Lauren Lapkus Meets World Part 2 TGI-Episode 107 (”Grandma Was a Rolling Stone”)

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Speaker 1: Welcome back. We're doing a real deep dive here with Lauren Lapis on episode number one oh seven. Grandma was a rolling stone. This episode is a little bit of a doozy, so see beelt yourself in uh and welcome back to the show, Lauren Lacus. Okay, so we see Carrie Russell in the backyard and her mound of hair stunning. Daniel unbel I thought, maybe they can't have to pay in this episode because there's just too much hair, too much from that would make too much hair in one episode. I didn't remember. I don't I remember when Carrie Russell then cut her hair when she was on Felicity and it was a huge deal. It was the it was on the news. And then watching this episode, I was like, yeah, that's newsworthy. I can't believe she cut that. I honestly I can't either. I was looking at it going if I had that hair, well, I think I would look insane. But if I had that hair, I could take over the world. That's like amazing hair. She just and she's so cute. I mean it's it's just like you automatically like, oh, that's he must go out with her. You can't go with her, and by the way, what a cute couple. I know, cute. I remember almost nothing about her except that she was so nice to me. I mean, she could tell this was like my She'd been in the business forever, she'd done a bunch of stuff. This was like my sixth episode, and we would sit in between scenes. I remember we would sit we were at the Disney lot of the time, and our trailers were outside, and we would sit on the the on the curb and we talked about music and we talked about but I mean, she was just like she kept me chill kind of the whole week. And maybe that's one of the reasons I was more relaxed during this episode. But I distinctly just remember how nice a human being she was. She was great. Did you have any sort of crush on her? Of course I had a crush, She's Carrie Russell, but I never liked, never tried to like hit on her or do anything inappropriate. But it was But I mean it's hard not Did she have somebody? I honestly I don't. Did you have a girlfriend? Were you dating Nicki Cox at this point? Maybe you may have been dating Nikki because Nick just been on the episode. I may have been dating Nikki. I have no idea, and dating is put in quotes, by the way, his fifteen year old dating. Um, But but it was she was fifteen. I was um, but yeah, it was. It was. She was just Yeah, she was so sweet. I have no idea if she has a boyfriend, but she was. She was so nice to me and very easy to work with and and was like kind of running me through the what certain things in the script meant, which we'll get into in the later scene. I can't wait to see because she translated something for me in a very funny way that always stuck with me, So I can't wait. We will get to that in a later scene. This incredible leap over the fence. Can I talk about this scene really quickly because it looks great and it's awesome, and I was terrible. We did this scene. By this point the audience had left. We had shot the scene once or twice badly. It was not this take, and Michael was like, let's move on while the audience is here. Then he got rid of the audience and we shot this scene over and over and over again, and I could not get it right. It was because of you or was it because of me? I was He didn't think I was big enough. I wasn't doing it right. I so certain things. By the way, notice you can't understand what you're not doing that needs to be done, and you're not doing it. But I don't know why. Don't do this, don't do that. So if you notice the first though in this scene, I hop over the fence and then I reached for her, and you see me pull my arm back. And it's because in the takes before, Michael's like, don't touch her. You would never touch her, You would never her jump over the fence and then just touch her. So you watch me. I got I like make a laugh, and I go to reach for her and I shoot my handback. So it's like this brought me right back to shooting this thing where it was you actually remember those individual beauts. This this scene is burned into my brain because it was again focused on me. Audience gone, I can't get it. Jeff Sherman, who's one of the writers and produces the show, still remembers the scene. He's like, oh, I remember you that night. And so we're sitting there and I'm doing and I'm doing it over and over again. And then comes the bag tossing, and I've now tossed the bag ten times, and I just it's so good. This is crazy that it was sound, but I had that's the thing. So the last time I did it, because you hadn't made the sound, I added the sound, which I've never done before. I went, let me and if you listen to that is the most Wilfordell moment. It's so like that is the thing that Will do. Like you tell them to throw a bag and throw it and it's funny, and it's kind of funny. But then Will will add that little thing that makes it it's perfect. I knew when I heard it. I was like, that was Will. That was not in the script. And well, that's the thing. You hear a huge laugh under a ginormous laugh. The ginormous laugh is fake. They added that the audience is gone. It's the machine. But if you listen, you can hear all the producers and the directors defawing. And that's when I knew I had had it. Right after that, I go to reach for her again and I pulled my arm back again, like you still can't touch her, Still can't touch her. But I gotta go frame by frame on this, and you can hear, I mean in my head, and I can hear the difference between the fake laugh track and them actually laughing. And that was the tuning fork I was talking about. It's like, oh, that's the huge laugh like I felt, it was so natural, And that scene is what changed the whole thing for me, like changed the whole show for me. Was that scene at probably one o'clock in the morning, because we're all adults, there were no kids in the scene. In the scene, no she we shot her out by that point. So that's what you filmed in front of the audience, you use you used the lily takes from the audience shoots, and then all makes sense. Yeah, exactly. And then there's the rest is just Carrie and myself and Bill there at like midnight or whatever. And we finally got that scene and like Lauren said, Carrie breaks, And I'm not knowing that that was I thought that was like part of it that she as the character was also laughing at Eric. But now knowing that you