June 16, 2021 • 17 mins
Let's Talk - Cobra Kai
Episode 58: Buffalo Wild Wings - Johnny Lawrence (2015)
Jason Connell and Sal Rodriguez break down the Buffalo Wild Wings "Karate" commercial featuring Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka).
Original Episode: S03E17
Recorded: 06-03-21
Studio: Just Curious Media
https://www.JustCuriousMedia.com/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jason Connell (07:27:20):
Welcome to Just curious media. This is let's
talk Cobra Kai. I'm JasonConnell.
Sal Rodriguez (07:27:24):
And I'm Sal Rodriguez.
Jason Connell (07:27:26):
All right, Sal, we are back for a special
episode.
Sal Rodriguez (07:27:32):
Yeah. And this is something that's kind of been on
the back burner for a whilebecause this was on our radar a
while ago.
Jason Connell (07:27:38):
It was it was definitely one and then we led
up to season three of the actualshow Cobra Kai and then got
overwhelmed with that. So thespecial episodes just stopped
being created. And now is thetime and today we are covering
Buffalo Wild Wings JohnnyLawrence 2015.
Sal Rodriguez (07:27:59):
Nice. And I've been to Buffalo Wild Wings many
a time in particularly kind ofcoincidentally, to watch UFC pay
per view. So I am one of thoseguys, either at the bar at a
table watching UFC pay per viewat a Buffalo Wild Wings or
similar.
Jason Connell (07:28:14):
So it's like the commercials you look just like
you fit right in.
Sal Rodriguez (07:28:16):
I would fit right in but I would be okay with what
was on the screen, which we'llget to in a second.
Jason Connell (07:28:21):
Yeah, it's funny.
I have never been to a BuffaloWild Wings. But just today, I
was running an errand and Ipassed one and I nearly pulled
over and sent you a photo. Likeokay, I know we're covering this
tonight. There is a Buffalo WildWings. Now I have been to yard
house. And of course a localfavorite of mine, which is big
wings. Yes. Yes. Which is verysimilar. I would say you could
(07:28:45):
be blindfolded and without anylogos or anything representing
the brand. You wouldn't reallyknow the difference.
Sal Rodriguez (07:28:53):
Yeah, they're both wings. I just realized that
Buffalo Wild Wings are bigwings. It's all about the wings
either place. So these aredefinitely places for the wings,
lovers.
Jason Connell (07:29:02):
Well on these types of places have the TV's
just lined up above the bar andall over the place and sounds
everywhere. So yeah, it's verysimilar. But today this episode
is at Buffalo Wild Wings becausethey put the commercial out. And
the official name of the episodebecause I saw the website that
talked about the actualcommercial. And it was Buffalo
(07:29:24):
Wild Wings TV commercial, karatefeaturing Steve Rana zeusie.
Now, so if this had been filmedmore recently, like since Cobra
Kai was out there, William Zabkawould be getting first billing.
But instead this comic got itnow. Are you familiar with
Steve?
Sal Rodriguez (07:29:44):
Well, I'll tell you what, in years past when I
was doing stand up. And then Isaw this commercial here that
we're gonna be talking about. Ithought that guy looked
familiar. The guy on the left,there's a white guy on the left
a black guy on the right, andthe white guy. I think he looked
very familiar. So I may have runinto him in years past who stand
up comedy, but I didn't know hisname. And I tried to look for
these two guys names or even thewaitress, anybody. I couldn't
get anybody's names anywhere.
Jason Connell (07:30:05):
You should have asked me. So Steve was actually
an Paul Blart Mall Copdefinitely recognized him from
that. He was on a TV show calledThe League, which is a lot of
fun. And he was also in anepisode of Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Wow, nice, quite a chef and2017. So
Sal Rodriguez (07:30:25):
see, that sounds familiar to. And this is also
sort of a campaign, you know,because there's a similar
commercial with Zabka notinvolved. Same two guys. So it's
like this commercial we'retalking about today was one of a
few. Well, yes to heroes.
They're enjoying Buffalo WildWings.
Jason Connell (07:30:39):
Yes. And the other guy was Courtney Richards.
And he's also really good inthis commercial. And he's in
game shakers, Alex Inc, which isactually about a podcast company
being formed and run and itstarts Zach Braff as well. And
he's in the show calledinsecure, which is currently
running. So two actors workingactors. Now the server had no
(07:31:02):
information on her on thewebsite, so I was unlucky there.
Sal Rodriguez (07:31:06):
That's the thing that Jason about commercials.
It's different than a TV show ora movie. Any one of us can
always turn to IMDb to findnames and information about
people in TVs and movies. Whenit comes to commercials. You see
a commercial, you might like thecommercial, you might like
somebody on the commercial, butthen it may be difficult to find
out who these people are. Sokudos to you for finding out who
our two main leads
Jason Connell (07:31:24):
are. Yeah, I lucked into it. Yeah. Especially
a commercial that's back in2015. Sure, yeah. Six years old.
