Still the Place with Laura Layton, Courtney Thorn Smith.
And Daphney's Aniga an iHeartRadio podcast.
All Right, girls, good to see you.
Yeah, so it's good to see you, Guys's been a very exciting morning for me.
Yes.
So, I very earnestly watched episode six like a Good Girl on my Amazon where I have bought the season because I'm such a kiss ass. Wow, and I came in today and Daphney started talking about it. It was not the episode i'd watched.
Yep. She's staring at me like, are you crazy? And I go, you totally made out with Ja and she's forgot.
And you're gonnaze you with Billy's parents. What happened?
It wasn't your fault. It wasn't you that you watched the wrong episode.
It was not, thank god, because as a good girl, I'd be devastated. So apparently on Paramount Plus and Amazon they have different sixes and seven. It's the only time it happened. So if you're following along with us and you're thinking, why aren't you talking about Alison going on vacation with Billy's parents Because you're watching on Amazon.
And they're showing seven before six and.
They're showing seven before six, right, So so pair went back next week and then watched this episode that I just watched in the hallway because it's crazy good. Yeah, and I did. I made out with Jake.
Three times a glad, let's get into it.
I don't remember. I was like, oh my goodness, that is some pretty hot stuff. That was spicy.
Yeah.
So the one we are supposed to be watching now, Courtney's all, when you.
Guys watched, how was it?
I loved about it is It was totally like the bad boy and good girl fantasy. It felt like it was a fantasy for both types.
I feel like Breakfast Club, didn't it?
Yeah?
Yeah it did. It was so you.
Would have liked me. I thought you would be too smart. I thought you wouldn't you know? It was great?
Yeah, you know. But we're cutting to the end. Okay, so we have to start at the beginning. But I literally watched it three minutes ago, so it's very freshman eat it up from it.
She's already to.
Go, all right, So we are talking about season one, episode six, the title Second Chances and Okay, so this episode opens on a poker game in Billy and Allison's apartment and they're playing poker. Ronda wants to she needs to buy in. She wants to offer up tickets to a dance show instead of money. The gangs is no way. And then the last round of cards, Allison's all in and she ends up scaring everybody out. They fold. Turns out she was bluffing.
But it was so cute the way I love seeing everybody together. Right, we've done it at the pool, but I remember that we would get in so much trouble because we were laughing so hard. We just want to talk in between. It's like, but we don't all As you guys know, I've been trying to get everybody in my house for dinner for now thirty years, so this is the only chance we had to sort of all be in a room talking and chatting. So it was
like being kindergarteners. We kept getting shirt, we kept getting in trouble with The chemistry was great among all of us, was so sweet. You could really see that we were friends, Yeah, right, I could really.
I think those scenes were so important for that to start happening that comra. Do you remember shooting that scene, Like, do you remember sitting around the poker table.
I don't remember that scene exactly. It was fun to watch, but I remember having scenes when we were all together and we would get they were so frustrated with us, but we were so excited to be together because especially later when you guys came on, the storylines were so separate. Yep, so it really became more rare for us all to be together. So it's really so much fun to we were catching up. We want it. We're like, you've brought us all together, don't make us stop into our lines.
Yeah, very And it was always the most fun when we were all together, most fun. And I love that this episode we're starting to see that more often in the last episode two, like they're putting the characters all together. Yes, but it is sort of Uh, they're still in this mode of just telling one character story at a time. They're not necessarily carrying over just yet. These are self
contained stories. Still in this this episode, we really are going to have an Alison and Jake storyline, and then we're also going to have a Rhonda storyline, just as we're getting to know those characters individually exactly. But yeah, so the end of the Poker Hand, Alison reveals that she's the reason she's so good at bluffing is she feels like she's good under pressure. And that was also,
by the way, how she studied in school. She would do it at the last minute, she'd cramp for things because she was so good under pressure.
She said.
So she takes the pot, she wins the hand for the night, and but Jake's like the scene out is like him going hmm.
A little fun on the that's what Alison said about.
Yeah. So then we go have some very Melrose lines. He says, I showed you mine, you show me. Yeah, that was the Melrose line. So there's already already this this flirty foreplay happening and foreshadowing. And then I wouldn't have taken you for this, and then you said, well you don't know me, and it was just this whole kind of thing foreshadowing. Yeah, those very key Melrose lines. Yeah, very showed you mine, show me your.
I'm very subtle, very super subtle.
Yeah.
So then we find Matt swimming in the pool, Ronda coming to invite him. Yea topless count. Ronda's inviting him to go to this dance thing, and he has absolutely no interest in attending. She says, I need you there. He says, all right, I'll go.
So of course she does, because he's the nicest person, is.
The nicest friend. And then Jake comes knocking on Alison's door the next morning or later the next morning, asking for help with something. Doesn't want to tell her what it is, but would she mind coming to his apartment later that night.
Right, which is also said Daphne's thinking about the foreshadowing. So now you've already been set up that there's some chemistry, so it feels.
Like and.
What is that about?
Like?
So then we go to the dance performance and Matt and Ronda are watching the performance, and I think that Matt is just wrapped. He is just loving the performance. He didn't expect to and is just.
Love so much of the dancing. Yeah, like they really focused on the dancing. That was fun.
I mean to see that, to see these amazing dancers clearly not just you know, extras, they were dancers, and the doing what they were doing, the choreography, and that that lead guy was amazing. It looked like dancer.
And just just for the prep work for that scene, like they had to get those dancers together and rehearse it and to shoot that sort of thing.
And the music. I think it brought a lot into Melose. It is in the courtyard, and it was really cool to bring in that artists, you know, that that artistic just bring it into our gang.
I really enjoy Yeah, and to give it that much time, I really liked it too. I was very impressed.
But I did happen to watch the show with Doug and made him watch with me, and he's sitting there going, I don't remember any of this episode. He didn't remember the poker game. And then he's like watching the concerts, like yet, no no recollection of watching this at all. And then and then as his character is like so enamored with the dancing, you know, for a guy who didn't want to go in the first place. And then he's watching the show and he's so enamored and he's like, yes,
I want to go backstage. Yes, I love this. And he said to me, he goes, what is Matt straight?
