December 30, 2025 • 23 mins
Scott is joined in his trailer at Holidays Made Here at the Warner Bros lot by veteran actor Clint Howard! Clint shares stories from his iconic career, memories with his brother Ron Howard, and what he really thinks about Gilmore Girls!
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 (00:00):
I am all in again.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Oh I do. I am all in again with Scott
Patterson and iHeartRadio podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Clint Howard Is.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
You know him from many, many, many films and TV shows.
Welcome to the podcast. I've just met you today, and
tell us your impressions, Clint, of this experience. Were you
aware of gilmour Nation and how vibrant it is?
Speaker 4 (00:48):
No, I had no idea about the effect that your
show had on vast numbers of the public. And it
is a testament to the writers, to the creative people,
and to the performers that something was created that magically resonates.
(01:11):
It happens. You're not the first show, but you got it.
I take my hat off to you that you're a
part of something that you know and it's not fake.
This is not something that's been manufactured. This was a
fan driven situation. Fan vibes, not corporate vibes. The corporations
have taken to it. Everybody wants to make a bug,
(01:35):
but listen it. You know, hats off and it's happened
a few times. I mean, you know, Star Trek, there
you go. Star Trek was a show that was on
for two years and it kind of was somewhat forgotten,
but it had a loyal fan base.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
That's really where people don't they forget that that show
was not on very long.
Speaker 4 (01:54):
No, they it was. There was an attempt to cancel
it the first season, right, apparently I was you know,
I was little, right, I was on that show.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
And you've been in the business since you were a
very small child.
Speaker 4 (02:07):
I've been in the business over sixty four years.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Unbelievable. Yeah, I'm sixty six. When did you get your
SAG card?
Speaker 4 (02:14):
I got to think I got my SAG card in
nineteen sixty five because when when you were little, you
didn't need to join SAG. So I have a very
well you didn't know. When I was two, I signed
a SAD contract. But because I was basically a baby,
right I asked my dad, though, did I act in diapers?
(02:34):
And he said no, I was potty trained by the
time I became a professional actor, which is something that
a lot of actors can't really make that claim.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
True.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
I knew you were going on, but it's and it's
really nice. It's really nice that you as an actor.
I know a lot of actors can have the attitude
that they sort of will turn their back on this
or create some sort of egotistical reason why you don't
(03:07):
want to participate in something like this. But listen, I
guess I'll just give you my experience and maybe you
can share yours, because this is you know, as you,
as we get older, roaming into the dinosaur age, it
begins to affect you, affects me that God, I have
(03:28):
had an effect. What I did as an actor has
had a profound effect on society. And I don't throw
my arm out patting myself on the back, but it's just,
you know, thank you God, and I appreciate being here,
and I hope I can live up to people's expectations,
(03:50):
you know, and carry on. It's just, you know, for
a long time, when I was little, I didn't care.
In fact, I really didn't want to talk about my
career when I was a kid. But now I look
in people's eyes and I see they grew up. I mean, look,
there's generations of you. They grew up with you, they
(04:11):
grew up with me, and now they get to experience us,
and I appreciate it, and you know, God bless them.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
Yeah, did you always embrace being a Gilmore girl? I
mean and you're not a Gilmore girl, but I don't
think I.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
Was originally written as a Gilmore girl, but they changed
their minds and made it a Gilmore guy.
Speaker 4 (04:35):
No, I mean, after you did the show for a
few years.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Well, okay, here's the thing.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
You I didn't get into this profession until, you know,
my late twenties. I didn't even started studying until I
was twenty five, twenty six, So I had to play ketchup.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
I was in New York.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
I was, you know, really studying my brains out because
I knew that I had, you know, not the skill
set that all of these people in this class have,
you know, and I had.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
I had to really work my butt off.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
And so, you know, thirteen fourteen, fifteen years later, I
get this break of this show and I'm forty one.
So I'd already lived an entire life and gone through
so much. I'd been you know, I mean, it's all
coming about out in the memoir, but you know what
I'm saying, it's like i'd been divorced, I'd been through
(05:30):
hell and back, I'd been through this, I'd been through that.
I'd been through a career that you know didn't pan out,
and all this kind of stuff. I had to reinvent myself.
So getting this was like this stroke of luck. And
I knew it at the time.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
You knew it. As soon as I got it, I said, wow.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
Episode three, Yeah, was it cooking? Oh yeah, so you
knew you guys the vibe, Oh yeah. Did you love
your showrunner?
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Yeah? Oh god, yeah, oh god. Yeah. We were just
like because we're all sort of most of.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
This cast is like New York trained theater trained, and
and like monster actors, right A level actors, and and
you had to bring your a game every day. And
and I thrived being in that environment because that that
was a New York theater.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
That was it.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
Man, if you didn't have the chops, you were getting
tossed out the door.
