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imagine or text imagine to

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500 500. That's

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audible.com/imagine or text imagine to

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500 500.

0:50

This is a PODCO

0:52

original. Jen Stone is closer

0:54

to the Alex character than she

0:57

is to the Harvard character. Which

0:59

was so fucking weird. It

1:01

was so weird. Because Selena is

1:03

now flirting with David. It was

1:05

weird. She tested actually for, I

1:08

saw her at Network for Wizards. She

1:10

tested for I fucking

1:13

sell so hardcore. I'm

1:15

like, I don't even talk yet.

1:17

And I cross with We're

1:29

on a podcast, everybody. Here

1:31

we go. Hi, Jen

1:33

Stone. I'm doing well. I'm very excited

1:35

about this particular rewatch. It's a very

1:38

good rewatch. It is Family Game Night, which

1:40

is a fan favorite. It

1:42

originally aired April 26 2009. Written, directed by Bob Coher. I'll

1:46

say that but written by the amazing Gigi

1:48

McCreery and Perry Rain who we

1:50

have in the house to watch

1:52

with. I mean, I guess technically not

1:54

in the house. Perry, I love you so much. Really? Yeah.

1:59

You guys. Thank you. I.

28:03

You know, Gigi and I were just talking about that. We're

28:05

like, is charades trademarked? And we were trying

28:07

to say, you know, almost charades is not. But I

28:09

don't think so. It's not. I don't. It's not. So

28:11

it also we were

28:14

talking about charades. Is it it's

28:16

almost charades? And we also say

28:19

when you guys start to play charades, you

28:21

limit it to like three. Well, it's but

28:23

is it usually I played it was a

28:25

movie, a book, a play, you

28:27

know, that that kind of things. Those were. So that

28:30

you knew the genre, you knew the zone

28:32

rather than it just being anything. You know,

28:34

but I think that was. Yeah,

28:37

again, the joke because there

28:40

is only three things in trades, a movie, a

28:42

book and television show.

28:44

And they go, it's almost straight. You can only

28:46

do so. I vaguely

28:48

remember in the room and

28:50

I could be wrong that we had this exact discussion and

28:53

that there was someone in the room who

28:55

said, no, they did more things, songs,

28:58

maybe. OK. And so in the

29:00

play. And I was adamantly

29:02

saying, no, it's just three things. You don't do

29:04

songs and trades. And so

29:06

then we called it almost rates

29:08

because there was a. You

29:12

know, what do you call it? There was

29:14

there was not a fewer topic. Yeah, but

29:16

also, you guys, what a great setup that

29:18

in order for Justin to

29:21

get out, get out of the dating,

29:23

he's bringing them to

29:25

the herd to the thing. And we

29:28

have to behave because Teresa, by the

29:30

way, who fucking the reason why my

29:32

character gets mad is because she fucking

29:35

stacks the teams. She she does

29:37

it. She's the one. It's her fault. She's

29:39

the instigator. Can we just talk about how

29:41

like it's been how many years since this

29:43

game night? And you're still. Oh,

29:46

absolutely. Listen, when I yell later,

29:48

it's real. It is so real.

29:50

My dad came out with. She's

29:52

sorry. I'm going to blow out

29:54

the mic, but she's stacking the

29:57

teams against us. I was so

29:59

fucking pissed. I

30:01

let all my anger come out. Okay, sorry.

30:04

That's your trigger. Jerry comes

30:06

in with all the strains that he found at the

30:09

resale shop, which he found there because Teresa tried to

30:11

get rid of the damn thing because it would always,

30:14

the family game night almost ruined the Russo's. They

30:16

get in a fight. And she said

30:18

there's fighting, cheating, crying, and you were the one

30:20

crying. Yeah. And how many times have we played

30:22

Monopoly as a family and was like, fuck you.

30:24

I never want to see this again. Like we

30:27

told my dad, like we're not allowed to bowl

30:29

with him. Do mini golf. Like we can't do

30:31

things. Cause if he loses, it's ruined. He's done.

30:33

Yeah. You behave yourselves with friends typically.

