Where Everybody Knows Your Name with Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson (sometimes) - Talking "A Man on the Inside” w/ Mike Schur, Mary Steenburgen, Mary Elizabeth Ellis, and Lilah Richcreek Estrada

Episode Date: December 24, 2025

Ted Danson’s Netflix show “A Man on the Inside” is back with a new mystery to solve! Ted recently joined his colleagues for a conversation at the SiriusXM New York City studios about the making of Season 2, which is streaming now. They included creator Mike Schur and actors Mary Steenburgen, Mary Elizabeth Ellis, and Lilah Richcreek Estrada. The conversation was hosted by Ron Bennington of The Bennington Show on SiriusXM 103. Like watching your podcasts?  Visit http://youtube.com/teamcoco to see full episodes.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It's a story of a guy whose life is, his wife passed away, and his life is getting very small. And for some reason, he just follows this instinct. He answers an ad in the paper that says, wanted, like, man, 75 to 85, good with technology. It's so funny. Welcome back to where everybody knows your name. Something that gets brought up on this show a lot is my work with Mike Schur on a man on the inside. It's been one of my greatest joys, especially getting to act with my wife, Mary Steenburgeon, in season two, which is streaming now on Netflix. Recently, we did a town hall event about the show with castmates and colleagues at the Sirius XM Building in New York City.

They include Mike Shore, Mary Elizabeth Ellis, Lila Rich Creek Estrada, and of course, Mary. It was hosted by Ron Bennington, who is fantastic at his job. And I'm so glad to share with you here. The tune, the back should be fired. They didn't really clap that. Okay. Just point about immediately, Ted. This is the real tip, by the way. This is who fire that person. I thought he meant us. He needs to us. Those two. Yeah.

Yeah. Did I cover up my... Mary Gainesbeth, you always feel like you're walking on eggshells around. Oh, yeah. He's a monster. He's a monster. We've always thought. Mike Shore, what a team you've put together again.

How's it feel to have... Yes. Yeah. Yes. It's a great group of people. Mary Steenbergin joined us for season two, which was a really big deal. Yeah. But in addition, we also...

We also have Max Greenfield and Jason Manzoukis and Lisa Gilroy and Gary Cole and the Jill Talley, like a huge, huge number of new people in the second season that really made the show super fun. David Strathairn. He's unbelievable, right, to just move in and be a different kind of the same character. Yeah, well, he specifically, David. Yeah, I mean, it was very funny to have him on the set because, you know, he showed up and he did his first scene and everyone was like, Oh, that's a real actor. Yes.

That's a... Yeah. Wait a minute. You just cry. We all have to actually try hard now because a real actor has joined the cast. Well, is there always somebody and always all the shows that you've done? Do you look like one actor will go, okay, everybody, this is the way we treat this show. Because all your shows are comedies, but very different from each other.

Yeah, I mean, in this case, all joking aside, it's Ted, like Ted, Ted being the, when the number one on the call sheet is, takes the show and the project seriously and is so, like, is on time every day and works hard and knows their lines and cares deeply about what they're doing, it sets the tone for everybody else. I mean, my first job was the office and Steve Carell was like that. And then it was Parks and Recreation, Amy Poehler was like that. and Andy Samburg on Brooklyn and Andre Brower on Brooklyn, like when the person who's at the top of the call sheet takes the show like seriously and really cares about it

just means everyone else falls in line and that it's invaluable like to there's nothing beats it. Well, why don't we have you take you through this cast here and tell us what each person brings to the table. Oh God. So we have to remember our names. I'm very Elizabeth. Yeah, if you could all actually just say your name,

And what you do. Well, okay, when we were making the show, it started with Ted. Ted was, we went to him, said, you know, we wanted him to play the part and he signed on. Then we've quickly needed his daughter because a big part of the show was about this man trying to sort of, you know, reconcile with his daughter. They had sort of a strained relationship. And Mary Elizabeth just came in and auditioned and it was unanimous, I think. It was just a, they seemed like a father and a daughter. which is maybe a silly thing to say,

but it was really true. They just had like a lovely rapport, and they did. Then we had, we needed the private investigator who, who, you know, hires Charles to work in her firm.

