Speaker 1: So we're potentially going to be doing a lot of
Speaker 1: live shows this year. Yeah. So I'm planning out, you know,
Speaker 1: my year with my wife and I have a I
Speaker 1: have a draft of an email that I started during
Speaker 1: the pandemic that has expanded and I keep adding to
Speaker 1: which is all the places I want to travel to
Speaker 1: and all the things I want to see um. And
Speaker 1: so I was referencing or trying figure out what where
Speaker 1: we're going to travel to this year and what we're
Speaker 1: gonna do um, And it made me curious, do you
Speaker 1: guys have like places that you can't wait to go
Speaker 1: to or like the number one? Because for me, like
Speaker 1: number one personally, I can I just want to go
Speaker 1: to Japan so bad, and no, I am dying to go,
Speaker 1: but it's you know, I just I just I. But
Speaker 1: I have so many other trips that I want to
Speaker 1: do with Indie before he leaves. Because that's the other
Speaker 1: thing is I'm realizing kids already eight, I only got
Speaker 1: like eight more or ten more summer vacations where we
Speaker 1: can travel together. So I have to prioritize based on like,
Speaker 1: you know, activities we can do or things I want
Speaker 1: to experience with him. And so Japan might have to
Speaker 1: wait till after he's out of the house, but that's
Speaker 1: like my number one spot, South Africa. I can't wait
Speaker 1: to go to South Africa at some point. Yeah. Do
Speaker 1: you guys have places like that? Are what do you got? Well?
Speaker 1: I also really want to go to Japan. We were
Speaker 1: going to go to Japan for my fortieth that was
Speaker 1: going to be my fortieth birthday gift from husband producer
Speaker 1: Jensen carp but I was then pregnant and I was like,
Speaker 1: I don't really want to go to Japan when I'm pregnant,
Speaker 1: and you know so, and we ended up not doing that.
Speaker 1: So Japan is on my list. But then also there
Speaker 1: are things like I want to play golf in Scotland,
Speaker 1: so like that's that's one of my things. I also
Speaker 1: want to drive on the Audubon um, so I have
Speaker 1: like things like that that are like bucketless things for me.
Speaker 1: I once saw the Northern lights from from Banff in Canada. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but it wasn't like it was like what's that out there?
Speaker 1: And then it was like, oh my gosh, those are
Speaker 1: the Northern lights and it was, um it was like
Speaker 1: you know, kind of hazy, like it was definitely the
Speaker 1: Northern Lights, but it wasn't like that experience you think
Speaker 1: of when you see the Northern Lights, and so I
Speaker 1: want to just even seeing the little bit of it
Speaker 1: that I saw. I want to specifically do al go
Speaker 1: on a trip to see the Northern I would recommend
Speaker 1: Iceland because I saw them in Iceland, and Iceland's great
Speaker 1: to visit anyway, and they do boat trips or they
Speaker 1: take you out over the water and you can see
Speaker 1: them Morthern Lights. You go at the right time of year. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So I did Japan. Japan's beautiful place. Um driving on
Speaker 1: the Japan did the whole country ben Japan. I did Japan. Um.
Speaker 1: The driving on the Audubonna is insane and a ton
Speaker 1: of fun. Oh my god, really you've done that. Of course.
Speaker 1: My whole family lives in Germany, so that's I mean,
Speaker 1: my cousins, everybody. They're still outside of Hamburg, so we
Speaker 1: go often. So cool. Haven't played golf in Scotland, but
Speaker 1: spent some time there. We're going back this year, which
Speaker 1: is going to be our big trip. The Northern Lights
Speaker 1: is second on my list. I was supposed to see
Speaker 1: them last year in February in Fairbanks, Alaska, which they
Speaker 1: say is actually the best place to see them. And
Speaker 1: then I had to cancel. I was going for a convention.
Speaker 1: I had to cancel it. Um. But the number one
Speaker 1: on my list has always been I want to touch
Speaker 1: the pyramids in Egypt. I know, I know, are you
Speaker 1: allowed to touch them? I don't know, They're the rub
Speaker 1: I've done some cool things. I snuck under the stupid stuff,
Speaker 1: but like, you know, snuck under the fence and hung
Speaker 1: my legs over the the Grand Canyon, And I mean
Speaker 1: I've done some stuff where it's it's been pretty neat. Um.
Speaker 1: But yeah, Japan amazing, China's really nice. The parts I saw, Um,
Speaker 1: But you've always been a big history buff and an archeology.
Speaker 1: The Pyramids, the pyramids and just kind of the whole
Speaker 1: value of the kings are are so up there for
Speaker 1: me right now, it's yeah, I would absolutely love to
Speaker 1: do that. But Sue and I, it's so funny because
Speaker 1: we're the type of people where we love to travel,
Speaker 1: but ten twelve days and that's our limit. We are
Speaker 1: not like I want to be gone for a month
Speaker 1: and a half, Like I'm not that we want to
Speaker 1: get home, back to back to our house, I know, writer, Right,
Speaker 1: I just go to New Zealand for an entire summer,
Speaker 1: right right? Yeah, well that's the other thing. I do
Speaker 1: think I could probably do that, like really moved somewhere
Speaker 1: and know I'm there for an extended period of time,
Speaker 1: and so I'm going to make a home here. Yeah.
Speaker 1: But I agree with you writer that I mean will
Speaker 1: if it's if it's a vacation really like eleven days
Speaker 1: is and I start to get to a point where
Speaker 1: I'm like, I miss my routine, I miss my stuff
Speaker 1: being in my spot where I'm used to it being,
Speaker 1: because we are big on that everything has a place yep.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I want to live on the road, just
Speaker 1: throw it all. I would not have a house if
Speaker 1: it was up to me. Oh no, yeah, I need
Speaker 1: I need the space. But that's what I mean. Obviously.
Speaker 1: The dream that Sue and I have is we have
Speaker 1: like an apartment in either Amsterdam or London and that's
Speaker 1: your home base and then you just blanket the rest
Speaker 1: of Europe. You want an apartment in Amsterdam that I
Speaker 1: know somebody may be able to help you write apartment writer,
Speaker 1: Can you very quickly for me just say the line
Speaker 1: in Dutch? That you said on the show. Do you
Speaker 1: still remember what it is? Yes? In Fight to Auditing,
Speaker 1: you see this to Coop right, is there no? Yeah?
Speaker 1: In Fight to this is everyone remember the Airbnb or
Speaker 1: Airbnb the B and B episode and I spoke two
Speaker 1: lines of Dutch, hoy hit did the loop and Z
Speaker 1: for yourself? I mean air and see how light it is? Yeah,
Speaker 1: we went to Amsterdam together. It was the only Dutch
Speaker 1: we spoke. So we were on the airplane saying it
Speaker 1: back and forth, did the loot? And then you would
Speaker 1: say it when we'd go to like museums or wherever
Speaker 1: we'd be out. I'd be like, oh, we should do
Speaker 1: this yourself. And Coop means for oh my gosh, wow,
Speaker 1: oh wow, wow wow. Welcome to Pod Meets World. I'm
Speaker 1: Danielle Fischel, I'm writer Strong, and I'm Willfordale. So today's
Speaker 1: episode is we are thrilled to have this guest. Dedi
Speaker 1: to Stephano is a name that has organically come up
Speaker 1: on this podcast numerous times and we've been waiting for
Speaker 1: the perfect time for her to join us, and today is,
Speaker 1: luckily that day. Dedi is one of the rare crew
Speaker 1: members who includes actors who worked on Boy Meets World
Speaker 1: from the unaired pilot right up until the series finale,
Speaker 1: and then she even came back and joined us for
Speaker 1: one season of Girl Meets World. She was the stage
Speaker 1: assistant on the Ben Savage pilot and then eventually became
Speaker 1: the third and then second stage manager for Boy Meets World.
