Speaker 1: I am all in again.
Speaker 2: Oh, I guess you.
Speaker 1: I smell pop culture with Eastern Allen and I heart
Speaker 1: radio podcast Hey, friends, that's right, is Easton Allen. I
Speaker 1: am all in podcasts. I smoke pop culture when over
Speaker 1: them productions. I heart radio. I heard me, I heart podcasts. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know it's not Scott Patterson. Let's get that straight here.
Speaker 1: I know we've been on for a few weeks now,
Speaker 1: but if you're just joining us, this is not Scott Patterson.
Speaker 1: This is not his voice. My name is Easton Allen.
Speaker 1: I'm the sound guy here on the I am all
Speaker 1: in podcasts. I do the microphones. I make sure everybody's
Speaker 1: computers work. So that makes me extremely qualified and appropriate
Speaker 1: to be hosting this show here. And I also want
Speaker 1: to confirm. I want to clarify that Scott Patterson and
Speaker 1: I are friends. Okay, we're not just friends. I would
Speaker 1: say we're best friends. I have his phone number, I
Speaker 1: can text him. I text him all the time. We
Speaker 1: talk on the phone, we talk on the podcast. Scott
Speaker 1: and I are very very close. So, just in case
Speaker 1: you were confused about that, thank you so much for
Speaker 1: joining us. We are so excited about this week's guest.
Speaker 1: This is a major fixture. This guy is such a
Speaker 1: pop culture icon, not just in the world of Gilmore Girls,
Speaker 1: but entertainment at large. When I told my mother that
Speaker 1: we were doing this, when I told my mom who
Speaker 1: we were talking to this week, she lost her mind.
Speaker 1: She started screaming. She just absolutely lost control. She can't
Speaker 1: believe it. I can't believe it either. But you know,
Speaker 1: I have something to admit to you guys as we
Speaker 1: get started here. This was kind of a rough morning
Speaker 1: for me. It was rough when I woke up in
Speaker 1: the morning. The alarm gave me a warning. I didn't
Speaker 1: think i'd make it on time. But by the time
Speaker 1: I grabbed my books and you know, I gave myself
Speaker 1: a look. I was at the corner just in time
Speaker 1: to see the bus fly by. But it's all right,
Speaker 1: and I'll tell you why right after these words.
Speaker 2: iHeart podcasts.
Speaker 3: Listen on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1: All right, everybody, aren't those great commercials? I know? Okay,
Speaker 1: there's the thing in podcast apps where you can skip ahead.
Speaker 1: There's a skip button. I'm not going to pretend like
Speaker 1: it doesn't exist, But with this show, I don't think
Speaker 1: you need to use it. Your thumbs are not strained.
Speaker 1: There's no stress on those skipping thumbs because you listen
Speaker 1: to every single commercial and you patronize every single business
Speaker 1: that we advertise. And I want to thank you from
Speaker 1: the bottom of my heart for doing that, for listening
Speaker 1: to those commercials. My name is Eastin Allen. This is
Speaker 1: the I Smell pop Culture podcast on I Am all In.
Speaker 1: Here's what we do here. Gilmore Girls is a treasure
Speaker 1: trove of popular culture. Every show or every episode, they
Speaker 1: mention really exciting things from real life, from pop culture,
Speaker 1: from a current event that is happening in the world
Speaker 1: of Gilmore Girls. They talk about it, and we dive deeper.
Speaker 1: We take those references and we expand upon them. We
Speaker 1: talk to the people that created them. We talk to
Speaker 1: the people that are those pop culture references. And this
Speaker 1: week we are talking to Mario Lopez. That's right, a C.
