Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I am all in again.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
I Am all in again with Scott Patterson and iHeartRadio podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Hey everybody, Scott Patterson, I Am All in again. Podcast
one eleven productions, iHeart Radio, iHeart Media, iHeart Podcast Season one,
Episode three, which is entitled kill Me. Now we have
a very very special guest, the man responsible for directing
(00:44):
this wonderful episode, Adam kneem Oy. Yes, that kneem Oy.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
May the Force be with us all. I mean, it's
just like, how iconic is this moment?
Speaker 3 (00:57):
First of all, did you see what Adam just did?
Because I've already been so excited for Adam and now
I'm losing my mind. He literally just gave us the spock.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
So grad your dad famously Leonard Nimoy of Star Trek Fame,
Legend icon.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
He's gonna save all my Star Trek fan girling for
the end. But maybe I have.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
To be just let it out, Just let it out,
let it out. O. Adam, Thanks for joining us, Thanks
for having me.
Speaker 4 (01:34):
I'm such as such an honor and privileged to be here.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
I love the show, so I'm so I'm so glad
to be participating in this with you guys.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
I have to tell you, everybody on the team was
like really really really buzzing that you were coming on.
Uh And when they told me, I said, oh, man,
were you Were you on an episode before? Did we
have you on as a guest at any point? This
is the first time we've we've met.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
Yes, So we're explaining to Adam so so Adam. Basically,
we watched every episode of Gilmore Girls with the fans
on this podcast. We finished and like Gilmore Girls fans,
we just started again at the beginning and now each
week where we have on a cast member, a crew member,
(02:21):
a director, a producer, somebody that was involved with the show,
and the fans are enjoying it again as they do.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Wait a minute, there was like a couple hundred episodes, right,
you've gone through.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
The one hundred, one hundred and fifty three plus the
four Netflix episodes.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
Yeah, wow, Okay.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
We went We went through it in about three years,
three and a half years, and we're rebooting and we're
changing it up a little bit.
Speaker 4 (02:51):
Now.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
We're doing we're dropping an episode every day now, adding
to the feed and to the fan excitement and you know,
giving them content what they want. And we're all just
waiting we're all just waiting for new episodes Gilmore Girls,
and we got to do something in the interim, So okay.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Curiously, but before I do, my star trek fangirling, which
I will. You directed an amazing episode of Gilmore Girls here.
It's sort of the first one that launched the bigger
reduction of Gilmore Girls. How you directed it is I
can't wait to ask you all these questions. The wedding
scene is massive, and there's things happening in the you know,
(03:33):
one part of the scene while there's background things happening
that you're obviously directing, or a scene in the in
the town where we're watching one bit of action. But
Suki and Jackson are chasing each other down the street,
and there's so much bigness to this episode.
Speaker 4 (03:50):
Yeah. Yeah, it was a pretty big production, and I
think it was.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
It's episode three, and I think I'm the first guy
director who came on. I wish I had done more.
I must tell you. Look, I love the show. My
daughter Mattie is a fanatic fan for the show. She's
obsessed with Scott and with Milo and and I've worked
(04:14):
with Milo before I got to Gilmore Girls, or at
least before he did. And and my my daughter Maddy
just had her own daughter and named.
Speaker 4 (04:23):
Her romy not quite Rory but close. Just one letter.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
And when I just told her I'm in New York
now and I just told her I was going to
be talking to you, she kind of flipped out.
Speaker 4 (04:33):
And didn't know about the podcast.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
So h you know, we have we have a lot
of Gilmore fandom going on on the knee Moy side
as well.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
Great, give her our best, give her our best, and
we'd love to talk to her one day. Actually, And
you first.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
Got the script, were you because obviously the show was new,
so you probably were directing this episode before the show
had ever even aired. So were you shocked by like
the denseness of the script and know how many words
essentially were just in this material.
Speaker 4 (05:05):
Well, I mean yeah, that is the signature of the show. Now.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
I had directed Alan McBeal, which also had a lot
of snappy, fast dialogue, so I was used to that
kind of a thing. But yeah, I mean yeah, that
is what distinguishes Gilmore Girls and makes it so charming,
you know, is the whole Rory Lorelei. You know, the
back and forth, the banter, the witticisms, the one upmanship.
It's just their dynamic is amazing. But what's really, you know, interesting,
(05:31):
is that they had it when I came on. I mean,
they just had it already, even after just two episodes.
Speaker 4 (05:38):
They were in the pattern, they were in the groove.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
They knew each other very well, they knew, you know,
how the rhythm should go. And I was just in
a situation where just turn on the camera and let
them go, you know, because they really carried the show.
Speaker 4 (05:53):
Ye wow.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
You know, that's one of the observations that struck me
when I got to the set for the first time
up in Toronto, up in Unionville, I came a little
early to watch those two working because they had a
couple of Luke's diner scenes that we did, and that
was my first down the set, and I watched those
(06:15):
two Lauren and Alexis in rehearsal, and I thought to myself,
oh my, you know, we've got something here, because the
chemistry between those two and the banter between those two,
it worked so beautifully, and just in the rehearsal part
of it, and they were still kind of fumbling around
trying to find it, you know, and they said oh
this is this is going to be good.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
Oh yeah, yah. They were well, I mean, they were
very well cast.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Amy had a really good sense of what you wanted,
what she was looking for, and they delivered.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
Oh yes, they did huge thanks to you, because I'm sorry, Scott, you.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
Go no, no, go ahead, you go ahead questions.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
So obviously, and Scott, I want to know from you
when Adam came onto the set. You know, he obviously
was a great director already, but were you all like,
oh my god, like yeah, under me? Why Son? And
also Adam, I have to say Star Trek four is
by far the best Star Trek movie directed by your
(07:14):
amazing father. And it is the best because it has
all the action we love, but it has that comedy,
which is the same thing we love about this show.
It has heart and drama, but it's funny and that's
what I thought. Your dad was so brilliant in the
way he did Star Trek four.
Speaker 4 (07:32):
Well, yeah, and thank you. I mean, it was a
balance of things.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
He also had a rewrite from Nick Meyer, who has,
you know, quite a sense of humor and witticism of
his own. Nick had directed and written Star Trek two,
Wrath of Khan and then and did a rewrite on
Star Trek four, and then came back from Star Trek
six the final installment with the original cast. So yeah,
I mean, that's that's what the show was really.
Speaker 4 (07:57):
I mean, you know, the show was it.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Star Trek was sometimes had this campy, funny stuff of
this dynamic between kirks Bock and McCoy, you know, and
I mean like Gilmore Girls, and it was some serious stuff,
relationships stuff, social issue stuff. I mean it was a
real combination and finding that balance is really difficult to do,
which is why Star Trek, even though it only went
(08:19):
three seasons and seventy eight episodes, you know, it has
been replayed in syndication ever since for the past fifty
eight years. And why I think Gilmore Girls are so
successful because because they you know, you guys just hit
the mark every time. I mean, it starts with the writing.
It started with Amy. It starts with the showrunners to
find that medium where you can interject these things great
(08:43):
great trauma, great issues, great dynamics, and funny witticism to
keep us watching.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Yeah, all starts with the writing.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
Man.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
When I got that pilot script, I just felt, WHOA,
what is this and how am I going to get
in this? Because that's when, you know, that was twenty
nineteen ninety niney two thousand, when movie stars were starting
to do TV pretty regularly, and I thought, man, we're
gonna have to fight off a lot of movie stars
to get this role. So and that helped me with
(09:15):
the audition because I just I didn't care because I
knew I wasn't getting it, so I just kind of
let it off lie anyway, right, you know, the dumb
courage of the truly burnout. And it kind of worked out.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
But well, I gotta I just want to interject that
the way you play Luke is so critical to the
show because there's so much going on.
