Q&A Meets World Part 1

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Speaker 1: What's your favorite bad for you food? Will my favorite restaurant in the world, And yes, it's a restaurant's McDonald's. And that's why I don't eat much restaurant called Mickey Donald Mickey Donald McDonald. I love it. I love it to death. And I told writer that my favorite burger is a McDonald's burger. And writer then told me about a place that I have yet to try. But it's like the you know, probably way cleaner version of a McDonald's burger. Hipster. It's hipster. It's in Silver Lake. It's called Burger's Never Say Die, and it's unbelievable. Can I ask the last time you had at McDonald's burger? Writer me, Yeah, I've had McDonald's. And my Indie loves McDonald's. So, like when we're on a road trip and we have to stop for fast food, which is usually when I eat fast food, Um, we'll get a McDonald's. I'll do that over an in and out. I'm not an in and out guy. I haven't in out burgers, but not the fries. I don't like the fries. Fries are bad, but burgers I get it protein style too. I love the crunch of the lettuce. Big fan of that. I love crunchy lettuce. I've been really into making sandwiches lately, and just like a homemade sandwich. By the way, when I was a kid, I don't know how my mom how it was even possible, because I've tried to do it now it's not really easy. But my mom used to draw a heart in the peanut butter. She'd make me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and she draw she draw a heart in the peanut butter, and then I think she just very lightly put the bread together. But I remember being in elementary school and being able to slowly peel apart the sandwich to see the port, to see whatever portion of the heart was still left in the peanut butter. Isn't that sweet? I know? And then it made me think about the fact that, like, I don't include enough my My mom used to leave me a note in my lunch occasionally, and I loved the notes. And so for Adler's third birthday, I dropped him off at school and I put a little note in there, and I was like, he can't read. This is gonna mean anything? What am I doing? Sometimes I I I give indie notes every once in a while, and back when he was in preschool the teachers would read them too. Was just aware that somebody's going to read it to him. There's a Simpsons episode where Lisa and Bart are coming up at lunch and Lisa says, I I Bart says, I think I got your lunch, and she takes it over and the note says I'm so proud of you. I love you, and she goes, yeah, I got yours, and the note says, be good. For the love of God, be good, and that was great. Yeah. I'm also not going to tell you that when I travel, my wife puts together a snack bag and puts a note in it for me. My God, that's cute. When when Jensen and I were dating, uh and he'd go on a trip somewhere I would leave, I would write a little little notes, like on a like I post it, I'd rip a post it into three and write three little notes are just like I love you, and hide one in the brim of his hat and one in a saw. We awesome. I love doing that stuff. Well, writer custom build his wife's wedding rings so exactly tells you everything about our relationship, you make the gesture and then you forget about it. I mean, I don't minding the metal. I don't leave those notes in Jensen's hats anymore. I have two children to take care of, and you know, I feel like, truthfully, um, marriage right after kids is absolutely takes a total backseat to now the children. And like the good news is I am not in a relationship where Jensen feels like once we had kids, she stopped prioritizing me. Like Jensen so totally gets it that for both of us, our children right now are like the season of life we are in is just very kids centric, and there will be a time where we get back to like our relationship being in the hierarchy, but right now it's kind of like the biggest bonding experience we have is playing Octortal before we go to bed, and that's about definitely, like, you know, if you can have grandparents or somebody watch the kids, I would definitely like. Taking taking each other out to dinner is like something Alex and I have always made essential. It's like, you know, every couple of weeks, at every stage, it was like because because we were fortunate enough that my in laws are local you know, in l A, no one has grandparents, so like all of our friends, you know, they have to hire babies that if they're going out or whatever. But we're so lucky. My in laws moved from Florida when Indy was born, and so we've always been able to just have nights out where it's just the two of us and it's like so essential. I love that. Yeah, that's why it's hard to and I that's one of the reasons why kids we love not It's just just about us and we like that. I mean, it works for us, it's perfect. So well, welcome to Pod Meets World. I'm Daniel fish All, I'm right or Strong, and I'm Wilfredell. You may know us as to Panga, Sean and Eric and Um. We are doing a special episode today because we have been asking you and you have been delivering. We've been saying, email us your thoughts, your questions at pod It's World show at gmail dot com. And starting right with episode one, you guys started sending in your questions and now we have so many of them we thought we would do a very special Q and A episode. Also, do you remember when you were like twelve or thirteen years old and your absolute favorite band was meat Loaf. Well, so does Mr Feenie and so do we, which is why we made a Meet Foenie shirt in honor of the greatest episode, the greatest scene, the greatest image of all time double meat Loaf on Mr Feenie. It is available until August and then never available again. So get your meat Foenie shirt at Pod Meets World Show dot com. Now, we wanted to check in with each other to say, how are you feeling. How do you think this is going. Moments that have made you uncomfortable, moments that have made you really happy? Um, and so that's kind of where we are right How are you feeling in this stage of our journey. I feel like I jumped into what I thought was like a shallow pool and it got really deep, really quick. I we I feel like we got in over our heads a little quicker than I don't know, I guess. I guess. I thought the rewatching would take more of a precedence than the conversations about behind the scenes. But basically, after we started that first episode and the memories just kept coming and the conversation kept going in that direction because that is our experience right is like we I remember backstage way more than I remember the episodes themselves. So we just keep going in that direction. And I can't believe how much