Lynn McCracken Meets World

00:00:21
Speaker 1: Keaton went to school today dressed as a vampire? Why and well, you know he's a costume kid, right, Like, he's just in costume all the time. There was a short period for a few months where I thought we had gone beyond it, where he kind of just stopped asking to be in costumes and I was like, great, we've outgrown this. And then no, it just started all over again. And the other day he went dressed to school in all full deadpool with gloves, hands and everything, and when he came home he wasn't wearing it.

00:00:55
Speaker 2: And I said, well, what happened to your costume?

00:00:57
Speaker 1: And he said, my teacher said that my gloves, cleaning whale, my gloves, but the gloves are attached to the costume, so he couldn't just take the gloves off, so she made him take it off. So to this morning, when he was like, came downstairs with a vampire costume and he said, I want to wear this to school and I said, we're not allowed to wear costumes to school. Remember last week you had to take it off. And he say, vampyros don't wear gloves.

00:01:24
Speaker 3: So he's a Spanish And I said, okay, I mean you're right, there's no gloves and the.

00:01:38
Speaker 2: Vampire costume is a shirt and pants.

00:01:41
Speaker 1: And a cape, and so he can get himself undressed because the other problem is with the full one piece costumes for Spider Man or whatever, he can't unzip himself and then he's having to ask the teachers to help him go to the bathroom.

00:01:50
Speaker 2: And like, we're beyond that.

00:01:51
Speaker 4: Well, Spider Man ask people, that's that happens in real life too. That's a real, actual superhero problem that nobody addresses.

00:01:56
Speaker 5: Real life problem.

00:01:57
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's a real life superhero problem, which is like, hey, I just saved the bank, but I have to peek and somebody, I'm.

00:02:04
Speaker 5: Telling you he's not going to outgrow this, like because oh yeah, Indy's a costume kid. I was a costume kid.

00:02:09
Speaker 4: Like when, but when does it become like now you're the sixteen year old kid dressed like Batman in school?

00:02:14
Speaker 6: When does it become weird? Is the question? I think it's fine.

00:02:19
Speaker 5: Like I used to keep lists of what Halloween costumes I would want, Like throughout the year, I would make a list of and Indy does the same thing.

00:02:27
Speaker 2: So do and and we talk about it all year long.

00:02:30
Speaker 5: There was one Halloween, Indy had three separate outfits.

00:02:33
Speaker 2: Yes, it's Halloween math class.

00:02:37
Speaker 4: When you're fourteen and you just happen to be dressed like Deadpool, that's when people start to talk.

00:02:42
Speaker 5: I don't think it's coming from you, like the convention superhero guys.

00:02:47
Speaker 2: I know, I was not thinking.

00:02:49
Speaker 4: First of all, superheroes in school are their regular human forms. They're Peter Parker Wayne.

00:02:56
Speaker 6: But I noticed about.

00:02:57
Speaker 5: Somebody would want to dress up and be whatever, let their freak flag fly in costume in school should be like great, Okay, I would.

00:03:05
Speaker 6: Say there's a time and a place. I would say school wouldn't be the time.

00:03:09
Speaker 4: Again, Keaton an Adler's age, fine, I would say even Indie could probably.

00:03:13
Speaker 6: Get away with it.

00:03:14
Speaker 4: You're not eighth grade, ninth grade, and you're going to school dressed in a superhero costume.

00:03:19
Speaker 6: People are gonna talk.

00:03:20
Speaker 1: He an adult man, but the adult man to talk.

00:03:26
Speaker 6: That's maybe you do.

00:03:27
Speaker 5: That's what I'm saying. It's like, it's totally fine.

00:03:29
Speaker 6: It is fine.

00:03:30
Speaker 5: I wouldn't want to do it.

00:03:31
Speaker 6: Yeah, you're gonna there's you're gonna get the rep as the kid. Oh, that's that's the superhero kid. That's gonna follow you around.

00:03:37
Speaker 4: Great, Okay, you are a superhero kid, what are you talking about?

00:03:42
Speaker 6: Do it?

00:03:42
Speaker 4: I never went to school dressed as a superhero.

00:03:47
Speaker 2: He had his cape.

00:03:48
Speaker 1: So he's got a cape with a big satin thing that comes up here and it goes all the way around. And so he walked into school today with the cape over his shoulders and he walked in like hunching around, and Jensen said he's a vampire. And all the teachers went, oh, just thinking he had a cape on. And Jensen said, yeah, he can turn you all into zombies and he can fly away like a bat.

00:04:09
Speaker 2: And then Keaton went.

00:04:11
Speaker 1: And like ripped open the cape and was wearing his full costu.

00:04:17
Speaker 6: Everyone's like, oh, well, first of all, it's great cape weather. Oh totally, that's the first thing. Secondly, vampires don't turn you into zombies.

00:04:27
Speaker 2: I know, vampire chang.

00:04:31
Speaker 6: Yeah, that's not how that works. He's going to turn you into a were wolf.

00:04:36
Speaker 5: And that's all he's gonna know.

00:04:38
Speaker 2: Yeah, we have to do. We have to just do whatever comes to mind.

00:04:43
Speaker 1: Because when he's in these moods and he's then dressed as a vampire, he like he just wants to keep it going, and we all have to play along. And we're also though, like trying to like make breakfast and get him out the door for school, so we just say whatever comes to our mind. Like he'll walk up to us and like hit us on the arm and we're like, oh no, I'm a.

00:05:01
Speaker 6: Like we totally inaccurate.

00:05:02
Speaker 2: We become a servants, which it's accurate.

00:05:06
Speaker 4: I mean that's why they lead to the Master of the Masters, you know, Vampire, but not sounding that's a whole different thing.

00:05:12
Speaker 5: Sorry. This is the thing like you realize when you have a kid, is like because you think, oh, playing make believe with kids is so much fun, but the reality is there's no rules, so it gets so boring.

00:05:23
Speaker 6: So cool, oh I'm a cloud.

00:05:24
Speaker 5: Now, my unicorn now, and you're just like, wait, hold on, if it's consistency, can we roll some dice for whether you actually can do that or not? Like it's like without any boundaries, it's like the most boring thing to play as Also, I have.

00:05:39
Speaker 1: To work in all the normal day to day things into the playtime, so like vampire, your teeth need to be sharpened.

00:05:45
Speaker 2: Let me use your toothbrush to sharpen your.

00:05:48
Speaker 1: Teeth, because if I just like your shoes, if I say like, stop, it's enough playing. We have to go brush your teeth now, oh good luck. You just rule into the entire morning. So now it's about sharpening his teeth. And I'm like, meanwhile, it's six point forty in the morning and I've lost just tired. But listen, it's for right now. It's very cute and it's it's not yet a problem. I will see what happens when we're we're still doing this podcast when he's twelve, I'll let you know.

00:06:20
Speaker 6: Trust me, we'll hear about it.

00:06:23
Speaker 2: Welcome to Pod Meets World. I'm Danielle Fischel, I'm Right or.

00:06:26
Speaker 6: Strong, and I'm Wilfordell.

00:06:40
Speaker 1: We have called the Boy Meets World cast and Crewe Family many times on this podcast. With the everyday grind, both the good and the bad, the entertainment business can create that kind of dynamic, a group of people all striving for one common goal to make something magical or in some cases.

00:06:59
Speaker 2: Something that is good enough. Well.

