Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Kristen Davis, and I want to know, are
Speaker 1: you a Charlotte? Oh my gosh, it's so exciting. Everybody
Speaker 1: welcome to Are you a Charlotte?
Speaker 2: Guess who my guest is, Sarah J.
Speaker 3: Parker.
Speaker 2: Do a little dance, Sarah, welcome. Let me tell you
Speaker 2: everyone has been.
Speaker 1: When is Sir Jusica coming? When is Sir Jaska coming?
Speaker 2: Like so sweet? They're so excited about you.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, what will you pull out of me?
Speaker 2: I mean, I don't know.
Speaker 4: But you just being here always, you always pull a
Speaker 4: bit at me. It's very leading, and I'm so happy
Speaker 4: to be here, and I'm so proud of you. And
Speaker 4: you talked in your recent episode about you know, talking
Speaker 4: to all about about this idea when it was presented
Speaker 4: to you, and how excited you were about it, and
Speaker 4: you said you couldn't remember the order, you know, with
Speaker 4: whom you spoke about the idea, not asking for permission,
Speaker 4: just talking about like how. And I do think I
Speaker 4: do think you spoke to Michael Patrick first, because we
Speaker 4: discussed it in a drug store. You were shooting the
Speaker 4: scene where I'm not going to say anything, actually you
Speaker 4: were we were shooting a scene for the current season,
Speaker 4: and it was a it was a pretty big scene
Speaker 4: that we had not been able to shoot.
Speaker 3: We were making up for because I had COVID. That's right.
Speaker 4: It had been at the top of the season, scheduled
Speaker 4: very very early.
Speaker 3: Or somewhat earlier on Sorry, and so.
Speaker 4: We were that was one of those scenes that we
Speaker 4: fun went to the affectually called the boneyard, and so
Speaker 4: there we were quite and then you shared with me
Speaker 4: this idea and which I thought was fantastic, And I mean,
Speaker 4: I knew it was going to be great, and I
Speaker 4: knew you would come so naturally to the idea, to
Speaker 4: the to the medium.
Speaker 3: But you're doing such a good job. I'm so proud
Speaker 3: of you.
Speaker 1: I was such a great cheerleader. I mean, I don't
Speaker 1: know if everyone realized to.
Speaker 3: Be your cheerleader, because I love you so.
Speaker 2: Much, so much, and I don't know. You know, it's the.
Speaker 1: Kind of thing where sometimes I think, because all of
Speaker 1: us have been together now for almost thirty years, and
Speaker 1: to me it's really obvious all of the personal relationships
Speaker 1: and the joys that we have of our personal selves.
Speaker 1: But it isn't always so obvious because they're watching the
Speaker 1: show right, and it's really interesting. And part of this
Speaker 1: is also like the new world order, right, Like things
Speaker 1: are so different now, and for me, I always feel
Speaker 1: like we did so much press the whole time. I wondered, like,
Speaker 1: how is anything not seen and or understood but the
Speaker 1: press when you're talking.
Speaker 4: About the inter relationships that are not that still are
Speaker 4: sexually kind of unknown. Yes, yeah, like the fact that
Speaker 4: we have affection for each other exactly.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I now remember that time. I can't remember.
Speaker 1: Oh, I think we went to an am far event
Speaker 1: for Kevin Huvain and then we went to the abbey.
Speaker 1: Do you remember out So there's very entertaining paparazzi pictures
Speaker 1: of us trying to get out and get our car,
Speaker 1: and Chelsea Handler was there and do you remember, Like
Speaker 1: I had gone to check in with you, like are
Speaker 1: you okay?
Speaker 2: Do you want to go? And she was like, oh
Speaker 2: my god, you guys like.
Speaker 4: Each other, Like yes, what on earth it's mystifying to
Speaker 4: us how it's a mystery to others. Yeah, but that's
Speaker 4: a perfectly fine thing, too, correct, Like absolutely, if that's
Speaker 4: not as well understood right as the stories, right, that's
Speaker 4: perfectly all right.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 2: Our job was the show.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and we have done that job with all of us,
Speaker 1: with every bit of our being now.
Speaker 2: For twenty seven to twenty eight years, whatever it is.
Speaker 1: But but the thing that's joyful for me about the podcast,
Speaker 1: and really kind of the reason I want to do it,
Speaker 1: was because I felt like, Okay, this is this thing
Speaker 1: that we did in nineteen ninety seven, the pilot, it
Speaker 1: like miraculously still has this life, which is amazing in
Speaker 1: so many ways and so incredibly gratifying. And I thought,
Speaker 1: wouldn't it be interesting to talk about how all these
Speaker 1: different people came together, including our writers and our crew members,
Speaker 1: which I haven't really gotten on yet, but I'm creating
Speaker 1: a list and I need your input.
Speaker 3: Well, right, yeah, there's much discuss there, right.
Speaker 2: And like came together to make this thing.
Speaker 1: And I do feel like everyone that we've had for
Speaker 1: all of these years, like our job is not a
Speaker 1: job you can kind of halfway do. Like it's a
Speaker 1: full on intense situation and everyone has brought like all
Speaker 1: of themselves, you know. And there was a time in
Speaker 1: the olden days where like relationships went because of our show,
Speaker 1: like things happened.
