David Faustino Meets World

The Matthews and Bundys never met in real life, but for Pod Meets World - anything IS possible! So this week, the gang is chatting David Faustino (a.k.a. Bud Bundy from Married…with Children)!!

David shares details on his TV debut at just three months old, his guest appearance on Family Ties alongside Michael J. Fox and how his love for hip hop inspired one of the greatest sitcom alter-egos of all time: Grandmaster B. 

Plus, we hear what happened when N.W.A. showed up to the Married…with Children set, and everything that went down at their recent sold out reunion show in LA, right here on Pod Meets World!

Follow @podmeetsworldshow on Instagram and TikTok!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:18):
Oh, I watched Balloon Farm.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Will, what did you say?

Speaker 1 (00:21):
I was like, I go, I grabbed idiot.

Speaker 3 (00:22):
I was like, Will says, there's a really crazy movie
we should watch, and we had so.

Speaker 4 (00:26):
Much fun farm.

Speaker 5 (00:28):
Tell me about balloon Farm.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
Oh, balloon Farm is a Magical World of Disney.

Speaker 4 (00:32):
It's a wonderful Disney that we did, done magical rewind Ye.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (00:35):
Then, and so we're Will and I were getting together
to record in the City or a pod Meats World episode,
and I don't know, somehow he was.

Speaker 1 (00:43):
Like, oh, you want to see an unhinged movie.

Speaker 3 (00:46):
And indies really into watching bad movies, Like ever since
we watched Goblins two or you know what was it
called Trolls Too, which should have been called Goblins. Ever
since we watched that, he's like obsessed with watching, you know,
really bad movies and having fun.

Speaker 1 (01:01):
So, yeah, we watch balloon Farm.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
Painted it is.

Speaker 4 (01:03):
It is about a dust bowl farm. And then Rip
Torn shows up, okay to Mara Wilson is on the farm.
He shows up and starts growing balloons.

Speaker 3 (01:17):
Oh, and everybody is so happy to have balloons, like
they're starving, like they're literally it's a dust bowl, Like
there's there's there's no one able to grow crops, but
he grows balloons and changes everybody's lives.

Speaker 4 (01:33):
And sells them for ten dollars a piece, to the
point where one family buys so many they lose their farm.
The weirdest a balloon, Yes.

Speaker 3 (01:43):
And we're like, just you're sitting there trying to understand,
like the logic of this movie. It's okay, So like
it's based on a book, and you could tell it's
like a probably from the nineteen fifties or forties, because
it's like very old timey idea of like basically like
magic comes to and uplifts the spirits of these sad,
depressed people.

Speaker 1 (02:03):
Like that's the idea is like Willy.

Speaker 3 (02:05):
Wonka showed up and like made their life magical and
then he disappears into the sunset.

Speaker 1 (02:09):
But the logic of it is like, but these they
need food.

Speaker 5 (02:13):
Right, imagine.

Speaker 4 (02:17):
Why he eventually Well, do you want me to ruin
the movie for you?

Speaker 6 (02:21):
I can if you want, I'm probably you know what,
let me check my calendar. I'll let you know if
I'm going to be able to get to Balloon Farm,
I will not be able to get to Balloon Farm.

Speaker 4 (02:29):
So what what then happens is Mara Wilson uses the
rest of the town's water supply to grow her own
balloons on his farm, which are water balloons that sounds
to hie up into the to the sky and pop
and rain. So then everyone can do crops. But the
thing that makes no sense is one of his pieces
of magic, which again we talk about a nauseum, a

(02:49):
magical rewind is he'll like, he'll have one lemon, and
he'll put it in a container in a picture, and
then all of a sudden it's lemonade and he has
one coffee. That is what happens.

Speaker 6 (02:59):
Puts if you open lemons and put water on it.

Speaker 4 (03:02):
No, it's just one. He doesn't even cut it up.
He's just and then as somebody walks by, it turns
in pecan one per So I'm like, why is he
doing that with corn and the crops they're actually trying
to grow or money. And so for the book, though writer,
we did the deep dive. By we, I mean producer
Jensen did the deep dive. And what it is is

(03:23):
that they added like the book was just a kid's
very kid's friendly, five or six year old book about
a guy who grows balloons. And then they added all
the stuff about like the evil corporations coming in, people
losing their farms, like that was just added for the movie.
And apparently the gem which we could not find is
there was a we saw it for a fuzzbucket. There

(03:46):
is a series of these movies that are introed by
Michael Eisner, right, and he'll he'll do like a fifteen
literally like a fifteen minute or ten minute on camera
intro where he's like walking on Disneyland, no where, he's
just talking of BC on a set. And so apparently
the one for Balloon Farm opens with him doing like
a ten minute thing on hot air balloons, which the

(04:08):
movie is not about at all.

Speaker 6 (04:10):
Oh my gosh, so is the part of the lesson?
Still trying to figure out the lesson is part of
the lesson. A give a man of fish, you feed
him for a day. Teach a man to fish, you
feed him for life. With the water like that, once
they figured out how to make rain, they were then
able to have crops.

Speaker 3 (04:27):
It's more like like allow some magic and whimsy into
your life. Because everyone in the town is suspicious of
this new guy. And when he's growing and mar Wilson
is like much more welcoming and like able to see.

Speaker 6 (04:39):
So they took a Santa story exactly and they made
it about me.

Speaker 4 (04:43):
But the.

Speaker 2 (04:45):
Shows up.

Speaker 1 (04:45):
But the actresses that plays the mom is amazing. What's
her name from Rozanne?

Speaker 2 (04:49):
Oh yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4 (04:50):
The cast is incredible. It's Laura Metcalf. Yes, it's Laurie Metcalf,
marl Wilson. Mean, it's like a really good cast, but
it is shot so poorly.

Speaker 1 (05:00):
It's that weird. It's that weird video.

Speaker 3 (05:02):
Moment where like video was so bad still but so
much cheaper than film that there was just they just
shot on video and it just looks it looks sped up,
like the frame rates all messed up, so it looks
like it's a sixty frames per second with this like
cropped bat and yet they're trying to do camera moves.
But you're just like it's just it's so it's dated

(05:25):
in the worst way. Like it's like, just shoot this
on film. Please shoot this on film, or don't try
and make it a movie. Just shoot on video like
a Boy Meets World episode, like you know, don't. But
instead it's like trying to be a movie and you're like, oh,
it's so painful to watch.

Speaker 4 (05:39):
The director was Ay, a man named William Deer who
started on music videos, did Cheap Trick, Michael McDonald all
that stuff, then did directed. His first film was Harry
and the Hendersons and then he did the alowsome Richard
Grico movie If Looks Could Kill?

Speaker 1 (05:54):
So this is my guy. He that was a notorious flop, but.

Speaker 2 (06:00):
He wrote it.

Speaker 4 (06:00):
He wrote The Rocketeer, and he did J. T. T's
movie The Wild America.

Speaker 1 (06:07):
Acution for him.

Speaker 4 (06:07):
A bunch you and we were in this. Yeah, so
this guy was Yeah. I mean when you got Harry
and the Henderson's and If Looks Could Kill, come on
blon Farm. Yeah, that's that's one for the ages.

Speaker 3 (06:23):
So he was like a really popular director. I was
wondering why this cast was attached to this movie. I
was like, this is an incredible because Mara at the
time was like the number one kids actor.

Speaker 1 (06:34):
Yeah, that's so.

Speaker 4 (06:35):
And then you got the cop who's gone on to
become famous. But he was like in a different movie
with his character.

Speaker 3 (06:40):
It was like every time he's like trying to make
it it is for sure a pet detective and you're.

Speaker 1 (06:45):
Like it's not working.

Speaker 3 (06:46):
There's work where everyone else is in a like Dustball movie.

