Mark-Paul Gosselaar

This week Brian has a neighborly conversation with actor Mark-Paul Gosselaar. The pair cover MPG's lengthy career from Indonesia to Bayside High and beyond, including stories about his friendly childhood rivalry with Paul Walker, the origins of the character Zack Morris and reinventing himself as an actor with grittier and riskier roles on "NYPD Blue" and his current character of Sir on NBC's "Found".

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
For me, I've been able. I mean yeah, I've just
been able to not look like the people that I
play on screen. And so I've lived this life where
I've tried it one time where I've walked into a
restaurant and go, yeah, we can't seet you. Hey, do
you know who I am? And they're like nope, And
I'm like, yep, that worked well, because yeah, why would
you know who I am? I don't look like you really,

(00:27):
I am Mark Baul Gostler, and I am completely off
the beat. They like that, don't you. Brian? You like that?

Speaker 2 (00:41):
Welcome back, everybody. You right now are exactly where you
should be. You're here listening to Off the Beat with me,
your host, Brian Baumgartner. Today I have with me a
truly fantastic actor who also happens to be my friend
and my neighbor, Mark Paul Gossler. You all, most definitely

(01:05):
if you are between the ages of eighteen and fifty eight,
know him as the teen heartthrob Zach Morris from Saved
by the Bell. Yes, the very guy whose picture was
probably ripped out of an issue of Tiger Beat magazine
and taped to your bedroom wall or your sisters, or
your girlfriends or boyfriends, at least if you're of a

(01:26):
certain age. My producer, Emily actually, and this is true,
squealed when she heard that he was coming on the show.
He's got that kind of effect on people, even thirty
years later. But to be clear, Emily has never squealed
because I was going to be on the show. Since
he left the Halls of Bayside High Mark Paul, he's

(01:47):
worked on a really wide range of projects. Detective John
Clark on one of my favorite shows which I can't
wait for you to hear about today, NYPD Blue, Peter
Bash in the legal comedy Franklin and Bash. He's done
political dramas like Commander in Chief, The Captain of the Padres,
un pitched Stay at Home Dad on Kenya Barris' comedy

(02:10):
Mixed Dish, and most recently and currently, he is exploring
some downright creepy stuff as a deranged kidnapper on NBC's
Found He is fantastic and it has just been given
a season two. He's been in the business since he
was five years old and he's still finding ways to

(02:31):
challenge himself and show his versatility. I admire him so much.
He may be Zach Morris and Emily's heart, but guys,
he's a lot of other things too. And another thing
he is is a great podcast guest. I know you're
gonna love hearing from the talented, the handsome, the neighborly Mark,
Paul Gossler.

Speaker 3 (02:55):
Bubblin Squeak, I love it, Bubble and Squeig, Bubble and
Squeaker cook get every month lift over from the night before.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
What's up, neighbor?

Speaker 1 (03:19):
Hey, what's going on?

Speaker 2 (03:22):
How are you?

Speaker 1 (03:23):
I'm doing all right? I mean are you? Are you actually?
Are we in the same airspace.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
Or were we are in the same airspace? Yes? If
if a helicopter passes above you, you will hear it
ten seconds later.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
For me, if something were to go wrong in our area,
two national treasures would go down, what would what would America?
What would the world do? What?

Speaker 2 (03:45):
It would be very very sad. I think you're a
national treasure. I'm I don't know what I am, but
I don't know about that. How are you liking it
down here?

Speaker 1 (03:58):
You know? I I I can't put it into words,
which is not great for a podcast, But we feel
so fortunate that we are here. I am born and
raised in Los Angeles. I love California. There's a lot
of you know, there's a lot of negatives we could

(04:19):
point at California, but there's also a lot of positives.
And I think where we are down south here it
just embodies all the positives. Beautiful air, less people, more space.
My kids surfed during the week, you know, it's not
a you know, going to the beach when you were
in Los Angeles took pretty much the entire day. I

(04:42):
sometimes go, you know, after drop off of dropping our
kids off at school, I go do a session real quick.
I'm back by ten thirty. It's amazing have the rest
of the day to do other things which would take
a full day in Los Angeles. It just you realize
once you're out of there, out of the it's a city.
You know, we we forget that that Los Angeles because

(05:04):
it's so so suburban and it's so vast. You forget
you're actually in a city. It's why it feels that way,
It's why there's so many people.

Speaker 2 (05:14):
Yeah, you told me a story when I first saw
you down here, which I was shocked about. But I
do want you to tell it here because I think
it's it's very very interesting. You and I were at
a fan convention together a number of years ago, and
as I'll set it up and and and you take

(05:35):
it from there my recollections. We arrived at the airport
and you were like, are you on you know, my
flight back back to.

Speaker 1 (05:43):
LA And I, oh, the connection. That that's why the connection.
It was the connection. We had to make a connection,
I believe in Dallas and okay, all like there were
there were a few other people with us, and we
all went to the gate for La X. You went
somewhere else and I was like, wait, you not come
with us, so go ahead? Is that is that the story? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (06:03):
Yeah, And I said, no, I'm going to San Diego.
I've moved down south. I don't live exactly in San Diego,
but you know, we lived down here. It's easy to
fly in San Diego. And I said it was the
best decision I ever made. Yeah, And you referenced this
story when we ran into each other and I had
heard rumors that you lived down here, but we hadn't

(06:25):
seen each other yet.

Speaker 1 (06:26):
Well, because you told me the exact spot you were
in and I said, oh, yes, I'm familiar with that.
I've stayed in that area. There's a there's a beautiful
hotel in this area, and I've stayed at that hotel,
and that was you know, I worked here in San
Diego in twenty sixteen. I was on a show called Pitch.

(06:49):
We were the San Diego Padres. So we did a
lot of work at Petco Park, which is a phenomenal
park to watch a baseball game, concert venues like it
is state of the art, right, So you go there.
You could just go there for the food and drink.
It's just a great place. Getting in and out is easy.
It's just an easier lifestyle. And so in twenty sixteen,

(07:12):
my wife and I we rented a house while we
were filming and love the area. My two older children
from a previous marriage were too young for us to move.
We wanted to keep them in the schools that they
were in in La But I fell in love with
our particular area a few years after that and said,
you know, so when I saw you, you said you

(07:33):
were going there, and I'm like, one of these days, Brian,
I'm going to be your neighbor. And so sure enough
last year when when I saw you, you know, we
made it work. And yeah, again, We just feel so
fortunate that we were able to make it work. My children.
My son graduated and he's now in college. My daughter
is going to graduate her senior year this year. But

(07:55):
our two younger ones are ten and eight year old,
go to school out here, and yeah, they're they're thriving,
and the sports programs out here are amazing. You know what,
we really shouldn't talk about San Diego because I don't
want people moving down here.

Speaker 2 (08:07):
It's awful. It really looks out the window right now.
It's tear it's raining and cold.

Speaker 1 (08:16):
Yeah, so many people out here, there's there's too many.
It's it's traffic. You can't get anywhere. The food sucks.
That's another thing. It's so funny. It's like in La.
When I tell people I move, they're like, yeah, but
how's the food? And actually I've eaten some really great restaurants,
more so here than I do in La, because in

(08:36):
La it was just such a chore to get to
the restaurants that you would have to have. You know,
if you went to Craig's, right, you got to know
Craig to get in.

