Misspelling with Tori Spelling and iHeartRadio podcast. So we were at nineties con together. Yeah, yeah, was that like two months ago? Now? Yeah, okay, and we probably talked about this, so I'm just gonna lay it down at those two nights in the bar.
Yes.
In fact, the first night we had a really great conversation and I came up, we were talking to Brian Austin Green. Yeah, and I honestly couldn't remember if we had ever met. I don't think we had, which is kind of wild.
Yeah, I'd met Brian, but we never really talked. So that's why I ended up in a conversation with him because I was talking to solet who I did know, right, and and then he came over and we were and I was like, you know, we've never actually met. And then we started getting to it. I was like, you're a really cool guy, Like how come we've never made
this connection? And then you joined the conversation. I was like, again, this is funny that we're like probably associated together with the era and everything, and yeah, and a lot of you guys knew each other obviously, but but the fact that, yeah, I had never met either of you officially.
And I can't see, Like I can't even see you right now, Like I'm so like blind, real blind. Well, I choose to wear one contact because if I wear two, then I have to have readers on all the time because I'm old now, uh huh, and I lose them, so I just can't do it. So with my one contact, I kind of I see if there you are. So that night at the bar, I saw Brian talking to you, and I have to I have to be honest, I
didn't know who he was talking to. And then someone said writer Strong was like what And I only knew because, as I told you that weekend, I'm huge Kevin Fever.
Yeah, fan.
Like huge, So I need from that movie. And I was like, oh my god, that was like one of my favorite movies on the theater, like I've seen a gazillion and ten times anyway, So okay, So I walked up to you and then we started talking and we I think had a really good conversation. I remember like two percent of it.
Yeah.
And then the next night I found you again and we continued that conversation. And obviously we both have iHeart podcasts and pod meets World is in its six seasons.
Yeah, Yeah, we're doing We're on Yeah, we're we only have seven, so we only have like a season and a half.
We talked about that a lot. Yeah, like what happens next is yeah for nine to two one, omg, we're in our seventh season. We only have ten.
Yeah, and we still don't know. I mean, I'm sort of of the mind that we should pick another project, like another show to watch because I like it being a journey, except that I don't know. I mean, we could just start the show over again, but I feel like we'll end up repeating ourselves so much because you know, we don't even remember what we said, you know, two episodes ago, let alone at this point three years ago. So I don't know. Yeah, I mean, we've talked about
all kinds of things. We did this weird series of episodes because Danielle is really to wrestling, like professional wrestling, which I know nothing about, like watching or doing it watching, and so she she yeah, not doing it, although I think she probably does. She says she wants to get thrown through a table at one point, because I guess
that's like a big wrestling thing. Anyway, So she took us to WrestleMania, and we did like a series of episodes where we just interviewed wrestlers and watched WrestleMania and it was definitely not my thing, but it was so fun to just the three of us sort of and we kind of were like, maybe this is where the show goes. We just meet the world, Like we just go force each other to do stuff that like, we're
not into the room. So the idea is like, because we have very different tastes even though we're best friends, and you know, like Will's really into like geek D and D anything that involves like costumes and acting and character, which Danielle can't stand. Danielle loves like wrestling and like sports, which I know nothing about any either of those things.
And you know, I could probably hook them into some like deep literary shit that you know, they might not be into otherwise, And we just sort of force each other to do stuff. That's kind of where we're like, maybe that's the show.
I like that. But then there were three seasons of Girl Meets World.
Yeah, we're not going to do it. Oh wow, Yeah, I know, I.
Know it's definitively like no, yeah, I mean maybe years from now, but like, it was only ten years ago that we were doing that show, and none of us have really good memories, Danielle especially, and so for her, she's just like from the get go.
She said, we're not going to really talk about Girl Meets World, and we're respecting that. So we'll see if it changes with time. I think, you know, one of the benefits yeah, no, it's fine. One of the benefits of like, you know, recapping a show from the nineties as opposed to like even the office ladies who do their show. You know, it's only ten fifteen years old, But as we're talking about thirty years ago, there's like a level of remove that we can be I think
more honest. So maybe when we I had enough distance from Girl Meets World and we can look back and be like, remember that time when we were in our thirties and we did that reboot show, and we'll be able to talk about it. But right now, I think it's still a little there's still some fresh wounds and weirdness.
I understand. Yeah, Okay, can we not talk about Boy Meets World anymore?
No, we can talk about Boy.
We can't talk about it. No, I don't want to Okay, okay, fine.
Cool, you want to talk about Cavin Fever again.
Yeah, but I don't want to talk to you about stuff that everyone talks to you about. Okay, okay, So I want to go back to nineties con on that second night, yes, okay. So I came away from that weekend being like, wow, I really connected with a writer strong and no, I did go down the rabbit hole of your Instagram. Sorry, yeah, which still I'm perplexed at, Like it's.
Not very I'm getting better. I've decided to like actually commit to social media. I know, I know, but it's it's great, you know. I mean, it's a great way to actually be able to put your thoughts out there and publish your whatever and have a direct connection to the fans, which you know, I used to always be so scared of. But after doing conventions and then now the podcast, it's like, actually, these these fans are really cool people. I mean, they're I think. I Yeah, I
I hated being famous when I was a teenager. I hated being famous when I was on Boy Mets World, and like I wanted to avoid the spotlight as much as possible, and then I think whatever I tried to do afterwards, it always felt like, uh, I don't know, I had to contend with Boy Meets World as and the fandom from that, no matter what else I did.