Speaker 4 (06:49):
Yeah, Like it was so strange. He like came in
and he's like, I'm the sheriff and I got and
you were going like, oh oh, he's doing a different films.

Speaker 1 (06:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (06:59):
He saw Disney and was like, I know what they want. Yes, Yes,
welcome to Pod Meets World. I'm Daniel Fishl, I'm Rider Strong,
and I'm Wilfordal.

Speaker 6 (07:19):
We have interviewed what feels like hundreds of child actors
throughout the years on Pod Meets World, but today we
are chatting with someone who took it one step further.
He was a baby actor at just three months old.
He made his TV debut on a Lily Tomlin special
and then he got real lazy and he didn't work

(07:39):
again until he was six, with a small part on
Little House on the Prairie. Then came the guest star
cycle on shows like Highway to Heaven, Family, Ties, Say Elsewhere,
and Love Boat.

Speaker 5 (07:51):
Will just lit up like a.

Speaker 4 (07:53):
Christmas Tree Television Royalty.

Speaker 6 (07:55):
Plus two Disney original movies that Will is going to
have to look into, Mister Boogady and Bride of Boogady.

Speaker 2 (08:04):
Whoa I tell Yes, Uh huh.

Speaker 6 (08:06):
And then in nineteen eighty seven, at just thirteen years old,
a once in a generation character came his way when
he was cast as Bud, the youngest of two children
born to Al, a shoe salesman, and Peg Uh Peg.

Speaker 5 (08:22):
That show the.

Speaker 6 (08:24):
Hall of Fame controversy, magnet culture shifting sitcom Married with
Children would become one of the longest running sitcoms in
American TV history, running for eleven seasons and two hundred
and fifty six episodes, helping lift Fox from laughable alternative
to bonafide competitor to Network TV.

Speaker 5 (08:43):
How Big Was Married with Children.

Speaker 6 (08:45):
The show, which at its peak averaged twenty million viewers
per episode, was remade in Argentina, Armenia, Bulgaria, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Mexico, Russia, Turkey,
the United Kingdom, and Brazil, where their title tried translated
to the War of the Pintos.

Speaker 4 (09:04):
What are they the Pinto Family?

Speaker 5 (09:07):
I don't know.

Speaker 6 (09:10):
I'm married with Children translated to the War of the Pintos.
I don't Know in Brazil and now approaching its fortieth anniversary,
the cast has been reuniting last year for a sold
out show at the Wiltern and just last month at
the Orpheum as part of the Netflix Is.

Speaker 5 (09:25):
A Joke Festival.

Speaker 6 (09:26):
All this and he somehow found himself as a West
Coast hip hop pioneer, bringing rap music and NWA to
the Sunset Strip.

Speaker 5 (09:35):
This week on Podme's World.

Speaker 6 (09:37):
From a show that critics called zestily lowbrow, sex obsessed,
utter trash, and the crudest comedy on primetime television, It's
Bud Bundy aka Grandmaster b David Faustino.

Speaker 2 (09:52):
Hey, guys, how are you never get an outdoor interview?
This is awesome to enjoy my backyard. I love it
out here and it's shady, so that's nice. I just
moved and like one of the prerequisites is I had
to have a backyard.

Speaker 5 (10:10):
Which, yeah, some backyard space.

Speaker 2 (10:12):
Oh my god. Yeah, I love it. So tell me
because I just sat down, like I didn't look at
what's what? Tell me a little bit about the show,
just if you can.

Speaker 5 (10:19):
About our podcast.

Speaker 6 (10:21):
Yeah, sure, So we are a boy meets World rewatch podcast.

Speaker 5 (10:25):
We do two episodes a week.

Speaker 6 (10:26):
The first the first episode a week is us going
through scene by scene of an episode in chronological order,
starting with episode one, we've made it all the way
through season seven.

Speaker 2 (10:36):
Oh wow.

Speaker 5 (10:37):
And then our.

Speaker 6 (10:37):
Second episode of the week is an interview episode, and
we have interviewed all the writers and producers and props
and hair and makeup and guest cast and background actors,
anyone we've been able to pull who was directly connected
to Boy Meets World. And then also we expand on
that to anyone who was a child actor, anyone who

(11:01):
was on a show around the same time we were people.

Speaker 2 (11:04):
Going through every crew member and.

Speaker 1 (11:09):
Here you are.

Speaker 2 (11:10):
That's so while because I'm doing something very similar. It's
it's it's it's uh so it's interesting to talk about
that because I I didn't I really didn't know you
guys were doing. That's so cool because I'm doing one
where I have the audience in on the show. We'll
have like you know, it's it's it's like a mod
cast we call like a member's only podcast, and so

(11:32):
you become a member and then you know, you get
to come to the Zoom parties. I we just started
ours like uh two months ago, so we do it
bi weekly.

Speaker 4 (11:41):
Who are you doing it with?

Speaker 2 (11:42):
So it's myself and my my partners who like you know,
help me create the platform and everything, and my co
host a guy named Darren Blat, But I have like
so like the first week we had Amanda Burs, who
played the neighbor on Mary with Children, and then we
had we had the the No Mam Guys, which was
like Al was like, you know, a group of guys

(12:03):
that he hung out with, and then we had Ed O'Neill.

Speaker 4 (12:07):
Sure next week, So I'm sorry, but Amanda was your
first differ jumping right in, Amanda was your first guest.
Wasn't Amanda one of the few people that there was
a quote unquote problem with? Isn't you were You were
famously now with me, But weren't you one of the people,
not only one of two people not invited to her wedding?

Speaker 2 (12:26):
Yes, but I also was like I was also really
young and really immature, and like, you know, I can
see why she might not have wanted to invite me.

Speaker 4 (12:35):
But that's I'm just saying, that's really cool that you
guys have reconnected and that she came on.

Speaker 1 (12:39):
Your show and everything.

Speaker 2 (12:39):
That's awesome, totally fine. I mean Ed and her have
a little bit more of a beef than I than
we do. But like even when Ed was on. We
told him, I told I didn't tell him Amanda had
been on yet, perfectly because I thought, okay, I got
him to do the show, and I don't want to
do anything to screw that up. So I told him
while we were doing it, and he's like, oh yeah,
I mean he didn't. He talked very nicely of her.

(13:03):
But there's that great clip. I don't know. I'm guessing
you've seen it because you're talking about it, where he's
he's being interviewed by like TV Academy or something like that,
where he goes into he goes at length into this
whole ordeal that the two of them have and it
gets funnier and funnier.

Speaker 4 (13:20):
I actually, no, I haven't one I saw. I just
saw a clip of you talking about the wedding.

Speaker 2 (13:24):
Oh you must. You must find it and watch it.

Speaker 5 (13:30):
We will look that up.

Speaker 1 (13:32):
That's great.

Speaker 2 (13:32):
So that's why, that's why this is actually the the
the name of the show I do. It's called The
Bundy Club. So so cool.

Speaker 5 (13:39):
So do you watch the episode with the fans?

Speaker 2 (13:41):
So we what we do is we take an episode,
so we don't go in chronological order like you guys.
It just depends on like what guests we have, and
we let the guests pick the episode or episodes in
this case, like tomorrow, I have David Garrison, who played
the first Marcy's husband and and and so he's on
and that's really cool. It's really cool. Like fans were

(14:04):
going crazy about him, like they went crazy for Ed,
but it's almost like they're more like, oh my god,
like Steve no and so he got So he's We
picked a few episodes as three episodes that we're doing
tomorrow night, and so the fans watch it, right, the
homework is to watch it and then we all come
together and we break the episode down in that that's awesome.

Speaker 6 (14:27):
Yeah, well, before we jump into talking about the Netflix event,
I did want to say, you might be the person
who started acting the youngest to ever appear on our show.

