December 3, 2025 • 52 mins
The illustrious Reginald VelJohnson joins us to talk about his turn on Dancing with the Stars, his new movie "Onslaught," and how he modeled his character Carl Winslow as the father he always wanted as a kid.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Really listens a mission this day and age Kelly and
Thelma and return in the page.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
We're talking. Family Matters is about those times? Ellen? What
happened between.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
The line with Kelly and me?
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Welcome to the fam, Elise, Kelly, welcome, Welcome to the
Family'll welcome to the family. I'm Telma and I'm Kelly.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
And in the nineties we start in a little sitcom
you may have heard of called Family Matters. Today we
rewatched season one, episode six of Family Matters, which was
called Basketball Blues.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
And we have a very special guest who join us
later to talk about the episode. He played my father
on the show, the One and Only Carl Winslow, the
vaginal Belle Johnson, reggiev Reggie b h.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
I can't wait to catch up with him, So you
all stay ten, folks, But first I want to catch
up with you.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
What's going on, Kelly? What's up? Girl? What's up? Is me? Oh?
For some reason, for the last twelve or so years,
I get up at two thirty four in the morning. Yikes, exactly,
this whole minopause thing is wearing me out. You're not
there yet, are you there? I've been looking there for Yeah,
(01:31):
it's terrible. Have you had a hot flash yet? Hot flash? Ooh,
it's a little bit deeper than that. Oh oh really,
I've had a hot sauna. I call it my personal summer.
Yeah it's deep, baby, it's dead. You know you start
googling like weird stuff at in the morning. I know
(01:52):
you do. Like what was this for? I think of
evolution kind of like updating your computer. I wonder why
this update is necessary because it's like so ridiculous, Like,
why is it necessary for me to suddenly grow a goateee? Girl,
I feel your feel less. My husband said, maybe it's
(02:17):
not that. Maybe I need a new computer.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Ooh, we're gonna smack Hannibal around and they're not having
at exactly. I love it, girl. At least you dealing
with yourself. I'm dealing with gophers.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Girl.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
I feel like I'm in some kind of looney tunes.
I am playing whack the mole with the gophers and
I'm losing.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Oh wow.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
And here's the thing, girl, these suckers have figured out
that the gopher guy doesn't come on the weekend, so Friday.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
They have a mighty gral.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
I'm not lying, Okay, I can walk out the house.
There is no gopher hole. Go down the walkway, come back,
and the gophers waving waving at me. The sucker is
coming up during the day. What do I do, Kelly?
Speaker 2 (02:58):
What do I do? I don't know. Thank you. That
was a great answer. Moving on.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Anyway, girl, enough about the gophers. Let's get into this episode.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Now. Who was this episode written by? Do you know?
It was actually written by Barry Gold and directed by
Jim O'Keeffe. Do you remember him? I remember Jim. I
think we drove him crazy a couple of times. Poor baby.
Oh we were hard on direct well some of us. Now.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
This episode aired on November third, nineteen eighty nine.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
On that day in history, the number one song on
the Billboard R and B chart was You Are My
Everything by Surface?
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Do you remember Surface?
Speaker 1 (03:38):
I didn't remember him. I had to go back and
look at the video. Girl, I remembered. It was a
really big song. Okay, I mean you know it was
back in our shag haird days for the boys bad
shag girl, nappy shag even worse than the Jerry Curls.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Say, there's a such thing as a nappy shag?
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Oh there is. Watch the video that's all I got
to say. All right, Now, what else was going on?
You come up with anything?
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Mmm?
Speaker 1 (04:03):
I want you to try to say this name. That's
why I'm leaving it to you. It's basketball players. Now
what's that name?
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Uh? Yeah, keep going the Russian basketball players? Uh huh?
Who came to computing?
Speaker 1 (04:14):
His name is Sarhu Alexander. No, that's one. That's a
first name.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Then I thought you were gonna do the first one.
Oh you did?
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Did I sound like I was gonna do the first one? No?
Speaker 2 (04:25):
I was waiting for you to mess it up. Well,
why are you putting me hooked on phonics? Well? Oh,
you had the better education, I believe.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Anyway, it's we're gonna do this phonetically Runas Marchulonis and
Alexander Volkov made history as the first Russian players to
compete in a regular NBA season basketball game, a season game,
which is relevant because we're talking about basketball in this episode.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
In this episode, Carl was determined to see Adie make
the basketball team and ends up overworking them.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Well what's new by that? Kyle is the overdoer of
the overdoers. Now you were barely in this episode. Girl,
I'm trying to rag on you or nothing. But who
did you piss off this week?
Speaker 2 (05:09):
There's no small parts, only small actors. Yeah. I used
to say that too.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
My other thing was, as long as they don't pro
rape my chick, I'm okay with one line.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
That part okay.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
So I guess you upstairs checking out our seventy five
bedroom house up exactly.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Me and Judy were upstairs. And I think this was
the beginning of the producers realizing they didn't have enough
for Judy to do. Jennyet I were really just snoops
in everybody's business. So I think that's probably what we
were doing in the background, spying on people. That's true,
gospeling with one another.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
Now, why don't you, because a lot of people don't
know what a typical work week is like on a sitcom,
why don't you just give a little flavor of what
we did, Like on the first day was a table read,
and the first day that we got up and put
it on its feet, so to speak.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Right, So the first day if we do the table read,
which is a readthrough of the episode in front of
the writers, and then they go back and they do
blame us for every joke that didn't work correct and
rewrite based upon what they've heard, and you go off
and rehearse for two days, and then they come back
for a run through where they see the episode up
(06:19):
on its feet. All the while they keep coming in
to make rewrites based upon what jokes worked and don't work,
and then you take the episode based upon all of
the reworking of the original episode.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
And we taped in front of a live audience, which
was always fun too.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
That's the best part of it to get the feedback immediate, to.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
Get so much energy from them. A lot of stuff
that we might even think doesn't work when we're just
rehearsing works when it's on his feet in that audience.
They just to bring another element. That's so wonderful. I
really like that.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Yeah, especially after they've reworked the script one hundred times
only to find out the original joke worked in the
first place. Good back in. Yeah, that was great.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
And I remember we got to a point where we
were even doing a four day week, remember that.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Oh yeah, that's the good thing about working for Bobbotop.
That machine was so good. And then when people asked
us to actually work five days, we were looking at
them like they were like crazy, what are you talking about?
Are you insane? We're only good for four days, right,
for twenty hours a week, but I still need my check.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Rum in my manque again, no pro rated checks here, right? Okay,
this episode was really focused on Eddie and Carl and basketball.
But the first thing I know this girl was Retchie
came home in the uniform he had gone to work
and combattually came in from work, actually came in from work.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
What a moment, that's right. So he decides to train
Eddie for basketball tries at school, and he says to
Harriet that Eddie's whole future is relying on him being
a good basketball player. Now, I wonder why his whole
future this Daddy say, his whole future was playing basketball?
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Basketball, or you might as well jump in a hole,
basically what he's saying.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
So he starts working them to the boat, like straight,
what's Remus and Serena's father, King Richard? Yes, he goes
straight King Richard on Eddie working them to death. You know,
Eddie's like, ohad, Dad, Dad Dad.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
That's what I love about Reggie's character. Carl could be
just so extreme on everything. I mean, he just goes
nine thousand and is generally wrong when he hits the
nine thousand. But he is so committed and so funny,
and his expressions kill me.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
They kill me. Oh you noticed the face acting too.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
Oh honey, he does some serious space acting. And I'm
enjoying it so much more now because I'm watching it
as an audience, so I really get to see him.
I mean, his whole run with your father has spoken,
so it's such a ridiculous thing. And that Rosetta is
(08:55):
like the driest grandmother on the planet. She just goes there.
She's disgusted with all of us.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
I noticed it. It's like at that age she was
still so good. Oh my god, it.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
Was so.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Her lines were like gangbusters. Everything she said worked so well,
and then she would back it up with her acting.
The nerve of her, the nerve of her. But you know,
when Harriet started telling Carl that he was working Eddie
to heart, he just doubles down. He thinks he knows
it all. But what I do love is got another
(09:34):
black woman looking this show.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
When Kyle said, woman, oh woman something he said and
she gave him the eyeball, I hurt.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Okay, I started sweating, so that works for some folks.
Harry Winslow is not that person. She is not. She
does not work that let him have it, so she
continues to work them to death until Hill he quits.
Quits basically instead of ad meeting he was wrong, he
gets a basketball nerve this superstar that too, but he
(10:09):
gets this basketball superstar to come and co sign his
ridiculousness on.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
The pretense of buying a car, which we know I
had to fix the last one. We know Karl ain't
buying nothing, especially now of.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Course his cheap ass. So it backfires because the basketball
player tells a to do what he loves, do what
makes him happen, and not to listen to Carl. But
that's usually what happens with Carl. He usually goes so
gung ho and goes so far over the line that
somebody has to pull him back. Usually it's Harriet.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
But what I do love is as always in our shows,
there are those moments, in spite of the craziness of
Carl and he is crazy, that you get to see
him be a dad and you get to see it
finally register with him that he's living his dream, not
trying to support whatever it is that we know what
Eddie's dream is, I'll want a girlfriend. What he wants
(11:09):
is the best for his son. But he thinks what's
the best for his son is what he wants for
his son as opposed to what Eddie.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
It's actually a hard conversation to have.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
I guess.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
So you know, also, I so want certain things for
my kids, like you want them to have a certain life,
and you become overbearing because of all this knowledge you have,
but it kind of kills all of the fun of everything.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Yeah, you can't be a helicopter mom all the time,
especially now, because you have to be so protective of
your kids. You know, there's so much going on, and
you do want the best farm, but they don't necessarily
want it from you, coming from you.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
You know all the time. My mother says that about
you all the time. Actually that she said that you
were the person that I would listen to most. It's
because I was taking you on those trips and stuff. No,
but I mean, you're so faculous.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
No.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
I think it's always easier sometimes for someone else who
you trust with your child to talk to them. Because Gerald,
my son grew up by himself with a single mom,
But there were people that I trusted in his life
that I would not worry about them talking to him.
I would know that they would be coming from a
(12:19):
good place. And I think your mother always knew that
I love you guys and wanted the best for you
and would do anything for you.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
You know, I consider you one of my own right
So I guess that's also why Carl's character invited Will
the Thrill Morgan over to talk to Eddie and to
convince him to get back into basketball.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
Yeah, but like you said, he out smarts him, not
ol smarts, and because he's not really doing anything. Although
Will knows now that the dream is Carl's not Eddie's,
he just tells him to do what makes him happy,
which I love. He doesn't tell him to go against
his dad or anything like that. He just says, do
what makes you happy.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Now, you remember, Will the Thrill was not a real
basketball player. He was played by Jack Bolton, who's an
actor known for Kindergarten Cup and The Naked Truth. But
I mean, how can you be like that tall and
not be a freaking basketball star. That's weird to me. Well,
maybe he wasn't good. Maybe he was just tall. I know,
I saw this kid recently the same thing. I was like,
(13:16):
oh my gosh, I know you're a basketball time. His
father leans over and says, no, he's a freaking ballet dancer.
The father looks like what, totally disgusted. Yeah, all that
height but nothing. I loved your lie too. With Reggie,
I wasn't blessed with hype. Yeah, dad, but you got
(13:39):
with I was thinking about the basketball player because we
couldn't have gotten one if we paid him that per season.
Not a real one fest though.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Later on, as the show got more popular and people
really started dialing in, we started getting some folk up
in there.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
I know, Grandmama and everybody else. Not the first season,
not at all. No, nothing in the budget. Karl must
have been in charge of that budget too. Probably Also.