Speaker 4 (06:24):
Well, okay, it was.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
It was a gladiator mentality men women. I mean, my god,
the women were tougher than the men.
Speaker 4 (06:31):
Now, not to name names, and I don't expect.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Right, a lot of names.
Speaker 4 (06:34):
If you had that gladiator mentality, if you if you
had your New York actor shoes on, right, there had
to have been California knuckleheads in the show.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
By my response, that is true.
Speaker 5 (06:51):
So you're.
Speaker 4 (06:54):
You're dusting off your a chops.
Speaker 5 (06:56):
You're getting ready to do this material and you look
over your active part and you just go, oh my god,
this person is throwing up or sucking the oxygen out
of the scene.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Jesus. Yeah, it didn't happen a lot here. It didn't
happen a lot on Gilmore Girl. Okay, I went on
and did other shows and that happened.
Speaker 4 (07:21):
But the crew, so the casting gods, the casting gods
of the Gilmore Girls came down and kissed it.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
The casting absolutely, so absolutely absolutely yes.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
I mean.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
It was a very competitive environment and if you weren't
great in rehearsal, you were going to get chewed up.
If you didn't come with ideas, and if you didn't
have a command of the craft and couldn't counter what
a director was trying to communicate, if it didn't feel
(07:58):
or you know, you know the line. You know what
I'm talking about.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
I do know.
Speaker 4 (08:02):
And this is you were Gilmore Girls. Was done when
the director of a television show had some juice and
wasn't just a traffic cop exactly.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
You had the Kenny or Tagas of the world.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Yeah, you had the Jamie Babbitts, you had all these
great directors coming in who really knew their stuff.
Speaker 4 (08:19):
Right, so the showrunner didn't have to be there moving
the emotional pieces around the table. It was the director
was the one director.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Right guy.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
But the director got prepped. Yeah, you know for sure?
How many directors did you guys run through? Was there
five or six a year?
Speaker 3 (08:40):
Uh? Maybe more than that? Yeah, yeah, it was twenty
two episodes. I think we probably had six or seven eight,
you know, something like Kenny Ortega would do two or
three you know, yeah, yeah, I'd say six or seven yeah,
per year, and they'd recycle them through. Television's fun to do,
(09:01):
I uh, you know in this kind of show, it
is fun. Uh Like the single camera like the single
camera half hour not so much fun because you think,
because it's a half hour show, it's going to take
half as long to do, And it's exactly the same
amount of time to do a single camera half hour
(09:21):
as it is to do an hour.
Speaker 4 (09:23):
Well a half hour a half hour sitcom.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Mm hmm, that's easy.
Speaker 4 (09:27):
Well, yeah, but there's if you've got if you've got
six or seven actors in your show, right that you
know there's going to be a guy that has two
jokes or one joke. I wouldn't turn a sitcom one time,
and I would look at the pages come Monday morning
and looking, oh man, I got one joke right. The
joke they gave me was was rubbing my head and
(09:48):
tapping my stomach, you know, And that was the Googi joke.
That was a googi joke. I came in and I
got my moment to do that joke where I was
rubbing my head and patting my stomach and then hopefully
the audience would give me a little bit of a
laugh and I'd go off stage.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
It's my week's work right in front of a live audience. Yeah, yeah, brilliant.
That's my dream job. That is that Like in the business,
that's the dream job is to do. It is to
rehearse five days, nine to five, have a life, film
Friday nights. You know that's a long day because you
come in two o'clock rehearsal Rightever, then you film at
six or seven or whatever. You go for a couple
(10:25):
hours and then you get and then every fourth week
you're off. Yeah it's a beautiful schedule. Yeah, but listen
what you guys did. The creativity is daily, the daily
invention of story and product, And I say product, but
it's you know, when you're playing, when you're creating, it
(10:46):
ends up being a product because it is.
Speaker 4 (10:47):
It's show business. We're not show amateur. It's a business, right,
but you do your work and what gets created is
something that's effective.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
I always felt, and this was our attitude in New
York when we were studying and doing theater, that we
none of us would ever do television because it's going
to corrupt your craft, right, No way, because you are
not meant to do that many performances. That's too much acting.
That turns it into that you have to compromise everything
(11:18):
in order to get through a season.
Speaker 4 (11:20):
Now, when's the last time you did a stage play?
Speaker 1 (11:23):
Oh god, I mean late eighties?
Speaker 4 (11:28):
Wow?
Speaker 3 (11:29):
So yeah, okay, but I almost you know, I got
an offer to do one fifteen years ago in New York,
and I got a pilot and it was NBC. Thing
was going to be a big deal. It turned out
to be a nothing burger. But but I I was
going to do that, but I couldn't do it. And
then I was going to do Chicago on Broadway, and
(11:51):
then something came up and I couldn't do that.
