Ted Danson: Super Sunny 01:18:21

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That's 15% off at SaatchiArt.com. S-A-A-T-C-H-I-Art.com. Ever wish your favorite TV show had twice as many episodes? Everyone knows that feeling. And so does Discover. Everyone wants more of their favorites. That's why Discover doubles another favorite thing. Cash back.

That's right. Discover automatically doubles the cash back earned on your credit card at the end of your first year with Cash Back Match. Now that's a real crowd pleaser. Everyone knows how it ends. Double the cash back. See terms at discover.com slash credit card. It's first I love you and cheers. Then it's my mother loves you and cheers. And then it's my grandmother loves watching. And then it's what cheers? Yes. Yes.

Hey, everybody. It's literally today. Ted Danson, one of the iconic television leading men, and not just television, but I mean, from cheers to, literally from cheers to the good place. I mean, that is decades of domination. And he's also a super nice guy and super, does a lot of great charity work and, yeah,

I'm really excited to have him on and get to the bottom of, let's open him up. Let's see what makes Mr. Ted Danson tick. Here we go. There's just stuff you've been in so much stuff. You want to make sure you go through all of it. I want to talk about Mr. Mayor because that is a checkered history getting to the making of that one. It's a good one. Yeah. I like inside baseball stuff like that. Yeah, that was. Oh, I know all about it. Yeah. Why? Why?

Because I'm obsessed with Alec Baldwin. Yes. And Tina. Yes. Well, there you are. I see that you have actually the origin story right there. Oh, I do. Yes. Because the origin story brings me back to Mike Schur. Yeah. So, we have Mike Schur in common. That's right. This is why my podcast is a train wreck. Because I never start at the beginning. And we're like...

I mean, we're right in the middle of now talking about the good place in Parks and Recreation, when I should be talking about, you know. Thank you. My brain works that way, too. Okay, good. Yeah. So, the good place is amazing. You're great in it. It is amazing. It's amazing. Yeah. And Kristen Bell, who I had the great opportunity to work with on Parks and Rec, and I think that's how Mike fell in love with her.

She's a phenomenon. Phenomenon. Her brain is so fast. I know. So fast. She's a slow starter. In the morning, you better not talk to her. She will say this. She will tell you this in no uncertain terms. Don't even talk to me until I've had— Is it a coffee thing? It's coffee. I don't know the whole ingredient, but—

halfway through her makeup and hair, you can start to talk to her. But do not say, good morning, how are you? As she's walking towards the set. Oh, by the way, there is nothing worse than you're on episode 16 and it's five in the morning. And you're in the makeup trailer and everyone's like, get him!

I want to go. We get it. You were out last night. Right. Just let me have my coffee. Yeah. Let them put my face on. You know, I do have a face that I have to put on. I'm not. Come on now. All right. Well, I do have hair. They got to deal with. We were talking on Mike. Why? How did we see you derailed me? I did. I did. I'm sorry. I will derail me. Um,

Yeah, Mike Schur, and we have him in common. What I love about Mike's being on Parks and what your show was is the sort of feel-good, sunny... You just feel good watching those shows. Yep, I agree. Right? In my case...

It kind of rejuvenated my career. I didn't realize that when we started, but I get 13-year-olds, 14, 15-year-olds, young teenagers who have started to watch it. And they come in waves, like you'll get a new wave every four or five years or whatever.

of kids watching it with parents, but because it's about something. It's about how to lead a purposeful life, and it's got fart jokes in it, but it is about something, and there are lots of complicated little twists and turns which appeals to that age. So not only did I get to be part of something and work with really wonderful people, really great people, but I all of a sudden had...

some legs again career-wise because cheers, I'd have to stop and explain and have a graph and a calendar to show people. See, it was about a bar, see? And it was in... It's a place for everybody to hear your name. And the Charles brothers, you have to understand who the Charles brothers were. They were really... It's fun. Isn't it fun and humbling to what you hung your hat on?

you know, 11 years of Cheers. It was rock and roll. And then there's a time where, you know, it's first I love you and Cheers. Then it's my mother loves you and Cheers. And then it's my grandmother loves watching. And then it's What's Cheers. Yes. And when you hit the What's Cheers, it's like, wait a minute, this was the pillar of my life.

my life, my being, and now you have no idea. So, thank you, Mike Schur. Yeah, you got it. And I had the same with Parks and Rec. Like when I, you know, it's the night, the teenage 20-somethings, you know, they like college campuses. If I go to college campuses, it's all Parks and Rec, all Parks and Rec, all Parks and Rec. Hey, this is not fair, but I have to,

Switch, just for a second. Switch chairs. Yeah. You can switch any time. I'm happy to turn the reins over. Behind the candelabra, you were brilliant. You were so funny, so brilliant, so out of left field. I just have to mention that. Thank you. Mary and I were just like, wait, wait, we have to watch this again. And we rewind it. It's like, look at that. Oh, I'm so glad. Yeah, you were through the roof great with that.

With wonderful actors that you were working with and you were just spectacular. I'm so glad that you watched it and liked it. It's one of my favorite things I've done. And God bless Steven Soderbergh for thinking of me and letting me swing away. I called him and I said, listen, man, and I never met him. Never met him. It was one of those wonderful things that happens where the phone rings one day and

You're like, wow, I love Steven Soderbergh. And of course, I'm going to be in this movie no matter what it is. I don't even need to read the script. I'm going to do it. But I was like, Steven, so you have one of my favorite actors of all time, Michael Douglas. One of my favorite podcasts I've ever done was with Michael Douglas. That's a great one to listen to. Great, I will. It's unbelievable. He's got one of your girl Deborah Winger stories in there that's beyond belief. Oh, wow. Beyond belief.

And I thought I'd heard every Hollywood story. And he just casually tosses it off like it's nothing. Basically, she bit him in the face. Took a bite. It took a bite out of him. Yeah, sure. Not a nibble. No, bit him in the face. But I digress.

So I was like, Michael is a great actor. He's playing Liberace. Matt Damon, who's also one of my favorite actors of all time. Me too. Playing the boy toy in velour butt-tight shorts. Yeah. I got to figure out a way to pop. Like I've got, so I'm going to take a big swing. Are you okay with that? And he's like, swing away. So I showed up with that look. How did, yes, please explain how you got there to that look. So,

Before there were facelifts in Hollywood, like the Joan Crawford era, they would tape women's faces with beauty tape and then a wire around their head that they would cinch. Right. But then you'd have to wear a wig to hide the wires. Right. So you could pull every piece of sagging face off.

So that's what we did. And we pulled my face every which way, which looked really good. But then I was looking in the mirror and I realized that you lower your eyebrows with your face pulled. It's completely unnatural. So I forget it was either that I raised my eyebrows or lowered them, but I did something with my eyebrows with the face pulled.

And that was like ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. And... Ding, ding, good? Great. Yeah. Disturbing as all can be. Yeah. And then when I went on... Michael and Matt had never seen...

Yes.

