December 22, 2025 • 42 mins
The conversation rages on with Josh Radnor and Craig Thomas from “How We Made Your Mother” for a crossover with Boy Meets World you never saw coming.
Josh shares his unique audition for the role of Ted Mosby and details his new connection with the show, thanks to podcasting.
Craig talks about his newest endeavor: writing novels and Josh explains a familiar identity crisis after years of people calling him “Ted” in public.
It’s time for sitcom history as two of your favorites finally meet - on the conclusion of this Pod Meets World mash-up!!
Follow @podmeetsworldshow on Instagram and TikTok!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Welcome to a special Bonus episode, Part two with Josh
and Craig enjoy Well. One of the things I wanted
to talk to you guys about specifically for your podcast is, Josh,
I heard you on Jesse Tyler Ferguson's podcast talk about
how doing the Rewatch has been very healing for how
critical you have sometimes been about your own participation or
(00:42):
performance on the show. And that's something that I know,
especially for writer, is something he has experienced as well.
Can you talk with us a little bit more about
what the Rewatch has done for the way you look
back on the show?
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Yeah, sure, you know, I think that.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
I come from the theater, right and and that those
are That's how I fell in love with acting, and
that's where I kind of thought of myself, like that's
where I'm a theater actor.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
And the blessing of the theater is it goes away.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
You know, you do it and it evanesses into the air,
and then you come back, you do it again and
no one's like, this is what you look like last night,
this is what you did, or this is when you
didn't hit that line or moment and there was something
you know I had done.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
I think it was my fourth pilot.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
I had done a bunch of guest stars, so I
had done some on camera work, and I was still
acquainting myself with my face, you know what I looked like.
And you know when you're a kid and you hear
your voice on tape for the first time, you're like,
so that way, Yeah it's grotesque. Yeah, it's like it's like.
Speaker 4 (01:44):
They had that experience, but in front of thirty million people.
But I think it took me.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
I had some time to I needed some time to
acquaint myself with like, Okay, this is what I look
like and this is what my body is. And I
was I was having to everyone else, even including Kobe,
had just they had made more peace, I think with
themselves or weren't as self conscious as me for some reason.
But I remember, especially in those early seasons, I was
(02:12):
very hard on myself and I didn't even watch all
the episodes. But sometimes I would be like pleasantly surprised,
and other times.
Speaker 5 (02:19):
I'd be like, oh, I hate that.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
I hate that. And just watching watching the.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Show again all these years later with my wife and
where my life is now, I have this detachment, like
I'm watching it from a distance, and I'm so I
almost am like in dialogue with that younger actor who
was so hard on himself, and I'm like, I almost
like like I sit him down and be like, you
did a great job. He did a great job. And
(02:48):
I thought in certain ways that the value of my performance,
or the worth in my performance, was based on whether
that joke was funny, whether I had a good ale,
a bad episode, nail to beat. But but the truth is,
and I think, Will, this is what you're talking about, Like,
when it's perfectly cast, it's almost like your essence is doing.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
A lot of the work.
Speaker 5 (03:10):
Yes, you're just showing up.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
You're just showing up, and like it's the five of
us around a booth and for whatever reason, that works,
and I see that the show works and it and
I was a vital part of that working. And in
some ways, my naivete and my like very young face
even though I was twenty nine or thirty when we started,
like I had a really young face and I had
a really like vulnerable, like open quality that they cast
(03:34):
me for that I wasn't even in control of in
a way, So I just have made some peace with
like I understand why people love this show. I understand
why this show worked and wormed its way into so
many people's hearts, and I'm I'm walking around like even
Jordana said, you're a lot different. Like since the podcast
has been on, when people come up to you and
(03:55):
want to talk about how I met mother, I can
tell you're different. It's a much more like engage way.
And I just had to make some peace with it.
I thought that when I got off the show, I
have to run as far from this show as I can,
But the truth was I actually had to turn around
and hug the show closer to me and say, this
is a part of my life, this is a part
(04:16):
of my biography, this will always be with me, and
let's stop like running from it and just like love
it because it was wonderful.
Speaker 6 (04:23):
That's now, curiously, does does you know I know she'd
lie to you because she loves you. But does your
wife like the show?
Speaker 3 (04:30):
She loves the show and not, but she's a binger,
so she's like she doesn't like watching one a week.
Speaker 5 (04:37):
It's like she's having to like.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Go back to, you know, the old days. I didn't
like it.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
She wants to keep watching, and if we have to
watch too. She gets really excited, but she.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Is mirroring you know.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
There was I remember there was an episode first season,
and I think I talked about in the podcast Craig
where Jordana turned to me and she goes, I'm totally
in Yeah, Like there was an episode where she was
like super invested in everyone and I am. That's probably
when the audience got invested. I was like five six
the medicine starts like taking Yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
I was so terrified, Like I was like, what if
she doesn't like the show. This whole podcast was because she.
Speaker 6 (05:14):
Says away, we'd be she'd be on our podcast right now,
going so I'm doing a podcast about how.
Speaker 7 (05:19):
I hate my husband.
Speaker 8 (05:23):
Companion piece.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Well, she was actually she's she's taking some time off.
But on the first season she was a guest star
in every episode we had what was it called crack.
It was called Questions and Observations from a clinical psychologist
who's never seen how I Met your mother, who also
happens to be married to Josh.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
We whole acronyms, and she was great because she One
of the things.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
We're really doing on the show that I really love
is we're we're getting underneath it like we're really excavating it.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
It's almost like a college class. And like how I
met your mother?
Speaker 3 (05:52):
Miss you know she really she's quite a deep, you
know person, and she sees like she is a PhD.
And you know her thesis was on the connection between
love and death, which is like a great thing for
How I met your mother? You know, yeah, she so
she she lent a lot of GRAVI toss I think
to the first season and we've been getting some letters
(06:13):
people are missing her.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
So back in Man.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Now on the flip side, is there anything for either
one of you that's given you a little bit of
PTSD that you've seen it and you're like, oh god,
I remember that week or I remember that bit and
and and it's made you feel.
Speaker 8 (06:43):
Not so warm and fuzzy.
Speaker 7 (06:44):
It gives you the ick.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
Yeah, I mean, yeah, there have there have been a
few things that you know, twenty years later, like play
insensitively in wish that I'm like, I just we wouldn't
have written that now, And you're aware of the twenty
years noss of it all. Yeah, you know, like, oh,
we all change, the world changes, we all grow up,
we all know how to say when you.
Speaker 5 (07:05):
Know better, you do better. We know better now.
Speaker 4 (07:08):
There are certain jokes that we made, and thank god,
they're fairly few and far between, but there are some
where you're like, oh, I don't remember ever, I can't
I can't imagine I.
Speaker 5 (07:18):
Ever thought that was a good thing to say.
Speaker 4 (07:21):
And there's been a few of those that leap out,
and we've really tried to own them on our podcast
and really talk about them and say, like, we wouldn't
say this now, and we're aware that these clunker lines
are out in the world. They're circulating right alongside all
the other parts we're really proud of, and it's really complicated,
but you have to own it.
Speaker 5 (07:42):
You have to go like, this is what it's almost.
Speaker 4 (07:44):
It is healing in a weird way to go back
and go, oh, this thing that's bothered me for a while,
I'm happy to have this place where I can admit it.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
We got We often start the episodes of How We
Made Your Mother with like an audio letter that someone
sent in like an audio voice about like what the
show means to them. And we got this letter that
was just such a heartbreaker and it was so beautiful. Yeah,
and it was from a trans person who said I
loved How I Met your Mother, even when I felt
(08:12):
like How I Met your Mother didn't love me.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Wow, And it was.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
So moving and it was about we we we linked
it up with an episode where there was a word
that that Creg was just really upset that we used.
It was kind of just a silly joke. It didn't
even need to be in there, like a plot dependent
joke or something, but it led Craig and I. I actually,
really it's one of my favorite things we've recorded, Craig.
(08:39):
It's like we had a really deep discussion about words
and comedy and the power of words and the misuse
of words. And you know, there's a lot of you know,
people fighting to say certain words, and Craig has you know,
you can talk about this or not, Craig, but like,
you know, Craig has written beautifully about the use of
certain words. And I think if you're doing comedy, the
(09:05):
rules and the you know, standards in society change, and
they should like I don't think it's like you should
be we should be like it should we should always
be able to say whatever it's like. No, Actually, a
whole community has risen up on mass and said please
stop using that word, and we should listen to them.
Speaker 9 (09:25):
Culture is evolving, languages evolving.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
Yeah, and it's tricky in comedy because you know, part
of comedy is barriers, pushing and leaning into certain stereotypes
and all this stuff. But it's tricky, and I feel
like we, uh, there were certain things that we didn't
It's not only that Carter and Craig didn't think about it.
There were no objections to it at the sure, you know.
So I think there is a kind of like appropriate
(09:52):
reflection and atoning that feels like really appropriate and good.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (09:57):
I mean, it's all you can do is is reflect
the society that you live in at the time, and
then it's okay to look back and be like, wow,
thank god, that's not what it's like anymore.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
And yeah, yeah, and I think you know, I wrote
and directed this movie, the first movie I've directed, called Happy,
Thank You More Please, And there's a moment in there
where it's a scene between me and Pablo Schreiber and
my character talks about a writer told him that every
five years, you realize what an asshole you were five
years ago, and it keeps happening every five years. And
I think this is actually a good sign that you're growing,
(10:30):
because you should look back on your former self with
like a bit of a blush and a bit of
a like, why did I doubt? Why did I say that?
Because it means you're you're updating yourself.
Speaker 4 (10:39):
And I'm so grateful. Josh reference that a message from
this trans person who was so generous to us, who
said a couple times in series there were jokes that
used what was then kind of a word people threw
around in comedy circle sometimes that is that is actually
a word that really hurts our community. And I was
so grateful to this person for their general rosity towards
(11:01):
us to say, I still love your show, and a
couple of things in there really hurt me. I during
how much mother I had my son who has disabilities.
He has a rare genetics syndrome, and he was born
between your two and three of how much your mother,
and it changed so much of my life and how
I see the world and how you know, I've become
like this disability rights advocate because I love my son
(11:22):
so much and I wanted I want to help educate
people on how to talk about and think about disability
in our culture and in pop culture. I just published
a novel that is actually got comedic novel kind of
about this, about this journey.