Speaker 4 (11:53):
You a song and dance.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Man, No, not at all.
Speaker 4 (11:56):
So you were going to be in Chicago as a
non song and dance I was.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
I was going to, yes, going to pull it off
because I can. I'm pretty good on my feet. Yeah,
as it turns out, As it turns out, not so
much anymore. You know, I can top him. But the theater,
And that's something my dad, Rance Howard, that's how his
first dream was, I mean his theater. He was on
mister robertson Broadway right that he always told us that
(12:20):
it was.
Speaker 4 (12:21):
You know, it's such a beautiful thing that that you know,
you know, I don't get it in front of a
live audience and when you're doing a television show, but
on the stage there is a connection between the performer
and the audience that my dad used to say a
silly word. It's not silly. He would call it orgasmic
that But well, my dad was kind of a kook.
(12:42):
He was kind of eccentric.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
But no, that's a perfect way to describe it.
Speaker 4 (12:45):
Yeah. Now, I'll tell you what.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
There's nothing more vital than live theater when it's done well, yeah,
there is nothing that can come.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Close to it.
Speaker 4 (12:54):
And I've been in you know. You know, I've been
in the business a long time. I've never done a
stage play. Really, Oh wow, I would love to. So
that's an experience you I know have, I know, just
but again, I've been I've been in line to do
stage plays. I've been at table readings, and I've been
in rehearsal of stage plays. But then I've gotten real jobs.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
Right, Yeah, you have to take that.
Speaker 4 (13:16):
You got to take the job. When your agent says
you have an opportunity to be in a movie with
Adam Sander called water Boy.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
Yeah you gotta take the job.
Speaker 4 (13:23):
The little eight run off Broadway Equity Waivers show in
Santa Monica doesn't quite seem so attractive.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
Yeah, no, you you have to take the job. You've
got to do it. What we do, We're professional actors.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
That's what we do.
Speaker 6 (13:49):
Are you a Gilmore Girls fan looking for the perfect
holiday gift? Well we smell SnO. Come behind the scenes
the stars Hollow Luke himself, Patterson interviews Matt Zuker who
played Logan, Emily Caroroda who played Missus Cam, and so
many more. You'll see everything the Diner, Miss Patty's, the
Dragonfly in and Laurelize House, The Jeep, the Snow, the Gazebo,
(14:14):
and Al's Pancake World. The I Am All In Event
is streaming starting December twenty second at five pm Pacific
time for nineteen ninety nine and with your purchase you
can rewatch for seven days after the event. For tickets,
visit beeps dot Events slash I Am all In and
you can watch all the stars Hollow Magic from our
December eighteenth event Beeps dot Events slash I Am all In.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
I think the reason Gilmour ended and it didn't have
to end, you know, it did not have to end
because the advertisers were putting a lot of pressure on
Warner Brothers to bring the show back for multiple seasons
after its initial run after the seven years, well six.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Years and then one more year. But Amy and Dan.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
Left the show because they didn't offer them a long
term deal. So they got insulted and they left. And
the prob you know, the season seven product was pretty
damn good, but it just wasn't one through six. You know,
it didn't have that special It didn't pop the way
you know it used to a little bit. But you know,
(15:22):
I watched season seven a couple of times now, and
I think there's some great episodes.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
In there, don't you guys.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
I mean season seven is in his you know, people
really trash season seven, but there's some gold in there.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
There's some real gold.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
I think though David Rosenthal's team did a fantastic job.
I mean, try mimicking all of those unique voices right
at coming in from the outside. I mean, he was
an insider because he was on the writing staff. But
still I think he did a great job. My hats
off to him, because that's an impossible two sets of
shoes that you have to fill. Did a great job.
(15:56):
But anyway, so tell us a little bit more about
your journey and when you when you got your big
break in Hollywood.
Speaker 4 (16:07):
I got my big break when I was born to
Ransom gen Howard, uh, you know, being being in the
situation I was in, and by osmosis, I was learning
how to be in the business. My dad was just
this wonderful child, actor, human being, whisperer that you know,
I could listen, I would I would cry now if
(16:29):
I got if I got too thoughtful about the impact
my dad had on me. But you know, I don't
remember when my big break came, I was I guess
you know. I did an episode of Bonanza when I
was five. That was a pretty effective episode. I was
a little kid that was in search of God and
(16:50):
it was you know, I don't want to go into
the details of the story that beats of the story,
but it was a really good episode. And then I
do have vague memories of auditioning for the TV series
gentle beIN where I was the boy and the bear
and on the during the audia, it wasn't it was
a screen test. The bear was starting to act up.
