Speaker 1: Hey, hey, watch.
Speaker 2: Hey, you're listening to Podlanda. This is Fred, and this
Speaker 2: is Kerry and this is Ao Rewatch Ao rewatch a
Speaker 2: Portlandia Rewatch podcast. Hy friend, Kerry, Hey, we have a guest,
Speaker 2: ourst one, our first guest, and it's an important guest
Speaker 2: in some ways, maybe the most important guest.
Speaker 3: Agreed because you could say, if this was a three
Speaker 3: person podcast, this would be our third person exactly.
Speaker 4: This is Jonathan Chryslon.
Speaker 1: Hello, thank you for having me.
Speaker 4: This is our director, co creator, co creator.
Speaker 2: Creator, co writer and the director exclusively for the first
Speaker 2: two seasons three I think, okay, first three, yeah, I
Speaker 2: think so, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: I missed two of season four something like that. I
Speaker 1: can't remember something like that.
Speaker 3: But we were like, as we've been going through these episodes,
Speaker 3: you come up all the time naturally because we know,
Speaker 3: you know, the ideas were yours and that like the
Speaker 3: way it looks and everything, and it just keeps coming up.
Speaker 3: So it's it's great to actually meet you. We did
Speaker 3: the show for Zoom pre pre covid, pre covid, but.
Speaker 2: But when we the first episode I guess of the podcast,
Speaker 2: we spent a lot of time talking about how the
Speaker 2: show came together and we sort of talked up through
Speaker 2: thunder Ants and friend and I and we did touch
Speaker 2: on meeting you, but we wanted to get it from
Speaker 2: your perspective. What do you remember freaks?
Speaker 1: Okay, because I remember I had well, obviously I I
Speaker 1: knew thunder Aunt, of course, because it was just around
Speaker 1: and Doug was editing it. I remember that. And I
Speaker 1: remember I was working SNL and there was this thing
Speaker 1: in there Fred's doing a show and then I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: and it's ThunderAnt with Carrie. It's being turned into a show.
Speaker 1: And they're like, I think you guys weren't there. But
Speaker 1: I met with Andrew Singer at Broadway Video Lauren's company,
Speaker 1: and they were like, so it's going to be a
Speaker 1: show where Fred and Carey work at an office and
Speaker 1: come up with sketches. They get hired to make sketches
Speaker 1: and every week. I don't know whose idea this was,
Speaker 1: but they'll do like three sketches per episode, but they'll
Speaker 1: be them work at this office that sells sketches or something.
Speaker 1: I don't know, something like that. That's what it was
Speaker 1: sold to me. But we're kind of shoot it in Portland.
Speaker 1: We know that. I was like, okay, I mean, I
Speaker 1: couldn't really understand that idea, but I just knew, like,
Speaker 1: I'm a fan and I want to be a part
Speaker 1: of it. That's this is what I remember.
Speaker 4: We want a way to pitch it. We didn't. That
Speaker 4: was an rida no.
Speaker 1: So then I said, so. Then I had a meeting
Speaker 1: with Dan Pasternak at i FC, and I had been
Speaker 1: thinking about it, and I knew it was going to
Speaker 1: be in Portland, and I knew the Feminist Bookstore was
Speaker 1: like one of this recurring things for sure. Maybe I
Speaker 1: had talked to you about it at SNL or something
Speaker 1: must have. And I was like, but what if it's
Speaker 1: just the town is the unifying thing and it's just
Speaker 1: like the random weirdos in Portland or something like that.
Speaker 1: And the network was like, okay, yes, we like that,
Speaker 1: and that seems like all it needs anyway, That's what
Speaker 1: I remember from the early early talks.
Speaker 2: Well, we remember you remember meeting with us, so too.
Speaker 1: Right, I do remember meeting with you guys, Yes, I
Speaker 1: do remember that.
Speaker 2: And we only met with one other potential director and I.
Speaker 1: Know who that was. Did you talk about that?
Speaker 2: We didn't say their name.
Speaker 1: But we because there's actually a funny anecdote which we
Speaker 1: could talk about later.
Speaker 2: Yeah, perfectly fine, perfectly fine.
Speaker 3: He was great, But yeah, i'd worked with you on SNL.
Speaker 1: Got Tim and Eric too, That's right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I remember the meeting that we were like, yeah,
Speaker 2: we like John, but I feel like you didn't necessarily
Speaker 2: like I remember thinking like, this guy's not even not
Speaker 2: into it, and then you called I well based on
Speaker 2: I mean if you were thinking that it was in
Speaker 2: office and you were like this is a terrible idea,
Speaker 2: but I think you called back right or you like
Speaker 2: talked to Andrew later, and maybe that's when you talked
Speaker 2: about the being having a unifying Well, I.
