Some Time With... Keith Richmond! (Part 1)

Hey there, Fanarritos, Welcome back to a brand new episode of How Rude Tanertos. Today we're chatting with Keith Richmond, the assistant director and stage manager throughout the entire series of Full House. To put it in perspective, Keith worked on one hundred and ninety episodes with us. That's a lot of time spent together. He played a big hand in Full House's evolution over eight seasons, and we can't wait to talk to him about full House and the

Hi, Oh my goodness, Oh my goodness. I haven't seen this face in so long, right I could say this.

Hi, Oh my gosh. This is so special. We've been talking about you, and we've been seeing you, yes, in your cameo appearances.

Wake there for five yeah, right and five.

Did you just hear that in your sleep? You're like, but I can't say one.

Yeah, I can't say one. No. Parlo used to say phobia, phobia, Yes, very exactly. Man.

We're so excited to have you on the show today and we just kind of jump right into the to it.

So here we are you.

I mean you basically worked like NonStop since the early eighties as stage manager a D.

Which okay, we have a question, what is Is.

There a difference between stage manager and a D or is it just that they have sort of called it something different now?

No, there is a difference. Oh okay, yeah, the.

First the first assistant director is responsible for a whole lot more. I mean with you know, call sheets, pressure reports, which you don't do as a stage manager. But once, once we hit the film lots so on Full House, I was responsible for that. Right, it's still called at a stage manager because it was videotape. Right then they changed the category to multi camera first a D.

Okay, it didn't matter what the media was. Oh okay, okay, So that's that's was the evolution.

But originally if stage manager, if I was doing a game show, right, walk in, run the floor, have a little bit of interface with some of the departments, but not not.

Not not have to do the nightmare of scheduling and the shooting schedule.

As a first a D.

You know there reports, hired all the extras, interface with all the departments, make sure special effects knew what they needed to do, check with all the apartments constantly and readjust the schedule and then break down the script.

Yeah, the first job is yeah, all the work for the director. It's fine, glad to be of serros, but.

You arguably had the hardest job on the entire show.

Like first first ad, because that's what that gets alone, the hardest job.

We have tony stories about dealing with Bob Poppins.

I do we are, I can't wait, I just I do remember there would be times when finally he was like, oh god, Keith has been pushed too.

Far, just like, just come on the level of potions you must have had, you know.

Bob was always like, I got to get out of here, and get out of here.

Well, Bob stopped flowing around, right, do your job.

The outtakes we have me having that exchange money, I gotta go. Well then stop, yeah, concentrate you. We're asking because otherwise I got zwick.

Yell out in my air and I remember you, Yeah, I bet.

I used to go up and talk to the guys and uh, you ask him to do something, can you guys, you know, step over here, do this and they would look at me and go, We're screaming at the air at l because he was and I have Yes, it's like that too. You know, I don't need to project that to you guys. You know I had to be the filter. I still have my hair and I'm still standing, so I don't know how.

Which is impressive for an AD because usually there, Yeah, they just stress them out until they're broken. Little piles of people.

Yeah, it's a lot.

I have huge respect for like stage manager first a d because it is you, like the list of things that you're responsible for making sure happen is insane, and you are the conduit sort of between like you know, video village or whatever and what's happening with the actors and you're getting screamed at but you can't scream. Yeah, you're kind of in a rock, between a rock and a hard place in a lot of ways.

Yeah.

So well, early on when I started stage ranching, I came up with an analogy for the job and I still hold it to be a good description, which is you have to be part party host and part traffic cop and not let people know you're the traffic cop. Right, So you're moving them around, you're telling them what to do, but you're doing it with a smile.

On your face and letting them know that you're there for them, right and the great analogy.

Yeah, yeah, it does translate to first ad only then you have to add all these other elements of figure out the shooting schedule, check with all the departments, make sure and go smoothly.

I'll be ready for any any hiccup that comes your way. Yeah.

I just remember when we were doing Fuller, especially like we would be leaving for the night and poor Adam and Chris were like still in the eighty office like hashing it out through.

We can't do run this tomorrow.

We can't shoot this now because we got to do this first, and you know, and they were there long before us and long after.

Yeah, it's a long it's definitely the case.

And also you know you're chaining the schedule with every rewrite, so you know, crew and and now you have to redo the schedule because you know, then they do the me right, then you have to go back and redo the schedule, and you have to have ready for everyone. If I was, If I was, we were doing a Monday Tuesday shot, which I think we were in pole House.

No, we did, we were a Thursday, Friday, Friday. Your Thursday Friday.

Then because the kids wouldn't have school the next morning on Saturdays, so we stay late Friday.

Yeah, later for the audience. That's right, guys, are right, And I remember now, yeah remember everything?

I mean I don't. I don't remember hardly anything these days.

What was your first what was your.

