Starring Brian Stepanek as Host of the Disney Channel Games

He’s the ultimate host… Will and Sabrina welcome Brian Stepanek to the show! He’s talking all things Disney Channel, plus how he became the host of the Disney Channel Games!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:14):
Hey, Sabrina. Hey, well, Simon says, let's do an interview.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Let's do an interview.

Speaker 3 (00:20):
Ah, yes, we finally we have somebody.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
Because of course, the Disney Channel games have been near
and dear to our heart, as my fellow co host
and good friend, Sabrina can attest to the fact of
several hot days in Orlando building chariots and running and
taking over de facto lead of a team.

Speaker 3 (00:41):
But there was one person.

Speaker 1 (00:43):
Who hosted the entire event that we have wanted to
speak to for a while. Who is I'd say maybe
one of the few adults that is a Disney Channel
legend from adulthood to adulthood, meaning they didn't start as
kids and then they die, they became Disney Channel legends
as an adult.

Speaker 3 (01:04):
Yes, I don't think we've ever had that before.

Speaker 4 (01:06):
We haven't, And it's so exciting because he was such
a fun adult.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
He didn't have to really be like, you know, just
to Stern. He was always just a fun like funny, funny, funny.

Speaker 4 (01:17):
He brought comedy and I'm sure those kids learned so
much from him. So I can't wait to hear about
his journey with all of the young actors that he
has been able to.

Speaker 3 (01:27):
Work with and he's got what a resume.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
But yes, again, I want to find out how he
even hosted the most intense, anxiety filled literally sitting there
sweating as I'm watching fifty Kids place, Simon says, so please,
we got to figure that out.

Speaker 3 (01:45):
Help us. Welcome our guest today, Brian Stapanic.

Speaker 5 (01:51):
Well, do you want me to show you what happened
right before I turned on the camera.

Speaker 6 (01:59):
Well, okay, what happened? Here we go.

Speaker 3 (02:01):
This is me.

Speaker 6 (02:03):
I finished my coffee.

Speaker 5 (02:04):
I'm like, oh, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap.

Speaker 6 (02:10):
That was me.

Speaker 1 (02:13):
Worked like a charm you, of course, being the consument actor.
I never would have known that had you not pointed
it out, we wouldn't have known.

Speaker 6 (02:20):
You just you just go to work, you know what
I mean.

Speaker 1 (02:24):
I also want to point out for everybody out there
and hopefully this will be on our socials. Uh your
name at the bottom of your zoom, says Brad Pitt.

Speaker 6 (02:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (02:34):
Well, I've been doing a lot of press for F
one and I thought I carve you guys in a
little little slot.

Speaker 2 (02:41):
Thank you so much, much appreciated.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
Thank you so much for joining us. We have so
much to talk to you about. A lot of it, though,
is going to be based around one thing we know.
First of all, we were just talking in your intro
that you are arguably one of the few adults that
is a Disney Channel legend.

Speaker 6 (03:00):
Yes, oh that's very sweet, but it's true.

Speaker 3 (03:03):
Mostly it's you start as a kid.

Speaker 1 (03:04):
We've we've interviewed adults that were Disney Channel legends because
they started as kids. But there's all You're in a
category of one or two people that is a Disney
Channel legend from adulthood that almost never happens.

Speaker 6 (03:16):
Yeah, it's weird. It's uh.

Speaker 5 (03:19):
He's probably my favorite character I've ever played. I mean,
I started doing musical theater and there's so there's some
other characters that for theater are really fun, but this
guy was such a joy and it wasn't you know.
The audition process was really uh interesting. I gave a
commencement speech at my high school years ago and I
told the story of how I booked this job, which

(03:42):
is that I got to the audition and it was
all husky, hairy dudes. It was like Hagrid, just all Hagrids,
and I walk in and you guys know as actors,
you know, you walk in, you just sabotage the crap
out of yourself.

Speaker 6 (03:56):
Yeah what am I doing here?

Speaker 5 (03:58):
They're looking for something totally different than me, and I
ended up going in and instead of making them kind
of a lumbering OAF, I made him like a hyper savant.

Speaker 6 (04:08):
And and they kind of they kind of.

Speaker 5 (04:10):
I remember I finished the audition at the in front
of the showrunner and some of the writers, and they
just stared at me and they went One of them
turned to the other in silence and went, can we
do that?

Speaker 6 (04:25):
And thank god? And thank god they did it? Was
that just been a joy?

Speaker 1 (04:30):
You mentioned that you started in musical theaters, So can
you take us back to I mean, we always like
to know what makes someone decide to be an actor?

Speaker 3 (04:39):
How did you wake up one morning and say.

Speaker 6 (04:41):
Oh, listen, there's a lot of there's a lot of.

Speaker 5 (04:46):
Emotional addict stuff to get into as to why you
become an actor.

Speaker 6 (04:51):
I was, Oh my god.

Speaker 5 (04:53):
I mean I was the youngest of six. I was
five years younger than my next older sibling, my sister,
she who I also do a podcast with, And so
I think my parents were like, Okay, we've done the
parenting thing, and we're.

Speaker 6 (05:09):
Gonna let you just run around like a wild animal.

Speaker 5 (05:12):
And so I lived out in the woods and three acres,
and I was constantly trying to get the attention of
my brothers and sisters and my parents, and and theater
kind of presented itself. I played Scrooge in fifth grade
and I caught the bug and then did local community theater.

Speaker 4 (05:30):
I live bit Scrooge as a fifth grader is something
I have to see.

Speaker 2 (05:35):
That's all.

Speaker 3 (05:36):
I have to stop you real quick. I'm sorry, I
have to stop you real quick. You're describing my life.

Speaker 2 (05:41):
Yes, it's true.

Speaker 3 (05:42):
Right.

Speaker 1 (05:43):
I was the youngest of three, my older brothers five
years older than me. I grew up in the woods
on three acres. I was running around like a wild animal.
And fifth grade is where I caught the bug.

Speaker 6 (05:54):
What the hell?

Speaker 1 (05:55):
I swear to God, I swear to God, I'm the
So it was the same as you're describing.

Speaker 3 (05:59):
And I'm like, he's talking about my life. Yes, so
that's crazy. Literally the same thing.

Speaker 6 (06:04):
The second thing, So you and I have to be
friends forever.

Speaker 1 (06:07):
Yes, it's it sounds like we do, because I remember
that was it was exactly the same. You're trying to
get attention. My parents were like kind of letting me
do my own thing.

Speaker 3 (06:16):
It was exactly the same.

Speaker 5 (06:18):
And when you were in eighth grade, did you accidentally
kill a hobo by the train tracks?

Speaker 1 (06:22):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (06:22):
My god, Mine wasn't an accident. Yeah, but I understand
what you're Yeah, I.

Speaker 6 (06:26):
Understand, but I had to ease into it, you know
what I mean.

Speaker 3 (06:30):
That's so crazy. So okay, So I'm sorry. I didn't
mean to interrupt. It was just the coincidence. I love
the stacking.

Speaker 6 (06:35):
I love that.

Speaker 3 (06:36):
I love so you caught the bug.

Speaker 4 (06:38):
First of all, your first like main character, being Scrooge
is just like too good, too good, like you were
meant for Disney right from the start, Sabrina.

Speaker 6 (06:47):
Think about it.

Speaker 5 (06:47):
Think about how first full circle it's come. Because in
about for the next thirty years of my life, I'm
going to be playing Scrooge.

Speaker 6 (06:54):
Look at me, look at me.

Speaker 5 (06:58):
Just grow the hair out a little, and I'm gonna
Christmas Brian Stepanic up here.

Speaker 6 (07:02):
As a Scrooge.

Speaker 5 (07:02):
And you know, Wisconsin Community Field.

Speaker 2 (07:06):
I love my gosh.

Speaker 4 (07:08):
Wow, So so you were where was these where was.

Speaker 2 (07:12):
This forest of three acres? Where were you Where are.

Speaker 6 (07:14):
You from, Sabrina, I'm not telling you, Okay, will warn me,
will warn me. I was like, don't give her any
personal information.

Speaker 5 (07:23):
You will never get her out of your life podcast
win with Sabrina.

Speaker 3 (07:29):
That's the worst thing you can do.

Speaker 4 (07:30):
So all right, fine, Well can you tell us what
took you to bringing? Like where did you end up
getting into you said you have the bug?

Speaker 2 (07:38):
Are you staying.