Yeah, I do. I wonder if you would have had the same performance without. No. Yeah, it is. I'm not, I'm not Rob Lowe anymore. I'm this bizarre thing looking back at me in the mirror. And like to really, really like, I wouldn't have the balls to kind of almost say milk it. Like there's a, a moment where at the end of the scene, I take a

And I remember hamming it. What I thought was hamming it up so big drinking and looking out of my eyes and drinking again. He used every frame. I was like, this will never be in the movie. Every frame of it's the movie.

But thank you. I love that part. No, it was a joyful part. It's so fun. That's when you get to be a character actor. I love being a character actor. And that's what, I mean, that's why it's hard to watch your own work, by the way. It's because what delights you is when you see somebody surprise you. Oh, I didn't see that coming. But when you watch your own work, it's like, well, saw that coming, saw that coming, saw that coming. For sure. I got to ask you about body heat. That,

Oh, you're taking over the reins now? I'm taking, I pulled the reins back from you. Body Heat is obviously one of the great movies of all time.

I think. I mean, you, Mickey Rourke. Mickey, first film. I remember vividly The Bomb Maker. And all of a sudden, people are like, who is that guy? Yeah. And William Hurd at the height and Kathleen Turner at the height. And I just saw it again the other day. I hadn't seen it in a long time. Richard Crenna, too. It was wonderful. Everybody's great in it. And it's one of those movies where you go,

Does it stand, does it hold up? And it, and it does. And it doesn't like the big explosion at the end where they, where they blow up. Right. We were like, you know what I mean? It's like the visual or the fact of it's a little bit of, for sure. It's the visual. Yeah. But it's a little bit of like, like today people will be like, I think we need something, something more, but it is so gross.

What's your memory of it? The music also makes it kind of timeless. The score is brilliant. It's a great movie. To me, the thing that is the most hard to capture that that movie does is it's so atmospheric. And usually people use atmospheric as a way of saying, the movie doesn't really work, but it's a good vibe. This movie works great and it's atmospheric. By the way, this is how my mother went to watch the film

body heat, which had its fair amount of nudity and sex. She literally never saw the screen. She put her hand over her eyes, could not tell you anything about the movie. Amazing. Thanks, Mom. Here's my memory of it, are some of the things that stand out. Larry Kasdan, the director, brilliant, had written

I think two or three major scripts. I think a Star Wars and something else. Indiana Jones. Yes, that's right. He started out in advertising. So he storyboarded that film two or three times before he actually started shooting it. So you could take the script that we auditioned with and go to the movie right now and literally everything that's on the page of the script

is on the screen. He would shoot a third of a master and then come around because he only needed then a half of this. He knew exactly what was going to be up on the screen. That's amazing. Yeah, I thought that was amazing. We also had the blessing of we started rehearsing and then I can't remember which union struck, but all of a sudden our two-week rehearsal turned into a month and a half

and we just kept rehearsing. For some reason, I guess that was okay. Wow. And part of my character was he was fascinated by Fred Astaire, so he would be dancing on docks and everything. But the person who worked with me, a choreographer, we just went out on the streets of L.A. and she'd say, let's dance off of that car bumper. Let's do something with that. So I had the best time.

rehearsing for that. What's amazing. Yeah. Those were the days, long rehearsals. God, that was... It was also the days of the prop truck was the cocaine dispensary. Of course it was.

I mean, not even like giggle, giggle. Oh, how embarrassing. It was just, no, that's literally. The prop talk. Get a soda over there and some Coke over there. That's the people that talk about how the business is. I mean, for sure. I mean, legitimately drugs were sold. Yeah. On every set. Or given. Or given. Yeah. When I did Outsiders, I was just turned 18. Tommy Howell, the lead, played Ponyboy was 15. And we would get in the van together.

after rap every day and the Teamsters would give us beer. Yeah. It's a Warner Brothers movie and you're giving your 15-year-old lead beer. Right. But this is just what it was. And then you get in your car and drive home and the police would pull you over and they go, oh, okay, Rob. Well, better not do that again and send you on your way. Times have changed. A great Lawrence Kasdan piece of trivia.

There is an audio of Spielberg, Kasdan, and Lucas pitching Indiana Jones. Have you ever heard this? No. For real pitching? For real. It's a recording in the writer's room.

It's amazing. Oh, wow. They keep talking about Indianapolis Jones. Really? Yeah. It's amazing. They keep, they keep, and then Indianapolis will come in and say, Oh, that's crazy. It's the greatest. And I, and I, and then Kasdan finally goes, what if it's just Indy, Indiana? Like, yeah, yeah, good. I guess that works.

Indianapolis Jones. Would not have made it. I think it's just those little things on the march. It's like a golf swing. If your club is off just infinitesimally. Boy, that's true. Right? That's true. The devil's in the details. Yeah. Yeah.

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qualifying plan required wi-fi were available on select us airlines deposit and hilton honors membership required for 15 discount terms and conditions apply mickey rourke you you i'm trying to remember i don't think you have any no no no scenes with mickey but boy it was so clear how that he was going to be a big star um and one thing i remember i i'm as you've probably gotten in this brief moment we've had together i'm you know i'm a

Pollyanna doesn't sound quite right, but I'm a little bundle of joy. And I was being bubbly or something about us both being in this movie and how wonderful it was. And I remember him sitting on top of a bunk that was part of the set, and he was saying, yeah, if it hadn't been for acting, I'd either be in jail or dead by now.

And it was like, oh. I had been an architect. Yeah. I was going to be a dentist. He was amazing. He was just amazing. And here's another thing I remember. We went to Florida. Body heat.

Before every scene, they would come out with spritz bottles, water spritz to your face because we were all supposed to be pouring sweat because it was so hot. And it was a cold snap in Florida that was like unheard of. And it was like in the 40s.

So night shoots, they'd come out and spritz you down. They would, in some scenes, give people ice cubes to suck on so that their breath wouldn't come out and be visible before each scene. It was tough. The coldest I ever was on a set was Northern Florida in the winter.

Coldest I've ever been. Anyone in the world. Florida gets cold. It's brutal. People don't believe us that California cold. No, it's nothing like it. Is cold. No, it's nothing like it. Compared to the East. I met Mickey Rourke. Mickey auditioned for Outsiders. Or maybe better yet, Mickey refused. I think Mickey refused.

refused to audition for that. Francis was obsessed. Francis Ford Cobb was obsessed with Mickey Rourke. From what? From what he had, what did he see? I think Diner was actually in the, Diner was actually in the theaters, I believe. Right. I'd have to do the math or it was about to come out, but it was certainly off of body heat. And I just remember Mickey,

showing up for a meeting at Zotrope when we were all auditioning and Mickey was, showed up wearing roller skates and had not bathed in weeks. That was my one interaction with Mickey Rourke. Sometimes I think it's a miracle that I've made it in this business because Joel Schumacher, who we also share. You did Cousins with Joel. Yeah, and you did St. Elmo's Fire. He told me once that,

And it rang in my ears forever that to be a real artist, you cannot have middle-class morals. Amazing. And there's no one who has more middle-class morals than me. And I was kind of devastated knowing that I couldn't even fake my way into being a rebellious free spirit. Well, that's so interesting. Yeah. Do you think it's true?

