Danny McNulty Meets World

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