Melissa Peterman joins Bobby to talk about the lasting legacy of Reba, why the show still connects with so many people, and what made that cast and chemistry so special. She also gets into why a reboot never ended up happening, what it was really like working with Reba, and how that chapter of her career still means a lot to her. Plus, Melissa shares why she’s still dreaming about SNL, her love of television, and some of the behind-the-scenes realities of how sitcoms come together.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
Is it about Hooker number two?
Speaker 2 (00:08):
No, that was my first job out of college. That
was my first Yes, dang.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
It, everybody, it's Bobby on this Bobby Cast. I'm talking
to Melissa Peterman. You may know her as Barbara Jean
from Riba, which I think I've seen every episode at
least twice. Maybe you know her as Brenda and Young Sheldon.
Now she has reunited with one of her best friends,
Raeven McIntyre on the NBC comedy Happiest Place, which is
(00:37):
really cool. She's toured with the Country Legends, She's hosted
game shows, She's done it all. She's so funny. Here's
my conversation with Melissa Peterman. All right, Melissa Peterman's on
and she's so funny, and so we almost started talking
and then this started. So we haven't met, but we
were at the same place at the same time. Do
(00:57):
you know that place?
Speaker 2 (00:59):
We were at? The Kennedy Center Awards. Was it twenty seventeen?
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Yeah, my years are bad, but yeah, it was when
Riva got the award and we were both part of
the presentation for Riva.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Yeah, and it was absolutely so out of my box
and like zone, and I was so thrilled to be there.
I was one of the That was one of the
shows I would watch every every year because I just
love learning more about like artists and watching other artists
celebrate them. And it was the year that Share was there,
(01:33):
Linn Manuel, Miranda. Who else was there that year? Oh
my gosh, was it? I not Ira Glass? What was it?
Speaker 1 (01:43):
I remember Linn Manuel, Miranda for sure, and Share because
I looked. So what I remember from that show was
I got a call from Riba going, hey, will you
come out and do the very beginning of my intro?
And so I'm like, sure, whatever he wants. I love
Riva and so yes, I'm in. Whatever you want. It's like,
go tell a couple jokes and do this lead in.
And I didn't know she was first off and that
(02:06):
and I do enough stand up that I'm not so
intimidated by people in the crowd. But there were like
Supreme Court judges Sharon Reeber were sitting right up there
in front of that to me was a heavy room.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Oh yes, and you know, I'll tell you another. On
my way there. As I landed in Washington or in DC,
I had an email that said, would you like to
do the presentation at the state dinner the night before.
You know, when they get when they get the necklace
and you have to go up and speak. And I
was I thought, oh, all right, and you know you're
(02:39):
in you know you're in the room. It was it
was like the Martha Washington bathroom was down the hall,
you know, which I probably stole some paper towels from
their share there. It's like, you know you're at you
recognize the room you're in. And I had no notes.
I just made it up and got up there. And
(03:00):
it was so terrifying. I believe. I said something like,
and Char's looking at me, and if I look at her,
it'll be like looking into an eclipse. And you know,
I just it was so much. It was just a
different room. And you know what you're Yeah, we've been
in rooms. I've been in front of a lot of people,
but it's a different thing.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
You know.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
People are like, oh, it's just like it's just like
the People's Choice. No it's not. It's not like the
People's Choice, not at all. There's somebody who just got
back from the G seven stummit. So no, it's not
the same thing. So it was this very strange mix
of just politics and entertainment. And then like, I was,
do you remember being downstairs before the actual the televised event,
(03:44):
were you down underneath it? I was there, and I
heard all of the Shuler sisters that were coming to
sing from the from Hamilton were warming up in like
a room next to me, and I thought, how why
am I here? How am I even in the same
or room as these amazing voices. I feel like I
should write them a check and just slip it under
the door, because that was just the price of admission
(04:08):
to hear them sing like that. It was just it
was very intimidating. It was an intimidating audience. But of
course you say yes because it's Reba, and I wanted
to honor her because she deserved it. And it was
a thrill. It was truly a thrill to be there.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Yeah, it was a special night. And then I think
if I were betting money, I think CBS piped in
laughter for a couple of my jokes, because I don't
remember getting the laughs that I got in the room.
I really don't. And I thought, man, I'm going to
be embarrassed because I went up and I told a
couple jokes and I thought, eh, opening stiff room and
also Supreme Court justices. And then they aired it back.
(04:43):
I swear to god, they piped in laughter, and I
was so thankful that they did that.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Well, you know what, I was there, and you were funny,
and you were great, and you were perfect, and you
were very funny and you probably don't know if you
got laughs because it was weird. It's just such an
odd it's just a weird room. But you were great,
you really were.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
So you Riba go back to Riba. Is that when
you guys first started. Did you know each other pre
Riba the show in like two thousand and one.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
No, we did not. The first time I met her
in person was the first day of the table read
for the show.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
And so you didn't audition for her or with her.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
No, I didn't. I had auditioned. When I auditioned, the
show was still called Sally, I believe because they didn't
know she wasn't attached yet. So at that point I
was auditioning for this show Sally, and I believe by
the time I got to like that callback where you're
in front of network, at that point she was attached
(05:42):
to it. And I thought, oh, my gosh, please let
her be attached to it, because I just feel like
it will. She's she's sort of like everything she does
sort of works and turns to golds, and like I
just wanted her to do it and I just wanted
to meet her. But I never auditioned with her. Nope,
I did not.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
What was your process like even auditioning for Sally? Because
she's told that story before about how it wasn't about
her until you know, she accepted it. So was that
initially just a large casting where you went in with
a bunch of other people that look like you and
you know, had you had your characteristics?
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Yeah, I mean you know I went in and to me,
it's it sticks in my mind because it was one
of those auditions where the script was really funny. I
love the idea of this character that they were creating,
of the other woman, the new wife, and I just
but I didn't quite know how to attack it.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
You know.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
I was like, gosh, I usually you know when you
you know this, when you have when you get it,
you're like, oh, I see who this person is. And
it wasn't until I was I remember sitting in the
parking lot about to go in and I just went, h,
I got it, I got it. I have to play
her that she has no idea that they are not
best friends. I have to play that I have no
(06:55):
idea that whatever insult or anything she throws, it's like,
I don't, I wouldn't. I it doesn't register with her
because I have to think that, of course we're going
to be best friends. We have so much in common,
you know, we like the same guys or whatever it was.
But I just go, you she has to be she
can't fight back. She has to just know, like, oh,
she we're going to be best friends anyway. So I
(07:16):
just remember having that click and go, oh, that's what
it is, and then going into the audition. I leave
and one of the producers followed came out after me,
which never happens unless they're like, oh, you know, we
don't validate. That's usually what it is. But he came
out and said, you know, he knew I was going
out of town, and I said, He's like, where are
you going and said, just going out of town for
the weekend and I'll be back in LA on Monday.
(07:37):
And again that doesn't happen, and I when I by
the time I landed in Seattle. I'd gotten a callback,
so I go back to I think a network callback,
and then it was studio. But if I'm remembering correctly,
and I feel like again, it's clear to the people
that we didn't, you know, research this before we talk,
because otherwise we'd have better idea of when the Kennedy
Center Honors was we were at, and I would remember this.
(07:58):
But I believe that that the three at the final
was Rachel Harris, who's a brilliant, funny comedian actress who's
very successful, and I think Suki who's married to Kevin
Neelan and I'm going to butcher her lasting Suki. It
was the three of us. I think we were the
three women that were last up for barbarageing and very
(08:22):
very funny and sort of just different flavors of that character.
And by the time I went in, I did the
final test, which is nerve wracking, and when I was
driving out, I got a call from my agent that
I booked it, which I didn't think I would because
I was standing next to two other actresses who I
(08:43):
knew were hilarious and very funny.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
At what point can you fill a shift in a
sitcom where you know it's being taken by the audience
and that there's probably a good chance that it gets renewed.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
I don't think you. I don't. I don't think as
an actor you really know that because you sort of
do your thing and then you put it out there
and it's sort of up to the the other things
that you're out of your control. And also the time
we did that show, there wasn't a ton of and
like that initials feedback we can get now on social media.
It was there, but it wasn't quite like it was today.
(09:16):
So you know, you're doing this show and you kind
of put it out there. It felt right while we
were doing it, you know, it felt like there was
this chemistry there, and specifically for season two, I remember
there was this click with the cast and with the
characters of the Barbaradini and Reeb were like, oh, okay,
this is the show. But for me anyway, I don't
think I even understood what it was until we were
(09:40):
off the air for how many years, And it was
in being syndicated and the love that it got there
that's when I sort of went, oh, you know, I
truly sort of felt the the the audience loved for
and how people were taking it. So I think during
the actual shooting and running of it those first six seasons,
(10:01):
I don't know if I ever really had a grasp
of what it was going to be or what it
was to audience. I mean, obviously people liked it, they
loved meeting you in person and talking about reb I
felt the chemistry of the cast, and it felt like
we were doing really good work. But I don't know.
I was also just sort of it was my first
series regular, and I felt like my job was just
to come in and do my work. And you know,
(10:23):
I didn't know a lot either was I was really
young and naive too.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
For me, I would watch the show, but I never
watched every episode until it was syndicated, and that's when
I really felt like I had a relationship with the show.
It was on USA, it was on CMT because it
was on a lot so you can catch all the episodes.
Did you feel that when it went into syndication that
you could feel the show's popularity and even your star
(10:49):
rise because it was just so present.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Yeah, I mean with somethings on every day and people
are consuming it. Yes, I definitely felt that and it
was it was you know, it was where you got
recognized a lot more. I felt like in that syndication
there was so much more love and consumption of the
show just because it was it was there all the time,
and then people really loved it. It was fun to
(11:14):
see that. And then TikTok when when they now cut
to you know, even years later, where there's this other
resurgence of it. And ultimately, I do think that all
of those things, if the writing wasn't great, if the
if the if they hadn't created these characters that people
wanted to be around, that wouldn't have mattered. But they did,
and I can watch it. I hate watching things that
(11:35):
I'm in unless I have distance from it.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
You know.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Distance is a lot easier for me, And I can
watch those episodes now of that show and just think
it's really funny and a lot it holds up, and
it was. We did do some really fun and great things,
and I love watching the chemistry between everybody. So yeah,
it's it's been, it's it's sort of it's it's I
feel very grateful that, you know, I'm in one of
(12:01):
those shows that people still kind of watch today.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Can you educate me and us on especially that show,
because there's an audience what a week is like of
doing that show, and what would happen on a Monday
versus a Saturday, and what day it actually was recorded.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
It's a multiicam, is a five day it's one episode
is in five days. And what we're doing right now
in Happiest Place is the exact same sort of schedule
we did on the original Reabis show, which is we're
Wednesday to Tuesday show, which means Wednesday is our table read.
