101: Sweet Baby w/ Shonda Rhimes

Unpacking the Toolbox is a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership with Higheartradio.

Scandal Rewatch, Posaz and Katie.

Gee, Katy.

Oh it's happening.

Oh man, we are actually here. We're doing the Scandal Rewatch podcast Unpacking the Toolbox together together.

I mean, don't get me wrong, I am very excited to rewatch episodes, which we have to tell you guys how it's been going. And we've been wanting to do a rewatch podcast and hang out with our fans. Are gladiators who we have missed for far too long. But really, this is just my excuse to hang out with my favorite person on the planet.

Same. We just want to hang out together so we could talk shit and reminisce about one of the best shows on television. Yes, do you remember when the last time you watched like a Scandal episode? Well?

Are you kidding?

Okay, First of all, it has been ten years. We just celebrated the ten year anniversary of the pilot era.

That's crazy.

I don't think I have watched like I don't think I've watched any episodes of you.

I don't think so either. You know, there was a moment there where they were still playing, like on ABC or SURE where I'd be flipping through channels and catch a glimpse. But I wouldn't I wouldn't stay. I would be I would sort of, you know, smile inside and sort of chuckle to myself, but then move on. I would didn't sit there and watch the whole episode. But being able to do that for the podcast was like a gift mat I have.

To say again, like the biggest When I was like, we're doing this scandal rewatch podcast. It's called Unpacking the Toolbox, which, let's just take a moment. That is a freaking great title.

It is the best title. I love it so much.

It's so Huck and Quinn. It's so Huckleberry Quinn. It's so right for the gladiators, the oji. Gladiators. You know about our toolbox, you know about Huck and his tools.

It's great. Okay, So I'm packing the toolbox.

And there's a toolbox emoji now on Instagram.

There's a toolbox emoji.

So gladiators, suit the fuck up, tell your friends about this fucking podcast, and make sure you put the toolbox emoji when you do so. Yes, but right quick, I was like mostly excited to hang out with you because I'm obsessed with you and I think you're the most special, perfect human ever born, which I think you guys who watched the show know that Quinn and had a very special connection. But I was most freaked out about going back and watching the episodes.

I was like, I don't know, I.

Was freaked out, and they're low key excited because I was like, sometimes I'm like, sometimes I do enjoy watching myself, but I don't want like somebody to walk in and be like, you're watching yourself. So I was like every time Mikey would walk in, I'd be like, well, I have to do this for work. This is for work, you know.

See, I fucking hate watching myself.

You couldn't pay me.

Well, you could pay me a million dollars or do so, but I don't really like watching myself. And I was concerned, like is ten years too long or too short? Like what is the perfect amount to be watching the show. And because of this podcast, going back and rewatching these episodes, because G and I are taking this podcast very seriously. We are we are doing our research. We are watching

But I am loving the episode.

Me too shocked about.

It, like I don't remember shit, I don't remember. I don't remember these episodes. I mean, I remember moments and scenes here and there. But I'm enjoying it so much.

Got gee too.

And I feel like we were so caught up while we were shooting it. But now going back and being able to watch it without any distractions, It's.

Such a good show.

It's so good, and I feel like a gladiator.

Yes, with a gladiator, I said, Quinn says gladiator in a suit. She wants to be a fucking gladiator in a suit in the pilot. But we were so in it when we were making the show, and then when we would even watch the episodes. Back then, we were so obsessed with tweeting that we really didn't focus and give my full attention to watching the episodes.

And right now going back.

And watching these episodes, I am such a man, I am such a fan, so excited.

I am such an og gladiator.

I love everyone's characters, the writing, the way that it was shot, the ins and outs.

I'm just grateful already.

And what's good.

I want to say real quick too, that what's good about this podcast is even if you haven't rewatched the show, you're still gonna freaking enjoy the podcast because that's how fucking nutty and like fun and crazy and kooky me and Katie are getting on this podcast.

Yeah we have fun.

Yes, but if you can rewatch Scandal on Hulu, because it really is a freaking amazing show like no other.

Yeah, it holds up. That's one thing.

I mean, I'm sure so many actors artists watch stuff they've shot in the past and like, oh wow, this thing is just coming gone and it doesn't really hold up. Scandal one hundred percent holds up. I am watching all the other critically claimed shows right.

Now and Scandal is just as good.

If not better.

It's better.

Yes, you yourself a favor.

Listen to the podcast, rewatch the episodes, hang out with us. Every episode is going to be such a fucking good time. It's me and g hanging out shooting the shit. Yes, we are talking about plot. We have guests that come on that talk about their processes. We talk about what we ate for lunch, we talk about farts, we talk about crying, we talk about sex, we talk about tearstick, we talk about every single amazing actor, guest star, co star, and every horror film they've ever been in thanks to

It's all back together.

And this is our first freaking show.

It's the first podcast we've ever done.

We are going back in time.

It's the ten year anniversary since the pilot aired and drastically changed.

All of our lives. Really.

Yeah, and Gemo and I are wearing our tg T and Gemo.

Delicious licious.

I'm wearing a season two Scandal like baseball jersey type situation sands like the undershirt because it's too damn tight. Because this is old as hell, so.

We deserve all the applause that we are fitting.

We are going to be bringing out on this podcast all the vintage throwback Scandal things we got. Yeah, Okay, Gee, take me back to where you were in your life before Huck, What the heck were you doing?

Honestly, I was at a point in my life where I was no joke, like I need a job, Like I really need a job. I was doing, you know, guest spots, and I I was I was still doing Weeds at the time, but I was recurring on Weeds, so it wasn't a steady gig, you know what I mean.

I loved being.

On Weeds, but I was at that point in my life where I was like, I really need to book something significant.

That's where I was in my life.

So when Scandal came along, I was like fucking like, oh man, thank god.

Where were you? Do you remember where you were at?

Like right before, Oh my god, I was twenty eight. I just goten engaged to Adam Shapiro.

At him, sweet sweet Adam.

You know, and I was a baby sitter. Wah whoa wah wah wah.

And you'd been doing that for years, right like you were in Nanny for a long time.

I was a waitress for a decade and then I couldn't handle the food service industry anymore in Los Angeles because I would always wait on people that I was auditioning for. Literally, like I would have like screen tests and be auditioning, and then I would be like asking for.

Their drink order.

And yeah, exactly true.

And so I was like, Oh, I could still babysit and pay my rent that way, but at least it's like behind closed doors and not as embarrassing. And so I was nannying for a very very fancy, high falutint family when the call for scandal came in and I remember being like, Oh, my god, her name is Quinn and my middle name is Quinn, and maybe that's a sign from.

The universe that this is my part?

Can this please be my part? Can this please save me from this? And similar to you, like I had been working, but not at the level you had been working, But I had been you know, I had done a bunch of guest stars. I had recurred on a couple shows. I had booked a pilot that didn't go Like there were some things, but it was never ever, ever steady enough where I could give up my side hustle exactly yeah.

