November 12, 2025 • 42 mins
After re-watching season 1 episode 3 of "Family Matters," Telma and Kellie remember their on-screen sisterhoods with Jo Marie Payton as Harriette and Jamiee Foxworth as Judy, and talk about their real-life family dynamics.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Really listens a mission this day and age Kelly and
Thelma and returning the page, we're talking. Family Matters is
about those times.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Ellen, what happened three between.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
The line with Kelly and me. Welcome to the fam, Eliza.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Kelly, Welcome to the family, y'all.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Welcome, Welcome, welcome. I'm Telma and I'm Kelly. And in
the nineties we both start in a little sitcom call
Family Matters.
Speaker 4 (00:39):
And for today we rewatched season one, episode three of
the show called short Story. We'll get into that in
a minute, but first, you know, I got to check
in with my girl. What's up girl?
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Girl? Reality. You know how they say black don't crack, Well,
that may be true, but it does sag. Girl was
walking the other day and I kept thinking somebody was
trying to get my attention. I kept turning to who
is trying to touch me?
Speaker 2 (01:07):
And then as I walked along, I realized that, And
don't take this the wrong way. I was touching myself.
Speaker 4 (01:16):
But that used to be up.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
There is going down there and it's doing things. Girl.
So that's my reality. That's what's up with me, okay,
And that's so funny.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
That's what's up with you, because what's up with me
is rewatching these episodes and talking to you and seeing you.
Now I'm actually wondering whether or not you're a vampire
because you look exactly the same all these years later,
and I'm sitting over here looking like Jane Pittman at
the end.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
Now, you know, I'm gonna give you that check as
soon as I see you. I'm gonna give you that check.
Speaker 4 (01:51):
Honey. I only act when i'm getting paid, and you
ain't paying me. So listen before we get started, for real,
what do you do like? You look.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Fabulous?
Speaker 4 (02:01):
Like?
Speaker 3 (02:01):
What are you doing? Nothing?
Speaker 2 (02:04):
And that's what I found out, you think.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
I first started getting older, I was trying to do everything.
I was massaging and oils, and I found out that
the less I do, the better my skin likes it.
Really Yeah, the one thing that I'm having a problem
with is sleeping through the night. That would probably help too,
But I don't really do anything. My grandmother used to
(02:27):
say this a note. She said, whatever you do, you
wear it on your face. So I feel like I've
had a good life and I look pretty good for
my age.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
You sure do pretty good. I was like, is Detroit
cold word for Transylvania.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
You little bag on Vampire Girl.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
You got kids. That's what's wrong with you? You got kids?
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Them kids?
Speaker 3 (02:51):
Well, all right, are we gonna talk about this show.
Let's talk about it. Let's get into it. Okay. Now,
today we're talking all about Short Story, which was the
third episode of the first season of Family Matters.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
In this episode, the Winslow family is a little bit
upset because they realized they're the character in Rachel's short
story that she sold to a magazine.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
That's right, that's right. This episode aired on Friday, October sixth,
nineteen eighty nine. Now, Kelly, what was happening in the
world on that day.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
Well, the number one song in the country on the
billboil Hot one hundred was Janet Jackson's Miss You Much. Now,
I know you have a personal connection with her.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Miss You MUCHA no, I miss you Much. Yes, I
did a show with Janet. It was called A New
Kind of Family. It was with Eileen Brennan, Rob Lowe,
Lorie Hendler and myself and Janet Jackson. That's also where
I met Bob. So yeah, she played my daughter when
she was twelve. She was such a cutie pie, And
that's where our relationship really sort of started.
Speaker 4 (03:56):
And now also that was the week that mclight released
her second album called Eyes on This and you also
work with her two on.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
I also worked with on Half and Half.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
Yeah. So she's so talented and such a pretty girl
and so good at what she does so nicely.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
That was a pleasure. Yeah. What else?
Speaker 4 (04:14):
This show was ranked thirty seven on the Nielsen ratings
right and we had a thirteen point one cheer.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Is that good? I can't remember?
Speaker 3 (04:21):
That's good?
Speaker 4 (04:22):
The highest rated show right now usually has a ten cheer.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Wow, So we were doing well well.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
There wasn't as much competition back then.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
Either that they had three networks basically, and we were
one of the three. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (04:38):
Now, up until this time, we never did a code open,
which is like a how do you describe it?
Speaker 3 (04:42):
Well, it's like a scene that comes up before the
titles of the show. So instead of it starting with
our song and us and all that stuff, it started
with an actual scene and segues into the titles of
the show, and then it segues into the actual show.
I had not noticed that, but I noticed in the
(05:03):
next couple of shows that that must have been something
that started why was that done that way? I like it,
but it was kind of surprising because I wasn't expecting
it's commonplace now.
Speaker 4 (05:12):
But before then they didn't really do that. Okay, man. Also,
i'll see the beginning of the show, you done brought
a large piece for eight people.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
Rachel was on a budget. A budget you lucky. You know,
she ain't gone. You don't have a real job, so
she was on a budget. At least she was thinking
of you.
Speaker 4 (05:29):
My character, Laura was a meal lady for the family,
so she brings in all the mail and she actually
gets a letter from Barbara Bush to mother Winslow.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
You know, she knew everybody everybody, and I think in
real life she probably knew a lot more people than
we know about because she opened all the doors for us,
you know, so I wouldn't be surprised if she actually
did know Barbara Bush. You know, when you think about it,
that's such an offhanded remark. But she also says she
ernest Hemingway. Now, I don't know if we should believe
(06:04):
her or not, but she did say he was all
sizzle and no steak, so she.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
May have known him better than we know.
Speaker 4 (06:11):
Now, your character also gets a rejection letter from a
sci fi magazine of a story that you sent to
about a truck driver with tattoos that turned into an alien.
You know, some of this stuff was just playing on crazy.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Well, yeah, it was crazy, but I think Rachel was
a little crazy as well. She was at least willing
to get out there and try. But even for me,
that story is a little crazy. But I think that
was really just to set up the rejection so that
we could move into her utter rejection bring the entire family.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Yeah, that became part of her backstory.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
But as we go through this, she will see that
Rachel will try anything to try to make a living.
Speaker 4 (06:54):
So we learned that you were a writer too on
the show.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
Yeah. Yeah, Actually Joe Maurice solidified it because I was thinking,
did we talk about me being a writer before that?
But this was the show that set that up. But then,
you know, again, she tried some of everything.
Speaker 4 (07:08):
Girl.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
I want to talk to you about Joe Daddy, who
apparently is working from home all the time. I mean,
why is he always at home? Nobody can't done nothing.
Speaker 4 (07:19):
At least he got his uniform at home. Maybe he's
just Alice in the house.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
Yeah, well, he need to go police somewhere else, him
and the horse he rode in on. But anyway, as
per Carl, just like he always is fussing about something
this week, let me guess cheat the water. We are
using too much water. Apparently we are bathing too often.
We can't do anything. The water bill is too high.
(07:43):
He wants us to stop anyway, with the chaos that
ensues because he is always fussing about something. You give
me the idea of writing a story about our family. Yes,
and you use a very strange line to do it.
But we could get away with that sort of thing
back then, where you a I believe twelve year old
(08:05):
tells me that people love stories about domestic violence.
Speaker 4 (08:08):
Can you imagine saying that now? Uh? Nope, maybe they
would to meet too, Joe Baha right off TV.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
We be part of the march, and not in a
good way.
Speaker 4 (08:19):
As sacrid as the show was back then, now, just
how culture is now, you would think that some of
the stuff would have come up, but you could just
totally say whatever. Back then, I guess it didn't mean
the same thing.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
Well yeah, and we did have censors back then too,
So if we did get out of line, they.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Just stop it.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
It was different then. Now you can get away with
saying a whole lot of stuff you couldn't say then.
But back to our story, because that's why we're here.
Speaker 4 (08:43):
So Carl comes in with the water bill, so he's
gonna tamp down on everybody doing everything. So they get
the bills lower, right, and your character is getting rejection
letter out, the rejection letter from magazines.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
All over the world. Rejection let after rejection letter. It
was only one brilliant, plain girl.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Make it plain.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
Rachel, not so much, Okay, that's true. She was like
a big old kid, oor baby. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (09:13):
So that was the first episode where they introduced you
being a writer. Do you remember anything about Do you
remember anything? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (09:23):
Just stop with that now we can go on. But
you're suggesting that I write about the family. Is what
sets up the whole show, really, because I take your
advice and write and everybody hates me for it.
Speaker 4 (09:39):
Well, nobody told you to write about people's personal business.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
You said, right about the family. Harriet told me to
write about what I know. I know the family, So
I wrote about I mean, not me personally, but Rachel,
Rachel wrote what she knew, and I don't know how
she thought in her head that nobody would know that
it was the family, But currently she's dense. At times,
she got her dumb blind moments.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
It wasn't carl it was Marrow was the name. So
it wasn't Laura, it was Cora.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
It wasn't mother Winslow, it was Mama Den's Lowers. We
had to change everything.
Speaker 4 (10:22):
You smart, But the.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Fact of the matter is that was a successful story
because it's soul and everybody was excited about that until
they read it. You complained, and you have a lot
of nerves, complained about anything. You seem to think that
I had made you look like somebody you were not.
You were all about being a smart mouth, know it
(10:45):
all kid, And you can have the nerve to get
upset with me because I.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Called you on it.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
Well, yeah, nobody likes to be called on the carpet.