Speaker 2 (08:45):
It's but you do have to know Craig, that's right.

Speaker 1 (08:48):
And here. It's like you go to these great restaurants
and you just call and they're like, oh yeah, we
can totally get you in. You're like wait, really, like
I don't I don't need an hour in an hour
in an hour. It's just again though, you don't want
to come down to San Diego, SA.

Speaker 2 (09:04):
No, it's terrible. Well, you've had to spend a little
time away working on your new project. I want to
talk about that and a little bit. But I do
want to go back and hopefully share with some people
some things that they don't know about you. Now. You
you mentioned you're born and raised in l way Ye

(09:26):
to a Dutch Indonesian family, so you have three cultures
going on in your household as a child, right, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (09:39):
I was the only one out of my out of
the four of us my siblings, I have three siblings
that was born in the States. I came. I came
way later. My mother was thirty five when she had me,
which back then, you know, I was born in the seventies.
Was like, oh boy, right, he's going to come out
with a horn on his head, which is fine. They

(09:59):
just shaved down, you know, you can't tell they put
makeup over it. They can't tell you, but I was
definitely an oops baby. We had that culture. My mom
is all Indonesia and my father is Dutch. He actually
I was talking to Stephanie Seymour yesterday as Stephanie Seymour
Jane Seymour. Sorry, my apologies, Jane Seymour. And I'm currently

(10:21):
doing the rounds for my show. Because of the strike,
we weren't able to do press for my show, so
as seven or eight episodes in now we're doing press.
And anyway, she was at a talk show that I
was going to do and she's Dutch as well, like
her mother is Dutch. Her father, I believe, is British.
The connection that we have is that my father his
family did a lot of work in Indonesia. My father

(10:45):
and his whole family were taken into internment camps during
World War Two and kept in Indonesian Japanese internment camps
in Indonesia. Jane Seymour's mother was in what was in
the same camps that my father was, and we were
just talking about it because my father passed away a
few years ago and we never talked about his experience.

(11:08):
It was just one of those things like you just
never brought up. It was my father was in it
from nine till I believe he was twelve. He was
in the boys camp. Jane had told me, she's like,
your father was actually in a boys camp and when
they turned twelve, they aged out and they went into
the men's camp. Can you believe, like twelve year old
boys going into a men's camp where the women were

(11:31):
kept together. So the mothers and the daughters were all
kept in the same camps. The fathers were obviously in
the men's but we never talked about it, and her
mother logged through sketches her experience, but we had that connection.
So my father, being Dutch, was in Indonesia. My mother
during that time, I believe they moved to Holland, and

(11:52):
then my father mother connected in Holland, actually not in Indonesia,
and then in the late sixties he's moved to California.
They moved to the valley San Fernando Valley. I don't
know why some people actually I actually have Indonesian family,
a Dutch Indonesian family that came on that same trip

(12:14):
on the same boat basically, and they resided here in
San Diego and Poway, and my family went to San
Fernando Valley and there's a little pocket there that we
were Dutch indows.

Speaker 2 (12:25):
Huh. Your mom also worked for an airlines. So during
this time were you traveling a lot? Were you seeing
the world.

Speaker 1 (12:34):
Yeah, no, we would go quite a bit. She worked
for KALM, which is the Dutch airlines. She was a
lounge attendant, so she ran the lounge for KALM, and
I believe, I mean, we would go even before she
became a lounge attendant. We would always spend summers and

(12:59):
chriss during that time. So I spent a lot of
my time in Holland. I believe Dutch was my first
language growing up. Really, Yeah, because we that's all we
spoke in the house and my you spoke Dutch, just Dutch. Yeah,
there's always our secret language. You know, there's not a
lot of duchies out there. And uh, you could talk.

(13:20):
You can talk shit about somebody in the in the
grocery line until they turned around and then and they
looked at you and they were Dutch too.

Speaker 2 (13:26):
They were touched too. You started performing at the age
of five, Yeah, probably. What are you doing at five?
Are you doing commercials? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (13:37):
Modeling, Yeah, that's exactly right. I mean, my mother had
a friend who was a print model. You know, back
back in those days you do with them for Seers
or may Company or Mervins, and it's that typical story
of of somebody going to your kid's cute.

Speaker 2 (13:56):
And that's a typical story. But only in Los Angeles
anywhere else well or.

Speaker 1 (14:04):
No, But I think that happens everywhere, right, because I mean,
if you're in the if you're in the you know
they call them fly over states. I mean, you have
a cute kid, you start doing local trend work, right,
you just go, Oh, your kid's cute. They should be
in front of the camera. And then people tell you that,
and then as a kid, you're like, yeah, I want
to be in front of a camera, you see. I

(14:25):
mean at that time, I think my Annie had come
out and I'm like, wow, there's a there's a kid
on the screen. That's pretty cool. Eight is enough. I
think it was around my time. Yeah, happy days, you know,
so you're seeing all these things. It just happened that
way where you should I'll introduce you to my agent,
you should do print work. It just turned into you know,

(14:47):
like an after school kind of fun thing, like we
do with our kids, with soccer, baseball, and then I
just kept progressing.

Speaker 2 (14:56):
Do you remember the first time you're in front of
the camera.

Speaker 1 (15:00):
I don't know. I have I have really bad memories.
Uh sorry, not bad memories. I have a bad grasp
of my memory of that time. I was very much
into sports and motocross and probably hit my head one
too many times. It is, there's a there's a lot
of moments of my life that I've that are just

(15:22):
not there. But I have little little things come up,
like print work, you know, the flashes you know from
from that and standing there and doing different poses, and
you know, people telling you what to do. Commercials. That
was the next progression, was going from print to commercials,
and I remember being on set for some of those.

(15:44):
I remember one that I that I got hired to
do and then I got fired. When I got there,
my consolation prize was just it was for Whammo. So
I got a big box of Whammo toys. Uh, that
was my consolation. Also, the guy who basically replaced me
was Paul Walker, and wow, yeah, Paul, Paul and I

(16:06):
would Paul and I would again. During that time, you know,
I grew up with Alfonso Roberto, I grew up with
Paul Walker. I grew up with later on. You know,
you would see like Toby Maguire, Leonardo DiCaprio and stuff
like that. They were a little bit younger than me,
but there was always a group of us that would
see each other for every audition. You know. It was
kind of like that your baseball team. You were just like, hey, guys,

(16:29):
you know, and you'd you'd compete against them, and I'd
say Paul would always beat me because he was like
the quintessential sort of California kid, you know, the hair,
the blonde hair and the blue eyes, and he was
he was just he was Paul Walker.

Speaker 2 (16:46):
Right right. I It's always fascinating to me because you know,
my journey in was so different for me. It was
about theater. It was sort of an activity that that,
but that that professional side of it for me truly.
I mean this wasn't in my consciousness till after college

(17:07):
and what I wanted to be was an actor. But
that business side, that working with professionals, that rejection, that
getting hot, you know, getting a box of toys like
that wasn't a part of it for me. I mean, sure,
I would audition for a role and maybe I wouldn't
get the role I wanted or whatever. But you know,
it wasn't about money first off, and it wasn't about

(17:29):
a business. It wasn't about a business. And so I'm
always fascinated to talk to people who, like you, started
way earlier, like on the business side. Now, was there
a moment you talk about it being just like our
kids playing soccer or whatever else. You're making money, but
it's an activity. It's something you're doing and you're seeing friends,

(17:50):
or you're working with people and meeting other kids or whatever.
Is there a moment for you where you go, this
is what I want to do.