Speaker 4: It was so much infiltraded. It was asking so much
Speaker 4: of just the hours, and that it was problematic for
Speaker 4: some families, like it was, and it's such an interesting thing,
Speaker 4: and perhaps it's the case that, well we know, it
Speaker 4: isn't always like it isn't always the case that people
Speaker 4: fold into each other so beautifully. And when I say that,
Speaker 4: I'm talking about our crew who did work alongside us
Speaker 4: these extraordinary hours, you know, eighty one hundred hour weeks
Speaker 4: for years on end, so much so that it almost
Speaker 4: was like a badge of honor. You know, it was
Speaker 4: like this thing that we all shared. But yeah, it
Speaker 4: was you know, it's problematic for a family life. And
Speaker 4: and but there is something really so this idea of
Speaker 4: you wanting to touch on the crew feels like necessary
Speaker 4: because I think we all felt and continue to feel
Speaker 4: about this particular crew and that's just such great good
Speaker 4: fortune that.
Speaker 3: They were.
Speaker 4: Truly part of it in a way that could not
Speaker 4: have happened without them. And it's such a it's like
Speaker 4: such a you know, you can't plan it or plot it,
Speaker 4: like if we had picked those people with knowledge and said, oh,
Speaker 4: you're the best, you're great, and you're going to mature
Speaker 4: and then you're going to become operator, and then you're
Speaker 4: going to become a deep You're going to do this,
Speaker 4: and you're going to do this, and we're going to
Speaker 4: you know, promote from and your personalities and you're smart
Speaker 4: and you're shy, and what you bring in, like if
Speaker 4: we had planned it, not a ray, right, So it's
Speaker 4: lightning in a bottle, But they are all The kind
Speaker 4: of sentiment that we feel about that first chapter of
Speaker 4: being these characters is in no small way because of
Speaker 4: the entirety of the organism.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, they held us up.
Speaker 3: We were the faces and I feel like we.
Speaker 4: It was an exchange, like it was a constant exchange
Speaker 4: of admiration and a kind of favor, like a kind
Speaker 4: of debt, and we passed back and forth.
Speaker 1: And the fact that people still love the show, I
Speaker 1: feel like is honoring all of that commitment from all
Speaker 1: of the people.
Speaker 3: That had been part of it for all this time.
Speaker 4: That was the third party that was that completed. It
Speaker 4: was the audience, right, you know. So we had the
Speaker 4: we had the cast and crew, and that meant, you know,
Speaker 4: our writers and our directors, and then we had our crew,
Speaker 4: our working crew who were in front of us and
Speaker 4: behind us. And then we have the audience, and it
Speaker 4: was that pie that was cut up in those you know,
Speaker 4: very consequential thirds, and everybody contributed to do right by
Speaker 4: everything and constantly and.
Speaker 1: It's ongoing, which is the part that I find. It's
Speaker 1: more gratification than I ever could have dreamt up because
Speaker 1: we were happy anyway, like when we thought we were
Speaker 1: going to be a small cult following back in the
Speaker 1: year that we're cult.
Speaker 3: Sorry, didn't you learn your lessons?
Speaker 1: This is why just on every episode I have to step.
Speaker 2: I did not say that where we thought.
Speaker 1: We would be a tiny niche a tiny niche show.
Speaker 4: You know what's so funny, they'll tell me. Listening to you,
Speaker 4: I feel like you had thoughts.
Speaker 1: I had none, I agree, And that's what I want
Speaker 1: to talk about about.
Speaker 4: So many thoughts and feelings and projections.
Speaker 2: And you were far more.
Speaker 4: Like lucid about like a place and a time and
Speaker 4: I wouldn't say success so much so as like future,
Speaker 4: and I feel like you were far more like enlightened
Speaker 4: on landscape and you know, and I just didn't. So
Speaker 4: I never had a thought that it would be either
Speaker 4: seen and approved and a small audience would find it delightful,
Speaker 4: and that would be enough, or that it might reach
Speaker 4: larger numbers than you.
Speaker 3: Didn't think of any of a boutique or niche she No,
Speaker 3: I didn't. I didn't.
Speaker 2: Wow. No, fascinating.
Speaker 4: I mean, I thought about how I felt about making
Speaker 4: the decision to do it. You know, tell us about them,
Speaker 4: tell us about the decisions.
Speaker 1: Please tell us, because I love to hear about what
Speaker 1: was happening in people's lives before we started, because I
Speaker 1: don't always know, and.
Speaker 4: I know you've you've credited me with being a person
Speaker 4: that I was.
Speaker 3: Definitely I feel.
Speaker 4: Like, my gosh, she thought I was like a New
Speaker 4: York you were, you.
Speaker 3: Were never away? No, you know, no, I absolutely was not.
Speaker 3: Absolutely not. I feel like I knew.
Speaker 1: Stephanolo's and had more that I had ever even heard
Speaker 1: of when.
Speaker 3: I met you. I feel like, come on, still, the characterization.
Speaker 3: I feel like I was not.
Speaker 4: But I lived in New York, and I think that
Speaker 4: is a distinction that you were surely drawing forth myself
Speaker 4: and Cynthia, and I think Kim too, knew New York
Speaker 4: pretty well though she hadn't been she'd been better than myself,
Speaker 4: somewhat scattered.