Speaker 4 (07:39):
Locally community or like, are you one of those guys
that or kids that ended up coming to LA early
or did that bring not happen till later on?

Speaker 6 (07:47):
No?

Speaker 5 (07:47):
No, I I was in a little town outside of Cleveland, Ohio,
on the east side of Cleveland, Ohio, and I just
did community.

Speaker 2 (07:54):
Oh that's sorry.

Speaker 6 (07:59):
Notice I didn't give the name of the town or
the street I lived on. It was pretty it was
pretty idyllic. It was you know.

Speaker 5 (08:07):
My parents were awesome, My brothers and my sister are
all awesome. We're all very close, and we still get
together on that property. I now own that property, and
so my mom, my ninety two year old mom, still
lives there and we all get together. Fourth of July,
we had forty people, you know, on the property, cooking
hot dogs, and so I ended up doing a lot
of community theater California in LA was like another planet

(08:29):
to me. So I my endorphin rushes hit me when
I was in the basement of that house with the
shag carpet and the bumper pool table and having old
Beta tapes that we had ripped off from Captain Video.

Speaker 6 (08:42):
Sorry Captain Video, I know you're out of business now,
but we stole a lot of.

Speaker 5 (08:45):
Movies and we had like a VHS and a Beta
and we would just analogue steal all the movies.

Speaker 6 (08:50):
Oh man, So.

Speaker 5 (08:51):
I had a cabinet full of like Indiana Jones The
Last Starfighter.

Speaker 3 (08:58):
The Last Starfighter is one of the grass movies of
all time.

Speaker 5 (09:00):
War games like, I watched them all on a loop
and I really loved. As a kid, on Saturday mornings,
there was a show that was on called soups On
and it was a middle aged man dressed as a
as Superman with a clown nose. I swear to god,
it was the weirdest thing. And he would I don't
know what it was, it was a local access, but
he it was crazy and he he would air like

(09:24):
the Three Stooges episodes and then he'd do a movie
and it was usually either a monster movie or a
Jerry Lewis movie. And I lived for the Jerry Lewis
and the Abbot and Costello stuff. And then as I
got older, I lived for Mork and Mindy and I
lived for John Ritter, and I just that that was
such an escape for me to see physical comedians and

(09:47):
that kind of we talk about that musical theater level comedy.
That is what children's theater, children's television is. So when
I went into the audition for ARM, I was like, Oh,
this is musical theater.

Speaker 6 (09:56):
It's the same thing.

Speaker 5 (09:57):
All the turns are the same, the reversals are the same,
the builds are the same, the mid are the same.
Everything about it is the same energy as musical theater.
So I just kind of slid right into it. Even
though at that point in LA I had been doing
a lot of I was on NYPD Blue and I
was on Six Feet Under, I was doing a lot
of drama, and then this audition came up and it
kind of like fell right into that slot. But I,

(10:18):
you know, I went to Syracuse University. I did a
lot of theater there. I started as a musical theater major.
Then I transferred into communications, but I audited all the
audition classes and auditioned for all the shows, So I
did eleven shows. While I was in college, I did
a one man musical called Herringbone that a faculty member
brought to me, where I played eleven different characters and

(10:38):
we did We did that in Syracuse, and then a
young producer from Chicago brought it to Chicago who was
a Syracuse alum, and that's how I ended up in Chicago.

Speaker 6 (10:45):
But I also wanted to tour Second City. That was
one of my goals, my life goals, which I did.

Speaker 5 (10:49):
I ended up Wow man, I was there with Tina
Fey and Rachel Dratch and all that whole gang.

Speaker 2 (10:56):
Holy cow, who.

Speaker 5 (10:58):
I'm actually going to get together with this February. I'm
doing a We're doing funny thing happened on the way
to the Forum in Mansfield, Ohio. I just played Max
Biello Stock and the producers there this last winter, and
and a lot of Tina Fey's husband, rich Hutchman, Jeff
Richmond is going to be in it and direct it,
and a lot of other players are coming in to

(11:19):
have fun.

Speaker 6 (11:20):
So it's all full circle. It's kind of a weird.
So I ended up here.

Speaker 5 (11:24):
I ended up in Chicago, and then I won a
Jeff Award in Chicago for me and my girl for
playing Bill Snipson and me and my girl. And when
I first got to Chicago, I went to a can
you tell I've had coffee?

Speaker 6 (11:37):
When we love this, we love them.

Speaker 1 (11:38):
We don't have to talk this old. We could just
be quiet and let the stories wash over us.

Speaker 5 (11:44):
Do you know what's do you know what's funny is
since I've started doing a podcast, I have started saying
yes to podcasts more because one, I know how hard
it is to get guests and and how much these
podcasts people really enjoy them and they want to hear
your stories, and it's it's so it's a joy to
do them.

Speaker 1 (12:01):
They you know what's the name of So we'll get
back into what's the name of your podcast?

Speaker 3 (12:05):
Though, for everybody out there.

Speaker 6 (12:06):
Good job will?

Speaker 5 (12:08):
It is called it is called here from There? And
basically the reason I started it was my audience is
twenty somethings and thirty somethings that grew up watching me
and I started teaching acting here in La a while ago,
and I realized, Oh, I'm I'm the old wise guy now,
Like I think of myself as being about thirty years old, right,

(12:28):
and I'm not. I'm not thirty years old. I'm much older.
And so I really enjoyed teaching and I realized, oh,
I have a lot of stories and things that I
can help people with. And so my sister, who's a
big prod producer for commercial, she's really successful producer in LA.
She's about much much older than me and much older,

(12:48):
and we said, why don't we start a podcast and
we'll call it here from There, and we'll talk to
people that we know that have been successful and ask
them what you're asking me, how did you start?

Speaker 6 (12:57):
What were your twenties like, what were your thirties like?

Speaker 5 (12:59):
And speak to this audience that that knows me and
kind of grew up with me, and be like, hey,
here are some techniques that people have used to get
over anxiety or or you know, any kind of hesitations
in their career or or career switches. And and I've
really I've really enjoyed doing it.

Speaker 6 (13:14):
It's been fun. It's great Here from There with Brian Stapanic.

Speaker 1 (13:18):
Here from There with Brian from there from that I
don't need to listen to it because you continue to
describe my life by the way, our basement, fool table
and all I've sort of got, and all of the
movies you were. I could quote Last star Fighter backwards,
forwards and sideways to you, plus War Games and Indiana
Jones without even batting an eyelash.

Speaker 5 (13:38):
So Disney's the black Hole. I don't know, that's probably
before your time. There's just so many movies we had
tape that I literally watched on a loop. I'd go
down there on a snowy, rainy Ohio day and just
watch them over and over and over again.

Speaker 3 (13:50):
It was the best.

Speaker 1 (13:51):
So wait, were you going from VHS to beta? Are
you going from beta to VHS?

Speaker 3 (13:55):
Is the question?

Speaker 5 (13:55):
That is a question I'll never remember. I just remember
we had one at one of each. And by the way,
I went home for Fourth of July and I opened
that cabinet and all the tapes were there.

Speaker 6 (14:09):
I can't throw them out. I can't throw them out.
I can't do it.

Speaker 5 (14:12):
The Last star Fighter and War Games were on the
same Beta because you could, you could pull out a
little tab and make it tape longer, so we can
put two movies per tape.

Speaker 1 (14:21):
Oh wow, that's a phenomenal tape. By the way, I
want the DVD version of those two movies together would
just be.

Speaker 2 (14:29):
The DVDs that no one has anymore.

Speaker 3 (14:32):
I know, I know, I just myself.

Speaker 5 (14:35):
We are so many incarnations past it's crazy.

Speaker 2 (14:38):
It's crazy.

Speaker 3 (14:40):
So when you said.

Speaker 1 (14:41):
Musical theater was kind of your love, but then you
also mentioned you came out and you were doing a
whole bunch of dramas.

Speaker 3 (14:45):
Was that the way you were leaning.

Speaker 1 (14:47):
Would you have preferred be a dramatic actor because of
Second City? Was it like, I want comedy and I
just happened to be booking all these dramas as we're
getting out here, I think that.

Speaker 5 (14:58):
So you guys are gonna love this. Now I'm gonna
get all technical about acting. I think it is much
harder to be a comedic actor on a kids show
YEP than a dramatic actor in a single camera drama.
And the reason I say that is when you're an
actor and you're doing your work leading up to the project,

(15:19):
and you're coming up with all of your kind of
actor thoughts and your choices. When you make a choice
in kids comedy, if it's the wrong choice. You are
swinging hard and everyone sees it.

