I Am all In. Oh, Let's kiss you.
I Am all in with Scott Patterson and iHeartRadio podcast.
Everybody Scott Patterson, I Am all In Podcast one of them productions iHeart Radio. One on one interview with the one and Only Crackstaff and it's Suzanne French, who has been in my life since twenty seventeen. She's been involved in a lot of goings ons. She was part of the music tour. She has been very helpful. She's been a really great loyal team member for these seven years and hope it continues. She's just terrific. Her and her
husband John have been very very helpful. And I met them through my chief assistant, Elina Spinoza, who a lot of you know out there because you interact with her so often online and on my socials and all that stuff, and there's so many of you that I had to delegate all that stuff to them because I just there weren't enough hours in the day. I tried to do it in the beginning, but it means a lot that Susanne will come on. She's a true, true, truly hard worker.
She's got a regular job and she does this in addition to so we really thank her. We're gonna's bring her own Susanne French.
It's me.
How you been, I'm good? How you doing?
I'm good.
So look, look, let's get started by telling the people how you know me, how we met, a little bit about our history and all that.
Okay, well, I'm trying to think. See, I think we first met. It was twenty seventeen, the run up to the tour, and.
I the music tour.
The music tour, right, I guess I should specify, right, And yes, that's right. My husband John and I when I helped out at some of the dates on that, you know, passing out miss bands and selling merch and crowd control and just all that, all that jazz, and so we kind of got to be friends, Matt and.
I guess, yeah, we had. We had a lot of fun on that tour. It was fun, Yes, And you guys were really helpful and it was a lot of fun. And I cut it short. I missed my son so much. I cut it. I just after nineteen days, I'm like, I'm done with this. I don't want to do this anymore. Yeah, and we were doing great. We were like Elaine was booking shows like in the car as we were driving to the next city, and it's like, oh my god,
South Carolina. I wants to now Texas and now this, and there's five places in Florida that want you to come down because we're everything was getting posted on social media in real time and people were seeing it's oh, come down here, come down here. So we're just getting all these bookings and I was just like, oh man, we could do this for a year.
She she put that whole thing together on a shoe string, and I don't I don't know if I did it. Like that was an amazing effort, and I was. I was glad to be even just a small part of it. It was really fun.
Yeah, yeah, it was. It was fun anyway. So first, you know, the fans want to know, Susanne, how you got the job of being my crack staff.
Well, you know, it's really just being in the right place at the right time, and crack staff is some of a group effort, and it really I think it just came down to I just am a fan of the show. I love the show, and I also happen
to have this incredibly analytical, detail oriented brain. And so at some point you've seen the show so many times that you stop watching the actors and you start watching what's happening behind them, and I just like, these little things would just pop out to me and I see patterns and you know, lines that get repeated over and over, and I just started seeing like these funny little things.
And so there was I can't even remember really where it started, but it was some episode that you guys had done a recap for and I texted you and I was like, but did you see X y Z happening in the background? And you were like, oh my gosh, no, we didn't see that, and so you like went back and basically did a pickup for that. And I can't even remember now which which episode it was, but that
was kind of how it all got started. And so then it just became kind of a habit every week that I would watch whatever the upcoming episode was, and if I saw, you know, something worthwhile, then I would just point it out. So that's that's right.
And then you text me and say is this okay? I don't want you know, and I'm like, no, this is great. The fans love this. And so I talked to Amy Sugarman and said, let's make this a real thing. Let's make this a regular part of each episode. And she said, yeah, no, it's great. The fans eat it up. They love this stuff. And I dubbed you crackstaff because that's what you are, your crackstaff, crack crackerjack staff. Yeh, do you have any crackstaff info from Live and let diorama?
You know? I this is so. I was bummed. I can't wait to hear what you guys say on the recap.
I was.
I was hoping I could join in on that a little bit because this is one of my favorite episodes of the entire series. I think it's hilarious. Yeah, so many funny lines, and I can't wait to hear how you guys rated it.
But okay, okay, well, but.
Really, I have noticed that as the series goes on, they kind of like they run a tighter ship each season, and so as the time goes on, it's harder to find those quirky little easter eggs.
Oh really, really?
The one thing that I that I did notice in this episode, and I don't know if you already talked about this in the recap, so you'll have to tell me. So I'm not repeating anything. So, did you guys catch onto what music was playing? The first time Lane and Zach went into the music shop and Lane had the record Sophie's record. Did you hear what's playing in the background?
I did, but I don't remember it. What was? What was?
It was? It was Pleasant Valley Sunday by the Monkeys. That song was written by Carol King.
Oh my goodness.
