Podcast: The Ride - Universal's Animal Actors

Episode Date: December 3, 2021

We take a look at the long running Universal show where cute animals from TV and movies do little tricks. Mensch on a Bench episode up at The Second Gate: Patreon.com/PoscastTheRide Listen to Podcast: The Ride Ad-Free on Forever Dog Plus: http://foreverdogpodcasts.com/plus FOLLOW PODCAST: THE RIDE: https://twitter.com/PodcastTheRide https://www.instagram.com/podcasttheride BUY PODCAST: THE RIDE MERCH: https://www.teepublic.com/stores/podcast-the-ride PODCAST THE RIDE IS A FOREVER DOG PODCAST https://foreverdogpodcasts.com/podcasts/podcast-the-ride Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

FOREVER! DOG! Hey everybody, welcome to Podcast the Ride. My name is Scott and I am a podcaster trainer here at the podcast. Now you might not know that a lot of our podcasters are actually rescue podcasters. They were brought to a shelter and we put them to work reading ads for online therapy and Bitcoin exchanges. You want to meet a couple of our podcasters right now? All right, everybody, give it up. Let's meet a few of our stars.

Say hello to Jason and Mike, everyone. It's Jason and Mike. That's right. All our podcasters today were aimless comedy loafs who were rescued from their aimlessness and given a microphone to talk into and all sorts of Ponzi scheme-esque startups to advertise for and aimless conversations to have for hours on end. See, look at that. Jason's doing incredible.

He's speaking at a very advanced level, an advanced amount of cynicism, which is what we look for in our podcasters, is what we try to bring in. Right, and Scott's slipping me a fun-sized Mr. Goodbar because I did a good job. Very good. Here you go, boy.

And let's see how Mike does. If he gets a treat. Mike, can we say our name? Can we say hello? Yeah, my name's Mike. I'm a rescue. Now, we are trying to work the McGruff out of him. Many podcasters start with a bass McGruff voice,

and we see if we can kind of massage that away. Maybe that'll... Can you try saying your name in a regular way? Hello, Michael This is Michael Very good Thank you That is very good

That's very listenable Very normal And for that we give you a treat Which for you is a foot high Ninja Turtles plastic figurine There you go Wow, its head is the same size as my head So I can kiss it in a realistic way wow thank you does have tongue you can go all the way with it right and the tongue is warm

that's what's really nice about it well how about that we're off to the races we have the energy that you find in every edition of universal's animal Actors Show, a stalwart attraction. I don't know how long it's been running in Hollywood. They don't chart these things as well in Hollywood. Universal Hollywood stuff just was one day. It just evolved. It sprung up out of the ground like a plant. But Florida, they track these things.

And this is an opening day attraction in Florida, the show where you go see your favorite animal stars of stage and screen. Yeah. It may as well have opened with the studio before the theme park, I feel like, where you would wander in and somebody would be like, hey, you want to see a hawk? You want to see what the hawk just did in the soundstage? And that's where it's almost like a Mrs. Knot, like a roadside attraction first and then yes it was there before the park i saw the date of 1970 okay i'm not 100 sure i saw this on the page for animal planet live which was the short-lived name for these shows for a brief period of time they classified as animal planet live right that not having been the name that's that is i i regard as like an unpleasant era like you get those 2000s fonts going uh which

i'm i'm noted i'm usually uh persnickety about yes there there's this show is going by a number animal actor stage animal actors on location, Animal Planet Live. All very similar shows. Like, I'm kind of an annoying pedant sometimes with this stuff. I'm like, well, this is different than this. I was like, well, even I have to, even I will condense this one down to Universal's Animal Actors. That's enough. That sort of says it.

Yes. The current name explains what all of them are. That's what we're focusing on today, which I'd like to say at the top here. So this is the first main feed episode of December. And December, we sort of usually wind things down, right? We're getting to the end of the year. We take a little Christmas break, a little winter slumber. So, you know, I feel a little, you know, a little sleepy, a little lazy.

Me too. It's just we're getting down to there's only a few more episodes left. We're just going to sort of like sleepwalk through those and then we'll get the podcast done. Phone it in. For the year. Completely phone it to just a few. Yeah. Wrong.

Incorrect. No incorrect we guys we are i have an idea i'm having it right now what if we didn't just do a few what if we did too many what if we went out for the year with an unnecessary amount of effort isn't that the podcast the right way you're suggesting we hit the big red button and make ourselves even stupider. Like you're suggesting we give ourselves a little obstacle course, like a dog running through a little tunnel and a child as a obstacle.

We're barely ducking weave through cones. That's how we're going to go out this year. We're barely making it through December. I almost dropped my phone cracking the zoom recorder destroying all the files on it yeah we all we came in with so many maladies so many energy i was yelling before throwing us off uh but we gotta fight through we gotta muscle through um because i think it's time in the last episodes of the year of 2021 to make good on a promise made in the first episode of 2020. It is finally time for Country Bear Jamber Week.

Let's go out with Country Bear Jamber Week, guys. Are we in? Are we going to do it? We're in. I thought you were about to say, let's review Captain Kidd's buffet, and I was going to have to tell you something really tragic. But Country Bears is good, too. Yes. I thought it was interesting that that got reported.

Why did that suddenly end up in our feed as if we didn't know it? I think the fate of Captain Kids was very clear. I guess confirmed this odd, bad, I assume, buffet right outside the gates of Disneyland. Very poorly reviewed. And now it's gone forever. I think it boomerangedanged a little i think people saw that it was closed everyone talked about it for a day and then like the boomerang went out and then it came back and someone else went hey wait a minute it's closed and then there was a second day it got this happens every now and then on the internet like something comes back for some reason right it gets more of a swell this time so yeah

we pay our respect i mean that's our that's in our in memoriam 2021 montage that's really you remember when we used to do like it's the start of the year here's the things coming to the theme park world this year i think now maybe we have to switch the tradition to the in memoriam everything we lost in 2021 glendale's creative campus oh yeah yeah it's something unpredictable no it'll still be active just not as active we'll play it over i'll play the green day song live when we do it too several times multiple times and then other green day songs yeah yeah well most of i'll play most of their discography over the course of the episode. No, but look, yeah, we could mourn our losses for the year, or we can go out on a fun note, a celebration note, a jamboree, a jamber week,

and that's what we're going to do. So the last week of new shows for December will be Country Bear Jamber Week. We're excited to announce it, commit to it. If we don't say it on the podcast then maybe we don't uh finish it yeah yeah this is a we have at this point in time recorded some of it and i i i so far would say this in the other episodes before the end of the year um if if get back hasn't uh whetted your appetite for extremely long content we're gonna we're gonna blow get back out of the water in terms of hour count yeah uh so get ready you got a lot to binge before december's through yeah i had like an hour to kill the other day between like things i had to do and i was like oh i'll

watch the first episode of get back because i thought it wasn't for each other and then i went oh no i mean i love it I'm a big fan of it. And I'm sort of like, I'm really stretching it out. I'm like seeing if I can get a meal and two leftover meals out of every episode. Like, can I split it into three nights? Because I want to keep hanging out with my friends, the Beatles. I'm done with it. We did it.

We did it the first three days. Wow. Wow. Yeah. Well, we got, there's a lot of talking off air ice because oh yeah i've caught that maybe some listeners don't like the the constant classic rock talk there is maybe that strain yeah in in the but it's not disney plus we do the plus us up yeah so it's not yeah it's uh i was telling i was very just that that is we could do plus us up yeah so it's not yeah it's uh i was telling i was very just that that is we could do

plus us up get back in the new year it's uh you know i was telling uh mike mitchell about how they have marvel characters like the new marvel characters from disney plus shows come in and he goes oh you mean like characters from get back and i said yeah like mal evans and michael lindsey hogg are walking around avengers campus oh they get they count they get to well mitch opened up a good idea linda eastman that's right it wouldn't be it can't be linda mccartney that wouldn't be time accurate exactly the timeline in the beatles cinematic universe she's linda east that's right and she's got the daughter from the first marriage or first really i forget which relationship she was married before i think uh yeah so yeah it's they're all for they're up for grabs because they're now in there so the apple scruffs the

apple scruffs of course the the girls hanging out outside of apple studios i have to credit uh my friend charles ingram for really i i think i let Apple scruffs Come and go without really noticing And he well he sent a voice Memo in a text chain of Joe Biden Talking about the Apple scruff Apple scruff We gotta get good jobs Real jobs my mother worked as an Apple scruff

Bring back Apple scruff Industry Charles We were listening to all things must pass on the way back from coming from san diego and george harrison on all things must pass is a song called apple scruffs what really yeah oh that's why that phrase that's what that song is yeah oh geez clearly i'm no expert in that album interesting yeah um okay but all right so we've heard you listeners who don't like that what was just done you like us to talk about theme park things, and we're going to.

We're going to talk about the Country Bear Jamboree incessantly. It'll be the get back of the Country Bear Jamboree. We'll cover all of the ins and outs, the breakups, when things got awkward, when Zeke almost walked out, quit the bear rugs, but came back triumphantly. Of course. It's all in. It's all in. So, yeah. So, get excited.