Speaker 6 (15:33):
It's a big swing. You're having big character thoughts and
making big choices, So your work, your work leading up
to it.

Speaker 5 (15:41):
Has to be accurate. If it's not accurate, it won't work.
In a drama, you're making choices, but they're small, little
small print thoughts and choices. So if you swing incorrectly,
do people always notice? Sometimes not? They can interpret it.
You know, Brad Pitt's great because you can't read his face.
You're laying to him what you want to lay on

(16:01):
to him from your personal life experience. But in a
kid's comedy, it's exhausting. It's you're you're making huge choices
and taking huge risks, huge risks, and it's a shame
that the industry doesn't value it as much as they should.
It's a It's like actors are like bakers. You have
to know how to make pies and doughnuts and bread

(16:22):
and all these different things, and actors have to do
the same thing. You have to be able to do
single camera drama, you have to be able to do
kids comedy, you have to be able to do single
camera comedy. It's all different technique. And so the answer
to that question is, I I just got opportunities in
drama that I was just booking them.

Speaker 6 (16:41):
It just for some reason.

Speaker 5 (16:42):
They were just landing. And my agent, when I booked Arwin,
told me not to do it.

Speaker 3 (16:49):
Wow.

Speaker 6 (16:50):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 5 (16:50):
She was like, don't do this. This is a kid's show.
Don't do this. You don't need to do this. And
I was like, I'm not wealthy, Like I have nothing
else to do next week, and this seems really fun.

Speaker 3 (17:02):
They weren't.

Speaker 6 (17:02):
They weren't paying anything.

Speaker 5 (17:03):
I mean, they really paid very very little at Disney sure,
and and so I thank god I did it because
you know, it just turned into a huge deal.

Speaker 3 (17:12):
Yeah, I think it's funny.

Speaker 1 (17:13):
It's so interesting what you said about uh making choices.
The other thing, you couple all of that with the
fact that there is no more honest an audience than kids. Yeah,
they're they're gonna they're they're not gonna lie to you,
They're not gonna clap politely if if they don't like
what they're seeing. So it's uh, yeah, it's really such
an interesting world to be in, and nobody does it
like Disney Channel. That's the uh, the interesting part about it, did.

Speaker 4 (17:36):
You have any was that your first audition at Disney?
Had you seen or gotten close to anything else, like
I know that happens a lot in the channel, or
that was the first audition first I've ever done for
just what?

Speaker 6 (17:48):
First? First thing?

Speaker 2 (17:50):
Wild?

Speaker 3 (17:51):
I that?

Speaker 6 (17:52):
Yeah, I I connected with that.

Speaker 5 (17:54):
So so when we did my first episode, he was
supposed to be a series regular and then he got
cut out through the problem, so they brought him back
about episode five. It was when I have this blind
date with the boy's mom, and I remember being in
my office set and I was rehearsing on my own
because I go in there. I was just trying to
come up with physical bits and things that I was
always doing, and one of the producers came by and

(18:15):
stopped and said, you know, you should have your own show.
And now I had been in LA for three years.
I had gone from Chicago, where I was playing leads
and musicals and winning awards and doing commercials and voiceovers
and being you know, a big fish in a small pond.

Speaker 6 (18:30):
Which was why I left.

Speaker 5 (18:32):
And I was like, I need to leave, like right now,
because this is really comfortable.

Speaker 6 (18:35):
I love it here.

Speaker 5 (18:36):
I need to pour myself away and spent three miserable
years in an apartment where I was working, but it
was just.

Speaker 6 (18:41):
I was alone.

Speaker 5 (18:42):
My wife now who is my girlfriend at the time,
was in New York doing musical theater and I was
very lonely. And so to have someone come up and
say that it kind of reminded me. I was like, oh,
that's right, I'm good at this. You just forget you
get your ass kicked. And so I was like, okay,
it was a nice thing for her to say. And
then a year and a half later, we shot Housebroken,
you know, we our one was spun off into a

(19:03):
show with Selena Gomez and and and you know, it
was it was a crazy it was a crazy little
ride to go on.

Speaker 1 (19:19):
Well, you've also been there, you know, working with some actors,
so we not to jump right to the Disney Channel games.
But that's we're dying to talk about that, obviously.

Speaker 3 (19:28):
But the one of the.

Speaker 1 (19:30):
Things we noticed is the sheer number of young actors
or singers, you know the Disney machine that have turned
into these huge megastars where you got to see kind
of the start of the Selena Gomez is and all
these kind of young actors who have just exploded.

Speaker 5 (19:48):
Someone on this podcast was on the Sweet Life of
Zach and Cody.

Speaker 3 (19:51):
I think I was pretty good. I was pretty good. Oh,
you meant say.

Speaker 5 (19:57):
Can you remind me what episode you were on? Was
I in it?

Speaker 3 (20:01):
You?

Speaker 2 (20:03):
Our main part was we didn't have like a huge part.
We weren't through.

Speaker 4 (20:07):
I don't feel like we were through like the whole episode.
I feel like it was. We were on the one
with Chris Brown.

Speaker 6 (20:13):
Okay, you remember I was. I wasn't.

Speaker 3 (20:14):
I wasn't that I don't. I think, yes, Chris Brown, okay.

Speaker 4 (20:20):
Yes, and we kind of had like a dance off
type situation that happened with Chris.

Speaker 2 (20:25):
And you were definitely around. I don't know. I don't read.

Speaker 4 (20:30):
I honestly don't even remember what the plot of the
show was.

Speaker 6 (20:35):
And you were you were in mostly ghostly? Were you
mostly ghostly?

Speaker 2 (20:39):
Ghostly?

Speaker 3 (20:40):
What is mostly ghostly?

Speaker 1 (20:41):
You've never even mentioned this, so mostly ghostly?

Speaker 2 (20:44):
My part was very small and mostly ghostly.

Speaker 5 (20:47):
When you do now, when you do podcasts like this,
you have to do a little digging.

Speaker 6 (20:51):
We call it background.

Speaker 3 (20:53):
I'm not so familiar with that.

Speaker 5 (20:54):
I did a little background and Sabrina I was like
she was mostly ghostly.

Speaker 3 (20:58):
Oh crap, have you never mentioned this? What is mostly ghostly?

Speaker 2 (21:08):
I was like a principle.

Speaker 4 (21:09):
So there that's where it gets weird because it was
years ago and I was like a principle.

Speaker 5 (21:16):
So mostly ghostly is based on erl Stein books and
Rich Correll, who was one of the directors. He directed
most of the Sweet Lives. He was just a He's
a great guy. He got me as soon as he
met me, like within five minutes. He the third episode
I ever did for Sweet Life. He brought me his

(21:36):
director's script and said you need to be directing, and
gave me his directors script with all his notes. He
was like he and I just connected, and he brought
me that script and I love him. I had more
fun on that movie because I played fears. I had
all this demon makeup on and it was like crazy.

Speaker 2 (21:52):
Yes, yes, it was awesome.

Speaker 6 (21:56):
It was awesome.

Speaker 5 (21:57):
It was not a good movie and I and I
I love Rich. He's like like my of my favorite
people on the planet. And I had so much fun.
He took such good care of me with all the
makeup on. But it was not a great movie. But
when I saw that you were in that, I was like,
holy crap.

Speaker 4 (22:12):
I think I was literally there for maybe two days,
if not just one. My part was like so so small,
but it was so.

Speaker 2 (22:20):
Fun because who was the little girl that was in it?

Speaker 6 (22:25):
Yeah, she became huge, she's uh what.

Speaker 4 (22:28):
She was so adorable and this was like right at
the Madison Pettis.

Speaker 6 (22:33):
Yeah, any credit for that.

Speaker 2 (22:39):
Don't give me any credit for that. My brain remembering.

Speaker 3 (22:41):
Names amazing that such instant.

Speaker 4 (22:46):
She was this like adorable and this was like one
of the first things that she was really like.

Speaker 2 (22:51):
It was like right at the beginning of it.

Speaker 4 (22:52):
And I think at that point after she did did
she do a movie with the rock like the Tooth
Fairy movie?

Speaker 2 (22:58):
Was that her the same little girl she was on?

Speaker 5 (23:00):
My producers are asking I'm asking them right now. Let
me see what they come back.

Speaker 6 (23:04):
But yes, the game plan, the game plan was That's
what my producers just said. They said, the game plan.