We come in, that's our day, one of our five days.
So we come in and we do it our table
(12:38):
read in front of the studio and network, and we
read it out loud for everybody in the writers and
then we would go away and maybe go to a
costume fitting or hang out address room for a while
while they get notes from the studio and network, and
then we would come back in after they all give
their notes, and our director would usually say, all right,
(12:59):
this is going to change. This is going to change
some changes here, but we're going to put it on
its feet, and we'd have a light day of rehearsal
on that first table read day, so you know, we
got in there at ten o'clock for table read. We
were probably done by two, so it's a great schedule
for that way. And then the next day is come in.
(13:19):
They probably got a new script overnight they addressed the
changes from studio network. We get there at probably nine,
and if we need to, we might read it again,
just just for the writers, or maybe just for the
cast if there was a lot of changes, and then
we'd start rehearsing it. We'd start blocking it with our
director and we'd rehearse the whole show, have a lunch
(13:40):
and a break, maybe have fittings during that day, and
then you do a studio or which is first networker studio.
Oh my gosh, I've been doing this how many years?
I think it would be a studio run through that day.
So then the writers come down the studio and we'd
do the whole show as we rehearse it that day,
(14:00):
and then we would get notes. And Kevin Abbott, who
was our showrunner, him and Matt Barry were the two
leaders in the first rib show, and Kevinabbitt's our showrunner
this one, and Matt Barry's been there since the original
River show. And what's great about Kevin, is that a
lot of times you don't get to sit in with
(14:22):
the producers or have an opportunity to ask questions. So
after that first run through, we sit with the after
this network would leave, we'd sit and Kevin would say,
these are some of the changes, and maybe ask us
if we had any ideas or anything that was bumping us,
and blah blah blah, and then we would go home,
get a new script that night coming on Friday, read it,
rehearse it, and then do a network studio run through
(14:43):
with the writers, and then they would give maybe even
more notes, and then over the weekend the writers might
address those. Coming on Monday, you camera block the whole
show in front of the cameras so they know exactly
what we're going to do, and then you might do
some pre shoots. If there's a set that's way far
away from the studio audience, or a set that's only
there for a few days, or an outdoor scene, you
(15:06):
would do a pre shoot that day that you would
plug in in front of the studio audience. Is this boring?
This is so long? Now this down?
Speaker 1 (15:12):
No? I won't cut it down it all. I'm super
interested in like all the nuance of it, So I'm
paying attention here, okay.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
And then so Mondays is camera blocking, maybe some pre
shoot days, and then you go home. And then Tuesdays
or show day, we tape. But we're on a Tuesday
night show. You come in maybe later than the other days.
You come in and camera block refresh they call it
camera refreshed, so you refresh all the scenes that you're
going to do that night in front of the audience
with your camera guys, so you know where we're going
to be, where you need to get for your camera,
(15:39):
or how this is going to go. Then you would
cast would be sent away to hair and makeup. We'd
get ourselves glammed up and have dinner, and then we
would meet in the makeup room for touchups and we'd
usually do a quick spreed through of the script, which
is we just quick do it as fast as we
can off book and just do it as a cast.
(16:00):
And then we have a little cast and our director.
We have a little prayer, hands together, hands in pray,
We go out, have cast intros, and we tape that
show in front of a live studio audience. And usually
for us, Kevin Abbot's pretty that he keeps things running.
We usually do maybe two three takes per scene, sometimes
more if there's just a different something we need to
(16:22):
pick up, and we're usually we start at six o'clock
in front of the audience and we're usually done. We're
usually done by eight thirty or nine, and then maybe
you have a little glass of wine with the cast,
and then you go home and then you show up
the next day for your table read of next week's episode.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
He just start all over again, start all over again.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
Let's take a quick pause for a message from our sponsor,
and we're back on the Bobby Cast.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Is there ever a moment where you're in front of
the studio audience it's and a joke really doesn't hit
and then you just you rewrite the joke or do
you just repair it and like post.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Oh yeah, you find out right away. That's the beauty
of this medium, which is why I love multi caam
so much. It's the closest thing to live theater you've got.
So they'll tell you, oh, that didn't work, and our
writers usually will have a line for you. Sometimes the
actors will have a pitch. And that's again what's so
great about Kevin is that he lets us pitch stuff
(17:28):
or try stuff. I love it when that happens. I mean,
I don't love it when a joke doesn't land, but
I do love it when you get to try five
different jokes in front of that same audience and see
which one lands. But yeah, they let you know if
something works, and they'll let you know if it doesn't either,
And I love that part. But yeah, the writers are
usually there with another blow ready to.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Go with threeven, with Happy's Place. Those are shot very similarly,
But Young Sheldon was not. Is that just a different
mindset going into a show like that? Are you prepared differently?
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Yeah, because that's a single camera, so that's shot like
a movie, you know, so it's often you're not you know,
if you don't have a scene with an actor that day,
you might never see him, you know. Like the difference
between multiicam is you're with your cast all day usually
rehearsing and playing and playing around. So in single camp
it's a completely different mindset where you know, you you
(18:20):
know the writing is funny and there's a laugh there,
but you're not going to get that feedback from the
studio audience. I don't know my read is if you
see one of the gaffers or a camera guy, if
somebody maybe if you get a tiny little something, you're like,
all right, that worked. But yeah, it's as much smaller.
It's you know, it's everything's just a little bit smaller,
a little quieter, and you don't have to it's just
(18:44):
a different mind It is a different mindset.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Yeah, with happiest place and with Riba coming back and
you guys are all together again. How long ago did
this bubble up as an idea and did you think
it would manifest itself into like version two of you guys?
Speaker 2 (19:00):
You know, after the Rebu show ended, immediately, I feel
like we knew we wanted to do something together again.
You know. She I think she made up jobs for
me sometimes just so we could hang out.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
You know.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
She took me on the road and I didn't stand up.
I opened for her and for her and Kelly Clarkson
then her and George Straight when they were on the road,
which was such a wonderful experience. But you know, we
were sort of always looking. It was sort of out
in the world and we'd love to, you know, some
time would pass. We'd love to do a project together
and some came and went. Some were like you know,
and the reboot was always sort of in that world too,
(19:36):
like could we get a reboot? And you know, that
never seemed to come to fruition, whether it was like
who owned the rights? Who was going to do this?
So that didn't come. And you know, you know Reba
and I always trust her because she's so great about
this business and she has such a great perspective of
you know, when the time is right, it'll happen when
(19:58):
the project's right, it's yours, don't if you don't lose
a job that wasn't yours to have, you know, So
she was very I just sort of trusted her that,
you know, it will come when it's supposed to. I mean,
I had no idea it would be this many years later,
but there were some ideas that were floated. They weren't
the right ones anyways. So Julie Abbott, Kevin Abbot's wife,
who is our original show runner the first show and
(20:18):
this show runner on Happiest Place, came to Kevin with
this idea about sisters, of someone finding out they didn't
have a sister. So Kevin took that and ran and
brought it to Reebe and I and we loved it.
I mean, I don't know how much sway my love happened,
but I loved it too. And and you know, we
sort of that's where it was born. It was Julie Abbot,
(20:40):
Kevin's Kevin's wife, who has been, you know, part of
We've all known each other for since the original Reader show.
And yeah, I had no idea. And even when that happens,
you know, even when that happens, yes, Kevin's going to
write this idea, Okay, great, Well that doesn't mean anything.
Well he's going to go pitch it. Great, that doesn't
mean anything. Tell someone buys it. Then someone does, and
(21:02):
then you make the pilot and then you know, you
don't know if that's going to get picked up. So
you know, another good thing that re was great about
is saying, you know, I'm excited, but I won't get excited. Yeah,
I'll get I'll get it as excited as need be
as every level is passed. So you sort of go, well,
that was great. That's one hurdle, and now we have
to get to that one. And here we are, you know,
(21:23):
here we are just in the middle of season two airing,
and and a pickup for season three, which is a
crazy sentence to say in this in this day and
age of you know where the industry's at and to
be working, and we are very grateful to be working
and doing what we love.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
Your background is an improv When did you start doing
stand up? Like? What were you doing in high school?
Speaker 2 (21:46):
High school, I was doing theater and some improv. Then
I went on to college and did got a theater degree,
and improv was part of my life there. And when
I graduated from college with a theater degree, I went
to Minneapolis, which is great theater town, and I did
improv at brand new workshop Dolly Riggs, which is very
similar to Second City, where you write five five or
(22:12):
five shows original shows a year and every night you
do improv with your with your cast. And then I
did Tony and Tina's wedding which was all improv, which
I did for I don't know how many performances in Minneapolis.
And then stand up where am I? I'm on a
tangent so many after college was doing improv, doing theater, uh,
(22:34):
and then it was a stand up really didn't come
into place until Rebus sort of gave me that chance
to do it. You know, I feel like, you know,
I would MC a lot of stuff, and in improv,
you know, you you learn to think on your feet.
I was always writing stuff too. Part of what we
did at where I was doing improv was you had
to write stuff all the time. And so she sort
(22:56):
of said after the Ribas show, said what you want
to do it? And I'm like, I say yes, and
you hang up and you go, oh my god, what did.
Speaker 4 (23:02):
I I know I have to have twenty five minutes
and i'd have, you know, be ready to go and
sort of cut the luxury of a learning curve on
the road with her and Frankly and I know, you're
you're so good at it and you do it and
you have to do it all the time.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
But there's nothing scarier to me. Improv does not terrify me.