There's not a lot of stuff onthere. There's a lot of people
that posted the commercial, butnot a lot of backstory. So now
let's get into the commercialitself. We open at a packed
Buffalo Wild Wings. And we seetwo guys, I'd say late 20s,
(07:31:44):
early 30s at a table full offood. And Sal, I love that one
guy's got a beer. Yeah. And theother guy's got a soda with a
perfectly placed Pepsi logo. Oh,yeah. Oh, yeah. As the server
walks by, and she's carryingmore food and a Pepsi for
another table, cross promotion,a lot of product placement going
(07:32:05):
on there. Sure. So what iscalled them Steven coordinates
so why don't you take it awaywith a dialogue.
Sal Rodriguez (07:32:11):
Okay, so here we are at a typical fun evening out
at Buffalo Wild Wings. Stevesays to the waitress, excuse me,
um, do you realize thistelevisions on a channel with
men and silk rope slapping eachother. And then we cut to see
the screen. And we have two guysdoing karate and I couldn't tell
maybe you can tell Jason wherethey sparring and look like
maybe it was more of a sparringmatch than a competitive match.
Jason Connell (07:32:34):
Yeah, it also looked like it might have been
staged for the commercialbecause these two guys are just
kind of walking around. Theyhave keys on they have black
belts, but it's a tight room.
You're just seeing like acorner. Yeah. And there's no
fans. It's more like aninstructional. I don't know if
it was something that they alsojust shot themselves and put in
so they could own the rights toit. But yeah, not a lot of
(07:32:55):
action. Not a lot of productionvalue, but it's karate. You can
see it but you're in and outvery quickly.
Sal Rodriguez (07:33:03):
Yeah. So then Steve continues. He says to the
waitress, maybe we could justswitch it to where the athletes
are wearing shoes.
Jason Connell (07:33:11):
Now, this of course, summons a super sweaty
somebody who's been watchingthis channel from a barstool
style at that
Sal Rodriguez (07:33:21):
moment reacting to what Steve says William
Zabka. In Black Cobra Kai gheeare Johnny Lawrence as Johnny
Lawrence. Yes. It's WilliamZabka. As Johnny Lawrence.
Absolutely. Yeah, I was wrappedup in him being sweaty. Why is
he sweaty? sitting at the bar,watching the guys doing karate.
But yeah, he's dripping insweat. He's got a headband on.
(07:33:43):
He turns around, and he looksover at the guys. And the
waitress says to Johnny, and shepoints at these two guys, Steven
Courtney. This gentleman andthis gentleman want to know if
we can change the channel. Andthen of course, Courtney says, I
love karate. And he points tothe guy on the left, which is
Steve. He doesn't like karate.
And then of course, Steve comesback with what? No me. And now
we cut back to Johnny and he'sstanding. You don't like karate?
(07:34:05):
And then Courtney says, No, Ilove it. And then Steve says,
Are you kidding? I've beentelling you how much I want to
join a dojo. And then John isjust leering at them. And then
Steve says, Could you recommenda dojo?
Jason Connell (07:34:19):
That's a great line, by the way.
Sal Rodriguez (07:34:21):
Yeah, so Johnny just totally intimidates these
two guys, standing there,sweating. The way that this was
shot. I think it's highlypossible and probable that
William Zabka was not even inthe same room as these two guys
in the waitress, because there'snever a shot with all of them.
It goes from the two guys in thewaitress back to William Zabka.
Back to the two guys in thewaitress back to William Zabka.
Jason Connell (07:34:42):
You're absolutely right. I'm not sure if William
Zabka as Johnny Lawrence workedwith or even met his co stars,
because there was no master shotwith all of them in frame. And
the way it was done like yeah,Johnny only got off the
barstool, looked ahead, lookedin rage had his line. And that
was it. And so I should alsopoint out that he was not only
(07:35:03):
wearing a black gi he had thecut off arms. You mentioned the
bandana. And there was like ared logo, but it sure as heck
wasn't Cobra Kai was too muted,or I couldn't tell what it was.
But so he looks really
Sal Rodriguez (07:35:16):
young. Yeah, and this is only six years ago. Not
to say
Jason Connell (07:35:19):
he looks old now.
But I wouldn't have been shockedat this would have been filmed
in 2010 or sooner. It justlooked like wow, he was just
stepping out of Karate Kid to. Imean, who knows? This could have
been shot with him in it. Andwhat on hold forever. They
didn't know what to do with it.
And I used his insert shots anda commercial built to commercial
(07:35:40):
rounded. I don't know, I'mspeculating here. But it did
seem strange that he did notinteract with them.
Sal Rodriguez (07:35:46):
Well, this is one of those things where it could
have been the commercial wasgonna go another way. Right?