But more importantly, I loved the interaction that you had
with Joe on the show, Oh yeah, which is so
deep as sisters, it's just just kind of like your
first best friend, right so, and it's also the person
that you can talk about but nobody else better say
(11:11):
it or not about her, because that's breaking the law
as far as we're concerned.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
And I think it's funny Joe Marie playing her sister
was so easy, and it's funny because she has that type,
a kind of strong, powerful personality. Anyway, Rachel was like
a big baby half the time, but it was easy
to play her sister, even though in real life I'm
the oldest and nobody knew that, but she always seemed
(11:40):
like the older sister. Her demeanor was that of someone
who takes care of everyone. She reminds me of my
grandmother actually, and that kind of personality because my grandmother
tried to take care of everybody that she ran into.
And I think Joe's personality on the show was to
be the fixer and the glue one that held it together.
Speaker 4 (12:02):
How do you feel about that? Because you often get
cast as artsy, fabulous.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
Younger, but you're totally that too.
Speaker 4 (12:12):
He did it with me. You are totally the archetype.
You're strong, you take in strays, you feed folks, you always.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
Well I do, I do? I don't know, Kelly, honestly,
When I try to backtrack and think about how our
relationship became so close in our families, and I think
about us doing holidays together and everything. I don't even
know how that came about, but in that period of time,
I usually got cast younger than I was because my
(12:44):
characters are mostually silly and like you said, artsy and
all of that.
Speaker 4 (12:48):
Are you a vampire girl, Well you don't found a
found the youth.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
Well, I don't know about either one of those. But yeah,
it was easy to play Joe's younger sister because she
felt like an older It was just an easy thing
to fall into it. Like with you, I'd have to
say with everyone. Because of all the shows I've done,
I think Family Matters is one show that never felt
(13:16):
like the people weren't who they were supposed to be
on camera. It really felt like you were my niece,
he was my nephew, and was my baby Joe was.
You know, it really felt real to me. They say,
if it ain't on the page, it ain't on the stage.
If it was on the page, we did it and
it was natural, And I think that's what really made
(13:40):
people tune in because it was like watching someone in
your family. I remember somebody telling me that they invited
me into their house more than they invited their family
into their house. So you know they had to like you,
to turn you on and to watch you like that.
I think that had a lot to do with our strength.
Speaker 4 (13:57):
Well that's great art too. I mean you want people
to feel something you wanted to feel that it is
actually real. Yeah, even in circumstances that are far different
than your own life.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
So that's good.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
Yeah, you know, I was laughing about the looks that
you all give me when I'm all excited. I've had
everything written up and you all are reading and I'm
going down thinking y'all just gonna be patting me on
my back and telling me how wonderful I am. And
the look when I said, well, what do you think
the look that you all give me is so black? Right?
Speaker 2 (14:31):
So all real know about the look, they know about
the love usually they know.
Speaker 4 (14:38):
But you were getting it from your nieces and nephew.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
Getting it from everybody. Yeah, Joe, Marie gave you a
look like that. You remember what it was when you
came in the kitchen and you wanted to find out
if you could have pizza in your room, if you
had a fight with your sister.
Speaker 4 (14:51):
It's the universal black woman look where you know, if
you go any further, it's certain death. You mean that look?
Speaker 3 (14:59):
Yeah, that look. I remember a story with my son
when he was younger. We were going to a Dodger's game,
which was like the end all and be all of
his life, with a friend of ours. And because we
had some time between the time that we were leaving
for the game that particular time, I decided I'd go
to the store and do some grocery shopping. Well, I
(15:19):
took a little too long at the grocery store, and
I came back and he was in the car with
my friend and his best friend. When I tell you,
seemed like he shot out of the window and he
was so upset. He was just where have you been?
Oh girl?
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Now you know. I had to stop.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
Slowly turned my head to look at him, and he
was just I mean, I mean, I was just I
just wanted to know what, you know, because we're gonna
be late, and I was so tickled I wanted to
laugh because it was that look.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
I didn't have to do anything else.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
He slunk back to the car, then came back and
helped me take the groceries in. Else to say, that's
a look that you don't have to explain it exactly.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
I don't care how old you are. It still worked.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
If my grandmother was alive and I said something, he
turned around and looked at me.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
I shut the heck up.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
It's that look that just breaks you down to childhood again.
Speaker 4 (16:17):
It's so funny how we have so many things that
are built into the culture, Like everybody knows that look.
I know kids who were not, you know, structurally really
disciplined like me, that when they come in contact with
that look, they already know the energy. It stops them
in their tracks. It doesn't even matter if your parents
were not strict parents. They knew what they were dealing with,
(16:39):
you dealing with or not.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
Don't make her go there, don't make her go there.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
I would try my grandmother.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
I would try it on her, you know, because I
hung out with a lot of Jewish girls when I
was going to school, and they could get away with murder.
They were always like slamming doors and running upstairs and
just yeah, yelling at their mom and their mama. I'm
going to tell your father and son that take us home.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
And I would, yeah, that is really cool.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
So I went.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Home one day.
Speaker 4 (17:11):
You ain't that crazy.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
I was that crazy. I went home and my grandmother.
She probably just said hello or something, but I am
so ready to fly off the handle. I was I
hate you, I hate you, and I ran off into
my room. Girl. To this day, I swear I think
she took the door off the hinges. She I don't
remember her opening the door. It was just like the
door was there, and then the door was gone, and
(17:35):
she was standing in the doorway. Of course she took
up the whole doorway. I probably peetered a little on
myself by that time, and she.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
Was so quiet.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
She just said, what did you say.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
I'm not I don't know.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
I was just because her mama said that she could
do it, and I was.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
Trying her eyes peddling.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
Oh girl, maybe you could have went into the Olympics backstroke.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
That look.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
They didn't have to do anything after. The look was
to put the fear in you. They didn't have to
do anything else but the look of just disappointment, and
Joe's character was really hurt. But you know, Rachel didn't
mean to do any harm. That's not her head. She
was all excited because she had used her family to
(18:21):
do something good as far as she was concerned. She
doesn't have a lot of foresight. She doesn't look into
the future and try to figure out what's going to happen.
She's just about the moment. So in that moment she
thought she had done something great. I think it was
disappointing all the way around because she didn't get what
she wanted from you all either.
Speaker 4 (18:38):
Right, And again, this is another thing looking back on it.
You can fuss and fight, but ultimately family does what
they're supposed to do. You know, there's a certain mechanism
that just kicks in where everybody falls into place and
they know what to do.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Yeah, I love that part of it.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
I love it when Joe Marie gets so mad at everything.
And one of my favorite life I remember we used
to use it all the time, was when she was
trying to explain to me why she felt the way
she felt, and she was your words speak louder than
your words. It's like, okay, what that man, I don't know,
I'm fired up. We used that, I don't know, I'm
(19:18):
fired up. We use that all the time. That was
so funny to me, because you do get so upset
sometimes that you just say stuff that doesn't make sense,
but you know exactly what you mean, right, And That
just tickled me because that, to me was just how
sisters are just ridiculous sometimes for you, what was.
Speaker 4 (19:36):
It life playing our sister?
Speaker 2 (19:37):
In hindsight, it was fun.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
Like I said, it was so easy to do, and
there were certain things that she and I could bond on.
And we'll see it later in the season where there
are really reasons why they are as close as they
are and why Harriet is as protective of her as
she is. But like I said, that's later on. Like
I said, I loved playing her sister because I'm the
(19:59):
older in my family. I'm oldest of four girls. So
to get to play somebody's little sisters, yeah, it was
fun for me. You have a younger sister as well,
but you grew up with your sister. I did not
grow up with all my sisters all at once. We
were together at different times, and we've had some of
those sister bump hed moments and hurt feelings or feeling
(20:23):
left out and all of that sort of thing because
of our history. But we are really working and have
been for the last few years, really working on just
hanging tough and doing what our grandmothers really wanted was
for us to really stick together no matter what. So
we've really been working towards that. I'm excited about that.
Speaker 4 (20:45):
The show highlighted that too, because in my family, we
love so hard that we also are a at the
end of it. And I'm like you like that. I'm
like this with you also because you had to check
me sometimes, but at the end of it that you
know that it's love, you can go there right right.
I mean it's like not pretty at all.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
Right, and it doesn't have to be pretty, it just
has to be true. You know, everything in a sitcom
is not funny. Some things are lessons. And I'm very
proud of the fact that every show that okay, we're
on show three, but in watching the shows as more
of an audience, I'm really touched and proud of the
fact that our shows had substance, that there was something
(21:26):
to be said, something to be learned, some little pearl
of wisdom. In this particular show, you are one of
the people that give Rachel's character that pearl of wisdom. Yeah,
I've forgotten how that started, that you and Judy had
set that up.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
I had forgotten that part of it.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
So I was like really into the oh my god, yeah,
learning about you can fight with your sister, but don't
let that tear you apart. I love the fact that
you and Jamie had put that together to help your
mom and your aunt with their problem. I thought that
was so sweet because I had forgotten that.
Speaker 4 (22:00):
That's also another benefit of watching the show. Like I remember,
it was often discussed about how Jemy left, but how
much fun we had while she was on. Oh she
was so chick is a spitfire. She knew everything all
the time. She knew everything and what she did in
no way worth knowing.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
Okay, right, She was so good in that role.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
She was funny, she was feisty, and considering she wasn't
in the pilot, she came into the second show and
just spit right in like that. Yeah, she came in hot. Yep,
she really did. She was funny. You had to really
jump into your relationship with Jamie. What was it like
working with her? Because I know she was a fast study,
she took no prisoners. But what was it like because
(22:43):
you all seemed like you really did seem like she.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Was your little sister.
