WEBVTT - Susan Estelle Jansen Meets World 0:00:21.040 --> 0:00:22.600 I want to see where you guys land on this 0:00:22.880 --> 0:00:26.560 because I think it's a product of having grown up 0:00:26.600 --> 0:00:32.199 without television. I cannot be in a room with a 0:00:32.200 --> 0:00:35.479 television on, like if there's a TV on, like, I 0:00:35.479 --> 0:00:37.080 can't go to a restaurant or a bar with it. 0:00:37.280 --> 0:00:41.280 I stare at it the entire time. Like, so there's 0:00:41.320 --> 0:00:43.239 no such thing as comfort TV for me. Like, well, 0:00:43.240 --> 0:00:45.360 you've talked about going to sleep with the television, like 0:00:45.520 --> 0:00:46.440 I will saut it. 0:00:46.520 --> 0:00:50.680 Yeah, I'm the same way, writer. I can't stand it. 0:00:50.680 --> 0:00:54.640 It's to me, TV is not background noise. It's the focus. 0:00:54.880 --> 0:00:57.320 If you're gonna watch it, it needs to be the 0:00:57.480 --> 0:01:00.720 entire focus. And I want everyone else reading for it. Yes, 0:01:00.840 --> 0:01:03.080 And I'm like, guys, this show is on, but if 0:01:03.080 --> 0:01:05.160 you'd like to talk, we can turn it off. I 0:01:05.160 --> 0:01:07.600 have no problem with either of them, but like, it's 0:01:07.640 --> 0:01:08.840 not for me background noise. 0:01:09.040 --> 0:01:09.200 No. 0:01:09.480 --> 0:01:11.520 And you walk into some people's houses, like my in laws, 0:01:11.680 --> 0:01:13.840 you know, they they just are one of those houses. 0:01:13.840 --> 0:01:15.280 They just always kind of had the TV on. It's 0:01:15.480 --> 0:01:18.160 mostly sports, like my father in law watches sports, but 0:01:18.319 --> 0:01:20.640 oh my god, it drives me crazy. And like I 0:01:20.680 --> 0:01:23.000 walk into the house and everybody else acts as if 0:01:23.560 --> 0:01:25.520 like nothing's happening, and I'm like, do you see this 0:01:25.640 --> 0:01:28.959 TV screaming at us right now? It is begging to 0:01:29.080 --> 0:01:33.679 be watched. What are you doing there? Wonderful in your ear? 0:01:33.800 --> 0:01:34.600 That's what it's doing. 0:01:34.880 --> 0:01:37.000 We we we were not one of It's funny because 0:01:37.000 --> 0:01:38.520 you would think we would be one of those families. 0:01:38.520 --> 0:01:38.960 We weren't. 0:01:39.000 --> 0:01:41.440 We were not a lot like TV during meals stuff 0:01:41.480 --> 0:01:44.080 like that. TV was oh no, we were not allowed 0:01:44.080 --> 0:01:47.120 to have any of the well, yeah, that's the thing, 0:01:47.160 --> 0:01:49.400 and then we'd all, you know, gather around the old 0:01:49.440 --> 0:01:52.400 boob too. But no, to me, it's weird because I 0:01:52.520 --> 0:01:55.160 Sue and I are different in that she likes to 0:01:55.160 --> 0:01:56.800 sleep with the TV on too, but it has to 0:01:56.800 --> 0:01:59.240 be something she's seen ten thousand times, so she doesn't 0:01:59.240 --> 0:02:01.800 want to stay up and walk. Whereas even if I'm 0:02:01.840 --> 0:02:05.800 rolled over on my stomach, chances are I'm still watching. 0:02:05.480 --> 0:02:06.720 It in my head. 0:02:06.960 --> 0:02:07.160 Right. 0:02:07.320 --> 0:02:10.079 No, So when I hear mash or cheers or Seinfeld 0:02:10.160 --> 0:02:12.800 or something behind me, like Danielle you recently, you and 0:02:12.800 --> 0:02:16.560 I were flying somewhere and you put Cheers back on 0:02:16.560 --> 0:02:20.639 on the flight and I was like watching my screen 0:02:20.680 --> 0:02:23.560 but glancing over and watching Cheers on Danielle's screen with 0:02:23.680 --> 0:02:25.480 note like not being able to hear it, but still 0:02:25.520 --> 0:02:29.000 watching Cheers, and now it's I'm completely back into Cheers. 