May 12, 2025 • 39 mins
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hi, I'm Kristen Davis, and I want to know, are
you a Charlotte? Oh my gosh, it's so exciting. Everybody
welcome to Are you a Charlotte?
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Guess who my guest is, Sarah J.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Parker.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Do a little dance, Sarah, welcome. Let me tell you
everyone has been.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
When is Sir Jusica coming? When is Sir Jaska coming?
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Like so sweet? They're so excited about you.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Oh my god, what will you pull out of me?
Speaker 2 (00:39):
I mean, I don't know.
Speaker 4 (00:40):
But you just being here always, you always pull a
bit at me. It's very leading, and I'm so happy
to be here, and I'm so proud of you. And
you talked in your recent episode about you know, talking
to all about about this idea when it was presented
(01:02):
to you, and how excited you were about it, and
you said you couldn't remember the order, you know, with
whom you spoke about the idea, not asking for permission,
just talking about like how. And I do think I
do think you spoke to Michael Patrick first, because we
discussed it in a drug store. You were shooting the
scene where I'm not going to say anything, actually you
(01:22):
were we were shooting a scene for the current season,
and it was a it was a pretty big scene
that we had not been able to shoot.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
We were making up for because I had COVID. That's right.
Speaker 4 (01:32):
It had been at the top of the season, scheduled
very very early.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
Or somewhat earlier on Sorry, and so.
Speaker 4 (01:39):
We were that was one of those scenes that we
fun went to the affectually called the boneyard, and so
there we were quite and then you shared with me
this idea and which I thought was fantastic, And I mean,
I knew it was going to be great, and I
knew you would come so naturally to the idea, to
the to the medium.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
But you're doing such a good job. I'm so proud
of you.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
I was such a great cheerleader. I mean, I don't
know if everyone realized to.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Be your cheerleader, because I love you so.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Much, so much, and I don't know. You know, it's the.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Kind of thing where sometimes I think, because all of
us have been together now for almost thirty years, and
to me it's really obvious all of the personal relationships
and the joys that we have of our personal selves.
But it isn't always so obvious because they're watching the
show right, and it's really interesting. And part of this
(02:33):
is also like the new world order, right, Like things
are so different now, and for me, I always feel
like we did so much press the whole time. I wondered, like,
how is anything not seen and or understood but the
press when you're talking.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
About the inter relationships that are not that still are
sexually kind of unknown. Yes, yeah, like the fact that
we have affection for each other exactly.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Yeah, I now remember that time. I can't remember.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Oh, I think we went to an am far event
for Kevin Huvain and then we went to the abbey.
Do you remember out So there's very entertaining paparazzi pictures
of us trying to get out and get our car,
and Chelsea Handler was there and do you remember, Like
I had gone to check in with you, like are
you okay?
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Do you want to go? And she was like, oh
my god, you guys like.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
Each other, Like yes, what on earth it's mystifying to
us how it's a mystery to others. Yeah, but that's
a perfectly fine thing, too, correct, Like absolutely, if that's
not as well understood right as the stories, right, that's
(03:44):
perfectly all right.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
Right.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Our job was the show.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Yeah, and we have done that job with all of us,
with every bit of our being now.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
For twenty seven to twenty eight years, whatever it is.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
But but the thing that's joyful for me about the podcast,
and really kind of the reason I want to do it,
was because I felt like, Okay, this is this thing
that we did in nineteen ninety seven, the pilot, it
like miraculously still has this life, which is amazing in
(04:14):
so many ways and so incredibly gratifying. And I thought,
wouldn't it be interesting to talk about how all these
different people came together, including our writers and our crew members,
which I haven't really gotten on yet, but I'm creating
a list and I need your input.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Well, right, yeah, there's much discuss there, right.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
And like came together to make this thing.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
And I do feel like everyone that we've had for
all of these years, like our job is not a
job you can kind of halfway do. Like it's a
full on intense situation and everyone has brought like all
of themselves, you know. And there was a time in
the olden days where like relationships went because of our show,
like things happened.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
It was so much infiltraded. It was asking so much
of just the hours, and that it was problematic for
some families, like it was, and it's such an interesting thing,
and perhaps it's the case that, well we know, it
(05:15):
isn't always like it isn't always the case that people
fold into each other so beautifully. And when I say that,
I'm talking about our crew who did work alongside us
these extraordinary hours, you know, eighty one hundred hour weeks
for years on end, so much so that it almost
(05:36):
was like a badge of honor. You know, it was
like this thing that we all shared. But yeah, it
was you know, it's problematic for a family life. And
and but there is something really so this idea of
you wanting to touch on the crew feels like necessary
(05:57):
because I think we all felt and continue to feel
about this particular crew and that's just such great good
fortune that.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
They were.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
Truly part of it in a way that could not
have happened without them. And it's such a it's like
such a you know, you can't plan it or plot it,
like if we had picked those people with knowledge and said, oh,
you're the best, you're great, and you're going to mature
and then you're going to become operator, and then you're
(06:29):
going to become a deep You're going to do this,
and you're going to do this, and we're going to
you know, promote from and your personalities and you're smart
and you're shy, and what you bring in, like if
we had planned it, not a ray, right, So it's
lightning in a bottle, But they are all The kind
of sentiment that we feel about that first chapter of
(06:55):
being these characters is in no small way because of
the entirety of the organism.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Absolutely, they held us up.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
We were the faces and I feel like we.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
It was an exchange, like it was a constant exchange
of admiration and a kind of favor, like a kind
of debt, and we passed back and forth.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
And the fact that people still love the show, I
feel like is honoring all of that commitment from all
of the people.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
That had been part of it for all this time.
Speaker 4 (07:32):
That was the third party that was that completed. It
was the audience, right, you know. So we had the
we had the cast and crew, and that meant, you know,
our writers and our directors, and then we had our crew,
our working crew who were in front of us and
behind us. And then we have the audience, and it
was that pie that was cut up in those you know,
very consequential thirds, and everybody contributed to do right by
(07:57):
everything and constantly and.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
It's ongoing, which is the part that I find. It's
more gratification than I ever could have dreamt up because
we were happy anyway, like when we thought we were
going to be a small cult following back in the
year that we're cult.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Sorry, didn't you learn your lessons?
Speaker 1 (08:16):
This is why just on every episode I have to step.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
I did not say that where we thought.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
We would be a tiny niche a tiny niche show.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
You know what's so funny, they'll tell me. Listening to you,
I feel like you had thoughts.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
I had none, I agree, And that's what I want
to talk about about.
Speaker 4 (08:35):
So many thoughts and feelings and projections.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
And you were far more.
Speaker 4 (08:41):
Like lucid about like a place and a time and
I wouldn't say success so much so as like future,
and I feel like you were far more like enlightened
on landscape and you know, and I just didn't. So
(09:04):
I never had a thought that it would be either
seen and approved and a small audience would find it delightful,
and that would be enough, or that it might reach
larger numbers than you.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
Didn't think of any of a boutique or niche she No,
I didn't. I didn't.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Wow. No, fascinating.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
I mean, I thought about how I felt about making
the decision to do it. You know, tell us about them,
tell us about the decisions.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
Please tell us, because I love to hear about what
was happening in people's lives before we started, because I
don't always know, and.
Speaker 4 (09:36):
I know you've you've credited me with being a person
that I was.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
Definitely I feel.
Speaker 4 (09:42):
Like, my gosh, she thought I was like a New
York you were, you.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
Were never away? No, you know, no, I absolutely was not.
Absolutely not. I feel like I knew.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Stephanolo's and had more that I had ever even heard
of when.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
I met you. I feel like, come on, still, the characterization.
I feel like I was not.
Speaker 4 (10:03):
But I lived in New York, and I think that
is a distinction that you were surely drawing forth myself
and Cynthia, and I think Kim too, knew New York
pretty well though she hadn't been she'd been better than myself,
somewhat scattered.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
Like she had traveled. Yeah, but I Initially got.
Speaker 4 (10:25):
Was asked about the show by my agent, Kevin ey
Vane sent me either it.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
Was a phone call.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
I'm certain it wasn't an email, because this was nineteen
ninety seven or ninety six ninety seven in situation, that's right.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
And he.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
So he sent me the script with a cover letter,
very traditional for those of you who don't know what
that is. There's a script and there's typically it's a
companied by a cover letter from your agent or whoever
is submitting it. Nell explained, you know, this is a project,
it's shooting in New York. You have been off the
role of blank, the producer is blank, the director is blank,
or they have no director set yet. This is HBO,
(11:07):
this is the studio, this is the network.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
And you were like wow.