Speaker 1: And we weren't the only show she worked on. We
Speaker 1: were just the best, so that, in addition to her
Speaker 1: tireless work on Boy, she was one of our friends
Speaker 1: and a face we could trust, and we just still
Speaker 1: absolutely love her and trust her to this day. So
Speaker 1: please welcome to the show. D D to Stephano Hello, Hello, Wow,
Speaker 1: wonderful to see you. Wonderful. I really I don't know
Speaker 1: how it's possible that every time we interview somebody that
Speaker 1: we've known for thirty years, they turn on their camera
Speaker 1: and I'm like, wait a minute, you look exactly the
Speaker 1: way you did. Yes, yes, since i've known you, well,
Speaker 1: you had you know, you were all young, and I
Speaker 1: think you had ideas of what we looked like, and
Speaker 1: now we just fell into a vie. We thought you
Speaker 1: were old then, is that what you're saying? Okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that's true to like you know, because I,
Speaker 1: like DD, I would have assumed, which is so weird
Speaker 1: to think about. But I probably assumed that you were
Speaker 1: the same age as like my parents, which isn't the
Speaker 1: case at all. Like you were much younger than my parents, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know. I can't. I don't know
Speaker 1: how old your parents are, but I tell my classes
Speaker 1: I'm one hundred years old. So did that? My parents
Speaker 1: were born in nineteen thirteen. Wow, So my education and
Speaker 1: film goes even before that. Wow. You guys remember some
Speaker 1: of you. I used to get on you all the
Speaker 1: time on stage about learn the history of your craft. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is not what acting is. Please find out about
Speaker 1: who is responsible for you now? And I still say
Speaker 1: the same things to my students today and they look
Speaker 1: at me blankly, like what are you talking? Black and white? Yes,
Speaker 1: thank you to do that. You know, am I remembering correctly? DD?
Speaker 1: Did you have a sign or a bumper sticker or
Speaker 1: something that said theater is life? Film? Wait? Was it was?
Speaker 1: It was? Film is art, theater is life, Film is
Speaker 1: artsion furniture. That wasn't. Oh my god, that's so funny
Speaker 1: that you remember that. Yeah, because I was always kind
Speaker 1: of confused by it. I was like, are we making
Speaker 1: fun of television on our show? For work making a
Speaker 1: television show? You were you were talking about TV. People
Speaker 1: didn't catch it, But that's okay. You know what. I
Speaker 1: loved television, Yeah, I absolutely love it. And I've listened
Speaker 1: to you Will talking about how much you love the
Speaker 1: sitcom format and all of that, and um, it's the
Speaker 1: same way with me. But I go so far back.
Speaker 1: When they talk about the golden Age of television, we're
Speaker 1: talking about people that you've never heard of, Ernie Kovac's
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I mean these were when television first started.
Speaker 1: And that's when I started to appreciate it. Aside from
Speaker 1: the fact that my mother had been an actress and
Speaker 1: all of that. They indoctrinated me and my sister about film,
Speaker 1: about television, about entertainment. That was what life was all about.
Speaker 1: I took to it more than my sister did. And
Speaker 1: for me, Um, when we would go to the movie
Speaker 1: when we were little kids, my mother loved all of
Speaker 1: these oh these Roman type of warrior movies and you know,
Speaker 1: they'd be in the middle of somewhere and they'd slice
Speaker 1: off an arm and you know, or whatever. They were
Speaker 1: gruesome for like a six year old kid to watch,
Speaker 1: and I remember, Mommy, I don't want to go to
Speaker 1: that movie anymore. And she said to me, let me
Speaker 1: tell you how it's done, and she explained special effects
Speaker 1: to me. And from that point on, every film that
Speaker 1: I sat in, I sat with my arms crossed, judging
Speaker 1: that wasn't very good. Yeah, I believe that, and that's
Speaker 1: when I needed to get behind the camera. My mother
Speaker 1: warned me and my sister don't ever get into entertainment,
Speaker 1: and don't get into television or film. It'll break your heart.
Speaker 1: And so I went into television and my sister went
Speaker 1: into radio. Well, I actually want to talk about your
Speaker 1: entry point into TV production because it's pretty unorthodox. So
Speaker 1: what was your first job at ABC? My first job
Speaker 1: at ABC, I managed the payroll department. When I wow,
Speaker 1: and as I talked to your husband, the producer earlier,
Speaker 1: I was brought up where my parents said, you can't
Speaker 1: make change out of a dime. You know, you're an idiot,
Speaker 1: and I really believed it. I couldn't And my parents
Speaker 1: told you that. Well, that was one of the nicer
Speaker 1: things that they've said to me. Okay, but anyway, okay, anyway,
Speaker 1: let me tell you how I got the name d D.
Speaker 1: One day, i'll tell you about that. But anyway, his
Speaker 1: job opened up at ABC, and there were two jobs,
Speaker 1: and one of them was a lot of fun, and
Speaker 1: one of them was they had a payroll department. And
Speaker 1: I knew that I did not know anything about money,
Speaker 1: but I had I had to prove to these people
Speaker 1: that I wasn't just a piece of fluff that wanted
Speaker 1: to get into television and entertainment. I was not one
Speaker 1: of those that I actually had a brain. So that's
Speaker 1: what I did, and surprisingly enough, my parents were wrong.
Speaker 1: I had an incredible attitude for MAC and within months
Speaker 1: they started moving me around into different departments at ABC
Speaker 1: and moving up and around, and that was Did you
Speaker 1: ever think you'd end up working on sets? Oh? That
Speaker 1: was my goal. That was my goal. Yeah, because I
Speaker 1: was in the production office and every time I went
Speaker 1: down on a set, because I was always on sets
Speaker 1: at ABC all the time, and I used to watch
Speaker 1: every department what did everybody do? Because there's so many
Speaker 1: jobs on set that people aren't aware of. Ye, I think,
Speaker 1: you know, O, G, I want to become an electrician
Speaker 1: And they go to work at Irving Schmutz's electric shop.
Speaker 1: They don't realize they can become an electric electrician in entertainment, right,
Speaker 1: you can do whatever. These the crypts, the lights, the everything,
Speaker 1: And I think, I'm sorry, crush, you can. I have
Speaker 1: told everybody over the years, pick a job, and it
Speaker 1: exists within the studio system. Firement. We have fire departments
Speaker 1: on his studios. Yea, and no matter what it is,
Speaker 1: want to dig a ditch, dig a ditch on a
Speaker 1: cold stage instead of out in the middle of a freeway,
Speaker 1: right right, you know, find your place. But anyway, um,
Speaker 1: so you were put in charge of like full departments,
Speaker 1: like hair and makeup departments, and you were just like
Speaker 1: overseeing that. Yes, yes, I was scheduling the hair and
Speaker 1: makeup and wardial people for every show that came into ABC. Wow. Wow, well,
Speaker 1: can I do you mind if I asked when when
Speaker 1: was this? Like? What were some of the shows that
Speaker 1: you were involved in back in the day, Everything from
Speaker 1: oh God, whatever we did on the ABC block from
Speaker 1: Webster to Facts of Life. Who's the Boss? Well that
Speaker 1: was later yeah, that was later on with Who's the Boss.
Speaker 1: I even worked on the Dolly parton pilot, but it
Speaker 1: wasn't Dolly Parton, it was their sister. Oh wow, incredible
Speaker 1: things Webster. I think I mentioned that, just all kinds
Speaker 1: of shows. So I did that for a while. But
Speaker 1: at the same time, when they saw that I was
Speaker 1: smarter than I looked, they started putting me in charge
Speaker 1: of special entertainment. So that was the Academy Awards, the
Speaker 1: American Music Award, anything that, yeah, whatever. ABC always did
Speaker 1: the Academy Awards. So I did that show for eight years.
Speaker 1: They always did the American Music Awards. It was at
Speaker 1: Clark Production. I did that for eight years. One year
Speaker 1: we got the Emmys. I did that. One year we've
Speaker 1: got the Grammys. I got that. So I've always been
Speaker 1: like in the middle of everything. That is like one
Speaker 1: area of production that I would never want to be
Speaker 1: a part of. Like Awards show scared the crap out
Speaker 1: of me, Like because you have to do everything live,
Speaker 1: there's so many guests, there's an actual audience. It's just
Speaker 1: like the fact that those shows get pulled off without
Speaker 1: a hitch. Most of the times there's usually musical accent
Speaker 1: yes or so it's such a high wire act of craziness. Like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I can't imagine. I can't imagine. I don't want to
Speaker 1: tell of preparation. And what they would do is they
Speaker 1: would build my office right off the stage, so everything
Speaker 1: was happening right on the other side of the wall
Speaker 1: on my office. And then when it came to the show,
Speaker 1: everybody had a spot for me, and I was stage
Speaker 1: right right behind the curtain. So for those years of
Speaker 1: all of the eighties, you know, I would say, well,
Speaker 1: look stage right behind the curtain. That's where I'm standing
Speaker 1: with stunky little clipboard. You know, in doing that, I
Speaker 1: had become very very jaded. I was tired. I'd done
Speaker 1: a lot of it. There was so much work involved,
Speaker 1: and I did. I had become very jaded. And this
Speaker 1: one day I'm backstage in the middle of the show
Speaker 1: and I'm just looking at my watch, like when is
Speaker 1: this going to be over? And I don't know if
Speaker 1: you know who this actor is, but it was Carrie Grand.