00:07:02
Speaker 1: On our show, we were lucky to have actual family, whether it was background actors husband and wife Kevin and Tracy Thompson, directors and brothers Kevin Tracy and John Tracy, or Ben Savage and Fred Savage. It was no shock when we'd find out someone had a sibling, spouse, brother, or cousin working on set, and this week's guest was one half of our favorite duo. She started as a first assistant slash stage manager for the show, then moved her way up to direct her first episode of TV. Ever, our recently rewatched season six Christmas special Santa's Little Helper, and that was just the start. She'd go on to direct not only two more Boy Meets World episodes in season seven, but also still standing Fuller House eight, Simple Rules and according to Jim, to just name a few, and she'd spend time on Ellen, Veronica's Closet and two movies I most certainly have to ask her about later. She's a two time DGA Award nominee and tied for first for coolt person with the last name McCracken. This week on Pod Meets World, it's someone we've been looking forward to talking.

00:08:07
Speaker 2: To for quite some time. It's director Lynn McCracken.

00:08:11
Speaker 7: Lynn, Lynn, Oh, it's so good to see you.

00:08:26
Speaker 6: Yeah, my gosh, happy.

00:08:35
Speaker 5: I know, but we're not children. Anymore?

00:08:37
Speaker 1: Where are the old, middle aged best and clinging?

00:08:45
Speaker 8: What a life you guys have, right?

00:08:49
Speaker 6: Who looks the same? You like the same?

00:08:51
Speaker 2: No, I don't know why.

00:08:54
Speaker 1: It is so good to see you reuniting with people we love thirty years.

00:09:04
Speaker 2: After the fact of the time that we met.

00:09:06
Speaker 1: Is I think none of us would would argue is that it's just the best part of the podcast. Yeah, it's such an absolute joy and seeing you is just right up at the top of that list.

00:09:19
Speaker 2: So can we talk.

00:09:21
Speaker 1: About how your career started off in high fashion photography?

00:09:26
Speaker 2: That is a new one for us. I need to know more about that.

00:09:32
Speaker 8: I was an assistant to a photographer. His name is Adrian Buckmaster, and we did a couple of Lorel campaigns and I learned everything about cameras from Adrian, And you know, I had love for cameras ever since I was a little kid and being behind the camera and it's so safe being behind the camera. You guys are you are the brain ones?

00:10:00
Speaker 7: Right?

00:10:00
Speaker 8: I mean you know this as being directors, it's like you get responsibilities, but it's it's really a great place to be and an Adrian and we did a whole bunch of campaigns in New York. It's when I lived in New York and I just graduated from the Neighborhood Playhouse and I was, you know, his wife at the time, his Karen Savelle, was a good friend of mine and and that's how it all happened. So it was great. It was a great exposure.

00:10:32
Speaker 5: Wow, did you want camera?

00:10:34
Speaker 6: That was a camera pun? That was a camera punt that.

00:10:40
Speaker 5: Did you Did you think maybe you would stay in photography or were you immediately like no, get oh yeah, okay, yeah, very different world in some ways, right.

00:10:49
Speaker 8: It is you know, it's interesting. It's it's uh, the film scene in New York. I know, if you've experienced, it's a very close and for a minute, it was very unwelcoming. So and uh, someone by the name of Michael Jacobs, who happened to be my brother's best friend, said, you know, hey, I sold a show and I need an assistant, So why do you come out to LA and I'll get your side card and and you know, and you can kind of see what it's like out here, and you know, and I was like, yeah, okay, but I was such a I was such a New York snob at that point. I was just like, okay, So, but what ended up happening was I ended up going back and forth to LA and New York for a couple of years.

00:11:42
Speaker 4: And but the show he brought you dinosaurs, what was the first one?

00:11:47
Speaker 8: My two dads and Greg again. Yeah, and and so I was, you know, this completely novice, like I do nothing about television or anything, and you know, here I am the executive producer's assistant, and I'm just like, thank God for Arlene Grayson. Arlene Grayson was my was my savior and mentor. So she came from New York too.

00:12:16
Speaker 2: Okay, so many people have mentioned her.

00:12:20
Speaker 8: She was a great soul. Yeah, really she was. Just I don't know that Michael would have the success that he did if it wasn't for Arlene, because she covered him on so many levels.

00:12:32
Speaker 4: So I've showed I've showed everybody this so when they come in. So when I first came to LA, I knew no nobody. I literally was here by myself. I had no idea, and Arlene was one of the first people that I met.

00:12:43
Speaker 6: And the first thing she did, of course, now I just dropped it.

00:12:45
Speaker 4: The first thing she did was write down her name and her phone number so I.

00:12:49
Speaker 6: Could always reach her. No. Always. It's one of the first things I look at.

00:12:53
Speaker 4: It's right over my computer every time I'm doing my zooms, and so I look at Arlene's signature and just how nice she was every day when I sit down here.

00:13:02
Speaker 8: I have a sideboard that was hers. Really, am I dining? I don't know if you know? Yes, over there? Yeah that she was amazing, Yeah she's yeah.

00:13:17
Speaker 1: So anyway, so going back, even before photography, did you and Jeff grow up making movies together doing like did you?

00:13:27
Speaker 2: Were you guys? Were you guys doing it from the time you were kids?

00:13:30
Speaker 8: No, there was a there's a slight age gap between us. Okay, he's the oldest and I'm the youngest, and I think he got out of Dodge as soon as he could, and when he did, I was still in single digits.

00:13:45
Speaker 2: So, but how far apart are you? Guys?

00:13:50
Speaker 8: I don't think he wants me to sleep. There's a couple of years. There's just a couple of years between them. But you know, he he uh is the biggest inspiration though, because he after he was in the Air Force and uh he went to New York and he's the one who said to me because I was at the University of Illinois, and he's like, if you're serious about theater, then you have to go to the playhouse, and and that's what I did. And then and that was the beginning of my journey with Sandy Meisner.

00:14:25
Speaker 4: So, now, did you always want to be behind the camera or was there did you want to be an actor?

00:14:29
Speaker 6: At one point?

00:14:30
Speaker 3: No.

00:14:30
Speaker 8: In college, I was a playwright directing major, and so a lot of directors actually came out of the playhouse as well. And one of my favorites at the time was Mark Rightell and he uh and he came out of the playhouse with Diane Keaton and all those in that crowd, and I think on Golden Pond was had just come out, and so I was just a big fan of his and so but working with I think one of the last few years with Sandy Meisner, but really an amazing experience. And so I thought, well, yeah, I'll be an actor, okay, whatever. And I could not do the business side. I don't know how you guys do it. The rejection was just I could I don't have the I didn't have the skin for it. And and then of course Adrian was helping me with photography, and so I was like, you know, I really want to be a filmmaker. And that's when Michael said, oh, come on, Ela and see what.

00:15:27
Speaker 1: So so you move out to LA You're working on my two Dads, but you're just Michael's assistant. You're assistant to the executive. Are you paying attention to every aspect of the industry? Are you thinking about, like, oh, yeah, when and where do you decide how you what you want to do?

00:15:43
Speaker 2: Did you know right away you eventually wanted to be a director?

00:15:46
Speaker 8: Well I knew that, but I hit a point where the executives at Columbia Television were, uh, took me, you know, took a meeting with me, and they were just like, you know, here you have two roads. You can come up and be an executive with us, or you can go, you know, stay in production. And I was like, I want to be down there on the stage. I want to be you know, because as you guys have mentioned many times, Show Knight was it's it's it's it's a drug, it is, and and Elvin Ivory was the first stage manager and he was kind enough to take me under his wing, and so I transitioned to being his assistant, and then we did Fresh Prince of bel Air, and we went on to do all sorts of other shows together, and then a little show called Boy Meets and Me Back?

