October 23, 2025 • 54 mins
Step by step. Inch by inch. Slowly we turn to Halloween and our TGIF deep dive moves along. And this week we’re tackling a KILLER. It’s time for the full-size candy bar that is Family Matters, Season 8 Episode 7 - “Stevil!”
Jaleel White stuns the gang with a show-stopping performance, but the real breakout star was the walking, talking and fighting ventriloquist's dummy.
Join us as we uncover the best possible Halloween episode yet and a “Making Of” feature that gets a standing ovation, on another spooky Pod Meets World!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
So writer, back in the day, you and I used
to have on running conversations about different I mean, philosophies
or walks of life, whatever you want to talk about it.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
You and I would find a conversation about it. And
there was one that you and I.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Used to constantly go back to, which was fate versus coincidence. Okay,
and fate is something that you roundly rejected back in
the day.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
It was everything's coincidence.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Now, so let's pretend that's true and there is no
fate back in the day.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
He's back back in the day he used to Okay.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Yeah, it's true, but let's just say that it is
all coincidence. I would then ask a sub question, which
is are there degrees of coincidence? Is there a big
coincidence and a small coincidence or are there just coincidence?
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Uh?
Speaker 4 (01:08):
Oh man, do I really want to get into this?
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Well, I'm going to tell you why, because something pretty
out amazing happened.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
I don't.
Speaker 4 (01:14):
I don't, look, do you do I believe that that
that there's an order to the universe. Potentially yes, but
it's a material order, so you know, there's complexity. So
things happen for reasons, but those reasons can be explored
by investigating science and evidence and right and it's so
(01:35):
complex that it's outside of the grasp of our minds
most of the time.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
But again, would you would would you say, like somebody
who flies, to you know, from their home in California
to Africa and is on Safarian in the middle of Safari,
they meet their childhood friend that they haven't seen forever
that they grew up on the street next to you.
Is that the same kind of coincidence as Hey, I'm
standing next to some guy in a train and we're
both drinking the same soda.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
I mean, are both equal? Just coincidences and that one
is bigger than the other?
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Right, Yeah, Okay, So I believe in at the very least,
I believe in fate, but I also believe in degrees
of coincidence. So here's what happened to me. And when
I tell the story, it's to me. Some people are
like okay, and I'm like, this is nuts to me.
So I'm home with at the time to see my parents.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
And I always because I don't like flying, and I
every time there's a flight to another flight, I don't
like to connect because it's just one more chance to
have a delayed flight or they're gonna lose your bag
or something. So I and then there's no direct flights
in Hartford, so I always fly from LA to Boston,
and I rent a car and I drive.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
And one of my favorite things has become my drive
from Boston. It takes about an hour and forty five minutes.
I usually get there. I'm in there by myself in
the afternoon, and then I take a very early flight home.
I usually get like a six am flight, So I
leave my house in Connecticut at like two o'clock in
the morning to thirty in the morning. And that drive
has become just kind of a magical time for me.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
It's dark, there's nobody on the road.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
I'm completely by myself. I'm listening to whatever I want.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
It's great.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
So, as everybody else knows, we have a lot of
podcasts to do, and we podcast quite a bit. So
one of the things we do is we get the
edits of our podcast and we get to listen to
our podcast and then we say, I said I'm here
or I stumbled this word, can you cut this?
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Can you tighten it?
Speaker 1 (03:16):
So I'm listening to my podcast, and I'm now in
Logan Airport and I'm listening to the last episode of
Magical Rewind, the other show that I do to edit
what I have to edit, and a character in I'm
listening to myself and I say, oh, and then this
character walks on screen and they look like Justin Long.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Yeah. And before the g hits my headphones, I look
over and Justin Long is standing next to me.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
So the idea that I say a random actor's name
that and what I mean literally, I mean literally the
Jief long Go is there as I go like this
and he's standing next to me at the airport.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
To me, is a big coincidence.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
That's a big coincidence.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Of all the people in the world. I say an actor's.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Name in the middle of the night. By the way, correct,
it's like four o'clock in the morning, four thirty five
o'clock in the morning.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
So what does that mean to you?
Speaker 2 (04:19):
There's no. To me, I don't know. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
But the idea that that's just the same as hey,
the guy I'm sitting next to using the same pencil
as me, is crazy Like that big coincidence and sall no, no, it's.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
Not why Okay, so what what does it mean? Why
is there a face connecting you and Justin Long in
that moment?
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Did you fall in love with Justin Long?
Speaker 1 (04:39):
First of all, I'd already been in love with Justin Long.
This just solidified it.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Okay, no, I but again, take fade out of it?
Is that the same?
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Is there a degree of coincidence where even you'd have
to admit, like, wow, that's a huge coincidence, as opposed to.
Speaker 4 (04:55):
It has more meaning to you? Right, there's more like
you somebody's using the same pencil next to you, how
many times you don't even notice?
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Right?
Speaker 1 (05:02):
In this case, isn't that more of a chance of
that happening than saying some random person's name of the
eight billion people on the planet and he's standing next
to you in a random airport.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
But if it, even if it is more or less likely,
it doesn't have any more or less meaning.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
I'm not talking about the meaning. I'm asking is there
degrees of coincidence? To you?
Speaker 4 (05:20):
Is there a small coincidence? Or is an American? He
probably has a house in Boston? Right, Like, there's there's
reasons for all of these things, right, who knows what
they answer.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
I think you're talking about, Like what you're really thinking about, well,
is like, what's the what are the odds are there
better or worse odds?
Speaker 4 (05:37):
Of course, there's more odds that an American is going
to be next to you and you know, and then
I don't know, like are you flying first class? So
that you know that means the more the odds that
it's somebody who is also wealthy in the same.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Class, just combined using the same pencil versus being next
to the same person, right, Like how many pencils.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Are there in the world, I'm saying, how many people.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
Use pencils like versus naming a person on a podcast,
listening to that podcast in that moment, seeing that person
in that moment like that to me does feel like
the percent chance of that happening sure is much smaller
than just running into someone who has the same pendel.
Speaker 4 (06:23):
I would say, yeah, like it's worth like remarking on
it being like, oh my god, right, well, the chances
that odds are the odds are low, and.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
It happened, and it happened, that's okay.
Speaker 4 (06:31):
Crazy, But then the next whatever that you take for
the next step is like now I have to talk
to Justin Long because our fates are intertwined. No, I
never thought that there's a meaning, there's a sign to this.
I have to, you know, respond appropriately.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
That's where I go.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
No, No, I agree with.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
You ondred percent there. Yeah, but I would.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
That's why I took fade out of it and just
ask if there was to you degrees of quincy because
like some people are like, no, the pencil next to
you is exactly the same as running into your childhood
friend nine thousand mobs And it's like, okay, I don't
agree with that.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
I it's exactly the.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
Same meaning, I think. So it's it's there's no more
meaning to it.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
But for the record, yeah, he was in front of
me in line waiting to go on. A fan came
up to him.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
He could not have been nicer to the woman that
came up to him, which is kind of all I
need to know about his character. When you see somebody
in how they treat their fans. And he was lovely
to this woman. And so Justin Long I saw that
I see you, Justin and it was it was a
cool moment and I was like, okay, good because I
really admire him and I'm glad that he was a
cool guy.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
It seemed to be a.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
Very women Going back to like when we were on Boy,
we would talk about him in Galaxy Quest. It was
like one of the greatest, like one of the all
time performances.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
He is so good in that movie.
Speaker 4 (07:39):
I mean it launched his whole career, and understandably so,
because he is so good in that movie.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Yeah, it was great, But that's I Did you tell him?
Speaker 3 (07:47):
Did you tell him what had happened?
Speaker 2 (07:48):
No? I didn't. I didn't put The funny funny thing
was we walk on the plane and he gets on first,
and he's putting his bag up and he looks at
me and he's like, I'm sorry, it's sorry.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
It's taken a little while. And I'm like, no, no, no,
take your time. In about ten seconds, go by him.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Well now it's too long, and he starts and.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
He starts to laugh, and I walk by him, and
the first woman that saw him went, you're on.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Boy Meets World. How many of you are on this plane?
How many of you? And so I was like, oh, hi,
how are you? And she's like yelling at it. I'm
like hey, and she tells her friends and I'm like, hi,
So it was like it was a strange kind of flight.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Were you in four seed because you're no longer seen?
Speaker 2 (08:26):
I wasn't.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
I was too a although there's they're now saying I
got four seed at Dancing with the Stars again the
other day.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Did you hear about that? No?
Speaker 3 (08:33):
What happened.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
So I'm sitting there watching a really close friend and
somebody I love dancing their heart out.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
I'm watching Robert Irwin. It's really amazing. No, I'm there
watching you.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
And in between, these two people come up and they're like,
we're live on TikTok?
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Did you mind it for you to? Okay? I did
not put that together at first.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
I just saw two people come up and I was like,
this guy kind of looks familiar and he's.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Like, hey, who are you here rooting for? And I said, well,
we're we're here rooting for Danielle Fischle.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
And and and he's and then a moment goes by
and he goes, well, of course you are. And so
somebody set me that clip and all the comments are
like foreseed again.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
He got completely foreseed again, like because then he's like, well, oh,
I just got something in my ear what do you
think about Bill Daniels so obviously like that's Will Forred
Della glasses off, that's Will for so yeah, foreseed again God, which.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
Is pretty so funny.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
What are the odds? What are the odds?
Speaker 3 (09:33):
What are the odds of that?
Speaker 1 (09:35):
That's that's pencil lots. Those are pencils.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
Welcome to Pond Meets World.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
I'm Daniel Fishal, I'm right or Strong, and I'm Will Fordell.
Speaker 5 (09:50):
Halloween is around the corner, and your favorite podcasters serving
up episodes that are so good it's actually scary. Sex
and the City meet Severance when Adam Scott joins Christi
Davis to discuss the haunting relationship between Big and Natasha
on Are You a Charlotte?
Speaker 2 (10:05):
And nine one one?
Speaker 5 (10:06):
What's Your Emergency? The new episode of Call It What
It Is? Of course nine one one Nashville co star
Kimberly Williams Paisley joins Jessica Kapshaw and Camilla Leddington to
talk about her health scare, her superstar hubby Brad Paisley,
and her memories on the set of Father of the
Bride with the legendary Diane Keaton, Oscar winner Bree Larsen
is a.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Work in progress.
Speaker 5 (10:26):
Sophia Bush finds out why and waltz right over to
Danielle with the Stars because Danielle Fischel has fellow Dancing
with the Stars contestant Dylan Effron on to talk about
the ballroom, the leaderboard and more. Listen now on the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
Okay, Halloween is just days away, and we acknowledge that
we have picked apart and then there was Sean the
way vultures tear it a dead body in the desert.
So rather than revisit our beloved spooky episode, we have
decided to tackle some of our tag If Neighbors Halloween
specials in hopes that it helps us understand why ours
(11:11):
is considered so good. And this week we are looking
at season eight, episode seven of Family Matters. The episode
is titled stevel Have you have either of you ever
seen a Family Matters episode before?
Speaker 4 (11:26):
Never in my life.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
First one, I had seen Family Matters back when we
were on Boy Meets World. I definitely saw it leading
into the night because you.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Couldn't skip it back at the time. Nope, there was
no boodoop doo doo no.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
Technic, which, by the way, is now an outdated technical
term because is from what was that thing called.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
TV though exactly first time I remember seeing TVO was
our finale.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Are watching We're Able to someone else TiVo?
Speaker 4 (12:01):
And I was like, oh, you can scow commercial discrease.
But that was two thousand, right eat. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
So it first aired on ABC as part of our
TGIF programming block on October twenty fifth, nineteen ninety six,
and is actually regarded as one of the better Halloween episodes.
It is currently available to stream on Hulu, so feel
free to check it out. This script is very much
influenced by Chucky and the movie Child's Play. Have either
of you seen those movies?
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (12:28):
Yeah, no, it's been a long time. I was one
of the first horror films I saw. I went over
to Ryan Bloom's house when I was probably like only eight.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Oh my god.
Speaker 4 (12:38):
Yeah, Child's Play scared the crap out of me, but I.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Love I wouldn't be able to sleep. Yeah, so you
liked being the Actually being scared is something.
Speaker 4 (12:47):
That you like totally totally.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
I still do.
Speaker 4 (12:49):
I mean that's why I like it's pretty rare. As
you get older, you know, and you get more like
immune to being scared. Like when I find something that
actually puts me on edge, I'm so excited, but it's.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Yourself. What are you talking about?
Speaker 3 (13:04):
Yesterday we were in an elevator and something made a
loud sound and I was I literally jumped, like.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
I was not ready to die.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
I know, I don't. I don't enjoy it. Both of
my children are obsessed with Chucky now because we took
them to see Justin Willeman at the Thousand Oaks Theater.
He's a comedian slash magician, and he had a whole
bit with a little ventriloquist dummy, and actually it wasn't
a ventriloquist dummy.
Speaker 4 (13:26):
It was my buddy, remember my Buddy, which is what
Chucky I think was based on exactly.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
So he had his my Buddy on stage and my
buddy does tricks with a person where like it feels
as though my buddy is alive. And then he goes
to put my Buddy in the box and he pulls
it out really quick, and the camera zooms in on
it and it suddenly it's Chucky. And both of our
kids were like, what was that?
Speaker 2 (13:52):
What's that?
Speaker 3 (13:52):
Why did it look like that? And so we had
to talk to them about Chucky, And now they talk
about Chucky. You never movie though, Yeah, I've never seen it,
but then it is stuck with them before sure geez.
