July 26, 2024 • 43 mins
Trey and Brian have a very animated conversation with award-winning writer/director/artist Dan Povenmire (Family Guy, SpongeBob SquarePants, The Simpsons)— who not only co-created the hit Disney series Phineas & Ferb, but also proves a Good Human can still be as evil as Dr. Doofenshmirtz!
Dan Povenmire is an American film and television director, writer, singer, producer, voice actor, and comedian. He is best known for co-creating the hit animated series Phineas and Ferb, as well as Milo Murphy's Law and Hamster & Gretel. He is also the voice behind the beloved Phineas and Ferb character Dr. Doofenshmirtz.
Brian Phelps is an American radio personality, actor, and comedian best known for co-hosting the nationally and globally syndicated Mark & Brian Morning Show in Los Angeles for 25 years. As the co-lead of his own television series, with multiple roles in movies, and a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Phelps is also an inductee in the Radio Hall of Fame.
Trey Callaway is an American film and TV writer and producer who wrote the hit movie I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, and has produced successful TV series like CSI:NY, Supernatural, Rush Hour, Revolution, The Messengers, APB, Station 19 and 9-1-1 LONE STAR. He is also a Professor at USC.
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Dan Povenmire is an American film and television director, writer, singer, producer, voice actor, and comedian. He is best known for co-creating the hit animated series Phineas and Ferb, as well as Milo Murphy's Law and Hamster & Gretel. He is also the voice behind the beloved Phineas and Ferb character Dr. Doofenshmirtz.
Brian Phelps is an American radio personality, actor, and comedian best known for co-hosting the nationally and globally syndicated Mark & Brian Morning Show in Los Angeles for 25 years. As the co-lead of his own television series, with multiple roles in movies, and a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Phelps is also an inductee in the Radio Hall of Fame.
Trey Callaway is an American film and TV writer and producer who wrote the hit movie I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, and has produced successful TV series like CSI:NY, Supernatural, Rush Hour, Revolution, The Messengers, APB, Station 19 and 9-1-1 LONE STAR. He is also a Professor at USC.
___________________________________
Make sure to follow us on social media at:
begoodhumanspodcast.com
instagram.com
tiktok.com
threads.net
facebook.com
x.com
patreon.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I hear you. There we go, Do you hear me?
Speaker 2 (00:03):
None of your beats wet?
Speaker 3 (00:04):
That's hurtful.
Speaker 4 (00:05):
How's that your business?
Speaker 1 (00:07):
That's hurtful.
Speaker 4 (00:09):
M he's not gonna hire you.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
I know. It's what this is, right, It's one big
audition for Dan.
Speaker 5 (00:15):
Good humans. Be good humans. Be good humans, or we
will think you sucked humans, or we will think you suck.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Hey, happy Friday. It's Friday.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
It's Friday.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
You got big plans for the weekend? I do? Actually
you do?
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Oh? What are you like? Anything you want to elaborate on?
Speaker 4 (00:45):
It is none of your business.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
That's always the way.
Speaker 4 (00:47):
I'm really looking forward to my Friday.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
I just know that I'm not invited to any of it. No,
you will be, of course when it's over.
Speaker 4 (00:53):
Now do you did you have any routines as.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
A kid, Well? Yes, what did you do and weekend?
The weekends? Yeah? Oh, one thing and one thing only.
That's Saturday morning cartoons.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
I would often, you know, get up as early as possible,
like before anything was on. You remember what was on
at that point? Dude?
Speaker 4 (01:13):
When you yes, I can tell you right now, dude,
I did. It was the Indian test pattern. Yes, I
was the kid that got up super early, ran downstairs,
turned on the TV, and stared for twenty twenty five
minutes right at this test pattern until the station signed
on and they started playing my cartoons.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
You see, because gen Z listeners and viewers, assuming we
have any, that's how it used to begin the broadcast date. First,
there were three channel I'm going to stop.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Three channels.
Speaker 4 (01:39):
Three channels, CBS and NBC, that is correct, and PBS
but it comes in snow.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
You only watch PBS when you're sick.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
No, but they had a mighty python's follow Yeah late
at night. Yeah, you're right, right, and it was so snowy.
I still thought I saw a boob.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Yes, it was a boom. We're so off topic, although
I could talk about boobs all day.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
The thing is cartoons, Like my life revolved around Saturday
morning too, my too.
Speaker 4 (02:03):
I was that kid.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Yeah, okay, okay, so well you know what my next
question is going to be then, is like let's talk
about the ones that Let's talk first about the ones
that made us laugh, Like, what were your favorite funny cartoons?
Speaker 4 (02:14):
Well, look, if it came from Chuck Jones, that was
my cartoon. Crack to me, it was cartoon crack. Popeye
was a a rotation, go to say. But my very
very favorite cartoon growing yep was Look at Your t Shirt?
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Johnny Quest.
Speaker 4 (02:32):
It was Johnny Damn Quest. I loved it and unfortunately
caused a great deal of turmoil in the Phelps household
because where I lived, they would air the Johnny Quests
late morning, like eleven thirty.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Oh, we're getting into game time, We're.
Speaker 4 (02:49):
Getting into American Bandstand.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Ooh.
Speaker 4 (02:52):
My sister had to watch American Bandstand. It was on
opposite Johnny Quest. So there was this big battle, and
it was usually my mom ending it. Bri, you and
your brother have been watching cartoons all morning. Let hero
watch something. And I could only pray that the phone
would ring and it's one of her girlfriends and they
she'd totally get into the conversation, you know, yackin', and
I could put it over back upto.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
Dude.
Speaker 4 (03:15):
I loved that show.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Yeah, I mean that's the same for me. I mean, laughterwise,
totally with you on the Chuck Jones front, the Looney
Tunes of it all. I was also a big fan
of Pink Panther. Oh yeah, the song, and although they
were we saw them in reruns Flintstones. I was amused
by the flind Stones and flint Stones.
Speaker 4 (03:34):
Loved Hannah Barbera.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Also, I was a big fan of Fat Albert.
Speaker 6 (03:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
I really love the like the the richness of character too.
They're like, they're very clear characters. Yes, fan super Friends,
super into super Friends. I like super Friends.
Speaker 4 (03:49):
I did because that was on right before Johnny Quest,
so I was waiting for it. But yeah, the superhero
cartoons were fine. Yeah, but I was way into the ones.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
I'm well, to be clear. The one of of the
thrills and chills variety, my all time favorite, Scooby Doo.
Really yeah, Scooby Doo. I can't tell you how many
times I'd be sitting in the writer's room on CSI
New York and we would all be halfway through a
plot before we realized, oh my god, we saw this
on Scooby Doo.
Speaker 4 (04:16):
No kidding. Yeah, yeah, that's the word for you, meddling
little kids. I just I don't want to make you,
you know, in this or anything. Beny Hanna Barbara actually
drew us into an episode of Scrappy Do. Remember Scrappy Do.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
I'm not sure if that's something to be proud of her.
Speaker 4 (04:33):
But they drew us is cool, that was awesome, That
is members And I think, but let me ask you this.
You know, you have three beautiful kids, and they're they're grown,
not kids anymore.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
But yes, but when they.
Speaker 4 (04:43):
Were little, what cartoons did they watch? And the reason
I'm asking is there is one particular cartoon that my
friends with little kids would tell me about. Not to say, oh,
they love this cartoon, but Brian, you've got to see
this cartoon. Yeah, because it's as much for adults as
it is for kids.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Oh, I bet I can guess what this is.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
Go ahead, SpongeBob square Pantongebob SquarePants.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
So that was my kid's favorite cartoon and and I
realized very quickly that, oh my gosh, this isn't just
for them, this is for me as well. And by
the way, when we were watching those Chuck Jones looney
tunes as kids, those really weren't for us. They were
they were theatrical shorts and in their in their early adults.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
Going to the movie for the main title starts.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Right, But you watch an episode of SpongeBob and it's
firing on all cylinders. Right, there's stuff for the young ones,
but there's all sorts of stuff for us. And so
I completely fell in love with that show because I
think that show gets at the heart of what makes
such a great and memorable cartoon, which is that it
doesn't pander to kids. Nope, they don't want to be
pandrodging no, no, no. But yet at the same time,
(05:47):
it makes them still feel seen and heard in the
ways that some of the ones that we loved as
kids or made us feel.
Speaker 4 (05:53):
And so that when mom can and dad can, you know,
enjoy them along with you. Because this is the thing.
When my dad also liked Warner Brothers cartoons, when he
didn't go to work on Saturdays, and I'm sitting watching
Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck and he's walking through the room.
You know, he's not gonna sit and watch it, but
he just start cracking up, and it made me feel
(06:14):
so cool to be laughing at the same thing. My
father was.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's that's quite a bonding experience. Now
let me ask you this. I know you've done a
lot of acting. Have you worked at all in animation
like voiceover stuff?
Speaker 4 (06:27):
You know a few things? Yeah, I voiceover I did
a few characters, and but I also did voiceover work
on some film and television, but you know, not a lot,
probably probably stuff you wouldn't reckon it. Well, maybe you
know this one. But I played the voice of this
character called Darth Vader on the first three Star Wars films.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
That was ordinary. I think a lot of people confuse
that with someone else.
Speaker 4 (06:51):
No, yeah, I don't know, I don't care. I know,
you know, I know the truth.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (06:54):
But the thing is, once I did this Star Wars
films as Darth Vader, I started getting all these offers
to do other voiceovers, and to be honest with you,
you know, I had to cancel a lot of them,
or I had to just not accept a lot of
them because I couldn't be bothered. No, but there is
a silver lining to this.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
What's that? Right?
Speaker 4 (07:13):
When they would call and offer me, you know, this
big voiceover, you know, gig, I would usually turn it down.
And the good thing is the silver lining is if
they couldn't get me, they got Morgan Freeman.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
So obviously built your own career, you built his, but
obviously he needed the work. So good human, that's good. Good.
Speaker 4 (07:33):
It worked out for everybody, you know, it was a
win win situation. Now, what about you and your corpulent
resume that is Trey Callaway. If I were to look
at it, it would take me a week to ten days.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
To get through.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
But if I were to look at it, would there
be anything concerning animation?