Speaker 3: Like she had traveled. Yeah, but I Initially got.
Speaker 4: Was asked about the show by my agent, Kevin ey
Speaker 4: Vane sent me either it.
Speaker 3: Was a phone call.
Speaker 4: I'm certain it wasn't an email, because this was nineteen
Speaker 4: ninety seven or ninety six ninety seven in situation, that's right.
Speaker 3: And he.
Speaker 4: So he sent me the script with a cover letter,
Speaker 4: very traditional for those of you who don't know what
Speaker 4: that is. There's a script and there's typically it's a
Speaker 4: companied by a cover letter from your agent or whoever
Speaker 4: is submitting it. Nell explained, you know, this is a project,
Speaker 4: it's shooting in New York. You have been off the
Speaker 4: role of blank, the producer is blank, the director is blank,
Speaker 4: or they have no director set yet. This is HBO,
Speaker 4: this is the studio, this is the network.
Speaker 2: And you were like wow.
Speaker 4: And so Kevin called me and said, Darren has asked
Speaker 4: about meeting you to discuss this and and he said
Speaker 4: he wrote this like I was in his head in
Speaker 4: some way, which I found really interesting.
Speaker 3: Was perfectly happy.
Speaker 4: To meet with him. And I did say I knew
Speaker 4: Darren Starr's name from Beverly Hills nine O two and
Speaker 4: O and Meloe's place, and I was pretty familiar with
Speaker 4: Candas's work as a reader of The Observer, which was
Speaker 4: a fairly well known New York paper that a lot
Speaker 4: of us reached for. Its distinction was that it was pink,
Speaker 4: which was kind of unusual. And coincidentally or not, I
Speaker 4: had been sent a copy of her book that Darren
Speaker 4: had then bought the rights to, and that book was
Speaker 4: a compilation of all of her columns for the New Yorker,
Speaker 4: for The Observer.
Speaker 3: And so I did know that.
Speaker 4: And I don't know why I was sent a copy
Speaker 4: of the book, but I was, and I enjoyed it.
Speaker 3: And there were some in.
Speaker 4: Particular, No, there were some in particular columns that I loved.
Speaker 4: So I read the script and loved it. And I
Speaker 4: was doing a musical on Broadway at that time, Princess.
Speaker 4: I was doing Once upon a Mattress. I saw it
Speaker 4: and thanks, and and I was going to get I
Speaker 4: was going to.
Speaker 3: Get married, and secret.
Speaker 4: It was a secret, yes, and uh, and I had
Speaker 4: a wedding date and I didn't really want to mess
Speaker 4: with that date. And because I kind of I had
Speaker 4: understood that maybe it was shooting around the exact same time,
Speaker 4: and we had cleared that date primarily because all of
Speaker 4: our friends who worked in the theater only have mondays
Speaker 4: off SOT. Our wedding was on a Monday, and yeah,
Speaker 4: and so I met with Darren and I, you know,
Speaker 4: I told him I loved it and that I thought
Speaker 4: it was especially compelling, and that I, you know, my
Speaker 4: only objections, and I feel like objections is almost too
Speaker 4: strong a word.
Speaker 3: I I.
Speaker 4: Alerted him to the fact that I didn't do scenes nude,
Speaker 4: that I just, for whatever reason, right or wrong, I
Speaker 4: just never felt comfortable doing that.
Speaker 3: And he was like, well, that's then we won't and
Speaker 3: we shan't.
Speaker 4: And I said that I also wanted to be a
Speaker 4: little thoughtful about language.
Speaker 3: That I wanted to make sure that Carrie cared about.
Speaker 4: What words came out of her mouth, that if she
Speaker 4: was a right and being thoughtful about her use of language,
Speaker 4: and a column even amongst friends where you can get
Speaker 4: purposefully sloppy, you know, especially if you're drinking, that I
Speaker 4: still wanted her to be somebody that wasn't just tossing
Speaker 4: around let's call him, you know, bad words.
Speaker 3: So those were the two things.
Speaker 4: And the last thing I shared with him was, you know,
Speaker 4: I'm getting married on this date, and we couldn't take
Speaker 4: a honeymoon because my husband was soon to be husband
Speaker 4: was shooting a movie anyway, and I had to go
Speaker 4: back to work to once for a mattress the next
Speaker 4: morning next day, and he was great about all of it.
Speaker 4: And it was at that meeting actually that he said,
Speaker 4: you know, you should produce. I was like, I don't
Speaker 4: know how to produce. I've never produced anything. And he's like, well,
Speaker 4: of course, you know how. You've been on a set
Speaker 4: your whole life basically, And I said yeah, But he's like,
Speaker 4: were you paying attention?
Speaker 3: Were you watching?
Speaker 4: Were I was like, well, yes, because I'm curious anyway,
Speaker 4: I said, but I don't really think that I have
Speaker 4: that skill, and I would feel very.
Speaker 3: Like a fraud. So I said them, be a consultant.
Speaker 3: So that's that's how that started.
Speaker 2: I started.
Speaker 4: So we worked out all the dates and I actually
Speaker 4: closed the show on one day and woke up the
Speaker 4: next morning and walked to the set of the you
Speaker 4: know or went to the set at the pilot yeah,
Speaker 4: which I believe was a possible note wasn't. I can't
Speaker 4: remember where it was, but anyway, did the show the
Speaker 4: next like.