They had to secure WilliamZabka. And then once they can
secure Williams aqua, you know,because let's go back to the
flagship Cobra Kai itself.
Apparently the creators of CobraKai teased ally for being on the
show before they actuallysecured the actress Elizabeth
Shue to be on the show. So theywere just hopeful. So this is
(07:36:08):
one of those things where maybethey just shot this. And then
eventually they actually gothim.
Jason Connell (07:36:16):
So let's go back to the time 2015 Why would
William Zabka even want to do acommercial to reprise the role
of Johnny Lawrence now I know hedid the no marking slipped a leg
video, but he wrote and directedthat and work with the group. So
I don't know unless it was a bigpayday. But it wasn't like he
was going around trying to dothis all the time, although he
did pop up and How I Met YourMother and you know, so he was
(07:36:38):
never against it. But it wasn'tlike his only thing. That's why
I just was like, Yeah, I wonderhow this even came about. I
mean, it's great. He really isgood in the role. I love that
he's sweaty. I love that he's ata Buffalo Wild Wings staring at
the one TV that's has karate,which also brings up another
point a sidebar to that. Howcome Steve and Courtney couldn't
(07:36:59):
just look at another TV. I mean,there's only like 20 or 30 or 40
TVs in there. They get his pantheir vision left or right but
they want to karate off becausethey're making fun of it which
is too funny to me.
Sal Rodriguez (07:37:12):
Well, that was their main TV in there. I know.
It was definitely their main butBut hang on. I did want to
mention that to Jason because Iwas a little confused when I
looked up at all the otherschool means I saw baseball
happening. I saw a sport thatlooked like soccer. But if I'm
not mistaken, was it somethingdifferent? Or was it baseball on
the screens and soccer,
Jason Connell (07:37:29):
it was a lot of random sports, the something
I've learned, in my time ofworking in the biz, is you're
not always going to see theactual thing. You've got a
license that that's why I thinkthat the karate footage, that
mini shot of a two guys wasprobably shot by the production
team. In fact, as you pull awayand see that it almost looks
like it's superimposed on theTV, that particular thing. So I
(07:37:54):
don't know, I could be wrong,but I'm speculating again. But a
lot of times, you have tolicense all that stuff. So
you're not gonna do a wide shotfrom a Buffalo Wild Wings
commercial and see an NFL gameor an NBA game. In fact, I've
even read an incredible articlerecently about someone that used
to license and maybe still doesUSFL footage for movies and TV
(07:38:17):
that need football, and USFL isthe defunct United States
Football League that tried tobattle the NFL last. It was like
three seasons, and it's wentunder, and they still have all
that footage, all those games,and they license it very cheap.
I'll be watching a show or amovie. And sure enough,
sometimes they'll pay into thetelevision, that's USFL footage,
(07:38:38):
or sometimes it's CFL, theCanadian Football League, it's
just so much cheaper. So some ofthat stuff you were seeing was
probably a lot of obscuresports. I tried to zoom in and
we're seeing some weird things.
But it was a mishmash of thingson the screens for sure.
Sal Rodriguez (07:38:53):
Okay, so one of the things I definitely
identified as baseball, I think,unless it was cricket, but it
could have been like baseball.
The other ones I was certain wassoccer. But then I thought it
could be lacrosse or mayberugby. I couldn't make it out
because at one point I got couldhave swore it was throwing a
ball with his hand into the net,which obviously wouldn't be
soccer. Right. But at firstglance looked like soccer. But
(07:39:13):
you're right. It could have beenanything. It could have been
anything.
Jason Connell (07:39:17):
Yeah, I found that commercial really funny,
Sal their reactions and we kindof just glossed over that. But I
want to talk about a little bit.
Stephen Courtney and the serverfor that matter are all
wonderful in their roles, thenwhy they're just sitting there.
And Steve those Courtney underthe bus and you know, basically
they didn't like karate,Courtney was very quick to say,
oh, no, no, no, I love it. Imean, you got to see it. I
(07:39:39):
highly recommend to go onlineand look it up. It's funny. And
Steve's lying the paws and thewide shot of him. Like, could
you recommend a good dojo? Thatwas really well delivered style.
It made me laugh out loud. Butwhat I thought was missing was
after we cut away and because wecut away to a typical
commercial. And it's likeBuffalo Wild Wings, wings, beer
(07:40:00):
sports, I was hoping there waslike an end tag, like one more
joke, you know, like a button atthe end, like either Johnny's
now training them and they'reall in GIS, or he's sweeping the
lake, or just one more thing atthe end could have pushed it
over the top, which again, makesme think they definitely didn't
shoot this together. And like Isaid, William Zabka. could have
(07:40:23):
shot it years prior for all No,
Sal Rodriguez (07:40:28):
no, it would have been funny at the end. If maybe
Williams Africa walk over totheir table, start drinking
their beer. Yeah, you know,right in front of them that
would have been finishing
Jason Connell (07:40:34):
whatever they did would have been funny. I would
have trusted them to find thehumor based on what I'd seen.