So the synopsis of Ventriloquist Stummy, which looks exactly like Arkle,
comes to life to terrorize.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
The Winslows, and Steve Urkle must stop it.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
It was directed by Rich Carrell, one of the busiest
directors in the history of TV for family sitcoms. It
was written by Gregory Thomas Garcia, a veteran TV writer.
He has written for My Name Is Earl, Yes, Dear,
Raising Hope, The Millers, and last year's Emmy Awards. It
was also written by Fred Rubin, who has similar credits
but goes back to Webster, Mama's Family, and night Court.
(14:37):
The show stars reginaldvil Johnson is Carl Winslow, one of
the more recognizable sitcom stars of the nineties, and he
is a man who seems to always play a policeman.
He appears in movies like Diehard Turner and is he
a cop on this show?
Speaker 2 (14:53):
I think he is?
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Have you never heard There's a y, There's a an
online theory that it's essentially the same character you're from Diehard,
that it's like he had to change his name because
of some weird thing and move to a small town
because of kids.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
Like, yeah, it's like the same exact Yes, it's like
the same exact thing. That's why he takes in Steve Rkle.
Speaker 4 (15:12):
I was just trying to figure out what because I
don't know what Family Matters is about. I just know
that there's a character, and I know most I see
these actors and I'm like, oh yeah, because we would
see them at parties or whatever they were. They were
on the same network. But I had I was trying
to be together what the story is, like, why does
Erkele live with them? Who are the Winslows?
Speaker 2 (15:32):
I didn't under anybody.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
Does he live with them?
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Yes, he kept coming from and he's in sharing the
room with them.
Speaker 4 (15:38):
So I kept being like, what is the pitch, Like,
what was the original pitch for Family Matters?
Speaker 2 (15:41):
Well, you know, he wasn't he was. He was a tipanga.
He was when he was on our show.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
He wasn't supposed to be on the shows, right, So
that's what I was trying to get straight up family sick.
Speaker 4 (15:49):
So the original pitch was just it's a story of
the Winslows.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
Yeah, and the original Johnson well, well there yeah, and
there wasn't one at the time. It was it was
just reginaldvel Johnson. I think they made a show for
him and that was it. And then I think that's
one of the reasons why the cast, you know, if
you Julia's talked about in his book and everything, the
cast kind of didn't like him for a while because
he came in and took over the whole show.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
Steve Erkele lives with the Winslows because his parents moved
to Russia and left him behind.
Speaker 4 (16:17):
That's interesting, Okay, Russia, Russia? I know, Okay, did that
happen right away? Like we met Rkele and then he
just moved in or was that.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Yeah? Because he was the wacky neighbor. He was like
the actual whacky ye.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
Yeah, he would always come.
Speaker 4 (16:32):
In and did they have like school scenes? Did they
have teachers?
Speaker 2 (16:36):
They must have? They must have, they must have.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
He was also in Ghostbusters and an episode of Girl
Meets World where he played a police officer.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
Really, who was he in Ghostbusters? I'm gonna go with
a cop trying to remember who he was in Ghostbusters. Okay,
I gotta watch the movie in my head. Right now.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
We have Joe Marie Payton as Harriet Winsley. Hello. She
appeared on dozens of shows like two two seven, Silver
Spoons and Perfect Strangers. She's also well known as the
voice of Sugar Mama on The Proud Family and is
still working more recently on the Netflix show Miss Governor.
There's Rosetta le Noir as a Stelle mother Winslow. As
a child, she was taught to dance by her godfather,
(17:19):
Bill bo Jangles Robinson. Wow really hmm, and in her
twenties was cast in Orson Wells's stage production of Macbeth.
She had a regular role on Gimme a Break, and
is best known from Family Matters. She passed away in
two thousand and two at the age of ninety. Wow
and then Darius McCrae as Eddie Winslow. McCrae made his
(17:40):
film debut in nineteen eighty six's Hotshot and would later
appear in movies like Mississippi Burning and Fifteen Minutes. He
also was a regular on The Young and the Restless
and Kelly Shaneine Williams as Laura Winslow. She was also
a recurring guest star on Militia and The Parkers. And
then we have Brighton James as Richie Crawford. James went
on to become one of daytime soap's biggest stars, joining
(18:02):
the cast of The Young and the Restless in two
thousand and four, where he's won two Emmys and is
still playing billionaire Devin Hamilton. And finally, Jilliel White as
Steve Erkele. Jialiel was the face of ABC and its
uber successful TGIF lineup. We interviewed Juliel a while back
and he is a lovely, very interesting guy, So go
(18:23):
check it out now and learn more about this TV
legend guest starring Orlando Brown as three j best known
as Eddie Thomas on That So Raven. He also appeared
in movies Major Pain in Eddie's Million Dollar Cookoff and
shows like The Jamie Foxx Show and The Proud Family,
but he is now best known for some crazy TMZ headlines.
(18:44):
And for those wondering, we have two interesting behind the
scenes appearances. The episodes director Rich Carell is the voice
of Stevel and Josh Ryan Evans was the double for Stevel.
Josh was three feet two inches tall and had a chondroplagia,
which is a form of dwarfism. It was well known
from his time on the Surreal Daytime soap Passions as
Timmy Lennox. He was nominated for an Emmy in two
(19:07):
thousand and won two Soap Opera Digest Awards.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
He also played the role.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Of Baby Grinch in the two thousand Jim Carrey version
of How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Sadly, Josh passed away
in two thousand and two at the young age of twenty.
Jumping into our recap, we start in the cold open
in the living room. Steve Urkel sits behind a dimly
lit pumpkin, breaking the fourth wall to introduce to Night's
family matters. It works as a warning, describing what viewers
(19:32):
will see as a little scary, and he recommends that
you watch it with someone brave.
Speaker 4 (19:37):
And immediately I was like, why didn't we do this?
And then there was Sean, I know, we just really
just threw our dreams ris unsuspectingly.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
We never we never did a warning, did we, even
when it was like the Ariana Richard's episode or anything
more the drinking episode. There was never a hey, everybody,
this is a special kind of episode.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Yeah, interesting interesting.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
Yeah, you're right though that it have been a really
smart one, like this is a little different than our
usual episode.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:05):
It's revealed that Little Ritchie and three J are sitting
next to him. Ritchie chimes in, don't worry, Uncle Rkle.
Three J insists, Yeah, man, we're here for you. Erkele
looks around in fear.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
Can we turn on the lights?
Speaker 3 (20:16):
The audience laughs, and we start the actual episode. We're
in the living room. Urkle walks downstairs carrying a large
white sheet. He greets the family, Hello halloweeners happy to
see him. Harriet wonders what's under the sheet. Erkele can't
wait to show them. He excitedly reveals a ventriloquist dummy
that looks and is dressed exactly like him. Everyone screams
(20:38):
in horror at the sight. Erkele isn't impressed with their reaction,
and Laura calls it disturbing. Erkele explains that the key
to being a good ventriloquist is to give the dummy
a funny voice. He asks the dummy, does your mom
know where you are? He takes a breath and responds
on what is very close to Julian's real voice. My
mom doesn't know anything. She's a telephone poll in Kansas City.
Speaker 4 (20:58):
This is probably the best joke the whole episode, by
the for me a better one. I was like, that's great,
Like because because my inter reaction, I've never seen the show,
I'm like, so that that's the voice of Arcle, Like yes,
the whole time, I was like, oh right, I mean,
I guess because we're in season eight eight, and I
imagine jillil started the show when he was very young,
(21:20):
and that the Erkle voice probably felt more natural or
seemed more possible. But as it is, you're watching like
a twenty year old do this, you know, ridiculously high voice.
So when he did the ventriloquist as like a normal
I was like, that's fun. That's so fun funny, how
crazy that this guy.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
Talks like this? One of my favorite sitcom jokes I think, ever,
what was in this episode? I was like, oh my god,
that's brilliant and I'll tell you when we get there,
Like this is this is absolutely genius. I wish I
had thought of this.
Speaker 3 (21:46):
I mean, I'm just going to say it here. Jilliel
White is on another.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
US is brilliant. He has this entire show on his shoulders. Yeah.
But the show, that's my question is is since we've
only watched one episode, is the show essentially because that
was what I took away from this is it's essentially
five or six actors that stand in a line and go, Steve,
what are you doing? And then he goes off and
(22:17):
does a bunch I think? So, is that is that
the whole show? Is that like, ye oh Steve and
then he goes off and does his thing. Yeah, I
don't know if that's what the entire show is. And
then occasionally, like in Family Ties, what you turn it
on and be like, oh god, it's a teena.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Others episode, So you wonder if there's if it's gonna
be like that where occasionally one of the other characters
gets an episode, but for the most part, it's like,
what are you doing, Steve? And then Steve tells you
what he's doing, and then you follow what he does
and they go, man, that's crazy, Steve, and then that's
kind of the show.
Speaker 4 (22:45):
So yeah, it was It's almost as if, like Boy
Meets World, were just everyone looking at Eric being like.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
Right, right, exactly. Well.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
I also watching this show gave me a huge realization
of what TGIF actually was, and actually the diversity of
TGIF because when you think about it, Sabrina is bewitched
right where Happy Days mm hmm, and then Erkele is
kind of Three's Company where it's the crazy, wacky guy
(23:15):
that you're following.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
It's like they've.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
Taken sitcom tra all different sitcom tropes, made them kids,
and then put them on the air again.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
And it's really brilliant when you think about it, because
they know they work. Happy Days works, Okay, why wouldn't
it work if Richie was eleven? How much of that?
Speaker 4 (23:33):
How much of that is just falling into what people
want to watch? Do you know it was that conscious?
Speaker 2 (23:38):
I think it was. It's brilliant.
Speaker 4 (23:40):
It's difficult to see what sticks and what stock was
like traditional sitcom trops, that's.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
The thing, though.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
They took traditional sitcom tropes, aged them down, and put
them back on the air.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Brilliant, brilliant.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
So Erkele lets out his high pitched laugh, loving his
own joke, but no one else gets it except Grandma Stell,
who visibly loves it. He asks the family their opinion,
and Harriet's imply wonders, are your lips supposed to flap
like that?
Speaker 2 (24:03):
Erkle?
Speaker 3 (24:03):
That's reality sink in. I'm awful, r and I the
entire family can't help but agree, And just like that,
they're into the perfect you know, don't need to waste
a bunch of time. He wants to be he wants
to be a ventriloquiest. He's not good at it. Great,
move on, that's all. We got it. We got it
all right. Now we're in Erkele's bedroom with a large
(24:23):
poster of Michael Jordan and Dennis Rodman above his bed,
something that did not seem.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
Very easy to clear, by the way, Like you know
they had to work for that.
Speaker 4 (24:33):
I wouldn't have noticed. I thought they were just you know,
generic basketball play generic.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Did you notice one of those Michael Jordans?
Speaker 4 (24:41):
I mean I saw a Bulls, so I figured.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
Like, did you not see the number twenty three?
Speaker 3 (24:46):
That means nothing to you?
Speaker 4 (24:47):
Nope, I do remember the Bulls being big back in
the day. No, why would I know any of it?
Speaker 1 (24:53):
How about because Ben Savage was on the show with us,
and he was a huge bulls Sure.
Speaker 4 (24:57):
Sure, I was like sports ball people doing sports ball
things like, and I was like, why is it so permanent?
And then of course when they are captured in the
poster later, I was like, oh, that's why they had
to like make a big deal out of this poster.
Speaker 5 (25:10):
You No.
Speaker 4 (25:10):
At this point, I was thinking, do you guys notice
how small their sets seemed? That even the living room
felt closer to me than my actually think about it interesting.
And then when they were like destroying the kitchen and
like doing stuff later, I was like, Wow, this is
a really production like art department heavy episode, and but yeah,
(25:31):
it did just feel close to me. It felt like
very like our show, just some felt spacious compared to this.
It was interesting.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
Do you think they dealt with the same things we
did or do you think being on Warner Brothers as
a hit show, they were like they had money, here's
money or and and Disney was tight with the person
or do you think it's just the same all the
way across the industry where they're just gonna.
Speaker 4 (25:51):
Be The reputation that Disney had back in the day
was that they were very cheap compared to other studios,
and that was part of their success frugal there you go. Yeah,
because I was considered. You know, when you were working
for them, there was a sense of like they would
never give anything. But in retrospect, of course, as part
of their success as a company is that you held
on to their capitalism. Well, yeah, I wondered the same thing,
(26:17):
like very but they weren't spending that much money on sets.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
Right, Well, that's probably did this point, hopefully hopefully.
Speaker 3 (26:27):
Erkle is lying in bed, his dummies is sitting in
a seat just a few feet away, and there appears
to be thunder and lightning outside. Eddie walks in and
points out that a storm is coming. Erkle sarcastically responds,
thank you, al roker. Eddie asks what's wrong, and Erkle winds,
I'm only the world's worst ventriloquist, right. Eddie nods, yeah,
you blow chunks, but he reminds him that no one's
(26:49):
good at everything. Then he smiles, although I do come
awfully close. Erkele walks over to his lookalike doll. He
just wants to make him talk. Eddie can't relate. The
only doll he wants on his lap can talk on
her own nap.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
So, but so that's that's the thing. Older brother, girl,
crazy or stupid. That's that's right.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
Yeah, that's that's the trope. That's the trope. All as
I was watching, I was like, oh, Derek, but it's
not technically his older brother.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
It's his older Maybe at the time they started the show,
I think he's considered the older brother, like because it wasn't.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Yeah, it's just like it really is the same trope,
over and over.
Speaker 3 (27:26):
With that, he pats Erkele on the shoulder and heads out.
Arkle sadly looks at his puppet once more perfectly, time
with some lightning. He shrugs, then lays down to sleep,
suspenders and glasses still on, and shoes which cannot be comfortable.
