Either fan.
Rito's welcome to part two of our interview with Judy Savage. She is the talent agent who changed our lives along with so many other actors. So it's truly been an incredible experience to talk to her and see her again. So, without further ado, here's Judy.
What was like?
Do you remember what were some of these negotiations, like, because you were a tough negotiator, oh, studios? Like, was there particularly tough negotiation or one that you were really proud of that you achieved?
The kid the Boys on Tim Taylor's Tool Time.
Oh?
Yeah, I improvement. I remember this.
Do you remember this?
I remember this because I was good friends with Zach and Jonathan at the time.
I represented two of the boys, not all three, and I.
Think it was Tarn and Jonathan Harrin.
Taron Smith was like six years old when he got it. He'd never done anything, and so when he got on that show an episode, that's all I could get because he'd never done anything. And Zach was Jonathan Taylor Thomas had because he had lots of credits. Got well. It was just customary that in the third season you negotiate. So when the third season came. I tried to get more, and they offered me more tickets to the tapings. I said, no, no, no, no, no, no,
that's not going to work. So I called mothers and I said, okay, all going to be sick. They're going to be sick, and they're not going to go in for the callbacks. So I told him they were all sick. And it went on and on and on, and I remember that they didn't show. Remember that they sent a doctor and Karen happened to have a cold and like coughing and sneezing. Uh Zach had a football injury. And I don't know about Jonathan Taylor Thomas because he wasn't
mine at the time. But they you've got to be willing to say no in order to get more money. So they came away on the negotiation. And in the meantime, they said they started seeing new kids for the roles, and I sent some of my new kids just because I was you know, I was not going to be bluffed by the way.
Wow.
And finally Tim came in and he said, okay, enough of this. I want my family back, and I want the same kids, and I don't want anybody else, and they came through with the money and that helped my reputation because I got there. I was the agent that broke the back of Disney.
Yes, yes, I remember.
I vividly remember this because it was like such because all like kids and parents that you know, were on working on shows.
It was like you did.
You were always kind of you got the scraps, you got the like the leftovers. If you asked for something else, yeah, it was like, oh, here, we'll give you an extra, you know, take it to the taping or something that doesn't pay a bill. You know, it doesn't work for anything. And yeah, I remember like everyone particularly all of your clients were like, yeah, Judy get it. It was It was really impressive to watch.
Also, I got very friendly with the like the people that you negotiate with, the attorneys. I'd go to lunch with them and chat and talk and be friendly. So when it came time to negotiate, they were my buddies, right, And I'd say, Okay, now how much can I get from this?
Right?
And they'd tell me, well, we're offering you ten, but we've got twenty in the budget, so I would hold out. Yeah, and later on it always I started to I learned as I went along, But as I started to get a lot more money for the kids, I would get twenty you sometimes thirty thousand an episode. And also as the years went by, there was more money in the business.
You know what I mean, you can get I mean not now it's all been sucked out. But yeah, there was a moment it was peak television. It was great. Yeah, sushi on a Friday night.
We were doing it. I you were at exactly the right time and it was love.
Yeah, it was we had We got to really enjoy the experience of like a network TV.
Show, and they found any excitement of it.
Yeah, the producers had to have one hundred episodes to sell the syndication. Right, there's no syndication anymore.
No, it's yeah, it's changed so much, well, and.
It's affected everybody. My son Brad has a production company. He's having a hard time. Yeah, people that are writers, everybody. Yeah.
Yeah, it's a very different business, uh than when like.
When the seventy eight records went to forty five and then went to uh.
CDs, you know, atrex.
CDs and then too little.
Right, and then to now it's just in the in the air. Yeah, just exist all of.
Those places where you used to rent movies.
Yeah, blockable spell yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It was what was the like sort of speaking about how things have changed whatever, What was the reason that finally made you decide to retire.
I was seventy six years old, I think, and the business well, I had Stella in there. Yes, it was very good, and the business was starting to change. And when I retired, I mean when I was about to retire, I had thirty six kids on series. So I was going to sell her the business. And I think I'd had one knee replaced. So it was getting harder and harder and hard. Oh, I know what it was, it really did it. I've had a yes, I remember, and I could stay on the phone cast in. Doctors wouldcall
and I'd cough and cough and cough and coffin. I still have it, and I've been to every doctor and every allergist and everything. Anyway, finally I decided I can't really do this anymore. And I would think I was seventy six, so I'd better get out while the getting is good. And so I knew that I could sell the business for a lot of money, and Stella bought the business and I sold the building and it was just the right time. Although I missed it terribly. I
was gonna say, what do you miss about it? The kids and talking to the mothers and just the whole business. I love the business.