I love the part when you came down and you
saw the basketball player and you had a little celebrity
crush on him and never got to meet him. There
(14:18):
was a lot of good.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
All that dressing and putting on makeup did me and
my swag down the steps. You see that pose I hit.
When I hit that step, girl, I was like, I saw.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
You reminds me of that picture of you and Jim
Brown with all of that feather bowl and all.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
That phobus mine own. Don't make me start reading you
up in there, I said, no, I will. Don't they
bring up your wedding when you were doing the huckle
Book or whatever you were doing.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
On your luves.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
I was all excited because you were married.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
That's why he married me.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
But it was a great show, and I had to
even fund watching me and the b plot trying to cook?
So who does not know how to make eggs? That's embarrassing.
I was embarrassed for Rachel. Yeah, how do you not
know how to what Harry said, just throw it in
the pan and cook it til it stops moving.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
I know that must have been really hard work for you,
because you were such a great cook. What's that? Uh?
The thing I love that you make for Thanksgiving? Is
it dressing with the corn?
Speaker 3 (15:16):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (15:17):
No, fried corn? Oh that fry corn is if I
do say so myself, it is the bomb? It is it?
Speaker 3 (15:24):
Of course?
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Have I caught you for the recipe? It never comes
out right.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
It's because everybody spice is a little different, and for me,
mine comes out a little different sometimes than it does
at other times. But that and the yam pies are
my specialty.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Okay, yam slam pis. Well, clearly it wasn't your specialty
in this show, because everything you cook came out bad.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
And she had the nerve to tell Rachel a couple
of shows ago how she was bossing around. No wonder
she needs bosson. Other than that, she'd just be sitting
in the kitchen. Can you cook, Kellym, That means a
note you mean by can you cook?
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Like when I cook? Can you cook? I got about
three things I make. Well, other than that, I'm doctoring
up other people's stuff. Well I'm good at that too, Honey.
That's a skill right there. I still set everybody don't
know now that the grocery store sells full mills. Oh baby,
but I'll put some corn with it in a minute.
I put that out there, Liz said, who cooked it?
(16:26):
And I put it out there just as nice I did.
Why my husband loves my baby? Chickens we talked about.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
I just wanted a chat because I know we're talking
about real chickens and some other kind of chickens. No,
that's some real stuff. Oh man, I must say. We
are a fun family, I said, Rachel is basically their
other kid. She thinks she's grown until it's time to
do something, and then she know how to do it.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
But watching episode, what did they do to keep you
covering and flower the whole time? What were you doing? Uh?
Speaker 1 (17:06):
Making brio? That takes a lot of flower. I think
they just dumped it on me. You know they you
know they're gonna no. I mean they did pack me
down with power. You know, they got to make it
look ridiculous. So I looked ridiculous making brille. And why
was I making enough to feed the entire city? That's
what I want to know. I just kept making them.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
Well.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
If that's one thing I love about your character on
the show, Baby, when you go you go hard, you
go harder go home. Every time Rachel on the show
has a new scheme, Baby, it's all in. It's true.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
She has the fire, she has the passion, she just
doesn't have knowledge.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
Her ability.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Oh wow, she's got That's sad. It is sad, but hey,
it got me on a TV show, So I'll be
sad on that show.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
I know that's right. But it's also what how did
you feel about being a ditch because you're so not
that fun? And when you play a character it's kind
of still gute.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
It was fun, Yeah, it was fun because being yourself
is boring all the time. You could have fun with that.
It wasn't that she was stupid, It's just that she
was naive. She had been taken care of by her
big sister once her mom was not there, so she
had a lot of elements of not quite having grown up.
She got married and then her husband got killed and
(18:25):
she ends up moving in with the family. You know,
she hadn't quite grown up, so she grows up on
the show, right. That's what makes acting fun is when
you can be somebody else, you know, because I'm always
more comfortable being somebody else than i am being me
in a lot of situations.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
People, but you're so fabulous, so why would you want
to be anybody else?
Speaker 1 (18:43):
No, but I'm saying a lot of people think I'm
just gregarious all the time and funny all the time,
and you know, up all and I'm not, and it
kind of throws them off. But that's the fun of
acting is you can be whatever. You can utilize all
areas of yourself and feel good about it. Now, it
didn't bother me. I mean that's fun to me. The
sillier as she was, the better I liked it. But
(19:05):
what do you think about how great Rosetta was?
Speaker 2 (19:08):
Oh my god, her delivery was so stupid.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
It was so I mean, she's so so, so, so good,
like we said, the Queen of Dead Pants. But then
she could go all giggly teenager like she did with
Will the Thrill. I mean she was worse than me.
I mean, she just fell completely apart, and she What
I love about her is that she knows something about
what she's talking about.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
So she came out this man needs no introduction.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
He did that other she comes out with that wisdom,
and then when she gets him to kiss her on
the cheek, just falls completely apart, becomes a hysterical just cackling,
I don't know what, just tickle to death. It's so cute.
And she is so committed to everything she does. What
a great example she is. Pressed were it not for
(19:57):
women like her, those doors were not i'd be open
to us. And I'm constantly thankful that I even met
Rosetta because it would work together on give me a break.
But just to be a part of her life until
she passed was a wonderful thing. And Bob and Tom
loved her so much.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
Yeah, we all did. She was a great catch and
by dosay so myself.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
Right.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
And you know, I love this episode so much because
it really centers around fathers and sons and that whole dynamic.
I watched my husband and my son around baseball. It's
the same thing. My son has coaches, but my son
is always looking for my husband's approval. Yeah, for his approval.
Of course. How was it with you and Gerald? Because
(20:38):
it was you and him?
Speaker 1 (20:39):
Yeah, I had to kind of feel multiple spots. But
I was blessed in that I had people in my
life that loved him and loved me and that I
knew I could trust with him. I had my uncle,
I had my stepdad, I had his uncle. I had
a friend of mine, Jimmy, who is still in our lives,
people that I know, you I could go to with
(21:02):
what I couldn't do as a woman. But I was
there for the games. I mean, you know, he was
a baseball fiend as well, and I was right there
at those games trying to keep my relatives from climbing
the fence and jumping on people because.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
We letta ask you a question, did you show up
with your boa?
Speaker 1 (21:16):
You know what, I'm gonna climb through this microphone and
get your butt.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
You gonna be tired of me when I get through you.
Your mom showing up at the field in a Bob
Mackie goll Just JD, that's your mom.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
Well, I used to go to school. There was a
period when I could get kind of homely. I was
going to school not quite pulling myself together because I
was dropping him off. Never Oh yeah, honey, he got
me told. He's like, look, woman, you.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Can't be coming up to the school. Looks crazy.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
He said, television my fans, and here you are. So
I actually had to clean my act up to drop
him off at school because I was on television.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Hannah had to tell me something very similar. I was
taking on a field trip and she told me straight up,
please do not wear your go to outfit. Go to outfit.
It's some yoga pants and one of my husband's old
white T shirts. What crocs like? I'm Mario Buttali girl,
(22:28):
I'm the crock queen.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
Now that you got me started on the crocs, girl,
I am the crock queen.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
I loves them.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
Oh really, we can take comfort too far, though sometimes
we have to be careful. We have to be careful.
So we've been talking about Carl and Eddie and really
parents living vicariously through their children. You were a child actor,
Now did you have any of that? Did you feel
pressure from your parents to act or was that something
that came from you that's something that you wanted to do.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
Well.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
I didn't feel pressure to act from my parents, but
my father was an actor, So I think I kind
of at a certain point was wondering if maybe he
should have done his own thing.
Speaker 3 (23:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
Think, but because I love the support and I love
the fact that he knew what it took. And it's
like a lot of emotional labor being a performer because
just like with any other like a carpenter, you use
would to be fashioned into what it needs to be.
When you're an actor, you're the thing that has to
(23:36):
be washed into whatever. So I love the fact that
he understood that. But I think, just like with any
other parent, their knowledge of certain things sometimes will burden
the fun of discovery when you are attempting something that
they did already. How was it for you, because I
mean I know you were raised by birth, Like, how
(23:56):
was it for you in terms of getting into that industry.
Was your grandmother was it weird for you?
Speaker 1 (24:02):
Well, it was tough having grown up in a totally
different era. Her ole thing was getting an education and
getting a good job and doing the nine to five,
and that was her mindset. That was, I had to
go to school so I could get a good job.
So me wanting to er, you know, being in Detroit
and Motown being so big, me wanting to be involved
(24:22):
with that was a no no. They kind of let
us go to the auditions because everybody got to go
to the auditions for Motown when they were doing their
little fan things. It just so happened that I ended
up having that as part of my career. But I
had to bargain my way through. I mean, I was
still in high school, so in order for me to
do a recording session, I had to make sure my
(24:42):
homework is.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
There were rules.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
There were rules, but I would break them occasionally, I mean,
because I did feel stifled and I wanted to spread
my wings. My grandmother insisted that nobody was going to
pay me any money to be silly.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
So when I.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
Got that first check for being silly, my grandmother did
a complete turn. It was this kind of going on like, ooh,
you know, she just liked me. You know, she got
that humor from me. I was funny like that. I'm
just all of a sudden, my career became her talking point.
My mother, who had no time for me most of
the time when she was around, suddenly became the mother
(25:21):
of a starra So she would take me to the
grocery store with her. Because of course, everybody wants the
butcher to know that her daughter's on, so not the.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
WB frog girl.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
Hello my dollar, honey, honey, honey. They just tried to
take credit for my career. It wasn't even trying to
live it through me.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Oh wow.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
But yeah, it was sweet to see Reggie realize that
he was doing more harm than good. Yeah, the way
I read it, he was disappointed in himself that he
had gotten so carried away with the thrill of the
thought of his son being a basketball star that he
kind of lost sight of his son. But I love
our show because it always brings it back. It always
(25:59):
brings it back.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
It always brings it back because we've realized that Eddi's
real true love and the thing that he was best
at speak on it. Now we're attracting girls. Well did
I hear that? Was that your inside voice and your
outside voice? I was by inside and outside the girl?
Speaker 1 (26:17):
Well, you know he is still working at perfecting that,
I believe, right.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
So before we bring out our illustrious guests, let's get
into the punky fat in nineteen eighty nine, I used
nineteen eighty seven portion nine eleven. Coop would cost about
thirty five to forty thousand. You can't even get a
Chevrolet Chavette for that at this point, you know, you
can't get a bicycle, but that price.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
Is right on time in the episode. And Will the Thrill,
Now this was something I didn't know, but that our
team looked up and showed us that Will the Thrill
was apparently supposed to be a recurring character but ended
up only being in this episode. Hmmm, I wonder why
I must have hit him with a brioche.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
How come I didn't know that? Ooh?
Speaker 1 (27:03):
You know what we noticed when we were watching this
is that remember when Kyle did wonted by Eddie those
seventy dollars high tops.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
Correct.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
In this episode, Eddie is wearing Air Jordan threes, which
cost about one hundred dollars in nineteen eighty nine. So
apparently Harriet's job is give it another some cushion.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
One hundred American dollars.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
That's a lot, now, okay, if you can find it.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
Wait, but little Richie is wearing Nike baby shoes, so
I must be selling more books than they are actually
putting on the air or something else. Watch it, watch it.
You ain't too grown to get beat.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
I'm like, okay, Well, we promised you all a special
treat this week, and we are so excited.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
We wanted to introduce Carl Winslow, my daddy, Reginald L. Johnson. Oh,
my goodness, are extraordinary.
Speaker 3 (28:01):
Hello.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
Yes, not to mention his face acting.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
Yes, you worked hard for the us work so we
all seen you in a while.
Speaker 3 (28:14):
Yeah, in a long time.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
Yeah, hey that long.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
We still remember it.