Speaker 4 (11:10):
And so Kevin called me and said, Darren has asked
about meeting you to discuss this and and he said
he wrote this like I was in his head in
some way, which I found really interesting.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
Was perfectly happy.
Speaker 4 (11:30):
To meet with him. And I did say I knew
Darren Starr's name from Beverly Hills nine O two and
O and Meloe's place, and I was pretty familiar with
Candas's work as a reader of The Observer, which was
a fairly well known New York paper that a lot
(11:51):
of us reached for. Its distinction was that it was pink,
which was kind of unusual. And coincidentally or not, I
had been sent a copy of her book that Darren
had then bought the rights to, and that book was
a compilation of all of her columns for the New Yorker,
for The Observer.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
And so I did know that.
Speaker 4 (12:11):
And I don't know why I was sent a copy
of the book, but I was, and I enjoyed it.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
And there were some in.
Speaker 4 (12:15):
Particular, No, there were some in particular columns that I loved.
So I read the script and loved it. And I
was doing a musical on Broadway at that time, Princess.
I was doing Once upon a Mattress. I saw it
and thanks, and and I was going to get I
(12:39):
was going to.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
Get married, and secret.
Speaker 4 (12:42):
It was a secret, yes, and uh, and I had
a wedding date and I didn't really want to mess
with that date. And because I kind of I had
understood that maybe it was shooting around the exact same time,
and we had cleared that date primarily because all of
(13:04):
our friends who worked in the theater only have mondays
off SOT. Our wedding was on a Monday, and yeah,
and so I met with Darren and I, you know,
I told him I loved it and that I thought
it was especially compelling, and that I, you know, my
(13:24):
only objections, and I feel like objections is almost too
strong a word.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
I I.
Speaker 4 (13:32):
Alerted him to the fact that I didn't do scenes nude,
that I just, for whatever reason, right or wrong, I
just never felt comfortable doing that.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
And he was like, well, that's then we won't and
we shan't.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
And I said that I also wanted to be a
little thoughtful about language.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
That I wanted to make sure that Carrie cared about.
Speaker 4 (13:57):
What words came out of her mouth, that if she
was a right and being thoughtful about her use of language,
and a column even amongst friends where you can get
purposefully sloppy, you know, especially if you're drinking, that I
still wanted her to be somebody that wasn't just tossing
around let's call him, you know, bad words.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
So those were the two things.
Speaker 4 (14:21):
And the last thing I shared with him was, you know,
I'm getting married on this date, and we couldn't take
a honeymoon because my husband was soon to be husband
was shooting a movie anyway, and I had to go
back to work to once for a mattress the next
morning next day, and he was great about all of it.
And it was at that meeting actually that he said,
you know, you should produce. I was like, I don't
(14:44):
know how to produce. I've never produced anything. And he's like, well,
of course, you know how. You've been on a set
your whole life basically, And I said yeah, But he's like,
were you paying attention?
Speaker 3 (14:52):
Were you watching?
Speaker 4 (14:53):
Were I was like, well, yes, because I'm curious anyway,
I said, but I don't really think that I have
that skill, and I would feel very.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Like a fraud. So I said them, be a consultant.
So that's that's how that started.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
I started.
Speaker 4 (15:11):
So we worked out all the dates and I actually
closed the show on one day and woke up the
next morning and walked to the set of the you
know or went to the set at the pilot yeah,
which I believe was a possible note wasn't. I can't
remember where it was, but anyway, did the show the
next like.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
Woke up the next morning and then went.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
To shoot this pilot of this TV show.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
This is what I want to know because in my mind, okay,
so I was in La right, and I knew Darren,
but we.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
Weren't working together.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
It wasn't like I was seeing him often. But he
had sent me the script. And also, did you know
that Cynthia also had read for Kerrie?
Speaker 3 (16:00):
Really so interesting?
Speaker 2 (16:03):
Right?
Speaker 3 (16:05):
Yeah? Yeah, I'm sure I've known that, right, we've talked.
I never knew this.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
I never knew that.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
Okay, then I didn't know it either.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
Yeah, okay, I mean I was shocked and she said
they were like, no, not really, so ire.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Not, well, well I do.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
I mean I feel like and I mean this again
is like that magical thing that happens occasionally that we
are lucky to be a part of, where none of
us had read together. You know, it was this very
kind of long process of casting the four of us,
and yet when we came together at the table read,
which I don't also remember, I do you do?
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Tell me what you remember?
Speaker 3 (16:40):
Hallelujahah? I remember.
Speaker 4 (16:45):
I remember because I knew who Chris was, I knew
who everybody was. Cynthia and I we can talk about
since I had been working together and kind of collegially
friendly because we've both been an actor our whole lives basically.
(17:05):
And so I met Cynthia. I guess when I was
twelve years old. Wow, I think the first time we
worked together. The first time we worked together was when
I was thirteen and or almost thirteen, and she was twelve.
She's one year younger than me. I think, exactly right,
both of us.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
Yea, is this the Vanessa Redgrave.
Speaker 4 (17:25):
No, we did a recording of a little House on
the Prairie when they used to make records. Oh my god,
her people. Yeah, when I played Laura and she played Mary.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
No.
Speaker 3 (17:37):
Yeah, she's always.
Speaker 4 (17:38):
More sophisticated, like every time we worked together. Believe, I'm
like the slightly rogue and she's but she has a quality.
But anyway, so, wow, I didn't know that I didn't
know you. I knew who you were. I didn't know Kim.
I knew who she was. Cynthia and I knew one another,
and I knew who Chris was. Was I believe because
(18:04):
of the whole Yale fraternity of Yale Drama School, I
didn't know that graduates like it was a thing in
New York got it. Yeah, so that was kind of
like out Law and Order. Oh, I definitely knew him
from Law and Order, but I wasn't like a I
didn't have like a standing date to watch Lawn Order
(18:25):
every week. But there weren't a lot of shows shooting
in New York, and he was kind of this h
like I'd see him around. And so when we went
to do the table read, I believe we did the
table read far far West, and it was very dark,
a dark room, and I came up the stairs and
(18:45):
the tables were set up in a big square kind
of like now correct, but in a far more a
less polished space, you know, exposed brick and not great lighting,
and it was just felt more it felt like we
were doing a play reading, not meet not a.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
TV show or a movie.
Speaker 4 (19:08):
And I remember meeting Chris and he was, you know,
had a big long raincoat on and you know, messy
trousers but like you know, appropriate. But I remember thinking, oh,
he's really serious and he thinks I'm a twinkie, like
(19:28):
he doesn't. This is nothing, he did nothing. This is
the way I wow lived. A lot of my life
is rejecting onto like a cab driver, thinking if I
say I'm an actor, he won't take me seriously. But
if I tell the cab driver I'm a student, then
he'll take me seriously.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
You know, love it.
Speaker 4 (19:45):
But that, of course was not the case at all.
But I thought, you know, he's a Yale drama school graduate.
He's like, you know, going to do this pilot where
he's this guy and she's a girl and and I'm
going to have to convince him that.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
But that wasn't the case at all.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
I just remember that that's super interesting anyway.
Speaker 4 (20:07):
But he was lovely, and everybody was lovely. It reminded
me of doing table reads for plays that may or
may not go like It was like, yeah, just did
the table read of a thing, and now then you know,
see probably in ten days or we're going to shoot it,
right and then.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
We'll see. But then I forgot I forgot all about it.
What do you mean, I'm not kidding.
Speaker 4 (20:30):
I forgot all about it. Okay, shot the pilot. I
remember some things about shooting the pilot.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
I have some memories.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
I can feel that you're going to fill me in.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
Yes, but then you forgot about it. In the very
long time.
Speaker 4 (20:43):
They forgot about it, which still I can't even tell
you that. I thought it was a long time, like
it was perfectly fine.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
Yeah, you didn't seem to I didn't.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
Do you remember running into me in the neighborhood in
La No.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
No, here's what I remember. Oh.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
Wait.