Yeah, it is.
It is.
I mean, it's the reason that I think we're still in it, you know today, is because there is. If you love it, there's something about it that is absolutely truly magical.
Even in the most grueling of schedules, like use, there's just nothing like it. No, do you remember I remember this?
Uh?
At I believe it was. Was it not the Ivy?
Oh?
What was that little restaurant that you loved the Ivy? Was it the Ivy?
No? The little yellow house. Oh that's what you're talking about Off Vine. There we go.
I'm like, the Ivy is on Robertson Offline.
Yep.
Offvine was the most adorable restaurant that was your favorite. It was a few blocks from your office and it was a little few bungalow that they turned into a restaurant. And that was always I just always remember being like, oh, we're going with Judy to off.
Fine Like that was just always for your West there.
I have a picture of you, me and Chad Allen there.
Well, what I was going to say is for your anniversary for some i'd there, yep, And we had a picture with all the kids, which I still have. Yeah, I still have it too. We'll put it on our Instagram.
Yeah.
Yeah, we all wore black and white, and I think you had black and white and red.
Yes, and Andrea's mother had gotten us all together and had a picture taken before that the year or two before that. But at that time there were so I had so many kids. I wanted a bigger party.
Yeah, we took out we took out a page in Variety, I think, yes, with the congratulations on your anniversary, whatever number it was.
At the time. I lasted for forty five years.
Yeah, that is just.
Incredibly impressive, absolutely remarkable, this stay in power that you have, and to go through these through the decades, the eighties and nineties, the aughts, and see child actors change from you know, the innocent little kids that didn't really know what we were doing, like me and Jody, to really cultivated careers where social media is a big deal and branding yourself is a big deal and you have to be a triple threat, a singer and a dancer and
an actor. And I think it's so different now that it was when Jodi and I were growing up. Was that a challenge for you as the agent or how did that change for you throughout the years.
Well, I just sort of learned as I went along, you know, until it got to the point of streaming, and streaming was so different thing. I mean, I couldn't make the money that I had been making before and be able to hire employees like I had because at one time I had eight different people working before me, and by the time I retired, there was just Stella and her son and one other person. Oh no, on Jennifer.
Oh that's right, Yes, I remember Jennifer.
Yep, Jennifer. Now does do you remember the person that sent you to me? Jody? She was a person I can't remember, Phyllis, Phyllis Ellis. She was a person that would just meet children, interview them, and then send them to different agents.
Yeah, and.
So there's never been anybody like that since.
I remember Phyllis.
You know what I remember about Phyllis She would always have pink lemonade at her house.
I don't know why I remember this.
I remember it vividly, like the black minute made like old school pink lemonade, and she would always pour me a glass of pink lemonade because I think she did like I don't know, she did like acting stuff too, like not teaching, but like I just remember remember like meeting with her, and yeah, I have a very strange memory of like associating that name.
Well, I can always thank billis Henson for sending you. I was blown away when you came in because well, both of you kids, you were so young and you were so smart, and I think you were reading Jodie.
Yeah, yeah, I was reading by then. And that was one of the things that a lot of.
People were like, oh, she's you know, three and a half four, like really until she's you know, reading or anything.
And my mom was like, well she kind of is, people like. And then we went in and.
Yeah it was four, and I remember you handed me a script, you know, and I was like okay and just started to read it.
Yeah, it's so impressive.
So you were you reading when you came in.
I don't I don't well, I was four when I came to when I met you, So I don't know if I was reading then, but definitely by kindergarten by five, by the time I by the time I booked my first full time role, right, I was reading by them by days of our lives. Yeah, but no, I don't remember what. I don't become my exact audition with you.
The kids that could read the most at a young age always had an advantage. And if you were small, and if you had great personality, yes, yep, so that's what I'd look for. But I'd also I would tell the parents if I was interviewing the child and the uh, they said, I don't really want to be here, my mother made me come. I would tell them they don't want to do this, and I'd say, what do you really want to do? And they'd say, play baseball or
you know something. Yeah, you know, if you want to get him some training and bring them back, I'll be happy to see them. But they don't want to be here now, and why should we do that to him? My own grandson who's twenty now, my youngest grandson, Tracy's son.
