TGI- The BMW DNA!

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:18):
Welcome to a special episode of Pod Meets World. This
episode is brought to you by twenty three and Me,
which you guys have heard us now over almost an
entire season of Boy Meets World, talking a lot about
our background actors and how important they were to the
feel of the show, to our set environment, how we

(00:39):
were friends with a lot of them. I'm gonna start
right off by saying, spoiler alert, there is no Dusty
in this episode. I'm really bummed about it. We have
been on a on a worldwide search for Dusty Gould. Yeah,
we haven't heard from seem by the way that came up.

(01:01):
You called her see Me to her face, right, yeah, yeah, yeah,
she knew her name was see Me. Well, yeah it was.
It was the people thought that it was like a
behind her back sort of thing. Oh my gosh. Yeah no,
I mean I think there was something a little mean
about it at first, but then it just became that's
the problem. We don't remember her name because we always
called her see Me, and she responded to it like
that's what we did. Um. It was just because it

(01:22):
was the first week of the first season that we
asked her where she was from and she said see
me Valley and um. So we were just like, oh
my gosh, you're so you're a Valley girl. We'll call
you see me um, but yeah, I would love to
talk to her. Yeah. And Dusty, we're still on a hunt,
so you never know. But we are going to talk
to a few of our other background actors today because

(01:45):
it is very important for us and everyone to know
your background, speaking of which I am coming to you today.
So sleep deprived, and I guess it's really come to
my attention through my twenty three and me results that
I am less likely to be a deep sleeper, which
are you? Isn't that what it said? Yes, I think

(02:08):
I think we're can say this from your jeans. Isn't
it cool? By the way, another thing that I think
is amazing is that it tells me I am most
I am more likely to be photo sensitive, which means
I might sneeze when looking at the sun. And when
I tell you, I have never once walked into the
sun and not sneezed the exact same way. But I

(02:30):
didn't see that. Where did this say that? Of your
so much to read? I don't like like I haven't
explored all all the ins and out, and that's really
That's the really cool thing is that there are so
many different reports and some of them are just really fun,
like finding out you're more likely to be photo sensitive.
I'm also more likely to drink more caffeine than most,

(02:52):
and that checks right off right? Would you probably have
that too. I'm less likely to drink caffeine than most,
and I drink no caffeine. I have no caffeine in
my life whatsoever. And it says I'm less like and
I am not likely to be an especially deep sleeper.
I still don't get you. We were talking about delta
ways or something. Now as I heard what you're explaining
to me, Danielle, I'm a superhero, did you? Did you

(03:16):
explain it wrong? That's what's said, uh, superhuman, you have
mediclorians or whatever it is, and that you're a Jedi. Yes,
first of all, let's not that's that's it's in my
jeans though, that apparently due to my sleep patterns. That's
because of the underwear. That's because of the underwear. That too,
The underwear just makes me lucky twenty three and me

(03:39):
is telling me I'm a weak hold on. Let's talk
about ancestry. Just really quick. Did you guys learn anything
new or totally? So? What was what was the story
that your family told you and the reality of your Well,
it's not that my family told me something that was
just we just heard that we were Dutch and Irish

(04:00):
in German primarily. Um, that's what I knew. And it
come came out that I am almost Jewish. Nice, I
am nine ash can Nazi Jewish. Wow, And you didn't
know that, no idea whatsoever. And of course then when
I said that to my my parents, my dad was like, well,

(04:21):
of course my great grandfather was do or something where
we were like, well, why did anybody tell about that? Yeah?
You know, so that was completely I'm I'm I'm nine
point eight percent European and it's mostly northwestern European, so
British and Irish. What we thought, Um, lots of Irish,
lots of lots of British, but eighteen point seven percent

(04:42):
as Ashkenazi Jewish. So no no idea, no idea whatsoever.
I was shocked. Writer. Did you learn anything in yours about,
specifically about health, anything you're more likely to have or
not have? Oh? Yeah, it nailed me in three categories.
It said I am mostly too. I am most likely
to have restless legs restless leg syndrome, which I've had

(05:05):
all of my life and just had to deal with,
more likely for increased anxiety check and severe acne, which
you guys can remember from when I was on I
had severe acne. Yeah, and so did my dad. I
remember when I when you know, when I started breaking
out during boy me's work, cause I got it a
little bit later. I got it more like at fifteen

(05:27):
fourteen fifteen, um, when I had the really bad acne.
So we haven't gotten to it on the show, but
well we'll start to be able to see the the
amount of makeup. They had a cake on my face.
It was the worst, the worst. But yeah, knowing this
then about your your d n A makeup now that like,
is there something now you're going to change about your life?

(05:49):
Will you talk to your doctor about restless leg syndrome?
Is there anything or do you take anything for anxiety?
Will you start? Yeah? Well no, the anxiety thing is
really interesting because, um, I've never really thought of myself
as as an anxious person. Um, Like, especially when I
was a kid, I was not an anxious kid. Um,
But I do I have noticed lately that like I

(06:11):
need to exercise, Um, it's hugely important anxiety. And what
I realized is like, if I don't like the only
the way I manage anxiety, and I put that in
air quotes would be like drink alcohol and that's the
worst thing you can do to manage anxiety. Um. You know.
And especially like during the pandemic, there were there's these

(06:32):
these periods where like there would be you know, you're
not working, you're not taking your kids to school, everybody's
sitting at home. It would be like, well, why is
the day over? Why is it? You know, how do
we know the day is over? We have a glass
of wine and then you know, and we just got
into the habit of like, oh, that's just it's five
o'clock time to drink. Um. So I definitely think that
like being able to recognize that there's in a genetic

(06:52):
component to like the feelings I have of anxiety and
that it might just be part of my body makes
me remember to just move my body to deal with
it in terms of my body, as opposed to thinking like, oh,
there's something wrong, I need to like, uh, change you
know the way I think, or no, it's just part
of my body. Is that I get these feelings that
other people might not have, you know that that and

(07:14):
I don't need to associate it with like necessarily things
I'm I'm I've done wrong, or you know, I just
don't want to. I just don't. I Basically it allows
me to contextualize my anxiety and recognize it as like
it mostly physical thing, like something that is like you know,
I'm born with and that I just have to contend
with and it's and you know, I just have to
find healthy ways to contend with it. Well, I mean,

(07:35):
you know that I'm anxiety boy and I was hit
with this very bad during during boy Me thrilled like
very bag during Boyman. So then you'll see during the episodes,
you know, the seasons where I come back and I'm
really heavy, and it's because I was medicated to even record.
And the things I always tell people now that I've
been dealing with it for so long is the three
most important things for me that help more than anything

(07:57):
are talking about it, diet and exercise, and getting off
of social media. And the first two people are like,
I can easily do that, and then it's like, well,
I'm not going to get off social media. I need
it for work. What what do you do? I work
at a bank. Okay, you don't need your social media,
you're just addicted to it. But it's it's those three
things where moving your body exactly what you're saying is
just so unbelievably important. And it is it's all genetic.

(08:19):
I mean, I found out other people in my family
down the line. They might not have called it that
at the time. They might have said, you know, in
the fifties they had spells or whatever, because they didn't
know how to how to diagnose it. But that's all
that it was was it is. It's genetic anxiety and
and but that's one of the things about the twenty
three and me that was so amazing is those little markers.
For instance, that what it says when I looked at

(08:41):
the thing, your average wake up time, judging by your genetics,
is seven am. And that's like almost exactly every morning
when I roll out of bed, whoa literally literally almost
exactly every morning, Susan gets up before me because she's
got early clients. I doze in bed and by a
out seven forty to seven fifty, I'm up and out

(09:04):
and when. So when this thing comes out and it
says it's seven am, I'm going You've got to be
kidding me. How is that even possible? So, yeah, some
of these things are some of them, I gotta say.
It says that I'm not predisposed to being afraid of heights,
and I'm hugely afraid of heights, but that could also
be the anxiety part. But there are certain things that this,

(09:24):
you know, the muscle. Here's the other thing where it
made me feel like, yes, I am in fact magic.
Um is it says my muscle composition is common in
elite power athletes with mine, man, thank you, I'm a stallion.
Yeah me too, me too. I'm also though, uh, this
is not such a positive thing. I am also more

(09:46):
likely to have to develop type two diabetes. And as
you guys know, I love my sweets, I love my
fast food, and so the good news is I have
generally my upbringing was that of like very healthy eating
and exercising, so I really try to enjoy those things

(10:07):
like sweets and fast food in some sort of moderation.
But it is really good for me to know that
um as I age, because it's I think it literally
says like, from the time you're forty one, which is
my exact age, up until the time I'm a d
I am like likely, so like really it's a worse
than a chance. And so it's good for me to

