Q&A Meets World! Part 1

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Speaker 1: So we've alluded to this like once or twice, but I just wanted to get this story out there if if you're willing to talk about it, Will, because this is your story. Oh gosh, Will's already nervous. Well, no, this is you for you sold a script to Disney while we were on Boy Meets World. You sold a pitch and you were like, at the time, like the youngest screenwriter to have sold a studio, Like, what is that story? It's just I just want to talk about this. This is what you were doing in Amsterdam. It was time that you were writing the screenplay. It was a Winnie the Pooh script, but you had this idea and you sold it. Yeah. I had an idea for for a a live action animation the Pooh and so this was nineteen ninety eight, nineteen ninety seven. So I had my agent called Disney and I set up a pitch and I went in and I pitched, which I still think was as an amazing idea. It was Christopher Robbin is now eighteen. His parents put him in therapy because he was talking to imaginary you know, animals. They moved him away from the hundred acre would he now is growing up in America. Meanwhile, the hundred Acre Would is bought by a corporation and is going to be destroyed an animated Whinney like an environmentalist, and then animated Whinney and Tiggers show up at the foot of Christopher Robbin's bed one morning as he's pledging a fraternity and so he you know, he's at college and now these characters are back into his life and he essentially they and they need his help to save Ragoon, him into going back to saving the hundred Acre Would. And he's trying to have for us that they exist because and so he were the hallucinations from his childhood exactly. And so I went to Amsterdam to write it and then they really liked the script and they had me. They hired me to rewrite it um and I did that and then they sat it on a shelf and they said, are you nineteen, yeah, twenty years old and they and they said, no, we're in this this fight with a eight millions company right now who created Winnie the Pooh, So we can't you know, we can't really do anything. And then I found out years later they did it with you know, they they changed it around they gave it to a whole bunch of different writers, and then they threw you and McGregor in it. And the Writers Guild essentially said to me when I said, look, I've got I mean the contract literally says nineteen ninety seven live action animation Christopher Robin movie. Right, um, and WJA was like, look, we know your genesis. We can tell your genesis, but it's gone through so many hands now that there's really nothing we can do about it, right, which is what happens with studio films that yet real credit. There's probably been like twenty writing teams on different the Pooh movies. So what ended up in the Christopher? Did you see the finished film? No? I refused, No, absolutely absolutely, because that was like, that was my first screenplay. That was the first thing that I'd written and sold, So that was that was an important one to me and to just be like, yeah, hey, thanks kid. I mean to the point where apparently the WGA representative called Disney and said, hey, I'm calling on behalf of Wilfridell and before she finished my name, the woman said, oh no, his project was totally different, and they went, ohkay, So it was you know, they did their due diligence, and there was a big lawsuit around the thing where there's a bunch of writing teams that said that they had done it. But I defy somebody to come up with a contract that would predated nineteen ninety seven. Now, you said that you called your agent, but I remember Jeff McCracken figured prominently in helping you set up the pitch. Did he may? I feel like you mentioned it while we were on set, because for people who don't know, Wilfridell is the king of genius movie ideas, like five times a day he just will be like, yeah, you know what we need and he'll say a moving You're like, well that needs to be made, like you should be running the studio. And so you had that moment with this Winnie the Poop pitch, and I think it was Jeff mccrackin that was like, we need to get someone on the phone, and you got on the phone. He did a speaker call during lunch at Boy Meat's World, this is what I remember, and got somebody higher up at Disney and said I would just want to hear you, hear what Will has to say, And you gave like a two sentence pitch and the person paused and was like, yeah, we got to hear that full pitch, and then you went in and had your full pitch. But it was because McCracken just heard. McCracken was so supportive of anything artistic that we wanted in anything in our lives. But super artist. I mean Jeff McCracken at one And I was going to tell this story when he got on the podcast, but hopefully he'll come on. But at one point the network insisted that I cut my hair. I was growing really long hair and it really upset me, and I went and they cut my hair off, and the next day he had long