And Lila, it was the perfect combination of like, her comedic timing is impeccable, but also she just seemed like a, she seemed like they could really be her job. You know, like she seemed,

Thank you. Oh, my God. Yeah. It was, she just seemed like a, like a serious person who cared about, like, cracking cases. And I had this image of my head. We actually went back and shot this. Remember, it was not in the script originally, but I was like, oh, what this needs at the beginning of the first season was a shot where Lila in a long, dark overcoat is just like looking around to make sure no one's looking and then brings a camera up and just goes,

and I was like, if we just, if it's a five second shot like that of her with her like dark hair tumbling over her shoulders and a long black coat just takes clandestine photos of something, you'd be like, yeah, I get it. That's a private investigator. And then this year, you know, we needed a love story for Charles, for Ted's character. And we, you know, immediately, obviously thought of Mary. I think we, I can't remember. I wish I could remember exactly where it was.

But I believe we talked to her about doing this before the first season was even over. I think before we had finished shooting, she was on the set. And I was like, do you, would you want to play? Would you want to, like, really stretch yourself as an actor and play someone who, Who likes Ted dance Yeah But it is interesting Of course you have a long relationship

But now you have to meet and be flirtatious With each other Are you guys playing Are you thinking as the character But also knowing your own backstory Well it's the opposite of what I just did last week Or a couple of weeks ago and think

I'm not going to say anything about kissing, which is act romantically with an actor. I didn't know it all, right? So that's normal, actually, though it's a weird thing about my life, but it's a normal thing about this job. But what we had to do was unlearned 32 years of, you know, of knowing each other. And that was a fun challenge to like, and also, part of it is made easy by the fact that the writing is brilliant, but also that he made our characters really different, you know. So you just, you can describe how different. Actually, the opposite. No, no, really, reaction.

It was much easier because I'm madly in love with her. She knows I'm in love with her. She knows I'm in love. We're married. You know, we're bonded at the hip. That it was easier for me to do the pretending to falling in love because normally that situation of how do you do, and now we're going to pretend to be intimate or whatever,

horrifies me, you know, and it's confusing and weird and wrong. So I was able to. All you see, all you see on my face, oh, my darling, is guilt. Right. Guilt. That is your problem. So it was great to answer your question. Yeah.

Well, you know, Mary's still glowing from Vancouver. She hasn't let go of that yet. You notice the adjective's glowing, air cumbling. I'm calling JJ. Ted, you even bring a little slapstick in this year. Oh, my God. Really been fun. Actually, I was thinking about that.

My slapstick is really Ted trying to run as best he can at age 78. So that means I scurry close to the ground. So I'm closer to the ground if I trip and fall. all. But yes, it was much fun to do that. I love that. Well, what I also think is great about the romance in this. If this show was done 25, 30 years ago, it wouldn't be, look, isn't this funny? There's two people think they're falling in love like kids. But now, I think the way the world has moved, this is a natural thing. We don't expect at age 65 or 70 to turn off our lives. in the old days, that was like, okay, you did a great race, go sit over there for a while.

I love that about everything Mike does, basically, is it's purposeful, at least talking about this, man on the inside, it's purposeful that we're talking about age and, you know, you don't give up, you don't have a shelf life as far as contributing to the world and being nurturing and caring and loving and hopeful and curious and all those things. Keep going, you know. Yeah. keep going until you can't go. And you do. There are second chances in life. So, you know, keep your eyes open. Sure. Kind of thing. So I love that message. Well, I also think that all of us

can remember that our grandparents got older earlier. Yeah. I mean, I remember Sunday dinners are looking at people 40 or 50 and their legs not working. There's no way to fix it, you know. And they've kept us healthier longer, so now we have, you know. So now what do we do? And also I want to bring this up with Lila, too. It was like you're talking about the way she was last season. But this season, we see she's just as vulnerable with these generational things as everybody else. And I think that's one of the most interesting parts of the show, is that it is,

one day at a time to keep these relationships together. Laila, was this more fun for you to have some of that extra backstory? Yes, for sure. I mean, I love Julie, period. She was so fun to play last season

when, you know, intentionally nobody knew anything about her because that's how she wants to be seen. But, yeah, to show that she's actually human and is messy and does not have it all together, Knowing how much she hates that, it was really, really fun to play. And, yeah, and getting to do a whole storyline with my mom, they all know. And I started shooting season two right after becoming a mom.

