TGI - Episode 108 (Teacher’s Bet)

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Speaker 1: Well, I have to tell you your voice is in my house and in my ears too much. Sorry, it's I mean, it's wonderful. I want to talk to you about it a little bit because can you always recognize it? It is always it's just Will enough. I can hear it from another room and I'm like, that Will, and I'll think I'm wrong. I'll think I'm wrong because there have been times I've watched other animated shows and I thought I've recognized the voice from like a different one, like Addler loves the show called Super Wings. And then we were watching a show, a Disney Channel animated show, and I was convinced that one of the Supers was a voice on this animated show. And I looked it up and it was not, and I was like, man, I really thought I was going to nail that somehow. With Will's voice, even when he's changing it his characters, I can like hear it enough and it doesn't matter where I am in the house. I was giving Keaton a bath the other night and Adler was watching Guardians of the Galaxy on his Amazon Fire and from the other room, I go, is that Will? And Jensen's like, I don't know let me look it up, and he looks it up. He goes, yeah, it's Will. And then we were watching a Spider Man an Ultimate Spider Man on TV another day, and all of a sudden from the other room, I'm making Adther's dinner. Is that Will? And so Jensen texts, Will, Will, are you in the Ultimate Spider Man? He goes, is it a Deadpool episode? And we're like it is. He goes, then yep. It's me like, oh, thank god. And then I'm listening to our podcast episodes for you know, doing our editing, and then I'm watching Boy Meets World for there and I'm like, there is so much Will. Will is just everywhere. Sorry, sorry, I mean it's wonderful. I had no idea. I knew you were a very successful voice over actor, but I did not know quite how many characters you voice. It's like tons. Yeah, I've been very I've been very, very lucky in my voice over career, and and it's hundreds now at this point I've been doing it for twenty five years. Yeah, marvelous, marvelous, marvelous side of the industry. It really is. Well, I'd love to escape you. So I'm gonna have I'm gonna ut you turn you off your conversation writer and Danielle Today's episode. That is no problem. I totally understand. But just make sure you don't watch any ThunderCats or Batman of any kind and you'll be fine. Okay, Well, how often do you do like your voice? I mean, how often is it just you acting? And how often is it a character? Um? It depends on what world we're in, quote unquote like Disney. You know, if you're doing something Disney, you're very charactery. You're usually it's like ron Stoppable is always up here and it's not you know, it's a total character. Um. But when you're doing something like um, Guardians of the Galaxy, it's it's kind of just me. It's like a Chris Pratty kind of come on, Comemora, what are what are you talking about? Let's just go and do what we gotta do. You know, it's like that kind of slightly elevated version of yourself exactly. So you do you do? You know, and then and then it runs the different kind of depending on what you're doing. I mean, I just did one, uh was it last week? We're the whole time, I'm just talking like this, that's great. Is it a prospector? Yeah? He was. He was kind of like a turned out here, just writing a horse and just trying to figure out how to get to the gulch, you know, like stuff like sum I My voice never changed, So I the only cartoon characters I ever have gotten casted is fourteen year old boy because I just sound like a fourteen year old boy. So it's a great zone to be. So I just show up and sort of act as this and it's and you know, I've had people say to me, like recognized me on the street, like your voice hasn't changed. I'm like, yeah, I must still sound like a season one of Boymates World. That was like, guys, when I stopped growing, So I'm the same height five eight and my voice never changed. Well, can we talk about that for a second, because I know we're going to get back into the episode, but or into the episode when we get there. But the thing that shocked me the most about this episode was how much you towered over. Yeah, Like I never knew. I always in my head you're kind of like the same size. You were like a foot taller than him. Well, I think it was also just the way I was like perching in this episode, Like I'm constantly like sitting on a desk atball, like even sitting on the back of my seat for some reason in this episode, I'm like constantly Yeah you get you get into his face at the end, and you're like you tower over him. Yeah. Well this is why I didn't realize that I was not a tall person until I was in my twenties. Just like just like I didn't really I just just like I didn't know my shirt size until I was twenty. I always because because at thirteen, I was the tallest kid in my class, you know, like I was always taller than all of my friends. So when we started Boy Meets World, like I was locked in this mindset of like, oh, I'm kind of a tall person, and then everybody else kept growing I did not. So you get that a lot though. We'll jump into the episode for sure. But last week we had Lauren Lattison as our guest and it was so much fun having her um And we asked for you guys to write us and tell us about if there was a Poenie character in your life, and we got a bunch of emails and I have selected two of them to share with you. Guys here, are you interested in hearing them? Absolutely? Okay, So this is from Jason Burke and he said, you asked us to talk about what Mr Feenie means to us, and I'm going to try to keep it brief. For me, Mr Feenie was the first character that made me look for the lesson behind the lesson. He broke the mold of the teachers stereotype. He taught the lessons already knowing that they would have subtleties and subtext that the would need to use outside of the classroom. He stepped in with heart and care while never crossing the line of propriety and professionalism. Mr Feenie taught your character's lessons while making us the viewers, dig for the connections ourselves. He was a guy that, no matter what the age gap was, every kid at home was rooting for him. That's a huge credit not only to the writing staff, but the incomparable Bill Daniels and his acting ability. Thank you, Mr Feinie for helping us to figure out the kind of adults that we wanted to grow into. Lose one teacher, lose all teachers lose yourself. I love you all. Email dismissed. That's put. Thank you so much Jason for that message, and I'm going to read you one more. This is for from Jake Verstig or Verstige. I don't know if I'm saying that correctly. If I'm not, I'm sorry. It says, Hey, Pod Meats World team just wanted to send a quick note about how Mr Feinie has shaped me as an educator. I'm the athletic director at the Performing Arts Center to actor of vocal music in Canton, South Dakota. I was just a little young for Boy Meat's World when it originally aired. However, in high school and college I fell in love with the show when it played on the Disney Channel. I always admired Mr Feinie for the way he formed close knit, appropriate and meaningful relationships with the main cast on Boy Meats World. However, it was his final sign off that changed how I viewed education in general. Dream, try, do good. I'm tearing up as I write this full honesty. If I do nothing else as a teacher except to help children do those three things, then I will consider my career as an educator an immense success. I wouldn't be the teacher I am if the Mr Feinie didn't exist as a character, and likely if William Daniels didn't brilliantly portray the role. Thank you so much for the opportunity to relive this show through the podcast. Love and Admiration from South Dakota. Aren't those great? So many of them? I think this is a good episode to talk about. You know, this is one of the best Phoenie episodes two in terms of the sort of all knowing teacher who uh sets up a situation and then has an amazing lesson. Uh yeah, I was. I was blown away by this episode. It is. It's a perfect episode. Let's jump in. This is Pod meets World. I'm Daniel Fishel, I'm Right or Strong, and I'm Wilfred l. So. Today we are covering season one, episode eight, Teachers Bet. It originally aired November ninete and um. The synopsis is that Phoenie makes a bet with Corey to teach his class for one week. If more students passed the test than Corey wins, and if more students fail, Phoenie wins. So. It was directed by David Trayner. It was written by April Kelly and UM Online. It also says that Jeff Minell was an executive story editor for this episode. Okay, interesting, I don't even know what that means. I don't know what it means either, but obviously he was the executive story editor titles and titles. I have a feeling, and this is just you know, conjecture. I don't know, but I have a feeling. It means someone wrote the bulk of the episode and then there was one person assigned to it because it was written by April Kelly, who also was an executive producer, so it's possible she had so many other things going on in the week that that episode then got handed over to Jeff to make exactly whether it's a punch up or it's or it's making the changes, and he becomes then the executive story editor. But ultimately at the end of the day, the original episode was created by April Kelly. Well, you know what's interesting is that it will all depend on whatever the w g A, which is the Writer's Guild UM rules are at the time, and they change. So I mean you can see some things where it'll say like written by and it'll have one name and it'll say story by and it'll have another name. And it's one of those things where somebody can come in and you know, have have a great story and write the first draft and then it changes so much and changes so much that by the end it's technically the teleplay or or screenplay is written by somebody else, but the story credit is still given to the original person who came up with the idea. So there's all these tiny little rules that change all the time of how much you put in, what you did, how much work, how much time it's taken, which can change the different credits that you'll see on the on the television joke. Well, and television is a real mess too film. In film it's much more sort of uh structured, and the rules are you know, they literally