Ear Biscuits with Rhett & Link - Will We Fit In At Food Network? - Inside Eats Premiere | Ear Biscuits Ep. 332
Episode Date: April 25, 2022This week, it's all about Inside Eats, Rhett & Link's upcoming television show on Food Network and Discovery+! They discuss the process behind developing the TV show, the things they learned while sho...oting and editing the show, and how it's brought about all kinds of anxiety ahead of its release. Plus, Link AKA DJ Rhett hypes himself up for the upcoming Mythical party and Rhett tempers his back pain to finish the episode. Be sure to check out Inside Eats With Rhett & Link on Food Network/Discovery+ premiering Sunday, April 24 at 10:30 / 9:30 CT! To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Welcome to Ear Biscuits, a podcast
where two lifelong friends talk about life for a long time.
I'm Link.
And I'm Rhett.
This week at the Round Table of Dem Lighting,
we are going to be talking all about
our new television show,
Inside Eats with Rhett and Link on Food Network.
And this isn't-
And Discovery Plus.
This isn't like a, I mean,
we're obviously gonna be talking about the show
on all the other things that we do
and trying to get you to watch it.
This is not a promotion.
This is not a promotional thing.
This is a, we're two guys, you know us, Rhett and Link.
We're friends, we own a company together
and we try to make things happen in the media landscape
and one of the exciting things that's happening
for us personally is this television show.
Yeah, if you care enough about us
to care about the stuff that we care about,
well, it turns out we're pretty excited about this.
You know, I mean, we've had a few milestones in our career
that were television shows.
We had one, Online Nation in 2000 and what, nine, eight,
seven.
Wow.
I just kind of guess.
You're my safety net of numbers and time.
2007.
And then Commercial Kings on IFC.
You can get this one. 2010.
Nope, 2011.
Oh.
Are you serious?
2011 is like the year we moved to California
because of that television show.
Yeah, so many memories.
Been here almost 11 years.
So many memories.
But we're gonna be talking about like,
how does this happen?
2021, we got another one.
How does one find themselves on a television show?
And then what happens when you begin to produce
said television show?
Like what are the steps in this process?
And what did we learn?
And how did we feel?
I will say, promotionally speaking,
that the first episode is out.
I mean, depending on when you're listening to this,
more may be out.
But 10.30 on Sunday nights on Food Network.
Oh, okay, because if you're listening to this super fresh,
like the day this episode drops,
it was last night was the premiere, right?
Is that right? Oh, yeah.
Yeah, because this comes out on a Monday typically.
Yeah, so 10.30 Sunday nights. And I was wearing this shirt in the premiere episode.? Oh, it was last night. Is that right? Yeah, because this comes out on a Monday typically, yeah. Yeah, so 10.30 Sunday nights.
And I was wearing this shirt in the premiere episode.
I just thought I'd do that.
Oh, there you go.
I thought I'd make it interesting.
The Discovery Plus versions are extended versions,
slightly extended versions of the same episode.
So it's not bonus footage.
It's some of the scenes are extended.
You don't have to fit into the-
There's some extra stuff in there
if you're watching on Discovery+.
The half hour time slot for TV.
So yeah, I'm also ready to party.
Just as a side note.
I see you got your party suit on.
You see that?
I got my new party suit.
You kinda look like a guy that was just cleaning a floor.
Right, I could be working.
He's like, is he cleaning up after us?
Or does he own the company?
Yeah.
People can't see the, can't see.
The fact that it matches.
It matches, the bottoms match.
It is a suit, it is a janitorial suit.
Good Lord, what happened?
Why is this here?
Good God.
Well, where did you pick that up?
Instagram.
I do all my shopping on Instagram, man.
Shout out to Imperfects, that's what this is called.
Are you gonna button it up later?
Because if you button it up,
you look like you're ready to start mopping.
I'm gonna button it up when I get to work tonight
on the turntables.
Yeah, we have a party tonight.
Christmas party.
So we have not been able to come together as a company,
as the greater umbrella of Mythical.
So everybody at Mythical, everybody at Smosh,
we wanted to obviously have a holiday party in 2020,
that didn't happen.
We obviously wanted to happen in 2021.
In 2021, we planned a Christmas party.
And then the week before it,
Omicron just like went buck wild.
Yeah. Just butt wild.
So we- I thought for the longest time,
I thought it was butt wild.
I think you can say that.
I mean, it's a different thing.
We were gonna go Halloween,
Christmas, holiday, butt wild.
And everybody-
Might've been throwing some Halloween.
We were gonna do a horror themed sweater competition.
So it wasn't just your typical-
Horror, you just said horror themed.
It was horror themed. Cause So it wasn't just your typical- Horror, you just said horror themed. It was horror themed.
Cause I pay attention to the prompts.
I knew we were judging it.
I know we had a TV show in 2007, 2011, and now 2022.
So do I now.
And we also, for the 2021 holiday party,
the prompt was to do a horror themed crazy sweater.
Cause we didn't want to do an ugly sweater
because that's like five years ago, right?
That's pre-pandemic shit, y'all.
Is he right about this?
Yes, he is.
So a Christmas horror though, not Halloween horror.
Yeah, yeah. Okay.
That's what makes it cool.
Well, we're not doing that tonight.
We told him to save it for next Christmas party.
In our meeting the other day
when we were talking about this Christmas party
or the spring party, Emily was like,
she apparently worked very hard on her sweater.
Cause we said there was like cash prize.
She was like, can I bring my sweater?
And I was like, I know a lot of you worked very hard
on your horror theme sweaters.
I'm very excited to see them,
but please hold them until the 2022 holiday party.
So at the end of the year, we get to,
hopefully they won't be too dusty.
Things are gonna break on their horror sweaters, I'm sure.
Cause people build them, you know,
they didn't build them for a year.
They built them to like use that night.
And now they're like hanging up somewhere.
You forget where it is
by the time the next Christmas party rolls around.
But yeah, we're gonna-
And we're gonna change the theme.
It'll be not scary.
It'll be like happy sweaters.
No, but we'll still have to give away-
Encouraging sweaters.
Cash prize.
People really stepped up for that, I think.
And then we had to can it.
So how do you, I do wanna check in
and see how you feel about,
because I have anxiety about this.
And if I have anxiety about this,
then you have even more reason to have anxiety about this.
We have not been with all these people.
Oh.
And there's like 125 plus of them
that are gonna be at this party who work at Mythical.
We've hired a bunch of people over the course
of the past two years.
I don't know what percentage of them I have actually met.
Yeah.
Out of the percentage that I have actually met,
I don't know how many I would be able to recognize
with seeing the bottom half of their face
and then remember their name.
Jen, are we doing name tags?
We're doing name tags?
Yes, I requested that yesterday because of this.
Right, how big are the name tags gonna be?
Are they gonna be so big that people can't tell
that you're looking at them?
We need to do like-
Like cleavage size?
No, we need to do like second life type things.
Oh, it's a-
Where it's a name tag that hovers
above your head very, very large.
So people can't really tell if you're looking in their eye
or looking at their name tag.
I love it.
Do we have time to do that in the next eight hours?
I still feel tired.
Yeah, I think maybe my suggestion
would be some sort of like an old hanger, like old hangers,
secured with duct tape to the shoulders
and come up above the top.
If everybody would do that before the party,
we'll be great.
You know I'm with you, man,
because I have that name fright.
Oh yeah, I saw it begin to emerge
in the company-wide meeting the other day.
Yeah.
When you pointed at one person and said a different name.
Yeah, I was like, I was recognizing Ammo for his promotion
and I pointed at Zach.
Yeah, I mean, listen, brother, it's hard.
And then I said, if you squint, you guys look alike.
And I don't know if that made it better. Yeah, I mean, yeah, you should probably kept that to yourself. I don't listen, brother, it's hard. And then I said, if you squint, you guys look alike. And I don't know if that made it better.
