April 12, 2022 • 48 mins
Wendie Malick joins Brian to discuss her incredible life, from working on Capitol Hill to becoming an Emmy nominated actress. They dive into her career - starring on Dream On, Just Shoot Me, and most importantly, working with Brian on Hot in Cleveland.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
People just often cast me as a lawyer, doctor divorce
or a murderer. You know, I killed the bunch of
husbands one year, and I'm various. I've heard three three,
three husbands in one year, because you know, it's all
in there. We all have all this stuff. It's just
tapping into it and making it real large and then
(00:21):
there you are. I mean, who hasn't been piste off
by the husband or there was at some point. Hi,
I'm Wendy Alec and I've been on television for seventy
five years. Hello, Hello, and welcome everybody back to Off
(00:45):
the Beat. I am once again your host, Brian Baumgartner.
Today is a good day. I mean I could be
described as giddy in fact, because today Wendy Malick is
joining me on the podcast. In truth, don't tell anybody else.
She's one of my favorites. She has had quite the career.
(01:08):
She worked as a model and also briefly in politics
before even starting to act. And speaking of acting her
acting career, incredible does not even begin to describe it.
Wendy has quite the range. She has worked on everything
from sitcom's like Frasier two, animated projects like bo Jack
Horseman and the Emperor's New Groove, and how rare is this?
(01:31):
Wendy has appeared in not one, not two, but three
television series that ran for at least six seasons, the
groundbreaking HBO comedy Dream On Hot in Cleveland with Betty
White and not the Awards Are Everything, but Wendy was
nominated for two Emmy's and a Golden Globe for her role.
(01:51):
Unjust shoot me. Honestly, this entire podcast could be devoted
to just listing her accomplishments. But I do want you
to actually hear from Wendy, so I won't do that,
at least not this time. With that, please welcome my
friend and two time co star, the legendary Wendy Malick.
(02:17):
Bubble and Squeak I love it, Bubble and Squeak, Bubble
and Squeaker Cookie every month left over from the Nut People. Hello,
(02:42):
how are you? I'm good? How are you? I mean,
I'm so spectacular now that I'm talking to you. I
don't think that you realize this. I've started doing this
podcast specifically so that I can talk to you. How
many times I've just said that? I have said that
exactly zero od times? Well, it's it sure is. It's
sure is a pain in the ask to get on
(03:04):
your stupid Google thing. This is not made for people
over sixty, I have to tell you. It's also not
made for me either, But I luckily had a tons
of did you start did you start doing this? During
COVID Steve, you stay here, stay here, stay Sorry, I
have dogs. There may be noise. I can't control this,
so no, that's totally I hear you have a zonkey
(03:26):
or a donkey, a miniature donkey, miniature donkey. Uh. We
have three horses now down to three. Yeah, three horses,
one minuature donkey and two dogs. Used to be eight
of them, but now it's the horri of attrition. We're
all getting older, so as they go, we don't replace
them as much as we used to. Does the miniature
donkey does it like? Does it walk through your house?
(03:48):
Oh no, no no no. He stays down in his stable,
but he will put his head on your shoulder and
lift his little leg up and try to sit on
your lap. And I have friends who come over just
for that experience because it's it's pretty pretty fabulous. That's awesome. Yeah,
he looks like Shrek. He looks like the Shrek Donkey.
(04:08):
He looks like Donky. Yeah he does. He talks like
Eddie Murphy though he doesn't talk, but he he speaks
to you with his eyes. That's that's Phoebe in the background.
L L Yeah, yeah, good girl, good baby. Um. When
I was going back and I was, I was researching you.
And I'm not expecting you to remember, by the way,
because I was reminded, do you know that we've worked
(04:31):
together twice on two different shows? You're never going to
get it were No, I wasn't on dream On. I
wasn't lucky enough to be in dream On. I was
on kind of my first significant um like kind of
lead guest star roles. It aired like maybe the week
that The Office started was actually aired, but now we
(04:53):
had shot The Office like a year before. Jake in Progress.
You were on Jakin Progress. That was the strangest show.
It was a very odd show, but but it had
its moments. There was some interesting time. I didn't have
much to do with you. I was Julie Bowen's high
(05:15):
school college boyfriend. Wow was Julie Moan on that crazy?
It's so crazy? At this point, how many like short
lived shows we've done and you kind of they kind
of blurred together after a while. Yeah, I've ended up
working with around a bunch of different things over the years,
but always a pleasure to see you. Even remember you
(05:38):
being on that show? Well I didn't. I didn't fully either, Okay,
So I want to go I want to go back.
I want to go back back. You grew up in
or around Buffalo, right, like Niagara Falls ish Well, I
mean Diagara Falls is not too far, but a suburb
of Buffalo Williamson, Okay. And it's Mike Michael o'doonnni who
once said, um, you know, you can take the girl
(06:00):
out of Buffalo, but you can never take Buffalo out
of the girl. And I know where that is a
badge of honor because people from Buffalo are very tough
but friendly, and they drink well and they make the
most out of difficult situations. They're survivors. Well you have
to be, Yeah, you do, you do. It's a very
(06:21):
hard place to live, and it doesn't have all of
the cultural advantages of Chicago, but you have the same
kind of weather, which is very challenging. But I have
to say, every time I go back, I'm reminded of
how much I like those people that I came from,
even though I wanted to get out really early. Honestly, Okay,
this town is way too small for me. I gotta go.
(06:41):
When did you leave? Did you leave early? I mean
after high school. I only went back summers, but my
parents lived there throughout. My dad died in the spring
at a hundred and one. My mom is still alive,
and she'll be ninety three this summer, and she's there,
so I go. We go back and not rent this
little farmhouse um every other month and go see her,
and I see old friends from high school and my youth.
(07:04):
So you're back, You're back quite a bit? Then, Yeah, Yeah,
I've been. I've been back quite a bit, particularly these
last few years as my parents have gotten older. Yeah.
But I used to go back every summer, and we
had a wonderful cottage on like Gary on the Canadian side,
and uh, it's beautiful. I mean, you know, it's crazy people.
It's always like, okay, hit me with your best shot.
When you say here from Buffalo. It's like, just go ahead,
(07:27):
have your way with me. But in fact, it's quite
a wonderful place to grow up. When did you get
the bug or get an idea that you want to pursue?
I was pretty young. Yeah. My my grandmother was an
opera singer before she had kids. We have a rather
they're quite an undergening family. But they always they had
(07:49):
like the musical comedy albums of everything, and I would
act out and dance and sing all of them whenever
I could, And on the walking down the beach, I
used to pretend I had an orchestra behind me. When
i'd go on vacation with my family, I would pretend
I was from another country and I didn't know them,
and then I'd called me over and then my whole
(08:09):
cover would be blown. But I think I wanted a
more glamorous life than I had, so I invented it. Right.
Did you do like theater in high school? Or oh? Yeah?
And then I and if it wasn't, I didn't have
enough to do at school, then I just made up
place and I directed them and put myself with all
the neighborhood kids and made my younger sister and brother
(08:30):
probably carry lights or have a minor role. Yeah, you
were always a star. I was the eldest, and I
kind of yeah, I kind of directed things, and as
they say, I still tend to do that, but they're horror. Okay,
this is what we're gonna do. Uh. You started professionally
(08:52):
modeling first, Is that right? Yeah? My mother was a
model in New York before she got married. She went
off and lived at the Barbazone for women, and dad
went and said, no, please come back and marry me
and let's have babies. And she did. But she modeled
just sort of part time as we were growing up,
and dragged me along and I thought, oh, this is
(09:14):
pretty fun. And I got on a team word at
one of the at one of our department stores, and
it was great. That's how I could afford to buy
my own clothes and save some money. And so it
wasn't until years later when I was in New York
making seventy five a week doing dinner theater at Club
Banet in New Jersey, and someone approached me in the
tickets line and Times Square instead, Have you ever modeled?
(09:37):
I said, yes, this a matter of fact, in high
school in Buffalo, in glamorous Buffalo, I did. They said,
I think you'd be right for will Almina. You should
come see her. And I went and visited with her,
and she said, yeah, you belong here. You just have
to practice not smiling crooked, and don't ever tell anybody
that you're twenty five, because it's way too old to start.
(09:59):
So I I spent the next five years pretty much
traveling the world. It was just the best way to
see the world. Lived in Paris, went to the Orient,
worked in Africa. I mean it was really this was like,
you know, this late seventies, and it was It was
a great time. It was entertaining, It was a very
very excellent time. Yes, I don't remember sleeping very much,
(10:22):
and a lot of wine was drunk, for sure. But
I just I'm a good clothes horse. So I got
to do all of the collections and then they'd send
me off to some beach somewhere to get tan real
fast and do editorial stuff and great fun. Now I
have to I have to ask you. I'm assuming this
is before this you were working for Jack Kemp. You
(10:48):
worked for this, this was what in your early twenties.
I was no, this is right after college. Well, yeah,
I guess I was saying. It was like and he
we used to to ski with his family. He was
our congressman, and my dad was a supporter of his,
and we were off skiing with them one time and
he said, listen, when you get out of out of college,
if you want to come and just see what DC
(11:10):
is like, let me know and you can come and intern.
And I thought, what a great opportunity. And it was
during Watergate, so it was just a really exciting and
crazy time to be in d C. It was I'm
really glad I had the experience that they did. It
very clear that I did not want to be in politics,
but I got to see it from the inside. It
was pretty pretty cool. And he was very tolerant of
(11:32):
the fact that I was wearing a George McGovern button
and OK, but every day that would be like a
new scandal and another shoe would drop, and it was
it was pretty thrilling. Wow, how was that working then
for a Republican senator or congressman during Watergate? That's that's crazy. Yeah.