Speaker 4 (21:01):
I was walking down the street in New York City
and it had been a while, but I was fine,
and a woman stopped me. She was a very pretty, fancy,
well known producer, and she said to me, oh my gosh,
I saw your show. I said what show. She said,
(21:23):
you're pilot and I was like, what pilot?
Speaker 2 (21:26):
And she told me the.
Speaker 3 (21:28):
Name of it. And I was like, oh, yeah, you
saw that.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
How did you see it?
Speaker 4 (21:30):
And she said, I don't you know. She had a reason.
She didn't knock anybody over the head and steal it.
Somebody sent it to her. It's like, it's really good.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
I was like, oh.
Speaker 4 (21:41):
Then I went on with my day, and when the
show was picked up, I panicked, Okay, tell us, yes,
I panicked. I was like, I can't be on a
TV show. I don't think I suited for that life.
You mean exactly because I had been on television series
in Southern California. I forget Yeah, I did a mention
(22:05):
of yes with Tenny and other people.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
I've been on you know.
Speaker 4 (22:08):
A few I've been on Square Pegs and a Year
in the Life and Equal Justice. I think I did
a pilot for a TV series, yeah, the Alan King
Show with some really great people. And I always liked
the guard gate at the studios. I always thought that
(22:28):
was very Hollywood, you know, like you drive on and
Scotty says, hey, hello, miss Parker, Hello Sarah, Jessica or
whatever to call me.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
And I always loved, like, hey, Scotty.
Speaker 4 (22:42):
You know, I love driving, And then they have a
parking space and like and you walk through the canyons
of a studio and you know this this shot here
and this shot here, and it was just kind of.
Speaker 3 (22:54):
Incredible. Yeah, but it also it's very hard to explain.
It also kind of depressed me.
Speaker 4 (23:08):
And I think that it was the idea of doing
the same thing over and over and over again. And
I think I'd always been lucky that I got to
be on a television series and then it was over.
Like I met great people, had a great experience, worked
with great actors, great directors, thought the stories were interesting,
wanted to do the shows, and they had shorter lives,
(23:28):
maybe one or two seasons.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
And then and then I.
Speaker 4 (23:32):
Moved on and I would do a play or i'd
do some readings, and then i'd do a part in
the movie, and then I'd do you know, a movie
of the week, right, and I just you know, kind
of bounced around, and I really thought, like that is
the goal, Like the journeyman is the goal. Right.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
You want to be moving, You want.
Speaker 4 (23:52):
To be doing a reading of a play on forty
second Street and then walk over to your theater and
do your play, and then you wake up the next morning.
You've got a part in a movie, so you shoot
the movie for three days, you get back for your matinee.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
You know, like, yeah, that to me was having it
all right.
Speaker 4 (24:10):
And so the idea of a television series meant that
I couldn't do all those things right, and that I
would get in the same car every day and it
just kind of felt like somebody was, you know, putting
their hand over my mouth or something. It was just
very weird, and you know it was wrong, right, absolutely wrong,
(24:30):
and not that wrong.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
Well, I mean it does that's kind of a journey.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
Kind of general.
Speaker 4 (24:36):
It is people can do things in their hiatuses and
of course, you know, and and I talked to my
agents and I said, you know, hey, can you get
me out of this and after this, after the past,
when it was gonna when it was going to be
picked up, got it. And I said, here's what I
will give my services to HBO to fulfill my contract.
(25:02):
So if they any movies, I'll do for X number
of years. And I and so I went into Kevin's
office and then this wonderful legendary agent at CIA who
had kind of run the television department for years, Lee Gaebler.
I think his oh so handsome and sophisticated warsuit and
the shine shoes every day and he was really like
(25:23):
a sight. And so he indulged me, and you know,
he was like, well, you know, of course we can
talk to but you know, it can be wonderful, it
can be great. And the beauty of HBO is that
kind of it was kind of an unknown, veryous species
and had been discovered in the wilderness by like anthropologists
(25:46):
or something, they said, and he had word from and
Chris albrektaid at the time, so do it for a year.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
And if if you don't want to do it anymore.
We won't, we won't do it, Like he's so smart.
Speaker 4 (25:57):
It was like, oh, And then they hired Barry Right,
knew from working with David Frankel he produced Mammy Rhapsody.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
Why did I forgot this?
Speaker 4 (26:04):
And then we started meeting and talking about Pat Field,
and all of a sudden, it didn't feel like the
same thing. It felt like a brand new, exciting, completely unknown,
Like somebody was offering me a menu of food that
I'd only ever heard about. Yeah, like maybe I read
about these items on this menu, but I never no
(26:28):
one said I could ever taste them right, be near enough,
or I could get into the restaurant.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
Absolutely, So I went from being this like kind of like.
Speaker 4 (26:37):
Oppressive idea to this like endless possibilities. And the first
day that we started shooting as a series, the location
was up the street from my house, and I remember
being in the shower sept my alarm clocks and everything,
and I remember being in the shower and literally remember
washing my hair.
Speaker 3 (26:55):
And I was like day one. Day one.
Speaker 4 (26:56):
I can walk to work, Well, that's unusual, that's really special.
I'm not driving onto lot, I'm not getting on a
freeway and hoping I get myself there, and I walked
up to the location, which is the Banana Republic on
sixth Avenue, and it was the first leaker first and.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
I never looked back.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
Amazing.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
I was never not happy to be there.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
Amazing.
Speaker 4 (27:18):
There was no place I would rather have been than
on our set.
Speaker 3 (27:22):
Every single solid give me.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
Chills, he give me chills. The thing that I think
is amazing about that story, first of all, didn't know
this story exactly. I knew that there was a time
that you possibly had cold feet because you had had
(27:44):
this very dynamic career in terms of being able to
do films and do television and do theater, which of
course was all of our dreams at that time, you know,
and television also had kind of been this not super
exciting place, which I you're kind of alluding to. Whereas
I do feel that we were making something that had
(28:06):
not been made.
Speaker 3 (28:07):
It was it was brand new.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
It's not just that you felt that.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
You were at a very brand new and exciting restaurant.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
You actually were.
Speaker 3 (28:16):
We all were. We had the good fortune, yeah, to.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
Land at the right time at the right place. I
was just watching on the plane and thinking about you.
There's a Ted Turner documentary.
Speaker 3 (28:26):
Yes, I wish I could. I want to see that.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
It's on Max, okay, because to watch, and I was.
Speaker 4 (28:32):
Signed out of my Max account by my family. Like,
I don't exist on my Max account.
Speaker 3 (28:37):
It's pretty distressing. They do, but you don't. They didn't
even used to have.
Speaker 4 (28:42):
Like I, it's the only time I've ever made like
a joke profile.
Speaker 3 (28:47):
And it's not even me, it's Andy. It's Andy's picture
and then it just.
Speaker 4 (28:51):
Says you with an exclamation point. But I was so
proud that I could even navigate that. Wow, it's neither,
it's not important.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
It will make it.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
Andy could sign in and watch the Ted Turner documentary. Yes,
Loretta so amazed. Oh, Loretta works. I mean James was
watching it. I know right, he was watching our show
because we talked about it. Yeah, he's watched a little
bit okay not yes, yes.
Speaker 3 (29:12):
Not the whole We lost James along the way. It
just keep keeps going. You know, college, he's in college.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
He's in college.
Speaker 3 (29:17):
And I think, James, you're forgiven.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
The way you forgiven will catch you up. Yes, summer maybe, yes,
oh my god, yes, wow.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
Back to HBO, Ted Turner, do you remember the time
that we went to Nevis and we went with the
Cable Cowboys. It was so incredible and it is so incredible.
Speaker 4 (29:38):
Now I remember all of that, and no, I remember
not one day of shooting the show or the stories, but.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
I remember every trip we ever made.
Speaker 4 (29:45):
For the Super Bowl entertain our incredible cable distributors, right, and.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
Cable distributors were so important to us at that time.
