TGI - Episode 201 "Back 2 School"

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Speaker 1: Hey, it's Wilfred l here. Now, before we get into the new episode of Pod Meets World, I have a major announcement. Yes, just in time for the thirtieth anniversary of Boy Meets World. Where on YouTube. That's right, you can now see our faces and action, which I guess is a good and bad thing. But okay, so we're gonna put up twenty episodes from season one, some of our favorites, so you can experience our looks of surprise, embarrassment, and pure joy with both your ears and your eyeholes. So go to our YouTube channel, it's just Pod meets World to see the first few episodes and subscribe for all new releases and let me know what you think of a face. I have some news, guys. Okay, you have heard, dear listener. We have talked a lot about April Kelly and where is April Kelly and what is the story of April Kelly? And I was able to track her down and she reached out to me. I reached out to her, She got back to me right away. We had a wonderful conversation and I asked her on behalf of Will and Writer and myself. I asked her if she would be a guest on our pod, and it didn't take her long to say no before we got out, would you know. Yeah, it was pretty much like that. She's been incredibly private, right. Yeah, she's basically left Hollywood. She moved away, and she moved away. She has a curly separate career. I mean, she has an incredible Hollywood career. She's had multiple incredible careers. Um, and she yeah, she's overall just kind of an incredible, fascinating her sin And she said she just doesn't want to dip her toe back into this world. And it had nothing to do with our dear listeners, That had nothing to do with the three of us. Um, she just wasn't interested. But what she was interested in doing was writing me a letter that I could read on the podcast, so that her, her voice and her words, um had a place, but that they she just wasn't gonna appear on the podcast. So, without further ado, here is a pod Meets World letter from April Kelly. Greetings to all you pod meets World listeners. I bet some of you think acting on a TV show must be the sweetest gig on earth, especially for a kid. Let me give you a sobering dose of reality. It is actual work, taking up maybe forty hours of your week, and you still have to go to school. Every show with underage actors must have two adults on set tasked with ensuring the safety and welfare of those mini tornadoes in human form. One is the welfare worker who makes sure nobody like me slap someone upside the head, and the other is the teacher who keeps their studies on par with regular school so they will not be too far behind their peers when the show was canceled or goes on hiatus. So you have a full time job, You have all that study and homework, and on top of that, you are dealing with the unique issues that come with working on any show. What kind of issues you ask for? Starters. In order to play to Pengo with those Botta Chelly curls we producers decided would be so freaking cool, Danielle had to arrive several hours earlier than the rest of the cast so her mom and a hairdresser could turn her long, beautiful hair into the ten thousand, six d twenty eight individual ten drils that created the character's iconic looks. Maybe it wasn't exactly ten thousand, six twenty eight, But trust me, it was a bunch. How long do you think you could sit still and be tortured like that? Or how about Will? He was only seventeen when we learned him from New York to l A to play Corey's big brother Eric. His parents were back east, and he didn't know anybody on the West Coast but his own older brother. Can you imagine being that isolated as a teenager, especially starting a new job surrounded by a bunch of complete strangers and really wanting to impress them enough to get your career going. As Writer went through the normal puberty fueled brooding and angst, he simultaneously appeared to wrestle with the very concept of being an actor at my request. At my request, his teacher occasionally slipped me one of his essays or other written assignments, and it was obvious even back then that playing best friend Sean would only be the precursor of tapping into skills he would feel more comfortable with, like writing and directing. With all that personal challenge, long work weeks and keeping up with school assignments, those three child actors never once let their personal stress leak through into their performances. To Pango was ever the girl whose insight and wisdom came wrapped in endearing daffiness. Eric's impish smile and hilarious shallowness never undermined his position as protector of his younger siblings, and Sean remained the supportive and steadfast friend each of us wishes we had, even in the face of the character's struggles with a family situation that was not always healthy. Their unflagging professionalism sharply contrasted with the childish antics, ridiculous demands, and surly attitudes I had run across with adult actors throughout my career. Because they always behaved with consummate professionalism, it was easy for me to forget sometimes that they were children, which is why I was so delighted that first October when the wardrobe mistress called me at home to tell me the entire cast of kids intended to show up in Halloween costumes the next morning. I remember scrambling to find a photographer to capture their spooky finery and paying for it myself, as the studio and network had no interest in spending their own money to memorialize the event in my long career of writing and producing situation comedies, one hour dramas, TV movies and miniseries. Those photos where I posed with the cast and my four ft long flowered clown tie and my high healed sneakers represent the one and only time I ever intentionally had my picture taken with any actor. Ugly studio politics swirling far outside the notice of the young cast precluded my returning to the show I created for a second year, but I knew quote my kids unquote would be in good hands with director David Trainer, also a consummate professional and the perfect man to protect them from the worst of the disgusting behavior and dismissive attitude displayed by a certain other jerk who shall remain nameless. Even though I spent only one season on Boy Meat's World, I have always kept happy memories of that time, and I have the pictures to prove it. Wow. So there you go. That got me emotional. There's our our letter from a brokelly. What a lost voice in that room. It's intense that she was so aware of who we were and um what our experience was like, because yeah, I mean we we barely were aware. I look back and I'm like, what was happening? Um, So it's so nice that um, you know, yeah, and she was there for us. Yeah, listeners, you should google her and see what she's done. The career this woman has had on television, that this woman has had, it's phenomenal. It really writes books now too, by the way, you guys can find her books mysteries. Yeah, she can write. I mean she can. She can blow doors off. I mean it's insane. Yeah, absolutely, I mean I'm sure you can tell from that letter. But check out her books and google her and see some of the people she's worked with and show she's created and helped run and I mean so much too. As we've learned doing this show. Um, is how many things go uncredited. You know, how many jobs people get because they come in and are asked to fix something somebody else did, But depending on how much they fixed it, that may never even your name never even gets credited. You're just kind of discarded and the original person gets all the credit. And so there's a ton of things you know that I'm sure she wasn't even credited for. But the things she's she is credited for. Our mind blowing. So anyway. UM, I I sincerely wish she was willing to be a guest on the podcast because I would love for you all to hear her voice in her own voice. UM. But with that said, I one hundred percent to understand why she does not want to do it. Yeah. We've also said from the beginning that we don't ever want anybody to come on here and be uncomfortable. The last thing we're looking for is trying to have anybody come out here and be even slightly uncomfortable about talking about anything. And so you know, again she if she even has that moment of hesitation, then it's like that it's not worth it. It's just I know, I want you to feel that way. You know. We also asked Lily if Lily was interested in coming on and and Lily very politely declined, And I wrote her a second time, uh, telling her how much we'd love to have her on, And she declined a second time, and I said, I totally get it. I will no longer bug you, just so you know you have an open door policy. If you ever change your mind, we would love to have you on. Um. And so yeah, for you know, we've we've discussed it there's Um, there's a lot of good and and hard that comes with talking this openly and looking at your experiences and looking at yourself in this way. Um, and I understand why people don't want to do it. And as always, like I said, Lily, open door policy, Ben open door policy, April, open door policy. Um, if they change their minds, I'd love to have them all right, Well, call us gluttons for punishment. No break. We talked about it. Should we take a break between season one and season two? Where? Should we just keep going? And you know what, we love each other, We love the show and we love you guys so much. We decided who needs a break? Will sleep when we're dead? Sweet sweet sleep, Sweet sweet sleep of death. I'd like to change my vote? Is it too late to change my vote? It's a little too late? Well, fair enough. I was thinking about it before we jump into season two. Do you guys remember the hiatus, the summer hiatus