It was a nap, and then a bolt of lightning
flashes through the open window directly onto the dummy, shakes
with electrocution. Once the lightning subsides, the dummy opens his
(27:50):
eyes on his own and glances around the room. The
studio audience, most likely not filled with inmates on a
field trip, react Erkele, who did not feel the lightning
in his room or hear what should have been ear
numbing thunder turns the lights back on to close the
open window. Along the way, the puppet watches his every move.
(28:11):
Erkele notices its head move and is confused, but he
brushes it off. He lays back down and closes his eyes,
but when he quickly reopens them, the dummy is gone.
Erkele screams and looks around the room, but he can't
find him. We then hear a deep and grisly voice. Hey,
the Erkle. Dummy springs up in Eddie's bed. Erkele screams
(28:31):
bloody murder, just as lightning flashes and thunder erupts. The
dummy just maniacally laughs in response.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
So one of the things from the time I was
a little kid that scares the hell out of me
is creepy voices really.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
Like this. Yes, it's one of the reasons I think
I became a voice over guy.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
Like the Freddy Krueger voice back in the day used
to scare the hell out of me.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
Any kind of like little kid voice, I come like,
all that stuff freaks the hell out of it. So
this kind of Freddy Krueger they obviously put in it,
did They came under digitally, They gave it a gravelly
kind of. So when he starts, Steve, I was like, ah,
like totally. This is one of my freaky triggers is
(29:17):
creepy voices, and this one it really hit the creepy
voice aspect. It did. It was a great creepy voice.
Speaker 3 (29:24):
All right. I already was super into this episode. I
was like, all right, we've got a storyline on hooks too.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
All right, we're in the living room. Ercle hurries down
the stairs.
Speaker 3 (29:36):
The dummy is alive.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
He shows them the doll, but it's as lifeless as ever.
Speaker 3 (29:40):
Carl rolls his eyes. Nothing with a plywood brain is alive.
But Erkle tells them what he witnessed, and he tries
to prove it to them. He sets the dummy on
the chair and presents him with urgency, but it doesn't
move an inch.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
What are you doing now, Steve? What's going on?
Speaker 4 (29:55):
Steve? What's going on? At this point, I was, so,
you're terrified of the dummy and you pick it up
and you carry it downstairs, and then later when he
just pulls it apart, So so what's the problem here.
Just take a part of the dummy.
Speaker 3 (30:13):
Man.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
He came back to it comes back to life. You
can't kill him. He just stepped him in the refrigerator
and he just broke out. He came up right out.
Speaker 3 (30:24):
What what are you not understanding?
Speaker 4 (30:25):
You're the horror guy.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
How do you not get it?
Speaker 3 (30:28):
You can't be destroyed?
Speaker 1 (30:31):
Sure?
Speaker 2 (30:33):
Why can't you destroy him? Steve?
Speaker 3 (30:34):
What's going on?
Speaker 2 (30:35):
Steve?
Speaker 3 (30:37):
After a couple beats of silence, Carl compliments him, if
this is your new act, it's actually an improvement. Erkle
doubles down on this revelation, and Carl just asks, has
anyone from your family checked into the rubber ramata before?
Has anybody ever heard of rubber ramata before? But it's
kind of awesome, It's it's pretty funny. I'm sure, I'm
sure it's offensive to someone.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
But you can make you can make it. Yeah, Caramata,
We'll leave the foe on for you.
Speaker 3 (31:11):
Rkle earnestly answers, my aunt Edna thought she was an
air conditioner. Carl asks if they took her away, and
Erkle answers, heck no, she kept.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
Us school in the summer. The weirdest, weirdest were just
like just just put it in like it was so random.
I'm just like, oh, okay, I want to know what
They rejected. Yes, oh my god, I didn't make it
because that was like, okay, all right.
Speaker 3 (31:36):
Carl and Harriet agree they don't want to deal with
this any longer, and even Estelle puts a hand on
Erkele's cheek and begs, please get some rest. Erkle keeps
trying to prove himself, but eventually he just gives up.
He moves the dummy to the couch and says, maybe
I have lost my mind. Then on cue, the dummy growls, no,
you're fine. Erkle looks directly at the camera and disbelief.
(31:56):
He's startled. Harriet's right, I need to lie down, He
recites to him. My name is Stephen q Erkle. My
IQ is one hundred and ninety six.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
I like cheese.
Speaker 3 (32:05):
I like polka. Then, as he walks to the stairs,
the dummy gets off the couch and follows him.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
You're the audience gasp. Yeah, they must have like shot
the whole show and done it as a playback, because
they obviously they were shocked, as was I that the
thing gets up and starts to walk like, oh god,
it was a moment. It's really alive.
Speaker 4 (32:25):
We are no longer just cutting to solo shots of it. Yeah,
it was a great moment.
Speaker 3 (32:31):
It totally adds another element and a layer to this
episode and and a Halloween story in general, that it
actually moves and it isn't just like I I love voice.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
And that was a that was a clear first take gasp.
The audience had never seen that before. And when he
stood up, everyone was freaking, myself included. It was like, oh,
how'd they do that?
Speaker 2 (32:52):
So, yeah, that was that was good.
Speaker 3 (32:53):
Erkele notices and stops deadness tracks. The dummy rapidly raises
his eyebrows in response. Erkele determines he's hallucinating and continues
to walk up the stairs, continuing to recite basic information
about himself. He assures himself, I'm perfectly saying, and then
the dummy calls out his name. Erkele turns around in
the dummy shouts boo, which sends Erkele sprinting up the
stairs in a panic. Now in Erkle's room, he quickly
(33:17):
locks the door and grabs a nearby chair to place
under the doorknob. He then grabs some scotch tape and
places individual.
Speaker 2 (33:22):
Strands across the door frame one by one. Joke of
the show. I wish I had thought of this. What
scotch tape genius? You shut the door and then you're
scotching little pieces of scotch tape to close the door.
Speaker 4 (33:36):
Oh.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
I thought it was very funny and it would have
been amazing if it was Eric doing it. But we
just heard Steve and then the first thing he does
is little pieces of scotch tape.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
But oh, got it.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
If I could have taken that joke was It's a
ten out of ten sitcom joke right there.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
I barricading the door with much tape so funny. Loved
it well.
Speaker 3 (34:02):
Steve is preoccupied with this idea. The dummy sneaks in
through the open window. It watches Erkle fiddling with the
tape and comments, good job. Erkele thanks him, but quickly
realizes who said it. He screams in horror and the
audience is having a blast. The dummy tells him to
relax and sit down. Erkle argues back, but you're made
of wood. You can't walk, you can't talk. The dummy smiles, Oh, yeah,
(34:24):
I bet I can't dance either. Then he proceeds to
do a little samba to prove him wrong. Erkele makes
it official, he's gone insane, but the dummy disagrees. You
just got what you wished for. You wanted me to talk,
and you got it. Bucko Bucco was big in the nineties.
Buck Up, buckers, buckers. Yeah, and then we've got we
(34:46):
got that that hard like in the book.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
Yeah, it's got that.
Speaker 3 (34:51):
Yeah, Yeah, K's are always funny, always funny. Now, sitting
on his bed, Erkle wonders, then why didn't you talk
in front of the Winslows. The dummy responds confidently. I
don't like the Winslows. Erkele argues, but they're the finest
family in the whole wide world. The dummy agrees, I know.
They make me sick. He takes it one step further.
(35:11):
The Winslows are in the way, so we'll have to
get rid of them. Erkele let's out the biggest, most
dramatic gasp ever on television and runs towards the door.
He scolds the rotten little puppet for even suggesting such
a thing. You may look like me, but you're not
like me at all. You're evil. The dummy smiles, Hey,
I like that evil? Huh From now on, you can
(35:32):
just call me Stevel.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
Come on.
Speaker 3 (35:37):
This entire episode came from someone who was like, what
if for our Halloween episode we have Stevel?
Speaker 2 (35:42):
Yeah, that's it.
Speaker 1 (35:43):
And you know, the first pitch was probably Steve Erkele
himself becomes evil and becomes stevil, and then they were like, well,
let's do a movie parody and make it a puppet
kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (35:53):
Yeah, does you know that hat? I get. I think
he does that a lot, doesn't he He has got
a cool guy persona. Yeah, like there's Steve even then
remember that.
Speaker 4 (36:01):
Yeah, so Steven or Kel?
Speaker 1 (36:04):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (36:04):
Is that what it is? Stephen or Kell? So yeah,
so maybe I'm guessing that.
Speaker 5 (36:09):
Kell.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
Yeah, that's gonna be I'm guessing that was the first pitch,
is that he turns evil somehow.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
Right, and he was Steve. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (36:17):
So the show is about Erkle just sort of ruining
the Winslow's lives constantly, like that's the okay, and they
love it.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
In so he can ruin it from inside. The ruining
is coming.
Speaker 3 (36:28):
From So we're back in the Winslow's living room. Carl
peeks outside and tells three J and Richie that they
have to hurry the boys are dressed up as Michael
(36:48):
Jordan and Dennis Rodman, creating quite a theme for this episode.
He reminds the boys if it starts to rain, tell
Charlie's dad to bring you straight home. They nod and
then head out the door with their Halloween bags. On
their way out, Car has one last reminder, do not
eat your Halloween candy until I look at it, which
feels like an ABC note.
Speaker 4 (37:06):
Yep, in the apples, which never happened in the history
of the world.
Speaker 2 (37:12):
No, it was. This whole thing was from one guy
who poisoned his own kid.
Speaker 3 (37:16):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (37:17):
No.
Speaker 4 (37:17):
And then and then the other thing that's been going
around is like every every season now they're like they're
giving out drug They're giving out drug candies. What what
people are saving their drugs? Why do they want to
give drugs to kids? They want to use them for themselves.
It's the dumbest the question.
Speaker 1 (37:32):
You also have to find the family. This is what
you want to do, is you want to find the
family that gives out the full size drugs, because the
little drugs it's.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
Like I'm kinda high, but like I'm not not where
I want to be. I want the full sized drugs.
Speaker 3 (37:49):
Richie responds, but you remember, don't eat our candy while
you look at it. Carl shuts the door just as
Zirkle appears. He explains, we don't need to worry anymore.
I just locked Stevel away upstairs in a trunk. I
feel like maybe we would have wanted to see that, Yeah, but.
Speaker 2 (38:06):
To get him in but yeah, okay.
Speaker 3 (38:08):
Carl raises an eyebrow. He has a name now, Erkele
nods yep, named him myself. I'm telling you, Carl, he's
Satan's sock puppet. That dummy ain't no dummy. Not only
does he talk, but what he says, oh, it ain't good.
Speaker 4 (38:20):
And what does Stevel want to do? Kill them?
Speaker 2 (38:25):
He explains later that he wants to go on like
a ski trip with her.
Speaker 1 (38:29):
No, he wants to go on the road with and
but he's gonna be Erkle's gonna be his puppet on
the road.
Speaker 2 (38:36):
So he thinks he's like gonna go on stage and
do all this stuff. It was during this speech where
I was like, jaliel is working, Oh my god, my god, work.
Speaker 4 (38:47):
And all the special effects and stuff they meant a
crazy tape week and but.
Speaker 2 (38:53):
It's also every he's every beat. He's just working so
hard as actor. It's un watch this.
Speaker 3 (39:01):
Yeah, no, he's He's truly incredible. Yeah, Carl is seriously
afraid that Erkele is losing his mind. Erkle follows along
and rattles off, I know Erkle's crazy. Erkle's crazy. Erkle's crazy,
but he urges Carl to trust him. The important thing
is Stevel's locked away and the family is safe. But
up in Erkle's dark room there's a locked chest with
(39:21):
signs that Warren beware danger and evil puppet inside. And
then a hand breaks through the wood from inside and
reaches for the lock. With some quick movement, he opens
the crate and the chest slowly opens. The camera zooms
into its pitch blackness, and then after a few seconds,
lighting illuminates Stevel inside. His eyes glow and he eerily
(39:42):
laughs to himself. Creepy, super creepy.
Speaker 2 (39:45):
I like this shot a lot.
Speaker 4 (39:47):
You're just going back to Stevel wants to be an entertainer.
Speaker 2 (39:50):
Yes, yes, Stevel wants.
Speaker 4 (39:53):
It's it's it's an analogy to Erkle taking over the show.
Speaker 2 (39:59):
Stevel's villain. His plan is to entertain people more than
the winslows they're.
Speaker 4 (40:04):
Standing in the way.
Speaker 2 (40:11):
What are you doing, Steve.
Speaker 4 (40:13):
I'm going to take over the world. I'm gonna get
more per episode than anybody else.
Speaker 3 (40:22):
Back in the living room, Eddie gives out candy to
some trigger treaters. Then he closes the door and plops
back onto the couch. He begins to read a magazine
and then Steve's little hands up here in the fireplace.
He hangs down from the chimney and whispers Eddie. Eddie
looks up in confusion and nervously asks who said that. Steve,
now back in hiding, whispers, help help me. I'm trapped
(40:43):
in the chimney. Eddie adorably asks Santa Sta, so you
and he hurries over to the chimney to help.
Speaker 2 (40:54):
Is that you?
Speaker 3 (41:00):
He peers inside and then screams as he's pulled up
and disappears entirely. Stevel hangs down from the chimney once
again and says to camera, one down, five to go,
and then we're outside. Three j and Ritchie are speeding
down the road on their bikes, reminding each other to.
Speaker 2 (41:17):
Keep pettling faster.
Speaker 3 (41:19):
The camera reveals a tiny car right on their tail,
and Stevel is behind the wheel. He grunts and laughs,
foot on the pedal, catching up quickly.
Speaker 4 (41:28):
Huge set piece.