Speaker 1: Slater from Saved by the bell one of the most
Speaker 1: iconic television shows all the time. We're gonna talk to
Speaker 1: Mario Lopez. Before we bring Mario on, I need to
Speaker 1: discuss something with you because and I'll tell you why
Speaker 1: Mario has a connection to Gilmore Girls. Why say by
Speaker 1: the Bells connected to Gilmore Girls, but that it kind
Speaker 1: of made me think of something interesting. Gilmore Girls is
Speaker 1: such a rich history, rich universe. It's so detailed, and
Speaker 1: it's so it's so diverse. It feels so real. Star's Hall,
Speaker 1: it feels like a real place you could walk around.
Speaker 1: These characters feel like people, you know, And that's why
Speaker 1: we love the show. That's why we love it so much.
Speaker 1: The thing that I think is so interesting is when
Speaker 1: we when they reference another piece of media in Gilmore Girls,
Speaker 1: like because they'll reference like current events or like real people,
Speaker 1: like other like real celebrities, real news people, real you know,
Speaker 1: public figures. But there's a lot of times at the
Speaker 1: reference like other other TV shows, other movies. And I
Speaker 1: think that is so interesting because if you think about
Speaker 1: it in the world of a fictional universe, you're kind
Speaker 1: of setting the stage for what exists and what doesn't
Speaker 1: exist in the world of Gilmore Girls, in the world
Speaker 1: of stars Hollow. There's a theory that if you're listening
Speaker 1: to this podcast, you're a big goil More Girls fan,
Speaker 1: so I guarantee you know about this, but it comes
Speaker 1: up on my feed every so often, and I'm just
Speaker 1: so fascinated about it. I need to talk to you
Speaker 1: about it right now. They call it the Sopranos and
Speaker 1: Gilmore Girls paradox. So if you don't know what the
Speaker 1: word paradox means, it's it's a seemingly absurd or self
Speaker 1: contradictory statement when investigator explained, maybe prove to be well
Speaker 1: founded or true. It's like something that can't exist. It's
Speaker 1: kind of something that like disqualifies itself. But in the
Speaker 1: world of Gilmore Girls, there's this weird clash of realities
Speaker 1: with the world of The Sopranos, the HBO show The Sopranos.
Speaker 1: In season six, episode four of The Sopranos, an episode
Speaker 1: of Gilmore Girls is playing on TV. The characters are
Speaker 1: watching it. Okay, So with that, we've established that the
Speaker 1: characters of The Sopranos watch the show Gilmore Girls. Gilmore
Speaker 1: Girls exists as a TV show in the world of Sopranos,
Speaker 1: just like it does for us in the real world.
Speaker 1: We watch the show Gilmore Girls, as do the characters
Speaker 1: in The Sopranos. Okay, that's it. That's HBO. That's a
Speaker 1: different universe. We're going into the world of Gilmore Girls.
Speaker 1: Gilmore Girls's reality we're going to think about that now.
Speaker 1: Stars Hollow is real. In season seven, episode seventeen of
Speaker 1: Gilmore Girls, Richard is wearing a track suit and Laura
Speaker 1: La makes a joke about it, asking if he's having
Speaker 1: lunch with Tony Soprano. So now we can draw a
Speaker 1: couple conclusions here that Sopranos is also a TV show
Speaker 1: in Gilmourt Girls, which causes the paradox because that means
Speaker 1: that the characters of Gilmore Girls can watch the Sopranos
Speaker 1: and see their lives being watched. Kind So now we
Speaker 1: don't know, is this like a Truman show thing They're
Speaker 1: being filmed and they don't know it. Is there a
Speaker 1: clash of realities here? What's happening that must be so
Speaker 1: so jarring, so upsetting, or or I have this other
Speaker 1: theory I thought about this. Tony Soprano is a real person,
Speaker 1: And so now we're gonna go back to HBO. Sopranos
Speaker 1: is real. Tony Soprano is a real person. He's gonna
Speaker 1: watch gilmart Girls and see himself being referenced. And to me,
Speaker 1: that would I would think, oh my god, someone who
Speaker 1: writes for Gilmore Girls knows about me enough to put
Speaker 1: me in the show that there's so many ideas here,
Speaker 1: it's so interesting. I love it. But that leads us
Speaker 1: to what we're talking about today. We are talking about
Speaker 1: Saved by the Bell. So in season one, episode four,
Speaker 1: The Deer Hunter, they referenced Saved by the Bell. So,
Speaker 1: if we're gonna go back to this paradox conversation a
Speaker 1: little bit, that means we have established Save by the
Speaker 1: Bell is a TV show that is in the world
Speaker 1: of Gilmore Girls. Gilmore Goes can watch Saved by the Bell.
