#4645 Nothing But A Gmail Thang

My ideal man doesn't play the drums, doesn't stay late at the bar, does what he says and says what he does, does not get a fancy lawyer, that the other person can't afford if things get weird. My name is Gwen. I am divorced. I have two kids, and I will not ever regret having those two kids, okay? So that's really important for me to tell anyone who's listening. I type 110 words a minute. I actually can type faster, but I keep a little bit for myself. I blew out my knee jazzer sizing, so I don't want a guy that's too active. My best qualities? I own a timeshare. My favorite way to unwind is with a Virginia Slim and a big scoop of cottage cheese, half a tomato. Why I want to find love is I just think that everybody deserves a second chance. I want to go to the PTA with somebody, not just myself. Oh, there's Gwen. She's divorced. Oh, did he run away with his secretary? I left! A great first date with you would be...two words. Benny Hanna. TVTL! Can we listen to TVTL? No. La la la. You want to listen to TVTL? Yeah. Your favorite dish? My favorite dish. I like mugs because they're very comfortable in your hand and they hold the hot things that you don't have to touch. So, you know, coffee or hot tea. I hear the words you're saying, and I believe you believe it's important. They sound un-bricking...incredible together. Matilda, I don't know why you insisted on my doing this rigid broadcasting. Oh, well, it'll soon be over. I hope so. It tastes like burning! Well, alright. Hello. Good morning and welcome everyone to a Tuesday edition of TVTL, the show that just might be too beautiful to live. It's a relief in a way. It's not fun. My name is Luke Burbank. I'm your host. It's a tough but rewarding job, one that takes years to move into. Coming to you from Burbank, California. That's right. Burbank. Live from Burbank. California got sunshine. Was not feeling well yesterday and was actually wondering if I was even going to make the trip down here. But I improved over the course of the day enough to board the airplane. I did wear a mask, by the way, and made it down here. And there's just something about this Southern California sunshine that has me feeling much, much improved here on this Tuesday. As we've arrived at episode 4,645 in a collector series. Let the fun begin. I flew down here because there had already been a whole thing scheduled involving me. Coming to and visiting the set of this new HBO TV show that was filming down here. It was a heck of a production. You want showmanship? You got it! The show is called Stuart Fails to Save the Universe. And it's basically like an expansion of the Big Bang Theory universe. I'm apparently the leading reporter for Big Bang related content. That's not actually the Big Bang Theory. I did a story about Young Sheldon once. I couldn't figure out how to work in it. I need an old Sheldon and a Young Sheldon joke on that story. Which was regrettable. But now they're making this new show. And it's people from the Big Bang Theory show. But now it's a totally different kind of show. They live in a multiverse and they're heroes. The revenge of the nerds. Anyways, actually pretty interesting. It might have been the biggest Hollywood production that I've seen. So we will probably talk about that. Oh, and we will definitely talk to this guy. He is the longest running cobro of the show. Maybe best known for his depictions of the tall ships. He asks himself, and I think this is why he's so outstanding at his job as the cobro of the program. He asks himself this question each day right before he cracks the microphone. Do I know that the person to whom I'm speaking will not be offended? He's Andrew Walsh. And he is joining me right now. Good morning, my friend. It is not morning, Luke. It is afternoon. I'm saying that so reflexively. I didn't mean it. I am sorry. I did that twice already. There was a time. I was very committed to never saying good morning if we were not in the morning times. And then at some point I just decided, who cares for consistency, I will say that. But I mean, honestly, 2.47 p.m. that's stretching it. That is pushing it. Even for me, and you know me, I'm the one who will stretch the definition of morning if it means that I can lay in bed until noon on any given day. I don't come here today, though, to bust your chops on such minutia. I didn't even notice that you had done it earlier. I just, when you said good morning, I was caught off guard, but I will say this. I mean, the sun is upsetting here in Los Angeles. Yes, it is. I think we've missed that window. You have missed some of the most beautiful days in Seattle, by the way. I was recording a Hey Dummy's video on Friday, I think. Because I remember I was in my car and it was the most beautiful day, but you were not in town on Friday, right? Were you traveling or were you at your home on Friday? It doesn't matter. Either way, you're traveling again. I can't remember anymore. And I'm telling you, you're missing some of the, they've been sunny, beautiful days, and the sun is just going down right here, right now. Yeah, it's been, I was in the Northwest yesterday and Sunday, I was down at my place. So I was, I was like, well, I was sort of enjoying that weather. And then I woke up on Monday morning and I just felt like absolute crud. And I really thought like, well, this is the worst case scenario because, well, A, we had our show that we needed to record on Monday. We were in fact going to try to do some extra recording. And then I had this TV thing down here. And I thought like, I'm, I, you know, I have these certain weeks. Like this is a pretty crazy week for me with a bunch of different things, including we've got Livewire on Friday night at the Reaser and Beaverton and you and I are doing some special recordings as well. There's just like a lot happening this week for me. And I always think like, what will happen? What would happen if I just was really sick and couldn't do it? And the answer is everything would be fine. The world would continue to rotate on its axis, but I would feel very bad about like telling the crew down here, you know, skip it. And the producer who worked hard to put this whole thing together, you know, I felt very bad asking you to cover for me yesterday, but I do appreciate you doing it. But then again, I was very surprised. Here's what happened. I emailed you at like six in the morning and said, I don't think I can do the show. I then went back to bed for like four to five hours, got up, felt better enough to consider the idea of going and getting on an airplane, went into the office, found some of my old N95 masks, went to the airport, masked up and then got down here and then immediately I got to the hotel at like eight and I got in bed and then I went to sleep for like another nine hours. And I'll tell you what, it worked because I woke up this morning feeling remarkably better. So good. Well, I was telling you before the show, I'm a little bit worried because I've been lucky. It's been a while since I've had like a bad cold or flu. I think honestly, not going in to work at an office or a studio helps. I think that like that stuff usually get passed around a lot, especially working in radio where you have microphones and like, well, I remember you used to host that radio show from a nursery school. And I mean, that's just forget it. I know there's just they were recipe for getting going around, but great guests. I'd get great guests. But so you're kind of near the end of your work day now. I was thinking you're in the East Coast time zone. I didn't realize you're in Burbank. So that's good. It's not super late in the day, but I'm worried about you starting to flag and being fresher tomorrow, but I have some advice for you. Do you have a car or are you like ride sharing it around town? I'm ride sharing it around town because I'm not, I flew into Burbank, which by the way, we should all have an airport with our last name in it because there does not matter how many times I traveled to that airport. It is just a massive confidence boost. It just really feels like I did something with my life. They have just so many amazing signs that just say Burbank and welcome to Burbank and you're going to love Burbank. And so so it, but the hotel that I'm at is very close to that airport and then it's also very close to where we were filming. So I didn't need to rent a car. Well, I'm looking something up here. I do think that this is going to be maybe a little bit pricey if you don't have a rental car. Oh, okay. I was going to recommend that you go to the Golden Deli in, I want to say Alhambra. The Golden Deli in Alhambra. How do you know it's going to be a girl? Thank you. Sure. Of course, a terrible Bamford I offered there, my apologies. But it was a listener and I'm sorry that I cannot remember the listener's name, but if you give me this credit. It's called the Golden what again? The Golden Deli. They recommended this place when I was living in Los Angeles. So we're talking about about 11, 12 years ago, a listener wrote in to say, you love Fa. I think I had trouble finding high quality in, in like where I was living in Los Angeles at the time and somebody said, go out to Alhambra, go to the Golden Deli. It remains one of my favorite restaurants. It's not like fancy in any way. It is. But they do. I'm looking at it right now. I mean, it's the only restaurant that I'll wait in line for you show up and there is a line literally kind of along the wall of the little strip mall that it's in. There's always a line, but they handle it really quickly. It's kind of a digital, you know, you get in line digitally so you can kind of wander around a little bit if you want. I can't remember. But anyway, if I'm ever in that area, I try to go there. They have, I think literally maybe the best five ever had. Maybe there's some in Seattle that would rival it. And when I'm feeling the way you sound right now, which is generally okay, but