Speaker 1 (18:00):
That came way later. That came probably after Saved by
the Bell actually way later. For me. It was never
about the money. I was having fun. There were times,
I mean my mom pushed me. I'm not you know,
I think she. I have to push my son to
play baseball sometimes, and he loves baseball. That's what he
wants to be. He wants to be a baseball player.

(18:20):
Yet I still have to tell him, you know, we
got to go to practice and he's like, oh, I
want you know, he wants to hang out with his
friends or play Xbox whatever. So you know, my mom
had to push me at times. There was a lot
of I'd say the biggest negative through that initial process
before saved by the Bell and I think I got
saved by the bell and I was twelve, Miss Bliss,

(18:41):
and then it went on. The biggest negative was the rejection. Right,
so you talk about going in for auditions, and for
people who aren't in the business, going in for an
audition is a job interview. You go in, you sell yourself,
you show your resume, you show what you can do,
you tell them why you're the right person for this job,
and you don't I'd say ninety percent of the time,

(19:03):
even more, you don't get the job. And as a child,
that was the biggest negative, you know, trying to explain
to your kid, they don't like the way you look,
You shit the bed on your dialogue, you were terrible,
you're a bad actor. There's a whole plethora of things
like why you know, and some of it are completely
out of your control. They just they just went a

(19:24):
different direction. Trying to process that as a child is
probably that was the biggest negative and probably the biggest
hurdle to get over because it's just not easy. You know,
it's competitive. I took it as exactly what I said
was I was going in to compete against my peers,
and I wanted to win this job. So that first
time that I was replaced by Paul Walker, that really hurt.

(19:45):
I mean trying to understand you were replaced, you got
the job, and then another kid comes in and takes
your place. I could not process that. And I'm a
very competitive person. It's the reason you and I don't
play golf together is because I don't want to play
bad poorly. I can't do things just for the sake

(20:06):
of doing things like I have to. I have to
be good at something otherwise I just I'll do it.
But I'm doing it by myself and no one's watching.
There's a there's a masturbation, Joe. Yeah, yeah, I said.
But the thing with you know, I didn't take it

(20:27):
as a business. I understood the importance of what we
did as as as a child like I remember walking
on to the stage of Save by the Bell and
one of our directors, Don Barnhart, who directed the majority
of them, said, the minute you open this door and
walk on this stage, you are no longer a twelve
year old. You are an adult. This is a business.
You have to treat it like one. I was fully

(20:48):
aware of that. I didn't need to have that conversation,
and I think he was just you know, reiterating that
and just making sure that I understood it. But I
knew the importance of the business, never under did the
money aspect of it, which you know, I mean, looking
back in hindsight, that's something I wish I'd probably taken
more interest in. But we had nice things. We had

(21:10):
a you know, nice cars, and we lived in a
nice area. We were very middle class. And yeah, I'm
sure what I did for a living sort of paid
for some of that stuff. It just happens, right, I mean,
you see these stories. I was part of that story.
It's just I think because I didn't want and also

(21:33):
I was doing it just because I liked it and
not because I wanted to be famous, and not because
I had some goal. It wasn't until after Saved by
the Bell that I said, oh, I guess this is
my career, that this is what I should be doing,
and I'm in a position to continue and making a
lot of money, might as well keep going.

Speaker 2 (21:57):
You just mentioned you made some bad deals. You've said
it before on that show and despite all of its
success and it making you America's sweetheart, like for the
entirety of your life, you don't see a ton of
residuals from that franchise. Does your experience specifically, And we
don't have to go too deep onto this, but did

(22:17):
this color your take on this recent strike?

Speaker 1 (22:20):
Uh? No, there were other things about the recent strike
that I was more concerned with. Ai, I mean, that's
that's a big one. Yeah, the wages and also just
relocation fee is a big thing for me. We currently
film our show in Atlanta, and the way they get
around you know, these incentives and local hires is it's

(22:41):
a joke. It's a joke. So there were other things.
But for me, the merchandise was was just poorly handled
by my representation At the time. There just wasn't any
precedent for a Saturday morning show with with you know,
live live audience and no one. We never thought the
show was going to be the success it is today.

(23:05):
It was a small success. Back then. There was there
was no metrics that we could rely on like social
media now right that you could say, oh boy, there's
a whole audience out there that that follows us. The
only way we would ever gauge how successful things were
going is if we did a mall tour. We go
to Mall of America and there'd be a line of

(23:26):
two thousand people waiting to get your autograph. It's it's
no different than these fan fests.

Speaker 2 (23:29):
That we do right, right, right, and you're going, Wow.

Speaker 1 (23:32):
People actually are watching, are watching? This is insane.

Speaker 2 (23:53):
You and I are about the same age. I didn't
I didn't. I didn't do a check. But we're we're close.
I think you're probably ten years older, but.

Speaker 1 (24:03):
I'm actually going to turn fifty next year.

Speaker 2 (24:04):
Brian, congratulations, welcome to the club. A lot of people
don't know. You mentioned it briefly. Saved by the Bell
started as well in a way Good Morning Miss Bliss.
You played Zach Morris. It lasted one season, and you know,

(24:25):
I had several actually long conversations both on the podcast
and not with Kevin Riley, who was our savior at
NBC once he became chairman and kept the office on
the air. He was at least a big part of
the decision to change up Good Morning, Miss Bliss launch

(24:48):
it into reimagine it and launch it into this new show,
Saved by the Bell playing on Saturday mornings in front
of a live audience. Were no cartoon owns anymore, and
to try to hit this tweener audience that had sort
of you know, or the idea being, we've graduated from

(25:09):
Tom and Jerry and Sylvester the Cat whatever it is,
and now we're going to watch something that's more about
kids our age. So, first off, do you remember auditioning.
You're auditioning for a ton of shows at this time.
You've done shows like The Twilight Zone and Wonder Years,
a Punky Brewster and blah blah blah. Do you remember
the audition for Good Morning, Miss Bliss.

