April 30, 2025 • 32 mins
We're back with Full House writer and producer: Dennis Rinsler!! Not only did he oversee some of THE most iconic Full House episodes, he also made his mark with writing partner, Marc Warren, on shows like That's So Raven & Even Stevens! In a way, they wrote multiple generation's childhoods...
If you love our sit-downs with the incredibly talented crew members of Full House, you're going to love this. It's all right here on How Rude, Tanneritos! Follow us on Instagram @howrudepodcast & TikTok @howrudetanneritos
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Hey there, fanar Rito's.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Welcome to a brand new episode of How Rude taner Ritos. Today,
we have a writer and producer whose name you are
bound to recognize, whether it be from the many Full
House episodes he wrote and produced, or from other projects
he's done, like even Stevens and that's so raven. As
you remember, we had Dennis's longtime writing partner, Mark Warren
(00:41):
on the podcast a few months ago, so we can't
wait to talk to Dennis and hear all about his
experience on Full House and beyond. Let's get into it.
Please welcome Dennis Rinseler to the podcast.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Hey Guystennis, I'm getting my h camera on.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
Give me a second.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
I recognize that voice, right. I wish somebody would drop
a hamburger. O.
Speaker 4 (01:03):
My god, hy.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
So good to see your face be.
Speaker 4 (01:09):
Such a warm feeling of great memories.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Oh gosh, Yeah, it's been so much.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Fun doing this.
Speaker 4 (01:18):
Huh, seeing your eternally youthful faces.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Really, you know, we we had Mark on the podcast
a few months ago. It was so great to see
him too. But he just has such wark talking about
the show and reliving these memories. It's Jody and I
are having so much fun.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Watching this has been great.
Speaker 5 (01:38):
I mean we have talked to Frankie hairdressing, Adria Later, producers, writers,
and just everybody, and it's so much fun because one,
we haven't seen a lot of you guys in such
a long time.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
And also, you know, we were kids.
Speaker 5 (01:55):
And we you know, it's been fun to go back
and watch the show that we never watched.
Speaker 4 (01:59):
I know, I know you were working, Yeah.
Speaker 5 (02:01):
Exactly, we were too busy on TGI Friday.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
I'm trying to think of the last time I actually
saw you. I came to a taping a Fuller House
with my son Greg, who was actually a background player
in one of the episodes.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
Okay, yeah, it's drunk.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Oh, the frat party episode.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
He was one of the frat boys.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
He was a boy. Oh interesting, Okay.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
And I brought my grandchildren, Noah and Zoe, So it
was such a mind blowing multi generational.
Speaker 5 (02:35):
Yeah, bringing our kids to set and getting pictures with
our kids and us like sitting on the couch in
the set im that I look at those pictures and
I'm just like, what a what a thing that you
never thought would happen.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
The Weirdest week was one of the coolest weeks actually
was when Jody and I, our daughters, were.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
Background players on a couple of episodes.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Actually, so Jenny and I became like the stage moms
who were like, how do you get a work permit?
What do we like? We didn't know what to do
the things that our moms did for us.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Yea, on Fuller House, it was.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
It was a very full circle moment for us.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
So, yeah, it's so great. Oh but it's so great
to see you.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
Oh, great to see you guys. You look great.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Thank you.
Speaker 5 (03:22):
Let's go back, I mean and start like, at the
beginning of your career, how did you get into this
business as a writer? Did you want to be a writer?
Did you want to be an airline pilot?
Speaker 1 (03:33):
And this was what was available?
Speaker 5 (03:35):
I mean what yeah, they threw me out.
Speaker 4 (03:38):
Yeah, oh I never I never thought about being a writer.
When I was a kid.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
I was just a wild, crazy kid who just wanted
to run around, have fun, play. When people asked me
what do you want to be when you grow up?
I always said, I don't want to grow up.
Speaker 4 (03:54):
I'm having too much fun.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
No, no thoughts of that, you know, But I love
goofing around and I loved having a good time and
something with the name Dennis.
Speaker 4 (04:04):
Everybody was like, are you Dennis? The menas so you.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
So at one point I said why not, you know,
and I became the class clown. I could still remember
second grade. I must have been like seven years old.
I had a substitute teacher, and the teacher saw me
talking with kids and not paying attention and pulled me
out in front of the class and put me up
in the corner and she said, you know, for a
(04:31):
little boy, you are very fresh. And I said, I'm
not fresh, I'm stale. I mean, we happened to be
working on opposites that.
Speaker 4 (04:43):
Very timely material and.
Speaker 5 (04:45):
This is actually something I learned, so you should be
proud of me.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
Yeah, so it got big laughs. I said that was fun.
So after that I was on this desk, dancing, running around,
being an idiot.
Speaker 4 (04:57):
I loved it.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
I had a good time, and when I went to
I'm a Camp I channeled it and I would star
in the camp plays and things like that, and I
told my parents I know what I want to be
when I grow up. I want to be a Broadway actor.
And they said, no, you'll starve, You'll start my parents
were very poor and they were panicked, and they said,
(05:19):
be something safe, be a teacher, practical.
Speaker 4 (05:23):
I said, well, you know what that's like, acting a
little bit.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
I could get up in front of the class, I
could perform, I could teach. And I love kids, and
I love being a camp counselor. I always wanted to
be the fun counselor. And I said, all right, great,
I'll do it. Love it and went to college to
study be a teacher, where I met Mark Warren, who
was also studying to be a teacher.
Speaker 4 (05:45):
We want to fourth grade teachers.
Speaker 5 (05:47):
I got my undergrad degree in elementary with a focus
in elementary education, so I also was going to be
a teacher.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
And when I met Mark and we started talking, we
realized we had the same sense of humor. We loved
dead old Hollywood movies. We had just watched The Night
Before Women's Prison with Idle Lapino, and we were making
jokes about it, and when we went into class, we
were laughing so hard that the teacher, you know, gave
us one of all right, mister Rinseler, mister Warren, tell
(06:18):
the class what's so funny, And we couldn't really explain
why we were laughing. So they threw us out and
we became great friends after that, and we became teachers.
Speaker 4 (06:29):
And we taught in New York City.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
I wanted to go to like the most challenging school
in New York, the poorest neighborhood. I wanted to, you know,
change the world. And they did send me to a
school that just opened. When a school just opens, who
do you send every school in the neighborhood sends the
twenty five worst kids.
Speaker 4 (06:49):
Oh wow, So we go in there. The kids are.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Running wild, they're pulling the fire alarm every ten minutes,
they're letting wild dogs into the building. There was a
dead body in the school yard. We're calling the police
cause somebody plays pick.
Speaker 5 (07:03):
I mean, that's one hell of a show and tell
show and don't tell really, you know, betting on your
level of involvement.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
Right.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
But so that was our thing until another teacher my neighbors, said,
why don't we write a script about teaching. I know,
I once took a filmmaking course.
Speaker 4 (07:24):
I know how to you know, make movies.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
So we went to his house every day after school
and told the stories that happened in our school, crazy
crazy stories, right, And they said ah, let's go to Hollywood.
Speaker 4 (07:36):
What do we got to do?