between season one and season two and what you did and and all that. Do you remember also when you heard that the show was picked up? Did we know when season? Like? How far after season when ended? We did we know? That's an interesting question. I kind of I don't remember it did. Now it seems inevitable that we would be picked up. So but at the time, like we've talked about, when we were filming the last episode, there was the sense that it could be the end. So it wasn't for sure, but I know what our rays were good. I think we were pretty confident. I think there was there was a sense that it could end. You know, there was there was no guarantee. Um also, maybe I felt that way because we knew people could get fired at any moment, but certainly, like I, I like there was a sense. I remember there was a sense of we were getting twenty four share on some episodes, which was a big deal. And I remember there was a sense that we were hit. So I actually don't even know if I can't explain it perfectly. Four people were watching the show in so ratings used to work. The Nielsen ratings used to work. I mean, I'm assuming they still do, but no one really cares about them anymore. As in the same way, but it used to work that you would have a share of the audience um or, and I don't know how it worked out. Was at a percentage? Was it actually twenty four million? Million if I think a million, yeah, I think, I think. I'm not sure if that's like like a Actually the way it worked, but there was a shorthand that if you got a twenty four share, that meant like twenty three million or twenty four million people were watching the show, and that was like our bit, and it was Corey's Alternative Friends was our first episode to reach that, and then we continued to hit that number on a somewhat regular basis throughout the first season, which meant that we were a hit, that we were enough to stay on the air. Nowadays, that would be like the biggest television show of all time, because I'm yeah, by the time, I mean when we were getting when we got canceled in our seventh season, we were still getting like twenty share or whatever, and like only a few years later that would have been the number one show on television. So you know, I don't mean to interrupt in this might make it more confusing, but it says in TV media planning, a share refers to the percentage of households that is exposed to an advertisement measured against the total number of households who were watching television at that specific time, which people. Yes, that's the way. Yeah, I think that's that's that's what it means. But it basically means that that that your show is worth money the network because that means that means that they're able to turn to advertisers and say, we're getting this kinds of numbers, do you want to advertise on this show? And so for a show like ours, that's everything because that's the network then decides to keep you around. Um yeah, so I don't I don't know, I just yeah, So I didn't remember this correctly. I had thought between second and third season I went off and did an ABC Movie of the Week, but I actually did it between first and second season. Yeah, I did, which is crazy, like you know, there I and will You ended up doing multiple versions of these. But you know, back then they would just like cast you in a TV show if you were on like on a b R in a movie. So ABC did Movies of the Week and they just gave me a job, I guess as an indication of like how well boy Me's world was doing and that I was getting sort of acknowledged as a as an actor on this show and like not no longer just the two line best friend. They just offered me the starring role in this ABC movie of the Week called Summertime Switch, and so I went off to Jacksonville, Florida for at least three weeks. It was. It was an amazing in cast. Actually, so it's Jason Weaver who had been um the singing voice of Young Simba, and he was an amazing singer and dancer, uh and actor. He was UM. He was also in the Jackson five movie that had been come out around that time, like maybe a year or two before they did a television movie about the Jackson five. So he was this an incredibly talented actor. And we played two guys who go to the wrong summer camp, like we have the same name, and I'm like the preppy guy and he's like the criminal kid, and we I end up at the prison summer camp and he ends up at like the rich kids summer camp. And so I actually didn't get to work with Jason all that much because we were on opposite scenes all the time. But also had Soleigh Moonfry in it. It had David tom if you guys remember David Toms, Patrick Grenna and one of the sand Loot guys was in it. When he was him a lot, So it was a really fun cast. It was just basically like it was basically like summer camping in Jacksonville, Florida. Like I remember I did my first time doing karaoke out there, um, and like none of us really cared about the movie. Were like, you know, I think I'm horrible in this film. I had to play basketball, which I think I talked about on this show was the biggest. But this also explains why my hair is so short coming back into season two, because they gave me like a super short, preppy haircut, and I'm like, you know, I don't know. You know, some people have reached out to me and said that they love this movie. I refused to watch. Oh god, it's so maybe it's amazing. I'm not going to watch it though, I'm so embarrassed. But to the rewatch of Summertime Switch podcasts, No, No, why writer it Similarly to the way you look like a child in Boy Meets World, you would look like a child in this movie. And so it's not going to be like self conscious because it looks like you as a grown man on screen. Why would you not watch it? I think I'm very bad in and I remember having struggles with the director. I remember the director wanting me to be funnier and pushing me into you know what was probably required, which was to be an over the top funny character. And I didn't want to be that actor, Like I didn't enjoy that kind of acting, Like I was not interesting. Like I remember him specifically being like, be more like Jim Carrey, you know how Jim carried and like, I am not that guy like and at the time, I I didn't like that, Like I didn't want you know, of course, I wanted to be a serious actor. I wanted to be a real actor. I came from theater. Boy Meets World was not really my style like doing, you know. So I just suddenly found myself being plugged into this over the top comedy, which I'm sure is fine. It just wasn't me, you know. And so I was very uncomfortable the entire time with the actual acting. And so when I look back on it, I just feel uncomfortable and the like when I've seen screenshots, I just it makes my skin crawl. As an experience, it was super fun off camera, like it we were all staying in the same hotel, you know, it's all a bunch of kids and our parents and we would just play games and hang out and um, it was so like it was a good experience as far as the you know, the friendships that I've forged and the relationships we had off camera, but on camera I was I was really uncomfortable and unhappy, which you know just happens. I challenge you to doing a Summertimes which rewatch this season within as a special episode. We can, we can rewatch it and talk about it. You can say no, but I'm just throwing it out there with love. It would be a it's a safe space and then we can do my date with the President's daughter there you go. Yeah, but Will is actually great in that if I remember, I'm phenomenal, absolutely phenomenal that the thing Will was always you just always loved acting like you were always so comfortable in your skin, and you knew exactly what you were doing and who you were, and you were doing exactly what you like I grew up wanting to do. You know, for me, I was always like, why am I here? What is happening? And I just always felt, you know, out of place? Was always less Jim Carrey less like Jim Carrey, so, well, what did you do during that summer hiatus? This was in some ways of a wonderful hiatus for me, and in some ways a very horrible hiatus for me. So I was living in Los Angeles, I had, you know, was starting my life as an adult, and then I had to go back and graduate high school. And high school was not a good time for me. Um, I did not you know, I was not treated real well in high school. I didn't have a close group of friends. Um, you know, I wasn't going to any of the parties and any stuff. And then I came back and from being on television, I was now one of the popular guys, and and they had rewritten history to where all the times I was not invited to parties, all of a sudden I was there. So they'd start saying things like remember that party, and I'd be like, no, I wasn't there, Like yeah you were, Yeah, no we hung out that Like, all of a sudden, I was rewritten into this history where every Friday night I was home with my parents. But now everyone wanted to brag about being your friend now. So it was so the first three months leaving the show, was tough because it was like I just wanted to get through school. By that point, I was just over seas would end in March, and so we would still of like most of March, April, May, and then however long Intervil. So I had like three and a half months of school and I was just over it. I wanted to just get out. And and then so once once I graduated, it was great because then I went and did UM, an awesome show on Nickelodeon. I did in an episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark, which is a super cool show and has become like a cult hit, and I got to play a character we were up in. We shot it up in Montreal, and I got to play a character who's walking home through these thick woods. You would have loved it. Writer like this, He's a revolutionary