Thank you so much for joining us on our park Hopper episode of Magical rewind. We are delighted today to be joined by Officer mcstuffens herself, what is it, Officer Ravensburger Mix Mick, and we are of course talking about Officer Liz herself, not only the star of the film that we just covered, which is Bad hair Day, but also the executive producer of Bad hair Day. We cannot wait to get into all of the cool stories, so we're not gonna wait any longer. Please help us. Welcome
Lee Allen Baker. Hello, Hello, how are you?
I'm good, how are you?
Thank you so much for joining us. We just finished talking about Bad hair Day, which is why we were a little late. I apologized, because we had a lot to talk about. Oh right, okay, and we're so glad that you're joining us here today.
Thank you so much. So nice to see you guys.
Yes, so okay. Well, one of the things we of course noticed about the film is not only are you the star of the movie, but you're also the executive producer.
I love that.
So how did the whole project come about? Can you walk us through how Bad hair Day came to be?
Gosh, it was a while ago, kids, But let me go back in the way back machine and my memory and see if I can remember. So Disney had approached
me after Good Luck. Charlie had ended about continuing forward with a dcom a movie, and I loved Bad hair Day, and so we kind of pitched this idea with each other, found some writers and then you know, I did rewrites in the room with them, wrote the dialogue, helped craft the story, and when we got it to a place where we were happy with it, that's when we started casting,
hiring the director who unfortunately just recently passed away. Yeah, Eric Henwell, he was really I wanted him to be the director so badly because he had Have you ever seen bull Coop a Good Cop, Bad.
Cop in French?
It was a it was a French film anyway, It's a great action film. It was like an indie hit. And I had a way of racking focus constantly and using the camera and single shots, and I thought, okay, a that would be a budget and a time saver. It looks really cool and it's nothing like Disney Channel has ever really seen before. And being a mom of two boys, I wanted to have a movie that could that the boys would want.
To watch too.
Yeah, so that is why I was so invested in Bad hair Day. And I have, weirdly enough, become very much like my character on that show.
You are you? Are you just going around pretending to be an FBI agent? Because that would be awesome.
I'm more like they're listening to me.
Hey, I know you're listening to me, but you know I'm switching to a flip phone.
That got That's so wait, you said that you really liked Bad hair Day? Was this an existing ip No, Well.
We discussed different pitching different ideas, and this was the idea that we had come up with for Bad hair Day, me playing some totally different than a mom on a show and a nurse being completely different and looking and appearing different.
I know that they had wanted.
Me the the kind of a gimmick was Disney knew me and my abilities and kind of where my strength slide and different. You know, I do voiceovers or a lot of different accents, and they've seen other things that you you know that you know the drill, and they've seen other things that I've done where I look very different, and so they thought, how can we capitalize on you coming up looking At one point, it was like a
girl that walked around with like costumes. You know how when you pitch stories, you're like, oh, that's a lot of people were like having like with with with costumes in the in the trunk, and I would like put on different disguises and and be different. Eventually, that didn't make for a good story. As much as it was a good gimmick to show my accent and my range,
it wasn't a good story to tell. So that's when we kind of really crafted this kind of buddy cop film with the teenager and this older, out of shape kind of cop who's thrown in the towel.
Yeah, because it was a pretty big deal for it to have the main actor be an adult and it not be you know, a cast of just all younger actors, so that I felt like it definitely brought a different vibe and a different tone to this decom versus what a lot of the ones that we've seen. You guys were probably on set every day together.
Every single day.
Because if I there were only I think two scenes that I wasn't actually in.
Yeah, the intro scene, right, yeah, and then yeah and.
Still I was there as an executive producer behind the camera. That's why when it came to editing this film, I would say, no, no, no, there's a take where she sneezed in the middle of this, and I want to cut off the sneeze, but use that tape because than hers it. Because I was actually in the scene in front of the camera with her on all of these, so I.
Already knew in my head what takes we would use.
Yeah, but.