(11:55):
When I was there, you know, it was sort of
astonishing how quickly the whole thing unrabbled. But there was
such momentum to like do the right thing on both sides,
and that was when people stayed in DC for the
weekends and they actually socialized together. Now everybody goes home
in fundraises, but that was when they would work out
deals and say, I'll help you with your bill, you
(12:17):
help me with mine. And it worked. It actually really
functioned in a strange way. And Jack was he was
very moderate. He was really much more towards the center
and had good friends on both sides. He would sort
of not only did I have to stuff envelopes in
the basement, which is like the most boring thing, but
he'd sent me to take notes when they were merging
(12:37):
the a f C and the NFC to form the NFL,
so I got to go and sit in on these
Senate hearings. That was really fun. And he'd take me
to lunch in the Congressional dining room and introduced me
to people. And he got a kick out of the
fact that I was wearing this McGovern button every day
to work to show how tolerant he was. But he
was one of the good guys, he really was. Um.
I admired people on both sides of the aisle. I
(12:59):
thought it was so there was an interesting group there.
It was particularly interesting to see all the young interns
working in all the offices and on Friday nights they
dimmed the lights and dance to Motown. It's like, wow,
that's awesome, what an incredible experience to have. It was,
it was it's all fudder, you know, it's all a fudder.
(13:22):
It's like, I always feel like one of the hardest
things if you were an actor, if you became too
famous to be a people watcher, if you can spy
on other people and steal from them, you know, I mean,
you get some great stuff just from being in the room,
if you're able to sort of candidly observe the characters
around you. And I have a big file now, no,
(13:44):
I'm sure. Okay, so you go, you have this incredible
modeling career you're but pretending to be one or yeah,
so what brings you into acting? From that light? Started
out as an act just when I went to New York,
that was the whole plan. But but but then you're
only that just wasn't feeding the old travel bucket or
(14:08):
buying me close, for getting me a decent apartment. So um,
I decided I'll take this five years and just do
this for a while. And I did, in fact, and
came back and and got my first job. It was
on a soap opera and I was nurse Jones. It
was so boring, I can't even tell you. But um,
that was my entry back into television and movies and
(14:29):
and then slowly I was really really I'm a very
late bloomer. I mean I never did dream on until
I turned forty. And that was really my sort of
entree into comedy, which kind of gave me my career. Right,
So you you weren't really specifically interested in comedy. Oh
I love comedy, No, I love it. But I just
was tall and brune. But in the beginning, yeah, yeah,
(14:50):
and um, and people just often cast me as a lawyer,
a doctor divorce, or a murderer. You know, I killed
the bunch of husbands one year, and various I've heard
three three you killed three husbands in one year, because
you know, it's all in there. We all have all
this stuff. It's just tapping into it and making it
(15:11):
real large and then there you are. I mean, who
hasn't been piste off by their husband or there was
at some point. That's so funny. I was thinking about
that you you killed three husbands in one year. This
is not a joke. This is back in my theater day.
In one year, I played three women totally different projects.
Totally because if you're highly developed, Feminine said, actually, it's
(15:34):
because you have such beautiful skin. They figured they can
throw out some hair on you and it's a dundee. Yes.
So nineteen ninety Yes, Judith Tupper on dream On, this
is an innovative People don't realize. I think now like
changes the whole dynamic of television. I mean, it's HBO's
(15:54):
first comedy series. Well there had been. There had been
I think first in ten or something else that didn't
really you know, it just didn't really connect. But this
one was so innovative and so fresh. Although hardly anybody
had HBO at the time, but everybody in our business did,
so people noticed it, but it was still very under
the radar. And I'm so sorry that they sold it
(16:16):
to Fox because Fox tried to air it on a
network and they had to take all the sex and
the swearing out of it and put commercials in there
and a laugh track, which was the kiss of death.
It was because it was such a brilliant, innovative show,
and so many shows borrowed from it after that. But
when that aired with Larry Sanders. That kind of I
(16:36):
think put HBO on the map for original programming. That
was their first really big like wow, they brought something
completely fresh to the dance. Yeah, I mean both of
those two shows at the time. I mean aesthetically in
terms of the comedy. I mean also just a comedy
that had like you said, like sex was sort of inappropriate,
(16:58):
dark and completely a grew to us. They take no
bones about it. It was just like, you know, the
neighbor would show up to braw sugar naked except for
like a scuba mask and flippers. Was like what. But
it was such a genius use of of all those
clips at the Universal Oaned, you know, Martyr Coffin and
(17:19):
David Crane figured out a way to use those that
nobody had quite done before, and it was genius and
we had the most amazing guests. I mean, over the years,
everybody wanted to come play on that show. And we
shot it in a warehouse in Sun Valley that you
could hear gunshots tonight, and it wasn't it wasn't sound proof,
so every time it would hail or rain hard, we
(17:40):
just have to have to loop the entire scene. Really
it was just crazy. Yeah. Yeah, And we used to
shoot it in three days, and then they expanded to
four and finally to five because I think Brian Benmam
was going to have a nervous breakdown if they pushed
him any harder. But it was a real gift to
all of us. Yeah, you've said that it changed your life.
What Oh? Yeah, because it got you into comedy. Yeah,
(18:02):
I know. I was the straight man for him the
first couple of episodes, and then they sort of found
out that I was funny and decided to make my
character not the together psychologist, but she's actually way more
erotic than anybody else in the whole shows. And you
started to see the little fractures in her, in her personality,
and and that just makes it so much more fun
(18:22):
to play. I had a blast with that. I read something.
(18:45):
I did not know this, and I feel like I
know everything about you, having having been obsessed with me
for all these years, having created a podcast just so
that we can do this. You go, you go listen
to the openings. I've never said that for I read
that you audition for Diane Cheery. Okay, was this is like?
(19:07):
Did you come close? I don't know. I didn't get it,
so that's the endgame. I also got it. Had a
screen test with George Lucas and Steven Spielberg for for
Um Grace and Raiders of the Lost Dark, Yes, in
their hotel room, and I guess Stephen had seen me
in an Excedrin commercial and that's how he used to
find unknown actresses and had me come in and I
(19:29):
chatted with them and they thought it was great and
said come back and we'll put you. We'll give you
a screen test next week. And I came back and
it was anyway, it's a long story, but anyway, clearly
I didn't get that one either, which really pissed me off.
But I did a terrible audition, which I was unprepared for.
But that's a whole other story, and I don't like
to look back in anger, right right. Did you have
(19:52):
many auditioned meetings in hotel rooms. I've had one. Um,
you know, they used to do that, and these guys
were fine. They weren't creepy at all, it was they
really weren't. They were lovely and they have big suite,
which is where they does sound. Really they probably wouldn't
do it now because it just just could be accused
of something. But they were lovely. Okay. Yeah, I don't
(20:13):
know how many I've had in her I don't think
a lot, but certainly in the eighties that happened more often.
I think that was that was a leftover from the
old days and without the extra Yeah. Yeah, so this
starts a relationship with you. By the way, dream on.
I know, I'm skipping Cheers, but you end up going
to work on Fraser Um hilarious and memorable. SERI you
(20:40):
did ten twelve episodes or something, right, Yeah, I was
in the last season. It was after Just Shoot Me Wrapped,
and I had some friends who are writers on that show,
and they said can she sing? And I said, you know,
not very well and they said, that's actually perfect if
you're not that good. So I found the perfect wig
and uh and went in and I remember the day
(21:02):
I went in and met with all the writers there,
and it just felt like one of those things that
was meant to be. It was so much fun and
he was so delightful. I have to say, John John
Mahoney was so yummy. He's he's such a fine actor,
but he also was an incredible singer, dancer, and we
got to do a whole dream sequence of buzzby Berkeley
(21:23):
like dance thing and for our wedding. It was just
it was such a gift and they all were so gracious,
And of course then Jane and I ended up being
together on hot in Cleveland. After that, I said, good,
I said, I used to be your mother in law,
now in your roommate. Uh, well, I have to I
(21:45):
have to ask you first about just shoot me to
me one of my favorite female performances in all of comedy.
And I mean that sincerely, Nina van Horne. What's your
process for creating character? How do you approach that? Is
it all about the writing or talk to me a
little bit about But I mean that's you know, that's
(22:06):
the map. And if you have a great map to
uh finding out what makes her tick, that's such a
You got most of it right there. And Steve Levitan
said when I met with him, he said, I was
looking for a Wendy Mallec type, you know, someone who
you could believe had been a model and just has
a great sense of comedy and comedic timing said, And
(22:27):
then I realized maybe we should just get and he said,
and you know, and she's sort of kicking and screaming
her way into turning fifty. And you know, I just
so loved this character from the first time I read
the pilot, and I thought, this is a woman who
has so many parallels to my own life, except that
I'm moderate and she's not. I can't tell you how
(22:49):
many people have come to me over the years and said,
oh my gosh, I'm so much like Nina. You have
no idea, And I said, well, then you need to
get into rehab immediately, because there's no way that woman
would have still been a lot today that my husband
often described her as an idiot savant. She had great style,
excellent style. You know, she just acted like it was
(23:12):
five forever and really didn't get that you have to
sort of change with the times and that you can't
get away with murder like forever. Right. I mean, I
think that's the genesis of my question here, here's how
I view that character. And I think that there are
certainly elements in your other work, but what what I
(23:33):
felt like you were so genius at and found something
so specifically different than anybody else that I've ever seen before,
where it was high status but an idiot, right like
that like of like embracing that high status cy I
do the opposite, right, I'm just an idiot. It's just
(23:54):
it's just trance apparently an idiot, and try to find
a love ability within that idiocy, which you you very well,
you're a love pidious. Well, thank you, thank you. I
hope that was saying you know, there is there is that.
