October 16, 2023 • 56 mins
Class is in session! The gang is thrilled to catch up with a real life Mr. Feeny - their on-set teacher: Wesley Staples. A mentor for Danielle and Rider, Wesley visits to reminisce about his time helping the young cast become functioning adults and how vital an educator can be for a rising child star.
From terrible chemistry grades to “pet” cockroaches to how Wesley helped Danielle heal after her break-up with Lance Bass - this one is filed with never heard before stories.
There’s not a dry eye in the house when the true spirit of Boy Meets World comes to life, and the presence of another looms, on a very special Pod Meets World…
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
So I had a very strange night last night.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
I found myself walking a street at night and I
turned the corner and I came upon Chris Collinsworth. You
know Chris Collinsworth is he's the football commentator. And he
was bowling in the middle of the street. Wait, what
so exactly weird night? So I tried to tell him
that I was actually going to be building a bowling
(00:41):
alley in my home and he should join me. But
before that, he decided we needed to get Chinese food
where we met you, Danielle. That then turned into you
and I together on an island, trying to figure out
how we were going to get off, and that's when
I realized I was dreaming. So my question for you
(01:03):
is because I've started to believe that's a very dream.
It was really bizarre, and I could have gotten into
all the details. Chris Collinsworth and I trying to hang
a banner while we're in the Chinese restaurant.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
I don't remember what the banner says.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
But then when Danielle, when you and I ended up
together on the island, we were spent the first part
of trying to figure out what the hell was going on?
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Why were we on this island? And then how we're
going to get off? It was very strange, and I started.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
To realize that the older I'm getting, the more vivid
my dreams are becoming. And I'm wondering if that is
the same for either of you, Like do you when
you dream?
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Is it like you are? I am fully immersed.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
I can smell everything, I can touch everything, I can
see everything.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
It is vibrant.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
Wow. Yeah, I'm so jealous.
Speaker 4 (01:50):
Yeah, you got to enjoy it.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Yeah, you're on the island. It wasn't alone.
Speaker 4 (01:57):
I used to dream like. I used to have such
vivid dreams as a kid. I dream less nowadays, but
I do. I'm I'm usually I'm a lucid dreamer, so
I'm usually in control, so I have a lot of
Like now when I dream, it's really fun. I mostly fly.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
I mostly choose to fly.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
It takes work. It's kind of like I have to
hold my breath and like swim through the air. Like
takes a little bit. But I usually I am aware
that I'm dreaming. I get to stay within my dream
and then I'm like, well, let's have some fun with this,
and I start flying around and I love it. It's
but like I said it, only I think I only
dream like once a week nowadays.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Everybody, everybody apparently dreams every night, is what they say.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
No, sure, I just don't remember. You just don't remember them. Yeah, yeah,
uh no, nothing.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Nothing, just nothing.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
You don't even have fun and dreams. You're not like
organizing things in your dream or No.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
That is the problem is that my dreams are usually
just things that were going on for me during the day,
and I can't shut my brain off. So, like when
I'm directing something that's particularly ricky, I will be directing
the same scene over and over again and trying to like, well,
I've got to think about this, and what if the
(03:09):
producers want that and maybe they'll read it like this,
And how am I going to get this one to happen?
What do I have to say to her in order
to get her to do that thing? And she's gonna
have to remember her lines? And then I'll be like, oh, hey,
this isn't this is a dream. And I'd say to
myself in my dream, Danielle, stop, you get to direct tomorrow.
You don't have to do this right now. Try to
go to sleep, And then I immediately go, well, what
am I gonna do? Am I gonna leave that door open?
What if I and I just try to solve problems
as it's super RESTful. But my sleep hygiene now involves
(03:33):
taking a five milligram melatonin and a unism and they
do different things. The melatonin helps me feel drowsy enough
to fall asleep, and the unism will help me stay
asleep throughout the night. And I wonder if that is
affecting because I used to remember more dreams. Now, if
I remember anything, it's literally just that my brain won't
(03:53):
stop running, and I very rarely remember them. But I
would love to have vivid dreams.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
The island on the island.
Speaker 4 (04:01):
You know what?
Speaker 3 (04:01):
All I know for sure is that you made me
want to eat Chinese food. So I definitely.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Dreaming again in a half an hour? Do you guys?
Do you guys? Do you guys? Do you guys ever dream?
On stage a Boy's World?
Speaker 5 (04:16):
Are you?
Speaker 4 (04:17):
Do you ever?
Speaker 5 (04:17):
Get?
Speaker 1 (04:17):
And I don't know my lines? And I don't I
haven't read the screen.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
I actually don't. I don't remember boy me. I have
actor dreams. You're never on the set of boy Met World.
I'm always in limis or the graduate. It's it's usually
the plays that I've done. I don't have anxiety dreams,
but but I do have actor anxiety dreams, but it's
never on on stage.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
But yes, you can never read the script. You ever
can't read the script.
Speaker 4 (04:36):
You are the wrong pages, you'd be through and everybody's waiting.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
For you what you're doing and the audience is there, and.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
Why can't I just read this? And then if I
finally can read it, it's the wrong lines and I'm just
so stressed out.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
It's the worst. I hate it.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
There's also so there's different schools of thought when it
comes to dreaming. There's some people that say that you
can't read in a dream at all there, but then
there's other people that say, no, no, no, that's not
actually true. That's triggering a certain part of your your
brain that you can read in. So I don't know
which one of those is accurate and which one is
I mean.
Speaker 4 (05:08):
They say that if you want to become a loocid
dream where you start learning the different cues to like practice, Yeah, well,
there's also glass wear glasses where they shoot the little
lazy to shoot.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
The light into the corner of your eye. Which is
one of the.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
Treasuries that you can look at a clock and if
you can't tell you can't read clocks when you're dreaming,
apparently like similar to reading. So if you're ever, like
am I dreaming, you can try and like read a clock.
And if it if it's always like the numbers are changing,
you can't figure out what time it is. It's usually
a sign that you're dreaming and hopefully you won't wake up,
you'll stay within the dream, but now be in control
of Okay, yeah, I mean you think about how much
(05:39):
of your life you're living sleeping. Yeah, it's like you
and your brain experience Like I remember having so many
epic dreams that we're full stories, you know. I felt
like I had lived lifetimes.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Wakes the movie. It's the movie playing.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
But that what you just said is so funny because
I remember going to buy a mattress and Sue and
I are there and we're trying all the mattresses and
then we get one and we're like, oh, this is
like a cloud. Oh my god, this is the most
amazing thing. The guy told us the price like this
is six thousand dollars. We're like, we're not spending that,
and the guy's like, think about how much time you
spend in your car and how much money you spend
(06:14):
on that. Now, think about how much time you spend
in your bed and how you don't want to spend
money in that.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
We're like, oh, we still didn't buy because it was ridiculous.
But it was like, good, Oh my god, you're right,
that's a good salesperson. It was because it was like, right.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
I wish it was more of our life, just a
little more, just.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
A little more, and just with your eyes closed, when
you're gonna direct and how you're gonna get up and
how you're gonna do all this. Oh my god, it
sounds awesome. By the way, we had a great time
on the island. You should have joined me, I know,
but next.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
Time, invite me. Next time let me know, And tonight
I'll try to dream about Yeah, Chris Gold in the
middle of the street.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
In the middle of the street.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
I also as you were telling the story, I was like,
I have so many questions. You thinking of building a
bowling alley in your house? I was like, wait a minute,
Chris Collinsworth lives near us. They were just kept going
and then I was like, Oh, I think I was
dream I know where this is going. That's what Welcome
to Pod Meets World. I'm Daniel Fischel, I'm rather or Strong,
and I'm will Fredell.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
I said it etherially.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
Yes, asmrsh Yes. When we first drafted a list of
possible guests for Pod Meets World, we had basically three
categories will do it, might do it, and won't do it.
(07:30):
And even though we had this week's guest somewhere in
between might and won't, we knew it would be impossible
to talk about our experiences on Boy Meets World without him.
He was one of our two set teachers, Wesley Staples
between him and the late Great David Combs. Calling them
just teachers is difficult. Yes, they made sure we finished
our assignments and completed the required amount of school needed
(07:51):
to have a work permit. But they also both took
it one step further, making sure we weren't just child
actors getting a free pass through life. They chow leed
us and made sure the little bubble we were being
raised in also had information steadily flowing through it. Their
responsibilities went beyond making sure that that week's episode was completed.
They made sure a bunch of kids' lives weren't totally
(08:13):
ruined by chasing their dreams. It is no coincidence that
Ben went on to Stanford, Writer went on to Columbia,
and I graduated cal State Fullerton. We were taught to
think for ourselves and care about our education, and we
have Wesley and David to think for that. In addition
to Boy Meets World and then later Girl Meets World,
he'd also help shape the minds on the set of
Ten Things I Hate About You, Insidious two, Planet of
(08:34):
the Apes, and much much more. This week, we're honored
to welcome one of the most influential people on the
set of Boy Meets World, someone very near and dear
to our hearts, a real mister Feenie. Wesley Staples the
Boy Meets World set to the Phoenie set. That's the
that's from the the thing. I think it is taken
(08:56):
directly from the final episode.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
I think, so, yeah, yeah, it's awesome.
Speaker 5 (09:02):
I don't have it there all the time. I want
you to know.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
You should.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
I don't know why you don't.
Speaker 4 (09:08):
All your zoom meanings should be from Phoenie's office.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
My gosh, you look exactly the same, Wesley.
Speaker 5 (09:15):
Yeah, well almost eighty.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Hello, wow, great man, and you're tan and bronzed. Have
you been in Mexico recently?
Speaker 5 (09:25):
Yeah? The beach is actually in the background, so I know.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
That's what I was going to say. You live at
the beach, don't you?
Speaker 5 (09:32):
Well part time, I'm still working in my way. I
spend a lot of time here, so wonderful. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
So I'm going to start with a real softball question,
which which of the three of us do you like
the most?
Speaker 5 (09:49):
They intend to incriminate.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
It would have to be, in all fairness, Wesley, you
and I did not get to spend a lot of
time in the classroom together, so it would have to
be between Danielle and Ryder.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
I completely understand that.
Speaker 5 (10:03):
I do. I do, however, have a favorite bit that
you did. Will It's my favorite of all you know,
why whine. It's the only episode I ever watched.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Is it the one where I'm laying in your lap?
Speaker 5 (10:17):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (10:19):
Wait, explain that.
Speaker 5 (10:20):
But it's your song that just oh god.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
This is the graduation episode we actually had.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Wesley and David were the teachers that are sitting next
to mister Feenie and I'm singing to sir with love
while draped across their laps.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
Yeah, well that's right, the absolute best.
Speaker 5 (10:41):
It's so funny. That was great.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
Now, Wesley, how did you get into being an on
set teacher? Take us back to the beginning of being
a studio teacher.
Speaker 5 (10:49):
For us, I was five minutes in the Broadway show
nineteen seventy and decided that I'd rather teach. I ended
up seven years in the South Bronx and decided that
probably rare they not teach there anymore because it was hard,
if you take it seriously, work yourself to the bone.
(11:12):
So I left New York with another show, and the
King and I the Oldrunner, and I came to New
York to La and there a teacher was required for
the kids in the show. So she and I became
best friends, and I said, I did it.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Did you always want to be a teacher?
Speaker 5 (11:32):
Yeah? I liked I always liked being around kids, young people,
And yeah I wanted to be a dancer. But you know,
you get five minutes in the show, but because you
know somebody, not because you're a talented dancer. So I
saw myself struggling teaching five dollars dance classes at sixty
and that's not a pretty picture.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
Right you saw that far into the future and thought
that is not for me.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
No, what was you?
Speaker 2 (12:00):
I have to ask what was we're going back in
the day when we're talking about some of the most
influential people in the history of Hollywood.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
What was Yule Brenner like?
Speaker 5 (12:09):
I remember his curtain calls every night and he learned
it from Maria Callis. He said. He would come out
onto the stage and stand and stare at the audience,
and they would eventually get to their feet, and then
he'd give them what they want, you know, and they'd cheer,
except for Wednesday's, which was blue you know, blue night
in the theater, Blue blue Wednesday. All the ladies in
(12:32):
the suburbs come and they all had blue hair, so
they were too tired. They liked it, but they wouldn't stand.