Speaker 1 (25:31):
Yeah. I actually had spent this summer at a Marine
Military academy camp in Harlingen, Texas. I wanted to go
to high school. I wanted to be a Marine. I
wanted to be a Marine to play football. So I
went to this camp to go through the initiation process
of being accepted to this school in South Texas. I

(25:52):
came back my hair was buzzed, for the lack of
a better turn. The boot camp to get into this thing,
and I started growing out. My mom put in highlights,
blonde highlights and stuff like that. So there's the the
sort of over the top blondish hair go in for
the audition. I don't remember my process, but I do

(26:15):
remember going in and seeing Dustin Diamond really, you know,
reading the script and knowing what screech he was seeing
Dustin Diamond, and I just went, Yep, that's the kid
that he's going to get this. He's not going out
for Zach Morris, so I'm good there. Yeah, but I
do remember seeing him. I don't remember much about Say

(26:39):
By the I mean Miss Bliss, other than Hayley Mills
was very nice and Dennis Haskins and the rest of
the cast. I do remember where I was and where
I read the script for say by the Bell. So
again we do Miss Bliss and it moves on, and

(26:59):
then you know, we get a call from Peter Ingle,
who was the creator said by the Bell and basically
says I'm going to spin it off and wanted me
to read the script. I lived in this three bedroom
house actually was like a two bedroom, but my bedroom
was sort of this open area that we had, like

(27:20):
one of those partitions that blocked it off. So there
wasn't like a quiet area for me to read it.
So I went into the bathroom, the powder room, and
I read the Save by the Bell script in the
powder room and I remember reading it and it opens
up with Zach Morris and he's talking to the camera
and I just I was, wow, this is a mate.

(27:40):
I'm Ferris Bueller. I get to do what Ferris Bueller did.
And that's all I can remember was this is exactly
like I. That was my favorite movie growing up, right.
I was like, I just and the character Ferris and
his friend and Sloan and oh, I'm like, this is
I get to do this? And between Miss Bliss, I

(28:02):
think and Saved by the Bell, I had just done
a film with Alan Arkin. His wife had written a
book he I believe. I don't know sure if Alan
directed or if she directed it, but anyway, it was
a family movie and we shot it and I lived
with Alan for about a month while we were shooting it,
and I became really good friends with Alan Arkin, and
he was a mentor. And I read the script and

(28:23):
I called Alan next day and I said, Alan, I'm
I've just been offered to do this sitcom and he
is don't do it. And I was like, wait, wait,
you don't understand. It's it's a sitcom. I get to
play this Character's like, don't, don't, don't, don't do a sitcom.
You're you're you're gonna do film. You're gonna be fine.
Just trust me. You just want to stay on this

(28:44):
path that you're going You did, you did that, Keep
doing film. You're gonna be You're gonna be fine. And
I obviously didn't listen to him. I I didn't understand
what he was talking about. I didn't know that you
had to make a choice right right, But back then
there was a definitive line. You either were television actor
or you were a film actor. You definitely didn't do commercials.
You didn't do you didn't sing. You could do Broadway,

(29:08):
you could do theater, but you did not cross the
lines in television and film. Which now you know, it's great,
it's amazing for creative people like us because we can
do everything right. But then I understand what Alan was
saying was like, you're going to not typecat, but you're
going to pigeonhole yourself pigeonhole. Yeah, but that that was

(29:29):
the thing with to say by the bell was it
was is that is so crazy?

Speaker 2 (29:34):
You're fifteen?

Speaker 1 (29:36):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (29:36):
Did you feel prepared for a lead role like it?
Were you nervous at all? Or were you just like
I'm freaking Ferris Bueller now let's go.

Speaker 1 (29:45):
No. I mean that character was how I perceived the
people in my school, like the popular people in my school,
like they they had this swagger they had. It was
everything I wasn't. I was a very quiet kid. I
I think if you asked people in my school that

(30:06):
I went to up in Valencia, California, you know who
I was. They probably didn't even know I went there.
I wasn't a jock, although I wanted to be a jock.
I wasn't, you know, one of the sort of art
artsy kids, and wasn't a slacker. I kind of just
went around. I just I had. I didn't have a

(30:26):
lot of friends and and sort of sort of was
in the shadows a lot because also I was working,
and so if I worked, I was just away for
a little bit. But Zach Morris was just I just
really enjoyed playing him because he was everything I wanted
to be. Right. I had the cool clothes, he had
the shoes, he had the phone, he had the girls,

(30:47):
and it just was it wasn't me at all. Like
I didn't like being in front of a camera all
that much. I didn't like rehearsing. I you know, I
had bad skin at the time, and so I was
conscious of that. And uh, you know it's like Zach was,
Yeah everything I want to I wanted to be at
that at that moment.

Speaker 2 (31:06):
How much school did you go to once that launched?
And did you feel a change? Nothing?

Speaker 1 (31:11):
Yeah? No, I mean, you know, you go to set school.
I mean we had a great teacher's name was Sydney Sharon.
He's passed. He was amazing. He was he was a
great educator. The problem was is that I you know,
I look at my kids too, and it's like school.
You know, if I can, if I could be playing
sports and do other things, sure, school. So I manipulated

(31:36):
a system. I mean, when you do homeschooling, you know,
it's a it's a lot of worksheets and things like that.
And I would I would find the codes for the
worksheets and just put them in and manipulate my scores
or whatever. I mean, yeah, we for anybody ELSEO that
doesn't know the process. You need fifteen hours of school
per week, and what happens is you start banking time.

(31:59):
So for us, we would film on a Friday, and
so Monday through Thursday was probably our biggest amounts of school.
You would maybe do four hours on Monday and then
four on Tuesday, and then three and then two and
then one on Friday. So you just needed to do
one hour a day was the minimum, but you could
bank more hours during during the week to total fifteen

(32:24):
because Fridays were our biggest day.

Speaker 2 (32:26):
Yeah, of course, because you weren't going to school. Once
this goes, you're not feeling yet. Like I did that.

Speaker 1 (32:33):
I went to I did go to sort of a
what what they call it a vocational school. I mean
it's basically a school for either your I mean, you
just don't have the capacity to go to school, so
you go to this sort of you know, it was
it was in these bungalows off to the side of
the school, or you were a working kid because of

(32:56):
some reason, like your parent is a stay at home
for some reason. But I would go there. I had
normal friends, I you know, I hung out with the
neighborhood guys, and no one seemed to care. It's it's
really weird, Like I don't have this thing of oh,
walking into a room and everyone going, hey, that's a

(33:16):
guy on it just I yeah, it didn't. I never
had that. So I walked around for you know, my
childhood is is just feeling like, oh, I have a
job and I come back and I'm just the guy
that lives on that street and you know, goes to
school there. And it was no different.

Speaker 2 (33:36):
That's fascinating. Unless you went to a mall, unless you
went to a signing, unless it was like here's Zach
Morris's correct.

Speaker 1 (33:43):
A specific event that I would go to. Then it
was oh, you know, but other than that, because again
I didn't have blonde hair when I wasn't sure, when
I wasn't working.

Speaker 2 (33:55):
Yeah, it's funny, you know, like this experiment that happens.
I mean, I mean it's so genius in a way, right,
Like how do we keep people watching the network? Well,
they're aging out of these shows. Let's find something else.
And I think for people of my hour, a little
bit younger, a little bit older, like which of course

(34:16):
is totally different. Now it's YouTube and YouTube kids and
stream whatever show they want to stream. But at that
time you had grown up with, before soccer, before baseball.
Whatever happens, Mom and dad are sleeping off a bender
or whatever, and you're gonna get up and watch Saturday

(34:38):
Morning cartoons and everybody is watching exactly the same thing
at exactly the same time. And suddenly here are people,
meaning you, who are our age that we're now seeing
on TV. Sort of this, I mean, I didn't even
want to This is such a weird parallel. But it

(34:59):
is like the office, like in a way where you're
like seeing an experience that you have that you can
connect with on some level. Right, you work in an
office or you go to school, and you see this dynamic,
you feel the relationship dynamic, the love dynamics, the friend dynamics.