Yeah. Are you ready? Are you ready? If you aren't ready, get ready. You left a good pause there for people to yell. That's what it was for. Yes. Yeah.

We don't have the luxury of an applause button like a show would. So, you just have to assume if there's a little pause that that's what you're supposed to do applaud in a car are you excited cricket well we're hearing the cricket again maybe no i was just seeing if i could cue it cricket i guess the cricket doesn't know its name is cricket were you doing that because of the animal actors uh no no i don't have a little cricket clicker or like a cricket feed or have they ever had a cricket in the animal actor show that could like do its cricket noise on command it's funny you say that because there is a a bit of internet that doesn't apply anymore when it was animal planet live there was an animal plant live website that had like live cams on like tanks of bugs and uh the the wicked wiki entry for that said like and that website is still active that website is of course not still active i don't know

no one has updated the animal planet live wikipedia entry in some time no no and there's no animal actor entry i was shocked to see that there's not the thing that we're talking about today doesn't have its own no it's got a very slight fandom page okay okay the universal similar to mensch on a bench which was just discussed right second gate you can check that out but um wow we well you know we're doing deep cuts uh we're doing our yoko freak out style the non-album stuff because if we're talking about things that don't even have wikipedia pages you know we're in good territory where do you start where do you begin with the research uh if you don't have the wikipedia page to begin with i guess where you dive in is watch the the show the show yeah which you know

this show as i i watched um pretty recent editions 2020 or 2021 editions of this uh universal animal actor show and uh discovered that it is exactly the same as the first time i saw it which would have been in 1991 that is really the big takeaway of the show for me is that there's those gags that have never changed one iota it is they found a formula that works it makes the kids laugh it makes the moms laugh um and it's a funny thing to see an animal do and they uh it's that forever yeah and and always seems to hit the crowds always like it i feel like this is my family i always stop and see this show i'm trying to remember if i saw it when we were down i may have gone the day i just went to universal yeah um before i flew out um but i always like

this show yeah the audience i was i think think I watched one from four or five years ago. And the audience reacts like with honest to God shock. Almost after everything. After every trick. Like it really, they work. These are like time tested tricks that work and like elicit a response. Because we've all been to theme park shows where the audience is dead. The audience is in no response or like. I i did i performed a lot of sure solo i did a lot of bombed one man shows on

wheels in my tram tour capacity yeah but it seems like this one is always a hit always a hit the the bird you know the the smaller bird flying to an audience member to take their dollar and then the animal handler pockets the dollar and then says is anyone over here i have a 50 kills every time it's like there's so little evergreen comedy this always works the one i the one i watched she said she said 20 20 okay i think yeah yeah 50 and 20 are both pretty funny yeah pretty funny depending on how the economy is going like it's it's scary to lose a 20 i mean 50 you know in boom times you have to go to 50 but right everybody's gonna make every 20 count depending on what year it is right so like if you go into work in the morning you check the newspaper to see how the stock market did that

day the dollar today or yeah the dollar index if the dollar index is down then you go for 20 but if everything's doing well and the economy is surging then you go 50 yeah that's in the rule book i assume this is the difficulty of being a the host of this show beyond that you have to work with animals beyond that. You have to wear slightly embarrassing khaki shorts. I, this is where in my universal years, I, I send my respects and condolences to the,

the people in the show who have to wear awkward khaki shorts as I did. This is the universal uniform for a number of things, I guess. Were they, you had to purchase your own they're not like universal uh administered shorts no no they gave they give them out oh they do yeah yeah no oh okay so it's not just check in and get my uniform every day from a uh you know big dry cleaner like complicated sister they scan a code so so you can't just bring your own khaki

shorts they might have they might know they aren't code khaki shorts yeah they're kind of uniform interesting that's actually i didn't even think about this because like when i used to work at the container store you'd have to wear like khakis and a polo and the polo was container store polo but you could bring in like as long as they looked about right as far as as the color of pant. Oh, similar. That's like a, that's kind of the level of the school uniform I had was not right. It doesn't have to be this specific kind of, but like in this range. Wow. So you all got your little khaki shorts on in the morning.

As I'm sure I've said before with the awkward like crotch puff, just you would, it would sound men and women. It would, you would sit in such a way where you would it would sound men and women it would you would sit in such a way where you just get this huge tent and you're looking at this room of in the little lounge there's 15 people sitting around all with the worst crotch puffs just like the least glamorous anybody could look just like the founder oh god who's the the universal guy that they're like and then back back in 1916, so-and-so. Carl Lemley.

Carl Lemley. I almost said Irving Thalberg, but that's MGM. They used to talk about him. And I was thinking, you said founder, and all I could think was Ray Kroc. Yeah, that's what I was thinking, too. I was like, oh, Ray Kroc, Jason. Ray Kroc. It's Ray Kroc, Jason.

And the McDonald's brothers, yes. But no, that, yeah, what's his name? I already forgot the name you said. What's the- Carl Lemley. Carl Lemley was the one who wanted. Which is very confusing because there's the Lemley theaters that have nothing to do with Universal. He was the one who instituted the crotch puff.

He was the one who wanted that at Universal. That was a tradition. It was in style in the 30s. Yeah. When they started things. Like Jod Hoppers and the Big Ass Scott and stuff. It was a sign. Everyone has the same puff.

No one can imagine what else is under there. It was a sign can imagine what else is under there it was a sign of wealth too yeah well that's what was really you could afford excess fabric right it's like look at that well look at that rich gentleman over there with his large crotch puff poor people wear very tight pants right yeah less less fabric that's all they could afford well that's yeah so the tradition cares carried on at universal studios i like that as the general i mean i think it's a style you see also at sea world or any zoo like i don't i don't know at what point in time khakis became synonymous with handling animals right like which is also how like your joan embry's dress your your animal hammers yeah yeah the irwins absolutely jack can't all of them have like khaki shorts or

pants i feel like shirts too sometimes shirts is it to blend in is it like a nature color safari i mean it's usually lighter cotton it's usually flexible but color? Camouflage? It's not green. Safari? Mm-hmm. Safari. I mean, it's usually lighter cotton. It's usually flexible, but sturdy. Mm-hmm. Yeah. You know? I mean, I'm sure the answer is, like, obvious, and people know, and they'll be, like, you

should have known this is why khakis were worn by these animal handlers. But it might be something about, likeness of like in muted color like you wouldn't want to wear um you know bright zebra stripes in front of an actual zebra it might upset them they might they might charge right some animals you can probably wear their like fur pattern and they like it and some they don't i think khaki chinos came that was a fashion design that started with the military you know british military uh uh and slowly got into civilian life oh hmm i don't have any i i am khaki-less for maybe the first time in a long time i don't have any khaki pants that i wear the only khaki pants i have still are the uh the ones I was issued as a tour guide.

Oh, wow. Were you supposed to give them back? I have a khaki for things, which has only been in sketches, like a sketch on stage where I played a Universal guy. Or for some reason in my Michael McDonald Halloween video, I'm in those khakis. Wow, really? I'm not sure why. He must have been a khaki wearer. I don't remember why I picked the pants.

It's unasked for oral history. Were you supposed to give them back when you left? Yeah, absolutely. Wow. And I kept the uniform, and I will use it as wardrobe every once in a while. Wow, so you're admitting to a crime here. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Universal, I own. I don't own, obviously. The opposite of own. I have probably $30 worth of Universal property. Yeah, let's do a ransom note here. Let's tell Universal what they have to do to get those clothes back. Let me do a tour one more time and fill the tram with Podcasts ride listeners okay great and you'll

strip nude at the end of the tram tour and give it back to the current president of universal we're finally branching out into performance art yeah yeah so exciting it's like the early days of like the downtown scene man hell yeah like yoko that's true yoko's territory oh yes yeah yeah yeah true yeah absolutely yeah all right so yeah you have to let me fill up a tram with only listeners to the show and to say whatever i want and then i get to show my penis at the end and then you'll do the two lovers yoko john picture with the president of universal of the theme park or of the the movie studio which president well we'll have to negotiate have you ever seen interviews the guy named terry koo you have yeah it's theory koo it not it's really i don't know i mean that's how it's spelled but i think it might be pronounced

in a weird you know not how it's spelled way recently uh going uh around because at the iapa conference in orlando they asked what his biggest career regret was and he said uh not telling management not to build fast and furious supercharged wow like he admits to that really the currently in charge lost it like the room loved it yeah geez so he's cool yeah he is cool so he would take the photo with you naked yeah he probably likes the beatles too he'll probably appreciate the nod yeah mm-hmm so i'm you am i yoko am i like i have to cling to him essentially no yoko was clothed john was john was clinging oh john was nude yoko had clothes on and john was clinging to oh so terry gets to keep his clothes on easy yeah that's why just let me a

naked man yeah hang on this is blowing any universe we're gonna get quietly removed from the oh the press uh email no they're cool the social media tweeted us remember oh that's right they acknowledged the the city so the sector keeper is universal canon they probably own it now but whatever by doing that yeah all right well that's another you have to give us the sector keeper back and let me do i've got a lot of ransom now it's all building up this is the point where an animal handler would have a spray bottle of water and they go like the comedy the comedy guys are trying to find reasons to get naked on a stage no no no dad yeah doesn't work as well anymore might have flown in 2005 for pcb not today that uh uh to bring it back to the animal actors, you know, you were saying, regardless of your feelings on khaki pants, I always liked, I thought they had a cool little utility belt

and a walkie talkie. Like, I was like, oh, they got a little utility belt with like clickers and treats and stuff. Clickers and treats. Clickers and treats. Yeah. Well, do we know what the treats are? Is there just like little meat treats? I'm sure it's a little meat pocket or kibble or something.