And I was at that place where I was like, am I gonna have to get aside hustle? No, like right before this, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, I don't believe it.

Oh yeah, you know how it is for actors, It ebbs and flows like it's.

The craziest, it's feast or famine.

Yeah, you make good money and then that shit, that job ends and you're like, Okay, I have no idea what's next because we just got to go back to the drawing board, go back to auditioning.

Yeah, do you.

Remember the first time you and I met?

Katie? I don't remember, do you?

How dare you?

Neither?

Do I? I remember?

I feel like you've always like we've always been connected, and you've always sort of been in my life since scandal started. So I but I don't remember exactly the moment. Was it at Prospect Studios where we werehearsed.

It had to have been, but I don't remember either.

Okay, you don't think, but I feel like me and you like gravitated towards each other, like emotionally and physically probably as well. We were like I love this girl, Like I feel like that happened right away.

Yeah, we neither one of us may be able to remember the exact moment we met, but I do know that from the jump it was a love and a soulmate connection of like we are going to travel this life together.

Yes, And then and then we had that tumultuous affair. But that's that's neither here nor there. We'll save that for the podcast. I love it to get it.

Yeah, guys, keep listening. You can hear about me and Girmou's affair. I am in love with you though, and how could you not be? And I also just think we had those scenes in the pilot together. I feel like we have died that scene in the pilot where we were in the bathroom and you said, we don't cry here and you're a stray dog and Olivia takes us.

But we also got the best scoop like me and me and you always had the scoop.

Remember, sometimes we'd be on.

Set talking talking about stuff or having telling a story or some bochinche. Bochincha is like scoop and Spanish, and they Carrie Carrie has serious fomo.

Oh yeah, she's always the last to know.

But also Carrie would hear us and be we'd be so into telling into what we were talking about that she would feel that energy and walk.

Over and be like, what are you guys talking about?

Tell me and we'd be like, by.

The way, that would be everybody and you and I we could talk. You guys will see as we get into the Scandal Rewatch podcast, Garmo and I can talk for one hundred thousand hours about absolutely nothing and it's hilarious and we love it. But that was how the entire seven years of Scandal was. And he and I are always talking, having fun, gossiping whatever, and everyone always gravitated towards.

Our our energy, just like yeah, yeah, right man.

They always entergy. So we always have the scoop. We knew what everybody was up to without the redo. Let's get this this premiere red carpet first episode of the Scandal Rewatch podcast, unpacking the toolbox off and running to the races.

Numero una, we have got.

Episode one oh one, titled Sweet Baby. It aired on April fifth in twenty twelve. It was written by Shonda Rimes.

And it was directed by the brilliant Paul mcgwigin.

Guest starring Wes Brown is Sally Saint, James Amy k Harmon is Ariel Massey.

Brian Resmussen is Howie, Alan Coleman is Vlad and Marrek Probosk as ost. Good.

All you gladiators listening know that one of the most important key elements of the special sauce. That made scandal scandal was the scandal pace at which we told stories. So let us warm your ears up and your heart's up by telling you weekly the synopsis of each episode that we're gonna dive into, and we're gonna tell you the synopsis of that episode.

Yeh, in scandal pace.

Give it to him. Let's give it to him.

When Quinn Perkin starts a new job at crisis management firm, Olivia Popen associates she must stay on her toes to navigate the tricky cases they handle.

The latest kind of OPA Sully Saint James stumbles into the office, distraught and covered in the blood of his dead girlfriend, adamant that he didn't kill her, but tight lipped on the details.

Meanwhile, the White House is facing a scandal with the President and an aid and who else is brought in to fix the problem.

But Olivia Pope, that's what I'm talking about. Guys, it's been a while. G and I. We need to do our vocal warm up.

Do you need to do?

Her bams his fist against the post. He still insists he sees the ghosts, remember that.

One, But it's amazing. Oh my god, I'm obsessed with it. Okay, so we'll jog your memories. Every episode, we'll tell you the title, the director, the guest stars, the co stars, the synopsis in Scandal pace, and some episodes we're gonna have guests. Some episodes we ain't gonna have guests.

But this episode we got to guest. And now we need a drum roll.

People, Oh, I can't wait.

We don't even need a drum roll.

We also need a full on Stevie Wonder song, the Franklin Song, or any of the amazing songs that Scandal had to key up the Queen.

I'm doing a little shuffle in my seat because I'm excited the Queen of Television.

For the inaugural episode, we pull out the biggie.

The big guns.

Yes one, the only, the most special Queen Bee herself shut on rides. Hello, so funny, and we need to take a picture of this. But we're drinking out of our gladiator wine cups. It's too early in the morning to actually be drinking. Chattanuve debris.

Who gave us these glasses? Did we get them from? Was it production that gifted these I don't even remember.

You might have come from the network.

I don't know, maybe wow, Well, you know what, there's gonna be hopefully a real opportunity for merch with this podcast, because this is a great wine. Shanda, can you tell us about where you got this idea, the origin story of Scandal Meeting Judy Smith writing the pilot.

So I was busy at the time with Gray's and I think also private practice, and Betsy was like, I met this incredible woman, she got this incredible job. I wanted to talk to you about it. And I was like, I don't have time for this, you know, I'm just too busy and I wasn't thinking about creating another show.

No, you already had to yeah, too much to do.

So Betsy said, just sit with her for like a half an hour. So Judy Smith came in. She's this amazing, formidable woman who basically always wears white, sat down and started talking to me about her job. And the more she talked to me about the job, the more I was like, this is fascinating, this life of a fixer. Because Judy had been like the fixer for the White House during the Bush era, Bush two era, and she had all these amazing stories and I was sort of

Wow.

Oh. And by the time we were done talking, I was like, I can see like seventy episodes easy, Like I can see exactly what those episodes would be.

Wow.

Yeah.

And then did you just go off and write? Was it like an easy thing to write?

Was it? Was it hard to get it out of your brain?

No? You know, I think it was pretty easy to write because I kind of understood the character I was making. Once I let go of the fact that it didn't have to be exactly Judy that I could play, I felt really good about the character I was making, And then all the other characters became really clear to me really fast, which was great.

Thank God for us, Thank God for you.

Judy was there to like tell me how she did her job, Like I'd call her and ask for like like tiny details about how she did her job. And that's what really made the series, I think special, is the fact that we had somebody real informing us right.

First of all, she gave us all of her business cards when we started. I remember that and I was like, please Lord, let us never have to use this, like I don't want to call it.

Didn't she come to like one of our first rehearsals at Prospect Studios. I think we rehearsed the show like it was a play, and I remember her being there. I think that's when she gave us her business cards and we were all like, oh my god, this is d Judy Smith. This is who Olivia Pope is loosely based on, and obviously on the show, like you know, Olivia Pope has an affair with the president. Obviously that didn't happen with Judy Smith.

Right, this woman has to go around being like scandals based on my life.

