Courtney Thorne Smith, Laura Leighton & Daphne Zuniga

Courtney Thorne Smith, Laura Leighton & Daphne Zuniga join us to talk new Melrose Place rewatch podcast and more!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Fun with Mariott so Bro, Mario Lopez jing me on
Zoom for the new podcast Still the Place, Laura Leighton,
Courtney Thorne Smith and Daphne's Welcome to the show, ladies.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
How are you good doing well?

Speaker 1 (00:14):
Thank you for taking the time. You look amazing. Congrats
on the new podcast. What inspired you to start rewatching
Meloe's Place?

Speaker 3 (00:22):
Well, Ernie's been trying to get.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Us to do dinner for thirty years, so that a.

Speaker 4 (00:28):
Friend of mine called me out of the blue and said,
I had a dream that you did to rewatch podcast.
And I thought that's interesting, and I texted Laura and
Daphne and within days we had a meeting.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
At iHeart so meant to be meant to be. We
look forward to any excuse.

Speaker 5 (00:43):
To hang out and be together, and certainly in the
podcast we get to hang out every week, but we
also get to go down the memory lane together and
go revisit all the episodes and it's just sort of
a dream, like what what better job?

Speaker 3 (00:54):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (00:55):
There, no, it's fun.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
Well, welcome to the iHeart family. And in looking back,
does do you feel the show still holds up? Is
are you happy with your performances?

Speaker 2 (01:08):
Well? Yeah, those are two completely different.

Speaker 3 (01:13):
Questions, like I hate I used to hate watching myself,
and you know, we watch one at a time so
we don't get confused.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
So we've just watched it so far.

Speaker 3 (01:22):
But I think for us, or I'll speak for myself,
it's it holds up because it's the nineties. And I mean,
you know this too with your old show. It's like
there's something that makes it nostalgic and fun to revisit,
and then also like, oh my god, can you believe
we did that back then, So there's like an.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
Extra layer of entertainment. You know. It wasn't like serious
show or anything.

Speaker 5 (01:44):
There's so many elements of it that it's a sign
of the times, like beyond just the physical stuff, but
what we're wearing, you know, the style here, there's so
many things that are a sign of the times. And
it's really fun to go down that happened. We were there,
We were you know, youthful, we were in our twenties
at the time, and so it's definitely looking back as

(02:05):
looking through a different lens. But it's been really fun
to revisit the nineties that way, and we sort of
feel like it's a it's a gift that you know,
not everybody has their twenties on film to go back,
and even though we're playing characters, it's still like going
back in time.

Speaker 2 (02:20):
In a really unique way.

Speaker 5 (02:21):
That's sort of specialist to be able to do that and
have this shared experience that we get to revisit again.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
But I don't think any of us ever will go, oh.

Speaker 5 (02:28):
I really liked my performance, you know, like I think
it's really hard to watch yourself no matter what, but
it's it's really fun to do it after a lot
of years and a lot of years yeah, and just
go oh, look at that child and that you know, well,
we all were children, and just sort of you get
to appreciate it and not be so critical and just

(02:49):
really sort of have fun with it.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
Absolutely, you get to smile and enjoy. You have a
whole new perspective and take on it and the show.
It really was such an iconic show and the capsule
of that time. I even use the reference still because
I'm when I got my first place in la in Burbank,
that was a place called park Place, and I used
to refer to it all the time. It was like

(03:11):
Melrose Place because everybody was young, all these good looking people.
They were from different shows and all this stuff. So
when you start referring it and just using it as
part of your vernacular, and this is what thirty some
odd years here, I still use his. I was like, yeah,
I lived in the partment comp it was like Melro's
Place all this time. So then you know you're onto
something special right there too. Now Melrose Place debut thirty
two years ago. Coincidentally this week, what do you each

(03:33):
remember about your initial audition?

Speaker 2 (03:39):
Okay, I'm gonna heart So.

Speaker 6 (03:42):
I started on the show and both of these gorgeous
ladies came in a little bit later, I had auditioning
for something else and it was one of those things of
your audition every day and didn't get it didn't get
and I didn't get it. I was so disappointed, and
Aaron Spelling took me aside and said, Dahl, I'm going
to work with you, and I just thought whatever. The
next day I woke up, it was a stack of
scripts AND's Place was one wow, perfectly like. I went

(04:04):
in they like, and then it was it was done.
I was cast and it was done. So I had,
because it that bumpy thing, to find a good thing.
It was such a great old Hollywood that's.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
An old school Hollywood story. Yes, I love it.

Speaker 2 (04:14):
Get a stack of scripts?

Speaker 3 (04:16):
Wow? Right?

Speaker 2 (04:18):
And when there was paper, remember it was on your doorstep.

Speaker 1 (04:22):
I still love tangible paper and reading a script. I'll
print it out. So yes, I'm with you on that.

Speaker 2 (04:28):
Just did a TV movie and I say, can I
get a script? And they were I guess we could.

Speaker 1 (04:34):
Looked at you like you had eight heads.

Speaker 3 (04:35):
Right right for you. Oh my god, they were chiseling
it out of stone, right, that's funny.

Speaker 2 (04:43):
It's crazy.

Speaker 1 (04:44):
And what was the vie back on the set in
the day? Did y'all instantly kind of get along? Was
everything pretty cool? Was your drama? Was it fun?