Speaker 1: Knew I had to go into the network where they
Speaker 1: were like, well, we know you met with them, but
Speaker 1: you got to meet with us. And then I was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm going to come in with the whole huge thing
Speaker 1: because I'm like i gotta do this, whatever it ends
Speaker 1: up being, just because I'm a fan of this voice,
Speaker 1: this comedy voice, whatever it is. But then I also
Speaker 1: remember it was at the Universe Left, They're like, Okay,
Speaker 1: we're starting on the show, like it is happening and
Speaker 1: it's going to be on such and such date. I
Speaker 1: remember driving in and being like, is anyone here? I
Speaker 1: don't even remember if I had, like anyway, It was
Speaker 1: just very But then we were working in the Universal a.
Speaker 2: Lot in that tiny office.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was great.
Speaker 2: Yeah, with Alison Silverman and we talked about a little bit.
Speaker 2: And then we had Jason Benzuk's come in for a
Speaker 2: couple of days of pitching.
Speaker 1: I don't remember that, maybe I do.
Speaker 2: And then we everything was one reason maybe that you
Speaker 2: don't remember because it was so expedited, because.
Speaker 1: I remember it was just like because Fred had to
Speaker 1: go back to us.
Speaker 2: Yes, we had to shoot the pilot really quickly. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and then we went up to Portland.
Speaker 4: Yeah, what's the first thing we shot?
Speaker 2: Well, remember it's tricky because we weren't actually shooting what
Speaker 2: became the pilot.
Speaker 1: No, I remember that the episode that song for Portland. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but the very first peace that we shot, like the
Speaker 1: first time.
Speaker 4: We were on set.
Speaker 2: It wasn't put a bird on it was it? Because
Speaker 2: that seemed early to me.
Speaker 4: Okay, I can't remember.
Speaker 1: It was either the dog outside the child being the
Speaker 1: dog tied up outside the restaurant. I remember that very
Speaker 1: early on but honestly, I don't remember.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't remember at all.
Speaker 2: Or was it I wouldn't have been Kyle the first day,
Speaker 2: would it like?
Speaker 1: Or like one of those were weird because I always
Speaker 1: had shoot in the Mayor's office like on Saturday. Oh right, right,
Speaker 1: because it was the actual mayor's office.
Speaker 3: But burn on it. I have a memory of it
Speaker 3: being a first something something felt.
Speaker 1: Like maybe I remember we had the pigeon and Dan.
Speaker 2: I remember Dan being there too, and best being on
Speaker 2: that at that shop.
Speaker 3: I mean, yeah, something felt like a first day of sorts.
Speaker 4: But I don't know.
Speaker 1: I remember having lunch on the first day on I
Speaker 1: was on Alberta, right, so maybe it was maybe that shop.
Speaker 2: Oh but that was on Mississippi, Mississippi.
Speaker 1: Okay, wait, I remember having lunch with maybe Katie O Kady.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, maybe it was.
Speaker 1: Maybe it was because there was another part of it
Speaker 1: that we shot later, Yes, at the very end.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we came a couple of days.
Speaker 3: The footage that you like, everything that you had on
Speaker 3: that first the pilot, Yeah, how did you turn it
Speaker 3: into it?
Speaker 1: Took a while. I remember I seeing an early early
Speaker 1: early cut that was like probably like an hour long
Speaker 1: being like, this is not good, but it will get good,
Speaker 1: because obviously, when you have so much improvised stuff, it
Speaker 1: takes a while to like whittle it down to what
Speaker 1: that two minutes is or whatever. So there's a lot
Speaker 1: of different and I just remember the Feminist books store
Speaker 1: had a lot of stuff, but boom, it quickly got
Speaker 1: a million times better and then I was like, whoa,
Speaker 1: this is so good and I can't remember. We would
Speaker 1: sit around the editor room going this is so specific
Speaker 1: and is that gonna that seems great? We love it,
Speaker 1: but like I've never seen a sketch show. At least
Speaker 1: at the time, it just felt like this is such
Speaker 1: a unique slice of the world that we're making fun
Speaker 1: of or loving. We would always talk about we love
Speaker 1: the characters, we don't make fun of them, or something
Speaker 1: like that. So anyway, I don't know, it just felt
Speaker 1: like I'm loving this, but will people understand what this is?
Speaker 1: At least right when we were making that pilot, it
Speaker 1: just felt like, wow, who was the editor? It was
Speaker 1: Dan Loengino and Doug Lasson. How they both did the pilot? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: And I would always like in the early days, I
Speaker 1: would edit like one scene and then by like season two.