0:02:29.400 --> 0:02:30.919 Oh that's so funny because you. 0:02:31.000 --> 0:02:32.760 Just turned it on. So it's like all of a sudden, 0:02:32.760 --> 0:02:33.160 I'm back. 0:02:33.200 --> 0:02:36.280 But I will like and Sue will test me sometimes 0:02:36.360 --> 0:02:39.200 Seinfelder Mash will be on and I'll be literally on 0:02:39.240 --> 0:02:41.800 my stomach with my arms like falling asleep, and she'll go, 0:02:41.840 --> 0:02:43.520 what's happening on the screen right now? And I'll be like, 0:02:43.560 --> 0:02:46.000 George is sitting down, He's wearing a red shirt. He's 0:02:46.040 --> 0:02:48.160 on a couch and he's holding a cracked magazine with 0:02:48.240 --> 0:02:48.919 a bus on front. 0:02:48.919 --> 0:02:50.799 And She's just like, how do you do that? It's like, 0:02:51.080 --> 0:02:52.040 I'm still watching it. 0:02:52.160 --> 0:02:54.200 Did I already tell you the story writer about when 0:02:54.200 --> 0:02:56.720 Will and I were flying together and he put the 0:02:56.760 --> 0:02:58.280 tea so he has a screen in front of him 0:02:58.320 --> 0:03:01.480 on the seat and he goes to the TV. And 0:03:01.560 --> 0:03:03.360 what it was that you put on? It was weep 0:03:03.800 --> 0:03:07.040 weep Okay. He puts Veep on and I see I go, oh, 0:03:07.120 --> 0:03:09.240 he's watching veep okay. And I'm just sitting next to him. 0:03:09.240 --> 0:03:11.320 I've got an audiobook in whatever. Oh no, I was 0:03:11.360 --> 0:03:13.880 watching something too. I put something on and then Will 0:03:14.000 --> 0:03:16.040 turns it on. He watches it for maybe two minutes, 0:03:16.080 --> 0:03:20.400 and then all of a sudden, he goes, lowers his 0:03:20.520 --> 0:03:24.760 hat down over his eyes, leans back in his seat, 0:03:25.200 --> 0:03:28.840 goes to sleep, and I go, oh, well's gonna sleep. 0:03:29.280 --> 0:03:32.440 A few minutes later the episode ends, Will still asleep 0:03:32.480 --> 0:03:34.840 and I go, oh, that's nice. TV turned off. He 0:03:34.840 --> 0:03:38.960 can go to sleep. He goes, lifts up his hat, 0:03:39.360 --> 0:03:42.240 goes back to the thing, turns on a second episode 0:03:42.240 --> 0:03:47.800 of Weep, and then lowers his hat an episode of Veep. 0:03:47.880 --> 0:03:49.400 What is he doing? And then I realized, oh, he 0:03:49.480 --> 0:03:54.040 actually woke up because the TV show stopped, and now 0:03:54.240 --> 0:03:56.640 in order to put the little baby back to sleep, 0:03:56.760 --> 0:03:59.440 he has to put the episode of Veep back on it. 0:04:00.480 --> 0:04:02.680 He did it like four or five times. I was like, 0:04:02.760 --> 0:04:05.040 this is the worst sleep ever I did. Miserable. 0:04:05.160 --> 0:04:06.720 That's awful. Yeah, I love it. 0:04:07.000 --> 0:04:10.040 Torture You're literally tortured and yourself awake every. 0:04:10.040 --> 0:04:10.400 I love it. 0:04:10.440 --> 0:04:13.040 Twenty two minutes. Yeah, what about commercials? Can you guys 0:04:13.080 --> 0:04:13.920 handle commercials? 0:04:13.960 --> 0:04:16.640 I'm not a fan of commercials, That's why I Yeah, 0:04:16.760 --> 0:04:19.840 the DVDs, especially, like the advent of I could get 0:04:19.839 --> 0:04:23.040 all my favorite shows on DVD was just a revelation 0:04:23.080 --> 0:04:26.320 for me. The play all button was just like, oh, 0:04:26.720 --> 0:04:27.760 every time I hit playing, I. 0:04:27.760 --> 0:04:32.080 Find commercials so jarring and bizarre, and like when I'm watching, 0:04:32.120 --> 0:04:34.479 I mean, I just can't They're like train wrecks. I 0:04:34.560 --> 0:04:37.120 just don't like I have to watch them, of course 0:04:37.120 --> 0:04:39.640 because the TV's screaming, I mean, and often with