Speaker 2 (14:39):
How did three months old? I would hope?

Speaker 6 (14:41):
So I was did you find yourself sharing a credit
with Lily Tomlin before you even had your first tooth?

Speaker 2 (14:49):
You know? Well, the funny thing about that is is
I actually played her daughter. So I always say that's
how small my penis was. From the they hired me
as as a as a daughter. But yeah, she so
she's like the setup of that. Okay, I'll go back
a little bit. My dad was a costumer, uh for
you know, his whole career. He was that's what he did.

(15:11):
And uh and my older brother, who's eleven years older
than me, like, was this beautiful child. I don't know
where he came from, but he was just like, you know,
really just and uh, this guy was producing a commercial,
was like, oh my god, this kid, I gotta So
that's kind of how it started. And so we all
at one time or another, there's four of us were
you know, actors. We're all still in the business. And

(15:32):
one of my brother now that that brother, he's like,
you know, he's like the audio main mixer for like,
you know, the Voice and American Idol. He's got two Emmys.
And I always say, somebody in the family had to
get an Emmy, right, I say, can you let me
borrow one of them? You know? And then and then
I just kind of fell in line, and uh, you know,

(15:53):
and uh in that in that episode or that show,
I guess it was the Lily Tomlin special. She was
she's like a clown at the circus, I guess. And
she's rushed to the hospital to have a baby, and
her baby's a clown, and I'm that clown. And here
I am still a clown.

Speaker 5 (16:06):
Very far now an adult clown.

Speaker 4 (16:09):
Though an adult clown three months old. It's gonna be
tough to beat that one.

Speaker 2 (16:14):
I think. I think it's it goes down in the records.

Speaker 4 (16:17):
Yeah, yeah, unless some unless somebody's ultrasound is actually used
in the show. I think you're gonna, you're gonna, you're
gonna take that title.

Speaker 2 (16:25):
Sit on that person.

Speaker 6 (16:28):
Well, after that role, you waited until you had really matured.
You waited until about six years old to pursue acting
full time.

Speaker 2 (16:37):
Was is that right? It could be?

Speaker 6 (16:39):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (16:40):
Yeah?

Speaker 6 (16:41):
Were you were your parents still on board? Were your
siblings still in it too?

Speaker 2 (16:45):
Like?

Speaker 5 (16:45):
Was everybody just gung ho about it from the get go?

Speaker 2 (16:48):
Yeah? We all really, like we enjoyed it, you know,
and it was it was it was always fun to us,
and like, you know, we'd get to travel the world
because of it, Like my mom and I were extremely close,
Like we we went all over the Middle East, Europe, Hawaii, like,
you know, we got to travel and and it was
it was a lot of fun. And uh, we you know,

(17:08):
we really enjoyed it. And you know, it's funny you
say that because I, as I was saying about the watch,
you know, rewatching the episodes that we watched with the fans,
I was watching one because David Garrison picked one of
the ones, and it's called Buck Staves of the Day.
We go like, uh, we go camping, and one of
the kids that we take camping is my little brother

(17:28):
who's six years younger than me, and he's in. He's
in a few episodes. Actually, they brought him in like
to four or five episodes, and that was one of
the ones he did when he was super young. So
we're all, you know, but he works in audio with
my other brother. They may have made the right choice there. No,
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (17:48):
Is it four boys or do you have a sister too?

Speaker 2 (17:50):
One sister and three boys? Gotcha girl? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (17:53):
Well, so it's so interesting because like we all like
by the time our show was up and running, there
was sense of like normal life that like acting had
sort of pulled us away from. But it sounds like
for you you were just always in the business, like
your family, so there was no like alternative.

Speaker 1 (18:10):
There was no like normal life, was there.

Speaker 2 (18:12):
Yeah? No, that was really it. I mean, you know,
I'd go back to school. I went to this little
Catholic school in Burbank called Saint finbarr On all of there,
and you know, I would always it always. It always
struck me how many kids were not actors. Like to me,
it's like you just said, it's like it was so normal,
that was our lives and like, you know, everybody, we
sort of knew it would would. And then you go

(18:34):
back to my school and like I was like the
only kid that was an actor in that whole you know, school,
and so consequently, you know, I was never like great
at sports. I was never the cool kid. I was never,
but I I got along with everybody, like I was
that guy who melded all the people. Yeah, you know,
part of it was that, you know, I'd come back
and they'd see me in this commercial or that show

(18:56):
or you know, and and uh so bye bye by
kind of by that way, I was popular with the kids.
But what was interesting is when I really hit it
big with married with children, and I tried to like,
you know, they say that, you know, fame doesn't change you,
it changes the people around you. And maybe some of
that's true. Maybe some of it's not. But it was
very strange when I after success really hit and I

(19:17):
tried to hang out with some of these guys. They
I could tell there was like this weird like they
were waiting for me to be a jerk. You know.
I tried my hardest to sort of you know, hang
out with them again, and it never. Some of those
guys just they weren't able to to. I don't know, yeah, guys,
it was very strength. So so I dropped them all,

(19:39):
and now I have new friends.

Speaker 4 (19:41):
You got good friends. Was there ever a time between
you know, six and married with children when you were like,
I don't think this for me. Maybe I'm just going
to be a regular person. I don't want to be

(20:02):
an actor. No.

Speaker 2 (20:03):
The only times I would ever maybe have those thoughts
is when I would, you know, as you guys know well,
is when I would get really close on an audition
and I would call back, call back, call back, and
then you know, you're between it's between you and three guys,
and I'd lose it. I would take that really hard,
and I would like cry in my bed and be
in a position and and and and and then I went,

(20:27):
my you do I want to do this. But I
always just got back out there and just kept swinging,
you know, for for every every every strike you get,
for every for every thirty strikes you maybe hit one
out of the park. Yeah, definitely, That's just the way
it goes. You know.

Speaker 6 (20:43):
Well, that early run of shows you appeared on is
pretty historic little house on the Prairie Highway to heaven
saying elsewhere. But I know Will is going to want
to hear everything about Family Ties.

Speaker 4 (20:58):
Michael J. Fox and Family Time. It's like one of
the reasons I became an actor.

Speaker 2 (21:02):
That show was fun because I was a fan too.
That That's the cool thing is I was already a
fan of that show is one of those shows I
would watch and so getting to get on getting to
be on that was like, I was like, holy, you know,
like you said, Michael J. Fox and Justine and this
is a this is a weird story that they may
not want me to tell, but oh well, I remember

(21:24):
because I was nine when I did that, and I remember,
you know, I was a fan. And I don't know
how long this last. I had this scene where I
would I'd enter the house with the two of them
and I remember, We're like you know, you're at the
front door and you're out off the set and you're
off camera. I remember, I just I just remember them
like making out furiously like you know, and then and
then it was like q enter like again. I don't

(21:47):
know how long that lasted with them. It was probably
just a little fling or whatever. Justine and and Michael. Yeah,
wow cool. It was just like, what's going on here?
I thought you guys were brother and sister when I
see how it goes here. That's so.

Speaker 6 (22:11):
Was your dream always to get on a weekly sitcom?

Speaker 1 (22:15):
Was that?

Speaker 2 (22:15):
Like?

Speaker 5 (22:15):
For Will? That was just always the goal?

Speaker 2 (22:18):
Yes, okay, I mean that's what you know, because you know,
you can see the kids who have these series right
in our world.

Speaker 4 (22:24):
It was like there are series like how do you
do that?

Speaker 2 (22:27):
Amine? You're fine? And and so I really wanted that
bad and I you know, I did several pilots and
I did the show that went for five episodes that
no one saw, you know, I did the gamut and
then uh, you know, Mary with Children had and it
was already so they had hired two other kids to
play Budd and Kelly and shot the pilot and everything.