Speaker 1: I was like, I'm good, just because I had started
Speaker 1: as an editor too with those guys too. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: I just like, oh, there's one I want to do,
Speaker 1: but quickly I gave that up.
Speaker 2: But yeah, what was your because you had not been
Speaker 2: to Portland before? Right?
Speaker 1: Well? I had been to Portland but sort of in
Speaker 1: a different eric as my grandfather lived in Welsh's, Oregon,
Speaker 1: which is like like forty five minutes away. I had
Speaker 1: been to the twenty four hour Church of Elvis, right
Speaker 1: Remember that was like kind of a different era.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was like the no was sort of late nineties,
Speaker 2: late nineties downtown.
Speaker 1: But I didn't experience kind of what you had experienced
Speaker 1: living there. I just experienced it more as a tourist.
Speaker 1: I guess.
Speaker 2: What was your impression of like filming, like when you
Speaker 2: crewed up in Portland and we were like, you know,
Speaker 2: getting the DP, Like, what was your impression of just
Speaker 2: like that whole millieu?
Speaker 1: Now was it that first season that we worked at
Speaker 1: a gust Fan Sant's office?
Speaker 2: That was yeah? Second season?
Speaker 1: Well, because what I quickly found through David crest Do sir,
Speaker 1: who's local that you had worked with and you knew
Speaker 1: that there was such a film community there that and
Speaker 1: it seemed like it was the gust fans, it kind
Speaker 1: of Nike, I don't know what it was, but there
Speaker 1: was like, Wow, this is a deep town of filmmakers
Speaker 1: and people who really care about film and no cool
Speaker 1: stuff and some cinematographers. But I was really like, I
Speaker 1: need a cinematographer who gets comedy and like, we're not
Speaker 1: making like a movie that's slow or making something this
Speaker 1: victim of and then so yeah, then we met Bryce
Speaker 1: Fortner and he had been shooting Wayney Days, David Wayne's
Speaker 1: what do you call YouTube show back then web web
Speaker 1: series websary Sorry sorry, So I was like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: there's someone here who like totally gets it, Like Wayney
Speaker 1: Days was actually really good and he totally got it.
Speaker 1: And I was like, oh my god, this is so exciting.
Speaker 1: And that really was huge to find someone local who
Speaker 1: could do it. Obviously we had the crew like Kyler
Speaker 1: Robinson and Amanda need Him and even Simon max Hill
Speaker 1: who I just saw recently. Just a great group of
Speaker 1: people that you that was essential to the show, Like
Speaker 1: I don't, like, you couldn't. Everyone involved was like special
Speaker 1: and made it the show even more special than just
Speaker 1: the people at the top. So it was that that
Speaker 1: was really I mean we just felt it felt like
Speaker 1: a family very fast immediately. Yeah, and you knew a
Speaker 1: lot of them already.
Speaker 2: I knew some of them. I had never met Bryce,
Speaker 2: I knew Amanda, but a lot of the people were
Speaker 2: new to me. I mean we had like TG and Aubrey. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so it had a familial feeling right away. Remember that
Speaker 2: one of the Baldwin brothers was in that building.
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, I remember that.
Speaker 2: We were like sharing an office with Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because he was making a movie there something.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah. How did we get Amanda?
Speaker 1: You knew her?
Speaker 2: Yeah? And David and Amanda.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Well, David crestlike was running a commercial productive company
Speaker 1: in Portland and all the pas that kind of came
Speaker 1: through there. He would say, what do you want to be, Oh,
Speaker 1: I want to be a costome science. Okay, you set
Speaker 1: that up, you get that going, and I'll hire you. Amanda, go, Simon,
Speaker 1: I want to be a castic. Great, set up your
Speaker 1: own company. I'll hire And so they each were like
Speaker 1: trained by David. He was their mentor by Tyler too,
Speaker 1: and they he just kind of was like launched all
Speaker 1: these young people and then we got to hire all
Speaker 1: of them and they were all amazing. So I think
Speaker 1: David was press. I still think of it as just
Speaker 1: like one of the best. When you would see the
Speaker 1: Portlandia crew driving down the street, it was I don't
Speaker 1: know if you guys talked about this, like the school
Speaker 1: bus turned into a snack truck, like all the trucks,
Speaker 1: the ice cream truck turned into the I mean.
Speaker 2: It was just it was like a children's show. It
Speaker 2: was just like this circus coming into town. But you're
Speaker 2: right that David really like helped inform the culture of
Speaker 2: the show. Like I don't I think we talked about
Speaker 2: this how he did not like we did not have
Speaker 2: a video village, and like how that like kept us
Speaker 2: so nimble. It was basically like no one sat on set.
