Staci Keanan Meets World (and a BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!)

00:00:18
Speaker 1: Well, I have to be honest.

00:00:19
Speaker 2: I feel like writer and I are are your ex girlfriends meeting your new fiance a little you know, I feel I see you know, it's how I feel. I want you, guys to tell us about your new second current podcast, Magical rewind Oh, go.

00:00:36
Speaker 3: Ahead, Sabrina, you tell about because I don't even know what we're doing.

00:00:40
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm sure. No, So this podcast takes you.

00:00:44
Speaker 4: It's all about as you guys know that people want to hear and be pulled into nostalgia, and that is what we're doing with this podcast. We're rewatching original Disney original movies D coms.

00:00:58
Speaker 3: Yeah, and wonderful the Disneys.

00:01:00
Speaker 1: And wonderful World of Disney.

00:01:02
Speaker 4: So we are and can I just tell you will and I are having the best time doing this is.

00:01:09
Speaker 3: So much fun because the movies, oh man, some of the movies are we well, first of all, we're not doing it in any.

00:01:16
Speaker 5: Other finished that sentence. Are the movies good or the movies bad? It doesn't matter.

00:01:22
Speaker 4: Total range, total range like some are. I mean, we the first one we're doing is you know.

00:01:30
Speaker 2: It's my date with the President's I mean, fans are going to lose their minds.

00:01:35
Speaker 1: Yes, it's very exciting and you know.

00:01:38
Speaker 3: Date, yeah, and can we announce what the second one is?

00:01:41
Speaker 1: You sure can? I would love to. We're doing Cheetah.

00:01:45
Speaker 3: Girls sense, which I we've talked about I have never seen. So we're gonna get to go into this whole I mean, Sabrina, We're getting ready for it. Sabrina's like get ready because the it's based on a book and there's essentially an entire language based around that.

00:02:02
Speaker 1: You're gonna learn, Well, you're gonna learn.

00:02:04
Speaker 3: I have to learn this new kind of language like reading Game of Thrones for me, I'm gonna have to learn this new kind of language.

00:02:10
Speaker 1: Well, I also want to know. Are you gonna learn the dance as well?

00:02:13
Speaker 4: Oh?

00:02:13
Speaker 3: I think I might have to.

00:02:15
Speaker 1: I think you should.

00:02:16
Speaker 4: I think we're gonna have to arrange something like that. That's just too good to pass by.

00:02:21
Speaker 3: You don't want to see me dancing, I'm telling you, but we I mean, through the research we've been doing so Wonderful World of Disney started in nineteen fifty four with Walt's Wonderful World of Color. D comms started as being called something Else was like the Disney presentation that was back in the nineteen eighties. Then it turned to Zoog Channel movies, which were like Ze Channel movies, but it was called Zoog movies. So the Disney Channel original movie we know didn't start until nineteen ninety seven, right, Well.

00:02:49
Speaker 5: When did the Disney Channel become a channel?

00:02:52
Speaker 3: Even it was sometime around Zoog sometime around Zoog Yeah, I that too.

00:02:58
Speaker 5: Are you guys doing like, because I remember, wasn't there like a Magical World of Disney like Sunday Night Movie.

00:03:03
Speaker 3: Or Yeah, that was wonderful World to Disney. That was the one.

00:03:06
Speaker 1: That's what I were doing those as well.

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Speaker 5: My date, well, that's what I remember from my child because I never got cable. We never had cable, So that was like on ABC, right, and.

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Speaker 3: That started in the with Waltz one.

00:03:16
Speaker 4: That's what my President That's what my date with President's daughter was.

00:03:19
Speaker 3: My date was on Disney Channel started in nineteen eighty three. To answer your question, wait, my day with the President's daughter wasn't Disney Channel. No, that is a common misconception. The two movies that I had that were big Double Hockey Sticks h Double Hockey Sticks was not either, So did either of you. I think we know this because we talked about this. Have either of you ever been in a Disney Channel original movie?

00:03:41
Speaker 1: I have not.

00:03:42
Speaker 5: No, no, not all of us were just offered those jobs, all of us.

00:03:48
Speaker 1: No, that's so surprising.

00:03:51
Speaker 3: With the synergy of the channel. I would have thought one of you would have been in a smart house type of movie.

00:03:56
Speaker 1: Do you think it's too late? I could do it. I could do it, you know.

00:03:59
Speaker 5: You, Danielle. I mean that seems like an easy pivot, but you send it.

00:04:05
Speaker 3: Now they've gotten big. Now they are.

00:04:09
Speaker 1: Back in like the day.

00:04:10
Speaker 4: What was awesome is the d coms used to come out like once a month, like and so I remember, like when I was auditioning, the d COM was what you kind of wanted to get a small part on because that was like your way into hopefully getting on one of the channel.

00:04:27
Speaker 1: Like big shows. Right.

00:04:28
Speaker 4: So that's kind of how it ended up being because there was so many opportunities. You know, up on that twenty first floor, we all know of the of those those auditions that there was so many opportunities, and you know, it was like.

00:04:42
Speaker 3: That was drop was.

00:04:48
Speaker 1: To being seen, to.

00:04:49
Speaker 4: Being you know, and and meeting people and networking and then you know, hopefully there was some role down the line when you audition that they're like, oh, and they were in this movie, you know. And so that makes sense because again synergy within the channels is huge and they love it. But the best part is like going back to the range. Right, So there's movies that of course Will and I have not seen all of them, so we're gonna be watching them for the first time. And the best part is for me at least watching them, whether it's the first time or the last time. Like My Date, My Date with the President's daughter, I'd already obviously already seen it, but like as an adult, you're watching it with such a different viewpoint, Like you know.

00:05:32
Speaker 1: The the girl in the movie that's so pretty and.

00:05:36
Speaker 4: Like all this, Like I was just like, what is wrong with this girl?

00:05:40
Speaker 1: Like why is she being so mean to Dunkin?

00:05:43
Speaker 5: Like, get it right, she's the President's daughter. Man, she doesn't even put up with this guy.

00:05:47
Speaker 3: No, But we will say for every Cheetah Girls, there's a hatching peat.

00:05:53
Speaker 1: I'm assuming is one of the movies on the movies we're gonna come.

00:05:57
Speaker 3: So there's times we're getting lists of movies where we're going, oh, Brink. Okay, I remember Smart House. Okay, these are big movies I've heard of. And then you'll get something where it's like, all right, today we're gonna watch Hatching Pete, right, and it's about a guy who plays a chicken.

00:06:10
Speaker 5: Is there a defining like characteristic I mean besides being for children generally like or for people under the tweens?

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Speaker 3: Tweens?

00:06:19
Speaker 5: Okay, so tweeen? Is there any like is there any like recognizable like consistent? Oh, this is what a d com is, Like twins.

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Speaker 1: There's a lot of twins.

00:06:32
Speaker 5: They're not always musicals, right, they're not always musicals, but they can't.

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Speaker 4: Even in Hatching Pete as we watched, there's a musical number and it's not a musical at all, but there was definitely like where the cheerer cheerleaders within the movie start dancing on.

00:06:51
Speaker 3: And singing to a song recorded by the guy who was the star of Hatching Pete. So in the network again where it's like, oh, this guy also does albums.

00:07:00
Speaker 5: Well, they also probably has a deal with Hollywood Records, which was Disney's right, But all of.

00:07:04
Speaker 4: That, honestly, what you know that all started with the Cheetah Girls. They that's when they really started going. They started realizing that there was these kids were multi facet they had they were all triple threats. They all had that training, and so they had so much talent within them. So they did They went ahead and showed off a little bit of stuff and made some movies, which was great.

00:07:27
Speaker 1: Like it really was. It's fun.

00:07:30
Speaker 3: There's a culture all wrapped up behind these dcomps.

00:07:35
Speaker 1: Absolutely, people love.

00:07:37
Speaker 3: These movies, and every actor in Hollywood from if you go back to Wonderful World at Disney has done one of these.

00:07:44
Speaker 1: Things except for writers Strong and Daniel, except riders.

00:07:46
Speaker 3: Strong and Daniel official name.

00:07:48
Speaker 1: But I hope that you'll have a song anyway.

00:07:50
Speaker 2: I hope that we can come on and that would be some point even though we weren't special enough to be in one. I'm really I'm so happy that you two are about to get to know each other so much better during the course of the show, and so it really it's it is worth asking Sabrina, how much do you know about Mash.

00:08:10
Speaker 1: About Mash Yeah, it's actually right.

00:08:13
Speaker 5: There, She's like a sandwich. What are we talking about?

00:08:16
Speaker 2: I'm you know, my number one piece of advice working and knowing Will is learned something rushing up on Mash.

00:08:22
Speaker 1: Oh, so you're gonna hear about it.

00:08:24
Speaker 2: You'll think there's no way Will could fit a Mash reference into this episode, could he?

00:08:29
Speaker 1: And then just get.

00:08:31
Speaker 2: Yourself about seventeen minutes in and one's coming.

00:08:36
Speaker 3: And the same way. You can never think Clinger is going to fit into that dress, but he does.

00:08:40
Speaker 1: Body is a thing.