It was interesting to be the only adult but in one of these. But we kind of did a little bit of that. And good luck, Charlie, it's Christmas, you know. I think that was their first testing ground to see how that would go because it even though it was still about the Duncan family, the a storyline that was pretty much the heaviest storyline was Bridget and myself getting lost and doing this road trip.
That movie did really, really well.
So yeah, that was the question. I mean, is it was there ever any pushback from Disney kind of saying, hey, you know, you get it has to be a little more kid heavy than this one is. I'm just I'm hearing the executives that we've all heard from Disney kind of like, yeah, no, you need to do this, you need to do that. I mean, did you hit up against those walls or was it kind of like, hey, go make your movie.
No, it was a lot of hay, go make your movie.
I think that what they had learned and Good Luck Charlie is that Amy Duncan became kind of one of the most beloved characters on.
The show, even though she was an adult.
And I think that the format that got that character there is that Teddy was the character that really acted like the mom, that was the responsible one making the good, smart choices, and I was the one that was pretty naughty and was more like the kid trying to get away with murder.
You know.
So I think that when they saw that that format worked, and you know, humor does a lot, and I was funny, and so people responded well to me, and so they felt pretty confident. Then after Good Luck Charlie, It's Christmas was really successful. I think they were pretty confident with the movie going the direction that it went nice.
Well, yeah, I mean it was strange for us tonally because it's one of those things where we are watching a d coom sometimes two a week and we're going at different times in the dcom. Like, for instance, the one we did last week was called The Ghosts of Bucksley Hall from nineteen eighty, which is You've got I mean essentially the mister Roper Furley character going like, there's ghosts in the house. That's what adults do and run around, and then the little kids have their romance and do
their story. And then as we're creeping up in time, it's now your movie is twenty fifteen, and we're getting into more of the prom packed kind of more real. The adults are real, more real, the kids are more real. There's drinking sometimes in the movies. I mean it's it's at a time in dcom where we're kind of going, oh, okay, we have to switch how we're watching the dcom exactly as they're switching how they're making the dcom.
Yeah, you went literally my generation that watched it, yeah, I mean it.
Was we are kind of watching these stories where we're then going, oh, yeah, this makes sense that they're kind of going a more adult route with it so that the adults can sit and watch with the kids, right.
And I think that was what they learned in the model, the business model of Good Luck Charlie is that they would take some network veteran writers and a couple of network veteran actors myself and Eric Alan Kramer, and then put us with some kids in an ensemble cast and see how it went. I know that they were very surprised and didn't expect it to go as well as it did.
At one point, Good Look Charlie was the number one show in.
The world, and so I think that they built some confidence with that because the show really did hit so many demographics. It hit little kids wanting to watch the baby, all the way through preteen, teen parents and grandparents. You know, like you'd be surprised. I don't know of a demographic that doesn't recognize me from that show.
When I'm out.
Yeah, yeah, it's like full House or boy Me Thrill. You have that same kind of there's somebody for everybody to watch.
Yes, And so I think that they were pretty confident in doing the movie, And you know, they knew I directed a few episodes, and so I think they trusted me in that position.
It was really awesome. Did you have any part in getting Laura for the movie or was this was she just brought to the casting call or you know how how did you guys end up having Laura become involved.
That they had talked to me about.
You know how they always have one that they pick, or one that they owe something to, or one that they're thinking about and all the time. But there were a couple prospects, but one girl was they felt would be better for another one, and they felt Laura would be better on this one. And you know, look, both of the actors that they entertained for the part were fantastic.
So it was a win win situation no matter what.
Had you met before, because you obviously had chemistry, the two of you.
So much chemistry. You guys look like you were having a last the whole time.
Here was one point.
It was summer, and let me tell you, Montreal gets really hot in the summer. Huggy and I've got this wig on and this sweat shirt and sweatpants and these baggy clothes and boots leather boots. Yes, And I'm sitting in the front seat and I'm like, I am of the car because you know, they won't put the air conditioning on because it's noisy, and then they want to put the windows up because it's too noisy. I literally remember saying to someone, you know, it's illegal to do
this to dogs. Laura and I are sitting in the front seat and I'm like, oh my gosh, I don't think I've ever been so hot. And she looked over at me and she has got o wig and a sock bog and a leather jacket on.