Who's your friends?
So I want to meet your friend?
Meet her?
And it was it was confusing to him because he has no recollection of it all. He's just great for Teresa, but he was watching stage. So yeah. So then before they go backstage, though, we find out what's going on with Jake and Allison. She shows up at his apartment and he reveals that his secret is he didn't have a great upbringing and he never finished with high school and what he's doing now is studying for the GED. Would she help him?
And which is so sweet And this is what makes Grant such a lovely guy and makes Jake such an interesting character, which is he's this tough guy. Same with Grant too, it's something they share, but this incredibly sweet side and that he can play both. I was so moved by this scene.
I was just like the vulnerability from the tough guy.
Yeah, we love we love the vulnerable, the vulnerable.
Because that's real. It's not even like a vulnerability of like his feelings to not have a deed to not you know, have graduated, not from college, but high school is a shame that you know, he carried around. So to open that up to you, you know, yeah, the smart, pretty girl. I thought that was really and that he
was optimistic about it. Felt like for the first time he might have a future because he's been he's decided to work towards this, but he does think maybe I need some help because I want to make sure that I get this, and so he's asking Alison.
Yeah, and to ask for help, right, Like, that's such a sweet moment for when a man can ask for help. It's so important. It's a great thing to model to. I mean, this was a great such is such a sweet scene.
So then we're back at the dance performance and Matt wants to meet the dancer friend Teresa, So they go backstage to find her. I don't know if you guys notice this. Do you know who opened the door to the dressing room to let them in? No, Chip Chalmers one of our directors. He recurring directors, Yes, and yeah, often he would, but they would often put crew members in as like little bit parts or x you know,
like background performance. Sure enough, he had his head set on and he opens the door like he's playing the stage manager. Again. That was that was Doug spotting Chip. He doesn't remember anything about the episode, but he's spotted.
He's like, wait, oh that's mind that Oh that's amazing.
Yeah, that was fun. So they walk into the dressing room and they meet Teresa, and Teresa says to Matt who's I loved you know, I love the performance, glad I could turn you on, And then Ronda says, well so far, well only to yeah, so a dirty lick, eliciting a dirty lock from Matt, like all right, really around it again. Doug has zero recollection of she did
that scene. But I did sort of know like we're just sort of like hinting around at the character of Matt being gay, like nobody's come out and said, oh buddy, you know whatever, Like it's not like an open conversation. It's just sort of like lines like this. Those the bread crumbs were just sort of like dropping for the audience.
I asked Doug if there was anything like where you were you not allowed to openly talk about, like how like what were the parameters that was this thing part of because there were so many things they weren't allowed to do and that they weren't comfortable pushing certain boundaries and stuff. But anyway, I just sort of noticed it as like they're just leaving these little bread crumbs, like well only to a point, just.
Doesn't she's not like this episode, she's a little toy about why it was written this way and why he played it that way because it was obviously flirty. I mean, yeah, it was.
It was sort of like, at first it looks like, oh, he's almost enamored with Teresa, yeah, as being attracted to her, but turns out that's not it. He's just sort of enamored with that with art, the performance and the dancing, and he's just really impressed with her dancings.
I didn't I can't remember. Did Doug remembers they're seeing when he tells us I thought we all knew. No.
I think I think the characters all do. It's just everyone knows. It's just sort of interesting the way the show slips it in.
Just that time. You know, again, this is what early nineties, and it was I think a lot of men and women just were it was like their own self kind of like, don't tell her whatever, because it wasn't safe, especially in Hollywood actors. It was so it was like they're just gonna be themselves and if they meet someone, maybe they'll go somewhere else or they're not open with it,
which is why it's so great now. So maybe that's in there here he is with this group of people, and he has a whole life of where he can tell it.
Or not tell it, and right it was. It was just sort of the reaction to those lines like that. Rhonda was like, well, only to a point almost like it was like, we're gonna hint at this, but not really.
And then I.
Was like, yeah, it was so annoyed, like that was annoying or whatever, and that was notable.
I thought, Yeah, so far the character is sort of overtly sexless, like everybody else is having romances and things are heating up, and right, yeah, and I remember Doug talking about it and saying, you know, this character has to have a real life. Yeah, And I also loved in this we're coming up on it, but you got to see that part of Doug that so like intense and serious and earnest, and he's trying to get her
to do this and take a stand. And that's how I remember him being such a man of principle, hilariously funny and also really principal. It was fun to seem. I was like, Oh, there's Doug.
They decide that they want to go out for a bite to eat afterwards and continue their conversation. That's where Matt learns that Teresa and Ronda went to high school together and now that Teresa's making a living as a dancer. The audition to get her into this company was something that Ronda was supposed to do five years ago, but at the last minute, Ronda had broken her ankle and didn't end up making the audition. So that was news to Matt.
So that really shows that Ronda has been hiding her own shames about this whole storyline about is she good enough and that whole I mean, the whole thing's about frenemies. We'll see as we go on. But for Matt, her best friend, to not know, he say, wait, what you audition? Wait what? I don't know. I just they made a point to that, yeah, in.
There, and so we'll learn more about that. But then we were back to Jake and Allison's studying and they're having coffee and staying up late, and she's pushing him to keep going, and she says, the only way to cram is to cram, So let's keep going. So on the very.
Heated studying, there's a lot of meaningful looks, there's a lot of head tilts. It's very yeah, very loaded study.
And so back with Matt and Rnda and Teresa. Matt is encouraging Randa to go to the audition, and hey, there's this, you know, another opportunity to opening in the company. You should go. And you know, I think there's a reason that we, you know, had this dinner with Teresa. I think there's a reason she was put in in front of you, is is this fate you should try out for this new opening in the company. What have you got to lose?
So we talk about how Doug channel Jimmy Stewart, can we just talk about how don't you believe in fate? And she's up on this thing, and he's just like, and I mean these were the early days in Melrose. Yeah, I mean that ended in a few more episodes, but I just love all that good and he did it so beautifully. I just felt like, Wow, what happened to this? What show am I watching? This is the.