30:38

I said to Perry. It's

30:40

relatable. This is so relatable, right? I said

30:42

to Perry, we're going on. Clothes or stack. Gosh,

30:44

if I was doing one episode now, I might

30:46

like open the episode on the

30:49

very end of family game night where

30:51

everything is mayhem. Everybody's not at each

30:53

other's squirming off. And then do

30:55

the episode. So you know, like, oh my God,

30:57

remember last family game night and we had actually

30:59

seen it. Oh, I don't know. But

31:03

yet everybody, I think a lot of families

31:05

can relate that that is, you say it's

31:08

a pain in the ass. The family gets

31:10

into fights. I think we're, we're there. Have

31:12

we, have we

31:14

guacamole yet? We're getting, we're so close. We're

31:16

so close to the guac. All right. So

31:18

she, Jerry bags, he bags Teresa to play.

31:21

And she goes, fine, that's fine. We have to do it on

31:23

the terrace so that we're on our best behavior and all the

31:25

neighbors can see us. And then she talks

31:27

about how like, you know, That's

31:30

part of why we're doing it outside. And Max goes

31:32

on. That's totally coming from my room. Which is, I

31:34

thought that was so funny that, I mean,

31:37

as I was like, we've let

31:39

the guacamole stay there. You know what I

31:42

mean? It's just there. Well, but no, I took it as

31:44

like, Oh, there it is. from Max's room. But

31:46

how did you guys approach? I know this is like

31:48

a very broad question, but like, how did you guys

31:50

approach writing Max? He's such a specific, funny,

31:52

hilarious character. So like, where did his

31:54

little Maxisms come from? Yeah. And

31:57

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32:06

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32:28

Just, you know, anything that was sort of out of

32:30

the... Yeah. Out of the

32:32

box. Out of the box, yeah, go ahead.

32:36

I mean, yeah, I mean he's

32:38

just like, yeah, that clueless little

32:40

kid who just,

32:42

you know, pipes in and... Well

32:46

there was a good episode at one point where

32:48

Selena was like, I don't know how to solve

32:50

it. So let's go

32:52

to do whatever Max says because we

32:54

know that somehow it's going to end

32:56

up being right. Oh, the genie episode

32:59

with Orm soda. Yeah, right. So he goes in

33:01

there with the paper click and hit the reset

33:03

button or whatever. Okay. That's

33:05

the thing. Like Max has his own logic

33:07

that other people wouldn't have, but there is

33:10

a truth that Max's logic. Well,

33:12

and it's... I love

33:14

that I'm answering the question you asked them, but

33:17

thinking out of the box, a lot of times

33:19

for me in my life is what I'd like

33:21

to do. And I saw something recently where it

33:23

says a lot of one of the traits of

33:25

a dyslexic is someone who thinks out of the

33:28

box and tries to solve it maybe a different

33:30

way. You know, I

33:32

would say if we ever had done

33:35

anything, yeah, that Max is definitely

33:37

dyslexic. For sure. Yeah.

33:40

He's on this because also too, I think it's like with

33:42

people that are either on the spectrum or ADHD or anything

33:44

like that. It's like you hear all the time. You're like,

33:46

oh, I didn't like school or I didn't do very well

33:48

at school. Because it's not made for that kind of mindset.

33:50

You just... Yeah,

33:53

it's a great own way of thinking. Yeah. And

33:55

smart. And smart. It's just not

33:57

typical. It's

34:00

atypical. So moving on to...

34:05

No, go on. See,

34:07

this is why I write the details. No, I

34:09

know. I was gonna say something later in the

34:11

episode. I'm sorry, but you... No, no, you're good.

34:14

So Max is our relationship. He's designated himself the

34:16

relationship expert. He's checking in with Justin how his

34:18

date to, I think it was the Mets game

34:20

went with Daphne that she just told him they

34:22

were going on. And

34:24

he said they weren't seeing each other, but

34:27

then they ended up on the jumbo of

34:29

Tron. He got pressured to kiss her. And

34:31

he suggests he invite Daphne to family game

34:33

night. So she'll break up with him after

34:35

she sees how crazy the Russo's are. And

34:37

then Max tells Teresa and Jerry that Daphne

34:40

is coming and they agree for Justin to

34:42

be on their best behavior. Right, but interesting

34:44

storyline. Max tells the parents and

34:46

we never see Justin tell

34:49

the parents. Justin comes

34:51

down with the, we all know, the

34:53

audience and we all know. And

34:56

when David comes down, he doesn't say, hey,

34:58

I have a girlfriend and she's coming over.