hair. The next day he came in with short hair that was all raggled. He cut his own hair that night in his house to support me having to cut my hair. That's the kind of man this guy is. So I do not doubt at all that Jeff McCracken did something like that. Don't doubt that at all. Yeah, he's still he still reaches out to help me in my career and my person. He's a beautiful man. He's just one of those giving yes, incredible, Well, you guys will be pleased to know we have him booked. He will be coming on the pod. It's going to be us gushing for two hours. I know. It's literally going to be the longest episode we've ever done. It'll be season three when he comes in because you know too much. And then we are just going to need a full hour of us just telling him how much we love him. Um. So, welcome to pod Meet's World. I'm Daniel Fishel, I'm Writer Strong, and I'm Wilfredale. Guys, this is a this is a Q and A episode. It's going to be really fun. You guys send us so many amazing emails. We get thousands of questions from listeners. We appreciate every single one, and we have pulled some for another special Q and A episode, and only I have seen them in advance. So Will and Writer are going in blind and uh. But something totally unrelated that I have been forgetting to say in every single episode is that my hair care company be free by Daniel Fishel. I have created a coupon code for you guys, just for you Pod Meets World listeners. You can use code PMW for Pod Meats World PMW and get fifteen percent off anything on the site. So I'm just gonna I'm throwing that in. I made it for you a long time ago and then just never told anyone. So important important part of the sales team is to have people know that why has nobody used this coupon? Ye I'm a really good businesswoman. I create coupons and then don't give them to anybody. So I need more condition Okay, I will. I don't give it to them for free, make them pay. Now that I have your code, I was waiting for sale. Now I'll send you all the conditioner you want, okay. Um. Also, we wanted to let you guys know we are going to be in Chicago March thirty first through April second at C two E two. I'm really looking forward to it. We're going to be joined by Trina McGee and mister Bill Daniels and Miss Bonnie Bartlett. So that just let a Phoenie call escape. I know you felt it right, I was gonna do it for you. Totally felt it. It almost passed my lips. I was like, well I choke that one right by. Maybe I do it. Wow? Amazing. So that'll be really fun. If you guys don't have your tickets yet, please get them join us. It's actually going to be a little family trip for us. Writer, your family's going, yeah, will Sue is going. Sue's going as well, and hopefully we are going to while we're there. Oh, we are definitely right right, I'm so excited about C two E two, but I want to go to I know, I'm mostly excited about Eddievics. We have not reached out to them about planning that, so we should. We should actually do that, and we need to reserve a table. Yes, okay, I'll reach out to them. Um. Producer Jensen car, husband of this podcast, is also coming with me. So we're going to have a little family trip and I can't wait. And we're gonna see Tony Quinn while we're there as well. Yes we are maybe, Oh yeah that'd be great. All right, great, okay, So our first question, I thought this was very fun. Did you guys get paid for Team Beat type magazine shoots? And then related to that, how many shoots did you do and were they fun? Writer, go for it. No, we never got paid. It was kind of a racket and it wasn't until I was older that I realized how much free content we provided for these magazines. Yeah, they would. Typically what would happen is you would you would get a call or somebody would get a call. I guess my manager would get a call being like some magazine wants to do a photo shoot with writer. And what that usually meant is that you would get some free clothing um or like there was a sense that like or it was just free publicity. It was like, you know, so for a couple years, or if for at least like one year or the first first year or the show, I would just show up because somebody would tell me to and they would get they would do an entire day of photoshoots with you know, different outfits, different backgrounds. And then it wasn't until I was like fifteen or sixteen, I think that somebody realized, like Wright or you maybe just don't do that right if you, because I didn't, you know, I just showed up wherever and did them. And then it was like, oh, I'm getting like sort of pigeonholed as this like teen idle honk thing that doesn't have anything to do with my acting career, in fact kind of hurts my acting career. And so then it was like, you know, I stopped doing them right around when I was like fifteen or sixteen, but yeah, it's weird. We would get free stuff. Yeah, you get to keep your clothes that you try on that day because clothing companies would want us to be wearing them, so they would provide for the magazines. So