00:16:47
Speaker 5: Was that your first time being a stage manager?

00:16:50
Speaker 4: Then?

00:16:50
Speaker 5: Was on our show?

00:16:51
Speaker 8: No, no, no no. I've been on a few shows with Elvin and and and he was a great guy. He was a former ABA basketball player who cool like seven feet tall. He was like, you know, he was like six something, and he was the kindest man ever. And and we did a couple of shows, and then I did, uh, I followed a director, Matthew Diamond on a few shows. We worked with Patty LaBelle on Out All Night and that's where I brought Steven and Steve. Steve was my second stage manager and and then and then we came over to I think that's the order. I could be missing a show in there, but you know, and then where Steve and I came over to Boy Meets World.

00:17:31
Speaker 4: Where does Boy Meets World rank for sets for you that you worked on?

00:17:36
Speaker 1: MMMM?

00:17:37
Speaker 6: And you can be honest, be honest, be honest.

00:17:40
Speaker 8: That has to be a really complicated answer, because, uh, there are so many great moments in my career that I've been able to experience and uh, life changing moments. And with Boy Meets World, you know, Michael's complicated. You guys have have discussed that ad nauseum and I don't go into that. And our relationship was incredibly complicated and so and it got more so. And but with David Trainor, he turned out to be my mentor mentor, and and I was really sad to leave Boy Meets World, but I was really happy to continue and be an associate director which was in the booth camera coordinator with him on the next show with Betty White and Marie Osmond. So you know I traveled with David at that point.

00:18:43
Speaker 2: That's where you left. That's where you went when you left us, you went with David.

00:18:46
Speaker 8: I went with David because I got elevated to the next life.

00:18:51
Speaker 6: Did you do that seventy show?

00:18:53
Speaker 8: No?

00:18:54
Speaker 6: Okay?

00:18:55
Speaker 8: I did ellen after that?

00:18:56
Speaker 6: Gotcha?

00:18:58
Speaker 8: And that was one of the life Chaine moments for me, was working on the coming out episode on that one.

00:19:04
Speaker 5: So did you meet David Trainer on Boy Meets World set when he came to direct?

00:19:08
Speaker 8: Okay, is that where we met? I think that is where we met, Yeah, because he had just come from designing women and stuff like that.

00:19:29
Speaker 2: What was it about David that that like he?

00:19:32
Speaker 1: I mean, we remembered him, you know, also fondly, and yet we also remember he was he had a very distinct style.

00:19:38
Speaker 2: What was it for you that you think? Like, what is it about David that just drew you to him? What made him your mentor?

00:19:45
Speaker 8: He was a incredibly generous with his knowledge, and he taught me so many different things about how to navigate a set, you know, coming from the theater in New York as well, so we had a lot in common. One of the things he told me, and I don't know that he would remember this today, but he said, never become friends with the actors. You need them to respect you. And I'm like, really, okay. I was like, That's not how I operated so far in my life, you know. But but it made sense to me because he was, you know, he had to be the beyond voice of everything, and so he had to garner all that respect. And it was just really interesting. And you guys were so young and so you.

00:20:36
Speaker 2: Know, adorable, we were impossible not to be friend.

00:20:41
Speaker 8: Well, it really brought out a maternal instinct in me, you know, and trying to take care of you guys and protect you as much as I could from production because as you know, child actors don't necessarily turn out as well as you guys. So and I had I can I can say that's because of your parents. I have to say your parents were so involved on set and and say hello to all of them please of course, I just they're they're just yummy. And and you know, Ben's folks were really kind of led the charge as far as how to stick up for your advocate for you guys. But you know, Lynn, and I mean everybody was just so great and easy to work with and Arleene. Between Arlene myself and and uh, your folks, I thought we created a pretty good bubble around you. And then Karen stepped in was an executive first, and then she came on board as a producer and she filled uh and then some Arlene shoes.

00:21:54
Speaker 1: So yeah, we we've mentioned many times that they're you know there. We've heard stories and things that were going on that we just go, oh, we didn't know any of that was happening. We oh, yeah, no, we were so well insulated. And we now have realized that you guys were taking all the shrapnel, which is how we were able to be so well insulated.

00:22:18
Speaker 4: Yeah.

00:22:18
Speaker 5: Well, but I think all of us think about that first season. It's just such a warm and fuzzy tie, you know, and it's been it's been interesting to hear that it wasn't always that way for everybody, but for us. I think that first season especially, I mean, you guys really set the stage.

00:22:32
Speaker 8: You know, it was imperative. It was imperative too because so much was going on behind the scenes and you know, I know, too many bodies buried.

00:22:46
Speaker 4: Yeah, but yeah, we just we It's you know, you're finding out thirty years later that maybe your parents didn't have the most magical marriage ever, and you kind of as an adult going like, wait, what a storybook?

00:22:59
Speaker 6: It was a sor book, and kind of like, no, it really was. It was a job.

00:23:04
Speaker 8: It was a job we wanted for me. The important thing was trying to maintain childhood for you guys, and and Arlene too, and and everybody else. I mean the crew was exceptional from from Richard Brown this the DP to two and then then it was uh, David Props. I mean, everybody really really great and and Steve did such a great job with you guys, and and then consequently it's become such a wonderful director.

00:23:41
Speaker 2: Did you know April Kelly?

00:23:43
Speaker 8: I met April early on. Yeah, she wasn't around much so and I know there was a lot of uh contention between Michael and April, so that was you kind of had a pick kind of thing.

00:24:03
Speaker 2: Do you remember the first time you met all of us?

00:24:06
Speaker 8: I do, I do? That was like the most you know, we were all so nervous, and you guys came in and you were a little bit later. Yeah, And I remember that so clearly, the day that you came on board. And but with the with the rest of you guys, you were all so just so adoorable. We were all just like so nervous and how to get the rhythm going and how to get you know, everything, you know, and you guys were all so nervous, and and Ben was just like a deer in the headlights because you know, he was trying to fill shoes of legacy for himself, and you know, and and that was just all. I don't have any really specificific.

00:24:55
Speaker 5: I mean, looking back at the episodes now, man, I mean, was in every everything and had pages and pages just he's carrying the whole scene and kid never got a break. I mean our experiences, especially that first season, we would have like a scene here and there, we'd come in and out, but he's carrying the whole show. So much work it must have been just mind boggling.

00:25:20
Speaker 8: Yeah, and scheduling that and all that kind of stuff was really interesting. And you know, the forboseness of Michael and his note sessions was legendary, legendary and challenging.

00:25:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know, I've thought about that so many times.

00:25:36
Speaker 1: How did you guys allow for that much time in the day to be like, well, we've got to rehearse all day, we have to do a run through it this time, and then we still need the kids to be on the clock for a minimum of an hour to two hours two Yeah, for notes after.

00:25:54
Speaker 8: Well, we knew that the T shirt and they would pull you guys, I mean we knew become the note sessions and and you know, and Michael would try to give the notes to the kids first, and God bless Bill and and and yeah, just like he knew he had to wait until the end. It was, you know, really hard, and those note sessions were a bit abusive. I think.

00:26:24
Speaker 6: Was that? Now?

00:26:24
Speaker 4: Curiously, was that par for the course for for a Michael Jacob show. I mean, all the shows that you were on with him, they were all note sessions that lasted that long.

00:26:31
Speaker 6: This we weren't special, Okay, I wasn't us Okay, gotcha? Okay? Fair enough.

00:26:36
Speaker 1: Did you think from season one when you saw boy Meet's World, did you think the show is going to be successful?

00:26:43
Speaker 8: Yes?