material there is already out there. Um and so I'm I, you know, I'm a little overwhelmed. I'm a little like, wow, I have I thought I'd processed all of this, but obviously not. Um And yeah, so I still have a lot of feelings and I'm still figuring it out. I think the best part about this has been sharing it with my son. That's been super fun and funny and already led to interesting conversations about him and our relationship that I like. Um not, you know, because what I end up playing on the show is I edit down from usually like a five to ten minute conversation, so it's usually double what is on on this show. And that's been super fun. Um but yeah, it's it's definitely gotten deeper than I thought quicker. How about you guys, Um, Yeah, I kind of feel the same way. I'm really loving, first of all, a couple of things, Really loving seeing the both of you as much as we I mean, we always saw each other, but now that it's like a regular thing kind of there's a safety in doing this with your friends. Um, so there's something that I love about that. I also just absolutely adore bringing all the guests back and getting to talk to everybody again as adults, and also just the conversations of leading to who else are we gonna bring on? Who else can we get, who's gonna come? I mean, all that kind of stuff is is a lot of fun for me. But yeah, I got very real, very quick, very quickly, and I'm okay with that. I think it's I think it's you know, we one of the things that we has talked about was we were going to start this show and then we were going to let the show kind of dictate what it became. We were gonna, you know, just keep it very very loose and see where it went, uh and go from there. And once Tony Quinn came up with the idea of actually making the show and we were able to kind of move he came up with it. He was really he came up with it after and um, I thank him for it every day. And he invented podcast he did, so. Um yeah, so no, it's it's been It's been a ton of fun. I've I've really enjoyed it. It's I know this sounds ridiculous. It's been a lot more work than I thought it was going to be, if that makes any sense, which is mentally draining, mentally draining, time consuming, actual work. I mean, there's it's there's a lot of work people are It's like, oh, you stead in front of microphone, you talk. Well, now, there's a lot that goes on because we want to be kind of involved in every aspect of the show. So um, but it's, uh, it's it's it's been fun, but it's been a lot more emotional than I thought it was gonna be. Yeah, I think, um to your point will about the time consuming nous of it. I think one of the things that I'm surprised by that I shouldn't really have been surprised by, is just how much, um I enjoy talking about all of the little moments for each one of us, and how long we must find ourselves endlessly entertaining. I hope you guys find us entertaining too, because I am amazed when two hours go by. I am truthfully like two hours go by and I go I feel like I've been here for forty minutes. And by the way, if I wasn't worried about you guys listening not wanting to have a three hour episode, I could still sit here and keep discussing things. And so I am. I'm like that in that sense. There's been so much to discuss and I've enjoyed all of it. Um, And it is time consuming to watch the episode, write the notes, uh, think about the memories, and then you know, be present in the conversation and want to listen to what everybody else's stories are. Um. I'm I'm selfishly very excited to get into some episodes that I'm in because I feel a little like, you know, I'm getting to comment on on a show that doesn't even feel at all like I'm a part of it. Yet. You know, I did think in that episode with Will's first on screen kiss with Carrie Russell, I thought it was funny. I didn't say it in the time when we did the episode, but I'm remembering it now that it's funny that Corey doesn't even make any mention of the fact that he has also kissed a girl, and I that's one of the things that makes me think. You guys may have reported that episode before that, because he makes a joke about Eric maybe what having kissed two girls, and I thought I would have almost been funnier for him to be like, I've kissed the same amount of girls you have, you know, like just but he didn't even acknowledge it, So I feel like maybe that was even before I was there. So selfishly, I'm looking forward to getting into some episodes where I'm there, because, um, I can't wait to critique myself in those ways. We can't wait to critique you either. Oh, it's gonna be so fun. Have you ever wanted to see us do this nonsense we do with all the talking and the talky talky and the talking talking live, Well, guess what we are doing that. We are announcing our very first live show ever where we are going to bring this podcast that hopefully you love, to the stage. We have no idea what it's going to be yet, which is a little scary, so it may be a total issue and which case, maybe you really need to be there. Catch us at the Magnolia and Alcohol in California on October two. Pre sale begins this Wednesday, August at ten am Pacific time with the code Chubbies that's c h U B B y S. So grab your tickets before they go on general sale this Friday, August at ten am Pacific time. Tickets are available at ticketmaster dot com. Do you guys know? Do you guys want? You want to hear something weird? I refused to call myself a child actor until maybe like five years ago. I could not. Yeah, I intentionally avoided the phrase I was a child actor, or I would find ways around it. I would say, oh, and I I acted when I was a kid, or you know I used to act. I started acting when I was young. For whatever reason, I became obsessed at post boy Mean's world immediately with not acknowledging my identity as this thing, and it was so weird. In college I became UM. I became friends with Joshua Waitskin, who um is the child prodigy that uh UM Searching for Bobby Fisher is based on. He was a chess player and he was ach so his dad wrote the incredible book It's a wonderful book by Fred Waitskin UM called Searching for Bobby Fisher, which then became a pretty good movie. UM. But and when we were in college, he mentioned that he hated the phrase child prodigy. He couldn't stand and I was like, why that's such a compliment, It's so awesome, And but I then on the flip side, I had to acknowledge I hated child actor, which to me seemed like more derogatory. But for him, even child prodigy, which I thought of as a compliment, he could only see it as diminishing because it was like either he you know, he wanted to be a grown up prodigy or whatever that you know, you