the magazines would pay for the photographer and they would get free clothing and free talent for the day. Right, And then we would do like you said, there'd be a whole day and there would be a bunch of like we'd they'd have a snowboard there and they would drop snow or do something snow related. And then you would use those pictures in November, and then there'd be like some sort of Christmas thing and they'd use you'd hold a cupcake for around your birthday. Um, and so in that one day, you'd go through like the season of photos and then they would use them. Yeah, and then sometimes they would do events like remember we would they would do like a snowboarding day at yeah Big Bear, right, or paintballing, and so they would invite us to do that, and we would want to do it because it'd be fun, cool kid things to do. And then they would get a bunch of photographs out of it, and so everybody would sort of win. I guess, um, I got paid, I paid, I got paid. Well, oh my gosh. I wouldn't necessarily say they were fun. Some people had more fun than others, Like I never I always enjoyed photoshoots. I thought they were kind of fun. Um. But I think writer probably thought it was a true nightmare. Yeah, yeah, that wasn't I mean, eventually, at first, I remember being very stoked to be interviewed and like yeah, I just thought like, oh, it's cool to this is what being an actor means. People wanted, you know. And then when it started to feel like I was being used and it started to feel like I was, I don't know, it just it just made me uncomfortable, Like once I started to feel like, oh, I don't I don't want posters of me on the wall like I'd like to talk about acting or I don't know, it was just always it made me. Also, the social media of our day, that's what you had you That's how you got the word out and you know, hey, this is the new hot guy. And it was whether it was Jonathan Taylor Thomas or Jonathan Brandis, or there was and then it was you. I mean, there was always like a bunch of people that they were the it thing for a little while, and then it was like, now here's the new it thing. And it felt very distinct from like other types of fame, you know what I mean, Like, yeah, in a way, it felt very niche Yeah, like it didn't it didn't translate to work, you know what I mean. Like it wasn't like because I was in these teen magazines. If anything, I feel like it made it harder to get movie jobs. You know, already being on television made it almost impossible to get movie jobs, but certainly uh doing it being a teen magazine person, Like it didn't translate to to work, you know, because I mean you look at somebody like I mean Jonathan Taylor Thomas was working constantly because he was on Home Improvement, but like somebody like Jonathan Brandis was the king of those teen magazines but did not work now, like could not get work, like it was a struggling actor throughout his entire teens, and there was always this weird sense of like this does not equal the same thing, you know, Like Andrew Keegan was all in these teen magazines, but it actually wasn't on consistently on a show those into all those years. It's interesting. It was just a weird dynamic, YEA. Our next question is how much did guest cast members usually get paid? Was it per episode, per line? How about the background actors? So I'll go ahead and answer this one, that guest guest actors negotiated their own salaries. They sometimes, I'm sure there was just whatever scale was. Can we talk about all that was? I think everybody only got scaled on those kinds of shows. You don't negotiate it. I mean, unless you think Phyllis Diller. Still, That's what I'm saying. So you know, your average guest star just gets paid. Maybe even Daniel Harris got more than just yeah, that's possible too. Oh maybe that's true. Maybe she was a big amount. So there's a thing called scale, which is like what the unions determine is the base pay rate that you're allowed to make to do a union project. And so usually what offers our scale plus ten scale plus ten percent, and that ten percent is to cover the cost of your agent fee, so that you you get scale, which is the full dollar amount I don't remember what scale was back in the day. I've no memory. And there's a difference between one day guest star, every day guest guest star. Right, how many lines you have. There's also that there's like the under five rule. I think you can have up to five lines. So if you're curious, you can go to SAG's website. You'll probably find these contracts exactly. There are the contracts on the SAG websites that you can figure it out. I don't remember what they were back in the day, and it's not usually like paid per line. But like Will said, there are different scale rates based on whether you're working one, three or five days. Um. But yeah, so you could put many star versus a guest star. Like you know, there's a right and the background actors. If I'm not mistaken, it was like a hundred a day that sounds about right, or maybe one hundred