(17:12):
There was like five kids were being screen tested, and
I was like the last kid, and the bear was
just starting to get really antsy and moving back and forth,
and I grabbed him by the chain and I held
him close to me and I said, now you knock
it off and listen to me when I'm talking to you, Ben,
(17:32):
And that was an improvised you know, and that and
that got me the gig, and so that that solidified
me as being on as being on television. And then
you know, of course, you know my brother Ron. I've
said this a bunch. You know, he's a Hall of
Fame movie director. He was a wonderful creative talent on screen.
(17:57):
He's a better big brother than he is a movie director,
you know. And so anyway, you know, I've been in
a good position. I haven't shot myself in the foot
too many times as an actor. I've got I've got
a few instances where I put my foot in my
mouth in really big ways. But somehow God has seen
(18:18):
to it that. Okay, I keep going along, keep working.
I'm getting ready with my wife Kat and a partner,
Norman Epstein. I'm getting ready to do a movie called
Another ice Cream Man. Because when I was about thirty
eight years old or something, I was in this be
(18:39):
horror movie in nineteen ninety four called ice Cream Man,
and it's become kind of a cult classic. And now
in twenty twenty six, we are going We've created this
film called Another ice Cream Man, and it's a horror film.
It's going to have a couple of homages to this
other film that I did in nineteen ninety four, but
(19:00):
it's a completely different plot. I'm going to co direct
the movie, uh, and it's for the audiences that know
about ice Cream Man. We are going to answer the
question what it takes for a guy to start putting
body parts in ice cream. Rock Rocky Road, you know,
Rocky Road is something that you know what makes that
(19:21):
crunchiness in Rocky Road? Nothing but bone marrow works really
really well. Grinandine plasma flavor, grinadine for my ice cream treats.
When you run out of grenadine, you just start using
real blood.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Uh huh.
Speaker 4 (19:41):
Anyway, so that listen as as an older guy, I've
never directed a film before. I'm going to direct this film.
You're going to shoot it. Kat is my one of
my producing partners and the love of my life, but
a confidant and uh rafi our daughter. She's gonna be
in it. Oh nice created this wonderful role for her.
(20:02):
There's kind of a who's on first scene that happens
with the neighborhood Karen, and she's she's a neighborhood kid
with a rock band, and all she wants to do
is buy ice cream. And all this neighborhood Karen wants
to do is climb up my tailpipe and tell me
how nasty my ice cream truck is.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
There you go, all right, Well, that's a synopsis of
the upcoming of another ice cream ice cream man. Tell
us about forgive my ignorance, But have you worked with
your brother a few times? Tell what makes him a
great director? He was an actor, right, and he loves
(20:39):
to direct. He's always wanted to since he was sixteen
years old. He's wanted to be a director.
Speaker 4 (20:47):
When he realized he probably wasn't going to be a
professional basketball player, he wanted to be a director.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
That they came for me too. I realized it.
Speaker 4 (20:55):
Yeah, just you know, short white guy, short short guys,
you know, with a vertical leap of about six inches,
just don't make the NBA. So he had the dream
of being a director and he worked really hard at
it and he ended up meeting the love of his
life when he was a junior in high school and
him and Cheryl created this team. Not only they had
(21:17):
four children, but she gave him the support so he
could go off and do what he really wanted to do.
And here's something about Ron. He directed his first movie
when he was twenty one or twenty two years old,
and it was a movie called Grand Theft Auto. And
then it was successful and he loved doing it and
he was off to the racist. Then he did a
movie called Night Shift. He did a couple of TV movies,
(21:38):
and then he did a movie called Splash that made
an impression. Ron went about ten years in his professional
career as a director without taking a vacation. Sure, every
day he was figuring out how to do his craft better.
(22:00):
And one thing that Ron told me along the way,
and this is probably after Movie twelve, he said, you know,
on every movie he picks one element of filmmaking and
in his mind he focuses on that one element and
he goes, I want to get better at that. You know,
backdraft it with special effects. He said, he had an
(22:22):
opportunity to do these wild, big special effects and he goes,
I'm going to get better at that. You know, he
wanted to get better at being an editor. So anyway,
he still had this thirst of wanting to get better
at what he does. And he's still doing it. He's
seventy one years old and he's just finishing a war
movie in Budapest.
Speaker 3 (22:42):
Fantastic, Clint Howard, Thank you for stopping by.
Speaker 4 (22:47):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
We could talk all day.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
It was great meeting you, great talking to you, and
you're welcome anytime on the podcast.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Lt dot.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
Hey everybody, and don't forget follow us on Instagram at
i Am all In Podcast, and email us at Gilmore
at iHeartRadio dot com.
I am all in again.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Oh I do. I am all in again with Scott
Patterson and iHeartRadio podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Clint Howard Is.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
You know him from many, many, many films and TV shows.