00:08:41
Speaker 3: I know.

00:08:41
Speaker 5: I don't even know what that is. They're just saying, like everybody knows it too. He's like, yes, like when Radar.

00:08:46
Speaker 4: I have I have noticed that he does references to like older movies, and it's like, oh, you know, and I'm.

00:08:52
Speaker 3: Like older movies, something from ninety eight, right, old movie.

00:08:55
Speaker 5: He's he's ancient. But then he also like had older brothers, so it even goes like another one of years old. So he's like you just basically you're dealing with the sixty year old plus man constantly.

00:09:06
Speaker 3: Yeah, and Sabrina is like in her early twenties. It seems like so together, the two of us together are watching these things from very different generations.

00:09:13
Speaker 2: Oh wow, but I think that's wonderful well for everyone. Magical Rewind debuts January twenty fourth right here on this feed, and you can subscribe to Magical Rewind now for bonus episodes as well. Sabrina, thank you so much for being here to share with everybody about the launch of Magical Rewind January twenty fourth, right here on this feed. We hope to see you again, Sabrina, and Ryder and I will be stopping by his guests on whenever you guys seem deem.

00:09:40
Speaker 4: Fit, just invite yourself over, no problem, Thank you, thanks so much, and again, just so excited for everything you guys were doing with pod Meats World. It's it's amazing, it's so fun, it's fun to listen to, and again I can't wait to have you guys on ours.

00:09:56
Speaker 1: Bye, Welcome to pod Meats World. I'm Danielle Fischel, I'm Right or Strong, and I'm Wilfredell.

00:10:12
Speaker 2: Over the past three seasons of Boy Meets World, we have had quite a lot of impressive guest stars appear on the show, from Adam Scott to Britney.

00:10:21
Speaker 1: Murphy to Dusty to Phill Leeds.

00:10:24
Speaker 2: No one caused the type of fervor and pure boyhood giddy emotions for my two co hosts. As today's guest did and still does thirty years later. Even when Yasmine Bleith did or did not have a cameo on Boy Meets World, Ryder Strong and Wilfredell did not bicker over who liked her more. Debbie Dunning, who shared an episode with our guest, barely moved the needle and she had to spend months in a cave in order to get into her character.

00:10:52
Speaker 3: You know what.

00:10:54
Speaker 2: You see if you lived at the oak Woods and had a middle part haircut, Stacy Keenan. It was both the most beautiful girl you had ever seen and the best teen actress working on television. She was known first as Nicole Bradford on another Michael Jacob's hit show, My Two Dads, and then cemented herself into the TGIF Hall of Fame as Dana Foster on Step by Step for seven seasons and one hundred and sixty episodes. It would be difficult to describe popular nineties family television without mentioning her. And now, since retiring from acting, she decided to do something that actually matters, practicing law here in Los Angeles, literally dealing with felony cases that involve violent crime and or death while joining the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office as a Deputy District Attorney in twenty sixteen, and now she even teaches a law course at Southwestern University while we endlessly search for a leather jacket writer war as a teenager. But let's forget all of that, because today we're talking to her about a rather random two minute cameo she made on the Disney World episode of Boy Meets World in nineteen ninety six. So let's welcome the woman of our dreams. It's Stacy Keenan.

00:12:09
Speaker 6: All so good to see you, all, so good to go, you good, gosh have you been?

00:12:19
Speaker 1: You know, not a whole lot's happened since we saw you last.

00:12:23
Speaker 2: It's been a real quick thirty years. So Phebee, I'm not sure if you happen to hear at all. Writer and Will had a little argument on the podcast about who was more speechless when they met you. Do you even remember meeting either of them?

00:12:48
Speaker 7: Honestly, No, But it turns out I don't remember most things.

00:12:54
Speaker 1: I don't.

00:12:55
Speaker 6: Yes, So you know, Christine lacoln and I we're doing our own rewatch podcast for step by Stuff, and she remembers absolutely everything and I was in some sort of coma apparently for years. And you know, I've been listening to your show and I noticed I'm not the only one.

00:13:13
Speaker 1: You are definitely not.

00:13:15
Speaker 6: Yeah, so you also have this sometimes where you just have no memory of that whole episode of any it's yeah, so it is it's nothing personal because I don't remember. I don't remember just entire years.

00:13:29
Speaker 5: I don't know why I'm the same norm.

00:13:32
Speaker 1: What do you think that's about? Why? Because I talk to other people.

00:13:35
Speaker 2: My best friend remembers fights I was in in high school, Like, you don't remember you and Lauren were fighting that week, And I'm like, what what are you talking about? She's like, you don't remember, Yeah, Lauren was dating Michael. And then this is I'm like.

00:13:46
Speaker 1: How do you remember stories about?

00:13:49
Speaker 6: So?

00:13:49
Speaker 7: What is that about?

00:13:50
Speaker 1: Why do some of us just not remember our lives.

00:13:52
Speaker 6: My sister is like that, she remembers everything. And I think sometimes when you have that person in your life, you can outsource your memories.

00:13:59
Speaker 7: You know that person will store it all for you.

00:14:02
Speaker 6: I've heard some people say it's a trauma response. I mean, step by Step was very non traumatic though it was a very happy environment, so that doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I've also heard people say it's an anxiety thing that when you're anxious, you're so busy trying to survive moment to moment that your brain is not storing memories because the resources are going elsewhere.

00:14:25
Speaker 7: Maybe that's it. I don't know.

00:14:27
Speaker 5: I think by the time you were on Step by Step, wasn't it like your third or fourth TV show? I mean at that point where you just kind of like, Eh, it's just a.

00:14:34
Speaker 3: Job, it's work.

00:14:35
Speaker 5: Yeah, whereas like probably for Christine slightly younger, it was more like, oh, I got a like every day is a new adventure, and you were kind of like whatever, you know, I mean, how many seasons of my two Dads did you do?

00:14:46
Speaker 7: Three seasons? Three seasons?

00:14:48
Speaker 6: And then one season of another Miller Boyette show that only survived the one season it got canceled, and then I went straight into Step by Step.

00:14:55
Speaker 7: So yeah, it was my third show.

00:14:57
Speaker 6: But no, I wasn't uh no, I was really I was always kind of worried about, you know, making the jokes work and being funny and all the other technical stuff, hitting the mark, finding the light, all of that, and then and then on top of that all of the other stuff, you know, And Danielle, I don't know if you went through this all the body stuff, I say, Danielle, because you know, I know men of this too, of course, but a different, you know, form of it, I guess.

00:15:24
Speaker 7: But you know, am I fat am I thin am I that you know just.

00:15:27
Speaker 6: This nineties amplified body horror that it was.

00:15:33
Speaker 7: Yeah.

00:15:34
Speaker 3: I think it's pretty normble though, for especially for people on a sitcom, because the daily schedule gets as wonderful as the job is, and as wonderful as shownight is, the daily schedule is very monotonous. You're doing the same thing in the same sets day after day, over and over. I just sent my my co hosts here a great quote from Alan Aldo. They just did the Mash retrospective, and he said, you know, Mash was fifty years ago, and he said, it's like watching somebody else. I'm just glad that he lets me live in his house. And I think it's true. You just you do. It's a regular Tuesday for you. At a certain point, you're in season five or six and it's just another show. And and so I think it's pretty normal to kind of forget entire weeks at a time. Uh, And then when you watch them, you just you It's like watching it for the first time ever. It's like watching a home movie of a birthday party you don't remember having when you were four. Right, it's that same kind of thing.

00:16:25
Speaker 2: You were originally from Devon, Pennsylvania, and neither of your parents are in the entertainment industry. So how did it all come together that you would start acting in Hollywood?

00:16:35
Speaker 6: Well, you know, I was a big ham singing dancing all the time, you know, at McDonald's, putting on a show for the poor captive audience there. So my mom put me into We lived, we moved around in Pennsylvania. At some point we lived in a town called king of Prussia, and so my mom put us in the.

00:16:54
Speaker 7: Queen of Prussia Charms School. That was the name. Teach you how to be charming. I was three, I mean so, but it was really.

00:17:06
Speaker 5: Make you walk with books on your head.

00:17:08
Speaker 7: Yes, I'm serious.

00:17:10
Speaker 6: It was to teach you how to be in little kid beauty pageant pageants.

00:17:15
Speaker 1: Right, this sounds like its own sitcom, by the way.

00:17:18
Speaker 7: Well, it sounds like the nineteen fifties. It wasn't, but that's what it was.

00:17:22
Speaker 6: So we twirled batons, we learned how to tap dance, We walked with books on her head, walked down a runway, all of that stuff, but you know, also singing all of that stuff. So then there was a local agent from Philadelphia who came and saw one of the recitals, and then she picked and my sister started going to just because I was going. So then she picked us both out and started sending us out for commercials in Philadelphia.

00:17:46
Speaker 7: And then we got an.

00:17:47
Speaker 6: Agent in New York, and then we were taking the train up to New York City and going on auditions in New York, and eventually moved to New York and just started working and auditioning and doing all kinds of stuff in New York, you know, doing theater and voiceover jingles, lots of jingles, singing. My sister did tons of commercials. I did commercials, but she did more print. She did more print than I did.

