TGI – Episode 412 “Easy Street”

00:00:19
Speaker 1: Writer, Will and I are going to.

00:00:20
Speaker 2: Kick your ass. Yeah you mentioned something about this. Let's say, are you going to.

00:00:25
Speaker 3: Say ki ya while you're doing Yeah, you won't know, Oh yeah, it'll I mean you won't know, you won't hit it, right.

00:00:32
Speaker 2: So what you guys are just becoming Ninja's now pretty much that's it's just because A Boy Kills World is coming out, and you guys decided you gotta gotta know.

00:00:42
Speaker 3: Well.

00:00:42
Speaker 1: As Wilcoms mentioned, Will decided that twenty twenty four was going to be the year that he gets into the best shape of his life. And for a while I was like, yeah, me too. And then January first world around, I was like, I'm not going to change my personality, just not just not going to not going to be me. And but as everyone knows, I've talked about my son is in karate and it's really cool, and I did start thinking maybe I'll start doing karate. My guy, I don't know. That sounds cool, it sounds like something I would enjoy. And so we were on our way to have lunch with writer one day and Will said, are you are you still thinking about doing karate? And I was like, yes, are you thinking about doing karate, and he was like, I'll do karate if you do karate, and so we I picked up Will the other night.

00:01:31
Speaker 2: Where are the cameras? This should be a reality show YouTube and it's just boy meets middle aged karate.

00:01:41
Speaker 1: Will sent me a clip. So we did our first karate class. Well, I will tell them about the clip you sent me. That's so funny. And by the way, I did send it to Miss Savannah and she she yeah, she laughed. She was like, this is great.

00:01:53
Speaker 2: Wait, Miss Savannah.

00:01:54
Speaker 1: Miss Savannah is our was our karate instructor.

00:01:57
Speaker 2: She's come on, I want I want to hear sense from now. I wanted to be.

00:02:03
Speaker 1: Okay, uh, so will will you tell them a little bit about our first class?

00:02:11
Speaker 3: So we get there and first of all, I'm like, I'm irrationally excited for two days before this, I'm like Daniel and I are. I'm sending her like clips from karate kid like, I'm like excited to be a martial artist at this point because I know I to center one textor it just said be prepared for me to be an expert on the first day because I'm going to be awesome right away. Tell try to keep up So we drive there and I don't even know the name of this place yet, and I so I said to Sue, I was like, tonight's to night. I'm I'm joining my forever karate team. Like, am I am I becoming Cobra?

00:02:50
Speaker 2: Kai?

00:02:50
Speaker 3: Am I joining Miyagi? Do? Like, what's happening right now? And we pull up and I look over and I go, oh my god, Danielle, are they the Dragons? And She's like, they're the Dragons and I was like, oh my god.

00:03:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, dragons martial arts.

00:03:06
Speaker 3: So we pull up to the coolest like emblem like symbol where I was like, all right, well we have to stop on the way home and get that tattooed on me somewhere already. So we walk in. Everybody, I mean, the welcomed packed.

00:03:23
Speaker 2: Okay, so so you guys, you guys are part of a hero team, not a villain team.

00:03:26
Speaker 3: Correct, Yes, we're the we are the Dragons heroes. Oh yeah, absolutely wonderful. But we walk in and everybody was so welcoming. It was just this community of Hey, is it your first time here? Oh my god, You're gonna have so much fun. Go talk to them here, you want to stand here here's what we do. Here's where we grab the thing. I mean, it was like, couldn't have been nicer.

00:03:48
Speaker 2: So they my parents grew up with your show.

00:03:51
Speaker 3: But no, they all knew Danielle, and I was the guy that Danielle brought right.

00:03:55
Speaker 2: So it was it was business and yes, your friend, and could you take a parture.

00:04:00
Speaker 3: Of us whoever's at the airport with you. So it was business as usual for me. Yeah, the entire way Danielle superstar. I was the guy carrying her white belt, which we hadn't even gotten. So we get there and then we get over to they're like, okay, the adults go to this side over here. So we get over there and all the adults are like, oh my god, your first class is going to be so great. Welcome you. Hey, you're going to be part of the family, Like, could not have been nicer, you know, so sweet, amazing. So we get on the mat and we've got a first warm up. So they're yelling things out that Danielle has obviously seen a hundred times. I have no idea what's going.

00:04:34
Speaker 1: On, but he followed my lead.

00:04:35
Speaker 2: Real tis all of.

00:04:35
Speaker 3: A sudden, I'm going sideways and then I'm going backwards.

00:04:38
Speaker 1: So you start by running it out. You run around in a circle on the mat, and then you know, sinse Savannah yell's inside and you turn your body inside and you side runs inside. I heard outside, and you do the same thing outside. Then you run backwards. So I know this because I watch out there do it all the time. So I was like, I feel like I have a leg up. I'm familiar with this. Uh and Will just would look at me and do exactly what I was doing. He caught very quickly. Yes. And then after we warm up since a Savannah was like, will Danielle you guys come with me?

00:05:12
Speaker 3: Well, no, First it was the warm up, then ended with they said okay, go grab your jump ropes.

00:05:16
Speaker 1: Oh right, I'm a big.

00:05:18
Speaker 3: Fan of jump roping. I used to do it in boxing. So I ran over. I grabbed the showing us where to do. Okay, these are a little long. These are and instantly I can tell Danielle's jump jump rope is it was too short.

00:05:28
Speaker 1: It was getting stuck in my hair. I did pick the smallest one. I picked like a kid, one in your hair, and every time I went jump, my jump rope would get hung up on my hair, and I was like, what's happening?

00:05:41
Speaker 3: So then the only way she could avoy that, and she and I we didn't even talk about this, but the only way she could avoid doing that is if she did kid jump roping, so it was one little leg over the other little legs so she could get that ryer.

00:05:53
Speaker 2: And I'm not coordinated enough yet, all right, but she was. It was just hitting her hair. So finally the tide longer run.

00:06:03
Speaker 3: And then yes, she said, come join the new newbies, which was us, go go join her in the ring. Yeah, the boxing ring ahead.

00:06:12
Speaker 1: And then we did boxing. Then we put on gloves and we did boxing, and we practiced our jab cross and then our our gorilla block, and then we did a little choreograph there where we do jab cross hook block, and she wouldn't tell us like which order, so she'd go jab jab cross, hook jab.

00:06:30
Speaker 3: Jab stalking this woman who's probably what five three maybe five?

00:06:34
Speaker 1: No, she's I think a black belt, and.

00:06:37
Speaker 3: She's like, you're my mirror. Whatever happens, just.

00:06:40
Speaker 1: Just she taught us our shuffle step side step.

00:06:43
Speaker 3: She's stalking us and we're like backing up, and oh, man, if you if I were to tell you, because we're not.

00:06:48
Speaker 1: We're only I don't know, twelve minutes into the class. At this point, we still so we'd learn shuffle step, we learned the side step, we learned jab cross hook, and gorilla block. And then she's like, now we're going to bring out some sticks, and she handed us sticks. We learned choreography with sticks. We battled each other with sticks. Then we went to the standing Yeah, what's it called.

00:07:11
Speaker 3: The the it's like a like a boxing bang.

00:07:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, like a boxing that. We did sticks on the boxing bag. I mean the amount of stuff we covered in one class. And then we went to go put the sticks away and Sanse Savannah was like, I just want you guys to know over here's where we keep the nunchucks and the swords. And Will goes, I'm sorry, did you say the nunchucks And she's like yeah, And he's like, take all my money.

00:07:37
Speaker 2: Will, Will's blood sport fantasies just yeah exploded. Suddenly. He was in a nineteen eighties film training montage and I heard out the other side was like, no, that's.

00:07:48
Speaker 3: Gonna keep you down, Like it was just oh my god, it was she said nunchucks and I was like this, Okay, take all of this.

00:07:56
Speaker 2: None of this is real. None of this matters till I see you guys breaking boards with your hands show where you guys break your board with your hand on stage.

00:08:09
Speaker 3: Then okay, I will I will believe it will be a charcuterie board, but I will break.

00:08:16
Speaker 1: Listen, I'm in.

00:08:17
Speaker 2: It'll be balsa wood, it'll be a breakaway board witten by the art Department.

00:08:24
Speaker 1: It'll already be scored.

00:08:26
Speaker 3: Dude, I am, I'm so. I literally find I'm my I live and die by the rings on my Apple Watch, which tell me like you've closed your exercise ring, You've closed this ring. So I found martial Arts and I click it in and it tells me, you know, like where my heart rate is and all that kind of stuff. I'm dying. And we get out of the ring and he'll just turns it looks at me. She goes, it's been twenty minutes.

00:08:50
Speaker 1: We've only been doing this for twenty minutes. We have thirty more minutes of this. All of a sudden, we were just forties, just sweating profusely. Yes, because there are It was so much fun, so much fun. We're going again. Can't wait to go again.

00:09:05
Speaker 3: I wish I lived close enough to be able to join the dragon Life Dragons.

00:09:09
Speaker 1: For Life Forever. Welcome to pod Meets World.

00:09:12
Speaker 3: I'm Daniel Fischl, I'm rather or strong, and I'm going to be a black belt in like a month. I'm wil fordll So.

00:09:28
Speaker 1: Today we are recapping season four, episode twelve, Easy Street. It originally aired December thirteenth, nineteen ninety six. The synopsis is that Corey gets a job at a restaurant controlled by the mafia. When Sean tells him who owns the restaurant, Corey quits. Sean takes Corey's job to earn money for Christmas. And it was directed by Jeff McCracken. It was written by Jeff Manel. Overall thoughts on the episode.

00:09:55
Speaker 2: Huh, it's fun. I mean it's ye, did you okay?

00:09:58
Speaker 3: It wasn't it was my favorite?

00:10:00
Speaker 1: Wasn't my favorite either.

00:10:01
Speaker 3: It wasn't my favorite episode. I found I found it very odd kind of all the way. I didn't think the B story was particularly funny. I thought the A story was weird and for for the first time in.

00:10:15
Speaker 1: A long while, very heavy handed.

00:10:17
Speaker 3: Where it was Here are the messages we're trying to tell you, to the point where they actually spell them out a couple times. There was no subtlety in it, right. I thought it was okay. I mean, it wasn't awful. I wasn't like, oh, this is the worst episode ever. But it just wasn't my favorite.

00:10:30
Speaker 2: You know what. I I think we have really high expectations because season four has been so that's I already think that if this was a season three episode, we would all be like, amazing, so good because it did balance the comedy. It was original, like it was. It felt like there was new parts of boy Meant's world coming out with the mob and all, and then it was dramatic. I don't know. I mean, yeah, maybe I I enjoyed it. I yeah, it's okay.

00:10:55
Speaker 3: It wasn't my favorite.

00:10:56
Speaker 2: Yeah it's okay.

00:10:57
Speaker 3: Yeah.