Yeah, I mean, yeah,
you should probably kept that to yourself.
I don't know, man.
So yeah, I was a little nervous about that,
but I know we're doing a name tag, so I'm cool with that.
And I am DJing this party.
Oh, I heard that.
Oh, that's why you're wearing the outfit.
Yeah, that's my DJ outfit.
But I don't, and my name is DJ Rhett, by the way.
Well, okay, hold on, no, your name is DJ Straw Beat.
No, my name is DJ Rhett.
I'm MC Sky and I may rap at any point that I want to.
I did not name myself that,
but I think it was a friend, Jayden.
Like I was talking about like liking to make playlists.
And I think he, I think it was an accident.
Like he's a close friend, so it rarely happens.
But so when he called, he said, DJ Rhett.
I think he was thinking my name was Rhett for a second.
He had a brain fart.
Even though he knows us really well.
We didn't have our name tags on at the time.
So we like busted out laughing.
This was like three years ago, pre-pandemic.
And we just busted out laughing.
And he said from then on,
he stored my name in his phone as DJ Rhett.
That's kind of funny, man.
To kind of own the fact that he really,
royally screwed up.
All right, DJ Rhett is,
but by DJing, you mean-
I'm still working on my DJ name, but I'm-
You're creating a playlist
and then walking around in the party.
I am not- You're not staying
behind a booth. I'm not really DJing. And I don't want anybody to know but I'm- You're creating a playlist and then walking around in the party. I am not- You're not staying behind a booth.
I'm not really DJing.
And I don't want anybody to know that-
You're curating the playlist.
I'm curating the playlist.
And I don't want anybody to know
that I have aspirations to be a DJ
because I don't want that to get out.
Will you have on your phone-
Because I don't have any DJ equipment.
In the moment.
Yet.
The ability to take requests or to skip songs.
Hell no.
But hold on, I'm not saying,
did you have the willingness?
I said, do you have the ability?
Is your phone going to be controlling the playlist
as you walk around on your person?
No.
Are you lying?
Yes, it's a, yeah, no.
I'm not, it's a laptop, dude.
Are you lying? Yes.
It's a laptop. Well, at least we're being honest. It's a, yeah, no, I'm not, it's a laptop, dude. Are you lying? Yes. It's a laptop.
Well, at least we're being honest.
It's a laptop.
You really can't, without the proper equipment,
you can't really DJ.
I mean, like making a playlist is just like a hack way
to do it, because that's not really, that's not DJing.
That's the only level of DJing that I am actually
comfortable endorsing though, really.
What do you mean?
For this party. Endorsing?
Yeah, I don't wanna seem like I'm trying to.
We did a party one time,
because we're doing it in the parking lot,
and we did it before in the parking lot,
and we had a real DJ who was like at the thing,
was at the booth, was at the turntables.
Yeah.
And I just felt like-
It was unmemorable.
It may have been too high key for us.
Well, I'm taking some risks.
Oh really?
Playing some controversial artists?
No, I'm going for a vibe that I don't know
that people are gonna be expecting.
Too low key?
You think maybe it's too low key?
I think there's a risk of that.
I'm not risking going too hard.
Do you have some like just Jim Brickman, just piano music?
No, it's not gonna be.
Does everything have a beat?
No one's gonna go to sleep.
Everything has a beat, but yeah.
Do you have an Audible playlist?
You're like, I can call an Audible?
Yeah. Like change it?
Not like start playing a book on tape.
I got up.
Can you just start playing Sapiens?
Six o'clock this morning- Everyone watch that book.
I got up and I was working on it.
I worked for an hour on a backup.
Yeah, in case- Like a vibe change. In case I was wrong, yeah. I worked for an hour on a backup. Yeah, in case-
Like a vibe change.
In case I was wrong.
Yeah.
That thing that was really smart.
And then when I was driving in,
I came up with another backup.
So I'm trying to come up with-
Wow, you got a backup to the backup?
Yeah, I just don't, you know,
this is a learning process for me.
Don't let people know that.
That's why I don't want anyone to know
that I'm actually doing the music at all.
Like I'm not even gonna, I'm gonna be part of the party.
And then I want someone to say,
I like this music. Who made this playlist?
Yeah, it's just who made the playlist?
Like I've said before.
And then you're gonna claim it.
There is no DJ and I'm not the DJ.
You're gonna say, well, DJ Rhett did.
Yeah, I am.
And then I'll just acknowledge it and be like, yeah.
You can't take, if people like it, you can't take credit.
Well, if you say that DJ Rhett-
DJ Rhett is not Rhett.
Well, are you going to explain that to everyone?
No, unless it's going really, really well.
Is there going to be-
It's not about the music,
and that's the vibe I've chosen.
It's not about the music,
it's about reconnecting with everyone for the first time.
Is there a microphone and a PA system?
I don't, there's a, yeah, there's a,
it's not just gonna be computer, laptop speakers.
Well, I know that, I just wanna make sure that.
I do know very little though.
But this could be the end of something.
Are we gonna be making a speech is what I'm getting at.
Or the beginning of something.
Well, that's your problem.
You worry about the speech.
Well, no, that's the problem.
I want you to worry about the speech
because I don't want you to be doing the speech in the moment.
I'm also gonna be-
That's when the party could go real sideways.
Yeah, because I'm gonna be partying too.
Yeah.
I'm not in full work mode.
I'm just in work attire.
I'm not cleaning up messes either,
but I could shave down a surfboard.
That's what, I like to think this is like a worker who works on shaving down surfboards. That's what I like to think this is like a worker
who works on shaving down surfboards.
That's what the model-
I've watched a few of those videos.
Who was wearing this.
I've watched a few of those videos.
And I bought it.
And I've never seen that.
That's the guy was wearing it doing that.
And I was like, that's who I wanna be.
Let's talk about the television show.
But first let's talk about something else.
Just wanna remind you, there's other podcasts.
Trevor Talks Too Much is one of them.
His guests are surprising and delighting
and they connect with him.
You should give it a shot if you've never listened
to Trevor Talks Too Much and while you're at it,
Best Friends Back All Right, the Stevie hosted podcast.
Check that one out too if you haven't already.
Totally different vibe than Trevor Talks Too Much.
Kind of a similar vibe to what we do here.
Two friends connecting over their past,
getting nostalgic about the 2000s in their case.
So- The friendship is blossoming.
If you're into that, a blossoming friendship,
check that out.
And if you wanna watch our old television show,
Commercial Kings, commercial kings, can't say it right.
Yeah, I'm gonna promote that too.
That's interesting.
You can watch it on Amazon.
I believe it's on Amazon Prime for free, could be wrong,
but I think that's right.
Just search commercial kings with Rhett and Link
and catch up on our 2011 television show.
Yeah. Yeah.
Okay, how does one get a television show?
This was not our idea.
So let's start there.
You know, we are developing lots of ideas
for all types of what we call traditional entertainment.
That means movies, television shows of the scripted variety
and also of the non-scripted variety.
Could be a game show, could be a reality show.
It could be a mixture of both.
We're developing all types of stuff
because we're fans of ideas, especially our own.
But we're also open to other people's ideas
if they work for us, like Ronstadt
is a great scripted podcast idea
that did not originate with us,
but it was really exciting to get on board.
Right, so every once in a while,
people come along and say,
"'Hey, here's an opportunity for you guys
"'to be involved in this project.
And that's how this happened.
So there was a show that was already in development
and not just in development,
like it had been green lit by Food Network to be a show.
As far as I remember, yeah.
But when you say in development,
I kind of feel like it was pitched.
They were like, yes.
The concept at the time,
the working title was Inside Our Favorite
or Inside Your Favorite.
I think it was Inside Our Favorite.
Inside Our Favorite with dot, dot, dot.
And our name was thrown out in like the pitch meetings.
Would Food Network, Discovery Plus,
what do you guys think about Rhett and Link?
They could be perfect hosts for this thing.