(10:31):
know those things because that's something I can stay on
top of with my doctor. Now, Like, let me get
regular screenings, let me stay on top of that, let
me make sure I'm watching my diet, and then I'm exercising,
because maintaining a healthy weight is one way to help
prevent that from happening. So I mean, I'm actually really
excited that I know that because now, like the last
time writer and I were at your house for a party,

(10:51):
there was literally, and I'm using that word correctly, a
board that had donuts hanging all off of it, and
the second you'd grab it don't nut, it would reappear
as if by magic. So I do love doughnuts, doughnut fan.
That's just called Sundays around here, diner food. But you're
a big diner food fans. At least it's Sundays and

(11:13):
not every day. Yeah, it's just Sundays. Yeah, No, I
I do. I love salty, I love sweet, I love
fried um I just like that kind of food, so
first salty or sweet. That that was the other thing
the app told me is that is that I prefer
salty over sweet, which is absolutely correct, so it does.
And it told me this is where the history kind
of buffing me loves. It told me that I have

(11:35):
that I have more Neanderthal DNA than most of the
other people. Ye. Yes, yes, we're elite power athlete Neanderthal's magic.
This is the coolest app in the world. I'm waiting
for my laser vision which will come. Um, but yeah,
this is I was. It's so amazed a by how

(11:59):
detail that gets. I do want to show you guys
my ancestry makeup because, um, look at how almost exactly
fifty percent of one thing I am. Wow you are
Yeah that is my uh that is my um my
Maltese side, that is my Southern European side. Wow, look

(12:19):
at you. Yeah, that's me right there. So I'm I'm
kind of all over the place. Yeah, I am forty
nine point five percent Southern European and fifty point five
percent Northwestern European. That's what I'm north. I'm sixty two
percent Northwestern European, which is which is interesting, but I'm
also it's like eight percent Italian. I had no idea

(12:45):
there's Italian anywhere in my family line, like no idea
whatsoever that we're partially Italian. So it's really really cool
kind of getting these breakdowns. But the other things where
it's just talking about like whether you're lacto, some tallerant
or not, you're making your wake up time, whether you
like cilantro, like all those kind of things, the breakdown

(13:06):
is is really neat. I know, it is really fun. Well,
continuing to get to know our background, let us bring
in our very first background guest. So to give you
a little background about background actors. The actor the background
actor definition is someone who performs in a non speaking role,

(13:28):
usually in the background of a scene. They helped make movies,
TV shows, and other productions look and feel more authentic
and so hospitals, concert city streets would be completely empty
if not for hiring background actors. Yes, school cafeterias, classrooms.
So let us welcome our first background actor, Geenie Torres.

(13:52):
It's so good to see your faces again. I know
this is so fun. How did you become a background
act and how old were you? I was I think
it was eighteen, and it was my first year of
community college and I'm still trying to figure out what
to do. I was creative, UM, I kind of liked filmmaking,

(14:13):
editing things like that. Um, maybe I wanted to be
an actor, but I felt a little shy to be
on stage. So I remember talking to my dad and
he had said, hey, why don't you sign up to
be a background actor. You know, they can be on set,
you can see everything that they do. And I thought, Okay,
that's a good idea. So I went down to the
casting agency, you know, paid the will fee that you pay,

(14:36):
take a picture, get all your information, sign up, and
that's how I started. And so it's I don't know
if you guys want me to tell you about how
that whole process goes and you already know about it, okay, okay.
So the way they did, at least back in the
nineties was that you called a hotline and you listen
for something that maybe you fit. So for me and

(14:59):
I swear, it's like the only time we're looking young,
like really paid off. I've always um looked for eighteen
to look younger shows, which, of course Boy Meets World
was one of those shows, and so you listen to recording.
If you felt like you fit that, you know, that
type of those specs that they're looking for, you called
the number and then you gave them your social Security number. Everything. Yeah,

(15:29):
apparently like there was no big dam back then, So
you gave them your social Security number. That's actually how
how they had you filed. And they looked you up,
and I thought, yeah, you fit good, You're working tomorrow.
Here's your call time, bring you know, three sets of clothes.
That's where you're going. And that's it. And then described
my stuff pop in the car next morning and I'm
on my way. That's to me. I'm sorry, I'm looking

(15:51):
at a great picture of the two of us together
right now. Yeah, I am. I'm looking at an awesome
picture of the two of us right now. It's on
on set. That's so cool. That is where were you living,
What was the what was the commute like then from
where you were living to where we were shooting. So
I would never do this commute nowadays. But I was
in South Orange County. I was down in mission game
and I remember called times being about seven thirty for

(16:13):
us in the morning in the morning, and I would
leave my house at six and that was fine, Like
I could get to the ktl A studios by six Wow,
and that was okay. Back then it is not okay.
Were you? Were you a mission Vie here? Were you
a Diablo? I wasn't. I was okay. My wife was

(16:36):
a Diablo. I won't tell you really rivals exactly. Oh
that's so funny. So what other shows were you a
background actor on? UM? I got booked on Nino two
and oh, let's see Party of five step by Step
with Christine Laken. Yes, there's a few those. I don't

(16:57):
know why those seemed to like stick out. UM. A
few movies. Babylon five that was really random but cool.
That was one of the coolest because you actually got
as an extra. You still got to have makeup done
and I got to look like an alien and it
was so not me but it was great. It was
so much fun. That's fun. So okay. So you were

(17:18):
on season three and four of Boy Meets World Walk
people through? Then? What would happen? So your call time
seven thirty am. What happens when you arrived to set?
What's the process? Like the arrived a set and then
the A d would pass out scripts to everyone and
you'd actually go through we probably spend like a good
hour maybe, and we'd go through the entire script and

(17:39):
she would say something like, Okay, Jeanie, on this line,
on writer's line, you're gonna go from the top of
the stairs to locker two, you know, and have a
conversation with somebody and then you know, let's say, Daniel
in your line, I was to exit and and leave,
you know, walk off set or whatever. So everyone had, um,
you know, there's blocking, different blocking with different crossings. I

(18:02):
think it's amazing. I don't know who put it together,
because it seems like that would take a long time
to figure out at least twenty extras and where they
were going and how they're not going to cross in
front of you, and it just it's like I know,
I mean, it's it's a dance exactly. And so this
would have been Deed, right, would have been Yes, So

(18:25):
she was our second second stage manager, and so she
would have been in charge of So Yeah, I wonder
if Deed mapped out all of those moves. I mean,
it must we have to have dd on, Yeah, we will,
we should. Yeah, And she was so good at it
like she was. She's just on and she's so friendly.
That was one of the things that I'm sure was
like a really, you know, I'm sure and I don't

(18:46):
want to put words in your mouth. Was was every
a D worked with on sets like wonderful and fun
to be around? Or were there some that were better
than others? She was the best. I will say she
was the best, and you know, maybe because I got
the opportunity to come back and do more shows, but
she was amazing and Mike was Mike was great too.

(19:06):
I just I think everyone sometimes is in work mode
and as you guys know, you're pressed for time. You've
gotta get lines done. You know, you just gotta really
nail it. And I think maybe some were just like whatever,
do this, But with her, she was I don't know,
she was on it. She was on it, but still
like awesome and sweet. I have a question, just because

(19:26):
I'm curious behind you on your your your shelf back there,
does that say Transformers or am I wrong? You are correct?
Thank you? And it's a g I Joe. Is a
g I Joe? Next to that that is g I Joe.
We are absolutely friends. Which Transformers is it? Can I
ask from here, is not robot robots in disguise? Is it? No,
it's well, it's well, the game is information protocol. It's

(19:51):
I can't I can't tell America. Sorry, I think it's
Bumblebee on the cover. They're sorry. I'm just that's actually
my career job, So that is what. I'm a creative
to actor for a boarding game company called Renegade Game Studios,
and I am in charge of the Hasbro Yes, I
worked for Hasbro for years, So that's I'm sorry. I
know I know my Transformer. I know my nerves, so

(20:13):
I know my Sorry. Yeah, I Joe my Transformers in
the background. I'm gonna call that out every time. I
love that. Yeah, So I want to know. Background actors
are not allowed to talk, but you have to make
it look like you're talking. Did you have any tricks
to making it look like you were talking but staying
totally silent? Um. No, there were no tricks and there

(20:38):
were no tricks. But I will say that becoming a
regular right on the show and working with other regular extras,
there were times it was almost like we're trying to
make each other laugh without really blowing it. Right, So
you're gonna have conversations saying ridiculous things to each other
at the lockers, saying things that just maybe are Yeah,

(21:02):
you're reading lips. Yeah, you're saying things that you could
go back through the episodes and read your lips. Sometimes
you might be saying inappropriate Oh my god. Yes. Yes.
Did you become friends with all the other actras? Mean,
did you hang out offset because you were all kind
of regulars there. We did sometimes. Yeah, I went out
a lot with Wendy Smith. Um. And then there's a

(21:25):
few of them that I've become Facebook friends with and
we just keep in touch and we talked about the
old days of Boy Meets World in certain episodes. Um. Yeah,
And any episodes stick out in your head that you did, Yes,
and it's actually one with you well it's um, it's
with the guitarist, oh um Lisha Haley. Yes, yeah, Shallow

(21:48):
Boy Boy. Yes, that was a fun episode. That was
That was a fun episode. She was amazing. I really
hope we get to have her on the show because
she was absolutely incredible. That was a fun episode to do.
Were you in the were you in the chubby scene
where she was singing that's so yeah? Oh yeah, you
can see me. I'm holding a French fry and I

(22:08):
I just go right into disgust and she starts singing
and I throw the French fry down and I get
up and walk away out of Chubbies. That's fun action. Oh,
I can't wait to go back and watch that. You laugh,
It's cool. So I think the most pressing question we
have were we nice? Yes? But like but professional? Right?

