I Am All In…Again: Live Long and Prosper (Season 1 E3 “Kill Me Now”)

I am all in again.

I Am all in again with Scott Patterson and iHeartRadio podcast.

Hey everybody, Scott Patterson, I Am All in again. Podcast one eleven productions, iHeart Radio, iHeart Media, iHeart Podcast Season one, Episode three, which is entitled kill Me. Now we have a very very special guest, the man responsible for directing this wonderful episode, Adam kneem Oy. Yes, that kneem Oy.

Uh.

May the Force be with us all. I mean, it's just like, how iconic is this moment?

First of all, did you see what Adam just did? Because I've already been so excited for Adam and now I'm losing my mind. He literally just gave us the spock.

So grad your dad famously Leonard Nimoy of Star Trek Fame, Legend icon.

He's gonna save all my Star Trek fan girling for the end. But maybe I have.

To be just let it out, Just let it out, let it out. O. Adam, Thanks for joining us, Thanks for having me.

I'm such as such an honor and privileged to be here.

I love the show, so I'm so I'm so glad to be participating in this with you guys.

I have to tell you, everybody on the team was like really really really buzzing that you were coming on. Uh And when they told me, I said, oh, man, were you Were you on an episode before? Did we have you on as a guest at any point? This is the first time we've we've met.

Yes, So we're explaining to Adam so so Adam. Basically, we watched every episode of Gilmore Girls with the fans on this podcast. We finished and like Gilmore Girls fans, we just started again at the beginning and now each week where we have on a cast member, a crew member, a director, a producer, somebody that was involved with the show, and the fans are enjoying it again as they do.

Wait a minute, there was like a couple hundred episodes, right, you've gone through.

The one hundred, one hundred and fifty three plus the four Netflix episodes.

Yeah, wow, Okay.

We went We went through it in about three years, three and a half years, and we're rebooting and we're changing it up a little bit.

Now.

We're doing we're dropping an episode every day now, adding to the feed and to the fan excitement and you know, giving them content what they want. And we're all just waiting we're all just waiting for new episodes Gilmore Girls, and we got to do something in the interim, So okay.

Curiously, but before I do, my star trek fangirling, which I will. You directed an amazing episode of Gilmore Girls here. It's sort of the first one that launched the bigger reduction of Gilmore Girls. How you directed it is I can't wait to ask you all these questions. The wedding scene is massive, and there's things happening in the you know, one part of the scene while there's background things happening that you're obviously directing, or a scene in the in

Yeah. Yeah, it was a pretty big production, and I think it was.

It's episode three, and I think I'm the first guy director who came on. I wish I had done more. I must tell you. Look, I love the show. My daughter Mattie is a fanatic fan for the show. She's obsessed with Scott and with Milo and and I've worked with Milo before I got to Gilmore Girls, or at least before he did. And and my my daughter Maddy just had her own daughter and named.

Her romy not quite Rory but close. Just one letter.

And when I just told her I'm in New York now and I just told her I was going to be talking to you, she kind of flipped out.

And didn't know about the podcast.

So h you know, we have we have a lot of Gilmore fandom going on on the knee Moy side as well.

Great, give her our best, give her our best, and we'd love to talk to her one day. Actually, And you first.

Got the script, were you because obviously the show was new, so you probably were directing this episode before the show had ever even aired. So were you shocked by like the denseness of the script and know how many words essentially were just in this material.

Well, I mean yeah, that is the signature of the show. Now.

I had directed Alan McBeal, which also had a lot of snappy, fast dialogue, so I was used to that kind of a thing. But yeah, I mean yeah, that is what distinguishes Gilmore Girls and makes it so charming, you know, is the whole Rory Lorelei. You know, the back and forth, the banter, the witticisms, the one upmanship. It's just their dynamic is amazing. But what's really, you know, interesting, is that they had it when I came on. I mean, they just had it already, even after just two episodes.

They were in the pattern, they were in the groove.

They knew each other very well, they knew, you know, how the rhythm should go. And I was just in a situation where just turn on the camera and let them go, you know, because they really carried the show.

Ye wow.

You know, that's one of the observations that struck me when I got to the set for the first time up in Toronto, up in Unionville, I came a little early to watch those two working because they had a couple of Luke's diner scenes that we did, and that was my first down the set, and I watched those two Lauren and Alexis in rehearsal, and I thought to myself, oh my, you know, we've got something here, because the chemistry between those two and the banter between those two,

Oh yeah, yah. They were well, I mean, they were very well cast.

Amy had a really good sense of what you wanted, what she was looking for, and they delivered.

Oh yes, they did huge thanks to you, because I'm sorry, Scott, you.

Go no, no, go ahead, you go ahead questions.

So obviously, and Scott, I want to know from you when Adam came onto the set. You know, he obviously was a great director already, but were you all like, oh my god, like yeah, under me? Why Son? And also Adam, I have to say Star Trek four is by far the best Star Trek movie directed by your amazing father. And it is the best because it has all the action we love, but it has that comedy, which is the same thing we love about this show. It has heart and drama, but it's funny and that's

Well, yeah, and thank you. I mean, it was a balance of things.

He also had a rewrite from Nick Meyer, who has, you know, quite a sense of humor and witticism of his own. Nick had directed and written Star Trek two, Wrath of Khan and then and did a rewrite on Star Trek four, and then came back from Star Trek six the final installment with the original cast. So yeah, I mean, that's that's what the show was really.