Speaker 4 (22:47):
They said that you become a expert of something after
you spend about ten thousand hours doing something We spent
a lot of time together the kids on the show.
We went over each other's houses on the weekends. We
supported each other and other things that we were interested
in doing. And I did. I enjoyed her sister. She
has two other sisters. I've spent a lot of time
(23:08):
with them, and so Jeanny and Tara. So it was good.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
It was easy.
Speaker 4 (23:13):
It was easy work. Like the ease at which we
all got along cannot be overstated. Jill Scott has a
song called easy Conversation that just explains it in that way.
It's like, I can't explain how easy it was.
Speaker 3 (23:27):
It just was that. Yeah, how about your sister. What's
your relationship like now with your sister, your real sister.
Speaker 4 (23:34):
Actually, it's funny that you're talking about how Joe was
really a traditional sister on the show, the traditional older sister.
My sister runs the whole family.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
Really.
Speaker 4 (23:44):
I often say this. You know, parents always say, oh,
we don't have a favorite. My sister is my parents' favorite. Here,
Yeah sure, oh I'm sure, Oh oh, we don't have
a favorite. But Marty's in control of everything is if
they die, Marty Mark, So my sisters and Joe Marie
of the family. That's she was the youngest exactly. Well,
(24:07):
she has emerged as the Queen Bee. Okay, but I
love it. I love it though.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
That's so funny.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
What was it like for you coming from Maryland and
having to move to Los Angeles? You came out here
and it was a total life change for you all.
Your mom had to come out, your dad had to
come out, your sister and brother were at It was
a life change. You came out as an unknown basically
having done theater and known by the theater people perhaps,
(24:37):
but not known on television. What was it like for
you when the show really hit and you started going
out and people were calling you, hey, Laura, or they
recognize you from family matters.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
What was that like for you?
Speaker 4 (24:54):
I think that's just one of the great things about
the show. I'm not a very gregarious person in my nature,
so I think at first it was really weird, like
that people even care anything about you, or that they notice.
But the people who are fans of the show always
(25:14):
feel like family to me. I guess the way that
they received the show is very familiar to them, so
they approach as if you're somebody they went to school
with they know or you were there somebody from their
church or something.
Speaker 3 (25:28):
So that was cool as a show grew. Were you
ever annoyed by the celebrity of it.
Speaker 4 (25:33):
That's one of the great things that I love about
the fans of the show. No, they have very specific
stories about how they engaged with the show, like people
who didn't speak English and that's how they learned to
speak English, people who came from a very horrible family
environment themselves, and that they connected with the show because
they wish that they were a part of the show.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
Yeah. I have a friend who said we kind of
saved him during his childhood because he had such a
miserable childhood. He would watch the show and he felt
like he was a part of it. That was where
he would get his validation. That's where he would get
to feel like he was a part of something that
he could depend on. He could depend on every week.
We were going to be there every week. He was
(26:17):
going to get to laugh and maybe cry or learn something.
He said, it really kind of saved him during his childhood.
But I wondered about whether you ever got annoyed because
even though I had been on Bosom Buddies and give
Me a Break and all that. For some reason, Family
Matters was a whole new level of crazy as far
(26:38):
as popularity. When we would go out on a weekend,
people would be all excited and they'd stop me, and
a certain young man would be standing over there with
his hands on his hips, shade his head and all
he owed because you know, this is his time and
all of that, and I had to kind of take
him home and school him and show him why it
(27:02):
was a good thing for him to be polite to
these people that were bothering me in his time. I
had to point out his PlayStation, everything that he had.
I said, those people that stopped me at the mall,
they bought that. When they stop stopping me, you won't
have this, so behoove you to get a better attitude
(27:23):
when people do stop me. I had to explain to
him the upside of it was that these people, as
annoying as that might be in that moment, really were
supporting us basically. So I know it could get annoying sometimes,
and that's why I wondered if you'd ever had that
experience where you were trying to eat. I've had people
push my food out of the way, so they Yeah,
(27:44):
people will do some stuff now so they could get
my autograph, or so they could talk, or people just
come and park next to you and just start talking.
It's like, oh okay.
Speaker 4 (27:53):
But as an actor, that's what you want. You want
to provoke a certain feeling.
Speaker 2 (27:59):
You know, I want. I'm provoken while I'm with it.
Speaker 4 (28:02):
Danny Glover, people who remember him from The Color Purple,
they want to slap them that you've actually done your
work that well, that people want to engage, they invite
you in in some way or another. If they have
a real feeling when they encounter you as your real person,
they so associate you with the character. You've actually done
something right because people want to engage in a way
(28:25):
like it's real to them. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
But I know when I first started, when people would
recognize me, I almost got insulted if they call me
by my name or something.
Speaker 3 (28:33):
I don't know you. I mean, I had to get
used to the fact that even though I didn't know them,
they thought they knew me. I mean, it used to
really throw me. It took me a while to get
used to people knowing who I was. And remember when
I started, I was Antoni, Orlando and Dawn, so they
knew me as Telma, so they would call me by
my name, which would really just pecuate out. Yeah, so
(28:57):
I had to get used to that kind of celebrity,
so to speak.
Speaker 4 (29:01):
Listen, honey, when it comes to you, my old mother
thinks that you my mama. I think that because I
was introduced to how to behave by you, I think
that that's how I approach it. Also, you're very gracious,
and you kind of like showed me how to interact
with people.
Speaker 3 (29:20):
Well, I thank you for that. You were an easy study.
I mean you were fun. We had some good times.
I mean you went with me to Atlanta, wore my
jumpsuit because you lost your clothes, and just all kinds
of stuff been going on. But yeah, our experience has
been so funny. I mean there have been probably times
when I didn't talk to you for a year. Nothing
has ever made a difference in our relationship. And I'm
(29:42):
so appreciative of that, so appreciative of your dad and
your mom because they never they just welcomed that extra
person in. It was never like she spent too much
time with her with why she going here, why she
asked her? It was always just family. And I am
just very, very grateful and thankful for that, and I
(30:04):
love our relationship.
Speaker 4 (30:08):
So we also have to talk about the beast story,
which was Darius the character Eddie being a ladies man,
which is a sitcom in itself.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
Yes it is.
Speaker 3 (30:20):
And he was the only person that was happy with me.
He just thought I was it. Oh Darius, Oh Darius.
Speaker 4 (30:29):
So what do you think about Darius considering himself a
ladies man?
Speaker 2 (30:34):
What was it? A slice of life? You know, he
thought he was.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
He still thinks and he could possibly be. All I
know is don't go on the road with him. We'll
get into that when he's actually on the show, so
I can dog him out in person.
Speaker 4 (30:50):
Well, what you're talking about, because you were one of
the people that he actually listened to.
Speaker 3 (30:54):
So he listened, but that don't mean nothing listening and
then following your advice or to a different things. He
listened and didn't go do what he was gonna do.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
Fir Oh.
Speaker 4 (31:03):
I can't wait to talk to him about that.
Speaker 3 (31:05):
Oh child, that boy gave me gray hair and his
mom And the other thing about the show was that
you know, all the parents were close too, so Shay
had the nerve to call me.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
We were going out to do this place.
Speaker 3 (31:16):
She said, please take care of my baby. Don't let
your nephew get no trouble. When I came back, I said, look,
don't ever ask me to do nothing with your son.
That boy almost throw me crazy. Well, I was like
a girl, you should have been sending somebody to take
care of me.
Speaker 4 (31:35):
But I tell you one thing. I tell him this
all the time. I'm like, you know how some people
die with.
Speaker 2 (31:41):
Regrets, he ain't gonna have.
Speaker 4 (31:42):
He is one person that has taken every ounce of
life and lived it. He's lived like ten lines.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
I'm not lying.
Speaker 3 (31:52):
I love it. Yeah, he's he is something. But I
thought that was kind of a little slice of life.
I think the writer's probably picked up on a little
of his thinking here we was rico suave, you know
say like they kind of picked up on it and
just gave a little tease to it because he became
more of a ladies man later on in the show.
Speaker 4 (32:11):
But that episode was really the jumping off point for
that whole idea. With the Bobby Brown haircut, It's.
Speaker 3 (32:20):
True, okay, he who's your barber? That's my brother.
Speaker 4 (32:26):
Okay, So we always have to get to the the
violent moment. What did you think about the makeup talk
at the end.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
Oh with Joe, Marie and Joe.
Speaker 4 (32:37):
Yeah, well, Harriet and Rachel.
Speaker 3 (32:39):
It was the type of moment you kind of expect
at the end of the show. I mean, I don't
think anybody thought that we were going to go off
the air that night, and Joe and I wouldn't be speaking,
everything wouldn't be tied up with a little bow.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
But I like the fact that even while she was
telling me she.
Speaker 3 (32:54):
Wasn't like that, she was like that right, because we
don't always see ourselves the way other people see us.
We mean, and what she thought was being protected to
me was being overbearing. But I was too much a
little sister to say it to her. So it was
good to see us have a moment where I really
(33:17):
could say, that is how you are with me, and
that is how I feel, and for her to realize
it and be okay with it, and so we could
get past it, for her to understand that it wasn't
that I was saying that I don't like my sister
and I don't like how you treat me, I don't
like what you do. It was that some things made
(33:39):
me feel like I wasn't capable, and that totally would
not be her projection. She would want to make me
feel stronger, but in her strength I would fall back.