Every time they didn't stand, he said f you and
turned and left.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
Wow, challenging the audience until you got your standing.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
Ovation that that's old school. That's old school.
Speaker 5 (12:53):
I have amazing.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Oh that's brilliant.
Speaker 4 (12:58):
So Wesley, I want to know what what is like
because I don't think I realized that you taught for
seven years before becoming a studio teacher. So what's the
difference between being a regular school teacher and then being
an onset teacher.
Speaker 5 (13:14):
Well, I mean a lot of what you do, especially
in the South Bronx with the by the way, my
first students turned seventy two this year. Anyway, let's get
past that. Wow. A big part of it is discipline,
and so you learn all kinds of tricks and attitudes
and that deal with discipline. That's the most important thing.
(13:36):
Otherwise you get nothing taught. But then the South Bronx
it's a humanitarian thing. You have kids who haven't eaten
for a couple of days, so the only meal they
get is a not very substantial breakfast when they get
there in the morning. So it's a big challenge and
you feel like you're such an important thing for their life.
(13:58):
It's beyond teaching nouns and adverbs and adjectives. It's human things.
It's being respectful and kind and changing. The first day
I got there, there was a pile of desks in
the middle of the floor because the previous teacher had
been taken out in the straight jacket literally, so it
(14:20):
was challenging to get them in order and what an
order meant that you cared for them and they.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
Yeah, not unlike being a parent where you come to realize, oh,
they actually feel the best when there are rules and boundaries,
and when we enforce them, they actually behave better as
opposed to just letting them have a free for all.
Speaker 5 (14:42):
And you don't do it out of fear. But the
one I did the first few months at a as
a substitute at a junior high school before I went
on to senior high school, and my kids were struggling
to put those desks together and sit in them and
so forth. And uh. The next door neighbor, Kenny, was
a Jim dj dot health and his I walked past
(15:05):
to his room and kids would be sitting straight upright
staring at him without barely breathing. And I said, in
the teacher's room, Kenny, what you do? He said, the
first day of school, the first person who peeps, I
picked them up and throw them against the wall. They
don't pick at all. After that, Oh my gosh, wow,
I decided, no, no, not me.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
That's like that's like prison rules.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
That's like the first day picking out the biggest guy
and starting a fight.
Speaker 4 (15:31):
Well, that's that's how you were on set too, right
when you when you first meet characters. That's right up, Savage.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
I'll never forget when he picked up across the room.
I knew from that moment.
Speaker 5 (15:46):
On that's how I was with you, and you didn't
want to do chemistry.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
Oh, chemistry, I.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
Will never forget.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
Do you know?
Speaker 4 (15:54):
Here's how bad it got. I was so far behind
in chemistry my like I guess my tenth grade year would.
But then over the summer I was still doing it
in Rome because he was Rachel's teacher in Rome. So
I went to Rome for like six weeks and I
was living in Rome, and you were still like writer chemistry.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
And I was like doing homework all summer.
Speaker 5 (16:13):
But you don't remember to take the LA when you
locked yourself in that plywood classroom and refused him out
until you didn't have to do chemistry anymore?
Speaker 1 (16:21):
Yeah, did I really wait? You guys?
Speaker 3 (16:25):
I also have a chemistry story with Wesley. Wesley got
so fed up with trying to teach me chemistry. He
brought in another woman, a totally different teacher, and was like,
she's gonna teach you chemistry, And he was like, I'm
not doing this again, probably because you had scarred him forever.
Speaker 5 (16:46):
Right.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
It was awful, and he's like, I'm not doing this again,
and so he brought in this dear frenchwoman who was
so lovely and was trying to teach me chemistry, and
we would do my tests together and she would go, Okay, now,
on this question, what do you think the answer is?
And I'd go she'd go, why do you think it's me?
(17:11):
And I'd go, well, maybe it's actually you know what,
now I think about it. See, I literally never I never,
I swear to you. I don't remember a single thing
about chemistry, and you know what, I'm never going to
use it. I can't stand it. Boo on chemistry.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
So you're saying the scientific world lost nothing when the
two of you decided to stay in the.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
Entertainment industry and not become chemists.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
Okay, actually enjoyed it.
Speaker 4 (17:37):
I just managed to make it last so long because
I was so bad at it. It took me forever
to get through it. But I did actually like the
mental part of it, but not like, oh my god, no.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
So obviously his name is going to come up dozens
of times for the next hour. So I would like
to talk about your co teacher someone the listeners already
have heard a lot about David Holmes, who we lost
earlier this year. I like to think that he's here
with us for this interview right now, because there's there's
nothing that would have been better than to have the
two of you here to talk with us. Did you
(18:12):
know David before Boy Meets World started? Did he was?
He the one who brought you in? And okay, how
did you to meet?
Speaker 5 (18:21):
Just union stuff and my job here and a job there,
and also I would day play on Wonder Years and
he was one of the major teachers on One Beers right. Yeah,
it's like a punch in the gut. That's very hard.
I think. I think of him all the time. Yeah,
(18:42):
it's amazing human being.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
Yes he was. He was eccentric and weird, and that's brilliant,
brilliant exactly the things that make them different instead of
the things that you could just say about anybody.
Speaker 5 (18:56):
He had a vicious sense of humor.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
He did, he did, Yes, he did.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
And am I remembering it correctly that you were primarily
brought in then when Lee and I were added to
the cast, right like you came in when there started
to become more kid actors.
Speaker 5 (19:11):
And another teacher in Nancy Flint.
Speaker 4 (19:14):
I actually remember your interview, your interview, the parents interviewed you,
and then they brought us in to meet you. And
I remember because we had that second room, because we
had the two trailers on the stage or in the stage. Yeah,
and you were you got the second room, and I
remember meeting you, sitting on the couch in there and
(19:34):
being like, oh, we have another teacher. We have a
new teacher, and then you did your magic, which was
as opposed to David's approach to the classroom was functionality.
There's a desk and a couch and hopefully popcorn that
he could eat and we'd figure it out, whereas you actually,
like you hung maps and you had quotes and pictures
(19:56):
on the wall, and your classroom immediately became like a
real freaking classroom. And I remember being like, oh, we
have boards and we could write poems on the wall,
and it was so it was like a completely different environment.
And then you'd go next door in a David's room
and still just be a couch on a desk.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
Could you explain to our dear listeners what a day
in your life was like on Boy Meets World, was
how was your what was your prep going into a
new week? What was your day to day like? Because
you were not just a teacher who had to make
sure we were doing our school schoolwork and we were learning.
You were also another set of eyes and ears on
set to keep us safe.
Speaker 5 (20:42):
Yes, well, we have two duties, welfare and teaching, and
the state empowers us to do that. We're necessary. Evil
producers have to hire us to keep them actually to
protect them from getting into trouble. But over the course
(21:04):
of the forty whatever two or three years of done
this in this industry, it's been a handful of times
where you have to step in and book kids from set.
One of those happened on Girl Meets World. But that's
another story. But I I am. I'm a person a ritual.
(21:24):
I I like to come early, I like to settle in.
I like to read my paper and have coffee and
as some people, you know, burn toast and yes and
still of the sour toast with you in the lab. Yeah,
so so you and uh and Joel Zwick used to
come to it and join me. So so that's you know,
(21:46):
that organization and kind of it's kind of a spiritual
prep of the classroom how I start my days, and
and and But with Boy Meets World, they were fax
machines on the desk and I get there Monday morning
and they'd be tests and worksheets and all of that.
Because at that time you were doing it mostly what
teachers were doing in their classrooms, not so much with
(22:11):
none such but a bit. That's great that that was
a good approach because it allowed us more leeway. Now
it's eight of every ten have just screens, and many
many I know you and writer take things. You take
it very seriously. I know what you've done with school
and your kids, but not a lot of people do that.
(22:35):
It's like an easy entry into the film industry. If
they don't have to go to school, and I see
kids in the fifth grade or don't know how to
add some trust or write, they're not being taught script anymore.
It's dumbing down. I think, yeah, yeah, that was well.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
That was one of the things that was so wonderful.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
I was not a good student for a long time
in middle school and then early in high school, and
then I met David. And one of the things that
David did for me my school. I went to a
very good public high school in my town in Connecticut,
but they weren't equipped to have a child actor to
where they're going to send a syllabus. They just didn't
(23:17):
know what to do. So essentially what they did with
David's help is they said, go pick college courses. Pick
whichever college courses you want, and we'll give you credit
for that. So David and I got to sit and
that was the first time in my life where I
had a teacher who was like, what do you want
to learn? What's gonna get you to that place of you.
(23:39):
You're not doing this because you have to be there.
You're doing this because you have a love of actually
learning it. What is that going to take? And of
course we have certain things we have to hit, but
other than the two or three things we have to hit,
what do you want to learn? And I remember he
and I going through the different catalogs and it was
like ooh anthropology, ooh archaeology course.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Oh, He's like, let's do it, let's do it.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
Let's and then we'd sit there And so it wasn't
that I was getting better grades, which I was. I
was like a C student when I met David and
an a student when I left.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
But what he taught me was the love of learning.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
That was the thing that was so amazing about it
was that it was it was on on me and
it was him him sitting there just going what what's
what's it gonna take? What's it gonna take? Because I
started with him going like, I don't have very good grades.
I don't like cracking books. It's just not my way.
I like to be the funny guy in class. And
he's like, all right, well, what do you want to learn.
It's like, well, I like mythology. Great, let's take a
(24:36):
big we're gonna do We're gonna do two courses in mythology.
Speaker 5 (24:38):
We're gonna do this.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
And by the end it was then me without him
going ooh, what do I want to learn next?
Speaker 1 (24:43):
What do I want to learn next?
Speaker 2 (24:44):
So that was what I took away from David almost
more than anything else, was he taught me the love
of learning and the best way for me to learn.
And that's something that I think, so that's what makes
a great teacher is is it's he left me with
more than the grid. He left me with just needing
to learn more and that's what he taught me more
(25:05):
than anything else. So very fortunate, well, oh god, hugely fortunate.
And that's what I take away from him more than
anything else.
Speaker 4 (25:13):
And I have to say, like that was a benefit,
you know, that sort of one on one attention is
like the benefit of being on a set and having
a studio teacher. Unfortunately, it wasn't always the case that
the studio teacher was was interested in that. You know,
my experiences before Boy Meets World were you know, it
(25:34):
was it was a mixed bag. There would be times
when there would be a studio teacher, big air quotes,
who you know, had maybe gone through some sort of
certification or whatever to be a welfare worker, but had
no actual educational experience or desire. And you know, you
made that joke about none such which was the name
(25:54):
of my high school. There was a time when I
was I was guest starring on some show and the
studio teacher was there found out that I was reading
a Stephen King book and took it away from me
because it was too adult, it's too grown up, and
I wasn't allowed to read, you know, a book that
was about whatever she deemed, you know. And then I
remember her having to fill out the form at the
(26:15):
end of the week or the day or whatever to
say like, you know what you know about what I
got done or or did our hours or whatever. And
she was like and writer, what's the name of your
high school? I was like, none, such, just like, writer,
what is the name of your high school? It's none, No,
it's not no, it's not. Come back and talk to
me when you when you've thought about what you're saying.
(26:37):
It was like they were just disciplinarians. They didn't care,
you know, it was just like get the hours in.
So you guys were just I mean, it was a
revelation I think for all your teachers.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
You were.
Speaker 5 (26:46):
Actually there was an educational theorist and scientists in the
late fifties named Robert Gardner, and he came up with
the theory of multiple intelligences, and there were eight He
came up with a now they're like twenty eight or
something different. Brilliance that people have that explain why you
(27:06):
shouldn't force people into narrow pathways, you know, not me,
So what I mean, yeah, okay, fine, but that's not
the brilliance that some people have to But that person
might be able to be on the basketball court and
see things in slow motion and be a Michael Jordan.
I mean that's brilliance. Who are danced to, who can
remember the body form and associated with the music and
(27:28):
do Swan Lake like nothing. I mean, that's a brilliance.
A bit. A guy who can fix a motorcycle in
his sleep is a brilliance that some of us don't have.