Speaker 1 (07:50):
Yes in it? Yes? Yes. I interned at Disney while
I was a student at USC. I helped Shade in
storyboard art for the Rescuers down Under. Oh I like
that one. And then I wound up later writing some
Lion King cartoons. And then I had a brief deal
at dream Works to write an animated feature for them.
(08:12):
But it is a whole different skill set. But as
a writer as a producer, like it's just a I
think it takes everything that is hard about writing sometimes
and makes it even harder because you have so many
other things to think about creatively, But especially when it
gets into that into that zone that we're talking about
with SpongeBob SquarePants, where it's like this is this is
(08:35):
for a multi tiered audience, Like I want to fire
on all those cylinders.
Speaker 4 (08:40):
How great to expand your experience too? Is kind of
a new thing. Oh yeah, but seriously, I did was
honored to do this project because back in the Kowa Show,
we had these two guests in there. There were partners
and they were executive producers creators of this insanely popular
(09:02):
animated series called Phineas and First.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Oh my god, so that's that's that next level category,
that's right there or beyond. No, no, no, it's it's
fires on every cylinder imaginable.
Speaker 4 (09:15):
So we connected. It was a great interview that guys
were wonderful. Yeah, and kind of kept in touch. And
a couple of weeks after the interview, one of them
called is, hey, if you're free Thursday afternoon, you can
come down and uh and do some voices on.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Are you kidding me?
Speaker 4 (09:30):
Okay, so wait, I can I come now? No, no,
it's but I can come now. You know that kind
of what kind of voices you're doing Phineas and versa.
That was the awesome thing.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
It was an experience.
Speaker 4 (09:40):
I'm driving and I'm driving. They're so excited, and I realized,
I don't know what voices I'm doing. They didn't say,
I don't know the script, I don't know the plot.
I'm totally new at this now.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
But that's where you're in your best comfort zone.
Speaker 4 (09:55):
Well, I get there. First of all, it was the
most relaxed, most fun, upbeat, funny set I've ever been on.
If you go into the little room, you put on
the headphones and they kind of give you a tutorial
on what's going to hear three beeps and then But
again I had no idea what I was doing. But
it was the kind of thing, and they weren't the
main characters at all, by no means. I was sort
(10:17):
of like the well, one of the guys that were
the utility guys. They just bring me in and go, Brian,
do a janitor, Oh nice? And I would do a
janitor voice and nice. And then they call a few
weeks later Brian do James Bond, Oh oh nice? Okay,
And then another one'd be a weatherman, a TV weatherman.
So it was that kind of adventure. Then I learned
(10:38):
to love getting that call and going in going I
wonder what I'm doing today? Yeah, I just creating while
you're there.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
They were wonderful. Well, listen, would you believe it if
I told you that long, long before you were doing
voices on Phineas and Firm. I knew Dan Povemeyer back
in college. You're kidding. I had hair. Wait at us C,
I had lots of hair.
Speaker 4 (11:02):
Yes, you know, I'm just skipping over the hair joke
because it's too easy. But so you guys went to
school together us se we did, and you and you
and you.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
I'm gonna prove it to you. You know how.
Speaker 4 (11:13):
He's a genius by the way, But go ahead, don't
know how.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
I'm gonna prove it to you. Okay, prove it. Stick around,
We'll be right back.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
You can't do.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
That to me.
Speaker 4 (11:20):
I just you left me hanging.
Speaker 5 (11:32):
A bigger kill, the big kill.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
We will take you suck thing.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
It's like magic. Remember Dan Papa Meyer. We were talking
about Dan Papa Meyer. Guys here he says, this is
the Dan Papa. Here's the thing. I know Dan as
this I mentioned we've known each other as Couch. I
know him as this amazingly talented artist and singer and
(12:03):
songwriter and storyteller.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
That's right. We were in bands at the same time.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
Yes, Also, I could not get enough of his daily
cartoon strip in the USC Daily newspaper for students and
Life is a Fish, which was fantastically funny, which I
still think should be a hit series of its own.
But I'm sure that's I'll leave that to you. But
I loved that, I loved hanging out with him. But
(12:30):
but but the rest of the world, of course knows
Dan Povenmeier as a multi Emmy Award winning BAFTA Award
winning Annie and PGA Award winning creator of Phineas and
ferb and and Milo Murphy's Law, and also a guy
who has worked on shows like Family Guy, and and
(12:52):
and and and Ren and Stimpy and Hey Arnold and
and That's what I'm Like and SpongeBob Squarepan right like,
this is a guy who is revered by kids and
adults alike as a cartoon god who makes you laugh,
who makes you think, who makes you sing, who makes
(13:12):
you dance, who makes you feel and just before you get,
just when you get full of all the warm, fuzzy feelings.
He is also the evil doctor Duffenschmertz.
Speaker 6 (13:24):
That's right, that's me when he talks, it's my silly
voice that comes out.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
Of his face.
Speaker 4 (13:30):
Unbelievable. Now, welcome, first of all, and we're honored to
have you with us.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Thank you for being here.
Speaker 4 (13:36):
Dan and I've met on a couple of occasions but
you know, I not like you.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
You guys go way back.
Speaker 4 (13:41):
But I gotta ask, and the room answers, is this
the first show we've ever had that we have a
guy that was a child prodigy? Yes, as a guest folks?
Speaker 3 (13:52):
Is that because it says child prodigy in on my
wiki page?
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Pretty much?
Speaker 5 (13:56):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (13:57):
I get help for that.
Speaker 4 (13:58):
I didn't tell them that I wanted to, because this
is a fact. You started drawing when I was two
years old. Two years old, and by ten you were
selling your work in art shows.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
But as a professional artist. But I wanted to.
Speaker 4 (14:12):
But Dan, I want to know, what do you draw
when you're two?
Speaker 1 (14:16):
You're two years ago?
Speaker 3 (14:16):
Like, here's the thing. I have these drawings and I
have them up in my house because my mom gave
them to me because they were in her house and
to me when I was growing up. I was like,
it was nice that she kept these. But they look
like a kid drew them. They look like a you know,
but they look like a chimpanzee and a giraffe. You're too, shag,
(14:38):
you're too And I didn't realize to like kids of
my own, how far over the curve I was, because
they look like a twelve year old kids pictures, and
you know, like and I have kids that are really
amazingly artistically talented, but at two years old, they were
(14:58):
drawing like a circle and maybe two dots for eyes
with sticks coming off, like and these were like like,
you know, you could tell, oh, that's a jaguar as
opposed to a tiger or a cat or you know,
they look like the animals they're supposed to.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Look, of course, of course.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
And then I realized, oh, that's why she kept them,
because she was like looking at what everybody else was drawing.
Speaker 4 (15:20):
So was that your main focus from two?
Speaker 3 (15:22):
From two on, I drew for a very very long time,
just because I would get attention for it and because
I love doing it, and I was always very fast
at it. And then when I started, you know, about eleven,
I guess my mom started got me some rapidograph pens
(15:42):
and I started doing like sort of semi photorealistic animals
and scenery and stuff like that, and she was like, oh,
we should go get these limited edition printed, which was
like those lithographs prints. We're a big thing now, and
we'll take them to art shows. And I made so
much money doing you know, like selling art because I
would go to the jury shows where they were you
(16:05):
would just send in your art and not anything really
about yourself, and they would decide whether you were good
enough to be in this. And then I would show
up and they were like, is your dad the guy?
Speaker 1 (16:19):
So really, it's Mom's the good human we should be talking.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
She was very good, you know, and they were very
very you know, I work with a lot of people
in animation who had to fight against their upbringing, against
their parents because they didn't think being an artist could.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
Be a real sustainable career.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
It's the career. And now most of them have proved
their parents wrong and they're like, oh, I'm so glad
you did this. But you know, I know people who
got sort of dis disowned by their parents because they
wanted to go into animation. And my parents were always like,
this is something you do really well. You should pursue
this as lucky as a career.
Speaker 4 (16:56):
That is lucky and fortunate to have those kind of parents.
I too had that that that angle of parenting that
was thrust on me. Again, it's it's great to thank
your lucky stars that you had.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
Yeah, yeah, I was raised by wolves.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
Yeah you could tell anyways, raised by olots.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
What Okay. So when you're a kid and you're doing
all this art, are you are art? Are you finding
any influences yourself while the rest of us are just
vegging over a box of Twinkies watching Saturday Morning cartoons?
Are you watching any cartoons?
Speaker 3 (17:28):
Are you? Much like much like Brian, Chuck Jones is
sort of where I went all the time, and I
liked all the cartoons that were on. I think that's
a missing thing that this generation was. Once even cable
became a thing, you didn't have that Saturday morning t Yeah,
it wasn't wasn't as traditional, but but Chuck Jones was
(17:49):
always And I didn't realize until I was a little
older and was able to sort of research who did
Which of those cartoons that that that his were always
the ones that I found the most.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
Did you ever meet him?
Speaker 3 (18:01):
I met him once. I met him once, and then
I did his job at Warner Brothers on on some
shorts for a while, and I was like, Oh, this
is going to be so great. I'm going to be
able to eat. Like he's going to come in and
meet and he'll probably hate what we're doing. Because he
was a little curmudgin.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
But but but I'll you know, I'll get to show
him what, you know, like let my take on on
these things. And uh. And he passed away the weekend
before I started.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
Well, it's sort of like I was.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
Like, we're never going to you know, because I did
a couple of cartoons during that time that never got
released because of weird behind the scenes politics between the
executive producer and everything like that. You can find them
on on YouTube because they were released internationally but not
in the States. There was one called Museum Screams, when
I think one of the best things I've ever done.
(18:51):
And I felt like it was very sad for me
because I felt like like like he didn't like most
of what happened after he stopped doing it with him,
and I felt like I could show him this one
and he would go, finally somebody gets it. That's how
it felt to me. Because we had like a big
piece of existing classical music that nobody had ever used,
(19:11):
called the Thunder and Lightning polk of I Strauss and
I just and it was like seven It was Sylvester
and Tweety at at at the at the Natural History
Museum at night and going through all the exhibits and
stuff like that, and there was lots of it was
all visual gags. There was only like four lines of
(19:32):
dialogue and for seven minutes, and Sylvester gets pushed through
a prism at one point in the Discovery Zone area
and becomes seven different colored Sylvesters were all trying to
get tweety and all trying to keep each other from
getting tweety, and every hit in the face is a
symbol crash, everything like that, and it just really felt
like an old one. And when I was done with
(19:54):
I was I was like just so high, and I
was also sort of so sad that I didn't get
to show that.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
Let's let's back up for a second, though, because let's
get so when when we met in college, like I mentioned, like,
I was certainly aware of your work in The Daily Trojan,
which I was a fan of, but I was also
a big fan of yours of your music. Right, So
Dan fronted the band called Keep Left, which is fantastic.
