Real Friends Classic - 113: My Balancing Act with Michael Spiller

On this week's episode, JD tries to balance his new girlfriend, and his job as a medical intern. In real life, Zach and Donald speak with Michael Spiller about directing episodes of Scrubs, and how he made the move from cinematographer on Sex and the City to directing his first episode of television.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Man, do we have an exciting show today? Donald Faison,
We do have an exciting show. You know, we promised
the people, we promised the listeners that we wouldn't just
have stars of the show on, that we would bring
on crew members.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
You're totally about to geek out about this. You brought
up a director. I am going to geek as a
fellow director. You're like, Yo, I'm gonna ask him about
this shot. I'm gonna ask him about this shot.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
Well, I am going to talk to him. I think
people if I sometimes think when I'm preparing for this,
and you know, I do a lot of homework. You
should see my desk. It looks like I'm about to
write a novel. I was thinking about if I was
a listener, I'd want to know some behind it, Like
what's it like to be a director of a TV show.
Michael Spilder, who we're talking about is is a very
big television director, one of the biggest. In fact, he

(00:43):
recently won the Emmy for directing Modern Family and he's
a very talented guy.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
Wait wait, hold up, which for the like the final
season he won the Emmy.

Speaker 1 (00:53):
I don't have the exact Emmy.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
Well, I want to ask him about some of this stuff,
like how many shows have you directed?

Speaker 3 (00:59):
Now? Is it like you know, have you lost? Can
you keep count of the amount of share?

Speaker 1 (01:03):
Save your spiller questions, have them, have them pent up
inside you and just have them ready to explode when
he comes in the room.

Speaker 3 (01:10):
Okay, well I got it. I only got a couple.
I'm great. How are you man?

Speaker 1 (01:13):
I'm good, I'm good. Did you work out? Are we
gonna have a post peloton Donald?

Speaker 2 (01:17):
Today? I didn't want to talk about it because I
did work out today and I finished the workout. But
I'm now disappointed with with said instructor that we talked about.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
Why, well, he was different today?

Speaker 2 (01:27):
He talked too much, started singing hold on and then
also singing off beat? Right, I don't I don't do
peloton to be talked to off beat. I don't appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (01:42):
Was it still the you know what I love about?

Speaker 4 (01:44):
You know?

Speaker 1 (01:44):
I still well? The thing I liked about spinning was
when you could get in the groove, unlock, nang.

Speaker 2 (01:51):
Right, and so it's important that your your your spin
instructor is like a DJ, you know what I mean?
So right, he or she should be riding with the beat,
so the music's going and and and then you need
to be going with the music. Also does he say stuff?

Speaker 1 (02:09):
You know, I like it when they go like they
just make noises like.

Speaker 3 (02:11):
Hey, ho when they diddy that shit.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
I love that.

Speaker 5 (02:16):
Yeah, it's like Diddy diddy ed hey.

Speaker 1 (02:21):
And you know, it's so embarrassing. I find myself and
so fucking embarrassing. But I find myself on the treadmill
not even spinning, and I'm listening to a good song
and I'm.

Speaker 5 (02:28):
Like, hey, okay, and I'm doing the fucking Diddy spin
instructor thing.

Speaker 3 (02:35):
Ah ah, take that.

Speaker 1 (02:37):
Take that Ahead Ahead. Before I knew Diddy was like
a big producer and I was watching those, I'd be like,
so this dude just makes a living one ahead Yeah,
Ahead Ahead.

Speaker 2 (02:49):
I couldn't take it. It was like just too much talking,
not enough motivation. Like when you talk, you're supposed to motivate,
you're not supposed to talk about how dope the song
is and stuff like I don't want to hear.

Speaker 3 (03:00):
All of that. I already know this song is good,
you know what I mean?

Speaker 2 (03:03):
You chose the class because I saw the playlist right,
and you like the music playlist.

Speaker 3 (03:07):
Right, the playlist looks dope.

Speaker 1 (03:10):
This isn't an amazing And I know this is the
stupidest thing. Everybody knows this, but I was realizing it today.
If the fucking music is good and you love it,
you can do so much more of a workout. Absolutely,
because I've got I've gone to so many spin classes
because I do like spinning, and the music is just
so not my thing. I mean, it's other people's thing.
I'm not, you know, to each their own, but I'm like,

(03:31):
And then today I had made this like awesome mix
that I was fucking grooving out to, and I was like,
I could really work out a long time to this
amazing mix. I mean, but I don't know where you
work out? Do you like to work out to? Rap? Right?

Speaker 3 (03:44):
I do like to work Wait what do you work
out to? You don't work out to?

Speaker 2 (03:47):
Like?

Speaker 6 (03:48):
Wait?

Speaker 2 (03:48):
Wait, hold on, I didn't realize there was other music
you could work out to.

Speaker 1 (03:52):
Yes, yes, it's in this country. You don't have to
just work out.

Speaker 2 (03:56):
I can understand house music, but no, what do you wait?

Speaker 3 (03:58):
Hold up?

Speaker 1 (03:59):
What do you work I like to work out to pop, like,
but like uptempo pop? What do you like I'm opening
up the fucking playlist right now because there were some
fire songs on Here.

Speaker 3 (04:09):
We Go, Here we Go recommendations from Zach Braff.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
Avichi has this song. It's like his most popular song.
It's wake Me Up, and it's just like up tempo,
and it makes me think of this time, because when
you're in this time and you're working out, you're like,
wake me up from this fucking horrible nightmare. So I
like that. I had, you know, I had Michelle branch
On here because you know, I love my girl Michelle
brand I had Oh Asia, I love cea ed Sheer

(04:33):
Cia Unstoppable, Unstoppable today and I had Ed Sheering with
Chance the rapper You cross me, you grabbed me Joel's
jam and she knows that song. Oh and also Fleetwood
Mac this is an old school one. I don't want
to know a bath then.

Speaker 2 (04:54):
Then so I worked out too. Ten crack Commandments b
I G.

Speaker 1 (05:01):
Okay, we're on a very different plane right now.

Speaker 3 (05:03):
You don't know that song.

Speaker 1 (05:05):
I know who the Notorious b I G is that song?
Give us a sample.

Speaker 3 (05:10):
It's the Ten Commandments of Selling Drugs.

Speaker 1 (05:13):
Yeah, I'm I know, I'm dancing and working out to
Michelle Branch and you're listening to a song about crack.

Speaker 2 (05:19):
You know we grew up differently. Yes, I guess we
grew up differently. We did, Buddy, Hey, should we go
again to the show.

Speaker 1 (05:26):
Let's invite in our special guest.

Speaker 7 (05:28):
About six seven eight stories I'm not show we made
about a bunch of dogs and nurses.

Speaker 3 (05:38):
He's the stories natal.

Speaker 4 (05:43):
So YadA here yea, here, what a song.

Speaker 1 (05:53):
Lots of talk about the song, the song. I gotta
tell you something about those numbers. My whole timeline is
people laughing at Bill and saying the numbers and just
writing them non stop. In my timeline. That's becoming, unfortunately
to me. But of course Bill will love it. He's
become a huge hit with his whole bit about.

Speaker 3 (06:13):
Saying five six seven eight.

Speaker 2 (06:15):
Yeah, he's like the PC. Well he's not PC, but
he's like Todd. He's like the Todd of our show.
He comes in and he delivers every time, dude, every time,
he's like ups, always delivers.

Speaker 3 (06:29):
He always delivers. All right, let's bring in our guests.

Speaker 1 (06:32):
Let's bring in our very special guest. Turn him on,
bring him in, ladies and gentlemen, Oh my god, I
haven't seen him in years. Yay, and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, Michael,
still listen, Michael, you are the very first guest we're
having on the show who is a member of the crew,

(06:55):
not an actor or a writer. And I'm just We're
so you're here.

Speaker 6 (07:00):
It's really awesome, thrilled to be here.

Speaker 3 (07:03):
You're I would say you're our first director.

Speaker 2 (07:05):
But Zach has directed an episode and Bill has directed
an episode.

Speaker 1 (07:08):
Right, but not not before Michael Spiller. Michael's our first
director of from season one.

Speaker 3 (07:15):
He is also directed season No, he wrote it, that's right.

Speaker 1 (07:18):
No, I want to say that, Michael. I would say
I think maybe directed the most. Spiller do you know
that trivia? Is that true?

Speaker 6 (07:26):
It is true? How many episodes? Twenty twenty episodes?

Speaker 1 (07:32):
Twenty episodes?

Speaker 6 (07:33):
You know? As I go and I work on other
shows and stuff, I always meet Scrubs fans, and without fail,
I say I've directed more episodes than any or human,
leaving the possibility that another someone from another species has
directed more than me.

Speaker 1 (07:50):
Right, but I can confirm it. I can confirm they
have it. I would also confirm, Michael, that you are
one of our favorites if you look at IMDb, you'll
see there's lots of directors of Scrool. Some came in
for one episode and then never came back for either
Bill's reasons or their reasons, mostly Bills probably. And then
there's people like you that everybody loved so much and

(08:10):
you did twenty Yeah, I guess go back to how
it all began for you, at least with the Scrubs connection.
How you got this? I know that back in the
day you were, Michael was a cinematographer. He was shooting
the show Sex and the City. I don't know if
you've ever heard of that show, but Michaeh was the
cinematographer on the show and then began to direct that show.

(08:30):
And then Michael just talked a little bit about how
you got how you transitioned from shooting into directing TV.

Speaker 6 (08:38):
Well, I mean I went to film school. I went
to Sunny Purchase, upstate.

Speaker 2 (08:42):
New York, New York, New York, New York.

Speaker 6 (08:45):
That's right. And I started making my own films when
I was a kid in Brooklyn. Saved up my paper route,
bought a Super eight camera and went to film school.
And I wanted to be a cinematographer. I didn't want
to be a director because actors were crazy, let's face it,
and you know it was mainly I shot a lot

(09:05):
of indie movies and music videos and documentaries and travel
all over the place. And then I got married and
wanted to start a family, and TV sounded like, well,
maybe that will provide a little more stable lifestyle. And
I was shooting out Sex and the City. And at
the end of the first season, my agent said, if

(09:26):
the show gets picked up, I'm gonna ask for an
episode for you to direct season two. And I'm like, nope,
I'm good, I'm good, I'm happy where I am. I
don't need it. He said, no, you're going to do it,
and I did, and then I did went really well.
I also dpeed that episode. Wow, I don't I don't
recommend doing that for your first episode of TV.

Speaker 3 (09:49):
That seems like a lot of work.

Speaker 6 (09:51):
It's a huge amount of work. And then the third
season I did two more. In the fourth season, I
did four episodes, and by that time we had moved
to La bought a house, moved back for the fourth season, uh,
and then moved to La finally right after nine to eleven.
But not because of it. Uh. And I had already

(10:13):
signed with my current agent, who after three episodes you
see what I did, said I want to wrap the
sky And he was at the same agency where Bill
Lawrence was represented.

Speaker 1 (10:27):
Oh see, it is all about connections in Hollywood, everybody.

Speaker 6 (10:30):
It's true. No ute given up.

Speaker 1 (10:35):
So Scrubs was your Was Scrubs your first non Sex
in the City gig?

Speaker 6 (10:39):
It was meant to be. So you know, my agent
sight Unseen, you know, convinced Bill. He did a great
job presenting me to Bill, and it was meant to
be my first episode. After Sex and the City. I
wound up doing an episode of Greg the Bunny.

Speaker 1 (10:54):
Oh wow, remember that show? God was that? Who was
who was that?

Speaker 3 (10:58):
Who was the star of that show?

Speaker 6 (10:59):
Sarah Silberman Levy seth Green.

Speaker 2 (11:06):
There we go.

Speaker 6 (11:09):
It was. It was a great cast, but it was like,
you know, huge puppet sets and all this other stuff.
Like it's like, why these like I've never done a
puppet show. You know, you had to build sets that
were all like four feet off the ground so people
could stick their hands up through manipulate anyway. Steve Levittan
was the executive producer on that, So I met Steve

(11:30):
on my first episode. I later did Modern Family and
a bunch of other shows with and then Bill Lawrence
on my second show. So very very good agent. Thing.

Speaker 1 (11:41):
By the way, if you're gonna meet two showrunners when
you get to Hollywood, it's down good that it's Steve
Levittan and Bill Lawrence. Yeah right, your agent's pretty good.