And send some kids who are adhd or or for
some reason just hate everything to do with school, like
(27:48):
you were fortunate to find, can can find ways of
learning that are exciting and wonderful. I had a student
and I'm still in touch on Planet of the Apes
who came in the first day. I went in and said, okay,
so he wouldn't mind me, and it ain't. Look where's
for your books? I don't have books? I said, well,
(28:11):
what are you doing? Well, I'm signed up in school
in the Midwest, and if I practice my guitar, I
get credit for music or math. If I figure the
tax on a thing in a restaurant, I get credit.
I said, okay, same same as your story with David.
Well what do you what do you want to learn?
And he get He told me and that's exactly. I
(28:32):
brought stuff in and we did that for three or
four months, except we continued it afterwards at coffee shops
in Los Angeles until he was kind of on his own.
Now he's exceptionally successful. It has several movies that he's written,
is touring with I remember him at Oakwood banging on
the pan. That's look. You might owner to find that
(28:53):
a little bit. He's he's playing classical and jazz in
major concerts all over Europe because he was left not
to feel he was less than because he didn't want
to take physics.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
Because you have a limited number of students, you were
really able to cater a lesson plan to them and
their interests and who they were as people, and you
could adjust it as as you got to know us
all better.
Speaker 5 (29:20):
I loved, I loved. I pulled Ben's leg through the
entire OJ trial said, look at him, look at his face.
He's innocent. You know it. Oh, he's so kissed up.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
I remember our political discussions watching the O. J.
Speaker 4 (29:40):
Simpson trial, and then also whenever, whenever it was an
election time, we would sit in the classroom and go
ballot measure by ballot measure and debate and have so
much discussion and so much argumentation. It was really, I
mean so formative for me.
Speaker 3 (29:57):
I was in the classroom during all all of the
Bill Clinton, Monica Lewinsky stuff. Yes, and you guys, you teachers,
were the first people to say to me, why do
you think just put it, putting it out there? Do
you think the president's personal life should be this big
(30:21):
of a topic of conversation. Does a person's personal life
actually affect the job that they do? And it was
such an engaging discussion about well, what does it what
does it say about character? How does character impact? Like
it was truly it was, and I had never even
thought of it. It was just like he lied under
oath and you know, the truth is the truth, what
(30:43):
the truth is or whatever the like. I remember those
were the things that were on the news. But the
discussions that we then got to have because of the news,
you guys were never you never failed to take a
real life situation and put it back into a learning
environment and a critical thinking and debate and good discussion.
(31:03):
And I would remember, you know, we'd be in the
middle of a heated discussion about something and we'd have
to go to set and you guys would be like,
we'll talk about this when you come back. Go go go, go,
go ahead, go ahead, go out to set, And we'd
run out to set, holding onto all those thoughts.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
What a fertile row to hoe now, yes exactly.
Speaker 4 (31:19):
It was also, I mean beyond beyond the sort of
like intellectual academic support. I mean I also just remember,
you know, a real emotional support too. Like I remember
one time we went to Children's hospital to visit termin
leal children, and uh, it was really hard, you know,
(31:40):
because because we were we were the we were like
the entertainment you know, the sort of make a wish
people from TV come in and meet these kids and
light up there their day, and then you have to leave,
you know, you have to walk out of their room
and know what they're facing. And I remember just coming
back to the classroom to you and David and like
trying to put on a good face, and and you
guys like you just put in your hand my shoulder
(32:00):
and being like that was that was really hard for you,
wasn't it? I just balling like and just breaking down.
I also remember I don't know if you remember this, Wesley,
but we got we got into it one time really intensely.
Somebody we knew was getting plastic surgery. Do you remember
this debate?
Speaker 5 (32:19):
Not me, No, it was somebody.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
There was somebody.
Speaker 4 (32:22):
It was somebody on our set was getting some work done.
And me, I remember met me at sixteen. I think
I was very anti any you know, I was in
my self righteous writer, you know, anti superficial.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
Yes, and that anytime, that'll anytime.
Speaker 4 (32:41):
And you, you know, you decided to play devil's advocate
with me like you did. But it was also very
very personal for me because I was very upset that
this person was getting work done and I felt like
they shouldn't and it was and I wanted to judge them,
and I was very judging and very self righteous, and
you know, all my hippie none such inspired. And you
(33:01):
came at me really hard, and I remember getting so
angry and and and you know, I think as opposed
to like the political discussions of the academic discussions. It
got it got so heated, and I stormed out, and
I like, I just lost it. And in a way
that a lot of adults, you know, you you, a
(33:22):
lot of adults would have just let it go at
that or whatever. But I remember you. You took the
time to write me a letter and apologize, and and
it affected me so much because I knew, I knew
that you were you were having an abstract discussion with me,
and that I let it get too personal, and yet
(33:43):
that it was okay that it was personal because you
were like you wrote a very personal let letter saying
I love you, I care about you. Your relationship is
more important than winning any debate. And that was such
a great life lesson to me that you know that
we could disagree, that we could get each other riled up,
but that you ultimately were there to support me as
a person and as a friend, and just it was
(34:04):
I can't thank you enough.
Speaker 5 (34:06):
Good, thank you.
Speaker 3 (34:19):
I would like to talk about something I remember about
you and want to know if you still do it.
Do you still do like forty five day hot lemon
and cayenne juice cleanses.
Speaker 5 (34:30):
Oh, that's why we're seeing just from my shoulders down.
Speaker 3 (34:37):
I remember Wesley coming in with like a jug, like
a two and a half liter jug of hot lemon
water with cayenne flakes, and being like, oh, what is that?
And he was like this is Oh, it's so good.
Speaker 4 (34:52):
You breakfast and dinner.
Speaker 3 (34:57):
The Master Fast, and it cleans out my limp fast system.
And boy, I'd be like, well, oh wow, so that's
just all your that's it. It's got honey and lemon
and cayenne, and that's that's all you're going to have. Like,
that's it. You're not you're not eating anything else. No,
it's so good for me mental clarity. How long are
you going to do this for? Thirty days? Forty five days,
maybe ninety days? Being like, sir, what.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
With you?
Speaker 5 (35:23):
I only ever did it for well, the first time
I did it.
Speaker 3 (35:27):
Was twenty eight days okay, and then.
Speaker 5 (35:29):
Then seven days once a year.
Speaker 3 (35:31):
Okay, then seven days once a year okay. You at
the time were like maybe I'm just looking at him
now and look at eighty years old.
Speaker 1 (35:38):
My god, he looks healthier than the three of us
put together.
Speaker 5 (35:41):
So I first did that. I worked on family matters
with the Erkle character for two years. Yes, Jilil is Juliel, yeah,
and his mother. I just worked with Darius's daughter anyway.
Julil's mother said, I said, what's that. You're carrying the
same thing urine. She said no, no, no, no. I said, well,
(36:05):
water and blah blah blah. So I said, I'll try
that with you. So two weeks go by and the
makeup lady came to me and said, I see your
carrying the thing that Gail Care carriers. I said, yeah,
we're in the middle of a vest and she said, no,
you're not. I saw her have a hamburger at lunch.
Speaker 1 (36:22):
She cheated on you.
Speaker 5 (36:24):
You cheated on the eight days until I hadn't. They
had an intervention and they said, you know right, you're
going to die now, Yeah, you have.
Speaker 3 (36:32):
To eat something bones I want it. I would miss
the smell of your sourdough burnt toast in the morning, Burt.
Well done toast is a is a favorite of my
family as well. But then also with you, like Burt,
the smell of burnt toast brings back more memories for
me than just about any other smell.
Speaker 4 (36:51):
Some hissing cockroachessroaches coffee.
Speaker 3 (36:56):
Do you remember you bought us Madagascin hissing cockroaches? Do
you still do that? Most good too, Wesley? Okay, do
you remember bringing us the Madagascan hissing cockroaches as a
class pet?
Speaker 5 (37:11):
Quickly?
Speaker 3 (37:12):
They sure did.
Speaker 4 (37:13):
When we left.
Speaker 5 (37:15):
Yes, cocks.
Speaker 1 (37:20):
Oh man.
Speaker 3 (37:22):
I just so appreciated that because although it was a
obviously left of center class pet, I appreciated that it
was yet another way you tried to bring as much
normalcy which sounds people are like, where are you going
with this cockroach lady? The idea of being able to
have a class pet that are just little things you
(37:44):
don't think about as a as a as a kid,
that like is a normal part of growing up. We
didn't really get to have. And so you were like, listen,
you can't have we can't have a bunny here, we
can't have a dog, we can't have these things, but
we can have a cage with these cockroaches that don't
require a whole lot of upkeep. And you guys are
(38:05):
going to be the only people ever to grow up
and tell the story about I had a pet madagascon
hissing cockroach.
Speaker 1 (38:10):
And were they named? Do they have names?
Speaker 4 (38:12):
Do you remember?
Speaker 1 (38:13):
They must have by the time we finished, exactly.
Speaker 4 (38:18):
Touch their back and they would hiss. That was their
whole thing. You could like pet you could hold them.
I wouldn't hold them, and I would.
Speaker 3 (38:26):
I held them. You could hold them and pet them
like this and they'd go. But that was it. That's
all they did. They had no other reques to deal
with them.
Speaker 5 (38:35):
They literally have more protein bird body weight than any
living creature they look through the ice age.
Speaker 1 (38:41):
I just liked it very quickly.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
You said something a while back which I the correlation
to me, I think needs to be said, because you
said that you were kind of a person who would
have your rituals in the morning. You'd come in in
the morning, you'd want to take some time to yourself,
you'd read your newspaper, you'd drink coffee, you'd eat the
same thing. And it has to be said, you know
who who did exactly the same thing, Bill Daniels, really
(39:04):
and I think the idea there's something so interesting that
the man who's so important for us for playing our teacher,
and then the man who was the teacher, you have
those same kind of rituals. Bill was the same way,
get there the same time every day, have to read
his paper the same time. He'd eat the same thing
in the morning, he'd have his cup of coffee. And
so I think it's very interesting that you you have
that similarity with mister.
Speaker 5 (39:25):
J I have no disrespect him because I love him.
I mean I worshiped him, I fall down before him.
But someone wrote his lines.
Speaker 2 (39:34):
Yeah, very true, very very true, very true.
Speaker 3 (39:41):
Touche sir.
Speaker 5 (39:44):
That's awesome.
Speaker 3 (39:45):
So you want to talk about something you were talking
about when you were in an in classroom teacher in
the South Bronx. But it also applies to being a
studio teacher. How hard is it to discipline a student
in an on set environment? How do you discipline? And
do you have any good Did you ever have to
(40:06):
discipline us?
Speaker 1 (40:07):
Yes, that's the story I wanted. Is there a discipline
story we can yet.
Speaker 5 (40:10):
I've never thought of any of it as discipline. I
thought of making reasonable requests and doing what I had
to do to make them happen. There was never any
You're going to sit in there until you stop thinking
that way. I don't remember that it happened. I don't
(40:30):
think we were all in it together.
Speaker 2 (40:32):
What's the strangest thing that's ever happened to you as
a studio teacher.
Speaker 5 (40:38):
I'll tell you something that I remembered in the process here,
and that was of when we first got KTLA. Each
of not will because you are a year or so older,
but first writer then Danielle and then Ben got their
driver's licenses, and as I remember, a short while after
(41:00):
Rider got his, that little c three got not just binged.
Something happened. Shortly after Danielle got her she hydroplaned on
the freeway, and shortly after them got his a little
bit of hubris he came ripping into his parking space
and took the side of the dam building off. So
one month or after each one.
Speaker 4 (41:22):
Now, I did not wreck my car. That was my
friend borrowed my car and wrecked it. Oh yes, total
totaled it. My buddy Sean wrecked my car.
Speaker 1 (41:30):
Sean crashed your car. I don't think I.
Speaker 4 (41:32):
Ever knew that. Oh yeah, he yeah. I let him
borrow it during like a lunch break at on Boy
and he totaled it in an intersection.
Speaker 5 (41:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (41:41):
Oh, you may not have totalled your car then, but
only one of us got multiple tickets this summer.
Speaker 1 (41:47):
So yeah, oops, very true.