I mean, you know, the show was it.

Star Trek was sometimes had this campy, funny stuff of this dynamic between kirks Bock and McCoy, you know, and I mean like Gilmore Girls, and it was some serious stuff, relationships stuff, social issue stuff. I mean it was a real combination and finding that balance is really difficult to do, which is why Star Trek, even though it only went three seasons and seventy eight episodes, you know, it has been replayed in syndication ever since for the past fifty

Yeah, all starts with the writing.

Man.

When I got that pilot script, I just felt, WHOA, what is this and how am I going to get in this? Because that's when, you know, that was twenty nineteen ninety niney two thousand, when movie stars were starting to do TV pretty regularly, and I thought, man, we're gonna have to fight off a lot of movie stars to get this role. So and that helped me with the audition because I just I didn't care because I knew I wasn't getting it, so I just kind of let it off lie anyway, right, you know, the dumb

But well, I gotta I just want to interject that the way you play Luke is so critical to the show because there's so much going on.

There's so much action, and.

Then we can go to the diner and just take a break and have your you know, your kind of setting, you know, your cool vibe. Slow down, everybody, everything's good, We're okay here, take a break, have a couple of coffee, which will speed you up later on.

But in the meantime, you really need that counterbalance to to so people can take a breather. Yeah.

In point, Scott, I don't think we've talked about that that Adam's making that when you do go into the diner, it is a little bit of a I can catch up for a second, I can breathe, I can. It's dry, You're so your performance is so sarcastic and dry, even in this one interesting hat interesting hat like it's just even in this episode, even though you're in just a couple of scenes, they're so crucial.

I got very lucky, That's all I'll say. I got very lucky.

I always want to become a director. Adam like, did you ever want to be an actor?

I don't.

I don't know if you ever acted like your dad or if you always just you know, became a director.

Well.

I started off as a as an attorney. I went to law school and practiced entertainment law for seven years.

Did you go to Berkeley?

Well? I went to Berkeley undergrad. I went, all right, where'd you go to law school?

I went to law school in la at Loyola Gosz practice music law for for several years and decided I'm really wanted to do something more creative. Actually, it's interesting because I started attending a class with a guy named Jeff Corey, who was my dad's acting instructor, and just to hang out because I was in between jobs and that's when everything changed. And you know, I want I always wanted to be a storyteller. I want to do

Is that correct? Oh?

Sure, yeah. At the Actors Studio, Arthur Penn ran the producer director unit. There was an acting unit on Tuesdays, and then I think Thursday or Friday was the was the producer director unit. And Paul Newman used to comment and run it, and Arthur Penn used to come in and run it, and I mean, yeah, we had all kinds of just one.

Of my favorite directors of all time with that big man, you know, miracle worker Bonnie Clyde amazing.

Yeah, you know I got to sit there and absorb all that, you know, as an observer. I wasn't a member yet. I mean it's very difficult to get in, but to be around that was you know, critical, your likely. Yeah. Yeah, so we established now this is the first Friday night dinner if I am not.

And I thought Adam made interesting choices with the lighting too. It was like really lit, I don't know if you worked with the team on that, but it was like, we really see Friday night dinner and it has this sort of real vibe to it as we start the episode with that, Yeah, those.

Are those are decisions I don't I don't really make. I mean it was it's it's a dp's cinematography issue.

It's something that Amy would have had more say on. You know, these kind of things are you know, the look of the show is something that, uh that Amy had a very specific idea of how she wanted it to play out. And I and my job is just to defer to her. It's her show, it's her vision. You know, I've only coming in on episode three, so I don't even know what's coming next. And you know, and you know, it's it can be challenging in terms of figuring out what, you know, trying to figure out

Well, do you know her at all?

Sorry, go Scott, No, go ahead, go ahead.

Did you know her at all? Because what a unique show to come on to sort of out of nowhere and have to get in her head?

Yeah, I mean I don't.

I did not know her, and and I wished I had come back to do more, you know, I did not. I mean, look, it was it was kind of intense because this is the first season. The creating a look of the show, there's a lot of logistics, there's a lot of pressure to crank out all those episodes for the season.

It's a new crew. I think there were some crew issues.

Some things changed shortly after I was there, So there's a lot of politics involved.

It's very it can be very touch and go.

So you know, it can be very challenging for me to know as a just a visiting director, you know, what is the landscape here? And so it's it can be very tricky. I mean, I've directed episodes from a lot of first season shows and it's all over the map. But this is a show that Amy was very had a very tight grip on. She was very determined that

I mean, these were guys who were very supportive and knew what they were doing.

And for me, I just try to stay out of everybody's way and defer to them.

The lack of close ups. Did you discuss that with Amy, because they didn't really do close close close ups. It was always like, you know, chest up at the most.

Yeah, or a lot of two shots to let the two of them go. It's because you've start to find that with that dialogue.

And we did it.

We did, you know, we did over the shoulders or or we did medium close ups. We didn't do extreme close ups. But it doesn't play It gets too claustrophobic, especially if you're cutting back and forth like that.

You have to be loose.

Now.

A lot of times things just played out in the two shot or the master a wider shot because it's just going like that, you know, and it just plays better with the two of them in the frame, I.