Welcome to the podcast. I've just met you today, and
tell us your impressions, Clint, of this experience. Were you
aware of gilmour Nation and how vibrant it is?
Speaker 4 (00:48):
No, I had no idea about the effect that your
show had on vast numbers of the public. And it
is a testament to the writers, to the creative people,
and to the performers that something was created that magically resonates.
(01:11):
It happens. You're not the first show, but you got it.
I take my hat off to you that you're a
part of something that you know and it's not fake.
This is not something that's been manufactured. This was a
fan driven situation. Fan vibes, not corporate vibes. The corporations
have taken to it. Everybody wants to make a bug,
(01:35):
but listen it. You know, hats off and it's happened
a few times. I mean, you know, Star Trek, there
you go. Star Trek was a show that was on
for two years and it kind of was somewhat forgotten,
but it had a loyal fan base.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
That's really where people don't they forget that that show
was not on very long.
Speaker 4 (01:54):
No, they it was. There was an attempt to cancel
it the first season, right, apparently I was you know,
I was little, right, I was on that show.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
And you've been in the business since you were a
very small child.
Speaker 4 (02:07):
I've been in the business over sixty four years.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Unbelievable. Yeah, I'm sixty six. When did you get your
SAG card?
Speaker 4 (02:14):
I got to think I got my SAG card in
nineteen sixty five because when when you were little, you
didn't need to join SAG. So I have a very
well you didn't know. When I was two, I signed
a SAD contract. But because I was basically a baby,
right I asked my dad, though, did I act in diapers?
(02:34):
And he said no, I was potty trained by the
time I became a professional actor, which is something that
a lot of actors can't really make that claim.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
True.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
I knew you were going on, but it's and it's
really nice. It's really nice that you as an actor.
I know a lot of actors can have the attitude
that they sort of will turn their back on this
or create some sort of egotistical reason why you don't
(03:07):
want to participate in something like this. But listen, I
guess I'll just give you my experience and maybe you
can share yours, because this is you know, as you,
as we get older, roaming into the dinosaur age, it
begins to affect you, affects me that God, I have
(03:28):
had an effect. What I did as an actor has
had a profound effect on society. And I don't throw
my arm out patting myself on the back, but it's just,
you know, thank you God, and I appreciate being here,
and I hope I can live up to people's expectations,
(03:50):
you know, and carry on. It's just, you know, for
a long time, when I was little, I didn't care.
In fact, I really didn't want to talk about my
career when I was a kid. But now I look
in people's eyes and I see they grew up. I mean, look,
there's generations of you. They grew up with you, they
(04:11):
grew up with me, and now they get to experience us,
and I appreciate it, and you know, God bless them.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
Yeah, did you always embrace being a Gilmore girl? I
mean and you're not a Gilmore girl, but I don't
think I.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
Was originally written as a Gilmore girl, but they changed
their minds and made it a Gilmore guy.
Speaker 4 (04:35):
No, I mean, after you did the show for a
few years.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Well, okay, here's the thing.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
You I didn't get into this profession until, you know,
my late twenties. I didn't even started studying until I
was twenty five, twenty six, So I had to play ketchup.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
I was in New York.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
I was, you know, really studying my brains out because
I knew that I had, you know, not the skill
set that all of these people in this class have,
you know, and I had.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
I had to really work my butt off.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
And so, you know, thirteen fourteen, fifteen years later, I
get this break of this show and I'm forty one.
So I'd already lived an entire life and gone through
so much. I'd been you know, I mean, it's all
coming about out in the memoir, but you know what
I'm saying, it's like i'd been divorced, I'd been through
(05:30):
hell and back, I'd been through this, I'd been through that.
I'd been through a career that you know didn't pan out,
and all this kind of stuff. I had to reinvent myself.
So getting this was like this stroke of luck. And
I knew it at the time.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
You knew it. As soon as I got it, I said, wow.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
Episode three, Yeah, was it cooking? Oh yeah, so you
knew you guys the vibe, Oh yeah. Did you love
your showrunner?
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Yeah? Oh god, yeah, oh god. Yeah. We were just
like because we're all sort of most of.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
This cast is like New York trained theater trained, and
and like monster actors, right A level actors, and and
you had to bring your a game every day. And
and I thrived being in that environment because that that
was a New York theater.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
That was it.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
Man, if you didn't have the chops, you were getting
tossed out the door.
Speaker 4 (06:24):
Well, okay, it was.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
It was a gladiator mentality men women. I mean, my god,
the women were tougher than the men.
Speaker 4 (06:31):
Now, not to name names, and I don't expect.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Right, a lot of names.
Speaker 4 (06:34):
If you had that gladiator mentality, if you if you
had your New York actor shoes on, right, there had
to have been California knuckleheads in the show.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
By my response, that is true.