But I did not sleep with Bush Senior or junior.

Inspired by inspired by my job is what I kept telling her to say, Yes, yes.

Yes, that's great, inspired by my job.

So when you were when you were listening to her story, Seanda, did it just sort of come into your brain that you kind of went off and then started thinking, oh, they these two characters can have an affair and it sort of grew from there. Where did that sort of come from.

When I'm making a show or making writing a script, I always think, what's the worst thing that could happen for these two people, Like what's the worst.

Way for things to go so great, so good?

Which is you know how Huck ended up like a violent kill and you know what I mean? But what's the worst way to go? And the worst way I could think of was if you're representing a girl from the White House, because it really started with me having like a little Monicolwinski story. I was like, the worst thing is that you've been having a secret affair with this man and now you discover that this is just how he plays.

Yeah, that's not good.

But when you wrote the pilot, did you have any idea that the fits Olivia phenomenon, the one minute to the take off your clothes, the chemistry beyond epic proportions would be what it was.

Not when I wrote it. Not when I wrote it, And I remember the studio calling me up and the network calling me up and saying, can we love it? Can you just take out one little part like can't you just be friends with the president? Could you not have the affair? I remember saying, Olivia, Pope is going to have sex on the White Houvel office desk in the first season of this series. And if you don't want that, then I'm not doing the series.

I'm obsessed with it, no way.

And then when we were shooting it, you know, the chemistry with Carrie and Tony was crazy, Like I was like that that that scene in the Oval office at the end. I was not expecting that much amazing chemistry. I mean, Tony's so incredible and so was Carrie, but I just wasn't expecting it to be that like that fire, you know, it was great. Yeah.

I remember showing up that night just to watch the shooting of it, which I was like, I think, I think we have to talk about the whole pilot experience, but I think that scene in the Oval where they make out and they're like hiding where the cameras can't see them, that was our last night of shooting, and I remember being like, I just want to go because I just never want this to end. And I remember being there behind the monitor watching and it was you could hear a pit.

I mean, yeah, I'm hiding in the curtains, Like it was so intense.

So on, it was so on all I want to say is how did you cast Quinn and Hauck Know, we'll.

Get that's good stuff, though.

We will be back with more after the break. Okay, So how did you cast Olivia Pope? Like did a lot of people for that role?

Well, let's be clear, and I don't think even think I realized how big of a deal this was. But it was the first leading role for a woman of color and a drama in like thirty seven years or something. So one thing I was very clear about was there are so many actresses who've never gotten this shot. Like, we're not turning anybody away, Like if you were of note,

So you could only cast one?

Yeah, and I.

Could only cast one. And so it came down to Carrie Anicanoni Rose I love it, and Jill Scott, three women who could out more different, close.

Be more different. Also would love to see a show with the three of them.

But I loved them all and I loved everybody's performance as Olivia Pope. I really did. And I just kept thinking, like, would show my writing because I'm writing a different show for each one of these women. It just felt like it was going to fundamentally be different for every for every woman. And in the end, I sat down with Carrie and I remember thinking like, she's too pretty, like somebody this powerful, like doesn't get it get away with being and I was, which was so wrong with me?

Yeah, that was the whole and I get it.

I mean, Carrie Washington is an alien of remarkable beauty.

It's like yes, yeah, yeah, No one looks like that.

Yeah no, no one looks like that. No one has bone structure like that.

I mean, she's gorgeous, and she's also incredibly politically active and an activist and all these things that really lined up for the perfect Olivia Pope. I mean, yeah, yeah, this pilot, the amount of slow mo walking scenes in a white Coat is.

The greatest.

Oh, it just satisfies every part of your being watching it.

Is it's like it's like the dream life in a way that you want to live.

Yeah, hell yeah, Shonda, did the Studio Network know that Olivia Pope was a black woman or no when you wrote it?

So I want to be clear. When I went in to pitch this, I told Channing, I said, and she's going to be black because Judy Smith is black. And Channing just nodded, and I don't I think, like me, she didn't think as Channing's a woman of color. I don't think she thought like I better go warn everybody or anything like this is not a problem, right. And so when they picked up the pilot, the head of casting called me and was like, Connie Britton would be the perfect choice for this role. And I said, I

Wow, wow, Yeah, I was just going to bring up what you brought up before, like like the casting process for the rest of the of the cast. I remember for going in for Huck and I remember getting this and being like super pissed off that I was even being considered for this because I think the character was described as like in his like fifties, like mid fifties. I was like, I was like thirty nine at the time, and now I'm fifty one, and I'm like, is the new twenty like?

But at the time, I was like, what the fuck? They wouldn't why.

You're like, how dare you think I'm fifty?

Yeah?

I just felt I wasn't right for I remember going into the audition to read for you, Shondaan for Linda Lowe, and I think there was somebody else in the room and just being like, gonna do my best. And you wrote this like brilliant monologue and the character was obsessed with like little figurines that were all over his desk. I don't know if you remember that.

Yeah, I had to write something just to cast the role because didn't say much and I knew that eventually he would. Yeah, I knew eventually he would. So I wrote this monologue.

Oh it was so good. And then so I did the monologue and then we just all kind of sat there in silence for a minute, and you looked at me and said, you're a very interesting actor.

I remember that so clearly, and I was like, oh, thank you.

And then I left. And then you know, another odd thing that happened with casting, It was that you you cast I think most of us, at least me, after just one audition. There wasn't a lot of fanfare. You know, we didn't test for it, but you just knew. And the fact that you got this whole cast together that has such amazing chemistry and it all just freaking was Oh, it was so special, Like, but I know Katie's stories.

Like Katie's story is crazy, but didn't.

You first tell her that she didn't get it?

So they called me in and I think I'm going to test and they say, Seanda says, you can see this on the behind the scenes DVD of Seasons.

That's right, that's right.

See my audition.

She gave me the part and I cried, real, real, ugly cried, and I.

Loved it so much. It was like it was like the most fun thing I ever got to do is to like deliver good news to somebody. You know, it's just lovely.

And then I said, what am I supposed to do?

And you said, someone's gonna call you and there's going to be a wardrobe fitting and there's going to be a table read.

I was like, there's gonna be a people read.

Okay. I didn't first tell her that she didn't get it. What I said was she came in to do the test, and then we brought her in the room and we already had the camera rolling, and I said, Kittie, you're you know I swelled you let you know you're not going to be able to test for this part. And she was like just so politely, like like trying really hard, and we see her dying a little bit inside, and I was like, you guess we're just gonna give it to you, and she was like she like went crazy.

Oh my, I've never I mean, that's your you know, you've won the lottery. You know you've here's your car, and you're I mean, it was insane. It was so but even bigger than that because it had been something I'd wanted and worked for. I think when I was twenty three or something, I said to someone, I just want to work with Shonda Ryan.

Oh my god.

But Shonda.