I think what you're getting at is there's just enough
of overlap between Nina and me and having had some
(24:17):
very similar situations and the circumstances and experience over the years,
that I could tap into my own experience of all
that and then think, what if you had absolutely no
filters and unapologize and no and no compass and you
were really still having a good time and not concerned
about any of that, that it's still kind of working
(24:37):
for you, and so you just sort of don't see
the problem, and living like you lived twenty thirty years ago,
you're just going to keep doing it until you probably dropped.
But there was just something about that chemistry with those
five people that I always tell people people when they've
asked me, why do you think that one really worked?
And we are still such good friends after all this time,
(24:59):
and was so hard to lose George last year, who
was like the anchor of all of it. Um. But
I think it was one of those great things that
you never know if you have it until you're all
in the room together, like you had with the Office.
It's like everyone occupies a different place in this universe,
but all the planets makes sense, and you can believe
they belong in the same universe, but they're all totally specific.
(25:21):
Nobody overlaps each other. Really, it's kind of you all
have your own space, and you all make each other
better and more interesting, and each relationship is its own
unique relationship. Right. I had this conversation a year or
so ago with Kevin Riley, actually, who I don't know
if you know what. He was happy. I know him
very well and we were on board together for ages
(25:42):
two and he was with NBC all those years. Yes,
and I love him. I think he's so so smart.
And he talked about the history of workplace comedies, right,
And part of the conversation about the Office was people
were saying which I'm sure was similar to at least
dream On back when you started with, which was like
(26:03):
this is so different this is weird, and the cameras moving,
and what he said to me was, he goes, I
don't understand what people are talking about. It's a workplace comedy,
which has been a staple on television forever. And I
think there are shows like Just Shoot Me. I mean,
Mary Tyler Moore sort of started the whole thing where
it just follows in the succession. And the thing that
is what you just said, which is what all of
(26:26):
those shows share, is an ensemble of characters that fit
together perfectly, or at least try to fit together perfectly.
All have sort of a different you know, well you
high status idiot or whatever, like all the characters that
sort of fit together that bring that sort of special ensemble, yeah,
and provide and provide conflict. It's it's like just a
(26:47):
mini it's a many world that you create where there
are people who are going to rub up against each
other and and you know, be attracted to each other
and drive each other insane. And yeah, it's it's like
that little microcons them and so many of them. Taxi
was another one that just worked so beautifully and over
the years, and I think, you know, at first, I
really was sort of taken aback doing a single camera comedy.
(27:10):
I thought, what are we going to miss not having
the audience doing that? But then something else is allowed
to happen when you move into single camera stuff. I
missed the audience leaving that, but I also appreciate that
you can allow for much more nuanced I think that
was one of the great things about Frasier is that
they often ended a scene where you were left feeling
(27:33):
a little unsure of what was going on. And it
wasn't always you know, leaving you on a high note
on a joke. Sometimes you just have to sit with
it and sort of, yeah, what when did you realize
that it was going to be the massive success that
it was? Was it early on? Did it catch on
pretty quickly? Just shoot me? Um? Yeah, that happened pretty fast.
(27:57):
We were kind of we kind of were in the
top ten there for a while, and then they kept
moving us around at different timeslots, and eventually it kind
of ruined it. But um, and I have to say,
like so many shows that go on for that long,
we had seven seasons, and some seasons were stronger than others.
You know, there were times where I felt like it
became more of a sophomoric kind of you know, that
(28:18):
going for the low hanging fruit, the sex jokes, which
you know are fun, but after a while you want
something a little deeper. But there were seasons where it
was just some of my favorite stuff. I mean, the
two I think of always for me were when they
did the A and E biography of Nina van Horne,
which was what a present for an actor to have.
(28:39):
For some of you have built your whole bible. This
is where you come from. You were an orphan. You
were first discovered by this guy from New York in
the middle of Arkansas or something, and they put you
on a seed catalog thing, and that opened up your
modeling career. I mean, the whole thing was so completely outrageous,
but we had everybody in that. It was just it
was so much fun. And Eileen Cohn and her husband
(29:03):
wrote the one where it was a word of the
day calendar, and David Spade and Rico Colin Toni their
characters decided to give me a fake sort of word
of the day. So I just made up these words
that were complete gobbledy book and went on like NPR
and started talking to a feminist and being a real
show off about it, and I completely and Larry Miller
(29:25):
was the host and he fell madly in love with
me and allowed me to just carry on with all
this gobbledy book that meant nothing, but it was such
a smart, wonderful script, and I that kind of stuff
made me so happy. Yeah, would you say that comedy
is your favorite thing to do? Now? It's pretty damn
fun when the writing is great, I have to say,
(29:46):
but I love it all. I love things where you
get to bring it all to the dance. And that's
one of the things in talking about, you know, moving
to single camera that you get a chance to bring
in a lot more colors. I think, although really good
situation comedies even multi camps a lot of times. I
remember the first time I realized that was I think
(30:07):
watching a taxi episode and I thought, oh my god.
In twenty two minutes, this show has almost brought me
to tears. It touched me so and made me laugh
out loud. And that's an extraordinary feat with commercials, so
you know, and now and now, how network is competing
with cable is almost impossible. I mean, if you have
(30:29):
a breakout show, it's pretty crazy. I'm the principal on
Young Sheldon, which is doing very well, but it's one
of the few sort of and that again as single camera.
But but I think when you have to compete with
with shows they can do like twelve a year, and
I work on some of those, and they really get
to fine tune and hone them more and you don't
have to deal with the commercials and you can watch
(30:51):
whatever you want to and you know it. Certainly, I
think in a lot of ways, they've been a gift
to us. But it's just changing the way it used
to be when you stand around the water cooler, if
anybody actually did that and talked about what you saw
the night before, I think those days are over. No,
I think so too, because honestly, I really think that
(31:11):
sports is the only thing that does that anymore. Seems
to be the only thing that people watch live. And
that's the difference. As you can talk about squid game
or you know. But it's all sort of gradual. I
haven't seen it yet, don't. Oh, I'm on episode two.
I'm you know, so you can't. You can't sort of
engage in the same way. It's like, oh, last night
at nine o'clock, we were all watching right to shoot
(31:33):
me or whatever. Yeah, yeah, yeah, And in a way
I'm sorry about that because as we have become more
homebodies in the last two years too and not going
you know, I was thinking about we went back to
Disney Hall when they reopened this season, and I just
was so thrilled to be in that hall with all
those people sharing that glorious music. And I was just
(31:54):
at the Ammonds and the other night and and the
same thing of those shared experiences of our culture and
things that make us laugh, that inspire us, that bring
us to tears. All of that that shared humanity is
something that we are so lacking, and I think it's
it's part of how we got to where we are
right now, with this kind of lack of common purpose
(32:15):
and of all being in it together. You know, we
we physically haven't been in it together for so long. Yeah. No,
you're absolutely right, And it's not just you know, it's
not I mean, you bring up live performance events, certainly
there's that, but even the experience of going to a
movie on Saturday night and you're sitting with a hundred
(32:36):
other people and you're laughing or you're you know, yeah,
that sort of communal experience. Somebody tell me, and I'm
not sure who this was, and maybe it's not even true,
but I love the idea of it. But someone said
they had researched this and done some some experiments, and
they found that in live theater, the audience can get
(32:56):
caught up in it and after a certain period of time.
Maybe it's in a drama, I don't know, maybe it's
across the board. They actually their heartbeats get in sink
because you are kind of breathing at the same time,
and you hear that that sort of community or laugh
or whatever it is, but that it's like girls who
are roommates get their period at the same time. But
(33:16):
there's something about that. Whatever yourself, you're aware of it.
Three times you were you were in okay, yeah, sorry, okay,
I'm now I'm going to get in trouble. You're also
(33:54):
doing a ton of voiceover work. I have been doing
more of that the last few years. Enjoy that, the
experience of creating a character that way. Probably love it. Yeah,
of course, I still am so physical. I'm always using
my whole body in my hands and all of this,
and they always have to tell me not to move
around so much because I'm making too much. I love it. Um,
(34:14):
you know, my two favorites have been probably have been
bo Jack Courseman, where I got to be his mother
and they gave me such a great storyline and it
was so heartbreaking, and I mean, those guys are just geniuses.
And I'm doing one for Disney called The Owl House
and it's such a groundbreaking story. I play this fabulous
wish and she's got one snaggle tooth. She's just really fun.
(34:36):
She's like Rosalind Russell the Witch, but with the snaggle
tooth thing. But in it, the young girl who's the
sort of lead character who who goes down in the
down Under. It's kind of like Alice in Wonderland. She
goes through the rabbit hole and ends up in this
this other land, the Boiling Aisles, and wants to become
a witch. And I take her under my wing that
(34:56):
she becomes attracted. She's like thirteen, has a girlfriend and
kisses her. And I mean, young kids are so thrilled
that there are people who reflect right, young lesbians and
young witches and uh, and it sort of just gives
people a chance to see someone who maybe is kind
of like them out there, and it's been it's been
(35:18):
a culturally a very interesting thing for Disney to do. No,
I don't know if they're going to keep us in there,
but I think after what's going on at Disney World,
it would be a very good idea. Yeah, yeah, it's
very fun. And speaking of what you, I do the
same thing with my hands and my moving right stuff.