Speaker 5 (06:51):
So you're.
Speaker 4 (06:54):
You're dusting off your a chops.
Speaker 5 (06:56):
You're getting ready to do this material and you look
over your active part and you just go, oh my god,
this person is throwing up or sucking the oxygen out
of the scene.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Jesus. Yeah, it didn't happen a lot here. It didn't
happen a lot on Gilmore Girl. Okay, I went on
and did other shows and that happened.
Speaker 4 (07:21):
But the crew, so the casting gods, the casting gods
of the Gilmore Girls came down and kissed it.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
The casting absolutely, so absolutely absolutely yes.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
I mean.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
It was a very competitive environment and if you weren't
great in rehearsal, you were going to get chewed up.
If you didn't come with ideas, and if you didn't
have a command of the craft and couldn't counter what
a director was trying to communicate, if it didn't feel
(07:58):
or you know, you know the line. You know what
I'm talking about.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
I do know.
Speaker 4 (08:02):
And this is you were Gilmore Girls. Was done when
the director of a television show had some juice and
wasn't just a traffic cop exactly.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
You had the Kenny or Tagas of the world.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Yeah, you had the Jamie Babbitts, you had all these
great directors coming in who really knew their stuff.
Speaker 4 (08:19):
Right, so the showrunner didn't have to be there moving
the emotional pieces around the table. It was the director
was the one director.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Right guy.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
But the director got prepped. Yeah, you know for sure?
How many directors did you guys run through? Was there
five or six a year?
Speaker 3 (08:40):
Uh? Maybe more than that? Yeah, yeah, it was twenty
two episodes. I think we probably had six or seven eight,
you know, something like Kenny Ortega would do two or
three you know, yeah, yeah, I'd say six or seven yeah,
per year, and they'd recycle them through. Television's fun to do,
(09:01):
I uh, you know in this kind of show, it
is fun. Uh Like the single camera like the single
camera half hour not so much fun because you think,
because it's a half hour show, it's going to take
half as long to do, And it's exactly the same
amount of time to do a single camera half hour
(09:21):
as it is to do an hour.
Speaker 4 (09:23):
Well a half hour a half hour sitcom.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Mm hmm, that's easy.
Speaker 4 (09:27):
Well, yeah, but there's if you've got if you've got
six or seven actors in your show, right that you
know there's going to be a guy that has two
jokes or one joke. I wouldn't turn a sitcom one time,
and I would look at the pages come Monday morning
and looking, oh man, I got one joke right. The
joke they gave me was was rubbing my head and
(09:48):
tapping my stomach, you know, And that was the Googi joke.
That was a googi joke. I came in and I
got my moment to do that joke where I was
rubbing my head and patting my stomach and then hopefully
the audience would give me a little bit of a
laugh and I'd go off stage.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
It's my week's work right in front of a live audience. Yeah, yeah, brilliant.
That's my dream job. That is that Like in the business,
that's the dream job is to do. It is to
rehearse five days, nine to five, have a life, film
Friday nights. You know that's a long day because you
come in two o'clock rehearsal Rightever, then you film at
six or seven or whatever. You go for a couple
(10:25):
hours and then you get and then every fourth week
you're off. Yeah it's a beautiful schedule. Yeah, but listen
what you guys did. The creativity is daily, the daily
invention of story and product, And I say product, but
it's you know, when you're playing, when you're creating, it
(10:46):
ends up being a product because it is.
Speaker 4 (10:47):
It's show business. We're not show amateur. It's a business, right,
but you do your work and what gets created is
something that's effective.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
I always felt, and this was our attitude in New
York when we were studying and doing theater, that we
none of us would ever do television because it's going
to corrupt your craft, right, No way, because you are
not meant to do that many performances. That's too much acting.
That turns it into that you have to compromise everything
(11:18):
in order to get through a season.
Speaker 4 (11:20):
Now, when's the last time you did a stage play?
Speaker 1 (11:23):
Oh god, I mean late eighties?
Speaker 4 (11:28):
Wow?
Speaker 3 (11:29):
So yeah, okay, but I almost you know, I got
an offer to do one fifteen years ago in New York,
and I got a pilot and it was NBC. Thing
was going to be a big deal. It turned out
to be a nothing burger. But but I I was
going to do that, but I couldn't do it. And
then I was going to do Chicago on Broadway, and
(11:51):
then something came up and I couldn't do that.
Speaker 4 (11:53):
You a song and dance.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Man, No, not at all.
Speaker 4 (11:56):
So you were going to be in Chicago as a
non song and dance I was.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
I was going to, yes, going to pull it off
because I can. I'm pretty good on my feet. Yeah,
as it turns out, As it turns out, not so
much anymore. You know, I can top him. But the theater,
And that's something my dad, Rance Howard, that's how his
first dream was, I mean his theater. He was on
mister robertson Broadway right that he always told us that
(12:20):
it was.