Speaker 6 (11:52):
He's Sean Frieden.

Speaker 3 (11:55):
Hey how many? Wow? Shout out? How many?

Speaker 2 (11:58):
How many? How manyisodes of Modern Family did you direct?
Did you direct the most Modern Family episodes? Also?

Speaker 6 (12:05):
No, I didn't, but I did twenty two episodes.

Speaker 1 (12:08):
Twenty two episodes and won the Emmy, won the Emmy.
I wish we could have given you an Emmy. Spiller.
You deserve.

Speaker 3 (12:14):
You tried, We tried. I know we all were you.

Speaker 6 (12:19):
I know you did.

Speaker 1 (12:20):
Now, Michael, I just want to say, you know again,
season one, we're meeting all these directors. For those of
you who don't know, it's usually a different director every
week because they have to prep. They have about a
week's prep before they shoot the episode, and so you're
always alternating, and some can't come in, and you know,
you know, Donald and I would would like some more
than others. Some were really good with comedy, and others

(12:43):
were good with moving the camera. One of the things
I think we we loved about you, Michael, is that
because you were a cinematographer first, you really were amazing
with moving the camera and doing interesting things with the camera.
But also you did know how to talk to actors
and make jokes funnier. And I thought you could just
talk to that about about about how how you approach something,

(13:04):
how you approach the script, and and and your experience
with what it's like being you know, having the DP background.

Speaker 2 (13:10):
Also, we should go over the process of what it
takes to Since we have a television director on right now,
we should go through the process of what it takes to.
I mean, directing is like the end of the journey,
you know, I mean that's not even close to the
end that well, it's the middle of the journey.

Speaker 3 (13:24):
Really.

Speaker 2 (13:25):
There's prep, there's you know, all of pre production, and
then there's post production.

Speaker 3 (13:29):
We should also talk about that. Our listeners might be
interested in that.

Speaker 1 (13:32):
Yeah they will. So, Michael, we just gave you a
lot answer all of that. Go No, talk talk first
about you know, being having a DP background and how
that affected the way you work well.

Speaker 6 (13:42):
I think there's no question that having the background as
a DP was extremely helpful. I mean, first of all,
event that when I came on the set, I could
usually bond with the crew very quickly because I spoke
their language. I sort of got it. You know. I
would stay seen in such a way that worked first
and foremost for the story, yet also kept the logistics

(14:07):
in mind and the practical aspect of it. And you know,
and I was flexible enough that you know, I encouraged
and I love to collaborate. I want the DPS input.
You know, obviously the cast would give input to the
showrunners give input as well, but the nuts and bolts
of it, you know, I understood. I've also been a

(14:27):
grip and electrician. I've pushed dollie, I've I've pulled focus,
I've operated camera for other people. So you know, I
love the crew. I mean, these are my people, and
I think most people I've worked with can pick up
on that. So and I have a deep respect for them,
and that that's half the battle. You know, when I
was shooting Sex in the City, if we had a

(14:48):
new director, and if you know, Sarah Jessica Parker wasn't
in the first scene you know that that director was shooting.
When she would first come on to set, she would
look at me and like gauging, like cow is this person?
And if if I gave her like the I don't
know look, then that person had to work. You know,

(15:09):
it's an uphill battle just to get back to you
know zero, right. So you know it's enormously important because
I mean, you guys know it's like you love your
crew and it's like it's one big family. So a
director walking on to a TV show has to be
both a leader, right and and you know they're not

(15:30):
the ultimate top of the pyramid, but they still got
to lead the crew. They've got to get the crew behind,
they've got to work with all the you know, the
elements that are already in place, and you have to
respect that that family that you're walking into.

Speaker 1 (15:45):
That's what's so bizarre about it. That's what's so bizarre
about it is and I've only done it, I think
once or twice, Michael, that is, come onto a show
that is an entity and say hey, everybody, I'm the
leader for the week. And you know it's one thing
when you come back and like you came back you know,
nineteen more times. But on the first one it's like, hey, everybody,

(16:06):
I know that you guys are all friends and have
inside jokes and have a way that you do things. Well,
I'm the boss for the week. And it's really tricky, right.

Speaker 6 (16:15):
It's sort of like I liken it sometimes too. You're
going to be a conductor on a train. You're gonna
take it from this station to the next station. The
track has already been laid, you know, everywhere the train
already was is established there. We have a very good
idea where the train's going to keep going. And yeah,

(16:35):
you can slow down around this corner because you like
that view, or you can speed up at this section,
or you know, you can lean a little left or
a little right, but you can only go so far
because the train's got to stay on those tracks, right.
You can't suddenly say, you know, we're gonna make a
left here at Des Moines and go somewhere else.

Speaker 1 (16:53):
That's that's a really good, great analogy, Michael, because I
think that you were just.

Speaker 3 (16:57):
Talking about this actually the last episode, well.

Speaker 1 (17:00):
I was talking about how it's so tricky, you know,
again just to Bill spoke a little about this, but
to remind people who aren't in the business. You know,
you know, the pilot director and the showrunner will create
sort of the look of the show. How does the
camera move, what's sort of the language of the show.
In our show, we had fantasies and we had you know,
big camera move. The camera was sort of a character.

(17:21):
And then other directors that come on they need to
use that language. They can, they can, like Michael just
said in his train analogy, they can slow down, they
can look at this view, but they can't. You have
to use the language of the show. If you look
at the Office, for example, it's shot like a mockumentary
Modern family I believe was as well, yes, whereas Scrubs
is crane shots and Dolly moves and steady cam shots.

(17:44):
So you have to use that language. But then somehow
find a way to make it your own. And I'm
glad we're gonna watch the episode with you, because I
think there's a lot of cool stuff in here that
you that you found a way to make your own.
I like that.

Speaker 3 (17:53):
I do like the train analogy, you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (17:56):
It's the same route every time, it's the same track
every time. How can you can bend it and move it,
you know, to make it your own. So like if
a different conductor, you know what I mean, I don't know.
I love that analogy.

Speaker 1 (18:10):
That's really and in season one I would say, you know,
even on episode whatever, this is one thirteen, you're still
you're still finding that, you're still shaping it.

Speaker 6 (18:20):
Now.

Speaker 1 (18:20):
I noticed, Michael, you did some things in here, like
going into blacks and coming back that I don't think
we'd done too much of yet. That became part of
the lexicon. So as an early director in the show,
I just directed episode two of one of Bill's news shows,
I still felt like, Okay, it's early on, I can
I'm still contributing to what the look of the show is,
you know, right for sure, when you're when you're lucky
enough to direct early in the show's run, there's still

(18:42):
a lot of discovery going on.

Speaker 6 (18:44):
Yeah, the actors are really fine that they're characters, so
they're still open to, you know, someone else's input. The
writers are discovering what the actors are good at, and
they're tailoring the writing to you know, help those words
fit better in their mouths. And you find the comedy
if you're doing a comedy, and similarly, for a director,

(19:05):
it's like, yes, you've you've been given the overall template,
the framework, but it's a jumping off point. It's not
like this is meant to just box you in. You're
allowed to push things a little bit further. John Wells,
i think, is credited as saying to Paris Barkley, I

(19:26):
want you to make an episode of Er only better. Yes,
it's like, it still has to feel like an episode
of the show that you're already watching, you know, and
you've grown accustomed to. But push it a little bit,
get your thumbprints on it, and in consultation, you know.
That's the thing. It's like, I could have what I

(19:46):
think is a great idea, but I'm neither. If that's
the case, you know, I have to run it past
the showrunner right presenting it.

Speaker 1 (19:55):
If you have something, let's say you're in prep and
you have like a five day prep beforehand, and you go, oh,
I have an awesome idea. If it's a little outside
the box, you would you would run it by the
showrunner and say, hey, what do you think if I do this?
And I imagine Bill usually said yeah, go for it. Right.

Speaker 6 (20:11):
Bill was so amazing that. I mean, it was such
a great guy to work with so early in my career,
you know, as a freelance director, because I mean, he
I think this episode has a good example the end
where we we have a music montage. You know, it's
like and they kept the song on Hulu.

Speaker 3 (20:29):
So yeah, that was pretty cool, right.

Speaker 6 (20:31):
They didn't they didn't swap it out. And you know,
I can't remember how many there were leading up to this,
but this felt like it was one of the sort
of bigger ones, like we're committting to this song. It
was in the script early. You know, It's like it
wasn't just like there'll be a rock song here and
you know, do some cool shots. And it may not

(20:52):
have been on this episode, but early in the run
with you guys, Bill said to me, because I was
like enthusiast pitching this, you know montage I want to
do in all these transitions, and he's like, dude, if
I will cut story, if you give me a beautiful
piece of cinema, Oh great, wow, And that's just insane.

(21:13):
I mean writers never say that, you know, And so
I really felt empowered and encouraged by Bill. And he
also you know, there's no bullshit with him. If he
doesn't like it, he just tells you.

Speaker 1 (21:25):
Well, there's plenty of times he would come to rehearsal.
I'm sure this never happened on one of your episodes, Michael,
but there's plenty of times. You know. The way the
way it would work is the director would sort of
block out where everyone's gonna go, where the camera's gonna go.
And there were definitely times, and then Bill would come
to the rehears arrive at the rehearsal and be like, yeah,
that that makes it not funny at all. We're not
doing it. And then you know, you watch some directors

(21:47):
be like it was you know, he was even for Bill.
He was tactful about it sometimes, but you know it
was like he's like, no, I'm not not doing that.
If you put him over there and her over there,
it does it's not funny anymore. So we got to
do this, and you know, you have to be a
little bit humbled about it as a director because you're like, oh,
you know, I didn't now I see.

Speaker 6 (22:05):
You know, I think that most of the time, when
when writers have clear ideas about that, they're generally right.
You know, if they're if they're if they're people you
know of the Steve Lovett and Bill Lawrence, Mindy Kaling caliber,
like they get it, and you know, you listen to them,

(22:27):
you don't fight them, and and they're generally right now.
I did see that happen, you know, with other directors
when I'd be there prepping. Didn't happen very often with me.

Speaker 1 (22:36):
With Michael Spiller, Sir Michael, not with now with sorry
Emmy Award winning Michael Spiller.

Speaker 6 (22:42):
I mean, but what I do remember happening a lot
is like we'd be waiting for Bill to come up
from the writer's room, and you know, must have been
in the middle of a very fancy paragraph or something,
and you know, dial we had to wait, but you know,
the clock is ticking, we're losing a light. So generally
for him to arrive. But sometimes I would rehearse without him. Yeah,

(23:04):
and inevitably, inevitably, as soon as we finished the rehearsal,
Bill come walking through the doors and I'd have to
scramble be like, okay, so for this shot, like fake,
like we're starting the rehearsal from the top right now,
just finished it right?

Speaker 1 (23:18):
Well, yeah, you know another thing that people might not
know is that the onus to deliver the show in
five days is all on the director's hands. I mean
obviously working with his assistant, his or her assistant directors.
So you are you not only come on to this
set where you where you don't work every day, to
lead a crew of people that are all friends, but

(23:39):
it's your job to be like, guys, we gotta go,
we gotta go, we gotta we gotta get out of here.
So that's that's another thing is that.

Speaker 2 (23:45):
You have to well you.

Speaker 1 (23:47):
You've you've signed on to deliver this episode of television
in five twelve hour days.

Speaker 2 (23:53):
You have a ton of support, though you have you know,
if you have a good first your your golden We
have some pretty cool first ads our show, Franklin Got
Better and Scott Harris and.

Speaker 1 (24:04):
Richard Wells, who was an incredible first ad.

Speaker 3 (24:07):
Paul Padrera. We had a few of them, you know
what I mean?

Speaker 2 (24:11):
And you worked with all four of them, right.

Speaker 6 (24:13):
Yes, I worked for them all.

Speaker 3 (24:15):
Yeah, which was your favorite?

Speaker 1 (24:19):
You don't have to answer that. You don't have to
answer that. Should we get into the episode, because I
think it would be fun to just really think so
so Michael. The way we do this is but there's
really no order. We just started to talk about the episodes. Uh,
well you've heard, you listened to your your favorite podcast exactly.
The first thing I noticed. First of all, we have

(24:40):
to say that Elizabeth Bogish is not only beautiful, obviously,
but she's really funny. She's a very good actress. I
thought she did a fantastic.