00:10:58
Speaker 1: It's weird because when I actually think of things to say that that are reasons why I didn't love it, I don't really have anything to really point to. I do think it was a little heavy handed at the end absence I felt, I mean, it was so dramatic and we had such a funny episode and a way too and I and I loved all of it. I loved that Sean was very comfortable in it and that Corey was not all that made sense and was funny, and but then it like ended on such a serious note and I was like, oh, I guess this was a very special episode.

00:11:29
Speaker 2: Writer.

00:11:30
Speaker 1: Don't even know all your faults.

00:11:34
Speaker 2: Well that's the thing I don't want to keep. But I am feeling this turn in me as an actor. That is a bummer, and you know, and it's and I'll stop talking about it because I think it's just where I went and it's.

00:11:47
Speaker 3: Just the material. It was very this was they went from being you know, but like comedy mobster guys to like, this is your whole life now.

00:11:54
Speaker 2: I know. But like when I so, I I just recently in our email exchanges, you know, there was a of all the episodes and I saw that, like the B and B episode is coming up and chick like me, and I was like, oh my god, those episodes are so fun and and I know that I was. I know that I was allowed to do comedy in them, you know. And yet I also have the memory of me at sixteen turning seventeen loving this kind of stuff, the drama you know, and like I wish I could just go back and be like, hey, writer, it's okay, you're on a comedy show. And so when I feel myself getting super heavy and sentimental at the end of this episode, I'm like, yes, a lot of it is the writing, obviously, but I also think that I was part of that. I was the writers and I were clearly engaging in a sort of conversation actually but also just performatively where it was like, oh, let's give Sean some like look at what writer can do. And I loved it obviously, and it was like this conversation going on, and I just don't love that. I don't know, I don't like where that's going, you know. So it's a bummer, and I can I know that it was me. I know that I was wanting to do more of this kind of thing. I wanted to be on Thosan's creek or in a movie or on stage crying. I wanted That's what where I was flexing my creative muscles and so, you know, but in retrospect, like, I think I was actually really fun at the comedy and the and like I wish I could go back and just have enjoyed that, like when we watch the Turkey Thanksgiving episode, like, that's what I was like, that's good acting, Like that is me having fun and being out of my head. And so you know what I'm seeing now is just that that the sort of manner drama that I was bringing into the And it's a bummer and I'll stop talking about it, but that for.

00:13:43
Speaker 3: You know, they're doing that for me as well. It's like, Oh, you're the funny, wacky guy. We'll see how far and wacky we can take you.

00:13:48
Speaker 1: Well, that's what I On the other hand, you're very goofy in this. You are really I mean, it's very funny, but you are definitely turned up a notch yes episode compared to the other episodes.

00:14:03
Speaker 3: Right So.

00:14:04
Speaker 1: Guest starring Buddy Hackett as Mister Fontaine. He is a legendary stand up comedian from the Catskills era, one of the most popular acts in Las Vegas history, and a pioneer of blue material or adult jokes. He was actually sued by a concert attendee for being shocked and offended how she lost Our listeners will know him best as the voice of Scuttle in The Little Mermaid and he passed away in two thousand and three, and then Soupy Sales as Mister Martini, another legendary comedic actor and personality, best known as a regular on the nineteen sixties game show Whose Line Is It Anyway? And hundreds of other TV and radio appearances. He has been listed as an influence by Pee Wee Herman, Howard Stern, and Andy Kaufman, and he passed away in two thousand and nine.

00:14:51
Speaker 2: Had they worked together before? Do we know?

00:14:54
Speaker 3: I don't know.

00:14:55
Speaker 1: I don't know. I know that I talked to Mark Blutman yesterday and Marked told me a funny story that they had done a big rewrite. They had, you know, sent out the original script. Then they did a big rewrite, probably after they cast Buddy Hackett and Soupy Sales. And Buddy apparently called Michael and left a message on his phone and was like, Michael, the rewrite, call me back.

00:15:18
Speaker 2: Oh, I remember this story.

00:15:19
Speaker 1: And Michael called him back and he was like, you gave Soupy more lines than me.

00:15:27
Speaker 2: I remember the whole story. Do you remember? Michael tells the story. So all the writers were freaking out because Buddy wasn't coming out of his trailer at one point, and everyone was scared because of you know that that Buddy Hackett, because he was a huge name and we were like it was like a big gantman and for all those guys, he was like their hero, and they knew that they had to go talk to Buddy and calm him down and you know, convince him. And everybody was scared, and Michael was like, I got this, I got this, and they were like, oh my god, Michael's going to confront Buddy Hackett and they all followed Michael and he like Michael likes storm down and he knocked on the door and it was like everyone was expecting this big fight and the door opened and Michael went, he's buddy up here about no lunch and like mocked him, and Buddy Hackett went, you're hysterical, come on in here. I want to I want you to create a new show for me. And ended up like like Michael just diffused the whole situation by making Buddy Hackett laugh. Yeah, that's the story of Michael tells, which is that like he jiu jitsued Buddy Hackett because I guess Hackett was like really upset. But then because Michael was like, baby, buddy, I'm like, that's pretty good man. I mean, that's the kind of stuff you have to do as a showrunner, you know.

00:16:36
Speaker 1: I heard that. Michael said, don't worry, we'll even it all out by the time we get to tape.

00:16:40
Speaker 2: Right, that's fun. That's Butman's version, Michael's version was much more.

00:16:45
Speaker 1: He was this Michael's version had something to do with jiu jitsu.

00:16:48
Speaker 2: Well, I think there's probably some truth to it, though I can see Michael, you know, diffusing a situation with humor that actually makes first show sense.

00:16:57
Speaker 3: These are two absolute living legends though oh yeah, overstated, how I mean, especially in the comedy world. These were two of the ogs. I mean, you could not have gotten bigger names.

00:17:09
Speaker 2: So yeah, and I remember fearing that pressure on set. Yeah. I remembers like, these guys are here and it's a big deal, and yeah, you know, you just kind of wish their material was a little better.

00:17:19
Speaker 3: Like I don't blame them for any I just wish I thought some of the some of the comedy could have been punched. That's all I remember.

00:17:25
Speaker 2: I remember we couldn't have an audience, which is part of the reason why the comedy is probably a little an audience.

00:17:31
Speaker 3: We absolutely did.

00:17:33
Speaker 2: Sorry, we couldn't do them in front of the audience.

00:17:35
Speaker 3: No, he was in front of the audience, because that was one of the things I remember is he says, he makes a he screws on.

00:17:41
Speaker 1: Let's wait till we get there.

00:17:42
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, well but what I remember, what the memory I have is that we couldn't bring the audience in because they kept swearing and telling dirty jokes, and so they that's why they were.

00:17:51
Speaker 3: There, because the whole audience went oh when he said this one.

00:17:54
Speaker 1: Thing, really yeah, oh oh god. I only I remember, like, do we have to get the audience out here?

00:18:00
Speaker 2: Yeah? I don't know. Yeah, Like well, I thought, I wonder if that happened during a run through, and then they pulled the audience. We have to ask Jeff mccrack and he's the guy to ask, because I remember it being an issue, and when I was watching this, I was like, Oh, the audience isn't there. That's partly why the energy in those scenes. I mean, part of it is that they're sitting the whole time, which is a little awkward. And then I remember there was tension about them being able to remember their lines and like just keep it together. So it was like, let's not give them any blocking. Let's just sit them in a corner and keep it easy.

00:18:29
Speaker 1: You know.

00:18:29
Speaker 2: I don't think we had que cards, but there was this sense of like, at any moment they were going to not remember their you know, we weren't going to be able to keep it going. And so I thought we pulled an audience, Like we said, let's not have an audience this week because Buddy and Soupy A will have to get through it and then b they might start riffing and telling dirty jokes, so we can't have it on it. That's my memory.

00:18:49
Speaker 3: But okay, yeah, because I have one very specific moment that I and I remember the line. I remember exactly what he said to me. The whole audience go.

00:18:55
Speaker 1: Oh, well, we'll get to it for sure. Jennifer Campbell returns his Lonnie the Beauty, A full Wilderness Outpost employee, is back in her second of three Boy Meets World episode.

00:19:05
Speaker 2: From the South South of Philadelphia.

00:19:07
Speaker 1: She's from the South of Philadelphia and can anybody remember her third appearance?

00:19:13
Speaker 3: No, I didn't remember this one.

00:19:16
Speaker 2: I thought there was more with her.

00:19:17
Speaker 3: I thought she was.

00:19:18
Speaker 1: I thought she was in way more and we did way more in the Wilderness.

00:19:20
Speaker 2: I thought she was like a ten episode recurring with I thought she.

00:19:24
Speaker 1: She would never have remembered this character. If you had given me a million dollars and said Danielle name, not even name, tell me anything about the Wilderness employee that has a lot to do with Eric you could have given me.

00:19:41
Speaker 2: You never would have watched it. You would never have been there for you were in school now, so you would have been ushered off to school, so you were never there to see any of it. So you would have heard it at the table read and then probably never even talked to her because she would only be on.

00:19:51
Speaker 3: Second super sweet, very very nice.

00:19:54
Speaker 2: Interesting.

00:19:55
Speaker 1: Maybe maybe would have seen it run through.

00:19:57
Speaker 2: We have a bear in the Wilderness store coming up. Isn't there a scene with a bear?

00:20:01
Speaker 1: Yes?

00:20:02
Speaker 2: I thought we've already talked about it.

00:20:04
Speaker 3: That might be her next okay, next response, yeah you think you could be right?

00:20:09
Speaker 2: Well.

00:20:09
Speaker 1: Jumping into our recap, we start in Turner's classroom. It's a Christmas episode. How do you know? We see Santa hats, a festive homeless food drive sign, and a menora. Yes, so to pings Blood Drive, Yeah, exactly, Christmas Blood Tapang is at the front of the classroom reading Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken. I still have that weird thing I'm doing with my rs where I'm pronouncing words weird. Yeah, I can hear that.

00:20:34
Speaker 2: What are you talking about? Can you do it?

00:20:35
Speaker 1: Yeah? Let's see. The best example is I know, uh, Ben used to notice that the way I said boy meets world, I like swallow my rs a little bit world. There's like a weird thing, and so I think, I say, you're it's oh really.

00:20:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't hear what you're doing. That's different than you go down like diverge.

00:20:56
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's diverged. There's definitely diverge in a wood. There's a there's a thing I'm doing and it's weird, and I don't talk like that anymore. I don't know what it was.

00:21:06
Speaker 2: I don't think anybody could hear it.

00:21:08
Speaker 1: You're weird and I don't like it. And I don't know who that person is, and I don't know what she's doing. I don't know what risk you're taking. But don't ever do it again. So a short haired auditioning for other TV shows. Mister Turner asks the class what they got from the poem, and all we hear is Sean's loud snore followed by Corey's yip. I remember this so well that I know it, because I know I think we do it a couple times.

00:21:33
Speaker 2: We've already done for it.

00:21:34
Speaker 3: We've done it before, remember this bit, so well.

00:21:38
Speaker 2: Yeah, we get it, I think season one or season two, So it's it's a it's a callback thing.

00:21:42
Speaker 3: Yeah.