a little bit raw, I feel like it has medicinal powers. Well, if we end the show right now and I leave, I can be there by 3.59 because it's about an hour and 27 minutes away from me. It's a, oh really? Oh, I was mapping it. It looked like it was only 36, but I was just from the heart of Burbank. So I don't know, you know, where you are specifically. I guess I'm technically, I think I may have strayed barely over into Sherman Oaks, but I'm effectively, I'm culturally Burbank. But you know what it is. It's more, here's the real deal. I don't know if you've heard this. LA traffic. Not great. Not ideal. And to the degree that it's made me, the thing I was going to say about, about how long we will go today on the show, I mean, we've got a couple of things going on. One, the show needs to get on the internet ASAP because we started so late because of me doing the TV stuff this morning. And again, thank you for your patience. Really I should be saying thank you to Genevieve for jumping on the show yesterday. But it also scares me when I see that. When I see that in the show to script, I get worried because it's like, I feel like the listeners, when they hear Genevieve on the show, they hear how good the show could be. Yeah, she saved me. She could hear me struggling during the introduction and so she just jumped in and took over. It was quite a moment of podcasting. True heroism. But no, the traffic is rough here to the degree that I have become, like, I don't know if it's a true weirdo, but I have really become this person that when I'm here in LA, and if I, like I'm staying up in the valley right now, we flew into Burbank, we were filming in Van Nuys, I'm not going back to LAX. I'm not going back to LAX. You can't make me. So this is what I'm doing. I'm staying overnight tonight so that I can fly out of Burbank, which is like 20 minutes from where I am right now. I'm going like, I don't know, my flight's at like six in the morning or something. So that all of that is so I don't have to get in a car and go all the way down to LAX right now, which would take, I assume, a really long time and really, really just kind of kill my soul. But what that also means is I have to change rooms in this hotel today, and I have to change rooms at four o'clock. I decided to, because of this whole flight thing, I extended my stay by one night and I called down and because not to brag, but being Bon Voy platinum, I usually treated with great deference in these types of hotels, like these courtyards by Marriott's. And the guy was nice, but he said, I do, we do have availability, but you can't be in the room that you're in. That room is oversold by three rooms, and so you're going to have to move rooms. And I was like, what is more inconvenient? Repacking my stuff, taking it to a different room and unpacking it or canceling my morning flight and just trying to figure out, do I just call an Uber and go to LAX tonight and fly home? And I guess what I decided was I'm going to do the room change thing. Yeah, you need to sleep a little bit. I think that makes the most sense. I need a day of not getting on an airplane. You can take a couple of trips. This is like the difference of moving across town versus moving across the country. You don't have to pack everything up perfectly. You could, and I don't know if you would do this, and maybe I'm opening a bag of worms here, but you could conceivably grab some shirts that are on hangers and carry them down to your new room and hang them up and then maybe take the elevator to your old room and grab another bag. You know what I mean? You don't have to pack up like you're getting ready for a flight, which is a little bit different. Well, the good news also is once we are done recording our show today, I can break down my audio gear and pack that in the suitcase for good because tomorrow I will be joining you from the Madrona Hill Studio. So that's one thing. If I had to break this all down, move it, and then reconstitute it tomorrow morning, that would be a great annoyance, but I don't have to do that. And I honestly didn't bring that much clothing. I have a suitcase that I don't have to check it. I can just throw it in the overhead. So it could be worse. But I guess my main point is that if my body doesn't give out at 4 p.m., we're going to hear a not-so-gentle knock on that door of them telling me it's time to move. What I really feel bad about is the three other people who are getting relocated. This is what me and the guy got into. I was like, I go, well, could I just stay in this room? And then if somebody doesn't show up, then I get to keep it. And he said, no, because we're oversold by three rooms. Three people are going to get moved out of their rooms today because we're oversold. And I remember thinking, I didn't say it to him because it's not his fault. But I thought, that doesn't seem like the best system. No. How did the computer let them sell or rent or whatever we call it? Three rooms more than the number of rooms. I understand if I can't be in one of these rooms, because I'm asking for, like, I wasn't supposed to be done today. This was supposed to be my last day at this hotel. So I'm asking for something special. And I understand I can't be staying in this room. But there's at least two other people who are just going to get evicted from their rooms, who they didn't do anything wrong. They're in their rooms that they're allowed to be in. Why are they getting, and why wouldn't they get precedence over the newcomers? Why would they get evicted? Well, maybe how about this? Maybe those people won't be evicted, but there's going to be two people that show up and they are going to be like, OK, please take me to my room now or show me my room card that gets me into my king bed room with a pullout couch. And they will be told, sorry, we sold too many of those. You need to go to a smaller room that does not have the pullout couch, which I guess. I mean, I don't know how many times I'm actually staying in a hotel room where technically the couch is another sleeping surface, like the couch is a pullout. I'm almost always traveling by myself for these work things. It's never even occurred to me that these couches are also hide-a-beds. I'm sitting on the couch right now, actually, as we talk. Of course, I don't even like to open up hide-a-beds in my own home based on what you might find between the cushions. It's a disguise. You think you live a clean lifestyle. You're even, for me, a medium clean lifestyle. And then- Very clean lifestyle. I try to be clean. I don't know if the house would, I don't know if the house would back that up, the state of it right now. But you pull the cushions off your couch and you realize you're a disgusting animal and you should hate yourself. It is, there are not, I can't, and you know me. Also in your case, the cats are a little bit to blame. Well, I think it's mostly crumbs and detritus. Well, yeah, they're messy eaters. Yeah, exactly. So anyway, I would say don't try to use that hide-a-bed tonight. Just sleep on the regular bed. Well, the thing is I'm going to be moved, I'm downgrading to a room that does not have the hide-a-bed. So I don't even have, even, I don't even have the temptation of it. But I'm almost curious, I'm not curious enough to do this, because also, by the way, my sciatica is killing me. Was I telling you on Saturday night about my newfound lifestyle of having back pain? No. Would not recommend it. My lower back has become a whole situation. It is, and it is activated by primarily by driving in a car, sitting in a car seat and driving. It's mostly, it's fine when I'm standing, it's fine when I'm jogging. It's not the worst when I'm sleeping. But something about the typical, particularly the seat in my car, my actual car, which is a really bad situation. It, like when I drove from, on Sunday, when I drove from Seattle back down to my place after we watched the football game on Saturday night, I, when I got out of my car, so that's like a two hour drive or something, when I got out of my car, literally the first like seven steps I took, I was completely bent over. I know that feeling. Like, like I cannot, unless I like really engage my core and like try to, like, very intentionally like straighten out my back. Like I am now the guy that if I'm in my car, if I'm driving for more than 10, 15 minutes and you see me getting out of the car, you are seeing a guy who looks like one of, it looks like the custodian in the Archie comics. Was it him or was it, was it, was it, was it the custodian or was it the lunch lady? One of them seemed tremendously stooped over in my memory. Yeah. Me, maybe both. Yeah. Let me look it up. Let me, let me do. What about airplane seats though? Um, not great if I'm in coach, um, but, but doable for some reason. I can kind of like, I mean, I'm only put it this way. I'm more uncomfortable getting out of a car that I was driving, whether it's my car or a rental car, than I am getting off of the airplane. There's something about the fact that I have to, if I'm driving, I have to hold the steering wheel or just certain, I have to hold, maintain a certain posture. And by the way, my car has one of those like lower lumbar inflation things. Have you ever been in a car with that kind of move going? Yeah. Um, does zero good. Does absolutely no good. I don't know what your lumbar pain would have to be or what your sciatica pain would have to be for that to work, but is not effective on my, and where I'm going with all this is, I don't know. The last time I slept on a high to bed, Andrew, but I can tell you that after the age of say 16, I've never had a good night's sleep on a high to bed because of that bar. And, and for all of the, you know, we can, we can send people not so much onto the moon anymore, but around the moon. We're doing a moon mission that we're going to go up and circle the moon and come back and take pictures of it, which seems like a thing we could do with a