00:18:10
Speaker 7: I did. We both did anyway.

00:18:11
Speaker 6: So then eventually, you know how it is when you're in New York, it's always the kid in LA who gets the really good stuff, you know, the movie or the series or whatever it is, so eventually we decided to come out for pilot season. I mean, we knew we were going to move out here anyway. We were just kind of done with New York at this point. So we came out for pilot season, and then that pilot season, I got my two dads, and then we just moved out here and then kept, you know, just kept working out here.

00:18:36
Speaker 7: Wow.

00:18:37
Speaker 2: We share a prolific TV creator in Michael Jacobs, and you, as you mentioned, found yourself sharing every scene with TV veterans Paul Reiser Greg Evigan. Were you ever intimidated as the star of your own show.

00:18:54
Speaker 6: Yeah, completely, Yeah. I had never done that kind of TV before. I'd you know, done a mini series. I've done different you know, network stuff, but never been.

00:19:04
Speaker 7: On a series at all. So I didn't know how to do any of it.

00:19:07
Speaker 6: I you know, And as you know, Michael Jacobs is very intense.

00:19:12
Speaker 7: Although I had him in the even earlier days than you did because.

00:19:17
Speaker 5: I'm so curious about it.

00:19:19
Speaker 7: Yeah, Oh he mellowed, they would say he mellowed later on.

00:19:22
Speaker 1: Wow, by the time we had it, you.

00:19:25
Speaker 7: Got the mellow Michael. I had the non mellow Michael.

00:19:28
Speaker 3: Wow.

00:19:30
Speaker 5: That's a crazy statement I was waiting to hear like he was more insecure and not as bold in his opinion.

00:19:36
Speaker 6: So O, my no, he hadn't really had a hit yet, so he was even more in that mode of it's got to work, We're gonna make it work, whatever it takes.

00:19:46
Speaker 7: So it was very, very intense.

00:19:49
Speaker 4: You know.

00:19:49
Speaker 6: I remember having you know, I would write my notes and I heard you on an episode talking about those infamous note sessions, and I would write, you know, you write your notes on the script, and I remember one time counting eighteen notes on one page.

00:20:05
Speaker 3: That's about right.

00:20:06
Speaker 5: Wow, that sounds all right when you only had five lines exactly.

00:20:09
Speaker 6: Exactly, Yeah, because you have blocking notes, you have acting notes, you have I don't even know how that's possible, but I just remember I made that count one time because it was so it was so full on.

00:20:22
Speaker 7: Yeah.

00:20:23
Speaker 5: And how old were you were you? Yeah?

00:20:24
Speaker 3: How old were you at this point?

00:20:26
Speaker 6: Eleven when we did the pilot and by the time the show started I was twelve.

00:20:32
Speaker 5: Okay, my god, I realized you were that young.

00:20:36
Speaker 7: Yeah.

00:20:36
Speaker 1: Did you ever burst into tears like I did?

00:20:38
Speaker 8: Yes?

00:20:39
Speaker 7: Yeah, yes, multiple times.

00:20:41
Speaker 6: Not I would say more than once, but less than five times over three seasons, and Michael would say he would just kind of look out of the corner of his eye and see me sobbing and go if I made you cry, and God, damn it, you know, and then he would just you know, move on. But yeah, it happened. It was really tough on Paul and Greg too. I remember my mom after some of these note sessions being like Jesus Christ, he's so hard on those those two, right, And I would during those note sessions, I would be humming and rocking, humming and rocking and chewing gum and they would go up, she's humming again because I would just kind of zone out.

00:21:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, right, yeah, you would need to.

00:21:26
Speaker 2: I mean, truthfully, I remember I remember needing to distract myself to avoid feeling like too overwhelmed and just you know, I'm just going to preoccupy myself with other thoughts so that I want maybe don't get emotional or yeah, I just stopped.

00:21:41
Speaker 1: And he was also that hard on Paul Riser.

00:21:45
Speaker 6: Yes, yes, you know, and my mom is tough, so for her to say, for her to you know, notice that that's that's a lot.

00:21:55
Speaker 3: I'm surprised he didn't give you notes on your crying.

00:22:00
Speaker 5: You're giving me wow, wow, Wow, it's only funny with No, you don't remember Michael's infamous Paul Reser, like his his advice that Paul Reiser never took you guys. Don't remember that.

00:22:13
Speaker 1: No, I don't remember that story.

00:22:15
Speaker 5: This whole thing. He was always like, here's the thing, here's why Paul's not not not not Seinfeld. Seinfeld goes up, Paul goes down. You don't remember those killed everything. The joke goes up, whereas Riser would go down. And he was like, so Riser will never be as successful as Seinfeld.

00:22:31
Speaker 6: That was.

00:22:32
Speaker 5: And Michael's like, I tell him all the time and he never listens to me. If you only listened to Michael, he could have been Seinfeld.

00:22:41
Speaker 7: I think he's doing fine. I think he's.

00:22:46
Speaker 5: Right.

00:22:46
Speaker 3: I think so. My Two Dads was one of the first shows I remember. There was a run of shows back in the day where it was like different Strokes, Silver Spoons, and then later it kind of evolved into like My Two Dads, and it was there was a balance in TV at the time between a quote unquote show that starred a kid that was not necessarily a kid show that still had great adult actors, and that era seems to be gone, and I'm just wondering why. I don't know, I guess why you think something like that has disappeared. There now seems to be you have Disney Channel, which is all kids all the time, or you have Adult Boy Meets World, step by Step, My Two Dads Full House. That kind of combination of adult kid kids can watch and it's great, adults can watch and it's great, doesn't seem to exist anymore. And I'm curious if you have any opinion as to why you think that is.

00:23:46
Speaker 7: That's a good question. I've not thought of that.

00:23:50
Speaker 6: I remember during My Two Dads there was a struggle over is this a kid show or is this an adult show? And that was an ongoing theme and ongoing discussion and kind of argument. And I know, you know, I think Paul wanted it to be more about him and Greg and then they're also you know, it was about the two of them, and they happened at the obstacle. One of the obstacles they're facing is dealing with this kid. But they really wanted it to be about them and then their dating lives and all that kind of stuff. But then other times, I don't know where this was coming from, from the network or from Michael Jacobs or whoever, but it no.

00:24:23
Speaker 7: It's more of a kid show.

00:24:24
Speaker 6: It's about these kids and this group of friends and what's happening at school and what's happening in their dating lives, and that tension went back and forth. But that's a really good point.

00:24:33
Speaker 7: I don't know why. I don't know why that is.

00:24:35
Speaker 6: I guess maybe maybe because there is now Disney Channel, and there's a place, you know, that's considered its own genre or its own separate thing, as opposed to just this monolithic network TV that there was at the time.

00:24:51
Speaker 5: You were essentially the only kid on the show, right.

00:24:54
Speaker 6: Well, so Nicole was my character. So then I had a boyfriend, you know, Giovanni BC was on the show, yes, and then Chadd Allan, then Amy Hathaway came on, as you know, So I had a friend, a girlfriend, and so yeah, there were there were their kids.

00:25:12
Speaker 7: On the show.

00:25:25
Speaker 2: So when my two dad ends in nineteen ninety, you jumped right into another massive role in Step by Step. Do you remember did you have to audition for it or did you did you just roll right into it.

00:25:38
Speaker 1: Did they offer it to you?

00:25:39
Speaker 6: No, I got offered it. You've done your research over there. I heart had so much infrastructure. So I did a show called Going Places for Miller Boyett.

00:25:51
Speaker 5: It had one of my first jobs. Just guest starred on that showing Places. Ye really, Jerry Levine. Jerry Levine was and Ellen Alan Ruck and Heather Locklear a cast. I guess on an episode where we went boy Scout, like the boy Scouts went camping or whatever, so it was like a camping episode. But I think Alan Ruck might have directed the episode. Does that make sense?

00:26:15
Speaker 1: She doesn't remember those.

00:26:20
Speaker 6: I don't remember him directing, but that doesn't mean he did.

00:26:25
Speaker 7: Here's the other thing I was. I literally played the girl next door.

00:26:28
Speaker 3: You know.

00:26:28
Speaker 6: They were these four kind of swinging single folks, and then it was this kind of feral, parentless teenager who live next door. And I would pop up, you know, and sitcoms people don't have to call first. They just come over all the time. Yeah, they're always hanging out at each other's house. So I would just pop up and they would, you know whatever, I'd have it. So I was not on every episode, but so maybe maybe that's why. But anyway, So then after that got canceled and only made it for one season.

00:26:57
Speaker 7: Then Miller Boyett offered me the part step by Step.

00:27:01
Speaker 1: Wow, what was that like?

00:27:03
Speaker 7: What was that?

00:27:04
Speaker 1: You said?

00:27:04
Speaker 2: It was an overall very positive experience. Tell us a little bit about some of your favorite memories from Step by Step.

00:27:11
Speaker 7: It was a great gig. It was the greatest of great gigs.

00:27:15
Speaker 6: I mean, especially coming from my two dads, Michael Jacobs production, super high intensity, super high stress environment.