Speaker 1: He was standing right across from me, right he was
Speaker 1: looking at me, and he strikes up conversation with me
Speaker 1: like a lot of them did. And as I'm talking
Speaker 1: to him, I'm thinking, this is Carrie Grand. And most
Speaker 1: people would sell their mothers just to be in the
Speaker 1: same vicinity as Carrie Grant and he's talking to me
Speaker 1: and we're having this one on one wonderful. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: I'm at the Academy Awards. My life is more and
Speaker 1: I credit Carrie with saving my peace of mind throughout that. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: it was wonderful. Well, eventually you ended up having kind
Speaker 1: of a disappointing experience. Happened over at ABC. Do you
Speaker 1: want to talk about that? It was I started one
Speaker 1: of the very first sexual harassment lawsuits against the major network.
Speaker 1: This was a very long time ago, and nobody really
Speaker 1: knew what to do with me at the time that
Speaker 1: with that lawsuit had scared them and I was just
Speaker 1: me and I was fighting the network and for you.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, that's five years of litigation. She was
Speaker 1: trying to tell me that I was crazy because it's
Speaker 1: okay for a man to grab a woman, and especially
Speaker 1: the girls that he works with. Anyway, they tried to
Speaker 1: say that I was a little nuts about that, and
Speaker 1: I had issues. And eventually when the thing finally settled,
Speaker 1: because I stated at ABC during the litigation, it was
Speaker 1: really very difficult and I did not sue for money.
Speaker 1: I sued for purpose. I wanted some, but he removed.
Speaker 1: He was in charge of twelve women and he was
Speaker 1: doing disgusting things, and so I wanted him removed from
Speaker 1: his position. I didn't hear about money, but they didn't
Speaker 1: remove him, and that was it, and they moved me.
Speaker 1: I was you know, that's the way it was. You know,
Speaker 1: this was decades before me too. Yeah. And then I
Speaker 1: went to work for Shelley Duvolve on her film's Fairytale
Speaker 1: Theater and Nightmare Classic stuff like that. I did that,
Speaker 1: and then it was Arlene Grayson. I had known Arlene
Speaker 1: for years from the time that I was working at ABC,
Speaker 1: and she said, hey, we got this pilot. You know
Speaker 1: you want to come work on it? And yeah, sure, okay,
Speaker 1: I had no idea. What was you know, was it
Speaker 1: the untitled Ben Savage project at that time exactly? And
Speaker 1: everybody was like, who's that? Who is this? So yeah,
Speaker 1: there was That was when I joined the group. And
Speaker 1: you came into Boy Meets World. Your first position, because
Speaker 1: you worked your way through many different positions on Boy
Speaker 1: Meet's World, but your first position was stage manager, right
Speaker 1: stage assistant. Stage Yeah. I hadn't joined Director's Guild yet, Okay,
Speaker 1: so I was always backstage. Yeah, you know, the liaison
Speaker 1: between the director. I was working a lot with David
Speaker 1: Trainer and those day and and the production office and
Speaker 1: you know, just getting all that stuff and you had
Speaker 1: your own stand like on wed podium. Yes, it was
Speaker 1: such a like nexus point for all of us. I
Speaker 1: feel like that that it was was where we were.
Speaker 1: It was like between craft service and walking around to
Speaker 1: the front of the stage was DD's domain and let
Speaker 1: so we just all sit there and talk and like
Speaker 1: catch up and like it was just on one of
Speaker 1: my you know, most cherished memories of my time on
Speaker 1: Boy Meets World conversations with you, like, yeah, that podium
Speaker 1: so much fun means a lot, thank you. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: I have so many fun memories. It meant a lot
Speaker 1: to me, it really did. It was It was important
Speaker 1: to me. And you guys were so important to me
Speaker 1: because I mean, you were young, and I knew what
Speaker 1: the business was. Don't forget that. You may be talking
Speaker 1: about it now and saying, oh, how could they? But
Speaker 1: I came from a time that was so ugly that
Speaker 1: by the time you got on stage it was much
Speaker 1: much better, much right, Yeah, and now it's even better
Speaker 1: than it was then, exactly exactly the way they took
Speaker 1: advantage of actors, whether it was adults or kids or anything.
Speaker 1: It was a really dirty business. And I was worried
Speaker 1: for you guys. So that's all. I just tried to
Speaker 1: be that person. You know you were. You were totally
Speaker 1: that person for us. You were you were you You
Speaker 1: made it easier for everything, even just you know, getting
Speaker 1: on set and getting to work and all that kind
Speaker 1: of stuff. You always let us know that you were
Speaker 1: there for whatever we needed. And you know, you just
Speaker 1: made it very easy in a way, Ddy because of
Speaker 1: your position, you know, because you know, we talk about
Speaker 1: somebody who had a great influence on us, like David Traynor,
Speaker 1: but like David never met our parents for instance. You know,
Speaker 1: like like, but you would talk to our parents. You
Speaker 1: knew our parents are siblings, everything about us, You knew
Speaker 1: everything about our you know, because we would Yeah we
Speaker 1: weren't working, we were talking, or we weren't working, or
Speaker 1: we weren't in school, we were hanging out with you. Yeah.
Speaker 1: That's what I remember more than anything, is like just
Speaker 1: how many you know, all those conversations and like, yeah,
Speaker 1: you were such a source of because you knew everything
Speaker 1: that was going on on set, you know everything that
Speaker 1: was going on production wise, because you were savvy to
Speaker 1: all the actual work, but then you also knew what
Speaker 1: was going on with everybody personally. Yeah, it's such an
Speaker 1: interesting position. Yeah, that's when Dan Yale started calling me Deeds. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: thirty years What do you remember from taping the original pilot?
Speaker 1: Do you remember feeling like that you had a feeling
Speaker 1: one way or the other about whether or not it
Speaker 1: was going to get picked up? I know this, I
Speaker 1: don't remember. I remember a quote you said, Oh my god,
Speaker 1: I don't know that. I don't know that it is
Speaker 1: on the final What did you guys have last I
Speaker 1: had worked on several shows, several pilots, and all of
Speaker 1: that by this time. So at the end of this
Speaker 1: I said, this sucker is never going to go anywhere.
Speaker 1: Start writing something new, Michael, Oh my god, this is
Speaker 1: going to hit like a lead bomb. And you said
Speaker 1: on the video You're like, nothing's going to happen with
Speaker 1: this bomb. That's what I remember, and um so I
Speaker 1: was so delighted, you know, when it came back and
Speaker 1: I thought, okay, well, let's try to get through that
Speaker 1: first season at least, and then that was when things change.
Speaker 1: That's when will You came in and Rusty came in.
Speaker 1: We didn't know. I certainly did not know there was
Speaker 1: going to be a you know, who was coming in
Speaker 1: to replace who or what? Right? But um uh it
Speaker 1: was as the season went on, a um, it was
Speaker 1: always kind of like a surprise, right, you know, I
Speaker 1: it was always a surprise. But once the changes had
Speaker 1: been made and the final cast was set, Like, what
Speaker 1: do you remember were your first impressions of all of us? Oh? Well,
Speaker 1: I'm so sorry. I really like that other guy, Harry. No,
Speaker 1: I did too. Just um, impressions of you innocence? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: wide eyed and wonderful and I was already jaded and
Speaker 1: bitter off that way to us at all. I can
Speaker 1: tell you not to speak for everybody, but it was you.
Speaker 1: You were always that kind of nurturing mothering. Oh well,
Speaker 1: but I will say she was a realist. Oh you
Speaker 1: like there was a level of like your tell it
Speaker 1: to me straight. Yeah, you know, you're like, you're not
Speaker 1: gonna pull your punches about like what you think of
Speaker 1: the pilot or you know, like anything. You were never
Speaker 1: you were never coddling or fate in that way for
Speaker 1: a safe space. Yes, that's the thing. You were always
Speaker 1: a safe space and a social safe space. Yeah, which
Speaker 1: was great. Yeah, you always were. And um, but that's
Speaker 1: pretty much. I had to be very careful not to
Speaker 1: spread my bitterness to you. In fact, I had some
Speaker 1: artwork I remember that I would not show rider because
Speaker 1: it was so disturbing because I used to be an artist. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and um there was a picture that Ryder was like,
Speaker 1: oh please let me see what this is. Let me
Speaker 1: see and I wouldn't show it to you. It was
Speaker 1: a very disturbing piece. I had it hanging in my
Speaker 1: living room and when I when I got married, Scott
Speaker 1: said to me, could you take that down? It's a
Speaker 1: little too much much so but you know, so there
Speaker 1: was that in me and I just like I said,
Speaker 1: I didn't want to spread it to you. I you know,
Speaker 1: I was also very very thankful. You know. This is
Speaker 1: the other thing too. During that time, after my UH lawsuit,
Speaker 1: my sexual harassment lawsuit with ABC, I was blacklisted for
Speaker 1: many years. I couldn't get a job anywhere, and um,
Speaker 1: um that I ain't up married. When I was working
Speaker 1: for Shelley Duval, I got married, and all of a
Speaker 1: sudden they didn't know who I was. I changed my
Speaker 1: last name and wow, what happened to be this? Yeah,
Speaker 1: and then when Michael hired me, I warned him and
Speaker 1: I said, look, I'm on a blacklist right now, and
Speaker 1: you know, this could really mess things up. And he said,
Speaker 1: I don't care. I don't He said, let them try
Speaker 1: to stop me. You know you're with me, And that
Speaker 1: was the end of that. That's great that. I was
Speaker 1: very thankful for that. Yeah. So all you gotta do
Speaker 1: if you're in some trouble, just change your name to
Speaker 1: feel free. Just feel freedle, feel freed it and you're good.
