Still the Place with Laura Layton, Courtney Thorn Smith.
And Daphne's Aniga and iHeartRadio Podcast.
Welcome back to Still the Place. We have such a fun episode this week. We are meeting with our good friend Andrew Shoe. We're so excited we got to talk to him. And Andrew played the lovable nice guy Billy Campbell on Melro's Place, and we're going to get to hear all of his stories and we get to go down memory lane with him, and so yeah, we're about to invite him in and we're going to have that conversation.
Soo yay, yay Andrew. So good to see you.
Good to see you, guys. I have to admit that I've already failed you because I realized that you asked me to watch I think I've seen the pilot within the last five years.
But that is all good enough. The test, it is sort of like a test of we're all having challenges with our memories, so you'll just be in good company. Like what you do or don't remember, it's all good.
But what we really want to start with because we all started here and I'm dying to know I've already told my story of your audition. What do you remember about your audition?
Just you really?
Okay, that's amazing.
Well, it is an interesting story. But it did end in a room with I think they were like twenty foot high ceilings in Aaron Spelling's house, in his what I guess was called his office.
It was like a library, right, yeah, well it was.
It was all you know, all the way around the every wall filled with leather bound scripts of every episode of every TV show he reproduced.
Wow.
And there were probably twenty five people in the room, all the casting people, people from Fox, people from Spelling, all the producers, Darren Starr, everybody from the show. And how I ended up in that room is quite a story. So I have to go back, well, we have to. In nineteen ninety I went to Zimbabwe to teach math and play professional soccer over there, and a very odd
thing happened. I got a phone call from my sister about a month into the time there in Africa, and I only got phone calls like four or five times the entire year. When somebody called from America, you know, the phone was like jig, you know, and it's like it was back then. It was five dollars a minute it was. It was a big deal, and she got on the phone and she said, Andrew, You're never gonna
believe what happened. The head of casting at Universal Pictures saw a picture of us at a premiere of Soap Dish, which was a movie that she had been in.
Yeah. For those of you who don't know, Andrew's sister is Elizabeth Shoe.
Yeah, so saw a picture of us at a premiere, and the head of casting at Universal Pictures wanted to know if you are an actor, and so I told them that you.
Are, as sisters do.
At this point, all I had done was two home movies up in Maine when I was about seven and ten. And so now for the rest of the year, while I'm in Zimbabwe, I have no idea what I'm going to do with my life. I was thinking, I just read Silence of the Lamb, so I was thinking I would be an FBI agent, baby broadcast journalism, being a sports commentator, and so the idea of being an actor
just in the way back of my mind. So when I get back from Zimbabwe and I have to figure out what I'm going to do, I applied to journalism school. I only applied to one school which is probably not so smart, Columbia, which is probably the hardest one to get into. I did not get in, and I started working at ABC News trying to be, you know, a producer,
sports producer. I was basically just getting people coffee. And then I decided to have a conversation with my sister's acting coach because of that little thing in the back of my head. So she woman named Sylvia Lee, amazing woman who had coached my sister for a long time.
She said, well, you know what, you kind of have the same thing that your sister has, which is just the ability to know when you're full of shit, and you seem smart enough, and if you're willing to work at it, I'm sure you could do whatever she's doing. I was like, oh, really, how much do I have to pay? So anyway, I worked out it for a year. I had a little black book. Back then we had a little bit black books where you write down every audition, and I had thirty auditions for like TV shows and
movies and things like that. I got two callbacks on those thirty auditions that we got a part. And I had about one hundred and twenty commercial auditions I got zero callbacks on those twenty.
Are you exaggerating with one hundred and twenty or is that a real number?
No, And I was a real number in his book book.
It's an unbelievable yeah, in my black book. So then I decided, you know what, I'm going to give this whole acting thing one more year because I heard that they cast a lot more out in LA because they you know, you need to be there if you're going to get one of the small parts, and you know that's the only way you're going to get your start. And so I went out there, and the first month I was there, the Olympics were on. I hope you
guys are all watching the Olympics. I actually just I just put the Women's All Around on pause so I can see what happened. Good, good, And so I get out there. I'm renting a place right off of Hollywood Boulevard that went for two hundred and eighty five dollars
a month. Amazing, right, and somebody was murdered right outside while you lived there or and yeah, So that that was where I started out, and within a month I just happened to get a small part on the Wonder Years and then a month later, I auditioned for Melro's place, and I had to memorize the long monologue when I first walk up and meet my character meets Alison Parker, and so I remember I memorized that that monologue and I had it nailed. I went in and read with
the casting director. I thought I had done really well, and they never ever called me again. That was it. I was like, okay, thank you.
So when you wouldn't get a callback, would you write in your book no or just like question mark.
I just I just write they missed them, their loss.
And so so now cut to and the next another month later, I uh, I get an audition based on a monologue that I had done back in New York, where I'm gonna have to admit that it was not really acting because it was basically me making up a story. So they do these monologues. I was like, oh, this monologue and like, well, what was that from. I'm like, well, I'm not really sure, but it was just an Embella story. But it was really good. Bob Harbin was the one
who he was at at Fox. He's the one who really, you know, kind of got me in the flow of getting into Spelling. I ended up getting a pilot for Spelling called Gulf City, which I was very excited about because it was basically a star Skin Hutch show and I was going to be one of the one of the cops. And we went down and we filmed it. It was it was a huge deal. Like I like, I couldn't believe I gone from nothing to one little
scene on the Winter Years to getting this pilot. And it turned out that that the movie Soap Dish that I had been recognized that by the casting person, was produced by Aaron Spelling. So my sister was in the movie, which is about a soap opera Whoopy Goldberg and Kevin Klein and great, exactly good. Yeah you've been reading now.