Yeah, probably. They don't say, though, I don't think, in the show. It's just those little, I don't know. No, there's training treats for folks. Yeah. Yeah, those little circles or little balls. Sure. A little fanny full of treats.

I guess, like, you know, I think this show is a lot of fun, and we should talk about Our favorite little moments in it I think Are you guys What percentage of you Is uneasy With just the animal

Training nature Of it Like does that put you off A little bit Do you feel weird about These animals having to do this stuff I mean like Obviously

If they had free will they wouldn't be performing 15 shows a day or whatever it wouldn't be flipping signs to uh signs that say ban bacon yeah kind of thing ethically that is an interesting question because like with with um uh sea world like shamu whatever shamu like they shouldn't be in tanks like it's a lot more of a like well this is not where this is not a comfortable environment for yeah these the sea life but this is a i don't know it's different it's a little different here but still like i don't know it's a good question like do i feel that the dog is having a good time like getting applause you know it's where i think that the the dogs i think dogs enjoy it because dogs like doing like little tricks and getting

applause that seems like in the nature of dogs i maybe i brought it up because i was i i'm looking at cats doing tricks and i'm like this is i i ain't never met a cat who wanted to deuce anything that anyone asked yeah i there's i think there's a reason there's only one or two cat there's like a limited number of cat moments in this show yeah yeah i the um one of the first things where we hung out mike Mike, was that sketch that you were in at Conan. The cat-controlled... Yes, Chewbacca. The cat piloted decoy Chewbacca.

Right. A video that Andre Dubachet wrote where if you don't want to go to a Halloween party, you get a Chewbacca costume and put a bunch of cats in it. You pilot it like a spaceship and they go to the party and your girlfriend thinks you're in the suit. Right. And you can look this up. Mike is the star of it and i directed it and it involved having to have a bunch of cats in the part you weren't in uh the whole morning was like okay so we'll shoot out the cats we'll do the cat part and there's a bunch of cats and little like little like spaceship

units uh inside this chewbacca costume and i just remember like oh god i've never hated a shoot more than being around cat wranglers which is a fake thing cats cannot be wrangled it's just click city just click clack click clack all the treats everywhere disgusting like weird little cat food plops so it smells bad and you see it on the props and like i and then like you know somebody like waved their arm too big or something and then the cat trainer went like hey there's a dog a creature you do not do that you do not they are they are scared you understand we're all getting screamed at yeah cat trainers it's just like boy do i never want to be in this scenario again.

It's funny you bring that up because Jason Sheridan and I worked with cats last year. Yes. On a Nickelodeon show. You did? Both of you? It was a real brief little thing. Shot in and out in like less than an hour and stuff. Yeah.

Well, we were security guards. Yeah. The cats could not have. What the hell is this? Have we not talked about this? No. Well, there's like, we'll'll find it we'll find it and rip it uh it's real quick uh but i had a similar observation because there were cats and i was like these cats barely listen to what they're told to do like they had like plans for the cats and the cats were not interested in the plans

and i was like this can't be good like and were not interested in the plans and i was like this can't be good like and it's just all right like and it was like all right here's what they're gonna do and then it was like take six seven their cats are not doing this okay well what are we gonna do we'll shoot it here blah blah so why does anyone even let the cat trainers show up on the set and stay mum about that they know there there's going to be five unusable tape, no matter what they're shooting, at least that many. Yeah.

And they know it and they're letting it happen. All right. So how long before the jig is up? Cause I won't get hired anymore. If they figure out cats can't be trained. Right. Yes. The whole thing is done the whole job,

but yeah, I don't know. I think they should just use cat puppet. Like they should use the tune sis, the driving cat puppet anytime now they need a cat yeah uh that's a really old reference now that i'm realizing i'm saying it it's from 30 years ago live uh but yeah it was a puppet um so yeah as far as animals i also think we're in a weird transitionary time of thinking about ethical treatment of animal like i'm i will still eat meat i'm trying to eat less of it still

but i feel like in who knows 20 50 70 years you'll look back and go we were making animals do what at universal studios every day right what yeah there's a lot of that with animals i think that'll still evolve there's so many dogs in rescues i kind of understand that when you start getting into birds of prey and uh pigs and stuff i mean i guess there's pigs in rescues too or farms or whatever yeah it gets a little confusing and then the other thing to consider it's like i've heard stories from anyone who has worked at any theme park or any chain you hear stories about corners being cut or like oh we didn't have enough staff and just hoping to god

that is not the case with the animals oh and everybody's taking care of yeah i think there's a lot of state and federal regulation with working with animals so i think that you kind of have to follow the rules a little more strictly. Yeah. I mean, there are like just seeing animals personalities like Edwin, our dog Edwin, would not be pleased to have to do this. And you can imagine like, you know, there's certain dogs that are the friendliest dogs. They love running around. They love doing stuff. So I'm sure it depends.

I'm sure it varies from animal to animal uh exactly what the enjoyment level is so edwin will not be appearing in a live show if we're the next time we do a live show he well if it's live via satellite and he can like sit in the sun because that's maybe his favorite thing to do is find a window and sit in like a hard sun like a sunbeam yes so are you agreeing with that's your favorite thing too well i don't mind i mean garfield loves to sit outside in the sun yeah he gets very energetic and we've trained like he can do he loves to play and we can i think we've trained him to go like up up and like jump jump you know standing on his back legs right put his front legs on us.

But then he also likes to sleep for a good two-thirds of the day, it seems like. So we're on and off two-thirds of the day. Right. Have a big burst of energy and then sleep for like two hours. Right. Like you doing the podcast. Yeah, basically like me doing the podcast. Hey, I'm feeling great. I'm so happy to hear us uh all talk

about having the december wind down you know uh crunch crunch uh feelings going on because i was like well this makes me feel less insane so uh no you like the fake out part where i say we're just gonna settle into the end of the year i did i did put on his nightcap like like an animal trainer standing behind an actor holding a treat up i i got fooled i got fooled you got me to do what i wanted what huh i'm looking this way what do i get it because i'm looking this way um yeah i so i mean all that being said we have no we don't know anything about the yeah what's involved in the show and they certainly present a good face of that yeah they do push the rescue animal uh situation that they they work with dogs and shelters and they push that at the end of the show as you're leaving they say you know if you're

yeah looking to adopt a shelter there's good messages seem very good had their jobs very and i was my point i was trying to make earlier was was it's not the same situation where like the dog is being exclusively kept in a like a four by four cage for most of its life i assume i'm just saying i think we really don't know i guess we really don't know you're right i guess we really don't know but i i think it's at least a little bit different than the like sea world situation like if you get into that line of work at this point like you have to be passionate about animals and it's like coming from, you would think so. Cause it is.

And now I did, I don't know in the 1940s. I, maybe I do know. I bet. No, no. Yeah.

Film was quite awful. There's an Earl. I think I've even said this on the show before. There's a, Oh, I guess it's like an old Errol Flynn, Robin Hood movie where there's a stunt where somebody jumps out of a fake tree onto a horse,

and it's like 10 feet in the air. That doesn't feel good for the horse. I mean, it doesn't feel good for the human, but the human knew what he was doing, at least. The horse just has like a fucking weight to fall from 10 feet in the air on it. Like, that's not good for the horse. Sure. So, yeah, no, we do know what it was like, especially in the old days.

Yeah. The one thing associated with it, kind of tangentially associated, but Grinchmas is happening at Universal now, and they always have a max. Well, they always have a max, yes. A few maxes, and then they always say these will all be adopted throughout the season or at the end of the season. I met Max, yes. Remember my exclusive interview with Grinch a couple years ago ago i have not been invited back for some weird reason you won't be now after i guess now that i want to get naked next to the head of universal creative it's hard to tell i

don't even i'm not even sure who it is right there's so many shifting someone left someone took over people moving around a lot well whoever itiss moving. Whoever it is, I'm getting naked on him. Over at Imagineering. You're going to two virgins that guy. That's right. Hey, pal, I'm going to two virgins you, okay? Just warning you. Jump up on him. All right, please escort that man out of CityWalk.