Speaker 2 (23:10):
Yeah, the game plan.

Speaker 4 (23:11):
So yeah, she was so cute and sweet and it
was like for me the first time after being like
on the Cheetah Girls, to see like this new like young.
She was very young, like seven six seven eight type
of age, and she was so excited and she was
just like, and it was just like wow, Like, I
can't believe I'm now the older one looking at that.

Speaker 2 (23:32):
That was me when I was little.

Speaker 4 (23:34):
Like she just wanted to sit right by the light
guy who just which is something I did.

Speaker 2 (23:37):
All the time when I was young.

Speaker 4 (23:39):
I just would sit right by the like guy and
that little I was so intrigued with that little button
thing he kept using, and I was like asking him,
what does that mean?

Speaker 2 (23:45):
What's numbers?

Speaker 4 (23:46):
That?

Speaker 2 (23:46):
I probably bug the hell out of every like guy
I ever worked with, but that's how you learn.

Speaker 4 (23:50):
Yeah, or I see in the producer's chair behind them
and just listen to them while everyone else was working.

Speaker 2 (23:55):
It was like that's how she was on that movie.

Speaker 4 (23:57):
And it was so cute to see some when young
just so excited and wanting to know as much as
she could about what she was doing. And you just
knew she really loved it, which I thought was really great.
I liked that a couple of days on Mostly Ghostly.

Speaker 2 (24:10):
It was fun.

Speaker 4 (24:10):
You were right, It was like a fun environment. The
set was fun, the crew everyone.

Speaker 5 (24:16):
I remember whenever I had the Fears makeup on, I
would come on set and be a total diva, like
I would just be a total jerk to everybody, and
it was really funny.

Speaker 6 (24:28):
So the crew ended.

Speaker 2 (24:29):
Up you wouldn't we doing that?

Speaker 6 (24:30):
Oh yeah, oh yeah they were. They were all in
on it.

Speaker 5 (24:33):
So I would come in and just be like I
need Eminem's, but I'd be like, I need Eminem's now,
and they and so they eventually made a sign and
put it on set with all the rules for when
Fears is on set, like no eye contact the whole
They had a whole thing.

Speaker 6 (24:48):
It was pretty fun. It was really.

Speaker 1 (24:49):
Funn Oh wow, Okay, so we got to do it.

Speaker 3 (24:54):
So we had the Jason's on.

Speaker 6 (24:57):
Our show Earls Together.

Speaker 1 (24:59):
Dolly together to talk about the final Simon if we interviewed.

Speaker 4 (25:05):
Them separately, and then you know, to talk about their
own projects and stuff.

Speaker 2 (25:09):
But then the Channel and then of course.

Speaker 4 (25:11):
You know, the Disney Channel games is huge, so we
had to talk to them about that, and they both
had separate stories about what went down on that.

Speaker 3 (25:21):
Simon says, which who one who really won? Was there started?
So it rigged We wanted to throw them into the ring.

Speaker 1 (25:30):
But then so of course we do a whole episode
about the Disney Channel Games. So we're watching and I
just want to know before we get too deep into
the woods, because I'm getting way deep into the woods
because I've got some questions. How did they approach you
to be the host of the Disney Channel Games. What
was the first time you heard about it? Do you
remember the pitch?

Speaker 3 (25:48):
Was it?

Speaker 6 (25:49):
You know?

Speaker 2 (25:49):
Kind of did all of them right? All the three
sass you did all three of them?

Speaker 1 (25:55):
How did they approach you to to host the Disney
Channel Games?

Speaker 3 (25:58):
What was that?

Speaker 6 (25:58):
Like? I don't remember.

Speaker 5 (26:00):
I just remember them coming and saying they're gonna do
this kind of like. So when I was a kid
in the seventies, they had Battle of the Network Stars,
which would never happen today. So what they did was
they got stars from all three networks. They're only three networks, kids,
there are only three networks, and so if you had
a hit show, then you were a monopoly like everyone

(26:23):
in the country watched. So imagine all of the top
television stars in the country are put on three different
teams and they competed. They did just like Disney Channel Games,
all these different kind of they I believe they did everything,
and they did. Simon says, and they asked me if
I would if I would do it. And so I

(26:45):
went and got a footage of the guy who used
to do it in the Adirondacks. He used to go
to like the summer camps and do this in the
seventies and eighties. And I watched him on video and
he was incredible, like entertaining and funny and and and clever.
How we'd get people out. And so I practiced. We

(27:05):
had a black block party on my street here actually
is at our other house, and I practiced on the
neighborhood kids. That's that's how I got good at it.
I would practice with people because I was like, this
is going to be the final event. This is a
lot of points. I better know what the hell I'm doing. Yeah,
and and.

Speaker 3 (27:22):
So we're good at it.

Speaker 6 (27:24):
You were great.

Speaker 3 (27:25):
It was just another level of hosting. Simon says, I've
never seen anything like it.

Speaker 6 (27:30):
Yeah, I was stealing from from other greats, but.

Speaker 3 (27:34):
Man had a great thing.

Speaker 2 (27:35):
It was brilliant to be able to pull it off.

Speaker 4 (27:38):
I don't care who you saw it from, who you
learned from. It was incredible. I mean, there is no
way to the point where I do some like a
little thing. I like a little game night and everyone
always asks like should we do Simon says, and I'm like, no, no, no,
We'll leave that.

Speaker 2 (27:54):
The professionals, right, I haven't in years.

Speaker 4 (28:00):
Decide you're gonna call out. Simon says, you gotta like
train for that, and it's so it was so good
and oh my gosh, I just I oh, it's so.

Speaker 2 (28:10):
Frustrating when you get out.

Speaker 4 (28:12):
It's still when you get out of the game and
you're just like damn it, like, oh.

Speaker 6 (28:17):
Man, well, it's amazing.

Speaker 5 (28:19):
That game really appeals to the dark side of people,
because they will they will pretend like they didn't move,
and they will fight you.

Speaker 6 (28:27):
They hate people that are totally rational. Nice people will
be like, I did not move. I didn't move.

Speaker 5 (28:32):
You said that and I didn't when I'd be like, dude,
you're out of my game.

Speaker 6 (28:35):
You're out of my game. I am not out of
your game. Like, people just get so angry.

Speaker 3 (28:40):
It's so true.

Speaker 2 (28:41):
It's intense true.

Speaker 6 (28:44):
Oh what I would do for our block party.

Speaker 5 (28:47):
I would find the youngest, cutest kid and I'd put
them in the front and I'd start the game and
I go okay, and I turn and said, what's your name?

Speaker 6 (28:54):
Like Debbie. I'd be like Debbie, You're gonna win this game.

Speaker 5 (28:59):
And then I took the pressure off of everybody and
I would make sure that DeBie won the game.

Speaker 6 (29:04):
I just would ignore.

Speaker 5 (29:05):
Everything she did until the end, and then I would
get an adult out and adopte be like, come on,
she didn't.

Speaker 6 (29:10):
I was like, she's six sell down, Okay, sell down.

Speaker 2 (29:16):
It's so true.

Speaker 4 (29:17):
I mean, I'm telling you especially like think about it too,
like this is like a sea of Disney Channel stars, right,
we all know the expectations of our actions and our
reactions to things just in life, right as far as
being on the channel being you know, these people that
young kids look up to. But I swear that was

(29:39):
the funniest part about it was you would hear and
they obviously cut it out with mics, like the cussing
that like like not like crazy, I'm not saying it,
but just like that, you know, like where you would
never get caught on camera ever saying that, like you
just couldn't help it because you're like so pissed that
this simon says, game just gotcha.

Speaker 5 (29:59):
Well, so you know, just so you know, I would
toy with you guys for the first five ten minutes
just to make good television. Like I wasn't even trying
very hard at the beginning, and people were just getting out.
Like the first three moves, I'd lose half the people
that I wasn't even trying.

Speaker 3 (30:14):
What happened?

Speaker 5 (30:15):
And then you were a Jason Earls who was forty
eight years old.

Speaker 6 (30:19):
Yes, yes, that was the competing.

Speaker 5 (30:21):
Against ten year old and he's in moaning and he
didn't win, and I'm like, dude, First of all, he
wouldn't look at me in the eye, and I was like,
you need Simon.

Speaker 6 (30:29):
Says, look at me. And he'd be like because he
knew if he looked at me, because I was doing
it with you know. And I was like, you can't cheat.
You you should be on Social Security right now.

