Speaker 1: All right, well, I have to start off by saying
Speaker 1: apologies to Ohio, the whole state.
Speaker 2: The whole state.
Speaker 1: You're apologizing to Ohio. I have no idea why. Indy
Speaker 1: has has started a bit and this started like a
Speaker 1: year ago and he has continued it to this morning.
Speaker 1: He was singing about it that Ohio is the worst
Speaker 1: place on the on the planet Earth. What And I
Speaker 1: have no idea, Like as I can't. I've asked him
Speaker 1: so many times, like where does this come from. We
Speaker 1: drove through Ohio with him on our road trip and
Speaker 1: he kept the bit going the whole time and I
Speaker 1: was like, Indy, we're stopping, We're gonna we have a
Speaker 1: we had a great pic nick and he's no, it's
Speaker 1: awful here.
Speaker 3: So and part of me.
Speaker 1: Is like wants to like say, Indy, you gotta stop this.
Speaker 1: This is it, But then the other part of me
Speaker 1: finds it very funny. Yeah, it's like basically the equivalent
Speaker 1: of our Connecticut bit. And it doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 1: I think the only thing I could think of is
Speaker 1: he somewhere you know, you guys know slender Man and
Speaker 1: Last Siren Head. Okay, Well, somewhere along the way he
Speaker 1: decided that all monsters come from Ohio, like all of
Speaker 1: those guys come from Ohio. And when I was like,
Speaker 1: you know, first of all, those things aren't real, and
Speaker 1: the second of all, like, what does this have to
Speaker 1: do with this particular state?
Speaker 3: That doesn't make any sense?
Speaker 1: Now, it's just and he's never caved, He's never like,
Speaker 1: you're right, I'm just joking.
Speaker 3: He keeps the.
Speaker 4: Bit, keeps the going. He's committed.
Speaker 3: He's committed.
Speaker 1: So today he was saying that they wear wooden clothes
Speaker 1: in Ohio, wouldn't let the lastic couches that give you
Speaker 1: a rash, That there's a ninety percent chance of getting
Speaker 1: hit by a car in Ohio.
Speaker 5: Likes it sounds.
Speaker 6: Like he's making up these statistics as he goes along.
Speaker 6: This doesn't seem like this is Wikipedia or something.
Speaker 1: But then he says, did you know it's illegal to
Speaker 1: buy cornflakes on Sunday in Ohio?
Speaker 3: And I'm like, what are you talking about?
Speaker 1: And he's like, look it up, look it up, and
Speaker 1: and sure enough, on one of these like wacky old
Speaker 1: timey law sites, it says it's illegal to buy cornflakes
Speaker 1: on Sunday in Columbus. I then continue, I'm like, this
Speaker 1: cannot be true, and I continue to look it up.
Speaker 1: It isn't true, but it is listed on a series
Speaker 1: of websites. So he's sharing and gaining information about Ohio
Speaker 1: with other kids and YouTube.
Speaker 3: I guess, like the other kids.
Speaker 4: Who are allowed searching the web.
Speaker 1: Well, that's what I'm trying to get out of him.
Speaker 1: I'm like, when are you accent? And when he goes
Speaker 1: to his grandparents' house and I'm like, bo, wait, hold on,
Speaker 1: we have a no YouTube rule, and he's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: but this is safari And I'm like, that's the same
Speaker 1: thing that's your web browser to search for video, which yeah,
Speaker 1: So I don't know. Maybe this is an internet meme
Speaker 1: thing that I don't know about, like.
Speaker 5: The internet is. Because we were just in Ohio and
Speaker 5: it's lovely. Yes, this was the first time in my life.
Speaker 1: This year was the first time I've been to Ohio.
Speaker 1: I have now been to Ohio twice. I drove through
Speaker 1: on our road trip and then we just had an amazing.
Speaker 3: Show and it was awesome.
Speaker 6: So and we're going back in December. We're gonna be
Speaker 6: in Columbus, Ohio in December. Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean also Skyline Chili is from Cincinnati.
Speaker 5: Scinnati is WKRP in Cincinnati.
Speaker 4: Also, Aglamsi's Brothers is some of the best ice cream
Speaker 4: I've ever had in my life is.
Speaker 5: From Cincinnati Brothers.
Speaker 4: Aglamsi's Brothers, and you can order it. I've sent it
Speaker 4: to sou before. You can order it and it ships.
Speaker 4: You can get six pints shipped in dry ice.
Speaker 5: Oh that's the one. They delivered it at the wrong
Speaker 5: time and it was just melted, massive nothing.
Speaker 4: Yeah, lost it a curse. Maybe it.
Speaker 5: Was slender Man.
Speaker 3: Slender Man delivered it.
Speaker 5: Slender Man delivered it. That was the problem. Yeah, we
Speaker 5: opened Sue. It was the nicest gift Soe and.
Speaker 6: I love ice cream. Su especially loves ice cream. And
Speaker 6: Daniel's like, we have the best ice cream. We're sending
Speaker 6: it to you, and then we couldn't find it for
Speaker 6: days and ice cream is like not the kind of
Speaker 6: thing you want to lose for days at a time. No,
Speaker 6: And we finally it gets delivered to our porch and
Speaker 6: it was just even.
Speaker 4: Just it was ice cream. It was an ice cream pool,
Speaker 4: a mini ice cream pool.
Speaker 2: It was sad.
Speaker 5: It was because it was like she just wanted to
Speaker 5: eat it. She's like, do you think you think I
Speaker 5: can eat it?
Speaker 6: I'm like, I don't think the pool of nastiness on
Speaker 6: our front porch is something you should.
Speaker 5: Be eating, babe. Sorry, sorry, crazy.
Speaker 4: Well, I appreciate Indie's commitment to the bit, but I
Speaker 4: think you need to do a little bit more digging
Speaker 4: about where. I think you need to start tracking search histories.
Speaker 1: Well no, I mean I think now he knows that
Speaker 1: we're kind of disappointed in this spit, and we also
Speaker 1: find it funny, but we're also kind of like, maybe
Speaker 1: you shouldn't just trust everything on the internet or listen
Speaker 1: to your friends. I mean, we literally were driving through
Speaker 1: Ohio being like, Indy, what is wrong with And he
Speaker 1: won't he will never.
Speaker 3: Say like, oh it's a joke, Oh it's this. Thank
Speaker 3: he keeps it going.
Speaker 1: And so now, of course, because we keep laughing and
Speaker 1: saying when are you going to stop this?
Speaker 3: I don't think it's ever going to stop.
Speaker 4: For the rest of his life. The rest of his life,
Speaker 4: he's going to have a thing about Ohio. Kids.
Speaker 1: Man, he doesn't even know like that it's a state,
Speaker 1: you know, Like he'll be like, wait, wait is that
Speaker 1: a city.
Speaker 5: I'm like, no, no, whole state. Do you know who
Speaker 5: you're making exactly? And least know?
Speaker 4: Oh, Indy, Well, welcome to Pod meets not Ohio. I'm
Speaker 4: Danielle Fischel.
Speaker 5: I'm Right or Strong, and I'm will Fordell.
Speaker 4: Today we have a very special guest. In keeping with
Speaker 4: our parents of Boy meets World tradition, Will Fredell has
Speaker 4: somebody to introduce us to.
Speaker 6: I do all right, So here we go. So we're
Speaker 6: all doing our own intros. I'm back here in Connecticut.
Speaker 4: In your childhood bedroom, in my childhood.
Speaker 6: Bedroom, which makes it for RO ninety two sticker the
Speaker 6: craziest perh ninety two. Of course, I got all my stuff,
Speaker 6: So here we go. I'm going to try to get
Speaker 6: through this. Okay, as I once again sit here in
Speaker 6: my childhood bedroom in Connecticut, surrounded by the same posters, hats,
Speaker 6: and hockey sticks that have hung on my wall since
Speaker 6: I was a kid, I've racked my brain to come
Speaker 6: up with the perfect way to begin this introduction. I
Speaker 6: wanted to start with a quote about parents. I tried
Speaker 6: to channel my best right or Strong and search for
Speaker 6: something by Shakespeare or Chaucer. I looked for words from
Speaker 6: Nietzsche or maybe even whoever the hell David Hume is. Sorry,
Speaker 6: that's a Podmeats World Live joke, and if you'd like
Speaker 6: to hear more obscure Scottish philosopher jokes, go to Podmeats
Speaker 6: Worldshow dot com for all of our upcoming tour dates.