00:27:24
Speaker 7: This was this slipping into a warm bath with Milner Boyet. You know, they already had their billions at that point.

00:27:32
Speaker 6: They were very well established. They weren't trying to prove that they could launch a successful show. They had already done that a billion times. So they're very relaxed and very very family oriented. Everything was about the kids and making it a good environment. And you know, if we needed you know, new computers for the school room, absolutely, yes, of course, everything a Latin tutor, you know, whatever, math tutor.

00:27:59
Speaker 7: Whatever it was.

00:28:00
Speaker 6: Yeah, they everything was absolutely you know, everything was taken care of for the kids.

00:28:06
Speaker 7: And then on top of that, you know, it.

00:28:08
Speaker 6: Always you know, kind of trickles down from the top, right, So not only did you have Miller boy up being so great, but then you had Suzanne Summers and Patrick Duffy who were just the greatest people and who adored each other and had such a great vibe together. And then you know, and they were so good to us. So the whole everything was just super super positive. I mean, it's still stressful. You're still trying to put out a product. You're still trying to make the jokes work, still trying to make it funny. You know sometimes and you know, I've heard you on your episodes where sometimes you just the writing is sometimes there, sometimes it's not, and when it's not, you've got to make it work. So all that pressure is there. But it was it was a great it was a great environment. In terms of memories, there's there's I actually do have a lot of great memories. I do remember some things, but I mean we would just do fun stuff. You know. We had a day where everybody dressed up as each other. Oh so fun, that's so cool, which was really fun. And that was just the I mean it was like summer camp.

00:29:07
Speaker 1: That was who did you dress up as?

00:29:10
Speaker 6: So you you you picked your name out of a hat. So I actually got Christine Lincoln. So I went out and I bought the eyeshadow color that she was wearing at that moment. It was a shimmery pale green, if I recall. So I had that on and a little taint top and jeans and something tied around the waist and boots, and I think I might have even done a wig.

00:29:30
Speaker 7: I mean that one. It wasn't.

00:29:31
Speaker 6: As you know, Bronson Pinchot got Suzanne, so he so he went full full drag, you know, big shiny lips, blonde wig, you know, buz of them out.

00:29:44
Speaker 7: Here that you know. Organized.

00:29:47
Speaker 6: And then because Suzanne's husband was her partner in business as well, and he would do all of her scheduling and he kind of managed her. He had a full sized mannequin of a man chained to Suzanne's ankle yes behind him, and the Alan Mannikin was holding a book that said bookings through you know, twenty twenty six or something.

00:30:13
Speaker 3: That you keep throwing out these names like Bronson. I mean, you've worked with some of the biggest television actors ever. I'm sorry, I'm the television nerd. So every time I hear that, it's like, I'm just thinking of the resume of the people that you've worked with is really outstanding.

00:30:33
Speaker 7: Oh yeah, that's that's true. But Susan and Patrick were just they were great.

00:30:39
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:30:39
Speaker 2: We just recently lost Suzanne Summers to cancer, which is obviously lost a great loss for everyone. What was working with a TV icon like her like?

00:30:51
Speaker 1: And did you stay in touch with her then after the show ended?

00:30:54
Speaker 6: Yes, I did, but working with her, I knew her from Three's Company. Show was before my time, but I remember watching it in reruns and she was so funny and so beautiful. You know, she's just you know, she's this bombshell who's also funny. So it was it was definitely intimidating. But she's so warm, so welcoming, so you know, self effacing that you could get over it pretty quickly because of just how warm and lovely she was. So Yeah, so that was that was intimidating for sure.

00:31:29
Speaker 1: You mentioned that you're very close with Christine Laken. Do you talk to anybody else from the cast?

00:31:35
Speaker 6: You know, Patrick and I will keep in touch sometimes. We and I've seen Patrick kind of steadily through the years. He's so he'll write me some shatteringly sweet email on my wedding anniversary, which is like, how does he remember? Yeah, but mostly I would say Christine had and I have kept the best touch, and Susan and I we did keep in touch to a certain degree. But you know, you were talking about this on your Group Therapy, your recent group Therapy episode, how you're this family and you're all so tight and then and then it all just goes away, which is so hard. So I did see Suzanne a few times after the show ended, but you know, I mean I was so much younger than her.

00:32:20
Speaker 7: You know, her friend group was.

00:32:21
Speaker 6: Patrick and his wife, and you know, Barry Manilow was one of her best friends. You know, I just wasn't really you know, it was just the age difference. We weren't going to be best friends or anything. But yeah, but that's hard. So that's such a weird dynamic, how you're all so tight and then it just goes away.

00:32:39
Speaker 2: So going back to that time that you're on Step by Step and you're on this incredible set and it's really fun. You're working with a bunch of kids. When you're away from set, who was your like your fellow your friends, Like, did you have a fellow like actor crew that you hung out with and did you often go to Ed de Bevick's.

00:32:57
Speaker 7: Yes, yes, at Ed Debbeck's one hundred percent.

00:33:03
Speaker 6: So my best best friend is Devin Odessa, who was on my so called life, and then I got to know kind of some of her crew, which included Nicole.

00:33:14
Speaker 7: Tom and Alana Yubach and.

00:33:16
Speaker 6: Then Claire Danes and then you know, so I would so I was so Devin and I were best best friends. I met her when I was eleven and she was twelve, and she was my first friend out here and then we still are best friends. So she and I was mostly her and I, but when she would bring her crew and I her crew along, then I would get to hang out with Alana and Nicole and them, who are hilarious.

00:33:39
Speaker 3: Alana is so funny. I only met her a few times, but you're just holding your gut laughing every time you're around her.

00:33:46
Speaker 7: She's so talented.

00:33:47
Speaker 6: I don't know if you ever saw the One Woman show that she did, all of these characters and voices and accents.

00:33:53
Speaker 7: She's just she's brilliant. And Nicole Tom is hysterical.

00:33:59
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:34:00
Speaker 2: I knew Nicole back in the day, and we know and we had you know, uh, David tom Right, Yeah, yeah, I.

00:34:06
Speaker 5: Just reconnected with the Cole. I just saw her last month. It's so good, Like we just reconnect cause we had a Young Actress reunion like three months ago and like so now I've hung out with her a couple of times. So good to see her again. She's the best, and she's exactly the same.

00:34:18
Speaker 7: She's a stare up, so funny.

00:34:21
Speaker 6: So Christine Lincoln previously had a podcast it's wrapped now, but it was called Worst Ever and they would have different guests on and interview people. I recommend to anyone out there go back and listen to the Nicole tom episode. There might be more than one there. They're all worth a listen. But she tells a story about riding a jet ski from you know, La essentially to Catalina.

00:34:46
Speaker 7: I'm not kidding, and it's one of the funniest things that you've ever heard.

00:34:51
Speaker 6: Please find anyone out there listening, find that episode and give it a listen.

00:34:55
Speaker 3: It is epic, so funny.

00:34:58
Speaker 1: Okay, I want want to talk about Disney World.

00:35:02
Speaker 5: Now.

00:35:03
Speaker 2: We had originally called your cameo on our show completely random, but we have since found out that the second step by step Orlando episode. So they did a two parter, which is what we were saying, we feel like we should have done. They did a two parter and your second episode aired the same night as our Boy Meets World Orlando episode aired, So the storylines to us felt totally unconnected. Even though you are credited as Dana, your character from Step by Step, but it's not mentioned at all in the script.

00:35:37
Speaker 1: So you're there as Dana, but we don't know that you're there as Dana.

00:35:41
Speaker 5: But in the deal with the Dolph was we don't know.

00:35:45
Speaker 2: I watched the Step by Step episode yes, last night, okay, because I was thinking, because we got many many an email that was like, listen, guys, it's not random. It ties in she's Dana for step by Step, and it ties in. I don't remember how, but I know it does. So I was like, okay, I'm gonna have to it does not. She has Dana in Step by Step, has no storyline with the Dolphins at all. But there was a promo for the night the show the shows were airing, where Will, who wasn't even in Orlando, says yeah, because step by Step is in Florida too.

00:36:29
Speaker 1: You may even run into her.

00:36:32
Speaker 2: Literally, it's like you may even run into them the Step by stepcast. So the theory is that they set it up so to tie the shows together to have some sort of synergy, and then Will dropped the little easter egg that we may run.

00:36:48
Speaker 1: Into her, and then we do in the episode.

00:36:50
Speaker 5: So it's a missed opportunity because it would have been actually very cool if like Dana walks out of one scene on Step by Step and walks into Boy me Done it like really mentoed up the whole, Like, yeah, it would have.

00:37:02
Speaker 3: Been involved in There's no no involvement of the dolphin. It's just weird.

00:37:09
Speaker 7: You would have been cool. It was random though.

00:37:12
Speaker 6: I watched the Boy Meets World episode and I don't know why my character didn't get arrested.

00:37:18
Speaker 7: I know, I am back there finding the scenes with.

00:37:22
Speaker 5: This animal cruelty.

00:37:23
Speaker 3: Yeah, they just let this dolphin anybody, anybody wanted to just come and randomly.