Speaker 1: I love it. So you described really briefly what a
Speaker 1: stage assistant does. That you were kind of the liaison
Speaker 1: between the production office and the stage and doing all
Speaker 1: of that, and then you eventually became our third and
Speaker 1: then our second stage manager. Will you explain what a
Speaker 1: stage manager does? Okay, it's in film they call it
Speaker 1: an assistant director. When you use videotape, it's called a
Speaker 1: stage manager. So in my case, it's a third stage manager.
Speaker 1: I'm in charge of all of the extras that come
Speaker 1: in the background actors and so you get an order.
Speaker 1: Every week. He's usually like, you know, anywhere from thirty
Speaker 1: to forty people that they're coming in. I would come
Speaker 1: in on my day off and watch your blocking on
Speaker 1: your run throughs and figure out who's going where to
Speaker 1: witch locker, and then I directed that night. I'd figure
Speaker 1: out everybody where everybody was going, and then the next
Speaker 1: morning I'd come in and give everybody a script, all
Speaker 1: the background actors a script and give them their blocking
Speaker 1: for the scenes. So then I would have heard them
Speaker 1: over to stage, bring them back and do all of that.
Speaker 1: So that was pretty much my thing. We've talked about
Speaker 1: the choreography that it takes to do that, the kind
Speaker 1: of dance that's happening behind us. Yeah, as we're in scenes,
Speaker 1: especially in big scenes like you know the hallway scenes
Speaker 1: or chubby scenes, where it's everything has to be this
Speaker 1: is the line. You're gonna walk on, you're gonna walk
Speaker 1: from here to here, you're gonna pick up a burger
Speaker 1: at the you know, the front cabinet, you're gonna walk
Speaker 1: over here, you're gonna walk behind, you're gonna sit here,
Speaker 1: And takes so much thought because it got to be people. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you have to have coordinated enough pass you know, people passing,
Speaker 1: so it feels like a crowd without it actually being
Speaker 1: much of a crowd. Yes, such a complicated being able
Speaker 1: to spot them when they walk in the door, if
Speaker 1: they're going to take direction, or if they're not going
Speaker 1: to be around. So there were some people that would
Speaker 1: be like, you know, likely be in chubbies. Yeah, um uh,
Speaker 1: I'd say, here's a men, you sit down. That's it.
Speaker 1: Now you can make the opening cross to take us
Speaker 1: into the scene. So you can, you know, you have
Speaker 1: to make a snap judgment on who's going to be
Speaker 1: there for you and who's just going to be sitting around.
Speaker 1: We were just talking. So there is an extra. But
Speaker 1: we're now season two and we you know, knew a
Speaker 1: lot of our extras from season one, but now that
Speaker 1: we're in season two and they're older, we really recognize
Speaker 1: a lot of the extras and we're curious. One of
Speaker 1: them was from France and he had a thick French accent.
Speaker 1: Oh god, yeah, his name was Michel, Michel Michelle. That's right.
Speaker 1: So how did you just remember that where you just
Speaker 1: remember I don't know, it just hit me, but yeah,
Speaker 1: we called him Noose because he was from the town
Speaker 1: of Noose and France. Yeah, so other than his name
Speaker 1: and where he's from, you don't know anything about him. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so security number flips open everyone. So that was the
Speaker 1: question I was going to ask you, which writer just
Speaker 1: asked you remember his name? But writer answered, yeah, here's
Speaker 1: a real mystery that we have we're really trying to
Speaker 1: get to the bottom of. We've been waiting to ask
Speaker 1: you this because you are, I think the only person
Speaker 1: who could have any keys to this clue. Do you
Speaker 1: remember anything about the janitor from the end? Then there
Speaker 1: was sean episode Yes I will, I will solve the mystery. Okay,
Speaker 1: they solve this mystery for us. Okay. It was basically
Speaker 1: a background. It was a job, that's it. And when
Speaker 1: it came to things like that, the first a d
Speaker 1: Steve Hayfer, would put me in charge pick somebody out,
Speaker 1: you know, so I could pick people out for certain roles.
Speaker 1: And I happened to pick out somebody for the role.
Speaker 1: And I knew that it was going to lead into
Speaker 1: something that was just something about it. It was written cleverly. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I said, this is not going to be a
Speaker 1: one shot deal. There's going They're going to do this again,
Speaker 1: and I had to this gentleman that was really sharp,
Speaker 1: and I'd seen him before and he was very helpful,
Speaker 1: and I thought, you know what, I'm going to have
Speaker 1: him do this this role because I also knew that
Speaker 1: I could give him a voucher which would help him
Speaker 1: get him to SAG and he would get more money.
Speaker 1: And I wanted to help this guy out. So I
Speaker 1: brought him over to the producers and they looked at
Speaker 1: him and went, yeah, no, it's not what we had
Speaker 1: in mind. And they picked another guy and that so
Speaker 1: the first guy was background. After that they hired an actor. Wow,
Speaker 1: they picked it, so it was an actor and then
Speaker 1: still had no lines. It was just the first episode
Speaker 1: was a background. And did he end up speaking? Did
Speaker 1: he speak in the episode? No? No, no? Yeah? Yeah? Wow?
Speaker 1: All right, Well where was his name and where was
Speaker 1: he from? Yeah? Number was yeah. So and then toward
Speaker 1: the end of Boy Meet's World, probably your least, your
Speaker 1: least favorite time of Boy Meets World was having to
Speaker 1: wrangle us from our dressing rooms and bring us down
Speaker 1: to stage. It was not my worst time. I loved it.
Speaker 1: It truly was, and I have great memories of that too. Um,
Speaker 1: I have letters from you guys, letters from Danielle and
Speaker 1: from writer. Um, yeah, I didn't letters. No, you never,
Speaker 1: I didn't write letters. Yes, I remember, probably poems. I
Speaker 1: wrote poems. I wrote a poem for you. I remember that. Yeah, cheese.
Speaker 1: In fact, let me give you a don't read it.
Speaker 1: I don't. I'm not going to read it. Are you kidding? No,
Speaker 1: I'm going to show you something. Yes the show. Yeah,
Speaker 1: was that from you? Yes, that was what the poem
Speaker 1: was about. Is that true? Yeah, you gave it to
Speaker 1: me at the wrap and I've had it all this time,
Speaker 1: so funny, Oh my god, during that during taping. I
Speaker 1: mean when we would when we would start the season,
Speaker 1: you and I writer would do a little ceremony over
Speaker 1: this necklace and you'd put it on, and then when
Speaker 1: the show would go down on hiatus, you'd go through
Speaker 1: a ceremony and you put it on me and I
Speaker 1: keep it through the summer. But yes, you wrote poetry
Speaker 1: for me and Danielle. I've got a couple of your
Speaker 1: letters during the time that you did not want to
Speaker 1: be there anymore. And I remember, especially when we were
Speaker 1: in the college years, and remember the the patio that
Speaker 1: was off the main Yeah, like that student union was
Speaker 1: a broke yeah yeah yeah student union yeah, so um
Speaker 1: And in the scene, you do your scene in the
Speaker 1: student union. Then you'd walk out the door and sit
Speaker 1: outside in that little brick to area and make like
Speaker 1: you were studying and writing and studying, but what you
Speaker 1: were doing was writing. Me. Later, I remember writing, yeah,
Speaker 1: sat down and be like, dear D's so sweet. They
Speaker 1: called cut and I take you back to the dressing
Speaker 1: room when you go here, and it was yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: tell us one of your favorite stories from working with us, Like,
Speaker 1: what are some of your favorite memories? Okay, Well, before
Speaker 1: I get into all y'all, I want to talk about Ben. Okay, Okay.