Speaker 2 (41:29):
Yeah a lot. Where did Stevel get this car?
Speaker 1 (41:33):
I don't know, but I think it's a peel P
fifty if I'm right. Which is the smallest automobile ever made.
I believe that's what that one is.
Speaker 2 (41:41):
Yeah, did you?
Speaker 1 (41:41):
It opens in the front and all the well top
gear is like one of my favorite shows tested this
car out, So I'm.
Speaker 2 (41:47):
Pretty sure that's a peel P fifty. Wow, tiny little car.
Speaker 3 (41:50):
Very tiny. All right, we're back in Erkle's room. Arkle
sees the chest has been destroyed. He screams, jumpin Jehosa
fat He's loose. Then the door slams shut and we
get a jump scare when Stevel is standing right behind him.
Speaker 2 (42:05):
He tells me, I'm sorry. I just a weird riding thing.
The dad tells the kids Carl. Carl tells the kids,
if it's raining, have somebody bring you back. Have he
mentioned somebody? Yeah, but the kids aren't with anybody. They're
on bikes.
Speaker 3 (42:22):
It seems as.
Speaker 4 (42:23):
Though they were going to someone's house.
Speaker 3 (42:25):
Maybe yes, they may be on or uh, they just
had to pedal away. From the people they were with
when they were being chased by the scary puppet.
Speaker 1 (42:35):
Okay, so then they would just leave their bikes somewhere
if it started drain, and the guy would drive them home.
Speaker 2 (42:42):
Sure, right, okay, put the bikes in the trunk. That
was the thing that really took me, right, that's you wanted,
the realism.
Speaker 4 (42:49):
Yeah, like puppet, fine bikes car somewhere, the keys for sure.
Speaker 1 (42:56):
I'm guessing we've never seen the We've never seen the show,
but it's so a weird car.
Speaker 2 (43:00):
I will guarantee you that.
Speaker 3 (43:02):
It's fromone's car, right right, right, that's actually Erkele's car.
Speaker 2 (43:05):
But yeah, but don't you know, we don't know that.
But yeah, that took me out of it.
Speaker 3 (43:13):
He tells Erkele to relax. It's the Winslows he's after,
and he's been a very busy dummy. Erkle doesn't get it,
so Stevell suggests he check out what's behind Murphy Bed
number one. Erkele pulls down the mattress to reveal three
j and Ritchie are trapped behind the wall, their faces
peeking out where Jordan and Rodman's heads were. They beg
Ergle to help and Erkele asks the puppet, what kind
(43:35):
of diabolical, demented dummy are you? Stevell calmly responds the
kind that stuffed Eddie in the chimney. Erkele gasps in
horror and assures him he won't get anyone else they
can count on him, and with that he runs right
into the closed bedroom door, but he pulls himself together
and quickly hurries off.
Speaker 2 (43:51):
Okay, wait a second.
Speaker 1 (43:53):
This also showed me I think how much of a
difference a half an hour in television makes because we
killed people on our show, an actual dead knives in
the back, Phoenie's dead, the janitor's dead.
Speaker 2 (44:08):
Nobody dies in this episode.
Speaker 1 (44:11):
They're they're specifically talking to each character to show you
that they're still alive. And I wonder if that's seriously
the difference in being on an eight or being on
an eight thirty. Yeah, where they literally couldn't kill anybody.
We were killing people left and right a half hour later.
I know you're right, I mean, is that all it is?
Do you think is that thirty minutes that changes everything?
Speaker 4 (44:31):
It could just context, you know.
Speaker 3 (44:33):
You could also just be a choice on the writers,
like I don't don't want it. We don't want to
like we our episode very much wanted to go for
horror moly trope.
Speaker 2 (44:41):
And it also wasn't a Halloween episode, which somehow I
think gives us more leeway. Right right, yeah? Maybe?
Speaker 3 (44:47):
The dummy turns to the camera and comments, what a goof?
And then we're in the kitchen.
Speaker 4 (44:55):
Character being like myrcle's crazy.
Speaker 3 (45:01):
Rkele car calls out for the remaining family members, with
Stevel following close behind. No one answers, and Steville asks,
why don't you check the cupboard There may be a
little honey on the shelf. Rkele opens it to find
Laura's head, and when he opens another cupboard, he finds
her legs and feet, then her torso in another. Rkele
begs her to pull herself together, then realizes that was
(45:21):
a poor choice of words. Laura agrees she's totally beside herself.
Stevell adds Laura's a nice girl, but she suffers from
low shelf esteem.
Speaker 5 (45:31):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (45:33):
Laura tells Rkle to shut the cupboards because she doesn't
want anyone else to see her like this. Erkele obliges
and then asks the dummy, where's Harriet? Stevel exclaims special delivery,
then motions to a giant jack in the box nearby.
Stevel urges him to turn the crank and find out
what's inside. Erkele does as he's told, and we hear
a creepy pop, goes the weasel. Finally, Harriet's head pops
(45:55):
out of the box. Her head is dressed in clown gear,
while the rest of her body is a giant spring.
She asks Erkele for a baseball bat to knock this
dummy upside his head, but Stevel just taunts her in
your dreams bozo. Erkele snarls at his puppet, that's it,
You've got to be stopped. He lunges for the dummy
and carries him over to the fridge, where he stuffs
him inside. Erkele feels triumphant for a split second, but
(46:17):
then the fridge begins to rattle. Stevel's stronger than he expected,
but then the rattling stops all together, just before Erkele
notices some smoke coming out of the fridge. He opens
the door to see that Stevel has put a hole
through the back of it to escape. Erkele gasps in
horror and runs into the living room. Erkel notices Krl
is just nonchalantly lounging on the couch and asks him
(46:39):
if he saw a demented dummy come through the wall.
Carl laughs, if that had happened, I would have noticed.
Erkele explains that everything he warned him about has happened.
He rattles off all of the victims thus far. Carl
oddly laughs, maybe your dummy did do away with the
whole family, but let's be honest.
Speaker 2 (46:55):
Is that so bad?
Speaker 3 (46:57):
Erkele, shocked, Carl tells him to lighten up, but then
he convulses and falls to his side, revealing Stevel was
controlling him the whole time. Stevel says that Carl is
his new personal puppet. He lifts Carl back up to
do a little joke. Carl robotically announces that he took
his wife to the islands. Stevel asks Jamaica, and Carl responds, no,
(47:18):
she wanted to go.
Speaker 2 (47:19):
Oh great joke. It's an awful and wonderful, perfect Ventriloquist joke.
Speaker 1 (47:25):
It is the perfect Trilloquist joke, such a hacky joke,
and it's great.
Speaker 2 (47:30):
No, she wanted to go so bad.
Speaker 3 (47:36):
Ercle cringes. Oh, for the love of fried pickles, why
are you doing this? Stevel reveals I took care of
the Winslows so we could go on the road together.
I knew you'd never come unless they were out of
the way. Erkle is shocked. On the road, Stevel nods
we can do a ventriloquist act together, only I'll do
the talking and you'll be the dummy. Erkele shouts never,
(47:56):
I'm not going anywhere without a fight. He challenges the
dummy to a one on one monoey puppet battle, then
shows off his quick feet in steady hand movements. The
two of them talk trash before getting into an awkward
brawl when Stevel charges at Erkle. He trips the puppet
and tries to pin him on the ground, but Stevel
smacks his ear to buy time. Stevel crawls away and
somehow Erkele loses track of him. Finally, he finds him
(48:19):
behind the couch and shouts, come back here and fight
like a mannequin, just before belly flopping to get him,
but Stevell manages to then ride Erkle's back and use
his wooden hands to forcibly open his mouth. Erkele tries
to pull him off, but Stevel has a tight grip. Finally,
Urkle's it's the whole episode.
Speaker 2 (48:37):
He's working so hard. I was tired watching this.
Speaker 4 (48:41):
I mean, my god, this is like a four hour shoot,
just in the scene sitting there with like, Okay, get
the actor in, Okay, now replace him with a puppet.
Speaker 2 (48:49):
Okay, yep, this was massive, massive, and it's all Jalil,
the whole thing. It's not even it's not even broken
up amongst all the other cast. It's all jel.
Speaker 3 (49:00):
Erkele's able to throw the puppet to the ground and
fall on top of him to keep him from getting up.
Erkele grabs a hold of Stevel's head and pulls it
right off. He disassembles each body part to be safe,
then falls onto the couch with a sigh of relief.
He proclaims it's over. The demon is dead until the
arm starts to move, and then it quickly rejoins the body.
The rest of the dummy's limbs follows soon after. Once reassembled,
(49:24):
Stevel sits up with a look of fury on his
wooden face. Okay, now it's personal. Erkele lets out a
scream and disbelief. He tells himself over and over, this
isn't happening, This isn't happening. The dummy jumps onto the
couch with ease and starts to strangle him, and Erkele
realizes this is happening or is it? Because we start
(49:45):
to transition into Erkele's room. Erkele is screaming in his sleep,
fighting a pillow. The dummy is back, lifeless in the chair.
Eddie quickly runs in and hits him with his pillow.
Erkle snaps out of it. How'd you get out of
the chimney? Eddie's confused, so Erkele explains, my tell me
it's alive. It put you in the chimney and Laura
in the kitchen cabinets. Eddie assures him it was a dream.
(50:05):
Erkle can't believe it. He taps the dummy with his
foot to make sure and stevel doesn't move. Erkele wonders,
why would I have a dream like that? Eddie laughs
and explains, very calmly, that's no mystery. You have an obsessive,
compulsive personality which manifests itself in your extreme need to
achieve perfection. Rkle asks you think I need therapy, and
Eddie leads Rkle to his bed. Not at all, a
(50:25):
simple surgical procedure will alleviate the problem. Erkele lies down nervously,
going along with everything, but then Eddie pulls out an
electric whisker to match a now devious look on his face.
Erkle begs him to put it down, but Eddie just
sels lie back and close your eyes because this is
really gonna hurt.
Speaker 4 (50:42):
So there really is no bet story, no, no.
Speaker 2 (50:45):
No, this whole episode is just.
Speaker 3 (50:49):
Let because like family matters aka whatch you doing?
Speaker 2 (50:55):
Steve?
Speaker 4 (50:55):
What we know the kids were going trick or treaty?
And where?
Speaker 3 (50:58):
Because he was going downstairs just to pass out candy
because we see him. Well, it's part of the dream,
right you know. Erkle screams in horror as the whisker
gets closer and closer to his face, but then this
reality starts to fade away as well. Erkle wakes up
the screaming bloody murder and fighting the pillow. Eddie comes
storming in. What is the matter with you? Arkle explains,
I just had a horrible Halloween nightmare with a false ending,
(51:22):
great joke Eddie wonders what's with him and holidays? Last
Easter you dream that the Easter bunny jumped you in
the alley and slapped you pink. At Thanksgiving, you dreamed
that a turkey stuffed you. Erkle announces Next Groundhog Day,
I'm wearing steel pants.
Speaker 2 (51:35):
I don't get that joke. Yeah, so steal groundhog maybe
is coming out of him going into him?
Speaker 4 (51:45):
I mean, why not just next groundhog Day. I'm wearing armor?
Why steel pants?
Speaker 2 (51:50):
Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (51:51):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (51:52):
I want to know what happened last groundhog Day? My question. Yeah,
As the.
Speaker 3 (51:55):
Pair leaves the room, the camera zooms in on the doll,
who just stares at the camera blank.
Speaker 2 (52:00):
How do you not have the puppet blink or a hand?
Speaker 4 (52:05):
It's too predictable? But this way it's lingering.
Speaker 2 (52:11):
Or is it not. One eyebrow goes up, just something like,
how do you do?
Speaker 4 (52:15):
They probably they probably did a version of that, and
then they were debated and they were like, no, let's
just not do it at all.
Speaker 2 (52:20):
I liked it. I was like, don't do it at all.
It lingering.
Speaker 4 (52:23):
But then the making of which was my favorite part
of mind to my favorite part of the whole episode.
Speaker 2 (52:28):
I loved the episode, but I also loved this.
Speaker 3 (52:31):
We see that the hole was cut into the couch
to make the doll move, the stand they used for
standing shots, the different faces they had for the doll,
and the Stevel double who played him, and eventually we
see Rich Correll voicing Stevel just before he yells cut.
And that is our episode. What a fun Halloween romp.
Speaker 1 (52:54):
Great Halloween episode. With anybody but Jalil, it would have
been I know, But.
Speaker 3 (53:01):
Boy, I thoroughly enjoyed those twenty two minutes. Me too,
I really did. I thought it was very I thought
it was very enjoyable. I didn't. I didn't spend a
whole bunch of time going like.
Speaker 2 (53:13):
Wait, let me think about this math.
Speaker 3 (53:14):
I just, I really just I enjoyed it, and I
thought everybody, everybody put in the effort to make it
as funny as it possibly could be, and it they succeeded.
Speaker 2 (53:23):
Well.
Speaker 3 (53:24):
Thank you all for joining us for this episode of
Pod Meets World. As always, you can follow us on
Instagram pod meets World Show. You can send us your
emails pod meets World Show at gmail dot com.
Speaker 2 (53:32):
And we've got merch What are you doing merchy. What's
going on? March March? You're crazy?
Speaker 3 (53:40):
Podmeetsworldshow dot com will send us out.
Speaker 2 (53:44):
We love you all, pod dismissed.