Speaker 4 (09:33):
There's so much action, and.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Then we can go to the diner and just take
a break and have your you know, your kind of setting,
you know, your cool vibe. Slow down, everybody, everything's good,
We're okay here, take a break, have a couple of coffee,
which will speed you up later on.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
But in the meantime, you really need that counterbalance to
to so people can take a breather. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
In point, Scott, I don't think we've talked about that
that Adam's making that when you do go into the diner,
it is a little bit of a I can catch
up for a second, I can breathe, I can. It's dry,
You're so your performance is so sarcastic and dry, even
in this one interesting hat interesting hat like it's just
(10:20):
even in this episode, even though you're in just a
couple of scenes, they're so crucial.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
I got very lucky, That's all I'll say. I got
very lucky.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
I always want to become a director. Adam like, did
you ever want to be an actor?
Speaker 4 (10:33):
I don't.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
I don't know if you ever acted like your dad
or if you always just you know, became a director.
Speaker 4 (10:39):
Well.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
I started off as a as an attorney. I went
to law school and practiced entertainment law for seven years.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
Did you go to Berkeley?
Speaker 4 (10:46):
Well? I went to Berkeley undergrad. I went, all right,
where'd you go to law school?
Speaker 2 (10:52):
I went to law school in la at Loyola Gosz
practice music law for for several years and decided I'm
really wanted to do something more creative. Actually, it's interesting
because I started attending a class with a guy named
Jeff Corey, who was my dad's acting instructor, and just
to hang out because I was in between jobs and
that's when everything changed. And you know, I want I
(11:15):
always wanted to be a storyteller. I want to do
something more creative. And Scott, I read something in your
bio that you studied acting in New York under Arthur Penn.
Speaker 4 (11:24):
Is that correct? Oh?
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Sure, yeah. At the Actors Studio, Arthur Penn ran the
producer director unit. There was an acting unit on Tuesdays,
and then I think Thursday or Friday was the was
the producer director unit. And Paul Newman used to comment
and run it, and Arthur Penn used to come in
and run it, and I mean, yeah, we had all
kinds of just one.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Of my favorite directors of all time with that big man,
you know, miracle worker Bonnie Clyde amazing.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
Yeah, you know I got to sit there and absorb
all that, you know, as an observer. I wasn't a
member yet. I mean it's very difficult to get in,
but to be around that was you know, critical, your likely. Yeah. Yeah,
so we established now this is the first Friday night
dinner if I am not.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
And I thought Adam made interesting choices with the lighting too.
It was like really lit, I don't know if you
worked with the team on that, but it was like,
we really see Friday night dinner and it has this
sort of real vibe to it as we start the
episode with that, Yeah, those.
Speaker 4 (12:33):
Are those are decisions I don't I don't really make.
I mean it was it's it's a dp's cinematography issue.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
It's something that Amy would have had more say on.
You know, these kind of things are you know, the
look of the show is something that, uh that Amy
had a very specific idea of how she wanted it
to play out. And I and my job is just
to defer to her. It's her show, it's her vision.
You know, I've only coming in on episode three, so
(13:01):
I don't even know what's coming next. And you know,
and you know, it's it can be challenging in terms
of figuring out what, you know, trying to figure out
what she wants. And you know, that is the director's
job as a journeyman director, when you know, we're just
hired for three weeks to prep and shoot the show,
to find out what is the writer, you know, showrunner's
(13:22):
vision for the show. And and and that's where you know,
I try to have as much communication as I could
with Amy. I would just refer to her, what the
what the look is that she's going for?
Speaker 3 (13:32):
Well, do you know her at all?
Speaker 1 (13:33):
Sorry, go Scott, No, go ahead, go ahead.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
Did you know her at all? Because what a unique
show to come on to sort of out of nowhere
and have to get in her head?
Speaker 4 (13:42):
Yeah, I mean I don't.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
I did not know her, and and I wished I
had come back to do more, you know, I did not.
I mean, look, it was it was kind of intense
because this is the first season. The creating a look
of the show, there's a lot of logistics, there's a
lot of pressure to crank out all those episodes for
the season.
Speaker 4 (14:01):
It's a new crew. I think there were some crew issues.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Some things changed shortly after I was there, So there's
a lot of politics involved.
Speaker 4 (14:10):
It's very it can be very touch and go.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
So you know, it can be very challenging for me
to know as a just a visiting director, you know,
what is the landscape here? And so it's it can
be very tricky. I mean, I've directed episodes from a
lot of first season shows and it's all over the map.
But this is a show that Amy was very had
a very tight grip on. She was very determined that
(14:35):
this show should succeed. They were very nervous about the
first season, you know, and getting the show off the ground,
and you know, and I just you know, they she
had a great staff, she had great productions that mel
FROs and gavn blown.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
I mean, these were guys who were very supportive and
knew what they were doing.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
And for me, I just try to stay out of
everybody's way and defer to them.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
The lack of close ups. Did you discuss that with Amy,
because they didn't really do close close close ups. It
was always like, you know, chest up at the most.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
Yeah, or a lot of two shots to let the
two of them go. It's because you've start to find
that with that dialogue.
Speaker 4 (15:26):
And we did it.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
We did, you know, we did over the shoulders or
or we did medium close ups. We didn't do extreme
close ups. But it doesn't play It gets too claustrophobic,
especially if you're cutting back and forth like that.
Speaker 4 (15:38):
You have to be loose.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Now.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
A lot of times things just played out in the
two shot or the master a wider shot because it's
just going like that, you know, and it just plays
better with the two of them in the frame, I.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Thought, especially in some of the diner scenes they did
when we had steady camp Steve doing the whole thing,
and it was like an eight or a ten page
because we actually did have eight to ten page scenes,
if you can believe it, with all that dialogue that's crazy. Yeah,
and they let it play in just that steadycam shot.
So it was it really felt quite often like you
(16:12):
were doing theater because of course everything had to come
together in one take, in one shot, because that was
going to be the setup.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Well, it's very economical to do things that way, and
sometimes it works if you have enough action or the
dialogue is happening, and and yeah, you've got to rely
on people to play it like it's live.
Speaker 4 (16:32):
TV or theater and that and that you know is
you know that that attests.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
To the quality of your talent, that you guys have
the rhythm, that you know your lines, you know where
you need to be, and you're on it for the
whole thing.
Speaker 4 (16:44):
It's it's very challenging.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
Those were the most exciting days. Those are my favorite
days inside of Luke Steiner is doing those long scenes
with steadycam. Steve Clancy, the man and just you know,
trying to nail it again and again and again because
you had to shoot those a lot because they weren't
doing any coverage. It's like the pressure's on to do
(17:06):
this thing. And they were so fun, they were so
fun to do.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
Oh man, this episode has just got so much in it.
You're shooting an entire wedding and dance dance number and
dance number. Well then also shooting an entire thing at
a golf course, like you know, Rory and her grandfather
are really walking the course and you have all that
and then they go and you know, you've got the
(17:31):
steam room and there's the country club stuff. It just
must have been a massive undertaking. And this is that
first episode where we realize like this show's big, because
we get many more episodes like this through the seven seasons.
