Speaker 1: Man, do we have an exciting show today? Donald Faison,
Speaker 1: We do have an exciting show. You know, we promised
Speaker 1: the people, we promised the listeners that we wouldn't just
Speaker 1: have stars of the show on, that we would bring
Speaker 1: on crew members.
Speaker 2: You're totally about to geek out about this. You brought
Speaker 2: up a director. I am going to geek as a
Speaker 2: fellow director. You're like, Yo, I'm gonna ask him about
Speaker 2: this shot. I'm gonna ask him about this shot.
Speaker 1: Well, I am going to talk to him. I think
Speaker 1: people if I sometimes think when I'm preparing for this,
Speaker 1: and you know, I do a lot of homework. You
Speaker 1: should see my desk. It looks like I'm about to
Speaker 1: write a novel. I was thinking about if I was
Speaker 1: a listener, I'd want to know some behind it, Like
Speaker 1: what's it like to be a director of a TV show.
Speaker 1: Michael Spilder, who we're talking about is is a very
Speaker 1: big television director, one of the biggest. In fact, he
Speaker 1: recently won the Emmy for directing Modern Family and he's
Speaker 1: a very talented guy.
Speaker 2: Wait wait, hold up, which for the like the final
Speaker 2: season he won the Emmy.
Speaker 1: I don't have the exact Emmy.
Speaker 2: Well, I want to ask him about some of this stuff,
Speaker 2: like how many shows have you directed?
Speaker 3: Now? Is it like you know, have you lost? Can
Speaker 3: you keep count of the amount of share?
Speaker 1: Save your spiller questions, have them, have them pent up
Speaker 1: inside you and just have them ready to explode when
Speaker 1: he comes in the room.
Speaker 3: Okay, well I got it. I only got a couple.
Speaker 3: I'm great. How are you man?
Speaker 1: I'm good, I'm good. Did you work out? Are we
Speaker 1: gonna have a post peloton Donald?
Speaker 2: Today? I didn't want to talk about it because I
Speaker 2: did work out today and I finished the workout. But
Speaker 2: I'm now disappointed with with said instructor that we talked about.
Speaker 1: Why, well, he was different today?
Speaker 2: He talked too much, started singing hold on and then
Speaker 2: also singing off beat? Right, I don't I don't do
Speaker 2: peloton to be talked to off beat. I don't appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Was it still the you know what I love about?
Speaker 4: You know?
Speaker 1: I still well? The thing I liked about spinning was
Speaker 1: when you could get in the groove, unlock, nang.
Speaker 2: Right, and so it's important that your your your spin
Speaker 2: instructor is like a DJ, you know what I mean?
Speaker 2: So right, he or she should be riding with the beat,
Speaker 2: so the music's going and and and then you need
Speaker 2: to be going with the music. Also does he say stuff?
Speaker 1: You know, I like it when they go like they
Speaker 1: just make noises like.
Speaker 3: Hey, ho when they diddy that shit.
Speaker 2: I love that.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's like Diddy diddy ed hey.
Speaker 1: And you know, it's so embarrassing. I find myself and
Speaker 1: so fucking embarrassing. But I find myself on the treadmill
Speaker 1: not even spinning, and I'm listening to a good song
Speaker 1: and I'm.
Speaker 5: Like, hey, okay, and I'm doing the fucking Diddy spin
Speaker 5: instructor thing.
Speaker 3: Ah ah, take that.
Speaker 1: Take that Ahead Ahead. Before I knew Diddy was like
Speaker 1: a big producer and I was watching those, I'd be like,
Speaker 1: so this dude just makes a living one ahead Yeah,
Speaker 1: Ahead Ahead.
Speaker 2: I couldn't take it. It was like just too much talking,
Speaker 2: not enough motivation. Like when you talk, you're supposed to motivate,
Speaker 2: you're not supposed to talk about how dope the song
Speaker 2: is and stuff like I don't want to hear.
Speaker 3: All of that. I already know this song is good,
Speaker 3: you know what I mean?
Speaker 2: You chose the class because I saw the playlist right,
Speaker 2: and you like the music playlist.
Speaker 3: Right, the playlist looks dope.
Speaker 1: This isn't an amazing And I know this is the
Speaker 1: stupidest thing. Everybody knows this, but I was realizing it today.
Speaker 1: If the fucking music is good and you love it,
Speaker 1: you can do so much more of a workout. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: because I've got I've gone to so many spin classes
Speaker 1: because I do like spinning, and the music is just
Speaker 1: so not my thing. I mean, it's other people's thing.
Speaker 1: I'm not, you know, to each their own, but I'm like,
Speaker 1: And then today I had made this like awesome mix
Speaker 1: that I was fucking grooving out to, and I was like,
Speaker 1: I could really work out a long time to this
Speaker 1: amazing mix. I mean, but I don't know where you
Speaker 1: work out? Do you like to work out to? Rap? Right?
Speaker 3: I do like to work Wait what do you work
Speaker 3: out to? You don't work out to?
Speaker 2: Like?
Speaker 6: Wait?
Speaker 2: Wait, hold on, I didn't realize there was other music
Speaker 2: you could work out to.
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, it's in this country. You don't have to
Speaker 1: just work out.
Speaker 2: I can understand house music, but no, what do you wait?
Speaker 3: Hold up?
Speaker 1: What do you work I like to work out to pop, like,
Speaker 1: but like uptempo pop? What do you like I'm opening
Speaker 1: up the fucking playlist right now because there were some
Speaker 1: fire songs on Here.
Speaker 3: We Go, Here we Go recommendations from Zach Braff.
Speaker 1: Avichi has this song. It's like his most popular song.
Speaker 1: It's wake Me Up, and it's just like up tempo,
Speaker 1: and it makes me think of this time, because when
Speaker 1: you're in this time and you're working out, you're like,
Speaker 1: wake me up from this fucking horrible nightmare. So I
Speaker 1: like that. I had, you know, I had Michelle branch
Speaker 1: On here because you know, I love my girl Michelle
Speaker 1: brand I had Oh Asia, I love cea ed Sheer
Speaker 1: Cia Unstoppable, Unstoppable today and I had Ed Sheering with
Speaker 1: Chance the rapper You cross me, you grabbed me Joel's
Speaker 1: jam and she knows that song. Oh and also Fleetwood
Speaker 1: Mac this is an old school one. I don't want
Speaker 1: to know a bath then.
Speaker 2: Then so I worked out too. Ten crack Commandments b
Speaker 2: I G.
Speaker 1: Okay, we're on a very different plane right now.
Speaker 3: You don't know that song.
Speaker 1: I know who the Notorious b I G is that song?
Speaker 1: Give us a sample.
Speaker 3: It's the Ten Commandments of Selling Drugs.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm I know, I'm dancing and working out to
Speaker 1: Michelle Branch and you're listening to a song about crack.
Speaker 2: You know we grew up differently. Yes, I guess we
Speaker 2: grew up differently. We did, Buddy, Hey, should we go
Speaker 2: again to the show.
Speaker 1: Let's invite in our special guest.
Speaker 7: About six seven eight stories I'm not show we made
Speaker 7: about a bunch of dogs and nurses.
Speaker 3: He's the stories natal.
Speaker 4: So YadA here yea, here, what a song.
Speaker 1: Lots of talk about the song, the song. I gotta
Speaker 1: tell you something about those numbers. My whole timeline is
Speaker 1: people laughing at Bill and saying the numbers and just
Speaker 1: writing them non stop. In my timeline. That's becoming, unfortunately
Speaker 1: to me. But of course Bill will love it. He's
Speaker 1: become a huge hit with his whole bit about.
Speaker 3: Saying five six seven eight.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's like the PC. Well he's not PC, but
Speaker 2: he's like Todd. He's like the Todd of our show.
Speaker 2: He comes in and he delivers every time, dude, every time,
Speaker 2: he's like ups, always delivers.
Speaker 3: He always delivers. All right, let's bring in our guests.
Speaker 1: Let's bring in our very special guest. Turn him on,
Speaker 1: bring him in, ladies and gentlemen, Oh my god, I
Speaker 1: haven't seen him in years. Yay, and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, Michael,
Speaker 1: still listen, Michael, you are the very first guest we're
Speaker 1: having on the show who is a member of the crew,
Speaker 1: not an actor or a writer. And I'm just We're
Speaker 1: so you're here.
Speaker 6: It's really awesome, thrilled to be here.
Speaker 3: You're I would say you're our first director.
Speaker 2: But Zach has directed an episode and Bill has directed
Speaker 2: an episode.
Speaker 1: Right, but not not before Michael Spiller. Michael's our first
Speaker 1: director of from season one.
Speaker 3: He is also directed season No, he wrote it, that's right.
Speaker 1: No, I want to say that, Michael. I would say
Speaker 1: I think maybe directed the most. Spiller do you know
Speaker 1: that trivia? Is that true?
Speaker 6: It is true? How many episodes? Twenty twenty episodes?
Speaker 1: Twenty episodes?
Speaker 6: You know? As I go and I work on other
Speaker 6: shows and stuff, I always meet Scrubs fans, and without fail,
Speaker 6: I say I've directed more episodes than any or human,
Speaker 6: leaving the possibility that another someone from another species has
Speaker 6: directed more than me.
Speaker 1: Right, but I can confirm it. I can confirm they
Speaker 1: have it. I would also confirm, Michael, that you are
Speaker 1: one of our favorites if you look at IMDb, you'll
Speaker 1: see there's lots of directors of Scrool. Some came in
Speaker 1: for one episode and then never came back for either
Speaker 1: Bill's reasons or their reasons, mostly Bills probably. And then
Speaker 1: there's people like you that everybody loved so much and
Speaker 1: you did twenty Yeah, I guess go back to how
Speaker 1: it all began for you, at least with the Scrubs connection.
Speaker 1: How you got this? I know that back in the
Speaker 1: day you were, Michael was a cinematographer. He was shooting
Speaker 1: the show Sex and the City. I don't know if
Speaker 1: you've ever heard of that show, but Michaeh was the
Speaker 1: cinematographer on the show and then began to direct that show.
Speaker 1: And then Michael just talked a little bit about how
Speaker 1: you got how you transitioned from shooting into directing TV.
Speaker 6: Well, I mean I went to film school. I went
Speaker 6: to Sunny Purchase, upstate.
Speaker 2: New York, New York, New York, New York.
Speaker 6: That's right. And I started making my own films when
Speaker 6: I was a kid in Brooklyn. Saved up my paper route,
Speaker 6: bought a Super eight camera and went to film school.
Speaker 6: And I wanted to be a cinematographer. I didn't want
Speaker 6: to be a director because actors were crazy, let's face it,
Speaker 6: and you know it was mainly I shot a lot
Speaker 6: of indie movies and music videos and documentaries and travel
Speaker 6: all over the place. And then I got married and
Speaker 6: wanted to start a family, and TV sounded like, well,
Speaker 6: maybe that will provide a little more stable lifestyle. And
Speaker 6: I was shooting out Sex and the City. And at
Speaker 6: the end of the first season, my agent said, if
Speaker 6: the show gets picked up, I'm gonna ask for an
Speaker 6: episode for you to direct season two. And I'm like, nope,
Speaker 6: I'm good, I'm good, I'm happy where I am. I
Speaker 6: don't need it. He said, no, you're going to do it,
Speaker 6: and I did, and then I did went really well.
Speaker 6: I also dpeed that episode. Wow, I don't I don't
Speaker 6: recommend doing that for your first episode of TV.
Speaker 3: That seems like a lot of work.
Speaker 6: It's a huge amount of work. And then the third
Speaker 6: season I did two more. In the fourth season, I
Speaker 6: did four episodes, and by that time we had moved
Speaker 6: to La bought a house, moved back for the fourth season, uh,
Speaker 6: and then moved to La finally right after nine to eleven.
Speaker 6: But not because of it. Uh. And I had already
Speaker 6: signed with my current agent, who after three episodes you
Speaker 6: see what I did, said I want to wrap the
Speaker 6: sky And he was at the same agency where Bill
Speaker 6: Lawrence was represented.
Speaker 1: Oh see, it is all about connections in Hollywood, everybody.
Speaker 6: It's true. No ute given up.
Speaker 1: So Scrubs was your Was Scrubs your first non Sex
Speaker 1: in the City gig?
Speaker 6: It was meant to be. So you know, my agent
Speaker 6: sight Unseen, you know, convinced Bill. He did a great
Speaker 6: job presenting me to Bill, and it was meant to
Speaker 6: be my first episode. After Sex and the City. I
Speaker 6: wound up doing an episode of Greg the Bunny.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, remember that show? God was that? Who was
Speaker 1: who was that?
Speaker 3: Who was the star of that show?
Speaker 6: Sarah Silberman Levy seth Green.
Speaker 2: There we go.
Speaker 6: It was. It was a great cast, but it was like,
Speaker 6: you know, huge puppet sets and all this other stuff.
Speaker 6: Like it's like, why these like I've never done a
Speaker 6: puppet show. You know, you had to build sets that
Speaker 6: were all like four feet off the ground so people
Speaker 6: could stick their hands up through manipulate anyway. Steve Levittan
Speaker 6: was the executive producer on that, So I met Steve
Speaker 6: on my first episode. I later did Modern Family and
Speaker 6: a bunch of other shows with and then Bill Lawrence
Speaker 6: on my second show. So very very good agent. Thing.
Speaker 1: By the way, if you're gonna meet two showrunners when
Speaker 1: you get to Hollywood, it's down good that it's Steve
Speaker 1: Levittan and Bill Lawrence. Yeah right, your agent's pretty good.