Speaker 3 (41:53):
Another thing you were very instrumental, and something very important
in my life is you were very involved in my
relationship with Lance and then my subsequent Lance break up,
and you saw me and all of my all of
the times of my heartbreak through that relationship of him
being in town and then him leaving and then him
(42:14):
breaking up with me, and all of the confusion surrounding that,
And you and David both took me to museums and
would see me try to and every painting that would
mean something to me. Yes, and you took me to
the opera in a limo. Just you were You guys
were so involved in moments that were so clearly had
(42:37):
nothing to do with work. They were entirely with who like,
with with who I was as a person and forming
the most essential parts of me as as a human
and as a kid, and then as the adult that
I would become. And I want to know from your perspective,
because we've never talked about this, what do you remember
(42:59):
about that time my first love with Lance Bass?
Speaker 5 (43:03):
Well you I remember you had talked about having gone
somewhere mm hm and talked about the whole thing.
Speaker 3 (43:11):
Mm hmm. You can tell you can say everything Lance
and Lance has been on the podcast. We've talked about
it all.
Speaker 5 (43:16):
Let's just say that after your explanation of the whole evening,
I said, are you sure he's not gay? No? No, no, no, no.
Speaker 3 (43:27):
That is definitely not it. No, no, no, no, you guys
walked me through that heartbreak for sure, and.
Speaker 5 (43:35):
You know it's as a gay man. I've had to
walk students who I knew were struggling with that, not
just a few who were struggling with that and scared
and felt inferior and less than. I never look at
someone and say, well, you know, I know you're gay.
(43:55):
Your mother probably knows you're gay too, So big you
can't do that. What I do is I have a
little body of literature that I kind of sneak in
a book here, in a book there, and it's made
an enormous difference helping people with positive ways to deal
with it.
Speaker 3 (44:12):
Well, thank you for doing that, but also walking us
through those delicate moments of you know, uncertainty and questioning
yourself and questioning your worth and your friendships, and you know,
working with kid actors who are then when you're on
a show that's successful, they're also coming into their own
money and they're coming into fame and they're coming into stardom,
(44:35):
and that's changing the relationships they have with the friends
back home or at their regular school. It's meeting new friends,
and it's also you probably see them falling into occasionally
a crowd that maybe you want to protect them from.
Speaker 5 (44:48):
Yes, yeah, everybody thinks that, oh, they're in the film
television drug addicts. Well, yep, it's not true. I mean,
if you take the percentage of kids in our industry
who have a problem and stack it against the percentage
of the general public, it's minuscule. The difference being, of course,
(45:09):
that you're in the public eye. Yeah, someone writes about
it instantly, or you got a pimple on you know,
someone's thirty million people see it for you. So it's
a different ball of X. But it's But there are
so many, hundreds of thousands of kids who have gone
to do great things like write and teach in colleges
and produce stuff and direct stuff, and that's that's good.
Speaker 4 (45:33):
I'd love to hear a story about if you don't
have to name names, but I'd love to hear about
a time when you had to step in and either
shut down a production or pool a kid from a
situation in your role as a welfare worker.
Speaker 5 (45:48):
Well, the truth is, if you if you talk to
the right people and make the right moves, generally, it
doesn't get to that point because they involved they know
they have to come and talk to you. They know
if they want to do something wrong. Excep. I was
once working in northern California with Robert Conrad. I don't
know if you even remember him, sure, yeah, and he
his son was a seventeen year old son in the
(46:10):
movie and a younger girl, and they wanted the girl
to be in like a twenty foot tower with a
live bear. And they insisted that they were going to
do it, and I said, you're not going to do it.
I'm telling you you can't do it. They went ahead
anyway and did it, and so I had to file
a formal complaint and they were taken before the Labor
(46:33):
Commission and find very heavily. But so they can just
ford to have I mean in northern there is a
guy with a gun and a badge. In Los Angeles
come to a set and shut it down on behalf
of you to force the law. But normally, if you're
in the woods somewhere, it's your words or nothing. They
(46:55):
can go ahead and do it. You just have the
right to make sure that they're fined and held accountable.
I just think you have to be a team player
and be reasonable and when I teach the class every
year to the new studio. You just spend twenty three
years now coming in from the state. And the first
time I thought it, twenty three years ago, I said,
(47:15):
read my lips. Always do what's best for the children.
Always if that means it comes six o'clock and they
have to go, but they're in a scene. They've worked
hard all week and are doing it and going to
finish it in five minutes. You know, pull them to
give them the five minutes and let them do it,
because that's punishing the kid. You don't want to do that, right.
(47:38):
The powers that be had a big problem with that,
so I slipped that information and dog talk or something. Altogether.
Speaker 4 (47:45):
It makes such a difference because I was in multiple
situations where I was in another state, like I worked
in North Carolina, or the worst for me was when
I worked in Australia when I was eleven, and they
you know, they don't they didn't have state protection, they
didn't have a welfare worker, and the studio teacher in
Australia turned out to be a background actor who they
(48:07):
just gave a bump to to also be my studio teacher,
and they worked me so hard. I remember one night,
it was one in the morning. I had been working
I think for eighteen hours. I was cold, we were freezing,
and I just remember the director being like, come on, writer,
you know you can find that in a womb. Let's
(48:28):
do that.
Speaker 1 (48:28):
He was a British guy, let's do this.
Speaker 4 (48:30):
And I was like literally passing out, like falling asleep,
and I'm and what was the worst is like, you know,
obviously I was unhappy, But I think the hardest was
on my mom because she was in this position where
her son wants to be an actor. Her son's getting
to be in this you know show, so she doesn't
want to shut down the production. She felt so disempowered
(48:51):
and she's just the stage mom who's being an awful
stage mom if she stepped in, you know, so you
need that person. You need that somebody with that authority
who's says like, time is up. You've worked nine and
a half hours, that's it.
Speaker 5 (49:03):
And then you know, yeah, sometimes it has nothing to
do with eight and a half nine and a half hours.
It has something to do with what the gets tired
and not he's been three or four hours. Sorry, Yeah,
he worked once on mcaulay Culkin had flown back from
Australia and to do the American Comedy Awards at the
Shrine or somewhere like that, and he did them, you know,
(49:25):
it usually was great, and he came backstage and drooped tired.
They put him in a corral with you know, ropes,
and press was all around him shouting questions or something
and I and I looked at him and he listened
to question and went I said, Okay, time to go.
(49:47):
So I pulled him out and his mother walked up
to me and said, what are you doing sending him out?
You can't do them, I'm his mother. I said, well,
I'm sending them both out them but what I can do,
and that's what I'm doing because he's yeah, I never
worked in this time again. So they went off, and
the makeup ladies turned to me and said, oh my god,
thank you so much. Right, Yeah, everybody sees. Everybody on
(50:10):
the set sees what's going on. Yeah, and if you're unreasonable,
they see that. But if you're reasonable, even though it
might be hard for the company, they know that too,
their parents or their people.
Speaker 3 (50:22):
Another behind the scenes a non school related or set
related Danielle moment that you guys were involved in is
when I started smoking. Oh, David Combs called my mother
immediately and was like, I need to let you know
I've seen Danielle smoking a cigarette.
Speaker 5 (50:41):
Yes, we talked about that.
Speaker 3 (50:43):
Yes, So what is that situation like where you see
a kid and you know they're doing something wrong and
now you have to make the decision about involving their parents.
What is that like?
Speaker 5 (50:56):
Oh, well, uh, that's what you do. Yeah, that's not
a big deal. But personally, I take that very personally
because I am probably more anti smoking than well, except
for marijuana anti smoking anybody else. I hate it.
Speaker 1 (51:14):
Yeah, because you weren't doing it right me. No, No,
it's awful. No, I'm kidding. It's I'm glad I quit.
Speaker 5 (51:23):
Especially if you have children. I recall my parents smoking
three packs each day and I breathed the smoke until
I went to Bred School at thirteen. Wow.
Speaker 3 (51:31):
Sure, I remember David saying to me, Danielle, you are
this is the most addictive thing you could possibly be doing.
I know you think, oh, I just have an occasional
cigarette here and there, it's not really that big of
a deal. But it's not that this is the most
addictive thing you could do. I would rather you do heroin.
(51:52):
I remember saying to my mom when my mom, when
my mom was upset with me, and she was like,
this is just it's terrible for you. And I know
that you think you can do it occasionally, but it's
most so addicting. And I said, I know, David said
he'd David said he'd rather I do heroin, and she goes,
I do not feel the same way. I don't think
that was a very smart thing to say. Well, Wesley
(52:14):
thirty years later, while looking at us all as a
weirdo adult, Oh no.
Speaker 5 (52:20):
You're just wonderful and every one of you, it's amazing.
Speaker 3 (52:25):
Do you keep in touch with all of your students
the way you do with us? I feel like girl
me throlled obviously brought us closer back together, but I
never really felt like you were out of our lives.
I feel like because you were such you knew we
had such a strong connection and you were so important
to us. Are you able to do this with a
lot of your students, to stay in their lives and
(52:45):
stay such an important authority figure in their lives.
Speaker 5 (52:48):
Well, I suppose I've kept in touch with a lot
of students, but none as meaningful as you guys. That
was just one of the best times of my life
day m and I do keep in touch with with
those kids and Corey and and Peyton and but it's
(53:11):
not the same. This is the show for me. Yeah,
just kissing your butts but that way.
Speaker 4 (53:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (53:21):
Well, Leslie, you are just such an important person in
our lives and we can't thank you enough for being
here with us and for existing. We love you so much,
and thank you very much for asking me yes, and
thank you for bringing a little bit of the David
Combe's spirit with you and talking about us, talking about
(53:44):
him with us. Losing him was really it was very
emotional for all of us, and we know thank you.
You were also the one who told.
Speaker 5 (53:53):
Us, okay, all right, love you, thank you all.
Speaker 3 (53:59):
Soon I was I, oh boy, you almost made it
almost you.
Speaker 2 (54:06):
Almost made her like fifty eight minutes in writer made
it about forty.
Speaker 1 (54:09):
You made it like fifty eight. And I think I
cried in nineteen seventy two.
Speaker 3 (54:13):
Or somebody, Oh man, what a man, what a what
a We've talked so much about how so many of
our memories. When people ask us about our behind the
scenes memories. So many of them happened in the classroom.
For writer and I who spent so much time in
the classroom, so many of yours will happen on the
golf course or you know, playing with Steve Hayfer and
(54:34):
doing all that stuff, because you had a more adult
existence on set. But so many of my memories and
feelings about boy Mead's world involve Wesley and David because
that's just where I was.
Speaker 4 (54:46):
You know, I don't write anything without thinking of Wesley
and David, because you know, I would write papers and
then they would give me notes, and then we would
revise together oftentime. So I would sit in the room
and I'd be like writing on my third draft of
an essay for something. And there are vocabulary words that
(55:08):
I only know because they gave them to me, and
or phrases, you know, or certain uses of turns of phrase,
and so every day of my life I'm using that.
I mean, that's I write for a living, That's all
I'm doing, and so I'm always in a conversation with Wesley.
Speaker 3 (55:23):
And David's in your head.
Speaker 1 (55:25):
Yeah, there's also just something so.
Speaker 2 (55:30):
Beautifully ironic about how important a teacher is in your
life when our entire show was about how important a
teacher is in your life.
Speaker 1 (55:38):
Yeah, so real life, mister Phoene's very cool.
Speaker 3 (55:43):
Yeah. Well, thank you all for joining us for this
episode of Pod Meets Tears. As always, you can follow
us on Instagram Pod Meets World Show. You can send
us your emails pod meets World Show at gmail dot com,
and we have merch.
Speaker 1 (56:01):
I got nothing.
Speaker 3 (56:02):
Pod Meets Worldshow dot com. Uh will send us out.
Speaker 2 (56:07):
Actually, I think since this is Wesley, one of you
should send us out.
Speaker 3 (56:11):
Okay, writer, you want to do it? No, Okay, I'll
do it. We love you all, pod dismissed. Pod Meets
World is an iHeart podcast produced and hosted by Danielle Fischel,
Wilfredell and Writer Strong Executive producers Jensen Karp and Amy Sugarman.