So so anyway, they end up, unbeknownst to me, they they end up casting Billy and the whole cast and then the person that they cast Unfortunately, for I guess a bunch of different reasons, they decided to not move forward. At the very last minute. I think he had you know, they'd just done some testing and so they had to do a crash course audition for the part of Billy.
And because I had just done this, this pilot. They basically had thirty guys show up at Aaron Spelling's how and I remember pulling in with my my eighty two Masda that I had bought for one thousand dollars. With the three thousand dollars I got in my grandmother's will and I pulled into the parking lot and there was thirty cars like in the semi circle. And after we all went in for multiple auditions, I was there probably
like three hours. And I remember walking into that room and seeing Courtney porn Smith and is the most beautiful
person inside and out. And I remember it just wasn't even acting because I knew the monologue from way back when, and I just walked in and I just started spewing this stuff and talking to her, and everybody in the room just just disappeared, and I was just I was just completely connected with her, and I went in I was about to read for the third time when they let the last person go and Aaron Spelling walk out with Peter Chernan, who later became the CEO of all
of Newscore and still obviously an incredibly successful businessman. He was the head of Fox TV, and I saw him talking to Aaron and he was like, so, what's the deal, what do you want. He's like, oh, I told you I wanted Andrew the whole time, So this is the whole thing. Was just going through the process of Aaron, you know, picking me to do this so I get the part. And that was on a Saturday, and I was shooting on Monday.
So when you were sitting out there with Andrews, when you were sitting out there, you start with thirty guys, right, And it was like ten thirty on a Saturday morning, as I remember. So they were letting guys go like you can go, like Courus line the movie, like you can go, you can go? Oh really? And it was down to you because you know originally and I think you know this, but I told this ever before, there
was another guy that most of the executives wanted. And Aaron's like, you're right, you're right, you're right, You're one hundred percent right. That's the guy. I just think maybe we should consider Andrew Shoe. I just of course, you're totally and bit by bit like he and he was right obviously, bit by bit he turned them. It was fascinating to watch. So they're letting guys go and it was just you and this other guy. I don't remember who it was.
At the end, there's one other guy. Ye.
Wow, thats they cast you that day. They came in and told you that day.
No, no, no, he Aaron walked over to me. I mean literally, he said, well you got the part.
Baby bababe.
Yeah, yeah, And.
I was like right away. So he he called me at my little two hundred and eighty five dollars apartment on Friday and said, I want you to do me a favor. I want you to come and read at my house. I'm doing these readings and I just need people to read with.
Aaron called you.
Yeah, literally called me at my house. I looked and said, just do me a favor. Because he knew it and didn't tell me that Gulf City had been canceled. Oh if he called me Golf City is canceled and now this is your only you know, boat home, I would have been I would have been a wreck.
Wow.
They're completely relaxed. So when he told me I got the part, I was I was like, what are you talking about? What about Gulf Cities? Like, oh, that got canceled like four days ago. And I actually kind of felt sick to my stomach. I was, oh, my gosh, that was such a great show. And He's like, trust me, this is gonna be good. This is really you have an idea. This is a big show. And you know because and I'm like, I'd barely even heard a nine two and I was like, what what do you mean?
This is like a soap opera? The twenty people.
Wow, that's incredible. Aaron was an actor and there you can see it in that moment because he created a situation where you didn't have anything at stake and you could and that was your energy in the day, like everybody's coming very intense, and you were so lighthearted and as extraordinarily charming as you always are. And it was such a breath of fresh air when you came in the room. And isn't that amazing that he gave you the space to do that. I didn't know that part
of the story. That's Andrew.
Were you nervous at any point? I mean I'm hearing you come in and you you know you were. No, We're like taken by her and you weren't nervous. You drive up to this mansion and bel air and all these.
People, no I mean, I think I think also just because my sister had managed her career so well and kind of just seen seen the business for what it was, and I genuinely thought I was on Gulf City, so I just saw this as a business opportunity just to meet people. So I was like, I'm meeting Courtney Thorpe Smith, and I look at all these other people like, hey, I walked in. I was like, how you doing, what's
going on? What are you guys doing? And you know, I was I was completely more kind of almost you know, a political mode, not not at all like thinking about my performance and what to do and.
Did that change then when you should up on the set, like what was it like? First you're like, oh, this is real.
Yeah, and then you probably can see by the performance it was literally just me trying to pretend to be me and like being like, you're okay, just be Andrew, You're going to be fine. You know I was not again, Yeah, I was. I was a very I was. I was the proverbial rookie who who everybody was very sweet too, and Courtney. I just remember every being everybody being so kind, so professional, uh, and I was just wide eyed ously
I've never done this before. I mean, the Sculp City thing was five days, and I think I was pretty terrible in that, but it was it was just so fun and exciting, uh, that that whole period. The other crazy thing was that you probably don't remember that. Maybe you do remember this, but the the La riots because of the Rodney King vile happened right at the beginning of the shooting of Melroe's Place, which delayed the shooting
for two weeks. If the riots hadn't happened, Melros would have started shooting two weeks earlier, the audition for Billy would have happened two weeks earlier, and I would not have been available because because Gold City would would have absolutely been been still there. So the timing of Golf City getting canceled and it all.
Wow, I didn't realize.
I didn't put that together.
The riots.
That was a I remember being up in the hills and just looking down and seeing just this, you know, the smoke coming up in different areas. It was such a terrifying time.
Wow.
Yeah, So back to the pilot, do you remember, because we watched the pilot and I had totally forgotten that you started as a dance instructor.
Do you remember that scene of you dancing with a mop?
I do? I do. I will say that I got. Let's see what's the right. As the series went on, I was less free with myself to really embrace some of the crazy stuff that they were writing. So I would be like, I'm going to underplay this. I'm going to underplay that. People wouldn't normally do this, people wouldn't normally say this, which wasn't very good because I think in the end, really going after it the way I did. Clearly, when I was up there on the on the bed dancing, I was all in.