Speaker 5 (30:40):
And you're competing against literally a fifth grader. So whatever,
whatever he whatever issues he has, whatever, Okay.

Speaker 3 (30:50):
They both popped onto the zoom.

Speaker 1 (30:53):
They both popped out of the zoom wearing their cost
their outfits from the game, headband and the wristbands.

Speaker 4 (31:03):
His sir Jason, he had his yellow jacket, the jacket
and it had the logo and everything.

Speaker 2 (31:12):
Yes, he still has mine.

Speaker 4 (31:15):
I have searched my whole house. I I think I've
just moved too many times. It got lost somewhere. But
I used to have my chack, the whole suit, the
track suit and the pants.

Speaker 2 (31:24):
I had them for years, but.

Speaker 6 (31:27):
I occasionally cameo.

Speaker 5 (31:28):
I'll occasionally get people saying, Hey, we're doing our own
Disney Channel games.

Speaker 6 (31:31):
Will you do an intro?

Speaker 3 (31:33):
Oh?

Speaker 5 (31:33):
Yes, I'll usually play the Olympic theme huh and then
just do.

Speaker 1 (31:40):
It.

Speaker 2 (31:41):
That's so good.

Speaker 1 (31:42):
So one of the things we're trying to do is
we're getting all the people back together.

Speaker 3 (31:45):
Is we want there to be a new Disney Channel.
Definitely if there were, would you host again? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (31:51):
And it being like old school against the news school.

Speaker 4 (31:55):
Let's get high school musical and Cheetah girls going against
the descendants and the like, let's freaking go.

Speaker 6 (32:02):
And what wooll.

Speaker 5 (32:03):
We'll roll Earls out in his wheelchair and see if
he can he can hang with those little knickerbockers.

Speaker 2 (32:11):
He could be a.

Speaker 4 (32:11):
Judge on the On the Simon says he could be
a judge.

Speaker 3 (32:14):
He has to have to play.

Speaker 1 (32:16):
You'd have to play, so okay, you don't have to
name names, but did you have favorites and people you
did not like? Contestants even though they were kids. Was
it like, oh God, these kids are back again.

Speaker 5 (32:36):
No, No, I I was so I was so stressed
out memorizing and working with all of the dial so
like Phil Lewis and I were working our asses off.
So we I don't know if you remember, we did
so much like back and forth. We'd improvise and rewrite
stuff and and I don't think we had teleprompters.

Speaker 6 (32:53):
We were just kind of no going. We were going.

Speaker 4 (32:56):
But we'll only got to see Simon says, and the
only one that's available on Disney Plus is the third
season when it was just you.

Speaker 1 (33:04):
He didn't get a chance to Yeah, I didn't kiss the.

Speaker 4 (33:09):
Two of you guys hosting. He only got to see
the one.

Speaker 6 (33:13):
It was so fun.

Speaker 5 (33:14):
And you know, so I was really busy, so I
didn't really have time to play favorites.

Speaker 6 (33:17):
I was just trying to get through the events right.

Speaker 5 (33:20):
And and you know, it was an amazing experience for
my family because you know, my son was a baby
at the time who's now twenty and it's like crazy
and so you know, you'd get a guide assigned to
you to go through the park because the.

Speaker 6 (33:37):
Kids, anybody that was at the.

Speaker 5 (33:39):
Park knew we were there, right, and this is before streaming,
So the shows on Disney Channel Nickelodeon were juggernauts. I
mean every kid in the country watched all those shows,
and especially Sweet Life, Hannah Montana. All that stuff was
so big, and so they knew we were there. So
you had to have a guid or you wouldn't be
able to get anywhere. Yeah, and so I remember I

(34:00):
had this is my favorite part of the whole experience.
The third year I was there, or yeah, the third
year I was there, I had about an hour and
a half at lunch and I otherwise would have to
go out at night and we'd have to put my son.
So I was, like, I said to our guy, his
name was Jeremy. I said, Jeremy, I have an hour
and a half. I want to go on.

Speaker 6 (34:17):
Every big roller coaster in every.

Speaker 5 (34:20):
Park in an hour and a half. Can you frickin
do it? And he goes, He goes, I got youa.
So he and my wife picked me up. We have
my son's being babysat. We get in the car and
he drives to like the back entrance, you know, Mickey
Mouse with his hat off, just smoking a cigarette in
the back, you know, just kind of like yeah and

(34:40):
oh my god, and I'd go in and we did
every ride in all four parks, and I remember I
got on the rock and Roller coaster and there was
also a cheerleading convention there at the same time, so
there were about one hundred cheerleaders in line, and I
sneak in kind of the back and I get in.
I take my hat off, and one of them saw

(35:01):
me and went and they all turned.

Speaker 6 (35:05):
And just started screaming.

Speaker 5 (35:07):
And then you know, that thing just goes and tips
off to rock and Roller cost So I was like,
it was so cool just to the screams of like
people freaking out. Oh, so that the whole experience was
really cool. But I didn't play favorites. I just I
was too busy, you know, memorizing my stuff.

Speaker 2 (35:24):
Especially that third season.

Speaker 4 (35:26):
You really, I mean it was it was just you. You
were doing so much, I mean so much stuff to
like when we did the International Food that's like you guys,
you had to sit there and like do so much
more than when we just got to go and like
taste it and then we were like bye.

Speaker 2 (35:41):
And then you you guys were in the park all day.

Speaker 6 (35:44):
You come and do one thing and leave and I'm
there like twelve hours or shit work.

Speaker 5 (35:50):
And then then I then I am seed the concert
remember the other concerts, Yeah, I am seed that.

Speaker 6 (35:55):
I was like, this is cool.

Speaker 5 (35:56):
And I got out there and I got to introduce
the acts and that was really it was fun to
get a little taste of that.

Speaker 3 (36:01):
Yeah, well that was the thing we were talking about.
So it was.

Speaker 1 (36:03):
It was Miley, Cyrus, Demi Levado, the Jonas Brothers, the
Cheetah Girls, and then the one girl who none of
us kind of knew who she was.

Speaker 6 (36:12):
But.

Speaker 3 (36:15):
Jordan, We're all like okay, and then this lady.

Speaker 1 (36:19):
So again you were We're talking about how you're there
kind of watching all these stars blossoming, which leads me
then to another thing, because you were talking about the
cheerleaders going going crazy when they saw you. Disney Channel
famous is kind of its own entity unto itself. Did
you notice that where exactly like kids everywhere you go

(36:42):
are just mobbing you?

Speaker 6 (36:43):
Okay, Okay, so this is a cool This is a
cool story.

Speaker 5 (36:45):
So I about several months after the show started airing,
I went to Hilton Head with my big, huge family.
We all met down there we rented like three different
houses and we I don't know if you've ever been
to Hilton Head, but they have Harbor Town, which is
this great little on the water town with reststaurants and shops,
and there's a there's a lighthouse, a beautiful red and
white striped lighthouse, and there's a guy that plays guitar there.

(37:06):
I've been going there since I was a kid, and
there's like hundreds of people all sitting on benches watching
them play. It's just this iconic, beautiful place. And I'm
there with my son and my whole family. So it's
all my big brothers, you know, all my idols. My
brothers are my idols, and you know, we're all hanging
out watching the guitar player. And one or two kids
kind of see me and they come up and they
ask me, are you Are you rowin?

Speaker 6 (37:27):
And I was like, yeah, I am.

Speaker 5 (37:29):
And it spread like wildfire, and this was the first
time I had experienced it, and all the kids that
were sitting there all swarmed and they came up and
you couldn't get within fifteen feet of me. It was
like it was like remember in Close Encounters when he's
walking amongst the aliens.

Speaker 3 (37:45):
It was like that.

Speaker 6 (37:46):
I was just like, yes, I bless you, and I
bless you. Irewin loves you and you.

Speaker 5 (37:53):
And it was My brothers were like what the hell.
They talk about it to this day they're like, that
was insane. And that was when I first realized what
the power of Disney Channel.

Speaker 1 (38:02):
Yeah, it really, it really is. It's an entity unto
itself that we're just noticing. And the thing that I
love is it's completely generational. So we you know, the
Zombies franchise, which the last movie had a forty million
dollar budget, It's become the biggest thing on the channel.

Speaker 3 (38:20):
It's all over the place.

Speaker 1 (38:22):
We were both invited, Unfortunately I couldn't go, and Sabrina
is sitting with the stars of Zombies and they're going,
you were on the Cheetah girls like you're oh, Mike,
we're Disney Channel stars. And so it's one generation follows,
the next generation follows the next generation. It just keeps
rolling into itself like this juggernaut that'll never end.

