Speaker 1: So I ran into UH producer Jensen Carr, husband of
Speaker 1: his podcast. It was either yesterday the day before the
Speaker 1: day's blend at Target buying what I can only describe
Speaker 1: as a ridiculous amount of gummy worms and for Halloween.
Speaker 1: I don't know he had. He was He looked like
Speaker 1: he was on a mission and embarrassed at the same time.
Speaker 1: If that means there you go, you're already discovered the
Speaker 1: issues you've seen your boys cover for him to eat
Speaker 1: as much. Basically, so, Jensen loves gummy candies, loves them,
Speaker 1: and my children like gummy worms. And there's this particular
Speaker 1: brand of gummy worms that my kids like that are
Speaker 1: you know whatever the version of like healthy? Are they
Speaker 1: organic gummy worms? I don't know. Yeah, they're like healthy
Speaker 1: gummy worms healthy. I don't know, there's like no dies
Speaker 1: or something. It's just you know, there's some like worms,
Speaker 1: the organic worms. Um. And so when I have bought
Speaker 1: a bag, I'll say, like, I'm going to get these
Speaker 1: for the kids. Are you gonna want to eat any
Speaker 1: of them? Because if you are, we're going to need
Speaker 1: to buy more because our kids are pretty good about
Speaker 1: like you can have five gummy worms and then they're
Speaker 1: fine with the five gummy worms. Jensen will open a
Speaker 1: bag of gummy worms and then eat a bag of
Speaker 1: gummy worms. And when I mean a bag of gummy worms,
Speaker 1: I mean there's like a hundred gummy worms in there
Speaker 1: or something. And so all then go back to the
Speaker 1: gummy worms the next day and be like, where are
Speaker 1: the gummy worms? And He's like, white them, you know,
Speaker 1: they're gone, and I'm like, we've had them. We had
Speaker 1: it was a right. So the other day when he
Speaker 1: went to the grocery store, I said, buy the kids
Speaker 1: their gummy worms, and then by whatever amount of gummy
Speaker 1: worms you need for you, you will have your stash
Speaker 1: of gummy worms and the kids will have theirs. So
Speaker 1: what he bought was three small bags of gummy worms
Speaker 1: for our kids and then the humongous monster. You're having
Speaker 1: seven hundred people over to your house for gummy worms
Speaker 1: bag of gummy worms. So that's that. And I like
Speaker 1: gummy worms only because they're the best way to catch
Speaker 1: bigger Swedish fish. So that's our that's our favorite thing
Speaker 1: about it, because we're big Swedish fish fans. And the Swedish, oh,
Speaker 1: they now have one with their tropical ones. So like
Speaker 1: the front half is one flavor and then the tail
Speaker 1: is another flavor. Don't get me started. Well, everyone's like,
Speaker 1: you need to eat more fish. Well, you need to
Speaker 1: eat more fish. So I have been right. There you go,
Speaker 1: and I don't take the problem. I don't see the problem. Also, writer,
Speaker 1: I'd like to point out, I don't know what it
Speaker 1: is about your room today, but I've been glancing down
Speaker 1: and it looks at times like you're in a snow globe,
Speaker 1: Like there's just all this kind of fluff floating around.
Speaker 1: There is there is a you know what it is.
Speaker 1: I think it's the reflection of his watch. Are you
Speaker 1: wearing a watch? No, that's one, but there's also then
Speaker 1: there's also like like fuzzy one just went by, Yes,
Speaker 1: so it does again yesterday. That's trying the problem. So
Speaker 1: it doesn't look like you're you're the big Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: just the way the light hit is hitting. This is
Speaker 1: going to be the game all day. Shake up? Right
Speaker 1: there you go? Right? Or your skin looks great. I
Speaker 1: was going to say, have you been using have you
Speaker 1: been doing guasha? No? What did you say? What word
Speaker 1: did you just say? Gasha? Well, it's a Chinese um
Speaker 1: a skin thing where you take like either rose quartz,
Speaker 1: a rose quartz slate or a jade slate and you
Speaker 1: put like oil on your face. You don't scrape, like
Speaker 1: you're not scraping skin, You're you're just pushing. It's basically
Speaker 1: to help with puffiness and it helps with like lymphatic
Speaker 1: drainage and it's really good for you. But it's like
Speaker 1: an extremely natural um way of of bringing blood flow
Speaker 1: to your skin and plumping your skin. And I saw
Speaker 1: a girlfriend of mine for lunch the other day and
Speaker 1: I said, oh my gosh, your skin looks amazing and
Speaker 1: she said gasha, and I was like wow. And right,
Speaker 1: so it's a real thing. It's not like also you
Speaker 1: need wizards or whatever some of that where it's like
Speaker 1: if you lay on these crystals or is a code
Speaker 1: for I just had botox? Right, that's that's that's why
Speaker 1: my nose looks smaller. No, look it up. You know,
Speaker 1: there's only so much I can do, Like there's so
Speaker 1: much self care. But you know what's funny, it's like,
Speaker 1: do you remember, like I mean, I've I've had this
Speaker 1: conversation like recently where like the word metro sexual had
Speaker 1: to be invented for the very notion that men might
Speaker 1: take care of their skin, for their hair. And it's
Speaker 1: like and I remember feeling that way like in the nineties,
Speaker 1: and part of it was being an adolescent, but also
Speaker 1: so much a part of the culture, uh to just
Speaker 1: not give a crap about your face or your body
Speaker 1: or you're like and it's just like now it's you know,
Speaker 1: it's pretty standard, like everybody should probably take care of themselves.
Speaker 1: I think then are going to be wearing makeup pretty
Speaker 1: much within the next ten years, like on a regular basis.
Speaker 1: I think I think it's definite time that we take
Speaker 1: care of our skin more so, like you should like
Speaker 1: wash your face and stuff right where sunscreen that never
Speaker 1: never did and like when I was a kid man
Speaker 1: just always sunburned doesn't hurt so much when I go
Speaker 1: out of the beach. I wonder why I hate the beach.
Speaker 1: It's like, like, just never put on sunscreen, right, Oh
Speaker 1: my god, You're like your entire bodies one big sun
Speaker 1: blister always always, Like I just have memories of sleeping
Speaker 1: and not being able to sleep because burning up on
Speaker 1: my Yeah, well, welcome to pod Meat's world. I'm Danielle visual,
Speaker 1: I'm right or Strong, and I'm Before we get into
Speaker 1: our episode with Danny McNulty, which will basically conclude our
Speaker 1: Bully series. We had Adam Scott, we had Blake Sennate,
Speaker 1: we had Ethan Supply, and today Danny McNulty. Uh. To
Speaker 1: commemorate this little segment of our podcast, we have something
Speaker 1: we haven't had in a while, which is new merch,
Speaker 1: New new Merch. Well, I wasn't expecting. I didn't have
Speaker 1: one chamber for that. You're you're always supposed to be
Speaker 1: ready for new Mary. I didn't have one in the
Speaker 1: chamber for that at all. Now March, I got nothing.
Speaker 1: That's great, wa way to pick it up? Um And
Speaker 1: so yeah, we've got new March. We've got a new
Speaker 1: T shirt to commemorate the very awkward encounter Right or
Speaker 1: Strong had Do we call it huggate, embrace gate, Adam
Speaker 1: embrace Gate? Adam Scott coined it embrace skate and uh, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's been really fun to to ask other people what
Speaker 1: their thoughts were and we may never know the truth. Guy,
Speaker 1: big story, whether Adam, Adam Scott, or note the amount
Speaker 1: of text messages I got in my life from people.
Speaker 1: You know, people hadn't talked to you for a year
Speaker 1: or two. Suddenly we're like here, here, Adam Scott. Here,
Speaker 1: you're really weird up. I hugging Adam Scott. It's like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, well, I love how Danielle sent how
Speaker 1: Adam sent you a text Danielle saying like, so apparently
Speaker 1: I confronted you got clipping man like fit was so
Speaker 1: it was so uncomfortable. It was like Adam Scott confronted
Speaker 1: the cast of about their treatment of him, and it
Speaker 1: was like, wait a minute, but anyway, it was hilarious.
Speaker 1: The shirt is phenomenal. It's a very comic book style shirt.
Speaker 1: So if you're interested in some new Pod Mets World merch,
Speaker 1: be sure to check it out. So we have been
Speaker 1: counting down the days until we got to this interview.