Speaker 1 (53:47):
Pod Meets World is nheart podcast producer and hosted by
Danielle Fischel, Wilfredell and Ryder Strong executive producers, Jensen Karp
and Amy Sugarman Executive in charge of production, Danielle Romo,
producer and editor, Tara Sudbaksh producer, Maddy Moore, engineer and
Boy Meets World superfan Easton Allen. Our theme song is
by Kyle Morton of Typhoon and you can follow us
on Instagram at Podmets World Show or email us at
(54:09):
Podmetsworldshow at gmail dot com
So writer, back in the day, you and I used
to have on running conversations about different I mean, philosophies
or walks of life, whatever you want to talk about it.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
You and I would find a conversation about it. And
there was one that you and I.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Used to constantly go back to, which was fate versus coincidence. Okay,
and fate is something that you roundly rejected back in
the day.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
It was everything's coincidence.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Now, so let's pretend that's true and there is no
fate back in the day.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
He's back back in the day he used to Okay.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Yeah, it's true, but let's just say that it is
all coincidence. I would then ask a sub question, which
is are there degrees of coincidence? Is there a big
coincidence and a small coincidence or are there just coincidence?
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Uh?
Speaker 4 (01:08):
Oh man, do I really want to get into this?
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Well, I'm going to tell you why, because something pretty
out amazing happened.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
I don't.
Speaker 4 (01:14):
I don't, look, do you do I believe that that
that there's an order to the universe. Potentially yes, but
it's a material order, so you know, there's complexity. So
things happen for reasons, but those reasons can be explored
by investigating science and evidence and right and it's so
(01:35):
complex that it's outside of the grasp of our minds
most of the time.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
But again, would you would would you say, like somebody
who flies, to you know, from their home in California
to Africa and is on Safarian in the middle of Safari,
they meet their childhood friend that they haven't seen forever
that they grew up on the street next to you.
Is that the same kind of coincidence as Hey, I'm
standing next to some guy in a train and we're
both drinking the same soda.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
I mean, are both equal? Just coincidences and that one
is bigger than the other?
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Right, Yeah, Okay, So I believe in at the very least,
I believe in fate, but I also believe in degrees
of coincidence. So here's what happened to me. And when
I tell the story, it's to me. Some people are
like okay, and I'm like, this is nuts to me.
So I'm home with at the time to see my parents.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
And I always because I don't like flying, and I
every time there's a flight to another flight, I don't
like to connect because it's just one more chance to
have a delayed flight or they're gonna lose your bag
or something. So I and then there's no direct flights
in Hartford, so I always fly from LA to Boston,
and I rent a car and I drive.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
And one of my favorite things has become my drive
from Boston. It takes about an hour and forty five minutes.
I usually get there. I'm in there by myself in
the afternoon, and then I take a very early flight home.
I usually get like a six am flight, So I
leave my house in Connecticut at like two o'clock in
the morning to thirty in the morning. And that drive
has become just kind of a magical time for me.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
It's dark, there's nobody on the road.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
I'm completely by myself. I'm listening to whatever I want.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
It's great.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
So, as everybody else knows, we have a lot of
podcasts to do, and we podcast quite a bit. So
one of the things we do is we get the
edits of our podcast and we get to listen to
our podcast and then we say, I said I'm here
or I stumbled this word, can you cut this?
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Can you tighten it?
Speaker 1 (03:16):
So I'm listening to my podcast, and I'm now in
Logan Airport and I'm listening to the last episode of
Magical Rewind, the other show that I do to edit
what I have to edit, and a character in I'm
listening to myself and I say, oh, and then this
character walks on screen and they look like Justin Long.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Yeah. And before the g hits my headphones, I look
over and Justin Long is standing next to me.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
So the idea that I say a random actor's name
that and what I mean literally, I mean literally the
Jief long Go is there as I go like this
and he's standing next to me at the airport.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
To me, is a big coincidence.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
That's a big coincidence.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Of all the people in the world. I say an actor's.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Name in the middle of the night. By the way, correct,
it's like four o'clock in the morning, four thirty five
o'clock in the morning.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
So what does that mean to you?
Speaker 2 (04:19):
There's no. To me, I don't know. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
But the idea that that's just the same as hey,
the guy I'm sitting next to using the same pencil
as me, is crazy Like that big coincidence and sall no, no, it's.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
Not why Okay, so what what does it mean? Why
is there a face connecting you and Justin Long in
that moment?
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Did you fall in love with Justin Long?
Speaker 1 (04:39):
First of all, I'd already been in love with Justin Long.
This just solidified it.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Okay, no, I but again, take fade out of it?
Is that the same?
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Is there a degree of coincidence where even you'd have
to admit, like, wow, that's a huge coincidence, as opposed to.
Speaker 4 (04:55):
It has more meaning to you? Right, there's more like
you somebody's using the same pencil next to you, how
many times you don't even notice?
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Right?
Speaker 1 (05:02):
In this case, isn't that more of a chance of
that happening than saying some random person's name of the
eight billion people on the planet and he's standing next
to you in a random airport.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
But if it, even if it is more or less likely,
it doesn't have any more or less meaning.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
I'm not talking about the meaning. I'm asking is there
degrees of coincidence? To you?
Speaker 4 (05:20):
Is there a small coincidence? Or is an American? He
probably has a house in Boston? Right, Like, there's there's
reasons for all of these things, right, who knows what
they answer.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
I think you're talking about, Like what you're really thinking about, well,
is like, what's the what are the odds are there
better or worse odds?
Speaker 4 (05:37):
Of course, there's more odds that an American is going
to be next to you and you know, and then
I don't know, like are you flying first class? So
that you know that means the more the odds that
it's somebody who is also wealthy in the same.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Class, just combined using the same pencil versus being next
to the same person, right, Like how many pencils.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Are there in the world, I'm saying, how many people.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
Use pencils like versus naming a person on a podcast,
listening to that podcast in that moment, seeing that person
in that moment like that to me does feel like
the percent chance of that happening sure is much smaller
than just running into someone who has the same pendel.
Speaker 4 (06:23):
I would say, yeah, like it's worth like remarking on
it being like, oh my god, right, well, the chances
that odds are the odds are low, and.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
It happened, and it happened, that's okay.
Speaker 4 (06:31):
Crazy, But then the next whatever that you take for
the next step is like now I have to talk
to Justin Long because our fates are intertwined. No, I
never thought that there's a meaning, there's a sign to this.
I have to, you know, respond appropriately.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
That's where I go.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
No, No, I agree with.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
You ondred percent there. Yeah, but I would.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
That's why I took fade out of it and just
ask if there was to you degrees of quincy because
like some people are like, no, the pencil next to
you is exactly the same as running into your childhood
friend nine thousand mobs And it's like, okay, I don't
agree with that.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
I it's exactly the.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
Same meaning, I think. So it's it's there's no more
meaning to it.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
But for the record, yeah, he was in front of
me in line waiting to go on. A fan came
up to him.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
He could not have been nicer to the woman that
came up to him, which is kind of all I
need to know about his character. When you see somebody
in how they treat their fans. And he was lovely
to this woman. And so Justin Long I saw that
I see you, Justin and it was it was a
cool moment and I was like, okay, good because I
really admire him and I'm glad that he was a
cool guy.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
It seemed to be a.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
Very women Going back to like when we were on Boy,
we would talk about him in Galaxy Quest. It was
like one of the greatest, like one of the all
time performances.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
He is so good in that movie.
Speaker 4 (07:39):
I mean it launched his whole career, and understandably so,
because he is so good in that movie.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Yeah, it was great, But that's I Did you tell him?
Speaker 3 (07:47):
Did you tell him what had happened?
Speaker 2 (07:48):
No? I didn't. I didn't put The funny funny thing
was we walk on the plane and he gets on first,
and he's putting his bag up and he looks at
me and he's like, I'm sorry, it's sorry.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
It's taken a little while. And I'm like, no, no, no,
take your time. In about ten seconds, go by him.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Well now it's too long, and he starts and.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
He starts to laugh, and I walk by him, and
the first woman that saw him went, you're on.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Boy Meets World. How many of you are on this plane?
How many of you? And so I was like, oh, hi,
how are you? And she's like yelling at it. I'm
like hey, and she tells her friends and I'm like, hi,
So it was like it was a strange kind of flight.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Were you in four seed because you're no longer seen?
Speaker 2 (08:26):
I wasn't.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
I was too a although there's they're now saying I
got four seed at Dancing with the Stars again the
other day.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Did you hear about that? No?
Speaker 3 (08:33):
What happened.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
So I'm sitting there watching a really close friend and
somebody I love dancing their heart out.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
I'm watching Robert Irwin. It's really amazing. No, I'm there
watching you.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
And in between, these two people come up and they're like,
we're live on TikTok?
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Did you mind it for you to? Okay? I did
not put that together at first.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
I just saw two people come up and I was like,
this guy kind of looks familiar and he's.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Like, hey, who are you here rooting for? And I said, well,
we're we're here rooting for Danielle Fischle.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
And and and he's and then a moment goes by
and he goes, well, of course you are. And so
somebody set me that clip and all the comments are
like foreseed again.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
He got completely foreseed again, like because then he's like, well, oh,
I just got something in my ear what do you
think about Bill Daniels so obviously like that's Will Forred
Della glasses off, that's Will for so yeah, foreseed again God, which.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
Is pretty so funny.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
What are the odds? What are the odds?
Speaker 3 (09:33):
What are the odds of that?
Speaker 1 (09:35):
That's that's pencil lots. Those are pencils.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
Welcome to Pond Meets World.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
I'm Daniel Fishal, I'm right or Strong, and I'm Will Fordell.
Speaker 5 (09:50):
Halloween is around the corner, and your favorite podcasters serving
up episodes that are so good it's actually scary. Sex
and the City meet Severance when Adam Scott joins Christi
Davis to discuss the haunting relationship between Big and Natasha
on Are You a Charlotte?
Speaker 2 (10:05):
And nine one one?
Speaker 5 (10:06):
What's Your Emergency? The new episode of Call It What
It Is? Of course nine one one Nashville co star
Kimberly Williams Paisley joins Jessica Kapshaw and Camilla Leddington to
talk about her health scare, her superstar hubby Brad Paisley,
and her memories on the set of Father of the
Bride with the legendary Diane Keaton, Oscar winner Bree Larsen
is a.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Work in progress.
Speaker 5 (10:26):
Sophia Bush finds out why and waltz right over to
Danielle with the Stars because Danielle Fischel has fellow Dancing
with the Stars contestant Dylan Effron on to talk about
the ballroom, the leaderboard and more. Listen now on the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
Okay, Halloween is just days away, and we acknowledge that
we have picked apart and then there was Sean the
way vultures tear it a dead body in the desert.
So rather than revisit our beloved spooky episode, we have
decided to tackle some of our tag If Neighbors Halloween
specials in hopes that it helps us understand why ours
(11:11):
is considered so good. And this week we are looking
at season eight, episode seven of Family Matters. The episode
is titled stevel Have you have either of you ever
seen a Family Matters episode before?
Speaker 4 (11:26):
Never in my life.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
First one, I had seen Family Matters back when we
were on Boy Meets World. I definitely saw it leading
into the night because you.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Couldn't skip it back at the time. Nope, there was
no boodoop doo doo no.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
Technic, which, by the way, is now an outdated technical
term because is from what was that thing called.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
TV though exactly first time I remember seeing TVO was
our finale.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Are watching We're Able to someone else TiVo?
Speaker 4 (12:01):
And I was like, oh, you can scow commercial discrease.
But that was two thousand, right eat. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
So it first aired on ABC as part of our
TGIF programming block on October twenty fifth, nineteen ninety six,
and is actually regarded as one of the better Halloween episodes.
It is currently available to stream on Hulu, so feel
free to check it out. This script is very much
influenced by Chucky and the movie Child's Play. Have either
of you seen those movies?
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (12:28):
Yeah, no, it's been a long time. I was one
of the first horror films I saw. I went over
to Ryan Bloom's house when I was probably like only eight.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Oh my god.
Speaker 4 (12:38):
Yeah, Child's Play scared the crap out of me, but I.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Love I wouldn't be able to sleep. Yeah, so you
liked being the Actually being scared is something.
Speaker 4 (12:47):
That you like totally totally.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
I still do.
Speaker 4 (12:49):
I mean that's why I like it's pretty rare. As
you get older, you know, and you get more like
immune to being scared. Like when I find something that
actually puts me on edge, I'm so excited, but it's.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Yourself. What are you talking about?
Speaker 3 (13:04):
Yesterday we were in an elevator and something made a
loud sound and I was I literally jumped, like.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
I was not ready to die.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
I know, I don't. I don't enjoy it. Both of
my children are obsessed with Chucky now because we took
them to see Justin Willeman at the Thousand Oaks Theater.
He's a comedian slash magician, and he had a whole
bit with a little ventriloquist dummy, and actually it wasn't
a ventriloquist dummy.
Speaker 4 (13:26):
It was my buddy, remember my Buddy, which is what
Chucky I think was based on exactly.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
So he had his my Buddy on stage and my
buddy does tricks with a person where like it feels
as though my buddy is alive. And then he goes
to put my Buddy in the box and he pulls
it out really quick, and the camera zooms in on
it and it suddenly it's Chucky. And both of our
kids were like, what was that?
Speaker 2 (13:52):
What's that?
Speaker 3 (13:52):
Why did it look like that? And so we had
to talk to them about Chucky, And now they talk
about Chucky. You never movie though, Yeah, I've never seen it,
but then it is stuck with them before sure geez.
So the synopsis of Ventriloquist Stummy, which looks exactly like Arkle,
comes to life to terrorize.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
The Winslows, and Steve Urkle must stop it.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
It was directed by Rich Carrell, one of the busiest
directors in the history of TV for family sitcoms. It
was written by Gregory Thomas Garcia, a veteran TV writer.