So it was nice to see Rachel kind of stand
up and at least say it and be able to
laugh about it. Because when Joe realized that's what she
was doing, it took her too.
Speaker 4 (34:00):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
So I like that.
Speaker 3 (34:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (34:02):
Now, in a completely unrelated topic, I noticed on the show, Honey,
you was giving looks every episode. I think most of
the budget went for your wardrobe.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
Cushion girls, stop put up it.
Speaker 4 (34:14):
You wasn't down.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
I know they did do a great job.
Speaker 3 (34:19):
And then let me give a shout out to Gina Traconis,
who was our wardrobe mistress at that time, and Palmer Woods.
You know Palmer and I started back on give me
a break. So he had dressed me and he had
you fabulous there too.
Speaker 4 (34:34):
You can look back and say, honey, you was snatched
from the gideo Well.
Speaker 3 (34:38):
I loved it.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
She was like a modern day Annie Hall.
Speaker 3 (34:42):
I love the hats and the saddle shoes and the
socks and the just the hair with the scarf tied
up in it. She had a look that was unlike
anybody else on TV. And I loved that, especially nobody black.
It was dressing like that. I remember I went home
with one of those socks, and remember when we were
wearing socks and heels, j'all. I went to Detroit. They
(35:05):
almost ran me out of town. They almost burned me
at the stale. My sister, I'm not going out there
with you with them song. I mean, she went off
on me. I had to take off myself. And if
you did where people would come up to you from LA,
they just assumed they knew from LA if you were
(35:26):
dressed anything unlike what they wore.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
And they wore some stuff in Detroit.
Speaker 4 (35:31):
Child.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
But I did love my fashion on there, I really did.
Speaker 3 (35:34):
I had you snatched. Oh yes, indeed that and give
Me a Break? Well Palmer again. Palmer dressed me on
Give Me a Break. He also dressed me in real life,
and I'm sure he influenced me on the show because
he loved to look and I love me some Palmer.
He was a great, great guy. I have pictures of us.
I think of the last, maybe one of the last
shows he did with us, when we were in Disney World. Huh.
(35:56):
Bright and talked me into going on the Tower of Terror.
Oh god, I got a picture Palmer with his mouth
stretched open as wide as his head. We were screaming
like we did not have good sense. But he was
a great guy, just a great person, and it was
a pleasure for me to get to work with him,
not on one show, with two long running shows. Right, yeah, Now,
(36:22):
you know, for me, I have to do my little
look up facts.
Speaker 4 (36:25):
You know, I'm an a one googler.
Speaker 3 (36:27):
Yes, yes, I know you have an award and everything. No,
what are you talking about?
Speaker 4 (36:31):
So you know I always like to look up some
of the facts around that time of the episode.
Speaker 3 (36:36):
And so did you find out something interesting? Yes?
Speaker 4 (36:40):
Okay, So freelance writers like the character Rachel would make
one cent per word. Maybe you have to write like
Warren Peace to ever get me.
Speaker 3 (36:51):
At least bring home that pizza to feed the family.
That is crazy, Yeah, that is crazy. But I wonder
how much they're making now, right because I feel in
some ways we're going backwards, but.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
Hopefully they're doing better than that. What else was going on?
Speaker 3 (37:05):
Then?
Speaker 4 (37:05):
Okay, So the average water bill in Chicago would be
between ten to thirty dollars per month.
Speaker 3 (37:11):
He complained about ten dollars. Come on, man, oh, poor Ridge,
I mean poor Carl.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
Is that for Reggie and Carl? That's funny.
Speaker 3 (37:22):
I saw something that you had written up here about
how in nineteen eighty nine the average price for a
gallon of gas was a dollar, or about two point
fifty in today's money. Oh and of course, the average
price of a home in the US, not California, apparently,
was one hundred and forty eight thousand.
Speaker 2 (37:43):
What can you get for one hundred and forty eight thousand.
Speaker 4 (37:45):
A tiny house with no electric girl?
Speaker 3 (37:49):
Come on, you can do a couple of tiny houses
for one hundred and forty eight thousand, Because that's something
I'm interested in, believe it or not. Really, I love
the whole thought of a tiny home. I was trying
to figure out if I could put one in the backyard.
I just love them. I think they just make a
lot of sense. I watched Tiny House Nation all the time. Really.
Speaker 4 (38:04):
Yeah, Well, now every price in America is high as
a giraff's coucie. So I'm trying to figure out.
Speaker 3 (38:10):
Did she say a giraffe's KOUCHI a giraffe's couch.
Speaker 2 (38:14):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (38:14):
Okay, right, same difference.
Speaker 4 (38:25):
We were talking about your fashions a little earlier.
Speaker 2 (38:29):
When you say you who do you mean?
Speaker 4 (38:32):
I was talking about your fashion? So what if you
go to our social media. I'm going to post a
fabulous picture of you that I dug up because you've
been giving looks for many moons. My dear, I mean,
where are you here doing this with such a frock?
Speaker 3 (38:56):
I cannot believe.
Speaker 4 (38:58):
Listen, let me tell you something. My daughter, Hannah Dugay,
shall kill your fue brother say goodbye to him. Well, listen,
you can't kill the research team. Probably're not gonna have
a show.
Speaker 3 (39:10):
I'll kill him after the show. Well that was my
first movie premiere? Was it? Yes?
Speaker 2 (39:16):
Was it uptown Saturday Night?
Speaker 4 (39:18):
Are you here?
Speaker 3 (39:19):
Richard Pryor? Because I was so enthralled, Not with Jim,
although his chest was Oh my god. That's how he
showed up to my house girl picked me up with
his chips. That's how he showed.
Speaker 4 (39:34):
Who dressed you?
Speaker 3 (39:35):
Was this like a Mackie gown? Or I mean, I
don't know if it was about Mackie gown. It was
mostly you know, those feathers that we used, those stoles
that we used to do the boa okay, but girl,
I spent the whole time with Jim. He kept telling
turn back around, turn around, because I was just staring
at everybody. I was like, oh, look there's so and so.
Speaker 4 (39:53):
Oh look here's your looked at Bill there, and he's
standing there looking like a whole peacock. You wasn't looking
at him.
Speaker 3 (40:00):
I wasn't thinking about him. I wasn't hanging about him.
I already had him sold up.
Speaker 4 (40:03):
Oh my goodness, you are so flawless. Oh my goodness,
this is skilled.
Speaker 2 (40:08):
He asked Tony if he could ask me out.
Speaker 3 (40:11):
He said, are you serious? I think I could ask
her out to a premiere? And Tony laughs about it
all the time. He said, she gonna have you so
messed up, man, so you'll grab Oh no, I didn't
you out there hurting folks feelings.
Speaker 2 (40:25):
We didn't date that long. We didn't date long, now,
he was scary.
Speaker 4 (40:28):
What's not long?
Speaker 3 (40:29):
Probably two or three months or something, you know, I'm nosy,
And that was like two or three dates, so in
that two or three months.
Speaker 2 (40:38):
But it was cool.
Speaker 3 (40:39):
It was cool, okay, and you are fabulous.
Speaker 2 (40:41):
Well, thank you, darling. You know her usual.
Speaker 3 (40:44):
You said, I was cheesing like a fat cat and
a cheese factory hedge on every tooth in my head.
Speaker 4 (40:49):
I could not wait to.
Speaker 3 (40:50):
Pull up this picture.
Speaker 2 (40:52):
I didn't know what you would get a girl, I'll
see you later.
Speaker 3 (40:57):
That's right. I got a millionaire because I got some
pictures around this housegirl, of you, Oh.
Speaker 4 (41:01):
I hope not of me and that side ponytail.
Speaker 3 (41:04):
Old honey, not just the side, the top and everything,
got all of them. No, So get ready to get ready,
to get ready to get the heck up out of here.
All these people are sick of us. That is it
for the show this week, But people stay tuned.
Speaker 4 (41:18):
Yeah, We're gonna rewatch each episode of Family Matters week
by week, So make sure to rewatch the show right
along with us. You can catch it on Hulu and
TBS and a bunch of other places.
Speaker 3 (41:31):
Welcome to the Family with Telma and Kelly is a
production of iHeart Podcasts and Audiation. It's hosted by me
Tloma Hopkins and me Kelly Williams. Our executive producers are
Sandy Smalling's for audiation, Adam RiPP JD. Hopkins, who also
happens to be my son and Kelly's fobro, and Jonathan
Strickland for iHeart Podcasts.
Speaker 4 (41:52):
The show is produced by Telma and I, but our
series producer is Ireland Meechin and our theme songs lyrics
were written by JD. Hopkins and Adam RiPP. The theme
song was scored and mixed by Matt Noble, who's also
our series mixer.
Speaker 3 (42:06):
And we'd like to thank Nikki Etour and the entire
iHeart podcast team.
Speaker 2 (42:10):
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 4 (42:12):
Follow us on Instagram at Welcome to the Family Pod
for behind the scenes photos and more bonus content.
Speaker 3 (42:17):
And don't forget to leave us a voicemail at our website,
Thefamilymatterspod dot com. We want to hear your thoughts and
favorite memories of the show and let us know if
you need advice, because we're good for some bad advice.
We might be able to help you with your own
Family Matters and make sure to rate and review us
wherever you're listening.
Speaker 4 (42:36):
We are so excited to have you guys along for
the ride.