count the words that between drafts and assigned credit based on that, you know, if you end up going to arbitration. But in television it's such a team effort that who ends up getting the credit sometimes is pretty arbitrary. And there's also this weird tradition that has written in order to pay writers better, they give them producer credits. Um, So every writer basically is now no longer just trying to get their credit on a script and having a written by creditor. They're trying to get producer credit or executive producer, creditor, co producer credit, associate executive story editor or whatever they because there's no producers Guild. There's no producers union in the same way that there is a writer's Guild and a director's Guild and actors. You know, there's all these unions, but there's no producers union. So the producer title, which is in some ways the most important and sought after, is also the most fluid um. And so when somebody says that they're a producer, that could mean it was like the first lesson in Hollywood, right. It's like if somebody introduces themselves as a producer, to be like, okay, but what have you actually? What is? What do you tell me? Explain your skill set? Please? This episode has two guest stars, one myself as to Pangaea is finally back. You're not a guest stars, You're a guest star. That's my credit. I watched this with my wife and I was like, yes, Dan yells back. Can Sue was like, wait a second, isn't wasn't she on all of them and then beIN. I was like, no, that's what everyone thinks, and immediately was like, oh she's back, yeah, exactly, like al right, it was like it was so funny. I think the center of the show had been a stablished you know what I mean, Like the second that Corey's Alternative Friends episode, like that's all Andy cared about. He's like, oh yeah, okay, now she's back, and it was like he was comfortable again. Same Now I know what the show is, and I know the classroom, I know the environment. It's so funny. Well, tell Indie, thank you. And then the most important guest star of this week is Lindsay Price as Linda. So apparently Eric has gotten rid of Heather. That did not go well. Well, of course it was a new it was a new week, so they need you know. That's how it was in the beginning. It was like, first we talked about Heather, then we see Heather. Now we need another guest star. So now Eric is apparently just with somebody else and it's like okay, alright, alright, well, but obviously they also needed the ethnicity for this episode. That was remember the driving factor, the thing I remember most and we can get into it more when this when the scene comes. But about working with Lindsay was and again I'm always you know, I bashed myself quite a bit on this on this podcast, which I will continue to do. But I distinctly remember working with her during the crying scene where she turned it on instantly, and I remember the later going oh my god, she's so much better than me. She's so good, so good, and it was like, oh man, she's she's really like I am not in this league at all the episode and I remember the exact same thing watching her cry. I remember the moments of watching not being filmed and being like whoa, yeah, yeah, it was like, man, she's good. Yeah, So I did you know? I I worked with Lindsay later, um, I did a TV series with her, um called Pepper Dennis. It's a series that I met my wife on. Actually, so yeah, we were all we all we all hung out a bunch then and I remember like kind of reintroducing myself to her and she was like, oh, yeah, I did that. I did I did a very special episode of your show. And I was like, I think it was just an episode. I think like everything about boys, you know, but people remember things is like very special episodes. It was like every episode of Boy Meats World had that vibe, right, like there was always this dramatic turn or this you know lesson um. But it was funny that in her mind, because I you know, I don't think she watched the show beyond having done this episode. In her mind, she remembered it as this, you know, like a big deal, a big you know, and it is, of course, well it's actually one of the things Lauren Lattas talked about last week is that one of the things I think that made Boy Meat's World special is that every episode did have that very special episode lesson like you're talking about, writer, But almost none of the episodes had that very special episode feel. They didn't have that like changing of the music sometimes. I think there are a few that that did. But you know, for the most part, it was every week was a very special episode, delivered in a very like we're just gonna have a conversation about stuff that happens in real life and you're not going to feel like beating you over the head with a lesson so um. To her, like you said, it probably did feel very very special and to us obviously she had a cry to you know, like so her memory of it was like, I'm going on to this comedy show and I have to cry and have experienced racial attack Like that is intense. That's not something you typically do as a teenage guest star on a on a show. I mean, the synopsis does not do a good explanation of saying that anything like that happens. It just explains the bet that happens with Corey. But you know, I also remember, maybe you guys can fill this in for me. I also remember it being more clear from the Corey perspective, what like that she had been called something racial? Remember mispronounced it? Okay, that's how okay, that just we'll just call it the G word. Yes, but yeah, that that that was actually in the script. The only slur that's in the script is the W word, which you know, it is interesting but in the original script, because I remember we all at the table read, Ben mispronounced it because we never heard he never heard. Everybody laughed at the table read because you know, but it was such a sweet moment in retrospect that Ben did not know this word and I didn't not. That to me shows the difference in ages just right there, even the difference between being twelve thirteen years old and being sixteen seventeen years old, because by this point I had seen like Platoon and Full Metal Jacket and use the Vietnam movies that use this word over and over again. So I was familiar with the word obviously, and and I do I remember that same thing where it was? So why was it cut? I mean, was it cut because it was too offensive? Like I wonder if it was a note? I don't remember. I I wondered if it was cut just on Disney plus no I heard I I distinctly remember him him mispronouncing the word and then it just not being there. It was gone. It was got after the table. Huh, Yeah, that was it. I bet you was a network note, right, I mean, because so I kept as it was building up to it, I was like, this is interesting because I was watching it with Indie and I was like, Okay, we're gonna have to get into what this word means or you know, if because I assumed it was coming and then it didn't come, and I was kind of relieved. And then I was like, oh, right, well, how is how does that work? And how would that work nowadays too, you know, like because I think now we exists in a space where we we just don't use those words, even if we're using them within a context of criticism, right um. And you know, it was an interesting moment to be like, oh, we're still going to just throw out one racially derogatory term at Sewan Hunter. But that's the thing. Why is why was? Why is one okay? But the other one is cut? Is the question that I had. I was like, the second he's why why is that one all right? But the other one Isn't That that I found very strange. M hm, I don't know, Yeah, I didn't. And I also then felt like something was missing in from the Corey perspective, clarity about what actually yeah, about what actually happened, because I without the context of knowing about that they're reading about Anne Frank and that and all of that. If you if my brother or sister or whoever came home and said someone called me a bad name, I don't think my first thought would be that it would be racially oriented. I don't know what I would think it was, but it wouldn't necessary it needed. I thought it actually missed the fact that it should have been more pointed about what it was. Um, so we'll we will get to that scene. Let's go to the end. Let's go right to the end. So we are in the school cafeteria. Sean brings Corey a Barry Bonds article and they call him the forty three million dollar man because that's how much he's getting to play baseball for six years. And um that obviously, that still sounds like a lot of money. And yet in comparison to what baseball players make now, it is practically nothing. For example, Mike Trout recently signed a deal for four hundred and twenty six million dollars for twelve years, so about thirty five million a year per year. He's almost making what Barry Bonds was making for his entire company, easily seven million a year. Come on, what is that? Yeah, I was just laughing about. I was like, wow, that's that's practically nothing compared to now, And yet that sounds like so much money. Um Minga says Mr Finie is one of the top guys in teaching and he only makes about forty dollars a year. I love this whole conversation. I think it's so smart and such a great way to set up a disparity that I don't think kids realize, you know, like I really don't think that this comes up enough. It still doesn't come up enough, but just and I love how specific it is to be like yeah, and you know, I still the teachers still don't make more than fifty grand a year, if that right? Like this is public school? Such, Yes, it's such. And I love Lee's for for It's so beautiful to see and um, it's so earnest. It's such a sweet moment. My recurs throughout the episode. My head instantly when I saw that scene went to, okay, backstory for leonor like Mincus, did Mincus and Mr Feenie have a conversation where Foenie tells him what he's paid. Has Mincus done the research to That's what I think too, That's what I was. I gotta so he obviously went to the library, went to the the you know, the town records office to find out because he's not Google's tax returns. I think it's actually probably realistically, I think it's probably conversation with his parents at the dinner chavel, you know, talking about things that are that are important and that are going on in the world, and you know, teachers don't make nearly enough