Morows so earnest and so encouraging.
Don't you believe in Faidon? Yeah?
And we're off her considering what she just said. So then the next morning, Billy is in the court already comes knocking on Jane and Michael's apartment because he's worried that Alison didn't come home last night. So we learned that Alison didn't come home that night, and we know where she's been, but Billy doesn't know where she's been.
People start gathering, and like people gathering.
Everyone comes out of their apartments and they all one, and we're all gathering around Jade and Michaels and the speculation and then yeah, and then the speculation that she must have had one night stand and that you know, puts that seat in Billy's head. And then out she comes from Jake Store.
Everyone's talking about you say very pressed with Allison that she just sort of goes basically, believe what you want, it's none of your I was like, oh, good for you, because she's such a good girl. You would think she would immediately say it's nothing. Is something. She does say it's not what you think, but in a very sort of light way that leaves it open for interpretation.
And she does the walk of not shame back to her own apartment.
Watch is.
Just I helped him, honest test. But wait, I have a question for the audience. I lived in an apartment, as I said earlier with Darren, and I'm wondering if he got some of these stories. I'm trying to remember anyway, But that's the only time I lived in an apartment really when I was young like that, and it was a small one. I want to know of the audience, like how much do your neighbors become friends and get
in your business? And I know over the years we've heard like, oh, we had a place like that, but for to come out and everyone's standing around having a discussion about should we call the police because one of us didn't come home last night? Yeah? Is that normal? Does anyone else?
I want to imagine me all the time, all the time and say I lived in an apartment just like that. We were all friends, we all hung out, So I think it does happened. I didn't have that experience either, although I lived in an apartment and my boyfriend's best friend lived downstairs, so that had that sort of we really would if someone was having a barbecue, everybody showed up. It was minors, there were only it was a duplex. Yeah, but I do think it happens, But.
I don't think to the extent that we're talking about in the scene where everybody knew the precise moment to come out into the courtyard and get involved in this one conversation that happened to you exactly talking are we talking about Alison not coming up? Okay, let's all talk about it like they all came out precisely this moment to weigh in and say, you know, she probably I don't want to stand and you know whatever, and the speculation all right, and then it's like she confirms it
when she comes out. But like that, I think obviously is a heightened sort of in our courtyard the.
Middle every second of this, Laura.
All these moments happened in the courtyard, Billy and Alice.
I don't know where you guys were, but we.
Were building already, okay, on Okay.
So I just it's an interesting point of like you were just friends in the show. So at what point does he you know, I see him questioning like should I be?
You know what I mean, Like.
He's not just a friend. He really likes you. But is he getting too possessive? Is he expecting too much? Should he just let you be?
It's a confused Well in the last episode that I watched that you guys haven't seen yet unless you're watching on Amazon, and which case, you just watched it. Oh right, we pretend to be boyfriend and girlfriend with his parents, so that the writers were definitely leaning towards this. I wondered watching it. I thought, I wondered if originally they had planned on Alison and Jake getting together, and then
Andrew and I had such good chemistry. Maybe that's why maybe this show was already written and then they pivoted because all of a sudden they were like, oh no, no, these two were going to get together.
Maybe see I felt like it was this was the moment where we got to challenge what I thought the audience all wanted to see, which was Alison and Billy getting together. Right then, this is the moment that we put trouble in front of it, right, you have you have trouble because then Sandy, who has this you know, obvious like back and forth attraction and situation with Jake that's sort of like underlying everything they say to each other. It's an opportunity at the end of that scene for
both Sandy. Sandy's exasperated with Jake, like great Jake, right, She's exasperated that he had Alison in his apartment all night, and Billy's obviously distraught while everybody else just thinks it's funny, like you know, Michael. Michael goes back in the apartment laughing about it, like, oh, look, they spent the night together.
But that's where we as an audience get to see Billy frustrated because of that growing interest in Alison, and then Sandy being frustrated about Jake, which does resolve later in the episode. Is the two of them get their like explanations and they're like, whew, that's not what.
Yeah, but Alison and Jake have such sweet chemistry. I was rooting for them. I was like, yeah, I don't even real like those are I can't believe that I forgot I was rooting for them. They were so sweet together.
Yeah, very cute.
So anyway, Alison goes back to the apartment and she still won't explain to Billy she's not going to give up Jake's secret. She won't tell Billy about she's a fault Alison.
She is.
She's keeping his secret. And oh, by the way, she needs to go get some sleep because she didn't get very much sleep last night.
And this I think it was in this scene Billy and he goes but I tell you everything Billy does. I was like, Oh, that was so sweet. But I tell you everything.
I know. That's what I mean. It's a sweet, tough place. You know, a lot of relationships start this way in real life, you know, where you're like, oh, you can't want to say too much, you're just friends, but you really want to know, and I do. I told you this, you tell me this. I want to know. Yeah, poor guy.
So then we're back to Ronda. She shows up to work on the dancing with Teresa, and she says, I'm going to do this. I'm going to try to I'm going to try to audition for the company. I want to dance more funky. And Teresa tells Ronda she needs to clean up her lines, and all of a sudden, she's like sort of coaching her and helping her get ready for this competition. But it's clear that there is competition between the two of them, and it's a little
bit feisty, a little bit friendly competition. I'm not so sure it's just like actual competition. Teresa's awfully superior, I thought, with the way she's talking to round about it. But there is where this montage of them, the two of them dancing and working on this together turned into a
really elaborate montage is really amazing. Yeah, And I thought again, like the amount of time it took to get that right because the choreography, these girls had to rehearse that part off sites to get that ready and then shoot it and montage. I thought it was really elaborate and like like good production.
Really well done.
To the point of the character of Ronda, I think it's, you know, they're getting deeper with each here we are what six in and they're getting deeper with each one, and that's important because she is aerobics teacher or a funk.
Yeah, she's an aerobics teacher, but she's.
A dancer at heart. They've done that, so I loved how they spent the time on that. Yeah.