Speaker 6: He's Sean Frieden.
Speaker 3: Hey how many? Wow? Shout out? How many?
Speaker 2: How many? How manyisodes of Modern Family did you direct?
Speaker 2: Did you direct the most Modern Family episodes? Also?
Speaker 6: No, I didn't, but I did twenty two episodes.
Speaker 1: Twenty two episodes and won the Emmy, won the Emmy.
Speaker 1: I wish we could have given you an Emmy. Spiller.
Speaker 1: You deserve.
Speaker 3: You tried, We tried. I know we all were you.
Speaker 6: I know you did.
Speaker 1: Now, Michael, I just want to say, you know again,
Speaker 1: season one, we're meeting all these directors. For those of
Speaker 1: you who don't know, it's usually a different director every
Speaker 1: week because they have to prep. They have about a
Speaker 1: week's prep before they shoot the episode, and so you're
Speaker 1: always alternating, and some can't come in, and you know,
Speaker 1: you know, Donald and I would would like some more
Speaker 1: than others. Some were really good with comedy, and others
Speaker 1: were good with moving the camera. One of the things
Speaker 1: I think we we loved about you, Michael, is that
Speaker 1: because you were a cinematographer first, you really were amazing
Speaker 1: with moving the camera and doing interesting things with the camera.
Speaker 1: But also you did know how to talk to actors
Speaker 1: and make jokes funnier. And I thought you could just
Speaker 1: talk to that about about about how how you approach something,
Speaker 1: how you approach the script, and and and your experience
Speaker 1: with what it's like being you know, having the DP background.
Speaker 2: Also, we should go over the process of what it
Speaker 2: takes to Since we have a television director on right now,
Speaker 2: we should go through the process of what it takes to.
Speaker 2: I mean, directing is like the end of the journey,
Speaker 2: you know, I mean that's not even close to the
Speaker 2: end that well, it's the middle of the journey.
Speaker 3: Really.
Speaker 2: There's prep, there's you know, all of pre production, and
Speaker 2: then there's post production.
Speaker 3: We should also talk about that. Our listeners might be
Speaker 3: interested in that.
Speaker 1: Yeah they will. So, Michael, we just gave you a
Speaker 1: lot answer all of that. Go No, talk talk first
Speaker 1: about you know, being having a DP background and how
Speaker 1: that affected the way you work well.
Speaker 6: I think there's no question that having the background as
Speaker 6: a DP was extremely helpful. I mean, first of all,
Speaker 6: event that when I came on the set, I could
Speaker 6: usually bond with the crew very quickly because I spoke
Speaker 6: their language. I sort of got it. You know. I
Speaker 6: would stay seen in such a way that worked first
Speaker 6: and foremost for the story, yet also kept the logistics
Speaker 6: in mind and the practical aspect of it. And you know,
Speaker 6: and I was flexible enough that you know, I encouraged
Speaker 6: and I love to collaborate. I want the DPS input.
Speaker 6: You know, obviously the cast would give input to the
Speaker 6: showrunners give input as well, but the nuts and bolts
Speaker 6: of it, you know, I understood. I've also been a
Speaker 6: grip and electrician. I've pushed dollie, I've I've pulled focus,
Speaker 6: I've operated camera for other people. So you know, I
Speaker 6: love the crew. I mean, these are my people, and
Speaker 6: I think most people I've worked with can pick up
Speaker 6: on that. So and I have a deep respect for them,
Speaker 6: and that that's half the battle. You know, when I
Speaker 6: was shooting Sex in the City, if we had a
Speaker 6: new director, and if you know, Sarah Jessica Parker wasn't
Speaker 6: in the first scene you know that that director was shooting.
Speaker 6: When she would first come on to set, she would
Speaker 6: look at me and like gauging, like cow is this person?
Speaker 6: And if if I gave her like the I don't
Speaker 6: know look, then that person had to work. You know,
Speaker 6: it's an uphill battle just to get back to you
Speaker 6: know zero, right. So you know it's enormously important because
Speaker 6: I mean, you guys know it's like you love your
Speaker 6: crew and it's like it's one big family. So a
Speaker 6: director walking on to a TV show has to be
Speaker 6: both a leader, right and and you know they're not
Speaker 6: the ultimate top of the pyramid, but they still got
Speaker 6: to lead the crew. They've got to get the crew behind,
Speaker 6: they've got to work with all the you know, the
Speaker 6: elements that are already in place, and you have to
Speaker 6: respect that that family that you're walking into.
Speaker 1: That's what's so bizarre about it. That's what's so bizarre
Speaker 1: about it is and I've only done it, I think
Speaker 1: once or twice, Michael, that is, come onto a show
Speaker 1: that is an entity and say hey, everybody, I'm the
Speaker 1: leader for the week. And you know it's one thing
Speaker 1: when you come back and like you came back you know,
Speaker 1: nineteen more times. But on the first one it's like, hey, everybody,
Speaker 1: I know that you guys are all friends and have
Speaker 1: inside jokes and have a way that you do things. Well,
Speaker 1: I'm the boss for the week. And it's really tricky, right.
Speaker 6: It's sort of like I liken it sometimes too. You're
Speaker 6: going to be a conductor on a train. You're gonna
Speaker 6: take it from this station to the next station. The
Speaker 6: track has already been laid, you know, everywhere the train
Speaker 6: already was is established there. We have a very good
Speaker 6: idea where the train's going to keep going. And yeah,
Speaker 6: you can slow down around this corner because you like
Speaker 6: that view, or you can speed up at this section,
Speaker 6: or you know, you can lean a little left or
Speaker 6: a little right, but you can only go so far
Speaker 6: because the train's got to stay on those tracks, right.
Speaker 6: You can't suddenly say, you know, we're gonna make a
Speaker 6: left here at Des Moines and go somewhere else.
Speaker 1: That's that's a really good, great analogy, Michael, because I
Speaker 1: think that you were just.
Speaker 3: Talking about this actually the last episode, well.
Speaker 1: I was talking about how it's so tricky, you know,
Speaker 1: again just to Bill spoke a little about this, but
Speaker 1: to remind people who aren't in the business. You know,
Speaker 1: you know, the pilot director and the showrunner will create
Speaker 1: sort of the look of the show. How does the
Speaker 1: camera move, what's sort of the language of the show.
Speaker 1: In our show, we had fantasies and we had you know,
Speaker 1: big camera move. The camera was sort of a character.
Speaker 1: And then other directors that come on they need to
Speaker 1: use that language. They can, they can, like Michael just
Speaker 1: said in his train analogy, they can slow down, they
Speaker 1: can look at this view, but they can't. You have
Speaker 1: to use the language of the show. If you look
Speaker 1: at the Office, for example, it's shot like a mockumentary
Speaker 1: Modern family I believe was as well, yes, whereas Scrubs
Speaker 1: is crane shots and Dolly moves and steady cam shots.
Speaker 1: So you have to use that language. But then somehow
Speaker 1: find a way to make it your own. And I'm
Speaker 1: glad we're gonna watch the episode with you, because I
Speaker 1: think there's a lot of cool stuff in here that
Speaker 1: you that you found a way to make your own.
Speaker 1: I like that.
Speaker 3: I do like the train analogy, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: It's the same route every time, it's the same track
Speaker 2: every time. How can you can bend it and move it,
Speaker 2: you know, to make it your own. So like if
Speaker 2: a different conductor, you know what I mean, I don't know.
Speaker 2: I love that analogy.
Speaker 1: That's really and in season one I would say, you know,
Speaker 1: even on episode whatever, this is one thirteen, you're still
Speaker 1: you're still finding that, you're still shaping it.
Speaker 6: Now.
Speaker 1: I noticed, Michael, you did some things in here, like
Speaker 1: going into blacks and coming back that I don't think
Speaker 1: we'd done too much of yet. That became part of
Speaker 1: the lexicon. So as an early director in the show,
Speaker 1: I just directed episode two of one of Bill's news shows,
Speaker 1: I still felt like, Okay, it's early on, I can
Speaker 1: I'm still contributing to what the look of the show is,
Speaker 1: you know, right for sure, when you're when you're lucky
Speaker 1: enough to direct early in the show's run, there's still
Speaker 1: a lot of discovery going on.
Speaker 6: Yeah, the actors are really fine that they're characters, so
Speaker 6: they're still open to, you know, someone else's input. The
Speaker 6: writers are discovering what the actors are good at, and
Speaker 6: they're tailoring the writing to you know, help those words
Speaker 6: fit better in their mouths. And you find the comedy
Speaker 6: if you're doing a comedy, and similarly, for a director,
Speaker 6: it's like, yes, you've you've been given the overall template,
Speaker 6: the framework, but it's a jumping off point. It's not
Speaker 6: like this is meant to just box you in. You're
Speaker 6: allowed to push things a little bit further. John Wells,
Speaker 6: i think, is credited as saying to Paris Barkley, I
Speaker 6: want you to make an episode of Er only better. Yes,
Speaker 6: it's like, it still has to feel like an episode
Speaker 6: of the show that you're already watching, you know, and
Speaker 6: you've grown accustomed to. But push it a little bit,
Speaker 6: get your thumbprints on it, and in consultation, you know.
Speaker 6: That's the thing. It's like, I could have what I
Speaker 6: think is a great idea, but I'm neither. If that's
Speaker 6: the case, you know, I have to run it past
Speaker 6: the showrunner right presenting it.
Speaker 1: If you have something, let's say you're in prep and
Speaker 1: you have like a five day prep beforehand, and you go, oh,
Speaker 1: I have an awesome idea. If it's a little outside
Speaker 1: the box, you would you would run it by the
Speaker 1: showrunner and say, hey, what do you think if I do this?
Speaker 1: And I imagine Bill usually said yeah, go for it. Right.
Speaker 6: Bill was so amazing that. I mean, it was such
Speaker 6: a great guy to work with so early in my career,
Speaker 6: you know, as a freelance director, because I mean, he
Speaker 6: I think this episode has a good example the end
Speaker 6: where we we have a music montage. You know, it's
Speaker 6: like and they kept the song on Hulu.
Speaker 3: So yeah, that was pretty cool, right.
Speaker 6: They didn't they didn't swap it out. And you know,
Speaker 6: I can't remember how many there were leading up to this,
Speaker 6: but this felt like it was one of the sort
Speaker 6: of bigger ones, like we're committting to this song. It
Speaker 6: was in the script early. You know, It's like it
Speaker 6: wasn't just like there'll be a rock song here and
Speaker 6: you know, do some cool shots. And it may not
Speaker 6: have been on this episode, but early in the run
Speaker 6: with you guys, Bill said to me, because I was
Speaker 6: like enthusiast pitching this, you know montage I want to
Speaker 6: do in all these transitions, and he's like, dude, if
Speaker 6: I will cut story, if you give me a beautiful
Speaker 6: piece of cinema, Oh great, wow, And that's just insane.
Speaker 6: I mean writers never say that, you know, And so
Speaker 6: I really felt empowered and encouraged by Bill. And he
Speaker 6: also you know, there's no bullshit with him. If he
Speaker 6: doesn't like it, he just tells you.
Speaker 1: Well, there's plenty of times he would come to rehearsal.
Speaker 1: I'm sure this never happened on one of your episodes, Michael,
Speaker 1: but there's plenty of times. You know. The way the
Speaker 1: way it would work is the director would sort of
Speaker 1: block out where everyone's gonna go, where the camera's gonna go.
Speaker 1: And there were definitely times, and then Bill would come
Speaker 1: to the rehears arrive at the rehearsal and be like, yeah,
Speaker 1: that that makes it not funny at all. We're not
Speaker 1: doing it. And then you know, you watch some directors
Speaker 1: be like it was you know, he was even for Bill.
Speaker 1: He was tactful about it sometimes, but you know it
Speaker 1: was like he's like, no, I'm not not doing that.
Speaker 1: If you put him over there and her over there,
Speaker 1: it does it's not funny anymore. So we got to
Speaker 1: do this, and you know, you have to be a
Speaker 1: little bit humbled about it as a director because you're like, oh,
Speaker 1: you know, I didn't now I see.
Speaker 6: You know, I think that most of the time, when
Speaker 6: when writers have clear ideas about that, they're generally right.
Speaker 6: You know, if they're if they're if they're people you
Speaker 6: know of the Steve Lovett and Bill Lawrence, Mindy Kaling caliber,
Speaker 6: like they get it, and you know, you listen to them,
Speaker 6: you don't fight them, and and they're generally right now.
Speaker 6: I did see that happen, you know, with other directors
Speaker 6: when I'd be there prepping. Didn't happen very often with me.
Speaker 1: With Michael Spiller, Sir Michael, not with now with sorry
Speaker 1: Emmy Award winning Michael Spiller.
Speaker 6: I mean, but what I do remember happening a lot
Speaker 6: is like we'd be waiting for Bill to come up
Speaker 6: from the writer's room, and you know, must have been
Speaker 6: in the middle of a very fancy paragraph or something,
Speaker 6: and you know, dial we had to wait, but you know,
Speaker 6: the clock is ticking, we're losing a light. So generally
Speaker 6: for him to arrive. But sometimes I would rehearse without him. Yeah,
Speaker 6: and inevitably, inevitably, as soon as we finished the rehearsal,
Speaker 6: Bill come walking through the doors and I'd have to
Speaker 6: scramble be like, okay, so for this shot, like fake,
Speaker 6: like we're starting the rehearsal from the top right now,
Speaker 6: just finished it right?
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, you know another thing that people might not
Speaker 1: know is that the onus to deliver the show in
Speaker 1: five days is all on the director's hands. I mean
Speaker 1: obviously working with his assistant, his or her assistant directors.