35:00

It's told to us from Max. And we

35:02

just now have missed that. So

35:05

that's the reason why we did that is because

35:08

Justin, you know, would he tell it? I don't

35:10

think he would say to his parents, be

35:13

on your best behavior. Well, he definitely wouldn't say be

35:15

on your best behavior because he wants to be on

35:17

their worst behavior. But he also wouldn't say be on

35:19

your worst behavior because they wouldn't agree to it. Right.

35:22

And they, you just had a different

35:24

character inform the parents. And then David

35:26

just was, when he came down, he

35:29

was like, she's coming. And we're like,

35:31

we're so happy that you have a

35:33

girlfriend. Well, I took it as Max

35:37

had to tell them because otherwise they had to be

35:39

like, oh, he doesn't, he doesn't want us to know.

35:41

We have to like really behave really well. And so

35:43

like that would be kind of the reverse psychology. It

35:45

just was so interesting to me. I was like, hmm,

35:47

cause I'm analyzing all of this. I

35:49

think that if David and the parents had had a discussion,

35:51

the truth would have come out. We didn't want the truth

35:53

to come out. Right. But it

35:56

was a very clever way of getting

35:58

to where you needed to go without.

36:00

You know, having that conversation. So we're

36:02

in Alex's room. We're still in each

36:04

other's bodies. Harper's and Alex's bodies. Alex's

36:07

and Harper's bodies. Great scene. And

36:09

we're in their room trying to troubleshoot.

36:11

So they can't figure out how

36:13

to get back to normal. They use the spell

36:15

harebranium, x, I can't even say it, x, x-gim,

36:17

change-ium. And after all that's been said, we want

36:20

to switch back our heads, which switches their hair

36:22

and their voices. And that was

36:24

like a TikTok thing before TikTok. We're

36:27

gonna dub it. We're gonna do the dubbing. Yeah.

36:30

And then finally, which this was such a

36:32

fun thing. You did so good at this,

36:34

Jen. This has all been a pain.

36:36

Now we want to switch back our brains, which puts

36:38

both Harper and Alex's brain into one body. And I

36:41

just loved going, okay, how do I do these lines?

36:44

Like I don't know. Lally, bop. She

36:48

did such a good job. That

36:50

was one she had no brain. But at

36:52

first she had Alex's brain. No, no, no,

36:54

I get it. But when both brains go

36:57

into her, your

37:00

I'm not here anymore, your

37:02

empty brain was great because

37:07

it's kind of hard to do that just

37:09

to do nothing. And,

37:12

you know. I definitely found it

37:14

challenging that week. I was like, how the fuck

37:16

do I do this? But it was great because

37:19

you were blank. And it was interesting that whatever

37:21

you said, lollipop or something else, but you did

37:23

a great job. It was a

37:25

hard ask, right? We're asking you to have no brain

37:27

and do nothing, but then we asked you to do

37:29

something. Yeah, that was the challenge I had. I was

37:31

like, normally you have no brain, you're a vegetable and

37:33

you're tubed everywhere. So that was where I was just

37:35

like, you know, but no, it was

37:38

a fun challenge. But those are the weeks where I really

37:40

loved coming to work. I mean, I loved coming to work

37:42

every week, but like really where I

37:44

was invigorated because it was a problem to solve.

37:46

It was a challenge to like find a way

37:48

through. So it's- Well, because,

37:50

and also we didn't want to just, you know, we've

37:52

got Jen Stone. We don't want to just not use

37:54

her, you know? She just has no brain. And she's

37:57

just like, you know. But

37:59

also- to

40:00

her family and just reminds her that body

40:02

switching spell was recalled because it has way too

40:04

many glitches. Not to the, just to Justin.

40:06

Just to Justin, just to Justin. Yeah, because

40:08

the family realizes later. So Daphne shows up and

40:10

brings cold cuts and gives him an uncomfortably

40:12

long hug. Which is so funny. It's so

40:14

funny. And then- Why did Jerry

40:16

not instantly go and start eating the

40:18

cold cuts? Well,

40:20

maybe because it's opportunity, but also- That was a

40:23

missed opportunity for sure. I love the line somebody

40:25

says, you brought cold cuts?

40:27

Yeah. People in the sub shop. It's Max.