(22:31):
So I think as an extra, you feel like it's
like a privilege to be on set, and you just
you don't wanna You don't want to mess that up.
So you know I would. I would see you guys,
And I have no idea if you if you remember
this face are not? Are not? But I just I
don't know. I would just like smile. But I don't
think I ever tried to start up conversations unless it

(22:53):
was like the last show of the season and I
felt like, Okay, it's cool. Everyone's just happy and excited
and celebrating and things like that. But um, I think
you guys probably all were approachable. I just didn't want to.
I wouldn't. I didn't want to do anything to have
me not back on the set. Well, it's also it's
because I think about it now, like I just I
just wrapped a movie I was directing, and it's um,

(23:16):
sets are fun environments, or they can be fun environments,
and actors like to talk and kids like to talk.
And yet if you think about what it would be
like to have twelve kids in a classroom set, we're
also work needs to get done. If if they were
allowed to just talk and joke and laugh, it would
be completely out of control. So it's a it's um,

(23:36):
it's a little bit of like you talk as much
as you can before somebody says, all right, keep it down,
you know, no personal conversations. We need to get work done.
And so it was it was always like a tough
balance between wanting to be like, so what's your name
and where are you from and what do you like
to do without actually then being in trouble because there's
no time for that. Yeah. I think I really don't

(23:58):
actually don't remember you guys. Havn't my conversation right before
your lance? Yeah? I think you just all seemed very focused,
especially you writer. You were like, it just seemed like
you were so on it, and I was he was,
He was, Yeah, so do you tell anybody now about
your history as a background actor. Yeah, I do sometimes. Um,

(24:21):
it's been what like twenties for a lot of beers. Yeah,
so let's just say twenty a lot, Yes, twenty a lot. Uh.
If I have made new friends, like you know my kids,
you know, you start making new friends with your kids,
you know, they're their friends and parents and things like that.
And it let's say I have a few drinks and
we're watching or whatever, flipping through in Disney Plus and

(24:42):
the I'm like, oh, hey, you should you should put
a Womans rolled for a second, you know, so like
to show you something you know, I'll find it episode
And I'm like, that's so fun, like me, it's it's
it's kind of a fun conversation. Do you know how

(25:03):
many episodes you're actually in that you that you can
see yourself and have added it up. I haven't. It's
maybe close to fifteen, but it's over the course of
two seasons or yeah. Yeah. I mean obviously there were
some shows where you didn't have the school scenes, right
if there was a lot of shooting, and some days
it was it was just a one one day call

(25:25):
and one scene and that was it was Dusty there
with you while you were there. Dusty Gould red hair,
one of the one of the background actors. He was
one of the Yeah, he was in the classroom with
in the class probably and I realized that most of
the kids in the classroom were miners. Yeah, I wanted

(25:45):
to keep them young in the classroom, so I think
they kind of had to separated because you know, they
had to go do school. And yeah, we're just done
a sitting sitting on our chairs and an empty stage waiting, waiting,
so much downtime on us it yeah, yeah, thank you
for sending us these amazing pictures. Have this great picture.

(26:06):
We will post them on our social media so that
you guys get to see exactly who she is and
then you can spot her when we get to her
her episodes and seasons three and four. It was really
great to catch up with you, Genie. I totally remember
your face. You haven't changed at all. Thank you, guys,
you're all the same to me too. It's funny, it's awesome.

(26:29):
It's really nice to reconnect with you. Thank you for
all of the Yeah, thanks for coming on our show,
and thank you for all the work you did for
us all those twenty plus years ago. Thank you, Thank you, guys.
I love it. I love your podcast. Been listening. I
think it's really cool. I love everyone's perspective and and
you know what you went through. I think it's really

(26:49):
neat because I was just a small part of it,
and it really it's I don't know, you know, you
always try and guess and think how everyone else is thinking,
or what it is their challenge is, or maybe they
don't have challenges and only I have challenges. Great, it
was really great. Thank you so much. It's great to
see you. All right, all right, guys. Our next guest

(27:10):
was a background actor on Boy Meets Worlds in seasons
two through four, and then he came back in season
six just to watch a taping and was invited back
to be an extra in that episode. That's awesome. That's awesome,
so cool. Um, so let's please welcome. I think I
beleeve Justin. If I'm saying your name wrong, Justin ur Mayo.

(27:31):
That's absolutely perfect, yes, all right, Justin welcome. Oh my god,
this is insane. Right off the bat. I absolutely remember Justin,
absolutely do. The second I saw your picture, I was like,
oh yeah, oh yeah, absolutely no, yeah, I knew exactly

(27:53):
you were right away. You did a whole bunch of episodes,
and I completely remember you. Yeah, that's awesome. Thanks. Well,
of course I think I did like fifty maybe you
did a whole lot of episodes. You were one of
the regulars there for most of the time, so yeah,
I completely remember Justin. Wait, so you did maybe fifty
episodes just within seasons two, three, and four. So I

(28:15):
just I just watched um. So the first episode I
did was season two episode eight, banned on the run,
and then I did the rest of that season, did
season three, season four, and then I missed the show
so much like I went to an audience taping of
it when you moved to Radford. I watched the show.
Then I snuck over to the bathroom, which was in

(28:38):
a sound stage next door. I hid in the bathroom
for half an hour, waited for the audience to leave
and everybody get escorted out. Then I walked back onto
the sound stage and I saw Steve in Deed and
they saw me, and they jumped up and they said,
oh my god, Justin, what are you doing here? And
I said, I came to see the show. And they said,
you have to come back and do an episode, and

(28:59):
I said that please, that would be honest. Oh my gosh,
she asked. So Steve Hayfer and d D to Stephano.
We talked about them a little bit our stage. I'm
sure you remember that justin. Yes, you guys had so
many I don't really remember the catch right, but you
guys had so many in jokes and catch phrases. And

(29:20):
you guys are always having such an awesome time. It's
so funny. One of the pictures that we have of
you justin you are in the scene with Lesha Haley,
which is exactly the same scene we were just talking
about with Genie. There's another background actor we have from
that set that that Lesha Haley episode Shallow Boy was
really special. I remember that I still had my script

(29:40):
somewhere in the garage. I think it's because everybody has
to react to her playing the song. I think that
was why it was like in Chubbies, She's she does.
It's like the whole point of the scene is that
if she's making a scene right, and everybody has to
sort of react to it, as opposed to other scenes
where were just like talking the foreground and everybody's just
kind of you know, having normal life. That's the Atlantis

(30:02):
Morris set exactly. Oh you're giving some I'm looking at
the picture right now, you're giving such a great like
over the shoulder, look at Lesha Haley. This kind of
your eyebrow race. You've got the boymes World eyebrow rais
and you are sitting there looking at her like she's
she's off her nut. It's great. It's absolutely phenomenal. Second

(30:22):
I saw that picture, I was like, oh, yeah, I know,
just I know exactly. They kept coming back to me
over and over and said, bigger, bigger, bigger. But that's
how I totally learned on that set that you have
to go pretty big for people to notice things. Sometimes.
It's true you would have been, especially in that episode,

(30:42):
what would have been characterized as a featured extra, right yeah,
I mean it doesn't. You don't get any extra money.
It's just a it's just a good you know, you're
saying really well and you do a little bit which
is really cool. And the longer I was there, the
more they threw me cool bits to do, like at
think there's one time you hit a ball off the
pool table and like kids be in the foot and

(31:04):
then one time I played they came in I think
a Train of Consequences where we're you're on the train
the New Year's E party. Yeah, and I played the
pizza guy and Wryder comes up to me and he's like,
does anybody know anything about deliveries? And then then he
like rushes me out the door and then comes back
and says, you know, he's gonna good thing is he's