Inside our favorite, you go behind the scenes into,
the first way it was talked about to us was-
The people.
Factories where all these people were working
behind the scenes on like factory lines to create your favorite snacks
and candies, things like that.
So it was kind of like How It's Made,
but more host on the ground,
kind of exploring and experiencing
what's going on at these snack factories.
And then we were approached.
And when we were approached,
I think it's important to kind of establish
the way that we see opportunities like this, right?
An opportunity to host a television show,
I would say 10 years ago,
it was like, that's why we were in this game.
We were doing what we were doing on YouTube to try to-
Let's say 12 years ago.
Kinda launch into, yeah,
because once GMM started,
kinda launch into something in the traditional space.
But over the years, what we built here at Mythical
and the stuff that we're producing
has become the priority for us.
And so opportunities like this don't,
they no longer have this,
oh, this is the thing that we've always been waiting for,
we've always been wanting,
and now we're gonna throw all our time into this
and throw everything else away.
It's more like, okay,
we're not going to stop doing Good Mythical Morning,
we're not gonna stop doing this podcast,
we're not gonna stop doing all the things
that we're doing in Mythical.
So the question is, can we make this work?
Because it's not just a done deal
that it's automatically a good idea, right?
We have been approached for other things
that we have said no to.
But the condition for saying yes to something like this was,
we will do this if we can be executive producers
of the show and Mythical can be a production entity
on the show.
So in other words, if we can make it our show,
instead of just being plugged in as hosts.
Now we were approached not by Food Network directly,
but by the production company that hatched the original idea
and got Food Network on board and excited about it.
That production company is called B17.
They've produced a number of other shows.
You should check them out.
You should look them up.
So B17 approached us.
Yeah.
And their executive over there, his name is Rhett.
His name is Rhett.
Okay, we have a connection.
He might be a DJ. But maybe some confusion.
He may be a DJ.
No, he never brought that up.
I don't know, you don't know that.
People don't wear it on their sleeve.
Well, if he did, he'd be called DJ Link.
True, okay, that clears it up.
I thought about, I don't, I'm not even gonna tell you
that I've thought about other DJ names
because I just don't wanna put it,
I just don't wanna put too much energy out there
in the universe about my aspirations.
I want it to be something that just kinda never happens
or it just happens on my own terms.
So I'm gonna stop talking about it.
Good. That.
But yes, and they had experience,
B-17 had experience with making shows
with internet talent, and we liked what they had done,
we liked them, and the thing is is that,
I kinda set it up like, we're only gonna say yes
if we get to be the creative force behind the show
or whatever.
Made us sound like assholes.
Well, but the thing is is that-
But I don't think we were.
That's what B17 and Food Network wanted.
In other words, it's like, you don't want a host
who's just like, I'm gonna come in here,
I'm gonna do my thing and I'm gonna leave.
You actually want somebody who's like, no, no,
we wanna be involved, we wanna make the show our own,
we wanna be engaged, we wanna be passionate
about this thing.
Yeah.
And also, we're really, really, really busy
and we can devote about a day to shooting an episode.
Just FYI, you know what I'm saying?
Yeah.
And it wasn't like, oh no, we can't do that.
It was like, well, okay,
actually that's what we were thinking too,
because with all the stuff that's being made
in the world right now,
they're not just throwing out massive amounts of money
for the budgets on these shows, right?
It's like people are trying to make shows
much more efficiently than they used to.
So being able to produce something in a day
or shoot something in a day is actually the page
that everybody was already on.
So then we started asking the question like,
all right, this loose concept,
it totally makes sense why they would approach us.
We've tried all this food, we've eaten all these snacks.
We've kind of positioned ourselves as your buddies
behind the desk who eat all the stuff for you
to tell you if you should eat it.
Yeah, people who taste things and talk about it.
Right, not chefs.
If I didn't have to clarify that,
I didn't think I had to clarify that, yes.
But not chefs, but food adjacent,
or well, actually directly related to food,
but not guys who make it, just guys who eat it,
just like you.
Food friends.
And then the process started, it was like, well-
Could have called it that, food friends.
Well, we got close to calling it something.
It was called something else at one point.
We can get into that a little bit.
There was a couple of things happening
sort of behind the scenes.
And so there was a desire to differentiate this
from just kind of going into a factory
and just dealing with snacks.
It was like, can we expand that
into just America's favorite food brands?
So that might be a restaurant.
It might be somebody who makes a snack,
but just a food or a place that makes food
that everyone kind of knows and relates to
and has some sort of point of reference to.
Yeah, which is kind of our mentality
on Good Mythical Morning.
The more we can pull from an experience,
well-known brands, whether that's fast food brands,
you know, sit down restaurant brands
or different types of potato chips or cereals
or whatever stuff
you can find in the grocery store or on the snack aisle.
Like there's that connection that there's people
that are passionate about certain things
and we're very passionate about certain things.
So tapping into that passion and then saying,
okay, well let's peel back the curtain
and show you behind the scenes there.
But there's so much more
than just that whole factory thing anyway,
that like this show can be more expansive.
And then it got more exciting.
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Terms and conditions apply. And then we had the idea to like, how did we sort of retinlinkize
this thing in terms of, we knew that we wanted it to be very comedy forward, right? And we also
knew that we wanted it to be very curiosity forward, right? And we also knew that we wanted it
to be very curiosity forward,
because those are kind of the two pillars of our brand,
curiosity and comedy.
And so that was when we established this idea
of what if there was sort of an off the wall,
sort of out of left field question
that we want to ask about this particular brand.
Like when we think about Chipotle, this is what we think.
When we think about Cheesecake Factory,
this is the question that comes to mind for us.
And then can we craft an episode around that question
and kind of getting,
going behind the scenes to answer that question.
Before Chipotle or Cheesecake Factory
became actual episodes,
do you remember the first example we talked about?
I do remember.
Cause I came up with it in a phone call.
Yeah, it's like, you know,
we were having these working meetings with B17,
me, you, Stevie, and our development executive at the time,
Mallory, we were, you know, we were kind of like shaping it.
It was fun. And so we were coming of like shaping it. It was fun.
And so we were coming up with,
I remember it was a very preliminary conversation.
We were talking about this like line of questioning,
being inquisitive.
And could one question become like a starting point
for an episode or maybe a through line for an episode.
But when you're brainstorming,
when you speak in abstract terms,
you can only get so excited.
And so if in those moments on those like nascent calls,
we can throw something out there that you can rally around,
it makes all the difference in the world.
And so that's when you threw out the example.
I don't remember how I phrased the question.
I thought you said you remembered it.
No, I know the question.
The question was about the foldy chip.
Yeah, like say we were going to a potato chip factory
to look at like, we're a big fan of Lay's. Let's see if we could go to a Lay's potato chip factory to look at, like we're a big fan of Lay's.
Let's see if we could go to a Lay's potato chip factory.
And I think the question was essentially,
how do the Foldy chips happen?
And how does this brand feel about the Foldy chips?
And that came from the fact that you have talked about
how you like the Foldy chips.
You prefer the Foldy chips.
You'd go after the Foldy chips.
I've even said, I want a bag of nothing but Foldy chips.
And so I think- And I ain't talking
about kettle cups, kettle chips.
What I had in mind was, is the Foldy chip a mistake
or is the Foldy chip a beautiful mistake
or is the Foldy chip, like-
Is it an accepted error or is it part of the design?
So- Right.
And how do the executives,
how do the like executive chefs at the potato chip factory
or like the quality control people,
you know, we started salivating over these answers.
Right.
And everybody on the call got excited about it.
So that became the clarion call
of the curiosity associated with Inside Eats,
even though we weren't calling it that.
And then of course, as this was developing,
now, first of all, everybody was like, yes, this is great.
Now the process of, and you gotta be making phone calls to,
you know, B17 is reaching out to all these brands
because you'd be like, hey, these two guys here,
you can go to their YouTube, you can see who they are.