40:29

I think Max says it. No, no, no, no. As Celine

40:31

says it. Because she's like, I'm going to go down to

40:33

get cold cuts, right? I was her out. Right,

40:36

right, right. Also, I love the fact that

40:38

like Teresa and Jerry are dressed like they're

40:40

going to Sunday school. Like you're wearing khakis

40:42

and like a cardigan. Teresa's in like pearls

40:44

and like- Oh,

40:47

they're so excited. Right? Oh,

40:49

because they're trying to- Right, so excited

40:51

that Daphne- I am totally dressed up.

40:53

It's the most dressed up Jerry. Yeah,

40:56

you're eating a Easter Sunday brunch is

40:58

what it is for sure. So-

41:02

And then Harper's brain, as everybody else goes to

41:04

the terrace, Harper's brain inside Alex's body learns how

41:06

to articulate her the body as well. So no

41:09

longer is she just thinking in there. She now

41:11

can move Alex, which makes

41:13

her move completely crazy. Which was

41:15

clever because you held onto that

41:17

until more problems. You were building

41:19

the problems. And again,

41:21

I thought Celine did- Yeah,

41:24

so good little escalations. Yeah. Oh,

41:28

just gonna say like, I mean, the two brains

41:30

in the head, and the head was a good

41:32

escalation. And then this

41:34

one too, Harper being

41:36

able to control Alex's body and her legs

41:39

was also another quick little escalation

41:41

too. That made it different from what

41:43

we did- Yeah, you guys did a great job

41:46

of taking those two spells and making them so

41:48

unique to the story it was telling. And which

41:50

I mean, that's every episode of Wizards, right? Like

41:52

how do we get this magic to serve this

41:54

overall narrative rather than starting with the magic and

41:57

going from there? So we're out

41:59

on the terrace. I loved how

42:01

Selena played that, which is like trying to hold on

42:03

to the band. Yeah, yeah. She's

42:05

really brilliant, brilliant, really good media, she

42:07

did a great job. And she always

42:09

committed, which it was impossible. I mean,

42:11

everybody in this episode just committed a

42:14

thousand percent and even

42:16

Krista, who was coming in as a guest at our house,

42:18

you know what I mean? Oh, she did a great job.

42:21

But like, it's why it all worked so well is because

42:23

everybody committed so much. So we're

42:25

out on the terrace. Teresa puts Justin Daphne,

42:27

and don't get mad, don't get mad. She

42:29

fucking stacked the James. She put Justin Daphne

42:31

and Teresa on a team. It's both James.

42:34

Still mad. Over at Ducky Leader,

42:36

you're still mad. Jerry, Max, and Alex are on a

42:38

team. Jerry tries to hide his upset, like David is

42:40

currently doing. That Teresa is

42:42

stacking the teams. Alex is unlike herself, as

42:45

Harper articulates her body coming out of the

42:47

loft. And Jerry continues to try to hide

42:49

that he's mad, when instead of a title,

42:51

Max writes down one syllable as the like,

42:54

what to say, which I loved. And I

42:56

justify it by saying there must be a

42:58

book out there, somewhere named one syllable. Alex

43:02

doesn't want to play, but Harper does. So

43:04

Teresa's quickly begin fighting, and everything just evolves.

43:07

As Teresa accuses Alex of cheating, Jerry accuses

43:09

Teresa of stacking the teams. And he's still

43:11

doing it almost two decades later. I

43:14

saw my dad. And when

43:16

I yell like that, I

43:18

just saw my dad. I shouldn't

43:21

do this. But Peter Marietta said to me one

43:23

time, I know when you're mad, David. And I

43:25

was like, yeah. He goes, you go like this.

43:27

And for people who can't see me, I'm putting my hand on

43:29

my face. And then I draw it down. I go like this.

43:31

I go. I

43:36

rub my face. That's what I'm really mad. I

43:38

should have done that in this. I didn't need to.

43:41

See, this is the hard part about rewatching things, is

43:43

you see all the missed things that you could have

43:45

done and should have done or should have would have

43:47

come. I did not remember

43:49

a single thing from

43:51

this episode that I did. I

43:54

did not remember a thing. Yeah, and this is

43:56

one of my favorite episodes because I remember I

43:58

love. I loved yelling at

44:01

Maria, I guess. But

44:03

it was like, it was something

44:05

that we would do. I mean, I

44:08

don't know if everybody did, but we

44:10

would play dictionary. We would play charades.