added that it was probably a real break. Maybe I don't know. It looked like there was some authenticity to that to mean it. That's really that was a great scene. That was a very important scene for me, and because I burned into my head, one of the things I wrote down is that the scene isn't It's one of the first times, uh that it isn't this. The scene is entirely dependent on your performance, do you know what I mean? Like the story of the scene is that you are flailing or that you are performing, like even when you're doing your gritted teeth thing, like this is one of those scenes where it doesn't work unless perform at this level. I'm retroactively nervous. Thank you. It's true though we were still we're still all finding ourselves as actors. I mean, we've talked about it. The only person who and we've said this before, writer and you don't agree, but it's true. The only person who seemed to know what they were doing and have their character down from the second they stepped on set was you. Yeah. The rest of us were still trying to figure it out, and you were Sean from word one of the pilot, so it was like they didn't know what Sean was, but you already had that. So it was we're still flailing as we go and I can look at me and go, oh I got it there, whereas you I was like, yeah, writer already what he was doing. So Lee was another one who kind of right from the right from the get knew what he like, had his character bill um you know the rest of us. I was just I was founding around. So this was an important one for me. So in the scene, uh, Morgan is there. She does her little lines to try and get Jessica to go out with with Eric, and Morgan convinces Eric to take her to the carn of All with Jessica, and phoene says, um, you know that you should probably invite me, and so Eric reluctantly invites Poene and Phoeney says he'd rather have gum surgery than go to the carnival, and which was kind of dark. There was like a moment where the camera like followed him like it was sort of like not how it typically looks like, it kind of like followed him as he said the joke and he left the scene. I was like, whoa, he does not want to go. It just got real's got real driving that point home. He does not want to go. So then we're back in the kitchen and Corey and Amy have made four batches of muffins. Corey says they should call the police in case something bad happened to Grandma. He's worried about her, and Amy says she has known Grandma for a long time and there is something that Corey should know. And Corey then realizes that Grandma is not coming to get him, and then Corey says it's not a big deal. It's just a stupid road trip, and Amy suggests that Corey calls his best bud, Sean. Corey then says, yes, I'll call my best budd Sean on and now exactly what we had talked about in the previous episodes, the best bud, this is my go to guy, has now been well established. You guys think maybe this is where I got my last name? Yes, yeah, because I would Has Phoeny ever called me out in class, because I would be the only time that we would have heard my last name. I don't think he has I know he said Mr Matthews, Ms Lawrence and didn't didn't he say? Mr Hunter and Mr Minkus When they both slapped their heads like they're now they're they're teamed up, must have right, he wouldn't said Sean. And well, I'm trying to remember what did it say on the script page. Did it say Shaun or did it say Sean Hunter? Becausember, the first page of the script was always it had the character's names and then the actor playing them, um, and then you'd get on the first page of the script it would always said all the characters and the actors playing them. And like, I think my name was like the fourth or fifth one in that list last names. Don't remember said our last name? Said our last names? Yeah, so I think Sean Hunter. Yeah, you probably always because it's right because he was Stuart Lemky when we when we first started, we talked about that. Yes, yeah, so I think I do think it was probably in there, but this maybe maybe it was one of the first times you heard it out loud on the show instead of knowing it just privately. What your name was funny, Like a little bell went off in my head in this scene. I think it was that at the time I remember getting a last name, like I remember being exciting that or maybe it was just that I was excited that I was referred to as the best friend. So I knew that you might never work for me. My question was they obviously hadn't established your family life, but going forward, I could never remember because they switched it. Your chet was always gone and you always lived with your mom, or Shawn's mom was always gone and you always lived with his dad. It's both, It's both. It goes both way because I think basically my dad abandoned me because he was a traveling salesman and I was always with my mom. But then my mom literally left our lives right right right like and bailed on me. And I don't know if that's in until my teens or when that happens, but right so, at this point, I could be living with my mom and Stacy like a lovely household somewhere that then dissolves in a few episodes. Yet the storyline that your mom left your family is definitely the one that resonated the most to me because I when he says, oh, Mrs Matthews, my first thought was, Oh, his mom's around in this opening me because we did whole episodes about her coming back. I think we did. That's what it was. I thought the same guest start, but because I think we ended up having two different moms. Didn't I two different actresses. I don't know I had three moms. Yeah, everybody had multiple parents on the show, except for the Matthew. Speaking of moms, because we've talked about the first few episodes, we we've harped many times and rightfully so, and we could do it again with this episode about how good Rusty is amazing, so that Betsy is really good in this episode. So yes, she's great, and I don't think we talked about that enough because she does anchor. I mean a lot of things we've talked about. They they've really given her the domestic role, which again nothing wrong with that, but she always seems to be in the kitchen or cooking something or something like. But she is really really good in this episode. She really is. And I thought the way we touched on it earlier, but I thought the way even she approaches this, listen, I've known your grandmother for a long time. Um. It didn't have the feeling of like, sit down, we need to