Executive in charge of production, Danielle Romo, producer and editor,
(56:33):
Tara Suebachsch producer, Maddie Moore, engineer and Boy Meets World
superfan Easton Allen. Our theme song is by Kyle Morton
of Typhoon. Follow us on Instagram at Pod meets World
Show or email us at Pod Meets World Show at
gmail dot com. A Wesley
So I had a very strange night last night.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
I found myself walking a street at night and I
turned the corner and I came upon Chris Collinsworth. You
know Chris Collinsworth is he's the football commentator. And he
was bowling in the middle of the street. Wait, what
so exactly weird night? So I tried to tell him
that I was actually going to be building a bowling
(00:41):
alley in my home and he should join me. But
before that, he decided we needed to get Chinese food
where we met you, Danielle. That then turned into you
and I together on an island, trying to figure out
how we were going to get off, and that's when
I realized I was dreaming. So my question for you
(01:03):
is because I've started to believe that's a very dream.
It was really bizarre, and I could have gotten into
all the details. Chris Collinsworth and I trying to hang
a banner while we're in the Chinese restaurant.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
I don't remember what the banner says.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
But then when Danielle, when you and I ended up
together on the island, we were spent the first part
of trying to figure out what the hell was going on?
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Why were we on this island? And then how we're
going to get off? It was very strange, and I started.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
To realize that the older I'm getting, the more vivid
my dreams are becoming. And I'm wondering if that is
the same for either of you, Like do you when
you dream?
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Is it like you are? I am fully immersed.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
I can smell everything, I can touch everything, I can
see everything.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
It is vibrant.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
Wow. Yeah, I'm so jealous.
Speaker 4 (01:50):
Yeah, you got to enjoy it.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Yeah, you're on the island. It wasn't alone.
Speaker 4 (01:57):
I used to dream like. I used to have such
vivid dreams as a kid. I dream less nowadays, but
I do. I'm I'm usually I'm a lucid dreamer, so
I'm usually in control, so I have a lot of
Like now when I dream, it's really fun. I mostly fly.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
I mostly choose to fly.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
It takes work. It's kind of like I have to
hold my breath and like swim through the air. Like
takes a little bit. But I usually I am aware
that I'm dreaming. I get to stay within my dream
and then I'm like, well, let's have some fun with this,
and I start flying around and I love it. It's
but like I said it, only I think I only
dream like once a week nowadays.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Everybody, everybody apparently dreams every night, is what they say.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
No, sure, I just don't remember. You just don't remember them. Yeah, yeah,
uh no, nothing.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Nothing, just nothing.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
You don't even have fun and dreams. You're not like
organizing things in your dream or No.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
That is the problem is that my dreams are usually
just things that were going on for me during the day,
and I can't shut my brain off. So, like when
I'm directing something that's particularly ricky, I will be directing
the same scene over and over again and trying to like, well,
I've got to think about this, and what if the
(03:09):
producers want that and maybe they'll read it like this,
And how am I going to get this one to happen?
What do I have to say to her in order
to get her to do that thing? And she's gonna
have to remember her lines? And then I'll be like, oh, hey,
this isn't this is a dream. And I'd say to
myself in my dream, Danielle, stop, you get to direct tomorrow.
You don't have to do this right now. Try to
go to sleep, And then I immediately go, well, what
am I gonna do? Am I gonna leave that door open?
What if I and I just try to solve problems
as it's super RESTful. But my sleep hygiene now involves
(03:33):
taking a five milligram melatonin and a unism and they
do different things. The melatonin helps me feel drowsy enough
to fall asleep, and the unism will help me stay
asleep throughout the night. And I wonder if that is
affecting because I used to remember more dreams. Now, if
I remember anything, it's literally just that my brain won't
(03:53):
stop running, and I very rarely remember them. But I
would love to have vivid dreams.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
The island on the island.
Speaker 4 (04:01):
You know what?
Speaker 3 (04:01):
All I know for sure is that you made me
want to eat Chinese food. So I definitely.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Dreaming again in a half an hour? Do you guys?
Do you guys? Do you guys? Do you guys ever dream?
On stage a Boy's World?
Speaker 5 (04:16):
Are you?
Speaker 4 (04:17):
Do you ever?
Speaker 5 (04:17):
Get?
Speaker 1 (04:17):
And I don't know my lines? And I don't I
haven't read the screen.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
I actually don't. I don't remember boy me. I have
actor dreams. You're never on the set of boy Met World.
I'm always in limis or the graduate. It's it's usually
the plays that I've done. I don't have anxiety dreams,
but but I do have actor anxiety dreams, but it's
never on on stage.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
But yes, you can never read the script. You ever
can't read the script.
Speaker 4 (04:36):
You are the wrong pages, you'd be through and everybody's waiting.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
For you what you're doing and the audience is there, and.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
Why can't I just read this? And then if I
finally can read it, it's the wrong lines and I'm just
so stressed out.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
It's the worst. I hate it.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
There's also so there's different schools of thought when it
comes to dreaming. There's some people that say that you
can't read in a dream at all there, but then
there's other people that say, no, no, no, that's not
actually true. That's triggering a certain part of your your
brain that you can read in. So I don't know
which one of those is accurate and which one is
I mean.
Speaker 4 (05:08):
They say that if you want to become a loocid
dream where you start learning the different cues to like practice, Yeah, well,
there's also glass wear glasses where they shoot the little
lazy to shoot.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
The light into the corner of your eye. Which is
one of the.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
Treasuries that you can look at a clock and if
you can't tell you can't read clocks when you're dreaming,
apparently like similar to reading. So if you're ever, like
am I dreaming, you can try and like read a clock.
And if it if it's always like the numbers are changing,
you can't figure out what time it is. It's usually
a sign that you're dreaming and hopefully you won't wake up,
you'll stay within the dream, but now be in control
of Okay, yeah, I mean you think about how much
(05:39):
of your life you're living sleeping. Yeah, it's like you
and your brain experience Like I remember having so many
epic dreams that we're full stories, you know. I felt
like I had lived lifetimes.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Wakes the movie. It's the movie playing.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
But that what you just said is so funny because
I remember going to buy a mattress and Sue and
I are there and we're trying all the mattresses and
then we get one and we're like, oh, this is
like a cloud. Oh my god, this is the most
amazing thing. The guy told us the price like this
is six thousand dollars. We're like, we're not spending that,
and the guy's like, think about how much time you
spend in your car and how much money you spend
(06:14):
on that. Now, think about how much time you spend
in your bed and how you don't want to spend
money in that.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
We're like, oh, we still didn't buy because it was ridiculous.
But it was like, good, Oh my god, you're right,
that's a good salesperson. It was because it was like, right.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
I wish it was more of our life, just a
little more, just.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
A little more, and just with your eyes closed, when
you're gonna direct and how you're gonna get up and
how you're gonna do all this. Oh my god, it
sounds awesome. By the way, we had a great time
on the island. You should have joined me, I know,
but next.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
Time, invite me. Next time let me know, And tonight
I'll try to dream about Yeah, Chris Gold in the
middle of the street.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
In the middle of the street.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
I also as you were telling the story, I was like,
I have so many questions. You thinking of building a
bowling alley in your house? I was like, wait a minute,
Chris Collinsworth lives near us. They were just kept going
and then I was like, Oh, I think I was
dream I know where this is going. That's what Welcome
to Pod Meets World. I'm Daniel Fischel, I'm rather or Strong,
and I'm will Fredell.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
I said it etherially.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
Yes, asmrsh Yes. When we first drafted a list of
possible guests for Pod Meets World, we had basically three
categories will do it, might do it, and won't do it.
(07:30):
And even though we had this week's guest somewhere in
between might and won't, we knew it would be impossible
to talk about our experiences on Boy Meets World without him.
He was one of our two set teachers, Wesley Staples
between him and the late Great David Combs. Calling them
just teachers is difficult. Yes, they made sure we finished
our assignments and completed the required amount of school needed
(07:51):
to have a work permit. But they also both took
it one step further, making sure we weren't just child
actors getting a free pass through life. They chow leed
us and made sure the little bubble we were being
raised in also had information steadily flowing through it. Their
responsibilities went beyond making sure that that week's episode was completed.
They made sure a bunch of kids' lives weren't totally
(08:13):
ruined by chasing their dreams. It is no coincidence that
Ben went on to Stanford, Writer went on to Columbia,
and I graduated cal State Fullerton. We were taught to
think for ourselves and care about our education, and we
have Wesley and David to think for that. In addition
to Boy Meets World and then later Girl Meets World,
he'd also help shape the minds on the set of
Ten Things I Hate About You, Insidious two, Planet of
(08:34):
the Apes, and much much more. This week, we're honored
to welcome one of the most influential people on the
set of Boy Meets World, someone very near and dear
to our hearts, a real mister Feenie. Wesley Staples the
Boy Meets World set to the Phoenie set. That's the
that's from the the thing. I think it is taken
(08:56):
directly from the final episode.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
I think, so, yeah, yeah, it's awesome.
Speaker 5 (09:02):
I don't have it there all the time. I want
you to know.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
You should.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
I don't know why you don't.
Speaker 4 (09:08):
All your zoom meanings should be from Phoenie's office.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
My gosh, you look exactly the same, Wesley.
Speaker 5 (09:15):
Yeah, well almost eighty.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Hello, wow, great man, and you're tan and bronzed. Have
you been in Mexico recently?
Speaker 5 (09:25):
Yeah? The beach is actually in the background, so I know.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
That's what I was going to say. You live at
the beach, don't you?
Speaker 5 (09:32):
Well part time, I'm still working in my way. I
spend a lot of time here, so wonderful. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
So I'm going to start with a real softball question,
which which of the three of us do you like
the most?
Speaker 5 (09:49):
They intend to incriminate.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
It would have to be, in all fairness, Wesley, you
and I did not get to spend a lot of
time in the classroom together, so it would have to
be between Danielle and Ryder.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
I completely understand that.
Speaker 5 (10:03):
I do. I do, however, have a favorite bit that
you did. Will It's my favorite of all you know,
why whine. It's the only episode I ever watched.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Is it the one where I'm laying in your lap?
Speaker 5 (10:17):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (10:19):
Wait, explain that.
Speaker 5 (10:20):
But it's your song that just oh god.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
This is the graduation episode we actually had.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Wesley and David were the teachers that are sitting next
to mister Feenie and I'm singing to sir with love
while draped across their laps.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
Yeah, well that's right, the absolute best.
Speaker 5 (10:41):
It's so funny. That was great.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
Now, Wesley, how did you get into being an on
set teacher? Take us back to the beginning of being
a studio teacher.
Speaker 5 (10:49):
For us, I was five minutes in the Broadway show
nineteen seventy and decided that I'd rather teach. I ended
up seven years in the South Bronx and decided that
probably rare they not teach there anymore because it was hard,
if you take it seriously, work yourself to the bone.
(11:12):
So I left New York with another show, and the
King and I the Oldrunner, and I came to New
York to La and there a teacher was required for
the kids in the show. So she and I became
best friends, and I said, I did it.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Did you always want to be a teacher?
Speaker 5 (11:32):
Yeah? I liked I always liked being around kids, young people,
And yeah I wanted to be a dancer. But you know,
you get five minutes in the show, but because you
know somebody, not because you're a talented dancer. So I
saw myself struggling teaching five dollars dance classes at sixty
and that's not a pretty picture.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
Right you saw that far into the future and thought
that is not for me.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
No, what was you?
Speaker 2 (12:00):
I have to ask what was we're going back in
the day when we're talking about some of the most
influential people in the history of Hollywood.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
What was Yule Brenner like?
Speaker 5 (12:09):
I remember his curtain calls every night and he learned
it from Maria Callis. He said. He would come out
onto the stage and stand and stare at the audience,
and they would eventually get to their feet, and then
he'd give them what they want, you know, and they'd cheer,
except for Wednesday's, which was blue you know, blue night
in the theater, Blue blue Wednesday. All the ladies in
(12:32):
the suburbs come and they all had blue hair, so
they were too tired. They liked it, but they wouldn't stand.
Every time they didn't stand, he said f you and
turned and left.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
Wow, challenging the audience until you got your standing.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
Ovation that that's old school. That's old school.
Speaker 5 (12:53):
I have amazing.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Oh that's brilliant.
Speaker 4 (12:58):
So Wesley, I want to know what what is like
because I don't think I realized that you taught for
seven years before becoming a studio teacher. So what's the
difference between being a regular school teacher and then being
an onset teacher.