There are two of their songs still uh replay in
(20:22):
my head on a daily one and and and I
bring these up not only because they're masterful pop rock songs,
but also because they are lyrically subversive in all of
the ways. Yes, right, So I'm wondering which ones they Okay,
one one was called and the title Alone. One was
called I Took Your Mom to Disneyland, Yes, and and
(20:43):
the other one was called Throwing Things at Cars, right,
which and so those two songs to me sort of
speak to the heart of also your skills as as
a songwriter, as a popcraftsman. Like it's something subversive lyrically
but also a catchy melody and a hook.
Speaker 4 (20:57):
Just so what genre rock?
Speaker 3 (21:00):
Yeah, there's We were sort of I describe us as
we were Baar Naked Ladies before Bearing Naked Lace, right
when everybody was looking for the next Nirvana, which was
not us at all. We were like this crunchy pop band.
We had serious songs and joke songs, and we had
two different lead singers that we would trade off, and
we do a lot of a lot of four part
(21:20):
harmony and stuff like that, and uh and and so
you know, that was the kind of music it was.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
So I know it was a journey, but to the
extent you're able to encapsulate it, How did you get
from like the Daily Trojan cartoons and making these great
little works of pop rock, Like, how did you make
that jump into animation?
Speaker 3 (21:38):
Well, you know, I had always been able to draw
anything I wanted to draw, so that was an easier
way to get into the entertainment industry. I originally wanted
to direct live action films. Yeah, you know, and but
it's harder to convince somebody that you can do that
when everybody's trying to do that and there's nothing, you know,
like but somebody who who doesn't even draw and look
(22:00):
at a good drawing and know that's oh, that's a
good drawing. That's what it was supposed to look on. So
that was always an easier way for me to get work.
But my first writing gig I got because of the
comic strip at USC. I went in because Roca's Modern
Life was hiring and they won. I was it was
like the end of a season on The Simpsons. I
was working with the Simpsons at the time, and uh,
(22:21):
and they were looking for people who could write and
draw at the same time, which is which is a
much smaller talent pool. So I just took a book
of my comic strip in and handed it to the
the supervising director and he looked through and he laughed
at the first like five cartoons, and he went, all right,
you're hired. It was like that was the whole conversation.
(22:41):
When can you start? I can start on Monday. Let's
let's let's let's do this.
Speaker 4 (22:45):
Can I see these online somewhere where.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
He had a book.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
We had books that that that I made and sold
in the bookstore at campus, and and and like like
twice a year there'd be a craft arts and crafts
fair at campus. And because I bound them myself, I
was allowed to sell those like that, and that would
I would just rake in the money. There's actually like
a line at my booth every day because the strip
(23:12):
had become so successful.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
When you got started then in animation, was it always
an intention in the back of your brain, decider, because
of the band, because of your musicianship, to sort of
try and incorporate music into the picture in somewhere.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
Yeah, Like like Swampy and I started writing on Rocos
Modern Life together, and we always wrote songs for episodes
because we felt like, you know, I don't remember a
single storyline from the archies, but I can sing like
four of those songs, you know, sugar, But we all
know that song.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Which was written by the father of someone else. We
went to us.
Speaker 3 (23:45):
Exactly yeah, and it was John Barry's dad.
Speaker 4 (23:48):
Wrote that thank you.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
Yes, there you go.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
Yes, I met him at a at an event just recently,
John's dad. But so that was to us, it was like,
that's immortality if you can you know, epop or you know,
you still remember that song, that song, even though you
may not remember what episode it was from or anything
like that.
Speaker 4 (24:09):
So we were like, and George's drum and that was
brilliantly impressive.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
Yeah, you are right.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
So it's a it's you know, to us, that's the
closest thing you get to immortality. We're like, if if,
if we can write songs for these things, kids will
still remember these songs even after we pass away, you know,
years from now. And and you know, like like your
your guy was showing that video of his daughters in
(24:36):
a band and they play the Phineas and ferb theme song.
And I've been at bowling for soup concerts and I've
seen videos of people playing that song at Lallapalooza and
stuff like that, and just everybody sings along from the
very first, you know, they just there's a hundred info
and then from there on in everybody, everybody is the
mission accomplished. Yeah, and it's like, you know, like like
(24:59):
I was sort of like, I hope these sort of
stand the test of time. And now you know on TikTok,
if you just look up the name of any of
the Phineas songs, there's literally hundreds of thousands of videos
of people lim sinking to them or covering them, or
doing the choreography that I drew on post it notes
back in you know, two thousand and five.
Speaker 4 (25:19):
Yeah, I love what you said, Dan, And this was
an interview I read a couple of days ago concerning
the songs you would go in and just try to
make each other laugh. Yeah, that that is that resonated
with me. Totally relate to that well, and.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
That energy is I think what audiences tap into as well.
Like and I know that from sitting on the couch
with my kids watching Phineas and ferb after we finished
watching SpongeBob SquarePants. Is like, yes, it was literally again
like we said before, firing on both of those cylinders.
I was thoroughly enjoying myself.
Speaker 3 (25:51):
You were always trying to make things the adults in
the room and.
Speaker 4 (25:54):
Which again mission accomplished. But Dan, I want to bring
this up because I want to thank you, uh and
and I tell people that you actually, you guys uh
dropped it on our show, which is probably untrue. But
I just remember us just playing the whole thing and
you guys were there and we loved it. But you
and your your partner finishing for a partner, uh Swampy
(26:18):
Marsh are responsible for the responsible for the most hilarious
and at the same time educational rap song. I'm talking hilarious,
I'm talking beautifully pretty.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
You got.
Speaker 4 (26:31):
I urge you to go to YouTube and find animating. Yes, yeah,
Now this this thing was so well produced and so
funnily written.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
So it's not animated, it's it's it's it's it's our
behind the scenes video. Yes, explain how the show.
Speaker 4 (26:47):
Is that you and your your staff, your crew, the
all got involved. I can't tell you how well written
and how well performed rap performed this was, and the
video is outstandingly entertaining. So I urged. This is Uncle
Brian talking. I urge you guys out there to go
find animating.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
It's super funny, but it also has that quality. Even
though it's not animated, it has that quality of like
a schoolhouse rock kind of thing. I actually learned from it, right,
But it's also amusing.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
I have so many friends who work in animation who
said thank you for that, because now when people ask
me what I do for a little like how this works,
I just show them this song and they get it.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (27:27):
It answered a lot of questions for me. Yeah, yeah,
it truly did.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
So let me ask you this, dan as A. Did
your approach in any way to animation change when you
had kids of your own?
Speaker 3 (27:40):
I wonder sometimes if if Phineas and Ferb is a
different show because of when we sold it, because we
created that show together when we are on Rocco's Modern
Life and either of us had kids, and it took
thirteen years to sell it. You know, we kept pitching
it to a different studio and they would get all
(28:01):
the way up the level, you know, to the top guy,
and that guy go and don't get it. You know,
it was all over town for a long time. And
then and then by the time it's sold, we both
had kids, and I think that we made some choices
that we might have made then, Like one of the
choices was we don't want the kids to be like
(28:23):
we watched. We looked at what was on TV for
kids all the time, and so much of it was
kids being jerks or being idiots. They were either every
character was either stupid or they were mean to each other,
because that's the easiest place to go for humor, of course,
and we were like, I want and I have a
friend Tim Doyle. You know, Tim told me that his
(28:44):
his he wouldn't let his kid watch you know, when
I told him that I sold the show to Disney
Channel suits, I don't let my watch my kid watch
Disney Channel. I was like, really, that seems like the
most innoci you know, like that this should be easy.
And he said no because Disney and I wants it
both ways because they always have a good message, but
the interesting character is always the mean, backstabbing one. And
(29:10):
I felt like my kid was starting to repeat those things.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
It's easy.
Speaker 3 (29:14):
And I was like, I wonder if we could make
a show that was edgy but still was a show
that Tim Doyle would let his kid watch. And you
know what, Phineas and Verb was her favorite show, So
what was that like?
Speaker 4 (29:26):
When Disney goes okay, it's been thirteen years. They turned
it down, right, well.
Speaker 3 (29:31):
They would know the Disney turned it down like a
year before because they were looking for a girls show
with girl like this. And then they called out of
the blue and said, all right, I know you're not
expecting this call, but we want to option Phineas and Ferb,
which just means that they want to like see what
else we could do with It wasn't a full on
(29:52):
pilot yet, but that that ended up happening, and Swampy
was living in England at the time. I had to
call figure out what time it was in England to
call him to tell them, and then then they sort
of we were blessed by the fact that there was
a big shake up above us, so nobody was paying
attention to us spot so we just made whatever show
(30:15):
we wanted to make and pitched them the storyboards and
then they just all loved it and they you know, like,
oh okay, you know, and and then it tested. It's
I think it's still the best testing thing.
Speaker 5 (30:29):
Well.
Speaker 4 (30:30):
Disney is still a huge icon part of our lives
because they somehow learned to grow in a Das and
Phineas and Ferb on the Disney Channel was something completely new.
Speaker 3 (30:42):
Oh yeah. It wasn't like anything they had done before
at all.
Speaker 4 (30:45):
And it, like I said earlier in Insane Success, they
just so they loved it so much so that I mean,
I can't imagine when they call and go, Okay, we're
going to give you some percentage of the merch.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
It's been nice. Oh my god, it's been nice. It's nice.
It's it's see your characters all around the park. That
was the coolest thing that's ever happened in my career.
