Lisa Kudrow

David, I don't know if you know this about me, but I've always been a fan of exploring new places. Not like you kind of, you know, no, no offense.
And one of my best trips, listen up, is when I stayed at an Airbnb. Felt like I was living like a local with all the space.
You know, hotels can be a hassle room service. And then the housekeeper, it's a hassle.
So then you go to Airbnb and you can get whatever you want a little cottage this and that it's fantastic you have your own separate space so it's a great product for people who travel david yes i have friends doing one of these right now if you have a home you can airbnb it it's fantastic i mean um, to monetize your home when you're not there seems like a good idea. I mean, look, I'm on the road a lot.
I could probably do it. It's something that people can do when they travel.
They have extra space. Or you're at a place not full-time.
You come in the winter. You leave in the summer.
That's something you should think about. It's a way to get some extra money and it's a cool experience.
Your home might be worth more than you'd think. Yep.
Find out how much at airbnb.com slash host. Buying a home is one of the biggest decisions you'll ever make.
And in California, it can feel even bigger from figuring out where you can afford to navigating offers, escrow inspections, and closings. It It's a lot to take on alone.
That's where a realtor comes in. A realtor is more than a real estate agent.
They're a guide, a strategist, and your go-to expert for every step of the home buying process. They handle the complexities, the paperwork, and the stress so you don't have to.
No guesswork, no going in alone, just clarity, confidence, and someone in your corner from start to finish. When the stakes are high, having a trusted professional makes all the difference.
Don't let what you don't know stop you from starting your next chapter. Find your realtor at championsofhome.com.
All right. Our guest today is the one and only lisa kudrow one of america's sweethearts

and um she has a new new show out she's in a show called no good deed it's on netflix and uh it's kind of funny it's very interesting i'll tell you that's got ray romano in it it's got a great cast uh linda cartellini who who I don't see much, and she's great. It's a great cast, and it's from the people who brought you Dead to Me, which was another great show on Netflix.
And so, looking forward to it. She's a really funny, talented actress, super down to earth, nice to talk to.
And we talk about friends and different uh relationships and we talk about how she grew up with john lovitz and she knew john when john was like a little kid and that's that's very interesting yeah very it was way back more than i thought farther back i thought she did the show the comeback we talked about that romey and michelle of course it's a classic yeah and you know she was in analyze this she was in boss baby book smart she's she pops up here and there always working always funny we had a great time chatting so please welcome lisa kudrow we are dana and david you can figure out which one is which whenever you Dana and David.

You can figure out which one is which.

Dana and David.

Okay.

You got it.

It's kind of weird.

I'm his older brother from another mother.

Do you have any doppelangers in show business?

Like, you know, you look like, or someone saying, you know, people tell me I look like you.

No.

Well, yeah.

People that come up and say, oh my God, everyone tells me I look like or someone saying you know people tell me i look like you no well yeah people that come up and say oh my god everyone tells me i look like oh okay but wait listen to this years ago i was at a restaurant waiting for someone and the hostess came over and said are you famous i'm not doing the accent i said um it's funny she said are you Dion? I'm not doing the accent. I said, um,

she said,

are you Dionne Warwick?

Are you?

That's a kid a lot.

Uh,

I used to get,

David would give me,

I would get David. And then I aged out of that.

And then they said, you know, David Spade is my latest. Did you know him? Oh no! I go, yeah.
Did you? Are you like everybody's kid sister in a way? You look a little like my sister a little bit. Oh really? Well, I mean, you know Levitz both of you.
John Levitz. Yes.
yes of course the one and only yes i grew up with john he and my brother are best friends david david yes i've heard so much about this it'd be interesting to hear it from your point of view yes the real point of view john's um let's say eccentric dad you know i met a met a few times and David's encouragement to him.

Yeah.

And then you being the kid sister coming out of going into show business.

So go ahead.

Go.

You have 30 minutes.

Yeah, that all sounds right.

Yeah.

Explain John then to John now just as a personality. There is no difference.
That's hilarious. I will attest to that.
There's absolutely no difference. At 10 year old John, did you meet him at 10 or 12? They're six years older than me.
If I was three, they were nine. So you met that far back? Yeah.
Oh, I thought that far back yeah oh i thought you at our house all the time i mean so at home he could just walk in go to the kitchen cookie drawer grab stuff you know and he'd have any brownies oh you don't have the uh other cookies yeah Lisa sorry about your attitude Yes

When Oh, you don't have the other cookies? Yeah. Lisa, sorry about your attitude.
Yes. When did this guy come in? I mean, the 40s guy.
Was that there when he was like 10 or something? Hello. Well, I don't remember when I was three.
Okay, so when you were eight, he was 14. Yes, because he would call up and we shared, the kids shared a phone it would be and like hello oh hello is this lisa yeah hi john do you want to talk to david wait and he would do some very long bit i can't sing love i just David I just get David for you that's just terrible always funny always has a spin on a joke and then wait you get older didn't you go no I didn't you didn't get older? I'm kidding you didn't date John Lovitz so you were like didn't you go to the same place he did or no? Well, yeah, because then when I graduated college, I told him, yeah, I think I'm going to try acting now.
And he said, oh, okay, listen, okay. Because look, you know, I studied in college and everywhere.
But the place I learned the most was the Groundlings. That's where I learned the most.
You have to learn improv. It's listening and responding.
It's the most important thing in acting. And he was right.
And they wouldn't let me take classes because I hadn't performed or done anything since junior high school. Do you have to have a res a little bit to get in there? I don't know.
This was like 1985, 86. You have a beginner's class, right? And that's kind of you.
You have to audition for those. And then you have to keep graduating.
Yeah. I know.
Our viewers are freaking out right now. Jeez.
Yeah. I thought they were just sort of screening, you know, but they wouldn't even let me audition for the ground.
Did you have as a little kid, did you have any kind of whimsy in your head? Like, maybe, maybe I'm funny or maybe I could do this. Was it a secret or did you tell your parents? Did you tell David or was it just? No, I mean, yeah, as a kid, I did want to act.
I thought, yeah, I did. And my family, everyone was funny.

And I was the youngest, so I was the least funny.

How many kids?

Three.

Okay.

Five in arms.

I had three older brothers and a younger sister.

Okay.

20 parents.

Were you the funny one?

Or were others funny in your family?