Speaker 4 (17:47):
Well, it is big.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Production for episode three of me. It was big production
for the pilot. I can't believe all the stuff they
crammed into the pilot. I mean there's a lot, like
a lot of the street stuff is you know, it
takes time. There's a lot of extras. You've got, you know,
a lot of elements going on there. Yeah, I mean
we Look, I was lucky. We had a great crew,
great you know, assistant director, uh, great producing support to
(18:11):
make it all happen, you know, great.
Speaker 4 (18:14):
Casting, Uh you know, uh, director, you know, we just do.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Were a lot of things that were really working for
us to make the show possible.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
Director, do you bring anyone with you? Like or do
you just you're the guy that shows up and the
crew is all there?
Speaker 4 (18:30):
Like, yeah, who's all there? I'm just I'm just a guest,
you know.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
And part of my job is like just to you know,
dodge the bullets sometimes, uh, and just show up and
do the best job I can. And there were things
I learned on this show that were very valuable for me,
you know, there were there were some performance things that
I learned about the about the show and about directing,
and and we can talk about that.
Speaker 4 (18:58):
So are we going to be looking at the episode
or we are We're just gonna we're just talking about
kind of talking.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
Yeah, just talking.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
There's a couple of things. Yeah, there's a couple of
things that I want to mention, uh, in the episode
that I directed. So what's happening at the end is
that they're they're having a wedding.
Speaker 4 (19:15):
Yeah, and the wedding.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
Is two uh uh, you know brides who are twins,
mirroring twin groans, you know, and the mother of the
twin brides has issues with with her daughters.
Speaker 4 (19:32):
That's that's part of the setup. She's she's not there there.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
There's difficulty, there's conflict there, and it mirrors what's going on.
Speaker 4 (19:40):
With with Laurel I and her mother Emily mh.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
And the thing I missed and that I talked about
this with Lauren and it was like it was unfortunate
that I did not give her this note was that
that that Laurelized relationship with the mother of those brides
should have been more of closer, more of a mother
their daughter thing, more of what Laurel I was looking for,
and with her own mother, that she did not know
(20:06):
that these are performance issues. This is the kind of
thing that are then you know that this is the
things that that Jeff Corey taught in acting. This is
why I went to acting class to really discover what's deeper,
what's going on there, what's happening in the relationships. And
I talked about this with Lauren, but we had shot
most of it, and she said I wished I had.
Speaker 4 (20:24):
Known that before, you know, the foregoing into because then
they could have made a connection that Laurel I is
looking for in her own life that she's missing. And
this is the type of performance things.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
These are the kinds of notes that are that directors
search for so they can give good notes to actors.
You know, I don't want to it's not just you
know a lot of times in TV, it's moved here,
move there, say your line, say it quick, or say
it's slower, say it louder, softer, cut print.
Speaker 4 (20:52):
We got to move on that.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
That because there's because a lot of times directors don't
know what to say to an actor. And a lot
of actors have told me that their big complaint as
directors don't talk to them about their motivation, their objective,
what's at state, what's in their way? Yeah, I mean,
and this is something that This is why I went
to acting class with Jeff Corey, who you know is
a follower of the actors studio and method acting and
(21:15):
all the rest of them.
Speaker 4 (21:15):
Mean, Jeff was in theater in New York. He started
out there.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
He was much you know, senior to me, and so
he really had that kind of a background and these
are the kind and this is what I learned from
that episode. It's like, I can't you can pay so
much time to you know, how to how to block it,
how to shoot it.
Speaker 4 (21:32):
These things are all important.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
It's technique, but what's more important is what's going on
in front of the camera, is what is the story?
And Amy always delivered for me that story was very
tight to begin with.
Speaker 4 (21:44):
And what's going on with performance, the.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
Technique, how we shoot it, the steady cam stuff, that's
all important, but it's third.
Speaker 4 (21:50):
In line, right, And this is something that I learned
with with Lauren.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
It's like when when she said that she was she
was kind of disappointed I didn't give her that note
at the top of the show, and that's when I realized,
I need to really focus more on what is going
on with the characters, what actors need, what I can
help them with, you know, getting deeper in terms of
what their objectives are in the episode.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
Fascinating because the episode really is what you're saying, you know,
the mother of the twins, in her relationship with the
daughters and how much she just despises them. Then we
have Emily's relationship with Lorilai, but there's a lot of
friction between Loralai and Rory in this episode as a
result of her sort of being drawn to her grandparents
(22:37):
and having this great day with her grandpa golfing and
how it irritates Loralai and we I mean, we have
its comedy, my boobs are bigger than yours, you know
all that in it. But you're so right that that
is really the core part of the episode.
Speaker 4 (22:55):
Yeah, you want to find that. This is the point.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
You want to find the heart, You want to find
out what the episode is really about. And this is
something I learned from my dad. It's like, what is
it about?
Speaker 4 (23:04):
What's it really about?
Speaker 2 (23:06):
And it really is laurel I struggle with her mother
and it's and the other thing that I wish we
could have found is some connection between Emily, Laureli's mother
and Laureli because there's just there's so much friction, there's
so much.
Speaker 4 (23:17):
Conflict, and it's like, what happened? Is there nothing? Is
there no bond between the two of them, you know?
Speaker 2 (23:23):
And the thing and the thing with this is what's
so great about the writing in terms of Laurelai and
Rory is yeah, there's conflict, but there's a love connection.
It's there, it's clear, and they and that's why they
can turn on.
Speaker 4 (23:36):
A dime and you believe it.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
Because you know that they care about each other. They
rely on each other, you know, and that's really important.
But what remained to be explored in my episode, which
we just didn't do, was how Laura I could relate
to the mother of these brides on a on a
mother daughter level, to have a surrogate mother, so to speak,
and also if we could have found something between her
and her own mother, just just a moment of tenderness
(24:01):
to break up some of the conflict that was.
Speaker 4 (24:02):
Going on throughout the whole episode.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
That is, you know, there was a nice moment when
she ran up and hugged Laura I for putting on
such a beautiful wedding, and she was a little drunk,
and that actress was fabulous. She was just she was
so good, She was so great.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
She la she loves Laura. She just hated her own daughters, right.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
No, but but Lauren should have you know, it would
have been a great moment for Lauren to realize, Wow,
I wish I had a mom like her. I mean,
you know, I wish I could relate to my own mother.
But that's the whole thing is sometimes, you know, Laurla
is not that woman's daughter. And I had the same
experience with my dad. I mean sometimes Leonard was a
very complicated guy to love. Let me tell you. I
(24:41):
mean I love Leonard, but loving him was complicated. Loving
Spock I had no trouble with. I loved fac I
loved Star Trek from the get go. Loving Leonard super
complicated me.
Speaker 3 (24:50):
That's interesting to you. Do you talk about that in
your books? You have to two books kind of that
address it, right, your human Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
It's the most human reconciling with my father, Leonard Nimoy,
And it was this whole dilemma that the same thing
that Laurela is going through is how do you relate
with a parent when there's just there's conflict, there's you know,
communication issues, there's dysfunction. How do you do it? How
do you keep going back to it? What's the formula?
(25:21):
I mean for me, it was just you know playing.
You know, I'm very honest about this. It's twelve step recovery.
I've been in recovery for twenty years and I needed
that to figure out a way to get back to
my dad, because it was just impossible between the two
of us. So and that's the other thing about the
episode that really spoke to me. And this is something
that my dad taught me when I was learning how
to direct after having practiced law for seven years, is
(25:42):
that you have to find some personal connection to the material.