Speaker 1: From my research, Save by the Bell never referenced Gilmore Girls.
Speaker 1: I believe it went off the air before Gilmore Girls started,
Speaker 1: so that we don't have to worry about this paradox happening.
Speaker 1: Save by the Bell as a TV show that the
Speaker 1: cast of the characters in Gilmore Girls in stars hollow watch.
Speaker 1: And to explain the reference here, in season one, episode four,
Speaker 1: Rory gets a d for the first time in her life,
Speaker 1: and she is like consumed by shame and embarrassment, and
Speaker 1: she and Laura I are talking about it at Luke
Speaker 1: Steiner and Rory says, oh my god, it was so humiliating,
Speaker 1: and Laura Lay says, oh, Honey, you once told me
Speaker 1: you watched Saved by the Bell. What could be more
Speaker 1: humiliating than that? Okay, if you love Saved by the
Speaker 1: Bell and I love Saved by the Bell, this is
Speaker 1: not humiliating. Okay. I think they're totally off here, Saved
Speaker 1: by that. You should be proud of your fandom of
Speaker 1: Saved by the Bell. It is such an iconic television show.
Speaker 1: It's one of the biggest TV shows of all time.
Speaker 1: It still is a major part of pop culture today.
Speaker 1: And when you think of Saved by the Bell, I
Speaker 1: know a lot of characters come to mind, a lot
Speaker 1: of actors, But for me to me, Saved by the
Speaker 1: Bell is a c slater. Saved by the Bell is
Speaker 1: Mario Lopez. We're going to talk to Mario Lopez. I'm
Speaker 1: so excited Mario. And if you're not familiar with Mario
Speaker 1: Lopez outside of the world of Save by the Bell,
Speaker 1: I mean this guy. He has a radio show called
Speaker 1: On with Mario Lopez. It's syndicated all across the country.
Speaker 1: He was Sexy Colonel Sanders, and a movie called Recipe
Speaker 1: for Seduction that's on the Lifetime. That's on Lifetime. Mario
Speaker 1: Lopez is such a such an icon. And one of
Speaker 1: my favorite things about Mario Lopez is that he hosts
Speaker 1: the in room movie channel in hotel rooms. It's called uh,
Speaker 1: must See Movies with Mario, and I am just obsessed
Speaker 1: with it. Every time I go into a hotel, that's
Speaker 1: the first thing I do is I check to make
Speaker 1: sure Mario Lopez is on my TV. He is just
Speaker 1: the absolute best. He's such a cool guy. I'm so
Speaker 1: excited to talk to him. And oh my god, look
Speaker 1: at that he is in the waiting room. I am
Speaker 1: going to bring him in right now. Let me just uh,
Speaker 1: Mario Lopez, thanks for doing this, man, I'm so excited.
Speaker 2: Well, thanks for having me.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 1: You have a new movieyet. We're going to get to
Speaker 1: that in a second, Once upon a Christmas wish. So
Speaker 1: excited about that too. But so, this is a Gilmore
Speaker 1: Girls podcast, and pretty early in the run of Gilmore
Speaker 1: Girls they reference Saved by the Bell. They mentioned it
Speaker 1: in the dialog of the show, and I'm curious, like,
Speaker 1: when Saved by the Bell started becoming popular, like became
Speaker 1: like a huge hit, do you remember the first time
Speaker 1: you heard like another show reference it, Like when you
Speaker 1: first heard someone else talk about it on TV or
Speaker 1: something like that.