He has written for My Name Is Earl, Yes, Dear,
Raising Hope, The Millers, and last year's Emmy Awards. It
was also written by Fred Rubin, who has similar credits
but goes back to Webster, Mama's Family, and night Court.
(14:37):
The show stars reginaldvil Johnson is Carl Winslow, one of
the more recognizable sitcom stars of the nineties, and he
is a man who seems to always play a policeman.
He appears in movies like Diehard Turner and is he
a cop on this show?
Speaker 2 (14:53):
I think he is?
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Have you never heard There's a y, There's a an
online theory that it's essentially the same character you're from Diehard,
that it's like he had to change his name because
of some weird thing and move to a small town
because of kids.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
Like, yeah, it's like the same exact Yes, it's like
the same exact thing. That's why he takes in Steve Rkle.
Speaker 4 (15:12):
I was just trying to figure out what because I
don't know what Family Matters is about. I just know
that there's a character, and I know most I see
these actors and I'm like, oh yeah, because we would
see them at parties or whatever they were. They were
on the same network. But I had I was trying
to be together what the story is, like, why does
Erkele live with them? Who are the Winslows?
Speaker 2 (15:32):
I didn't under anybody.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
Does he live with them?
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Yes, he kept coming from and he's in sharing the
room with them.
Speaker 4 (15:38):
So I kept being like, what is the pitch, Like,
what was the original pitch for Family Matters?
Speaker 2 (15:41):
Well, you know, he wasn't he was. He was a tipanga.
He was when he was on our show.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
He wasn't supposed to be on the shows, right, So
that's what I was trying to get straight up family sick.
Speaker 4 (15:49):
So the original pitch was just it's a story of
the Winslows.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
Yeah, and the original Johnson well, well there yeah, and
there wasn't one at the time. It was it was
just reginaldvel Johnson. I think they made a show for
him and that was it. And then I think that's
one of the reasons why the cast, you know, if
you Julia's talked about in his book and everything, the
cast kind of didn't like him for a while because
he came in and took over the whole show.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
Steve Erkele lives with the Winslows because his parents moved
to Russia and left him behind.
Speaker 4 (16:17):
That's interesting, Okay, Russia, Russia? I know, Okay, did that
happen right away? Like we met Rkele and then he
just moved in or was that.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Yeah? Because he was the wacky neighbor. He was like
the actual whacky ye.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
Yeah, he would always come.
Speaker 4 (16:32):
In and did they have like school scenes? Did they
have teachers?
Speaker 2 (16:36):
They must have? They must have, they must have.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
He was also in Ghostbusters and an episode of Girl
Meets World where he played a police officer.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
Really, who was he in Ghostbusters? I'm gonna go with
a cop trying to remember who he was in Ghostbusters. Okay,
I gotta watch the movie in my head. Right now.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
We have Joe Marie Payton as Harriet Winsley. Hello. She
appeared on dozens of shows like two two seven, Silver
Spoons and Perfect Strangers. She's also well known as the
voice of Sugar Mama on The Proud Family and is
still working more recently on the Netflix show Miss Governor.
There's Rosetta le Noir as a Stelle mother Winslow. As
a child, she was taught to dance by her godfather,
(17:19):
Bill bo Jangles Robinson. Wow really hmm, and in her
twenties was cast in Orson Wells's stage production of Macbeth.
She had a regular role on Gimme a Break, and
is best known from Family Matters. She passed away in
two thousand and two at the age of ninety. Wow
and then Darius McCrae as Eddie Winslow. McCrae made his
(17:40):
film debut in nineteen eighty six's Hotshot and would later
appear in movies like Mississippi Burning and Fifteen Minutes. He
also was a regular on The Young and the Restless
and Kelly Shaneine Williams as Laura Winslow. She was also
a recurring guest star on Militia and The Parkers. And
then we have Brighton James as Richie Crawford. James went
on to become one of daytime soap's biggest stars, joining
(18:02):
the cast of The Young and the Restless in two
thousand and four, where he's won two Emmys and is
still playing billionaire Devin Hamilton. And finally, Jilliel White as
Steve Erkele. Jialiel was the face of ABC and its
uber successful TGIF lineup. We interviewed Juliel a while back
and he is a lovely, very interesting guy, So go
(18:23):
check it out now and learn more about this TV
legend guest starring Orlando Brown as three j best known
as Eddie Thomas on That So Raven. He also appeared
in movies Major Pain in Eddie's Million Dollar Cookoff and
shows like The Jamie Foxx Show and The Proud Family,
but he is now best known for some crazy TMZ headlines.
(18:44):
And for those wondering, we have two interesting behind the
scenes appearances. The episodes director Rich Carell is the voice
of Stevel and Josh Ryan Evans was the double for Stevel.
Josh was three feet two inches tall and had a chondroplagia,
which is a form of dwarfism. It was well known
from his time on the Surreal Daytime soap Passions as
Timmy Lennox. He was nominated for an Emmy in two
(19:07):
thousand and won two Soap Opera Digest Awards.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
He also played the role.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Of Baby Grinch in the two thousand Jim Carrey version
of How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Sadly, Josh passed away
in two thousand and two at the young age of twenty.
Jumping into our recap, we start in the cold open
in the living room. Steve Urkel sits behind a dimly
lit pumpkin, breaking the fourth wall to introduce to Night's
family matters. It works as a warning, describing what viewers
(19:32):
will see as a little scary, and he recommends that
you watch it with someone brave.
Speaker 4 (19:37):
And immediately I was like, why didn't we do this?
And then there was Sean, I know, we just really
just threw our dreams ris unsuspectingly.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
We never we never did a warning, did we, even
when it was like the Ariana Richard's episode or anything
more the drinking episode. There was never a hey, everybody,
this is a special kind of episode.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Yeah, interesting interesting.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
Yeah, you're right though that it have been a really
smart one, like this is a little different than our
usual episode.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:05):
It's revealed that Little Ritchie and three J are sitting
next to him. Ritchie chimes in, don't worry, Uncle Rkle.
Three J insists, Yeah, man, we're here for you. Erkele
looks around in fear.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
Can we turn on the lights?
Speaker 3 (20:16):
The audience laughs, and we start the actual episode. We're
in the living room. Urkle walks downstairs carrying a large
white sheet. He greets the family, Hello halloweeners happy to
see him. Harriet wonders what's under the sheet. Erkele can't
wait to show them. He excitedly reveals a ventriloquist dummy
that looks and is dressed exactly like him. Everyone screams
(20:38):
in horror at the sight. Erkele isn't impressed with their reaction,
and Laura calls it disturbing. Erkele explains that the key
to being a good ventriloquist is to give the dummy
a funny voice. He asks the dummy, does your mom
know where you are? He takes a breath and responds
on what is very close to Julian's real voice. My
mom doesn't know anything. She's a telephone poll in Kansas City.
Speaker 4 (20:58):
This is probably the best joke the whole episode, by
the for me a better one. I was like, that's great,
Like because because my inter reaction, I've never seen the show,
I'm like, so that that's the voice of Arcle, Like yes,
the whole time, I was like, oh right, I mean,
I guess because we're in season eight eight, and I
imagine jillil started the show when he was very young,
(21:20):
and that the Erkle voice probably felt more natural or
seemed more possible. But as it is, you're watching like
a twenty year old do this, you know, ridiculously high voice.
So when he did the ventriloquist as like a normal
I was like, that's fun. That's so fun funny, how
crazy that this guy.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
Talks like this? One of my favorite sitcom jokes I think, ever,
what was in this episode? I was like, oh my god,
that's brilliant and I'll tell you when we get there,
Like this is this is absolutely genius. I wish I
had thought of this.
Speaker 3 (21:46):
I mean, I'm just going to say it here. Jilliel
White is on another.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
US is brilliant. He has this entire show on his shoulders. Yeah.
But the show, that's my question is is since we've
only watched one episode, is the show essentially because that
was what I took away from this is it's essentially
five or six actors that stand in a line and go, Steve,
what are you doing? And then he goes off and
(22:17):
does a bunch I think? So, is that is that
the whole show? Is that like, ye oh Steve and
then he goes off and does his thing. Yeah, I
don't know if that's what the entire show is. And
then occasionally, like in Family Ties, what you turn it
on and be like, oh god, it's a teena.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Others episode, So you wonder if there's if it's gonna
be like that where occasionally one of the other characters
gets an episode, but for the most part, it's like,
what are you doing, Steve? And then Steve tells you
what he's doing, and then you follow what he does
and they go, man, that's crazy, Steve, and then that's
kind of the show.
Speaker 4 (22:45):
So yeah, it was It's almost as if, like Boy
Meets World, were just everyone looking at Eric being like.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
Right, right, exactly. Well.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
I also watching this show gave me a huge realization
of what TGIF actually was, and actually the diversity of
TGIF because when you think about it, Sabrina is bewitched
right where Happy Days mm hmm, and then Erkele is
kind of Three's Company where it's the crazy, wacky guy
(23:15):
that you're following.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
It's like they've.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
Taken sitcom tra all different sitcom tropes, made them kids,
and then put them on the air again.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
And it's really brilliant when you think about it, because
they know they work. Happy Days works, Okay, why wouldn't
it work if Richie was eleven? How much of that?
Speaker 4 (23:33):
How much of that is just falling into what people
want to watch? Do you know it was that conscious?
Speaker 2 (23:38):
I think it was. It's brilliant.
Speaker 4 (23:40):
It's difficult to see what sticks and what stock was
like traditional sitcom trops, that's.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
The thing, though.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
They took traditional sitcom tropes, aged them down, and put
them back on the air.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Brilliant, brilliant.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
So Erkele lets out his high pitched laugh, loving his
own joke, but no one else gets it except Grandma Stell,
who visibly loves it. He asks the family their opinion,
and Harriet's imply wonders, are your lips supposed to flap
like that?
Speaker 2 (24:03):
Erkle?
Speaker 3 (24:03):
That's reality sink in. I'm awful, r and I the
entire family can't help but agree, And just like that,
they're into the perfect you know, don't need to waste
a bunch of time. He wants to be he wants
to be a ventriloquiest. He's not good at it. Great,
move on, that's all. We got it. We got it
all right. Now we're in Erkele's bedroom with a large
(24:23):
poster of Michael Jordan and Dennis Rodman above his bed,
something that did not seem.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
Very easy to clear, by the way, Like you know
they had to work for that.
Speaker 4 (24:33):
I wouldn't have noticed. I thought they were just you know,
generic basketball play generic.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Did you notice one of those Michael Jordans?
Speaker 4 (24:41):
I mean I saw a Bulls, so I figured.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
Like, did you not see the number twenty three?
Speaker 3 (24:46):
That means nothing to you?
Speaker 4 (24:47):
Nope, I do remember the Bulls being big back in
the day. No, why would I know any of it?
Speaker 1 (24:53):
How about because Ben Savage was on the show with us,
and he was a huge bulls Sure.
Speaker 4 (24:57):
Sure, I was like sports ball people doing sports ball
things like, and I was like, why is it so permanent?
And then of course when they are captured in the
poster later, I was like, oh, that's why they had
to like make a big deal out of this poster.
Speaker 5 (25:10):
You No.
Speaker 4 (25:10):
At this point, I was thinking, do you guys notice
how small their sets seemed? That even the living room
felt closer to me than my actually think about it interesting.
And then when they were like destroying the kitchen and
like doing stuff later, I was like, Wow, this is
a really production like art department heavy episode, and but yeah,
(25:31):
it did just feel close to me. It felt like
very like our show, just some felt spacious compared to this.
It was interesting.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
Do you think they dealt with the same things we
did or do you think being on Warner Brothers as
a hit show, they were like they had money, here's
money or and and Disney was tight with the person
or do you think it's just the same all the
way across the industry where they're just gonna.
Speaker 4 (25:51):
Be The reputation that Disney had back in the day
was that they were very cheap compared to other studios,
and that was part of their success frugal there you go. Yeah,
because I was considered. You know, when you were working
for them, there was a sense of like they would
never give anything. But in retrospect, of course, as part
of their success as a company is that you held
on to their capitalism. Well, yeah, I wondered the same thing,
(26:17):
like very but they weren't spending that much money on sets.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
Right, Well, that's probably did this point, hopefully hopefully.
Speaker 3 (26:27):
Erkle is lying in bed, his dummies is sitting in
a seat just a few feet away, and there appears
to be thunder and lightning outside. Eddie walks in and
points out that a storm is coming. Erkle sarcastically responds,
thank you, al roker. Eddie asks what's wrong, and Erkle winds,
I'm only the world's worst ventriloquist, right. Eddie nods, yeah,
you blow chunks, but he reminds him that no one's
(26:49):
good at everything. Then he smiles, although I do come
awfully close. Erkele walks over to his lookalike doll. He
just wants to make him talk. Eddie can't relate. The
only doll he wants on his lap can talk on
her own nap.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
So, but so that's that's the thing. Older brother, girl,
crazy or stupid. That's that's right.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
Yeah, that's that's the trope. That's the trope. All as
I was watching, I was like, oh, Derek, but it's
not technically his older brother.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
It's his older Maybe at the time they started the show,
I think he's considered the older brother, like because it wasn't.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Yeah, it's just like it really is the same trope,
over and over.
Speaker 3 (27:26):
With that, he pats Erkele on the shoulder and heads out.
Arkle sadly looks at his puppet once more perfectly, time
with some lightning. He shrugs, then lays down to sleep,
suspenders and glasses still on, and shoes which cannot be comfortable.
It was a nap, and then a bolt of lightning
flashes through the open window directly onto the dummy, shakes
with electrocution. Once the lightning subsides, the dummy opens his
(27:50):
eyes on his own and glances around the room. The
studio audience, most likely not filled with inmates on a
field trip, react Erkele, who did not feel the lightning
in his room or hear what should have been ear
numbing thunder turns the lights back on to close the
open window. Along the way, the puppet watches his every move.