Thought, especially in some of the diner scenes they did when we had steady camp Steve doing the whole thing, and it was like an eight or a ten page because we actually did have eight to ten page scenes, if you can believe it, with all that dialogue that's crazy. Yeah, and they let it play in just that steadycam shot. So it was it really felt quite often like you were doing theater because of course everything had to come together in one take, in one shot, because that was going to be the setup.

Well, it's very economical to do things that way, and sometimes it works if you have enough action or the dialogue is happening, and and yeah, you've got to rely on people to play it like it's live.

TV or theater and that and that you know is you know that that attests.

To the quality of your talent, that you guys have the rhythm, that you know your lines, you know where you need to be, and you're on it for the whole thing.

It's it's very challenging.

Those were the most exciting days. Those are my favorite days inside of Luke Steiner is doing those long scenes with steadycam. Steve Clancy, the man and just you know, trying to nail it again and again and again because you had to shoot those a lot because they weren't doing any coverage. It's like the pressure's on to do this thing. And they were so fun, they were so fun to do.

Oh man, this episode has just got so much in it. You're shooting an entire wedding and dance dance number and dance number. Well then also shooting an entire thing at a golf course, like you know, Rory and her grandfather are really walking the course and you have all that and then they go and you know, you've got the steam room and there's the country club stuff. It just

Well, it is big.

Production for episode three of me. It was big production for the pilot. I can't believe all the stuff they crammed into the pilot. I mean there's a lot, like a lot of the street stuff is you know, it takes time. There's a lot of extras. You've got, you know, a lot of elements going on there. Yeah, I mean we Look, I was lucky. We had a great crew, great you know, assistant director, uh, great producing support to make it all happen, you know, great.

Casting, Uh you know, uh, director, you know, we just do.

Were a lot of things that were really working for us to make the show possible.

Director, do you bring anyone with you? Like or do you just you're the guy that shows up and the crew is all there?

Like, yeah, who's all there? I'm just I'm just a guest, you know.

And part of my job is like just to you know, dodge the bullets sometimes, uh, and just show up and do the best job I can. And there were things I learned on this show that were very valuable for me, you know, there were there were some performance things that I learned about the about the show and about directing, and and we can talk about that.

So are we going to be looking at the episode or we are We're just gonna we're just talking about kind of talking.

Yeah, just talking.

There's a couple of things. Yeah, there's a couple of things that I want to mention, uh, in the episode that I directed. So what's happening at the end is that they're they're having a wedding.

Yeah, and the wedding.

Is two uh uh, you know brides who are twins, mirroring twin groans, you know, and the mother of the twin brides has issues with with her daughters.

That's that's part of the setup. She's she's not there there.

There's difficulty, there's conflict there, and it mirrors what's going on.

With with Laurel I and her mother Emily mh.

And the thing I missed and that I talked about this with Lauren and it was like it was unfortunate that I did not give her this note was that that that Laurelized relationship with the mother of those brides should have been more of closer, more of a mother their daughter thing, more of what Laurel I was looking for, and with her own mother, that she did not know that these are performance issues. This is the kind of thing that are then you know that this is the

Known that before, you know, the foregoing into because then they could have made a connection that Laurel I is looking for in her own life that she's missing. And this is the type of performance things.

These are the kinds of notes that are that directors search for so they can give good notes to actors. You know, I don't want to it's not just you know a lot of times in TV, it's moved here, move there, say your line, say it quick, or say it's slower, say it louder, softer, cut print.

We got to move on that.

That because there's because a lot of times directors don't know what to say to an actor. And a lot of actors have told me that their big complaint as directors don't talk to them about their motivation, their objective, what's at state, what's in their way? Yeah, I mean, and this is something that This is why I went to acting class with Jeff Corey, who you know is a follower of the actors studio and method acting and all the rest of them.

Mean, Jeff was in theater in New York. He started out there.

He was much you know, senior to me, and so he really had that kind of a background and these are the kind and this is what I learned from that episode. It's like, I can't you can pay so much time to you know, how to how to block it, how to shoot it.

These things are all important.

It's technique, but what's more important is what's going on in front of the camera, is what is the story? And Amy always delivered for me that story was very tight to begin with.

And what's going on with performance, the.

Technique, how we shoot it, the steady cam stuff, that's all important, but it's third.

In line, right, And this is something that I learned with with Lauren.

It's like when when she said that she was she was kind of disappointed I didn't give her that note at the top of the show, and that's when I realized, I need to really focus more on what is going on with the characters, what actors need, what I can help them with, you know, getting deeper in terms of what their objectives are in the episode.

Fascinating because the episode really is what you're saying, you know, the mother of the twins, in her relationship with the

Yeah, you want to find that. This is the point.

You want to find the heart, You want to find out what the episode is really about. And this is something I learned from my dad. It's like, what is it about?

What's it really about?

And it really is laurel I struggle with her mother and it's and the other thing that I wish we could have found is some connection between Emily, Laureli's mother and Laureli because there's just there's so much friction, there's so much.

Conflict, and it's like, what happened? Is there nothing? Is there no bond between the two of them, you know?

And the thing and the thing with this is what's so great about the writing in terms of Laurelai and Rory is yeah, there's conflict, but there's a love connection. It's there, it's clear, and they and that's why they can turn on.

A dime and you believe it.