Speaker 1: So you are you not only come on to this
Speaker 1: set where you where you don't work every day, to
Speaker 1: lead a crew of people that are all friends, but
Speaker 1: it's your job to be like, guys, we gotta go,
Speaker 1: we gotta go, we gotta we gotta get out of here.
Speaker 1: So that's that's another thing is that.
Speaker 2: You have to well you.
Speaker 1: You've you've signed on to deliver this episode of television
Speaker 1: in five twelve hour days.
Speaker 2: You have a ton of support, though you have you know,
Speaker 2: if you have a good first your your golden We
Speaker 2: have some pretty cool first ads our show, Franklin Got
Speaker 2: Better and Scott Harris and.
Speaker 1: Richard Wells, who was an incredible first ad.
Speaker 3: Paul Padrera. We had a few of them, you know
Speaker 3: what I mean?
Speaker 2: And you worked with all four of them, right.
Speaker 6: Yes, I worked for them all.
Speaker 3: Yeah, which was your favorite?
Speaker 1: You don't have to answer that. You don't have to
Speaker 1: answer that. Should we get into the episode, because I
Speaker 1: think it would be fun to just really think so
Speaker 1: so Michael. The way we do this is but there's
Speaker 1: really no order. We just started to talk about the episodes. Uh,
Speaker 1: well you've heard, you listened to your your favorite podcast exactly.
Speaker 1: The first thing I noticed. First of all, we have
Speaker 1: to say that Elizabeth Bogish is not only beautiful, obviously,
Speaker 1: but she's really funny. She's a very good actress. I
Speaker 1: thought she did a fantastic.
Speaker 2: Just very moments in this episode. And it's also it's also, uh,
Speaker 2: this is big. She's the first she's the first love
Speaker 2: interest for JD. And so you know, this really set
Speaker 2: the tone for all of the other actresses that would
Speaker 2: come on to play your love interest on the show.
Speaker 2: And she did such a she did such a phenomenal job.
Speaker 2: And you know, you're right, she is very funny, and
Speaker 2: it made it so that whoever else came on had
Speaker 2: to be like, all right, well let me, let me,
Speaker 2: let me see what, let me let me let me
Speaker 2: step up.
Speaker 1: And yeah, they couldn't just be they couldn't just be
Speaker 1: a pretty face. They had to really be good actresses
Speaker 1: and be funny. And and I think that you know,
Speaker 1: Liz was all those things. She she had really good timing.
Speaker 1: She I thought she was good in her dramatic moments.
Speaker 2: And yeah, and.
Speaker 1: Of course Spiller, when you do that beauty shot of
Speaker 1: her at the end arriving with the picnic basket, it's
Speaker 1: so romantic and pretty.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 6: Did you have anything the city training in?
Speaker 8: Yeah?
Speaker 1: I was thinking about that. All your sex and the
Speaker 1: city lighting women things all came together in this episode.
Speaker 2: Did you have anything to do with casting on that? Like,
Speaker 2: I know that some directors sit down and help out
Speaker 2: with casting on television shows or bring in their.
Speaker 6: Own Typically, typically we are you know, we're contractually we're
Speaker 6: meant to be involved than all the casting decisions. I
Speaker 6: mean every creative decision on the episode that we're directing,
Speaker 6: we're supposed to be involved in. Sometimes an actual span
Speaker 6: several episodes, so it's sort of a bigger decision. Or
Speaker 6: maybe an actor's availabilities being challenged and you need to
Speaker 6: book them before the director has technically begun their prep.
Speaker 6: I can't recall what the situation was with Liz. I mean,
Speaker 6: she was fantastic. I hard to imagine anyone who I
Speaker 6: would have rather seen in the role, right, But she
Speaker 6: did have a technically a three episode span, although I
Speaker 6: directed two of her episodes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the two, the second two, right, not the first
Speaker 1: one where she's in the Mr Action right, right, all right?
Speaker 2: But have you have you gone on to do other
Speaker 2: shows and be like, you know what, I got the
Speaker 2: perfect person and gone back to use actors that you've
Speaker 2: had from Oh sure, I say some Scrubs or from
Speaker 2: or from Sex and the City or whatever.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean, whenever I can, I try to recommend
Speaker 6: people who I know are cool and they're going to deliver.
Speaker 6: And because we've all worked with people who are super
Speaker 6: funny on screen and really difficult to work with, and
Speaker 6: you know some some even you know, with like a
Speaker 6: toxic personality that could kind of poison a set. So
Speaker 6: it only takes one person to poison a workplace.
Speaker 1: That's a lesson to all you young aspiring actors out
Speaker 1: there that everybody talks. Everybody, everybody talks. So you might
Speaker 1: have been a jerk one day and Michael Spiller was
Speaker 1: the director on Sex and the City, and you think
Speaker 1: that you went home and went all right, well, I
Speaker 1: had a bad day. And then later and then later
Speaker 1: Michael's directing another show where your name is suggested and
Speaker 1: he goes no, no, So you have to be.
Speaker 2: My wife always says, this sounds way too small to
Speaker 2: be an asshole.
Speaker 6: Exactly, that's the perfect And I mean the fact is,
Speaker 6: you know, my wife used to be a costume supervisor,
Speaker 6: a wardrobe supervisor and off. And it's the people behind
Speaker 6: the scenes that get the brunt of an actor's wrath,
Speaker 6: you know, or bad behavior. It's like, if you're making
Speaker 6: you know, your hair and makeup people, or the people
Speaker 6: who are adjusting your clothing, if you're making those people cry,
Speaker 6: you're not a good person, or you need some therapy,
Speaker 6: or you got to work some shit out. But she
Speaker 6: told me there are a couple of people that made
Speaker 6: her cry, you know, back in the day. And I
Speaker 6: have had the pleasure of passing on.
Speaker 1: Some of ah sweet revenge. And you ran home and
Speaker 1: told your wife, didn't you? You're like, yes, see what I
Speaker 1: passed on today.
Speaker 2: I don't believe who they trying to push on me today,
Speaker 2: but I said no.
Speaker 1: And his name was Donald Faison. So Michael, my first
Speaker 1: my first note for you is at twenty four seconds,
Speaker 1: why is my character have a giant entire piece that
Speaker 1: it's a whole chicken on my date plate? I would
Speaker 1: never order such a large meal. I had to stop
Speaker 1: and pause. I'm on this date with this beautiful woman.
Speaker 1: I'm just staring at her, and I have a full
Speaker 1: roasted chicken on my plate.
Speaker 6: You know, all I recall about that is that it
Speaker 6: was part of because it was this the sequence is
Speaker 6: that you can't take your eyes off her. We're so
Speaker 6: fixated on her that you almost forgot to eat. So
Speaker 6: I didn't eat. Having a having a vertical, you know,
Speaker 6: a large meal that would read in this shot because
Speaker 6: there's a lot to look at.
Speaker 1: Icy, So you really wanted to be looking at you.
Speaker 1: But yeah, so you icy, So you rationalization or or
Speaker 1: real genuine roge less you wanted it to quickly read
Speaker 1: that I hadn't touched my plate. Yes, it looks like
Speaker 1: Thanksgiving dinner has been served and no one has calved.
Speaker 6: You know, we were on location for that, and you
Speaker 6: know we didn't do that very often on Scrubs, and
Speaker 6: certainly my first episode. I hadn't done it before with
Speaker 6: you guys. Yeah, and you know that may have been
Speaker 6: what the place had to offer, what Hugos had to
Speaker 6: offer me.
Speaker 1: It was Hugos.
Speaker 3: The I was gonna ask that, is that Hugos.
Speaker 1: And where Is it riverside in the valley?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was right next to the hospital, just down
Speaker 2: the street. The photo booth in the middle of the supermarket.
Speaker 2: Is that a pharmacy?
Speaker 1: Yeah? What was the deal with that? Who would put
Speaker 1: a photo booth? Who would put a booth in the
Speaker 1: middle of an aisle of the supermarket? Michael, you can
Speaker 1: reach through the photo booth to get items off the shelves.
Speaker 6: Well, maybe they're handy props. You know. This is this
Speaker 6: is before the days of like giant hats and oversized
Speaker 6: sunglasses and big foam pointy thing.
Speaker 1: Was this a set or do you remember?
Speaker 6: I think it was a set and it was just like.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I remember photo booths being like in like bowling
Speaker 2: alleys or I missed by the way, I miss photo booths.
Speaker 2: Let's keep love photo right now. That was like the
Speaker 2: set off for that is the because, I guess because
Speaker 2: of the movies too.
Speaker 3: It's such a romantic setting.
Speaker 1: I know, especially when they're black and white, not this
Speaker 1: not this modern bullshit all black and.
Speaker 2: White neon light that freaking yeah, it surrounds the camera
Speaker 2: and shoots in your face.
Speaker 3: I totally miss photo booths.
Speaker 2: I got some good photo booth pictures of me and
Speaker 2: my wife when we first started dating.
Speaker 1: And you know, it's so romantic when you look at
Speaker 1: them and you feel like you're old school.
Speaker 6: And I've a little fourth strip photo.
Speaker 2: I mean, yes, for those of you out here like
Speaker 2: photo booths at like parties and stuff like that, it
Speaker 2: doesn't it's not the same if it's not in an
Speaker 2: actual booth.
Speaker 1: If you're in Manhattan, Okay, there's a restaurant called the
Speaker 1: Smith on Fourth Street, and like, what is it, like
Speaker 1: fourth and tenth ish you just google it, And in
Speaker 1: the basement of the Smith, which is a good restaurant,
Speaker 1: there's an old school black and white photo booth. So
Speaker 1: there you go. I just took you up. Next time
Speaker 1: you're we're on a trip with your loved one, go
Speaker 1: take a romantic picture there.
Speaker 6: When we're allowed to travel again, when.
Speaker 1: You're allowed to travel again in August and yeah, so, Michael,
Speaker 1: I don't know how they do it on Sex and
Speaker 1: the City, but we certainly don't put photo booths in
Speaker 1: the center of a supermarket aisle here on scrubs. I
Speaker 1: want to say this is very vain, but I looked
Speaker 1: very skinny in this phooto booth and I, but.
Speaker 3: What was up with your hair?
Speaker 2: Dude? Your hair was a little different in these episodes. Man,
Speaker 2: they were very spiky.
Speaker 1: And I was probably you know what, I was probably.
Speaker 3: The truth the spinning of the hair on the time look.
Speaker 1: And the footobooth that looked like I have more makeup
Speaker 1: on than usual. I can only rationalize that I was
Speaker 1: probably nervous in front of this beautiful actress and I
Speaker 1: was probably like, more makeup, this is your hair?
Speaker 3: Okay?
Speaker 2: Now is this your first uh love interest in projects
Speaker 2: that you've been because you hadn't worked that much.
Speaker 3: That's a very tradition I think dated on camera before.
Speaker 1: Very good question. No, I had done an after school
Speaker 1: special called My Summer as a Girl, and basically it
Speaker 1: was an after the special where they just stole the
Speaker 1: whole plot of Tootsie and you know, in order to
Speaker 1: get the job, I had to dress up like a
Speaker 1: woman and then I fell in love. But I remember
Speaker 1: it's interesting remembering that that I remember that there was
Speaker 1: supposed to be a scene where I kind of got
Speaker 1: like too aggressive with trying to make out with her,
Speaker 1: and I remember the director was disappointed because I was
Speaker 1: I couldn't I was too nervous to do it. I
Speaker 1: wasn't doing it enough, being aggressive enough with her.
Speaker 2: Why why why are all after school specials? Why do
Speaker 2: the guys have to be so aggressive?
Speaker 1: Well? The lesson they always taught a lesson, right, Well,
Speaker 1: this one was I was kind of a guy, and
Speaker 1: I was kind of a playboy, but like I was
Speaker 1: a cocky guy, and uh, and then I in order
Speaker 1: to get in order to go after the girl, I
Speaker 1: dressed up like a girl because she had gotten the
Speaker 1: last last job as a chambermaid on the island and
Speaker 1: I wanted to do that too, so I dressed up
Speaker 1: like a girl like a lot. Totalis the platitucy, except
Speaker 1: you know, a chambermaid on an island. And then I
Speaker 1: fall in love with the girl and then i'm too
Speaker 1: I was when I'm a man, I'm too aggressive with her,
Speaker 1: and she's like, get away, You're you're moving too fast.
Speaker 1: And then there's a guy who's in love with me
Speaker 1: when I'm dressed as a woman and he starts doing
Speaker 1: it to me and I'm like kicking her in the nuts.
Speaker 1: And the lesson was like, how do you fucking like it?
Speaker 1: Treat a woman with respect?
Speaker 6: Shoes on the other foot now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so you can all go google my summer as
Speaker 1: a girl and watch that bit of artistry. But that's
Speaker 1: a good point you brought up, Donald. I don't think
Speaker 1: that I had really had a pretty love interest other
Speaker 1: than Sarah Chalk. But we hadn't really you know, delved
Speaker 1: into that yet, not on the show we're about to.
Speaker 1: We're in a few episodes we're about I think after
Speaker 1: Liz is the first time that it comes up. So yeah,
Speaker 1: I bet I was very nervous around her. I do
Speaker 1: seem to me to look like I have a little
Speaker 1: bit too much makeup on in this photo booth. Like
Speaker 1: I was like, I was trying to look like you know,
Speaker 1: it was important for you to look I wanted to look.
Speaker 1: I wanted to look the best I could for Liz.