Speaker 3: Woke up the next morning and then went.
Speaker 4: To shoot this pilot of this TV show.
Speaker 1: This is what I want to know because in my mind, okay,
Speaker 1: so I was in La right, and I knew Darren,
Speaker 1: but we.
Speaker 2: Weren't working together.
Speaker 1: It wasn't like I was seeing him often. But he
Speaker 1: had sent me the script. And also, did you know
Speaker 1: that Cynthia also had read for Kerrie?
Speaker 3: Really so interesting?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah, I'm sure I've known that, right, we've talked.
Speaker 3: I never knew this.
Speaker 2: I never knew that.
Speaker 3: Okay, then I didn't know it either.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, I mean I was shocked and she said
Speaker 1: they were like, no, not really, so ire.
Speaker 2: Not, well, well I do.
Speaker 1: I mean I feel like and I mean this again
Speaker 1: is like that magical thing that happens occasionally that we
Speaker 1: are lucky to be a part of, where none of
Speaker 1: us had read together. You know, it was this very
Speaker 1: kind of long process of casting the four of us,
Speaker 1: and yet when we came together at the table read,
Speaker 1: which I don't also remember, I do you do?
Speaker 2: Tell me what you remember?
Speaker 3: Hallelujahah? I remember.
Speaker 4: I remember because I knew who Chris was, I knew
Speaker 4: who everybody was. Cynthia and I we can talk about
Speaker 4: since I had been working together and kind of collegially
Speaker 4: friendly because we've both been an actor our whole lives basically.
Speaker 4: And so I met Cynthia. I guess when I was
Speaker 4: twelve years old. Wow, I think the first time we
Speaker 4: worked together. The first time we worked together was when
Speaker 4: I was thirteen and or almost thirteen, and she was twelve.
Speaker 4: She's one year younger than me. I think, exactly right,
Speaker 4: both of us.
Speaker 2: Yea, is this the Vanessa Redgrave.
Speaker 4: No, we did a recording of a little House on
Speaker 4: the Prairie when they used to make records. Oh my god,
Speaker 4: her people. Yeah, when I played Laura and she played Mary.
Speaker 1: No.
Speaker 3: Yeah, she's always.
Speaker 4: More sophisticated, like every time we worked together. Believe, I'm
Speaker 4: like the slightly rogue and she's but she has a quality.
Speaker 4: But anyway, so, wow, I didn't know that I didn't
Speaker 4: know you. I knew who you were. I didn't know Kim.
Speaker 4: I knew who she was. Cynthia and I knew one another,
Speaker 4: and I knew who Chris was. Was I believe because
Speaker 4: of the whole Yale fraternity of Yale Drama School, I
Speaker 4: didn't know that graduates like it was a thing in
Speaker 4: New York got it. Yeah, so that was kind of
Speaker 4: like out Law and Order. Oh, I definitely knew him
Speaker 4: from Law and Order, but I wasn't like a I
Speaker 4: didn't have like a standing date to watch Lawn Order
Speaker 4: every week. But there weren't a lot of shows shooting
Speaker 4: in New York, and he was kind of this h
Speaker 4: like I'd see him around. And so when we went
Speaker 4: to do the table read, I believe we did the
Speaker 4: table read far far West, and it was very dark,
Speaker 4: a dark room, and I came up the stairs and
Speaker 4: the tables were set up in a big square kind
Speaker 4: of like now correct, but in a far more a
Speaker 4: less polished space, you know, exposed brick and not great lighting,
Speaker 4: and it was just felt more it felt like we
Speaker 4: were doing a play reading, not meet not a.
Speaker 3: TV show or a movie.
Speaker 4: And I remember meeting Chris and he was, you know,
Speaker 4: had a big long raincoat on and you know, messy
Speaker 4: trousers but like you know, appropriate. But I remember thinking, oh,
Speaker 4: he's really serious and he thinks I'm a twinkie, like
Speaker 4: he doesn't. This is nothing, he did nothing. This is
Speaker 4: the way I wow lived. A lot of my life
Speaker 4: is rejecting onto like a cab driver, thinking if I
Speaker 4: say I'm an actor, he won't take me seriously. But
Speaker 4: if I tell the cab driver I'm a student, then
Speaker 4: he'll take me seriously.
Speaker 3: You know, love it.
Speaker 4: But that, of course was not the case at all.
Speaker 4: But I thought, you know, he's a Yale drama school graduate.
Speaker 4: He's like, you know, going to do this pilot where
Speaker 4: he's this guy and she's a girl and and I'm
Speaker 4: going to have to convince him that.
Speaker 3: But that wasn't the case at all.
Speaker 1: I just remember that that's super interesting anyway.
Speaker 4: But he was lovely, and everybody was lovely. It reminded
Speaker 4: me of doing table reads for plays that may or
Speaker 4: may not go like It was like, yeah, just did
Speaker 4: the table read of a thing, and now then you know,
Speaker 4: see probably in ten days or we're going to shoot it,
Speaker 4: right and then.
Speaker 3: We'll see. But then I forgot I forgot all about it.
Speaker 3: What do you mean, I'm not kidding.
Speaker 4: I forgot all about it. Okay, shot the pilot. I
Speaker 4: remember some things about shooting the pilot.
