: with you and Donald and I go, oh, thank you.
Speaker 1: They go, Now tell me, like the monthly is it?
Speaker 2: Really?
Speaker 1: I don't know what the monthly is.
Speaker 2: I honestly don't know what.
Speaker 1: Plan is best for you.
Speaker 2: Let's take a break.
Speaker 1: We'll be right back after these fine words, Henry, I
Speaker 1: wanted to tell you because you're talking about your book
Speaker 1: and your audiobook, which you know, with people like you
Speaker 1: who are such wonderful performers and have such distinct voices,
Speaker 1: it made me think of one of the best audiobooks
Speaker 1: I ever heard of. My Whole life, which is Gary
Speaker 1: Marshall's book My Happy Days in Hollywood, which if you
Speaker 1: love entertainment and you gotta don't read this book, listen
Speaker 1: to it. Because Gary had such for those of you
Speaker 1: who don't know what he was, creator of so many
Speaker 1: beloved TV shows, including Happy Days, and a director with
Speaker 1: an enormous career including Pretty Women and many others. But
Speaker 1: Gary had such a charactery voice and him telling his
Speaker 1: stories and his voice is wonderful and I and I
Speaker 1: just wanted to just segue into that in the Happy
Speaker 1: Days via that, because I'll tell you.
Speaker 4: I'll tell you something. I could not wear leather in
Speaker 4: the beginning. I had to wear cloth because ABC thought
Speaker 4: for sure I was going to be associated with crime.
Speaker 3: In the beginning, you look like you worked at a
Speaker 3: like at a mechanic shop and everything like that.
Speaker 2: You always had the was it blue, But the.
Speaker 4: Jacket was a McGregor golf jacket, and it was very
Speaker 4: hard to be cool in cloth. So Gary went to
Speaker 4: ABC and he said, you know, he could be height.
Speaker 4: If he's riding his bike, he should fall over, he
Speaker 4: could get a scratch. And so ABC said, when he's
Speaker 4: with his bike, he can wearther and then there was
Speaker 4: no cell phone at that time. He went down to
Speaker 4: the lobby of ABC, he said, he called the writer's room.
Speaker 4: He said, okay, never write another scene without Phonsie's bike again.
Speaker 4: That's how the leather got in there.
Speaker 1: It's amazing. And I'm telling you, if you listened to
Speaker 1: this book, there are so many stories like that from
Speaker 1: all these shows. And he had he had, he had
Speaker 1: happy Days going on on one set, and he had
Speaker 1: more co and Mindy going on another stage. He had,
Speaker 1: he had h Leverne Shirley, and he's running between all
Speaker 1: of them, running all of these massive hits. And he
Speaker 1: and his anecdotes are are so telling you.
Speaker 4: When when, uh, when Robin came to audition. Now it's Wednesday.
Speaker 4: We start Monday morning at ten o'clock on the sound stage.
Speaker 4: That is, at nine o'clock we read ten o'clock. We're
Speaker 4: on the sound stage. Nobody wanted to play this alien
Speaker 4: from out of Space Wednesday. Now we're shooting on Friday.
Speaker 4: Wednesday comes finally a young, very shy, very quiet man
Speaker 4: comes with the casting director and you and then this
Speaker 4: human being picked up the script. When he opened his mouth,
Speaker 4: it was like a volcano went off on stage nineteen
Speaker 4: at Paramount, and I knew, get out of his way,
Speaker 4: ye know my lines, and don't try to stand toe
Speaker 4: to toe with this genius that is now standing in
Speaker 4: front of me. Wow.
Speaker 1: And was that Robin Williams first thing? Was that his
Speaker 1: first time?
Speaker 2: I think it was.
Speaker 4: Maybe he made appearances before that.
Speaker 1: Joell can look at us, but I think it.
Speaker 4: Might have been his first. He did comedy clubs.
Speaker 1: Right now, first TV appearance probably yeah, But oh my lord.
Speaker 1: We always like to ask our guests, how did you
Speaker 1: get the part?
Speaker 2: What was your explorer?
Speaker 3: How did you get how did you get into the industry?
Speaker 3: And then how did you get the part the industry?
Speaker 4: The first thing I did was I was in a
Speaker 4: repertory company at my drama school in New Haven, Yale
Speaker 4: Repertory Theater. And then I would do a play at
Speaker 4: night with the company, and you would rehearse another play
Speaker 4: during the day. I made one hundred and seventy five
Speaker 4: dollars a week. I was in heaven. Then I went
Speaker 4: to New York. I tried out for commercials and then
Speaker 4: I made enough money. I had just made Lords of
Speaker 4: Flatbush with sly stallone. I made two thousand dollars for
Speaker 4: twelve months work, but I had enough money for a
Speaker 4: ticket to California for one month. In that month, the
Speaker 4: first thing I got was the Mary Tyler Moore show,
Speaker 4: which was the Friends of that time. I got a scene.
Speaker 4: I had eight lines. And then the next week, my
Speaker 4: second week, I auditioned at Paramount. The room of actors
Speaker 4: waiting had all been on television. I had seen them
Speaker 4: all and me, Oh my goodness, it was my turn.
Speaker 4: I walked in and something went off in my brain
Speaker 4: and I changed my voice and I did the eight
Speaker 4: lines through the script up in the air, saunted out
Speaker 4: of the room. And when my money ran out, when
Speaker 4: I had to fly back to New York, the producers
Speaker 4: called and said, would you like to play this part?
Speaker 1: Oh my god? And I said, okay, what did you
Speaker 1: do to your voice? Because what was cool? You had
Speaker 1: to you had to figure out, like what's cool or
Speaker 1: like universally.
Speaker 2: I didn't.
Speaker 4: I didn't figure anything out. I went from being henry
Speaker 4: nervous a short jew two, hey, look don't look at
Speaker 4: me like that, and all of a sudden, and then
Speaker 4: I threw the script up in the air. I walked
Speaker 4: out of that room, and Gary Marshall said, I think
Speaker 4: I saw something in this young man, and he gave.
Speaker 1: Me the part I read that you weren't at all
Speaker 1: with Gary pictured for the part.
Speaker 4: No, they wanted a tall Italian. They got a very
Speaker 4: short jew from New York. And people, you know, I'm
Speaker 4: even to this day when I try all around the country,
Speaker 4: around the world, people say to me, oh my god,
Speaker 4: I thought you were much taller.
