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restrictions, and important safety information. Brock,

1:27

what's your favorite Thanksgiving side dish? Probably

1:32

mashed potatoes. There's a yeah.

1:34

Oh, that was a look. I

1:36

saw a look. That was a look

1:39

We in the Charlelly household we

1:41

make them with a little bit of

1:43

sour cream. We'd like we shush

1:45

them up. It's not just like mashed

1:47

potatoes. There's a there's a whole the

1:50

whole thing going on behind the scenes.

1:52

That makes it good. whole mashed potato journey, wow. There

1:54

is, yeah, the secret recipe and a lot

1:56

of times it's just measuring with your heart

1:58

with like cream cheese, sour cream, all the things,

2:00

yeah. Oh wow. Maybe not sour cream, maybe it's cream

2:02

cheese, I don't know. You have to ask Priscilla, you're

2:04

gonna have to go into the Charlele family recipe, roll

2:07

the decks and pull out the card. Mashed

2:09

potatoes are hands down my favorite or if

2:11

they make a, if it's a vegetarian stuffing,

2:13

the problem with stuffing is that sometimes it

2:16

is literally stuffed in a turkey. But

2:19

if they make it with like a vegetable

2:21

broth instead of like actual turkey, any meat

2:23

juices, I do love a stuffing. Oh, good.

2:25

With a, you know, with a good amount

2:27

of seasoning, do you like the, um,

2:29

the cranberries in there? The little,

2:31

uh, crazy cranberries in there. Oh,

2:33

yeah. I think cranberries are so gross,

2:35

like dried cranberries. And I think

2:37

cranberry sauce is disgusting. I really don't

2:39

like basically all Thanksgiving food, but.

2:41

the two, that's why I gasped when

2:43

you said mashed potatoes because I

2:45

was like there's only one that is

2:47

reliable for me and it's the

2:49

mashed potatoes. Okay, good. So the fact

2:51

that that's your favorite, oh my

2:53

god. Well, Eden,

2:56

this is all to

2:58

say, we're recapping episode

3:00

209 Thanksgiving II with

3:02

our, a repeat customer,

3:04

I think our second of

3:07

the series, G. Charles Wright. Can't

3:09

wait, all that and so

3:11

much more. So let's get to

3:14

middling. Welcome

3:30

to Middling with Eden and Brock, where

3:32

Eden and I break down an episode

3:34

of the middle each and every week.

3:37

Now, Eden. I'm so... Oh, go. Yeah,

3:39

I know. You were anxious. Go, go.

3:43

I'm so excited to be here with

3:45

you, but I'm so excited. I'm

3:47

really, really excited. The sweatshirts that we

3:49

teased. They are rolling in either

3:52

available and they've been on the market.

3:54

The orders have been flying in. It's

3:56

so exciting to see. And

3:59

what Eden and I stated, Eden,

4:01

by what date do they need

4:03

to have their order and buy?

4:05

April 25th, the 25th of April.

4:07

which is this Friday, hello. And

4:10

if you do that by April

4:12

25th, the reason you'd wanna do it

4:14

by April 25th this Friday is

4:17

because then you'd get a little handwritten,

4:19

personalized, little something, little thank you

4:21

from Eden and I. Of course, you

4:23

can order after the fact, but

4:25

if you want that little something special

4:27

from Eden and I, it's gotta

4:29

be by this Friday. and most importantly

4:31

just remember when you check out

4:33

you must click share my full name

4:35

and contact information with the seller

4:37

we love bonfire we love that they

4:39

they don't share your information ever

4:42

so If you want us to

4:44

send you something and also maybe pop by

4:46

for a little visit visit. Yeah. Um, we

4:48

need to have access to your shipping

4:51

address. We do. We need access because bonfire.

4:53

That's what bonfire. That's how they, that's

4:55

how they're able to send us, me and

4:57

Eden, your addresses. If you consent to

4:59

us getting that information, but that's bonfire .com

5:01

slash middling. I have to say, Eden, I've

5:03

been wearing that sweatshirt. It's my new

5:05

favorite sweatshirt to watch TV in. I cannot

5:07

believe you just said that. I was

5:10

going to say that. I was going to

5:12

say, are you, did you just fold

5:14

it and put it away? Cause I was

5:16

like, there's no way she's going to

5:18

be so heck every day of her life

5:20

in her house. I, it is my

5:22

new house sweatshirt. You know, I will not,

5:24

I will absolutely not, um, you know,

5:26

wear it outside. That's like,

5:29

that's just asking for, like people don't

5:31

really recognize me, but if I go

5:33

out and that sweatshirt, that's an invitation.

5:36

That's crazy. The bright yellow. It's

5:38

so funny. I walked upstairs after recording

5:40

and Nick goes, oh wow, did you get

5:42

a new sweatshirt? And I was like,

5:44

yeah, it's March for me and it's March

5:46

for the podcast. And he goes, that's

5:48

a really good color on you. And

5:51

I was like, I cannot tell if

5:53

you're being sarcastic. And he was like, because he's

5:55

not seen the show, but he's now watching season

5:57

two with me. So he knows the sweatshirt. But

5:59

I don't know. I was like, I guess it

6:01

is. But if you You great

6:04

in any color. Let's be honest. Thank

6:06

you. Brock stop it.

6:08

Did we ever find out if he was

6:10

being sarcastic? He had to be being genuine.

6:12

He was totally genuine. Oh, and that's why

6:14

I love him. And then I was like

6:16

oh is this because he was like oh

6:18

because you wore a sweatshirt like that color

6:20

are you weird about it? I

6:24

mean, kind of, but honestly, I'll take a compliment from you. Any

6:26

day. Any day. But it's

6:28

a little piece of the middle. Again,

6:30

Ian and I always like connecting with

6:33

you guys in any sort of way.

6:35

And we're wearing the sweatshirt. And

6:37

I hope whenever you wear your sweatshirt,

6:39

or if you want to buy the t

6:41

-shirt, or there's a crew neck sweatshirt, they

6:43

come in the yellow, of course, and

6:45

then a lot of different neutrals. But it's

6:47

our little way of saying, Hey, we're

6:50

we're still a family even through this podcast.

6:52

It's not just the TV show. It's

6:54

through this podcast and it's wonderful. It says

6:56

cross country and it has our logo

6:58

on it, middling with Eden Brock. Super simple,

7:00

but really, really aesthetically pleasing and great

7:02

for anyone. Yeah, it's it's

7:05

genuinely very comfortable. I like

7:07

I'm wearing it when I don't have to be.

7:09

Yeah. And we again, this is the now the

7:11

third week in a row. Eden, I've talked about

7:13

this, but. you can get them,

7:15

there's a higher grade cotton one that's just

7:17

a little bit more expensive, but the ones

7:19

Eden and I have, which are super, super

7:21

comfortable, it's their basics, and

7:23

then they have like premium as

7:25

well. But I was curious, you

7:27

know, when we were asking, they were gonna

7:30

send us samples and I said, send us

7:32

the basics, like the tried and the trues

7:34

that you are, they're always the best sellers

7:36

for you guys. And I thought they were,

7:38

they're super comfortable. Very comfortable. Very warm. Yeah.

7:40

Lovely. Lovely hanging around sweatshirts. But again, if

7:42

you're like, honey, it's well, it's gonna be

7:44

85 degrees in Los Angeles this week. So

7:47

if you're like, I don't

7:49

need a sweatshirt, honey, we've

7:51

got t -shirts. Okay. Yes.

7:53

For good price. kidding? You

7:55

think Brock wouldn't think ahead?

7:57

Come on. Come on. That's

7:59

bonfire .com slash middling. Eden,

8:01

we finished a great episode with G and

8:03

it's we talked to him for a long

8:05

time. So should we just Should we get

8:07

into these middle minutes? Let's launch right into

8:09

these mid -mins. This

8:14

is episode 209 Thanksgiving 2, which

8:16

we talk a little bit about

8:18

this with G, but originally it

8:20

was episode 204. So Ed and

8:22

I have been talking about how

8:24

these past, I don't know, I

8:26

don't know, chunk of episodes, they've

8:28

been not the order that they've

8:30

been airing in. Their shooting episode

8:32

has been different than the actual

8:34

airing when it actually aired, and

8:36

this is 204, and this aired

8:38

ninth in the season. But

8:41

the summary, Mike

8:43

invites his brother, Rusty, the fabulous

8:45

Norm MacDonald, and their father, John

8:47

Cullum, to Thanksgiving, hearing them barely

8:49

conversed with each other. Frankie encourages

8:51

Mike to discuss feelings with his

8:53

brother and his father. Meanwhile, Brick

8:56

is very excited that Bob's librarian

8:58

girlfriend shares his great love of

9:00

books and Sue bakes an apple

9:02

pie with Frankie and it almost

9:04

kills her. That should say Sue

9:06

attempts to bake an apple pie

9:08

with Frankie, but sure. Sure.