Stand Up is to me the most terrifying of all
I'll wait all mediums at all, any sort of form
of The most terrifying form of entertaining ever is stand up.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
When did you decide then from Minneapolis to move to
Los Angeles? What was it that triggered that I.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
Always knew I was going to do it? I mean,
I felt I needed to try. I wanted to I
knew I was going to do. I sort of had
a New York or LA, but ultimately was LA. I
love TV. I wanted to be on a stickcom. I
wanted to make people laugh, and I thought LA was
a place to do it. So I knew as I
was doing improv and theater in Minneapolis, I was trying
(24:01):
to save money to move to LA. And within the
form of that improv troop, we came out to Los
Angeles to do a showcase at the HBO workspace, and
our improv troop did this showcase and I got some
interest in me there and some meetings were set up
(24:21):
and I was like, great, I have to go back
to Minnesota. I'm getting married. So I did that, married
John Brady, who was I did was doing improv with
Who's the Funniest Human, and got married to him and
put off those meetings, went to do Tony and Tina's
wedding in Baltimore to save up more money so I
could go we could go to LA. So we saved
up money, then went to LA and then followed up
(24:45):
on the people that wanted to have some meetings with
me there and then just started hitting the ground and
auditioning and trying to become an actor.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
What was your first yes in La? Or in yeah?
In La? When you get to La, what is your
first yes?
Speaker 2 (25:00):
I think it was a sketch show for Oxygen that
I don't think it ever aired, but it was really
funny and really funny people Maya, Rudolph Seth Rogan. I'm
trying to remember all of these. It was a sketch show,
and I maybe confusing two sketch shows that I was
casting called Running with Scissors, and that was my first yes,
(25:21):
and I knew that it was. It was really funny
people that are all working now, and that was my
first yes. And then it never aired. I don't know why.
I don't even know what happened to it, but I
know that it was really fun and yeah, that was
I guess. And then I got a keya commercial that
was another first yes. Oh my gosh, out guest spot
(25:45):
on just shoot me?
Speaker 1 (25:47):
Oh nice? I love that show.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
And I was living. I was sub letting at an
apartment right across the street called the Starlet And if
you're ever in La, you'll see it. It's still there.
And I was at we were where we still sub
wedding at this tiny apartment right across was Warner Brothers studio,
and you know, you could look out your little window
and you'd see, like, you know, like that's where they're
(26:10):
shooting friends. And I booked this guest spot on Just
Shoot Me and it was like one funny scene. I
think it was like the check and girl for somebody's
high school reunion. And I was terrified. I was so
excited to drive onto that lot and George Siegel, who
(26:31):
was so kind to me, and he was kind to
me twice in my career and in such a way
that I will never forget, and I hope it's what
I bring. I bring to every show I'm on. I
didn't even have a scene with him. I didn't have
a scene with him. I'm trying to remember who my
scene was with. I don't think it was David Spade.
(26:51):
Who was it. Anyway, everyone was very lovely. But he
made a point of walking up to me. He said,
is this your first like thing in la like front
of an audience, And they said yes, And he says,
you're really funny. Go out there and have fun tonight.
It's supposed to be fun. And he shook money and
he was so and I'll never forget that. And then
years later I did another show called Retired at thirty
(27:13):
five and he was on that show and I went
up to thank him, and I said, I was so terrified,
I was so nervous, and you were so nice to me,
and you and you reminded me that what we do
is really fun. And I was doing what I dreamed
of doing as a kid in Minnesota and it was
happening tonight. And it may have been a couple of lines,
but to have fun. And so I went up and
(27:34):
thanked him and he couldn't and I just said, I'll
never forget it. You just made that such a wonderful experience.
And he did the same thing for me on this show.
He just said, you were so funny, You're just and
he I don't know it. I'll never forget it.
Speaker 5 (27:46):
The Bobby Cast will be right back. This is the
Bobby Cast.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
When you were a kid, who did you look at
and either mimic or think I want to do something
like they do because they do it so well.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
Carol Burnette, Gilda Radner, Catherine O'Hara, Andrew Martin. Those were
my kid ones. That I would watch Second SCTV. I
would watch that. I believe it was on PBS is
when that aired for me, and i'd watch it on
the phone with my friend Jenny Howell because we both
(28:30):
would laugh together watching se our Second City TV SETV,
which is where I saw Katherine O'Hara and Andrew Martin.
And then I would stay over at my aunt's house
on Saturday nights when my parents were like gone, and
they would let me stayup and watch Saturday Aight Live.
And I loved Gilda Radner. I loved Jane Curtin, I
just knew. But Carol Burnette was one that I could
(28:50):
watch all the time and just knew that I wanted.
I didn't know what. I just wanted to do that
I wanted to do that.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
You know, so much of what we turn into is
because of things that works bose to and I think
I grew up in the South, so I didn't get
to watch any Canadian and there were so many funny
things that as I got older, I was like, man,
I really missed out because I had no influence on
me was Canadian. However, you lived in Minnesota, where you
actually got the best of America. And you got the
Canadian like the SETV like that feels pretty fortunate looking back, right.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
Oh yeah, absolutely. And by the way, how many people,
how most of the funny people we know are Canadian? Yeah,
Martin Short, John Candy, I think about that entire our
SETV cast was just geniusly funny. And then Mike Myers, like,
I think about it. But I feel very grateful that
I got that. And I don't even know how I
(29:41):
found it. I just I just remember finding even this
is the funniest thing I've ever seen, and I love
it so much, and I'm really grateful that I saw it.
And I'm grateful that my parents let me sleep over
at my aunt EXCUSEI and Kathy's and be unsupervised and
watch stay up way too late to watch and listen.
And my aunts too. By the way, we're very instrumental
(30:03):
because they had Steve Martin comedy album and I would
listen to that, and I they exposed me to a
lot of things that I would probably not have found
on my own, you know. And yeah, we are a
product of that. So I feel really lucky about that.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
Did you ever have dreams or did you ever audition
for USNL?
Speaker 2 (30:22):
No, but I will say that when I was doing
this sketch show that we were shooting and Maya Rudolph,
I remember we were doing a sketch and I think
this was at the time that she was maybe about
to fly out for her an audition, or maybe it
was there a call, but I'm not sure, but I
(30:43):
remember that that was in the process. I remember sitting
across from her and just thinking how funny she was,
and she had said something like, well, you're going to
be auditioning soon, aren't you. And I was just like,
I don't know. I thought who knew? And so no,
I never did. And then I remember about the time
that I had gotten maybe a few I believe, my
manager had said, you should get a tape together for
(31:03):
SNL that we can start sending in. And at that
point where we started thinking about that, I was maybe
in that sort of that window of time that that
would have been appropriate. I booked the sitcom, and once
you book a sitcom, you're no longer really they don't
really want to see you, I guess at that time.
But yeah, I was one of those who knows, and
(31:25):
I ended up where I was supposed to. But yeah,
I dreamed of SNL is. I mean, I don't know
if you can see behind me, that's still like I, oh,
that didn't turn off. I still have that the album,
and I still listen to my guilda Radner like Live
in New York album. But you know, I'm not dead.
Maybe someday they let me do a walk on. I
work for NBC Universal. I mean, I'd be happy if
(31:47):
they let me just sit, you know, I'd be I
do anything. I just that show is huge to me.
And I still fight with people who go, oh, it's
not good anymore, or this wasn't good, or now this cast.
I'm like, no, no, no, no, it is always it's
always good because what they are doing. Yes, there's ebbs
and flows, there's casts that you might connect with more,
(32:08):
and there's maybe years that there was more sketches that
you remember. But the reality is it's always good because
what they're doing is they're doing a live show and
they're creating like this amazing, this amazing variety show every week.
And you real fans, don't. You don't leave them in
any year. You watch it every year all the time,
and I love it because I love watching just how
(32:30):
things change. But yet they stay the same, and I'm
loving like Ashley Padilla in newcast I think is brilliant.
So I still dream of SNL even though I realize
that train has probably left the building.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
I often will do a thing where I'll go through
and try to try to guess what the most asked
question is to the people that I talk to, and
I never really want to jump into the most asked questions?
But can I try to predict your most asked question?
Speaker 2 (32:58):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (32:59):
Is it a hook? Her number two?
Speaker 3 (33:01):
No?
Speaker 1 (33:02):
It is it?
Speaker 2 (33:03):
No?
Speaker 1 (33:04):
Okay, So then I don't feel guilty asking it. So
I love Fargo I too.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
I mean again, that was my first job out of college.
That was my first Yes, dang it. I need to
walk around with my mom or dad behind me, who
actually keep track of my career, Like, I have no idea.
I'm so bad at it. Tell me, Oh my gosh,
(33:28):
that's I was a kid. I was working at TJA Fridays.
I finished, I got my theater degree, and the Jane Brody,
an amazing casting casting agent who I believe is still
based in Chicago, came and taught a semester at my
college and I took her class. I think she was
teaching auditioning for film or maybe cold readings she took.
(33:51):
She was amazing. I took her classes. She liked me.
I graduate. She's in town in Minneapolis casting for Fargo,
and at first she hired me to run camera for
her too to earn some extra money, which was a
lovely skill to learn. I run camera for a few days,
but then she calls me into audition for the Coen
Brothers True story. I'm in the lobby. I want to
(34:13):
get a mountain dew before my audition. I don't have change.
I ask who I think is I don't know somebody
who works there. I asked for change for a dollar
so I can get a mountain dew. By the way,
all of those are poor decisions before an audition, drinking
a mountain dew. I don't know all of it. And
I get in the room and I had asked Joel
(34:33):
Cohen for change for the vending machine to get a
mountain two because I again this is pre social media.
I had seen, you know, raising Arizona. I knew who
the Coen Brothers were, but it wasn't like they had
like this, you know, hot instant like you know, I
didn't know what they actually looked like. So I go in,
(34:55):
I audition. I don't hear anything for quite some time,
and I think it's done and it's over. Because it's
a small town. You hear people that have been going
in for this big Cohen Brothers movie. I get called
back in maybe like I feel like it was a
month later. But again, don't trust me in any timeline,
because clearly I have no idea what I've done in
(35:15):
my life. I go back in, and this is for
hooker number. This is for the pair of hookers. And
when they start to match us up with other girls,
so I go in and read and I read with
a couple of different people, and then when they put
Larissa and I together, I felt like, oh this works.