(35:20):
Here's a model, here's a I can't think of the
word of, Like this is the popular guy, and here's
the but everybody's friends and everybody gets along, like there's
nobody who doesn't know that show from that that grew
up in that timeframe. Right, do you feel that? Do
you experience you? Obviously you do. It's a stupid question.

(35:42):
You must feel that.

Speaker 1 (35:43):
I Mom, you talk about a person that didn't grow up.
My wife My wife never watched the show. No, she didn't. No,
never watch the show. Yeah, as she grew up in
England until she was twelve and then moved to Montreal
and she made a way down here. But even while
she was twelve and in Canada, she didn't watch the show.

Speaker 2 (36:04):
Interesting.

Speaker 1 (36:05):
Yeah, it's it's interesting though, Brian, because I look back
on my career and I've been very fortunate to play
characters I changed.

Speaker 2 (36:16):
I love that.

Speaker 1 (36:18):
It's it's weird you wouldn't think of me. And I
don't consider myself a character actor, but I've played characters.
I I played Zach. Zach was a character. I mean
I dyed my hair for that every every week. Once
I finished that, I didn't work for three years. I
didn't work. We were about two years and it was

(36:38):
for another NBC movie the Week, remember those things in
those movie of the Weeks, and auditioned for it. It
was with Candace Cameron Burret and my hair was was
it's natural color and people were like, hey, where's the
blond hair. And then shortly after that, I did some
other things for Dick Wolf, and then I did NYPD
Blue and with with with the way I looked in

(36:59):
that and then you know, I've always been able even
on television, which does not push in the direction for characters. Right,
Like when they when they hire Brian Baumbaguner, there's a
specific they want Brian bar mcguner to play this role
because they have this vision of you playing this role.
For me, I've been able. I mean, yeah, I've just

(37:19):
been able to to not look like the people that
I play on screen. And so I've lived this life
where I've tried it one time when I've walked into
the restaurant and go, yeah, we can't see you. Hey,
do you know who I am? And they're like nope.
I'm like, yep, that that worked well, because yeah, why
would you know who I am? I don't look like you. Yeah, yeah,
that I have.

Speaker 2 (37:40):
I have an advantage there, you do, like exactly advantage there? Yeah,
for sure, I love this conversation and that we're having
it because see, I am a character actor, right, and
whether it's you know, I mean people have said it's
weird to talk about yourself and the third person, but
like you're so unlike this character that everybody knows you as, right,

(38:03):
and I play the bad guy or I played that
this right, But you are. You're exactly right, you are
a character actor. But you started so young, and so
the assumption is at that young age, oh, that's that's
who he is.

Speaker 1 (38:19):
That's who I was.

Speaker 2 (38:21):
Certainly he's not. He's not putting that on. That's he's
got the blonde hair. He's the cool guy California surfery.
That's fascinating. We have to move to truly one of
my favorite shows of all time, and certainly what I
would put up there with anything at least before this

(38:42):
sort of what they call the Golden age of television
recently is I mean, I was an enormous NYPD Blue fan,
and for me, your work on that show was spectacular.
Was intense, dark, understated, but playing opposite Dennis Franz and

(39:04):
simple wits the way that you guys worked together so much.
And I and I say this with all sincerity and
not to undermine it, because I'm not the first person
that has has said that about your work. But you know,
you had the Caruso years, which sort of started it,
and then Jimmy Smith sort of became the Jimmy Smith's thing,

(39:25):
and obviously his his departure from that show became sort
of a huge iconic television moment. But your work on
that show for such a long time was spectacular and
for me, being ignorant and not knowing that you were
playing a character when you were a kid, for me,

(39:46):
that launched you for me in my consciousness in an
entirely different way. And I just remember because right, I mean, Dennis,
he gets the firework, got he got, he got the
f But I remember watching that show and just being like,
you know what heat meaning you is doing was so great.

(40:09):
Talk to me just a little bit about your experience
on that show and did you feel that in terms
of the consciousness of America whatever that means, that that
it was, it was redefining you.

Speaker 1 (40:20):
Yeah, thank you for all those kind words. And just
to be clear, NYPD Blue was a project. I've never
acted less on that show. I mean, I look at
my work and and when you're given and you know this,
when you're given dialogue like that, and by the way, dialogue.

(40:42):
When I say dialogue like that, I mean that was
with the Milch era with Stephen Bochco. So Stephen Bochco
being you know, at the top and sort of controlling
Milch who could get out of control. But produce some
his characters, and his words were just poetry. You had
to say every single word the way it was on

(41:05):
the page, and you never questioned it, you know, you
just you just did it. So for me, I just
I remember Denna said to me, you know, probably the
first month or so, at some point he says, less
is more. You need to just give less. Our cameras
are right in your face. And yeah, I just feel
like I gave so little in that role. But leading

(41:29):
up to it, the anxiety that I had walking onto
that set my journey was that I auditioned for the role.
I auditioned for a project called Philly. Kim Delaney had
left NYPD Blue. She went to go to her own show,
which was Stephen's show, and it was called Philly. I
don't know if she was a DA or if she

(41:49):
was a public was a lawyer in Philadelphia, something like that.
And there was a role a younger, you know, a
partner of hers or whatever and attorney. And I had
just finished a film with Tom Evertt Scott and I
go in for the audition. Again, very competitive, right, You
want to get everything. You think you're right for everything.
You have to have that mentality in this business, so

(42:10):
you have to go in and go I'm right for this,
even when you know you're absolutely all right.

Speaker 2 (42:14):
Right.

Speaker 1 (42:15):
I remember sitting on the Fox lot. I was in
the parking lot and I got a message from my
manager saying, you don't need to go in there to
offered it to Tom Evert Scott. You know what Tom
Everts Scott for this role. I go, we're completely different.
I got this is I'm right for this. Why would
they offer it to him? Did he go in? Did
he read? They're like no, it was a straight up offer.

(42:35):
I'm like, well, that's bullshit. I'm I go, I gotta
I'm going in and they go, well, yeah, okay, just
go in and meet Steven. And so you know, nothing
against Tom. It just it doesn't matter who you are.
I want to beat you. And so I go in
and Steven's there, and I'd never met Steven, and I'm
not a business guy. I don't know these people. I'm
in my late twenties, and but I walk in. I

(42:57):
see this man, white hair, sol sitting there, tennis shoes on,
and I don't know the history of you know, an
NHYPD Blue. I've heard things, you know, but it wasn't
wasn't my wheelhouse. I go and I do the audition.
After the audition, he and I know this. I know
they've already offered this to Tom. And he looks at
He looks at me, and he goes, you know what,
You're really good. And I said thank you, sir, and

(43:20):
he goes, I'd like to work with you someday. And
I was like, oh, there it is. I already know that.
You know they've offered it as a Tom. This is
a nice way of him saying, you know you didn't
get the job, son, because I want to work with
you one of these days. And well, thank you so much.
It was a pleasure. Two weeks later, got a call,
you know, mister Botchko would like Mark Paul to be