Speaker 1: Yeah, did they shoot you in such a way that,
Speaker 1: you know.
Speaker 3: Just the energy, the energy was that's the most powerful,
Speaker 3: and like we have jokes about it or at at work,
Speaker 3: Zach and I, like we had a stand in uh
Speaker 3: named Deontay and we called him Black Phonzie because he
Speaker 3: just had the gift to gab with the ladies and
Speaker 3: he knew how to work the work, the crew and
Speaker 3: he knew all of it.
Speaker 2: He knew everything it was like. And we called him
Speaker 2: Black Phronsie because he was he just was so cool.
Speaker 6: You know what I mean.
Speaker 1: Ladies loved them, all the ladies, well.
Speaker 2: The ladies loved him. But he also he had to
Speaker 2: end with every department. He was my standing.
Speaker 3: He had to end with every department, so every department
Speaker 3: knew him. And he knew everyone, and he was just
Speaker 3: he was just a cool guy on set, you know
Speaker 3: what I mean.
Speaker 4: It was just great.
Speaker 1: Yeah, man, I make the joke I have a friend
Speaker 1: who's h who is very promiscuous, and I say, he's
Speaker 1: got to move cities now, because I remember there being
Speaker 1: an episode where Phronsie had been with every woman in
Speaker 1: Milwaukee and he had to move, didn't he have to?
Speaker 1: I just remember so joke about that. So I always
Speaker 1: say that my friend, like, he's going to change cities
Speaker 1: because he's like Phonsie, he's already dated every girl in
Speaker 1: the city. Henry, this show was enormous. I mean, this
Speaker 1: show wasn't just on the air nowadays. Obviously it goes
Speaker 1: without saying there's so much more content. But what was
Speaker 1: life like for you when you were on this show.
Speaker 1: I read a Beatle came up to you.
Speaker 4: Beatles came I met every Beatle except for George. I
Speaker 4: was walking on the street in New York City with
Speaker 4: my wife and coming the other direction was Paul McCartney,
Speaker 4: and he went the phones and we stood talking. A
Speaker 4: woman came out of a store gave us each a rose.
Speaker 4: Another woman came up and said, hey, do you mind
Speaker 4: if I just stand here, he said, we're in the
Speaker 4: middle of a conversation. No. Then he gave me a
Speaker 4: phone number and he said, let's get in touch, and I,
Speaker 4: like an asshole, call that number every ten minutes for
Speaker 4: twenty four hours as what I a as you should
Speaker 4: never answered. So if he is listening, I would just
Speaker 4: like to say, I'm a really good guy. Could you
Speaker 4: call me back because i'd I'd love to have lunch.
Speaker 1: That's so funny. Well, I just mean it must have
Speaker 1: been such your crazy existence, because you know the level
Speaker 1: of success that not only the show had, but your character.
Speaker 1: I mean, they wanted to change the name of the
Speaker 1: show to Fonsi's Happy Days. You broke out on such
Speaker 1: a level it must have been.
Speaker 4: But I asked them, I said, look, do me a favor.
Speaker 4: If I have any juice whatsoever, Please do not do
Speaker 4: that because it would be such a slap in the
Speaker 4: face for everybody else. I was part of an ensemble,
Speaker 4: the Fawns. Without that family, without those boys, I don't
Speaker 4: know where he would be. And it is Happy Days.
Speaker 4: If it's not broken, don't fix.
Speaker 1: It, don't fix Was that hard for Ron?
Speaker 2: Howard?
Speaker 1: Do you think like has he ever shared with you that.
Speaker 1: Obviously he broke out to but I wonder what was
Speaker 1: that difficult for him.
Speaker 4: I think that he was signed on as the star
Speaker 4: of the show and we had a drive home in
Speaker 4: his VW Origional Little Bug. We drove home from set.
Speaker 4: We were doing one of those two part openings, and
Speaker 4: I said, okay, Ron, we've got to talk about this,
Speaker 4: and he said, look, it hurt my feelings, but you
Speaker 4: did not do anything. You didn't have You don't have
Speaker 4: an attitude. It's good for the show. You didn't try to,
Speaker 4: you know, to outshine anybody. Yeah, so you know it's
Speaker 4: the ying and the yang of that. But that was
Speaker 4: the only time we ever talked about it. And he
Speaker 4: is still my like my brother.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Because right after that, you got he directed a movie,
Speaker 3: his first directorial debut.
Speaker 2: He made you the star of the movie.
Speaker 4: He came to me and he said, look, Warner Brothers
Speaker 4: will fund the movie. They're going to give me six
Speaker 4: million dollars. But they asked, would you be in the
Speaker 4: movie and you can play either role. And I thought, well,
Speaker 4: I was Flambuoyant for ten years. I'm going to play
Speaker 4: Richie and so I chose the character of Chuck, and
Speaker 4: he was incredibly He was twenty five.
Speaker 2: Were you at the time? He was, No, I was.
Speaker 4: I was. He was eighteen when I met him, and
Speaker 4: I was twenty seven, okay, so nineteen twenty twenty one,
Speaker 4: twenty two, twenty three, twenty four, thirty three. I was
Speaker 4: about ten years older than he was, and he was
Speaker 4: twenty five years old. And he said, are they going
Speaker 4: to listen to me? The crew has been doing this
Speaker 4: longer than I've been alive. I said, Ron, I promise you.
Speaker 4: And he has such power as a person that when
Speaker 4: he would stop and say, let me think about that,
Speaker 4: everybody waited for Ron to tell us what to do.
Speaker 1: You know, I read for him when I was a
Speaker 1: kid for Parenthood. I read for the part that went
Speaker 1: to Joaquin Phoenix.
Speaker 4: Woh wow.
Speaker 1: And I have this great memory you just reminded me
Speaker 1: of And this never happened ever in another audition, he
Speaker 1: was so sensitive. I was, I must have been thirteen fourteen,
Speaker 1: and I think he knew that having anybody else in
Speaker 1: the room would be intimidating. And I didn't know who
Speaker 1: he was, or at least the young me didn't put
Speaker 1: it all together. Right, you know, he was the guy
Speaker 1: from Happy Days whatever. But the point was that he
Speaker 1: didn't have anyone else in the room, and he and
Speaker 1: I sat next to each other and we just read
Speaker 1: the scene, just me and him. There was nobody else
Speaker 1: in the room. And I always had such a like
Speaker 1: a lovely memory of that going. What a sensitive man
Speaker 1: to take all the intimidation out for the young kid.