Speaker 5 (13:14):
Well, I mean a lot of what you do, especially
in the South Bronx with the by the way, my
first students turned seventy two this year. Anyway, let's get
past that. Wow. A big part of it is discipline,
and so you learn all kinds of tricks and attitudes
and that deal with discipline. That's the most important thing.
(13:36):
Otherwise you get nothing taught. But then the South Bronx
it's a humanitarian thing. You have kids who haven't eaten
for a couple of days, so the only meal they
get is a not very substantial breakfast when they get
there in the morning. So it's a big challenge and
you feel like you're such an important thing for their life.
(13:58):
It's beyond teaching nouns and adverbs and adjectives. It's human things.
It's being respectful and kind and changing. The first day
I got there, there was a pile of desks in
the middle of the floor because the previous teacher had
been taken out in the straight jacket literally, so it
(14:20):
was challenging to get them in order and what an
order meant that you cared for them and they.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
Yeah, not unlike being a parent where you come to realize, oh,
they actually feel the best when there are rules and boundaries,
and when we enforce them, they actually behave better as
opposed to just letting them have a free for all.
Speaker 5 (14:42):
And you don't do it out of fear. But the
one I did the first few months at a as
a substitute at a junior high school before I went
on to senior high school, and my kids were struggling
to put those desks together and sit in them and
so forth. And uh. The next door neighbor, Kenny, was
a Jim dj dot health and his I walked past
(15:05):
to his room and kids would be sitting straight upright
staring at him without barely breathing. And I said, in
the teacher's room, Kenny, what you do? He said, the
first day of school, the first person who peeps, I
picked them up and throw them against the wall. They
don't pick at all. After that, Oh my gosh, wow,
I decided, no, no, not me.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
That's like that's like prison rules.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
That's like the first day picking out the biggest guy
and starting a fight.
Speaker 4 (15:31):
Well, that's that's how you were on set too, right
when you when you first meet characters. That's right up, Savage.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
I'll never forget when he picked up across the room.
I knew from that moment.
Speaker 5 (15:46):
On that's how I was with you, and you didn't
want to do chemistry.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
Oh, chemistry, I.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
Will never forget.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
Do you know?
Speaker 4 (15:54):
Here's how bad it got. I was so far behind
in chemistry my like I guess my tenth grade year would.
But then over the summer I was still doing it
in Rome because he was Rachel's teacher in Rome. So
I went to Rome for like six weeks and I
was living in Rome, and you were still like writer chemistry.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
And I was like doing homework all summer.
Speaker 5 (16:13):
But you don't remember to take the LA when you
locked yourself in that plywood classroom and refused him out
until you didn't have to do chemistry anymore?
Speaker 1 (16:21):
Yeah, did I really wait? You guys?
Speaker 3 (16:25):
I also have a chemistry story with Wesley. Wesley got
so fed up with trying to teach me chemistry. He
brought in another woman, a totally different teacher, and was like,
she's gonna teach you chemistry, And he was like, I'm
not doing this again, probably because you had scarred him forever.
Speaker 5 (16:46):
Right.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
It was awful, and he's like, I'm not doing this again,
and so he brought in this dear frenchwoman who was
so lovely and was trying to teach me chemistry, and
we would do my tests together and she would go, Okay, now,
on this question, what do you think the answer is?
And I'd go she'd go, why do you think it's me?
(17:11):
And I'd go, well, maybe it's actually you know what,
now I think about it. See, I literally never I never,
I swear to you. I don't remember a single thing
about chemistry, and you know what, I'm never going to
use it. I can't stand it. Boo on chemistry.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
So you're saying the scientific world lost nothing when the
two of you decided to stay in the.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
Entertainment industry and not become chemists.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
Okay, actually enjoyed it.
Speaker 4 (17:37):
I just managed to make it last so long because
I was so bad at it. It took me forever
to get through it. But I did actually like the
mental part of it, but not like, oh my god, no.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
So obviously his name is going to come up dozens
of times for the next hour. So I would like
to talk about your co teacher someone the listeners already
have heard a lot about David Holmes, who we lost
earlier this year. I like to think that he's here
with us for this interview right now, because there's there's
nothing that would have been better than to have the
two of you here to talk with us. Did you
(18:12):
know David before Boy Meets World started? Did he was?
He the one who brought you in? And okay, how
did you to meet?
Speaker 5 (18:21):
Just union stuff and my job here and a job there,
and also I would day play on Wonder Years and
he was one of the major teachers on One Beers right. Yeah,
it's like a punch in the gut. That's very hard.
I think. I think of him all the time. Yeah,
(18:42):
it's amazing human being.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
Yes he was. He was eccentric and weird, and that's brilliant,
brilliant exactly the things that make them different instead of
the things that you could just say about anybody.
Speaker 5 (18:56):
He had a vicious sense of humor.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
He did, he did, Yes, he did.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
And am I remembering it correctly that you were primarily
brought in then when Lee and I were added to
the cast, right like you came in when there started
to become more kid actors.
Speaker 5 (19:11):
And another teacher in Nancy Flint.
Speaker 4 (19:14):
I actually remember your interview, your interview, the parents interviewed you,
and then they brought us in to meet you. And
I remember because we had that second room, because we
had the two trailers on the stage or in the stage. Yeah,
and you were you got the second room, and I
remember meeting you, sitting on the couch in there and
(19:34):
being like, oh, we have another teacher. We have a
new teacher, and then you did your magic, which was
as opposed to David's approach to the classroom was functionality.
There's a desk and a couch and hopefully popcorn that
he could eat and we'd figure it out, whereas you actually,
like you hung maps and you had quotes and pictures
(19:56):
on the wall, and your classroom immediately became like a
real freaking classroom. And I remember being like, oh, we
have boards and we could write poems on the wall,
and it was so it was like a completely different environment.
And then you'd go next door in a David's room
and still just be a couch on a desk.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
Could you explain to our dear listeners what a day
in your life was like on Boy Meets World, was
how was your what was your prep going into a
new week? What was your day to day like? Because
you were not just a teacher who had to make
sure we were doing our school schoolwork and we were learning.
You were also another set of eyes and ears on
set to keep us safe.
Speaker 5 (20:42):
Yes, well, we have two duties, welfare and teaching, and
the state empowers us to do that. We're necessary. Evil
producers have to hire us to keep them actually to
protect them from getting into trouble. But over the course
(21:04):
of the forty whatever two or three years of done
this in this industry, it's been a handful of times
where you have to step in and book kids from set.
One of those happened on Girl Meets World. But that's
another story. But I I am. I'm a person a ritual.
(21:24):
I I like to come early, I like to settle in.
I like to read my paper and have coffee and
as some people, you know, burn toast and yes and
still of the sour toast with you in the lab. Yeah,
so so you and uh and Joel Zwick used to
come to it and join me. So so that's you know,
(21:46):
that organization and kind of it's kind of a spiritual
prep of the classroom how I start my days, and
and and But with Boy Meets World, they were fax
machines on the desk and I get there Monday morning
and they'd be tests and worksheets and all of that.
Because at that time you were doing it mostly what
teachers were doing in their classrooms, not so much with
(22:11):
none such but a bit. That's great that that was
a good approach because it allowed us more leeway. Now
it's eight of every ten have just screens, and many
many I know you and writer take things. You take
it very seriously. I know what you've done with school
and your kids, but not a lot of people do that.
(22:35):
It's like an easy entry into the film industry. If
they don't have to go to school, and I see
kids in the fifth grade or don't know how to
add some trust or write, they're not being taught script anymore.
It's dumbing down. I think, yeah, yeah, that was well.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
That was one of the things that was so wonderful.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
I was not a good student for a long time
in middle school and then early in high school, and
then I met David. And one of the things that
David did for me my school. I went to a
very good public high school in my town in Connecticut,
but they weren't equipped to have a child actor to
where they're going to send a syllabus. They just didn't
(23:17):
know what to do. So essentially what they did with
David's help is they said, go pick college courses. Pick
whichever college courses you want, and we'll give you credit
for that. So David and I got to sit and
that was the first time in my life where I
had a teacher who was like, what do you want
to learn? What's gonna get you to that place of you.
(23:39):
You're not doing this because you have to be there.
You're doing this because you have a love of actually
learning it. What is that going to take? And of
course we have certain things we have to hit, but
other than the two or three things we have to hit,
what do you want to learn? And I remember he
and I going through the different catalogs and it was
like ooh anthropology, ooh archaeology course.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Oh, He's like, let's do it, let's do it.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
Let's and then we'd sit there And so it wasn't
that I was getting better grades, which I was. I
was like a C student when I met David and
an a student when I left.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
But what he taught me was the love of learning.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
That was the thing that was so amazing about it
was that it was it was on on me and
it was him him sitting there just going what what's
what's it gonna take? What's it gonna take? Because I
started with him going like, I don't have very good grades.
I don't like cracking books. It's just not my way.
I like to be the funny guy in class. And
he's like, all right, well, what do you want to learn.
It's like, well, I like mythology. Great, let's take a
(24:36):
big we're gonna do We're gonna do two courses in mythology.
Speaker 5 (24:38):
We're gonna do this.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
And by the end it was then me without him
going ooh, what do I want to learn next?
Speaker 1 (24:43):
What do I want to learn next?
Speaker 2 (24:44):
So that was what I took away from David almost
more than anything else, was he taught me the love
of learning and the best way for me to learn.
And that's something that I think, so that's what makes
a great teacher is is it's he left me with
more than the grid. He left me with just needing
to learn more and that's what he taught me more
(25:05):
than anything else. So very fortunate, well, oh god, hugely fortunate.
And that's what I take away from him more than
anything else.
Speaker 4 (25:13):
And I have to say, like that was a benefit,
you know, that sort of one on one attention is
like the benefit of being on a set and having
a studio teacher. Unfortunately, it wasn't always the case that
the studio teacher was was interested in that. You know,
my experiences before Boy Meets World were you know, it
(25:34):
was it was a mixed bag. There would be times
when there would be a studio teacher, big air quotes,
who you know, had maybe gone through some sort of
certification or whatever to be a welfare worker, but had
no actual educational experience or desire. And you know, you
made that joke about none such which was the name
(25:54):
of my high school. There was a time when I
was I was guest starring on some show and the
studio teacher was there found out that I was reading
a Stephen King book and took it away from me
because it was too adult, it's too grown up, and
I wasn't allowed to read, you know, a book that
was about whatever she deemed, you know. And then I
remember her having to fill out the form at the
(26:15):
end of the week or the day or whatever to
say like, you know what you know about what I
got done or or did our hours or whatever. And
she was like and writer, what's the name of your
high school? I was like, none, such, just like, writer,
what is the name of your high school? It's none, No,
it's not no, it's not. Come back and talk to
me when you when you've thought about what you're saying.
(26:37):
It was like they were just disciplinarians. They didn't care,
you know, it was just like get the hours in.
So you guys were just I mean, it was a
revelation I think for all your teachers.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
You were.
Speaker 5 (26:46):
Actually there was an educational theorist and scientists in the
late fifties named Robert Gardner, and he came up with
the theory of multiple intelligences, and there were eight He
came up with a now they're like twenty eight or
something different. Brilliance that people have that explain why you
(27:06):
shouldn't force people into narrow pathways, you know, not me,
So what I mean, yeah, okay, fine, but that's not
the brilliance that some people have to But that person
might be able to be on the basketball court and
see things in slow motion and be a Michael Jordan.
I mean that's brilliance. Who are danced to, who can
remember the body form and associated with the music and
(27:28):
do Swan Lake like nothing. I mean, that's a brilliance.
A bit. A guy who can fix a motorcycle in
his sleep is a brilliance that some of us don't have.
And send some kids who are adhd or or for
some reason just hate everything to do with school, like
(27:48):
you were fortunate to find, can can find ways of
learning that are exciting and wonderful. I had a student
and I'm still in touch on Planet of the Apes
who came in the first day. I went in and said, okay,
so he wouldn't mind me, and it ain't. Look where's
for your books? I don't have books? I said, well,
(28:11):
what are you doing? Well, I'm signed up in school
in the Midwest, and if I practice my guitar, I
get credit for music or math. If I figure the
tax on a thing in a restaurant, I get credit.
I said, okay, same same as your story with David.