00:37:28
Speaker 1: Feed Dolph sick dolphin, ressed dolphin.

00:37:33
Speaker 7: The troubled dolphin.

00:37:35
Speaker 6: They're just letting the random members of the public just hang out with this dolphin.

00:37:39
Speaker 7: And that Now, that was a really cool part of.

00:37:41
Speaker 6: Doing the episode is getting to hang out with the dolphin and and to go behind the scenes. And I remember, I do remember the dolphin. It was a it was a small area and as you were saying, the audio was terrible quality. It was terrible in that room or not room, whatever you call it. Yes, aquarium, backstage, aquarium area. But I remember the dolphin was in a really small tank, a much smaller tank, kind of a holding tank, and the dolphin, all the gear was getting loaded in and there were grips running back and forth, and lights coming in and out, and sea stands and the dolphin. The water was shallow enough that the dolphin stood on his or her tail and just was standing up in the in the water like just watching everybody the whole time.

00:38:29
Speaker 2: I also remember the smell of that room, you do, I do. I remember it was fishy. It was fishy in there. That dolphin wasn't not eating, that dolphin was eating, and there were there were just lots of lots.

00:38:44
Speaker 1: Of fish smell and it was fishy. I remember that.

00:38:51
Speaker 2: So, Stacy, do you remember shooting the by the way, Before I even asked the question, do you remember shooting the Step by Step episodes? There By Step did their Disney World episode, right, They went on.

00:39:04
Speaker 1: All the rides.

00:39:05
Speaker 2: They showed all the great shots jumping up in front of the Epcot. But I mean they really did a great job. They really delivered.

00:39:14
Speaker 5: So do you remember, is that.

00:39:15
Speaker 3: Step by step got you know, like by the time they got to us, they just went, don't forget it, put them in a tank.

00:39:20
Speaker 2: By the way, one of the characters on the show was in the Indiana Jones Show, so they actually, yeah, they have the Indiana Jones Show and he's having to do all the all the stunts, and they did.

00:39:31
Speaker 5: It, and you don't throw him into a Disney show, right, didn't even fly me to Florida for God's sake.

00:39:39
Speaker 1: Yeah, well we got to meet a dolphin.

00:39:40
Speaker 7: So I do remember those episodes. It was it was a big deal.

00:39:47
Speaker 6: All the kids, everybody was super excited, and I was at that age where I was. I guess I decided I was going to have a goth, kind of a goth moment in terms of my aut towards being in Disney Disney World. Instead of being thrilled to death, I decided I was too cool for whatever. So I was in the hotel room, I had it cranked down, I had the air conditioning in the room cranked down to fifty five degrees.

00:40:15
Speaker 7: It was like Elvis.

00:40:16
Speaker 6: It was a dark room, freezing cold, and I would kind of lay in bed and read Helter Skelter, That's the book I was reading at that time. It was I wasn't actually in a goth moment in terms of my look, but in terms of the attitude, it was very goth, very emo.

00:40:31
Speaker 7: I just said you.

00:40:35
Speaker 2: Were the step by step right or strong, and then they would drag you know, and I don't know did you have the handlers?

00:40:42
Speaker 7: Did you assigned a handler?

00:40:45
Speaker 3: Yes?

00:40:46
Speaker 6: So then we were trying to meet in Christine and Angela Watson. We were trying to sometimes escape from our handlers.

00:40:53
Speaker 1: We did that as well.

00:40:54
Speaker 7: Yeah, did you supposed to do that?

00:40:57
Speaker 6: If you were out in the park at all, your hand was supposed to be kind of hovering over you. I don't know what they were supposed to do you knark you out if you did something bad, or take.

00:41:07
Speaker 3: Care of your vest people.

00:41:10
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, I guess the best.

00:41:12
Speaker 3: Are you kidding? They got you everywhere.

00:41:14
Speaker 5: I was trying to escape them all the time.

00:41:16
Speaker 3: Oh God, I did more random with my guides than Oh it was. It was awesome. Oh last time.

00:41:23
Speaker 5: I was eighteen and I had a fake idea. I was just trying to ditch my handler. Every time we were at Disney World. I told you guys the story where I like left her in a parking lot. I was like, we're gonna be fine with my friends, and we went into House of Blues and she waited in the parking lot until two in the morning. I found out later, like just to keep an eye on when we When we left, I had no idea.

00:41:40
Speaker 2: I was just like, I'm going And then did you see her when you left her? Did you you went out a different way?

00:41:46
Speaker 3: Right?

00:41:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, Trina.

00:41:48
Speaker 5: Trina was on that trip, and she told me the next time that she was like, your handler told me she stayed in the parking lot un till two in the morning and making on safe. And I was like, oh, she didn't have to told her we were fine. But you know, it was her job in the lone. She's like in charge of this actor.

00:42:02
Speaker 3: Oh my god.

00:42:03
Speaker 8: Sh well.

00:42:04
Speaker 6: And for anyone who's never seen these handlers, it is a plaid vest. So I had a lady handler and she had a it was a kind of a red and black and white plaid vest over a white collared shirt.

00:42:20
Speaker 1: And then she.

00:42:21
Speaker 8: Had a beige skirt that was kind of a nitty length, so below the knee but above the ankle, very sister wife with some kind of flat shoe.

00:42:35
Speaker 6: And then I think the men wore the same outfit with a khaki pant instead of the skirt. And it was and it was all the rules, all the Disney rules. They couldn't have colored, nail polished, you couldn't have bright, you know, makeup or dye hair or facial hair.

00:42:50
Speaker 7: Or any any of that stuff.

00:42:52
Speaker 8: Yeah.

00:42:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, So it's very cool for teens. It's very cool to partner these people up with teens and have.

00:42:58
Speaker 5: A babysitter constantly. To be fair, this babysitter can take you to the front of any line ride. But do you give a crap when you're seventeen or eighteen.

00:43:06
Speaker 1: Right, and you're there with your friends?

00:43:08
Speaker 2: So when you okay, question about this is like, this might sound like a stupid question. Was your entire cast in Florida at the same time or did you guys split up?

00:43:18
Speaker 1: Like was it like a few days? You do you remember that?

00:43:22
Speaker 7: I want to say everybody was there? Okay, I think everyone was there.

00:43:29
Speaker 5: How was it the same trip that you joined our show or did you have to go back to guests same trip?

00:43:35
Speaker 7: Yes, but I noticed in your episode there.

00:43:38
Speaker 6: Was a point where one of you said, we've been waiting in line for half an hour, and then it turned out all you were waiting for was a true right our script, we could not have any mention of heat, humidity, mosquitoes, lines, any because we did have jokes about lines.

00:43:57
Speaker 7: All of those had to be cut.

00:43:59
Speaker 6: You have, it had an ideal presentation up experience. Yeah, So I was shocked that you were allowed to talk about lines, because as far as I understood, the reason why these episodes even happened, and why the whole block I think was all all of the families, all of the shows being at Disney, was so it could be a solid two hour long Disney commercial, right.

00:44:25
Speaker 7: Because I had heard that.

00:44:27
Speaker 6: I think when Full House went to Disney, they booked every room in the park that night. The sales were just like that, you know, I think they showed a one eight hundred number. I guess back then you had to call yeah to make a reservation, and they booked.

00:44:45
Speaker 7: They booked out the entire place.

00:44:46
Speaker 2: From that We got a few emails from people that wanted me to know, wanted all of us to know that it worked, and that after watching these episodes, it became the very top of their list that they needed to go to Disney World and it became like a bucket list thing for their family, and they did eventually go, and they fully attribute it to these episodes.

00:45:05
Speaker 5: Well, when did Disney buy ABC? Wasn't it right around.

00:45:08
Speaker 1: Right around this?

00:45:09
Speaker 7: Right this?

00:45:10
Speaker 5: I wonder if it was like just part of that. It was like the you know, the big fish swallowed the smaller fishermen. It was like, and now you have to do a promotion night.

00:45:19
Speaker 3: Well that's what we were always doing that stuff all six ninety ninety six. Yeah, we were doing that stuff all the time. Hey, it's this anniversary, it's that anniversary. We have to go. We're opening the magic See were opening this always.

00:45:29
Speaker 5: But we were always a Disney show because we were Touchstone Television, Yeah, which was a Disney company, and then ABC was the other company we worked for, but for like full House, probably wasn't a Disney show until Disney bought ABC. And now then Disney controlled everything. That was like it became a top down situation in ninety six when they bought it. I remember being like, oh, we worked for one company.

00:45:51
Speaker 6: Now, Yes, there was a big noticeable change when Disney came in, because yes, right away it was okay, this show is going to become a Disney infomercial, you know, at least for those couple of episodes, and yeah, it changed a lot.

00:46:19
Speaker 2: Well, since then, you have done the very smart thing, and you've retired from the entertainment industry and decided to go back to school. You had already graduated from UCLA with an art history major, right right, Okay, but in twenty thirteen you'd attend and graduate from Southwestern Law School, which would put you on an incredible journey as a lawyer and now deputy district attorney. Tell us how you made that decision to leave the entertainment industry behind and pursue this field after a.