(22:48):
So when we when we did land it Christina and
I it was already sold. So it was like, you know,
it was it was crazy. And now those are the
days of like answering machines. And I remember going to
Network and you know they you know how they do,
They pair people up, and they paired Christina and I
up and and then so by the time we drove
from Fox, you know, my mom was driving me obviously

(23:09):
from Fox to back to our house in Burbank. We
got home, There's one message and it was blinking and
I was like, Emma was my agent saying that I
had had booked.

Speaker 6 (23:18):
Yeah, gosh, those are the good old days when you
could come home and see a message and not know
what it is and be excited. Now it's like the
second you wouldn't have even made it to your car
before you would have known the answer.

Speaker 2 (23:29):
You know, that's how it goes, right, Yeah, everyone in
a different direction. That's my favorite.

Speaker 5 (23:34):
I love that one. So then they just reshot only
the Bud and Kelly scenes after they cast you guys.
Was that weird?

Speaker 2 (23:42):
No, it was pretty pretty easy. And normally, I mean
that set was you know, and and I think ed
and Katie and Christina all, you know, attest to this.
It's like they all say, there's never been a there
was never a job before or never been a job after.
That was quite like you know, thes Ron and Michael,
they were just these like hilarious anything goes guys. They

(24:04):
were just the greatest guys guys, and just it was
just a fun and besides the little beef with Ed
and Amanda, like there was no I don't know, it
was just anything goes. It was very fun and open
and we didn't over rehearse anything, and it just it
was just a wonderful set to be on. It really was.

Speaker 3 (24:21):
And how did you guys feel about Fox at the time,
because Fox was still kind of new, unproven, right, you
guys were part of the reason that it became what
it became. But did it feel like you were on
like a sort of rebel.

Speaker 2 (24:34):
Well, no, it felt like because you know, again, we
all talked about how we all wanted to be on
series as actors, right, right, And that was the sort
of caveat. Is that the right word. I'm not sure
it was like that. It was like the oh, but
it's but it's beyond it, but no one will see it.
And that was the truth. For three years. And I

(24:55):
always tell this story and you probably heard me tell
it before, but I you know, I I had worked constantly,
but never was no one ever went, hey, that's the guy.
And you know, we all want that fame. It's in
us that we all kind of want recognition for what
we do. And like season two, or maybe it's end
of season one. I remember I went to the mall
and I had this married with Children T shirt and

(25:17):
you know, like the first two seasons, no one watched
the show. They went back and watched it later, and
I remember wearing this T shirt to the mall with
my friends and not a single person was like, oh,
I want no one And I remember going, fucking, it's
never gonna happen with this. And then you know, the
third season it caught fire and then it was like

(25:38):
then I went through that phase where I was like
a teenager, an awkward teenager in this crazy amount of fame,
and I did for about three or four years. I
hated being recognized unless it was on my terms, when
I wanted it, where I wanted it. But for the
most part, I just was like I was pretty miserable
until I learned to embrace it. Like eighteen, you know,

(26:01):
I was just like I yeah, and you know, people
will try to come give me love, and I was
super guarded, like you know, how dare you like what?
It was just so weird, It was so weird, and
then I, like I said, I learned to embrace it.
And then from then on it was just it was fun,
you know. Yeah? Yeah?

Speaker 6 (26:16):
Were you a precocious teenager and were you always wise
beyond your years? Because obviously Bud took a certain type
of child actor, like not just anybody could play that part.

Speaker 5 (26:28):
Did that did it fit you as a person somewhat?

Speaker 2 (26:32):
Yeah? And I heard this story not until I watched
Michael moy because I was I had him. I had
him on a podcast I was doing years ago, Michael Moore,
one of the creators, one of the two creators, and
I watched some you know videos, and I watched him
in an interview. Go what did he say? He said? Uh,
he said he had you know, he had this this
sweet personality and smile, but with the devil in his eyes.

(26:56):
And I was like, okay, I'll take that. Yeah, so
I guess on some level, yeah, and we you know,
they write for us. Right after a while, they write
for all of us and like our strengths and and
so you know, you kind of meld yourself with what
they're writing, and then they start to write for you,
and so yeah, absolutely, you know, it's definitely a part
of who I am.

Speaker 6 (27:17):
Tell us a little bit about the family dynamic, because
so much of the magic of married with children was
the core for.

Speaker 5 (27:24):
And how you all meshed.

Speaker 6 (27:25):
What do you remember about those early days and getting
to know Ed and Christina and Katie.

Speaker 2 (27:31):
I mean, it was so great because again we were
on this fledgling, fledging, fledgling network that no one knew,
and you know, the writers would make fun of it
on the show all the time. Like a couple of
times they'd be like, you know, he'd say we were
watching TV, and he'd say, like, assume Fox, you know,
assume Fox network position we'd have like you know, like
antennas and like metal, you know, right, So they would

(27:55):
poke fun of that a lot, and they do it
all the time with like what the announcer would say
on the television that we were supposed to be watching,
And so they poked a lot of fun. But we
would go to these you know, the first two seasons
they would have us go to these like mall openings,
and we'd be sitting there at these tables and nobody
knew who we were. We'd get like these random few
people who were like rabid watchers, but other than that,

(28:17):
no one. So we kind of went through it together,
and none of us were really famous yet at all,
so it was like we were all in it together.
And was speaking of David Garrison, like, who played the neighbor.
He was a very That guy's a great actor. He's
a brilliant actor. Came from stage, went back to stage
and has been in New York doing stage ever since

(28:37):
to this day. And I learned a lot from Ed
and him. You know, I would always ask them for like,
you know, it's this, and David would help and give me,
you know, adjustments, and then I just started, you know,
copying ed a lot in his mannerisms and what he
did because he was always just hilarious to me, and
that really worked. And so we were all in it together.

(28:57):
And you know, Christina and I we're in the same
school room together. We were at the Sunset Gower Lot
where'd you guys shoot Boy Meets.

Speaker 6 (29:05):
World, Disney KTLA and CBS Radford, got.

Speaker 2 (29:09):
It, got it. So you know, you know where we're
on Sunset Gower, it's this like a little lot, but
that did everything. Buildings were falling apart, like it was
just so like and yet Who's the Boss was there
and all of these big shows and I was already
Who's the Boss fan, and you know, as most of us,
you know, had this horrific crush on on Alyssa. Yeah,

(29:32):
and and I remember because it was like our school
room and then like two doors down was Alyssa and Danny,
you know, Pentato and uh and I remember just you know,
they they talk about being tongue tied, and I literally,
I like I learned what that that the definition of
tongue tiede meant when I like would try to talk

(29:54):
to her because I was literally I was like my
birds wouldn't come out, you know, And I had this
painful crush. But yeah, it was, it was. It was
a great experience. You know, I'm still we're still all
extremely close to this day, like super close, you know,
like I see Katie constantly all the time, and her

(30:14):
and her husband Kurt and I are very close and
and ed and I mean we were all just extremely close,
we're on the same text threat and we're we're always talking, and.

Speaker 4 (30:24):
So yeah, you talk about oh right, I was just
gonna say, you talk about how good all the actors are.
I started at the Hartford Stage in Connecticut, which is
a great stage, in nineteen eighty six. I was ten
and two years before. The first play I ever saw
there was of Mice and Men where he's playing Lenny,
and he was so good. It was like at eight,
I was going, oh my god, this guy's amazing.