It was the wild West, and in truth, they created
something that had not been created before, that did not exist,
and Ted Turner basically spearheaded that entire thing. And to
watch him and the passion with which he talks about
it and the commitment like it wrings so many bells
(30:11):
for me, because at one point he said he there
was all this competition from the it was a three
network time right, ABCNBCCBS, and when the cable community, the
cable world was just starting, he just basically just dreamed
it up. And then at one point the networks were
trying to stop him, and they had They were trying
(30:31):
to make a competitor to CNN, the first twenty four
hour news channel that Ted created. They were trying to
get a competitor. ABC was or.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
Westinghouse, CBS and Westinghouse.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
So during Christmas, they were going to take two weeks
off for Christmas before they launched and went out to
the ad sales and so ted was. He called everyone
in his company. He said, Christmas is canceled. You have
to go out and sell those ads. And they selled
it to every single cable operator, the cable cowboys, and
they didn't have Christmas, but they saved the company. And
(31:05):
he would get tears in his eyes talking about the
commitment that it took from everyone in that company to build.
You know, it was started as the Turner Broadcasting that
it was CNN. Eventually it turns into Time Warner. I'm
watching the progression and I'm thinking about our part in
that and how we were in some ways we were
like the spaw and the child of it. We got
(31:27):
to reap the benefit of what they built, and we
also got to spend time with a lot of those people.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
Yes, it's kind of amazing, right, yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
John Malone, like people who are now almost this dying
breed in terms of I believe the Cox.
Speaker 3 (31:41):
Family was there, Yes, like all the important players.
Speaker 4 (31:44):
And it was so interesting, like just give like a
little like a quick little summary of this. So HBO
had this idea to put basically all of its cast.
Speaker 3 (31:55):
On a plane and build this weekend.
Speaker 4 (31:58):
Yes and couple other shows as well are less Yes
and some of their sports people, Jim Lampley and some others,
and they would put us on a plane willingly. We
weren't taken against our will, and they would we would
have this weekend around Super Bowl Sunday, and we would
(32:18):
basically be brought to these wonderful locations that most of
us had never been, nor could we afford, nor we
would even think about going to the Four Seasons and Nevis.
And then we would just sit around and chat with
all these local, local, local cable owners. And these were
the guys, and I say guys because it was guys.
Speaker 3 (32:39):
It was some exceptions.
Speaker 4 (32:40):
There were families that had matriarchs, that's where maybe the
money had initiated, but regardless, it was a predominantly male
room with their wives and children sometimes and they had
basically it was kind of the way you know sprinted
all those other things earthed as well. They were basically
just taking cable and nailing it up, you know, like
(33:02):
in really kind of a rogue fashion. But they were
having success, right, and they could feel that it was
this growing right thing.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
Right.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
They were charming and.
Speaker 4 (33:15):
It was fun for us, like we all got to
be with each other because typically we weren't like there
wasn't inter disciplinary stuff happening, you know, like we weren't
like intercollegiate, and so we got to be with like
Lorraine Brocco and Edie.
Speaker 3 (33:29):
And so much fun.
Speaker 4 (33:30):
But all the sopranos casts and r List himself, he
was there.
Speaker 3 (33:33):
And I think I don't think the Dreamond cast at
that point was.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
Gone.
Speaker 3 (33:42):
It might have been gone again, but.
Speaker 4 (33:43):
There was somebody else. I want to say, Bill Marnaut,
Larry Sanders.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
Could have been, could have been some of that.
Speaker 4 (33:50):
Maybe I can't remember how much might have been. Bill
might have been Bill.
Speaker 3 (33:54):
I think it was Bill Mahr because it wasn't just
one time, right.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
No, it was multiple times been comedy fest right where
many people were as well. But like for me, when
I think about, I mean, we have so many, so
many gifts have been given to us along the way,
but that's one of the gifts was that we got
to kind of have this seat to watch this whole development.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
Of the cable industry.
Speaker 1 (34:19):
Be a big part of it that we never could
have foreseen. And then also now we're watching it change
again and we have pivoted again, which I give you
and Michael Patrick so much credit for, you know, having
the foresight to say, you know, maybe we could come
back as a streaming show.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
I mean, thank god, you know, thank god you said that.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
And then we did our films, of course, which I'm
way ahead of ourselves because we were going to go
back to the beginning, but I do when I watch
this Ted Turner, I'm so just inspired and impressed, and
it's so good to remember that through change you can succeed.
You just have to dream. You have to dream and
follow your dreams. You can't get down because it's hard
(34:59):
not to the.
Speaker 3 (35:00):
Thing that sits around.
Speaker 4 (35:05):
I say that kind of looking back, and I don't
know that we would have had the words at the
time to characterize it, but I think now, oh, you know,
everybody was just kind of doing what they wanted to do,
(35:26):
and it was an unusual circumstance or scenario.
Speaker 3 (35:30):
Really, We're in a studio and the network were one and.
Speaker 4 (35:35):
The same, and they were just saying, basically, Chris and Carolyn,
you just go and everybody at HBO, so Eric and
Courtney and Pleppler and all the people that were on
the corporate side and marketing and PR strategy, they were
all saying, you just go do what you do. We
(35:58):
trust ourselves. It was the ego involved. And I say
this with admiration, not with condemnation. It was their sense
of their confidence in their choices that liberated David Chase
and certainly Darren and then Michael Patrick that they I mean, sure,
(36:19):
there's notes, there's always notes on a script, and there's
always issues with money, and there's always budget stuff to
talk about, but those are to be expected, and you
want some parenting like you need some parenting. But for
the most part, it was their own confidence in their
artistic sensibilities and the same therefore with everything that surrounded it,
which is what is compelling and makes something grow absolutely,
(36:43):
and the minute you have to start paying attention to
outside stuff and you're producing and picking on based on results,
that's where things are not as interesting. So I feel
like all of it was happening at the same time
without them even realizing, Like I wouldn't have said at
the time, Wow, you're confident people, Wow you really believe
(37:06):
in your own ideas. Wow, you really trust Therefore, you're
going to let everybody, basically speaking, just go off and
make shows that we're not thirty minutes long. They were
not thirty minutes long. They were thirty two minutes long.
They were you know, like.
Speaker 2 (37:21):
Twenty eight minutes long.
Speaker 3 (37:22):
Whatever they were, it was right.
Speaker 4 (37:24):
But that is a huge amount of and that's the
way the company grew, and that's why it was so
felt revolutionary in terms of its programming. They were the
first people that said, oh, we're going to program, We're
going to counter We're going to do you know, counter programming.
All of our fresh materials going to be on the summer.
Everyone else is in repeats.
Speaker 3 (37:45):
Right, So what.
Speaker 4 (37:46):
We're going to do is we're going to put on
programming starting Memorial Day weekend or that. We're going to
capture those women men whoever they are. They're still here,
there or elsewhere, and they're thinking they're on holiday, and
we're going to start giving them information on Sundays at
nine o'clock. That was not a space that was for
(38:09):
your family programming.
Speaker 3 (38:11):
Eventionally speaking, that's what the network said.
Speaker 4 (38:13):
Sunday Night was wild Kingdom, Right, You know, like I'm
going to say little house in the Prairie, but I
can't be certain.
Speaker 3 (38:19):
But my point is that was like maybe Matt.
Speaker 4 (38:22):
Lot like, you know, like like procedural like and HBO said, no,
we're gonna make Sunday night dirty, naughty, unpredictable. We're going
to talk and tell a story about a man named
Tony Soprano who is kills people, who kills people, and
you love him, and he's going to go to therapy
(38:43):
each week, and we're going to sit with him in
this quiet space.
Speaker 3 (38:46):
They were after us. I want to make sure we
were first.
Speaker 4 (38:48):
But also we're going to tell a story about these
particular women in this city at this time, and this
is how they talk and this is how they But
they didn't.
Speaker 3 (38:55):
They weren't saying it like that. They were just responding
to material. Absolutely, they were just pretty took that.
Speaker 4 (39:01):
Yeah, I hate the word space now, but that it existed.
It was a white space literally like they say in retail,
like there was a white space and was like yes,
and Chris and everybody and Carolyn, they were like, wait
a minute, mister Bucus, Yes they so it was. But
there were a lot of parts and things that had
to exist for everybody to be able to do it.
(39:24):
So there was the money, intellectual and the artistic and
the actual real estate to do it, and they just
did it and it was like.
Speaker 3 (39:34):
What I know, and amazing that it worked.
Speaker 4 (39:38):
Yeah, but we know what he was thinking that We
certainly weren't. No, we're just doing trying to.
Speaker 3 (39:42):
Do the best we could, Sarah, Jessica.