Speaker 1: Ben was one of the most amazing people that I
Speaker 1: had seen. Okay, when I was just the stage assistant,
Speaker 1: sitting backstage all the time, I used to watch he
Speaker 1: was like barely eleven on the pilot and I would
Speaker 1: watch him just spinning around, eating, joking, singing and doing
Speaker 1: whatever you're doing, and then they call action, boom, he's
Speaker 1: in a character. Then when I became the second stage
Speaker 1: manager and it's up to me to queue you guys
Speaker 1: on too, said yeah, and I'd be back there you know,
Speaker 1: I'd always have the script on my clipboard. You need
Speaker 1: to go over your lines, you know, whatever you needed
Speaker 1: to do, and I'd be back there with Ben Ben
Speaker 1: you need to refresh, no bo and he's dancing and
Speaker 1: jumping around and then as soon as I kill him,
Speaker 1: there he was. Yeah. He was truly amazing in that,
Speaker 1: and he was in every every scene he carried the show.
Speaker 1: We've talked about that. I mean, just how how he
Speaker 1: had that weight on his shoulders from eleven years old
Speaker 1: and nailed it every time. And now we're going back
Speaker 1: and kind of watching his performance. He's phenomenal. He really was.
Speaker 1: It was just that kind of thing to be so
Speaker 1: young and in tune of things, you know, or at
Speaker 1: least in tune with his character in a scene. Yes, there,
Speaker 1: that's what he was truly in tune with. I don't
Speaker 1: know that everything else, but he was. He was something. Okay,
Speaker 1: So some of my favorite times were when we would
Speaker 1: start the show. You had your screen that staying our
Speaker 1: cast screen. Do you remember the Buddha to have to
Speaker 1: kiss the Buddha? Yep, I forgot, I forgot. I forgot
Speaker 1: about the Buddha. There's something else I wanted to talk
Speaker 1: to you about too, after the Buddha, but keep going, okay, okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: so I had that little Buddha attached to my fanny pack,
Speaker 1: so you do back there, and do you know we
Speaker 1: kiss the Buddha. Steve hay for and I. I bought
Speaker 1: him one of those you know those memorial candles, you know,
Speaker 1: I bought him one and it was Elvis and so
Speaker 1: Steve and I would like the candle before the show
Speaker 1: and go into the all this move and then that
Speaker 1: would be our little private right and that was your
Speaker 1: cast scream. That was our cat. Yeah. Yeah, So how
Speaker 1: did the lobster start? Oh my god? You remember the
Speaker 1: of coursester. Oh my god. So this is something our
Speaker 1: listeners can actually look for, right, Yeah, it's hidden in
Speaker 1: the set. If you give me a second, I will
Speaker 1: get the lobster for you. Get the lobster. Get the lobster. Lobster.
Speaker 1: You you don't remember lobster. We put it DEDI would
Speaker 1: put it on a different place every It was in
Speaker 1: all the sets. It's in every set of boy Meat's World.
Speaker 1: After a certain season, she hid a lobster on set.
Speaker 1: It's in it's on the set. There's a lobster everywhere, everywhere, everywhere.
Speaker 1: It's like a little easter then she I think she
Speaker 1: added in a lizard too. Wasn't there multiples? There was?
Speaker 1: I just remember the lobster. Oh my god, I completely
Speaker 1: forgot about the So in every episode she would just
Speaker 1: pick a spot and put it there. If there's a
Speaker 1: new set, I think it. Well, DEDI what was the
Speaker 1: go lobster? Yeah? How did you get away with this?
Speaker 1: I don't know. I was very, very careful, but it
Speaker 1: was in like every scene in the last two two
Speaker 1: or three seasons, ye seasons. In every scene, not every scene,
Speaker 1: but most of them. It really depended on hide ability. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So there is a scene where, well, for instance, Danielle,
Speaker 1: when you and Ben have your the college dorm and
Speaker 1: you have a closet. When you open the closet, there's
Speaker 1: a shoe tree hanging from the closet. Yeah, and there's
Speaker 1: also a lobster sticking out of one of these amazing
Speaker 1: people are going to just now start binge watching our
Speaker 1: Um Betsy. I used to love to do this to Betsy.
Speaker 1: I would slide it in the kitchen drawers right she
Speaker 1: was in the kitchen open up. There would be a
Speaker 1: lobster in there. There's also a scene that really scared
Speaker 1: me when I saw it aired, because I thought the
Speaker 1: lobster was hidden very well. And it's a scene where
Speaker 1: Bill is Is he dean? I think he's a dean
Speaker 1: or or something. Anyway, it was a very serious type
Speaker 1: of scene where he was talking to administrators or whatever.
Speaker 1: I can't remember what the scene was. Anyway, there was
Speaker 1: a whole floral arrangement behind him and you put it
Speaker 1: and I stuck the lobster in the Oh my god,
Speaker 1: did you see it? However, it glows in the darkness.
Speaker 1: Close in the dark, so you see flower flower? What
Speaker 1: is that flower flower flow? Oh my gosh, it it
Speaker 1: glows in the dark. It's also on the it was
Speaker 1: in the student it was either the student union or
Speaker 1: the store at the college. And memory was always there, Yeah,
Speaker 1: always there, I would pretty my gosh. I can't wait
Speaker 1: for us to get to those episodes. Thank you, Thank
Speaker 1: you for reminding me of this, because we're kind of
Speaker 1: dreading getting to those those years of the just because
Speaker 1: there are so many moments where like, oh man, we
Speaker 1: don't even know what we're in for. But now I'll
Speaker 1: get to focus on the lobster, lobster, lobster. He didn't
Speaker 1: you hide other things too? There was was there another?
Speaker 1: Was there a lizard? Or is it always just the lobster?
Speaker 1: I always had to lose. It's around me. There's the
Speaker 1: mind with the lobsters. I put out. Yeah, there's also
Speaker 1: another scene, and this one really scared me. And I
Speaker 1: think this was with you Rider and with Trina, okay,
Speaker 1: and it would the wedding. I think it was Bill's
Speaker 1: wedding and you and Trina are on you are on
Speaker 1: the staircase. I believe you and Trina are standing by
Speaker 1: the staircase and you would just had a fight in
Speaker 1: the show and so but you're watching this very emotional moment,
Speaker 1: you know between and your hands just kind of touch
Speaker 1: on the staircase. Well the lobster is right below your
Speaker 1: hands like that, but you couldn't see it. So here
Speaker 1: I am, you know, because it's it's decorated with flowers
Speaker 1: and all that stuff. So I'm watching the shooting of
Speaker 1: it and the director decides to pull in on a
Speaker 1: close up on the hands on the hands, and I
Speaker 1: see a little bit of st aybody finds out to
Speaker 1: do this. I'm dead, Yeah, I love the set department.
Speaker 1: They knew about it, they did, Okay. I told a
Speaker 1: couple of people about it. There were a couple of
Speaker 1: cameramen that knew about it, and um uh one of
Speaker 1: the set one of the set decorators, I believe, more
Speaker 1: paths and crofts. Yeah, yeah, yeah, just so they knew,
Speaker 1: like and you know, I got there, okay, I don't
Speaker 1: want to move in their sets, and it was like,
Speaker 1: let me hide this in there. So it was all,
Speaker 1: you know, it was all okay. As far as I
Speaker 1: can't believe either of you remember that. That's so fun. No,
Speaker 1: but the second you said it, I remembered it. But no,
Speaker 1: there's so much I don't remember. Oh my god. Yeah,
Speaker 1: do you remember we had those audience members that would
Speaker 1: come every single week scer family, your family, Your family
Speaker 1: lovingly called them the stalkers. They and they loved it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they loved they called themselves as soccer to the point
Speaker 1: where they were in the wedding episode. They were sitting
Speaker 1: on Tapanga's side when Rory and Tapanga got married. Michael's
Speaker 1: called yeah, because and he said to me, because I
Speaker 1: had all the background people set towards sit and Michael says,
Speaker 1: let's throw them in. This will make him hand I know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he loved he loved doing that. When Ryder and I
Speaker 1: did the last we shot that video where everybody is
Speaker 1: ten years later. The final joke is that we both
Speaker 1: live with the Year family and they came and they
Speaker 1: shot where we were shooting, and they came in. It's
Speaker 1: us like wrestling and having a pillow fight. They were
Speaker 1: the nicest people, and they came to every episode for
Speaker 1: like five years. They ended up coming to Girl Meat's
Speaker 1: World too. Not every single episode, but they came and
Speaker 1: they visited. Yeah, they came to Girl MEA's World. That's great.
Speaker 1: They were super nice people. Did you have You are
Speaker 1: one of the very few people who had the experience
Speaker 1: of being with us all seven years on Boy Meat's World. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So what changes do you remember seeing in us, whether
Speaker 1: that's professionally or personally either one but that maybe you
Speaker 1: noticed and kind of just smiled to yourself about, or like,
Speaker 1: what changes did you see in us over those seven years?