Speaker 3 (28:19):
Hey long.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
But this has been a great year for you.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
I mean, you've just been moving and shaking like every
I mean dancing with the Stars child, talking about dancing
the speaking of which, did you hurt yourself on that show?
Speaker 2 (28:30):
Because I popped the ligament just watching you.
Speaker 3 (28:34):
I tell you I tried hard to do my best.
I'm old and my body doesn't work as well. But
I broke my I didn't break anything. No, I didn't
break anything, but I felt like I broke something.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
Well, you couldn't tell me because let me tell you something.
If I got another call about people being excited about
you coming back week after week.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
Oh wow, I was just trying to get through it.
I was just trying to make it to move my
feet right as I was trying to do. I didn't
care if I won. I was just wanted to move
my feet.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
So what were your expectations initially? Did you think?
Speaker 3 (29:04):
One?
Speaker 2 (29:05):
Say, what did you think? Well, when they.
Speaker 3 (29:06):
Asked you to do it, I said, oh my god,
I can't move, you know, But I said, I'm going
to do this. I'm going to try to do this
as best my ability. And I tried my best and
I did it, you know. And people they wanted me
to do all things on the show, but I said,
let me just get off the show, let me dance
once or twice, and then I'll be off.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
Press on to my next job exactly. But people loved I.
Speaker 3 (29:29):
Did it, you know. I did what they wanted me
to do. They wanted me to do the best of
my ability, and I did it? You know, I wanted
to get off the show.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
Though you wanted to leave After a while, they kept
I wanted to leave.
Speaker 3 (29:39):
I wanted to show. Did I swear? Because every day
you had to dance? Every day? Dancing every day?
Speaker 2 (29:47):
Tell us about that, Like, what was the rehearsal process.
Speaker 3 (29:49):
Well, I go in in the morning time every day.
It was running through Friday night. There's no no, no,
no downtime. I had to get on there and everyday
I couldn't send it.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
Oh wow, okay for the dancing Olympics.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
It was like the Olympics, Yes it was.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
Did you have fun though?
Speaker 3 (30:04):
I had fun?
Speaker 2 (30:05):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (30:05):
After a while, yes it was. It was a lot
of fun. I didn't it was. It was fun. Yeah, yeah,
it was a lot of fun.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
He's learned so well, hasn't it.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (30:15):
Yes, and I think on it.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
Yeah it was yeah, yeah, yeah it was.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
It was fun, but it was fun painful.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
Fun is a good word.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
Were you surprised that people kept voting you back on
in like a week after week?
Speaker 3 (30:27):
Yes, I said I wish i'd stop, Please stop voting
me off, please please let me go home.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
Be the only person campaigning to go home.
Speaker 3 (30:35):
That's right. Fun, you know. But thanks to my friends
Kiki and Sean, they helped me get through and they
were like my team that they really came through.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
Let's go all the way back. What was the thing
that made Reggie interested in acting?
Speaker 3 (30:49):
Lord, I don't remember. I was a baby and I
always was performing and doing things that my mother didn't
want me to do. I'd make plays in the garage
and whatnot and do things like that. My mother made
my first costume. I was three years old, three or four.
I played a Teddy Bear and she made the costume
Teddy Bear thing and she put me in there. I
remember my mother same, roll, baby, roll, baby roll. I
(31:11):
had to roll across the stage like that. I rolled
across the stage and uh, the rest this history.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
So did you enjoy it so much that you wanted
to continue on doing it professionally?
Speaker 3 (31:21):
Like what something like that? Yeah? I started doing things
and made everybody laugh, and you know, she's to go
board sound somewhere, and I wouldn't sit down, and they
made me do what I had to do, you know.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
Right, So you became an actor because you were a
cut up?
Speaker 3 (31:36):
Yeah, you have done. Yeah. We used to make plays
in the garage and stuff like that. I used to
do things like that, and I just kind of gravitated
to this way of doing things.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
What to you was your biggest break towards what you
really wanted to do? What project or vehicle or meeting?
Speaker 3 (32:00):
I think it was the church dance recital or something,
and I was in the dances. I like this, you know,
and I said, well, I'm going to continue doing this.
And my mother was very supportive of what I did,
and that's good.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
What was your first acting job?
Speaker 3 (32:14):
My first acting job? Oh, my goodness, what my first
when I went to college. I think it was my
first acting job. Wow, I don't remember. I don't remember
what it was. I just remember doing it.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
Well, whatever it was, it certainly worked in your behalf
because look at where you are now, and you didn't
just jump there from no talent.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
You were so great in Die Heart? Why didn't you
just continue being a movie star? What made you want
to do television?
Speaker 3 (32:39):
They asked me? Answer, I said, yes, I'll do it.
I'll do it.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
Okay, that makes sense to me.
Speaker 3 (32:46):
And then find of Matters came along and I did that.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
Yeah you so, how was that? What happened? How did
they ask you did they just call you in like,
we love your character on that we want you to
also play this cop in this TV show.
Speaker 3 (32:58):
No, I went and auditioned. I met Joe Marie at
the audition, and we kind of gravitated to each other
and we said, you know, I like you and I
like you. I like you too. We did the scene
together when we met each other, and then they said, yes, oh, okay,
thank you very much. I didn't know I had got
the job until they told me the following the week
(33:18):
I think they told me that I got the job.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
I'm surprised you even had the audition because the way
they talked to me about you, it just sounded like
they just had to bring everybody else in wow, you know,
to make sure they couldn't say, well, I didn't get
that audition for it. But to me, it sounded like
they had you in mine from the get go.
Speaker 3 (33:40):
I guess they did, you know. I don't know, but
I said, and I met the guys, Thomas, Bob Tom,
and Bob Tom was the one that really gravitated to me.
He really liked me, and I said, well, I like
you too, Bob, and I got the job. It was cool.
Speaker 2 (33:53):
Yeah, Well, they could not have cast a better dad
as proof.
Speaker 3 (33:57):
Oh you're sweet, You're sweet.
Speaker 1 (33:58):
No, I mean even to the public, you are that figure.
That's why the progressive ads work so well. When did
you become America's dad and how did that all come about?
Speaker 3 (34:08):
I have no idea. I have no idea to become
an America's dad.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
They didn't have to explain who you were, or why
you were or why they picked you. When they said
America's favorite dad or whatever that title was, it was you.
Speaker 3 (34:22):
And I'm not a dad, you know, so crazy, Well
you're not.
Speaker 1 (34:25):
A dad biologically, but right crazy here and that dary.
Speaker 3 (34:31):
I wanted to be the father that I wanted.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
Oh that's interesting.
Speaker 3 (34:35):
I had a vision in my mind about who my
father was going to be like and whatnot, and I
played that guy.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
I don't think i've ever heard you say that.
Speaker 3 (34:42):
Yeah, my father was never in my life. You know, well,
I shouldn't say that he was in my life, but
he wasn't the father that I wanted to be in
my life.
Speaker 1 (34:50):
You know, I totally understand what you're talking about, Reggie.
I totally understand.
Speaker 3 (34:56):
My father had another family as well.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
Okay, totally, I too. Out of black. You know you.
Speaker 3 (35:09):
Just got My father was a rolling stone. He'd roll around.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
You know how we can roll now? Like I said,
to totally get it. My family is who you make it.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
So you know the episode was called Basketball Blues. I
mean it was the beginning of the show. So do
you remember like connecting with Darius in a specific.
Speaker 3 (35:29):
Way or thank God for Darius? I tell you thank
God for him because I didn't know anything about basketball
or anything about being a father.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
Really yeah, that's very.
Speaker 3 (35:39):
Easy because he was a cut up and he never listened.
Darius never listened, you know, did you My father right?
He gonna kill us talking about him.
Speaker 2 (35:50):
We are hey, Thank god you had your one line
that you kept saying during the show. Your father has spoken.
So whether you are lessen or that you won't do
what I tell you, the thing, I love it.
Speaker 3 (36:03):
That's exactly it.
Speaker 1 (36:04):
The first time he said it, he was shocked that
it actually works.
Speaker 2 (36:07):
And then he got it. Then he leans through after that.
Speaker 3 (36:11):
He was a great son to have, you know, to
raise him up was really nice. I actually became a
father when I had y'all absolutely enough to deal with.
I had to learn how to be a father that way.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
You know absolutely.
Speaker 1 (36:22):
I mean you spent more time with these kids than
a lot of fathers get to spend with their kids,
or choose to spend.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
With their kids or whatever.
Speaker 3 (36:28):
You know, that's right.
Speaker 2 (36:30):
But you were there and we watched them go from
twelve year olds to fifty year old.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
I was about to say that somehow are older than
us now. I'm not sure.
Speaker 3 (36:42):
How my brothers and sisters think of you as my
children anyway, you know they do.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
Right, absolutely, absolutely, y'all.
Speaker 3 (36:49):
Grow up to be adults is really wonderful for me,
actually to see you all grow up be nice and
be cool people and not just them.
Speaker 2 (36:56):
But I always laugh because it's like we raised half
of them. Erica.
Speaker 1 (37:01):
Yes, I mean people still call me Aunt Rachel. Yes,
I know they still Carl, you know. I mean they
just were like part of their family.
Speaker 3 (37:10):
Now we have become more popular than ever before. You know,
we really are the popular family on TV.
Speaker 1 (37:15):
I think the times have a lot to do with
that too. People need that nostalgic, They need that warm
hug of something familiar these days, because you know, there's
so much going on and there's so much conflict in that.
I think every bit of warmth and reminder of what
family really is. Absolutely, I just think we're a great
representation of that, or family matters is.
Speaker 3 (37:36):
I think Bob and Tom knew what they were.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
Doing, absolutely knew, absolutely well.
Speaker 1 (37:42):
I think their casting had a lot to do with that,
because it could have gone a lot of different ways.
But it's funny how some things just seem like it
just couldn't have been another cast, or it couldn't have
been another way. Absolutely, and you and Joe Marie, it's
such a great combination, such a great combination.
Speaker 3 (38:02):
Joe was who she was, and the first day I
met her to the last yesterday, it really was yesterday.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
How often do y'all talk? Rich?
Speaker 3 (38:10):
We talk every now and then email her mostly from
uh pictures and whatnot. But I see her read every
now and then she says, Hey, hey, Rich, how you
doing this?
Speaker 2 (38:18):
Not because y'all, all three of y'alls some working folks,
y'all the busiest people I have elviment. It's a dirty job,
but somebody's got to do it.
Speaker 3 (38:28):
Yes, somebody got to do it.
Speaker 2 (38:29):
Might as well be Yes. In this episode, they really
concentrated on the relationship and the bonding of a father
and son.
Speaker 3 (38:37):
Yes, absolutely, That's what it was.
Speaker 1 (38:39):
And also that dynamic of the parent wanting the best
for their child but really living somewhat in their own
head as to what that should be.
Speaker 3 (38:50):
Absolutely cal was like that. He was a good father.
Yeah he was, you know, he really was a good father.
And I appreciated playing that because my father wasn't a
good father, you know. I wanted to pay a good father.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
You would never know it watching the ship. It was
such a natural thing. Where did you get the information
of how? I know? You said that you just were
everything that you ever wanted.
Speaker 3 (39:11):
How did you?
Speaker 1 (39:11):
Well?
Speaker 3 (39:11):
My grandmother, oddly enough, was a good influence on me.
I learned to tolerate my father when I had to.
He was never really in the house with us, you know,
he'd always be passing thing, you know. Yeah, But I
loved my father, I really did, you know, And I
wanted him to love me back, and I wasn't sure
if he did. I wasn't really sure if he ever did.
Speaker 1 (39:33):
But well, I think you loved enough, young man. Through
your character, you have blessed many a heart. I have
friends who are Kelly's age who really got through tough
times by watching that show and not having a father
and watching you be a good father. I mean, that's
(39:53):
one thing we can really be proud of about this show.