Speaker 1 (39:45):
We could talk forever, as you know, So let's take
a little break here and you guys, we will be
back for another episode of Are You a Charlotte
Hi, I'm Kristen Davis, and I want to know, are
you a Charlotte? Oh my gosh, it's so exciting. Everybody
welcome to Are you a Charlotte?
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Guess who my guest is, Sarah J.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Parker.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Do a little dance, Sarah, welcome. Let me tell you
everyone has been.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
When is Sir Jusica coming? When is Sir Jaska coming?
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Like so sweet? They're so excited about you.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Oh my god, what will you pull out of me?
Speaker 2 (00:39):
I mean, I don't know.
Speaker 4 (00:40):
But you just being here always, you always pull a
bit at me. It's very leading, and I'm so happy
to be here, and I'm so proud of you. And
you talked in your recent episode about you know, talking
to all about about this idea when it was presented
(01:02):
to you, and how excited you were about it, and
you said you couldn't remember the order, you know, with
whom you spoke about the idea, not asking for permission,
just talking about like how. And I do think I
do think you spoke to Michael Patrick first, because we
discussed it in a drug store. You were shooting the
scene where I'm not going to say anything, actually you
(01:22):
were we were shooting a scene for the current season,
and it was a it was a pretty big scene
that we had not been able to shoot.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
We were making up for because I had COVID. That's right.
Speaker 4 (01:32):
It had been at the top of the season, scheduled
very very early.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
Or somewhat earlier on Sorry, and so.
Speaker 4 (01:39):
We were that was one of those scenes that we
fun went to the affectually called the boneyard, and so
there we were quite and then you shared with me
this idea and which I thought was fantastic, And I mean,
I knew it was going to be great, and I
knew you would come so naturally to the idea, to
the to the medium.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
But you're doing such a good job. I'm so proud
of you.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
I was such a great cheerleader. I mean, I don't
know if everyone realized to.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Be your cheerleader, because I love you so.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Much, so much, and I don't know. You know, it's the.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Kind of thing where sometimes I think, because all of
us have been together now for almost thirty years, and
to me it's really obvious all of the personal relationships
and the joys that we have of our personal selves.
But it isn't always so obvious because they're watching the
show right, and it's really interesting. And part of this
(02:33):
is also like the new world order, right, Like things
are so different now, and for me, I always feel
like we did so much press the whole time. I wondered, like,
how is anything not seen and or understood but the
press when you're talking.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
About the inter relationships that are not that still are
sexually kind of unknown. Yes, yeah, like the fact that
we have affection for each other exactly.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Yeah, I now remember that time. I can't remember.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Oh, I think we went to an am far event
for Kevin Huvain and then we went to the abbey.
Do you remember out So there's very entertaining paparazzi pictures
of us trying to get out and get our car,
and Chelsea Handler was there and do you remember, Like
I had gone to check in with you, like are
you okay?
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Do you want to go? And she was like, oh
my god, you guys like.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
Each other, Like yes, what on earth it's mystifying to
us how it's a mystery to others. Yeah, but that's
a perfectly fine thing, too, correct, Like absolutely, if that's
not as well understood right as the stories, right, that's
(03:44):
perfectly all right.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
Right.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Our job was the show.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Yeah, and we have done that job with all of us,
with every bit of our being now.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
For twenty seven to twenty eight years, whatever it is.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
But but the thing that's joyful for me about the podcast,
and really kind of the reason I want to do it,
was because I felt like, Okay, this is this thing
that we did in nineteen ninety seven, the pilot, it
like miraculously still has this life, which is amazing in
(04:14):
so many ways and so incredibly gratifying. And I thought,
wouldn't it be interesting to talk about how all these
different people came together, including our writers and our crew members,
which I haven't really gotten on yet, but I'm creating
a list and I need your input.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Well, right, yeah, there's much discuss there, right.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
And like came together to make this thing.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
And I do feel like everyone that we've had for
all of these years, like our job is not a
job you can kind of halfway do. Like it's a
full on intense situation and everyone has brought like all
of themselves, you know. And there was a time in
the olden days where like relationships went because of our show,
like things happened.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
It was so much infiltraded. It was asking so much
of just the hours, and that it was problematic for
some families, like it was, and it's such an interesting thing,
and perhaps it's the case that, well we know, it
(05:15):
isn't always like it isn't always the case that people
fold into each other so beautifully. And when I say that,
I'm talking about our crew who did work alongside us
these extraordinary hours, you know, eighty one hundred hour weeks
for years on end, so much so that it almost
(05:36):
was like a badge of honor. You know, it was
like this thing that we all shared. But yeah, it
was you know, it's problematic for a family life. And
and but there is something really so this idea of
you wanting to touch on the crew feels like necessary
(05:57):
because I think we all felt and continue to feel
about this particular crew and that's just such great good
fortune that.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
They were.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
Truly part of it in a way that could not
have happened without them. And it's such a it's like
such a you know, you can't plan it or plot it,
like if we had picked those people with knowledge and said, oh,
you're the best, you're great, and you're going to mature
and then you're going to become operator, and then you're
(06:29):
going to become a deep You're going to do this,
and you're going to do this, and we're going to
you know, promote from and your personalities and you're smart
and you're shy, and what you bring in, like if
we had planned it, not a ray, right, So it's
lightning in a bottle, But they are all The kind
of sentiment that we feel about that first chapter of
(06:55):
being these characters is in no small way because of
the entirety of the organism.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Absolutely, they held us up.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
We were the faces and I feel like we.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
It was an exchange, like it was a constant exchange
of admiration and a kind of favor, like a kind
of debt, and we passed back and forth.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
And the fact that people still love the show, I
feel like is honoring all of that commitment from all
of the people.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
That had been part of it for all this time.
Speaker 4 (07:32):
That was the third party that was that completed. It
was the audience, right, you know. So we had the
we had the cast and crew, and that meant, you know,
our writers and our directors, and then we had our crew,
our working crew who were in front of us and
behind us. And then we have the audience, and it
was that pie that was cut up in those you know,
very consequential thirds, and everybody contributed to do right by
(07:57):
everything and constantly and.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
It's ongoing, which is the part that I find. It's
more gratification than I ever could have dreamt up because
we were happy anyway, like when we thought we were
going to be a small cult following back in the
year that we're cult.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Sorry, didn't you learn your lessons?
Speaker 1 (08:16):
This is why just on every episode I have to step.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
I did not say that where we thought.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
We would be a tiny niche a tiny niche show.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
You know what's so funny, they'll tell me. Listening to you,
I feel like you had thoughts.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
I had none, I agree, And that's what I want
to talk about about.
Speaker 4 (08:35):
So many thoughts and feelings and projections.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
And you were far more.
Speaker 4 (08:41):
Like lucid about like a place and a time and
I wouldn't say success so much so as like future,
and I feel like you were far more like enlightened
on landscape and you know, and I just didn't. So
(09:04):
I never had a thought that it would be either
seen and approved and a small audience would find it delightful,
and that would be enough, or that it might reach
larger numbers than you.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
Didn't think of any of a boutique or niche she No,
I didn't. I didn't.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Wow. No, fascinating.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
I mean, I thought about how I felt about making
the decision to do it. You know, tell us about them,
tell us about the decisions.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
Please tell us, because I love to hear about what
was happening in people's lives before we started, because I
don't always know, and.
Speaker 4 (09:36):
I know you've you've credited me with being a person
that I was.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
Definitely I feel.
Speaker 4 (09:42):
Like, my gosh, she thought I was like a New
York you were, you.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
Were never away? No, you know, no, I absolutely was not.
Absolutely not. I feel like I knew.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Stephanolo's and had more that I had ever even heard
of when.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
I met you. I feel like, come on, still, the characterization.
I feel like I was not.
Speaker 4 (10:03):
But I lived in New York, and I think that
is a distinction that you were surely drawing forth myself
and Cynthia, and I think Kim too, knew New York
pretty well though she hadn't been she'd been better than myself,
somewhat scattered.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
Like she had traveled. Yeah, but I Initially got.
Speaker 4 (10:25):
Was asked about the show by my agent, Kevin ey
Vane sent me either it.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
Was a phone call.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
I'm certain it wasn't an email, because this was nineteen
ninety seven or ninety six ninety seven in situation, that's right.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
And he.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
So he sent me the script with a cover letter,
very traditional for those of you who don't know what
that is. There's a script and there's typically it's a
companied by a cover letter from your agent or whoever
is submitting it. Nell explained, you know, this is a project,
it's shooting in New York. You have been off the
role of blank, the producer is blank, the director is blank,
or they have no director set yet. This is HBO,
(11:07):
this is the studio, this is the network.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
And you were like wow.