And I've had a lot of really you know, I
got I got to write a song with Slash. I
got to see Wayne Newton sing the Perry the Platypus
theme on stage in Vegas with Platypus themed dancing girls,
(31:24):
you know, Like I got to see the live show
that you know, like like the the Disney on ice
people do you know. I've seen a lot of really
cool things, but there's nothing better than being in the
parks and seeing your characters come out and sing songs
that you guys, you know that like that we had written,
you know, like the first time that happened, Like like
(31:46):
I was producing a movie for the you know, Phineas,
and for a movie for Disney Channel, the show Take
two with Phineas, and for Dufen Schmertz's Rants Online. A
lot like we were doing a whole bunch of stuff
all at one time, and they said, Hey, we're going
to do a show in the parks. We're going to
you know, and we approved what songs they were going
(32:08):
to do, approved the design of their vehicle and stuff
like that, and then they went off and choreographed it
and created this. This just one thing you didn't have
to do. And then they sent me an email saying, hey,
the show is up and running in California Adventure. If
next time you're there you check it out. I was like, okay, good.
I was so busy I completely forgot about that email. Amazed,
And then like a month or so later, I'm there
(32:29):
with my girls just because like some friends were going,
well all go to Disneyland and I'm walking around and
I'm like, wait a second, I think I got an email.
And I went over and I asked somebody. I was like,
is there like this weird question? Is there like some
sort of Phineas and Firm dance party that happens? And they, oh, yeah,
it's right over there. It's going to start about fifteen minutes.
(32:51):
And there were already people lined up for it who
had like Phineas and firm shirts on I'm Bury the Platypus,
and I was like, and I taught my wife didn't
even know this existed.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
By the way, I like to think of you at
the back of the crowd, unable to see your own show.
Speaker 3 (33:06):
Right well, it was great because we I said, hey, guys, guys,
come over here. We're just gonna line up here. There's
something gonna happen to you. I think you guys are
gonna really love it, you know. They're like, and my daughter's.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
Like, Dad, it's hot.
Speaker 3 (33:17):
Can we go on the river rapids? And it's like no, no, no,
hold on, just wait like this, and they're like, I
think we like this. And my wife is looking around,
she's going She's seeing all the Phineas gear on all
the people. She's like, honey, what is the I was like, wait, wait, wait, wait,
and then the girls suddenly go wait, Dad, listen and
they can hear the Phineas theme song and it's getting
(33:37):
louder and loud, and they come around and they're just
you know, it's like all these these you know, girls
in fireside girl costumes, teaching the kids how to do
the choreography. It's all these songs that my my children
grew up with because I would play them the songs
before it even over there. And my my wife and
I just sat there and hugged each other and cry, Yeah.
Can you like the whole.
Speaker 4 (33:58):
Time you said you went with friends in there?
Speaker 3 (34:00):
Kids?
Speaker 4 (34:00):
Can you imagine being the dad of one of his friends.
Oh yeah, like that happens.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
I'm sure.
Speaker 3 (34:10):
That's like.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
But but speaking of your girls, now, at this point,
it's also become a family business because one of your kids,
Mellie did.
Speaker 3 (34:16):
Not just a voice.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
She's an Emmy nominated.
Speaker 3 (34:18):
She's she's the voice of Gretel on a Hamster and
grel Yes, and she got nominated for an Emmy. Which
is which is? Which is crazy?
Speaker 1 (34:26):
This must have been a completely proud, full circle moment.
Speaker 3 (34:30):
Oh my god, it was. It was. I was not
expecting it because I was under the impression we weren't
putting her up for the Emmy because I felt, you know,
because there's a lot of work that goes into it.
You know. It's weird enough that my daughter ended up,
you know, like like she didn't you know, like she
doesn't really even want to be an actress. She was
in the house when I did it, and I had
to do the temp and then everybody sort of fell
(34:51):
in love with it, and I was like, I don't
want to put people out to try to put together
clips and stuff. But they already had clips because they
had put Pamela ad On up for an Annie before
and all of her scenes wereth Mellie. So they just
used those again and put them out. And so somebody
texted me and said, said, hey, congratulate Melly on her
nominee nomination. I went for what they said for her
(35:15):
Emmy nomination. I said, I don't think, so send me
the link. And I was like, oh my god. So
I got to call her from you know, FaceTime, and
I said, can you get out of class right now?
You know, like, can you just go outside the classroom
for a second. Let me tell you what's what's going on?
Speaker 4 (35:30):
Well, what's your reaction?
Speaker 3 (35:31):
She started just bawling, and like I shot a video
of it, or or one of my writers shot a
video of her reaction on the on the thing. And
it's such a great sort of like like genuine reaction
from her. And I was telling the writers. I was
because they were like, you should Facetimer right now. We
were in the writer's room and and and I said, well, guys,
(35:53):
she's a peculiar kid. She may just go oh that's
cool and then like go back into class. You know,
it's like I never know how she's got exapt of stuff.
And she just really got the importance and how huge
it was. It was really proud of you.
Speaker 4 (36:07):
You proud of her that, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
There's so much going on there. And also you have
you have so connected with so many people now that
you got well you got Phineas and for back in production.
Speaker 3 (36:17):
Yes, yes, yeah, Now the I think because of pandemic.
I think that helped us a lot. Because of my tiktoks.
I think that uh like it's always apparently one of
the top five things on Disney Plus. And they started going,
why did we stop doing that? Well, we were t
here in stream.
Speaker 4 (36:36):
Were you up for, like, yeah, let's let's real.
Speaker 3 (36:39):
Yeah, you know, if you if you want to make
that happen. You know, I love those characters. We've we've
gone back to them a couple of times. We made
a movie in twenty twenty that was like the number
five movie of the year. Yeah, uh uh and uh
and we and we're like, let's uh, let's let's dive
back in if you want to, if you want to
do that. But it was sort of haunting because we've
(37:00):
made so many of them and they're considered this sort
of high water mark, and and it was like, are
we going to spend most of the time in the
in the writer's room going no, did that?
Speaker 1 (37:10):
Did that?
Speaker 3 (37:11):
You know? Like Simpsons did it? It's like, except we
did it.
Speaker 1 (37:14):
This is.
Speaker 3 (37:16):
The new stuff is spectacular.
Speaker 1 (37:19):
Was there something new that you wanted to accomplish by
going back with there anything that you hadn't done that?
Speaker 3 (37:23):
There were? There were There was a list of like
five or six different stories that, you know, one of
which is a possible another movie that we're gonna make
that I was like, Oh, I would love to do this.
I would love to do this now that we have
streaming that it's a new technology. I would love to
do this. We haven't gotten to most of those because
we've been having such a good time just doing new,
fresh stories with these characters and sort of breaking the
(37:46):
formula in certain ways. To to sort of, you know,
get more more comedy out of it. And it's all
you know, the writer's rooms about half people who had
worked on the show back in the day and half
young people who grew up with the show as there
favorite shows. So there's so much energy in there.
Speaker 4 (38:03):
Well, look, as we all know, thanks to you, uh,
doctor duffen Schmertz is well evil incarnate.
Speaker 1 (38:10):
Yes, true.
Speaker 4 (38:12):
So it made us kind of start wondering what would
he think if he knew that we were doing a
show about about celebrating good things that people do, the
good in people, the good humans.
Speaker 1 (38:25):
What would what is the opposite?
Speaker 3 (38:27):
He would always like, like, I do this whenever anybody
wants me to call, like a you know, can you
call my kid at college?
Speaker 6 (38:35):
He would be like, I know, everybody's gonna watch you
to do good things. But the other side of that
point is evil is a wide open field.
Speaker 3 (38:43):
That's there's a lot of career opportunities. That's what I'm saying.
You should you should consider that something. Keep in mind,
you can go into evil.
Speaker 6 (38:53):
You can follow my illustrious what's that?
Speaker 1 (38:57):
Okay? So look, Dan, yes, it is obvious to everyone
watching and listening you you have done a great deal
not just for kids, making kids feel seen and heard
without pandering to them in any way, but also their parents.
And we've all been entertained and amused in all kinds
of ways. And so you have really very directly worked
(39:20):
with families on your own, so you have nothing, nothing
else to prove from where we sit. But but but
I also know that you are very much involved in
working with an amazing organization called Door of Hope.
Speaker 3 (39:32):
Yeah. Door of Hope is an organization that gets people
out of homelessness and families specifically, right family specifically. It
gives them a place to stay, and it's and it
teaches them coping skills and how to stay out of homelessness.
And the thing that I always they're recidivism rate is
(39:54):
so low, like it's it's I forget what it is,
but it's like less than ten percent of the people
who go through that program ever end up homeless again,
which is to me, that's the proof in the pudding
right there is. Yeah, it's it's a greatization.
Speaker 1 (40:10):
Incredible charity out of Pasadena, California, really one of the
only homeless providers that can shelter any kind of a
family together in their own private unit. Right, this is
a single mom, single dads. Yeah, two parent families together
with their kids. So thank you for for your work
on their behalf. You. You guys can find out more
(40:33):
about Door of Hope by going online to Door Offhope
dot Us is their website. But yeah, I mean listen,
between between that and everything else you've done, I feel
fairly comfortable in giving him our good human stamp of approval.
Speaker 4 (40:49):
Not that he needs it, but absolutely.
Speaker 1 (40:51):
Yeah, you really don't need anything else from us.
Speaker 4 (40:53):
Uh, A pleasure having you on the show and seeing
you again.
Speaker 3 (40:57):
Yeah, I was gonna ask, I don't think i've seen
either you since before pandemic.
Speaker 1 (41:02):
That's that's true.
Speaker 3 (41:02):
That's true.
Speaker 1 (41:03):
That is true.
Speaker 4 (41:04):
But you gave the name of your college band, and
you guys went to each other's shows. What was the
name of your band? Right?
Speaker 1 (41:12):
You ready? Yeah, I'm gonna deliver this right to number
one Amethyst.
Speaker 3 (41:20):
I had forgotten that Mayor and I have like a CD.
Speaker 1 (41:24):
You might know.
Speaker 2 (41:26):
I gotta get that.
Speaker 3 (41:27):
I want to hear. No. I had to bug him
to burn it.
Speaker 1 (41:32):
Because yeah, anyway, we were no keep left. I can
tell you that much. Dan Popmeyer, thank you so much
for being here with us. It's been an absolute clearsure.
Thank you most of all for being a good human.
Speaker 3 (41:43):
I try.
Speaker 4 (41:43):
We will be right back after this.
Speaker 2 (41:45):
Thanks Dan, we will thank you.
Speaker 3 (41:56):
Suck.
Speaker 4 (41:57):
Hey, everybody, if you haven't already, go to be Good
Humans podcast dot com. There's gonna be a little place
there for you to make your suggestions if you have
good humans in your life, people you think we might
want to talk to you on the show.