9:11

This episode was written by

9:13

Rob Yulin and directed

9:15

by the always fabulous Econique.

9:18

Ken Whittingham. I get

9:20

butterflies whenever you say Ken

9:22

Whittingham. I know. Guest

9:24

cast. Chris Catan

9:27

as a very stacked guest

9:29

cast. Chris Catan as Bob.

9:31

Norm MacDonald his first episode

9:33

as the iconic Rusty Heck

9:35

in the middle universe. John

9:37

Coulomb as Big Mike. Laura

9:39

Heisler as librarian Lisa Gibbs.

9:42

Jeanette Miller as Aunt Edie.

9:44

Francis Bay as Aunt Ginny

9:46

and Mike Musket as the

9:48

mailman. Which, by the way,

9:50

this guest cast, I theorized, and

9:52

I do think I'm right. We'd

9:54

have to check with Werner, but

9:57

I would put money on this

9:59

cast being the reason why we

10:01

shot it fourth. Because

10:03

there's no way, literally the Halloween episode was

10:05

written after this episode. So there's no

10:07

way they intended for it to be aired

10:09

as 204. I think there was a

10:11

lot of scheduling. Conflict or scheduling

10:13

like having to get people in the

10:15

same room. Yeah norm and John and Maybe

10:17

even Chris and maybe Patty I don't

10:19

know had some stuff going on and they

10:22

were like we have to get this

10:24

cast so we will shoot it week for

10:26

Did John Cullum because we were saying

10:28

John Cullum is a fabulous theater actor in

10:30

New York. Did he live in New

10:32

York? Do you know at the time? Yeah

10:34

fly out to shoot his episodes. Yeah,

10:36

I didn't realize that Wow, he

10:38

was a he was a big

10:40

one and this episode aired Wednesday November

10:42

24th 2010 I have to imagine

10:44

that was some time around Thanksgiving at

10:46

8 7 central Oh, it just

10:48

the day before Thanksgiving 2010. Okay, there

10:50

we go little I just a

10:52

little a little note there for you

10:54

to a whopping 8 .25 million viewers

10:57

Top movie of the week was

10:59

Harry Potter and the Deathly

11:01

Hallows part one loved it and

11:03

top song of the week.

11:05

Oh, honey, still there like a

11:07

G six by Faris movement

11:09

featuring cataracts and my dream song.

11:11

There it is. Your song,

11:13

Brock. Take a shot. Take

11:16

a lemon drop, baby. So

11:20

should we break down this episode, Brock?

11:23

Let's do it. All

11:28

right, everybody. We have our

11:30

very first, I'm pretty sure very first,

11:32

repeat customer on the show. because we

11:34

had Bo Wyrick. I needed to call

11:36

in the cavalry because you were off

11:38

filming being a Hollywood star and I

11:40

needed Bo Wyrick. Of course, of course.

11:42

Okay, so there he goes. He's mad.

11:44

He wanted to be the first. So

11:47

we have, okay, we have

11:49

a repeat customer today. Brock

11:52

and I love this man so, so, so,

11:54

so, so, so much that we had to have

11:56

it back on the show. You

11:58

know him. He has cast everything from

12:00

that 70s show to anger management, to

12:02

Diary of a Future President, and

12:05

to every single episode of

12:07

the middle. And the Sue

12:09

Heck spinoff, we should say

12:11

that did not air, but

12:13

was so. so deeply well

12:15

cast. Please welcome, please welcome

12:17

back to the show. Our

12:19

casting director, G. Charles. Right.

12:23

It's funny. Actually, G, Eden

12:25

just mentioned the spin

12:27

off because during Eden's taping

12:29

for her show, she

12:31

had Aaron Branch open and

12:33

my. God, what a find.

12:35

You found that boy. So let me

12:37

tell you something. This is for the

12:39

audience, really, because it does look

12:41

like the three of us are very close. I

12:44

was at that taping. Okay, so

12:47

I was there and I saw

12:49

Aaron Branch. On station it did make

12:51

me feel good, but I did not

12:53

speak to Eden or to Brock. They

12:55

didn't even know I was there until

12:57

just now and I admitted to them.

12:59

So just to give you all an

13:01

idea of where casting directors sit in

13:04

the pecking order of Hollywood in

13:06

general. No, so I did love seeing

13:08

him when I didn't know Aaron was

13:10

going to be opening for you either.

13:12

So when he came out, I was

13:14

I was like, I love I love

13:16

that this. Love that that happened for

13:18

the TV because Aaron and I are

13:21

also close which also leads me

13:23

to say that That guy didn't tell

13:25

me I texted him I texted him

13:27

at the show and I'm like Nice

13:29

job opening for Eden today. Thanks for

13:31

letting me know bro. Good Wait, I'm

13:33

sorry Brock. I'm almost positive. Did you

13:35

not know I thought I was for

13:38

sure I told you that Aaron

13:40

Branch was opening? Yeah. No, that was

13:42

a surprise. Oh, I kept it a secret. It

13:45

was the best surprise ever, too. I

13:47

gatekeep Aaron Branch. Yeah. For

13:50

the record, G, that is not true

13:52

because I forgot to put anyone who

13:54

I was like, you should like you

13:56

get a comp. Like I'll comp you

13:58

for the show. I just forgot. to

14:00

put anyone on any sort of list.

14:02

I just assumed, there were certain people

14:04

that I assumed, I like gave promo

14:06

codes, gave like a zero dollars promo

14:08

code or whatever. And I thought I

14:10

had reminded, I thought I'd given that

14:12

to you. So they saw me, they

14:14

came to me backstage and they were

14:16

like, there's a man outside. He

14:18

goes by G, there's a G Charles Wright. I was like, yeah,

14:20

let him in, let him in, let him in. Oh, I didn't

14:22

tell him. And I was like, I owe that man my whole

14:24

career. I owe him my whole career, he cast the middle. And

14:27

they were like, okay, we'll let

14:29

him in. I stood outside by myself

14:31

as people walked, filed past me, and

14:34

kept looking me. The security guard kept coming

14:36

back over to say, I check your ID.

14:39

I already checked your ID. He

14:41

really did. so my answer to that always is, look

14:44

at this face. Is

14:47

this the face of someone who needs their

14:49

ID checked for 21 and over? Or

14:52

it's not even, it's 18. It's 18

14:54

and over. They check your ID to make

14:56

sure you're 18 or 21 if you're

14:58

going to drink. I'm like, is this the

15:00

face of someone who falls dangerously below

15:02

the age of 21? Where

15:04

were you post -show? Because I

15:07

didn't even see you. So here's

15:09

what happened. Apparently,

15:11

those in the know the

15:14

people close to Eden

15:16

in her life knew

15:18

to stay inside the

15:20

theater. And the

15:22

rest of us, Nancy

15:24

Donahue, Jen Ray, also

15:28

a number of the other

15:30

actors, there were a bunch of

15:32

the crew, a bunch of

15:34

the PAs, a bunch of the

15:36

production people were there. We

15:39

were all outside in the front

15:41

of the theater. for some

15:43

reason, I guess, waiting. And then

15:45

while we were out there, we even took a picture. While

15:47

we were out there, a fire broke

15:49

out across the street. And

15:51

there was smoke everywhere. And so then we all kind

15:54

of just scattered and left. I

15:56

didn't tell anyone to do anything, though.

15:58

I don't know how that's possible. I'm

16:00

blaming Brock Charles. Yeah, sure. Because I

16:02

missed the middle picture because we were

16:04

outside. I don't know. I must have.

16:06

walked truly right by you and not

16:08

seen you because the fire happened and

16:10

then Cameron was like Brock we have

16:12

to go. He goes this fire is

16:14

stressing me out we need to leave.