But yeah, because it quicklythis ended. I thought, Oh, that
was a missed opportunity. We'reused to seeing that one more
thing. Yes. But
Sal Rodriguez (07:40:45):
thank you, Jason, for giving props to commercial
actors. Because, you know, assomeone who's done a lot of
commercials myself, a lot ofpeople don't take commercial
acting seriously. In fact, I'veheard some actors downright say
that commercial acting is notrelaxing. But as someone who's
done commercials, I will tellyou it is absolutely acting.
Obviously, it's not Shakespeare,but it's acting nonetheless. And
(07:41:05):
yeah, these guys do a great jobon this commercial. Absolutely.
Jason Connell (07:41:08):
Well, I'm glad you brought that up. So because
my last note is one of yourcommercials. Oh, as I was
watching this, it just popped upin my head. I thought, wow, I
saw commercial of you one timethat you were if I'm not
mistaken. an NBA fan. I think itwas the Spurs. Yeah. And I
remember watch. I got Oh, Ihadn't seen you in a while
(07:41:29):
because the festivals had ended.
And this is pre just curiousmedia. So describe that
commercial to us.
Sal Rodriguez (07:41:36):
That was a campaign we shot three of them.
That was a camp right? When theSan Antonio Spurs were in the
playoffs? Yeah. And this is abittersweet memory because we
shot three commercials for theSan Antonio Spurs where I played
the straight man, sort of thegoofy friend reacting to the
crazy friend. So my friend wasthe crazy guy doing outlandish
stuff, like doing the t shirtcannon in his living room and
(07:41:58):
stuff like that. And I'm justsitting there reacting to him.
So I'm the Reaction friend. Butwhat was going to happen? What
we were promised was if the SanAntonio Spurs were going to win
that season, they were going tofly us out to San Antonio, they
were going to put us up in thestands. They were going to shoot
more commercials it was going tobe a larger campaign. So believe
me even though I'm not thebiggest basketball fan, I kept
thinking please San AntonioSpurs you Please go all the way.
(07:42:21):
No, unfortunately, they did not.
So the campaign ended. But yeah,that was definitely one of my
earliest commercials as a goofyfan reacting to the crazy fan
for the San Antonio Spurs.
Jason Connell (07:42:31):
Love it. Well, I really enjoyed them. Did you get
to keep the uniform?
Sal Rodriguez (07:42:35):
No, no, no, no.
Yeah, I should have kept that.
You may be able to find it. Butit's been so long. It's been
several years now
Jason Connell (07:42:43):
are very good.
And anyway, lots of fun. It'sjust a one off guys. We only had
the one commercial. It wasrandom. It was fun. It's worth
seen. Of course, I should sayWilliam Zabka. nails it. He
hadn't done Johnny Lawrence in awhile. He definitely looked
apart. And he looked mean andmenacing at it. He was really
good. I just wanted to see moreof him. In fact, as you said,
(07:43:03):
Steven Courtney went on to domany more. I would have liked to
seen Johnny do some more thing.
So we're going to be on thehunt. We're looking for more. I
mean, this did come on our radarlast year, but most recently a
fan exposed another one to us sowe have many more of these fun
nuggets these fun specialepisodes lining up and getting
(07:43:26):
ready to record and publish andshare with you
Sal Rodriguez (07:43:28):
oh yeah, just when I thought we had reached
the end of the line for thespecial episodes like oh what
we've seen all the shows thatMacho has been on we've seen all
the shows that because nothere's a whole lot more.
There's the Karate Kid and nowCobra Kai is so far reaching as
a matter of fact while we'retalking brand new Cobra Kai
action figures and I sayspecifically Cobra Kai because
(07:43:50):
it's action figures were KarateKid. These to my knowledge are
the first Cobra Kai actionfigures we got a Johnny
Lawrence, a Daniel Russo and asense a crease. It's a three
pack I believe it is the 2021Comic Con exclusive by Diamond
Select so look out for that.
We're not sponsored by DiamondSelect but hey, Cobra Kai action
figures who wouldn't want themif you're a fan? So be sure to
(07:44:11):
check those out. There'll becoming to your toy retailer at
some point.
Jason Connell (07:44:17):
Absolutely. So thank you so much for listening
and please be sure to subscribeto Let's Talk Cobra Kai wherever
you get your podcast. You canalso really help us by giving
the show a five star rating onApple podcast
Sal Rodriguez (07:44:28):
and for all you listeners that enjoy sharing
your thoughts you can leave us areview on Apple podcasts, send
us a direct message or post acomment on our social media
which is at let's talk CobraKai, as well as at just curious
media.