Speaker 4 (25:45):
You must find something.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
He had a personal connection to Spot because Bock was
his whole life being an outsider, being the alien my
dad came from, you know, the immigrant parents in Boston,
Massachusetts that came to la with nothing.
Speaker 4 (26:00):
He was a total outsider. That Spock all the way.
He's an outsider. He's a loner, he's an introvert.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
He's nervy, cold, little bit cold.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Yeah, distant, which you know, which is what I had
to deal with growing up with this guy.
Speaker 4 (26:12):
I mean, you know, my dad was that way to
begin with.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
And now I got Spock living with me, and it
made it even more complicated. But but my point is
that you and this is something I learned from my
dad and so valuable.
Speaker 4 (26:24):
You've got to find a personal connection with material.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
You've got to because then you can be very specific
about what it is you're trying to say, what is
the episode about, what's the theme about, what is the
moral of the story, And it just gets and the
more specific you are, the more.
Speaker 4 (26:37):
People can relate to it.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
Now I can relate to that, you know, Laurel I
because she's got trouble with her mother and a lot
of people have that kind of dysfunction, and you know,
and that's what made the episode so special for me.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
Wow, gosh, my head is exploding right now. I never
thought about I've read a bit about you and your
dad and downs and then ups, like things got much better.
I think, was your dad also in recovery or just you?
Speaker 4 (27:06):
Yeah, my dad was.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
He was an Now my dad was, say, my dad
was sober. He went sober. He talked with Bill Shatner
in an interview with Bill when they were talking that
he admitted that he had an alcohol problem. My dad
was an alcoholic. I was just your run of the
mill podhead. I was awakened, Baker, but that but the
fact that I was an anatin, he was an alcoholic
(27:27):
made our conflict even worse.
Speaker 4 (27:29):
It just made the problem even worse.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
And so it wasn't until I went into recovery in
two thousand and four. I'm twenty years ago that I
finally found some tools that I could use to figure
out a way to reconnect with my own dad. And
then's what you know. And I think Marline is searching
for that she I mean, the fact that she does
go to the dinner, she does went up with that,
and she does it for the benefit of Rory that
she needs, you know, the help, so that Laurie has
(27:54):
the opportunity that she just passed up on her own
because of her circumstance.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
And she was so right.
Speaker 4 (28:00):
Yeah, And I was that way too with my dad.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
I would go back again and again and again trying
to figure out a way to connect with him, and
it never worked until I found the tools of recovery.
And I think Laurreal I is looking for some way
to get back to her folks as.
Speaker 3 (28:12):
Well, sure, because she wouldn't have gone and asked them
for the money, which is sort of the impetus that
the whole show, right, and that her mother is so
clever to say, yeah, we'll give you the money. But
here's the deal, because her mother too is just craving
that connection like you're talking about, and even if she
has to manipulate it she's gonna find a way to
(28:34):
have it. And so and I think Laurlai is the same,
because look, if Laura Lai really didn't want any relationship
with him, she would have just kept Rory. It stars
hollow High, and that would have been that, and she
still would have gone to Harvard. Right, She's willing to
sort of use this as the excuse, like I need
this so she can go to Chilton. But it's like
(28:56):
it's not all bad between them. There's that core love,
which is sort of what you're saying, is that you
craved that relationship with your dad so much that you're like,
I'm going to go back again. Let me try again,
let me try again, let me forgure out what I
need to do with me too.
Speaker 4 (29:12):
Yeah yeah, yeah, I mean I wish.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
Yeah, this is the thing that there's there, you know,
And maybe it happens the later episodes where Loralai and Emily,
her mother, have some sort of reconciliation. But it's also
I mean, look, it's it's selfless on her part to
say I'm going to go to them to get the
money because it's for Rory, and that's really important and
and and this is what Laura, you know, comes to
(29:34):
understand at the end of the episode, it's important that
Rory have a relationship with her parents, with her grandparents.
Speaker 4 (29:41):
And that's another self. That's why she said, great mom.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
She's just waring because a lot of it is you know,
being you know, being the father of you know, four children.
Speaker 4 (29:51):
Myself, I mean, you have to make a lot of sacrifices.
That's just the deal.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
And you know, and Laura Wie made the ultimate sacrifice
and she she had Rory and and she you know,
and her life took a different turn and she and
she's doing the best she can to.
Speaker 4 (30:05):
That's the great thing about the episode.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
It's like she's going to persevere, she's going to succeed,
she's going to take care of her kid. She's got
a good job. You know, she has a good life.
She says that in the episode, I have a good life.
And that's you know, if you can get to that
point without playing the victim or you know, or complaining
or you.
Speaker 4 (30:23):
Know, that's it.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
It's just that's why that's why Laureli is so sympathetic
to me. You know, it's like, yeah, right on.
Speaker 4 (30:29):
And that's the other.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
Thing about the episode that I kind of realized, is
like there's there's like the power of women in the episode,
because they really drive you know.
Speaker 4 (30:38):
They tribe a lot of the show.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
I mean, you know, it's like, you know, it's Suki
and it's Laura Lai, and it's Rory and it's Emily.
Speaker 4 (30:46):
You know, you know, they're all driving the show.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
And when I was in prep, in pre production during
the show, outside of my office was.
Speaker 4 (30:54):
A picture of the Pretenders, the band the Pretenders. Okay,
the Prench.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
Tenderest is Chrissy Hind and I'm a huge fanatic. I
was a huge fanatic fan for her. And Chrissy Hind
was a woman in rock and roll who said, Okay, it's.
Speaker 4 (31:09):
A man's world. I don't care. I'm here, I write songs.
I played kick ass rock and roll and you know,
and it's too freaking bad and go after yourselves. That's
all attitude. It's women power, and it's very strong.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
It's really there, and and Amy brings it out perfectly
in this show. And I'm just like, I'm you know,
I'm so lucky just to be a part of that
kind of thing.
Speaker 3 (31:32):
Scene with Emily and Richard, because Emily says, you will
take this little girl golfing, you will get her lunch,
you will do this, or so help me don't jump home, like.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
Right right, it seems like Emily knows what's best. It's
just her style is a bit abrasive when she's forcing
the issue. But she ain't wrong, you know, right, No,
that's it.
Speaker 4 (31:54):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
Also, the boundary issue is like, you know, it's like, well,
you know, Laurla is gonna come so far, and then otherwise,
don't infringe on my you know, and stay out of
my stuff.
Speaker 3 (32:16):
Loralize own insecurity that Rory will get too close to them,
and she really grapples. This episode is a lot of fun,
but it really is meaty too, because she has to
sort of navigate her own insecurity about it all and
realize like she's doing a disservice to her daughter if
she lets her own sort of angstiness or fear impact
(32:41):
that relationship she should have with her grandparents. And you
see that resolution there at the end when she's like,
you know, and it's so cute how they have that
resolution because she's like, are you trying to apologize? Do
you know what I mean? Like it's this great scene
with the two of them, and yeah, she puts herself
side for the good of her daughter.
Speaker 4 (33:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
I mean, Laurela I has her eccentricities, she has her foilables,
she has her character defects, you know, and she and
she's like accepted that about herself. But she's also got
self reflection when she knows that because she changes.
Speaker 4 (33:18):
That's the whole thing.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
We love these episodes when people change their attitude.
Speaker 4 (33:22):
That's the great thing about drama. We want to you know,
the audience wants to see some change. And the fact
of the matter is Laurel I is.