Most actors have to go through nine like like prereads, callbacks, producers, tests, different sides, different looks, where's something else, come meet this person?

It is awful, and then you start to shoot the show and there's like not really that much chemistry or this show is not that great after all that bs, you know what I mean, that's a good point.

Yeah, you put in all that work and then you're like, uh No. For me, it was like I knew, and I'm very honest, I knew when I saw you, like what I was like, this is perfect, Like this is exactly what I was looking for. When I said, say, well Katie, I knew when I saw her that was exactly what we're waiting for. And because she was newer, the network was like, she needs to test. And then Linda Luwi and I went at the network and we're like, we're not doing a test, Like we're not doing that.

I love it.

I love it.

Garamon and I talk about this all the time.

So for you listening, Shanda is usually not on set because she's really busy writing a new number of other reasons. But for our pilot, which I think took three two or three weeks to make Shonda was there for every single frame we shot nights.

It was cold. We were in a really.

Dank, downtown cool place that we then built and made into Olivia Popen Associates on a stage.

Do you have any what are your memories from being there? For those? I mean we were up all night loopy?

Oh yeah, yeah, I remember, like one. I remember being there to make sure everybody talked fast enough? Do you know what I mean? It was really my big word was everyone's not going to talk fast enough. And part of that talk fast enough was simply that I had written a really long pilot.

You were like, y'all got to talk.

Quick, We're not cutting this out.

Yeah.

I felt like the pace of this show, like the pace of how these people live their lives. You know, White House could be slower, but Pope Associates was like this speeding thing, and I wanted that to happen. I mean, it was so interesting because I just met Paul mcgigan. I didn't know him. I just had loved his pilot Sherlock and the work he'd done there, and we talked for a long time. But I was also there to like sort of go like, what what's he doing, what's

Yeah, I have in my notes one of one of the other characters on the show was were these panels that are our DP started to incorporate into shooting, do

Yeah, h voyeuristic feet. Yeah, that's so true.

And the colors like what they created, the dark blues and grays, and like it just seemed really not poppy.

It didn't seem bright at all.

It seemed sort of like underground, like all this stuff we were going and was going on.

Yeah, and like you mentioned, Katie Are where we shot the pilot. It was this amazing location in downtown LA and they were these these uh, cracked pieces of windows. Yes, that which which now looking back at the watching the show again, watching it back, I was thinking, it's so symbolic of all the cast of characters, right, because we're

They replicated that so beautifully. That freaked me out how well they did that.

Yes, oh my god, everybody. And you know what's cool.

Everyone really stuck with it like seven years. I don't you know, we just really didn't have a lot of turnover in terms of like head of wardrobe production. Like everyone believed in it. And I don't know how you built this team. I know you've talked about this like a no asshole policy, but like it really felt like the cast.

And the crew was just a machine. Like we were so tight we still are.

I mean, it's really when I see someone from Scandal, like a Mary Howard or Lime producing or a Tom Verikar producing director or someone I'm emotional like I'm it really felt like a family early on.

How did you do that?

One?

I think Betsy and I did our homework. At least two people had to say you weren't an asshole for us to hire you. At least two outside people had to vouch for, like your personality or who you were as a person, because you know, people are always lovely to me, but then I find out that they're horrible to the pas or they're you know, I'm like that Great's a bad set. And then we had Mary Howard, who I've learned, if you want your set to run the way you would run your set, find somebody who

Everyone told me, because I was sort of the baby, that like, you know, you really better enjoy this because this, you know, the Tonys and the Jeffs, like this is this is this is lightning in a bottle.

Like we've had.

Very long careers and we've moved from group to group and cast to cast, and this is so magical.

We used to get all the press used to come up to us and be.

Like, come on, so fung out like each other.

Yeah, come on, this cannot be real. And I'm like, it is real. I don't know what to tell you. We're obsessed with each other. We go to events and we only talk to each other. We don't even want to talk to anybody else.

We also had so many amazing moments outside of shooting the show, Like we went to so many events, and one memory that's that stuck out. I think Katie and I talked about this a few days ago, was we went to this Glad Awards event where myself, Katie, and Carrie were presenting an award to you, Shonda was a Glad Award I forget. Yeah, And we had so much fun and I wrote the thing that sticks out for

Do you remember that?

I did, And I remember at that moment thinking, oh my god, this is such a down woman, like she's got my back. I loved it so much. But also cut to like later on that night, me and Mike had a threesome with that guy. Really, yes, yes, do that, but but me and Mike still talk about it to this day. Mike adores you, and he was like, oh my god, I fucking love Seanna that she did that and stepped in and was like nope, he's got a minute. Oh it was so amazing.

So we do the pilot and then we wait to hear about if we're going to get a season one and we get six episode order?

How did you feel about that?

I was pissed. I mean, I will just say that I was pissed. I was like, did I not deliver you know, one hundred episodes of Scandal for I mean, Gray's Anatomy for you? Did I not give you one hundred episodes of Private Practice? Like that? Fuck? And I was mad. I was really mad. But I was also like, it's gonna keep going. And so we had fun writing it that season because we knew that we were like sort of writing the hell out of the show for our lives, like get it all in there just in case.

Do you remember when the show was called? Was it when the show was called Damage Control before it called Do you remember that.

It wasn't the real name though that was the name we put on spongs.

You know, I didn't know that.

Either I thought damage Control was the name that just didn't get approved by the studio, or.

I thought no idea.

I learned that after you know Grays that after that that we called that the entitleedchon Rhymes Project. We called Para Practice entitle toon Rhymes Project, and I was like, I need a name that doesn't have my name and it you know what I mean, Like I wanted to try to build it out. I think now all of our shows have code names.

When we we had no idea that Damage Control was just like a placeholder. And I think Quinn Perkins was Quinn Riley and Harrison wasn't Harrison, right, it was Harrison.

Yeah, it was once I got to know you guys that I decided what your last names were.

I love it.

Yo.

Can we can we talk about like rewatching the show? Me and Katie keep texting each other and we're like, oh my god, this show is so freaking good. And but one person that sticks out for us is Columbus Short because he is like freaking like magic on this show and it's just such a thrill to watch him work, right, Katie, He's like genius in front of the camera.

Like I absolutely loved writing for him and watching him work because he was he was genius behind the camera, I mean in front of the camera, the stuff he would do and then just the little tiny things.

We're making a did it of like some sound with his like he was so musical and rhythmic, and which worked so well with Scandal because you wrote such musical scripts where pace was such a had such a musicality that he just leaned into.

That and he had such a talent for that. Yeah, the two of you were great. I remember watching you too. Yeah, the first time doing that scene. It was great.

I had never been so nervous in my life, but you Yeah, he was very nervous.

He was putting on a front for me of being like I'm cool, I'm cool, and I'm like, you are shitting bricks, dude, Like this is Shonda Rhimes is sitting over there and Betsy Beers is sitting over there, and I think they have a stopwatch and we need to be cool and we need.