money and they probably had that dialogue with him, and he has that information from his parents. Um, so I feel like this is peak Sean outfit. This is this is what I remember, like if I think about Boy Meets World season one, this is the outfit I'm wearing, and that this scene was like I was like, oh there, I am, uh, some kind of denim hoodie, colorful print print thing. My hair is like in the right, like Sean, look, it's extra voluminous. I'm dealing with it. It's in my face. And I watched to see I was like, this is what I remember. This is this is what I remember feeling like and looking like, oh god, I mean, you're acting as it was a bad thing, but you are so cute. You're so cute. I know you. I know you don't feel that way, but you are. You're just so cute and your closer oversized and you've got the you know, the minute your hair falls in your face, you're getting it out with your signature hand swoop. And it's so I love that this bend that Sean doesn't think Phoenie is worth that much money. And Minca says that Phoenie is grossly underpaid. Corey says nothing about teaching six sixth grade ever changes, and he calls Phenie predictable, and then he walks through exactly what's going to happen next that Phenie's gonna come in, he's gonna take a sip of water from the fountain, he's gonna wipe his mustache, he's gonna walk by, he's gonna say good morning, Mr Matthews, I trust you've done the homework. And then they're gonna have this little exchange, and sure enough, Phenie walks in and does exactly what he details, but then also predicts what Ben is gonna say. So they're both just as predictable, just as predictable. Yeah, Phoenie says, gosh, you're so predictable. So then we are in Phoenie's classroom and they are talking about prejudice this week in class. Corey says he's prejudiced against the food in the cafeteria and I have no idea why to Panga also laughs to Pango laughs at that joke, and I guess, I guess she likes Corey. But like the first time we ever met, to Penga, she was campaigning for the librarian, and I feel like she for sure would be involved in the cafeteria life and would probably roll her eyes at the idea that you're going to make fun of these of the food that these hard working people are making in the cafeteria. That would be my backstory for to Panga. Well, I think they needed to establish that Ben's a class clown, right, because that's what then disruptive, because that's the so I bet you it was a note for all of us, yes, like, oh, when Ben says this line, you guys should all laugh to indicate, to indicate that he's like disrupting the class, so it will lead to the conversation after after this. That makes sense. But they didn't show Mincas because I guarantee you Mincas didn't laugh, right, and so all I could see was me and it just felt like, Hey, why why do I have to be in this camera shot laughing? Other people should be laughing, But I don't think to Panga would laugh. But you're right, they do need to set up that it would be that he's now disrupting the class and um and so uh calls. I'd like to say before you say, Phoene calls Corey up to the thing. I've had this exact conversation with the teacher of mine, This exact will come up to the front after the class. Every year, you're disrupting out jokes every time, you're making it more difficult. Like as I was sitting there watching, I had this just flashback to seventh grade where I had this exact conversation with the teacher. So that was really weird for me. I was like, oh, man, I've I've had that. I've had that same conversation. Like I had a visceral feeling where I had had that exact conversation with the teacher before. I actually did too, but it was later, I guess it was in high school. I definitely had a teacher pulled me aside. It was a great conversation because I had a great teacher who just pulled me aside and he was like, hey, can you help me out. He's like, he's like, you know, the the other kids really look up to you, and when you do this and you talk like that, and it makes my job really hard. Can you just And if I remember feeling like so devastated, like oh, I'm he's like, why why are you doing this? Are you trying to like, you know, what do you what do you? What do you want from this? And I was like I'm sorry. He's like yeah, because I'm trying to teach, Like what do you what are we here to do? And it was just like a hey, Pierre to Pierre, can you help me out? And it changed. I was like, Okay, I will do whatever it ticks. I don't see you disrupting class jokes where you were you like the jokey guy. I wasn't a jokey I don't know what, but I mean I remember this conversation because I've actually thought about it as a parent, you know, like it's such a wonderful way to approach a kid who's being disruptive. I don't think. I mean I must have been. I must have been either making jokes or just not taking it seriously or whatever. But it was it was What was so great about it was his teacher, who you know, in retrospect was twenty four years old, which um, and he basically asked me to help, you know, he empowered me. He didn't he didn't try and like get into a competition with me. He was like Hey, you clearly have this power over the other kids with you know, the social power. Can you help me? Can you use that instead of trying you know? And it was just like person to person, I'm trying to teach a class. What are you trying to do? And it totally worked. I remember being like, oh my god, my entire world shifted. Yes, I will help you, I will do you know. It empowered me, which is just such a great way to approach us. That was not the way my teacher approached it, right. It was not we are peers, can you help me out? It was like, what the hell do you think you're doing? Student? Shut up? And it was like Phoene falls somewhere in between. I suppose held have been an imposing figure, but he is, you know, just says he calls Corey up to his desk after class, and he says he's making his job difficult by having a comment on everything, and Corey says, well, Phoenie's job is easy and it's the same thing he has to teach every year, it's just different students. And Phoene says he's been underestimating Corey's job as a sixth grader and says that they should maybe trade jobs for the week. Corey has to teach the class this week and give an exam while Phoenie will sit in the class like a student, and it's going to lead to wackiness. Total wackiness will ensue. But Corey is in. He thinks he's got the easy end of this deal. So we're in the Matthews living room. Eric comes home with Linda, a new girl, and you you called her weez again, which I stop. I still think it's very cute. I don't believe you ever dropped it. Yeah, yeah, they were, and they were really, you know, still kind of Eric and Eric and Morgan had kind of a relationship going on. It was like, you know, older brother, younger sister kind of thing. It was great, and then one day it was just like, yeah, we're not doing that. Yeah, I'm curious when this drops off because I didn't realize it lasted this long. I mean, it's yeah, it's this is this is your recurring thing? Is you and Lily having these beats? I have two recurring things. It's the Lily thing. Three. The Lily thing, different girlfriends and the gene on gene outfit are the three things that they just try to keep working. Do you think do you guys think we's had anything to do with Polly Shore? All right, poll would Polly would? Would that have been around the same time? Yeah? What did he say? What he said? Weasel? He called people weasels? He did Maybe we had enough Beavis and butt Head references. That's what we were thinking. This is the Beavis and butt Head of the house, Like this is the this is the They're pulling different pop culture references all it's time. So maybe, yeah, that's so funny. I wonder were you you weren't a poly Shore fan. Well, I can't, I mean not like I know. I'm just saying like back at the time, because I know that for example, like we we have a Cartman, we have a Cartman reference in the and then there was Shawn episode because you were a big um. Why can't I think of the name of the show? Thank you? So I was yeah, no, there was no but no, I know it wasn't Tawoie. It was it was the poop whoever the poop was right, Yeah, but no I was not. Okay, so this didn't come from you, Okay, So but I wonder if that was somewhere in there if that was like there was like I was not this is episode seven or eight. I was not hoping, not even to talk to the producers, let alone give them like what if we tried this? Like no, I was that's something you waited till season four or five. Okay, so uh. Amy tries to get Morgan out of the living room, but she wants to stay and talk to Linda, and Morgan tells Linda Eric has had billions of girlfriends. She was she was money in this episode. Yeah, she was. She's very cute. Um. Linda says that they're not. She's not a new girlfriend. Eric just wants to study with her, and Morgan taps her on the hand and says, oh please, you're going to fall for that one. Um. Then they all go into the kitchen to get a snack, while Corey and Alan rush into the living room. Corn Corey tells his parents about him being a social studies teacher for the rest of the week, and Corey compares Mr. Feinie's job to being Vanna White. Alan is not so sure about any of this, and he wants to know, what what are you? What are the stakes of this bet? And it is revealed that Corey has given up his bike if Mr Feenie wins, and this is a funny on running joke to me with Rusty just convinced that Mr Feinie actually just wants to Like that was pretty It's like, why why does he want? That? Was funny, I know, And she goes, of course, you know, this is just one of those Poenie lessons, and he goes, what if the lesson is I want that bike? Got that bite? I thought it was pretty funny to have Amy say, you know, one of those Phenie lessons like it's a thing. Really established the idea that this is this is going on for years, which you know, it's also funny. This is maybe the first episode where they've referenced the fact that Corey has other teachers, you know that there's not like there's five, because I think they finally had to acknowledge the fact that by sixth grade you have different teachers for different subjects. So this was is this the first time we learned what subject Phenie teaches? Social studies? Because I don't think. I don't think we just said, you know, he he makes a reference in