00:21:43
Speaker 1: The boys are fast asleep and mister Phoene is standing behind them. Phoenie notes that in his class, it's mister Hunter who handles the yipping. Corey wakes up in a panic and realizes his current predicament. He nudges Shan, who sees Phoenie and Turner two and says, now, I don't know which class I slept through. Turner reminds them of the poem. Phoene explains the road not taken and already in this episode, I'm like, what why is PHOENNI here? Where's he supposed to be? Why is he in this classroom?

00:22:09
Speaker 4: And he looks it and starts teaching another teachers and he's like, let me tell you what the road not taken is about It's just I was already like this feels like such a setup that I didn't I didn't love it, just.

00:22:22
Speaker 2: Too heavy handed, Yeah, I was. I was really reeling from just I cannot believe how important poetry is to the to the basis of like to the the spine of Boy Meets World. And I didn't remember this, And it makes it so interesting, like this is now probably the tenth time no more, that poetry has played a central part of either a character's arc or the lesson, and it it's really cool, and it's so interesting that you know, Sean hates poetry dismisses it in every one of these contexts, and it just it makes me realize how really profound it is that Sean becomes a poet in that later season, which is probably I guess season six or seven. I don't think I quite realized how the groundwork had been laid for that transition, because it always I always make the joke that it seems so out of character for Sean to have become a poet. It's like what he goes from being this non academic, non interested in school, non interested in literature guy to like a good poet who everybody is celebrating in this but in retrospect, it's actually there from the get go, like poetry was always being planted and it's just built into the fabric of the show, maybe artificially, Like I don't know if it fits really, but as somebody who loves poetry, why not, Like it's kind of cool in a sitcom, Like you can't get farther from a sitcom than poetry, right in terms of art forms.

00:23:48
Speaker 1: Right, It's funny to me that if someone were I never would have thought this ever, But if the description of Boy Meets World involved somehow like the show where people, through the use of literature learn to understand the world and the people around them, it would like, now, with the amount of episodes we've done, I'd be like, yeah, I could see that it would actually be in the synopsis of overall what the show is about. And yet before we had done this rewrot rewatch, I would have never thought that.

00:24:19
Speaker 3: No, it's also didn't think about even even it was its season two, when they finally go out, they're going to kiss for the first time, all that kind of stuff, it's all at that poetry.

00:24:28
Speaker 2: Yeh, Yeah, that's what I mean, I mean, it's there always it was. I mean, it's it's Michael Michael Jacobs loves poetry, loved poetry. And but it's so interesting that also in the school room, David Holmes was teaching us poetry, like we were getting it from both our professional lives and our school lives. And it's I mean, I was an English major, like I'm obsessed with poetry. I'm and it's so it's I think of that as something from me, you know, but like clearly it was something from this part of the show and my life. And it's so interesting that something that I think of like came from I don't know, but now I can see, Oh my god, that was a huge influence, both in front of the camera and behind the camera. It's really fascinating.

00:25:12
Speaker 1: Sophoeni explains the road not taken. We have choices in life, and each choice puts us on a new road that can have a profound effect on our destinies.

00:25:19
Speaker 2: By the way, I can't stand Robert Frost, and this is just like this is the most like like heavy handed, I mean talk about like Robert Frost. I actually have enjoyed some Frost like but it's it's so I don't know, it's just like it's very like exactly what this episode spells out. It's like, well, do you really need to spell it out? It's literally in the poem like it's so it's like it's a hat on a hat.

00:25:43
Speaker 3: You know.

00:25:43
Speaker 2: It's like, let let me explicate the complicated, very obvious reading of this very obvious poem. Like it's a very obvious poem. It's a that's it's it's a it's a popular poem. It's fun because you can get it without having to think about it too much.

00:25:58
Speaker 3: So they care to everybody in the ninth grade exactly because it's so there, you know, it's a poem exactly, and that's what's great about it is that.

00:26:07
Speaker 2: But why Pheenie has to explain it and then Sean at the end of the episode has.

00:26:11
Speaker 1: To be we're sleeping, that's why, you know what.

00:26:13
Speaker 2: But we just hit it like, you know, like me, by heavy handedness.

00:26:16
Speaker 4: Right.

00:26:16
Speaker 3: That's the one thing that Boy Means World always did well. There was a subtlety to the lessons that you're learning, and this one just wasn't. This was a hit you over the head. Saturday Morning special. Here's what the poem means, and now you have to decide what road you're going to take.

00:26:30
Speaker 1: I mean it's like literally said.

00:26:32
Speaker 2: I know, and it's you think about the layers of like the Hamlet episode in season one where Rusty was holding the melon. Yes, that's in a literary illusion, that's physical visual, that's really clever, and and and yeah, this is just not as clever.

00:26:50
Speaker 1: No, So Sean asks, how does a poem about a guy on two roads have anything to do with their lives when they can't even drive yet?

00:26:55
Speaker 2: Stick around for twenty two minutes you'll find out.

00:26:57
Speaker 1: Show, We'll tell you. Phoene sarcastically asks Turner. Isn't he fun? Turner says, I like to think of him as job security. Phoeney asks Cory what his last choice in life was.

00:27:07
Speaker 2: As much as I you know, I've already railed against like dramatic Sean, young dumb Sean is starting to feel a little young to me. It's it's it's sort of like an old joke already, and that, you know, I think the better version of Sean that's emerging is the Shawn that's totally comfortable in the hospital, totally comfortable in the Italian restaurant.

00:27:27
Speaker 1: Sean Yeah, yeah, so uh, Cory says, I did just get a job for Christmas break. I'm a gopher at Little Polly's restaurant and Sean pipes in too, and I got the soft, cushy union job down on the docks. He's excited to finally be able to buy nice presents for his family and friends this year. Our Christmas job breaks a thing that's.

00:27:48
Speaker 2: Interesting for workers.

00:27:50
Speaker 3: Dock workers.

00:27:51
Speaker 2: Absolutely, Why would your kid be working at the docks too? It's like the hardest job. I mean that's the joke obviously, but it's pretty ridiculous. What's sort of like the prom fashion show, right, Like we're probably gonna get letters. People are like, yes, they always.

00:28:02
Speaker 1: Got to jo always think it is ten days.

00:28:05
Speaker 2: Makes sense for kids to get like dishwashing jobs or something.

00:28:08
Speaker 3: Unload I think to unload things on the docks. I think you can get it like sixteen years old, where it's like you're not going on the boats in welding, you know, it's it's hey, this thing is.

00:28:17
Speaker 2: Showed up three in the morning.

00:28:19
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's been like a palette on the you know, put on the dock.

00:28:21
Speaker 1: We've got jobs are looking for someone for two weeks.

00:28:25
Speaker 2: But it's also a union job, which which, of course, none of.

00:28:28
Speaker 3: That makes any sense, none of it. Says says that, by the way, the five actor kids who had been in a union from the time they were right.

00:28:35
Speaker 2: But obviously, if you're hiring a sixteen year old to work at the docks, that's the kid is getting paid under the table, Yes, taking advantage of avoiding the union.

00:28:44
Speaker 3: Being paid in cash shown at the table. Yes, exactly.

00:28:47
Speaker 1: Turner gives out the class assignment. I want you all to keep a journal of the choices you make over the next week, then write a paper about the potential of those choices to change your life. Sean retorts, What if my choice is to not do the assignment, Turner explains, you would get an f not get into college, spend your time hanging out at the convenience store waiting for them to bring in a new batch of lottery tickets. Sean wonders, And that would change my life?

00:29:09
Speaker 3: How?

00:29:10
Speaker 1: And then we go to a commercial break. We're back at a very holiday decorated wilderness outpost. Lonnie is hanging candy canes on a mini tree when Eric inquires about her first Christmas in the city. She's excited at first, but as she starts to reminisce, she gets sad and tears up, admitting how much she misses them. Eric strategically places himself so she falls right into his arms and he embraces her, telling him to use him as a handkerchief, which she does by wiping her nose on his arm, and he looks out and excited. She did it, She did it.

00:29:40
Speaker 3: I think by watching this, I could be wrong, but I think I was either just getting sick or getting over being sick, really super pale.

00:29:51
Speaker 2: Oh like really really cold medication. And that's why you're a little big.

00:29:56
Speaker 3: Who knows I could be whapped on. Yeah, some you know robot or something, but a solid robo buzz going. But there's something because you know, I just noticed that I looked off in.

00:30:08
Speaker 1: This Wow, I didn't notice that.

00:30:11
Speaker 3: Looked weird in this episode. And remember this not at all.

00:30:17
Speaker 2: Really, you don't remember this episode at all.

00:30:18
Speaker 3: Nothing.

00:30:19
Speaker 2: I remember wanting so much work in this episode because it's not that amazing of a storyline.

00:30:25
Speaker 3: It's just weird storyline.

00:30:27
Speaker 2: Put Will in positions where he can find comedy where there it's just not there's not much there.

00:30:33
Speaker 3: And yeah, you're right, I was. I was working on you're pushing it over over acting in a lot of senses.

00:30:38
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I think that's the only way it could work, right, Like, is that the whole point all the comedy comes from Eric being ridiculously expressive in a way that is over the top. You know, that's the comedy.

00:30:49
Speaker 3: Strange Beet storyline.

00:30:50
Speaker 1: Lonnie is bummed that there's no way she can be with her parents for Christmas this year, but Eric insists I'll drive you. She reminds him it's five hundred miles and he shouts good. She's extatic and gives him a huge hug while they jump up and down with joy. As Alan watches on, who I think he was slightly embarrassed and maybe nervous that they don't have an HR department.

00:31:10
Speaker 3: Or a line. Does he even say anything?

00:31:11
Speaker 1: And I don't think he says anything there, Nope. And then New Settler, we're at Little Polly's. Corey is tucked up in his waiter uniform as he brings some cups to two older gentlemen with goodfellas vibes. It's Buddy Hackett and Soupy sales not playing themselves. Soupy aka mister Martini sternly asks who are you. Corey introduces himself and explains he was hired to bring people drinks and run errands to earn a little extra money this summer. He says, yes, So here's what I think happened. Guys. You know in a script, when someone's supposed to cut you off, it's just.

00:31:49
Speaker 3: Dead dot or.

00:31:53
Speaker 1: And exactly just kept going. And he just kept going because they did cut them off fast enough, and nobody really it got filled in with summer and nobody noticed in the moment, and that's the take they ended up using. But it's not this summer. It's a winter break.

00:32:12
Speaker 3: This is Christmas episode.

00:32:14
Speaker 1: Yeah. So he cuts him off and he says, stop talking now, and then Buddy Hackett aka mister Fontaine, asks what the drinks are and Corey says it's coffee. Sam at the Bar told him to bring it over. Sam at the Bar has a tendency to run off at the mouth. Fontane explains, I don't like tendencies. I don't like mouths. He asks Cory if he understands, and Corey nods, I do, but I'm scared mister Martini holds up his coffee cup. Who made this? Fontane warns, answer him and choose your words carefully. Corey nervously and very slowly tells them I did, and that is maybe my favorite joke.