Speaker 3 (07:37):
So they said, well, the next vacation, we'll go out
to Hollywood. We'll rent an El Dorado Cadillac convertible, we'll
get sunglasses, we'll drive around with a stack of scripts
and we'll knock on doors. And we tried it, you know,
and soon the vacation was over, Mark and I had
to get back to work. The guy said, I'll stay,
I'll finish up. So he said, it looks like it's
(08:00):
not going to happen. We went back to teaching. I
was so said, I even sent my name and birthday
to an astrologer who wrote back and said, your life
is about to change. You are going to get money
in the middle of the summer. You're going to become
a writer. I was like, that's ridiculous. And that summer
(08:21):
we get a phone call from the guy who was
still in California trying to sell the script. He says,
I sold the script. We're getting money in the middle
of the summer. You got to come out here and
be a writer. So we were like, let's do it.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
This astrologer's number, please give it to us. On the side,
I'd like to know.
Speaker 4 (08:40):
Yeah. He sent me an actual tape, like a cassette
tape to play you are going to make money. I
was like, real, you know.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
But it worked and we came out and unfortunately the
script we wrote, even though we sold it and got money,
somebody ripped it off. He made a movie called Teachers
with Nick Nolty. But we couldn't complain because we did
get paid. The guy who paid us was angry because
(09:12):
he was right.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Because he didn't Yeah yeah, oh wow.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
And then we said we got an agent who said,
you know what, forget movies.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
Those scripts sit on shelves.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
Whoever come out to Hollywood and I'll get you a
job writing for TV.
Speaker 4 (09:27):
So we packed up, we quit teaching.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
We took our wives and our we had each had
one son at the time. We moved out to Hollywood
and I went up to see the agent and he's
leaving the business. He goes, oh, I quit this business
is horrible at stuff.
Speaker 4 (09:41):
Oh sorry. We said, hey, our wives.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
Are in Beverly Hills now for homes, and what are
we going to tell it? There's no job and there wasn't.
So every day we just went up to that same
agency CIA and said, you promise us a job, please please, Yeah,
And finally we ended up writing for some puppet named Madam.
Speaker 5 (10:04):
Okay, I have a love hate relationship with Madam.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
When I was little, I was terrified of her.
Speaker 4 (10:20):
That face, the face it.
Speaker 5 (10:22):
Also it looked like the Wicked Queen from Snow White
for me, and that was just that was just a
no go. But then as I got older and went
and rewatched Madam on it was on solid gold. Right
now I have a whole new appreciation and she's hilarious
and it's a total like, you know, I had no
(10:45):
idea you wrote for Madam.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
Well, now that you got older, and if you have
a look at her again, a face is basically male genitalia.
Speaker 5 (10:53):
That's what, yes, exactly it is. It's these yeah yeah,
the nose, the whole.
Speaker 4 (10:59):
Thing, double things.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (11:03):
Show.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
She had a sitcom and in the sitcom, she had
a talk show. Was one of the scenes that she
would do it, and we got all the Hollywood stars
would come Debbie Reynolds, the people would come in. And
when we learned how to write on that show amazing.
Speaker 5 (11:21):
Back when puppets were just getting shows left and right,
you got al you know, you got madam, there's.
Speaker 4 (11:30):
No there's no puppets hr puffing stuff.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
I mean it was you know.
Speaker 5 (11:34):
What was puffing stuff exactly exactly if you've ever watched
that show.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Weirdly found it and loved it. Yeah, I was like,
what is happening?
Speaker 3 (11:46):
It's great people were puffing stuff and watching that show exactly.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
So that seems like it's quite a quite a journey.
Speaker 5 (11:56):
And like, you know, Mark told us a little bit
about it too, so it's it's cool hearing like both sides.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
Of it, and how the same story wherever we go.
Speaker 5 (12:03):
Well, but yeah, but like it, you know, hearing it
that you guys both just sort of met and trusted
each other and and you know, and it worked, and
it worked for a very long time.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
We still make each other laugh. I had lunch with
him yesterday. We still worked at the same stuff. It's great,
and you know, we've been friends. If we're friends first
and then you work together, you never have a real argument.
You only have creative arguments because we love each other.
Speaker 4 (12:30):
So we never really had an argument in thirty years.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
We thirty five years we worked together, just arguing over
you know, what's funny here or something? Right?
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Yeah, yeah, oh, that's so what a what a great friendship.
That makes me feel so good inside that you just
had lunch with him too.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
Yeah, every week we said we get together every week.
That's we go on vacation together. We still hang out.
Speaker 4 (12:52):
I love it. I love stories.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Oh, I mean there's.
Speaker 4 (12:56):
So many we say anything else.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
I just want to tell Andrea what a good sport
and a troop of you were for putting up with
all those Kimmy gibblers stinky feet jokes.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Yes, as a.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
Young teenager, a young person growing up, every little imperfection
is magnified, so you really didn't need that.
Speaker 4 (13:20):
Upbringing. But you took it like such a pro. Really
respected you for that.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Oh that's so nice of you to say that, thank you. Yeah, no,
it was the stinky feet jokes have followed me throughout
my entire life. You know, even to this day, people
ask about my stinky feet.
Speaker 5 (13:38):
But you know, you could start selling your shoes on
eBay and I bet people would buy them.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
This could be a whole other career for me.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
Really.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
Let me tell you, market people, do you say thank you?
What do you say when they say I?
Speaker 2 (13:52):
You know, one time I did get a little sassy,
and I was like, well you want to find out, I'll.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Take the shoes off right here.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
But mostly I just like, I'm just like, no, no,
my feet don't stink.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
I'm too polite to.
Speaker 5 (14:02):
Say anything like no, no, no, I don't know. I
my feet aren't real. I don't have feet, and they're
not real.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
They're not they're not really. Those weren't really my feet.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
But Kimmy was such a fun character, Y like, she
was such a great character to play.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
Was how about the outfits we picked out for you?
Speaker 1 (14:20):
I didn't love the outfits. It's your fault, your fault. Yes,
I try not to harbor too much resentment.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
No I didn't. Yeah, the wardrobe was tough, was tough,
you know what.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
I feel like they would show us choices. We have
this one of this one, we go, oh, that second
one is worse.
Speaker 4 (14:36):
We got to use that Oh.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Gosh, yes, you see, you see, But that's okay.
Speaker 4 (14:41):
Character.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
It was the character, and I feel like in Fuller House,
Kimmy Gibler got so much redemption. You know, she was
finally like her wardrobe was finally stylish and yeah, she
finally came into her own.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
Well, when you guys are in charge, you make different decisions.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Yeah, it's weird how the adult on the show. It
makes a big difference in your wardrobe.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
Yeah, ask you doing the show. Did you have any
revelations like now that you're on the other side, Oh,
that's why you do this, So that's why they made
those decisions. Did anything hit you like now I see
it from the other side.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
I mean, a great question for me the week I directed.
Speaker 5 (15:26):
Was I mean, and I cud you know, I kind
of knew some of the questions that that side of
the camera has to ask, but but it was a
very different experience when you're like, oh, yeah, like I'm
in charge here and everything all the pieces have to
fit and I actually am in charge of some decisions
and I have to make a choice.
Speaker 4 (15:44):
Yeah, you're making a decision for week. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Yeah, A lot of the ever rote an episode.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
It's been a week in the writer's room, which was amazing,
Like there is just oh boy, lots of jokes, lots
of talk, lots of wasted time, lots of snacks, like
there's lot going on in that room that the fuel.