To get this And it was absolutely terrifying.

Is it true that did you audition Columbus or is he like the one actor that did not audition. I thought I had heard something about that.

I feel like he was offered it, but maybe I'm wrong. That's what I had heard too.

No, I feel like he came in and auditioned, or at least came.

In and met Oh gotcha.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think I know that he came in and then then we, like, like everybody else, I just knew that he was right.

Yeah, yeah, we thought when we were Now that we're embarking on the Scandal Rewatch podcast, Unpacking the Toolbox, I'm so excited to hang out with our Scandal family is really the point. And honestly, I'm gonna be real, real, honest. Right now, I was like, Oh, the only thing I really don't want to do is watch Scandal because I'm scared that I'm have going to watch something and I don't think I'm good or look at what I used

I could not be more wrong.

It's so much fun.

Yeah, I have the experience of feeling like I'd never actually seen the show that everybody talks about. Yes, you know, because I was always writing in or one episode ahead or editing one episode behind, like and it was I was too worried about like making everything perfect, so I couldn't really like I could watch the show when we were all together and we were like, you know, doing our live to Yeah, but I couldn't watch it just

Right, it's the.

Same when they say like thorn Gate and like all these things, I don't even think I understood what the hell was going on.

Like it's really this has been such a gift.

This podcast is such a gift, and all of you gladiators who are listening right now, like, give yourself the gift of going back and watching the show, or if you've never seen it, tell a friend to watch it. Because the show holds up. It is better than all the shows watch And I'm taking myself out of it. I'm saying when I just sit and watch like Kerry Washington and Tony Goldwyn do their thing, I mean, because

But also you have to remember that, like I had this the writing the writing staff for that show was like every best writer I'd ever worked with, which is really what that was. How did you know that people in Jonaline stay. They tend to stay because ay, they know they're gonna have a job, but be like, they tend to stay because they I hope that they liked it there. But what happened was is we'd have like we'd have like Seve who went to MIT and was

It was brilliant, brilliant minds that were just again sort of like the cast, they just really and most of them stuck with us. I mean when we when we've been doing research on the show. In the series, I mean, I'm reading names of writers and directors who you've taken from a million episodes of Scandal, but then I worked with most of them on inventing Anna, Like you know what I mean.

It's really.

Even guest stars, guest stars that came on Scandal. When I would do researching Google people for for the podcast and be like, oh my god, they did a bunch of Gray's episodes, a bunch of Private Practice episodes, like yeah, like you said, they keep you bring them back, it's it and they want to keep coming back.

I like to work with people who I like to work with, do you know what I mean, Like if I've had a great experience with you, I mean I work with Jeff Perry like any day of the week, every day, are yeah, yeah.

You know what I mean?

Like, so would all of us rank God, mister Magoo.

I love that he had to play such a different character than he played before and was like so amazing.

Yeah, yes, and him at the table reads he has like eight thousand glasses, like he's near sighted and far sighted, I don't know what's going on, and he has to hold his cell phone a C and then.

The script has to be a certain way.

But the crazy thing is it all looks wild and then you sit down for the table read and you're getting a three hundred and fifty dollars ticket front row seat to a Broadway show where his even his table read acting.

Is epic, Yes, epic, yeah.

And just absolutely incredible.

I'm gonna say this. I remember the episode where he gives that long monologue to Fits about what's going to happen to him if he lets this control. You pick out that pizel that your father gave you, and you're gonna shoot yourself like that whole thing. And I was I remember the table read being like I wrote that, Holy shit. I never thought it was going to be that. Like, never thought it was going to be that. I had

How did you know that monologues were going to work on the show. I mean, monologues are very rare. I don't think I've ever seen TV shows with the amount of you know, you would have a character talk, single space page for two pag you know, spa.

That's why I worked right, But in a lot of ways because you said everything so fast. It did make it work because there was none of that like overacting that people accidentally do when they have a monolog or the long pauses that they think mean something like, you guys just threw yourselves into it. We're so natural about it totally.

Who came up with the camera shutter sound?

I don't even remember. I think mcgwigan came up with it with the editor in the director's cut. I'm pretty sure because it was already there. It was already there when I got it. I'm pretty sure. You have to ask Scott Collins, who does all our post production. He'll remember exactly.

Oh, we have to have him on, we have to have him on. But that is so iconic. Whenever I heard like.

It's so sandal, yeah, I think scandal. Yeah.

Did you know the music was going to be like seventies? Yeah?

Like it was the music I was listening to while writing the pilot. I listened to a lot of Stevie Wonder and I listened to a lot of Arretha Franklin, and I don't know, like Washington is such a it's such a political city, but it's also like a very black city, do you know what I mean? Like the population of people of color is huge, And it felt like there was like that was the soul of Washington to me, Like it felt and it resonated me, and I enjoyed using that mesh it's and.

I love how the music sort of plays against what's happening on screen, you know what I mean, because hucklebhucking Quinn will be torturing someone and you're hearing, you know, like and be like yeah, like the Temptations or whatever. So it works so so well.

No, we would always say when we would start to like solve the case at OPA, I would always be like at the cor or like very superstitious, you know, just be like like this is what's going to.

Come on right now. And it was so iconic.

I think I used literally every last one of Stevie Wonder songs in the shot, and almost without with the exception of like her true like gospel shirt singing, every last one of readA Franklin songs.

Are you kidding?

Oh wow, I love that, didn't Stevie wand to write something specifically for Scandal.

At the very end, he.

Wrote the song for the finale. And when you get to talking about the finale, I will come back on and tell the process, please wonder, which was inanely amazing.

I mean, just to do You're going to have to come on and tell us about the ending.

Of the show.

We'll be right back, guys.

Things that were in the middle of the seven years get a little mushy, and I'm so excited to be watching these episodes again to remind myself of what was going on. But what's stuck so much in my head is the pilot. I can it's and then the finale. I just remember so much about the beginning and the end of this show.

And there a few episodes I remember really vividly, just really vividly, honestly, not episode was so dear to me and I was so proud of it and the way it came out and the work everybody did. That was a big one.

Yeah, that was another one that you came to set and you sat on set for those monologs every character did to to Huck, and I remember all of us being like, well, I was like, I just got to sit on the ground and keep repeting every fifty two. Y'all got to remember, like, you know, ninety lines, f you.

I got my monologue at six pm the night before and I was first up. I used to take hits like that all the time. But honestly, I was so I was like, I can do it.

Like I can do it, you know, Like.

They used to call me the closer because I was the youngest, and they would give me the like eleven pm scene on a Friday night and you'd be like, I didn't give that to Jeff, give it to me.

I can do it. I can do it.

But Seawanda, what were your other episodes that you that sort of stick out? They remembered.

The Trail two Wait Happy Birthday, Mister President, where we shot the president.

Oh my gosh.