It's that thing you know where like, oh, where this
(35:35):
is supposed to be. So once they paired us together
and we read this scene, I felt like, oh that
felt pretty good. That felt right. And then I leave
and I think I still don't think. I hear from
maybe another week that I got it. And then I
got it and I went in and my first day,
the first scene we shot was I believe this scene
(35:56):
where it's the oh yeah, we're at the scene with
France McDermott, which she's so was so even only in
hindsight when I realized how generous she was as an actor.
I just remember she treated Larissa and I both like
we were peers, which she we were. But in my head
(36:19):
I was just I was going I had to shift
at TJ. Friday's the next day, you know. And this
was Francis McDermott, who was well into her career but
also just such a brilliant actress. But she was so
kind and just I remember she I felt like we
were we were equals. We were equals in a scene,
which was just, in hindsight, a lovely gift to give
(36:40):
a really young new person who had no idea what
she was doing and who at the rat party at
the Bowling Alley asked William H. Macy what party was
in the movie because I hadn't I didn't know the
whole script. I mean, I just I asked. I asked
so many questions, and that in hindsight, I never would
(37:03):
have asked. I would have been too nervous to, Like
if I was doing a Coen Brothers movie today, I
would be nervous for I. But back then I'm like, hey,
Steve Bushmi, do you remember when you were mister pink?
I was like Chris Farley in that sketch. I was like,
remember when you were a goal? Like I was such
an idiot and Ethan Cohen people heard this story, but
true story. I just graduated. So I was living with
(37:24):
my parents while I saved money for my apartment and
Ethan Cohen called my house to talk about a scene
or something, and my mother answered and was screaming upstairs,
going Missy calling me Missy by the way, which I'm like,
I'm Melissa, I'm an actress, and Missy the phones for you,
and I'm like, who is it? And she said Ethan Cohen?
(37:45):
And I was mortified. Mortified.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
So that was your first yes?
Speaker 2 (37:50):
That was my first yes?
Speaker 1 (37:53):
What was your last yes?
Speaker 2 (37:56):
My last yes? Well, getting a saying yes to a
third season of Happiest Place, I guess that's that's a
giant yes in today's world where you know TV's changing
and I know so many people not working. That's it
feels like a really really big yes that we get
to do a season three.
Speaker 1 (38:16):
Do you still cook?
Speaker 2 (38:18):
Oh? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (38:19):
Oh? So you with your reaction, you must still cook
a lot.
Speaker 2 (38:23):
Yeah, I mean, I'm just my reaction is, why do
you think I have someone cooked for me?
Speaker 1 (38:27):
Well, I know you from cooking on television a bit,
so I didn't know if you really did that a lot,
or if you're just good at it and you kind
of break it down occasionally for on camera.
Speaker 2 (38:37):
No, I like to cook. I mean I don't cook
as I mean, my husband actually cooks a lot of
the stuff. But I do like to cook. I love
to like be able and our my son is twenty
and so he's moved out of the house. He's actually
in going to culinary school, so hopefully he'll cook for me.
But yeah, I love to cook. I like to I'd rather,
you know, stay in and eat at home. Then I
(38:59):
don't want. I guess it's I like both. But I
do like to cook. Yeah, I like I like it
when I don't have to. I like it when I
can putter around and go, oh, I'm gonna make soup.
I love making things where I can just throw whatever
I have and see if it works, and it usually does.
Speaker 1 (39:12):
Actually, what is your signature dish?
Speaker 2 (39:15):
Hmmm? Oh wow, I make really good. This sounds like
a dumb one, but I make really good like I
can do like I make really good homemade like black
bean dip. I make really good soups. I make a
really good garden vegetable soup. I don't know if I
have a signature anymore. Oh, you know what this is
(39:36):
gonna make me very Midwestern. I can do a really
good hot dish. I can do a really good tater
tot hot dish. I'm really good at it. But as
far as like this, I don't know if I have
a signature. I mean, roast chicken, that's easy, But no,
I don't have a signature.
Speaker 1 (39:52):
You got to talk me through a tater tot hot dish.
I'm from the South. I don't know what that means.
I know what tater tots are, but what's a hot dish?
Tater tot?
Speaker 2 (39:59):
You'd call it casserole, right, yeah, you know it's the
same thing. It's where you take ground meat of any kind,
maybe a creama mushroom, soup, some green beans, some onions, whatever.
You mix that up. Maybe you put some cheese in it.
There's a debate between the cheese and it hot dish sometimes,
and then you would layer tater tots on top, so
(40:19):
ours would be ground beef, brown ground beef cream and
mushroom soup green beans. I like to go. I like
to sass it up with some onions, maybe some real
mushrooms in it. Then you put that line tatertops on time,
build it, bake it, and you've got a hot dish.
Speaker 1 (40:38):
So hot dishes is Midwestern? Do people often think you're
from the South?
Speaker 2 (40:44):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (40:44):
I did. It's funny until I started researching you.
Speaker 2 (40:48):
I just met somebody actually yesterday somewhere that was like, so, wait,
you weren't from Texas. I'm like, no, I just I
did my barber Gane. I just did it. So I
think there's something like vibe wise that's very similar. I
think Midwest and South has a similar vibe that I
think connects people in a way where we like to
hang out with our friends and family, we like to eat,
(41:10):
we like to you know, we like our neighbors, we
you know, I don't know. I think there's a little
more of a laid back vibe that I connect with
people from the South. Maybe.
Speaker 1 (41:20):
Well, congratulations on getting renewed for a third season again,
that is such a big deal. I bet it's so
fun to do Happy's Place because it's new.
Speaker 2 (41:28):
People don't come out to a lot, you need to
come to a taping or be on it. Yeah, I
guess that was not the reaction I was hoping for.
Speaker 1 (41:38):
Well, I just been Hollywood is so and I'm not
comparing you to this, but everybody in anytime I do
any meetings And I was talking to someone about this recently.
O they're still going Tom bergeron, who I love as
a host, right, and he's the greatest guy. And I
was like, every day, might come and do any meeting
in Los Angeles. They promised me the world. They tell
me they're going to make me the biggest thing ever.
They're going to give me millions of dollars right there
(41:59):
in the room. And I walk out and I never
hear from anybody, And so, you know, I just have
that association with anyone in Hollywood that's like you should
do this, and I just should react like this, Oh
thank you, that's so nice of you. But I have
this react get it? Yeah, you know right, it's.
Speaker 2 (42:13):
I get it. I mean, I remember there's so many
times like oh my gosh, you are you are you
are the funniest, you know, the funniest person we've ever seen.
Today for this, and I'm like, great, we'll hire me
because that doesn't pay my rent? Or I get it.
I hear that all the time. People say that all
the time. They say, I get it. I believe in it.
That was you know what, that was a proper reaction.
(42:38):
But no, but no bullshit aside. You are beloved by Reeba.
I would I would like us to like I think
you know, I don't know, you know what, don't believe me,
but you should fair enough. But I get it. I
know you know what. I bet you hear that all
the time. Because you are so good at what you do.
You have this massive following. You can do many things.
(42:58):
You wear a lot of different hats. People say things
and it never comes true.
Speaker 1 (43:03):
I should have reacted better, had that thing too.
Speaker 2 (43:04):
Of like when people that all of these things don't
pay my rent, I.
Speaker 1 (43:10):
Should have reacted to that better. I apologize.
Speaker 2 (43:12):
I might, No, I no, I love that. This is
the best, most perfect reaction you should get to anybody
in Hollywood who says you should or you know what,
come out here. I've got something for you. Don't don't
believe them, because you know what, I didn't come till
i'd saved up a lot of money on my own
to pay my own rent, and I knew I could
try to make it here.
Speaker 1 (43:31):
Well, congratulations again. I really love it for you guys.
I love it Forrieba. I love Reba obviously. She She's
been so kind to me over the years. And it's
so cool that you guys are real life friends. I
think that's cool because a lot of people are work
friends or we've done stuff together, but you guys are
like real life friends. And I love to work with
my real life friends, So that's got to be super
cool to be able to do that.
Speaker 2 (43:51):
It is and people can tell it translates into the
final product. You know. People they maybe don't know what
it is or put the able to put their finger
on it, but they can tell when there's chemistry and
there's real friendship there. And yeah, and we have a
shorthand we don't have to explain stuff to each other
because we already know what.
Speaker 1 (44:08):
Does Reba like to work with professionally?
Speaker 2 (44:13):
She's a great example. You know, she is prepared, She
treats everybody with respect, and she likes to have fun.
You know, she doesn't need to do this right now,
and she wants to do it because she really she
loves it. She has so much fun, you know, Reeba,
She's lovely and she makes sure like my favorite. The
goal is that anybody who leaves that set, they walks away,
(44:34):
they walk away saying I had a great time, people
treated me great and I want to come back. And
she does that, and it's you know, it's really fun
watching her and Rex together. You would think that you
would get tired of, you know, seeing how much in
love they are and how cute they are, but I'm
not yet. And they really are quite fun together. And
(44:55):
he's great because I don't know how much time you've
spent with rexlnd, but he is such an actor's actor,
and he loves what he does so much, and he
loves to rehearse and he makes us all better, I think,
because he really respects that process so and he's he's
got stories you need. He's fun to talk to. He's
(45:17):
been doing this for a long time.
Speaker 1 (45:19):
Melissa. Thank you so much for the time and thanks
for the generosity with your stories. I really appreciate it
and much much success. And hopefully someday we'll be in
the same room and we'll actually talk to each other.
That was a busy day we were together. We were
running all over the place, I know, and I was.
Speaker 2 (45:32):
Really hoping to do this in person. So I hope
that you'll let me do it and listen. I like
to come out there and my folks are around there,
so I'll do it.
Speaker 1 (45:40):
Please do next time you're in town. Please, hey, hey,
come on bye, next time you're in town. I hit
her with that. Can't wait to see him. We got
something for you. I got a show.
Speaker 2 (45:47):
Here's my reaction. Okay, we bet I'll be there.
Speaker 1 (45:53):
Thank you. Hey, great to see you. Thank you so much.