Speaker 2 (33:29):
Not She's not completely pig She's strong will, but she's
not pigheaded and she's not narrow minded. She has some
self reflection to say, Okay, I know this is good,
this is the right thing to do. I'm just feeling
a little left out. And that's the interesting thing about
the end of the episode, because I thought we shot
something and I wish I had time in New York
(33:50):
and I don't have access to it.
Speaker 4 (33:51):
I think I still have the script. I thought that
was an outdoor.
Speaker 2 (33:54):
Piece where we ended on Lorelei outside because she's That's
the whole thing. At the very end, It's like everybody
goes off to the library to look at this these
HL mention papers that that you know, Laura that Rory's
grandfather has for her, and her grandmother goes with her,
leaving Laurelai there alone. And that's a very important moment,
(34:15):
is that she's an outsider. Yes, but something I cut short.
I feel I think they may have cut off. I
thought there was a bigger ending to that. I would
have done something more about the fact, you know, a
push in on her, you know, as much of as
a close up as you can get, because there's no
it's just on her, it's just on Laura, to emphasize
that she's she's not she's an outsider in this dynamic
(34:37):
that's going on, and it's very difficult, it's very confusing,
it's very painful.
Speaker 3 (34:42):
Yeah, and I think you accomplished it. We felt that,
we do feel that, And yes, it would be amazing
to see what you had shot her more of it,
But like I felt that, like, ooh.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
To compliment the show some more, isn't it interesting, Adam,
How with just a tweet here and there and some
couple of scenes redone or reshuffled or whatever, that this
show could have easily been you know, called Emily's second
bite at the Apple. And it could be her show,
(35:14):
you know what I mean, Or it could be Rory's
show with a few adjustments and that and that. You know,
definitely it's Lauren's show, right, It's it's she's occupying inhabiting
all these different worlds, as I've stated previously on the podcast,
and she does it with such a plumb But that
could also and and and being you know, lead characters
(35:38):
and co leads Emily and Rory are just right there
as well, because they are also occupying these worlds, not
as many, but still they're doing a lot of These
three characters are doing the work of so many and
it's so much heavy lifting for the three of them.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
Yeah, I mean, it's a really good point, Scott, that
you make, because the fact is, we do break point
of View.
Speaker 4 (36:03):
It is not not every scene has Lauraa in it,
and the question, but but she's still driving the show.
That's why the writing is so.
Speaker 1 (36:11):
Good, that's why.
Speaker 4 (36:14):
It's so great.
Speaker 2 (36:15):
And the other thing is that when we do break
point of View, the characters are so good that that
I don't mind it.
Speaker 4 (36:21):
You don't mind it. You want you want to get
to know them a little more.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
Even if it's Suky's you know, situation in the kitchen
or her love life or or you know Rory at school.
Speaker 4 (36:31):
You know, these kind of things.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
You get the characters are so good, they're so well written,
they're so fleshed out, and the talent is so good
that you you're okay to break point of view and
not be with Laura Li for a while because there's
so much interesting stuff going on.
Speaker 3 (36:46):
Get some good Kirk moments in this. Michelle is amazing.
When Laura Li says, Michelle, you screeched, like there's these
little tiny one liners that are so great, and you're
really starting to care about those people too, right.
Speaker 4 (37:00):
I mean it's the writing, it's I mean, I don't know,
you know.
Speaker 2 (37:04):
Amy's a bit of a savant, you know, and I've
worked with David Kelly.
Speaker 4 (37:08):
He's that way too. She has a knack for it.
It's a part of who she is.
Speaker 2 (37:13):
She can throw this stuff out there, you know, she
she's on it.
Speaker 4 (37:17):
And I wish I had, you.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
Know, done some more work with her, because I love
that rhythm, I love that sensibility, I love that just intuitiveness.
I mean she knew what she was doing. There wasn't
a whole bunch of rewrites on my script, you know.
And I've been on a lot of shows where I'm
getting pages like that morning things are changing our dialogue, pomotions.
Speaker 3 (37:38):
I love that you brought up Ally McBeal. We have
not ever really talked about Ali McBeal maybe once during
this podcast. There are some similarities between that show and
this show, and this is the I'm having sort of
like that aha moment, Like that was dramatic with a
lot of comedy, some weird quirks in that show too.
(37:58):
Just really interesting that you're bringing that up, because that
is a and it was fast and it was fashion
and it was a lot of gilmoury Neis in a
different way in Ali McBeal.
Speaker 4 (38:10):
Yeah, I mean I love these shows. I mean we
long for these shows.
Speaker 2 (38:14):
Now there's for me, there's so much dystopia on the
air in the series, and this show has so much.
Speaker 4 (38:20):
Heart and I just I missed that.
Speaker 2 (38:22):
I craved that kind of thing, you know, Ali had
it and this show has it, and it's you know again,
it's just this combination of like comedy that is funny,
it's witty, with a with a heart to it and
a message and a moral and really serious uh, you know,
relationship dynamics that we can relate to. You know, there's
a love interest, you know for LAURALI for Rory. I mean,
(38:44):
there's just so much going on on so many different levels,
and I just missed that kind of TV.
Speaker 3 (38:49):
Are you directing anything now that you love like this?
Speaker 2 (38:54):
No?
Speaker 4 (38:54):
Right now, I'm like running all over the country promoting
my book.
Speaker 3 (38:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (38:58):
No, I've been everywhere. So that's my focus at the moment.
And I have another book coming out and it's it's
just about sticking with the writing.
Speaker 3 (39:05):
What's the next book?
Speaker 4 (39:07):
The next book? I died?
Speaker 2 (39:08):
Unfortunately, my agent and my publicist have havend me and
asked me not to go because we have not fleshed
it out. But I mean, look, writing is something that's
I've always wanted to do.
Speaker 4 (39:19):
I've been journaling all my life.
Speaker 2 (39:21):
I published a first memoir back in eight Uh didn't
really So this one just came out in June. Seems
to be getting much more traction, you know, in terms
of my relationship.
Speaker 3 (39:31):
And I ask you, did, has this book been healing
for you?
Speaker 4 (39:35):
Like?
Speaker 3 (39:35):
You know, I know you lost your dad, and that
makes I still think about your dad. You know, he
meant a lot to you know. I took a classic
cal about Star Trek, like a lot of things that
were really brilliant and about him. Has this book been
healing for you and talking about it and sharing?
Speaker 4 (39:55):
Yeah, just by writing it.
Speaker 2 (39:56):
Yeah, I mean it's it's really it's been really interesting
processing everything about my relationship with my dad. Look, a
couple of things which became clear to me. Number one,
I was lucky we reconciled because the last seven or
eight years of his life I was really close to him,
so much so that I had some personal tragedy I
was dealing with, and my dad finally became the father
I needed him to be. This was the problem when
(40:18):
I was growing up. He was so determined to succeed.
He was so desperate. I mean, not unlike Laurel I.
I mean my dad was just like you know, and
his parents did not support him. They were Russian immigrants,
and they wanted him to go become a doctor or a lawyer.
And when he said he wanted to become an actor,
it was like telling them he wanted to join the circus.
Speaker 4 (40:36):
They were appalled and they didn't give him any help.
Speaker 2 (40:39):
So he came to La at Aha team with nothing,
and seven years later he had a family of four
to support while he's going out on auditions trying to
get this acting career going. So two things that really
had become much more apparent to me. Number one, much
more empathy for my dad and in terms of what
he managed to accomplish with incredible odds against him, you know.
Speaker 4 (40:59):
And number two, gratitude that we figured it out. Yeah,
and I don't have any regrets. We're so lucky we
figured it out and we were so close.