Speaker 2: I have some memories.
Speaker 3: I can feel that you're going to fill me in.
Speaker 2: Yes, but then you forgot about it. In the very
Speaker 2: long time.
Speaker 4: They forgot about it, which still I can't even tell
Speaker 4: you that. I thought it was a long time, like
Speaker 4: it was perfectly fine.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you didn't seem to I didn't.
Speaker 2: Do you remember running into me in the neighborhood in
Speaker 2: La No.
Speaker 3: No, here's what I remember. Oh.
Speaker 2: Wait.
Speaker 4: I was walking down the street in New York City
Speaker 4: and it had been a while, but I was fine,
Speaker 4: and a woman stopped me. She was a very pretty, fancy,
Speaker 4: well known producer, and she said to me, oh my gosh,
Speaker 4: I saw your show. I said what show. She said,
Speaker 4: you're pilot and I was like, what pilot?
Speaker 2: And she told me the.
Speaker 3: Name of it. And I was like, oh, yeah, you
Speaker 3: saw that.
Speaker 2: How did you see it?
Speaker 4: And she said, I don't you know. She had a reason.
Speaker 4: She didn't knock anybody over the head and steal it.
Speaker 4: Somebody sent it to her. It's like, it's really good.
Speaker 3: I was like, oh.
Speaker 4: Then I went on with my day, and when the
Speaker 4: show was picked up, I panicked, Okay, tell us, yes,
Speaker 4: I panicked. I was like, I can't be on a
Speaker 4: TV show. I don't think I suited for that life.
Speaker 4: You mean exactly because I had been on television series
Speaker 4: in Southern California. I forget Yeah, I did a mention
Speaker 4: of yes with Tenny and other people.
Speaker 3: I've been on you know.
Speaker 4: A few I've been on Square Pegs and a Year
Speaker 4: in the Life and Equal Justice. I think I did
Speaker 4: a pilot for a TV series, yeah, the Alan King
Speaker 4: Show with some really great people. And I always liked
Speaker 4: the guard gate at the studios. I always thought that
Speaker 4: was very Hollywood, you know, like you drive on and
Speaker 4: Scotty says, hey, hello, miss Parker, Hello Sarah, Jessica or
Speaker 4: whatever to call me.
Speaker 3: And I always loved, like, hey, Scotty.
Speaker 4: You know, I love driving, And then they have a
Speaker 4: parking space and like and you walk through the canyons
Speaker 4: of a studio and you know this this shot here
Speaker 4: and this shot here, and it was just kind of.
Speaker 3: Incredible. Yeah, but it also it's very hard to explain.
Speaker 3: It also kind of depressed me.
Speaker 4: And I think that it was the idea of doing
Speaker 4: the same thing over and over and over again. And
Speaker 4: I think I'd always been lucky that I got to
Speaker 4: be on a television series and then it was over.
Speaker 4: Like I met great people, had a great experience, worked
Speaker 4: with great actors, great directors, thought the stories were interesting,
Speaker 4: wanted to do the shows, and they had shorter lives,
Speaker 4: maybe one or two seasons.
Speaker 3: And then and then I.
Speaker 4: Moved on and I would do a play or i'd
Speaker 4: do some readings, and then i'd do a part in
Speaker 4: the movie, and then I'd do you know, a movie
Speaker 4: of the week, right, and I just you know, kind
Speaker 4: of bounced around, and I really thought, like that is
Speaker 4: the goal, Like the journeyman is the goal. Right.
Speaker 3: You want to be moving, You want.
Speaker 4: To be doing a reading of a play on forty
Speaker 4: second Street and then walk over to your theater and
Speaker 4: do your play, and then you wake up the next morning.
Speaker 4: You've got a part in a movie, so you shoot
Speaker 4: the movie for three days, you get back for your matinee.
Speaker 3: You know, like, yeah, that to me was having it
Speaker 3: all right.
Speaker 4: And so the idea of a television series meant that
Speaker 4: I couldn't do all those things right, and that I
Speaker 4: would get in the same car every day and it
Speaker 4: just kind of felt like somebody was, you know, putting
Speaker 4: their hand over my mouth or something. It was just
Speaker 4: very weird, and you know it was wrong, right, absolutely wrong,
Speaker 4: and not that wrong.
Speaker 2: Well, I mean it does that's kind of a journey.
Speaker 3: Kind of general.
Speaker 4: It is people can do things in their hiatuses and
Speaker 4: of course, you know, and and I talked to my
Speaker 4: agents and I said, you know, hey, can you get
Speaker 4: me out of this and after this, after the past,
Speaker 4: when it was gonna when it was going to be
Speaker 4: picked up, got it. And I said, here's what I
Speaker 4: will give my services to HBO to fulfill my contract.
Speaker 4: So if they any movies, I'll do for X number
Speaker 4: of years. And I and so I went into Kevin's
Speaker 4: office and then this wonderful legendary agent at CIA who
Speaker 4: had kind of run the television department for years, Lee Gaebler.