I, you know, you can point to a lot of people and go, it might be. I know. It might be. I mean, is that why neither you nor I will ever be Daniel Day-Lewis or want to be? Yeah. Well. With no disrespect. He's in a class of his own. You know what I mean? It's like, here's the other side of it, I would say to Joel. I would say, okay, as we would say in court, stipulated, but

you're going to have an absolutely miserable life outside of your art. Yes. Yes. And, uh,

Yeah. Right? Yes. No, that's true. For sure. And there are going to be a lot of people around you who don't want to. Yeah. Pay the price. There is baggage. But that's what you and I would say. It is what we, but because we're, you know, simpatico in that way. And I was just around on a trip with a bunch of amazing, amazing actors, Oscar winners, Oscar nominees, right in the thick of the career.

Right. In the thick of it, like it's all happening right now for them. And it was a lot of non middle class morality. Yeah. It's it's like it's baked into being an artist. It's I but I don't know if that's just some line of goods that people have been sold all these years.

You know, I mean, because every once in a while I would come up against an actor who I thought was every bit as good as any of the tortured souls. Jodie Foster comes to mind. Did a movie with Jodie. She's only won two Oscars. Yeah. And she's... And can play tortured souls. She's as normal as the day is long. Yeah.

Will not suffer the won't suffer the fool who is like gnashing their teeth in the corner. She's not having any of it. Right. She's got two Academy Awards. She's great. So I just it's but it's something I actually I think about a lot. And maybe it's because I'm so not that and also that my son is an up and coming actor.

And that thing is alive and well. But it's part of the charm, too. You know, you're young and you want to be like a, you know, stick it in the face of the man and all that stuff. I kind of get it. That's amazing that Joel said that. Give it to me again. It was so succinct. You can't be an artist if you have middle class morality. Wow. That's super good. Yeah. That's why I always...

I have to add for myself because no one ever says it about me. I say I'm a good actor. I'm funny with a dangerous sexuality. Smoldering. No one's ever accused me of having. I have never. This is not like you. This is where we're different. I was never hired to be the sexy guy doing sexy things. Wait, wait, wait. I was hired to be the sexy guy who made jokes about.

About sex. This is why I have papers. There's no, there'll be no sex scenes in that paper. This is why, but I didn't highlight this. So it's going to take me a minute to find it. You brought it up. The Eremis man. If you can find anything about my sexuality, take all the time you want. Here it is. Career.

First of all, played a doctor on the soap opera, The Doctors. I bet she was a sexy doctor, first of all. No. There's no other kind on TV. He was a very sweaty doctor because he was so fucking terrifying and was on Valium.

Seriously. Sweaty Valium doctor? I was supposed to be reassuring this couple played by people who'd been on the soap for 500 years. And this was my first day on any soap. And I was the young doctor reassuring them that their daughter who had cancer will survive. So I was supposed to be calming them down. I was sheets. I was broadcast news, pouring sweat off my face.

Horrified and terrified and yeah, no. Well, what about this though? All right. This is right. I'm just saying this is right underneath the note. So this is significant. Okay. Appeared in a number of commercials, most notably as the Eramis man. Now, come on. You're not going to sit here and tell me that the Eramis man wasn't sexy. The whole point of the Eramis man is smoldering sexuality. Is it not? Yeah. Yeah.

But I don't, I, I, yeah, no, no, I, no, there's no smoldering. I'm sorry. We'll pull up all of my performances and put them on the screen and you show me smoldering and I will love you forever.

We all have our lanes. Yeah. Mine is to be funny about sex. Yes. But not to have or show or demonstrate sex. No, that's just... There's no demonstration. But that's me too. There's a reason why this has happened to me is because I'm the guy at, you know, I have a woman, a girl had to be stark naked in front of me before I went, oh, me? Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Do you want me? Oh, I would rather die than make the first move. And it's not a great thing I'm describing. It was fucked up. You miss 100% of the shots you don't take. Yeah, that's true. Right? I mean, that's true. But the fear of that first shot, I guess, just was overwhelming. Plus, I was trained by a very good woman, my mother.

To be sensitive, caring, kind, loving, nurturing, all of the positive things in life and none of the petty, dark, selfish parts of life that we all have. How did you ever become an actor then? Because I got to play people who were selfish and petty and silly. I had permission to be an asshole. Right.

When did you know that Cheers was what it was, or was it the kind of thing that its legend has only grown in time? Well, for sure it isn't that because it was a smash hit. But did you ever have a moment where you went, oh, this is a thing? I think it hits you. First year, we were dead last, the ratings. This is an amazing story. Yeah. Listen, we could turn this into a bitch-a-thon about what's wrong with the business, but here's one of the things.

People, hear me loud and clear, dead last. Dead last one week. In its first year. Yeah. Did they cancel it? No. And it became fucking cheers. Right. Would they have canceled it if they had something better to replace it with? They might have, according to Brandon Tartikoff. Saw Lily last night.

I love that woman. Love that woman. She's as beautiful as ever and sweet as can be. Yeah. Sorry, last night. She was like the den mother to everybody on NBC there for a while when Brandon was in charge. Yeah. Well, give her my regards if you see her again. Really, truly. I think I had a crush on her, actually. Yes. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, Dead Last. Then reruns.

in the summer is when people would watch shows and sample shows they hadn't seen during the year. So a lot of people hadn't seen Cheers, obviously, and they sampled it and

liked it. We had the press on our side. The press loved us. So we grew very slowly and organically until Bill Cosby came along and Bill was a phenomenon. I know we're not, can't always speak glowingly about Bill, but he was a phenomenon and the show was brilliant. And it pulled the entire Thursday night lineup behind him. And we became a top 10 show because of the Cosby show and because it was good.

So, to answer your question, it was during, and I'm sure you've experienced this, it's when a show goes from just being on the air to being syndicated. Yeah. As soon as it's syndicated, you step out the door and you are hammered by an enormous amount of public energy coming your way that you hadn't ever experienced before. And it kind of takes your breath away when you can't move without people clocking you. Can you imagine?

Have you ever had to pay for a drink in a bar? Well, here's the thing. I don't go to bars. That's right. Exactly. But I would go every day. I was in your shoes dancing. Poor George Wendt can't go anywhere without people yelling Norm as he enters. I'm sure he hasn't paid for a beer for a long time. I mean, it's really sort of unbelievable that the...