Speaker 2 (30:45):
Do you know the story behind that? And no, oh,
that's funny you bring that up, because it wasn't until
a couple of years ago I learned this. You know,
they couldn't cast out. They had the whole family besides
Christina and I had the kids, they had the neighbors,
they had Peggy, but they couldn't find their Aul and
they were searching everywhere, and they you know, all the
funny guys that went out to like, you know, they

(31:08):
thought Sam Kinnison there was who was the other actor
you know, uh, Randy Quaid and all these guys that
they just they just didn't you know, And and and
Barry Diller at Fox really wanted somebody famous to carry
this thing so much so it was sold for twelve
more episodes. And Ron and Michael like didn't want anybody
that that that Fox wanted. And Mark Hirschfeld, you know

(31:32):
the casting director, Mark Hirschfelder, brilliant casting director, just the
brilliant casting director. And he went to that play, uh
and saw off mice and men and it was there
that he went, this is our guy. And they tested him,
and you know, Barry Diller, they they didn't want him,

(31:52):
like at all, and they they they lost six of
the episodes based on their decision to cast ed, and
to their credit, they still went forward with six episodes
and they they they did it, and you know the
rest is history. Yeah. Well, it's also wild that you
saw that play.

Speaker 4 (32:08):
Yes, that was I was say eight years old and
I was on that same stage two years later in
the Dolls House. But I mean at eight, I was like,
who is this guy? I mean it was really incredible.

Speaker 2 (32:18):
Where is that? So? How big is that theater? Not big?

Speaker 4 (32:21):
It's probably thirty nine, yeah, ninety nine to maybe one
hundred and fifty.

Speaker 2 (32:25):
Oh wow.

Speaker 4 (32:26):
But it's like you would you would look at the
pictures of everyone that was up there, so when I
did a Dolls House, it was David Stratharn and Mary
McDonald and Jerry Bammon and Mark Lamos was the artistic director.
I mean, it was a bunch of pretty outstanding. Yeah,
a bunch of hats exactly. But the other thing a
lot of people forget about Married with Children is that
everyone credits Roseanne with kind of starting the blue collar

(32:47):
family sitcom. Married with Children was a year earlier.

Speaker 2 (32:50):
We were first, right, Yeah, so it's one of these
got noticed first, exactly.

Speaker 4 (32:54):
But that's the thing is when you go back and
you look at that actual blue collar sitcom family, the
bundies were for man, absolutely crazy.

Speaker 6 (33:02):
The working title of Married with Children was not the
Cosby's which has a different definition now. But I wanted
this show, obviously to push the envelope beyond anything the
big three networks would allow.

Speaker 5 (33:18):
What did your parents think of the material?

Speaker 2 (33:21):
Well, that's funny, id you know everywhere I go, when
I go to conventions or on the street, people will
go like, you know, I'm serious, Like seven out of
ten people were like, I had to sneak away and
I couldn't watch it, and I got in trouble and
was like and then you have the other the other
few people are like, you know, we loved it. We
watched it together as a family. I came from I
told you I went to Saint Finbar. You know, I

(33:42):
came from this kind of My mom wasn't, but my
dad was this old school Italian Catholic, like you know,
just you know, a little a little kind of crazy
in that. And so they were always very supportive of
of what I did and wanted me to work. And
you know, they didn't spend my money and they were
great in that aspect. But you know, watching the show

(34:02):
around them after it was uncomfortable sometimes, you know, with
some of the things because you know, you rewatch it
and it's like Alan Peggy are making these like weird
sex jokes while the kids are in the room. You know,
it's just, yeah, it's bizarre. So that he got a
little uncomfortable, but you know it was. It was a
great job.

Speaker 4 (34:20):
And yeah, so yeah, well Kelly too. I mean the
Kelly character to have a fat, quote unquote fast teenage girl.
At the time, all this was like groundbreaking television.

Speaker 2 (34:30):
It was just so different, it really was. And like
I said, rewatching these episodes, it's just like, my god,
you know it was it was pretty you know, a
lot of that you couldn't So in some aspects you
could get away with more today, but in a lot
you couldn't get away with a lot of the stuff
we did. Yeah, man, but you were talking about Roseanne.
It's funny because Ron Levitt, you know, one of the

(34:50):
funniest people I've ever met to this day, he would say, like,
you know, when he watched Roseanne at the end, they'd
sort of like go up and they'd like, you know,
they want to make love and they'd go, you know,
have sex, and he'd always go, yeah, right.

Speaker 6 (35:10):
When did you know that the show was a hit,
because even though the numbers were modest compared to established networks,
you had a very engaged, young, passionate audience, and its
position in pop culture was massive.

Speaker 5 (35:23):
Do you remember the moment you were like, oh, this
is a hit.

Speaker 2 (35:27):
Well, two things come to mind. One was, you know,
the woman in Detroit or not Detroit, Michigan named Terry Rocolta,
who is you know, the the wife of some billionaire
out there, very powerful and you talk about like, you know,
the sort of humor of the show. She came into
the room and watched her kids like cracking up at

(35:47):
this this show, and so she sat down to see
just what they were cracking up at and she was appalled.
And just you know, she was very successful in pulling.
She got Coca Cola, McDonald's and some other giant answers
to pull with that. I mean, everybody made the press
and it was all over and everybody's like, what are
we not supposed to be watching? Ye, And that's when

(36:09):
it become became sort of an overnight success. But for me,
I was always in the you know, I got into
hip hop music really young, like twelve years old, and
you know, Marriywoo children was huge in the in the
hood as we say, and in the hip hop community.
And I started noticing it then because I would go
to these hip hop shows and they like pulled me

(36:30):
up on stage and want to put me in their
videos and so it was very cool. That's what I really,
you know, started noticing because like the hip hop community
like just embraced it like it was you know, like
it was their family. And ye, that was very cool
for me.

Speaker 6 (36:56):
So during that time when politicians, wives and noprah are
called the show filth, what is your reaction as a kid,
Are you feeling scared like this isn't good for us,
or do you pretty quickly realize like, oh, our ratings
are going up, this is only good news for us.

Speaker 2 (37:12):
I think it was pretty much just good news. As
a matter of fact, the producer sent that woman, Terry Ricolta,
a thank you basket, like after the ratings skyrocketed. Yeah,
they literally did.

Speaker 5 (37:24):
Yeah, thank you.

Speaker 1 (37:26):
That's awesome.

Speaker 2 (37:26):
That's pretty great. And Hustler magazine gave her up the month.
So I mean, you know, what more can you ask for?

Speaker 4 (37:34):
Thought, I actually I thought that was a totally different
thing on Hustler.

Speaker 2 (37:39):
Well, yeah, I mean that's sort of the joke I think, right.

Speaker 5 (37:47):
Did you like how close an age are you to Christina?

Speaker 6 (37:50):
Did going through this experience bond you two in a
way that's different maybe than with Ed and Katie just
because you were closer in age?

Speaker 2 (37:57):
Yeah, I mean so we're only like two and a
half years apart, and yeah, I mean we were super
close because again, we were in the same schoolroom for years,
and we would travel together, and you know it, we're
kind of like brother and sister in a way where
you like, you know, at some point, you're like quiet already,
like yeah, enough stories about whoever, Like you know, you're

(38:17):
the little little brother, and I'm sure my stories annoyed her,
and but we were always we've become actually there was
a time like you know, the show ended and kind
of all in our separate ways, but we've actually become
closer in a different way over the last like five
ten years. Yeah. Yeah, we become you know, very very close,

(38:39):
like as you know, friends and supporting each other and
in different ways.

Speaker 6 (38:45):
I know he appeared on married with children, but you
also became friends with Sam Kinnison, who was on top
of the world at the time. What was he like
both to work with and as a human?