Hope you have a great rest of the day.
Speaker 2 (45:57):
Thanks you too.
Speaker 3 (45:58):
By Melissa, Thanks for listening to a Bobby Cast production.
Is it about Hooker number two?
Speaker 2 (00:08):
No, that was my first job out of college. That
was my first Yes, dang.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
It, everybody, it's Bobby on this Bobby Cast. I'm talking
to Melissa Peterman. You may know her as Barbara Jean
from Riba, which I think I've seen every episode at
least twice. Maybe you know her as Brenda and Young Sheldon.
Now she has reunited with one of her best friends,
Raeven McIntyre on the NBC comedy Happiest Place, which is
(00:37):
really cool. She's toured with the Country Legends, She's hosted
game shows, She's done it all. She's so funny. Here's
my conversation with Melissa Peterman. All right, Melissa Peterman's on
and she's so funny, and so we almost started talking
and then this started. So we haven't met, but we
were at the same place at the same time. Do
(00:57):
you know that place?
Speaker 2 (00:59):
We were at? The Kennedy Center Awards. Was it twenty seventeen?
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Yeah, my years are bad, but yeah, it was when
Riva got the award and we were both part of
the presentation for Riva.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Yeah, and it was absolutely so out of my box
and like zone, and I was so thrilled to be there.
I was one of the That was one of the
shows I would watch every every year because I just
love learning more about like artists and watching other artists
celebrate them. And it was the year that Share was there,
(01:33):
Linn Manuel, Miranda. Who else was there that year? Oh
my gosh, was it? I not Ira Glass? What was it?
Speaker 1 (01:43):
I remember Linn Manuel, Miranda for sure, and Share because
I looked. So what I remember from that show was
I got a call from Riba going, hey, will you
come out and do the very beginning of my intro?
And so I'm like, sure, whatever he wants. I love
Riva and so yes, I'm in. Whatever you want. It's like,
go tell a couple jokes and do this lead in.
And I didn't know she was first off and that
(02:06):
and I do enough stand up that I'm not so
intimidated by people in the crowd. But there were like
Supreme Court judges Sharon Reeber were sitting right up there
in front of that to me was a heavy room.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Oh yes, and you know, I'll tell you another. On
my way there. As I landed in Washington or in DC,
I had an email that said, would you like to
do the presentation at the state dinner the night before.
You know, when they get when they get the necklace
and you have to go up and speak. And I
was I thought, oh, all right, and you know you're
(02:39):
in you know you're in the room. It was it
was like the Martha Washington bathroom was down the hall,
you know, which I probably stole some paper towels from
their share there. It's like, you know you're at you
recognize the room you're in. And I had no notes.
I just made it up and got up there. And
(03:00):
it was so terrifying. I believe. I said something like,
and Char's looking at me, and if I look at her,
it'll be like looking into an eclipse. And you know,
I just it was so much. It was just a
different room. And you know what you're Yeah, we've been
in rooms. I've been in front of a lot of people,
but it's a different thing.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
You know.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
People are like, oh, it's just like it's just like
the People's Choice. No it's not. It's not like the
People's Choice, not at all. There's somebody who just got
back from the G seven stummit. So no, it's not
the same thing. So it was this very strange mix
of just politics and entertainment. And then like, I was,
do you remember being downstairs before the actual the televised event,
(03:44):
were you down underneath it? I was there, and I
heard all of the Shuler sisters that were coming to
sing from the from Hamilton were warming up in like
a room next to me, and I thought, how why
am I here? How am I even in the same
or room as these amazing voices. I feel like I
should write them a check and just slip it under
the door, because that was just the price of admission
(04:08):
to hear them sing like that. It was just it
was very intimidating. It was an intimidating audience. But of
course you say yes because it's Reba, and I wanted
to honor her because she deserved it. And it was
a thrill. It was truly a thrill to be there.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Yeah, it was a special night. And then I think
if I were betting money, I think CBS piped in
laughter for a couple of my jokes, because I don't
remember getting the laughs that I got in the room.
I really don't. And I thought, man, I'm going to
be embarrassed because I went up and I told a
couple jokes and I thought, eh, opening stiff room and
also Supreme Court justices. And then they aired it back.
(04:43):
I swear to god, they piped in laughter, and I
was so thankful that they did that.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Well, you know what, I was there, and you were funny,
and you were great, and you were perfect, and you
were very funny and you probably don't know if you
got laughs because it was weird. It's just such an
odd it's just a weird room. But you were great,
you really were.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
So you Riba go back to Riba. Is that when
you guys first started. Did you know each other pre
Riba the show in like two thousand and one.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
No, we did not. The first time I met her
in person was the first day of the table read
for the show.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
And so you didn't audition for her or with her.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
No, I didn't. I had auditioned. When I auditioned, the
show was still called Sally, I believe because they didn't
know she wasn't attached yet. So at that point I
was auditioning for this show Sally, and I believe by
the time I got to like that callback where you're
in front of network, at that point she was attached
(05:42):
to it. And I thought, oh, my gosh, please let
her be attached to it, because I just feel like
it will. She's she's sort of like everything she does
sort of works and turns to golds, and like I
just wanted her to do it and I just wanted
to meet her. But I never auditioned with her. Nope,
I did not.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
What was your process like even auditioning for Sally? Because
she's told that story before about how it wasn't about
her until you know, she accepted it. So was that
initially just a large casting where you went in with
a bunch of other people that look like you and
you know, had you had your characteristics?
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Yeah, I mean you know I went in and to me,
it's it sticks in my mind because it was one
of those auditions where the script was really funny. I
love the idea of this character that they were creating,
of the other woman, the new wife, and I just
but I didn't quite know how to attack it.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
You know.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
I was like, gosh, I usually you know when you
you know this, when you have when you get it,
you're like, oh, I see who this person is. And
it wasn't until I was I remember sitting in the
parking lot about to go in and I just went, h,
I got it, I got it. I have to play
her that she has no idea that they are not
best friends. I have to play that I have no
(06:55):
idea that whatever insult or anything she throws, it's like,
I don't, I wouldn't. I it doesn't register with her
because I have to think that, of course we're going
to be best friends. We have so much in common,
you know, we like the same guys or whatever it was.
But I just go, you she has to be she
can't fight back. She has to just know, like, oh,
she we're going to be best friends anyway. So I
(07:16):
just remember having that click and go, oh, that's what
it is, and then going into the audition. I leave
and one of the producers followed came out after me,
which never happens unless they're like, oh, you know, we
don't validate. That's usually what it is. But he came
out and said, you know, he knew I was going
out of town, and I said, He's like, where are
you going and said, just going out of town for
the weekend and I'll be back in LA on Monday.
(07:37):
And again that doesn't happen, and I when I by
the time I landed in Seattle. I'd gotten a callback,
so I go back to I think a network callback,
and then it was studio. But if I'm remembering correctly,
and I feel like again, it's clear to the people
that we didn't, you know, research this before we talk,
because otherwise we'd have better idea of when the Kennedy
Center Honors was we were at, and I would remember this.
(07:58):
But I believe that that the three at the final
was Rachel Harris, who's a brilliant, funny comedian actress who's
very successful, and I think Suki who's married to Kevin
Neelan and I'm going to butcher her lasting Suki. It
was the three of us. I think we were the
three women that were last up for barbarageing and very
(08:22):
very funny and sort of just different flavors of that character.
And by the time I went in, I did the
final test, which is nerve wracking, and when I was
driving out, I got a call from my agent that
I booked it, which I didn't think I would because
I was standing next to two other actresses who I
(08:43):
knew were hilarious and very funny.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
At what point can you fill a shift in a
sitcom where you know it's being taken by the audience
and that there's probably a good chance that it gets renewed.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
I don't think you. I don't. I don't think as
an actor you really know that because you sort of
do your thing and then you put it out there
and it's sort of up to the the other things
that you're out of your control. And also the time
we did that show, there wasn't a ton of and
like that initials feedback we can get now on social media.
It was there, but it wasn't quite like it was today.
(09:16):
So you know, you're doing this show and you kind
of put it out there. It felt right while we
were doing it, you know, it felt like there was
this chemistry there, and specifically for season two, I remember
there was this click with the cast and with the
characters of the Barbaradini and Reeb were like, oh, okay,
this is the show. But for me anyway, I don't
think I even understood what it was until we were
(09:40):
off the air for how many years, And it was
in being syndicated and the love that it got there
that's when I sort of went, oh, you know, I
truly sort of felt the the the audience loved for
and how people were taking it. So I think during
the actual shooting and running of it those first six seasons,
(10:01):
I don't know if I ever really had a grasp
of what it was going to be or what it
was to audience. I mean, obviously people liked it, they
loved meeting you in person and talking about reb I
felt the chemistry of the cast, and it felt like
we were doing really good work. But I don't know.
I was also just sort of it was my first
series regular, and I felt like my job was just
to come in and do my work. And you know,
(10:23):
I didn't know a lot either was I was really
young and naive too.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
For me, I would watch the show, but I never
watched every episode until it was syndicated, and that's when
I really felt like I had a relationship with the show.
It was on USA, it was on CMT because it
was on a lot so you can catch all the episodes.
Did you feel that when it went into syndication that
you could feel the show's popularity and even your star
(10:49):
rise because it was just so present.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Yeah, I mean with somethings on every day and people
are consuming it. Yes, I definitely felt that and it
was it was you know, it was where you got
recognized a lot more. I felt like in that syndication
there was so much more love and consumption of the
show just because it was it was there all the time,
and then people really loved it. It was fun to
(11:14):
see that. And then TikTok when when they now cut
to you know, even years later, where there's this other
resurgence of it. And ultimately, I do think that all
of those things, if the writing wasn't great, if the
if the if they hadn't created these characters that people
wanted to be around, that wouldn't have mattered. But they did,
and I can watch it. I hate watching things that
(11:35):
I'm in unless I have distance from it.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
You know.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Distance is a lot easier for me, And I can
watch those episodes now of that show and just think
it's really funny and a lot it holds up, and
it was. We did do some really fun and great things,
and I love watching the chemistry between everybody. So yeah,
it's it's been, it's it's sort of it's it's I
feel very grateful that, you know, I'm in one of
(12:01):
those shows that people still kind of watch today.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Can you educate me and us on especially that show,
because there's an audience what a week is like of
doing that show, and what would happen on a Monday
versus a Saturday, and what day it actually was recorded.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
It's a multiicam, is a five day it's one episode
is in five days. And what we're doing right now
in Happiest Place is the exact same sort of schedule
we did on the original Reabis show, which is we're
Wednesday to Tuesday show, which means Wednesday is our table read.