And so I always I caught I'm a huge Monkeys fan, so I caught that the very first time I saw that episode, and so I've always thought that was kind of a fun little easter egg that they put in there. But other than that, I didn't I didn't find anything significant for Live and Let diorama.
Yeah, last train to Clarksville is to slam me when I was ten.
You should add that into your set?
What set the next time you go on tour? Oh oh right, which, gosh.
We're all holding our breath for.
That, you know. I found out that I was really just incredibly terrified of performing in front of people. It's just really scary, really oh god. Yeah, as an actor, I do not have that fear, but as a musician, it's just why it's scary to get out there. It's just like you're so naked.
Yeah, and people are right there too, They're like.
Right there, right there. And I you know, I can get by as a vocalist, but it's it's not my thing, it's not my jam. I work, you know how hard I worked on getting my voice in shape to do that tour and then especially when we played at X. Did you go down to uh Texas with us for the I'm sorry not ATX but for south By Southwest? Rachel raised a feedback part, Okay, So, I mean I really worked on my voice with a voice coach and
really paid off and all that. But it was just like, you know, for me to be passable and to be decent, to be okay, I have to work really hard at it. So I was never going to achieve, you know, any kind of greatness with the singing. So it just really terrified me. It really really terrified me, and I felt like I was kind of short changing people and I didn't want to, you know, I didn't want to put them through it. I feel much better because I mean, who wants to see an artist that's up there being
uncomfortable right feeling like super confident? You know, it's better just to let other people do your stuff. And that's that's sort of the the arena that I'm entering now, is uh. But anyway, that's that's that's another story. So what do you love so besides the humor and live and let diorama, what did you love about it? Because to be honest with you, to tell you, we did
not like it very much. Yeah, I mean, we loved parts of it, and we loved what it is and what it was when we watched it, and it's great stuff and great background, and it just feel good with your friends and you're watching this and you feel and I cuddled up with Nick and we watched it together, and you know, it's like, so what, it's not the greatest episode of the five seasons. It's like, it's still Gilmore girls, right, we get that sense of it. What
did you love about it? What? Other than the funny lines?
You know, it's I don't I really like the episodes that center on the town, Like the town is really like a character itself, and I just I just really enjoy those episodes where the focus is something is happening in the town, whether it's the firelight festival or you know that that hazy, crazy days of Summer insanity that
Taylor put together. I just always enjoy those episodes. And there were a lot of like really good lines in this one, and I was thinking, because every time you guys do your favorite lines, I always like in my head, I have my own favorite lines, and this one I had like five different favorite lines. Like, I just think the writing in this one in particular was was good.
You know, when when Lane wants to meet with Sophie and talk about her music career, and Sophie's like, Okay, well, if I'm not washing my hair and I'm not sick and my boyfriend doesn't want to do something else with me, you know, I'll think about maybe meeting you for coffee for ten seconds. Like I just just wined like that. I think are funny. And I thought it was fun to see Luke kind of get involved in the town because he wanted to get you know, his claws into
this house for Lorelei. But you could tell he was kind of enjoying it when Suki and and Lorelei were walking through and he's like he was all excited to point out the cannonball that had fallen through the floor, and he was, you know, excited about this portrait of this person that maybe had educated Ben Franklin's cousins. Like you could see he was like taking a little bit of pride in it, which was something different for Luke. So I I just I just enjoyed it. I thought
it was a good episode. The part I did not enjoy was the whole Dean thing that really was unnecessary and kind of came out of nowhere. I don't understand why they brought Dean back.
Was our favorite part of that was our favorite part of that.
I didn't understand why they brought him back for that one random scene, and I didn't understand why he was so angry at Luke, like he I get that, you know, Rory broke his heart or whatever, but I didn't understand why he was angry at Luke. So I just thought that was kind of weird and random.
But I like the rest of the episode, And why was he angry at Luke? Did he ever reason?
Your guess is and this was a lot episode that we got him in, so we never.
We never seen him, haven't they always had? I mean, didn't they get into a physical confrontation outside the diner?
They did when Luke. Yeah, Luke was mad at Dean the first time that they broke up, and he was still a teenager, and so Luke was trying to prevent him from going in the diner. But but Luke even said, like are you mad at me about the bop thing? Like okay, come punch me or whatever, and then Dean launches into his his odd tirade about they want more than this and you know you're all you are is the small town, which may have been true of Dean's
situation with Rory. I think Rory definitely did want more than stars Hollow, but I don't think Laurel I did. So I don't understand why he was directing all that at Luke specifically. I never understood that anger, so I thought that was odd.
Do you have a favorite Crackstaff fact that you have found?