commercials, 0:04:39.640 --> 0:04:42.280 they are literally screaming at you, right, And then I 0:04:42.760 --> 0:04:45.360 just like the world present, especially like because I've been 0:04:45.360 --> 0:04:48.200 on the road now, so we are in hotel rooms 0:04:48.200 --> 0:04:49.359 every once in a while, like when we were on 0:04:49.480 --> 0:04:53.920 doing our shows, and it's the first time watching commercials within, 0:04:54.279 --> 0:04:56.239 you know, sitting next to me, and like, I didn't 0:04:56.279 --> 0:05:00.520 realize that somewhere over the last like twenty years, basically 0:05:00.520 --> 0:05:03.880 a quarter of all commercials are pharmaceuticals m I think, 0:05:03.960 --> 0:05:06.919 which are accurate? Yeah, mind boggling to me. Like every 0:05:06.920 --> 0:05:10.039 fourth commercial, I'm like, what is happening. This is a 0:05:10.080 --> 0:05:11.920 new thing that I didn't know I had a problem 0:05:11.920 --> 0:05:14.479 with that I need to be solved by this pill 0:05:14.560 --> 0:05:16.520 that I need to ask my doctor about. And this 0:05:16.560 --> 0:05:19.560 is then and suddenly I've gotten a glimpse of somebody's 0:05:19.600 --> 0:05:21.520 life and their pets and their kids and like what 0:05:21.560 --> 0:05:23.360 they do for a living. And it's like four minutes, 0:05:23.360 --> 0:05:25.320 and you know, and India is just like this is 0:05:25.360 --> 0:05:27.440 a thing, and I'm like, oh god, yeah, like this 0:05:27.480 --> 0:05:30.359 is a thing. Apparently we all have diarrhea. 0:05:30.000 --> 0:05:33.160 And we need help on the fence about TV commercials, 0:05:33.160 --> 0:05:35.960 But boy, do I love podcast commercials? 0:05:36.200 --> 0:05:36.440 Yes? 0:05:36.560 --> 0:05:41.600 I think podcast commercials are great, very true. They're funny, 0:05:41.760 --> 0:05:46.640 they're engaging, you know, they're clever. I don't even notice 0:05:46.640 --> 0:05:49.640 person yeah personal, Yeah, I feel like it's just you know, 0:05:50.000 --> 0:05:51.080 my friends sitting. 0:05:51.040 --> 0:05:52.479 Like a warm, comfy blanket. 0:05:52.560 --> 0:05:53.440 That's exactly right. 0:05:53.560 --> 0:05:54.200 Television. 0:05:55.480 --> 0:05:56.479 I saw one last night. 0:05:56.560 --> 0:05:58.120 SOO and I were watching TV last night and I 0:05:58.160 --> 0:06:02.680 literally saw one where the first side effect was death. 0:06:04.560 --> 0:06:07.760 Why do you need to hear the rest of them 0:06:07.960 --> 0:06:08.400 after that? 0:06:08.480 --> 0:06:09.000 Dud? Does it? 0:06:09.040 --> 0:06:10.880 Does it matter that your skin's gonna itch if the 0:06:10.920 --> 0:06:12.920 first thing that happens is you die. 0:06:12.680 --> 0:06:15.800 Like, if you don't die, you may still itch. That's 0:06:15.839 --> 0:06:17.880 why they want you to know. You may not die, 0:06:17.920 --> 0:06:21.280 but you may be itchy with loose bowels itchy exactly. 0:06:22.480 --> 0:06:24.120 Isn't that just what being in love is like. 0:06:24.440 --> 0:06:31.320 Come on, yikes, welcome to pod meets Loose Bowels. I'm 0:06:31.400 --> 0:06:32.760 Dan yell Offishal. 0:06:32.520 --> 0:06:39.000 I'm right or Strong, and I'm Wilfordell Secure. 0:06:39.080 --> 0:06:40.800 Doctor is right for you. 0:06:43.560 --> 0:06:45.800 We're taking the show on the road and visiting over 0:06:45.920 --> 0:06:48.760 a dozen cities as Pod Meets World is coming to 0:06:48.839 --> 0:06:49.800 a city near you. 0:06:50.160 --> 0:06:52.880 Next up is Philadelphia on September thirtieth at the met 0:06:52.960 --> 0:06:54.400 for our biggest show yet. 0:06:54.600 --> 0:06:57.880 We'll be joined by Treeta McGee great person, Matthew Lawrence, 0:06:57.960 --> 0:07:01.039 great person, and Tony Quinn who's a horror garbage human being. 