Speaker 4: And it was very wise. He was, even at eighteen
Speaker 4: when I first met him, just an incredibly thoughtful, wise
Speaker 4: human being. I was.
Speaker 3: I was, you know, you have goals in life and
Speaker 3: everything like that. And one of my goals was to
Speaker 3: work with Ron Howard in some way, right, and I
Speaker 3: think Felicity. When I got Felicity, that was Imagine Entertainment. Yes,
Speaker 3: that's his company, right, yes, yes, And I remember when
Speaker 3: I saw that.
Speaker 2: I was like, I did it. I did it?
Speaker 4: Yes.
Speaker 2: Yeah. My name is Ron Howard's name is right next
Speaker 2: to each other. These are goals in life, you know
Speaker 2: what I mean.
Speaker 4: My goal is to get back on Broadway.
Speaker 1: Oh you got you should be you can make that
Speaker 1: dream and.
Speaker 4: Not so easy, not so easy. I did three plays.
Speaker 4: The first one closed in one night, the second one
Speaker 4: ran for nine months. The third one closed in seven nights,
Speaker 4: So now I need to do it one more time
Speaker 4: to make that third one.
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, I hear you. I've done a bunch of
Speaker 1: I've not only on one Broadway show, but off Broadway ones.
Speaker 1: And the Broadway thing is so tough because you know,
Speaker 1: the critics can literally shut it down. Really when people do,
Speaker 1: when people go, how does what is Henry Mina closed
Speaker 1: in one night? What happens is if you get trashed
Speaker 1: by the critics in New York, they just people aren't
Speaker 1: gonna buy tickets, so it's just closes. The New York
Speaker 1: Times whatever the New York Times says.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that in London.
Speaker 1: In London, Henry, I don't if you've ever had that experience,
Speaker 1: But there's a little bit more. It's a fun experience
Speaker 1: that uh to do a show there. And also it's
Speaker 1: a little more spread out in terms of not one
Speaker 1: paper controlling your entire fate.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Right. In England, I did what is called pantomime
Speaker 4: at Christmas. You put on this play with music and
Speaker 4: I did Peter Pan. I played Captain Hook. Yeah, and
Speaker 4: I did it in seven cities and it's been going
Speaker 4: since seventeen fifty six. Let's say, and this particular form,
Speaker 4: and the audience knows to yell at you and to
Speaker 4: yell at Peter and go he's behind you. And I
Speaker 4: would walk down to the lip of the stage and
Speaker 4: I would say, if you warn him one more time,
Speaker 4: I'm coming to your house and taking all your presents.
Speaker 1: I would love to see you on stage, Henry.
Speaker 2: So I hope you do that.
Speaker 1: We can tell us about segueing into directing, because that's
Speaker 1: what you did, and it's something I can relate to
Speaker 1: myself that I've been doing a lot of. And did
Speaker 1: you do you feel that you've been educated on doing
Speaker 1: I mean, obviously, obviously sitcom directing is a unique style,
Speaker 1: but was that an education for you?
Speaker 4: It was? And not only that. Everything I learned about
Speaker 4: being a professional on the set, in front or behind
Speaker 4: the camera, I learned from Gary Marshall and from Jerry
Speaker 4: rest Is Soul Paris. Jerry Paris directed I don't know
Speaker 4: two hundred and forty episodes of Happy Days. He was unbelievable.
Speaker 4: He was also the dentist on The Dick Van Dyke Show.
Speaker 4: He was the next door neighbor, brilliant man. So this
Speaker 4: is the way I see my directing career years ago.
Speaker 4: You would get a lawnmower and you would pull it
Speaker 4: in order to start it. You would pull the cord
Speaker 4: and it would just about turnover who I was that lawnmower.
Speaker 4: My directing career never really turned over. I directed commercials.
Speaker 4: I directed half an hour.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Donald told a story about you directing him and clueless,
Speaker 1: and you were kind to him even though he was
Speaker 1: tardy one day.
Speaker 2: I was so tardy. It was the first day you
Speaker 2: were there and I was so tardy.
Speaker 4: That was the beginning of my directing. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Well you put me in my first of all,
Speaker 3: you put me in my place one. But you did
Speaker 3: it in such a good way that you know to
Speaker 3: this day, you know. I mean, dude, you've just done
Speaker 3: like there have been a lot of things for me
Speaker 3: that you've done when I didn't have friends.
Speaker 2: You introduced me to your daughter, you know what I mean. Like,
Speaker 2: there's so many things that's just great about you. Henry.
Speaker 3: You are an amazing person, and I think you're an
Speaker 3: amazing director also, And I.
Speaker 4: You're the only one.
Speaker 6: No, I'm not, No, I'm not.
Speaker 3: I'm sure every actor that you've ever worked with is
Speaker 3: like you. No, he's a fucking amazing director. Uh listen,
Speaker 3: I hope you get another the chance to direct as
Speaker 3: well too. Then if that's the case, because you listen, man,
Speaker 3: nobody to this day, nobody has been.
Speaker 2: Able to get through them to me the way you've
Speaker 2: been able to get through to me.
Speaker 4: Wow.
Speaker 3: And and it was on a show that you know
Speaker 3: was it was a kids show, but it was an
Speaker 3: adult show. But you came in and you gave it
Speaker 3: such life. And you're directing Tim Conway at the same time,
Speaker 3: as as as as all I did.
Speaker 4: With Tim Conway was point the camera in the right direction.
Speaker 4: I mean, you know when you watch on either YouTube
Speaker 4: or TikTok when they come up with those Harvey Korman Ye,
Speaker 4: Tim Conway bits. I wish that I had half that
Speaker 4: imagination when Tim Conway was the dentist. Yes, and he
Speaker 4: kept on injecting himself from Milva game.
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 1: And you haven't seen this, audience. You have to just
Speaker 1: Tim Conway. You have to see the sketch from the
Speaker 1: cawber Neet Show.
Speaker 4: But it really is no joke. It is one of
Speaker 4: the funniest things ever done anywhere.
Speaker 1: Now I have to ask him, this is a bit
Speaker 1: of a segue off Donald mentioning your children. I know
Speaker 1: both of your children too, and they love you so much.