Speaker 2: I don't.
Speaker 3: I don't remember them referencing the show. I've gotten referenced
Speaker 3: a lot like personally now like all the time. It's
Speaker 3: funny because I'm radio show. They my producers collect like
Speaker 3: this just like a montage of references for me, and
Speaker 3: like mark references, which is a trip and this and
Speaker 3: then uh uh a little sometimes some cameos, but I
Speaker 3: get I just just get randomly referenced on all this stuff,
Speaker 3: which is I guess kind of cool.
Speaker 1: Was there was there one in particular that like really
Speaker 1: blew your mind that you can think of.
Speaker 2: In the movie. It was in the Last American Pie movie.
Speaker 3: The girl was trying to get her guide jealous, and
Speaker 3: she said she slept with me, and I was like, oh,
Speaker 3: and he was great.
Speaker 2: It was very complimentary.
Speaker 3: But I was like, oh that was aggressive and uh
Speaker 3: and I'm cleaning up the language.
Speaker 2: But uh yeah, that one time, I was like, oh, okay.
Speaker 1: That's awesome. Do you do you remember the first time
Speaker 1: that like we were walking around in public and someone
Speaker 1: came up and called you a c slater? Do you
Speaker 1: remember like that must have happened right well.
Speaker 3: When I was a kid, all the time, I mean
Speaker 3: even now, which is flattering because it's been a long
Speaker 3: time ago, so they still recognized me.
Speaker 2: But yeah, it's been over.
Speaker 3: Thirty something years, man, So it's a trip. The fact
Speaker 3: that it's still on is a trip.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean it's a huge part of pop culture. In
Speaker 1: my opinion, every episode of sayd by the Bell belongs
Speaker 1: in the Smithsonian. It's a piece of TV history. In
Speaker 1: gomer Girls, when they reference it, they kind of say
Speaker 1: it like it's a guilty pleasure. It's kind of an
Speaker 1: embarrassing thing that, like the character watches Saved by the Bell.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it supposed to be for little kids.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm very guilty, should be guilty.
Speaker 1: Do you have a guilty pleasure show? Like, what's something
Speaker 1: that you really love that you're maybe a little ashamed of.
Speaker 2: I'm not ashamed of anything that I'll watch. I watch.
Speaker 3: My wife, to be honest, got me into a lot
Speaker 3: of crime documentaries, so there's always someone getting whacked right
Speaker 3: before we go to bed now on them, there's so
Speaker 3: many good ones out there, So I've been watching a
Speaker 3: lot of those.
Speaker 1: Interesting. Is there like a particular case that like really
Speaker 1: captured her attention? Recently?
Speaker 3: Well, we just saw one that I thought was just
Speaker 3: so bizarre. There were no deaths, but it was called
Speaker 3: Anatomy of Lies about the lady who was the writer.
Speaker 2: Did you see it?
Speaker 1: Yes, on Gray's Anatomy.
Speaker 3: On Gray's Anatomy. She's diabolical, lying about everything, cancer and
Speaker 3: the brother died. I mean, all these people and it
Speaker 3: was just craze, just lies, just years of lies, and
Speaker 3: she was like Forrest Gump. Everywhere something happened she was
Speaker 3: involved in. It was just that one just kind of
Speaker 3: tripped me out. That was the latest one we saw that.
Speaker 1: It's so crazy and so she was like making stuff
Speaker 1: up about her life and then working it into Gray's Anatomy.
Speaker 2: And there were and they were and like awful stuff.
Speaker 2: It was just really bad.
Speaker 3: And then we just saw the John Benny Ramsey the
Speaker 3: latest one. I felt sorry for the poor parents and
Speaker 3: what the media did and all that. So that was
Speaker 3: a good one.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that that, I mean, that's crazy. Do you
Speaker 1: do you have any personal theories about about that one?