Speaker 6: At the end of the day, the quote that I
Speaker 6: thought summed it up better for me than any of
Speaker 6: the others was said by legendary basketball player Kobe Bryant,
Speaker 6: who said, quite simply, my parents are my backbone, still are.
Speaker 6: They're the only group that will support you if you
Speaker 6: score zero or you score forty. Thanks Kobe, and may
Speaker 6: you rest in peace. This was the perfect quote for me,
Speaker 6: because as amazing as you all are, dear listeners, I
Speaker 6: will never have fans that are more proud, dedicated, or
Speaker 6: supportive of me as my parents.
Speaker 5: The three of us all feel that way about our parents.
Speaker 6: We as listeners, loved hearing about how Jennifer Fishel would
Speaker 6: stay up until all hours of the night, crimping young
Speaker 6: Danielle's hair while running lines with her so she could
Speaker 6: walk onto the set the next morning ready to be
Speaker 6: that wonderfully weird and nurturing girl that was Topanga we
Speaker 6: were amazed when Lenny king Strong told us they didn't
Speaker 6: know where Ryder got his talent, then spent the next
Speaker 6: twenty minutes talking about all the movies that they would
Speaker 6: star in and shoot at redwood Shire, dressing up in
Speaker 6: funny costumes so their two young boys could run around
Speaker 6: the majestic Redwoods pretending to be heroes, villains, monsters or magicians. Well,
Speaker 6: now it's my turn, and thus we will learn the
Speaker 6: origin story of super fil Free, or more accurately, about
Speaker 6: the two people whose absolute and unwavering love helped to
Speaker 6: turn me into the man I am today. Unfortunately, my mother,
Speaker 6: Patricia's under the weather and won't be able to join us,
Speaker 6: but she did ask me to relay a message to
Speaker 6: all of you listening. Tell him I'm gorgeous and incredibly smart.
Speaker 6: She said it with the same dry witch she's always had.
Speaker 6: But she's right, she is gorgeous and incredibly smart. She
Speaker 6: went to Simmons College in Yukon undergrad and then Yukon Law, where,
Speaker 6: in a starting class of eighty one, she was one
Speaker 6: of only three women still left standing when by the
Speaker 6: end of the course half of the class had dropped out.
Speaker 6: She immediately went to work for the court and eventually
Speaker 6: rose to the rank of Executive Assistant to the Chief
Speaker 6: Justice of the Supreme Court, and was then promoted to
Speaker 6: Chief Administrative Officer for the Supreme and Appellate Courts in
Speaker 6: the state of Connecticut. When she finally retired, she wrote
Speaker 6: and published three historical fiction ya novels with her sister,
Speaker 6: my aunt Janette, about a circle of young friends who
Speaker 6: find themselves pivotal to the events around the birth of
Speaker 6: our nation, and did all this while raising three sons
Speaker 6: and a husband and being there for us whenever we
Speaker 6: needed her. So representing the Frudell parents today will be
Speaker 6: my father Gary. Though few call him that, most call
Speaker 6: him Attorney Fredell or Captain. I will say that he
Speaker 6: is the perfect person to represent my parents because of
Speaker 6: how much he loves people and loves to talk. When
Speaker 6: I asked him to do this, my mom said he
Speaker 6: would be wonderful. But she hopes we're doing forty episodes
Speaker 6: with him so he can tell all the stories that
Speaker 6: he wants to. Born in nineteen thirty nine in Flushing,
Speaker 6: New York, he spent his early years on Long Island,
Speaker 6: where Gary Fridell is only the second person I've ever
Speaker 6: met my life other than my beautiful wife, Susan, who.
Speaker 5: Absolutely loved high school.
Speaker 6: He was the class president, played soccer, and generally was
Speaker 6: the popular kid in college, first at Saint Lawrence, then
Speaker 6: at Colgate. He found his first found the first love
Speaker 6: of his life, the military, and joined the Army ROTC.
Speaker 6: When he transferred to Colgate, he was cruited by the
Speaker 6: Air Force and switched briefly to Air Force ROTC. After college,
Speaker 6: he was accepted at Yukon Law School, where he met
Speaker 6: the true love of his life, my mom, Patricia, and
Speaker 6: his military dreams were briefly put on hold while he
Speaker 6: finished law school, got married and started a private practice
Speaker 6: in New Britain, Connecticut. Once he'd established himself as a husband, father,
Speaker 6: and lawyer, the military once again came calling, and he
Speaker 6: was recruited by the Judge Advocate General or JAG Corps
Speaker 6: in the United States Navy Reserve. You know that show
Speaker 6: JAG where the guy's lawyer but also runs around flying planes,
Speaker 6: shooting guns and saving people. Yeah, my dad didn't do
Speaker 6: any of that, except for the saving people part that
Speaker 6: he did all the time. Legally speaking, of course, as
Speaker 6: a young boy, I spent many a weekend running around
Speaker 6: the submarine base at Groton, Connecticut, all the time marveling
Speaker 6: that people were saluting my father everywhere he walked. When
Speaker 6: I were to remark about how cool that was, he
Speaker 6: was always the first to remind me that they weren't
Speaker 6: saluting him but the rank. It was never about him
Speaker 6: but the country. He served during the First Golf War.
Speaker 6: He was sent to Italy to help with the legal
Speaker 6: aspects of the war, and eventually retired to captain the
Speaker 6: Navy after thirty years of service. The Navy, though, is
Speaker 6: the only thing he's retired from. As a matter of fact,
Speaker 6: twenty twenty four would be my parents' sixtieth wedding anniversary,
Speaker 6: as well as the sixtieth anniversary of him as a practicing.
Speaker 5: Lawyer at the age of eighty four.
Speaker 6: He still goes to work every day, seize his clients,
Speaker 6: and takes new cases.
Speaker 5: He is, to say the least, a tough act to follow.
Speaker 6: Like my mother, He's managed to walk and blaze an
Speaker 6: incredible trail all while being the best and most engage
Speaker 6: parents my brothers and I could ever have hoped for.
Speaker 6: I often tell people that I was blessed before I
Speaker 6: was ever born and all the rest is just a
Speaker 6: wonderful bonus with no insult intended to my mother. My
Speaker 6: father is, with no shadow of doubt, my biggest fan
Speaker 6: to this day. I can't go anywhere with him without
Speaker 6: him asking everyone who meets whether they've seen Boy Meets World,
Speaker 6: my date with the President's daughter, or if they listen
Speaker 6: to this podcast. Some call him Gary, most call him Attorney.
Speaker 6: I call him simply pop. So, dear listeners, with no
Speaker 6: further guilding of the lily, nor any more ado, I
Speaker 6: give you my father, Gary Furdell.
Speaker 5: Now I've got to text him, come up.
Speaker 4: Hello, How you doing, Captain?
Speaker 2: I am doing fine.
Speaker 4: Thank you, good to see you again.
Speaker 2: It's good to see you guys too, And will say
Speaker 2: you're coming to Connecticut next year. Be sure you're seeing
Speaker 2: all of you again.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, we're excited to go back to Connecticut and
Speaker 4: see all the things. Will speak so highly of.
Speaker 5: Thank you.
Speaker 6: It's an on, running, on running joke between these two
Speaker 6: here that Connecticut is Yes, now you've got to face
Speaker 6: the piper.
Speaker 4: Oh dare you?
Speaker 6: That Connecticut is a little backwards, and that we tend
Speaker 6: to ride ride horses and buggies and churn on and
Speaker 6: butter and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2: That's true, stuck in the nineties.
Speaker 4: Well, I we did. We did say that there was
Speaker 4: once a breaking news report that there were four cows
Speaker 4: on the highway. Do you remember that, Will?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 5: And it was true, wasn't it. That was actually a
Speaker 5: breaking news report in Connecticut.