the earlier episode to that that that grade I gave you in math. Yeah, there's like what what Phenie is just all around teacher. He teaches what needed to be taught that week, what needs be So I'm curious how that's going to evolve because it's it's established in this one that he is one of five teachers or he teaches five different classes, and that he teaches social studies, And I wonder how consistent that's going to be. Yes, yeah, but you know if he's only been his teacher for this year, um, it's going to be interesting, you know. But it's also I mean, let's be honest, when you were in your social study at least in my school, you're so and I was went to public high school, of being public middle school. Your social studies teacher did not give you books to read. It did not give you literature. It's not like how you're in social studies now you're going to read the Diary of Van Frank Like that never happened. So that was a weird crossover where it's like, you know, I'm your social studies teacher here read this book like yeah, And I think at the end of this season we also read Steinbeck. I think we do grapes of wrath references. Yeah, because there's a Union episode. I remember singing look for the Union and yeah, exactly, and so I think that's a Steinbeck right. So we're reading literature more than anything. And in his social studies class, which, yeah, what you need, whatever, lesson have, lesson will travel like another little continuity error. Perhaps what continuity? No, So we are back in Mr Feeney's classroom and Peenie is sitting in Corey's seat. Minkus panics when he finds out Corey is teaching the class this week, and it is such a cute reaction. What's what's going on? Looking? Yes? Also, when I saw myself sitting in the front seat front, I had just a light bulb went off about how much I loved that dress, that green kind of peasant dress with like a little bit of a puffy sleeve and an elastic around the wrist. I found out where the wardrobe stylist bought it, and then I asked for one they bought, and I paid them back so that I could have one in my own closet. So I I like love that dress. I don't I don't still have it, but I did love that dress, and I think I think my cousin ended up buying it too, Like we all loved it. It was like such a it was a very popular dress at the time. I do you remember feeling that Topango was weird? They are different than you, And did you like that or do you I'm curious because I mean, it was obviously like we've talked about when you in your first episode, it was it was it was a real difference from you, right like you had to talk differently, you had to say all these weird things. And in this episode you get to do like, you know, get even more out there with the yoga stuff. So I'm curious, how do you do you remember like judging to Pango or thinking to Pengo was cool. I thought I thought to Pengo was cool. I I also thought, you know, channeling and making that weird sound I make for what I was going to respond to that. Of course, to twelve year old Danielle was like, well that's weird. But all of the other stuff about to Panga, certainly her confidence, her um you know, I remember thinking it was cool, even the line she had about where he said, You're going to be one of those girls who doesn't shave her legs and her saying, well, I haven't decided yet. I remember thinking, that's cool that she knows that there's a decision coming up, and she's aware that she's going to have to choose something, and she's even comfortable just saying I haven't decided yet, because I think young dn L really felt like, um, I needed to be decisive about everything, and and like if you took time to really think about think things through too much, which showed it almost made you weak, which makes no sense, but I think that's how I thought. So anytime I had like a choice to make, I was always very sure of my choice and then jumped right into it without necessarily giving it a lot of thought. And I think what I thought was cool most about Tapango was the thing that was hardest for me to do, which was just that she was slow. She slowed down, and she didn't feel that she had to be on anybody else's time constraints. And I recognized that in her and admired it, so then also talk so fast. That it is such a contrast when you sometimes when you're an actor, you you play to the person you're with, So when you are sitting there and the person you're with is speaking that quickly and you know that. You're like, I've got to take my time with everything. It's man, that can I can see how that can mess with you. It's like, no, slow down? Can I ask? And this might just have been me and I might just be overly sensitive or weird now that I'm getting older, but I found it a little strange the whole nudity exchange between two twelve year olds. Oh, I don't know, again, I might be over but the kind of you're not gonna come naked, are you? And it's like, well, I have no problem with nudity, which I get. I like the body positivity, but at the same time, I was kind of like, weird, I don't know. Yeah, it didn't bump me, only because I could totally I could totally see I can see for sure. Why why a Corey character, why any twelve year old kid, when talking about a dress code, would absolutely go, you're not gonna come like without close on our right and then her response of well no, although there's nothing wrong, it's it's almost like she can't let anything. She couldn't just say no, I'm not She also had to say, but if I were going to there would be nothing wrong with it. She like has to also get her a little lesson, in which I also think is something a kid would like not be able to not express their opinion if they had one. UM So, no, it didn't. It didn't hunt me, And I think I get I think I get bumpd by those things like you do well, as like I think within the society that we're living in right now, everybody's very overly sensitive about everything, and so you're kind of double checking everything that was said and should it have been said and how it was said. And I think that I'm trying not to watch the show through those overly sensitive eyes. So there's times where I will in my heavy like that didn't sit right, and I'm like, I think that's just me, Like you're just reading into something because you're looking for something to kind of like be offended by, which is a new thing in our country. So wills like should I be offended? Am I offended? Afdi offended? Do I get to press the offensive button right now? And it's like, Okay, I don't. I want to make sure that I'm not I'm not doing that. I'm specifically not doing it well. And I I had a very similar thing when so Corey writes he comes into the class, he writes that his name is hey dude on the chalkboard, saying that that's his name. He tells everyone they can wear hats in class, they discard the dress code. Defendan wants to discard the dress code because she wants to wear garments from cultures more in tune with the Goddess. And the minute I said that, I remembered, oh yeah, I'm going to show up in a Sorry, I remember that that happened. And I had the same feelings of is this cultural appropriation? Is this something to Panga should not have been doing? And I was thinking about one of you know, cultural appropriation and what it really means, and it's, you know, it's ultimately adopting elements from other cultures without acknowledging that they are from other cultures and and not and kind of disregarding them or treating them like fashion statements. And so one of the things I came to, and it's not even in the scene, it's in the next classroom scene, but one of the things I thought is that this is really about to Pango respecting. It's a it's a yoga culture thing for her, and yoga did originate in India, and so she is wearing a traditional Indian attire and she is certainly respectful of it. I'm not sure that the channeling has anything to do with yoga. I'm not sure, add but have to Panga make a funny sound. Yeah, exactly, that is exactly what that note was. But I also Will had the exact same feeling when it came to to Panga wearing. The story was like, am I doing something? Was Pana doing something wrong? Here? Is that something that she should not have been doing? Um? But we'll get to that in just a second. Corey's gives the same homework assignment Phoeney gave the night before. Minca says they already did that, and Corey tells Mancus to get a life, and again they treat him pretty harshly at time. Well, you know this is funny. Um uh. Indie did not want to be recorded for this episode. He wanted to take an episode off so we don't have too much shirts. But we watched it together. I said, you know, I know, no, I definitely wanted to give him permission to, like, you know, do the show or not based on how he feels. And I was like, yeah, okay, well let's just watch it again. But he this was the first time because I've you know, in in previous episodes, I've talked about how like, I'm kind of mean to Mincus, don't you think? And he has not really acknowledged that until this episode when I told in this scene when I told Mincus to shut up, and that's just like the entire line, uh, Indie, and he was like, You're mean. Yeah, dude, That's what I've been saying. Don't you remember threw things at his head what? But yeah, I felt overly harsh in this episode. Finally, finally, Indie acknowledged that my character was being kind of mean. Well, and you know what's interesting about it is that this episode started with the three of you, Mincus, Corey, and Sean in the cafeteria, and the first thing Jensen and I thought when we watched it was, Wow, look at Mincas just being a friend hanging out through Yeah, the three of you guys are friends, and so it is interesting that then it seems like, depending on where you are, you know, if Mincus is out of the classroom. Uh, he's more of your friend when he's in the classroom. You guys are very mean to him. And it does feel like maybe it's a it's a competition thing about quote unquote intel leigence or or studious nous. He's always getting answered quiet and class. Yeah, he's getting answers right, he's paying attention, he's doing the homework. He's pointing out that you guys are not. And you guys are constantly telling him to shut up because he's making you look bad and or you think he's a nerd for caring, and he is telling you that you guys are going to grow up to be losers because you're not caring. So