telescope, but okay, we can do that. But we're still, are we still putting that bar in the middle of a height of bed? Like how is that still the, the way that it works? Because that thing is that's, that's, that's the enemy of good sleep. I don't, I got to be careful here. I don't think my parents listened to the show and we're, you know, whatever we in 20 minutes in, and I've done a pretty good job of making the top half pretty boring. So even if they were listening, they're probably gone now. Well, like together, I mean, our powers together are just teamwork. Makes the dream work. That's the second time somebody has said that to me today. The other one being Jon Slaroff. No joke. But I will say, so they're always very accommodating when I'm in town and they very much like me to stay with them. It's the only exception I kind of make to the not sleeping over people's houses rule. I sleep over at my parents' house on Thanksgiving and I kind of love it, even though I never sleep over at anyone's house. Like, you know, I don't like that either. Yeah. And I know that there was a time in your life where you sort of did enjoy that idea of like waking up and having coffee with friends and maybe you're in roads or whatever. Well, I like having people in my house. Oh, okay. Yeah. No, I just, I don't like any of that. I like, I like that morning time hang. If it's on my turf, if I slept in my bed. I don't, Miss Beasley, the lunch lady is not especially stooped over. The, honestly, the custodian is in better shape than I am. So I don't know what we're thinking of with Archie or maybe you're thinking of a specific thing, maybe something from The Simpsons. But I was going to say this. So my folks are very gracious. And I, Mr. Svensson is the name of the custodian. And I think that, no, he looks fine. No, he looks good. He looks good. I mean, yeah, he's definitely, you know, he's, he's in good shape. I think he's arguably in better shape than either of us. That's what I'm saying. Like I'm, I'm, I'm going to, I'm low. Look at him. He like, he's hearty. He's pushing things around. But the lunch lady, okay, keep going. I'm okay. Anyway, all I was going to say, I think you know where I'm going with this. So I do like, you know, if I had my druthers, I'd still probably get a hotel or something in Cleveland, but my time there is usually relatively short. My dad likes to maximize it as much as possible. I totally understand, especially if I'm doing shows from there or something. And so it's just a tradition. And so I stay there. And what they have is a little room in the basement that is my dad's office. And then this sort of couch thing that does pull out into a bed. It's almost more like an ease. It's almost like a chair, I think that sort of pulls out into a bed. And it is very tidy. And I'm the first time I slept on it. I don't know if I've slept on it two or three times. The first time, definitely fine. Maybe the second time, but the last time I was there, I was like, I, I can't say anything because it would seriously, it would really bum them out. They would get a new thing. You know, it's not a new chair. They would start to problem solve it. And I really don't want to put anybody out. Like I can sleep like, trust me, it's one of the few things I can do. Well, and for any duration of time. And so it's fine. But this last time I'm like, I guess I'm at an age where I can't just sleep anywhere anymore. When I was younger, I literally slept in a bathtub one time, like in college or something. Like, and I will say that I was like, oh, I don't know if it was a bar. I think it was a bar or something going on underneath the mattress. And also my weight. Sometimes you sleep on the bar. Sometimes the bar. That's right. Sleeps on you. And I was like, wow. And I was only there for maybe four or five nights or something tops. But and so was fine. But yeah, I guess I'm at that age where the pullout couch is not exactly ideal for me. I bet you that the technology has gotten better. I think one of the things they've done, because I actually have a pullout couch in the Madrona Hill studio. But what the deal is, is it's what you're sitting on. So when it's all folded up, when it's a couch, you're sitting on this, you know, actually pretty, pretty comfortable kind of regular couch padding, I guess. But then if you were good to go to sleep on it, you unfold that and then you are on a mattress that's now on the ground. So they've completely eliminated that whole complicated spring, metal kind of machinery that brings the high to bed out. And the downside is you're at floor level, but the upside is, is a lot more comfortable than those old high to bed. Yeah. No, I believe that. So I've got, here's, here's what I think about the Mrs. Beasley situation. I think she's not letting on how much back pain she's in. Really? You think that she's just powering through? I think she's like so many women have for so many generations. I think she's being strong for the rest of us. I'm looking at some like old, like some like more vintage archies. She also has gone through a lot of different like iterations in the different kind of versions of Archie as it's progressed over the years. Yes, definitely. I was having trouble nailing that down. I'm looking at what seemed to be like some, like much older ones. And she just, she's not doing what I said she was doing, which is like, she's bent over in her back hurts, but there is just an energy radiating off of her that says, this is a person who's dealing with chronic pain. And it's just being strong about it. I believe that. I'm, I'm, I know that I was technically wrong in that, how I described her. But I think spiritually, um, she and I, I feel connected to her every time I get out of my car and you know, cause you know what the move I do is I put my right hand cause my right side. So it's weird. The left side of my lower back, zero pain, zero problem. It's strictly my right side. I get out of the car and I do the ultimate old man move, Andrew, which is hand, right hand on, right hand on the lower part of my back, like, oh, these old bones. And I'm not doing it for effect. No one's even with me. It's my, it's my instinctive reaction to the pain that I'm feeling. And it's just like, it's, it's, it's like, it's a confirmation that, uh, I too am subject to the degradation of age and time. Can I say one more thing on this topic? Please. Miss Grundy has wonderful posture. She is like, I see a picture of her watcher. She's a teacher. She's got white hair as well. She's tall and very skinny. She's almost olive oil-esque. I'm just looking at the cover of like, like a 1970s era pep magazine. I can remember what pep was. I think it all took place in the high school, maybe instead of around. Okay. Oh yeah. Around and I'm looking at, and she is kind of a Grundy is kind of a snack. Right. Yeah. I mean, sure. Depending on the protect, depending on the, like this is the thing, depending on who was drawing the cart, the comic at the time, right? Like there's just such a wide range. Like I'm looking at a, like a really foxy Miss Grundy from world of Archie Jumbo comic strip. And then I'm looking at Archie and me where she's definitely like kind of drawn a little bit differently and is not bad. That's the one I was looking at, by the way, the Archie and me and she's a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. I was a, I think I was, well, I was, which one was Veronica have the black hair or the dark hair? Yeah. Betty had blonde hair. Yeah. I think I was, I think I was a Betty guy. I think I was, I mean, listen, I would have, I would have been so excited for any of these cartoon women to show me any affection as a young man, like Josie, any of the pussy cats. Absolutely. Midge. Midge. Midge. Midge. Sleeper. Moose. Absolute sleeper. Midge. Not to objectify these fake women, but Midge was a sleeper. I don't even think that actually I would say at least maybe people of our age who grew up here in the States and presumably in other places too. It's very likely that your, your first feelings of like, not even like maybe the sexual attraction because kind of young, you probably don't even have those kinds of thoughts, but like attraction was probably to a cartoon or a comic. I mean, that would actually just make sense. Right. Like I'm watching Little House on the prairie. None of the, you know, young girls on the show, the girls that were my age were being set up to be particularly like they're not there to be objectified. Or ogled. Yeah. Ogled. Right. Exactly. Like, and so the first good ogling I could do would be like, you know, maybe the lady from Lady in the Tramp. Oh, this is interesting. I thought you were going to say, but see, I think I looking back, I don't think I realized this at the time, but maybe it was because I, you know, had trouble finding any kind of love in real life. I think I literally maybe just crushed on every single girl my age on television. I remember not even my age, but I remember I think, I mean, I think I definitely had a thing for Laura at times. It was hard not to. But then I mean, Mary wasn't married to an older sister. Like she. I remember crushing on Mary for a while after she lost her eyesight, I want to say. I said that hero complex again. Andrew saves the day. You could look at that another way. It's like my chances are better when she lost her eyesight. I mean, but like, no, I, for whatever reason, I didn't, I didn't find, you know, had, okay, I did have a bit of a crush on Hailey Mills from the parent trap. I thought she was, she's playing both twins. And I thought she was absolutely adorable. I was a big sucker for the accent. She had a like a British accent, I believe in that, which I don't even know if I'd heard that very much in my life. But if I think more about like, there's something about the way that they were able to animate, you know, like if I'm thinking about like. Riff Raff's girlfriend, or maybe it was more Garfield's