Yeah right, but no, it was fantastic. I I really
think what I realized that week in the writer's room
on Fuller House was there should really be a liaison
(16:12):
between the stage and the writer's room, because I was
kind of both that week. I was the actor on
the stage and I was the writer in the writer's room.
But I was able to explain to the writers why
a scene wasn't working, or why this joke wasn't hitting,
or why this this actor wouldn't be able to make
it work or whatever, and they were like, oh, okay, yeah,
well let's just change that. We'll just change that scene.
We'll make that. It's an easy change to make. And
(16:34):
then when I was on the stage, I'd be like,
the writers really want this, you know, they really want
this thing to work, and so.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
We gotta we got to figure out different blocking or whatever.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
So I was like, yeah, this is this is helpful
to have somebody talking, which I guess that was mostly
you and Mark and Jeff too when Jeff was on
the show.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
You guys really related.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
Second hand, like all that from the stage is, but
you're right person in both places well, and.
Speaker 5 (16:57):
Not only that, I find anyone working on the other
side of the camera who has also been an actor
or ever at least had some.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
Sort of experience on that.
Speaker 5 (17:08):
It's a really great bridge because you both you understand
what the actor is feeling and how to talk to
them and like what they and then you know, the
writers or the director or whatever. It's like you know,
how what to push on, what to sort of let
them have, you know, and uh, yeah, it's just but
it is the liaison between sort of that again, that
(17:31):
bridge in the middle. I don't think people really get
how siloed. Yeah, your stage and the writer's room are.
They are across the law in different spots.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
We don't really, yeah, we don't really. We never really
interacted that much with the writers. You know, they would
come for run throughs and watch us at run throughs,
but other than that, there wasn't Yeah, there wasn't a
whole lot of interaction.
Speaker 4 (17:54):
It is the nerve center, the brain. Yeah, the show.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
And uh, I got to tell you guys, when we
came on the show the second season, it was not
a happy place because we came in and all we're
hearing is all the reviews are terrible. They're trashing us,
and the audience is not even hasn't even found us.
We have there's no ratings and uh, you know, I
(18:24):
think this is just a kid show. Then we go
down to the stage and we find out John Stamos
doesn't like the show.
Speaker 4 (18:32):
He doesn't want to be in.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
Every scene is being stolen by some young kids.
Speaker 4 (18:38):
Bob Saggant, Oh yeah.
Speaker 5 (18:42):
They hated each other, well, not hated each other, but
they drove each other nuts.
Speaker 4 (18:47):
And Saggot hates his character. I'm a nerd.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
I'm a clean freak wife, right, Dave Coolier, he just
wanted to come to work and.
Speaker 5 (18:58):
Just the guy who's like, what this man, what do
you want me to do?
Speaker 3 (19:04):
But the thing was, even though we thought, oh, I
guess we're just doing a kid show. It's a rip
off of three men and a baby and all that.
Speaker 4 (19:13):
But when we saw you guys, we were saying, this
is this is comedy gold.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
I mean comedy gold is when you know, you give
actors a joke, and it's usually if you write a
good joke, it's joke proof. Just read it and we'll laugh.
But you guys were making the straight lines funny.
Speaker 4 (19:35):
How rude?
Speaker 3 (19:37):
You could put that in a script, Stephanie, go up
to your room, how rude? No, And you did it.
It was so powerful and funny. We're still doing it today.
It was still using it today.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
And Andrea, you had to take a character who normally
you would say this person could be annoying. You did
it in such a funny way that when you walked
in the room, everyone's so happy because now it's going
to get really funny. And that's that's gold. And when
we realize that and Michelle, you know, Jeff knew how
(20:12):
to make Michelle so cute, so cute, and we realized, Okay,
it's kids, but it's great kids. And Cameron, Candace Cameron
was a good dramatic actress. She can do those scenes.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
She could cry on demand.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
Yeah. Me, like maybe halfway through the second season when
we were.
Speaker 4 (20:37):
Doing Goodbye Mister Bear. Oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
And Stephanie has a you know, an attachment to that
stuff down there. And I'm on the stage and I
look into the audience and people are crying, crying, and
adults are crying. So we're saying, wait a minute, this
isn't just kids. Adults loving the show. So when we
(21:02):
got back to the room, we said, we got to
start thinking of this show as a single mom sitting
with an eight year old girl watching the show.
Speaker 4 (21:11):
That's who we're going to write for.
Speaker 3 (21:13):
Then we did some research and we find out boys
are watching because they love Joey, and young women and
teenage girls love John Stamos of course, and the kids
are so funny that we said, oh, I think we
got the right formula. And that's when it started to click.
And that's when we started getting people coming. You know,
(21:35):
we couldn't we had turned people away.
Speaker 5 (21:38):
Yeah, we found our groove in that second season about
how all of us actors writers, and that's usually kind
of how it goes, which is much the hard thing
about shows now is that you know they're like, entertain
(22:01):
me in the first episode or you're gone.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
You know, it's like it takes.
Speaker 5 (22:05):
A while, like you said, to build that audience and
for people to overlook maybe a review and watch it
for themselves. And you know, look, the only award full
or full house, full or House has won is the
People's Choice Awards, And honestly, I would rather win that, yeah,
in a lot of ways, because it means that people.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
Are enjoying what you're doing.
Speaker 5 (22:26):
And you guys like made you really got that connection
between like each of our sort of ages, demographics, abilities,
and it took.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
A while you know, when Mark and I came on
the show, we were parents and most of the guys
there were not not yeah, and there were no women
on the staff.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Yep and yep.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
The vibe of the show was, Oh, it's these three
single guys and they're kind of stuck raising these girls
and the girls are cramping their style, which is not sympathetic.
In Spain, the show was called Padres Fizzoso's which is
like forced fathers show, so you know, uh, and we
(23:10):
we came in with parenting stories.
Speaker 4 (23:12):
I mean, look at the first episode.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
We wrote jingle Hell, jingle h E double hockey stack,
as Joey would say, and we did Jesse and.
Speaker 4 (23:23):
Joey team up to work.
Speaker 3 (23:26):
On advertising together, which was from our life.
Speaker 4 (23:30):
Mark and I were a writing team.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
We know the arguments you have, and DJ and Stephanie
are arguing that Stephanie's always touching DJ's stuff. So when
the girls have an argument and they see the boys
having an argument, the men having an argument, and they worry,
the girls wearri are we going to are you guys
getting divorced? And it made the guys realize G has parents.
Everything we do reflects to them. We have to set
(23:55):
a better example. So those are the kind of stories
you're interested. Plus we gave Danny uh potty training story,
which is right.
Speaker 4 (24:04):
You know, a parenting story. So we were pushing towards
those kind of stories.
Speaker 3 (24:08):
Although we did have a problem in that we didn't
know right away that John Stamos and Uh Sagitt were
not getting along. So he because Saga was good friends
with Joey, they with Uh with David comics together and
in Comes John and John starts getting real friendly with Dave,
(24:32):
and Bob feels left out.
Speaker 4 (24:34):
So we said, let's write a script.
Speaker 5 (24:37):
I think Bob always felt left out even when he
was included.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
He was like wait.
Speaker 3 (24:43):
So we wrote a script called Pal Joey, will you
do a flashback? Yes, ends, and you see that Joey
and Danny are friends. Incomes Jesse gets in between the
two of them. Now he's more friends with Joey. Danny
fields left out, and they all come together at the
(25:06):
end and they bury something as friendship's right. Get the
word that on the stage the three of them are
getting along.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
Ah.