Speaker 2 (41:06):
But by then you have to also understand that he
was slowing down and family was finally a priority to him.
He even changed completely by then. You know, when I
was growing up, family was not on the radar. It
was his desperation to succeed, you know, and and work.
And even with the success in Star Trek, he did
not stop. He was he was after that, it was
(41:27):
right into Mission Impossible for two seasons. It was his
recording career, in his photography career and his theater career.
I mean that man was driven and determined and nothing
could stop him.
Speaker 4 (41:37):
He was really a true renaissance.
Speaker 3 (41:38):
Man, you were Alie, you were born before he was spocked?
Is that right? I don't want to I don't want
to tell.
Speaker 4 (41:44):
Yeah, I was.
Speaker 2 (41:45):
I was born in fifty I was born in fifty six.
Star Trek went on the air in sixty six.
Speaker 3 (41:49):
Another thing, I'm here old enough to know, like, oh
my gosh, my whole life just changed. My dad is shamous.
Speaker 4 (41:57):
Yeah, I've changed our life dramatic.
Speaker 2 (41:58):
I was ten years old and and we instead of
becoming a struggling family with nothing, we were all of
a sudden, like in the Hollywood Christmas Parade.
Speaker 3 (42:10):
I've seen the picture of you and your dad with
the ears, like you've got the spock here.
Speaker 4 (42:14):
I was to him exactly. I was there with Spock.
It was. It was a pretty trippy and heady time. Look.
Speaker 2 (42:20):
I talked about the fact that in nineteen sixty five,
my dad took my sister and I had to go
see the Christmas Parade in Hollywood Boulevard.
Speaker 4 (42:26):
It was so prouded.
Speaker 2 (42:27):
We couldn't even see it because we got there late,
and we made about of each other that we would
get there early and get a good seat. The next year, well,
the next year we were in it.
Speaker 4 (42:37):
Crazy Wow, it was crazy everything.
Speaker 3 (42:40):
You happy that he laid Spock and we could have
a whole conversation about that movie when he plays Spock
again with with Zachary and Chris Pine and the sort
of real deep meaning in what that what he brought
to that film and Spock in that movie.
Speaker 4 (43:01):
Well, it was very important for my dad.
Speaker 2 (43:04):
You have to understand that my dad was the only
actor in the original pilot episode of Star Trek. It
was just major Barrett was in the episode as a
different character. He played Nurse Chapel in the.
Speaker 3 (43:13):
Series, so none of the rest were in it.
Speaker 4 (43:16):
No, but it was only my dad. And then he
showed up in the jj Abrams iteration of Star Trek.
That to him was very satisfying.
Speaker 2 (43:24):
He was very proud that he was you know, he
kind of bookended the whole experience.
Speaker 3 (43:31):
Yeah, it was deep.
Speaker 4 (43:33):
Yeah, yeah, I mean there was.
Speaker 2 (43:34):
I mean he told me that that when he when
he showed up on the set as Spot for the
first time, they all applauded him. I was not there,
but just think about that heavy moment. That's a heavy moment.
So you know, it was a very big deal.
Speaker 4 (43:48):
It was a very big We were all look I
was always proud of my dad.
Speaker 2 (43:51):
That was never an issue. I really loved what he
had accomplished. I really respected what he had accomplished. I mean,
we had interpersonal problems that I had to deal with,
but would I would not change a thing. I was
just you know, and he was very I think, satisfied
with what he had, you know, what he had accomplished
during his life.
Speaker 4 (44:09):
So you know, for me, it was it was a
very satisfying moment and satisfied.
Speaker 2 (44:16):
To be able to honor my dad. We went back
to Boston, actually together. I hired a camera crew and
we walked through the streets of Boston's We could talk
about what his life was like growing up there as
a kid.
Speaker 3 (44:35):
Do you have a documentary sort of about your dad? Right?
And I don't know if it touches so much on
your relationship with each other, but more about him.
Speaker 2 (44:44):
Yeah, it was focused mostly on him, with his relationship
to his parents and his life growing up there during
the Depression in the city of Boston, where he got
the acting bug and the city really molded my dad
really reinforced his desire because they had programs and he
worked with guys like Borisagaal and I'm trying to think
(45:04):
and Elliot Silverstein and guys who went on to direct TV,
who were also in Boston at the time, directing small
theater productions, some of which.
Speaker 4 (45:13):
My father was in. He had a summer at Boston.
Speaker 2 (45:15):
College doing an internship in the trauma department, you know,
and he learned how to hustle on the streets of Boston.
He was folding chairs at the Boston Pops and selling
newspapers on the Boston Common, and he worked in the
camera store, and he stole vacuum cleaners, and he worked
in the car chop and.
Speaker 4 (45:31):
All of that. Those skills of how to be a hustler.
Speaker 2 (45:35):
He brought with him to LA And that's exactly what
he did to support.
Speaker 4 (45:39):
Our family exactly.
Speaker 1 (45:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (45:41):
Did you ever have a conversation with Amy Amy Sherman Palladino,
because obviously somebody Amy or Dan I don't know, has
a real love for Star Trek because there are many
throughout the series Star Trek references, and I don't know
if that was, you know, maybe because you direct did
this early episode and she never forgot it, or if
(46:02):
she actually had a real passion because there are again
and again and again our star digressions.
Speaker 4 (46:09):
I'm glad to hear that. Yeah, I mean that's lovely.
Oh yeah, we didn't. We never talked about it, certainly.
Speaker 2 (46:15):
No, but as I, you know, as I would have
loved to have come back, because you know, I worked
with Milo in a series before he got to Gilmore Girls,
and he was just a kid. He was in a
show actually with Chris Evans. It was one of the
best things I'd ever directed. Also a first season show
that I don't even know if it aired. I mean,
it was so short lived, and it was such a
(46:37):
great experience to work with him and to see his trajectory.
Speaker 4 (46:41):
You know.
Speaker 2 (46:41):
This is the other thing that happened with my daughter.
We were at a restaurant in Santa Monica and she
recognized Milo and I said, I don't think that's him.
And we actually left the restaurant and she said, Dad,
that was Milo.
Speaker 4 (46:53):
Go back and say hello to him. And we did.
Speaker 2 (46:55):
We went back and this is after his whole stint,
you know, on Gilmore Girls. And I said Milo, hi,
and he said hi. He RECOGNI remembered me, He recognized me.
I introduced my daughter. She totally, you know, thought I
was the Bee's knees after that, and Milo said to
me that when when he was working with me, he was.
Speaker 4 (47:12):
Just a kid. So it's so great to see, you know,
people like.
Speaker 2 (47:16):
That who start out early in the business, how they grow,
how they succeed their determination. I mean, we've seen how
far Milo has come, how far Chris Sevens has come.
Speaker 4 (47:25):
They're so fine for me.
Speaker 3 (47:27):
Did you know when, sorry, Scott, I'm sorry, I need
to shut up because I'm talking too much. Unders No,
please please, did you know when you worked with all
these people, even just in this episode, like wow, like
Lauren Alexis, Melissa McCarthy, Scott, of course, all these people.
Could you see then that you're like wow?
Speaker 4 (47:49):
Yeah, I mean the talent pool was huge. I mean,
this is the this is the part of the show.
It was perfectly cast.
Speaker 2 (47:56):
Yeah, and that's critical. That's what Star Trek's all about. Really,
it was perfectly cast. Finding this kind of chemistry that happens.