talk. It had the feeling of listen, people are going to disappoint you sometimes and Grandma has a tendency to come and go and this may be one of those times where you're disappointed, and it was like a weighty message without feeling like you were drowning. Yeah, And it wasn't like the and also which we'll talk about later about this same with the dad, where that's that same thing. It wasn't like that sitcom moment where the music comes on and you get really sad and you feel bad about how your grandma doesn't care. It's like they framed it in such an interesting way that I just thought that was really smart and it felt like really authentic to life, like some people are like this and that's okay, like you could still love her. Yeah, no judgment really Yeah. Um, So Corey calls his best bud Shawn, Mrs Matthews answer, Mrs Hunter answers and says that sean fishing, which is great. That's a great little story twist. It was very cute. Um. And so for Corey and I know, well he really he he was really bummed by it, like it was compared to and maybe he was just projecting his his anger about the cal Ripken thing onto that, but like considering he had been so excited about cal Ripken, he really seemed significantly more bummed about the fishing situation than he did about Grandma. I think it's also his responsibility. You know, he forgot the can blame but himself. It's so much worse that he just because I forgot, like created this situation. I love that be true. It's not out of his control. It was totally in his control. So he just feels bad. Yeah, So we're in the backyard. Corey is sitting in his treehouse. Morgan, Eric, and Jessica are back from the carnival. Morgan is still feeding Jessica the lines that Eric has told her. Jessica asks who the signature is on Eric's arm. She seems a little jealous, flirty, jealous. Jessica says, it's obvious he used Morgan as date bait, and she said he didn't need to work so hard or really even at all. And they start kissing, and Corey is watching from his treehouse and Alan and Sean walk up behind them as this kissing is going on. Now, will this is your first on screen kiss ever? Did you guys kiss her? In rehearsals? We did. She taught me not to put your tongue down. The script meda, Okay, I know that's happened to people so that I will never forget this. Script says, and they kiss dot dot dot a good kiss. Oh, I don't forget that. And I said to her, what does that mean? And without missing a beat, she went tongue the opposite it was. It was that it was kind of she said it to tongue in cheek. Sorry, um, but that's exactly what I'll never forget that. I said, what does that mean? And she went tongue and that's literally what the script said, dot dot dot h speechless. So it was that's the difference between like a peck on the lips, yeah, look like a real kiss, or you're moving your head around in her case that giant mound of hair. That's kind of all you see. You don't really see the kiss. And again, there was no reason to French kiss. He didn't have to. But she knew the industry. She knew she like she knew what this meant because we had talked about I was like, this is my first on screen kiss, and the first run through our teeth bumped. I've talked about this before. Like I moved in too fast and I hit her teeth and I was like, that's it. I'm never kissing anyone in like, I just I'm done. People don't realize how hard it is to just do everyday normal things as an actor. Everyone is offering at you. You got all the producers and everyone staring at you, and it's Carrie Russell in front of you, and our teeth bumped and then my whole that's all was in my head was like, oh my god, I just smashed this poor woman's teeth with my own and I'm never kissing again. And that was a good run as a lover and I'm done now. But I think I think you're lucky that she explained how to do it, because that takes the pressure off you, like, because it's so uncomfortable and I and it's very uncomfortable for both people, especially as kids, to be like, um, how am I supposed to approach this? And I don't want to ask like how do you kiss? Or you know, it's like it's very like tough, and so she made it very easy for you just to say that's okay, we're doing it this way. I started asking when I was about eighteen, and it was a girl a week writer. We both went through this were just that's your part. Now you're gonna kiss girl. It was like I started asking what, like, how would you like to do this because it's just I mean, it's it's creepy too, and when you know not to jump way ahead, but the screen episode where I'm kissing love, people are like, wow, it looks like you just jam your tongue down the throat and I was like, well, I did a for the joke and be she was actually my girlfriend, like she knew we were going to kiss. But if it's Hi, it's nice to meet, like Marguerite Moreau, and she came on, another wonderful actress and a really nice person. It was like we talked a little bit about it because it wasn't just like Hi, it's nice to meet you. Now I have to jump on you and throw my tongue on your throat. It's really creepy. So it was and a lot of that is because of carry because Carrie was like, this is what it means, this is what we'll do, and she kind of held my hand and walked me through it because it was it was hugely uncomfortable. It was it's just everyone talks about that, like, oh man, you got to kiss all these girls and you got to do all this and it's like it's not awesome. You think it's you might think it is, but it really is horribly uncomfortable to do in front of an audience and hearing people go whoo and all this. It's really uncomfortable. Well, and chemistry is not is something that like you can't put your finger on and just because they want you to have chemistry with someone doesn't mean you actually do have chemistry with somebody. And not everyone kisses the same, not every so, like I would say in response to what Will just said, like there were times when it was fun, but totally other times when it wasn't, and it really just depended on the person and that it wasn't whether they were pretty or not. It was just literally that chemistry thing. Like there were times when I was like I do not want to have to kiss this person again, like it is awful, and then there are other times when you're like, oh, that was fine. Also, we we should, seriously, we should at least address because especially in this day and age, it needs to be talked about the kind of power disparity disparity