it is interesting the outside of the classroom setting, you guys seem to actually get along pretty well, but inside just also it could be and I doubt it's this. If it is, it's genius. If it is, then they were writing on a whole level that we never saw before. And I doubt it's this. Be prepared to be told that that is what it is. Of course that's what it was. But we all grew up and had friends that treated us one way when we were together in a completely another way. When we were around other people, everybody had those kind of friends where it was like, why are you so cool to me when it's just the two of us? Are the three of us together, but when there's five of us together, I'm the jerk and I'm the butt of every joke and blah blah blah, and we like that was a very common thing. I know, I dealt with that all the time. I had two friends that were the coolest guys in the world when it was just the three of us, but when there was another person, there are more other people there, I was getting bullied. I was being made fun of, like it was bad. And that seems to be kind of a reoccurring thing with younger people. You always seem to find that are here about that where it's like, why am I your friend when it's just the two of us, But when there's a third person, I'm a jerk? And almost there was part of me that was like, wow, if they were writing on that level, I think it's more what I said. I think, yeah, I think you're absolutely right, But you're right, that is a thing that kids do. And so whether or not it was intentional, whether or not it was intentional. It makes sense. It is something that we've all experienced Marvel because it wasn't intentional, but if it was, you know, you write the writers would be like, of course it was intentional. Of course I was definitely thinking that was the Well, I mean, I do think that, you know, in general, our show, while it is poking fun at the Topangas and the minkus is it's still including them. They're still central to the show and and strong, and and so the show is actually inviting even while it's pointing out like these people are weird, the show overall is inviting you to consider them and to include them and and to hear the pre v in a way that I definitely think other shows would not do that, do you know what I mean? Like, I think that there are other shows that would take the easier joke and the same way we talked about with the Phoene character. You know, ultimately Boyme's World is an inclusive, respectful show. And that's so there is something to that, right, Like, so it sets up the nerd non you know, dynamic or whatever or weird girl we're out there new ag girl a dynamic and it plays it for the jokes, but ultimately they are India's favorite characters. That's what he he wants them to be a part of the show. That's what he's looking forward to, that that clash and that conversation. So ultimately, I think the show is pretty inclusive. Yeah. Well, yeah, I think most of the people, especially when you're growing up, most kids aren't Corey. Most kids aren't the cool kid that has the awesome family that is, you know, friends with everybody. Most kids or some are like Nikus or they're like Topanga or I mean, they're different and they're trying to find their way. And also there's always somebody to kind of gravitate towards. That's why when I love when you read those letters at the beginning, Danielle, where there were kids that were watching the show that gravitated towards Phenie. Yeah, like the older teacher was the character that they loved the most. It's that's that's rare in TV when you get kids liking the sixty five year old teacher the best. Yeah. So that's uh, that is a credit to the writing and the acting. Of course. So we're back in the Matthews kitchen. Eric brings Morgan a Japanese lantern from Linda, and Morgan is so excited about it. Eric says he can't talk because he has to call Linda even though he just left her house. Corey comes home and says class was a total success. Alan asks how he taught the class, and Corey says he just skimmed the book, and Alan starts questioning the test and the grading system again. He's very worried about this bike that's on the line, and he ends up, you know, explaining to Corey that the way the test is gonna be great. It's going to be graded on a curve, and Mr Feeney, who wrote the test, is going to take the test, which means he's going to get a percent and everybody is going to be greeted against that. And suddenly Corey becomes a little more panicked. Yeah, this is an act break that Indie did not understand. Yeah, He's like, I just had to say, I Feenie's going to win the bet. Yeah, I just had to explain. He's like, what does that mean curve? Yeah, just all you need to know is look at Ben's face. That's enough of an act. Bright. Yeah, I don't know if teacher is really great on a curve in in junior high or high school today sort a thing I think, I think maybe I don't know, we don't know, idea. Um, okay, so we're back in Mr Feenie's classroom and the clothes in this scene, this is where I'm talking about. I did have that question of oh no, what is she wearing and then going through with whether or not I thought it was cultural appropriation or would we consider that today? And I don't really know. Um. I feel like, uh, it's ta panga embracing and in loving a culture and like I said, it being part of yoga culture more so than her trying to adopt traditional Indian culture. But I don't know. I'm obviously I'm not the person it offends, so I'm not the person who should say whether or not it is offensive. But um, I remember that I thought the outfit was beautiful and I enjoyed being in it. Um. And then in my later years, like I did end up becoming super into yoga. I was like quite quite a yoga person, which is not something young. Oh yeah, big time, I I did. I even taught yoga for a very short amount of times. Yeah, well, I didn't have like I don't have my yoga license or whatever. I basically went to this kind of I guess you can call it an untraditional yoga school because the teacher went out of town and he was going to be gone for like a week and he just was going to close this close the class. It was he was the only person who taught and he was just going to close the class down for a week. And I was like, oh man, that's such a bummer because I was going every single day, sometimes twice a day at this time. And he said, well, I mean, if you're interested, do you want to do you want to just run the class while I'm gone? And I was like sure. So I basically got to teach yoga a few times without any formal training. I basically just taught the class that I had remembered him teaching. So anyway, yeah, and there are people with back problems to this, people who were like, why is Topanga teaching yoga? Why don't work exactly if I harmed you and during please contact? Does yoga is a very interesting way of hiding doing about like sixty push ups that's all. Just tell me to do a push I wonder how I mean in yoga's pretty mainstream now, or at least in California. I don't know yoga, but back then in the nineties, and it still must have seemed like a pretty unusual you're right, you're right. Nineties for in America to be talking about yoga is not as common as it is now. Um okay. So Corey says he needs Shawn's help with the class to Penga moves her desk and she sits on a yoga cushion. Minkus is bouncing on a that's technically like a yoga ball. I think it's like a yoga it's like an exercise. No, it's a it's a that's a it's a toy when you're growing up. It's called Mr Bounty a bounty ball that you would ring other kids. So I thought it was one of those, like because people use those at their desks these days. Right, the handle makes it the toyse are just regular regular sitting balls, but when you have the handle, it's called like a bounty ball and Mr Bounce that Jensen producer Jensen if you could look it up, because that you would race. You'd each be on one and be like a line of kids like racing on the ball. I did not know that of paper airplanes and paper balls being thrown. Oh man, it does just not We we need to illustrate chaos, bring us one thing that I find very funny. And of course this is how it has to be because Corey is the star of the show. But this is now the second or third episode where to teach Corey a lesson the other kids to not learn anything, you know, or it's like, you're going to not learn anything and fail this week because we need Ben to learn a lesson. Well, even in the opening scene when Ben predicts what Phenie is going to do, he only talks to Mr I was like, well, what's up with Mr Hunter and Mr Minkus. Again, though this show is from Corey's probably just feels that way, But I thought that was so funny. You're all going to learn nothing because we need to teach Corey a lesson, or or that Phoenie is so all knowing that he knows that in the end it's still going to work out and everyone will learn learn even you know, he doesn't know how, but he knows that it that it will happen. So everyone's throwing the paper airplanes. Corey is glowing going through attendance. I am not sure why he starts with attendance at Lawrence to pangas name on this is to Pango Lawrence and uh. She says that she is channeling and and that she only answers to But I loved that. Um what I could hear. First of all, the scene had to have been pre taped. It wasn't probably done in front of the live studio audience because as writer mentioned, we needed to show chaos in the classroom, and so with the bouncy ball and the moving of the desk and the yoga cushion in the plane, there were probably going to be a lot of resets and moving parts that we wouldn't have taken the time to do this in front of the live studio audience. And when I do the channeling sound that I will answer to, you can hear the laughter that isn't canned audience laughter. It's that act producers and writers, and it was was a big laugh. And I don't remember the process of getting there or if this was the first time I did it, and that's what you know who. I don't remember if it was something that like they kept having to ask me to do differently and then we finally got here, or if this was the first time I did it and that's what came out. But Ben's reaction feels very real, like when it cuts to him and you can tell Telly takes an extra beat, like he's sort of taken aback by what you've just done. It's great. I think it was. I think it was probably the