0:07:01.320 --> 0:07:03.120 No you don't mean that, will. 0:07:03.200 --> 0:07:05.680 Oh No, it's the great smelling kind of garbage, you know, 0:07:05.800 --> 0:07:07.240 like outside of Pope Refactory. 0:07:07.279 --> 0:07:07.919 I love you, Tony. 0:07:08.279 --> 0:07:11.520 Tickets are still available right now at Podmeatsworldshow dot. 0:07:11.320 --> 0:07:14.360 Com and you can see our entire schedule, which includes 0:07:14.400 --> 0:07:17.960 stops in Cleveland, Toronto, and Pittsburgh in October, and. 0:07:17.960 --> 0:07:20.800 So much more, including the release dates in Texas. 0:07:21.120 --> 0:07:24.080 Podmeatsworldshow dot Com right now get your tickets to see 0:07:24.120 --> 0:07:25.680 us live in a city near you. 0:07:26.080 --> 0:07:29.080 Well, if you have listened to the first two seasons 0:07:29.080 --> 0:07:31.600 of Podmeats World, you know that we talked a lot 0:07:31.680 --> 0:07:34.640 about the writer's room and the dynamics that lived inside it. 0:07:34.920 --> 0:07:38.520 We've joked numerous times that our podcast is more Raschamon 0:07:38.600 --> 0:07:42.680 than Rewatch, since everyone saw everything differently, and yet the 0:07:42.720 --> 0:07:46.000 truth lies probably somewhere in between all of our memories. 0:07:46.040 --> 0:07:48.560 Everyone named Tapanga good exactly. 0:07:48.600 --> 0:07:51.320 We already know how many stories about that there are. 0:07:51.880 --> 0:07:54.040 But one thing we always pointed out and we love 0:07:54.120 --> 0:07:57.320 to see on screen was the name. Susan Estelle Jansen, 0:07:57.720 --> 0:08:00.720 a rare female voice on the show. Her contributions to 0:08:00.720 --> 0:08:04.080 Boy Meets World are undeniable. In season one, she wrote 0:08:04.160 --> 0:08:07.480 Killer Bee, Santa's Little Helper, and It's a Wonderful Night. 0:08:07.840 --> 0:08:11.240 In season two, The Uninvited Fear strikes Out, Sierra No, 0:08:11.520 --> 0:08:14.560 and Wrong Side of the Tracks. Then we're getting a 0:08:14.560 --> 0:08:16.920 little ahead of ourselves. But one of her two other 0:08:16.960 --> 0:08:20.960 scripts are in season four, and one is Hair Today, 0:08:21.560 --> 0:08:29.720 Goon Tomorrow, the legendary hair catching some big episode right banners. Yeah, 0:08:29.840 --> 0:08:32.440 So to say she helps steer the pop culture ship 0:08:32.480 --> 0:08:34.840 that was Boy Meets World would be an understatement. She 0:08:35.040 --> 0:08:37.679 was one of the sales The Harvard and usc Film 0:08:37.720 --> 0:08:41.000 School grad also wrote on Home Improvement and another Michael 0:08:41.080 --> 0:08:44.400 Jacobs show You Wish. Then she was the executive producer 0:08:44.400 --> 0:08:48.360 for Lizzie McGuire and the writer of the Lizzie McGuire movie, 0:08:48.600 --> 0:08:52.120 and also she penned the live action Brats movie. But 0:08:52.360 --> 0:08:55.240 she couldn't escape us because she came back and wrote 0:08:55.320 --> 0:08:58.319 for season one, the season one finale of Girl Meets World, 0:08:58.440 --> 0:09:02.000 which was called Girl Meets First Date. She's had quite 0:09:02.040 --> 0:09:04.480 a career, and all during a time when you couldn't 0:09:04.480 --> 0:09:07.400 say quite a career for very many female writer producers 0:09:07.440 --> 0:09:10.800 in the industry. And today we are thrilled to reunite 0:09:10.800 --> 0:09:19.600 with her. Let's please welcome Susan Estelle Jansen to our podcast. Wow, 0:09:20.320 --> 0:09:20.920 how are you? 0:09:21.679 --> 0:09:24.079 My god, it is so good to see all of you, guys. 0:09:24.120 --> 0:09:26.679 It's crazy, it's so good to see you. 0:09:27.320 --> 0:09:29.480 We were just talking about in your in your intro 0:09:29.920 --> 0:09:32.920 that you wrote the season the season finale of season 0:09:32.960 --> 0:09:35.280 one for Girl Meets World. But also I remember you 0:09:35.480 --> 0:09:37.080 on set during our pilot. 