Speaker 1 (42:09):
Absolutely, And while you're at it, follow us on all
the socials. You know, it's the usual suspects. It's Facebook
and Instagram and threads and x or whatever they call it.
And last, but not least, do us a favor is
if you're an especially good human follow us on Patreon
and there you're gonna get all kinds of fun extra stuff,
(42:30):
stuff that didn't make it into the show because we
tend to be a little bit too verbose. Member exclusive
videos and posts. Maybe maybe even a private exclusive message
from doctor Duffenschmertz maybe maybe maybe. Anyway, bottom line is
you're gonna get super cool access to all kinds of
things that you can't get for free on the podcast
(42:52):
or through the socials.
Speaker 4 (42:53):
So I hope you enjoyed the show today, and I
hope you're having a great day. And be good humans,
bye bye bye bye.
Speaker 5 (43:00):
Be good humans.
Speaker 2 (43:02):
Be good humans.
Speaker 5 (43:05):
Be good humans, or we will think you suck. Thank
God humans, thank God you Heaven's thank God humans, or
we will thank you, sucker.
I hear you. There we go, Do you hear me?
Speaker 2 (00:03):
None of your beats wet?
Speaker 3 (00:04):
That's hurtful.
Speaker 4 (00:05):
How's that your business?
Speaker 1 (00:07):
That's hurtful.
Speaker 4 (00:09):
M he's not gonna hire you.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
I know. It's what this is, right, It's one big
audition for Dan.
Speaker 5 (00:15):
Good humans. Be good humans. Be good humans, or we
will think you sucked humans, or we will think you suck.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Hey, happy Friday. It's Friday.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
It's Friday.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
You got big plans for the weekend? I do? Actually
you do?
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Oh? What are you like? Anything you want to elaborate on?
Speaker 4 (00:45):
It is none of your business.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
That's always the way.
Speaker 4 (00:47):
I'm really looking forward to my Friday.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
I just know that I'm not invited to any of it. No,
you will be, of course when it's over.
Speaker 4 (00:53):
Now do you did you have any routines as.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
A kid, Well? Yes, what did you do and weekend?
The weekends? Yeah? Oh, one thing and one thing only.
That's Saturday morning cartoons.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
I would often, you know, get up as early as possible,
like before anything was on. You remember what was on
at that point? Dude?
Speaker 4 (01:13):
When you yes, I can tell you right now, dude,
I did. It was the Indian test pattern. Yes, I
was the kid that got up super early, ran downstairs,
turned on the TV, and stared for twenty twenty five
minutes right at this test pattern until the station signed
on and they started playing my cartoons.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
You see, because gen Z listeners and viewers, assuming we
have any, that's how it used to begin the broadcast date. First,
there were three channel I'm going to stop.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Three channels.
Speaker 4 (01:39):
Three channels, CBS and NBC, that is correct, and PBS
but it comes in snow.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
You only watch PBS when you're sick.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
No, but they had a mighty python's follow Yeah late
at night. Yeah, you're right, right, and it was so snowy.
I still thought I saw a boob.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Yes, it was a boom. We're so off topic, although
I could talk about boobs all day.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
The thing is cartoons, Like my life revolved around Saturday
morning too, my too.
Speaker 4 (02:03):
I was that kid.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Yeah, okay, okay, so well you know what my next
question is going to be then, is like let's talk
about the ones that Let's talk first about the ones
that made us laugh, Like, what were your favorite funny cartoons?
Speaker 4 (02:14):
Well, look, if it came from Chuck Jones, that was
my cartoon. Crack to me, it was cartoon crack. Popeye
was a a rotation, go to say. But my very
very favorite cartoon growing yep was Look at Your t Shirt?
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Johnny Quest.
Speaker 4 (02:32):
It was Johnny Damn Quest. I loved it and unfortunately
caused a great deal of turmoil in the Phelps household
because where I lived, they would air the Johnny Quests
late morning, like eleven thirty.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Oh, we're getting into game time, We're.
Speaker 4 (02:49):
Getting into American Bandstand.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Ooh.
Speaker 4 (02:52):
My sister had to watch American Bandstand. It was on
opposite Johnny Quest. So there was this big battle, and
it was usually my mom ending it. Bri, you and
your brother have been watching cartoons all morning. Let hero
watch something. And I could only pray that the phone
would ring and it's one of her girlfriends and they
she'd totally get into the conversation, you know, yackin', and
I could put it over back upto.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
Dude.
Speaker 4 (03:15):
I loved that show.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Yeah, I mean that's the same for me. I mean, laughterwise,
totally with you on the Chuck Jones front, the Looney
Tunes of it all. I was also a big fan
of Pink Panther. Oh yeah, the song, and although they
were we saw them in reruns Flintstones. I was amused
by the flind Stones and flint Stones.
Speaker 4 (03:34):
Loved Hannah Barbera.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Also, I was a big fan of Fat Albert.
Speaker 6 (03:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
I really love the like the the richness of character too.
They're like, they're very clear characters. Yes, fan super Friends,
super into super Friends. I like super Friends.
Speaker 4 (03:49):
I did because that was on right before Johnny Quest,
so I was waiting for it. But yeah, the superhero
cartoons were fine. Yeah, but I was way into the ones.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
I'm well, to be clear. The one of of the
thrills and chills variety, my all time favorite, Scooby Doo.
Really yeah, Scooby Doo. I can't tell you how many
times I'd be sitting in the writer's room on CSI
New York and we would all be halfway through a
plot before we realized, oh my god, we saw this
on Scooby Doo.
Speaker 4 (04:16):
No kidding. Yeah, yeah, that's the word for you, meddling
little kids. I just I don't want to make you,
you know, in this or anything. Beny Hanna Barbara actually
drew us into an episode of Scrappy Do. Remember Scrappy Do.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
I'm not sure if that's something to be proud of her.
Speaker 4 (04:33):
But they drew us is cool, that was awesome, That
is members And I think, but let me ask you this.
You know, you have three beautiful kids, and they're they're grown,
not kids anymore.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
But yes, but when they.
Speaker 4 (04:43):
Were little, what cartoons did they watch? And the reason
I'm asking is there is one particular cartoon that my
friends with little kids would tell me about. Not to say, oh,
they love this cartoon, but Brian, you've got to see
this cartoon. Yeah, because it's as much for adults as
it is for kids.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Oh, I bet I can guess what this is.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
Go ahead, SpongeBob square Pantongebob SquarePants.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
So that was my kid's favorite cartoon and and I
realized very quickly that, oh my gosh, this isn't just
for them, this is for me as well. And by
the way, when we were watching those Chuck Jones looney
tunes as kids, those really weren't for us. They were
they were theatrical shorts and in their in their early adults.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
Going to the movie for the main title starts.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Right, But you watch an episode of SpongeBob and it's
firing on all cylinders. Right, there's stuff for the young ones,
but there's all sorts of stuff for us. And so
I completely fell in love with that show because I
think that show gets at the heart of what makes
such a great and memorable cartoon, which is that it
doesn't pander to kids. Nope, they don't want to be
pandrodging no, no, no. But yet at the same time,
(05:47):
it makes them still feel seen and heard in the
ways that some of the ones that we loved as
kids or made us feel.
Speaker 4 (05:53):
And so that when mom can and dad can, you know,
enjoy them along with you. Because this is the thing.
When my dad also liked Warner Brothers cartoons, when he
didn't go to work on Saturdays, and I'm sitting watching
Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck and he's walking through the room.
You know, he's not gonna sit and watch it, but
he just start cracking up, and it made me feel
(06:14):
so cool to be laughing at the same thing. My
father was.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's that's quite a bonding experience. Now
let me ask you this. I know you've done a
lot of acting. Have you worked at all in animation
like voiceover stuff?
Speaker 4 (06:27):
You know a few things? Yeah, I voiceover I did
a few characters, and but I also did voiceover work
on some film and television, but you know, not a lot,
probably probably stuff you wouldn't reckon it. Well, maybe you
know this one. But I played the voice of this
character called Darth Vader on the first three Star Wars films.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
That was ordinary. I think a lot of people confuse
that with someone else.
Speaker 4 (06:51):
No, yeah, I don't know, I don't care. I know,
you know, I know the truth.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (06:54):
But the thing is, once I did this Star Wars
films as Darth Vader, I started getting all these offers
to do other voiceovers, and to be honest with you,
you know, I had to cancel a lot of them,
or I had to just not accept a lot of
them because I couldn't be bothered. No, but there is
a silver lining to this.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
What's that? Right?
Speaker 4 (07:13):
When they would call and offer me, you know, this
big voiceover, you know, gig, I would usually turn it down.
And the good thing is the silver lining is if
they couldn't get me, they got Morgan Freeman.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
So obviously built your own career, you built his, but
obviously he needed the work. So good human, that's good. Good.
Speaker 4 (07:33):
It worked out for everybody, you know, it was a
win win situation. Now, what about you and your corpulent
resume that is Trey Callaway. If I were to look
at it, it would take me a week to ten days.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
To get through.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
But if I were to look at it, would there
be anything concerning animation?
Speaker 1 (07:50):
Yes in it? Yes? Yes. I interned at Disney while
I was a student at USC. I helped Shade in
storyboard art for the Rescuers down Under. Oh I like
that one. And then I wound up later writing some
Lion King cartoons. And then I had a brief deal
at dream Works to write an animated feature for them.
(08:12):
But it is a whole different skill set. But as
a writer as a producer, like it's just a I
think it takes everything that is hard about writing sometimes
and makes it even harder because you have so many
other things to think about creatively, But especially when it
gets into that into that zone that we're talking about
with SpongeBob SquarePants, where it's like this is this is
(08:35):
for a multi tiered audience, Like I want to fire
on all those cylinders.
Speaker 4 (08:40):
How great to expand your experience too? Is kind of
a new thing. Oh yeah, but seriously, I did was
honored to do this project because back in the Kowa Show,
we had these two guests in there. There were partners
and they were executive producers creators of this insanely popular
(09:02):
animated series called Phineas and First.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Oh my god, so that's that's that next level category,
that's right there or beyond. No, no, no, it's it's
fires on every cylinder imaginable.
