John Requa & Glenn Ficarra and Us | Directors & Producers
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You go for it. Oh my God, welcome back to the podcast on this very special day. The two gentlemen who we are welcoming into the studio today are two of my favorite members of the This Is Us family. We have Glenn Ficarra and John Requa.

- Oh, welcome gentlemen. - Welcome. - Thank you so much for joining us. - Pleasure to be here. - These two gentlemen are a creative duo, directing, writing, producing team, who I think, "I Love You Philip Morris" was probably the first like, - First film? - Your coming out party as it were. - Our first official directing. - Directing in more ways than one. No, it's, yeah, it was our first directing.

But we've been working together as writers and making short films since college. Wow. That's where you guys met. Pratt, yeah. In the 80s. The 80s. For those listening, the 1900s were a complicated time.

I hitched my horse. It was disease. There was disease. There was. But if anybody ever asks me about you two, because I do talk about you a lot. I have a great amount of respect and admiration for both of you. I said, all you need to know about these two men is that they directed the pilot of This Is Us and Bad Santa.

- We wrote Bad Santa. - We wrote Bad Santa. - And wrote Bad Santa. Those two projects, if you mash them together, I think are a perfect encapsulation of you two. And thank you so much for joining us today. - Our first produced screenplay was a talking animal movie. - Which was what? - Cats and Dogs.

I saw cats and dogs. Glenn Ficarra was the voice of the Russian kitty. Stop it. Wait a minute. Breaking news. Hot take. I think about the baby puppies.

Get out of here. Okay, so wait. You guys started, I'm always sort of fascinated by this. Hold on, let me give a little bit of backstory. I'm talking again. A little backstory of like how I met these guys. Someone off the podcast told Sterling that he talks too much on the podcast and now he has like a thing and we want him to erase that. Is this your wife who told you that? That's what I said. I was like, that's certainly Ryan. So check this out. I'm the one who told you guys this.

I was in New York City doing a play by Susan Laurie Parks. It's called "Father Comes Home from the Wars 1, 2, and 3." And Tiffany, the casting director, who I came in to see these guys for a movie that they were doing with Tina Fey called "Whiskey Tango: Foxtrot." Yes. Great movie. So I go in, I audition for these guys. They wind up putting me in their movie. Got a small part, but a cool part. It was a lot of fun, right?

Then I was doing OJ, which is 20th Century Fox, which is our studio, which is also the studio for This Is Us.

And I don't know the exact, so you guys can fill in for me. And they're like, oh, this guy's playing Darden. We should bring him in for This Is Us, whatever. Untitled Dan Fogelman project. His name's Sterling Brown. And the guys, it was the first time walking into a room where they're directing the pilot. And I'm like, oh, they're friendly faces. Yeah. It's nice to have people know you. The studio is sort of excited about you. You know what I'm saying? Yeah.

to have buzz. I don't know, Mandy Moore, you've had buzz for a long time. No, no, no. Come on now. You're Mandy Moore. You're Amanda Lee Moore. You've been having buzz your whole life. So it was a really interesting sort of experience to come into the room and have people that you've seen before that know your work, whatever, that are excited to see you. Because most of the time, you're just in there singing for your supper, trying to, hello, my baby, doing your own jazz hands type thing. Let's not get the WB involved.

Let's not do that. That's a good one. I appreciate that. But so you guys also, so everybody knows, had worked with Dan previous on Crazy Stupid Love, which my wife and I watched and we were like, oh, snap. Like, these are the same people that directed and wrote that thing. Like, this show has to be good. Yeah. I was just excited to have the meeting. You guys, what do you, that's it. That's all I wanted to say. From our perspective. Yeah. So we're trying to cast this part of a, like a gunnery sergeant.

for this whiskey tango foxtrot movie and not really finding anybody and tiffany says i the guy he has been in jail basically working in like north carolina south carolina south carolina yeah yeah in jail he hasn't been able to work in the way because he's been on this series yeah you know small series um army wives yeah that's it that's it yeah he said he he's available he's great so he came in

sold, right? While we're making the movie in New Mexico, Sterling is, he's just a

a star, we actually had said, you know, like, I don't know who this guy is, but we're working with him forever. Because he's something that's about to happen. And we didn't know about Darden. Yeah. What happened was, it's dancing, this is the script, and we're editing, and we're reading things. Oh, this is Sterling. We just do, you know, Sterling. So we said, Dan, you got to meet with this guy. You're the only person we ever put up

Yeah. There was a stiff wind blowing behind Sterling. And Dan was like, okay, I never really heard of him. And, you know, maybe hoping for a name or whatever. But at the same time, Tiffany said you were in the OJ thing. Yeah. So we thought, oh, this is great. The studio knows him.

maybe this isn't far-fetched. It worked out. It worked out perfect. It worked out. I appreciate the vote of confidence, gentlemen. And we're working together right now just for folks to know they also directed the pilot of Paradise. That's right. So they have been working with you. They are working.

- Yeah, forever. - We've been working together for quite some time now. - It's not so bad. - In fact, at this location in Glendale, California, where we were picked up by a van to go location scout for season two. - This is true. - By the entire "This Is Us" crew. - Yeah, that's right. - And we will be interviewing the creator of "This Is Us" right after this. - Right after this. - It's a family affair. - It's pretty exciting. - Can you guys, let's go back to the 1900s. - Let's go back. - And talk to me, 'cause we actually,

with Isaac and Elizabeth had another kind of what I, what I view as maybe it's not as rare, but a rare happening in our industry, which is a directing writing duo team. Sure. And you guys have been doing that from the beginning. And so had Isaac and Elizabeth. Yeah. Um, and we had,

two sets of those on our show, which I think is even rarer. - That's true. - You guys started in college. Talk to me about where you went, how you decided that this partnership was gonna be lasting. If you still have. I mean, it might not. - Well, you know, it's an interesting thing is, you know, in college, you make movies about death that are morbid and depressing, and you think you're gonna be a serious filmmaker. And then we would have little side projects that were funny and kind of not emotional, but character-based.

And everybody loved those and everybody hated their serious films about death. Back when we had to shoot on film and you'd spend a fortune on getting the film and then you do some stupid thing on the video and everybody's like, I saw that. That was amazing. All across the campus at our school. We have a clip. And we were... Roll the clip. If we have any...