Speaker 3 (42:39):
Yes, Welcome to the family, y'all, and we'll see you
next time. Welcome to the Familie Audiation
Really listens a mission this day and age Kelly and
Thelma and returning the page, we're talking. Family Matters is
about those times.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Ellen, what happened three between.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
The line with Kelly and me. Welcome to the fam, Eliza.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Kelly, Welcome to the family, y'all.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Welcome, Welcome, welcome. I'm Telma and I'm Kelly. And in
the nineties we both start in a little sitcom call
Family Matters.
Speaker 4 (00:39):
And for today we rewatched season one, episode three of
the show called short Story. We'll get into that in
a minute, but first, you know, I got to check
in with my girl. What's up girl?
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Girl? Reality. You know how they say black don't crack, Well,
that may be true, but it does sag. Girl was
walking the other day and I kept thinking somebody was
trying to get my attention. I kept turning to who
is trying to touch me?
Speaker 2 (01:07):
And then as I walked along, I realized that, And
don't take this the wrong way. I was touching myself.
Speaker 4 (01:16):
But that used to be up.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
There is going down there and it's doing things. Girl.
So that's my reality. That's what's up with me, okay,
And that's so funny.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
That's what's up with you, because what's up with me
is rewatching these episodes and talking to you and seeing you.
Now I'm actually wondering whether or not you're a vampire
because you look exactly the same all these years later,
and I'm sitting over here looking like Jane Pittman at
the end.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
Now, you know, I'm gonna give you that check as
soon as I see you. I'm gonna give you that check.
Speaker 4 (01:51):
Honey. I only act when i'm getting paid, and you
ain't paying me. So listen before we get started, for real,
what do you do like? You look.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Fabulous?
Speaker 4 (02:01):
Like?
Speaker 3 (02:01):
What are you doing? Nothing?
Speaker 2 (02:04):
And that's what I found out, you think.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
I first started getting older, I was trying to do everything.
I was massaging and oils, and I found out that
the less I do, the better my skin likes it.
Really Yeah, the one thing that I'm having a problem
with is sleeping through the night. That would probably help too,
But I don't really do anything. My grandmother used to
(02:27):
say this a note. She said, whatever you do, you
wear it on your face. So I feel like I've
had a good life and I look pretty good for
my age.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
You sure do pretty good. I was like, is Detroit
cold word for Transylvania.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
You little bag on Vampire Girl.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
You got kids. That's what's wrong with you? You got kids?
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Them kids?
Speaker 3 (02:51):
Well, all right, are we gonna talk about this show.
Let's talk about it. Let's get into it. Okay. Now,
today we're talking all about Short Story, which was the
third episode of the first season of Family Matters.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
In this episode, the Winslow family is a little bit
upset because they realized they're the character in Rachel's short
story that she sold to a magazine.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
That's right, that's right. This episode aired on Friday, October sixth,
nineteen eighty nine. Now, Kelly, what was happening in the
world on that day.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
Well, the number one song in the country on the
billboil Hot one hundred was Janet Jackson's Miss You Much. Now,
I know you have a personal connection with her.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Miss You MUCHA no, I miss you Much. Yes, I
did a show with Janet. It was called A New
Kind of Family. It was with Eileen Brennan, Rob Lowe,
Lorie Hendler and myself and Janet Jackson. That's also where
I met Bob. So yeah, she played my daughter when
she was twelve. She was such a cutie pie, And
that's where our relationship really sort of started.
Speaker 4 (03:56):
And now also that was the week that mclight released
her second album called Eyes on This and you also
work with her two on.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
I also worked with on Half and Half.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
Yeah. So she's so talented and such a pretty girl
and so good at what she does so nicely.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
That was a pleasure. Yeah. What else?
Speaker 4 (04:14):
This show was ranked thirty seven on the Nielsen ratings
right and we had a thirteen point one cheer.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Is that good? I can't remember?
Speaker 3 (04:21):
That's good?
Speaker 4 (04:22):
The highest rated show right now usually has a ten cheer.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Wow, So we were doing well well.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
There wasn't as much competition back then.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
Either that they had three networks basically, and we were
one of the three. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (04:38):
Now, up until this time, we never did a code open,
which is like a how do you describe it?
Speaker 3 (04:42):
Well, it's like a scene that comes up before the
titles of the show. So instead of it starting with
our song and us and all that stuff, it started
with an actual scene and segues into the titles of
the show, and then it segues into the actual show.
I had not noticed that, but I noticed in the
(05:03):
next couple of shows that that must have been something
that started why was that done that way? I like it,
but it was kind of surprising because I wasn't expecting
it's commonplace now.
Speaker 4 (05:12):
But before then they didn't really do that. Okay, man. Also,
i'll see the beginning of the show, you done brought
a large piece for eight people.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
Rachel was on a budget. A budget you lucky. You know,
she ain't gone. You don't have a real job, so
she was on a budget. At least she was thinking
of you.
Speaker 4 (05:29):
My character, Laura was a meal lady for the family,
so she brings in all the mail and she actually
gets a letter from Barbara Bush to mother Winslow.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
You know, she knew everybody everybody, and I think in
real life she probably knew a lot more people than
we know about because she opened all the doors for us,
you know, so I wouldn't be surprised if she actually
did know Barbara Bush. You know, when you think about it,
that's such an offhanded remark. But she also says she
ernest Hemingway. Now, I don't know if we should believe
(06:04):
her or not, but she did say he was all
sizzle and no steak, so she.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
May have known him better than we know.
Speaker 4 (06:11):
Now, your character also gets a rejection letter from a
sci fi magazine of a story that you sent to
about a truck driver with tattoos that turned into an alien.
You know, some of this stuff was just playing on crazy.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Well, yeah, it was crazy, but I think Rachel was
a little crazy as well. She was at least willing
to get out there and try. But even for me,
that story is a little crazy. But I think that
was really just to set up the rejection so that
we could move into her utter rejection bring the entire family.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Yeah, that became part of her backstory.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
But as we go through this, she will see that
Rachel will try anything to try to make a living.
Speaker 4 (06:54):
So we learned that you were a writer too on
the show.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
Yeah. Yeah, Actually Joe Maurice solidified it because I was thinking,
did we talk about me being a writer before that?
But this was the show that set that up. But then,
you know, again, she tried some of everything.
Speaker 4 (07:08):
Girl.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
I want to talk to you about Joe Daddy, who
apparently is working from home all the time. I mean,
why is he always at home? Nobody can't done nothing.
Speaker 4 (07:19):
At least he got his uniform at home. Maybe he's
just Alice in the house.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
Yeah, well, he need to go police somewhere else, him
and the horse he rode in on. But anyway, as
per Carl, just like he always is fussing about something
this week, let me guess cheat the water. We are
using too much water. Apparently we are bathing too often.
We can't do anything. The water bill is too high.
(07:43):
He wants us to stop anyway, with the chaos that
ensues because he is always fussing about something. You give
me the idea of writing a story about our family. Yes,
and you use a very strange line to do it.
But we could get away with that sort of thing
back then, where you a I believe twelve year old
(08:05):
tells me that people love stories about domestic violence.
Speaker 4 (08:08):
Can you imagine saying that now? Uh? Nope, maybe they
would to meet too, Joe Baha right off TV.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
We be part of the march, and not in a
good way.
Speaker 4 (08:19):
As sacrid as the show was back then, now, just
how culture is now, you would think that some of
the stuff would have come up, but you could just
totally say whatever. Back then, I guess it didn't mean
the same thing.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
Well yeah, and we did have censors back then too,
So if we did get out of line, they.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Just stop it.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
It was different then. Now you can get away with
saying a whole lot of stuff you couldn't say then.
But back to our story, because that's why we're here.
Speaker 4 (08:43):
So Carl comes in with the water bill, so he's
gonna tamp down on everybody doing everything. So they get
the bills lower, right, and your character is getting rejection
letter out, the rejection letter from magazines.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
All over the world. Rejection let after rejection letter. It
was only one brilliant, plain girl.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Make it plain.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
Rachel, not so much, Okay, that's true. She was like
a big old kid, oor baby. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (09:13):
So that was the first episode where they introduced you
being a writer. Do you remember anything about Do you
remember anything? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (09:23):
Just stop with that now we can go on. But
you're suggesting that I write about the family. Is what
sets up the whole show, really, because I take your
advice and write and everybody hates me for it.
Speaker 4 (09:39):
Well, nobody told you to write about people's personal business.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
You said, right about the family. Harriet told me to
write about what I know. I know the family, So
I wrote about I mean, not me personally, but Rachel,
Rachel wrote what she knew, and I don't know how
she thought in her head that nobody would know that
it was the family, But currently she's dense. At times,
she got her dumb blind moments.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
It wasn't carl it was Marrow was the name. So
it wasn't Laura, it was Cora.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
It wasn't mother Winslow, it was Mama Den's Lowers. We
had to change everything.
Speaker 4 (10:22):
You smart, But the.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Fact of the matter is that was a successful story
because it's soul and everybody was excited about that until
they read it. You complained, and you have a lot
of nerves, complained about anything. You seem to think that
I had made you look like somebody you were not.
You were all about being a smart mouth, know it
(10:45):
all kid, And you can have the nerve to get
upset with me because I.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Called you on it.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
Well, yeah, nobody likes to be called on the carpet.