Speaker 10 (11:34):
It's amazing.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
It's called this Is That's Not How It Happened by
Craig Thomas, and just really check it out.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
And I did the audio book. I am amazing at it.
Speaker 4 (11:45):
It's it's a comedy about the journey of being a
parent of a kid with the disability while also working
in Hollywood, which is kind of reflective of what my
experience was like while working on How Much Mother. And
that's all that's all to say, Like it got me
thinking so so much more deeply and introspectively about what
did we say and do on nine years of television
episodes that may have stepped on people's toes that we
(12:07):
didn't even know we were doing because I didn't know
how important it was to not say the R word
for the disability community things like that until I was
very much living. You know, my heart was in the
disability community, my son, and so it just it's it's
okay to admit what you didn't know then, sure, and
it's okay to admit that you can improve things now.
And whenever we get this kind of feedback on how
(12:30):
much your mother from somebody, We just we try to
own it and say like thank you for letting us
know that. And now we have this place to talk
about it with our podcast, which which is great because
we we you know, we like get moved to tears
sometimes talking about it where we're still moved by again
the generosity of people who stuck with the show even
if sometimes we got things wrong.
Speaker 6 (12:50):
Well, we're gonna we're going to steal that idea and
we're going to open every pod meets World now with
a letter about how somebody loved how I met your.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
You guys must you guys must like hear from people
and it's just incredible right to have been a part
of something that was so meaningful to people.
Speaker 6 (13:11):
The thing that's really cool for us is, I mean,
obviously we hear from a ton of people email wise,
and we get the letters and all that kind of stuff,
but we also do the convention circuit, so we get
to go out there and meet the fans face to face,
and those are the ones where it's they'll just walk
up to you and they're holding it together.
Speaker 10 (13:27):
And then they burst into tears.
Speaker 6 (13:28):
And it's like, especially because our show targeted such a
young audience. Yeah, there's a lot of these kids did
not have good lives, and something like Boy Meets World
was the thing that was they had a twenty two
minute escape from whatever the hell they lived in. And
it's really powerful when somebody comes up and just says,
you have no idea what you did for me.
Speaker 10 (13:47):
I mean, it really really matters quite a bit. I
was busy.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
Phillips had a talk show for like a year or two,
and I was a guest on it, and she always
ended the show by saying right into the camera, she
say I love you, right, And she said because she
did it one night and she got a letter from
someone who said, you're the only person who says that
to me in my life. So she was very committed
to saying it every night, if only just.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
For that person, for that one person.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
And yeah, I mean I get so moved at realizing
that I was like a big part of people's like
formast years, you know, and people say like, you taught
me that it's okay to have feelings, and you taught
me that it's okay to fail, and that there might
be a bigger plan, you know, all these kind of
big how I met your mother lessons that were recurring themes,
(14:39):
and I think, yeah, I didn't like how I was
in episode three of season four or what you know
what I mean, like I can do that. But the
truth is, like I was just a part of something
that meant a lot to a lot of people, and
not everyone gets that.
Speaker 5 (14:52):
It's a real honor.
Speaker 4 (14:52):
I mean, you guys, I know your guys show was
like that to people, right, And when you hear about
it now, isn't it doesn't make.
Speaker 5 (14:57):
You feel good. You feel like, my god, we did
this thing.
Speaker 4 (15:00):
We didn't even know what we were doing when we
were doing it, and it's something that has made people
feel less alone, or more seen or more connected.
Speaker 5 (15:08):
It's a great honor, really.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
And you hear a lot about wish fulfillment on like
a kid's show, you know, and the wish fulfillment is, oh,
I wish I had magical powers or I wish I
was super rich, And for both of our shows, there's
a lot of wish fulfillment, but it's stuff like I
wish my best friend was that loyal, I wish I
had parents who cared about me, I wish I had
(15:31):
a girlfriend that loved me, you know, it's like those
It's that kind of And that's the.
Speaker 8 (15:37):
Thing that we were able to give to people.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
Is I envisioned that you were my friends and now
doing the podcast for all of us. I don't think
any of us could have predicted Will Writer or myself
how much we have enjoyed letting people get to know Will,
Danielle and Writer. Whereas for our entire careers, people have
(16:00):
just thought of us as Eric to Panga and Sean,
And now when they come up to us and they've
been listening to six seasons of a podcast, they really
know us, and that has been so rewarding.
Speaker 8 (16:15):
Have you Josh felt that way?
Speaker 1 (16:17):
That letting people get to know Josh has felt even
more rewarding than all the accolades of note being known
as Ted?
Speaker 3 (16:27):
I mean, that's such a landmine in terms of identity
and what is my name?
Speaker 5 (16:34):
Like, I don't know if you.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
Guys know this, Like every April I start getting happy
birthday messages my birthdays in July, but I guess at
some point they dropped that Ted Moseby's birthday was in April,
and I'm like, this isn't my birthday? Like it's such
a that's I always find that to be supremely strange.
(16:56):
I think in some ways, all of my work, I mean,
you have to risk, you know, your first challenge in
show business is getting known for anything, you know, just
getting work. Then if you're on a show like ours,
your next challenge is to differentiate yourself or make another move,
or get into something else where you can diversify or broaden.
(17:20):
And a lot of my work has just been about
what doesn't feel like How I met your mother. Like
I was offered a number of you know, single guys
in the city looking for love after How I met
your Mother, and I wouldn't do any of them, of course,
because I had thoroughly explored that archetype. You know, I
would take roles that felt really different and really strange.
You know, I always appreciate it when people come up
(17:42):
to me and you know, call me Josh and recognize
that I was an actor on a show, because there
is people form such parasocial relationships with you that the
fact that you are not named Ted born in April
is actually it hurts their field. It's their feelings that
their friend is not really real and that Neil and
(18:04):
I aren't rolling around New York City together, you know,
like they're mad about it. But I think that, you know,
I just honor that it's tricky sometimes.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Reality gets tricky for people around this stuff.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
But I think that for me and again, you know,
marrying someone who had never seen the show or I
mean most of my community now, I don't. I have
one friend who's now a dear friend who grew up
in Iran, in Tehran until he was fifteen, and he
learned to speak English from scrubs and how I met
your mother. Yeah, I'm sure you guys have heard that.
Speaker 10 (18:40):
Yeah, yeah, And.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
He didn't reveal that to me for like the first
two years of our friendship, which I thought was really cool.
But you know, there's just I think I don't know.
Are you guys anyagram people? Do you know what the
enneagram is?
Speaker 10 (18:55):
Yes?
Speaker 8 (18:55):
I know about the animal Okay.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
So it's like this personality classification system and it's nine
different personality.
Speaker 7 (19:01):
Oh, I think, Daniel, try to.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
Like you, but one of them, I'm actually a mix
of a three and a four, and a three is
the achiever. And it's this kind of thing of like
the wound is like you don't feel like your love
for who you are, you feel your love for what
you do right, and that that's very hard.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
A lot of Hollywood people are threes, you know what
I mean.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
It's like it's like I got to keep I gotta
do the next right, the next big thing, or I'm
not worthy enough. But a four is called the individualist
and it's and it's our biggest fear is kind of
being having our identity or uniqueness flattened. You know that
you won't be valued for our uniqueness. And I found
that being thought of or called a name or a
character that I am actually not was really like hurt
(19:49):
my four, Like it hurt that part of me that
needed to be like myself, like truly myself. And then
I've talked with Craig a lot about this, like I'm
and maybe you guys have something analogous that happened on
your show, but the pilot is like that just came
from Carter and Craig's imagination. But then they get these
actors and they start like I do crossroad puzzles, so
(20:09):
I would often do crossrod puzzles on them, but Carter
also does cross so suddenly there were crossword puzzle jokes, right,
and then there were I'm a big reader, and then
there were reading jokes. And then Ted was intellectual, but
he was kind of ridiculed for being an intellect, which
I I like, love ideas and philosophy and all this stuff.
And I always felt and I talked a lot about
(20:30):
this is a crag. I'm not spoiling anything, but I
sometimes felt like there were things I really loved and
valued about myself that they took. Again, you're just writer,
I put it into Ted, and then people I was
ridiculed for them. And then I would recommend a book
on Twitter and people be, You're just like Ted.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
I was like, because I read books.
Speaker 5 (20:48):
Like this is insane, right.
Speaker 7 (20:52):
They're both exactly the same.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
Well, it just gave me like this kind of identity
crisis where I was really struggling. But I think I'm
I'm largely past it, like I've spent so many years.
And I will say, marrying a woman who is a psychologist,
Like when I tried to explain this to her, she
understood it in such a like bone deep, cellular way,
(21:14):
and I remember her putting her hand on my arm
in one of our first dates and saying, you can
complain to me about this as much as you want.
And it was so beautiful because it normally you feel like, well,
I want to be grateful. I don't want to, you know,
spit in the face of this thing. But it is
disorienting and it does produce a kind of vertigo. And
(21:35):
I don't know, maybe just for me and Rider, I
don't know, like it could not other people I think
might deal with this or be less introspective or kind
of beat themselves up around this.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
But for me it was really hard.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
And that's why the podcast and the marriage have been great.
Speaker 5 (21:50):
Yeah, and one came out of the other.
Speaker 4 (21:52):
Rider, how where I have to know? Where are you
and you're making peace with us? Looking back on it,
I think you were the one that had seen the
least of your your own show. Of the three of
you guys, right, where are you now having gone through it? Like,
where do you find that healing or forgiveness that Josh
is talking about?
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Yeah?
Speaker 9 (22:08):
Exactly, Yeah, No, this has been it. I mean, this
is the podcast has been it for me. I mean
it was like perfect midlife crisis, like you know it
and Josh you put it perfectly when you said, you know,
hugging that former self like that's basically what this has
been for me. And then now, yeah, when people recognize me,
like I used to just run away, like I would
literally run away, like I would avoid being recognized, I'd
(22:30):
avoid everything.
Speaker 5 (22:32):
And now I.
Speaker 9 (22:33):
Can just be like, Wow, this is really great and
this is such a cool thing. And when people connect
with me because of the character, I'm just grateful. Now
I'm just like cool man, Like that's awesome. And a
lot of it is, you know, just letting go of
that ego. And I feel it's hard because part of
(22:54):
being an actor is that you just have to embrace
these characters and and you know, but I feel like Josh,
I hear you're saying, like I think I've started in
theater too, and I feel like there's something to being
able to just like forget that it ever happened, to
move on to the next project and play the next
role that television doesn't allow especially popular. When you're on
(23:14):
a show this popular, right, like it permanently cements you.