Speaker 1: Would allowed director's chairs because we don't. He was like,
Speaker 1: we don't have time to sit. We got to just
Speaker 1: keep moving.
Speaker 2: And he was that's right, we literally didn't have time really,
Speaker 2: and it did keep us moving.
Speaker 1: And and I had a little monitor that had like
Speaker 1: a little antenna on it, like a little TV, and
Speaker 1: the signal was sent and it would come in a
Speaker 1: little fuzzy sometimes and I literally could change the channel
Speaker 1: and watch soap operas on this TV and it was
Speaker 1: so small I could barely see it. So I'm like, Okay,
Speaker 1: it looks pretty good this tiny. Then when I see
Speaker 1: it in the editor, I'm like, wow, this looks incredible.
Speaker 1: So but it was, Yeah, it was very handmade vibe.
Speaker 3: When uh, I was remembering that, like some sketches as
Speaker 3: we started shooting, I did you know, I didn't know
Speaker 3: what the end result was going to be? Like I
Speaker 3: thought of did you read? I didn't have a clear
Speaker 3: picture of.
Speaker 4: What that was going to be. How did you know that? Like?
Speaker 4: How did you.
Speaker 3: Deal with us as performers saying like, hey, you know,
Speaker 3: we're tired, we don't even know what this is.
Speaker 4: How do you how did you manage to push?
Speaker 1: But you guys were very accommodating and easy, not exactly
Speaker 1: always knowing exactly what you were being at. I thought
Speaker 1: that that was always really easy. I mean, we the
Speaker 1: editors and I we had just come up under this
Speaker 1: system that we had sort of perfected over the years
Speaker 1: of like editing as this true playground. So I just knew, like, okay,
Speaker 1: here's the pieces, especially for something like that, and we
Speaker 1: had already done I think at that point that other
Speaker 1: one you got to get out of here, which was
Speaker 1: kind of in a way like from the first season.
Speaker 2: Like the beta version of that, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: Where it just becomes like we can tell we can
Speaker 1: make jokes that are not just dialogue that's written. That's funny.
Speaker 1: It's like and we would talk about this in the
Speaker 1: writers from too, like the different style of energy piece.
Speaker 1: We always had different color cards kind of for that.
Speaker 1: So that to me was like, this is more of
Speaker 1: a textural piece that is like I mean, it was
Speaker 1: a great observation. I think that was Harry's idea about
Speaker 1: like did you read this article? Did you? And then
Speaker 1: we take that concept and turn it into this like cacophony.
Speaker 1: And I don't know if you remember, like when we
Speaker 1: like Doug who's the master of editing that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: You use the same shot twice the second time you
Speaker 1: see it, it is so funny, and we just we
Speaker 1: really coming from to America and all that stuff, we
Speaker 1: learned these tricks about how to make people laugh, but
Speaker 1: not through just dialogue, through editing, how editing can and
Speaker 1: it's true for all comedy editing is the key. You
Speaker 1: have to just gather. You could be so funny on set,
Speaker 1: and you could edit it to be unfunny. It's very
Speaker 1: easy to do. So yeah, I don't know that that
Speaker 1: just became like and I just felt like you guys
Speaker 1: were already in that being both musicians that you kind
Speaker 1: of you know, we could we could make stuff that
Speaker 1: that was more rhythmic and percussive, and we did a
Speaker 1: lot of music pieces. I remember the whole music thing,
Speaker 1: Like just watching you guys make all that music was
Speaker 1: like truly like a map was so cool.
Speaker 3: I remember when the day you came in with the
Speaker 3: idea of the gream of the nineties.
Speaker 1: Yes, I remember that too. It was a very dramatic day. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but yeah, I had been driving around just thinking about
Speaker 1: I mean just talks that we would have. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: like you just kind of not always just on work,
Speaker 1: but like the fact that and coming in as an
Speaker 1: outsider to Portland going like, oh this is you know,
Speaker 1: because I was a kid of the nineties, just kind
Speaker 1: of like that that message that was coming through was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: it can be yourself and that I don't know, the
Speaker 1: whole Lollapalooza concert and everything was just kind of like
Speaker 1: outsider world and that was like, oh, we have this town.
Speaker 1: So I don't know. I just kept driving around, listening
Speaker 1: to music, thinking about that and going guys, and I
Speaker 1: was thinking about that, trying to prepare for this, like
Speaker 1: the Suicidal Tendency song like Institutionalized or I don't know
Speaker 1: if you remember this song, the Sweater song by Maren Kdell. No.
Speaker 1: It was this kind of like I don't know, mid
Speaker 1: nineties song, but it would be these songs where people.