And then at the end of that scene that Ronda says, you know, let's go out to eat and I want to have pasta, and Teresa sort of mentions looking down on her, like with three days before the audition, I don't I think you should reconsider that pasta making run to feel insecure, dancer, not cool. Back at Shooters, Billy goes to Shooters and he wants to commiserate with Sandy. So here again, I think it's an example of like these two that maybe have interest in Jake and Allison.
They're sort of commiserating on.
Like what and this is what. We haven't talked about this yet, but this is the episode where Sandy loses her accent absolutely, notice, which is a relief, I'll be honest, like it just you don't feel it anymore. It's like, oh that's nice, that's good.
Yep. She'd initially had this girl from the Southern and then they just said it's not working, just lose it.
It was distracting, right, I think without it, it's a.
Lot and then everyone like just brushed it over it and that was Yeah, no one ever.
Talked about it now. We never talked about it again.
We just adnswer. Yeah.
I'm sure if there had been social media at the time, it would have been discussed.
Discuss right, But it was she seemed a lot more comfortable. The character just seemed a lot more comfortable. And yes, yeah, it was things were really smooth. Yeah. While they're at the bar commiserating about this and sort of speculating on whether these two would get together, they both have sort of different versions of how they think it might have happened and they go into dream secrets, but I just wanted.
To It was one funny line that that Andrew shoes tired, she was spent. Oh that's very clear, Like yeah, yes, but then you're right, they both have fantasy.
I love hers fantasy. Yeah no, I think it happened like this and then you guys acted out.
Yeah, it's funny. So in hers, Alison is clearly the aggressive, which is just watched fun to play as an actor that I got to do these different character black.
Outfit and nine and a half weeks video. I was wondering, if you watch this with me, you nailed the girl. It was great. It was great to see Alison do this.
But Billy's version, like Billy's versions, like know, and he's so like Sandy's trying to have her version like make excuses for why Jake might have like done that, you know what was all? She was so aggressive and like Billie's version, he's trying to emasculate. Well, it was just you know, it was super clunky, like like dream sequens. Well this happened, and then he's afraid of spiders, so then Alison goes to take care of the spider.
Was so bizarre was off. That was fun.
That was really funny.
Smart writers to.
Do that, you think so cute, super funny.
We got to be a little more whimsical, yea before it got dramatically really fun.
Dream sequence in almost every like in like four episodes.
So yeah, yeah, but every series. Oh my god, they're making out again. Oh my god, they're making yeah, remember it at the time. So funny.
So then back at Allison is at Jake's apartment and they're getting to know each other a little bit more, and Alison reveals to Jake that she got good grades but felt like she didn't really fit in in school. By the way, I thought she was wearing a very cute outfit, high waisted short Did you notice this I did? Super cute, like very current.
Right now it's all bad again, Yeah, it's all back.
And Jake reveals he was the opposite in high school. He you know, seemed cool, but he sort of like didn't care about stuff, and you know, now he sort of regrets living that way, and now he's for the first time feeling hopeful about his future.
I liked the moment of Alison saying, I live so much in the future. I wasn't in the moment. I'm like, and there's your spiritual lesson from Melo's place for the day, live in the moment. Yeah, right, the present is a gift.
But they do bond over the fact that neither one of them really know where they're headed. They don't, you know, both of them feel equally confused, although they have sort of different paths to get there.
That's why it felt like breakfast Club to me, right, because it's like it looks so different and yet inside were just the same. I thought it was so cute.
It was Melrose version. You know, you guys are about to make out and you're like in shorts and you're in one of your apartments, but his breakfast club.
And there Allison broach the subject. She said, does it bother you? That everyone in the building thinks, you know, they're we're having a thing, And instead of answering the question, he turns it around and said does it bother you? And it looks like it doesn't bother either of them.
Yeah, Well, if they're saying it.
Then we're back to Teresa and Ronda, where the sass is sort of escalating. She's telling Ronda not to eat the pasta and I thought that Teresa was a real SaaS monster here and they start they start having.
I have a great metabolism, which she does.
Yeah, and Teresa accuses Ronda of being bitter and jealous, and Ronda says, there's no way she's gonna let Teresa, you know, mess her up and psicher out. She's coming for that spot in the dance company. So Ronda's determined. Back with Billy and Alison in the apartment, Billy wants Alison to go to the beach with him and Alison says, sorry, can't. I got to spend the day with Jake. But she still won't tell him why. So this is where he gets really hurt and like, wait a minute, I tell
you everything. Yeah, yeah, this is where he's feeling like maybe I'll maybe I'll stop, maybe I'll stop telling you everything if you don't tell me what's going on with you. But Alison is a vault. We go to the aerobic studio where Matt is again taking the aerobics class that Ronda is teaching, and today Ronda is teaching very aggressively.
So Doug doesn't remember taking the class.
Recollection, He was just shocked he's like, he's not a guy who enjoys dancing now, and he's like, gosh, for somebody who doesn't really dance, they had me dancing a lot and he has no reception.
Bro, Yeah he really was. He's like, all right, that's what we're.
Doing, but you had to learn a few steps to do that bunjie jumping.
He's dancing. There's so much to do.
Ronda sort of scolds him for not doing it right, and he's.
Like, yeah, who's mad at everybody? Why?
Why the tension? So they walk out after the class. Rnonda reveals she is nervous about the audition and Matt is worried about her stress level, and she says, I'm going back to the studio to rehearse even more good for her. So then we find Alison quizzing Jake on State capitols. They're at a bar during the studying. He gets all the answers right. He says he knows all this from his life experience. He's tired of studying, wants to go somewhere else and says, are you game?
Should we go?
She says yep, and off they go. Back at the studio. Matt comes to the studio late find Ronda still working late at night. He says he's worried about her. And he, by the way, is wearing his Birken socks and socks again and something he would never.
Wear I remember, and he's not allowed to wear now.
No, he's not allowed.
He only even works totally back. Yeah, he's got sucks. And Ronda reveals then that the audition from five years ago, she didn't actually break her ankle.
Yes, that's the that's the reveal of.
Her big reveal that she raising.
Yeah, that she felt like the pressure was so intense and she just sort of made up the story about the broken angles so she wouldn't have to go through with it. She was afraid of failing.