girlfriend. Was that Sonia or Heathcliff's girlfriend? Like some of the cartoon girlfriend. Did Garfield have a girlfriend? No, he didn't. He didn't. He had normal. Yeah. I was normal curious. Normal had those big eyes. My favorite show title of all time. This is not normal. I, you know, I, John and Riff Raff had, they had, they had girlfriends. Okay. And John had a crush on the vet or the vet tech that he would take Garfield and Ody too, and she was not having it. She was like, so eye rolly, like, and, and as well, she should be, she was putting up with a lot of shit from a, from a client. Yeah. Definitely not part of the job description to have to like tolerate John's, uh, you know, affections if you're not into that. But like, yeah, just like, I think that probably most of my early fee, I was very attracted to, I can't remember which one of the like the, um, the sort of female chipmunks in Alvin and the chipmunk, you know how they had their counterparts. Yeah. And then also I wouldn't say it was a romantic crush, but I think I, I, I, I, there was something about the voice of the mom on Muppet babies. It was played by, by the way, by Barbara Billingsley, I think, from leave it to be, I think the real life mom. I think I just, I needed some real mothering in my life so badly at that time that there was something about the mom and her stripy socks on, on, on Muppet babies. I feel like I forgot to hear her. Yeah, you know what? I hear her, but I never see her. I was confusing her with the, with the adults on peanuts. So that was like, more, more, more, more, more. And I do remember in fact our friend Hauser you have a nickname for him. Yeah, it's J. It's good Yes, this first name starts with a J. Do you know that he was those legs for Halloween several years ago? I was not here. I think it was at a party at my house Maybe but I believe I split town because I'm not a big Halloween guy But yeah, I know that he was working on that costume for a while. That is a really really clever. Yeah a costume idea But anyway, well Maybe we do this maybe we thank some donors and then I can tell you a little bit about About my big day and and almost getting a job a writing job in Hollywood. Hmm. Yeah So let's just I'd say everybody watch your step around here because I've got I Wouldn't call it a firm offer on the table, but I feel like my I think the doors to Hollywood are finally opening for me Oh Speaking of our donors we want to thank some of these wonderful generous folks. They are Voluntarily sending in donations. We don't have that big HBO money like the producers of Stewart fails to save the universe do we've got to rely on these folks a note on this I'm not sure if you addressed this yesterday Andrew Do we mention the dazzling donor note going out? Oh, no, I forgot to mention that yesterday message going out a whirlwind So our you were covering for me and dealing with a lot. I appreciate that We are a John Sclariff has sent out the little form if you are someone who has been a dazzling donor this year That may be in your inbox even as we speak You may also have gotten something from APM asking you to put them in your estate plans delete that immediately Yes, and focus on the well, I'm not trying to tell you how to live your life, but I would say Start off if you can by filling out the dazzling donor form Which is just a chance for you to get us to read anything on the air that you want within reason Shout people out talk about your business. Just talk about anything you got on your mind. I also want to say If that feels like your reward for donating money to us is that we've given you a homework assignment. You're also Absolutely entitled to not fill it out. That's right, but but if you are someone who likes getting to hear your your name in lights Everything you're seeing today is my real voice if you would like to hear your name in lights Then look for that form and please fill it out and get it back to us And we will soon be thanking dazzling donors. That's right If you gave it the dazzling level of donation during the last TV telephone, which I can't remember exactly what it is But I know that's incredibly incredibly generous look for that and if you haven't received it maybe check your spam folder I don't know how much you've been following this Luke But I've been running into a lot of issues Getting the newsletters into the hands of people who've signed up for it, especially if you're a Gmail user now this email To the dazzling donors went out from John So I'm hoping that it didn't get scooped up into your spam But Luke, I don't know if you know this like I'm straight up like persona non grata on the internet now Like I cannot like I this last newsletter I sent out I purposely kind of like talked Obliquely About like how I'm trying to keep this newsletter very safe. There's no links in it. I didn't use the spam word I got it but not but I'm not on a Gmail You're not on a Gmail So if people are trying to look up Luke's personal email address It's it just try everything other than just email and try every combination of letters before the at symbol possible And so I think it is a Gmail thing I think it's I'm hoping it's just me and that it's not John's emails as well But I honestly don't know what I'm gonna do about the the newsletter this week because I don't know We need to rectify this if I'm gonna be writing newsletters They got to get in the hands of people to read them otherwise. It's kind of a time suck. You know what I'm saying Would you say that right now you're leading suspicion is that it's? Nothing but a Gmail thing, baby Is that a reference something no just kidding that's funny and I'm making it the show title Oh, good. Wow that went from he hates jokes to it's such a good joke. It's gonna be the show title a Gmail it should I write it thing or thing? I think it's thing. I don't write that's it is thing I believe in the original song is rendering of it is is is thing We want to thank Chelsea Burke Betts who's over there in Iowa City, Iowa lovely Iowa City, Iowa the The eyes of the nation well, that's not true I was gonna say we'll we'll soon turn back to your state as we get into primary season But I think we're still a couple of we're still probably a year and a half away from where we start talking about Folks showing up in New Hampshire in Iowa also didn't they change or at least didn't the Democratic Party change the Schedule last time around I it's funny that I care the fact that I don't know that is a real shame and it really speaks You're a long it's how long it's been since I do you're a low-information voter. Well, the main issue Luke I'm a low-information everything And voting just happened to be one of those that's right Don't you dare insult me like that? But I know that I mean even when I live there every four years They would say that there was always some saber-rattling We're gonna change the the the primary schedule and then people in New Hampshire would be very obviously protective of it Which I completely understand but now that I don't live there and it's not just like a very fun right to happen I realize oh, yeah these this very small narrow non diverse Lee white group People should not be having an outs. I'm not saying that their vote shouldn't count But they shouldn't have a special weighted, you know, import. Yes on the process Exactly. Well regardless. I will you know what I would let Chelsea vote first sure Chelsea help Chelsea I trust first in the nation Chelsea is what I say. That's exactly who we're talking about. We're also talking about Wendy Mathia Wendy is in Baltimore, Maryland Our sound guy today on the shoot was from Baltimore, Maryland and boy. Could you hear it? Just a just a beautiful intense Balmer accent love that love that I've been dipping into the wire a little bit just season one here in there late at night I tried to get my dad I got my dad to watch a couple episodes when we were doing work on the house and he really enjoyed it and I was like Oh, yeah, I need to I need to reengage with this content I need to reengage with thanking David Brumley Who's in Bellevue, Washington? David also has an extreme Bellevue accent. Yeah, I know you talk to him you hear it right? I hear it. Yeah, but I love them anyway. No, it's beautiful. Honestly Deborah Allen supporting the show from Bryson City North Carolina nice a place that I have not I mean maybe we've read Deborah's name before but Bryson City, North Carolina does not ring any bells, but I Bet you it's I bet you it's lovely as well. We know it's lovely because Deborah's there. Mm-hmm Fiona Bestwick keeping the home fires burning in the city of subdued excitement I only lived there for a few years and yet I continue to forget what the nickname of Bellingham, Washington is because I of course just call it the Bay City. I think you got it right those subdued excitement I think I think I sometimes would call it subdued Expectations or something I think I was even when I was trying to I spent a lot of time pushing back on the nickname and trying to rename the city the Bay City and And then sometimes I would actually forget the real slogan Even when I was trying to use it properly and why were you why did you? Why did you lean so heavily into trying to call the base because that's how it started right? It was officially subdued excitement But you kept calling it the Bay City and listeners were getting cranky about it if I recall which of course made you double down even more Was it about a mural? Well, yes, Andrew. There is a mural involved. What happened was I moved to Bellingham and I just happened to notice like two different things that used the term Bay City One of them was like Bay City janitor. Everything goes back to janitorial work today, Andrew One of them I think was like Bay City janitorial supplies Which was kind of near our house and then there was something else I forget what it was But it said Bay City and so I was like, oh, that's what we call this place. It's