If we have any intelligence about us, we were like, well, maybe we should just go with the thing that people like. What was the campus? It was Pratt in Brooklyn. Very near Susan. Oh, cool. Yeah, very near where she grew up. I lived in Fort Greene, and so Pratt's right down the street. Yeah, right. So Susan grew up in the neighborhood. We must have bumped into her. Of course, she was young. Yes. Yeah.

But anyway, we were smart enough to go, okay, well, we seem to be good at this. So let's just follow that. And instead of the thing, you know, the high flute and stuff we thought we were going to do. Yeah, we bonded over the fact, when you go to art school. Yeah. Because you're not smart.

That's why you're in a different kind of school. We were sort of bonding over the fact that we were put into these classes that you have to take, the foundation classes, drawing, painting, light color design, sculpture. Sure. I mean, some filmmakers can draw and do stuff, but not us. So you're the worst people in the class are the film majors. You're stuck. Okay. And so you naturally get together and bond. And I think, you know, we kind of knew each other from our light color and design class.

And then we met at the college bar one night and we were doing some shtick while drinking a pitcher of beer. And then John just poured the entire pitcher over my head.

For a laugh. And I was like, you know, it was just. Are you serious? Love ever since. Because it's starting with just little. That could have gone such the wrong way. But you knew him well enough to know that it was. That's how you find out. And we were also the guys who, you know, I mean, it wasn't a serious film class. We went film one class. They were like, what was the film that got you here? I'm not. This is not a joke. Everybody said Empire Strikes Back.

I said Lawrence of Arabia and he said Clockwork Orange. We were the only two guys in the entire class that didn't say Empire Strikes Back. Really? Yeah, we were the only guys who actually knew about other movies besides Star Wars. Sure.

So we were like, I think we should hang out. And then, so then the first thing that you wrote together, was it just by happenstance? Like, I'm working on this, let me show it to you. And then you start working together or it's like you formulate an idea together? Yeah, we were just making short films that tickled us. And then...

We made a bunch of short film collections and they were, they did the circuit. Like the New York Underground Film Festival. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The New York Underground Film Festival. Which Top Phillips was on the. Yeah,

Yeah, Todd Phillips was on the board. He was running that. That makes sense. We knew we'd known Todd when we were just like pimp bully-faced college kids. We'd known Todd. Poured a pitcher of beer over his head, too. And so that got a lot of interest. And then somebody paid us to write a screenplay. They paid us $7,000. Wow. Yes. $7,000. That's huge. To write a screenplay. And we wrote a screenplay. And then he loved that. Gabe Sachs.

who's still working in the business and out there. And hey, Gabe, if you're listening. And then Gabe then paid us $10,000 to write another screenplay. And just basically whatever, we would just pitch it to him. We weren't union. So we had these things, and these things became our calling card. Yeah. Never got made. Yeah, never got made, but we built our career on just people pass them around and love the scripts. Because you guys knock them out quick? Like, what's the process? Back then, we did, yeah.

What is the process? How did you guys find, like, I want to do this and I'm going to do this? Like, how did you sort of delineate? Well, I just wanted to be a director and I didn't think, I never thought I could do comedy. I just didn't think it was appropriate for me.

And John convinced me that I was funny. You're funny enough. - Funny looking. - And there it is. I didn't know that's what he meant at the time. - Write what you know. - So wait, let me say this real quick, because one of the important things to realize when you were directed in a John and Glenn episode, and especially when it has like a bit or a comedy thing, like you wind up doing the line as written, and then they just stand next to the camera and they give you about,

17 different alts that they want you to try. And you just like take a breath and you do the alt. And they're getting, you can see them just like, okay, say this. Okay, say that. What I want to know is because it always seems you guys

No one's ever coming up at the same time to the actors. Do you guys talk at villages? Like who's going to talk to who? Or is it just the shorthand now to the point where you're like, oh no, I don't want to say this to so-and-so and I'm going to say this to so-and-so. We check with each other real quick. We usually, one of us has a better idea what they want. And we can kind of sense that like one's more passionate than the other and we back down. Yeah. And we, we,

Early on, we were really conscientious about not talking over each other. Yeah. Because directing teams are so rare in our early career. They were so rare, and people were weirded out by it. But now, there's lots of directing teams, and we have a bit of a reputation, so now we just, you know how it is now. We just come down and like, shut up, guys, shut up. I mean, we used to have a lobby. Just one of you talk. Lobby the DGA to shoot a movie or whatever.

- 'Cause they didn't wanna give you both credit. - Every time we'd have to sign a waiver or whatever. - Yeah, tell me about that because there are several directing duos. There's a lot more, I'd say, writing teams than there are directing teams. - Definitely. - Logistically speaking, the unions don't like that. They don't like to-- - They're okay. The DGA, the Directors Guild of America, is okay with it now. But if you, for example, Joel and Ethan Coen, their first five movies, I think,

are produced by Ethan, directed by Joel, because they would not give them shared credit, even though they directed them together. They were brothers. And they were brothers. They had worked together their whole life. And so the DGA was sort of... And when we joined as a team, we had to make a movie independently in order to qualify for...

- For the DGA, yeah, yeah. - To be a team. And we were grilled. We were like brought in and like, it was like the interrogation scene. - Interrogated or something? - About your knowledge of directing? - Just about like, you guys are gonna divide the work. - They wanted to just make sure that it's not. - They thought they were gonna divide the work. - It comes from a pure place, which was in the old days, you know, you would just like,

you know, some guy would put his mistress on as a writer or director and a thing. And so they're just trying to make sure of that. But the fact that we wrote together was helpful that we had been writing together for so long. So it didn't hurt that you were also mistresses to each other. Yes.

Yeah, well, we fooled them. And I think it worked. And now they don't ask anymore. Because they can't imagine. So we're now on two projects together. This is Us in Paradise. And I'm curious because you guys are writers. Is it a different approach to directing something that you've written versus taking somebody else's words and directing those? Like how do they compare and contrast?

I like both. Okay. It's a completely different thing when you've written it yourself. Yeah. I think. Right? I mean, it's, you just know it intimately. Sure. And then, I mean, Dan's a special case. We sort of speak fluent Fogelman. Sure. So there's not a lot of miscommunication. Right. And he's just like a collaborator to us. So he's just part of the team, I think. Or we're part of his team. And yeah.

I think it's a really interesting thing when you're directing somebody else's material because you have to, just like an actor, you have to really dig into every word and understand what this...