They're going to come to your place
and they're gonna sort of like go behind the scenes
for this Food Network show.
And I mean, not everybody is comfortable with us
coming into their, you know,
finding out about what they're doing.
But in some ways, I would say most brands
were excited about it because I mean, let's just face it,
you're gonna be, after you watch an episode,
you're gonna be hungry for whatever this thing is.
But I mean, you have to sell that
because the show doesn't exist.
And you know, there is a level of trust
that a brand has to put on the line.
And it's so easy for,
especially when you get to like corporatized brands,
like someone as big as Chipotle could easily have,
somebody's job's on the line
and they could just wanna cover their own ass and say,
"'Well, there's just as much to lose as there is to gain.
What if these guys embarrass us?
I don't know exactly what this show is,
but it is Food Network and I can see other things
these guys have done and B17 did a good job.
We're good boys. We're good boys.
We're good boys.
We're not gonna embarrass you too much.
I mean, we've shit talked some food on our show
just because, hey, you gotta be honest about what you like.
But yeah, luckily some very high profile brands
like Chipotle is huge, you know,
to see, to get the vision for it and say,
hey, this could be great for us.
And everybody could win.
And we had to find four brands.
So just to give you a little background on this.
So, you know, season one of Inside Eats is four episodes.
I mean, but four episodes, that's a short,
that's just, that's how Discovery
or Food Network is doing things right now.
It's like, you know, the first episode,
first season, let's do four episodes, see what people think.
At least they didn't order a pilot
and then maybe we work on that and then no one sees it.
If they don't like it, it's like,
we're gonna make an order.
I feel like it's kind of an extended pilot
because four is a short season.
But I think you really learn a lot as we'll talk about
that then you can really take all that into account
when they order more. And I certainly hope they do. you can really take all that into account
when they order more. And I certainly hope they do.
Yeah, well, cause we've learned,
we'll get into like how much we've learned
in just doing the first four.
But so the brands that responded,
actually more than a handful of brands responded
and said they were into the idea
and the four that ended up working out based on like timing,
because this all had to happen, this moved very quickly
and it had to happen at the end of 2021.
We shot all four episodes over the course of about two weeks
and literally, like I said, four actual days
of shooting like two days in a row
and then like two weeks later, two more days,
right before Christmas.
And the companies that we ended up going with
were Chipotle, Cheesecake Factory, Cool House Ice Cream,
which is a very cool ice cream shop
that actually is available nationwide.
You probably have seen them at the grocery store,
but they're based in LA.
They're pints next to Ben and Jerry's.
And then Beyond Meat, who we've talked about on the show,
basically making plant-based meat products.
And they had never had anybody enter
sort of behind the scenes.
But anyway, those are the four that are featured
in season one.
And for the first episode,
since that's the one that you can watch right now,
the thing that we talked about,
because this is something that we've sort of talked about
tangentially before, is this like,
when you go to Chipotle, are you a burrito guy?
You a bowl girl?
You a quesadilla kid?
Whatever, I'm not saying that that's who gets those things.
I'm just- Are you a salad robot?
Yeah.
And we wanted to ask the question,
does what you order at Chipotle
say something about your personality?
And maybe more specifically, does your personality,
can we know things about your personality
and then predict what you're going to get at Chipotle?
Yeah, and at least, in the least, we thought,
well, it'll be fun to try.
Yes. And it was. So very much in the same way that we well, it'll be fun to try. Yes.
And it was.
So very much in the same way that we approach things
on GMM where we delve into boopity boop boop boop
research and science,
but we do it from a comedic standpoint.
That's really how we approach the show,
especially that first episode
because it was kind of a social science question.
For Cheesecake Factory,
we knew we had to make the episode ultimately
about the bigness of their menu.
How could their menu be so large?
Like why, but also how, if you think about it.
It's a crazy amount of dishes to come out of one kitchen
that then is replicated in all their different locations.
It's pretty wild.
And then for Cool House,
because they had, I mean,
arguably pushed the flavors of ice cream just as far,
if not farther than any other ice cream maker.
I mean, that inspired us to say, well, how far is too far?
And would they let us develop our own ice creams?
To answer the question,
how far can you push ice cream flavor?
Like what is the limit that you can push it to?
When have you crossed a threshold?
Cause you know, we're willing to cross,
just dance all over that line. And each other's graves, threshold? Cause you know, we're willing to cross, just dance all over that line and each other's graves.
If they, you know, whoever loses the competition.
And then in Beyond Meat,
the question was essentially what is like,
what is this process that leads to them being able
to make something that is so meat-like
and something we were very specifically interested in is,
don't you have to still have a familiarity with meat
and like understand meat and sort of like meat?
Because what Beyond Meat is trying to do,
they're actually making a product
for people who like to eat meat,
but would like to have a meat alternative
either sometimes or eventually all the time.
Yeah.
But they're not trying to create-
If not for health reasons or dietary reasons,
for environmental reasons.
Right, so they actually,
they're banking on the fact that humans
generally like the taste and texture and color of meat,
but not everybody wants to eat that much actual meat.
So how do you do that in a plant-based way?
And for me personally, I mean, I enjoyed,
like legitimately enjoyed the process at every single place.
The Beyond Meat episode for me was the one,
it just gets very scientific.
It gets very specific and like,
oh, this is how it happens?
Now-
There was a lot of surprise and awe.
But there was also for that episode,
because this is all proprietary stuff,
like they had never let anybody in,
they never let cameras in their headquarters before.
And so there's like a woman who's like looking
at whatever's in the frame and making sure
there's not some like secret formula in the back, you know,
because there's competition out there
with plant-based meats.
And so we got a lot of information,
but we didn't get enough where you could be like,
I'm gonna start my own Beyond Meat now.
No, we got all the information,
but then at the very end,
there was that Men in Black moment, you remember?
Oh, yeah. On the way out?
Yeah, I think that was just like a Tussie deodorant
that somebody held up in front of us.
A Tussie deodorant.
You know Tussie?
Tussie. Tussie deodorant.
That's my favorite brand of anything.
And it kinda is like circular.
T-U-S-S-Y.
Tussie.
Well, the great thing about Tussie is that-
Can we do an Inside Eats on Tussie?
Well, I hope so.
Can we talk about how we used to take a Sharpie
and change the T to a P?
No, you do not eat Tussie.
It's a deodorant.
Can you eat Tussie?
Okay. On season two of-
Inside Eats. I won't even say it.
I won't even say it.
I'm not even even say it. I won't even say it. I'm not even going to say it.
What was the last thing
that filled you with wonder
that took you away
from your desk
or your car in traffic?
Well, for us,
and I'm going to guess
for some of you,
that thing is...
Anime!
Hi, I'm Nick Friedman.
I'm Lee Alec Murray.
And I'm Leah President.
And welcome to
Crunchyroll Presents
The Anime Effect.
It's a weekly news show.
With the best celebrity guests.
And hot takes galore.
So join us every Friday wherever you get your podcasts and watch full video episodes on Crunchyroll or on the Crunchyroll YouTube channel.
We're deciding that this is going to be our approach.
Let's move to actually filming these things.
Cause it was, you know, it's,
first of all, coming out of the pandemic,
there's still a lot of safety protocols,
a lot of masks being worn up until the second
of us actually being on camera,
lots of testing happening, super safety-ness.
Well, I wanna talk about the team
that was kind of working behind the scenes as well
to kind of make it where when we showed up,
everything was going to go as seamless as possible.
So our showrunner, TJ Chambers, who is, you know,
I would say more so than us,
the hardest working person in this whole endeavor, right?
I mean, that dude worked his ass off
to help make this show happen.
Cause he's basically worrying about everything
from the very beginning to the very end
of like delivering the trailer.
Oh yeah, shaping and protecting the tone of the show
and really shepherding our wishes and the network's wishes
and creating something that is not a compromise, but is the best of both worlds.