I was five and a half weeks postpartum. So that added just like a whole other layer to think about and made it, I think, a lot deeper and richer and complex. And yeah, I think it's fun. She's, Julie's very human. And Mary Elizabeth, the same with you. Your character is stuck with trying to connect to the kids at a certain age and your dad at a certain age. And it's really hard and it's really more heartbreaking than any of us understand with

each other because things aren't said or finished and all of us deal with it. Yeah. I mean, one of the things we talked about in season one that continues through season two and we'll, you know, keep continuing is that idea of being like the sandwich generation, right, where you're taking care of your kids and you're also taking care of your parents and then you get put on the back burner. And in season two, my character, Emily gets to look a little bit more at her own grief of losing her mother, season one, she was taking care of her father's grief.

And also, wait a second, I'm doing this thing that I didn't actually, intend to do. I just sort of found myself here. And Mona comes in and just like starts throwing fire crackers at everybody. And right. She jumps up Emily and is like, wait, I do have dreams that I'm still interested in achieving. And so it was exciting to get to explore that. And also, you know, as far as being looking at your dad that way is because there's something weirdly more sad about a widower than a widow. Like it feels like women. Women are raised to be the survivors, but when a man loses his wife, it's just like, now what? You know, now what?

And that's where the show started last year. And it's been amazing to see that move along. Mary, your character having that thing of, it's time to go write the song, no matter what else is happening, which is such a, you know, unique character that we've never seen before in a show. But you do have some of that with music, right? I do. I have a weird, it's less weird now because it's become a part of my life because I'm getting, I think it's 18 years of having what at the time felt like a brain disorder. But I had a little surgery on my arm. They let my blood pressure get too low. And I had some kind of a little brain event that resulted in me hearing the world differently.

It's, you don't think about the sound of your brain. You think about your thoughts until your brain doesn't sound like itself anymore. It sounds like an overscored movie. And so it's hard to describe, but I eventually kind of found a way to make it work for me. And now I write music and I collaborated with Mike and separate. several other people and we write a song. I won't spoil what this song does or is, but, well, no, we could say it.

We can say we wrote this song that Mono was quite famous for when she was young. Yeah, which would have been early 70s type of timeline. Very late 60s early 70s. Yeah, it's, we have, we played a little bit fast in loose. The funniest thing was that we had to, the backstory. he was that Mona wrote a song that was like a one-hit wonder and she played at Woodstock when she was 18

and the math of that meant that we had to make her character older than Mary really is in real life and so she has a line over well where she says, by the way, it's by two years but they made him younger. So then I'm like,

how come he's younger and I'm older? When she asked me that on the set, I knew that there was an answer but I went blank and I was like and then a couple minutes later I was like no no no there's a reason there's a reason but it's a sort of like one of those like sort of groovy

late 60s early 70s like Mamas and the Papa's songs and we so David Schwartz who is the composer for the show and his daughter and then a Troy Burgess and we all collaborated and like actually wrote and recorded the song

and I got to say it's a good song. I'm like super in the right. You had to cut a little, I wish heard the whole one somewhere. I know. It's a very, it's like, I think we played in the credits at the very end. Oh, good. Oh, yay. It's like a very fun, poppy

song. Listen for it on serious. It makes, even though you hear it later, totally believable that her story was that she, you know. Yeah, it sounds like one of those one of those like one hit wonder songs that you, like on the, in the old days, It would have been like the time life's, you know, 20-city set kind of thing.