Speaker 6: Well, yeah, I mean it is so funny. It's like
Speaker 6: it's it's and scanning a lot of attention these days
Speaker 6: because people are, you know, in this business are evolving somewhat.
Speaker 6: But you know, when you have two actors or more
Speaker 6: depending on the show, uh, you know, who have to
Speaker 6: have a love scene or be intimate physically intimate with
Speaker 6: each other, I mean it's awkward. It's weird, and it
Speaker 6: can it can be really uncomfortable for for people. So
Speaker 6: I mean, I totally get it, even as sort of
Speaker 6: PG as.
Speaker 1: This was right, well, this was pretty bag. You know,
Speaker 1: when we get into some of the Sarah stuff, I
Speaker 1: can't even believe that we were doing what we were
Speaker 1: doing for network TV, And I remember it being like awkward,
Speaker 1: like this is so bizarre. I remember feeling like are
Speaker 1: we on like HBO, Like how are we doing this
Speaker 1: for NBC? You know, it's pretty That was that was
Speaker 1: pretty risque stuff. This stuff with Liz was was was
Speaker 1: pretty tame. But you you know, you're still lying in
Speaker 1: bed with a with a beautiful stranger and to.
Speaker 2: Say at the end of the episode, I'm on top
Speaker 2: of uh Judy and it's we're simulating.
Speaker 1: R This was a sexy episode. There's a lot of
Speaker 1: talk of orgasms and and and Sarah masturbating on a
Speaker 1: washing machine works?
Speaker 3: Does that work? Is a washing machine that powerful?
Speaker 6: YEA?
Speaker 3: Because I can't.
Speaker 2: I don't. I don't, I don't. Apparently I don't. I
Speaker 2: definitely don't produce like the washing machine can produce. Obviously,
Speaker 2: listen first one hundred first, to be honest with everyone
Speaker 2: on the washing machine.
Speaker 3: Is that good?
Speaker 2: Where at the end of it you fall off the
Speaker 2: motherfucking washing machine.
Speaker 3: I can't compete with the washing machine. What am I
Speaker 3: useful for?
Speaker 2: Honey?
Speaker 3: I've been helping you raise these kids? What am I useful?
Speaker 1: Hey Donald?
Speaker 3: The washing machine and the crazy shit? Is My wife's
Speaker 3: always like, I'm gonna go put another load in?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yes she is. She's definitely gonna. Hey Donald, that
Speaker 1: washing machine cannot provide for those children. Only you can.
Speaker 3: Only I can. That's what.
Speaker 6: Well.
Speaker 1: I don't know whether or not, you know, we three
Speaker 1: men have no idea obviously if a washing machine can
Speaker 1: can do that to a woman. But I gotta say, Sarah,
Speaker 1: it worked for Elliott. It really works Elliott.
Speaker 3: It definitely well.
Speaker 2: And it worked for Carla too, because she's the one
Speaker 2: that suggested it.
Speaker 1: Yes, she said, when are you doing laundry next? Now,
Speaker 1: we had a lot of female writers on this show.
Speaker 1: I can only imagine that they had a conversation in
Speaker 1: the writer's room like, do you'all have them run a
Speaker 1: washing machine? Well, let's move on.
Speaker 6: Or you can ask could be an ask Bill moment.
Speaker 2: No, no, no, no, no, no, I don't want to.
Speaker 1: I don't Hey, listen, I don't have anything. Do you
Speaker 1: guys have anything before Sarah shitting a brick? Because I
Speaker 1: laughed out loud at that.
Speaker 3: I laughed out loud at that.
Speaker 1: That was funny, especially Sarah. First of all, when you
Speaker 1: think you'd ever get to see Sarah chalk, you know,
Speaker 1: poohing face, and there we saw it.
Speaker 3: But that's that's that's the one thing.
Speaker 2: Usually somebody makes a poohing face on television, they get
Speaker 2: real big with it. It was pretty it was pretty subtle.
Speaker 2: You didn't know that, you know.
Speaker 1: This eye closed thing. She did an eye closed thing.
Speaker 2: You're right, she closed one eye and and.
Speaker 6: They had to be just enough, just enough push.
Speaker 1: Yeah, a brick.
Speaker 6: You brought that brick.
Speaker 1: So what's funny. What's funny about it? It's builder is
Speaker 1: that she she just does a little bit of a push,
Speaker 1: but then a giant brick falls. I just realized that
Speaker 1: in one episode, in one episode of brilliant television, in
Speaker 1: twenty two minutes, we have Sarah's pooh face and her
Speaker 1: orgasm face.
Speaker 6: That's right. We opened the whole gam it.
Speaker 1: We we opened the show with her poof face and
Speaker 1: closed the show their orgasm face. What what art we
Speaker 1: made what from O Pop?
Speaker 3: Okay, so I think the yeah was improved When Carla pushes.
Speaker 1: Me down, I remember that, Yeah.
Speaker 2: I think that was improved. I don't remember if that
Speaker 2: was in the script or not.
Speaker 1: It wasn't because who the hell would ever guess that
Speaker 1: your T shirt would say yeah on it?
Speaker 3: Right, that my T shirt would say yeah, It didn't.
Speaker 1: Say on the script. Turk wearing a yeah T shirt.
Speaker 6: Points to said prize.
Speaker 1: Yeah. But that was funny. Donald. I wanted to point
Speaker 1: out a little trivia that I saw on the Scrubs
Speaker 1: Wiki at three h five, right before uh You're yeah,
Speaker 1: saying that doctor Cox knows Doug's name, and the Scrubs
Speaker 1: Wiki was pointing out it might be the only time
Speaker 1: he ever says Doug's name, because he goes Doug and.
Speaker 2: Uh, well he uses it. He also uses it as
Speaker 2: like he's gonna pick on Doug.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I'm saying Cox never you know. His whole
Speaker 1: thing was he doesn't know people's names. He calls them
Speaker 1: all these nicknames, but he randomly knew Doug's name.
Speaker 2: But you too, a Jamin in this episode? Also you
Speaker 2: a like a camaraderie in or Yeah, you know you're
Speaker 2: his go to.
Speaker 3: Now this is the first.
Speaker 2: We established it in the last episode, but yeah, now
Speaker 2: you two are it doesn't seem like you're a fresh
Speaker 2: Nubi even though he calls you nuby and everything like that.
Speaker 2: We're starting to see your your relationship as colleagues form.
Speaker 1: That's true, and I think I wrote down this is
Speaker 1: the first episode to me it seems like he genuinely
Speaker 1: likes JD. Like he's usually good at hiding it, but
Speaker 1: in this episode, I felt like Cox was really bonding
Speaker 1: with JD and liked him even though he was, you know,
Speaker 1: still trying to hide it, but he couldn't hide it.
Speaker 1: And then in the end he really bonded with him
Speaker 1: and said, you know, don't be me, don't be me,
Speaker 1: go have a life, which I thought was was moving.
Speaker 1: I thought that was, you know, a side of doctor
Speaker 1: Cox we don't only see, yes spiller.
Speaker 6: Since we're that's a nice segue into what it's like
Speaker 6: working with Johnny C for the first time as a directory.
Speaker 1: Yeah, was he scared?
Speaker 2: Yeah, let's go.
Speaker 6: Well, I mean, first of all, he's so damn good,
Speaker 6: he's so damn funny, but he is a very very
Speaker 6: intense guy, particularly when you know he's in character. You
Speaker 6: know on set, because you know, as a prepping director,
Speaker 6: you go and you're you're doing all the work in
Speaker 6: the various meetings and location scouting and stuff that you
Speaker 6: do to prep your own episode, but you also try
Speaker 6: and spend as much time as you can on set
Speaker 6: so that you're getting to know the cast in a
Speaker 6: more informal way. You're starting to connect with the crew,
Speaker 6: learn people's names, all these things that are essential to
Speaker 6: you know when you're headed the baton the next week
Speaker 6: that you'll have a good episode. Right, So you know,
Speaker 6: you'd hang out and observe and try not to be
Speaker 6: in the way, and I'd watch another you know, like
Speaker 6: Mark Bucklin work with Johnny c or something, and Johnny
Speaker 6: is intense. You say cut, and he stands there, his
Speaker 6: jaws like clamp shut, his cheek muscles are like fluctuating
Speaker 6: and like he's he's ripped. You know, it's like so aspiring, right,
Speaker 6: It's like okay, and you have to give that person
Speaker 6: a note. So the very the very first time I
Speaker 6: did it, I said cut, went up to him and
Speaker 6: it's like you got the sense that if you said
Speaker 6: the wrong thing, he might actually hit you because he's
Speaker 6: he appears to be that tightly wound, right. So I
Speaker 6: can't remember what the note was, but you know, I said, Johnny,
Speaker 6: can't try that, you know, I have an idea. Blah
Speaker 6: blah blah blah. He looks at me for a second,
Speaker 6: cheek muscle still, you know, rippling away, and he says, fuck, yeah,
Speaker 6: let's do it, and we just we went. It's like, okay,
Speaker 6: I made it.
Speaker 1: That was your test in one day, in one or
Speaker 1: two sentences, he has decided if he liked you.
Speaker 6: Or not forever exactly thankfully.
Speaker 1: Well, I think Johnny Johnny, Johnny Johnny has so much
Speaker 1: had so much experience, you know, and and I've worked
Speaker 1: with so many directors at that point, and I think
Speaker 1: he he you know, if you gave him a good note,
Speaker 1: he was he was down to do it. And and
Speaker 1: then you know, like all of us, we sometimes got
Speaker 1: notes from directors we were like, I'm not doing that,
Speaker 1: and you know, so I think that he in that moment,
Speaker 1: he decided that he liked you and respected you.
Speaker 6: Well, I mean, listen, from from an actor's standpoint, I
Speaker 6: completely get it, because it's like, Okay, as a new
Speaker 6: director every week and some of them are not going
Speaker 6: to be great or something you're just not going to
Speaker 6: get along with. And some are going to ask you
Speaker 6: things that may not even be their note, maybe a
Speaker 6: writer's note. And you know you can't you can't go
Speaker 6: up to an actors say oh, well the writer asked
Speaker 6: me to say this. You know that's not a good
Speaker 6: thing to do. It's like, well, then you're just the
Speaker 6: messenger person.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then and then it just shows that you're weak.
Speaker 1: I think you have to be like, you have to
Speaker 1: be like you know what I try to be like,
Speaker 1: is I do you want to do you want to try?
Speaker 1: You know, if it's my thing, then I'm like, let's
Speaker 1: try this. But if I'm coming onto a show like this,
Speaker 1: I would say I was thinking this, do you want
Speaker 1: to maybe try this? Because you know, you don't know
Speaker 1: if the actor is going to say, oh, my character
Speaker 1: would never do that, you know that kind of thing. Hey,
Speaker 1: we need to go to a break that thought. Donald,
Speaker 1: We're gonna break hold that.
Speaker 3: Don't you get to ilevant.
Speaker 1: Don't you forget it, Donald, because I know that you've
Speaker 1: tried some of God's lettuce and that affects memory. Hold
Speaker 1: on to that tried.
Speaker 3: Some of God's a few hours. Let's go to break.
Speaker 1: Okay, we're back from break. Donald, did you remember did
Speaker 1: you hold onto the thought?
Speaker 3: I forgot?
Speaker 1: Oh? Fuck? And you kids say weed doesn't cause memory laws.
Speaker 6: Wow, it's like a case study.
Speaker 1: Yeah, like a case study. So Donald, we're doing a
Speaker 1: podcast about the show Scrubs. I had to remind him
Speaker 1: after each breaks. But Mike Spiller, he directed you twenty episodes.
Speaker 3: I don't remember. I don't remember. I don't remember. So
Speaker 3: I'm hanging out with you outside of Scrubs.
Speaker 2: To Spiller, this isn't This is for everyone out there
Speaker 2: that's sitting there and they're like, wow, this is you know,
Speaker 2: a director on the show with the two actors h
Speaker 2: and he directed twenty so that makes him special.
Speaker 3: That's not all that makes Spiller special.
Speaker 2: We've all gone out and hung out and eaten together
Speaker 2: and stuff like that, so you know, it's also it's
Speaker 2: very cool to.
Speaker 3: Catch up with you.
Speaker 1: I'll give you before I'll house Spiller.
Speaker 6: No, we we moved. You have to come see the
Speaker 6: new crib.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right now that you got that Emmy Now
Speaker 1: he's down one of those Emmy houses, one of those
Speaker 1: Emmy Houses is like three levels. Listen, it's shaped houses
Speaker 1: shaped like an Emmy.
Speaker 2: If he wasn't responsible, there'd be a water slide from
Speaker 2: his bed to the pool.
Speaker 1: Yeah. When we met him, he had a DP on
Speaker 1: sex in the city house. Now he's got a modern
Speaker 1: family Emmy house. Spiller. I have a great memory of
Speaker 1: you too, and that you came over and helped me
Speaker 1: install a door knomb. Do you remember that?
Speaker 2: Wait? What I mean?
Speaker 6: That totally sounds like me. It's completely on brand.
Speaker 2: Wait, I need to understand this.
Speaker 1: You have. Here's what happened. Here's what happened, Spiller.
Speaker 3: You don't know how to put a door?
Speaker 1: No, let me explain. It's a very sweet Michael Spiller story.
Speaker 1: I was talking him on set. Now, Spiller, you could
Speaker 1: say that this has never happened, and I dreamed it.