wanted to just be acknowledged for doing a thing, and maybe you started it early, but it was clear that we were both going through the same psychological process for you know, very different reasons. But uh yeah, so when we were talking about this show, this podcast, it's really something that would have been literally impossible for me to think about five years ago when I couldn't even say the phrase child actor. Now I'm like, I was a kid actor was crazy, you know, like, and I can own it. But um so, even just like the fact that we're having these kinds of conversations, we were really diving deep and being completely honest is only possible as a forty plus year old for me, Yeah, I also avoided child actor. And I think it's for a few reasons. One, it's a very loaded um phrase. It it also implies somehow, um, possibly you know, messed up, possibly a drug addict, possibly you know caught up. Doesn't actually that's what That's what's interesting is that it doesn't it did to you or does you know? That's what you're afraid of, But that's actually not the case. Like just it's literally child actor. It's a it's a neutral description, but I think what it does by adding the child to it, it diminishes that you were an actor, right Like it somehow creates an identity that's different than doing a thing like you didn't just act, you were a child actor. It's an identity that's sort of like handed to you, I don't know well. And also then it has the feeling of when you are no longer a child, it is taken away from you that now you've outgrown a thing. Now you're no longer special because you're no longer a child. And so you have that feeling of like, well, am I not still good at what I do? Or am I not still an actor because I'm no longer a child? But I do think when people talk about, well, how did you know child actor? For a lot of people, it is weightier than just the description. I know, the words mean you were an actor who was a child fild, but it also does have that sense of like, so there must be a problem with you because you were a child actor, because it does. I don't know, maybe that is just me, but I feel like most people think of it that way. I never called myself a child actor, and and it wasn't it wasn't conscious. I was just I was always an actor and that I still and then be like, oh kay, really you're an actor. Ye, I'm an actor. Oh when did you start? I was like, oh, man, I started when I was a kid. I was really young. But I was never like and I was a child actor. It just I mean, see it's different for you writer, because you're not an actor anymore. Where I'm you know, I'm still acting, So it was kind of like, I'm an actor and it's like, oh, well, well when I was young, I was on this, and when I was in my twenties and I was on this and I do a lot of voice over, like it was never I never put it in a category. And I think there is kind of like that. We we've we've talked about this a number of times, were coming in the early nineties who were coming off the eighties child actor, which did have that kind of negative connotation around it, were that's what you did. You peeked at at seventeen, You then robbed the liquor store, you did that. What happened when you were, you know, acting in the eighties. Um, and I think it we hit a different kind of version of quote unquote child actors and the child actor in the nineties. I mean, we we just did. And so I yeah, I don't know. I'd never referred to myself as a child actor. I was always just an actor. And then what's funny isn't in the last And my wife calls me on this every once in a a while, she's like, I wish you would stop doing that for the last Like, I don't know, eight nine years. I always tell people I do cartoon voices. They're like, what do you do for a living? I do? I go, oh, man, I do animation or I'm a voice over actor. Like that's always what I've called myself. So I have no problem for some reason putting myself in that category. But I never once called myself a child actor. I don't know why. Well, here we are three child actors about to go through and talk about some of your most frequently asked questions that we've gotten since we started the podcast. One of them is a very simple one, which is what's the podcast schedule? How many times a week are we going to get to hear the podcast? Or maybe you're asking stop overloading us with podcasts? I don't know, but you want to know, slow down? Why are we getting to a week? Um? Our podcast schedule is one a week, unless we are lucky enough to have a guest, which we've had a lot of guests lately. If we are lucky enough to have a guest, then you will get two episodes in a week, and UM, that's now, we'll give you a third. Um. Will there be a YouTube channel for the podcast as of right now? The answer is no, maybe somewhere down the line, who knows, we could eventually. We are recording this um mostly for audio. It's not we're recording it because it's great video of us or anything. It's mostly just because it helps us with recording audio and we like to have it for our social posts. UM. But As of right now, we're not recording it for video. It's just audio, so but who knows, in the future, maybe we'll we'll leave that window open. Now, this is a question for you too. I have kind of a boring answer for it, so I'm going to go last, But did you keep any props or items from the Boy Meets World set? Right? And you want to start? Yeah, So I well, we we Actually, I think I did end up trading, not a bunch, but some clothing at the end of the last season. UM Disney would allow. The Disney only cared that certain clothes stayed because they would keep them in a warehouse for I don't know how many years. I don't think they're still there. But they didn't want to keep the clothes, but they would never check if it was the specific jacket, specific shirt. So our wardrobe people let us come in and trade, so as long as we brought in a jacket. So I went and bought a leather jacket that I had worn that was very similar to the Shawn jacket, but it was mine, and then I brought it in and traded it for Shawn's actual leather jacket. And I did that with some other clothes too, But for about two years post Boy Meets World. A year and a half post Boy Meets World, I had that leather jacket. I wore it in New York. But then I was living in Brooklyn and Williamsburg and Mike Heart I've broken into. I came out, I came out from my apartment and my car's window was broken and the alarm was going off, and my jacket was gone. So yeah, someone stole the leather jacket out of my car in Brooklyn. Um. The other thing I have is there's a painting of Robert Nighthawk that was in the college. What was it called the main