Speaker 4 (11:10):
And so Kevin called me and said, Darren has asked
about meeting you to discuss this and and he said
he wrote this like I was in his head in
some way, which I found really interesting.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
Was perfectly happy.
Speaker 4 (11:30):
To meet with him. And I did say I knew
Darren Starr's name from Beverly Hills nine O two and
O and Meloe's place, and I was pretty familiar with
Candas's work as a reader of The Observer, which was
a fairly well known New York paper that a lot
(11:51):
of us reached for. Its distinction was that it was pink,
which was kind of unusual. And coincidentally or not, I
had been sent a copy of her book that Darren
had then bought the rights to, and that book was
a compilation of all of her columns for the New Yorker,
for The Observer.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
And so I did know that.
Speaker 4 (12:11):
And I don't know why I was sent a copy
of the book, but I was, and I enjoyed it.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
And there were some in.
Speaker 4 (12:15):
Particular, No, there were some in particular columns that I loved.
So I read the script and loved it. And I
was doing a musical on Broadway at that time, Princess.
I was doing Once upon a Mattress. I saw it
and thanks, and and I was going to get I
(12:39):
was going to.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
Get married, and secret.
Speaker 4 (12:42):
It was a secret, yes, and uh, and I had
a wedding date and I didn't really want to mess
with that date. And because I kind of I had
understood that maybe it was shooting around the exact same time,
and we had cleared that date primarily because all of
(13:04):
our friends who worked in the theater only have mondays
off SOT. Our wedding was on a Monday, and yeah,
and so I met with Darren and I, you know,
I told him I loved it and that I thought
it was especially compelling, and that I, you know, my
(13:24):
only objections, and I feel like objections is almost too
strong a word.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
I I.
Speaker 4 (13:32):
Alerted him to the fact that I didn't do scenes nude,
that I just, for whatever reason, right or wrong, I
just never felt comfortable doing that.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
And he was like, well, that's then we won't and
we shan't.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
And I said that I also wanted to be a
little thoughtful about language.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
That I wanted to make sure that Carrie cared about.
Speaker 4 (13:57):
What words came out of her mouth, that if she
was a right and being thoughtful about her use of language,
and a column even amongst friends where you can get
purposefully sloppy, you know, especially if you're drinking, that I
still wanted her to be somebody that wasn't just tossing
around let's call him, you know, bad words.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
So those were the two things.
Speaker 4 (14:21):
And the last thing I shared with him was, you know,
I'm getting married on this date, and we couldn't take
a honeymoon because my husband was soon to be husband
was shooting a movie anyway, and I had to go
back to work to once for a mattress the next
morning next day, and he was great about all of it.
And it was at that meeting actually that he said,
you know, you should produce. I was like, I don't
(14:44):
know how to produce. I've never produced anything. And he's like, well,
of course, you know how. You've been on a set
your whole life basically, And I said yeah, But he's like,
were you paying attention?
Speaker 3 (14:52):
Were you watching?
Speaker 4 (14:53):
Were I was like, well, yes, because I'm curious anyway,
I said, but I don't really think that I have
that skill, and I would feel very.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Like a fraud. So I said them, be a consultant.
So that's that's how that started.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
I started.
Speaker 4 (15:11):
So we worked out all the dates and I actually
closed the show on one day and woke up the
next morning and walked to the set of the you
know or went to the set at the pilot yeah,
which I believe was a possible note wasn't. I can't
remember where it was, but anyway, did the show the
next like.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
Woke up the next morning and then went.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
To shoot this pilot of this TV show.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
This is what I want to know because in my mind, okay,
so I was in La right, and I knew Darren,
but we.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
Weren't working together.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
It wasn't like I was seeing him often. But he
had sent me the script. And also, did you know
that Cynthia also had read for Kerrie?
Speaker 3 (16:00):
Really so interesting?
Speaker 2 (16:03):
Right?
Speaker 3 (16:05):
Yeah? Yeah, I'm sure I've known that, right, we've talked.
I never knew this.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
I never knew that.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
Okay, then I didn't know it either.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
Yeah, okay, I mean I was shocked and she said
they were like, no, not really, so ire.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Not, well, well I do.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
I mean I feel like and I mean this again
is like that magical thing that happens occasionally that we
are lucky to be a part of, where none of
us had read together. You know, it was this very
kind of long process of casting the four of us,
and yet when we came together at the table read,
which I don't also remember, I do you do?
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Tell me what you remember?
Speaker 3 (16:40):
Hallelujahah? I remember.
Speaker 4 (16:45):
I remember because I knew who Chris was, I knew
who everybody was. Cynthia and I we can talk about
since I had been working together and kind of collegially
friendly because we've both been an actor our whole lives basically.
(17:05):
And so I met Cynthia. I guess when I was
twelve years old. Wow, I think the first time we
worked together. The first time we worked together was when
I was thirteen and or almost thirteen, and she was twelve.
She's one year younger than me. I think, exactly right,
both of us.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
Yea, is this the Vanessa Redgrave.
Speaker 4 (17:25):
No, we did a recording of a little House on
the Prairie when they used to make records. Oh my god,
her people. Yeah, when I played Laura and she played Mary.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
No.
Speaker 3 (17:37):
Yeah, she's always.
Speaker 4 (17:38):
More sophisticated, like every time we worked together. Believe, I'm
like the slightly rogue and she's but she has a quality.
But anyway, so, wow, I didn't know that I didn't
know you. I knew who you were. I didn't know Kim.
I knew who she was. Cynthia and I knew one another,
and I knew who Chris was. Was I believe because
(18:04):
of the whole Yale fraternity of Yale Drama School, I
didn't know that graduates like it was a thing in
New York got it. Yeah, so that was kind of
like out Law and Order. Oh, I definitely knew him
from Law and Order, but I wasn't like a I
didn't have like a standing date to watch Lawn Order
(18:25):
every week. But there weren't a lot of shows shooting
in New York, and he was kind of this h
like I'd see him around. And so when we went
to do the table read, I believe we did the
table read far far West, and it was very dark,
a dark room, and I came up the stairs and
(18:45):
the tables were set up in a big square kind
of like now correct, but in a far more a
less polished space, you know, exposed brick and not great lighting,
and it was just felt more it felt like we
were doing a play reading, not meet not a.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
TV show or a movie.
Speaker 4 (19:08):
And I remember meeting Chris and he was, you know,
had a big long raincoat on and you know, messy
trousers but like you know, appropriate. But I remember thinking, oh,
he's really serious and he thinks I'm a twinkie, like
(19:28):
he doesn't. This is nothing, he did nothing. This is
the way I wow lived. A lot of my life
is rejecting onto like a cab driver, thinking if I
say I'm an actor, he won't take me seriously. But
if I tell the cab driver I'm a student, then
he'll take me seriously.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
You know, love it.
Speaker 4 (19:45):
But that, of course was not the case at all.
But I thought, you know, he's a Yale drama school graduate.
He's like, you know, going to do this pilot where
he's this guy and she's a girl and and I'm
going to have to convince him that.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
But that wasn't the case at all.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
I just remember that that's super interesting anyway.
Speaker 4 (20:07):
But he was lovely, and everybody was lovely. It reminded
me of doing table reads for plays that may or
may not go like It was like, yeah, just did
the table read of a thing, and now then you know,
see probably in ten days or we're going to shoot it,
right and then.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
We'll see. But then I forgot I forgot all about it.
What do you mean, I'm not kidding.
Speaker 4 (20:30):
I forgot all about it. Okay, shot the pilot. I
remember some things about shooting the pilot.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
I have some memories.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
I can feel that you're going to fill me in.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
Yes, but then you forgot about it. In the very
long time.
Speaker 4 (20:43):
They forgot about it, which still I can't even tell
you that. I thought it was a long time, like
it was perfectly fine.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
Yeah, you didn't seem to I didn't.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
Do you remember running into me in the neighborhood in
La No.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
No, here's what I remember. Oh.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
Wait.