that's going on. Because we're regulars on the show, so we we have a job. We know we're going to have a job, and here's somebody who's coming on who is a guest cast and it's like, I'm going to do whatever the regular because I don't want so it puts puts the actors in a position of saying, I'm not going to actors, your tongue down down my throat, you know what I mean, puts the put the guest actors in a position. These these young women coming in having to say I don't want you to put your tongue down my throat, and you're putting them in that position, and a lot of people at the time, especially, I don't know, it's just it's weird. The whole situation is just the role of an intimacy coordinator makes so much sense to me. I love that idea. I mean, i'd never heard of that when we were you know, we never never existed, and now it's become pretty standard on sets, and I love it. I think that I've never worked with them personally, but I totally think that that's a necessary role because, you know, because you can't just trust that a director or a producer is gonna have the you know, the wherewithal or the experience or the delicate tone or whatever is situation or the morality. Right, There's a lot of different ways this could go, and I think having an assigned person just to you know, navigate that with the actors is great. Um and yeah, an essential role, but yeah, I mean that's basically what we're talking about, is the need for an intimacy coordinator. Laur Unless your experience with on screen kisses, Oh my god. I always thought I would never have to do it for some reason, and I've had to do so many crazy, crazy, amazingly hysterical moment in Jurassic World though, where you stop him from kissing it's like one of my favorite gads. No, no, okay, totally. That was very fun, But like the I've had, My first one was like a music video and it was like supposed to be really nasty, like spit. We had fake spit in our mouths. Yeah, yeah, but it was still my first time doing it, so I was like, oh no, and then like it's like the spits dangling between the two people. It was just really rough. And then I'm sorry, was I don't want to delve into that, but I have to. Was it supposed to be funny or was it supposed to be sexy crazy? No, it's supposed to just be kind of like weird, Like it's a it's a music video where like Food is singing, like there's just a lot going on, like it's that they might be giants video, Like it's kind of like weird already. This song is weird, the music video is weird. All the weird um. And to do the video because I love that band. But yeah, the kiss rough because you have to have this like it's like cherry flavor but not you know, And I was like gagging really, and then you don't want to be gagging at someone that you're kissing. It's like that's not that's not polite. So Danielle really disgusting. It's like the idea, it's really it's like it's actually gonna make me. It's gonna make me gags because I know, I know, I know it really is sick um. But it's disgusting that idea of like a mouthful of fake spiff and then leaning in with something in your mouth to kiss somebody. I know, because you're holding it like you're like keep talking about it. We don't need to keep talking about but I know I've had to do a bunch of weird kisses or like kisses where they're like make it a good one, sort of where someone's like can you really do it this time? And it's like okay, and then you look at the other person like okay, and then you just really do it. But it's like, geez, like, it's just a weird job. It's a weird job. That's the thing you're at work, you're at it's like, it's just it's weird. Yeah. Well, Terry Russell was very, very nice and took my hand and kind of I really appreciate that. And then when I've definitely had situations where I've been so grateful for extra communication and as I as I, you know, work more and more, I feel like I get more confident saying like here's how we're gonna do this and whatever. But I definitely in the first time is doing that kind of stuff, didn't say anything and felt more like I'm just going in my own little world as we prepare for this moment and then we have to do it, and you know, so it's strange to me. We've talked about a little, but it's very strange that in the nineties, kissing on a kids TV show was a totally normal thing, and now it does not seem to be the case. Right, like family sitcoms I don't think have this component. Why is that? I mean, because it's not like we've gotten more conservative, is it? Is it because we've actually gotten like there's more access to porn, so like we don't like people don't like you watch a kids show, you don't need to watch people kissing. You can go find that somewhere else when kids can find it, and there's so many shows that are beyond their age. It's because the accessibility of that kind of content has been like completely enabled, right culturally, like we can find if if kids want to find watch people kissing, I guess you can search for that, right so on. But back then, it seems like you were servicing the idea of like like all being slightly luscifious, like like having to be a little sexy, and that was like part of the who But now that we just seem out of place, like it's I'm not watching the show for that, you know. I wonder if it's because it was like t G I f if you think of that, like families gathering around to watch, so you want to give something for everyone. It's like there might be the seventeen year old kids sitting there, there might be an eight year old, there might be a data mom and or whatever. So it's like that. It was like you're pleasing a bunch of different audiences in one show, which we don't really before. That's what I was gonna say. It's it's there's no more, for lack of a better phrase, in between shows, it's either Disney Channel or it's um, you know a family show, like like, um, what was the Modern Family? It's like the idea where it's kind of like in between now. So just like Lauren saying where it's like kind of teenagers making him out on Modern Family, well, you know, they take it even farther. They talk about sex and she got predic to talk about it. But do you watch people? Yes, there was there was an episode where you know that you walk in and the parents were in we might have to dug this we're in, I mean like literally, Okay, It's like it's like so it's one of those things where I guess that's on a show. I mean, that's on a television show. I wouldn't believed