But more importantly, I loved the interaction that you had
with Joe on the show, Oh yeah, which is so
deep as sisters, it's just just kind of like your
first best friend, right so, and it's also the person
that you can talk about but nobody else better say
(11:11):
it or not about her, because that's breaking the law
as far as we're concerned.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
And I think it's funny Joe Marie playing her sister
was so easy, and it's funny because she has that type,
a kind of strong, powerful personality. Anyway, Rachel was like
a big baby half the time, but it was easy
to play her sister, even though in real life I'm
the oldest and nobody knew that, but she always seemed
(11:40):
like the older sister. Her demeanor was that of someone
who takes care of everyone. She reminds me of my
grandmother actually, and that kind of personality because my grandmother
tried to take care of everybody that she ran into.
And I think Joe's personality on the show was to
be the fixer and the glue one that held it together.
Speaker 4 (12:02):
How do you feel about that? Because you often get
cast as artsy, fabulous.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
Younger, but you're totally that too.
Speaker 4 (12:12):
He did it with me. You are totally the archetype.
You're strong, you take in strays, you feed folks, you always.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
Well I do, I do? I don't know, Kelly, honestly,
When I try to backtrack and think about how our
relationship became so close in our families, and I think
about us doing holidays together and everything. I don't even
know how that came about, but in that period of time,
I usually got cast younger than I was because my
(12:44):
characters are mostually silly and like you said, artsy and
all of that.
Speaker 4 (12:48):
Are you a vampire girl, Well you don't found a
found the youth.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
Well, I don't know about either one of those. But yeah,
it was easy to play Joe's younger sister because she
felt like an older It was just an easy thing
to fall into it. Like with you, I'd have to
say with everyone. Because of all the shows I've done,
I think Family Matters is one show that never felt
(13:16):
like the people weren't who they were supposed to be
on camera. It really felt like you were my niece,
he was my nephew, and was my baby Joe was.
You know, it really felt real to me. They say,
if it ain't on the page, it ain't on the stage.
If it was on the page, we did it and
it was natural, And I think that's what really made
(13:40):
people tune in because it was like watching someone in
your family. I remember somebody telling me that they invited
me into their house more than they invited their family
into their house. So you know they had to like you,
to turn you on and to watch you like that.
I think that had a lot to do with our strength.
Speaker 4 (13:57):
Well that's great art too. I mean you want people
to feel something you wanted to feel that it is
actually real. Yeah, even in circumstances that are far different
than your own life.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
So that's good.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
Yeah, you know, I was laughing about the looks that
you all give me when I'm all excited. I've had
everything written up and you all are reading and I'm
going down thinking y'all just gonna be patting me on
my back and telling me how wonderful I am. And
the look when I said, well, what do you think
the look that you all give me is so black? Right?
Speaker 2 (14:31):
So all real know about the look, they know about
the love usually they know.
Speaker 4 (14:38):
But you were getting it from your nieces and nephew.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
Getting it from everybody. Yeah, Joe, Marie gave you a
look like that. You remember what it was when you
came in the kitchen and you wanted to find out
if you could have pizza in your room, if you
had a fight with your sister.
Speaker 4 (14:51):
It's the universal black woman look where you know, if
you go any further, it's certain death. You mean that look?
Speaker 3 (14:59):
Yeah, that look. I remember a story with my son
when he was younger. We were going to a Dodger's game,
which was like the end all and be all of
his life, with a friend of ours. And because we
had some time between the time that we were leaving
for the game that particular time, I decided I'd go
to the store and do some grocery shopping. Well, I
(15:19):
took a little too long at the grocery store, and
I came back and he was in the car with
my friend and his best friend. When I tell you,
seemed like he shot out of the window and he
was so upset. He was just where have you been?
Oh girl?
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Now you know. I had to stop.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
Slowly turned my head to look at him, and he
was just I mean, I mean, I was just I
just wanted to know what, you know, because we're gonna
be late, and I was so tickled I wanted to
laugh because it was that look.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
I didn't have to do anything else.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
He slunk back to the car, then came back and
helped me take the groceries in. Else to say, that's
a look that you don't have to explain it exactly.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
I don't care how old you are. It still worked.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
If my grandmother was alive and I said something, he
turned around and looked at me.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
I shut the heck up.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
It's that look that just breaks you down to childhood again.
Speaker 4 (16:17):
It's so funny how we have so many things that
are built into the culture, Like everybody knows that look.
I know kids who were not, you know, structurally really
disciplined like me, that when they come in contact with
that look, they already know the energy. It stops them
in their tracks. It doesn't even matter if your parents
were not strict parents. They knew what they were dealing with,
(16:39):
you dealing with or not.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
Don't make her go there, don't make her go there.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
I would try my grandmother.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
I would try it on her, you know, because I
hung out with a lot of Jewish girls when I
was going to school, and they could get away with murder.
They were always like slamming doors and running upstairs and
just yeah, yelling at their mom and their mama. I'm
going to tell your father and son that take us home.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
And I would, yeah, that is really cool.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
So I went.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Home one day.
Speaker 4 (17:11):
You ain't that crazy.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
I was that crazy. I went home and my grandmother.
She probably just said hello or something, but I am
so ready to fly off the handle. I was I
hate you, I hate you, and I ran off into
my room. Girl. To this day, I swear I think
she took the door off the hinges. She I don't
remember her opening the door. It was just like the
door was there, and then the door was gone, and
(17:35):
she was standing in the doorway. Of course she took
up the whole doorway. I probably peetered a little on
myself by that time, and she.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
Was so quiet.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
She just said, what did you say.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
I'm not I don't know.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
I was just because her mama said that she could
do it, and I was.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
Trying her eyes peddling.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
Oh girl, maybe you could have went into the Olympics backstroke.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
That look.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
They didn't have to do anything after. The look was
to put the fear in you. They didn't have to
do anything else but the look of just disappointment, and
Joe's character was really hurt. But you know, Rachel didn't
mean to do any harm. That's not her head. She
was all excited because she had used her family to
(18:21):
do something good as far as she was concerned. She
doesn't have a lot of foresight. She doesn't look into
the future and try to figure out what's going to happen.
She's just about the moment. So in that moment she
thought she had done something great. I think it was
disappointing all the way around because she didn't get what
she wanted from you all either.
Speaker 4 (18:38):
Right, And again, this is another thing looking back on it.
You can fuss and fight, but ultimately family does what
they're supposed to do. You know, there's a certain mechanism
that just kicks in where everybody falls into place and
they know what to do.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Yeah, I love that part of it.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
I love it when Joe Marie gets so mad at everything.
And one of my favorite life I remember we used
to use it all the time, was when she was
trying to explain to me why she felt the way
she felt, and she was your words speak louder than
your words. It's like, okay, what that man, I don't know,
I'm fired up. We used that, I don't know, I'm
(19:18):
fired up. We use that all the time. That was
so funny to me, because you do get so upset
sometimes that you just say stuff that doesn't make sense,
but you know exactly what you mean, right, And That
just tickled me because that, to me was just how
sisters are just ridiculous sometimes for you, what was.
Speaker 4 (19:36):
It life playing our sister?
Speaker 2 (19:37):
In hindsight, it was fun.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
Like I said, it was so easy to do, and
there were certain things that she and I could bond on.
And we'll see it later in the season where there
are really reasons why they are as close as they
are and why Harriet is as protective of her as
she is. But like I said, that's later on. Like
I said, I loved playing her sister because I'm the
(19:59):
older in my family. I'm oldest of four girls. So
to get to play somebody's little sisters, yeah, it was
fun for me. You have a younger sister as well,
but you grew up with your sister. I did not
grow up with all my sisters all at once. We
were together at different times, and we've had some of
those sister bump hed moments and hurt feelings or feeling
(20:23):
left out and all of that sort of thing because
of our history. But we are really working and have
been for the last few years, really working on just
hanging tough and doing what our grandmothers really wanted was
for us to really stick together no matter what. So
we've really been working towards that. I'm excited about that.
Speaker 4 (20:45):
The show highlighted that too, because in my family, we
love so hard that we also are a at the
end of it. And I'm like you like that. I'm
like this with you also because you had to check
me sometimes, but at the end of it that you
know that it's love, you can go there right right.
I mean it's like not pretty at all.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
Right, and it doesn't have to be pretty, it just
has to be true. You know, everything in a sitcom
is not funny. Some things are lessons. And I'm very
proud of the fact that every show that okay, we're
on show three, but in watching the shows as more
of an audience, I'm really touched and proud of the
fact that our shows had substance, that there was something
(21:26):
to be said, something to be learned, some little pearl
of wisdom. In this particular show, you are one of
the people that give Rachel's character that pearl of wisdom. Yeah,
I've forgotten how that started, that you and Judy had
set that up.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
I had forgotten that part of it.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
So I was like really into the oh my god, yeah,
learning about you can fight with your sister, but don't
let that tear you apart. I love the fact that
you and Jamie had put that together to help your
mom and your aunt with their problem. I thought that
was so sweet because I had forgotten that.
Speaker 4 (22:00):
That's also another benefit of watching the show. Like I remember,
it was often discussed about how Jemy left, but how
much fun we had while she was on. Oh she
was so chick is a spitfire. She knew everything all
the time. She knew everything and what she did in
no way worth knowing.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
Okay, right, She was so good in that role.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
She was funny, she was feisty, and considering she wasn't
in the pilot, she came into the second show and
just spit right in like that. Yeah, she came in hot. Yep,
she really did. She was funny. You had to really
jump into your relationship with Jamie. What was it like
working with her? Because I know she was a fast study,
she took no prisoners. But what was it like because
(22:43):
you all seemed like you really did seem like she.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Was your little sister.