When he was five, she took a year from working at NBC and she got some pictures made and she got her master's degree, and she got some pictures made for Michael, and he was also cute, short and talented, and I sent him on six interviews and he got six callbacks and he booked all six of them. And it was just at the time he was born in two thousand and three, two thousand and five and things were still pretty good then, and he made I don't know one hundred and fifty thousand dollars or more, and
Tracy saved it all. So he's in college now and he's paying for most of his college.
Oh that's the savage way, isn't it right?
You get these kids.
Jobs, yeah for college, and we all go to college.
And yes, so many of.
Your kids clients went to college too, And yeah, it's just you're remarkable.
I know a lot of them went to college, Like Rioters started college while he was envoy Min's world. Yeah, oh.
Yeah, yeah, they really like again, you you made sure of it.
But we also were very fortunate that most of us grew up on sets that were warm and welcoming to young people, right, you know it was we all.
Had those states Jose ran for seven or eight years. I mean you have nothing like that too, No, No, I.
Mean even fuller. We got five seasons. I mean they were shorter seasons, but like that is remarkable for that.
It was such a surprise and so amazing.
Yeah, that's a long run for nothing. I mean, like what other It's really hard to think of other streaming series that go on for more than three, you know. So I think we were always very, very very fortunate in that. Do you have any regrets, anything you wish you'd done differently?
Not a thing?
Yes, I love that.
I mean at first, I was when I started to get really really busy. I wanted to travel, but I didn't feel I could I could leave the office to travel. And finally I found in June, just before it got really really busy, that I could start taking vacations. I didn't take vacation for like twenty years, and except in the summertime. We go back to Michigan where my family lived and we had a summer home. But like I was fifty before I got to Europe, and I went for two weeks and I was so excited to go
to Paris in Italy. And my daughter went to Europe right out of high school. Yeah, and Mark went to Europe for a year after we graduate from college and he lived in France with a woman. He rented a room from this woman, and he got a job translating French to English and English to France. And he's traveled all over Europe for a year, and he worked with mother Teresa.
Oh wow, wow, that's incredible. Yeah, well, Judy, you have you have really.
Been the catalyst and turning point for a lot of people in this business who started out young and uh and who are still continuing today. And I think still love this business in large part because the beginning experience of it with someone like you was.
But it's true, it's true you you.
If I would have had an agent like some other people who we want mention, I don't think I would have wanted to stay in this business.
But I knew my mom knew that you could go to Judy.
Just go to Judy, just go talk to her, and whatever it was, you'd get it worked out with us and you and you didn't pressure us or anything. You just you really set up so many young people in this business to have a wonderful experience I think in a business that sometimes isn't so great.
Well, I felt like all of you were my children, and.
You treated us like you really really did. You really felt it.
We felt that maternal love and protection from you. It's extraordinary. I mean you you changed our lives in the best possible way and for success, not just like financially and professionally, but like emotionally. Yeah, you set us up to be a well rounded humans, you know. I mean we're not perfect, of course, but like you know.
We also had wonderful parent Yes.
Absolutely did wonderful you know you It was you knew how to work with good parents. You knew how to like you knew how to work in conjunction with parents who also wanted the best for their kids, and you tended to avoid the really toxic personalities.
You know, Hey, fan Ritos, don't forget to check out our merch at howarudemerch dot com.
I used to go to different cities and do seminars with mostly with Diane or Diane I yeah, and then find kids and tell them to come for pilot season. Well I found this in I think it was Arizona. Two girls, two sisters, and they were amazing girls, and I said comfort pilot season. But when they came for pilot season, the mother was like the worst stage mother I had ever seen. Oh, and I didn't take them.
In fact, I chased them out of my office. Yeah, and was running down the street saying go come back. They got into the and they both had series and they both were successful. But it was like, who wants to deal with that?
Yeah, it's true, and you know what there are but there are a lot of people in this business who would for the right price. And I always I just have such great respect for you because you you.
Were you guys had wonderful families.
Yeah, we did, Yeah, we did. It was it was a group effort.