Speaker 4 (25:15):
So we said, oh, all right, it worked. It worked? Wow?
Speaker 5 (25:20):
Yeah, and it really you know, and John and Bob
John always still tells the story about how, yeah, they
couldn't stand each other and then they became brothers.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
Yeah, like everything else. Yeah, well, you know John Stamus
was such a pro and he had so much experience
and John and Bob is you know he's from stand up,
say and do anything you want?
Speaker 1 (25:43):
Right, Yeah, exactly, he was.
Speaker 4 (25:45):
He was. I mean the parents used to get so
upset with this stuff, right, yes, I remember you guys.
Speaker 3 (25:53):
Were sitting around one morning and Bob comes in and
he goes, oh my god, I had such morning this morning.
Speaker 4 (26:00):
My daughters were playing ring toss on.
Speaker 3 (26:02):
That and the mother is your mom and Canada's mom,
and you know what, it got back to the Inquirer
that Bob was out of control and the parents were angry,
and that was true.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
Oh my god.
Speaker 5 (26:18):
Well that there was a story when I was like
nine or something ten, because Bob and I were super close.
I loved Bob and I was close with his daughters,
and so I would spend weekends and stuff at the
house sometimes, you know, and he'd I go home with
him after taping whatever to go see Audrey and Laura.
And around that time, there was a Star magazine article
(26:41):
that came out that I was a difficult child to
work with. I was throwing tantrums. Nobody on set liked me,
particularly Bob. He was trying to get me fired. Like
it was the wildest thing.
Speaker 4 (26:55):
The headline was mean me, Bob saggot, the man's Jody's
weedn't be fired.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
Yes, that's what it was.
Speaker 3 (27:02):
Yeah, And when we came to work the next day,
you guys pretended that it was real. Yeah, and you're
arguing in front, I want you out of here.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
That's hysterical.
Speaker 3 (27:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (27:15):
Yeah, we just made fun of it.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
We all knew it wasn't true, but the rest of
the country they don't know.
Speaker 4 (27:21):
Those men.
Speaker 5 (27:22):
So ridiculous, so ridiculous crazy. Now, you've worked on like
several other incredibly popular shows, even Stevens.
Speaker 4 (27:34):
That was great, So Raven that was fun? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (27:38):
What what?
Speaker 4 (27:39):
What?
Speaker 5 (27:39):
What else? What other things have been your favorite?
Speaker 3 (27:44):
Like, it's funny. After Full House, the comedy started changing.
The shows not family shows that everyone watched together. You
had Seinfeld, you had Rose Dan. You know, these were
kind of adult comedies. So the networks were like when
we would go in there and they'd say, oh, you
(28:06):
guys did Full House, right, Oh okay, Well we're.
Speaker 4 (28:09):
Not really doing that kind of thing anymore.
Speaker 3 (28:11):
And then the Disney Channel pops up and they're like,
full House, get over here, exactly what we're looking for.
Speaker 4 (28:18):
So they gave us Even Stevens.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
We you know, after a while, we became like a
show doctors because we took over Full House after Jeff
left to do Hanging with mister Cooper. They trusted us
to take over shows like The Parenthood with Robert Townsend
and Even Stevens. The first staff left and we came in,
or that's so raven The whole staff left, the show
(28:44):
runner left and we came in. And on Even Stevens,
they really didn't have a family show that didn't have
a magic element, a magic sweater or some weird science.
So we were just doing crazy families stories and they
didn't really have any comments on what we did. They
would say, all right, I guess, I guess that's okay.
(29:06):
Do whatever you want. So we did the first Disney
Channel musical, We did an episode of Even Stevens. We
did fake documentaries, documentaries like spinal tap, things like that.
We tried anything, and so it was really and it
was single camera, which means instead of doing it like
we did on Full House, which is a play that
(29:28):
you you show in front of an audience with four cameras,
single camera, one at a time, seen by thing takes forever.
Speaker 5 (29:36):
You're like, oh, yes, yeah, we always do that too,
like use a term, and then I'm like, wait, hold on,
I don't think anyone outside of this business.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
So when you shoot it like a movie, uh, you
could do whatever you want. You could put the camera
on the ceiling, in the toilet bowl, any crazy shot
you want. So we had a lot of fun on
that show and that talented people sh Buff was on
and he.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
Christy Yeah, Christy car.
Speaker 4 (30:06):
Mona was great and that was fun. That was a
lot of fun.
Speaker 3 (30:09):
And then Raven we went back to four cameras shot
in front of an audience, and she was so surprisingly talented.
She could do anything, yeah, sing, dance, physical, comedy, stunts, drama,
you know. So she was the real deal too. So
that was it brought us back to the Full House days,
you know, in front of an audience and getting real laughs.
Speaker 5 (30:31):
Yeah, because there's something about that that just for writers
and actors, it's so great to get that immediate feedback.
You're like, oh, that's working and when you when it
doesn't work, you're like, oh, that's you know, we.
Speaker 4 (30:43):
Need to change it.
Speaker 3 (30:44):
When we would shoot Full House in front of an audience,
if the joke didn't work, the actors would quickly huddle up,
pitch a new joke, and we'd try it in front
of the audience if that word it was good. But
when you're doing film on single camera, there's no audio
and you can't laugh. So someone's trying to be really
(31:05):
funny and we have to hold a breath and not laugh.
Speaker 4 (31:09):
So that person doesn't know is this working? Is thisay?
No one's laughing. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
Yeah it is.
Speaker 5 (31:16):
It's a totally different, totally different vibe.
Speaker 3 (31:18):
And when you have a live audience you try to
make them laugh. Come on, everybody, enjoy it. Laugh, You
throw candy so they all she'll get up right, yes, sure,
the fifty five degrees so they're laughing just.
Speaker 4 (31:29):
To keep warm.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
Yeah, all right, you guys.
Speaker 5 (31:32):
That wraps up part one of our interview with Dennis Rinstler,
and there is so much more to talk about with him.
We had such a great interview from his career on
Full House to the other iconic shows that he's worked on,
like even Stevens and that's so raven. You can listen
to the rest of Dennis's interview in part two, which
will be airing this Friday, and in the meantime, if
you want to check us out on Instagram, you can
(31:53):
follow us at how Rude Podcast, send us an email
at how Rude Tanertos at gmail dot com. There we go,
and uh yeah, visit our merch store howardmerch dot com.
We've got shirts, We've got turtles, we've got them in bags.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
No, we don't have turtles at bags. That would be terrible.
Speaker 5 (32:10):
But remember, you guys, the world is small, but the
house is full of child actors just just lousy with them.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
They're everywhere, They're everywhere you look. They're everywhere you look.
Speaker 5 (32:21):
And and there's also a corner of of uh studio
teachers somewhere if the house. Yeah, yeah, yeah, they don't worry.
They're not totally unsupervised.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
Like Michelle, It's
Speaker 5 (32:31):
Okay, bye bye,
Hey there, fanar Rito's.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Welcome to a brand new episode of How Rude taner Ritos. Today,
we have a writer and producer whose name you are
bound to recognize, whether it be from the many Full
House episodes he wrote and produced, or from other projects
he's done, like even Stevens and that's so raven. As
you remember, we had Dennis's longtime writing partner, Mark Warren
(00:41):
on the podcast a few months ago, so we can't
wait to talk to Dennis and hear all about his
experience on Full House and beyond. Let's get into it.