Speaker 1: We actually had to postpone at once, which was very
Speaker 1: unfortunate and uh, our our dear listeners have been asking
Speaker 1: for this gentleman for a very long time. He portrayed
Speaker 1: Harvey Harley Kiner for eight episodes of Boy Meets World,
Speaker 1: mostly in season two, and just so you guys know,
Speaker 1: we do now know that his name will later be
Speaker 1: revealed to be Harvey and watched the show. We know,
Speaker 1: it's so weird to be in this position where everybody
Speaker 1: listening out there knows more than we do. Yes, everyone,
Speaker 1: So it's just a very I remember a lot, and
Speaker 1: I do remember a lot. Well, you remember a lot
Speaker 1: of behind the scenes stuff. You actually remember no idea
Speaker 1: what that was. Okay. So Danny's first episode was our
Speaker 1: season two opener, back to School, and his last episode
Speaker 1: was when he returned in season three for episode four.
Speaker 1: He said, she said, but there's always been a bit
Speaker 1: of a mystery. Um, it's when he came back to
Speaker 1: confront Adam Scott's character. Yeah, he came back to like
Speaker 1: I remember that dialogue, do you? Yeah? I don't remember
Speaker 1: the episode at all, he said. He's standing in front
Speaker 1: of him and he essentially says, I'm gonna I'm gonna
Speaker 1: kick your kick your butt, and and Griff looks at
Speaker 1: him and says, okay, So then you've thought this entirely through.
Speaker 1: You're gonna kick my butt, You're gonna end up in jail.
Speaker 1: I'm still gonna be here tomorrow. Like, he goes through
Speaker 1: this entire speech about that, and you see the wheels
Speaker 1: like turning in Harley's mind. I don't know why I
Speaker 1: remember that scene. I don't even think, but I do
Speaker 1: remember that. Yeah. Well, there's always been a little bit
Speaker 1: of a mystery around Danny's departure from the show, and
Speaker 1: including someone else who appears to have played his character
Speaker 1: who comes back like and plays one episode. Um plays
Speaker 1: Harley for one episode, and then of course later Adam
Speaker 1: Scott took his spot as King of the Bullies. We
Speaker 1: always loved Danny, but as most of us were just
Speaker 1: children living in a time where like mental health issues
Speaker 1: were mostly swept under the rug, we never knew the
Speaker 1: full story. We're very much looking forward to hearing it
Speaker 1: directly from him today. So let's please welcome Danny McNulty. M. Hey, everyone,
Speaker 1: it's Bethany Frankel. We are reliving the best moments from
Speaker 1: all the seasons of the Real Housewives on my new podcast, Rewives.
Speaker 1: From the table flips of New Jersey to the craziest
Speaker 1: hills of Beverly, No city will be spared, and I'm
Speaker 1: joined by my most fabulous celebrity friends that you will
Speaker 1: never expect to help me break down the drama. Kristin Channaw,
Speaker 1: Tori Spelling, Jerry Springer, Snooky even Emmy winner Elizabeth Moss.
Speaker 1: The list goes on and on, so let's whoop it
Speaker 1: up and mention it all because you can binge episodes
Speaker 1: of rewives right now with so much more to come.
Speaker 1: Listen to rewives on the I Heart Radio app or
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your podcasts are look at you, guys,
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, look at you, Look at your pod dismissed. Awesome. Yes,
Speaker 1: I got to represent, as they said, Oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: I don't let me seeing the backgrounds. My good friend
Speaker 1: Ben Noir, he it's nice enough to let me use
Speaker 1: the studio today. Ben Ben is a music studio. Hans
Speaker 1: at a piano. Oh man, it's so good to see you.
Speaker 1: Thank you for being here with us. Of course you
Speaker 1: know it's an honor. So Danny, let's get started with
Speaker 1: how did you How did you get into acting? Um? Well,
Speaker 1: I got into acting at a very young age. Um.
Speaker 1: Both of my parents are from Doneygall, Ireland, and um
Speaker 1: they came to America to open up an Irish bar
Speaker 1: and forest Tills, Queens. And it was at this time
Speaker 1: where I first got my acting bug. Where I was
Speaker 1: serving pints to customers at seven years old. Yes, most
Speaker 1: irish thing I've ever had, you know. I had a stool.
Speaker 1: As soon as I could reach it. I was like,
Speaker 1: I want to make money out of this and play
Speaker 1: the pac Man machine. And that's what I did. That
Speaker 1: was like my main babysitter. And basically, you know, your
Speaker 1: dad really didn't want you to get into acting, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: well originally, um, um, my parents divorced when I was eleven,
Speaker 1: and um then my father he was not into acting,
Speaker 1: you all. I was always trying to get you know,
Speaker 1: his his approval, and then um my dad passed away
Speaker 1: when I was fourteen, and um so from there, I
Speaker 1: asked my mom if it would be okay if I,
Speaker 1: you know, started acting, and she said, yeah, sure, gives
Speaker 1: the shot. So I went to h Lee Strasburg, the
Speaker 1: Young People's program there. Anna Strasburg got me my first audition,
Speaker 1: and uh, I just I just loved loved working with
Speaker 1: with with the the the actor you know, James Dean
Speaker 1: went there. Malin Brando was like this this this feeling
Speaker 1: as a as a as a kid, you know, and um, yeah,
Speaker 1: my dad didn't want me to get into acting. I
Speaker 1: got into the acting, and from from there I went
Speaker 1: to When I was sixteen, I dropped out of high
Speaker 1: school because I was left back in second grade and
Speaker 1: fifth grade due to an undiagnosed learning disability. And uh,
Speaker 1: it was it was tough in high school. You know,
Speaker 1: I was a freshman, all all my uh all my
Speaker 1: friends with juniors, so I just didn't really fit in.
Speaker 1: So wait, so I want to ask you a little
Speaker 1: bit more about that. So when you were in second grade,
Speaker 1: you get through second grade, you finished second grade, and
Speaker 1: then what happens. They decide not to let you go
Speaker 1: into third grade. You have to redo second grade. You
Speaker 1: have to redo second grade, and then see all your
Speaker 1: friends that you were, you know, they go on and
Speaker 1: then everyone else is like, wait, you're in the wrong class, right, Like,
Speaker 1: oh no, I'm not. I'm sticking around, you know, I'm here.
Speaker 1: And my dad had passed away at that time, so
Speaker 1: it was it was a lot going on, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm no kidding. So then you then the same thing
Speaker 1: happens when you go into fifth grade. So in fifth grade,
Speaker 1: you're you know, I think you're about ten right in
Speaker 1: fifth grade, somewhere around their ten eleven years old. So
Speaker 1: it happens again. You go through fifth grade, and then
Speaker 1: at the end of fifth grade they decided they're not
Speaker 1: gonna let you go forward into junior high. You're going
Speaker 1: to stay in fifth grade. So now you're two years
Speaker 1: older than everybody else. Yeah, in fifth grade, how do
Speaker 1: you think they missed the learning disability for you? What
Speaker 1: were the signs that you were What were the things
Speaker 1: you were experiencing that that were just missed? In second grade,
Speaker 1: I had moved from a public school into a private
Speaker 1: school and I didn't meet their um level of learning.
Speaker 1: And then by fifth grade, um, my mom took me
Speaker 1: to a doctor and they realized that I was a slexic,
Speaker 1: and um, yeah, it's just like it was really hard
Speaker 1: for me, especially with acting, because I'd have to literally
Speaker 1: train my mind to have somebody else speak out the
Speaker 1: lines first, and then I can roll into it like
Speaker 1: a table reads for a nightmare. Wow. Okay, so in
Speaker 1: fifth grade then you get held back and then you
Speaker 1: go forward, which so one of the things I'm thinking
Speaker 1: about with that is that it's it's so interesting that, um,
Speaker 1: when we interviewed Blake and Ethan, they were talking about
Speaker 1: this with with of darkness that they had about them,
Speaker 1: and I think it was Blake who pointed out specifically
Speaker 1: how interesting it is that all of us, with our
Speaker 1: characters mirrored, had so many things in common, like you
Speaker 1: being two years older than everybody in your schools. Actually hard,
Speaker 1: actually exactly what hard, Like multiple jokes are like he's
Speaker 1: going to be here for ten years or whatever. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's exactly kind of like my upbringing to where I
Speaker 1: came from, you know. So when I was sixteen, I
Speaker 1: dropped out and got my g E D. And that's
Speaker 1: where I went. I went to the Neighborhood Playhouse to
Speaker 1: study the Meisner technique and that was that was that
Speaker 1: was interesting. It's a two year program. Like I only
Speaker 1: got asked back, you know, I didn't get asked back
Speaker 1: for the second year. So a buddy of mine, Jed Reese,
Speaker 1: was working up in Vancouver a lot, and he went
Speaker 1: to school with me in New York and he said,
Speaker 1: come on up to you know, Vancouver, and we'll try
Speaker 1: out a few things. And he got me an agent
Speaker 1: and from there I started working like my my first roles,
Speaker 1: like my first role was Street Justice with Carl Weathers
Speaker 1: actually opposite Omar Epps and like sort of a racial
Speaker 1: you know, racially you know, like it was called black
Speaker 1: or blue. That was. That was a really interesting experience
Speaker 1: just to get it under my belt, to like to learn,
Speaker 1: you know, blocking and you know what the cameras are
Speaker 1: and everything. So from there I moved back to New York.