00:26:44
Speaker 5: Wow, so you're the.

00:26:45
Speaker 6: One who thought it.

00:26:58
Speaker 8: Yeah, No, we we knew. I mean, of course there were no guarantees and so we all had to wait for that pickup order and stuff like that. But but you guys were were solid and so in the I think, wasn't we were the tgi F lineup on?

00:27:14
Speaker 2: Yeah, so it was.

00:27:16
Speaker 8: It was a tough spot to fill, but you know, Michael's track record was good and yeah, and that kind of stuff.

00:27:24
Speaker 1: You said, you remember you remember well when I joined the show. What is your memory of when the character of Tapanga was created? And and then I ended up in the part.

00:27:36
Speaker 8: Well, the day that we recast was I think there's some misinformation out there in that. I think I read somewhere that the actress that was was replaced, said that David said she wasn't pretty enough. Right, Yes, it's not true. That is not uh, that is that that's not the that's not the case. Not to say that she wasn't talented. It just she wasn't right for where the part needed to go. And Michael, really, I think David was concerned and so and he was concerned because it's that not because of looks.

00:28:19
Speaker 1: And she heard that, to be fair, she heard that from her agent. That her agent is the one who told her that the director had said that. Now this is you know, a telephone and to have been you know, a child and to have a rep pass that along is just Yes.

00:28:43
Speaker 8: It's horrendous to have that information in your head. And I just hope she knows that. But it's way too late now, it's.

00:28:51
Speaker 1: Never you know what I think to change change the narrative, you tell yourself.

00:28:56
Speaker 6: Yeah, because we.

00:28:56
Speaker 4: Also we said that too, where even at the time we talked to Bonnie, it was just it was out of character for David. David would never have walked up to her and or any of that stuff. It just that just wasn't David. So yeah, we we we we also knew that there was Again, it's just hearing what somebody said from somebody else, from somebody else on the phone.

00:29:14
Speaker 6: Thirty years later, it was it was.

00:29:17
Speaker 8: You know, because I was right there next to David the whole day, the whole time, and and it was pretty much just chemistry. It just wasn't it wasn't clicking. And and when I think Sally was it, Sally Steiner was that Yeah, yep, she brought you in and it was like the clouds parted and everything was like, oh, to hang up, that's the role, that's and that's you know, and and it was right. And so it was the right move that David you know, uh, and Michael did and and and you know, and here we are thirty years later about it.

00:30:03
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:30:04
Speaker 6: Do you also remember Earthquake week.

00:30:08
Speaker 2: Nineteen ninety four?

00:30:13
Speaker 8: You know, I mean I remember I remember getting a call from Mike or calling the production offic thing, yeah, we're gonna go, And I'm.

00:30:22
Speaker 2: Like, what, No, we're not.

00:30:27
Speaker 8: Yeah, you know, I said, my apartment building just shut you know, yeah, pieces, I'm off the foundation.

00:30:35
Speaker 2: What do you mean we're going in?

00:30:36
Speaker 6: Yep? And it was right.

00:30:37
Speaker 4: It was the Fugitive episode wasn't it that that week and so Ryder had this big thing and they put us in the giant like huge cavernous stage where laughs go to die. And yeah, we're trying to do a table read while there's after shocks, and we we start beforehand with a I think it was our lean something you did. You give us a speech about if if there's another after shock, everybody's got to run under here you gotta say and action.

00:31:04
Speaker 9: Okay, let's be funny, so funny, go to the walls.

00:31:11
Speaker 1: I know it's funny because you think of now the safety meetings that you have on sets, and you think we all are kind of like, all right, thanks, if there's anything wrong, we'll run out.

00:31:19
Speaker 2: Okay, we got that day. You're like, what do we do?

00:31:24
Speaker 6: What do we do?

00:31:25
Speaker 2: And tell me where and who do I okay, great, good to know safety.

00:31:28
Speaker 4: Yeah, you start remembering what the flight attendant said during severe turbulence. You're like, okay, wait, what my seatbelt's done? Okay, exits in front and back. Yeah, it was the same kind of thing.

00:31:38
Speaker 8: The DGA makes. You have to say them, and you know everyone's not listening, and it's like, you.

00:31:43
Speaker 1: Know, you're like sorry, to be the buzzkill, but I will be the person to save your life if.

00:31:48
Speaker 2: Any there happened.

00:31:49
Speaker 8: You remember when the extra in the dance scene we were working, really aren't she collapsed?

00:31:54
Speaker 6: No, which dancing was.

00:31:57
Speaker 8: It was a big dance and she was she she just collapsed and Steve like radios me, and I'm like and I run back behind the set and and all the extras are I mean with a big a lot of kids, and and I'm like sitting there going okay. And we had to get paramedics and she had to go to the hospital.

00:32:18
Speaker 5: You remember it was a kid.

00:32:19
Speaker 8: It was a kid. Yeah, collapse. She was dehydrated and she thank she was.

00:32:26
Speaker 1: Was it the episode when you guys are writer and Ben are doing doing the band band.

00:32:33
Speaker 2: On the run because it's like a school dance. Yeah, big school dance.

00:32:37
Speaker 6: Geez crazy.

00:32:39
Speaker 5: I don't remember that at all.

00:32:40
Speaker 4: Disasters did the kids some days on the set without someone collapsing?

00:32:47
Speaker 6: To erase Itz?

00:32:51
Speaker 1: What do you remember about the death chair? Do you remember us joking about the death chair the the third friend to Cory and Sean that in the that first season bringing in new actors and then they get replaced and we made. We started calling that third chair the death chair, and I'll never forget the time win David asked me to sit in that chair for something and I didn't.

00:33:24
Speaker 6: Think anything of it.

00:33:25
Speaker 2: I was like, yeah, I'll sit there.

00:33:25
Speaker 6: And literally Ben was like, don't, don't not yell, and I.

00:33:31
Speaker 2: Was like what and he was like, doom, don't. If you want to keep you your job, do not say.

00:33:36
Speaker 10: That a chair.

00:33:37
Speaker 1: And it really became like a thing, and then I was then I was scared to sit in there.

00:33:42
Speaker 8: Geez, I don't remember that.

00:33:44
Speaker 10: Oh my gosh, it was so crazy.

00:34:01
Speaker 1: So at this point, now you left? Did you leave us after season two? You went with David Trainer after season two? Okay, so did Jeff? Had Jeff directed any episodes in those first two seasons? Were you and Jeff ever on set together at the same time?

00:34:17
Speaker 8: Yes, I'm trying to think did he do one? I know he traded he trailed.

00:34:22
Speaker 1: David exactly, and I think he did. I think he did one episode in season two?

00:34:28
Speaker 4: And so do you do you remember what I just have I have the vision of you saying he trailed David.

00:34:33
Speaker 6: Two of the tallest human.

00:34:34
Speaker 4: Beings together, they're thirteen feet tall.

00:34:39
Speaker 8: And there was trailing after the other and image such.

00:34:45
Speaker 4: A strange image as these two giant men one trailing after the other.

00:34:49
Speaker 1: Seriously, I remember both of them were able to like take the length of the stage in what felt like five strides.

00:34:55
Speaker 6: Exactly huge.

00:34:56
Speaker 2: Rid, So do you remember what it was like to work with your brother? Was that was awkward?

00:35:03
Speaker 4: Oh?

00:35:04
Speaker 8: Yeah, it was very awkward, but it was so great because I was so proud of him and and he's so capable and he and I forget who I think it was. Kevin Tracy was the associate director.