(31:26):
going to deliver ms Mrs g Andelle's babies and they'll
be they'll be in an under thirty minutes or whatever
is the joke. That's right. I forgot about that. That's
so funny. And so that's why, right, Yeah, but you
and not because we were around the same age. You
weren't really in the classroom, right, you were? You and
I were always kind of in the same scenes together. Yeah,

(31:48):
so I was too old to be one of the
classroom regular kids, and they wanted to have you know,
kids that were people were over eighteen to be you know,
the hallway kids, Chubbies and whatever else like that. So yeah,
I was. I'm fifty two now, it's still a bit
older than you, but I was, yeah close, what are
your old? You know, I'm I'm forty six, so yeah,

(32:09):
we're pretty Yeah, so we're decently close. Did you have
to eat in all those chubby scenes? Um? I think
I ate a few times in a chubby scene. Mostly
I was standing up or you know, pretending to be
breaking up with a girlfriend in the background or something crazy.
You know, so much fun. Do you have any particular

(32:30):
episode or scene that you remember the most. Oh gosh,
I mean I really like the Train of Consequence, so
that was really funny. And I remember Charisma Carpenter was
in that episode. I didn't know who that was. I
think we're sitting back a training me, Will and Charisma
and I had no idea who she was. And it

(32:53):
was really fun. It was just it was different because
it was a different set. So there's a really good
memory there. Yeah, the the one with the monkeys was
really cool because I grew up watching I mean, I
was a little too young to watch the Monkeys originally,
but you know, when I was a kid, there's only
like three channels, so I had to watch the Monkeys.
You met the Monkeys the band, I instantly went to

(33:14):
the episode where Eric has monkeys. Yeah, okay, that was
an episode where Eric has monkeys. Y's got the same
monkey that that Ross has on Friends. That same Marcel
monkey was on our show. I have no recollection of that. Yeah,
so that's where my head went. I was like, oh,
you're in the episode where I'm with the monkey. Um, So,

(33:34):
I mean, can you tell us a little bit about
how you started in in the business. Yeah, I mean
I I absolutely obsessed with movies as a kid, and
I used to cut out and use paper ads and
pasted my wall with mouse because I couldn't afford posters,
so I had movie ads from the Sunday calendar all
over my wall. And then I just wanted to be
an extra and my but I just wanted to do something.

(33:56):
And I was, you know, just out of college, and
I didn't know what to do with My sister goes
on should be a next trim, like you can do that? She's, oh, yeah,
why don't you get the drama logue and go? She said,
go do something free and if you like it, um,
you're meant to do this. So I went and worked
on a science fiction movie, played a cracked out space
guy or something, and it worked for like fourteen hours

(34:17):
for zero pay, and I couldn't wait to do it again.
And then eventually I got an agent agency. So I
was working on like nine O two A No, and
like Step by Step and Party of Five and the
same that that gact, same group of three age Grange. Right,

(34:37):
if you were if you if you were eighteen or
over eighteen but still look young, you could be in
the background of all those shows. That's what they needed.
Oh yeah, like seven and Clueless and so many things.
That was crazy. And then it's the best to get
on the show and be a regular because to be
a regular like nine or two on basically doing like

(34:58):
nine O now, don't you want know? Party of five?
Boy needs World. And then I then I do a
random day and I work on like show Girls for
three days or something and something random. That's so cool.
And I got into and I got into SAG and
and d D. I said, d D, if I get
into SAG, but you keep me on the show? She
said yes, And do you want to hear my SAG story?

(35:20):
I got into SAG. So I get a call one
day from from like my agent agency, and they said,
would you be interested in being Johnny Depps? But double?
And I said um, and and my brain just said,
you know, normally you might think Beckham, I'll think about that.
I said, oh, yeah, absolutely. She goes, or she said,

(35:41):
like trying, but yeah, exactly. Yeah. So well here's a
bat and she goes. I said, so what does that entail? Exactly?
And she said, well, okay, you go. I lived, I
live in Orange County and said, okay, um, you have
to go up to the studio, shows goes. I'll call
you back in now and give you the details. You'll
go up there, you'll talk to him for a mental

(36:03):
interview for a moment. You'll pull down your pants and
they'll take a bit through your butt a polaroid. They'll
they'll give it to a producer and they'll probably give
it to Johnny Depp. And and I said, so okay, yeah, yeah,
I'll do that, I guess, and and she hands on
the phone. I go take a shower, I get ready
and like, what the hell am I doing? And then

(36:24):
she she calls back an hour late and she goes, oh,
they I'm sorry, they just found somebody to do that.
And I said, okay, but I'm like, oh bummer. And
I was so disappointed. Man, I could have been Johnny Depps.
But but and what get you back? Okay, Well, first
of all, do you remember where it was from? So
it's it's it's Don Juan de Marco with Johnny Depp

(36:46):
and Marlon Branda film like that film. Yeah, good movie.
So two days later I get a call and so
they threw me a bone. They put me on um
don one de Marco. So I get up there and
I didn't realize that was the movie. And I was like, hey,
that guy looks like Marlon Brando and they're like, that's
because that is Marlon Brando and as though, and that's

(37:06):
Johnny Depp on Holy Ship. So we're in working on
scenes and Marlon Brando really like loves like the little guy,
the low and the totem pulp person. He was like
talking to me, like justin. He's like he heard my name.
He said, it's getting kind of warm in here, don't
you think? He said, yeah, it was getting kind of warm,
And they brought an air conditioner just for him. And

(37:29):
I got stuck in a stairwell with Marlon Brando. So
I'm eating snacks and Marlon Brandon and a thin assistant
director come in and they're arguing and They're like, they say, Marlin,
can you work at like an extra fifteen minutes, Like
I sure, I'll work an extra fifty minutes and I'll
just come in fifteen minutes late tomorrow. And they kept
going back and forth, and Marlin Brandon was just handling

(37:50):
this guy really easily and really calmly. And the guy
turned to me and saw me, and he got really
mad and he he said, you, like you need to leave,
And Marlon Brando said, oh no, no, no, no, no,
the kids stays. And I was like, holy like, I'm
gonna tell this story for the rest of my life.

(38:11):
So he gave one. So Marlon Brando gave one extra girl.
She played a nurse. He goes, okay, you're you have
lines because he was there doing like small talk, and
they were mentioned talking about how to get into SACK.
Do you know the voucher system? How you got into
SAD So you needed three SAG vouchers. And for our listeners,
SAG is Screen Actors, just the union for actors that

(38:33):
you have to be a member of in order to
you know, collect your residuals and have your health insurance
and all that exactly and get paid eighty bucks instead
of forty bucks. Exactly, that's an extra and um, he said, okay,
you want to get into he he like she he
was heard. We were all like trying hard to get
into SACK. We need our like last voucher. He was, okay,
you have lines. You're gonna have lines. He gave us

(38:56):
nurse lines. Marlon Brando out of nowhere, just gives her lines.
So we shoot. I go home. Um, I get a
call like two days later, they really need you on
set don Wanda Market. They have to do a reshoot
or whatever. I rushed up to the set. I get
there and I was non union and I needed one
more voucher and I'd waited a whole year. I didn't
get my third voucher. And she signs signs of vouchers

(39:20):
handsome to me and she said, go home, you're done
for the day. And said, what are you talking about?
She goes, welcome to SAG. I said, what do you?
I said, this is Sag Belcher because yeah, somebody up
there likes you, somebody, somebody really big is really looking
out for you. I said, I'm like, are you telling me?
Marlon Brando one got me into SAG And She's like

(39:40):
I'm not saying that goodbye. I walked away. Random got
you into SAG. I think you know who knows like
And I heard from a couple other people that that's
what they heard, the same thing, because either Marlon or
Johnny or somebody they were they're really cool and you know,

(40:01):
And I got into SAD. I got to stay on
boy Meats World, so I had a regular gig because
normally when you got into SAG is an extra, your
jobs just went down because you could, you know, because
the first I don't want to pay you the extra money. Yeah,
because only the first certain number of people on a
SAG TV show or move or extras have to be SAG,
and everybody above that number could be non union. So

(40:23):
in a crowd scene, there's forty S people in a
thousand non union people. So did you stay in the
entertainment industry? Do you still work in the entertainment industry? Now?
I do, Well, I have a regular job. I'm a
buyer for a medical company, but for um So. I
had a daughter, so eventually had a quit, quit extra work,
and but I worked on about three hundred things, and

(40:44):
then I started to move into local commercials. And then
I started writing, and I said, if if no one's
gonna put me in anything, I'll put myself in something.
So I started writing and directing indie movies. So I
directed a movie called It Suck a Jones, which is
a like a black exploitation movie. So here's something really interesting.