Speaker 1: What is your secret to parenthooding? I mean, I've spoken,
Speaker 1: I know Max a bit, and he just speaks about
Speaker 1: you so lovingly. And you have any tips for parents
Speaker 1: out there? How do you get your kids to love
Speaker 1: you as much as you do?
Speaker 4: Here is my overall tip. A heard child is a
Speaker 4: powerful child. I grew up with two Germans who did
Speaker 4: not see me. They didn't know why I wanted to
Speaker 4: do what I do. They didn't care about what I
Speaker 4: wanted to do. I did not have an opinion, and
Speaker 4: I swore to my wife that I would be a
Speaker 4: different parent. And when when your child comes three, they're
Speaker 4: three years old, four years old, you're late, you can't
Speaker 4: find your keys, you're going to a meeting. You go,
Speaker 4: oh my god, I got dad, I Dad, and you
Speaker 4: just stand there. I like green. Okay, I'm so glad
Speaker 4: you said that, because we're going to discuss every shade
Speaker 4: of green when I come back. I'm telling you it
Speaker 4: took thirty seconds, forty five seconds. You know later you're
Speaker 4: not more on time, and that child goes We're gonna
Speaker 4: we're gonna talk about green. I'm telling you that is
Speaker 4: the great umbrella. And then you know, see, if your
Speaker 4: child has a problem, you don't know what it is,
Speaker 4: you don't know the name, but you know there's something
Speaker 4: going on, respect the problem and look for making that
Speaker 4: child more comfortable. Chuse the child knows they've got a problem.
Speaker 1: M Well, that's really that's really good advice. It's funny.
Speaker 1: I know Max from your son because we both were
Speaker 1: working out of the same office once and and he
Speaker 1: was just the way he you know, I told him
Speaker 1: how much I was a fan of yours and the
Speaker 1: way he beams when he talks about you, and he's
Speaker 1: a wonderful filmmaker himself, and I just it was just
Speaker 1: so sweet that and I thought to myself, what I
Speaker 1: wanted to just bring it up to you, because you know,
Speaker 1: so many people have issues with their parents, and they
Speaker 1: may love their parents, but their parents drive them crazy.
Speaker 1: And I was just it was just notable to me
Speaker 1: how how how enamored and in love and crazy about
Speaker 1: you he was.
Speaker 4: Well, I've got I've got three incredible children. My step
Speaker 4: son came into my life when he was four, Zoe
Speaker 4: and Max came along after that. Zoe just had an
Speaker 4: event here in our front lawn for her charity called
Speaker 4: this Is About Humanity. She was thirty seven sitting on
Speaker 4: her couch watching children being separated from their parents. Said,
Speaker 4: oh my goodness, those could be my children. With two
Speaker 4: of the ladies started this organization. They've raised over two
Speaker 4: million dollars with no overhead. Max said to me at
Speaker 4: ten and sos Stacey, I'm going to be a director.
Speaker 4: I took him to see Bottle Rocket by Wes Anderson.
Speaker 4: I said, I'm going to do that. He just hired
Speaker 4: me this past January. He's doing the American Horror Stories
Speaker 4: and on the set he was the executive producer direct.
Speaker 4: On the set, I asked for a cup of coffee
Speaker 4: and the crew brought me a paper cup of coffee
Speaker 4: and on it wrote Daddy Winkler, Oh my heart out of.
Speaker 1: My body kewlling Kwelling as we said, not so sweet.
Speaker 1: And he's really doing well. He's got a lot of
Speaker 1: great projects and I'm so happy for him.
Speaker 4: Let me just say he directed. I haven't met him,
Speaker 4: but he directed hoavi Ar bard Dem and then Hoaviar
Speaker 4: bard Dem just invited he and his wife to dinner.
Speaker 4: I said, could I drive? Could I just the limo driver?
Speaker 4: I'll wear a hat and everything.
Speaker 1: That's funny.
Speaker 2: Let's take a break.
Speaker 1: We'll be right back after these fine words. All right,
Speaker 1: because we have you for a limited time, we're going
Speaker 1: to jump to arrested development. Yes I want to Yeah,
Speaker 1: you go ahead.
Speaker 2: You can say what you want to do you okay,
Speaker 2: all right, but just let me just say one thing.
Speaker 3: In between arrested development and the directing and uh, what
Speaker 3: were you were raising family? You were you were being
Speaker 3: a dad at home for that time. What made you
Speaker 3: all of a sudden say you know what? Because when
Speaker 3: we had you on Clueless, you didn't want to do
Speaker 3: You didn't want to act on the show at all.
Speaker 2: You were like no, no, no.
Speaker 3: Even though they convinced you towards the end, like you're
Speaker 3: in like a in the credits, you didn't want to
Speaker 3: act in the show.
Speaker 2: What convinced you to get back into acting again?
Speaker 4: Somebody asked, really, I'm that Sandler.
Speaker 1: You did a bunch of Sandler movies.
Speaker 4: I did a Sandler movie. It was hard for me
Speaker 4: to get an acting job. That's how I started writing
Speaker 4: children's books. We just wrote our fortieth Oh my god,
Speaker 4: children's books that fade out in October Detectives Duck of
Speaker 4: volume two.
Speaker 1: You write those?
Speaker 2: You write it with Lynn.
Speaker 4: Oliver, with my partner Lynn. We've written every book together
Speaker 4: and it's amazing. I am. I thought I was stupid.
Speaker 4: I can't read, And with Lynn I have written forty
Speaker 4: children's Now, Wow.
Speaker 2: That's amazing. That is amazing.
Speaker 1: No, so oh gosh, I can interview you forever. But
Speaker 1: my question is because Donald and I have faced this.
Speaker 1: You know, we were on a popular show. Yeah, we're
Speaker 1: neither one of us on the level of being Phonsie,
Speaker 1: but but we definitely got known for being a type
Speaker 1: you bet, which is don't get me wrong. The first
Speaker 1: thought is, of course, we are so lucky, we are
Speaker 1: so grateful, but you it is hard to I'm still
Speaker 1: working on branching. I'm doing a tiny yarc on this
Speaker 1: show called Bad Monkey, where I'm actually doing something one
Speaker 1: hundred and eighty degrees from JD and people are based
Speaker 1: on Yeah, and it's so refreshing to get that opportunity.