00:35:17
Speaker 1: Yeah, yes, yeah, yeah, we just talked about Kevin, tell me about the very first episode you directed and what you remember about that experience.

00:35:29
Speaker 6: Because we just watched it. We did.

00:35:36
Speaker 8: Santa's Little Helpert.

00:35:37
Speaker 6: Yes, that's so cute.

00:35:40
Speaker 8: It was great. I mean it was my first episode to direct, and I've been uh, I had episodes on other shows coming up, and Michael wanted to make sure that Boy Mets World was my first episode. And I couldn't have been happier because it was like coming home. Yeah, Arlene had already past, so Karen was at the helm and and that was and Russell and that was just really great. And Michael Shay was there, and and you know, it was just a really great, great group DDE, Michael, Steve, everybody was. It was just really great. And and oh my god, was I so nervous and and I just you know, going through the week was was just you know, it was an interesting episode. I mean it was a very emotional episode, you know, with writer with you, with with Trina.

00:36:34
Speaker 9: And and then Tommy and got alogt.

00:36:47
Speaker 8: I was like, I got a really emotional episode. That's I couldn't remember. When I watched it a couple of days ago, I was like, oh.

00:36:54
Speaker 4: My god, yeah, all right, all we were also to the time, I mean season six now they're throwing up new sets all the time.

00:37:00
Speaker 6: So we're in sets we've never been in before. There's new extras, there's kids. I mean, you had a lot to do in that episode.

00:37:06
Speaker 8: Yeah, And you know, and Matthew was so funny. He was the Elf. I mean he was so unhappy elf custom.

00:37:16
Speaker 1: I remember him being so miserable and that, Yeah, he was like pissed.

00:37:21
Speaker 4: Yeah he got him Gucci ears.

00:37:26
Speaker 6: I don't see what.

00:37:29
Speaker 5: We talked about with matt and a lot, Like I've talked to him a lot but he really really cared about his clothing back now he doesn't at all like he is now is he's a T shirt and jean guy completely now, But back then he was like really into how you know, presenting this. We used to tease him about it all the time back then. But yeah, so that's funny that he actually really hated me. Oh, I totally believe it.

00:37:55
Speaker 8: So you know, of course, Maitland and her Santa Santata fantasy costume can't be.

00:38:04
Speaker 6: Can't just be a Santa Claus. You gotta be a sexy Santa Claus.

00:38:10
Speaker 8: But the thing that stuck out to me is like I got a little PTSD because that first scene where Ben is talking to you, Danielle, and he's talking exactly like Michael, and I remember in the note session Michael giving him line readings on how to do that Meg and I was just like I remember.

00:38:33
Speaker 1: Yes, especially season six and season seven, it is he just surrendered.

00:38:41
Speaker 8: He surrendered, totally dead.

00:38:43
Speaker 1: He was just like, you know what I am, I'm supposed to be Michael Jacobs.

00:38:48
Speaker 2: I'm just that's it. I'm going for it.

00:38:52
Speaker 6: I'm doing it.

00:38:52
Speaker 4: Yep. And actually the thing is it works for Corey it does unfortunately, I mean, it works and that is great at it.

00:39:01
Speaker 6: Yeah, but it is.

00:39:02
Speaker 4: I mean there's times we're watching where it's like, oh, yeah, that's just that's a straight up Michael line just coming out of Ben's mouth.

00:39:08
Speaker 6: That's just Michael Wright.

00:39:09
Speaker 8: You had such a hard, hard arc to to in that episode. I mean it was it was really delicate in a heartbreaking when you tell her you know, no, not ready in there. I was like, oh, pull on my heart a little bit at the end there. It was so well done.

00:39:29
Speaker 2: Do you remember one of the things that came up for me in the episode was like all of a sudden, you know, we kept saying like, okay, let's not think too much about reality, let's just go it was a Christmas it's a Christmas story, let's embrace it.

00:39:40
Speaker 5: Whatever.

00:39:41
Speaker 1: But it did strike me as interesting. Why do you remember this being a topic of discussion.

00:39:46
Speaker 2: Why do Sean and Angela leave the house.

00:39:51
Speaker 1: Go it apparently in a car ride or travel, don't talk about their relationship at all on the way, wait till they arrive at the school to talk about it, and then when they leave they go back to the house.

00:40:03
Speaker 2: Do you remember there?

00:40:04
Speaker 1: Do you remember why it needed to be in the student union, that they needed to have this conversation.

00:40:09
Speaker 8: Because that was the set that they wanted to set. Okay, just one of those things where it was like, didn't make any sense at.

00:40:16
Speaker 1: All, and it's just like, you know what, we don't care, people aren't going to care.

00:40:20
Speaker 2: Let's just have it here.

00:40:22
Speaker 5: I'll take the letters because we probably didn't have the backyard. It would have made perfect sense for us to just walk out of the backyard, leave the house, go have but we didn't have that set anymore, and so they were just like, oh, let's just use the student.

00:40:35
Speaker 8: I think Phoenie's house was gone not in that episode.

00:40:39
Speaker 4: So can I ask, as somebody who's the only person on the Zoom who is not a director, what is the most difficult part of transitioning from being a stage manager to actually directing an episode.

00:40:55
Speaker 8: I think the hardest thing is having the executives see you as a director mm hmm, and seeing you be creative, that you're a creative and you're not just a you know, brick and mortar kind of person. I think that's the hardest thing in that transition. Had I known that, I always thought it was the natural transition. You know, you go down to the stage, your stage management and you become a director. No, you go to stage management and then you're going to uh producing. And so it was the one left turn that I didn't anticipate, what's going to take a long time to make that transition. And then I remember on a show there's a producer Susie Greenberg who told me use your.

00:41:44
Speaker 2: Big voice, really use your big voice.

00:41:50
Speaker 8: Okay, for you to use your big voice as the director because he is an ad too.

00:41:54
Speaker 6: So I was like, oh right, I love that advice.

00:42:00
Speaker 8: So it was like, oh, yeah, I don't have to be the one who just sits in the back and listens in it and does everything. I actually get to use my voice.

00:42:08
Speaker 4: Susie Greenberg was she did she do Seinfeld as well? I thought, so, okay, yeah, she's doing that. The Susie is based after. Yes, there's an episode called.

00:42:19
Speaker 2: So when you watched the episode Santa's Little Helpers, were you able to enjoy your work?

00:42:26
Speaker 8: No?

00:42:27
Speaker 6: No, you said you never wanted to be an actor. She just answered, like an actor.

00:42:35
Speaker 8: I really knew. I go back and watch any of them, but I watched it and I was just like oh, I could have done that better. I could have, you know, And and I might have. I might have stood up a little bit more and just like, can we lay off the music a little bit more?

00:42:51
Speaker 2: Okay?

00:42:52
Speaker 1: No?

00:42:52
Speaker 8: And and it's a little heavy and and but you know, I think, you know, when I joked about having PTSD. Part of it too, is, you know, between the dress show and the air show, that note session that comes after at dinner or whatever. Michael tore me. I mean, I had a great I had a great week, great week with you guys, great month, threws. We did the dress show, we were jamming, we finished early that day. I mean, I had it blocked, I had everything. It was great. Blah blah blah. So I'm like at dinner feeling really pumped and great, and he comes and he just rips me to shreds in front of everybody.

00:43:34
Speaker 2: And you say about what, oh.

00:43:37
Speaker 8: Just you know, criticizing everything that I all my shots, all my this, all my you know, how I could do this? You know, typical Michael, you know, just you know whatever. And so I was sitting on the steps of my my trailer and just.

00:43:55
Speaker 2: Defeated, defeated.