work. And it turns out, yeah, it turns out that he runs into a character an old Rever War soldier. I think we watched it one time at your house because I asked, and a ton of fun. And my one cool friend from high school I literally talked to you last night, who I'm still really good friends with. UM was an extra and he was the guy who He always looked like he was forty when when we were in high school. So sitting right behind me is is a guy we're supposed to be like freshman in high school. It looks like it's like sweet Beard. He came up to visit you when you were in Montreal. She was my he I was not yet eighteen, so I think he was like my legal guardian because he was eighteen and a half or something like that. So we drove up. We got into my car. He and I would always take road trips. He driven across the country a bunch of times with up Google shout out um and he would. So we drove up to Montreal from Kenneticut was like a six hour drive and we went to checked everything out and hung out in Montreal and I got to shoot be the best and I got to shoot for It was like two weeks and we just had it was just fun. So it was it was the tale of two to hiatuses for me where it started really bad and ended really great. And I like writer. I honestly can't remember finding out when the show was picked up. I have no memory of Actually, I don't know if I got a call or we were all. I mean, there wasn't an email chain or anything like that at the time. So I imagine you get a call from agent right going, hey, they picked you up for another season. But I have no memory of it whatsoever. Yeah, I don't either. I have no memory of that. Also have no memory of the summer. But I also like, just went back to normal school, and then we probably went to Hawaii. My family went to Hawaii every year, so that's where I came back with that stellar tan and the natural blonde highlights. And you hate it, and now you hate the beach. I don't. I don't want to be in the sun, but I do think I do love the beach and on the beach. Correct, that is what I do if I go to a tropical place. I'm under a cabana um. But yeah, I have no fun summer stories. Did you. You didn't shoot anything or anything in between. I never once shot anything in between. I never wanted to another project. Mostly by choice, I wanted to go back to I was such a regular school kid. I wanted to go back to regular school so bad. I loved the flip of just being able to be with my high school friends and the high school boys and the you know, the normal high school experience. I wanted to do that, and um, I also don't think I think I was also like, I'm not going to audition. I work all throughout the year. I don't want audition for stuff. And I don't think I was being offered anything. I don't think I turned it down an offer, but maybe I did. But no, I have such boring hiatus stories, so I'm gonna just yours. I'll think about it. Maybe I'll make one up for between season three and season four or something. Yeah, there's there's some kind of saving a kid from a fire or something you can Yeah, that's a good idea. Okay, well we'll workshop that. I like it. Well, welcome to Pod meets World. I'm Daniel Fishel, I'm right or Strong, and I'm Wilfredell. Okay. So, season two, episode one, back to School. It originally aired September. The synopsis is Corey and Sean don't exactly enjoy their first day of high school when they face a new teacher, a bully, and a face from the past. It was directed by David Traynor, written by David Kendall. His first episode on Boy Mets world, So many changes, so many changes. Two, we have a lot of guest stars, so many guest stars. We have Anthony Tyler Quinn who was listed as a guest star. Really, I think he was a regular by this thought started as a regular. Yeah, to double check, I thought interesting. So Anthony Tyler Quinn. We know him affectionately as Tony Quinn. He played Mr Turner, Danny McNulty, Harley Kiner, Kevin West was Mr Stimpleton, Laura Scott was the nurse Blake Soaper, Joey the Rat, Ethan Supply, Frankie Stachino, Marguerite Murrow was Gail the long haired brunette, and Jeremy Wyand was Alvin. And I think he is the person at the opening of the show who doesn't have a shirt on says that the seniors stole his shirt. No, Alvin. He was one of the quote unquote nerds, wasn't he? And did you say the other nerd which is Kaplan? What's his name? The nerds were Jonathan Charles Kaplan. He was Herbert and here's yeah, he worked. He took over from me from the Graduate when we did really, when I did the tour for the Graduate play, yeah, he took over from me, so I met him years later and when we were in our twenties. But the other nerd, Lucas Jackson. Guess what that NERD's name was, what Limpkey? No, yeah, really recycled. They recycled the name and just gave him the last name. Calm on. Well if you think, I mean, you know, you didn't work the first time, why would anybody know, so you just pull out the same kind of uncool though. I agree, mostly because my very first thought. And we're not even in the recap yet, but yes, they started off the scene in the school with two two nerds. I know it's it's it's that it was infuriated. I know it was infuriated. And then to find out in looking it up, Lemky, I honestly it was a little insulted. Um. So yeah, So Jeremy Wyant wasn't. Alvin was not one of those two nerd characters, and Lemkey so I think he was. I think he's I think Alvin the senior seniors. Um. And then this was actually my first normal credit on the show. I wasn't listed as a guest. Hey, welcome to the show, Danielle. So I my mom swears that I was, so I don't know. The mystery continues. I need to talk. We need to talk to Judy Savage. Um. And now we are as part of the cast. And you you were, you were, You must have been guaranteed thirteen out of exactly that's I think what it was. I was regular, but I was only guaranteed thirteen or maybe even seventeen out of twenty one, but I think it was thirteen for the first For this second season, and we've got a new I guess, short and cool cartoon opening, no credits really just new theme music and a and a cartoony dude being discussed. Do you guys remember this, Like I, I I don't know. I remember Michael pitching us this during note session. We're not gonna have opening credits, We're just gonna have a cool cartoon. And it's it was kind of like a I think maybe it was a new idea or maybe just a trendier thing that was. You know, it was like an evolution in television shows. They were moving away from that sort of eighties sitcom opening credits, you know. But it's also you get more time to do, get way more time for writing, which is why. Obviously the writers loved it um but I think it was a relatively new idea at the time. And then of course we ended up going back to opening credits in the intern near the end. I wonder where I did. I didn't want the I didn't care whether or not it was the first one, but I kind of missed having opening credits. I think it's great for actors to be individualized too, Like I seeing an actor's face with their name, I think that's really part of the reason. You know, like people know my name, like people know that no you know any anything to say like this is a performance, this is a person beyond this character. I think it is respectful for actors like to be to be identified that way. I know it. It breaks the fourth wall, and it can kind of make it. It can get easily get hokey. But as far as like what actors bring and and and and recognizing actors as individuals and not just part of an ensemble but individuals, I really like opening credits for that, but I don't like them creatively, as you know, as far as breaking the fourth wall experience, I disagree. I like to get I like more show. I want to have more show. It's like, here's the show. We've got great, this is the title of it. Let's move on, right. And I guess nowadays it doesn't matter as much because you can always look up actors on the internet. You can easily be like, who's the person who plays blah blah blah. But back then, the only way anybody ever knew like that, right or strong wasn't the guy who was the cool teacher but the kid, you know, it was because of those opening credits under our faces, like yeah, it was a really respectful sort of like showcase of this person is this character. I just never cared about that stuff. I was one of those guys like it's like, well, your fourth on the call sheet or third on the call So for people out there don't know, you get a call sheet kind of every week telling you, you know, when you have to come into the set, who's going to be there that day, And the where you're listed on the call sheet is usually where your credit on our show. And it was a script, right, and we don't really have a call It was our scripts, and so I just didn't. It was I had agents that were like, well, do you want us to fight? So you can be. I was like, I don't care where I'm listed. I do not care at all about that stuff. I will let my performance speak for itself, and I don't care where you have me on the list of people. I've just always done that, so I'd like I get when to get to the show. Plus, but you know, again going back to the shows like Mash and Cheers and stuff like that, I would rather have seen a longer episode of those shows than see the same title over over again. Um yeah, yeah, I think it's it's lost. It's it's lost its value for at because everyone can be looked up online, it doesn't matter as much. But now there is also a value in you know, you think about the Game of Thrones opening credits, like there's so much heavy lifting being done as far as like explaining the world and mapping it out for people and like giving you a sense of you know. And I also think that there's there's become this huge movement I mean basically post the seven