And when all you have is your voice, you realize
that you're using your face and you're just you know
(35:39):
when I run when I yeah, I mean it's that's
how you emote. Yes, you got to work with one
of the greats very recently, hot in Cleveland. I don't
mean me, by the way, Betty White, but Betty White. Um,
by the way. I'm sorry to interrupt my question to
(36:01):
say something else that this also occurs to me an
actor's dream three different shows that go over six seasons,
one seven, I mean, how well actually to be to
be fair, dream on I think was only five, but
we still got to a hundred and thirty shows or
whatever it was. I well, you know what's funny, and
(36:21):
this is from memory right here. I saw a hundred
and twenty and I and I think it's six because
I went what I did the reason I'm saying this,
and by the way, you should remember not me as
I was going it was twenty episodes a year like that.
That may be true because after yeah, after the first year,
because the first year we did like, you know, six
or ten or something, so probably after that we picked
(36:44):
up on it. But as a cable show, yeah, no,
that was I think they just realized they hit paid dirt.
They just went right, let's keep cramming these things for
sure right now. But to back to your question about Betty, Betty,
I will forever be great to have turned sixty on
that show. When she was turning ninety, that was such
(37:05):
a gift. And Jane and Val were both on the
verge of their fiftieth We all, you know, we were
so stunned that anybody wanted to do a show about
women of our age anyway, like to build it around
us and not just be the mom or the boss
or the whatever. Being with her. She had such a
total renaissance of her career, not that she ever stopped working,
(37:26):
but this was after Saturday Night Live and the Snicker's
commercial and to be around her and see what was
going on with this woman who was going to turn
nine the next year was such a revelation for all
of us. It was like, Wow, we're not done. My
next birthday will be the beginning of my third act.
And that was such a different way of framing how
(37:46):
I have gone forward since then to realize that, you know,
it's so much of it as your attitude and in
your head and if you you know, stay vital and
love what you do and leave it on them at
every time, and try to be to be a good
soldier and play with with others nicely, which I do
(38:07):
because I love sets, I love collaborating, I love being
on set with people, and I wanted to be enjoyable
for everybody. And I think when people show up and
they're prepared and they are happy to be there, there's
no reason why you can't have a blast and make
good stuff, you know. I just feel so blessed to
have this career and to still be doing it at
my age. But I I really credit Betty with my
(38:29):
having faith and uh and not freaking out about about
my age. She really was an enormous mentor in that
way to so many women everywhere. Yeah, and the experience also,
I mean I was there. I know you saw obviously
so much more. But what was so incredible to me
(38:50):
about watching her at ninety or whatever it was when
those cameras came on, she always found a way to yep, exactly, Yeah,
she came alot, came alot, and she was radiant, that woman.
There was something about her face and her eyes, but
she had those amazing dimples and her eyes just sparkled.
(39:12):
And when you look during all the tributes when she
died and you saw her, especially when she was around Alan,
who every time she talked about in her eyes with water,
and she just she was so madly in love with him.
They were so wild about each other, but she still
had it. And she was someone you just couldn't take
your eyes off. Is it off of You're not supposed
(39:33):
to end with enough, But for whom you could not
take off your was trying to help you, for whom
you could not take off your eyes. No, that doesn't
make sense. That's definitely you know what I'm saying. And
kind and generous, humble and now she just she she
was the real package and you could really see that.
(39:53):
Nobody ever had an unkind word to say about Betty
ever Is there anyone Hollywood that you would like to
work with? Is there is there any dream person out there?
So many? Yeah, I just but anybody who wants to
work with me, I'm here, yes, okay, I mean everyone
(40:20):
will know that now now now there, so so I
am available for work and yes, no, I have to say,
it's been really fun now playing the mother of grown
up people to know I'm a grandmother. There's something kind
of free about getting to this stage that maybe you
don't sweat the small stuff as much. He recently played
(40:41):
a d A in a movie and I thought, Okay,
this is where the challenging part is, when you have
to know that that kind of legally stuff and do
the final argument to the jury and on that ship right,
so that stuff in the medical stuff. It's always been
a little tricky for me. But I do love still
just jumping in of a bunch of people and seeing
(41:02):
seeing how good we can make it. I recently did
a movie in Hawaii that I produced on and so
I'm helping with editing, which is really fun. It's like
a whole different hat to wear. And helped with casting it.
And the premise was they never found Amelia Earhart's body.
So what if she survived that crash and went and
lived under an assumed name in Hawaii and it is
(41:23):
now the eve of her eightieth birthday? Okay, and you're
editing it now. Yeah. And I got to play Amelia,
so that was pretty interesting. And that's like a different
hat to wear, which I love. And I'm also writing.
So I wrote a short play that got produced and published,
and so it's kind of like, what's the worst thing
(41:43):
that can happen? You can fall on your face, but
trying new stuff when you're in your third act. I
highly recommend it. It keeps things very interesting and then
you have an alternative. You know, things slow down in
one area you can kind of plug into another one. Yeah.
Have you directed? I have to acted readings, but never
any long form of anything. No desire. Possibly possibly, I
(42:07):
think perhaps something that I write. Like I wanted to
direct the play that I wrote, but I was working
here and couldn't and it was on the East Coast.
So yeah, I could see directing something of my own,
but I don't think I would direct an act in something. Okay,
well you did when you were a kid, I did well,
and who knows, Maybe I'll get there again and just
think I can do everything. I'll write it, i'll direct it,
i'll shoot it, I'll do it all. But that idea
(42:31):
of collaboration, to me is one of the most desirable
aspects of working because I have no intention of retiring
because I like what I do too much. I like
I have no interest in doing on one woman show
because I wouldn't know who to debrief with at the
end of the night. You know, who do you say,
see on the ice too? Um, that's just that's not
(42:51):
why I do this. Yeah, you know I've done three Really,
were any of them women? Any of them women? You
were going to say that. I knew you were gonna
say that. No One. One though, was an hour and
forty five minutes in with an Irish accent, and I
don't really do accents, by the way, So that went well.
(43:14):
It was a lot of work. It's interesting that you
say that, because I found it really, really difficult. Now,
I had close collaborations with the directors and even designers
on some of that, but it's not the same. And
I think in our business, well, especially in comedy, I
think that collaboration that give and take, that even if
(43:35):
it's not straight improv is yeah. Yeah. And then even
in the doing of it, particularly in live theater, the
tennis game you play with each other, and how you
can bail each other out of trouble and surprise each other,
there's just it's it's that's so delicious, and that's something
I wouldn't I wouldn't want to trade. You've talked about
(43:55):
it a little bit. You have a lot of animals.
You love animals. I've heard that it was written that
you said that was horrible sentence, that you wanted to
be a vet if you weren't an actor. You've done
advocacy work with Humane Society and other animal organizations. What
sparked this love or interest? Is this life long or
(44:16):
is this oh? Yeah? Yeah. My older sister growing up
was a colleague Bonnie. Yeah, she was my first best friend.
You know, I have always preferred the company of animals
to people pretty much, uh more consistently. You know, I
love I love. I love people too, but they are
much easier to love and they forgive you everything and
(44:39):
know they're my crew. And I feel this is such
a gift that I got to end up living on
a ranch and I get to live with animals. No,
they're they're my my best needs for sure. And it's
interesting because my I probably would have gone into veterinary medicine,
but I sucked it science and I also love theater,
(44:59):
so I had, okay, theater science, and Matthew, you can't
three science, and that we'll have to go this way.
So it was it was by necessity. But my daughter
is Um had started out being an aspiring thespian was
pretty good, and she's now in college at bart and
she's pre med and going to be a vet and
equine vet. She's been riding was five years old. But yeah,
(45:21):
she said, you know, I was thinking about it, and
I know how lucky you feel you are that you
get to work at the thing you love. But I've
also seen your friends who get so frustrated because they
just don't have enough to make a living. And I
think I would be so depressed if that were me,
she said. But the other thing I love is animals,
and there is a real need for equine vets. You know,
(45:44):
there are a lot of small animal vets. But she's
worked every summer and a return to Freedom of Horse
Saint Wild Horse Sanctuary and really gotten her feet wet.
She's like fold little horses, and she stuck her hand
into wounds and cleaned them out and she doesn't have
any problem with that. And she she said, I want
to do this. So she's now immersed in science and
(46:05):
math and looking at a long road ahead. But it's
so great that she figured out that where she belongs.
Would you do that? Stick your hand up there, and yeah,
oh yeah, I'm I'm pretty I'm pretty fearless when it
comes to I will touch all things animal. They don't
gross me out at all. It's so different from people. Okay,
I want to leave that one alone. Um, congratulations on
(46:28):
all the projects you have coming up. I cannot imagine
you as an eighty year old Amelia Earhart, but I'm
going to watch it. Nonetheless, I actually kind of seld it.
I think, yeah, imagine me with white eyebrows, blue eyes,
white hair, a few age spots. But I didn't need
too much. All I had to do is look down
(46:49):
a lot net. I was amazing how little it took
a little it took um truly, Wendy, thank you so much.
It it is not a line, It is not bs.
You just make me laugh. It's really It's truely, it's
as simple as that. And even though I forgot that
(47:09):
we worked together before HUT in Cleveland, I think I
was just too nervous that I thank you for coming
and talking to me. I know, Brian, you make me
laugh too, so it's mutual. There you go, all right,
Wendy Malick, thank you. You're welcome. You know, Wendy, it
(47:37):
was an absolute pleasure having you on the podcast. In
case you can't tell, I'm a big fan. I cannot
tell you how much this conversation has meant to me.
You are, in fact, one of the great ones. To
the rest of you, well, you're great too, and I
will see you next week for another episode of Off
the Beat. In the meantime, like subscribe, I follow at
(48:01):
Off the Beat. You know the drone. All right, we'll
talk to you soon. Off the Beat is hosted an
executive produced by me Brian Baumgartner, alongside our executive producer
Lang Lee. Our producers are Diego Tapia, Liz Hayes, Emily Carr,
(48:23):
and Hannah Harris. Our talent producer is Ryan Papa Zachary.