What do they want out of this? So, you know, we always do this session where we ask a bunch of stupid questions for like, you know, two hours. No such thing as stupid questions, guys. We know that. When you say this, is this a joke or is this a, you know, is this reference? You know, it's all that stuff. I find that interesting. What's interesting about when we write stuff, one of the reasons we bonded with Dan is

so strongly when we made Crazy Stupid Love was he was just like, oh, it's like if the scene wasn't working, he goes, oh, it's the writing. Just change it. And that's our attitude too. When it's our writing, we're just like, oh, this writing is terrible. Just change it. You guys got to, anything you can come up with is going to be better than this. Okay. And we have that attitude about our writing. Most writers are like, you know, they missed a comma. Ah.

You know? Very precious about it, sure. And they just want to, they feel like, you know, they feel like they're being robbed. We're just like, you know, obviously it's a disaster. The script is a disaster. And you actors are going to come along and save us. Yeah.

That's just our attitude. And Dan was the same way. And we were like, oh God, we thought we were the only ones that were like that. And he's like, oh, clearly there's gotta be something better. So we shoot scripted and then we like just to goof around. And it's nice to be a writer when you're directing and if the scene's not working, you get the scripted scene and then you're like, okay guys, you guys, let's figure it out. Let's figure it out. Let's just sit down and-

and figure out how to make this scene work. And then you just go back and you sort of improv and do a little thing and fix the scene. I'm curious how This Is Us came to you. I mean, obviously you guys have the relationship with Dan and I'm sure after like the success of Crazy Stupid Love, I'm sure you guys were all like, we've got to figure out something else to do together. But like, how did it come to you? And then you guys are also obviously executive producers on the show. So like, and you directed some of our most

seminal episodes and memorable episodes. The pool, I love. And the Super Bowl. So yeah, so I'm just curious to hear how it all... It was our ambition to kill you. Yes, it was. We begged.

Sorry. We were in Toronto, so we weren't able to do it. Dan was talking about This Is Us while we were shooting Crazy Stupid Love. Are you serious? As a movie idea, I believe. Yes, yes, yes. In my memory, it was just, I have this rough idea, and it was always the reveal at the end that you've been watching. Yeah.

I don't want to spoil it for anybody. An interconnected family. Spoiler alert. That was the big reveal. We always thought it was a good idea. And then he finally, while we were doing Whiskey Tango, Foxtrot, he sent us the script. And he's like, I don't know if you remember this. You know, this is an interesting story. Do you mind if I tell the story? Sure. We had just dropped out of them. I went on vacation with my five-year-old.

six-year-old son, and the phone was ringing off the hook. And I was on the phone just constantly. And the whole trip, and I wasn't able to engage with my son. I feel like I'm missing my son's childhood. And we were booked to go do a movie. And I said, you know what? We got to drop out of this movie because I just can't.

I can't leave my son. I can't, you know, I can't just not be part of him being raised, you know? And we quit the movie and a lot of people very angry with us. And Dan's script landed on our desk the next day. Wow. And it was shooting in LA. I mean, it's just like sometimes that's... And we wouldn't have been able to do it if we had kept that movie. So it was just...

Yeah. It was sort of like fell into place. It was like every, cause we were off season. So we weren't in that pilot casting madness. It was like, everybody was available. That's true. And,

And it was, yeah, and all just real. - And by the way, and this you can ask Dan about this, can you say we said this? - Okay. - More than anything Dan's ever written, the pilot of "This Is Us" is a real reflection of his whole life. - Yeah. - And you should pin him down about that because I mean, I read it and I'm like, "Dan, this is not a script, this is you."

Because so much of his backstory, and he won't want to talk about a lot of it, but it was a beautiful thing. It came straight from inside him and his heart. We knew him well enough at that point to really feel it. It was really great. That seems to be the, even for those of us who didn't know Dan's story,

when we read that script, that we knew that there was something different about that script. And everyone we've talked to has had that same response. Yeah. More "That Was Us" after these words from our sponsors.

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world building or whatnot, you know, setting the tone of how a show is going to be done. Like, does that feel, you have conversations obviously with the creator or whatnot, but in terms of like our show, just for folks who pay attention to that kind of thing, very few dolly shots. Mm-hmm.

It's pretty much handheld throughout the entire thing and whatnot. Was that like the verite was something that you guys had talked about, I'm sure, from the beginning and then ultimately decided on with Yasha. Just talk to us about decisions made in terms of establishing style. Yeah, we wanted it to feel kind of intimate and voyeuristic in these people's lives. And we had just experimented with a lot of handheld on Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.

And, you know, it was just a fast way to move. It was great for like throwing out ideas and redoing stuff and keeping it moving. And yeah, so we said there are no dollies allowed, no cranes allowed. No, you know, if you're shooting in a car, shoot in the car. Don't, you know, don't do the...

the rig, you know, and all that stuff. Just like make it real. Like a camera crew is following these people around and make it feel that way. It's okay if there's bumps and mistakes. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - And it just makes it feel like more intimate and real. - Like you're spying on someone. So we wanted the sense of like you're inappropriately dropping in on a conversation in the family. And so two eyes, always trying to do two eyes over and always trying to crowd the frame. So like you're holding a piece of like, the camera's over here.

you're shooting over someone's shoulder and you wanna hold a piece of that person in the shot. So there's always two people in the shot. And also in the cutting pattern, staying on the listener more than you normally would. So you see people reacting to dialogue as opposed to just, that was a big thing. And then the exact opposite for Paradise. Paradise is oftentimes you'll know two people

One eye, like profile. So you're not inside. This is a mystery. Yeah. You're not in. You're not in. You're not invited in. You're outside of this thing. Yeah, trying to figure it out. And you want in. You want more information. And this is like, we want to give you too much information. We want to make the audience feel uncomfortable that they're

dropping in on this comic. Being kept at bay. Yeah, like they were uncomfortable that they were being brought into this family and getting the secrets that they shouldn't be getting. And that's that voyeuristic thing. I think it worked. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like, you know, remember we would always put the camera on, you'd be, we were eventually told not to do that anymore, but we would let the actors drive.

- Yeah. - Remember this? - Yeah. - And we would sit, we'd be in the backseat with a camera. - Yeah. - Yeah. - And we would just shoot you in the backseat like that, like you were in a documentary or something. - Yeah. - It's almost like halfway through the show, like we stopped doing the classical driving. - Yeah, because the union, the union told us, no, no, no. - I think it's when I rolled the camera up in the window. - Weird. - And the window shattered. - Oh, was it you? - Yeah, it was me. - What did you do?