It was about something and it still is. But you
are a wonderful dad on that show. I don't know
where in your life you found that, whatever it is
that allowed you to be so solid in that character,
but it was beautiful to watch.
Speaker 3 (40:11):
Carl Winslow was the father I wanted to be, that
I wanted to have for my own but I ever
could have that, so I created it in my mind
all he would be.
Speaker 2 (40:20):
You know, well, thank you for that. I don't know
if I've ever asked you that. I'm so glad to
know that. Yeah. Who do you have a favorite memory
from Family Matters?
Speaker 3 (40:29):
A favorite memory from Family Matters.
Speaker 1 (40:32):
Something that had happened within that framework, something that really
touched you or changed you.
Speaker 3 (40:36):
Well, like I said, every time I was on that
show was my favorite every day. I don't have any
special memories except that the whole thing was totally was
my life. It became my life. I'll never forget the
first day we'd sing around the pianel for the opening song, Right,
I'll never forget that. Yeah, that was that. This is
the beginning of something very special in.
Speaker 2 (40:54):
My life, and I think we all felt that. I
mean I was.
Speaker 1 (40:57):
I think Kelly and I had talked about when I
came in I'm the reading. I was still working with
Tony Orlando and gone on the weekids. I flew in
for the table read, and that was the first time
that got a chance to meet the whole cast, and
it was just so easy. It just felt so familiar,
even though it wasn't.
Speaker 2 (41:15):
I'm sure you have to say, all the girls are
pretty and everybody's your favorite, But have any of you
ever had another job where you just clicked with the
people in this way?
Speaker 3 (41:26):
No. When I worked with Venette Carol's Urbano Score Theater,
I bonded with the people there. But you all became
part of me permanently in my life, forever influenced me,
and I can't see without I remember my favorite episode
was the Quilt.
Speaker 2 (41:42):
We've all said that time, all said.
Speaker 3 (41:45):
That when you cried the first time, I didn't lost it.
It was really amazing. Yes, it really was.
Speaker 2 (41:52):
How much you guys like as seasoned actors, I mean,
you guys are great actors, like you guys supported me
in that Oh, I can never tell you like you
guys would ever even say that, even at the time
that you guys were so supportive in that it was
like life changing. Kelly. You were so good. I mean
(42:14):
you're still so.
Speaker 3 (42:15):
I saw anybody cry like you cried.
Speaker 2 (42:17):
You know, you were so and you were twelve.
Speaker 3 (42:20):
Twelve years old.
Speaker 1 (42:21):
You know, I'm still working on crying on Q. But no,
you were just so good. You were so so impressive.
And again the casting GUIDs were with us for sure,
yes they were.
Speaker 2 (42:35):
They were. Okay, So now we got to talk about
your new stuff. Last Christmas, you filmed a movie called Onslaught.
Speaker 3 (42:42):
Well, it was before Christmas. It started during taste giving you.
I had no holidays nothing. I was working the holidays.
I didn't have any kind of any presidents or anything
like that. I didn't want any presents. I was busy working.
Speaker 2 (42:54):
Yeah, that's the president.
Speaker 3 (42:56):
Stop enjoying the process of working. You know.
Speaker 2 (42:58):
Can you tell us anything about it, Like, what is
it about?
Speaker 3 (43:01):
Well, it's about this scientist creates this potion of the
ceremon so that it turns people into monsters or crazy people.
They lose their minds and they take over this trailer
park and they try to kill everybody in the trailer
park and oh my god, I saved the day and
it's going to be exciting, you know. I mean can't
wait to.
Speaker 2 (43:16):
See it film for quite a while too.
Speaker 3 (43:18):
The filmy took about two months too, months to film.
Speaker 1 (43:21):
Did you take your babies with your little fir babies
with you?
Speaker 2 (43:24):
No?
Speaker 3 (43:25):
I left them here at the house. I know that
was hard to hire somebody to come take care of
the whatnot? You know, yeah, I missed him so much.
Speaker 2 (43:31):
Now, for all of you who don't know, Reggie's dogs
are like his real children girls and I are like
his TV kids. Yes, the real kids are his dogs.
Speaker 3 (43:42):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (43:42):
Do you remember that house where he had the doghouse
with the upstairs, Yeah, the fireplace and the yard. And
I was like, what the and he tell us, oh, yeah,
go to the outhouse there if you got to use
the bathroom that one outside living like peop all.
Speaker 2 (44:01):
All right, I'm not mad at him about it, though,
not at all.
Speaker 3 (44:05):
I love my babies and I had to take care
of them.
Speaker 1 (44:07):
Now, Reggie, one of my favorite things that you do,
and most people, if they watch the show, they know
exactly what I'm talking about. You do without moving your
feet some serious face acting you and the head now
the nod when you're getting ready to go and be
absolutely idiotic about whatever it is you go to say
(44:29):
your feet and go to shaking that head.
Speaker 2 (44:32):
Oh my god.
Speaker 1 (44:34):
You are so funny. Now, are you even aware or
is that something you consciously like? Zoom from the mirror
and work. I don't know how you do it, but
you do some stuff that just makes me howl when
I said, wow, I.
Speaker 3 (44:51):
Never realized I did that. I didn't know.
Speaker 1 (44:53):
Child, Start watching yourself. You are funny as hell.
Speaker 3 (44:56):
Well, my mother she was good for a reaction shots,
you know, not follow her. You know, I think about
her how she would react to this line or this whatever,
and I used to basically did after her. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (45:08):
Oh, you've got to start watching yourself, Reggie. You can
kind of do it.
Speaker 1 (45:11):
No, I mean really, because when I watch the show now,
it's just like I'm watching people I don't know, so
I can really enjoy it. Oh, but watch yourself. You
do some stuff with your face that is just absolutely ridiculous.
You don't even have to say anything. It just makes
me laugh out loud.
Speaker 3 (45:29):
Wow, I didn't realize it, did that?
Speaker 1 (45:31):
Yes, you do, honey, Now if you had not been
an actuol. Was there anything else that was on your
list of things that you wanted to be growing up?
Speaker 3 (45:42):
Not a thing, really, really, not a thing. I was
acting since that when I first came to my mother's womb,
I was acting. I think, oh wow, I always wanted
to be an actor. I used to create plays and
put them in the garage and hire the neighbors to
come in and see the plays or one that I did,
and I charged them. I think it was fifty cents.
I charged them coming. I take the money, and I
(46:04):
spent the money on candy entrepreneur.
Speaker 2 (46:07):
It must have been good if you were able to
charge money. You created your destiny, I mean you really.
Speaker 3 (46:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (46:13):
They say speak it into being. You acted and wrote
it in the being. Congratulations. Most people don't get a
chance to do what they absolutely want to do.
Speaker 3 (46:23):
From jump Seat, That's very true.
Speaker 2 (46:26):
Also, Reggie, there were only a handful of shows that
really centered around a black family with an all or
predominantly black cast. Did you feel any responsibility to portray
black men a certain way or did you feel any
responsibility in terms of how the show came off in
terms of representing our community?
Speaker 3 (46:47):
Well? I knew I had to be the father, and
what kind of father would I be? I remember the
fathers that I knew in my life, and I try
to portray what they gave me into the role.
Speaker 2 (46:59):
Specific because we get so few opportunities, you feel like
you have to pack it with so much message. It
almost sometimes overburdens it because you feel like you want
to say so much because you don't get the opportunity
to speak that much.
Speaker 3 (47:13):
Absolutely, I tried to do the right thing. I tried
to say the things that whataned my father to say
to me.
Speaker 2 (47:20):
So was it cathartic at all? For that reason? Were
you able to work out some things that you were
missing through playing the character?
Speaker 3 (47:28):
Absolutely? Yes. I wanted to be a man who loved
his family and wanted to show that to the world
that I loved my family.
Speaker 2 (47:37):
That's beautiful. Oftentimes people come up to me and say
that our family on the show was the family that
they didn't have with whether they came from a bad
situation or they didn't have any family at all and
they were by themselves. Are you happy with what ultimately
came out of it? Yes, because people very much feel
that way and feel very much for generations of people.
Speaker 3 (47:56):
Recently, the son of a friend of mine that I
grew up with wrote me a letter and said that
I was the father that he never had and he
always wanted to be. He became a good father because
of me. And I said, well, wow, that's really strange,
because you know, my father wasn't there, so I didn't
know what I was doing.
Speaker 2 (48:14):
And she set that example, but I knew that I.
Speaker 3 (48:16):
Had to do it. Yeah, what I put together, people
gravitated to and reacted to what I did. And I
was very proud of that, and I still am.
Speaker 1 (48:24):
Well, I think he should be proud. That's quite a
legacy that you.
Speaker 2 (48:28):
Have from not having a father that you then turned
around and fathered millions of people.
Speaker 3 (48:33):
Absolutely, and I did that, so I was okay with that.
Speaker 2 (48:36):
Yeah, I love that. Great job. Dat.
Speaker 3 (48:40):
Oh thank you, Thank you love.
Speaker 2 (48:44):
Brother Reggie. I know you are a busy guy. You
are working like crazy. So thank you so much for
coming by and talking to us.
Speaker 3 (48:57):
Thank you for bringing back all these memories to me.
I really appreciate siate it. You know, this is really special.
I'm going to remember this forever.
Speaker 2 (49:04):
Guess what, what, I love you.
Speaker 3 (49:07):
I love you too. I love you too. I love
love you too.
Speaker 2 (49:10):
I love you baby, yeah so much.
Speaker 1 (49:13):
And again, thank you so much for taking the time out.
You know, we would talk about you like a dog
if you hadn't, But thank you so much for taking
the time out to spend a little time with us
and our audience. I know they are loving this well.
Speaker 3 (49:28):
I want to say that I consider you my family now.
When I first saw you, Tama Hopkins, you were with
Dawn on Orlando and down yeah, And I didn't know
I was going to become attached to you this way.
And I really appreciate who you are, what you have
become to be in my life, and thank you for
(49:48):
being who you turn out to be.
Speaker 2 (49:50):
You make it real easy, Reggie, You make it real easy.
I love you. I love you all right, Okay, enough
for the sap fist. It's good.
Speaker 1 (49:59):
We're going to have Reggie. You know how emotional he is.
He'll be my fan eyeball talking about he sweating and stuff. Lord, Well,
we just want to thank our our family. We can't
call him anything else. The fabulous Reginald Bell Johnson for
coming on the show and just sharing himself with us.
(50:21):
We just appreciate you so much. You know we love you.
Speaker 2 (50:25):
But that is it for the show this week, folks,
But stay tuned. 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 TVs and a bunch of other places.
Speaker 1 (50:41):
Welcome to the Family with Telma and Kelly is a
production of iHeart Podcasts and Audiation. It's hosted by me
Teloma Hopkins and me Kelly Williams. Our executive producers are
Sandy Smalling's for audiation, Adam Rip, JD Hopkins, who also
happens to be my son and Kelly's pobro, and Jonathan
Strickland for iHeart Podcasts.
Speaker 2 (51:02):
The show is produced by telman I, but our series
producer is Irelen Meacham, 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 1 (51:15):
And we'd like to thank Nikki Etour and the entire
iHeart podcast team.
Speaker 2 (51:20):
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. Follow us on Instagram
a Welcome to the Family pod for behind the scenes
photos and more.
Speaker 1 (51:26):
Bonus content, and don't forget to leave us a voicemail
at our website, thefamilymatterspod dot com.
Speaker 2 (51:32):
We want to hear your thoughts and favorite memories of the.
Speaker 1 (51:34):
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.
Speaker 2 (51:42):
And make sure to rate and review us wherever you're listening.
We are so excited to have you guys along for
the ride.
Speaker 1 (51:49):
Yes, Welcome to the family, y'all, and we'll see you
next time.