00:46:50
Speaker 6: Step by step, I just wasn't getting good gigs anymore. That's just the truth. I did some really bad movies I did, you know. I did other stuff here and there. I did some voiceover.

00:47:02
Speaker 7: Stuff, but I just wasn't It's so hard to.

00:47:06
Speaker 6: Top a gig like that. Yeah, even if you landed on another show. What are the odds that it's going to be such a great loving environment? Yeah, you know, so I just yeah, I just wasn't happy with the work that I was getting, and I thought, if this is the work that I'm getting in this industry, I think I'm done here. I never seem to have the right I was never good at the business part of the business. I never seemed to have a decent you know, agent or manager or combination of those. I didn't know how to you know, you were supposed to put out your own stuff, and I just I never figured out how to do that.

00:47:44
Speaker 7: I wasn't good at and any.

00:47:47
Speaker 6: Of the stuff, you know, all of the networking and all this stuff and all the things you were supposed to do and self promotion, I just never I never learned really how to do that. So, you know, while I had a few holding deals and I you know, we pitched a few pilots and stuff like that, nothing really worked out. So eventually I just said, Okay, if this is the work I'm getting that I think I'm done.

00:48:05
Speaker 7: So I always wanted to go back to school.

00:48:07
Speaker 6: I loved school in the first place, and I loved art history, So I thought about getting a PhD in art history because it's it's a really fun field of study.

00:48:15
Speaker 7: But what are you going to do with a PhD in art history? First of all?

00:48:18
Speaker 3: Art history?

00:48:19
Speaker 7: Hey, right, so you you go to school for another eleven years. I think it is the.

00:48:23
Speaker 6: Average to get an art history PhD.

00:48:27
Speaker 7: So you do that.

00:48:28
Speaker 6: I mean, you could be a medical doctor at that point. And then what you get to be a curator? I mean there's a tiny handful of curators across the entire world. There's not a lot of opportunity for that, or to be an art history professor.

00:48:42
Speaker 7: Which would have been great.

00:48:43
Speaker 6: I think I would have loved that, but it just was too much. It just seemed like too much for you know, and just not practical. So law school is super practical because it's so short, it's only three years, and then there's so many things you can do with it, much more practical than art history and shorter and faster.

00:48:59
Speaker 7: And so so I went to law school to be a DA.

00:49:02
Speaker 6: I knew that was the only kind of law that I wanted to practice at that point. You know, I was a little older too, so I just you know, had more of an idea of what I wanted to do, so I went to law school and then I clerked for the Riverside DA's office.

00:49:17
Speaker 7: LA DA was not hiring at that time, so.

00:49:19
Speaker 6: I went out to Riverside. I was a DA there for a few years. But then the commute I was commuting.

00:49:23
Speaker 7: There from la which was crazy.

00:49:26
Speaker 6: So if you're not from around here, that's about a seventy five mile drive. It's about an hour and twenty minutes at the very fastest. So then yeah, right, So eventually I moved over to the lada's office and now I've been there since twenty sixteen.

00:49:42
Speaker 2: Can you explain for all of us what it is exactly that you do and what you're in charge of in layman's terms for us, like you're being introduced as a character on Law and Order.

00:49:52
Speaker 6: Sure, okay, So a DA is a prosecutor at the county level. So we are the ones who file complaints in criminal court. So and then so a lot of people will say, oh, well you they you know, I say I'm a DA and they say, oh, so you defend people. No, I'm the prosecutor bringing the charges, bringing the case against a certain defendant. And then they have their defense attorney possibly the public defender. So our role is to seek justice. That is the job of a prosecutor. It's not to convict people or to win trials. It's to seek justice and also to ensure that the voices of victims are heard in criminal court.

00:50:35
Speaker 7: So day to day, I'm in a seleny trial unit.

00:50:40
Speaker 6: So my caseload is about evenly split between murders and other homicides.

00:50:45
Speaker 7: And domestic violence. That's about that's about what.

00:50:48
Speaker 6: We've got a huge amount of murder cases right now, So everybody's carrying.

00:50:52
Speaker 7: A lot of murders.

00:50:54
Speaker 6: So yeah, mostly murders, domestic violence, other major assault cases. And so what I do day to day is I'm in court every day, handling different hearings, doing jury trials.

00:51:07
Speaker 5: And yeah, okay, so going back, going back, helter skelter, So you were obviously true crime somewhat of a true crime buff. At some point, can you handle true crime anymore at all? Like, do you read it about it or is it like now that it's your job, you can't stand.

00:51:22
Speaker 7: It all the time.

00:51:24
Speaker 6: I'm always I've always got my favorite murder going in the background, true crime upset like all of those. My husband is just all the time saying you don't get enough of this.

00:51:35
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's what I would think. That's amazing.

00:51:37
Speaker 3: Wow, what percentage of cases in Los Angeles plead out?

00:51:44
Speaker 7: Over ninety percent?

00:51:45
Speaker 3: That's what I thought. It's the vast majority. Right, don't ever see a courtroom?

00:51:50
Speaker 7: Well, they'll see a court room, but they won't see a jury trial. Jury tru Yeah, so yes, So actually a jury trial is the exception and not the rule.

00:51:58
Speaker 6: There's most case is overwhelmingly and that's not just here in LA, but across the board. Most cases are going to resolve short of jury trial.

00:52:08
Speaker 2: Does your past on television ever come up in any of your cases? Do any of your skills from TV ever come into play?

00:52:17
Speaker 7: I think it does.

00:52:18
Speaker 6: Yeah, I think a lot of Well, for for example, Alexander technique. Are you familiar with Alexander technique? So Alexander technique is not just for actors but for people who play instruments and opera singers. But it's developing a practice of being aware of the body so that you're not just this kind of disembodied head that's being carried around by this body that's.

00:52:42
Speaker 7: Off doing its own thing.

00:52:43
Speaker 6: Weird tics, weird nervous movements, or weird unintentional things that might be undermining what you're trying to convey. So it just gives you this practice of not being self conscious, but of living in your body and.

00:52:55
Speaker 7: Being aware of your body.

00:52:57
Speaker 6: And that was something that I had studied once I start and studying acting. And that's really important, I think, because you see people in court all the time and they are such they're such disembodied heads, you know, and a jury is just they're a captive audience and they're sitting there staring at you head to toe.

00:53:15
Speaker 7: And if you're saying one thing.

00:53:17
Speaker 6: But your body is off doing all this weird stuff, it's it's distracting and it can undermine, you know, what you're trying to communicate.

00:53:24
Speaker 7: So that's Alexander technique definitely.

00:53:27
Speaker 3: Have you ever had a case involving anyone you grew up working with?

00:53:35
Speaker 6: I should, no, And I wouldn't be able to if I knew that. If I knew, it would be a conflict, and I wouldn't be able to be involved in the case if I knew the parties involved.

00:53:46
Speaker 3: But it's la. I mean, actor cases kind of come up often, don't they. I Mean, you've got to hear the scuttle butt of hey, guess who's here today kind of thing.

00:53:55
Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, for sure.

00:53:56
Speaker 6: I mean, I remember when the Danny Masterson tried, the most recent one was going on, and I remember seeing him.

00:54:02
Speaker 7: We kind of locked.

00:54:03
Speaker 6: Eye in the lobby of the building and I recognized him, and I didn't know if he recognized me. I think I might have met him maybe a handful of times, but we just kind of locked eyes and it was it was odd, you know, But.

00:54:19
Speaker 5: Yeah, I know you at different ends of a spectrum.

00:54:21
Speaker 6: Yeah yeah, so yeah, those I mean, and where I'm at we have a lot of those kind of media cases too.

00:54:30
Speaker 3: So I'm curious. As the son of two lawyers, my parents always talked about how they were drawn to the law. You talked about it as more of like a practicality. Was there? Was it really just a practicality of the profession? Or have you always kind of been drawn to justice for lack of a better word, I think so.

00:54:47
Speaker 7: I think so.

00:54:47
Speaker 6: I've always had a I've always had a cause or or several causes going at any given time kind of for my whole life. I wouldn't say I was drawn to the law, but I'm so it is a really great study, if anyone out there is thinking about it.

00:55:02
Speaker 7: Law school is kind of cool. I think it's a good discipline.

00:55:05
Speaker 6: For your mind. It teaches you to be very precise, to be critical and analytical. So I really enjoyed it. But no, I wouldn't say that I was drawn to the law. What kind of law do your parents practice?

00:55:19
Speaker 3: My mother was the chief administrative officer of all three courts in Connecticut, and my father is a family litigator and was a lawyer for the Navy for thirty years. He's still practicing. He's eighty five years old and still practice.

00:55:35
Speaker 6: Yeah.

00:55:36
Speaker 5: Really, yeah, yep.

00:55:38
Speaker 3: Still. You know, he's dropped some of the jury stars, some of the trial stuff just because his hearing's not as good anymore. And you know, it's a lot of work. But he's still in his office meeting you clients every single day. Yep.

00:55:52
Speaker 1: Wow, yeah, Stacy. Do your clients ever recognize you?