Yeah, gave me this look and I was like, oh, sorry, you short.
Your legs are cool at least.
To kill your Branda was absolutely trying to kill you.
That was the most That was so fun.
She was so fun, and I did my own stunts in that car, like when we were driving around. I was driving around and there were literally there was a radio that she would help operate in the car, and there would be a guy in this corner being like god like like goldop, like it's gonna stay green screen or it's turned yellow.
Pushy, pushy, push it. I'm literally driving around.
The cudy, Oh my good.
Cameras on different corners. No way if even knows that. But like, we wanted to get the show, we wanted to look good.
So it was one of the best chase scenes we've seen in any Disney Channel movie.
By far.
I mean it's like an actual chase scene.
That was a legit, super good chasing her whole entire d m V experience was so amazing. It just sounds great fun to.
Write that scene. It was. That was It's a fun movie, you guys, No it is.
I loved I said, one of my favorite parts of it is when your slow motion like.
Yeah, so good.
It is so good.
I loved it.
Your guys' chemistry, the way you bounced off of each other top to bottom was just so fun to watch, and it was awesome to see the relationship develop. Were you anything like like Monica in high school?
Was that? Like?
Were you?
Were you pulling from experiences at all?
Or yeah, of course, of course.
You know. I had a little bit of that, wondering what other people think of me in high school.
I feel so hurt by.
What people would think of me or say of me, or how is misrepresented cuts to you today? I'm misrepresented all over the media and everywhere else, and I like, my skin is so think I could care less, right, I'm like, oh, tell me another story, come up with something new, please. It's getting high school's rough though, It's
high school is rough, So with this. It was kind of like a way for me to stand up for and teach that lesson to my younger self that I wish someone would have have taught me, right, And I love how it brought up like the beginning of like social media, and like I.
Was just gonna say that, I was telling Will right at the beginning of it, I go, when is this movie twenty fifteen? So no longer just the MySpace. We've got Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, all these social medias. I loved how it brought in the location. Will didn't know that, Like you can go on your media where at all, but you can go see where all your friends are and all that. I mean, it's kind of creepy. You open yourself up to so much on the web with all these apps.
You really do.
I even tell my children that, I'm like, you don't have social media because not because I don't trust you, but because I don't trust the world. It's literally not giving it's not just giving you access to the world, it's given the world access to you.
And that is a really scary proposition.
So I love how it delved into that, because you know, I do I so desperately like when I speak to kids at college campuses or to teenagers. What I'm always telling them too is is, gosh, it's a real skill set that is so advantageous to learn. It's not what others think about you that matters. They're not your source for happiness. You know, likes, it's just likes and follow you know.
They've done actual studies. They mapped the brain as it was getting likes, and it was the same endorphin Russia as doing drugs.
It's the same as wow.
Yeah. You literally get addicted to the likes and the well why did I get this many likes on this picture? And I'm not get to it and it's it's a drug soug.
I can honestly tell you unless I needed social media for work purposes.
And things that I do, I wouldn't have it. In fact, the.
Only reason I got social media is because when Bridget and I got the Got Milk campaign, one of the things in the contract was that I had to have social media platforms, yeah, and sign up for I think two or three of them. I think it was Facebook, Twitter,
and Instagram at the time. And I so didn't want to be recognized on Instagram that I made my handle l Underscore a Underscore Baker Underscore thirty team like that, I'm going to hide because I didn't think at the time, this is something that you'll ever want people to see, you want people to I thought, oh, you don't want them to find you, you know.
Right at the time, to me.
It was like a way for me to share pictures of my children with my parents who didn't live nearby.
Like yeah, yeah, no, I've I've actually given up jobs because they'll say you have to have social media and I say don't. It's like, sorry, you can join. I said, well, I'm not going to. Well you won't get the job. I'm like, okay, nice seeing it. Yeah, because it's just yeah, I won't do it. But anyway, we'll get to we'll get to we'll get to more fun stuff. For instance, are you still in touch with Laura or anybody from the cast?