you without the description. I believed you when you said that, yes, they go there. But can I throw another suggestion or another idea that maybe is there a possibility? And maybe this is just my hopeful, wishful thinking, but like, is there a part of it that also is about that the people writing the content are now uncomfortable asking real twelve because I know that when I do think that's a part of it, because I know that when I have been on sets, the conversation around well, we would never ask a child to do that, well, we would never have. We would never like, we're not doing that because that's an uncomfortable thing to ask any fourteen year old to do? Is now? And they weren't asking that, They weren't asking that question. We were actors. It didn't matter whether or not we were uncomfortable or comfortable with it. Whatever the writer wrote is what you. You did, and you were made to feel that if you did have some if something did make you uncomfortable, it was inappropriate for you to express that. You weren't really supposed to say, I don't want I don't want to do this, I don't want to feel comfortable. You're a prop as an actor, basically you say the words that we do what's written on this page, no questions asked. Having autonomy as a child actor is very difficult, you know. You you you start to believe that if you if you stand up for yourself or do or do not want to do something, or do or do not want to say a certain line a certain way or whatever, you feel like you're making waves and you feel like you're part of a problem, and it's and so unhealthy, you know, And I, you know, I just started not listening. I mean, you were always in front of me at the notes session because I would always go I'd get notes and I go okay, okay, and you guys would joke with me later like you and Ben would walk by and go like okay, okay, knowing that what I was actually doing was was just going all right, and then I'm going to do it however the hell I want to do it, and that's just what it's going to be. So that, I mean, that was there's a great kind of freedom in that where it's like, at the end of the day, I'm the one standing in front of the camera. So unless you're gonna walk out onto the set and move my mouth. I'm going to say it the way I want to say it, um, which which some. But in the meantime, we're going to keep you after the show is over and keep doing this scene over and over and over again. So so will for what you're saying is like you were in a battle of wills and they were going to keep going until you made But that came later that the oak just saying okay and doing it my own way probably wasn't until about fourth or fifth season. I mean that was like later in the day where I was like, I got this now, and so I'll listen to your notes, but I'm gonna do it the way that I want to do it, um. And that was I got that from Bill and Rusty, And when you saw when they got notes, they were like all right, and then they go and rehearse and it was like, let's really blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. And so there was like the power grab. I don't even wasn't even a power grab. It was just trying to balance it again where it was just kind of like, okay, we're not We're past the point of just put the words in my mouth? Um, which was which is crazy? Hey, this is Bobby Brown and I'm relaunching my podcast The Important Things. What's important to me is everything from how to live my life, how to run my biss business, what to do if I feel anxious, what to do if I'm overwhelmed. Certainly I will tackle a lot of the issues about getting older. I will tackle with curiosity a lot of the issues about what should we be eating, because everyone tells us something different and I'm just curious how other really busy, interesting women get things done. My first episode is Giada de Laurentis, who is adorable and gave such great information. Talked to Jenna Elfman, Gabby Reeese. I mean, come on, the woman knows everything. Talk to Jillian Michael's and that's going to be a great one. I hope that you will come along for the ride because it's been really fun to do this. So listen to the Important Things with Bobby Brown wherever you listen to podcasts. Okay, so we have Sean comes in wearing a funny hat. Yeah, now that's where I can trime in. Now, Okay, if we are really going to get to that, what's up with the hat, the best hat. That's three but the hat is like it's three's you know. They were just like let's let's let's let's say they went fishing as boldly and it was like, yeah, it was movie, it was. This is actually a very I would say this scene is one of the most sitcommun scenes evert from start to finish, like all the wooze, the kissing, the jokes themselves, Eric the lipmaster. This feels like this feels like the show Boy Meets World was most of the time, not do you know what I mean? This is like, this is us kind of failing to distinguish ourselves from pretty mainstream, like not great sitcoms. This is like joke, joke, joke, me and and he so yeah, it was like of course, of course, like yeah, it congratulating him on kissing her. But I did get a laugh from Corey at the end, like you kissed of Phoenie or of these days swap spit with a phenie with It was categorizing her as you know, I know, I know, categorizing her as like a phenie. That was just great because it's act she's so cute. It's like that's just a funny way it is. It was a funny way of thinking about it, calling her a phenie. It's really cute. So this is the first reference to Sean eating so much. Did you guys catch that? Actually did write it in? Because we talked about on the show, I'm always eating and scenes, and this was it was actually written in, So I guess it was a character. It was the character saying that you probably were not eating at home and so everywhere you were, Yeah, you were always eating. But going back to you being the most adjusted actor already, you actually ate in scenes. And I mean to the point where all actors. When I was literally maybe an hour before we came on this podcast watching an episode of Sopranos, and these amazing, multi award winning actors are pushing their food around with the good man. That's what good acting is. But when you really go some times it really works. Like I was just watching something I can't remember what it was, and it was a more recent thing and the girl was like, I mean, I mean all these donuts and I was like, no, she's not. And then she's still there with a donut and she