First like stage managing eighty job? Interesting?

Yeah, okay, So I started actually started in the carpenter shop at NBC.

Okay, carpenter. I was building eight great walls, twelve hours a day. Wow. We would call in every day to get the call for the next day.

Because I was not very high ranking, right, somebody would get on the phone, they would dial and once they got through, it was before any technology. Yeah, let's they would get through, they called the rest of the crew over and you find out what you were doing the next day.

Okay, say hey.

And somebody finally said to me, hey, when they ask you if you're a carpenter.

Say no instead of saying yes, okay, So I.

Did, and I ended up my first call on a stage, not as a carpenter, was twelve oh one prop and.

Around she going the man okay, oh wow. And that was at NBC. And then I got a job on.

Staff at k T l A as a stage hand and we would do lighting one day and we would.

Do you know, gripping the next day. Right, and uh, I eventually moved my way into being a prop person. Okay, I didn't know that we had one.

Who did we have on? That was our we had from Fuller. We had Steve Gerard, our Fuller house person.

Yeah, we had a great problem full House.

Yeah.

Oh, Robert Roger Roger.

Yeah, we had Roger Law not Roger Soger Montesano.

And Property Bob.

Yeah, because we had to call him property Bob because there was Bob the dog and Bob the.

Saggat, so it was the saggot. Yeah. And yet so it was a lot of Bob's.

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To answer your question, what happened was I started as I became prop man. I worked on a talk show called Hour Magazine and I did all the food styling.

Oh, I did all the preparation.

As a matter of fact, one of the things that that got my wife to pay attention to even be interested in me is I have a picture of myself with Julia Child.

Oh, that's cool.

But what happened is is they would send a recipe, I would do all the preparation. I would do a finished product. You lay out all the bowls they do. I want to go this, this, this and this, and here's the finished product. Right.

I've done those before when I've hosted stuff and you're like, oh and now we're.

Making a thing, and you're like, okay.

Just ignore all the stuff that we just hear the thing, because here's the finished one exactly.

And I was missed firstly because I would make it all look real pretty and oh but what happened was because you follow the script as a prop man. At KTLA at the time, back in the day, stage managers were not BGA. They were I A on that onok okay, so they were like, hey, you know how to follow a script. We're making you a statement here. So some of my my my first stage managing job was on our magazine and that's when I came.

Up with that analogy.

Yeah, they have to have all these people coming through, you know, chefs and stars and you know even Kirk Douglas and Jimmy Stewart and those kind of people coming through. Have some pictures from back then which you don't want to see. But anyway, that that was my first stage managing job. And then then they would move me around.

And I did.

Dance Fever okay, and that was with Danny Terrio just way before you guys time. But it was so so much fun, and that was the show that I got my Gigia carn On.

Oh that's awesome.

And then, you know, just fortunate enough to be the guy that people could I guess that, you know, I look back and I go, what was it? And I think it was the guy that people could trust because I was committed to it. But I never you know, I just I just listened to a podcast which is with mister Clip that he did and.

He kind of had a similar path in that I didn't have a goal to be a first ad. It just yeah, you know, the opportunities came and you have to step up.

You know.

I was a pretty shy guy initially, but next thing, you know, you're running the production meeting.

Yeah, better step up. So it kind of brought me out from.

Being Yeah, I mean you definitely learned, you know, and being in charge of it, directing, stage managing anything, you're like, oh, I have to be official to be shocked to look like I know what I'm doing right.

Yeah.

I went from game shows. I did Jeopardy the first two seasons with.

Really Yeah, that was so cool, A great guy. I did a Wheel of Fortune.

I was doing a lot of game shows, still doing our magazine, and and I got a call from a guy who is doing a sitcom on the Disney lot.

So now you're moving video onto film lots.

And this goes back question about category change, and which is okay, so now I'm doing Now I step into that. But once you're on a film lot, they expect you to do proction reports and call sheets.

But they still gave you a stage manager title. But the DJA, finally.

You know, wis up to that, and they changed the category. And I was told a couple of times that I was a perfect progression of that, moving from stage manager to what they now called multi camera first DA dat Right, Okay, that was but you know it was interesting. I listened to your your podcast with Lenny Reps. Yeah, I totally agree with him. I still the thing that people talk to me about, and the thing that I talk about the.

Most is full house.

It's like when he said, it gets you a good reservation.

And I even have some cast photos that you know, guys, you know that's so cool. Yeah.

But so what I wanted to say is, you know, I have the pleasure of watching you guys grow up and being kind of hopefully your dad on the set when I could be and protect you from Dave.

Dave's yeah, yeah and Bob right, guys, stop.

The kids are there on the set right o.

Yeah, there was plenty of time when things happened, and after the scene I knew it was about to happen, and it was the.