Speaker 4 (09:15):
So we connected. It was a great interview that guys
were wonderful. Yeah, and kind of kept in touch. And
a couple of weeks after the interview, one of them
called is, hey, if you're free Thursday afternoon, you can
come down and uh and do some voices on.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Are you kidding me?
Speaker 4 (09:30):
Okay, so wait, I can I come now? No, no,
it's but I can come now. You know that kind
of what kind of voices you're doing Phineas and versa.
That was the awesome thing.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
It was an experience.
Speaker 4 (09:40):
I'm driving and I'm driving. They're so excited, and I realized,
I don't know what voices I'm doing. They didn't say,
I don't know the script, I don't know the plot.
I'm totally new at this now.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
But that's where you're in your best comfort zone.
Speaker 4 (09:55):
Well, I get there. First of all, it was the
most relaxed, most fun, upbeat, funny set I've ever been on.
If you go into the little room, you put on
the headphones and they kind of give you a tutorial
on what's going to hear three beeps and then But
again I had no idea what I was doing. But
it was the kind of thing, and they weren't the
main characters at all, by no means. I was sort
(10:17):
of like the well, one of the guys that were
the utility guys. They just bring me in and go, Brian,
do a janitor, Oh nice? And I would do a
janitor voice and nice. And then they call a few
weeks later Brian do James Bond, Oh oh nice? Okay,
And then another one'd be a weatherman, a TV weatherman.
So it was that kind of adventure. Then I learned
(10:38):
to love getting that call and going in going I
wonder what I'm doing today? Yeah, I just creating while
you're there.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
They were wonderful. Well, listen, would you believe it if
I told you that long, long before you were doing
voices on Phineas and Firm. I knew Dan Povemeyer back
in college. You're kidding. I had hair. Wait at us C,
I had lots of hair.
Speaker 4 (11:02):
Yes, you know, I'm just skipping over the hair joke
because it's too easy. But so you guys went to
school together us se we did, and you and you
and you.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
I'm gonna prove it to you. You know how.
Speaker 4 (11:13):
He's a genius by the way, But go ahead, don't
know how.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
I'm gonna prove it to you. Okay, prove it. Stick around,
We'll be right back.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
You can't do.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
That to me.
Speaker 4 (11:20):
I just you left me hanging.
Speaker 5 (11:32):
A bigger kill, the big kill.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
We will take you suck thing.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
It's like magic. Remember Dan Papa Meyer. We were talking
about Dan Papa Meyer. Guys here he says, this is
the Dan Papa. Here's the thing. I know Dan as
this I mentioned we've known each other as Couch. I
know him as this amazingly talented artist and singer and
(12:03):
songwriter and storyteller.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
That's right. We were in bands at the same time.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
Yes, Also, I could not get enough of his daily
cartoon strip in the USC Daily newspaper for students and
Life is a Fish, which was fantastically funny, which I
still think should be a hit series of its own.
But I'm sure that's I'll leave that to you. But
I loved that, I loved hanging out with him. But
(12:30):
but but the rest of the world, of course knows
Dan Povenmeier as a multi Emmy Award winning BAFTA Award
winning Annie and PGA Award winning creator of Phineas and
ferb and and Milo Murphy's Law, and also a guy
who has worked on shows like Family Guy, and and
(12:52):
and and and Ren and Stimpy and Hey Arnold and
and That's what I'm Like and SpongeBob Squarepan right like,
this is a guy who is revered by kids and
adults alike as a cartoon god who makes you laugh,
who makes you think, who makes you sing, who makes
(13:12):
you dance, who makes you feel and just before you get,
just when you get full of all the warm, fuzzy feelings.
He is also the evil doctor Duffenschmertz.
Speaker 6 (13:24):
That's right, that's me when he talks, it's my silly
voice that comes out.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
Of his face.
Speaker 4 (13:30):
Unbelievable. Now, welcome, first of all, and we're honored to
have you with us.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Thank you for being here.
Speaker 4 (13:36):
Dan and I've met on a couple of occasions but
you know, I not like you.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
You guys go way back.
Speaker 4 (13:41):
But I gotta ask, and the room answers, is this
the first show we've ever had that we have a
guy that was a child prodigy? Yes, as a guest folks?
Speaker 3 (13:52):
Is that because it says child prodigy in on my
wiki page?
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Pretty much?
Speaker 5 (13:56):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (13:57):
I get help for that.
Speaker 4 (13:58):
I didn't tell them that I wanted to, because this
is a fact. You started drawing when I was two
years old. Two years old, and by ten you were
selling your work in art shows.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
But as a professional artist. But I wanted to.
Speaker 4 (14:12):
But Dan, I want to know, what do you draw
when you're two?
Speaker 1 (14:16):
You're two years ago?
Speaker 3 (14:16):
Like, here's the thing. I have these drawings and I
have them up in my house because my mom gave
them to me because they were in her house and
to me when I was growing up. I was like,
it was nice that she kept these. But they look
like a kid drew them. They look like a you know,
but they look like a chimpanzee and a giraffe. You're too, shag,
(14:38):
you're too And I didn't realize to like kids of
my own, how far over the curve I was, because
they look like a twelve year old kids pictures, and
you know, like and I have kids that are really
amazingly artistically talented, but at two years old, they were
(14:58):
drawing like a circle and maybe two dots for eyes
with sticks coming off, like and these were like like,
you know, you could tell, oh, that's a jaguar as
opposed to a tiger or a cat or you know,
they look like the animals they're supposed to.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Look, of course, of course.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
And then I realized, oh, that's why she kept them,
because she was like looking at what everybody else was drawing.
Speaker 4 (15:20):
So was that your main focus from two?
Speaker 3 (15:22):
From two on, I drew for a very very long time,
just because I would get attention for it and because
I love doing it, and I was always very fast
at it. And then when I started, you know, about eleven,
I guess my mom started got me some rapidograph pens
(15:42):
and I started doing like sort of semi photorealistic animals
and scenery and stuff like that, and she was like, oh,
we should go get these limited edition printed, which was
like those lithographs prints. We're a big thing now, and
we'll take them to art shows. And I made so
much money doing you know, like selling art because I
would go to the jury shows where they were you
(16:05):
would just send in your art and not anything really
about yourself, and they would decide whether you were good
enough to be in this. And then I would show
up and they were like, is your dad the guy?
Speaker 1 (16:19):
So really, it's Mom's the good human we should be talking.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
She was very good, you know, and they were very
very you know, I work with a lot of people
in animation who had to fight against their upbringing, against
their parents because they didn't think being an artist could.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
Be a real sustainable career.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
It's the career. And now most of them have proved
their parents wrong and they're like, oh, I'm so glad
you did this. But you know, I know people who
got sort of dis disowned by their parents because they
wanted to go into animation. And my parents were always like,
this is something you do really well. You should pursue
this as lucky as a career.
Speaker 4 (16:56):
That is lucky and fortunate to have those kind of parents.
I too had that that that angle of parenting that
was thrust on me. Again, it's it's great to thank
your lucky stars that you had.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
Yeah, yeah, I was raised by wolves.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
Yeah you could tell anyways, raised by olots.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
What Okay. So when you're a kid and you're doing
all this art, are you are art? Are you finding
any influences yourself while the rest of us are just
vegging over a box of Twinkies watching Saturday Morning cartoons?
Are you watching any cartoons?
Speaker 3 (17:28):
Are you? Much like much like Brian, Chuck Jones is
sort of where I went all the time, and I
liked all the cartoons that were on. I think that's
a missing thing that this generation was. Once even cable
became a thing, you didn't have that Saturday morning t Yeah,
it wasn't wasn't as traditional, but but Chuck Jones was
(17:49):
always And I didn't realize until I was a little
older and was able to sort of research who did
Which of those cartoons that that that his were always
the ones that I found the most.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
Did you ever meet him?
Speaker 3 (18:01):
I met him once. I met him once, and then
I did his job at Warner Brothers on on some
shorts for a while, and I was like, Oh, this
is going to be so great. I'm going to be
able to eat. Like he's going to come in and
meet and he'll probably hate what we're doing. Because he
was a little curmudgin.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
But but but I'll you know, I'll get to show
him what, you know, like let my take on on
these things. And uh. And he passed away the weekend
before I started.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
Well, it's sort of like I was.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
Like, we're never going to you know, because I did
a couple of cartoons during that time that never got
released because of weird behind the scenes politics between the
executive producer and everything like that. You can find them
on on YouTube because they were released internationally but not
in the States. There was one called Museum Screams, when
I think one of the best things I've ever done.
(18:51):
And I felt like it was very sad for me
because I felt like like like he didn't like most
of what happened after he stopped doing it with him,
and I felt like I could show him this one
and he would go, finally somebody gets it. That's how
it felt to me. Because we had like a big
piece of existing classical music that nobody had ever used,
(19:11):
called the Thunder and Lightning polk of I Strauss and
I just and it was like seven It was Sylvester
and Tweety at at at the at the Natural History
Museum at night and going through all the exhibits and
stuff like that, and there was lots of it was
all visual gags. There was only like four lines of
(19:32):
dialogue and for seven minutes, and Sylvester gets pushed through
a prism at one point in the Discovery Zone area
and becomes seven different colored Sylvesters were all trying to
get tweety and all trying to keep each other from
getting tweety, and every hit in the face is a
symbol crash, everything like that, and it just really felt
like an old one. And when I was done with
(19:54):
I was I was like just so high, and I
was also sort of so sad that I didn't get
to show that.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
Let's let's back up for a second, though, because let's
get so when when we met in college, like I mentioned, like,
I was certainly aware of your work in The Daily Trojan,
which I was a fan of, but I was also
a big fan of yours of your music. Right, So
Dan fronted the band called Keep Left, which is fantastic.
There are two of their songs still uh replay in
(20:22):
my head on a daily one and and and I
bring these up not only because they're masterful pop rock songs,
but also because they are lyrically subversive in all of
the ways. Yes, right, So I'm wondering which ones they Okay,
one one was called and the title Alone. One was
called I Took Your Mom to Disneyland, Yes, and and
(20:43):
the other one was called Throwing Things at Cars, right,
which and so those two songs to me sort of
speak to the heart of also your skills as as
a songwriter, as a popcraftsman. Like it's something subversive lyrically
but also a catchy melody and a hook.
Speaker 4 (20:57):
Just so what genre rock?