So charming, so adorable.
Well maybe it worked, maybe it worked, but I was definitely pretty free with all that. But yeah, that was I just said, okay, that's what they want me to do, get up there and just start dancing.
It completely worked. It was so charming. And when we talked about the pilot on the show, we were I was it must have been directed to just be horrible to you, and you were especially that first things with You're so charming and you're so bulliant, and you're so friendly, and I'm so mean to you just like everything. Why is she such a horrible, horrible person, but there had to be somewhere to go. I hope or I was just a horrible horrible person.
No, you were scripted. You did what you were hoping. You did what was written.
Look, do you guys.
Remember being directed by Howie Deutsche, like specifically, was.
He asking you to go bigger Andrew?
And was he asking you to go colder? Or do you remember anything?
I remember I remember just just being like, uh, relaxed, just relaxed, enjoy it, go for it, you know. But it wasn't ever like do more. I think I think it just worked again because I was I was so excited to be there, and I think the character was so excited. He's got his first job, oh my god, he's living with this new beautiful woman and it's all happening. So it all, it all worked. You're you being the way you were actually you. You look like you were covering in a way kind of like to like you.
You let out little little moments, which was perfect. It was like breadcrumbs just like for for episode after episode after episode to get get us till there was.
A conscious acting choice. Andrew. It was all very carefully thought out.
She's softening. She's softening.
Well, it's really sweet to watch it because I get to first of all, and I was trying to remember, do you remember what episode? Because I remember saying I will never date a co star, I'm way too professional. And then I'm thinking, like episode two, I was like, yeah, I'll kiss him like where I think I held on for like a week and a half. Do you remember which episode? Because I was watching which episode was like
episode four that we started dating. I was watching like episode four and remembers we did wait, WATCHT met me Andrew, Yes, you.
Told me you dated.
I have pictures. I have pictures to prove it.
Pictures to prove it.
I will. I feel guilty about that. That's probably all my fault. I mean I should have I should have held off for a lot.
I feel like I'm in a very private intimate conversation right here, like I don't belong here, listening to the years ago.
He's good, She's still jealous.
When we watched scenes of you with guest star.
Watching you kissing Jensen, I was like, I will take her head right off episode two. I don't think we're dating them, but I must have been, like my my hard heart was already thawing. And then there was one where we had a guest and I was kissing the guest and I remember him saying to you, she has the hots for me. And you and I were already dating, and you were telling me you have a hots. And
that was like episode four. So I, in my vast professionalism as the old time in the business lasted roughly seventeen days.
I appreciate it.
Admirable, admirable restraint.
Yeah, I mean we didn't. You couldn't tell. The chemistry was all there. It did look like we were we were really pushing for something.
I mean, you guys have one of the iconic relationships on television and from that era, and it lasted. You guys, Billy and Allison were on and off for years.
I believe you guys.
Were you guys I think ended in life right, But then you kept going.
Was that weird? Was that easy?
It was shockingly not weird.
It was that we we handled it well. I remember there was a little bit a little bit of time where it was tough.
Well do you remember me having to talk with you because we were the characters were still dating and you and I weren't dating, So we broke up at the beginning of the breaks. We had a couple of months to sort of adjust, and then we started back and we were still dating. So we'd been broken up for two months and then we had to kiss. You remember me saying, Okay, now we're professionals, no tongue. This is the kind of podcast this is, and I'm a professional.
Everyone we asked all the boys this, Do you remember when I said, no tongue?
I hope we had to talk about that kind of stuff.
We we did were dating. Did your characters date on the show?
A characters eventually dated on the show too, because everybody's.
Characters you date. Because we were dating before we were dating on the show. Then we were dating after we were dating on the show, after we broke up in real life. But you and I segued into friendship really well. I don't on your side of it.
What do you feel, Andrew?
I want to jump in if he has a different opinion.
No pressure, but we're all just waiting.
For you to think he's actually frozen.
Frozen he picked a really convenient such a good actor when he just sits there and he doesn't even I am so amazed at how we can do that. I wish you breathing everyone at home could see this performance.
Okay, sorry we lost you.
Sorry.
I like how you just like popped out, right.
I said, I said, very casually. And we were friends after and then.
You frozz and disappeared.
That's what we saw. Yeah, you're like, I'm still mad at you. That's why I came on today.
What I was kind of saying was, yeah, that our relationship, Uh, we we helped carry each other through a very intense time the show. The show got a lot of attention. Uh. I know you had already been kind of fairly well known, but that was that was We were dealing with a lot of uh we'll call it Fox celebrity craziness. And I remember just feeling safe knowing we were together guiding each other through it.
So oh, that's so sweet and honestly like it was. We do glamorous things. But you lived in a house with how many roommates did you have three or four?
Yahoo?
Any of them actors or just you know.
Well there were friends from.
Soccer players, journalists, all the things you thought of.
Yeah, so it was very like grounded. And then I bought my first house, right up the street from where your rental house was, which is very sweet. And what I remember today driving in Do you remember going with me to adopt my first dog? Is a grown up? To the.
Dog grown up? You're saying you were a grown up.
I was a grown up. Also, the dog was a grown up. Andrew came with me. I should find it very.
Grown up anywhere. Remember that.
It wasn't that sweet though, So you're part of that very sweet memory for me?
Yeah, I remember. I remember they were so beautiful and where where are percentes from Africa?
Africa? And they don't they don't they don't bark, They like sort of they yodel.
My neighbor has eight she just had a litter and and every time we drive down the driveway.
Wow, that's so rare. That's so interesting.
Make us sound really just like this, Oh.
That's so rare. They yodeled, they made a lot of noise.