Speaker 2 (38:56):
Oh my god, Sam was one of the greatest guys,
like ever he you know, we spent so it was
a two parter episode, so we spent two weeks with him.
But him and I I don't know why, it was
this weird thing. We became extremely close. Like I would
like hang out at his house. He would take me
to all the shows. I would introduce him at at

(39:18):
at concerts, and he took a liking to me. And
you know, at that time, I was pretty innocent, right,
I wasn't like I'm I think I might have like
smoked weed and maybe drank a little alcohol, but I
wasn't doing any like drugs or anything. And he you know,
you'd go to Sam's house and there'd be like, you know,
there'd be like one hundred dollars bill over a mountain

(39:39):
of cocaine this corner and that corner and this corner,
and he'd always you know, have quailudes and all this stuff.
And I never partook. You know, I went through my
own thing later on, but I never I think, and
I could be wrong, but I think there was like
something about my innocence that he likes to have around.
That's what I when I look back. But he was
so cool. I remember I was at his house on

(40:01):
my dad's birthday once on December tenth, and my dad
was a huge Sam Kinnison fan, and I said, you's
cool if we, you know, call my my dad. He's like, oh, yeah,
you want a few screams, and you know he's like happy,
and uh that's always. It was cool. He was a great,
great big heart. You know, obviously he was a horrific addict,
and you know he missed a few days uh at

(40:23):
work and the Bruisers were not happy about that at all.
You know, they weren't. They were pros and they didn't
want that happening. And you know, he would miss a
day and not realize that he didn't show up, and
but then he would like he would try to he
would try to make that right by like catering lunch
from Chasin's and having Belly dancers come and you know,

(40:45):
but I loved the guy, but you know, I know that,
but the the final outcome, you know, he played the
it was like a it was like it's a play
on It's a Wonderful Life. It was called It's a
Bundiful Life and you know how the angel comes comes
back and show how everybody's life would be without you know,
James Stewart character, and in this everybody's life was magical.

(41:07):
You know, Elly was like him. Oh it was great.
It was great. And uh, I remember there's you know,
it was the first show Ted McGinley, who wasn't in
the show yet, he just was a guest actor in
this episode. And uh and in this episode he played
the dad that i'll you know, the real dab of us.

(41:27):
And I remember there's a scene in his last name
was Jablonski, and so he's like, after we're like I
love you, I love you, I love you more, he's like,
let's get a wo Jablonski and we just this wo
Jablonski and they turned to Edd and he's like, oh,
Jablonski and it was just this funny, funny bit. But
that's where we discovered Ted. And then he came back,

(41:48):
you know, not too long after to play Marcy's new
husband and who I love.

Speaker 4 (41:52):
I did a show with Ted and he's like the
nicest guy in the.

Speaker 2 (41:55):
Planet, the greatest guy. He's so great. Yeah, and you know,
he was a little pissed at me from minute because
we did that first reunion, which I produced with my
partner Ben, and he you know, it was it was
it was the Bundyes, right, and you know Ed and
Amanda had this thing going, and I knew he wasn't
gonna do it with her, and I was like, not
going to happen, and so I just kind of we

(42:16):
made it the Bundies and I know, and so I
heard that he was a little like, you know, myffed
about that, and I wasn't sure if that was true.
And I heard it from her and anyway, I way
ended up talking and he's like, yeah, I was a
little pissed about that, and so I said, you know,
when we do this again, you know, it'll it'll you know,
you'll be on the stage, regardless of if it looks
weird or not that a man's not there. You got

(42:36):
to be a part of it. So before you go
on and for that, I will tell you that we
had to postpone the last uh uh reunion due to
Christina something that Christina is going through and but she's
getting much better and it's just a postponement and it
will be coming. I think like late fall is what
we're looking at. But yeah, we had to postpone the

(42:57):
Netflix one unfortunately her health. Yeah, okay.

Speaker 4 (43:01):
She By the way, you talked about Alisa Milano, who
clearly for people of our age, you and I are
very similar in age, so it was who's the boss?
And and then you had Commando with Arnold Wrozenegger.

Speaker 2 (43:13):
I was just like, she was.

Speaker 4 (43:15):
The best, but then Christina kind of took over for
a lot of us, where she became that kind of
the next girl that everybody had a crush on. And
I'm curious was because again we always say that we
were blessed is the wrong word, but it was. It
was a lot more beneficial for us as people and
as actors that we got to go through all this

(43:35):
without social media. So were you able to kind of
see though, how Christina was becoming kind of like that
a teen icon to boys across the country.

Speaker 2 (43:49):
Yes, but it was so weird, like I say, because
it just so wasn't like that for me. You know,
when we see people close up every day, we get
to see their you know, quote unquote warts and pimples
as they say, and it's like Christina had a lot
of words. I'm kidding, No, No, I just never. It
was just never. So it was kind of like I
would just hear it from them, but I didn't really

(44:10):
understand the gravity of what people were, you know. But
I remember a few times being in New York and
walking through the streets and some people saying some very
colorful things about her, and which I won't to repeat,
but a couple of them are hilarious. Yeah. Yeah, I mean,
she definitely became the girl right And looking back when

(44:31):
I look at these episodes, like, god, she's gorgeous.

Speaker 4 (44:33):
Yeah, it's stunning, but also like kind of a bat,
which was the thing that was she was just that
none of none of you were the mold of the
sitcom family, none of you. And that's the thing that
was so great about the Bundies, as you know, even Neighbors,
there was not a single It's like they took every
single sitcom paradigm and when we're going to do the
opposite of this, yeah, and it's either going to work

(44:54):
or it's not going to work, and it just it
worked like Gangbusters. But it was one of those things
where you couldn't have turned it on its head anymore.
I mean, even in the later seasons where every the
Brady bunch brought on Oliver, everybody tries to bring on
a new little kid to make it young again, and
and you guys brought on seven. It was just and
they named him that because he was the seventh kid

(45:15):
in the family and nobody wanted him, so they just
gave him to the butt.

Speaker 2 (45:18):
It was just he was just seven.

Speaker 4 (45:20):
And so even that, like using the typical sitcom things
and just going we're gonna do this so differently than
anybody else has ever done it. It could have fit.

Speaker 2 (45:28):
Yes, how they ended the seven run. No, what what
did they do with seven? I don't remember. Well, just
the kid is so sweet, but you know, he just
wasn't an actor. I mean, I don't. He just that
wasn't his thing, and he didn't. It never took and
the audience hated it, so they just stopped doing it.
And then at one point we're like at the we're
at the kitchen table and there's a milk cart and

(45:49):
it zooms in. Have you seen me? It's great? Yeah,
it was brilliant.

Speaker 6 (45:58):
Yeah, awesome, Like your own interests as a kid started
to bleed over to Bud. So writer was into poetry
and counting crows, and so then was his character Sean,
you were a huge hip hop fan, and then so
was Bud and in turn Grandmaster b. Yes, how did
that come together? And were you at all weirded out

(46:21):
by it the way writer was?

Speaker 5 (46:22):
Or did you love it?

Speaker 4 (46:23):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (46:23):
You were weirded out by it? Oh?

Speaker 1 (46:25):
Yeah, well yeah, because it was it was, Yeah, it was.

Speaker 3 (46:27):
It's a long complicated story, but yeah, no, it was
definitely like parts of my life being taken without consulting,
without me being consulted.

Speaker 2 (46:35):
Yeah, I get it, I get it. I feel that
for me again, it was a nod to sort of
what I loved, you know. Uh, the Grandmaster Beat character came.
You know, this was early when hip hop was not mainstream.
It just wasn't. It wasn't a mainstream people. A lot
of people hate it and I embraced it early on.
And so I'd have these guys come into the set,

(46:57):
you know, I'd have like Ice Cube and Iced Tea
and Easy E all these guys.

Speaker 4 (47:03):
You had nw A coming and visiting you on the set.