Speaker 1: Did a couple of commercials. My first commercial was an
Speaker 1: Elvis Presley stamp commercial. Oh my gosh, pull up in
Speaker 1: a Cadillac. When is the stamp not just the stamp?
Speaker 1: I say, one of rocks man, one of rocks, Elvis
Speaker 1: gear and everything. I think I remember that that was
Speaker 1: the that when when the entire question was are they
Speaker 1: gonna put thin Elvis or heavier Elvis on the standard?
Speaker 1: It was It was a big Yeah, it was a
Speaker 1: big Everyone said Elvis was finally getting a stamp, and
Speaker 1: it became this big national debate do we put thin
Speaker 1: young Elvis on the stamp or do you put the
Speaker 1: older Elvis when he was heavy on the stamp. He
Speaker 1: became this whole thing. There was commercial and fans voted,
Speaker 1: and yeah, it was a whole big thing. Who was
Speaker 1: I think it was young Elvis went on the stamp.
Speaker 1: I think, right, yeah, young Elvis, And that meant lots
Speaker 1: of my mom because my mom was a big Elvis fan.
Speaker 1: So I was like, oh Jesus, lovely Irish accent, thought
Speaker 1: Danny admitt prag. But the whole I mean, for anybody
Speaker 1: who is unaware of, uh kind of what it's like
Speaker 1: to come up in the business when you are you
Speaker 1: go from Strausburg to Meisner, I mean that's royalty when
Speaker 1: it comes to acting schools and acting teaching. It's a
Speaker 1: very specific style of acting, but it is one that
Speaker 1: is not easy to get into nor easy to sustain.
Speaker 1: So I mean you were trained by some of the best. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was, it was, it was. It was something that
Speaker 1: I you know, if I couldn't do regular school, I
Speaker 1: wanted to go give it, give it my all, and
Speaker 1: you know, to do everything I could to make it,
Speaker 1: to make it happen. So you we all know what
Speaker 1: an amazingly close relationship with your mother that you you had.
Speaker 1: And I want to get into that a little bit
Speaker 1: here because you mentioned her and her accent, and I
Speaker 1: also imagine that you know, with your dad passing away
Speaker 1: when you were fourteen, did that just make you even
Speaker 1: closer to your mom? Will you tell us a little
Speaker 1: bit about the bond you and your mom had. Yeah.
Speaker 1: My mom's name is kat Lean mcdonalfield. As I said,
Speaker 1: she's from Donegal, Ireland, just very hard working. After my
Speaker 1: parents split, she took over the bar and had no
Speaker 1: idea about business or anything, but she became one of
Speaker 1: the shrewdest businesswomen and in all the Queen's to be honest,
Speaker 1: and back then, you know, women weren't really doing that.
Speaker 1: You know, they didn't really have a say. It was
Speaker 1: more like you know, what are you doing? You know,
Speaker 1: like who where's your husband? Where's the man of the house.
Speaker 1: I am the man of the house, and um my mom,
Speaker 1: my mom, I just want to be candid with you
Speaker 1: guys for everything, you know, to help other people with
Speaker 1: with any struggles that they're going through. My mom was
Speaker 1: diagnosed with manic depression and back in those days they
Speaker 1: didn't really have any medications or anything. They just didn't
Speaker 1: know really what it was. When was she diagnosed with that?
Speaker 1: We we know that today as bipolar disorder and bipolar today.
Speaker 1: Um that was eighty five six, eighties seven. So when
Speaker 1: she started to get sick, I stepped up and I
Speaker 1: was running a bar um for soth queens and I
Speaker 1: got my first apartment when I was seventeen, and my
Speaker 1: mom always was very supported, you know, supportive of what
Speaker 1: I was doing. And you know, even though she had
Speaker 1: that going on at the same time when she wasn't
Speaker 1: on a you know, manic. I call it the bipolar
Speaker 1: right roller coaster, like you buy a ticket and you
Speaker 1: know you don't it just goes round and round, and
Speaker 1: it was really difficult. But at the same time that
Speaker 1: she was so strong, so when she had her power,
Speaker 1: it was just amazing what she could do. I wouldn't
Speaker 1: ask for another mom if I could just all the
Speaker 1: lessons that I had sort of like school hard knocks
Speaker 1: growing up. I knew there was a reason for it,
Speaker 1: that the universe was getting me ready young, you know,
Speaker 1: to experience things so I could help other people in
Speaker 1: the future. So when did you How did you find
Speaker 1: yourself in Los Angeles? I came there right like about
Speaker 1: six months, six months before Boy Meets World, and I
Speaker 1: started auditioning. Um got close to a couple of things,
Speaker 1: and uh, just just out of nowhere, I got the
Speaker 1: Boy Meets World. Uh audition, you know, the first audition
Speaker 1: I met Sally Steiner. Do you remember your audition? Oh? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I actually auditioned seven times. Seven times, Really, that is ridiculous.
Speaker 1: I would have assumed that you walked in the door
Speaker 1: and they were like, well, that's so hard to me,
Speaker 1: Like you just you just you own that character so much.
Speaker 1: It's like there's there's no you know what, we we
Speaker 1: saw it, there's no other way to do it, like
Speaker 1: you had to. Oh my god, that's so funny. Seven
Speaker 1: times that writer. Because I really admire all you guys act,
Speaker 1: you're acting, you know, so seven times I'm auditioning. Sally
Speaker 1: Steiner was like, come on, whatever, you can do it,
Speaker 1: you know, so kind, so so helpful. I don't know
Speaker 1: if Barbi Block was on the show. I don't think
Speaker 1: she was. I don't think she came on until maybe
Speaker 1: third season. Yeah, I think that that's right. And yeah,
Speaker 1: I just remember seven times for one show. Wow. It's
Speaker 1: like you do the one show and then all of
Speaker 1: a sudden you get a script. You're like, oh, this
Speaker 1: is your script for next week, like next week. Okay,
Speaker 1: So at the time that you were auditioning, you thought
Speaker 1: it was just going to be one episode. Yeah, just
Speaker 1: one yeah, just one episode. Seven times for for a
Speaker 1: guest cast for one episode. I believe that it can
Speaker 1: audition seven times for Eric well and most of the
Speaker 1: time for especially for for a guest cast, they're doing
Speaker 1: the auditions like the week before. So how do you
Speaker 1: even have seven times the first episode of the season,
Speaker 1: there are more of a run up time to it.
Speaker 1: And I think, you know, I do think that, Like
Speaker 1: you know, Michael really cares about actors, right like, and
Speaker 1: he really he takes casting, probably more seriously than a
Speaker 1: lot of te To his credit, that's what part of
Speaker 1: what made Women's World good and all of this show
Speaker 1: is better than your average sitcom is that he did
Speaker 1: give care and time and and a lot of times
Speaker 1: that meant multiple sessions like and probably driving Sally and
Speaker 1: Barbie crazy, you know, but also meant firing actors because
Speaker 1: that and that's one thing where you know, we've talked
Speaker 1: about it where it's it sucks, but Michael had a
Speaker 1: vision when it came to certain characters, and if somebody
Speaker 1: wasn't working out, they would go he would go back,
Speaker 1: and they would he would hire somebody else to do.
Speaker 1: And it's terrible, but that's why they say it's not
Speaker 1: show friends, it's show business. And that's what that's what
Speaker 1: he would do but he also it seems it seems
Speaker 1: so it's uncanny to me his apparent ability to find
Speaker 1: actors who really are like their characters, like he really
Speaker 1: did and he's able. It was a reciprocal relationship though too,
Speaker 1: you know, like he would cast and then rewrite, and
Speaker 1: you have a whole week at least, even if somebody's
Speaker 1: only every one week, you can write to their strengths.
Speaker 1: But I'm just amazed that you did not walk in
Speaker 1: and and just get the part, because it's like you
Speaker 1: have you have this New York vibe that obviously they wanted, right,
Speaker 1: you have this sort of like this cool guy like
Speaker 1: dated five in a way, it's like two fifties. Like
Speaker 1: that's why it's so cool that you played Elvin. Of
Speaker 1: course you did, like I see you you had like
Speaker 1: a throwback you know, you did have that James Dean
Speaker 1: like James. It wasn't fake. It wasn't because I feel
Speaker 1: like everybody wants to you know, especially back then, like
Speaker 1: teenagers wanted to achieve that, but they didn't have it,
Speaker 1: and you just had it like this effortless cool presence
Speaker 1: that you just owned it. It's it's amazing. It took
Speaker 1: seven takes, But all right, thank you. I appreciate that, Danny.