00:43:57
Speaker 8: Who comes walking up to me but.

00:43:59
Speaker 6: My brother, Yeah, there you go.

00:44:02
Speaker 8: And he just lifted me up and he.

00:44:06
Speaker 9: Was like yeah, yeah, but he was just like, you know, okay, and he just brought me back to center.

00:44:16
Speaker 8: So you talk about the synergy between my brother and me and our careers and whatnot. He showed up at just the absolute right time and just you know.

00:44:26
Speaker 6: General way of doing that for all of us.

00:44:28
Speaker 5: Yeah.

00:44:28
Speaker 6: Really, yeah he really did. Yeah he would. Yeah, both of you did. Both of you did, truly. No, It's true.

00:44:35
Speaker 4: We talk about the how you were. You were kind of our first well I'll talk about myself. My first kind of conduit onto the set was you. I mean it was you were the one I would go to and talk to and we go to you if we had any problems, or go to you if we had any questions or go I mean, it was you were the one we would talk to. So you very much did for us what Jeff did for you that night, So that was very special to us.

00:44:57
Speaker 6: You both were. We talk about it quite a bit.

00:44:59
Speaker 1: You both have such a comforting command of every situation. There's no you know, when we talk about Michael being in charge, there's.

00:45:12
Speaker 2: Like that kind of commanding.

00:45:14
Speaker 1: Nope, there's not a there's not an inch of that in you where you're like.

00:45:19
Speaker 2: Oh, I'm a little afraid.

00:45:20
Speaker 1: But clearly this person is demanding, demanding that I respect them and that I listen to them. And so I think, I think I'm going to you. But you, guys, you're you're so you're both so capable, so in charge, and yet so comforting. There is an absolute safety of knowing foreign correct, with these people in charge, and we've got it, whatever it is, we've got it.

00:45:47
Speaker 6: Follow you anywhere kind of people. Yeah, correct, it's awesome.

00:45:50
Speaker 1: Right off a cliff, right off a cliff, exactly. Another thing I wanted to ask about is early on in your career you were a second a d and a production assistant on two wildly different movies, Baps with Callie Berry and Curtis Hansen's Hand that Rocks the Cradle.

00:46:15
Speaker 2: Wow, this is the weirdest double feature ever. Oh did this happen?

00:46:20
Speaker 1: And what stories do you have from either of them?

00:46:24
Speaker 8: The hand of Roxic Cradle was Annie Manascalco.

00:46:29
Speaker 2: Yes, the makeup artist, our makeup artist.

00:46:31
Speaker 8: It's Rebecca, the morning's makeup artist, and she and I were friends and she I went up to visit her on set and the first ad, oh, no, they were they needed a PA. So they asked me if I would stay and be a PA, and I said yeah, sure. I didn't know what I was doing, but I was like okay. And the first the second ad, the first AD was old grizzled, first a D and he had a mental breakdown during the shooting set. So the second AD moved up to first a D and then I moved up.

00:47:12
Speaker 2: To Wow, from PA to second eight having never done it before.

00:47:17
Speaker 8: Well, I was already stage managing, so I had okay.

00:47:20
Speaker 4: You know when that first ad got eaten by a lion, I was then made first a D.

00:47:27
Speaker 8: In charge of the of the babies. They were and uh and.

00:47:33
Speaker 6: You were literally the hand that rocked the cradle.

00:47:38
Speaker 8: You brought the little babies to set and and you know I was a baby wrangler.

00:47:44
Speaker 6: Wow.

00:47:45
Speaker 8: Wow, it was great. I had such a great time on that movie. And and it's all because of Annie. So the hand the rocks the Cradle was directed by Curtis Hansen and the cinematographers Bob Elswitz. I think Curtis, they hadn't he did l a confidential just.

00:48:01
Speaker 6: Half after such a good movie.

00:48:04
Speaker 8: Uh, but there were some really great stories, I mean almost dying on the set. And I was I was one of the stunt drivers and.

00:48:12
Speaker 4: I what.

00:48:14
Speaker 5: Baby wrangler, stunt driver.

00:48:16
Speaker 2: Wranglers second a d stunt driver.

00:48:19
Speaker 6: Please were taking advantage of you. They were making to do everything.

00:48:22
Speaker 8: They're like, we're working in Seattle, so it was like anything goes you know, wait.

00:48:31
Speaker 2: So tell me the story about how you almost died.

00:48:34
Speaker 8: We were in downtown Seattle and we were running and gunning it with a camera inside the car, and Curtis and Bob had away of doing things without talking to the ad department a sound safe. I was in the back of the car and we had no traffic stops, no cops, no nothing, and we I mean the cars it was almost all died.

00:49:08
Speaker 6: That's old school film.

00:49:09
Speaker 1: And then so you almost get into a car crash, but you don't you make it?

00:49:13
Speaker 2: Are you then like that's it, We're done that. We have to use that or did you do it again?

00:49:19
Speaker 8: Oh?

00:49:19
Speaker 9: No, that was it?

00:49:20
Speaker 2: That was that was it? Okay, you got what you needed.

00:49:23
Speaker 8: And it was you know, it was great. It was great filmmaking. It was. And then Rebecca was she was so focused in her character and Ernie who played the handyman. They were all and they were It was really great. It was really fun. It was a really great first film experience because I got exposed to like everything.

00:49:46
Speaker 1: And Boy meets World's crossover here the dad in the hand that rocks the cradle was the man who played the first Alan Matthews.

00:49:55
Speaker 2: Matt McCoy.

00:49:56
Speaker 6: Okay, it was Matt McCoy.

00:49:58
Speaker 8: Who was actually good friends with Yeah, and so uh it was worked out. It was really funny. It's a small world, small world. You see my hand drop like ear rings in it, and you see my.

00:50:13
Speaker 6: Like I said, acting is very important.

00:50:16
Speaker 8: She pulls out and it was like fun. I'm driving was really fun.

00:50:20
Speaker 6: It's amazing stunt driving.

00:50:22
Speaker 4: I'm just like, all right, Lynn, you're the stunt driver. Now get behind the wheel of that semi crashing into the building.

00:50:27
Speaker 8: Who's your stunt person? I'll do it all right.

00:50:45
Speaker 1: Well, despite having a you know, a stern talking to on tape night of your first episode, everybody obviously very much like your liked your work because you came back to direct two more episodes of Boy Mean's World in season seven.

00:51:03
Speaker 2: Is there anything you look.

00:51:04
Speaker 1: Back on like Boy Meets World being your first job, was there anything you very specifically point to and say, I learned X on directing Boy Meets World.

00:51:17
Speaker 8: That's a good question. Yes, I learned how important it is to be prepared. I can do that before, but I really I got to see it in action, and David really taught me how to do all my camera work. I'm a camera shots and stuff in a way that it's been hard to transition to how things are done today. You're on the floor and you mark up your script in a different way now than we did then because back then we marked the scripts for the booth, for the camera coordinator to be able to have meetings with the cameras, for camera operators, and they would assign shots to everybody, and so it was all done before you hit the floor, whereas now it's all done on the right and so that transition has been was a little difficult for me to kind of figure out what my new system was going to be. It was so ingrained the other way. But uh, you know, being able to have that split focus of four screens of four cameras, yeah, something some people can do, some people can't, and single camera people coming into multi camera can't seem to do it, but multi camera people can do both. So yeah, I find that's on that too.

00:52:41
Speaker 1: But well, you would go on to have an incredible career in directing. You have two DGA Award nominations, and one very big job that you mentioned was first a d on Ellen, a show that got a ton of media attention when she became the first openly gay character on network TV. What was your experience of working on that show and working with Ellen?