common common room? Okay, what was it? I mean I had to have it. Actually it had a name. It had a name. It was the Oh my gosh, it's gonna dry me. It wasn't just a common room. It was there was something else, lounge, college lounge. I don't know anyway, the right above, like one of like the I think it's right at where the pool table was. At some point there was a original painting. I forget who it's actually by, but it's an artist who does musicians. He paints musicians and with their name underneath the student union. Was it the student union? Thank you? That's from Easton, thank you east In our engineer and okay, yeah, so in the student union there was a painting. Anyway, I took that painting the last night. I stole it. Um, Daniel, you were with me. We were sitting in the stands the last night after the tape, after the final tape, and it was you, me, my girlfriend at the time, and um Beth who was our second stage manager, second second or whatever. Yeah, anyway, I threw it in the back of my girlfriend's truck. I just I was like, I'm going to take that painting now. I would go back and take so much more. Like I really wish I had Penbrooke sweatshirts and Penbrook stuff because we had that whole student union was filled with Penbrooke proms and I didn't keep any of them. I'm sure they're online to be bought, but it would be nice to have an original. I have a Penbrook sweatshirt somewhere. That's the only thing I kept. By the time the show was over, I was so I was just mentally not in a good place. I was so burnt out. I was like, goodbye show. I don't think at the time I had any idea that it was going to one be something I was talking about thirty years later. Uh, and so I didn't know that. I and I also, um unfortunately, have never been much of like I'm not sentimental about things. I'm like sentimental about experiences. I'm sentimental about um. But like, I'm not a big thing person. I like to. I tend to be a little bit more of a minimalist and so the idea of holding onto something didn't really strike me at the time, But I wish I wish I did, because obviously i'd like to I'd like to have it now. But that the other than the pen Books pen Brook sweatshirt, I don't have anything. What about you will? Yeah, I don't have much. I am very much a sentimental person, which is surprises me that I don't have more from the show um where my wife is the same way. She's like, oh, baby, clothes, youink and she's throw them away. Um. I have a John Adams Athletic Department sweatshirt that I was still when I work out. Yeah, it's very cool. And um and I have a Doctor Patson signed by Mark Patson. So we we've talked about this on other shows where you're not allowed to show products and you can't show so can't say Coca Cola, can't say pepsi. So we would have our prop guy would would have a little fun and they would rename uh certain products, whether it be cereal or soda or whatever it was. And one of the things that he his name was Mark Patson, and one of the things we would have Dr Papson instead of Dr Pepper. So I have a Doctor Papson signed by Mark Papson in my office sitting on the desk, and it's year no, no, no, it's totally. It's empty. It's never it was empty from the when I got it. Um. But other than that, and then I have things that I just kept because I never throw things away, Like I have probably a hundred different scripts at least, um original scripts from Boy and original scripts from Kimpossible and kind of old shows back in the day. But I have a ton of Boy meets World scripts that I found, and um, I mean I have like original videotapes. I found the original pilot not too long ago, which I gave you guys each a copy of with the original Eric and the original Alan oh, and I know this is going to be a frequently question. No, it will not be released anywhere. We don't have the right to do that. Um. But so you know I found that, and and but other than kind of big stuff, no, we we all did the clothing trade. You know, you went in and these jeans for that jeans, and and it was crazy to the point where you talk about how how um exacting Disney can be. It was a good three or four weeks later, I got a call from someone at Disney who was not affiliated with the show, but with Disney wardrobe overall, asking me for a pair of black socks that apparently I had taken. There's a pair of black dress socks missing from your character. But they really did follow up and I was like, sorry, don't have them, and I'm not about to run in a pair of black sox to Disney, but they I literally got a phone call about a pair of black sox. So that I think the Disney Vault is actually like kind of a famous thing, because remember the episodes that we did where we went back to like the forties or the fifties. I'm wearing lucile balls shoes, and that's that's why they they keep all the clothes. They keep them so that when they do period pieces or if someone becomes some massive star or historical you know, there's some historical reason to do it, they've got it. And then I don't know how long they hold onto it. But I mean, we we did that episode where we went back to the fifties and like you know or something, and I'm wearing lucile ball shoes. I think it's more for functionality or like what you were saying, it's more about for period pieces. Then there they rarely. I don't think they're saving things for sentimental or resale value or like sort of historical museum. They also don't don't save everything. Because there was a it went viral on TikTok last year or the year before where somebody found at a thrift store and it's marked Disney and tag Disney with the date the quote unquote now famous pink dress from My Date with the President's Daughter, which is a movie that I did for Disney, And it was like Oliver TikTok where the them and was like I have the actual address and there's the you know, the name and everything on there. So that was what was really cool. They have a warehouse where they the giant rose all the way up to the ceiling, so from Florida ceiling racks of clothes and they divide them in rows by decade. Do you guys remember there? Yeah, so I think probably what happened is a lot of our clothes might be in what is now the nineties ye aisle of this warehouse. But I don't think they would have labeled and kept it just for you know, the sacred point having it having. Do you think they're labeled at all? Though? Like, do you think if we went there and looked in the nineties thing it would there be a boy Meats world section? Or you think they're all just muddled in there with you can find a denom, sleeveless denim with what I mean, I look for a lot of fun. If they would let traded in love to go, That's what I'm