and fifty. Yeah, somewhere between one hundred just today, right, and you were there for as many hours as they kept you around. If that was fourteen, fine it was. And heard when we talked to some of our background actors they'd be on four or five shows. So hopefully maybe you know because they'd only be on Boy two days, right for blocking and tape days, so you're hoping that there's the other days they're on other shows doing the same thing. So hopefully they're working five six days a week at one hundred dollars a day. But it's still Yeah, but the main point of being a background extras to get hip hopefully, you know, which wasn't true necessarily for the first couple of seasons of Boy because there was two unions back then. There was a screen Extras Guild in the Screen Actors Guild. They merged right near the end of Boy Mute World, but so yeah, but you would still still getting into a guild was really helpful. And then just expos sure, right, like to just be in on set and seeing how things worked and understanding you know, that was just an opportunity. Yeah, I mean, Adam Scott was an extra. There's a lot of a lot of people that were background actors that have made the transition, so it's it can be a great gig. Another question we got is what other podcasts do you guys love? Wow? Okay, great answers. I have a bunch, I have a bunch bunch, uh, and so I I love Myths and Legends. It's a great podcast, um where they take you know, retail myths and legends. Imagine that. Um, it's a great one. Um, I really it's it's it's it's a like slightly snarky, sarcastic take on actual myths and you get a little bit of the backstory. But he's done like episodes. It's it's a husband and wife team. Um. And they've done episodes about like King Arthur, like hundred episodes about King Arthur. You can do all the Greek. It's so great. So it's very very educational and entertaining. Um. Let's see. I listened to Hello from the Magic Tavern, which is an improv Oh my god, I love it so much. It's an improv show where the conceit of the show is that somebody has been sucked into a Lord of the Rings like fantasy World, but with his podcasting equipment, Like he was in the back of a Chicago of a McDonald's in Chicago or Burger King in Chicago and fell through a portal and ended up in this land. So every week they bring on it's him and a wizard and a shape shifting badger and every and they're just improv actors and then they bring on somebody and that person shows up with a character like I am a dragon who's a teenager or whatever, and then they just improv and have an interview with that dragon and they have to just roll with whatever the person brings, whatever they say, and it is so fun. And would you go on that show? No, I'm not a good improver, man, I wouldn't know. That sounds like, yeah, No, they have incredible guests. I mean they've gotten everybody a huge comedy star. It's I mean, at this point, it's like eight years old. I've been listening to since the beginning. I remember, it's gotten crazy. I used to have like more developing storylines and now it's back to more of just a fun interview show. But man, it's it's so so clever. Um what else I listened to a lot? What about you? I'm I don't listen to a ton, but the ones that I do, like, I listen to my Mash Matters because you know, obviously big into the Mash world. And I listened to you SNAPf Foo with ed Helms, which is also on I Hurt, I hurt, But yeah, Snapfoo. It takes one, uh you know, mess up in history and talks about it for eight episodes. So the you know, the idea of the movie War Games actually happened in the United States. Uh And so it's kind of ed helms breaking down and it happens very entertaining. But now I'm getting more and more into kind of podcasts and stuff like that. Um are you now? Are Can we ask you the same questions, Danielle, are you since you've seen these questions? Do you have any any podcast that you listen to? Yes? I love SmartLess. I don't get to listen to it as often as I'd like, but I love SmartLess. Um and I listened to We Can Do Hard Things with Glenn and Doyle and her wife Abby Womba and dear sister Amanda, who so yeah, I love love that podcast. That's Those would probably be the two. And then I don't know if you've ever heard of a show called pod Meats World, but boy do I love it. I can't. I can't get through it. Like the hosts just constantly talk over each other. It does seem like they love to hear themselves talk. But I find them all endlessly enjoyable. I noticed none of you have mentioned I hear voices. It's nice to know that you also listen to my other podcasts, thanks so much. And Literary Disco is another. I'm a big fan of that as well. We didn't mention her other podcasts at all, where it's like nobody's fans of each other's other podcasts. We're nothing if not honest. Okay, So I thought this was interesting because I feel like we've done it a little but but maybe we haven't explained it well enough. People want to know how our sets worked while filming, like in