Speaker 2 (24:47):
Just very moments in this episode. And it's also it's also, uh,
this is big. She's the first she's the first love
interest for JD. And so you know, this really set
the tone for all of the other actresses that would
come on to play your love interest on the show.
And she did such a she did such a phenomenal job.
And you know, you're right, she is very funny, and
it made it so that whoever else came on had

(25:10):
to be like, all right, well let me, let me,
let me see what, let me let me let me
step up.

Speaker 1 (25:15):
And yeah, they couldn't just be they couldn't just be
a pretty face. They had to really be good actresses
and be funny. And and I think that you know,
Liz was all those things. She she had really good timing.
She I thought she was good in her dramatic moments.

Speaker 2 (25:27):
And yeah, and.

Speaker 1 (25:28):
Of course Spiller, when you do that beauty shot of
her at the end arriving with the picnic basket, it's
so romantic and pretty.

Speaker 3 (25:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (25:35):
Did you have anything the city training in?

Speaker 8 (25:38):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (25:38):
I was thinking about that. All your sex and the
city lighting women things all came together in this episode.

Speaker 2 (25:44):
Did you have anything to do with casting on that? Like,
I know that some directors sit down and help out
with casting on television shows or bring in their.

Speaker 6 (25:53):
Own Typically, typically we are you know, we're contractually we're
meant to be involved than all the casting decisions. I
mean every creative decision on the episode that we're directing,
we're supposed to be involved in. Sometimes an actual span
several episodes, so it's sort of a bigger decision. Or

(26:13):
maybe an actor's availabilities being challenged and you need to
book them before the director has technically begun their prep.
I can't recall what the situation was with Liz. I mean,
she was fantastic. I hard to imagine anyone who I
would have rather seen in the role, right, But she
did have a technically a three episode span, although I

(26:33):
directed two of her episodes.

Speaker 1 (26:35):
Yeah, the two, the second two, right, not the first
one where she's in the Mr Action right, right, all right?

Speaker 2 (26:41):
But have you have you gone on to do other
shows and be like, you know what, I got the
perfect person and gone back to use actors that you've
had from Oh sure, I say some Scrubs or from
or from Sex and the City or whatever.

Speaker 6 (26:54):
Yeah, I mean, whenever I can, I try to recommend
people who I know are cool and they're going to deliver.
And because we've all worked with people who are super
funny on screen and really difficult to work with, and
you know some some even you know, with like a
toxic personality that could kind of poison a set. So
it only takes one person to poison a workplace.

Speaker 1 (27:17):
That's a lesson to all you young aspiring actors out
there that everybody talks. Everybody, everybody talks. So you might
have been a jerk one day and Michael Spiller was
the director on Sex and the City, and you think
that you went home and went all right, well, I
had a bad day. And then later and then later

(27:38):
Michael's directing another show where your name is suggested and
he goes no, no, So you have to be.

Speaker 2 (27:45):
My wife always says, this sounds way too small to
be an asshole.

Speaker 6 (27:49):
Exactly, that's the perfect And I mean the fact is,
you know, my wife used to be a costume supervisor,
a wardrobe supervisor and off. And it's the people behind
the scenes that get the brunt of an actor's wrath,
you know, or bad behavior. It's like, if you're making
you know, your hair and makeup people, or the people

(28:10):
who are adjusting your clothing, if you're making those people cry,
you're not a good person, or you need some therapy,
or you got to work some shit out. But she
told me there are a couple of people that made
her cry, you know, back in the day. And I
have had the pleasure of passing on.

Speaker 1 (28:25):
Some of ah sweet revenge. And you ran home and
told your wife, didn't you? You're like, yes, see what I
passed on today.

Speaker 2 (28:33):
I don't believe who they trying to push on me today,
but I said no.

Speaker 1 (28:37):
And his name was Donald Faison. So Michael, my first
my first note for you is at twenty four seconds,
why is my character have a giant entire piece that
it's a whole chicken on my date plate? I would
never order such a large meal. I had to stop
and pause. I'm on this date with this beautiful woman.

(28:59):
I'm just staring at her, and I have a full
roasted chicken on my plate.

Speaker 6 (29:05):
You know, all I recall about that is that it
was part of because it was this the sequence is
that you can't take your eyes off her. We're so
fixated on her that you almost forgot to eat. So
I didn't eat. Having a having a vertical, you know,
a large meal that would read in this shot because

(29:26):
there's a lot to look at.

Speaker 1 (29:28):
Icy, So you really wanted to be looking at you.
But yeah, so you icy, So you rationalization or or
real genuine roge less you wanted it to quickly read
that I hadn't touched my plate. Yes, it looks like
Thanksgiving dinner has been served and no one has calved.

Speaker 6 (29:44):
You know, we were on location for that, and you
know we didn't do that very often on Scrubs, and
certainly my first episode. I hadn't done it before with
you guys. Yeah, and you know that may have been
what the place had to offer, what Hugos had to
offer me.

Speaker 1 (29:58):
It was Hugos.

Speaker 3 (29:59):
The I was gonna ask that, is that Hugos.

Speaker 1 (30:03):
And where Is it riverside in the valley?

Speaker 2 (30:05):
Yeah, it was right next to the hospital, just down
the street. The photo booth in the middle of the supermarket.
Is that a pharmacy?

Speaker 1 (30:13):
Yeah? What was the deal with that? Who would put
a photo booth? Who would put a booth in the
middle of an aisle of the supermarket? Michael, you can
reach through the photo booth to get items off the shelves.

Speaker 6 (30:24):
Well, maybe they're handy props. You know. This is this
is before the days of like giant hats and oversized
sunglasses and big foam pointy thing.

Speaker 1 (30:34):
Was this a set or do you remember?

Speaker 6 (30:37):
I think it was a set and it was just like.

Speaker 2 (30:40):
Yeah, I remember photo booths being like in like bowling
alleys or I missed by the way, I miss photo booths.
Let's keep love photo right now. That was like the
set off for that is the because, I guess because
of the movies too.

Speaker 3 (30:53):
It's such a romantic setting.

Speaker 1 (30:54):
I know, especially when they're black and white, not this
not this modern bullshit all black and.

Speaker 2 (30:59):
White neon light that freaking yeah, it surrounds the camera
and shoots in your face.

Speaker 3 (31:04):
I totally miss photo booths.

Speaker 2 (31:05):
I got some good photo booth pictures of me and
my wife when we first started dating.

Speaker 1 (31:09):
And you know, it's so romantic when you look at
them and you feel like you're old school.

Speaker 6 (31:13):
And I've a little fourth strip photo.

Speaker 2 (31:16):
I mean, yes, for those of you out here like
photo booths at like parties and stuff like that, it
doesn't it's not the same if it's not in an
actual booth.

Speaker 1 (31:25):
If you're in Manhattan, Okay, there's a restaurant called the
Smith on Fourth Street, and like, what is it, like
fourth and tenth ish you just google it, And in
the basement of the Smith, which is a good restaurant,
there's an old school black and white photo booth. So
there you go. I just took you up. Next time
you're we're on a trip with your loved one, go

(31:47):
take a romantic picture there.

Speaker 6 (31:49):
When we're allowed to travel again, when.

Speaker 1 (31:51):
You're allowed to travel again in August and yeah, so, Michael,
I don't know how they do it on Sex and
the City, but we certainly don't put photo booths in
the center of a supermarket aisle here on scrubs. I
want to say this is very vain, but I looked
very skinny in this phooto booth and I, but.

Speaker 3 (32:09):
What was up with your hair?

Speaker 2 (32:10):
Dude? Your hair was a little different in these episodes. Man,
they were very spiky.

Speaker 1 (32:14):
And I was probably you know what, I was probably.

Speaker 3 (32:15):
The truth the spinning of the hair on the time look.

Speaker 1 (32:20):
And the footobooth that looked like I have more makeup
on than usual. I can only rationalize that I was
probably nervous in front of this beautiful actress and I
was probably like, more makeup, this is your hair?

Speaker 3 (32:30):
Okay?

Speaker 2 (32:30):
Now is this your first uh love interest in projects
that you've been because you hadn't worked that much.

Speaker 3 (32:36):
That's a very tradition I think dated on camera before.

Speaker 1 (32:40):
Very good question. No, I had done an after school
special called My Summer as a Girl, and basically it
was an after the special where they just stole the
whole plot of Tootsie and you know, in order to
get the job, I had to dress up like a
woman and then I fell in love. But I remember
it's interesting remembering that that I remember that there was
supposed to be a scene where I kind of got

(33:00):
like too aggressive with trying to make out with her,
and I remember the director was disappointed because I was
I couldn't I was too nervous to do it. I
wasn't doing it enough, being aggressive enough with her.

Speaker 2 (33:12):
Why why why are all after school specials? Why do
the guys have to be so aggressive?

Speaker 1 (33:16):
Well? The lesson they always taught a lesson, right, Well,
this one was I was kind of a guy, and
I was kind of a playboy, but like I was
a cocky guy, and uh, and then I in order
to get in order to go after the girl, I
dressed up like a girl because she had gotten the
last last job as a chambermaid on the island and
I wanted to do that too, so I dressed up
like a girl like a lot. Totalis the platitucy, except

(33:39):
you know, a chambermaid on an island. And then I
fall in love with the girl and then i'm too
I was when I'm a man, I'm too aggressive with her,
and she's like, get away, You're you're moving too fast.
And then there's a guy who's in love with me
when I'm dressed as a woman and he starts doing
it to me and I'm like kicking her in the nuts.
And the lesson was like, how do you fucking like it?

(34:00):
Treat a woman with respect?

Speaker 6 (34:03):
Shoes on the other foot now.

Speaker 1 (34:04):
Yeah, so you can all go google my summer as
a girl and watch that bit of artistry. But that's
a good point you brought up, Donald. I don't think
that I had really had a pretty love interest other
than Sarah Chalk. But we hadn't really you know, delved
into that yet, not on the show we're about to.
We're in a few episodes we're about I think after
Liz is the first time that it comes up. So yeah,

(34:25):
I bet I was very nervous around her. I do
seem to me to look like I have a little
bit too much makeup on in this photo booth. Like
I was like, I was trying to look like you know,
it was important for you to look I wanted to look.
I wanted to look the best I could for Liz.

Speaker 6 (34:38):
Well, yeah, I mean it is so funny. It's like
it's it's and scanning a lot of attention these days
because people are, you know, in this business are evolving somewhat.
But you know, when you have two actors or more
depending on the show, uh, you know, who have to
have a love scene or be intimate physically intimate with
each other, I mean it's awkward. It's weird, and it
can it can be really uncomfortable for for people. So

(35:02):
I mean, I totally get it, even as sort of
PG as.

Speaker 1 (35:05):
This was right, well, this was pretty bag. You know,
when we get into some of the Sarah stuff, I
can't even believe that we were doing what we were
doing for network TV, And I remember it being like awkward,
like this is so bizarre. I remember feeling like are
we on like HBO, Like how are we doing this
for NBC? You know, it's pretty That was that was
pretty risque stuff. This stuff with Liz was was was
pretty tame. But you you know, you're still lying in

(35:25):
bed with a with a beautiful stranger and to.

Speaker 2 (35:27):
Say at the end of the episode, I'm on top
of uh Judy and it's we're simulating.

Speaker 1 (35:34):
R This was a sexy episode. There's a lot of
talk of orgasms and and and Sarah masturbating on a
washing machine works?

Speaker 3 (35:42):
Does that work? Is a washing machine that powerful?

Speaker 6 (35:47):
YEA?

Speaker 3 (35:48):
Because I can't.

Speaker 2 (35:49):
I don't. I don't, I don't. Apparently I don't. I
definitely don't produce like the washing machine can produce. Obviously,
listen first one hundred first, to be honest with everyone
on the washing machine.

Speaker 3 (35:59):
Is that good?

Speaker 2 (36:00):
Where at the end of it you fall off the
motherfucking washing machine.

Speaker 3 (36:04):
I can't compete with the washing machine. What am I
useful for?

Speaker 2 (36:06):
Honey?

Speaker 3 (36:07):
I've been helping you raise these kids? What am I useful?