Please welcome Dennis Rinseler to the podcast.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Hey Guystennis, I'm getting my h camera on.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
Give me a second.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
I recognize that voice, right. I wish somebody would drop
a hamburger. O.
Speaker 4 (01:03):
My god, hy.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
So good to see your face be.
Speaker 4 (01:09):
Such a warm feeling of great memories.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Oh gosh, Yeah, it's been so much.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Fun doing this.
Speaker 4 (01:18):
Huh, seeing your eternally youthful faces.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Really, you know, we we had Mark on the podcast
a few months ago. It was so great to see
him too. But he just has such wark talking about
the show and reliving these memories. It's Jody and I
are having so much fun.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Watching this has been great.
Speaker 5 (01:38):
I mean we have talked to Frankie hairdressing, Adria Later, producers, writers,
and just everybody, and it's so much fun because one,
we haven't seen a lot of you guys in such
a long time.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
And also, you know, we were kids.
Speaker 5 (01:55):
And we you know, it's been fun to go back
and watch the show that we never watched.
Speaker 4 (01:59):
I know, I know you were working, Yeah.
Speaker 5 (02:01):
Exactly, we were too busy on TGI Friday.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
I'm trying to think of the last time I actually
saw you. I came to a taping a Fuller House
with my son Greg, who was actually a background player
in one of the episodes.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
Okay, yeah, it's drunk.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Oh, the frat party episode.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
He was one of the frat boys.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
He was a boy. Oh interesting, Okay.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
And I brought my grandchildren, Noah and Zoe, So it
was such a mind blowing multi generational.
Speaker 5 (02:35):
Yeah, bringing our kids to set and getting pictures with
our kids and us like sitting on the couch in
the set im that I look at those pictures and
I'm just like, what a what a thing that you
never thought would happen.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
The Weirdest week was one of the coolest weeks actually
was when Jody and I, our daughters, were.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
Background players on a couple of episodes.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Actually, so Jenny and I became like the stage moms
who were like, how do you get a work permit?
What do we like? We didn't know what to do
the things that our moms did for us.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Yea, on Fuller House, it was.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
It was a very full circle moment for us.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
So, yeah, it's so great. Oh but it's so great
to see you.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
Oh, great to see you guys. You look great.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Thank you.
Speaker 5 (03:22):
Let's go back, I mean and start like, at the
beginning of your career, how did you get into this
business as a writer? Did you want to be a writer?
Did you want to be an airline pilot?
Speaker 1 (03:33):
And this was what was available?
Speaker 5 (03:35):
I mean what yeah, they threw me out.
Speaker 4 (03:38):
Yeah, oh I never I never thought about being a writer.
When I was a kid.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
I was just a wild, crazy kid who just wanted
to run around, have fun, play. When people asked me
what do you want to be when you grow up?
I always said, I don't want to grow up.
Speaker 4 (03:54):
I'm having too much fun.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
No, no thoughts of that, you know, But I love
goofing around and I loved having a good time and
something with the name Dennis.
Speaker 4 (04:04):
Everybody was like, are you Dennis? The menas so you.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
So at one point I said why not, you know,
and I became the class clown. I could still remember
second grade. I must have been like seven years old.
I had a substitute teacher, and the teacher saw me
talking with kids and not paying attention and pulled me
out in front of the class and put me up
in the corner and she said, you know, for a
(04:31):
little boy, you are very fresh. And I said, I'm
not fresh, I'm stale. I mean, we happened to be
working on opposites that.
Speaker 4 (04:43):
Very timely material and.
Speaker 5 (04:45):
This is actually something I learned, so you should be
proud of me.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
Yeah, so it got big laughs. I said that was fun.
So after that I was on this desk, dancing, running around,
being an idiot.
Speaker 4 (04:57):
I loved it.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
I had a good time, and when I went to
I'm a Camp I channeled it and I would star
in the camp plays and things like that, and I
told my parents I know what I want to be
when I grow up. I want to be a Broadway actor.
And they said, no, you'll starve, You'll start my parents
were very poor and they were panicked, and they said,
(05:19):
be something safe, be a teacher, practical.
Speaker 4 (05:23):
I said, well, you know what that's like, acting a
little bit.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
I could get up in front of the class, I
could perform, I could teach. And I love kids, and
I love being a camp counselor. I always wanted to
be the fun counselor. And I said, all right, great,
I'll do it. Love it and went to college to
study be a teacher, where I met Mark Warren, who
was also studying to be a teacher.
Speaker 4 (05:45):
We want to fourth grade teachers.
Speaker 5 (05:47):
I got my undergrad degree in elementary with a focus
in elementary education, so I also was going to be
a teacher.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
And when I met Mark and we started talking, we
realized we had the same sense of humor. We loved
dead old Hollywood movies. We had just watched The Night
Before Women's Prison with Idle Lapino, and we were making
jokes about it, and when we went into class, we
were laughing so hard that the teacher, you know, gave
us one of all right, mister Rinseler, mister Warren, tell
(06:18):
the class what's so funny, And we couldn't really explain
why we were laughing. So they threw us out and
we became great friends after that, and we became teachers.
Speaker 4 (06:29):
And we taught in New York City.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
I wanted to go to like the most challenging school
in New York, the poorest neighborhood. I wanted to, you know,
change the world. And they did send me to a
school that just opened. When a school just opens, who
do you send every school in the neighborhood sends the
twenty five worst kids.
Speaker 4 (06:49):
Oh wow, So we go in there. The kids are.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Running wild, they're pulling the fire alarm every ten minutes,
they're letting wild dogs into the building. There was a
dead body in the school yard. We're calling the police
cause somebody plays pick.
Speaker 5 (07:03):
I mean, that's one hell of a show and tell
show and don't tell really, you know, betting on your
level of involvement.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
Right.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
But so that was our thing until another teacher my neighbors, said,
why don't we write a script about teaching. I know,
I once took a filmmaking course.
Speaker 4 (07:24):
I know how to you know, make movies.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
So we went to his house every day after school
and told the stories that happened in our school, crazy
crazy stories, right, And they said ah, let's go to Hollywood.
Speaker 4 (07:36):
What do we got to do?
Speaker 3 (07:37):
So they said, well, the next vacation, we'll go out
to Hollywood. We'll rent an El Dorado Cadillac convertible, we'll
get sunglasses, we'll drive around with a stack of scripts
and we'll knock on doors. And we tried it, you know,
and soon the vacation was over, Mark and I had
to get back to work. The guy said, I'll stay,
I'll finish up. So he said, it looks like it's
(08:00):
not going to happen. We went back to teaching. I
was so said, I even sent my name and birthday
to an astrologer who wrote back and said, your life
is about to change. You are going to get money
in the middle of the summer. You're going to become
a writer. I was like, that's ridiculous. And that summer
(08:21):
we get a phone call from the guy who was
still in California trying to sell the script. He says,
I sold the script. We're getting money in the middle
of the summer. You got to come out here and
be a writer. So we were like, let's do it.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
This astrologer's number, please give it to us. On the side,
I'd like to know.