- Remember those? - It was so hot, we would roll the windows down between takes, me and Chrissy's window up front. Yasu was sitting in the backseat with the camera and he had- - They're like, "Okay, rolling." - He had rolled his window down so he could fit the back of the camera out the window. And when I went to roll our windows out- - He rolled his too. - I hit the wrong switch and all I heard Yasu very quietly go, "Oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no." Boom! The whole window exploded on the back of him.

I remember this now. Yeah, yeah. It was about then that we stopped letting the actors drive. The camera union. The operators, the operating union. Yeah, yeah. They were not happy. Well, it is dangerous. I wasn't in the next three or four episodes. That's for sure. And you're not belted in. You know, you could turn an airbag off or whatever. Yeah. The rule now is as long as you control the street or you control the traffic around, you can do it. But back then, we were concerned.

it's just wild west let me ask you guys this because i and you guys tell me if you get the same sort of thing i know chris we've talked about this a little bit people always talk about how sad the show is and how it makes them cry or whatnot i think we've had this conversation i was like

but I thought the show was a comedy. Like when I first read it, I was like, this thing is so funny. - There's so much levity. - So much levity to it. So I'm curious in terms of tone for you guys, what did you first clock when you read it and what is it that you wanted to come across as you established the tone of the show? - I mean, it's the way it was written. I mean, it's in there, it's in the script. And we'd always done a lot of stuff as writers where we were trying to mix tones like Dan does.

really well so that's why we wanted to do crazy stupid love when he wrote it because like this is basically the style yeah that we we do yeah that's a good point I mean that's a good point because Dan and and Glenn and I were doing mixed tone and we sort of found each other right and we were like oh wow we're doing the same thing yeah and that and the show was mixed tone right yeah definitely yeah and I think probably that earlier seasons were a little played a little more with levity but

than later because i think the storylines just had to get heavier just to keep you invested so like you know because like justin hysterical it's just hysterical in those first seasons and he was this tragic thing and he still has his moments but right uh it's that's just the nature of series it's also kind of a trajectory of life in general it all starts out so fun so

It all starts out so fun, so light. And then as the seasons roll by... It gets darker. Everybody goes to a funeral and they're talking to a friend they haven't seen in a long time and then they laugh and they look around and they're like, oh, I just laughed at a funeral, but that's life. Life is like crying and laughing at the same time. And...

And mechanistically, storytelling, it's the rents. We call it the rents. Like you're telling a story, because this show was about surprises, always was about big surprises. That was part of the dynamic of the show, was we're trying to hide things from the very beginning and conceal things and then surprise people. We're in a different time frame, whatever it is. And so what you do is you make people laugh, and they stop investigating the show. They just kind of roll with it. They laugh, and they forget about it, and they forget that maybe

they would have, if you wouldn't have gone for that laugh, they would have kind of made it, figured out what you were doing, figured out the tricks. But the laugh, we would call it the rinse. It would give you like a restart. Ah, interesting. And then, and then so like a couple of laughs and then suddenly you reveal it's, you know. Yeah,

randall's an old man and it's the future right you know that kind of stuff yeah that was like and that was the rents you know it's like the rents they call it we call it sorry to jump into the super bowl of it all because we were just talking about that and we're going to be talking about that episode with dan in the next little bit but um sterling was was asking just about the practicality of the fire and i was trying to explain to him i was like we built a set out and like palmdale was

Like, where was that? And like you built, we built the facade of the house. And I was like, a lot of that, a lot of the fire was practical. And obviously you guys can speak way better to all of this, but I'm like, we were in the freezing cold with like fire around us, like doing stuff in the bedroom. Milo was in the hallway with that mattress. That's what I wanted to know. Like,

- Fire in the house in particular, when he's going to get the kids, et cetera, what's practical, what's CGI like? - The house is made completely out of fire resistant material. And then they pipe it like a barbecue. It's just all these pipes. The whole thing is all these things and they turn it on and light them up just like a barbecue, like your barbecue kind of thing. And that's what it is. So it's like, turn it on, turn it off.

And nothing will keep burning. If you keep it on too long, it'll burn. But they were managing that. But the fire was there. It was hot. Oh, it was really hot. These kind of portable flame bars that you put them in front of the camera. Since we were on sort of longer lenses.

kind of compress everything so it looks like Milo's right in it. - Okay, okay. 'Cause it does look like he's right in it. - No, it's good. It shoots really well. That's the great thing about shooting on long lenses is it makes-- - How much planning? Like, is it more than the average,

That was a lot of planning. I'm sure. We had to board that whole sequence just to know what we could get away with and not get away with. And we were running out of time. Board means storyboard. We storyboarded. So everything was, every shot was a picture in the storyboard that we could reference. Those art classes were coming back now. Yeah, exactly. Well, it's just interesting. We went to art school and we like to complain about we were the worst kids in the class, but the,

those lessons we learned in our foundation classes which were drawing light color design and 3d we use every day when we direct so it was like it's like you know it's a good thing yeah but we uh you know we mainly was about building that set and making it really safe and making it

filled with gas elements, just like you have at the bottom of your barbecue. - Sure. - A gas pipe with all these holes in it that just starts pumping out gas. - So was crew masked in terms of like, so they're not inhaled too much gas and like the actors were- - No, it's ventilated. - Yeah, the smoke was created separately.

So the gas would come as a clean flame like gas does. It burns clean. And then the smoke would come from a smoke machine. So you have two separate things. And the smoke isn't smoke. It's that kind of oil-based stuff. It's not really smoke. It's like Roscoe Fogger. Bodega incense. Are we lowering people down for real, for real? Off the roof? Yeah. Off the roof. We built a roof set for...

you know it was elevated but it wasn't yeah real it wasn't as high as yeah okay we had we had a uh was it a cherry picker or something we had

We had a thing that they, it was a cherry picker, that came up to meet the roof line and then they actors climbed in. Just sort of jumped out of frame. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Got it. Into the cherry picker. Okay. It was fun. It was a lot of fun. It was fun. But it gave a lot of restrictions. It was freezing. I remember that. It was freezing. It was so cold. And it was very cold. Because there was no roof. So you were just like out and the exposed elements outside. Oh, it's open up top. Yes.