Speaker 2: Yes, four Connecticut.
Speaker 6: Yes, there were four cows loose on the highways, breaking news.
Speaker 5: Breaking news, it was.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, because that's kind of unusual to have four
Speaker 2: cows on the highway.
Speaker 6: Yeah, it's usually only two. With four cows, you can
Speaker 6: use the express lane, which is nice.
Speaker 4: So I want to start with a very hard hitting question.
Speaker 4: Do people often call you Attorney Gary Friedel?
Speaker 2: Yes? Yeah, the the very few people ever pronounced the
Speaker 2: name correctly, and it's stale mole because how do you
Speaker 2: get tell out of dlle right?
Speaker 4: Right?
Speaker 2: So yes's that happens more often than not.
Speaker 5: Well, half of our family are the Freedles.
Speaker 2: Yes, I mean the family reunion in our Hey, I'm
Speaker 2: Bruce Friedel.
Speaker 4: Who what really if your family says it freed that's
Speaker 4: not a joke.
Speaker 2: No, that's true. The brothers divided on how to pronounce
Speaker 2: the name and when we had our first family reunion.
Speaker 2: I was twenty eight years old and was introduced to
Speaker 2: my cousin and I said, oh, Bruce Gary Fredell, Hey,
Speaker 2: Bruce Friedel, and I just kind of stared at him,
Speaker 2: and half of them pronounced the name Friedel and the
Speaker 2: other half.
Speaker 1: Is So you could have at that moment just decided
Speaker 1: to change the pronunciation, right. It made it easier for everybody,
Speaker 1: just gone.
Speaker 2: With, I don't like Freedel. Isn't that funny?
Speaker 1: You get hooked on your own. Yes, this is in
Speaker 1: my wife's family. They're the Burrettos, and there's a lot
Speaker 1: of Retto's in the world, but they all spell it differently,
Speaker 1: so sometimes it's two rs to teas, two rs and
Speaker 1: to Te's and it's a huge debate, like, and everyone's
Speaker 1: stuck on the way they spell it.
Speaker 3: It's so funny.
Speaker 6: Yep, we're the Fredell's. They're the Freedoles in your family,
Speaker 6: in the same family.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 3: Amazing.
Speaker 4: So, Captain, what was raising a young Wilfredell like? Was
Speaker 4: he always this naturally funny?
Speaker 2: Yes, truthfully, even from when he was very very young,
Speaker 2: he has the ability to make people laugh. And he
Speaker 2: was a very easy child to raise. Actually very well tempered,
Speaker 2: good demeanor. Yeah.
Speaker 4: Do you think maybe it's because at eleven years old
Speaker 4: he decided he was just going to wander the streets
Speaker 4: of New York.
Speaker 2: Oh that. Of course, we found it out later that
Speaker 2: he wasn't always accompanied as at the bus stop, I'm
Speaker 2: was supposed to, and he didn't tell us that because
Speaker 2: the arrangement was very clear. The bus driver watched him,
Speaker 2: he would get off the bush what was the name
Speaker 2: of that place, port authority, port authority, and the agent
Speaker 2: would meet him as he stepped off the bus. That
Speaker 2: was the plan, and it always go that way. I
Speaker 2: still don't know how the percentage of how it was.
Speaker 6: I would say it was it was probably seventy percent
Speaker 6: of the time he met me at the bus or
Speaker 6: somebody from the agency.
Speaker 5: Oh that's okay, yeah, And so this is.
Speaker 1: Your acting agent that you have that's in New York, right, correct?
Speaker 1: So how did you get that agent in the first place?
Speaker 1: How did you guys get Will into all of this?
Speaker 2: Actually he had a third grade teacher who had a
Speaker 2: contact at the Hartford stage and apparently said to the contact, Oh,
Speaker 2: this this cute little kid in my class, and if
Speaker 2: you're ever doing a play involving children, you might want
Speaker 2: to consider him. And then they were going to do
Speaker 2: Ibsen's a Dollhouse. And we got a call and I
Speaker 2: remember it because it was one of the weekends that
Speaker 2: I was supposed to go away with the Navy on
Speaker 2: a slow the flag cruise up the coast, and I said, no,
Speaker 2: we'll go to this thing. And we go and is
Speaker 2: what we now know, of course, was a cattle call.
Speaker 2: We walked in and there were eight million kids there
Speaker 2: and laughing and running around. He said, oh my god.
Speaker 2: Well he goes and he comes out, he says, oh,
Speaker 2: this was fun. We left and that was it. And
Speaker 2: it was the next day or a couple of days
Speaker 2: thereafter we had got a call that they had selected
Speaker 2: him as to be one of the three kids in
Speaker 2: the play, and of course we were dumbfounded and watched.
Speaker 2: Then he went into the auditions, and his mother and
Speaker 2: I went to the first night, were soaking wet as
Speaker 2: was sitting there watching and with sweat. He comes out
Speaker 2: as if he's sitting in our living room with Mary McDonald.
Speaker 6: Uh and David Aaron, Mary McDonald, Jerry Bamman. It was
Speaker 6: Mark Lamos was the artistic director, but actually acted in
Speaker 6: the play as well.
Speaker 3: Wow, it was one of those.
Speaker 6: And I still to this day have never seen the
Speaker 6: end because if I had to be home before, so
Speaker 6: I left halfway through the play and never got to
Speaker 6: see how it ended. It's ibsen, though I've always said,
Speaker 6: I'm sure it ended well and it was happy and
Speaker 6: it was wonderful.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that was That was it? And then how did
Speaker 5: how did we get from there to meet to finding
Speaker 5: the places in New York?
Speaker 2: He debug bit him, and he made it very clear, repeatedly,
Speaker 2: very clear, I want to go into acting. Sure, sure, honey, sure,
Speaker 2: And I placated him for some period of time, and
Speaker 2: as it turned out, he never gave up to his credit.
Speaker 2: And one of the guys working in my law firm,
Speaker 2: he was our billing clerk, I think, was an amateur thespian,
Speaker 2: and he said, I know an agent in New York
Speaker 2: if you're interested. Another client, slash Navy colleague, was a photographer,
Speaker 2: a Navy photographer. He did his first head shots. So
Speaker 2: I think it was August of nineteen eighty eight when
Speaker 2: we sent down the pictures and I said, okay, well
Speaker 2: I've sent everything down. There's nothing more. Dad can do
Speaker 2: at this point nothing. Six or seven months later, as
Speaker 2: normally I was in the office late, the phone rings
Speaker 2: and he says, mister Ferdell, yes, mister Goles Goal from
Speaker 2: New York. I drew a blank. He could tell it
Speaker 2: because like, who is this go start talent? Oh, yes, yes,
Speaker 2: we're looking at the headshots now and we really you know,
Speaker 2: we're interested. We'd like to see them. And I thought, oh, okay,
Speaker 2: we made arrangements to go down there. We walk in
Speaker 2: and there's a room that's tiny, little place run by
Speaker 2: the man and his son. Yep. So they come out
Speaker 2: and they get him and I hear laughing and everything else.
Speaker 2: The kid walks out. They say, a kid the sun
Speaker 2: was probably twenty twenty one years old, comes out and
Speaker 2: he says, we want them. And I said, oh my god.
Speaker 2: Now my immediate thought, I will tell you bluntly is okay.
Speaker 2: Now here it comes and I said, and what do
Speaker 2: you want is fees? Miss? Oh no, we don't have
Speaker 2: any fees. We work solely on commission. I should fine.
Speaker 2: We signed up. Within ninety days, he got a CBS
Speaker 2: commercial for kids. Then he went on to Skittles and
Speaker 2: Nico nickelode and then he was on this don't just
Speaker 2: sit there program and it just escalated from there. But
Speaker 2: he was I think he wore a pumpkin or something.
Speaker 2: In the third grader, you were just some kind of
Speaker 2: play and that's where the teacher.