Speaker 4 (08:40):
Yeah. He sent me an actual tape, like a cassette
tape to play you are going to make money. I
was like, real, you know.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
But it worked and we came out and unfortunately the
script we wrote, even though we sold it and got money,
somebody ripped it off. He made a movie called Teachers
with Nick Nolty. But we couldn't complain because we did
get paid. The guy who paid us was angry because
(09:12):
he was right.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Because he didn't Yeah yeah, oh wow.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
And then we said we got an agent who said,
you know what, forget movies.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
Those scripts sit on shelves.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
Whoever come out to Hollywood and I'll get you a
job writing for TV.
Speaker 4 (09:27):
So we packed up, we quit teaching.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
We took our wives and our we had each had
one son at the time. We moved out to Hollywood
and I went up to see the agent and he's
leaving the business. He goes, oh, I quit this business
is horrible at stuff.
Speaker 4 (09:41):
Oh sorry. We said, hey, our wives.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
Are in Beverly Hills now for homes, and what are
we going to tell it? There's no job and there wasn't.
So every day we just went up to that same
agency CIA and said, you promise us a job, please please, Yeah,
And finally we ended up writing for some puppet named Madam.
Speaker 5 (10:04):
Okay, I have a love hate relationship with Madam.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
When I was little, I was terrified of her.
Speaker 4 (10:20):
That face, the face it.
Speaker 5 (10:22):
Also it looked like the Wicked Queen from Snow White
for me, and that was just that was just a
no go. But then as I got older and went
and rewatched Madam on it was on solid gold. Right
now I have a whole new appreciation and she's hilarious
and it's a total like, you know, I had no
(10:45):
idea you wrote for Madam.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
Well, now that you got older, and if you have
a look at her again, a face is basically male genitalia.
Speaker 5 (10:53):
That's what, yes, exactly it is. It's these yeah yeah,
the nose, the whole.
Speaker 4 (10:59):
Thing, double things.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (11:03):
Show.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
She had a sitcom and in the sitcom, she had
a talk show. Was one of the scenes that she
would do it, and we got all the Hollywood stars
would come Debbie Reynolds, the people would come in. And
when we learned how to write on that show amazing.
Speaker 5 (11:21):
Back when puppets were just getting shows left and right,
you got al you know, you got madam, there's.
Speaker 4 (11:30):
No there's no puppets hr puffing stuff.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
I mean it was you know.
Speaker 5 (11:34):
What was puffing stuff exactly exactly if you've ever watched
that show.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Weirdly found it and loved it. Yeah, I was like,
what is happening?
Speaker 3 (11:46):
It's great people were puffing stuff and watching that show exactly.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
So that seems like it's quite a quite a journey.
Speaker 5 (11:56):
And like, you know, Mark told us a little bit
about it too, so it's it's cool hearing like both sides.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
Of it, and how the same story wherever we go.
Speaker 5 (12:03):
Well, but yeah, but like it, you know, hearing it
that you guys both just sort of met and trusted
each other and and you know, and it worked, and
it worked for a very long time.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
We still make each other laugh. I had lunch with
him yesterday. We still worked at the same stuff. It's great,
and you know, we've been friends. If we're friends first
and then you work together, you never have a real argument.
You only have creative arguments because we love each other.
Speaker 4 (12:30):
So we never really had an argument in thirty years.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
We thirty five years we worked together, just arguing over
you know, what's funny here or something? Right?
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Yeah, yeah, oh, that's so what a what a great friendship.
That makes me feel so good inside that you just
had lunch with him too.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
Yeah, every week we said we get together every week.
That's we go on vacation together. We still hang out.
Speaker 4 (12:52):
I love it. I love stories.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Oh, I mean there's.
Speaker 4 (12:56):
So many we say anything else.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
I just want to tell Andrea what a good sport
and a troop of you were for putting up with
all those Kimmy gibblers stinky feet jokes.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Yes, as a.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
Young teenager, a young person growing up, every little imperfection
is magnified, so you really didn't need that.
Speaker 4 (13:20):
Upbringing. But you took it like such a pro. Really
respected you for that.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Oh that's so nice of you to say that, thank you. Yeah, no,
it was the stinky feet jokes have followed me throughout
my entire life. You know, even to this day, people
ask about my stinky feet.
Speaker 5 (13:38):
But you know, you could start selling your shoes on
eBay and I bet people would buy them.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
This could be a whole other career for me.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
Really.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
Let me tell you, market people, do you say thank you?
What do you say when they say I?
Speaker 2 (13:52):
You know, one time I did get a little sassy,
and I was like, well you want to find out, I'll.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Take the shoes off right here.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
But mostly I just like, I'm just like, no, no,
my feet don't stink.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
I'm too polite to.
Speaker 5 (14:02):
Say anything like no, no, no, I don't know. I
my feet aren't real. I don't have feet, and they're
not real.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
They're not they're not really. Those weren't really my feet.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
But Kimmy was such a fun character, Y like, she
was such a great character to play.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
Was how about the outfits we picked out for you?
Speaker 1 (14:20):
I didn't love the outfits. It's your fault, your fault. Yes,
I try not to harbor too much resentment.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
No I didn't. Yeah, the wardrobe was tough, was tough,
you know what.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
I feel like they would show us choices. We have
this one of this one, we go, oh, that second
one is worse.
Speaker 4 (14:36):
We got to use that Oh.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Gosh, yes, you see, you see, But that's okay.
Speaker 4 (14:41):
Character.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
It was the character, and I feel like in Fuller House,
Kimmy Gibler got so much redemption. You know, she was
finally like her wardrobe was finally stylish and yeah, she
finally came into her own.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
Well, when you guys are in charge, you make different decisions.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Yeah, it's weird how the adult on the show. It
makes a big difference in your wardrobe.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
Yeah, ask you doing the show. Did you have any
revelations like now that you're on the other side, Oh,
that's why you do this, So that's why they made
those decisions. Did anything hit you like now I see
it from the other side.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
I mean, a great question for me the week I directed.
Speaker 5 (15:26):
Was I mean, and I cud you know, I kind
of knew some of the questions that that side of
the camera has to ask, but but it was a
very different experience when you're like, oh, yeah, like I'm
in charge here and everything all the pieces have to
fit and I actually am in charge of some decisions
and I have to make a choice.
Speaker 4 (15:44):
Yeah, you're making a decision for week. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Yeah, A lot of the ever rote an episode.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
It's been a week in the writer's room, which was amazing,
Like there is just oh boy, lots of jokes, lots
of talk, lots of wasted time, lots of snacks, like
there's lot going on in that room that the fuel.
Yeah right, but no, it was fantastic. I I really
think what I realized that week in the writer's room
on Fuller House was there should really be a liaison
(16:12):
between the stage and the writer's room, because I was
kind of both that week. I was the actor on
the stage and I was the writer in the writer's room.
But I was able to explain to the writers why
a scene wasn't working, or why this joke wasn't hitting,
or why this this actor wouldn't be able to make
it work or whatever, and they were like, oh, okay, yeah,
well let's just change that. We'll just change that scene.
We'll make that. It's an easy change to make. And
(16:34):
then when I was on the stage, I'd be like,
the writers really want this, you know, they really want
this thing to work, and so.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
We gotta we got to figure out different blocking or whatever.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
So I was like, yeah, this is this is helpful
to have somebody talking, which I guess that was mostly
you and Mark and Jeff too when Jeff was on
the show.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
You guys really related.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
Second hand, like all that from the stage is, but
you're right person in both places well, and.