00:32:56
Speaker 3: It's so funny, and nervous is always funny.

00:32:59
Speaker 1: It's so funny. After a short pause soup, he admires it's fantastic and asks his pal to try it and tell me if I'm wrong. Fontane agrees, you're right. This is good. Corey gushes, I did take the liberty of adding a dash of cinnamon. Mister Martini hands Corey a twenty dollars bill, and if he keeps slinging cappuccinos, maybe he'll come up with another twenty. Corey is stoked a sling and I'll be And if you gentlemen need anything, Martini cuts him off again. I'd like you to accompany my new young bride to the beauty parlor keep an eye on her. Corey says he can't. Sam at the bar gave him a whole list of things to do. The men assure him not to worry about Sam. Then they laugh at how powerless the bartender is to their wise guy. Ways, what has Corey gotten himself into?

00:33:39
Speaker 2: Now?

00:33:41
Speaker 1: Do either of you remember interacting with Soupy or Buck Buddy at all?

00:33:45
Speaker 3: Yep?

00:33:46
Speaker 2: Do Yeah, yeah, I remember, Well, you know that feeling. There was always this feeling like when you were around legends, right, he had to be respectful and like, but there's there's something that happened. You know. Obviously we were regulars on the show. We're also kids when you're you're when you're a kid actor, learning your lines, hitting your marks, it's very easy. There's so much about being an actor that is just like we're just we're pros, you know, like Ben and I at this point have done and so there's this funny dynamic where you're.

00:34:22
Speaker 1: More face and you're much better.

00:34:25
Speaker 2: Basically, well, they're bad the things that they're bad at, like knowing.

00:34:28
Speaker 1: Their lines, knowing where to stand.

00:34:31
Speaker 2: Getting through rehearsal without making yeah, like all of that stuff. And so it's this weird dynamic where like Ben and I are sort of standing there, like rehearsal takes a lot longer than any other scene, and yet these guys were being told constantly are special, that they're hysterical, and everybody, all the adults are cowtowing to these guys who were sitting there going but they can't do their job, and so it's it was a funny. It's a funny like feeling of like, yeah, like we're supposed to respect them, and we do. And like when I watched the episode, I'm like, it's great, it's so great. But while you're in it as a kid, especially you're you can't help but be like, what are they doing? Why are these guys so special?

00:35:12
Speaker 1: What is the deal? And also we did not know who they were. Were you were my experience.

00:35:18
Speaker 2: The only thing I knew Buddy Hackett from was Herbie the love Bug, and I did. I had watched that movie as a kid over and over, and yet at some point so I did, I did know him and think he was funny, you know. But at this point, like I said, these guys are you know, they're at the end of their career. They're coming out of like basically retirement to do this bit, and so it just you know, it's it's an interesting tension. It's not necessarily bad. It's just Ben and I are more reserved. We're not making jokes, We're trying to be you know. So there's a there's a level of like, oh, this week is where we're walking on eggshells in all of these rehearsals. And it's a.

00:35:55
Speaker 1: Little like the cycle of life of the entertainment industry too, where it's like when you're starting out and you're young, and let's just talk about comedians. You're starting out, you're young, you've got your finger on the pulse, you've got a modern voice, you're hot, you're you can do no wrong. And then you get you build that reputation for yourself and by the time you're at the end of your career, what you're you're not finger on the pulse anymore. You're not a young, modern voice, but you have fame and and that credibility that you have for having the career that you've had is going to bring something to us that we don't have ourselves. So it's like it's it's a it's weird. It is just one of those things where it's like your your currency is different.

00:36:40
Speaker 2: Now, well, what's the there's like the old saying, it's like the five part being an actor is five stages of your career. It's like, who's right strong, get me right strong, young strong, Who's right, strong, right, the four stages. Okay, yeah I do. I couldn't remember it quite Yeah, yes it is.

00:37:01
Speaker 1: They are most definitely at the peak. Get me Buddy Hacket and super sales for our writings. Oh yeah right, but that's the thing they were in Who is Buddy Hackett? Who is soupy Sales?

00:37:17
Speaker 3: Exactly? But I think that that's actually better because then you don't have the stars in your eyes as you're working with them. You're just to you. It's just two other guys that you're working with, so it's not like you're sitting there the whole time starstruck.

00:37:28
Speaker 2: It's also it's so important for the sake of the storyline that you find comedians to be a mobster. If you hired actual.

00:37:38
Speaker 3: You know, it's Tony.

00:37:41
Speaker 2: Exactly, you can't have like real tough guys. You have to find guys. But and these guys are perfect in that regard and that they're they got this like older thing and it's a but so you kind of believe that they're like old mob guys, but they're ultimately just funny. They're not threatening. There's nothing scary about them. And it's in this tradition and well maybe you can speak to this like there was this big tradition. I don't know if it's still a round of like funny mob like funny mob stories. I feel like in the nineties that was a big thing. You is that roud way does Sopranos kill that? Like now I feel like everything is so serious when it comes to the mafia, Like you can't make a joke about these things. But yeah, you're making jokes about drug dealing and killing people, like that's what we're joking about in this episode, and that it feels like I haven't seen that in a while. But back then it felt very It was a trope, right, it was a tradition of Mickey blue Eyes, like you always had these like and I think it was like in response to that exactly. So in the seventies you had Godfather, right, you had the real like dramas, and then of course you have a period of mocking it, and then it got serious again like reinvent I mean literally, the Sopranos is analyzed this for real, right, He's going the pilot of Sopranos is the same pitch. It's just played for the reality. And then I don't know if we went into another comedy post sopranos like, how we done comedy mob? Melissa, Why don't you send us an email about it? Yeah, please hear, because I'm sure. I'm sure, but I can't think of it anyway. The story that I remember, I don't know if you guys remember, and I don't think I was actually there when Buddy told it, but he told Jeff McCracken, and so I've always remembered the story, and we have to ask Jeff if he remembers it. But so Buddy Hackett told us the story about how when he was a comedian he had there were mob connections. There were people, you know, in the entertainment industry that were connected by the mom. Sure, and he was working for a guy or was some guy in the mob who had a nephew who could sing, and he and he said, I want you to let my nephew open up for your comedy act. And Buddy felt incredibly intimidated and did not think the guy was talented, but knew that he had to give this give this guy, this mob guy, a favor. So he said, okay, and he allowed this nephew singer. In my mind, he's like a young Frank Sinatra want to be to open for Buddy Hackett even though he didn't deserve it and it wasn't that talented. And so for Buddy Hackett's tour, he had this young nephew do. And what Buddy Hackett said was that, to this day working on our set, whenever he bought a new house anywhere, he hadn't talked to the nephew, hadn't talked to the guy who asked him for the favor for thirty forty years. But whenever he bought a new house anywhere in the world, the day after he moved in, a moving truck full of furniture would show up to furnish his entire house sent to him, and he.

00:40:47
Speaker 1: Never had to talk to any like.

00:40:49
Speaker 2: They basically would make sure that a truck got lost with other people's furniture and ended up at Buddy Hackett's house wherever he moved. Wow, And I have no idea if it's true. I have no idea if it was something that Hackett was telling to just impress it. But that's the yeah, and he's playing and it came up because he was playing a mob bus and we're talking about mafia whatever, and that's but yeah, so he said it had happened three different times, at least three different times, that he would move somewhere or buy a new house, and like within a couple of days a truck full of furniture.

00:41:19
Speaker 1: What an intimidating thing to do, by the way, draped in look how nice I am? I always know where you live?

00:41:28
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, no contact, never yet but always.

00:41:31
Speaker 3: So this is not my style at all.

00:41:35
Speaker 1: I'm dump it out. I want this truck to.

00:41:37
Speaker 2: Be I'm worried about the poor people who lost all their furniture.

00:41:41
Speaker 1: Wow, wow, great story. Well then we're in the Matthew's kitchen, Corey's eating cereal when Sean barges in wearing an all black winter.

00:41:49
Speaker 2: And the ice in the windows this Christmas.

00:41:54
Speaker 3: But I love how you've gone out and obviously purchased an expensive dock workers.

00:41:58
Speaker 2: I'm long shoreman now, Yeah, yes, you are full. You couldn't just be this.

00:42:05
Speaker 3: Is a great You had saved your money on this seven hundred dollars coat, you would have money to buy all the presents and you wouldn't need to Robert Frost your way through Christmas.

00:42:14
Speaker 2: But I look, I look the part it's great. I wish I'd been wearing this at the last scene. I'm in the leather jacket, I think in the last scene. Yeah, this coat was cool peacock. Yeah, this goes Sean.

00:42:24
Speaker 1: This is the most current modern day writer version of you we've seen.

00:42:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is what I would actually.

00:42:29
Speaker 1: This was this is what Rider would wear. He's shivering from the snowstorm outside Corey's. Corey offers him breakfast, but Sean corrects him lunch. I'm on lunch. Corey reminds him is a thirty in the morning, but Sean tells him he's been working at the docks since three am and it's been very cold. Corey tells him, sit, darling, I'll make you some hot chocolate. I thought you said it was easy on the docks. Sean is peeved. That's what it said in the brochure. So so I show up this morning and the wind chill is like Jupiter, and I go up to the boss and I say insert gibberish here, and he goes, yeah, but you took the job, and I go and then you insert some more gibberish again. And the Turkish freighter that showed up at three am was the same one that brought in the outbreak monkey. He says, if he's going down, so is Corey, and he rubs his hands all over his face.

00:43:12
Speaker 2: So gross.

00:43:14
Speaker 1: Gross, I'm sure.

00:43:15
Speaker 2: Must have been. I can remember this. I'm like, I can't believe me, let me do that. I so gross?

00:43:19
Speaker 1: Yeah, because Ben did not like.

00:43:21
Speaker 2: No, such an awful thing.

00:43:23
Speaker 1: I don't like anybody touching my face.

00:43:25
Speaker 2: No, but this is one of those active things, like let's get it for the joke, and hand sanitizer really wasn't a thing back then.

00:43:32
Speaker 1: So and even with even with that, I'm just something touched my face and I immediately recoil.

00:43:38
Speaker 3: I had to rub stuff on your face or off your face several times on the show coming up. Do you remember that? No, Like you have like the face mask at one point and I'm like rubbing it in.

00:43:50
Speaker 1: I do remember there's an avocado face mask thing coming wasn't actually I ate it and you ate it? Yeah, I do remember that or something. You know what it was? It was French onion dip that they died green with food. It was sour, so.

00:44:02
Speaker 2: His whole face smelled a French onion dip.

00:44:04
Speaker 1: I think so, yeah, it was you know, because you know, French onion dip has the little like chunks of onion onion pieces in it. They wanted me to have a mask on that kind of had like chunks in it, and I'm pretty sure it was the French onion soup mix that they mixed with probably lotion and then dyed it kind of green.

00:44:19
Speaker 3: It wasn't I found out later. I wasn't supposed to eat.

00:44:22
Speaker 1: It was an athlete not edible. That's so funny. Sean eventually asks Corey how his job is, and Corey says, it's tough, very tough. It's brutal. But Shaun c'es right through it. You got a cushy job, and Ben giggles, Yes, you can't hide it, and we're back at Little Polly's. Corey's back at all.