Take his shard and away. He's had enough. I already did a 19-part series about everything in CityWalk. He he's had enough i already did a 19 part series about everything in city walk he's definitely had enough this guy doesn't need to be here again that's like that's like a horror movie they'd be like what was he a universal fan he's done 19 episodes about the shopping mall and they'd be like oh my god like let's get a restraining order which is really what they should say about all three of us yeah yeah yeah definitely yeah that's where you know we're working our way through we've done so many universal attractions it's like yeah we're almost getting down to the the end with uh with hollywood

stuff but there's plenty in florida for sure the only thing to do is do them all again part two every single thing part two um the guy who started the show who like put it in place and is a big pioneer in animal training in general for movies is named ray berwick he's a pioneer in using positive reinforcement to get animals to perform he created shows for the san diego wild animal park and he he produced this show initially in the 70s um which seems like you know he and he was working in film in the city so he we worked on uh i think first was bird man of alcatraz with burt lancaster and then uh the birds for hitchcock in 63 and a quote from this guy in my work i've trained more than 25 000 animals and i've only lost one in an accident

and you go oh that's nice those are pretty good numbers then he keeps going one of the birds for the birds was crushed by a wagon okay well you know the first part was the stat might have been nice i don't know about the bird and the birds but that being said like you'd think just like naturally just crew members would be stepping on them. It's the birds. There are so many birds in the birds. Yes. There are a lot of birds. So only one.

That ain't bad. Especially in the old days. Yeah, that's not true. If the birds had been filmed in 1911, then what's his stat? 25,000. And he's only lost one. Well, they would have lost 25,000 birds. I feel like film sets back then are just the whole ground is just cigarette butts right yeah they can't shoot the

ground in old movies because they're all cigarette butts not one clean footstep anywhere the birds land they get singed yeah no but berwick made sure that things were comfortable here and if this thing did start in the 70s then that might it might make sense why the show still feels like the comedy of the 1970s yes i don't think in a bad way necessarily it's fine it's aged it's very old sitcomy or even like the tail end of like memories of broad uh broad vaudeville like old guy kind of like the the you know the kid this is the one the dollar trick i always remember and then i always remember they bring a kid on stage and they're like this think of a clothing item this dog is gonna go fetch it yeah and uh sometimes they go like oh did you think of a hat yeah he got the

hat good job think of another one and then it's inevitably uh like bathing suit top or bra or something and then dog's a pervert yeah or the boy's a pervert boy's a pervert and then an orangutan in a towel or a little dog hopping out on his back legs in a towel a lot of great public domain like comedy music cues yeah stock library cues but also like the um the uh what's what's it called the peewee like it's nice to hear that well a bunch of animal hijinks go on yeah um that sequence yes a classic i think that um well i don't remember maybe i guess i think it was always a dog in that main role and then yes an orangutan who would go who would come out in shower gear and shower cap i think that's the big change in terms of uh you know, animal equities, whatever you want, safety, whatever you want to call it, is they stopped in both parks.

Universal stopped working with primates in 2014. So because that's really the way I remember the show is like multiple monkey appearances. And they stopped doing that. PETA, I think think got them to stop there was there was like a swinging a rotating like jungle gym kind of thing that had oh yes the big wooden implement and they were like you would see if we could swing all the way around and they get cheered on um and it's yeah it was i was surprised to learn that they um that they stopped working primates because i that's those are a lot of my strongest memories and and probably the the most clear memory of the show is like the it's the physical comedy routine

between the monkey and the the trainer where there's like uh smacks on the back and uh like sounds like uh like what do you Hey, how could you do that? The crowd to be nice to the people. And, and then the impressions, the impressions is the big thing. And this is what they can't do with another. They can plug and play other species for some of these gigs, but they can't push the monkey's lips out and say, look, everybody, Mick Jagger. Right. For sure. The main thing I remember. remember yeah that's the big one yeah i think i've i've only seen this show in person i think once wow and i do remember

that because i think it was before they got they stopped doing the the monkeys or primates i think in florida it's in a good spot if you are going like you want to break from uh rides where like it's kind of between simpsons and et so like where if you're having a slow start today oh you do et you do animal actor you know as you like complete the loop you know you're saying it's a good spot to roll you're saying it's a there's something in the layout it's a good spot for it i think it's a good spot it's also good if it's just like everything's crowded or you just need to sit down we're like you know where like everyone in your party is like can we sit for a while can we do because it's it's outdoors but it's pretty shady you know it's covered and all a little amphitheater amphithe Both these spaces, though, since we bring in the amphitheaters,

huge plots of land. Yeah. A little surprising these shows are still going. I mean, they play into the movie, how the movies are made element of the Universal Parks.

But man, they take up a lot of real, it's a little surprising they haven't been bulldozed. Yeah, yeah, really. In Florida, it's mainly just, I guess just that they have the room in the second park so they don't super need to um yeah hollywood

where it's a little more cramps but maybe they can't fit a full ride in there necessarily so although they got they they made a lot of that um secret life of pets yeah i was gonna say and that's two stories so yeah i'm sure there's something. Yeah. Maybe they'll do it when Mick Jagger dies, when there's no longer, when the point, when the impression isn't relevant anymore. I guess they can't do it because they don't have any more keys anymore. Yeah, they're gone. They probably thought about it.

They probably thought about just ending it when that joke got cut. Yeah, yeah. Why even do the show anymore? Right. That's what we're here for, isn't it? This this lips thing and there's no other celebrities to do this with who else right are there oh i think there was maybe a time where they switched it to angelina jolie oh really okay who else has big lips because i think they tried to plug and play that was a very topical reference for a while. Yeah, 20 years ago

that was good, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think they just lucked out that they picked somebody who remained relevant and around for so many decades

because if that had been if it was a big lips celebrity who passed in 1973 then what do you do? Right. So, I'm screwed.

Look everyone, it's the lips from the opening of the rocky horror picture show the disembodied lips you know yeah that would have again that would have been great 40 years ago i don't know it may have remained uh popular and it's uh midnight showing way they do the animal actor show at like midnight at Halloween Horror Nights. All the animals are very tired. Or it's creepier animal. It's like nocturnal animals.

Oh, yeah. Sure. And they don't shoo the little poodle in the bra away immediately. That's the beginning of the show. All the animals are in human underwear. Yeah. Yeah. It's a sultry show. And they just unleash raccoons into the audience the rube goldberg uh-esque opening where like one hits and one lever and one does this

is all yeah ends with a barrage of raccoons aimed directly at the audience somewhere in the rube goldberg a bunch of like there's a confetti but you don't realize that the confetti is pepperoni and it's like a sprayed all over the audience and like but right when you realize it when you pick one up hey is this oh god and then raccoons are coming at you yeah too late to do anything about it too late so yeah they're not be careful of the midnight show, folks. It feels like these are going to be here for long. It feels like there's so much momentum.

Why would they get rid of these shows? Yeah, I think so. And they, you know, like you said, people still laugh at this stuff. There's always new movies they can cross promote with. We shove clips of Secret Life of Pets into it, or they actually have the animals from recent movies. Now, I always had this question about it. When they say it's Lassie, when they say it's Beethoven,

whatever they were doing at the time, is this just the... I certainly took it on faith as a kid that that is the real sitting lassie anyway they didn't i knew it wasn't the one from the 50s opening that i'd see on syndicated tv but it's the the the current owner of the lassie throne yeah um but like is it just we're just talking the same breed right there's no especially in florida they're not flying lassie down i would think so i mean the one i watched the one from a couple years ago and they they said this was

the bird from ace ventura hmm but that's not and i was like is that yeah and then they also that the hawk from 310 to yuma the hawk from 310 to yuma is a great yeah let's talk about some of these credits i'm just well i'm hold up so yeah we're just i'm just trying to figure out yeah are they just saying it's the same type of animal and they're just lying to us? Oh, I see what you're saying. Well, I think birds, some birds can live very long. Sure.

Yes, that's true. So, maybe it is. Yeah, yeah. But there was one, oh, another one was the pug, Rick the Pug from Men in Black. Right. Men in Black 2 is what they say specifically. Isn't that character in more than one or maybe yeah yeah it gets an expansion all of them in two isn't all of them

yeah um so but that can't that's a that's from 2002 there's no way that um there's no way that it would be the same part and there's no way that in 2021 the walkout music would still be nod your head black suits coming and yet what is the walkout too but still be nod your head, black suit's coming. And yet, what is the walkout to, but nod your head, black suit's coming. That's great. Jason getting pumped up. I love it. I watched one of them where the pug,

first off, if you stick a little black suit on any pug, it's going to look like Frank from Men in Black. And I think that's what I saw. They did kind of the uh madcap ending where like the animals are crisscrossing the stage and the trainer comes out with just a pug in a black suit running by her who jumps up on the one platform she goes thanks for coming and just doesn't really acknowledge him and he just like hops up and sort of like

smiles at the crowd i don't know why i'm here yeah but are you happy i ran from backstage to my little mark here very impressive some of these dogs hitting their marks very good better than some actors i've met better than me honestly just hire jason to do a dialogue scene but don't make him run into it you're gonna shoot right past that camera they'll put a piece of tape down and then take it away if they do a wide shot and i don't know if i'm supposed to go back yeah the tape is gone how do you know where to go i don't say you know communication well if you're gonna put then if you if you put jason in something do it like in this show where like there's a little stack of rocks and that's where you little stack of rocks pepperoni behind the camera or to

the side of the camera so i don't look at the camera uh pepperoni and a dollar bill that's all jason needs to work they tried to do a 20 but i kept fading from excitement this is dwelling salts when you see the 20 you see the 20 again and you pass out. We lost our sunlight. Shit. Lower money the next time. Real quick, can I just shout out some of my favorite animal actors? Please. Yeah, great.