Well what do you what do you want to learn?
And he get He told me and that's exactly. I
(28:32):
brought stuff in and we did that for three or
four months, except we continued it afterwards at coffee shops
in Los Angeles until he was kind of on his own.
Now he's exceptionally successful. It has several movies that he's written,
is touring with I remember him at Oakwood banging on
the pan. That's look. You might owner to find that
(28:53):
a little bit. He's he's playing classical and jazz in
major concerts all over Europe because he was left not
to feel he was less than because he didn't want
to take physics.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
Because you have a limited number of students, you were
really able to cater a lesson plan to them and
their interests and who they were as people, and you
could adjust it as as you got to know us
all better.
Speaker 5 (29:20):
I loved, I loved. I pulled Ben's leg through the
entire OJ trial said, look at him, look at his face.
He's innocent. You know it. Oh, he's so kissed up.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
I remember our political discussions watching the O. J.
Speaker 4 (29:40):
Simpson trial, and then also whenever, whenever it was an
election time, we would sit in the classroom and go
ballot measure by ballot measure and debate and have so
much discussion and so much argumentation. It was really, I
mean so formative for me.
Speaker 3 (29:57):
I was in the classroom during all all of the
Bill Clinton, Monica Lewinsky stuff. Yes, and you guys, you teachers,
were the first people to say to me, why do
you think just put it, putting it out there? Do
you think the president's personal life should be this big
(30:21):
of a topic of conversation. Does a person's personal life
actually affect the job that they do? And it was
such an engaging discussion about well, what does it what
does it say about character? How does character impact? Like
it was truly it was, and I had never even
thought of it. It was just like he lied under
oath and you know, the truth is the truth, what
(30:43):
the truth is or whatever the like. I remember those
were the things that were on the news. But the
discussions that we then got to have because of the news,
you guys were never you never failed to take a
real life situation and put it back into a learning
environment and a critical thinking and debate and good discussion.
(31:03):
And I would remember, you know, we'd be in the
middle of a heated discussion about something and we'd have
to go to set and you guys would be like,
we'll talk about this when you come back. Go go go, go,
go ahead, go ahead, go out to set, And we'd
run out to set, holding onto all those thoughts.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
What a fertile row to hoe now, yes exactly.
Speaker 4 (31:19):
It was also, I mean beyond beyond the sort of
like intellectual academic support. I mean I also just remember,
you know, a real emotional support too. Like I remember
one time we went to Children's hospital to visit termin
leal children, and uh, it was really hard, you know,
(31:40):
because because we were we were the we were like
the entertainment you know, the sort of make a wish
people from TV come in and meet these kids and
light up there their day, and then you have to leave,
you know, you have to walk out of their room
and know what they're facing. And I remember just coming
back to the classroom to you and David and like
trying to put on a good face, and and you
guys like you just put in your hand my shoulder
(32:00):
and being like that was that was really hard for you,
wasn't it? I just balling like and just breaking down.
I also remember I don't know if you remember this, Wesley,
but we got we got into it one time really intensely.
Somebody we knew was getting plastic surgery. Do you remember
this debate?
Speaker 5 (32:19):
Not me, No, it was somebody.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
There was somebody.
Speaker 4 (32:22):
It was somebody on our set was getting some work done.
And me, I remember met me at sixteen. I think
I was very anti any you know, I was in
my self righteous writer, you know, anti superficial.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
Yes, and that anytime, that'll anytime.
Speaker 4 (32:41):
And you, you know, you decided to play devil's advocate
with me like you did. But it was also very
very personal for me because I was very upset that
this person was getting work done and I felt like
they shouldn't and it was and I wanted to judge them,
and I was very judging and very self righteous, and
you know, all my hippie none such inspired. And you
(33:01):
came at me really hard, and I remember getting so
angry and and and you know, I think as opposed
to like the political discussions of the academic discussions. It
got it got so heated, and I stormed out, and
I like, I just lost it. And in a way
that a lot of adults, you know, you you, a
(33:22):
lot of adults would have just let it go at
that or whatever. But I remember you. You took the
time to write me a letter and apologize, and and
it affected me so much because I knew, I knew
that you were you were having an abstract discussion with me,
and that I let it get too personal, and yet
(33:43):
that it was okay that it was personal because you
were like you wrote a very personal let letter saying
I love you, I care about you. Your relationship is
more important than winning any debate. And that was such
a great life lesson to me that you know that
we could disagree, that we could get each other riled up,
but that you ultimately were there to support me as
a person and as a friend, and just it was
(34:04):
I can't thank you enough.
Speaker 5 (34:06):
Good, thank you.
Speaker 3 (34:19):
I would like to talk about something I remember about
you and want to know if you still do it.
Do you still do like forty five day hot lemon
and cayenne juice cleanses.
Speaker 5 (34:30):
Oh, that's why we're seeing just from my shoulders down.
Speaker 3 (34:37):
I remember Wesley coming in with like a jug, like
a two and a half liter jug of hot lemon
water with cayenne flakes, and being like, oh, what is that?
And he was like this is Oh, it's so good.
Speaker 4 (34:52):
You breakfast and dinner.
Speaker 3 (34:57):
The Master Fast, and it cleans out my limp fast system.
And boy, I'd be like, well, oh wow, so that's
just all your that's it. It's got honey and lemon
and cayenne, and that's that's all you're going to have. Like,
that's it. You're not you're not eating anything else. No,
it's so good for me mental clarity. How long are
you going to do this for? Thirty days? Forty five days,
maybe ninety days? Being like, sir, what.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
With you?
Speaker 5 (35:23):
I only ever did it for well, the first time
I did it.
Speaker 3 (35:27):
Was twenty eight days okay, and then.
Speaker 5 (35:29):
Then seven days once a year.
Speaker 3 (35:31):
Okay, then seven days once a year okay. You at
the time were like maybe I'm just looking at him
now and look at eighty years old.
Speaker 1 (35:38):
My god, he looks healthier than the three of us
put together.
Speaker 5 (35:41):
So I first did that. I worked on family matters
with the Erkle character for two years. Yes, Jilil is Juliel, yeah,
and his mother. I just worked with Darius's daughter anyway.
Julil's mother said, I said, what's that. You're carrying the
same thing urine. She said no, no, no, no. I said, well,
(36:05):
water and blah blah blah. So I said, I'll try
that with you. So two weeks go by and the
makeup lady came to me and said, I see your
carrying the thing that Gail Care carriers. I said, yeah,
we're in the middle of a vest and she said, no,
you're not. I saw her have a hamburger at lunch.
Speaker 1 (36:22):
She cheated on you.
Speaker 5 (36:24):
You cheated on the eight days until I hadn't. They
had an intervention and they said, you know right, you're
going to die now, Yeah, you have.
Speaker 3 (36:32):
To eat something bones I want it. I would miss
the smell of your sourdough burnt toast in the morning, Burt.
Well done toast is a is a favorite of my
family as well. But then also with you, like Burt,
the smell of burnt toast brings back more memories for
me than just about any other smell.
Speaker 4 (36:51):
Some hissing cockroachessroaches coffee.
Speaker 3 (36:56):
Do you remember you bought us Madagascin hissing cockroaches? Do
you still do that? Most good too, Wesley? Okay, do
you remember bringing us the Madagascan hissing cockroaches as a
class pet?
Speaker 5 (37:11):
Quickly?
Speaker 3 (37:12):
They sure did.
Speaker 4 (37:13):
When we left.
Speaker 5 (37:15):
Yes, cocks.
Speaker 1 (37:20):
Oh man.
Speaker 3 (37:22):
I just so appreciated that because although it was a
obviously left of center class pet, I appreciated that it
was yet another way you tried to bring as much
normalcy which sounds people are like, where are you going
with this cockroach lady? The idea of being able to
have a class pet that are just little things you
(37:44):
don't think about as a as a as a kid,
that like is a normal part of growing up. We
didn't really get to have. And so you were like, listen,
you can't have we can't have a bunny here, we
can't have a dog, we can't have these things, but
we can have a cage with these cockroaches that don't
require a whole lot of upkeep. And you guys are
(38:05):
going to be the only people ever to grow up
and tell the story about I had a pet madagascon
hissing cockroach.
Speaker 1 (38:10):
And were they named? Do they have names?
Speaker 4 (38:12):
Do you remember?
Speaker 1 (38:13):
They must have by the time we finished, exactly.
Speaker 4 (38:18):
Touch their back and they would hiss. That was their
whole thing. You could like pet you could hold them.
I wouldn't hold them, and I would.
Speaker 3 (38:26):
I held them. You could hold them and pet them
like this and they'd go. But that was it. That's
all they did. They had no other reques to deal
with them.
Speaker 5 (38:35):
They literally have more protein bird body weight than any
living creature they look through the ice age.
Speaker 1 (38:41):
I just liked it very quickly.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
You said something a while back which I the correlation
to me, I think needs to be said, because you
said that you were kind of a person who would
have your rituals in the morning. You'd come in in
the morning, you'd want to take some time to yourself,
you'd read your newspaper, you'd drink coffee, you'd eat the
same thing. And it has to be said, you know
who who did exactly the same thing, Bill Daniels, really
(39:04):
and I think the idea there's something so interesting that
the man who's so important for us for playing our teacher,
and then the man who was the teacher, you have
those same kind of rituals. Bill was the same way,
get there the same time every day, have to read
his paper the same time. He'd eat the same thing
in the morning, he'd have his cup of coffee. And
so I think it's very interesting that you you have
that similarity with mister.
Speaker 5 (39:25):
J I have no disrespect him because I love him.
I mean I worshiped him, I fall down before him.
But someone wrote his lines.
Speaker 2 (39:34):
Yeah, very true, very very true, very true.
Speaker 3 (39:41):
Touche sir.
Speaker 5 (39:44):
That's awesome.
Speaker 3 (39:45):
So you want to talk about something you were talking
about when you were in an in classroom teacher in
the South Bronx. But it also applies to being a
studio teacher. How hard is it to discipline a student
in an on set environment? How do you discipline? And
do you have any good Did you ever have to
(40:06):
discipline us?
Speaker 1 (40:07):
Yes, that's the story I wanted. Is there a discipline
story we can yet.
Speaker 5 (40:10):
I've never thought of any of it as discipline. I
thought of making reasonable requests and doing what I had
to do to make them happen. There was never any
You're going to sit in there until you stop thinking
that way. I don't remember that it happened. I don't
(40:30):
think we were all in it together.
Speaker 2 (40:32):
What's the strangest thing that's ever happened to you as
a studio teacher.
Speaker 5 (40:38):
I'll tell you something that I remembered in the process here,
and that was of when we first got KTLA. Each
of not will because you are a year or so older,
but first writer then Danielle and then Ben got their
driver's licenses, and as I remember, a short while after
(41:00):
Rider got his, that little c three got not just binged.
Something happened. Shortly after Danielle got her she hydroplaned on
the freeway, and shortly after them got his a little
bit of hubris he came ripping into his parking space
and took the side of the dam building off. So
one month or after each one.
Speaker 4 (41:22):
Now, I did not wreck my car. That was my
friend borrowed my car and wrecked it. Oh yes, total
totaled it. My buddy Sean wrecked my car.
Speaker 1 (41:30):
Sean crashed your car. I don't think I.
Speaker 4 (41:32):
Ever knew that. Oh yeah, he yeah. I let him
borrow it during like a lunch break at on Boy
and he totaled it in an intersection.
Speaker 5 (41:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (41:41):
Oh, you may not have totalled your car then, but
only one of us got multiple tickets this summer.
Speaker 1 (41:47):
So yeah, oops, very true.
Speaker 3 (41:53):
Another thing you were very instrumental, and something very important
in my life is you were very involved in my
relationship with Lance and then my subsequent Lance break up,
and you saw me and all of my all of
the times of my heartbreak through that relationship of him
being in town and then him leaving and then him
(42:14):
breaking up with me, and all of the confusion surrounding that,
And you and David both took me to museums and
would see me try to and every painting that would
mean something to me. Yes, and you took me to
the opera in a limo. Just you were You guys
were so involved in moments that were so clearly had
(42:37):
nothing to do with work. They were entirely with who like,
with with who I was as a person and forming
the most essential parts of me as as a human
and as a kid, and then as the adult that
I would become. And I want to know from your perspective,
because we've never talked about this, what do you remember
(42:59):
about that time my first love with Lance Bass?