Speaker 2: Would talk wait, not Weezer sweater song.
Speaker 1: It was pre the Weezer sweater song. I or not
Speaker 1: a surf at That song popular where they would talk
Speaker 1: during the verses and I always liked it. And there
Speaker 1: was another guy who did a lot of that and
Speaker 1: I can't think of his name. It was about he was.
Speaker 1: He did a bunch of songs like where he was.
Speaker 2: Jesus, Oh, yes, yes, you know who's that.
Speaker 1: I can't think of it anyway. So it's like, let's
Speaker 1: do a song like that. Because to me, the concept
Speaker 1: of like writing a song like Lonely Island, I'm like,
Speaker 1: I can't. I don't know how to do that exactly.
Speaker 1: But this is we can talk about it and then
Speaker 1: have this chorus that kicks it in as a song.
Speaker 1: So it's like a different format that we used a
Speaker 1: couple of times throughout the show.
Speaker 4: It's great.
Speaker 1: I love that suicide Tendency song. I think about it
Speaker 1: all the time.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's intense.
Speaker 1: It's intense, and he's like, oh and I just get
Speaker 1: a PEPSI I just want to are you on drugs?
Speaker 1: And then there's a chorus.
Speaker 4: I think, yeah, they say that institutionalized.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I remember when you came in that day because
Speaker 2: even at the time, it felt momentous, like it was
Speaker 2: like you just completely like cracked something that we needed,
Speaker 2: Like we.
Speaker 1: Made it to you guys in a car and I
Speaker 1: played a song to kind of explain how it would work.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was like we needed a thesis for the
Speaker 2: show and just like some idea like you know, you know,
Speaker 2: guiding principle essentially, and it became that in this way
Speaker 2: that like I think if we didn't have that in
Speaker 2: the first season, like that was the and I was
Speaker 2: what that anchored it and everyone understood and I remember
Speaker 2: we you know, we talked about this, but Lauren understood
Speaker 2: that the Yeah, and it was like to be the first,
Speaker 2: but it was I remember you must have had because
Speaker 2: I know that feeling too. We were like, this is
Speaker 2: a good idea. I just have to make sure that
Speaker 2: they get that it's a good idea, which we did,
Speaker 2: and it did feel kind of big.
Speaker 4: Yeah when we watched it. The production is so huge.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And that was a lot of David Cress because
Speaker 1: I was just feeding him like, Okay, here's kind of
Speaker 1: the idea, like I want this, and he'd be like,
Speaker 1: how about a guy in a really tall bicycle or something.
Speaker 1: I'm like, yes, he got it. Yeah, so just give
Speaker 1: me all those elements of like nineties whatever.
Speaker 2: It was, Yeah, Like from a director's standpoint, like because
Speaker 2: you know, we've talked about how the scripts were basically
Speaker 2: outlined a little bit of dialogue that we almost got
Speaker 2: you know, did away with immediately. Like how helpful were
Speaker 2: the various departments that were like adding to the visuals,
Speaker 2: Like like, how was that process for you working with
Speaker 2: like Amanda Tyler.
Speaker 1: I mean both of them would just they a lot
Speaker 1: of times there's a thing in the script and then
Speaker 1: they wear this outfit. We didn't really put those details in.
Speaker 1: They would just go, oh, I get this character. It
Speaker 1: was always character based, like I get this character, I
Speaker 1: get what their house would be like, and they would
Speaker 1: really just provide so much exers that we really took
Speaker 1: for granted and didn't realize how amazing it was to
Speaker 1: have like that mind, those other minds adding to it,
Speaker 1: because then all of a sudden we'd be on segue,
Speaker 1: Oh my god, this is hilarious. We got to do
Speaker 1: a scene over here with this thing that we didn't
Speaker 1: even you know, like I think of so many examples,
Speaker 1: but a very specific one was I mean, this wasn't
Speaker 1: even anyone planned for. But when you're shooting in that
Speaker 1: cell phone store with Koumeil and there was a display
Speaker 1: of sun, yes, and all of a sudden we're like,
Speaker 1: this has to be and he got it and.
Speaker 2: It just like or the Amy Man the sweater, the
Speaker 2: tiny sweater and when Amy Man it does our house cleaning,
Speaker 2: my god, and she shrinks the sweater and then I
Speaker 2: wasn't in the script. Well, all I know is that
Speaker 2: Fred brings it back in the dumpster divers, yes, and
Speaker 2: that that would have been them just putting that in there.