16:16

This is so Brock. You're

16:19

a fan of Brock's work and

16:21

you happen to see Brock out

16:23

in public someplace. Don't

16:26

bother. Sure. Don't

16:30

don't bother. He doesn't even know

16:32

you're there. I

16:34

just walked through you. Yeah, Eden

16:36

Eden shares the same people pleasing

16:38

component to her DNA that I

16:41

have so if you see her

16:43

she will She will paint she

16:45

will actually lose a piece of

16:47

herself to make sure that you

16:49

are The that you had a

16:51

nice time interacting with her, but

16:53

Brock Listen, this

16:56

guy's life was so good, you

16:58

guys don't, we need to do an

17:00

entire episode just on how charmed

17:02

Brock Charlelli's life is because we

17:04

know from working with him on the

17:06

show just how richy rich he

17:08

is. I am so sorry, you

17:11

must have missed the memo. This is

17:13

not about me, this is about

17:15

you. Well,

17:19

what people learn about me is

17:21

that all I want to do is

17:23

complain about that I love and

17:25

that are close to me because I

17:27

push people away. Oh, well, people

17:30

love you. I mean, in all seriousness,

17:32

it's kind of not surprising at

17:34

all, but it's incredible and amazing that

17:36

every single actor that we've had

17:38

come on this podcast without a doubt

17:40

always mentions how much they love.

17:42

You and how much they feel they

17:44

felt supported when they were auditioning

17:46

or we didn't know this until we

17:48

talked to her a couple of

17:51

weeks ago. I don't realize Casey Burke

17:53

had auditioned a number of times before she

17:55

got Cindy and that was kind of the case

17:57

for a lot of people, but they just

17:59

they adore you. I mean, like, is that something

18:01

that you know? Is

18:03

there something that you're doing during auditions,

18:05

whether it's consciously or unconsciously that

18:08

actors respond to you in a really

18:10

positive way compared to others? Well,

18:12

like we're talking about how a lot

18:14

of us have that people -pleasing component.

18:16

So I just ignore them. And

18:18

then they're desperate to connect with me.

18:22

There's a lot of desperate actors in this city. Well,

18:25

you know, since you did bring up

18:27

Casey Burke, I actually met Casey at a

18:29

casting director workshop. There used to be

18:31

this great casting director workshop for kids. So

18:34

when we were doing, and it

18:36

doesn't exist anymore, I'm sad to say,

18:38

but the woman who ran it got

18:43

into it because she had a daughter who

18:45

was an actor and she kind of put

18:47

this thing together and I went all the

18:49

time when we were doing the middle because

18:51

I was always looking for you know, for

18:53

kids on the show. It was a great

18:55

way to to showcase kids. And that's where

18:57

I found Casey. That's where I

19:00

met her mom, Wendy, because of course, Wendy

19:02

would be there donating her time at these

19:04

workshops, signing people in and, you know, and

19:06

helping to chaperone. And

19:08

it was great. And that's where

19:10

I met her. And then she, yeah,

19:12

auditioned a few times for the

19:14

show before that before that part came

19:16

out, which is so perfect for

19:18

her. I just coached her yesterday. Oh

19:21

for a show for an audition

19:23

and she is delightful and wonderful.

19:25

I love it. Um, it's

19:27

I don't know you have such a

19:30

good relationship It's it's funny to obviously

19:32

with actors because you see them you

19:34

see their tapes you work with them

19:36

all that stuff But also what people

19:38

I don't think realize is you have,

19:40

you also have such a good relationship

19:42

with agents and managers around town. I

19:44

think there's, whenever your name is brought

19:46

up amongst anyone on like the rep

19:48

side, they also really respect you and

19:50

appreciate you. And I'm sure one, it's

19:52

probably because when you say, Oh, we'll

19:54

bring you back for, you know, we

19:56

promise we'll bring you back when we

19:58

find something that's good for you, you

20:01

mean it. And two, I think there's

20:03

just a, um, a sense

20:05

of tact in everything that you do

20:07

as well when it comes to a job

20:09

that can be a little bit hurtful

20:11

sometimes with people don't get the part and

20:13

you know there's a lot of emotions

20:15

and feelings that go into it when their

20:17

client is auditioning and stuff and I

20:19

feel like you have a lot of tact

20:21

when it comes to the business end

20:23

of things as well. Oh, yeah. Thanks a

20:25

lot. I appreciate you saying that. I

20:27

hope I do. I certainly feel like I

20:29

do. I can't tell you there

20:31

would definitely be a few managers or agents

20:33

out there that would not speak well of

20:35

me. And if you run into

20:38

any of them and they do that,

20:40

you know that those are the crooks. Because

20:42

I don't offer

20:44

them any solace.

20:47

Yeah. I mean, I really

20:49

don't. There are a few people out there that I'm

20:51

just like, no. Won't I won't

20:54

speak to you. I won't see

20:56

your clients. They shouldn't be with

20:58

you. You're a crook It's not

21:00

worth it. Yeah, and I think

21:02

that's why I've never met any

21:04

of them because I don't associate

21:06

with scam artists and trucks either

21:08

right in my experience every single

21:10

person like anecdotally every single person

21:12

loves you I've never come across

21:14

any of the people I mean,

21:16

you know, it's a thing. I

21:18

think you'll find it. It's true

21:20

of most casting offices is we

21:22

part of what makes us good

21:24

at our job is being able

21:26

to, is being able to have

21:28

good relationships with representation. Yeah. Watch

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23:23

get into it, Eden, shall we? I

23:25

love, yes, please. your

23:29

job, so I hope so. First

23:31

thoughts, G, after watching the episode, what'd

23:33

you think? Oh, gosh. So

23:36

what I thought was, when you said

23:38

Thanksgiving too, I thought, oh gosh, let me

23:40

see if I can remember. You

23:42

told me it was the norm. Because there's a

23:44

Thanksgiving episode every season. Right. And

23:46

you said it was Norm's first episode.

23:48

And then I was just trying to piece

23:50

together what the rest of it was.

23:52

Because my brain worked in terms of guest

23:54

star casting. Yeah. Which

23:57

is why I have a question about this

23:59

episode for you, because we I

24:01

send Brock the shooting script every

24:03

week so that we can compare what

24:05

the shooting script was compared to

24:07

what ended up airing. And it ends

24:09

up being pretty interesting. And this

24:12

season, it's a mess. The

24:14

order was a mess. He

24:16

was like, hey, can you send me

24:18

two? We're going to recap 205

24:20

or whatever this week. And I'll search

24:22

205 shooting script. And it's the

24:24

wrong episode. And what happened was we

24:26

got off. Week everything

24:28

was off a week and we're like where

24:31

did this go off the rails? So how did

24:33

this went? When did this happen? We somehow

24:35

missed when did how did this what happened? And

24:37

just now just this last night when I

24:39

sent up the script I figure we were like

24:41

oh we figured it out where it went

24:43

off the rails this we shot this for this

24:45

was 204 and it aired at school nine, and

24:48

I have this theory, seeing now the

24:50

guest cast, I have a question for you.

24:52

Did we shoot it so early because,

24:54

was it like a scheduling nightmare, trying to

24:56

get all of these big, these heavy

24:58

hitters in one episode? If

25:01

you even remember. No,

25:03

I don't remember

25:05

exactly, pardon me, I'm just pouring myself

25:07

some water. The nurse has the day

25:10

off. So,

25:16

That was a pretty good

25:18

one. I didn't know. That

25:20

was unplanned. I would honestly,

25:22

I would imagine that that

25:24

change had nothing to do

25:26

with hiring any of the

25:28

guest stars unless we were

25:30

working around John Cullum. But

25:33

I would imagine

25:35

it probably had something

25:37

to do with

25:39

maybe Patty or something.

25:42

I would think it would be more of

25:44

a thing. the thing where maybe Patty

25:46

had something and we had to work around

25:48

her but I don't know but that

25:50

doesn't seem to make sense because she's in

25:52

like every scene in that episode it's

25:54

and the episode like this aired 9th and

25:56

this was written as 204 and I

25:58

think at the Halloween episode which we have

26:01

yet to recap we're gonna do it

26:03

in a couple weeks with the director Jamie

26:05

Babbitt but that was even written after

26:07

this Thanksgiving episode yes there was no way

26:09

they actually planned on having this. We

26:11

wouldn't, but I can tell you, they wouldn't

26:13

move, they wouldn't move that around for

26:15

a guest star, but - Not for more

26:17

McDonald? But that kind of

26:19

thing happens a lot. And

26:22

I think it, and it happened a lot. You,

26:24

you know who you should have on your show?