Jason Connell (07:44:41):
If you're a dedicated listener of Let's Talk
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We also highly recommendchecking out our other podcast
and visiting just curiousmedia.com No Mercy
Welcome to Just curious media. This is let's
talk Cobra Kai. I'm JasonConnell.
Sal Rodriguez (07:27:24):
And I'm Sal Rodriguez.
Jason Connell (07:27:26):
All right, Sal, we are back for a special
episode.
Sal Rodriguez (07:27:32):
Yeah. And this is something that's kind of been on
the back burner for a whilebecause this was on our radar a
while ago.
Jason Connell (07:27:38):
It was it was definitely one and then we led
up to season three of the actualshow Cobra Kai and then got
overwhelmed with that. So thespecial episodes just stopped
being created. And now is thetime and today we are covering
Buffalo Wild Wings JohnnyLawrence 2015.
Sal Rodriguez (07:27:59):
Nice. And I've been to Buffalo Wild Wings many
a time in particularly kind ofcoincidentally, to watch UFC pay
per view. So I am one of thoseguys, either at the bar at a
table watching UFC pay per viewat a Buffalo Wild Wings or
similar.
Jason Connell (07:28:14):
So it's like the commercials you look just like
you fit right in.
Sal Rodriguez (07:28:16):
I would fit right in but I would be okay with what
was on the screen, which we'llget to in a second.
Jason Connell (07:28:21):
Yeah, it's funny.
I have never been to a BuffaloWild Wings. But just today, I
was running an errand and Ipassed one and I nearly pulled
over and sent you a photo. Likeokay, I know we're covering this
tonight. There is a Buffalo WildWings. Now I have been to yard
house. And of course a localfavorite of mine, which is big
wings. Yes. Yes. Which is verysimilar. I would say you could
(07:28:45):
be blindfolded and without anylogos or anything representing
the brand. You wouldn't reallyknow the difference.
Sal Rodriguez (07:28:53):
Yeah, they're both wings. I just realized that
Buffalo Wild Wings are bigwings. It's all about the wings
either place. So these aredefinitely places for the wings,
lovers.
Jason Connell (07:29:02):
Well on these types of places have the TV's
just lined up above the bar andall over the place and sounds
everywhere. So yeah, it's verysimilar. But today this episode
is at Buffalo Wild Wings becausethey put the commercial out. And
the official name of the episodebecause I saw the website that
talked about the actualcommercial. And it was Buffalo
(07:29:24):
Wild Wings TV commercial, karatefeaturing Steve Rana zeusie.
Now, so if this had been filmedmore recently, like since Cobra
Kai was out there, William Zabkawould be getting first billing.
But instead this comic got itnow. Are you familiar with
Steve?
Sal Rodriguez (07:29:44):
Well, I'll tell you what, in years past when I
was doing stand up. And then Isaw this commercial here that
we're gonna be talking about. Ithought that guy looked
familiar. The guy on the left,there's a white guy on the left
a black guy on the right, andthe white guy. I think he looked
very familiar. So I may have runinto him in years past who stand
up comedy, but I didn't know hisname. And I tried to look for
these two guys names or even thewaitress, anybody. I couldn't
get anybody's names anywhere.
Jason Connell (07:30:05):
You should have asked me. So Steve was actually
an Paul Blart Mall Copdefinitely recognized him from
that. He was on a TV show calledThe League, which is a lot of
fun. And he was also in anepisode of Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Wow, nice, quite a chef and2017. So
Sal Rodriguez (07:30:25):
see, that sounds familiar to. And this is also
sort of a campaign, you know,because there's a similar
commercial with Zabka notinvolved. Same two guys. So it's
like this commercial we'retalking about today was one of a
few. Well, yes to heroes.
They're enjoying Buffalo WildWings.
Jason Connell (07:30:39):
Yes. And the other guy was Courtney Richards.
And he's also really good inthis commercial. And he's in
game shakers, Alex Inc, which isactually about a podcast company
being formed and run and itstarts Zach Braff as well. And
he's in the show calledinsecure, which is currently
running. So two actors workingactors. Now the server had no
(07:31:02):
information on her on thewebsite, so I was unlucky there.
Sal Rodriguez (07:31:06):
That's the thing that Jason about commercials.
It's different than a TV show ora movie. Any one of us can
always turn to IMDb to findnames and information about
people in TVs and movies. Whenit comes to commercials. You see
a commercial, you might like thecommercial, you might like
somebody on the commercial, butthen it may be difficult to find
out who these people are. Sokudos to you for finding out who
our two main leads
Jason Connell (07:31:24):
are. Yeah, I lucked into it. Yeah. Especially
a commercial that's back in2015. Sure, yeah. Six years old.