We just went did you get Yeah?
But Lord didn't have to talk about any of herd dating.
You know.
It's so funny because we just we just we just had grant on and I thought about this after, like we didn't really talk about that, Like we're in the same room and it just wasn't like a conversation. It didn't it didn't come up, and like, you know, we went out, We all went out to lunch, after which we wish we could go out to lunch with you if you would only, you know, come to la.
To you let us know, please, we could bring you on zoom, Like we could have you on a phone and like seated at the table with us. Yeah, He's like, we could.
I really we could do that sounds complicated, but yeah, like the topic just didn't kind of come up, and I didn't know if it was like, oh, you know, it was just it was just so nice to be like so comfortable, Like all of us feel like that cast and that group and that time in our lives led to such like lasting friendships even if we don't
see each other for years whatever. It's so easy and great and I'm so grateful for it to be able to just text you like, hey, how are you, like after years or whatever, Like it's just feels like such a nice, comfortable thing to feel like we all, yes, we dated in our twenties, Grant and I and you two dated in your twenties too, but like all these years later, it's just such a fond and friendly and warm group as a whole. I just feel so grateful for that. I think it's really special.
That's true.
I agree, and I think everybody has has given to it in that way and kind of nurtured the relationships. It's it's it's unique. I think all the people were just quality people, Like I said, very professional, So I thought, yeah, I think we all.
In a show like that lasts. It really is like it's like college or something, right, Like it's those years, every single day, five days a week, long hours, especially we're shooting doubles. We did twenty two up to thirty two or thirty four episodes a year, like you see each other more than you see others in your life.
Yeah, do you remember going to re Calendars for lunch? Remember that? What did you order? Do you remember your order?
Every time?
I was wondering, were you eating carbs back then? Because he eats anything?
You've never had Andrew's leg, Like if you were to touch Andrew's leg, it feels like that wooden table, Like his body doesn't make fat, all right, it is crazy. Did you get a fat cell, sweetie? Did you have a fat cell? You have to deal with one or two. So sorry, that's so hard for you.
So Andrew, like you were always doing so many other things, like while while we were shooting a television show, and like you said, it was a lot, there was a lot going on, but you were also like developing these other ideas, and you always had something completely different aside from acting that you were doing. And the first thing was do something. Was that like sort of the first
other thing that you did. I mean, I knew you had already been a soccer player and you were still always playing, so you.
Were starting to do something. In our production office, I remember you using the fax machine like you were always in there.
Do you remember that with.
The facts I was I was, I was on that fax machine a lot tax machines. Again, I think it kind of kept my sanity. My sister, she just showed me that it was an opportunity to do other things. It's kind of a means to other ends. And I also just felt so fortunate. It just seemed crazy to have the ability to go on talk shows and talk about things. And it also seemed weird to me to be promoting, like the whole idea was to promote yourself. So more people would know you so that you could
get the next part. And that all just seemed very weird to me. And obviously you had to go on those shows and try and be funny, which Courtney was really good at being funny. But I had liked working on these other things and then be able to go talk about them and do something. Had come out of an experience I had had in high school. You know, I lost my older brother, who was, you know, kind of my idol in life, and he had been an Eagle Scout, and so I had a lot of things
that I The acting thing happened randomly for me. It was not kind of in my I didn't have real vision for my life, to be honest, and I lost my brother my senior year in college, so I kind of was in a wayward mode when I went over to Africa, and so when the acting thing happened, I immediately felt, this, this is an opportunity to do something else, Like this is not about you and acting and being
famous or any of that stuff. So I think to ground me and to connect back to my brother, starting to do something was just really healthy and it's still running amazingly well all these years later.
And did you pass it on to someone else? Starting to interrupt, but did you someone else runs it?
Now?
I think two of Yeah. The two my buddy Mike Sanchez and I we started together. He was running it. We were always partners in crime and then and then we started a business together in nineteen ninety nine, which he's now still running. I'm at the offices right now of that company we started. It's called Kathya Media. And we did pass on the leadership multiple times and have an incredible CEO do something right now, and.
You want to just tell the audience, like what that is?
What is do something?
Yeah, so do something. At the time, there were so many great social entrepreneurs like Wendy cop who started Teach for America and Alan Casey who had started City Year. These were social entrepreneurs who came up with ideas and created their own organizations. And so I had had an experience in high school because I had quit Boy Scouts and felt guilty about it, and that it was just called Student Serving Seniors, which also still runs at my
high school. And so that experience, I felt we could we could figure out how to give that to other young people. So that creating kind of the little leagues for service to end up becoming kind of the you know, the the Wendy Cops and the Allen Cazys of the world.
So we created clubs and schools, We had grants, and then once the Internet started, it was a lot through text messaging and so so do something as kind of the premier organization for getting young people involved in service and getting them to create their own projects and then growing them and building them. Not unlike what I did in high school, next to millions of kids around the country.
And I think now, especially with the state of our country, we need young people more than ever to realize that they have a role to play, and so we give them tools, we get them funding, give them inspiration. So that's it's a you know, it's it's something we will we will always need in this country, is to inspire and activate young people.
It's amazing, so great you were doing that while we were and learning all the lines on the show and coming and doing our stories lines.
You know, and it's still a thing now, like it's a really big deal. You must be so proud of it.
Oh wow, Well again it's been because it's been passed on to great leadership. Genora, who's the CEO now is awesome. But I just as you said that learning the lines I remember because I was also playing soccer in nineteen ninety six with the Galaxy, and I remember going home
but not having time to shower. Was I was in such a studio that I literally took the hose and just then got in the car, turned the the it was like ninety Dev's out and turned the heater on and was literally like drying my head and learning the lines that I had like sitting up there. Yeah, it was a lot, just not exactly how an actor would would do that.