44:12

We would play games. And in playing

44:15

dictionary, we would do

44:17

our own thing. And we'd look up and

44:19

we'd do two. We'd do one real one

44:21

to try to get people to vote for

44:23

it. And one joke one, you know? So

44:26

like a spitchcock, you know what that is?

44:29

I.E. this and that. And you know, you can do

44:31

whatever. It's, you know, it's that. It's the ball in

44:34

the back of the toilet that goes up. It's

44:36

called the spitchcock. Okay, okay. But we would

44:38

love to do that. And it wasn't just

44:40

about getting it right. It was about making

44:42

everybody laugh too, which was really fun. So

44:44

I loved playing games with my

44:46

family. Sorry, moving on. No,

44:48

I love that. What else would you do? It doesn't surprise

44:50

me at all that in your household, they were like, well,

44:52

we gotta find the comedy. Where's the comedy in the game?

44:54

Of course. I mean, that's the

44:56

fun part, right? So the Russo's, it's just

44:59

completely gone to shit. They're all yelling at

45:01

each other. And then to top

45:03

it all off, Mindless Harper comes

45:05

out and she goes, dah-tah, like

45:08

out on the terrace. And Justin gets his wish

45:10

when Daphne can't take the chaos anymore and breaks

45:12

up with him because of this toxic family dynamic

45:14

and warns Justin not to bring the next girl

45:16

home. In the tag, Justin

45:18

helps Harper and Alex reverse the spell with please

45:20

brain, leave brain. Harper and Alex are

45:22

relieved to finally be back in their own bodies.

45:24

And we're out. So, yep,

45:28

so what was the, do we have, I don't think

45:30

we had please, do we have please brain, leave brain

45:32

in the Quinceanera episode? When we went back?

45:35

No, because that was also, I think we talked about

45:37

it, body, not so much brain. No. No,

45:40

but when we switched back. Right,

45:42

yeah, no, because please, okay. Right,

45:45

and please brain, leave brain was because

45:47

there was an extra brain which was different than

45:49

what happened in Quinceanera.

45:51

Okay. And then that was also, you

45:53

know, we did spend a lot of

45:55

time, we should have spent a lot more time

45:58

on the spell names, I think, but. Please,

46:00

my lead brain, Mike, was

46:02

was, you know,

46:04

deliberately so easy because

46:07

it was like she had gone such great lengths and

46:09

there was just Right. And she even says that she

46:11

says, Oh, it's that easy,

46:13

huh? You know, that

46:16

was very clever. I thought it was great. And,

46:18

you know, it's interesting because Jen and I on

46:21

another episode, it is David

46:25

is coming up with the back

46:27

scratching the hand thing where he's

46:29

a test, but but but he

46:32

there's a wizard test to like

46:34

patent a spell or something. You

46:36

know what I mean? And

46:39

it was it was very confusing because,

46:42

you know, early on we had make them up,

46:44

you know what I mean? So it's like, who's

46:47

who's patenting the makeup buffs or not?

46:49

You know, but the episode with the

46:51

with the weather guy, all of the

46:53

spells are like very specifically about that

46:55

particular weather guy. Like they mentioned like

46:58

Baxter by name. So we were just

47:00

like, wait, what do you like? Yeah.

47:02

So make them up. I feel like

47:04

kiss snuck in there. We

47:08

were we should have come up

47:10

with like, well, I don't know, maybe not. We

47:12

talked about coming up with like, you

47:15

know, a formula for spell names, but

47:17

then it just ended up being totally haphazard, which

47:19

is perfect, but it fits our show too. It's

47:23

fine. But our show is haphazard. And that was kind

47:25

of the fun of it is the fact that it

47:27

was so like you have this whole magical world that

47:29

they're kind of just like so about like the the

47:32

spells. I loved it. I thought it fit perfectly.

47:34

I didn't know for the longest

47:36

time. This is embarrassing. Edg Bono,

47:38

you two says was Edg Bono.

47:40

And so, so yeah,

47:43

there was another one too recently was I

47:45

have a shout out. That's a band X

47:47

X, right? Well, yeah, yeah, there then

47:49

there was a discussion about having them

47:52

all be with about music. Yeah. Yeah.