Speaker 4 (22:47):
They said that you become a expert of something after
you spend about ten thousand hours doing something We spent
a lot of time together the kids on the show.
We went over each other's houses on the weekends. We
supported each other and other things that we were interested
in doing. And I did. I enjoyed her sister. She
has two other sisters. I've spent a lot of time
(23:08):
with them, and so Jeanny and Tara. So it was good.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
It was easy.
Speaker 4 (23:13):
It was easy work. Like the ease at which we
all got along cannot be overstated. Jill Scott has a
song called easy Conversation that just explains it in that way.
It's like, I can't explain how easy it was.
Speaker 3 (23:27):
It just was that. Yeah, how about your sister. What's
your relationship like now with your sister, your real sister.
Speaker 4 (23:34):
Actually, it's funny that you're talking about how Joe was
really a traditional sister on the show, the traditional older sister.
My sister runs the whole family.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
Really.
Speaker 4 (23:44):
I often say this. You know, parents always say, oh,
we don't have a favorite. My sister is my parents' favorite. Here,
Yeah sure, oh I'm sure, Oh oh, we don't have
a favorite. But Marty's in control of everything is if
they die, Marty Mark, So my sisters and Joe Marie
of the family. That's she was the youngest exactly. Well,
(24:07):
she has emerged as the Queen Bee. Okay, but I
love it. I love it though.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
That's so funny.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
What was it like for you coming from Maryland and
having to move to Los Angeles? You came out here
and it was a total life change for you all.
Your mom had to come out, your dad had to
come out, your sister and brother were at It was
a life change. You came out as an unknown basically
having done theater and known by the theater people perhaps,
(24:37):
but not known on television. What was it like for
you when the show really hit and you started going
out and people were calling you, hey, Laura, or they
recognize you from family matters.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
What was that like for you?
Speaker 4 (24:54):
I think that's just one of the great things about
the show. I'm not a very gregarious person in my nature,
so I think at first it was really weird, like
that people even care anything about you, or that they notice.
But the people who are fans of the show always
(25:14):
feel like family to me. I guess the way that
they received the show is very familiar to them, so
they approach as if you're somebody they went to school
with they know or you were there somebody from their
church or something.
Speaker 3 (25:28):
So that was cool as a show grew. Were you
ever annoyed by the celebrity of it.
Speaker 4 (25:33):
That's one of the great things that I love about
the fans of the show. No, they have very specific
stories about how they engaged with the show, like people
who didn't speak English and that's how they learned to
speak English, people who came from a very horrible family
environment themselves, and that they connected with the show because
they wish that they were a part of the show.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
Yeah. I have a friend who said we kind of
saved him during his childhood because he had such a
miserable childhood. He would watch the show and he felt
like he was a part of it. That was where
he would get his validation. That's where he would get
to feel like he was a part of something that
he could depend on. He could depend on every week.
We were going to be there every week. He was
(26:17):
going to get to laugh and maybe cry or learn something.
He said, it really kind of saved him during his childhood.
But I wondered about whether you ever got annoyed because
even though I had been on Bosom Buddies and give
Me a Break and all that. For some reason, Family
Matters was a whole new level of crazy as far
(26:38):
as popularity. When we would go out on a weekend,
people would be all excited and they'd stop me, and
a certain young man would be standing over there with
his hands on his hips, shade his head and all
he owed because you know, this is his time and
all of that, and I had to kind of take
him home and school him and show him why it
(27:02):
was a good thing for him to be polite to
these people that were bothering me in his time. I
had to point out his PlayStation, everything that he had.
I said, those people that stopped me at the mall,
they bought that. When they stop stopping me, you won't
have this, so behoove you to get a better attitude
(27:23):
when people do stop me. I had to explain to
him the upside of it was that these people, as
annoying as that might be in that moment, really were
supporting us basically. So I know it could get annoying sometimes,
and that's why I wondered if you'd ever had that
experience where you were trying to eat. I've had people
push my food out of the way, so they Yeah,
(27:44):
people will do some stuff now so they could get
my autograph, or so they could talk, or people just
come and park next to you and just start talking.
It's like, oh okay.
Speaker 4 (27:53):
But as an actor, that's what you want. You want
to provoke a certain feeling.
Speaker 2 (27:59):
You know, I want. I'm provoken while I'm with it.
Speaker 4 (28:02):
Danny Glover, people who remember him from The Color Purple,
they want to slap them that you've actually done your
work that well, that people want to engage, they invite
you in in some way or another. If they have
a real feeling when they encounter you as your real person,
they so associate you with the character. You've actually done
something right because people want to engage in a way
(28:25):
like it's real to them. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
But I know when I first started, when people would
recognize me, I almost got insulted if they call me
by my name or something.
Speaker 3 (28:33):
I don't know you. I mean, I had to get
used to the fact that even though I didn't know them,
they thought they knew me. I mean, it used to
really throw me. It took me a while to get
used to people knowing who I was. And remember when
I started, I was Antoni, Orlando and Dawn, so they
knew me as Telma, so they would call me by
my name, which would really just pecuate out. Yeah, so
(28:57):
I had to get used to that kind of celebrity,
so to speak.
Speaker 4 (29:01):
Listen, honey, when it comes to you, my old mother
thinks that you my mama. I think that because I
was introduced to how to behave by you, I think
that that's how I approach it. Also, you're very gracious,
and you kind of like showed me how to interact
with people.
Speaker 3 (29:20):
Well, I thank you for that. You were an easy study.
I mean you were fun. We had some good times.
I mean you went with me to Atlanta, wore my
jumpsuit because you lost your clothes, and just all kinds
of stuff been going on. But yeah, our experience has
been so funny. I mean there have been probably times
when I didn't talk to you for a year. Nothing
has ever made a difference in our relationship. And I'm
(29:42):
so appreciative of that, so appreciative of your dad and
your mom because they never they just welcomed that extra
person in. It was never like she spent too much
time with her with why she going here, why she
asked her? It was always just family. And I am
just very, very grateful and thankful for that, and I
(30:04):
love our relationship.
Speaker 4 (30:08):
So we also have to talk about the beast story,
which was Darius the character Eddie being a ladies man,
which is a sitcom in itself.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
Yes it is.
Speaker 3 (30:20):
And he was the only person that was happy with me.
He just thought I was it. Oh Darius, Oh Darius.
Speaker 4 (30:29):
So what do you think about Darius considering himself a
ladies man?
Speaker 2 (30:34):
What was it? A slice of life? You know, he
thought he was.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
He still thinks and he could possibly be. All I
know is don't go on the road with him. We'll
get into that when he's actually on the show, so
I can dog him out in person.
Speaker 4 (30:50):
Well, what you're talking about, because you were one of
the people that he actually listened to.
Speaker 3 (30:54):
So he listened, but that don't mean nothing listening and
then following your advice or to a different things. He
listened and didn't go do what he was gonna do.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
Fir Oh.
Speaker 4 (31:03):
I can't wait to talk to him about that.
Speaker 3 (31:05):
Oh child, that boy gave me gray hair and his
mom And the other thing about the show was that
you know, all the parents were close too, so Shay
had the nerve to call me.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
We were going out to do this place.
Speaker 3 (31:16):
She said, please take care of my baby. Don't let
your nephew get no trouble. When I came back, I said, look,
don't ever ask me to do nothing with your son.
That boy almost throw me crazy. Well, I was like
a girl, you should have been sending somebody to take
care of me.
Speaker 4 (31:35):
But I tell you one thing. I tell him this
all the time. I'm like, you know how some people
die with.
Speaker 2 (31:41):
Regrets, he ain't gonna have.
Speaker 4 (31:42):
He is one person that has taken every ounce of
life and lived it. He's lived like ten lines.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
I'm not lying.
Speaker 3 (31:52):
I love it. Yeah, he's he is something. But I
thought that was kind of a little slice of life.
I think the writer's probably picked up on a little
of his thinking here we was rico suave, you know
say like they kind of picked up on it and
just gave a little tease to it because he became
more of a ladies man later on in the show.
Speaker 4 (32:11):
But that episode was really the jumping off point for
that whole idea. With the Bobby Brown haircut, It's.
Speaker 3 (32:20):
True, okay, he who's your barber? That's my brother.
Speaker 4 (32:26):
Okay, So we always have to get to the the
violent moment. What did you think about the makeup talk
at the end.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
Oh with Joe, Marie and Joe.
Speaker 4 (32:37):
Yeah, well, Harriet and Rachel.
Speaker 3 (32:39):
It was the type of moment you kind of expect
at the end of the show. I mean, I don't
think anybody thought that we were going to go off
the air that night, and Joe and I wouldn't be speaking,
everything wouldn't be tied up with a little bow.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
But I like the fact that even while she was
telling me she.
Speaker 3 (32:54):
Wasn't like that, she was like that right, because we
don't always see ourselves the way other people see us.
We mean, and what she thought was being protected to
me was being overbearing. But I was too much a
little sister to say it to her. So it was
good to see us have a moment where I really
(33:17):
could say, that is how you are with me, and
that is how I feel, and for her to realize
it and be okay with it, and so we could
get past it, for her to understand that it wasn't
that I was saying that I don't like my sister
and I don't like how you treat me, I don't
like what you do. It was that some things made
(33:39):
me feel like I wasn't capable, and that totally would
not be her projection. She would want to make me
feel stronger, but in her strength I would fall back.