Speaker 2 (51:53):
Welcome to the Familie Audiation.
Really listens a mission this day and age Kelly and
Thelma and return in the page.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
We're talking. Family Matters is about those times? Ellen? What
happened between.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
The line with Kelly and me?
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Welcome to the fam, Elise, Kelly, welcome, Welcome to the
Family'll welcome to the family. I'm Telma and I'm Kelly.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
And in the nineties we start in a little sitcom
you may have heard of called Family Matters. Today we
rewatched season one, episode six of Family Matters, which was
called Basketball Blues.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
And we have a very special guest who join us
later to talk about the episode. He played my father
on the show, the One and Only Carl Winslow, the
vaginal Belle Johnson, reggiev Reggie b h.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
I can't wait to catch up with him, So you
all stay ten, folks, But first I want to catch
up with you.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
What's going on, Kelly? What's up? Girl? What's up? Is me? Oh?
For some reason, for the last twelve or so years,
I get up at two thirty four in the morning. Yikes, exactly,
this whole minopause thing is wearing me out. You're not
there yet, are you there? I've been looking there for Yeah,
(01:31):
it's terrible. Have you had a hot flash yet? Hot flash? Ooh,
it's a little bit deeper than that. Oh oh really,
I've had a hot sauna. I call it my personal summer.
Yeah it's deep, baby, it's dead. You know you start
googling like weird stuff at in the morning. I know
(01:52):
you do. Like what was this for? I think of
evolution kind of like updating your computer. I wonder why
this update is necessary because it's like so ridiculous, Like,
why is it necessary for me to suddenly grow a goateee? Girl,
I feel your feel less. My husband said, maybe it's
(02:17):
not that. Maybe I need a new computer.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Ooh, we're gonna smack Hannibal around and they're not having
at exactly. I love it, girl. At least you dealing
with yourself. I'm dealing with gophers.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Girl.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
I feel like I'm in some kind of looney tunes.
I am playing whack the mole with the gophers and
I'm losing.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Oh wow.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
And here's the thing, girl, these suckers have figured out
that the gopher guy doesn't come on the weekend, so Friday.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
They have a mighty gral.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
I'm not lying, Okay, I can walk out the house.
There is no gopher hole. Go down the walkway, come back,
and the gophers waving waving at me. The sucker is
coming up during the day. What do I do, Kelly?
Speaker 2 (02:58):
What do I do? I don't know. Thank you. That
was a great answer. Moving on.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Anyway, girl, enough about the gophers. Let's get into this episode.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Now. Who was this episode written by? Do you know?
It was actually written by Barry Gold and directed by
Jim O'Keeffe. Do you remember him? I remember Jim. I
think we drove him crazy a couple of times. Poor baby.
Oh we were hard on direct well some of us. Now.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
This episode aired on November third, nineteen eighty nine.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
On that day in history, the number one song on
the Billboard R and B chart was You Are My
Everything by Surface?
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Do you remember Surface?
Speaker 1 (03:38):
I didn't remember him. I had to go back and
look at the video. Girl, I remembered. It was a
really big song. Okay, I mean you know it was
back in our shag haird days for the boys bad
shag girl, nappy shag even worse than the Jerry Curls.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Say, there's a such thing as a nappy shag?
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Oh there is. Watch the video that's all I got
to say. All right, Now, what else was going on?
You come up with anything?
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Mmm?
Speaker 1 (04:03):
I want you to try to say this name. That's
why I'm leaving it to you. It's basketball players. Now
what's that name?
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Uh? Yeah, keep going the Russian basketball players? Uh huh?
Who came to computing?
Speaker 1 (04:14):
His name is Sarhu Alexander. No, that's one. That's a
first name.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Then I thought you were gonna do the first one.
Oh you did?
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Did I sound like I was gonna do the first one? No?
Speaker 2 (04:25):
I was waiting for you to mess it up. Well,
why are you putting me hooked on phonics? Well? Oh,
you had the better education, I believe.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Anyway, it's we're gonna do this phonetically Runas Marchulonis and
Alexander Volkov made history as the first Russian players to
compete in a regular NBA season basketball game, a season game,
which is relevant because we're talking about basketball in this episode.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
In this episode, Carl was determined to see Adie make
the basketball team and ends up overworking them.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Well what's new by that? Kyle is the overdoer of
the overdoers. Now you were barely in this episode. Girl,
I'm trying to rag on you or nothing. But who
did you piss off this week?
Speaker 2 (05:09):
There's no small parts, only small actors. Yeah. I used
to say that too.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
My other thing was, as long as they don't pro
rape my chick, I'm okay with one line.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
That part okay.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
So I guess you upstairs checking out our seventy five
bedroom house up exactly.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Me and Judy were upstairs. And I think this was
the beginning of the producers realizing they didn't have enough
for Judy to do. Jennyet I were really just snoops
in everybody's business. So I think that's probably what we
were doing in the background, spying on people. That's true,
gospeling with one another.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
Now, why don't you, because a lot of people don't
know what a typical work week is like on a sitcom,
why don't you just give a little flavor of what
we did, Like on the first day was a table read,
and the first day that we got up and put
it on its feet, so to speak.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Right, So the first day if we do the table read,
which is a readthrough of the episode in front of
the writers, and then they go back and they do
blame us for every joke that didn't work correct and
rewrite based upon what they've heard, and you go off
and rehearse for two days, and then they come back
for a run through where they see the episode up
(06:19):
on its feet. All the while they keep coming in
to make rewrites based upon what jokes worked and don't work,
and then you take the episode based upon all of
the reworking of the original episode.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
And we taped in front of a live audience, which
was always fun too.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
That's the best part of it to get the feedback immediate, to.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
Get so much energy from them. A lot of stuff
that we might even think doesn't work when we're just
rehearsing works when it's on his feet in that audience.
They just to bring another element. That's so wonderful. I
really like that.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Yeah, especially after they've reworked the script one hundred times
only to find out the original joke worked in the
first place. Good back in. Yeah, that was great.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
And I remember we got to a point where we
were even doing a four day week, remember that.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Oh yeah, that's the good thing about working for Bobbotop.
That machine was so good. And then when people asked
us to actually work five days, we were looking at
them like they were like crazy, what are you talking about?
Are you insane? We're only good for four days, right,
for twenty hours a week, but I still need my check.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Rum in my manque again, no pro rated checks here, right? Okay,
this episode was really focused on Eddie and Carl and basketball.
But the first thing I know this girl was Retchie
came home in the uniform he had gone to work
and combattually came in from work, actually came in from work.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
What a moment, that's right. So he decides to train
Eddie for basketball tries at school, and he says to
Harriet that Eddie's whole future is relying on him being
a good basketball player. Now, I wonder why his whole
future this Daddy say, his whole future was playing basketball?
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Basketball, or you might as well jump in a hole,
basically what he's saying.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
So he starts working them to the boat, like straight,
what's Remus and Serena's father, King Richard? Yes, he goes
straight King Richard on Eddie working them to death. You know,
Eddie's like, ohad, Dad, Dad Dad.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
That's what I love about Reggie's character. Carl could be
just so extreme on everything. I mean, he just goes
nine thousand and is generally wrong when he hits the
nine thousand. But he is so committed and so funny,
and his expressions kill me.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
They kill me. Oh you noticed the face acting too.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
Oh honey, he does some serious space acting. And I'm
enjoying it so much more now because I'm watching it
as an audience, so I really get to see him.
I mean, his whole run with your father has spoken,
so it's such a ridiculous thing. And that Rosetta is
(08:55):
like the driest grandmother on the planet. She just goes there.
She's disgusted with all of us.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
I noticed it. It's like at that age she was
still so good. Oh my god, it.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
Was so.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Her lines were like gangbusters. Everything she said worked so well,
and then she would back it up with her acting.
The nerve of her, the nerve of her. But you know,
when Harriet started telling Carl that he was working Eddie
to heart, he just doubles down. He thinks he knows
it all. But what I do love is got another
(09:34):
black woman looking this show.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
When Kyle said, woman, oh woman something he said and
she gave him the eyeball, I hurt.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Okay, I started sweating, so that works for some folks.
Harry Winslow is not that person. She is not. She
does not work that let him have it, so she
continues to work them to death until Hill he quits.
Quits basically instead of ad meeting he was wrong, he
gets a basketball nerve this superstar that too, but he
(10:09):
gets this basketball superstar to come and co sign his
ridiculousness on.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
The pretense of buying a car, which we know I
had to fix the last one. We know Karl ain't
buying nothing, especially now of.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Course his cheap ass. So it backfires because the basketball
player tells a to do what he loves, do what
makes him happen, and not to listen to Carl. But
that's usually what happens with Carl. He usually goes so
gung ho and goes so far over the line that
somebody has to pull him back. Usually it's Harriet.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
But what I do love is as always in our shows,
there are those moments, in spite of the craziness of
Carl and he is crazy, that you get to see
him be a dad and you get to see it
finally register with him that he's living his dream, not
trying to support whatever it is that we know what
Eddie's dream is, I'll want a girlfriend. What he wants
(11:09):
is the best for his son. But he thinks what's
the best for his son is what he wants for
his son as opposed to what Eddie.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
It's actually a hard conversation to have.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
I guess.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
So you know, also, I so want certain things for
my kids, like you want them to have a certain life,
and you become overbearing because of all this knowledge you have,
but it kind of kills all of the fun of everything.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Yeah, you can't be a helicopter mom all the time,
especially now, because you have to be so protective of
your kids. You know, there's so much going on, and
you do want the best farm, but they don't necessarily
want it from you, coming from you.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
You know all the time. My mother says that about
you all the time. Actually that she said that you
were the person that I would listen to most. It's
because I was taking you on those trips and stuff. No,
but I mean, you're so faculous.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
No.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
I think it's always easier sometimes for someone else who
you trust with your child to talk to them. Because Gerald,
my son grew up by himself with a single mom,
But there were people that I trusted in his life
that I would not worry about them talking to him.
I would know that they would be coming from a
(12:19):
good place. And I think your mother always knew that
I love you guys and wanted the best for you
and would do anything for you.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
You know, I consider you one of my own right
So I guess that's also why Carl's character invited Will
the Thrill Morgan over to talk to Eddie and to
convince him to get back into basketball.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
Yeah, but like you said, he out smarts him, not
ol smarts, and because he's not really doing anything. Although
Will knows now that the dream is Carl's not Eddie's,
he just tells him to do what makes him happy,
which I love. He doesn't tell him to go against
his dad or anything like that. He just says, do
what makes you happy.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Now, you remember, Will the Thrill was not a real
basketball player. He was played by Jack Bolton, who's an
actor known for Kindergarten Cup and The Naked Truth. But
I mean, how can you be like that tall and
not be a freaking basketball star. That's weird to me. Well,
maybe he wasn't good. Maybe he was just tall. I know,
I saw this kid recently the same thing. I was like,
(13:16):
oh my gosh, I know you're a basketball time. His
father leans over and says, no, he's a freaking ballet dancer.
The father looks like what, totally disgusted. Yeah, all that
height but nothing. I loved your lie too. With Reggie,
I wasn't blessed with hype. Yeah, dad, but you got
(13:39):
with I was thinking about the basketball player because we
couldn't have gotten one if we paid him that per season.
Not a real one fest though.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Later on, as the show got more popular and people
really started dialing in, we started getting some folk up
in there.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
I know, Grandmama and everybody else. Not the first season,
not at all. No, nothing in the budget. Karl must
have been in charge of that budget too. Probably Also.
I love the part when you came down and you
saw the basketball player and you had a little celebrity
crush on him and never got to meet him. There
(14:18):
was a lot of good.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
All that dressing and putting on makeup did me and
my swag down the steps. You see that pose I hit.