Kate L. Cape, but yeah, exactly, yeah. So, and Mary gets to perform at a certain point in the season, which is a name of the group. Though the name of the band was Lavender Highway. Lavender Highway. Yeah, very much Canyon. But you were not, Mary, musical before that? No, or not at all.

No. Now, I have interviewed so many, literally the greatest songwriters of all time. You know, Brian Wilson, Robberson, it goes on and on. And I've never heard any one of them take credit for the song. They'll always say it came in. You know, I'm out there every day, but sometimes it comes in. It drips in. It's like I have an antenna.

We can't really explain it. But all of them try, and then it doesn't become this national thing where we all believe it. But it's about as close as we can come to spirituality, right? Divinity. Yes. So I don't think of it. First of all, it wasn't so much a talent that came to me. I got an obsession.

Right. And so the obsession led to just working. Like I studied music and songwriting. And I still have trouble reading music. It's easier for me to just hear and sing what it is I'm hearing. And also the story of this song is really important to me because I feel like that's so connected to acting. It's like always telling stories.

But I sort of feel like I had a grandmother that was extremely musical. She could play any instrument. And I just feel like maybe somehow my brain, that little channel to her, opened up. I don't know. I've talked to brain people about it. There's a book. Yeah, there's a book called Musicophilia that Dr. Oliver Sacks wrote that as soon as it happened, people

started sending me this book. But it's like, it's just never going to be fully described to me, I don't think. And maybe we're not supposed to 100%. Right. Exactly. But we should at least believe that creativity itself. And Mike, I'm sure you've had this when writing, you're like, suddenly in a zone and then that zone goes away for a while, and then you're like, well, I guess, and it'll come back again. And is acting the same way that you just kind of push yourself along until you find that

spark for any of you guys? I think it's 50-50 every time I step in front of a camera. I mean, if you have good words, the odds are better that you will, you know, get on that creative kind of mindless flow, which is why I think I want to keep acting for the rest of my life, is you keep chasing that, you know, that mindless, joyful, you have no idea, literally, even though you know the script backwards and forwards, most of the time, you don't know what you're going to do or what's going to happen. You get lost in it, and that's, that's joy. Right. But it's always, you know, 50-50. I mean, there's a reason that, like, in ancient times, they invented something called muses that were magical creatures that came to artists and told them what to do.

And they got angry at them when they weren't around and they made offerings to them to try to get them to come back. Like, this is the creative process is maddening. And there is a, I think it's a combination of, like, some of it is just practice, right? Some of it is, like, you just do it enough that your brain knows how to, like, sort of. to try to find a creative mode, but I have had the experience at times of being like, I don't even really know what I am writing, but I am writing things. And that doesn't mean it's going to be good, but I think what it means is that there's some, you're just like in a, you're in a lazy river and you're letting the process kind of like take you on whatever journey you're going to

go on. And that's really fun. Like it's great when that happens. It's better than the alternative, which is like banging your head against a wall over and over again, trying to write, one joke that you think is mildly funny. But, you know, a surfer really has to practice to be good, but he's not the wave. You know what I mean? You have to be prepared to catch the right wave. But if you go out there and there isn't any wave, there's that much you can do with that. You're going to serve surfboard.

What's also interesting to me in. the stuff that happens is that you can create something for whatever reason that any of you have to want to do this work. But it can mean something so different to so many people in the audience. And when you make comedy, a lot of times people will be going through something very hard in their life, a breakup, the loss of somebody. And you just have that one show that you're waiting for that can make you just exhale a little bit. And I'm sure you've heard this, Ted, throughout your careers, because you've been involved with some amazing shows. And most of them are still in reruns. And there's so many things that you have done, I think, that has brought

real joy to people. Very blessed in that way. Yeah, definitely. I get to walk around with people smiling at me because they remember a moment that I was part of. And this is really special because I don't think we talk about the scary part of aging, you know, that there is memory loss or can be, you know, that there is grief, there's finality, there's all that stuff. And to do it with such grace and humor, there was a lot of gratitude. It touched a real nerve, you know. Yeah.