That was one of my most favorite things that we did, just because of what I got to do with the information of what happens when a president is shot, and because of just the pain it played out for everybody, which was so great, and what happened to Hawk and all that stuff. White Hats Back On, which was the finale of season two where at the end she says dad, dad. Yeah,

Every single person that I've talked to that was in the audience that night, who was like friends or family or Adam, my husband, they remember it as one of the most special and out of body like theater experiences they've ever had. When we were reading the script, Joe Morton, Olivia Pope says dad to pop U Pope and then I.

Came out of their seats.

I remember that.

I remember de Wie Allen being like, oh, Debbie Allen's up.

The audience was screaming, pointing at us. We were pointing at them. Everybody was screaming. I lost my voice for like a month. It was so great, Yeah, and so special. I also remember the abortion episode.

Oh that's on my list, that's on my list. That's a Christmas episode. Maybe it's cold outside.

So I remember, of course, yeah, that was my favorite.

It was, but also because of what like it was our Christmas episode and we got to watch Mellie filibuster and like it just felt like we were women in so many different ways. It was great. And because you know, I feel like I write a show where I'm deconstructing what love is, like I'm trying to rip the lid off the fairy tale. And what's funny is is that everybody buys the fairy tale when I tell it every time, and then when I rip the lid off and they're like,

And also that's real life, right, Like real life isn't tied up in a pretty bow. Yeah.

No, they're not fairy tales. It's just not fairy tales. Randy read super freaking Julia. Do you remember that one that was That was when Olivia comes back and you have, first of all, you have the Harrison's funeral. Remember, Yeah, Hawet's working as like an Apple genius or something.

That's right. That's right, Katie.

Your character was the only one trying to like pull everybody together.

Yes, I remember that ship That was fun.

You would become like a mini Olivia, Pope, you become like a Minia Livy. I loved that episode. That made me really happen.

I can't wait to get to all these episodes. I can't even stand it.

A lawn chair, run a launch chair.

And run when she gets kidnapped.

That was amazing, and that was a lawn Share episode.

The guest stars and the stories.

That you tell us a little bit about how you always felt, and we always felt like you, you and the writers room more ahead of the news cycle, like why would you write something?

And then some shit would happen and we would be like wait what Yeah.

Well, part of that is that, like the people in my room were crazy intelligent, and so they would they would like extrapolate something to its extreme degree and be like, what if there was this Thornngate thing that was spying and everybody through their computers and their phone. Wow, And we were like, that can never happen, And so it was like, technically it can, and tell us all why I could, and then we'd do it, and then literally we'd find out that that's something that actually happened, like

Yeah, Hollis Doyle, oh my god.

It was great.

You know, we we've heard some of your most memorable episodes of the series. But she and I have some questions that came up from watching the pilot. First of all, where does gladiator in a suit come from?

I made that up. I made that up. I just loved the way it sounded. It's one day in my head, I was like gladiators, Like, it just sounded good to me. What I loved was how we got to like put that information down and that we told the story through the eyes of Quinn. What was important about that was nobody who was watching the show knew anything about this world,

Did Judy Smith say things I trust my gut or is this stuff you also made up?

Judy Smith says, trust your gut. Your gut will tell you everything you need to know. That was one of the first things I wrote down in my notes from my meeting with her. That's the thing she always said. She said that, and she said stand in your truth. Those are the two that I always held onto. Yeah. Never like don't lie. It's the same thing, don't lie, never.

Tell a lie.

Yeah wow. And then I loved like and it's I don't know if it was aired in the broadcast show because it was too long, but I made them put it in for the DVD. In any subsequent errings, Huck basically says to her, you know, we're all damaged, you know, like everybody here is damage to like, get used to it.

Yeah, And I say that.

Yeah. That was one of my favorite scenes. And when I loved about it was it just told you who everyone was like. And when I wrote that.

Scene, what I was just gonna say. He says, we're all stray dogs.

That's right.

Yeah, Oh my god.

That's what I loved about that was when I wrote it, I wasn't thinking as much about that, But the minute I wrote that line, I was like, Oh, what are what's everybody's problem? Like, how did they come to.

A living Everyone's from the Misfits. Everyone's from the Misfit Toys.

And boy did you deliver? Did you give it to us? Oh my god, that.

Whole speech that Olivia gives to Amanda Tanner. You think she's this lovely person and then she just decimates her and you see what her job really is.

Oh yeah, yeah, she's the devil. It's horrible.

She's the one who she needs to make things happen. She's the person who handles stuff, so she has to handle it whatever way works. And I just remember like the devastation on Quinn's face and the way it was shot so well done.

Yeah, I had no idea that scene was like that. I remember being like, oh, you know, my your line, your line, your line, my line. I like didn't work that hard on that scene because I don't have any lines, right, which is the worst doctor ever.

I understand that.

I remember standing back there and Liza, you know, she's so good at being emotional, and she's.

Working on her amazing so upset.

And you know, Carrie has this this epic monologue that you were talking about about, Oh is this a nice dog? And then she goes through like, oh that stint where your mom was in the nuthouse and and it would be easier and better for you if you just got the hell out of here type of thing. And then I remember Paul coming up to me and being like, this is obviously my acting wasn't that great, but he came up to me and said, like, this.

Is shut up, I said. He basically was like.

We are understanding the stakes of this scene and how fucked up this is through you and your eyes.

And I was like, oh.

Crap, I do.

I have to feel?

And then Olivia does the slow mo in the white jacket from Lynn Pallow and gets on the phone and she just says it's handled, and then it goes to Quinn's face and she just is like, I can't even believe I'm working for this woman. She's this is this is all like this. She's kind of the devil but also the hero, which is how.

What effected it was an exterior scene and that everybody, everybody, Bob Woodward, everybody was like, when are you in DC shooting the show? And I was like, We're never in DC shooting the show.

That's all fake, And how amazing did that department do you?

Like?

People would come up to us all the time and be like, Yo, when are you guys gonna be in DC again?

You're why are you here? Don't you guys shoot the show in DC?

And we'd always be like, no, it's all green screen and that that team that did that, that work was just stellar.

I mean, yeah, people really Washingtonians really believe we're shooting in DC. And I remember, I mean, my favorite thing that we got to do was, Hey, it's awesome to have a job where you get to write interior white House and then they build you a white House that I literally played in the Oval Office for like a

Wow, wow, God.

We didn't shoot the show in DC because when we did go there it was so cold. We would complain about being in wool codes and it being so hot. But honestly, I prefer that to the one episode we did in DC where I was holding gear Moo's ears from become from Huck's ears from turning into icicle turning.

Yeah.

Also, we could have never shot the show there Scandal, the cast of Scandal I can hide, but it was like you were a beatle when we got when the cast of got dropped into d C, or when Shonda Rhimes gets dropped into d C and you're on a political show.

It was crazy watching the reactions there. That was amazing. One of the best things for me was like I was all about a shooting in La everything because I had kids, People had kids, people, and it was the show went on, people had more and more kids, and I just felt like people's lifestyles should not be like standing in the middle of Washington, d C. In the middle of the night hoping you can get home at some point.