So it's like, I like writing poetry and you know, our essays and and it's like if I felt like I needed to like avoid Boy Meets World, I needed to like just stay away from it and prove myself in some other way. And then I, you know, Hit forty started doing the podcast, and I just started to realize, like, oh, but this is a huge part of my life. This is the only reason a lot of these people are following me or paying attention to anything I do, and
I should just kind of embrace it. And then I think doing the podcast has really just given me a new sense of agency over that part of my life. And I feel like we're kind of controlling the narrative in a way that we never felt as kids because we were kid actors. You know, you don't ever feel like you're in control of the project as an actor, but especially as a kid. I was thirteen, so it was thirteen to twenty and yeah, so well in twenty hit I was just like I am anything butt boy me,
you know, I'm so not that guy. And then you just come to realize, like, yeah, but the chance even if I had continued acting and kept going and kept working, the chances of having something that would be that big of a hit and that would resonate with audiences are so slim, and so you kind of have to embrace that at a certain point and say, you know what, this is a big part of me in my career and who I am as an artist, and hopefully there's enough people that that will want to follow me into
whatever else I do next, my writing, directing, whatever, you know, like and if not, okay, but you know, to completely shut everybody out right, So yeah, it's yeh, it's been a shift.
So we talked about being ninety stars. I always feel so weird talking like stars. I immediately want to be like, no, no, no, sorry, sorry, I'm not considering myself a star. I'm not And this is this is why I'm having this conversation with you
and apparently the world. But it's a very small understanding of what actually went into it, because you don't feel, at least I didn't at Liberty to be like, oh my god, we went through something that a lot of it was like really hard and people were like, oh boo hoo, as we're famous, right, right, So I struggle with that all the time. Okay, so we did talk about this. What do you remember from us talking that weekend?
We came up with a pitch from movies. I remember our show it could go either way. Yeah, that was that. That was most of the second night was like riffing on that idea.
There was a lot we talked about ihearder connection there this podcast and like what happens when those show's over and the rewatch? And then like, right, we want to keep doing podcasts. We enjoy it talking to people and connecting.
Okay, yeah, and Nineties Con. I mean that was my third nineties con and I can't believe people are coming back and they're coming to my table for a second or third time. It's like it's becoming kind of like the ren Fair, you know, it's like, oh, this is this is just a regular thing that everyone checks in
off because they want to relive the nineties. I'm like, okay, I never thought that, but you know what, I and I guess if I if I think about it, when we were in the nineties, like people really worship the sixties and the seven So if there had been like a convention for the seventies, I bet you a lot of people would have gone to.
It, right, Like, yeah, I feel like those still exist.
Yeah, so yeah, it's just bizarre to be a participant and also sort of an object, you know, within that convention. Well yeah, I mean the people are coming there too, like so I'm sort of you know, we're we're there as part of the like window dress set of nineties, but it's also we're real human beings. So it's just
it's an interesting dynamic. And again, like when I started doing conventions, I thought I would hate them because I was so scared of same fans and like what, But the interactions are incredibly positive and and I think part of the fear for me, which I'm sure you experienced too, is that back in the day, our fans were teenagers, and teenagers don't know how to be like and when they see somebody famous or they recognize from the television, they they freak out, like you know, but adults are
pretty cool. They can just be like, hey, I like your show. You're like, oh, thanks.
That's positive if our fans are not teenagers, anymore.
They're Yeah, they're in their forties.
Yeah, in the fifties, Yeah, and they still kind of freak out.
I guess maybe, like if it's a completely random context, like recognize on the street, but when you're at a convention, right, it's completely controlled. It's like, Hi, this is I am here for this reason. You are here to say hi to me. You take a photo, whatever, sign an autograph, and we talk for a little bit, and it feels I don't know, for me, it's like been the best way to navigate that relationship, and it's been really positive.
I don't think if I don't think I know how to navigate it, I think that's where I'm stuck, really stuck. Reterstaurant, I'm stuck.
What do you do when people recognize you?
Oh, I immediately turn on and it's totally genuine, and I give myself.
But I give.
Myself in such a way that it's like you could probably do with like pulling that back away thirty Right, It's like I overgive to the point where I'm standing there with these people for like an hour and I don't know when to say goodbye. This is why I don't talk on the phone. I hate the phone, my wife, really because I don't know how to say goodbye or get off the phone, and I don't know what that comes from. Okay, So I saw Taylor Strong, Taylor Strong.
I just literally got you married to Taylor Swift, which Taylor's strong. I mean, it's just like when I met Channing Tatum, when I fucking stumbled over my words. Yeah, whatever, I met you. So I'm meaning you for the first time.
Taylor Swift. You saw Taylor Swift my future wife?
Wow, your future second wife? How would your wife feel about that?
Not good? Yeah, losing out to Taylor Swift. Yeah.
No.
She said that celebrities people are famous are stuck at the point they became famous in some way emotionally.
Yeah, but I think it could.
Be the entire kind of four out of years of your So like if you were thirteen, Like, do you feel like you're stuck at thirteen or do you feel like fifteen?
I'm probably stuck at fifteen. I mean, oh boy, I don't know. But I mean, luckily I was pretty mature for my age, like a lot of us kid actors, like, so, I feel like my fifteen is probably pretty mature. But yeah, I still feel like a teenager pretending to be an adult sometimes not all the time, but sometimes, and like,
and I definitely felt that way in my twenties. You know, it was like because everyone, I mean, the jobs I kept getting were still like playing in high school or it was still being treated and I still had a baby face. I looked like a kid, and it just sucked. It was the worst. But yeah, I mean, I definitely yeah, going back and doing the podcast with Will and Danielle, Will was sixteen when the show started, and that makes
a big difference. He's definitely like he was more of an adult, even though he's still wasn't in some ways, but like who he was was kind of the same. He's still the same person that he was when the show started, whereas like Danielle was a completely different new She was twelve and she had no idea. She didn't even know she wanted to be an actor. Really, she's sort of you know, she's become the most famous and the most recognizable, and so I think for her it's been the biggest transition.