She even wore a bandone, she said, yeah, for weeks.
And that her parents maybe never forgave her. And she feels like Teresa maybe is living the life she was meant to have, and so this audition feels really important to her.
Yeah, And then you think back to about all the other scenes in the restaurant with Teresa when this is the truth, right and they're having these arguments based on this line. Wow, she was really behind that lie, like she really committed that lie for so long.
Yeah, So she tells her truth to Matt and then we cut back to Alison, who's now on the back of Jake's.
Motorcycle or motorcycle? Are you kidding?
Do you remember that? Were you actually was it like green screen? Like, were you actually up there? It kind of looked a little bit like it might have been.
I mean, Grant rode a motorcycle right, right.
But what was it like? Because if the camera's parallel to you and you're going like, because.
Wasn't it for me? How was that scenes up there on the motorcycle when I came on.
You bought a motorcycle? Yeah?
In real life, yes, But I also as Joe was on the back of his motorcycle up there. We went up to Moholland and rode around. You know, you just get another car you block off.
Yeah, And so the camera is in a car driving parallel to you shooting.
Out, yeah, or if there's one where you go buy yep. So you probably were, but but you don't remember. It was a long time ago.
It sounds familiar, but I don't know if I'm remembering. Like when you hear a story a lot about when you were a kid, and I remember that though you were too, I don't. Yeah, so I don't watching it or now i've seen it, I remember what it looked like. Yeah, so I don't know.
Yeah.
So Jake is taking her up to Moholland to see the view, which is where it gets very, very flirty.
I was so surprised by this because I thought, like, okay, we've had this fantasy scene and that was it, the fantasy scene. And then as we're on this lookout having this very romantic suite flirty scene, the chemistry was amazing. I'm like, what, I what could possibly happen? Any memory of it?
Yeah, well you don't have a memory of the actual kiss up there. That's hysterical.
Okay.
He tells her we're not in high school anymore.
Yeah, and they kiss and they're discussing how they are total opposites and like they never would have made sense in high school. And he says, we're not in high school and it leads to this lovely kiss and.
I will yummy kiss too. That really that was yummy. That was Yes, I wish, I wish, I no, but I do know. I do know because he and I had scenes later like Allison and Jake dated later, so I did remember he was a really big taste. It must have been because I was dating Andrew. I must have like, I have to block this out. I cannot let myself. I couldn't say to Andrew it was yummy, not really. Yeah, so apparently I blocked it out, but I could see that it was nice.
But speaking I mean in your defense, Like Doug was watching the show with me and he's like, what is happening.
I know it didn't come out of noe. We didn't see it coming.
And then all of a sudden it was like this lovely, real kiss, and he was like, what.
Is honestly like, I'm half kidding, but honestly, so Andrew and I are dating, We're in a new relationship, and we're all friends. So then you say you have this friend group, and then your producer saying, now you have to make out with this other friend. I imagine it was quite a lot for us all the handle, so we all just blocked it out.
I think it's yeah, I think it's trauma that you've all just blocked it out because nobody can remember any of it.
Because I had to keep saying to Andrew oh it was nothing. Oh it was nothing. Was it was a living hell. It was work, It was a living Helly come home?
Where were you all day? Were you shooting with Grant again?
It was all I tell you everything. This is the episode that it suddenly occurred to me we need to stop counting kisses within an episode. It's more about a tally like who kissed who? Like, this is the episode where that occurred to me, Like, wait a minute, our kiss count needs to be more about like who has kissed? Because like we're gonna just keep counting kisses every episode.
In charge of counting our own we kissed because I've already had two.
Well, this is what I'm saying.
This is camera, I'm kissing Andrews. So don't I don't know that it's happening.
Our new kiss count is gonna be a chart and there's gonna be graphics. Yeah, it's gonna be like a pie chart.
The PowerPoint PowerPoint. It's gonna get so long and yeah, later on you can't even keep up.
So far to go we're really only on episode six, really, yeah, but already I do need to keep a tally, like I'll make a chart, I'll have it. Next week, So Alison and Billy in the morning. Alison tells Billy that the reason they were spending time together was because of the test. She reveals, now, okay, let me tell you the truth. I was helping Jake that the whole tree for the test.
Let me tell you part of the truth.
Yeah, but Billy is visibly very relieved. So few my imagination was getting away with me and oh, you guys have nothing in common, to which Alison is saying, you know what, I got to know him and I like him, and you really have to be able to see behind beyond people's facades.
And weren't you thinking at this point in the episode, because we know that it doesn't become something at this point in the show, were you thinking, how do we disentangle this?
Well, yeah, it's going to be tricky, is what you think. It's a little tricky because she is keeping the seat. She's not going to tell the part about the kiss, and Billy is obviously interested in Alison enough to be relieved that it was only studying for a test. Like so it is it does seem to be like an
entanglement them here. Yeah, and then we also find that Sandy is sort of talking to Jake about the Alison things, saying, well, you know, you have nothing in common, but if you too are happy, you should go for you know, she's sort of testing him, and he says, no, the real reason we were hanging out is she was helping me study for a test. So he comes clean to her as well and resolving that relationship. Sandy is visibly relieved and says, you know, you could have come to me
for help. I would have helped you. But he says, well, that would have been a distraction. So we're keeping that sort of possibility alive too. So it's getting very complicated. So then Ronda's audition. We're at the audition and all of a sudden, for the first time, Matt is wearing his baseball hat correctly. Did anybody notice that?
Big news.
It's the first time we've seen Matt wearing is based forward forward.
That's surprising because that wasn't allowed either because you can't even see the eyes right.
But he was at the audition being her supportive best friend, and he did have his baseball hat on, and he says to her that he would miss her if she gets the job, but go get it. And at that point, Doug said he still does not remember a single of those scene. Still nothing so ron.
And it looked very flash dance, right, so do we think so, she's obviously a good dancer, Vanessa, but they might I think they had a double, because otherwise why would they be why would she be backlit? Right, So we shoot a lot from the back, we can't see it's a great double. If it is a double, it looks like her, the really long limbs terrific.