(41:06):
When I first started, when I was cast on the
show and I shot my first episode A couple episodes
before that was the episode called Who's Afraid of Corey Wolf? Yeah?
And the Halloween one right yeah, And there's a small
theme in about how he thinks he has to kill
Topanga to like become a full fledged werewolf or something.

(41:26):
And I took that colonel with an idea, and that's
the plot of the first movie I made, blood Suck
at Jones, But it was about a vampire making um,
becoming a full fledge vampire. He has to kill his
first love. So we made that, we got into vessels,
that did pretty good, and then we made a sequel,
blood Suck at Jones Versus A Creeping Death. Where can

(41:47):
we find these movies? Where can everyone find your stuff?
So they're both on Amazon and you can get um
but you can you can rent them on Amazon. Can
rent them on Amazon Prime. We used to be there
for free, but now it's only for anial, but we're
rereleasing it to put it on a lot of platforms.

(42:08):
And then I just finished our biggest movie. It's called
Zanna Do hell Fire and I love these titles, thanks Matt.
And I wrote it for my daughter, like I was
a single dad, so I wanted to write a movie
about a single dad. So it's about a nine year
old girl who brings her comic book character from the
future to the present just to hang out, and her
evil sister follows and all hell breaks loose. That's so cool.

(42:32):
I want to watch that. And okay, well here's another
little tidbit. I was gonna make it Union, and I
wanted to cast you in it as the single dad.
And then I didn't have enough money, um to make
it Union, so I didn't. I never ended up contacting you,
but that My plan was always to get all of
you in a movie one day. That would be like

(42:54):
maybe we could do blood Sucker Jones three totally many scripts,
so but that's still my dream and I hope to
do that one day for sure. Thank you so much
for being here with us and telling us about your
life now and your experiences as a background actor. It
really means a lot to us, so thanks so much.
This podcast is incredible, like hearing all hearing your feelings

(43:17):
about how you thought you were going to be fired
and and then I thought I didn't get invited back,
and then I found out the next week it was
like an off day, off week. Well, thank you again, Justin.
This has been a real, a real pleasure. So thank
you for being here with us. We wish you the
best and we can't wait to reconnect on our our

(43:39):
movie set. I'm sure, I'm ut, please please, thank you, Justin. Jason,
how are you doing. I'm well, it's great you guys.

(44:00):
I to see you. Or you were a background actor
in season three. Tell us a little bit about some
of the episodes you were a part of, and like,
what is your favorite memory from being a background actor
on Boy Meets World. The only episode I really remember
vividly was there was a scene in the I want
to say it was in the lunch room or maybe

(44:20):
in that um that hangout place that that you guys
always went to, and uh, Corey uh was being bullied
by this guy and they brought in this like really
really really tall, good looking, like Nordic cooking kid, and
there was always there was a big height differential, which
was very funny. But they made it even funnier because

(44:43):
they had this guy who was already quite a bit
taller than Ben stand on an apple box like watching
that as like I want to be actor, uh, you know,
trying to start my career and just watching the decisions
being made on the fly, and I thought that was
so cool. So how were you were you eighteen playing younger?
I was twenty three. Wow, okay, if you were in

(45:05):
Chubby's you could really be any age. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
because you guys were in high school by the time
amazon on the show. I don't think I could. If
you get started, yeah, uh doing background work or just
in the in the business and you know in general.
Um I had well, I had just moved to l
A when I was doing extra works, so so I
moved here in so I was on the show nine six,

(45:28):
So I didn't know anyone here. I didn't have any friends,
and I had heard that oh if you could go
do background work and goes sign up and you know,
so that's how I paid my bills sort of. The
first here here. Where'd you move from Pennsylvania? Oh? Nice,
outside of Allentown. You know the Billy Joels song. That's
of course I know Pennsylvania. Well, both my brothers went
to school in Pennsylvania. Okay, so that's very cool. Now,

(45:52):
what made you come out here? What made you come
out to Los Angeles? Was it just the bug to
be an actor? It was a little bit of that.
It was there was a really really big snowstorm. So
I used to work in radio, and the station I
worked at back in Allentown, we were known for the
school closings, like back before the internet. He would do
the school closing the best form on the radio. So

(46:14):
I I worked overnight, So I would stay overnight, uh
and do my shift, and then in the morning I
would have to stay and help the morning show take
the calls. So I remember driving home after being completely
sleep deprived in this blizzard, and I got home, I'm like,
why why am I here? Why? It's terrible. Yeah. For

(46:37):
for Jason, just very quickly, for Writer and Danielle, the
two West Coast kids. So when we were East Coast
kids growing up, you would wake up on a day
when there was snow on the ground and you would
put on the radio and you would wait for your
school to be called, and then they tell you if
you were delayed or if you're if you had a
snow day and it was canceled. It was the best.
So I don't think you had that out here on

(46:58):
the West coast, did you in the mountains and the
mountain towns, But but you would. You'd sit there and
you'd wait. It would say like, and the Avon Public
schools are and if if it was a good dj,
they would pause because they would either be are open
and running normally and you go, or in which case
the horse and buggy couldn't get you to school, right exactly,

(47:19):
you couldn't get We had slaves, weren'tive, but that's what
it was. It would be and they'd be like Avon
Public schools are closed today, and you'd be like, yes,
not thinking that. Of course, then you had to do
an extra day in the summer because they just tack
it on because yeah, but it was you just have
a day off where you'd go sledding or you would
place noball you It was the greatest thing in the world.
So it's something that is just Jason and I know

(47:41):
what this is. But if you did not grow up
in that, you didn't you didn't know. So yeah, it's
totally cool, Jason. Were you a background actor on any
other shows? Yeah? I was on Friends a couple of times. Actually,
Like you can see me really well because it was
like the season two premier, like when the show was
just like absolutely white hot, at the top of the zeitgeist,
and it's like, great, Ross gets off the plane with Julie. Yeah,

(48:04):
Rachel does this like pratfall on the airport over the furniture.
I'm right there addressed as a limo driver. How fun.
I have to watch that again. And uh, I got
my sag card on Executive Decision, which was a movie
with Steven Seagal and Kurk Russell, John Leguizamo, everybody jumping
on the airplane. Yes, beat Wong Pump wasn't. Yes, it was. Yes,

(48:28):
it was a great I love the title because that
sounds exactly like a Steven Seagal movie. There's like a
hard to kill exec about Executive Decision and not it's
a spoiler alert, but it's from Seagal's only in like
the first fifteen minutes and then it's killed off. It's
a straight up Kurt Russell. Uh. Yeah, it's a great movie.
It's a great movie. I think we should explain to

(48:49):
everybody why having your SAG card is so important, because
it's now come up a couple of times, um and so,
as writer mentioned, SAG stands for the Screen Actors Guild,
and you it's it's joining SAG is a little bit
of a catch twenty two because you cannot have a
speaking role in television or a movie until you are

(49:11):
a member of ZAG. But you can't become a member
of ZAG until you have a speaking part. So we
can do one, right, you can do one, and then
you do you get something that's called heart lead. You
get your voucher. Yes, so top being taft heart lead
in means I think actually you get the option to
join right away. You can get yeah, and but there
are other ways to earn your SAG, like you get

(49:34):
like three SAG vouchers, right, and that what it used
to be here a time limit. Can you just get three? Okay?
Just three? Yeah? When I was doing it because STAG
and after we're separate unions at the time, So win SAG,
you you would get three vouchers doing background work because
they would have a certain allotment of union background actors

(49:54):
they would have to use, and then a certain allotment
of non union. So if you worked on the show
as a non union you wouldn't at a voucher. But
sometimes there was a slot they would open up, somebody
didn't show up and you would get bumped up and
you would get to use the union voucher for the day. Wow, Wow,
that's so cool. Yeah. So I got into SAG because
I did. I was a member of Equity, which is
the theater union. And I don't know if this is

(50:16):
still the case, but back then if you were a
member of Equity, after you were in Equity for a year,
you could get you were eligible for SAD. I think
just by being in Lame as Rob as a kid,
I then became eligible for SEX So I never had
to do like the voucher at half Heartley thing. I
just you know, I think I did the same thing.
I think well, after being in the Harvard Stage, I
was in Equity and then I was able to join SADE.
What year did you join SAG? Writer? Do you remember

(50:38):
nineteen nine? Daniel Jason ninety s five? See that's the
thing most actors, because it's a very big deal as
an actor to get your SAG card. It still says
when you joined too on the card, right, but you
don't need to look at it. Most actors, you ask
them like, when did you join SAG, and they can instantly.