Speaker 3 (21:00):
Yeah, there's We were sort of I describe us as
we were Baar Naked Ladies before Bearing Naked Lace, right
when everybody was looking for the next Nirvana, which was
not us at all. We were like this crunchy pop band.
We had serious songs and joke songs, and we had
two different lead singers that we would trade off, and
we do a lot of a lot of four part
(21:20):
harmony and stuff like that, and uh and and so
you know, that was the kind of music it was.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
So I know it was a journey, but to the
extent you're able to encapsulate it, How did you get
from like the Daily Trojan cartoons and making these great
little works of pop rock, Like, how did you make
that jump into animation?
Speaker 3 (21:38):
Well, you know, I had always been able to draw
anything I wanted to draw, so that was an easier
way to get into the entertainment industry. I originally wanted
to direct live action films. Yeah, you know, and but
it's harder to convince somebody that you can do that
when everybody's trying to do that and there's nothing, you know,
like but somebody who who doesn't even draw and look
(22:00):
at a good drawing and know that's oh, that's a
good drawing. That's what it was supposed to look on. So
that was always an easier way for me to get work.
But my first writing gig I got because of the
comic strip at USC. I went in because Roca's Modern
Life was hiring and they won. I was it was
like the end of a season on The Simpsons. I
was working with the Simpsons at the time, and uh,
(22:21):
and they were looking for people who could write and
draw at the same time, which is which is a
much smaller talent pool. So I just took a book
of my comic strip in and handed it to the
the supervising director and he looked through and he laughed
at the first like five cartoons, and he went, all right,
you're hired. It was like that was the whole conversation.
(22:41):
When can you start? I can start on Monday. Let's
let's let's let's do this.
Speaker 4 (22:45):
Can I see these online somewhere where.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
He had a book.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
We had books that that that I made and sold
in the bookstore at campus, and and and like like
twice a year there'd be a craft arts and crafts
fair at campus. And because I bound them myself, I
was allowed to sell those like that, and that would
I would just rake in the money. There's actually like
a line at my booth every day because the strip
(23:12):
had become so successful.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
When you got started then in animation, was it always
an intention in the back of your brain, decider, because
of the band, because of your musicianship, to sort of
try and incorporate music into the picture in somewhere.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
Yeah, Like like Swampy and I started writing on Rocos
Modern Life together, and we always wrote songs for episodes
because we felt like, you know, I don't remember a
single storyline from the archies, but I can sing like
four of those songs, you know, sugar, But we all
know that song.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Which was written by the father of someone else. We
went to us.
Speaker 3 (23:45):
Exactly yeah, and it was John Barry's dad.
Speaker 4 (23:48):
Wrote that thank you.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
Yes, there you go.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
Yes, I met him at a at an event just recently,
John's dad. But so that was to us, it was like,
that's immortality if you can you know, epop or you know,
you still remember that song, that song, even though you
may not remember what episode it was from or anything
like that.
Speaker 4 (24:09):
So we were like, and George's drum and that was
brilliantly impressive.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
Yeah, you are right.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
So it's a it's you know, to us, that's the
closest thing you get to immortality. We're like, if if,
if we can write songs for these things, kids will
still remember these songs even after we pass away, you know,
years from now. And and you know, like like your
your guy was showing that video of his daughters in
(24:36):
a band and they play the Phineas and ferb theme song.
And I've been at bowling for soup concerts and I've
seen videos of people playing that song at Lallapalooza and
stuff like that, and just everybody sings along from the
very first, you know, they just there's a hundred info
and then from there on in everybody, everybody is the
mission accomplished. Yeah, and it's like, you know, like like
(24:59):
I was sort of like, I hope these sort of
stand the test of time. And now you know on TikTok,
if you just look up the name of any of
the Phineas songs, there's literally hundreds of thousands of videos
of people lim sinking to them or covering them, or
doing the choreography that I drew on post it notes
back in you know, two thousand and five.
Speaker 4 (25:19):
Yeah, I love what you said, Dan, And this was
an interview I read a couple of days ago concerning
the songs you would go in and just try to
make each other laugh. Yeah, that that is that resonated
with me. Totally relate to that well, and.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
That energy is I think what audiences tap into as well.
Like and I know that from sitting on the couch
with my kids watching Phineas and ferb after we finished
watching SpongeBob SquarePants. Is like, yes, it was literally again
like we said before, firing on both of those cylinders.
I was thoroughly enjoying myself.
Speaker 3 (25:51):
You were always trying to make things the adults in
the room and.
Speaker 4 (25:54):
Which again mission accomplished. But Dan, I want to bring
this up because I want to thank you, uh and
and I tell people that you actually, you guys uh
dropped it on our show, which is probably untrue. But
I just remember us just playing the whole thing and
you guys were there and we loved it. But you
and your your partner finishing for a partner, uh Swampy
(26:18):
Marsh are responsible for the responsible for the most hilarious
and at the same time educational rap song. I'm talking hilarious,
I'm talking beautifully pretty.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
You got.
Speaker 4 (26:31):
I urge you to go to YouTube and find animating. Yes, yeah,
Now this this thing was so well produced and so
funnily written.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
So it's not animated, it's it's it's it's it's our
behind the scenes video. Yes, explain how the show.
Speaker 4 (26:47):
Is that you and your your staff, your crew, the
all got involved. I can't tell you how well written
and how well performed rap performed this was, and the
video is outstandingly entertaining. So I urged. This is Uncle
Brian talking. I urge you guys out there to go
find animating.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
It's super funny, but it also has that quality. Even
though it's not animated, it has that quality of like
a schoolhouse rock kind of thing. I actually learned from it, right,
But it's also amusing.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
I have so many friends who work in animation who
said thank you for that, because now when people ask
me what I do for a little like how this works,
I just show them this song and they get it.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (27:27):
It answered a lot of questions for me. Yeah, yeah,
it truly did.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
So let me ask you this, dan as A. Did
your approach in any way to animation change when you
had kids of your own?
Speaker 3 (27:40):
I wonder sometimes if if Phineas and Ferb is a
different show because of when we sold it, because we
created that show together when we are on Rocco's Modern
Life and either of us had kids, and it took
thirteen years to sell it. You know, we kept pitching
it to a different studio and they would get all
(28:01):
the way up the level, you know, to the top guy,
and that guy go and don't get it. You know,
it was all over town for a long time. And
then and then by the time it's sold, we both
had kids, and I think that we made some choices
that we might have made then, Like one of the
choices was we don't want the kids to be like
(28:23):
we watched. We looked at what was on TV for
kids all the time, and so much of it was
kids being jerks or being idiots. They were either every
character was either stupid or they were mean to each other,
because that's the easiest place to go for humor, of course,
and we were like, I want and I have a
friend Tim Doyle. You know, Tim told me that his
(28:44):
his he wouldn't let his kid watch you know, when
I told him that I sold the show to Disney
Channel suits, I don't let my watch my kid watch
Disney Channel. I was like, really, that seems like the
most innoci you know, like that this should be easy.
And he said no because Disney and I wants it
both ways because they always have a good message, but
the interesting character is always the mean, backstabbing one. And
(29:10):
I felt like my kid was starting to repeat those things.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
It's easy.
Speaker 3 (29:14):
And I was like, I wonder if we could make
a show that was edgy but still was a show
that Tim Doyle would let his kid watch. And you
know what, Phineas and Verb was her favorite show, So
what was that like?
Speaker 4 (29:26):
When Disney goes okay, it's been thirteen years. They turned
it down, right, well.
Speaker 3 (29:31):
They would know the Disney turned it down like a
year before because they were looking for a girls show
with girl like this. And then they called out of
the blue and said, all right, I know you're not
expecting this call, but we want to option Phineas and Ferb,
which just means that they want to like see what
else we could do with It wasn't a full on
(29:52):
pilot yet, but that that ended up happening, and Swampy
was living in England at the time. I had to
call figure out what time it was in England to
call him to tell them, and then then they sort
of we were blessed by the fact that there was
a big shake up above us, so nobody was paying
attention to us spot so we just made whatever show
(30:15):
we wanted to make and pitched them the storyboards and
then they just all loved it and they you know, like,
oh okay, you know, and and then it tested. It's
I think it's still the best testing thing.
Speaker 5 (30:29):
Well.
Speaker 4 (30:30):
Disney is still a huge icon part of our lives
because they somehow learned to grow in a Das and
Phineas and Ferb on the Disney Channel was something completely new.
Speaker 3 (30:42):
Oh yeah. It wasn't like anything they had done before
at all.
Speaker 4 (30:45):
And it, like I said earlier in Insane Success, they
just so they loved it so much so that I mean,
I can't imagine when they call and go, Okay, we're
going to give you some percentage of the merch.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
It's been nice. Oh my god, it's been nice. It's nice.
It's it's see your characters all around the park. That
was the coolest thing that's ever happened in my career.
And I've had a lot of really you know, I
got I got to write a song with Slash. I
got to see Wayne Newton sing the Perry the Platypus
theme on stage in Vegas with Platypus themed dancing girls,
(31:24):
you know, Like I got to see the live show
that you know, like like the the Disney on ice
people do you know. I've seen a lot of really
cool things, but there's nothing better than being in the
parks and seeing your characters come out and sing songs
that you guys, you know that like that we had written,
you know, like the first time that happened, Like like
(31:46):
I was producing a movie for the you know, Phineas,
and for a movie for Disney Channel, the show Take
two with Phineas, and for Dufen Schmertz's Rants Online. A
lot like we were doing a whole bunch of stuff
all at one time, and they said, Hey, we're going
to do a show in the parks. We're going to
you know, and we approved what songs they were going
(32:08):
to do, approved the design of their vehicle and stuff
like that, and then they went off and choreographed it
and created this. This just one thing you didn't have
to do. And then they sent me an email saying, hey,
the show is up and running in California Adventure. If
next time you're there you check it out. I was like, okay, good.
I was so busy I completely forgot about that email. Amazed,
And then like a month or so later, I'm there
(32:29):
with my girls just because like some friends were going,
well all go to Disneyland and I'm walking around and
I'm like, wait a second, I think I got an email.
And I went over and I asked somebody. I was like,
is there like this weird question? Is there like some
sort of Phineas and Firm dance party that happens? And they, oh, yeah,
it's right over there. It's going to start about fifteen minutes.