saying. We get video and we put it up on the website where it's like so if anybody works in the art department of Disney and can give access to one of the many warehouses, I just remember the one in particular we went to um that would be amazing. Remember writer, when they used to. There was the one woman and I wish I remembered her name because she was very sweet. We would go to her office and she would take us down the hall to like the DVD room and she would open up the doors and the drawers and it was like, take whatever you want, and we would walk out with like stacks of DVDs. No, she was like an executive at Disney but who had access to the whole DVD section and she would be like, take because they'd have stacks of all their movies and all their shows and all the stuff. And we would go in there and walk out with like thirty DVDs each of all the new stuff, not any recollections. Oh yeah, it was awesome, totally cool because I don't yeah, oh, I used to do do it all the time. I know you were with me at least once because you were like this is the best. I was like, yeah, this is I would have been would have been a lot later because DVDs weren't. This was still I think we were. This might have even been six or seventh season. Yeah, but it was great. Yeah. Alright, so, um, will we ever get to hear Anthony Tyler Quinn a k A. Mr Turner as a guest. Yes, we will already talked to Tony. What's funny, very quick funny story. Well it's not funny, so much is ironic that we're talking about it right now. Um, I'm here in Chicago where Tony and his wife have moved, and he's picking me up tomorrow night and we are having dinner. Um, so I take a picture and send it to us. I will. I saw him three weeks ago, right before it, probably two days before he moved. I mean they like literally just move, just moved, like just moved here. So he's yeah, he's coming to the con to to grab me tomorrow night. We're gonna go and grab some food and so he I we've already asked him. He is absolutely coming on the show. He cannot wait. So you will certainly be able to hear from from Mr Tony Quinn. I can't wait to talk to him. Oh my gosh, please send us a picture. I want to see. Probably looks exactly the same he does. He looks like as he's still in way better shape than any of us could ever hope to be. And he's yeah, he's crazy man. Okay. Another very frequently asked question is who were our first celebrity crushes. I know mine right off the bat. Well, okay, so I have to my first celebrity crush is My earliest celebrity crush that I can remember was Aaron gray on buck Rogers was my was my first ever celebrity crush, followed quickly when I got a little bit older by um Drew Barrymore. Those are my two. But Aaron gray on buck Rogers was like it changed my life. Mine was Meredith Salinger in Journey of Natty Gan, a missed masterpiece. I love this movie. I actually reasonably watched it with my son and it's actually it's it's not great, but it's incredibly it's incredible at its recreation of the period. Um, it's a great fell Um. Just it should be remade big time. Um. But yeah, no, I actually have like thought about it would be an amazing limited series because it's it's about a girl who like escapes during the depression or her dad is works all the way across the country and she's in like an abusive situation, so she runs away to find her dad across the country. So it's her literally moving from one coast to the ar if I think it's from Chicago to California to find her dad, and it's just her like riding the rails and she has a wolf that like hangs out with her. And is it fantasy? No no, no, no no no no, it's pretty realist, like uh and and that's kind of the problem with the movie is that it's just episodic. It's just like, now she's in this town and she runs into this gang of kids and she goes over here, and it's all very like it doesn't string together into like a fully functional, good narrative, but the beats are wonderful and Merit Salinger is awesome and I actually got to know her later on. She played my brother's girlfriend in his the pilot I Man Now, which we talked about in our first episode. Um Hillary Swank played his older sister and the singer was the girl he was like waking out with on the couch. And I remember my brother and I were both just like, oh my good because we have grown up loving like having our first crush on Meretith when she was you know, like twelve and we were eight or whatever. Her. Yeah, she's great, she's she's you mean, we actually became friends and in our teams. I haven't seen her for years, but you know she she married Patton Oswald, Paton Oswald. Yeah she'satt Oswald's wife. Yeah she's great. But anyway, that was like definitely my first first feelings. So I didn't watch a lot of TV as a kid, and I'm not sure why because my parents weren't opposed to TV or anything. I just don't have like a lot of memory. It wasn't important to me. It was like just not a thing I was into. I was really interested in reading. I loved to read, and I remember my brother being really into shows. My brother is four years younger than me, and he watched a lot of animated stuff, so like Ninja, Turtles, g I, Joe, you know, all of that stuff, and so I remember watching that stuff off with him and I was like, I was a fan of Sesame Street when I was really young, but that was it. I didn't have like, Yes, So Kalsar was my first crush, Daniel, So my first are you were more of a Kermit guy? Daniel, I really like you. My first then celebrity crush was actually Jonathan Taylor Thomas because I actually yes, from Home Improvement because we worked next door to him and we you know, played sports with him, and but this is different. That's only a you can't say childhood crush. They know. Yeah, that's like that's like saying your first Yeah. No, that doesn't count. I know what you're trying to do. I know, I see you, Danielle. You're trying to slip in a school crush or like a very like appropriate age crush real life because it happened to be a celebrity. Always excuse me, Did I date somebody from in Sincle? Does that? Just know you already cet. But maybe that's true. I get it, I get it, I got it. But the whole point is, did you ever have feelings for somebody you didn't know? Like the point is somebody was on a screen or in a situation removed from you, and you had a crush on them that was basically based on it never happening. No, well that's not true. Not no, no, that's not true. That's not true. That that's not true. After I already had the crush on Jonathan and then yes, Jonathan was my first boyfriend when I was like twelve. God um, I then when uh Titanic came out. I was just beyond for Leonardo DiCaprio. I mean, I