Speaker 1: Were you basing the character on anyone or was it
Speaker 1: just a character you hadn't you? Yeah, I had a
Speaker 1: little as she as she said, James Dean, Elvis Presley,
Speaker 1: a little Montgomery Clifton there, but little Bobby Tenero. But
Speaker 1: you know, you know that's so true. And so then
Speaker 1: when you book, it was your mom the first person
Speaker 1: you called, Yes, yes, oh you finally did a good
Speaker 1: man good you know, yeah, she was really proud. You know,
Speaker 1: do you remember meeting Ethan and Blake for the first time?
Speaker 1: What was the dynamic you had with the with like
Speaker 1: the three of you together. Ethan, Ethan had this this
Speaker 1: this coolness I just draw to him. You know, he
Speaker 1: wasn't trying to be you know, he was just there
Speaker 1: reading his book or just just solid like solid good people.
Speaker 1: You could you could tell, you know, people who have
Speaker 1: good hearts. And you know, Ethan had this amazing presence
Speaker 1: and it wasn't about being his size, you know, I
Speaker 1: I think he's amazing big, arts, small or anyway, because
Speaker 1: he's always had that fire, that true fire. And and
Speaker 1: Blake was was a tripper. He was always funny always yeah,
Speaker 1: all right, all right, little all right, yeah, okay again
Speaker 1: like their characters. That's the thing. They were like their
Speaker 1: care all of you were. So you just snapped into
Speaker 1: that right away, which leads me to believe. I mean again,
Speaker 1: I don't know, do you think that Michael he knew
Speaker 1: that these characters had a shot of coming back or
Speaker 1: do you think that it was it was just they
Speaker 1: were so magnetic when they got there where I was like,
Speaker 1: we've gotta do we gotta do this more. I think
Speaker 1: Michael Jacobs is an amazing mastermind of so I believe
Speaker 1: that there was a chess board in front of him
Speaker 1: and he saw the moves all the right away. But
Speaker 1: he saw the moves and he saw the you know,
Speaker 1: the how people get along and if they're if they're
Speaker 1: good match, and what he said, you know, I had
Speaker 1: a floor. You know, Michael Jacobs is amazing like that.
Speaker 1: He just you know, I think for sure he thought,
Speaker 1: if I can get the right people in here and
Speaker 1: they have the right you know energy together and their
Speaker 1: energy is what I wanted to be. This could be
Speaker 1: a huge part of the school, a huge part of school,
Speaker 1: which is exactly what it turned into, which I think
Speaker 1: is part of the reason why, like you said, Danny
Speaker 1: the chessboard that he had in front of him. I
Speaker 1: do think it's one of the reasons he cares so
Speaker 1: much about every actor he hires and why sometimes he
Speaker 1: lets people go is if this isn't going to be
Speaker 1: something that I can see working for multiple different things
Speaker 1: and carrying multiple storylines in the future, then it isn't
Speaker 1: gonna it's not worth the exactly exactly, you know. I
Speaker 1: just want to say, after watching you guys on the pod,
Speaker 1: I love the first season, you know, and I totally
Speaker 1: agree with you, like the drop, shock or star, because
Speaker 1: it was like, this must have been traumatic in a
Speaker 1: way because they're coming in on there only this age mean.
Speaker 1: I'm i'm I'm like ten years I think older than you. Danielle.
Speaker 1: I'm i'm um. You guys were all younger, even Blake
Speaker 1: and Ethan were five years younger. Yeah, you know, you
Speaker 1: guys were really cool, really professional, and you were very
Speaker 1: genuinely nice. I was surprised because you know, in case
Speaker 1: you're like, wait a second, and did they say hello? Yeah,
Speaker 1: they said, you know, of course, you know you're gonna
Speaker 1: give them the distance because you guys were you know,
Speaker 1: just the starts of the show, and it's sort of like,
Speaker 1: you know, you come in, you're like, all right, well,
Speaker 1: I want to make you guys look better. You know,
Speaker 1: that was my attitude. Blake thought we were faking. That's
Speaker 1: the thing I love is when I went back in
Speaker 1: Flakes like you guys are all so nice, I thought
Speaker 1: it was fake. That was disingenuous at first. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: so funny. Did you enjoy playing a bully? You're such
Speaker 1: a nice guy. It's it's a little bit like Adam Scott,
Speaker 1: Like Adam's got such a nice guy and he always
Speaker 1: ends up playing these like jerky characters. To enjoyed playing
Speaker 1: a like threatening bully, well, you know, not the threatening part,
Speaker 1: but I enjoyed the mental aspect of it, you know,
Speaker 1: because I myself had gone through some bullying as a
Speaker 1: kid myself with the grade school of being left back.
Speaker 1: So it was kind of my way of venting that
Speaker 1: energy and instead of letting it be inside me and
Speaker 1: holding inside of me, I was able to release it
Speaker 1: into the character and um, you know, like as you know,
Speaker 1: like with Girl Meats World, like when I was on
Speaker 1: I tried to go in my Instagram. I tried to
Speaker 1: make it, you know, anti bullying as much as possible.
Speaker 1: You know, it's it's it's it's a hard battle. You know,
Speaker 1: a lot of kids are going through today, and you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's we didn't have that when we were younger.
Speaker 1: I mean a page or would have been the only
Speaker 1: way to really reach out, you know, like that wasn't
Speaker 1: really up and going, and nowadays kids have to grow
Speaker 1: up so fast, you know, well, it's one of the
Speaker 1: things that they talk about, is the fact that I
Speaker 1: think we've even addressed it on the pod maybe especially
Speaker 1: with bullying. There was a time where kids could get
Speaker 1: away from it because when they left school, they were home,
Speaker 1: which was a much safer space. And now because the
Speaker 1: internet and social media is everywhere, they don't you don't
Speaker 1: get the break. The kids that are getting bullied go
Speaker 1: home and they're still getting bullied, and so they never Yeah,
Speaker 1: you can't ever get away from it. And they're like
Speaker 1: and like with you will with with the social distancing
Speaker 1: from um, the internet, I think that's a great thing,
Speaker 1: you know, for for mental I mean I catch myself
Speaker 1: you know, on it and it's like wait a second,
Speaker 1: this whole time is going by. I'm I'm not I'm
Speaker 1: not seeing the signs God's giving me because I'm I'm
Speaker 1: glued to my phone. You know, they're scrolling, just scrolling
Speaker 1: in your life, and anybody who deals with with any
Speaker 1: sort of mental health issues like me, I just it
Speaker 1: just made me a healthier person. I mean, it really
Speaker 1: truly just made me a healthier person. It's so funny
Speaker 1: because wait, Danielle and Ryder and I talked about how
Speaker 1: how close we are and how even after thirty years,
Speaker 1: we've gotten closer because of this podcast. And there was
Speaker 1: a time where not long ago, where I was like,
Speaker 1: I'm thinking of maybe getting back on social media, and
Speaker 1: both writer and Danielle reach out like, I don't know
Speaker 1: if you should, like I think for your mental health,
Speaker 1: I just think it's better if you don't. And they're right,
Speaker 1: They're completely right about it. And so it was also
Speaker 1: having that kind of structure around you, in that support system,
Speaker 1: going I see where you're coming from, but do the
Speaker 1: do the benefits outweigh kind of the negative that you're
Speaker 1: going to feel mentally, And they're right, and so there's
Speaker 1: not even just about you will, I mean, we we
Speaker 1: were specific about you in certain ways. But I was
Speaker 1: just I just if I could cut the core completely,
Speaker 1: I would do you know what I mean. I was
Speaker 1: proud that that you had already accomplished that I didn't
Speaker 1: want to see it because I was like, oh I
Speaker 1: could just I mean I could. I would wish I
Speaker 1: could completely cut it off, and I did. I stopped Facebook,
Speaker 1: I stopped some but like, it's really hard, especially because
Speaker 1: we do get a lot of especially with this podcast.
Speaker 1: We have a good community of people online, Like there
Speaker 1: is a lot of support, and I do enjoy aspects
Speaker 1: of it a lot, you know. I enjoy the sense
Speaker 1: of community um and and feedback and being able to
Speaker 1: share with that community and and have comments come in.
Speaker 1: But it's it's it's so tricky. And I like the
Speaker 1: free I'm gonna be honest if we have to. But
Speaker 1: because you get free stuff when you're on Instagram and
Speaker 1: all that kind of stuff that you do, I would
Speaker 1: reach out and be like, I love your product. Can
Speaker 1: I have somebody, and well, yes, oh my god, oh
Speaker 1: my gosh, we are that. This is where Will and
Speaker 1: I are the most different. I get sent free stuff
Speaker 1: all the time, and I like just stuff. I want
Speaker 1: no stuff. I don't want no stuff. I want no stuff.