Speaker 1: Definitely the burnout factor, yeah, desfinitely, not so much from
Speaker 1: will Well you were like one of those little wind
Speaker 1: up monkeys. It was just like you born. But the
Speaker 1: burnout factor between you, Danielle and a Rider was serious.
Speaker 1: And it hurt my heart to see that there was
Speaker 1: nothing that I could do except listen to you, you know,
Speaker 1: in the dressing room and you know or whatever, and
Speaker 1: you would just you know, confide in me. And I
Speaker 1: just kept thinking to myself, please get over this, because
Speaker 1: you don't know, you don't know yet. Yes, this is
Speaker 1: a good thing you're in. And but just my heart
Speaker 1: to see you guys like that. Yeah, nothing, you know,
Speaker 1: boy met world ended and we all kind of scattered
Speaker 1: to the wind. We were able to talk to each
Speaker 1: other a little bit years later and things like that.
Speaker 1: But where did you go after? Boy? I went to
Speaker 1: work on a see was it hype? I did some.
Speaker 1: I worked on other shows. In fact, when we were up,
Speaker 1: and you know, when we were introduction, we'd go down
Speaker 1: on hiatus weeks, I'd work on another show. Okay, I
Speaker 1: was sitting at home, So I worked on several other
Speaker 1: shows during that time, so that when we finally did lockdown,
Speaker 1: when we were done, I had just moved on to
Speaker 1: working on several other shows and then worked for Anthony
Speaker 1: Anderson on his he had a show for a year. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: and oh god, Riba McIntyre. I did that, just a
Speaker 1: bunch of shows after that, and then I decided to
Speaker 1: cry during the weekends. I had been coaching in coaching
Speaker 1: through Chris Kayer. He got me involved in coaching, so
Speaker 1: while we were in production, I on the weekends would
Speaker 1: work with Chris Kayer his studio. And then he was
Speaker 1: gone after the first season, I believe, Yeah, but he
Speaker 1: and I continued our friendships, so I kept working for him,
Speaker 1: and then I started taking over his classes. So in
Speaker 1: two thousand and four, a lot of things have happened.
Speaker 1: At that point. That's when I opened up my own
Speaker 1: studio and coaching ever since. That's great. So wow, almost
Speaker 1: twenty years Yeah. Wow. When we went to go see
Speaker 1: Chris at his Christmas store, he brought out the big
Speaker 1: sign that we all took a picture with, and it
Speaker 1: was it was from you to Chris, and we got
Speaker 1: to see your signature, and just seeing your writing brought
Speaker 1: back just a flood of memories for me. I was like,
Speaker 1: there's my deeds, his handwriting. But you think you wrote
Speaker 1: you know, I don't remember. There was a joke on
Speaker 1: it too. I think I took a picture of it.
Speaker 1: You of course probably But the other joke was he
Speaker 1: thought all of you signed it. That's so funny. No,
Speaker 1: it's from it's from you too, Chris, and it's uh, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's signed. It's it's so cute. That's nice that he has.
Speaker 1: That's yeah. I really credit him. I learned a lot
Speaker 1: from him, and I think I coached with him for
Speaker 1: eight or nine years. You know, I started taking over
Speaker 1: these classes, so I did. I learned an awful lot
Speaker 1: from him, and I learned things that I wanted to
Speaker 1: do and things that I didn't want to do classes.
Speaker 1: That's really what I came. Do you do you primarily
Speaker 1: coach kids or adults too, primarily? Yeah, but I still have.
Speaker 1: You know, it's an interesting Several of the kids that
Speaker 1: I used to coach years ago, they left me when
Speaker 1: they were like twelve years old or now in their twenties,
Speaker 1: and they're getting in touch with me and they want
Speaker 1: me to coach them now. That's so great, awesome, Yes,
Speaker 1: it's nice. So um. One of them made a very
Speaker 1: funny statement and she says, get I'm sorry I didn't
Speaker 1: get tall. You know, I'm only five four, And I said, well,
Speaker 1: I'm not five four, because she thought I was very
Speaker 1: very tall, she remembers me when she was ten years
Speaker 1: of course, oh of course, I mean, deed, you are you?
Speaker 1: Are we about the same size? Five one? Okay? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I know I was gonna say, you're actually like four
Speaker 1: to eleven, aren't you? Kay? Okay, you and my mom?
Speaker 1: You and my mom? How dare you say I'm anything
Speaker 1: less than five feet five feet to the Yeah? Okay,
Speaker 1: So Easton our super fan knows exactly what it says.
Speaker 1: It's on the back of the sign. It says to
Speaker 1: my third ex husband, which is perfect and very very
Speaker 1: very very deed. I love it. Yeah, yeah, it's very sweet.
Speaker 1: We were very good friends, but you know, that's life.
Speaker 1: Thirty years later, looking back on boy Meets World, what
Speaker 1: what are your thoughts? What are your feelings? What comes
Speaker 1: to you when you think about your time on Boy
Speaker 1: Meets World? As many shows as I worked in over
Speaker 1: the years, even before Boyne's World, you know, like whether
Speaker 1: it was Who's the Boss, Facts of Life, Married with Children,
Speaker 1: all these shows that I worked on, this was the one,
Speaker 1: This was Home. It was you guys were absolutely wonderful.
Speaker 1: Betsy and Rusty were just so such great people. Bill
Speaker 1: Daniels that I think being with Bill was the hardest
Speaker 1: for me in that I and I was every day
Speaker 1: of the week. I wanted to fan out here and
Speaker 1: I wanted to say, oh my god, you're both Daniels.
Speaker 1: It was like that, right, Sanuel swear, Oh my god,
Speaker 1: everything that he had done. Yeah, and I couldn't. I
Speaker 1: had to keep cool because and I were pretty close, right,
Speaker 1: you know, we had a really nice relationship. Bill and
Speaker 1: I And if he knew how much meant to me
Speaker 1: at that time, I would have been embarrassed, right, But
Speaker 1: but I was so taken by that man everything that
Speaker 1: he did. So we used to spend a lot of
Speaker 1: time talking about, you know, the old days of show
Speaker 1: business and stuff like when he met Bonnie and I
Speaker 1: was he was just a just a special, special man,
Speaker 1: so much so that when we went when we went
Speaker 1: on to Girl Meets World and I was there on
Speaker 1: the first season and he came into guests, That's when
Speaker 1: they called me and they said, Diddy, would you meet
Speaker 1: Bill and bring him into the set because I was
Speaker 1: a stab stabilizing factor for him. Wow. Yeah, just so
Speaker 1: for that, Yeah, that was a big deal for me.
Speaker 1: You kids were It was just the whole feeling the
Speaker 1: whole mood of the show was wonderful. I Um, Michael was,
Speaker 1: you know, very family oriented, and he was absolutely like that.
Speaker 1: You know, you never knew when he was going to pop,
Speaker 1: when he was going to scream, or when he was
Speaker 1: going to hug you. Yeah, that's who he was. But
Speaker 1: let me tell you it's like that in the real world,
Speaker 1: or being like that in the real world. I can't
Speaker 1: tell you how many director's producers that I've worked with
Speaker 1: that would no sooner slap you down than hire you
Speaker 1: the next day because they need you. Yeah, just the
Speaker 1: way it is. Michael was never that harsh because you've
Speaker 1: always had his And this is during Boy Meets World.
Speaker 1: Let me preface that by saying, this is during Boy
Speaker 1: Meet's World. He was very protective of the kids, okay,
Speaker 1: and his crew. Yeah, he's also very protective of his crewe. Yeah. So,
Speaker 1: I mean. One of the things my mom always talks
Speaker 1: about that she's so appreciated is that she remembers thinking,
Speaker 1: like we I think it must have been on one
Speaker 1: of the other sets I had been on before I
Speaker 1: got to Boy Meet's World, which there had only been
Speaker 1: a handful of them. My mom remembers walking across set
Speaker 1: really early in the morning, probably getting me to the schoolroom,
Speaker 1: and they're being crew around working, you know, working overnight,
Speaker 1: probably doing set deck, and they were just cursing up
Speaker 1: a storm. And it was my mom's first real thing
Speaker 1: of like, oh, yeah, this is a real adult environment
Speaker 1: and my kid is now going to be in this
Speaker 1: adult environment and I'm not used to that. And she
Speaker 1: remembers thinking like, gosh, don't they know there's kids around.