Speaker 1: Like who who did it?
Speaker 2: Well?
Speaker 3: That guy that from according to the doc, the one
Speaker 3: that's in Bangkok right now that's sort of admitted to it,
Speaker 3: and they could I mean he seems pretty he knows
Speaker 3: a lot of things that a lot of people didn't.
Speaker 3: He seems like a pretty good uh uh suspect. But
Speaker 3: I mean, I don't think it's the parents or the
Speaker 3: little brother.
Speaker 1: That was ridiculous that you know, the little brother that's
Speaker 1: a that's a lot of people think he was.
Speaker 2: Nine years old. He was nine like a little kid,
Speaker 2: like poor kid man. That was awful.
Speaker 1: Oh it's crazy. So one of my favorite roles of
Speaker 1: yours is our musty movies with Mario. I love it.
Speaker 1: Every time I check into a hotel. I love that
Speaker 1: Maria Muduos has me in the theater and then when
Speaker 1: I'm in a hotel, I get you to talk about
Speaker 1: the movies. Do people recognize you from that? Very often?
Speaker 3: It's over a million rooms, so yeah, yeah that trips
Speaker 3: me out, especially people that that travel a lot or
Speaker 3: for a living. So like all the baseball players or
Speaker 3: musicians and stuff are always hitting me up.
Speaker 2: It's a trip.
Speaker 3: So yeah, that that is it got a lot more
Speaker 3: awareness than I thought it would.
Speaker 1: Do you Like when you check into a hotel, do
Speaker 1: you you see mus see yourself pretty often? Right?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm not in New this one right now. But yeah,
Speaker 2: I got going on this hotel.
Speaker 1: They need to say, yeah, yeah, what's going on? Get
Speaker 1: on the messy movies distribution there. Yeah, And speaking of movies,
Speaker 1: you have you have a new one that's out now
Speaker 1: on a Great American Family. It's kind of transition, that's right, man,
Speaker 1: we're professionals over here. Once upon a Christmas Wish. Your
Speaker 1: wife Courtney's in it too, Can you tell us about that?
Speaker 2: My wife Courtney's in it? And my son Dominic is amazing.
Speaker 2: It really does a great job. He sort of steals
Speaker 2: the movie. But I'm excited about this one.
Speaker 3: It's our first for working with Great American Family, and
Speaker 3: I thought, well, what better than to have my own
Speaker 3: family in it, and really pleased with the way it
Speaker 3: turned out.
Speaker 2: It's a lot of heart and it's a lot.
Speaker 3: Of fun, and they're singing and dancing, and it's got
Speaker 3: that old time sort of feel to it. And I
Speaker 3: play a mayor of a small town that wrote this
Speaker 3: Christmas list back when I was in the fourth grade
Speaker 3: and never mailed it.
Speaker 2: But then I discovered as.
Speaker 3: An adult and all the wishes sort of start coming
Speaker 3: true and then wow, yeah, so then all kinds of
Speaker 3: fun stuff starts to starts to happen. But we had
Speaker 3: a great time shooting it outside of Chicago, this place
Speaker 3: called Long Grove. They were very welcoming and I'm excited
Speaker 3: for people to see it on Great American Family, just
Speaker 3: like you said, once upon a Christmas Wish, and I
Speaker 3: think you'll like it.
Speaker 1: When when what time of year did you film it?
Speaker 1: Because sometimes I hear they film in last summer.
Speaker 2: Springtime, not too and it was still pretty cold. It
Speaker 2: was snowing actually still, so it was it was actually
Speaker 2: really cold, so yeah, we didn't have to fake it,
Speaker 2: so so that worked out. That worked out when we
Speaker 2: were dancing.
Speaker 3: Outside when it was really cold, and yeah, that was
Speaker 3: it was a tough shoot.