Speaker 4: I think his oh so handsome and sophisticated warsuit and
Speaker 4: the shine shoes every day and he was really like
Speaker 4: a sight. And so he indulged me, and you know,
Speaker 4: he was like, well, you know, of course we can
Speaker 4: talk to but you know, it can be wonderful, it
Speaker 4: can be great. And the beauty of HBO is that
Speaker 4: kind of it was kind of an unknown, veryous species
Speaker 4: and had been discovered in the wilderness by like anthropologists
Speaker 4: or something, they said, and he had word from and
Speaker 4: Chris albrektaid at the time, so do it for a year.
Speaker 3: And if if you don't want to do it anymore.
Speaker 3: We won't, we won't do it, Like he's so smart.
Speaker 4: It was like, oh, And then they hired Barry Right,
Speaker 4: knew from working with David Frankel he produced Mammy Rhapsody.
Speaker 2: Why did I forgot this?
Speaker 4: And then we started meeting and talking about Pat Field,
Speaker 4: and all of a sudden, it didn't feel like the
Speaker 4: same thing. It felt like a brand new, exciting, completely unknown,
Speaker 4: Like somebody was offering me a menu of food that
Speaker 4: I'd only ever heard about. Yeah, like maybe I read
Speaker 4: about these items on this menu, but I never no
Speaker 4: one said I could ever taste them right, be near enough,
Speaker 4: or I could get into the restaurant.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, So I went from being this like kind of like.
Speaker 4: Oppressive idea to this like endless possibilities. And the first
Speaker 4: day that we started shooting as a series, the location
Speaker 4: was up the street from my house, and I remember
Speaker 4: being in the shower sept my alarm clocks and everything,
Speaker 4: and I remember being in the shower and literally remember
Speaker 4: washing my hair.
Speaker 3: And I was like day one. Day one.
Speaker 4: I can walk to work, Well, that's unusual, that's really special.
Speaker 4: I'm not driving onto lot, I'm not getting on a
Speaker 4: freeway and hoping I get myself there, and I walked
Speaker 4: up to the location, which is the Banana Republic on
Speaker 4: sixth Avenue, and it was the first leaker first and.
Speaker 3: I never looked back.
Speaker 2: Amazing.
Speaker 3: I was never not happy to be there.
Speaker 2: Amazing.
Speaker 4: There was no place I would rather have been than
Speaker 4: on our set.
Speaker 3: Every single solid give me.
Speaker 1: Chills, he give me chills. The thing that I think
Speaker 1: is amazing about that story, first of all, didn't know
Speaker 1: this story exactly. I knew that there was a time
Speaker 1: that you possibly had cold feet because you had had
Speaker 1: this very dynamic career in terms of being able to
Speaker 1: do films and do television and do theater, which of
Speaker 1: course was all of our dreams at that time, you know,
Speaker 1: and television also had kind of been this not super
Speaker 1: exciting place, which I you're kind of alluding to. Whereas
Speaker 1: I do feel that we were making something that had
Speaker 1: not been made.
Speaker 3: It was it was brand new.
Speaker 2: It's not just that you felt that.
Speaker 1: You were at a very brand new and exciting restaurant.
Speaker 2: You actually were.
Speaker 3: We all were. We had the good fortune, yeah, to.
Speaker 1: Land at the right time at the right place. I
Speaker 1: was just watching on the plane and thinking about you.
Speaker 1: There's a Ted Turner documentary.
Speaker 3: Yes, I wish I could. I want to see that.
Speaker 2: It's on Max, okay, because to watch, and I was.
Speaker 4: Signed out of my Max account by my family. Like,
Speaker 4: I don't exist on my Max account.
Speaker 3: It's pretty distressing. They do, but you don't. They didn't
Speaker 3: even used to have.
Speaker 4: Like I, it's the only time I've ever made like
Speaker 4: a joke profile.
Speaker 3: And it's not even me, it's Andy. It's Andy's picture
Speaker 3: and then it just.
Speaker 4: Says you with an exclamation point. But I was so
Speaker 4: proud that I could even navigate that. Wow, it's neither,
Speaker 4: it's not important.
Speaker 3: It will make it.
Speaker 1: Andy could sign in and watch the Ted Turner documentary. Yes,
Speaker 1: Loretta so amazed. Oh, Loretta works. I mean James was
Speaker 1: watching it. I know right, he was watching our show
Speaker 1: because we talked about it. Yeah, he's watched a little
Speaker 1: bit okay not yes, yes.
Speaker 3: Not the whole We lost James along the way. It
Speaker 3: just keep keeps going. You know, college, he's in college.
Speaker 2: He's in college.
Speaker 3: And I think, James, you're forgiven.
Speaker 2: The way you forgiven will catch you up. Yes, summer maybe, yes,
Speaker 2: oh my god, yes, wow.
Speaker 1: Back to HBO, Ted Turner, do you remember the time
Speaker 1: that we went to Nevis and we went with the
Speaker 1: Cable Cowboys. It was so incredible and it is so incredible.
Speaker 4: Now I remember all of that, and no, I remember
Speaker 4: not one day of shooting the show or the stories, but.
Speaker 3: I remember every trip we ever made.
Speaker 4: For the Super Bowl entertain our incredible cable distributors, right, and.
Speaker 1: Cable distributors were so important to us at that time.