Everybody was funny, but that was more my specialty because I was doing little impressions in the early 60s. Oh, gross.
Dating myself. Attention seeker.
I was an introverted extrovert or an extroverted introvert. I see you as a kindred spirit.
I don't think you're on or I don't see you as always on. No.
No, no, no, no. I'm not always on.
But when you're on, you're funny as hell. Oh, thanks.
Well, there's evidence on time. We've got some evidence.
Let's look at a clip. Let's go to the tape.
Season five of Friends. Let's go to the phones.
You've lost your bicycle. The exit is breathtaking.
No, but I also would imitate Lily Tomlin doing Edith Ann. Oh, my gosh.
I would offer my entertainment services at school. I offered to go from class to class i worked out with like scarves to do like the dream tevye's dream from fiddler oh yikes and i offered graciously you pitch this to a teacher to my teacher i said classrooms and do sketches i put together this thing should i just do it for the class and she went sure and i did and i said now i could do this for all the other classes i've got my back and i can go like what was wrong with me yeah something's wrong or how wonderful how wonderful that's how i look at it like be so confident you know and she went sure go to she's like kill five minutes of class i don't care like were you consistently confident throughout the grades you did you have years where you're the star and other years you're a little down or was it just consistently you were like one of the most popular no kids i don't think i was one of the most popular i mean in grade school i was confident, I had friends and I was like, I'm going to start a David Cassidy fan club.
Everyone's invited. And the moms would come.
Everyone talked to me like I was an adult. I didn't understand.
But everyone treated me like I was a little older. And I think it's because of my brother and sister and being older.
And I had their, I stole their sense of humor and their jokes and you know I was gonna say that because I was gonna say I'm three boys in our family and I have to say there's everyone's a little bit funny and I'm more like a research paper like a compilation because you can always borrow like from your life so this happened with Chris Farley like like his brothers would go that that thing he does is mine it's like well he got on tv and he's reaching for straws at a certain point he's like that thing was funny and you know yeah he had the guts to take it public yeah most people aren't using it actively so you just go i can borrow what my mom says you know it's funny to me. But so you're like, yeah, you got little things here.
And your parents were funny. Is that what you said? Yeah, my dad was very funny.
Yeah, he was really funny. And that makes it fun to be fun or try to make him laugh when you're little.
Yeah. Well, I mean, I didn't make anyone laugh.
Oh. But, you know.
Sadly. I thought you were killing it at school.
At school. Yeah, at school.
Oh. At school.
Tougher crowd at home. Did your brother ever put you in a sleeping bag and then tie it off and leave it there? No.
Oh. Well, that happened to my wife, so I was just curious.
Oh, shoot. No, no.
David's, no my they were good to me i mean unless everyone was fighting you know but for the most because i mean didn't siblings always try to kill each other yeah most of my childhood with three older brothers cut it out yeah cut it out stop yeah uh but mostly it was rough and tumble fun i mean we we had movies that were touchstones because there was no vcrs or anything you know if what was your like my sister was obsessed with splendor in the grass with lord baby and natalie wood oh and it came on once a year and she commandeered the television did you have stuff in your formative years that was just mind-blowing besides your crush on David Cassidy, which my wife also had a mad crush.

I think I did.

Yeah. the television did you have stuff in your formative years that was just mind-blowing besides your crush on david cassidy which my wife also had a mad crush yeah i think i did i did um i played david cassidy on an snl sketch oh that's right oh wow you played everything on an snl sketch very well by the way so much fun yeah um but uh my sister you know she's the oldest she's eight years older than me and and she she would we would watch father knows best and leave it to beaver yes reruns and she had to sneak leave it to beaver because my father when she was younger wouldn't let her watch it because that's bullshit that's not what people are like that's not what a family is stop it yeah that's pretty advanced because they were too nice to each other yeah they were too like formal and nice oh gee well gee whiz like he that infuriated him well golly wally yeah that guy was the original.
I just figured out. And I have the same birthday as Jerry Mathers.
Oh, really? He kind of talked like Garth, didn't he? Hey, golly, Wally. I don't know what you're doing.
By the way, and the Mathers lived in our neighborhood. And Sean Mathers was in my class.
Whoa. The younger, younger brother of Jerry.
Yeah. I always sort of, you seem seem a little more you just always seem very together to me that's why people feel like you're older when you're younger because something about you seem like you're very together and suffer no fools so i oh i'm yeah i don't know but you've suffered some fools along the way i think i'm generous with fools.
Well, you have two right here. Well, you've been generous to me so far.
I won't connect the dots. No, I've been nervous to do this because you guys are legends.
Crazy. Oh, good.
Yeah. Has anyone called you a legend yet? Yes, I think so.
When does the legend thing come in? No. Nobody? Not even John? Not to my face.
No, John certainly hasn't. But John's been very sweet and generous and good, I have to say.
I think he's very proud of that. He loves to tell the story.
And I said, do this and do this. And then she went there.
He loves to be the person advising. It's a role that he really enjoys yeah he loves that story i've heard so much it i definitely talked to your brother david on the phone a few times where john has put him on say hello to david he's a doctor it's may west it's 1940s i mean it's both but anyway it's it's nice to have someone that's in the business that you could ask questions to like saturday live is a huge deal you're just auditioning and then you're like what's it like just doing this or just auditions and readings and you know i don't know how to cold read like when i started i had no one really to go to it's good to have someone that's been there yeah well i Well, I mean, and the good thing John said was,

groundlings, listen, respond.

Don't take them personally because some of them are kind of unhappy.

And that was true.

I saw that.

I saw it because then he got on Saturday Night Live,

and there were one or two groundlings because I thought, you know,

it's okay to say, like, so what brought you here?

I said, oh, well, I grew up with John Levitz.

And they went, oh, okay. so bitter

that he

bitter

that he

bitter

that he

bitter

that he

bitter

that he

bitter

that he

bitter

that he

bitter

that he

bitter

that he

bitter

that he

bitter

that he

bitter

that he

bitter

that he

bitter

that he

bitter

that he

bitter

that he

bitter

that he

bitter

that he

bitter

that he

bitter

that he

bitter

that he

bitter

that he

bitter

that he

bitter

that he

bitter

that he

bitter

that he

bitter

that he

bitter that he bitter oh so bitter that he got on saturday night live oh bitter and envious you know that is the thing about show business no matter what it's like eddie murphy or something most of us needed a break or hadn't something had to happen yeah um and there's whimsy to that and you know people i know so many stand-ups great stand-ups not famous had good careers in the clubs but just didn't get did some pilots went on the tonight show but didn't get that little turn yeah so it breeds um weirdness right then why not me or that wasn't deserved if someone else got it and i didn't, which is, that always mystified me.