0:09:37.520 --> 0:09:41.840 I was there, I checked, I ran into came, I 0:09:41.880 --> 0:09:45.880 totally kim undvited. I crashed it. I like that. I 0:09:45.960 --> 0:09:52.160 ran into Michael in the lobby of the Disney Channel building, okay, 0:09:52.920 --> 0:09:54.839 and he told me that he was doing it. I'm like, 0:09:54.880 --> 0:09:56.600 oh my god, I would love to stop by. And 0:09:56.640 --> 0:10:00.480 then I showed up for the pilot re and then 0:10:00.520 --> 0:10:03.120 I just stayed all week. Oh man, it all week 0:10:03.160 --> 0:10:05.920 to help out because it was kind of a little chaotic. 0:10:06.160 --> 0:10:08.040 Oh you think I'm That's what I was saying. I 0:10:08.080 --> 0:10:11.079 was like, you decided to stay. If anything, thank god, 0:10:11.120 --> 0:10:12.040 I don't have to be here. 0:10:13.480 --> 0:10:17.480 No, it was like, it was so amazing to see everybody, 0:10:17.760 --> 0:10:20.560 and even though it was chaotic, to feel a little 0:10:20.559 --> 0:10:22.079 bit of that old magic. 0:10:22.559 --> 0:10:25.600 Yeah, you were the uninvited, just like the script. 0:10:25.880 --> 0:10:28.960 I was totally the uninvited. It couldn't it very badly? 0:10:31.000 --> 0:10:35.280 Thankfully it did not. So let's start with the easiest 0:10:35.360 --> 0:10:38.760 question we have. What got you into writing for TV? 0:10:39.600 --> 0:10:39.760 Oh? 0:10:39.800 --> 0:10:43.840 My god, so funny. So I had an uncle at 0:10:44.120 --> 0:10:48.720 Paramount who worked in the legal department and had negotiated 0:10:48.800 --> 0:10:52.480 all the contracts for the writers on Star Trek. Okay 0:10:52.840 --> 0:10:54.719 to be sweetheart, if you can be funny, you can 0:10:54.760 --> 0:10:55.559 make a nice living. 0:10:56.760 --> 0:10:57.000 Right. 0:10:59.280 --> 0:10:59.480 Oh. 0:11:01.000 --> 0:11:02.400 I deserted writing script. 0:11:03.160 --> 0:11:06.439 That was literally it. Because I'd always saw of myself 0:11:06.480 --> 0:11:09.880 as sort of a very you know, dark, moody person, 0:11:10.520 --> 0:11:13.120 and I'd never really tried to write comedy, and oh 0:11:13.160 --> 0:11:15.559 my god, this was a funny thing. Up until this point, 0:11:15.800 --> 0:11:18.280 literally up until that point, I did not own a 0:11:18.320 --> 0:11:23.160 television and had never watched television. And I went out 0:11:23.200 --> 0:11:26.559 and I bought this little funeye, this off brand TV 0:11:26.800 --> 0:11:30.079 with a little VCR thing in it, and I bought 0:11:30.120 --> 0:11:33.720 the Funeye, and I bought a copy of I bought 0:11:33.720 --> 0:11:37.640 a copy of TV Guide, and I like looked up 0:11:37.679 --> 0:11:40.400 things that I should be watching on TV Guide, and 0:11:40.440 --> 0:11:42.720 I like set myself out like I'm going to watch 0:11:42.800 --> 0:11:51.280 popular shows for a week. And then the president of television, 0:11:51.360 --> 0:11:54.040 a paramount like, said well, you know, this is our 0:11:54.080 --> 0:11:56.960 new show. And I think it was it was called 0:11:57.000 --> 0:11:57.559 down Home. 0:11:57.840 --> 0:11:59.040 It was okay, so. 0:11:59.040 --> 0:12:02.120 Called down Home. And he gave me a pilot episode 0:12:02.280 --> 0:12:04.120 of down Home and he said, well, this is what 0:12:04.480 --> 0:12:06.120 this is what a script looks like, you know, and 0:12:06.200 --> 0:12:08.959 this is how you write it. And I went out 0:12:09.280 --> 0:12:11.280 and I bought the script writing software and I put 0:12:11.320 --> 0:12:15.120 it on my computer, and five days later I turned 0:12:15.160 --> 0:12:18.400 in a script. And he had never expected to see 0:12:18.400 --> 0:12:20.840 me again, and I turned in the script and he 0:12:20.960 --> 0:12:24.040 read this and he said, you know, against all odds, 0:12:24.200 --> 0:12:28.000 I think you may actually be able to do this. Wow, 0:12:28.120 --> 0:12:30.960 I am going to turn you over to somebody who's 0:12:31.120 --> 0:12:34.319 like appropriately sized. I took this meeting as a favor, 0:12:35.800 --> 0:12:37.760 far too important to waste my time with you, But 0:12:37.800 --> 0:12:40.600 I'm going to turn it over to somebody appropriately sized. 0:12:41.559 --> 0:12:46.040 He turned me over to another development executive named Maria Krenna, 0:12:46.679 --> 0:12:50.920 Richard Krena's daughter, and she helped me put together a 0:12:50.960 --> 0:12:56.160 slate of specscripts and help me find an agent. 0:12:56.720 --> 0:12:57.200 Wow. 0:12:57.640 --> 0:12:59.440 I believe it was still I was still in folk 0:12:59.480 --> 0:13:00.319 school at the time time. 0:13:01.120 --> 0:13:04.040 Okay, so we're also where you were at Harvard or. 0:13:04.160 --> 0:13:07.160 Harvard and then usc Film School, which I did not 0:13:07.280 --> 0:13:08.960 even know was a competitive admission. 0:13:10.280 --> 0:13:14.679 Is Harvard is at a university or idiot? 0:13:16.080 --> 0:13:18.079 It's a small private college, Baggie. 0:13:18.120 --> 0:13:19.439 Oh okay, okay. Interesting. 0:13:19.840 --> 0:13:20.800 What was your major? 0:13:21.600 --> 0:13:25.400 English? And American literature and language? And my mom was 0:13:25.559 --> 0:13:29.000 so disappointed when I got into the industry, so disappointed. 0:13:29.280 --> 0:13:30.400 What did she want you to do? 0:13:30.760 --> 0:13:32.680 A poet? She wanted me to be a poet? 0:13:33.800 --> 0:13:34.240 Wow? 0:13:35.160 --> 0:13:38.640 Yeah, I studied poetry. I want a National Endowment for 0:13:38.679 --> 0:13:42.880 the Arts award when I was seventeen for poetry. And 0:13:42.880 --> 0:13:46.360 he wanted me to like be a poet because words 0:13:46.440 --> 0:13:49.320 always I'm got to give repea Words always meant so 0:13:49.440 --> 0:13:52.680 much to me. I was always, always, always loved writing. 0:13:53.520 --> 0:13:55.439 In fact, my earliest memory I went to school with 0:13:55.480 --> 0:14:00.160 Tatum O'Neil crazy pushed it through a rosebush bitch. I 0:14:00.160 --> 0:14:06.040 went to start and they asked me if I felt 0:14:06.040 --> 0:14:08.960 bad about it, and I'm like, no, absolutely not. She 0:14:09.160 --> 0:14:10.160 totally deserved it. 0:14:10.240 --> 0:14:11.920 What happened, tell me the story, what happened when she 0:14:11.960 --> 0:14:12.280 did so. 0:14:12.400 --> 0:14:17.080 It was Montessori school and we, like we were supposed to. 0:14:17.120 --> 0:14:19.200 There was like a big deal about who was first 0:14:19.240 --> 0:14:21.560 in line after playground for a class I think we 0:14:21.560 --> 0:14:25.280 were like four, right, so, but like being that first 0:14:25.360 --> 0:14:29.120 person in line after recess to walk into the classroom 0:14:29.160 --> 0:14:32.360 and be first was a huge deal if very seldom 0:14:32.400 --> 0:14:35.800 got it. I managed to make it first, and Tatum 0:14:35.920 --> 0:14:38.320 decided that she was going to cut in in front 0:14:38.360 --> 0:14:40.640 of me, and the front of the line happened to 0:14:40.640 --> 0:14:42.160 be right next to rose bushes. 