And in some ways it's the worst thing that can
happen to you as an actor, it's the best thing
in that you're successful, You've done the thing, and hopefully
you earned it because you're doing a great job, but
then it ruins you for the next however many years,
because you can't do the thing that you want to do,
which is play a completely different character or or bring
(23:34):
parts of you to something without people being like, oh,
you're doing the same thing you did on that show.
Like you just want to be able to reinvent that's
the fun of acting. That's why I had to stop acting.
Speaker 5 (23:42):
You know. And I feel like part of it is
because I started so.
Speaker 9 (23:45):
Young, you know, Like I think if I had been
in my twenties, I might have been able to wrap
my head around the idea like.
Speaker 5 (23:51):
This, this could happen, and you know, but it's.
Speaker 9 (23:53):
You know, for me, it's like it's kind of broken permanently,
like it's too But now I love writing, I love directing.
I get the same high that I do from acting
from that because it's the same process.
Speaker 5 (24:03):
But I don't have to be with myself. Yeah, I
have to be the one doing.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Yeah, man, we should have lunch.
Speaker 7 (24:10):
Oh that'd be such a depressing lunch. Sandwichever you don't
get us, will I don't.
Speaker 6 (24:19):
I walk up every day like this is the best
thing that ever happened.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
What do you don't know about like internal family systems.
Speaker 10 (24:24):
I f s.
Speaker 8 (24:25):
I know, I know, yes, Janiel, Now we have.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
To have another lunch for me, just about all that
therapist are going to have lunch.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
But it's this idea that there are different parts of
ourselves that are that are active. You know, there's a
fifteen year old and a five year old and all
these different parts and they're still active, and they still
sometimes come over and take us over and take over
our face. And I actually it's helped me to think
of Ted as a part. It's both a chart I
played and it's a.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
Part of me. Not to deny it. But the thing that.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
I will probably never stopped fighting for is the recognition
that it's a part of me, it's not the whole
of me, and that there's what I was really fighting
for was dimensionality.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
And I felt like I was collapsed.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
Into this small, bordered kind of guy that I didn't
even write.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
You know, it would be one thing if I wrote
the part.
Speaker 3 (25:18):
It was just like I sometimes want to say to people,
like I was contractually obligated to do that, man.
Speaker 6 (25:23):
Like that.
Speaker 7 (25:27):
I could.
Speaker 6 (25:28):
But you know what, you also realize though, that's one
of the things that I love about television is you've
also discovered, or we as actors have discovered, if you
get this opportunity the key to immortality, and that I
you know, my favorite show ever is mash We talk
about it all the time.
Speaker 5 (25:42):
I'm doing a mass rewatch right now. I will talk
to you whatever. I know it backwards for ways.
Speaker 6 (25:52):
I know every single line of every single episode. And
while McLean, Stevenson, Wayne Rogers, Loretta Switt they're gone, but
Hot Lips and Henry Blake and Trapper they're alive forever.
Speaker 7 (26:05):
And I can go and watch them whenever I want to.
Speaker 6 (26:08):
So Ted Moseby one hundred and fifty years from now
is still very much going to.
Speaker 7 (26:13):
Be alive, And well will I be or no, We're
gonna be gone. But that's the joy. That's the joy.
I mean, it's it's people talk about how I how
do I last forever?
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Well?
Speaker 6 (26:22):
Television is one of those ways of you, A part
of you will be around forever.
Speaker 7 (26:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
But I look at like where I live in Brooklyn,
there's like a on Atlantic, there's like a maybe Flatbush,
but there's like a general like a like a statue
sure or named you know, streets named it, and I'm like,
I don't, no one cares.
Speaker 9 (26:43):
Like.
Speaker 5 (26:47):
Our show is funnier than that guy's show.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
But I heard Albert Brooks, like a theater actor, said
to him, you know.
Speaker 3 (26:56):
You do film, so you're gonna live last forever, and
he's like, no, we're all going away. And I'll give
you an example I did. I did this show with
al Pacino for two years called Hunters. It was a
great show, Nazi hunting show set in the seventies, and
I would tell young people I'm working with al Pacino and.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
They would say who.
Speaker 5 (27:17):
Of course.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
So what I'm saying is like, do you know what
I'm saying?
Speaker 6 (27:20):
Said but no, But that's not exactly my point because
if you said to those save same young people, I'm
working with Scarface, they know exactly who we're talking about.
Speaker 7 (27:28):
The character is still alive.
Speaker 6 (27:30):
Al Pacino might disappear, But saying godfather I'm working with.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
I guess that the differences is that I am on
set making the things, so I think of myself as
an actor playing a character, of course, Whereas you know,
Jordana and I have a joke like she'll watch like
a Viking show and I'll say, like they get smoothies
at Airwan. No, she's like you like they get smoothie
(27:57):
at Airwon. They you know, they're two dollars right off
of the bone and tasting life. That's Lewis, That is
the case.
Speaker 9 (28:07):
He's literally weaving his own clothing to play Lincoln exactly.
Speaker 4 (28:13):
It was a Game of Thrones episode where you saw
Starbucks Starbucks, ye.
Speaker 7 (28:19):
God, go watch Braveheart.
Speaker 6 (28:20):
There's guys walking in the background of almost every scene
in Braveheart with baseball hats on the cars in the background.
It's it's amazing, hilarious, just briefly because it is my love.
(28:41):
Do you think there's any chance that sitcom like How
I Met Your Mother, like a Boy Meets World, like
any of the shows that I grew up watching or loving,
has a chance of coming back and being as popular
as they were.
Speaker 5 (28:53):
I just think the fact that no one does twenty
two or twenty four episodes anymore. It's eight episodes and
people watch them in three seconds and then they go
a year later it comes back and think, oh I
forgot about the show or two years later. I think
that has ruined the reach, right. You just can't replicate
that feeling even Jordana. I was thinking about this one.
Speaker 4 (29:13):
Josh was saying that Jordana had being forced to watch
one episode at a time, Josh.
Speaker 5 (29:17):
Good night before we're going to record our podcast.
Speaker 4 (29:19):
She's having to experience that the show in the way
that it originally was experienced.
Speaker 5 (29:23):
But she but she, I don't know.
Speaker 4 (29:26):
There's something to it, I think, and I feel like
it's hard to replicate that with these Bingi things. And
by the way, I love the people binge on at
your mother and have watched it thirty times, and they
watched twenty in a day or whatever. But I think
that thing that our show's had where people waited a
week and they couldn't wait till the night Friday night
to watch your show. I'm going to sit down with
my family Friday night and then late nineteen nineties or
(29:47):
whatever it is and watch Boy Meets World.
Speaker 5 (29:49):
That that thing is gone.
Speaker 4 (29:51):
That's gone except for sporting events, and I don't know
how to get it back.
Speaker 3 (29:54):
I wish, So I do have to say, you know,
so everything got adamized right into stream network TV kind
of createred big hit shows now or a fraction of
the numbers we were doing back in the day, and
then you have this binging thing. But then the streamers
were like, you know what, it's actually fun for people
to wait a week to watch, So.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
You're seeing more of that happen.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
Yes, And then I'm watching stuff on Amazon and there's commercials. Yeah,
like there's just event And then they're like, well, you
can bundle all the streamers together. Yeah, that's called cable.
Like you're inventing television exactly. So I think there were
(30:38):
some things that the twentieth century kind of figured out.
Speaker 5 (30:41):
They rebuilt it that.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
We try to like pull them apart, and then we
reinvent them and then we're like, Okay, I guess I
guess that model.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
Was good and fun for people.
Speaker 5 (30:50):
Yeah, you know, maybe that's the answer.
Speaker 4 (30:52):
Maybe it will, Maybe it is evolving back to where
it will become the thing that captured all these people's
minds and hearts. That doesn't seem to be happening in
the same way anymore.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
I will say, though, seven eight nine year runs, I
don't know, Yeah, yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 4 (31:05):
Yeh, twenty two a year, twenty four years, a nine
year run.
Speaker 5 (31:09):
It's a bit that's a big beast, right.
Speaker 6 (31:11):
I mean, even back in the day with all the
best shows ever. We talked about this lot on our podcast.
It's very difficult to find a show that got better
as the longer it went on.
Speaker 5 (31:20):
That's true that you're stretching. You're stretching at times.
Speaker 6 (31:24):
Yeah, so there's you do find maybe some maybe two
three seasons is the is kind of the sweet spot.
Speaker 7 (31:29):
Now.
Speaker 3 (31:29):
We're actually shocked at the first two seasons how many
like banger episodes there were, Like we came out of
the gate really like having a voice and knowing everyone.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
Knew kind of what their their the.
Speaker 3 (31:41):
Task at hand was, and I'm pretty delighted that we
came out so strong.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
For Boy Meets World, we had a similar thing in
the sense that because we started when we were so young,
over seven seasons, it's almost like there were three different.
Speaker 8 (31:54):
Versions of the show.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
They're like the first two years are very much elementary
and junior high school kids really figuring out the world,
and then there's like high school and then it was like,
all right, now these kids are in college and there
are more adults, and so we had like we got
to evolve three different times.
Speaker 3 (32:11):
Yeah, I do have to say, because I was in
college in grad school when you guys were on, which
was not heavy TV watching gears for me, but my
younger sister. I told her I was doing this podcast
and she's like, I never missed an episode, every single.
Speaker 8 (32:25):
Every single that's nice. Tell her. We said, hello, what's
her name?
Speaker 2 (32:29):
Joanna?
Speaker 5 (32:30):
Joanna?
Speaker 2 (32:32):
She'll be delighted, awome.
Speaker 5 (32:34):
I was just curious, ask one other question for you guys.
Speaker 4 (32:36):
Josh and I were talking about this that idea of
he's watching his younger self twenty years ago, and there's
scenes where he's like, I don't remember doing that with
my body. I know that's me and I'm saying those
things and doing those things, but I forgot it existed.
I feel like I heard you guys say that, and
you're one of those your podcasts you were like, I
don't remember. I know there's visual proof that I'm doing
this thing. Is there that weird out of body vertigo
(32:58):
for you guys doing this rewatch thing? Be cause I
feel Josh is having a little bit of that at times,
is that it seems like such a strange thing to
look back at yourself, especially when you're a kid.
Speaker 10 (33:06):
More it is.
Speaker 6 (33:07):
The thing that's amazing too, is a lot of times
what I'm finding that's very, very strange is that we'll
have an episode that none of us remember.