front of the audience. People are a little confused, like did the different sets move? Could we move them? So let's explain it because I guess when you watch like some SNL stuff, they actually are moving sets, all right, Yeah? No, we we had standing sets, like, yes, they were built before the audience ever arrived, days before, and they would be standing there, and for the most part, we use the same sets over and over, So the audience would be in bleachers that would sort of rise up from the stage floor like maybe ten rows of bleachers, like a like a high school auditorium bleacher set, and then in front of those bleachers, there would be the camera area what is that called, like the camerayle camerale there you go the aisle right, so it would be like about ten feet between the audience where they and the sets where the cameras would be on these giant rolling you know, the cameras are on wheels, so they can move into position and constantly be adjusting, and they can also go up and down. And then where you know, you would have essentially it's a the fourth wall that doesn't exist, that would you know, the entrance to the set which had three walls, and everybody that came to visit would always comment on how small the sets actually locally, Yeah, they look much larger, little big. Yeah. Answer is the sets don't move, the cameras do. Right. But so left to right, let's take the audience POV. Imagine yourself, dear listener, as an audience member in the bleachers on the set of Boy Meets World. Way over to the left was the Matthews family living room living room, and then immediately connected to that was the kitchen, kitchen, and then obviously Phoene's yard. The back. The entire left half of the audience's view was the right, three sets right yard would sort of end in the middle of the audience right then, and then there was class last room, Class which was Turner's classroom by second season, so then Turner's classroom, and then Hollow which was a big, long set, big, and that was it, and then they would ring in. The boy's bedroom would be at the very very end if we ever needed it. And so those were called swing sets, and that's because those could swing in and swing out. And then there was extra room where there were other swing sets that could be built to the left or right of the audience, but we would never shoot scenes there in front of the audience. So basically the only thing we would ever shoot on audience night in front of the audience were those scenes we mentioned that from audience POV they could see with their eyeballs right, um, and then the audience is right facing the same direction as the audience would have been. Cafeteria set exactly, um or whatever swing ended up would also sort of go in there right yeah. Yeah, I'm occasionally living room, kitchen, kitchen, and Phoenix, yeah, Phoenie's back The backyard ends up being sort of very middle, yeah, which is so funny because it's actually kind of our at least you said yeah. But also kitchen kitchen back kitchen backyard was kind of the most center um and then classroom you could fully see and really you could see mostly I would call partial school hallway maybe seventy five percent. You wouldn't be really be able to see unless you were in one particular part of the audience. You wouldn't be able to see the ever changing bathroom, Phoenie's principle's office door. Like that door was kind of it was the way to the end and for the audience. So everybody knows you're you're you're not really I mean, you're watching the stage, but you're really looking up at the monitors. There's monitors all on the ceiling and what you're on the you know, hanging above you, and you're watching the show on a television screen. Yes, those monitors are showing you what the cameras are recording and up there switching. So there's a wonderful person called a switcher and their job is to have the list from the director and the associ see a director about which camera you want me to show at which time? Do you want the two shot here? Do you want the master here, and then that person is switching between the cameras so that the audience can see what basically will be the edited version that will eventually air on television. And I would say, if I was an audience member of a show, I would never watch what was up there. I'd want to be watching the actual action on stage directly in front of you, because that's when you would see, oh, so and so is going to break. That's when you would see the kind of fun stuff that you don't end up seeing in the in the final product. Um writer, this is a really good one for you. Could someone please explain the difference between a four camera and a one camera sitcom? How can somebody who just watches TV tell the difference? So I wouldn't ever say that there's like a one camera sitcom, but I know you've recently had The Office, right, You're right, yes, but yes those are those modern family those are considered single camera, right, so generally a hybrid no? No, okay, yeah, so I think