on a bay and It's the Bay City. So I started using that and then people were like, dude Have you even seen the huge mural that says belly welcome to Bellingham the city of subdued Expectations or something and so I had already tried to christen at the Bay City Thinking that was really the nickname before I learned that it has this whole other thing and then as I often did I just dug in and decided to Continue to call it the Bay City much to the consternation of some people but also much to the Adoption of that by some people there were a lot of people who now started calling it the Bay City Just when they would email me and stuff so it kind of worked I mean it really became a thing for a long time people were including it in songs for us the boy The Bay City Fiona's sticking with Bellingham. That's fair. I get it. John a beving is also sticking with Camarillo, California I can almost see Camarillo from this balcony in the valley Johnna, thank you so much for supporting the show been seeing Johnna's name on this list for years and years. Yeah, it's Very much appreciated. So thank you Johnna. Thank you to all of our donors today for making TV till possible This would not be happening without you guys Hello and welcome to top story We've about 30 minutes left for me to describe this big Hollywood shoot that I was at today but really what I want to talk about Andrew is the Giant movie billboard outside of my hotel room here near the 405 for some kind of animated movie called goat Hmm and it looks like I don't know what it's about But it has goat on it and then a bunch of cartoon characters and then it says You're never too small to dream big exclusively in theaters February 13th, but what I noted was over on the side Where like for where it says goat and then you got these kind of like cartoon monster people it says I think it says produced by Stefan Curry I thought I thought is that gonna move the needle Well, would I see a movie because it was produced there are stars in it to him well He's on hold on hold on hold on hold on let me let me say That was me reading directly from the AI overview, which I always promised you in the listeners I would never do let me double-check this but I see this might be both a goat Literally in a goat as in greatest of all time basketball Here's what I'm trying to do. I'm now getting up and I'm walking over to the window because This is when the podcast really does get affected by my physical Determination yeah, I swear to God it says either In promotion they wouldn't it doesn't does he does produce it as well He stars and produces is that what you're is that we're trying to figure out? Yeah I'm trying to figure out if it's saying it says Stefan Curry in big writing and then the other thing I think it says from producer Mm-hmm Stefan Curry. Yeah, which is like again, just the stuff that Stefan Curry can do on the basketball court is I Mean so phenomenal and fun to watch and something that I would I would watch him You know, I'd watch him play horse or pig or whatever animal. He chose to spell I'd watch him play goat But the idea that he produced it is that is a very that feels first of all very la to me Like I don't know if you strobe by this billboard in Cleveland if they would take the time to tell you it was produced by Stefan Curry But like that's just such a that's such an odd because presumably the point of that is to Further entice people to see the movie and by the way, it does not say on this move I'm getting now getting better eyes on it doesn't say starring Steph Curry. It says produced by Steph Curry Yeah, I guess he I'm looking at the people in it. Do you know who? I was not a big stranger things person. I watched the first season, but that was a long time ago And like we said before I'm a low information TV watcher The details of it but Caleb McLaughlin is in this and I believe that he's stranger things guy He's a stranger things guy and then it says also includes not Finn Wolfhardt Miss me with that. Who's Finn Wolfhardt? I think he's in stranger thing. Okay. I think that's the only person I can name well Other than let's see. Well. Oh my goodness Andrew You know my sciatica is bothering me. I need to go lie down for a minute when I'm a writer when I'm a writer It's a stranger things as well. Oh, right. Of course. I do as you know, Billy Bobby Brown And the girls Yeah, we have a Steph Curry doing voice in this Gabrielle Union. You got some Oh, sure. Oh in there. I cannot believe the thing I like Nick roll I cannot believe That during the the age of really looking back People things people said that Nick roll never he doesn't seem to ever have to answer the fact that like he would do characters where he Straight up said the n-word unlike comedy bang bang and stuff I remember going through the comedy bang bang archives when I became like kind of a paying member to that I was like, oh, I have all the archives and like a lot of TV tell listeners I wanted to start from the beginning and I did and it was really cool because it that show kind of started around the same time as TV tell there was some there was some interesting Accidental I think sort of a little bit of overlap as far as the cultural eye of both things that they got obsessed with that We got obsessed just a little bit Yeah, just stuff like that although the show is very different and in format especially back in that day I think it was even a live stream on a radio and an internet radio show anyway That none of that really matters, but I would listen to him and he and Scott will often Even on the godokerman the host of the show will sometimes say like he makes these Jokes about like yeah go back listen the archives, but not all the archives So I know that he is Shagrined about some of the stuff that's in there not that he said I don't think but certainly what other people said and If you go back to the early days, it really is a lot. It's usually all men on the show So many penis jokes. It's like back then you just Men joking around in a room could not stop like everything led back to the fallacy It's what it seemed like in a very immature way and I find that All of those people are so funny on that show. It just feels like the lowest hang it is Yeah, you're even doing it. I I just said as it were as you're saying I'm just supporting you I'm being the best supporting cobro, which is the word that I'm really hoping to win at the webbies this year But anyway, yeah, I know that the person to whom I'm speaking will not be offended See I'm raw today Speaking of the comedy bang bang verse I was talking to Lauren Lapkus today. Oh nice one of the stars of this show So, yeah, okay, so are we transitioning? Can you just tell me about this now? I don't know if we need a special introduction, but I'm a little confused you run an HBO shoot But this is literally the prop is this related to the original property of a young Sheldon and now I met your nerd I'm sorry. I can never remember big bang theory is what it's called the big bang theory revenge of the nerds It is but it's not a CBS show. It's an HBO show Which is the first thing that's kind of interesting about it. So it's it's the and you know I I did do like a TV story about young Sheldon and so I guess that the you know the people that Do some PR for the Chuck Lorre's production company? He's the guy kind of he's one of the guys in charge of this Show, you know, they reached out again. I don't know I got an email from my boss is asking if I would go to LA and and Do a story about this show and since every story I do for Sunday morning feels like it might be the last one I just figured okay, but it's actually kind of a I think it's a kind of a funny Well, I was talking to one of the creators a guy named Bill Prady and he said straight up He was like we're finally making a show One of these shows that we make that I would watch which I thought was kind of an interesting way to frame it like it's taking Like four of the characters who were kind of side characters in the Big Bang Theory one guy named Stewart who ran the the comic book shop and Then the Lauren Lapkus character who played who worked at the comic book shop and became his girlfriend the Brian Poe Sain It played a geologist on the show and then this last guy was named Kripke And he was I think kind of like the nemesis of Sheldon so these are like four side characters from the Big Bang Theory and The idea is that They the difference is that this show on HBO first of all it's single camera Which means it doesn't have that kind of sitcom-y look. It's not there's no laugh track. There's no audience There's not three cameras. It's not that kind of traditional sitcom. It's a single camera. So That's a different look and the idea is that After the Big Bang Theory TV show ends at some point Sheldon and his buddy have created some kind of at Caltech. They've created some kind of a machine That goes haywire and is now kind of like fracturing the universe into these multiverses and every episode of this show Stewart fails to save the universe. They're in a different the four main characters are in a different Multiverse they're in a different universe where things are totally things different things are happening You know and the the style of the show is different one of them They're in a place they're in a version of planet Earth where humans never really fully evolved We never really got out of the kind of like very early sort of caveman days This one that they were filming today at the Van Nuys Airport is One where the universe that they're in for that episode is like comic book related so they're They're at the they're trying to find the flash But the problem is like You know It's not easy to find him and when he runs by no one can see him because he's super fast And it's like confusing and one of the producers are talking said this the idea of this show is like Imagine a comic book, but imagine the story being about the people that are standing in the other