Because you know that they care about each other. They rely on each other, you know, and that's really important. But what remained to be explored in my episode, which we just didn't do, was how Laura I could relate to the mother of these brides on a on a mother daughter level, to have a surrogate mother, so to speak, and also if we could have found something between her and her own mother, just just a moment of tenderness to break up some of the conflict that was.

Going on throughout the whole episode.

That is, you know, there was a nice moment when she ran up and hugged Laura I for putting on such a beautiful wedding, and she was a little drunk, and that actress was fabulous. She was just she was so good, She was so great.

She la she loves Laura. She just hated her own daughters, right.

No, but but Lauren should have you know, it would have been a great moment for Lauren to realize, Wow, I wish I had a mom like her. I mean, you know, I wish I could relate to my own mother. But that's the whole thing is sometimes, you know, Laurla is not that woman's daughter. And I had the same experience with my dad. I mean sometimes Leonard was a very complicated guy to love. Let me tell you. I mean I love Leonard, but loving him was complicated. Loving

That's interesting to you. Do you talk about that in your books? You have to two books kind of that address it, right, your human Yeah.

It's the most human reconciling with my father, Leonard Nimoy, And it was this whole dilemma that the same thing that Laurela is going through is how do you relate with a parent when there's just there's conflict, there's you know, communication issues, there's dysfunction. How do you do it? How do you keep going back to it? What's the formula? I mean for me, it was just you know playing. You know, I'm very honest about this. It's twelve step recovery.

You must find something.

He had a personal connection to Spot because Bock was his whole life being an outsider, being the alien my dad came from, you know, the immigrant parents in Boston, Massachusetts that came to la with nothing.

He was a total outsider. That Spock all the way. He's an outsider. He's a loner, he's an introvert.

He's nervy, cold, little bit cold.

Yeah, distant, which you know, which is what I had to deal with growing up with this guy.

I mean, you know, my dad was that way to begin with.

And now I got Spock living with me, and it made it even more complicated. But but my point is that you and this is something I learned from my dad and so valuable.

You've got to find a personal connection with material.

You've got to because then you can be very specific about what it is you're trying to say, what is the episode about, what's the theme about, what is the moral of the story, And it just gets and the more specific you are, the more.

People can relate to it.

Now I can relate to that, you know, Laurel I because she's got trouble with her mother and a lot of people have that kind of dysfunction, and you know, and that's what made the episode so special for me.

Wow, gosh, my head is exploding right now. I never thought about I've read a bit about you and your dad and downs and then ups, like things got much better. I think, was your dad also in recovery or just you?

Yeah, my dad was.

He was an Now my dad was, say, my dad was sober. He went sober. He talked with Bill Shatner in an interview with Bill when they were talking that he admitted that he had an alcohol problem. My dad was an alcoholic. I was just your run of the mill podhead. I was awakened, Baker, but that but the fact that I was an anatin, he was an alcoholic made our conflict even worse.

It just made the problem even worse.

And so it wasn't until I went into recovery in two thousand and four. I'm twenty years ago that I finally found some tools that I could use to figure out a way to reconnect with my own dad. And

And she was so right.

Yeah, And I was that way too with my dad.

I would go back again and again and again trying to figure out a way to connect with him, and it never worked until I found the tools of recovery. And I think Laurreal I is looking for some way to get back to her folks as.

Well, sure, because she wouldn't have gone and asked them for the money, which is sort of the impetus that the whole show, right, and that her mother is so clever to say, yeah, we'll give you the money. But here's the deal, because her mother too is just craving that connection like you're talking about, and even if she has to manipulate it she's gonna find a way to have it. And so and I think Laurlai is the same, because look, if Laura Lai really didn't want any relationship

Yeah yeah, yeah, I mean I wish.

Yeah, this is the thing that there's there, you know, And maybe it happens the later episodes where Loralai and Emily, her mother, have some sort of reconciliation. But it's also I mean, look, it's it's selfless on her part to say I'm going to go to them to get the money because it's for Rory, and that's really important and and and this is what Laura, you know, comes to understand at the end of the episode, it's important that Rory have a relationship with her parents, with her grandparents.

And that's another self. That's why she said, great mom.

She's just waring because a lot of it is you know, being you know, being the father of you know, four children.

Myself, I mean, you have to make a lot of sacrifices. That's just the deal.

And you know, and Laura Wie made the ultimate sacrifice and she she had Rory and and she you know, and her life took a different turn and she and she's doing the best she can to.

That's the great thing about the episode.

It's like she's going to persevere, she's going to succeed, she's going to take care of her kid. She's got a good job. You know, she has a good life. She says that in the episode, I have a good life. And that's you know, if you can get to that point without playing the victim or you know, or complaining or you.

Know, that's it.

It's just that's why that's why Laureli is so sympathetic to me. You know, it's like, yeah, right on.

And that's the other.

Thing about the episode that I kind of realized, is like there's there's like the power of women in the episode, because they really drive you know.

They tribe a lot of the show.

I mean, you know, it's like, you know, it's Suki and it's Laura Lai, and it's Rory and it's Emily.

You know, you know, they're all driving the show.

And when I was in prep, in pre production during the show, outside of my office was.

A picture of the Pretenders, the band the Pretenders. Okay, the Prench.

Tenderest is Chrissy Hind and I'm a huge fanatic. I was a huge fanatic fan for her. And Chrissy Hind was a woman in rock and roll who said, Okay, it's.