26:26

Who? Werner. Oh, we did. Yeah.

26:28

Oh, you did? Okay. Yeah, yeah. He

26:30

was a couple episodes ago. He's the,

26:32

he's the one to answer something like

26:34

this because he's the guy who would

26:37

have to rearrange. a thousand

26:39

schedules in order to make it

26:41

happen. But I would

26:43

guess it was probably something

26:45

to do with either Patty or

26:47

Neil. Wow.

26:50

I would think so. I don't think they would move

26:52

it around otherwise. Really for

26:54

Norm MacDonald? I don't

26:56

remember us having to move

26:58

anything around. That's significantly.

27:00

Maybe we did. Maybe that wasn't.

27:03

Maybe Norm was only available. I

27:05

can tell you this.

27:09

Eileen Eileen who Eileen Heisler of

27:11

course co -creator of the middle.

27:13

I don't know if you guys

27:15

ever worked with her But her

27:17

office was right down the hall

27:19

from me, so She She Is

27:21

sort of really like the other

27:24

casting director of the show I

27:26

mean she is the cat she

27:28

makes every decision her and Deanne

27:30

of course every decision is green

27:32

lit by them But

27:35

in terms of me bringing

27:37

ideas to them and then

27:39

right and then them choosing

27:41

someone that aside Eileen came

27:43

in with a lot of

27:45

casting ideas two of who

27:47

three of whom are in

27:50

this episode Laura Heisler her

27:52

sister, which wait no, no,

27:54

that's her sister sister No,

27:56

I think she's got to

27:58

really I'm

28:00

gonna be so honest. I think we had the same

28:02

conversation last time. She's a sister

28:04

who's a singer and a

28:06

sister who's an actor. But

28:10

she really wanted Laura for

28:12

this role and she was really

28:14

great. I mean, she's like

28:16

a professional actor. She does other stuff. It's not like

28:18

Eileen is coming in, saying please hire my sister. But

28:22

she thought she wrote the role

28:24

thinking of her sister. She

28:27

came up with Norm MacDonald. and

28:29

John Cullum as Big Mike was

28:32

also was also her idea but I

28:34

do remember that Norm MacDonald famously

28:36

could not remember a single line of

28:38

a single scripted line so scenes

28:40

with him always took a really long

28:42

time was that Was that the

28:44

case? Yes. Well, here's the thing. I

28:46

will say it declined sort of

28:48

over time. It declined because he started

28:50

wearing an earpiece and his assistant

28:52

would be off camera giving him the

28:54

lights. Yes. In this episode,

28:56

the first few episodes he did, he was

28:58

not wearing an earpiece. And so every

29:00

few, he would just look blankly. I would

29:02

go, what is it? What

29:04

is it? What is it? What

29:07

is it? Robin

29:10

Skelton would end up standing like

29:13

next to camera. She would end up

29:15

just having to come into the

29:17

room and then just read him line

29:19

by line. But that's the thing

29:21

about Norm McDonald. He, I

29:24

haven't seen these episodes and I

29:26

knew obviously from acting with him

29:28

that he is so funny and

29:30

he made me really just like

29:32

cry literally cry laughing on and

29:34

off camera like when he was

29:36

in the scene and when he

29:38

wasn't but seeing it oh my

29:40

god he delivers he absolutely delivers

29:42

he is so funny honestly watching

29:44

this actually made me kind of

29:46

emotional I didn't think it was

29:48

gonna make me it made me

29:50

it made me sad it made

29:52

me it made me really sad

29:54

to there's a lot a lot

29:56

of people in this episode are

29:58

no longer with us yeah it's

30:00

true oh yeah the answer in

30:02

it yeah Oh, right. Yeah. And

30:04

and and aside from the people

30:06

also my career is dead. So

30:09

and my soul. So

30:11

that those are just looming

30:13

over. But yeah,

30:15

that was thinking the same thing when I watched

30:17

it. I was like, oh, yes. They

30:19

yeah. And they they did

30:21

take forever because he also

30:24

didn't he he like famously

30:26

never like he didn't respond

30:28

to, you know, like he

30:30

words like action and cut.

30:33

He didn't quite, those weren't like,

30:35

those words didn't really resonate with

30:38

him. So

30:40

he would just keep talking. He would just,

30:42

if he was talking in a conversation, he would

30:44

just keep talking, if you, and then sort

30:46

of do, norm,

30:49

norm, act, action. Now you say your lines

30:51

that are in the script. It actually, usually

30:53

was Neil. It was like, Hey, hey buddy. Of

30:56

course. Let's go. It

30:58

is hilarious because I

31:00

don't know if people

31:02

really understand how professional

31:04

and how on top

31:06

of their game Neil

31:08

and Patty are as

31:10

actors. Yeah. I

31:13

mean, it's just, I

31:16

mean, it really is just

31:18

amazing. And so I can

31:20

just see him sitting there

31:23

with Norm. And

31:25

I can imagine the slow burn

31:27

going on in Neil's mind. Because

31:29

you know you also don't want

31:31

to be around Neil Flynn when

31:33

he is tired. Like Patty keeps

31:35

it in, I'll say. Patty's pretty

31:37

like, she's pretty, you

31:39

don't see the end of. like

31:41

Patty's fuse is so long that

31:43

even when she's exhausted she'll check

31:46

out like like on a personal

31:48

like she won't she'll stop making

31:50

conversation as will I but you

31:52

don't see that Patty is like

31:54

in a bad mood or is

31:56

overly tired until I don't think

31:58

I've ever actually seen I've maybe

32:00

seen it once or twice in

32:02

all of nine years and that's

32:04

just saying a lot because she's

32:06

literally in almost every scene.

32:09

What's crazy G talking about having these

32:11

shooting scripts to and being like so

32:13

on it with the words and stuff

32:16

it's funny like no one ever really

32:18

deviates that much the guest stars and

32:20

stuff but the person I'll say people

32:22

who are the most on their lines

32:24

and they all have the most amount

32:26

of lines it's Patty Neil and the

32:28

three kids as I kind of watch

32:30

these episodes along with the script it's

32:32

Pretty freaking incredible how on top of

32:35

it all five of you are even

32:37

in comparison to these some of these

32:39

guest stars who I think are trying

32:41

to be word perfect Chris Katana still

32:43

on the show when we did this

32:45

episode and that guy that guy never

32:47

knew his lines sure That guy's way

32:49

famous. He that way more than norm.

32:51

I will say oh, yeah, I think

32:53

because we see more episodes, too You've

32:56

got John Cullum who is although very

32:58

very old. He was at least you've

33:00

got this great stage performer who can

33:02

remember, remember lines. Yeah. Um, but he

33:04

had a mobility issue here that was

33:06

written into the episode because he had

33:08

fallen and hurt himself. So that was,

33:10

uh, if I'm remembering that correctly, he

33:12

had fallen and hurt himself. And so

33:15

that's why they wrote, they wrote that

33:17

part in. Oh. Oh, I did not

33:19

realize that. I feel like that's the

33:21

case. Sure. Um, and then And

33:23

then, of course, you've got the Norm MacDonald

33:25

stuff that we talked about with him not

33:27

being able to remember lines, Chris Catan not

33:29

being able to remember lines, but you've got

33:31

Francis Bay and Jeanette Miller who play the

33:33

ants, and they're very old. And Francis Bay

33:36

is in a wheelchair, and we cast her

33:38

in the pilot, and she

33:40

was, when she came into audition

33:42

for the pilot, she still

33:44

had her faculties together enough that,

33:46

like she, was able to

33:48

come in, her assistant willed her

33:50

into the audition room, and

33:53

then stepped outside. And we

33:55

talked with her and joked. We all talked about

33:57

the things that we'd seen her do in the

33:59

past that we all loved. And we talked about

34:01

the character. And she auditioned. She did her lines.