Speaker 7 (33:15):
And that's the thing that seems to be happening more
and more. It's not like one of us is like,
I remember everything about this and the other two are going, wow,
I don't remember. It's usually the three of us going
do you remember this at all?
Speaker 2 (33:25):
No? Nothing.
Speaker 9 (33:26):
Now, going back to something Josh was talking about, like
way earlier on in this conversation about seeing your past performances,
I'll often find when I remember, oh, I cared about
that beat or I thought that that beat was important,
it's the worst acting. Yeah, it's the ones that I
didn't think about, where I was completely unself conscious and
just showing up that I'm the most proud of now
(33:48):
because I'm like, wow, I was just in it, and like,
it's actually a great lesson as an actor, because it's
very hard to learn. If you're smart at all, you're
gonna like want to analyze the text and come out
make choices as an actor. But what you realize ultimately
as you get older, at least I have, is that
that's not the best acting. The best acting is when
you can make all the choices and then just let
them go.
Speaker 3 (34:09):
Truly when you when when you finish it, take and
you're like, that was some great acting almost it was, Yeah,
I noticed because we had a thing like a policy
on set. We didn't like it on sitcoms when people
would say objectively hilarious things and none of the characters
would act like something. So we decided we would laugh
(34:33):
at each other. Like we're sitting in a bar, we're
drinking beer. We're gonna laugh if someone says something funny.
And some of my favorite moments are watching me actually
laugh like an honest response or just like just listening
in like an un self conscious way. I totally get
what you're describing, writer.
Speaker 1 (34:50):
We have experienced that too, where we can tell in
scenes when we were just trying to make each other laugh,
where saber marines are, or like you know those awkward
moments and sitcoms where people are exiting at the same
time people are entering, and do they acknowledge each other
as they pass because we know each other, but like
the scene needs to progress forward. And there was one
(35:11):
Christmas episode where people are where some of us are
exiting and some of us are entering, and you can
tell we just decided to go wild with the like
way too minute.
Speaker 9 (35:24):
It's like we crammed five minutes of dialogue into two seconds.
Speaker 8 (35:28):
We're all breaking but trying not to break, and it's.
Speaker 3 (35:31):
Just there's the show you're making for the audience at home,
and then there's the show or the ecosystem you're all
living in that you're trying like. We had a first
a d Mike Shay was an incredible guy.
Speaker 5 (35:47):
Do you know we didn't know that?
Speaker 1 (35:50):
We also share the writer trivia question, who's the reader show?
Speaker 5 (35:53):
Help us up? Help us, help us out? You've blown
my mind.
Speaker 3 (36:02):
We share either and we have a special guest that'd
be unbelievable.
Speaker 5 (36:07):
Michael Story. I wanted to hear Okay, So Michael, Yeah,
I forgot that to.
Speaker 3 (36:15):
So Michael Sheay to when he wanted everyone to quiet down,
he would say, guys, guys, guys, do.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
You remember this of course?
Speaker 3 (36:22):
Or so whenever for once we hooked into this, whenever
it just said, guys, we should go whatever, Like whenever
the word guys was there.
Speaker 2 (36:31):
You'll watch How I Met Your Mother and you'll hear guys, guys, guys.
We just always say.
Speaker 3 (36:35):
Three times as an homage to our Michael, our beloved Michael.
Speaker 7 (36:39):
He would always say things to us like we still joke.
Speaker 6 (36:41):
So our our first a d and first stage manager's
name was Steve, and at one point he and his
wife got pregnant, and so we just hear Michael Shay
going like, all right, everybody, come on, let's get the
scene ready.
Speaker 4 (36:52):
Steve's having a baby.
Speaker 3 (36:57):
Baby, No, how to run a good thing.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
He keeps it funny and like it.
Speaker 5 (37:05):
Podcast we have.
Speaker 9 (37:07):
It was so great because we asked him about this
and he's just said he said, like he because you know,
his father was a big TV director and so he
grew up knowing that he had to keep the energy
on set going, and so he would just look at
it as like his job was, Hey, everybody, we're all
gonna just freshen it up, and I'm gonna say something
stupid to get everybody's at and.
Speaker 5 (37:26):
We're like, dude.
Speaker 3 (37:26):
It totally worked when we had background, like at club scenes,
he would go, all right, guys, sexy, sexy time, it's
sexy the energy. I hope we're talking about the same Michael.
Speaker 10 (37:40):
I think we are definitely.
Speaker 1 (37:42):
I'm in touch with Yeah, I'm still in touch with
Michael sheay, I just saw him recently.
Speaker 8 (37:46):
We talked when he was on our show. We talked about.
Speaker 2 (37:49):
We love that guy.
Speaker 5 (37:51):
Love that guy. That's cool.
Speaker 4 (37:53):
There, see there there are serious overlaps between our two shows.
Speaker 5 (37:57):
We have.
Speaker 3 (37:58):
We have one more over lap question writer, did you
do the graduate on Broadway?
Speaker 2 (38:04):
After I did the Graduate on Broadway?
Speaker 5 (38:05):
No, you got it? You got it? And I did not. Oh,
I was too Kathleen Turner.
Speaker 9 (38:11):
So I went and read with Kathleen and she was like,
made me take my boots off.
Speaker 2 (38:14):
And I thought, you did it after me.
Speaker 9 (38:16):
No, I did it. I did a tour. So I
was gonna because you replaced Jason. Did you replace him
for the summer or.
Speaker 2 (38:23):
Just for like three months?
Speaker 9 (38:24):
And then so they brought me in at that point
and had me read with Kathleen, and she was like,
you're too to to I was too short, so she
made it made like it was like I think.
Speaker 5 (38:34):
I was like fine, But then they offered me the tour,
so I did the I.
Speaker 2 (38:39):
Knew, I knew your name was in that.
Speaker 4 (38:42):
Yeah, I did it. Though, that's cool, that's crazy. Well,
it's a small world, y'all. We have we both have
meet or met in the title there's there's a lot of.
Speaker 1 (38:52):
Well I want everyone to be able to know. I
think you can get How We Made Your Mother. You
can listen to it anywhere you get your podcasts.
Speaker 8 (38:59):
What else can where can we go?
Speaker 1 (39:01):
I know Craig talked about his book, Let's plug that again.
Speaker 8 (39:04):
Talk to us about your book? What can people to?
Speaker 4 (39:07):
My first novel it's called That's Not How It Happened
from HarperCollins. Buy the book or by the audiobook starring
Josh Radner and Kobe Smulders and two other money blackers too,
But it's it's a four person story for our narrators,
for point of views, and it's my favorite thing I've
ever written, besides Time Trotter Cell people.
Speaker 3 (39:22):
It's really rich, like genuinely just a fantastic read.
Speaker 5 (39:26):
This is why we do the podcast. Actually we actually.
Speaker 1 (39:29):
Love and Josh, is there anything you want to talk
about outside of the podcast?
Speaker 3 (39:35):
I make music that I'm really happy about and proud about.
I just finished a new record, but I have a
bunch of stuff up on all the streaming platforms just
my name, Josh Radner. My friend Jeremiah just remixed a
couple of my tracks that are really.
Speaker 7 (39:49):
What type of music.
Speaker 2 (39:51):
How would you describe it, Craig.
Speaker 5 (39:53):
I mean, it's like any folk acoustics. Smart friends are.
Speaker 8 (40:00):
You guys are best friends, but haven't had lunch yet.
Speaker 4 (40:04):
We're gonna have a mash lunch, a mash lunch. I
will sing Josh's praises now. His music is so great.
He does the it's the theme song for our podcast,
among other things, is a great Josh song.
Speaker 5 (40:15):
He's super great. Everyone go check out his music. It's
so amazing, awesome.
Speaker 8 (40:18):
That's so great. Well, thank you both so much for
being here.
Speaker 1 (40:22):
I'm so excited to see where this journey takes you
over the next nine seasons of the show. And yeah,
so thank you both for being here.
Speaker 3 (40:31):
This was a really great It was freat to meet
you guys.
Speaker 1 (40:37):
Wow, can't believe how much overlap there. I mean, we
knew and we knew there was better.
Speaker 9 (40:40):
Lap, you know, we're talking about like there's also something
to the romance, like love storyline, like being this Romeo
and Juliet and like how I met your mother in
the title starts, is like the point of this is
like ultimate union and like ultimately a love that makes sense.
Speaker 5 (40:57):
So it's like I feel like the audience that.
Speaker 9 (41:00):
Up with boy Me's World must have just shifted right
into How I Met your Mom.
Speaker 6 (41:02):
Well, I mean, when you think about it, there's you
could with a few tweaks. This is Corey and Tepanga
moving to New York and meeting a whole new group
of friends, right and uh, you know, or wherever the
show takes place, and meeting a whole group of friends.
Speaker 5 (41:15):
I've never seen a single episode. I want to admit that,
but I've.
Speaker 7 (41:17):
Never seen a single episode. But I'd like to watch it.
Speaker 9 (41:19):
I know my mother was obsessed with I knew people
that loved it, but I never watched it.
Speaker 7 (41:23):
So good, Yeah, I hear Neil again.
Speaker 6 (41:26):
I hear Neil kind of like Steals the show where
he's just he's so hysterical. And I think he won.
I think they all won like a whole bunch of
awards for the show. I mean, this is for twenty
eight Emmys, which is somehow twenty nine more than we
ever were nominated.
Speaker 7 (41:42):
So yeah, it's fine, but Yike's crazy.
Speaker 8 (41:45):
Thank you all for joining us for this episode of
Pod Meets World.
Speaker 1 (41:48):
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, and we've got.
Speaker 7 (41:55):
Merch the How I Met Your Mother theme song.
Speaker 10 (42:00):
I don't know the theme song, so that, yeah, you're
just making it up.
Speaker 6 (42:03):
I have I was gonna do, don't.
Speaker 7 (42:06):
That's anybody's guests, but that's Blossom, So that wasn't gonna
help at all.
Speaker 10 (42:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (42:11):
Podmeetsworldshow dot com writer send us out.
Speaker 5 (42:14):
We love you all, pod dismissed.