Speaker 6: Yeah, no, I was the first. I was the first
Speaker 6: performance I did for third grade. It was the one
Speaker 6: that Indy did. We were both the scarecrow in Wizard
Speaker 6: of Oz. And then we did a play called Kids,
Speaker 6: which was a musical in the fourth grade. And that's
Speaker 6: when I realized I couldn't sing, so I dropped the
Speaker 6: singing part and was just acting from there. But yeah,
Speaker 6: it was. It was a whirlwind. It happened very quickly.
Speaker 6: And you guys, I mean you saw the Kids and
Speaker 6: Guns commercial, the first one I did.
Speaker 5: You saw my lean acting. You saw you stood out,
Speaker 5: a real natural nice I stood well, I stood crook
Speaker 5: it out. So yes, it was we saw where I
Speaker 5: was going right away with that lean acting.
Speaker 4: Well, I want to go back really briefly. You mentioned
Speaker 4: that you have three sons. One is involved investment banking,
Speaker 4: the other followed your footsteps into law. And then there's
Speaker 4: Will the consummate entertainer.
Speaker 2: Yes he did, and you're talking about Greg. Greg became
Speaker 2: a paralegal, but he's also a filmmaker. He made the
Speaker 2: film Fake that he wrote and directed and one awards
Speaker 2: for that, and then the next year he directed another
Speaker 2: film in Bridgeport, Connecticut that won first prize in the
Speaker 2: Manhattan Film Festival the following year.
Speaker 4: Well, where do you think their artistic side came from?
Speaker 5: Not from me, are you kidding? Of course, it's from you.
Speaker 5: It's from you and Pop.
Speaker 6: So my grandfather, Pop, he was the first person who
Speaker 6: ever did character.
Speaker 5: Voices for me.
Speaker 2: Oh, he would.
Speaker 6: He would put me into bed at night and he
Speaker 6: would do cartoon voices. And then my dad, who says
Speaker 6: he's not an entertainer, would stand up in front of
Speaker 6: a jury and he would entertain and you would. So
Speaker 6: everywhere we were, there's times he reminded me of Bill
Speaker 6: Daniels and that when Bill said to us, an entertainer
Speaker 6: entertains wherever they are. If you want to act, you act.
Speaker 6: That was my dad, and my dad would do it
Speaker 6: to embarrass us a lot of times. But so you know,
Speaker 6: I remember one time in the midd We're at an
Speaker 6: ice cream shop, you know, an ice cream shop in Massachusetts,
Speaker 6: and I'm probably seven or eight, and so my brothers
Speaker 6: are teenage years, the prime prime time to be embarrassed.
Speaker 6: And there's a whole group of young kids around, young
Speaker 6: girls around, and so my dad starts moonwalking through them
Speaker 6: while pointing at my brothers and be in the cool guy.
Speaker 5: I mean, that was my dad.
Speaker 6: So he says, he doesn't know where I got my entertainment,
Speaker 6: but I think you, had you gone a different route
Speaker 6: in your life, there's a very real possibility you could
Speaker 6: have been an entertainer.
Speaker 2: I don't know. I mean I do like I did
Speaker 2: enjoy court room work and acting before, you know, with
Speaker 2: jury presenting ideas and things like that.
Speaker 5: So maybe that's what I would say.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Well, one of the things that we have tried to
Speaker 4: disagree about with Will about his own life. But I
Speaker 4: feel like you're the perfect person to answer this. I'm
Speaker 4: going to consider you the expert. Will claims no girls
Speaker 4: liked him before he became famous, and we just find
Speaker 4: that very hard to believe because he was always a
Speaker 4: very good looking, charismatic kid. Did Will have girlfriends before
Speaker 4: he became famous?
Speaker 2: Well, friends is not really he had. I don't think
Speaker 2: he dated a lot. He's often says that that I
Speaker 2: wasn't aware that they didn't like him, but he really
Speaker 2: didn't have a girlfriend per se.
Speaker 4: All Right, I mean, I guess you believe me yet,
Speaker 4: I mean I guess so. I did say I was
Speaker 4: going to consider your dad to be the expert.
Speaker 1: But were you ever now so once the agents were
Speaker 1: calling and signing up, were you ever worried about what
Speaker 1: the entertainment industry might might do to young Will?
Speaker 2: Yes? Extremely so. We yeah had a lot of misgivings.
Speaker 2: As a matter of fact, one of the things that
Speaker 2: we said when he started getting interested in it was Okay,
Speaker 2: you can go to New York one day a week.
Speaker 2: We are not going to become stage parents. My wife
Speaker 2: went down a few times with him and said every
Speaker 2: single afternoon this people would be there. They'd come in
Speaker 2: from Pennsylvania for the auditions with their kids, five days
Speaker 2: a week. We said, we're not going to do that.
Speaker 2: You can go once a week. Also, the most important
Speaker 2: thing is we told him the minute you stop liking this, quit,
Speaker 2: I don't care at what stage you are. Life is
Speaker 2: too sure. And with that in mind, we really did
Speaker 2: hold to it. With one interesting exception. I can remember.
Speaker 2: It was a show called True Blue and Christopher Mitcham,
Speaker 2: Bob Mitcham's son was starring in it, and they needed
Speaker 2: a kid of Will's age. And the phone rang. It
Speaker 2: was like a He'd already been to the city that week,
Speaker 2: and it was the second phone call. I said, mister gold,
Speaker 2: you know the rule. He said, Listen, they called. They
Speaker 2: really need somebody. I think he's got a real shot
Speaker 2: at getting this role. And it's an NBC national television program. Okay, Will,
Speaker 2: we're going to go to New York. Well, he actually
Speaker 2: starts crying, I'm tired, Daddy, I don't want to go
Speaker 2: to New York again. Okay, here's what we'll do. I'm
Speaker 2: going to put your blanket and the pillow in the
Speaker 2: back seat of the car and we will drive you
Speaker 2: to the city and you can sleep. Oh okay, So
Speaker 2: we do that. We get about twenty minutes outside of
Speaker 2: New York City and I say, will you better read
Speaker 2: the script? Now you have a looked at it. So
Speaker 2: it comes into the front seat, which, of course today
Speaker 2: you get arrested for doing.
Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly. You climb from the back seat into the.
Speaker 2: Fuse literally paging through and I'm kind of glancing peripherally saying,
Speaker 2: oh my god. So he closes it. Did you learn
Speaker 2: your lines? I memorized everybody's lines, Dad, I said what
Speaker 2: he had. He had memorized the entire script that he read.
Speaker 2: So we go down for the interview. He gets it,
Speaker 2: and that was also interesting because he's a kid. We
Speaker 2: go on the set, it's like seven point thirty in
Speaker 2: the morning, and about seven o'clock at night, they come
Speaker 2: to us and say, oh, an hour or so, we're
Speaker 2: going to get to you. And I said, no, you're not.
Speaker 2: You've already violated New York state law. You are holding
Speaker 2: a child more than beyond the allowable time. We are leaving.
Speaker 2: You can't leave, I said, we are leaving. You have
Speaker 2: a choice. You can put us up at a hotel
Speaker 2: and we'll be back tomorrow, or we're going home. Well,
Speaker 2: of course, they put us up at a suite in
Speaker 2: the Mayflower. So the next and then we go back
Speaker 2: and one of the guys comes over and he says, wow, congratulation.
Speaker 2: Nobody ever does that. He said, they call these kids
Speaker 2: here all the time. You're the first parent that's ever
Speaker 2: spoken up.
Speaker 3: That's great. Good for you.
Speaker 2: Yeah. And then the same show he's supposed to roll
Speaker 2: off a cliff and be caught by somebody down eight
Speaker 2: or nine feet. Is that okay with you, mister Fradell,
Speaker 2: I said, absolutely not. That's what you have doubles for.
Speaker 2: So a double did it. But it was we had
Speaker 2: some interesting experiences. I mean, there's a big I remember this,
Speaker 2: the big, heavy, big guy. They sent over the big
Speaker 2: gun to say, you've got to stay here. I said, no, no, no,
Speaker 2: familiar with the law, We're not staying here. And that's
Speaker 2: scared of them enough so that we left. But this
Speaker 2: was just oh another time. I'm getting ready for a trial.