panel When like the main superhero person is doing something very cool and amazing There's someone who's like going to get a hot dog on the streets There's literally a guy eating an ice cream cone when Superman is doing the thing I think it's the scene or to turn and this is of course from the movie not a comic book But I think it's from the first movie. Oh when he's turning back time He's turning back time. I might be getting like my movies confused so forgive me on that By the way quick aside on this while I'm out over my skis on DC lore that is interesting. They can use the flash I think his DC has some sort of an agreement with HBO because I noticed like all of the They're using mr. Freeze and the flash So that's gonna they were filming. I do think you know people make fun of it I actually do think that some some of those creative You know IP crossovers are kind of fun. I think it's kind of hey, we have access to this. Let's use it I do kind of I do kind of like that. But anyway, Veeves and I we were watching Superman years ago 15 20 years ago and I had maybe I hadn't seen it as a kid and there's like literally a guy going to take a lick of an ice cream cone While Superman is doing something extraordinary And then he kind of looks bummed when the ice cream cone or the ice cream falls off the cone or something And I remember saying to Veeves. I just said I'm an emotional eater And so now we're always saying that we see somebody like just like something Extraordinary can be happening in these superhero movies and there's just like people who are just going about their day It's probably gotten a little bit more realistic nowadays We're just kind of like wait, why were you still trying to shred that document while the world was exploding outside your window? Well, yeah, I think that the premise of this is kind of like and actually, you know The more I talked to the people who made it like it's not out yet So I haven't actually watched it because they're filming it right now But the more that I was talking to the people that created and the actors that are in it I was like this is actually kind of a very sweet idea Which is like the idea of the Big Bang Theory which again wasn't a show that I I watched You know with any regularity wasn't probably for me But like that was also a show where they were sort of like all the main characters in the Big Bang Theory Would have been the the quote-unquote weird person in IT or the weird person, you know Who owns the pet shop or something they would have gotten three minutes of a normal sitcom, right? And it would have just been like the the quote-unquote normal people in the sitcom And then they have got that weird lady who runs the cat store, you know and like This the idea was well, okay What if the whole show was those people we centered them in the story and now this is like, okay What if people who were to the side of that were in this one? And of course I made the joke I guess that the fourth sequel to this will be the guy from craft services We just have to keep getting further and further to the side of the main thing But like I guess the idea of this show is that the guy Stewart He's played by guy named Kevin Sussman an actor is not in any way The person that you would sort of imagine Is gonna be the hero of this story and in fact none of the people in this know the actors in this I seem particularly Well-suited to the task which is you know kind of a cute idea like as instead of it just being Jack Reacher or Whomever instead of just putting you know the very typical Sort of biggest strongest buffest whateverist people, you know to the task of trying to Fix things this is sort of like for people who kind of did not ask for it They have no in they have no desire to be having this job, but they have it and they're filming it and what I was really struck by was the Sheer number of people on this film shoot there must have been 250 people they're working on this thing and the scene that was being shot was At the most two minutes of the fall of the half hour that's like a half hour per episode it was at best Andrew two minutes and this was all day long for Like at least 250 that didn't even count craft services, which by the way was amazing. I would My body type would change Dramatically if I worked on one of these shoots the craft services was so phenomenal. They had so First of all just the where you go for snacks was off the absolute chain I ate something called a honey stinger energy waffle With my coffee, which I'm not eating that on a normal day But it was there and then it's lunchtime and then you go over to where they've got the whole like buffet going and they got like every kind of food under the sun then there's full-on pie and ice cream there's like Fresh vanilla ice cream there to be scooped upon the pie. I Mean unbelievable stuff, but like I was it was amazing the scale of this production and the whole scene They were shooting was the four main characters get into a cab Um They they tell the cab driver that they're trying to find the flash the cab driver basically thinks they're crazy The flash runs by their car, but we don't see him because he's too fast Normal human eyes wouldn't catch the flash being the flash and then when they say can you follow the flash? He says like get out of my cab That was the scene That that all of these people were there to make happen that day and by the way it looked great looked really good, but it is like Absolutely shocking to me to see how many people I've never I guess I've never really been on a I've been on film sets But it's been like indie films and little things hang on Andrew. Yep the knock The knock dreaded not 20 minutes early 22 minutes early I know I have to tell them I have a 4 p.m. Check out. Let me try to practice my nicest voice go take care of it Hi there. I have a 4 p.m. Check out No problem. Thank you so much. I Understand why they have to do it, but I heard somebody references. Oh, you know what? I think it might have been unlike Oh, I think it was like on tic-tac It was some kind of a an incident where law enforcement was like was like summoned out to a hotel or motel Because the person who was staying in the room was was really annoyed and what they were really annoyed at was The manner in which housekeeping was knocking on the door with that very shrill I think they knock with like a key or a piece of metal or plastic Somebody called the cops Well, there was a base. I think what happened was the person was getting maybe removed from the room or something Which probably for non-payment or who knows? But what they kept bringing up and where I really related with them was they were like they were obsessed They didn't want to talk about the bill. They don't have what they give me so they kept saying why did she have to knock so rude? and I was like From your lips to God's ears, brother Now I also understand if I worked in housekeeping I wouldn't want to like go home every night with swollen knuckles swollen knuckles And you really want to make sure that you're announced in case the person doesn't hear your knock and then you then they haven't changed the door Whatever you call that modern chain bar bar to the door and then they walk in and that's what it is I'm the door party. That's what I'm always saying and pre In pre-show audio checks. I think it was that pre-show was yours. Wait. I can't remember I'm not sure what you said on the show. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning, Luke I Could not agree with you more like I am so pro The housekeeping staffs of the hotels of the world I think it is a a really hard job that people don't get paid enough money for so I don't I'm not proposing anything differently for what they're doing with the knocking strategy It totally makes sense for what you said you want to make sure that the people in the room and know you're trying to enter the room You can't you don't want to be wrapping your knuckles against a hard door all day. That's that's not a fair request and yet If you want to talk about a noise that fills me with a physical anger That's right up there with it's below but not that far below like loud motorcycle sounds like there's something that's so I Don't know if shrill is the right word. There's something that is just so Unpleasant to my ear about the knocking that housekeeping does using some kind of a hard metal thing on the door and again I don't I'm not proposing a different like way of doing it. They should just keep doing it And I'll just it just won't sound great to my ears. I wonder if a little bit of it, too is that There's really only two things that will be happening in this room when someone knocks on that door and one is I'll just be still in bed Which is kind of unlikely because they usually come around at 9 or 10 I'm pretty much up by then but the other thing is I'm doing this show with you So I'm almost always whether I'm asleep or talking to you I'm in a state of mind where that noise coming out of the blue is extra It's kind of extra upsetting to me. Yeah. Yeah, I Dreaded as well, but I'm somebody who does like to sleep late and that's what got me into trouble when I was in like In our last trip to Mexico and but all you got to do is put that do not disturb out I guess well, that's what you're saying. Yeah, I think I but I mean don't you have that out now and didn't they knock anyway? I might I'm also again. We're in this like We're in this liminal hour now. We're like I technically have until 4 p.m But you know, I'm sure that there's somebody putting pressure on the housekeeping staff to get this room turned around because remember Andrew They're oversold. I know these rooms, right? I was here was the other thing that I was in I guess impressed is the word I mean, I just I've just never seen I've never seen a production on this scale. I've never seen this many people with this many different jobs to just like there was 25 people that were just in charge of doing