the well, there's there's the distinction is like between literally using one camera or multi cameras. That is one form of distinction, but usually what people refer to as multi camera sitcom and single camera sitcom. A multi camera sitcom is front is filmed in front of a live audience, or at least has a laugh track, But it's essentially a play like ours, where we have three three walt sets and four cameras, and the actors are performing every take live um and the cameras are adjusting on the fly. Whereas in a single camera show, you set up individual shots to build your visual storytelling, and so the actors have to Usually you shoot everything in one direction, so you set up the cameras and the lights and you do everything that happens in a scene facing one direction. Then you turn around and have to do all of that again to get the other actors in the scene from the other direction. And you're getting individual shots, close ups of actors, maybe a two shot of two actors, and so you're individually building the story in discrete shots, as opposed to a multi camera sitcom, which is like essentially capturing a live play that's going on. How can so I think the main question was how can somebody who just watches TV know the difference? I think one of the easiest ways to do it essentially, and there are a few, you know, exceptions to this rule. If you hear laughter, yeah, it's a multi camera sitcom. Laugh track, laugh laugh track, or the audience, it's a multi camera sitcom. Now that there's some things that break the trope. Mash is a perfect example where they added a laugh track, which the producers couldn't stand that they added a laugh track. But for the most part, if you hear laughing, like you never hear laughing in the office, you never hear laughing in modern family, you don't. You don't hear that stuff because there's no audience there. You're shooting it like a film, right, So if you hear laughing, it's a multi camera sitcom. Well interesting, Okay, this was more of an observation, which is a car that's This was more of an observation mixed with have you guys noticed this? And I also go ahead and say no ahead of time in season one and maybe others. In the opening credits, the globes are spinning the earth in the wrong direction. It should be west to east. Have you ever noticed this? It took me thirty years to realize that rolling over and was a metaphor. You think I know which way is good because it's a metaphor for going back into the past where we're rewinding to think. Um, I mean, first of all, we all know that it's inaccurate anyway because the Earth is flat. So I mean, just that right, just that alone is wrong. So whatever slash s that's the online version of sarcastic. I'm being sarcastic. That's how you let people know now online that you're being sarcastic. How do you let them know you absolutely believe that it's flat? What do I what do I hit? What? But do I hit there? Slash key for Ernest? Yeah? Exactly? There you go. Okay, Um, if you could be cast in your dream role, TV, movie or Broadway, what would it be? And why? I have no idea anymore because I'm not I'm not. I know, I don't think about it. I would. I would love to do a play. And you know, if if I was gonna, I've I've told myself if I'm ever gonna do acting again, I'm gonna start with a play. Um. And I love Sam Shepherd plays and I feel like I'm finally old enough to be in a Sam Shepherd play. I don't know which one or which role, but if I was going to return. I would, I would do it. Love to do a great play by a good play, right, like a Sam Shepherd's great. That's a good answer. Nice, Well, mine slightly different. Um. I want to be the fun uncle or the the young dad on a sitcom. I'm built for sitcom. It's what I love. It's what I've always wanted to do. I'm I'm a born in bread sitcom actor, and it's it sucks because I'm a born and bred actor targeted to a thing that no longer exists. Right, It's like being a radio actor exactly. Yeah, I'm best farrier in town. Nobody's shoeing horses that much anymore. So that would be my dream job is a classic eighties nineties sitcom where I'm now the young dad or the fine uncle. Right, what about you, Danielle um gosh, I don't know. On the one hand, I love you, know similar to you will. I love sitcom. I love multi cameras. Um, I would love to be a mom on a multicam again. I think that would be great. I'd love to be the Betsy. I could say that Panga from Girl Meets World, But I want to be the Betsy. Yeah. Um, I love. I would love that, but also I love like I loved the Good Place, and I would have loved to have been basically any of the characters on the Good Place, some equivalent to the Good Place, you know, Abbot, Elementary that that would that would be fun. Um, that would probably be mine. I also want to be in a Hallmark movie. We've talked about this. We want to be in some kind of Christmas Hallmark thing where I what I love Christmas now, like, yeah, that'dance? Who are that's my audition Christmas? Well, it's funny. We talked