Well, you were always a fan of learning the lines on the go. I remember walking on the set with you many times. You're going, now, what are we doing today?
I mean, I'm starting an n G O over here, so and I'm playing soccer with Galaxy.
So you were much more than an actor. Well, yeah, so you left the show in ninety six, ninety eight, Oh you stayed till ninety Okay, right, so you.
Stayed with six years. Yeah, we started ninety.
Two and then was there a reason you you chose to leave was that you were starting something else yet another business, and you were going off to do something else? What was that?
So did you do one year after the three of us left? You did your six?
I did your six?
Wow?
What was that like?
Without us?
Did you talk about us?
Are?
Did you miss us every single day? What about us?
Back then? We were there were so many people on the show, and like I said, we were doing still doing double episodes. You you just didn't work that much, so it was pretty easy. And I do remember trying to negotiate where I could do half the episodes and they're like, no, you know for season seven. So I was going to talk season seven, but I was like, I only do want to do half the episodes. I did think for a minute. I was thinking about like, all right, are you gonna are you going to leave
acting or are you really going to try? And yeah, make a make a career out of this. And I was intrigued with going back and living on the East Coast starting a business, and so I had a decision to make and I so I was kind of straddling both. And I thought, if you're going to keep going on the acting front, you probably want to get off the show before it before it sinks. That the longer you're on it more. You're connected to that character, it's hard to go off and do do other things. So I
felt like I was. I also knew that year six, when you've had a five year contract, year six is the one year where you can make some some pretty good money. So I definitely he's a.
Businessman through and through clearly.
So do you have kids by then? When did you start having kids?
I did? I did? Nate? Was Nate's birthday? Actually, my oldest is today?
They got few birthday?
Neet? How old is he?
Twenty eight years old? Wow? He was born in ninety six. And then Aiden was born in ninety eight. So Aidan was born just after we finished the sixth year. And then yeah, so I had just really Nate in that year and a half before the ship before I left the show.
And then did you move back east right after you finished that last season?
Uh? Pretty much pretty much like another five months later? Yeah?
Where Andrew?
Where did you guys grow up? I know you went to Dartmouth, where, coincidentally, my mom worked for twelve years.
Can I tell my Dartmouth story?
Did you grow up in New York?
I grew up in Northern New Jersey, Okay, in South Orange, New Jersey.
All right, I want to tell my Dartmouth story. So when Andrew and I were dating, he had a reunion of some sort at Dartmouth and we went back to Dartmouth. It was fun for me because I didn't go to college. I got to pretend I went to college. And we went to his fraternity and walked on into the basement and the smell I can't even tell you. And I said, what is the smell? And he goes, oh, the basement is where people go to throw up.
Yes, it's spress your experience of call a fraternity bass and you take her to the nicest places. It's literally the fraternity.
That what I said. That is not what I said. I may have said every now and then people it's a vomatorium. Accidentally throw up from the smell.
Uh every now and then was fairly often. And I'm just saying maybe of guys doesn't do a whole lot of cleaning up on a regular basis. Not seem that those who lived there head adjusted to the smell. I had not. Well, they're guys, they do standard. You were, but you said, it's a matter of fact, Oh yeah, that's what people go to throw up and I know you deny it now, but that's what you said.
There may have been some throwing up down there, but let's get cleaned. Its just sometimes it's, you know, all the beer, the stale beer.
A bunch of it's a twelve year old guys.
It was such a nice thing to show her, though, I think that's so so romantic.
That means myraites is U is the fraternity that that animal house.
Okay, now it all makes sense. Yes, we have our verdict.
Okay, you just answered the question.
It is where they threw us.
But you were very I remember you were appreciated by by all kinds of students there.
What are some narrows memories that you have when you think about that time? What comes to mind?
I remember life just being full, and I think, you know, talking about going to Africa and not having necessarily understanding where I wanted to go and and what kind of
life I wanted to lead. I just remember that time feeling really alive, which was amazing considering after losing my brother, I definitely was in a darker place and not believing kind of in the in the the optimism of life, which has to drive everybody's life is the optimism and the opportunity of what could lie ahead, and again just being with great people, having my first two kids being born, being able to work on all these different projects, to be in la in this brand new environment. It was.
It was idyllic. I think. I remember going on the Tonight Show and saying, I feel like I'm on fantasy island, Like how this all happened, I don't know, but I feel I just felt very fortunate and grateful.
Grant was mentioning that too, that sense of like nostalgia, that time of potential. You said something similar to that, that energy and that fullness, and you know, I love just about life, like you never know what corner, what audition, what thing, what one little thing you say yes to?
And look, you know, you.
Got calls all the time for new exciting things. It's like, oh, they want to do a gat bed or they want to do.
A bad I'd forgotten we did Laoreal.
Appearances in Australia, and there's just so many differently I met. It's Zakrabin, who uh at the time, was the leader of Israel, probably five months before he was assassinated, and his wife was a huge fan of the show and so he crazy, right, He was like, yeah, it was. It was amazing.
Do you remember campaigning for Clinton? You dragged poor little met who really still just wants to be home with her dogs, meditating on her couch, and you dragged me campaign like on a bus. We went campaigning with Clinton, and I campaigning for Clinton, not with him. He wasn't saying, what I need is Andrew and Alice Andrew and Courtney on my bus? No, but we were campaigning for him, and we were with Laura Dern and Jeff Goldbloom. Do
you remember that? And I remember somebody walking up now, Laura Dern and Jeff Goldbloom are both hugely tall people. And I remember somebody coming up to me and going, I was just talking to my friend. You and Andrew were up there, next to next to Laura and Jeff. And I remember saying, Andrew and Courtney, they are tiny little people. They're the cutest, tiniest little people. I don't know how to take that, which are very tall. But do you
remember that. I don't know how many times we did it, but it was exciting.