I know I could call her right now and be like, hey, Laura and her mom, but we haven't like spoken in a while other than a Christmas card or we haven't really spoken much.
Right.
Oh, it's so sad.
As a mom, I feel the same way about the kids on my show. It's like I was at mom. That's like, oh, why am I not hearing from you anymore? And now I'm learning from my own kids who are becoming teens and pre teens.
Oh, they're busy living their life. They don't want to hear from their mother.
Yeah. Personal, it's that they don't want mom constantly contacting them, and I would be so hurt by it.
You you just mentioned your fellow cast members you had the unfortunate job of working with. Well, we don't like him at all, Jason Dolly, who's just he's a terrible, terrible human being. Yeah, he came on our show and just unlikable, not funny, not personal. Disney didn't like him. They didn't put him in forty two different things.
That's why they kept using him there.
So Good Luck Charlie you talked about it a little bit. But one of the things that amazes us when we have so many people from different shows or different movies on is how, first of all and everybody who comes on says you could have asked us, we never would have known, So we always ask kind of knowing the answer. When Good Luck Charlie started, did you think there was any chance it was going to become what it did. Yeah.
I thought that Disney Channel was the place where adults' careers go to die.
Oh wow.
Yeah.
I did not want to do it, but they caught me at a moment of weakness where I was nine months pregnant.
What else was I going to do?
In fact, they had hired someone else to be the mom in the pilot because I just never went into labor. Yes, And then they picked the show up and said, well, if they had actually said to me, if you will be Amy Duncan, well we're going to pick the show up and we're going to run with and see what happens. And I thought, well, okay, let's just give it a run and see what happens.
And it was like the best work experience. It was just so great. Yeah.
Yeah, I know we heard that so but the other podcast I do, Danielle Fischel is one of the co hosts on that, and she said, being a parent on a Disney Channel show is one of the greatest jobs you will ever have in your life.
Yeah, it was great. I had both my babies on that show.
So when they had called me Griffin, my oldest was about five months old, and he and Mia around the same age.
And then they were friends growing up throughout that whole show.
And then Baker I was pregnant with on all of season three because we had done the Good Luck Charlie, It's Christmas movie and they had We were shocked that they were given Amy Duncan another baby. I mean you should have seen the response from the cast. We were like, that is irresponsible. We have too many babies. We get a dog, why do we have to have another baby. We got a good thing here with just does.
We don't want to have a baby. And then I thought.
Well, gosh, they're having us have this baby. I should probably and I thought I would. We would go back after shooting the movie and that season I would be pregnant the whole season.
And I thought the way Disney thinks would be like.
Oh, you know, season ending, season finale baby. But so I got pregnant, thinking I'm going to have my baby in the hiatus in between. And I show up to work ten weeks pregnant and They've got a huge pregnancy pad for me, and I was like, oh, what is that. They're like, well, we're starting you out at like six or seven months pregnant, and I was like, are we sure, Are you sure we want to talk?
You don't want to start at ten weeks?
That can be fun, way way back.
And then why are you saying that? And why are you eating carbohydrates? And I was like, oh, because I'm not just and I'm so pregnant, you know.
Oh no, I'm sorry, I have to I have to ask. You said, is it a daughter or a son named Baker?
A boy named Baker?
Yeah, Boyny Baker. Is his name Baker Baker?
No, his name is Baker Kaufman.
Okay, So so, Chuckie, I was like, oh, because that would be kind of cool if hey, I went to school with a kid named Soren Sorenson.
So yeah, it was.
So the way that went down was my brother had two girls, so they could not carry on the Baker name, and I had two boys, and so I named my last boy Baker to kind of carrier.
I love that. That's incredible. Okay, So let's if we could talk a little bit about the differences, because you also did twenty episodes of Ellen, Will and Grace well, excuse me, Will and Grace, my bad, twenty episodes of Will I did. Yeah, I met I met Will and Grace. I met you you played Ellen.
Yeah, I actually three episodes of that show, maybe even twenty six, but there were some double episodes in there. But yes, I played Ellen.