Speaker 4 (21:01):
I was walking down the street in New York City
and it had been a while, but I was fine,
and a woman stopped me. She was a very pretty, fancy,
well known producer, and she said to me, oh my gosh,
I saw your show. I said what show. She said,
(21:23):
you're pilot and I was like, what pilot?
Speaker 2 (21:26):
And she told me the.
Speaker 3 (21:28):
Name of it. And I was like, oh, yeah, you
saw that.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
How did you see it?
Speaker 4 (21:30):
And she said, I don't you know. She had a reason.
She didn't knock anybody over the head and steal it.
Somebody sent it to her. It's like, it's really good.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
I was like, oh.
Speaker 4 (21:41):
Then I went on with my day, and when the
show was picked up, I panicked, Okay, tell us, yes,
I panicked. I was like, I can't be on a
TV show. I don't think I suited for that life.
You mean exactly because I had been on television series
in Southern California. I forget Yeah, I did a mention
(22:05):
of yes with Tenny and other people.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
I've been on you know.
Speaker 4 (22:08):
A few I've been on Square Pegs and a Year
in the Life and Equal Justice. I think I did
a pilot for a TV series, yeah, the Alan King
Show with some really great people. And I always liked
the guard gate at the studios. I always thought that
(22:28):
was very Hollywood, you know, like you drive on and
Scotty says, hey, hello, miss Parker, Hello Sarah, Jessica or
whatever to call me.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
And I always loved, like, hey, Scotty.
Speaker 4 (22:42):
You know, I love driving, And then they have a
parking space and like and you walk through the canyons
of a studio and you know this this shot here
and this shot here, and it was just kind of.
Speaker 3 (22:54):
Incredible. Yeah, but it also it's very hard to explain.
It also kind of depressed me.
Speaker 4 (23:08):
And I think that it was the idea of doing
the same thing over and over and over again. And
I think I'd always been lucky that I got to
be on a television series and then it was over.
Like I met great people, had a great experience, worked
with great actors, great directors, thought the stories were interesting,
wanted to do the shows, and they had shorter lives,
(23:28):
maybe one or two seasons.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
And then and then I.
Speaker 4 (23:32):
Moved on and I would do a play or i'd
do some readings, and then i'd do a part in
the movie, and then I'd do you know, a movie
of the week, right, and I just you know, kind
of bounced around, and I really thought, like that is
the goal, Like the journeyman is the goal. Right.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
You want to be moving, You want.
Speaker 4 (23:52):
To be doing a reading of a play on forty
second Street and then walk over to your theater and
do your play, and then you wake up the next morning.
You've got a part in a movie, so you shoot
the movie for three days, you get back for your matinee.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
You know, like, yeah, that to me was having it
all right.
Speaker 4 (24:10):
And so the idea of a television series meant that
I couldn't do all those things right, and that I
would get in the same car every day and it
just kind of felt like somebody was, you know, putting
their hand over my mouth or something. It was just
very weird, and you know it was wrong, right, absolutely wrong,
(24:30):
and not that wrong.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
Well, I mean it does that's kind of a journey.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
Kind of general.
Speaker 4 (24:36):
It is people can do things in their hiatuses and
of course, you know, and and I talked to my
agents and I said, you know, hey, can you get
me out of this and after this, after the past,
when it was gonna when it was going to be
picked up, got it. And I said, here's what I
will give my services to HBO to fulfill my contract.
(25:02):
So if they any movies, I'll do for X number
of years. And I and so I went into Kevin's
office and then this wonderful legendary agent at CIA who
had kind of run the television department for years, Lee Gaebler.
I think his oh so handsome and sophisticated warsuit and
the shine shoes every day and he was really like
(25:23):
a sight. And so he indulged me, and you know,
he was like, well, you know, of course we can
talk to but you know, it can be wonderful, it
can be great. And the beauty of HBO is that
kind of it was kind of an unknown, veryous species
and had been discovered in the wilderness by like anthropologists
(25:46):
or something, they said, and he had word from and
Chris albrektaid at the time, so do it for a year.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
And if if you don't want to do it anymore.
We won't, we won't do it, Like he's so smart.
Speaker 4 (25:57):
It was like, oh, And then they hired Barry Right,
knew from working with David Frankel he produced Mammy Rhapsody.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
Why did I forgot this?
Speaker 4 (26:04):
And then we started meeting and talking about Pat Field,
and all of a sudden, it didn't feel like the
same thing. It felt like a brand new, exciting, completely unknown,
Like somebody was offering me a menu of food that
I'd only ever heard about. Yeah, like maybe I read
about these items on this menu, but I never no
(26:28):
one said I could ever taste them right, be near enough,
or I could get into the restaurant.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
Absolutely, So I went from being this like kind of like.
Speaker 4 (26:37):
Oppressive idea to this like endless possibilities. And the first
day that we started shooting as a series, the location
was up the street from my house, and I remember
being in the shower sept my alarm clocks and everything,
and I remember being in the shower and literally remember
washing my hair.
Speaker 3 (26:55):
And I was like day one. Day one.
Speaker 4 (26:56):
I can walk to work, Well, that's unusual, that's really special.
I'm not driving onto lot, I'm not getting on a
freeway and hoping I get myself there, and I walked
up to the location, which is the Banana Republic on
sixth Avenue, and it was the first leaker first and.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
I never looked back.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
Amazing.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
I was never not happy to be there.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
Amazing.
Speaker 4 (27:18):
There was no place I would rather have been than
on our set.
Speaker 3 (27:22):
Every single solid give me.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
Chills, he give me chills. The thing that I think
is amazing about that story, first of all, didn't know
this story exactly. I knew that there was a time
that you possibly had cold feet because you had had
(27:44):
this very dynamic career in terms of being able to
do films and do television and do theater, which of
course was all of our dreams at that time, you know,
and television also had kind of been this not super
exciting place, which I you're kind of alluding to. Whereas
I do feel that we were making something that had
(28:06):
not been made.
Speaker 3 (28:07):
It was it was brand new.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
It's not just that you felt that.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
You were at a very brand new and exciting restaurant.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
You actually were.
Speaker 3 (28:16):
We all were. We had the good fortune, yeah, to.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
Land at the right time at the right place. I
was just watching on the plane and thinking about you.
There's a Ted Turner documentary.
Speaker 3 (28:26):
Yes, I wish I could. I want to see that.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
It's on Max, okay, because to watch, and I was.
Speaker 4 (28:32):
Signed out of my Max account by my family. Like,
I don't exist on my Max account.
Speaker 3 (28:37):
It's pretty distressing. They do, but you don't. They didn't
even used to have.
Speaker 4 (28:42):
Like I, it's the only time I've ever made like
a joke profile.
Speaker 3 (28:47):
And it's not even me, it's Andy. It's Andy's picture
and then it just.
Speaker 4 (28:51):
Says you with an exclamation point. But I was so
proud that I could even navigate that. Wow, it's neither,
it's not important.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
It will make it.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
Andy could sign in and watch the Ted Turner documentary. Yes,
Loretta so amazed. Oh, Loretta works. I mean James was
watching it. I know right, he was watching our show
because we talked about it. Yeah, he's watched a little
bit okay not yes, yes.
Speaker 3 (29:12):
Not the whole We lost James along the way. It
just keep keeps going. You know, college, he's in college.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
He's in college.
Speaker 3 (29:17):
And I think, James, you're forgiven.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
The way you forgiven will catch you up. Yes, summer maybe, yes,
oh my god, yes, wow.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
Back to HBO, Ted Turner, do you remember the time
that we went to Nevis and we went with the
Cable Cowboys. It was so incredible and it is so incredible.
Speaker 4 (29:38):
Now I remember all of that, and no, I remember
not one day of shooting the show or the stories, but.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
I remember every trip we ever made.
Speaker 4 (29:45):
For the Super Bowl entertain our incredible cable distributors, right, and.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
Cable distributors were so important to us at that time.
It was the wild West, and in truth, they created
something that had not been created before, that did not exist,
and Ted Turner basically spearheaded that entire thing. And to
watch him and the passion with which he talks about
it and the commitment like it wrings so many bells
(30:11):
for me, because at one point he said he there
was all this competition from the it was a three
network time right, ABCNBCCBS, and when the cable community, the
cable world was just starting, he just basically just dreamed
it up. And then at one point the networks were
trying to stop him, and they had They were trying
(30:31):
to make a competitor to CNN, the first twenty four
hour news channel that Ted created. They were trying to
get a competitor. ABC was or.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
Westinghouse, CBS and Westinghouse.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
So during Christmas, they were going to take two weeks
off for Christmas before they launched and went out to
the ad sales and so ted was. He called everyone
in his company. He said, Christmas is canceled. You have
to go out and sell those ads. And they selled
it to every single cable operator, the cable cowboys, and
they didn't have Christmas, but they saved the company. And
(31:05):
he would get tears in his eyes talking about the
commitment that it took from everyone in that company to build.