opening credits. Um that this idea of like stylistically establishing the tone through the opening credits. You know, like that's like basically now you can't have an HBO show without like creepy piano music and like an amazingly shot opening credit sequence that sets the tone for the entire show. But I really starting to explain the world didn't really start with James Bond, the James Bond movies where it was like that was the big thing. Was what who was going to sing the opening song? What the opening title credit was going to be? That was like a character of the movie was was that kind of stuff. But well, let's jump into our recap. We start in the Matthews kitchen, and boy, oh boys, it pretty obvious right off the top that a lot growing up has happened for everybody. Yeah, Alan yells for Corey Rusty is a fresh new cut, saying he's going to be late for the first day of high school, and Amy says, oh, he's probably nervous. Corey comes down and Morgan says, go back to camp loser. Morgan, his aide, looks ten years old and she's all hipped out in her blossom hat. Yeah, like very stylized in a completely new direction. I was like, Ben looks like he's grown two to three inches. He's he's freaking out. Really, he looks different, he looks different. He looks totally different. He was like, yeah, I could not stop saying. I was like, yeah, that's what happens when you grow Yeah, you know. Yeah. The difference apparently between him at twelve and thirteen was quite a lot. Corey is actually in a good mood. He's not nervous for his first day of high school at all. He knows his role and he is excited. He says all summer he bugged Eric and he took notes about what he heard. He needs to be friends with Harley Kinner, a most feared and influential senior at school. He will protect him. Alan and Amy say he doesn't need to reinvent himself for high school and no one has a plan like that. He's the only person with a plan. And then Sean walks in saying he lost his copy of the plan and he's wearing fake cyberns cybernst me yeah, and he was like what are those things? What happened? Why do you have hair? And I was like, it's they're fake, don't worry. But yeah, it felt like a a bit that yeah didn't really land but really had a long run. We just I'm wearing them for the next kind of two scenes. Yeah, it's so weird because I've seen, you know, people have like pulled screen grabs from this or and people think like, oh, those are actual sidemus because they look realistic enough, they should have gone faker. I feel like, yeah, it should have been more obvious that they were fake. And you noticed that Rusty the entire time is doing the actor pushes food around with this thing. Well, I would like to discuss this. Actually, what on earth is he eating? Is at breakfast soup? Is it cereal? What is that? Because he eat it when he comes down, Well, he takes the bull from from Rusty, so we don't know what you eat like a champ and you're I know, you're like, I couldn't have no idea what it was yellow, It looked like it looked like chedd cheddar broccoli soup or something. I was just pushing it around. That's probably why he's pushing it around. It looks really he's no, he's probably pushing it around because he knows you're going to take it and eat it. So he wasn't going to contaminate your soup with his germs. That's true. So Eric comes downstair. Eric comes downstairs and hands core know he's starting to get there. Now, he's starting to turn the corner. Eric comes downstairs and hands Corey a contract to not contact him during school hours. He's only to refer to him as Eric, the great one on campus. I loved well how you knew what all the words of the contract were, and so you were like you were like mouthing it as he was like an East Coast prep. Now we are done with grunge and hum and thin super thin I know. Yeah, Michael Jacob's talk did that for me. So really that was between season one season to know it was it the end of season was like towards the end of season one was that we were noticing your gaining weight. So that was in my head the whole time in between seasons. So yeah, it was Yeah. I made I made sure I did not look like that when I came back. Yeah, definitely. Hey, it looks good. It worked. You do look great. I know, green shoes in the green sweater. Yeah, I had that sweater until like three years ago, did you. Yeah, Oh that's amazing. Yeah, I love that sweater. It seems like a will sweater, right. Uh So yeah, you explain to your parents that you can't really associate with your brother at school. Sorry. Pheeny walks in saying a huge object is blocking his driveway and it's Eric's car. Sean and Corey Yeah, Shawn and Cory ask Poenie if he'll miss them now that they're off to high school, and he says no, and then as Eric and Feenie leave to figure out the car situation, Sean says high school means they are done with Poenie and that it is the greatest day of their lives. They do their handshake to celebrate, but they say they should do something a bit cooler now that they're going to high school, and they do a new cooler handshake like that. It's exactly the same, but we're just doing it like, hey, laughing by the end, Yeah, it's just to slow down hipcat version. Yeah exactly. I think Amy and Allen are laughing too. I'm like genuinely, Rusty and Betsy are laughing while you're doing this. Everybody was just having fun by this point. Can we talk about I mean, I'm just I'm just overwhelmed by this episode. I'm like, I am dizzy with how different It's a whole different show and it's shocking. I am uncomfortable. I am very scared for how I'm going to feel. I'm sure it will change, but this episode completely threw me for a I do not feel good, Like it's a weird, like body reaction. I don't want. And I wonder how much Okay, we're just going into season two really quickly, Like I think having a year off would have been nice, you know, like having a summer would have been nice. But I wonder how much the audience felt this too, you know how much how much of that is just natural television, you know new season factor like okay, and how much of it is because it obviously I have a personal identification with the show. I don't know, but I just don't feel good about anything. I think. I think a lot of it is personal identification. Also because as I'm reading the credits, I also realized behind the scenes was complete. Everything was different, Everything was different. It's chaos, there's so much, there are characters, there's like fifteen bit parts. There's store wines where it feels like and I don't like it. I already missed season one. Season one was like a revelation of how comfortable and cozy and awesome, And this just feels like and that what if I if I'm being honest, if I'm objective, I was impressed with how the storylines, how much they were able to pack in. They were able to pull off amazing arcs, you know, Eric coming back at the end, like I was. I was, I was Feenie being incorporated. Mr Turner being introduced. Like when I actually look at it on paper, I am impressed. I go, Wow, they pulled it off. Sean, is there pancas there? Like some of the even in this opening scene you get to see the family is still around. But it did not feel good watching the experience. Like I can objectively say they pulled it off, but as a as an experience, I am very uncomfortable with this. I agree, But could you argue that the uncomfortability that you're feeling would mirror the same uncomfortability you would actually feel going into high school? I'm sure, yeah, yeah, I mean that's a great way to think about it. I just don't like, I'm hoping that this fades, you know, And I think it's just like the new haircut, new clothes feeling. It's just awkward and it's weird. It doesn't it doesn't feel like my show. And it does, by the way, feel what everyone said the reason for letting Lee go. It does feel aged up, and and I don't necessarily know that I like it. It's you know, um, I know that we have to grow up. But there was something that I had really, we had all really settled into nicely at the end of season one. Uh. And you're right, well, it's the comfort and coziness of a safe environment and then the idea of entering high school you're no longer safe. You have that that band aid has been ripped off. But I could not agree with you more writer, And will I know you feel the same way it is. I'm uncomfortable. I'm just uncomfortable. And I don't know. I don't remember feeling this as we shot it. Do you I think I think I was, because yeah, I mean, I mean I'm fine, like I think I'm fine in the episode, but I don't. I mean, I am very I can tell that I am uncomfortable, like I don't know, like I the whole thing just threw me for a loop. I was like, no, no, no, it's like starting a whole new show. That's what I That's how I looked at it. I was like, okay, so it's just a brand new show. That's what I have to look at it as, is they just here's the family again. The dynamics are kind of the same, but not really. Now we've got all these new characters doing all this new stuff, and it's weird. It was. Yeah, it's very off the Nerds with the whole because it's always going through my head was it should have been late so there was now to hear that the character's name was lem Key. That's horrifying. Yeah, so yeah, it was strange. Well, we we meet those two new Nerd characters in the school hallway. They walk into the hallway saying, high school, what happens to us now? We'll determine our entire futures. And then Corey and Sean opened the door and it hits them in the face and they say basically the exact same thing. Why and how this was not just Lee? We will never know? Um did this joke work for you guys at all? It's three times three or four times? And I never found it funny. I was watching it. I knew it was