(43:40):
a part of NYPD Blue. Didn't say the capacity, didn't
say like I'm thinking oh, And we jumped at it. It
was during pilot season. You know you're you're jumping at
things like this. We had heard rumors that Rick Schroeder
who was going to leave, so in your in my mind,
I'm like, oh, I get to play a beat cop.
I get to play a uniform, right, And that's all
it was. Was would he be interested. Of course, yeah,
we jump on it. Then to come to find out

(44:03):
that I'm gonna be Sip what's his partner? Are you
kidding me? I mean I auditioned for Philly. I never
played a cop, so he doesn't see me as I'm
playing in New York Detective Like, it doesn't make any
sense to me, Like, I'm like, what is this a joke?
Like why are you putting me in this position? I
haven't done anything to warrant this position. And at the time,

(44:25):
you know, the internet's kind of going around. I believe
there was a critic named Alan Steppenwall that had a
blog about, you know, because people were passionate about NYPD Blue.
I mean, oh yeah, right, it's like the Office. It's
it's I mean, people the rabbit about things. And yeah,

(44:45):
I mean you say, not only am I going to
bring in a child actor once, I'm going to do
it again the guy who played you know, Silver Spoons,
and now the guy who played Zach Morris on on
Save by the Bells coming in to play Sip what's
his partner? I happened to read a lot of the
blogs that were going on, or a lot of the
posts and it was not pretty, and I just had

(45:07):
so much anxiety to walk on that set. The first
time I met Dennis was at a you know, before
the season, you do the photo shoot and yeah, yeah,
I don't know what that is, but they do this
every season for shows, where you come in and you
you take these photos and you do these like, you know,
little bumpers and teasers and stuff like that.

Speaker 2 (45:26):
Whirls, yeah, put it. They put it where they are
about to go to commercial or yeah exactly.

Speaker 1 (45:31):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And and so that's where I met Dennis.
And I remember him walking on the some lot and
I see him walking towards me. And of course, before then,
I wasn't a fan. I never saw an episode of
NYPD Blue. So before that I'm watching the show religiously.
I'm like getting as much information as it possibly can.

(45:51):
And so I'm seeing this man's work and like, this
guy's a beast, right, I mean, he's he is the
real deal. Nine times nominated for an Emmy, four times
he wins. I mean, this is an actor. I don't
consider myself an actor at this point. I don't I
don't consider what I'm doing. I'm just like it's like
we I'm having fun, you know that trying to make

(46:13):
a living. I see him walking up to me and
there's sipoets, you know, this sort of being, you know,
and he just has his arms outstretched and he just
gives me the biggest bear hug you can possibly imagine,
and he just says, welcome to our family. I'm so
excited to work with you. I can't wait. And I
was like wow. And that was Dennis from the very

(46:36):
beginning until the very end, just the most lovable guy
you would ever want to be on cameras with, or
or or you know, in a casual situation. His work ethic,
approached his work with the same sort of intensity and excitement,
you know when when he got his dialogue and how

(46:58):
he went to his approach and knowing his dialogue, and
I learned so much in those four years that that
was the he shaped me. And and that process with
Stephen Boschko who became a mentor as well, and everyone
on that Mark Tinker, Bill Clark, that was a moment
in my journey that I will never forget. And I'm

(47:20):
so thankful that I had that, because you're right, that
was the start of my adult career. That I think
that's that's not even I don't want to say adult career.
That was the start of my career really of understanding
you know, what I was doing and and and the
impact you could have, and yeah, just just working with
the best it was.

Speaker 2 (47:38):
It was amazing, you know the office, particularly as you know,

(48:00):
by the way we were we were not a Saturday
morning show, and we were shooting sixty plus hours a week.
Don't cry for us. We were doing thirty episodes a
year some seasons.

Speaker 1 (48:10):
Wow, Andy, how many days would it take to film
one episode?

Speaker 2 (48:14):
Five?

Speaker 1 (48:15):
But you guys were a single camera, right, say it
was a single camera, so it was five okay.

Speaker 2 (48:20):
Yeah, so like twelve to fourteen a day. You know,
by the end of this these seasons, when you get
into episodes twenty two to twenty six, sometimes the scripts
come a little bit late.

Speaker 1 (48:33):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (48:34):
It is famous as genius as the writers in milch Is.
You guys would get scripts very late at times. Yet
as you said, now, we could mess with the words
a little bit, and we could mess with the timings,
but you guys could not. How difficult was that or
did you just consider it a challenge, a exciting challenge, a.

Speaker 1 (48:57):
Well, so I was fortunate and unfortunate because I would
have loved to work with Milch left the year before
I So I came on. Yeah, no, no, no no,
but it was a it was a thing that I
came on, uh, season nine, because it was going to
be the last season we ended up. It was, yeah,

(49:18):
it was like nine, that's it, Milch is leaving. Milch
went on to do something else for ABC. They were
just like, yeah, nine, and you know, it just it
just the show became very expensive to shoot and licensing fee,
you know how th stuff works. And they were like, yeah,
we'll just we got a we got we got to
season twelve. Milch was kind of there, but not writing
the script, so the process became much more refined. They

(49:42):
didn't have to rely on Milch. It's one of the
reasons I believe that I think I don't I hate talking,
you know, putting words in his mouth, but I believe
that's why Smith's left was because of that process of it.
He just couldn't take it with With Milch. They had
pagers on like they would come on set, they would
rehearse something, which you know, they had words and pages,
and then they would rehearse it. Milt should see it
and say nope, everybody'd leave, I got to rewrite this.

(50:04):
They would all have pages on them. They would just
be out and about and then they would get a
call saying, you know, come back in, and they would
do something again, and or they'd film an entire scene
and spend you know, three four hours on it, and
Milt would see it and go, nope, I gotta we're
gonna redo this, and so.

Speaker 2 (50:23):
You but it wasn't quite like that.

Speaker 1 (50:25):
No, no, no, when I came on, it was a
well oiled machine. It was like that the year before
with with Schroeder, and then Schroeder left and Milch left,
and then when I came on, Botch go really, you know,
clamp down on that, and was very it was. It
was a very yeah. And I was always told and
and you know, Dennis, Dennis was okay with that. Dennis

(50:47):
being a theater actor, you know, he was able to
to you know, take the pages and process it and
get it out there. But there's some certain actors I
can't do that. I completely understand. I actually would have
been fine with it because coming from sort of that
sitcom you know, where you're you're given lines alts.

Speaker 2 (51:05):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Well you got four years out of
it and finished finished it up. Talk to me a little,
just a little about when it ended. How difficult was
that to you? I know that myself as well as
much of the television viewers in America, there were not

(51:26):
dry eyes in people's houses. How difficult was that for you?

Speaker 1 (51:31):
Yeah? I I it was. It was terrible. I mean
I feel like we could have continued with that show.

Speaker 2 (51:38):
I don't.

Speaker 1 (51:39):
I don't really know why. I think, you know, there's
a point where it's completely out of our control, but
there's you know, people that are above us that just
decided to move on with things. I would have liked
that show to continue. I'm not sure if Dennis was done,
but if that was the reason. There was a lot

(52:00):
of speculation that the show could not survive with without Dennis,
and there's some truth to that. I think for me,
I felt that way. Looking at it now, I'm like, well,
I don't know, maybe we could, you know, maybe you
could do it. I mean you see how Low and
Order has has reinvented itself over and over and over again.