(50:59):
I was eighty nine, like I'll always remember, but now
I remember. There used to be a screen Extras guild,
remember that, I think pre like, it wasn't until the
mid nineties that the two guilds merged. It used to
be that if you were an extra, you you were
in a separate union. And then and then it became
all under SAG, and that was a big deal because

(51:20):
that's that's how then you could become a SAG member
by doing background work. Before that, you couldn't even do
it by doing background work. Yeah, yeah, I do remember that. Yeah,
background work didn't used to count. And once you're a
member of SAG you get health insurance as well, So
there's there's again, it's a it's a a double edged sword.
Joining SAG means you pay dudes, So you have to

(51:42):
pay kind of a lot of money every year in
order to stay in SAG. You also have to earn
a certain amount of money every year to stay in SAG,
and there are like two levels of earnings, like you
know whether you're going to be in Plan A or
Plan B, and Plan A is the better insured rents,
but it means you also have to be earning a
significantly large portion of money a year. That's gone. Now.

(52:06):
I don't think there's Plan A Plan B anymore. I
think there's just one plan that's not as good as
Plan A and not as bad as Plan B. I
think they kind of went in the middle and now
it's one and some people were happy with that and
some people where. There's been a lot of changes at SAG,
and some of them haven't been great. But so, Jason,
do you still work in the entertainment industry and what
are you doing now? Now? I'm managing a tour company

(52:29):
called Bikes and Hikes l A. But I am still
in entertainment a little bit. I host my own podcast
called a Lifetime of Hallmark, where we review and kind
of pick apart Lifetime and Hallmark movies and they're so
very like earnest and wholesome or they are just murdering
sex four and seven. I write, I'm trying to get

(52:51):
more into hiking. Is your company? Is it like cool
hikes around l A? Is that what you guys? Know?
We we cater to tourists from around the world, so
that we do biking tours and do three daily bike
tours of l A. Ones of thirty two mile one
that goes out to the back, that we do shorter
ones in Beverly Hills and Hollywood, and then we do
hikes to the front and back of the Hollywood Sign

(53:12):
And that's cool. Arc. Yeah, I might have to join
you for the one to the Hollywood Sign. I've never
all the years I've been here, thirty so many years,
I've never done a hike to the Hollywood Sign. And
it's something, Yeah, come on, all right, let's do it. Oh,
we should all go. We should totally do that. That
would be really cool. Does it ever come up in
your life that you were a background actor on Boy
Meat's World. Yeah, because I I have a lot of

(53:33):
friends that watched it growing up in somes It'll come
up in conversation. I'll tell them and they're like, what,
what what? And now, So I live in West Hollywood
and just that I'm sure people have heard in the
news that Ben is running for a city council was Hollywood.
I in my I've lived in we have for fifteen years.
I've never once seen him out. I have run in

(53:54):
Ben ten times in the past month. Ten That's so funny.
Have you have you talk to him when you've seen
him out of you The first time I saw him,
it was right after I found out I was gonna
be on with you guys, and so I just went
up to I was like, Ben, Hi, I'm a resident here.
We hope it also is on Boy Meets World. And
we just had like a twenty minute conversation. That's amazing.

(54:14):
So he knew you were a background actor. You didn't
remember me, but now when he sees me, he recognizes
me and like makes a point of staying hi. That's
so cool. That's cool. Good. I'm happy to hear that. Well. Jason,
thank you so much for being here with us. It
was really fun to catch up with you. And I
think we'll take you up on that offer to go
on a hike to the Hollywood Sign because I have
ever done it right. What was what was the name

(54:35):
of the podcast One More Time A Lifetime of Hallmark.
I checked that out perfect. Yes, well, thank you for
being here with us. Yeah, alright, by I want to
do I've wanted to do that Hollywood hike because it's
just such an iconic thing going and actually seeing the
Hollywood Sign, which you see it, you drive by, and
you just get everybody gets at wherever they live. They

(54:55):
get so complacent about where they live that they don't
do the things that you're do. Yeah, and I show
them the joy of of the town or city that
they live in. So that nightmare, Like the roads up
to the Hollywood Sign are like so congested, like the
local residents hate it so much because and there's probably
no place to park, and it's off exactly trying to
make it hard. Yeah, because people live up there, you know.

(55:16):
But I'm surprised you didn't. It's like that's how I
knew I was at a rider house. It was like, well,
I can't the streets are they're turning everywhere, and I
can't actually park, so hey, I must be at the
rider's house. It's just a scant thirteen miles from where
I had to park my car. That's gonna be nice, man.
I like, you know, I like to be around trees.
I like to be so that means being a little
off the beaten path. My place now is right off

(55:38):
a big, big road. No, no no, no, your place now
has decent parking. But the other ones, it was like,
are you I'd have to call you and be like,
I'm acclimatizing for the night. I'll see you in the morning.
Oh my gosh, that is I once my car got
stuck hanging off a cliff outside of Writer right at night.
That's right. We have a cold sitting on the curb,

(55:59):
acting down and it was really curved. It was a terrible,
terrible thing, and I can don't see, and it was dark,
and I turned my wheel and I like went, literally
my car was dangling off. That's right. I forgot. Did
it rip off the front of your car? Too? And
we know nothing, nothing like that happened. I just couldn't
get the wheel back up onto the thing. So the
tow truck just had to basically bring my car down.

(56:22):
Just started driving tow trucks to Rider's house. It was
just easier that way, say a lot safer. That was
one of our boy Beats World dinners that we had.
Remember we sent one of our boy Meats World dinners.
It was really fun. Well, I'd love to introduce our
next guests. Her name is Jessica Biboh. I hope I
said that right, Jessica. Um. She was one of the

(56:44):
background actors that Genie are very first guest. Jennie had
friends that she would bring in as being other background actors,
and Jessica was one of those people. Hi are you.
Jessica was one of the background actor actors in the
famous Danielle to Penga cutting her hair episode Hair Today,

(57:05):
Gone Tomorrow. And so you're actually in the bathroom scene
with me, right, yes? Yeah, it was my first time
ever being on the show too. That was the first episode. Yes,
and I remember they picked me, I think because I
have obviously big hair. So yeah, so the lady picked

(57:28):
me and I was like, oh my gosh, like I've
never even been here before, I've done this. So I
and my friend Genie was like, She's like, you got
featureded whatever for three years and so what happened? So
was it de de de Stefano who picked you out?

(57:49):
It was, yeah, she picked me In another UM extra
I called Wendy okay, and it was the three of
us and I made me and Wendy him and I.
I think it was it was such a fun experience.
I was so nervous the first day and it just
it was just so much fun to be in that episode,

(58:12):
especially because it was such a big hit. Yeah, and
you're so featured in the in the bathroom at the
sink right there, So, um, what do you really like
remember about that day? I remember I remember you actually, Um,
I was so nervous for you because you had to
cut your hair on camera and I was like, oh
my gosh, this is like I was so nervous for

(58:35):
you and like you had to get it in the
So I really remember that. And I just remember thinking
like being nervous for you, and and just I thought
it was it was just so fun because it was
really my first time on a set, and so the
whole thing like it looked smaller than I thought it would.

(58:56):
You know how everyone always it's totally true. It is true.
I guess it's just something about when you actually see
the limits of the set, you're like, oh, well that's
all it is. I'm like it's shorter, and like, I
don't know, like there was there. I had like this
perception of what it would be and then it was different,
So I remember that. And then um, I also remember

(59:16):
I got to get my makeup done, so that was
super exciting. And because I was featured, I'm like, oh,
I get to get my I did. I'm like, you
don't bother with the hair. No one's gonna know how
to do it, not my hair, but I did. So.
The other actor that was featured with you, Wendy. Had
you ever met her before? Did you know her at all?
I didn't, but my my best friend Genie was friends

(59:39):
with her. They worked together every week and so we
connected immediately. We're still friends to this day because I
think Jennie was talking about Wendy. Yeah, we're all still friends,
and I, you know, I met her that one time.
I live in Orange County too, so I don't see her,
but um, we're still connected just because of that one
day and we still like reminisce about it. He was

(01:00:00):
like so excited to be chosen too. So are you
are you a mission Viejo as well? I am, yeah,
but you're also not a Diablo. You were a cougar exactly. Okay,
how did you know that? Because we talked to We
talked to Jeannie and my wife is a Diablo, so
so my kids are going to be Diablos. Okay there
you go, alright, and my my uncle and my mom

(01:00:21):
and like, yeah, but there's a lot of mission video
history in this. There is why we were. My My
wife lived off a spartan right right across from anton
Across from Antonuci is Antonucci still there, like the greatest
Italian restaurant. Yeah, it's totally that I used to go.
They're growing up with my grandfather. I'm Italian, so that
was like his spots. Yeah. Sorry, little little mission Viejo.