Speaker 1: But I haven't done hallucinogenics since college. So I remember
Speaker 1: that I was talking to Michael. Michael's handy. Aren't you
Speaker 1: a handy around the house guy? Like you can ferry
Speaker 1: hand love buildings? And I was saying, God, I wish
Speaker 1: I knew how to build stuff like I have to
Speaker 1: put a doorknob on a door, and I gotta. I
Speaker 1: have a door without a doorknob, and I got to
Speaker 1: go hire someone to do it. I wish that I
Speaker 1: knew how to buy the right drill bid and install
Speaker 1: this doorknob. And Michael said I could teach you, and
Speaker 1: I said really, And he said, yeah, I'll come over
Speaker 1: and show you how to do it. And I said
Speaker 1: that would be so awesome because I don't know anything
Speaker 1: like that and I'd love to actually learn. And Michael
Speaker 1: came over and helped me install a new doorknob on
Speaker 1: a door. Isn't that true, Michael?
Speaker 6: That is true. I don't like to blow my own horn,
Speaker 6: but yes, that is true. And you remember this, Michael, Yeah,
Speaker 6: I don't think, but I do remember it.
Speaker 1: He charged me thirty five.
Speaker 2: I got a story too. So we just finished the
Speaker 2: screening of Garden State. Zach invited great film that Zach.
Speaker 2: Zach invited a bunch of people over to the screening room.
Speaker 2: Danny de Vito was there, Uh, problem was there? A
Speaker 2: bunch of people were there. Mike Spiller, myself, we were
Speaker 2: there also, and I remember the movie ends and we're
Speaker 2: all like, wow, the movie was really good. I had notes, though,
Speaker 2: and I wanted to dude, and I wanted to figure
Speaker 2: out a way to tell Zach. All right, I've got
Speaker 2: a couple of notes about the movie.
Speaker 6: Now.
Speaker 2: I remember I see Spiller and we're I don't know
Speaker 2: if we're drinking or we're eating. It's after the movie's over, probably,
Speaker 2: and we talked. We're talking and You're like, wow, that
Speaker 2: was pretty good. And I was like, I was right.
Speaker 2: I was like, I've got some notes and you said
Speaker 2: to me, you know, now might not be the best
Speaker 2: time to deliver, said Zach. And I was like, oh,
Speaker 2: oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, no, of course I'll figure
Speaker 2: out a way too, you know, to tell him. Flash
Speaker 2: cut to Danny DeVito doing a Q and A after
Speaker 2: the movie and he was like, does anyone have notes?
Speaker 1: One hand shoots up, one beautiful brown hand and then
Speaker 1: and then what happened? Then what happened was this? So
Speaker 1: then Donald goes off on his notes and I'm looking
Speaker 1: at him like, dude, not fucking now, like tell me
Speaker 1: these Like Danny Vito was my Danny de Vito was
Speaker 1: my producer. I was like, dude, tell me privately, what
Speaker 1: the fuck are you doing? And then so then Danny's like.
Speaker 2: You wanted to be heard.
Speaker 3: I wanted to be heard.
Speaker 1: I didn't want to be heard because I wasn't allowed
Speaker 1: to be in the movie because because I gave the
Speaker 1: part to method man. Now, listen, Danny DeVito. You know
Speaker 1: at the time the movie had had too many endings.
Speaker 1: It was like it was it was going on a
Speaker 1: few beads too long. And we all knew that, but
Speaker 1: I was in denial about him, and and Danny DeVito said,
Speaker 1: how many of you felt like the had too many endings?
Speaker 1: Donald's hand shoots up. I'm like, fucking Donald's put your
Speaker 1: fucking hand down. I'm supposed to be my man on
Speaker 1: the inside.
Speaker 2: But you changed it. We changed it.
Speaker 1: We did. Hey, you know what, this many years later,
Speaker 1: I'm glad that you're never a yes man. You always
Speaker 1: tell it like it is.
Speaker 2: But I just remember that, like, yeah, you know, we should, Yeah,
Speaker 2: you know. I'm sure we all have notes, but I
Speaker 2: would wait for my own moment.
Speaker 1: So you didn't. The lesson of this story is that
Speaker 1: you should have listened to Spiller.
Speaker 6: Yes, it's usually that's the end of most stories.
Speaker 1: Actually, So I want to say, at four or fifteen,
Speaker 1: I I don't remember the episode, so I thought that
Speaker 1: it was you who couldn't who had lost your eruction
Speaker 1: And it was a very good misdirect by both Spiller
Speaker 1: and Bill because uh it was it was Judy. I
Speaker 1: don't think I've ever seen story of a woman.
Speaker 2: Wait, yeah, right, I remember that, But this I knew away.
Speaker 2: I remember this episode now. I remember this episode because
Speaker 2: Rob's line in this show. So when I saw you
Speaker 2: in the hall today and I asked you, how's your penis? Yeah,
Speaker 2: and you didn't want to talk about it.
Speaker 6: Yeah, So Rob still tracks, It's still tracks. It's all
Speaker 6: part of the miss lead because I was I was
Speaker 6: proud of that. I don't remember. I don't think that
Speaker 6: was in the script specifically, is like she's holding a
Speaker 6: piece of bacon in a really odd, upright manner that
Speaker 6: nobody would ever do. But I thought, Okay, this would
Speaker 6: be a fun visual transition, and it does. It does
Speaker 6: lead you to believe. It's more evidence as a viewer
Speaker 6: that yes, Donald is the one who's had the problem
Speaker 6: in the classic situation.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you missled. No, I just wanted to do one
Speaker 1: little director thing that Spiller kind of introduced, I believe
Speaker 1: to the show. I don't know that we were doing
Speaker 1: this too much beforehand, but at four twelve, sorry, it's
Speaker 1: a little bit before that. So they have sex, and
Speaker 1: then the camera pans and goes into the back of
Speaker 1: the TV, and we use that as a transition, you know,
Speaker 1: a transition time passage, a little time passage, and then
Speaker 1: we come back to see the bra on Rowdy's head,
Speaker 1: and then we cut to Liz Bogish holding a bacon
Speaker 1: in sort of an erect way. Spiller, you naughty, naughty boy.
Speaker 6: Sometimes bacon is just bacon.
Speaker 1: Yeah, sometimes bacon's just bacon. But yeah, so I was.
Speaker 1: I always tricked the whole episode because I genuinely until
Speaker 1: until obviously she says it. It's funny, Judy. Oh wait,
Speaker 1: I want I'm jumping ahead. There's a waste. Oh there's
Speaker 1: a waste of a gift certificate. Oh yeah, there's a
Speaker 1: way gift Cancel the Cobbler. Now that's eleven twenty eight.
Speaker 1: I think Neil improv canceled the Cobbler. Definitely, right, Spiller,
Speaker 1: I think so.
Speaker 6: But I mean, I the only draft of the script
Speaker 6: that I could find, although it has notes and diagrams
Speaker 6: all over, it says it's like a pre table draft
Speaker 6: of the script. I have almost all my scrub scripts
Speaker 6: I couldn't find anyway. Yeah, that that whole bit wasn't
Speaker 6: in the version I had, But I mean I love
Speaker 6: the bit with Neil that starts that runner you know
Speaker 6: where you we reveal him next ye you can you know?
Speaker 6: Someone walks away and just happened to look at him right,
Speaker 6: and he's like, what if I told you, you know,
Speaker 6: look at me when I'm eating? I don't like it? Okay,
Speaker 6: what am I doing eating? And what are you doing daring?
Speaker 2: Any Way?
Speaker 1: I would listen to a whole podcast that I would
Speaker 1: the whole podcast it's called Michael Spilder acts out all
Speaker 1: the parts of scrubb. I would. I would listen to it.
Speaker 6: It's coming to Spotify. So Michael an endorsement Carrot Top?
Speaker 1: Oh my god, yeah, we gotta talk about Okay.
Speaker 2: First of all, I remember the story shut Out, go ahead,
Speaker 2: you should tell it that.
Speaker 1: No, I don't want to take it. You got it, No,
Speaker 1: you got I'm just worried you're gonna fuck up the
Speaker 1: story because it's.
Speaker 3: Gonna up the story. So what's Carrot Top's real name?
Speaker 1: Joell? Can you look up whatever?
Speaker 2: Scott Thompson, Scott Thompson Joel never mind.
Speaker 1: Scott Thompson came on the show, and I always found
Speaker 1: Scott Thompson very funny. I know that this was sort
Speaker 1: of like making fun of carrot Top, but I always
Speaker 1: thought he was a funny guy. And the only thing
Speaker 1: we had heard about Scott Thompson just by you know,
Speaker 1: sometimes when you have a guest star, there'd be a
Speaker 1: couple of things like, hey, don't you know sometimes like
Speaker 1: I remember someone was allergic to nuts and they were like,
Speaker 1: don't eat nuts around him. Well, with Scott it was like, hey, guys,
Speaker 1: don't call him carrat Top. He prefers that you call
Speaker 1: him Scott, Like, don't don't call him carrot top. And
Speaker 1: so the crew was told that, the cast was told out,
Speaker 1: and we had this old prop man at the time
Speaker 1: who walked right up to him was like, hey, how
Speaker 1: you doing, carrot Head? And I remember we all all flinching, like,
Speaker 1: don't call him carrot you call him carrot top alone,
Speaker 1: carrot head. Hey, how you doing.
Speaker 2: Carrot How you doing carrot Head?
Speaker 6: Now? Is this the same guy that allegedly hit rowdy
Speaker 6: or no?
Speaker 1: Yes, same guy?
Speaker 6: So another strike?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think his first building, his first strike was
Speaker 1: calling Scott and Carrot. But I that was funny. I
Speaker 1: thought Scott did a very funny job, and I laughed
Speaker 1: at every single one of his jokes. So fuck off
Speaker 1: if you don't like Carrot.
Speaker 3: Top right on.
Speaker 2: I've worked with I've worked with Scott since then. You
Speaker 2: have a yeah we did, he's still doing.
Speaker 1: He's ripped, right, that's one thing.
Speaker 2: Now, we played basketball together. All types of things. Uh,
Speaker 2: in the celebrity circuit. Uh, he is ripped, He's and
Speaker 2: he's ripped like he's ripped like diesel, ripped, like rock ripped.
Speaker 1: You know, he's not just like he's not just he's
Speaker 1: not as.
Speaker 2: Tall as the rock, but he's ripped like, you know,
Speaker 2: at least back then, at least you know, ten years ago.
Speaker 3: The last time I saw him, he was freaking diesel. Dude.
Speaker 3: You know, as you get older, you try to figure
Speaker 3: out ways to stay young.
Speaker 1: And yeah, well I'm trying to stay I'm trying to
Speaker 1: stay in shape. But I don't have muscles like that.
Speaker 1: But I guess I could take it more seriously and
Speaker 1: eat a lot of calories.
Speaker 6: Does he have muscles? Like? John?
Speaker 1: Did I give you that?
Speaker 3: John C?
Speaker 6: I think you did.
Speaker 1: I went on Zon. He's holding up guys. There's a
Speaker 1: there's a Johnny c who played Red and Platoon. There's
Speaker 1: a there's a there's a beautiful uh doll. I don't
Speaker 1: know what you call that. It's like a ken doll.
Speaker 1: It's like an action figure, an action but it's but
Speaker 1: it's Kendall. It's a twelve inch And when I when
Speaker 1: I saw them, I when I.
Speaker 3: Went sixth scale.
Speaker 1: By the way, it's it's it's it's accessory is a cigarette,
Speaker 1: which I always thought was funny. And I, uh yeah,
Speaker 1: when those came out, I bought one for Johnny and
Speaker 1: for I guess I bought one for use builder. God,
Speaker 1: I must have really loved you.
Speaker 6: He did. Those are the days, yo.
Speaker 3: Uh So, I love you definitely changes everything.
Speaker 1: It does.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well, and when you say it, apparently in this story,
Speaker 2: when you say I love you, sh it gets weird
Speaker 2: for a little bit. Yeah, yes, for Judy with at
Speaker 2: least with the Turk, and Carla.
Speaker 6: I think it's weird for both of you. I don't
Speaker 6: think either of you has ever really said it.
Speaker 3: Before, right, I just don't.
Speaker 2: I Mean, I've said it a couple of times in
Speaker 2: my life, but I don't know that it's changed.
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, I guess it just makes the
Speaker 3: breakup harder. I don't know.
Speaker 2: I just found that. I found that as an interesting
Speaker 2: story for these guys that I love. You made them
Speaker 2: have cold feet in the in the bedroom.
Speaker 1: Well she did, right, and you didn't have cold Well.
Speaker 2: He had cold feet to he did too. It was
Speaker 2: a blow to his ego. Also right in his head.
Speaker 1: He got in his head right.
Speaker 2: But and even and the fact that Turk is like,
Speaker 2: you know, it's never happened that, you know, I've always
Speaker 2: been able to pleasure a woman to the point of
Speaker 2: orgasm to marry out.
Speaker 3: I was like, right, I was like, yeah, whatever.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I don't think the stakes are high. The stakes
Speaker 6: are high.
Speaker 2: That's a weird plot line for me. I love you
Speaker 2: and because of that, you can't come Now.
Speaker 1: Well, I don't know if you're supposed to say the
Speaker 1: cum ward. I mean we can say orgasm comes a
Speaker 1: little aggressive for a family podcast?
Speaker 3: Are we a family podcast?
Speaker 1: We're explicit. We're explicit, but we stay away.
Speaker 3: You had we had established don't know what type of podcast.
Speaker 1: No, No, we're definitely explicit. But you could have said ejaculate.
Speaker 1: I wasn't you don't have to say come and so
Speaker 1: graphic right, Joel crashing up at you right now?
Speaker 6: She could a climax.