coming because I remembered it, and I was like, I don't. I don't think this is not funny and it just never never gotta laugh. Indie never liked it. It It was never. It's like this, I don't know, I don't, I don't, I don't I understand, like about this episode that I thought missed, which is ironic because I think there's a lot about this episode that landed. I thought Tony's character landed very well, I thought, and we'll get to it. I thought it was little much at first, um, little little cartoony, but we'll we'll get to all. What you mean exactly, teach you, teach you the same thing, you know, he's like, but it's um, Yeah, So there was a lot that didn't land and starting with this kind of stuff and then getting into the seniors took my clothes like it's setting up a weird I don't know. It was, yeah, and maybe it was just thrown by the whole thing. So that's that's what I'm trying. Yeah, I think I think my third or fourth episode, we're going to be like, this is great, right, everybody's comfortable. It's just like, you know, but there's something you know, you think about how ambitious of the first episode. This is just like we were saying, well, behind the scenes must have been chaos. You have a whole new crew, whole new writing staff, and you bring on like literally twelve guest cast to a new and it's insanity. We must have been pulling our hair out going crazy this week. You must have been there's I honestly don't. I have no memory of of I remembered the episode or parts of it, but I have no memory of actually doing it. I have memory of the scene with us in the hallway, which well we will get to right now. So Alvin the kid in his underwear, and he says, seniors the same years, they took my clothes, and I thought it was I think the thing that above me the most is that he likes walking through the hallway and then just walks right up to Corey, just directly to Corey. Seniors senior to seniors. I know, uh. And and he says that they took his clothes just because he's the new kid, and oh, Corey is also a new kid. And then new character alert Frankie comes over and smashes Corey into the lockers because Corey was almost in his way. Fantastic Future Pod meets World guest in principly cannot wait to talk to him an incredible actor. Sean says they were just looking for their home room, and then another new character alert, another kid named Joey enters and points to the locker says that's where their home room is. So Sean jumps into it. And I thought this was a really fantastic moment of Sean going oh right here, Oh okay, I'll go ahead and jump in. I thought it was great. And then I had a real memory of being in those lockers and like having them custom made and however, you know, making sure that you could fit, and they were all just specially made lockers, which I was like out there basically had a latch on the inside. Yeah, that's funny, I remember photo coph God. So, now with their attention on Corey, Joey and Frankie get into their own little fight because Frankie thinks Joey just called him gay. Where I'm from, it comes from nothing. It right, was that he's so insecure, insecure his sexuality that he leaps to did you just call me these jokes aged like milk? Yeah, no, horrible, this was and it's so I know at the time it was far more common, so I'm sure watching it at the time it wasn't nearly as jarring as it was to watch now. No. I saw an episode of Friends from even later that did this almost exactly. Or it had a series of gay jokes like throughout. It was a runner throughout, and I was like, whoa, this was totally normal, like the eighties and nineties. That was the joke Bill and Ted's all that stuff. I mean, this was like you instantly went it was a nine. Yeah, it was. It was like a nineties insult. Well, Bill and Ted's just actually used the F word, like awefully, And that was really hard because I wanted to watch Bill and Ted's with the Indian and he was so totally up his alley totally but he he's like, what does that word mean? I'm like, right here you go, and you know, like he just does not and even with this beat and he was like what yeah, because you know, gay is not a bad word, Like he we have so many gay friends, his best friend's parents, like multiples friends of his are gay parents. So like the idea of like calling somebody gay or somebody being insecure for being called gay, Like he was like literally did not understand what was happening, didn't, which is wonderful for how the world has changed. Um, so you know, I do have to say that as opposed to like what I started to say, is as opposed to Bill and Ted's which just went for the the word this is clever, right, Like this has a layer to it that is like, oh, you have to sort of assume, you know, his his homophobia, that he's internalized, that maybe has feelings he's not processed come out in this awful way, and that he's a bully worried about that. I can see, like, you know, there's lay up levels to it. But yes, the the ultimate point of the Joe is completely lost on a new generation. Like it's a good thing, thank god. Yeah, so it's yeah, did not did not feel good, didn't age well at all? Um, Well, can we talk about in general the retro vibe of this entire story line like these two bullies, these three bullies, right, I mean it's it's straight this like Grease nineteen fifties, three o'clock high happening like not none of this fault reflective of nineties high school experience, but it was written by super happy something believe how like, yeah, retro this and you know, wearing the bowling shirt and like the grease. I mean, like Carly Kleiner just looks like he's straight of the fifties. And then Ethan and Joey, you know, the doing everybody's doing like a New York sort of like it all of in New York. He was like everybody really, yes, everybody's from Brooks. I mean it was like it just became this like cartoon nineteen fifties childhood that does not square with the show we had from before. And I think it becomes more conscious and funny later on, but it felt very awkward to be like so different. It was so different that then every you're looking at all the reasons why it's different, because it was you're just thrown into a brand new show and it's like, oh that's not the same. Oh that's not the same. Wait why is he from Brooklyn? Wait? What? And so everything just felt out of place. Yeah, it was weird. Well, then Corey asks the question, if Harley is the biggest and baddest, then who were those two guys? And that is a very scary thought for their future? What is this place? And then to Peanga walks in and they are so happy to see her because she feels like a bit of the old world. And then they make her walk in front of them like a human shield, which I thought was pretty funny, and Sean is checking out to Pananga. Sorry, sorry, sorry, I was biology. I'm just saying we had talked about it very briefly last season, about whether or not there was ever and Ernie and maybe it was very good to you, and I remember you remember kind of hating it, and I remember feeling weird about it, like I remember because it was like, I have your boobs grown that much? And I remember being uncomfortable with Like did we talk about it? Because I remember being uncomfortable, So I was uncomfortable too, And I think the same reason you just mentioned was the same reason I was uncomfortable. I didn't know. I was not aware of the outward perception of my body having been changed. I don't remember thinking I had changed that much. And then when it was written in the episode, I suddenly saw myself through the eyes of the people writing for me, and I was like, Oh, I guess I guess I've I guess I am now a look different. I'm more womanly and I didn't feel it until it was written in the script. And that's what made me uncomfortable, is that I became hyper focused on um being aware of how I was being perceived. Yeah, and I had already I had done an episode of Evening Ship it was exactly this too, where it was a whole episode about eleven year old girl getting a bra or whatever, and it was I remember it being super uncomfortable in person back then too, Like with the other the girl actors, like, we were all so uncomfortable with having to do these scenes about this thing in a way that like, obviously at the point of these these beats is that it's uncomfortable for kids to go through this, but for actors to have to play that and to recognize adds like a whole meta layer of discomfort. It's like and and and you have to be aware of it and play to it. And I just remember being I hated all of this, but you know that's that was the job. Yeah, yeah, And I mean, you know it's lost to the viewer. We were obviously talking about it from the outside perspective and really putting it, shining a light on it. But I don't think people really thought about. Oh, I wonder what the actual feeling was on the set while they were filming this. I wonder what those kids were thinking and feeling. Like the fact that we were real kids is kind of lost on the viewer until you start having this discussion. And um, just so people don't jump down our throats, we're not saying you shouldn't do an episode about this because it's uncomfortable. We're just saying that being the kids that are doing that, that are doing it, it's uncomfortable and it's and you even though you're playing a character children looking at each other talking about boots, about your boots, and we have to play a scene about that, And in real life we I don't remember thinking about that yet exactly. We were not. We were not and you were not. You know. It wasn't like we were all at the same developmental level to being able to maturely act it. We were sort of pressured into acting something that we may not necessarily. Yeah, it's just an awkward Well, I was insecure about it, and