Speaker 5 (16:57):
Not only that, I find anyone working on the other
side of the camera who has also been an actor
or ever at least had some.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
Sort of experience on that.
Speaker 5 (17:08):
It's a really great bridge because you both you understand
what the actor is feeling and how to talk to
them and like what they and then you know, the
writers or the director or whatever. It's like you know,
how what to push on, what to sort of let
them have, you know, and uh, yeah, it's just but
it is the liaison between sort of that again, that
(17:31):
bridge in the middle. I don't think people really get
how siloed. Yeah, your stage and the writer's room are.
They are across the law in different spots.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
We don't really, yeah, we don't really. We never really
interacted that much with the writers. You know, they would
come for run throughs and watch us at run throughs,
but other than that, there wasn't Yeah, there wasn't a
whole lot of interaction.
Speaker 4 (17:54):
It is the nerve center, the brain. Yeah, the show.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
And uh, I got to tell you guys, when we
came on the show the second season, it was not
a happy place because we came in and all we're
hearing is all the reviews are terrible. They're trashing us,
and the audience is not even hasn't even found us.
We have there's no ratings and uh, you know, I
(18:24):
think this is just a kid show. Then we go
down to the stage and we find out John Stamos
doesn't like the show.
Speaker 4 (18:32):
He doesn't want to be in.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
Every scene is being stolen by some young kids.
Speaker 4 (18:38):
Bob Saggant, Oh yeah.
Speaker 5 (18:42):
They hated each other, well, not hated each other, but
they drove each other nuts.
Speaker 4 (18:47):
And Saggot hates his character. I'm a nerd.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
I'm a clean freak wife, right, Dave Coolier, he just
wanted to come to work and.
Speaker 5 (18:58):
Just the guy who's like, what this man, what do
you want me to do?
Speaker 3 (19:04):
But the thing was, even though we thought, oh, I
guess we're just doing a kid show. It's a rip
off of three men and a baby and all that.
Speaker 4 (19:13):
But when we saw you guys, we were saying, this
is this is comedy gold.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
I mean comedy gold is when you know, you give
actors a joke, and it's usually if you write a
good joke, it's joke proof. Just read it and we'll laugh.
But you guys were making the straight lines funny.
Speaker 4 (19:35):
How rude?
Speaker 3 (19:37):
You could put that in a script, Stephanie, go up
to your room, how rude? No, And you did it.
It was so powerful and funny. We're still doing it today.
It was still using it today.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
And Andrea, you had to take a character who normally
you would say this person could be annoying. You did
it in such a funny way that when you walked
in the room, everyone's so happy because now it's going
to get really funny. And that's that's gold. And when
we realize that and Michelle, you know, Jeff knew how
(20:12):
to make Michelle so cute, so cute, and we realized, Okay,
it's kids, but it's great kids. And Cameron, Candace Cameron
was a good dramatic actress. She can do those scenes.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
She could cry on demand.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
Yeah. Me, like maybe halfway through the second season when
we were.
Speaker 4 (20:37):
Doing Goodbye Mister Bear. Oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
And Stephanie has a you know, an attachment to that
stuff down there. And I'm on the stage and I
look into the audience and people are crying, crying, and
adults are crying. So we're saying, wait a minute, this
isn't just kids. Adults loving the show. So when we
(21:02):
got back to the room, we said, we got to
start thinking of this show as a single mom sitting
with an eight year old girl watching the show.
Speaker 4 (21:11):
That's who we're going to write for.
Speaker 3 (21:13):
Then we did some research and we find out boys
are watching because they love Joey, and young women and
teenage girls love John Stamos of course, and the kids
are so funny that we said, oh, I think we
got the right formula. And that's when it started to click.
And that's when we started getting people coming. You know,
(21:35):
we couldn't we had turned people away.
Speaker 5 (21:38):
Yeah, we found our groove in that second season about
how all of us actors writers, and that's usually kind
of how it goes, which is much the hard thing
about shows now is that you know they're like, entertain
(22:01):
me in the first episode or you're gone.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
You know, it's like it takes.
Speaker 5 (22:05):
A while, like you said, to build that audience and
for people to overlook maybe a review and watch it
for themselves. And you know, look, the only award full
or full house, full or House has won is the
People's Choice Awards, And honestly, I would rather win that, yeah,
in a lot of ways, because it means that people.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
Are enjoying what you're doing.
Speaker 5 (22:26):
And you guys like made you really got that connection
between like each of our sort of ages, demographics, abilities,
and it took.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
A while you know, when Mark and I came on
the show, we were parents and most of the guys
there were not not yeah, and there were no women
on the staff.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Yep and yep.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
The vibe of the show was, Oh, it's these three
single guys and they're kind of stuck raising these girls
and the girls are cramping their style, which is not sympathetic.
In Spain, the show was called Padres Fizzoso's which is
like forced fathers show, so you know, uh, and we
(23:10):
we came in with parenting stories.
Speaker 4 (23:12):
I mean, look at the first episode.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
We wrote jingle Hell, jingle h E double hockey stack,
as Joey would say, and we did Jesse and.
Speaker 4 (23:23):
Joey team up to work.
Speaker 3 (23:26):
On advertising together, which was from our life.
Speaker 4 (23:30):
Mark and I were a writing team.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
We know the arguments you have, and DJ and Stephanie
are arguing that Stephanie's always touching DJ's stuff. So when
the girls have an argument and they see the boys
having an argument, the men having an argument, and they worry,
the girls wearri are we going to are you guys
getting divorced? And it made the guys realize G has parents.
Everything we do reflects to them. We have to set
(23:55):
a better example. So those are the kind of stories
you're interested. Plus we gave Danny uh potty training story,
which is right.
Speaker 4 (24:04):
You know, a parenting story. So we were pushing towards
those kind of stories.
Speaker 3 (24:08):
Although we did have a problem in that we didn't
know right away that John Stamos and Uh Sagitt were
not getting along. So he because Saga was good friends
with Joey, they with Uh with David comics together and
in Comes John and John starts getting real friendly with Dave,
(24:32):
and Bob feels left out.
Speaker 4 (24:34):
So we said, let's write a script.
Speaker 5 (24:37):
I think Bob always felt left out even when he
was included.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
He was like wait.
Speaker 3 (24:43):
So we wrote a script called Pal Joey, will you
do a flashback? Yes, ends, and you see that Joey
and Danny are friends. Incomes Jesse gets in between the
two of them. Now he's more friends with Joey. Danny
fields left out, and they all come together at the
(25:06):
end and they bury something as friendship's right. Get the
word that on the stage the three of them are
getting along.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
Ah.
Speaker 4 (25:15):
So we said, oh, all right, it worked. It worked? Wow?
Speaker 5 (25:20):
Yeah, and it really you know, and John and Bob
John always still tells the story about how, yeah, they
couldn't stand each other and then they became brothers.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
Yeah, like everything else. Yeah, well, you know John Stamus
was such a pro and he had so much experience
and John and Bob is you know he's from stand up,
say and do anything you want?
Speaker 1 (25:43):
Right, Yeah, exactly, he was.