00:44:43
Speaker 3: Sorry, just right there. Yeah, I noticed because I wrote this down this episode, a lot of the scenes have no button.

00:44:50
Speaker 1: This scene just ends, right.

00:44:52
Speaker 3: I was like, oh, that's oh, apparently we're done with it down that we're moving on to the next one. There was no wrap up to probably three or four different scenes. It's just the scene ended and they moved on.

00:45:01
Speaker 1: You know, I wonder if people we should maybe talk about a button a little bit because I wonder if, because you're right, we notice it, and I wonder if other people when they're watching don't necessarily know why something feels different to them, but they it feels like just linger.

00:45:17
Speaker 2: It's yeah, you always want to don't want to. You don't want a deflating moment, even if it's a laugh. You don't want a deflating laugh, right, You want a sharp laugh to end.

00:45:27
Speaker 3: Always say don't exhale on the end of a scene, like you're letting all the tenchi oots. If you end with a and you're letting the tension outs. The same with the laugh. Don't let the laugh linger. You get out on the sharpest part.

00:45:38
Speaker 2: Right, which is it's not even just that it's a laugh. It also should be a turn of some sort, right, Like it's like somebody says something and then the response changes something.

00:45:47
Speaker 1: It's like a hanger of a moment.

00:45:48
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like oh boom oh what So there's a question mark, you know. I mean one of the things that I talk about it when I'm teaching screenwriting is like question marks instead of periods. You know, you always want to end and every scene with a question mark. So you you're always going what I have to know what's going to happen next?

00:46:05
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, so yeah, you're right, that wasn't That wasn't necessarily a button. That was a laugh, but and it's a good laugh, but it's not necessarily a button. So Cory is back at his job and mister Martini and mister Fontaine are there again, now joined by Sean who's visiting the mobster.

00:46:20
Speaker 2: So sorry, but I really have to pee again. I need to. I know, guys, can we just yeah?

00:46:25
Speaker 1: Sure, well sure, old hold hold for your small bladder. Jeez, I'm so glad we're taking karate. This is we really need to kick him right in the bladder.

00:46:35
Speaker 3: In the bla well, if we can find it. It's apparently the size of a pee, so unbelievable. This is also what happens when you drink thirty seven cups of coffee in the morning. I think he's a little jacked on caffeine today. Have you noticed that? I think so.

00:46:48
Speaker 1: I do know that he's very talkative.

00:46:49
Speaker 3: That's what I mean. I think he's he's just whacked on caffeine. At this point, he is thirty seven cups of dunking in.

00:46:55
Speaker 1: He's like, guys, sorry, I really also have another thing I have to say. Yeah, I'm like, where are still in the first sentence of the show thought the same thing.

00:47:03
Speaker 3: It's like, oh, okay, here we go. But I think between his monologues and stopping a pe, this is going to be the best seven hour episode we've ever done. Frankly, Heaven's Gate is not edit.

00:47:15
Speaker 1: Let's not let's not edit any of this. Let's just keep it. Let's see how long it is. Let's talk about where do you Where do you think on the body that we that we hit with sticks? Where do you What number do you think is where the bladder is? You think it's eight?

00:47:29
Speaker 3: I think it's eight?

00:47:30
Speaker 1: No, eight would be up? H I remember it's one, two, three, four, seven. It's the top of the head, the top. Ten's the top.

00:47:43
Speaker 2: Hey, there you go, thank you.

00:47:44
Speaker 1: Sorry, you might be right that eight. You might be eight. You might be writing eight eight is up?

00:47:48
Speaker 3: No?

00:47:49
Speaker 1: Remember up like nine and ten, So I think it might be five. Five might be the closest exactly, all right. Anyway, the mobsters call Corey over and he brags to Sean, watch me go, did you just drink more water.

00:48:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm really well hydrated. I also think, can we can we take back? So you set the scene up again so we don't have to include me saying can I which because I actually know we're not cutting out.

00:48:15
Speaker 4: We're not.

00:48:15
Speaker 1: We're we talked to them all the time. We are keeping everything. Everyone's going to know exactly how long it takes you to pee and wash your hands, assuming you even washed your hands, with how fast you were gone, I don't even know. No consequences for rushing out to you, of course, do you think we're just gonna be nice to you?

00:48:35
Speaker 3: Come on.

00:48:38
Speaker 1: Anyway. The mobsters call Corey over and he brags to Sean watch me go make twenty dollars again. Corey asks what they need and Fontane hands him another twenty dollars bill. Corey starts to probably walk away, but bye bye, bye, bye bye. They have a job for him. He slides.

00:48:55
Speaker 2: But he could have hit that a little harder. I feel, yeah, it was a little like Mumbley, and I'm that's one of those things where Michael would have given us a much bigger line and he kept us doing it over and over. But with Buddy, he was probably like it's good enough, It's fine.

00:49:08
Speaker 3: Yeah, just the scene I remember being in front of the audience, and maybe I'm remembering it wrong because I remember the line he's going to say something, and Soupy says something and messes up his line and Buddy goes, oh, that was a premature ejaculation, and that's when the whole audience went and they're like and he's like, oh what what what? And so that's why I remember them being there for this will I bet that was during a run through, you think.

00:49:34
Speaker 2: I think it was the audience that you're probably remembering is either is our staff or the network, because the tension would have been the same, right, and then we both are both our memories could could be right. You know that because of that moment, which was in front of you know I've run through could have been forty people. So you get that gasp of like realization, like we cannot let this guy in front of the audience, because that's what that's what I am watching these scenes. They feel they feel there's not an audience intimate, low energy, but it was interesting, like I had the realization. I mean, they explain it, I think in this scene, but there's no customers rights, they say it, there's no it's a restaurant, but we had We didn't have to pay any extras, which is good, but it also reduces the energy that there's it's an empty restaurant. It's a weird feeling to give.

00:50:19
Speaker 3: There's one. It's such a such a trope, but there's one thing you can always do to ratchet up the danger without having to do anything. And if you have one person, they do it, and everything would have been so easy to do. One person wearing a suit and tie walks in, leans down, whispers something into one of their ear. They nod to him, and he walks off. That's all you need and you get that feeling of menace and mob more guys. A little.

00:50:47
Speaker 2: It is a little deflating that there's not the sense of other people that they're in power because because they're they're ordering Corey around and then and then Sean. But you're right, it would have been really nice if I I thought for a moment that we were going to see sand behind the bars, like terrified and like you know, it's like call the police like that could have you know, raised the stakes of this. But maybe I.

00:51:10
Speaker 3: Honestly didn't remember this episode at all. And I thought the episode was going to be you think they're in the mob, but of course they're not. And as I'm watching it was like, oh no, they're really there in the mob and that's and I didn't get that at all. So at the beginning I was like, oh, this is going to be one of those kind of like they're in the mafia. It's like they're not.

00:51:29
Speaker 1: Also, if you walked away at the end with that box and it didn't go to the person, you guys are both dead, there would be episode there. Now you leave the box here, Norson comes up and you do at least finish the job.

00:51:42
Speaker 2: The job and yeah, but like yeah, or like what go to the police? Like it's so that the stakes are actually so high and then the resolution is actually so easy.

00:51:52
Speaker 3: To just go give this back.

00:51:53
Speaker 2: Let's just do nothing.

00:51:54
Speaker 3: People apparently like is when you just go, you know what, sir, not to work for you, and they're like, wat, good choice.

00:52:00
Speaker 1: I don't think that's how it works.

00:52:01
Speaker 2: We can trust you.

00:52:02
Speaker 3: If Goodfellas taught me anything, yeah.

00:52:05
Speaker 2: Oh god, well I thought this was almost a direct reference to Goodfellas with the Spider. Uh you know, Christopher Imperially. What's his name, Michael Imperio, Michael Imperioli where he plays when he plays the kid bringing the trays and then Spider and then he he he shoots him in the foot. Yeah, it's a great Oh my god. When I first saw that, it's an amazing film. Goodfellas, everybody know that they did.

00:52:27
Speaker 3: They then brought that back into Sopranos. He Michael Michael imperially walks into the bakery and shoots the kid in the foot or not. And as he walks away, he goes, you shot me in the foot, and he goes, yeah, it happens. And so that's a straight up nod to his Sopranos character.

00:52:40
Speaker 1: Yet so he slides an envelope. He slides an envelope to Corey and asks him to go to the mailbox on fourteenth and Pine, make sure no one sees you, and put the envelope inside. Corey nervously tells him there's no mailbox at fourteenth and Pine, but mister Fontaine motions for Corey to come closer, real close, then assures him that today there will be a mailbox there. Martini adds, mister Fontaine is never wrong about mailbox placement. Corey takes the envelope but notices something, if you really want this mailed, you should consider putting a stamp on here, and maybe even an address. The men look at him in amusement. You're a noticer, aren't you? I noticed that you're a noticer, mister Fontaine jokes. Sean runs up to save Corey. He tells the men not to worry, the envelope will be mailed out. He pulls Cory aside and asks if he has any idea who he's working for. Corey answers proudly, mister Fountaine, mister Fontaine and mister Martini. And Sam Sean breaks it to him, you're working for the mob. Corey's mouth hangs wide open. He looks back at the two older men who are grinning at him.

00:53:35
Speaker 2: We're talking about this five feet from five yeh.

00:53:38
Speaker 3: Fifes Also, I just sorry, logistical question if he if Sean is now telling him, hey, you're working for the mob, and Corey realizes this, why was he so scared of him in the beginning?

00:53:51
Speaker 1: It just seems scary.

00:53:52
Speaker 2: I think they were just intimidating dudes.

00:53:54
Speaker 3: Yeah, two guys sitting at a table I think.

00:53:58
Speaker 2: Corey just is a people pleaser. Established this.

00:54:00
Speaker 3: I don't know, you're right, but that's why you'd think you'd be like, it's a cappuccino, it's the greatest thing. And they're like, he's Corey, you know.

00:54:06
Speaker 2: And then it's like I put cinnamon in it, like very.

00:54:09
Speaker 3: Like that's the way, like you figured that would be. The turn is that if.

00:54:13
Speaker 2: Corey would actually fit in really well with some old men sitting at a table drinking right, like, he would be like, that's the comedy. Where's the soup?

00:54:20
Speaker 3: Right, that's the kind if he's scared the whole time. I mean, the comedy is like him going, oh, you don't want that. This is let me twist a lemon. Is the thing that's going to change your life. So that I didn't understand that. It's like, oh wait, Sean is now explaining, But then why was he so scared in the beginning?

00:54:33
Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, so Cory asks Sean, but the nice mob Sean sarcastically says yes, but flicks Corey in the forehead. Cory says he has to quit. Meanwhile, mister Fontaine yells out for another cappuccino, and Corey says, every time I try and get out, they keep dragging me back.

00:55:00
Speaker 2: We've quoted this on our show. I know it's a.