first time you did it, and something might have must have been different, you know, they might have had a line there that was different. And then it was like, oh, try this exactly. This was either an alt that yeah, because that can go a million ways, right, I only answer too and you insert funny names and Patrick, right, there's a million ways for that joke to work. But for you to just do this weird crowd cat thing it was. It was really fun. Um And then Phoenie shows up and he's wearing a full Phillies outfit. So he's wearing his full Phillies outfit. He sits down to play cards with Sean. He says, hey, dude, and I loved writer watching you interact with Bill this way. It was great fun. I remember doing this. I remembered the line like the second this episode started, I was like, oh, I have a line of what role aids I remember? So I definitely remember like playing poker, and you can tell I'm like really into playing the cards, like later on when I'm laying out the cards. Yeah, it was fun. So then we're back in the Matthews living room. Corey is reading a book for class. He tells Alan no one is listening to him, and Alan says he needs to be more authoritative. Eric then comes home with Linda, who is crying and obviously very upset. Morgan runs over to Linda, sees that she's crying, asks what's wrong, and Eric says that a jerk at the mall called her a bad name. Now, Corey is shocked that this happened at their own mall, And this is the moment for me where I thought it needed to be more clear when he says, at our mall, it needed to be more clear what the jerk called her, because it should not be surprising to anyone anywhere there that they're a jerk in public at the ball, Like a jerk alone should not be shocking, but a racist jerk to a kid could definitely feel like Because the point of that. The point of him asking today and now is that he has already established that prejudice is something of the past. He said that, you know that what we learned about in history, he says it to Alan in that scene, like prejudice, when we used to have prejudice or whatever. And that's a really important point, you know, Like I think that that's that is the way a lot of kids think about what they're learning in school and these kinds of issues, especially in the nineties, like we all lived in a naive time when it felt like racism was of the past. These we we've overcome all this thanks thanks to civil rights in the sixties, We've we've solved all that problem, right exact. I do think that that was the prevailing mentality, you know, for most of us. And but so it's really important that that that that Corey understand what was said by that jerk, and it's you're right, it's a missed opportunity. Um, it's a missed opportunity for it to be a little bit more clear. And you're probably right that it was a network note that they didn't want to say the word um, and he didn't say the word in this scene. He said the word in the in the classroom, that's remember so, But but it could have been I think it could have been clearer in this scene. There's a way to say, you know, you know it was a racist jerk, jerk said something really awfully on racist. Um um, Yeah, leaving an ambiguous is a little tricky. I just want to add, uh, did you notice that they come in from outside in coats and talk about how chilly it was? Which made me think about remember how I talked I said on that other episodes like, I don't remember ever referencing Philly and the weather, but we did. We clearly, I told you, and I told you I know for sure, because I can't act in a coat. Yes, and so I forgot all that. But the second I thought it was like, oh, this is cool, a little reference to okay, like they're being a city and a life. I forgot, hate, hate, hate to bring this up, but I'm gonna wouldn't it make sense that Amy and Morgan were playing in the backyard, and if they were, they came in the back door? Where does she say they were? She doesn't, But I'm saying who goes and plays in the side yard? I mean she they come in that door with their jackets on like it's cold. So they're not coming from the driveway, which we've already established with Rue McClanahan. Why are they not coming through the driveway. What if they were at the grocery store or what if they had just been a But what know, what I'm saying is if you come from the driveway. We established with Rue McClanahan that if you came from the driveway, because Phoene comes in and says, you just ran over my flowers and the driveway, you came in the kitchen door. So they weren't coming from the driveway unless they decided to bypass the door. That's easy and walk all the way to the side of the house. Well, the front we've seen the front of the house on the studio O City Colfax house. We've seen it. That is definitely the front door, red door, red front door. Okay, and then they I don't know where the driveway is in that scenario, but I don't none None of it made one comes to that's the door. Everyone comes to to knock on the door, the front door. You are team sideyard, I am, I am team. It doesn't make any sense yard, and that both are kind of like they just keep switching, so it's like will nothing makes any sense? The continuity here is not ready established that I am firmly team backyard. I also think in the script it said back yard, where do you think they're coming from? Then I'm curious when they walk in the back and say it's cold, where in your mind are at what we're Amyen and Morgan doing. Income They've come in the front door, right, that's where they come in with them from that door in the French door. What I'm asking where wherever the director needed them too to keep because they can't have walked in the same door that you and lindsay walk in, because that mean that they were like right behind you, behind you, right, So let's give them another entrance. Oh and by the way, we'll put them coming from the kitchen. I'm just going to keep bringing this up because I please let us know if your team sideyard or team backyard. We really I'm gonna I'm gathering enough people for the teams We're gonna have to so as I said. Eric Has says that there said that there was a jerk at the mall who called her a bad name, and Corey is shocked that there happened, that this happened in their own mall, well do you like, what do you remember about this scene and Lindsay needing to cry and what was that process? Like? I remember sitting there as a young actor and realizing we talked about this the beginning, just how on a different level as an actor she was than I was. I wasn't comparing to anybody else, just me, and it was like we were playing two completely different games. Uh. So we're sitting out there and you know, you're there's an audience there by this point, you you know you're into the show, there's stuff going on. You're not in the back, you know, sitting in your trailer, your dressing room preparing for a scene. You're just in the moment. You're doing what you had to do. And she could turn it on so fast that we would sit there and we were waiting for our queue. She would turn and walk away from me. She'd come back, she'd walk away, she'd come back. By the second or third time, she was bawling, I mean tears dripping down her face, bawling, and so in the moment that you wanted to go and put your arms around her, like, oh my god, are you okay? What can I do to help? It was such a lesson for me in acting that. It was I will never forget that moment of just watching something that was so visceral and so pure and she got there so fat that it was amazing to me. Was she I wonder what it was like during the week when you guys rehearsing. Remember I want to say she cried during the run throughs too, especially the network, right, she could just turn it on. Yeah, it was such a cool skill. My my wife can do that. She's always been that immediately like that, Oh yeah, it's it's it's a it's a running joke in our house that if she has an audition where she has to cry, she's going to get the part because she nails it. It's insane. And it was funny when we first started dating because she cries in life that easily too. Like if any any conflict, any emotion happens, the tears, the snot, it's like all there, it's just immediately. And I remember when we first started dating, you know, because previous relationships, when somebody cries, it's like, oh, there's something wrong here. We need to like, let's let's take a moment you're having an emotional reaction. That's taking it to a new level. And with Alex I had to be like, oh no, no, that's just every day like you just cry, you just and it's always on. She's always just on the verge of tears, you know, like it's right there. And it's an amazing um tool as an actor if you can have if you can do that, if you can really produce the liquid and be that quick, it's it's incredible. And yeah, I mean obviously Lindsay has that skill because you see it in the scene. It's it feels real. It suddenly hasn't an edge to the scene that doesn't feel typical for a sitcom, and it's it's not fake tears. It is somebody there and she got there instantaneously. It was not I remember when I uh, one of the first jobs I ever had was a really bad cop show that we shot in New York City called True Blue, and it was just that. But the episode that I did, um, you know, random happenstance, whatever happens. But then I had to cry and I could kind of do it, but it wasn't great. It didn't look good. So they literally had this menthol thing that they would blow into your eyes and that would make you tear up and cry. And the second time she did it, a little piece of the menthol inside broke off and shot into my eye. Oh wow. And it was one of those things where it was then like having to flush my eye out and do all this stuff. But it was I remember just thinking right as she made herself cry, like, man, they don't have to blow anything in there. It was. It was such a lesson for me and just how I was not to that level yet or maybe ever. It's a separate skill. For sure, I think it's I think it's a unique skill. And I also don't think there's any shame and actors using menthol I totally fair game, because I would rather like. What I can't stand is watching actors try and produce tears when they can't stare acting blink acting where it's like you're trying to get that one tire to Tom Cruise trying to cry in every movie where Tom Cruise has to cry. It's like the worst thing to have to watch. It's like, dude, just