Our theme song Bubble and Squeak, performed by my great
friend Creed Bratton, and the episode was mixed by seth Olandski.
People just often cast me as a lawyer, doctor divorce
or a murderer. You know, I killed the bunch of
husbands one year, and I'm various. I've heard three three,
three husbands in one year, because you know, it's all
in there. We all have all this stuff. It's just
tapping into it and making it real large and then
(00:21):
there you are. I mean, who hasn't been piste off
by the husband or there was at some point. Hi,
I'm Wendy Alec and I've been on television for seventy
five years. Hello, Hello, and welcome everybody back to Off
(00:45):
the Beat. I am once again your host, Brian Baumgartner.
Today is a good day. I mean I could be
described as giddy in fact, because today Wendy Malick is
joining me on the podcast. In truth, don't tell anybody else.
She's one of my favorites. She has had quite the career.
(01:08):
She worked as a model and also briefly in politics
before even starting to act. And speaking of acting her
acting career, incredible does not even begin to describe it.
Wendy has quite the range. She has worked on everything
from sitcom's like Frasier two, animated projects like bo Jack
Horseman and the Emperor's New Groove, and how rare is this?
(01:31):
Wendy has appeared in not one, not two, but three
television series that ran for at least six seasons, the
groundbreaking HBO comedy Dream On Hot in Cleveland with Betty
White and not the Awards Are Everything, but Wendy was
nominated for two Emmy's and a Golden Globe for her role.
(01:51):
Unjust shoot me. Honestly, this entire podcast could be devoted
to just listing her accomplishments. But I do want you
to actually hear from Wendy, so I won't do that,
at least not this time. With that, please welcome my
friend and two time co star, the legendary Wendy Malick.
(02:17):
Bubble and Squeak I love it, Bubble and Squeak, Bubble
and Squeaker Cookie every month left over from the Nut People. Hello,
(02:42):
how are you? I'm good? How are you? I mean,
I'm so spectacular now that I'm talking to you. I
don't think that you realize this. I've started doing this
podcast specifically so that I can talk to you. How
many times I've just said that? I have said that
exactly zero od times? Well, it's it sure is. It's
sure is a pain in the ask to get on
(03:04):
your stupid Google thing. This is not made for people
over sixty, I have to tell you. It's also not
made for me either, But I luckily had a tons
of did you start did you start doing this? During
COVID Steve, you stay here, stay here, stay Sorry, I
have dogs. There may be noise. I can't control this,
so no, that's totally I hear you have a zonkey
(03:26):
or a donkey, a miniature donkey, miniature donkey. Uh. We
have three horses now down to three. Yeah, three horses,
one minuature donkey and two dogs. Used to be eight
of them, but now it's the horri of attrition. We're
all getting older, so as they go, we don't replace
them as much as we used to. Does the miniature
donkey does it like? Does it walk through your house?
(03:48):
Oh no, no no no. He stays down in his stable,
but he will put his head on your shoulder and
lift his little leg up and try to sit on
your lap. And I have friends who come over just
for that experience because it's it's pretty pretty fabulous. That's awesome. Yeah,
he looks like Shrek. He looks like the Shrek Donkey.
(04:08):
He looks like Donky. Yeah he does. He talks like
Eddie Murphy though he doesn't talk, but he he speaks
to you with his eyes. That's that's Phoebe in the background.
L L Yeah, yeah, good girl, good baby. Um. When
I was going back and I was, I was researching you.
And I'm not expecting you to remember, by the way,
because I was reminded, do you know that we've worked
(04:31):
together twice on two different shows? You're never going to
get it were No, I wasn't on dream On. I
wasn't lucky enough to be in dream On. I was
on kind of my first significant um like kind of
lead guest star roles. It aired like maybe the week
that The Office started was actually aired, but now we
(04:53):
had shot The Office like a year before. Jake in Progress.
You were on Jakin Progress. That was the strangest show.
It was a very odd show, but but it had
its moments. There was some interesting time. I didn't have
much to do with you. I was Julie Bowen's high
(05:15):
school college boyfriend. Wow was Julie Moan on that crazy?
It's so crazy? At this point, how many like short
lived shows we've done and you kind of they kind
of blurred together after a while. Yeah, I've ended up
working with around a bunch of different things over the years,
but always a pleasure to see you. Even remember you
(05:38):
being on that show? Well I didn't. I didn't fully either, Okay,
So I want to go I want to go back.
I want to go back back. You grew up in
or around Buffalo, right, like Niagara Falls ish Well, I
mean Diagara Falls is not too far, but a suburb
of Buffalo Williamson, Okay. And it's Mike Michael o'doonnni who
once said, um, you know, you can take the girl
(06:00):
out of Buffalo, but you can never take Buffalo out
of the girl. And I know where that is a
badge of honor because people from Buffalo are very tough
but friendly, and they drink well and they make the
most out of difficult situations. They're survivors. Well you have
to be, Yeah, you do, you do. It's a very
(06:21):
hard place to live, and it doesn't have all of
the cultural advantages of Chicago, but you have the same
kind of weather, which is very challenging. But I have
to say, every time I go back, I'm reminded of
how much I like those people that I came from,
even though I wanted to get out really early. Honestly, Okay,
this town is way too small for me. I gotta go.
(06:41):
When did you leave? Did you leave early? I mean
after high school. I only went back summers, but my
parents lived there throughout. My dad died in the spring
at a hundred and one. My mom is still alive,
and she'll be ninety three this summer, and she's there,
so I go. We go back and not rent this
little farmhouse um every other month and go see her,
and I see old friends from high school and my youth.
(07:04):
So you're back, You're back quite a bit? Then, Yeah, Yeah,
I've been. I've been back quite a bit, particularly these
last few years as my parents have gotten older. Yeah.
But I used to go back every summer, and we
had a wonderful cottage on like Gary on the Canadian side,
and uh, it's beautiful. I mean, you know, it's crazy people.
It's always like, okay, hit me with your best shot.
When you say here from Buffalo. It's like, just go ahead,
(07:27):
have your way with me. But in fact, it's quite
a wonderful place to grow up. When did you get
the bug or get an idea that you want to pursue?
I was pretty young. Yeah. My my grandmother was an
opera singer before she had kids. We have a rather
they're quite an undergening family. But they always they had
(07:49):
like the musical comedy albums of everything, and I would
act out and dance and sing all of them whenever
I could, And on the walking down the beach, I
used to pretend I had an orchestra behind me. When
i'd go on vacation with my family, I would pretend
I was from another country and I didn't know them,
and then I'd called me over and then my whole
(08:09):
cover would be blown. But I think I wanted a
more glamorous life than I had, so I invented it. Right.
Did you do like theater in high school? Or oh? Yeah?
And then I and if it wasn't, I didn't have
enough to do at school, then I just made up
place and I directed them and put myself with all
the neighborhood kids and made my younger sister and brother
(08:30):
probably carry lights or have a minor role. Yeah, you
were always a star. I was the eldest, and I
kind of yeah, I kind of directed things, and as
they say, I still tend to do that, but they're horror. Okay,
this is what we're gonna do. Uh. You started professionally
(08:52):
modeling first, Is that right? Yeah? My mother was a
model in New York before she got married. She went
off and lived at the Barbazone for women, and dad
went and said, no, please come back and marry me
and let's have babies. And she did. But she modeled
just sort of part time as we were growing up,
and dragged me along and I thought, oh, this is
(09:14):
pretty fun. And I got on a team word at
one of the at one of our department stores, and
it was great. That's how I could afford to buy
my own clothes and save some money. And so it
wasn't until years later when I was in New York
making seventy five a week doing dinner theater at Club
Banet in New Jersey, and someone approached me in the
tickets line and Times Square instead, Have you ever modeled?
(09:37):
I said, yes, this a matter of fact, in high
school in Buffalo, in glamorous Buffalo, I did. They said,
I think you'd be right for will Almina. You should
come see her. And I went and visited with her,
and she said, yeah, you belong here. You just have
to practice not smiling crooked, and don't ever tell anybody
that you're twenty five, because it's way too old to start.
(09:59):
So I I spent the next five years pretty much
traveling the world. It was just the best way to
see the world. Lived in Paris, went to the Orient,
worked in Africa. I mean it was really this was like,
you know, this late seventies, and it was It was
a great time. It was entertaining, It was a very
very excellent time. Yes, I don't remember sleeping very much,
(10:22):
and a lot of wine was drunk, for sure. But
I just I'm a good clothes horse. So I got
to do all of the collections and then they'd send
me off to some beach somewhere to get tan real
fast and do editorial stuff and great fun. Now I
have to I have to ask you. I'm assuming this
is before this you were working for Jack Kemp. You
(10:48):
worked for this, this was what in your early twenties.
I was no, this is right after college. Well, yeah,
I guess I was saying. It was like and he
we used to to ski with his family. He was
our congressman, and my dad was a supporter of his,
and we were off skiing with them one time and
he said, listen, when you get out of out of college,
if you want to come and just see what DC
(11:10):
is like, let me know and you can come and intern.
And I thought, what a great opportunity. And it was
during Watergate, so it was just a really exciting and
crazy time to be in d C. It was I'm
really glad I had the experience that they did. It
very clear that I did not want to be in politics,
but I got to see it from the inside. It
was pretty pretty cool. And he was very tolerant of
(11:32):
the fact that I was wearing a George McGovern button
and OK, but every day that would be like a
new scandal and another shoe would drop, and it was
it was pretty thrilling. Wow, how was that working then
for a Republican senator or congressman during Watergate? That's that's crazy. Yeah.