Yeah, and he's kind of a jack of all trades
in a lot of ways because he is a writer.
You know, he's a writer, he's a producer, he's a director.
There's a lot of things that are happening behind the scenes
and then when we're producing it.
And he's more of a, yeah, like lots of comedy experience.
Well, and because what we knew we wanted, right?
Because our experience with Commercial Kings,
and if you go back and watch Commercial Kings
as Link asked you to do earlier,
which I guess is on Amazon.
Yeah.
You'll see there was a very specific convention
that we used back then called OTF, on the fly interviews.
So the way that we would shoot that show is we would go,
we would work with the business,
we would make the commercial,
and then we would kind of-
All along the way.
Take stock of like what just happened
and can we just stand you guys
in front of this building right here
and ask you some questions so you can,
let's like a reality show,
just like they do on The Bachelor or Survivor or whatever.
Yeah, every HGTV show.
You just talk about what is happening.
In the present tense.
We'll use that to sort of piece the story together.
We knew that we did not wanna do that
for like seven different reasons.
Number one, I don't like that convention.
I don't, I feel like it-
It's done a lot.
It's kind of overdone,
but also it traps you into whatever you said in that moment.
It ends up seeming kind of canned.
We like voiceover.
We like being able to look at what we have done,
look at what has been created,
look at the footage that we actually have,
and then make decisions about how we want
to piece it together.
And it's also an opportunity to really nail the comedy
and change jokes because you're not gonna go back out
to that building and stand in front of it again,
but you can just simply voice over something different.
Well, on Commercial Kings, we were really burned
because we got into the edit process and we were like,
we really need to cut to an interview guys
introducing the next thing or bridging
from idea A to idea B.
And it was a lot of heavy lifting from a story standpoint
that then we just had to go out
into like some nondescript North Hollywood location
from our edit bays and spend a few hours
just standing out there
acting like we were back-
In Nevada.
In Nevada or Reno or I guess we went to other places
besides Nevada.
Man.
Reno is in Nevada, Tonopah.
And it just, it was a lot of work and it wasn't,
and it's not our best work.
No, no, no, no.
It's really hard to do.
Especially as two people, because in that-
We ended up scripting them and that's when it got,
just so that we could get it done.
And then it was like-
And with a voiceover, knowing that it's scripted
is just, everyone knows.
Of course, yeah, you guys are now reading this thing
that you've written.
It's narration, of course.
And people, it's more of an acceptable convention
and more flexible, all those things.
But we actually-
Best decision we ever made for the show.
We brought Nick Lopez.
If you're like a hardcore GMM trivia enthusiast,
you might know that Nick was,
well, first of all, we got to know Nick
because Nick was a writer's assistant
on Buddy System season two.
Yep.
And we loved him, hired him onto the GMM writing team.
He quickly, I think he was a writer's assistant
at some point on GMM, quickly moved
into a head writer position.
But he's- Went to work on other projects.
So talented, he's had the opportunity
to kind of just move on to other things and work on other projects. So talented, he's had the opportunity to kind of just move on to other things
and work on other things.
But we were like, he'll come back and work on GMM
from time to time when we need an extra hand.
But we were like, and I think it was Stevie,
Stevie's idea was like, oh, we should talk to Nick
because-
He understands our voice.
The show is not written per se,
but if you're gonna go into like,
oh, we're going into this situation
where there's this guy who is the head chef at Chipotle
and we're gonna be asking a bunch of questions,
Nick is able to be like,
here's some paths that you can go down.
Here's some conversational paths you can go down.
Here's something that you might wanna ask.
Here's a little fun fact that you might wanna bring up.
Here's something that I know that he knows because we got it from a pre-interview that you might find a way Here's a little fun fact that you might wanna bring up. Here's something that I know that he knows
because we got it from a pre-interview
that you might find a way to reveal in the conversation.
Like you can get at this in a funny way.
So Nick did a lot of work there along with TJ
to kind of, like when we got to set on that first day,
which Chipotle was the first episode that we shot
as a matter of fact.
Yeah.
Chipotle was the first episode that we shot as a matter of fact.
Yeah.
I had a, my back, you know this is what happens
a lot of times with me when we're moving into a new project.
That's right.
My lower back goes out
and it's just something that I haven't quite got a hold on
and I don't know why it always happens, but my back-
Stress. Yeah, well I know that's why it happens, but I don't know why it always happens, but my back- Stress.
Yeah, well, I know that's why it happens,
but I don't know specifically,
I don't know how mechanically all this stuff happens.
But my back has seized up and it was like a nine
on a scale of one to 10 in terms of-
I thought for you, man.
Like how bad my back can hurt.
So whenever you see Rhett walking-
That whole episode, my back is-
He's walking fine.
I am in extreme pain That whole episode, my back is- He's walking fine. I am in extreme pain that whole episode,
but I will hand it to myself.
I did a good job of setting,
like compartmentalizing the pain
in terms of like when we were in a conversation
and just being in the moment
and trying to be in a comedic head space.
That sucks, man.
But you definitely can tell-
I mean, it's akin to like a migraine almost, you know?
Migraines are worse.
Migraines are worse, but-
When the pain is localized in your face, in your head,
which feels like the center of your person,
I think that's a lot more disrupting than like,
I am hurt, my lower back is killing me right now,
but I'm still up here.
Your face can be happy.
I can go completely into my head
and just exist in my head like that brain
on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Yeah, Krang.
Yeah.
That's basically, I was embodying or channeling,
Crane is his name?
Krang. Krang.
Krang, yeah.
You did good, Rhett.
And I was using the Krang voice the whole time.
If that helps explain.
I was not in any pain.
I had some jitters, you know?
It's like, okay, we're dusting off the, well, the dust.
Not only of the pandemic,
but like experiencing an entire new crew
and in a place where it's like,
we're just starting this thing.
Everybody's watching closely
from a protocol COVID standpoint to like a performance
to like what is this show gonna be
to the network standpoint.
But I think one of the main things
that I feel great about with this show
and I felt it very early on,
the first time we shot something was that first scene.
First thing we shot was around back,
this guy pulls up and he's unloading
all of the raw materials, the vegetables
and the chicken and stuff for Chipotle.
Just so you know, when you watch this on the show,
this is probably halfway or maybe even a little longer
than halfway through the episode
when we approached this guy unloading the stuff
in the truck behind the Chipotle.
First thing we shot.
That was literally like we were doing our hair and makeup
and inside the Chipotle that we were shooting at.
Right.
And then they were like, okay, this is your first scene.
Cause again, everything has to be shot
according to when things are happening.
And then later it's pieced together
to make a consistent narrative.
But so yeah, us walking around that corner
and making that law and order joke
was the very first thing we shot with Inside Ease.
Yeah, and we're like, we got a couple of questions for you.
And he's like, how are you doing?
I was like, oh, you're gonna start with the questions.
And he's like, all right, we're in the mix.
This is happening.
And we were off to the races.
It felt great to say at the end of that first day,
or even halfway through the first day,
that my main concern had been alleviated,
which was, are we gonna be in our zone?
Are we going to be this-
Ourselves. Ourselves.
Are we gonna be comfortable, confident,
and having a good time?
Are we gonna take everything that we've learned
from Good Mythical Morning?
And even when things would change over the years
with Good Mythical Morning, the bigger the change,
the more chance that all of a sudden our vibe would be off.
And when everything is new, your brain, my brain,
tends to focus, it doesn't yet know what to tune out
and what to focus on.
Oh, there's new people in the crew.
There's new cameras.
It's cold today.
I'm wearing something different.
I'm this, that, and the other.
Your back hurts.
All of these type of variables,
you have to know what to tune out and what to focus on
to just to be the most, to be true to ourselves
and just trust our instincts and be in that moment.
And I was very, very happy that this show is,
you know, we were never put in a position and we never stepped into a position I'm very, very happy that this show is,
we were never put in a position
and we never stepped into a position
that stretched us in a way that wasn't a good idea.