Speaker 1 (36:12):
Hey Donald?

Speaker 3 (36:12):
The washing machine and the crazy shit? Is My wife's
always like, I'm gonna go put another load in?

Speaker 1 (36:18):
Yeah, yes she is. She's definitely gonna. Hey Donald, that
washing machine cannot provide for those children. Only you can.

Speaker 3 (36:25):
Only I can. That's what.

Speaker 6 (36:27):
Well.

Speaker 1 (36:27):
I don't know whether or not, you know, we three
men have no idea obviously if a washing machine can
can do that to a woman. But I gotta say, Sarah,
it worked for Elliott. It really works Elliott.

Speaker 3 (36:38):
It definitely well.

Speaker 2 (36:38):
And it worked for Carla too, because she's the one
that suggested it.

Speaker 1 (36:42):
Yes, she said, when are you doing laundry next? Now,
we had a lot of female writers on this show.
I can only imagine that they had a conversation in
the writer's room like, do you'all have them run a
washing machine? Well, let's move on.

Speaker 6 (36:59):
Or you can ask could be an ask Bill moment.

Speaker 2 (37:01):
No, no, no, no, no, no, I don't want to.

Speaker 1 (37:04):
I don't Hey, listen, I don't have anything. Do you
guys have anything before Sarah shitting a brick? Because I
laughed out loud at that.

Speaker 3 (37:10):
I laughed out loud at that.

Speaker 1 (37:11):
That was funny, especially Sarah. First of all, when you
think you'd ever get to see Sarah chalk, you know,
poohing face, and there we saw it.

Speaker 3 (37:18):
But that's that's that's the one thing.

Speaker 2 (37:20):
Usually somebody makes a poohing face on television, they get
real big with it. It was pretty it was pretty subtle.
You didn't know that, you know.

Speaker 1 (37:27):
This eye closed thing. She did an eye closed thing.

Speaker 2 (37:29):
You're right, she closed one eye and and.

Speaker 6 (37:32):
They had to be just enough, just enough push.

Speaker 1 (37:35):
Yeah, a brick.

Speaker 6 (37:36):
You brought that brick.

Speaker 1 (37:37):
So what's funny. What's funny about it? It's builder is
that she she just does a little bit of a push,
but then a giant brick falls. I just realized that
in one episode, in one episode of brilliant television, in
twenty two minutes, we have Sarah's pooh face and her
orgasm face.

Speaker 6 (37:55):
That's right. We opened the whole gam it.

Speaker 1 (37:57):
We we opened the show with her poof face and
closed the show their orgasm face. What what art we
made what from O Pop?

Speaker 3 (38:05):
Okay, so I think the yeah was improved When Carla pushes.

Speaker 1 (38:09):
Me down, I remember that, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (38:13):
I think that was improved. I don't remember if that
was in the script or not.

Speaker 1 (38:16):
It wasn't because who the hell would ever guess that
your T shirt would say yeah on it?

Speaker 3 (38:20):
Right, that my T shirt would say yeah, It didn't.

Speaker 1 (38:21):
Say on the script. Turk wearing a yeah T shirt.

Speaker 6 (38:25):
Points to said prize.

Speaker 1 (38:27):
Yeah. But that was funny. Donald. I wanted to point
out a little trivia that I saw on the Scrubs
Wiki at three h five, right before uh You're yeah,
saying that doctor Cox knows Doug's name, and the Scrubs
Wiki was pointing out it might be the only time
he ever says Doug's name, because he goes Doug and.

Speaker 2 (38:45):
Uh, well he uses it. He also uses it as
like he's gonna pick on Doug.

Speaker 1 (38:50):
Yeah, but I'm saying Cox never you know. His whole
thing was he doesn't know people's names. He calls them
all these nicknames, but he randomly knew Doug's name.

Speaker 2 (38:57):
But you too, a Jamin in this episode? Also you
a like a camaraderie in or Yeah, you know you're
his go to.

Speaker 3 (39:03):
Now this is the first.

Speaker 2 (39:05):
We established it in the last episode, but yeah, now
you two are it doesn't seem like you're a fresh
Nubi even though he calls you nuby and everything like that.
We're starting to see your your relationship as colleagues form.

Speaker 1 (39:19):
That's true, and I think I wrote down this is
the first episode to me it seems like he genuinely
likes JD. Like he's usually good at hiding it, but
in this episode, I felt like Cox was really bonding
with JD and liked him even though he was, you know,
still trying to hide it, but he couldn't hide it.
And then in the end he really bonded with him
and said, you know, don't be me, don't be me,

(39:40):
go have a life, which I thought was was moving.
I thought that was, you know, a side of doctor
Cox we don't only see, yes spiller.

Speaker 6 (39:47):
Since we're that's a nice segue into what it's like
working with Johnny C for the first time as a directory.

Speaker 1 (39:54):
Yeah, was he scared?

Speaker 2 (39:55):
Yeah, let's go.

Speaker 6 (39:56):
Well, I mean, first of all, he's so damn good,
he's so damn funny, but he is a very very
intense guy, particularly when you know he's in character. You
know on set, because you know, as a prepping director,
you go and you're you're doing all the work in
the various meetings and location scouting and stuff that you
do to prep your own episode, but you also try

(40:19):
and spend as much time as you can on set
so that you're getting to know the cast in a
more informal way. You're starting to connect with the crew,
learn people's names, all these things that are essential to
you know when you're headed the baton the next week
that you'll have a good episode. Right, So you know,
you'd hang out and observe and try not to be
in the way, and I'd watch another you know, like

(40:40):
Mark Bucklin work with Johnny c or something, and Johnny
is intense. You say cut, and he stands there, his
jaws like clamp shut, his cheek muscles are like fluctuating
and like he's he's ripped. You know, it's like so aspiring, right,
It's like okay, and you have to give that person

(41:01):
a note. So the very the very first time I
did it, I said cut, went up to him and
it's like you got the sense that if you said
the wrong thing, he might actually hit you because he's
he appears to be that tightly wound, right. So I

(41:21):
can't remember what the note was, but you know, I said, Johnny,
can't try that, you know, I have an idea. Blah
blah blah blah. He looks at me for a second,
cheek muscle still, you know, rippling away, and he says, fuck, yeah,
let's do it, and we just we went. It's like, okay,
I made it.

Speaker 1 (41:39):
That was your test in one day, in one or
two sentences, he has decided if he liked you.

Speaker 6 (41:43):
Or not forever exactly thankfully.

Speaker 1 (41:47):
Well, I think Johnny Johnny, Johnny Johnny has so much
had so much experience, you know, and and I've worked
with so many directors at that point, and I think
he he you know, if you gave him a good note,
he was he was down to do it. And and
then you know, like all of us, we sometimes got
notes from directors we were like, I'm not doing that,
and you know, so I think that he in that moment,

(42:08):
he decided that he liked you and respected you.

Speaker 6 (42:11):
Well, I mean, listen, from from an actor's standpoint, I
completely get it, because it's like, Okay, as a new
director every week and some of them are not going
to be great or something you're just not going to
get along with. And some are going to ask you
things that may not even be their note, maybe a
writer's note. And you know you can't you can't go
up to an actors say oh, well the writer asked

(42:31):
me to say this. You know that's not a good
thing to do. It's like, well, then you're just the
messenger person.

Speaker 1 (42:36):
Yeah, and then and then it just shows that you're weak.
I think you have to be like, you have to
be like you know what I try to be like,
is I do you want to do you want to try?
You know, if it's my thing, then I'm like, let's
try this. But if I'm coming onto a show like this,
I would say I was thinking this, do you want
to maybe try this? Because you know, you don't know
if the actor is going to say, oh, my character
would never do that, you know that kind of thing. Hey,

(42:58):
we need to go to a break that thought. Donald,
We're gonna break hold that.

Speaker 3 (43:02):
Don't you get to ilevant.

Speaker 1 (43:04):
Don't you forget it, Donald, because I know that you've
tried some of God's lettuce and that affects memory. Hold
on to that tried.

Speaker 3 (43:09):
Some of God's a few hours. Let's go to break.

Speaker 1 (43:19):
Okay, we're back from break. Donald, did you remember did
you hold onto the thought?

Speaker 3 (43:22):
I forgot?

Speaker 1 (43:23):
Oh? Fuck? And you kids say weed doesn't cause memory laws.

Speaker 6 (43:28):
Wow, it's like a case study.

Speaker 1 (43:32):
Yeah, like a case study. So Donald, we're doing a
podcast about the show Scrubs. I had to remind him
after each breaks. But Mike Spiller, he directed you twenty episodes.

Speaker 3 (43:44):
I don't remember. I don't remember. I don't remember. So
I'm hanging out with you outside of Scrubs.

Speaker 2 (43:50):
To Spiller, this isn't This is for everyone out there
that's sitting there and they're like, wow, this is you know,
a director on the show with the two actors h
and he directed twenty so that makes him special.

Speaker 3 (44:02):
That's not all that makes Spiller special.

Speaker 2 (44:04):
We've all gone out and hung out and eaten together
and stuff like that, so you know, it's also it's
very cool to.

Speaker 3 (44:11):
Catch up with you.

Speaker 1 (44:12):
I'll give you before I'll house Spiller.

Speaker 6 (44:18):
No, we we moved. You have to come see the
new crib.

Speaker 1 (44:21):
Yeah, that's right now that you got that Emmy Now
he's down one of those Emmy houses, one of those
Emmy Houses is like three levels. Listen, it's shaped houses
shaped like an Emmy.

Speaker 2 (44:34):
If he wasn't responsible, there'd be a water slide from
his bed to the pool.

Speaker 1 (44:38):
Yeah. When we met him, he had a DP on
sex in the city house. Now he's got a modern
family Emmy house. Spiller. I have a great memory of
you too, and that you came over and helped me
install a door knomb. Do you remember that?

Speaker 2 (44:51):
Wait? What I mean?

Speaker 6 (44:53):
That totally sounds like me. It's completely on brand.

Speaker 2 (44:56):
Wait, I need to understand this.

Speaker 1 (44:58):
You have. Here's what happened. Here's what happened, Spiller.

Speaker 3 (45:02):
You don't know how to put a door?

Speaker 1 (45:04):
No, let me explain. It's a very sweet Michael Spiller story.
I was talking him on set. Now, Spiller, you could
say that this has never happened, and I dreamed it.
But I haven't done hallucinogenics since college. So I remember
that I was talking to Michael. Michael's handy. Aren't you
a handy around the house guy? Like you can ferry
hand love buildings? And I was saying, God, I wish
I knew how to build stuff like I have to

(45:25):
put a doorknob on a door, and I gotta. I
have a door without a doorknob, and I got to
go hire someone to do it. I wish that I
knew how to buy the right drill bid and install
this doorknob. And Michael said I could teach you, and
I said really, And he said, yeah, I'll come over
and show you how to do it. And I said
that would be so awesome because I don't know anything
like that and I'd love to actually learn. And Michael
came over and helped me install a new doorknob on

(45:47):
a door. Isn't that true, Michael?

Speaker 6 (45:49):
That is true. I don't like to blow my own horn,
but yes, that is true. And you remember this, Michael, Yeah,
I don't think, but I do remember it.

Speaker 1 (45:58):
He charged me thirty five.

Speaker 2 (46:00):
I got a story too. So we just finished the
screening of Garden State. Zach invited great film that Zach.
Zach invited a bunch of people over to the screening room.
Danny de Vito was there, Uh, problem was there? A
bunch of people were there. Mike Spiller, myself, we were

(46:22):
there also, and I remember the movie ends and we're
all like, wow, the movie was really good. I had notes, though,
and I wanted to dude, and I wanted to figure
out a way to tell Zach. All right, I've got
a couple of notes about the movie.

Speaker 6 (46:37):
Now.

Speaker 2 (46:37):
I remember I see Spiller and we're I don't know
if we're drinking or we're eating. It's after the movie's over, probably,
and we talked. We're talking and You're like, wow, that
was pretty good. And I was like, I was right.
I was like, I've got some notes and you said
to me, you know, now might not be the best
time to deliver, said Zach. And I was like, oh,

(47:00):
oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, no, of course I'll figure
out a way too, you know, to tell him. Flash
cut to Danny DeVito doing a Q and A after
the movie and he was like, does anyone have notes?