about this before the show started. But for for will Winnie the Pooh movie, while you were in Amsterdam, people wanted to know it was in here. Um. So the next question was somebody, Um, somebody wanted to know who does the booking of guests for the podcasts? How does it all go down? Um? So I'll go ahead and answer this one. Yeah, it's the magic of television. It's the mast. It's great. It's it's an all hands on deck team effort. We among the three of us come up with who the guests are that we want to have. Also, producer Jensen Cart, husband of this podcast, sends us names all the time. How about this person? How about that person? We say, yes, we think this person would be a wonderful guest, they were instrumental into the show, or we think people would like to hear from them. Um, and then whoever has a connection and to them says, I will reach out, Let me send an email, let me send a message, let me do that. Sometimes when it's somebody none of us have a connection to, we get I heart involved and we say, iHeart, do you have a connection to this person. If you do not, can you reach out to their agent? And we send a formal ask. One of the reasons we try to avoid that is little known secret for people who are not involved in the entertainment industry. Reps, agents, managers. Sometimes they will just answer for their clients without ever even sending the message along, and you will have had to have had a conversation with your agent or manager about whether or not you want them to do that. I was always the type, for the most part, to say, by the way, I want to know every single thing that comes in. Even if you think I'm not going to want to do it, I want to be the person to say no to it or say yes to it not you, or then there would be times where I would be like, I don't want to do anything. I don't want to do any press and I would say you can go ahead and stop telling me those things. The answer is us know, unless you think it's going to change my life or that I would have to be an insane person to say no to this thing, go ahead and pass for me. So we like to do it from the personal way of does anybody know this person? Do you have a phone number? Because also getting a personal ask for something is feels better than your manager being called. So it's all hands on deck approach. We also do need a special shout out though, to producer Jensen car pusmandis the podcasts for the amount of work, Yes he does. He ultimately person who schedules all of our He also does all of our scheduling, which once the connection is made, he's the one who coordinates with the actual talent. Correct. So once that connections and they say yes, then Jensen takes over and says what are your avails and gets the avails for those people and then has to work it into our schedules, which our schedules are also all over the place. Will does other podcasts, writer or does other podcasts, and teaches and has travel days. Will does lots of cons so he has travel days. I regularly have directing jobs, and I can't know those for like months ahead of time. Sometimes I get a call and they, you know, they'll say, hey, what's your availability for May, and it's you know, we may have already scheduled dates for May, and then I'll have to change. And so that is a kind of the calendar is a very fluid, evolving ecosystem and it is a very hard thing to manage. And producer Jensen car, husband of this podcast, is really good at it. Yeah. And I feel bad though, because there's times like May, I have jury duty in May. Yeah, and so it's like I won't know until the night before, literally the night before when I call in if I even have to go, I know. So it's like we're trying to see you try to schedule stuff, and it's like, hey, this might happen pass right exactly. Just makes it really difficult. Yeah, And he is married to me, Danielle. He's married to all of us. I know. I'm sorry, I don't mean to insult you. He is a shared husband. He has shared husband. Okay, so someone said they did not quite understand the difference between a producer and a director when we have mentioned them on this podcast. In some cases they have been both. Like Jeff McCracken was a producer, No, wasn't a producer. Producer. He worked for Michael Company. Yeah, which was not the same thing as being a producer. But I thought he was also a producer on the show. He wasn't. Oh maybe maybe he was eventually. But you guys, trainer, you're both directors, so was training or producer? I don't think so, Okay, just think maybe second season. Second season he gets a producer credit if memory serves. His name is now in the front as a producer credit, if memory serves, right. I mean, we talked a little bit about this when I talked about Alex producing movie. Um, yeah, it's it's really in television. Producer is a crew is there? Well, there's two different types of producers. There's the creative producer, which is is usually a writer with a lot of creative input for the overall show, so they're not only just writing an individual