Speaker 1: They should they should be adjusting the way they're talking
Speaker 1: because there's kids around. And then when we got to
Speaker 1: Boy Meet's World, it wasn't like that. On Boy Meets World,
Speaker 1: the actual the environment was very much this is a
Speaker 1: kid's environment. But one of the things I liked that
Speaker 1: you mentioned, Deed even about Chris Kier, that you had
Speaker 1: learned a lot from him things you wanted to do
Speaker 1: and things you didn't want to do. I always I
Speaker 1: think some of the best teachers are teachers that you
Speaker 1: actually learn, you know, both from very you know, I
Speaker 1: can't even tell you how many amazing things I learned
Speaker 1: from Michael on Boy Meet's World. Have They come up
Speaker 1: all the time when we talk about episodes, we just
Speaker 1: you know, didn't we just recapped the episode where Korey
Speaker 1: into Penga fall asleep, and it was the first real
Speaker 1: lesson I got on not playing angry and how to
Speaker 1: actually be impactful. And you know, I mean some of
Speaker 1: the some of the greatest lessons of my life came
Speaker 1: from from Michael Jacobs and then you know, some of
Speaker 1: them also were thinking ways I don't want to behave
Speaker 1: on a set exactly exactly, And that's you know, and
Speaker 1: once again, every show that I've ever worked on, when
Speaker 1: they've had a kid there, that's the first thing the
Speaker 1: ad screams out to the crew. Child on set, watch
Speaker 1: your mouth ye five minutes, none of them it comes out.
Speaker 1: I mean just that, you know, it's like it's a
Speaker 1: construction site basically, you know, so everybody slips and they
Speaker 1: always go home. I'm sorry, sorry, but no, but not
Speaker 1: on not on BOYD. That did not happen. Everybody was
Speaker 1: very aware. And I think also, and this is for
Speaker 1: you guys, I think the crew loved you and respected you. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think they did too. I hope it's I hope
Speaker 1: it's because they felt loved and respected by us. Yeah, mutual,
Speaker 1: felt mutual, and when everyone treated us like which was
Speaker 1: so great, like I never felt condescended to. In fact,
Speaker 1: I remember I remember if somebody came on like a
Speaker 1: guest star or for whatever reason, we would have somebody new.
Speaker 1: I remember turning to Ben and being like, oh, they're
Speaker 1: going to treat us like kids, or like, well we
Speaker 1: were talking about with the photoshoots. You know we have
Speaker 1: these photographers. You know, the kids want to jump. It
Speaker 1: was like that attitude, like we would never be condescended to.
Speaker 1: Everybody on our set was so cool and treated us
Speaker 1: like adults, and we responded in kind. I mean, I had,
Speaker 1: you know, really wonderful friendships with so many people. Yeah yeah, okay.
Speaker 1: Tried to do everything that he could for you ride
Speaker 1: or when it came down to the poetry, I mean,
Speaker 1: there was so much talk upstairs about trying to appease you.
Speaker 1: You're not even aware of that. There was like, look,
Speaker 1: this kid is going through so much and he's really talented,
Speaker 1: and there was a lot of that going on, and
Speaker 1: you know, and then Will and I remember being on
Speaker 1: stage and if it would be something that just didn't
Speaker 1: work and that and I remember color writers going, well
Speaker 1: make it funny. Oh yeah, yeah. King really trusted you
Speaker 1: and they no, they did, No, they did. And again
Speaker 1: we're The thing that's interesting as we're kind of learning
Speaker 1: our way through everything that we went through is most
Speaker 1: of the memories that we have, and I mean it's
Speaker 1: the vast majorial speak myself, most of the memories I have,
Speaker 1: the vast majority are great. I mean they're phenomenal, and
Speaker 1: they were nurturing and it was a wonderful set to
Speaker 1: be on and we had it was you know, especially
Speaker 1: towards the end, it was um kind of pooling all
Speaker 1: of our creativity and we were you know, knew the blocking,
Speaker 1: so we could kind of hey, what if I did this,
Speaker 1: what if I did that? And it became much more collaborative.
Speaker 1: It was wonderful. But then we're hearing about, you know,
Speaker 1: other things that we were kept were kept away from us,
Speaker 1: things that you know, people went out of their way
Speaker 1: to make sure that the kids weren't inundated with that.
Speaker 1: You know, as we're learning about it now, some of
Speaker 1: it was not very healthy. But again, we didn't see
Speaker 1: a lot of that stuff, so it is kind of
Speaker 1: learning about it after the fact. But for the most part,
Speaker 1: the actual going to set every day and getting to
Speaker 1: work with everybody in Hayfer and you and Lynn McCracken
Speaker 1: and our directors, and it was just it was a
Speaker 1: watch a lot of child actors can't say, yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: like you have a conversations or you read about are
Speaker 1: Like a lot of sets did not have that, and
Speaker 1: they were very fraught places for children to be in.
Speaker 1: And Michael would often get us together and I'll never
Speaker 1: forget this, and it was an incredible lesson. He would
Speaker 1: often get us together and say two things. Remember this
Speaker 1: ends ye and remember you may never find this again.
Speaker 1: And both of those things were hugely important lessons. And
Speaker 1: he was never harsh with saying it. He just wanted
Speaker 1: us to remind us that this wasn't forever. Enjoy it
Speaker 1: because it could be gone tomorrow. And that's what happens
Speaker 1: in the show. It literally was gone tomorrow. You're Thursday
Speaker 1: night we did the show and Friday it was gone.
Speaker 1: That's after seven years. So he was he was very
Speaker 1: good at imparting that wisdom to us a lot of times.
Speaker 1: And yeah, and we had our writers that they just
Speaker 1: loved writing for you. They really did. Yeah, they you know,
Speaker 1: they knew your strengths and weeks and you know, they
Speaker 1: could fun find those funny places easier because you because
Speaker 1: you thank you so much. You know. It was it
Speaker 1: was always chaos and it just turned out to be
Speaker 1: a thing of beauty in the end, you know. And yeah,
Speaker 1: it was much to that, like I'll speak to that
Speaker 1: where Yeah, like I said, the burnout factor was what
Speaker 1: made me sad with you guys, because I did. I
Speaker 1: just want to say that same thing. This is going
Speaker 1: to be gone tomorrow. Yeah, it's hard for it's hard
Speaker 1: for uh eighteen nineteen twenty year olds. Writer and I
Speaker 1: we've talked about it that, you know, gosh, we wish
Speaker 1: we could go back and say, like, listen, sure, relax,
Speaker 1: there isn't there isn't a different or maybe there is
Speaker 1: a different life, but it's where you just live in
Speaker 1: your moment, stop trying to think about all the things
Speaker 1: you're missing out on, the things you should be doing
Speaker 1: or the other things. Like there's time for that. You
Speaker 1: will do all of that. It will be there. Writer
Speaker 1: was still going to get to go to college. I
Speaker 1: was still going to get to do absolutely nothing like
Speaker 1: there was there was, which was all I wanted to
Speaker 1: do was just can I just please do nothing? Um?
Speaker 1: And so there would there would be time for all
Speaker 1: of that. Like I wish we could go back and
Speaker 1: tell ourselves, like, just live in this moment because you're
Speaker 1: never You're not going to get this back except for
Speaker 1: thirty years from now. When you guys do Pod Me's World, Yeah,
Speaker 1: you get a taste of it again and so now
Speaker 1: we get to do it a little differently. That's true
Speaker 1: of life. Yeah, you always look back and said, why
Speaker 1: didn't I enjoy that? Why didn't I enjoy that moment?
Speaker 1: You know with my husband or my wife or why
Speaker 1: didn't That is part of life when you're in it.
Speaker 1: We're in a vacuum. You don't see how good you
Speaker 1: have it and exactly you know what is it twenty
Speaker 1: twenty hindsight and you actually respect everything looks a little rosier. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you get the ugly parts and sometimes youngly parts get
Speaker 1: bigger and you know that's it. But it's it's that way,
Speaker 1: you know. I want to speak to something that I
Speaker 1: had heard in the last pod last couple times. So
Speaker 1: it was aired um and it was it was funny
Speaker 1: that they were making when they make references to things
Speaker 1: that you don't understand. Daniel's red Gelope. Yeah, all of that, right,
Speaker 1: and he's like, Will said, yeah, seven year old really
Speaker 1: relates to that. Understand, in those days, we didn't have Disney,
Speaker 1: Nickelodeon and all of that. It was ABC and it
Speaker 1: was family time. Yeah, the parents sat with the children
Speaker 1: and watched the show sometimes with grandparents and grandparents. The
Speaker 1: jokes were not written for the kids. Yeah, the jokes
Speaker 1: are written for the adults. No. We talked about that
Speaker 1: with Saint Eligius, that which Billy exactly, very good of
Speaker 1: you will to remember that. Yeah, it was that. It
Speaker 1: was that kind of We love having a grandpa on
Speaker 1: the show with us because we find that the grandpa
Speaker 1: will uh finds those jokes that young writer and I
Speaker 1: don't understand the best grandpa ever, that's right, best grandpa ever.