Speaker 9 (42:18):
Pod Meets World is an iHeart podcast producer hosted by
Danielle Fischel, Wilfridell and Ryder Strong executive producers, Jensen Karp
and Amy Sugarman Executive in charge of production, Danielle Romo,
producer and editor, Tarasubasch producer, Maddy Moore engineer and Boy
Meets World superman Easton Allen. Our theme song is by
Kyle Morton of Typhoon. Follow us on Instagram at Podmeets
(42:38):
World Show or email us at Podmeets World Show at
gmail dot com
Welcome to a special Bonus episode, Part two with Josh
and Craig enjoy Well. One of the things I wanted
to talk to you guys about specifically for your podcast is, Josh,
I heard you on Jesse Tyler Ferguson's podcast talk about
how doing the Rewatch has been very healing for how
critical you have sometimes been about your own participation or
(00:42):
performance on the show. And that's something that I know,
especially for writer, is something he has experienced as well.
Can you talk with us a little bit more about
what the Rewatch has done for the way you look
back on the show?
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Yeah, sure, you know, I think that.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
I come from the theater, right and and that those
are That's how I fell in love with acting, and
that's where I kind of thought of myself, like that's
where I'm a theater actor.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
And the blessing of the theater is it goes away.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
You know, you do it and it evanesses into the air,
and then you come back, you do it again and
no one's like, this is what you look like last night,
this is what you did, or this is when you
didn't hit that line or moment and there was something
you know I had done.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
I think it was my fourth pilot.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
I had done a bunch of guest stars, so I
had done some on camera work, and I was still
acquainting myself with my face, you know what I looked like.
And you know when you're a kid and you hear
your voice on tape for the first time, you're like,
so that way, Yeah it's grotesque. Yeah, it's like it's like.
Speaker 4 (01:44):
They had that experience, but in front of thirty million people.
But I think it took me.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
I had some time to I needed some time to
acquaint myself with like, Okay, this is what I look
like and this is what my body is. And I
was I was having to everyone else, even including Kobe,
had just they had made more peace, I think with
themselves or weren't as self conscious as me for some reason.
But I remember, especially in those early seasons, I was
(02:12):
very hard on myself and I didn't even watch all
the episodes. But sometimes I would be like pleasantly surprised,
and other times.
Speaker 5 (02:19):
I'd be like, oh, I hate that.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
I hate that. And just watching watching the.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Show again all these years later with my wife and
where my life is now, I have this detachment, like
I'm watching it from a distance, and I'm so I
almost am like in dialogue with that younger actor who
was so hard on himself, and I'm like, I almost
like like I sit him down and be like, you
did a great job. He did a great job. And
(02:48):
I thought in certain ways that the value of my performance,
or the worth in my performance, was based on whether
that joke was funny, whether I had a good ale,
a bad episode, nail to beat. But but the truth is,
and I think, Will, this is what you're talking about, Like,
when it's perfectly cast, it's almost like your essence is doing.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
A lot of the work.
Speaker 5 (03:10):
Yes, you're just showing up.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
You're just showing up, and like it's the five of
us around a booth and for whatever reason, that works,
and I see that the show works and it and
I was a vital part of that working. And in
some ways, my naivete and my like very young face
even though I was twenty nine or thirty when we started,
like I had a really young face and I had
a really like vulnerable, like open quality that they cast
(03:34):
me for that I wasn't even in control of in
a way, So I just have made some peace with
like I understand why people love this show. I understand
why this show worked and wormed its way into so
many people's hearts, and I'm I'm walking around like even
Jordana said, you're a lot different. Like since the podcast
has been on, when people come up to you and
(03:55):
want to talk about how I met mother, I can
tell you're different. It's a much more like engage way.
And I just had to make some peace with it.
I thought that when I got off the show, I
have to run as far from this show as I can,
But the truth was I actually had to turn around
and hug the show closer to me and say, this
is a part of my life, this is a part
(04:16):
of my biography, this will always be with me, and
let's stop like running from it and just like love
it because it was wonderful.
Speaker 6 (04:23):
That's now, curiously, does does you know I know she'd
lie to you because she loves you. But does your
wife like the show?
Speaker 3 (04:30):
She loves the show and not, but she's a binger,
so she's like she doesn't like watching one a week.
Speaker 5 (04:37):
It's like she's having to like.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Go back to, you know, the old days. I didn't
like it.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
She wants to keep watching, and if we have to
watch too. She gets really excited, but she.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Is mirroring you know.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
There was I remember there was an episode first season,
and I think I talked about in the podcast Craig
where Jordana turned to me and she goes, I'm totally
in Yeah, Like there was an episode where she was
like super invested in everyone and I am. That's probably
when the audience got invested. I was like five six
the medicine starts like taking Yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
I was so terrified, Like I was like, what if
she doesn't like the show. This whole podcast was because she.
Speaker 6 (05:14):
Says away, we'd be she'd be on our podcast right now,
going so I'm doing a podcast about how.
Speaker 7 (05:19):
I hate my husband.
Speaker 8 (05:23):
Companion piece.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Well, she was actually she's she's taking some time off.
But on the first season she was a guest star
in every episode we had what was it called crack.
It was called Questions and Observations from a clinical psychologist
who's never seen how I Met your mother, who also
happens to be married to Josh.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
We whole acronyms, and she was great because she One
of the things.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
We're really doing on the show that I really love
is we're we're getting underneath it like we're really excavating it.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
It's almost like a college class. And like how I
met your mother?
Speaker 3 (05:52):
Miss you know she really she's quite a deep, you
know person, and she sees like she is a PhD.
And you know her thesis was on the connection between
love and death, which is like a great thing for
How I met your mother? You know, yeah, she so
she she lent a lot of GRAVI toss I think
to the first season and we've been getting some letters
(06:13):
people are missing her.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
So back in Man.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Now on the flip side, is there anything for either
one of you that's given you a little bit of
PTSD that you've seen it and you're like, oh god,
I remember that week or I remember that bit and
and and it's made you feel.
Speaker 8 (06:43):
Not so warm and fuzzy.
Speaker 7 (06:44):
It gives you the ick.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
Yeah, I mean, yeah, there have there have been a
few things that you know, twenty years later, like play
insensitively in wish that I'm like, I just we wouldn't
have written that now, And you're aware of the twenty
years noss of it all. Yeah, you know, like, oh,
we all change, the world changes, we all grow up,
we all know how to say when you.
Speaker 5 (07:05):
Know better, you do better. We know better now.
Speaker 4 (07:08):
There are certain jokes that we made, and thank god,
they're fairly few and far between, but there are some
where you're like, oh, I don't remember ever, I can't
I can't imagine I.
Speaker 5 (07:18):
Ever thought that was a good thing to say.
Speaker 4 (07:21):
And there's been a few of those that leap out,
and we've really tried to own them on our podcast
and really talk about them and say, like, we wouldn't
say this now, and we're aware that these clunker lines
are out in the world. They're circulating right alongside all
the other parts we're really proud of, and it's really complicated,
but you have to own it.
Speaker 5 (07:42):
You have to go like, this is what it's almost.
Speaker 4 (07:44):
It is healing in a weird way to go back
and go, oh, this thing that's bothered me for a while,
I'm happy to have this place where I can admit it.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
We got We often start the episodes of How We
Made Your Mother with like an audio letter that someone
sent in like an audio voice about like what the
show means to them. And we got this letter that
was just such a heartbreaker and it was so beautiful. Yeah,
and it was from a trans person who said I
loved How I Met your Mother, even when I felt
(08:12):
like How I Met your Mother didn't love me.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Wow, And it was.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
So moving and it was about we we we linked
it up with an episode where there was a word
that that Creg was just really upset that we used.
It was kind of just a silly joke. It didn't
even need to be in there, like a plot dependent
joke or something, but it led Craig and I. I actually,
really it's one of my favorite things we've recorded, Craig.
(08:39):
It's like we had a really deep discussion about words
and comedy and the power of words and the misuse
of words. And you know, there's a lot of you know,
people fighting to say certain words, and Craig has you know,
you can talk about this or not, Craig, but like,
you know, Craig has written beautifully about the use of
certain words. And I think if you're doing comedy, the
(09:05):
rules and the you know, standards in society change, and
they should like I don't think it's like you should
be we should be like it should we should always
be able to say whatever it's like. No, Actually, a
whole community has risen up on mass and said please
stop using that word, and we should listen to them.
Speaker 9 (09:25):
Culture is evolving, languages evolving.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
Yeah, and it's tricky in comedy because you know, part
of comedy is barriers, pushing and leaning into certain stereotypes
and all this stuff. But it's tricky, and I feel
like we, uh, there were certain things that we didn't
It's not only that Carter and Craig didn't think about it.
There were no objections to it at the sure, you know.
So I think there is a kind of like appropriate
(09:52):
reflection and atoning that feels like really appropriate and good.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (09:57):
I mean, it's all you can do is is reflect
the society that you live in at the time, and
then it's okay to look back and be like, wow,
thank god, that's not what it's like anymore.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
And yeah, yeah, and I think you know, I wrote
and directed this movie, the first movie I've directed, called Happy,
Thank You More Please, And there's a moment in there
where it's a scene between me and Pablo Schreiber and
my character talks about a writer told him that every
five years, you realize what an asshole you were five
years ago, and it keeps happening every five years. And
I think this is actually a good sign that you're growing,
(10:30):
because you should look back on your former self with
like a bit of a blush and a bit of
a like, why did I doubt? Why did I say that?
Because it means you're you're updating yourself.
Speaker 4 (10:39):
And I'm so grateful. Josh reference that a message from
this trans person who was so generous to us, who
said a couple times in series there were jokes that
used what was then kind of a word people threw
around in comedy circle sometimes that is that is actually
a word that really hurts our community. And I was
so grateful to this person for their general rosity towards
(11:01):
us to say, I still love your show, and a
couple of things in there really hurt me. I during
how much mother I had my son who has disabilities.
He has a rare genetics syndrome, and he was born
between your two and three of how much your mother,
and it changed so much of my life and how
I see the world and how you know, I've become
like this disability rights advocate because I love my son
(11:22):
so much and I wanted I want to help educate
people on how to talk about and think about disability
in our culture and in pop culture. I just published
a novel that is actually got comedic novel kind of
about this, about this journey.
Speaker 10 (11:34):
It's amazing.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
It's called this Is That's Not How It Happened by
Craig Thomas, and just really check it out.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
And I did the audio book. I am amazing at it.