And it wasn't only like fans on the street or fans that watch the show was it was like people in DC, like when we went and met like Obama and the first Lady Michelle Obama, like hearing her tell me and tell all of us, Oh my god, I was just watching an episode as they would do in my hair and makeup. I was like, what, like the people that were in that world were watching our show.

It was so surreal to me, so surreal that like actual Washingtonian people. I mean I remember George Bush Junior calling up Jadie Smith and saying, you know, we didn't really have an affair, right, and like them laughing about it. Yeah, I was. My mind was blown. My mind was blown.

I didn't know that.

Oh my god.

I think it was such a gift that we sort of also that scandal.

It was sort of a.

Slow burn that people caught onto the show. I mean, it really wasn't.

Into It was very helpful.

I think we got to a place where we weren't this like overnight thing, so we had sort of but we were obsessed with the show and doing a good job and doing the best we could, and we got to really make it in this sort of bubble where people weren't looking. And then by the time everyone started looking. I can remember being on red Carpet and they would say, like, what does it feel like to be on a hit show? Yeah, I'd be like, wait are we we are?

Like I just was so like, what right?

Because it was such a slow burn. It was such a slow burn.

But also, yeah, I feel like Katie, like none of us ever got cocky about it like no one ever got cocky. Every season we'd be like, oh my god, I hope we get picked up. It was never like, ah, we're we're fucking in like this is whatever. We're a hit, fuck this ship, We're the best.

It was.

We wanted to just be there.

I love it.

How do you think, like everyone says the show why it was so magical a lot, is that because our lead showrunner, boss Shonda Rhimes, and our lead actor Kerry Washington are number one, the two of you. You know, ship rolls downhill and that just never happened on our show. How did you and Carrie make a world where that was the case for so long? Because everyone would say in the beginning, wait till season four, you're all going to funcate each other.

Like, do you remember on the pilot the first day we ever shot the show. On the pilot, we were on the graves and anatomy set shoot in the hospital scenes, and you said, or maybe it wasn't the pilot, maybe it was episode two, No, I think it was, Yeah, it pilot. It was the pilot. Yeah, you say, I'm never ever going to be like going to not be grateful, And I remember pulling out my phone and being like,

We none of us were like that, none of us.

I really, but yeah say it.

So I was just gonna say. Cary would do stuff like when we were done shooting a scene, she would stop everyone and ask for silence and thank all the background, thank our crew. Like the stuff that Carrie would do just made the sets so special and so inviting and so warm and kind, and that's so rare, you know.

I think in my opinion, I feel like, and I don't remember that Carrie actually said this to me or not, but this is what I assumed that she had been on a lot of sets and seen all kinds of behavior and knew when when it was good and when it was bad, Like knew the feeling because if you're like just starting out, you know what that feels like when some number one is horrible and sort of had

Was a bitch.

Absolutely, Oh I've never thought about that.

They would have ran with that.

And she was just a lovely person to begin with. But she really worked hard to remain humble and to keep everybody around her like feeling good about what they were doing as well, to make sure it felt like a group effort.

The fact that she never complained about those fucking shoes. I would have lost my mind, like for seven years cramming her little foot into six inch high heels.

I but Shanda, you never you are always the same.

You and Betsy would call these meeting, we would do table reads and then you would say, okay, I'd like all the actors to stay after for ten minutes, to which we would all be like.

Oh my god, oh my god, we're in trouble. Please don't let us be in trouble.

But we would sit there and you would always say it would be like, you know, if anything comes up, or you want to talk about anything, or we should be your first call. Like I never had somebody in the middle of the night like you need help, someone gets an exit, somebody to like, calm us, let us help you. We are all in this together. And it was just seemed like a very supportive I don't know,

I feel really lucky because I had the experience of never working on TV before writing a show and having it be like a crazy out of the box hit where all of these actors became famous overnight and chase by paparazzi and stuff, and that was great, and I didn't know how to handle any of that, you know what I mean. Like, I learned that through the process of working there every day, and it was great to be able to bring that knowledge to the table, you know, and say this is what it is. And that was

Yes, and you were also like, this show is so important and your health is so important. But you all and Mary Howard were also like, and your families are super important. Like it was always like, you know, she was working, if someone was going through anything at home, or you know, people had things going on. She was very much She's a very family oriented. I think everybody was on the show.

I think that was the thing. Like she was family oriented, we were family oriented. It felts normal, it really did.

Is there anything in closing? Can you please come back on the Scandal Rewatch podcast?

Yes, you guys want me to like, I love this, I love that you're doing it.

I'm I love it awesome.

Well, I think it's going to give I think that our gladiators who have been just laying dormant for years, looking for a place to go and geek out and wear their gladiator shirts and drink out of their gladiator and eat their popcorn and wine and rewatch the shows and tell people who haven't seen it to sit their asses down and go watch it. And it's been such a gift to Gama and I to go back and watch this.

Show beyond Yeah, I think for I think for like gladiators, I always just want to say, like gladiators, like this is where you're going to get the inside scoop, you know, like stuff that was that we've never talked about, Yeah.

Don't you want to know that Germo Diaz had a threesome in the night that we presented, Shonda Rhymes with her glad aboard.

That's amazing.

You're welcome everyone things we didn't know.

So since Twitter was such a massive thing for Scandal, Shonda, we're we're going to finish this episode and do this in many episodes by reading some of the best tweets surrounding the Scandal moment.

Tweetweetweet, twetweeted at the time, tweeters the time, Yeah, tweets at the time.

On April fourth and twenty twelve, actually, Shonda Rhymes tweeted, this is the best ad for Scandal ever. Thank you for the Scandal cake. And it's a picture of a cake and they actually drew Carrie Washington on the cake and it says, my gut tells me everything I need to know. Watch Scandal Thursday's ten at ten. Who made that cake, Seanda, do you remember?

I have no idea? It literally just appeared in our offices. Again, shut up, but we're so excited by it.

And then you tweeted again, Shonda.

A few minutes later or later that day, the Gray's anatomy Scandal riders couldn't take it. They had to eat the Scandal cake and it's a picture of half of the cake gone.

Yeah. I was like, let's just preserve it as this beautiful thing.

And then he just had to eat it and it looked delicious.

It was quite good. I think everybody thought it was quite good. That's hilarious.

Then you also tweeted on April third, twenty twelve, Shonda Rhymes tweeted, meet at Judy Smith, the woman behind at scandalabc's Olivia Pope, and get your copy of her new book Good Self, Bad Self at Amazon.

Wow.

Oh, we already had this shirt.

Marco who is a who is a key player at shandalin Mark Marco Esquivel already posted a picture of gladiator and sweatshirts, and it was a sweatshirt picture that says, do you want to be a gladiator in a suit?

We were all having marched.

Yes, we were having march from the beginning, which is crazy.