Yeah, would your wife concur with that that you're somewhat emotionally stunted at fifteen?
No, she wouldn't say emotionally stunted.
I'm only saying emotionally stunted because Taylor Strong said those exact words. So now it's all I can think about. Yeah, it's like I'm emotionally stunted at sixteen night.
Wait what, Yeah, I don't know. I mean I would say, like it's more it's more like a matter of POV than emotional stunting. Like I definitely feel like something something so drastically changed in my life right Like I was doing plays and being an actor and wanting to do movies and TV shows and stuff basically for fun, you know, not really thinking about the end result, and then it becomes a hit show, becomes my life, becomes what is going to define me for the rest of my life.
So I feel like there's like the the fifteen year old point of view is still kind of like wide eyed, going, can you believe this happened to you? And but I emotionally,
I hope that I've matured enough. But I mean, I think my wife, especially when we first met, like she had never watched the show, never really knew about boy Meet's world, and I loved that, Like that was like a great thing for us, and so I think it's been it's been a times difficult for her to have to suddenly deal with it again, like that this part of my life that when we came together was like this is over, this is never gonna you know, and then Girl Meets the World comes along and I'm suddenly
directing a bunch of that and that becomes a huge part of my life. And then now the podcast and it's like, right, well, we kind of can't avoid it. And she's been great about it, but I'm sure that there have been times when it's like, really, we're doing this again, We're still talking about this.
It's like, I know, like what happens when you go to the supermarket.
I don't get recognized that much. When I when I shaved earlier this year for the first time in like a dozen years, I definitely got recognized more. And then it was like it was then and I had like hair similar to when I was on the show, So that was you know, But no, in La, people if they recognize me, I don't think they say anything. But you leave La and it's a whole other world, you know. Like so if I'm yeah, if we're traveling at all,
like yeah, then people are cool. People are you know, if they're just shocked and then they want to take a picture and they're nice.
You said, I'm trying to make some connection here between us, like, yeah, like a deeper one that Yeah. Do you remember what we discussed being like trapped in the nineties, trapped kind of like that persona of not being able to move forward because that's what people remember you as and you have to go back to it. Do you remember what Brian Green said?
No?
He said yeah, because I was like, oh, I think this is Yeah. Second night, I was like, oh my god, writer and I were talking about this in generally Green and so let and like it's like we're all stuck in this thing that we don't even know what happens, but we're in it, and it's hard to talk to anyone else about it because they can't quite understand it. And it's like I always say to people, it's like when you're into high school with each other, and it's like, no,
it's something way different than that. And Brian said he likened it to being in a plane crash, right, which is how I think you and I maybe start talking about this TV show that we're going to do that. We need to bring up because we're manifesting it, and then if we bring it up here, no one can steal it from Okay, Okay, that's my story. I'm sticking to it.
But there is, right, I mean, because it's there is.
I mean, if you told that to fans, which I guess we're telling this to fans right now, I don't know if they'd be pissed, like you guys think of that. I know, it was the best ten years of our lives, and you guys considered it a plane crash survivors.
I think the key and I read this somewhere else to this. I'm not going to take credit for this, but someone I saw someone had written the phrase fame is trauma, and that really resonated with me. And so I think that for everybody, even if it's good, you know, even if it's what you want, the moment you really
get fame, it's it's it's just a traumatic experience. You can come out of it, but it's always going to have that like that echo, you know, if like, well, remember when life felt private or when it felt like I was still an individual, you know, going around in the world, and like hoping to like send a message out and then suddenly it's like, oh god, it reached everybody.
That's you know, it's a it's a jarring experience. And yeah, I think people don't you know, I it's it sucks to be complaining about fame.
You know, I don't even know how to broach it now. I'm sounding like a dick.
I know. It's but there is also the extra wrinkle for us, specifically that we were children, you know, we were teenagers, and I think coming at it as an adult, you know, I mean, this is why, like I had to stop acting because when I started dating my wife, who's an actress, she had such thick skin about the life of being an actor, and she had such an awareness of what the job acts is what it requires, and she wants it like and she'll do she'll act
in anything, like you know, she just wants to always be loves the auditions, loves the process. And I hated all of it unless I was on the job, like working on set, the auditions, the rejection, like all the things that came along with it. And I realized, like, right, if I had decided to do this as an adult, I think I would have a healthier approach to this, you know. But instead it was sort of like, oh, I and so for for a lot of ways, acting
was broken for me. You know. It's like, oh, and it's a little bit of a bummer because I think like, if I, let's say, boyme's world hadn't happened, I probably would have just kept doing plays and guest stars and maybe decided to be an actor in my twenties and really come at at hard and like had a lot of fun, had a great career. I don't know. But as it is, it's like everything no no.
But yeah, I mean I end it. I feel like my stories. I don't know. I got through this all the time in my head because there's no one else I can really talk to about it. Thanks for being here and playing this game. But yeah, I'm just like, okay, I kind of came into this world with eyes on me because of my dad. So but nine of two
when it was a whole different ballgame. So yeah, from sixteen to twenty six, I was like released at twenty six and that fucked me, like yeah, because I I don't know, I went I was like, oh, yeah, every show gets picked up and runs this long right show, it runs this popular, and then you do a couple of pilots that don't get picked up. You do it and you're like, oh.