Speaker 4 (12:21):
You know, it's such a beautiful thing that that you know,
you know, I don't get it in front of a
live audience and when you're doing a television show, but
on the stage there is a connection between the performer
and the audience that my dad used to say a
silly word. It's not silly. He would call it orgasmic
that But well, my dad was kind of a kook.
(12:42):
He was kind of eccentric.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
But no, that's a perfect way to describe it.
Speaker 4 (12:45):
Yeah. Now, I'll tell you what.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
There's nothing more vital than live theater when it's done well, yeah,
there is nothing that can come.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Close to it.
Speaker 4 (12:54):
And I've been in you know. You know, I've been
in the business a long time. I've never done a
stage play. Really, Oh wow, I would love to. So
that's an experience you I know have, I know, just
but again, I've been I've been in line to do
stage plays. I've been at table readings, and I've been
in rehearsal of stage plays. But then I've gotten real jobs.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
Right, Yeah, you have to take that.
Speaker 4 (13:16):
You got to take the job. When your agent says
you have an opportunity to be in a movie with
Adam Sander called water Boy.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
Yeah you gotta take the job.
Speaker 4 (13:23):
The little eight run off Broadway Equity Waivers show in
Santa Monica doesn't quite seem so attractive.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
Yeah, no, you you have to take the job. You've
got to do it. What we do, We're professional actors.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
That's what we do.
Speaker 6 (13:49):
Are you a Gilmore Girls fan looking for the perfect
holiday gift? Well we smell SnO. Come behind the scenes
the stars Hollow Luke himself, Patterson interviews Matt Zuker who
played Logan, Emily Caroroda who played Missus Cam, and so
many more. You'll see everything the Diner, Miss Patty's, the
Dragonfly in and Laurelize House, The Jeep, the Snow, the Gazebo,
(14:14):
and Al's Pancake World. The I Am All In Event
is streaming starting December twenty second at five pm Pacific
time for nineteen ninety nine and with your purchase you
can rewatch for seven days after the event. For tickets,
visit beeps dot Events slash I Am all In and
you can watch all the stars Hollow Magic from our
December eighteenth event Beeps dot Events slash I Am all In.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
I think the reason Gilmour ended and it didn't have
to end, you know, it did not have to end
because the advertisers were putting a lot of pressure on
Warner Brothers to bring the show back for multiple seasons
after its initial run after the seven years, well six.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Years and then one more year. But Amy and Dan.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
Left the show because they didn't offer them a long
term deal. So they got insulted and they left. And
the prob you know, the season seven product was pretty
damn good, but it just wasn't one through six. You know,
it didn't have that special It didn't pop the way
you know it used to a little bit. But you know,
(15:22):
I watched season seven a couple of times now, and
I think there's some great episodes.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
In there, don't you guys.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
I mean season seven is in his you know, people
really trash season seven, but there's some gold in there.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
There's some real gold.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
I think though David Rosenthal's team did a fantastic job.
I mean, try mimicking all of those unique voices right
at coming in from the outside. I mean, he was
an insider because he was on the writing staff. But
still I think he did a great job. My hats
off to him, because that's an impossible two sets of
shoes that you have to fill. Did a great job.
(15:56):
But anyway, so tell us a little bit more about
your journey and when you when you got your big
break in Hollywood.
Speaker 4 (16:07):
I got my big break when I was born to
Ransom gen Howard, uh, you know, being being in the
situation I was in, and by osmosis, I was learning
how to be in the business. My dad was just
this wonderful child, actor, human being, whisperer that you know,
I could listen, I would I would cry now if
(16:29):
I got if I got too thoughtful about the impact
my dad had on me. But you know, I don't
remember when my big break came, I was I guess
you know. I did an episode of Bonanza when I
was five. That was a pretty effective episode. I was
a little kid that was in search of God and
(16:50):
it was you know, I don't want to go into
the details of the story that beats of the story,
but it was a really good episode. And then I
do have vague memories of auditioning for the TV series
gentle beIN where I was the boy and the bear
and on the during the audia, it wasn't it was
a screen test. The bear was starting to act up.
(17:12):
There was like five kids were being screen tested, and
I was like the last kid, and the bear was
just starting to get really antsy and moving back and forth,
and I grabbed him by the chain and I held
him close to me and I said, now you knock
it off and listen to me when I'm talking to you, Ben,
(17:32):
And that was an improvised you know, and that and
that got me the gig, and so that that solidified
me as being on as being on television. And then
you know, of course, you know my brother Ron. I've
said this a bunch. You know, he's a Hall of
Fame movie director. He was a wonderful creative talent on screen.