A man's world. I don't care. I'm here, I write songs. I played kick ass rock and roll and you know, and it's too freaking bad and go after yourselves. That's all attitude. It's women power, and it's very strong.

It's really there, and and Amy brings it out perfectly in this show. And I'm just like, I'm you know, I'm so lucky just to be a part of that kind of thing.

Scene with Emily and Richard, because Emily says, you will take this little girl golfing, you will get her lunch, you will do this, or so help me don't jump home, like.

Right right, it seems like Emily knows what's best. It's just her style is a bit abrasive when she's forcing the issue. But she ain't wrong, you know, right, No, that's it.

Yes.

Also, the boundary issue is like, you know, it's like, well, you know, Laurla is gonna come so far, and then otherwise, don't infringe on my you know, and stay out of my stuff.

Loralize own insecurity that Rory will get too close to them, and she really grapples. This episode is a lot of fun, but it really is meaty too, because she has to sort of navigate her own insecurity about it all and realize like she's doing a disservice to her daughter if she lets her own sort of angstiness or fear impact that relationship she should have with her grandparents. And you see that resolution there at the end when she's like, you know, and it's so cute how they have that

Yeah.

I mean, Laurela I has her eccentricities, she has her foilables, she has her character defects, you know, and she and she's like accepted that about herself. But she's also got self reflection when she knows that because she changes.

That's the whole thing.

We love these episodes when people change their attitude.

That's the great thing about drama. We want to you know, the audience wants to see some change. And the fact of the matter is Laurel I is.

Not She's not completely pig She's strong will, but she's not pigheaded and she's not narrow minded. She has some self reflection to say, Okay, I know this is good, this is the right thing to do. I'm just feeling a little left out. And that's the interesting thing about the end of the episode, because I thought we shot something and I wish I had time in New York and I don't have access to it.

I think I still have the script. I thought that was an outdoor.

Piece where we ended on Lorelei outside because she's That's the whole thing. At the very end, It's like everybody goes off to the library to look at this these HL mention papers that that you know, Laura that Rory's grandfather has for her, and her grandmother goes with her, leaving Laurelai there alone. And that's a very important moment, is that she's an outsider. Yes, but something I cut short. I feel I think they may have cut off. I

Yeah, and I think you accomplished it. We felt that, we do feel that, And yes, it would be amazing to see what you had shot her more of it, But like I felt that, like, ooh.

To compliment the show some more, isn't it interesting, Adam, How with just a tweet here and there and some couple of scenes redone or reshuffled or whatever, that this show could have easily been you know, called Emily's second bite at the Apple. And it could be her show, you know what I mean, Or it could be Rory's

Yeah, I mean, it's a really good point, Scott, that you make, because the fact is, we do break point of View.

It is not not every scene has Lauraa in it, and the question, but but she's still driving the show. That's why the writing is so.

Good, that's why.

It's so great.

And the other thing is that when we do break point of View, the characters are so good that that I don't mind it.

You don't mind it. You want you want to get to know them a little more.

Even if it's Suky's you know, situation in the kitchen or her love life or or you know Rory at school.

You know, these kind of things.

You get the characters are so good, they're so well written, they're so fleshed out, and the talent is so good that you you're okay to break point of view and not be with Laura Li for a while because there's so much interesting stuff going on.

Get some good Kirk moments in this. Michelle is amazing. When Laura Li says, Michelle, you screeched, like there's these little tiny one liners that are so great, and you're really starting to care about those people too, right.

I mean it's the writing, it's I mean, I don't know, you know.

Amy's a bit of a savant, you know, and I've worked with David Kelly.

He's that way too. She has a knack for it. It's a part of who she is.

She can throw this stuff out there, you know, she she's on it.

And I wish I had, you.

Know, done some more work with her, because I love that rhythm, I love that sensibility, I love that just intuitiveness. I mean she knew what she was doing. There wasn't a whole bunch of rewrites on my script, you know. And I've been on a lot of shows where I'm getting pages like that morning things are changing our dialogue, pomotions.

I love that you brought up Ally McBeal. We have not ever really talked about Ali McBeal maybe once during this podcast. There are some similarities between that show and this show, and this is the I'm having sort of like that aha moment, Like that was dramatic with a lot of comedy, some weird quirks in that show too. Just really interesting that you're bringing that up, because that is a and it was fast and it was fashion and it was a lot of gilmoury Neis in a different way in Ali McBeal.

Yeah, I mean I love these shows. I mean we long for these shows.

Now there's for me, there's so much dystopia on the air in the series, and this show has so much.

Heart and I just I missed that.

I craved that kind of thing, you know, Ali had it and this show has it, and it's you know again, it's just this combination of like comedy that is funny, it's witty, with a with a heart to it and a message and a moral and really serious uh, you know, relationship dynamics that we can relate to. You know, there's a love interest, you know for LAURALI for Rory. I mean, there's just so much going on on so many different levels, and I just missed that kind of TV.

Are you directing anything now that you love like this?

No?

Right now, I'm like running all over the country promoting my book.

Yeah.

No, I've been everywhere. So that's my focus at the moment. And I have another book coming out and it's it's just about sticking with the writing.

What's the next book?

The next book? I died?

Unfortunately, my agent and my publicist have havend me and asked me not to go because we have not fleshed it out. But I mean, look, writing is something that's I've always wanted to do.

I've been journaling all my life.