There's not a lot of stuff onthere. There's a lot of people
that posted the commercial, butnot a lot of backstory. So now
let's get into the commercialitself. We open at a packed
Buffalo Wild Wings. And we seetwo guys, I'd say late 20s,
(07:31:44):
early 30s at a table full offood. And Sal, I love that one
guy's got a beer. Yeah. And theother guy's got a soda with a
perfectly placed Pepsi logo. Oh,yeah. Oh, yeah. As the server
walks by, and she's carryingmore food and a Pepsi for
another table, cross promotion,a lot of product placement going
(07:32:05):
on there. Sure. So what iscalled them Steven coordinates
so why don't you take it awaywith a dialogue.
Sal Rodriguez (07:32:11):
Okay, so here we are at a typical fun evening out
at Buffalo Wild Wings. Stevesays to the waitress, excuse me,
um, do you realize thistelevisions on a channel with
men and silk rope slapping eachother. And then we cut to see
the screen. And we have two guysdoing karate and I couldn't tell
maybe you can tell Jason wherethey sparring and look like
maybe it was more of a sparringmatch than a competitive match.
Jason Connell (07:32:34):
Yeah, it also looked like it might have been
staged for the commercialbecause these two guys are just
kind of walking around. Theyhave keys on they have black
belts, but it's a tight room.
You're just seeing like acorner. Yeah. And there's no
fans. It's more like aninstructional. I don't know if
it was something that they alsojust shot themselves and put in
so they could own the rights toit. But yeah, not a lot of
(07:32:55):
action. Not a lot of productionvalue, but it's karate. You can
see it but you're in and outvery quickly.
Sal Rodriguez (07:33:03):
Yeah. So then Steve continues. He says to the
waitress, maybe we could justswitch it to where the athletes
are wearing shoes.
Jason Connell (07:33:11):
Now, this of course, summons a super sweaty
somebody who's been watchingthis channel from a barstool
style at that
Sal Rodriguez (07:33:21):
moment reacting to what Steve says William
Zabka. In Black Cobra Kai gheeare Johnny Lawrence as Johnny
Lawrence. Yes. It's WilliamZabka. As Johnny Lawrence.
Absolutely. Yeah, I was wrappedup in him being sweaty. Why is
he sweaty? sitting at the bar,watching the guys doing karate.
But yeah, he's dripping insweat. He's got a headband on.
(07:33:43):
He turns around, and he looksover at the guys. And the
waitress says to Johnny, and shepoints at these two guys, Steven
Courtney. This gentleman andthis gentleman want to know if
we can change the channel. Andthen of course, Courtney says, I
love karate. And he points tothe guy on the left, which is
Steve. He doesn't like karate.
And then of course, Steve comesback with what? No me. And now
we cut back to Johnny and he'sstanding. You don't like karate?
(07:34:05):
And then Courtney says, No, Ilove it. And then Steve says,
Are you kidding? I've beentelling you how much I want to
join a dojo. And then John isjust leering at them. And then
Steve says, Could you recommenda dojo?
Jason Connell (07:34:19):
That's a great line, by the way.
Sal Rodriguez (07:34:21):
Yeah, so Johnny just totally intimidates these
two guys, standing there,sweating. The way that this was
shot. I think it's highlypossible and probable that
William Zabka was not even inthe same room as these two guys
in the waitress, because there'snever a shot with all of them.
It goes from the two guys in thewaitress back to William Zabka.
Back to the two guys in thewaitress back to William Zabka.
Jason Connell (07:34:42):
You're absolutely right. I'm not sure if William
Zabka as Johnny Lawrence workedwith or even met his co stars,
because there was no master shotwith all of them in frame. And
the way it was done like yeah,Johnny only got off the
barstool, looked ahead, lookedin rage had his line. And that
was it. And so I should alsopoint out that he was not only
(07:35:03):
wearing a black gi he had thecut off arms. You mentioned the
bandana. And there was like ared logo, but it sure as heck
wasn't Cobra Kai was too muted,or I couldn't tell what it was.
But so he looks really
Sal Rodriguez (07:35:16):
young. Yeah, and this is only six years ago. Not
to say
Jason Connell (07:35:19):
he looks old now.
But I wouldn't have been shockedat this would have been filmed
in 2010 or sooner. It justlooked like wow, he was just
stepping out of Karate Kid to. Imean, who knows? This could have
been shot with him in it. Andwhat on hold forever. They
didn't know what to do with it.
And I used his insert shots anda commercial built to commercial
(07:35:40):
rounded. I don't know, I'mspeculating here. But it did
seem strange that he did notinteract with them.
Sal Rodriguez (07:35:46):
Well, this is one of those things where it could
have been the commercial wasgonna go another way. Right?
They had to secure WilliamZabka. And then once they can
secure Williams aqua, you know,because let's go back to the
flagship Cobra Kai itself.
Apparently the creators of CobraKai teased ally for being on the
show before they actuallysecured the actress Elizabeth
Shue to be on the show. So theywere just hopeful. So this is
(07:36:08):
one of those things where maybethey just shot this. And then
eventually they actually gothim.