Crystal the monkey, who was in Dr. Doolittle and Night at the Museum. Do you remember that? And all the other roles. Well, community. This is what I like. I like animal actors that have multiple roles. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know what I mean?

Like Bart the Bear. Yes, exactly. Bear from the Edge. Moose was the dog on Frasier, but also in My Dog Skip. Oh, really? Mm-hmm. These weren't necessarily in the show. You're saying these are

just no these are just in general i just this is just a fun steamed animal actor who some of which could have been in the show i feel like they got prominent right what else are they gonna do i didn't realize this and again i they could be lying to me and who knows the dog comment on full house was also air bud wow that makes sense yeah wow that really blew my mind geez that's a major uh major talent bart the bears you just said bart right yeah was in white fang and the edge wow and a movie called the bear i don't even know what that is um uh but there was barf it was that bear in the i've ever talked about the boy meets world episode i love where they, there's escalating pranks happening between the gang.

I don't think so. And then, like, there's, you know, there's one that's a little crazy, but then I believe it's Corey and Topanga and maybe Sean and they realize that they're stuck to their chairs in a college lecture hall. And like, okay, so they glued us to our chairs. Some prank. And then suddenly

a bear shows up at the door, and they launch out of their chair. Oh, they get honey dripped on them as well. Okay. So they know that bear's coming right for them. So they jump out of their chairs, some of their clothes rip off, and they dive out the window. And then there's a little sitcom spin around transition,

and it cuts to Mr. Feeney in extreme close-up, and he says, A bear? It's my favorite moment of him william daniels uh-huh uh but then i'm running the math of like is it bart i don't it could have i don't know it could have been bart um i just mainly i'm like these college students like got the college to agree to have a bear walking through the hall for a prank yeah that's pretty intense yeah they meant they meant business with that prank you got to find out who which bear that was um but i wanted to also reveal here there was also bart the bear too whoa what gallagher yeah gallagher yeah his brother that stole his name and worked as well fooling people uh he was in game of thrones he

was in we bought a zoo wow into the wild yeah so so we bought a zoo would have been a big because universal gets these kind of like when they get a big multi-animal movie and they can plug it in this show you can tell right it's a groundswell of excitement it's new blood into the animal actor show they would have like freaked out if that was their movie but i don't think it was they're still banging the drum for evan almighty yes so many of these yes a lot of i know it was a noah's ark story but man those birds they got a lot of the evan almighty birds you know it's it's hard you know when you a working actor and it's like, you know, my last credit was over 10 years ago.

So you're just like, you're hanging your hat on like, yeah, I was an Evan Almighty. This bird doesn't even look like their head shot anymore. Birds gain so much weight. Bailey, the dog, was in A Dog's Purpose. Oh, wow. It's really weird that they mention

A Dog's Purpose, right? Right, because that was on the Universal lot that they really weird that they mention a dog's purpose right because that was on the universal lot that they got in trouble for making a dog swim yeah yeah i don't remember the specifics of it yeah i can't remember it was exactly on the lot but there was a thing where the the dog was fine but it was like i did a lot of takes in a row of that dog swimming. That dog was in that water for two hours. There was like a damning video, I think. So yeah, I feel like maybe you leave a dog's purpose out. Are people that

excited about a dog's purpose anyway? I don't know. Does America still have a dog's purpose fever? I don't know. Was there a sequel? Wasn't there a second one in the series? Was that the one where... Somehow, even though... Was that the Clint Eastwood racing movie?

Was it Clint Eastwood? You know what I'm talking about? Where the dog was like, I love to race. No, it was Kevin Costner. Oh. What movie was that? I don't know. We've talked about it on the show before.

It was a dog. Kevin Costner is a dog who loves to race. That's all I know about it. He is the dog? I think he's the dog. Voice? Costner. I'm googling kevin costner racing dog movie and seeing what pops up here is that one weird talking cat the art nine

lives who is that is the space that's the space yeah yeah screw that we said his name he's gonna appear the art of racing in the rain is the movie i'm thinking of. What in the world? And Kevin Costner is the voice of the dog, Enzo. And I don't think this is related to a dog's purpose, but in my mind it is. The Art of Raising in the Rain is Kevin Costner talking, you know. Similar. Similar. Dog era movie. Would you consider, let me ask this real quick question.

Would you consider Montecor of Siegfried and Roy Fama an animal actor? Yes, right? Absolutely, yeah. Yeah. consider montecore of zigfried and roy fama an animal actor um yes right absolutely yeah montecore's the the was the troublemaker yeah i think so yeah but all the all the like tigers in the show were actor like they were doing because it's kind of an animal actor zigfried and roy is kind of an animal actor's thing it's just a different context for the animals performing yeah so they were jumping through little hoops and stuff and fight i don't know fire i've never seen the show i have an answer a dog's purpose 2017 a dog's journey 2019 okay there you go sequel these are based on very successful books by the way right that's why they yeah they happen right we're gonna gad in one of them right oh you got gad oh you got um dennis quaid marg helgenberger betty gilpin you know there's a name i said on the tram a lot because

we passed by the csi stages so i remember when i was kind of like getting warmed up and you know doing my very enunciative tour guide voice that a good way to make sure that the pipes were polished was early in the tour you get to say and marg helgenberger always knew like do i have it or not how much gusto can i put into this helgenberger yeah did you ever really like what would do you remember like ever like toying with like the lowest energy you could be um just to see like if oh not even as an experiment you just had to some days okay sure it was hot as hell yeah no i knew how minimal i could do how much i like how can i do it with almost all clips saying almost nothing acknowledging the crowd very little did i ever like read a book while i was doing it certainly text dude probably but i bet everybody texts you could have booted up the kindle app

it might have been too too early on for that technology i should have uh i could read people part of a story and switch things up you don't expect to hear chapter 13 of a franzen book yeah you're out looking at the the the spartacus square right oh stay in your seats folks it's one of his famous uncomfortable sex scenes coming up i'm glad you knew something about friends and i have no more to say as if there's no further that reference could go with me i know they're very thick and i somehow acquired a copy of the corrections years ago and it is sat in a box like i've not read it but i know a lot of his facts about his weird like dealings and stuff oh man there's some sort of crazy like first person essay written uh by i believe his partner i don't know if it's his

longtime girlfriend or wife uh and i don't know if they're still together but she doesn't need she names her journey as a writer and then she meets someone who's a little more successful and very slowly through it i i didn't know who was about and i was like oh my god is it franzen and very quickly like oh my god it's franzen whoa whoa it's a thrilling a little like secret like the primary colors of uh you know who it's about uh well just the timing and the like and then his book was selected for oprah's book club but he didn't want that and it's like oh no what am i saying why am i going with primary color such an old reference it's it's really the it's the all too well this is the taylor swift we know who all too well is about that's right rat bastard

we know we don't have to say it but we know i won't even i won't say his name i won't do it yeah everybody did it taylor yeah yeah the hawk from 310 to yuma is a great credit obviously the Obviously, the Evan Almighty credit comes up a number of times. Dog's Purpose. Lady Hawk. Do we remember Lady Hawk? I think I remember Lady Hawk. That's an old movie. I'm like, I guess I know what Lady Hawk is.

Oh, Safari. The one hawk. Safari from The Mummy Returns. Wow. So hawks must live a long time, I guess. Yeah. Let me look up hawk lifespan. Wingspan, what are all the spans?

Hawk's average lifespan in the wild is 20 years, so that's not crazy. That's not that long. Yeah, but Mummy Returns is too old. Yeah. 2002, yeah, to still be working in a 2019 theme park show. An elderly hawk is being forced to work? Maybe I'm reconsidering what we were talking about earlier in the show.

Let them retire. Enjoy its autumn years. Elderly animal actors. Really should be the name of the show if that's accurate. Dex from a Blue Buffalo commercial. When they name the commercials commercials that's very funny iris and olympus the owls who were in harry potter bones csi and a geico commercial oh yes uh um yeah there's this it's a big sequence in it now uh the last time i saw it in person where they take these giant owls around and just sort of like, they don't really do tricks.

You just get to see them. You feel the Harry Potter, uh, nature of them, the majestic nature of them. And the music is very magical. And they just are sort of walked up and down the aisles. Yes.