47:54

And then I think basically what happened

47:56

was it just became too difficult to

47:58

satisfy anyone. formula. So

48:01

yeah, we just, we

48:03

just, but I love how we didn't even make it through the

48:05

second season. Yeah, I love that we didn't

48:07

even make it through the second season where you were like, we

48:09

were gonna do that, but nah, fuck it. Like we're fine. And

48:13

it's so funny because, you know, you

48:16

guys coming from writing for grownups

48:18

on friends and then going into,

48:20

I remember on our episode that

48:22

you were like, this is kid

48:24

stuff. What, not sure exactly what's

48:26

gonna happen. But the fact that

48:28

there was not only kid

48:30

stuff, but magic, you could really do

48:32

anything you wanted. You

48:36

know, exactly.

48:38

Yeah. Well, the

48:41

parameters are just, yeah, wide open. Yeah. So

48:43

does that make it easier? So many places

48:45

to go. Uh, and

48:47

we'd never done, we'd never done, uh, and

48:49

wizard wizard. We

48:53

had a lot to, that was

48:55

not, that was not. So we're

48:57

like, can we even do this?

49:01

Writing is like, this is a whole

49:03

different world for single grownups in New

49:05

York or for

49:08

six single grownups, or was it for a

49:10

wizard family? What was more difficult? Having parameters

49:12

or having none. I think, I think you

49:14

always want to, you would write, right Gigi,

49:16

you always want to make it a great

49:18

story and have great characters. So you have

49:20

this, this commonality between the two. So

49:24

really trying to keep the quality, you know, as high as

49:26

you can, whether, whether you're doing kids

49:29

and family or you're doing, you're doing a kids shows

49:31

really many differently than we do the

49:35

adult shows. And because in both cases, you're trying

49:37

to find that great story where a character has

49:40

a strong want and it affects everybody else. You know, in fun ways.

49:42

And the strong want

49:45

needs to be earned, like it

49:48

needs to be, uh, emerged from

49:50

the character, right? This character would

49:52

want this, like for instance, no,

49:54

in the, um, cheerleading

50:00

episode. They really wanted us, our creative

50:03

partners in the network really wanted us to do, they

50:05

wanted Alex to have more wants. So they were like,

50:07

why can't you want to be a cheerleader? And we

50:09

were like, Alex, right, that's

50:11

not her

50:13

culture. So then we did it, but then we

50:15

were able to do her as a cheerleader because

50:17

she gets the she wants to meet Austin Butler,

50:20

big star Austin Butler, right?

50:22

He was wanting to meet him

50:24

that the character that he played, I

50:26

can't remember his name, but Austin was amazing. He

50:28

was one of the many chads. Yeah,

50:31

he wanted to meet him. And so

50:33

he and the way to

50:35

do it was to be a cheerleader. So then she has to

50:37

get a be positive spell to make her be

50:39

positive so she can be a cheerleader. And

50:42

then and then again, okay, I shouldn't

50:44

I guess maybe you'll do a rewatch for this one. And

50:46

then we love that we dovetail

50:48

it right with with Justin has playing on

50:50

the basketball team whatever. But um, my

50:53

point is that you were asking, Oh,

50:55

with the kids versus adult shows. So

50:57

it's always like a strong want for

51:00

the character or something, you know, relatable,

51:02

believable earns, and that we

51:04

care about, and that we're rooting for

51:06

them. And then, um, but

51:08

then what's great about Wizards was,

51:11

you know, for a big

51:13

block comedy scene, having magic was

51:15

just, you know, such a gift to be able

51:17

to go to, you know, but

51:19

you wanted to earn the magic too. You know,

51:21

we couldn't just be random

51:23

like Jeff saying like, you know, we, we,

51:26

we had the magic service the

51:29

story. We want the magic to

51:31

serve the story, the emotional story, right? And

51:34

it's interesting. For

51:37

an actor, a lot of people say, Do you like

51:39

doing drama or comedy? And I'm like, it's all the

51:41

same. It's all real. I don't

51:43

go, I'm going to be funny. You

51:45

know, I'm like, what is the truth

51:47

here? What is the reality? What is

51:49

going on? What makes this character tick

51:51

kind of thing? So I think, you

51:53

know, it's, it's, it's the human experience.