I do? And so this one was a visual thing, So it's gonna be hard to describe. But in the episode, and I can't off the top of my head, I can't remember the name of the episode, but it was the scene where Luke was telling Laurel I that he was not wearing his socks. Do you remember that scene? That was the episode where Luke found out that Nicole was having an affair and he beat up the guy's car, And there was a scene in the diner where Luke is being snippy with Loralai and she was like, what
is wrong with you? What's going on? And that's when he like kind of leans in and he's like, I am not wearing my socks, So that would you see? And there's if you watch really closely, and it helps
probably to be on a widescreen TV. There's a scene there like he's behind the counter and she's sitting at the counter and he walks around the end of the counter and when he walks around the end of the counter, there is some piece of metal I don't know what it was, and somebody had drawn a happy face on it, like with a marker, and you can see it very clearly as Luke walks past it. There's this weird metal object with a happy face drawn on it, and it's
really bizarre and random. And I I had other things from that episode, and when you read through them, you read through it kind of quickly, and I don't know that it like really sunk into your head when you were listening to it, because you guys didn't have any
kind of reaction to it. But to me, that's like that was the funniest thing because it's just kind of random, like some something that somebody had left there on the set, and I don't know why they drew a happy face on it, but it just I just thought it was funny. So that's that's probably my favorite one. I think. The second one we.
Know, that's probably the prop guys getting into the hooch again during lunchtime. There you go.
And then my my my second favorite one I think was the scene where they they were they had put a stop light in right outside Luke's Diner and they were having the little ceremony to turn it on, and you can see the sound guy is kneeling on the ground, like you see, like his whole like upper half of his torso kneeling on the ground behind Lauren.
So that was and that was outside the diner, right, Yes, Yeah, I remember that Dennis was on his Yeah, I remember. That was really funny.
Yeah. I never understood how the camera guy didn't catch that.
Yeah, you know, Dennis. We kidded Dennis the rest of the year about what an amazing actor was to blend in and not get called on it, you know, and they actually printed it. And really, how many times have you seen the Gilmore Girls series all the way.
Through from start to finish? I don't even know. I couldn't even count from start to finish. Probably at least a couple dozen. I don't know. It's just it's kind of a it's a great background show. Like if I need some something to listen to in the background, I'll just put it onto whatever episode I left off on. And so probably a couple dozen times, some episodes more than others. But yeah, I've seen it a lot.
So what is your absolute favorite episode?
You know, it's hard, it's hard to pick just one. I mean, I think on most people's list is gonna be the you know, Liz's Wedding was a great episode. Obviously, the test run at the Dragonfly was a good episode. The other one I really liked that probably doesn't make it undo a lot of people's list is the episode
where they had the Harvard Yale football game. That was the episode Emily finds out about penal a lot and then she like takes out all this anger on Laura I and so Laurlai has the first Day with Jason. I just really enjoy that episode. I again, there's funny lines in there that just like one of the few like laugh out loud kind of episodes. So those are those are probably my top ones. And then the one we just talked about to the mister Twickham's house is good.
Mm hmmm. Who's your favorite Gilmore Girl's character?
I would probably say Laurel. I She's not without her flaws, but I she's I think she's my favorite character. Number two is probably.
Lane really mm hmmm, Lane, Okay.
I you know, I feel like Lane never really had the chance to do what she wanted to do. She went straight from missus Kim's house to you know, being a wife and a mother, and I'm not seeing that there's anything wrong with those things. I am both of those things myself, but it wasn't a choice that she made. And I always wanted kind of her rock and roll
dreams to come true. And so I think, you know, when we see her in the revival, and I'm not gonna get to spoilery here, but you know, when she we see her in the revival, she seems settled and happy, and I think that's great, and so I'm glad that, you know, she didn't have some horrible outcome, but I still would have liked to have seen her get a chance to do what she wanted to do before she had to take on all these other responsibilities.
Did you not care for Rory?
I am. I am not a Rory fan. I will say that I really loved Rory during the Chiltern years. I liked her drive and how she you know, she kind of you know, Paris gave her that story about the repaving the parking lot, and she just she took it and ran with it and just knocked it out of the park. But then once she got to Yale,
I don't know, she just her personality changed. I think she started to really buy into that whole Richard and Emily and Logan lifestyle about you know, I am rich and I'm mc gilmore and I get to do what I want and I get to have what I want, and I don't know, the character just kind of fell flat for me at that point. She seemed a little entitled, a little annoying. So I did like Rory the first couple of season, but then I kind of didn't like her after that.
Are are you a Logan fan or no.