We come in, that's our day, one of our five days.
So we come in and we do it our table
(12:38):
read in front of the studio and network, and we
read it out loud for everybody in the writers and
then we would go away and maybe go to a
costume fitting or hang out address room for a while
while they get notes from the studio and network, and
then we would come back in after they all give
their notes, and our director would usually say, all right,
(12:59):
this is going to change. This is going to change
some changes here, but we're going to put it on
its feet, and we'd have a light day of rehearsal
on that first table read day, so you know, we
got in there at ten o'clock for table read. We
were probably done by two, so it's a great schedule
for that way. And then the next day is come in.
(13:19):
They probably got a new script overnight they addressed the
changes from studio network. We get there at probably nine,
and if we need to, we might read it again,
just just for the writers, or maybe just for the
cast if there was a lot of changes, and then
we'd start rehearsing it. We'd start blocking it with our
director and we'd rehearse the whole show, have a lunch
(13:40):
and a break, maybe have fittings during that day, and
then you do a studio or which is first networker studio.
Oh my gosh, I've been doing this how many years?
I think it would be a studio run through that day.
So then the writers come down the studio and we'd
do the whole show as we rehearse it that day,
(14:00):
and then we would get notes. And Kevin Abbott, who
was our showrunner, him and Matt Barry were the two
leaders in the first rib show, and Kevinabbitt's our showrunner
this one, and Matt Barry's been there since the original
River show. And what's great about Kevin, is that a
lot of times you don't get to sit in with
(14:22):
the producers or have an opportunity to ask questions. So
after that first run through, we sit with the after
this network would leave, we'd sit and Kevin would say,
these are some of the changes, and maybe ask us
if we had any ideas or anything that was bumping us,
and blah blah blah, and then we would go home,
get a new script that night coming on Friday, read it,
rehearse it, and then do a network studio run through
(14:43):
with the writers, and then they would give maybe even
more notes, and then over the weekend the writers might
address those. Coming on Monday, you camera block the whole
show in front of the cameras so they know exactly
what we're going to do, and then you might do
some pre shoots. If there's a set that's way far
away from the studio audience, or a set that's only
there for a few days, or an outdoor scene, you
(15:06):
would do a pre shoot that day that you would
plug in in front of the studio audience. Is this boring?
This is so long? Now this down?
Speaker 1 (15:12):
No? I won't cut it down it all. I'm super
interested in like all the nuance of it, So I'm
paying attention here, okay.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
And then so Mondays is camera blocking, maybe some pre
shoot days, and then you go home. And then Tuesdays
or show day, we tape. But we're on a Tuesday
night show. You come in maybe later than the other days.
You come in and camera block refresh they call it
camera refreshed, so you refresh all the scenes that you're
going to do that night in front of the audience
with your camera guys, so you know where we're going
to be, where you need to get for your camera,
(15:39):
or how this is going to go. Then you would
cast would be sent away to hair and makeup. We'd
get ourselves glammed up and have dinner, and then we
would meet in the makeup room for touchups and we'd
usually do a quick spreed through of the script, which
is we just quick do it as fast as we
can off book and just do it as a cast.
(16:00):
And then we have a little cast and our director.
We have a little prayer, hands together, hands in pray,
We go out, have cast intros, and we tape that
show in front of a live studio audience. And usually
for us, Kevin Abbot's pretty that he keeps things running.
We usually do maybe two three takes per scene, sometimes
more if there's just a different something we need to
(16:22):
pick up, and we're usually we start at six o'clock
in front of the audience and we're usually done. We're
usually done by eight thirty or nine, and then maybe
you have a little glass of wine with the cast,
and then you go home and then you show up
the next day for your table read of next week's episode.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
He just start all over again, start all over again.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
Let's take a quick pause for a message from our sponsor,
and we're back on the Bobby Cast.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Is there ever a moment where you're in front of
the studio audience it's and a joke really doesn't hit
and then you just you rewrite the joke or do
you just repair it and like post.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Oh yeah, you find out right away. That's the beauty
of this medium, which is why I love multi caam
so much. It's the closest thing to live theater you've got.
So they'll tell you, oh, that didn't work, and our
writers usually will have a line for you. Sometimes the
actors will have a pitch. And that's again what's so
great about Kevin is that he lets us pitch stuff
(17:28):
or try stuff. I love it when that happens. I mean,
I don't love it when a joke doesn't land, but
I do love it when you get to try five
different jokes in front of that same audience and see
which one lands. But yeah, they let you know if
something works, and they'll let you know if it doesn't either,
And I love that part. But yeah, the writers are
usually there with another blow ready to.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Go with threeven, with Happy's Place. Those are shot very similarly,
But Young Sheldon was not. Is that just a different
mindset going into a show like that? Are you prepared differently?
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Yeah, because that's a single camera, so that's shot like
a movie, you know, so it's often you're not you know,
if you don't have a scene with an actor that day,
you might never see him, you know. Like the difference
between multiicam is you're with your cast all day usually
rehearsing and playing and playing around. So in single camp
it's a completely different mindset where you know, you you
(18:20):
know the writing is funny and there's a laugh there,
but you're not going to get that feedback from the
studio audience. I don't know my read is if you
see one of the gaffers or a camera guy, if
somebody maybe if you get a tiny little something, you're like,
all right, that worked. But yeah, it's as much smaller.
It's you know, it's everything's just a little bit smaller,
a little quieter, and you don't have to it's just
(18:44):
a different mind It is a different mindset.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Yeah, with happiest place and with Riba coming back and
you guys are all together again. How long ago did
this bubble up as an idea and did you think
it would manifest itself into like version two of you guys?
Speaker 2 (19:00):
You know, after the Rebu show ended, immediately, I feel
like we knew we wanted to do something together again.
You know. She I think she made up jobs for
me sometimes just so we could hang out.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
You know.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
She took me on the road and I didn't stand up.
I opened for her and for her and Kelly Clarkson
then her and George Straight when they were on the road,
which was such a wonderful experience. But you know, we
were sort of always looking. It was sort of out
in the world and we'd love to, you know, some
time would pass. We'd love to do a project together
and some came and went. Some were like you know,
and the reboot was always sort of in that world too,
(19:36):
like could we get a reboot? And you know, that
never seemed to come to fruition, whether it was like
who owned the rights? Who was going to do this?
So that didn't come. And you know, you know Reba
and I always trust her because she's so great about
this business and she has such a great perspective of
you know, when the time is right, it'll happen when
(19:58):
the project's right, it's yours, don't if you don't lose
a job that wasn't yours to have, you know, So
she was very I just sort of trusted her that,
you know, it will come when it's supposed to. I mean,
I had no idea it would be this many years later,
but there were some ideas that were floated. They weren't
the right ones anyways. So Julie Abbott, Kevin Abbot's wife,
who is our original show runner the first show and
(20:18):
this show runner on Happiest Place, came to Kevin with
this idea about sisters, of someone finding out they didn't
have a sister. So Kevin took that and ran and
brought it to Reebe and I and we loved it.
I mean, I don't know how much sway my love happened,
but I loved it too. And and you know, we
sort of that's where it was born. It was Julie Abbot,
(20:40):
Kevin's Kevin's wife, who has been, you know, part of
We've all known each other for since the original Reader show.
And yeah, I had no idea. And even when that happens,
you know, even when that happens, yes, Kevin's going to
write this idea, Okay, great, Well that doesn't mean anything.
Well he's going to go pitch it. Great, that doesn't
mean anything. Tell someone buys it. Then someone does, and
(21:02):
then you make the pilot and then you know, you
don't know if that's going to get picked up. So
you know, another good thing that re was great about
is saying, you know, I'm excited, but I won't get excited. Yeah,
I'll get I'll get it as excited as need be
as every level is passed. So you sort of go, well,
that was great. That's one hurdle, and now we have
to get to that one. And here we are, you know,
(21:23):
here we are just in the middle of season two airing,
and and a pickup for season three, which is a
crazy sentence to say in this in this day and
age of you know where the industry's at and to
be working, and we are very grateful to be working
and doing what we love.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
Your background is an improv When did you start doing
stand up? Like? What were you doing in high school?
Speaker 2 (21:46):
High school, I was doing theater and some improv. Then
I went on to college and did got a theater degree,
and improv was part of my life there. And when
I graduated from college with a theater degree, I went
to Minneapolis, which is great theater town, and I did
improv at brand new workshop Dolly Riggs, which is very
similar to Second City, where you write five five or
(22:12):
five shows original shows a year and every night you
do improv with your with your cast. And then I
did Tony and Tina's wedding which was all improv, which
I did for I don't know how many performances in Minneapolis.
And then stand up where am I? I'm on a
tangent so many after college was doing improv, doing theater, uh,
(22:34):
and then it was a stand up really didn't come
into place until Rebus sort of gave me that chance
to do it. You know, I feel like, you know,
I would MC a lot of stuff, and in improv,
you know, you you learn to think on your feet.
I was always writing stuff too. Part of what we
did at where I was doing improv was you had
to write stuff all the time. And so she sort
(22:56):
of said after the Ribas show, said what you want
to do it? And I'm like, I say yes, and
you hang up and you go, oh my god, what did.
Speaker 4 (23:02):
I I know I have to have twenty five minutes
and i'd have, you know, be ready to go and
sort of cut the luxury of a learning curve on
the road with her and Frankly and I know, you're
you're so good at it and you do it and
you have to do it all the time.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
But there's nothing scarier to me. Improv does not terrify me.