Speaker 3 (38:41):
It's amazingly.

Speaker 4 (38:42):
That's one of the cool things that was when we did,
especially that third season of the Disney Channel Games, was
it was like there was a lot of new people.
There was a lot of international people, international Disney stars,
which was very cool.

Speaker 2 (38:57):
But it was cool for me to be on I
was on two of a to just.

Speaker 4 (39:01):
Kind of see how like the evolution like of you know,
like Brandon Baker being on the first one, and then
it's like these new like international stars, and it's just
all these different things like kept rolling into the next.
And it was fun for them to get us all
together because we never, you know, get to see each other.
Even at this premiere for Zombies, they're like coming up

(39:23):
and they're like it's been forever, like they don't get
a chance to really hang out. They're all busy working,
and then there's these few times where they get all
together and they're the only people that really understand the
craziness of being like big on the channel, you know,
So they get to really hang out and and understand
each other. And so that was what was really cool
to spend time together on the games. And I know

(39:44):
you didn't get to spend a ton of time with us,
but it.

Speaker 1 (39:48):
Would have been at yeah probably Yeah girls was the
only adult that was hanging out with all the other kids.

Speaker 4 (39:54):
Craepy, like, I mean, there's There were moments where there
were downtime where I I mean, like it was it
wouldn't have been weird to sit and chat with you,
which we did. There was a couple of times where
there was things going on or they were setting up.
There was always so much downtime during the setup of things.

Speaker 2 (40:09):
But it was fun to be able to see.

Speaker 4 (40:11):
What was it like for you being like talking about
like you know, you're talking about Brenda and Ashley and
the twins, like you watching them grow up? What was
that like and watching their different levels of fame happen
at different times.

Speaker 5 (40:28):
Okay, so let's say they did ninety eight episodes of
The Sweet Life. How many do you think I was in?

Speaker 2 (40:37):
Honestly, I would have said almost all of them?

Speaker 3 (40:40):
Ninety ninety two, thirty six what no.

Speaker 2 (40:45):
There's no way?

Speaker 6 (40:47):
Yeah, yeah really six. So that always shocks people.

Speaker 5 (40:52):
So when I would come in, it was like I
was the shiny new thing, and so as I'd come
to be like it's an R one episode. And the
writers loved Darwin so much that when I did come in,
I usually had like a storyline. Occasionally they'd bring me
in to just sprinkle something in a little fun fact
Arwin was the first character to meet Hannah Montana on camera.

(41:15):
Oh really, Hannah Montana comes to the lobby of the
Sweet Life and Rich Correll was directing, and I said, Rich,
please let me be at the door and when I
see who she is, I'll pass out. And he goes done.
So she comes in and I'm like vacuuming or something,
and I go, you're Hannah, You're a hnim And I

(41:37):
just passed out. So I wasn't around all the time.
I would come in occasionally and be the shiny new
thing and have fun.

Speaker 6 (41:47):
And it was a weird thing and kind of.

Speaker 5 (41:49):
A melancholy thing because I didn't really feel a part.
Not that they did anything. I mean, they loved me
and it was a family and everything, but I was
part of the everyday thing of that show and and
so and as far as watching them grow, I loved them.
I loved that cast. I and you know, every cast

(42:12):
has its drama, and I know that. I know that
Sweet Life had its drama. It wasn't crazy. It was
just regular kid drama. Your kids growing up together in
the spotlight. There's gonna be drama, yees. So I never
got knew about that or got pulled into it. Occasionally
somebody would tell me if something was going on, you know.
So for me, it was all happy, all the time
and really great. I do remember going to the boys

(42:36):
eighth grade graduation. That was in the lobby of the
hotel and they were up on the top and they
got their diplomas and they had I think they had
their caps and got it was the whole crew.

Speaker 6 (42:47):
It was their it was their family.

Speaker 5 (42:49):
Yeah, And that got to me that day, like I
got to the Boys and it got to me like
I was like that that I felt really really honored
to be a part of and that was pretty cool.
But yeah, I didn't I didn't do a whole lot
of episodes.

Speaker 2 (43:04):
Geez.

Speaker 3 (43:05):
I never would have thought that.

Speaker 2 (43:06):
No, I never would have honestly.

Speaker 4 (43:09):
I felt like you were just like a like a staple,
always there.

Speaker 3 (43:14):
But that's also shows the power of the character. The
power of the character.

Speaker 1 (43:17):
When you go back and you think about it, you're like, no,
of course, of course you're We had that on on
you know, the show I was on Boy Meets World.
We had that where Tapanga is arguably the most popular
character of the entire series.

Speaker 3 (43:29):
And we went back and watch it and as we're
watching it, we're like, you were barely in the show
until like the fifth season.

Speaker 4 (43:35):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (43:35):
So it's something the history changes in your mind where
you become so integrated into the project that in your
head you're like, oh, yeah, you're obviously in ninety of
the episodes.

Speaker 5 (43:44):
Of course you want Erwin is also unique in that
when we spun him off, I wanted to call it
the new Series Raising Arwin because I always the logline
that I had for that show was a twelve year
old with thirty five years experience, because I felt like
kids felt like they were as smart as our one.

(44:05):
Like kids thought, Arwin is a kid, He's one of us,
and I think that's why they connected with him so much.
He had no inhibitions. He you know, he all of
his emotions were right on his sleeve for everybody to see.
And he was a big kid, and I think that's
why kids connected with him.

Speaker 3 (44:22):
Yeah, that's amazing.

Speaker 1 (44:23):
Okay, we have so many things to get to so
we're going to need to have you come back. But
could you tell our listeners a little bit because I'm
sure some people don't know what this is a little
bit about Brian O'Brien. Oh, okay, can you describe what
this is, how this came about?

Speaker 3 (44:40):
What I mean, I'm so interested.

Speaker 5 (44:43):
Okay, So, Brian O'Brien. So, Disney Channel was trying to
come up with interstitials, which are one to three minute
shorts to air on the network because they didn't have advertising.

Speaker 3 (44:54):
Yeah, they didn't.

Speaker 6 (44:56):
The Disney Channel was like.

Speaker 5 (44:57):
A promotional promotional vehicle for their pop stars and their
music and other things. It was like an advertisement to
set up their stars, their Selena Gomez and their their stars.
So they needed these little interstitials. And they came to
me and said, we want to do something that can
air in every country as is. We don't have to

(45:19):
do anything to it right, We don't have to have anything.
We just need to We can just plug it in
where we want to plug it in. And we came
up with you know this mister Bean kind of silent comedian,
you know thing. And they came to me and my
friend Danny Kaplan, who had directed a little bit for
the network, and so we sat down and wrote about
forty episodes of one to three minute shorts for this

(45:42):
character that we at the last minute called Brian O'Brien
and We went to Milan, Italy, and we shot forty
episodes in Milan, and we I think I went three, Yeah,
I went three times. We shot the pilots, which were
like four episodes, and then we went back and shot seven,
and then went back and shot twenty with an all

(46:04):
Italian crew. So there was a language barrier, but because
it was silent comedy, they knew I could show them
what I was going to do and they go got it.
And it was exhausting. I've never been so tired because
every shot was me. I was writing them, and I

(46:24):
was in retrospect. My biggest regret about that was I
should have demanded a room of animation writers, because they
know how to write to physicality and it was basically
a live action cartoon, and I wish I had said
to them, just give me four animation writers for two

(46:45):
days and let's all sit down and write some stuff,
because I think the quality. I'd say, out of the forty,
there's about twelve of them that I think I'm really
proud of, and the other ones were like a matter
of Okay, we have this location.

Speaker 6 (46:58):
Next to this location is a huge Olympic pool. What
can we do?

Speaker 1 (47:01):
All right?

Speaker 5 (47:02):
Let's do synchronized dancing in the pool. And so we
shot that, like we just would use whatever locations we had, okay,
and and write to it and try to try to
tell a little full story.

Speaker 6 (47:15):
It was unbelievably challenging.

Speaker 5 (47:16):
It made me a really really strong writer because I
had to do things without dialogue and by the way,
not even signs. If you had a sign, it had
to be an image because it had to work in
every kind. Everybody had to understand.

Speaker 3 (47:30):
Man.

Speaker 4 (47:30):
Wow.

Speaker 6 (47:32):
And I loved that I got to do that.