But I also I ended up not knowing for sure if it was a double, because Vanessa is a great dancer.
And there was that shot on the ground where they shot the shadow and the spinning around. But I think obviously some of it was Vanessa.
Was Yeah, the front is clearly Vanessa, but the back to me.
Too, right, I mean, so they didn't flash dance too, didn't feel flash dancy?
Yeah, yeah for the front in the back. And the director of the dance company is, oh, this guest star Charles Randolph Wright. He he actually went on he's huge accomplished director, executive producer, choreography, choreographer, writer. He's like done mostly directing for the remainder of his career. Very accomplished director.
So cool, Yeah, very cool.
And and so after the audition, Teresa follows Rnda out into the lobby and that's and tells her she's going to get a call back for sure. And we saw it on Teresa's face that she was like watching Ronda and feeling a combination, you know, like a lot of emotions like pride, also like sad. A lot of things were going through her face. I thought she was beautiful and that scene showing a lot of colors, yeah, about
how she was feeling about that. And then she admits to Ronda that she had actually wanted to see Rnda fail.
Yeah, I mean I thought she was her apology. I thought it was feeling threatened by Ronda. I think that's what that close up was. Yeah, absolutely, Okay, the truth. I've tried to hide it, she's tried to hide it. It is coming up, you know what I mean, Like she's really good.
Yeah, but she tells her the truth and it's her apology saying, you know what I was. I wasn't a good friend. I wanted to see you fail. I was threatened by you. I always thought if you had audition five years ago, I never would have gotten this job, and so I was, you know, nervous that you were going to come in and take my job. But you
know what, you deserve it. And that's when Ronda says, even if I get it, I'm not going to take it because I've realized I like my life and I don't even want to know if I get the job. And you know, that whole thing was resolved. They Ronda and Matt leave the dance studio before even finding out if she got the spot.
Yeah, that was a really sweet So you talk about freedom like I just needed to know I could do it. I don't need to have the reward.
Yep, I just needed I did too.
As Ronda and Matt were leaving their iconic glimpse of Doug's sides in his back pocket, See that.
Sides are the little mini right, Yeah, the scripts we have. We have little mini scripts so we can keep our lines.
Yes, they're folded very small, and you usually have them in your hand when you're just trying to you know, last minute, you know, follow along, know where you are whatever when you're rehearsing, but you forget you might leave them in your pocket for the audience.
Are those days lines that you're given to us. And then the old days they were this regular size and the day your pages, all of them would be stapled together. And then I remember coming to some one day in some year, some show, and they were a quarter of the minis and they're minis, and they're like shrunk so little, and I was just like, and then I started just saying, can I have regular size? Please? Can I have grown
up the glasses? I couldn't because when I needed glasses it was you know you sometimes you just want to pull them out from nder a prop that's in front of you and sneak you're lying, Oh okay. But when they were so shrunken into these minis, whoever invented those? I think too many directors and cameramen saw these all over the set, you know what I mean, like our little cheap seats.
No, they're like, we got to make them smaller. Yeah, when you find these things lying, you know they're not supposed to be in the show and they're supposed to be hidden, and yeah, this was one of those fun caught a glimpse. And then we're back with Alison and Jake, where Alice talks to Jakes and says, you know last night that was that was really fun. But you know, that was just a that was just a kiss. We're
just friends, We're just going to be friends. And it seemed to be like a mutual understanding that that's what it was. It was just all sort of like.
Abruptly decided, yeah, now we're done, yeah, done, just that and a wee. And I was proud of them for having the conversation and not just moving awkwardly to say that was lovely, but let's let it stay there.
Yeah, And that scene takes place, as we were saying earlier, on the sound stages at in Santa Clarita, outside the production offices. So probably when Jake was walking out, you know, some of our production was in there, and probably Andrew was using the facts to start doing something yeah political, yeah, but yeah, so right behind that door is like our whole you know, office staff, and then we we did that. All that became Jane's store.
It was Jane's Fatigue. But also it was the aerobic studio. So every time Ronda had an aerobics class, they would clear our production offices out and they'd have to take the fax machine out and everything, and they would set dress to make it look like an aerobic studio.
And also the hospital. You sed to remember some of the hospital outside right.
Later, exterior, so outside the building they do like the parking lot and stuff like that. So we would utilize not just the sound stages that were there in Santa Clarita, but but they'd use the office, which is the front part. They would convert it into another set, and then the exteriors as well.
Have to move some of the camera trucks sometimes to know.
How many stages did we have at the end two I think I thought we had too too. Yeah, yeah, and she was shot there.
Before that, there was that what was that Jamie Lee Curtis Schwarzenegger movie. They shot that up there, I think? True, true, I think.
But we had it to ourselves for the most part. It was just like this isolated place up on the.
Health Do you remember our security guard like this one. There was like a booth and a.
Guy and it was just like it was so quiet and easy. We'd walk around in our slippers and our sort of yeah, our robes and it was just comfortable and it.
Was our home.
But then Allison says, come on, I'll buy you a beer, and that story is neatly wrapped up, and she takes him to Jake. She takes Jake to Shooters, where everybody in the gang is waiting to congratulate him on his graduation. They're wearing graduation caps and that was really cute, and he's surprised. Doug has his graduation cap on top of his baseball hat, which no, he cannot recall, but he did like the choice anyway. And that's where Sandy says to Alison, I just knew that you two couldn't be
a thing. You know too much, not you're not alike enough. And Alison gets the best line, the punchline to her, just to taunt her. Yeah, but he's a really good kisser.
Yeah. I love how you use your delivery. Yep, just like like you just smacked her walk off.
He's a really great here's some food.
For the camera. She's like, what, yeah, come back.
Here, but food for thoughts. So now Sandy knows that happened, or does she?
I really do love how we all came back together. How you guys the everyone came together from the apartment to surprise him, and he didn't, you know, because again acknowledging what he kept a secret for so long and what was painful and shameful like was really celebration at the end.