Speaker 4 (25:45):
He was. I mean the parents used to get so
upset with this stuff, right, yes, I remember you guys.
Speaker 3 (25:53):
Were sitting around one morning and Bob comes in and
he goes, oh my god, I had such morning this morning.
Speaker 4 (26:00):
My daughters were playing ring toss on.
Speaker 3 (26:02):
That and the mother is your mom and Canada's mom,
and you know what, it got back to the Inquirer
that Bob was out of control and the parents were angry,
and that was true.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
Oh my god.
Speaker 5 (26:18):
Well that there was a story when I was like
nine or something ten, because Bob and I were super close.
I loved Bob and I was close with his daughters,
and so I would spend weekends and stuff at the
house sometimes, you know, and he'd I go home with
him after taping whatever to go see Audrey and Laura.
And around that time, there was a Star magazine article
(26:41):
that came out that I was a difficult child to
work with. I was throwing tantrums. Nobody on set liked me,
particularly Bob. He was trying to get me fired. Like
it was the wildest thing.
Speaker 4 (26:55):
The headline was mean me, Bob saggot, the man's Jody's
weedn't be fired.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
Yes, that's what it was.
Speaker 3 (27:02):
Yeah, And when we came to work the next day,
you guys pretended that it was real. Yeah, and you're
arguing in front, I want you out of here.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
That's hysterical.
Speaker 3 (27:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (27:15):
Yeah, we just made fun of it.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
We all knew it wasn't true, but the rest of
the country they don't know.
Speaker 4 (27:21):
Those men.
Speaker 5 (27:22):
So ridiculous, so ridiculous crazy. Now, you've worked on like
several other incredibly popular shows, even Stevens.
Speaker 4 (27:34):
That was great, So Raven that was fun? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (27:38):
What what?
Speaker 4 (27:39):
What?
Speaker 5 (27:39):
What else? What other things have been your favorite?
Speaker 3 (27:44):
Like, it's funny. After Full House, the comedy started changing.
The shows not family shows that everyone watched together. You
had Seinfeld, you had Rose Dan. You know, these were
kind of adult comedies. So the networks were like when
we would go in there and they'd say, oh, you
(28:06):
guys did Full House, right, Oh okay, Well we're.
Speaker 4 (28:09):
Not really doing that kind of thing anymore.
Speaker 3 (28:11):
And then the Disney Channel pops up and they're like,
full House, get over here, exactly what we're looking for.
Speaker 4 (28:18):
So they gave us Even Stevens.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
We you know, after a while, we became like a
show doctors because we took over Full House after Jeff
left to do Hanging with mister Cooper. They trusted us
to take over shows like The Parenthood with Robert Townsend
and Even Stevens. The first staff left and we came in,
or that's so raven The whole staff left, the show
(28:44):
runner left and we came in. And on Even Stevens,
they really didn't have a family show that didn't have
a magic element, a magic sweater or some weird science.
So we were just doing crazy families stories and they
didn't really have any comments on what we did. They
would say, all right, I guess, I guess that's okay.
(29:06):
Do whatever you want. So we did the first Disney
Channel musical, We did an episode of Even Stevens. We
did fake documentaries, documentaries like spinal tap, things like that.
We tried anything, and so it was really and it
was single camera, which means instead of doing it like
we did on Full House, which is a play that
(29:28):
you you show in front of an audience with four cameras,
single camera, one at a time, seen by thing takes forever.
Speaker 5 (29:36):
You're like, oh, yes, yeah, we always do that too,
like use a term, and then I'm like, wait, hold on,
I don't think anyone outside of this business.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
So when you shoot it like a movie, uh, you
could do whatever you want. You could put the camera
on the ceiling, in the toilet bowl, any crazy shot
you want. So we had a lot of fun on
that show and that talented people sh Buff was on
and he.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
Christy Yeah, Christy car.
Speaker 4 (30:06):
Mona was great and that was fun. That was a
lot of fun.
Speaker 3 (30:09):
And then Raven we went back to four cameras shot
in front of an audience, and she was so surprisingly talented.
She could do anything, yeah, sing, dance, physical, comedy, stunts, drama,
you know. So she was the real deal too. So
that was it brought us back to the Full House days,
you know, in front of an audience and getting real laughs.
Speaker 5 (30:31):
Yeah, because there's something about that that just for writers
and actors, it's so great to get that immediate feedback.
You're like, oh, that's working and when you when it
doesn't work, you're like, oh, that's you know, we.
Speaker 4 (30:43):
Need to change it.
Speaker 3 (30:44):
When we would shoot Full House in front of an audience,
if the joke didn't work, the actors would quickly huddle up,
pitch a new joke, and we'd try it in front
of the audience if that word it was good. But
when you're doing film on single camera, there's no audio
and you can't laugh. So someone's trying to be really
(31:05):
funny and we have to hold a breath and not laugh.
Speaker 4 (31:09):
So that person doesn't know is this working? Is thisay?
No one's laughing. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
Yeah it is.
Speaker 5 (31:16):
It's a totally different, totally different vibe.
Speaker 3 (31:18):
And when you have a live audience you try to
make them laugh. Come on, everybody, enjoy it. Laugh, You
throw candy so they all she'll get up right, yes, sure,
the fifty five degrees so they're laughing just.
Speaker 4 (31:29):
To keep warm.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
Yeah, all right, you guys.
Speaker 5 (31:32):
That wraps up part one of our interview with Dennis Rinstler,
and there is so much more to talk about with him.
We had such a great interview from his career on
Full House to the other iconic shows that he's worked on,
like even Stevens and that's so raven. You can listen
to the rest of Dennis's interview in part two, which
will be airing this Friday, and in the meantime, if
you want to check us out on Instagram, you can
(31:53):
follow us at how Rude Podcast, send us an email
at how Rude Tanertos at gmail dot com. There we go,
and uh yeah, visit our merch store howardmerch dot com.
We've got shirts, We've got turtles, we've got them in bags.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
No, we don't have turtles at bags. That would be terrible.
Speaker 5 (32:10):
But remember, you guys, the world is small, but the
house is full of child actors just just lousy with them.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
They're everywhere, They're everywhere you look. They're everywhere you look.
Speaker 5 (32:21):
And and there's also a corner of of uh studio
teachers somewhere if the house. Yeah, yeah, yeah, they don't worry.
They're not totally unsupervised.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
Like Michelle, It's
Speaker 5 (32:31):
Okay, bye bye,
Hosts And Creators
Andrea Barber
Jodie Sweetin
Popular Podcasts
Amy Robach & T.J. Holmes present: Aubrey O’Day, Covering the Diddy Trial
Introducing… Aubrey O’Day Diddy’s former protege, television personality, platinum selling music artist, Danity Kane alum Aubrey O’Day joins veteran journalists Amy Robach and TJ Holmes to provide a unique perspective on the trial that has captivated the attention of the nation. Join them throughout the trial as they discuss, debate, and dissect every detail, every aspect of the proceedings. Aubrey will offer her opinions and expertise, as only she is qualified to do given her first-hand knowledge. From her days on Making the Band, as she emerged as the breakout star, the truth of the situation would be the opposite of the glitz and glamour. Listen throughout every minute of the trial, for this exclusive coverage. Amy Robach and TJ Holmes present Aubrey O’Day, Covering the Diddy Trial, an iHeartRadio podcast.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy And Charlamagne Tha God!