They're very regal looking owls. Yeah. Yeah. Um, is this maybe a good time to tell the story of my oh yeah recent visits to this show please it involves uh involves the hawks in the house okay um you know the story really is not just about seeing the show it's about uh taking my son to uh universal for the first time um so i had him uh solo uh mom was away so i wanted to like let's fill up the morning let's do something big and fun i've been wanting to wanting to take him up there and we did it uh pretty

successful in general now i've done it but this this was i think back in august um and now i've done it a number of times he really likes it he loves all the big universal attractions like uh the hundred empty chairs that he can push around nice unthemed umbrellas that he can point at um the unthemed stanchions in the corner of harry potter land that don't even like look like an owl or something. It's just regular like line separators that he just pushes around. I could not tear him away from those. He's just ignoring like, like, look, it's like snowcapped. There's a train over that doesn't care.

Shaking the line dividers around. I've really enjoyed, I've liked taking him up there due to the lack of pressure. I like Universal, but it's not like Disney where like're like all right now son yeah this is important this is waltz this is you must appreciate this there's the universal uh yes yeah yeah all right look at the lamp look at the i i know you don't know the word lamp but you're gonna stare at that thing because that represents the soul of the finest man whoever

right exactly um so anyways yeah you could you know it's a little sillier i've had a lot of fun and so i'm feeling really good like i all right this is a successful just dad and son trip up to a to a theme park we're having a blast i gotta I gotta get lunch in him soon, but not yet. Well, you know what's starting? Look what I'm passing by right now is the animal actor show. And at this point in time, one of his favorite activities

was pointing at a bird and saying, buh. So I figure, well, this is a great opportunity to point at birds and say, buh. This happens, there's a great opportunity to point at birds and say, buh, this happens. There's a number of opportunities in the show. So I'm like, well, this is a little riskier because at this point in time, he's 16 months old, I think.

And just any parents out there, picture your current 16-month-old or what your child is like at 16-month-old. These sitting still abilities are probably not the greatest. But I think, you know what? Any amount of this that he gets through is great. It's fine. And we'll just go in the back so that we can leave quietly and it won't be a problem.

Because you sort of enter under the bleachers, basically. But we can just run out the back and it'll be fine. So we sit in the very back row. He's having fun he's dancing around he's ready for the show um and then the show is about to begin and a universal employee very kindly uh points down to the bottom just like down there and i'm like oh yeah wait i guess so there are a lot much closer seats i shouldn't make him be in the back he should be up where the action is. That's great. So we get down there.

I take all my stuff. I get him down there. And then I realize, well, I have lost the escape ability, but that's okay. This should still be fine. I think he's probably in a great mood. This is going to go fine. Then there is an announcement like the show is about to begin announcement where they say uh for the safety and comfort of our performers and our animals please remain seated at all times

and i think well shouldn't be a problem he's excited to be here i can't imagine that he will start acting up at the precise second that the big dangerous birds start flying right over the audience. He took him. The hawk took him. And that's the story. I know I've told recent stories about my son, but they're all made up. He's been in the land of the hawks for God knows how long. The hawk took him. Then you had you he the hawk took

him then you stood up and another hawk took you to follow and chase after him get him that's why you know where he lives you bastards work together take me to the mother nest yeah so after a thrilling sky adventure uh no it's just you know hey look i think i just spoiled what the story is he's enjoying the basic things those little animal hijinks you know hey look i think i just spoiled what the story is he's enjoying the basic things those little animal hijinks you know the animals are getting ready for the show that's all great he kind of points at stuff uh but then bird stuff starts happening and and of course for the first time ever he doesn't care about birds at the precise moment that there are exciting birds in front of him he's chosen now to not give a shit he's much more interested in the bleachers

and the bleachers that are next to me that are the aisle and he's really starts running around reaching for other people's bags yelling blah blah blah i'm very lucky by the way that when he freaks out it's not like whiny like he's really cute even in that but this is still the the wrong thing to be doing um and then I haven't seen the show recently, so I don't know about the owl parade. I don't know. Oh, yeah, the Harry Potter owls. He's in the aisles,

and then they're about to do a march. Oh, no, yeah. Procession, where they, by the way, are wearing the, like, falconer's gloves. Right, yes. So you know that these birds mean business if they have the the gloves that you can't get through right because the talons could do some damage so i'm like i gotta yank

him out of the aisles in time for the owl parade and still he's just making a big fuss i'm like this is not good for the owls this is not good for him or me or for the audience or the host up there this is gonna start getting real bad i gotta get getting real bad. I got to get out of here. It's time to get out of here. So I grabbed my bag and kind of like yank them. And then I run down the nearest aisle that I can see. And I immediately see a big rope. And then right after that,

the employee who kindly pointed to my new seat in the front goes, no, no, no, stop, stop, stop, stop. Don't stop. And I'm just frozen and like okay and am i going to start getting the attention of the rest of the audience hopefully not and i'm just like what do i do do i go back to my seat just i'm just pointing frantically where can i go then and uh and then she's like with a deep annoyed breath, like under, okay, go. And somebody lifts the rope for me and I kind of barrel out of there. I'm like, so now I'm moving with a pace because I'm stressed out, uh, because we've gotten

attention. He's going a little crazy. So I'm like going fast. And then another person stops me. So now we're like under where the bleachers and where the audience enters. And with the speed that i'm moving somebody puts out their hand no stop and i freeze in my tracks and then then like i'm given just hand signals that are like calm we have to be calm and that is because i am now in this little

confined dark space under the bleachers that are uh my my baby and me and the universal employee and the owls we are now right in front of the owls oh my god us so we are staring right at the owls now he cares about the owls because they're very close to him uh now he's pointing yes very good those are owls i am also noticing because i'm holding him and the owls are also kind of being held on the arms that uh with their relatively similar heights the owls are much bigger than my son oh man way more and there's two of them this fight does not go well oh my god if a fight goes down so everybody just tries to convey calm and it's this little like you know they're waiting for another animal thing to happen and keep the owls calm so that they can be returned to the wherever the owls go so keep them calm

babies should not be charging right into the house but everybody gets on the same page we're all looking at each other i apologize profusely as much as i can as quietly as i can and we're all just waiting tension please owls don't hurt my son okay you may go the owls go and now i sprint the hell out of there oh my god i don't want to be seen at the animal actor stage again um dad's trip to the to the theme park which is supposed to be triumphant now almost ended in a uh an owl turf war wow i got a couple things first off when you're your son is older um he is at like 12 or 13 gonna go like hey i had a dream list did i meet an owl when i was younger not that it'll be negative it'll just resurface like the image of like waving to a couple owls did i did i do a seven minutes in heaven with two owls bigger than me that's nice i mean as long as it's not

like a val kilmer batman forever deleted scene with a giant bat and he's got like a giant owl in his mind yeah and then he decides to take on the form of the owl to fight crime this is his origin story to become owl man yeah perfectly yeah all right so if all right listeners if you're hearing this in the year well he's got to be old enough to you know so in the 2030s sometime, you see a suited owl guy running through the shadows. Could be my son. Yeah. The other thing is that this must be what they have hit upon as like,

this is the best option to take the owls up the aisles back here for a second and then back to, do they live in a rookery? Is that where owls live? Your confidence makes me think yes uh so it it uh because you can't be the first parent who's like i gotta get i gotta get this one out of here you know i think this must happen every show right every show and i i feel like there there should be an announcement of like e okay there's one moment uh okay don't move during this one part the other times the door

is here if you have to scoot away the door is here and just watch that's a common bird that's a i mean it happens in theaters where it's easy like in whatever muppet vision or yeah or anything like philhar magic where they say or the captain neal theater where they're like yeah this is where you leave yeah if some if you need to leave before the show's over and obviously that's a simple that's a smaller place but yeah they really should if there's a chance that you're gonna run headfirst into owls you should know well boy do i appreciate you putting any of the blame not on me for this situation where suddenly my son is face to face with owls that could uh yeah demolish run on you didn't run on stage no and you didn't get caught

in the moment where the audience gets like buzzed by like a flock of a flock of birds fly still probably like six feet ten feet above the audience oh that's Yeah, you get that little surprise. Yeah, they all fly out of that little door. Yeah, yeah. I'm just like, you know, I felt very son was not reclaimed by, taken by owls in the one day that I had him. How was your day, Scott? No owls. No owls, Aaron. Oh, fine.

Owless. Owless is how the day went for me. What did you say? Alice? Yes, Alice. Alice. Normal owl business. All these questions. Who, who? Why do you keep saying who? Stop, stop grilling Alice. Normal owl business. All these questions.

Who, who? Why do you keep saying who? Stop grilling me. What is this? What band is this? Owl City? You never listen to Owl City. Three licks, but the world may never know.