The effect of that. And I guess I kind of have a bone to pick with Cheers because before I started working in television, I'd done movies and stuff. And this would have been 1990. I want to say it's 1997-ish. And TV wasn't

The golden era of TV in the 90s. When you were on, it was a lot of it, but it wasn't really in the 90s anyway. So I was like, maybe I'll do a TV show. Maybe I will. I want to stay home with my kids. Maybe I'll do it. So Mike Myers and I had just done Wayne's World and Austin Powers too. God, I forgot that. Yes. And-

Or I did Robert Wagner. Right. Young Robert Wagner. I think that's the first time I went, oh my God, he's a funny fuck. It was fun. It was fun. I mean, you know, when you're surrounded by funny people, it's easier to be funny. So Mike had this idea and Mike was batting a thousand at that point. Mike had this idea that I should do a TV series with Robert Wagner. Oh. And Robert Wagner should play an alternative version of himself, a legendary television fixture. Yeah.

And who has a son, that would be me, who has never really found himself and is living in the guest house in Beverly Hills trying to find his way. That was the conceit of the show, right? Half hour or one camera? Half hour comedy. Yeah. I sell it to Paramount and NBC. It's all of the people who were still around who made Cheers. By the time they were done developing it, not only did it not...

Star Robert Wagner. Oh, my God. It took place in a sports bar. And my dad was Dan Hedaya. That's great. That is the extent to which they would chase the cheers magic. Yeah, yeah.

From Robert Wagner and me to Dan Hedaya and I running a sports bar in Chicago. I guess AI was alive and well even back then. Yeah. You know. Anything with a sports bar. Yeah. Has to work. I'm sorry about that. I know. I blame you. I blame you.

All set for your flight? Yep. I've got everything I need. Eye mask, neck pillow, T-Mobile, headphones. Wait, T-Mobile? You bet. Free in-flight Wi-Fi. 15% off all Hilton brands. I never go anywhere without T-Mobile. Same goes for my water bottle, chewing gum, nail clippers, passport. Okay, I'm going to leave you to it. Find out how you can experience travel better at T-Mobile.com slash travel.

It's time.

Tell me how you got into Saving Private Ryan, because that is such a great movie. And then all of a sudden you're there.

It was a great sequence. I sometimes wonder when I see it myself if that's a distraction to have somebody show, you know, you've established all these characters, even though you know Tom really well, but you believe them by the time you've watched the movie, by the time that the D-Day is over. You believe anything. Yes. Yeah.

So I sometimes look at it and go, geez, oh, look, there's Ted. What's he doing in this movie kind of feeling. Anywho, yeah, I think we talked about this earlier, but I had just gotten a show that was canceled. Help Me Help You was the name of it. And...

Great writing, all of that. But I think people were hoping I would still be Sam Malone and I had aged past that working. Anyway, it didn't work. And I walked away from it feeling, I'm not funny. I'm not making myself laugh. There are so many other people nowadays out there who are really funny. I'm out. I shouldn't be doing this. So I went to Jeffrey Katzenberg, who obviously works with Steven and

I said, please, put me in anything, you know, to pay me, literally. I don't care if it's a walk-on. I just want to start doing films again. And I'm assuming that he talked to Stephen. And I was like a Concorde soldier. I flew in on the Concorde for...

One day of training and then one day of shooting, maybe two days of shooting. Whereas those guys had gone to boot camp. Yes. Very real. Captain Dale Dye. I worked with Dale Dye. Did you? Dale Dye was the guy. He was the guy who trained anybody doing a military thing. He was the man. After platoon, right? I think that's where he started. That's right. Dale Dye. What did you do with him? Oh, my God. I did a movie for – you're of my vintage. Menachem Golan.

Oh, yes. Yeah. And big, big financier. Yeah. And, and, you know, I think it's fair to say a little bit of a schlock merchant and he, his thing was he would overpay famous actors to be in really bad movies. And I did one about the Navy SEALs.

Called The Finest Hour. Oh, yeah, yeah. It wasn't. It wasn't. But Dale Dye helped train me. And he does it. He's the real deal. Oh, he's the real deal. Yeah. 100%. Yeah, he doesn't coddle you. No, it's real. He goes for it.

My only experience, because it was short, was to learn how to use the Thompson, what was it? Thompson, not machine gun, Thompson something, but it's submachine gun. And he took me around a corner with blanks, but they had a pretty good charge in it and taught me how to shoot it and everything.

reload it and all of that stuff and after about an hour he went huh well i guess you're trainable that was as far as far as his compliments would go i what you know what i walk away from that first it was fun to walk work for five minutes with tom hanks because he's you know very cool yeah and great actor watching steven tell me tell me tell me tell me everything

Two things. All right. I have two stories. One, it's not a story. He was just so fast. Do you remember the name of his DP? Janusz? Yes. Jaromuski or something like that? And he, the two of them were working. It was outside, so it was a lot of outside lighting, which sometimes can go faster. But it was so fast. He worked so quickly.

There was no downtime. It'd be like, okay, next shot. No, we're here. And I heard that they had finished because I got called over sooner than I thought to be in it. They had finished D-Day, which is the first 30 minutes of the film.

They'd finished it 10 days early. And I thought, oh my God, that's astounding. He is so fast that he finished that whole sequence 10 days early. And I dined out on that story for a year. And then I bumped into him again. And I said, I still tell that story of how you finished D-Day 10 days early. He went, what? No, all of Europe had, we had used every bit of black powder

which is needed for the special effects in Europe. We could not get any more powder, so we had to stop shooting. It had nothing to do with him working fast. It was like they burned through so much explosion. Wasn't that amazing, that sequence? There's never been anything like it. People would take their...

vets would take their, who wouldn't talk to their families because obviously why would they want to remember that, would take their wives to that screening of that and the wives would just break down in tears and say, I understand. For the first time, I understand. I never forget when I saw it. I saw it in a theater in Santa Barbara and I sat behind a family like that. It was very, very obvious what was going on. Yeah. It was amazing.

That movie is, I mean, what a masterpiece. Yeah, really, really was. A masterpiece. And Stephen, to be able to spend any time with him, he's just... Yeah, it's a treat. Yeah, it's a treat. I'm envious. I've never worked with Stephen. I've only been able to pinhole him at gatherings and go, tell me about Jaws. And I love people, though, who are really happy to share it with you. Like they...

Like, do you know what I mean? Like, Hanks is like that. Steven's like that. Like, they're happy to be Tom Hanks. Yes. Steven's happy to be Steven Spielberg. And also generous. That's right. They want to share it with you. You know what I mean? And I admire that. Yeah, me too. I try to do that. Oh, okay. Let's talk about Mr. Mayor. Let's do it. Okay. So...

I, the way I end up, this is a long shaggy dog story, but if you have patience, I promise you. I do. I'll have a sip of water. It'll pay off. So I'm on a show called Brothers and Sisters with Sally Field. Right. And I was brought on by John Robin Bates, the great playwright who at the time created that show to be Calista Flockhart, who I love dearly, love interest. And I'm going to play a presidential candidate. I go on the show. The writing is great.

Eventually, the network goes, we're not going to do any more, any more stories having anything to do with politics. Just problematic for me, my character. He's a senator running for president. So like overnight, all my scenes are like with me wearing like oven mitts.