And it's kind. There was another nerve that was touched that people kind of crave, a certain kindness. There is a certain kindness. And you're right, there is an acceptance as we grow older. And the worst part of it is losing family and friends through natural, just life things and learning to accept that. I'm still in the mode of, tell me exactly what happened. Okay. They died, but I won't.

Well, yeah. This is something I can skate around. And that's how we all have to live it, you know, with these things that are happening. But you guys have found a way to make it. I think the word is communal, because it's all about connections. Well, part of the show is based in a documentary called The Mole Agent that came out a few years ago. A woman named Maita Alberti did it. from Chile, and it's great, and I recommend everybody watch it.

Part of what really touched me about it was it's a story of a guy whose life is, his wife passed away, and his life is getting very small, and for some reason, he just follows this instinct. He answers an ad in the paper. It says it's one of the greatest want ads of all time. It says wanted, like, man, 75 to 85, good with technology. It's so funny. So unintentionally funny.

And he just, something compels him to break out of his small little world and do this. And it ends up being really, it kind of saves his life. And it, because he just, he goes out and he meets people and he becomes friends with people. And he has these experiences he wouldn't have had. And the people he meets, their lives are made better by meeting him. And it's just such a lovely little story. And the thing that I kept thinking about when I watched it, which is what we tried to do in the show, is to make the point that like there are things that are sad about aging certainly you lose

friends and family you perhaps go through some health problems this is the best case scenario right this is what we're all hoping we get to do right so while it's scary and and there's grief and there's sadness like this is the best alternative of all of the alternatives and so to do a movie about that and then to do a show about that I thought was a good way to just discuss something that it's hard to see sometimes. It's hard to see when your parent or grandparent or someone you know or love is suffering health, ailments, or having memory loss.

It's hard to feel gratitude for that. But you should in some way because it's like, wow, you've won the race. You lived long enough to get to the point where this is how your life goes. So, you know, it's a double-edged sword for sure, and that doesn't mean it's not sad, but it's a sadness that is only possible when you've had a lot of joy and success

in terms of just making it through the rat race that we're all running, you know? Yeah, it really is the strangest thing. And I was saying to a friend the other day, you know, the guy was so great with the 49ers, and he goes, Joe Montana? Yeah, yeah, I should have known that. But that's where it goes. Just those little things. It's not like you can't find your way home, you know.

no but it's there's the line in the first season when charles is talking to his friend calbert and he's talking calbert's like running through what happens to you as you age and then he says and then the nouns start to leave charles goes the god damn now that is a direct conversation that i just turned 50 and i had that conversation with my wife that exact conversation where we were driving home from dinner and i couldn't remember someone's name like a person i've known all my life and she did the same thing your friend did like bill and it was like god damn what is happening to the nouns the people places and things they just like you go to that file cabinet where the name has always been and you open it up and the file's empty and it just drives you

crazy and so again count your blessings like if you get to the point where the nouns start to go that yeah that means you know you've had a lot of luck in your life to be fair though i'm 36 and the nouns are dicey for me. But you just had a baby. That's true. We'll see. You'll have a baby. Check it with me in six months.

My wife, my wife when she gave birth to our son, William, which is now 17 years ago, she after like three months or four months later, she was like, I'm going to go get my hair done for the first time and forever. So she went to her salon. And they said like, oh my God,

you have the baby. And she said, yeah. And they said, what's his name? And she forgot his name. And she forgot his and so. And so she said, his name is William, and she said, like, Ryan. They're like, Ryan, I love that. And she went back for a while. Every time she went back, they'd be like, how's Ryan?