Speaker 2: It's like a two day afternoon and the phone rings.
Speaker 2: They want Will in Los Angeles on Thursday. I said,
Speaker 2: mister gold, I'm starting a trial. I don't know that
Speaker 2: I can do it. I said, let me get back
Speaker 2: to you. So I called the other lawyer explain to oh, god,
Speaker 2: that's great, Gary, go for it. So I get on
Speaker 2: the phone with a judge. Tell the judge, Oh, that's fantastic, Yeah,
Speaker 2: go ahead, we'll continue the trial. So the next day
Speaker 2: we're on the plane to Los Angeles and that I
Speaker 2: don't think that was the time you got it.
Speaker 6: No, that was the that was I think almost home.
Speaker 6: That was when we first met Jason. Remember the first
Speaker 6: time we met Jason. Because you got to meet Perry
Speaker 6: King from Riptide.
Speaker 3: Is because you auditioned for this role.
Speaker 5: Corraow.
Speaker 2: Course I couldn't help. But when I saw some of
Speaker 2: these people I recognized from television, I would want to
Speaker 2: talk to him. Dad, don't do that, you know. And
Speaker 2: I remember this the Riptide guy. I said, I so
Speaker 2: enjoyed your show, and he said, we started. He started
Speaker 2: telling us all about it. You know, the days were
Speaker 2: fourteen sixteen hours long and we but we really enjoyed it.
Speaker 2: I mean, all these people, Richard Pryor at the Big
Speaker 2: Boy in Burbank. Oh, don't say anything to him, Dad,
Speaker 2: mister Pryor, I just want to thank you for so
Speaker 2: many years of pleasure and entertainment. Oh, thank you so much.
Speaker 2: He got up and shook my hand. I mean another one.
Speaker 2: It's mister Daniels, mister Feenie, who was one of my favorites.
Speaker 2: He'd walk up to me, mister Fredell, it's so nice
Speaker 2: to see you again.
Speaker 4: Oh.
Speaker 2: Will reminds me so much of myself when I was
Speaker 2: his age. And I said, mister Daniels, thank you so much,
Speaker 2: You've done so much for my son, and you know.
Speaker 2: Then he would smile and we chat for five minutes
Speaker 2: and he turn and retreat to his dressing room. Yeah,
Speaker 2: there's been a lot of fun experiences. When you guys
Speaker 2: were doing a show, My wife and I would usually
Speaker 2: try to out for the opening show and the closing one.
Speaker 4: Okay, good. Yeah.
Speaker 2: One of them, if you remember, was a scene where
Speaker 2: you guys were sitting around at least Will was at
Speaker 2: the table and they were gambling something like that, and
Speaker 2: he was eating pretzels.
Speaker 5: Oh, it's the episode we just saw.
Speaker 4: We just watched it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they cut and a group of girls in the
Speaker 2: audience cried out, Will, we love how you chew? He
Speaker 2: heard it. He spits out the pretzels that he's chewing.
Speaker 2: His mother and I are hysterical. We're just seeing there,
Speaker 2: we love how you chew.
Speaker 4: From being a big old ugo who nobody liked as
Speaker 4: a kid to all of a sudden can't even choot
Speaker 4: pretzels without being fond over.
Speaker 6: He doesn't even mean who knows what that means?
Speaker 2: We love? I forgot about that. And then the one
Speaker 2: another one when the scene when he's sitting on the
Speaker 2: couch and his father, Rusty comes out. The first take
Speaker 2: is Eric, get your ass off the couch and go
Speaker 2: get a job. I said to my wife, Jacobs will
Speaker 2: never let that go. Second take, Eric, get your butt
Speaker 2: off the couch and go. I said to r He's
Speaker 2: not gonna like that either. Third take, Eric, get off
Speaker 2: that couch and go get a job. And that gave
Speaker 2: us getting back to one of your earlier questions. When
Speaker 2: we first met with Jacobs, he assured us you do
Speaker 2: not have to worry about anything that is going to
Speaker 2: take place on this set. And I have to admit
Speaker 2: everything we saw, I had more people come in and
Speaker 2: say to me, you know, we could sit there with
Speaker 2: our children, our daughters, our sons, seven eight nine year
Speaker 2: old kids that never have to worry about what we
Speaker 2: were going to see, which doesn't exist anymore. Yeah, and
Speaker 2: it's it was. It was a refreshing thing to watch
Speaker 2: a truly well done family show. But and I admit
Speaker 2: I would never prejudice at all. It was completely unbind.
Speaker 4: Of course, so as Will would start booking more and
Speaker 4: more jobs, were you looking at every single one of
Speaker 4: his contracts for him?
Speaker 2: Of course? Still does I still do? Yep, yes, we
Speaker 2: just put part I think it's called Middle Part Productions.
Speaker 4: You're absolutely right. We've got our own little production company that.
Speaker 5: There still does. Look at everything that I do.
Speaker 6: I get again, when you've got a brother in finance
Speaker 6: and two parents that are lawyers, you are set up
Speaker 6: for a nice base when you're going into the acting industry,
Speaker 6: that's for sure.
Speaker 4: Well Will also mentioned that you once called Michael Jacobs
Speaker 4: because you were concerned his role was going to be dwindling.
Speaker 4: What do you remember about that conversation and do you
Speaker 4: remember the circumstance? What what made you concerned?
Speaker 2: Okay, I I think I call the agent, not Jacobs.
Speaker 2: But yeah, if you guys remember the trio that came
Speaker 2: on in I think the second season. Yeah, I found
Speaker 2: them very interested and no in a good way, A
Speaker 2: feeling a bad feeling that they could very well eclipse
Speaker 2: somebody like the older brother in this series. And what
Speaker 2: I saw, we wait, I waited a while, was a
Speaker 2: couple times he was on camera for ten seconds for
Speaker 2: the whole thing, you know, zoom in for a family shot.
Speaker 2: So I called the agent, I said, what's going on here?
Speaker 2: I said, he was almost not on for most of
Speaker 2: this The last three shows and they looked into it.
Speaker 2: Whether I don't know what happened. Unfortunately, I had this
Speaker 2: feeling that he could overpower Will's a character. Yeah, but
Speaker 2: that didn't happen.
Speaker 6: This is again I did not hear about this until
Speaker 6: years later. Where I called the guy was like, you
Speaker 6: actually called my agent? Yes, because you did you know
Speaker 6: the episode? He told me that that was the final
Speaker 6: straw was It's the one where Corey's making the video
Speaker 6: and Eric finally it says like you know, I'm the
Speaker 6: I'm the guy for you and I'm I you know,
Speaker 6: he's being interviewed. He's later gals on the couch and
Speaker 6: that was the only I had like three lines in
Speaker 6: the episode.
Speaker 5: And that was the final straw for my dad.
Speaker 6: So from from not being a stage parent to picking
Speaker 6: up the phone and calling my agent like that.
Speaker 5: So yeah, certainly an interesting transition.
Speaker 2: Well there's one other one that that Will might remember,
Speaker 2: and this one still shakes me up. I was homesick
Speaker 2: and it was before well before boy the phone rings
Speaker 2: and it's the agent. There's an opening I think he
Speaker 2: can go on saved by the bill, which I said,
Speaker 2: what's saved by the bell. It's it's blah blah blah program,
Speaker 2: a national program. Yes, but I don't recommend it. Why
Speaker 2: and I don't I don't specifically recall his reason.
Speaker 5: Oh I do. It was the money.
Speaker 3: Money.
Speaker 5: It was that it was money.
Speaker 6: Yeah, the money was so low that you got now
Speaker 6: again I did. I was not privy to any of this.
Speaker 6: The money was so low that it would actually have
Speaker 6: cost me money to.
Speaker 5: Live in La to do. It was paid by the Bell,
Speaker 5: the New Class.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they weren't on a network, right, they were. They
Speaker 1: were like an independent studio. I just remember because they
Speaker 1: figured out some way that it was it was an
Speaker 1: after contract.
Speaker 3: It was not a sad contract. I think.
Speaker 1: Really there was a different unions and they somehow managed
Speaker 1: because it was like children's programing or.