Speaker 1: It was the wild West, and in truth, they created
Speaker 1: something that had not been created before, that did not exist,
Speaker 1: and Ted Turner basically spearheaded that entire thing. And to
Speaker 1: watch him and the passion with which he talks about
Speaker 1: it and the commitment like it wrings so many bells
Speaker 1: for me, because at one point he said he there
Speaker 1: was all this competition from the it was a three
Speaker 1: network time right, ABCNBCCBS, and when the cable community, the
Speaker 1: cable world was just starting, he just basically just dreamed
Speaker 1: it up. And then at one point the networks were
Speaker 1: trying to stop him, and they had They were trying
Speaker 1: to make a competitor to CNN, the first twenty four
Speaker 1: hour news channel that Ted created. They were trying to
Speaker 1: get a competitor. ABC was or.
Speaker 2: Westinghouse, CBS and Westinghouse.
Speaker 1: So during Christmas, they were going to take two weeks
Speaker 1: off for Christmas before they launched and went out to
Speaker 1: the ad sales and so ted was. He called everyone
Speaker 1: in his company. He said, Christmas is canceled. You have
Speaker 1: to go out and sell those ads. And they selled
Speaker 1: it to every single cable operator, the cable cowboys, and
Speaker 1: they didn't have Christmas, but they saved the company. And
Speaker 1: he would get tears in his eyes talking about the
Speaker 1: commitment that it took from everyone in that company to build.
Speaker 1: You know, it was started as the Turner Broadcasting that
Speaker 1: it was CNN. Eventually it turns into Time Warner. I'm
Speaker 1: watching the progression and I'm thinking about our part in
Speaker 1: that and how we were in some ways we were
Speaker 1: like the spaw and the child of it. We got
Speaker 1: to reap the benefit of what they built, and we
Speaker 1: also got to spend time with a lot of those people.
Speaker 3: Yes, it's kind of amazing, right, yeah.
Speaker 1: John Malone, like people who are now almost this dying
Speaker 1: breed in terms of I believe the Cox.
Speaker 3: Family was there, Yes, like all the important players.
Speaker 4: And it was so interesting, like just give like a
Speaker 4: little like a quick little summary of this. So HBO
Speaker 4: had this idea to put basically all of its cast.
Speaker 3: On a plane and build this weekend.
Speaker 4: Yes and couple other shows as well are less Yes
Speaker 4: and some of their sports people, Jim Lampley and some others,
Speaker 4: and they would put us on a plane willingly. We
Speaker 4: weren't taken against our will, and they would we would
Speaker 4: have this weekend around Super Bowl Sunday, and we would
Speaker 4: basically be brought to these wonderful locations that most of
Speaker 4: us had never been, nor could we afford, nor we
Speaker 4: would even think about going to the Four Seasons and Nevis.
Speaker 4: And then we would just sit around and chat with
Speaker 4: all these local, local, local cable owners. And these were
Speaker 4: the guys, and I say guys because it was guys.
Speaker 3: It was some exceptions.
Speaker 4: There were families that had matriarchs, that's where maybe the
Speaker 4: money had initiated, but regardless, it was a predominantly male
Speaker 4: room with their wives and children sometimes and they had
Speaker 4: basically it was kind of the way you know sprinted
Speaker 4: all those other things earthed as well. They were basically
Speaker 4: just taking cable and nailing it up, you know, like
Speaker 4: in really kind of a rogue fashion. But they were
Speaker 4: having success, right, and they could feel that it was
Speaker 4: this growing right thing.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: They were charming and.
Speaker 4: It was fun for us, like we all got to
Speaker 4: be with each other because typically we weren't like there
Speaker 4: wasn't inter disciplinary stuff happening, you know, like we weren't
Speaker 4: like intercollegiate, and so we got to be with like
Speaker 4: Lorraine Brocco and Edie.
Speaker 3: And so much fun.
Speaker 4: But all the sopranos casts and r List himself, he
Speaker 4: was there.
Speaker 3: And I think I don't think the Dreamond cast at
Speaker 3: that point was.
Speaker 2: Gone.
Speaker 3: It might have been gone again, but.
Speaker 4: There was somebody else. I want to say, Bill Marnaut,
Speaker 4: Larry Sanders.
Speaker 2: Could have been, could have been some of that.
Speaker 4: Maybe I can't remember how much might have been. Bill
Speaker 4: might have been Bill.
Speaker 3: I think it was Bill Mahr because it wasn't just
Speaker 3: one time, right.
Speaker 1: No, it was multiple times been comedy fest right where
Speaker 1: many people were as well. But like for me, when
Speaker 1: I think about, I mean, we have so many, so
Speaker 1: many gifts have been given to us along the way,
Speaker 1: but that's one of the gifts was that we got
Speaker 1: to kind of have this seat to watch this whole development.
Speaker 2: Of the cable industry.
Speaker 1: Be a big part of it that we never could
Speaker 1: have foreseen. And then also now we're watching it change
Speaker 1: again and we have pivoted again, which I give you
Speaker 1: and Michael Patrick so much credit for, you know, having
Speaker 1: the foresight to say, you know, maybe we could come
Speaker 1: back as a streaming show.
Speaker 2: I mean, thank god, you know, thank god you said that.
Speaker 1: And then we did our films, of course, which I'm
Speaker 1: way ahead of ourselves because we were going to go
Speaker 1: back to the beginning, but I do when I watch
Speaker 1: this Ted Turner, I'm so just inspired and impressed, and
Speaker 1: it's so good to remember that through change you can succeed.