It's like, what do you mean?

I mean, even if you think it's all luck, then, you know, why not, Sam, and not you this time?

How about you just think this time?

I used to go on showcases at the improv like Dana did.

Like, they'd say, we're going to bring a cat.

They're doing a sitcom, whatever. They're going to look at, they want to look at 10 comics.
And this is sort of the look, female, male, whatever. And we do it and someone would get it.
And I'd always be practicing going, why them? Just in case I didn't get it. And then, but it's true.
Like, it's like, it's hard to complain when it's an even playing field. Like you all went on in front of them.
Yeah. And they go that one.
And you go, wait, how do I figure out how I'm the victim here? I'll figure it out though. And all you can control is trying to get better.
It sounds like a Hallmark movie, but all you can control is just try to get better yourself. As a small biz owner, you don't have the luxury of clocking out early.
This is very true. Your business is on your mind 24-7.
So when you're hiring, you need a partner that grinds it out just as hard as you do. That hiring partner is LinkedIn Jobs.
When you clock out, LinkedIn clocks in. LinkedIn makes it easy to post your job for free, share it with your network, and get qualified candidates that you can manage all in one place.
Yeah, I think when you're trying to hire someone, there's a lot of different things you're looking for, but you want them to kind of have your, your aesthetic, your sensibility. If you were, you could look up those words, David.
Sure. And that's hard to have a chemistry and match.
So LinkedIn is going to try to shorten that for that process for you and make sure you find someone who works. Everyone's heard of LinkedIn.
I mean, that's why, because it's been around forever. People really like it.
New feature can help you write job descriptions and then quickly get your job right in front of the right people with deep candidate insights. Either post your job for free, you can pay to bump it up and promote it.
Promoted jobs get three times more qualified applicants. At the end of the day, the most important thing to your small business is the quality, quality of candidates.
With LinkedIn, you can feel confident that you're getting the best, David. Based on LinkedIn data, 72% of SMBs using LinkedIn say that LinkedIn helps them find the high quality candidates.

Share it with your network.

Let your network know you're hiring.

You can even add a hashtag hiring frame to your profile.

Get two times more qualified candidates.

You didn't know that trick.

Post your job for free at linkedin.com slash candidates.

That's linkedin.com slash candidates to post your job for free terms and conditions do apply did you have nightmare auditions before friends that humiliated you and made you think maybe it's not gonna happen no not the auditions didn't make me think it's not gonna happen yeah but i had one nightmare audition i finally i was so excited because i

got to audition for larry sanders with gary shandling great and then whoever else was in the room and i thought okay great i'm gonna i'll improvise a little too and yeah and i think and I don't remember exactly what I I did but I scared uh Gary I know that what was there sides or did he just do his thing of I'll say something like this and you say something like that I don't I'm trying to remember because I was just sort of the character was Janine Garofalo ultimately did it which is right oh that was there for a full-time character yeah and I remember um because I knew how to audition I had a great cold reading class and audition class which was just you're not there to make friends you're not there to chit chat. You're there to do the audition, be polite and everything,

and then just get going.

And so it's sort of, I said something and he,

Gary made sort of like a joke and I played along as an improviser with the

sort of like, oh, now we're in a fight.

You know what I mean?

I see. Yeah.
And he just went, oh, now we're in a fight. You know what I mean? I see.

Yeah.

And he just went, okay, should we read it?

And I said, yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, we did it.

And he said, okay, well, thank you.

And we'll be in touch.

And I went, all right, thank you very much.

And I walked out.

I'm walking down the hall.

I heard the door open. And I turned around and he was there going, okay, bye-bye.
We will be in touch. We really will.
And I went, okay. I thought, what did I scare him? What happened? What did I do? I was playing.
Oh, they didn't know I was playing. Is that what it was? Did you ever run into Gary after friends and everything? And he, does he remember? Did he ever remember that? I forgot to ask him, but I did run into him.
I ran into him after we had our first day of auditions for this HBO show I did called The Comeback. Comeback.
Oh, yes. And HBO and Chris Albrecht and Carolyn Strauss, they had no idea no idea what we were pitching just write it we wrote it and they said we still don't get it why don't we just shoot it because back when you're michael pancher king who i was working with good sex in the city we'll just shoot a pilot okay great so when we had the auditions for the pilot that's the first time they saw me as the character because it didn't read on the page like it was hilarious.

But then they saw me doing it.

And so after that, I went to something.

I can't remember what.

And Gary Shandling was there.

And he went, oh, I talked to Chris Albrecht today.

He said, you're brilliant.

And I went, oh, that's good to know. That's really good.
And I thought, oh, good. So yeah, I didn't feel like bringing up.
I think I scared you. Yeah.
I think that was smart. I mean, Gary was really complicated.
And he was harder on himself than anybody else. And I was doing Larryry sanders once i did it a few times and he just writes on a piece of paper and just hands it to me you know between takes and it just says i hate myself funny but it was just yeah um come back was also like it was sort of like a curb type that was type that type right it wasn't improvised at also like, it was sort of like a curb type.

That was that type, right?

It wasn't improvised at all.

Oh, it wasn't?

It seemed like. No.

That's because of the camera stuff.

Maybe it was like that.

It was sort of like handheld or something.

Oh, the cinema, Verite, The Office did it kind of.

Yeah.

It was right after the British, The Office.

Oh.

Right.

But just before. There was one before The American office.
Right. But just before.

There was one before the American office.

What's going on?

You know nothing.

You are nothing.

Sorry.

You can't ever get him out of his last Golden Globes.

You cannot get that out of your mind.

It's one of the great moments in television when he says, you know nothing.

You are nothing. Thank your God and fuck off.
And now the show. Anyway.
When you do the comeback, do you, so that is, it looks like it's right after Friends. So.
Yeah, it was right after Friends. And it's with, you said, Saxon City Patrick King.
Michael Patrick King. Yeah.
And so you, you get to that must, it must have felt fun, A, to do something new and to do something sort of a little looser and a little rougher around the edges, right? Maybe. And it was something no one had seen before.
It was meant to just be raw footage from a reality show so that you can see just the folly of this woman thinking she's going to control it. It's her show.
And, you know, just throwing herself into a meat grinder to stay in the spotlight. Yes.
Yeah. And not really understanding what a reality show actually is.
And that was before Housewives. There was just Anna Nicole and the Osbournes.