I am not a Logan fan, so in that respect, I am a Rory fan because I think Rory needs to be alone for a while and figure her, you know what out. I think all three of her boyfriends had a function that they served at the time that they were with her. I think all three of them had good some good qualities at different points. But I don't think any of them are really her soulmate. I
don't think any of them are really her endgame. Logan specifically, he's just he's so so smooth and so slick that he comes off to me like fake, and I just he just doesn't seem genuine to me, and so I'm just not I mean, he does, he does some nice things, but I'm just not a long term Logan fan.
What about Jess and you like those guys?
I think I think Dean was a little immature. I didn't the whole cheating thing was obviously a problem. I mean, he he sought Rory out that night intending to do that, and I so know Dean is Deana is a non starter. I think he was, you know, good for a while. As the first boyfriend. He seemed to genuinely you know,
love Rory, but he's a little, a little possessive. And then Jess, I don't know, Jess actually turned out okay, and I don't Again, I don't want to, like say, spoilers, so I'm not gonna I'm not gonna get too far into that. But I did like Jess at the end, but again not in not in terms of a relationship for Rory.
Mm hmm. Any character characters that you just absolutely despised.
I can't stand and and now I always want I always make the distinction because it bothers me when people don't make the distinction between the character and the actor. So Kelly Bishop is completely amazing and she just played the crap out of that role and she was so good and so amazing. But Emily Gilmore is a crappy human being and she's she's just mean and nasty, and I just don't here's her at all.
Yeah, I mean, as long as we're on the subject, you what did you think of Luke?
I love Luke now again, Like Laurela, I Luke does not. He's not without his problems. He's got some issues and he is badly in need of some therapy. But I really liked the Luke character, and originally one of the things that attracted me to the in general is the relationship between Luke and Larel And even when they weren't together.
Before they got together, you could tell that there is a like, there's just a connection there, and there's just there's just a good relationship there that's based on friendship first, and that really appealed to me. So Luke in a in some ways reminds me of my own husband. He's endlessly loyal, and he, you know, is devoted to our relationship and and and to to our family, and he cares about his broader family and his you know, the
community like he just he's just a good person. So I think aside from you know, Luke's kind of anger management issues and the whole well, I'm not even going to talk about this thing that's coming up that you haven't seen yet that was a problem. But but Luke, Luke is foundationally, he's a good person.
Your favorite boyfriend for Rory would be Jess, I take it.
I don't think it's any of them. I think she needs to find someone new. He needs to stop cycling through the same three people and find someone new.
Gotcha, gotcha. Uh so who do you think she should end up with? What type of guy? How about how about Marty? Okay, so again solid stable guy.
I did like Marty the first the first time we saw him, before she got involved with Logan. I did like Marty. He there's some problems with him later though, but I don't.
Oh yeah, okay, well yeah, but I think.
In general, like, you know, just a normal guy, like somebody who's smart and can be on her intellectual level but not all arrogant and crazy.
But that's Marty. Marty's that guy that she should marry. I've seen this a dozen times before, where you know, somebody wants Marlon Brando and goes after the wrong guy because they're exciting on what you know, on whatever level you care to entertain that on. But uh, and then there's the guy that is their friend and really loves them for who they are and sees who they are and would be there, but they just that person just does not want to be worshiped or put on a pedestal,
and it's uncomfortable for them. They'd rather be, you know, have a different type of experience. But for me, it's Marty. He's the guy. But how are you going to write that? You know, is that going to be full of conflict? And well, I mean it could be, right, but I just thought they should have given Marty some kind of a chance.
Yeah, I think that could have been That could have been an interesting relation.
I agree. I think she could have really answered some questions about herself, whether the relationship lived very long at all or not. She could have just discovered more about herself and through a relationship like that, does it feel forced to you?
I have some opinions on this go ahead. So I feel like Zach was a convenience because if you remember back to where we first met him, he was hitting a Lorele.
And he.
Was he was portrayed at the beginning to be kind of a slimeball kind of character, right, he was hitting on LORELEI he he has a problem with everything. He's very whiny, he complains about everything. He doesn't like the way that Brian breathes.
And well, I mean I agree with him there. I wouldn't have to.
Say when David Goolski went to college because Adam Brodie left the show, then all of a sudden he turns into this great guy. And Lane's in love with him, and I'm like that that kind of took a turn, like, I.
Don't what happened. That's a quick makeover that nobody told me about, right exactly.
It was like it was almost like the writers were like, oh, crap, we lost Adam Brody. Now we gotta give Lane a love interest. Let's just, you know, pick a random, unattached guy. And I kind of wish that they had brought in another, like introduced a new character to be Lane's love interest. I think it did turn out okay, you know, he he They turned him into a good guy and he cared about Lane, but it just was really abrupt. I just it just kind of felt lazy to me, like,
like you said, it felt forced. It was like, here, let's just put the two of them together, because.