Yeah, and that really is like these first episodes were getting to know the characters each you go the little bit more, little bit breadcrumbs. And I also think it's so cute because you guys can think when we're all together, which is true because there it feels like because we're going so slowly, but really fourteen and nineteen, right, the episodes you guys come and then you're on for the rest of it, so it's only a few episodes without you, and it is a wee right, I don't it's strange
to me that you guys aren't here. I keep saying we Yeah, when we were all together.
Well, I feel like this season because it was such a different tone, It feels like a whole different like segment of time that like the bulk of what we think about when we remember this time were those crazy years of seasons two, three, four, five, you know, those is what we talk about as we and this tonally is we're still in like stage one. You know, before it this show wasn't a hit.
The show watching how it was sweet? Yeah, and then the show you guys were on was a hit. So the two two kind of separate shows, really.
So and at this time, so episode six, they were almost halfway through their initial order, which was thirteen episodes were originally contract.
Andrew, our businessman was coming every with all the what the ratings meant and what they I was like, I don't whatever. We're just here to do our work.
And it wasn't he was paying very It wasn't great. At this point, we holding steady, it mediocre.
We were after nine o two and oh, and we were not holding our own like there. I remember there was a drop off. Andrew might even remember, honestly, he paid such close attention to the numbers. There was sort of a drop off. And then you guys came out. Did Heather come on before you?
Just after?
Just after? Okay, that's when we'll get to that. But I remember we got new trailers. Either came on like, Heather can't be in these disgusting trailers. You guys have gotta love a girl while you're here for so many reasons.
I mean, I think Aaron called Heather his you know, lucky.
His good luck charms, his good luck charm.
Heather.
I gotta get new, get those kids some new trailers. Yeah, my good luck charms coming.
Yeah. And she didn't ask I remember, she didn't ask for anything. It wasn't she didn't demand it. They just wanted to take care of her. And I think we had favorite nations with trailers, which means everybody gets the same. So you're like, thanks, everybody's lives got a little better when Heather showed up. Yeah, yes, do we have time to do a couple of We have some audience questions, and I would like to know, Daphne, how your relationship with Darren Starr changed after you started on the show.
Uh. You know, I didn't see him very often because he was the writers were nowhere near us. They were here in l A and we were out in the sticks and in Santa Curita, which now is like just another neighborhood it seem like, but back then it was pretty far. But I do remember a couple of these lines.
So I come in, like we said later this season, and I remember using the facts and sending him some edits I had in a in a scene or two and just going, oh, it's Darren, you know, like I'm sure he'll be fine, and I'm like so I wrote.
I was like, no, but she repeats herself, and I think maybe.
This might be better. This is what would I mean that? So I sent him some to make it more flowy, and I got back good editing from Darren. Don't again, No, we don't really do that here. And I was like, oh, okay, you're the boss, I'm the you know what I mean? Like it was so I had to. He was very sweet about it, and I got it, you know, I mean, and I can't even imagine if eight or nine of us started like can we just and then shortly at some point in there, we were not too at all.
If I had another thing, they would say. So that's that was just one thing. It I think it it. I think it grew. I mean, we stayed friends. It's just a clear thinking, Oh I got a buddy in the office. I'll just not a big deal. And I was like yeah, he said, yeah, that's not we don't really do that here.
Yeah, because I think because we were so far first of all, we ruined it for you because in the beginning, people were changing things left and right, and it's not like on a sitcom you call up the guys come down and you work through it, right. We were so much experience, so many secoms. We were so far apart that they felt like they were losing control and people were actually changing the meaning of lines, not just making it more comfortable. So they got really strict because it
was like it had been taken advantage of. So that is a different thing that's on the firstcast.
I didn't know that writers right there.
The writers are right there, and they come down and they.
Tried, like I've done a couple of guest stars on so.
Yeah, yeah, they come. They're there all the time. They're there every day. But you all so you don't really change it on your own. You wait till they come down. They come down every day, you do run through and then you say this isn't working. You all work together to fix it.
And well they would there's a line, there's a script and they would say like try this phrase instead, right, yeah, and you'd work at it and they say, no, it doesn't work, go back or yeah.
Yeah, you get to rehearse it every day. So they didn't have they didn't get to see us rehearse it. Like sometimes on a movie you'll have the writers there and you'll do it something won't work and then they'll fix it and do it right there. But they were so far away. Yeah, they couldn't have us doing your own couldn't have this doing our own thing.
Okay, so here's another question. Somebody asked, and I'll just post to the group. If you could have played any other character, male or female, who would you want to play?
I would play Grant because I like to be topless.
No, I suspected as much. I suspected that would be your answer for all the times that you've showed up for this podcast topless.
I bet we bring a shirt for Court and you put a shirt on.
She want to show for six Pack?
Well, I love Laura. I loved watching Sydney. But I thought all the time, that's so amazing. Thank god, I don't have to do it what I often thought you were. They put you through the ringer. You were willing and able to do the craziest thing. I was full of admiration and fear, healthy fear. I like to think I would have liked to play Sydney, but I don't know that I would have had the balls.
Wow, that's interesting.
She was definitely a fun character to play.
Yeah, I mean it was just you were like, all right, it throws getting crazy at you and you were like, yeah, right, and you would do.
It kind of didn't have a choice. You're like, all right, yeah, but it was super.
Funny, did all of that, totally committed to everything. Yeah, she was such a chameleon. And all those outfits were on my side, seemed like over the top or like out of Mary Tyllamora Beret one minute, you know what I mean. And yet in your little outfits all matched, and yet you made it work because behind all that is crazy. I mean, there's a crazy girl back there, you know. And and but I never wanted to play Sydney.
I loved playing Joe, to be honest. But there were times when I thought, oh, it would be like to be in D and D and play Amanda or something like that, you know, because Joe was she wasn't a bit, you know, when Amanda was like this crazy mean woman and you guys went at each other and stuff, and I never she wasn't like that, So it would be fun.
I did. I thought that sometimes it'd be fun to play a bitch, and then I got to be drunk Allison, and drunk.
Alison was probably a lot of fun too.
Drunk Alison is super fun. That's one thing about I show like this that you think I want to be that character, and the next thing, you know, oh I am that character. Like we just to give you because it changed so much, but you had the most extreme swings from week to week, and somehow you made it work.