my character was supposed to be very confident about it. So as an insecure person about this thing, I'm supposed to be playing this self assured, almost like I'm going to use this power I have, and I'm like, I don't feel powerful. It feels uncomfortable. Danielle, how old were you when when you do this? I may have just turned thirteen, Depending on where we were in the shooting of this. This would have been Fall of ninety four, so I would have just turned thirteen in May. No really, yeah, I was born in May of one, so Fall of eighty four, I would have turned thirteen. You know. If we filmed this in September or something or August, I would have been This would have been like July or August, probably July early on. Yeah, so a few I was thirteen in two months or something. Yeah, it's weird. It's yachts. It's odd. I had a smoking hot tan though, because I spent all summer at the pool. I used to tan. I used to tan as a child. I didn't I wasn't thinking about my future skin. And what's funny is what's funny to me is that you look older in your face more than anything. Yeah, and you looked more like that. I hate to say it, but I look like the AI art. Yeah, no, it was. There's something about your face. That I was like, oh, Danielle is getting older. That was like way more noticeable to me than your body, and that we're making this whole thing about your body. But I was like, no, she just looks older in her face and more like sort of confident, mature, And maybe just from the way I looked at it. There's the logistical aspect of the fact that she says, what are you looking at while you're looking at her back, and you know, and then you say you're blown. I know. I thought that was weird too, You're looking at my back. And then I turned and I asked, what are you looking at? And Sean says, her blouse and that summer was very good to her and to Penga says, well, at least what I grew was real, and I rip off your fake sideburns. And now I have to say, from a comedic standpoint, it's a good line. That's funny. That's what I grew was real. When she rips off your sideburns is a funny line. I mean to get those stupid sideburns off, but it's a funny. Haircut is awful? Really, you asked if you were wearing a wig. I just look watching this, I was like, oh, that is awful haircut. So I can't say I noticed, but Will did apparently did okay fake hair well. Topenga says that we all have home room together because she looked it up and the teacher is Mr Turner. Eric told Corey nothing about this Mr Turner guy. And then a guy with a leather jacket, sunglasses, and a helmet walks into the hall and Corey thinks it has to be Harley Kiner, like that's an Danny was already looking like a twenty six year old at least with that hair and the sunglass, holding the motorcycle helmet, like you just he might as well just be wearing a Neon shirt that just says I'm cool. It's got all the stereotypical I'm cool guy sunglasses in the helmet, and it's like, exactly, it's so clearly like exact fantasy guy for our writing staff. So funny. Yeah, So Corey goes up to him saying he wants to be his friend and he'll do anything for him, and then he quickly realizes that it's a Mr Jonathan Turner, and then we go into Turner's classroom. Mr Turner says he's there for home room English and anytime someone wants to talk, it appears. Mr Turners in on the edge of the desk, up whatever you want to talk. I'm surprised he didn't start rapping, seriously exactly rash isn't cool yet. I just got my head gum. But it's just gonna sit here and just talk about books and what he's got. Yes, they record. Tony is one of my favorite people in the world and a wonderful actor. It is. This is just so pushed. The character is just so pushed. You know, obviously he's not comfortable yet, but we're all just so he's this right character? Is it working? Yeah? Is it too much? Should it be more? Is that? Yeah? You don't think I'm gonna notice X man when I see it? Like, no, where is that from? Yeah? Mr Turner asks Corey if he's the troublemaker and the one who's going to try to bring down the new teacher, and Corey says, no, that would be Sean. So in order to figure out who Sean is, Mr Turner walks around the class and says, whoever the troublemaker is will be avoiding eye contacting and bingo, bingo, Sean funny, it is funny. Hey, how you doing Sean? Hey? Sean Turner asks if anyone knows about the Odyssey, and as Tapanka helps a little, Mr Turner explains that. Corey asks who wants to read that? And then Mr Turner takes his X Men comic. He assigns the class to read the Odyssey and X Men, a comic book. He reads two guys. Corey says, finally a cool teacher, and then Corey calls him phoeney with an air ring. When Mr Turner tells him he will lead the classroom discussion tomorrow, I'd like to point out you both got that wrong during our live show. That was one of the questions that was asked to you in trivia, and neither of you knew the answer to that. What was the question? The question is what is? Corey called Mr Turner and I gave you free and it turned out a ring so good, so funny. Did Tony actually have an ear ring in real life? Did they? Is he wearing an earring in the show? I can't remember. I can't remember if he has one in real life or not. Yeah, I think he has years I don't think, but yeah, yeah, it's funny. So then we're in the school hallway. Corey says Mr Turner is onto them, and Sean says, no, it was just Corey. He was onto and Corey and Sean realized they're going to be separated for their second class and they're going to be split up for the first time ever. We could have played that a little bit bigger. I think we could have gone farther, you know, just like I know I agree with if it was season three that we would have right, but at this point that the point of us being pulled apart is not as big of a joke. But yeah, but it is very funny that, like the idea was, okay, where do we go next? Occurred to us. So then Corey runs up to his brother Eric, who's with some girls, and Eric pretends like he doesn't know who he is. And then new character alert Harley, Joey, and Frankie are standing by the bathroom when Corey excitedly walks up to say hi, and we get a call back to the gage joke. Yeah, well, it's been a couple of pages. It's the second time we're seeing that. The second it's also I just have to say, so, so far we've seen Joey and Frankie, Harley, Tony Quinn, and then we'll get to Marry and Staple, and everybody is so cartoony it's unbelievable. And these are all really good actors. There is not a bad actor in the bunch, and it is so over the top cartoony it's amazing. Yeah, I mean, I'm wondering how much of that tone remains, Like I don't remember, Like, uh, I think Frankie and Joey kind of stay Frankie. But again, you can have a couple of cartoony characters that's okay. You can you get you know, that sitcomy kind of crazy where it's almost you know, you get Lenny and Squiggy from Laverne and Shirley, you know. There, you can have that kind of clinger for mash where it is cartoony and crazy. But when it's everybody you're introducing, I mean, every new character is so over the top that it amazing. It's amazing. Part of the dizzy and factor that I had it was just like what is happening? Like I think by the time Marian came in is when I really was like, what is going on? Over the top. Yes, they're all phenomenally talented people, and we just became a cartoon. We just became like that's what I mean. It was like Frankie and Joey are clearly like remember the cartoons with like the Big Bulldog and the Little One that was always done, Like, that's clearly what they're doing. They're just not doing they're the human version of that. And that's okay if that's a guy with a girl's name. Yeah, but it was just and it's also the way he's doing it, like it's like, wow, it's just so over the top. Well, Corey is trying to avoid a beat down, and he tells Harley that people would like him even more if he looked out for a seventh grader like himself, And Harley asks his name and then exclaims that Corey Matthews is a hoofy name, you know. Uh so, yet another reference to just again aging like milk here. So he gives him a new name that exudes fear and respect, Johnny Baboon, and then Mr Simpleton, another new character, walks out and sends Harley and Corey to the principal's office for not being in class. And then we're at the principal's office. Corey, Mr Stimpleman, and Harley walk in to see the principle and it is Mr Penny. It was a great we should have happened maybe five minutes earlier, do you know what I mean? Like it should have probably been like the first beat as before Turner, because at this point I was like, now we're going to the principle, Like it's just like in the world a new person, and and it was like how many characters are we going to have to get through before we have that comforting like we're still the same show ye beat, And so when this came, it was like a sigh of relief, just like there's an anchor, I know this relationship, I know these two people. Um, it came a little too for me. It's like, you know, no offense to that actor, but just that introducing that character, it's like, geez, just too many, you know to get there. This is also this is also from something that we talked about I think in a previous episode though. This is something where this also shows the detriment of binge watching, because if you go right from the last episode of season one, which was that amazing episode of The I Dream of Phoenie where it's kind of a more quiet episode of Ben and Phoenie having these great kind of uh scenes together, and it's very well acted and very earnest to this kind of craziness right away. It's even doubly as jarring. Um, so I think that, you know, if you've got a summer off before you jump back in, it's not nearly