Speaker 1 (47:13):
One hand shoots up, one beautiful brown hand and then
and then what happened? Then what happened was this? So
then Donald goes off on his notes and I'm looking
at him like, dude, not fucking now, like tell me
these Like Danny Vito was my Danny de Vito was
my producer. I was like, dude, tell me privately, what

(47:35):
the fuck are you doing? And then so then Danny's like.

Speaker 2 (47:38):
You wanted to be heard.

Speaker 3 (47:39):
I wanted to be heard.

Speaker 1 (47:39):
I didn't want to be heard because I wasn't allowed
to be in the movie because because I gave the
part to method man. Now, listen, Danny DeVito. You know
at the time the movie had had too many endings.
It was like it was it was going on a
few beads too long. And we all knew that, but
I was in denial about him, and and Danny DeVito said,
how many of you felt like the had too many endings?

(48:01):
Donald's hand shoots up. I'm like, fucking Donald's put your
fucking hand down. I'm supposed to be my man on
the inside.

Speaker 2 (48:11):
But you changed it. We changed it.

Speaker 1 (48:13):
We did. Hey, you know what, this many years later,
I'm glad that you're never a yes man. You always
tell it like it is.

Speaker 2 (48:21):
But I just remember that, like, yeah, you know, we should, Yeah,
you know. I'm sure we all have notes, but I
would wait for my own moment.

Speaker 1 (48:32):
So you didn't. The lesson of this story is that
you should have listened to Spiller.

Speaker 6 (48:36):
Yes, it's usually that's the end of most stories.

Speaker 1 (48:38):
Actually, So I want to say, at four or fifteen,
I I don't remember the episode, so I thought that
it was you who couldn't who had lost your eruction
And it was a very good misdirect by both Spiller
and Bill because uh it was it was Judy. I
don't think I've ever seen story of a woman.

Speaker 2 (48:56):
Wait, yeah, right, I remember that, But this I knew away.
I remember this episode now. I remember this episode because
Rob's line in this show. So when I saw you
in the hall today and I asked you, how's your penis? Yeah,
and you didn't want to talk about it.

Speaker 6 (49:14):
Yeah, So Rob still tracks, It's still tracks. It's all
part of the miss lead because I was I was
proud of that. I don't remember. I don't think that
was in the script specifically, is like she's holding a
piece of bacon in a really odd, upright manner that
nobody would ever do. But I thought, Okay, this would

(49:35):
be a fun visual transition, and it does. It does
lead you to believe. It's more evidence as a viewer
that yes, Donald is the one who's had the problem
in the classic situation.

Speaker 1 (49:45):
Yeah, you missled. No, I just wanted to do one
little director thing that Spiller kind of introduced, I believe
to the show. I don't know that we were doing
this too much beforehand, but at four twelve, sorry, it's
a little bit before that. So they have sex, and
then the camera pans and goes into the back of
the TV, and we use that as a transition, you know,
a transition time passage, a little time passage, and then
we come back to see the bra on Rowdy's head,

(50:08):
and then we cut to Liz Bogish holding a bacon
in sort of an erect way. Spiller, you naughty, naughty boy.

Speaker 6 (50:16):
Sometimes bacon is just bacon.

Speaker 1 (50:18):
Yeah, sometimes bacon's just bacon. But yeah, so I was.
I always tricked the whole episode because I genuinely until
until obviously she says it. It's funny, Judy. Oh wait,
I want I'm jumping ahead. There's a waste. Oh there's
a waste of a gift certificate. Oh yeah, there's a
way gift Cancel the Cobbler. Now that's eleven twenty eight.
I think Neil improv canceled the Cobbler. Definitely, right, Spiller,

(50:41):
I think so.

Speaker 6 (50:41):
But I mean, I the only draft of the script
that I could find, although it has notes and diagrams
all over, it says it's like a pre table draft
of the script. I have almost all my scrub scripts
I couldn't find anyway. Yeah, that that whole bit wasn't
in the version I had, But I mean I love
the bit with Neil that starts that runner you know

(51:04):
where you we reveal him next ye you can you know?
Someone walks away and just happened to look at him right,
and he's like, what if I told you, you know,
look at me when I'm eating? I don't like it? Okay,
what am I doing eating? And what are you doing daring?

Speaker 2 (51:20):
Any Way?

Speaker 1 (51:21):
I would listen to a whole podcast that I would
the whole podcast it's called Michael Spilder acts out all
the parts of scrubb. I would. I would listen to it.

Speaker 6 (51:28):
It's coming to Spotify. So Michael an endorsement Carrot Top?

Speaker 1 (51:35):
Oh my god, yeah, we gotta talk about Okay.

Speaker 2 (51:38):
First of all, I remember the story shut Out, go ahead,
you should tell it that.

Speaker 1 (51:42):
No, I don't want to take it. You got it, No,
you got I'm just worried you're gonna fuck up the
story because it's.

Speaker 3 (51:46):
Gonna up the story. So what's Carrot Top's real name?

Speaker 1 (51:49):
Joell? Can you look up whatever?

Speaker 2 (51:50):
Scott Thompson, Scott Thompson Joel never mind.

Speaker 1 (51:55):
Scott Thompson came on the show, and I always found
Scott Thompson very funny. I know that this was sort
of like making fun of carrot Top, but I always
thought he was a funny guy. And the only thing
we had heard about Scott Thompson just by you know,
sometimes when you have a guest star, there'd be a
couple of things like, hey, don't you know sometimes like
I remember someone was allergic to nuts and they were like,
don't eat nuts around him. Well, with Scott it was like, hey, guys,

(52:18):
don't call him carrat Top. He prefers that you call
him Scott, Like, don't don't call him carrot top. And
so the crew was told that, the cast was told out,
and we had this old prop man at the time
who walked right up to him was like, hey, how
you doing, carrot Head? And I remember we all all flinching, like,

(52:42):
don't call him carrot you call him carrot top alone,
carrot head. Hey, how you doing.

Speaker 2 (52:47):
Carrot How you doing carrot Head?

Speaker 6 (52:49):
Now? Is this the same guy that allegedly hit rowdy
or no?

Speaker 1 (52:52):
Yes, same guy?

Speaker 6 (52:54):
So another strike?

Speaker 1 (52:55):
Yeah, I think his first building, his first strike was
calling Scott and Carrot. But I that was funny. I
thought Scott did a very funny job, and I laughed
at every single one of his jokes. So fuck off
if you don't like Carrot.

Speaker 3 (53:11):
Top right on.

Speaker 2 (53:12):
I've worked with I've worked with Scott since then. You
have a yeah we did, he's still doing.

Speaker 1 (53:17):
He's ripped, right, that's one thing.

Speaker 2 (53:19):
Now, we played basketball together. All types of things. Uh,
in the celebrity circuit. Uh, he is ripped, He's and
he's ripped like he's ripped like diesel, ripped, like rock ripped.

Speaker 1 (53:29):
You know, he's not just like he's not just he's
not as.

Speaker 2 (53:32):
Tall as the rock, but he's ripped like, you know,
at least back then, at least you know, ten years ago.

Speaker 3 (53:37):
The last time I saw him, he was freaking diesel. Dude.
You know, as you get older, you try to figure
out ways to stay young.

Speaker 1 (53:45):
And yeah, well I'm trying to stay I'm trying to
stay in shape. But I don't have muscles like that.
But I guess I could take it more seriously and
eat a lot of calories.

Speaker 6 (53:53):
Does he have muscles? Like? John?

Speaker 1 (53:59):
Did I give you that?

Speaker 3 (54:00):
John C?

Speaker 6 (54:01):
I think you did.

Speaker 1 (54:02):
I went on Zon. He's holding up guys. There's a
there's a Johnny c who played Red and Platoon. There's
a there's a there's a beautiful uh doll. I don't
know what you call that. It's like a ken doll.
It's like an action figure, an action but it's but
it's Kendall. It's a twelve inch And when I when
I saw them, I when I.

Speaker 3 (54:21):
Went sixth scale.

Speaker 1 (54:22):
By the way, it's it's it's it's accessory is a cigarette,
which I always thought was funny. And I, uh yeah,
when those came out, I bought one for Johnny and
for I guess I bought one for use builder. God,
I must have really loved you.

Speaker 6 (54:34):
He did. Those are the days, yo.

Speaker 3 (54:36):
Uh So, I love you definitely changes everything.

Speaker 1 (54:39):
It does.

Speaker 3 (54:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (54:40):
Well, and when you say it, apparently in this story,
when you say I love you, sh it gets weird
for a little bit. Yeah, yes, for Judy with at
least with the Turk, and Carla.

Speaker 6 (54:55):
I think it's weird for both of you. I don't
think either of you has ever really said it.

Speaker 3 (54:58):
Before, right, I just don't.

Speaker 2 (55:00):
I Mean, I've said it a couple of times in
my life, but I don't know that it's changed.

Speaker 3 (55:07):
I mean, you know, I guess it just makes the
breakup harder. I don't know.

Speaker 2 (55:13):
I just found that. I found that as an interesting
story for these guys that I love. You made them
have cold feet in the in the bedroom.

Speaker 1 (55:23):
Well she did, right, and you didn't have cold Well.

Speaker 2 (55:25):
He had cold feet to he did too. It was
a blow to his ego. Also right in his head.

Speaker 1 (55:29):
He got in his head right.

Speaker 2 (55:30):
But and even and the fact that Turk is like,
you know, it's never happened that, you know, I've always
been able to pleasure a woman to the point of
orgasm to marry out.

Speaker 3 (55:40):
I was like, right, I was like, yeah, whatever.

Speaker 6 (55:42):
Yeah, I don't think the stakes are high. The stakes
are high.

Speaker 2 (55:45):
That's a weird plot line for me. I love you
and because of that, you can't come Now.

Speaker 1 (55:52):
Well, I don't know if you're supposed to say the
cum ward. I mean we can say orgasm comes a
little aggressive for a family podcast?

Speaker 3 (55:58):
Are we a family podcast?

Speaker 1 (56:00):
We're explicit. We're explicit, but we stay away.

Speaker 3 (56:05):
You had we had established don't know what type of podcast.

Speaker 1 (56:08):
No, No, we're definitely explicit. But you could have said ejaculate.
I wasn't you don't have to say come and so
graphic right, Joel crashing up at you right now?

Speaker 6 (56:17):
She could a climax.

Speaker 1 (56:18):
She couldn't, Joel, as our producer, should we be using
a cem word. I don't know. I talk to heart,
call iHeart on the red phone.

Speaker 2 (56:27):
I don't think it.

Speaker 3 (56:27):
It'll matter much, guys, whenever you're coaching.

Speaker 1 (56:31):
I don't know. Donald said it. My heart skipped to
beat No. Eight episode I know it's fucking staying. It's
stay listen, you know, listen to that point. I noticed
Judy didn't say orgasm in the first scene that it
comes up, and I was like, oh, it must be
like a TV thing. And we see we had a
tiptoe around the word. And then everyone starts saying it.

(56:53):
You say it, Sarah says it. I'm like, oh, it's
just a Judy's character.

Speaker 2 (56:57):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (56:57):
Carla is like uncomfortable saying the word in public.

Speaker 2 (57:02):
Which is odd to me because as you saw, I
just said a different word, and all of you guys got.

Speaker 1 (57:08):
Oh, now you're ashamed. Now now you.

Speaker 3 (57:10):
Guys kind of shamed me.

Speaker 2 (57:11):
That was no judge.

Speaker 1 (57:12):
We're not shaming you. There's no judgment.

Speaker 3 (57:13):
Was a little bit of judgment.

Speaker 1 (57:14):
I'm gonna keep it no, no way, no, there's no judgment.

Speaker 3 (57:17):
And anybody out there listening, I felt your judgment too.

Speaker 2 (57:20):
No, they weren't judging your judgment too.

Speaker 1 (57:22):
I think we were all just a little taken aback
that you came out us aggressively, no pun intended.

Speaker 6 (57:26):
I'm going to keep us on topic, but maybe get
us out of this office, or are you.

Speaker 1 (57:29):
Gonna direct us? Piller direct us.