Jason Connell (07:36:16):
So let's go back to the time 2015 Why would
William Zabka even want to do acommercial to reprise the role
of Johnny Lawrence now I know hedid the no marking slipped a leg
video, but he wrote and directedthat and work with the group. So
I don't know unless it was a bigpayday. But it wasn't like he
was going around trying to dothis all the time, although he
did pop up and How I Met YourMother and you know, so he was
(07:36:38):
never against it. But it wasn'tlike his only thing. That's why
I just was like, Yeah, I wonderhow this even came about. I
mean, it's great. He really isgood in the role. I love that
he's sweaty. I love that he's ata Buffalo Wild Wings staring at
the one TV that's has karate,which also brings up another
point a sidebar to that. Howcome Steve and Courtney couldn't
(07:36:59):
just look at another TV. I mean,there's only like 20 or 30 or 40
TVs in there. They get his pantheir vision left or right but
they want to karate off becausethey're making fun of it which
is too funny to me.
Sal Rodriguez (07:37:12):
Well, that was their main TV in there. I know.
It was definitely their main butBut hang on. I did want to
mention that to Jason because Iwas a little confused when I
looked up at all the otherschool means I saw baseball
happening. I saw a sport thatlooked like soccer. But if I'm
not mistaken, was it somethingdifferent? Or was it baseball on
the screens and soccer,
Jason Connell (07:37:29):
it was a lot of random sports, the something
I've learned, in my time ofworking in the biz, is you're
not always going to see theactual thing. You've got a
license that that's why I thinkthat the karate footage, that
mini shot of a two guys wasprobably shot by the production
team. In fact, as you pull awayand see that it almost looks
like it's superimposed on theTV, that particular thing. So I
(07:37:54):
don't know, I could be wrong,but I'm speculating again. But a
lot of times, you have tolicense all that stuff. So
you're not gonna do a wide shotfrom a Buffalo Wild Wings
commercial and see an NFL gameor an NBA game. In fact, I've
even read an incredible articlerecently about someone that used
to license and maybe still doesUSFL footage for movies and TV
(07:38:17):
that need football, and USFL isthe defunct United States
Football League that tried tobattle the NFL last. It was like
three seasons, and it's wentunder, and they still have all
that footage, all those games,and they license it very cheap.
I'll be watching a show or amovie. And sure enough,
sometimes they'll pay into thetelevision, that's USFL footage,
(07:38:38):
or sometimes it's CFL, theCanadian Football League, it's
just so much cheaper. So some ofthat stuff you were seeing was
probably a lot of obscuresports. I tried to zoom in and
we're seeing some weird things.
But it was a mishmash of thingson the screens for sure.
Sal Rodriguez (07:38:53):
Okay, so one of the things I definitely
identified as baseball, I think,unless it was cricket, but it
could have been like baseball.
The other ones I was certain wassoccer. But then I thought it
could be lacrosse or mayberugby. I couldn't make it out
because at one point I got couldhave swore it was throwing a
ball with his hand into the net,which obviously wouldn't be
soccer. Right. But at firstglance looked like soccer. But
(07:39:13):
you're right. It could have beenanything. It could have been
anything.
Jason Connell (07:39:17):
Yeah, I found that commercial really funny,
Sal their reactions and we kindof just glossed over that. But I
want to talk about a little bit.
Stephen Courtney and the serverfor that matter are all
wonderful in their roles, thenwhy they're just sitting there.
And Steve those Courtney underthe bus and you know, basically
they didn't like karate,Courtney was very quick to say,
oh, no, no, no, I love it. Imean, you got to see it. I
(07:39:39):
highly recommend to go onlineand look it up. It's funny. And
Steve's lying the paws and thewide shot of him. Like, could
you recommend a good dojo? Thatwas really well delivered style.
It made me laugh out loud. Butwhat I thought was missing was
after we cut away and because wecut away to a typical
commercial. And it's likeBuffalo Wild Wings, wings, beer
(07:40:00):
sports, I was hoping there waslike an end tag, like one more
joke, you know, like a button atthe end, like either Johnny's
now training them and they'reall in GIS, or he's sweeping the
lake, or just one more thing atthe end could have pushed it
over the top, which again, makesme think they definitely didn't
shoot this together. And like Isaid, William Zabka. could have
(07:40:23):
shot it years prior for all No,
Sal Rodriguez (07:40:28):
no, it would have been funny at the end. If maybe
Williams Africa walk over totheir table, start drinking
their beer. Yeah, you know,right in front of them that
would have been finishing
Jason Connell (07:40:34):
whatever they did would have been funny. I would
have trusted them to find thehumor based on what I'd seen.