(01:00:42):
So it's for my wife. Shout out to my wife.
Can I ask you a question? Had you heard of
boy Mets World or seen Boy's World before you came
on the show. I had heard of it, um, you know,
I was. I was older at the time, so I was.
I don't think I had seen it. I had seen
it maybe on TV. But the funny thing is, because
I was in college age. The day after the show

(01:01:02):
aired and I went to school, everybody came up to me,
I'm not kidding you, I saw you on TV. Oh
my gosh, And I was like, oh wow, like so
many college people, college age people were watching the show, boys, girls, everything.
So I was like, that's so cool. Yeah. I mean
at first I knew about the show was such a
big hid Do you ever tell people about it now?

(01:01:23):
Do you have children? Do they know about your past
as a background actor? My kids like think it's so
fun because I showed him the picture of the three
of us at the bathroom. Um, they think it's very cool.
They know I'm doing this. They can't wait to hear
about it. Um, And yeah. I still I have so
many friends who are like, I can't believe that that
was you. They knew the episode, They're like, so they

(01:01:45):
think it's amazing that I was. I like, not, I
was not the actor, but like they think it's like
the coolest thing. So, yeah, it does. It still comes up.
It's so funny. Now you remember being nervous for me?
Do you remember? Did I seem nervous? I think you,
If anything, you you were very focused and concentrated and
maybe a little stressed. Yeah, I mean I don't know.

(01:02:06):
That was my feeling. It was an incredibly stressful day.
I remember it. I remember it set was on edge.
We were all like, it was not a fun It's
I have to say, like I do not have fond
memories of it. I have like I get like not
in my stomach when I think about that day on set. Yeah,
I think people also thought you were gonna cut your hair. Sure,
I thought you're gonna cut your hair shorter than you did.

(01:02:28):
So when you actually cut it, I was like okay,
Like it was like more of like a like a relaxed,
relaxed moment for me, because I thought you were going
to go like up, like bobbing it up. So seeing
that you lifted it up and cut it, I was
like okay. I was like that that. I was given
very specific instructions about where I was allowed to cut,
and you know, it was it was a very stressful day.

(01:02:50):
And Michael came out and said, you know, okay, show
me where, show me where, and I was like like
right here, and he was like lower and I was
like no, because I wanted to go a little shorter.
And Michael really had a off that he he really
wanted me to do it. Um. Now I have a question.
Has anybody asked you because you're holding the scissors at
the end of the day, you get to decide where
the cut happens. Did you ever think even for a

(01:03:12):
moment about cutting it in a different spot than people
told you to. Well, not really, mostly because I didn't
want to screw anything up for the one take we
have on camera. And it was like things were very set,
you know, we had we only had a certain amount
of time we had we could rehearse it and and
then you get the one take with the scissors. But
it also was a little like the way she cut it,

(01:03:34):
she meaning me, the way I cut my hair. I
just swung my hair around and then grabbed it and
cut it. Wasn't like so I knew there was a
margin of error that was kind of out of my control.
But I definitely didn't want to do anything that was
going to make anybody mad at me. And I also
knew that I needed to cut it in a place
where there was still room for then when I got
a real haircut where that could still it was still

(01:03:54):
going to get shorter from that wherever I cut it,
because I was going to cut a blunt cut and
then you know, LORI was gonna put layer in it
and stuff. So I knew it was going to end
up being a little shorter than wherever I cut it.
So I also didn't want my hair to be too short.
But yeah, that was a really stressful. Remember the rehearsing
and blocking of that scene where then Jeff McCracken would
yell before we got to it because they wanted to

(01:04:15):
make sure we got the scene all the way up
until the point of the cut perfectly. And yeah, I
remember being like, you can say stop in a normal voice,
and I'm not because Jeff as an actor, Jeff took on.
Do you remember watching his face when he faces of
the emotions of the actor on the scene he was

(01:04:36):
on the set with, which made him totally find myself
doing that. Do you do that, Danielle and you're watching
the monitor. I totally do it too. I'm constant. I'm
I don't think I'm as exaggerated as Jeff, but I'm
definitely like putting myself through whatever the act is doing.
When I'm directing, it's so yeah, yeah, that's what makes
I also do it, even with hair in the face.
Like I was watching you know, I just directed a movie.

(01:04:56):
I was telling you about it and I'm camera. There
was a piece of hair in one of the actor's
face and I was like, I was like, and it
was like Okay, that's not gonna work. Yeah, so I
think we we all got that from from Jeff. Jeff,
are you still in the business. So I did like
a couple more things after your show, um, like you know,

(01:05:19):
very little things, and then I ended up going into
the skincare business. So I became an esthetician. I have
my own skincare line now called Skincare, and that's what
I've been doing literally since, like I was twunny, simply,
what's your website skin care? Yeah? Do you a website? Yeah,

(01:05:39):
it's it's just simply just skincare dot com. It's all natural.
It's out of Orange County, so it's doing really well.
It's it's amazing. I should send you something, yes, please, yes,
we we will all take it. Awesome, you guys, it's amazing.
It works really well. I need it because we were
talking about how I washed my entire body with head
and shoulders? Was that in this episode? I can't remember

(01:05:59):
at this so I need some sort of skincare regime
because the one apparently isn't good. It's simple, like, it's great,
it's okay, perfect. I don't have dandriff on my face?
Do I write her? Do I? I don't know. Well,
Jessica was really nice to reconnect with you. Thank you
for being here with us. I'm I'm so glad you're

(01:06:21):
in that iconic scene and set with me. We have
this adorable picture of the three of us that I'll
put on and put on the Instagram and thank you
for being here with us. I love it. It It was
so good talking to you guys. Thank you for having
me as well. Thanks for joining us. It's so fun.
She's so sweet, so sweet, and so many background actors

(01:06:43):
from Orange County, Orange County, which makes perfect sense. I
guess for people who aren't out here, that's that can
be a hike. I mean, I'm from Orange County. Yeah,
it's it's at the very I mean, with great traffic,
it's still at least an hour. Oh yeah, I mean
now with with traffic. Without traffic, it's an hour and
twenty minutes, and with traffic you're looking at two hours plus.

(01:07:04):
It makes the question why not kids in Los Angeles?
Like why didn't why didn't teenagers in Los Angeles become
background Maybe because they kind of grew up around the
industry and it just took about it. And yeah, and
whereas like in the Orange County. You'd be like, Oh,
it's right over there, and I can get these jobs.
That's interesting. Maybe I don't know, but it is. That's
and then they all seem the other thing that's very
interesting so far. And we didn't ask Jessica, Well, she

(01:07:27):
kind of tell this this, but it doesn't seem like
you kind of were on the circuit where it's you
did nine O two and no, you did Step by Step,
you did, you did, It's like you had you did
Party of Five. There are certain shows that you did
everywhere interesting. Well, our next guest is a woman named
Melody Morrero, and she was a background actor in seasons
two and three, but then she was featured in season two,

(01:07:51):
episode twelve called Turnaround, and she was given a name Jacqueline.
So I can't wait to hear about how that happened
and who Jack Glenn was. Hi, Oh my gosh, it
is so cool to see you guys. It's been almost
thirty years. Yeah, we're just it's been eight years. That's amazing.

(01:08:13):
A few years. It's so good to see you. So,
you were a background actor in seasons two and three,
but then you were featured as Jacqueline in an episode
so how did that come about? I was, Oh, my gosh,
I was so over the moon that day. They said, okay,
we've seen you around, said a lot. You were the
Um I was the waitress at Chubbies a few times,

(01:08:34):
and um, I don't know, it's just happenstance. I was
just trying not to stick out too much. But when
one of the producers came up, I think I forget
her name. The one of the assistant producers said we
have a spot for you. Just come come with us now,
and so I was like, okay, whatever you, whatever you say,
and then had me walk with with Eric. So, oh, really,

(01:08:56):
wasn't the two of us together? Is that why I'm
looking at the picture I have. I have a phone
know of us together. It's so great. So where we dad?
Where we were Eric and Jacqueline dating at the time?
Is it? Yeah, we were totally a thing. Did you
write a whole backstory? Is there a history there, scripted
idea about us dating or the Yeah, they didn't exactly

(01:09:18):
go with that, but yeah, I just come around the
corner of the lockers and Eric, you you walk up
and say, hey, Jacqueline, I was just headed that way
or something. Along those lines, and I was so geeked out.
It was so much fun. Man, that's so cool. I'm surprised.
That must have been the episode that they had Eric
Girl Crazy that one episode. Yeah, no, I'm kidding. That

(01:09:42):
was Eric's thing was so it was so great that
we got a chance to do that. That's very cool.
How did you become a background actor? UM? In college,
one of my friends was telling me about she was
going to a movie set the next day and I said,
what are you What are you doing? And she said, oh,
I'm I'm an extra. And I was like, okay, no
idea what that means. And she told me about what
she was doing. And it was Central Casting at the time,