Right, this is the life. This is the actual life, the actual I know. See. That was my problem too, is like I so I immediately went to school in New York and then took a semester off to go make Cabin Fever. Thinking because it was right after nine to eleven, I was like, I want to get out of new work. Anyway, when did this little movie? Had so much fun making it, and then it became like the dream indie horror film. You know, we made it
for less than two million dollars. A bidding war broke out over at a Toronto so and again I was sort of like, yeah, well this is what happens when you do indie films. So it was like two right back to back. And then I went back to college like told agents and everything, well I'm not I'm going to finish school, which is the dumbest thing you could do, because what you want to do is strike when the iron is hot, you know, like keep up your career.
And I was like, no, I'm not doing anything. I'm just you know, and so then I got out of college at twenty four and started auditioning and trying to and it was like.
Oh it really just like three years later after well.
Yeah, I started because boy mean's world ended. I was twenty and then I went to school for the next four years and then yeah, and then then I started doing the real work, which is like you're in movie that nobody notices, then a worse movie that you don't have any fun, and nobody notices that an even worse movie, and you're just like, oh my god, like and I just realized, like I was becoming that bitter actor like
I was. So there was this awful moment on a set where I've been doing this stunt filled wakeboarding movie and it was everything was falling apart in the production. Yeah, it was. It was actually a great group of cast, like I love the people I was working with, but the production itself was a disaster. Everything was going, but the crew quit the second day because they had all been film students who had been roped into working for free, and they realized it was an actual job. They left.
At one point, I was left on a boat without anybody showing me how to drive it. Or where to park it, and like they were shooting for us from the shore and then they were like, all right, we got the shot and then the whole crew just left and I was like, I left me, me and one other actor in the boat. I like, I was a, what is going on? Why isn't anybody you know? And like and I stormed after my trailer, No, stormed off
into my trailer. I get there, and then they wanted me to do like behind the scenes like interview, and They're pounding on my trailer door and I was so I was just lying there, so furious, and I was like, I'm not coming out of this trailer. And I was like, oh my god, I've become that guy, Like I'm the actor who won't leave his trailer and like you hear
that story. You you always heard about like leave for his trailer for three days and you know, and it's like because in a lot of ways, that becomes the only power an actor has. Is like they just shut down all production because they're like, get everything ready and I'm not coming out. And it's such a petty, awful
thing to do. And it comes from insecurity and bitterness and lack of control all the things that you know can happen to actors, and I just found myself in the heart of it, and I was like, I can't do this anymore. Like I can't, this is just going to get worse and worse. For the most part. I mean, I've acted in stuff that friends have like made or you know, written for me. But yeah, like from that, pretty much, from that moment on, I was like, I'm
not even I'm not gonna audition anymore. I'm not going to do this. I'm just gonna gonna take a break. And you know, I started directing stuff, and I really love directing because I feel like I can get the same high that I did from acting without having to be the one acting. When I'm directing something like I'll wake up before call and I'll have like that anxiety and nerves and all the things I'm supposed to feel, and then I'll be like, wait, I don't have to
be on camera today, and it all goes away. And so yeah, and it's like, you know they say that like the the nervous system, like the the way our bodies feel excitement and nervousness is are identical, and you just interpret it. One is like fear and anxiety, and the other is like I'm excited to go do this thing, and like that's what the switch for me. It's like if I'm directing, I'm like worked up, but it's all positive.
It's all like, I'm just so excited to do this and you know, face these challenges today, whereas when I think about being on camera having to act, it's pure like oh god, nervousness, anxiety, like this is going to be awful and yeah it's too.
Bad, because it is too bad. But you'll get over that when we do this show and you're going to be on camera, right, yeah?
Is it a show or is it a movie? It was a movie? Yeah, and I'm playing myself right A version aversion. Yeah.
So this idea, So this idea became something because we were all, well, we chose to be in that bar those two nights talking about our lives as ninety stars and how that is kind of the one decade people really have embraced. Like it's not even why two K like it's it's different and I don't know if television was different back then. I'm not sure the reason, but all these nineties stars and we were in a showind of trapped, isn't it just like we're trapped back in the nineties. I was drunk.
We I don't know if we actually nailed that, but the idea was that a bunch of us are somewhere together, right, and it's pure knives out style murder mystery.
Right. We talked Agatha Christie, Yes, we talked Lost.
Yes, and it was like, yeah, you get fifteen of us and we're all at a convention or shooting something or doing some reason that we're all stuck together, and then we start getting murdered one by one.
Now murder only came up because you like horror murder. Yeah I do too, Yeah, yeah, no, So we got excited about that, like you know, Agatha Christie, and then there were none like one by one. But I just know I came back from that weekend a little like I was exhausted.
And it was a good week and it was it was by far my favorite nineties gone. Yeah. So it was a good time.
But I couldn't get you out of my brain. And it's interesting because Easton's here and I read Easton. I was like right or strong, And I reached out to Amy too, and she was like wait, wait, you know he's married with a kid. I was like, no, no disrespect, Like it's not that. I was like, I'm obsessed with his brain, but I'm not sure, Like we just connected like yeah, yeah, I was like he's great, and yeah I thought about like sliding into your DMS, but then
I didn't. But I couldn't. That's why I wanted to do this podcast with you in person, because I wanted to be like, one, what the fuck did we talk about? Because I didn't really remember, and but we nailed it. And two I was just like, ugh, I don't know. We just had this connection. Imagine you're like I had no connection with you.
I know I did. It was totally likewise. I mean that's why I remember telling people when I got home. I was like, Tori spelling really cool and really I'm like, yeah, it's really cool. And Brian Austin Green like I've never met these people and like actually bonded and had a good weekend. It was really fun.
Yeah, Okay, So I reached out to Generally Green this morning and sole Ley Moonfry and I was like, Hey, do you guys want to enlighten me? Because I'm actually we've had to cancel this once before my fault, and like we're actually doing it today and I want to ask him, but I don't remember much from it. And Jenna was like that friend that like, oh, I got your back. She's like, here's what you guys were talking about.