34:03

And we laughed and laughed. And then her nurse

34:05

came in and she left. But by the time

34:07

she's doing this episode, Frances, this is only a

34:09

couple years later, her mental

34:11

cognition was in complete decline and

34:13

Jeanette Miller who plays Aunt Edie

34:15

really sort of becomes like her

34:17

onset becomes uh becomes Francis is

34:19

like onset caregiver like Jeanette is

34:21

really there making sure Francis is

34:23

okay because Francis doesn't really know

34:25

where she's at and so uh

34:27

and we uh and but Eileen

34:30

and Deanne it was so great

34:32

because I remember telling them like

34:34

uh I don't know if you

34:36

should still use Francis like they

34:38

her agent tells me that she

34:40

can't She can't do anything. And

34:42

Eileen and Dan were both like, well,

34:45

we just won't give her any lines. It's

34:47

nice to see them. It feels like a nice staple

34:49

of the show and of the family. We want her to

34:51

be here and to be a part of the show. And

34:54

it's, you know. And also, honestly

34:56

too, I'll bet stuff like that helps Frances a

34:58

ton as a human. Absolutely. Because if she did not

35:00

want to do it, she would not do it.

35:02

Correct. Yeah. It gives her a little bit of a

35:04

sense of purpose. Yeah. So it was

35:06

it was really great that she I think

35:08

that she had that. But that's

35:10

a lot of people to work around

35:13

that in addition to the fact that these

35:15

things take a long time. Totally. Yes.

35:17

A lot of people. Oh my gosh, should

35:19

we get into the episode? We're 37

35:21

minutes and we gotta do it. All right,

35:23

let's do it. So we start out

35:25

in the kitchen where Frankie's upset because her

35:27

mom's not coming to Thanksgiving anymore, but

35:30

determined to have a family filled holiday. She's

35:32

strong arms Mark into getting big Mike

35:34

to come. Did

35:36

I say Mark? That's okay.

35:38

She storms Mike into getting

35:40

Big Mike to come and

35:42

Bob's playing on coming with

35:44

his new librarian girlfriend who's

35:46

like a celebrity to Brick

35:48

and wanting to create her

35:50

own mother -daughter tradition. Sue

35:52

wants to make apple pie

35:54

from scratch with Frankie. I

35:57

have a fun, there was a

35:59

deleted line from Brick. So after, you

36:01

know, when Axel goes, um, he's

36:04

like, we have to, we have to clean for the librarian. He

36:06

goes, Oh yeah, we should get right on it. And he knocks over

36:08

the cereal. Brick says, um,

36:11

this is like, this is like, it would be

36:13

for you if the stupidest person in the

36:15

world was visiting. They

36:19

cut that. That wasn't in it. Yeah.

36:21

They cut that. That's hilarious. lines. I

36:24

like that line. doesn't he actually

36:26

say something like, oh, maybe you

36:28

didn't hear me. I said the

36:30

librarian is coming over. It was,

36:32

it is funny. It was funny,

36:34

but that's such a, maybe -

36:36

The musicality - It's too nasty. Brick

36:38

isn't nasty. No. So he wouldn't

36:40

say something that cutting to Axl.

36:42

Yeah. And the musicality of just

36:44

hearing this cereal get knocked over

36:46

was a perfect way to end

36:48

that. Yeah, let me see if

36:50

this changes your mind. A librarian

36:52

is coming over. Oh

36:54

my god, why didn't you say that

36:56

in that case? Yeah,

37:00

yeah, Charlie did make me once again

37:03

made me laugh. Yeah, it was

37:05

the first the first laugh out loud

37:07

of the episode for me. But

37:10

what's crazy, what they're able to do

37:12

because so much of this episode takes

37:14

place in the house is that there's

37:16

a lot of storylines. We have the

37:18

brick and axle. We have the you.

37:20

We have Bob and the librarian and

37:22

brick, essentially. And then all the stuff

37:24

with the heck men. And then of

37:26

course, how Frankie has his stuff with

37:28

her mom and then how she's trying

37:31

to like nudge Mike along. There's a

37:33

lot going on, but it didn't feel

37:35

cram. crammed, uh, I think because

37:37

it all took place in the house. I

37:39

did. I will say this brought back

37:41

memories of, again, the reason why I, you

37:43

go a little loopy, why all these

37:45

ridiculous, uh, jokes with Charlie came about because

37:47

we were just losing our minds. I

37:49

think I was the, I was like, Oh

37:51

my God. I, I registered that this

37:53

was all in the house. I was like,

37:56

Oh, I remember going stir crazy. I

37:58

remember. Yes. Cause I don't think I had

38:00

one scene. I, I'm. No, I did not

38:02

have one scene outside of the house this

38:04

episode because they kind of just they were

38:06

like, all right, here are the main staples.

38:08

Sue is in the episode. What can she

38:10

do? What can she bring to the table?

38:12

Which was lovely for me that I didn't

38:14

have like I had no speeches. I

38:16

was just there. I was there to

38:19

like support the real stories of the

38:21

episode. Mike and Frankie are the only

38:23

two who leave the house and Frankie

38:25

only leaves the house once and that's

38:27

at Ellert Motors where she talks to.

38:30

To Bob and then Mike leaves

38:32

to go see his dad

38:34

and then to go see his

38:37

brother and he has to

38:39

go to the hospital and this

38:41

is oh fun fact about

38:43

Big Mike's house For fans of

38:45

television Big Mike's house, which

38:48

we do see occasionally on the

38:50

show is the Walton's house

38:52

with the walls was a an

38:54

enormously popular TV

38:57

series, a family drama in the

38:59

1970s. It ran for almost the

39:01

entirety of the 1970s and they

39:03

made TV movies. Anyway, the

39:05

Walton's house had originally been on

39:07

the main Warner Brothers lot. They

39:10

moved it, they

39:12

relocated the house and the barn, there

39:14

was a barn next to the house,

39:16

they relocated it to the Warner Brothers

39:18

ranch where we shot because it was

39:20

so iconic and they kept it around.

39:22

And we used it as Big Mike's house

39:25

And then also I think that

39:27

field around the barn we

39:29

use for your Halloween episode a

39:32

Brock where you're dressed as

39:34

Oh, sure. Yes, right. Yeah, but

39:36

and then and then while

39:38

we were still in production Warner

39:40

Brothers decided to tear down

39:42

That house so we lost that

39:45

we lost that exterior for

39:47

Big Mike's house and they built

39:50

They built a house that

39:52

was also a set that

39:54

had a usable swimming pool

39:56

for a think a TNT

39:58

series Right, it's something with

40:00

Animal in the name, I think. Animal Kingdom.

40:02

Animal Kingdom, that's shot on the ranch, yeah.