The Osbournes seemed like the first one I remember that went huge.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That was an inspired idea at the time.

It was.

It was very interesting.

I think people would talk a lot about it because it was just,

it's always great when you get an idea a little bit out of the blue

that everyone goes, oh, okay.

Yeah. Yeah.
No, that was very,, I have to say. Because you'd done the six seasons, whatever.
You did all that with the live audience, which brings its rock and roll and all its pressure. And then you do this whole new thing.
It must have felt really good. Like, oh, yeah, I can also do this.
Yeah. it was a different tone yeah yeah and luckily while i was doing friends i was doing independent films a lot which was fun because there are no stakes at all yeah and uh yeah you know especially when your day job is friends yeah oh darn i hope it does well we have one to go back see you guys in 26 guys in 26 weeks.
In fact, I thought, and when I'm done with Friends, I mean, I'll just do independent films. And then they went away because.
And now it's all live streaming. And now it's all streaming.
Yeah. Might as well bring it up.
No good deed. ray romano yeah he was on this podcast oh yeah

we love ray romano yeah that must have been fun yeah he he's a gentle giant like i was surprised

how self-deprecating he is and how open he is because he's a big guy you know yeah and he does

not wear that on his sleeve at all he's just very real yeah he claims to be insecure and you know

Thank you. guy.
Yeah. And he does not wear that on his sleeve at all.
He's just very real. Yeah.
He claims to be insecure and, you know, well, and he might be, but we were talking once and I said, but you're not mean to anybody. Like most insecure performers find someone or something to blame everything on, right? Like, we didn't give me the right lines or you know yeah that stuff or some stooge to shit on occasionally and just little put downs yeah you leverage their power over you know that that character right he that's not ray doesn't do that and he said, no, that's because I think I'm to blame for everything.
I just blame myself. I think he really sinks into these things.
He's not just doing it to kill time. Like we were doing the Mirage, Dana knows.
We were doing like both of us, not sort of residency, doing stand-up. But he gets into like these indie movies and like this thing.
It's just good little things. And he really puts a lot of heart and soul into them.

It feels like to me.

Yeah.

And wants them all really to do well.

Like really into it instead of just like, I'll do this.

I'll do a week on this if you pay me.

It's more like, let's get into it.

Nail it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

No, I think he has a reason for everything he chooses to do.

Yeah. You had a Luke on there.
I was just watching it in the other room because I hadn't seen it and i go oh shoot let's go check it out and i was there's luke and there's uh everywhere you turned i was like oh good oh dennis leary i saw oh yeah and and uh how fun he used to be uh i used to know him a little more in the old days but so how fun is that's that's a fun thing to do and you did it for and it's

on right now because i'm watching it right now yeah on netflix it's on netflix right now will you introduce the premise i i researched the premise of the show which is very interesting me yeah yeah you oh yeah okay i could do it but i think it's tough to explain i mean there's a couple who's uh empty nesters they're selling their house and um right so far seems to i know it seems to be uh yeah the details we get into later there's some secrets yeah surrounding the house and their life there and then you have the people who come to the open house and desperately want this house and whatever's going on in their life that somehow intersects with this couple yeah and the producer of dead to me which had its own i i love that show yeah i did too i and i thought uh whoever's the mind behind that and also christine applegate and yeah the name of her partner was so good is also on this linda cartellini yeah i yes it's always phenomenally good always phenomenal always and so i'm assuming the sensibility overlap different storylines and everything but i did see one of the clips where you're in the kitchen and you're kind of waving the knife around. Yeah.
He goes, put the knife down. And it was just very smart, dry, weird, but real kind of dialogue.
Yeah. Like, just put the knife down.
Well, I'm not going to stab you. Yeah.
I saw kind of the tone in that moment, you know? Yeah. Yeah.
I think we kind of played with that one, Ray and I. Sure.
Good. They're taking advantage of that.
You can sort of, let's make it real and surprise ourselves in the moment. Well, it's nice if they trust you to let you, you know, and aren't too like, but no, the script.
I don't think people listening know that it's not always the case to have the gift of running with something sometimes it's script script script move on and then you go could you want me to try something they're like nope we're good yeah and so when you see it it always feels looser if you just feel a little more into it and take advantage of the digital cameras i mean going back for just a second on handling he had three 16 millimeter cameras on shoulders so there was a single on me single on him and a two shot so every take was its own take every take could be improvised overlapped it was all there every time and so i wondered, did they have a camera on Ray and a camera on you? Or was it, uh, they go, well, that was a good improv. Can you repeat it? We'll come around on you.
Or did they manage the shooting? So it was just. I think there were two cameras and we may have done it more than once.
Cause we did it, probably did it once. And then it was, yeah, do that thing again.
I think,

I don't have a good memory for that stuff. Cause once I'm done, I move on.

None. When you, when this thing comes about, do you,

does it perk up your ears because of the dead to me part of it?

Like though, this is, this person did this.

So you're already sort of intrigued and then you want to read it.

And then you're more intrigued. Is that, is that sort of the way it goes?

It should have been, but actually it was, it was. So this is something exciting.
We think said the agents it's they said a limited series on Netflix and it's Liz Feldman who did, I said, dead to me. I know who that is.
I love that show. Yes.
And playing your husband would be Ray Romano. And I went, he's wanted to work with Ray Romano.
Oh my God, that's been like a dream. It's like, well, dreams come true.
And so far, Linda Cardellini is in it. And I went, what? Yeah.
I could work with Linda. So I said, I guess I should read it.
But do I have to? Because it's yes. Do I have to? It's already.
And did you have to? Yeah, no, it's a good thing I read it because I read the first episode. And then I had a meal with Liz where I had a lot of questions.
And I went, I'm basically saying yes to what has my character done? I'm not sure. Did you have a read through? Did you get everyone, when everyone got together, did you read the pilot in a room? Yeah.
I always find that I haven't done that much of it. Very nerve wracking.
Cause like, you know, she's going to bring it, man. Are you kidding me? We got the A team here.
Oh God. You're thinking, what's the the puzzle how am i going to say these lines well that's that's how i felt that is exactly everyone usually is nervous at that thing everyone's nervous yeah well because also i mean young people get nervous too because they weren't around in the days when you would do a read-through at a pilot and then get fired based on the poor performance in the read through i've been in a pilot and they don't even do that many read throughs anymore and what should i do but when i was i read for this pilot it's like basic abc whatever and then they go read through is great and the next day they're like hey where's this guy oh they got fired there's a new person playing them i'm like from yesterday what happened read through yeah like oh they playing them.
I'm like, from yesterday? What happened? From the read-through?