00:55:56
Speaker 6: No, technically I don't have clients. As a DA, we represent the people of the state of California. Have you know, we are making sure that our victims are heard, but they're not technically our clients. But having worked with people who have recognized me, yes, yeah, sometimes, And at one time had a juror who after the case concluded and there was a verdict, they kind of hung around afterwards, which, you know, the jurors are always invited, you know, the judge will typically say, if you want to talk to the attorneys afterwards, you're welcome to, you know, stay, and oftentimes they don't. But this lady stayed, and she said that she recognized me, And she said she didn't recognize me at first, but she over the course of the trial the.

00:56:39
Speaker 7: Voice she recognized my voice. Right.

00:56:41
Speaker 6: So then the defense attorney heard this and made a motion for a new trial on the basis that the juror was probably biased towards me. So he said, this juror lied when she said she because the judge always asks, as part of the jury selection process, do you reckon any of the people here in court, and she had said no, but she had told me, I did not recognize you at first. It took days and days, and I eventually kind of put it together. So he said, she lied, The jur lied. The duror recognized the DA from the very beginning and lied about it, and then convicted, you know, voted to convict because she was biased towards the DA based on recognizing her from this show.

00:57:24
Speaker 3: Did the motion work? No, Okay, I was going to say, I was wondering if there was granted a new trial. That's amazing.

00:57:30
Speaker 6: No emotion for a new trial is a pretty tough burden. Those are usually not going to be granted. But no, that did not fly.

00:57:41
Speaker 1: Do you ever miss acting?

00:57:44
Speaker 3: Not?

00:57:44
Speaker 7: Really? You know, I just you know, when I was doing it as a kid, I had no training. I didn't know what I was doing.

00:57:52
Speaker 6: And then the older that I got and the more demanding this the parts were, the more.

00:57:58
Speaker 7: I felt like, I don't know how to do this.

00:58:00
Speaker 6: They want me to cry, they want me to scream, they want me to I don't know how to do any of this stuff. I don't know what I'm doing. So my mom called the Howard Fine for me back before when I was still a kid, and he said, no, I will not work with anyone under eighteen.

00:58:16
Speaker 7: So I waited until.

00:58:17
Speaker 6: I was eighteen and I started studying with him. But it just seemed even once I studied and I started to get some technique, the more I studied it, the more I felt like I'll never be able to do this. I just can't do this. It's too hard, So I don't. And you know, I don't think people who have never acted can relate to that, you know, because when acting is done well, it looks like nothing is happening, so people look at it, I think and think it's so easy. It's really hard to do. Human behavior is so complicated, and to recreate it for real is so hard. So I just felt like I was I never felt like I was good. I never felt like I could do it. And I really don't miss that. And I also don't miss how rough the industry is because now being in the legal field, where everything is your reputation and what people know about you and what people say about you, I cannot believe what goes on in the industry.

00:59:14
Speaker 7: I cannot believe how people treat each other.

00:59:18
Speaker 6: I can It's it's a den of iniquity, really, and I don't miss that either. Now sometimes I miss sometimes I think, you know, if I tried acting now, if I just threw out all of my technique and everything that I studied, maybe I'd be able to do it.

00:59:33
Speaker 7: So sometimes I have that crazy.

00:59:34
Speaker 6: Thought, but I don't think that's actually true. If I miss anything, it would be voiceover.

00:59:39
Speaker 7: I like voiceover.

00:59:40
Speaker 3: It'ld isn't it the best job ever?

00:59:44
Speaker 8: Yes?

00:59:45
Speaker 6: Yes, And you don't have to be skinny, and you don't have to be whatever you can just you just have your voice.

00:59:50
Speaker 7: I miss voiceover. Yeah, but that's it.

00:59:53
Speaker 3: So then I have a question because I please correct me if I'm wrong, which I probably am. But as you kind of rise up the ranks in the DA's office, don't they eventually become elected positions.

01:00:07
Speaker 6: Yeah, there's an elected DA and that position is more of it's more political, you know, that's more of being a politician.

01:00:14
Speaker 3: That's what I was going to ask, is is that a goal of yours eventually? I mean, do you want to become like the elected District Attorney of Los Angeles?

01:00:20
Speaker 7: No?

01:00:21
Speaker 6: No, I'm not a politician like that, I you know, and especially not here in LA either.

01:00:30
Speaker 2: So looking back at an incredible career that you had at such a young age on TV, you're so many miles from it now, like getting Victim's voices heard, what do you think or feel when you see teenage Stacey on the screen.

01:00:49
Speaker 6: Well, let's see, it was a great experience. You know, all of the conversation that you had in your recent group therapy episode. There was so much of that that I could relate to, and so many points that were made that I had never really thought of. I mean, and I was surprised to hear some of you say that you you got burnt out. That was something that I don't I just didn't relate to at all. Yeah, I don't know. I feel I feel kind of I feel bad for her in a way, which is I mean, I had a great time in a great life. I'm not, you know, but just it's it's hard growing up in front of the camera like that. It's hard to feel looked at or judged or you know. Uh, it just so much of the body stuff I don't think i'll ever get over. And I look when I see you know, you say your question was what do I see or what do I think when I see myself?

01:01:51
Speaker 7: And you know, I just think how much I was.

01:01:53
Speaker 6: So I could not stand to watch the show because I just hated the way that I looked. Everything was bad. I was never you know, never skinny enough, never this enough. Everything was wrong. It's just wasn't it was never good enough. So it's sad because overall, it was a great experience and I loved it, and I definitely would not trade it.

01:02:15
Speaker 7: And I think.

01:02:16
Speaker 6: Overall, I mean, it had its costs, but it was overall such.

01:02:21
Speaker 7: An enriching experience and I would never I would never give it up.

01:02:26
Speaker 2: You've talked a couple of times about the body image stuff, and I definitely went through it myself for years and years. I mean, truly, I think I've only had a healthy relationship with my body. And it's still obviously not perfect, my relationship, not the body. It's only gotten better, truthfully since I had kids. Pregnancy and children actually helped me have a better relationship with my body and a better relationship with food.

01:02:55
Speaker 1: But what do you think for you in your experience, what do you think was was? What was that like for you?

01:03:02
Speaker 2: And what why did you I mean, you were so thin, you know, we watched the show now and no one would ever think that you would have felt anything other than thin and gorgeous. So what do you think where did that? Where did that pressure come from for you?

01:03:15
Speaker 6: You know, partly I think it was my mom. My mom was very glamorous, very beautiful, and always very thin, and she thought that was the only way to be. So, you know, I definitely got that message. I mean, my mom was a great mom and such a loving powerhouse of a person. But she she grew up in a different time where it was, you know, I think, especially for women, your value was your looks, and I think she got that message loud and clear her entire life as a beauty. You know, that was always what it was about, was her looks and so and you had to be thin, I think especially at that time too, when she was coming up.

01:04:01
Speaker 7: So I did get that message. But then then you're.

01:04:05
Speaker 6: In the industry and then there's there's comments from costumers.

01:04:10
Speaker 7: You know, oh, the size zero isn't fitting anymore.

01:04:13
Speaker 6: We're gonna have to get everything in a size too now, right, And you go, oh, oh, no, oh god, you know, and you know, there was a time where I gained some weight in my teens and when I was on step by step and that was just a disaster. You know, when we happened to do an episode where we went to Hawaii and I had to wear a bathing suit and it was just like, oh my god, you know I have I'm just my sister went through the same thing. We both hit a certain age, we gained about fifteen pounds. It was there was nothing you could do about it. And then after about six months it went away or a year or whatever it was. But of course this bathing suit episode happens to fall during that period, and that was awful and so and sometimes from yeah, just from from the industry, you know, or just even from the show. You know, there were times where all of us sometimes would gain some weight and there would just be certain subtle comments or just certain subtle things.

01:05:09
Speaker 7: Said, and yeah, it messes with you.

01:05:13
Speaker 6: I mean because when I was on the show, for the most part, I weighed under one hundred pounds, and I think, yeah, so if you look at and for anyone who hasn't seen themselves on a TV show before, the camera absolutely adds at least twenty pounds. I mean, when I worked with Heather Locklear, on camera, she looked absolutely perfect and healthy and fit.

01:05:37
Speaker 7: And in real life though she was so tiny, she was like a tiny, teeny, little delicate bird, but on camera it looked perfect.

01:05:46
Speaker 6: So I mean, yeah, so I weighed ninety eight or ninety nine pounds typically, but I remember comments, you know, from my mom.

01:05:55
Speaker 7: I remember being at the doctor with.

01:05:57
Speaker 6: Her and they weighed me, and I weighed at one oh seven and she said one o seven you better stop eating, right, So you know, I mean that's that's where that's where it comes from. But I think I mean so, I mean, as guys, did you go through.

01:06:11
Speaker 7: That as well?

01:06:12
Speaker 3: I did? Oh? Absolutely, yeah. I've struggled with my weight most of my life. So it was, you know, producers pulling me if we've talked about it on the podcast, producers pulling me aside, Hey we're noticing it on camera. Hey you should start dieting. Hey, you should do So, I mean, I got the talk. The first time I got to talk I was eleven on Nickelodeon that I was putting on too much weight.

01:06:33
Speaker 7: Oh no.