Speaker 4: Something, Saturday morning program Saturday mornings.
Speaker 1: They paid so much less than like a network television show.
Speaker 1: But then they it was still a nationally aired show,
Speaker 1: so it was like you'd get the exposure. But yeah,
Speaker 1: there was not as much money. And say about the Bell,
Speaker 1: I remember that well.
Speaker 2: But what concerns me was saying no. And of course
Speaker 2: I said no without consulting him, and I'm thinking, wow,
Speaker 2: what if I'm wrong? But the agent had said, no,
Speaker 2: I really feel he's going to get something, and I
Speaker 2: thought memory serves me correctly. It's less than two months
Speaker 2: later when the call came for Boy and we flew out.
Speaker 6: I was pissed, though, when you finally told me, I
Speaker 6: was pissed because it was saved by the Bell the
Speaker 6: New Class. I was a saved by the Bell fan.
Speaker 6: You know obviously big James Vanderbeek guy always have been.
Speaker 4: Course, we love James Vanderbeek.
Speaker 6: Saved by the Bell and so he.
Speaker 5: When they finally told me and you, I remember you.
Speaker 6: I think probably wanted to keep it a secret for me,
Speaker 6: but you are very bad at keeping secrets, and you
Speaker 6: felt guilty. So you, you and Steve sat me down.
Speaker 6: My who's my agent? Sat me down and told me
Speaker 6: we turned down saved by the Bell the New Class,
Speaker 6: And I what it was.
Speaker 5: All I wanted to be was on a sitcom. I
Speaker 5: was a huge saved by the Bell fan. How could
Speaker 5: you do this? And then like two months later I
Speaker 5: got Boy? Yeah?
Speaker 2: So wow?
Speaker 4: And had you been on Saved by the Bell the
Speaker 4: New Class, you wouldn't have been available for Boy Me's world.
Speaker 4: Just so, our dear listeners, understand that he would have
Speaker 4: been contractually obligated to save by the Bell the New Class,
Speaker 4: and you wouldn't have even been able to audition for Boy.
Speaker 5: Correct and the Bell.
Speaker 1: The New Class did not last long, right, that was
Speaker 1: I don't think two seasons, Max.
Speaker 5: Yeah, Saved by the Bell. The New Class only went
Speaker 5: a season or two.
Speaker 4: I think, I yeah, wow, Well, there's no doubt that
Speaker 4: was the right decision. But at the time, I can
Speaker 4: see why you would have been upset.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, well it was scared because I said, what
Speaker 2: if I made the right decision, I'm talking about his career.
Speaker 2: This is a national program. But then again, this is
Speaker 2: what we had an agent for. And I do believe
Speaker 2: in listening to the professionals, you know, because what you
Speaker 2: have them for. Right, he felt very confident. I don't
Speaker 2: really feel you should accept this, But he wouldn't have
Speaker 2: if we said, yes, oh yeah, if you.
Speaker 3: Left it up to him.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yep.
Speaker 1: So we talked about your you know, fears that he
Speaker 1: was going to get written off the show.
Speaker 3: Yeah, clearly that did not happen. In fact, the opposite happened.
Speaker 1: Will became sort of a show unto himself with enjoy
Speaker 1: Mitsworld What was that like for you to see as
Speaker 1: the show went on and his part get bigger and bigger,
Speaker 1: and you know, frankly, he got funnier too. As an actor,
Speaker 1: he got better and better. How was that for you?
Speaker 2: Well, first of all, you all did the show. The
Speaker 2: show got better, You all got better if you watched
Speaker 2: from the viewpoint of an adult, and then particularly from
Speaker 2: a family member of one of you. Guys, We just
Speaker 2: watched as you all developed, and the show just got
Speaker 2: better and better and better. And yeah, I was very
Speaker 2: proud because I had, whether they mentioned or not, I
Speaker 2: can't tell you the number of clients I had come
Speaker 2: into my office and said, we watched that program because
Speaker 2: of your son, Funny And yeah, I mean you guys,
Speaker 2: I said a long time ago. And Will disagree with me.
Speaker 2: I said, you have created a cult. You wait and see. No, Dad, No,
Speaker 2: I'm telling you. The people who have come in and
Speaker 2: talked to me about it, did you. This is a
Speaker 2: cult in the making. And I think I've turned out
Speaker 2: to be right.
Speaker 4: It is you were, but a wonderful cult.
Speaker 5: Yeah, the good the good kind, the good kind. Yeah,
Speaker 5: good healthy family what.
Speaker 4: This healthy family cult? Exactly? So Will is living let's
Speaker 4: say Will gets the Boy meets World. He's living alone
Speaker 4: in Los Angeles, working on Friday nights. Were you all
Speaker 4: the Fredell family sitting down together to watch every episode?
Speaker 2: Of course? And even more than that, his mother would
Speaker 2: pick the phone up as soon as the episode would
Speaker 2: finish and call on them and say, honey, that was
Speaker 2: so great. And I said, you know, this is filmed
Speaker 2: weeks ago. I know, but she would religiously call him
Speaker 2: after every single episode.
Speaker 4: Yes, that is so nice.
Speaker 2: Will.
Speaker 4: Were you also watching in your apartment in La Do
Speaker 4: you watch it?
Speaker 5: That's the last time I saw again.
Speaker 6: I was never the guy to go to clubs or
Speaker 6: bars or any of that stuff.
Speaker 4: So far, no girlfriends, no girlfriends.
Speaker 5: A little later I had go around, okay, okay, watch
Speaker 5: it with my girlfriends. That's the five part. Sit there
Speaker 5: and you know, watch boys.
Speaker 6: So yes, I saw every episode when it aired, and
Speaker 6: that was the last time.
Speaker 4: And then you'd count down to the phone ringing, and
Speaker 4: you knew it'd be.
Speaker 6: Your mom and dad, My mom would my mom would
Speaker 6: be calling me right after the show was done.
Speaker 5: Yep, every week.
Speaker 4: So what did you guys think? When then he started
Speaker 4: a relationship with Jennifer Love Hewitt.
Speaker 2: We first of all, we didn't know too much about
Speaker 2: her because she was on this swa Party of five
Speaker 2: or something like that, which we never watched. We knew
Speaker 2: her name, but she seemed very nice. I mean she
Speaker 2: was I think seventeen and he was nineteen, and she
Speaker 2: couple times called during the week to speak to my wife,
Speaker 2: just to say hello and how a thing was going.
Speaker 6: He did, Yeah, I don't think.
Speaker 5: I don't think I was like she was.
Speaker 2: Said. One time we started watching the program. We felt
Speaker 2: we had to, so we watched the program and one
Speaker 2: of the episodes, she's kissing another boy. Sold I said, love,
Speaker 2: you were kissing another boy on the screen. All mister
Speaker 2: Fredell said, that's just part of playing and the other
Speaker 2: acting or something like that. But she was, she was
Speaker 2: very nice.
Speaker 5: She was.
Speaker 2: She did come to stay around I think it was
Speaker 2: the holidays, and they stayed up the road. She had
Speaker 2: her mother and visited with us for about a week.
Speaker 2: But she was always, I have to say, very very pleasant,
Speaker 2: very sweet, very nice. She was.
Speaker 5: She was a very sweet girl.
Speaker 4: Yep, you guys are such a cute family. She came
Speaker 4: with her mom and they stayed up the street. You
Speaker 4: guys had the two families together for the holidays. Yes,
Speaker 4: it's so cute.
Speaker 6: Well, my parents had a very very strict rule in
Speaker 6: our house where unless you were married, you did not
Speaker 6: share a room. So even when my brother and sister
Speaker 6: in law were engaged, they were not allowed to share
Speaker 6: a room under right.
Speaker 4: Because you could just get engaged just to sleep in
Speaker 4: the same room.
Speaker 2: And then.
Speaker 6: You know, of course, also assumed that the second the
Speaker 6: lights went out, everyone wasn't changing rooms.
Speaker 2: Which we found that they did.
Speaker 6: Of course, we found that they found that out later,
Speaker 6: but at the time we all stayed in our proper rooms.