And can you talk about how how they named us the our fans became our gladiators, right Like someone on Twitter just ran with that and then all of a sudden, it was like the gladiators and that's that's that's so. That was such a memorable moment, right, and that that has stuck around too, because people will still come up to me on the street now and be like, yeah, yo, I'm a gladiator, I'm a gladiator.

Oh yeah, I get that all the time.

What I loved about that, and I thought was so at the time, especially Twitter, was about the fans coming together and deciding things like now. I think they put out like for other shows, they put out like tested hashtag, which I didn't understand, like we don't on the side of the hashtags. The fans. Yeah, they came up with Huckleberry Quinn. They came up with it's not our job, No, it's their community.

I forget.

Was it your idea or Carrie's idea for all of us to be on Twitter.

I think that Carrie, if I remember correctly, I think Carrie came to me and said it would be really cool if we all got on Twitter and tweeted the shows. And then I remember then she just said it like that and like backed away, and then I remember sitting at a table and being like, you're all gonna get on Twitter.

We're going to help you do something and we did.

We were like, we got to get on Twitter.

But once again, as usual, Carrie was right.

It was right, She was right, She was right.

Do you remember do you remember us following I started following everybody on Twitter, Katie, like even like fans. I was like follow and but now you know you can't do that. But but I remember fans.

We had no idea what we were doing. We sent Jeff Perry out onto Twitter and he did great, did great him like sitting next to Jeff being like this is how you do it? Or Joe Morton, I.

Mean people, yes, and they came up with their own sort of Twitter personalities, like Joe Morton tweeted sort of like pop u Pope, these like y like cryptic, crypto big posts.

My favorite Twitter thing that ever happened wasn't I don't. I don't know that anybody else really knows this. But Scott Foley had been playing Jake, this bad guy for a while and the audience hated him and he didn't complain about it or anything, but like the tweets were clear the audience just wanted him dead. And so I wrote this episode where he gets thrown into that the b six thirteen the whole or whatever, and I know, and then Olivia comes in because it's like the president

It was past tense.

If your character was against Olivia Pope, you were getting Twitter death threats, or if your character was coming at all in the middle of fits and Olivia, you forget it.

Yeah, that was so crazy.

It was just it was a movement. It was just a thing.

And then people like Oprah Winfrey and like Bette Middlers and Rihanna started tweeting also about the show Mariah Carey, and we were like, what is happening.

Prince once put on a suit and send a picture of himself that said Gladiator in a suit.

You know that didn't.

I'm gonna send it to you because I have a screen because I went, you know, Prince was everything. He also sent me a list of songs that would be okay for me to use on the show.

Did you ever use one?

Yes? When well, it's so sad because when Prince died, I did an episode that was all my whole the whole night of television that Thursday night was all Princess.

Yeah, that is the loveliest thing. I mean when that's how we also started to feel like, oh, the show's happening when someone would come into work and be like did you see Like Rihanna tweeted that she's watching the show. I can remember being it carries l women in Hollywood dinner and I was sitting next to hing Mon and she was like, my husband and I sit and we watch the show. I'm like, are you talking about David Bowie?

David Bowie is sitting and watching Scandal. I mean, this is crazy.

I freaked out when when missus Obama and the President were like, like, we have some we have some things to tell you about the show about the White House because MS Mom was like, you're not getting it right.

You gotta get it right.

And it was great.

She was like, this is what the private residence looked like, this is where the stairs are like, this is like, this is how the White Houses set up.

Show me how we were making the door using the doors in correctly, like doing the window panes on the doors incorrectly, and I came back to change them.

Yeah, oh my god. That is amazing.

My god, this show man, the things we learned on it, the people it brought together. Shanda, thank you for being the first guest on the Scandal Rewatch podcast.

Thank you.

I will show up for you anytime. You know. I love you, guys, Scandal.

Fan, So yeah, Yandal, that's right.

For life and we love you.

Thank you for writing this show that turns out when you watch it all over again.

Yes, it's still great.

Yeah, that's awesome.

Thank you, Thank you. Of course it's our pleasure.

You kidding.

Oh my god, I'm just so so great.

We're so filled up that I need to keep going with my gladiator.

Right, I'm gonna pour some whiskey in my in my coke zero.

Now it's only ten to fifteen. Is that too early to have a shoat to move to.

No, it's also a Thursday.

I don't know what that means, but it's here's another see it's tg T.

I'll have you all this that The first episode Get to Rewatch Podcasts Unpacking the Toolbox with guests Shanda Rhimes, was recorded on a fucking Thursday.

And Katie has a shirt that says hashtag tg I T remember this, Oh my god.

And we're drinking out of our gladiator cups and I cannot remember for the life of me.

What was the name of the made up wine on Scandal?

Oh?

Like, I don't know. I knew Betsy Beers would know this.

See this whole This whole podcast is not about me texting people, but it is because I want to find out the correct things I wrote. Sorry about you so early doing Scandal podcast. What was the fake, made up name of the wine again? Because I'm gonna pretend to drink it on the podcast. It was shot to move to Pop and it was called Chateau do Belet Wow, which is complete bullshit and not made up.

I love that Betsy remembered that Betsy knew that.

Well because she was the person who they went She's a she knows a lot about fancy wine, and I think the story goes is like the writer's room reached out to her and was like, what would be a really fancy, insanely priced bottle of wine that Olivia Pope will drinking?

Yeah?

Yeah, mine this morning is cranberry juice that's old as fuck, and I found in the back of my and Carrie never drank cranberry juice onset.

She drank grape juice, really right.

I don't know whatever had the less sugar.

Yeah, I think her fake wine was grape juice, which I think she like loved.

I remember Carrie being like this crape juice is so delicious.

I love this.

But Yo, the.

Scandal Rewatch podcast, you guys better to tell your friends because it's fire. We have every single guest, an amazing person you could want who starred on Scandal or start behind the scenes on Scandal, some secret guests coming up that you are not going to want to miss.

You're going to get all the scoop, all the scoop from behind the scenes at parties.

Yes, and Gary and I are so grateful to have this show and it's been such a gift and we're so excited to be on this ride with you guys, and we love you.

And we want you guys to get hooked on rewatching the show like we are now.

Oh my gosh, everyone, tune in next week to episode one oh two of Scandal. Dirty little secrets.

We all got them, We all got them. Better tell somebody bye. Thank you guys for joining us on Unpacking the Toolbox. If you enjoyed the show, please subscribe, share with your friends, rate, or leave us a review.

Scandal is executive produced by Sandy Bailey, Alex Alcea, Lauren Homan, Tyler Klang, and Gabrielle Collins. Our producer and editor is Vince de Johnny, with music by Chad Fisher.

Scandal is a production of ABC Signature, and you can follow along by rewatching Scandal on Hulu.

Unpacking the Toolbox is a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership with iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from Shondaland Audio, visit the iHeartRadio app or anywhere you subscribe to your favorite shows.