Mom's and walking down the hallway to have words with him. Dave, you guys can't do that. You can't do that. I will tell you what it was.

I will five things right now on top of it.

The not my head.

Yeah, well, let's just say he would always wait till a Maricayter Ashley was standing right next to him, even with his butt.

Yeah.

Oh yeah, Now we've talked about Yeah, we had Dave on the show and we've worn the world that don't stand too close behind him.

It's dangerous taking your own life in your hands.

Yeah, and actually Mary Kate would have been like five to nine, you know.

But they's just he's stunted their growth. Yeah, it's really unfortunate. But what I wanted thinking about it all.

And what I wanted to tell you guys is that I think, looking back, we were a family.

That did a show about a family. Mmmm. That's that's what it became.

We were absolute close and it was great and I know you guys, I'm sure you guys are still close with everyone.

And Warehouse which was fabulous. You got to it was so much fun. A lot of seasons which is great too.

Yeah yeah, I mean not those nice network seasons twenty four to twenty six, but but we'll take it.

We'll take it.

Yeah, No, it was And I always say that that's what That's why I think people fell in love with this show and it's stayed around so long, is that it wasn't just a show. It was a family doing a show together and that love and relationships and all of that like it felt, and people fell in love with it because it was real, because it wasn't It wasn't a bunch of people pretending to be a family and care about each other and go through stuff. It

It was like those guys protected you and you know it was it was great.

And yeah when I tried to predict them, you know, from themselves.

Mostly from themselves, right right from or Jewel. I'm sorry, Oh no, go for it. Joel. Joel. By the way, who's I still see? Oh yeah, we had him on the show Love. Oh yeah. Yeah. And uh also Brian Kal Yes, I've emailed him, yes.

And we're seeing him my wife and we see he enjoys constantly.

Brian Joyce Hello, Yeah, give him a big hug from us.

Yeah.

He said he's better behind the camera than in front of it, so on the podcast, which I totally respect.

He could just do like a like an intro announcer voice and we could just have to be like the voice of God.

You know, it's just us and he's.

Off camera and it's just you know, him doing some weird announcement or for an airline or something.

Yeah.

Yeah. Every time we hear Brian Cale's voice in something, we're like, oh, there's Brian.

There he is he did on the show. Oh yeah, every such a great announced ouncer voice. Yeah.

And I got the stage manager for all the uh and Joey commercials.

Yeah, oh oh the commercials.

Yeah, so whenever they did that, I was actually in front of the camera counting myself in.

Right, we did.

We've noticed many a Keith Richmond special there.

Yeah.

And you know and my daughter Alice and my oldest oh yeah, she was a.

Honey beeat yeah yeah, yeah, oh yeah, she.

Was in something that Dave did.

Something, mister egghead, mister thank you eead yeah yeah.

Oh and Allison, I remember she was We were like the same agent. We were pals.

She'd come to set, come to my birthday parties, like oh yeah. It was again we were all a family like we you know, it wasn't just like the cast who we were close with. It was everybody and their families. Like yep, I can think of Joyce right now. I'm like Brian Cale's wife from thirty years ago. But like we have like these really cherished, wonderful memories of not just the people that we worked with on in front of the camera, but everybody and their families behind it too.

You know, we were and we all together and I would spend time and you know, I was fortunate enough to spend time with everyone separately.

Yeah, your folks house, that's right.

Times and and and Andrew your mom and dad were. We were close and we always got along the way. It was really fabulous. Please you know, and say hi to whoever you can.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry about your mom. Man.

Oh, thank you, thank you. No, it's a yeah, she's We talk about her a lot on the show and her polaroid wall the way. I think I have your polaroid downstairs in my garage. I was pipping through them a few months ago and I was like, oh, there's Keith, so yeah, I still have your pull.

I did, uh yeah that because I started doing kids shows.

For Disney after a long run of other things, and she came on and was a teacher one day and we got to to reminisce a bit.

We had Adria on the show too. It's been so much we did.

We've had Adrian, Lenny, Joel, We've had We've had such an awesome opportunity to have so many.

People that like.

We grew up with but never really understood just how like.

Who we were working with, you know what I mean, Like people that were so.

In this business and like like in so many incredible ways.

And it was like, oh it was just Lenny, you know, Like and you find.

Out like all this stuff he was writing and you know, Joan Rivers and you're like, oh my god, that's you know, like the comedy writing. And uh, it's been really fun to have everybody come back, because it's like getting to know the adults in your family once you've reached a certain age and you're like, yeah, really happened.

Ye have your own and you understand maybe what some people have been going through that.

Yeah, oh exactly, exactly. I love that you guys are doing this. I think it's great.

It's been so much fun and the show is so ridiculous to go back and watch and so much fun, and we just you.

Know, it's so popular, so popular. Yeah, it's really lucky. It's really held.