Yeah. They're like, oh, they bombed.

I'm like, they did?

Like, you don't even notice.

You're like, what are they looking at?

I don't even know.

That's what scares me.

Like, how about a rehearsal and a run-through

to see if they bombed?

Yeah, let's see.

Give them one more goddamn swing at it.

Like, it's terrifying.

You hired them.

Yeah.

It's a quick, it's. Yeah.
It's quick decisions.

It's all.

And then what was your first day of shooting with Ray?

Did you have your scripts in your hand?

Let's get it on its feet, people.

All right, quiet, everybody.

All right, we got Lisa.

Number one and number two, we're going to run lines.

All right, go ahead anytime.

Let's mark this one.

And then you do it five times in a row.

There's little titters from the crew and then less and less. And then finally, just dead silence.
All right, we're ready to shoot it. you're

you're

you're

you're

you're

you're

you're

you're

you're

you're

you're

you're

you're

you're

you're

you're

you're

you're

you're

you're

you're

you're

you're

you're

you're

you're

you're

you're

you're

you're

you're

you're

you're

you're

you're

you're

you're

you're

you're

you're

you're

you're

you're

you're

you're

you're

you're

you're

you're

you're

you're

you're

you're

you're

you're

you're

you're

you're

you're

you're you're you're you're one. And then you do it five times in a row.
There's little titters from the crew and then less and less. And then finally just dead silence.
All right, we're ready to shoot it. Your confidence is totally.
We beat it to death. Let's shoot it.
Yeah. Beat it to death will be the sequel to No Good Deed.
Beat it to death. Dead to me.
No good deed. Beat it to death.
That's so good. That's funny.
I wanted to make it clear for your listening audience. Yeah.
Well, we won't give too much more away of that. Titles are tough, but it's on Netflix right now.
Yeah. And all eight shows are available.
You can binge it tonight if you want. And it is good.
I mean, it is bingeable. Someone was talking about it the other night and then we got like 89 on rotten tomato yeah it got 102 rotten tomatoes yeah it's it's fabulous extra tomatoes came in listen make this your best season yet with nutritious two-minute meals from factor eating well has never been this easy what you do is you just heat it up eat it give you more time to do what you want listen you got to get outside instead of prepping and cooking indoors factor meals arrive fresh and ready to eat perfect for any active lifestyle you got i don't know 45 weekly menu options that's a lot yeah yeah and you can pick gourmet meals that fit your goals david choose get this from calorie smart protein plus keto and more yeah i'd probably go protein plus but uh factor powers your day with satisfying breakfast on-the the go lunches, premium dinners, guilt-free snacks and desserts.
You're always feeling guilty about everything, Dana, but you should just, you eat them and you don't think about it. I know.
You tear up whenever you have like a popsicle, but my point is this. I have a popsicle.
It's easy to savor more this spring. Factor Meals, pack in the flavor with none of the fuss.

Zero fuss. Listen, that's the way I like it.
Get started at factormeals.com slash fly50off and use code fly50off, the 5-0. That's 50% off plus free shipping on your first box.
That's code FLY50OFF at factormills.com slash FLY50OFF for 50% off plus free shipping. ID Tech, the first and most trusted tech camp, is where kids ages 7 to 17 find their people.
The coding and creating people. The fire-breathing, shell-spinning, battle-bots people.
The just-as-happy building games as they are playing them people. At 75 prestigious college campuses all across the country, IDTech features over 50 epic courses like BattleBots, AI and machine learning, game design, and more.
Visit IDTech.com and use code IDTech to save $150 on a week that's guaranteed to be a highlight of summer. I want to ask you a little bit about Romy and Michelle, because I know you get it a lot, but it's such a big one, especially when it came out.
And you must still hear about it all the time. It was such a cool one.
You still have the Halloween costumes, girl. I love it when you do something that's a Halloween costume.
It's so fun. yeah that is fun um and when was that what was that was 97 is that what it said 97 yeah maybe 96 movie hey days that's right around when movies were like such it's so fun how to do opening weekend wow it was number two it was in variety even my mom would go it looks like it was number one i don't know something something with a car chase in it i think i don't know fast and furious one that was before titanic the vin diesel story it was a doc yeah but i remember doing talk shows for that and it was like, you know what I like about this? Jay Leno, actually, who's very nice.
And well, I'll say it and then you can. He'll do Jay Leno.
And he said, you know, I like about this that it's it's two women, but it's not you're not man bashing. You know, it's just it's two women and you're funny and it's fun and it's not against men you know i like about this you know you're not man bashing you know it's just two women having fun you're not bashing the men and it's just a great little movie you know i mean i thought it was tremendous i thought it was tremendous there was no man bashing at all i'll say it one more time and then i'll let you talk no man bashing in the whole thing you know you gotta be careful with the man bashing because you don't know what you're gonna i got a little silly um that's so funny but i mean yeah but it wasn't about men it's a big victory that was that's that was your victory listen we didn't do a man bashing was Thelma and Louise man bad I'm thinking there were there were abusive men and predatory men and oh yeah oh in that way like so Thelma and Louise had Brad Pitt seducing Sarah Saran Susan Saran or something but they were escaping a bad husband another bad guy yeah okay it if like, right, that's not fair because that never happens.
Yeah. Wait, no, it happens a lot.
I mean, if a woman... Yeah, that's what people like to see.
Quite a bit where the estranged husband is not happy and he has a weapon. Right.
I mean, if a woman is missing, who's her husband, who's her boyfriend? You know, that's the first place you look. But it was just funny to me that it still needed to be contextualized.
Is it for or against men? In relation to men, yeah. Yes.
Yeah, and it was very, you know, what I get about most of my comedies is, you know what I like? It's so fucking dumb. we need yeah but we do i know i love it believe me i'm doing one right now um it's hard but thank you was clever is fun and a smart little comedy that you know and then i don't know so you do it and you don't i don't you might not expect It does well, right? Yeah, I don't expect a lot.
It did fine. It could have done better if it weren't rated R.
Oh, was it rated R? PG-13 is the way to go. Interesting.
I thought that was a huge mistake and it was to save. Oh, for that movie? I don't remember one thing R about it.
Janine Garofalo said, fuck off, I think, two times or three times or something. Over one and you get an R, I think.
And the big stand was, I'm not changing Janine Garofalo's fuck offs. And I went, I don't think she'd mind.
She wouldn't care. If it's holding back another $50 million.
If it's like 40% of the net profit,

what are you going to do?