Speaker 3 (04:54):
You know?

Speaker 2 (04:54):
It's people want to think that there was maybe more
drama than there was. I hate to say it. We
were We're just kind of a happy set.

Speaker 6 (05:01):
It was.

Speaker 2 (05:02):
We were all we were a little bit older.

Speaker 5 (05:03):
Like the nine to two and zero vibe was definitely,
you know, the younger version of the show. But Melow's
was older, not only in the in the show itself,
but but the cast was.

Speaker 2 (05:12):
And so I think just the the mix of people
and it was just this fun place to be. We
were kind of a family doing this fun show cool.

Speaker 5 (05:23):
So many wild, bumpy things over the course of the
show story wise, and we were working so many episodes
all the time, but.

Speaker 2 (05:29):
We were we were kind of a just a happy cast.
We liked each other.

Speaker 4 (05:34):
There was work way out in Santa Clarita, so we
were out. We had lunch at Marie Calendars, and it
was hard to be cool and edgy when you're out there.

Speaker 1 (05:43):
It's too hot. It's too hot to be cool.

Speaker 5 (05:48):
Is it true?

Speaker 1 (05:48):
CBS is planning a revival and if so, would you
uh all perhaps be a returning.

Speaker 5 (05:55):
We're definitely, uh there's a revival in the works.

Speaker 2 (06:00):
Have anything firm yet. We hope that it comes to be.

Speaker 5 (06:05):
But yeah, we know that the entire cast would be
interested participating, and yeah, it be super fun, so we
really hope that that comes to be.

Speaker 1 (06:13):
But nice, very cool and Courton, you have a teenage son,
right has he watched the show yet?

Speaker 4 (06:23):
He has not watched the show and he has no
interest in watching the show, although he does say, I know,
I know you were big in.

Speaker 1 (06:30):
The nineties, the nineties, like it's the back of the thirties,
and Laura, I can't believe are you really a grand grandmother?

Speaker 2 (06:41):
I wow, see what happens when you have kids?

Speaker 1 (06:45):
I know, so wow that that's unbelievable And I got
imagine that's the best of you because my grand my parents,
seeing the way they are with my kids, they're like
different people. I was like, who's this guy? And who's
this they were not that they didn't raise me the
way they see them with my kids. It's just like
a whole other I don't know what happens, but they
turned this whole other kind of love comes out.

Speaker 5 (07:06):
It's super fun and well technically I'm a nana, just
really clear, like my name is nana?

Speaker 2 (07:11):
Are Yeah?

Speaker 5 (07:16):
And she's the best baby ever And it is super objectively.

Speaker 2 (07:24):
Objective. And I had some good babies in my own,
but this is it.

Speaker 1 (07:27):
Oh, that's awesome. That's and Daphney, you start alongside Lucille
Ball in one of her only dramatic roles. Stone Pillow
actually remember that.

Speaker 2 (07:35):
What what do you uh?

Speaker 1 (07:36):
What sticks out in your mind about working with her?

Speaker 3 (07:39):
Well? I used to write fan letters to her when
I was a little girl, and would get form sort
of like little postcards back, you know, with printed little no.

Speaker 1 (07:47):
Yeah, yeah, I remember those.

Speaker 3 (07:50):
What stands out so much. She was just such a pro.
I remember we shot in New York City. She played
a homeless woman and I was a social worker who
got her off the street.

Speaker 2 (08:03):
And I remember, I remember so much. One of them was.

Speaker 3 (08:08):
We were doing a scene while were walking down the street.
I remember we were on the Upper East Side, and
she kept saying, I can't hear you, honey, I can't
hear you.

Speaker 2 (08:14):
Got to speak? Oh sorry, and so what we do again?
And then she would say, if I can't hear you,
how is anyone else going.

Speaker 5 (08:22):
To hear you?

Speaker 2 (08:22):
And I thought, oh my god, she hates me. She's
gonna fire me.

Speaker 3 (08:24):
And then after that, she just was like we were
sitting in our you know, on the set, around in
our chairs, and she's just, oh, honey, you're just perfect
for this. That's going to go on my home reel,
you know. Whenever I would flow up because I was
so nervous. She was a real pro. She fainted in
port authority because she was layered with all these clothes
and she's looking on the scene and I thought she

(08:48):
was just really method into it. And I was like, okay,
My training was like just go with it until you
hear cut. So I went down on the ground and
she wasn't answering, wasn't responding. I called in her character name,
and finally I just said, Lucy's not answering. And then
they cut and the director said, Okay, that's it. We're

(09:09):
ending for the day. You know, she's tired. She was
seventy six at the time.

Speaker 6 (09:14):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (09:14):
She comes to the ambulance is there and she's like,
what are you doing, George? Why did you take the
lights down? We got to get our day.

Speaker 3 (09:20):
Wow, you were finishing your day. We can't rent this again,
it's too expensive. And back up, and she finished the scene.

Speaker 1 (09:31):
Legend legend of Lucy's my I'll tell you favorite. That's
awesome and this is really awesome. Congratulations on the podcast.
Still the Place is now live on iHeartRadio. Be sure
to check it out or wherever you get podcasts. Lord Courtney, Daphney,
thank you ladies for the time. Hope to see in person.

Speaker 2 (09:49):
Are you having us

Speaker 5 (09:52):
With Mario Lopez