Speaker 6 (57:32):
I'm just gonna say that, you guys, this is what
a director does. It's a little redirect here at that
moment at eleven fifty five where Carla catches herself after
Elliott's made her confession that she's never been able to
climbax ever, even by herself, that that moment after she
says it, Judy's like, oh, I'm sorry, I should be

(57:52):
more surprised. It's just like the pause and her like
her realization. It's it's a silent beat. It's so funny
and so definitely executed. And there was something that I
have No you can't take no credit for. Of course,
that's all the actor.

Speaker 1 (58:06):
Elliott is so self deprecating in this episode. It's so funny.
Every scenes staras in she's like she's just like taking
digs at herself over and over and over again. Let's
talk about the legendary Sam Lloyd at fifteen thirty saying
walk off, bitch. I laughed out loud, Oh yes, now
it's Spiller. I noticed he's not sweating. I don't know
if you recall because it was so long ago, but

(58:27):
I wondered if there was a conscious decision like, no,
you found your courage, You're not going to be flopped
sweating in this scene.

Speaker 6 (58:34):
Yeah. I don't remember actually saying the words, but I'd
like to think that that is why, you know, with
his new found you know, since since Kelso's lost his mojo,
Ted has this newfound confidence that he wasn't sweating.

Speaker 1 (58:49):
Yeah, and then he goes, and then he goes, you
are a wonderful person. I love you. Don't know what
you did so good, spilurre. Do you want to share
any Sammy thoughts? I thought, just you know, because you
worked with him a bunch of times, and and and
we you know, Donald and I shared some thoughts. But
I thought you might want to say anything that you

(59:11):
remember about him.

Speaker 6 (59:13):
Yeah, I mean, gosh, it's take him too soon. I mean,
such a great guy, such an amazing talent. I'm so
pleased to work with him a bunch and and gotten
to know him a little bit. And but I often,
I mean, when I heard the news, I kept thinking

(59:33):
back to one episode that I haven't seen in a while,
but this moment is all I stuck with me where
Ted the Lawyer winds up falling off the roof and
I mean we shot like a pretty elaborate sequence for it,
and you know, see him falling away and he says, oh,
sweet relief, you know, like he's finally gonna be out

(59:54):
of this torturous life. And you know, years ago, I
just would think about that moment because it was funny
and so on character. And you know, the past couple
of weeks I've just been thinking about as like, well,
I hope that he has found peace and you know
it's not in pain, and it's just heartbreaking. What an

(01:00:14):
amazing guy.

Speaker 1 (01:00:15):
Yeah, he really was. I've been thinking about him a
lot lately, and I know, I know all the fans
of the show have, but and now, of course, when
he comes up in an episode, I'm like extra leaning
forward because I know, I just know it's going to
be funny. And and you know, I have this thing
when I write my notes down for the episode, I
write lol just to remind myself to say that. That's
something that made me laugh out loud. And Sam, he
has like two lines in this episode. I laughed out

(01:00:37):
loud of both of them.

Speaker 6 (01:00:39):
That's just him just delivered always.

Speaker 3 (01:00:42):
Yeah, he definitely delivered.

Speaker 1 (01:00:44):
Johnny c At nineteen twenty seven puts in his own
five good ones, you know that's what.

Speaker 3 (01:00:49):
Yeah, I noticed that up with that well.

Speaker 1 (01:00:52):
You know that that was his expression. I think. I
don't know if the writers put it in the script
or not.

Speaker 2 (01:00:58):
Right here for you, Bob, I like that whole storyline too.
That was very funny of Kelso losing his mojo, and
the way Ken played it was great, like.

Speaker 3 (01:01:08):
A wounded little like a wounded little puppy.

Speaker 1 (01:01:11):
Ken was so funny. Right when you ever see Kelso
play that like humbled puppy. That was so funny.

Speaker 2 (01:01:17):
And and even and uh and and John and you know,
and him realizing, wait a second, how did I lose
my mojo? And John c rolling by, yeah on the
wheelchair waving at him.

Speaker 1 (01:01:27):
Hilarious, dude, that's a that's a shot I've seen like
in every Scrubs clip reel that's ever shown, or like,
you know, gifts and stuff. You just that's it's one
of those shots you always see Johnny on the wheelchair
rolling by waving like that.

Speaker 6 (01:01:41):
Yeah, I think I'm owed some residuals or something, some gift.

Speaker 1 (01:01:45):
Those gift residuals are.

Speaker 3 (01:01:46):
Yeah, they don't pay, they don't pay.

Speaker 1 (01:01:50):
Yeah, I just wrote I wrote down the same thing.
Donald ken Ken is so good being humbled. I mean,
it's not something you ever really saw in Scrubs, but
he was, like he played it so well. Just he
that guy has such an amazing ring.

Speaker 2 (01:02:00):
Yeah. But and then also also his his comeback was
great and the way Cox tricks him or you know,
revives him by saying, you know what, guys, from here
on out, you just ask me the question and I'll
answer everything for you. And you and you realize, oh
wait a second, you realize right then, And there Kelso

(01:02:23):
is trying to teach. He gets a kick out of
being the most evil person on the planet. But he
is the chief of medicine at a teaching hospital, and
he fulfills his job in every episode, regardless of how
evil he might be or how angry he might seem.
You know, I talked about this earlier he uh uh
an older and earlier podcasts. He he's always teaching. He's

(01:02:47):
always he's always a part of the solution and not
necessarily the problem. Even if it's like, well, look here,
this is how we run things. He the lessons always
somehow revolve around how mean he is. But he's freaking
so he's always teaching. The kids, He's always teaching, or

(01:03:07):
the students or the.

Speaker 1 (01:03:09):
And always taken away from him. This time, he's totally
like lost his mojo, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:03:13):
He well, not only has he lost his mojo, he's
lost his purpose in the hospital. Also, what do I
do here? I can't freaking get ted to do his job.
I can't get you know, I can't get the med
students or the interns to do their job. What how
do you know?

Speaker 6 (01:03:31):
How?

Speaker 2 (01:03:32):
What is my purpose here? And it's only until it's
only until Cox says, you know, you guys ask me
the question where he's like, wait a second, that's not
how we run things. And it's all right if I
scare the shit out of them, that's a fine way
to teach people.

Speaker 3 (01:03:46):
Fear.

Speaker 2 (01:03:46):
We're in a hospital. If this ship hits Code RED,
these people need to be ready to you know, push
their nerves aside and answer questions and save lives and
everything like that.

Speaker 6 (01:03:56):
And you get another glimpse of you know, inside doctor
see that you know, there's more than meets the I there.
He's not just you know, a scary, intimidating figure in
the hospital. It's like, no, he's got part, he's got
compassion and you know, understands how things work here and
he's the one who's instrumental in restoring the order.

Speaker 1 (01:04:15):
Yeah. Yeah, And I thought that was really nice just
moment into doctor Cox's mind, seeing that he's a lonesome
guy who's dedicated his life to this and and I thought,
you know, I just thought that was a nice sort
of reveal as we get to know the character more
in episode thirteen of the whole series, that you know

(01:04:36):
how dedicated he is to being a doctor, even even
in sacrificing relationships with with with people. And you know,
Joelle brought up a good point that you know, when
you do a TV show, granted we're not doing something
noble like saving lives, but you know, when you we
had something analogous going on in that we were just

(01:04:57):
at this hospital sixteen hours a day, and it definitely
hurt relationships with with family and friends. You know, Donald
had children and and and and was gone, and I
lost touch with a lot of old friends, and it
was it was a bit analogous to to what was
happening in our lives. You know, it's interesting when Scrubs ended,
I I have this feeling that I was delayed in

(01:05:18):
a sense in that I hadn't had nine years of
building friendships outside of the hospital. I had built the
best friendships of my life, you especially and Spiller. Spiller, Spiller,
you're close, like ten down. But no, I had built
some great friendships and uh and and actually that's that's
one of the reasons so many of these wonderful people,

(01:05:40):
including uh Bill and and others are so in my life.
And of course I I fostered other relationships. But but
you know, we didn't have much time over those nine
years to to to to build and develop other relationships.
And I don't know, I don't know if you if
you noticed that Donald, we were when we were finally

(01:06:00):
done and kind of had our normal lives back, I
felt that I was like, I don't. I have small
circles of friends that I love so much, But I'm
not one of these people that really knew a ton
of people outside of my job.

Speaker 2 (01:06:13):
Right, And because of that, it's a little awkward now
when I do, well, we're on lockdown. But when I
do meet people, I'm a little awkward about. You know,
when you make a bunch of really good friends and
it all ends and you only see them occasionally, Well,
you and I are a bit different. It's like, well,

(01:06:35):
you know, I spent ten years getting to know a
lot of people, and as much as much as I
respect and cherished all the time that we spent together,
it's weird not having these people in my life. It's
weird not seeing Chris or you know, or Ethan or
Calvin or Natrick Bolton, Patrick Bolton, it's weird not seeing that,

(01:06:56):
so Vaughan, it's weird not seeing these people. You know.

Speaker 1 (01:06:58):
One thing you could do, it would be to ask
Spiller to come put a doorknob on your house. That's
one trick that I've sometimes used when I don't.

Speaker 3 (01:07:05):
Want Spiller anywhere near my house in quarantine.

Speaker 1 (01:07:09):
Oh, he could mask up and come put a doorknob.

Speaker 2 (01:07:12):
I totally understand that. I totally understand that, but I'm
trying to listen.

Speaker 1 (01:07:17):
He was thirty five an hour. It was worth every penny.

Speaker 6 (01:07:20):
You know the rates of change, Yeah, DGA scale plus fringes.

Speaker 1 (01:07:26):
Yeah. But you know, let's talk for a second about
New Slang, which is the song that ends the show.
Rumor has it it was chosen by Neil Goldman, who
unfortunately he keeps getting mentioned because he loves getting mentioned
on this podcast. But he was a writer, contributor, He
was a what are you saying?

Speaker 3 (01:07:44):
I said he was a contributor. He contributed a show.

Speaker 1 (01:07:48):
I think on that show.

Speaker 2 (01:07:50):
Because of that, on this show, because of that, he
gets spoken of all the time. Neil Goldman.

Speaker 3 (01:07:55):
I didn't know that Neil Goldman picked this song.

Speaker 1 (01:07:57):
Neil Goldman. Let me tell you something. Neil Goldman is
very into music, was and is very into music, and
he picked the song. Now, this song I so fell
in love with.

Speaker 2 (01:08:07):
Yeah. I know you used to sing this ship all
the time, go teeth and a curse in my mouth.

Speaker 1 (01:08:12):
And a curse for this town. And I put it
into it.

Speaker 3 (01:08:14):
I thought it was a curse in my mouth? Do
you know this town.

Speaker 1 (01:08:18):
Do you know that it's in Garden State?

Speaker 3 (01:08:20):
It is.

Speaker 1 (01:08:20):
It's the song that when I say to that.

Speaker 3 (01:08:23):
Black people in Garden State, I've never seen garden State.

Speaker 1 (01:08:26):
Well when they do, like when we do, like the
Wiz version, maybe you'll check it out? Will you be me?

Speaker 3 (01:08:31):
And the what are you gonna do? The Wiz version?

Speaker 1 (01:08:34):
Yeah, a Wiz version.

Speaker 2 (01:08:35):
Who's gonna play your character?

Speaker 3 (01:08:36):
Who's playing you?

Speaker 1 (01:08:37):
Are you are? Of course?

Speaker 3 (01:08:38):
It better be me. That's all I know. When people
say your name, they better say my name next. That's
all I motherfucker know that.

Speaker 1 (01:08:46):
You didn't know that We've already started casting the Whiz
version of Garden Seat and you're the star. I love
it except when you say you tell me not instead
of new slang. When when I when Natalie, when the
Natalie character says, you gotta hear this, It'll change your life.
And you're in the Whiz version of you that you're in.
What's the song gonna be?

Speaker 2 (01:09:04):
It goes right foot up, left foot, slide, left foot up,
right foot, slide away, about to slide.

Speaker 3 (01:09:13):
We do it, slide slide.

Speaker 1 (01:09:16):
What is that song?

Speaker 3 (01:09:19):
It's just like Michael Ja Son, I can give you
the path so.

Speaker 1 (01:09:26):
Aren't the lyrics like, yeah, I saw it briefly on
somebody's video, But isn't it like lessened pretty much anything
you're gonna do. It's like, that's right.

Speaker 2 (01:09:40):
Moment. And then I think we should listen. I'm not
gonna knock the idea. I'm doing an all black Garden States.