51:55

Sometimes it's a possessed child or it's

51:57

a wizard. You know what I mean?

52:00

What was your favorite moment? Oh, sorry, go ahead.

52:03

I was just gonna say, like in this episode, Alex

52:07

having Harper's brain in her

52:09

body is funny, right? But it's way funnier

52:11

when Justin's trying to accomplish something. And now

52:13

the fact that Alex has Harper's brain in

52:15

her body is messing up what he's trying

52:17

to accomplish. Right, what's the problem? You can't

52:20

focus a direction. What's the problem that we

52:22

have to overcome and solve? Yeah, and

52:24

now this, Justin wants to,

52:26

has one agenda. And now Alex is, for

52:28

to come in with the magic, is

52:31

influencing that agenda and making it

52:33

harder. And now you have a story

52:35

that, you know, we care about because

52:37

we were rooting for Justin, you know, and

52:39

we're rooting for Alex to get Harper

52:42

out of her brain. Also, it's

52:45

interesting, like in terms of wants

52:47

for a character that Alex wants to cheat

52:49

on it to get a better grade. She

52:52

wants to cheat. And it's kind of amazing we

52:54

can do that. She got it, she got it.

52:57

I mean, on a Disney show, someone's cheating. But

53:01

she got, that's how we got it, because she got a

53:03

huge come up. We recently rewatched the- She has to figure

53:05

out how to get out of this entire story. Episode

53:08

where Alex doesn't want

53:10

to read. She doesn't want to read. Oh yeah, Robert Reiner.

53:13

Yeah, but at the end, we did the

53:15

disclaimer. Peter said, Robert Reiner's the audience. You

53:17

know him, right? Can you ask him to be

53:19

in the episode? And then we did. But

53:22

it's so funny, because, I mean,

53:24

it was like the PSA at the

53:26

end. Hi, I'm Selena Gomez. And reading

53:28

is good. And she starts pouring tea.

53:31

The pouring tea kills me. And

53:33

then Rob does such a good spit take.

53:35

And he was such a good sport to

53:37

be a part of the show. I mean

53:39

like- On the fly. Yeah. On

53:42

the fly. And I said to him, when I approached

53:44

him, I was like, please feel free

53:46

to say no. You're here with your family.

53:48

I don't want to bother you. But if

53:50

you'd like to be in the episode, come

53:53

on down. Well,

53:55

guys, thank you so much for coming on. I've got one

53:57

question to wrap us out. You know, just like last time

53:59

we- I could talk to you guys forever. What

54:01

was your favorite moment to write? Well, it's

54:04

kind of a two-parter. What was your favorite

54:06

moment to write for in this episode and

54:08

Family Game Night? And what was the game

54:10

that your family played? Good

54:13

question, Jen Stone. What

54:19

do you think? I think it was

54:22

very fun writing the Alex with two

54:24

brains. That

54:26

scene was very fun to do. Yeah, and I

54:28

remember writing the one where- It

54:30

goes through a couple of phases, right? There's one where she gets

54:32

her voice and there's one where,

54:34

right? And so we were, because we were trying

54:37

to think of like, what are all

54:39

the permutations and how can we hit

54:41

them all? So that was

54:43

kind of fun. But I also love

54:45

Jake's attitude in this one. He had

54:47

a really funny attitude. He's like in

54:49

charge. He's the relationship. Well,

54:52

he's the one who makes everything at me.

54:54

He really is the catalyst, you know? Yeah.

54:57

He's like the underground mastermind. I love that. So

54:59

we would play dictionary at my house.

55:02

What would you guys play? We

55:05

actually played charades. And that's why I got

55:07

into it with the rumor. I was like,

55:09

no charades, it's three things. Yeah. You

55:12

don't do songs. I guess later on

55:14

they would start doing songs to my cousins, but

55:16

that never felt right to me. Wow.

55:19

Wow. Oh yeah.

55:22

We did Monopoly too. And my brother Michael always won

55:25

because he would hold on to all his money, you

55:28

know? Which he does now. Yeah.

55:30

Which is so funny. You never spent any money.

55:32

I'm always impressed by the families that had the

55:34

patience for Monopoly. My family would always like, we

55:37

didn't have the attention span for Monopoly. It

55:39

could take hours. I mean,

55:41

do people play Monopoly still? I

55:43

mean, with our phone. I think they play like virtually. They

55:47

do. We have the new version where

55:49

it has a credit card. Oh, wild. Or your

55:51

gift. Instead of cash. Yeah. Yeah.