- Yeah. - Talking all, okay, I got you, I got you, I got you. - Yeah, there's no, 'cause, so there's no, you can never build up carbon dioxide or whatever. It is so much fun. It was like those kind of things, like the White House set in Paradise. It's just like, it's just like, it's just a thrill. - A kid in a candy store, yeah. - Yeah, you're like, this is why we became directors. - Okay, so wait, I'm just, chronology, you did one and two of "This Is Us" and four. - No, no, no, one. - Just one? - Ken did two.

- Then they did four. - Three and four. - Three and four? - Yes. - And then second season too. - The pool was four. What was right before the pool?

- It was going back in time, I believe, like bringing, like the babies had just come, we were taking the babies home to the hospital and I follow William on the bus. - Okay, so there's this, 'cause you said Afro-American, I was like, "All right, Mandy Moore, I got you." - That's what you remember? - No, because at the time, like we've been so many things, it's been like, you know. - Oh gosh. - 1, 3, 4, 16, which is Memphis.

Oh, it's 16. Wow. It's 16. And then come back for 214, which we were just talking about. The Super Bowl. Is that it? That's it. I think that might be it. Yeah. That's it. Then you guys got busy doing, creating, doing all kinds of stuff, right? Yeah.

I got very sad when I realized that they were going. They weren't coming back. I was like, what? I was like, what do you mean? You're going to do something else. You're not with us all the time. But Dan always would call us and go like, hey, you know, got this episode coming, you know, this Vietnam thing. And it's a lot of VFX. Can you come back? No, thanks. And we were just not available. But he was always.

And we really tried to make it work out for-- - The end. - For the end. And we just couldn't. Our schedule kept sliding. You sign a contract, and they make you do it. - I got you. - You know how it is. - I do indeed. - We would have loved to come back. We would have loved to come back every season, but it just didn't work out. We had to move heaven and earth just to go to the 100th episode.

- Party. - Party in the parking lot. - Yeah. - During COVID. - Were you glad you did? - That was quite a party. - It was a good party. - It was. - It was a good party. - There was things that looked like cake. - Remember that? - Yeah. - They were like boxes of crayons and-- - Is it cake? - Is it cake? - Yeah. - Oh, it was. - Oh, it was, is it cake? - Are there specific memories out of 1, 3, 4, 16, 1:16 and 2:14 that come to mind specifically for you guys? - Well, for the Super Bowl episode, you're at the,

can we talk about so wait hold on wait wait because we're going to talk about this in 214 too you ask them the question you ask the question you know what never mind no no no no no you can say it you can say it no go ahead and say it sterling i don't understand i know what he's going to say well the scenes with you with mandy we wouldn't you know yeah experiencing

witnessing Jack passing away. He can't even say it. He can't even say it. I mean, it was really, it was like the, I mean, I'm sure it was a really hard day for you. Yeah. We just felt horrible making you go through that over and over again. And we just kept saying, we gotta get, you know. Because we came up with some tricky little directory shot. You remember that? Yeah. Yes. We put a blue screen behind you so that we would shoot the,

the people running to the emergency room to save Jack in slow motion. Yeah. So that you would be talking on the phone and, and you'd see these people running in slow motion behind you. And so like, you're, you're spilling, you're spilling your guts. So you wanted like, yeah. So we felt, we felt bad about it. And the moment with the, with the candy bar,

was so fraught. It's such a hard thing to pull off. He's so good. And it became, we were so concerned about making sure it worked that we probably did it too long. No, no, no. I mean, we got there, we did it. Chris and I say this all the time.

It was the best acting moment in the show. Oh, gosh. Mandy Moore. Mandy Moore. You guys, please. When you go into the hospital room. Well, because you guys tell them because she didn't know he was going to be on the bed, right? I didn't. Right. Instead of show your POV of him, better to see him in the reflection. Yeah. Yes. And that way we could just hold it.

And it won't feel gratuitous. So when you guys see Mandy Moore walks into the room, she sees Jack and we as an audience in the reflection of the door, in the glass pane of the door, see his body laying down in the bed. And that way we could just

on you the whole time. Yeah. And you could just do your thing. But because of that, it was like getting the timing right, getting the... It's so funny. It became a thing. But it was really, it was an intense day. Yeah, yeah. It was intense, yeah. Just like Memphis. Oh, God. But we talked about, by the way, we talked about that making the pilot. We talked about...

like, well, what are we gonna do? How are we gonna reveal the actual death? And we were sort of on the pilot. Dan was like, what am I gonna do? - Wow, you were already talking about that. - And we're sort of like trying to figure it out. And so like the kind of the beginnings of it were happening while we were shooting the pilot on the set. - The rumination is long. - Yeah. - But then, yeah, I mean, I have to, and then Memphis. - Memphis. - That was, and then dear old Ron, you know what I mean? And just like,

So many great, remember like the improv scenes. You guys, they found the drinking fountains and they're like, look guys, there's these two drinking fountains. And it kind of has this feeling of like, you know, one was a colored drinking fountain, one was a white, so only drinking fountain. I was like, let the camera roll, bro. Let's go ahead. Let's do it. And we would have so much fun. And Ron was like, yeah, I used to try to drink here and everything. I was like, well, I was raised by white people.

Let's go here, I'm gonna show you. I'm drinking at the Tar Fountain, baby. It's my time. This is my time. But like, they would just find things. Like, it felt very guerrilla. - Yeah, it was. - We were a really small crew. We're driving around. We did a whole, you know, 80 takes of a scene and just improv.

driving from one location to another. We just put the camera in the car, drove across Memphis. These two just kept it going and we used it all. And remember the barbershop? I do remember the barbershop too. We went to a real barbershop in Memphis and just let it roll. Really? Yeah. That was so much fun because you're not paying attention to any continuity or anything. You're just out there. We went there on a location scout and we were talking to the Memphis film board person

And we're like, was the big hotel where the ducks play a big part, the Peabody Hotel, they bring the ducks down and there's a guy. And that's part of the story of the episode. We said, was it restricted back when this would have happened? Would black people have been allowed in here? And she said, well, I know they had a colored day at the zoo. And it just hit me like a ton of bricks. I'm like, they kept black kids away from the zoo.

- One day a year. - And it just hit me like a ton of, and I'm like, we need to address this. We need to make this part of the show because it's like kids wanting to see animals. - Sure, sure. - You know? - God bless you. - Yeah, and we just made it, it was great. - And to do that with Ron, and Ron was sick at the time. - Yeah, he was. - Yeah. - And it was all very loaded. - No, there was crying in the podcast.