When can we do this? When can we do this again? When can we do this again? When can we do this again? When can we do this again? Who wants to know? I've always liked this band what are you talking about pick off any pet fireflies always eat tootsie pops and you didn't listen to all city uh so i made it narrow narrow escape uh uh you know i will i go to the show again

sure but at a more appropriate age yeah right uh wow i'm still fond of it i'm fond of the gay if we missed anything in terms of like the little the little fun moments yeah i mean we i mean we talked a little bit about it there's a whole long like kind of sort of ramp up to the show where they're doing a lot of like uh show busy things like so and so to the set or oh yeah get in a wardrobe yeah uh like all the hollywood stuff you would imagine you hear on a set and then it's like oh someone sews mocha latte and then it's like an animal walks around and that's like a fun little bit they do uh they're not you're not gonna see a dog or a cat with uh like a latte in their hand um but yeah there's a whole it feels long also it feels like it's three to five minutes maybe

it's not because uh well a it's a very long time to be listening to a techno remix of the pink panther well that's also a good point as well makes time stretch is that the same has that always been the case i I don't know. Because the five-year-ago one was the Pink Panther theme. Yeah. Oh, really? Yeah, I saw that a year ago. So, I don't know. At least, when did techno get popular?

Early 90s? The universe probably adopted it circa 2007. Right. Yeah. But, yeah, that makes it last a while. And then, also, this is true of the as jason you described this sort of like everything goes haywire at the end and i think in any video you pull up you end up with the awkward moment where the animal's not quite doing the thing and maybe

they like i was watching a little dog try to like grab a little sign connector rope with its mouth yeah i think like seven attempts were made still stays eager keeps trying i'm gonna get it audience starts to cheer him up but i like what that does for the pace where you're just like boy this is this is basically a sequence that has five actions yeah it is seven minutes. Yeah, and I have seen it work. I have seen it work. Every animal hit their mark perfectly, but yes, a lot of recorded ones, by chance,

are the ones where it's like, oh, he missed. Oh, the handler's arm. You see an arm, like, no, go back. Do it again. Do it again. It's okay.

Yeah, it's not the most precise thing. I was going to say, this is really where it would benefit them to have puppets and stuff. I guess maybe I'm getting ahead of myself here is that I really just want all the animals replaced by puppets and robots. I don't want real animals anymore. But if we're going to do the bit with Hollywood and animals and stuff, I want a puppet drinking a latte and a cat puppet drinking a latte. I think that's better for me, at least, as a viewer.

I'll go back to that show a lot more if it's a puppet drinking coffee. Realistic puppet. Not even realistic. Oh, really? Okay. It could be. Oh, geez. And this is really easy for them.

Yeah. But I get it why an average person might want to see this um but yeah uh that's that's my it's my personal preference but yeah the start of the show is there's a lot of uh fun showbiz nonsense but yes uh what do you think the hit rate is 50 perform performing like well or performing the task at hand oh i think a little higher i mean they're doing five shows a day yeah maybe 75 yeah okay but it's but they boy time has done a number to that see like a little hollywood in jokes because you know you end up with like uh like all right where's the where's champ mr ratner's waiting for you. Hey, your co-star Mr. Spacey has been on set for 15 minutes.

There are moments, I mentioned evergreen moments earlier. The one bit where they bring out two dogs and the one does the obstacle course. Again, hit rate not 100%, pretty high, 75, 80. But then the other dog is trained to make it look like he's peeing on the kid volunteer right that always gets a big laugh oh yeah that's fine yes yes yes but the dog doesn't pee he doesn't pee no he's trained to lift a leg and the universal symbol that has to have gone wrong once surely Surely. Yes. If the leg is up, the dog is going to want to do its favorite thing. Once in a while,

if it's got a full bladder. Also, the one who completes the obstacle course surely has at times gotten so excited it just starts peeing. You never know with dogs. Sometimes they pee because they're scared. Sometimes they're cold. Sometimes they have to go.

And sometimes they're just excited and don't know what else to do there's 200 people looking at me i gotta show them something check this out gang look what i could do oh i have one talent yeah that's again that's where puppets would come in handy then the pee blast could be purposefully yeah massive and not pee something safe water uh-huh or that it can be that wine that the beetles drink and get back which looks like urine yes that's true it either looks really urinary or really bright green i'm always like what is this beetle wine yeah the beetle wine i do yeah it looks gross i mean they're drinking just 24-7, smoking 24-7 from morning to night. I feel very validated as a white wine aficionado that white wine fuels some of the finest work of the century.

Right. So, yeah, no. What's grosser, beetle wine or dog piss? Dog piss. So, yeah, you could blast, get a full hose of that wine and uh he'd all shoot it at a kid yeah so yeah there's got to be videos of the dog peeing at the animal actor show yeah yeah if anyone knows of a video of these this show going awry in a fun safe way oh well there was video uh from a couple years ago where one of the dogs in kind of a mad

real madcap way uh one of the dogs got out got it yeah yeah it was running around by the uh makeup show and they were like oh come here come here and like guests are trying to help and it looks very cute i mean it looks very harmless that's fun for everyone um oh you know what's here's a little like uh dog hijinks thing we were talking about this a while back but the the you know the bit where they bring up a kid will you uh whisper an item of clothing to the dog he'll go get it and it ends up in the in the bra and the towel and all that um now there's like i'm gonna learn this when i was a tour guide because i think there was there was a day we're like we'll go do everything at universal and i think along we

saw the show and then people were asking like how does this thing work because the aim is that the the dog the first time i'm gonna ruin the magic trick by the way magic exposed um the dog goes and uh gets a hat no matter what the kid says and sometimes now they they if if they can play it off as a mistake if the dog doesn't get the hat but the aim is that the kid does say hat and then the dog goes and gets a hat and everybody's like wow he actually this works the like the dog understood and got a hat and somebody asked well how does how do they do that and like well it's a little like it's it's a cue if you listen closely they say hat it's like the last thing that's said so that the kid thinks there's a little kid training situation oh right so they say hat because they've heard hat.

And I was curious how this worked in practice. And in the video that I watched of a recent show, the trainer is explaining all this. Like, okay, we've got our dog here, and you can say any item of clothing. Hats, shirts, shoes, pants, hats, anything. Hats is twice on the list. That's a real Dalegie how to make friends

and influence people like mind trick like you got your brain if you want to show someone you're listening you repeat like a handful of the words they just said to you like you if they ask a question you put a bunch of the question in your answer and And then they go like, oh, wow, he really took the initiative. He just said words back at me. Yeah. But that's why if a trainer worked there and really needed to make it work, then they could just like,

anything you want, hat, shirt, hat, hoodie, hat, glasses, hat, watch, hat, hat, hat, hat, shoe, hat, any item of clothing. If you run with that, the audience is going to laugh if you say hat enough times. Oh, that's true. That's a good joke.

Maybe that's what I would do if I was there. I feel like I had my tour guide jokes. I was trying to let you in a little bit. I'll expose the artifice, but not too much. It's still theme park friendly. The outline of the show has a lot of madcap stuff they have stuff going wrong they they've built themselves some wiggle room of like well if the animal really does like lie down and just want to go to sleep i mean there's play dead

there's a there's a big play dead sequence sometimes oh yeah yeah uh-huh um is it that the trainer keeps looking up? They're pretending they think the animal actually died, but then it's like the animal keeps moving right when... Yeah, the dog keeps looking up and panting, and they're like, no, lie down. When the person... Oh, yeah, right. Okay, okay.

Yeah, that's cute. This is pretty cute. This is one of the cuter things, I think, in a theme park setting. Yeah, it's a little bit... Bits that work for everybody, except for 16 month olds this is what yeah well you could have when he's when he's older you could actually have him sabotage

it you can get him up there and tell him like don't say hat whatever they say say like shoes say bra say bra oh that would be the yes you ruin the show you'd wreck the show the whole thing would get shut down they'd like shut the thing down immediately and don't and you have to yell it because if it's just a whisper then the audience won't know but like yeah maybe even don't even let the question get out just get up there and scream the word bra as soon as you get on stage all right well we'll have fun this is a future father son fun outing uh um but uh i don't. What else about this thing? I mean, it's a blast. It's a lot of fun.