She'd be like, he's great. And she's crazy. She has to find a new hair place. You can't admit that you got the name of your kid wrong. So she's like, yeah, there's a weird part of Los Angeles where our child has a different name. But Lila is right about one thing that your generation gets. hit with such constant information so quickly that most people I know now, no matter what age, struggle with reading a novel. And I used to have a novel a week going my whole life. And now

when I'm reading it, I'm like two chapters before I touch the phone. You know what I mean? I'll make up little rules for myself. But everybody's brains gets attacked now. They should put more dancing kittens and novels and then we'd pay us a little bit more. It's the novel's fault. Here's the thing. I don't even know if there was a real kittens. That's the other, the other kid. Can I trust these kittens actually exist? Evidently, the chicken on the back of the pig that gets on the trampoline,

I was heartbroken when my son goes, Mom, that's AI. Yeah. Hearing also goes. Yes. Alex Elderman, you know, he has this great comedic bit where he says, there's a phrase that will save you. It doesn't matter what is being said. And in my case, I take it.

It doesn't matter what I heard or didn't hear. It's, can you believe it? Ted, you've said that to me so many. You believe it. Crazy times we live in. I feel like I just go wild, wild. Wild. Yeah.

But we are in this. thing where you're supposed to know somebody yelling something out at Iowa and another what do you think of that? I'm like I don't, you know, it's happening all so fast and none of it stays. None of it stays.

Well, we're not supposed to experience this many things. It's not like there's that old, there's the thing about like you can't keep more than it's like 200 names in your head really because when humans were evolving like the little clusters that we were in were like they wouldn't be more than like 150 or 200 people big that's just

how like the you know primitive primitive man evolved and i think that we're not supposed to have more than like you know whatever 500 pieces of information hit us every year yeah now we have a thousand a day like and it's wild when you when you see something online and you say to everyone like in our writers room or wherever like did you see the thing that so-and-so tweeted about about whatever and everyone has seen it and it's like how is this possible how are we taking in this much information yeah and the nouns the poor nouns that we used to know are just like being crushed they're being pushed to the side because now we have to reserve some brain power for the chicken that's on the back of the pig that's a trampoline that we all saw and then the

follow-up discussion of like no that was AI and then the follow-up to the follow-up of like what's open AI doing this week and why are they doing whatever so I I think it's some of is not our fault, but like you're saying, unless you create rules for yourself of like, I am not going to engage with this. I am going to sit down and calm myself and read a book or like sit and talk to someone. It is, I mean, you know, it's a, the Bo Burnham interview, now I'm doing it. The Bo Burnham interview he did recently where he was like, these companies are coming for your attention. Like, that's what they're, that's what's happening. It's like they're colonizing your attention span. And there, there are, if there are chunks of your life that are where your attention

is elsewhere, they're trying to grab it and refocus it on whatever they're offering. So it's like put down your phone and watch a man on the inside. You know what I mean? Oh, smart. That's good. That's good. I am.

Oh, she's going to go watch it. I am happy. I have, my kids are 17 and 15. I am happy when they are watching a television show. Right. So funny, because when we were kids, our parents would be like, that TV is going to rot your brain.

And now it's like, oh, thank God, they're watching TV. It's 23 minutes long instead of 18 seconds, you know. Yeah, my grandparents were shocked that I could just keep watching show after show. They understood you had a shell, you know, and I like, Mike Douglas is on right now. I think he's bringing out Carlin in 15 minutes. Can you imagine your grandmother watching a commercial for a butt deodorant? That's really. I can't even imagine my dad doing that.

My father struggled with HBO. He would get out and walk out as we were all watching. But, you know, that is another thing about this show is no matter what age you're also supposed to keep up. You know what I mean? Where it's somehow funny that somebody doesn't know how to use TikTok or know what Grindr is. Well, the one of the... Don't worry about it. They just said, don't worry about it.

One of the best things about detective stories to me, the reason that I really like writing this show, is detective stories are methodical. They are about, like, slowly observing and taking in clues and, like, piecing things together and moving really deliberately through the world. It's a perfect job for Charles Neuendig, former engineering professor and intellectual.

It's why it works well that he's gotten this new gig, because it requires, like, just you have to move slowly and deliberately. And that is an antidote, I think, to what a lot of modern life is like, where it's like, you know, go, go, go, go, more, more, more. And that's been really fun to, like, write a story about a guy who has to just move very deliberately and slowly through his world. Also, Charles lives in maybe my favorite house in any, How did you guys come across that house?