55:54

It's pretty cool. Well,

55:56

they do have like Star Wars

55:58

Monopoly or this Monopoly. They have

56:00

all ones that are. themed too.

56:02

Oh you guys. Oh yeah we

56:04

actually still play it every Christmas

56:07

Eve we get K so we

56:09

play Yahtzee. Yahtzee or Taboo

56:11

and my funnily enough you're talking about stacking the

56:13

teams my dad and I have to be together

56:15

for Taboo and my mom and my brother have

56:18

to be together because they think very similarly we've

56:20

done experiments when we switch teams and both of

56:22

us are like I don't know what you're trying

56:24

to say what were you talking about like literally

56:27

our brains just don't my brother and me and

56:29

my mom and me like our brains just don't

56:31

work the same but my dad and me we

56:33

get it like have such a shorthand so I

56:36

love that oh I have a question none sorry

56:39

there's a card game called nerds now which

56:41

is like solitaire and I'm totally

56:43

addicted my family was just making fun of me

56:45

last night okay I love it okay

56:47

my girls don't have their friends we need three

56:49

or more players yeah and their friends will come

56:51

through and I've taught all their friends nerds and

56:53

when they come through I'm like hey there's

56:55

three of us complete

57:03

non sequitur but I just

57:06

was curious what did Teresa

57:08

Russo do for a living

57:10

I'm a GG her face

57:13

I don't think she did

57:15

it she worked at the sub shop Teresa other

57:17

than that before she met me oh that was

57:19

never look at her face I

57:26

came up with something just for herself like as an

57:28

actor maybe with the with

57:30

the her brothers her

57:34

brother coming mama

57:37

maybe maybe there was something in

57:39

that episode that was discussed I don't know

57:41

we'll get we'll rewatch that but there's so

57:43

many little things yeah you don't

57:46

know the answer to that no I'm not

57:48

why you did you're the you know you're

57:50

the gods of this show you're in charge

57:53

that's why I wanted to ask you no

57:55

I don't

57:59

think there was That's why I'm saying

58:01

this, Gigi. Because I don't think there was

58:03

a specific thing that was ever discussed about

58:06

what she did prior to the sub shop.

58:09

Right. But it's all about staying

58:11

present, David. There's

58:13

a lot of things, David, where we might say,

58:15

oh, we want to say what Teresa, like, you

58:18

know, we'd be like, we

58:20

talk about adult stuff. Like, well, don't they

58:22

need insurance? And there was always like, kids

58:25

don't care about insurance jokes. They don't need to know.

58:27

She's just the mom. Mom doesn't have a job. Mom

58:29

is mom. They just,

58:31

yeah, they just care what they're seeing now. So that may be

58:33

why. Also, there was a lot of committee, like

58:35

the, the enormous episode. There's that tree. I don't know

58:37

if you remember, but they pull a tree, a thing.

58:40

And it's like, uh, Jack, Jack's

58:42

voice was the leaf saying, um,

58:45

current generation is Jerry Russo who owns a

58:47

sub shop. Uh, parents were

58:49

so and so and so and so, and they

58:51

did this. And then the grandfather wrote the joke

58:53

book, but these names, these names, I was like,

58:56

I never heard those names. I didn't know those,

58:58

you know, I mean, it

59:00

just is so funny. It's like the smells though. You go

59:02

around the table, like the three things, like the, the flare

59:04

and all that you go around the table and you go,

59:06

what's the funny name? I'm going on record. I'm

59:08

going to take you guys out, uh, Gigi, when

59:10

you're back in town, you guys let me know

59:13

and I'm going to take you to a wonderful

59:15

Italian restaurant. And I apologize that I haven't done

59:17

that yet. And, and

59:19

you can order anything you want

59:21

except for the really expensive wine.

59:25

No apologies. Necessary. So

59:28

you guys, thank you so much for being so

59:30

talented and so funny and so wonderful.

59:33

And you are just good people. So

59:35

thank you for being on the pod

59:37

again. And thanks for sharing your insight on a fan favorite

59:39

and for writing a fan favorite. Yes. Is

59:43

it really a fan favorite? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.