Speaker 2 (47:06):
Yes, I did. I did. Easy was the greatest. You know,
he was a big marry with children fan and all
these guys were And Drey never came to the set,
but he did come to my club that I used
to run. They did they impromptu. It's there was the
greatest night of the club. And it just became impromptu.
It wasn't planned anything, but Drey was there, Easy was
there and Wren. It wasn't when Cube had already left

(47:28):
at this point, but the three of them were there
and they did this impromptu performance and it was just
like God, it was the greatest thing ever. But they
would see these guys coming, they be like, yo, what's
Fustina what's happening here, you know what? And so they
that's how the Grand Master b character started. I don't
think they really consulted me. It just kind of happened.
But I remember when they wanted to do my bedroom

(47:49):
for the first time. They were like, you know what,
how do you And I was like, and NAS's Illmatic
uh album? It hadn't dropped. It was just dropping. And
I knew about it, you know, a year or two
in advance, just by being in that scene and the
Source magazine and those guys, and so I was like,
I want the Illmatic poster and they're like the who what?
I was like, you just throw it up there. And

(48:11):
then you know, when people saw that, they were just like, oh,
you know. And even Nas, when I run into him,
it's like crazy love and he has this quote in
the La Times. He was like, you know, when we
saw our poster up on Bud Bundy's wall, we knew
we were about to flow.

Speaker 4 (48:29):
That's really cool man.

Speaker 2 (48:30):
So I still use the Moniker as my DJ name.

Speaker 5 (48:33):
Yep Graham.

Speaker 2 (48:34):
I do because people were like, you know, what is
your DJ am gonna be? And and for so long
I was like, no, that would be corny and people
are like, you got to use it. It's just like,
you know, you have it, just go with it.

Speaker 6 (48:44):
I was like, all, yes, we had Brian Austin Green
on the podcast a little while back and we got
into Ballistics, which is the underage club you ran on
Sunset Boulevard here in Los Angeles. It was a real
hangout for young Hollywood at the time. You mentioned that
story about the impromptu hang and performance. Uh, would you

(49:06):
say that's your favorite Ballistics story.

Speaker 5 (49:09):
I'm sure you have many, but.

Speaker 2 (49:11):
One of them one of them. First of all, I
love Brian, you know, Brian one of the sweetest guys,
and you know, we still remain not close, but we're
always a text away, you know. And I love Brian.
But I think the Knights, you know, that one stands
out obviously about n w A. But well, what I
loved about the club was, you know Will I Am,

(49:31):
who was Will one X at the time. He uh,
you know, people don't realize because he sort of went
a pop version. But in my in my opinion, his
pop is like great, you know, it's like, yep, he did.
He's a he's a he's a magical guy. And but
he was a battle rapper, and like a lot of
people don't know that about Will. He was vicious and
ruthless and he would he kept this uh the freestyle

(49:55):
battle like he was the champion for like six months
in a row. No one could beat him because he
would just take people apart, kind of like eight mile
from head to toe. And I remember the only time
he lost. They brought in this kid, this young, like
eight ten year old kid that was you know that
they were kind of trying to build up. And I
remember they wrote his wraps beforehand and like figured out

(50:19):
a way to his own manager, what polo was behind
this kid, and so they wrote these rhymes and they
had this kid come and because he was so young,
because the rhymes were so you know great, he actually
won that night. Well Will came back the next week
and didn't care this this kid was ten years old.

(50:40):
He just destroyed this poor little kid and probably sent
him home crying. And then he took the championship back.
But he was just so he was so great. I
knew he was going to be a star from like
one of the few first few times I met him.
I was like, this kid is going to be a star,
Like no doubt in my mind. And they all met
there by the way. None of them knew each other.

(51:01):
They literally all met at ballistics.

Speaker 5 (51:04):
Wow, are you still listening to hip hop? Do you
have any modern day favorites?

Speaker 2 (51:10):
Oh, it's funny, I was, I do. I have a
lot of them, you know, I mean I love hip hop.
I mean I have a lot of stuff I hate,
you know, I I I sort of hate the direction
hip hop went in in you know, the you know,
I said he glorified drugs. It just it just become
very I don't know. That's and it's one of the

(51:30):
reasons people hate hip hop because they'll turn on you know,
these like popular hip hop stations, and between every great
song is like four horrible ones that are kind of unlistenable.
And so I hate that. But there's still some really
great stuff that's, you know, still out there, Like I
like this Griselda movement.

Speaker 5 (51:50):
I love Griselda.

Speaker 2 (51:51):
I love Griselda. Benny the Butcher. I was just on
a zoom call with a guy named Afro who don't
get him confused with Afroman. He's not. He's a different guy.
He's this dope underground like artist. He's only twenty eight
he's battled, you know. He's a freestyle battler and so
great and such a humble, cool guy. As a matter

(52:11):
of fact, we just were on a Zoom meeting at
twelve o'clock today and we're gonna we're gonna try and
put together a little EP just for fun. So I
love him, and and there's a lot of you know
people I'm listening to that I like because I have
to stay up on some of the new stuff just
because of what I do for my hobby and my
sort of second hustle, so I have to weed through

(52:33):
a lot of crap. Though.

Speaker 5 (52:34):
Yeah, do you know Toby Wigway at all?

Speaker 2 (52:37):
I don't.

Speaker 6 (52:37):
Oh my gosh, you have to check him out. I'll
send you a link. His wife also is a rapper.
They're phenomenal separately and together and very very very good.

Speaker 5 (52:47):
You'll have to check them out.

Speaker 2 (52:48):
Where are they're from?

Speaker 5 (52:50):
Atlanta?

Speaker 2 (52:51):
Okay? Yeah, love to hear it. Please do.

Speaker 5 (52:54):
I will send it to you. Okay.

Speaker 6 (53:08):
I want to talk about these reunions a little bit.
Where did the idea for the first one at the
Wiltern come from?

Speaker 2 (53:15):
So it all quickly, It all birthed from a friend
of mine, Ben Brocata, who's one of these sort of
you know, he's an agent that does conventions and things
like that. And we just started out as a as
a you know, client agent relationship, but then we became
friends and he always said, you know, we should get
we should do this, we should do like a convention

(53:37):
where we all do a signing together. And I was like,
that's never going to happen, dude, Like Ed is never
going to do that. Like I'd have people call me,
these agents that would find me, and they'd be like, hey, listen,
you know I want Ed to come out for one
day in Florida for four hours. We'll pay him one
hundred grand. So I'd be like, okay, sure, I'll call him.
And i'd call him and I knew the answer, and

(53:59):
he'd be like, yeah, nah, I don't want to do that,
you know, like one hundred k. So he's never gonna
do it. But what I did know about Ed, because
I know Ed so well, is that he loves to
tell stories. He's one of the greatest storytellers you can
ever say. Well. He would keep us entertained for hours
and hours and hours telling stories about Youngstown, Ohio and
the gangsters. That he grew up around New York and

(54:22):
like he would just you know, he was he's a
great storyteller. So we kind of morphed into one of
these ideas, well, what if we did, you know, like
a thing where where he can be on stage and
like he'd say, you know, I gotta have a barrier,
and he doesn't mean He's like, yeah, he doesn't want
to be too he doesn't want people like putting their
arm around him. He's just not that kind of guy.

(54:43):
So for a fraction of what he would make, you know,
one of these conventions and signings, we approached them with
this idea to go up on stage and tell stories,
is how I sort of worded it. And I thought
he'd be the hardest one to get on board. He's like, oh,
well that sounds kind of fun. You know, let's let's
see if Katie and and Christina. So it became once

(55:04):
he was on board, which was like simple, then you know,
it was easier to get Katie and Christina to do it.
They were a little more difficult to get on board
than Ed was. He was immediately like, let's do this.
It sounds like fun, it sounds like and it was
exactly what I knew it would be. He went on
stage and you told a bunch of great stories that

(55:24):
captivated the audience and and it was great, you know, and.