Was this luck or? Yeah, it was scouting. We found it. It's in the eastern part of L.A. Where is it? Like it's Eagle Rock. Eagle Rock. Yeah.

And it's at the end of a dead end street. And it's just like a beautiful. We actually recreated it this year. We built it. Perfect. So trippy. Yeah. Wow.

So, we watch the Thanksgiving episode. It's shocking that it's a set. It looks exactly like that house. Yeah, we'd be like, let's go outside, but you're still in the hangar. And there's wind blowing through the trees, you know. From fans. Yeah, they've done their great.

Yeah, it's a beautiful house, but it's at the end of a cul-de-sac, and it's up of steep hill. And it's a little hard to get to. So we just re-we had, we do an entire episode where Charles has a Thanksgiving at his house. And so we just recreated it on a soundstage. you know with ted mary i imagine both of you saw each other's work before you met right do you remember ted the first thing that you saw her in or yeah i i think it was time after time with uh malcolm what a movie what a movie fantastic yeah um for me uh well we met at an audition that i i had been cast in cross creek uh by marty writ and

He had a lot of guys come in and read to play opposite me and that. And that's where I first met him. And I remember looking at him and going, ah, too handsome. Too handsome. And then he said something very funny. And I'm like, oh, that's because funny is my thing. Like, you know, that's what I look for. So anyway, Ben cut to, you know, we're both married, many years.

lots of water under the bridge and well I'm going through a divorce and cheers is on now at 10 o'clock at night so I'd put my kids to bed and then go in there and it was you asked about shows that get one solace mine was cheers you know and it was just like there was something so comforting and beautiful and brilliance and the writing

and the every single person on it was just brilliant and little did I know you know I'm going to be slick on the same and that person was Rea Pearlman it was a different

time it was a different time first thing I remember Santad was body heat and you played as such a character and I remember that you danced you know just in front of your friend on the boardwalk and I'm like no one gets it but this man is really charming

and I think you could do a lot of things but it was it's always that amazing thing that we go back with with people who we kind of feel like in the back of our heads you know we we got before everybody else did but you have an entire show even your guest stars come in like that now you have such great

guest stars this year. Yeah, it was a real murderer's row. I mean, season one was so much about loss and grief. And season two, we wanted to be about romance. And that meant that it needed to be a little brighter and a little sunnier, a little more fun. Right. And so we just brought into all the funny people we could think of. Max Greenfield plays a big role. Gary Cole, Lisa Gilroy, Jason Manzoukis. Like, we just called all these funny people that we knew and said, can you come be a part of this? And I think the show, it still feels like the same show, but it's definitely more comedic, more overtly comedic, because Charles isn't going through this really deeply sad thing in his life. He worked through that with his daughter and through the process of, you know, making new friends and stuff. And now he has room in his life to start a new romance. And that, you know, romance and comedy go together and always have. And so when we wanted this show to be about this, new love in his life, we just wanted the whole show to feel a little sunnier, and that led to the big stars.

I also love that you conscientiously, sorry, I stepped over. No, please do you, brought season, people from Pacific View, retirement home, into this year as well, because I think people fell in love with the group at Pacific View, and I think it will be comforting to know. know that they're still part of Charles's community. Yeah, you use them as your crew at certain points and bring them in. But also, when you're saying he's not going through as much, which is really sweet as he notices when other people are in those places, and he reaches out and pulls him into

that community, I don't want to give it away because there's one that takes place in, like, the last episode. Right. But you could choke up watching that scene, you know, because you see somebody who would have just went away, you know. And Charles said, here's a spot. And he gets no credit for it, which is also hilarious. Yeah.