When I hit that step, girl, I was like, I saw.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
You reminds me of that picture of you and Jim
Brown with all of that feather bowl and all.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
That phobus mine own. Don't make me start reading you
up in there, I said, no, I will. Don't they
bring up your wedding when you were doing the huckle
Book or whatever you were doing.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
On your luves.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
I was all excited because you were married.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
That's why he married me.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
But it was a great show, and I had to
even fund watching me and the b plot trying to cook?
So who does not know how to make eggs? That's embarrassing.
I was embarrassed for Rachel. Yeah, how do you not
know how to what Harry said, just throw it in
the pan and cook it til it stops moving.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
I know that must have been really hard work for you,
because you were such a great cook. What's that? Uh?
The thing I love that you make for Thanksgiving? Is
it dressing with the corn?
Speaker 3 (15:16):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (15:17):
No, fried corn? Oh that fry corn is if I
do say so myself, it is the bomb? It is it?
Speaker 3 (15:24):
Of course?
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Have I caught you for the recipe? It never comes
out right.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
It's because everybody spice is a little different, and for me,
mine comes out a little different sometimes than it does
at other times. But that and the yam pies are
my specialty.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Okay, yam slam pis. Well, clearly it wasn't your specialty
in this show, because everything you cook came out bad.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
And she had the nerve to tell Rachel a couple
of shows ago how she was bossing around. No wonder
she needs bosson. Other than that, she'd just be sitting
in the kitchen. Can you cook, Kellym, That means a
note you mean by can you cook?
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Like when I cook? Can you cook? I got about
three things I make. Well, other than that, I'm doctoring
up other people's stuff. Well I'm good at that too, Honey.
That's a skill right there. I still set everybody don't
know now that the grocery store sells full mills. Oh baby,
but I'll put some corn with it in a minute.
I put that out there, Liz said, who cooked it?
(16:26):
And I put it out there just as nice I did.
Why my husband loves my baby? Chickens we talked about.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
I just wanted a chat because I know we're talking
about real chickens and some other kind of chickens. No,
that's some real stuff. Oh man, I must say. We
are a fun family, I said, Rachel is basically their
other kid. She thinks she's grown until it's time to
do something, and then she know how to do it.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
But watching episode, what did they do to keep you
covering and flower the whole time? What were you doing? Uh?
Speaker 1 (17:06):
Making brio? That takes a lot of flower. I think
they just dumped it on me. You know they you
know they're gonna no. I mean they did pack me
down with power. You know, they got to make it
look ridiculous. So I looked ridiculous making brille. And why
was I making enough to feed the entire city? That's
what I want to know. I just kept making them.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
Well.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
If that's one thing I love about your character on
the show, Baby, when you go you go hard, you
go harder go home. Every time Rachel on the show
has a new scheme, Baby, it's all in. It's true.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
She has the fire, she has the passion, she just
doesn't have knowledge.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
Her ability.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Oh wow, she's got That's sad. It is sad, but hey,
it got me on a TV show, So I'll be
sad on that show.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
I know that's right. But it's also what how did
you feel about being a ditch because you're so not
that fun? And when you play a character it's kind
of still gute.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
It was fun, Yeah, it was fun because being yourself
is boring all the time. You could have fun with that.
It wasn't that she was stupid, It's just that she
was naive. She had been taken care of by her
big sister once her mom was not there, so she
had a lot of elements of not quite having grown up.
She got married and then her husband got killed and
(18:25):
she ends up moving in with the family. You know,
she hadn't quite grown up, so she grows up on
the show, right. That's what makes acting fun is when
you can be somebody else, you know, because I'm always
more comfortable being somebody else than i am being me
in a lot of situations.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
People, but you're so fabulous, so why would you want
to be anybody else?
Speaker 1 (18:43):
No, but I'm saying a lot of people think I'm
just gregarious all the time and funny all the time,
and you know, up all and I'm not, and it
kind of throws them off. But that's the fun of
acting is you can be whatever. You can utilize all
areas of yourself and feel good about it. Now, it
didn't bother me. I mean that's fun to me. The
sillier as she was, the better I liked it. But
(19:05):
what do you think about how great Rosetta was?
Speaker 2 (19:08):
Oh my god, her delivery was so stupid.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
It was so I mean, she's so so, so, so good,
like we said, the Queen of Dead Pants. But then
she could go all giggly teenager like she did with
Will the Thrill. I mean she was worse than me.
I mean, she just fell completely apart, and she What
I love about her is that she knows something about
what she's talking about.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
So she came out this man needs no introduction.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
He did that other she comes out with that wisdom,
and then when she gets him to kiss her on
the cheek, just falls completely apart, becomes a hysterical just cackling,
I don't know what, just tickle to death. It's so cute.
And she is so committed to everything she does. What
a great example she is. Pressed were it not for
(19:57):
women like her, those doors were not i'd be open
to us. And I'm constantly thankful that I even met
Rosetta because it would work together on give me a break.
But just to be a part of her life until
she passed was a wonderful thing. And Bob and Tom
loved her so much.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
Yeah, we all did. She was a great catch and
by dosay so myself.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
Right.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
And you know, I love this episode so much because
it really centers around fathers and sons and that whole dynamic.
I watched my husband and my son around baseball. It's
the same thing. My son has coaches, but my son
is always looking for my husband's approval. Yeah, for his approval.
Of course. How was it with you and Gerald? Because
(20:38):
it was you and him?
Speaker 1 (20:39):
Yeah, I had to kind of feel multiple spots. But
I was blessed in that I had people in my
life that loved him and loved me and that I
knew I could trust with him. I had my uncle,
I had my stepdad, I had his uncle. I had
a friend of mine, Jimmy, who is still in our lives,
people that I know, you I could go to with
(21:02):
what I couldn't do as a woman. But I was
there for the games. I mean, you know, he was
a baseball fiend as well, and I was right there
at those games trying to keep my relatives from climbing
the fence and jumping on people because.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
We letta ask you a question, did you show up
with your boa?
Speaker 1 (21:16):
You know what, I'm gonna climb through this microphone and
get your butt.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
You gonna be tired of me when I get through you.
Your mom showing up at the field in a Bob
Mackie goll Just JD, that's your mom.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
Well, I used to go to school. There was a
period when I could get kind of homely. I was
going to school not quite pulling myself together because I
was dropping him off. Never Oh yeah, honey, he got
me told. He's like, look, woman, you.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Can't be coming up to the school. Looks crazy.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
He said, television my fans, and here you are. So
I actually had to clean my act up to drop
him off at school because I was on television.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Hannah had to tell me something very similar. I was
taking on a field trip and she told me straight up,
please do not wear your go to outfit. Go to outfit.
It's some yoga pants and one of my husband's old
white T shirts. What crocs like? I'm Mario Buttali girl,
(22:28):
I'm the crock queen.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
Now that you got me started on the crocs, girl,
I am the crock queen.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
I loves them.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
Oh really, we can take comfort too far, though sometimes
we have to be careful. We have to be careful.
So we've been talking about Carl and Eddie and really
parents living vicariously through their children. You were a child actor,
Now did you have any of that? Did you feel
pressure from your parents to act or was that something
that came from you that's something that you wanted to do.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
Well.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
I didn't feel pressure to act from my parents, but
my father was an actor, So I think I kind
of at a certain point was wondering if maybe he
should have done his own thing.
Speaker 3 (23:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
Think, but because I love the support and I love
the fact that he knew what it took. And it's
like a lot of emotional labor being a performer because
just like with any other like a carpenter, you use
would to be fashioned into what it needs to be.
When you're an actor, you're the thing that has to
(23:36):
be washed into whatever. So I love the fact that
he understood that. But I think, just like with any
other parent, their knowledge of certain things sometimes will burden
the fun of discovery when you are attempting something that
they did already. How was it for you, because I
mean I know you were raised by birth, Like, how
(23:56):
was it for you in terms of getting into that industry.
Was your grandmother was it weird for you?
Speaker 1 (24:02):
Well, it was tough having grown up in a totally
different era. Her ole thing was getting an education and
getting a good job and doing the nine to five,
and that was her mindset. That was, I had to
go to school so I could get a good job.
So me wanting to er, you know, being in Detroit
and Motown being so big, me wanting to be involved
(24:22):
with that was a no no. They kind of let
us go to the auditions because everybody got to go
to the auditions for Motown when they were doing their
little fan things. It just so happened that I ended
up having that as part of my career. But I
had to bargain my way through. I mean, I was
still in high school, so in order for me to
do a recording session, I had to make sure my
(24:42):
homework is.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
There were rules.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
There were rules, but I would break them occasionally, I mean,
because I did feel stifled and I wanted to spread
my wings. My grandmother insisted that nobody was going to
pay me any money to be silly.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
So when I.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
Got that first check for being silly, my grandmother did
a complete turn. It was this kind of going on like, ooh,
you know, she just liked me. You know, she got
that humor from me. I was funny like that. I'm
just all of a sudden, my career became her talking point.
My mother, who had no time for me most of
the time when she was around, suddenly became the mother
(25:21):
of a starra So she would take me to the
grocery store with her. Because of course, everybody wants the
butcher to know that her daughter's on, so not the.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
WB frog girl.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
Hello my dollar, honey, honey, honey. They just tried to
take credit for my career. It wasn't even trying to
live it through me.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Oh wow.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
But yeah, it was sweet to see Reggie realize that
he was doing more harm than good. Yeah, the way
I read it, he was disappointed in himself that he
had gotten so carried away with the thrill of the
thought of his son being a basketball star that he
kind of lost sight of his son. But I love
our show because it always brings it back. It always
(25:59):
brings it back.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
It always brings it back because we've realized that Eddi's
real true love and the thing that he was best
at speak on it. Now we're attracting girls. Well did
I hear that? Was that your inside voice and your
outside voice? I was by inside and outside the girl?
Speaker 1 (26:17):
Well, you know he is still working at perfecting that,
I believe, right.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
So before we bring out our illustrious guests, let's get
into the punky fat in nineteen eighty nine, I used
nineteen eighty seven portion nine eleven. Coop would cost about
thirty five to forty thousand. You can't even get a
Chevrolet Chavette for that at this point, you know, you
can't get a bicycle, but that price.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
Is right on time in the episode. And Will the Thrill,
Now this was something I didn't know, but that our
team looked up and showed us that Will the Thrill
was apparently supposed to be a recurring character but ended
up only being in this episode. Hmmm, I wonder why
I must have hit him with a brioche.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
How come I didn't know that? Ooh?
Speaker 1 (27:03):
You know what we noticed when we were watching this
is that remember when Kyle did wonted by Eddie those
seventy dollars high tops.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
Correct.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
In this episode, Eddie is wearing Air Jordan threes, which
cost about one hundred dollars in nineteen eighty nine. So
apparently Harriet's job is give it another some cushion.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
One hundred American dollars.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
That's a lot, now, okay, if you can find it.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
Wait, but little Richie is wearing Nike baby shoes, so
I must be selling more books than they are actually
putting on the air or something else. Watch it, watch it.
You ain't too grown to get beat.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
I'm like, okay, Well, we promised you all a special
treat this week, and we are so excited.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
We wanted to introduce Carl Winslow, my daddy, Reginald L. Johnson. Oh,
my goodness, are extraordinary.
Speaker 3 (28:01):
Hello.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
Yes, not to mention his face acting.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
Yes, you worked hard for the us work so we
all seen you in a while.
Speaker 3 (28:14):
Yeah, in a long time.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
Yeah, hey that long.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
We still remember it.
Speaker 3 (28:19):
Hey long.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
But this has been a great year for you.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
I mean, you've just been moving and shaking like every
I mean dancing with the Stars child, talking about dancing
the speaking of which, did you hurt yourself on that show?