(52:20):
But that's not the show that NYPD blue was. It wasn't.
I mean, at its core, I guess it's a procedural,
but it was so much more than that.

Speaker 2 (52:28):
Oh my god, Yes, the relationships and character building and
the rawness. Yeah, and weird. I mean, it's funny. I
was such a huge fan of that. That shaky camera.
That got a whole lot of press. However, many years
later for a comedy, our shaky camera got a lot,
got a lot of press when we started out. Yeah,

(52:49):
it's uh, it's funny how that stuff works.

Speaker 1 (52:53):
We we were so the way they filmed that too,
I mean, it's it's it's it's shaped how I direct
and understand how to direct. Mark Tinker directed the majority
of our shows, and he was an executive producer as well.
And that style and how Tinker would sort of edit
in his mind while he was shooting. He would be

(53:14):
looking at the screens and we'd have like three cameras going,
and he would sit there with a microphone, and each
of the camera operators and the focus pullers would have
earbuds in and he would you know, say dirty words
to them in their ears as we're filming. But also
he would basically tell them going closer, pull out, you know,

(53:35):
go to go to Dennis, go to Henry, you know,
so he was editing while he was filming, and that
that's why you would get those camera swings and zoom
ins and and things like that. So it was a
really cool process. And I think I haven't worked with
Tinkers since, but I do believe he incorporates that into
shows that he is either show running or directing. It's

(53:57):
just a really cool way of getting what you want
and being really efficient. And I think his record was
filming an episode of NYPD Blue, a full episode in
under six days. That's insane because it became that way.
You know, it's towards the end of the run. You're
like trying to challenge yourself as a director as well. Right,
you've done twelve seasons of this, so you know, trying

(54:19):
to trying to be as efficient as possible. It's pretty cool.

Speaker 2 (54:21):
Although I will say, you know that moving camera is helpful.

Speaker 1 (54:27):
It is what I but not only efficiency, but for acting.
I really love when you know, it's like being in
theater right, like you're on you think you're in the background,
and I and NYPD Blue and same with the office
would do that, like it pulls focus to the rear
of a reaction that you give. I love that that style,

(54:48):
and as an actor, you don't get bored, right, You're not.
Oh it's it's Steve's you know coverage. I I'm just
gonna sit here and just give him kind of of
what I would do.

Speaker 2 (55:00):
You'll get caught for sure. Yeah. I could talk to
you about all this all day, but uh, you you
have such an amazing mix after your career starts comedy drama,
Franklin and Bash, raising the bar, Truth be told, pitch
down here in San Diego. The passage, by the way,
mixed dish. I don't even know if it's fair to

(55:21):
say I was up for I don't remember. I think
you and I are like, there are details that go away.
Your best friend, I don't even remember who got it,
And I went to and I don't remember the character's name,
and I went to when I was going to talk
to you, I went to research this and I was like,
what was it? Gary Cole? And then I was like, no,

(55:43):
that was that was older. It was your best friend.
That's all I remember. Yeah, and I'm sure the actor
was spectacular, but would have been it would have been
better for you.

Speaker 1 (55:54):
You were too expensive. You seriously, I'm telling you that
it really comes down to the because and I forgive
me the minute I do. The minute I'm done with something,
even a day's worth of work, I tend to forget,
like it's just I have to That's this is the
way my brain works. I have to process other things,

(56:14):
and I don't have the capacity. Uh. But the actor
I remember, I see his face. I don't know his name.
He was really good, completely like you and him are
not alike. I do remember them going out for names,
and I consider you obviously a name, but I know
that there wasn't any money in it. You know, there's

(56:34):
so many other things. You can't make me feel better now.
I don't feel bad still, but that would have been
a lot of fun to work with you. And I've
now seen and remembering what the kind of character was,
that would have been a lot of fun to be
He was a bit of a slacker, that guy.

Speaker 2 (56:50):
Like Okay, I don't even remember. Yeah, I don't remember.

Speaker 1 (56:55):
I think I think you know that happens when when
a project comes up. They always do this, every project,
they shoot for the moon, right, They're like, we want
Brian for this, and You're like, Okay, great, Yeah, let's
go for Brian. And then it settles in of like
Brian gets this much per episode. You're like, yeah, maybe
we won't go for Brian. And then you go to
you know, you go to your next tier and you're like,
we want them, and then you realize like, oh, they

(57:17):
live in Europe.

Speaker 2 (57:18):
Oh right right? Comedy drama, you don't care. It's about
creating a character, right.

Speaker 1 (57:26):
Yeah, No, I don't mind. I prefer drama. I think
comedy is really tough. I struggle with comedy a little
bit more than I do with drama.

Speaker 2 (57:34):
Your new show, hit show I just read this morning.
Maybe it was announced a while ago. Season two is
coming on My mothership. On the mothership NBC new show
Found so different. Interesting talk about NYPD blue, Like there

(57:57):
is some depth to this show and issues that are
being discussed in this show that you don't typically see
in network television. You are playing not just drama, but
you your character incredibly dark but so well done as usual.
How what has your experience been like on Found.

Speaker 1 (58:20):
It's been it's been a challenge that's been rewarded with
the second season, which is always our intention. I mean,
I never go into I don't know about you, but
you never go into a project going, I hope it
only gets one season, you know, pitch truth be told.
I mean all these projects you go into going, I
want seven season and I want to retire, you know,

(58:42):
I just want to I want to get that residual
money that has been eluded. I didn't get it that
much on NYPD Blue because I came in late in
the in the game. Didn't get it on Saved by
the Bell Franklin Bash. We did forty episodes and four
years on TNT. I mean, you know nothing, you know
mixed Dish. I was like, yes, here we go. I'm

(59:05):
coming on. I'm going to ride these coat tails of Blackish.
This is it. I'm done. I get to do this show,
which I love, I like the people. I'm gonna this
is it. I've made it. First season. We do twenty
three and I'm like, yes, because I love working. I
love I love I love the reward.

Speaker 2 (59:22):
I love.

Speaker 1 (59:22):
You know, you worked your ass off, you get paid great,
and you know you get to take great family vacations.
What's not to love? So bring it on. Like when
when they say you know you're gonna do twenty two
or whatever, the next season on Mixed Ish, we did thirteen,
so we found we did you know? We started with
thirteen and now we're going to do twenty two this
second season, and I'm just so excited. It's a very

(59:46):
challenging role. It's a role that I haven't played. You know,
I've played some darker characters, but nothing quite like him.
The name of the characters Sir Sure and Sir is despicable.
I mean, it's it's just a it's a gross He's
a gross human being with not a lot of redeemable qualities,

(01:00:06):
and I don't know that he deserves any redemption. When
I asked the showrunner and Kidji, you know, I like
to do research on my roles and understand where the
writers coming from. And I asked her, I said, you know,
is there anybody out there that I should model Sir after?
And she's said probably, out of all the sickos that

(01:00:27):
we've had in society, Ted Bundy was the one that
you should probably base him off of. He was charming,
he was, you know, decent looking guy. He was able
to use those two qualities to disarm his victims to
do some monstrous things. But that was who she wanted sir.