I mean, for me, just because the people
that we were working with had very clearly communicated that they understood
what makes us who we are
and they wanted us to be who we are.
Yeah.
So I don't think I ever felt any,
there was never a question in my mind of like,
are we gonna be put into the right circumstance
to pull this off?
It was more like, you know,
we are always doing this little dance, you know,
we had watched, the most analogous thing to this
in the recent past is the Backup Plan series
that we did on GMM.
Right.
That was sponsored by GEICO.
Yeah, when we went to the cereal factory.
Right.
And got in the huge cereal bowl is a great example.
We sent that episode of the cereal bowl
and there was another one where we went to-
Oh, the flavor.
The flavor factory.
We sent those over to B17 and TJ and everybody
and we're like, we've done this type of thing before
and this is sort of the vibe, right?
We're asking a real question,
but we're doing it in a ridiculous way.
There's gonna be these ridiculous asides
and we're obviously entering this situation
as a comedy duo.
I hadn't watched those in years
and I remember watching them.
And I remember that night I watched them
and immediately sent those two episodes to you and Stevie
because I was like, hey,
I didn't know how I was gonna feel.
You never know how you're gonna feel about something
when you go back to it years later
because you always feel like you've developed beyond it or whatever. Yeah how I was gonna feel. You never know how you're gonna feel about something when you go back to it years later, because you always feel like you've developed
beyond it or whatever.
I was like, hey, this is the true North.
The way that we interacted here,
this is the vibe that we should attain, right?
This is the vibe we should go for.
Yeah.
And yeah, I think we really got there.
I mean, there's always a little bit,
it depends on what we're doing at the time.
There are moments in this type of format
where we get to a place where me and you are standing there
talking to one person and asking them questions
and not doing something.
And it gets to be like two guys interviewing one person.
And since nothing is scripted, again, like,
yes, we have this notebook that's like,
here's some questions you could ask.
Here's what this person knows.
Here's the goal of this scene.
We had all kind of developed that
and then Nick and TJ had put it in this big binder
that we were given when we got on set
so we could reorient ourselves.
But when the camera starts rolling,
you don't remember what the binder said.
You remember bits and pieces of it,
but you're really going on instinct.
And so you've got what you're thinking,
I've got what I'm thinking.
Oh, Link just said that, I'm gonna go with that.
Or that makes me think this.
I'm gonna get out of his way for a second.
There's this, there's a balance
in trying to figure out that dance again.
Yeah, the brain gets hot.
But it pretty much came back immediately.
It wasn't like a struggle.
Very glad about that.
So I think, you know,
so when we were bringing our comedic sensibility
and our curiosity to the table and to every scene,
having structured the episodes and gotten approval on that.
The thing that Food Network was bringing to us
was an education on their expectations from their audience.
Because this is a melding of two audiences,
between Food Network Discovery Plus and Mythical Beasts. And I would like to talk about that. I would say specifically Food Network Discovery Plus and Mythical Beasts.
And I would like to talk about that.
I would say specifically Food Network,
which yes, Food Network is a part of Discovery,
but when we got approached, we actually didn't know,
I don't know if I missed it or if it developed later,
but we didn't know that it was a Food Network show.
The conversation was Discovery Plus.
So I knew it was gonna be food centric
because that's the whole point of the show.
But the moment that it either became or I finally realized-
We didn't know if it would be comedy centric with food,
but it became clear that it needed to be food centric.
Right, and when we be food centric.
Right, and when we say food centric, what we mean is that,
so a person who has decided to turn on Food Network,
and maybe you're one of those people,
if you're like me,
you're just the kind of person
that just likes to look at food, right?
You like to look at food and see people make food
and see people eat food
because you have a love affair with food.
It's probably the best thing on earth
besides what rhymes with tussy
that we talked about earlier.
And so people who watch Food Network,
they need to see food, right?
They don't just want to see two guys being stupid,
being funny.
Yeah.
Because if you're a Food Network first,
if you're tuning in for Food Network first
and not Rhett and Link first, you're like,
I'm here for the food part of the network.
I don't want these two guys to get in the way of the food.
And so there was one guy who had a sort
of a specialized camera.
It was a different camera that could do
a really high frame rate for slow motion.
And he was the food camera guy.
Yeah.
And so if the guacamole is being made
or dipped out of something or steak is being chopped,
it's like that's when those sort of hero shots
or whatever you wanna call them,
slow-mo sort of dramatic food shots.
He was getting all, and as he was getting all this footage,
me not really understanding the show
that we were making yet, I was like, wow,
he's filming a lot, he's filming all this food,
but like, I mean, it's gonna be us on camera, right? You know, it's like, wow, he's filming a lot. He's filming all this food, but like,
I mean, it's gonna be us on camera, right?
You know, it's like, I mean,
it's gonna be the funny guys on camera, right?
So there was a realignment that happened
in terms of like understanding
where everything should settle,
what the balance should be for this show
and really begin to understand
and getting that Food Network education that,
hey, the audience wants to indulge with their eyes.
You know, and then you can,
yeah, we can have fun all along the way,
but you want to indulge and you want to learn.
So as we were in the, you know,
post phase of editing everything together and we were in the post phase
of editing everything together
and we were giving a bunch of notes about like,
all right, I remember saying this and we had, it was funny.
Or I remember Rhett said this, they're like,
there's three things from Rhett, there's nothing from me.
Let's have a little bit more balance or vice versa.
Like we would give these type of notes.
Or this is a runner, I think we can have a throwback.
You know, comedy notes.
Yeah, the thing that we're interested in.
And then the Food Network notes would be like,
we need to understand more of the process
that you started making the guacamole,
but we don't know what the final,
you didn't reveal what the final ingredient was.
It didn't come together.
It's like, you gotta have,
if you're gonna go into this guacamole moment,
well, it needs to have a beginning, middle and end.
You gotta have a satisfying conclusion
so that people feel like
they've got the full guac experience.
And it totally makes sense.
And you wanna see the guac.
And hey, if there's a fact about how many avocados
Chipotle
goes through in a year or a week or whatever that fact was. That's an interesting thing.
So we didn't ask that in scene,
but we can pull a voiceover.
We can change that.
And whenever you start to learn these things,
like, well, now let's add another layer
where we're doing some animations
that illustrate the things that you're learning
from a culinary standpoint.
And I think the point-
And so that was added to the show.
I think the point of this,
like what I'm hoping that you listening
will take from this discussion is,
you know, if we made this show
and we were making it for the Good Mythical Morning audience,
we were going into Chipotle and asking this question
and then putting it onto an episode of GMM
or as an episode of GMM like we did with the backup plan.
Because you're tuning in to Good Mythical Morning,
we think primarily to hang out with us,
then it's gonna be almost like 90 to 95% just us being us
and using this canvas of Chipotle
as an opportunity to be funny, right?
Yeah.
But because the intended audience is first and foremost,
someone who's interested in food television, Food Network.
It is a food show first that we are then bringing
all that Rhett and Link ridiculousness and curiosity into
to kind of create more of a balance.
So while I do think it is the most,
I don't want to say it's the funniest show on Food Network.
I mean, I think Guy Fieri is very funny,
but I think it is the most like intentionally comedic show
on Food Network.
You know, and shout out to Alton Brown,
who we still wanna have on GMM.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You know, he did more of like this sketch thing
at the top of his show or one of his shows.
And you know, that's another thing that we did succeed
at starting with comedy.
Like there's basically a sketch.
Well, let me clarify real quick.
I just made it sound like I was saying
that Guy Fieri is unintentionally funny.
No, I'm just saying that like,
he's coming in there first and foremost as a chef
who happens to be very funny.
We're coming in as comedians who just happen
to have some knowledge about experience with food.
Oh, I got you.
You know what I'm saying?
I got you.