Speaker 1: And so I know I can imagine what you felt
Speaker 1: because you were on lunchboxes. I mean, you were so
Speaker 1: known as that guy do you.
Speaker 4: Know Actually, when I had an office at Paramount, and
Speaker 4: I sat in my office at my desk, and I
Speaker 4: literally had psychic pain because I had no plan. B.
Speaker 2: I had just.
Speaker 4: Lived my imagination. Yeah, and now I can't get hired.
Speaker 4: I had no idea what to do. And I realized
Speaker 4: it is a great life lesson when you don't know
Speaker 4: what to do. Just sit for a minute and let
Speaker 4: it percolate, and all of a sudden it will come.
Speaker 4: My lawyer, Skip Brittenham the Third said I know what
Speaker 4: you're going to do. You're going to produce. I said,
Speaker 4: I can't produce.
Speaker 2: I know nothing.
Speaker 4: He said, you'll learn. And the first show that I
Speaker 4: heard all these ideas, I said, oh I like that idea.
Speaker 4: I want to see that idea. The first show I
Speaker 4: ever produced with a man named John Rich who's no
Speaker 4: longer with us, was mcgiver.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, I forgot you produced mcguiver. Wow. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that was a big hit.
Speaker 4: It was a huge hit.
Speaker 2: It was such it's such a big hit that they
Speaker 2: remade it.
Speaker 1: He made it as a comedy, but.
Speaker 3: No, they remade mcgiver as a television show too. Television show.
Speaker 2: On Saturnight Live with macgoover right right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm thinking you're right, I'm thinking mcgoober. But wow, wait,
Speaker 1: sowet Sorry, Henry. The first thing you produced was mcgiver.
Speaker 4: Yes, that was the first show. The second show was
Speaker 4: the next hit that I was able to produce with
Speaker 4: Anne Daniel was Sightings because I love the paranormal. I
Speaker 4: just love that whole. I really think there's got to
Speaker 4: be a whole other level that we're not privy to. Yeah,
Speaker 4: but I agree with you, yeah, yeah, absolutely, But.
Speaker 2: Do you say okay? So God, I'm sorry I cut you.
Speaker 4: No, no, no. The second show was an amazingly funny
Speaker 4: half hour comedy called Mister Sunshine, starring Jeff Tambour as
Speaker 4: a blind English professor, and it was I mean, I
Speaker 4: cannot even begin to tell you the writers that we got.
Speaker 4: But that only lasted thirteen.
Speaker 1: Episodes, so you never know, Yeah, you never know, You
Speaker 1: never know. I mean, I I Donald and I have
Speaker 1: both been on ten episode shows.
Speaker 3: I've been on, Yeah, I've been on I've been on
Speaker 3: an episode. Listen, I've been on the shows that only
Speaker 3: lasted thirteen episodes.
Speaker 2: And that was it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well mine, I think I beat you, Alex, think
Speaker 1: only went ten.
Speaker 2: No, you did more than that. You guys did like twelve.
Speaker 1: No, we did ten, I think, but it was fun
Speaker 1: more lasted.
Speaker 3: I will say this, thank goodness that Hollywood at least
Speaker 3: lets the thirteen still air because I remember, or you.
Speaker 2: Get paid for the thirteen? Ouse I remember, you get canceled.
Speaker 2: That's a rat.
Speaker 4: Oh, Donald, I was. I did a show that I
Speaker 4: turned down twice and it was written by Mark somebody Mark,
Speaker 4: it'll come to me. He was in Gary Goldberg's camp,
Speaker 4: you know, family ties, and he came to me with
Speaker 4: this idea of a Rush Limbaugh with a gay daughter.
Speaker 4: But it was in the eighties, and I said, no,
Speaker 4: it's too controversial, but it is so funny. I've got
Speaker 4: to say yes. And we sold it to NBC. Somebody
Speaker 4: an NBC must have looked at it after it was
Speaker 4: bought and said, not on my network. Now we're back
Speaker 4: in the world. We sell it to Fox. They don't
Speaker 4: want the gay daughter. So now it is David Schwimmer,
Speaker 4: who is my son, who goes to college to be
Speaker 4: a lawyer, comes back. He wants to be a chef.
Speaker 1: Has nothing to do with the original, have nothing to
Speaker 1: do with the gay or anything.
Speaker 4: This is the life lesson when you're doing something and
Speaker 4: it gets bastardized to where you don't recognize it anymore.
Speaker 4: Go home.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I got used reminding me the funniest story from
Speaker 1: the movie The TV Set. Have you ever seen that? No, Well, listeners,
Speaker 1: and Henry, I want you to see this when we
Speaker 1: call the TV Set. It's about the making of a pilot.
Speaker 1: And it's so funny Henry because there's so many inside
Speaker 1: jokes you'll you'll laugh at him. And David d'coveney plays
Speaker 1: I think he's the showrunner of the of the of
Speaker 1: the the creator of the show. And Sigourney Weaver plays
Speaker 1: the studio head and she says, look, we want to
Speaker 1: do the show, but we want to get rid of
Speaker 1: the the suicide in the in the pilot, and David
Speaker 1: du coveny says, the suicide is the whole reason I
Speaker 1: wrote the show. The suicide is is the was the
Speaker 1: raison deetra for for the whole pilot, and it's the
Speaker 1: It's the whole reason that I'm sitting here in front
Speaker 1: of you when the show is getting made is because
Speaker 1: that started me. Because of this and and and I
Speaker 1: wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the suicide. And
Speaker 1: there's a long pause and Sigourney Weaver goes, but what
Speaker 1: if it wasn't? And to me, as somebody's in this industry,
Speaker 1: it like summed up everything about the struggle of getting
Speaker 1: stuff made.
Speaker 4: Oh my god, it's so true. I was offered a
Speaker 4: show very funny, and I lost my wife, my daughter,
Speaker 4: her mother, and the network said, it's so funny, we
Speaker 4: really want to do it, but our audience doesn't like grief.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Wait what our audience does not do well with grief?
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's all that's on television right now. Wait.
Speaker 3: Wait, I don't understand what analytics. What analytics are they're
Speaker 3: looking at at the time, I.
Speaker 1: Don't know had another funny Well, I don't know. I've
Speaker 1: just been doing pilots and stuff. You see the dial
Speaker 1: testing and everything. It's so it's such a trippy, weird thing.