as bad. Yeah, quite possibly. So Mr Simpleman says Corey got on his nerves and then Phoenie gives Corey a break and says get out of his face. But then Corey realizes his next classes with Mr Feeney, but he can't even say his name. So it's a such a Michael Jacob's read Mr Mr this is where he talks about the caning. Yes, yeah, so this is obviously because that had Remember that was big in the country. That was like the number one news story was Michael Fay in the country in Singapore where he was a guy who was going to be cane for vandalizing cars, yeah, graffiti, vandalized something like that, and they was gonna be cane to like in the public square. So this was right around. We can obviously tell they were throwing that in the area. By the way, I am not a genius. I had to google the guy's name just for the record that it was Michael Fay. But I remember that whole caning thing was like a big deal, right, what a big deal? I wonder if that would ever matter now, Like, why was that a thing? I don't know. Also, I wonder if that's part of the reason they said mr fahe r. Okay, we're in the school hallway. Harley catches up to Corey sarcastically thanks him for giving him detention all week. Harley asks Corey to meet him by the senior bathroom at three pm because he's going to kill him and punch the kid. Now, the whole wave. Just if you want to beat somebody up, beat him up and walk, because then you're already alone. Why wait, But you know, when this show took place in the nineteen fifties, that's what you did. You made up they were going to rumble after they had their you know, they're driving their fifties cars. Well, I think, actually, I think the thought processes. If it's after three, if it's after school hours, the school can't punish you for it in their own even I know on the in the bathroom they could. But like the reason people would say meet me in the parking lot at three o'clock is because like behind the library. Library. Really yeah, Andy foss shout out to Andy Fosse, and I got a new fist fight. I lost badly. Okay, just for the record, thank you Andy. So we're in the school cafeteria. Mr Phoenie hands Mr Turner at comic book and Turner admits, yeah, he signed its dynamic. By the way, I know was a really nice because it was like, ah, now Turner's part of the group, and and being questioned there's tension between the teachers. Teachers really different and Greek actually has a foe, like a real not just a child, you know. Um, so, yeah, I thought this was great. He Phoene says he knows Turner is the new groovy teacher, but Phoene says he wants the students closer to his level, and then a rivalry. We see the rivalry between the two of them has started, and then the two nerds from the beginning of the episode walk in. Another opportunity for Lee Norris to have been a shining Star in this episode, but they get hit by doors that Corey then opens up yea, and they of course then say the same thing they just said again. Uh. Corey wishes lunch was mac and cheese so that when Harley punches him later he would puke all over him and make a your mess. Sean says they need Eric's help, and Eric is actually nearby eating lunch with the two girls we saw earlier, Marguerite Moreau, who was later known for tons of work including Mighty Ducks and Wet Hot American Summer. She was so nice, she was She was absolutely well wonderful actress and a very nice person. That's what I remember most about her. Well, so Sean goes over to Eric and the girls. They're flirt with him too. I know Sean's got game apparent has started to become the girl magnet yep, were you teen magazine guy by this point by season two? Had it started yet? I must have been right? It must like I'm wondering if they're playing into that now, because it's like, oh, we've got to break out, you know, teen idol. Let's write to that question, because you went right to girls now, I mean, you're instantly like they're starting to switch. This is where Eric and Sean starts to switch, where all of a sudden, it's you're you're a girl crazy right, so uh, Sean says at three o'clock, Eric actually won't have a brother if he doesn't help. Eric pretends to drink water at the water fountain, will talking to Corey, uh slightly helping him get out of trouble by going to the nurses station. Yeah, pretended to be sick. Go to the nurse station and then wait for mom and dad to pick you home or pick you up, or you could just fight the guy if you don't want to look like a coward. And then Harley furiously walks into the lunchroom and asks who took the last piece of chicken, which Corey happens to be holding, so he immediately drops it. And then Eric walks away and says, do not attempt to recontact me. And I thought Ben's line of how did you how did you do this? You know, you ruined this in a day, and he's like, it didn't take me the whole day, how badly in a day? It didn't take me the whole day. Take me the whole day that was so funny and absolutely great beat. Yeah. Yeah, this is a really cute This was a really cute brother moment. I enjoyed it. Another episode I have to say where I don't like particularly like the episode. But again Ben is really good. Yeah, Ben is really good, and especially this scene he's dropping the chicken out of his hand. He's hitting some beats that are very very funny. Yeah. And then we're in the nurse's office. Corey sits next to the two nerds and they are comparing their injuries. They say they're going to sit in this nurse's office every day to get picked up and stay safe. Corey asks if they think other kids will call them cowards and they don't care. Corey does care. He says he is not going to fake an injury. He's going to go get a real one. Would you guys have cared? Yes? If if people like would you have wanted to take the easy like, would you guys have got I mean, Will said he just got into a fight in high school. You go to the fight. You go to the fight. There's sometimes if a bully is standing in front of you, the only thing you can do is punch him in the nose. You might lose, but you're gonna fight. That's just I don't know if that's the way just the way I was raised. You never start a fight, but if you can finish it, you do. And that's that's really gotten fights in high school, like grade school. I remember are six people in your high school you said, It's like, well, yeah, this was my I mean, this was my I was already working, like I don't know, it wasn't all in with But no. Sometimes again, what do they say that the rider I'm sure you know the quote better than I. What is it? The uh a hero dies, but once a coward dies, a thousand deaths something like that, because it's because you you know, you're gonna keep dying inside if you don't stand up for yourself. So that was very real to me, and that resonated to me where it's like, this is going to determine your your life now for the rest of your life, because there's people that were bullied that didn't stand up that are now in their forties that look back at that like that changed my life. Yeah, But there's also there's also the insinuation that it's sort of a little bit of blaming the victim with these guys right, like they're because they're being nerdy, like they want to continue being coward, Like they shouldn't be in this position to begin with. There should not be situations. Not some giant older kid is a situations like that all the time. That's the thing. It's there shouldn't be but but but you don't necessarily need to go to a fight in order to not be a coward. You can also find other ways of managing a situation. And of course I just wanted to for of course this show is again in this retro mode of like, you know, there's the nerds and they're just gonna be weekly and they're going to take the easy ways before being nerds was cool and and uh yeah, no, I agree, there's obviously other ways to go about it, but they're trying to make it as cartoony again cartoony possible one avenue or the other avenue, And we're making it as blatantly cartoony as we possibly can. I'd just like to shout out to the nerd what would be called Nerd number two because I referred to call refused to call him lemkey, but he was pretty funny. I thought with the whole and I've got ASTHM and he's like, oh yeah, you win, Like he that was he had some funny beats as an actor. I thought he had some funny beats, but with what they were given. Well. It is now three pm in the school hallway and Mr Turner sees Corey sitting there. Corey asks if the guy in the Odyssey gets home alive, and Turner says he does after facing few obstacles, and then he's off for the day. He starts to leave. Sean runs over to support Corey, but then a girl walks by and he leaves with her immediately again Sean's got game. And then Corey is about to leave himself at three oh five, but then Harley opens the bathroom door and is ready to brawl Corey in the whole way again like there is still in the schools, Like what the hell's the point still there? Yeah? Yeah, they didn't have parking lot set apparently, so Corey is about to leave. Corey says he would rather be dead than the school coward for the next six years, so he's ready to get beat up. So we mentioned that we would be in the school for six more years. But then we're only in the school for four but anyway, uh so he's ready to get beat up, and then Harley gets into position, but then Eric jumps over the law man. I thought it was so cool, and I remember jumping over the wall being like, yeah, this is this is awesome. That's you undercut it with a joke right away. It was like, as it was happening, I was like, oh god, this feels really lazy, and I was like, oh, of course Will is going to save it. Yeah, it was. It was a fun beat. I remember that. I remember thinking to myself like, oh, they're gonna keep me in the show. Like essentially, they're