Speaker 2: I agree, yes, yeah, we're like, it definitely was in
Speaker 2: the script. That she shrunk a sweater but later them
Speaker 2: for them to think, like, let's have this connective tissue,
Speaker 2: and then that became one of the funniest moments in
Speaker 2: The Dumpster Drivers, where you're you literally put it on
Speaker 2: your body. Yeah, and like that, like they were thinking
Speaker 2: so deeply. And obviously we've worked on a ton of
Speaker 2: shows with many talented people, but I will say from
Speaker 2: like a production design and like costume design standpoint, like
Speaker 2: that level, next level, like brain galacy stuff is really
Speaker 2: it is rare. It's pretty rare.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I would say Simon too. At the casting
Speaker 1: I mean the cast of I mean, obviously we brought
Speaker 1: in like friends, celebrities and stuff for guest stars and stuff,
Speaker 1: but the local acting pool is incredible and added so
Speaker 1: much to it, and some very specific characters that just
Speaker 1: became part of the cast and that weren't just I
Speaker 1: mean Simon was like, oh, there's a guy in my heart.
Speaker 1: I remember when we were looking for the nerd, which
Speaker 1: was actually very hard to do.
Speaker 2: No, not remember oh the nerd for the nerds, it
Speaker 2: was actually.
Speaker 1: Very challenging to find because we were such well, the
Speaker 1: nerd of the sitcom is like not it's not like yeah,
Speaker 1: and he's like, there's a guy who works in my
Speaker 1: hardware store. I'm going to try to bring him in.
Speaker 1: And then the guy was great. It's probably the first
Speaker 1: and last thing he ever did, but it was awesome
Speaker 1: for us.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I felt like it made the show look so
Speaker 2: different and so site specific in that it wasn't just
Speaker 2: populated by actors like I mean, yes, there was a
Speaker 2: lot of low level but like that you hadn't seen before,
Speaker 2: Like because we weren't shooting in La it was like, oh,
Speaker 2: I've seen that guy on this other stuff. It was
Speaker 2: just you only ever saw them on our show.
Speaker 1: But to us, they became celebrities.
Speaker 2: We loved them, we love yeah, and we would write
Speaker 2: for them and be like this is they will be
Speaker 2: in this sketch and I love It's. One of the
Speaker 2: things I miss about not doing the show is there
Speaker 2: was all those people who I stopped seeing super granted
Speaker 2: I would see them every day. Yeah yeah. And also
Speaker 2: back another thing I thought that and I don't know,
Speaker 2: maybe you learned this and TiO min Eric because I
Speaker 2: feel like your use of just like non speaking roles
Speaker 2: like cutaways like where you know where.
Speaker 1: You get, well, that was a little bit of financial
Speaker 1: respond okay, because we always make our list of like, okay,
Speaker 1: we need I don't know, fifty guest stars for the season,
Speaker 1: and David was, well, you guys, we only have a
Speaker 1: budget at thirty. I go, well, okay, I'll play like
Speaker 1: two of them and like ten of them don't need
Speaker 1: to speak. So then it just became a thing of
Speaker 1: like this can't speak because we're trying to cut corners
Speaker 1: on the budget. And the show was very cheap. Oh yes,
Speaker 1: Pino was one hundred thousand dollars. I remember that. Wow,
Speaker 1: which in today's terms is probably a little more, but
Speaker 1: still it was.
Speaker 2: It was really threadbare. It was running gun for sure.
Speaker 2: We were just talking about the goat box earlier. I
Speaker 2: remember stealing a shot driving like obviously we'd interacted with
Speaker 2: those goats like time and that when we wrote there.
Speaker 2: But I remember we were I think it was for
Speaker 2: the cell phone when we were just talking about but
Speaker 2: we would just be driving from one location to a
Speaker 2: next next, or walking and we would just be like,
Speaker 2: let's get a quick thing here. Like there was so
Speaker 2: much of that, just like spontaneous.
Speaker 1: Which the town is really helpful for that.
Speaker 2: The town is helpful and just so people understand that's
Speaker 2: very hard to do. Like you, it is really rare
Speaker 2: to be on any TV show and just be like,
Speaker 2: let's steal this show possible, like without permits or without
Speaker 2: like someone just under the auspices of someone be like,
Speaker 2: sure you can do that without someone be like, hold on,
Speaker 2: I got to walk in. Let's get the locations to
Speaker 2: make sure we're going to walk in. We got to
Speaker 2: get the contract going. We would do that after like
Speaker 2: they'd be like, okay, thanks, can you sign this?
Speaker 3: It was an afterthought. Yeah, I remember, this is an
Speaker 3: insurance thing.
Speaker 2: That I was waiting.
Speaker 1: I don't think, oh, I remember, I know what you're
Speaker 1: going to say.