Like pulling pies out of an oven with Sally Field. Still a senator or no? Still a senator, but of course, we never talk about that. Right. We never see it, but there's like a lot of paella being made. My friend Bill Paxton, I called him up and I was like. Yeah, he's an Ojai guy. Ojai guy. Yeah. And he goes, buddy, that's a one-way ticket to Palookaville. So.

So I was unhappy. That was a good Bill Paxton, by the way. That was good. Yeah. Oh, I got some great Bill Paxton. He was the flipping best. Miss him. Oh, the best. He was the mayor of Ojai. Yep. He was the mayor of Ojai. Sweet soul. So my agents were like, would you ever go on 30 Rock? I was like, I'd love to go on 30 Rock. By the way, I'd do it as anything, but as what?

Go, well, there's some talk about maybe like a foil to Alec Baldwin or something like that. And so they, this is like, this is what's happening. And then Tina and Robert Carlock, right? Right. Who run and created that show. We're like, yeah, I don't know. And like, it kind of fizzles, but they go, but that's not going to work. But would you ever go on Parks and Recreation?

Wait, what was their connection, Carlock and Tina? Just they knew. Now it's an NBC talk. Oh, okay. Gotcha. This is NBC going, oh, we couldn't get him on 30 Rock. I know where we could get, where we could use him. Yeah. Is on the show that we're about to cancel. Which they were always going to cancel every year. They were absolutely going to cancel. Yeah. 100% they were going to cancel. And this saved them from being canceled. So, yeah.

And so Mike and I ended up on working together on through the thwarted attempt to work with Tina. Tina and Robert. Yes. And so when Mr. Mayor.

came up, which I heard was in a way sort of the Jack Donaghy spinoff. Yes, it was. It absolutely was, right? He was going to be the mayor of New York. And it was Jack Donaghy. Yeah. Yes. I would watch the fuck out of that show. Me too. Jack Donaghy is the mayor of New York City? Yeah. It was perfect. How? In what world does that show not get made?

I guess I can tell you. You can tell me, because I know from my, because I was like all over this. Like, you can imagine. The greatest character, Jack Donaghy's one of my, since Sam Malone. Yeah. One of my favorite characters in the history of characters. The story I heard was they were very excited. Robert, Tina. Tina Fey. Yeah. And it was going to be Alec, and here we go. We're about to make it.

And they wake up to the news that Alec has slugged somebody, hit a, I don't know what, who, but it was in the news. Right. Yes, this is true. This is what I heard. Yeah. And they went, uh-oh, and kind of had to shelf that idea. And then I came along and...

A year later, maybe. A year later. Or two, maybe. Something. A long time after that. And I think Tina was looking with, had an idea of doing something with me or whatever. And they talked about Mr. Mayor. And I said, oof, my life is in LA, kids, grandkids. I can't go to New York.

And so they thought about it and made it the mayor of LA. So I, you know, I, I do think it probably, I'm not supposed to say this, but I do think it got, the idea was brilliant and it kind of got watered down partly by me not going to New York, but partly because Alec slugged somebody. What a, I mean, it's amazing how people end up in parts. Yeah. By the way, I'm glad I did it. It didn't, I don't think it quite worked.

But my God, we struggled. First off, we shot the first scene. Then we, I mean, first season. I think we were interrupted by COVID.

So there's a big three or four months. How are we going to get back to work? Or will we ever? Then we came back to work and it was like, have fun. You know, you guys are actors. Be childlike and have fun. Yeah, exactly. And don't die. You know. Be funny with a mask on. Yes. And you looked around your crew and all the buddies who were in hazmat suits. And it was not ideal. Conducive comedy. Yeah. And then we premiered on January 6th.

The evening of January 6th. Do we watch this new show or do we watch this? The Capitol being overthrown. Yeah. So, yeah, it was a tough go. And when I found out that we had been canceled, it was kind of perfect. I'd gone with Mary to Rome where she was shooting a second installment of Book Club. And.

They, Jane Fonda, Candace Mergen, Diane Keaton. And it was the week before they started shooting. So production was giving them all these things to do. And one of them was to have a private tour of the Sistine Chapel, which is really cool. So off we went and they said, you could have, you can take pictures. You cannot post them.

for yourself if you want. And so all of our phone cameras were out and I get a little phone starts to buzz just like it did. And oh, it's mine.

Mary, it's my manager. They're picking up the show. I have to take this. I'll be right back. And she's filming the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and she pans down to me walking off into a corner of the Sistine Chapel to discover that the show had been canceled. Oh.

It's a great setting. A great setting to be canceled. It's a great setting. I lost my faith completely in that moment. That's where you looked up at the hand of God touching and went, couldn't he have touched Tina Fey's hand, the God of Nielsen? I'm looking at you right now and hearing Mr. Mayer and going, you should do the Gavin Newsom story. Yeah, I could do the Gavin. You would crush the Gavin Newsom story. Yeah, yeah.

For sure. He has younger, darker hair, but I could do his second chapter. I don't think I could play. I think he's definitely in the weeds waiting his moment right now. Yeah, he is. I like him. He's really charming. I like him. I like his environmental stance, which we're going to have to talk about here. Yeah. Yeah. Well, tell me. Hang on. We got good stuff here. We're both on the Orville show.

Yes. Oh, my God. We're both on the Orville. How about that? Well, so I get a call from Seth. So here's how I got to know Seth MacFarlane. Then I want to hear how you did. My kids were huge Family Guy fans. Huge. Yeah. And I kind of watched it through their eyes. And one day I was watching it and Stewie was in Hollywood getting his makeup put on by an extravagantly gay makeup artist.

And Stewie goes, oh, please, just let me do one more. And the makeup artist goes, all right, you can do one more. And he goes, Rob, no. And the makeup artist goes, straight. And Stewie goes, no. You wouldn't know to look at him. What?

I absolutely died. This was you just watching it and seeing it. I just watched it. Oh, that's fantastic. And I called Seth up. Somehow I got him and I just was like telling him how much I loved it. And we became friends. And then I did a couple of things for Family Guy. But then he sent me the Orville.

And the Orville had a character named Derulio in it. This is the pilot. Derulio. This is the pilot of the Orville. And so, when you... Like, what the Orville is versus what it read to me like... Yeah. ...on the page are kind of different. Like, I saw it much more as a comedy, which you would think. It became much more melodramatic, dramatic. Yes. Well, my character...

ejaculated out of his forehead. He was an alien who... And by the way, I called... I didn't finish reading the script. I called him and said, yes, you had me at ejaculating out of my forehead. I'm in. And it was...

I spent five hours, five hours in blue makeup. I'm in the pilot. I'm only in the pilot. Oh, no, I came back for one other thing. But it was the most fun thing I've ever had. I love Seth MacFarlane. Can I just ask, how do you know your character ejaculated from his forehead? It says it in the script. Says it. It says the phrase, ejaculate.