(17:57):
He's a better big brother than he is a movie director,
you know. And so anyway, you know, I've been in
a good position. I haven't shot myself in the foot
too many times as an actor. I've got I've got
a few instances where I put my foot in my
mouth in really big ways. But somehow God has seen
(18:18):
to it that. Okay, I keep going along, keep working.
I'm getting ready with my wife Kat and a partner,
Norman Epstein. I'm getting ready to do a movie called
Another ice Cream Man. Because when I was about thirty
eight years old or something, I was in this be
(18:39):
horror movie in nineteen ninety four called ice Cream Man,
and it's become kind of a cult classic. And now
in twenty twenty six, we are going We've created this
film called Another ice Cream Man, and it's a horror film.
It's going to have a couple of homages to this
other film that I did in nineteen ninety four, but
(19:00):
it's a completely different plot. I'm going to co direct
the movie, uh, and it's for the audiences that know
about ice Cream Man. We are going to answer the
question what it takes for a guy to start putting
body parts in ice cream. Rock Rocky Road, you know,
Rocky Road is something that you know what makes that
(19:21):
crunchiness in Rocky Road? Nothing but bone marrow works really
really well. Grinandine plasma flavor, grinadine for my ice cream treats.
When you run out of grenadine, you just start using
real blood.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Uh huh.
Speaker 4 (19:41):
Anyway, so that listen as as an older guy, I've
never directed a film before. I'm going to direct this film.
You're going to shoot it. Kat is my one of
my producing partners and the love of my life, but
a confidant and uh rafi our daughter. She's gonna be
in it. Oh nice created this wonderful role for her.
(20:02):
There's kind of a who's on first scene that happens
with the neighborhood Karen, and she's she's a neighborhood kid
with a rock band, and all she wants to do
is buy ice cream. And all this neighborhood Karen wants
to do is climb up my tailpipe and tell me
how nasty my ice cream truck is.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
There you go, all right, Well, that's a synopsis of
the upcoming of another ice cream ice cream man. Tell
us about forgive my ignorance, But have you worked with
your brother a few times? Tell what makes him a
great director? He was an actor, right, and he loves
(20:39):
to direct. He's always wanted to since he was sixteen
years old. He's wanted to be a director.
Speaker 4 (20:47):
When he realized he probably wasn't going to be a
professional basketball player, he wanted to be a director.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
That they came for me too. I realized it.
Speaker 4 (20:55):
Yeah, just you know, short white guy, short short guys,
you know, with a vertical leap of about six inches,
just don't make the NBA. So he had the dream
of being a director and he worked really hard at
it and he ended up meeting the love of his
life when he was a junior in high school and
him and Cheryl created this team. Not only they had
(21:17):
four children, but she gave him the support so he
could go off and do what he really wanted to do.
And here's something about Ron. He directed his first movie
when he was twenty one or twenty two years old,
and it was a movie called Grand Theft Auto. And
then it was successful and he loved doing it and
he was off to the racist. Then he did a
movie called Night Shift. He did a couple of TV movies,
(21:38):
and then he did a movie called Splash that made
an impression. Ron went about ten years in his professional
career as a director without taking a vacation. Sure, every
day he was figuring out how to do his craft better.
(22:00):
And one thing that Ron told me along the way,
and this is probably after Movie twelve, he said, you know,
on every movie he picks one element of filmmaking and
in his mind he focuses on that one element and
he goes, I want to get better at that. You know,
backdraft it with special effects. He said, he had an
(22:22):
opportunity to do these wild, big special effects and he goes,
I'm going to get better at that. You know, he
wanted to get better at being an editor. So anyway,
he still had this thirst of wanting to get better
at what he does. And he's still doing it. He's
seventy one years old and he's just finishing a war
movie in Budapest.
Speaker 3 (22:42):
Fantastic, Clint Howard, Thank you for stopping by.
Speaker 4 (22:47):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
We could talk all day.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
It was great meeting you, great talking to you, and
you're welcome anytime on the podcast.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Lt dot.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
Hey everybody, and don't forget follow us on Instagram at
i Am all In Podcast, and email us at Gilmore
at iHeartRadio dot com.
Hosts And Creators
Amy Sugarman
Danielle Romo
Scott Patterson
Tara Soudbaksh
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.
Two Guys, Five Rings: Matt, Bowen & The Olympics
Two Guys (Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers). Five Rings (you know, from the Olympics logo). One essential podcast for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics. Bowen Yang (SNL, Wicked) and Matt Rogers (Palm Royale, No Good Deed) of Las Culturistas are back for a second season of Two Guys, Five Rings, a collaboration with NBC Sports and iHeartRadio. In this 15-episode event, Bowen and Matt discuss the top storylines, obsess over Italian culture, and find out what really goes on in the Olympic Village.