(28:11):
Erkele notices its head move and is confused, but he
brushes it off. He lays back down and closes his eyes,
but when he quickly reopens them, the dummy is gone.
Erkele screams and looks around the room, but he can't
find him. We then hear a deep and grisly voice. Hey,
the Erkle. Dummy springs up in Eddie's bed. Erkele screams
(28:31):
bloody murder, just as lightning flashes and thunder erupts. The
dummy just maniacally laughs in response.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
So one of the things from the time I was
a little kid that scares the hell out of me
is creepy voices really.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
Like this. Yes, it's one of the reasons I think
I became a voice over guy.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
Like the Freddy Krueger voice back in the day used
to scare the hell out of me.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
Any kind of like little kid voice, I come like,
all that stuff freaks the hell out of it. So
this kind of Freddy Krueger they obviously put in it,
did They came under digitally, They gave it a gravelly
kind of. So when he starts, Steve, I was like, ah,
like totally. This is one of my freaky triggers is
(29:17):
creepy voices, and this one it really hit the creepy
voice aspect. It did. It was a great creepy voice.
Speaker 3 (29:24):
All right. I already was super into this episode. I
was like, all right, we've got a storyline on hooks too.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
All right, we're in the living room. Ercle hurries down
the stairs.
Speaker 3 (29:36):
The dummy is alive.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
He shows them the doll, but it's as lifeless as ever.
Speaker 3 (29:40):
Carl rolls his eyes. Nothing with a plywood brain is alive.
But Erkle tells them what he witnessed, and he tries
to prove it to them. He sets the dummy on
the chair and presents him with urgency, but it doesn't
move an inch.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
What are you doing now, Steve? What's going on?
Speaker 4 (29:55):
Steve? What's going on? At this point, I was, so,
you're terrified of the dummy and you pick it up
and you carry it downstairs, and then later when he
just pulls it apart, So so what's the problem here.
Just take a part of the dummy.
Speaker 3 (30:13):
Man.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
He came back to it comes back to life. You
can't kill him. He just stepped him in the refrigerator
and he just broke out. He came up right out.
Speaker 3 (30:24):
What what are you not understanding?
Speaker 4 (30:25):
You're the horror guy.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
How do you not get it?
Speaker 3 (30:28):
You can't be destroyed?
Speaker 1 (30:31):
Sure?
Speaker 2 (30:33):
Why can't you destroy him? Steve?
Speaker 3 (30:34):
What's going on?
Speaker 2 (30:35):
Steve?
Speaker 3 (30:37):
After a couple beats of silence, Carl compliments him, if
this is your new act, it's actually an improvement. Erkle
doubles down on this revelation, and Carl just asks, has
anyone from your family checked into the rubber ramata before?
Has anybody ever heard of rubber ramata before? But it's
kind of awesome, It's it's pretty funny. I'm sure, I'm
sure it's offensive to someone.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
But you can make you can make it. Yeah, Caramata,
We'll leave the foe on for you.
Speaker 3 (31:11):
Rkle earnestly answers, my aunt Edna thought she was an
air conditioner. Carl asks if they took her away, and
Erkle answers, heck no, she kept.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
Us school in the summer. The weirdest, weirdest were just
like just just put it in like it was so random.
I'm just like, oh, okay, I want to know what
They rejected. Yes, oh my god, I didn't make it
because that was like, okay, all right.
Speaker 3 (31:36):
Carl and Harriet agree they don't want to deal with
this any longer, and even Estelle puts a hand on
Erkele's cheek and begs, please get some rest. Erkle keeps
trying to prove himself, but eventually he just gives up.
He moves the dummy to the couch and says, maybe
I have lost my mind. Then on cue, the dummy growls, no,
you're fine. Erkle looks directly at the camera and disbelief.
(31:56):
He's startled. Harriet's right, I need to lie down, He
recites to him. My name is Stephen q Erkle. My
IQ is one hundred and ninety six.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
I like cheese.
Speaker 3 (32:05):
I like polka. Then, as he walks to the stairs,
the dummy gets off the couch and follows him.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
You're the audience gasp. Yeah, they must have like shot
the whole show and done it as a playback, because
they obviously they were shocked, as was I that the
thing gets up and starts to walk like, oh god,
it was a moment. It's really alive.
Speaker 4 (32:25):
We are no longer just cutting to solo shots of it. Yeah,
it was a great moment.
Speaker 3 (32:31):
It totally adds another element and a layer to this
episode and and a Halloween story in general, that it
actually moves and it isn't just like I I love voice.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
And that was a that was a clear first take gasp.
The audience had never seen that before. And when he
stood up, everyone was freaking, myself included. It was like, oh,
how'd they do that?
Speaker 2 (32:52):
So, yeah, that was that was good.
Speaker 3 (32:53):
Erkele notices and stops deadness tracks. The dummy rapidly raises
his eyebrows in response. Erkele determines he's hallucinating and continues
to walk up the stairs, continuing to recite basic information
about himself. He assures himself, I'm perfectly saying, and then
the dummy calls out his name. Erkele turns around in
the dummy shouts boo, which sends Erkele sprinting up the
stairs in a panic. Now in Erkle's room, he quickly
(33:17):
locks the door and grabs a nearby chair to place
under the doorknob. He then grabs some scotch tape and
places individual.
Speaker 2 (33:22):
Strands across the door frame one by one. Joke of
the show. I wish I had thought of this. What
scotch tape genius? You shut the door and then you're
scotching little pieces of scotch tape to close the door.
Speaker 4 (33:36):
Oh.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
I thought it was very funny and it would have
been amazing if it was Eric doing it. But we
just heard Steve and then the first thing he does
is little pieces of scotch tape.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
But oh, got it.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
If I could have taken that joke was It's a
ten out of ten sitcom joke right there.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
I barricading the door with much tape so funny. Loved
it well.
Speaker 3 (34:02):
Steve is preoccupied with this idea. The dummy sneaks in
through the open window. It watches Erkle fiddling with the
tape and comments, good job. Erkele thanks him, but quickly
realizes who said it. He screams in horror and the
audience is having a blast. The dummy tells him to
relax and sit down. Erkle argues back, but you're made
of wood. You can't walk, you can't talk. The dummy smiles, Oh, yeah,
(34:24):
I bet I can't dance either. Then he proceeds to
do a little samba to prove him wrong. Erkele makes
it official, he's gone insane, but the dummy disagrees. You
just got what you wished for. You wanted me to talk,
and you got it. Bucko Bucco was big in the nineties.
Buck Up, buckers, buckers. Yeah, and then we've got we
(34:46):
got that that hard like in the book.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
Yeah, it's got that.
Speaker 3 (34:51):
Yeah, Yeah, K's are always funny, always funny. Now, sitting
on his bed, Erkle wonders, then why didn't you talk
in front of the Winslows. The dummy responds confidently. I
don't like the Winslows. Erkele argues, but they're the finest
family in the whole wide world. The dummy agrees, I know.
They make me sick. He takes it one step further.
(35:11):
The Winslows are in the way, so we'll have to
get rid of them. Erkele let's out the biggest, most
dramatic gasp ever on television and runs towards the door.
He scolds the rotten little puppet for even suggesting such
a thing. You may look like me, but you're not
like me at all. You're evil. The dummy smiles, Hey,
I like that evil? Huh From now on, you can
(35:32):
just call me Stevel.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
Come on.
Speaker 3 (35:37):
This entire episode came from someone who was like, what
if for our Halloween episode we have Stevel?
Speaker 2 (35:42):
Yeah, that's it.
Speaker 1 (35:43):
And you know, the first pitch was probably Steve Erkele
himself becomes evil and becomes stevil, and then they were like, well,
let's do a movie parody and make it a puppet
kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (35:53):
Yeah, does you know that hat? I get. I think
he does that a lot, doesn't he He has got
a cool guy persona. Yeah, like there's Steve even then
remember that.
Speaker 4 (36:01):
Yeah, so Steven or Kel?
Speaker 1 (36:04):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (36:04):
Is that what it is? Stephen or Kell? So yeah,
so maybe I'm guessing that.
Speaker 5 (36:09):
Kell.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
Yeah, that's gonna be I'm guessing that was the first pitch,
is that he turns evil somehow.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
Right, and he was Steve. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (36:17):
So the show is about Erkle just sort of ruining
the Winslow's lives constantly, like that's the okay, and they
love it.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
In so he can ruin it from inside. The ruining
is coming.
Speaker 3 (36:28):
From So we're back in the Winslow's living room. Carl
peeks outside and tells three J and Richie that they
have to hurry the boys are dressed up as Michael
(36:48):
Jordan and Dennis Rodman, creating quite a theme for this episode.
He reminds the boys if it starts to rain, tell
Charlie's dad to bring you straight home. They nod and
then head out the door with their Halloween bags. On
their way out, Car has one last reminder, do not
eat your Halloween candy until I look at it, which
feels like an ABC note.
Speaker 4 (37:06):
Yep, in the apples, which never happened in the history
of the world.
Speaker 2 (37:12):
No, it was. This whole thing was from one guy
who poisoned his own kid.
Speaker 3 (37:16):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (37:17):
No.
Speaker 4 (37:17):
And then and then the other thing that's been going
around is like every every season now they're like they're
giving out drug They're giving out drug candies. What what
people are saving their drugs? Why do they want to
give drugs to kids? They want to use them for themselves.
It's the dumbest the question.
Speaker 1 (37:32):
You also have to find the family. This is what
you want to do, is you want to find the
family that gives out the full size drugs, because the
little drugs it's.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
Like I'm kinda high, but like I'm not not where
I want to be. I want the full sized drugs.
Speaker 3 (37:49):
Richie responds, but you remember, don't eat our candy while
you look at it. Carl shuts the door just as
Zirkle appears. He explains, we don't need to worry anymore.
I just locked Stevel away upstairs in a trunk. I
feel like maybe we would have wanted to see that, Yeah, but.
Speaker 2 (38:06):
To get him in but yeah, okay.
Speaker 3 (38:08):
Carl raises an eyebrow. He has a name now, Erkele
nods yep, named him myself. I'm telling you, Carl, he's
Satan's sock puppet. That dummy ain't no dummy. Not only
does he talk, but what he says, oh, it ain't good.
Speaker 4 (38:20):
And what does Stevel want to do? Kill them?
Speaker 2 (38:25):
He explains later that he wants to go on like
a ski trip with her.
Speaker 1 (38:29):
No, he wants to go on the road with and
but he's gonna be Erkle's gonna be his puppet on
the road.
Speaker 2 (38:36):
So he thinks he's like gonna go on stage and
do all this stuff. It was during this speech where
I was like, jaliel is working, Oh my god, my god, work.
Speaker 4 (38:47):
And all the special effects and stuff they meant a
crazy tape week and but.
Speaker 2 (38:53):
It's also every he's every beat. He's just working so
hard as actor. It's un watch this.
Speaker 3 (39:01):
Yeah, no, he's He's truly incredible. Yeah, Carl is seriously
afraid that Erkele is losing his mind. Erkle follows along
and rattles off, I know Erkle's crazy. Erkle's crazy. Erkle's crazy,
but he urges Carl to trust him. The important thing
is Stevel's locked away and the family is safe. But
up in Erkle's dark room there's a locked chest with
(39:21):
signs that Warren beware danger and evil puppet inside. And
then a hand breaks through the wood from inside and
reaches for the lock. With some quick movement, he opens
the crate and the chest slowly opens. The camera zooms
into its pitch blackness, and then after a few seconds,
lighting illuminates Stevel inside. His eyes glow and he eerily
(39:42):
laughs to himself. Creepy, super creepy.
Speaker 2 (39:45):
I like this shot a lot.
Speaker 4 (39:47):
You're just going back to Stevel wants to be an entertainer.
Speaker 2 (39:50):
Yes, yes, Stevel wants.
Speaker 4 (39:53):
It's it's it's an analogy to Erkle taking over the show.
Speaker 2 (39:59):
Stevel's villain. His plan is to entertain people more than
the winslows they're.
Speaker 4 (40:04):
Standing in the way.
Speaker 2 (40:11):
What are you doing, Steve.
Speaker 4 (40:13):
I'm going to take over the world. I'm gonna get
more per episode than anybody else.
Speaker 3 (40:22):
Back in the living room, Eddie gives out candy to
some trigger treaters. Then he closes the door and plops
back onto the couch. He begins to read a magazine
and then Steve's little hands up here in the fireplace.
He hangs down from the chimney and whispers Eddie. Eddie
looks up in confusion and nervously asks who said that. Steve,
now back in hiding, whispers, help help me. I'm trapped
(40:43):
in the chimney. Eddie adorably asks Santa Sta, so you
and he hurries over to the chimney to help.
Speaker 2 (40:54):
Is that you?
Speaker 3 (41:00):
He peers inside and then screams as he's pulled up
and disappears entirely. Stevel hangs down from the chimney once
again and says to camera, one down, five to go,
and then we're outside. Three j and Ritchie are speeding
down the road on their bikes, reminding each other to.
Speaker 2 (41:17):
Keep pettling faster.
Speaker 3 (41:19):
The camera reveals a tiny car right on their tail,
and Stevel is behind the wheel. He grunts and laughs,
foot on the pedal, catching up quickly.
Speaker 4 (41:28):
Huge set piece.
Speaker 2 (41:29):
Yeah a lot. Where did Stevel get this car?
Speaker 1 (41:33):
I don't know, but I think it's a peel P
fifty if I'm right. Which is the smallest automobile ever made.
I believe that's what that one is.
Speaker 2 (41:41):
Yeah, did you?