(11:55):
When I was there, you know, it was sort of
astonishing how quickly the whole thing unrabbled. But there was
such momentum to like do the right thing on both sides,
and that was when people stayed in DC for the
weekends and they actually socialized together. Now everybody goes home
in fundraises, but that was when they would work out
deals and say, I'll help you with your bill, you
(12:17):
help me with mine. And it worked. It actually really
functioned in a strange way. And Jack was he was
very moderate. He was really much more towards the center
and had good friends on both sides. He would sort
of not only did I have to stuff envelopes in
the basement, which is like the most boring thing, but
he'd sent me to take notes when they were merging
(12:37):
the a f C and the NFC to form the NFL,
so I got to go and sit in on these
Senate hearings. That was really fun. And he'd take me
to lunch in the Congressional dining room and introduced me
to people. And he got a kick out of the
fact that I was wearing this McGovern button every day
to work to show how tolerant he was. But he
was one of the good guys, he really was. Um.
I admired people on both sides of the aisle. I
(12:59):
thought it was so there was an interesting group there.
It was particularly interesting to see all the young interns
working in all the offices and on Friday nights they
dimmed the lights and dance to Motown. It's like, wow,
that's awesome, what an incredible experience to have. It was,
it was it's all fudder, you know, it's all a fudder.
(13:22):
It's like, I always feel like one of the hardest
things if you were an actor, if you became too
famous to be a people watcher, if you can spy
on other people and steal from them, you know, I mean,
you get some great stuff just from being in the room,
if you're able to sort of candidly observe the characters
around you. And I have a big file now, no,
(13:44):
I'm sure. Okay, so you go, you have this incredible
modeling career you're but pretending to be one or yeah,
so what brings you into acting? From that light? Started
out as an act just when I went to New York,
that was the whole plan. But but but then you're
only that just wasn't feeding the old travel bucket or
(14:08):
buying me close, for getting me a decent apartment. So um,
I decided I'll take this five years and just do
this for a while. And I did, in fact, and
came back and and got my first job. It was
on a soap opera and I was nurse Jones. It
was so boring, I can't even tell you. But um,
that was my entry back into television and movies and
(14:29):
and then slowly I was really really I'm a very
late bloomer. I mean I never did dream on until
I turned forty. And that was really my sort of
entree into comedy, which kind of gave me my career. Right,
So you you weren't really specifically interested in comedy. Oh
I love comedy, No, I love it. But I just
was tall and brune. But in the beginning, yeah, yeah,
(14:50):
and um, and people just often cast me as a lawyer,
a doctor divorce, or a murderer. You know, I killed
the bunch of husbands one year, and various I've heard
three three you killed three husbands in one year, because
you know, it's all in there. We all have all
this stuff. It's just tapping into it and making it
(15:11):
real large and then there you are. I mean, who
hasn't been piste off by their husband or there was
at some point. That's so funny. I was thinking about
that you you killed three husbands in one year. This
is not a joke. This is back in my theater day.
In one year, I played three women totally different projects.
Totally because if you're highly developed, Feminine said, actually, it's
(15:34):
because you have such beautiful skin. They figured they can
throw out some hair on you and it's a dundee. Yes.
So nineteen ninety Yes, Judith Tupper on dream On, this
is an innovative People don't realize. I think now like
changes the whole dynamic of television. I mean, it's HBO's
(15:54):
first comedy series. Well there had been. There had been
I think first in ten or something else that didn't
really you know, it just didn't really connect. But this
one was so innovative and so fresh. Although hardly anybody
had HBO at the time, but everybody in our business did,
so people noticed it, but it was still very under
the radar. And I'm so sorry that they sold it
(16:16):
to Fox because Fox tried to air it on a
network and they had to take all the sex and
the swearing out of it and put commercials in there
and a laugh track, which was the kiss of death.
It was because it was such a brilliant, innovative show,
and so many shows borrowed from it after that. But
when that aired with Larry Sanders. That kind of I
(16:36):
think put HBO on the map for original programming. That
was their first really big like wow, they brought something
completely fresh to the dance. Yeah, I mean both of
those two shows at the time. I mean aesthetically in
terms of the comedy. I mean also just a comedy
that had like you said, like sex was sort of inappropriate,
(16:58):
dark and completely a grew to us. They take no
bones about it. It was just like, you know, the
neighbor would show up to braw sugar naked except for
like a scuba mask and flippers. Was like what. But
it was such a genius use of of all those
clips at the Universal Oaned, you know, Martyr Coffin and
(17:19):
David Crane figured out a way to use those that
nobody had quite done before, and it was genius and
we had the most amazing guests. I mean, over the years,
everybody wanted to come play on that show. And we
shot it in a warehouse in Sun Valley that you
could hear gunshots tonight, and it wasn't it wasn't sound proof,
so every time it would hail or rain hard, we
(17:40):
just have to have to loop the entire scene. Really
it was just crazy. Yeah. Yeah, And we used to
shoot it in three days, and then they expanded to
four and finally to five because I think Brian Benmam
was going to have a nervous breakdown if they pushed
him any harder. But it was a real gift to
all of us. Yeah, you've said that it changed your life.
What Oh? Yeah, because it got you into comedy. Yeah,
(18:02):
I know. I was the straight man for him the
first couple of episodes, and then they sort of found
out that I was funny and decided to make my
character not the together psychologist, but she's actually way more
erotic than anybody else in the whole shows. And you
started to see the little fractures in her, in her personality,
and and that just makes it so much more fun
(18:22):
to play. I had a blast with that. I read something.
(18:45):
I did not know this, and I feel like I
know everything about you, having having been obsessed with me
for all these years, having created a podcast just so
that we can do this. You go, you go listen
to the openings. I've never said that for I read
that you audition for Diane Cheery. Okay, was this is like?
(19:07):
Did you come close? I don't know. I didn't get it,
so that's the endgame. I also got it. Had a
screen test with George Lucas and Steven Spielberg for for
Um Grace and Raiders of the Lost Dark, Yes, in
their hotel room, and I guess Stephen had seen me
in an Excedrin commercial and that's how he used to
find unknown actresses and had me come in and I
(19:29):
chatted with them and they thought it was great and
said come back and we'll put you. We'll give you
a screen test next week. And I came back and
it was anyway, it's a long story, but anyway, clearly
I didn't get that one either, which really pissed me off.
But I did a terrible audition, which I was unprepared for.
But that's a whole other story, and I don't like
to look back in anger, right right. Did you have
(19:52):
many auditioned meetings in hotel rooms. I've had one. Um,
you know, they used to do that, and these guys
were fine. They weren't creepy at all, it was they
really weren't. They were lovely and they have big suite,
which is where they does sound. Really they probably wouldn't
do it now because it just just could be accused
of something. But they were lovely. Okay. Yeah, I don't
(20:13):
know how many I've had in her I don't think
a lot, but certainly in the eighties that happened more often.
I think that was that was a leftover from the
old days and without the extra Yeah. Yeah, so this
starts a relationship with you. By the way, dream on.
I know, I'm skipping Cheers, but you end up going
to work on Fraser Um hilarious and memorable. SERI you
(20:40):
did ten twelve episodes or something, right, Yeah, I was
in the last season. It was after Just Shoot Me Wrapped,
and I had some friends who are writers on that show,
and they said can she sing? And I said, you know,
not very well and they said, that's actually perfect if
you're not that good. So I found the perfect wig
and uh and went in and I remember the day
(21:02):
I went in and met with all the writers there,
and it just felt like one of those things that
was meant to be. It was so much fun and
he was so delightful. I have to say, John John
Mahoney was so yummy. He's he's such a fine actor,
but he also was an incredible singer, dancer, and we
got to do a whole dream sequence of buzzby Berkeley
(21:23):
like dance thing and for our wedding. It was just
it was such a gift and they all were so gracious,
And of course then Jane and I ended up being
together on hot in Cleveland. After that, I said, good,
I said, I used to be your mother in law,
now in your roommate. Uh, well, I have to I
(21:45):
have to ask you first about just shoot me to
me one of my favorite female performances in all of comedy.
And I mean that sincerely, Nina van Horne. What's your
process for creating character? How do you approach that? Is
it all about the writing or talk to me a
little bit about But I mean that's you know, that's
(22:06):
the map. And if you have a great map to
uh finding out what makes her tick, that's such a
You got most of it right there. And Steve Levitan
said when I met with him, he said, I was
looking for a Wendy Mallec type, you know, someone who
you could believe had been a model and just has
a great sense of comedy and comedic timing said, And
(22:27):
then I realized maybe we should just get and he said,
and you know, and she's sort of kicking and screaming
her way into turning fifty. And you know, I just
so loved this character from the first time I read
the pilot, and I thought, this is a woman who
has so many parallels to my own life, except that
I'm moderate and she's not. I can't tell you how
(22:49):
many people have come to me over the years and said,
oh my gosh, I'm so much like Nina. You have
no idea, And I said, well, then you need to
get into rehab immediately, because there's no way that woman
would have still been a lot today that my husband
often described her as an idiot savant. She had great style,
excellent style. You know, she just acted like it was
(23:12):
five forever and really didn't get that you have to
sort of change with the times and that you can't
get away with murder like forever. Right. I mean, I
think that's the genesis of my question here, here's how
I view that character. And I think that there are
certainly elements in your other work, but what what I
(23:33):
felt like you were so genius at and found something
so specifically different than anybody else that I've ever seen before,
where it was high status but an idiot, right like
that like of like embracing that high status cy I
do the opposite, right, I'm just an idiot. It's just
(23:54):
it's just trance apparently an idiot, and try to find
a love ability within that idiocy, which you you very well,
you're a love pidious. Well, thank you, thank you. I
hope that was saying you know, there is there is that.