- There's crying all the time. - Damage system. - All the time. - We try to keep it to a minimum, but it does happen from time to time. - Speaking of crying in the podcast, my Aunt Rita, remember you did that video for me for my Aunt Rita? She was very sick on death's door. Sully did a video for her.

She just had her 92nd birthday. She showed that video to all her friends. Look at you. That's amazing. She did a turnaround when that video came out. It was the video? Yeah. It was the video. She's the biggest This Is Us fan. My God. I'm so glad to hear that. It was such an amazing experience and to have you guys like really set, like,

directing a pilot is it daunting you guys have done several you've done your own you've done other people's or whatnot but like knowing that you are sort of establishing the track that is going to be what the show is going to be riding on like you take it seriously but like is it scary or you feel pretty comfortable at this point that's what we like about it i i think uh because we don't we

pretty much just direct pilots, right? I mean-- Yeah, yeah. And we try to get the show up on its feet. And then we try to like-- then the show has a life of its own. Because creating the world is the fun.

- The fun part, the style, for me at least. - Yeah. - But we were, you know, "Parenthood" was going off the air. - Right. - And we were like, oh, well, we were doing our pilot and like, maybe we can get that little slot of the family show. - Yeah. - And Dan and Glenn and I were making jokes on set about "Dromedy Con," like, oh, this show's gonna be a giant hit. It's gonna be drama, like making fun of the fact, like nobody watches "Dromedy" in large numbers. It's not gonna be a thing. - Right.

And then the show came out and it was very successful. And we're like, what? Who knew? So you had no anticipation. No, no. We thought we wanted our little corner of TV to do the things that we love, which is dramedy, dramatic comedy. And we were like, oh, we just want our little corner of Hollywood to do our thing with Dan and Dan and us. And then it came out and America was hungry for this show. You never know. But you didn't feel like the pilot, like, oh, there's

- No, everybody loved it. I've never before had a studio and network so supportive of something, but at the same time being convinced it's never gonna get picked up. That was the entire time, we're like, we know this is never gonna get picked up, so let's do whatever the hell we want.

-That's amazing. -Because... I don't remember if it was the network or the studio, but they were just like, "Dan, there's no way you can do this every week." Yeah. It seems unsustainable. Like, you know, and the twists and the things. And...

And he was like, he really worked hard at convincing them, like, we can do this and this and this and this, and they can keep going. But they were not convinced until it was, I think, undeniably successful debut that they would go through with it.

I mean, because the joke about Dramedy Con was that it was like, because that's like, you know, all the only thing that's popular is things that have like conventions like Marvel and Star Wars. Like, you know, they're like and like there's going to we're going to do Dramedy Con because that's such a ridiculous concept. It's a really good idea. Tonight in the James Brooks Pavilion. We're going. We were like, and this is just stuff we were doing. That is so my cup of tea. I was like, I want Dramedy Con today. Cameron Crowe-thon. Yeah. Yeah.

And so we were joking about it and then Dan had to leave town and he says, can you guys take over? We're going to do, what is that? Paley Fest. The Paley Fest at the theater where they do the Oscars, the Kodak Theater. And we walk out with the cast and it's

packed with thousands of people and they're all on their feet. And I'm like, and I'm texting with Dan. I'm like, Dan, it's dramedy con. - That's basically what Paley Fest is for whatever the show is. - I love that Dan probably didn't even have to be out of town. He just left 'cause he didn't wanna do Paley Fest. He was like, you guys do it. - More That Was Us after this short break.

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Give us something that only you guys would know that he would be comfortable with you sharing about Dan. And then one thing he would be uncomfortable with you sharing.

with his incredible intelligence and wit. Right? Like he always, you know he's a smart guy. You know he's incredibly funny. But it almost takes like grief. And good looking. And his cheeks are some of my favorite things in the world. But like you really get a sense of his heart when you read what he writes. That's right. Right? Like he doesn't lead with sentimentality.

Like, I think we've seen him cry once. Yeah. Like, when we had that moment during season six when he brought us all out to the place. Yeah, yeah. And, like, he sort of, like, let it down for a second. For a second. For a brief second. For a second. So I'm curious from you guys and the collaborations over the course of now three projects, like, what have you learned about the guy that you think that he wouldn't share himself but wouldn't mind? Because we're going to ask him the same thing about you. I'll ask him. So, yeah.

He makes fun of us mercilessly. - He makes fun of everybody. - That's his love language. - He's excellent at it. - That is his love language. - It is his love language. - I'll come in. I came in the other day, this was a while ago, and I was crying about how much I love my wife.

And he just, and you know, most people would be like, any of you would go, oh, that's so sweet. Anybody, and he was just like, oh, you wimp. Came after me so hard. And you just love him for it. Yeah, that's him. I mean, he's got this unbelievable reservoir of,

emotion he does you know and it all and his stuff it's just so lovely and warm but uh even when we're doing a thriller yeah you know what i mean yeah and uh and so you know but it's just like he likes to save it he likes that well he just likes he's you know i remember one though it's just something fine i don't know if you'll think this is funny i remember once we were like oh we're working with tina fey yeah she's really great she's probably the funniest person i've ever met and he was like

- What? - Offended? - Definitely. - Well, that's the thing about- - We'll see about that. - What the? - And again, most people just go like, yeah, I've heard it. - Yeah, she is hilarious. - And that's why you guys disappeared after season two. - The thing is, he is very, like what I love about him is that,

he has a very healthy sense of self. He does. But it's not something that's ostentatious or whatever. You kind of have to get close to him and be like, oh, this dude knows he's kind of that dude. But he doesn't really share that part with everybody. You know what I mean? I think that's a good observation. I think, you know, because he's, you know, he's,

Yeah. You know, he's got good swag, but at the same time, he knocks himself down at every opportunity. Better than anybody. Yeah. He's trying to

You know, he doesn't want to go too far. He has a moment. He's trying to stay connected to the streets. You guys are both through episode two. He has this thing, and I think he puts this in Cal's voice, but it's really him, where he says, like, you know, he was so excited to find out that he was better at basketball than you. And I don't think he's talking about Xavier. I think he's talking about SKB. And...

In my mind, because he'll talk trash. He'll be like, Sterling, I'm actually pretty good. I'm like, bro, I'm going to treat you like an unloved stepchild. I will beat your ass up and down the court. And he's like, we'll see. And he gets so sort of snarky cool about it. He's like, I'm better than you think I am, Sterling. He slides it in there. It's fun. You're right, though. He's in every...

thing he's ever written is there's one character that is dan yeah it's it's cal and in in paradise it's uh milo

Milo's character in This Is Us originally was a little more like, you know, schlubby, minch, you know. I think Dan is actually more Randall. I think he's more Randall, to be honest with you. Yeah, I see that. Oh, there's Randall in there, too. There's both, for sure. Yeah, I think he's all over that thing. But then he did that movie, The Guilt Trip.