Ellen, So I met you played Ellen and Will and Grace. What is the difference between working on a big adult network show and working on something like a Disney Channel show.
One is fun and you can breathe on it, and the other Grace and then there's Grace. Yeah, it was intense from the pilot on. There's just a lot of pressure and network television and the network execs are not very approachable or friendly, and you stay in your zone, they stay in theirs. And Disney Channel was like, you know, Gary marsh comes to set and you see him so sweet and fun, and Adam would come to set, and
so it was more a family. It truly felt more like a family on Disney Channel, where it felt like.
A club that didn't really want you.
Did you like the work on Will and Grace?
I thought the show was really funny, and I genuinely loved some of the writers. They were great, very funny, talented people. But the work was stressful.
And yeah, it was. It was a pressure cooker.
I've heard that I had a couple of friends that guest starred who said exactly the same thing. They're like, hey, I've I've had better experiences than that one. Yeah, okay yeah.
And then they were always stunt casting, so then like one day I'd be doing an episode and I'd be thinking, Okay, finally I'm going back to a familiar your zone. I should be able to relax, and then they're like, Madonna's here, don't look her in the eye. I don't work where I like know people and not look Madonna in the eye.
You know.
I feel like the car show that you could look in the eye was Charlie. But that's because she was three. You know, Madonna's supposed to know better. Right.
We just heard from one of our producers who was a fan, that the little girl that played Charlie just started her sophomore year in high school. Wow, that's amazing. Apparently they grow up quickly. I don't know because I'll never have them, but apparently.
And they grow It's the most things. I'm like, having a teenager is like the longest breakup in the history of the world. Oh it is bone crushing. Oh no, ast it goes and that I'm always like you can live with me forever.
And my husband's like, that's weird. Stop saying things like us.
So I have a four year old daughter and my son is fifteen months old, so he's just you know, a little over a year. And I love my daughter. We are besties. I mean, she is the best. But I text messaged my mother in law the day my son was born and was like, I get it now.
I get like, yes, you.
Can live with me forever. You will never be alone.
It will just because boys, I'm telling you, I brainwashed mine since day one.
You can stay with mommy forever. So I'm at some point that that sticks.
All right. Oh man, I don't know. My husband's got all these big dreams of us, the travels will do without kids, and I'm like, but when are they leaving us? They're always going to be here.
I can honestly tell you.
My husband and I the one time we tried to go on a vacation and it was during Good Luck Charlie. We tried to go for our ten year anniversary, just an hour away to the beach and in Allgant Hills, California, And we got there and we got to call immediately that the Baker had the flu and was throwing up.
So, oh jeez.
So we've so not gone on dates or vacations that when my kids were little, if I got dressed up to go out with my husband, they would say.
Oh, do you have to go to the Emmy's. Like, because I ever dressed up and went out of my house was when I was I just leave them.
Yeah, the whole thing with kids. I read an article the other day that said they want to eat every single day. That's weird to me.
I just don't care and everything you have to think of what they have for dinner, which is the most exhausting part.
Well, it's all my wife and I talk about anyway. It's just what we're having for dinner night. That's our whole relationship.
Have your two boys seen bad hair Day?
Yeah?
And they love it and they may good. And they loved watching the dailies too.
They would walk around going, don't push the red button, and now it's saying there's a red button.
I'm like, So, talking about hair, you had a totally different color, different style, everything your hair was different than what you normally have. Was that weird for you? Was it weird for the kids? Was that a thing you guys had to talk about.
Well, here's what we had to talk about. You know.
Amy Duncan was very dulled up all the time, with like a face full of so much makeup, right, And my kids loved that. My thank you for making your face beautiful.
He loved it.
And then I said, I'm going to get my hair done for a new movie. They thought I was going to go be made up like Amy Duncan or for some award show. And I walked into the house with this auburn hair and no makeup, and my kids are like, think about the very upset.
Like listen.
I said to my listaid, mommy is beautiful no matter what.
And he gets You.
Could see his little wheels turning and he goes, oh, so that's how it works.
Oh my god. It was such a loaded statement for a little kid to make.