I published a first memoir back in eight Uh didn't really So this one just came out in June. Seems to be getting much more traction, you know, in terms of my relationship.

And I ask you, did, has this book been healing for you?

Like?

You know, I know you lost your dad, and that makes I still think about your dad. You know, he meant a lot to you know. I took a classic cal about Star Trek, like a lot of things that were really brilliant and about him. Has this book been healing for you and talking about it and sharing?

Yeah, just by writing it.

Yeah, I mean it's it's really it's been really interesting processing everything about my relationship with my dad. Look, a couple of things which became clear to me. Number one, I was lucky we reconciled because the last seven or eight years of his life I was really close to him, so much so that I had some personal tragedy I was dealing with, and my dad finally became the father I needed him to be. This was the problem when I was growing up. He was so determined to succeed.

They were appalled and they didn't give him any help.

So he came to La at Aha team with nothing, and seven years later he had a family of four to support while he's going out on auditions trying to get this acting career going. So two things that really had become much more apparent to me. Number one, much more empathy for my dad and in terms of what he managed to accomplish with incredible odds against him, you know.

And number two, gratitude that we figured it out. Yeah, and I don't have any regrets. We're so lucky we figured it out and we were so close.

But by then you have to also understand that he was slowing down and family was finally a priority to him. He even changed completely by then. You know, when I was growing up, family was not on the radar. It was his desperation to succeed, you know, and and work. And even with the success in Star Trek, he did not stop. He was he was after that, it was right into Mission Impossible for two seasons. It was his recording career, in his photography career and his theater career.

He was really a true renaissance.

Man, you were Alie, you were born before he was spocked? Is that right? I don't want to I don't want to tell.

Yeah, I was.

I was born in fifty I was born in fifty six. Star Trek went on the air in sixty six.

Another thing, I'm here old enough to know, like, oh my gosh, my whole life just changed. My dad is shamous.

Yeah, I've changed our life dramatic.

I was ten years old and and we instead of becoming a struggling family with nothing, we were all of a sudden, like in the Hollywood Christmas Parade.

I've seen the picture of you and your dad with the ears, like you've got the spock here.

I was to him exactly. I was there with Spock. It was. It was a pretty trippy and heady time. Look.

I talked about the fact that in nineteen sixty five, my dad took my sister and I had to go see the Christmas Parade in Hollywood Boulevard.

It was so prouded.

We couldn't even see it because we got there late, and we made about of each other that we would get there early and get a good seat. The next year, well, the next year we were in it.

Crazy Wow, it was crazy everything.

You happy that he laid Spock and we could have a whole conversation about that movie when he plays Spock again with with Zachary and Chris Pine and the sort of real deep meaning in what that what he brought to that film and Spock in that movie.

Well, it was very important for my dad.

You have to understand that my dad was the only actor in the original pilot episode of Star Trek. It was just major Barrett was in the episode as a different character. He played Nurse Chapel in the.

Series, so none of the rest were in it.

No, but it was only my dad. And then he showed up in the jj Abrams iteration of Star Trek. That to him was very satisfying.

He was very proud that he was you know, he kind of bookended the whole experience.

Yeah, it was deep.

Yeah, yeah, I mean there was.

I mean he told me that that when he when he showed up on the set as Spot for the first time, they all applauded him. I was not there, but just think about that heavy moment. That's a heavy moment. So you know, it was a very big deal.

It was a very big We were all look I was always proud of my dad.

That was never an issue. I really loved what he had accomplished. I really respected what he had accomplished. I mean, we had interpersonal problems that I had to deal with, but would I would not change a thing. I was just you know, and he was very I think, satisfied with what he had, you know, what he had accomplished during his life.

So you know, for me, it was it was a very satisfying moment and satisfied.

To be able to honor my dad. We went back to Boston, actually together. I hired a camera crew and we walked through the streets of Boston's We could talk about what his life was like growing up there as a kid.

Do you have a documentary sort of about your dad? Right? And I don't know if it touches so much on your relationship with each other, but more about him.

Yeah, it was focused mostly on him, with his relationship to his parents and his life growing up there during the Depression in the city of Boston, where he got the acting bug and the city really molded my dad really reinforced his desire because they had programs and he worked with guys like Borisagaal and I'm trying to think and Elliot Silverstein and guys who went on to direct TV, who were also in Boston at the time, directing small theater productions, some of which.

My father was in. He had a summer at Boston.

College doing an internship in the trauma department, you know, and he learned how to hustle on the streets of Boston. He was folding chairs at the Boston Pops and selling newspapers on the Boston Common, and he worked in the camera store, and he stole vacuum cleaners, and he worked in the car chop and.

All of that. Those skills of how to be a hustler.

He brought with him to LA And that's exactly what he did to support.

Our family exactly.

Yeah.

Did you ever have a conversation with Amy Amy Sherman Palladino, because obviously somebody Amy or Dan I don't know, has a real love for Star Trek because there are many throughout the series Star Trek references, and I don't know if that was, you know, maybe because you direct did this early episode and she never forgot it, or if she actually had a real passion because there are again and again and again our star digressions.

I'm glad to hear that. Yeah, I mean that's lovely. Oh yeah, we didn't. We never talked about it, certainly.