Speaker 2: I was somewhat injured too. I hurt my neck, but
Speaker 2: you can't tell the movie.
Speaker 1: Do you have any Christmas wishes from your childhood that
Speaker 1: you'd like to see come true?
Speaker 2: That's a good question. I don't really. I wasn't like,
Speaker 2: I didn't really wish for too much.
Speaker 3: I wasn't a big I didn't ask for big things
Speaker 3: when I was a kid. I was pretty I was
Speaker 3: pretty simple for the most part. I just want everybody
Speaker 3: to kind of be together. And maybe the latest video
Speaker 3: game that was out and I was a kid.
Speaker 2: That's about it. That's about the extravagant as I.
Speaker 1: Got, so so modest my olympus.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 1: What what Christmas traditions do you does your family have
Speaker 1: that you look forward to every year?
Speaker 3: Well, we usually host Christmas and so my sister and
Speaker 3: her four kids come out, and mom and dad and
Speaker 3: my wife's family, so we're like having everyone over. My
Speaker 3: wife's Italian, so there's a lot of Mexican and Italian food,
Speaker 3: so very well fed, and you know, we'll go to
Speaker 3: Mass and and it's nice to just just kind of
Speaker 3: be still and not get on a plane and be
Speaker 3: home with family.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that's the best. Having to travel is a bummer.
Speaker 1: So it's great to be home for the holidays. And
Speaker 1: we're so excited about once upon a Christmas wish and
Speaker 1: I hope other people make it part of their Christmas
Speaker 1: tradition too. Again, this is on Great American Family. What
Speaker 1: are your resolutions for as we head into twenty twenty five?
Speaker 1: Are you looking forward to in the new year.
Speaker 3: I don't really do resolutions all right, being Catholic, I
Speaker 3: kind of start over every week anyway, But I'm just
Speaker 3: looking forward to continuing to do what I'm doing and
Speaker 3: I feel very blessed on radio show and.
Speaker 2: My show Access Daily and Access.
Speaker 3: Hollywood and and make more great movies.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was proud of my son. I thought he
Speaker 2: did a great job.
Speaker 3: So I think he may want to do some more
Speaker 3: and right, we'll see what happens with the next generation there.
Speaker 1: Did you uh, so this is your son's first movie?
Speaker 2: Is that right?
Speaker 1: And did you have to kind of get had he
Speaker 1: He's been watching his growing up, so I'm sure he
Speaker 1: like came in with a lot of training already. But
Speaker 1: did you have to give him some coaching when you're
Speaker 1: on the set there?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: I was pretty good about just kind of letting him.
Speaker 3: If he had any questions and stuff, or if I
Speaker 3: thought he was doing something maybe that wasn't working, then
Speaker 3: I would talk to him about it. But for the
Speaker 3: most part, he was He was prepared and and he
Speaker 3: came ready.
Speaker 1: Is this something you can see him doing as he
Speaker 1: gets older getting into the business.
Speaker 2: I think so.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he likes it, So I didn't maybe think so before,
Speaker 3: But he's got a lot in his plate and he's
Speaker 3: he's uh, he wrestles in his jiu jitsu and plays
Speaker 3: the drums and piano and all that. So there's a
Speaker 3: lot of activities, but definitely as he gets older, he
Speaker 3: tells me he likes he likes it a lot, so
Speaker 3: we'll see.
Speaker 1: I'd love it. The next generation of stars Mario Lopez
Speaker 1: again once upon Christmas, which it's on Great American Family.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for doing this. Moriw you're just
Speaker 1: the best. You're an icon. We're all such big fans
Speaker 1: and we wish wish all the best. Man. Thank you, you.
Speaker 2: Got it, Budd. I appreciate your time, Take care, j
Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, and don't forget Follow us on Instagram at
Speaker 1: I Am all In podcast and email us at Gilmore
Speaker 1: at iHeartRadio dot com.