Like you could see him figuring out, Oh, that's what I'm supposed to say.
Okay, momm yeah, sure you look great.
Yeah. So they dyed my hair and then I wore these these clip on bangs.
Okay, yeah, yes, But adjustment to see yourself that way, even just you, I think I just couldn't imagine when someone goes a drastic color change.
It's a lot.
Yeah, it was, I was. I did. I was ready to get my blonde back when it was done. That's right. Okay.
When you're so you're coming up with the idea for the movie, did you have any influences that were front and center, Because as I'm watching it, I got some some Thelma Louise vibes, some midnight run vibes. I'm in. Was there something that you were kind of a vibe you were going for when you were coming.
Up with it for a little thumb on the waves, but a little more on the heat you were.
Just talking about, that's what we mentioned, Melissa McCarthy.
Yeah, I was kind of going for that kind of vibe. And I really love it where you can show that two characters really learn from one another, even though it's set up to appear that one will learn from this one only, and then you realize at the end of the day, the one who was truly changed was.
The adult by being around.
I think you can see that in that last scene where they're outside and she's trying to fight back tears about how if I was your mom?
Yeah, I know, so good.
Also, the idea that there's even and I get one of the things you talked about is there's very few times where we believe a parent should have the right to just step in and say, this is what you're doing with your life. But when it's between State and MIT, this is what you're doing with your life, this is not a choice for you. I'm sorry, but you don't get to decide between these two. You're going to MIT, Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I love being able to have like an outsider perspective with that character.
That wasn't really her mom. But then you see, like in that.
Moment particular that we were talking about, just then like all the pieces came together for Liz to realize what this girl has missed out on. And we always think that we've got it so hard. Liz is in her mopey poor woe is me. I can't believe this happened to me at the police department. I can't believe I've
been treated like this. And the second she finally hears someone else's store and why they're doing what they're doing and where they're at, that compassion just expands immensely and then she realizes, oh wow, I've been so self centered and not even realizing how fortunate I am, and here's this kid struggling like this.
Yeah, well that was the other thing we noticed that it So it was so unique about this movie compared to a lot of the other decoms we saw were some of the quiet, longer talking scenes which you didn't. We didn't we. You know, when you're first explaining how the necklace got lost and she's talking about losing your mom. I mean, that was a good six seven eight minute scene of just two people talking, and you didn't get a whole lot of that in D cooms.
No, that was shot in one take because we were out of time and they threw it on the schedule for that day, and I was like, I'm.
Sorry, Oh my gosh, Wow, that's amazing.
Oh my gosh.
There's even a moment in it where you'll hear where I hold for a motorcycle going by.
Oh I gotta go back and watch.
Oh my god, no way, that's insane.
Wow. Did you watch any d cooms previous to this to get any kind of sense of the channel? Did you not want to watch any dcoms or were you even a fan of dcoms?
I kind of didn't want to watch them because I wanted to make something really original, and I also want to be judgmental, Like I said, I went into Judge to Good Luck Charlie very judgmental of like I said, this is where adult's career is going to die and ended up having like the highlight of my career and having a blast.
And being except for a great show to be You're so good at it. Oh woh god, that's funny. Okay, So, I mean, I guess the question then becomes, are we ever going to see these characters again? Is there a chance of ever seeing these characters again? Or even maybe maybe Laura's character has moved on, But are we ever going to see Officer Liz again? Is that a possibility?
Or that would be pretty great to see how she's changed, if Laura's lessons like kind of stuck with her right yeah?
Yeah, and if she's still giving all the compliments on people's nostrils and.
Flirting at all. Has she married?
Yeah? I mean, it's a great it'd be a great question. You get onto another case, you never know what could happen.
I mean, or maybe there's like a murder case that we stumble upon together. But see, like see you get things that could open the world like oh, not appropriate for children, no, but.
Maybe something at her college.
Yeah, it could be.
Oh, we've actually talked about that in the beginning, that that something goes down at her college and Liz shows up to try.
To there you go something at mit, you've got to go undercover as as somebody who's brilliant and you, you know, obviously you're street smart. But I'm sorry, I'm writing in my head, but.