0:14:42.800 --> 0:14:44.480 Well, so she was asking for. 0:14:44.400 --> 0:14:52.360 It, asking for it, asking for it. But that was 0:14:52.400 --> 0:14:55.720 my first memory of writing. Because at the school when 0:14:55.760 --> 0:14:58.480 we came back, they said that we should write about 0:14:58.880 --> 0:15:02.200 Christmas vacation, right, So we were supposed to write like 0:15:02.320 --> 0:15:05.720 three sentences about Christmas vacation on that on the big 0:15:05.760 --> 0:15:09.080 paper with the you know, the double lines. Yes, okay, 0:15:09.320 --> 0:15:13.560 we all remember. So I wrote about Christmas vacation and 0:15:13.600 --> 0:15:16.000 they put it up on the board and I remember 0:15:16.160 --> 0:15:19.880 looking at it and reading it over and thinking I 0:15:19.960 --> 0:15:23.239 didn't get it, Like I didn't really capture. 0:15:23.520 --> 0:15:26.360 I didn't nail the Christmas vacation story. 0:15:26.360 --> 0:15:27.880 On Christmas vacation? Fully? 0:15:28.920 --> 0:15:29.200 Did you? 0:15:29.400 --> 0:15:35.040 Have you done a rewrite? Self disappointment? So you were 0:15:35.040 --> 0:15:36.120 paid to be a writer. 0:15:37.840 --> 0:15:42.080 Speaking of which I brought a souvenir self disappointment souvenir. 0:15:42.960 --> 0:15:46.600 So I don't think you guys even knew existed, it, 0:15:46.680 --> 0:15:51.080 says dear ABC Channel seven ray boy Meets World. We 0:15:51.160 --> 0:15:54.080 really enjoyed Friday evening shows. But what is it with 0:15:54.160 --> 0:15:57.880 the writers for Boy Meets World? The storylines are boring, 0:15:58.280 --> 0:16:02.040 whereas Cooper and step by Step are interesting and challenging. 0:16:02.520 --> 0:16:07.000 Get new writers for Boy Meets World. Thanks be Creesy. 0:16:07.720 --> 0:16:09.360 What is a fan letter? 0:16:09.560 --> 0:16:12.080 LARISI that's my pen name. 0:16:14.400 --> 0:16:16.880 And she actually, you know, it's so funny. I never 0:16:16.960 --> 0:16:19.880 wrote back to her, but I do have her regrets. 0:16:20.160 --> 0:16:21.480 Well maybe she's still there. 0:16:21.560 --> 0:16:25.040 Let's let's make it up there. 0:16:25.680 --> 0:16:28.720 I say that because I remember something show that to me, 0:16:28.760 --> 0:16:30.760 I'm like, oh, I am taking that, I am framing that, 0:16:30.880 --> 0:16:32.640 I am putting out of my house, and I'm keeping 0:16:32.640 --> 0:16:33.080 it forever. 0:16:33.400 --> 0:16:35.920 I love it. So how do you then, so they 0:16:35.960 --> 0:16:38.480 end up hiring you at Paramount? How do you end 0:16:38.560 --> 0:16:42.600 up on like the biggest show at that time, Home Improvement? 0:16:42.720 --> 0:16:44.640 And was that your first TV writing job? 0:16:45.120 --> 0:16:49.600 Well, my first TV writing job was actually on it 0:16:49.640 --> 0:16:52.680 was almost on the art. Do you remember the Arsenio 0:16:52.840 --> 0:16:58.720 Hall Show? Yes, yeah, but he but it wasn't just 0:16:58.800 --> 0:17:04.280 the Arsenio Hall Show. There was like another ancillary show 0:17:04.320 --> 0:17:07.480 that was like our Sineo or something, and they wanted 0:17:07.600 --> 0:17:10.680 me to do that, and I showed up and they 0:17:10.960 --> 0:17:13.640 just I don't think I was quite as urban as 0:17:13.680 --> 0:17:18.320 they had envisioned. They decided that they didn't actually want 0:17:18.320 --> 0:17:22.600 to hire me, So that was kind of hugely disappointing. 0:17:23.119 --> 0:17:25.439 And then I got hired to do one episode of 0:17:25.480 --> 0:17:27.359 this random show called Teach. 0:17:28.400 --> 0:17:31.960 Yep, I remember Teach too. Why do I remember that show? 0:17:32.160 --> 0:17:32.560 I feel like. 0:17:32.560 --> 0:17:35.199 Somebody else on the podcast has talked about Teach. 