I do. I do remember that. And you were you were a trooper to do it.
That's a very nice way to say it. You're a trooper kind of means I would have got my heart in it. I followed you around IM like, all.
Right, I remember I'm not hugely tall, but it's true that TV can make you look like yeah six too, what do you look?
Yeah, let's bring it back to Billy, just doing Billy playing Billy.
What you liked about him?
What you know?
What do you remember? Do you remember any like scenes or storylines that stood out? Did you enjoy did you not enjoy?
I did. I didn't love the fact that Billy kind of got he kind of got walked on a little bit, which it was. It was in the writing. Uh. And in the first season when the whole kind of love triangle happened with Alison and Amanda, I thought that was that was better where I was. I was clearly not large and in charge, but at least I.
Was being fought over by two women.
I mean I was navigating you know, some some some exciting.
Yeah.
I thought later they did. They just did. They didn't didn't allow him to to thrive the way I would have liked. But I think he was still very human and he was clearly likable.
Enough super likable, and you know, we just watched because we're a little bit ahead, and the watching. We watched the bungee jumping episode when you get all the guys bungee jumping, and I was saying to Laura, it felt like when the show sort of came together, like all of a sudden, it looked like we were really friends hanging out. And you brought the heart, like you got
everybody together. You really brought that energy and that heart, and that's what Billy did, like you were the vulnerable heart of the show.
You're sweet, It's true, really, it is sweet.
Yeah, you're kind of like the everyman you know, like you I know, it's not you know, maybe like the glamorous or the like you say, large and in charge part, but you are the part that the audience is meant to identify with, right, like the guy who comes in and then this stuff happens with all these different more
out there characters. But yeah, in that scene in that episode specifically, remember when he's they're all celebrating in the courtyard because you'd gotten an article in a paper, and then they throw you in the pool with your clothes on, and then they throw in Michael in the pool because he saved somebody's life in the hospital or something.
It was like this tradition.
Well, we started dancing, and you were talking about in the first in the pilot where you're going, yes, you're all dancing with the broom And I was watching that episode thinking we're all dancing doing like the hustle and then going in the pool, and like that was before we started saying that is not gonna happen. Everyone's dancing different, dancing getting stuck in the pool. I was like, well, that's an early in the show.
Well, the show evolved. It started out definitely as sort of one tone and one dynamic it and it certainly evolved over the years. And then with doing so many episodes, we all went through so many variations of our characters and so many ups and downs, and you know, for better, for worse, and ultimately everyone ended up dating everyone and
everyone ended up you know, good, bad, indifferent. At some point, I think characters were all a little bit of everything because they there were too many episodes not to have them travel from one thing to another.
Yeah. I do remember a stretch where Billy was borderline mean and evil, and I remember the writers coming like yeah, we.
We tried that.
It was it was wrong. We're going back to where do you remember why?
Why was Billy.
Being I think they were I think they were trying to he was just getting to be a little too plain and you need some bad stuff to happen and instead of having it always happening to him. It might have been it was either with a camera, which is either Kristen Davis or Brook Langton. It was something that was in there down the line doing something. It was little, it was a little bit later, or they were like, we got a spicy.
Well, we're going to We're going to get there because we get to rewatch all of all of the episodes and we're reminded of all this stuff that happens. We'll eventually get there.
Do you remember having your shirt off and every other.
Let's just get to it, guys. We remember that, especially early on, because that's how far we are into the podcast. You had your shirt off quite a bit doing We're not, you know, complaining, We're just noticing that. Do you remember that was the thing?
I do. I do remember. It was quite chilly there and I remember going on on what at the time was read Just and Kathy Lee, and he said, I'm going to be loaning you some of my shirts.
Okay, so you yeah, you had it aful lot. Yeah, well it wasn't your idea. We realized, like, that wasn't That wasn't Andrew going, hey, I think I should do this. It was in the script. Just to be clear, Like you know, when when these guys are shirtless, it's because it was written. I remember I remember Grant doing, look at this shirt off.
Of course I walk out, you know, like it was just a thing, like would you just read your sides, read the scripting?
Of course the shirts are stepping out of the apartment.
Yeah, I think if we were, I don't know, you're shooting something and you're not. You're really not really thinking, like there's millions of people who are watching this thing every week. You're just out there on the stage, Okay, what do you want us to do? But then when you're actually watching the show or later, you're kind of like this is ridiculous. People must be like this is not serious. People prancing around with no clothes off.
Yeah, it got less and less, like in the beginning they would have you guys with it for no apparent reason, like if you walk, you just walk on the apartment without your shirt on. And then over time you could see that you guys started saying, we need to put the kibosh on this, and it made sense, like if you were in bed or getting out of the shower, then they would do it. But in the beginning, like the first episode, they're like ten shirtlessing, maybe fourteen may
we counted. That was one of our things. We counted so many. Do you remember, though, Andrew, what is your craziest storyline? Do you remember the thing you had doing? You were like, oh, I can't believe I have to do that.
See I'd see I didn't get to do anything that help.
And I have to say, like Billy and Sydney didn't have a whole lot together because I think maybe if that had happened and you would have ended up crazier, you kind of didn't. You steered clear, Billy steered clear of Sydney, and you know, so you didn't didn't end up in that realm.
It could have done a breaking bad thing where you know, maybe I got cancer and all of a sudden, in order to save somebody, I had to do some crazy stuff there.
There are some good ideas that are still worth exploring. I mean, you know, but who did Billy day? So Billy dated Allison, Billy dated Amanda? Who else would remember he was in?
Who is the interested in?
Joe? Amanda lost Lost, lost the baby? Right, Yeah, you were there and I felt bad. I kind of you and I it was tough. That was that was a very tough What else I was with? Like I said, I married what was Kristin Davis?