But yeah, because it quicklythis ended. I thought, Oh, that
was a missed opportunity. We'reused to seeing that one more
thing. Yes. But
Sal Rodriguez (07:40:45):
thank you, Jason, for giving props to commercial
actors. Because, you know, assomeone who's done a lot of
commercials myself, a lot ofpeople don't take commercial
acting seriously. In fact, I'veheard some actors downright say
that commercial acting is notrelaxing. But as someone who's
done commercials, I will tellyou it is absolutely acting.
Obviously, it's not Shakespeare,but it's acting nonetheless. And
(07:41:05):
yeah, these guys do a great jobon this commercial. Absolutely.
Jason Connell (07:41:08):
Well, I'm glad you brought that up. So because
my last note is one of yourcommercials. Oh, as I was
watching this, it just popped upin my head. I thought, wow, I
saw commercial of you one timethat you were if I'm not
mistaken. an NBA fan. I think itwas the Spurs. Yeah. And I
remember watch. I got Oh, Ihadn't seen you in a while
(07:41:29):
because the festivals had ended.
And this is pre just curiousmedia. So describe that
commercial to us.
Sal Rodriguez (07:41:36):
That was a campaign we shot three of them.
That was a camp right? When theSan Antonio Spurs were in the
playoffs? Yeah. And this is abittersweet memory because we
shot three commercials for theSan Antonio Spurs where I played
the straight man, sort of thegoofy friend reacting to the
crazy friend. So my friend wasthe crazy guy doing outlandish
stuff, like doing the t shirtcannon in his living room and
(07:41:58):
stuff like that. And I'm justsitting there reacting to him.
So I'm the Reaction friend. Butwhat was going to happen? What
we were promised was if the SanAntonio Spurs were going to win
that season, they were going tofly us out to San Antonio, they
were going to put us up in thestands. They were going to shoot
more commercials it was going tobe a larger campaign. So believe
me even though I'm not thebiggest basketball fan, I kept
thinking please San AntonioSpurs you Please go all the way.
(07:42:21):
No, unfortunately, they did not.
So the campaign ended. But yeah,that was definitely one of my
earliest commercials as a goofyfan reacting to the crazy fan
for the San Antonio Spurs.
Jason Connell (07:42:31):
Love it. Well, I really enjoyed them. Did you get
to keep the uniform?
Sal Rodriguez (07:42:35):
No, no, no, no.
Yeah, I should have kept that.
You may be able to find it. Butit's been so long. It's been
several years now
Jason Connell (07:42:43):
are very good.
And anyway, lots of fun. It'sjust a one off guys. We only had
the one commercial. It wasrandom. It was fun. It's worth
seen. Of course, I should sayWilliam Zabka. nails it. He
hadn't done Johnny Lawrence in awhile. He definitely looked
apart. And he looked mean andmenacing at it. He was really
good. I just wanted to see moreof him. In fact, as you said,
(07:43:03):
Steven Courtney went on to domany more. I would have liked to
seen Johnny do some more thing.
So we're going to be on thehunt. We're looking for more. I
mean, this did come on our radarlast year, but most recently a
fan exposed another one to us sowe have many more of these fun
nuggets these fun specialepisodes lining up and getting
(07:43:26):
ready to record and publish andshare with you
Sal Rodriguez (07:43:28):
oh yeah, just when I thought we had reached
the end of the line for thespecial episodes like oh what
we've seen all the shows thatMacho has been on we've seen all
the shows that because nothere's a whole lot more.
There's the Karate Kid and nowCobra Kai is so far reaching as
a matter of fact while we'retalking brand new Cobra Kai
action figures and I sayspecifically Cobra Kai because
(07:43:50):
it's action figures were KarateKid. These to my knowledge are
the first Cobra Kai actionfigures we got a Johnny
Lawrence, a Daniel Russo and asense a crease. It's a three
pack I believe it is the 2021Comic Con exclusive by Diamond
Select so look out for that.
We're not sponsored by DiamondSelect but hey, Cobra Kai action
figures who wouldn't want themif you're a fan? So be sure to
(07:44:11):
check those out. There'll becoming to your toy retailer at
some point.
Jason Connell (07:44:17):
Absolutely. So thank you so much for listening
and please be sure to subscribeto Let's Talk Cobra Kai wherever
you get your podcast. You canalso really help us by giving
the show a five star rating onApple podcast
Sal Rodriguez (07:44:28):
and for all you listeners that enjoy sharing
your thoughts you can leave us areview on Apple podcasts, send
us a direct message or post acomment on our social media
which is at let's talk CobraKai, as well as at just curious
media.
Jason Connell (07:44:41):
If you're a dedicated listener of Let's Talk
Cobra Kai, consider supportingthe show on Patreon. This
greatly benefits us on manyfronts and offers you access to
exclusive content and much more.
We also highly recommendchecking out our other podcast
and visiting just curiousmedia.com No Mercy
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