We haven't mentioned the, when it was used, it was a real working production studio location. Yes, yes, that's right. So the Florida one, you know, the set's a little nondescript in Hollywood. It's like kind of, you know, beige and a little nondescript in hollywood it's like kind of you know beige and flats and soundstage walls and they i really like how this this to me was always like oh this is a way that they've they've plussed up everything like they've gone more epic in orlando that the

set still is this amazing jungle ruins environment with these big statues and a lagoon and uh and a water slide that animals could go down um but i assume you're talking about that this was the set for several years worth of the abc show animal or animals animals funniest america's funniest people yes correct which i remember very excitedly watching i feel like before sunday night was simpsons night for me to watch i loved america's funniest home videos and then when you have a spin-off america's funniest people hosted by fellow full house star dave coulier another full house or yes and as a little kid i had been to universal florida i saw the show so when he was standing there i was like that's the animal actor like i definitely i was looking at once upon a time in hollywood jif

i was like did i see the show and then got excited when i went to see the theme park and i was like oh no the timing would have worked out that i definitely would have been to the theme park and i was like oh no the timing would have worked out that i definitely would have been to the theme park first and then saw the seasons where they shot on this stage because they switched it later it was the second half it was the tawny katane era because there was another host another co-host first they let go and then like we're coming back big for season three or whatever it's orlando and it's tawny yeah all new this is all new america's funniest people yeah yeah and i i mean i bought all hook line and sinker as a kid that like orlando some stuff was filmed in hollywood but a lot of stuff is filmed in orlando and you were a student of florida and mgm studios you know yeah yeah they really needed to create the impression

in the early 90s a A lot's happening here. You're going to want it. If you're in the business, you're going to want to come shoot here. And if you're not, you're going to want to come see how we shoot stuff. Yeah, it worked on children

and it drove production managers and second assistant directors out of their minds because they're like, we have to stop shooting. Monsoon-like rains have come in oh yeah right yeah that's not that doesn't work for uh many months of the year yeah um weird show i'm shocked that you liked the show i the show is like such a faint memory did you watch this mike

the cool yeah yeah yeah yeah oh yeah i was more famous than i remember i mean obviously it was i have a pretty strong time but memory of it yeah i would watch it a lot and i liked that it was i may have liked it better than america's funny some videos because the idea if you don't know was like it still hosts doing a lot of like little little pantry bits and then like uh watch this and then and then it's not home videos but rather like it's not people falling down or getting hurt or whatever it's people like purposefully being funny doing a weird like making a weird face or a talent that their butt has or something right when you describe it like that it sounds worse than the original and it probably is because we because if you do i used to feel like i feel like

maybe it was my mom or some parent who was like i don't like the videos where they're trying i like the accidents that's a smart distinction to make not that it was like accidents like somebody got really hurt but oh you know a funny thing you slipped a little bit or whatever and not the like on purpose videos seem always seemed less funny yeah than the accidents um but my memory maybe it was just because i liked coulier i was into dave coulier at the time helps he gets to do his voices yeah little in little bits he's the voice of the jackalope of course the jackalope that is stars in a lot of odd little short films um i yeah i guess i liked this but it's

the ultimate like boy do we like this because it was on or did we well how many things did we just like because it was on yeah of course maybe all so many things answer yeah yeah but i you know i found an episode of it and just the sweeping shot of universal florida helicopter shots search lights are going the original gate i think i liked the the original gate more than the current one oh right a little more beige i like the severe white one yeah ernie anderson paul thomas anderson's dad the voice of abc and the announcer of the show it's just like goularty goularty uh yeah kids horror shows the host goularty or local maybe not kids local yeah yeah local i uh yeah that's magic that's that park overheads of that park it's there is a uh stand-up special that i found in some obscure streaming service a stand-up special of michael

winslow the voiceover the voice effects guy from police academy yeah that is shot maybe with the same footage helicopter footage you know and it's still it gets to me every time i'm like boy oh they're taking me to the yeah ultimate place the ultimate destination for fun yeah i wonder if you could there's no way to ever really do a study oh i guess you could do it with kids like show them a clip of like that type of like marketing and then show them like whatever how universal markets now and see because it does feel like there's something extra exciting about that era of marketing but also i was six seven so it's impossible to really know if truly landed harder this is the most dynamic way you could market a theme park to people or it just felt like that at the time yeah i mean i if i flip over to nickelodeon nowadays

some of the marketing is still pretty similar some of the aesthetics some of the marketing sure and commercials are kids commercials are very similar commercials are shockingly similar yeah and serial commercials and yeah yeah so i don't know i can't unsee the universal the promo that was on the bag to the future 3 vhs where it's just the word universal going by slowly and in every letter there's a different universal ride yes it's still like like i have i get like a pit in my stomach when i see it like yeah i'm afraid of what's down there but i know i have to go tackle it um does that make sense like yeah it was that it just felt like are you up for the challenge can you this is this it's the jetsons in the letter a can you

you think you can handle being there in person? You're like wise, brave Hal going like, I have to rise to the challenge. I got to get that kid. I got to scoop up that weakly little kid. If he ever comes back here, I'm remembering this face as opposed to any other 16-month-old's face because I will eat the face. I was just going to is a this is you in

the retirement home like kind of your brain is just slowly going but like they just have like a loop this tape on a loop to calm you down when you lose when you get started getting riled up and they're like just wheel mr gerdner into the room and play him the universal tape from 1991 that is what i want you know i'll get my wishes out right now i want that slow universal word going by and then the logo forming and i want um the general cinema's space candy opening yeah just those those things over and over again yeah i'll be a very happy uh mentally collapsing man he's freaking out in a couple years i don't know i thought you were going a much darker direction where the the orderly would

like the irishman would be like all those rides are gone scott no one cares no one's gonna hurt you it's all gone yeah no that's like coco there's a like there's a land of the dead for rides and as soon as the last person doesn't remember the ride anymore like you can still go all of them and they're all made of bones but they as soon as the last person remembers the right it did they all go to dust they're like uh they're like force ghosts of the rides yeah so like you see like a blue outline of the back to the future ride you like wave at it he waved at all the rides and logos and like fonts the fonts that are gone that are now in blue force ghost form oh he's waving to the ghosts again mr garner is waving to the ghosts again he thinks he sees the battle for galactica attraction that was in

the spot that the bags of the future had was built in he's calm now though let him go let him believe last person on earth who knows or people know what it is he's the last person who cares that's the rules of the bone of bone universal studios um well it's peaceful though yeah yeah but that's what you know we help people remember with this podcast we collect these memories we tell you about them so that we make you as crazy yeah as us dave coulier was eric tony katay and something called a jackalope you're doing an impression of anybody describing an episode of this podcast to their significant other who doesn't listen to the podcast

there's a lot of get back stuff yeah a lot of get back the Irishman came up at the very remember the Irishman are you on episode two I'm in the middle of two so you've got the camp you've seen the cameo already oh yes yeah yeah is that a spoiler maybe this thing that happened in 1969

yeah that's similar to like nick fury showing up or something in the middle of a marvel movie at this point yeah but if nick fury showed up looked around the room and was like i don't think i want to yeah i think i don't think i'm on the same wavelength as these avengers wait are you wait are we talking about the same cameo there's many cameos and get back i'm talking about the actor who walks no no i'm talking about uh the musician um i don't maybe i don't know oh well i don't know i don't want to ruin it okay a lot of work to hide the identity of like a member of the wrecking crew or harry nielsen or something you don't just mean billy preston do you no no okay i mean then i don't know yeah i don't know who's coming oh wow okay okay all right folks well in that case check out get back

on disney plus if you want to know who walks into the room uh the cigarette and wine laden room but as for us you survived podcast the ride and that was a blast nice memories of decades old jokes if you are a fan of Dave Coulier you might want to return next week

for next week's episode it might factor in again you can find us on the socials at podcast the ride uh merch is available in our t public store jason what do you want to say about the merch you got to order if you're ordering for christmas well they're shipping delays everywhere we already got like a message from t public biden is the crates he's not letting the shirts out our shirts are all on the right shirts are on the crates. Ever Given and Piedance.

He just won't stop talking about how his dad knew how to drive a car, but it's like you gotta dock the ship, Joe. We need those shirts. Yeah. We're trying to get them out. Podcast to ride shirts. They're all on the ship, but we gotta move them. We gotta get them into the mainland. Folks, for

Christmas. They need to be there for Christmas. Under the tree Christmas Under the tree Under the tree We gotta give Santa room to land Get the planes out of the sky Give Santa We're landing all the planes Give Santa free air

Drop the shirt from the plane on the chimney The shirts seem to go on the chimney Drop a launch queen and a no launch queen You don't know Who lives there Get both shirts And put them in the chimney From the plane

Every type of shirt Sam's gonna throw The shirts in the chimney Folks Our friends around the world The European vacation shirts Our friends around the world Remember the saga

There's another saga So many great sagas Shorter though Another shorter Shorter saga They're doing Jamber week folks We're gonna talk about Zeke and Zeb Another shorter though. Another shorter. A little bit shorter saga. They're doing Jamber Week, folks.

We're going to talk about Zeke and Zeb. Tennessee and Corn Pop. All the country bears. They drove too. They drove cars. And for three bonus episodes every month, check out Podcast the Ride, the second gate of patreon.com slash podcast the ride, where we just discussed the minch on a bench averse with our friend down susser that's a really

fun one check it patreon that makes a great last minute that you can do day of that you can do on on christmas on the last night of hanukkah jason's going full qvc now yeah really and for the low price of five dollars a month those yeah you can't there's no patreon subscription stuck at a port that's right yes yeah when it's in the cloud no there's nothing stop yeah the cloud is fine there's no nothing holding the cloud back that's right yeah give a gift give your loved one a gift from the cloud. Reach into the cloud and grab a handful of us. We've got to move the stuff from the water into the cloud. Why aren't we using the water?

Why don't we put it up in the cloud? The cloud should be over getting our goods and services. What's that do, folks? Omicron don't stop the cloud. It can't be done. Omicron can't reach up that high. Folks. The lack of two.

We need help from the lack of two. All right. Okay. Bye. Forever. Dog. This has been a Forever Dog production. Executive produced by Mike Carlson, Jason Sheridan, Scott Gairdner,

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