literally picked off a corner of a think. I was like, show don't out in your mouth. I'm gonna need you to shove in your mouth like you actually ate. And they're all all these shows. We just when you push around the food with your fork. Agree. I like to see people eating. I really do. It's great. Well maybe maybe I would agree with you, but I have PTSD from you and it makes you sick. I mean, I've definitely gone for it. Like I was on the show Good Girls and I had to eat some donuts and shove them in my mouth as part of my character being like sloppy, and I just kept going. But by the end I was like spitting them out and like it was just just getting disgusted. It's like, you know, you can commit to a point, but true, it's the it's the push around in the fork shake. The fork shake is big. You put one piece of food on the fork and you shake it over the plate as if that is fake eating. And it's as you're doing your line, you're just shaking your fork. That is a common one. The mood of the four. Yeah, it's very strange, but right are you always eight? Very impressive? So Corey tells Alan he didn't go to Baltimore with Grandma because she didn't show up. And then we move into the kitchen and there are hundreds of muffins everywhere and Alan tries them and says they're a little dry. He says he's been in Corey's shoes before with grandma not showing up, and he tells a story about Grandma not turning in his permission slip in school so he couldn't go on a school field trip. And so we go. We go from the least boy meets World seeing to the most world you know what I mean, Like this is what made the show special Rusties performance, giving this monologue, the casualness of them just setting down and having this without like the special music playing, like you were saying, like there is there's an effortlessness to this scene. And it's it's diffusing, right, it's diffusing all the tension. It's telling Corey like you're spinning out, dude, Like you're just being a kid right now. And and I'm going to tell you this life lesson, but it's going to be relaxing. It's not like it's not like you're in trouble. It's not like any you know anything, anybody did anything wrong. This is just life, kid, And that it's like such a great tone. It's also not from Phoenie, which I like, we don't get a lesson from Poenie at all in this episode. It felt like the kind of lesson that I wish more people gave, do you know what I mean? Like, I feel like it's not something that you hear very often. Um Like, I just think a lot of shows would have made that a big dramatic, sad thing that his grandma's like this. Maybe when she comes back in they have like a heart to heart and she explains why she's like this or something, And it was just more like he got to kind of accept it, and he just and he accepted it really well, like he just was like, okay, yeah, not to be the person who always has like the therapy background on the whole thing. Please. I think the thing that is the most interesting to me about this scene is that it's all about p o V. And we regularly tell ourselves stories about our lives, and Alan could have very well and he would have been correct if his p o V had been my mom always abandoned me. When I needed my mom, she wasn't there, and in big important moments in my life, I couldn't count on her. That's a p o V. That's a p o V from his experience he could have had. It's the same po V Corey could have. Now, my grandmother made me a promise about something I was so excited about, and when I trusted her, she let me down, or the same exact situation from just a different p o V. A different story we could tell ourselves is Grandma is flawed, and sure, she may not be there after she's promised to be there. But on the other hand, the moments when she's made it up to me, the other moments when she is there for me are so salient to me because they were so special. And that my mom wasn't watching the you know, the the takeoff, she was watching me, and I knew she was watching me, and I knew, yes, that was good, Like it's it's it's great, it's it's a great description and you know it's not and I would I would just add it's also redirecting to the relationship versus a a very specific experience, right, Like I'm not going to hold on to one memory, I'm going to hold onto this relationship ongoing. Like I could hold a grudge or I could just let that one go because I know there's another one coming that that's going to be great. And so it's it's redirecting from you know, this one specific memory or this one loss to you it's better to have a relationship with this person in the long run. And I can't love people in slices. You take the whole thing or you don't. Yeah, And there will be conflict in every relationship. There will be conflict. And it doesn't mean that that person is bad or that relationship is necessarily bad. It's just that there will be conflict and there will be moments of being let down in every relationship. And and it it doesn't need to be you can tell it. You can tell a story to yourself that could make it way worse than it is, or you could tell the story to yourself that's much more like, this is the person, These are their flaws, and I love them anyway, and here are some great things about them. I just it was like it was I just thought it was a very well thought out p o V for them to have, not only just to see how well established and like, what a what a great well rounded person Alan is, but also that that's the story he's going to pass on to Corey about his grandmother instead of you know, your Grandma's gonna let you down a lot. Yeah, I really every time we watched these shows now, I really wish I had understood how good Rusty was when we were doing these episodes. I know he's so good, and I wish I thought about something I thought about earlier when we were talking about Betsy. Um uh. Something that happens on a sitcom set often is uh, you everybody gets so obsessed with the jokes, with the comedy, with the beats, it starts to become who's getting the biggest laughs, who's getting you know, And not like in a bad way. It's mostly supportive. It's mostly like, oh my god, did you see what Will is doing this week? Do you see what Ben's doing this? And we would be we would be aware of the sort of bigger swings that people are taking comedy wise, that we would totally as a community overlook the more subtle, basic performances that somebody like Betsy is doing in this episode, which is just as hard, by the way, but