Speaker 1 (01:09:47):
Listen. I will license I will license you.

Speaker 2 (01:09:51):
It'll be a different story. I mean, it's the same story,
but it's a different it's a different it's a different movie. Though.

Speaker 1 (01:09:57):
Listen, I will give you the license. You and you
in you and someone.

Speaker 2 (01:10:02):
And instead of going to method man and now, I'm
not gonna choose you to play my fucking the character
at the hotel, Great Jack Shepherd, Dax Shepherd, Dax Shepherd.
I'm gonna have Ray Romano.

Speaker 1 (01:10:18):
So fucked up. My feelings are hurt. Hey, everybody. While
Donald cools down and writes his Wiz musical version of
Garden State.

Speaker 2 (01:10:26):
It's not a musical, it is.

Speaker 1 (01:10:28):
The Whiz was a musical.

Speaker 3 (01:10:29):
So is The Wizard of Oz.

Speaker 2 (01:10:31):
Though.

Speaker 1 (01:10:31):
Okay, stop yelling.

Speaker 2 (01:10:32):
I'm not yelling. I listen, I'm calm.

Speaker 9 (01:10:35):
Okay, Well, we'll be right now.

Speaker 3 (01:10:46):
And we're bad. We're bad Michael Spiller with us.

Speaker 1 (01:10:51):
We have director Michael Spiller. Emmy Award winning director Michael Spiller,
who not only is a fantastic filmmaker, but also can
throw a doorknob on a door in thirty minutes flat.
Joel introduce us to Whitney and Dustin.

Speaker 7 (01:11:04):
Whitney and Dustin, Hi, guys, thanks so much for coming
on this show.

Speaker 3 (01:11:09):
And for being.

Speaker 1 (01:11:11):
Thank you for having us a baby.

Speaker 8 (01:11:15):
And yes, we brought the baby along because we wanted
to introduce you guys to Atticus Dorian. Oh, totally named
after j D.

Speaker 2 (01:11:29):
I thought you were gonna say, no, Attic Historian's a
beautiful name.

Speaker 1 (01:11:33):
Thank you. But he does have on his baby bear shirt.

Speaker 6 (01:11:37):
Oh so cute.

Speaker 1 (01:11:39):
He's such a cute.

Speaker 8 (01:11:40):
We figured since he was gonna meet Vanilla and Chocolate Bear,
he needed to rock the.

Speaker 6 (01:11:44):
Baby bear shirt.

Speaker 1 (01:11:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:11:47):
Where do you guys?

Speaker 8 (01:11:49):
We're from Leaton, Alabama. It's a tiny little town in
the sort of like in the Shoals area. I don't know,
it's probably something you've never heard of.

Speaker 2 (01:11:58):
I've been to Alabama, but in that area.

Speaker 3 (01:12:01):
I've been to Birmingham, Alabama.

Speaker 8 (01:12:03):
Yeah, we're a little bit north of Birmingham's.

Speaker 1 (01:12:05):
Okay, well, we're so glad you guys are here. And
you were joined not only by by is it me
and Donald, but Michael Spiller, who was one of the
best directors of Scrubs.

Speaker 3 (01:12:15):
And directed several episodes of.

Speaker 1 (01:12:17):
Twenty twenty episodes. He directed some other shows too, but
we don't care about them on this podcast.

Speaker 2 (01:12:22):
They might care though, Yeah, your show called Sex and
the City.

Speaker 1 (01:12:26):
He directed a little.

Speaker 2 (01:12:27):
Show called Modern Family. Do you guys have a question?
Go ahead, We had a couple Okay, let's get into it.

Speaker 1 (01:12:34):
It was one extras or I guess it was an
extures a background character. It was a bond doctor. In
the episode where Janitor got married, she was milk doctor.

Speaker 8 (01:12:45):
She seems to be in almost every episode.

Speaker 1 (01:12:48):
In the background, alike, just about every episode.

Speaker 8 (01:12:50):
We have, like we've noticed her and on you know,
on these rewatches we've you know, watched over and over again,
and every time, you know, she's in the background.

Speaker 3 (01:12:58):
We said, there she is.

Speaker 8 (01:12:59):
She's in every episode.

Speaker 3 (01:13:00):
What what does she look like?

Speaker 8 (01:13:02):
She's she's blonde. She's probably close to like you know,
would have been like doctor Cox's age. She wasn't one
of the younger interns or anything. But you know when
we've looked before. You know, if you try to search
for scrubs, milk doctor, you get a lot.

Speaker 3 (01:13:19):
Really it's different.

Speaker 1 (01:13:21):
Yeah, different, I'll bet I'll bet it probably have nothing
to do with the show.

Speaker 3 (01:13:24):
They're not at all.

Speaker 1 (01:13:26):
Yeah, well, I will tell you this. I will tell
you this that you know this. What we tried to
do is have the same to have it feel like
the same people work there. There would be the same
group of like thirty to forty background people that would
all sort of rotate in and out, and then each
day there'd be some people we'd never seen before. But

(01:13:47):
she must have been. I can't think of who it is.
Give me a second, but maybe Joelle can do some recon.

Speaker 3 (01:13:53):
I think I got it. I think I got it.

Speaker 1 (01:13:54):
Hold up, do you remember what was the episode you grace?

Speaker 2 (01:13:57):
I think that's what they're talking about. Is this are yes?

Speaker 3 (01:14:01):
Yes?

Speaker 6 (01:14:02):
Yes, yes, yes?

Speaker 1 (01:14:04):
Arlene. Arlene was one of our regular background folks, and
so that's why you see her all the time. She
was probably there every day, right.

Speaker 3 (01:14:12):
Donald, Yeah, she was there every day.

Speaker 2 (01:14:14):
Her snoop dog, Uh, Mickhead. I haven't seen Mickhead yet yet.
I guess he came a lot later, but.

Speaker 1 (01:14:21):
Snoop has a lot of screen time in the episode.

Speaker 3 (01:14:24):
That we we're talking about today.

Speaker 1 (01:14:25):
Yes, Spiller, you had him, you had you had Kelso
bangs a pot right in Snoop's face in this episode.

Speaker 6 (01:14:31):
Yeah, and he held it perfectly, didn't even flinch. I
can't remember if he put earplugs in or anything.

Speaker 2 (01:14:36):
That's crazy that you guys recognized Arlene she was. Yeah,
she was on the show from pretty much the beginning
all the way till the end. I don't know. I
don't know if everybody did season nine. And you do
refer to her when you talk to all of the
other background I do, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:14:53):
Yeah, Okay, wow, how did you find that so quickly?
By the way, I'm very impressed with you right.

Speaker 2 (01:14:57):
Now because I remember her. I remember, I knew it
exactly who they were talking about. Uh. And you know,
Facebook is a is one of those things where everybody
still keeps in touch.

Speaker 3 (01:15:07):
So once they said that, I was.

Speaker 1 (01:15:08):
Like, are you still using Facebook?

Speaker 8 (01:15:09):
You're friends with her on Facebook? Or you just need
to look her page up?

Speaker 2 (01:15:14):
No, No, I'm friends with her on faceboo. I'm friends
with everybody, friends with everybody that we worked with.

Speaker 1 (01:15:18):
I don't even go on Facebook anymore, but Donald, You're
still on there, getting in getting in arguments with everybody.

Speaker 2 (01:15:24):
No.

Speaker 3 (01:15:24):
I try to stay away from all of the politically.

Speaker 1 (01:15:26):
That's why when I turn on and I turn on
Facebook these days and see everyone battling each other, I'm like.

Speaker 2 (01:15:30):
I'm out, Yeah, good night.

Speaker 8 (01:15:33):
I imagine Facebook in the South and with all your
you know, conservative friends and stuff that's on there. That's
a whole different you know.

Speaker 1 (01:15:41):
I'll bet that's tricky. Yeah. I'm in LA, the most
liberal place in the world, and I'm like, nope, I'm out.
All right, guys, you have another question.

Speaker 8 (01:15:51):
Well, we were talking earlier, and you know, we were
kind of both racking our brains, like we wanted, really
wanted to come up with some profound, you know, like
deep question to ask. But really, all I could think
of to ask would be, you know, obviously Scrubs is
one of our favorite shows, but what do you guys
consider to be your favorite TV shows, like of all time?

Speaker 3 (01:16:10):
That's a great question.

Speaker 1 (01:16:11):
I wow, let's make Spiller start.

Speaker 3 (01:16:16):
Since he's yes, Spiller, you go first, direct, very.

Speaker 1 (01:16:19):
Very fancy director. Let's see what are his TV show's
favorite spiller, and you can't say anything you've directed because
we know Scrubs is number one.

Speaker 6 (01:16:27):
That's correct, well, slightly different genre. The Wire.

Speaker 1 (01:16:31):
Yeah, a lot of people.

Speaker 6 (01:16:32):
Say, absolutely, I've watched that all the way through twice.
Also Narcos, I've watched that all the way through twice.

Speaker 1 (01:16:42):
Really, I just watched Narcos Mexico, which was really well done,
but I didn't watch the original Narcos spiller I'm making
I'm writing down this list, by the way, because you
know the Wire, sure, but I haven't watched Narcos the
first one.

Speaker 6 (01:16:54):
Chris, I love currently I love Ozark okay, and season
ended what ended free? When I got through it, I
was really really bummed out, just wanted more. He hasn't
watched it. I won't say anything.

Speaker 1 (01:17:14):
Everything. No, wait, you're covering now, you're covering his his
eyes and ears. But do you guys not watch shows together?
Because I find if I if my girlfriend and I
get off of sink in watching a show together, that's
all hell breaks loose. In fact, I'm currently rewatching a
show I've already seen because I want it dead to me,

(01:17:35):
which is really good and we want to watch season two,
but now in order to watch that, I have to
rewatch all season one with her. With the newborn baby
and her own maternity league, she watches a lot more
TV during the day while I'm at work, so right
sometimes I try to catch up, but I haven't had
time to catch up on those sords.

Speaker 8 (01:17:52):
I really want him to go back and watch it.
I would totally not mind going back and watching it
again with him because it is so good. But normally, yeah,
when we actually it's pretty good for us because we
have a very similar taste in television shows, so it
works out.

Speaker 3 (01:18:06):
So what's your TV shows that well?

Speaker 1 (01:18:08):
I'm gonna recommend one that that I can't believe is
this underrated because I never heard anyone talk about it
and it's called Patriot and it's on Amazon and there's
a few seasons. Spiller, you ever watched that? No, it's amazing,
You're gonna love it. Steve Conrad is the showrunner and

(01:18:30):
really really amazingly. No, that's like the best last show
I saw. I really really love that. What about you, Donald?

Speaker 3 (01:18:37):
I'm embarrassed because my shows are.

Speaker 2 (01:18:41):
Shows your embarrassed. So my favorite shows are shows like
The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels.

Speaker 6 (01:18:54):
And recently The Mandalorian.

Speaker 3 (01:18:56):
The Mandalorian.

Speaker 1 (01:18:57):
Yeah, I like Mandalorian a lot.

Speaker 2 (01:18:58):
That that I don't know, those are those are the
type of shows that I enjoy watching. I don't watch
a lot of television, but when I do watch television,
I prefer to.

Speaker 1 (01:19:08):
Watch Star Wars related, Wars.

Speaker 3 (01:19:11):
Related or documentaries.

Speaker 1 (01:19:13):
Do you find that now that sports isn't on, Donald,
that you have a lot more time on your hands
because you normally like to watch a lot of sports.

Speaker 2 (01:19:20):
So I've been doing a lot of animating as of
late because sports isn't on. I'm a stop motion animator
by hobby, and because sports isn't on and I'm not
sitting in front of the TV at night after the
kids go down, I find myself in my animation room animating.

Speaker 1 (01:19:44):
So it's making you more productive, Actually you're going But I.

Speaker 3 (01:19:46):
Don't know if it's productive. I mean it's a hobby.

Speaker 2 (01:19:48):
It's not like I'm making things that are gonna get
put on television and are gonna be.

Speaker 1 (01:19:54):
Well, you never know. You could do a robot chicken
type thing and make your own tea.