(32:51):
And there were already people lined up for it who
had like Phineas and firm shirts on I'm Bury the Platypus,
and I was like, and I taught my wife didn't
even know this existed.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
By the way, I like to think of you at
the back of the crowd, unable to see your own show.
Speaker 3 (33:06):
Right well, it was great because we I said, hey, guys, guys,
come over here. We're just gonna line up here. There's
something gonna happen to you. I think you guys are
gonna really love it, you know. They're like, and my daughter's.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
Like, Dad, it's hot.
Speaker 3 (33:17):
Can we go on the river rapids? And it's like no, no, no,
hold on, just wait like this, and they're like, I
think we like this. And my wife is looking around,
she's going She's seeing all the Phineas gear on all
the people. She's like, honey, what is the I was like, wait, wait, wait, wait,
and then the girls suddenly go wait, Dad, listen and
they can hear the Phineas theme song and it's getting
(33:37):
louder and loud, and they come around and they're just
you know, it's like all these these you know, girls
in fireside girl costumes, teaching the kids how to do
the choreography. It's all these songs that my my children
grew up with because I would play them the songs
before it even over there. And my my wife and
I just sat there and hugged each other and cry, Yeah.
Can you like the whole.
Speaker 4 (33:58):
Time you said you went with friends in there?
Speaker 3 (34:00):
Kids?
Speaker 4 (34:00):
Can you imagine being the dad of one of his friends.
Oh yeah, like that happens.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
I'm sure.
Speaker 3 (34:10):
That's like.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
But but speaking of your girls, now, at this point,
it's also become a family business because one of your kids,
Mellie did.
Speaker 3 (34:16):
Not just a voice.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
She's an Emmy nominated.
Speaker 3 (34:18):
She's she's the voice of Gretel on a Hamster and
grel Yes, and she got nominated for an Emmy. Which
is which is? Which is crazy?
Speaker 1 (34:26):
This must have been a completely proud, full circle moment.
Speaker 3 (34:30):
Oh my god, it was. It was. I was not
expecting it because I was under the impression we weren't
putting her up for the Emmy because I felt, you know,
because there's a lot of work that goes into it.
You know. It's weird enough that my daughter ended up,
you know, like like she didn't you know, like she
doesn't really even want to be an actress. She was
in the house when I did it, and I had
to do the temp and then everybody sort of fell
(34:51):
in love with it, and I was like, I don't
want to put people out to try to put together
clips and stuff. But they already had clips because they
had put Pamela ad On up for an Annie before
and all of her scenes wereth Mellie. So they just
used those again and put them out. And so somebody
texted me and said, said, hey, congratulate Melly on her
nominee nomination. I went for what they said for her
(35:15):
Emmy nomination. I said, I don't think, so send me
the link. And I was like, oh my god. So
I got to call her from you know, FaceTime, and
I said, can you get out of class right now?
You know, like, can you just go outside the classroom
for a second. Let me tell you what's what's going on?
Speaker 4 (35:30):
Well, what's your reaction?
Speaker 3 (35:31):
She started just bawling, and like I shot a video
of it, or or one of my writers shot a
video of her reaction on the on the thing. And
it's such a great sort of like like genuine reaction
from her. And I was telling the writers. I was
because they were like, you should Facetimer right now. We
were in the writer's room and and and I said, well, guys,
(35:53):
she's a peculiar kid. She may just go oh that's
cool and then like go back into class. You know,
it's like I never know how she's got exapt of stuff.
And she just really got the importance and how huge
it was. It was really proud of you.
Speaker 4 (36:07):
You proud of her that, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
There's so much going on there. And also you have
you have so connected with so many people now that
you got well you got Phineas and for back in production.
Speaker 3 (36:17):
Yes, yes, yeah, Now the I think because of pandemic.
I think that helped us a lot. Because of my tiktoks.
I think that uh like it's always apparently one of
the top five things on Disney Plus. And they started going,
why did we stop doing that? Well, we were t
here in stream.
Speaker 4 (36:36):
Were you up for, like, yeah, let's let's real.
Speaker 3 (36:39):
Yeah, you know, if you if you want to make
that happen. You know, I love those characters. We've we've
gone back to them a couple of times. We made
a movie in twenty twenty that was like the number
five movie of the year. Yeah, uh uh and uh
and we and we're like, let's uh, let's let's dive
back in if you want to, if you want to
do that. But it was sort of haunting because we've
(37:00):
made so many of them and they're considered this sort
of high water mark, and and it was like, are
we going to spend most of the time in the
in the writer's room going no, did that?
Speaker 1 (37:10):
Did that?
Speaker 3 (37:11):
You know? Like Simpsons did it? It's like, except we
did it.
Speaker 1 (37:14):
This is.
Speaker 3 (37:16):
The new stuff is spectacular.
Speaker 1 (37:19):
Was there something new that you wanted to accomplish by
going back with there anything that you hadn't done that?
Speaker 3 (37:23):
There were? There were There was a list of like
five or six different stories that, you know, one of
which is a possible another movie that we're gonna make
that I was like, Oh, I would love to do this.
I would love to do this now that we have
streaming that it's a new technology. I would love to
do this. We haven't gotten to most of those because
we've been having such a good time just doing new,
fresh stories with these characters and sort of breaking the
(37:46):
formula in certain ways. To to sort of, you know,
get more more comedy out of it. And it's all
you know, the writer's rooms about half people who had
worked on the show back in the day and half
young people who grew up with the show as there
favorite shows. So there's so much energy in there.
Speaker 4 (38:03):
Well, look, as we all know, thanks to you, uh,
doctor duffen Schmertz is well evil incarnate.
Speaker 1 (38:10):
Yes, true.
Speaker 4 (38:12):
So it made us kind of start wondering what would
he think if he knew that we were doing a
show about about celebrating good things that people do, the
good in people, the good humans.
Speaker 1 (38:25):
What would what is the opposite?
Speaker 3 (38:27):
He would always like, like, I do this whenever anybody
wants me to call, like a you know, can you
call my kid at college?
Speaker 6 (38:35):
He would be like, I know, everybody's gonna watch you
to do good things. But the other side of that
point is evil is a wide open field.
Speaker 3 (38:43):
That's there's a lot of career opportunities. That's what I'm saying.
You should you should consider that something. Keep in mind,
you can go into evil.
Speaker 6 (38:53):
You can follow my illustrious what's that?
Speaker 1 (38:57):
Okay? So look, Dan, yes, it is obvious to everyone
watching and listening you you have done a great deal
not just for kids, making kids feel seen and heard
without pandering to them in any way, but also their parents.
And we've all been entertained and amused in all kinds
of ways. And so you have really very directly worked
(39:20):
with families on your own, so you have nothing, nothing
else to prove from where we sit. But but but
I also know that you are very much involved in
working with an amazing organization called Door of Hope.
Speaker 3 (39:32):
Yeah. Door of Hope is an organization that gets people
out of homelessness and families specifically, right family specifically. It
gives them a place to stay, and it's and it
teaches them coping skills and how to stay out of homelessness.
And the thing that I always they're recidivism rate is
(39:54):
so low, like it's it's I forget what it is,
but it's like less than ten percent of the people
who go through that program ever end up homeless again,
which is to me, that's the proof in the pudding
right there is. Yeah, it's it's a greatization.
Speaker 1 (40:10):
Incredible charity out of Pasadena, California, really one of the
only homeless providers that can shelter any kind of a
family together in their own private unit. Right, this is
a single mom, single dads. Yeah, two parent families together
with their kids. So thank you for for your work
on their behalf. You. You guys can find out more
(40:33):
about Door of Hope by going online to Door Offhope
dot Us is their website. But yeah, I mean listen,
between between that and everything else you've done, I feel
fairly comfortable in giving him our good human stamp of approval.
Speaker 4 (40:49):
Not that he needs it, but absolutely.
Speaker 1 (40:51):
Yeah, you really don't need anything else from us.
Speaker 4 (40:53):
Uh, A pleasure having you on the show and seeing
you again.
Speaker 3 (40:57):
Yeah, I was gonna ask, I don't think i've seen
either you since before pandemic.
Speaker 1 (41:02):
That's that's true.
Speaker 3 (41:02):
That's true.
Speaker 1 (41:03):
That is true.
Speaker 4 (41:04):
But you gave the name of your college band, and
you guys went to each other's shows. What was the
name of your band? Right?
Speaker 1 (41:12):
You ready? Yeah, I'm gonna deliver this right to number
one Amethyst.
Speaker 3 (41:20):
I had forgotten that Mayor and I have like a CD.
Speaker 1 (41:24):
You might know.
Speaker 2 (41:26):
I gotta get that.
Speaker 3 (41:27):
I want to hear. No. I had to bug him
to burn it.
Speaker 1 (41:32):
Because yeah, anyway, we were no keep left. I can
tell you that much. Dan Popmeyer, thank you so much
for being here with us. It's been an absolute clearsure.
Thank you most of all for being a good human.
Speaker 3 (41:43):
I try.
Speaker 4 (41:43):
We will be right back after this.
Speaker 2 (41:45):
Thanks Dan, we will thank you.
Speaker 3 (41:56):
Suck.
Speaker 4 (41:57):
Hey, everybody, if you haven't already, go to be Good
Humans podcast dot com. There's gonna be a little place
there for you to make your suggestions if you have
good humans in your life, people you think we might
want to talk to you on the show.
Speaker 1 (42:09):
Absolutely, And while you're at it, follow us on all
the socials. You know, it's the usual suspects. It's Facebook
and Instagram and threads and x or whatever they call it.
And last, but not least, do us a favor is
if you're an especially good human follow us on Patreon
and there you're gonna get all kinds of fun extra stuff,
(42:30):
stuff that didn't make it into the show because we
tend to be a little bit too verbose. Member exclusive
videos and posts. Maybe maybe even a private exclusive message
from doctor Duffenschmertz maybe maybe maybe. Anyway, bottom line is
you're gonna get super cool access to all kinds of
things that you can't get for free on the podcast
(42:52):
or through the socials.
Speaker 4 (42:53):
So I hope you enjoyed the show today, and I
hope you're having a great day. And be good humans,
bye bye bye bye.
Speaker 5 (43:00):
Be good humans.
Speaker 2 (43:02):
Be good humans.
Speaker 5 (43:05):
Be good humans, or we will think you suck. Thank
God humans, thank God you Heaven's thank God humans, or
we will thank you, sucker.
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