Unless it's just a cause.

Make a movie called Fuck Off,

you know, and do that.

14-year-old girls would have gone maybe more than once

to the movies by themselves to see it.

I mean, those would come over and over.

Because they all wanted to be those characters.

I watched it, and when I heard R, I went, went okay who do you think this movie's yeah though yeah a hundred percent i can't i would never men right who goes over and over you get lucky they go over and over and that's young women would have gone to see that yeah i thought that was a mistake personally thousand percent g13 is13 is the move remember greece is the move pg-13 is the move but i don't know i don't know greece is the word greece is the word have you like so you you grew up in the 90s as a star i'm sorry greece is the move it's the move it's the move okay um yeah john travolta was an incredible businessman I think he got some publishing on that and also on he came around and hung out he's a super nice guy probably the nicest guy in show business potentially I've ever met we all went to Tom Hanks' to Bruce, uh, no, Tom Hanks, his birthday party up at, um, in up on, uh, whatever the planetarium in Griffith park observatory. And everyone was there and you'd say hello to someone and you could tell they're like, Oh my God, I'm talking to you right now, but Springsteen's over there.
They were panicked trying to, you know, so, and Travolta just wanted to hang out with us and

talk about airplanes because i have a fear of flying he goes you know an airplane's only as safe as its maintenance you know but anyway he was just a great he is a great guy he's one of his house yeah i always see that picture of his house with a 747 in the driveway i made it big because he pulls out and he goes,

going to work, hon.

747?

Yeah, In order. 707.
707. An inch longer, but yes.
Yeah. I flew on his plane.
Oh, you did. And he was flying it.
I did a movie with him. What was it? What was the name of the movie? Like 99? Fever? No.
Yes. You don't remember me? Michael the Angel? The Angel movie? No, no, no, no.
But Nora Ephron directed it. It was called Lucky Numbers, I think.
What was it called? I'm looking to see if I have anything, any memorabilia. But anyway, it didn't do well.
The one Nora Ephron, John Travolta movie. God dang, Nora Ephron too.
It didn't do well, but I got to work with him and he is the nicest. Yeah, it's something about him.
Because it's not about him. Yeah.
And he didn't, like how big he was, I've always found it was interesting that tarantino because he he did the talking dog movies with kirsty out he was like he was the talking baby yeah talking baby and he was so so huge with urban cowboy and oh my god yeah tarantino you know the studio is like you know you want studio is like, you know, you want Travolta? Really? You know? And he said he knew because he would walk around LA with Travolta and it was still stop traffic. People would swarm.
Good looking, tall. But what about Sarnet, Viva and Grease? Almost back to back.
And you go, I think it was back to back. And the hugest hit and then another monster hit,, both with music.
Crazy. Right.
And then Urban Cowboy. And then Face Off.
And then. Oh, yeah.
Face Off. And Michael is huge.
Everything. And Luke is talking.
Everything. I mean.
Yeah. And then Pulp Fiction kind of put him in this other kind of lane.
And then he went from there. But anyway.
Yeah. John, if you're listening, you're always welcome to come on, and we'll just talk about Deborah Winger.
We'll say, what was that all about? That's Urban Cowboy. Yeah.
I saw your, on stupid Instagram, I saw your Urban Cowboy with Deborah Winger sketch, and you played Jvolda like two days ago. And that was, I'm talking to Dana.
And then Lisa, I saw. I even forgot that.
I did. Oh, with Debra Winger.
Yeah. Friends is so big.
I saw a Instagram today about you guys splitting a check. And I saw it an hour before this.
I'm like. Splitting a check? Well, you were like in the real show.
You're trying. Oh, oh.
You're deciding. It was show 108.69.
Oh, yes. 108.69.
Yes, that one. That's a great one.
That was one of the good ones. Yeah.
And you're deciding what to pay. And I'm like, it's still.
I mean, you don't have to talk about it too much, but it still keeps going and going. Yeah, it does.
It does.

The gift it keeps giving.

Did you ever wear a disguise like at peak Friends of Mania?

It's too famous.

Did any of the cast ever wear a disguise?

Not that I know of.

Yeah, okay.

No, I don't think so.

I mean, also, it wasn't so bad for me because I'm married to a person who's not in this business. So there's no sort of interest in, there wasn't any interest in, how's that couple doing? Oh, out there with the tabloids.
So you're not on Daily Mail a lot, I've noticed.

And is that a disappointment at all?

No.

I don't follow you.

You kind of think everyone's out in the tabloids, but it's really kind of similar characters a lot.

And then you realize, oh, so many people are not pursuing that path of celebrity within their career.

And you forget about them. You forget they even exist.
Yeah their work you know yeah that's okay too yeah some lean into it and some you can't totally avoid it but some really lean into it and some tip off more people tip off than regular people know because really are they at the bowling alley and there's five photographers there like why and also there are certain restaurants if you go to them no there will be paparazzi there yeah they'll call it then to be fair there are some people and you know if something's going on in your life you know they just stalk you yeah they wait in front of the house to to yeah see where you're going to go and what you're going to do. That's definitely legit.
Yeah. That, that, that does happen.
I think to a lot of people for sure. That's horrible.
Horrible. You know, the, um, to be nice to people who don't know what show business is in there, you're at some school function and they sidle up and Hey, how do you, how do you make that friends type show? You know, what do you know what do you what do you you know those kind of nice sweet people are really just interested in wanting to say the right thing yeah they just you know well we rehearse a lot yeah i didn't get a lot of that but you know what i get a lot of oh yeah i don't know i didn't watch uh that show why did they always say they really want to let you know and i always say oh sure yeah Yeah, yeah.
I don't know. I didn't watch that show.
Why do they always say that?