I had.
I had a lot of people ask me like, would I have liked to play another character? And the truth is I loved playing Sydney. Like I thought it was so fun, you know, and I as the character and she's not there yet, she's not where we're on the recap, We're not there yet. But as she arrived and then evolved, she really grew into this character that would morph into
whatever was going on, you know. And I liked there were times when we felt like Sidney was kind of doing her own show, you know, Like Sidney was allowed to wear hats, Sydney was allowed to do crazy stuff
that none of the other characters were. It was somehow okay for Sydney to do it and not for the other characters, right, So it felt like I was on my own little comedy planet, like I was, like, I get to kind of find the funny in this where everybody else is just a little bit more earnest and straight and and I just I felt really lucky about that. And I really enjoyed that and appreciated that. I felt like she had kind of a lot of leeway wow with the character, and I got to play around and
it just felt really fun. So I really appreciated that that was the character I got to play.
You could see that you were having fun. That's part of what made the character so much. It was a blessed Yeah, I really made that.
Yeah, I'm sure I'll be mortified when we get to you know, like there'll be a million ways that I'll be mortified for my acting and the character at the beginning, like I was, you know, as a brand new actress and still figuring it out. So I'm sure i'll be mortified.
But I see things that obviously there aren't moments. There are moments aren't great. But I have so much compassion for myself. I was so young, yeah, right, like it was thirty years ago. She just gonna go, oh, sweetie, you could have made a better you were the younger.
Yeah right, yeah, but you don't. Also, I've watched some of that recently over the last few years. And you know, you start out this what you're saying is comedy, comedic relief maybe, but you have some serious stuff later, Laura, and you've knocked it out of the park. I was like, how is she going to handle you know, whether it's the call girls stuff, for all of this horrible stuff that happened to you. And I'm like, that's where you were, Ernest,
that's where your real stuff showed through. And that's a great talent to be able to do both. Thank you, so thank you. I it was fun. And one more question more, how much say do we have over our character style, hair, makeup, and clothes. Let's start with Laura because we were talking about help.
Yeah, so that's part of what Sidney I think, had a unique position, Like she got the character, got to do some crazy things and so we were able to push some boundaries with that. And definitely in the like I would say, the third and then the fourth season, we were given a lot of leeway to play around,
and I was super grateful for that. It would be a collaborative thing with wardrobe and hair and makeup, like oh this, you know, for a while Sidney's going to be a secretary, so she adopted this like sort of like fifties and sixties vibe, and like the flip and the hair style and so like, those were really fun things to play around with, but it was particular to
that character. I don't think that that we had the same you know, boundaries that other characters probably had, But just by virtue of it being Sidney, we got to have a lot of fun with it.
Did you have say on yours?
Especially when Denise Wingate came on. She really wanted us to be comfortable. But I remember one time she said, okay, we just got a note shorter, brighter, tighter on Alison, and I was like, oh dear, But I was self conscious that my body had very big breasts and I really felt but she really was careful about like making me feel comfortable. We'll get these shows. And I wish someone had said, don't wear such big shirts right like in the early episodes, I'm like, get something fitted, but
I was. I was uncomfortable. I felt self conscious, So she was very careful to make sure it was comfortable and try to walk the line like they want this, they want the skirts this short, but I wanted them longer, so she would find something in the middle that would work for everybody. But she always chose my comfort over their dands, right, So if I had a bathing suit scene, she would let me wear shorts over my bathing suit or whatever it was that would make us feel more comfortable.
Mm hmm right, So it felt like a compromise, like they had. Very She'd tell me what the note was and say, this is where they want us to so what can we do to give them some of what they want but make you comfortable?
So very amazing, isn't it for a wardrobe person. Denise Wingate who went on to do huge movies. She and I were hired the same time and we both were like went into Aaron Spellings, and as I've said before, we kind of missed the mark the first scene the first day on set. They she had an idea and they just wanted it totally the opposite. So I went from psych some kind of a little bit of a sophisticated New York outfit because it was sort of like Upper east Side, you know, probably my husband was of
a New York family. And then they're like no, and I ended up in jeans and black and went the other way. But but she was. She was totally collaborative, So I would have to say I did have I was more comfortable to your point in kind of like those I don't know what they are, like they're more draw string with patterns and funky, you know, my vests and things like that. And the jewelry was more funky than just straight kind of tough punk New York. So she was really into that too. But I got to say,
I gotta say, but it wasn't. I didn't create it. You know, she had the vision and I It's one of the things I love about a good wardrobe person. You come in, they give you all these choices and you're like, I love that.
Well, it's really intimate too. It's really personal, intimate because you have to be comfortable in it and you're you know, and also like your hair and your makeup person, Yeah, those are really you're like they're up close and personal and working on you know, you get I got really close to makeup and hair people, and especially you know,
Lona Jefferson was our makeup artist Org. You know, like you just get really close to those people because you're you're trusting them and they're they're so thoughtful for you and how they Yeah, go to the pros.
They were doing this since the seventies probably. I think Greg tired not shortly after, but he used to ride a bike cycle a bike, not a bicycle, a BMW motorcycle. But they were I felt in such good hands with them.
They're just really intimate relationships for actors like those are the people that really care for you so closely.
And we felt very cared for and people were as the show started to take off, people were watching our hair and our clothes makeup, so it was it felt important because people were talking about it, so you really want.
And we were, and Lona and Greg were getting all this product, don't you remember, like all this stuff would come in and no, I'm trying this.
New days of free stuff. I miss all the.
Free so yeah, all right.
It's been so fun to read fans comments and questions, and we're getting people asking questions and leaving their thoughts on our Instagram and all our socials. We love that. We just started a Facebook account, so that's another way that and it's still the place, still the place Facebook, Instagram.
Follow us on Instagram. The two of us Laura Layton and Daphnie Sniga and still the Place, Still the Place, and then hashtag Courtney Thorne Smith.
We have another episode that Courtney is already going to jump on, but we'll have another Opticells and more guests to come. Yeah, I can't wait to see you next week.