Stand Up is to me the most terrifying of all
I'll wait all mediums at all, any sort of form
of The most terrifying form of entertaining ever is stand up.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
When did you decide then from Minneapolis to move to
Los Angeles? What was it that triggered that I.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
Always knew I was going to do it? I mean,
I felt I needed to try. I wanted to I
knew I was going to do. I sort of had
a New York or LA, but ultimately was LA. I
love TV. I wanted to be on a stickcom. I
wanted to make people laugh, and I thought LA was
a place to do it. So I knew as I
was doing improv and theater in Minneapolis, I was trying
(24:01):
to save money to move to LA. And within the
form of that improv troop, we came out to Los
Angeles to do a showcase at the HBO workspace, and
our improv troop did this showcase and I got some
interest in me there and some meetings were set up
(24:21):
and I was like, great, I have to go back
to Minnesota. I'm getting married. So I did that, married
John Brady, who was I did was doing improv with
Who's the Funniest Human, and got married to him and
put off those meetings, went to do Tony and Tina's
wedding in Baltimore to save up more money so I
could go we could go to LA. So we saved
up money, then went to LA and then followed up
(24:45):
on the people that wanted to have some meetings with
me there and then just started hitting the ground and
auditioning and trying to become an actor.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
What was your first yes in La? Or in yeah?
In La? When you get to La, what is your
first yes?
Speaker 2 (25:00):
I think it was a sketch show for Oxygen that
I don't think it ever aired, but it was really
funny and really funny people Maya, Rudolph Seth Rogan. I'm
trying to remember all of these. It was a sketch show,
and I maybe confusing two sketch shows that I was
casting called Running with Scissors, and that was my first yes,
(25:21):
and I knew that it was. It was really funny
people that are all working now, and that was my
first yes. And then it never aired. I don't know why.
I don't even know what happened to it, but I
know that it was really fun and yeah, that was
I guess. And then I got a keya commercial that
was another first yes. Oh my gosh, out guest spot
(25:45):
on just shoot me?
Speaker 1 (25:47):
Oh nice? I love that show.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
And I was living. I was sub letting at an
apartment right across the street called the Starlet And if
you're ever in La, you'll see it. It's still there.
And I was at we were where we still sub
wedding at this tiny apartment right across was Warner Brothers studio,
and you know, you could look out your little window
and you'd see, like, you know, like that's where they're
(26:10):
shooting friends. And I booked this guest spot on Just
Shoot Me and it was like one funny scene. I
think it was like the check and girl for somebody's
high school reunion. And I was terrified. I was so
excited to drive onto that lot and George Siegel, who
(26:31):
was so kind to me, and he was kind to
me twice in my career and in such a way
that I will never forget, and I hope it's what
I bring. I bring to every show I'm on. I
didn't even have a scene with him. I didn't have
a scene with him. I'm trying to remember who my
scene was with. I don't think it was David Spade.
(26:51):
Who was it. Anyway, everyone was very lovely. But he
made a point of walking up to me. He said,
is this your first like thing in la like front
of an audience, And they said yes, And he says,
you're really funny. Go out there and have fun tonight.
It's supposed to be fun. And he shook money and
he was so and I'll never forget that. And then
years later I did another show called Retired at thirty
(27:13):
five and he was on that show and I went
up to thank him, and I said, I was so terrified,
I was so nervous, and you were so nice to me,
and you and you reminded me that what we do
is really fun. And I was doing what I dreamed
of doing as a kid in Minnesota and it was
happening tonight. And it may have been a couple of lines,
but to have fun. And so I went up and
(27:34):
thanked him and he couldn't and I just said, I'll
never forget it. You just made that such a wonderful experience.
And he did the same thing for me on this show.
He just said, you were so funny, You're just and
he I don't know it. I'll never forget it.
Speaker 5 (27:46):
The Bobby Cast will be right back. This is the
Bobby Cast.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
When you were a kid, who did you look at
and either mimic or think I want to do something
like they do because they do it so well.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
Carol Burnette, Gilda Radner, Catherine O'Hara, Andrew Martin. Those were
my kid ones. That I would watch Second SCTV. I
would watch that. I believe it was on PBS is
when that aired for me, and i'd watch it on
the phone with my friend Jenny Howell because we both
(28:30):
would laugh together watching se our Second City TV SETV,
which is where I saw Katherine O'Hara and Andrew Martin.
And then I would stay over at my aunt's house
on Saturday nights when my parents were like gone, and
they would let me stayup and watch Saturday Aight Live.
And I loved Gilda Radner. I loved Jane Curtin, I
just knew. But Carol Burnette was one that I could
(28:50):
watch all the time and just knew that I wanted.
I didn't know what. I just wanted to do that
I wanted to do that.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
You know, so much of what we turn into is
because of things that works bose to and I think
I grew up in the South, so I didn't get
to watch any Canadian and there were so many funny
things that as I got older, I was like, man,
I really missed out because I had no influence on
me was Canadian. However, you lived in Minnesota, where you
actually got the best of America. And you got the
Canadian like the SETV like that feels pretty fortunate looking back, right.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
Oh yeah, absolutely. And by the way, how many people,
how most of the funny people we know are Canadian? Yeah,
Martin Short, John Candy, I think about that entire our
SETV cast was just geniusly funny. And then Mike Myers, like,
I think about it. But I feel very grateful that
I got that. And I don't even know how I
(29:41):
found it. I just I just remember finding even this
is the funniest thing I've ever seen, and I love
it so much, and I'm really grateful that I saw it.
And I'm grateful that my parents let me sleep over
at my aunt EXCUSEI and Kathy's and be unsupervised and
watch stay up way too late to watch and listen.
And my aunts too. By the way, we're very instrumental
(30:03):
because they had Steve Martin comedy album and I would
listen to that, and I they exposed me to a
lot of things that I would probably not have found
on my own, you know. And yeah, we are a
product of that. So I feel really lucky about that.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
Did you ever have dreams or did you ever audition
for USNL?
Speaker 2 (30:22):
No, but I will say that when I was doing
this sketch show that we were shooting and Maya Rudolph,
I remember we were doing a sketch and I think
this was at the time that she was maybe about
to fly out for her an audition, or maybe it
was there a call, but I'm not sure, but I
(30:43):
remember that that was in the process. I remember sitting
across from her and just thinking how funny she was,
and she had said something like, well, you're going to
be auditioning soon, aren't you. And I was just like,
I don't know. I thought who knew? And so no,
I never did. And then I remember about the time
that I had gotten maybe a few I believe, my
manager had said, you should get a tape together for
(31:03):
SNL that we can start sending in. And at that
point where we started thinking about that, I was maybe
in that sort of that window of time that that
would have been appropriate. I booked the sitcom, and once
you book a sitcom, you're no longer really they don't
really want to see you, I guess at that time.
But yeah, I was one of those who knows, and
(31:25):
I ended up where I was supposed to. But yeah,
I dreamed of SNL is. I mean, I don't know
if you can see behind me, that's still like I, oh,
that didn't turn off. I still have that the album,
and I still listen to my guilda Radner like Live
in New York album. But you know, I'm not dead.
Maybe someday they let me do a walk on. I
work for NBC Universal. I mean, I'd be happy if
(31:47):
they let me just sit, you know, I'd be I
do anything. I just that show is huge to me.
And I still fight with people who go, oh, it's
not good anymore, or this wasn't good, or now this cast.
I'm like, no, no, no, no, it is always it's
always good because what they are doing. Yes, there's ebbs
and flows, there's casts that you might connect with more,
(32:08):
and there's maybe years that there was more sketches that
you remember. But the reality is it's always good because
what they're doing is they're doing a live show and
they're creating like this amazing, this amazing variety show every week.
And you real fans, don't. You don't leave them in
any year. You watch it every year all the time,
and I love it because I love watching just how
(32:30):
things change. But yet they stay the same, and I'm
loving like Ashley Padilla in newcast I think is brilliant.
So I still dream of SNL even though I realize
that train has probably left the building.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
I often will do a thing where I'll go through
and try to try to guess what the most asked
question is to the people that I talk to, and
I never really want to jump into the most asked questions?
But can I try to predict your most asked question?
Speaker 2 (32:58):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (32:59):
Is it a hook? Her number two?
Speaker 3 (33:01):
No?
Speaker 1 (33:02):
It is it?
Speaker 2 (33:03):
No?
Speaker 1 (33:04):
Okay, So then I don't feel guilty asking it. So
I love Fargo I too.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
I mean again, that was my first job out of college.
That was my first Yes, dang it. I need to
walk around with my mom or dad behind me, who
actually keep track of my career, Like, I have no idea.
I'm so bad at it. Tell me, Oh my gosh,
(33:28):
that's I was a kid. I was working at TJA Fridays.
I finished, I got my theater degree, and the Jane Brody,
an amazing casting casting agent who I believe is still
based in Chicago, came and taught a semester at my
college and I took her class. I think she was
teaching auditioning for film or maybe cold readings she took.
(33:51):
She was amazing. I took her classes. She liked me.
I graduate. She's in town in Minneapolis casting for Fargo,
and at first she hired me to run camera for
her too to earn some extra money, which was a
lovely skill to learn. I run camera for a few days,
but then she calls me into audition for the Coen
Brothers True story. I'm in the lobby. I want to
(34:13):
get a mountain dew before my audition. I don't have change.
I ask who I think is I don't know somebody
who works there. I asked for change for a dollar
so I can get a mountain dew. By the way,
all of those are poor decisions before an audition, drinking
a mountain dew. I don't know all of it. And
I get in the room and I had asked Joel
(34:33):
Cohen for change for the vending machine to get a
mountain two because I again this is pre social media.
I had seen, you know, raising Arizona. I knew who
the Coen Brothers were, but it wasn't like they had
like this, you know, hot instant like you know, I
didn't know what they actually looked like. So I go in,
(34:55):
I audition. I don't hear anything for quite some time,
and I think it's done and it's over. Because it's
a small town. You hear people that have been going
in for this big Cohen Brothers movie. I get called
back in maybe like I feel like it was a
month later. But again, don't trust me in any timeline,
because clearly I have no idea what I've done in
(35:15):
my life. I go back in, and this is for
hooker number. This is for the pair of hookers. And
when they start to match us up with other girls,
so I go in and read and I read with
a couple of different people, and then when they put
Larissa and I together, I felt like, oh this works.