Speaker 4: Do you think Will and Eric have any similarities?
Speaker 2: Certainly not intellectually. We'll tell you. I was bothered by
Speaker 2: the fact that they made him appear stupid with things
Speaker 2: like going to Yali and ridiculous things like that. That
Speaker 2: part I didn't want.
Speaker 5: I ad lived that. I just.
Speaker 2: Know that that part of his his character was inconsistent
Speaker 2: with the Will we knew. And of course as the
Speaker 2: show developed, you saw that it really wasn't the true
Speaker 2: Will that underneath and he was quite smart and he
Speaker 2: knew what was going on. So I think that too
Speaker 2: developed over the seventy years of the show. That that,
Speaker 2: but I do think that some of the stuff, of course,
Speaker 2: was comedic when he was supposedly campaigning for an office.
Speaker 2: And I still have said to him Eric for governor
Speaker 2: of California. I think he should run. I think he
Speaker 2: could win.
Speaker 4: What is your favorite project Will has done professionally.
Speaker 2: That's a good question. I've never really thought of that.
Speaker 2: Of course, we liked By Date with the President's Daughter.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I wasn't crazy about Trojan War.
Speaker 3: Yeah, too many sex hijinks going on.
Speaker 2: Well, I mean other than the show. I mean, obviously
Speaker 2: our favorite was Boy Meus World. I mean that was,
Speaker 2: you know, an amazing performance by all of you guys.
Speaker 2: So it would be that and probably My Day.
Speaker 6: Okay, I can tell you for answering for my mom.
Speaker 6: Other than Boy, which is their number one, My mom
Speaker 6: loved h Double Hockey Stick, Yes, okay, he was a
Speaker 6: big fan of H Double Hockey Sticks with myself and
Speaker 6: Matti Lawrence, so she was a fan of that. My
Speaker 6: dad liked My Day with the President's Daughter.
Speaker 4: How did you guys feel when Will ended up stepping
Speaker 4: away from acting, you mean on camera from on camera acting?
Speaker 2: Well, we knew what the problem was, and we were
Speaker 2: supportive of that. I was, of course disappointed, hopeful that
Speaker 2: he would get over it, which he did and cut
Speaker 2: over it. Not over.
Speaker 5: You never really get over it. You learned, you learn
Speaker 5: the better ways to deal with it.
Speaker 2: Well, okay, that's one way of putting it.
Speaker 6: Yes, it's true though, because it still hits you. I
Speaker 6: mean I had a panic attack yesterday. They're they're always,
Speaker 6: of course there.
Speaker 5: It's in. It's in you usually forever.
Speaker 6: You just learn how to how to call it and
Speaker 6: different skills to get through it that I didn't have
Speaker 6: as a as a younger man.
Speaker 2: Yeah, obviously I was disappointed because I felt he had
Speaker 2: a real future and in in the profession, and I
Speaker 2: was hoping that in time, somehow the problem would work
Speaker 2: itself out, which which it has. I mean, you said
Speaker 2: to me just the other day, you walk out of
Speaker 2: this and you haven't taken a pill in years, and
Speaker 2: that you love doing it. Yeah, and just watching you guys,
Speaker 2: all of you look so natural, so that, yeah, it
Speaker 2: was a bad I had that. I mean I had
Speaker 2: panic attacks that came out of nowhere in the nineties
Speaker 2: and it got so bad that I was fearful I
Speaker 2: got a major promotion in the Navy, and I was
Speaker 2: going to have to address a group of senior officers,
Speaker 2: including a handful of admirals, at a conference in Louisiana.
Speaker 2: And as it turned out, one of my clients was
Speaker 2: a psychiatrist who was injured in an automobile accident. And
Speaker 2: she came in for a conference and I said, look,
Speaker 2: I don't know how to deal with this. Oh, you
Speaker 2: don't have to worry about that, and she prescribed I
Speaker 2: believe it was called indo all and she said, you
Speaker 2: take one of these capsules an hour before you're going
Speaker 2: to do anything like that and you'll be fine. I did,
Speaker 2: and I was, and from that point on the problem
Speaker 2: went away if I took the medication. Eventually it just
Speaker 2: disappeared and I needed nothing. So I was well aware.
Speaker 2: I mean, these attacks are if you've ever had them,
Speaker 2: they are devastating. You're totally unable to function. But fortunately
Speaker 2: they usually they come and go rather quickly. It's not
Speaker 2: something that goes on for days, but it is totally incapacitating,
Speaker 2: so that in time it works itself out and it
Speaker 2: has well.
Speaker 6: Again dealing with it, dealing with it better than I
Speaker 6: ever have been is the best way to do it.
Speaker 5: But it's always there. I mean, that's just the way
Speaker 5: it works.
Speaker 6: But you had panic attacks, whereas a lot of people
Speaker 6: have the general anxiety, so it is something that is
Speaker 6: days weeks long.
Speaker 5: But you never had that, which is good.
Speaker 2: So for some reason, if I faced I mean, I
Speaker 2: went to a Navy drill in Newport one weekend and
Speaker 2: forgot the medication and had to deliver a lecture. And
Speaker 2: I had to sit down and deliver the lecture because
Speaker 2: I forgot the pill, which convinced me though that hey,
Speaker 2: you take the pill you find.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that worked for you, didn't that one didn't work.
Speaker 2: Out, and it didn't work for him, but it fortunately
Speaker 2: did for me. Right.
Speaker 4: I want to ask you. Will is, obviously, for writer
Speaker 4: and I one of our most favorite human beings on
Speaker 4: the planet. And there are so many incredible characteristics he has.
Speaker 4: But if I were to put you on the spot
Speaker 4: and ask you to say, what is your most favorite
Speaker 4: thing about Will?
Speaker 2: His kindness, Yeah, and his love. I've seen him do
Speaker 2: things that most people wouldn't do. For instance, since a woman,
Speaker 2: an old woman, attempting to get out of a car,
Speaker 2: he will go and open the door and help her
Speaker 2: out a guy for looking for a hnd out that
Speaker 2: a lot of people will walk through Stan and talk
Speaker 2: to him a little bit and give him money. He's
Speaker 2: one of the most charitable and kind men I've ever met.
Speaker 2: I don't think he has a bad bone in his body.
Speaker 2: I mean bone, and that to me is the most
Speaker 2: important thing, because that's what people need today to really
Speaker 2: make the world better. And that, to me is his
Speaker 2: strongest point is his humanity, his love for people. And
Speaker 2: I mean he's been a wonderful song. Really. Ah, he's
Speaker 2: sitting with sitting in his room now and he just
Speaker 2: told me, and this is you're the first to hear this. Well, Pop,
Speaker 2: next time I come home, I think I'll start taking
Speaker 2: my posters down. And I said, no, I don't want
Speaker 2: you to do that. He doesn't like. No, this is
Speaker 2: his room. Nobody sees it will the members of the family.
Speaker 2: But this is all the other rooms have been upredated,
Speaker 2: you know, with neutral colors and all this. Yeah, all
Speaker 2: this crap. That the real estate.
Speaker 1: He's still got the pink Floyd Dark Side of the
Speaker 1: Moon poster exactly.
Speaker 2: This room is is his. And now I hope that
Speaker 2: he leaves it. Eventually we're going to leave here and
Speaker 2: it won't take it wouldn't take half a day to
Speaker 2: clear this place out, so hurry. So he's already said,
Speaker 2: of course.
Speaker 6: That of course that I'll keep I'll keep the room.
Speaker 5: I'll keep the room here. That's fine.
Speaker 4: It's like a time capsule.
Speaker 6: It is very time capsule.
Speaker 4: So final question for you, how does it feel to
Speaker 4: see will continue to be successful and live out the
Speaker 4: dream he had and created for himself as a child
Speaker 4: of being a professional entertainer in the entertainment industry.
Speaker 2: It's incredible. I have to tell you that that I
Speaker 2: marvel at it. Sometimes I say, this is just hard
Speaker 2: to believe, you know, and I he sent a note.