Speaker 1: But wait, I want to leave time to talk. We
Speaker 1: got to leave time to talk about two more mega hits.
Speaker 1: So you basically got a cameo on Arrested Development and
Speaker 1: then did ended up doing thirty two episodes. I mean,
Speaker 1: did they how did they?
Speaker 2: Did?
Speaker 1: They just love the character and love what you were
Speaker 1: doing so much.
Speaker 4: That is exactly right. I just did what my instinct
Speaker 4: told me to do, and Mitch Hurwitz kept writing me
Speaker 4: and he is I have literally worked with such brilliant
Speaker 4: human beings.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you really have some of the greatest.
Speaker 4: Am greatest handler. Yeah, Mitch Hurwitz, John Shure, uh, and
Speaker 4: then Bill Hater and Alec.
Speaker 1: Burg, Alec Berg. Yeah, yeah, you've really worked with You
Speaker 1: really have worked with some of the most legendary showrunners
Speaker 1: of all time.
Speaker 4: And then let's not forget Children's Hospital with that whole bunch.
Speaker 2: In the same set of scrubs.
Speaker 1: You guys, Oh my god, when what was your was arrested,
Speaker 1: you know, I did a cameo, I did a little
Speaker 1: thing on arrested, and I had so much fun. It
Speaker 1: felt like there was a lot of room for you
Speaker 1: guys to play around, right. It was that the environment
Speaker 1: that you could do.
Speaker 4: Some know what in structure comes freedom and you could
Speaker 4: play around. But when they heard that you were going
Speaker 4: too far adrift, they would put you right back.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I had a thing where I was riffing with David
Speaker 1: Cross because we were both never nudes and we were
Speaker 1: both standing there in tattered jean shorts. Short shorts and
Speaker 1: David Cross. I just he was riffing the most insane,
Speaker 1: hilarious stuffs, none of which ended up in the show,
Speaker 1: by the way, I mean a tiny fraction of but
Speaker 1: I remember laughing so hard at this insane stuff he
Speaker 1: was saying, which I would have loved if it was
Speaker 1: in the show. But I'm sure Mitch was like, all right,
Speaker 1: let's trim all that back.
Speaker 4: Yeah. No, Mitch was very very clear about his vision,
Speaker 4: and I mean that is the beginning and the end
Speaker 4: of a great showrunner. Yes, when they've got the vision
Speaker 4: and in that structure, you get to be free.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, we've had that with Bill Lawrence. And I
Speaker 1: have to tell you, I'm I'm directing Shrinking now.
Speaker 4: And Mark Lawrence. Thank you Mark Lawrence versus the man
Speaker 4: who created the show. I did Monty about Rush Limbaugh
Speaker 4: and his gay daughter.
Speaker 1: Oh got it. I just wanted to say that we
Speaker 1: had that with Bill as actors. And it's funny when
Speaker 1: I'm directing. I just directed Shrinking and I'm turning in
Speaker 1: my cut and I'm sitting there with Bill and you
Speaker 1: know it's his baby. You know, I'm I'm I'm directing it.
Speaker 1: But we have this little battle sometimes over over what's
Speaker 1: going to end up in the show and what's not
Speaker 1: going to end up in the show. But you're right.
Speaker 1: The brilliance of a great show runner is is someone
Speaker 1: like a Mitch Herwitz or or a Bill Lawrence or
Speaker 1: a Gary Marshall, who goes, I hear you, I see
Speaker 1: what your contribution was. I I love it, but it's
Speaker 1: here's my vision, and here's what it's going to be.
Speaker 1: Because for me, I would let for example, I would
Speaker 1: let my episode go long. Bill has a very clear vision.
Speaker 1: He does not like half hour comedies that go too long.
Speaker 1: So he's cutting things that I'm going, why are you
Speaker 1: cutting that? It's it's funny, it's nice. He's like, it's
Speaker 1: too long. Shows too long. And that's just a little
Speaker 1: minuscule example of like that. This is his baby, this
Speaker 1: is his vision. This is why he's brilliant at what
Speaker 1: he does.
Speaker 4: You know. Yeah, but you know what everybody else benefits
Speaker 4: from somebody having a real point of view. Yes, everybody,
Speaker 4: every member of the cast, the crew, the writer's everybody.
Speaker 4: It is essential. Yeah, you know, because I listen, I
Speaker 4: think I am so funny, I am so great. Oh
Speaker 4: my god, I just improvised, and then you realize, maybe
Speaker 4: I should just go back to the script and shut up.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I hear you, Yeah that Yeah.
Speaker 3: When that's when you real that, when you realize you've
Speaker 3: gone too far, it's it's it's a little embarrassing.
Speaker 1: And sometimes you're laughing. Sometimes sometimes you're just cracking up
Speaker 1: because it's new, and you know what, and you realize, like, hey,
Speaker 1: we laughed hard at the table, read it that joke,
Speaker 1: and now we're all just used to it, so it's
Speaker 1: not new, and now we think we're hilarious because we've
Speaker 1: improvised five other things. But you know what, really the
Speaker 1: best joke is the one that they wrote.
Speaker 3: The one that started with but weally said, so much
Speaker 3: time just now fucking around, guys, let's just go back
Speaker 3: to what was there.
Speaker 4: But Donald, I have to say, I'm gonna I can't
Speaker 4: let what you just said go. Okay, you can't be embarrassed.
Speaker 4: And I'll tell you why. If you don't try, if
Speaker 4: you don't put it out there, you'll never know. Yeah,
Speaker 4: it might be amazing, but you can't know that unless
Speaker 4: you try it.
Speaker 2: It doesn't work.
Speaker 6: Hey, you go on.
Speaker 1: I think that's the best advice for actors that are listening, Like,
Speaker 1: the biggest thing of acting is getting back to when
Speaker 1: you were a kid and didn't have this embarrassment voice
Speaker 1: in your head. It's getting back to being a little
Speaker 1: kid who's silly and crazy and doesn't have that filter
Speaker 1: because they don't want to be judged. I mean, that's
Speaker 1: that's the best thing an acting class can give you.
Speaker 4: I'm telling you you cannot be embarrassed. There's no room
Speaker 4: for it, and there's no purpose for it. You've got
Speaker 4: to try your imagination and then if it doesn't work,
Speaker 4: I tried.
Speaker 1: This is the perfect segue. Because I'm such a good
Speaker 1: podcast host doing.