Speaker 4 (11:45):
It's it's a comedy about the journey of being a
parent of a kid with the disability while also working
in Hollywood, which is kind of reflective of what my
experience was like while working on How Much Mother. And
that's all that's all to say, Like it got me
thinking so so much more deeply and introspectively about what
did we say and do on nine years of television
episodes that may have stepped on people's toes that we
(12:07):
didn't even know we were doing because I didn't know
how important it was to not say the R word
for the disability community things like that until I was
very much living. You know, my heart was in the
disability community, my son, and so it just it's it's
okay to admit what you didn't know then, sure, and
it's okay to admit that you can improve things now.
And whenever we get this kind of feedback on how
(12:30):
much your mother from somebody, We just we try to
own it and say like thank you for letting us
know that. And now we have this place to talk
about it with our podcast, which which is great because
we we you know, we like get moved to tears
sometimes talking about it where we're still moved by again
the generosity of people who stuck with the show even
if sometimes we got things wrong.
Speaker 6 (12:50):
Well, we're gonna we're going to steal that idea and
we're going to open every pod meets World now with
a letter about how somebody loved how I met your.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
You guys must you guys must like hear from people
and it's just incredible right to have been a part
of something that was so meaningful to people.
Speaker 6 (13:11):
The thing that's really cool for us is, I mean,
obviously we hear from a ton of people email wise,
and we get the letters and all that kind of stuff,
but we also do the convention circuit, so we get
to go out there and meet the fans face to face,
and those are the ones where it's they'll just walk
up to you and they're holding it together.
Speaker 10 (13:27):
And then they burst into tears.
Speaker 6 (13:28):
And it's like, especially because our show targeted such a
young audience. Yeah, there's a lot of these kids did
not have good lives, and something like Boy Meets World
was the thing that was they had a twenty two
minute escape from whatever the hell they lived in. And
it's really powerful when somebody comes up and just says,
you have no idea what you did for me.
Speaker 10 (13:47):
I mean, it really really matters quite a bit. I
was busy.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
Phillips had a talk show for like a year or two,
and I was a guest on it, and she always
ended the show by saying right into the camera, she
say I love you, right, And she said because she
did it one night and she got a letter from
someone who said, you're the only person who says that
to me in my life. So she was very committed
to saying it every night, if only just.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
For that person, for that one person.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
And yeah, I mean I get so moved at realizing
that I was like a big part of people's like
formast years, you know, and people say like, you taught
me that it's okay to have feelings, and you taught
me that it's okay to fail, and that there might
be a bigger plan, you know, all these kind of
big how I met your mother lessons that were recurring themes,
(14:39):
and I think, yeah, I didn't like how I was
in episode three of season four or what you know
what I mean, like I can do that. But the
truth is, like I was just a part of something
that meant a lot to a lot of people, and
not everyone gets that.
Speaker 5 (14:52):
It's a real honor.
Speaker 4 (14:52):
I mean, you guys, I know your guys show was
like that to people, right, And when you hear about
it now, isn't it doesn't make.
Speaker 5 (14:57):
You feel good. You feel like, my god, we did
this thing.
Speaker 4 (15:00):
We didn't even know what we were doing when we
were doing it, and it's something that has made people
feel less alone, or more seen or more connected.
Speaker 5 (15:08):
It's a great honor, really.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
And you hear a lot about wish fulfillment on like
a kid's show, you know, and the wish fulfillment is, oh,
I wish I had magical powers or I wish I
was super rich, And for both of our shows, there's
a lot of wish fulfillment, but it's stuff like I
wish my best friend was that loyal, I wish I
had parents who cared about me, I wish I had
(15:31):
a girlfriend that loved me, you know, it's like those
It's that kind of And that's the.
Speaker 8 (15:37):
Thing that we were able to give to people.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
Is I envisioned that you were my friends and now
doing the podcast for all of us. I don't think
any of us could have predicted Will Writer or myself
how much we have enjoyed letting people get to know Will,
Danielle and Writer. Whereas for our entire careers, people have
(16:00):
just thought of us as Eric to Panga and Sean,
And now when they come up to us and they've
been listening to six seasons of a podcast, they really
know us, and that has been so rewarding.
Speaker 8 (16:15):
Have you Josh felt that way?
Speaker 1 (16:17):
That letting people get to know Josh has felt even
more rewarding than all the accolades of note being known
as Ted?
Speaker 3 (16:27):
I mean, that's such a landmine in terms of identity
and what is my name?
Speaker 5 (16:34):
Like, I don't know if you.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
Guys know this, Like every April I start getting happy
birthday messages my birthdays in July, but I guess at
some point they dropped that Ted Moseby's birthday was in April,
and I'm like, this isn't my birthday? Like it's such
a that's I always find that to be supremely strange.
(16:56):
I think in some ways, all of my work, I mean,
you have to risk, you know, your first challenge in
show business is getting known for anything, you know, just
getting work. Then if you're on a show like ours,
your next challenge is to differentiate yourself or make another move,
or get into something else where you can diversify or broaden.
(17:20):
And a lot of my work has just been about
what doesn't feel like How I met your mother. Like
I was offered a number of you know, single guys
in the city looking for love after How I met
your Mother, and I wouldn't do any of them, of course,
because I had thoroughly explored that archetype. You know, I
would take roles that felt really different and really strange.
You know, I always appreciate it when people come up
(17:42):
to me and you know, call me Josh and recognize
that I was an actor on a show, because there
is people form such parasocial relationships with you that the
fact that you are not named Ted born in April
is actually it hurts their field. It's their feelings that
their friend is not really real and that Neil and
(18:04):
I aren't rolling around New York City together, you know,
like they're mad about it. But I think that, you know,
I just honor that it's tricky sometimes.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Reality gets tricky for people around this stuff.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
But I think that for me and again, you know,
marrying someone who had never seen the show or I
mean most of my community now, I don't. I have
one friend who's now a dear friend who grew up
in Iran, in Tehran until he was fifteen, and he
learned to speak English from scrubs and how I met
your mother. Yeah, I'm sure you guys have heard that.
Speaker 10 (18:40):
Yeah, yeah, And.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
He didn't reveal that to me for like the first
two years of our friendship, which I thought was really cool.
But you know, there's just I think I don't know.
Are you guys anyagram people? Do you know what the
enneagram is?
Speaker 10 (18:55):
Yes?
Speaker 8 (18:55):
I know about the animal Okay.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
So it's like this personality classification system and it's nine
different personality.
Speaker 7 (19:01):
Oh, I think, Daniel, try to.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
Like you, but one of them, I'm actually a mix
of a three and a four, and a three is
the achiever. And it's this kind of thing of like
the wound is like you don't feel like your love
for who you are, you feel your love for what
you do right, and that that's very hard.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
A lot of Hollywood people are threes, you know what
I mean.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
It's like it's like I got to keep I gotta
do the next right, the next big thing, or I'm
not worthy enough. But a four is called the individualist
and it's and it's our biggest fear is kind of
being having our identity or uniqueness flattened. You know that
you won't be valued for our uniqueness. And I found
that being thought of or called a name or a
character that I am actually not was really like hurt
(19:49):
my four, Like it hurt that part of me that
needed to be like myself, like truly myself. And then
I've talked with Craig a lot about this, like I'm
and maybe you guys have something analogous that happened on
your show, but the pilot is like that just came
from Carter and Craig's imagination. But then they get these
actors and they start like I do crossroad puzzles, so
(20:09):
I would often do crossrod puzzles on them, but Carter
also does cross so suddenly there were crossword puzzle jokes, right,
and then there were I'm a big reader, and then
there were reading jokes. And then Ted was intellectual, but
he was kind of ridiculed for being an intellect, which
I I like, love ideas and philosophy and all this stuff.
And I always felt and I talked a lot about
(20:30):
this is a crag. I'm not spoiling anything, but I
sometimes felt like there were things I really loved and
valued about myself that they took. Again, you're just writer,
I put it into Ted, and then people I was
ridiculed for them. And then I would recommend a book
on Twitter and people be, You're just like Ted.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
I was like, because I read books.
Speaker 5 (20:48):
Like this is insane, right.
Speaker 7 (20:52):
They're both exactly the same.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
Well, it just gave me like this kind of identity
crisis where I was really struggling. But I think I'm
I'm largely past it, like I've spent so many years.
And I will say, marrying a woman who is a psychologist,
Like when I tried to explain this to her, she
understood it in such a like bone deep, cellular way,
(21:14):
and I remember her putting her hand on my arm
in one of our first dates and saying, you can
complain to me about this as much as you want.
And it was so beautiful because it normally you feel like, well,
I want to be grateful. I don't want to, you know,
spit in the face of this thing. But it is
disorienting and it does produce a kind of vertigo. And
(21:35):
I don't know, maybe just for me and Rider, I
don't know, like it could not other people I think
might deal with this or be less introspective or kind
of beat themselves up around this.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
But for me it was really hard.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
And that's why the podcast and the marriage have been great.
Speaker 5 (21:50):
Yeah, and one came out of the other.
Speaker 4 (21:52):
Rider, how where I have to know? Where are you
and you're making peace with us? Looking back on it,
I think you were the one that had seen the
least of your your own show. Of the three of
you guys, right, where are you now having gone through it? Like,
where do you find that healing or forgiveness that Josh
is talking about?
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Yeah?
Speaker 9 (22:08):
Exactly, Yeah, No, this has been it. I mean, this
is the podcast has been it for me. I mean
it was like perfect midlife crisis, like you know it
and Josh you put it perfectly when you said, you know,
hugging that former self like that's basically what this has
been for me. And then now, yeah, when people recognize me,
like I used to just run away, like I would
literally run away, like I would avoid being recognized, I'd
(22:30):
avoid everything.
Speaker 5 (22:32):
And now I.
Speaker 9 (22:33):
Can just be like, Wow, this is really great and
this is such a cool thing. And when people connect
with me because of the character, I'm just grateful. Now
I'm just like cool man, Like that's awesome. And a
lot of it is, you know, just letting go of
that ego. And I feel it's hard because part of
(22:54):
being an actor is that you just have to embrace
these characters and and you know, but I feel like Josh,
I hear you're saying, like I think I've started in
theater too, and I feel like there's something to being
able to just like forget that it ever happened, to
move on to the next project and play the next
role that television doesn't allow especially popular. When you're on
(23:14):
a show this popular, right, like it permanently cements you.
And in some ways it's the worst thing that can
happen to you as an actor, it's the best thing
in that you're successful, You've done the thing, and hopefully
you earned it because you're doing a great job, but
then it ruins you for the next however many years,
because you can't do the thing that you want to do,
which is play a completely different character or or bring
(23:34):
parts of you to something without people being like, oh,
you're doing the same thing you did on that show.