It's that thing you know where like, oh, where this
(35:35):
is supposed to be. So once they paired us together
and we read this scene, I felt like, oh that
felt pretty good. That felt right. And then I leave
and I think I still don't think. I hear from
maybe another week that I got it. And then I
got it and I went in and my first day,
the first scene we shot was I believe this scene
(35:56):
where it's the oh yeah, we're at the scene with
France McDermott, which she's so was so even only in
hindsight when I realized how generous she was as an actor.
I just remember she treated Larissa and I both like
we were peers, which she we were. But in my head
(36:19):
I was just I was going I had to shift
at TJ. Friday's the next day, you know. And this
was Francis McDermott, who was well into her career but
also just such a brilliant actress. But she was so
kind and just I remember she I felt like we
were we were equals. We were equals in a scene,
which was just, in hindsight, a lovely gift to give
(36:40):
a really young new person who had no idea what
she was doing and who at the rat party at
the Bowling Alley asked William H. Macy what party was
in the movie because I hadn't I didn't know the
whole script. I mean, I just I asked. I asked
so many questions, and that in hindsight, I never would
(37:03):
have asked. I would have been too nervous to, Like
if I was doing a Coen Brothers movie today, I
would be nervous for I. But back then I'm like, hey,
Steve Bushmi, do you remember when you were mister pink?
I was like Chris Farley in that sketch. I was like,
remember when you were a goal? Like I was such
an idiot and Ethan Cohen people heard this story, but
true story. I just graduated. So I was living with
(37:24):
my parents while I saved money for my apartment and
Ethan Cohen called my house to talk about a scene
or something, and my mother answered and was screaming upstairs,
going Missy calling me Missy by the way, which I'm like,
I'm Melissa, I'm an actress, and Missy the phones for you,
and I'm like, who is it? And she said Ethan Cohen?
(37:45):
And I was mortified. Mortified.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
So that was your first yes?
Speaker 2 (37:50):
That was my first yes?
Speaker 1 (37:53):
What was your last yes?
Speaker 2 (37:56):
My last yes? Well, getting a saying yes to a
third season of Happiest Place, I guess that's that's a
giant yes in today's world where you know TV's changing
and I know so many people not working. That's it
feels like a really really big yes that we get
to do a season three.
Speaker 1 (38:16):
Do you still cook?
Speaker 2 (38:18):
Oh? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (38:19):
Oh? So you with your reaction, you must still cook
a lot.
Speaker 2 (38:23):
Yeah, I mean, I'm just my reaction is, why do
you think I have someone cooked for me?
Speaker 1 (38:27):
Well, I know you from cooking on television a bit,
so I didn't know if you really did that a lot,
or if you're just good at it and you kind
of break it down occasionally for on camera.
Speaker 2 (38:37):
No, I like to cook. I mean I don't cook
as I mean, my husband actually cooks a lot of
the stuff. But I do like to cook. I love
to like be able and our my son is twenty
and so he's moved out of the house. He's actually
in going to culinary school, so hopefully he'll cook for me.
But yeah, I love to cook. I like to I'd rather,
you know, stay in and eat at home. Then I
(38:59):
don't want. I guess it's I like both. But I
do like to cook. Yeah, I like I like it
when I don't have to. I like it when I
can putter around and go, oh, I'm gonna make soup.
I love making things where I can just throw whatever
I have and see if it works, and it usually does.
Speaker 1 (39:12):
Actually, what is your signature dish?
Speaker 2 (39:15):
Hmmm? Oh wow, I make really good. This sounds like
a dumb one, but I make really good like I
can do like I make really good homemade like black
bean dip. I make really good soups. I make a
really good garden vegetable soup. I don't know if I
have a signature anymore. Oh, you know what this is
(39:36):
gonna make me very Midwestern. I can do a really
good hot dish. I can do a really good tater
tot hot dish. I'm really good at it. But as
far as like this, I don't know if I have
a signature. I mean, roast chicken, that's easy, But no,
I don't have a signature.
Speaker 1 (39:52):
You got to talk me through a tater tot hot dish.
I'm from the South. I don't know what that means.
I know what tater tots are, but what's a hot dish?
Tater tot?
Speaker 2 (39:59):
You'd call it casserole, right, yeah, you know it's the
same thing. It's where you take ground meat of any kind,
maybe a creama mushroom, soup, some green beans, some onions, whatever.
You mix that up. Maybe you put some cheese in it.
There's a debate between the cheese and it hot dish sometimes,
and then you would layer tater tots on top, so
(40:19):
ours would be ground beef, brown ground beef cream and
mushroom soup green beans. I like to go. I like
to sass it up with some onions, maybe some real
mushrooms in it. Then you put that line tatertops on time,
build it, bake it, and you've got a hot dish.
Speaker 1 (40:38):
So hot dishes is Midwestern? Do people often think you're
from the South?
Speaker 2 (40:44):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (40:44):
I did. It's funny until I started researching you.
Speaker 2 (40:48):
I just met somebody actually yesterday somewhere that was like, so, wait,
you weren't from Texas. I'm like, no, I just I
did my barber Gane. I just did it. So I
think there's something like vibe wise that's very similar. I
think Midwest and South has a similar vibe that I
think connects people in a way where we like to
hang out with our friends and family, we like to eat,
(41:10):
we like to you know, we like our neighbors, we
you know, I don't know. I think there's a little
more of a laid back vibe that I connect with
people from the South. Maybe.
Speaker 1 (41:20):
Well, congratulations on getting renewed for a third season again,
that is such a big deal. I bet it's so
fun to do Happy's Place because it's new.
Speaker 2 (41:28):
People don't come out to a lot, you need to
come to a taping or be on it. Yeah, I
guess that was not the reaction I was hoping for.
Speaker 1 (41:38):
Well, I just been Hollywood is so and I'm not
comparing you to this, but everybody in anytime I do
any meetings And I was talking to someone about this recently.
O they're still going Tom bergeron, who I love as
a host, right, and he's the greatest guy. And I
was like, every day, might come and do any meeting
in Los Angeles. They promised me the world. They tell
me they're going to make me the biggest thing ever.
They're going to give me millions of dollars right there
(41:59):
in the room. And I walk out and I never
hear from anybody, And so, you know, I just have
that association with anyone in Hollywood that's like you should
do this, and I just should react like this, Oh
thank you, that's so nice of you. But I have
this react get it? Yeah, you know right, it's.
Speaker 2 (42:13):
I get it. I mean, I remember there's so many
times like oh my gosh, you are you are you
are the funniest, you know, the funniest person we've ever seen.
Today for this, and I'm like, great, we'll hire me
because that doesn't pay my rent? Or I get it.
I hear that all the time. People say that all
the time. They say, I get it. I believe in it.
That was you know what, that was a proper reaction.
(42:38):
But no, but no bullshit aside. You are beloved by Reeba.
I would I would like us to like I think
you know, I don't know, you know what, don't believe me,
but you should fair enough. But I get it. I
know you know what. I bet you hear that all
the time. Because you are so good at what you do.
You have this massive following. You can do many things.
(42:58):
You wear a lot of different hats. People say things
and it never comes true.
Speaker 1 (43:03):
I should have reacted better, had that thing too.
Speaker 2 (43:04):
Of like when people that all of these things don't
pay my rent, I.
Speaker 1 (43:10):
Should have reacted to that better. I apologize.
Speaker 2 (43:12):
I might, No, I no, I love that. This is
the best, most perfect reaction you should get to anybody
in Hollywood who says you should or you know what,
come out here. I've got something for you. Don't don't
believe them, because you know what, I didn't come till
i'd saved up a lot of money on my own
to pay my own rent, and I knew I could
try to make it here.
Speaker 1 (43:31):
Well, congratulations again. I really love it for you guys.
I love it Forrieba. I love Reba obviously. She She's
been so kind to me over the years. And it's
so cool that you guys are real life friends. I
think that's cool because a lot of people are work
friends or we've done stuff together, but you guys are
like real life friends. And I love to work with
my real life friends, So that's got to be super
cool to be able to do that.
Speaker 2 (43:51):
It is and people can tell it translates into the
final product. You know. People they maybe don't know what
it is or put the able to put their finger
on it, but they can tell when there's chemistry and
there's real friendship there. And yeah, and we have a
shorthand we don't have to explain stuff to each other
because we already know what.
Speaker 1 (44:08):
Does Reba like to work with professionally?
Speaker 2 (44:13):
She's a great example. You know, she is prepared, She
treats everybody with respect, and she likes to have fun.
You know, she doesn't need to do this right now,
and she wants to do it because she really she
loves it. She has so much fun, you know, Reeba,
She's lovely and she makes sure like my favorite. The
goal is that anybody who leaves that set, they walks away,
(44:34):
they walk away saying I had a great time, people
treated me great and I want to come back. And
she does that, and it's you know, it's really fun
watching her and Rex together. You would think that you
would get tired of, you know, seeing how much in
love they are and how cute they are, but I'm
not yet. And they really are quite fun together. And
(44:55):
he's great because I don't know how much time you've
spent with rexlnd, but he is such an actor's actor,
and he loves what he does so much, and he
loves to rehearse and he makes us all better, I think,
because he really respects that process so and he's he's
got stories you need. He's fun to talk to. He's
(45:17):
been doing this for a long time.
Speaker 1 (45:19):
Melissa. Thank you so much for the time and thanks
for the generosity with your stories. I really appreciate it
and much much success. And hopefully someday we'll be in
the same room and we'll actually talk to each other.
That was a busy day we were together. We were
running all over the place, I know, and I was.
Speaker 2 (45:32):
Really hoping to do this in person. So I hope
that you'll let me do it and listen. I like
to come out there and my folks are around there,
so I'll do it.
Speaker 1 (45:40):
Please do next time you're in town. Please, hey, hey,
come on bye, next time you're in town. I hit
her with that. Can't wait to see him. We got
something for you. I got a show.
Speaker 2 (45:47):
Here's my reaction. Okay, we bet I'll be there.
Speaker 1 (45:53):
Thank you. Hey, great to see you. Thank you so much.
Hope you have a great rest of the day.
Speaker 2 (45:57):
Thanks you too.
Speaker 3 (45:58):
By Melissa, Thanks for listening to a Bobby Cast production.
Host
Bobby Bones
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