I bet you more than anything, Betsy was probably disappointed as an actor often that she didn't get more laughs, that she wasn't being written a better role, because when you're on a sitcom, you keep thinking, where am I going to get my chance to like get a joke in or you know, get a laugh or have a whole episode about me. But the reality is she's wonderful in this episode. She's very small part, but she's wonderful. And same with like Rusty. I feel like we probably just breezed over this scene in our minds because it wasn't like as funny as you throw in the bag, you know, so like that, like what will we talk about the next week? We're not sitting around going Rusty is monologue and you know, you just totally take it for granted. But the reality is it's genius because it's so understated, so simple, so believable, and in this could have been so cheesy in the hands of a wrong actor, like it's a it's a monologue on a sitcom. When he nails it, he just one of the things I was thinking about, which is interesting, And again I don't know why my mind went to this place. Was they easily could have made it Betsy's mom and given Betsy a better role this week oh yeah, Like it could have been Betsy giving the lesson. It could have been Betsy giving the monologue, because because now Alan has done that in a number of episodes, and it easily could have been an episode where they really left character. They were, ye, they were very focused on that would have been good. Yeah, it would have been great, and it would have it would have actually, you know, taken Betsy's character to the next level. But it was Alan again, which again he nailed it, of course, but that went through my head, was like, break the Betsy character here, break the Amy character here, and they just didn't. The answer is, I think a lot of male writers and a lot of boy p o V and the that boy on our show, the boy p o V was very heavy, heavily reliant on his relationship with his father more so than teacher, and his male teacher and his hand and you know what that is what it is. I don't know why that hit me, but I was like, man, I would have broken the Amy character. Yeah, okay, I don't want to. I don't really want to break this open, but man, it felt like a sideyard. Okay, I was going to bring it up. I don't want to. I didn't want to get into a fight with anyone here. I was like, wait, where are the mums? Where's the car? Well, okay, the same thing. There got a lot of questions about how she pulled up and came in. Did you say that when she ran she ran out? And did I thought if she went to the right downstage, you know, toward camera, that then it could have been a side yard, like that's where she pulled up, because he's talked about the moms being right there in the area where we do those scenes over the fence. But instead she ran toward the back the treehouse, free house. She ran upstage toward the treehouse, which makes all that means that her car was probably either in the front of Penny's house, like further to exactly, like maybe there's a driveway that back, yes, camera right, Okay. I always thought it was a sideyard my life, Okay, and then I but I was like, I'm gonna watch this episode, I'm gonna see I'm gonna try to do the math on this. Listen. The truth is it's a very weirdly designed set up because the writer says the front door of the Matthews house where Rue McClanahan walked into thunderous applause is directly opposite that back door, which means that is a backyard. However, there are also double doors in the living room that go out to somewhere, So what does that go out? And I'm picturing, so like when I'm picturing, looking at it, just as like my brains just filling it in. It's like I'm seeing I'm looking from the front, right, that's what you think, right, But they're looking from the front of the house, right, like my brains filling in that wall. That makes sense because they're coming in. But I also know many people use the side door to enter their home, so it's like this is not uncommon, so maybe front door it feels like a front it's red. Yeah to me, it's also to me it just in my head. Maybe it's an East Coast thing, you know, different than a West Coast thing. But are we never call somebody who lived behind us our neighbor. It's like I live next to my teacher, he's my neighbor. That to me, everybody everyone, Okay, Never it's always like, oh no, they live behind us, or they're my neighbor. That's always how we would say it. This episode kind of changed it for me where I was like, it's a backyard, but I was also wanting to defence ever get higher. I was so surprised a byt Hello. Defence was the whole time there the whole time, right, it was they wanted an intimate neighborly relationship. It really is also a tiny backyard. I mean that's if that's the backyard, it's that's true. Yeah, I think it's let's let's be honest. It's the nineties. It was whatever was convenient in the moment. We were ruying anything. So um, we get this amazing scene. We get this amazing scene with with Alan and Corey, and then the Winnebago shows up again. We hear lakukaracha. Grandma comes in and tells Corey that something came up. He says it's okay that they didn't go. Eric then runs in and says, quick, dad, if Phoenie comes in here, I've been in my room for the last twenty minutes. Sure enough, Phoenie comes walking in and he says that Eric and his hormones need to stay inside the house. And Grandma stands up and and says, I will vouch that he's been in his room, and um, Phenie says, well, that's impossible because your car just ran over my mom's and that's pretty much the end. She runs out to go, I guess what, run over more of hers more. She wants to run over more more of the moms. Yeah. I would love to have seen some type of real scene, not just that, but like a real scene between Bill Daniels and Rue McClanahan, I know, just old school actors, Like some scene of just the two of them, to me would have been awesome. I wonder what their relationship was. I wonder if they knew each other before. I don't know, just knowing the how small Hollywood is, especially back then, I wouldn't be surprised if they had worked together and knew each other. But that seemed like a missed opportunity for me. And I understand that it's a kid show and you know, two older people on some might not whatever, but that to me as an actor, I was like, man, I would love to have seen them, you know, something more than what their characters would have been good with