Speaker 3: A thing spike with bicycle rides the bicycle like when
Speaker 3: I was well, when I got set out, I just
Speaker 3: had think yourself. Yeah, I was by myself, which is
Speaker 3: fine with me.
Speaker 1: I have no Maybe it was a car following you
Speaker 1: or leading you maybe or a bike or something. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but I remember I remember waiting for you.
Speaker 4: My memory is off.
Speaker 1: You go yeah, and then mean like but the driving
Speaker 1: when we would just put all the cameras in the car,
Speaker 1: you guys would just drive. I remember we were in
Speaker 1: that ambulance. We used it, but we were just going
Speaker 1: through stop signs and I just could.
Speaker 2: Have You went on on a bike. I went out
Speaker 2: on a ski do with a go pro way out
Speaker 2: in the river. Remember them with the Sea World episode.
Speaker 2: I mean you guys, there was not even someone like
Speaker 2: near me to be like, well, for safety, we'll follow
Speaker 2: her out.
Speaker 1: The show was very safe. No, it was the car
Speaker 1: because there were so many cameras you couldn't even see.
Speaker 3: I was scared that because there were so many real
Speaker 3: bicycle people that I thought one of these days.
Speaker 1: I remembered, I was worried.
Speaker 4: That I was going to hit someone on a bicycle.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I remember riding on the back of a motorcycle
Speaker 2: like with that stunt guy. There was definitely, Yeah, there
Speaker 2: was a lot of that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, for better or worse.
Speaker 3: Yeah, this is something I don't This is a real question.
Speaker 3: Yeah that I don't understand that I think both of
Speaker 3: you probably take for granted. When I watched portl India
Speaker 3: opening credits, the whole show, there is a color like,
Speaker 3: there's a look to it and it can't be as
Speaker 3: simple as oh, we just set up cameras. What is
Speaker 3: this trick that made it look so rich and like
Speaker 3: mysterious and what is the camera?
Speaker 1: Well, okay, i'll tell you the first two seasons. This
Speaker 1: I was because I was always on these inexpensive, like
Speaker 1: low budget projects. We're always like what's the next thing,
Speaker 1: And on TI min Ark were always experimenting with stuff,
Speaker 1: and we had shot with this still camera, which became
Speaker 1: all the rage after. But we shot the first two
Speaker 1: seasons of Portland on the still cannon, you know camera
Speaker 1: that you just buy at the store, and the camera
Speaker 1: operators are always complaining about it because it was a
Speaker 1: pain in the US. But it looks really cool and
Speaker 1: the lenses are like very beautiful and you get this
Speaker 1: amazing look that at the time was impossible. We must
Speaker 1: have been the first thing to shoot on that technology
Speaker 1: in a big show or movie or something, because it
Speaker 1: was very early on in that technology. So it definitely
Speaker 1: gave it. But in my mind I was like, well,
Speaker 1: if let's say Gus Van Sant or some indie film
Speaker 1: independent film channel was making a sketch show like this
Speaker 1: is what it would be. That was sort of the
Speaker 1: north star of the vibe of it. So it was
Speaker 1: more like low key and like your guys' performances were
Speaker 1: always like very dry and grounded, and it's like, so,
Speaker 1: can we do something that's not like in your face comedy.
Speaker 1: This would be this version of it have its own aesthetic.
Speaker 1: But I think, I think that's what you're talking about.
Speaker 4: That's exactly that's the exactly what I was wondering about.
Speaker 3: Yeah, is there a filter on to intro, on the
Speaker 3: intro and the interests?
Speaker 1: Yes, there was a lot. We were just throwing because
Speaker 1: you got to understand the first episode, which that title
Speaker 1: sequence was in, and from we finished. Okay, so we
Speaker 1: shot the show in the summer. We did the pilot
Speaker 1: quick turn around. Yes, we'll do a serious then we
Speaker 1: shot it. Then you went to SNL. Then I went
Speaker 1: to SNL too because I was still working there. The
Speaker 1: editors came to New York and we would just work
Speaker 1: on it like during the day and night. I fell
Speaker 1: asleep many times in the edit room. So but then
Speaker 1: Christmas time came around, everything went back to LA. The
Speaker 1: show was not done and it got shipped to my
Speaker 1: house and I had just had a baby, and so
Speaker 1: literally I would go in. I would start at like midnight.
Speaker 1: I worked till like six in the morning, just trying
Speaker 1: to finish the show. So I'm sure I was in
Speaker 1: some program throwing random filters on that title sequence because
Speaker 1: there was a lot of like prosumer filters, and I
Speaker 1: was just like, try to try that. I was just
Speaker 1: trying and literally finished the show. I couldn't believe that.