Speaker 1: I like zero stuffs. Hey everyone, it's Anglert and Kayla
Speaker 1: Miller Keys and Jared Heyn. I'm I'm here. I'm here
Speaker 1: to guys, hosts of the new podcast. Help we suck
Speaker 1: at being newlyweds because I guess we just don't suck
Speaker 1: at dating anymore. No, I mean your newly weds. I
Speaker 1: am not a newlywed anymore. I'm curious if I sucked
Speaker 1: at being a newlywed. I don't think so. I mean
Speaker 1: I I made it to the altar, and I am
Speaker 1: so happy to be joining you, guys. I can't wait
Speaker 1: to talk about relationships, marriage, and just everything in between.
Speaker 1: It's about time we have someone smart to join this podcast.
Speaker 1: It's too long between us. This young lady is a
Speaker 1: broadcast journalism major. She knows what she's doing. I'm so
Speaker 1: excited to be hosting a podcast with my soon to
Speaker 1: be wife and of course, my best friend Jared. How's
Speaker 1: it gonna make you feel working together? Now? You guys
Speaker 1: live together, we're together, gonna get married. Yeah, it'll be interesting.
Speaker 1: You going to get tired of each other? Absolutely? Yes?
Speaker 1: Be sure to listen to help we suck at being
Speaker 1: newlyweds on the I Heart radio app, Apple podcasts or
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to podcasts talking about mental health and
Speaker 1: social media and all of that feels like a really
Speaker 1: good transition to talk about because we talked about it
Speaker 1: a little bit with Blake and Ethan, But we have
Speaker 1: never fully known the story of you. So you came
Speaker 1: to boy Meats World, you auditioned seven times, you become
Speaker 1: this incredible iconic character of Harley Kiner, and then what
Speaker 1: it felt like to us was that just one day
Speaker 1: you were gone. You did seven episodes, and then we
Speaker 1: all have memories of what I actually don't know if
Speaker 1: I was there at that table. I don't think I
Speaker 1: was there because I don't have I've heard the stories
Speaker 1: now enough times that you start to think, like, was
Speaker 1: I there? But I don't think I was. But I
Speaker 1: know writer and will remember that a table read where you,
Speaker 1: you know, had a difficult time, and you mentioned that
Speaker 1: table reads were difficult for you. Can you tell us
Speaker 1: what was going on for you mentally during the seven
Speaker 1: episodes you were Harley Kiner before you know, we brought
Speaker 1: you back in season three three? Your eight right, Um,
Speaker 1: I'll try and throw it in a nutshell. Um, bipolar
Speaker 1: illness is, it's a chemical imbalance. And I had dealt
Speaker 1: with it with my mom and I had no it's
Speaker 1: never gonna be me. It's not gonna happen, and um
Speaker 1: kind of crazy. I'll just tell you a quick story.
Speaker 1: Um My, a psychic walks into my bar and forest
Speaker 1: those queens. She says, oh you, you know you broke
Speaker 1: bread with Jesus and you're You're a very special person.
Speaker 1: You're gonna have a light in this world. So she
Speaker 1: tells me I'm gonna meet you in Los Angeles and
Speaker 1: six months from now and then Sedona, Arizona. And I
Speaker 1: was like, okay, lady, you take your medication and I'll
Speaker 1: talk to you soon. Six months later, Um, I'm in
Speaker 1: l A. I get a call from her and I
Speaker 1: go to Sedona for this angel workshop and basically I
Speaker 1: went there. It was in a amazing experience. I opened
Speaker 1: up so many chakras and I opened up my whole being.
Speaker 1: And when I got back to l A, I wasn't
Speaker 1: shut down enough. I was still open. But within within
Speaker 1: that week I booked Why Meet's World and it was
Speaker 1: like this this high that I was coming into and
Speaker 1: I had just feeling like there was this battle between
Speaker 1: darkness and light, and I thought that I could make
Speaker 1: the world a better place by bringing it. It was
Speaker 1: like this, when you're dealing with bipolarist is it's very grandiose.
Speaker 1: You have these these outward thoughts and then you think
Speaker 1: you can it's very hard to explain delusions of delusions
Speaker 1: of grand exactly well. And that hit me, you know,
Speaker 1: And then I wasn't closed down enough. I didn't. I didn't.
Speaker 1: I felt like spiritually I was out there and whatever
Speaker 1: got in, like astral vampires. There's all kinds of things
Speaker 1: I went through and exorcism, all this crazy stuff. It um,
Speaker 1: it was just very, very difficult. And I was at
Speaker 1: the table read and I pull up in my Cadillac
Speaker 1: convertible and for some reason I had stopted a dog
Speaker 1: and I brought this dog on set and uh, I
Speaker 1: was at the table read. I thought everything would be
Speaker 1: fine and normal, and I just felt this meltdown at
Speaker 1: the table and I remember Blake helped me. I dropped
Speaker 1: the script on the floor, picked it up for me.
Speaker 1: He was so good. He was like, you could do
Speaker 1: this and just give him a minute, you know, he's
Speaker 1: like saying to the producers, like, you know, just give
Speaker 1: a minute. And I remember just winding down and it
Speaker 1: was just like I was, I was frozen. I couldn't do,
Speaker 1: I couldn't talk, I couldn't you know, And I knew
Speaker 1: it was like everything was imploding, you know, like when
Speaker 1: when you have that kind of stigma on your resume.
Speaker 1: You know, back then, nobody was really breaking down there.
Speaker 1: I think, you know, Britney Spears was still a mousketeer,
Speaker 1: you know, that wasn't anybody in the media. There wasn't
Speaker 1: really any discussion about it. So it kind of threw
Speaker 1: my acting career into a very bad tizzy, um until
Speaker 1: they recontacted me for Girl Needs World. So what happened?
Speaker 1: So the table read happens, and and so I know
Speaker 1: you're you're talking about that the you you're using your words.
Speaker 1: The meltdown that happened at the table read was related
Speaker 1: to I'm assuming you have since been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: that's that's what happened. And and then they got me
Speaker 1: on the proper medication. At the time, it was really
Speaker 1: just lithium that worked and a few others, but uh,
Speaker 1: I didn't really like the medications it was. It was
Speaker 1: just tough. You know, well, were you on any absolutely? Absolutely?
Speaker 1: When I so when I had my um my first attack,
Speaker 1: they didn't know what it was. It was the same thing.
Speaker 1: And you you know, with anxiety, you're you're convinced you're dying.
Speaker 1: You just it can't be in your mind. It's you've
Speaker 1: got cancer, You're having a stroke, you're having a heart attack,
Speaker 1: You're dying. And then so I was on two different
Speaker 1: kinds of medication, which is why I gained so much
Speaker 1: weight towards the end of of Boy Meats World. It's
Speaker 1: because it's the only way I could perform. I mean,
Speaker 1: I could not get out there unless I unless I
Speaker 1: was medicated. And and it was in the earlier days
Speaker 1: of anxiety medication as yours was in the earlier days
Speaker 1: of bipolar medication, where you know, lithium was was what
Speaker 1: was going on. And I have some friends that are
Speaker 1: bipolar that talk about the demons and the darkness coupled
Speaker 1: with the um the sparkles where they say, the entire
Speaker 1: like everything sparkles around you in the world is the
Speaker 1: most amazing place to be um So, yeah, it was,
Speaker 1: And nobody was talking about it. You're right, we couldn't.
Speaker 1: You couldn't take a minute and say give me a second,
Speaker 1: I'm having an anxiety attack or I'm sorry, I'm bipolar.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's just no one said anything. You held
Speaker 1: it inside and you died inside. That's just what you did.
Speaker 1: So and we didn't know what was going on with you.
Speaker 1: We just we and then it was and then you
Speaker 1: were gone, Like none of us had a chance to
Speaker 1: even talk to you or or let you know that
Speaker 1: we were there. We would have been there to support
Speaker 1: you in any way we could have. Um, you were
Speaker 1: just you just weren't there. So it was. Yeah. So
Speaker 1: the morning of the table Read, you have that meltdown
Speaker 1: and Blake is trying to help you any saying like
Speaker 1: give him a minute, give him a minute. The table
Speaker 1: Read ends, and what happens, um My sister was visiting
Speaker 1: from New York and they called her. She got me
Speaker 1: off the set and she took me to this hospital,
Speaker 1: Edgemont Hospital. And what is it like like an e
Speaker 1: er hospital or a mental hospital slash dab. But for
Speaker 1: never a problem for me, you know at that time,
Speaker 1: never like Blake said something about acid, I'd never touched
Speaker 1: any anything like that. It was just purely, purely the
Speaker 1: bipolar roller coaster. You know. Okay, so your sister takes
Speaker 1: you to the hospital and you get checked in. I
Speaker 1: get checked in Disney sent Um. One of their psychologists
Speaker 1: are like, someone to help talk to me, to see
Speaker 1: if they could they could they could get me down.