That was amazing, pulled that right out of.
Brook Langton's brook Langton's character.
Was Sam Sam.
I almost married her.
But the later years.
And so when they bring in people, I meant of like the core group because I think Heather Amanda dated everyone in the building except Doug.
Right, she did not date I really didn't, That's correct.
I did not get it. I really only had Alison and Amanda of the core of the Yeah, they.
Brought people in for Alison too. I think Alison did it the later time date Jake for a minute. But they really brought people in.
Mm hmmm.
They outsourced for Joe too.
They brought in they always brought in some evil guy for me, and because I knew that Joe would be attracted to him and they could create some drama, some real jerk.
You guys became you guys. All the women were the stars of the show. It really was centered around you guys. We were we were props in and around with it.
Really did it feel that way? I didn't feel that way.
Yeah, really, yeah, they had all the best storyline.
I don't know.
I mean, yeah, I think so, He's right.
Yeah, I think of watching because of you guys, and then men were watching because of you guys as well, and then women.
Were watching because I don't know, we do we hear it. On the other side, women were watching you still recognized for Billy.
Do people say this to you on the streets to new.
Looking exactly the same Andrew, it's isless.
My great gray beard. Uh. Every now and then somebody will come up to me, and then they will they will say, did we go to high school together?
How do you handle it?
I said, uh, no, I'm not sure. No, I'd say I just tell them I was on a TV show, and always.
Like, did they go Nope, that's not it.
No, I never watched that.
Sorry, what else?
I don't watch TV? And I know I don't know.
Very It's always so nice. People come up and that was that was that was such a huge part of my twenties.
Well, yeah, they tell you about their place that looked like our apartment building.
Yeah exactly. Yeah, we're in where they had their parties. That the Melrose parties were a real thing.
It was.
It was a really meaningful part of people's lives at that time in their twenties. We all sort of remember where we were, who we were with, and that's just special and different. And I feel like that's what's coming back around for us doing this podcast. We're hearing so many stories about remembering that time in their lives and what an impactful time it was, and it's so fun to sort of relive the nostalgia of it. Do you have any Do you have any interest at all? I
know you're doing lots of other things. You've got cafe media. Do you have any interest at all in acting?
Again?
Uh, not really. I think it's something Yeah, you never say never. I have a a movie project I want to do at some point. There's no timeline for it because I it's a very long story. But I got very deeply involved in the Lindberg kidnapping, where I got to know the window of the of the man who was convicted and executed for that, and uh, it's a fascinating story and love story. So I don't think I would act in it, but it's it's that's probably my will be my last kind of big entertainment project. At
some point. I'll get geared up for that. I think it's I think it's the best picture type, so I won't be writing it. It's a I love.
We love the Billy typing and writing his script, his best American script, finger Bike.
That how you really type? With the Hunt and Bank?
All right, I did not do well my typing class. I've gotten better, but not much.
What did Billy do for work at the end? I was trying to remember because you dance instructor then always a writer than a cabby? Do you remember remember being a cab?
I was a vice president, went for.
A driver, the vice president.
And serious, I can't even wait, I have to I have to watch ahead.
I were not there yet, were you, my boss? You're still a cab driver? Where we are right?
Only my own part?
Were you at D and D at all? Were you even there?
It doesn't even sound familiar to me.
You had a big job there and I think by the end it was.
Is that why you dated Alison in season one? It's all coming Is that why you dated me to get to Alison, to get.
To d So now wait, this is weird and I'm a little bit all coming.
Together for me.
This is why I left that acting was because of my success. I decided going to business. I really fertilized my success. Excused me.
Wow, amazing, Well it all seems to have worked out. But I do have to ask you, like, hypothetically, this is just a complete hypothetical, but if there were an occasion for like a Melrose Place type of like reboot, she said. But she said that saying, if there were such a thing, would you consider participating? Would you be interested?
Just a hypothetical if it was one of those movies like Get Out maybe.
So yes, the answer is that what we're hearing the hypothetical world.
I would never say no to us, to you, but it would have to be done really well.
Yeah, well, so hypothetically that would be real fun, wouldn't I mean, just just for the excuse to all be together, and you know, it's just wouldn't that be fun?
That's a great idea.
I want to know what you're doing now and if you are happy, and what is the project and what's the company that you're running now.
I'm doing very well. I am very happy, my kids are all great, and I'm working on a project. So beyond Cafe Media, I have a project that's very exciting that I think as the potential to be the basis for bringing our country together. Obviously, there's a lot of discussion around how our political leaders may or may not bring us together, which I think all of us see
that as almost impossible at this point. So what we've been working on is the idea of creating citizen assemblies where citizens come together from all different backgrounds, political persuasions and work to create model legislation. So it's essentially creating the structured process of articulating the people's will, which has never been done before. Traditionally, we can just vote and then our elected leaders will go and hopefully act on our Will'd be like, well, how do they really know
exactly what we think based on phone polls? So we know that the country's so polarized that the citizens have to get involved, but it has to be done in an organized, structured way. And we've just tested this in just literally in the last month in New Hampshire, spent a year long process of bringing citizens together so that they would be heard, and then eventually having a representative body meet for three days in Manchester, and they came
up with four very specific recommendations. The Secretary of State was there, all the elected leaders were taking it very seriously, and at the end, I think ninety seven percent of them agreed to endorse what they had put forward. So the unanimity was was amazing, and then the emotion in the room was incredible because they all realized this this country is in the success of our Our country is up to us. That it's it can't be up to
the elected leaders. So I'm all in on this and have been working on it for about the last four years. So this is UH that I get.
What's it called, Andrew, does it have a name?
So the organizations called the People UH and the process that we're working on we're still in the process of branding the Citizens Assembly process. We piloted also a project in Kentucky called Meeting of America, so that would be the kind of the initial call to people to come in and meet.