No, but as I, you know, as I would have loved to have come back, because you know, I worked with Milo in a series before he got to Gilmore Girls, and he was just a kid. He was in a show actually with Chris Evans. It was one of the best things I'd ever directed. Also a first season show that I don't even know if it aired. I mean, it was so short lived, and it was such a great experience to work with him and to see his trajectory.

You know.

This is the other thing that happened with my daughter. We were at a restaurant in Santa Monica and she recognized Milo and I said, I don't think that's him. And we actually left the restaurant and she said, Dad, that was Milo.

Go back and say hello to him. And we did.

We went back and this is after his whole stint, you know, on Gilmore Girls. And I said Milo, hi, and he said hi. He RECOGNI remembered me, He recognized me. I introduced my daughter. She totally, you know, thought I was the Bee's knees after that, and Milo said to me that when when he was working with me, he was.

Just a kid. So it's so great to see, you know, people like.

That who start out early in the business, how they grow, how they succeed their determination. I mean, we've seen how far Milo has come, how far Chris Sevens has come.

They're so fine for me.

Did you know when, sorry, Scott, I'm sorry, I need to shut up because I'm talking too much. Unders No, please please, did you know when you worked with all these people, even just in this episode, like wow, like Lauren Alexis, Melissa McCarthy, Scott, of course, all these people. Could you see then that you're like wow?

Yeah, I mean the talent pool was huge. I mean, this is the this is the part of the show. It was perfectly cast.

Yeah, and that's critical. That's what Star Trek's all about. Really, it was perfectly cast. Finding this kind of chemistry that happens.

We've seen a lot of great shows.

You know, it does happen, but but you know, more often than not, it does not happen. I've worked on so many series that just didn't have it and didn't go.

For that chemistry that all these people have even Sally Struthers and you know the beet.

And and.

It's Amy. It's Amy fighting for who she wanted because can you imagine the studio their reactions to some of these casting choices that she wanted to make, and they were talking to the big agencies with the big names, and they want to do it, and she rejected all of that.

Yeah, not surprising. There's a woman with a vision and she's stuck to her gun.

Right, and she fought, fought, fought for that show.

This happened with Star Drek as well.

You have to understand after the first pilot episode is art Trick, NBC wanted the entire cast replaced, including the guy with the ears, including the guy with the ears, and said, there's no way we're gonna We're gonna redo it. But I'm not We're not getting where of the fuck There's no way, right.

I telling you, I have seen Okay, Star Trek four. I don't know if it's one of your favorites, but for me, I've seen them all right, but it is. I think I'm from San Francisco, so I particularly love that it was filmed here. We see so much of the city but it's what you're talking about. The chemistry between Whether they got along behind the scenes or not doesn't matter to me because the chemistry between them all is so evident in that movie. I have seen that

Yeah.

I mean, you touch on some of it's very interesting and that you know, we've been talking about this the entire time, and that is that the chemistry is critical. And you know, because the other thing that's going on that happened in Star Trek is once.

The writers see, you know, when.

They're looking at these shows, when they're looking at dailies and they see what's going on and they can see the spark that's happening, then they can write more to that kind of situation.

And that is what happens because once they saw that, like that Spock and McCoy could really go at it, you know, in a very disarming way. Then they're going to write more to that. Because the fans love that kind of thing.

Then they can write more than that humor because it wore, you can get away with it. It's still you know, there's still a balance there. It's not it doesn't fall flast, so I mean, and that's what's going on with Gilmore Grows. Everybody is so good and so on it that they you could just keep.

Writing more and more to those kind of situations.

I mean a lot of times you have to write characters out if it's just not working right.

So funny you say that, because then Gilmore Girls, there's this like where does Scott end? And where does Luke begin? And even knowing Scott, he's such a close friend for so many years, and there are times when I even I'm like wait, And that's how I feel about the characters in Star Trek, Like where does your Dad end and Spock begin. It's so blurred and I think that's the that's what makes them these characters just so incredible this many years later, because they really became those people.

Well, you know, this is the great thing about the about the early episodes of Gilmore Girls, because there's something going.

On, you know, between Luke and Laura Lai, and it's there and you know it's there, but but but and they you know, and you will walk you right out to the to the boundary, and then and then you know, and then you know, Luke walks off or Laura.

Life's got to get to work. You know, it's so freaking cool.

It don't show up, don't don't show don't show it.

Ainkling of it. We can feel it.

There's just a look that goes on and then boom, She's got to go to work. You know, you got to get another you know you've got another order, gonna you know, enough coffee, goodbye.

It's so freaking cool. I love true.

You know it from the first episode. We see it in this one too.

It was you know, it was easy to have chemistry with her, that she was given so much, there was so much coming at you. You didn't have to do much, you know, you just let her shine and and you you're just sort of the beneficiary of that, you know what I mean. And if if you don't, if you do very little, you're good, you know exactly, and you.

Play it perfectly. This is the point because because they're they're there. You know, in some of the first couple of episodes, there's interest in Laurel eyes.

She gets you hit on by these guys and then and she's like, oh no, no, no, you know you're a dad at Rory's school.

I don't do that.

But when you're too young for me, you know, when she said Luke Steiner, you know, and then but then you see her coming on to you, to you know, to Luke, and it's like, okay, you know, she's not completely cold, and you know she's not dead.

She's you know, this is a girl who also has desire.

And that's another great element to the character.

Oh man, is so true. Oh my gosh, it is just so awesome to have you on. Everybody needs to read your book. Also, I will say my Tahoe house is about three minutes from your Tahoe house that you guys had growing up, so yep, okay.