(01:10:04):
and I was a young mom in college and I
had a mouth to feed, and I'm like, this will
be a cool way to make a little bit of
extra cash. So I did it, and UM did a
number of things, but we we Strolled happened to be
absolutely my favorite, obviously, But I did it for two years,
two and a half, yeah, three seasons almost, and I
did an episode of Friends and Er and a lot

(01:10:27):
of things. But yeah, first it was just a way
to make some cash. And then I thought maybe I'll
get bit by the acting bug, and that didn't exactly
plan pan out that way, but yeah, that's how I
kind of stumbled upon this. So do you still work
in the entertainment industry? What do you do now? No,
I'm in human resources. Yeah, yeah, I went from background

(01:10:51):
acting to human resources. So yeah, I'm in a stark
person for what company? For Toyota? Oh nice? Yeah, that's cool.
It's a great gig. I'm about to celebrate twenty three
years with Toyota. So but pretty much my my very
last extra gig was Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I was

(01:11:13):
hired by Toyota the next week, so I was like, cool,
I guess I have a career. The acting thing is
just not gonna help from Buffy the Vampire Slayer to
the career you're going to do for the rest of
your life. That's kind of cool. That's kind of cool. Yeah,
people like, what was your last job? I was like,
a vampire slayer? What did you do? I'm looking at
a picture you sent us of me and you and

(01:11:36):
another one of our background actors and script am I doing?
What earth is this pose? It's you're the only one
who didn't realize that you weren't in a chorus line
at the time. I daniel I don't know, but it
was adorable and I loved it, and clearly I've treasured
it for years. So I'm so glad you guys are

(01:11:57):
in like matching Denham too. Yes, I complete recognize you,
by the way, I totally recognize you. You do not,
I swear to God. From the second I saw the picture,
I completely recognize you because you did multiple episodes, and
again we were around the same age, so we were
always kind of together. You were in It wasn't like
you were in the classroom scenes as a kid. Um

(01:12:17):
we were. It was always kind of around Eric. So yeah,
I recognized you from the second I saw the phone.
Oh my gosh, Oh that just warms my heart. I
wasn't sure if you guys would remember, but yeah, I'm
looking at the picture. I'm like, oh, yeah, I totally
remember you and being in the hallways with you with
the lockers and all that stuff. Yeah, that picture. I
think They made me change my shirt though, right after
they're like, yeah, you both can't work down. So see

(01:12:39):
they're like, Danielle's wearing denim, take it off. That's pretty
much what would happen. I mean, I'll walk in with
certain outfits and they'd be like, yeah, honey, that's not
gonna work. So that's so. Were you in Los Angeles
at the time we were you were doing the show? Yeah, yes,
I lived near Pasadena, so just a quick quick ride
on the four or five every day. Yeah, it was local.
Now I'm going to ask you, but I have a

(01:13:01):
feeling your favorite scene was probably when you were featured
as Jacqueline with Will. But do you have any like
other real specific memory of something that just really stands
out from your time on Boy Meats World? I do
that is definitely my favorite, but they're just a flashback
to the fifties. You were in that episode two. I
was in that one. I had a poodle skirt, the

(01:13:22):
pony tails scarf um and we were at Chubby's in
the scene that I was in. So that was one
of my other favorites. Was just because I got to
go through full like hair and makeup and wardrobe and stuff.
So yeah, that wasn't really that was a fun costume. Yeah,
so they provide did they provide the costume for you
that time? You didn't have to bring your own. That's
so cool. Yeah, it was cool. I was looking for

(01:13:43):
it and I forgot the title of the episode, but yeah,
that was a good one. Oh man, I can't wait
till we get to those. I don't know. We did
so many of the flashbacks to different times, but one
was the was the was that the toaster one? I
think there was the forties? I don't remember. We can't
remember we did the forties? The forties? Was the cat
that took us from the cat from Sabrina took us

(01:14:05):
back in time from forties episode? I think it was
the toaster. There's something that the coaster back to the fifties.
That's when we're like most of the cast of Happy
Days was on the episode. Right, I'm like, Shanza Belli
or whatever. We're going to get a lot of I'll
get a lot of emails telling us exactly how could happen?
We should stop talking about it now. Yeah, that's so funny. Well, Melody,

(01:14:26):
we thank you so much for being here with us,
and thank you for being a part of Boy Meets
World with us all that twenty plus years ago. A
lot to us. Oh, thank you so much for including me.
This was so much fun. I was so stoked when
I got the email, so it's just so great to
see you all again. It was so great to see
you to is there is there anywhere if if people

(01:14:47):
want to want to find you, could you Are you
on social media or anything? Yeah? Yeah, Melody m M
one three is my handle. I'm pretty sure I don't
message myself a lot, so I forget. It's so funny.
Thank you for joining us. Was great to see you, man.

(01:15:07):
Everybody is so nice. I totally remember, especially when I
saw the picture, Like at first I was kind of
and then I completely remember because again, we had the
extras were kind of extras. I don't like that connotation.
The background actors were were carpet like compartmentalized. So it's
you all had your kind of classroom extras, I said
it again, which I was never really a part of. So,

(01:15:29):
you know, like I got to meet Dusty and everybody else.
But then as we grew up and Eric was more
involved with other people around as opposed to just being
in the school, there was a group of background actors
where I was with a lot and Justin and Melody.
These are all the kind of the same people that
were around there, which is really neat, so I sort
of buried this lead, but it actually didn't occur to
me until we were already recording this episode. UM, but

(01:15:50):
my one of my best friends, UM, one of my
closest friends. He's coming over to my house for dinner tonight.
He was going to bring this up. He was in
my wedding party. I actually he was one of my
group's been at my wedding. His name is Chris Levittis
and he's a director from a writer director, and I
met him because I was I acted in a movie
that he directed in my twenties and that's when we

(01:16:11):
became friends. But he was an extra on Boy Leats World,
one of his first jobs as a kid, and it
was when he was under age, I think because he
was a kid actor, so he remember seeing his But I,
you know, I talked him about it because I remember
when we first talked about doing this episode. I was like, Oh,
you should come on. He actually doesn't have many memories.
I think he only did one or two episodes, but

(01:16:33):
it was one of the first things he said to
me when we started working either He's like, you know,
we I was actually on your show back of this.
So I've always been curious if I can see him
in an episode, so as we do, our are it
would probably be the second or third season, so I
have to keep an eye out for him somewhere in
the background of one of our episodes. Another one of
our background actors was cal penn Real Yes really yes,

(01:16:55):
in what he was in like a sports scene. Well,
let's get him on our let's um, do you think
the chances so, so we're watching a lot of alone
right now, do you think the chances are that Dusty
maybe lives a life off the grid, which is why
he knows nothing about the podcast communing with the Bears? Yeah,

(01:17:16):
like maybe we just Dusty has no idea because he's
like skinning something right now, or you know, making a
fire with sticks or pete. I don't know. I'm still
I'm still determined. I'm still determined her Dusty for Dusty.
So well, this was really a great way to wrap
up our twenty three and Me episode. Thank you so
much to twenty three and Me for helping us get

(01:17:37):
to know our backgrounds both personally and from from boy
Meat's world. It was really a really smart way of
bringing this all together. And like I said, I am
really excited now that I have a couple of wellness
and health. Uh you know, some information about myself, but
now I can take to my doctor and can hopefully
change the decisions I make for my future knowing a

(01:17:58):
few things. And so I encourage you to take the
twenty three and me test as well and get to
know your background and get to know a little bit
more about your health and how you can help take
care of yourself to prevent issues from coming up in
the future. I also always figured I was a superhero,
but to actually be told I am, it really changed

(01:18:19):
the whole ball game for me. It really did. It's
it's it's pretty great to get that confirmation finally. So
you can get your superhero confirmation at twenty three in
me dot com. Thank you for joining us for pod
Meats World I am. I don't know why I was
doing our exit like I was gonna say my name again,
like thank you for joining us. I'm Daniel. You just
listen to a whole episode with me like you don't are.

(01:18:45):
You can follow us on Instagram at pod Meats World Show,
and you can also send us an email at pod
Meats World Show at gmail dot com, and as always,
we have merch March there was so subtle dot com
March Baby. Sorry Pod meets World Show dot com. Thank

(01:19:07):
you guys for being with us. We will see you
next time. Will We love you all? Pod dismissed. Pod
Meets World is an I heart podcast produced and hosted
by Daniel Fishel Wilford, l and Ryder Strong Executive producers
Jensen Carp and Amy Sugarman Executive in charge of production,
Daniel Romo, producer and editor, Tara sup Buch producer, Jackie Rodriguez,

(01:19:28):
engineer and Boy Meets World super fan Easton Allen. Our
theme song is by Kyle Morton of Typhoon and you
can follow us on Instagram at Pod Meets World Show
or email us at pod Meets World Show at gmail
dot com

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Danielle Fishel

Rider Strong

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