40:04

Yeah, they tore it down and they built

40:06

a house there for Animal Kingdom. Fun fact,

40:08

it's all of that is gone now, because

40:10

everything is gone now. So,

40:12

after finding his dad in the

40:14

hospital, Mike convinces him to stay

40:16

at the Hex and join them

40:19

for Thanksgiving during his recovery. And

40:21

with Frankie's nudging, Mike invites his

40:23

brother Rusty to Thanksgiving Given given

40:25

that rusty's living in a tent

40:27

in front of his burned -down

40:29

house But all the heck men

40:31

aren't talking which drives Frankie crazy

40:33

I just need to say first

40:35

off we've talked about this before

40:37

we've talked about my husband We've

40:39

talked about and how Nick is

40:42

not a a generous laughter and

40:44

when you get him to laugh

40:46

It's like a really big it's

40:48

a feat. I have not heard

40:50

him and he like occasionally will

40:52

give a when we watched the show

40:54

together, when Norm

40:56

said, the economy, he

41:01

laughed so hard. I hadn't

41:03

heard him laugh that hard

41:05

at anything in months. I

41:08

couldn't believe I was like,

41:10

and me too. I was like,

41:12

yeah, this whole thing, this

41:14

was funny. That whole scene made

41:16

me. actually really genuinely belly

41:18

left. Norm is so funny, so

41:20

funny. You guys looked at the scripts. There

41:23

have to have been a few lines in there

41:25

that Norm adds, right? Is that one? My favorite

41:27

one from this scene when he's in front of

41:29

the house, when he's like talking about what is

41:31

the hot plate or something, and then he had

41:33

a cigarette or whatever. And then

41:35

at the end of that little speech, something

41:37

that he ad -libbed was, I blame myself

41:39

partially. Well, I was running the hot

41:41

plate. About four weeks ago, I noticed one

41:43

of the cords was frayed. I

41:46

kept telling myself, keep your eye on that, but

41:48

wouldn't you know what? I fell asleep face down

41:50

with a cigarette in my mouth. I

41:52

blame myself, partially. That

41:54

made me laugh the

41:57

hardest, and I was so

41:59

pleasantly surprised that it

42:01

was him. It's brilliant, the

42:03

timing, the delivery, after

42:05

that entire thing. Incredible

42:07

and that was the scene I'm pretty

42:09

sure that was oh no no

42:11

no no It was the scene with

42:13

Axel when he's talking about the

42:15

cigarette because remember Neil told that story

42:17

about how he just Eventually was

42:19

just saying words strung together that had

42:21

to do with a cigarette That's

42:23

when Robin had to come in and

42:25

give him like word -for -word like

42:27

like no there's a or whatever it

42:29

was But he was like man,

42:31

there's a downfall that cigarette fallen asleep

42:33

and what is it? Also

42:36

fun things too that I've noticed is

42:38

that all these conversations Frankie has on the

42:40

phone with her mother and I don't

42:42

know she ever talks to Janet, but whatever

42:44

her sister They all cut these speeches

42:46

down by like two -thirds. There's

42:48

Half -page things of Patty just

42:51

into the phone and thank God

42:53

they cut that because they're

42:55

funny lines But I don't need

42:57

to see Patty talking into

42:59

a house phone for I don't

43:01

know half a page Every

43:04

single thing the middle is probably

43:06

I think for in my

43:08

mind the most famous for that

43:10

Audience is watching this show

43:12

would never even even have any

43:14

idea is how Dense the

43:17

script episode scripts were most episodes

43:19

were shot and were too

43:21

long And a lot of stuff

43:23

had to be edited out.

43:25

We could probably make another 50

43:28

episodes out of just stuff

43:30

that was shot. They

43:32

really packed so

43:34

much in to every

43:36

single script. It

43:38

is interesting seeing this second season, rather,

43:40

is they are getting a much

43:42

better handle at... whatever the shooting script

43:45

is granted. They're like cutting out

43:47

chunks of scenes But they're not it's

43:49

very rare that we're even I

43:51

are now seeing like entire scenes being

43:53

completely edited out Which is nice

43:55

Yeah, that that comes as though as

43:57

the writers learn to work together

43:59

and they're writing for the actors and

44:01

there were there were a lot

44:03

of You know, there were a lot

44:05

of changes in the writing room

44:07

between seasons one and two and three

44:09

And then I think maybe by

44:11

about halfway through this series it sort

44:13

of congeals into pretty much the

44:15

same the same core group. There

44:17

is a scene here. There's a deleted

44:20

scene here. There is a deleted scene.

44:22

Now that I say that, there is

44:24

one actual deleted scene. It's

44:26

super small, but it's Brick comes running in

44:28

because he wants to clean. the

44:30

bedroom and prep for the librarian. So

44:32

Brick enters and Brick says, Mom, Axel won't

44:34

even move off of his bed so I can

44:37

straighten the side of his room. We've got

44:39

the librarian coming and he acts like it's nothing.

44:41

Frankie sighs and heads down the hall. Brick

44:43

follows. We're in Axel and Brick's bedroom. Continuous Axel

44:45

lies on his bed. His half

44:47

of the room is a total dump while

44:49

Brick's half is perfectly neat. Frankie enters followed

44:51

by Brick and Brick says, See? Axel,

44:53

lie on your brother's bed so he can clean your

44:56

side. No, he can't touch my

44:58

stuff. Where's the autonomy? I use that

45:00

right, right? Either move

45:02

to your brother's bed or go

45:04

talk to grandpa. Axl gets

45:06

up and throws himself on Bricks bed

45:08

with a pain grown and Bricks

45:10

starts cleaning Axl's side as Frankie exit.

45:12

Which, funny enough though, that happens

45:14

when, so you leave saying

45:16

like, it was when you bring up

45:18

the different recipes, like should we do the

45:20

Martha Stewart one or the shorter one

45:22

or whatever it is? And she's like the

45:24

shorter one. And then Mike automatically enters.

45:27

That scene's supposed to take place right there.

45:29

And I think they just cut the

45:31

scene and didn't even shoot it because the

45:33

continuity would not have happened that way.

45:35

It was so seamless from when you were

45:37

leaving the conversation with Frankie and Mike

45:39

entering and Frankie just picking up the conversation

45:41

with him. This doesn't surprise me because

45:43

we talked about how long these days were.

45:45

It might have like it's rare that

45:47

something in the actual shooting script doesn't actually

45:49

get shot even though it's. Everyone

45:51

knows at a certain point this is

45:54

gonna get cut on the cutting room floor

45:56

Usually we still at least shoot it

45:58

unless it's a and less is an episode

46:00

that Eileen is directing in which case

46:02

we don't have to we can just nope

46:04

She knows what you want like we

46:06

don't have to go through because you don't

46:08

get to shoot like just in case

46:10

Eileen, you know does want it whatever and

46:12

Deanne I should say but with with

46:14

this specific episode I would bet money that

46:16

we were so over time that can like

46:19

made a decision or went to

46:21

someone and was like, this is gonna

46:23

get cut. Can we please

46:25

not shoot this? And someone just,

46:28

someone had, maybe Eileen made the decision like,

46:31

yes, sure, we're not gonna, we're not gonna

46:33

shoot it. Cause that never happens that, and

46:35

I bet you're right. I bet we didn't

46:37

actually end up even shooting it. They

46:39

just, we're like. We don't have time, especially since

46:41

Atticus is in it. Well, yeah, cause I was also

46:43

wondering, he's probably up on the amount of time

46:45

he's allowed to work for the week. And if this

46:47

is pushed towards the end and say, oh, we'll

46:49

get to it, we'll get to it, we'll get to

46:52

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49:12

Now, G, I know you're a

49:14

casting director. You're

49:16

up. You have a beat to read. Now, I

49:18

need you to put on your best actor voice and

49:20

I know you got a good one. Yeah,

49:23

you ready for it? Yeah. It's

49:26

the day before Thanksgiving and Axel

49:28

and Brick are fighting and Susan walking

49:30

hazard as she's making the apple

49:32

pie and after another push from Frankie,

49:34

Mike sits down with Big Mike

49:36

and Rusty to try and suggest that

49:38

Rusty move in with his dad

49:40

for the rest of his recovery. But

49:42

neither wants the help and essentially

49:44

say I'm good. Gorgeous.

49:48

Yep. Fantastic. You should switch careers.

49:50

What have you cast yourself? That's

49:52

what I should have done. I

49:55

really lobbied hard

49:57

to play your role.

50:02

I thought it was fun to

50:04

say your role because then both

50:06

of you would think I I

50:08

definitely thought I'm too I am

50:10

also a narcissist though because I

50:12

definitely thought I was like well

50:14

he's definitely talking to Brock he

50:17

would never I was absolutely talking

50:19

to Brock but Brock is such

50:21

a narcissist that he thought I

50:23

might be talking about you Oh.

50:30

I have a question, Eden. Was that a

50:32

pie crust when you chopped your chin? Is

50:34

that what you used to stop the bleeding? Yeah.

50:37

That's incredible. We don't,

50:39

we have not talked at

50:41

all about how hilarious Sue's pie,

50:43

apple pie making scenes are

50:45

cutting herself. Oh yeah. I was,

50:48

I couldn't stop. I was

50:50

looking when I cut my finger,

50:52

I was like, It looks

50:54

like it's really bleeding. Was it

50:56

done in specials? Was it

50:58

done in post? I don't

51:00

remember them doing something to my finger. You

51:03

don't remember them putting a little

51:05

stage blood on you or anything? But

51:07

it like dripped in such a

51:09

realistic way. It started and then spread

51:11

in such a visceral. I was

51:13

like, oh my god, that looks so

51:15

real. It was weird to watch. And

51:18

the chin one too. Oh, the chin

51:21

one. I'm so terrified for you. Oh my

51:23

god. Your comedy in

51:25

all in all ways is so

51:27

great. But I'm always just physical

51:29

comedy is so hard for some

51:31

for most people. And it is

51:34

you you make it look so

51:36

effortless and every time hilarious. Well,

51:39

thank you. That's those scenes are that

51:41

we may not people may not necessarily

51:43

think of that as physical comedy. That's

51:45

absolute physical comedy. Yeah. So it's not,

51:47

you know, falling off the risers that

51:49

show choir. But it's yes, it's the

51:51

funniness of contorting your face for an

51:53

apple and trying to slice and the

51:55

reaction as a result of it. a

51:57

choreography. It's a dance move. It is.