I was like, oh, I remember all that. She said, Yeah, I don't think you're I think you're fine, And so Lea's like, no, no, I'm not going to mention anything. She's like, you should just go in and ask him. She's such a storyteller and friend that I'll push you out of your comfort zone to get the story that. I'm like, fair, good for you.
Oh my god.
Yeah. But I feel like since I have been thinking about this idea and I feel like it's a little bit of it could go on many seasons.
Oh that's scary.
But what if it was all of us and since we're somehow trapped in this nineties period that we can't get past, we're kind of trapped in people's lives as what we were and that's how they remember us, and we're like heroes to them that we never asked for these superpowers because they're really dysfunctional superpowers. What if it was like, let's say there's fifteen like you said, or like ten of us whatever, and each season could be us trapped in like a different TV show, so it
could be like Knives Out. It could be and then there were none like I get the Christie clue, like the first season, but until they say, in this lifetime, like you keep like me, for instance, I picked somehow the wrong men over and over. No disrespect to my ax, he would tell you the same, but like until I have to really resonate and like listen to myself and figure out why I keep choosing these people over and over.
So what if in this lifetime we keep every season we're in this in it just becomes more like Groundhog's Day like, but.
So each season we're trapped in a different TV different TV show from the nineties, or we're jumping from are we time travel or we kind of like it's it's now. It's starting to sound like what was it the Wanda Vision Show where she's like in a sitcom?
No good, talk me through this because.
I watched like one or two episodes, but she apparently was like traveling through different TV shows as a character.
I don't know, So no, we never say it's another TV show. It's just a situation that might liken two right, maybe like in one season we should be on an island, like I don't know, is it lost? I don't know? Is it right? Right?
Right?
Right?
You're playing you don't?
Well, it needs some work. I need some work. I still like the idea of just a straight up movie like Bodies, Bodies, Bodies Knives out, like an old school you know, just we're all in a mansion, we're all at a convention. Keep it limited location and just tell one because I mean, once we start killing people, you know, hard to keep that on for multiple seasons.
What if we don't kill people?
Okay, then it's a different show.
Yeah it was really good and we killed people.
Yeah, I like I like people dying. I like horror films.
Same yeah, okay, it would be a different horror film each season. Okay, now we're getting too But do people want a metaverse like that's the big I mean, we did the nine two and zero reboot, which I don't think people loved it.
When was that?
That was in twenty nineteen and Jenny Garth and I created it and it was based on us playing a version of ourselves getting back together to do a reboot right right, And it just I feel like people were like some people were like, oh, that was so creative and that was so cool instead of a straight up reboot, and but most fans were like, we wanted you to.
Play that actually, dude, right right, And.
It's like, but did you like what? I mean? I know you guys did go back and play those characters, but I'm scared to go back and play those characters. Yeah, it wasn't great because you can't create that time again.
Mm hmm. Yeah, I don't know. I mean I feel like there have been alternative takes on Boy Meets World that we've had, like on during our podcast where we're like, what if we went to mister Feenie the teacher's life as a young teacher and like do something like that and make it like a single camera drama show or you know, like do a new interpretation of some aspect of it. But yeah, I just don't think you can recapture the magic of whatever it was that happened that first time.
So Okay, good, we're getting far. We have to play ourselves. Yeah no, yeah, a version part of it and how meta you want to go. I don't know. Everything's meta these days. Oh no, it's hard for me to watch TV shows now.
I don't watch TV at all. I know that's good, but.
I don't really good. It's like creative as fuck.
But what I don't like is I like stories that close but end. You know, this is part of my resistance to making it a show is like, I hate the way every everything is like an hour long and then come back next week you gotta find out more. I'm just I feel manipulated. I'm like, I am exhausted. I always tap out of a show at three episodes and I'm like, no, I can see they're going to drag this out for another ten episodes and not get somewhere.
TV shows are really weird now. I find it interesting, Like watching streaming all the time. There's so many shows that I'm fascinated by, and I love how visually I'm on board there in the style, and I like the humor. I like where it goes. But I'm like, God, how do I say this nicely? How does the average person? You have a long, hard day at work, you live in Middle America, you come home, right? Is that the world you want to see?
I mean, I leave empty for these shows, think so I think that's right. Well, that's why I think that like old school networks, I mean, the classic networks are still showing hospital shows, cop shows, like more sort of comforting, you know, all wrapped one mystery a week, wrapped up within the week. And then there's you know, the comedies. They don't do multi camera anymore. But I think people I know, but it's it's just a dated form, you know.
It's like sitting around listening to the radio would have felt in the seventies. You know, it's like people still doing this. Maybe I don't know. I mean, I think there will always be a certain place for a sitcom. Right now it seems to be kids television. But it was comforting, right like every week thirty minutes, wrap everything up. You don't have to have seen the previous episode, you don't have to watch the next one. You can just
enjoy it, like tune your brain out. That's what people, I think a lot of people want.
Yeah, I agree. A theme song mm hmm. I never watched your show.
We went through a couple of different ones, but yeah, we ended up with one that and this boy Meets Word. Thanks Easton. Yeah, yeah, that was the last the last two seasons. That was our theme song, so that retroactively has become our theme song. Yeah, okay.
Right before you got here, Easton informed me of something very knowledgeable about what you said.
I'm a boy Top two top two episodes.
There was like a poll or a survey or something, and it was like, what nineties shows do you people want to come back? And the top two was Beverly Hills nine or two, I know, and Boy Meets World.
That's awesome.
Now, if you told him this on his podcast, you would have.
Flipped it, flipped it. Yeah, it was Boy Meets World.