(01:00:47):
You know, he was also a very smart man and
uses intellect to sort of work his way into the
lives of his victims. So that's who she wanted me
to emulate. You know, not great people, but the show itself.
I mean, you're right, it does stand for something that
is often not approached on network television. I thought when

(01:01:11):
I read it pilot season of twenty twenty two, this
was one of the pilots of that season that was
you know, a lot of people wanted to be a
part of it was so well written. Sheanola Hampton, was
already attached her sort of history and pedigree and like
who she is as a person. Everything was positive and

(01:01:32):
you know, she's just she's like one of those Dennis
Franz people. Right when you meet her, she's like, Oh,
this is going to be an absolute treat to work with.
She's the real deal. She was a producer on the show.
She had a deal with NBC, so she was already
attached working with Greg Berlanty. Like as actors, like, you
see these things and the boxes are being checked and

(01:01:53):
you're like, right, it lines up. Doesn't mean it's a
guarantee for anything. You're still taking a risk with a
character in this This was a definite risk. I mean,
this was a character that you could get skewered on.
But it seemed have worked and NBC loves it and
I love being with NBC. Still, Mad Day canceled, saved
by the Bill to reboot. But you know, I can't
can't win them all. But I was bummed that we

(01:02:14):
didn't get more than two seasons out of that. But
I still, you know, I started my career here and
hopefully this is the one that ends it. Always looking
for that. Indeed, I want to start playing golf like you.

Speaker 2 (01:02:25):
Brian, do you ever have you? Have you? Has there
been any discussion or have you talked about any similarities
with obviously not a real monster, but Hannibal Lecter. Has
there been any conversation on the team or in your
own mind about that that character.

Speaker 1 (01:02:46):
I was a huge fan growing up of the Silence
of the Lambs and some of the sequels as well,
with Gary Oldman and Rayleota and some great stuff. I
never proached it from that angle. Yeah, I never really
approached it from there.

Speaker 2 (01:03:04):
There are similarities, yeah, And you know I'm attempting to
not give stuff away I've been watching but an imprisoned
if you will back, you can give it away.

Speaker 1 (01:03:15):
I mean we've been giving it away this entire time. Basically,
I kidnapped a girl when she was sixteen. She escapes.
Years later, she becomes an advocate to find people who
are lost and in need of being found but don't
have the means or funds.

Speaker 2 (01:03:34):
From marketized communities. Correct, yes, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:03:37):
And she has a band of she has a team
that each has a specific role and ability to help
in that process. You know, pr people, attorneys, ex military,
and they help find these people that need to be found. She,
like I said, it's escaped and starts this company. At

(01:03:59):
some point she her kidnapper and imprisons him in her
basement and uses his intellect and knowledge of what he
would do given the situation of some of these kidnap
people or you know, their loss, and I guess just
using his knowledge to help solve the cases. But my

(01:04:23):
character and people say, oh, he's doing it for redemption.
He feels bad that he did it to her, and
it's like, no, that's not it at all. I don't
think my character and I've never played it that way
where he's doing this for to find redemption. He's doing
it because this is his entire journey with Gabrielle. And
that's Shanola's character is he just wants to be in

(01:04:44):
her company. He wants to be in her presence, and
it doesn't matter that he's living in her basement and
that he's falling ill down there. The fact that he
just gets to be with her is everything that he
ever wanted. And then you know he helps with the
cases because he likes to see her do well, wants
to see her do well. But yeah, when I think
about it, like the Signs of the Lambs, like, there's

(01:05:05):
nothing sexual about these two characters, even though you think
because it's a male and female that there is some
sexual component to it, but there there really isn't and
it's not on our show. And I never felt that
way with what the Signs of the Lambs either.

Speaker 2 (01:05:18):
Right, It's fascinating. It is the kind of show that
network television should be doing. So I'm so glad even
with the strike that it well, it's it's gotten, it's
gotten plenty of attention because of the team assembled, as
you mentioned, and and and it's good. So congratulations you

(01:05:40):
season two back in hot Atlanta.

Speaker 1 (01:05:43):
Oh, I'll tell you that's hard. I love Atlanta. I
love Atlanta. It's I mean it is you filmed the
Office in Los Angeles, right, Yes, it's tough. You know.
It's anytime we're away from our family. And I'm am
like you, We're just family men. You know if I
consider my off a husband and a father and an
actor in that order, and so whenever I have to

(01:06:05):
be away from my family, it's really hard for me
going back though. And again, at this point, everybody should
turn off your however, you're listening to this because I'm
going to endorse San Diego again and we don't want
you to move down here. But the airport is amazing
in San Diego, and yeah that I have to, I
travel back and forth sometimes twice a week to be home.

(01:06:29):
I could never do that in La at Lax. Neither
what I ever want to. I would, I would, I
would go out of my mind. But the fact that
we have such a great airport here, I'm able to
come back and forth between Atlanta and here.

Speaker 2 (01:06:41):
Oh, I know that flight very very well. Those flights,
there's at least a few of them, So that's that's
also rare.

Speaker 1 (01:06:50):
MP.

Speaker 2 (01:06:51):
Thank you so so much for coming on and being
so candid and talking to me. I found it fascinating,
and I wish you all of the best. I hope
that this is the end for you. If you're ready
for the end, let's make this be the end. Well,
another seven years from now, another seven years from now,
it'll be the end.

Speaker 1 (01:07:10):
But and I say that, and I don't know if
I say that in jest. I've I've mean, look, I've
had a long career so far. I'm it would be
nice for me to In my head, I'm like, wouldn't
it be nice if I could just say no, Like
I'm always feeling like I'm still saying yes yeah to
take things, and you know, get I get antsy, Like

(01:07:33):
people say, oh, you constantly work, and I do, but
that's my choice. Like I actively am out there really
hustling because you know, we have kids and we have
a certain lifestyle. We like having them and it's life, right.
But so I'd love to get to that point where
you're like, nah, I'm good.

Speaker 2 (01:07:50):
Nah. I know, well, you're on the road all the time.
I'm on the road. It's funny because one of my
producers was just asking me, like thirty minutes before we started,
like much you guys hang out and I'm like, I'm
always so happy when I see him, but we were
never here at the same time, and now he's leaving again.

(01:08:10):
Well we'll figure it out. We'll go have dinner. I
wish you all the best and thank you. Thank you
so much for coming on and chatting with me.

Speaker 1 (01:08:18):
Thanks Brian, thanks for having me on.

Speaker 2 (01:08:31):
So great to talk to you, MPG. And yes, I
will see you around the neighborhood everybody else. You can
see him on Found airing Thursdays, my old night on NBC.
But guess what, with the magic of technology, you can
stream it any day you want. And I will see

(01:08:52):
you next time right here on Off the Beat. Until then,
have a great week. Off the Beat is hosted and
executive produced by me Brian Baumgartner, alongside our executive producer

(01:09:13):
Lang Lee. Our senior producer is Diego Tapia. Our producers
are Liz Hayes, Hannah Harris, and Emily Carr. Our talent
producer is Ryan Papa Zachary, and our intern is Ali
Amir Saheed. Our theme song Bubble and Squeak, performed by
the one and Only Creed Brad