mean disgusting, like the biggest crush. I just I used to be like, I'm going to marry that guy. And and that was so you would have moved over and shared the door with them, so you both could have survived. Of course, of course I would have. Um. So, yeah, I did have a crush on Leonardo DiCaprio. But that that feels that feels weird to me because it was so much like I was. I was sixteen or something at that time. It was weird. It was weird time, don't you know. That's the way I felt about. My brother was actually in a movie. He ended up getting cut out, but he was in this movie called fox Fire, and uh, Angelina Jolie, a young Andelina Jolia's in it, and she is unbelievable and she was great because she's a great actress, but she's also so gorgeous. And so when my brother, when I saw this movie which my brother got cut out, he's still in the end credits you can find him. But when I saw this movie, I was like, who is that? And I am in love with her? Um. Yeah, Natalie Wood and West Side Story was like that for me too. That's another one of mine where it was just she was so as Maria just it's incredible predictable eminem eminem I went through. I had a little I was I was eighteen or nineteen. I had a poster. At eighteen years old, I had an eminem poster on my on my wall. I was, Oh, my gosh, and how can I I just remember this? Do you guys remember that in my wall? I used to carry around a picture of David Letterman. That's right. I don't know. This was something you always said. You were like, I think David Letterman is that the most handsome. We were always like what and You're like, because he's so funny, so funny. So yeah, I actually I had a big conversation. I remember being like, La, Danielle has got a thing for David Letterman. But totally makes sense. I was twelve years old and in love with David Letterman. As a matter of that, my first boyfriend, Jonathan Taylor Thomas then got to be a guest on the David Letterman Show, and he came home with its signed headshot from David Letterman to me, and I think it said, dear Danielle, be nice to Jonathan of David Letterman a crusher? Was that just like admiration for good question? I don't you don't know, well, you know what's funny? Similar. I thought he was extremely handsome. I thought he was very funny. I loved I loved everything about him. Carried around a picture of him in my wallet. But David Combs is one of the people who actually pointed out to me, and it made me a little insecure because I was like, well, I don't know, but I said, he was, you know, talking about our crushes. And I said, yeah, David Lenderman. And he goes, oh, so you're attracted to power and then and then just like moved and I was, and I was like, I had never thought of I don't know, I don't don't I'm twelve, I'm I'm twelve, I don't know. I just know that I like him, um and I so. But it always then made me self conscious to like say that I had a crush on him, but it was it is a weird crush for a twelve year old to have. But I guess, but him and Jonathan Taylor Thomas, David Letterman very similar, right, that's what people say, but I did. I. I am very attracted to funny people. I think I think funny people are just me too. I love I love someone who's able to make me laugh. And David Letterman, I think probably was like the first person celebrity wise, I remember a regularly making me laugh. And just I don't know, I just yeah, okay, which one of us received the most fan mail? Writer? That's what I said. I said it was writer. And by the way, the person who sent in this question admitted that they sent it was a boy and he said he sent a letter to writer as a kid with the you went you had a good year or two where you were on the cover of like every teen magazine. Yeah. Yeah, I was actually on Oprah for being one of the celebrities who received like the most fan mail or something. At one point it was like thousands of letters a week. Um, and so yeah, I ended up being on Oprah. It's an awful appearance. If anybody can find it, it's the worst. I was so like insecure and talk no, you know. I ended up being in Chicago, was visiting my friend Aaron, who I just saw last week. Um. Still one of my best friends. UM. I was visiting her. She had grown up with Ben. Actually that's how I met her. Second season, she came out to visit Ben, and she and I became best friends and have been best friends ever since. UM, but I was I was visiting her. This would have been ve I guess I was. I went to visit her for like a week or two and um Oprah called and I just happened to be in town. So they just picked me up on a limo and I had to go shopping at the Gap and Aaron's mom had to pick out all the clocks. I had nothing to wear, so Aaron's mom dressed me for the appearance. I'm so uncomfortable, it's awful. But anyway, the reason I was on Oprah was because I at that point was receiving I don't know how many thousands of letters a week, and it was put me in the upper category because you know, that's what the team magazine is. Basically at the back of the team magazine would give out a fan mail, a fan address, so for fans to write to me. UM, and you know there was I would say, like until the second season, I was reading all of them, probably by third or fourth, it was getting overwhelmed and I couldn't read them. I also started feeling very uncomfortable with how with reading them. It didn't make me feel good. You know, at first it was like, oh my god, somebody reaches out to me because they and then it starts to feel more and more alienating, like I'm I'm always going to let these people down, like you know, I'm not gonna be able to write at a letter back that's eloquent or what they really want. They just want a connection with me. And I started making me feel very uncomfortable. Um so, yeah, so I end I ended up. I'm sure a lot of listeners out there have because I've seen people tweet this or instagram that there. I started sending out a post a postcard, assigned postcard that um you know, it was a pre signed thing. It was like there was actually a company. You guys remember there were fan mail companies that would receive the fan mail for you and send out postcards. Um So I ended up doing that. So I'm sure a lot of our listeners somewhere. I still have one of those postcards me with sitting on a stool or an apple box and uh, yeah. That that ended up being my response. I remember um somebody telling me once and it is always stuck with me. They said, when it comes to your fan mail, answer them all or don't answer any don't do anything in tween um, and I always thought that was kind of that was an interesting way to look at it, where it's like, I mean, now, you would never get letters. You just get