Speaker 2 (28:30):
Because I popped the ligament just watching you.
Speaker 3 (28:34):
I tell you I tried hard to do my best.
I'm old and my body doesn't work as well. But
I broke my I didn't break anything. No, I didn't
break anything, but I felt like I broke something.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
Well, you couldn't tell me because let me tell you something.
If I got another call about people being excited about
you coming back week after week.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
Oh wow, I was just trying to get through it.
I was just trying to make it to move my
feet right as I was trying to do. I didn't
care if I won. I was just wanted to move
my feet.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
So what were your expectations initially? Did you think?
Speaker 3 (29:04):
One?
Speaker 2 (29:05):
Say, what did you think? Well, when they.
Speaker 3 (29:06):
Asked you to do it, I said, oh my god,
I can't move, you know, But I said, I'm going
to do this. I'm going to try to do this
as best my ability. And I tried my best and
I did it, you know. And people they wanted me
to do all things on the show, but I said,
let me just get off the show, let me dance
once or twice, and then I'll be off.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
Press on to my next job exactly. But people loved I.
Speaker 3 (29:29):
Did it, you know. I did what they wanted me
to do. They wanted me to do the best of
my ability, and I did it? You know, I wanted
to get off the show.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
Though you wanted to leave After a while, they kept
I wanted to leave.
Speaker 3 (29:39):
I wanted to show. Did I swear? Because every day
you had to dance? Every day? Dancing every day?
Speaker 2 (29:47):
Tell us about that, Like, what was the rehearsal process.
Speaker 3 (29:49):
Well, I go in in the morning time every day.
It was running through Friday night. There's no no, no,
no downtime. I had to get on there and everyday
I couldn't send it.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
Oh wow, okay for the dancing Olympics.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
It was like the Olympics, Yes it was.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
Did you have fun though?
Speaker 3 (30:04):
I had fun?
Speaker 2 (30:05):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (30:05):
After a while, yes it was. It was a lot
of fun. I didn't it was. It was fun. Yeah, yeah,
it was a lot of fun.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
He's learned so well, hasn't it.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (30:15):
Yes, and I think on it.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
Yeah it was yeah, yeah, yeah it was.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
It was fun, but it was fun painful.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
Fun is a good word.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
Were you surprised that people kept voting you back on
in like a week after week?
Speaker 3 (30:27):
Yes, I said I wish i'd stop, Please stop voting
me off, please please let me go home.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
Be the only person campaigning to go home.
Speaker 3 (30:35):
That's right. Fun, you know. But thanks to my friends
Kiki and Sean, they helped me get through and they
were like my team that they really came through.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
Let's go all the way back. What was the thing
that made Reggie interested in acting?
Speaker 3 (30:49):
Lord, I don't remember. I was a baby and I
always was performing and doing things that my mother didn't
want me to do. I'd make plays in the garage
and whatnot and do things like that. My mother made
my first costume. I was three years old, three or four.
I played a Teddy Bear and she made the costume
Teddy Bear thing and she put me in there. I
remember my mother same, roll, baby, roll, baby roll. I
(31:11):
had to roll across the stage like that. I rolled
across the stage and uh, the rest this history.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
So did you enjoy it so much that you wanted
to continue on doing it professionally?
Speaker 3 (31:21):
Like what something like that? Yeah? I started doing things
and made everybody laugh, and you know, she's to go
board sound somewhere, and I wouldn't sit down, and they
made me do what I had to do, you know.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
Right, So you became an actor because you were a
cut up?
Speaker 3 (31:36):
Yeah, you have done. Yeah. We used to make plays
in the garage and stuff like that. I used to
do things like that, and I just kind of gravitated
to this way of doing things.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
What to you was your biggest break towards what you
really wanted to do? What project or vehicle or meeting?
Speaker 3 (32:00):
I think it was the church dance recital or something,
and I was in the dances. I like this, you know,
and I said, well, I'm going to continue doing this.
And my mother was very supportive of what I did,
and that's good.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
What was your first acting job?
Speaker 3 (32:14):
My first acting job? Oh, my goodness, what my first
when I went to college. I think it was my
first acting job. Wow, I don't remember. I don't remember
what it was. I just remember doing it.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
Well, whatever it was, it certainly worked in your behalf
because look at where you are now, and you didn't
just jump there from no talent.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
You were so great in Die Heart? Why didn't you
just continue being a movie star? What made you want
to do television?
Speaker 3 (32:39):
They asked me? Answer, I said, yes, I'll do it.
I'll do it.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
Okay, that makes sense to me.
Speaker 3 (32:46):
And then find of Matters came along and I did that.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
Yeah you so, how was that? What happened? How did
they ask you did they just call you in like,
we love your character on that we want you to
also play this cop in this TV show.
Speaker 3 (32:58):
No, I went and auditioned. I met Joe Marie at
the audition, and we kind of gravitated to each other
and we said, you know, I like you and I
like you. I like you too. We did the scene
together when we met each other, and then they said, yes, oh, okay,
thank you very much. I didn't know I had got
the job until they told me the following the week
(33:18):
I think they told me that I got the job.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
I'm surprised you even had the audition because the way
they talked to me about you, it just sounded like
they just had to bring everybody else in wow, you know,
to make sure they couldn't say, well, I didn't get
that audition for it. But to me, it sounded like
they had you in mine from the get go.
Speaker 3 (33:40):
I guess they did, you know. I don't know, but
I said, and I met the guys, Thomas, Bob Tom,
and Bob Tom was the one that really gravitated to me.
He really liked me, and I said, well, I like
you too, Bob, and I got the job. It was cool.
Speaker 2 (33:53):
Yeah, Well, they could not have cast a better dad
as proof.
Speaker 3 (33:57):
Oh you're sweet, You're sweet.
Speaker 1 (33:58):
No, I mean even to the public, you are that figure.
That's why the progressive ads work so well. When did
you become America's dad and how did that all come about?
Speaker 3 (34:08):
I have no idea. I have no idea to become
an America's dad.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
They didn't have to explain who you were, or why
you were or why they picked you. When they said
America's favorite dad or whatever that title was, it was you.
Speaker 3 (34:22):
And I'm not a dad, you know, so crazy, Well
you're not.
Speaker 1 (34:25):
A dad biologically, but right crazy here and that dary.
Speaker 3 (34:31):
I wanted to be the father that I wanted.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
Oh that's interesting.
Speaker 3 (34:35):
I had a vision in my mind about who my
father was going to be like and whatnot, and I
played that guy.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
I don't think i've ever heard you say that.
Speaker 3 (34:42):
Yeah, my father was never in my life. You know, well,
I shouldn't say that he was in my life, but
he wasn't the father that I wanted to be in
my life.
Speaker 1 (34:50):
You know, I totally understand what you're talking about, Reggie.
I totally understand.
Speaker 3 (34:56):
My father had another family as well.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
Okay, totally, I too. Out of black. You know you.
Speaker 3 (35:09):
Just got My father was a rolling stone. He'd roll around.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
You know how we can roll now? Like I said,
to totally get it. My family is who you make it.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
So you know the episode was called Basketball Blues. I
mean it was the beginning of the show. So do
you remember like connecting with Darius in a specific.
Speaker 3 (35:29):
Way or thank God for Darius? I tell you thank
God for him because I didn't know anything about basketball
or anything about being a father.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
Really yeah, that's very.
Speaker 3 (35:39):
Easy because he was a cut up and he never listened.
Darius never listened, you know, did you My father right?
He gonna kill us talking about him.
Speaker 2 (35:50):
We are hey, Thank god you had your one line
that you kept saying during the show. Your father has spoken.
So whether you are lessen or that you won't do
what I tell you, the thing, I love it.
Speaker 3 (36:03):
That's exactly it.
Speaker 1 (36:04):
The first time he said it, he was shocked that
it actually works.
Speaker 2 (36:07):
And then he got it. Then he leans through after that.
Speaker 3 (36:11):
He was a great son to have, you know, to
raise him up was really nice. I actually became a
father when I had y'all absolutely enough to deal with.
I had to learn how to be a father that way.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
You know absolutely.
Speaker 1 (36:22):
I mean you spent more time with these kids than
a lot of fathers get to spend with their kids,
or choose to spend.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
With their kids or whatever.
Speaker 3 (36:28):
You know, that's right.
Speaker 2 (36:30):
But you were there and we watched them go from
twelve year olds to fifty year old.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
I was about to say that somehow are older than
us now. I'm not sure.
Speaker 3 (36:42):
How my brothers and sisters think of you as my
children anyway, you know they do.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
Right, absolutely, absolutely, y'all.
Speaker 3 (36:49):
Grow up to be adults is really wonderful for me,
actually to see you all grow up be nice and
be cool people and not just them.
Speaker 2 (36:56):
But I always laugh because it's like we raised half
of them. Erica.
Speaker 1 (37:01):
Yes, I mean people still call me Aunt Rachel. Yes,
I know they still Carl, you know. I mean they
just were like part of their family.
Speaker 3 (37:10):
Now we have become more popular than ever before. You know,
we really are the popular family on TV.
Speaker 1 (37:15):
I think the times have a lot to do with
that too. People need that nostalgic, They need that warm
hug of something familiar these days, because you know, there's
so much going on and there's so much conflict in that.
I think every bit of warmth and reminder of what
family really is. Absolutely, I just think we're a great
representation of that, or family matters is.
Speaker 3 (37:36):
I think Bob and Tom knew what they were.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
Doing, absolutely knew, absolutely well.
Speaker 1 (37:42):
I think their casting had a lot to do with that,
because it could have gone a lot of different ways.
But it's funny how some things just seem like it
just couldn't have been another cast, or it couldn't have
been another way. Absolutely, and you and Joe Marie, it's
such a great combination, such a great combination.
Speaker 3 (38:02):
Joe was who she was, and the first day I
met her to the last yesterday, it really was yesterday.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
How often do y'all talk? Rich?
Speaker 3 (38:10):
We talk every now and then email her mostly from
uh pictures and whatnot. But I see her read every
now and then she says, Hey, hey, Rich, how you
doing this?
Speaker 2 (38:18):
Not because y'all, all three of y'alls some working folks,
y'all the busiest people I have elviment. It's a dirty job,
but somebody's got to do it.
Speaker 3 (38:28):
Yes, somebody got to do it.
Speaker 2 (38:29):
Might as well be Yes. In this episode, they really
concentrated on the relationship and the bonding of a father
and son.
Speaker 3 (38:37):
Yes, absolutely, That's what it was.
Speaker 1 (38:39):
And also that dynamic of the parent wanting the best
for their child but really living somewhat in their own
head as to what that should be.
Speaker 3 (38:50):
Absolutely cal was like that. He was a good father.
Yeah he was, you know, he really was a good father.
And I appreciated playing that because my father wasn't a
good father, you know. I wanted to pay a good father.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
You would never know it watching the ship. It was
such a natural thing. Where did you get the information
of how? I know? You said that you just were
everything that you ever wanted.
Speaker 3 (39:11):
How did you?
Speaker 1 (39:11):
Well?
Speaker 3 (39:11):
My grandmother, oddly enough, was a good influence on me.
I learned to tolerate my father when I had to.
He was never really in the house with us, you know,
he'd always be passing thing, you know. Yeah, But I
loved my father, I really did, you know, And I
wanted him to love me back, and I wasn't sure
if he did. I wasn't really sure if he ever did.
Speaker 1 (39:33):
But well, I think you loved enough, young man. Through
your character, you have blessed many a heart. I have
friends who are Kelly's age who really got through tough
times by watching that show and not having a father
and watching you be a good father. I mean, that's
(39:53):
one thing we can really be proud of about this show.
It was about something and it still is. But you
are a wonderful dad on that show. I don't know
where in your life you found that, whatever it is
that allowed you to be so solid in that character,
but it was beautiful to watch.