each other because she was like three wheeling and having fun. That's why I wondered After watching that, I was like, I wonder if she was supposed to be recurring, and like I wonder why that didn't happen because she was such a great character. She could have gone at odds. I mean, she could have been at odds with anybody on the show, So I wouldn't be surprised if they tried. Yeah, I mean that's one of those negotiation things, like she paid a certain amount and then she was like, I'm good. I'm good. Then our tag Corey and Shaun around the bed, admiring Corey's baseball card the grandma got him from a swap meat, and Sean says that his grandma must really love him because that car card is about a hundred and fifty dollars, and Corey realizes that it's possible she killed a man in Reno just to watch him die. Um. This made me laugh though, because anyone who knows right or strong, the idea that he has baseball card knowledge at his fingertips is so not rider that I would have had at this point. I would have had garbage pale kid knowledge. That was the only card I ever collected, as I had a big garbage pale kid collection. I organized it. I thought it would be worth money. Someday it probably would be worth money, and I can't find it no way where it was. They are actually worth it, They are right. I should have kept them. And then Magic the Gathering cards came later, not at this point, but I would have been collecting magic within no, wait, at this point, it probably was already. It was probably by then, yeah, because I know I was an unlimited I bought. I bought my first paxtor an unlimited Magic the Gathering. So if somebody wants to backdate that and find out, um, so I would have been playing magic. This was November of ninety three. I think I was already playing magic, all right. Anyway, those are the cards I would have cared about. That was so funny, Rider talking like, no, this card cal Ripken. He had to look up what cal Ripken even was. Writer, your hair is glorious in this scene. It's really got a lot going on. I was like, actually pretty surprised by it because I felt like I remembered it more as a straight mushroom situation, but it had like death and coral and it's really where I noticed they straightened his hair with the round brush and it was so shiny. It was it was really and it was long. I felt like maybe you needed a hair cut here, but it looked great. Yeah, it's really it was really classics. It was really great. Well, Lauren, Um, I'm so thankful that you were here with us this week. And where can we find you? Where can we watch you? Also? I want to talk to you really briefly. You have an animated show coming up, right, Crimes? Can you tell us about that? Yeah? It's really fun. It's um, it's me and Nicole Buyer, who is one of my good friends and also is just so Hilarious's also the host of Nailed It if people watch that on Netflix. But um, she's on five trillion shows. I think she had five billboards unventur at the same time. Recently. I was like, this is not fair, what's happening? Um, But she deserves it. But we are it's like a it's like a send up at like SVU and stuff like that. So it's like we're detectives solving crimes, but we're really raunchy and like you know, nasty women. It's really fun. Um can see you? Where can we find you? Tell us your socials? Give us all that information. You can find me on Twitter and Instagram at Lauren lap Kiss and my podcast Threedom and Newcomers that I do with Nicole Buyer, where we watch things we've never seen. We've been covering all of the Marvel cinematic universe and mercifully it's coming to an end soon and I cannot wait so much. Yeah. Yeah, we watched twenty watched twenty movies. Um, there's twenty seven though, so we're not watch really did you watch them in chronological or or release date? Chronology or release date? Yeah, not chronological, So I'm sure there's back. Yeah, there's a whole formula for starting with Captain America. You're gonna have to go back and do it again. Then, okay, good, you're a fan, you love that stuff. I mean, I'm getting into it. I'm I'm finding a lot of joy um where I can. But I'm so glad my son hates all things Marvel and that has just made my life so much easier. We did Star Wars for an episode and I was like, if I have children who love Star Wars, I guess at least I'll know what this is now because I've been avoiding my entire life and I'm afraid but you had never seen the original Star Wars New Hope, so you really were more of a TV kid huh yeah, oh yeah yeah, and there's a fantasy yeah. Um. But anyways, so yeah, those are my podcasts and then I don't know, you can just watch me on random show Good Girls all streaming on Netflix, and I really enjoyed being on that show. And my movie The Wrong Missy it's on Netflix. And that's that's it. We'll see what happens next. You're just You're so talented and I love you and I love being a mom of you with you me too. Lauren has the cutest baby girl who's about to be one. I still need to rspp to your party. We're coming. Oh yeah, oh good great? Um yeah, and you have the cutest children in the world. And it's been so great having you guide me in so many moments with new baby. Oh my god, it's crazy babies. Alright, Well, um, thank you for listening. You can follow us at Pod Meets World Show on Instagram. You can email us your thoughts at Pod Meets World Show at gmail dot com. And also we've got merch We've got t shirts. At pod meets World Show dot com. There are I think three shirts that you guys can get. Lauren, you let me know which one is your favorite. We'll make sure we get you assured. And uh yeah, and Lauren, you know, also, just thank you so much for this. Was your idea for us to start this podcast, and it's really when out there a few years ago after that con, I was like, you know, people don't know that, but it was really Lawren's idea. So thank you for this, and um, you're so welcome and I'm so glad you're doing it and my royalties. Yeah, but now to the audience, we love you all. Pod dismissed. Pod Meets World is an I heart podcast produced and hosted by Daniel Fishel Wilfred l and Ryder Strong Executive producers Jensen Carp and Amy Sugarman. Executive in charge of production, Danielle Romo, producer and editor, Tara sup Boch, producer Lorraine Vierez, Engineering boy meets World super fan Easton Allen. Our theme song is by Kyle Morton of Typhoon. Follow us on Instagram at pod Meats World Show or email us at pod Meats World Show at gmail dot com