emails or tweeted out whatever. I get letters all the time. Do you like actual handwritten letters? Handwritten letters? Is it a fan site kind of thing or no? Is it's your home? No? Thank god? No sack stuff to my home occasionally. When when we first started getting fan mail, I also read them all and then responded to all of them. And I in ninety three, so one of the things I did before I started acting in So. I started acting when I was ten, two years before I got Boy Meets World, and before that, I was in gymnastics. One time I called myself a gymnast, and my mom looked at me and she said, you were in gymnastics. You were not a gymnast, And she's correct. I was not a gymnast. I was just in gymnastics. But when I decided I wanted to be an actor. My mom was like, well, you can't do both, because gymnastics was after school, and like, you're going to be going to auditions, you have to pick. And I said, I definitely want to be an actor. I want to go to auditions. So I stopped doing gymnastics. And I got a letter in like ninety three from a young girl and she included pictures of herself in it, and she was in gymnastics, and she wrote me this handwritten letter about you know that she was a fan. And I wrote her back, and then she sent me another letter, and we started this correspondence back and forth, and I felt very close to her. And one of the things she talked about regularly was that both of her parents died when she was young, and she lived with her older brother. And at some point maybe in the second letter she wrote me, she included a picture of her brother, a couple of pictures of her brother, and her brother was several years older, good looking guy and um, and she was always talking about, like, thank God for my brother, because without my brother, like you know, I don't have parents and and you know, I don't know what I would do without him. And then we started, but she included her phone number in one of the letters, and I was like, oh, let's give her a call. And realize my mom is participating in me writing back. She's reading all these letters as well, and she's aware of what I'm writing, and she's reading what this girl is writing to me. And my mom is like, yeah, this girl seems like you guys would be friends, you know. So I call her and I get her voicemail, but it is not her. It's her brother's voicemail because it's his house. They live in an apartment together. But her name isn't anywhere on the voicemail. It's just like, Hi, you've reached. She doesn't exist. The call is coming from within the house. It wasn't until the guy pretending to be a girl. Guy pretending to be a girl. And the way it all came out is because I kept calling her and she then would never you know, and I left my phone number and she wouldn't call me back. And then we got a letter from her brother saying that she had died, and my mom woke up in the middle of the night and was like, like, she never she never existed. It's always been him. And then he started showing up at my school and telling people to a fan mail. This is like the first Talker dipped your toe in the pool and an alligator bit your foot off. Well, this is why you have to have clear boundaries. It's really hard. I mean, like, you know, it's just it's it's such a tricky thing fame and and dealing with and even nowadays it must be even crazier for really famous people. I mean, I don't you just have to create boundaries. It's so hard. I had girls calling my house when when I was like eleven and twelve. Girls would find my coup was listed in the phone book my parents were and so girls would call and like, back then, I would like meet up with them. Oh god, because it was it was before boy Me's world. This is when I was like on Home improvement or I had done local plays or whatever. Girls would call the house and like I would meet them at our arcade play video. Super awkward. Like but you know at the time, I was just like, oh you like me, you saw me the TV show. Okay, I'll be your friend. Let's hang out right. More people have a crush on YouTube, and in retrospect it's like, no, you have to create boundaries. I really I remember going out with Ben right during the first season and he got recognized, I guess for Little Monsters, and it was it wasn't for Boy Meets World yet, but we're at the Glendale Galleria, I want to say, or one of those early malls in in l a And and he got recognized. And I really learned from him how to manage that moment because he was so confident. He was so gracious and thankful and signed whatever these kids wanted. And I remember watching him and being like, Oh, that's the way to do it, because at that point I would if I got recognized, I'd be like, oh, my god, you know me from my TV show. That's so cool. What's your name? Do you want to go hang out you? I would just not create any boundaries because to me, it was so exciting that somebody would recognize me. But of course, when you become a professional actor, professional famous person, you have to learn how to take in his stride and and be like, yes, it's good to meet you. It's so nice. I understand you from my show, and you know, shake hands and take a picture or sign an autograph, but um, you know, it's not, it's it's not a chance for you to freak out too. When I was when I was eleven or twelve, I had a older executive at Nickelodeon scare the hell out of me. Um. I mean you remember you know those shows where they're like they bring kids into prison and scare them straight. Essentially what this guy did to me being famous. Oh yeah, he sat me down and he said, you know, you're gonna start getting letters, and you're gonna start getting calls, and you don't know who you're talking to. But it worked. Like it worked. We just put up the boundaries and we're did the same thing. Had a a friend of our family who I had grown up with was her mother had retired to Florida and was like, let's let's you know, let me take care of your fan mail. So we would send out the postcards and do all that same kind of stuff. But I mean, you know, you would get really weird letters. I mean from the strangest one. I It was rare though, I mean you always say was a blanket. Statements are awesome, Fans are incredibly respectful and like, you know, but it's the fear of that one in a million that isn't all stable, or it's going to lie to your protector that's very sexual, like very openly sexual, or I mean again, I had the might still say my weirdest one I ever got when people because this is a good this is a question people always give you, like what's the strangest piece of family you ever got? And a woman I was probably only second season boy so seventeen eighteen years old, had sent a