I don't care, Like blow whatever, put whatever you need to, let's cut, you know, give yourself. They're doing some of them digital now they're literally real, digitally digital tears. Which there's also that acting thing I love the like the single tear, you know, like, I mean, that's what I had to do in the Jack Harlow music video. Guys, That's what I had to do for that. Did you cry? Did you cry cry? I did? I really no? I really no, No, I really cried. But I've I've always been able to cry, but it used to be a lot harder for me to get there. And now that I have children, I can make myself cry over anything, just a single thought about a child or somebody else's child, anything that pertains my emotions. I am a raw nerve after having children. And I need to see the Sarah McLaughlin video with the dogs and oh yeah, just even picture that. And it's and it's over. So Corey shows up to the classroom and he's dressed in his amazing suit, the green suit that I love from the geography tournament. He asks for mincass help, but Mincas says, why should he help? You know, Corey, you're always making fun of Mr Finie you're on your own. And Corey then walks up to the front of the class. But before I get to what he says in the front of the class, can we discuss I know what's going on? Meat loaf, meat loaf? What double about double meat loaf, double meat loaf, meat loaf times too meat loaf, sweatshirt meat Phoenie, what is happening? I don't understand the reference because before bad out of hell to write like because I'm trying to think like what meat Loaf had his moment in the nineties, but that was after this. That was was like the late seven years. So what are you going to say that Phoenie thinks that Corey or something that any of the kids are meat Loaf fans? Is that what he thinks, like the kids were into I don't give kids in their meat loaf music. I'll never understand. We will post a picture of Bill in this meat loaf double meat loaf hat and sweatshirt. So our producer Jensen sent me a photo that he took. You guys were watching it, and I thought it was photoshopped because I remembered him wearing of Phillies outfit and it looks like a Phillies outfit. I was like, oh, somebody photoshop meat loaf into onto Mr Fienie and it was like, no, no, no, that's actually what he wears. Yeah, he took the picture from our TV stream and Jenson was laughing so hard and he goes, he goes to be clear, Both of your co stars thought it was photoshop, Like, I mean, how could we not look me this? So what is it? What I mean? Was meat loaf popular or did did we get meat loaf clearance? Was? That's what I'm wondering. It's like the one band that was like, yeah, sure, go ahead use you can use meat loaf like now you can't use anything else, Just go use meat Loaf like you can't use Nirvana, or because it's kind of funny, like you know, just welve year old watching the show are like, man, oh great, meat nailed that meat loaf joke. I don't know, guys, but I I only want to call him meat Foenie from now on. I I love it. I also love I also love going back to what you said about mink Is very quickly. I love that he wouldn't help Corey, not because core he always made fun of him. I know, but because he was always making fun of Phoenie, who was almost why it didn't make sense to me. I was like, wait, you're not going to say why would I help you? You never help me with anything? His whole point. I guess he's going back to the opening scene. He's so protective of Phoene, which is very cute. He's like, no, you never helped the other teacher. I guess that's it. You never help the teacher, never gets any help from you. Why would he now, as the teacher, get any help from me? Um. But I don't know how anybody in the scene could possibly pay attention to anything other than I don't know how I got this scene through. It was so distracting to me, and it's such a great scene, and yet I was like, met Loaf, met Peenie. Um, okay. So Corey then walks up to the front of the class and he talks about how prejudice is still happening in today's world. He tells the story of Linda crying in their living room and Corey is talking and he's trying to get a word in edgeways, but nobody's paying any attention to him. The Wholenes bouncing on ball, yoga ing um and uh, only Phoene is really paying attention to what he is saying. As Corey is about to walk out of the classroom, he says, you know, I give up your right. You win. And as he's about to walk out, he turns around to ask Sean what his mom's name was before she got married, and then he calls Sean a racial or a derogatory term, and and that stayed in and that stayed in the episode, unlike the other term that was cut from the So the original line, I think, almost verbatim, was something like until my brother came home with his girl, came home with his new girlfriend who was crying because some jerk called her a G word at them, all right, that was the line, and I remember me too. And then mispronounced the word at at the table read and they took it out, and I think you're right it And but I'm so curious, So do you think that do you think that that that's actually where they wrote in the anti semitism semitas semitism joke. I wonder if that was inspired by the fact that Ben actually did mispronounce the G word and therefore because that it's it's a really nice moment with the semitism semitism. I was like, whoa, I wonder what came first, you know, but we don't all remember Ben mispronouncing the word and the writers being very happy that he, Like I remember the adults being like, that's cool that Ben doesn't know this word. I didn't either, you know, I remember. Yeah, it's so fascinating. Yeah, you know what, that's a really good point, writer. And I would not be surprised if that's exactly why, because I do remember, And why did we know that? Why do we Why do we remember? Because I remember so clearly the adults saying and and reacting to it's actually great that he's that he doesn't know how to say this word and that he doesn't know it. And sure Michael made a speech about it. Yeah, sure Michael took took a note session or took a moment to like, you know, give us all this like lecture about how awesome this is, which it is. It was awesome. Yeah, okay, because you're right, that is a really good moment where he mispronounces anti semitism and Phoenie corrects him. Sean gets offended by the term that Corey has just called him. He gets up, he gets into his face, and and Corey is trying to prove a point related to Anne Frank And now suddenly everyone in the class kind of stops what they're doing and turns and pays attention. And nine ft tall writer, when you stand next to Corey, I was a I'm like, oh my towering over him. Yeah, better late than never. Never. Those balls are called monster balls or hopper ball. Okay, there we go, all right, so that's what those That's what those those balls were. So we continue on in Mr Phenie's classroom after our break. Phoenie is grating, he's grading papers, and he says that some people and I just wanted to comment on how good that scene is, but I mean, it's it's it's it's heavy handed, but I think correctly so, and I think that for watching it with Indie, there was a real change of temperature in the room and Indie kept checking with me, like, what's happening is this okay? He sas okay, that that that you're going to fight Corey or that Corey's going to be you know, it was like the tone completely drops and changes into a different mode, and it was that sort of boy Meats World special sauce, you know, where I was like watching my son, realized something really important was going on and that Corey was doing something really is and and he wanted to know about Anne Frank, you know, he wanted to He was like, wait, who died? Who died? But when Ben says that, you know, a fifteen year old girl died, He's like, what he died? And I was like, keep just keep watching, buddy, and then sure enough he's like, this girl who wrote this book died, and uh yeah, so I think it was incorrect. It's an incredibly effective you know, because the the high jinks right of swapping with the teacher I'm going to teach, it's a It is the most sitcomy situation, right. It is like, oh, the kid's gonna teach, the teacher is gonna be wearing meatloaf, ha ha. And then to really pull the rug out from under the audience and to deliver this incredible speech, it is wonderful. And and I also just I appreciate that there's two speeches, right, like Ben tries, Corey tries and fails. And I think there was a point when he's walking out of the class where he's like, Okay, I give up. You win. I thought for a moment like, was that is that going to be the end of the scene, Like you could just end the scene there, like Corey learned his lesson, you know, right, But instead to have this extra speech, there's other speech where he goes again, he makes it personal to Sean and then gets up that that was beautiful. It's it's it's like a really effective moment. It's heavy handed, like I said, and you know, we can argue whether you know, a sitcom should be addressed in things like this, but I I found it incredibly effective and and I could tell India was really rattled by it in a good way. I think that one of the lines that I loved more than anything else in the episode was when Corey says, the problem is that when when I said that term that I shouldn't have said, the problem is that only one person jumped up? Yeah, because that everyone should have jumped up, because that really is certainly, I mean, that was the lesson that we were trying to teach with poem It's world. And yet think of how much in the last several years, especially the dialogue has been it isn't enough to just be you know, not to just not be racist yourself, because you actually have to go above and beyond that. You have to actually be aggressively anti racist, and you should if you see it happening to somebody else, it doesn't mean that it's not affecting you. That needs to be a problem to you. And yet here that was exactly the lesson in the classroom that I just said something, and the only person who jumped up was the one person I said it too, as opposed to everybody saying, how dare you say that? We don't say that here? That's not right. Um. And so that's the line that really likes stuck out to me the most about the scene, as I just thought it was such a poignant lesson for a show in beginning trying to get across to kids and families. Yeah, well, it's