Wow, really on the North Shore where we're so.

I met Chinkapin. I still have a house, and you guys were like, literally, I mean literally five three minutes away.

Yeah, yeah right, we're at Yes, we're at Lake for seven eleven right outside of the city.

Yeah right, we can we I'm sure we've got Slurpe's at the seven eleven at the same time. Over there, no doubt in my mind. You are amazing in your memory. That's what's crazy, Poor Scott.

Scott.

I hate to tell you your memory is not as good as Adams, because you remember so much about this show.

Maybe my dad would tell me the same thing.

I would ask him about a particular about a particular episode, and you'd say, to me, don't ask me any details. It's all a blur. Everything happened so quickly, it all it just flows into one. And I said, well, wait a minute, you don't remember like frolicking through that flower field with Joe Ireland or being stuck in a cave with Marriett Hartley.

And he said, it's a blur. I tell you, it's all a blur.

It's so true because you because you train your short term memory to just sort of flush everything that came before to make room for the stuff that's got to come in the next day. You know, I don't remember how many times Amy that's authentic, I mean, how many times on the on the first go round, I had no idea.

There were things that were like, you truly don't remember that things.

I I do remember the very few things, but most of it I just I don't recall it. Also, it's like watching another person doing it.

I don't remember something he would have done differently. Has just got me shook, Like, is there anything else about this episode like that that you could just because you know, we just eat it up. Is there anything else like you know about it that you remember, or just anything else that you would share with us about directing it or or the characters of the cast.

Yeah, there's one last thing that you mentioned that I learned from a really good director, and that was that I did try in the scene to plant something going on in the background that related.

To the next scene. That's where TV directors really have the most creative ability is transitions from one scene to another.

And I learned this on when I was, you know, working on and when I was kind of like observing on NYPD Blue with Greg Hobblett, who directed the pilot of that show, in a lot of episodes, is that he always planted somebody in the next scene, in the scene that he was shooting. And you see this happen a couple of times, like when we're doing the wedding scene,

Right, so well done in this episode, and I just think about Sukie chasing Jackson and just the way she's

Yeah, Like you just want to notice that's going on, and you know, you know, even when you have Suki, you know, running in the background, I try to keep the shot with Laurel eye watching them because she's us and you want to get the context of how ridiculous it is and how far they're going with it, you know, So that's the gag.

So it's great to keep it wide in those kinds of situations. So these are stylistic choices, you know, but you know, and they're important, there's no doubt about it.

But in the end, it's really it's it's good writing and it's great performance. They trump technique every time.

Right, Yeah, that's what it was done.

And the bike accident, like you had like crazy things happening in this episode, Scott, Scott, did you love watching this episode again?

I did? I just you know, the pace of these episodes. I mean it's not so speedy, speedy, fast, fast, fast as has stuff all the time. These first three episodes have have have a nice pace, you know, and nice cadence to everything, and nothing feels really rushed. Yet there's

Don't even need to cut if we don't want it, we don't have right, that's right, you know.

The timing is so critical and everybody knows on it.

Yeah, And just discovering Kirk for the third time. I think it's this third appearance or second appearance with the Swan, and and just seeing how everybody's sort of matured over the years.

Michelle, You're starting to really get to know Michelle in this episode.

It's just fascinating to see these early episodes. It's because it's like it's like going into a museum and watching like the og the original stuff, you know, and it's it's kind of cool. It's a long time ago. It's twenty four years ago, so that's really cooting.

I'm truly such an honor to have you, and thank you for sharing those amazing stories about Star Trek and your dad. I know, people, I'm sure first of all, you look just like your dad, but I'm sure people tell you all the time, But like he, that show really had an impact on me, and studying it at Berkeley was so like incredible to get to do that, and just like all the all the things about Spock and and those characters and the deeper societal meanings with

Yeah, really, it's real.

Real pleasure to be with you guys today. Thank you so much for having me on listen your books.

I can't wait to read your book. Oh I can't, I can't.

I can't be long and prosper living.

I got it on the left hand.

There you go. I'm on the left hand too, all right.

What a joy, daughter much thanks for joining us and we really enjoyed it.

Thanks for having me.

Take care at him, take care of you guys. So I want to just give our thanks to Adam Nimoy. What a what a brilliant guest, What a brilliant guy, full of heart, full of brains.

Makes you so happy that they like reconciled to like you know, yeah, it's such in a good place with like I think it's why he's so willing to talk about Star Trek and his dad, because they got to such a good place.

Very moving when somebody is so open and so sort of just positive and optimistic. Just what a great, what a great.

His memory is unbelievable.

By the way, I do have a good I have a great memory. I just don't have a great memory for the show. Sometimes you have.

A great memory because it's like you talked about, you have a certain type of memory because you can read a page and know it. But like later you have to purge it because you got to get more stuff in.

Absolutely, you know that is going to wrap us up, kill me now, Season one, episode three. We'll see you next us And I thank you Amy for sitting in.

Thanks for having me. Sorry, I got so excited.

Oh no, no, no, no, this is this was this is why I wanted you on this episode because I knew you had such an almost you know, encyclopedic knowledge of Star Trek, and that went in the direction it should have gone in you know, we talked a little Gilmore, We talk a little Star Trek. I mean, you can't