episode, which would be a staff writer who's just part of the team and writing episodes, and they usually get one episode with their name on it, but they're participating in the writing for every episode. The upgrade from being a writer is to be a producer who is also a writer, So you're still getting paid as a writer, but now you're functioning as a producer or an executive producer, which is even higher creatively and that those people, you know, have more creative input on the whole storyline and more authority in the writing room. And then an EP is the highest credit among the EP and producers. There's a show runner, yeah, but there's usually a showrunner, which is not an official title that is not paid for. But there's usually one person who is designated as the runner of the room. Yeah, the person who runs the actual room. So those seasons that David Kendall was there, he would be the person in the room saying, who's writing this episode? We got this episode coming up due to the and like sort of coordinating people's schedule. Captain of the ship, the captain of the ship, right, But in general with our show, Michael Jacobs was the head executive producer cola showrunner, so he mostly ran the writing room and gave notes after run throughs. And then there are producers like we've talked about Karen McCain and producer who are line producers. They are the ones in charge of the actual production, making sure that camera people show up, that lunch has taken care of, that people get paid doing all the books, and that's like a more of a logistical producer real position, and so they also get a producer credit. Director is the person who is in charge of the visual storytelling and the engaging with the actors performances, so they're in charge of giving the actors notes. Executive producers are not supposed to give actors notes without going through the director. That obviously didn't happen very often on our show, right Our executive producer like to just give notes. But technically, according to DJA rules, only the director is supposed to be giving notes to actors and working with them on how to perform and be in the scene, and then figuring out the camera, which shots are lining up, where to tell the story. That's what a director does, and a director on a sitcom is in second position to the writing staff for the most part. It's a very important role for the actors, but as far as creatively, the sort of packing order is executive producers creative writing. Those people are the sort of the kings and queens of television. Right. The director's job on a sitcom is to bring those people's dreams and ideas for the show to life. It's not the director's medium. The director is not going, this is my dream for this. It's kind of like what do you want them to do? And then their job is to make it happen. Right, They're more like the executive branch of like, yeah, technical side of things. In film, a director is much more the creative voice. So even if they didn't write the script, they're the ones on set making the movie from start to finition. It's a much more creative position. So film directors are the main creative right. Everything goes through the director on a film set. Also, you get into different rules as far as what the producers mean on movie sets as well. There's a capital P producer versus like a executive producer on a movie. Actually, the executive producer is not necessarily usually or or a title given to someone who had a significant role in making the movie happen, but wasn't the person financial producers guilt, by the way, there is no This is one of the part of the very easy answer is that the producer producer is a nebulous term, precisely because there is no union, there's no guild like there are for the other positions, so writing and directors, and so the reason that producer credit gets thrown out is because there's no one regulating it within the industry. So there's been a lot of talk the last couple of years of Formula Producers Association that will represent them and enforce these titles, because yeah, like a producer credit has been given as a way to give writers a bump financially or given them a new title, when actually, like, as far as the writer's Guild is concerned, those mean nothing. So it's a tricky position. You guys had so many cues, and we had so many a's. This episode is just getting too long, so we're going to split it into two with a bonus episode. Don't worry, you don't have to wait long. It's coming out tomorrow. We love you all. Pod Dismissed Pod meets World is an iHeart podcast produced and hosted by Danielle Fischel, Wilfordell and Writer Strong. Executive producers Jensencarp and Amy Sugarman, executive in charge of production, Danielle Romo, producer and editor, Tara Sudbach producer, Jackie Rodriguez, engineer and Boy Meets World super fan Easton Allen. Our theme song is by Kyle Morton of Typhoon. You can follow us on Instagram at Pod Meets World Show or email us at Pod Meets World Show at gmail dot com