Speaker 1: So Ded, I know, I know people are going to
Speaker 1: want to know where they can find you. And you
Speaker 1: you started DD's Real Actors back in two thousand and
Speaker 1: four and now you are the head coach with the
Speaker 1: LA Acting Academy in Phoenix, and so where can people
Speaker 1: find you? Can people do zoom lessons with you? Yes,
Speaker 1: they can do zoom with me. Um um. I don't
Speaker 1: have a social platform so to speak in fact, Danielle,
Speaker 1: you are the one that forced me to join Facebook.
Speaker 1: Book years ago. It was like, I don't want any
Speaker 1: part of it, and you made me join. Now I
Speaker 1: haven't been on Facebook and I don't even know how long.
Speaker 1: It's a right no, because you made me join Insta
Speaker 1: and I am not, so I don't. Yeah, she's just trying.
Speaker 1: She's still trying to get me on my Space and omeigal.
Speaker 1: So don't worry about now, d D. I insisted follow
Speaker 1: on Instagram so she can follow along with my children
Speaker 1: children exactly. Yeah, because I have a private account for
Speaker 1: my kids, so I have UM on Facebook. I do
Speaker 1: have a DD's Real Actors Pay Real is our everyone correct?
Speaker 1: Correct and or d D stephano I. The only friends
Speaker 1: that I have on my Facebook page are the people
Speaker 1: from the show that I've worked with, or other other
Speaker 1: writers or producers. I think I've got maybe forty friends.
Speaker 1: I don't want a friend of people because it's not
Speaker 1: what I do. And here's the thing too, I am
Speaker 1: old school. I am crewe. You are the stars. I
Speaker 1: don't like to talk about. Oh look I just worked
Speaker 1: with this kid and they booked blah blah blah, and
Speaker 1: now they got this, and they got that I am
Speaker 1: not that person. Somebody who just what was it the
Speaker 1: owner of the company had just posted something about me
Speaker 1: being a rock star because several of my kids had
Speaker 1: booked major things in the last couple of months. And
Speaker 1: I go back and I said, I'm not the rock star.
Speaker 1: The kids at the rock star. And so that's why
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't like to boast and say, oh
Speaker 1: look what I did, I'm having such a wonderful life. No,
Speaker 1: I'm just we'll boast for you. I was just going
Speaker 1: to say, he may not like to boast, but we
Speaker 1: will do it for you. And we're going to boast
Speaker 1: for you. You know, just tell you. I mean, we
Speaker 1: told you when you first joined. But like you are
Speaker 1: just such a such I mean one of my I
Speaker 1: don't even know how to describe it, not biggest, not whatever.
Speaker 1: You are one of the most constant and regular memories
Speaker 1: for me. And not just you, but the way I
Speaker 1: felt around you, and the fact that I did without
Speaker 1: even the slightest hesitation, I trusted you one hundred and
Speaker 1: ten percent. I trusted you with everything. I shared everything
Speaker 1: with you, good bad, highs lows, and you were such
Speaker 1: a safe wonderful place for us to just walk in,
Speaker 1: leave the chaos of the world behind, and be with
Speaker 1: our deeds. And you know, I just we love you
Speaker 1: so much. Thank you well, d d thank you so
Speaker 1: much for being here with us. Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 1: It's been like visiting with my friends. I know we
Speaker 1: used to go to lunch, remember that. And you moved
Speaker 1: to Phoenix. I don't bring it up to her, don't.
Speaker 1: I had an incredible opportunity to buy property and do
Speaker 1: this job. It was incredible, Yeah, and I went for it.
Speaker 1: You have to. I wake up every morning going this
Speaker 1: is a bad dream, right ye were You're still on
Speaker 1: those felis up until you left? Yeah, yeah, of course
Speaker 1: I will drive that street and not think of you. Yes,
Speaker 1: I love that place. Well, yeah, I think about it
Speaker 1: every single time. I loved it. Writer. I still keep
Speaker 1: up with your mom and dad, you know I still
Speaker 1: you still talk to my mom all the time. I
Speaker 1: talked to your mom all the time. You don't talk
Speaker 1: to my parents. But that's I never did. Attorney for
Speaker 1: Dell attorney, the attorney for Dell, an attorney for Dell. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but it's just incredible. So Neil has all the information
Speaker 1: you know, goods and stuff. So I'll share the emails,
Speaker 1: the phone numbers, you guys. Yeah, yeah, yeah, well deeds,
Speaker 1: we love you. I love you, thank you for making
Speaker 1: those years some of the best of my life. Actually
Speaker 1: right up there right likewise, yeah, right back at you.
Speaker 1: I feel the same way. Thank you. I love you,
Speaker 1: love you. By oh boy. Of course I got emotional
Speaker 1: again saying about two dead inside. I don't feel the
Speaker 1: way you guys feel. I love it and I miss
Speaker 1: these people and I'm so happy. I just don't cry.
Speaker 1: I never do, yeah, crying everything every movie. I just
Speaker 1: I used to feel bad about it. Now now I'll
Speaker 1: be driving in the car with indeed and and a
Speaker 1: song will come on, I'll just start crying. I'm so
Speaker 1: s two or three things that make me cry, and
Speaker 1: it's they're rare, so I know I'll give out there
Speaker 1: Sometimes out there wakes me up in the middle of
Speaker 1: the night because he's completely potty to now, and he
Speaker 1: wakes me up in the middle of the night to
Speaker 1: go to the bathroom because he's still in his crib.
Speaker 1: And I'll get him up to and just giving him
Speaker 1: that hug at like two o'clock in the morning and
Speaker 1: he's all warm, and he's in his little snuggly seat
Speaker 1: see sleepsac and I'll just start crying. Yeah, hug him
Speaker 1: and he's like, you know, I don't want him to know.
Speaker 1: Thankfully it's dark. But yeah, I cried everything, man. Just yeah.
Speaker 1: I think if I woke up in the middle of
Speaker 1: the night and realized I had kids, i'd cry too.
Speaker 1: So yeah, that's true. That was amazing. She I miss her.
Speaker 1: I miss her. Yeah, exactly the same. Weird so great. Ye. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I have to like go visit her in Phoenix or
Speaker 1: see her and we should all go. We'll go, We'll
Speaker 1: go and just hang out in Phoenix. I would love that,
Speaker 1: and she would love that. Are you kidding me? Um?
Speaker 1: We should have to bring a podium. Ye stand up, Yes, exactly,
Speaker 1: that is the way to do it. I can't wait
Speaker 1: for hashtag look for the lobster. I can't wait. I'm
Speaker 1: so excited you remembered that. Well, man, I'm so glad
Speaker 1: you remembered that. Thank god you brought that about the Buddha. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and there's so many things and because the necklace is
Speaker 1: there and everything there with us for all of that stuff,
Speaker 1: she was she was the the other cast member. I
Speaker 1: mean she really was. And yeah, the whole thing with
Speaker 1: your necklace rider. That one so crazy because I remember
Speaker 1: there's one. There's a blue and white one that I
Speaker 1: start wearing, but the silver one I wore all seven
Speaker 1: seasons and I hadn't. I completely forgot where I got it, obviously,
Speaker 1: and then I forgot what happened to it. So I'm
Speaker 1: sitting here going like, yeah, like it must have been
Speaker 1: special to me. Where did it go? And there it is? Wow,
Speaker 1: she still has That's so amazing. That's even cooler than
Speaker 1: the leather jacket. Well, now, okay, that's a good idea.
Speaker 1: We'll go to do an episode from Phoenix. Okay, I
Speaker 1: like that idea. We got to do it. Uh. Thank
Speaker 1: you all for being with us for this episode of
Speaker 1: Pod Meets World. As always, you can follow us on
Speaker 1: Instagram pod Meets World Show. You can send us your
Speaker 1: emails pod meets World Show at gmail dot com and
Speaker 1: we have March Magda pod meets Worldshow dot com and
Speaker 1: we'll send us out. We love you all, pod dismissed.
Speaker 1: Pod Meets World is an iHeart podcast produced and hosted
Speaker 1: by Danielle Fischel, Wilfordelle and Ryder Strong Executive producers, Jensencarp
Speaker 1: and Amy Sugarman, executive in Charger Production, Danielle Romo, producer
Speaker 1: and editor, Tara Supboch producer, Jackie Rodriguez, engineer and Boy
Speaker 1: Meets World superfan Easton Allen. Our theme song is by
Speaker 1: Kyle Morton of Typhoon and you can follow us on
Speaker 1: Instagram at Podmeats World Show or email us at Podmeets
Speaker 1: World Show at gmail dot com