Yeah, that's obvious. So, Brogan is, you know, him and his mother, and everything he writes has something. Yeah. Who is he in Cars, I wonder? Mater. He's Mater. He's Mater. Get her done! Mostly Mater. That's his catchphrase. That's Dan. Get her done. Get her done.

Do you guys want to talk a little bit? Obviously, you're working on a project that I know about. It's called Paradise, what have you. We had a very good, solid first season. Congratulations. These guys directed one and two. They directed seven and eight. So they opened up the show. They closed out the show. It was so nice to know that you were in familiar hands. Sure. For me, you know, stepping into this whole thing. And the cats are...

What I love about people who know what they're doing, right, is that there's never a sense of I have to be in total control of everything at all at once. Like if I had an idea or threw it out, they'd be like, all right,

And their conversation occurs in such a natural and easy way that we just sort of like move forward together. And you guys are amazing, but you're also really amazing at making everybody feel as if they have a seat at the table. So I just want to say thank you for that. Oh, that's very nice. This is actually my question because collaborative seems to be the word. Like you guys have this balance, right? Where...

It's built that collaboration is built into your creative process just by being a team, a partner partnership. Right. But you're also very well known for partnering the genres like you were saying, dramedy, drama and comedy. Yeah. But I also felt like when you guys were directing, I felt empowered in a way that I did not feel empowered

anywhere else and that's not to put anyone else down it was just a different vibe and and say again soda bar is a hack yes that's right that's right this is what this is what i wanted to say i wanted to bring you guys here so that you can hear me say yeah what has he done it's hard it's hard to explain in our industry

that that television specifically is maybe the most collaborative form of creation it has to it makes it it it has it quote unquote has to be but it isn't always no it can be it can be very isolating yeah you can feel left out you can feel put down and that goes for anybody not just actually you feel i've seen directors feel i've seen writers feel that way um and so i i

i'm wondering how you got there to this point where where you were so inclusive and so welcoming yeah because that was what sterling was saying about your show now paradise because it's not i'll tell you it's not as common as i would hope that it would be yeah i know your answer which is who give his answer yeah give me his answer and then he'll give you and i have a different uh well my answer is you know we we everything we do is collaboration we're a team

and so we don't get coffee without collaborating you know what i mean like it's so that we just try to open

that world of collaboration and bring people in. And join us in the collaboration and try to find the strength of the collaboration, you know, and make people feel welcome to share their ideas. I mean, 'cause I just think things get better. Somebody has to be there to, the buck has to stop somewhere, obviously, otherwise you're never gonna make your day. But you know, everybody bring your ideas, you know? Let's play, let's play. - I'll say also, and this is something we share with Dan is,

We are like editing room creatures. We've edited a few of our films ourselves. I came up as an editor, John was in post-production as well. But John actually taught me how to edit on video when we were in college, I remember. That whole process when we're sitting there and we're throwing stuff out, you'll notice I'll stop in the middle of a sentence.

And then I'll go, that's me editing in my head. And I'm going, okay, we could do this. We could do this. Okay. And then I'm thinking back to like the six takes ago and like, okay. And that's a,

It's important. And Dan's that way too. Like we can have this shorthand with Dan where he's just like, just get like, just get a shot of this. Right. You know, cause, and I don't have to ask why, cause I know exactly why he's asking. Cause he's like, cause he needs something to cut to, to get this or he needs a transition. Yeah. And I think that's a,

And you have to collaborate with editors and all these things. And you have to be able to get all that stuff out. I felt trusted. There's an extreme amount of trust involved in working with you guys. Get me that Irish guy from the Knick. If he can do an American accent, the job is his.

A few seasons in, I finally asked her, I'm like, "How did I get here?" And it was because of you two, and you two had seen The Nick. They said, "You were available." I said, "That's it." -And I thought he was-- -Are you serious? Yes. And I was like, "What?" The Nick is like my favorite show ever. Yeah! But my question was, "You watched that and saw Toby?" And I was like, "Why?" I would never ask that to anybody else.

I don't want to know why, but it was not, it wasn't the character so much. It was just the performance. You're completely lovable on that in the neck. You're like a strong, lovable guy. Yeah. That's some questionable things. There was, when you guys, when you guys left, I remember the last episode that you guys did because it was like, I had that realization like, wait, what do you mean? What do you mean you're going to do something else? In season one, because you, are you in 214? Yeah, you are in 214. Yeah. Okay. And,

And during my last scene, you both separately were like, just so you know, as you go forward in this show,

Do your thing. Yeah, you guys gave him permission to be like, you're going to know this better than any director that comes in. All of you are going to know these characters better than anybody. And I just, I don't know, that was kind of a big moment for me in my career. I have a question for you guys about that, about episodic directors. Yeah. Because we've never directed an episode of TV that wasn't something that we did the pilot of or something like that.

But like for me, like I said, creating the world is the fun part. Helping create the characters and all that stuff and finding the guardrails and all that. But what does not appeal to me is to be an episodic director is to come in and knowing, oh, these people have been doing this for two seasons. And I have no authority, really, to tell them what to do. So is there...

an air of collaboration coming from your side to entertain things or you just want to like

Just trust us. I've often thought about that too. I'm like, I would find it so hard to be a director going onto someone else's set and just like jumping in with like a well-oiled machine that a crew and a cast and everything knows everything far better than you ever could. But what do you mean? Like in terms of us as actors, like what... I always, I feel like I always, because we had like the Ken Olens of the world that were sort of there as supervising director, producers and stuff.

That like being able to lean on them when there was a director that would only come in for one episode and then maybe never was asked back or couldn't come back or whatever. I feel like leaning on a Ken or leaning on the writer of the episode was something that...

As time went on, I mean, Chris and I often talk about this, like we had never done TV before. This is us. And like, I didn't understand episodic, like how things just keep going on and we just keep doing this. There was so much like to learn. Yeah. But I found that that was the most helpful was leaning on Ken was leaning on the writer of the episode. And then Dan was always available and Isaac and Elizabeth were always available. But yeah.