Then well he said, I won't tell you which one was number one. I'm like, oh god, it's Boy Meets World.
And he was like yes, and that's oh interesting. But did come back? Didn't it? Hasn't it been? There's been new versions of it. You did your reboot right.
In twenty nineteen, but like in two thousand and seven or eight?
Yeah, that's what I Yeah. Yeah, how long did that last?
I say it like, I don't know, but I'm really weird with dates. I remember everything. I think they did like six seasons. Oh wow, okay, I was on it for two episodes, but they like wrote like Jenny was on it and her mom died on the show. I got cancer and died, And it's hard for people to be like, wait, that wasn't the real nine two or no, how could they make decisions about OG characters like in it Brian and I, David and Donna are like getting a divorce and we have one kid, and it's like,
but they can they do that? Can they make that up? So we're like, so we tend to as like OG cast members be like, oh, we can rewrite it any way we want.
So the show ended when your show end.
It ended, and whatever happens happens, but we don't have to go by that. But yeah, it was super successful, but it's because that cast became successful, So it wasn't really a reboot, right if it's a whole new cast which is a couple spin off characters.
But that's so interesting that this poll landed with two high school shows that the things that because like they didn't say friends, they didn't say Seinfeld. There's a lot of great nineties shows, but when people are asked like what will I think, it's like the very unique position that both of our shows hat even though they were
very different. Ours was comedy, yours was drama. I think when you are a teenager or your kid and you back then actually sat in your living room with your family and watched other teenagers, you identified with them so strongly. And that's like, I think that's a particular nature of our fame too. It's like we weren't movie stars, you know, like if you're a movie star, you're kind of like on a palace stool. But when you're a TV star from the nineties, it's like you're part of the family.
They can like they I don't know, it's a different relationship. It's like, yeah, they've invited you into the house, you've come. You came into their house almost uninvited, and so there's like a level of like, you know, in some ways that's great because there's a real intimacy there. In other ways it's like, you know, like it can lead to like a different type of relationship. You know, like they
don't even think of you as an actor. They think of you as just the character, and you were just that person, and like.
Right, that's happened to me, happens to you sometimes?
Oh yeah, Well, I mean, yeah, I think people just assume there's no difference, you know, that I wasn't really acting and acting. I was just a kid who showed up and lived on in front of the camp, which is ridiculous. But I think if people really think it's they Yeah, I think that's how they conceive of me.
That's okay. That's interesting because I often think about the movies that were huge in the nineties. Why is it a different feeling than like the TV shows. Yeah, it's because we were there. They grew up with us, We grew up with them, and we were on their TV with their family. Yeah, and that's something they want to hold on to. That's nostalgia.
Yeah.
Yeah, Why is nostalgia so big right now? Like why did it take this? Well?
All right, I have a couple of theories. Now, I have a couple theories. One, I don't think it's a coincidence. It's the nineties. I think pre cell phones is like the essential element and pre social media obviously, but like before you could really live in a virtual space for fifty percent of your life, if not more, And I think we're all hungry for that, Like we missed the times of you know, real in person interaction, you know, waiting for people, not knowing if somebody's gonna call you
back or they We weren't constantly in contact. I think that's a really calm mindset that we missed. I think it was a peaceful time, no wars. It was a very like wonderful decade as far as you know, economic prosperity. Obviously there were lots of problems, but I think for most of us, especially those of us who were young, it was a golden age. What else I feel like.
Like, do you think there's any like coincidence? Like both of our shows ended in two thousand and that was why two k Yeah, like that was the first time like all of us were like waste the world, like what's going to happen? And then it went on, but it went on differently.
Yeah, I mean really the big change came with nine to eleven, right, so it took another year and then like yeah, then the world really kind of change it. So yeah, I mean it's also probably you know, but I think I think everyone I don't know, I mean I've always been pretty nostalgic. I think, so maybe everybody is. But I also, you know, there's so much being made,
so much content out there, and we don't. We no longer have the monoculture, right, like the idea of like community through everybody's listening to the one song and watching the one show. And that was a huge part of the nineties. You know, it's like any even to the extent that we when we were on the air, never thought of our show as popular because it was a
kids show. You know, it was not like I mean, I wanted to be on nine O two one oh because it was like real acting and drama and like, you know, that was like where I thought, like everyone should you know, that's where I wanted to be, sort of just not realizing that there was a whole generation of teenagers and younger watching our show and holding on to it, you know, and who would you know. So yeah, like in the monoculture of the nineties, we were like
low on the total. But I think in general now everybody wants that monoculture back. They want to like feel a part of something. I mean, you see how big it seems like, you know, there's this tipping point where like Taylor Swift went from being like oh that person everybody's heard too, like the number one you know, only concert anybody saw the last three years. And I'm watching to happen with Sabrina Carpenter right now, who was on Girl Meets World. By the way, everyone forgets that she
was my daughter on Girl Beats World. But like now she's reached such levels of popularity you.
Can't in the rabbit holes.
Yeah, but people want Mono. They like, oh, like the whole world is like now loving Sabrina Garmenter, and it's like there's a drive towards like let's all share in something together that we all can agree on that we all like. But it's only at that like upper upper level anymore. It's no longer you know, three networks. It's whatever one show everybody's watching this week and then next week something else.
It's a million different shows, and Nicole Kidman starts in all of them. I know she's so much I don't know.
I really genuinely think she's a great actor obviously, but by the time I saw a Baby Girl, I was like, are you again? And like I was too over it. I couldn't enjoy it. Everyone was like it was so cool. I'm like, I'm just.
The same way.
I was, just like, this is not what I expect. I don't know. I'm just I've seen her and everything, so I don't know. But she's great. She's great. I just don't know how she her. Yeah, you might have a chance.