Speaker 5 (43:03):
Well you I remember you had talked about having gone
somewhere mm hm and talked about the whole thing.
Speaker 3 (43:11):
Mm hmm. You can tell you can say everything Lance
and Lance has been on the podcast. We've talked about
it all.
Speaker 5 (43:16):
Let's just say that after your explanation of the whole evening,
I said, are you sure he's not gay? No? No, no, no, no.
Speaker 3 (43:27):
That is definitely not it. No, no, no, no, you guys
walked me through that heartbreak for sure, and.
Speaker 5 (43:35):
You know it's as a gay man. I've had to
walk students who I knew were struggling with that, not
just a few who were struggling with that and scared
and felt inferior and less than. I never look at
someone and say, well, you know, I know you're gay.
(43:55):
Your mother probably knows you're gay too, So big you
can't do that. What I do is I have a
little body of literature that I kind of sneak in
a book here, in a book there, and it's made
an enormous difference helping people with positive ways to deal
with it.
Speaker 3 (44:12):
Well, thank you for doing that, but also walking us
through those delicate moments of you know, uncertainty and questioning
yourself and questioning your worth and your friendships, and you know,
working with kid actors who are then when you're on
a show that's successful, they're also coming into their own
money and they're coming into fame and they're coming into stardom,
(44:35):
and that's changing the relationships they have with the friends
back home or at their regular school. It's meeting new friends,
and it's also you probably see them falling into occasionally
a crowd that maybe you want to protect them from.
Speaker 5 (44:48):
Yes, yeah, everybody thinks that, oh, they're in the film
television drug addicts. Well, yep, it's not true. I mean,
if you take the percentage of kids in our industry
who have a problem and stack it against the percentage
of the general public, it's minuscule. The difference being, of course,
(45:09):
that you're in the public eye. Yeah, someone writes about
it instantly, or you got a pimple on you know,
someone's thirty million people see it for you. So it's
a different ball of X. But it's But there are
so many, hundreds of thousands of kids who have gone
to do great things like write and teach in colleges
and produce stuff and direct stuff, and that's that's good.
Speaker 4 (45:33):
I'd love to hear a story about if you don't
have to name names, but I'd love to hear about
a time when you had to step in and either
shut down a production or pool a kid from a
situation in your role as a welfare worker.
Speaker 5 (45:48):
Well, the truth is, if you if you talk to
the right people and make the right moves, generally, it
doesn't get to that point because they involved they know
they have to come and talk to you. They know
if they want to do something wrong. Excep. I was
once working in northern California with Robert Conrad. I don't
know if you even remember him, sure, yeah, and he
his son was a seventeen year old son in the
(46:10):
movie and a younger girl, and they wanted the girl
to be in like a twenty foot tower with a
live bear. And they insisted that they were going to
do it, and I said, you're not going to do it.
I'm telling you you can't do it. They went ahead
anyway and did it, and so I had to file
a formal complaint and they were taken before the Labor
(46:33):
Commission and find very heavily. But so they can just
ford to have I mean in northern there is a
guy with a gun and a badge. In Los Angeles
come to a set and shut it down on behalf
of you to force the law. But normally, if you're
in the woods somewhere, it's your words or nothing. They
(46:55):
can go ahead and do it. You just have the
right to make sure that they're fined and held accountable.
I just think you have to be a team player
and be reasonable and when I teach the class every
year to the new studio. You just spend twenty three
years now coming in from the state. And the first
time I thought it, twenty three years ago, I said,
(47:15):
read my lips. Always do what's best for the children.
Always if that means it comes six o'clock and they
have to go, but they're in a scene. They've worked
hard all week and are doing it and going to
finish it in five minutes. You know, pull them to
give them the five minutes and let them do it,
because that's punishing the kid. You don't want to do that, right.
(47:38):
The powers that be had a big problem with that,
so I slipped that information and dog talk or something. Altogether.
Speaker 4 (47:45):
It makes such a difference because I was in multiple
situations where I was in another state, like I worked
in North Carolina, or the worst for me was when
I worked in Australia when I was eleven, and they
you know, they don't they didn't have state protection, they
didn't have a welfare worker, and the studio teacher in
Australia turned out to be a background actor who they
(48:07):
just gave a bump to to also be my studio teacher,
and they worked me so hard. I remember one night,
it was one in the morning. I had been working
I think for eighteen hours. I was cold, we were freezing,
and I just remember the director being like, come on, writer,
you know you can find that in a womb. Let's
(48:28):
do that.
Speaker 1 (48:28):
He was a British guy, let's do this.
Speaker 4 (48:30):
And I was like literally passing out, like falling asleep,
and I'm and what was the worst is like, you know,
obviously I was unhappy, But I think the hardest was
on my mom because she was in this position where
her son wants to be an actor. Her son's getting
to be in this you know show, so she doesn't
want to shut down the production. She felt so disempowered
(48:51):
and she's just the stage mom who's being an awful
stage mom if she stepped in, you know, so you
need that person. You need that somebody with that authority
who's says like, time is up. You've worked nine and
a half hours, that's it.
Speaker 5 (49:03):
And then you know, yeah, sometimes it has nothing to
do with eight and a half nine and a half hours.
It has something to do with what the gets tired
and not he's been three or four hours. Sorry, Yeah,
he worked once on mcaulay Culkin had flown back from
Australia and to do the American Comedy Awards at the
Shrine or somewhere like that, and he did them, you know,
(49:25):
it usually was great, and he came backstage and drooped tired.
They put him in a corral with you know, ropes,
and press was all around him shouting questions or something
and I and I looked at him and he listened
to question and went I said, Okay, time to go.
(49:47):
So I pulled him out and his mother walked up
to me and said, what are you doing sending him out?
You can't do them, I'm his mother. I said, well,
I'm sending them both out them but what I can do,
and that's what I'm doing because he's yeah, I never
worked in this time again. So they went off, and
the makeup ladies turned to me and said, oh my god,
thank you so much. Right, Yeah, everybody sees. Everybody on
(50:10):
the set sees what's going on. Yeah, and if you're unreasonable,
they see that. But if you're reasonable, even though it
might be hard for the company, they know that too,
their parents or their people.
Speaker 3 (50:22):
Another behind the scenes a non school related or set
related Danielle moment that you guys were involved in is
when I started smoking. Oh, David Combs called my mother
immediately and was like, I need to let you know
I've seen Danielle smoking a cigarette.
Speaker 5 (50:41):
Yes, we talked about that.
Speaker 3 (50:43):
Yes, So what is that situation like where you see
a kid and you know they're doing something wrong and
now you have to make the decision about involving their parents.
What is that like?
Speaker 5 (50:56):
Oh, well, uh, that's what you do. Yeah, that's not
a big deal. But personally, I take that very personally
because I am probably more anti smoking than well, except
for marijuana anti smoking anybody else. I hate it.
Speaker 1 (51:14):
Yeah, because you weren't doing it right me. No, No,
it's awful. No, I'm kidding. It's I'm glad I quit.
Speaker 5 (51:23):
Especially if you have children. I recall my parents smoking
three packs each day and I breathed the smoke until
I went to Bred School at thirteen. Wow.
Speaker 3 (51:31):
Sure, I remember David saying to me, Danielle, you are
this is the most addictive thing you could possibly be doing.
I know you think, oh, I just have an occasional
cigarette here and there, it's not really that big of
a deal. But it's not that this is the most
addictive thing you could do. I would rather you do heroin.
(51:52):
I remember saying to my mom when my mom, when
my mom was upset with me, and she was like,
this is just it's terrible for you. And I know
that you think you can do it occasionally, but it's
most so addicting. And I said, I know, David said
he'd David said he'd rather I do heroin, and she goes,
I do not feel the same way. I don't think
that was a very smart thing to say. Well, Wesley
(52:14):
thirty years later, while looking at us all as a
weirdo adult, Oh no.
Speaker 5 (52:20):
You're just wonderful and every one of you, it's amazing.
Speaker 3 (52:25):
Do you keep in touch with all of your students
the way you do with us? I feel like girl
me throlled obviously brought us closer back together, but I
never really felt like you were out of our lives.
I feel like because you were such you knew we
had such a strong connection and you were so important
to us. Are you able to do this with a
lot of your students, to stay in their lives and
(52:45):
stay such an important authority figure in their lives.
Speaker 5 (52:48):
Well, I suppose I've kept in touch with a lot
of students, but none as meaningful as you guys. That
was just one of the best times of my life
day m and I do keep in touch with with
those kids and Corey and and Peyton and but it's
(53:11):
not the same. This is the show for me. Yeah,
just kissing your butts but that way.
Speaker 4 (53:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (53:21):
Well, Leslie, you are just such an important person in
our lives and we can't thank you enough for being
here with us and for existing. We love you so much,
and thank you very much for asking me yes, and
thank you for bringing a little bit of the David
Combe's spirit with you and talking about us, talking about
(53:44):
him with us. Losing him was really it was very
emotional for all of us, and we know thank you.
You were also the one who told.
Speaker 5 (53:53):
Us, okay, all right, love you, thank you all.
Speaker 3 (53:59):
Soon I was I, oh boy, you almost made it
almost you.
Speaker 2 (54:06):
Almost made her like fifty eight minutes in writer made
it about forty.
Speaker 1 (54:09):
You made it like fifty eight. And I think I
cried in nineteen seventy two.
Speaker 3 (54:13):
Or somebody, Oh man, what a man, what a what
a We've talked so much about how so many of
our memories. When people ask us about our behind the
scenes memories. So many of them happened in the classroom.
For writer and I who spent so much time in
the classroom, so many of yours will happen on the
golf course or you know, playing with Steve Hayfer and
(54:34):
doing all that stuff, because you had a more adult
existence on set. But so many of my memories and
feelings about boy Mead's world involve Wesley and David because
that's just where I was.
Speaker 4 (54:46):
You know, I don't write anything without thinking of Wesley
and David, because you know, I would write papers and
then they would give me notes, and then we would
revise together oftentime. So I would sit in the room
and I'd be like writing on my third draft of
an essay for something. And there are vocabulary words that
(55:08):
I only know because they gave them to me, and
or phrases, you know, or certain uses of turns of phrase,
and so every day of my life I'm using that.
I mean, that's I write for a living, That's all
I'm doing, and so I'm always in a conversation with Wesley.
Speaker 3 (55:23):
And David's in your head.
Speaker 1 (55:25):
Yeah, there's also just something so.
Speaker 2 (55:30):
Beautifully ironic about how important a teacher is in your
life when our entire show was about how important a
teacher is in your life.
Speaker 1 (55:38):
Yeah, so real life, mister Phoene's very cool.
Speaker 3 (55:43):
Yeah. Well, thank you all for joining us for this
episode of Pod Meets Tears. As always, you can follow
us on Instagram Pod Meets World Show. You can send
us your emails pod meets World Show at gmail dot com,
and we have merch.
Speaker 1 (56:01):
I got nothing.
Speaker 3 (56:02):
Pod Meets Worldshow dot com. Uh will send us out.
Speaker 2 (56:07):
Actually, I think since this is Wesley, one of you
should send us out.
Speaker 3 (56:11):
Okay, writer, you want to do it? No, Okay, I'll
do it. We love you all, pod dismissed. Pod Meets
World is an iHeart podcast produced and hosted by Danielle Fischel,
Wilfredell and Writer Strong Executive producers Jensen Karp and Amy Sugarman.
Executive in charge of production, Danielle Romo, producer and editor,
(56:33):
Tara Suebachsch producer, Maddie Moore, engineer and Boy Meets World
superfan Easton Allen. Our theme song is by Kyle Morton
of Typhoon. Follow us on Instagram at Pod meets World
Show or email us at Pod Meets World Show at
gmail dot com. A Wesley
Hosts And Creators
Will Friedle
Danielle Fishel
Rider Strong
Popular Podcasts
40s and Free Agents: NFL Draft Season
Daniel Jeremiah of Move the Sticks and Gregg Rosenthal of NFL Daily join forces to break down every team's needs this offseason.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Bobby Bones Show
Listen to 'The Bobby Bones Show' by downloading the daily full replay.