Speaker 3 (40:11):
Carl Winslow was the father I wanted to be, that
I wanted to have for my own but I ever
could have that, so I created it in my mind
all he would be.
Speaker 2 (40:20):
You know, well, thank you for that. I don't know
if I've ever asked you that. I'm so glad to
know that. Yeah. Who do you have a favorite memory
from Family Matters?
Speaker 3 (40:29):
A favorite memory from Family Matters.
Speaker 1 (40:32):
Something that had happened within that framework, something that really
touched you or changed you.
Speaker 3 (40:36):
Well, like I said, every time I was on that
show was my favorite every day. I don't have any
special memories except that the whole thing was totally was
my life. It became my life. I'll never forget the
first day we'd sing around the pianel for the opening song, Right,
I'll never forget that. Yeah, that was that. This is
the beginning of something very special in.
Speaker 2 (40:54):
My life, and I think we all felt that. I
mean I was.
Speaker 1 (40:57):
I think Kelly and I had talked about when I
came in I'm the reading. I was still working with
Tony Orlando and gone on the weekids. I flew in
for the table read, and that was the first time
that got a chance to meet the whole cast, and
it was just so easy. It just felt so familiar,
even though it wasn't.
Speaker 2 (41:15):
I'm sure you have to say, all the girls are
pretty and everybody's your favorite, But have any of you
ever had another job where you just clicked with the
people in this way?
Speaker 3 (41:26):
No. When I worked with Venette Carol's Urbano Score Theater,
I bonded with the people there. But you all became
part of me permanently in my life, forever influenced me,
and I can't see without I remember my favorite episode
was the Quilt.
Speaker 2 (41:42):
We've all said that time, all said.
Speaker 3 (41:45):
That when you cried the first time, I didn't lost it.
It was really amazing. Yes, it really was.
Speaker 2 (41:52):
How much you guys like as seasoned actors, I mean,
you guys are great actors, like you guys supported me
in that Oh, I can never tell you like you
guys would ever even say that, even at the time
that you guys were so supportive in that it was
like life changing. Kelly. You were so good. I mean
(42:14):
you're still so.
Speaker 3 (42:15):
I saw anybody cry like you cried.
Speaker 2 (42:17):
You know, you were so and you were twelve.
Speaker 3 (42:20):
Twelve years old.
Speaker 1 (42:21):
You know, I'm still working on crying on Q. But no,
you were just so good. You were so so impressive.
And again the casting GUIDs were with us for sure,
yes they were.
Speaker 2 (42:35):
They were. Okay, So now we got to talk about
your new stuff. Last Christmas, you filmed a movie called Onslaught.
Speaker 3 (42:42):
Well, it was before Christmas. It started during taste giving you.
I had no holidays nothing. I was working the holidays.
I didn't have any kind of any presidents or anything
like that. I didn't want any presents. I was busy working.
Speaker 2 (42:54):
Yeah, that's the president.
Speaker 3 (42:56):
Stop enjoying the process of working. You know.
Speaker 2 (42:58):
Can you tell us anything about it, Like, what is
it about?
Speaker 3 (43:01):
Well, it's about this scientist creates this potion of the
ceremon so that it turns people into monsters or crazy people.
They lose their minds and they take over this trailer
park and they try to kill everybody in the trailer
park and oh my god, I saved the day and
it's going to be exciting, you know. I mean can't
wait to.
Speaker 2 (43:16):
See it film for quite a while too.
Speaker 3 (43:18):
The filmy took about two months too, months to film.
Speaker 1 (43:21):
Did you take your babies with your little fir babies
with you?
Speaker 2 (43:24):
No?
Speaker 3 (43:25):
I left them here at the house. I know that
was hard to hire somebody to come take care of
the whatnot? You know, yeah, I missed him so much.
Speaker 2 (43:31):
Now, for all of you who don't know, Reggie's dogs
are like his real children girls and I are like
his TV kids. Yes, the real kids are his dogs.
Speaker 3 (43:42):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (43:42):
Do you remember that house where he had the doghouse
with the upstairs, Yeah, the fireplace and the yard. And
I was like, what the and he tell us, oh, yeah,
go to the outhouse there if you got to use
the bathroom that one outside living like peop all.
Speaker 2 (44:01):
All right, I'm not mad at him about it, though,
not at all.
Speaker 3 (44:05):
I love my babies and I had to take care
of them.
Speaker 1 (44:07):
Now, Reggie, one of my favorite things that you do,
and most people, if they watch the show, they know
exactly what I'm talking about. You do without moving your
feet some serious face acting you and the head now
the nod when you're getting ready to go and be
absolutely idiotic about whatever it is you go to say
(44:29):
your feet and go to shaking that head.
Speaker 2 (44:32):
Oh my god.
Speaker 1 (44:34):
You are so funny. Now, are you even aware or
is that something you consciously like? Zoom from the mirror
and work. I don't know how you do it, but
you do some stuff that just makes me howl when
I said, wow, I.
Speaker 3 (44:51):
Never realized I did that. I didn't know.
Speaker 1 (44:53):
Child, Start watching yourself. You are funny as hell.
Speaker 3 (44:56):
Well, my mother she was good for a reaction shots,
you know, not follow her. You know, I think about
her how she would react to this line or this whatever,
and I used to basically did after her. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (45:08):
Oh, you've got to start watching yourself, Reggie. You can
kind of do it.
Speaker 1 (45:11):
No, I mean really, because when I watch the show now,
it's just like I'm watching people I don't know, so
I can really enjoy it. Oh, but watch yourself. You
do some stuff with your face that is just absolutely ridiculous.
You don't even have to say anything. It just makes
me laugh out loud.
Speaker 3 (45:29):
Wow, I didn't realize it, did that?
Speaker 1 (45:31):
Yes, you do, honey, Now if you had not been
an actuol. Was there anything else that was on your
list of things that you wanted to be growing up?
Speaker 3 (45:42):
Not a thing, really, really, not a thing. I was
acting since that when I first came to my mother's womb,
I was acting. I think, oh wow, I always wanted
to be an actor. I used to create plays and
put them in the garage and hire the neighbors to
come in and see the plays or one that I did,
and I charged them. I think it was fifty cents.
I charged them coming. I take the money, and I
(46:04):
spent the money on candy entrepreneur.
Speaker 2 (46:07):
It must have been good if you were able to
charge money. You created your destiny, I mean you really.
Speaker 3 (46:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (46:13):
They say speak it into being. You acted and wrote
it in the being. Congratulations. Most people don't get a
chance to do what they absolutely want to do.
Speaker 3 (46:23):
From jump Seat, That's very true.
Speaker 2 (46:26):
Also, Reggie, there were only a handful of shows that
really centered around a black family with an all or
predominantly black cast. Did you feel any responsibility to portray
black men a certain way or did you feel any
responsibility in terms of how the show came off in
terms of representing our community?
Speaker 3 (46:47):
Well? I knew I had to be the father, and
what kind of father would I be? I remember the
fathers that I knew in my life, and I try
to portray what they gave me into the role.
Speaker 2 (46:59):
Specific because we get so few opportunities, you feel like
you have to pack it with so much message. It
almost sometimes overburdens it because you feel like you want
to say so much because you don't get the opportunity
to speak that much.
Speaker 3 (47:13):
Absolutely, I tried to do the right thing. I tried
to say the things that whataned my father to say
to me.
Speaker 2 (47:20):
So was it cathartic at all? For that reason? Were
you able to work out some things that you were
missing through playing the character?
Speaker 3 (47:28):
Absolutely? Yes. I wanted to be a man who loved
his family and wanted to show that to the world
that I loved my family.
Speaker 2 (47:37):
That's beautiful. Oftentimes people come up to me and say
that our family on the show was the family that
they didn't have with whether they came from a bad
situation or they didn't have any family at all and
they were by themselves. Are you happy with what ultimately
came out of it? Yes, because people very much feel
that way and feel very much for generations of people.
Speaker 3 (47:56):
Recently, the son of a friend of mine that I
grew up with wrote me a letter and said that
I was the father that he never had and he
always wanted to be. He became a good father because
of me. And I said, well, wow, that's really strange,
because you know, my father wasn't there, so I didn't
know what I was doing.
Speaker 2 (48:14):
And she set that example, but I knew that I.
Speaker 3 (48:16):
Had to do it. Yeah, what I put together, people
gravitated to and reacted to what I did. And I
was very proud of that, and I still am.
Speaker 1 (48:24):
Well, I think he should be proud. That's quite a
legacy that you.
Speaker 2 (48:28):
Have from not having a father that you then turned
around and fathered millions of people.
Speaker 3 (48:33):
Absolutely, and I did that, so I was okay with that.
Speaker 2 (48:36):
Yeah, I love that. Great job. Dat.
Speaker 3 (48:40):
Oh thank you, Thank you love.
Speaker 2 (48:44):
Brother Reggie. I know you are a busy guy. You
are working like crazy. So thank you so much for
coming by and talking to us.
Speaker 3 (48:57):
Thank you for bringing back all these memories to me.
I really appreciate siate it. You know, this is really special.
I'm going to remember this forever.
Speaker 2 (49:04):
Guess what, what, I love you.
Speaker 3 (49:07):
I love you too. I love you too. I love
love you too.
Speaker 2 (49:10):
I love you baby, yeah so much.
Speaker 1 (49:13):
And again, thank you so much for taking the time out.
You know, we would talk about you like a dog
if you hadn't, But thank you so much for taking
the time out to spend a little time with us
and our audience. I know they are loving this well.
Speaker 3 (49:28):
I want to say that I consider you my family now.
When I first saw you, Tama Hopkins, you were with
Dawn on Orlando and down yeah, And I didn't know
I was going to become attached to you this way.
And I really appreciate who you are, what you have
become to be in my life, and thank you for
(49:48):
being who you turn out to be.
Speaker 2 (49:50):
You make it real easy, Reggie, You make it real easy.
I love you. I love you all right, Okay, enough
for the sap fist. It's good.
Speaker 1 (49:59):
We're going to have Reggie. You know how emotional he is.
He'll be my fan eyeball talking about he sweating and stuff. Lord, Well,
we just want to thank our our family. We can't
call him anything else. The fabulous Reginald Bell Johnson for
coming on the show and just sharing himself with us.
(50:21):
We just appreciate you so much. You know we love you.
Speaker 2 (50:25):
But that is it for the show this week, folks,
But stay tuned. 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 TVs and a bunch of other places.
Speaker 1 (50:41):
Welcome to the Family with Telma and Kelly is a
production of iHeart Podcasts and Audiation. It's hosted by me
Teloma Hopkins and me Kelly Williams. Our executive producers are
Sandy Smalling's for audiation, Adam Rip, JD Hopkins, who also
happens to be my son and Kelly's pobro, and Jonathan
Strickland for iHeart Podcasts.
Speaker 2 (51:02):
The show is produced by telman I, but our series
producer is Irelen Meacham, 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 1 (51:15):
And we'd like to thank Nikki Etour and the entire
iHeart podcast team.
Speaker 2 (51:20):
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. Follow us on Instagram
a Welcome to the Family pod for behind the scenes
photos and more.
Speaker 1 (51:26):
Bonus content, and don't forget to leave us a voicemail
at our website, thefamilymatterspod dot com.
Speaker 2 (51:32):
We want to hear your thoughts and favorite memories of the.
Speaker 1 (51:34):
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.
Speaker 2 (51:42):
And make sure to rate and review us wherever you're listening.
We are so excited to have you guys along for
the ride.
Speaker 1 (51:49):
Yes, Welcome to the family, y'all, and we'll see you
next time.
Speaker 2 (51:53):
Welcome to the Familie Audiation.
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