Like you just want to be able to reinvent that's
the fun of acting. That's why I had to stop acting.
Speaker 5 (23:42):
You know. And I feel like part of it is
because I started so.
Speaker 9 (23:45):
Young, you know, Like I think if I had been
in my twenties, I might have been able to wrap
my head around the idea like.
Speaker 5 (23:51):
This, this could happen, and you know, but it's.
Speaker 9 (23:53):
You know, for me, it's like it's kind of broken permanently,
like it's too But now I love writing, I love directing.
I get the same high that I do from acting
from that because it's the same process.
Speaker 5 (24:03):
But I don't have to be with myself. Yeah, I
have to be the one doing.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Yeah, man, we should have lunch.
Speaker 7 (24:10):
Oh that'd be such a depressing lunch. Sandwichever you don't
get us, will I don't.
Speaker 6 (24:19):
I walk up every day like this is the best
thing that ever happened.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
What do you don't know about like internal family systems.
Speaker 10 (24:24):
I f s.
Speaker 8 (24:25):
I know, I know, yes, Janiel, Now we have.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
To have another lunch for me, just about all that
therapist are going to have lunch.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
But it's this idea that there are different parts of
ourselves that are that are active. You know, there's a
fifteen year old and a five year old and all
these different parts and they're still active, and they still
sometimes come over and take us over and take over
our face. And I actually it's helped me to think
of Ted as a part. It's both a chart I
played and it's a.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
Part of me. Not to deny it. But the thing that.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
I will probably never stopped fighting for is the recognition
that it's a part of me, it's not the whole
of me, and that there's what I was really fighting
for was dimensionality.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
And I felt like I was collapsed.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
Into this small, bordered kind of guy that I didn't
even write.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
You know, it would be one thing if I wrote
the part.
Speaker 3 (25:18):
It was just like I sometimes want to say to people,
like I was contractually obligated to do that, man.
Speaker 6 (25:23):
Like that.
Speaker 7 (25:27):
I could.
Speaker 6 (25:28):
But you know what, you also realize though, that's one
of the things that I love about television is you've
also discovered, or we as actors have discovered, if you
get this opportunity the key to immortality, and that I
you know, my favorite show ever is mash We talk
about it all the time.
Speaker 5 (25:42):
I'm doing a mass rewatch right now. I will talk
to you whatever. I know it backwards for ways.
Speaker 6 (25:52):
I know every single line of every single episode. And
while McLean, Stevenson, Wayne Rogers, Loretta Switt they're gone, but
Hot Lips and Henry Blake and Trapper they're alive forever.
Speaker 7 (26:05):
And I can go and watch them whenever I want to.
Speaker 6 (26:08):
So Ted Moseby one hundred and fifty years from now
is still very much going to.
Speaker 7 (26:13):
Be alive, And well will I be or no, We're
gonna be gone. But that's the joy. That's the joy.
I mean, it's it's people talk about how I how
do I last forever?
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Well?
Speaker 6 (26:22):
Television is one of those ways of you, A part
of you will be around forever.
Speaker 7 (26:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
But I look at like where I live in Brooklyn,
there's like a on Atlantic, there's like a maybe Flatbush,
but there's like a general like a like a statue
sure or named you know, streets named it, and I'm like,
I don't, no one cares.
Speaker 9 (26:43):
Like.
Speaker 5 (26:47):
Our show is funnier than that guy's show.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
But I heard Albert Brooks, like a theater actor, said
to him, you know.
Speaker 3 (26:56):
You do film, so you're gonna live last forever, and
he's like, no, we're all going away. And I'll give
you an example I did. I did this show with
al Pacino for two years called Hunters. It was a
great show, Nazi hunting show set in the seventies, and
I would tell young people I'm working with al Pacino and.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
They would say who.
Speaker 5 (27:17):
Of course.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
So what I'm saying is like, do you know what
I'm saying?
Speaker 6 (27:20):
Said but no, But that's not exactly my point because
if you said to those save same young people, I'm
working with Scarface, they know exactly who we're talking about.
Speaker 7 (27:28):
The character is still alive.
Speaker 6 (27:30):
Al Pacino might disappear, But saying godfather I'm working with.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
I guess that the differences is that I am on
set making the things, so I think of myself as
an actor playing a character, of course, Whereas you know,
Jordana and I have a joke like she'll watch like
a Viking show and I'll say, like they get smoothies
at Airwan. No, she's like you like they get smoothie
(27:57):
at Airwon. They you know, they're two dollars right off
of the bone and tasting life. That's Lewis, That is
the case.
Speaker 9 (28:07):
He's literally weaving his own clothing to play Lincoln exactly.
Speaker 4 (28:13):
It was a Game of Thrones episode where you saw
Starbucks Starbucks, ye.
Speaker 7 (28:19):
God, go watch Braveheart.
Speaker 6 (28:20):
There's guys walking in the background of almost every scene
in Braveheart with baseball hats on the cars in the background.
It's it's amazing, hilarious, just briefly because it is my love.
(28:41):
Do you think there's any chance that sitcom like How
I Met Your Mother, like a Boy Meets World, like
any of the shows that I grew up watching or loving,
has a chance of coming back and being as popular
as they were.
Speaker 5 (28:53):
I just think the fact that no one does twenty
two or twenty four episodes anymore. It's eight episodes and
people watch them in three seconds and then they go
a year later it comes back and think, oh I
forgot about the show or two years later. I think
that has ruined the reach, right. You just can't replicate
that feeling even Jordana. I was thinking about this one.
Speaker 4 (29:13):
Josh was saying that Jordana had being forced to watch
one episode at a time, Josh.
Speaker 5 (29:17):
Good night before we're going to record our podcast.
Speaker 4 (29:19):
She's having to experience that the show in the way
that it originally was experienced.
Speaker 5 (29:23):
But she but she, I don't know.
Speaker 4 (29:26):
There's something to it, I think, and I feel like
it's hard to replicate that with these Bingi things. And
by the way, I love the people binge on at
your mother and have watched it thirty times, and they
watched twenty in a day or whatever. But I think
that thing that our show's had where people waited a
week and they couldn't wait till the night Friday night
to watch your show. I'm going to sit down with
my family Friday night and then late nineteen nineties or
(29:47):
whatever it is and watch Boy Meets World.
Speaker 5 (29:49):
That that thing is gone.
Speaker 4 (29:51):
That's gone except for sporting events, and I don't know
how to get it back.
Speaker 3 (29:54):
I wish, So I do have to say, you know,
so everything got adamized right into stream network TV kind
of createred big hit shows now or a fraction of
the numbers we were doing back in the day, and
then you have this binging thing. But then the streamers
were like, you know what, it's actually fun for people
to wait a week to watch, So.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
You're seeing more of that happen.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
Yes, And then I'm watching stuff on Amazon and there's commercials. Yeah,
like there's just event And then they're like, well, you
can bundle all the streamers together. Yeah, that's called cable.
Like you're inventing television exactly. So I think there were
(30:38):
some things that the twentieth century kind of figured out.
Speaker 5 (30:41):
They rebuilt it that.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
We try to like pull them apart, and then we
reinvent them and then we're like, Okay, I guess I
guess that model.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
Was good and fun for people.
Speaker 5 (30:50):
Yeah, you know, maybe that's the answer.
Speaker 4 (30:52):
Maybe it will, Maybe it is evolving back to where
it will become the thing that captured all these people's
minds and hearts. That doesn't seem to be happening in
the same way anymore.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
I will say, though, seven eight nine year runs, I
don't know, Yeah, yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 4 (31:05):
Yeh, twenty two a year, twenty four years, a nine
year run.
Speaker 5 (31:09):
It's a bit that's a big beast, right.
Speaker 6 (31:11):
I mean, even back in the day with all the
best shows ever. We talked about this lot on our podcast.
It's very difficult to find a show that got better
as the longer it went on.
Speaker 5 (31:20):
That's true that you're stretching. You're stretching at times.
Speaker 6 (31:24):
Yeah, so there's you do find maybe some maybe two
three seasons is the is kind of the sweet spot.
Speaker 7 (31:29):
Now.
Speaker 3 (31:29):
We're actually shocked at the first two seasons how many
like banger episodes there were, Like we came out of
the gate really like having a voice and knowing everyone.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
Knew kind of what their their the.
Speaker 3 (31:41):
Task at hand was, and I'm pretty delighted that we
came out so strong.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
For Boy Meets World, we had a similar thing in
the sense that because we started when we were so young,
over seven seasons, it's almost like there were three different.
Speaker 8 (31:54):
Versions of the show.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
They're like the first two years are very much elementary
and junior high school kids really figuring out the world,
and then there's like high school and then it was like,
all right, now these kids are in college and there
are more adults, and so we had like we got
to evolve three different times.
Speaker 3 (32:11):
Yeah, I do have to say, because I was in
college in grad school when you guys were on, which
was not heavy TV watching gears for me, but my
younger sister. I told her I was doing this podcast
and she's like, I never missed an episode, every single.
Speaker 8 (32:25):
Every single that's nice. Tell her. We said, hello, what's
her name?
Speaker 2 (32:29):
Joanna?
Speaker 5 (32:30):
Joanna?
Speaker 2 (32:32):
She'll be delighted, awome.
Speaker 5 (32:34):
I was just curious, ask one other question for you guys.
Speaker 4 (32:36):
Josh and I were talking about this that idea of
he's watching his younger self twenty years ago, and there's
scenes where he's like, I don't remember doing that with
my body. I know that's me and I'm saying those
things and doing those things, but I forgot it existed.
I feel like I heard you guys say that, and
you're one of those your podcasts you were like, I
don't remember. I know there's visual proof that I'm doing
this thing. Is there that weird out of body vertigo
(32:58):
for you guys doing this rewatch thing? Be cause I
feel Josh is having a little bit of that at times,
is that it seems like such a strange thing to
look back at yourself, especially when you're a kid.
Speaker 10 (33:06):
More it is.
Speaker 6 (33:07):
The thing that's amazing too, is a lot of times
what I'm finding that's very, very strange is that we'll
have an episode that none of us remember.
Speaker 7 (33:15):
And that's the thing that seems to be happening more
and more. It's not like one of us is like,
I remember everything about this and the other two are going, wow,
I don't remember. It's usually the three of us going
do you remember this at all?
Speaker 2 (33:25):
No? Nothing.