Speaker 2: Look at we're on the billboard in Times Square and
Speaker 2: you look up and you see your son on a
Speaker 2: billboard or you know all and of course the two
Speaker 2: of you when you look back nineteen ninety three, I've
Speaker 2: known both of you for thirty years. You wish just
Speaker 2: little kids. Yeah, when we're starting about the high voice voice,
Speaker 2: I remember Ben Savage had a squeaky little voice and
Speaker 2: by the end of the show was all the hell.
Speaker 2: You know, when you're all aged and it's been wonderful. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's just really there's no reason for it to stop.
Speaker 2: You're I know this sounds corny, but you're filling a void.
Speaker 2: And you look at the people who go to your shows.
Speaker 2: They're genuinely enthusiastic and happy because you're bringing to them
Speaker 2: something that doesn't exist too much in this world anymore.
Speaker 2: It's become so callous and nasty, and you've brought back
Speaker 2: the sense of this program that you could sit with
Speaker 2: your family and never have to worry about what you
Speaker 2: are going to see because you don't steal, you don't
Speaker 2: lie to your parents, you don't cheat on your tests
Speaker 2: because mister Feenie's there and he's all going to watch
Speaker 2: out for you. So yeah, I think what you're doing
Speaker 2: is absolutely marvelous.
Speaker 4: Well, thank you very much, and thank you for your
Speaker 4: service not only in the Navy, but as a lawyer
Speaker 4: and most importantly as the parent to one of the
Speaker 4: most most beautiful human beings on the inside and the out.
Speaker 4: We just our lives have been completely altered by the
Speaker 4: work you did as his father, and of course to Patricia,
Speaker 4: his mother as well, So thank you both for who
Speaker 4: you are and for brightening our lives. Without even realizing it.
Speaker 2: Oh, thank you so much, and we thank you guys
Speaker 2: for all the happiness and that you have brought to
Speaker 2: the family and to will.
Speaker 4: Well, we're going to invite ourselves to your home. Ye,
Speaker 4: when we are in Hartford, we're going to I'm taking
Speaker 4: the opportunity now to just say prepare a seat, will
Speaker 4: be there. I want to see the room in person.
Speaker 5: We'll be fine.
Speaker 6: As long as the three of us do not spend
Speaker 6: the night under the same roof because we are not married.
Speaker 4: We will get a place up the street. We will
Speaker 4: follow the rules exactly. Well, all right, thank you.
Speaker 2: Again, you thank you for having me on.
Speaker 7: Our love to Patricia.
Speaker 4: What a guy.
Speaker 5: He's a great guy.
Speaker 6: And he could just tell he will just tell stories.
Speaker 6: He loves telling the stories everywhere we go. You were
Speaker 6: at the lumber yard and he's talking to the guy
Speaker 6: about boy Mets World or the podcast or something like that.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's amazing, amazing.
Speaker 1: I love the way that he, you know, was able
Speaker 1: to bring his lawyer legal expertise and protect you like
Speaker 1: that's such a clear you know, you know we now
Speaker 1: all of our parents had no clue about the entertainment industry,
Speaker 1: right it seems so terrifying.
Speaker 3: Get these head shots.
Speaker 1: And some agent comes in and says, I know everything.
Speaker 1: I'm going to take care of all of this. And
Speaker 1: you know, if you're so fortunate that you're dad did
Speaker 1: have one area where he was very comfortable.
Speaker 3: It was like, send me the contract.
Speaker 2: I'm going to look at this.
Speaker 1: I know when my kid's gonna get screwed over or not,
Speaker 1: or I'm going to defend him.
Speaker 3: That's so amazing, sood.
Speaker 6: It's I mean, again, I can't even count the number
Speaker 6: of times that he'd finds something in the contract that
Speaker 6: some other entertainment lawyer or somebody missed where it would
Speaker 6: change everything and like, oh, yeah, that's right, we got
Speaker 6: to take this out or do whatever.
Speaker 5: I mean, you look at every conject I've had since
Speaker 5: I was eleven.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, when you think about it, I mean, it
Speaker 4: is the way it should be. Not every kid actor
Speaker 4: is as lucky, but in our case, no one has
Speaker 4: your best interest in mind the way your parents do.
Speaker 4: And so your dad having that you know, law expertise,
Speaker 4: is like absolutely, there will be no word skipped over.
Speaker 4: There will be no skimming at least on these contracts
Speaker 4: and other.
Speaker 1: Like amazing thing which is exactly like, I know my
Speaker 1: dad said a similar thing to me. But then also
Speaker 1: when he was on the podcast, is what your dad
Speaker 1: said about like when.
Speaker 3: You don't like this anymore, we can't be done.
Speaker 1: That is like, and that's to me, that's the difference
Speaker 1: between like the awful stage parent and the good stage parent,
Speaker 1: because the awful stage parent says, once you've made a commitment,
Speaker 1: we have to you know, this is good for us,
Speaker 1: You're making money, and it's like, hold on, this should
Speaker 1: all just be a bonus. Like the idea of being
Speaker 1: a kid actor is insane. It's a crazy thing and
Speaker 1: changes everybody's life. And to have boundaries and to say no, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: my career, my life, our family's life is still important.
Speaker 3: And if you're not having fun, if you're unhappy, we
Speaker 3: don't do this. That is like, I know, that's the
Speaker 3: essential ingredient.
Speaker 4: My mom My mom really taught me not to complain
Speaker 4: if I really didn't mean it, because the minute I
Speaker 4: would complain about something, my mom would go, should we
Speaker 4: be done, let's be done, Let's not do this anymore.
Speaker 4: If you don't want to do this anymore, if you
Speaker 4: don't want to go on auditions. I totally understand. It
Speaker 4: is a drain. It is exhausting, it is tiring. We're
Speaker 4: doing this for you. Are you saying you don't want
Speaker 4: to do this anymore? And be like, no, I really do. Okay,
Speaker 4: then then let's not complain. And so it really did
Speaker 4: you know.
Speaker 5: It's the same they had.
Speaker 6: They had that mentality coupled with the other thing I
Speaker 6: heard all the time was and writer, I think you
Speaker 6: and Danielle, we've all talked about this. My parents were
Speaker 6: constantly harping on me, have something you love equally as
Speaker 6: much to fall back on.
Speaker 5: I would hear that all the time.
Speaker 3: Be a well rounded person.
Speaker 1: Yeah this is awesome and this is extraordinary, but it's
Speaker 1: not defining you.
Speaker 3: There's so many other aspects to you.
Speaker 6: And well, I mean again, if you keep the analogy
Speaker 6: we always use of the entertainment industry as a child
Speaker 6: being like a roller coaster.
Speaker 5: A roller coaster ride stops.
Speaker 6: You don't ride a roller coaster forever, right, And yet
Speaker 6: somehow we found a way to stay on the ride.
Speaker 5: It's really rare and really weird.
Speaker 6: So it's a benefit to all of our parents that
Speaker 6: they were like, there's a really good chance this is temporary.
Speaker 6: A much better chance this is temporary than this is permanent.
Speaker 6: So let's figure out what else we want to do.
Speaker 6: And that's what made our parents our parents.
Speaker 4: Well. Thank you all for joining us us for this
Speaker 4: episode of Podmeets World. As always, you can follow us
Speaker 4: on Instagram pod Meets World Show. You can send us
Speaker 4: your emails podmeets World Show at gmail dot com, and.
Speaker 5: We have merch Captain Merch.
Speaker 4: Podmeetsworldshow dot com will send us out.
Speaker 5: We love you all, pod dismissed.
Speaker 6: Podmeets World is nheart podcast producer and hosted by Danielle Fischel,
Speaker 6: Wilfordell and Ryder Strong executive producers Jensen Carp and Amy Sugarman,
Speaker 6: Executive in charge of production, Danielle Romo, producer and editor,
Speaker 6: Tara Sudbaksh producer, Maddie Moore, engineer and Boy Meets World
Speaker 6: superfan Easton Allen. Our theme song is by Kyle Morton
Speaker 6: of Typhoon and you can follow us on Instagram at
Speaker 6: podmeets World Show or email us at Podmeets Worldshow at
Speaker 6: gmail dot com