Speaker 1: You just have to dream. You have to dream and
Speaker 1: follow your dreams. You can't get down because it's hard
Speaker 1: not to the.
Speaker 3: Thing that sits around.
Speaker 4: I say that kind of looking back, and I don't
Speaker 4: know that we would have had the words at the
Speaker 4: time to characterize it, but I think now, oh, you know,
Speaker 4: everybody was just kind of doing what they wanted to do,
Speaker 4: and it was an unusual circumstance or scenario.
Speaker 3: Really, We're in a studio and the network were one and.
Speaker 4: The same, and they were just saying, basically, Chris and Carolyn,
Speaker 4: you just go and everybody at HBO, so Eric and
Speaker 4: Courtney and Pleppler and all the people that were on
Speaker 4: the corporate side and marketing and PR strategy, they were
Speaker 4: all saying, you just go do what you do. We
Speaker 4: trust ourselves. It was the ego involved. And I say
Speaker 4: this with admiration, not with condemnation. It was their sense
Speaker 4: of their confidence in their choices that liberated David Chase
Speaker 4: and certainly Darren and then Michael Patrick that they I mean, sure,
Speaker 4: there's notes, there's always notes on a script, and there's
Speaker 4: always issues with money, and there's always budget stuff to
Speaker 4: talk about, but those are to be expected, and you
Speaker 4: want some parenting like you need some parenting. But for
Speaker 4: the most part, it was their own confidence in their
Speaker 4: artistic sensibilities and the same therefore with everything that surrounded it,
Speaker 4: which is what is compelling and makes something grow absolutely,
Speaker 4: and the minute you have to start paying attention to
Speaker 4: outside stuff and you're producing and picking on based on results,
Speaker 4: that's where things are not as interesting. So I feel
Speaker 4: like all of it was happening at the same time
Speaker 4: without them even realizing, Like I wouldn't have said at
Speaker 4: the time, Wow, you're confident people, Wow you really believe
Speaker 4: in your own ideas. Wow, you really trust Therefore, you're
Speaker 4: going to let everybody, basically speaking, just go off and
Speaker 4: make shows that we're not thirty minutes long. They were
Speaker 4: not thirty minutes long. They were thirty two minutes long.
Speaker 4: They were you know, like.
Speaker 2: Twenty eight minutes long.
Speaker 3: Whatever they were, it was right.
Speaker 4: But that is a huge amount of and that's the
Speaker 4: way the company grew, and that's why it was so
Speaker 4: felt revolutionary in terms of its programming. They were the
Speaker 4: first people that said, oh, we're going to program, We're
Speaker 4: going to counter We're going to do you know, counter programming.
Speaker 4: All of our fresh materials going to be on the summer.
Speaker 4: Everyone else is in repeats.
Speaker 3: Right, So what.
Speaker 4: We're going to do is we're going to put on
Speaker 4: programming starting Memorial Day weekend or that. We're going to
Speaker 4: capture those women men whoever they are. They're still here,
Speaker 4: there or elsewhere, and they're thinking they're on holiday, and
Speaker 4: we're going to start giving them information on Sundays at
Speaker 4: nine o'clock. That was not a space that was for
Speaker 4: your family programming.
Speaker 3: Eventionally speaking, that's what the network said.
Speaker 4: Sunday Night was wild Kingdom, Right, You know, like I'm
Speaker 4: going to say little house in the Prairie, but I
Speaker 4: can't be certain.
Speaker 3: But my point is that was like maybe Matt.
Speaker 4: Lot like, you know, like like procedural like and HBO said, no,
Speaker 4: we're gonna make Sunday night dirty, naughty, unpredictable. We're going
Speaker 4: to talk and tell a story about a man named
Speaker 4: Tony Soprano who is kills people, who kills people, and
Speaker 4: you love him, and he's going to go to therapy
Speaker 4: each week, and we're going to sit with him in
Speaker 4: this quiet space.
Speaker 3: They were after us. I want to make sure we
Speaker 3: were first.
Speaker 4: But also we're going to tell a story about these
Speaker 4: particular women in this city at this time, and this
Speaker 4: is how they talk and this is how they But
Speaker 4: they didn't.
Speaker 3: They weren't saying it like that. They were just responding
Speaker 3: to material. Absolutely, they were just pretty took that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I hate the word space now, but that it existed.
Speaker 4: It was a white space literally like they say in retail,
Speaker 4: like there was a white space and was like yes,
Speaker 4: and Chris and everybody and Carolyn, they were like, wait
Speaker 4: a minute, mister Bucus, Yes they so it was. But
Speaker 4: there were a lot of parts and things that had
Speaker 4: to exist for everybody to be able to do it.
Speaker 4: So there was the money, intellectual and the artistic and
Speaker 4: the actual real estate to do it, and they just
Speaker 4: did it and it was like.
Speaker 3: What I know, and amazing that it worked.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but we know what he was thinking that We
Speaker 4: certainly weren't. No, we're just doing trying to.
Speaker 3: Do the best we could, Sarah, Jessica.
Speaker 1: We could talk forever, as you know, So let's take
Speaker 1: a little break here and you guys, we will be
Speaker 1: back for another episode of Are You a Charlotte