Speaker 1: She couldn't, Joel, as our producer, should we be using
Speaker 1: a cem word. I don't know. I talk to heart,
Speaker 1: call iHeart on the red phone.
Speaker 2: I don't think it.
Speaker 3: It'll matter much, guys, whenever you're coaching.
Speaker 1: I don't know. Donald said it. My heart skipped to
Speaker 1: beat No. Eight episode I know it's fucking staying. It's
Speaker 1: stay listen, you know, listen to that point. I noticed
Speaker 1: Judy didn't say orgasm in the first scene that it
Speaker 1: comes up, and I was like, oh, it must be
Speaker 1: like a TV thing. And we see we had a
Speaker 1: tiptoe around the word. And then everyone starts saying it.
Speaker 1: You say it, Sarah says it. I'm like, oh, it's
Speaker 1: just a Judy's character.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: Carla is like uncomfortable saying the word in public.
Speaker 2: Which is odd to me because as you saw, I
Speaker 2: just said a different word, and all of you guys got.
Speaker 1: Oh, now you're ashamed. Now now you.
Speaker 3: Guys kind of shamed me.
Speaker 2: That was no judge.
Speaker 1: We're not shaming you. There's no judgment.
Speaker 3: Was a little bit of judgment.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna keep it no, no way, no, there's no judgment.
Speaker 3: And anybody out there listening, I felt your judgment too.
Speaker 2: No, they weren't judging your judgment too.
Speaker 1: I think we were all just a little taken aback
Speaker 1: that you came out us aggressively, no pun intended.
Speaker 6: I'm going to keep us on topic, but maybe get
Speaker 6: us out of this office, or are you.
Speaker 1: Gonna direct us? Piller direct us.
Speaker 6: I'm just gonna say that, you guys, this is what
Speaker 6: a director does. It's a little redirect here at that
Speaker 6: moment at eleven fifty five where Carla catches herself after
Speaker 6: Elliott's made her confession that she's never been able to
Speaker 6: climbax ever, even by herself, that that moment after she
Speaker 6: says it, Judy's like, oh, I'm sorry, I should be
Speaker 6: more surprised. It's just like the pause and her like
Speaker 6: her realization. It's it's a silent beat. It's so funny
Speaker 6: and so definitely executed. And there was something that I
Speaker 6: have No you can't take no credit for. Of course,
Speaker 6: that's all the actor.
Speaker 1: Elliott is so self deprecating in this episode. It's so funny.
Speaker 1: Every scenes staras in she's like she's just like taking
Speaker 1: digs at herself over and over and over again. Let's
Speaker 1: talk about the legendary Sam Lloyd at fifteen thirty saying
Speaker 1: walk off, bitch. I laughed out loud, Oh yes, now
Speaker 1: it's Spiller. I noticed he's not sweating. I don't know
Speaker 1: if you recall because it was so long ago, but
Speaker 1: I wondered if there was a conscious decision like, no,
Speaker 1: you found your courage, You're not going to be flopped
Speaker 1: sweating in this scene.
Speaker 6: Yeah. I don't remember actually saying the words, but I'd
Speaker 6: like to think that that is why, you know, with
Speaker 6: his new found you know, since since Kelso's lost his mojo,
Speaker 6: Ted has this newfound confidence that he wasn't sweating.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then he goes, and then he goes, you
Speaker 1: are a wonderful person. I love you. Don't know what
Speaker 1: you did so good, spilurre. Do you want to share
Speaker 1: any Sammy thoughts? I thought, just you know, because you
Speaker 1: worked with him a bunch of times, and and and
Speaker 1: we you know, Donald and I shared some thoughts. But
Speaker 1: I thought you might want to say anything that you
Speaker 1: remember about him.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean, gosh, it's take him too soon. I mean,
Speaker 6: such a great guy, such an amazing talent. I'm so
Speaker 6: pleased to work with him a bunch and and gotten
Speaker 6: to know him a little bit. And but I often,
Speaker 6: I mean, when I heard the news, I kept thinking
Speaker 6: back to one episode that I haven't seen in a while,
Speaker 6: but this moment is all I stuck with me where
Speaker 6: Ted the Lawyer winds up falling off the roof and
Speaker 6: I mean we shot like a pretty elaborate sequence for it,
Speaker 6: and you know, see him falling away and he says, oh,
Speaker 6: sweet relief, you know, like he's finally gonna be out
Speaker 6: of this torturous life. And you know, years ago, I
Speaker 6: just would think about that moment because it was funny
Speaker 6: and so on character. And you know, the past couple
Speaker 6: of weeks I've just been thinking about as like, well,
Speaker 6: I hope that he has found peace and you know
Speaker 6: it's not in pain, and it's just heartbreaking. What an
Speaker 6: amazing guy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he really was. I've been thinking about him a
Speaker 1: lot lately, and I know, I know all the fans
Speaker 1: of the show have, but and now, of course, when
Speaker 1: he comes up in an episode, I'm like extra leaning
Speaker 1: forward because I know, I just know it's going to
Speaker 1: be funny. And and you know, I have this thing
Speaker 1: when I write my notes down for the episode, I
Speaker 1: write lol just to remind myself to say that. That's
Speaker 1: something that made me laugh out loud. And Sam, he
Speaker 1: has like two lines in this episode. I laughed out
Speaker 1: loud of both of them.
Speaker 6: That's just him just delivered always.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he definitely delivered.
Speaker 1: Johnny c At nineteen twenty seven puts in his own
Speaker 1: five good ones, you know that's what.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I noticed that up with that well.
Speaker 1: You know that that was his expression. I think. I
Speaker 1: don't know if the writers put it in the script
Speaker 1: or not.
Speaker 2: Right here for you, Bob, I like that whole storyline too.
Speaker 2: That was very funny of Kelso losing his mojo, and
Speaker 2: the way Ken played it was great, like.
Speaker 3: A wounded little like a wounded little puppy.
Speaker 1: Ken was so funny. Right when you ever see Kelso
Speaker 1: play that like humbled puppy. That was so funny.
Speaker 2: And and even and uh and and John and you know,
Speaker 2: and him realizing, wait a second, how did I lose
Speaker 2: my mojo? And John c rolling by, yeah on the
Speaker 2: wheelchair waving at him.
Speaker 1: Hilarious, dude, that's a that's a shot I've seen like
Speaker 1: in every Scrubs clip reel that's ever shown, or like,
Speaker 1: you know, gifts and stuff. You just that's it's one
Speaker 1: of those shots you always see Johnny on the wheelchair
Speaker 1: rolling by waving like that.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I think I'm owed some residuals or something, some gift.
Speaker 1: Those gift residuals are.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they don't pay, they don't pay.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I just wrote I wrote down the same thing.
Speaker 1: Donald ken Ken is so good being humbled. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's not something you ever really saw in Scrubs, but
Speaker 1: he was, like he played it so well. Just he
Speaker 1: that guy has such an amazing ring.
Speaker 2: Yeah. But and then also also his his comeback was
Speaker 2: great and the way Cox tricks him or you know,
Speaker 2: revives him by saying, you know what, guys, from here
Speaker 2: on out, you just ask me the question and I'll
Speaker 2: answer everything for you. And you and you realize, oh
Speaker 2: wait a second, you realize right then, And there Kelso
Speaker 2: is trying to teach. He gets a kick out of
Speaker 2: being the most evil person on the planet. But he
Speaker 2: is the chief of medicine at a teaching hospital, and
Speaker 2: he fulfills his job in every episode, regardless of how
Speaker 2: evil he might be or how angry he might seem.
Speaker 2: You know, I talked about this earlier he uh uh
Speaker 2: an older and earlier podcasts. He he's always teaching. He's
Speaker 2: always he's always a part of the solution and not
Speaker 2: necessarily the problem. Even if it's like, well, look here,
Speaker 2: this is how we run things. He the lessons always
Speaker 2: somehow revolve around how mean he is. But he's freaking
Speaker 2: so he's always teaching. The kids, He's always teaching, or
Speaker 2: the students or the.
Speaker 1: And always taken away from him. This time, he's totally
Speaker 1: like lost his mojo, you know.
Speaker 2: He well, not only has he lost his mojo, he's
Speaker 2: lost his purpose in the hospital. Also, what do I
Speaker 2: do here? I can't freaking get ted to do his job.
Speaker 2: I can't get you know, I can't get the med
Speaker 2: students or the interns to do their job. What how
Speaker 2: do you know?
Speaker 6: How?
Speaker 2: What is my purpose here? And it's only until it's
Speaker 2: only until Cox says, you know, you guys ask me
Speaker 2: the question where he's like, wait a second, that's not
Speaker 2: how we run things. And it's all right if I
Speaker 2: scare the shit out of them, that's a fine way
Speaker 2: to teach people.
Speaker 3: Fear.
Speaker 2: We're in a hospital. If this ship hits Code RED,
Speaker 2: these people need to be ready to you know, push
Speaker 2: their nerves aside and answer questions and save lives and
Speaker 2: everything like that.
Speaker 6: And you get another glimpse of you know, inside doctor
Speaker 6: see that you know, there's more than meets the I there.
Speaker 6: He's not just you know, a scary, intimidating figure in
Speaker 6: the hospital. It's like, no, he's got part, he's got
Speaker 6: compassion and you know, understands how things work here and
Speaker 6: he's the one who's instrumental in restoring the order.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, And I thought that was really nice just
Speaker 1: moment into doctor Cox's mind, seeing that he's a lonesome
Speaker 1: guy who's dedicated his life to this and and I thought,
Speaker 1: you know, I just thought that was a nice sort
Speaker 1: of reveal as we get to know the character more
Speaker 1: in episode thirteen of the whole series, that you know
Speaker 1: how dedicated he is to being a doctor, even even
Speaker 1: in sacrificing relationships with with with people. And you know,
Speaker 1: Joelle brought up a good point that you know, when
Speaker 1: you do a TV show, granted we're not doing something
Speaker 1: noble like saving lives, but you know, when you we
Speaker 1: had something analogous going on in that we were just
Speaker 1: at this hospital sixteen hours a day, and it definitely
Speaker 1: hurt relationships with with family and friends. You know, Donald
Speaker 1: had children and and and and was gone, and I
Speaker 1: lost touch with a lot of old friends, and it
Speaker 1: was it was a bit analogous to to what was
Speaker 1: happening in our lives. You know, it's interesting when Scrubs ended,
Speaker 1: I I have this feeling that I was delayed in
Speaker 1: a sense in that I hadn't had nine years of
Speaker 1: building friendships outside of the hospital. I had built the
Speaker 1: best friendships of my life, you especially and Spiller. Spiller, Spiller,
Speaker 1: you're close, like ten down. But no, I had built
Speaker 1: some great friendships and uh and and actually that's that's
Speaker 1: one of the reasons so many of these wonderful people,
Speaker 1: including uh Bill and and others are so in my life.
Speaker 1: And of course I I fostered other relationships. But but
Speaker 1: you know, we didn't have much time over those nine
Speaker 1: years to to to to build and develop other relationships.
Speaker 1: And I don't know, I don't know if you if
Speaker 1: you noticed that Donald, we were when we were finally
Speaker 1: done and kind of had our normal lives back, I
Speaker 1: felt that I was like, I don't. I have small
Speaker 1: circles of friends that I love so much, But I'm
Speaker 1: not one of these people that really knew a ton
Speaker 1: of people outside of my job.
Speaker 2: Right, And because of that, it's a little awkward now
Speaker 2: when I do, well, we're on lockdown. But when I
Speaker 2: do meet people, I'm a little awkward about. You know,
Speaker 2: when you make a bunch of really good friends and
Speaker 2: it all ends and you only see them occasionally, Well,
Speaker 2: you and I are a bit different. It's like, well,
Speaker 2: you know, I spent ten years getting to know a
Speaker 2: lot of people, and as much as much as I
Speaker 2: respect and cherished all the time that we spent together,
Speaker 2: it's weird not having these people in my life. It's
Speaker 2: weird not seeing Chris or you know, or Ethan or
Speaker 2: Calvin or Natrick Bolton, Patrick Bolton, it's weird not seeing that,
Speaker 2: so Vaughan, it's weird not seeing these people. You know.
Speaker 1: One thing you could do, it would be to ask
Speaker 1: Spiller to come put a doorknob on your house. That's
Speaker 1: one trick that I've sometimes used when I don't.
Speaker 3: Want Spiller anywhere near my house in quarantine.
Speaker 1: Oh, he could mask up and come put a doorknob.
Speaker 2: I totally understand that. I totally understand that, but I'm
Speaker 2: trying to listen.
Speaker 1: He was thirty five an hour. It was worth every penny.
Speaker 6: You know the rates of change, Yeah, DGA scale plus fringes.
Speaker 1: Yeah. But you know, let's talk for a second about
Speaker 1: New Slang, which is the song that ends the show.
Speaker 1: Rumor has it it was chosen by Neil Goldman, who
Speaker 1: unfortunately he keeps getting mentioned because he loves getting mentioned
Speaker 1: on this podcast. But he was a writer, contributor, He
Speaker 1: was a what are you saying?
Speaker 3: I said he was a contributor. He contributed a show.
Speaker 1: I think on that show.
Speaker 2: Because of that, on this show, because of that, he
Speaker 2: gets spoken of all the time. Neil Goldman.
Speaker 3: I didn't know that Neil Goldman picked this song.
Speaker 1: Neil Goldman. Let me tell you something. Neil Goldman is
Speaker 1: very into music, was and is very into music, and
Speaker 1: he picked the song. Now, this song I so fell
Speaker 1: in love with.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I know you used to sing this ship all
Speaker 2: the time, go teeth and a curse in my mouth.