Speaker 5 (47:35):
I would do a lot of things differently looking back,
but but it was an unbelievable experience.

Speaker 6 (47:43):
It was really really fun to do and.

Speaker 3 (47:45):
Challenge imagine again, we have so much left.

Speaker 1 (47:54):
To talk about because I want to get you know,
the next time you come back, I want to get
into your animation career because it's been huge. You and
I have actually worked together once or twice back in
the day in the booth, and but we have something
that is near and dear to our heart, Sabrina and I.

Speaker 3 (48:09):
So when we started this podcast, okay, good, yeay, all right, no, yeah, we.

Speaker 1 (48:15):
Started this podcast, we wanted to do a test run.

Speaker 3 (48:19):
Yes, we had to we wanted to try.

Speaker 1 (48:21):
We didn't know exactly how we were going to break
down the films and all that stuff.

Speaker 3 (48:23):
So the first thing we did, which we've never aired.

Speaker 1 (48:26):
It was just for us, was a crazy movie called
Hatching Pete. And I was wondering if you could tell
us a little bit about your process.

Speaker 3 (48:39):
How did you get the film? What did you think
shooting it?

Speaker 2 (48:41):
Walk us through it timeline wise?

Speaker 4 (48:43):
Where does Jean Pete fall within like what you were
already doing on the channel.

Speaker 6 (48:49):
Can you swear on this podcast? No? Okay, why don't
you ask your producer where it was? Like?

Speaker 4 (49:03):
Obviously that you said that your first abmission was Sweet Life.

Speaker 2 (49:08):
So was it quickly after that or you know, have
had you gone and been on it?

Speaker 4 (49:14):
They did they bring it to you or did you
audition for it?

Speaker 5 (49:18):
I think they brought it to me. I don't remember
auditioning for it. I think they brought it to me.
And you know, basketball is I grew up playing basketball,
so that's like my sport. So to play a basketball coach,
like all the stuff of me on the sidelines is
me improvising.

Speaker 6 (49:30):
That's just me, like live up to your hair and
you know, all the stuff you know you want to
play defense. All right, let's just keep going back that,
Like the whole was all coaches I'd had all through high.

Speaker 5 (49:40):
School and and uh so I don't remember an audition.

Speaker 6 (49:46):
I feel like it was they just cast me.

Speaker 5 (49:49):
I think the network started seeing me as ah.

Speaker 6 (49:56):
So it was weird.

Speaker 5 (49:57):
It was like they they they saw the potential of
me on the network, But they also had this part
of them that was like, we don't want adults as
the focus of anything, and all our testing is telling
us that kids don't like adults. But my feeling about
that is that they were showing kids in test rooms
adults being the disciplinarian, and so the kids are like,

(50:20):
we're not going to hit the button for that, because
you turn a little dial when you're happy, when you're sad,
and then they do tests.

Speaker 6 (50:25):
You know, it's a pretty brutal process.

Speaker 5 (50:27):
And so I always felt that was inaccurate because the
adults on Sweet Life were some of the most popular characters,
and especially Irwin.

Speaker 6 (50:33):
Was so popular.

Speaker 2 (50:34):
Yes, and so.

Speaker 5 (50:37):
You know, I think they started to see, Okay, well,
maybe Brian's a commodity. Let's put him in hatching pete.
Let's put him as the voice in Halloween Town two,
he can be the cab, the taxi cab driver and
the skeleton thing and and started right and then yeah,
that was me, And they started plugging you into things,
and then knowing that they're going to do this pilot

(50:58):
with Selena and and so it was probably part of
that process that they were trying to get me on
the air in different ways. And I don't believe anybody
else was in that movie that was on Sweet Life,
So that was another thing they were concerned. They didn't
want to put two characters from the same show in
a movie, so there was always that concern, which is understandable.
So yeah, it was That was when my family was

(51:20):
very young. My son was I think three, We had
a newborn baby. My wife came out and visited for
two weeks during the film, and I remember we moved
to like an extended living place, and I remember being
so happy they were there, and this was in Utah,
and I remember the day they left, I drove them
to the airport. I came back to the extended living
and it is my biggest memory from this experience. As

(51:41):
I looked at the place, I was like, I got
to get out of here because all I saw was
them everywhere, and I was like, I gotta I gotta
go back to a hotel.

Speaker 6 (51:47):
I can't be here anymore. I missed them so much.

Speaker 5 (51:50):
Yeah, and so that's that's what kind of I remember
about that process, but.

Speaker 3 (51:55):
Not the Giant Chicken.

Speaker 6 (52:00):
I've pitched movie ideas to Disney Channel.

Speaker 5 (52:03):
I had a writing partner back in the day, and
I'd go in and pitch them twelve ideas and they'd
be like, we've done that, We've done that, we've done that,
we've done that, we've done that. To find an original
concept that Disney Channel hasn't done yet in the last
thirty years is very, very difficult.

Speaker 6 (52:18):
Yeah, so that's why you get it chick. That's why
you get a Chicken.

Speaker 3 (52:22):
It's a small target, Yeah, it is.

Speaker 1 (52:24):
I remember somebody telling me that that actually, Disney Channel,
when it comes to their television shows and their movies,
is the smallest target in Hollywood.

Speaker 3 (52:32):
It's because it's Yes, it's exactly what you said.

Speaker 1 (52:35):
Not only has it been around forever, but it's a
really really focused audience.

Speaker 3 (52:41):
So because we had.

Speaker 4 (52:43):
In that movie, there was Jason Day, we also Jill Mussa. Yeah,
Mitchell was in it, had you you know, I remember
going on the lot where they would shoot the shows,
and it felt like a lot of the other actors
were kind of always swarming around while they were either
rehearsing or doing you know, wardrobe fittings or whatever. Had

(53:05):
you had like any kind of like had you ever
met them before?

Speaker 2 (53:09):
Where they did they come to the set with you
at all? Before filming that movie?

Speaker 6 (53:13):
I don't remember. I don't think so.

Speaker 5 (53:15):
I knew Raven shot right across the hall from Sweet Life, Yes,
so so that cast we would see a lot, but
I don't remember. I don't remember seeing those guys a lot.
I do remember really liking those guys, Like I remember
just being on set and being like, Oh, these are.

Speaker 6 (53:30):
A couple of dudes, Like they're just you know, good.

Speaker 3 (53:32):
Guys, really talented guys.

Speaker 5 (53:34):
Yeah, And and and then when I think it was
Mitchell Musso that did Monster House right, he was the
voice of the main kid in that, And that's our
That's a Halloween must for our family. It's one of
our favorite movies. That would be something to interview him
about that. That's a fantastic movie.

Speaker 2 (53:52):
I would love to talk to him.

Speaker 5 (53:54):
Also working with he's passed away now, but he played
the principal. Uh you know he was in the Van
Empire movie back in the eighties with.

Speaker 6 (54:03):
Sutherland.

Speaker 3 (54:05):
Wait oh oh, you're talking about The Lost Boys.

Speaker 5 (54:08):
Yes, he remember, he was the bad guy in the
Lost Boys. He was the principal and hatching Pete.

Speaker 6 (54:14):
Remember he was.

Speaker 5 (54:14):
He was dating the mom and Lost Boys and he
ends up being the head vampire. Edward Herman Edward Herman,
and for me working me working with Edward was like
I was like, oh my god, I'm working with Edward.

Speaker 6 (54:27):
He was just and he was a joy. He was
so nice.

Speaker 5 (54:30):
I think he lived there. I think he lived locally
there at the time. He's he's a great I think
he played.

Speaker 6 (54:36):
FDR and Annie.

Speaker 2 (54:40):
For Yea.

Speaker 5 (54:42):
Yeah, he was just a joy. I remember working with
him and just being so happy. I got to meet
him and work with him on a Disney Channel movie.
Like he was like, well, I live here. They asked me,
and I came and did it. I was like freaking amazing, amazing.

Speaker 4 (54:54):
I mean that seems like what happens with the Channel.
People get offers in like especially if you have a kid.

Speaker 3 (55:00):
Or or whatever.

Speaker 4 (55:03):
You're like, it's like an easy, Yes, because you know
how much they love everything they see on the channel
that you're.

Speaker 3 (55:09):
Like, it's the best.

Speaker 1 (55:12):
Okay, last question, Okay, Sweet Life reboot.

Speaker 3 (55:18):
Do you think it should happen? Do you think it
shouldn't happen?

Speaker 1 (55:21):
Would it be something you'd be interested in kind of
going back to or No, I don't know.