They really want to let you know. And I always say, oh, sure.
Yeah, I know a lot of people.

There are plenty of people who, you know, didn't watch TV or it's like, no, I mean, I watched.

OK, I liked Seinfeld a lot.

And one time it was and it's a good friend, too, who said.

But that was that was more of a that was more of a girl's show, wasn't it, friends? No, I don't think so. Was it? You know, I asked my husband.
He's like, no, it was for all guys, too. Three of us were guys.
Yeah. Some people liked Wayne's World.
It wasn't my cup of tea,'ll tell you that who no has anyone ever oh yeah you just

get all i guess you get all kinds oh yeah no i don't watch those kinds of movies we go to the art houses thing you know but i guess i guess some people really did like it are you from canada i think so i've i'll have to check my driver's license but um yeah it's uh showbiz it's just a funny thing and when you get inside of it, you just see all the. How the gears move and the insecurity and, you know, you're on a sound stage somewhere and it looks all greasy and ugly and stupid.
And then you see it later in the film. It's all shiny.
Yeah. Color corrected.
And so it's it's a show. I think there are people who just want to let you know, like, I'm not a fan.
So you can trust me. Yeah, that's true.
I'm not after anything. Right.
I don't want anything. I'm not a fan.
I couldn't care less that you were famous and on TV. I just like you.
I don't care about celebrities. It's the number one person that cares about celebrities.
That's the first telltale. Do you host fundraisers? Do you do that kind of stuff? I have for things I'm involved in, you know.
Yeah. Yeah, I do that.
Do you have schtick? Do you have like a- Schtick? I mean, Josh. I always let them know.
Do the things in grade school. Yeah.
Tevye's dream, everybody. Dana, when I was on Just Shoot Me, it was right around the time of Friends and yeah when I heard they were getting favored nations I was hoping it meant all sitcoms so we'd all get the same whatever they got turns out it was not no that was hard to get oh yeah well I mean they wanted nothing more than for us to split up and divide and conquer yeah whoever thought of that was was born.
Well. I mean, they wanted nothing more than for us to split up.
Divide and conquer. Yeah.
Whoever thought of that was smart. Keep the team.
Yeah. It was Courtney or Schwimmer.
Depending on who you're talking to. Yeah.
But Courtney's pretty smart. Yeah.
About stuff. She'd worked a little.
I don't know her trajectory exactly i remember from the springsteen videos when she rocketed out you know right right she probably may had a little more experience um well she was on family ties and then she was ace ventura but i think the first minute she made any money she bought a house and then was flipping houses and i think made more doing that if i had her money i'd throw mine away i love when show business people leverage their income and make money yeah and take care of themselves she's so smart i mean also just like with blocking we would block scenes and you'd be stuck and courtney would say, well, you should just stand over there and you do that. And that way it's easier.
And she was always right. You need somebody like that.
And she was also the one when we were first like shooting the pilot or I don't know if it was then or got picked up. She said, listen, y'all, I did Seinfeld.
They help each other all the time. Like if you think I could be doing something funnier, tell me, you got to tell me and we need to help each other out.
So that set a tone that I think carried through the whole 10 years for us. That's really cool.
Yeah. Otherwise it can get, you know, I mean mean david you've been on shows where it can get tense amongst casts don't normally love each other also if things happen or someone gets more money or someone gets more jokes or something there's always trouble even photo shoots are weird sometimes yeah so many little things you don't see coming and you go itchy itchy yeah but you're all i know it was it was different sorry i was saying like i can just shoot me even though it wasn't obviously a friend's show but we did about seven years and and and george seagull wendy malin we had all done stuff yeah and also had good and bad things and so everyone was like at a point where like we're really lucky so it was a little easier to get through it all because we appreciated it we were like hey this could go away tomorrow and so i think it might be harder for you guys because when you're one of your first things if not your first thing is so monstrous.
I don't know how you think nothing else could be like this. It's too good.

You go, and then I'll do this and it'll be it. And then it just,

it just seems like a weird world to, to deal with.

Yeah. I mean, we did all fully appreciate.

That was the other rare thing because we,

we would check in and check each other all the time, you know, and we had to answer to each other if we were going to create a disturbance, you know, like, I got to do this. Is that all right with you guys if I leave early and my stand-in does that you know it was it was it was great to be accountable everyone was accountable to everybody else and then we'd all go off and like they'd let us which was really nice go do a movie and you know you come back and shoot your pickups and stuff and and everyone would say, I'll tell you one thing, movie making

is for the fucking birds because

no one's running

up offering me a sandwich there.

Here's a great craft service

and we rehearse

most of the time.

The more you do it,

it's like the more you do it, the more you get

paid and the fewer

hours.

I think it was either David Spade or Tony Danza that told me that he got it down to 17 hours. I don't know.
It was not David Spade. A week.
You know, just for the read through the thing, the blocking. Will and Grace got pretty tight.
They were across from us. And they got very scared.
I was jealous. I'm going to lunch.
They're all driving away in their Porsches. I'm like, guys, this is a half day.
And they're like, no, this is their whole day. And I'm like, you're joking.
Wow. Well, I think also they had Jim Burroughs to most of them, right? So, yeah.
I mean, they knew what they were doing. And then they probably had early run-throughs.
Yeah. Early run-throughs are great.
Yeah, the writers like it, right? They write a draft. You run it were doing and then they probably had early run-throughs yeah early run-through yeah the writers like it right they write a draft you run it through and then they

don't really need you for a while like okay now we're just gonna go it falls on them no but at

first they would have us do the run-throughs at like five because they wanted to be in the