working Eric into the show where he's still be a matter in the show because again we've now Lee's gone and we don't know he was coming. Who's going what's going to happen right now? They're going in a bunch of new characters. My oh my god. My dad was convinced that that um, Harley was going to become the new Fanzie and Eric was slowly going to be taken off the show. He was convinced. Oh my my dad was He's like, you got it, you got it, you got you think that's going to happen. You know. I think he called my agent like all that kind of stuff, and I was like, I was like, Dad, it's gonna be fine, It's gonna be fine. Um. But yeah, they were they thought they were doing that whole new dynamic and that was gonna be it. So yeah, strange. Wow, Well, Eric is going to defend Corey. He jumps in front of Harley and he only admits that Corey is his brother and you guys work together, which is very cute. Harley begins to push Eric, but Mr Turner appears and stops the confrontation. Harley asks who he is, not knowing that Mr. Turner is a new teacher, but he learns quickly. Mr Turner plays the cool guy and asks Harley not to kill his students, and Harley realizes he couldn't take Mr Turner, so he leaves that's I know, it's really cute. Was that could I thank you? Nah? I could have taken the kid though. It is crazy how much contemporaries though, Yeah, like age wise, it's mind yeah, of course. Uh So Corey thinks Mr Turner and then he thinks his brother Eric, who in turn pretends not to know him again, which again I thought that was all very cute. Listen, I was there for you when I need when you needed me. But we're back to status quell and I'll talk to me again. Uh. And then Corey tells Sean he can get out of the locker now, which I thought, how do we know he's in the locker. I didn't know he was in the locker, and and Corey did not see him go into the locker, like I just went off camera. So yeah, that was weird. I exactly was like, what it's also, I'm sorry to point this out kind of weirdly, but you have to imagine she's Eric's age because they were having lunch, so she's in the locker with the seventh grader Junior high. A little strange, saying little odd, little odd. Again. I guess the idea is that if you're in the same school, and that's why, truthfully, that's why schools are set up that way, is so that adult ish style teens are not in school with people who are supposed to be twelve or who are twelve. Someone who's seventeen in a locker with somebody who's twelve or thirteen is a little creepy, I just think, but it's you know, it's again a lot of it maybe more than a creepy, but again I think so much of it was like, suspend your disbelief about what's going on here. Just even eighteen year old actors us and we don't have to deal with kid hours. That's not just that, but also let's get to as many laughs as possible and also appeal to maybe what was an ABC mandate of aging us up that they wanted a high school show, but we started off being eleven, and so how do you go from the govern production I think it's purely production concerns. They were they were sick and tired of not having the hours and not having the time and having to deal with more teachers and more kids. So it was like, let's cut down the kid cast. So essentially at this point was you, me and Ben. That was it for the That was it, Like we would didn't try again with anybody. Know, everybody else was an eighteen plus, and it was like so they could have they could work extra hours, they didn't have to have teachers and didn't have the social workers, didn't have to have parents, so like everybody was older. I mean, how old were Blake and Ethan in your life at this point my age or older? Actually, they might have been older the Baker, I think, and they might have been older than me by this point, and Danny must have been like at least yeah, So it was yeah. No. I also think you could argue that they made it as cartoony as possible because they're in this new mythical high school world and it just the giant cartoon. Because I'd like to think, and again, I haven't seen the show in years. Ridy you've never seen it. Daniel, you haven't seen in years. I think it grounds itself, I hope. So I think I think the out Yeah, I think so too. So maybe it's the first day is supposed to be this crazy look and it's supposed to give us this feeling yes, comfortable, Yeah, because I don't recall it being this outlandishly off the wall with teachers like Marion coming in, Like I I think this was a one off. I'm hoping this was a one off and it's gonna it's gonna come back down to earth, we can hope. So the the locker is opened and Corey sees that Sean is in there, with a girl, and he says they're big lockers in high school, which it is very funny, and then we get into our end credits and we wrap up the episode. In the Matthews living room, Corey walks in, saying his brother is Eric, the great one Matthews. Eric says an older kid was picking on Corey and he hates it when people do that, and then he himself picks on Corey and grabs the about. Morgan grabs the remote next and takes full control of the TV. The family falls into place. She yells, everybody stopped talking. I'm watching TV. And then now that's power, Morgan says. And we end the episode, and that was a big laugh for Indie. She's in control. He's just like ye still like yeah, it's really funny, that's great. And he was definitely weirded out by me being in the locker with a girl. Oh really, I don't I just don't know how we're going to deal with this now that I'm gonna be making out. I started prepping him out. I was like, yeah, that's gonna be happening a lot more. But really, yeah, is he still enjoying watching it? Yeah? I mean he definitely. Like, I don't know, the second season is gonna be interesting. I think it's gonna be really different. I think this episode felt off, you know, like basically after the first scene, I don't think he was comfortable again until now were we Like he was leaving the house made and leaving the regular characters made him uncomfortable. I think Phoeney as a principal was cool. He liked that. But yeah, he's very much still you know, he's still in the Little Kids Well season as his favorite character of Morgan. I have bad news for him. Oh jeez. So the next episode we are going to recap is season two, episode two, pairing Off, which already sounds like bad news for India as well. I don't know anything about it, but pairing Off sounds like it's someone's kissing someone and it originally aired September. And there we go, guys, I'm super uncomfy. I hope I hope we get I hope we get. Come for your later. I'm thinking the next episode that pairing Off is the one with the second one with Marguerite Moreau, and it's not going to be comfy. Oh no, yeah, if memory serves, there's some some conversations to have with that one. Yeah, we're I really did. I got the chills. We're settling back down here. Is it time to bring that therapist on yet? Are we to do that? Yeah, that's kind of a but I'm uncomfortable even with the classroom facing the opposite direction, and I'm like, no, no, this isn't right. This isn't right. And I worked in that classroom, like is this the way the classroom was all season like? But I'm just like, no, no, that's okay, right, hate do this because I know that producer husband Jensen carp Um does the bulk of the reading and then and then sends it out to us. But I'd be really curious if everybody else felt as uncomfortable by watching this. Please send us your emails, Yeah, because I'm curious if they're like, no, it didn't bother me at all. There's no that's uncomfortable. They've watched it a million times. It's like, you know, maybe they're watching if people are going in order like us, Yeah, I am curious. I think that there is people I liked it, Tara liked it, Okay. I think there are people who really gravitate towards first season point it's World, and then there are people who really like later season Boy MEAs World, you know, And I think that we're just We're just kind of in the in between right now. I'm hoping we get more comfort well. But I have to say I always thought first season a boy Meets World in my memory, having not seen it, I always thought the first season was pretty bad too. That was my assumption. So we didn't know what our show was and that we became a better show, and that is completely reversed right now. I think the first season was spectacular. I love it for all the you know, little kid coziness of it, and I am terrified about what's to come. I think we gotta we gotta chalk this up to It was a whole different experience for us. It was a whole different experience for our crew. We had new producers. We're gonna we're gonna fall into it again. We're gonna find ourselves, we're gonna find our rhythm, and this was just a jarring one off. I think ye were forward like that will be fine. Yeah it was. There's definitely some growing pains um and that show we should recap. Uh just so you guys know so Tara said she liked it, husband Jensen producer Jensen Carp was completely jarred, like just absolutely thrown off, had no idea what was goinging on. Felt the same way we did. Very uncomfortable and um uh. Jackie says it was jarring as well. So there we are. Anyway, it was nice recapping with you guys, will sign us off. We love you all, pod dismissed. Pod Meets World is an I heart podcast produced and hosted by Daniel Fishel Wilford, l and Ryder Strong executive producers, Jensen Carp and Amy Sugarman Executive in charge of production, Daniel Romo, producer and editor, Tara sup Box producer, Jackie Rodriguez, engineer and Boy Meets World super fan Easton Allen. Our theme song is by Kyle Morton of Typhoon and you can follow us on Instagram at Pod Meets World Show or email us at Pod Meets World Show at gmail dot com