Speaker 2 (01:19:59):
Absolutely. We mentioned Seth Green earlier and how Spiller worked
with Seth Green. If it wasn't for Seth Green, I
wouldn't be animating like I was looking for an outlet
like most actors do when they moved to Hollywood. That
hasn't that isn't just acting. I realized I didn't want
to be a director. No offense, Mike, and I realized,

(01:20:19):
you know, I don't necessarily I don't. I don't necessarily
like hanging out on set.

Speaker 3 (01:20:25):
All the time.

Speaker 2 (01:20:26):
Which directors do you know they arrived before actors and
you know they leave after all the actors.

Speaker 3 (01:20:34):
I realized, Okay, that's not for me.

Speaker 1 (01:20:36):
Way more stressed with way less money. Makes no sense.

Speaker 2 (01:20:38):
Yeah, I realized, said I need something to do though,
that's gonna fulfill my creative itch other than acting. And
I remember doing taking a stop motion class when I
was a kid, and my buddy Seth Green had me
do voiceover work for this little project he was doing
called Sweet Jay and it was stop motion animation. I

(01:21:00):
was like, dude, I'm totally into this. I'd love to
come and check out where you filmed this. And he
brought me down to the studio and introduced me to
a bunch of animators and the rest is history and
now now I do stop motion animation as a hobby.
Now that my television at night if there ain't no Mandalorian.

Speaker 3 (01:21:19):
And you're getting Star Wars and you're getting.

Speaker 1 (01:21:21):
Really good at it and on Instagram, yeah, I'm working
at it. Check out Donald's instagram you can see his progress,
or go on YouTube and watch his old lego ones
called Black Stormtrooper.

Speaker 3 (01:21:33):
But yeah, but.

Speaker 1 (01:21:35):
I think you've gotten a lot. I think you've gotten
a lot better since Black Stormtrooper.

Speaker 2 (01:21:38):
Yeah, oh yeah, absolutely, But yeah, that's that's so my favorite.
My favorite television has always been like cartoons and stuff
like that. I enjoy animation very much. So the Clone
Wars Rebels. Yeah, just to bring it pull.

Speaker 6 (01:21:55):
I will be checking out your instagram.

Speaker 2 (01:21:57):
Tonald, Yes, not now after the show.

Speaker 6 (01:22:00):
Give me a followback though.

Speaker 2 (01:22:02):
I think I do follow you, Bud Damn.

Speaker 6 (01:22:06):
Give me a shout out or something.

Speaker 1 (01:22:09):
All right, Whitney and Dustin, thank you guys so much.
Good luck with the new baby, with the beautiful We
really appreciate you joining us. And uh and uh and
stay safe, stay inside, stay safe. We're getting to the end.
I just wanted to say that. Yeah, so I I
I heard this song news slang, and then I just

(01:22:31):
loved it so much that I years later put it
into Garden State. And I want to credit Neil Goldman
for being the first person to uh to introduce me
to that song. Amazing.

Speaker 6 (01:22:43):
Finally he's getting this props.

Speaker 1 (01:22:44):
Finally, And Spiller, you, I think we're the very first
to do a very cool crane shot out of the wind.
That was a really cool shot you did where you
started inside the window and then craned out. I thought
that was clever.

Speaker 6 (01:22:56):
Thank your signature move of mine.

Speaker 1 (01:22:58):
We ended up using that bunch. But you you brought
that to the you brought that to the table.

Speaker 6 (01:23:03):
Well the table, the table was ready for it.

Speaker 3 (01:23:06):
Well that's that's a question.

Speaker 2 (01:23:07):
That's a question that I that I have for you, Zach,
because I know that you used crane shots in your stuff. Yeah,
if Spiller's the first one to do it, that made
it so that other directors when they came on, they
were like, so I saw the crane shot in episode
one thirteen.

Speaker 3 (01:23:24):
What are the chances that I get to use a
crane on this?

Speaker 6 (01:23:26):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:23:26):
I think you know, the crane was always UH pricey
thing and both time. You know, obviously the rental of
the crane, but also the labor of of sending it
up and practicing it, rehearsing it. So you know, I
think within an episode usually you could say hey to
the line producer, you'd say, hey, can I get a

(01:23:46):
I'd like to use a crane for this scene. And
you know, I don't think it was very rare that
they ever said no, particularly to the directors they liked.
But yeah, I think that, you know, crane shots are
really cool and they give the show scope and scale
and and can be really beautiful. And in that end
montage that that that Michael created here, which was beautifully done,

(01:24:07):
it was sort of the beautiful. It was like the
most perfect way to end it coming out and I
believe you had to mount that build that crane on
the rooftop in order to get it. There was a
lower roof and then he came out to the window
and then tilted up to the sky. And so yeah,
I mean I think cranes were introduced as part of
the sort of the language of the show.

Speaker 2 (01:24:25):
And then he said he said it was it was
his signature moves.

Speaker 1 (01:24:29):
Well, what I was saying specifically, I was, I don't
know this this isn't the first crane shot on the show,
but the idea of the camera was within the was
within the room and then came out the window and
then went up to the sky. And I think Spiller
was the first person to do that, and you know,
I think we copied that many many times.

Speaker 3 (01:24:46):
Well, have you gone on to use that on other shows?

Speaker 6 (01:24:50):
Yes, I've done versions of of of that shot on
other shows too.

Speaker 3 (01:24:54):
Is that what it was cool?

Speaker 6 (01:24:55):
He sort of like, you know, especially we didn't have
a techno crane or anything. I don't believe, but there's
a type of crane where you know, the arm itself
extends from the base. Yeah, so I mean you can
really like you know, it can actually physically be inside
the window. I think we probably hit a zoom in
the shot as well to sort of make it appear

(01:25:18):
as if we were in there in a close up.
So you can do shots that that appear to actually
travel through the glass somehow make.

Speaker 1 (01:25:25):
Them and nowadays later I did a really cool shot
in Going in style where you can camera or pull
back through the window. And then in post now add
we added a taxi cab door. I had the shot
of Michael Caine where he's in the cabin and the
camera's in the cab with him. And then and we
took the back door off the cab, and we we

(01:25:45):
pull out and the out of the cab and the
cab drives off. And then and post we added the
cab door. That looks so cool, and most people who
aren't filmmakers wouldn't even know how hard that was to
do exactly.

Speaker 6 (01:25:58):
And I think, like with any of the sort of
bells and whistles that we pull out and the tricks
that we use them, it's part of the fun of
being a director, is part of the fun of telling
the story. But sometimes, and this is often true with
directors who are former cinematographers, you can get caught up
and the gadgetry and the toy of it all and

(01:26:19):
forget that you're telling the story. So it's first and foremost.
It's like, yeah, cranes are great. All these devices are
great if they're supporting the story, or if they're underlying
the comedy, or they're making a dramatic moment more dramatic
or whatever, because they do take a lot of time,
take a lot of money, and often can be misupplied.

Speaker 1 (01:26:38):
Yeah, and I think The job as a director is
to go when am I going to spend When can
I afford to spend time and money during these five days.
So the way I would shoot Scrubs when I directed
it was you'd go okay in order to save time
to do that elaborate shot I want to do. I
need to really get through this dialogue seem quickly. Now.

(01:27:01):
I don't want to rush it because it's important. But
if I just shoot this one really simply, then I'm
banking time for later. I can do that elaborate onner
or later I can do that tricky crane shot. But
you have to you have to pick and choose because
you just you have to fit it into twelve hours.
They used to let us go longer, but nowadays, I
don't know. If you find this on your other show, Spiller,
no one wants you to go over twelve hours.

Speaker 6 (01:27:23):
And frankly, I don't want to either. I mean, Scrubs
was unique m Sex and the city was the same way.
Our hours were really really long, but it was a
similar energy on set, where it's like everyone just enjoyed
each other so much. You know, you never laughed as much.
The work was high quality and you know then no

(01:27:44):
one was telling you to stop spending money, so you know,
you just kept going to you you got it. But
it's you know, frankly, it's it's unsafe. These days. I feel,
maybe because I'm a tiny bit older that you know,
my work doesn't tend to improve after twelve hours.

Speaker 1 (01:27:58):
Yeah, and everyone gets cranky and unsafe. You know, there's
been plenty of instances of crew members who have to
be there longer hours, whether it's teamsters or transport guys
or or camera acs, and who've gotten in accidents or
even died from just being in preposterous hours. So it
is a safety thing. But we used to go I
mean we'd have sixteen seventeen hour days on Scrubs.

Speaker 6 (01:28:20):
When you guys on one of the earlier shows were
talking about like favorite cameos and all that sort of stuff,
and like the sort of fantasy camera run.

Speaker 3 (01:28:27):
I got a picture of you.

Speaker 6 (01:28:29):
I know, there's the re one rerun one which I
love that photo. But there's also Dick Van Dyke.

Speaker 3 (01:28:38):
Yeah, did you direct that episode?

Speaker 1 (01:28:39):
Yes?

Speaker 6 (01:28:40):
And I mean when you sung with him in that
moment when we were all just hanging out. I mean,
it's like I get choked up thinking about it.

Speaker 1 (01:28:47):
I mean, give us a little dollar, give us a
little of that magic.

Speaker 2 (01:28:51):
Glorious day ahead.

Speaker 3 (01:28:53):
Right is the morning in may Hey buffee, like I
could fly?

Speaker 2 (01:28:59):
Hey, have you ever seen it's not habits?

Speaker 3 (01:29:03):
Have you ever seen the grass so green?

Speaker 2 (01:29:08):
Or a blue sky?

Speaker 3 (01:29:11):
Okay, So that's beautiful story.

Speaker 1 (01:29:13):
Jolly Holiday.

Speaker 2 (01:29:15):
Yeah, Dick Van Dyke was on the show and I
got to sing Jolly Holiday. Well, I didn't sing. He
sang it, and I played the guitar while he sang it. Uh,
there's a tape. There's there's a recording of it out
there somewhere.

Speaker 3 (01:29:27):
I don't know where.

Speaker 6 (01:29:27):
I know I shot it. Yeah, I'm on something. But
I was like, did phones have video cameras? Then? I mean,
I can't remember, but I know I shot it.

Speaker 2 (01:29:37):
It's out there somewhere, somewhere, somewhat somehow it could be found.

Speaker 3 (01:29:41):
I don't know who has it.

Speaker 1 (01:29:42):
But yeah, yeah, well, Spiller, you've been a fantastic guest.

Speaker 3 (01:29:46):
This is the longest this is the longest we've ever
had a guest on it.

Speaker 1 (01:29:50):
We've ever We were gonna have to cut this fucking
way down. Wants to no, I want to be sincere
for a second and say, not only are you a
fantastic guy, but I, as a filmmaker, learned a lot
from watching you, because you are talented and you not
only direct a beautiful episode, but you're so charming and

(01:30:12):
everybody loves you on set and you're a great leader,
and I'm not surprised that you are successful and have
an Emmy and uh, and I hope I get to
work with you again soon.

Speaker 6 (01:30:23):
Oh, thank you, Zach. That's so kind.

Speaker 2 (01:30:25):
I hope I'm one of those actors that you're like,
you know what, I got a guy. Don't worry about it. Yeah, Joy,
I really enjoyed our time together. You know, it shows.
It shows by how long this podcast episode was too?

Speaker 6 (01:30:40):
Well, hey, just just keep going because I directed the
next episode took a two for you'll be I didn't
watch it.

Speaker 2 (01:30:45):
I didn't watch it.

Speaker 3 (01:30:46):
I didn't watch the next episode.

Speaker 1 (01:30:48):
Yeah, yeah, he will.

Speaker 6 (01:30:50):
Well, I'm available if you every want to bring me back.

Speaker 1 (01:30:52):
We're gonna have you back. You've already goten a callback.
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for tuning in
to fake Doctors, real friends. I'm your co host a
broth with what's your name again?

Speaker 3 (01:31:02):
Black Scrubs, Donald Faison a k A T.

Speaker 6 (01:31:04):
Diggs.

Speaker 3 (01:31:05):
We like k A brown Bear, a k A Turk
turkle Tip a k A Maxic.

Speaker 7 (01:31:15):
Ten eight stories that show we made about a bunch
of talks and nurses in the janitor who I said,
here's the stories, net s no.

Speaker 4 (01:31:29):
So Gada round you here, Gadder round you here.

Speaker 2 (01:31:33):
Our stuffy shows that