00:53:06
Speaker 8: It was great.

00:53:07
Speaker 4: It was.

00:53:10
Speaker 8: Being a gay woman myself.

00:53:12
Speaker 4: It was.

00:53:14
Speaker 8: You know, not having to like use pronouns to talk about, which is what I had to be very careful of them. Boy meets World with you guys, I was very careful with all of that.

00:53:27
Speaker 2: And what do you mean, explain, explain, expand on that more with us.

00:53:33
Speaker 8: In that day and age and that time, you just didn't you weren't out, You weren't you know, you just don't ask, don't tell kind of thing. And I never bought anyone to rap parties or anything else like that. It was the beards as it were. But that's just the time. That was just the time, you know, And I was so closeted too. It was just kind of crazy, but on Ellen, I didn't have to be anymore, and so it was pretty great. And but working with Ellen herself was a whole different experience because she comes she came from the stand up world. Obviously, you got two takes and that's it, and you moved on and you were lucky. And it had to be something really specific to make a third take. Everybody had to come to the set frosty right and ready to go and be prepared.

00:54:35
Speaker 1: And.

00:54:37
Speaker 8: It just she was very conscious of the audience and the live audience, and that was bomitter and man, it just flew. And she was brilliant, brilliant comedian and and so I learned a lot, a lot a lot about comedy from her. One of my favorite moments is when Emma Thompson came on the show and they were just improving with each other in front of the camera, and you know, it's a thing of don't ask where you can't speak, and I'm behind the camera and I'm laughing so hard and crying because I'm laughing. So I'm like double over, about to hit the floor because it was just so funny. So that was really great. But you know, the highlight obviously was when the coming out episode. That was like a huge moment, you know, and reflective of the time too, because it was all in secret. We knew it was going to happen months ahead of time, Like it's like being in the closet. You can't really talk about it, right And and suddenly you know it's getting closer and closer, and she's getting impatient, and Michael Eisner is like saying, no, I don't think we should do this, and you know, all the politics are at play and all this kind of stuff, and you know, we had amazing musical acts and you know, big, big things happening, and you know, we had a rock and roll episode where she got so tired of not being able to come out that she says on stage with like Bonnie Rait and and David Crosby and Sheryl Crow and all that goes, I'm gay and oh my god. You never saw people move so fast as to confiscate the tapes in the film and.

00:56:27
Speaker 2: The oh geez, it was crazy.

00:56:31
Speaker 8: But it was it was really it was really something else. That moment with Laura Dern in the airport when she said, I mean it just I still get chills today.

00:56:41
Speaker 6: The microphone for great moment.

00:56:44
Speaker 8: And it's just like one of those historic moments I was so proud to be a part of.

00:56:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, it must have really, like you said, it was such a moment of the times, but also for you, like hearing that you were so closeted that you felt you had to keep that a secret from everybody on Boy Meets World. It was it must have been, but yeah, yes, yes, but it must have felt very much like I don't know, just like it must have felt so like so special and well it's like.

00:57:18
Speaker 5: E merging of the personal and the professional. Yeah, you know, it's like you're creatively a part of something that's changing the culture. But it's also so reflective of what you had already gone through or were going through. That's amazing.

00:57:29
Speaker 8: Absolutely. And you know, we sat there in a production meeting and there's a little Fredo's Cafe scene where Katie Lang was going to be playing guitar and Melissa Edwards or whatever, and it's a coffee house and there was one in West Hollywood and Ellen looks to me and she goes, we'll fill it with your friends.

00:57:50
Speaker 9: Everybody in that scene to be gay, And I was like, okay, Okay, that's awesome.

00:57:57
Speaker 2: That is so great.

00:57:58
Speaker 8: It's time to have that in like a production meeting.

00:58:00
Speaker 4: I was just like, what, yeah, slightly different world than Boys World.

00:58:06
Speaker 1: Maybe yeah another another boy Meets World tie in. Lesia Hayley is a background actor in that scene.

00:58:16
Speaker 6: She really Oh that's awesome. I didn't know that.

00:58:19
Speaker 2: At the airport.

00:58:20
Speaker 6: That's great. Yeah, cool, cool like that.

00:58:24
Speaker 1: So you have gone on to have an incredible career also especially in family TV. Done The Thunderman's a show we have in common, Raven's Home, Nikky, Ricky, Dicky, and Don Fuller House.

00:58:37
Speaker 2: What do you love about.

00:58:38
Speaker 1: Working in family TV and maybe even specifically with kid actors.

00:58:44
Speaker 8: I think there's a kindness in the television shows. But you know, I I someone asked me this a while ago, and I said, why did you work with so many kids? Book? And I just feel like it was it was my job to protect kids. I couldn't protect myself, so I wanted to protect kids. You know. It's like really interesting and and you know, one job, he gets, another gets another, and then you get kind of pigeonholed into a certain type of genre.

00:59:19
Speaker 1: I think you're right with the kid with the kid aspect the protective nature of kids. I also feel very similarly when I'm on set. I mean, my first directing job was on Girl Meets World, and I continued to do a bunch of family TV, and I think the overwhelming feeling I have every time I'm on one of those sets is I am so happy to be able to create the kind of comforting family environment we had people like you creating for us in that first and second season, and there is there's such a nice feeling of knowing that, like for a lot of these kids, this is their very first job or one of their very first jobs. They're going to go on to hopefully have careers in this industry. And no matter what, they're not all going to have incredible experiences. Some of them are going to be really bad. But at the very least I know, if I'm there, it's going to be a good experience. And that's a that's a nice feeling.

01:00:19
Speaker 8: It is it is, and it's a it's a huge compliment because you bring what you're bringing you to this and and and as you as you know, we go from show to show to show to show, and we're always reinventing ourselves. We're always re re establishing ourselves with this new crew, this new direct this new staff, this new cap and the only constant is is is you and you can only do what you can to make it a safe environment for the actors to be able to create. And that's that's me is the whole job is to create a safe environment for the actors to do what they're trained to do. Because when the kids don't know what they're doing, they're too young to inexperience whatever. It's your job to help foster them. And I watch David do that with you guys, and that just taught me so much. And it all goes back to to you know, the basics of you know, just listen, just just you know, listen to your fellow actors, listen to me. Let me be the buffer between you and the executives who are trying to give you a thousand notes. And sometimes shows work that way, and sometimes they don't. Sometimes, you know, the writers still go into the set to talk to the actors and it gets confusing. You know that, That to me was always the hard part of directing too. On sitcoms, especially not so much single camera. Single camera, you're kind of more respected camera you know, it's your job to help keep this noise over here at the monitors and let the actors be.

01:02:12
Speaker 2: Well.

01:02:12
Speaker 1: Finally, with all of the TV shows you have worked on, did you ever think Boy Meets World would be the one we are still talking about thirty years later.

01:02:24
Speaker 8: No, Finally, but amazing. I'm so proud of you, guys. I mean, it's really wonderful what you're doing and to give, you know, all these different people who've been associated with the show a voice and to speak their experience and to have that common denominator through it all of there's just so much love, you know, respect and aside from the you know who shall not be mentioned. But if it wasn't for him, we wouldn't be here today.

01:03:10
Speaker 4: You said it right, it's a complex relationship. I think it's a very complex relationship.

01:03:14
Speaker 6: Yeah.

01:03:14
Speaker 8: And uh, I'm just you know, seeing you guys right now, I'm seeing you when you're little. I mean I still think you know, like I know, you're adults and you have kids, married and whatnot. Thrilled for you and your journey, Danielle has been amazing. I mean, your strength right now is tremendous and I'm so impressed by you.