Up because because they can watch it all again and the new generation can still watch it.

Yeah, a lot of those lessons are timeless, you know, the parenting lessons, the feel good moments, the heart scenes, those are all timeless. Yeah, yeah, it really is held up.

You were with us for one through eight, right, we're all seasons. Well, I try to remember.

So I left at one point to go to Florida, Okay, and opened the Disney m M studios.

I had an opportunity.

I was, you know, they they you know, sourced me out and was like, hey, can you come and help? And I did the first one hundred and fifty Mackey Mouse Clubs before Brittainy and them.

Okay, yeah, yeah I did. I did the Making Mouse Club. But when Britney and Christina and all them were on it, oh.

Very for towards the end of the of Full House, we did. We did. It was a group called The Party. It was okay, they had like a music group.

And it was before, like I said, before, right before Brittany and stuff.

And uh so I left.

I did do that and we opened up the Disney m M studios at the time, and then I got a call.

From Phyllis and down right it was like, hey, how's it going there?

Uh would you you know because apparently you guys all kind of had a little bit of a protest. Uh.

And I come back and so yeah, we've.

We wanted our Keith, you know us, you know, like we needed you to steer the ship.

Yeah, it's I mean, it was it was like when Chrystals on our ship, Like do you just there was wasn't there a season that or something that christ wasn't or they weren't going to be there or something, and we were like, no, we need Chris and Adam back.

Like we were like, you're a D. Teams like, Chris is great. I know him, and he's a fabulous guy, and you've got Lucky.

Super fabulous him and him and Adam are first and seconds on.

Folder were great.

But but I get it, like why we had a little protest because once you find someone that is good at steering the ship, particularly with that group of people, you know, it's like you kind of can't. It's it's throwing anybody else in kind of in the middle of it is it's like, well, who are you're new.

The show? To get ad a D on a show that could absolutely just tank the show, Yeah.

So it was a real blessing to be able to come back and finish it out.

Do you have a favorite season of the ones you were on? The earlier ones the later ones?

I remember early on. The things I remember are things like, we need a crying baby and we need a not crying baby. You know, Mary Kate would cry if we brought it on the set, so we needed that. And then we'd switch out to Ashley and then they reversed roles. Then the other would cry, and so we had to switch that out, and you know, we were fortunate.

Enough to be able to juggle that a little bit.

Yeah, I mean they did pretty well with one being you know, Mary Kay was not having it that first season.

But yeah, whenever you needed a crying baby, it was great. Yeah. So I remember, I remember things like that, and I remember horse getting loose.

Yes, I remember the horse getting loose. We talked about this episode and I got yeah, I brought that up. I was like, remember when the horse got loose and went running down the camera aisle.

Yeah, and everyone and everyone was like jumping to pull you guys out of the way.

Yeah that was yeah. Yeah, and everything was great, you know, and any the Beach Boys of course, Yeah, amazing Beach.

Boys of course was fabulous having them on the show and then doing any episode at the coliseum.

That's right. So what is it like when you take I mean, you know, the.

Joke is always don't take the sitcom out of the stage because everything falls apart.

Not a joke, it's not a no, we've we've done it.

You're like, oh, this is why would sitcoms need a stage.

Well, having you know, having grown up on the stages, you know, it was not my favorite thing, even even though you know, right a first ad which is really you know, has location there, but you know, is not not fun.

But we did a lot. I mean we went to Vegas, yeah, Wayne Newton and all that.

Do you remember me getting lost in Vegas? Were you part of that where I got I took the wrong elevator and I went down to the casino floor and my mom wasn't in the elevator. We were up in the Elvis suite and I got in the elevator with a bunch of people and went all the way down and got out of the elevator and then realized my.

Mom wasn't there, and it was she was panicked. It was a whole big thing. Everyone would remember. But I did at one point have a have a picture. I can't find it.

I wish I could of you guys on stage at the coliseum, me down and standing at the bottom of the stage. Cute. And that was a foundulous experiences, you know, right, All we had a lot of stuff.

We had.

We had Micky Rooney on the show, remember, yeah, Supper that was a challenge and wasn't it.

John and Dave called him Topper, didn't they, because that was the person he kept topping stories like oh yeah, yeah, that's what Dave called it. Well, that was the end of our first part of our interview with Keith Richmond, but there's so much more to talk about that We are definitely going to be back with him, so make sure and check that out. In the meantime, you can find us on Instagram at how Rude podcast or you can send his emails at how rud tan Rito's at gmail dot com.

Uh visit our merch store how rudemerch.

Dot com and uh, I think that's it, So we will see you guys next time. And remember the world is small, but the house is full of crying babies, full of holding babies, crying babies. They're all crying. The minute you take one that's not crying, you put them there crying.

Just full of crying babies. So many babies, too many babies. Bye on