51:59

It is. And, you know, yeah, it's

52:01

like people, yeah, people might think it

52:03

wasn't, it wasn't work, but I didn't

52:05

have a lot to do in this

52:08

episode. So I really had to make

52:10

a meal of everything. You

52:12

really did. You really. I'm

52:14

stuffed. You fed me. All

52:18

right, it's Thanksgiving Day. Bob

52:20

arrives with Lisa, the librarian, and

52:22

quickly turns jealous when he

52:24

sees Brick and Lisa connecting over

52:27

books. And after dropping the

52:29

pie on her foot and Frankie

52:31

substituting with a frozen pie,

52:33

Sue learns the family tradition of,

52:35

if you heat it up at home, it's homemade. Do

52:38

you remember? They cut

52:40

something very tiny, but it

52:43

was another... injury

52:46

that you sustained as a result of the

52:48

pies, it's after you drop it on your

52:50

foot and you burn and then she hands

52:52

you the frozen pie, you are supposed to

52:54

open the frozen pie and you get a

52:56

paper cut from the cardboard box. Yes, I

52:58

do remember that. I

53:00

do, I do, I do,

53:02

I do. That's it, that's the

53:05

end of my. That's it, that's it. I just,

53:07

I thought, I actually thought you were gonna say,

53:09

I remember there being more beats. I thought there

53:11

were even more, all I remember in this episode

53:13

was, Like you said, a

53:15

physical company was all I had to do. I

53:18

just had to do these little, so I thought there

53:20

were like eight beats of these. I was like, wow,

53:22

how are they gonna escalate this? And I was like,

53:24

oh, that was it? Maybe it was just because I

53:26

had to do it over and over again. I was

53:28

definitely, I was like, wow. I

53:30

can't believe they cut so many of

53:32

these beats. Okay,

53:35

after overhearing Frankie and her mom

53:37

make up over the phone, Rusty tells

53:39

Frankie that a waitress told him,

53:41

If my father told me he loved

53:43

me, my life would have turned

53:45

out completely differently. Which gives

53:47

Frankie an idea dot dot

53:50

dot. Gorgeous, Norm MacDonald

53:52

impression. I like started off

53:54

and then I just faded real fast. I was

53:56

like, you know, I can't sustain this. So

53:58

just the first three words are going to be

54:00

an attempt. That rusty line

54:02

100 % sums up my entire life.

54:04

That's the line that I hear. I'm

54:06

like, oh man, does that hit?

54:08

Does that hit? It literally

54:10

is. It's like if we all

54:12

had a Priscilla, like I

54:14

said, we'd all be president. The

54:16

trajectory of all of our

54:18

lives would be such a different.

54:21

Which begs the question, Eden. Yeah.

54:24

Brock, what the hell are you doing?

54:26

I don't know. I

54:29

failure. Brazil was wasted on you. Yes. It

54:32

is clear that Eden and I

54:34

would both be controlling the universe. Yes,

54:36

and I'm nowhere near that. But

54:39

look at those arms. No,

54:41

it's 78 degrees in this

54:43

apartment. That's why I'm not

54:45

a I promise. Brock,

54:48

you know that everyone wants to see

54:50

those. I thought Brock was taking us to

54:52

the gun show. You're not wrong. You

54:55

guys are very sweet. But

54:57

you know what I do adore

54:59

about that scene, though, is I

55:01

think like there's the difference in

55:03

how Patty talks to norm

55:05

versus like how Patty talks to

55:08

anyone else in the episode is

55:10

so subtly different and so nuanced

55:12

It's like it's those kinds of

55:14

things that makes patty patty because

55:16

she's funny, but it's the ability

55:18

to Resonate so clearly of like

55:20

I know that feeling of when

55:23

you're talking to someone that's not

55:25

your blood relative or your direct

55:27

family, but like How do you

55:29

saddle up next to someone and?

55:32

gently talk to them about something that You probably have

55:34

no business talking to them about, but do it

55:36

in a very kind way. It's those

55:38

kinds of moments that I think

55:40

I adore Patty incredibly. I think she

55:42

does incredibly well. Yeah. I

55:45

will say I think she's

55:47

got a real shot at a

55:49

career. Me too. I

55:52

said I said at the entire

55:55

time on the middle, I said, I

55:57

don't know who this kid is, but

55:59

let me tell you, the world's going to know Patty Heaton

56:01

when this is over. All

56:05

right, gee, take us home.

56:08

Everyone's sitting down to eat and Mike

56:10

struggles through and I love you

56:12

dad, which leads to a chain reaction

56:14

of I love you's around the

56:16

table, except from Big Mike. But

56:19

later in their own heck

56:21

way, Rusty and Big Mike

56:23

meander to the right answer.

56:26

Rusty will stay with Big Mike for a

56:28

few days. And as

56:30

they're leaving, Rusty takes Mike by surprise and

56:32

gives his brother a hug. Mike

56:34

never wants it to happen again, and

56:36

Frankie declares it the best Thanksgiving they've ever

56:38

had. This

57:10

was I I feel like

57:12

you just knew exactly like as

57:14

soon as Rusty leaves the

57:16

room with Patty or with Frankie

57:18

like you know exactly what

57:20

she's thinking and I just like

57:22

my everything in my body

57:24

clenched up like oh Don't do

57:26

it. Just don't even I

57:28

can't because and maybe I was

57:30

just there and also it's

57:32

so close to how Neil is

57:35

in real life and I

57:37

think like Norm is little he's

57:39

just he's like Neil but

57:41

different in the same sort of

57:43

like I don't know he's

57:45

like weirder than Neil but I

57:47

think fundamentally he also probably

57:49

would never say I love you

57:51

to someone to a human

57:53

and it's just like And then

57:55

John Cullin, I just, the

57:58

whole thing was like, ugh. It

58:00

was like a car crash you couldn't turn away

58:02

from. Yeah. But this scene when I watched it,

58:04

I didn't know where what episode had come from,

58:06

but this, it's, they've trimmed it

58:08

to where it's just the hex saying, I

58:10

love you to each other. And then the

58:12

button is when Axel is like, yeah, whatever,

58:14

when I think it's you says I love

58:16

you. That is used, I think it's Peacock

58:18

used in promos around Peacock all the time.

58:20

Or if you like hover over the middle, icon

58:23

for something. I think

58:25

it's changed now, but I do remember that

58:27

distinctly, that that is one of the

58:29

things that they've used a ton for promos.

58:32

Oh, that's funny. Yeah. Well, gee,

58:34

we have to have you

58:36

on again at some point. Because

58:38

whenever it gets slow and

58:40

somebody better cancels, give me,

58:42

I'm happy to come on because I

58:44

do have stories about every single episode because

58:46

I was. You were there. I was

58:48

working on them. Oh. You've

58:50

mentioned that I cast anger management.

58:53

Yeah. And I love to talk about recycling. So

58:56

when I was casting

58:58

anger management, Daniela Bobadia,

59:00

I cast on that show and

59:02

then later recycled her on to

59:04

the middle as as you know.

59:06

But do you know that when

59:08

I was casting anger management and

59:10

Daniela Bobadia was on it, I

59:12

recycled from the middle and cast

59:14

Caitlyn Mastendrea, who played

59:16

weird Ashley as

59:18

Daniela's best friend. on

59:21

anger management. Oh, I didn't realize. They

59:23

ended up really doing nothing with Daniela's

59:25

character and then ultimately writing her off

59:27

when Charlie decided he no longer wanted

59:29

to have his character to have a

59:31

child. Oh my God. And

59:34

also in the write off of

59:36

Charlie deciding he didn't want his character

59:38

to have a child or an

59:40

ex -wife. They wrote off his ex -wife

59:43

and his ex -wife, who was played

59:45

by Shawnee Smith, had I

59:47

cast a boyfriend for her. on

59:49

the show, and that was played

59:51

by Greg Sypes. I knew you

59:53

were going to say that. I

59:55

was like, it's a boyfriend of

59:57

an ex -wife. It's got to

59:59

be Greg Sypes. Oh my god.

1:00:01

I did a lot of the

1:00:03

middle recycling on anger management, and

1:00:05

then eventually was able to recycle

1:00:07

from anger management onto middle. That's

1:00:09

amazing. Because we went in

1:00:11

outlasted and outsmarted them. You

1:00:14

survived them. Well, gee,

1:00:16

thank you so much for being here. We

1:00:18

wait to have you on again. You mean the

1:00:20

world to Eden and I, and you make

1:00:22

us laugh, and we know that you make our

1:00:24

listeners laugh as well. We love you. Thank

1:00:26

you. All right. That

1:00:31

man is, I really, really,

1:00:34

really love G. Charles Wright.