Speaker 6 (55:30):
I don't know what incarnation it would be.

Speaker 5 (55:32):
You know, it's kind of it's funny like we're Big
Bang went to single camera with Young Sheldon.

Speaker 3 (55:37):
Yeah, well, I know we're gonna talk about that next episode.

Speaker 5 (55:41):
I just did an interview with the Jessica who wrote
the Big Bang book and now she's doing a Young
Sheldon book and we did an interview about the show
a couple of days ago.

Speaker 6 (55:52):
I don't know what incarnation it would be.

Speaker 5 (55:55):
In it would have to be like the Twins kids,
you know what I mean, they'd have kids and you know,
maybe twin girls that you know, and they end up
living in a hotel. Maybe you just do the same thing,
you just kind of repeat it. Uh So, maybe I
don't know what incarnation Arwin would be in it. I
don't I physically could not do any of the things
that I did back like I watched some of the

(56:15):
stuff I did.

Speaker 6 (56:16):
I did, I did.

Speaker 5 (56:18):
I did a thing where it was the basketball episode,
and I said, I've calculated whatever, and I told I
told the the B and C camera, which usually do masters.
I was like, I'm get ahead to toe. Make sure
we get ahead to toe. And they got They're like
all right, and they told Rich and Rich was like okay.
And I threw the ball against the backboard so it
would come back and hit me in the head and

(56:39):
I dropped flat on my back, like like a Jim
Carrey flat. And I saw it recently and I was like,
what the hell, Oh my god, anything for a laugh,
like anything.

Speaker 4 (56:53):
Entertainer been so great on set for you too, because
you had kids there, like who just love that so much,
and you had them right there just like busting up
during rehearsal.

Speaker 2 (57:06):
I can't imagine how fun that was too.

Speaker 6 (57:09):
I keep so much joy making the boys crack.

Speaker 5 (57:12):
And then I just did a show called The Really
Loud House, which is I played the father of eleven
kids and all these amazing kids on that show, and
to be able to make them crack in the middle.
It is so fricking cute to watch this little kid
trying to be all professional and then just get the giggles.
There's nothing better than that.

Speaker 2 (57:29):
There's nothing much you get them. It's so hard to
shake them. Oh yeah, so fun.

Speaker 3 (57:35):
Wow, thank you so much for joining us. Give us
the name of your podcast one more time.

Speaker 5 (57:39):
It is called here, It's called here from There, And
we've we've interviewed tons of like Alison Mon who played
my wife on Nicky Ricky, Tim Johnson who directed Home
and Over the Hedge and wrote and directed Ants was on.
We have a lot of great people and we have
this kind of conversation like how'd you get started? What
were your twenties?

Speaker 6 (57:58):
Like, how did you? What did you?

Speaker 5 (58:00):
What are some of your tools to overcome? You know,
the things you have to overcome.

Speaker 3 (58:04):
Yeah, So everybody go and check that out.

Speaker 1 (58:07):
And I please come back because next time we haven't
even gotten into Nickelodeon.

Speaker 3 (58:11):
We just stuck on Disney Channel. This time, we haven't
gotten into your voice over stuff. There's still so much
left to talk about.

Speaker 6 (58:16):
I would love to come back to come back. You
guys are awesome. You're doing an awesome job, you guys.

Speaker 5 (58:21):
You guys are great. This is this is this is
this is great. I don't know how this came about,
but it's a good thing that it came about.

Speaker 2 (58:29):
Oh, thank you, well, thank.

Speaker 3 (58:30):
You so much. We've got so much left to talk about.

Speaker 5 (58:32):
Although on a deep level, so Brita, I'm very sorry
about Well.

Speaker 3 (58:35):
Just has to deal with I mean, I get it,
I get it.

Speaker 5 (58:40):
I can't imagine that behind the scenes with you and
the producer just going after him.

Speaker 6 (58:44):
I mean, I get it they did.

Speaker 3 (58:45):
It's awful.

Speaker 5 (58:48):
I can see him drinking on it.

Speaker 3 (58:56):
That's fine, we'll greek out this up. That's thank you
so much.

Speaker 6 (59:01):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (59:01):
It's good seeing you.

Speaker 6 (59:02):
Well, say.

Speaker 3 (59:07):
Man, I want to work with him.

Speaker 1 (59:09):
I've worked with him on voiceover, but I want to
work with him on camera. He's like he's one of
those guys.

Speaker 2 (59:14):
Yes and you know what too.

Speaker 4 (59:15):
When he was saying how much work he had to do,
it like some of the memories popped in my head
of him, like he'd get his stuff done and then
I mean he was just on the whole time we
were working because he was having especially that third season,
he was having to do so much that I totally
forgot because again, he is such a big energy and

(59:38):
he's so fun that that's all you remember. You only
remember those funny moments and how he would just have
us cracking up, and he would keep our energy up
so much that I forgot, like when there was a
cut or whatever, when he'd go back into his like
work mode. Right, It's like I totally forgot until he
just said that.

Speaker 2 (59:58):
He was so on for every day we were there.

Speaker 3 (01:00:02):
Wow, And he's one of those guys.

Speaker 1 (01:00:04):
I bet you that where every time you work with him,
that every take is different. Yes, he's he's he's got
his energy up the entire time he turns it on
the whole time he's there.

Speaker 3 (01:00:13):
There's never a dull moment. He every scene he's in
is more power.

Speaker 4 (01:00:17):
Like there are no prompters that he was not reading anything.
He was you know, riffing or doing his script.

Speaker 2 (01:00:25):
But like you said, it was always different.

Speaker 3 (01:00:26):
I mean he was.

Speaker 4 (01:00:27):
He was awesome to watch live, Like it was just
like so so cool.

Speaker 3 (01:00:30):
Yeah, we didn't we just sh No, he's coming back.
He's coming. We have so many we have, we have
so much more to talk to him about. He is
coming back.

Speaker 2 (01:00:39):
I can't wait to hear about what you guys did together.
That's gonna be cool to hear.

Speaker 3 (01:00:42):
Yeah, we did.

Speaker 1 (01:00:43):
We did a couple a couple of different things together,
so it'll be a lot of fun.

Speaker 3 (01:00:46):
But I want to work with him on camera.

Speaker 1 (01:00:47):
I also want him, and I know it's putting him
on the spot, but next time I want him to
run us through a very quick.

Speaker 3 (01:00:53):
Simon says, I got it. I gotta try it. We
gotta try and assume. Simon says, yea, we gotta.

Speaker 4 (01:00:58):
We should have him, have him train a bit like
he did before, because.

Speaker 1 (01:01:02):
We should, and then we'll just pop on Earls and
Dolly without him even knowing that they're there.

Speaker 6 (01:01:09):
Good.

Speaker 1 (01:01:09):
Well, thank you so much Brian for joining us, and
thank you all for joining us for that awesome episode.
I love when we can just sit back and let
people talk because that one cool. I know there's people
out there yelling at their radios or however you're listening
to us, saying things like you didn't even.

Speaker 3 (01:01:24):
Talk about this, you didn't even talk about that.

Speaker 1 (01:01:26):
I swear we'll get it all and we will talk
to him the next time. Because this man's to say
prolific is great. He's got over one hundred credits. I mean,
it's just we could talk forever, so we're going to
have him back and go check out his podcast.

Speaker 3 (01:01:38):
That sounds like it's a lot of fun. So until then,
we're going to see you. Next time. We have the
Bird sisters, Heidi and Heather.

Speaker 1 (01:01:46):
Who were the real inspiration for the greatest film in
the history of the Disney Channel, Double Teamed, which everybody
knows there's never been a greater movie.

Speaker 3 (01:01:55):
I wouldn't even say Disney Channel.

Speaker 1 (01:01:57):
It's better than on Golden Pond or any of those
other things movies that's ever been made.

Speaker 3 (01:02:01):
I've said that from the beginning. Double is the greatest
film in the history of the world.

Speaker 1 (01:02:05):
And we get to talk to Heidi and Heather, which
was a really really.

Speaker 4 (01:02:09):
Cool it was it was fun to enter you to
adult twins that still do the twins like. They finish
each other sentences, They completely correct each other, and there's just.

Speaker 3 (01:02:25):
It just made Sabrina jealous again. You wanted to be
a Twitter.

Speaker 2 (01:02:29):
I didn't just want twins. I wanted to be one.

Speaker 3 (01:02:34):
Next time, Sabrina, next time. Thank you everybody,