Speaker 1: And a curse for this town. And I put it
Speaker 1: into it.
Speaker 3: I thought it was a curse in my mouth? Do
Speaker 3: you know this town.
Speaker 1: Do you know that it's in Garden State?
Speaker 3: It is.
Speaker 1: It's the song that when I say to that.
Speaker 3: Black people in Garden State, I've never seen garden State.
Speaker 1: Well when they do, like when we do, like the
Speaker 1: Wiz version, maybe you'll check it out? Will you be me?
Speaker 3: And the what are you gonna do? The Wiz version?
Speaker 1: Yeah, a Wiz version.
Speaker 2: Who's gonna play your character?
Speaker 3: Who's playing you?
Speaker 1: Are you are? Of course?
Speaker 3: It better be me. That's all I know. When people
Speaker 3: say your name, they better say my name next. That's
Speaker 3: all I motherfucker know that.
Speaker 1: You didn't know that We've already started casting the Whiz
Speaker 1: version of Garden Seat and you're the star. I love
Speaker 1: it except when you say you tell me not instead
Speaker 1: of new slang. When when I when Natalie, when the
Speaker 1: Natalie character says, you gotta hear this, It'll change your life.
Speaker 1: And you're in the Whiz version of you that you're in.
Speaker 1: What's the song gonna be?
Speaker 2: It goes right foot up, left foot, slide, left foot up,
Speaker 2: right foot, slide away, about to slide.
Speaker 3: We do it, slide slide.
Speaker 1: What is that song?
Speaker 3: It's just like Michael Ja Son, I can give you
Speaker 3: the path so.
Speaker 1: Aren't the lyrics like, yeah, I saw it briefly on
Speaker 1: somebody's video, But isn't it like lessened pretty much anything
Speaker 1: you're gonna do. It's like, that's right.
Speaker 2: Moment. And then I think we should listen. I'm not
Speaker 2: gonna knock the idea. I'm doing an all black Garden States.
Speaker 1: Listen. I will license I will license you.
Speaker 2: It'll be a different story. I mean, it's the same story,
Speaker 2: but it's a different it's a different it's a different movie. Though.
Speaker 1: Listen, I will give you the license. You and you
Speaker 1: in you and someone.
Speaker 2: And instead of going to method man and now, I'm
Speaker 2: not gonna choose you to play my fucking the character
Speaker 2: at the hotel, Great Jack Shepherd, Dax Shepherd, Dax Shepherd.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna have Ray Romano.
Speaker 1: So fucked up. My feelings are hurt. Hey, everybody. While
Speaker 1: Donald cools down and writes his Wiz musical version of
Speaker 1: Garden State.
Speaker 2: It's not a musical, it is.
Speaker 1: The Whiz was a musical.
Speaker 3: So is The Wizard of Oz.
Speaker 2: Though.
Speaker 1: Okay, stop yelling.
Speaker 2: I'm not yelling. I listen, I'm calm.
Speaker 9: Okay, Well, we'll be right now.
Speaker 3: And we're bad. We're bad Michael Spiller with us.
Speaker 1: We have director Michael Spiller. Emmy Award winning director Michael Spiller,
Speaker 1: who not only is a fantastic filmmaker, but also can
Speaker 1: throw a doorknob on a door in thirty minutes flat.
Speaker 1: Joel introduce us to Whitney and Dustin.
Speaker 7: Whitney and Dustin, Hi, guys, thanks so much for coming
Speaker 7: on this show.
Speaker 3: And for being.
Speaker 1: Thank you for having us a baby.
Speaker 8: And yes, we brought the baby along because we wanted
Speaker 8: to introduce you guys to Atticus Dorian. Oh, totally named
Speaker 8: after j D.
Speaker 2: I thought you were gonna say, no, Attic Historian's a
Speaker 2: beautiful name.
Speaker 1: Thank you. But he does have on his baby bear shirt.
Speaker 6: Oh so cute.
Speaker 1: He's such a cute.
Speaker 8: We figured since he was gonna meet Vanilla and Chocolate Bear,
Speaker 8: he needed to rock the.
Speaker 6: Baby bear shirt.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Where do you guys?
Speaker 8: We're from Leaton, Alabama. It's a tiny little town in
Speaker 8: the sort of like in the Shoals area. I don't know,
Speaker 8: it's probably something you've never heard of.
Speaker 2: I've been to Alabama, but in that area.
Speaker 3: I've been to Birmingham, Alabama.
Speaker 8: Yeah, we're a little bit north of Birmingham's.
Speaker 1: Okay, well, we're so glad you guys are here. And
Speaker 1: you were joined not only by by is it me
Speaker 1: and Donald, but Michael Spiller, who was one of the
Speaker 1: best directors of Scrubs.
Speaker 3: And directed several episodes of.
Speaker 1: Twenty twenty episodes. He directed some other shows too, but
Speaker 1: we don't care about them on this podcast.
Speaker 2: They might care though, Yeah, your show called Sex and
Speaker 2: the City.
Speaker 1: He directed a little.
Speaker 2: Show called Modern Family. Do you guys have a question?
Speaker 2: Go ahead, We had a couple Okay, let's get into it.
Speaker 1: It was one extras or I guess it was an
Speaker 1: extures a background character. It was a bond doctor. In
Speaker 1: the episode where Janitor got married, she was milk doctor.
Speaker 8: She seems to be in almost every episode.
Speaker 1: In the background, alike, just about every episode.
Speaker 8: We have, like we've noticed her and on you know,
Speaker 8: on these rewatches we've you know, watched over and over again,
Speaker 8: and every time, you know, she's in the background.
Speaker 3: We said, there she is.
Speaker 8: She's in every episode.
Speaker 3: What what does she look like?
Speaker 8: She's she's blonde. She's probably close to like you know,
Speaker 8: would have been like doctor Cox's age. She wasn't one
Speaker 8: of the younger interns or anything. But you know when
Speaker 8: we've looked before. You know, if you try to search
Speaker 8: for scrubs, milk doctor, you get a lot.
Speaker 3: Really it's different.
Speaker 1: Yeah, different, I'll bet I'll bet it probably have nothing
Speaker 1: to do with the show.
Speaker 3: They're not at all.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I will tell you this. I will tell
Speaker 1: you this that you know this. What we tried to
Speaker 1: do is have the same to have it feel like
Speaker 1: the same people work there. There would be the same
Speaker 1: group of like thirty to forty background people that would
Speaker 1: all sort of rotate in and out, and then each
Speaker 1: day there'd be some people we'd never seen before. But
Speaker 1: she must have been. I can't think of who it is.
Speaker 1: Give me a second, but maybe Joelle can do some recon.
Speaker 3: I think I got it. I think I got it.
Speaker 1: Hold up, do you remember what was the episode you grace?
Speaker 2: I think that's what they're talking about. Is this are yes?
Speaker 3: Yes?
Speaker 6: Yes, yes, yes?
Speaker 1: Arlene. Arlene was one of our regular background folks, and
Speaker 1: so that's why you see her all the time. She
Speaker 1: was probably there every day, right.
Speaker 3: Donald, Yeah, she was there every day.
Speaker 2: Her snoop dog, Uh, Mickhead. I haven't seen Mickhead yet yet.
Speaker 2: I guess he came a lot later, but.
Speaker 1: Snoop has a lot of screen time in the episode.
Speaker 3: That we we're talking about today.
Speaker 1: Yes, Spiller, you had him, you had you had Kelso
Speaker 1: bangs a pot right in Snoop's face in this episode.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and he held it perfectly, didn't even flinch. I
Speaker 6: can't remember if he put earplugs in or anything.
Speaker 2: That's crazy that you guys recognized Arlene she was. Yeah,
Speaker 2: she was on the show from pretty much the beginning
Speaker 2: all the way till the end. I don't know. I
Speaker 2: don't know if everybody did season nine. And you do
Speaker 2: refer to her when you talk to all of the
Speaker 2: other background I do, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Okay, wow, how did you find that so quickly?
Speaker 1: By the way, I'm very impressed with you right.
Speaker 2: Now because I remember her. I remember, I knew it
Speaker 2: exactly who they were talking about. Uh. And you know,
Speaker 2: Facebook is a is one of those things where everybody
Speaker 2: still keeps in touch.
Speaker 3: So once they said that, I was.
Speaker 1: Like, are you still using Facebook?
Speaker 8: You're friends with her on Facebook? Or you just need
Speaker 8: to look her page up?
Speaker 2: No, No, I'm friends with her on faceboo. I'm friends
Speaker 2: with everybody, friends with everybody that we worked with.
Speaker 1: I don't even go on Facebook anymore, but Donald, You're
Speaker 1: still on there, getting in getting in arguments with everybody.
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 3: I try to stay away from all of the politically.
Speaker 1: That's why when I turn on and I turn on
Speaker 1: Facebook these days and see everyone battling each other, I'm like.
Speaker 2: I'm out, Yeah, good night.
Speaker 8: I imagine Facebook in the South and with all your
Speaker 8: you know, conservative friends and stuff that's on there. That's
Speaker 8: a whole different you know.
Speaker 1: I'll bet that's tricky. Yeah. I'm in LA, the most
Speaker 1: liberal place in the world, and I'm like, nope, I'm out.
Speaker 1: All right, guys, you have another question.
Speaker 8: Well, we were talking earlier, and you know, we were
Speaker 8: kind of both racking our brains, like we wanted, really
Speaker 8: wanted to come up with some profound, you know, like
Speaker 8: deep question to ask. But really, all I could think
Speaker 8: of to ask would be, you know, obviously Scrubs is
Speaker 8: one of our favorite shows, but what do you guys
Speaker 8: consider to be your favorite TV shows, like of all time?
Speaker 3: That's a great question.
Speaker 1: I wow, let's make Spiller start.
Speaker 3: Since he's yes, Spiller, you go first, direct, very.
Speaker 1: Very fancy director. Let's see what are his TV show's
Speaker 1: favorite spiller, and you can't say anything you've directed because
Speaker 1: we know Scrubs is number one.
Speaker 6: That's correct, well, slightly different genre. The Wire.
Speaker 1: Yeah, a lot of people.
Speaker 6: Say, absolutely, I've watched that all the way through twice.
Speaker 6: Also Narcos, I've watched that all the way through twice.
Speaker 1: Really, I just watched Narcos Mexico, which was really well done,
Speaker 1: but I didn't watch the original Narcos spiller I'm making
Speaker 1: I'm writing down this list, by the way, because you
Speaker 1: know the Wire, sure, but I haven't watched Narcos the
Speaker 1: first one.
Speaker 6: Chris, I love currently I love Ozark okay, and season
Speaker 6: ended what ended free? When I got through it, I
Speaker 6: was really really bummed out, just wanted more. He hasn't
Speaker 6: watched it. I won't say anything.
Speaker 1: Everything. No, wait, you're covering now, you're covering his his
Speaker 1: eyes and ears. But do you guys not watch shows together?
Speaker 1: Because I find if I if my girlfriend and I
Speaker 1: get off of sink in watching a show together, that's
Speaker 1: all hell breaks loose. In fact, I'm currently rewatching a
Speaker 1: show I've already seen because I want it dead to me,
Speaker 1: which is really good and we want to watch season two,
Speaker 1: but now in order to watch that, I have to
Speaker 1: rewatch all season one with her. With the newborn baby
Speaker 1: and her own maternity league, she watches a lot more
Speaker 1: TV during the day while I'm at work, so right
Speaker 1: sometimes I try to catch up, but I haven't had
Speaker 1: time to catch up on those sords.
Speaker 8: I really want him to go back and watch it.
Speaker 8: I would totally not mind going back and watching it
Speaker 8: again with him because it is so good. But normally, yeah,
Speaker 8: when we actually it's pretty good for us because we
Speaker 8: have a very similar taste in television shows, so it
Speaker 8: works out.
Speaker 3: So what's your TV shows that well?
Speaker 1: I'm gonna recommend one that that I can't believe is
Speaker 1: this underrated because I never heard anyone talk about it
Speaker 1: and it's called Patriot and it's on Amazon and there's
Speaker 1: a few seasons. Spiller, you ever watched that? No, it's amazing,
Speaker 1: You're gonna love it. Steve Conrad is the showrunner and
Speaker 1: really really amazingly. No, that's like the best last show
Speaker 1: I saw. I really really love that. What about you, Donald?
Speaker 3: I'm embarrassed because my shows are.
Speaker 2: Shows your embarrassed. So my favorite shows are shows like
Speaker 2: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels.
Speaker 6: And recently The Mandalorian.
Speaker 3: The Mandalorian.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I like Mandalorian a lot.
Speaker 2: That that I don't know, those are those are the
Speaker 2: type of shows that I enjoy watching. I don't watch
Speaker 2: a lot of television, but when I do watch television,
Speaker 2: I prefer to.
Speaker 1: Watch Star Wars related, Wars.
Speaker 3: Related or documentaries.
Speaker 1: Do you find that now that sports isn't on, Donald,
Speaker 1: that you have a lot more time on your hands
Speaker 1: because you normally like to watch a lot of sports.
Speaker 2: So I've been doing a lot of animating as of
Speaker 2: late because sports isn't on. I'm a stop motion animator
Speaker 2: by hobby, and because sports isn't on and I'm not
Speaker 2: sitting in front of the TV at night after the
Speaker 2: kids go down, I find myself in my animation room animating.
Speaker 1: So it's making you more productive, Actually you're going But I.
Speaker 3: Don't know if it's productive. I mean it's a hobby.
Speaker 2: It's not like I'm making things that are gonna get
Speaker 2: put on television and are gonna be.