things to cameras So that whenever it was time to use that camera it would be ready to go, you know what I mean? And there was like every kind of boom imaginable They had like multiple giant trucks to just hold out like giant like scrims like giant like a screen That would just change because it was shooting outdoors. It was in front of the The actually, you know, it was part of the park and jet near the Van Nuys Airport So it was all like outside so they got to constantly control the weather and the light patterns, you know But at this like massive scale, they're not talking about what we call a flag at CBS We're not putting up a couple flags. They're like Fully bringing over something the size of lumen field and then just like plopping it over Where these characters are getting out of this like 1950s cab because that's also part of the plot is there in some kind of it's a vaguely 1950s version of Of this town that they're in looking for the flash or whatever But the other thing was I I saw this guy early in the day and I thought oh, that's really funny Because you know who Brian Posein is right? Yeah, he maybe been to his comedy show. I have yeah up in the U district very very funny guy and like longtime Collaborator with Pat Nozwald. He's been in a million shows. He's on the Sarah Silverman show. I'm sure he may have even been on this show I don't know. I'm sure that our listeners are fairly well familiar with this guy Brian Posein So I keep seeing this guy and I'm like dang those like Brian Posein's brother What are the chances you got another guy on this set who is also about six seven and has a thunderous beard Yeah, he's very distinctive looking. Yeah, and I was like I was like Does that guy like know that he's sort of ripping off Brian Posein's look like does like and what is his job here? And then I realized at some point. Oh, that's Brian Posein's Stand-in because this is a big Hollywood shoot This somebody told me it has the budget of like an episode of Game of Thrones I don't know what they're spending per budget on or per episode on this, but it's wild like oh Well, of course, there's like a stand-in and then I realized oh my gosh There was there was well for specifically, but I think they even had a stand-in for one of the guest stars There was four to five people that kept see walking around and there was something about them that seemed familiar But I couldn't quite figure out what their job was or what they were doing here But they weren't getting yelled at by anyone. They didn't seem to have a job of like, you know running Snacks for people or like being a PA. There's another funny thing that happens which I had never been on a shoot that was this large where When I guess it's probably the assistant director or the AD or somebody somebody says rolling Everyone with a with a walkie-talkie supposed to yell rolling So imagine that you have like 40 people with walkies. So it's like rolling rolling rolling rolling rolling All right, everyone's yelling rolling all the time. And so just to be clear Not that this is super important, but just so that I can understand it They're not using the walkie-talkies to say rolling But that's just if you're wearing a walkie-talkie you have a job that means you have to echo this You're maybe in the DGA or something. You're somehow in like the director track I guess although Andrew to further can I just further complicate this There was a period of time where the AD was trying to talk to everyone and it was spread out through this whole area And I noticed I was like, what are those people doing? They're all holding up cell phones No, they were all holding their walkies their walkie-talkies up on speaker mode So that anyone who was near them was hearing what the AD or whatever the assistant director was saying into his walkie-talk From across the lot or something from across so what it was was a way and they all knew to do it There was a way that they could all personally turn into Bluetooth speakers Yeah, no kidding, but by the way, it was very blown out. It didn't sound good. I thought this is not a good system But feels like a bluribus It was totally blurb as exactly what it was actually but so then I finally realized like oh, yeah There's a like a Brian Poussain look alike whose job it is to like go and sit in this chair You know in this taxi cab when Brian Poussain is like too tired to do it or has been doing it for too many hours or whatever And you know all of the principles the main people had them and I just like at some point I like came around a corner is actually as I was leaving and I just like Accident in my way into the stand-in where they were all sitting and it was like Bizarro Jerry It was totally like that Seinfeld episode where you've got a version of everybody, but just a little bit different That's that's it was a little creepy and you know, I mean hey, it's honest work And like I'm sure there's I bet you a lot of people tried out for that honestly, so I don't say this to in any way Like try to denigrate or make light of having that as a job But I just thought man that must be particularly in Hollywood where it's like There's just so much It's so hard to make it and it's so hard to be the person that they are deciding to point the camera at you know As the primary person as the Brian Poussain of it all and like if you're just like I look exactly like that dude I could say that line like so wait a second though for standards in the situation like this It's not an understudy. It's a stand-in and it means like you're just in there Like you're you look like Brian Poussain So you sit in the back of this cab while they do all the lighting and because you're look like him so much You can get everything adjusted and then the other person kind of swaps in so if you're doing any kind of a line It's just for a sound check. It's not like he's not a stunt double in other words. No, but I heard I was talking to one of the Creators of the show at lunch and I said oh, I just realized where there's a guy looks like Brian Poussain here He goes. Oh, yeah. Well the other week we had our principal cast we had their stand-ins and we had their stunt doubles So there was three of everybody. Oh, wow That's interesting. I think that the stand is are technically called the second unit and yeah I don't even know if they ever even do lines They definitely are there for the purposes of getting the lighting rigs and everything set up But then also maybe there are some certain shots that they can do with the second unit where you wouldn't be able to tell the difference of The of the person so maybe they sit in for that I mean the amount of you've heard this forever From a lot of people if they're in movies or whatever, but it's just like the amount of sitting around and waiting is just like insane it is Truly insane on one of these productions like the amount of just like Waiting for Something to get reset so that like they could film they they did this whole reset To show the taxi driver Whacking down that like red flag, you know, because it's like a 1950s cab And I was talking to the the one of the creators of the show at lunch And I was like I didn't get the piola mode by the way. I did demonstrate some restraint But I was like yeah, I was curious how many times you guys were gonna shoot that like knocking down that flag thing He goes, oh, yeah, that'll never be on TV. Hmm. What do you mean? It goes? Oh, yeah Because and this is where it's like you could talk about us really like the Big Bang Theory any of these shows that maybe are not Created with our sensibility and you could just kind of think that there's not You could be guilty of thinking there's not that much Thought behind it and then you start talking to somebody It's like talking to a musician about like recording an album Like it could be a music that you're not even into and they start telling you about gates and about, you know, like Like technical stuff having to do with how albums are recording or like, oh my god, there's so much to this So he was like He was like no the only reason that we shot a tight shot on that is because in the wide shot You see him move his hand to knock it down. So we and we have time Today because of a light shooting schedule today. So our our AD said we'll pick it up We'll get a close-up shot of it. I go Well, why wouldn't you why wouldn't you put it in the scene? He goes because everyone knows what that means when the cab driver moves his hand down on the like thing And if we do a close-up of it now, that's part of the story And we just can't have everything be part of the story that people can't follow He can keep introducing visual concepts that aren't advancing the plot. They're not important and not really part of it so there's so much stuff like that where like They just are they're leaving so much out because it's like it's not relevant to the story It's not a joke. It's not a laugh line and it just if you if you left all of that stuff in you'd have a very different looking movie And one of the things that he was marveling about was that Vince Gilligan left in in Pluribus we were talking about Pluribus kept leaving in the entirety of Ray Seahorns Outgoing message. Oh, yeah. Yeah, and they keep calling and he said he counted it was seven times amazing Yeah, and he was just like yeah, we would not we would not be doing that on this show Well, you know, hold on one second though, but they're tape they're recording it though They're filming it anyway just in case though, right like is that they're filming it. He said the only yes Okay, they're filming it just in case and the only reason He said and actually really you want to know what it comes down to Let me just try to land this plane in the most boring way possible and by that I mean this show Actually, it's not boring what I really ended up talking about today with a bunch of people on this set was like what's going on with like Filming in Hollywood, right? Like and in Los