Speaker 1: You have to get me into to get me to
Speaker 1: the show, you know. Yeah, because I left everybody on
Speaker 1: the lurch. That's what I felt like, like, like, you know,
Speaker 1: like you guys were kids at the time I was.
Speaker 1: I felt like like I traumatized you at the table
Speaker 1: read I was like, oh my god. You know, thinking back,
Speaker 1: it's like, wow, it must have been difficult for them
Speaker 1: to see such a thing. You know, it was difficult
Speaker 1: for us to see it because we can aired about
Speaker 1: That's why it was difficult to see it. It wasn't
Speaker 1: It had nothing to do with oh my god, I
Speaker 1: can't believe he's not going to be on the show.
Speaker 1: It's that we we really liked you well, I mean,
Speaker 1: we love you, and it was one of those things
Speaker 1: where we we just didn't know. Again, we weren't kind
Speaker 1: of kept in the circle of information of stuff that
Speaker 1: was going on and then it was just kind of
Speaker 1: just don't ask um well interestingly, I mean going back
Speaker 1: to the point that that people didn't really talk about
Speaker 1: mental health in any of the same terms that we
Speaker 1: do now. I don't know if the adults were well
Speaker 1: equipped enough to present the infront of I don't know.
Speaker 1: I think if I remember Jeff McCracken was directing, and
Speaker 1: if I remember there was this I just remember being
Speaker 1: Danny's not coming back, but Danny's gonna be okay, and
Speaker 1: he just left it at that and and you know,
Speaker 1: my assumption, I think at the time was that it
Speaker 1: was drug related, because that's that's the only way I
Speaker 1: could understand like the notion of you know, acting differently
Speaker 1: or or I don't know, I guess I just you know,
Speaker 1: I had been raised by the Reagan eraw, so you know,
Speaker 1: to drugs, you touch a drug, you can go crazy
Speaker 1: and jump out a window and have you know, so
Speaker 1: any sort of like episode that felt out of character
Speaker 1: or different, I would immediately that's where my brain went,
Speaker 1: I think as a kid, you know. And and they
Speaker 1: didn't explain it one way or the other, so again
Speaker 1: I sort of assumed. But the keeping from us that
Speaker 1: Danny had a drug problem? Um was was I think
Speaker 1: the assumption I made at the time, which it never
Speaker 1: of course, no one ever confirmed that, no one. I
Speaker 1: don't think you everyone ever said that to me, but
Speaker 1: they didn't. They didn't have the capacity to say, this
Speaker 1: is a mental health issue. It's probably one of these
Speaker 1: three disorders. It's you know, like all the things that nowadays,
Speaker 1: hopefully they'd be able to communicate. It's also, though hugely Danny,
Speaker 1: to your credit, it's amazing that with what you were
Speaker 1: going through, you never did drugs, because the first thing
Speaker 1: you do is you self medicate. I mean, that's when
Speaker 1: you're dealing with any sort of mental health issue. That's
Speaker 1: what you want to do, is what do I have
Speaker 1: to do to not feel this? I remember one time
Speaker 1: telling my doctor when went right at the start of
Speaker 1: my anxiety disorder, when it was really bad, and I
Speaker 1: mean there was a time I was bedridden for for
Speaker 1: a couple like a week and a half. I remember
Speaker 1: saying to my doctor, if you told me right now
Speaker 1: that heroin was gonna make me feel better, I'm going
Speaker 1: to try heroin. Because it was you just want to
Speaker 1: not feel the way you're feeling, So the fact that
Speaker 1: you weren't doing any drugs is incredible that you never
Speaker 1: went down that road of I just I have to
Speaker 1: self medicated. So that's answer. Yeah, it's a real credit.
Speaker 1: And I kind of knew in my mind that would
Speaker 1: be it. You know, if I ain't got any mushrooms
Speaker 1: or psychedelics anything like that, it would be be a
Speaker 1: death sentence for me. You know, how long were you
Speaker 1: then in the hospital leaving the table read you get
Speaker 1: checked into the hospital. How long are you there? I'd
Speaker 1: like to say so for about a month, yeah, just
Speaker 1: to to make sure that the right medication and everything
Speaker 1: got balanced with it. Three weeks, three weeks to a month,
Speaker 1: and uh, yeah, it was. It was really difficult. And
Speaker 1: I was really surprised when Michael Jacobs and everyone reached
Speaker 1: out and said, you know, we want to have you
Speaker 1: on for you know, for one more episode. You know,
Speaker 1: they didn't say it was gonna only gonna be one.
Speaker 1: I thought it was like, oh, I'm gonna be back,
Speaker 1: But at the same time I knew it was like, hey,
Speaker 1: there's gonna be a little bit of a different change,
Speaker 1: you know. But it was so great that they brought
Speaker 1: me back for the closure. Um, you know, he said,
Speaker 1: she said, was the episode with Adam and uh, Adam
Speaker 1: is such a graceful guy and you know he's he's
Speaker 1: really I'm glad. I'm glad it was somebody like like him,
Speaker 1: you know, to replace me, because I could see over
Speaker 1: the you know, longevity of time at UH. I don't know,
Speaker 1: there's something really cool about him. That's it. He played.
Speaker 1: He played a different part. Dude, nobody could replace you.
Speaker 1: We we we proved that. But the other character that
Speaker 1: that moved in, UH. To address your point, writer, UM,
Speaker 1: Harvey Harvey is actually Harvey Harley Kiner because his real
Speaker 1: name was Harvey. He didn't want anybody to know that
Speaker 1: it would be like, you know, Harvey Air. You know,
Speaker 1: you don't want to He didn't want to be associated
Speaker 1: with that that you know, stigma of Harvey. So I
Speaker 1: think then Harley was, you know, the the kicker. You know,
Speaker 1: how did you feel when you came back for that
Speaker 1: final episode, Like, what were your thoughts going into it?
Speaker 1: Were you're were you nervous? What were your feeling. I
Speaker 1: was still a little loopy with the medication, um, because
Speaker 1: it just didn't sit well with me at first. UM,
Speaker 1: I was just a little little out of it. But
Speaker 1: I remember it was in a different studio. Well, when
Speaker 1: I first was filming one a visa studio, which is
Speaker 1: a magical place. It's Disney, you know, that's where Disney
Speaker 1: walked walked down, that's those steps, and that's where he
Speaker 1: created everything. You know. That was the magic of it.
Speaker 1: And that was another thing I missed the most. Boina
Speaker 1: visa studios and pulling up on set and you're like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: pulled up to the same thing. Yeah, it's magical, magical.
Speaker 1: So that's third season. So we had moved to ktl
Speaker 1: A then, So that was which were not magical, not magical,
Speaker 1: which was the opposite of magical, most like television, the
Speaker 1: magical part of buildings. Yeah, the magic was not gettingpatitis.
Speaker 1: The spaghetti factory was across the street though, next to
Speaker 1: a strip club. Yes, not quite it. You couldn't get
Speaker 1: less Disney than at that point was still there. The
Speaker 1: magic hood was still there. It was just the magic
Speaker 1: put in the paper box. And so between obviously season
Speaker 1: two when you are has spitalized, and then season three
Speaker 1: when you come back you said you were still getting
Speaker 1: adjusted to your medication. Your life is obviously now so
Speaker 1: completely different. Once once you kind of felt settled on
Speaker 1: your medication, what were you doing then did you go
Speaker 1: back to auditioning? What did you end up doing? After
Speaker 1: Boy Meets World, I moved back to New York for
Speaker 1: a good while and I got a lot more balanced,
Speaker 1: thanks thanks to my mom helping me. And then I
Speaker 1: moved to Sedona, Arizona, where it all happened. And I
Speaker 1: wanted to be a healer, like I wanted to learn
Speaker 1: how to kill people like sham and you know, fire tender,
Speaker 1: like all these cool things like sweat lodges. And I
Speaker 1: got back and I went to UH Massas Therapy School
Speaker 1: and I graduated from there and UH and I was
Speaker 1: working with the Hopie Indians up on the reservation. I
Speaker 1: was volunteering my time because you have to do clinic
Speaker 1: when you're do the massage. So I volunteered my time
Speaker 1: up on the reservation and worked on these old, like
Speaker 1: elderly people, and they love me so much. They were like,
Speaker 1: We're gonna show you how to dry farm and blue
Speaker 1: corn and all these Hopie dances and cheap dances, and
Speaker 1: I was just I was taken away from all that
Speaker 1: sadness inside and worked through another medium to uh get
Speaker 1: adopted by the Hopies, you know, really really cool. You know,
Speaker 1: I'd love to take you guys someday on a trip
Speaker 1: or something, if you ever want to do an experience,
Speaker 1: to take you to Sedona up to the Hopie Land,
Speaker 1: you know, man, that'd be amazing and massage therapy school.