It was a group effort, and because we had wonderful families, we wound up with an agent who saw that and was also a family person yourself. You were like you, you know again, you were you were Auntie.
You know, you were like you.
You made us all feel very safe and comfortable, and I think you made our parents feel safe and comfortable too, trusting you.
So thank you for that, Judy. It means a lot.
Oh that's so sweet. Thank you both.
Yeah, we love you so much, Judy, like you're just You're so special to us, and I'm so happy that you came on our podcast to yes share these stories in this, we get to reunite.
What is the name of your podcast?
It is how Rude Tanner Ritos.
Yes, it's both of our catchphrases from Full House combined.
To mush together because you know, we didn't want to we can pick one.
You can't do that, no favorites. So yeah, I think Judy's frozen free. She's she's either really impressed or she's frozen right. Oh, amazing, there she's back. Yay.
We were just saying that we that when we that when we grow up, if we ever do that, we want to that we want to age like Judy Savage because you're kind of fabulous.
Well, thank you so much for being on the show with us today, Judy. It was really really a pleasure to talk to you.
It was so great to see you. Guys. If you ever want to come here and have lunch, I will absolutely.
Do it because I'm relatively close. So yeah, I'm gonna come. I'm gonna come knock on your door. Maybe my mom will even come with me because I know she'd love to see you.
That would be wonderful.
Yes, Heartbeat, the food is not that great, but well we'll figure it. That's all right. I'm not going about the going for the company.
You know, it's about the company.
Exactly, exactly. Well, thank you so much, Judy, we love you. Thank you for joining us today.
You made me feel so good.
Well it's you deserved, well deserved thing.
Bye Judy, Bye Judy. That was so great. I love I just love Judy Savage.
Like doesn't it just fill your heart with just so much joy?
It does?
And her like her voice sounds the same every like I can. It's just it's.
Again like a kin with memories of being a young kid on the set and the sound of the door closing or the set, like the smell her office, her bungalow, her on the phone, like all of it is just such a childhood memory.
Yeah.
I should have told this story when she was on, when she was on with us.
But like her voice, I remember, yep, like when you get when you would leave a message on the answering machine, yeah, it's usually good news because that means you break the role. And I remember we gathered my family when I booked Days of our Lives. We my whole family gathered around the answering machine to listen to the message to find out did I land the role?
Or not.
I did, And of course, you know, Don Barber and Share Barber were so excited. My brother probably didn't care, like doest celebrate like it was so exciting. And I just remember her voice. Yeah, Like I associate so many positive moments of my life with her voice.
That's what I mean, Like I can, I just so so many.
It's like it's like hearing like your grandmother's voice or something not, you know, like it's hearing that voice that like is tied to so many good feelings and so many feelings of things that like, yeah, you just don't get to experience anymore, you know, And yeah, what, I just love her and I want to be I want to be an old lady just like her, with the fabulous outfits and giant glasses and yes and yeah, and skin that just looks like porcelain, you.
Know, and our daughters will be helping us with whatever technology is.
Yeah.
I'm going to be in a yurt by that point. You know, I also all look fabulous. I'll still have great, I'll dress great, but I'm going to be in the woods, away from everyone.
Yeah, away from all technology from all yeah.
Yeah, just just flouncing about with scarves and glasses and being you know, fabulous Judy. Yeah, Judy and Diane always had scarves, Yes, always had scarves. And Diane in her she was such an acting and she would flip the scarf over her net like I.
Just it was great. I just remember it so vividly. Yeah, what a joy. We gotta get up there.
We gotta go see both of them.
Let's have lunch, Lets get scars, Let's do lunch. I would love it.
Yes, well, you guys, thank you so much for joining us for this really special episode. This was really a lot of fun for us, and I hope you guys enjoyed it too. Getting a little super for us into our childhood.
Yeah, yeah, what a blast from the past. Seriously, Well, thank you guys for listening. We love you.
Fan Rito's make sure you're following us on Instagram at how Rude podcast or sending us emails at how Rude Tannerto's at gmail dot com.
Like and subscribe. You know the deal and uh and we will see you next time.
And remember the world is small, but the house is full of Judy Savage's clients.
There's a lot of them. There's a lot, so many like that actually is an appropriate thing. That's just so many that is a full house. It's Judy's client list and on that. But I'm cheap, but I'm