You know, it was started as the Turner Broadcasting that
it was CNN. Eventually it turns into Time Warner. I'm
watching the progression and I'm thinking about our part in
that and how we were in some ways we were
like the spaw and the child of it. We got
(31:27):
to reap the benefit of what they built, and we
also got to spend time with a lot of those people.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
Yes, it's kind of amazing, right, yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
John Malone, like people who are now almost this dying
breed in terms of I believe the Cox.
Speaker 3 (31:41):
Family was there, Yes, like all the important players.
Speaker 4 (31:44):
And it was so interesting, like just give like a
little like a quick little summary of this. So HBO
had this idea to put basically all of its cast.
Speaker 3 (31:55):
On a plane and build this weekend.
Speaker 4 (31:58):
Yes and couple other shows as well are less Yes
and some of their sports people, Jim Lampley and some others,
and they would put us on a plane willingly. We
weren't taken against our will, and they would we would
have this weekend around Super Bowl Sunday, and we would
(32:18):
basically be brought to these wonderful locations that most of
us had never been, nor could we afford, nor we
would even think about going to the Four Seasons and Nevis.
And then we would just sit around and chat with
all these local, local, local cable owners. And these were
the guys, and I say guys because it was guys.
Speaker 3 (32:39):
It was some exceptions.
Speaker 4 (32:40):
There were families that had matriarchs, that's where maybe the
money had initiated, but regardless, it was a predominantly male
room with their wives and children sometimes and they had
basically it was kind of the way you know sprinted
all those other things earthed as well. They were basically
just taking cable and nailing it up, you know, like
(33:02):
in really kind of a rogue fashion. But they were
having success, right, and they could feel that it was
this growing right thing.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
Right.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
They were charming and.
Speaker 4 (33:15):
It was fun for us, like we all got to
be with each other because typically we weren't like there
wasn't inter disciplinary stuff happening, you know, like we weren't
like intercollegiate, and so we got to be with like
Lorraine Brocco and Edie.
Speaker 3 (33:29):
And so much fun.
Speaker 4 (33:30):
But all the sopranos casts and r List himself, he
was there.
Speaker 3 (33:33):
And I think I don't think the Dreamond cast at
that point was.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
Gone.
Speaker 3 (33:42):
It might have been gone again, but.
Speaker 4 (33:43):
There was somebody else. I want to say, Bill Marnaut,
Larry Sanders.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
Could have been, could have been some of that.
Speaker 4 (33:50):
Maybe I can't remember how much might have been. Bill
might have been Bill.
Speaker 3 (33:54):
I think it was Bill Mahr because it wasn't just
one time, right.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
No, it was multiple times been comedy fest right where
many people were as well. But like for me, when
I think about, I mean, we have so many, so
many gifts have been given to us along the way,
but that's one of the gifts was that we got
to kind of have this seat to watch this whole development.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
Of the cable industry.
Speaker 1 (34:19):
Be a big part of it that we never could
have foreseen. And then also now we're watching it change
again and we have pivoted again, which I give you
and Michael Patrick so much credit for, you know, having
the foresight to say, you know, maybe we could come
back as a streaming show.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
I mean, thank god, you know, thank god you said that.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
And then we did our films, of course, which I'm
way ahead of ourselves because we were going to go
back to the beginning, but I do when I watch
this Ted Turner, I'm so just inspired and impressed, and
it's so good to remember that through change you can succeed.
You just have to dream. You have to dream and
follow your dreams. You can't get down because it's hard
(34:59):
not to the.
Speaker 3 (35:00):
Thing that sits around.
Speaker 4 (35:05):
I say that kind of looking back, and I don't
know that we would have had the words at the
time to characterize it, but I think now, oh, you know,
everybody was just kind of doing what they wanted to do,
(35:26):
and it was an unusual circumstance or scenario.
Speaker 3 (35:30):
Really, We're in a studio and the network were one and.
Speaker 4 (35:35):
The same, and they were just saying, basically, Chris and Carolyn,
you just go and everybody at HBO, so Eric and
Courtney and Pleppler and all the people that were on
the corporate side and marketing and PR strategy, they were
all saying, you just go do what you do. We
(35:58):
trust ourselves. It was the ego involved. And I say
this with admiration, not with condemnation. It was their sense
of their confidence in their choices that liberated David Chase
and certainly Darren and then Michael Patrick that they I mean, sure,
(36:19):
there's notes, there's always notes on a script, and there's
always issues with money, and there's always budget stuff to
talk about, but those are to be expected, and you
want some parenting like you need some parenting. But for
the most part, it was their own confidence in their
artistic sensibilities and the same therefore with everything that surrounded it,
which is what is compelling and makes something grow absolutely,
(36:43):
and the minute you have to start paying attention to
outside stuff and you're producing and picking on based on results,
that's where things are not as interesting. So I feel
like all of it was happening at the same time
without them even realizing, Like I wouldn't have said at
the time, Wow, you're confident people, Wow you really believe
(37:06):
in your own ideas. Wow, you really trust Therefore, you're
going to let everybody, basically speaking, just go off and
make shows that we're not thirty minutes long. They were
not thirty minutes long. They were thirty two minutes long.
They were you know, like.
Speaker 2 (37:21):
Twenty eight minutes long.
Speaker 3 (37:22):
Whatever they were, it was right.
Speaker 4 (37:24):
But that is a huge amount of and that's the
way the company grew, and that's why it was so
felt revolutionary in terms of its programming. They were the
first people that said, oh, we're going to program, We're
going to counter We're going to do you know, counter programming.
All of our fresh materials going to be on the summer.
Everyone else is in repeats.
Speaker 3 (37:45):
Right, So what.
Speaker 4 (37:46):
We're going to do is we're going to put on
programming starting Memorial Day weekend or that. We're going to
capture those women men whoever they are. They're still here,
there or elsewhere, and they're thinking they're on holiday, and
we're going to start giving them information on Sundays at
nine o'clock. That was not a space that was for
(38:09):
your family programming.
Speaker 3 (38:11):
Eventionally speaking, that's what the network said.
Speaker 4 (38:13):
Sunday Night was wild Kingdom, Right, You know, like I'm
going to say little house in the Prairie, but I
can't be certain.
Speaker 3 (38:19):
But my point is that was like maybe Matt.
Speaker 4 (38:22):
Lot like, you know, like like procedural like and HBO said, no,
we're gonna make Sunday night dirty, naughty, unpredictable. We're going
to talk and tell a story about a man named
Tony Soprano who is kills people, who kills people, and
you love him, and he's going to go to therapy
(38:43):
each week, and we're going to sit with him in
this quiet space.
Speaker 3 (38:46):
They were after us. I want to make sure we
were first.
Speaker 4 (38:48):
But also we're going to tell a story about these
particular women in this city at this time, and this
is how they talk and this is how they But
they didn't.
Speaker 3 (38:55):
They weren't saying it like that. They were just responding
to material. Absolutely, they were just pretty took that.
Speaker 4 (39:01):
Yeah, I hate the word space now, but that it existed.
It was a white space literally like they say in retail,
like there was a white space and was like yes,
and Chris and everybody and Carolyn, they were like, wait
a minute, mister Bucus, Yes they so it was. But
there were a lot of parts and things that had
to exist for everybody to be able to do it.
(39:24):
So there was the money, intellectual and the artistic and
the actual real estate to do it, and they just
did it and it was like.
Speaker 3 (39:34):
What I know, and amazing that it worked.
Speaker 4 (39:38):
Yeah, but we know what he was thinking that We
certainly weren't. No, we're just doing trying to.
Speaker 3 (39:42):
Do the best we could, Sarah, Jessica.
Speaker 1 (39:45):
We could talk forever, as you know, So let's take
a little break here and you guys, we will be
back for another episode of Are You a Charlotte
Host
Kristin Davis
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