Speaker 9 (33:26):
Now, going back to something Josh was talking about, like
way earlier on in this conversation about seeing your past performances,
I'll often find when I remember, oh, I cared about
that beat or I thought that that beat was important,
it's the worst acting. Yeah, it's the ones that I
didn't think about, where I was completely unself conscious and
just showing up that I'm the most proud of now
(33:48):
because I'm like, wow, I was just in it, and like,
it's actually a great lesson as an actor, because it's
very hard to learn. If you're smart at all, you're
gonna like want to analyze the text and come out
make choices as an actor. But what you realize ultimately
as you get older, at least I have, is that
that's not the best acting. The best acting is when
you can make all the choices and then just let
them go.
Speaker 3 (34:09):
Truly when you when when you finish it, take and
you're like, that was some great acting almost it was, Yeah,
I noticed because we had a thing like a policy
on set. We didn't like it on sitcoms when people
would say objectively hilarious things and none of the characters
would act like something. So we decided we would laugh
(34:33):
at each other. Like we're sitting in a bar, we're
drinking beer. We're gonna laugh if someone says something funny.
And some of my favorite moments are watching me actually
laugh like an honest response or just like just listening
in like an un self conscious way. I totally get
what you're describing, writer.
Speaker 1 (34:50):
We have experienced that too, where we can tell in
scenes when we were just trying to make each other laugh,
where saber marines are, or like you know those awkward
moments and sitcoms where people are exiting at the same
time people are entering, and do they acknowledge each other
as they pass because we know each other, but like
the scene needs to progress forward. And there was one
(35:11):
Christmas episode where people are where some of us are
exiting and some of us are entering, and you can
tell we just decided to go wild with the like
way too minute.
Speaker 9 (35:24):
It's like we crammed five minutes of dialogue into two seconds.
Speaker 8 (35:28):
We're all breaking but trying not to break, and it's.
Speaker 3 (35:31):
Just there's the show you're making for the audience at home,
and then there's the show or the ecosystem you're all
living in that you're trying like. We had a first
a d Mike Shay was an incredible guy.
Speaker 5 (35:47):
Do you know we didn't know that?
Speaker 1 (35:50):
We also share the writer trivia question, who's the reader show?
Speaker 5 (35:53):
Help us up? Help us, help us out? You've blown
my mind.
Speaker 3 (36:02):
We share either and we have a special guest that'd
be unbelievable.
Speaker 5 (36:07):
Michael Story. I wanted to hear Okay, So Michael, Yeah,
I forgot that to.
Speaker 3 (36:15):
So Michael Sheay to when he wanted everyone to quiet down,
he would say, guys, guys, guys, do.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
You remember this of course?
Speaker 3 (36:22):
Or so whenever for once we hooked into this, whenever
it just said, guys, we should go whatever, Like whenever
the word guys was there.
Speaker 2 (36:31):
You'll watch How I Met Your Mother and you'll hear guys, guys, guys.
We just always say.
Speaker 3 (36:35):
Three times as an homage to our Michael, our beloved Michael.
Speaker 7 (36:39):
He would always say things to us like we still joke.
Speaker 6 (36:41):
So our our first a d and first stage manager's
name was Steve, and at one point he and his
wife got pregnant, and so we just hear Michael Shay
going like, all right, everybody, come on, let's get the
scene ready.
Speaker 4 (36:52):
Steve's having a baby.
Speaker 3 (36:57):
Baby, No, how to run a good thing.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
He keeps it funny and like it.
Speaker 5 (37:05):
Podcast we have.
Speaker 9 (37:07):
It was so great because we asked him about this
and he's just said he said, like he because you know,
his father was a big TV director and so he
grew up knowing that he had to keep the energy
on set going, and so he would just look at
it as like his job was, Hey, everybody, we're all
gonna just freshen it up, and I'm gonna say something
stupid to get everybody's at and.
Speaker 5 (37:26):
We're like, dude.
Speaker 3 (37:26):
It totally worked when we had background, like at club scenes,
he would go, all right, guys, sexy, sexy time, it's
sexy the energy. I hope we're talking about the same Michael.
Speaker 10 (37:40):
I think we are definitely.
Speaker 1 (37:42):
I'm in touch with Yeah, I'm still in touch with
Michael sheay, I just saw him recently.
Speaker 8 (37:46):
We talked when he was on our show. We talked about.
Speaker 2 (37:49):
We love that guy.
Speaker 5 (37:51):
Love that guy. That's cool.
Speaker 4 (37:53):
There, see there there are serious overlaps between our two shows.
Speaker 5 (37:57):
We have.
Speaker 3 (37:58):
We have one more over lap question writer, did you
do the graduate on Broadway?
Speaker 2 (38:04):
After I did the Graduate on Broadway?
Speaker 5 (38:05):
No, you got it? You got it? And I did not. Oh,
I was too Kathleen Turner.
Speaker 9 (38:11):
So I went and read with Kathleen and she was like,
made me take my boots off.
Speaker 2 (38:14):
And I thought, you did it after me.
Speaker 9 (38:16):
No, I did it. I did a tour. So I
was gonna because you replaced Jason. Did you replace him
for the summer or.
Speaker 2 (38:23):
Just for like three months?
Speaker 9 (38:24):
And then so they brought me in at that point
and had me read with Kathleen, and she was like,
you're too to to I was too short, so she
made it made like it was like I think.
Speaker 5 (38:34):
I was like fine, But then they offered me the tour,
so I did the I.
Speaker 2 (38:39):
Knew, I knew your name was in that.
Speaker 4 (38:42):
Yeah, I did it. Though, that's cool, that's crazy. Well,
it's a small world, y'all. We have we both have
meet or met in the title there's there's a lot of.
Speaker 1 (38:52):
Well I want everyone to be able to know. I
think you can get How We Made Your Mother. You
can listen to it anywhere you get your podcasts.
Speaker 8 (38:59):
What else can where can we go?
Speaker 1 (39:01):
I know Craig talked about his book, Let's plug that again.
Speaker 8 (39:04):
Talk to us about your book? What can people to?
Speaker 4 (39:07):
My first novel it's called That's Not How It Happened
from HarperCollins. Buy the book or by the audiobook starring
Josh Radner and Kobe Smulders and two other money blackers too,
But it's it's a four person story for our narrators,
for point of views, and it's my favorite thing I've
ever written, besides Time Trotter Cell people.
Speaker 3 (39:22):
It's really rich, like genuinely just a fantastic read.
Speaker 5 (39:26):
This is why we do the podcast. Actually we actually.
Speaker 1 (39:29):
Love and Josh, is there anything you want to talk
about outside of the podcast?
Speaker 3 (39:35):
I make music that I'm really happy about and proud about.
I just finished a new record, but I have a
bunch of stuff up on all the streaming platforms just
my name, Josh Radner. My friend Jeremiah just remixed a
couple of my tracks that are really.
Speaker 7 (39:49):
What type of music.
Speaker 2 (39:51):
How would you describe it, Craig.
Speaker 5 (39:53):
I mean, it's like any folk acoustics. Smart friends are.
Speaker 8 (40:00):
You guys are best friends, but haven't had lunch yet.
Speaker 4 (40:04):
We're gonna have a mash lunch, a mash lunch. I
will sing Josh's praises now. His music is so great.
He does the it's the theme song for our podcast,
among other things, is a great Josh song.
Speaker 5 (40:15):
He's super great. Everyone go check out his music. It's
so amazing, awesome.
Speaker 8 (40:18):
That's so great. Well, thank you both so much for
being here.
Speaker 1 (40:22):
I'm so excited to see where this journey takes you
over the next nine seasons of the show. And yeah,
so thank you both for being here.
Speaker 3 (40:31):
This was a really great It was freat to meet
you guys.
Speaker 1 (40:37):
Wow, can't believe how much overlap there. I mean, we
knew and we knew there was better.
Speaker 9 (40:40):
Lap, you know, we're talking about like there's also something
to the romance, like love storyline, like being this Romeo
and Juliet and like how I met your mother in
the title starts, is like the point of this is
like ultimate union and like ultimately a love that makes sense.
Speaker 5 (40:57):
So it's like I feel like the audience that.
Speaker 9 (41:00):
Up with boy Me's World must have just shifted right
into How I Met your Mom.
Speaker 6 (41:02):
Well, I mean, when you think about it, there's you
could with a few tweaks. This is Corey and Tepanga
moving to New York and meeting a whole new group
of friends, right and uh, you know, or wherever the
show takes place, and meeting a whole group of friends.
Speaker 5 (41:15):
I've never seen a single episode. I want to admit that,
but I've.
Speaker 7 (41:17):
Never seen a single episode. But I'd like to watch it.
Speaker 9 (41:19):
I know my mother was obsessed with I knew people
that loved it, but I never watched it.
Speaker 7 (41:23):
So good, Yeah, I hear Neil again.
Speaker 6 (41:26):
I hear Neil kind of like Steals the show where
he's just he's so hysterical. And I think he won.
I think they all won like a whole bunch of
awards for the show. I mean, this is for twenty
eight Emmys, which is somehow twenty nine more than we
ever were nominated.
Speaker 7 (41:42):
So yeah, it's fine, but Yike's crazy.
Speaker 8 (41:45):
Thank you all for joining us for this episode of
Pod Meets World.
Speaker 1 (41:48):
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, and we've got.
Speaker 7 (41:55):
Merch the How I Met Your Mother theme song.
Speaker 10 (42:00):
I don't know the theme song, so that, yeah, you're
just making it up.
Speaker 6 (42:03):
I have I was gonna do, don't.
Speaker 7 (42:06):
That's anybody's guests, but that's Blossom, So that wasn't gonna
help at all.
Speaker 10 (42:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (42:11):
Podmeetsworldshow dot com writer send us out.
Speaker 5 (42:14):
We love you all, pod dismissed.
Speaker 9 (42:18):
Pod Meets World is an iHeart podcast producer hosted by
Danielle Fischel, Wilfridell and Ryder Strong executive producers, Jensen Karp
and Amy Sugarman Executive in charge of production, Danielle Romo,
producer and editor, Tarasubasch producer, Maddy Moore engineer and Boy
Meets World superman Easton Allen. Our theme song is by
Kyle Morton of Typhoon. Follow us on Instagram at Podmeets
(42:38):
World Show or email us at Podmeets World Show at
gmail dot com
Hosts And Creators
Will Friedle
Danielle Fishel
Rider Strong
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