Speaker 1: The graduation rate of actually being able to pass the
Speaker 1: test is minuscule. It's so different. It's one of the
Speaker 1: most difficult tests to pass. It's something like in the
Speaker 1: thirty five percentile actually passed because you're doing entire physiological
Speaker 1: study in like seven months. Gnesiology origin insertion of everybody.
Speaker 1: It's like being a doctor basically, first it is which
Speaker 1: which was? You know, educationally, I was like a little whoa.
Speaker 1: It's it's apparently a very very difficult thing to learn
Speaker 1: and to and to pass the test. And like you know,
Speaker 1: New York you need like thirteen hundred and fifty hours,
Speaker 1: but in Arizona only needs seven and fifty. So that
Speaker 1: was helpful in a lot of ways. And then um, yeah,
Speaker 1: I just I always thought I had healing hands and
Speaker 1: I wanted to do something to get back, you know,
Speaker 1: to the world. And that was one of the things
Speaker 1: that I did after after losing the show, just to
Speaker 1: bring things back on the night, you know, higher level
Speaker 1: for me. Well, we were also happy to be reunited
Speaker 1: with you on Girl Meets World when you came back
Speaker 1: as Janitor Harley. What you did? Uh? Five episodes of
Speaker 1: Girl Meets World with us? What was it like when
Speaker 1: you got that phone call? And yeah, tell me about that.
Speaker 1: I was. I was sitting here in this studio and
Speaker 1: my buddy Ben wir Um we gotta We got the
Speaker 1: call from Sally. So he's like, Danny, you know, like,
Speaker 1: what are you doing? Have you been? And it was like,
Speaker 1: how are you? I'm all right, I'm doing all right,
Speaker 1: you know. And she's like, well, listen, we're gonna send you,
Speaker 1: you know, how would you like to, you know, audition
Speaker 1: for pardon Girl Meets World? And I was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: that that would degree. She sent me the sides and
Speaker 1: I put it on tape right here in the studio.
Speaker 1: Next week, I was out there. I think it happened
Speaker 1: on April Fools Day. What man and so? Had you
Speaker 1: not acted since Boy Meets World? Um? I had done
Speaker 1: a few things, but more like student films. Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: I loved acting. I love telling a story and making
Speaker 1: people feel good. You know, it's like the old school
Speaker 1: storytellers of Ireland. That's how they used to do it.
Speaker 1: You know. During the family they knocked on the door
Speaker 1: and say, hey, have you heard the news about what's
Speaker 1: going on over that? And that saying they're like, no,
Speaker 1: I haven't heard the news. Well I'll tell you for
Speaker 1: a place to sleep for the night. And then they
Speaker 1: had this whole whimsical storytelling story that was like my grandfather,
Speaker 1: that was my dad, you know, always storytellers. You know.
Speaker 1: Have you been to Ireland? Oh yeah, it's amazing. I
Speaker 1: think my family, my my mom's family is from Kerry,
Speaker 1: which I think is close to where you are. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: not far at all. I'm up in the western North,
Speaker 1: the Free Ireland as they say a post. Do you
Speaker 1: have a favorite episode of a Meets World that you
Speaker 1: that you think of all the time, or like any
Speaker 1: favorite behind the scenes memories. Well, I think us Serena
Speaker 1: was one of my one of my favorites because my
Speaker 1: mom came to the taping. You guys were so nice.
Speaker 1: You might not remember it, but you guys were so
Speaker 1: nice to my mom and Betsy Randall was so nice
Speaker 1: to my mom. She fed holiday dinner at her house. Really, yeah,
Speaker 1: tell me about that. So, Betsy, so your mom was
Speaker 1: in town for Thanksgiving. For Thanksgiving I believe it was,
Speaker 1: And Betsy asked you what your plans were? Yeah, what
Speaker 1: are you doing? You know? Like, my Mom's like, well,
Speaker 1: you know, and she's like, yeah, come out, come out,
Speaker 1: to come out to our house for Thanksgiving, you know.
Speaker 1: So that's just so nice. And I went out. My
Speaker 1: mom had such a nice time, and it's such a
Speaker 1: bet so amazing. Yeah, Hey dudes, I'm David Lasher and
Speaker 1: I'm Christine Taylor, and we host the podcast Hey Dude
Speaker 1: the Nineties called if you all are nostalgic for the nineties,
Speaker 1: We just wanted to make sure you didn't miss amazing
Speaker 1: guests like the Brady Bunch cast reunion, the White Squall
Speaker 1: cast reunion with Jeff Bridges. We've got Ben Stiller, We've
Speaker 1: got the lead singer of Counting Crows, Adam Durrett's Jerry O'Connell.
Speaker 1: We also had a Hey Dude cast reunion, So come
Speaker 1: join us on Hey Dude the Nineties called We have
Speaker 1: so many more great guests coming up, So please come
Speaker 1: back and join us. Listen to Hey Dude the nineties
Speaker 1: called on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to podcasts. So, Danny, you mentioned that
Speaker 1: your mom came out to visit for the Serano episode,
Speaker 1: and then you know, she was obviously a huge fan
Speaker 1: of you and loved watching you on TV and loved
Speaker 1: Boy Meets World. And then we got to see her
Speaker 1: again as adults. We at her at a convention, and Um,
Speaker 1: I wanted to talk about how you are doing now
Speaker 1: because your mom unfortunately passed away in from COVID, right, yeah,
Speaker 1: she was. We have We had at the time a governor,
Speaker 1: um Andrew Cuomo. He during the height of the pandemic,
Speaker 1: he decided to put sick elderly people back into nursing
Speaker 1: homes and it was just ridiculous, like within a week
Speaker 1: my mom had passed from that decision too. And ever
Speaker 1: since it's been like this void for me because I
Speaker 1: spent so much time, um taking care of my mom
Speaker 1: uh in her later years when she was less mobile.
Speaker 1: Now I'm just looking for something to fill that void,
Speaker 1: which I feel like, like will you said with the
Speaker 1: things that helped you with your mental health, we're we're exercise,
Speaker 1: and there's there's three things you said and then you know,
Speaker 1: to be to be social, to talk about it hugely
Speaker 1: important and this is helping me a lot, guys by
Speaker 1: talking about it to like just now, you know, because
Speaker 1: I know there's somebody out there you need to help.
Speaker 1: And then how could you not be in today's world
Speaker 1: with Turkey and earthquakes and all this stuff. You guys
Speaker 1: are like a rayal light, honestly a rayal lighte for
Speaker 1: for not just your point meets world, but you know,
Speaker 1: like your your your symmetry, the way you guys work together,
Speaker 1: your energy, it's it's it's contagious and it's it's it's
Speaker 1: it's kind of cold. I like the whole world to
Speaker 1: catch because you guys have a wonderful way of helping
Speaker 1: people don't realize at all, but I'm sure there's somebody
Speaker 1: out there right now that could be, you know, on
Speaker 1: the verge of something, and by hearing our stories and
Speaker 1: by being honest, you know that we can help them. Danny,
Speaker 1: You're you're so quick to turn attention and energy back
Speaker 1: on other people. You're so quick to say yeah, but
Speaker 1: you guys, and you guys are a ray of light.
Speaker 1: But I really want you to take this in that,
Speaker 1: you know, you being such a young child when you
Speaker 1: lost your father and then stepping up your mom shortly
Speaker 1: after that being diagnosed with bipolar disorder at the time
Speaker 1: they called manic depression, and you knowing you needed to
Speaker 1: step up and and live on your own and and
Speaker 1: start your start working, and then you becoming this iconic
Speaker 1: character that people absolutely love and adore and still to
Speaker 1: this day. I mean, that's what iconic is. Still to
Speaker 1: this day people talk about Danny McNulty as Harley Kiner,
Speaker 1: and then you going through your own mental health issues,
Speaker 1: moving back to New York, and then eventually becoming a
Speaker 1: full time caretaker for your mother, who then you lost
Speaker 1: to COVID. Hearing you talk about now needing to figure
Speaker 1: out what this next stage of your life looks like
Speaker 1: and what you are going to do as far as
Speaker 1: taking care of yourself is really beautiful because there are
Speaker 1: so many people who can relate to you, and you
Speaker 1: you can have. You have so much to teach other people.
Speaker 1: And I just want to celebrate you as being a
Speaker 1: phenomenal son MH and just a truly wonderful human being.