So it was nice to see Rachel kind of stand
up and at least say it and be able to
laugh about it. Because when Joe realized that's what she
was doing, it took her too.
Speaker 4 (34:00):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
So I like that.
Speaker 3 (34:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (34:02):
Now, in a completely unrelated topic, I noticed on the show, Honey,
you was giving looks every episode. I think most of
the budget went for your wardrobe.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
Cushion girls, stop put up it.
Speaker 4 (34:14):
You wasn't down.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
I know they did do a great job.
Speaker 3 (34:19):
And then let me give a shout out to Gina Traconis,
who was our wardrobe mistress at that time, and Palmer Woods.
You know Palmer and I started back on give me
a break. So he had dressed me and he had
you fabulous there too.
Speaker 4 (34:34):
You can look back and say, honey, you was snatched
from the gideo Well.
Speaker 3 (34:38):
I loved it.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
She was like a modern day Annie Hall.
Speaker 3 (34:42):
I love the hats and the saddle shoes and the
socks and the just the hair with the scarf tied
up in it. She had a look that was unlike
anybody else on TV. And I loved that, especially nobody black.
It was dressing like that. I remember I went home
with one of those socks, and remember when we were
wearing socks and heels, j'all. I went to Detroit. They
(35:05):
almost ran me out of town. They almost burned me
at the stale. My sister, I'm not going out there
with you with them song. I mean, she went off
on me. I had to take off myself. And if
you did where people would come up to you from LA,
they just assumed they knew from LA if you were
(35:26):
dressed anything unlike what they wore.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
And they wore some stuff in Detroit.
Speaker 4 (35:31):
Child.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
But I did love my fashion on there, I really did.
Speaker 3 (35:34):
I had you snatched. Oh yes, indeed that and give
Me a Break? Well Palmer again. Palmer dressed me on
Give Me a Break. He also dressed me in real life,
and I'm sure he influenced me on the show because
he loved to look and I love me some Palmer.
He was a great, great guy. I have pictures of us.
I think of the last, maybe one of the last
shows he did with us, when we were in Disney World. Huh.
(35:56):
Bright and talked me into going on the Tower of Terror.
Oh god, I got a picture Palmer with his mouth
stretched open as wide as his head. We were screaming
like we did not have good sense. But he was
a great guy, just a great person, and it was
a pleasure for me to get to work with him,
not on one show, with two long running shows. Right, yeah, Now,
(36:22):
you know, for me, I have to do my little
look up facts.
Speaker 4 (36:25):
You know, I'm an a one googler.
Speaker 3 (36:27):
Yes, yes, I know you have an award and everything. No,
what are you talking about?
Speaker 4 (36:31):
So you know I always like to look up some
of the facts around that time of the episode.
Speaker 3 (36:36):
And so did you find out something interesting? Yes?
Speaker 4 (36:40):
Okay, So freelance writers like the character Rachel would make
one cent per word. Maybe you have to write like
Warren Peace to ever get me.
Speaker 3 (36:51):
At least bring home that pizza to feed the family.
That is crazy, Yeah, that is crazy. But I wonder
how much they're making now, right because I feel in
some ways we're going backwards, but.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
Hopefully they're doing better than that. What else was going on?
Speaker 3 (37:05):
Then?
Speaker 4 (37:05):
Okay, So the average water bill in Chicago would be
between ten to thirty dollars per month.
Speaker 3 (37:11):
He complained about ten dollars. Come on, man, oh, poor Ridge,
I mean poor Carl.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
Is that for Reggie and Carl? That's funny.
Speaker 3 (37:22):
I saw something that you had written up here about
how in nineteen eighty nine the average price for a
gallon of gas was a dollar, or about two point
fifty in today's money. Oh and of course, the average
price of a home in the US, not California, apparently,
was one hundred and forty eight thousand.
Speaker 2 (37:43):
What can you get for one hundred and forty eight thousand.
Speaker 4 (37:45):
A tiny house with no electric girl?
Speaker 3 (37:49):
Come on, you can do a couple of tiny houses
for one hundred and forty eight thousand, Because that's something
I'm interested in, believe it or not. Really, I love
the whole thought of a tiny home. I was trying
to figure out if I could put one in the backyard.
I just love them. I think they just make a
lot of sense. I watched Tiny House Nation all the time. Really.
Speaker 4 (38:04):
Yeah, Well, now every price in America is high as
a giraff's coucie. So I'm trying to figure out.
Speaker 3 (38:10):
Did she say a giraffe's KOUCHI a giraffe's couch.
Speaker 2 (38:14):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (38:14):
Okay, right, same difference.
Speaker 4 (38:25):
We were talking about your fashions a little earlier.
Speaker 2 (38:29):
When you say you who do you mean?
Speaker 4 (38:32):
I was talking about your fashion? So what if you
go to our social media. I'm going to post a
fabulous picture of you that I dug up because you've
been giving looks for many moons. My dear, I mean,
where are you here doing this with such a frock?
Speaker 3 (38:56):
I cannot believe.
Speaker 4 (38:58):
Listen, let me tell you something. My daughter, Hannah Dugay,
shall kill your fue brother say goodbye to him. Well, listen,
you can't kill the research team. Probably're not gonna have
a show.
Speaker 3 (39:10):
I'll kill him after the show. Well that was my
first movie premiere? Was it? Yes?
Speaker 2 (39:16):
Was it uptown Saturday Night?
Speaker 4 (39:18):
Are you here?
Speaker 3 (39:19):
Richard Pryor? Because I was so enthralled, Not with Jim,
although his chest was Oh my god. That's how he
showed up to my house girl picked me up with
his chips. That's how he showed.
Speaker 4 (39:34):
Who dressed you?
Speaker 3 (39:35):
Was this like a Mackie gown? Or I mean, I
don't know if it was about Mackie gown. It was
mostly you know, those feathers that we used, those stoles
that we used to do the boa okay, but girl,
I spent the whole time with Jim. He kept telling
turn back around, turn around, because I was just staring
at everybody. I was like, oh, look there's so and so.
Speaker 4 (39:53):
Oh look here's your looked at Bill there, and he's
standing there looking like a whole peacock. You wasn't looking
at him.
Speaker 3 (40:00):
I wasn't thinking about him. I wasn't hanging about him.
I already had him sold up.
Speaker 4 (40:03):
Oh my goodness, you are so flawless. Oh my goodness,
this is skilled.
Speaker 2 (40:08):
He asked Tony if he could ask me out.
Speaker 3 (40:11):
He said, are you serious? I think I could ask
her out to a premiere? And Tony laughs about it
all the time. He said, she gonna have you so
messed up, man, so you'll grab Oh no, I didn't
you out there hurting folks feelings.
Speaker 2 (40:25):
We didn't date that long. We didn't date long, now,
he was scary.
Speaker 4 (40:28):
What's not long?
Speaker 3 (40:29):
Probably two or three months or something, you know, I'm nosy,
And that was like two or three dates, so in
that two or three months.
Speaker 2 (40:38):
But it was cool.
Speaker 3 (40:39):
It was cool, okay, and you are fabulous.
Speaker 2 (40:41):
Well, thank you, darling. You know her usual.
Speaker 3 (40:44):
You said, I was cheesing like a fat cat and
a cheese factory hedge on every tooth in my head.
Speaker 4 (40:49):
I could not wait to.
Speaker 3 (40:50):
Pull up this picture.
Speaker 2 (40:52):
I didn't know what you would get a girl, I'll
see you later.
Speaker 3 (40:57):
That's right. I got a millionaire because I got some
pictures around this housegirl, of you, Oh.
Speaker 4 (41:01):
I hope not of me and that side ponytail.
Speaker 3 (41:04):
Old honey, not just the side, the top and everything,
got all of them. No, So get ready to get ready,
to get ready to get the heck up out of here.
All these people are sick of us. That is it
for the show this week, But people stay tuned.
Speaker 4 (41:18):
Yeah, We're gonna rewatch each episode of Family Matters week
by week, So make sure to rewatch the show right
along with us. You can catch it on Hulu and
TBS and a bunch of other places.
Speaker 3 (41:31):
Welcome to the Family with Telma and Kelly is a
production of iHeart Podcasts and Audiation. It's hosted by me
Tloma Hopkins and me Kelly Williams. Our executive producers are
Sandy Smalling's for audiation, Adam RiPP JD. Hopkins, who also
happens to be my son and Kelly's fobro, and Jonathan
Strickland for iHeart Podcasts.
Speaker 4 (41:52):
The show is produced by Telma and I, but our
series producer is Ireland Meechin and our theme songs lyrics
were written by JD. Hopkins and Adam RiPP. The theme
song was scored and mixed by Matt Noble, who's also
our series mixer.
Speaker 3 (42:06):
And we'd like to thank Nikki Etour and the entire
iHeart podcast team.
Speaker 2 (42:10):
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 4 (42:12):
Follow us on Instagram at Welcome to the Family Pod
for behind the scenes photos and more bonus content.
Speaker 3 (42:17):
And don't forget to leave us a voicemail at our website,
Thefamilymatterspod dot com. We want to hear your thoughts and
favorite memories of the show and let us know if
you need advice, because we're good for some bad advice.
We might be able to help you with your own
Family Matters and make sure to rate and review us
wherever you're listening.
Speaker 4 (42:36):
We are so excited to have you guys along for
the ride.
Speaker 3 (42:39):
Yes, Welcome to the family, y'all, and we'll see you
next time. Welcome to the Familie Audiation
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