1:00:36

Everyone does. He's

1:00:38

a riot. He's a riot. And

1:00:40

yes, he does. He maintains.

1:00:42

Really really good relationships with people.

1:00:44

I can't think of another

1:00:46

person in this industry who Other

1:00:48

than a handful of writers

1:00:50

sure and some actors and you

1:00:52

Who I've like really sustained

1:00:55

just a I don't know positive

1:00:57

positive positive relationship with but

1:00:59

it's it's Something that he it

1:01:01

feels so effortless and I

1:01:03

know I know he means it

1:01:05

But it feels like he

1:01:07

puts a lot of effort and

1:01:09

attention and time and care

1:01:11

in his relationships. Like he just

1:01:13

mentioned, he's seeing Aaron Branch, he

1:01:16

catches up with actors outside

1:01:18

of the casting office. It's

1:01:20

just like, it's a very

1:01:22

incredible quality in a profession

1:01:25

where he's meeting hundreds of

1:01:27

people a week. Yes, and

1:01:29

I think it's probably also

1:01:31

because he doesn't, there is

1:01:33

no BS. Like if

1:01:35

he doesn't have time for you, he

1:01:37

will not, he doesn't put in fake

1:01:39

effort. You can tell like he puts

1:01:41

the effort in for people that he

1:01:43

genuinely cares about, wants to see successful,

1:01:45

wants to help in any way possible.

1:01:48

And if he thinks you're a crook,

1:01:50

if he thinks you're a bum, then

1:01:52

he doesn't give you the time of

1:01:54

day. And he doesn't do it on

1:01:56

like an opportunistic or in an opportunistic

1:01:58

way. He's a genuine, he just like

1:02:00

seeks out, he sees through, he cuts

1:02:02

the crap, you know, he suffers no

1:02:04

fools also. That's a great way to

1:02:06

put it. Um, I just, I love

1:02:08

him. We'll absolutely have him back again. I, I,

1:02:10

we love him and I can only assume you

1:02:12

guys love him as well. So he'll be back

1:02:14

for sure. Uh, Eden today's

1:02:16

voicemail comes from Charles and I

1:02:18

listened to this one already. I

1:02:20

kind of love Charles. Oh my

1:02:22

God. I'm so excited. Hi,

1:02:25

Eden Brock. This is Charles calling you

1:02:27

from somewhere west of the middle in

1:02:29

Wyoming I have been currently rewatching this

1:02:31

show since listening to your podcast love

1:02:33

the podcast love you guys You make

1:02:35

every Wednesday a little bit better for

1:02:37

me I am jumping ahead with this

1:02:39

question because I'm on season 4 and

1:02:42

I think it's fair that since you

1:02:44

guys are jumping ahead the fans get

1:02:46

to as well So Eden in season

1:02:48

4 you are Orson High School's mascot

1:02:50

the hen and I'm curious if when

1:02:52

you or when Sue is in the

1:02:54

costume if that's you or stunt double.

1:02:57

Because in the Thanksgiving episode, when you're the bear chicken,

1:02:59

your head did fall off briefly and it kind

1:03:01

of looked like you, but also could have not been

1:03:03

you. So just curious if that was you or

1:03:05

stunt double. I hope to hear you guys

1:03:07

answer this on the podcast. And

1:03:09

also thank you for ruining the crane shots

1:03:11

for me because now I cannot not notice

1:03:13

them every time it happens. So thanks for

1:03:15

that. I have many more questions to come.

1:03:17

So this is probably the first of many

1:03:19

talk to you later. Bye. I

1:03:22

cannot a drink with Charles. What?

1:03:25

I would get a drink with Charles. He seems

1:03:27

funny. I would a hundred. Will you invite me? Yeah.

1:03:29

Okay. Brock, do

1:03:32

you know this story? No,

1:03:34

no, no. I don't even remember what

1:03:36

he's referencing. Oh, this is

1:03:38

a real story. This is the one

1:03:40

time I had an actual, I got,

1:03:42

I was concussed. I got a concussion.

1:03:44

I do know this. Go, go, go.

1:03:46

I do know this. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

1:03:48

It was the moment when I had

1:03:50

a... had like a oh these are

1:03:52

it was so funny we talked about

1:03:54

with G like boundaries and like people

1:03:56

pleasing right this was the moment I

1:03:58

was like you know what it's not

1:04:00

worth it I'm going to stick to

1:04:02

my boundaries and I next time this

1:04:04

happens I'm going to say actually I'm

1:04:06

not going to go in the costume

1:04:08

because they were adamant they were and

1:04:10

there wasn't a lot of you know

1:04:12

like I I never wanted

1:04:14

to be the squeaky, I never wanted to

1:04:16

be the wrench, that there's through a wrench

1:04:18

and things, the squeaky wheel, the thing that

1:04:20

like didn't hold, didn't do, didn't make stuff

1:04:22

go good. Sure. You don't want to

1:04:24

be the one was like making production going to

1:04:26

like a screeching halt for something that feels so

1:04:28

simple like, girl, just get in the costume. Yes.

1:04:31

So they were like, you, it has to be,

1:04:33

and I was like. I'm so hot and tired.

1:04:35

You don't even see me. Can it be the

1:04:37

stunt double? Can it be someone else? And they

1:04:39

were like, it's not gonna, we're not going to

1:04:41

be able to tell like you have really specific

1:04:43

body movements. It has to be you. And I

1:04:45

was just like, again, if this were season eight,

1:04:47

I would have said, you know what? No, I'm

1:04:49

actually not going to do it. Love you. No,

1:04:53

I know, like I respect, I have to not

1:04:55

do this, but I was like, okay, I'll do

1:04:57

it. I'll do it. go get in there. Even

1:04:59

though I was like, I don't feel good. Like

1:05:01

I'm so hot and sweaty and tired. But

1:05:03

I got in there for I

1:05:05

don't think so for no, like

1:05:07

it didn't it did not have

1:05:10

to be me. But to answer

1:05:12

your question, Charles, yes, it was

1:05:14

me. And yes, I did the

1:05:16

stunt and I got concussed never

1:05:18

again. That's right. And I

1:05:20

do remember you telling me that story now that you'd

1:05:22

mentioned it, but they must have felt terrible after making

1:05:24

you get in that costume. I'm sure they did. And

1:05:26

you know what? I'm so sorry to say this, but

1:05:28

they should. I'm

1:05:30

kind of glad that they did. Like,

1:05:33

yeah. I think they learned like, oh,

1:05:35

I guess we can only push so

1:05:37

far. And when do you think you're

1:05:39

going to recover from that concussion? It's still with us.

1:05:41

Yeah. Great question. Great

1:05:43

question. That's such

1:05:45

a fun question, Charles. And he's

1:05:47

so right because I've been kind of ciphering out

1:05:49

some questions that, you know, jump ahead from, you

1:05:51

know, future episodes, but he called our ass out.

1:05:53

He goes, you're jumping ahead and guess what? So

1:05:55

am I. I would love to.

1:05:58

I want Charles's input on everything. Charles,

1:06:00

leave us another voicemail, please. And

1:06:03

you know how you can do that? Tell

1:06:05

them. By going to speakpipe .com

1:06:07

slash middling pod or hedge the

1:06:09

link in our bio on Instagram

1:06:11

or any of our socials. And

1:06:13

while you were there, give us

1:06:15

a follow. Yeah. Help us at

1:06:17

what? Eden, this was

1:06:19

an absolute blast. G -Charles Wright makes

1:06:21

me laugh. You make me laugh. Again,

1:06:24

if you want the merch, you can

1:06:26

of course order it anytime you want.

1:06:28

But if you do want that little

1:06:30

special something from Eden and I, order

1:06:32

it by this Friday, April 25th. That's

1:06:34

bonfire .com slash middling. And of course,

1:06:36

you can go to any of our

1:06:38

social media platforms and it'll be in

1:06:40

the link in our bio. But

1:06:42

it's a really, really fun piece of merchandise. And

1:06:44

I hope y 'all like it as much as

1:06:46

Eden and I do. Yeah. I hope

1:06:49

you do, and we love you, and Brock,

1:06:51

I love you. I love you. I'll see

1:06:53

you next week. Bye. Bye,

1:06:55

sweetie. This

1:07:15

podcast is brought to you by

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