Speaker 3: Pretty well today, I'm not gonna lie the conversation between
Speaker 3: you two.
Speaker 1: Watch this one, Donald, watch this segue. You sound very
Speaker 1: much to me right now, Henry like an acting teacher,
Speaker 1: Which brings me to one of the finest uh pieces
Speaker 1: of television I think in at least the last two decades,
Speaker 1: Barry h you are so phenomenal on the show. You've
Speaker 1: got an I mean sitting behind you for it.
Speaker 4: Thank you?
Speaker 1: How did that come about? How did you get it?
Speaker 1: How did you become part of this universe?
Speaker 4: Three things? I got a call that Bill Hayter and
Speaker 4: HBO would like to meet you. I thought, oh my goodness,
Speaker 4: I'd never worked for HBO and I watched Bill Hayter
Speaker 4: every Saturday night on Saturday Night Live. This is amazing.
Speaker 4: They said, you're on a short list. I said, is
Speaker 4: Dustin Hoffman on that list? Because if he is, I'm
Speaker 4: not going in. They said no, they sent me the script.
Speaker 4: Max was here. I gave him the script. He's now
Speaker 4: directing me from my audition.
Speaker 2: Amazing. I go in.
Speaker 4: Things go, I meet Bill, I meet Alec. They asked
Speaker 4: me to be in it, and I'm telling you it
Speaker 4: was all I did was try and fill the vision
Speaker 4: of those two guys, and it was, oh my, what
Speaker 4: a journey. And I have to tell you I love
Speaker 4: teaching and I only do it once a year. At
Speaker 4: the Vulture Festival, which will be in November. They hold
Speaker 4: a Vulture right here in La the Vulture Festival, and
Speaker 4: I go and I hold an acting class and people come.
Speaker 1: They know, they do know what I'm saying. It's funny
Speaker 1: that you know. Obviously you're playing such a such a character,
Speaker 1: and I loved you on the show. But there's there's
Speaker 1: moments where I as I get talked to you where
Speaker 1: I see your personality and especially when you when you're
Speaker 1: giving life advice come out of it. Did they know
Speaker 1: anything about you when they created this character or did
Speaker 1: It's probably, like I'm guessing with Donald and I were.
Speaker 1: It's almost like Bill began to morph and shape the
Speaker 1: character around.
Speaker 4: I think that's true. They morphed and shaped the character.
Speaker 4: I was supposed to be just a hard ass asshole,
Speaker 4: and they went, oh, yeah, he could be, you know,
Speaker 4: like a human a little bit. Yeah, And so yes,
Speaker 4: they they had a vision and in that vision they
Speaker 4: wrote to me, yeah, and then let me tell you
Speaker 4: toward the end, it got so dark on this comedy
Speaker 4: that I had to buy a miner's hat with a
Speaker 4: lamp so I could see where we were going.
Speaker 1: It was so brilliant. If you haven't watched Barry, please
Speaker 1: watch Barry, especially if you're a Scrubs fan. I really
Speaker 1: think that you'll like it. I think Bill Hayter did
Speaker 1: something I love so much, which is and I think
Speaker 1: that we aspired to do on Scrubs, which was take
Speaker 1: the take, single camera comedy, directing to a to a
Speaker 1: higher level. And man, did he raise the bar on
Speaker 1: on on direction of a half hour comedy.
Speaker 4: But I'll tell you something again. You know you can't
Speaker 4: throw the word around, but there is brilliance in that
Speaker 4: young man.
Speaker 2: Yeah that is Oh, it's it's so clear. Is so clear? Man? Yeah?
Speaker 2: That that that that I'm gonna say.
Speaker 3: Bill Hayter is a very very just character work. All
Speaker 3: of that stuff. He's just very unique man.
Speaker 2: And then the fact that he can turn shows like
Speaker 2: that are kind of dramatic to me. But when you
Speaker 2: can turn a drama into a drama y and start
Speaker 2: winning comedy.
Speaker 3: Awards, I think you really really you know, you're touching
Speaker 3: something like that's hard to do. Leaning into the joke
Speaker 3: is easy freaking telling a joke and people getting it
Speaker 3: in the style that you're trying to tell it. Also,
Speaker 3: telling a joke in a different style is like to
Speaker 3: be I don't know, man, I could be loud and
Speaker 3: get laughs.
Speaker 2: It's kind of hard for me to be soft and
Speaker 2: quiet and be like this and talk natural and and
Speaker 2: and get a laugh.
Speaker 3: There's it's just there's so many there's so many levels
Speaker 3: to it. And this was one of those shows where
Speaker 3: ye what.
Speaker 4: It is Donald, you have you trust, you see the
Speaker 4: person in front of you, you see the two people
Speaker 4: in front of you, and then you just trust and
Speaker 4: you give yourself over to the process. Halfway through the
Speaker 4: fourth year, because there are only four seasons, Bill said, hey,
Speaker 4: I want to know how it ends, and I'm not
Speaker 4: going to tell you because there might be somebody in
Speaker 4: your audience who hasn't do it. But I went in
Speaker 4: the corner and shook for a while.
Speaker 1: All I mean I had to tell you just from
Speaker 1: your performance was just magical. The leading lady, Sarah Goldberg
Speaker 1: has there's a few times where he does she does
Speaker 1: a monologue as a woner that ever cuts off of
Speaker 1: her face. I think Bill did it a few times
Speaker 1: and it's just unbelievable her performance and just really really
Speaker 1: just an incredible, incredible.
Speaker 4: Yeah, she's on industry now that show industry.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I want to check that out.
Speaker 4: Caring about that is a hard show.
Speaker 1: I want to check that out.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: Let's just end on. Uh you post pictures of your fishing?
Speaker 1: Are you're an avid? You're an avid fisherman?
Speaker 4: Uh? I love it more than I continue.
Speaker 1: Really, which style do you do?
Speaker 2: We do well?
Speaker 4: I've done a lot deep sea fishing. I vomit. Bass
Speaker 4: fishing is you catch it, you wheel it in. Trout
Speaker 4: fishing is like zen. It's like a washing machine for
Speaker 4: your brain. You have to be in tune with the fish.
Speaker 4: You cannot worry about one other thing that is happening
Speaker 4: to you in the world. And my wife is a
Speaker 4: great fisher person. I don't show pictures of my wife's fish.
Speaker 4: Christ there usually bigger.