00:55:03
Speaker 1: Quote from an off in Maligned Godfather three, which I still like. Just so you guys know, I enjoy it. Corey Bravely.

00:55:13
Speaker 3: I think I've ever seen the third one. Really, I heard so many bad things about it. I just didn't want to ruin.

00:55:16
Speaker 2: It's really not that bad. It's just it's just hard to follow. Like two of the greatest Yeah, I mean, I mean, I'm a Godfather to fan over one and.

00:55:25
Speaker 1: I mean listen one and two is also better than zombies.

00:55:30
Speaker 2: He's always a hard one.

00:55:31
Speaker 1: He's a heart.

00:55:31
Speaker 3: Return of the Jedi not as good as the Empire and Yeah, Star Wars.

00:55:37
Speaker 1: Back to the Future three see see most of the time, Corey bravely hands the envelope back to mister Fontaine. He quits. Mister Fontaine doesn't argue, but Corey insists, you can't keep me here. Mister Martini kindly says, we'll miss you. Corey isn't listening. I don't like to be threatened. Mister Fontaine admits you made a fine cup of cappuccino. Corey, thanks them, but says he has to go. He walks out quickly. Sean hangs back in approaches the mobsters about my friend. Sometimes he seems a little chatty, but he's a smart kid. You don't have to worry. Mister Fontane and mister Martini admire the loyalty. Martini likes loyalty in a person, Fontane likes it. On the stand, they have an idea. There's an opening. Fontaine addresses mister Loyalty and puts some money on top of the mysterious envelope, Are you interested in a job? And then we go to the commercial break and we're back.

00:56:23
Speaker 2: I'm dying. I would love to read first draft scripts of this episode because because it's look through myself listening to you talk it through, they really aren't that funny. Yeah, I mean the funny presences there funny men, obviously, but they don't get many funny lines, like they're not like they're also not differentiated, like there's no this guy's this voice. It could have so easily been like you always do this, You're like they could have been bantering with each other, and I'm so curious if they tried right and it just didn't work.

00:56:56
Speaker 1: I wish we could interview them. Yeah, you know, only you go back in the time machine to twenty years ago. Sean is now dressed in the tucks attending to the two gangsters. He gives mister Fontaine his hazel nut biscottie right on cue. They love him. Mister Martini asks Sean, you ever wonder we got a nice restaurant here yet we have no customers, but we make a nice living. Sean smiles. I figure you'd do a good takeout business. Good one, Sean, mine. Great line, great line.

00:57:23
Speaker 3: So that's where it is where at least he's trying to show that he is a little bit street smart and more similar than Corey. Yeah, which is great. It's like that is a good like yeah cool, yeah.

00:57:33
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is where you know, dumb. Sean fades away and the streets it's the best. I love streets. So great. Yeah.

00:57:40
Speaker 1: Martini and Fontaine joyfully repeat the line in agreement. They do have a good takeout business. Indeed, Sean leaves back to the front of the restaurant, and then Corey pops up from behind the bar. He asks Sean what he's doing. He should be at school. Sean tells him jobs like this don't come around very often. Corey knows from first hand experience, because he had this job and then Sean basically stole it from him. Cory says he quit once he realized things weren't as the FBI prefers. Sean insists it's a nice restaurant in a quiet neighborhood, that's all. And then a loud bang comes from outside and the two boys immediately drop to the ground. They realized it was just a car backfiring. But why are they on the ground. Sean makes the excuse because it's fun and we do everything together.

00:58:23
Speaker 3: Funny line.

00:58:24
Speaker 1: Cory knows this job can't lead anything good, but Sean says it's just a job for a couple of days so he can buy decent presents for his friends.

00:58:31
Speaker 2: It's not gonna change me at all.

00:58:34
Speaker 1: Rory's worried it'll change him, but Sean assures him that won't happen.

00:58:41
Speaker 2: Hey, all the all the light, I actually think I messed that up, But all the which stuff I remember because I had to heard him so bad because I speak Dutch. In a couple of episodes, I hat did looked and sit it for yourself, how lated it is yeah in fight to audit didn't see this to Cooper, yeah, because they would bring in the translated scripts and we would have to sit there and rehearse, like, oh my god.

00:59:08
Speaker 1: So only Dutch we knew in Amsterdam was the one that I.

00:59:11
Speaker 2: Have the hardest time with. Even though I took French, I can't do French ours. And so when you go back to the season one episode where I speak French, I say, like, when it comes to matters of yeah, I'm the I'm the king, raw, I can't do it. But so that's the only one I don't really remember, and I remember also rehearsing and hating.

00:59:30
Speaker 1: But this, yeah, that is so funny. I can't I was going to ask you if you remembered it, and so on. Cue mister Martini shouts scoozy Sean, and without thinking twice, Sean responds, in his Italian accent, do it one more time for us, writer, I think. Cory just stares at him, flabbergasted. And now we're in Eric's car. Eric is giddy driving Lonnie back home for Christmas. He says, Lonnie makes the whole turnpike experience seems so alluring and voluptuous.

01:00:02
Speaker 3: The only thing bigger than my performance in this episode was my sweater.

01:00:10
Speaker 1: Lonnie doesn't want to alarm him, but she's getting this powerful feeling. Eric admits they are in pretty close quarters. The holiday spirit is in the air, and she's getting the full impact of his right profile.

01:00:22
Speaker 3: My absolutely peaked looking right profile.

01:00:27
Speaker 1: Lonnie tells him they should stop the car. Eric, totally horned up, doesn't hesitate. Oh goodie, I mean, dude, I'm just so worried.

01:00:39
Speaker 2: I know we could. Yeah, it's it's it's it's just basic, right, it's just the promises that it's basically wouldn't it be cool if if Eric had a sophisticated plan or or wanted something besides just like.

01:00:54
Speaker 3: I just wish it was something other than woman in front of Eric. Eric needs sex, Like, I just think that there's so many interesting ways you could have gone about this, I mean, whatever it is. Take the opportunity to say she never went to college and her life has been I.

01:01:11
Speaker 1: Mean, there's so many things you can do, and we have.

01:01:13
Speaker 2: Done it another. I mean we've done so many yeah of those kinds. We have done layered scenes right with women with Eric dating women, like all the tawny girl scene and the single out episode. So yeah, it's just interesting that Lane. I mean, she's a great actor, but it's like she's reduced to a girl that he wants.

01:01:31
Speaker 3: It was. Yeah, I didn't. I didn't like this at all. Although this scene, when it does become the snow drift, this is the scene we talk about of one of the possible possible.

01:01:41
Speaker 2: Eric, Eric, that's so funny from head.

01:01:45
Speaker 3: Trauma, from the head, from the head, the head trauma.

01:01:49
Speaker 2: That somebody proposed that idea to you.

01:01:51
Speaker 1: Yeah, he couldn't have come up with it. He didn't remember this episode existed.

01:01:55
Speaker 3: He was from the head trauma high from ROBOTZ was robobus right here.

01:02:02
Speaker 1: He unbuckles his seatbelt and leans in, and she says, you may be less experience about this, so whatever I say, you got to do it without question. Eric obliges, he's always dreamed about this. You dreamed about the blizzard, she asks. Lonnie clarifies the feeling I have is that there's a very powerful blizzard headed our way. Eric says, it's just a few flakes in a romantic snowflake setting, and then optical flip. Eric's screaming we're trapped in an icy tomb of frozen death. Lonnie tries to call Hi him. It's just four or five feet of dense pack. Eric agrees. He works in a wilderness store. He sells survival equipment. He knows what to do, mark everything up thirty percent.

01:02:39
Speaker 2: Goodnit.

01:02:40
Speaker 1: He asks Lonnie how he's doing and replies, you're fogging up the windows. Eric bravely exclaims it's my responsibility to protect you, and protect you I will. He starts smacking his body against the car door until he looks a little woozy. I've hurt my head. And then we dissolve as he falls into Lonnie's lap. And then we're in the Matthew's kitchen. It's still really snowing outside. We must have had one of those big old Oh.

01:03:03
Speaker 2: I remember it so well. Oh that's what I loved about this episode. I love like Hollywood, old Hollywood stuff. So all the fakes know in this scene, and then in the outside the warehouse, I remember so well because it was so cool. Actually drum drum, so it's like a giant sifter that you would use for flour, but it's automatically or no, they would, they would spin it, but there would be somebody on a ladder spinning the sifter, so it falls. Oh so cool.

01:03:29
Speaker 1: Yeah. Sean walks in, greeting Corey. Ho ho ho, my best friend. He's holding a present, but Corey reminds him Christmas Eve isn't until tomorrow night. Sean knows, but he just bought Corey the best present he's ever actually paid for, and he wanted to see his face light up like a happy little elf. He hands the gift to Corey. Light up, little elf. Corey opens it.

01:03:49
Speaker 2: It's a lot sport. I was like, that's a weird I don't know if that's that funny of a joke, and then of course it's a callback.

01:03:54
Speaker 1: Later it was like, right, you're like a it's a setup. Yeah, it's a watch, a very expensive watch, which I can't accept. Sean asks why not, and Corey tells him because of where the money comes from. Sean points out that he even had it engraved with Corey's name. Corey reads it aloud to my best friend, Corey, he thinks Sean, and then asks, you can quit your job now right. Sean scoffs, it's easy money. How can I quit? Easy money? Corey tells Sean he can have the one hundred and sixty dollars he made working there if Sean quits. That's even easier money. Sean tells Corey to spend it on Tapanga and his family. He's got to go. Corey asks if he's still coming over for Christmas Eve tomorrow night, and Sean tells him not to worry. That's a tradition he'll never miss. Corey stops him again before he walks out. He appreciates the gift, not because of what it cost, but because of who it's from. Sean smiles, you're welcome, then he walks out. Now we're in the Matthew's living room. Alan's reading the newspaper while Amy cuddles him. There's a startling, loud knock at the door and it's Lonnie holding up an injured Eric. He's okay, he just had a little knock on the head. Eric mutters out, hey, Mommy, hey daddy. Lonnie ragdolls him onto the couch because we love when women may handled dudes.

01:05:01
Speaker 2: Okay, now I couldn't. Alex was watching this episode with me and I was.

01:05:07
Speaker 1: Like, well, no, what is she wearing?

01:05:09
Speaker 2: What is it? And it's almost that is the most ridiculous, like in the.

01:05:16
Speaker 1: Existence they made it, yes, for just.

01:05:20
Speaker 2: To give her it's the most like, why would you ever have a fleece?

01:05:23
Speaker 1: That's a crap propp But I.

01:05:25
Speaker 2: Was like, I was like, is that a what do you call that? A belly shirt?

01:05:28
Speaker 4: You know?

01:05:28
Speaker 2: Like Alex, like it's crop top, like that crop top fleece. It's the most ridiculous thing I've ever make.

01:05:34
Speaker 3: We want to see your stomach even though it's winter. Yes, it's so funny.