Angeles you hear all these stories about how everything is moving out of Town and everything's going to Atlanta and it's been going to Vancouver for a long time And it's it's terrible for the industry here, you know, people are out of work. It's a really sad scene and He said yeah We got a and I guess that they put I think it was Newsome actually put out like I Forget what it was 500 or 700 million dollars in basically like tax breaks for these productions And this guy told me it added a million dollars per episode to their budget Whoa, and that allowed them he said they had they wrote two versions of this show and one was if they got the tax break And one was if they didn't because if you don't have the tax break You do not have as much time to shoot and you have to be realistic about what you can get because like I said today I watched this all 250 people not including the actors and the producers and stuff We're out there all day to get two minutes of this show Mm-hmm, and if they were supposed to get four minutes of this show they wouldn't have gotten there So they got this tax break with the craziest thing was I was like, what's the application process? He goes it's like applying for college their line producer printed out an application that said Oh How much is your budget for your production? How many people from your production will be going to local restaurants? How you like it's like the most basic questions about this thing you're doing and then you put it in the mail and you send it To the like, you know film and television department or whatever at the like the state of California And then you just wait to hear if you got this money back Wow Wow is a very kind of you know What would you call it like not an overly Hollywood way to find out if you're gonna get a million dollars more per episode I wanted to share another thing with you that I read you might have seen this bouncing around I want to say yesterday or maybe over the weekend and I'm looking at it now I'd only seen the headline a couple of times but apparently Matt Damon and I'm unfortunately it was an interview with Joe Rogan Oh, I read that the Netflix telling directors to repeat the plot more often because people are using their phones while watching these movies and sort of Encouraging directors are like kind of front load the the movies their Netflix movies with like action instead of doing the more traditional way. Oh I didn't hear that part. I read an article about how that movie that they did the rip Matt Damon and Ben Affleck is Actually very very worker friendly like everyone is Invested and and Netflix doesn't do this for most films They only agree to do it for this one because I guess this Matt Damon and Ben Affleckness of it But that they were able to get Some kind of a payment plan so that if the movie does well Everyone on the film down to the catering people gets paid a lot more than they would normally so that it's kind of this You know, everyone's sort of vested in a way. Mm-hmm, which seems like a cool thing But I've heard something equally depressing about what they're saying over at Netflix not from those guys But from somebody else who was saying that yeah, they'd been in a meeting at Netflix And they were told also by someone in like programming there You'd got to make these shows or these movies or whatever it is. They were making less Compelling because if they're too compelling then they can't be used as a two-screen experience And so your job is not to make a Movie that someone can't take their eyes away from your job is to make a movie They can totally take their eyes away from while it just drones on in the background and they scroll tick tock You want to just talk about depressing? Yes and no, I mean not that we need to turn this into a You know a debate program I mean in it so I was looking for more details on this with Matt Damon says Matt Damon has claimed that Netflix pushes directors to Reiterate the plot for viewers because they're watching with their phones. I think that's interesting that I mean it's not depressing totally, but I guess I just want to be Honest when I say I am sometimes choosing things specifically That I that I can watch while I'm playing yes, and so there I wouldn't say there isn't a need for that But for me usually that means it's an old movie from the 90s that we're stumbling on, you know by the way I well I'll tell you later when I can remember some of the stars names who are super famous and Veeves and I stumbled on a Gem of a movie over the holidays that I need to maybe I'll tell you about it tomorrow when I can Google it and get in front of me Because it's been a couple of weeks, but but I love older movies like that for that reason You know I know people are drawn to certain, you know like I'll put on reality TV It's a bummer to know that those are directives coming for something that is supposed to be You know an artistic endeavor or a more serious endeavor certainly well exactly because what I would say is those that programming exists You know it that programming will be always be created it exists, you know right now whether it's older stuff We've watched a month a bunch whether it's reality stuff whether it's whatever There's there's plenty of mindless stuff, but the idea that there would be also now less of the riveting stuff because everything is needs to be them like the mindless stuff was gonna occur on its own I agree. Yeah, you know yeah, no, I mean don't don't purposely dumb things down I mean that that is like right exactly here enough dumb stuff happening out there I've also right seen some reviews at that movie that show the rip is pretty bad Which is kind of a bummer because like I really am on kind of a like I've been seeing a lot of interviews pop up of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, you know Because they're promoting this movie heavily and like I really do find them to be pretty charming I wish they weren't like the most diehard Boston sports fans of all time, but I do appreciate That they really are sports fans and they can really throw down and they they did I don't know They don't they don't seem like they sort of had such a meteoric rise from kind of Obscurity to being kind of everywhere that it's kind of fun to just roast them or particularly Ben Affleck's back tattoo, but like I Don't know they're there. I don't know if I'm probably not gonna see the movie They made but they certainly have been kind of coming off as likable dudes that you know, I'd have a beer with or whatever I'm not a lot like I think he's sober. Yeah, right. Yeah, no, I agree. They both do seem likable on their own I love their friendship on screen. I know that that Duncan Donuts campaign They did two years in a row for the for the Super Bowl not everybody loved it I actually really liked the first one I thought the second year when they tried to reboot it or run it back That was just terrible and it had it had Jordan. What's her name in it alongside? It was just bad news all around but I do like they those two will always have a Good rapport and good chemistry with each other and it comes off the screen and I like that and I think yeah I hopefully they're okay fellas. I don't I'm sure you know I'm not a Hollywood watcher Luke So I'm sure there's bad beats on both of them that will get emails about but I'm I am Matt Damon at the height of his powers was on CNN wearing an NPR t-shirt because he had just this is before this is before you could buy those on Instagram and they were kind of like a Look and he had literally the story was he had been at NPR West I think doing fresh air or something and somebody had offered him a t-shirt and like his next media hit was CNN and he Is fully dawned the NPR nice see I love that like yeah solid dude Actually wait speaking of NPR. I do have a very very quick thing I want to share with you here and it occurred to me it does come from a listener So would you mind if we do it very very quickly hitting that email sound and then I can Okay, but if you hear someone Rapidly I forgot about No, no, no, it's okay sure no I forgot about I thought it was just sort of like we need to get out of here get the show posted I have already forgotten that you literally could then have to deal with somebody knocking on the door And then you like dragging a bunch of like underwear drag You know like sticking out of your suitcase as you flee from your hotel room into another do I know that the person to whom I'm speaking will not be offended So what I will do here is I will get us out of here, but I'm gonna share this with you tomorrow But we're gonna try to transition and remind people that we were talking about public radio at the end We could even start tomorrow with it if you want although I'm sure I'll have some sort of a report from my flight home So yeah, no and so tomorrow Just to let listeners know will be posting. Oh, no not not significantly later, right? No, I could I might even be able to say good morning to you and mean it Okay, and I might say good morning back and one last thing I want to let people know that will you mentioned some special recordings this week We are efforting as I like to say that's a verb that I like to say to do another Super show with our friends with text me back that hopefully will be airing this Friday. I didn't want to hide our light on that one I'm looking no, we're gonna be fun this Friday you me Lindy Megan Fun times. Yeah, so I hope everybody will tune in for that as well. All right. Well listen to Andrew for real Thanks for covering for me yesterday and yep being so flexible today. Thanks to you the listeners for dealing with the delay in posting today And we'll be back on track tomorrow in the meantime everybody out there have a great Tuesday Please take care of yourself. Please be safe and please remember no mountain too tall and good luck to all God damn it that was one of the nicest episodes of TV TL. I have heard in a long time. Thank you power out