Like a town hall.
My imagining it.
It is a town hall that starts with kind of a very involved process to get to the ultimate town hall. But it has to be a representative body. It can't just be well, who showed up, Well, it was for people, and you know it. It's It's been done overseas. The citizens assemblies have been done overseas, but in those cases it was always at the request of the elected leaders where they were trying to solve solve issues like abortion
in in in Ireland or end of life treatment in France. Uh. It's it's been used for for budgeting here in America and certain cities where they bring citizens in to help solve uh sticky issues. And I think we have we have too many existential crises building that where nothing has been done.
And so it's fantastic to engage and to awakened the public us because I think with all the everything that's going on are in America, you know, it just feels like are for a common reaction is to shut down, and so you're creating it sounds like outlets and a way to stay alive and engaged and take part.
Yeah, the anger that's out there is real, whether it's on the right or the left. It's people basically feeling that they aren't being heard. Obviously, massive wealth gap that exists, and there's a certain part of America that's doing really well, and there's probably eighty to ninety percent who feel like they've been they've been running in place for a long time. So there's a reason why there's so much energy, sometimes
negative energy on both sides. So we need an ultimate arbitration, really, and the American people are the only ones that can do it do it at scale. Now now we need to prove that we can do it at scale and show that it's credible. The eyes into it.
And do you have a website that people can come to or is that all in beta or is it.
We're not kind of ready for prime time national, but you can go to the people dot org. It's it's still kind of a small organization that's been doing all these pilots. It's great to listen. First Project, which has been doing a lot of the bridging work. It's really the combination of three different movements that have been building
over the last ten years. Has been a kind of a bridging movement, which is all getting people just to have conversations and then there's a deliberate democracy movement, which has been getting people to actually, you know, come up with ideas and work through policy recommendations. And then there's the political reform movement, which is about changing specific rules like ending gerrymandering and changing the way we do primaries
and campaign finance. So it's the combination of those three things. We have to you know, we're a sport that doesn't score any runs anymore. If you had that, which in some sports is getting like that, it just gets so competitive and they get so good that nobody scores. You change the rules. You have to do rules, and this is a once every hundred years we have to change. We have to improve our system. It doesn't it doesn't
deliver anymore, it doesn't. You just have performative politics. It's all all performative and it's not really getting us anywhere.
That's amazing, Andrew, So no, no, I'm so grateful that your vision is bringing people together and hope and unity. That's so rare and extraordinary in these days, and you have the energy and drive to put behind it. I mean, I remember when you were doing do something and now this not to put you on the spot, have you ever thought of learning running for office. I want you in charge of everything.
I do. Get asked that right right now. I think it's better to do what we're doing and kind of figure out the right way eventually to bring in elected leaders into this and to support this. But I think we have to we have to prove that again kind of as as the citizens who are outside of the political arena, I think as soon as it becomes political in that sense, then then right away it's like, oh, which party, which party are you trying to benefit? And
that's really not what this is about. This is absolutely about really articulating what the vast majority of Americans want. There's so much, so many common sense solutions on every issue from immigration to guns that you could get seventy percent buying on. So it's really about creating a seventy percent agenda that the American people put forward, not a party. As soon as the party puts forward it's done. You're into a deathmatch. So you've got to stay above the
party game. This is American people saying, you know what, We're now going to be the adults in the room, and we are going to create the agenda that the American people want and then we're gonna have to fight for it. Unfortunately, even if we put it forward that the parties are still going to be like, oh this helps you help me, like I'm never you know, they're not going to go for it. Some some of them will support it, but they'll be in like very purple
states where they have to support the thing in the middle. Wow.
Amazing Andrew, thank you for sharing really extraordinary, so excitedly has.
Grown up and he's doing it now with the world, with the whole country.
Well, we're just so happy that, like, you know, you've been doing so many interesting things with your life and that you can come on our goofy little podcast on Still the Place and share it with us. It's like so great to hear all that you're doing and just great to see you.
Yeah, I give you guys a lot of credit for doing this, and I know that that Courtney, I guess one day was like, we should do a podcast about the show.
She called us and said I had my friend woke up and said I had a dream You're doing a podcast from Melrose.
And we're like, let's get that done right away.
Not everybody some people talk about things that everybody goes out and does it.
I command you do on a far larger scale in the world. So good to see you, sweetheart.
Oh and Doug is so bummed that he couldn't be here in person and say hi to you and see you too, so he's he's jealous of a reason. He says, Hi, for.
Sure, exhaust it's one of my favorites.
And is there anything else that you may have wanted to say while you're here and those place fans, anything you wanted to mention that we haven't remembered to ask you about.
Well, I just want to. I want to thank our super fan, Jerry Seinfeld exactly reference he put us on the map for Jerry that was Maybe it's Larry David. I don't know. Maybe it's been Larry David who decided to do that.
It's really fun that our show had all those mentions from all those shows that we looked up too so much, and then we're talking about us and yeah, it's so flattering. It's amazing.
And I will say say special thank you to Aaron obviously he uh, he's up there, but he pulled the rookie off off the bench and stuck him in there.
Yay, he did he knew you had something. Yeah, we're so grateful. We're all so grateful.
Well, it's been amazing to see you. I hope that I hope that we can have you back and we would love to see you again.
Guys, love you, guys.
Thanks, and it's great to see you. Thanks for coming. Bye, thank you bye. Oh my gosh, that was so amazing. And then we have We've gotten to visit with Grant and now Andrew, and we have so many more fun guests coming up. But like next week we have we're back to our recaps, right, We're on to episode three, Lost and Found, that's our next episode. We got to get back in recap mode. Excellent here and still the place. But that was a super fun way thought, that was amazing.
He's a very such a good guy, such an admirable man to him. M h m hmm.