not just that, it's also there's times and we we dealt with this a lot in the nineties. You know, we're younger, and you don't you also at times don't realize that you can be part of the problem. And that's one of the things that Trina brought up and has talked about and that we have all discussed with her and I can't wait to actually have a deeper conversation with her about it, but not really know for myself, not realizing that, you know, I had said stupid and sensitive things at times, thinking that I wasn't doing anything wrong, and that was kind of par for the course at the time. You just didn't know. You thought you were having a total conversation with a good friend, or you thought you were making a joke, or you thought you were doing something that had no racial undertones whatsoever, until then somebody sits you down and goes like, no, you we got to talk about this, which we did, and we're going to again because I know she's coming on soon. But we couldn't have this conversation without mentioning that. I think, because it was important, we should also mention. It's a great time to mention this was a very white cast very white caste and white writing staff and staff right right, white everything white, everything we had it was not. It was not a racially diverse set in any way, shape or for correct um and that all that stuff matters. So this is, you know, these are things that we it was. There's the the interesting kind of of balance between addressing certain problems on the show that weren't actually being addressed on the show. Yes, makes sense, so um, you know, addressing them societally without really also looking at our our actual environment or ourselves or any of that kind of stuff. And so I'm you know, I can't wait to have Trina on the show because well, we we we have We've talked about the we've talked about the death chair, and we've talked about it as kind of a joke, but the truth was also they were trying to diversify the show. They were the main reason the death chair existed was was because we wanted to have a non white best friend for Corey. I remember that that was expressly. You know, we went through multiple black young actors, um and obviously it didn't happen, which is, you know, not great. It would have been nice, would have been nice to have a little more diversity in that cast, and that didn't happen until Trina. Until Trina, which was even five. I can't wait to talk with Trina. We will talk in depth with her, and she'll be coming up in a in a few weeks. So I can't wait to get to that. Um Phoene grades the papers and says that some people still failed the test, but a lot of people did well. Sean actually got a full grade higher than he normally does. He got to be and I thought. The first thing I thought was it's very inappropriate for you to be sharing his grade, even his best friend. The third time that's happened for me too, he'll be like, well, you know that one episode was like, well Mr Johnson got an f like, wow, why do you getting sharing that, Phoeny? That's funny that. I was like, that isn't you know? It's a good thing. I thought, No, all you have to do is throw out a racial slur and gets better. Great, yeah, and do it every week. But that's what we addressed this slightly. But why was that racial slur? Okay? But the other one was cut? I don't know. I don't know. It's well that gets into this tricky like degrees of whiteness, right, like is that what it is? I mean, you know, you know, yes, if a hundred hundred years ago, being Italian was non white nowadays, you know, then at some point it sort of got included into whiteness, right, Like I remember when when we were kids, Like at this age, Polish jokes were popular. Right now you wouldn't and that was like acceptable to say Polish jokes. And in retrospect like what what is so here? That? What what accounts is? You know? Yeah, it's America's tricky, guys, America's tricky do you remember now? Ales to say it could also have been a network thing from the standpoint of one is very obviously used as a teachable moment. I'm not saying that it is, whether that's I'm not saying that's a correct way to look at it or not. But one he would have just said by throwing it out there to tell people that that's what someone was called, and the other one was used very pointedly to deliver the message about how wrong it was. So I wonder if there was some varying degrees of will only allow this word in this moment because everyone is going to acknowledge how wrong it is right in the moment, instead of saying it without really making a big teachable moment out of it. So that could have been there to react to it. Where Lindsay's character was not there for her side, maybe that has something to do with it. Where It's like Sean could be the audience sur get there where you gets to step up and actually address it directly, where Lindsey's character never did. So maybe that had something to do with it too. Quite possibly so uh Pheeny says that Corey got a great grade as well, even though he didn't take the test, but he actually read the book, and so we get the that great little lesson here that everyone learned. Um. And then we are back in the Matthews living room. Eric walks in and says he has a date with a cheerleader. Amy says she really liked Linda. Why why are you not still dating Linda? And um. Eric says, Linda is the cheerleader and she made the squad. Amy says she used to be a cheerleader and she gets up to do her her cheer and this is really the first, like Amy, Betsy Shose yet to do a bit. I totally did not remember this. I remember, I remembered it the minute it's really ill and then remember comes into the outfit was like, what how do I not remember this? I actually remembered the the actual words to it, and before it happened, I turned to my wife and I was like it's bobo. Don't like I knew some of it. I remembered it very well. It was very salient to me for some reason. And Eric says that her cheer is cute, dated, but cute. And Linda walks in, she's in her uniform, and Eric says, all right, show my mom what they're doing these days. And Linda does her cheer, which, of course, very funny, is the exact same cheer that Amy had just done, and Eric calls her cheer cutting edge and love this. Indy was like, it's the same and he was like, what is cutting edge? Me immediately, what is cutting edge? Are you in this scene? I wrote down a will is channeling Michael J. Fox. The look on your face at the end when you're like, yeah, it's cutting edge and then you're like giving you It was such Michael J. Fox caught in an awkward moment. It was I was like, wow, this is so funny, Like I could see because you definitely looked up to Michael J. Foxy, He's like the gold standard of teen and you. I was like, oh, he even sounds like it. He looks like it. Michael J. Fox beat. It was that I remember thinking I can't remember when we shot this, Like, I can't remember if we shot this before the audience, this would have been after the audience left, because but then yeah, sixteen, so you could have stayed an extra hour. But I remember thinking, that's why I don't remember it, probably when Lindsay went from crying scene to hey, great scene, Now get into your cheerleading outfit and come do that, like Okay, now we're going to clean up your makeup and clean up the face again, and now you're happy cheerleader. Like wow, that was that might have been half an hour later, an hour later that we did. So yeah, it's crazy. Well, I mean, what a great episode. Um, great job all round everybody. Oh. I also forgot to mention this is such a silly little thing. And I keep talking so much about the clothes. But the first time we see Topanga in the classroom, she's also wearing the same dress she was wearing in the kiss scene in the hallway, that purple laced, and then in this scene in the script, Ben is wearing the same suit. And I thought, at some point we definitely hit where we never rewore outfits, Like if you wore something once, I rewore outfits all the time. Really people people point out people like have tweeted at me or whatever like all of this, like what's up with this shirt? And I'm like, oh yeah, I remember wearing that shirt multiple times. Like I always rewar outfits constantly. I just want Bill to rewear his meat loaf shirt. I would do anything for that. You know what, Let's make a meat Foenie shirt. Let's do it meat Foenie. We'll just off it for a week. Every we come up with another shirt every much shirts. You know, there's also a you know a shirt that's out there that's Bill. It's Mr Feenie with his arms cross and it says I was just hanging with my homies. That's like a famous shirt and that comes from this episode where he right, I'm just hanging with my homies. Yeah. Yeah, So I was like, where that's from. That's where that's from. That's cute. Well good, I'm glad I know that now because I have seen that shirt and didn't know where it was from. So now I know. So thank you all for joining us. Join us. Next week, we are going to take Q and a's We're gonna do a Q and Q and A episode. So we're not gonna take a's. We're gonna give you a's, but we're taking your cues and uh, it's gonna be really fun. You guys have been so responsive and so um welcoming, and you've been great with your feedback. So we're going to do an entire episode dedicated to answering some of your questions. Uh, thank you here for being with us. Make sure you follow us on Instagram at Pod meets World Show. You can email us at Pod Meets World Show at gmail dot com. And as we mentioned, we've got too Much shirts at pod Meets World Show dot com. Get your March Um. I can't wait to get my too Much Shirts shirt. I ordered it. It's on its way to me. Did you really? I did? Yeah. I gotta learn how to use the computer. Well, we have one coming for you. Don't worry. I knew you weren't going to know how one. All right, Thank you everybody for joining us. Can't wait to see you next week. We love you all, pod dismissed. Pod Meats World is an I heart podcast produced and hosted by Daniel Fishel Wilfred l and Ryder Strong. Executive producers Jensen Carp and Amy Sugarman, Executive in charge of production, Danielle Romo, producer and editor, Tara soup Boch producer, Lorraine Vierez Engineering boy meets World super fan Eastern Allen. Our theme song is by Kyle Morton of Typhoon. Follow us on Instagram at pod Meats World Show or email us at pod Meats World Show at gmail dot com