writer's room most of the day and then come see it but then they'd have to do all the rewrites that night. So then they'd be up really late.
Every day is a chance to move forward. So why settle for gear that holds you back? Roan delivers technical fabrics that breathe, stretch, and adapt, keeping you sharp and comfortable.
From work to workouts, Roan's advanced fabrics bite odor, keep you cool, and move with you. With wrinkle release tech and a tailored fit, you'll always look as good as you feel.
Upgrade your wardrobe because when your clothing performs, so do you. Rhone.
Performance apparel fit for progress. New customers get 20% off your first order at Rhone.com with code Rhone20.
If you're looking for expert guidance on finding your dream home, a place to start your next chapter, or getting in the door in your first home, chances are your family is trying to weigh in. Like your aunt who knows the perfect place for you and likes to say, if I'm being honest, I'll bid too often.
Or your savvy family member who swears by an app. But it's not enough to just know you.
You need someone who gets you. Someone who can make homeownership possible on your budget.
Who can look at what seems insurmountable and confidently say, this is the way. Only a realtor can guide you every step of the way.
With equal parts resilience and hope. Because no one cares more about helping Californians live the California dream than realtors.
So, all due respect to your aunt, but get the expertise from the best at championsofhome.com. California Association of Realtors.
Who's your realtor? We got ours down at 1 o'clock on like a wednesday to shoot on friday and then so you come in rehearse go through everything once run through and you split but did you do a monday read-through or a first day read-through whenever you shot we did we did the first seven years i think and then they had we also would shoot they'd have a start at like six or seven at night on a friday i'll let you go till like two in the morning oh shit really yeah and it took six hours to shoot our show.

They did a lot of rewrites because the audience, I guess, would get tired of a joke.

So, oh, okay.

Well, maybe.

I don't know.

They just wanted it to be as good as it could be.

We'd have hair and makeup changes.

Yeah.

That busload of youth prisoners in the audience.

They would go, hey, they didn't like it.

I'm like, well, we liked it all week.

We can't totally go by that. I know.
I would think it's a, this is for a television audience though. Yeah.
Not the people that would come here. Yeah.
And also you guys had more pressure because it's a bigger, it's probably a little more overthought because it's a big deal. How does this fit in? Will people like this joke? I could see that going a little longer.
It took, I mean, it was sort of notorious for taking a lot of time to shoot. Would you get fidgety? No, no.
And luckily we were all, you know, young. So.
And you knew it was your hard night. You knew ahead of time.
This is going to be. Yeah.
And we knew. But it got to me when I was pregnant and felt like I had a flu for seven months and then to be there two in the morning it was that was a little too tough my husband had to come drive me home a couple times yeah sure I get it and then I think we just said how about we start start earlier? Someone got that.
Where was Courtney earlier? Yeah. Yeah.
And we were told, yeah, I don't know if we can get the audience. For friends? Really? People can get off work if they have tickets to the show.
And people fly here on vacation to see the show for sure pretty sure so we would we started earlier and then um we'd have two audiences oh you oh wow no one can sit for that long and watch six hours fucking jelly beans pizza pizza is the stock thing that goes out yeah i yeah the audience warm-up guy that guy gets burned out um can you imagine six hours he had to keep everybody i would hear it they'd go hey and there's david spade come say hi and i'm like don't make me come i'm running my line yeah but abadoo and then they say hey And then, but you know, you feel for the crowd. And would you?

Would you?

I'd go over.

Yeah, yeah.

Because they're there.

They're super tired.

I don't even know if we gave him pizza.

I don't know what happened.

This guy had a million trips.

Six hours.

Oh, yeah.

We had to give him pizza.

Give him something.

Let him live.

A hard candy.

A butterscotch wasn't going to be enough, I don't think. We got a bowlittles don't forget it's at the bottom of the stairs the skittles don't go crazy though when did peak tv and i mean was big bang theory the last water cooler show it or was it friends or i think maybe it was the last kind of big, big network sitcom.
I think so. Now you get like maybe 800 people or whatever it is.
It's been renewed with a 1.1 rating. Yeah, 0.8.
Yeah. Amazing.
But I think they want more to try to make multi-cameras work again, because you know it's on a stage it's not as

expensive to shoot and it travels really well something about it works it's been working for years it's been working for 50 years so 60 70 like it can but you know what it always seemed to me things that didn't work. We usually missing um funny people and good jokes right good joke writers you know need it it's pretty basic it's good it works you know it is basic but you know family was a good big one too that was one of them yeah but it wasn't in front of audience it wasn't oh't.
Oh, that's right. That's right.

And it also had the docu-sitch.

You're like, and also that's not really what we're talking about right now.

And I'm like, yep.

I just can't, what documentary is this?

Yeah, I know.

Who's watching this 10-year documentary about this dumb family?

I've been in situations on a movie where the brain trust is around the camera and there's a take and they're beside,

they're bent over. We're like,

it's the funniest thing.

And I go,

we're so fucked.

It's over the brain or a dailies.

They used to have the brain trust is like,

Oh my God.

You're like,

no,

this is death.

You can tell it's over.

Yeah.

But although I have to say,

I'm not a great judge. Like when I see something and i think oh that's too broad or i don't know if that's very good and then it's you know the audience's favorite thing that's ever happened there is there is that element of comedy where you're like really that was the one that killed okay yeah or you do a show like a movie and, I remember some movies I did where I go, this was the scene that tested the highest, just because it's like one shot.
But when people watch it for 10 years, like a Romy and Michelle type movie, some of my movies, they go, these are my favorite things. And I'm like, it's not what it was the first time when it came out.
It switches. They see it so many times.
Now they're like this and like that. Yeah, yeah.
The real throwaway jokes and that kind of stuff. Yeah.
But initially, the big jokes are like the easiest ones to get. Yeah.
After the movie, they go, did you like that one? And everyone goes, sure. And they're like, okay, that's your favorite scene.
All right, we're going to fill out our cards today. It's a scale of one to five.
And just,, you know, remember what we talked about earlier and, uh, thanks for participating and, uh, we're sure I appreciate it. Yeah.
What are you, what's a word of David Spade's characters? Stupid. Okay.
Well, that's not one of the choices. Uh, we're going to have you just write them down on your card and hand them in to the front.
If you thought the dog was cute, we have another special card to put it on. Exactly.
That's exactly what those test screenings are. I know.
Who would you want to see more of? Yeah. Who should we cut out of the movie and fire immediately? Lisa, thank you for talking to us.
We'll let you go. It's very nice to have a long chat with you No good deed No good deed Thanks Thank you Netflix now We enjoyed it Lisa We'll see you around campus Okay As they say Alrighty Bye This has been a presentation of Odyssey Please follow, subscribe Leave a like, a review all the stuff smash that button

whatever it is

wherever you get

your podcasts

Fly on the Wall

is executive produced

by Dana Carvey

and David Spade

Jenna Weiss-Berman

of Odyssey

and Heather Santoro

the show's lead producer

is Greg Holtzman