01:05:40
Speaker 1: And Eric yells out, oh no more, Horsey, I thought you too were on your way up to Lonnie's folkshouse, Alan asks. Lonnie explains that they never made it. Instead, they ran into a nasty squall four feet of snow. They had to stay in the car until the plow dug them out. Amy offers to warm them up some soup, and Alan goes to get some blankets. Now alone, Eric asks Lonnie, how did I save us? Lonnie explains, I don't want to scare your folks, but we both nearly died back there when the snow fell and the temperature dropped below freezing. I wrapped my arms around you and held you as tight as I could. Eric consists, we never did that. I definitely would have remembered that, Lonnie continues. You were unconscious. You were shaking and shivering and turning all blue, so there was only one thing left to do to survive aeric asks. You ate my leg. That's amazing, so funny, so funny, so funny. Your delivery is perfect, unbelieva.

01:06:36
Speaker 2: You don't remember doing this at all?

01:06:37
Speaker 3: Will no?

01:06:38
Speaker 1: Wow, you really must have been sick.

01:06:40
Speaker 2: Well, I'm also just I was gonna ask you, like this is really hard, like this is hard dialogue even know, like playing like the out of it. I don't know, like it's really I would have been so bad at this, particularly like because you have to bring so much to these kinds of scenes and you do, and I just did. I didn't know if you would like ever, you know, yeah, no, got so weird.

01:07:04
Speaker 1: And I really you with your memory, you would have, I think, remembered this if you weren't sick.

01:07:09
Speaker 3: Maybe I was ill, maybe you were sick.

01:07:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, Lonnie laughs. I had to warm up your body, so I remembered the old trapper's trick. I stripped your clothes off of you, and I stripped mine off. Eric is freaking out, and I wrapped us both up in a tiny, tight sleeping bag, all naked and we survived. Eric cries, so what when you're surviving with someone like that, you have the common courtesy to wake them up. You kick them, smack them, yell in their ear. Hey wear naked. Amy walks in with some warm soup. Eric complaints, Oh great, I'm awake for the soup, which is another very fair.

01:07:44
Speaker 2: That's one of my favorite that stressed out will delivering like a throwaway. Like it's very similar to like when you finally give up on her and shallow Boy and you're like, no, I want you to go to plant. Oh great, I'm here for this, Luga. It's like with you, the way that you can have energy in this sort of like throw away, just like pissed off Eric is so funny. It's like a specific tone to your voice.

01:08:09
Speaker 3: I love thank you, Little Michael J. Foxy.

01:08:11
Speaker 2: I think maybe, yeah, it's so funny.

01:08:16
Speaker 1: And then we're back at Little Polly's. Sean's working on Christmas Eve and tells his mob the place is all cleaned up. If there's nothing else, I've got a little Christmas Eve thing with my buddy. Mister Fontaine says there's one more little favor he needs tonight. Sean tells him tonight, it's pretty tough, but mister Fontaine slips him two hundred dollars and hands Shawn a box. Take it down the street, stand in front of the warehouse. A car will come by, a guy will ask for it. You will give it to him. He will give you an envelope, and you bring it back here. Sean stares at them conflicted. Mister Martini adds, you do that for us, and maybe we find something a little more permanent. How would you like that? And then we cut to outside of a snowy warehouse and the snow here really looks like feathers.

01:08:57
Speaker 3: It does look really fake and its every.

01:09:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it was a big yeah.

01:09:07
Speaker 2: But it was fun to experience. I remember like be loving being outside first of all, because we never got to go outside on the lot, you know. Yeah, it was kat t la so oh my gosh, so fun. I I have the we have I have the memory. And then also Chris Kier talked about how the sound department just hated me always, and I could feel it in this one. You can't hear anything I say, like the first couple of lines, because I especially the first couple of lines because the booms have to be so far away in order to have those wide shots and you can't hear me because I would always swallow my lines. I hated like being big or projecting, so I.

01:09:44
Speaker 3: Would always like they never put on like the no, I don't.

01:09:48
Speaker 2: Yeah it's it's yeah, we were you know. I guess we just weren't used to it or weren't prepared for that. But yeah, so this it's clearly the boom just can't pick me up. And I was like, writer, speak up, my god, take the note.

01:10:00
Speaker 1: We see Sean with the box in his hands, looking around for a car, and then Corey appears. Sean asks what he's doing here, and Corey responds, come on, let's go. You're working much too hard. Sean doesn't budge. I got paid for a job and I'm gonna do it. Corey mocks him. Oh, loyalty, I like that and a worthless little coffee boy who they don't care if he lives or dies. Sean tells him this money makes him feel like somebody. Corey agrees, Yeah, I'm sure that's a real nice feeling. Then, like Brad Pitt the end of seven, Corey asks, what's in the box?

01:10:29
Speaker 3: What's in the box?

01:10:30
Speaker 1: What's the box?

01:10:31
Speaker 2: So this was before seven?

01:10:33
Speaker 3: Right?

01:10:33
Speaker 2: Seven came on ninety seven. Yeah, now you cannot say that line anymore. No one can say what's in the box?

01:10:39
Speaker 1: In the box?

01:10:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's so funny that.

01:10:41
Speaker 1: That's Sean says, he has no idea. I am merely the box holder. Corey pushes him to open it up. I want to see what's inside. I want to see your face light up like a happy little elf. Open it up, my little elf. Sean is defeated. I don't want to spend my life standing in front of a convenience store waiting around for the next batch of lottery tickets. Corey asks, so this is the road you're taking. Sean explains, this isn't a road, this is a box. And as long as I don't open this box, I don't know what's in it. There's a Teddy bear in this box. Cory sarcastically pushes more, Oh, a teddy Come over to my house. We'll put the teddy under the tree, and at the end of the night we'll play a little game called let's guess the street value of the teddy, and I did think very on the nose point to drugs.

01:11:23
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, like I liked it.

01:11:24
Speaker 1: I think too.

01:11:25
Speaker 2: I thought this up until now, I was like, Okay, this scene is cooking, and then basically from that line on, I feel like it is drained of all subtlety. Yeah, and you know, I'm beginning to see I mean, we've seen it before, but I really am starting to see as an actor this you wouldn't even call it a technique. You'd call it a habit, which was something that you know when you have, like I definitely felt like after Boy Meets World, I felt like as an actor one of the things that I had sort of gotten very good at and not a good thing as an actor was you know, when you have to say expositional dialogue like that, you know, dialogue that's very on the nose, that's said without motivation, like that's really you know, they usually the good scenes and good writing is dialogue where you have a very clear, like immediate objective. You want to influence the person you're with or get them to do something or say something. And when you're just talking yourself, when you're talking about yourself almost in third person, where you're like, I'm the type of person that does this that you know, which we've talked about, was a kind of a boy meets World Habit was this sort of what what you have to do as an actor is like overly naturalize it, like it's you aim for this like naturalism to sort of mask the exposition, and so you develop I can see that I had developed. I started developing these these ticks and these like vocal things and these body movements, and I looks to sort of mask the exposition or to make the exposition feel less expositional, which doesn't really solve the problem because the problem is in the that you are just a line delivery system that you just have to deliver information without a propel's story, without a propelling story, without a propelling conflict within the scene. And so for the rest of this scene, you can see that Corey and Sean are sort of talking outward. There's just sort of like expressing almost like like Shakespearean soliloquies about you know, their position and what they think and what you think, and then we're going to come to a conclusion. It's very like theoretical and heady in a way. And so I'm I'm bummed because I, you know, I feel like this this is where I sort of figured. I basically took this in as what acting was, and it took a long time for me to realize that that's that's not acting. That it's a form of acting, right, it's it's it's a television acting. It's sitcom acting. And you have to do it in times. You know, cop actors on cop shows, right, they have to deliver really just information half the time, and they do it fast or you know, you find a way to like walk and talk, and so it's a skill set. But it's not great, it's not you know, it's it's interesting. So I can see that this is becoming my habit and it's a little bit of a bummer.

01:14:18
Speaker 1: Well, it's not just you, obviously, it's not just you. There's no it's me.

01:14:22
Speaker 2: It's the way, you know, like I said, it's actually the job, you know, it's part of the job.

01:14:27
Speaker 1: So Sean asks his best friend, how does this get so complicated so fast? Corey responds, I guess that's how they get you. Uh, that's how they get you. They find a guy who feels like he's nowhere in his life and they make him believe that he should be on a street corner holding a box. Sean wonders, maybe this is my street. Maybe no matter what I do, this is where I end up, Like that poem says. Corey disagrees. The poem says, you have choices in your life, and every choice you make means something. Corey says, They're only sixteen and they got fooled by a couple of guys who look like their uncles. It's so easy to end up on the wrong road. Sean can't believe it.

01:15:01
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean that's it. Like I'm just wondering and expounding on this poem and talking about it and then questioning it, and we're just kind of like both riffing.

01:15:09
Speaker 1: And building you suppose.

01:15:10
Speaker 2: I don't know if I'm the type of person the it's like at sixteen, Like who talks about themselves as sixteen year olds? I'm a sixty like well.

01:15:18
Speaker 1: I also, I think one of the things that feels out of place is that this wasn't a part of the beginning part of your episode things where you guys were looking for jobs. You wanted to make a little bit of money, and then all of a sudden at the end, it was like, but I'm in a rough It's like, oh yeah, now I forgot all of a sudden. Episode ended up being about you not knowing where your road is and whether you're a guy on a good road or whatever.

01:15:37
Speaker 2: That's what I mean. When the scene is about the box off guard. When the scene is about the box, it's about like open it, close it, take it back? Did that it? When the scene is about the watch like, that's that's where scenes come alive. That's where characters can express these things without having to say them. But unfortunately, this scene from now on just becomes us expressing outwardly these things. And it is you know, it is part of the and it is children's television or family television sometimes does need a version of this. So it's it's just an interesting thing. And you know, I'm harsh on it, and I'm harsh on myself, but mostly it's not, if I'm honest, it's it's my problem that I sort of carried after Boy Meets World that I had a hard time seeing this for that for what it was, I thought that this was good acting, and it became you know, I became a very sentimental actor, you know, you just it's more heady. It's not emotional, it's not immediate, it doesn't have the sort of propulsive energy that acting should.

01:16:38
Speaker 1: Right well, Sean can't believe it. And I knew all about them too. I didn't walk away. I figured I'd just get them coffee, makes some money and get out before it all got to this. But now I'm a little scared. And I like this part of the storyline too, where all of us. I love the idea of a message of being like I didn't know when I got in over my head. I didn't know the moment where all of a sudden I was in too deep. I thought I could I thought I was in control, but I actually wasn't. I like that part. Corey admits I thought the devil was some guy with horns and a big tail. Sean tells Corey to go be with his family. No, that would be the wrong choice. The difference in the poem is that the guy.

01:17:11
Speaker 2: Why is this devil? I mean, it's a good point, but why is the devil like?

01:17:15
Speaker 1: Well, and that's the other thing is that it feels like it's like a bunch of different storylines like a guy who looks and acts like your uncle and a funny guy could really be dangerous. Dangerous talked about that.

01:17:29
Speaker 2: That's the point is well taken. It's just literally making a devil reference. Was like, wait, we weren't I thought, I don't know, it just felt it just felt kind of yeah.