wedding invitation with both of our names on at the time and place, with the letter saying I'm married now and I have two kids. But if you're at this church when you know for for our wedding, I will be marrying you and I will be leaving my family and like a full printed up like whole, like I got a wedding invitation to my own wedding. It was very So you can get some strangers, you're right of the fans of the fans are amazingly respectful, really nice, just love the show. Um, we would love to talk and talk to you are really cool people. But you you want you worry about the point one person. Yeah, I mean I remember David Colms, our studio teacher, being the first person to really sit me down because I was so confused by being famous, and he was like, writer, you you're in their living room every week. There, You're part of their family, you know. And I remember being like, oh, because I hadn't grown up with TV, and so the idea that like when you watch a TV show, especially a TV show with a recurring family, uh, and that you know, you you do form this different bond that you know, than I had up until that point. I never understood it. That comforting feeling that people get from boy meets World, you know, and we're part of that and our faces, our voices, and so when somebody meets me that I've never seen before, I never met, they have this level of like a media familiarity, and you know, and that's just difficult to navigate. It's it's a weird thing about media. Yeah. Is there a story behind Corey and Shawn's handshake? Writer? Yeah, So we had a day. Um, yeah, it was really great, you know. I mean I talked about how Ben and I didn't connect the first week of the show or the pilot of the show, because you know, he was into sports and one on he was from l A. Actually he was from Chicago, but He was definitely like living in l A at that point, probably for three or four years too. You know, in my mind, being in Northern California's snob like I was. Everything about l A was awful. Um, So I we just didn't get along that well. We didn't connect even though we were working together until I guess probably right around where we're at right now in the shows, like right around seventh or eighth episode. For some reason, I can't remember why, we had a just school day together where the show was shut down, and instead of meeting on the set, I don't know why we couldn't meet on the set. We had we went and met at Ben's house and it was my first time at Ben's house, and David Collins, or studio teacher, was there, and we finally had like the greatest day ever. We just connected and we had so much fun, and I remember laughing and telling story. I think we must have we must have had to make up hours, so it must have been over a weekend. We were making up hours that we had not banked or something, so we had to do school work together and we just spent this whole day together, and at some point during that day we created this handshake and we decided it was our handshake. It was writer and Ben's handshake. First, it was not Corey Seawn. We did not have any intention for it to be in the show. Um. And then we did that episode I think it's where the uh blender explodes, and we just did it during rehearsals. It was not in the script. We were like, hey, let's we could do our handshake after we achieved whatever it was in the scene, and we did it for David Trainer, and David Trayner was like, do that. Do that at the run through. Don't tell them you're gonna do it, and just do it, And we did at the run through and it became a thing, and then we probably did it three times over the course of the series. But yeah, it was aha that we invented. Yeah, yeah, well there's you know, I'll try and find video. Robin, who was the second e d on Um on Girl Meets World, took video of us when we had to do it there when we rehearsing it, so they were playing it back for us on a screen while you're but we are I I can still remember it, I can still feel it. Yeah, it was really a fun thing and you know that that like doing a little dance at the end, like that's classic bend. Like I'm sure he came up with that. Yeah, um, yeah, it was our it was our real friendship handshake before it became the Corey Sean handshake. That's really cute. That like made me emotional hearing it, because those are those are the moments that, like, I really, um, that are the most meaningful for us. That you know, people always think about the moments on set, but they're they're it's so rare that the really special moments actually took place on set that usually happened at some other location, like that one was at Ben's house. And so many of our moments actually, um that are special to me took place at either Ben's house or at your house where my mom would drop me off in the morning when you guys were able to drive and I wasn't able to drive, and I would then be at your house either before or after work. Um, and we had all those fun moments. So all those awkward driving moments, all those awkward driving moments. She was so stressed out understanding fifteen years old learners for you in the back seat. Oh my god, my most stressful Uh yeah, driving with Ben and Ben's housekeeper who took us to work a couple of times and we'd be running late and she would drive down the center divider and the media. I remember that, panicking, panicking, absolutely panicking. And you know Ben is So's he's a lot like Corey, but like he's explosive with his body. And I just remember him being seatbelted but like levitating out of his seat with fear of just like like thinking we ran over something. What was that? Was? I just one day because I vividly remember that experience, and you and I were both in the car. We were car pulling from Encino and it was raining and we were late, and she just pulled into the median and drove us full speed. Oh my god, it was terrifying. But I also other times drove with her, um and I I don't think you were there, there were she was a median driver. She like to drive down the center. Very funny. We have so many more of your questions that we want to get to, so we are going to take a break and come back with a brand new episode of Frequently Asked Questions. We love you all. Pod dismissed Pod Meets World as an I heart podcast, produced and hosted by Daniel Fisher, Wilfredel and Writer Strong. Executive producers Jensen Carpin, Amy Sugarman, Executive in charge of production, Danielle Romo, producer and editor, Taara sued Batch producer, Lorraine Verruez, engineer and Boy Meets World super fan Easton Allen. Our theme song is by Kyle Morton of Typhoon. Follow us on Instagram at Pod Meets World Show, or email us at pod Meets World Show at gmail dot com