But yeah, I am curious at this, you know,
we're talking to you and kind of telling you
what our perspective is and all of this, I think,
has come together in a show that makes the most sense,
that is satisfying on all of these levels.
You know, are there as many jokes as we made?
Of course not.
There's lots of stuff that got cut.
But there are more, just so you know,
again, when you're doing linear television,
that's actually gonna show up on Food Network
and have commercial breaks.
That episode is about 22 minutes of content, right?
That's how much content ends up being in a half hour block of traditional television. So you gotta about 22 minutes of content, right? That's how much content ends up being
in a half hour block of traditional television.
So you gotta hit 22 minutes,
obviously on Discovery Plus streaming service,
you don't have to hit that.
So we had these additional,
sometimes a completely new scene
and sometimes just a new thing that happened in a scene.
And all those have been added in
when you watched on Discovery Plus.
And so you might get like a 25, 26 minute episode
on Discovery+.
And most of that's gonna be stuff that wasn't essential
or integral to a Food Network audience.
But, and so it tends to be some of the funny
sort of tangential stuff that happened in the moment.
The thing that I'm most interested in at this point,
because it hasn't premiered yet as of this recording,
is yeah, what is the reception gonna be?
What are Mythical Beasts going to think of it?
What is the Food Network audience gonna think?
How are we gonna find out what non-Mythical Beasts think?
Like where are we gonna get that feedback?-Mythical Beasts think?
Where are we gonna get that feedback?
I'm sure we'll find that out.
It's like, we'll have to go to other places
and other ways that the show is posted online
or promos of it are posted online
just to tap into that buzz.
But I'm interested because again,
it's like every time you put something out for a new type of again, it's like,
every time you put something out for a new type of audience,
it's like, well, are they gonna hate one or both of us?
Well, there's- And I just know,
and you know, I know that with the way that I do things,
it's like, I'm not for everybody.
I'm not for everybody.
So I'm kind of prepared for that.
It's like, and I, but I don't,
and if that's the reason that show doesn't work, so be it.
Well, I guess I- The show ain't gonna work
without me.
I just have to do season two alone.
No, this is your oppor- Or maybe I'll do it
with DJ Rhett.
No, this is your opportunity to say,
people don't like me either.
That's true, people, a lot of people don't like me.
Maybe more people than don't like you.
Right.
But so there's a question of like,
is the traditional sort of Food Network audience
going to be like, I wanna see somebody
who's making great food.
I don't wanna see a couple of idiots
who are just having fun with food.
And then on the opposite end of the spectrum,
are there people who are like,
I'm just coming here for the ridiculousness of Rhett and Link
and I don't care about all the food shots.
Because we have made a show that is a compromise
between what both parties want.
I believe that, I mean, for me,
because I do like food a lot and I like food facts
and I like to see the process,
it was fascinating to get to know the people
who are making the decisions about what ends up
on the Chipotle menu
or the Cheesecake Factory menu,
the people behind these incredible flavors at Cool House,
the scientists, the flavor scientists behind Beyond Meat.
Yeah.
That's all super fascinating stuff to me
that's personally more fascinating than me making a joke.
So I feel like it landed in a great place.
I do too.
I'm very proud of this show.
I was very proud of Commercial Kings.
And if we had the opportunity, if they had ordered more,
we would have turned a corner
and it would have gotten that much better.
But the core of that show was something I'm very proud of.
And I wish they would have ordered more.
I'm glad that they didn't
because Good Mythical Morning may have never existed
and we wouldn't be here today.
But we learned so much in these four episodes
of figuring out what the show is
and how to ask those questions
and what we should actually be shooting
and the things that we should actually be doing
that I feel like, I'm not saying there's anything-
We have so much more focus.
I'm not saying there's anything,
I think where we ended up with season one
after a lot of edits and a lot of back and forth
and figuring that out,
we kind of know exactly what the mode is
and what the final product is gonna be going
if we can go into a second season,
where I would just be that much more confident
to make a great television show.
But we've experienced enough to know that like,
you know, it could go either way.
We're very hopeful.
We believe that this show has legs
and we wanna keep making it.
But you know, there's so many factors,
not the least of which is, again, at this point, who knows how it will be interpreted,
how we will be interpreted within
the Food Network programming.
It's just very, because it is a different type of show
that pushes the comedy more and it's unique.
So that's a good thing if enough people are ready for it,
if they have, pun intended, an appetite for it.
Now, I haven't really come,
I haven't made a definitive decision about this,
but I am considering and strongly leaning toward
not reading anything about the show.
Not looking at anyone's thoughts about the show.
We've never done that with anything we've made.
Well, why would you start now?
I'm getting much more, actually,
I'm moving in that direction much, much more.
I find it to be a much healthier place
because while the vast majority of feedback
that we get on the things that we do is positive
because we've got such a supportive fan base,
you first of all, you know that the minority comments
who are gonna say something hurtful,
those are the ones that you remember,
but also I find myself not being in a healthy place
when I'm trying to find the positive comments
to outweigh the negative comments.
And then I realized that I am finding my identity
and my value in other people's interpretation of my work,
where what I'm trying to do is get to a place
where I am happy with what this ended up being.
And so that's the only thing that I need to know
is that I am proud of it.
I know what I like about it, what I don't like about it,
my thoughts about it, what I would do differently.
Now we have people who are here at Mythical
who are going to tell us the aggregate opinions of people
which are very helpful.
I'm not saying I don't want to take
the audience's reception into account
because you're not a good producer if you don't do that,
if you don't know what the audience thinks.
But there is something that happens emotionally
and mentally when you interact directly
with either a compliment or a criticism
that I don't think is necessarily good for my psyche.
Well, I applaud that.
I actually think, talking out of both sides of my mouth,
because I said that we've never done that before,
but the more I think about it, I read stuff less and less.
Like I'm kind of a, what's the, I'm a hermit.
In a lot of, I'm like a social media hermit.
Like, I mean, you tell me lots of things that I don't read
that they never crossed my path.
Yeah.
So I actually, you're a lot more prone to it than I am.
I think I'll probably end up just being like, you know,
I didn't end up reading anything.
Well, it's things like-
But a new project is- I can be a new project is different than the ongoing stuff.
I can be having a good day,
and then I make the horrible decision
to go and look at, and I haven't done this recently,
I'm just saying, back when it was a relevant thing to do,
look at the Goodreads reviews
for The Lost Causes of Bleak Creek.
Now, first of all, again, the aggregate of that book,
the rating is very high, right?
I'm proud of that book, obviously, we're not novelists,
and I didn't think it was gonna be like
win the Pulitzer Prize and we learned a lot in doing it,
but I'm proud of what it ended up being for what it is.
But there are people who come to Goodreads
who see themselves as literary critics
and then just write these scathing reviews.
And some of them you're like, well, yeah, that's true.
Or yeah, you're right about that.
That puts me in,
but I already know what I think about that process.
I already know how I feel about that book. I already know how I feel about that book.
I already know how I feel about what we would do differently
if we were to do a second one in the series or whatever.
Yeah.
So you're not learning anything.
I'm only suffering emotionally.
So as I try to release myself from things
that I can't control,
which is people's opinions about our work,
what I can't control is our work, right?
I have an opinion about it and that opinion
can be incorporated into the next iteration.
And it just feels like a much healthier place.
So because of all the things that you were just saying
about, yes, there's gonna be people who are like actively,
like, I don't want this on my network.
I don't want these YouTube idiots on my network
for whatever reason for hangups that they have.
Or they just, like you said, they don't like us.
They don't like our sense of humor.
It's stupid, whatever.
They don't like the fact that you're picky.
They don't like the fact that we're not chefs.
Feeling that they don't like my hair, whatever.
Do, I already know that there's people who think that.
I already know that there are people
who think we're insufferable.
Do I need to hear him say it?
We also don't need him to change their mind.
Right.
We're doing just fine.