01:03:36
Speaker 2: Thank you so much all.

01:03:39
Speaker 8: The good health for you in the coming journey with what you're doing you.

01:03:43
Speaker 1: I'm so thankfully it is it is mostly in my rear view. I'm just on a I'm on a daily medication now that I have to take for five years, and so you know, it's a matter of finding out what the side effects are, managing those when they pop up. But you know, treat active treatment is behind me. I have my first post cancer mammogram in June, so there's a little bit of, you know, anxiety wrapped up in that. Just sure you know, odds are there's not going to be anything. But I think every time there'll be another mammogram, there's always going to be some anxiety around it. But you know, I mean, truly, I don't ever want to say I'm like grateful for cancer because it just feels a little silly. But there have been some tremendous changes in me because of it that I am very grateful for. And one of them has just been recognizing that pre cancer, I spent a lot of time doing very perfunctory checking off boxes and making sure I was getting all of the things done and and really not making any time for fun or just truly just enjoying life. And I'm in what I'm calling my season of Yes. I'm saying yes to everything I'm going, I'm making. I'm having lunches with everyone I've I've ever wanted to have lunch with.

01:05:13
Speaker 2: I'm going to dinners, I'm seeing plays.

01:05:15
Speaker 1: I'm like doing things that maybe I won't get to bed until like eleven or twelve, Like yeah, pre cancer, Danielle was like, Nope, you gotta be asleep by eight thirty. And so it's just it's made me realize that life is really short and you never know when it's going to be over. And so I'm just having as many incredible experiences with the people that I love as possible.

01:05:36
Speaker 4: Yes to everything else to self ask Danielle for money, Yeah, yes, do it?

01:05:43
Speaker 2: Do you never know?

01:05:44
Speaker 8: I stepped back a little bit to be home with raising my two boys. Yeah, and there's there's I wouldn't do it differently.

01:05:55
Speaker 5: Yeah.

01:05:56
Speaker 8: Now, the I paid for it because I tried. When I was ready to come back to work, more people were.

01:06:03
Speaker 1: Like, yeah, how old were you? How old were your boys when you when you took a step back.

01:06:10
Speaker 5: Mmmm.

01:06:11
Speaker 8: Well Chris was too, and Nick was born, so I took a step back when they were little, little little. I ended up being like the photographer for the preschool for you know, I'm in the elementary school and all I kind of I just like was like immersed in all of that. But you know, it's it's it's interesting. The balance is really really interesting. It's it's hard, right, I mean, yeah, it's hard.

01:06:40
Speaker 2: Writer does it do? Writer?

01:06:41
Speaker 1: And writer's son is also in voiceover and and is a real performative kid. Uh so, yeah, that's a nightmare.

01:06:53
Speaker 6: You all make it sound so wonderful.

01:06:55
Speaker 8: I'm sorry, we don't.

01:06:57
Speaker 6: Mean are you kidding?

01:06:59
Speaker 4: No, I I'm sorry for y'allirls.

01:07:02
Speaker 2: About to be a grandfather.

01:07:04
Speaker 6: I'm about to be a grandpa.

01:07:05
Speaker 4: Actually what Yeah, my stepdaughter is about to have our first grandchild, so I'm very happy.

01:07:11
Speaker 6: Yeah, about to be a poppy.

01:07:13
Speaker 2: Oh my god, it's gonna be so fun. I can't wait.

01:07:17
Speaker 6: Great, Yeah, I can't either.

01:07:20
Speaker 1: Well, then, truly, we cannot thank you enough for being here with us. You are, as we mentioned earlier, you are just one of those people whose names, whose faces, whose voice brings back a flood of positive memories of endorphins.

01:07:42
Speaker 2: Where can we see you. Can we see you face to face? Can we give you a hug where.

01:07:47
Speaker 8: I'm in studio city?

01:07:49
Speaker 6: Oh god, okay, let's go.

01:07:50
Speaker 5: Letch touch much time.

01:07:52
Speaker 2: Let's let's lunch in my season of Yes, let's lunch.

01:07:55
Speaker 6: Oh yes that, oh yes, lunch, yes that anytime.

01:08:00
Speaker 8: He'll be so jealous. Jeff has a show, his first art show. I know, is it this week weekend? Yeah? I think I got.

01:08:12
Speaker 4: Yeah, we got to send him something because we've been I've been wanting a piece forever and finally there's a chance of getting one.

01:08:16
Speaker 6: So I'm very excited.

01:08:18
Speaker 1: Anybody I know, I know, I know.

01:08:23
Speaker 2: Are they selling pieces at the show?

01:08:26
Speaker 4: He's starting to sell so good because I want one.

01:08:29
Speaker 8: I want to.

01:08:33
Speaker 2: Come to the show.

01:08:34
Speaker 8: And he's like, no, no, no, but it's your first show, and he goes, it's two hours in the gallery here in Connecticut, don't know when I haven't show in New York. That's when you come. I'm like, all right, You're.

01:08:47
Speaker 2: Not all right, I mean, will be there too, We'll be there.

01:08:52
Speaker 6: Excellent, absolutely, yes, I would love to do it.

01:08:55
Speaker 2: When we adore you.

01:08:57
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for all of your contributions to Boy Meets world, and for the protective shield you placed over all of us and have continued. It's a warm, warm, fuzzy shield that I still feel to this day. And I hope to see you soon so I can wrap you in my arms with a big old hug.

01:09:13
Speaker 8: I would love to.

01:09:13
Speaker 2: Good to see you, Okay, good to see you.

01:09:15
Speaker 8: Thank you. Hi guys. Wow.

01:09:19
Speaker 5: Yes, you know, like I think about how different Boy Meets World would have been without her. Yeah, yeah, I mean not just in terms of the experience. I actually genuinely believe creatively it would have reflected on the show too, you know what I mean? Like, I think that us feeling comfortable, feeling safe is what allows allowed us to do the performances and allowed us to keep showing up and to care about it, and allowed our parents to feel comfortable about yes, a green day, this job and every aspect of it, and like, yeah, that it's rare. Unfortunately stage was rare, and then you know, you think about it. She left our show and brother came in, right, and it's like, so we're between the mccrackens. We are okay, and that it's like so crazy to think that, like, yes, it's actually comes from really these two people. So much of what we think of as like the positive time and Boys World came from their their actual influence and decisions that they made. And yeah, just great, amazing.

01:10:22
Speaker 4: Yep.

01:10:23
Speaker 1: Just hearing her voice and seeing her face that hasn't changed much and I was like, I'm twelve again. Yeah, yeah, I'm a little kid again. Thank you all for joining us for this episode of Pod Meets World. As always, you can follow us on Instagram pod Meets World Show. You can send us your emails Podmeets World Show at gmail dot com. And we've got merch.

01:10:43
Speaker 6: Okay, we're buying merch in five four three.

01:10:50
Speaker 2: Podmeets World Show dot com will send us out.

01:10:54
Speaker 6: We love you all, pod dismissed.

01:10:57
Speaker 4: Podmeets World is nheart podcast producing hosted by Danielle Fischel, Wilfredell and Ryder Strong. Executive producers Jensen Karp and Amy Sugarman. Executive in charge of production, Danielle Romo, producer and editor, Tara Sudbaksch, producer, Maddy Moore, engineer and Boy Meets World superfan Easton Allen. Our theme song is by Kyle Morton of Typhoon, and you can follow us on Instagram at Podmeats World Show, or email us at Podmets Worldshow at gmail dot com.