We've already pitched it all. Trust me, it's all partially. That was like what ten years ago?
Now?
Yeah, now you need to have to be a musical with dragons, so and Johnny's can you do that? Can they be a musical about dragons and zombies that Officer Liz is in?
Yes?
Yes, anything to get her back, anything to get her back?
What is it got to be?
Do you think, obviously, if it wasn't just this movie and a sequel to it, do you do you ever think that you would you know, possibly either direct or produce again for a dcom. Would you ever be interested in trying to do that again?
Well?
I just recently produced a television series for Brave Books called The Adventures of Iggy and mister Kirk and it's a children's show, kind of like a mister Rogers meets the Muppets meet Sesame Street. And oh wow, I was saying the other day in an interview, I was like, I feel like God has been like mister miaggiing me for a while where I'm like, why.
Am I wax on wax on wax on xof.
And I realized that when I got on this set, I knew how to call all the shots for the Quad. Things that I never would have thought that I had picked up on just being immersed in this world, knowing how to work with kids, knowing how to work with puppets.
I'd worked with the Muppets.
I'm good luck Charlie, And all of this time I've been learning how to execute, like editing, writing, directing shots like I said, even camera coordinator, even going oh no, we need more lie over here. It's too cool or it's too warm, or it's amazing what you pick up in thirty plus years of being on sets and then you realize, oh, I know what I'm doing right.
This is a language that I speak.
All of a sudden, what I'm doing, you know, So that's been fun, and yeah, I would love to direct again and produce again.
That's kind of where my passion is right now.
I just finished writing the Christmas movie with my writing partner that we literally just wrapped up this week and it's really funny and I'm really excited to get that out there as well.
Well, I want to talk to you a little bit about something that is very very near and dear to my heart, which is my ultimate passion, which is voiceover, which I've been doing for twenty five years and I love it so much. And I know you're very big in the voiceover world as well. Is there one discipline you prefer vio or on camera? Okay, I hate this question, by the way, I get it all the time, and so it's but I have to throw.
Choose between your base exactly totally differently.
Totally different, Yeah, exactly.
You know one, I'm gonna be able in voice over to play all different characters that don't look a thing like me or sound a thing like me. So the imagination, it's just like dealing with animation. You're able to do so much more with a story and you're able to go places that you can't go on regular television, live live action, right sure.
So that part I love about that.
And then the part that I love about being on camera is and specifically half hour comedy multiicam is I love the interaction with the audience.
I mean, like I was, you know.
I did theater, I did Shakespeare, So to me, that interaction with the audience, it automatically feeds your performance. I'll never forget many times that the producers, you know, after you do is seeing they come down with little notepads and they're going to tell you how to do it differently, and I'm like, they died laughing, We're.
Done, but moving on, moving on, How do you argue with that?
And they're like, okay, you know, go back to their chairs with them note pads. So I love both of them, and I also do There's an element of film that I really love too, that again brings us back to this dcom is being able to bridge hilarious circumstances that also are heartwarming, that can make you cry, that tug on your heart streams that you can really need more of an emotional gamut with that, and you can pick
up some more subtle shots. It doesn't mean you can't be as like big like I'm big and bad hair day too. I mean, she's definite character. But as long as it's grounded in reality, people buy it and eat it up and it's you know, pretty rich.
I love that.
Well, thank you so much for joining us here. This has been the coolest thing in the world. We really really enjoyed the movie we did. It threw us a bit because it wasn't dcom for us, right.
It felt more like a feature it did.
It did like the heat like that exactly, that kind of vibe it really did.
Yeah, And because I wanted parents to be able to watch it. That was one of the joys of Good Luck Charlie is that the parents would watch it often when they're rich. Correll posted, once my kids left the room and I'm still watching the show. How do you know You're a Good Luck Charlie fan? And I wanted
to carry over into this film. I wanted to really raise the bar on d coms and see if we couldn't do something that is a little more feature film oriented and getting bored even though and I knew it would bring their parents and their family on board.