Speaker 1 (41:41):
It opens in the front and all the well top
gear is like one of my favorite shows tested this
car out, So I'm.
Speaker 2 (41:47):
Pretty sure that's a peel P fifty. Wow, tiny little car.
Speaker 3 (41:50):
Very tiny. All right, we're back in Erkle's room. Arkle
sees the chest has been destroyed. He screams, jumpin Jehosa
fat He's loose. Then the door slams shut and we
get a jump scare when Stevel is standing right behind him.
Speaker 2 (42:05):
He tells me, I'm sorry. I just a weird riding thing.
The dad tells the kids Carl. Carl tells the kids,
if it's raining, have somebody bring you back. Have he
mentioned somebody? Yeah, but the kids aren't with anybody. They're
on bikes.
Speaker 3 (42:22):
It seems as.
Speaker 4 (42:23):
Though they were going to someone's house.
Speaker 3 (42:25):
Maybe yes, they may be on or uh, they just
had to pedal away. From the people they were with
when they were being chased by the scary puppet.
Speaker 1 (42:35):
Okay, so then they would just leave their bikes somewhere
if it started drain, and the guy would drive them home.
Speaker 2 (42:42):
Sure, right, okay, put the bikes in the trunk. That
was the thing that really took me, right, that's you wanted,
the realism.
Speaker 4 (42:49):
Yeah, like puppet, fine bikes car somewhere, the keys for sure.
Speaker 1 (42:56):
I'm guessing we've never seen the We've never seen the show,
but it's so a weird car.
Speaker 2 (43:00):
I will guarantee you that.
Speaker 3 (43:02):
It's fromone's car, right right, right, that's actually Erkele's car.
Speaker 2 (43:05):
But yeah, but don't you know, we don't know that.
But yeah, that took me out of it.
Speaker 3 (43:13):
He tells Erkele to relax. It's the Winslows he's after,
and he's been a very busy dummy. Erkle doesn't get it,
so Stevell suggests he check out what's behind Murphy Bed
number one. Erkele pulls down the mattress to reveal three
j and Ritchie are trapped behind the wall, their faces
peeking out where Jordan and Rodman's heads were. They beg
Ergle to help and Erkele asks the puppet, what kind
(43:35):
of diabolical, demented dummy are you? Stevell calmly responds the
kind that stuffed Eddie in the chimney. Erkele gasps in
horror and assures him he won't get anyone else they
can count on him, and with that he runs right
into the closed bedroom door, but he pulls himself together
and quickly hurries off.
Speaker 2 (43:51):
Okay, wait a second.
Speaker 1 (43:53):
This also showed me I think how much of a
difference a half an hour in television makes because we
killed people on our show, an actual dead knives in
the back, Phoenie's dead, the janitor's dead.
Speaker 2 (44:08):
Nobody dies in this episode.
Speaker 1 (44:11):
They're they're specifically talking to each character to show you
that they're still alive. And I wonder if that's seriously
the difference in being on an eight or being on
an eight thirty. Yeah, where they literally couldn't kill anybody.
We were killing people left and right a half hour later.
I know you're right, I mean, is that all it is?
Do you think is that thirty minutes that changes everything?
Speaker 4 (44:31):
It could just context, you know.
Speaker 3 (44:33):
You could also just be a choice on the writers,
like I don't don't want it. We don't want to
like we our episode very much wanted to go for
horror moly trope.
Speaker 2 (44:41):
And it also wasn't a Halloween episode, which somehow I
think gives us more leeway. Right right, yeah? Maybe?
Speaker 3 (44:47):
The dummy turns to the camera and comments, what a goof?
And then we're in the kitchen.
Speaker 4 (44:55):
Character being like myrcle's crazy.
Speaker 3 (45:01):
Rkele car calls out for the remaining family members, with
Stevel following close behind. No one answers, and Steville asks,
why don't you check the cupboard There may be a
little honey on the shelf. Rkele opens it to find
Laura's head, and when he opens another cupboard, he finds
her legs and feet, then her torso in another. Rkele
begs her to pull herself together, then realizes that was
(45:21):
a poor choice of words. Laura agrees she's totally beside herself.
Stevell adds Laura's a nice girl, but she suffers from
low shelf esteem.
Speaker 5 (45:31):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (45:33):
Laura tells Rkle to shut the cupboards because she doesn't
want anyone else to see her like this. Erkele obliges
and then asks the dummy, where's Harriet? Stevel exclaims special delivery,
then motions to a giant jack in the box nearby.
Stevel urges him to turn the crank and find out
what's inside. Erkele does as he's told, and we hear
a creepy pop, goes the weasel. Finally, Harriet's head pops
(45:55):
out of the box. Her head is dressed in clown gear,
while the rest of her body is a giant spring.
She asks Erkele for a baseball bat to knock this
dummy upside his head, but Stevel just taunts her in
your dreams bozo. Erkele snarls at his puppet, that's it,
You've got to be stopped. He lunges for the dummy
and carries him over to the fridge, where he stuffs
him inside. Erkele feels triumphant for a split second, but
(46:17):
then the fridge begins to rattle. Stevel's stronger than he expected,
but then the rattling stops all together, just before Erkele
notices some smoke coming out of the fridge. He opens
the door to see that Stevel has put a hole
through the back of it to escape. Erkele gasps in
horror and runs into the living room. Erkel notices Krl
is just nonchalantly lounging on the couch and asks him
(46:39):
if he saw a demented dummy come through the wall.
Carl laughs, if that had happened, I would have noticed.
Erkele explains that everything he warned him about has happened.
He rattles off all of the victims thus far. Carl
oddly laughs, maybe your dummy did do away with the
whole family, but let's be honest.
Speaker 2 (46:55):
Is that so bad?
Speaker 3 (46:57):
Erkele, shocked, Carl tells him to lighten up, but then
he convulses and falls to his side, revealing Stevel was
controlling him the whole time. Stevel says that Carl is
his new personal puppet. He lifts Carl back up to
do a little joke. Carl robotically announces that he took
his wife to the islands. Stevel asks Jamaica, and Carl responds, no,
(47:18):
she wanted to go.
Speaker 2 (47:19):
Oh great joke. It's an awful and wonderful, perfect Ventriloquist joke.
Speaker 1 (47:25):
It is the perfect Trilloquist joke, such a hacky joke,
and it's great.
Speaker 2 (47:30):
No, she wanted to go so bad.
Speaker 3 (47:36):
Ercle cringes. Oh, for the love of fried pickles, why
are you doing this? Stevel reveals I took care of
the Winslows so we could go on the road together.
I knew you'd never come unless they were out of
the way. Erkle is shocked. On the road, Stevel nods
we can do a ventriloquist act together, only I'll do
the talking and you'll be the dummy. Erkele shouts never,
(47:56):
I'm not going anywhere without a fight. He challenges the
dummy to a one on one monoey puppet battle, then
shows off his quick feet in steady hand movements. The
two of them talk trash before getting into an awkward
brawl when Stevel charges at Erkle. He trips the puppet
and tries to pin him on the ground, but Stevel
smacks his ear to buy time. Stevel crawls away and
somehow Erkele loses track of him. Finally, he finds him
(48:19):
behind the couch and shouts, come back here and fight
like a mannequin, just before belly flopping to get him,
but Stevell manages to then ride Erkle's back and use
his wooden hands to forcibly open his mouth. Erkele tries
to pull him off, but Stevel has a tight grip. Finally,
Urkle's it's the whole episode.
Speaker 2 (48:37):
He's working so hard. I was tired watching this.
Speaker 4 (48:41):
I mean, my god, this is like a four hour shoot,
just in the scene sitting there with like, Okay, get
the actor in, Okay, now replace him with a puppet.
Speaker 2 (48:49):
Okay, yep, this was massive, massive, and it's all Jalil,
the whole thing. It's not even it's not even broken
up amongst all the other cast. It's all jel.
Speaker 3 (49:00):
Erkele's able to throw the puppet to the ground and
fall on top of him to keep him from getting up.
Erkele grabs a hold of Stevel's head and pulls it
right off. He disassembles each body part to be safe,
then falls onto the couch with a sigh of relief.
He proclaims it's over. The demon is dead until the
arm starts to move, and then it quickly rejoins the body.
The rest of the dummy's limbs follows soon after. Once reassembled,
(49:24):
Stevel sits up with a look of fury on his
wooden face. Okay, now it's personal. Erkele lets out a
scream and disbelief. He tells himself over and over, this
isn't happening, This isn't happening. The dummy jumps onto the
couch with ease and starts to strangle him, and Erkele
realizes this is happening or is it? Because we start
(49:45):
to transition into Erkele's room. Erkele is screaming in his sleep,
fighting a pillow. The dummy is back, lifeless in the chair.
Eddie quickly runs in and hits him with his pillow.
Erkle snaps out of it. How'd you get out of
the chimney? Eddie's confused, so Erkele explains, my tell me
it's alive. It put you in the chimney and Laura
in the kitchen cabinets. Eddie assures him it was a dream.
(50:05):
Erkle can't believe it. He taps the dummy with his
foot to make sure and stevel doesn't move. Erkele wonders,
why would I have a dream like that? Eddie laughs
and explains, very calmly, that's no mystery. You have an obsessive,
compulsive personality which manifests itself in your extreme need to
achieve perfection. Rkle asks you think I need therapy, and
Eddie leads Rkle to his bed. Not at all, a
(50:25):
simple surgical procedure will alleviate the problem. Erkele lies down nervously,
going along with everything, but then Eddie pulls out an
electric whisker to match a now devious look on his face.
Erkle begs him to put it down, but Eddie just
sels lie back and close your eyes because this is
really gonna hurt.
Speaker 4 (50:42):
So there really is no bet story, no, no.
Speaker 2 (50:45):
No, this whole episode is just.
Speaker 3 (50:49):
Let because like family matters aka whatch you doing?
Speaker 2 (50:55):
Steve?
Speaker 4 (50:55):
What we know the kids were going trick or treaty?
And where?
Speaker 3 (50:58):
Because he was going downstairs just to pass out candy
because we see him. Well, it's part of the dream,
right you know. Erkle screams in horror as the whisker
gets closer and closer to his face, but then this
reality starts to fade away as well. Erkle wakes up
the screaming bloody murder and fighting the pillow. Eddie comes
storming in. What is the matter with you? Arkle explains,
I just had a horrible Halloween nightmare with a false ending,
(51:22):
great joke Eddie wonders what's with him and holidays? Last
Easter you dream that the Easter bunny jumped you in
the alley and slapped you pink. At Thanksgiving, you dreamed
that a turkey stuffed you. Erkle announces Next Groundhog Day,
I'm wearing steel pants.
Speaker 2 (51:35):
I don't get that joke. Yeah, so steal groundhog maybe
is coming out of him going into him?
Speaker 4 (51:45):
I mean, why not just next groundhog Day. I'm wearing armor?
Why steel pants?
Speaker 2 (51:50):
Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (51:51):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (51:52):
I want to know what happened last groundhog Day? My question. Yeah,
As the.
Speaker 3 (51:55):
Pair leaves the room, the camera zooms in on the doll,
who just stares at the camera blank.
Speaker 2 (52:00):
How do you not have the puppet blink or a hand?
Speaker 4 (52:05):
It's too predictable? But this way it's lingering.
Speaker 2 (52:11):
Or is it not. One eyebrow goes up, just something like,
how do you do?
Speaker 4 (52:15):
They probably they probably did a version of that, and
then they were debated and they were like, no, let's
just not do it at all.
Speaker 2 (52:20):
I liked it. I was like, don't do it at all.
It lingering.
Speaker 4 (52:23):
But then the making of which was my favorite part
of mind to my favorite part of the whole episode.
Speaker 2 (52:28):
I loved the episode, but I also loved this.
Speaker 3 (52:31):
We see that the hole was cut into the couch
to make the doll move, the stand they used for
standing shots, the different faces they had for the doll,
and the Stevel double who played him, and eventually we
see Rich Correll voicing Stevel just before he yells cut.
And that is our episode. What a fun Halloween romp.
Speaker 1 (52:54):
Great Halloween episode. With anybody but Jalil, it would have
been I know, But.
Speaker 3 (53:01):
Boy, I thoroughly enjoyed those twenty two minutes. Me too,
I really did. I thought it was very I thought
it was very enjoyable. I didn't. I didn't spend a
whole bunch of time going like.
Speaker 2 (53:13):
Wait, let me think about this math.
Speaker 3 (53:14):
I just, I really just I enjoyed it, and I
thought everybody, everybody put in the effort to make it
as funny as it possibly could be, and it they succeeded.
Speaker 2 (53:23):
Well.
Speaker 3 (53:24):
Thank you all for joining us for this episode of
Pod Meets World. As always, you can follow us on
Instagram pod meets World Show. You can send us your
emails pod meets World Show at gmail dot com.
Speaker 2 (53:32):
And we've got merch What are you doing merchy. What's
going on? March March? You're crazy?
Speaker 3 (53:40):
Podmeetsworldshow dot com will send us out.
Speaker 2 (53:44):
We love you all, pod dismissed.
Speaker 1 (53:47):
Pod Meets World is nheart podcast producer and hosted by
Danielle Fischel, Wilfredell and Ryder Strong executive producers, Jensen Karp
and Amy Sugarman Executive in charge of production, Danielle Romo,
producer and editor, Tara Sudbaksh producer, Maddy Moore, engineer and
Boy Meets World superfan Easton Allen. Our theme song is
by Kyle Morton of Typhoon and you can follow us
on Instagram at Podmets World Show or email us at
(54:09):
Podmetsworldshow at gmail dot com
Hosts And Creators
Will Friedle
Danielle Fishel
Rider Strong
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