0:17:35.920 --> 0:17:39.480 Teach was the show about the black teacher at the 0:17:39.520 --> 0:17:45.639 White Kid the White Boys boarding school back East. 0:17:45.680 --> 0:17:46.280 Mentioned Teach. 0:17:46.400 --> 0:17:48.840 Somebody else has mentioned Teach on this podcast. I don't 0:17:48.840 --> 0:17:50.200 know who, but somebody else has yet. 0:17:50.880 --> 0:17:53.439 Yeah. Anyway, so teach. So maybe Teach was like an 0:17:53.480 --> 0:17:58.720 amazing theater show for everybody. But then I got the 0:17:58.840 --> 0:18:02.119 interview with the the three guys who did home improvement, 0:18:02.760 --> 0:18:06.000 and they hired me on and I had no idea 0:18:06.640 --> 0:18:09.240 how huge it was going to be, but I had. 0:18:10.400 --> 0:18:13.160 It was before the Internet, and I had this insane 0:18:13.280 --> 0:18:17.119 mind for trivia and just remembered random stuff. So I 0:18:17.280 --> 0:18:19.919 was like the voice of Wilson. I was a person 0:18:19.960 --> 0:18:22.320 that they could always count on to pull some like 0:18:22.480 --> 0:18:27.160 strange piece of information out of my head. I love 0:18:27.240 --> 0:18:29.320 that guy. He was so nice. He drank brown liquor, 0:18:29.359 --> 0:18:31.679 and he was married to a woman who was an 0:18:31.760 --> 0:18:32.600 ordained minister. 0:18:33.000 --> 0:18:37.119 Oh oh that's cool, that's very cool. What's the brown liquor? 0:18:37.520 --> 0:18:39.840 Bourbon like bourbon or whiskey. 0:18:40.840 --> 0:18:43.000 I mean it was just like he was just in 0:18:43.119 --> 0:18:45.480 an dressing room and drank brown liquor. 0:18:56.800 --> 0:18:56.960 Well. 0:18:57.000 --> 0:19:00.240 Another one of your scripts was for an episode Calledhunting 0:19:00.280 --> 0:19:03.040 of Taylor House. Do you remember working with a young 0:19:03.600 --> 0:19:07.040 pre sean Hunter, right or strong a minute? 0:19:07.160 --> 0:19:11.000 She wrote that episode you kise yes, yes. 0:19:13.400 --> 0:19:14.160 Episode. 0:19:14.320 --> 0:19:16.959 Yeah, I'm the kid who the brad who calls it 0:19:17.000 --> 0:19:19.800 full time and gets kicked out of scared by the 0:19:19.840 --> 0:19:22.880 haunted house. Are you serious? We never made this connection. 0:19:23.000 --> 0:19:24.320 It was only like two years later. 0:19:25.040 --> 0:19:26.440 He never made this connection. 0:19:26.720 --> 0:19:29.840 I believe that you wrote my episode of Home Improvement. 0:19:30.119 --> 0:19:33.119 I love that launched your career. I'm so happy. That 0:19:33.200 --> 0:19:35.160 actually makes me really really really happy. 0:19:35.400 --> 0:19:35.840 That's cool. 0:19:36.320 --> 0:19:37.760 My god, that's so funny. 0:19:37.880 --> 0:19:41.080 Isn't that funny? Especially because Home Improvement was probably one 0:19:41.119 --> 0:19:44.160 of the reasons you were called in for Boy Meets World. 0:19:44.520 --> 0:19:46.520 Yeah. Well, I was really close to being a regular 0:19:46.560 --> 0:19:50.320 on Home Improvement. I went back. I auditioned for every brother, 0:19:50.840 --> 0:19:53.600 like when they were doing the pilot, you know, and 0:19:53.640 --> 0:19:55.720 I was like sort of in between ages. I'm like, ye, 0:19:55.800 --> 0:19:58.960 slightly older than Jonathan or actually Zach was younger but 0:19:59.080 --> 0:20:02.040 just bigger. I remember they kept like shuffling all of 0:20:02.119 --> 0:20:04.919 us around, and like, I just remember reading for Home 0:20:04.960 --> 0:20:07.400 Improvement like six times. I don't think I ever networked 0:20:07.400 --> 0:20:09.040 for it, but I got close, and I remember being 0:20:09.040 --> 0:20:12.240 like ugh and then getting the guest star whatever. A 0:20:12.320 --> 0:20:15.240