He ejaculates out of his forehead. Right. Like, I don't know much, but I do know that when that is a description in a script, I'm probably going to do it. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think anyone paid another bit of attention to anything that came out of your mouth. They were just looking at your forehead. No, and there was a lot of talk about

But then, oh, who directed it? It was some fancy Hollywood director directed the pilot. It was Favreau. Oh, John Favreau. It was John Favreau. So then when we got on the set, Favreau got very squeamish about the ejaculation out of the forehead stuff. Strange. And I'm like, bro, this is the reason I'm here. Yeah. Why did I ejaculate? And he was like, well...

I think it's really kind of a physiological leakage. And I think it's something that just sort of happens. I'm an actor. I've been thinking about ejaculating out of my forehead for months leading up to this. I've been making for five hours. I'm an actor.

I, I've got a whole thing I'm ready to do. And, and he never really let me, it just kind of, it's, it's very much of a non-event. Were you tempted to touch your forehead a lot while you were? Oh, I, you have no idea. Cause you, I think we've established when I can put on a fake face, I'm freed. Yeah. I'm freed.

You're kind of a dickhead, really. Literal and actual dickhead. Dickhead, yeah. So how did they hook you? If they got me with a jack laning out of a forehead, how did they hook you to the Orville? First off, we both went to the same school, so there was a kind of bond there. Oh. And then I think I did some family guy, and...

Then he was incredibly generous to an organization. I've been kind of an ocean activist. Forever? Forever. Is it Heal the Bay or is it your own organization? No, Heal the Bay is magnificent. I started something in the 80s called American Oceans Campaign, which was with my environmental lawyer friend, Robert Sulnick.

And it never got quite past the boutique celebrity organization. We had lobbyists in Washington. We had a lot of support. And we were early on to the ocean conversations. So there was a lot of respect. But fundraising was everyone would basically say, oh, well, Ted's got this.

And so it never quite grew to the place we probably should have gone. But then it merged with a new organization about 22 years ago called Oceana. The Pew Foundation was setting up and it was truly international. And that's where I am now. I'm on the board of directors and all of that. But

Out of the blue, Seth MacFarlane made this astounding contribution to Oceana that was just kind of mind-boggling and out of left field to me. And he had me, I will do anything for him. From that moment on, I was like, call me, you need me, whatever. I don't even need to know. That's amazing. Yeah. What is the...

If you could fix one thing about our policy around the oceans or what's happening with the oceans, what would it be? Well, I'll tell you what the work is that we're doing. In 1985, 6, 7, something like that. He's now on the board of directors and our chief scientist. But he was a renowned marine scientist, is now.

like the best in the world travels all over the place. Anyway, he did a study that said all of the fisheries around the world were in decline, that more and more boats are going out, technology is better and better, you can see that fish and you can catch that fish right over there. And yet the boats were coming back with fewer and fewer fish. We were literally fishing out our oceans. So we made that the priority when we started Oceana.

This seems to be the most pressing danger facing the oceans. And if we rally around that and make the fisheries of the world healthy and whole, you have to do all these other things. You have to deal with pollution and oil and corals and all of that, biodiversity. But if you do it correctly and manage the fisheries around the world, you could...

provide the world a billion fish meals a day, sustainably, forever. And so it becomes this food security

You know, also social justice, because it's mostly the southern hemisphere that's getting cleaned out by the northern hemisphere. And it's the people who depend on fish as their only protein taking the shorts. So it's a really interesting thesis to rally a whole organization around. But along comes climate change. And the truth is climate change can undo everything.

On land, on sea, you know. I think the most horrifying thing I've heard this year was 100 degrees water. Water temperature, you know, sauna-like or jacuzzi-like temperatures off the coast of Florida. I was just in the British Virgin Islands, just there, and the water was unbearable. You didn't even want to get in it. That's just— You didn't want to get in it. Yeah.

Nor do the fish. So they either die, the coral reefs die, which are, coral reefs are pretty and all of that, but they're also the nurseries to the world's fish. So it's huge. And if your fish you're catching today is swimming around in warm water, they'll head north, you know, to find cold water. So everything about it is fucked up.

What do you, um, I was in the Galapagos and there were the, the long line Chinese fishing fleet was right there ready to, so what do you like? We can do whatever the hell we want to do here, but it's not going to move the needle if they're still doing that.

Correct. So how do we... You still need to. You still can't do what I know a lot of politicians do and say, well, India and China are messing up our atmosphere. So we should do nothing. So why are we going to hurt our economy? Well, you can't do that. You have to... Everybody has to do it. I don't know the answer to your question. You can't work in China. You can't be a 501c3 and work in China because you put everybody...

who's Chinese and working in that office at risk because the only way to make change is to force governments to do the right thing policy-wise, and you can't do that in China. We did a whole study. Do we go there? Oh, really? Yeah. Oh, interesting. And the end result was no. Was there a fix? No.

No, but you could probably do more from the outside, either shaming or bringing the world attention to or developing laws that prevent them from doing what they do, which is go anywhere and do anything they want. Anything they want. Anything. They go to the coast of West Africa and all of a sudden people in their canoes are trying to catch fish and they go so far there to find fish. Anyway. Yeah.

My son is a commercial fisherman, among other things, his commercial fishing license. So I hear all about, I mean, he's very plugged into all of this. Yeah. Because they will park outside of your, what is it, 200 mile now? Yep. And fish the outside of the, you know. Here's one of the things that Oceana has done, which I'm most proud of. And it's just a great example because you make, you change policy, you make all these rules, but

How do you enforce them? You now know what to do to make it better, but how do you enforce that? And Oceana and Google and I think a satellite company called SkyTruth, I hope I'm getting this right, got together and created a system with the satellite

Google having the brainpower to sort through all of it. You can now look, if you go to globalfishingwatch.org,

It's free. Anyone in the world can go on and you can see every fishing vessel over 300 tons where they are in lifetime. It means a global? Fishing watch. And it's available to anyone. You don't pay for it. You just go on to their website and you can literally become the eyes and ears of the world.

to monitor fishing vessels and what happens is you'll see their path and you'll watch them go in this straight line at speed and then when they slow down and start zigzagging, you know they're fishing and if they're fishing in illegal waters or waters that don't belong to them, you can see that and watch that and you know that they're fishing illegally.

What you can do, because I don't know if it holds up necessarily in court, but you can go to like the insurance companies that are insuring that vessel and you go, they're doing illegal stuff. And if they're illegal fishing, more than likely they're also into human trafficking and drugs and arms. It just kind of all fits together. If you're doing the illegal thing on the open sea, you're probably doing the whole package.

So all of a sudden, countries that are too small to have a coast guard can now show up and track that ship and monitor it, go to the harbor where it's trying to sell its fish and go, nope. Wow. Yeah, it's really cool. It's really cool. So Oceana is a great organization. You should check it out. My son, Matthew, I texted him. Do you know globalfishing.com? Yes. Fantastic. That's so cool.