Speaker 4 (48:04):
We've seen a lot of great shows.
Speaker 2 (48:06):
You know, it does happen, but but you know, more
often than not, it does not happen. I've worked on
so many series that just didn't have it and didn't go.
Speaker 3 (48:15):
For that chemistry that all these people have even Sally
Struthers and you know the beet.
Speaker 2 (48:21):
And and.
Speaker 1 (48:24):
It's Amy. It's Amy fighting for who she wanted because
can you imagine the studio their reactions to some of
these casting choices that she wanted to make, and they
were talking to the big agencies with the big names,
and they want to do it, and she rejected all
(48:45):
of that.
Speaker 4 (48:46):
Yeah, not surprising. There's a woman with a vision and
she's stuck to her gun.
Speaker 1 (48:51):
Right, and she fought, fought, fought for that show.
Speaker 4 (48:55):
This happened with Star Drek as well.
Speaker 2 (48:57):
You have to understand after the first pilot episode is
art Trick, NBC wanted the entire cast replaced, including the
guy with the ears, including the guy with the ears,
and said, there's no way we're gonna We're gonna redo it.
But I'm not We're not getting where of the fuck
There's no way, right.
Speaker 3 (49:15):
I telling you, I have seen Okay, Star Trek four.
I don't know if it's one of your favorites, but
for me, I've seen them all right, but it is.
I think I'm from San Francisco, so I particularly love
that it was filmed here. We see so much of
the city but it's what you're talking about. The chemistry
between Whether they got along behind the scenes or not
(49:37):
doesn't matter to me because the chemistry between them all
is so evident in that movie. I have seen that
movie twenty plus times. People should do their cells a
favor their selves themselves. I don't speak English, but whoops,
I went to calm. I want to go and watch
that movie because it is it's so exactly what you're
(49:58):
talking about. You just feel like these people love each other,
they know each other. We're seeing the journey with Spock
because he's you know, we've Spock's back, that his soul
was in somebody else's body, I think Kirk's son. And
there's the humor, but also the heart and the and
then the action of course in the Whales. It's just
(50:19):
it's just the best. It's the best movie.
Speaker 4 (50:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (50:21):
I mean, you touch on some of it's very interesting
and that you know, we've been talking about this the
entire time, and that is that the chemistry is critical.
And you know, because the other thing that's going on
that happened in Star Trek is once.
Speaker 4 (50:33):
The writers see, you know, when.
Speaker 2 (50:35):
They're looking at these shows, when they're looking at dailies
and they see what's going on and they can see
the spark that's happening, then they can write more to
that kind of situation.
Speaker 4 (50:45):
And that is what happens because once they saw that,
like that Spock and McCoy could really go at it,
you know, in a very disarming way. Then they're going
to write more to that. Because the fans love that
kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (50:57):
Then they can write more than that humor because it wore,
you can get away with it. It's still you know,
there's still a balance there. It's not it doesn't fall flast,
so I mean, and that's what's going on with Gilmore Grows.
Everybody is so good and so on it that they
you could just keep.
Speaker 4 (51:12):
Writing more and more to those kind of situations.
Speaker 2 (51:14):
I mean a lot of times you have to write
characters out if it's just not working right.
Speaker 3 (51:18):
So funny you say that, because then Gilmore Girls, there's
this like where does Scott end? And where does Luke begin?
And even knowing Scott, he's such a close friend for
so many years, and there are times when I even
I'm like wait, And that's how I feel about the
characters in Star Trek, Like where does your Dad end
and Spock begin. It's so blurred and I think that's
(51:40):
the that's what makes them these characters just so incredible
this many years later, because they really became those people.
Speaker 2 (51:49):
Well, you know, this is the great thing about the
about the early episodes of Gilmore Girls, because there's something going.
Speaker 5 (51:56):
On, you know, between Luke and Laura Lai, and it's
there and you know it's there, but but but and
they you know, and you will walk you right out
to the to the boundary, and then and then you know,
and then you know, Luke walks off or Laura.
Speaker 4 (52:12):
Life's got to get to work. You know, it's so
freaking cool.
Speaker 1 (52:15):
It don't show up, don't don't show don't show it.
Speaker 4 (52:19):
Ainkling of it. We can feel it.
Speaker 2 (52:21):
There's just a look that goes on and then boom,
She's got to go to work. You know, you got
to get another you know you've got another order, gonna
you know, enough coffee, goodbye.
Speaker 4 (52:30):
It's so freaking cool. I love true.
Speaker 3 (52:32):
You know it from the first episode. We see it
in this one too.
Speaker 1 (52:36):
It was you know, it was easy to have chemistry
with her, that she was given so much, there was
so much coming at you. You didn't have to do much,
you know, you just let her shine and and you
you're just sort of the beneficiary of that, you know
what I mean. And if if you don't, if you
do very little, you're good, you know exactly, and you.
Speaker 4 (52:52):
Play it perfectly. This is the point because because they're
they're there. You know, in some of the first couple
of episodes, there's interest in Laurel eyes.
Speaker 2 (53:00):
She gets you hit on by these guys and then
and she's like, oh no, no, no, you know you're
a dad at Rory's school.
Speaker 4 (53:06):
I don't do that.
Speaker 2 (53:06):
But when you're too young for me, you know, when
she said Luke Steiner, you know, and then but then
you see her coming on to you, to you know,
to Luke, and it's like, okay, you know, she's not
completely cold, and you know she's not dead.
Speaker 4 (53:18):
She's you know, this is a girl who also has desire.
Speaker 2 (53:22):
And that's another great element to the character.
Speaker 3 (53:25):
Oh man, is so true. Oh my gosh, it is
just so awesome to have you on. Everybody needs to
read your book. Also, I will say my Tahoe house
is about three minutes from your Tahoe house that you
guys had growing up, so yep, okay.
Speaker 1 (53:42):
Wow, really on the North Shore where we're so.
Speaker 3 (53:45):
I met Chinkapin. I still have a house, and you
guys were like, literally, I mean literally five three minutes away.
Speaker 2 (53:51):
Yeah, yeah right, we're at Yes, we're at Lake for
seven eleven right outside of the city.
Speaker 3 (53:55):
Yeah right, we can we I'm sure we've got Slurpe's
at the seven eleven at the same time. Over there,
no doubt in my mind. You are amazing in your memory.
That's what's crazy, Poor Scott.
Speaker 4 (54:08):
Scott.
Speaker 3 (54:08):
I hate to tell you your memory is not as good
as Adams, because you remember so much about this show.
Speaker 4 (54:16):
Maybe my dad would tell me the same thing.
Speaker 2 (54:17):
I would ask him about a particular about a particular episode,
and you'd say, to me, don't ask me any details.
It's all a blur. Everything happened so quickly, it all
it just flows into one. And I said, well, wait
a minute, you don't remember like frolicking through that flower
field with Joe Ireland or being stuck in a cave
with Marriett Hartley.
Speaker 4 (54:35):
And he said, it's a blur. I tell you, it's
all a blur.
Speaker 1 (54:38):
It's so true because you because you train your short
term memory to just sort of flush everything that came
before to make room for the stuff that's got to
come in the next day. You know, I don't remember
how many times Amy that's authentic, I mean, how many
times on the on the first go round, I had
no idea.
Speaker 3 (54:55):
There were things that were like, you truly don't remember
that things.
Speaker 1 (54:59):
I I do remember the very few things, but most
of it I just I don't recall it. Also, it's
like watching another person doing it.