We don't know what else to do with this, not knowing the realities behind the scene of budget and maybe they couldn't afford a new guy or the guy they wanted. It was too expensively, it wasn't available, kept falling through, they kept offering it to people and just never worked out, so they had to do something. Yeah, maybe maybe that was a scenario. I don't know, but yeah, I agree with you. Here's a question for you. Do you think Luke and Laurel I were meant to be together?
Yes? To me, there it was very clear that they belonged together. I know some people don't feel that way, and that's fine, but I think they did. You know, Like I said, they needed some work, they needed to work on their communication for sure, but I think in the long run, they were always meant to be together.
Mm hmmmm hmm. Yeah. I watched these episodes and it's just such magic between the two of us. I just really miss it, you know, It's just it was just terrific stuff. What is your favorite era of Gilmour Girls? It was your favorite seasons?
So I like season four and five and if I could like kind of create my own season, Like middle of season four to middle of season five are like my favorite span of episodes, kind of the run up to when Luke and Laurel I get together and then you know, the early part of their relationship. That's that's my favorite. That's my favorite season. In air quotes, I mean, I like all of it. I watch I watch all of it, but that's my favorite part.
Right. Here's the question for you. Why you know I do a lot of these comic cons. In fact, I'm going to be in Indianapolis August twenty five through twenty seven. I mean Indianapolis Comic Con, Indicom Popcorn, and the Gilmore Girl fans show up in big numbers, and the fans are getting younger and younger and younger every time I do a con, to the point where I'm shocked. They'll be a seven year old girl. There'll be a five
year old girl dressed as Luke. Their parents, young parents, sometimes people so young that they weren't born yet when the show debuted, and they have children, and you know, they're twenty one years old, and they are obsessed with the show, and their children are obsessed with the show, and they're little, tiny kids and they know about the show. And why do you think that this show has apparently tapped into you know, the generation after generation after generation.
Why is this happening? Because it doesn't seem like it's going to end. It just keeps going and going and going, which is wonderful.
I think it's just a timeless story. I think it's it's comfort food for your brain basically, and it's just it's a way to escape the craziness of our current existence and the mother daughter granddaughter relationship. We can all relate to that, like all of us to some extent, have you know, at least some kind of Maybe it's you know, not necessarily with your actual mother, maybe it's
you know, just a good friend or whatever. But I think we all kind of tap into that, and I think it's very comforting, and it's I didn't watch the show when it first aired. I was busy having my own babies and raising them, so I came into it later.
But you know, it just really spans the generations. The women that were you know, middle aged in two thousand are now the grandmothers, and you know, they watched it with their daughters, and so their daughters who were teenagers back then, now you know they're in their thirties or what,
and they're watching it with their own kids. Like it just it just keeps going, and I think it's just every it's just a comfort thing, like it takes you back to a time when you know, maybe your life was better, or maybe it makes you realize, okay, well maybe my mom wasn't so bad. When they see how Emily treats floor alive, you know, they they remember, gosh, I remember I really liked Rory, you know, back then,
and I really related to her. Like I think, everybody just taps into something different, and it's so multi generational and and I think, kind of veering off the topic a little bit, the pop culture references kind of tap into that too, like the they make references to you know, movies and things that were from the twenties and then things that also happened currently. So there's like something in
there for everybody. There's you know, the older generation could relate to things and you know West Side Story or you know, then then common it's about like the Olsen Twins or you know whatever. Like there's just something in there for every.
Age range, right right, So listen, So your better half John is camping with your boy right now, and he couldn't be here today, but he's partly he's a big part of crackstaff, John French, So I just want to give a shout out to him. Elaine Espinoza, who is kind of the head of my team, and she's on a little bit of a hiatus back in the East Coast taking care of some folks who need her help.
And and so anyway, I appreciate everything you guys have done, and thank you so very much for all the hard work. And you've really made this podcast that much more interesting for people.
Oh well, I appreciate that. I hope that people are enjoying it.
Well, we may be calling you again.
Hey, I'm around you know where to find me.
Anyway. That's going to wrap it up. Thank you so much, Susanne.
Thank you.
We will see you soon. We'll talk to you soon. Best to John, best to your boy and all the best, and we'll talk soon.
Okay, great, Thanks Scott, take care all.
Right, Susan, all right, take care.
Okay, bye bye bye
Hey everybody, and don't forget follow us on Instagram at i Am All In Podcast and email us at Gilmour at iHeartRadio dot com