01:06:33
Speaker 3: And so that's that's been a normal part of my life. And but that's the thing is I will also as as a guy in the industry when I got you know, daniel and I have talked about this because we did an boy Metrol actually did an episode about it. I think Danielle put on eight or nine pounds and it was like, oh my god, she got huge. I put on forty and I was still just the funny guy. So, you know, I think it was. You know, I obviously don't want to speak for Daniel, but I think in the industry it's always a double stands harder for women, and there was definitely a double standard. But no, I would I would get the weight talk. I've had that ten different times in my life.

01:07:09
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean I never felt I never got the talk, but I never felt good about my body.

01:07:13
Speaker 6: You know.

01:07:14
Speaker 5: Unfortunately, as much as like I mean, I do think the culture has gotten better and more aware, and you know, the conversation around way it has has shifted in a positive way. I do think that there's something fundamental to being an actor that does kind of require a thinness. It's, you know, like what you were saying about how the camera adds pounds. I don't even know if it's that so much like I remember when my brother's a photographer, and I remember when he was going to school for photography and he would hire models and he was doing like fashion photography. He was like, you know, it's not it's not that we want thin people because they necessarily look better. It's because the clothes hang off of them better, and you can imagine yourself in the clothing more when you when it's a thin person, and so in a way, it's actually they're inhumanity that makes them more relatable. And I think the same is true of actors. I think we're our job oftentimes as actors, especially on like you know, a commercial or something where you're just getting a second where it's very visually based. The idea is that you're kind of like a puppet. You're sort of like the stand in for the for the for the viewer to be able to see themselves. And nobody wants to see somebody who's slightly overweight or has as any of those sort of human quality. They want to see like literally a stick figure of themselves that they can then project their own body and their own image on. And everybody walks around with a very healthy themselves, a better version of themselves.

01:08:39
Speaker 3: Right.

01:08:39
Speaker 5: We all see ourselves as like thinner. We put on our thing and we look in the mirror, we like puff out our chest or whatever it is that we do to make, and that's the image we carry around. We don't look like we act, So when we see ourselves on camera, you're like, oh god. And I think that part of being an actor and it's you know, I do think that there's obviously way too much cultural pressure on it. But I do think there's something just to the visualization us to watching another human being in front of a camera. There is something to a sort of you know, it's like dancers, like we want dancers to be basically stick figures, like we don't want them to have human qualities that actually makes them more humans. It's a paradox. It's an interesting paradox.

01:09:17
Speaker 2: Well, Stacy, thank you so much for joining us and coming here and being vulnerable and sharing your experiences and letting us fan over you. Even though you don't remember any of us, we all remember you, and we just adore you, and we are so appreciative that you came and spent this time with us, and we would love to see you in not in a court room, I none of us want to be there, but well, we would love to see you.

01:09:46
Speaker 1: In Orlando near a dolphin at any time.

01:09:49
Speaker 7: I would love that. Thank you so much for having me on.

01:09:51
Speaker 6: I really enjoyed listening to your podcast and getting to know you through the show. And Danielle, I do remember you because I wrot you coming to the set and there was this dangerous sexual undercurrent that you brought with you because you would show up looking all gorgeous with your little I remember you came one time and you had denim jeans, shorts on and the little top, and the moms of the boy actors were like, does she need to be hanging around here?

01:10:26
Speaker 5: She caused scandals at home and home improvement too, everywhere she went, so many young boys nineties television lives.

01:10:33
Speaker 3: It's unbelievable, amazing. Yes, I remember thinking it was super cool finding out that you and I drove the same car. Stay thought when I got my Mazda RX seven, which is arguably the most dangerous automobile that had ever been created in history, and I pulled out, Oh my god, they just took a big engine and wrapped it around a car like plastic and put two seats in it. It was so dangerous.

01:10:57
Speaker 5: I don't remember this car.

01:10:59
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I read mazarax it and when I got it, somebody's like, you know, Stacy Keenan has the same car, and I was.

01:11:03
Speaker 1: Like, yes, yes, Oh that's so funny.

01:11:11
Speaker 2: Well, Stacy, I also want to tell you how just totally inspirational I find it that you have led two totally different and equally successful professional lives, and I just I look up to you, I admire you, and we all do so.

01:11:27
Speaker 1: Again, thank you for spending your time with us.

01:11:29
Speaker 7: Oh, thank you so much.

01:11:32
Speaker 1: Thank you.

01:11:32
Speaker 7: We'll see you.

01:11:33
Speaker 1: Again, all right.

01:11:35
Speaker 7: Hi.

01:11:36
Speaker 5: It's so funny because like my I mean, she's obviously beautiful, but my crush on her was always talent based. Yeah, it's always about her acting. So to hear her talk about like how she didn't know what she was doing or whatever, it's so funny because of all the kid actors around us, or the teen actors around us, she always stood out for me as somebody who was so talented and so uh clearly leagues above like most of the teens that I, you know, considered my peers or people around us. And uh and and yet and then I have so much respect for her for leaving and having the confidence to be like, nope, I can do something completely different and my self worth is not going to be determined by, you know, my public perception of me continuing to be an actor. I think that's so healthy.

01:12:23
Speaker 3: And yeah, yeah, the thing that stood out for me when I used to watch her. Of course she was cute and all that kind of stuff. But and it's so funny to now talk to all of these child actors. The thing that stood out for me was she came off as so comfortable right, and so comfortable and confident in her skin and knew what she was doing. And to hear that she didn't feel that way at all is just amazing. When you keep doing these stories.

01:12:45
Speaker 2: You know when you're when like, she was obviously so instinctual, she knew what she was doing. She came across so natural, and it's because she was just doing it based on instinct. But I remember, I remember, and she probably felt very much the same way. I remember being surrounded by people who studied the craft and working with directors who were like, have you done theater in New York?

01:13:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm like.

01:13:10
Speaker 5: My overwhelming sensation was that every nobody took acting seriously, and like I remember always being like, why are these people working? Like they're horrible? Like constantly, I just remember being like, if I could pick out like other kid, because I guess the thing is everybody you know. At the at a young age, it felt like everybody wanted to be an actor, everybody thought they could do it, and you could easily pick out the kids who were just there because their parents were forcing them to do it, the kids who were there because they just wanted to be in front of the camera and on TV but actually had no talent. And then the people like Stacy who would be like, oh, you're actually an actor, and like, I felt like the vast majority nobody talked about acting class or acting. I guess you're right, maybe directors, but I know, I always forge.

01:13:53
Speaker 2: I was also a lot around a lot of actors that were in very serious acting classes and were always taking acting class and doing or doing theater on the side, like doing and then you know, also as we've talked about in the summers, like oh I go and I do a film every summer, and just people who like really were doing it full time. And for me it felt very much like this is really fun and I love being here, but like, can I go back to high school too? Like I have a football game tonight, right, And so she may have also felt looking at the people around her or who were going to and she felt like I don't I don't have real technique. I you know, it's obviously an unfounded She was so talented, but she felt like she like it was just too difficult and she couldn't do it.

01:14:34
Speaker 3: But that's also why somebody like her does three shows. That's why back in the day, Charlie Coorsmo was in every movie that came out, is because you'd be a child actor who was good, and she was like, all right, we're just going to keep casting you and stuff.

01:14:47
Speaker 5: Yeah, but that doesn't translate to being an adult actor at all.

01:14:49
Speaker 3: No.

01:14:50
Speaker 5: I have the exact same realization that she had, which was not I wouldn't say it was necessarily technique and more training, and it was also just recognizing the lifestyle of an actor like that you have to be comfort uh, not caring about the quality of the project you're in, committing one hundred percent no matter what. Also not caring about the quality of your audition, but committing one hundred percent. Yeah, being okay with that rejection, being okay with like inconsistency and working and inconsistentcy like. She called it a den of iniquity, which is funny, but I also think it's a den of inequality. It's a weird wad in the sense that people fail upwards, like really untalented people continue to work, and then people that have incredible talent never get work, so the sense of that, you know, whereas like if you're in a DA's office, you work hard, you get rewarded, You study, you get rewarded. You know, they say this is the bar, this is the bar. And like she said, your reputation is built on your actual abilities, you know, whereas in the entertainment industry it's built on uh, you know, people having heard that you almost got this part, so then they offer you another part without ever auditioning you. And then you can build a whole career out of smoke and mirrors. And that's it's really infuriating and frustrating, you know, to be a part of it's a crazy business.

01:15:58
Speaker 2: Oh sure is well, thank you all for joining us for this episode of Podmeets World. As always, you can follow us on Instagram podmeets World Show. You can send us your emails podmeets Worldshow at gmail dot com and we have merch. No further merch podmeets Worldshow dot com will send us out.

01:16:17
Speaker 3: We love you all, pod dismissed. Podmeets World is nheart podcast producer and hosted by Danielle Fischel, Wilfordell and Ryder Strong Executive producers Jensen carp and Amy Sugarman, Executive in charge of production, Danielle Romo, producer and editor, Tara Sudbaksh producer, Maddie Moore 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 Podmeets World Show or email us at Podmets Worldshow at gmail dot com