Speaker 3 (55:08):
I don't remember something he would have done differently. Has
just got me shook, Like, is there anything else about
this episode like that that you could just because you know,
we just eat it up. Is there anything else like
you know about it that you remember, or just anything
else that you would share with us about directing it
or or the characters of the cast.
Speaker 2 (55:28):
Yeah, there's one last thing that you mentioned that I
learned from a really good director, and that was that
I did try in the scene to plant something going
on in the background that related.
Speaker 4 (55:39):
To the next scene. That's where TV directors really have
the most creative ability is transitions from one scene to another.
Speaker 2 (55:47):
And I learned this on when I was, you know,
working on and when I was kind of like observing
on NYPD Blue with Greg Hobblett, who directed the pilot
of that show, in a lot of episodes, is that
he always planted somebody in the next scene, in the
scene that he was shooting. And you see this happen
a couple of times, like when we're doing the wedding scene,
you see you know, they're preparing for the wedding. You
(56:08):
see Loralai in the background and then heading into the
end where another scene starts to happen, and that's just
you know, that's just tech. That is some of the
technique that I really try to use in this show,
and I always try to use so there is some
real flow to it and it's not just so jarring
that you jump to something else.
Speaker 3 (56:25):
Right, so well done in this episode, and I just
think about Sukie chasing Jackson and just the way she's
like going through the strawberries and their whole interaction. And
at the wedding, there's so in the prep for the wedding,
there's so much happening, but as a viewer, you're able
to still pay attention to what is like the the
most important without being distracted or missing them hanging the
(56:50):
tool or the Swan or the dancing or Miss Patty
you know her totally like inappropriate flirting with like and
then and the other brother is the everybody who was
really brilliant in this, the background actors and the like
second tier cast, because without the twins and the twins
being so good, you wouldn't get that. And even when
(57:13):
they're the twins are acting with each other, but Michelle
and Lorelei are talking and he's figuring out, well that's
you know that one and that one and the sticky
on it. So much is about what they're doing in
the background, and we're not we're not taken out by it,
but we're like we're able as viewers to like see
it all.
Speaker 2 (57:32):
Yeah, Like you just want to notice that's going on,
and you know, you know, even when you have Suki,
you know, running in the background, I try to keep
the shot with Laurel eye watching them because she's us
and you want to get the context of how ridiculous
it is and how far they're going with it, you know,
So that's the gag.
Speaker 4 (57:49):
So it's great to keep it wide in those kinds
of situations. So these are stylistic choices, you know, but
you know, and they're important, there's no doubt about it.
Speaker 2 (57:57):
But in the end, it's really it's it's good writing
and it's great performance. They trump technique every time.
Speaker 1 (58:05):
Right, Yeah, that's what it was done.
Speaker 3 (58:08):
And the bike accident, like you had like crazy things
happening in this episode, Scott, Scott, did you love watching
this episode again?
Speaker 1 (58:19):
I did? I just you know, the pace of these episodes.
I mean it's not so speedy, speedy, fast, fast, fast
as has stuff all the time. These first three episodes
have have have a nice pace, you know, and nice
cadence to everything, and nothing feels really rushed. Yet there's
there's always this forward momentum because it's developing. You know,
we're not really at full speed yet, so it's kind
(58:42):
of starting off on the track warming up, and it's
just kind of a joy before we get to the
high speed stuff because we're just you know, we're just
sort of learning about this stuff. We're sort of poking
around this this dynamic with Emily and Richard and and
and now it's all sort of forming things kind of forming.
It's like it's fascinating to watch. It really is, because
(59:05):
it's different from it's different from other seasons, different different cadence,
different speed, and I like it, I really like it.
So yet they still managed to have their foot on
the accelerator somewhat, so you know, it's it's like, Okay,
this is moving, moving, moving, moving, but look at you
know when you you know, and Adam, you know this,
(59:27):
when when you have a cast that can fill those moments,
nothing ever drags, you know, it's always full and it
always seems to be moving forward. Yeah, and we.
Speaker 2 (59:37):
Don't even need to cut if we don't want it,
we don't have right, that's right, you know.
Speaker 4 (59:41):
The timing is so critical and everybody knows on it.
Speaker 1 (59:44):
Yeah, And just discovering Kirk for the third time. I
think it's this third appearance or second appearance with the Swan,
and and just seeing how everybody's sort of matured over
the years.
Speaker 3 (59:53):
Michelle, You're starting to really get to know Michelle in
this episode.
Speaker 1 (59:57):
It's just fascinating to see these early episodes. It's because
it's like it's like going into a museum and watching
like the og the original stuff, you know, and it's
it's kind of cool. It's a long time ago. It's
twenty four years ago, so that's really cooting.
Speaker 3 (01:00:13):
I'm truly such an honor to have you, and thank
you for sharing those amazing stories about Star Trek and
your dad. I know, people, I'm sure first of all,
you look just like your dad, but I'm sure people
tell you all the time, But like he, that show
really had an impact on me, and studying it at
Berkeley was so like incredible to get to do that,
and just like all the all the things about Spock
(01:00:37):
and and those characters and the deeper societal meanings with
that show. So it's just such an honor to get
to talk to you about it.
Speaker 1 (01:00:48):
Yeah, really, it's real.
Speaker 4 (01:00:49):
Real pleasure to be with you guys today. Thank you
so much for having me on listen your books.
Speaker 3 (01:00:53):
I can't wait to read your book. Oh I can't,
I can't.
Speaker 4 (01:00:56):
I can't be long and prosper living.
Speaker 1 (01:01:02):
I got it on the left hand.
Speaker 4 (01:01:04):
There you go. I'm on the left hand too, all right.
Speaker 1 (01:01:09):
What a joy, daughter much thanks for joining us and
we really enjoyed it.
Speaker 4 (01:01:17):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (01:01:18):
Take care at him, take care of you guys. So
I want to just give our thanks to Adam Nimoy.
What a what a brilliant guest, What a brilliant guy,
full of heart, full of brains.
Speaker 3 (01:01:29):
Makes you so happy that they like reconciled to like
you know, yeah, it's such in a good place with
like I think it's why he's so willing to talk
about Star Trek and his dad, because they got to
such a good place.
Speaker 1 (01:01:42):
Very moving when somebody is so open and so sort
of just positive and optimistic. Just what a great, what
a great.
Speaker 3 (01:01:51):
His memory is unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (01:01:55):
By the way, I do have a good I have
a great memory. I just don't have a great memory
for the show. Sometimes you have.
Speaker 3 (01:02:01):
A great memory because it's like you talked about, you
have a certain type of memory because you can read
a page and know it. But like later you have
to purge it because you got to get more stuff in.
Speaker 1 (01:02:15):
Absolutely, you know that is going to wrap us up,
kill me now, Season one, episode three. We'll see you
next us And I thank you Amy for sitting in.
Speaker 3 (01:02:29):
Thanks for having me. Sorry, I got so excited.
Speaker 1 (01:02:32):
Oh no, no, no, no, this is this was this is
why I wanted you on this episode because I knew
you had such an almost you know, encyclopedic knowledge of
Star Trek, and that went in the direction it should
have gone in you know, we talked a little Gilmore,
We talk a little Star Trek. I mean, you can't
go wrong anyway. Thanks everybody, let us know your thoughts
(01:02:56):
about the episode and the new iteration of I Am
all in again, and remember where you lead, we will
follow everybody and don't forget Follow us on Instagram at
(01:03:37):
I Am all In podcast and email us at Gilmore
at iHeartRadio dot com.