Yeah, and so I guess what I'm saying ultimately
is I don't think, I'm definitely not gonna seek out
any sort of, you know, I heard somebody say one time,
like never read your book review,
never read your movie review.
Like if we ever have the privilege
of making a feature length movie,
I don't think I'm gonna read any critic reviews.
I don't think I'm gonna go to Rotten Tomatoes.
Now I'm gonna know what the aggregate score is
because somebody, you can't avoid it
and somebody is gonna tell us.
It's gonna be in some report that comes in an email.
Everyone, your movie is currently at a 61.
So it's certified fresh, but just barely.
And most of the comments are about the choice you guys made
to include the scene where the dog dies
and you really shouldn't have done that, whatever.
And so it was like, yeah,
well, we shouldn't have put that in there.
Yeah, I don't wanna overstate it either.
I don't wanna be like, I'm just saying that like,
what I've noticed a number of times is I'll be like,
things are good right now,
and then all of a sudden I'm reading something.
I just know what the weaknesses are.
I'm not saying it ruins my day.
Those things that you mentioned
are things that we already know.
People are gonna be opinionated about the way that we look,
the way that I act, our non chef.
Like there's, yeah, there's some targets on our back
if you wanna be critical,
but those are things that I don't wanna change about myself.
The things that really hurt are the things
where we know it's a weakness
and we wish we could have changed it.
Like that's when it really gets me is that like-
Yeah, but I think there's,
but I guess what I'm saying ultimately-
There are some of those things, but those are small.
When it comes to these four episodes,
there's not any gaping shortcoming.
Yeah, yeah, I agree.
That I feel is like a big weakness.
It is what it is.
I agree with that. I mean, it's not,
it's not, you know, again, it's not, I mean, we're not,
it's, I was gonna, honestly, it's like, is it, are we trying to win an Emmy?
Not, no.
No, of course not.
I mean, yeah, I mean, maybe eventually,
but we don't think that this show is gonna do that.
No, it's like, I mean, some of my favorite shows ever,
I don't know if they ever won an Emmy.
Right.
Did Dirty Jobs ever win an Emmy?
Yeah, so.
Maybe, I don't know.
So what, what, I can-
I think it deserves one.
I completely agree with you that the stuff that I't know. So what, what, I can- I think it deserves one. I completely agree with you
that the stuff that I already know to be true,
or it's like this person thinks this thing
and they perceive us in this way.
Like that's not the stuff that bothers me.
The stuff that bothers me is the stuff
that I already know to be the case.
That's like, yes, we made this mistake
or we did this thing wrong.
And now people are basically recognizing that
in my worst fear of people finding out
that we made this mistake and did this in the wrong way
is coming true.
Right.
What I'm saying is from an emotional standpoint,
I already know the mistakes that I've made.
I'm not talking about with this,
like I agree with you,
I don't feel that way about this show.
I'm just saying in general,
with the things that we put into the world,
I have just found that I'm in a healthier place
when I'm like, you know what was lacking
about that thing that you did.
Do you need somebody to tell you when you already know?
And do you gain anything emotionally from it?
So if I can have somebody else read all that feedback
and then come to us and be like,
hey, this is actually how things were received
from a whole group,
that's much less emotionally sort of unsettling
than reading individual people say very personal things.
And so I'm not saying I can't deal with it.
I'm just saying after it happens, I think to myself,
I could have not experienced that
and I would be having a better time right now.
I would be in a healthier place.
Yeah, I get it.
This is not a GMM 22 scenario.
Oh.
And you know that. Of course.
I think that's my point.
Yeah.
You know, it's like we did that first,
we feast snacked video.
And I read those comments and you get the people who don't,
they're not fans of ours and maybe don't have a point
of reference for us.
And yeah, I do remember the comment about me that was like,
this guy just, he like, he acts and eats like a four year old.
It's like, okay, well, he acts and eats like a four year old.
It's like, okay, well,
this commenter is describing something that could have hurt my feelings.
But the way I'm trying to grow is to interact with the,
not interact with the comment,
but to acknowledge the comment within myself as,
you know what?
He's describing something that people are attracted to
about my sense of humor and my persona
that he doesn't get or doesn't prefer.
And it's not for everybody.
And you know what?
So, I mean, but I was fully myself and I'm very proud of it.
And I don't expect everybody to like me.
And I'm cool with that.
And I actually remember thinking-
Just trying to be cool with that.
That's a good example because I remember thinking that
when we left that first we feast shoot.
That I was like a four year old?
Yeah.
I remember thinking we were really ourselves
and we were having a genuinely good time
just being ourselves and interacting with these snacks.
And I am proud of what we did.
The only thing I was pissed about
was they didn't buy the right cereal.
So that's why there was no cereal in the episode.
And they also cut your beans.
I did have baked beans and that was edited out.
Just for the record, Rhett ate beans and I ordered cereal,
but Raisin Bran is not Raisin Bran Crunch.
And that's not, and by the way,
Raisin Bran is not Raisin Nut Bran.
Okay.
And that's the one I actually ordered
because I'm on that kick now.
Raisin Nut Bran Crunch or just Raisin Nut Bran?
Raisin Nut Bran, not raisin brand crunch.
But so, I mean-
And I was pissed about that, but you know,
mistakes are made and-
And I knew when we came as a duo-
It really isn't a big deal.
When we came as a duo and we had all those snacks,
I knew that something was gonna be cut out.
But what I'm getting at is,
even though I did, when it came out,
I did start scrolling through the comments,
I stopped because I was like, hold on,
you remember walking out of there and thinking to yourself,
you did that the way that you wanted to do it.
Now, anytime you venture outside of your protective bubble
of your- Mythical beast.
Your mythical beasts,
you know that you're ready,
you're gonna get some criticism.
And so again, I was like, yes, people aren't gonna like it.
Some people just look at us and are immediately annoyed.
I understand, I get it.
I know people like that too.
Right.
But if I'm happy with what I did and how I came across,
then I should just let that be
what I found the satisfaction in.
Not that somebody liked it or didn't like it.
Again, because I don't want to just hear things
that people like either.
I'm saying that finding any sort of value or currency
in people liking me or feeling undervalued
because people don't like me,
I'm just trying to move to a new level of existence.
And it's really difficult for a performer
who has built a career on trying to please an audience.
It's just part of the ongoing struggle.
So when we've got something like this, that's, again,
I don't know how many people are going to watch the show
compared to how many people watch Good Mythical Morning.
I think less,
given how many people watch Good Mythical Morning.
But it's still going to be perceived as some leveling up.
It's like the people back home in North Carolina,
oh, they're all excited about the TV show
because it means more to them
because they think that being on television
and instead of having a YouTube show
is like a fundamentally different, more awesome thing.
It's just how people think about things.
And so you feel like you're stepping up
onto some sort of pseudo pedestal.
And now people are gonna be like,
well, now that they've done this,
now I've gotta have my opinion.
And I'm just like, well,
I already know what I think about what we did.
I already know about the show.
So I should not even hear your opinion.
Does that make sense?
Yeah.
I got a little rec for you.
If you wanna do some easy listening,
I played this for you the other night, Jose Gonzalez.
Yeah, I like him.
He is Swedish.
Well, he's from Sweden, but he's-
That's what I thought from the name.
His parents are Argentinian.
I was like, that sounds like a Swedish name.
He's of Argentinian descent,
but he was born and raised in Sweden
and he's got this,
just totally soothing,
just go into nature and listen to some Jose Gonzalez.
His last, his most recent album,
where's my phone?
Got so many pockets in this suit.
It's in your pocket, DJ Red.
It's my top pocket.
Listen to his album, Local Valley,
just to get some good bucolic vibes going on.
Man, an introspective and autumnal folk and indie pop blend
that's pastoral in experience.
Jose Gonzalez, he's got a lot of albums.
You're welcome.
Hashtag Ear Biscuits.
We will talk with you. Let's keep the conversation going.
Next week.