Right? Yeah, that's very cool. Yeah, he's all about it. And I love your son. Yeah, and I have to have him get in touch with you and help. I mean, you need a lawyer to work pro bono, right? And we do. For sure. Yeah, no, because that's the big thing. Sue people, get their attention. It's the only way. It's the only way. I love, see, this is the kind of activism that we can still get away with doing. Yep. Yes, yes, because...

And I'm no longer the face of the organization. The organization is so powerful and worldwide and big that I get to watch. Right. I can go raise money. I can introduce people. I can do press conferences. That's right. Well, that's the value of it. I learned. I was going to ask you this when we were talking earlier. That

I was lucky. I learned kind of early on instinctively, or I don't know, maybe it wasn't me. Maybe somebody told me. But when you become really famous and the world is kind of looking at you,

It's the equivalent of being a four-year-old kid in the middle of a group of adults who are all focusing their attention on that four-year-old kid. You can spin that kid out immediately just from all of that energy pouring into their little bodies. That's what it's like to be a celebrity. And I learned early on that instead of just absorbing that energy, which I think can fuck people up because it's a lot, if I deflected it,

into something I was caring about where I could perhaps make a difference. It saved me and it got things done. That's so interesting. I never did that sort of math. That's so interesting. It's kind of like I stand outside the big tent and I say, hey, thank you for watching Cheers. I appreciate that. Now, come on in. I want to introduce you to this marine biologist who has something amazing to tell you.

And that kind of saved me, I think. Maybe that's why I was drawn to political activism so early in my career because looking back, it coincides exactly with that same moment in my life. Smart. I mean, it's a good thing you're doing good. You're making use of what you have to offer.

But it's also, I think, a degree of self-preservation. I'd never thought of it that way, but it makes perfect sense. Yeah. And, oh, Curb Your Enthusiasm. Yeah. Okay, so where do you, look, it's worked out great for you. So I know where you probably stand, this notion now that

There's a cottage industry of alternative universe versions of oneself. Yes. Right? That's the thing that Larry pretty much invented it. Yeah. He really did, don't you think? Yes. And it's really hard, I think. And really, it's a fine target to hit. Is it not? Particularly, it's one thing for him because America didn't know Larry David, but America knows Ted Danson. Right.

So when you're called upon to play a version of yourself, there's a lot more at stake than there is for Larry David. No, that's true. That's true.

I'll get to that. I just spoke to James Marsden. Do you know James? I love James. I love him. And he was in... It's funny because I interviewed him and we talked about this exact same thing. Yeah, yeah. And it's terrifying. Yes. Because this could be a career ender if this sucks and I'm prancing around as James. He's so funny in the show. He's so good. He's so good. And the show's amazing. He's so good. So, I think...

The way I hold Ted Danson on Curb Your Enthusiasm is I have... My whole character is about...

My function is to push Larry David into a corner verbally until he busts out and is crazy, crazier Larry than before. So your job is to pressure him and push him until he explodes. Yeah. And so that's all I focus on. That's good. Literally. But it is confusing to the audience, not to us. Yeah.

The bastard, I'm talking about Larry. Shortly after Trump was elected, which was a difficult moment for me, and I was very raw and vulnerable, I go to work on Curb to discover that Mary, my wife, Mary Steenburgen, and I, who played herself on the show, were getting a divorce, and that I would now be Cheryl...

Heinz's, you know, boyfriend, arm candy. And I was so pissed off.

I, you know, it was just too vulnerable. Yeah, exactly. You've had a rough week. I know this is art, you know, and not life, but nevertheless, it's too close to the bone. Yes. And we would get calls from maybe not great friends, but acquaintances who we'd had dinner with two days, you know, two months before something, calling Mary and going, oh my God, you know.

I heard when the show came out, oh my, I heard you. Is it true you guys are getting a divorce? You know, to which Mary said, yes, yes. We thought announcing it on Curb would be the best way to go. But people believe that. People believe it. People who should know better. Yes. I do that. That's the thing. Yeah. That is the thing that's so hard about it. Yeah.

Did you, were you on curb? Forgive my ignorance. No, I've never done a curb. I would always, I would, I worship at the altar of curb. I got, I'm going to have to take it up with Larry. Yeah. I mean, hello. Sadly, he has no guilt, shame, should to or ought to's in his life. None. None.

Zero, right? Yeah. Social. Yeah. The only problem about Larry's show becoming so great and loved and everyone knows him and he's so honored and respected is it gave him license to be more Larry, which is just, you know. Do you have a particular Larry moment that is like vintage Larry? Kind of. Yeah. Woody Harrelson. And I'm trying to think who else it was.

We were on Martha's Vineyard and we saw Larry and we all made plans to have dinner. And we showed up a little bit early out of respect, Woody and I, and I can't remember who else, to have dinner with Larry. And Mater D says, oh, yes, he's over there.

He was almost through with his entree, and we were early to our dinner date because something had come up that sounded more fun to him. And I'm sure you guys understand. I'll pick up the check. Bye. That's Larry. There is absolutely no should to and not to or social norms. It's an episode of Kirby. He lives an episode of Kirby. Yes, all the time. And you can also tell when you say something or he'll practice on you.

You know, all the time. And some things he'll do that are outrageous and you go, oh, this is not you really being outrageous. This is you practicing something for the show. Is it like a twinkle in the eye like that you know? No, it just seems like it's off. It's so out of left field that you're going, well, how did he get? Oh, I see. He's practicing. That's amazing. He would, he says, and I think it's true. He will not accept dinners at your home.

anyone's home because you can't get up and leave whenever he wants. He feels trapped. So if we go out to a dinner someplace, I can get up and leave anytime I want and it will be more bearable. I'd like to ask him, I understand it in theory, but I would feel, I feel equally trapped. How do you get, I guess you could say we should get the check, please. I guess you can say that and that sounds acceptable and it's the cue that the evening is over. You can't do that at a house. No. I guess. No, you're at the mercy of

I would love, has he ever done like a Ten Commandments? A Larry's Ten Commandments? He should. He should. Yeah. Don't have dinner at someone's house. I would like to know ten ways that I could be more like Larry David. Because you and I are both, I've learned about you in our time together. We're like super sunny, people-pleasing. We want people to like us. We want them to like themselves after they've been with us, too. I mean, we care about people.

Yeah. He does not. No, no, no, no. I had just finished one of the shows that we had talked about and I thought I was through with comedy and all of that. Oh, I know. He had just shot the pilot and he was renting a home with his then wife, Lori, and they invited six of us over after dinner to watch the pilot of Curb Your Enthusiasm.

And granted it was because of Wi-Fi or something. It was, we were up this, halfway up the stairs to the attic, sitting on the stairs, watching this to get good reception. A couple of people fell asleep. I watched and went, oh Jesus, this sucks. This is, oh my God, I'm, this is never going to work. But I like, I like Larry and we're kind of new friends. And Mary and I kind of went, yeah, Larry afterwards. Wonderful.