Yeah, it's just the relationship with the episodic director. I'm just not quite sure how it works. For our listeners...

The reason why there's a different director for every episode of television, usually, is because there's all of this prep work that goes into each episode and post-production. And you can't do both. And you can't do both while also shooting. And so there has to be a rotation. And so you get to work with all of these wonderful guest directors who come in and do their episode. But that being said, you get into season three, four, five, six of a TV show,

And they've watched a couple episodes, but they're not-- As adept, like steeped in the knowledge of the-- - They usually watch the pilot. - And history. And if they do their homework, they'll try-- I've heard of directors that are like, "I've watched all the way up until my episode," which is impressive. And their job-- And read the scripts of the season. Their job on a very rudimentary, and this is me minimizing it terribly, is to get coverage.

enough coverage that when they pass that coverage on to the creator of the show who's gonna edit it together, he has every option he could want or she could want to put an episode of television together. So they're getting different colors and different levels and different emotions and they're honestly getting way more options than someone like you or Ken Olin would get. Yeah.

because they are covering their asses. And I feel like most people that were on our show, that were asked to come in and direct the show, were excited to be there. They were fans of the show, so we were able to just sort of match the energy that they brought. When we were early in the process, when we were doing the pilot and everything, it's like we're trying everything. We go through that process. And then there's this wonderful moment

where you're like, oh, they know, they know their character. You see it click in, there's like a scene or a thing. You're like, oh, there it is. - Yeah. - Remember on Paradise, I said, that's as positive as you get. - Yeah. - You remember that? - I do. - And like, and so when we're trying to create a new character, we're just old friends and we're just like, that's all I, I think that may be the only note I gave you. - I think Glenn on a phone call said, he goes like, you know,

The too happy stuff doesn't play as well as the more somber. And I was like, OK. That's years of trust. Sure. And we shorthand each other. Yeah. I will say, that was probably one of my biggest growing areas as a professional on this show was to allow collaboration with a guest director who I maybe didn't think

knew as much as I did. - Yeah. - Right. - I hear that. - I'm serious about this scene, about these two people, about where we've been and where we're going, like all these things. - And trying to understand where they were coming from and meet in the middle, I guess. - And I certainly got a little like resistant.

Pardon me, sir, madam. I'll take it from here. You once told me a fascinating story that I think is maybe germane here, which is you once told me a story where you were in Chicago, on the Play Chicago, the musical Chicago, on Broadway. And you were taking over for somebody who had been there. And you were like, you had two...

You came in for rehearsals one day, you said, and you were able to watch it as much. You could come and get a free ticket and watch it as much as you want. But basically...

All these people who have been doing this play forever and ever, you just come on one day. And you're there and you're singing and dancing in front of thousands of people. And I'm like, that's how those directors feel. And to allow collaboration like that, to let them do their job and to not be a pain in the ass of like, all right, you want to try something different? Great, let's try something different. Like, just to allow collaboration.

I definitely needed to learn how to do that more. - You know what's interesting? Like, I feel like we knew our characters, but I'm always,

I would hate it, honestly, when the directors felt afraid to give me direction. Because I always feel like an outside eye is going to be able to contribute at least a thought or consideration that I may not have had myself. So like I would get the sense sometimes, especially in later seasons and whatnot, where folks would be like, just good. And I'd be like, okay. And then I would actually have to be like, this is what I'm going to do on this take.

I will direct myself. I was like, okay, I got that one. On this one, I know that I could possibly do so-and-so. And then I do that too, because I didn't want them... I always want them to feel like they have their leg to stand on. And then usually on the guest director, and you guys could comment on this too,

You're going to get the coverage, but you're probably going to have an idea on a scene or two. Maybe you have like five or six throughout the course of it. I'd like to do this shot. I'd really like to do this shot. You know what I'm saying? And so you try to get them all the coverage or whatnot. So it's like, can I please do this shot? You know what I mean? And then it's usually a fight with Yasu, who is our DP. Because the DP kind of supersedes the guest director at a certain point because of the continuity. And I even...

Even on a new show that I do, like I had to witness, oh, please children, can we just get along? Let this person have their shot. Just, you know what I'm saying? And now as a producer, I'm like, oh God, the kids aren't getting along. Usually it's a time constraint thing. It's like, you know, you gotta get, you know, good guys are doing this every day. We can't be doing long hours. Yeah.

-Do you-- This is a completely different subject. I just was reminded of something when we were talking about John pouring the beer on my head. -We're back to that. -Being in a moment where things could go really wrong, I don't remember what episode it was, but it was the one where Justin was going to be in some bachelor auction. -Bachelor auction, okay. -I just rushed up to you and I went,

tell me what you think of this. A black man isn't gonna be envious of getting auctioned off. - Yes, yes! - And it came out of my mouth and I went, oh my God.

This could go really wrong. It was at that time that I thought Glenn Ficarra was black. I was like, he just passing over here. No, but that was another episode. That was the episode because we had Deja and he was going to the thing that Sophie had asked him to come to and he wound up bailing on her. And that's when you were throwing out all the alts to Justin. So there was one more episode. Oh, so that was like

Two something. Yeah, that was probably the last one. Yes, it had to be two something because she didn't come until two. We just talked about it. Yeah, the intro and lyric was our, yeah, that was it. There you go. What a find. I totally remember that. I was like, no black man wants to be auctioned off. That was the line that you gave me and I was like, it's a good line. That's what we did.

I mean, I've known you for years. Is this okay? But yeah. It's kind of like when you live on that comedy line, you're just like, you gotta try some shit. You gotta try it. Sterling, you know what I think a black man would say here? If I could. I just remember that nanosecond felt like a year. As I contemplated it, I said...

No, it's good. It's been nothing but a delight. Gentlemen, thank you for making time for us, for coming in, for reminiscing over the good old days as they're about to go off and start planning episode 201 of Paradise. This is John Requa and Glenn Ficarra. Thank you.

Yeah. We always said one thing before I go. We always said what the great thing about being a director for Glenn and I and why I think we were inclusive and make people collaborate, help make people feel free to collaborate is because when actors are in it. Yeah. For me and Glenn, it's like we're like a kid at a magic show. And you guys were the best magic show of all. Those early days. Oh, gosh. Appreciate it. Very kind. Thank you very much. We'll be back with more. That was us.

That Was Us is filmed at Rabbit Grin Studios and produced by Rabbit Grin Productions. Music by Taylor Goldsmith and Griffin Goldsmith. That was us.