I think what you're getting at is there's just enough
of overlap between Nina and me and having had some
(24:17):
very similar situations and the circumstances and experience over the years,
that I could tap into my own experience of all
that and then think, what if you had absolutely no
filters and unapologize and no and no compass and you
were really still having a good time and not concerned
about any of that, that it's still kind of working
(24:37):
for you, and so you just sort of don't see
the problem, and living like you lived twenty thirty years ago,
you're just going to keep doing it until you probably dropped.
But there was just something about that chemistry with those
five people that I always tell people people when they've
asked me, why do you think that one really worked?
And we are still such good friends after all this time,
(24:59):
and was so hard to lose George last year, who
was like the anchor of all of it. Um. But
I think it was one of those great things that
you never know if you have it until you're all
in the room together, like you had with the Office.
It's like everyone occupies a different place in this universe,
but all the planets makes sense, and you can believe
they belong in the same universe, but they're all totally specific.
(25:21):
Nobody overlaps each other. Really, it's kind of you all
have your own space, and you all make each other
better and more interesting, and each relationship is its own
unique relationship. Right. I had this conversation a year or
so ago with Kevin Riley, actually, who I don't know
if you know what. He was happy. I know him
very well and we were on board together for ages
(25:42):
two and he was with NBC all those years. Yes,
and I love him. I think he's so so smart.
And he talked about the history of workplace comedies, right,
And part of the conversation about the Office was people
were saying which I'm sure was similar to at least
dream On back when you started with, which was like
(26:03):
this is so different this is weird, and the cameras moving,
and what he said to me was, he goes, I
don't understand what people are talking about. It's a workplace comedy,
which has been a staple on television forever. And I
think there are shows like Just Shoot Me. I mean,
Mary Tyler Moore sort of started the whole thing where
it just follows in the succession. And the thing that
is what you just said, which is what all of
(26:26):
those shows share, is an ensemble of characters that fit
together perfectly, or at least try to fit together perfectly.
All have sort of a different you know, well you
high status idiot or whatever, like all the characters that
sort of fit together that bring that sort of special ensemble, yeah,
and provide and provide conflict. It's it's like just a
(26:47):
mini it's a many world that you create where there
are people who are going to rub up against each
other and and you know, be attracted to each other
and drive each other insane. And yeah, it's it's like
that little microcons them and so many of them. Taxi
was another one that just worked so beautifully and over
the years, and I think, you know, at first, I
really was sort of taken aback doing a single camera comedy.
(27:10):
I thought, what are we going to miss not having
the audience doing that? But then something else is allowed
to happen when you move into single camera stuff. I
missed the audience leaving that, but I also appreciate that
you can allow for much more nuanced I think that
was one of the great things about Frasier is that
they often ended a scene where you were left feeling
(27:33):
a little unsure of what was going on. And it
wasn't always you know, leaving you on a high note
on a joke. Sometimes you just have to sit with
it and sort of, yeah, what when did you realize
that it was going to be the massive success that
it was? Was it early on? Did it catch on
pretty quickly? Just shoot me? Um? Yeah, that happened pretty fast.
(27:57):
We were kind of we kind of were in the
top ten there for a while, and then they kept
moving us around at different timeslots, and eventually it kind
of ruined it. But um, and I have to say,
like so many shows that go on for that long,
we had seven seasons, and some seasons were stronger than others.
You know, there were times where I felt like it
became more of a sophomoric kind of you know, that
(28:18):
going for the low hanging fruit, the sex jokes, which
you know are fun, but after a while you want
something a little deeper. But there were seasons where it
was just some of my favorite stuff. I mean, the
two I think of always for me were when they
did the A and E biography of Nina van Horne,
which was what a present for an actor to have.
(28:39):
For some of you have built your whole bible. This
is where you come from. You were an orphan. You
were first discovered by this guy from New York in
the middle of Arkansas or something, and they put you
on a seed catalog thing, and that opened up your
modeling career. I mean, the whole thing was so completely outrageous,
but we had everybody in that. It was just it
was so much fun. And Eileen Cohn and her husband
(29:03):
wrote the one where it was a word of the
day calendar, and David Spade and Rico Colin Toni their
characters decided to give me a fake sort of word
of the day. So I just made up these words
that were complete gobbledy book and went on like NPR
and started talking to a feminist and being a real
show off about it, and I completely and Larry Miller
(29:25):
was the host and he fell madly in love with
me and allowed me to just carry on with all
this gobbledy book that meant nothing, but it was such
a smart, wonderful script, and I that kind of stuff
made me so happy. Yeah, would you say that comedy
is your favorite thing to do? Now? It's pretty damn
fun when the writing is great, I have to say,
(29:46):
but I love it all. I love things where you
get to bring it all to the dance. And that's
one of the things in talking about, you know, moving
to single camera that you get a chance to bring
in a lot more colors. I think, although really good
situation comedies even multi camps a lot of times. I
remember the first time I realized that was I think
(30:07):
watching a taxi episode and I thought, oh my god.
In twenty two minutes, this show has almost brought me
to tears. It touched me so and made me laugh
out loud. And that's an extraordinary feat with commercials, so
you know, and now and now, how network is competing
with cable is almost impossible. I mean, if you have
(30:29):
a breakout show, it's pretty crazy. I'm the principal on
Young Sheldon, which is doing very well, but it's one
of the few sort of and that again as single camera.
But but I think when you have to compete with
with shows they can do like twelve a year, and
I work on some of those, and they really get
to fine tune and hone them more and you don't
have to deal with the commercials and you can watch
(30:51):
whatever you want to and you know it. Certainly, I
think in a lot of ways, they've been a gift
to us. But it's just changing the way it used
to be when you stand around the water cooler, if
anybody actually did that and talked about what you saw
the night before, I think those days are over. No,
I think so too, because honestly, I really think that
(31:11):
sports is the only thing that does that anymore. Seems
to be the only thing that people watch live. And
that's the difference. As you can talk about squid game
or you know. But it's all sort of gradual. I
haven't seen it yet, don't. Oh, I'm on episode two.
I'm you know, so you can't. You can't sort of
engage in the same way. It's like, oh, last night
at nine o'clock, we were all watching right to shoot
(31:33):
me or whatever. Yeah, yeah, yeah, And in a way
I'm sorry about that because as we have become more
homebodies in the last two years too and not going
you know, I was thinking about we went back to
Disney Hall when they reopened this season, and I just
was so thrilled to be in that hall with all
those people sharing that glorious music. And I was just
(31:54):
at the Ammonds and the other night and and the
same thing of those shared experiences of our culture and
things that make us laugh, that inspire us, that bring
us to tears. All of that that shared humanity is
something that we are so lacking, and I think it's
it's part of how we got to where we are
right now, with this kind of lack of common purpose
(32:15):
and of all being in it together. You know, we
we physically haven't been in it together for so long. Yeah. No,
you're absolutely right, And it's not just you know, it's
not I mean, you bring up live performance events, certainly
there's that, but even the experience of going to a
movie on Saturday night and you're sitting with a hundred
(32:36):
other people and you're laughing or you're you know, yeah,
that sort of communal experience. Somebody tell me, and I'm
not sure who this was, and maybe it's not even true,
but I love the idea of it. But someone said
they had researched this and done some some experiments, and
they found that in live theater, the audience can get
(32:56):
caught up in it and after a certain period of time.
Maybe it's in a drama, I don't know, maybe it's
across the board. They actually their heartbeats get in sink
because you are kind of breathing at the same time,
and you hear that that sort of community or laugh
or whatever it is, but that it's like girls who
are roommates get their period at the same time. But
(33:16):
there's something about that. Whatever yourself, you're aware of it.
Three times you were you were in okay, yeah, sorry, okay,
I'm now I'm going to get in trouble. You're also
(33:54):
doing a ton of voiceover work. I have been doing
more of that the last few years. Enjoy that, the
experience of creating a character that way. Probably love it. Yeah,
of course, I still am so physical. I'm always using
my whole body in my hands and all of this,
and they always have to tell me not to move
around so much because I'm making too much. I love it. Um,
(34:14):
you know, my two favorites have been probably have been
bo Jack Courseman, where I got to be his mother
and they gave me such a great storyline and it
was so heartbreaking, and I mean, those guys are just geniuses.
And I'm doing one for Disney called The Owl House
and it's such a groundbreaking story. I play this fabulous
wish and she's got one snaggle tooth. She's just really fun.
(34:36):
She's like Rosalind Russell the Witch, but with the snaggle
tooth thing. But in it, the young girl who's the
sort of lead character who who goes down in the
down Under. It's kind of like Alice in Wonderland. She
goes through the rabbit hole and ends up in this
this other land, the Boiling Aisles, and wants to become
a witch. And I take her under my wing that
(34:56):
she becomes attracted. She's like thirteen, has a girlfriend and
kisses her. And I mean, young kids are so thrilled
that there are people who reflect right, young lesbians and
young witches and uh, and it sort of just gives
people a chance to see someone who maybe is kind
of like them out there, and it's been it's been
(35:18):
a culturally a very interesting thing for Disney to do. No,
I don't know if they're going to keep us in there,
but I think after what's going on at Disney World,
it would be a very good idea. Yeah, yeah, it's
very fun. And speaking of what you, I do the
same thing with my hands and my moving right stuff.
And when all you have is your voice, you realize
that you're using your face and you're just you know
(35:39):
when I run when I yeah, I mean it's that's
how you emote. Yes, you got to work with one
of the greats very recently, hot in Cleveland. I don't
mean me, by the way, Betty White, but Betty White. Um,
by the way. I'm sorry to interrupt my question to
(36:01):
say something else that this also occurs to me an
actor's dream three different shows that go over six seasons,
one seven, I mean, how well actually to be to
be fair, dream on I think was only five, but
we still got to a hundred and thirty shows or
whatever it was. I well, you know what's funny, and
(36:21):
this is from memory right here. I saw a hundred
and twenty and I and I think it's six because
I went what I did the reason I'm saying this,
and by the way, you should remember not me as
I was going it was twenty episodes a year like that.