Speaker 1: And then they were like, you have to lay this
Speaker 1: off for air. I'm like, I don't even know exactly
Speaker 1: how to do that. I did it wrong. I did
Speaker 1: it wrong. But when the show first aired, the volume
Speaker 1: was wrong.
Speaker 2: What do you mean the volume was wrong? Like it
Speaker 2: wasn't sound mixed.
Speaker 1: No, Basically, this is even crazier the first season sound mixes.
Speaker 1: We didn't go into a sound mixing studio. I literally
Speaker 1: just gave it on a drive to this friend of
Speaker 1: a friend and he's like, I do albums. I'm like,
Speaker 1: you're supposed to put tone at the beginning, like, dude,
Speaker 1: so it sets the level for who's ever airing it.
Speaker 1: And I was like, I think it should be this
Speaker 1: or that. I said it wrong, so the show when
Speaker 1: people they had to turn it up. This was too
Speaker 1: low anyway, Wow, there was no one working on it
Speaker 1: but me. It was crazy. I couldn't believe it and
Speaker 1: I should I should have called somebody and be like,
Speaker 1: what am I supposed to do?
Speaker 2: Yeah, we flew so under the radar.
Speaker 1: I mean it was a different time. Yeah, of television.
Speaker 1: It was like i FC was like it was I
Speaker 1: don't know what it was, but it was just like, really,
Speaker 1: no one is paying attention. Yes, and an executive level, yes,
Speaker 1: there were people paying attention. I've gotten in trouble for
Speaker 1: think stupid things in the past. It's just like it was.
Speaker 1: It was a wild West and it was great. It
Speaker 1: made great content.
Speaker 2: We were just talking about we were just naming a
Speaker 2: few shows like Delocated or Heartshet Hollered, like adults swim
Speaker 2: adults swim human, I mean human. Yeah, but like just
Speaker 2: things were like there would not that would just be
Speaker 2: maybe on YouTube now maybe not maybe, you know.
Speaker 1: And I still I say this now, like comedy is
Speaker 1: missing that throwaway like throw away but like that lower
Speaker 1: budget thing where it's just like it's we're like kids
Speaker 1: in the Hall or something where it say, it's just
Speaker 1: like late night or something where you can just make
Speaker 1: weird stuff. Not all comedy has to be so beautiful
Speaker 1: and like you know, like you just need that punk
Speaker 1: energy sometimes in making comedy, it's just you take it
Speaker 1: too seriously. It kind of stifles it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, even the way you're describing like your editorial process,
Speaker 2: it's so anarchic, you know, and it's just like you
Speaker 2: kind of like leaving the mistakes and it's like old music,
Speaker 2: you know, you're like, oh my god, they're out of
Speaker 2: key here, or like you can hear them.
Speaker 1: Kind of energy is good.
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, it's just it's about feel And I think we.
Speaker 1: Talked about that a lot. Did you talk about that?
Speaker 2: No, not really.
Speaker 1: We would always talk about the first albums of bands
Speaker 1: that we love, right, Oh, yeah, I always talk about that, like, yeah,
Speaker 1: the first album has a lot of mistakes in it,
Speaker 1: it's really rough and they've been working on it for
Speaker 1: ten years or whatever, and then the second album they
Speaker 1: rush out and it doesn't work as well or something
Speaker 1: like that. But we remember we talked about that a lot.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I feel like when we'd first get to in
Speaker 2: the writer's room, we'd have, you know, like you kind
Speaker 2: of have like an analogy like that was definitely one,
Speaker 2: and we would name like the albums that were like great,
Speaker 2: great first albums. But for us though, I think we
Speaker 2: were lucky that the first season was kind of truncated
Speaker 2: because it allowed the second season to actually kind of
Speaker 2: like drift off like some of that energy, but like
Speaker 2: slightly just a little more refined. I felt like we
Speaker 2: kind of hit our stride there, and.
Speaker 1: We also kind of knew what it was. I think
Speaker 1: in the first season, we're like, we had some scenes
Speaker 1: that we didn't end up using. We were like, is
Speaker 1: it this? Do we have like interviews or remember yes.
Speaker 2: Yes, or like the Dandy Warhol's the Courtney Corney tape
Speaker 2: right Taylor Taylor.
Speaker 1: Because we were just like, we don't know what it is.
Speaker 1: It could be all these things. And then we kind
Speaker 1: of found it and then second season was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: boom boom boom.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that feels like a good place to stop for
Speaker 2: this first interview with John. We will be continuing in
Speaker 2: the next episode.
Speaker 4: Thanks for being there.
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Speaker 1: one one one n