Speaker 1: I really really appreciate that. It means a lot because
Speaker 1: you guys are like family to me. Honestly, I missed
Speaker 1: you so much. We miss you too. I'd also like
Speaker 1: to throw out that in the middle of all that,
Speaker 1: you then took the time to work with elderly people,
Speaker 1: right exactly. I skipped over that sticks six sticks, skipped
Speaker 1: over working with the Native American elderly population in the
Speaker 1: middle there. I mean, yeah, Danny that I don't know
Speaker 1: about that the psychic you met, but you said one
Speaker 1: thing that was absolutely true, which is you are a
Speaker 1: light in the world, my friend. Yes, I hope you
Speaker 1: know that. Thank you, guys, I really appreciate that. It
Speaker 1: means a lot to me. Big sign. Well, looking back,
Speaker 1: even with all the hard times that you faced and
Speaker 1: all of all of that, what are what is your
Speaker 1: overall feeling when you look back at Boy Meets World. Oh,
Speaker 1: it's a dream come true. Everything that I worked for,
Speaker 1: auditions and you know, anything that I did as a kid,
Speaker 1: always dreamed of being on a TV show, you know,
Speaker 1: and uh, it was something that it will always live
Speaker 1: in in my heart, you know, like just just knowing
Speaker 1: that I had done it. And yes, the bipolar happened,
Speaker 1: but there were some pretty good times, some pretty good episodes,
Speaker 1: like um, you know that that that that we did
Speaker 1: together so many Yeah. Also, I mean I I say
Speaker 1: this all the time about Topanga. We can all say
Speaker 1: this about all of our characters. Were very blessed to
Speaker 1: be able to say this. But actors literally work their
Speaker 1: entire lives to be a memorable character even once. How
Speaker 1: many people, how many actors do you know who have
Speaker 1: done hundreds of things, and yet you're like, oh, I
Speaker 1: can't really I know your face? I don't, but I
Speaker 1: can't really you know, like and that's great, Yeah, I
Speaker 1: know I know you from somewhere, and that's amazing. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's that's still an incredible career. That's there. I'm not
Speaker 1: dogging that. I'm just saying that, like you, in your
Speaker 1: one major acting role that you did left a legacy
Speaker 1: and an impact on innumerable people. And that's like people
Speaker 1: spend their whole lives trying to have a career, trying
Speaker 1: to find a character like that, and you did it.
Speaker 1: I mean that really means a lot. Yeah. Yeah, we
Speaker 1: couldn't love you anymore, Danny. I we us you are
Speaker 1: like family to us. We always loved you. And you know,
Speaker 1: what's another thing we talked about when we think back
Speaker 1: to that time, like there wasn't self. There weren't even
Speaker 1: cell phones. It's not like now when something happens and
Speaker 1: then you can just text somebody and be like, hey,
Speaker 1: are you okay? You know, tough tough show, tough night,
Speaker 1: tough day, tough day, will read are you okay? We
Speaker 1: just didn't have it now. Always it unless exactly and
Speaker 1: then you unless there was a page code specifically for
Speaker 1: you didn't know how to do it. Yeah. Well, thank
Speaker 1: you for coming on here and telling us in your
Speaker 1: own words your story finally like solving a bit of
Speaker 1: a mystery for us. And um, you know we love you,
Speaker 1: we will we would love to have you back. Um.
Speaker 1: I've already put the word out as far as some
Speaker 1: conventions that we would love to have you join us. Um.
Speaker 1: Not that I have you saying that, but I have
Speaker 1: started saying to people, hey, have you thought about this?
Speaker 1: This would be a good edition, just just throwing it
Speaker 1: out there. Um. And so let's make three the year
Speaker 1: we have another you know, an in person reunion and
Speaker 1: uh you know anniversary. And I would love to be
Speaker 1: witness to you receiving the love that you so deserve
Speaker 1: from our dear listeners and dear fans who rightfully love you. Yep,
Speaker 1: fansy years, my friend. There's millions of them out there. Uh.
Speaker 1: And I love each one of them, man, honestly, when
Speaker 1: they come up to me and it's like, I love
Speaker 1: I love it. It's just it's such a nice feeling,
Speaker 1: you know, because it brings me back to everything before
Speaker 1: everything happened, you know, like that's let's see, they don't
Speaker 1: know anything else, you know. Yeah, yeah, i'd really love that. Guys.
Speaker 1: Great Danny, we love you, thank you for being here,
Speaker 1: all righty oh man, it's so it's so funny that
Speaker 1: the gentlest human being in the world played the biggest bully,
Speaker 1: right right? And and is that is that built into
Speaker 1: the character, Like there's something so great. I think that's
Speaker 1: part of the reason why it works so well as
Speaker 1: a character, is that you cast somebody like Danny who,
Speaker 1: for whatever reason, you're like, but that guy, he shouldn't
Speaker 1: be a bully, right If you're like, no, he's he's
Speaker 1: he's he's got going through something that's more, that's more,
Speaker 1: that's deeper, that's that comes from a place actually honestly
Speaker 1: of a pain, you know, Like I think Harley radiates
Speaker 1: a sensitivity and a pain that I think was true
Speaker 1: to Danny too, Like this struggle that he was you
Speaker 1: know that he had gone through, and all these things
Speaker 1: that comes through in his acting so clearly, and that sensitivity,
Speaker 1: it's beautiful, it's beful and and immediately you're You're like,
Speaker 1: am I I should be scared of him? But I
Speaker 1: also kind of want to know more about him? Right? Yeah?
Speaker 1: What what an amazing feat for an actor and for
Speaker 1: the writers, it's just great. Yeah, you're right. I mean,
Speaker 1: had he just been um a bully? You just write
Speaker 1: that guy off? Don't like that guy, don't need to
Speaker 1: know more about him. He's just a jerk. And yet
Speaker 1: that isn't the way you feel about Harley. You want
Speaker 1: to know more. And yeah, his sensitivity really does shine through.
Speaker 1: And um, I mean truly nobody is better to their
Speaker 1: fans than Danny. If you check out his social media,
Speaker 1: he really does. When he says he loves each and
Speaker 1: every fan, he means it. I mean, I really do.
Speaker 1: I don't think there's a single soul on the planet
Speaker 1: Danny doesn't find love for he's he's so grateful. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know he's also taking you know, most of his
Speaker 1: life just taking care of other people. Yeah, right, that's
Speaker 1: what he's done. He's one of those people. So yeah, amazing.
Speaker 1: And and for everybody out there listening, if you're struggling
Speaker 1: with your own mental health journeys, ask for help. It's
Speaker 1: okay to ask for help. It's you should ask for help.
Speaker 1: There's no weakness in it, there's no stigma behind it.
Speaker 1: It's okay to say I'm struggling here and I need
Speaker 1: some help. I did it, Danny did it. Other people
Speaker 1: do it all the time. It's nothing will help you
Speaker 1: on your path more than just raising your hand and
Speaker 1: saying I'm struggling here and I need some help. So
Speaker 1: please do that if you have to. There's plenty of
Speaker 1: places out there you can find to do that. Um
Speaker 1: telling you even just friends, it really changes the whole ballgame.
Speaker 1: It does. And to Will's point, if you or someone
Speaker 1: you know needs help, there is the Mental Health Hotline
Speaker 1: and the number is eight six six nine zero three
Speaker 1: three seven eight seven. As always, you can follow us
Speaker 1: on Instagram Pod Meets World Show. You can send us
Speaker 1: your emails as a matter of fact. Please send us
Speaker 1: your emails and let Danny know how much you enjoyed
Speaker 1: this episode and you enjoyed hearing from him. Pod Meets
Speaker 1: World Show at gmail dot com and uh. You can
Speaker 1: also follow Danny on Instagram Instagram. His name is at
Speaker 1: d b m c N. That's at d B m
Speaker 1: c N. And we've also got merch fire stuff pod
Speaker 1: Meets World Show dot com. It's just too much today,
Speaker 1: emotional episode. Can I get it? That's good, It's worth it.
Speaker 1: It's fun stuff writer, send us out. We love you all,
Speaker 1: pod dismissed. Pod Meets World is an iHeart podcast produced
Speaker 1: and hosted by Daniel Fishel, Will Fernel and Ryder Strong
Speaker 1: executive producers, Jensen Carp and Amy Sugarman, Executive in charge
Speaker 1: of production, Danielle Romo, producer and editor, Tara suit Box producer,
Speaker 1: Jackie Rodriguez, engineer and Boy Meets World super fan Easton Allen.
Speaker 1: Our theme song is by Kyle Morton of Typhoon. You
Speaker 1: can follow us on Instagram at pod Meats World Show
Speaker 1: or send us an email at pod Meats World Show
Speaker 1: at gmail dot com.