01:17:39
Speaker 1: Also, like I said, the reference I like about, I didn't know when I got when I was in too deep. That wasn't hit before. It feels like, right at the very end, it was like we've been dealing with the devil and he was super nice to us. We didn't what was the devil? And also I thought I was going to get out quick, but I didn't get out quick.

01:17:51
Speaker 2: It was just like, yeah, it's just cramming in some exposition. It's a it's yeah.

01:17:55
Speaker 1: It's a lot all at the end, and I think we if maybe they had just stuck with one thing, which was the road, like I'm here, you.

01:18:02
Speaker 2: Know, one metaphorta time, one metaphorreta.

01:18:04
Speaker 1: Time, please so Sean can't believe it. And I knew all about them too. I didn't walk away. I figured I'd just get them coffee, make some money, and get out before it all got to this.

01:18:24
Speaker 2: And this is where I was a little like, it's a little disingenuous because Sean knows their mob like, he's street smart enough to call that their mob people the second he walks into that restaurant, and yet he's not streets smart enough to say, like, I'm in over my head. I can't believe it.

01:18:40
Speaker 1: Like it's a little bit that's the that's the point I liked, though, is that really? He he? I liked the idea that we all think, let's use drugs and as an example, I can, I can smoke a cigarette. I'm not gonna get it. I'm not gonna I'm not gonna get addicted. I'm not gonna whatever. And then next thing, you know, you're like, when did I become a packa dat smoker?

01:18:58
Speaker 4: You know?

01:18:58
Speaker 1: When did that happen? I started off as and it it'll happened to you fast. And I like the idea that Sean goes, I was street smart enough to call what I was walking into. How Come I wasn't street smart enough to know when I was when I couldn't get myself out? You're right, so great, I actually take a book. Okay, good, so Corey admits I thought the devil was some guy with horns in a big tail. Sean tells Corey to be with his family. No, that would be the wrong choice. The difference in the poem is that the guy had to choose his road alone, Corey explains. Sean asks you don't think he had a best friend, and Corey shrugs, I guess not. And then he reveals the blood money watch on his wrist and he says, according to this, you do. And then there is a very loud motorcycle that passes by his engine.

01:19:54
Speaker 3: Sound.

01:19:56
Speaker 2: I'm telling you our crew was not used to being u out and outside. Yeah, I wonder, I mean it has to be right, there's no unless they intentionally put a car going to because it is, it's a wide shot. It cuts for the beat, and we have this moment of silence, like is it meant to be like the road, like we're supposed to hear the road? I don't know. I actually thought maybe it was intentional to sort of give it some like a beat of like the you know, I don't.

01:20:23
Speaker 1: Know, it's her dialogue.

01:20:25
Speaker 3: So they they could have just taken it out if they wanted to. So yeah, maybe they are trying to You're right, Yeah, they've got the subtlety they're going for after them just saying as I walked the poem, I want to go the road that goes to your house. Guys, it's like, yikes, so but subtly now they're just going to put in an engine in the distance.

01:20:42
Speaker 1: You know, you know. And I actually, because you're right, I bet it is intentional because I at first actually thought, Oh, it's the guy showing up for the box.

01:20:49
Speaker 3: That's what I thought too. Oh the car is going to come, and what are they going to do when the car comes? That's what I thought it was going to be.

01:20:54
Speaker 2: Yeah, well maybe that's intentional too, Like it could be both right, like the choice is going to come and then it goes away and then it's like I got to make this choice. But for myself, I can't. Just it's not out of my control, I think.

01:21:06
Speaker 3: I don't know if you remember the original tag was them was cutting to then Corey and Sean doing all the drugs in the box.

01:21:14
Speaker 1: Yes, I remember that table rad Yeah.

01:21:17
Speaker 3: It turned out to just be it was like the best time they'd ever had, and they were like, this is we gotta we should change it.

01:21:22
Speaker 2: We should every day Christmas, Corey, we should just all the time. Why are we not? Right now? Like the things that you said, we just had like the best conversation of our life.

01:21:33
Speaker 1: My god, I wish everybody could hear this.

01:21:34
Speaker 2: I wish there's another box we can go to theother. You hear the helicopter. There's a helicopter outside right now. I hear a helicopter.

01:21:42
Speaker 3: Did the very next scene, Corey's trying to sell his watch to get another box. Yeah, I've heard this terrible.

01:21:48
Speaker 2: Oh my god, it's funny.

01:21:50
Speaker 1: So they both glance at the box and Sean recites two roads diverge in a wood, and I choose the one that leads back to your house, isn't Cory smiles, saying they should take the box back first, and Sean asks, wouldn't it be funny if there really was a Teddy Bear in there? Corey jokes, don't you wish life was like that? And Sean admits as they walk away, I'm beginning to see that it's not.

01:22:14
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, heavy time, the Buddy hack It and soupy sales.

01:22:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I think if you just think nine year old watching the show, that it's great, it's nice, it's great. Gotta hit it on the head. Yeah, it's just awkward as old thing.

01:22:36
Speaker 3: We didn't have to ever hit it on the head before.

01:22:39
Speaker 2: Well maybe we did, but but you know, if we were eleven year old saying this, you know, we couldn't be with the box. But like when you say life lessons and you're an eleven year old Ben Savage and the pilot, it's cute and it's like, oh, but like here, it's a little really the kids talk like that, or sixteen year olds talk like this. No, yea, but okay.

01:22:57
Speaker 1: Well I also did find some interesting information about the Robert Frost poem. Most people believe that Frost took saw the fork in the road and picked the one that made the most sense for him, and often it's interpreted that it was the better road. The way they used in this storyline with Corey and Sean that.

01:23:15
Speaker 2: There's like he actually doesn't say whether it's good or bad.

01:23:18
Speaker 1: No, he actually, a couple of years before he died, he clarified that he actually thought the piece was trickier than people made it. They oversimplified it, and he explained that when he came to the fork in the road he actually wished he could do. He could take both paths, but he couldn't, and so he reluctantly chose one, but that in his mind, if he had his life to live over again the next time, he would just choose the other one to see where that path took him to.

01:23:46
Speaker 2: So so it's really just about how one choice affects every other choice, right right, it's but it's interesting that you would like if you're an if you're an optimist, you interpret that as in I or exactly, whereas if you're miserable you could say this, the poem would still speak to you. That's made all the difference and I'm stuck in this awful life because you.

01:24:11
Speaker 1: Could also just look at it and go, wow, who knows if I had taken that other job, Like we actually mentioned in the Jeff Sherman episode, maybe had Jeff taken the Jenny McCarthy show, would the Jenny McCarthy Show have been more successful because Jeff was there? Like you never uniting doors?

01:24:27
Speaker 3: Is that what's sliding doors? Yes, out, it's kind of like what you take one the other Yet another questioning.

01:24:34
Speaker 1: My writer's favorite actress of all time? Yes, and then We're in the tag in the Matthews living room. The Matthews family, Sean, Tapangaffini, and Turner, who looks nothing like our mister. Turner and Lonnie are all gathered around as Alan opens a present.

01:24:49
Speaker 3: Why why is Tony there?

01:24:52
Speaker 2: No idea freeze frame of the cast at the end? I mean, is that the bummer? Is that?

01:24:57
Speaker 3: Like?

01:24:58
Speaker 2: It makes sense at the end. It would have made sense in season two and three because he's like my father figure. Yes, but why isn't Blake there? Like I have my family and.

01:25:08
Speaker 1: It's just all of a sudden Turner and Lonnie.

01:25:10
Speaker 2: It would have been so great if what would have been I mean what I mean I didn't realize this until just now, but if Sean and Turner had a gift exchange moment just two lines where Sean is giving something to Turner or Turner's giving something to Sean, and we just had a moment of like, I kind of miss you now that you're not in the house anymore. Of the apartment.

01:25:27
Speaker 1: Oh made this out of your mullet like something. But we had to give Amy and Allan a line.

01:25:34
Speaker 2: Oh my god, I made this out of your moulive. You I need you some some gloves out of your mullet, your.

01:25:41
Speaker 1: Hair clippings I found in your bathroom.

01:25:44
Speaker 2: Oh my god.

01:25:48
Speaker 1: Alan is opening a present. This is exactly the shirt I saw in that window and told you I wanted and made you buy it, and now I have it. Amy asks if he likes it. I love it, but I do kind of miss the surprise element. Eric glances out the indo. When he runs to Lonnie, he tells her there's a blizzard, and he shivers dramatically. He hits his head and announces, now I'm unconscious. Save me. Lonnie tells him to stop revealing her story. Never happened. She made the whole thing up, you did, She responds, yep, sorry, cute butt, though.

01:26:15
Speaker 2: Ambiguous ending.

01:26:23
Speaker 1: Would you call that a butt? Tin?

01:26:26
Speaker 2: Butt?

01:26:29
Speaker 3: Is that?

01:26:29
Speaker 2: Actually? The last line? Is that the last? Yeah?

01:26:33
Speaker 1: Phenie sets his camera up to take a group photo. Everyone get together. Everyone gathers around as the camera clicks and the picture stays on the screen. And now, in a bit of a tradition, we freeze with the message Happy Holidays from Boy meets World from the Buys of.

01:26:48
Speaker 2: Boas's so interesting to think, like what this freeze frame in this message does like it's sort of it creates a frame for our show, like it creates a like there is a voice, there is a Boy meets World that is outside of the fiction that you were watching, and outside of the fiction that you were watching, they are going to say happy holidays.

01:27:11
Speaker 1: That is a.

01:27:11
Speaker 2: Really and it's really weird, and it's actually probably contributes to the sense of connected connection that people have with our show. That that, you know, it goes along with the sort of expositional dialogue and heavy handedness in that it's like there's an organizing intelligence. There's and that is the person if it's Michael or just our crew or us, like we are Boy meets World and you have enjoyed our thing, and we are connecting to you outside of the framework of that's really cool.

01:27:41
Speaker 1: We would like to wish you.

01:27:43
Speaker 3: Yes you see this. The other way they say it on a lot of shows is from our family to you.

01:27:47
Speaker 1: Yes, right holidays. So yeah, right, you're right. Thank you for joining us for this episode of Pod Meets World. Join us for our next episode, which will be season four episode thirteen B and BSB and B.

01:28:02
Speaker 2: I'm so excited.

01:28:03
Speaker 1: As always, you can follow us on Instagram Podmeets World Show. You can send us your emails podmeets Worldshow at gmail dot com and we have merch Dragons for Life Merch Podmeets Worldshow dot com will send us out.

01:28:19
Speaker 3: We love you all, pod dismissed. Podmeets World is nheart podcast producer and hosted by Danielle Fischel, Wilfordell and Ryder Strong executive producers, Jensen Carp and Amy Sugarman Executive in charge of production, Danielle Romo, producer and editor, Tara Sudbaksh producer, Maddy Moore engineer and Boy Meets World super fan Easton Allen. Our theme song is by Kyle Morton of Typhoon and you can follow us on Instagram at Podmeets World Show or email us at Podmeets Worldshow at gmail dot com