If you ever need us to play ourselves, we'll be happy to, thinking not of prayer in hell, or aren't we being noblesse oblige? Yes, of course, yeah. We're doing this poor schmuck a favor. And he did call us, and we went, and it changed my career. It changed my, I thought I didn't want to be funny anymore. And he kind of, being on that show,

Gave me a new lease on funny. Oh, it could be something else than my half-hour experience of funny. Funny could be this other thing. And he really did, I think, help my career. So, yes, I love him. And he's a dickhead. He's still a dickhead. He's a dickhead. Does he ejaculate out of his forehead? I'm sure. Without doubt. I think you can say that. He thinks he's a big shot, but he hasn't ejaculated out of his forehead. I've just noticed something about you.

Every once in a while, when you say something a smidge naughty or really interesting or out of left field, you'll look over to the, you know, to our producer that we share and go, did you catch that? Or am I okay? I do. I like having, I like being. It's an audience for you, isn't it? I like having an audience. I like to know, like if I'm, like if they give me the, mm,

then I know I'm super screwed. I'm going to start doing that because they're, yeah. They're here. They're here for us. That reminds me of a story. I did a, I did a, a play with Christopher Walken.

We did Three Sisters, Chekhov's, at the Williamstown Theater Festival. Wow. And it was a great group. Amy Irving was in it. Williamstown is like being in New York. It is. It has the same amount of clout. Yeah. You might as well be in Circle in the Square, whatever. And so, Chris had a habit of talking to the audience. What? Who me? He would literally...

Okay, like we're sitting here, we're talking and our producers are over here at 90 degrees. And in the middle of a scene, he would go, I think that when we go back to Moscow, we should... And then he would turn and talk directly to the audience. And finally, the director said to Chris, because he's a guy named Nicos Sakharopoulos. Oh, yeah. Legendary. Legendary. Legendary. Chris, Chris, you need to stop addressing the audience.

In the middle of the performance. And Chris will never get it. He says, they're there. I'm here. I think it's rude to ignore them. Pretty good imitation. And that's so spot on. I don't want to ignore. They're here. It would be rude to ignore them. Chris. So insane.

This is fun, man. Thank you. It is fun. Thank you. So great. But I'm a hungry man. I'm going to go eat lunch. Want to go eat lunch? Let's go eat lunch. Yeah. Cafe gratitude. Or do you need a burger? I've got that crazy chicken. El Pollo Loco. Pollo Loco is actually pretty. It's really good. Really good. El Pollo Loco is what makes the 911 franchise on Fox happen.

Oh, really? That's how I eat it every day on 911 Lone Star, baby. Coming to you. Do you know that I've... As one of the OGs of network television, as one of the Mount Rushmores. Yes. Very stony and stiff. So...

See, this is why you're so funny. Somebody told me that I've literally had a show on the air every year since 1999. Wow. 99. 24 years. Every, wow. Every, yeah. Just when you think I'm not, I'm going to miss it, something happens. I went to

England and did a play in the West End with Aaron Sorkin and thought, well, that's over. And then, nope, sure enough, I came back and they're like, do you want to go in brothers and sisters? So it's like, I'll join a bit. But I was thinking, will that get me on the Ted Danson Mount Rushmore? Yes. Is there a spot? They may even chip away my face and discover yours. No, I won't allow it. I won't allow it. This year, no. It'll be when I start up again after the strike.

with Mike Schur, by the way. Very excited. I will have not worked for two years, which is the longest since I started working 45, 50 years ago.

And it's weird not to work. I love going to work. I love driving through the studio gates. I know. Love it. Isn't the best. It's still my dream. I like driving through the studios. I don't like driving up to the retrofitted dildo factory where they're now shooting. Ooh, you must be out in the valley. Yes. Yes, the dildo capital of the world. Yes, but it's like I just don't feel like I'm in show business when I'm in the studio.

When I'm, when I'm, it's that one studio. Yeah. It literally was, it's a paint thinning plant on, on one side and a retrofitted dildo factory. And it just doesn't have the same je ne sais quoi as the Warner Brothers Gates. It just doesn't. Yeah. But I shot a, I shot a show there. Yeah.

I prefer the lot. Yeah, the lots are fun. I prefer Warner Brothers. I love turning right on James Stewart Avenue, crossover. As opposed to John Holmes Place? Yeah. There are a lot of kids out there going, John Holmes. John Holmes. Oh, you missed something there, kids. Oh, you really missed. It's a long tail. Didn't he die? He did. Well, he died, but was he involved in some sort of

That normally, well, that's the scene from Boogie Nights is based on. Oh, oh. That whole insane. Yeah. Amazing sequence in Boogie Nights is based on the. Great film. The Wonderland Murders, they call it. Yeah, I love Boogie Nights. They're my favorite films of all time. Okay. All right, this was good. I mean, we can't stop that. Does this mean we can like at a party or something, we can go, hey, hey, I know you, buddy. I mean, there's some gems in here. Yeah.

The gates of the dildo factory is a great Rob Lowe and Ted Danson. Who doesn't want to hear that? I mean, a couple of dildos were just a couple of fucking dildo. Oh, that was fun. What a great guy. So, so sweet. So great. Anyway, thank you guys for listening. Hope you had fun. You got questions. I got answers. Let's hit the lowdown line. Hello. You've reached literally in our lowdown line.

where you can get the lowdown on all things about me, Rob Lowe. 323-570-4551. So have at it. Here's the beep.

Hi, Rob. This is Jean calling from Florida. I'm a big fan of the podcast. I think you're a really great interviewer. And I was wondering if you have a favorite interviewer of all time and what makes them so good at what they do. Thanks and keep rocking the show. Hey, Jean, thank you for that. And what it's such a great question. It's so funny, isn't it? Because like

I mean, today, everybody loves Howard Stern. They think he's one of the great interviews out there. Well, here are the qualities that I think make a great interviewer, that they clearly have a natural curiosity and that they are listening and that they ask the question behind the question and that they never ask the obvious question. I mean, I think

There are so many people that would have, I don't know, I'll make this up. Cause you know, when I, like I, if I have Chris Pratt on my show, you know, I'm definitely going to ask him about guardians of the galaxy, but it's not gonna be the first thing I'm going to ask him. And it's not going to be 20 minutes of that. Um, so when you get people that, you know, on your show, go to the obscure, go to something that's off the beaten path. Um, and it's the people that do that.

that I think are the great interviewers. Thank you. That was a great question. Next week, next Thursday, there is a new episode of Literally. Tell your friends, spread the word, and I will see you then. You've been listening to Literally with Rob Lowe, produced by me, Nick Liao, with help from associate producer Sarah Begar, research by Alyssa Grawl, editing by Jerron Ferguson, engineering and mixing by Rich Garcia.

Our executive producers are Rob Lowe for Low Profile, Adam Sachs, Jeff Ross, and myself for Team Coco, and Colin Anderson for Stitcher. Booking by Deirdre Dodd, music by Devin Bryant. Special thanks to Hidden City Studios. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time on Literally with Rob Lowe.

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