Yeah, no is She's in everything, and it's it's disturbing in a way. Yeah. Yeah, but now I'm feeling like like I felt like we were always in, but we were kind of out, And now everything I turn on it's like everybody from the nineties. Yeah, like boy bands, it's like doing commercials. It's right, yea, this is our time to strike, is what I'm saying.
Right strong, I guess, So, I guess.
So.
I mean, I just hope that it can become a way to create something new and good. You know, I would love for new content to be made, Like I'd love to be a part of, you know, writing, directing, not really acting, but doing something creative that isn't just nostalgia driven, because that's I don't know. To me, it's diminishing returns, like you can only go back so many times before it's like, so I don't know, you can go home, Okay, So I can just restart my podcast
rewatch once we finish season seven. Go right back to season one, and.
You're gonna have to like, what are your choices? I know.
I mean we like we started it as like we always said we were gonna it was gonna be a journey, know that it was going We weren't going to put expectations on what we how we would feel, and it has been. It has been such a crazy journey, so many ups and downs and emotional moments, and then going
live has changed everything. Yeah, yeah, and it's going to be very different because the last time we were on tour was over a year ago, and we just realized that we're like, oh, we have to like figure out what we're doing this time around, and like what are we talking about and what does the show feel like?
And it feels different, you know, because when we were first doing the tour, there was a sense of like we just discovered Boy Meets World because I had never seen the show and so watching it in the podcast was like, oh, this is pretty good, and so it was like meeting the fans as a fan too for
the first time. But now it's feels something different because now we're in season six, which is not as good, and and we've been through so much just with the podcast that it's it's yeah, the live shows are going to feel a little different, I think, I'm sure exactly.
I feel like people want to see the three of you do anything together.
And I'd like to think so. I mean, when you have chemistry, you have chemistry, and like we do, like it's really it's it's turned out into a great dynamic. I you know, when we first were talking about it, I don't think Will and I realized how good of a host Danielle was and an interviewer, and we just
had this. We had a couple of meetings and we said, you know, we should have one person sort of anchor the point of view and like read the feedback, like read the recaps of the episodes, and we're like, it should be Danielle because you were you know, you were the youngest uh to be going through this, you know.
And that turned out to be the best decision we ever made because she's such a good host and when she's like keeping us on point and doing she does great interviews, so she can really like sort of be the guiding voice. And then Will is so funny, like he's just off the cuff. His brain just works in this crazy way, which I always knew, but I hadn't really seen it in action, like performance wise until we
started recording the podcast or doing the live shows. And you see him like he just always knows the funniest thing like that. Any if somebody says something sets him up, and he'll he'll bring callbacks from like twenty minutes ago, and like he's these layers and then I'm the pretentious asshole. So it works out perfectly, like between the three of us.
It's like it's a you know, because I just I'm just want mope, bringing everything down and like over analyzing, and they pull me out, and I think, like you know, the fans, like our listeners can really it's just a it's a good space.
Like it works out interesting. Yeah, okay, bye, I'm imagine that it was fun. Wait. I think I asked sorry, I got to go back to Henriver one last time. I think I asked you this, but I don't remember what you told me. Why they've never done a remake or they did.
They did a remake which I've never seen kind of intentionally, I'm just avoiding it. They took the exact same script and reshot it. Yeah, and I just I've never seen it. I don't really want to. I have no idea. I have no idea. I totally avoided it, like it seems like such a weird project, and it wasn't. As far as I know, it wasn't super well received because it was like, if you like the original movie, why do this.
It's like when they did that Psycho shot for shot remake, It's like, why, what's the It's kind of like a film experiment. But I don't know if it's really appealing to anybody, But Cavin Fever was really it's such a strange film.
It's I don't necessarily consider it comedy horror, which I know.
I know, well that's the thing. It's kind of could go either way. And like when we were doing it, we were sitting there going, this is funny, right, Like can we play this for a joke? And Eli was
like no, no, no, no, play it straight. And I think what was happening was he had written a level of comedy into the script, but as we were shooting it, there's something about the horror that Eli was tapping into, which is that like seventies eighties gore nudity, Like it's just like oversaturated, you know, it's just like it's not just blood, it's blood covering your entire face. And he
would just on set be bringing that energy. And like at the time Saw hadn't come out, like there hadn't been that type of like really and as like we started imbuing the whole film with that manic like just balls to the wall energy, it became funnier, like and then the comedy was coming out of the extremity and like everything was funny it so it's like, oh, now the kid's gonna scream pancakes and do a karate flip
and it's like what that is? No, there's no logic, and you're like, you know what at this point, just go for it, you know, like and so I feel like there are some people who went in expecting a straight horror film who were just baffled, and then there are some people who wanted it to be really like a comedy horror and they're kind of like, but it's really gross and awful and a lot of it doesn't like tonally add up to just comedy. So it's like this weird. I mean, that's why it's kind of a
cult films, because it's like a mashup. You're like, how serious am I supposed to take this? And you know, we just had so much fun. Like I've never now I've started to do conventions for Kevin Fever, like going to horror conventions, and it's so fun. We get the cast back together and we just.
Sit around the task.
Yeah, it's really it's and we're all like, we all just love each other so much. And we had this experience like you know, we're all twenty one, twenty four and yeah, and it wasn't even just making the movie. It was also like to have it go from this little tiny film that you know, we got shut down by the Union, it was never going to get finished to you know, being in theaters and having a big, like a hit horror film was really fun for all of us.
I saw it in the theaters in Westwood.
Awesome.
I can still remember of that. Yeah, it was nice. And I went to high school with Jordan. I grew up with her.
Oh away, yeah, oh her.