Speaker 5 (55:28):
That you raised money during that one for Race to
Erase Ms.

Speaker 2 (55:32):
Right, yeah, I've I've been going to the Race to
Erace Ms for thirty three years in.

Speaker 5 (55:36):
A row, oh my gosh.

Speaker 2 (55:38):
And you know, and it was before obviously Christina was
diagnosed in and I've been a huge part of that
when it was a race. Did you guys ever go
to that?

Speaker 5 (55:47):
No, I don't you know what I may have. I
may have in the past.

Speaker 6 (55:50):
I it's been a long time, but I do think
there was a time as a teenager I went.

Speaker 2 (55:55):
Oh yeah, it was the greatest event in the world.
It started out as this ski race, that's what it
was like fail and like all the greatest places, and
then of course it was a logistical nightmare and so
they yeah, finally became uh like a gala at the
at the Century Plaza Hotel. But I so missed those days.
But you know, I'm still big part of that. Nancy

(56:17):
Davis is a close friend, you know, and it's it's
always been dear to me, so that obviously when when Christina,
when this went down, we were like, you know, what's
the what's the perfect uh cause to raise a little
bit of money for us? Not we raised the time,
we raised some money for them, but.

Speaker 6 (56:33):
Yeah, and it obviously sold out, so uh, you couldn't
have been too shocked by by that reaction considering all
of you were involved.

Speaker 5 (56:44):
But what did that shocked?

Speaker 2 (56:45):
But I was like, I think they were because you know,
Katie and I are the only two who do the conventions.
Like Katie finally did one. She loved it and she realized,
you know, she can make money, and so I think
she knew. But I think Ed and Christina were you know,
we we pulled, you know, they picked us up and
we all went to the uh separately, but they picked
us up in cars and we all pull up and
the Wiltern was just it was like it was like

(57:06):
you were going to like a I don't know, like
a Beatles concert or something crazy like back then. It
was like a buzz with lines of people with wearing
the nomam shirts and dressed like Alan Peggy and it
was just it was the the energy was insane and
I don't think I mean, I was even blown away
a little bit. But I don't think they were knew
what was coming. You know. It was it was quite

(57:27):
you know, and it sold out like in two days, right,
which was which was also kind of wild, but it
was a blast. I think they were all which is
why they all were like, yeah, let's do another that.
We were set up to do that, and then unfortunately
we had we put that on hold for a little while.
But you know, even any when he came on my show,
I was like, you know, how's he going, you know?
And he was so great. I said, you only have

(57:49):
to stay for an hour. He stayed for the full
two hours, and of course told stories to all the fans.
And this one woman from Germany who actually posted on
the site shameless plug it's Bundy clubbed but we have
you know, these members posting area and she she did
this three part post that goes on and on and
on about how she, you know, on her own without

(58:09):
her husband because her husband's like, what are you? Are
you crazy? She came out here, had never been to
Los Angeles and made the journey and was super nervous
about it. And she tells the story. But she got
to talk to Ed on this zoom call and she
wrote this like speech that she wanted to tell him.
She started tearing up through it, and Ed was super to.
All of us were like, oh my god, this is

(58:30):
extremely touching, you know, and it was great to have
him on. You know, it was really cool that he
did it. And he's very loyal and he's just a
you know, he's a good dude.

Speaker 5 (58:38):
That's so great.

Speaker 6 (58:39):
Yeah, well, congratulations on the Bundy Club. Where can people listen?
I know you mentioned the website Bundy club dot com.
Where can people find your podcast?

Speaker 5 (58:48):
And it's a zoom oh.

Speaker 2 (58:50):
Yes, So you just go to Bundy club dot com.
You sign up. There's like different levels of membership. You
can go for free if you want, or you know,
it goes up. But and then you know, you get
to come on. I have Poulli's Shore coming on because
he did it. He's a fan fave of One of
his episodes is just so fun. He played you Al
has to go work in like a fast food joint
and Polly plays his boss and it's hilarious. People love this.

(59:13):
So he's coming on, but I think that will anyway.
Bundy club dot Com just sign up and then you
can come to the zoom thing and you get to
like you After we do the interview, people get to
come on. We kind of I think there's like a
thing where if you do a lot of posting and
you were like first in line to ask questions and
come in the zoom. It's like a system. But it's fun,
a lot of fun. People love it and I love it.

(59:34):
I have a lot of fun doing it.

Speaker 1 (59:35):
That's a great idea.

Speaker 4 (59:36):
It sounds it's almost like a virtual convention.

Speaker 2 (59:37):
It's really cool. It's a trick. It's a trip, it
really is. Yeah.

Speaker 6 (59:41):
Well, that's great and we look forward to hearing more
about the upcoming Netflix reunion special hopefully later this year.
We will keep an eye out for that. Well, thank
you so much for joining us today. It's so wonderful
to talk to you.

Speaker 2 (59:51):
That was a lot of fun. Yeah, thank you guys.
It's good to see you. Glad you guys are all together.
It's kind of rare, right that we all, like a
lot of us stick together. That's kind of cool.

Speaker 5 (01:00:01):
I know, it's great.

Speaker 6 (01:00:02):
Congratulations on the new house too. I love the dogs
in their little coyote vests. They're they're spiky vests.

Speaker 2 (01:00:07):
Oh you can see. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, that's awesome. I'm
gonna go do some laundry in my new laundry.

Speaker 5 (01:00:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:00:14):
Fun.

Speaker 4 (01:00:14):
As long as they're drainage, you're fine.

Speaker 2 (01:00:16):
Yeah, thank you.

Speaker 6 (01:00:21):
That's so cool that they're all that close and of
just like a group chat.

Speaker 5 (01:00:27):
It's really great.

Speaker 4 (01:00:28):
They also, I mean they between them and the Simpsons,
they made a network, literally built a network. It was
we come on ABC or people going on CBS. I mean,
it's something that's got the heritage of sometimes one hundred years,
eighty years. They built the network.

Speaker 6 (01:00:43):
They were the first ever sitcom on Fox and only
the second show ever was that crazy?

Speaker 4 (01:00:49):
Was Simpsons the first one.

Speaker 5 (01:00:51):
I think it has to be God, that's nuts.

Speaker 4 (01:00:53):
The second show ever on an entire network, which is
which then now, if anybody thinks of networks, there's four, yeah,
and there was three everyone now knows for yep, And
they were the second show ever. That's nuts, Yeah, God crazy.

Speaker 6 (01:01:05):
Thank you all for joining us for this episode of
Pod Meets World. As always, you can follow us on
Instagram pod Meets World Show. You can send us your
emails Pod Meets World Show at gmail dot com.

Speaker 5 (01:01:14):
And we've got merch.

Speaker 4 (01:01:17):
Merchan marriage merchan marriage. It's an institute.

Speaker 2 (01:01:22):
You can't stuck.

Speaker 5 (01:01:28):
I'll tell you.

Speaker 1 (01:01:31):
You can't have one.

Speaker 6 (01:01:38):
Pod Meets Worldshow dot com. We love you all, pod dismissed.
Pod Meets World is an iHeart podcast produced and hosted
by Danielle Fischel, Wilfridell and writer Strong Executive producers Jensen
Carp and Amy Sugarman Executive in charge of production, Danielle Romo,
producer and editor, Tara sudbachsch producer, Maddy Moore, engineer and

(01:01:59):
Boy Meets World superfan Easton Allen. Our theme song is
by Kyle Morton of Typhoon. Follow us on Instagram at
Podmets World Show or email us at Podmets Worldshow at
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