Yeah, well that was definitely the vibe. We got it really was. Really it was. You could also see we're talking about different moments in Disney Channel original movie history, and you can see this the fifteens, the seventeens, whatever they call it nowadays is you can see it's Disney Channel trying to find that, you know, the next version of what dcoms are, right, and it was really interesting all the way around.
It definitely yeah, absolutely, I mean it was there. Definitely was you know, the early on the brinks. Then it came into the beginning of well then we had Halloween Town for the beginning of musicals with Cheetah Girls and high School Musical and so this was a time where they were kind of going, all right, where are we going next? You know, and we love it. It's the one thing I will say it It brings up there's
always good messaging. But they seemed like to me, again, one thing I really zoned in on was this was the beginning of social media and how it was affecting kids and the messaging of what needs to be told to them as they have their journey of the likes and the this and the you know. I mean, it was cool that she was super techy, but it also has to come down to like a good message, you know, and I do like the.
Fact that it showed the good and the evil of the tech world. Right, Yes, be used for.
Good or it can be used for evil. Right, And totally We're like Liz, like, I want a car like Brando.
Everybody's like, oh, you want a smart car. I'm like, no, I want a dome trunck. I want hortified with lend and nobody can trace me, trect me, follow me, all the all that.
Good stuff, all that good stuff. Oh man, Well, thank you so much for joining us. We really enjoyed the movie. And good luck with the new Christmas film.
Yes, so much, thank you, it's so great to talk to you guys.
You as well, thank you bye bye. Wow.
Yeah, I mean, just an infinite amount of talent.
It also just seems like she was involved in just every aspect of the film. You know. It was kind of like, and I love that she said, Disney was kind of like, go make your movie because you could easily see a movie like this them saying things like, yeah, you know it's too much about the adult or feel that scene it's six minutes of you guys just talking. I mean, you could see them really coming in and kind of nitpicking, and instead they were like, no, go
make your movie right. Four million people watched it, which, especially in twenty fifteen, is it's a great number.
That's a good number, a good number, absolutely, and I think you're right. Then it becomes too many in the kitchen, she would have lost probably a little bit of like what she was super passionate about and on the mission to do when there's too many people that are switching your direction and kind of boxing you in. This was very different. Like we've said a million times about it, it was a great movie. It was different for the
channel it was. It was one great movie, but it's been amazing in the theater.
I was gonna say, I stick by it was a it was a really good movie. I'm not sure it was a really good dcom. But that's because we were in the void at that time of dcoms of not really knowing what the d com was. They hadn't you know,
it wasn't Zombies yet, it wasn't you know. They were still trying to figure out it wasn't Descendants in twenty fifteen, I don't think by this point, I don't think though, so we're still trying to They're trying to find their way, but hey, are we all at the end of the day, aren't we all?
And at the end of the day, as Disney does it for me every time, the message is there, and that message was still needs to talked about with teenagers and how much information they're putting out there, as well as how not important the amount.
Of likes are in the amount of all that stuff is just not Yeah, that's get off of social media. That's I'm sorry. I'd say that to everybody, and then everybody says, like if I didn't need it for work, if everybody decides to stop doing it, and then everyone should decide to unimportant. But anyway, anyway, live your life. Everybody, live your life to the best of your ability. That's all you can do. Thank you all so much for
joining us. Thank you le Alan Baker for joining us and letting us know what it was like to go and create and think about and pitch and write and every other thing which I didn't want to get too much into. I haven't seen it. I've never seen it. I'm sorry, no, no again, not you know, shot at my age or my demographic at the time, So it was. I'm sure I would enjoy it if I watched it. I just wasn't watching very little of it.
But I mean I've known about it because it was it is like she said, of.
Course it was a juggernaut. Oh yeah, it was huge. Huge. Good luck, Charlie. Yeah yeah, so very big. Well, thank you all for joining us on this park Opper episode. It was so great to talk to Lee Alan Baker. Thank you for taking the time joining us, Lee Alan, see it's Lee Allen. I'm Will Allen, but I'm just Will. So thank you all for joining us and we will see you next time. Bye bye,