Mom Cheryl lad did Charlie's Angels to my dad. Oh right, okay, so I knew were in that way, and I think our parents' house like was next door to each other. But there were neighbors because they were so vastly huge. And then we went to which is now Harvard Westlake, but we went to school together. She was a year younger than me.
Yeah.
Next and then when she did that, I was like, oh my god. I was so excited.
She was such a sweetheart. Oh my god. Yeah, she was like yeah for her and I like the first two weeks of filming because it was like chaos, we just like bonded and we were like had each other's backs. We got really close. It was fun. Yeah, did you.
Ever date the actors?
This is my wife.
That's it.
No, that's not true. Rachel Lee Cook was like my first like serious girlfriend when I was sixteen. We dated.
How'd you forget that for a second.
Well, I don't know. I just didn't. I mean I just didn't think about it.
But I did a movie with her, like her first movie. She's great.
Yeah, she we we reconnected. She doesn't she doesn't get done nineties com which doesn't make sense, like they should do it. She's all that. Really Yeah, but she was at a different convention. Oh we did it, And so I saw her for the first time since we were in our Like maybe i'd seen her in our twenties once and it was so great to see her. We like hung out of this convention and I was there with my wife and my kid hanging out in the green room. She's great. Yeah she's kids, right, Yeah, she's
two parents. Yeah. Yeah, but yeah, it was great to see her. But other than.
That, I don't know anyone. Kevin de Fever, No, I'm.
A cereal serial monogamist. So like, I was always in a relationship. You believe that. Yeah, I've been with like I mean, I I had like my first like I thought in love at eight years old. I was obsessed. I was with her really like from thirteen to fifteen, and I dated Rachel for over a year then. I mean, I was just always moving. I was with somebody for seven years and then met my wife. Yeah. Pretty again.
I think in part response to the fame thing, Like I just like, if I had a relationship, I was like, lock this in. I'm not taking my chances out there in the world because it's you know, it was always so overwhelming. Like yeah, and I had a really hard time trusting girls women, you know, like their motivations when I was when I was a teenager, it was always.
Like understandable and what is you know?
So always dated people older than me, like everyone besides Rachel. I don't think I've ever dated anybody in my own age. And I think part of that was because the age cut off meant that they had never seen Point Meets World, like just automatically. If you were, you know, three years older than me, you didn't know the show. So it was fine. I was like, so those are the people I would relate to or connect with.
That's so interesting. Yeah, I've only dated really actors really, but it's all I ever met. Yeah, I never met anybody else. So instinctually somebody recently was like, okay, you're single now again, like Korean, I was like, I don't know, like all the actors are taken, they're like actors, and I was like, well yeah, and I was like.
Oh, I can date other people. That's funny.
I date a real person. Oh my god, they won't understand my life.
But it's also just who you meet, right, I mean, like even my my seven year relationship with was with somebody was a PA. You know, That's how I met her. So it's like that's who you meet. You meet somebody and I you know, my my wife and I met
on a show. Yeah, met on a show. And it's interesting, like because we talked to some people who are in the industry who are so happy that their partner is not you know that they're like a lawyer or a doctor, something sensible and like steady, and then they can be the wild card whose career fluctuates and never know what's gonna happen. But we really love sort of understanding one another, and I mean we talk about work all the time
and it's actually really nice. And she opened my eyes for like what an actor like, what it means to be a real actor. And that's when I was like, I can't. I'm not gonna do that. You go, but I'm not. This is too much. So we I mean, we really bond over the They create a side, you know, over the industry and all its turmoil. You know, it's kind of kind of fun. And yeah, I don't know, if you don't watch TV, she watches TV shows. I
just don't. I always am like, let's go to Criterion, let's want and she's like, no, I'm not staying up for a three hour movie. But we he definitely agree on horror films. We're both like fanatics, so that's like our time together. Although now she's got this weird thing where it's not scary enough if I'm there. So she likes to watch horror films when I'm out of town and like really get scared because she's alone in the house watching a horror film like this is this is some sick shit.
But okay, do you guys let your son watch horror films?
Uh?
Yeah? He well, he doesn't. Well, five Nights of Freddy's just like his obsession, so right, but actually, yeah, he saw Jaws at the age of six and loved it and was obsessed with it. Like, so he definitely likes darker stuff, but he doesn't he doesn't like Gore at all. So because I try to show him what we do in the Shadows, which I thought was right up his alley because he likes he's humorous, and I'm like, oh,
it's vampires. It's ridiculous. But there's like a scene where somebody was spurting blood and he was like, turn it off, turn it. I was like, okay, So Gore's not cool, but like being scared or something, being around the corner is cool, So I'm still trying to figure out what is the line. But yeah, so far he likes horror. But yeah, I mean my wife's claimed like she watched Alien when she was six and loved it, and that's like hooked her her entire life. I think it starts early if you like horror.
Yeah, I was shown, well I'm older, but Revenge of the Body Snatchers I've never seen it. I don't see. Yeah, I was like three.
I was really into Stephen King too. I read like all the Stephen King books. Yeah, so anything horror I love.
Yeah, Okay, I'm done, now, are you? I guess I'm just kidding.
I'm just messing with you.
Well, thanks for being on.
Of course, thanks for having me.
Wall, How do we continue this conversation about this idea that I don't know? I fine, we can make a movie.
We just gotta you know, you have to rally the nineties stars, because I feel like you have much more pull and you know, a lot more of them.
I can do that.
Yeah, get a slate together of like ten actors okay from different shows who are all willing to be in a movie, and then we find somebody to write a scroup.
And then done. Yeah, perfect, perfect. This is this is gonna sell. This is like yeah, okay, I'm on it sounds good, okay perfect Bye bye, m m m m