That may be true because after yeah, after the first year,
because the first year we did like, you know, six
or ten or something, so probably after that we picked
(36:44):
up on it. But as a cable show, yeah, no,
that was I think they just realized they hit paid dirt.
They just went right, let's keep cramming these things for
sure right now. But to back to your question about Betty, Betty,
I will forever be great to have turned sixty on
that show. When she was turning ninety, that was such
(37:05):
a gift. And Jane and Val were both on the
verge of their fiftieth We all, you know, we were
so stunned that anybody wanted to do a show about
women of our age anyway, like to build it around
us and not just be the mom or the boss
or the whatever. Being with her. She had such a
total renaissance of her career, not that she ever stopped working,
(37:26):
but this was after Saturday Night Live and the Snicker's
commercial and to be around her and see what was
going on with this woman who was going to turn
nine the next year was such a revelation for all
of us. It was like, Wow, we're not done. My
next birthday will be the beginning of my third act.
And that was such a different way of framing how
(37:46):
I have gone forward since then to realize that, you know,
it's so much of it as your attitude and in
your head and if you you know, stay vital and
love what you do and leave it on them at
every time, and try to be to be a good
soldier and play with with others nicely, which I do
(38:07):
because I love sets, I love collaborating, I love being
on set with people, and I wanted to be enjoyable
for everybody. And I think when people show up and
they're prepared and they are happy to be there, there's
no reason why you can't have a blast and make
good stuff, you know. I just feel so blessed to
have this career and to still be doing it at
my age. But I I really credit Betty with my
(38:29):
having faith and uh and not freaking out about about
my age. She really was an enormous mentor in that
way to so many women everywhere. Yeah, and the experience also,
I mean I was there. I know you saw obviously
so much more. But what was so incredible to me
(38:50):
about watching her at ninety or whatever it was when
those cameras came on, she always found a way to yep, exactly, Yeah,
she came alot, came alot, and she was radiant, that woman.
There was something about her face and her eyes, but
she had those amazing dimples and her eyes just sparkled.
(39:12):
And when you look during all the tributes when she
died and you saw her, especially when she was around Alan,
who every time she talked about in her eyes with water,
and she just she was so madly in love with him.
They were so wild about each other, but she still
had it. And she was someone you just couldn't take
your eyes off. Is it off of You're not supposed
(39:33):
to end with enough, But for whom you could not
take off your was trying to help you, for whom
you could not take off your eyes. No, that doesn't
make sense. That's definitely you know what I'm saying. And
kind and generous, humble and now she just she she
was the real package and you could really see that.
(39:53):
Nobody ever had an unkind word to say about Betty
ever Is there anyone Hollywood that you would like to
work with? Is there is there any dream person out there?
So many? Yeah, I just but anybody who wants to
work with me, I'm here, yes, okay, I mean everyone
(40:20):
will know that now now now there, so so I
am available for work and yes, no, I have to say,
it's been really fun now playing the mother of grown
up people to know I'm a grandmother. There's something kind
of free about getting to this stage that maybe you
don't sweat the small stuff as much. He recently played
(40:41):
a d A in a movie and I thought, Okay,
this is where the challenging part is, when you have
to know that that kind of legally stuff and do
the final argument to the jury and on that ship right,
so that stuff in the medical stuff. It's always been
a little tricky for me. But I do love still
just jumping in of a bunch of people and seeing
(41:02):
seeing how good we can make it. I recently did
a movie in Hawaii that I produced on and so
I'm helping with editing, which is really fun. It's like
a whole different hat to wear. And helped with casting it.
And the premise was they never found Amelia Earhart's body.
So what if she survived that crash and went and
lived under an assumed name in Hawaii and it is
(41:23):
now the eve of her eightieth birthday? Okay, and you're
editing it now. Yeah. And I got to play Amelia,
so that was pretty interesting. And that's like a different
hat to wear, which I love. And I'm also writing.
So I wrote a short play that got produced and published,
and so it's kind of like, what's the worst thing
(41:43):
that can happen? You can fall on your face, but
trying new stuff when you're in your third act. I
highly recommend it. It keeps things very interesting and then
you have an alternative. You know, things slow down in
one area you can kind of plug into another one. Yeah.
Have you directed? I have to acted readings, but never
any long form of anything. No desire. Possibly possibly, I
(42:07):
think perhaps something that I write. Like I wanted to
direct the play that I wrote, but I was working
here and couldn't and it was on the East Coast.
So yeah, I could see directing something of my own,
but I don't think I would direct an act in something. Okay,
well you did when you were a kid, I did well,
and who knows, Maybe I'll get there again and just
think I can do everything. I'll write it, i'll direct it,
i'll shoot it, I'll do it all. But that idea
(42:31):
of collaboration, to me is one of the most desirable
aspects of working because I have no intention of retiring
because I like what I do too much. I like
I have no interest in doing on one woman show
because I wouldn't know who to debrief with at the
end of the night. You know, who do you say,
see on the ice too? Um, that's just that's not
(42:51):
why I do this. Yeah, you know I've done three Really,
were any of them women? Any of them women? You
were going to say that. I knew you were gonna
say that. No One. One though, was an hour and
forty five minutes in with an Irish accent, and I
don't really do accents, by the way, So that went well.
(43:14):
It was a lot of work. It's interesting that you
say that, because I found it really, really difficult. Now,
I had close collaborations with the directors and even designers
on some of that, but it's not the same. And
I think in our business, well, especially in comedy, I
think that collaboration that give and take, that even if
(43:35):
it's not straight improv is yeah. Yeah. And then even
in the doing of it, particularly in live theater, the
tennis game you play with each other, and how you
can bail each other out of trouble and surprise each other,
there's just it's it's that's so delicious, and that's something
I wouldn't I wouldn't want to trade. You've talked about
(43:55):
it a little bit. You have a lot of animals.
You love animals. I've heard that it was written that
you said that was horrible sentence, that you wanted to
be a vet if you weren't an actor. You've done
advocacy work with Humane Society and other animal organizations. What
sparked this love or interest? Is this life long or
(44:16):
is this oh? Yeah? Yeah. My older sister growing up
was a colleague Bonnie. Yeah, she was my first best friend.
You know, I have always preferred the company of animals
to people pretty much, uh more consistently. You know, I
love I love. I love people too, but they are
much easier to love and they forgive you everything and
(44:39):
know they're my crew. And I feel this is such
a gift that I got to end up living on
a ranch and I get to live with animals. No,
they're they're my my best needs for sure. And it's
interesting because my I probably would have gone into veterinary medicine,
but I sucked it science and I also love theater,
(44:59):
so I had, okay, theater science, and Matthew, you can't
three science, and that we'll have to go this way.
So it was it was by necessity. But my daughter
is Um had started out being an aspiring thespian was
pretty good, and she's now in college at bart and
she's pre med and going to be a vet and
equine vet. She's been riding was five years old. But yeah,
(45:21):
she said, you know, I was thinking about it, and
I know how lucky you feel you are that you
get to work at the thing you love. But I've
also seen your friends who get so frustrated because they
just don't have enough to make a living. And I
think I would be so depressed if that were me,
she said. But the other thing I love is animals,
and there is a real need for equine vets. You know,
(45:44):
there are a lot of small animal vets. But she's
worked every summer and a return to Freedom of Horse
Saint Wild Horse Sanctuary and really gotten her feet wet.
She's like fold little horses, and she stuck her hand
into wounds and cleaned them out and she doesn't have
any problem with that. And she she said, I want
to do this. So she's now immersed in science and
(46:05):
math and looking at a long road ahead. But it's
so great that she figured out that where she belongs.
Would you do that? Stick your hand up there, and yeah,
oh yeah, I'm I'm pretty I'm pretty fearless when it
comes to I will touch all things animal. They don't
gross me out at all. It's so different from people. Okay,
I want to leave that one alone. Um, congratulations on
(46:28):
all the projects you have coming up. I cannot imagine
you as an eighty year old Amelia Earhart, but I'm
going to watch it. Nonetheless, I actually kind of seld it.
I think, yeah, imagine me with white eyebrows, blue eyes,
white hair, a few age spots. But I didn't need
too much. All I had to do is look down
(46:49):
a lot net. I was amazing how little it took
a little it took um truly, Wendy, thank you so much.
It it is not a line, It is not bs.
You just make me laugh. It's really It's truely, it's
as simple as that. And even though I forgot that
(47:09):
we worked together before HUT in Cleveland, I think I
was just too nervous that I thank you for coming
and talking to me. I know, Brian, you make me
laugh too, so it's mutual. There you go, all right,
Wendy Malick, thank you. You're welcome. You know, Wendy, it
(47:37):
was an absolute pleasure having you on the podcast. In
case you can't tell, I'm a big fan. I cannot
tell you how much this conversation has meant to me.
You are, in fact, one of the great ones. To
the rest of you, well, you're great too, and I
will see you next week for another episode of Off
the Beat. In the meantime, like subscribe, I follow at
(48:01):
Off the Beat. You know the drone. All right, we'll
talk to you soon. Off the Beat is hosted an
executive produced by me Brian Baumgartner, alongside our executive producer
Lang Lee. Our producers are Diego Tapia, Liz Hayes, Emily Carr,
(48:23):
and Hannah Harris. Our talent producer is Ryan Papa Zachary.
Our theme song Bubble and Squeak, performed by my great
friend Creed Bratton, and the episode was mixed by seth Olandski.
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