Speaker 1: How did you learn? How did you get into it?
Speaker 4: Skip Brittenham the Third took me and Stacy down the
Speaker 4: Smith River in Montana with an outfit where you float
Speaker 4: all day, you sleep out under the stars, and for
Speaker 4: five days you fish.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 4: And I didn't catch much, but no pun intended. I
Speaker 4: was hooked. And so since the middle eighties, Stacy and
Speaker 4: I have gone every year to fly fish for trout. Yeah. You.
Speaker 3: Sam Jenkins talked a lot about fly fishing. He really
Speaker 3: enjoyed fly fishing. He really enjoys fly fishing. Oh, oh
Speaker 3: my god, he might talk about it.
Speaker 4: Jimmy Kimmel is a big fisherman. Michael Keaton is a
Speaker 4: big fisherman.
Speaker 1: And this is fly fishing.
Speaker 4: This is fly fishing exclusively.
Speaker 1: I only know it from the movie A River runs
Speaker 1: through it.
Speaker 4: You are in that place, You are hearing that water,
Speaker 4: you are catching those fish. You take a picture, you
Speaker 4: put it back, you catch him next year.
Speaker 2: Oh that's so sweet, and you could also feel like
Speaker 2: your Brad Pitt.
Speaker 4: Yeah yeah, yeah, well you know from the face down.
Speaker 1: Well, Henry, we want to thank you so much.
Speaker 6: There must be.
Speaker 4: There must be men on this planet that are just
Speaker 4: so ugly they don't leave home. Because Brad got all
Speaker 4: the good looking.
Speaker 2: He's just so handsome man. We got to meet him.
Speaker 1: I got lost in his eyes recently.
Speaker 2: And I found myself when we're leaving, like, have a hug.
Speaker 4: I mean I did with Brad. I'm so sorry to
Speaker 4: interrupt you, but we're I had an award show. There's
Speaker 4: Brad Pitt in this long flowing cashmere coat and I
Speaker 4: said to him everything that is it, don't move. I
Speaker 4: just have to get my wife. And I got my
Speaker 4: wife and took a picture of those two together.
Speaker 1: It's funny. We were walking. Donald and I were walking
Speaker 1: at F one in Vegas, and I told him we're
Speaker 1: going to meet Brad Pitt. Act cool, and he goes,
Speaker 1: how much take a selfie? I go, don't take a selfie.
Speaker 1: He goes, I can't take a selfie.
Speaker 4: I go do not.
Speaker 1: We're supposed to act cool. We're supposed to act like
Speaker 1: we always hang out with David Fincher and Brad Pitt. Anyway, Henry,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for coming on. We really do
Speaker 1: appreciate it. Wow, I really I want him to be
Speaker 1: my father. I kept thinking of my dad and that
Speaker 1: was my dad the whole time.
Speaker 2: Wow, he's a great man. What a man.
Speaker 1: My dad was increble man. But didn't didn't didn't he
Speaker 1: wasn't He like the father that you want in your life.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's the most Look I.
Speaker 2: Kept telling y'all in the beginning. He's like a mentor
Speaker 2: to me.
Speaker 3: And I don't think he knows it everything I said
Speaker 3: with every insecurity, I had everything.
Speaker 2: Donald, hold up, let's go back.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I love it.
Speaker 2: Let's let's address this. I love him, you know what
Speaker 2: I mean, Like, he's just such a great person.
Speaker 3: He's just he's one of those people that you know
Speaker 3: and and and you know, we don't know what what
Speaker 3: what dwells deep dark in his heart, but there's got
Speaker 3: to be so much love.
Speaker 1: But he seems to have it all, you know, he
Speaker 1: seems to have it all because he's and when I
Speaker 1: say have it all, I don't mean the career success,
Speaker 1: although he's had that. I just mean he seems so
Speaker 1: fulfilled in his life with his family and with his
Speaker 1: fishing and his children's books. He just seems like like
Speaker 1: he seems what I aspire to be, which is like
Speaker 1: present and joyful and yeah, your career will have highs
Speaker 1: and lows and and things will happen. But he's got
Speaker 1: the love of this family and him he and his
Speaker 1: wife go fishing together. I mean, it just seems like
Speaker 1: the dreamiest person.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Man, it seems like he's living the dream. Yeah.
Speaker 3: But he also said something that was really important though.
Speaker 3: It's because he's grateful.
Speaker 1: Yep. That's when he started the whole gracious. Yeah, we
Speaker 1: need to work on that, you and me.
Speaker 2: Oh my goodness, gracious do we try.
Speaker 1: I do it every night I go to bed. I
Speaker 1: I do have the ritual of saying that. I learned
Speaker 1: saying one, am I grateful for that happened today. I've
Speaker 1: been doing. I've been doing okay at that. It's just
Speaker 1: that when bad, when annoying things happen, or things that
Speaker 1: are frustrating, or I get depressed about something, I I
Speaker 1: He's right. It's the best thing to do is switch
Speaker 1: to gratitude and switch to how lucky we are.
Speaker 2: Because we forget, because we forget.
Speaker 1: And that's everybody, everybody listening, we all, we all. I'm
Speaker 1: sure everybody listening can relate that we have so much
Speaker 1: to be grateful for. And I'm grateful for you. Joelle
Speaker 1: and DJ Daniel.
Speaker 2: He called Joel, Joel and Daniel DJ all right, DJ
Speaker 2: DJ Joel.
Speaker 1: The audience I'm not watching on YouTube didn't see that.
Speaker 1: He did that whole interview with a ball or Emmy
Speaker 1: sitting right beside him for Barry.
Speaker 2: That's how you do it.
Speaker 1: Yeah. By the way, if I ever win an Emmy,
Speaker 1: it's gonna go right in the grammy.
Speaker 2: Why don't you freaking put the grammy.
Speaker 1: Up so the grammy doesn't feel Does he feel?
Speaker 4: What? Well?
Speaker 1: Doesn't feel relevant?
Speaker 2: What fucker? You got part of the ego?
Speaker 1: I did get the one, you got the you got
Speaker 1: the I got the girl, you.
Speaker 2: Got the.
Speaker 6: Stories. I'm not so we made about a bunch of
Speaker 6: dogs and nurses, he said, he's the stories.
Speaker 4: So gather.
Speaker 6: Yead air hops. But we watch always acted
Speaker 4: M h