Speaker 1: Well, you never know. You could do a robot chicken
Speaker 1: type thing and make your own tea.
Speaker 2: Absolutely. We mentioned Seth Green earlier and how Spiller worked
Speaker 2: with Seth Green. If it wasn't for Seth Green, I
Speaker 2: wouldn't be animating like I was looking for an outlet
Speaker 2: like most actors do when they moved to Hollywood. That
Speaker 2: hasn't that isn't just acting. I realized I didn't want
Speaker 2: to be a director. No offense, Mike, and I realized,
Speaker 2: you know, I don't necessarily I don't. I don't necessarily
Speaker 2: like hanging out on set.
Speaker 3: All the time.
Speaker 2: Which directors do you know they arrived before actors and
Speaker 2: you know they leave after all the actors.
Speaker 3: I realized, Okay, that's not for me.
Speaker 1: Way more stressed with way less money. Makes no sense.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I realized, said I need something to do though,
Speaker 2: that's gonna fulfill my creative itch other than acting. And
Speaker 2: I remember doing taking a stop motion class when I
Speaker 2: was a kid, and my buddy Seth Green had me
Speaker 2: do voiceover work for this little project he was doing
Speaker 2: called Sweet Jay and it was stop motion animation. I
Speaker 2: was like, dude, I'm totally into this. I'd love to
Speaker 2: come and check out where you filmed this. And he
Speaker 2: brought me down to the studio and introduced me to
Speaker 2: a bunch of animators and the rest is history and
Speaker 2: now now I do stop motion animation as a hobby.
Speaker 2: Now that my television at night if there ain't no Mandalorian.
Speaker 3: And you're getting Star Wars and you're getting.
Speaker 1: Really good at it and on Instagram, yeah, I'm working
Speaker 1: at it. Check out Donald's instagram you can see his progress,
Speaker 1: or go on YouTube and watch his old lego ones
Speaker 1: called Black Stormtrooper.
Speaker 3: But yeah, but.
Speaker 1: I think you've gotten a lot. I think you've gotten
Speaker 1: a lot better since Black Stormtrooper.
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh yeah, absolutely, But yeah, that's that's so my favorite.
Speaker 2: My favorite television has always been like cartoons and stuff
Speaker 2: like that. I enjoy animation very much. So the Clone
Speaker 2: Wars Rebels. Yeah, just to bring it pull.
Speaker 6: I will be checking out your instagram.
Speaker 2: Tonald, Yes, not now after the show.
Speaker 6: Give me a followback though.
Speaker 2: I think I do follow you, Bud Damn.
Speaker 6: Give me a shout out or something.
Speaker 1: All right, Whitney and Dustin, thank you guys so much.
Speaker 1: Good luck with the new baby, with the beautiful We
Speaker 1: really appreciate you joining us. And uh and uh and
Speaker 1: stay safe, stay inside, stay safe. We're getting to the end.
Speaker 1: I just wanted to say that. Yeah, so I I
Speaker 1: I heard this song news slang, and then I just
Speaker 1: loved it so much that I years later put it
Speaker 1: into Garden State. And I want to credit Neil Goldman
Speaker 1: for being the first person to uh to introduce me
Speaker 1: to that song. Amazing.
Speaker 6: Finally he's getting this props.
Speaker 1: Finally, And Spiller, you, I think we're the very first
Speaker 1: to do a very cool crane shot out of the wind.
Speaker 1: That was a really cool shot you did where you
Speaker 1: started inside the window and then craned out. I thought
Speaker 1: that was clever.
Speaker 6: Thank your signature move of mine.
Speaker 1: We ended up using that bunch. But you you brought
Speaker 1: that to the you brought that to the table.
Speaker 6: Well the table, the table was ready for it.
Speaker 3: Well that's that's a question.
Speaker 2: That's a question that I that I have for you, Zach,
Speaker 2: because I know that you used crane shots in your stuff. Yeah,
Speaker 2: if Spiller's the first one to do it, that made
Speaker 2: it so that other directors when they came on, they
Speaker 2: were like, so I saw the crane shot in episode
Speaker 2: one thirteen.
Speaker 3: What are the chances that I get to use a
Speaker 3: crane on this?
Speaker 6: Yeah?
Speaker 1: I think you know, the crane was always UH pricey
Speaker 1: thing and both time. You know, obviously the rental of
Speaker 1: the crane, but also the labor of of sending it
Speaker 1: up and practicing it, rehearsing it. So you know, I
Speaker 1: think within an episode usually you could say hey to
Speaker 1: the line producer, you'd say, hey, can I get a
Speaker 1: I'd like to use a crane for this scene. And
Speaker 1: you know, I don't think it was very rare that
Speaker 1: they ever said no, particularly to the directors they liked.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I think that, you know, crane shots are
Speaker 1: really cool and they give the show scope and scale
Speaker 1: and and can be really beautiful. And in that end
Speaker 1: montage that that that Michael created here, which was beautifully done,
Speaker 1: it was sort of the beautiful. It was like the
Speaker 1: most perfect way to end it coming out and I
Speaker 1: believe you had to mount that build that crane on
Speaker 1: the rooftop in order to get it. There was a
Speaker 1: lower roof and then he came out to the window
Speaker 1: and then tilted up to the sky. And so yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I think cranes were introduced as part of
Speaker 1: the sort of the language of the show.
Speaker 2: And then he said he said it was it was
Speaker 2: his signature moves.
Speaker 1: Well, what I was saying specifically, I was, I don't
Speaker 1: know this this isn't the first crane shot on the show,
Speaker 1: but the idea of the camera was within the was
Speaker 1: within the room and then came out the window and
Speaker 1: then went up to the sky. And I think Spiller
Speaker 1: was the first person to do that, and you know,
Speaker 1: I think we copied that many many times.
Speaker 3: Well, have you gone on to use that on other shows?
Speaker 6: Yes, I've done versions of of of that shot on
Speaker 6: other shows too.
Speaker 3: Is that what it was cool?
Speaker 6: He sort of like, you know, especially we didn't have
Speaker 6: a techno crane or anything. I don't believe, but there's
Speaker 6: a type of crane where you know, the arm itself
Speaker 6: extends from the base. Yeah, so I mean you can
Speaker 6: really like you know, it can actually physically be inside
Speaker 6: the window. I think we probably hit a zoom in
Speaker 6: the shot as well to sort of make it appear
Speaker 6: as if we were in there in a close up.
Speaker 6: So you can do shots that that appear to actually
Speaker 6: travel through the glass somehow make.
Speaker 1: Them and nowadays later I did a really cool shot
Speaker 1: in Going in style where you can camera or pull
Speaker 1: back through the window. And then in post now add
Speaker 1: we added a taxi cab door. I had the shot
Speaker 1: of Michael Caine where he's in the cabin and the
Speaker 1: camera's in the cab with him. And then and we
Speaker 1: took the back door off the cab, and we we
Speaker 1: pull out and the out of the cab and the
Speaker 1: cab drives off. And then and post we added the
Speaker 1: cab door. That looks so cool, and most people who
Speaker 1: aren't filmmakers wouldn't even know how hard that was to
Speaker 1: do exactly.
Speaker 6: And I think, like with any of the sort of
Speaker 6: bells and whistles that we pull out and the tricks
Speaker 6: that we use them, it's part of the fun of
Speaker 6: being a director, is part of the fun of telling
Speaker 6: the story. But sometimes, and this is often true with
Speaker 6: directors who are former cinematographers, you can get caught up
Speaker 6: and the gadgetry and the toy of it all and
Speaker 6: forget that you're telling the story. So it's first and foremost.
Speaker 6: It's like, yeah, cranes are great. All these devices are
Speaker 6: great if they're supporting the story, or if they're underlying
Speaker 6: the comedy, or they're making a dramatic moment more dramatic
Speaker 6: or whatever, because they do take a lot of time,
Speaker 6: take a lot of money, and often can be misupplied.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think The job as a director is
Speaker 1: to go when am I going to spend When can
Speaker 1: I afford to spend time and money during these five days.
Speaker 1: So the way I would shoot Scrubs when I directed
Speaker 1: it was you'd go okay in order to save time
Speaker 1: to do that elaborate shot I want to do. I
Speaker 1: need to really get through this dialogue seem quickly. Now.
Speaker 1: I don't want to rush it because it's important. But
Speaker 1: if I just shoot this one really simply, then I'm
Speaker 1: banking time for later. I can do that elaborate onner
Speaker 1: or later I can do that tricky crane shot. But
Speaker 1: you have to you have to pick and choose because
Speaker 1: you just you have to fit it into twelve hours.
Speaker 1: They used to let us go longer, but nowadays, I
Speaker 1: don't know. If you find this on your other show, Spiller,
Speaker 1: no one wants you to go over twelve hours.
Speaker 6: And frankly, I don't want to either. I mean, Scrubs
Speaker 6: was unique m Sex and the city was the same way.
Speaker 6: Our hours were really really long, but it was a
Speaker 6: similar energy on set, where it's like everyone just enjoyed
Speaker 6: each other so much. You know, you never laughed as much.
Speaker 6: The work was high quality and you know then no
Speaker 6: one was telling you to stop spending money, so you know,
Speaker 6: you just kept going to you you got it. But
Speaker 6: it's you know, frankly, it's it's unsafe. These days. I feel,
Speaker 6: maybe because I'm a tiny bit older that you know,
Speaker 6: my work doesn't tend to improve after twelve hours.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and everyone gets cranky and unsafe. You know, there's
Speaker 1: been plenty of instances of crew members who have to
Speaker 1: be there longer hours, whether it's teamsters or transport guys
Speaker 1: or or camera acs, and who've gotten in accidents or
Speaker 1: even died from just being in preposterous hours. So it
Speaker 1: is a safety thing. But we used to go I
Speaker 1: mean we'd have sixteen seventeen hour days on Scrubs.
Speaker 6: When you guys on one of the earlier shows were
Speaker 6: talking about like favorite cameos and all that sort of stuff,
Speaker 6: and like the sort of fantasy camera run.
Speaker 3: I got a picture of you.
Speaker 6: I know, there's the re one rerun one which I
Speaker 6: love that photo. But there's also Dick Van Dyke.
Speaker 3: Yeah, did you direct that episode?
Speaker 1: Yes?
Speaker 6: And I mean when you sung with him in that
Speaker 6: moment when we were all just hanging out. I mean,
Speaker 6: it's like I get choked up thinking about it.
Speaker 1: I mean, give us a little dollar, give us a
Speaker 1: little of that magic.
Speaker 2: Glorious day ahead.
Speaker 3: Right is the morning in may Hey buffee, like I
Speaker 3: could fly?
Speaker 2: Hey, have you ever seen it's not habits?
Speaker 3: Have you ever seen the grass so green?
Speaker 2: Or a blue sky?
Speaker 3: Okay, So that's beautiful story.
Speaker 1: Jolly Holiday.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Dick Van Dyke was on the show and I
Speaker 2: got to sing Jolly Holiday. Well, I didn't sing. He
Speaker 2: sang it, and I played the guitar while he sang it. Uh,
Speaker 2: there's a tape. There's there's a recording of it out
Speaker 2: there somewhere.
Speaker 3: I don't know where.
Speaker 6: I know I shot it. Yeah, I'm on something. But
Speaker 6: I was like, did phones have video cameras? Then? I mean,
Speaker 6: I can't remember, but I know I shot it.
Speaker 2: It's out there somewhere, somewhere, somewhat somehow it could be found.
Speaker 3: I don't know who has it.
Speaker 1: But yeah, yeah, well, Spiller, you've been a fantastic guest.
Speaker 3: This is the longest this is the longest we've ever
Speaker 3: had a guest on it.
Speaker 1: We've ever We were gonna have to cut this fucking
Speaker 1: way down. Wants to no, I want to be sincere
Speaker 1: for a second and say, not only are you a
Speaker 1: fantastic guy, but I, as a filmmaker, learned a lot
Speaker 1: from watching you, because you are talented and you not
Speaker 1: only direct a beautiful episode, but you're so charming and
Speaker 1: everybody loves you on set and you're a great leader,
Speaker 1: and I'm not surprised that you are successful and have
Speaker 1: an Emmy and uh, and I hope I get to
Speaker 1: work with you again soon.
Speaker 6: Oh, thank you, Zach. That's so kind.
Speaker 2: I hope I'm one of those actors that you're like,
Speaker 2: you know what, I got a guy. Don't worry about it. Yeah, Joy,
Speaker 2: I really enjoyed our time together. You know, it shows.
Speaker 2: It shows by how long this podcast episode was too?
Speaker 6: Well, hey, just just keep going because I directed the
Speaker 6: next episode took a two for you'll be I didn't
Speaker 6: watch it.
Speaker 2: I didn't watch it.
Speaker 3: I didn't watch the next episode.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, he will.
Speaker 6: Well, I'm available if you every want to bring me back.
Speaker 1: We're gonna have you back. You've already goten a callback.
Speaker 1: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for tuning in
Speaker 1: to fake Doctors, real friends. I'm your co host a
Speaker 1: broth with what's your name again?
Speaker 3: Black Scrubs, Donald Faison a k A T.
Speaker 6: Diggs.
Speaker 3: We like k A brown Bear, a k A Turk
Speaker 3: turkle Tip a k A Maxic.
Speaker 7: Ten eight stories that show we made about a bunch
Speaker 7: of talks and nurses in the janitor who I said,
Speaker 7: here's the stories, net s no.
Speaker 4: So Gada round you here, Gadder round you here.
Speaker 2: Our stuffy shows that