Mike, a lot of people online seem to be talking about Easter eggs with the show. or time. Is that done on purpose? Oh, yeah, very much so. Yeah, I think it's very fun to just bury things in the background of shows. I always love it when I'm watching something and there's like a little tiny reference to another show. And so, you know, this season takes place on a college campus and there's kiosks everywhere that have, you know, flyers on them and stuff. And so every single flyer on the kiosk is like a little reference. some other show a lot of them are good place references um there's a there's a flyer for a uh dance dance resolution which was jean mendosa's 40 person dance crew in jacksonville

florida like they're apparently performing at the college where charles yeah charles is working there's a there's a poster for death canoe four which is a movie a showing of a movie and that was from parks and recreation read his character would live tweet movies and they screened a movie called Death Canoe 4 where she was just live tweeting the whole time. It's tiny little nothings in the background. But in my mind, it's like you've got to put something up there. You might as well make it something that someone might get some pleasure out of if they happen to notice it, you know?

So we try with every like sign, you know, on the campus, every street sign or like, you know, every name of every building. I'm a Celtics fan and every single building on the campus is named after a member of the 24 world champion. Boston Celtics. It is funny. You'll be working in a scene and look up at a sign and be like, wait a second. I just love that stuff.

I think it's it's completely harmless, right? If you don't get the reference, if you see that something is called Horford Hall, you're like, okay, that seems like a normal building. But if you then think about the fact that Al Horford was the backup center for the Celtics, and that's in your brain. And then you see another building called the Pritchard Center for Research or whatever. and you're like, wait, Peyton Pritchard was also on the 20th and you started to put it together that it just becomes this little weird bonus fun thing that's going on in the background.

I love that stuff. We were talking about shows that, the way Mary put it, that give you salas, which I just love. But Mary Elizabeth, you're on a show like that and you're basically on two hit shows at the same time. Seems like you need to cast me in your show. This is what you're saying. Yeah. I am. I'm so, I'm so, so lucky and grateful. And, yeah, my husband, Charlie Day, who is one of the creators of Always Sunny in Philadelphia is home right now with our teenage kid. And in the writer's room for season 18 of it's always sent to Philadelphia. Season 18. Yeah. I was 25 when we shot the first, the first season. I was. It broke the record, right?

Isn't it the longest running? Longest running, live action. Comedy. Yeah. It's wild. Keeps getting qualified. But we'll take it. Yeah.

But, you know, Ted, you know this. This is something that didn't happen when you started. You weren't going to be able to work a couple different shows. And I imagine when cheers end it, there must have been a party of you. Like, well, I'll never be able to, you know, have that same kind of relationship. I bypassed all that worry because I blew my life up. I was such a hot mess that I wasn't even thinking about career. Uh-huh.

And I recommend it highly. Yeah. So what was it about that that took that thinking out of it for you? About my life? Yeah, about your life. Different podcast. No, I was just working on myself. It was time for me to grow up, which thank God, because the universe wouldn't have even put me in the same hallway as Mary Steenberg, if I hadn't grown up.

So that's what I was doing. I was preparing to meet Mary. So it wasn't so much about career for you. It was more about just life itself. Can you believe it? Yeah. Yeah. But then you keep coming back with great.

show after grace. I don't. I, you know, first off, I'm a nice guy. I'm a nice guy on a set. I'm pleasant to be around. This counts for a lot. And then I've been blessed by writers. You know, I've been blessed by being around good writing. And I truthfully, I am not sitting there looking at a bunch of scripts and making these wise decision. I am at heart, a contract player out of the 50s. You know, I'm happiest when somebody says, take your fireman hat off and put this cowboy hat and go over to stage 13. And I have been blessed by meeting, you know, and being around great writers and great writing. And I like to go to work. I really love acting.

And I think that combination has allowed me, you know. And now I hooked up with Mike, who said, I'll take you into the twilight years. Follow me. Follow me. But, you know, I guess you've all. done things that you're like, well, there's no way this can work. You don't mean whatever show or project movie, but then you go and do it anyway because you act, right? But is there any chance to get over a bad script and make something through good acting work if the script stinks? No.

No, you'll be called one of those actors who's good in everything. That's the best you can get. you'll never make a bad script a good movie and it's not fun it's not fun at all i mean the difference is is the writing the difference in the joy you feel when you rehearse a scene at home when we run lines together we're laughing at what we get to say and do you know we're delighting in it or moved by it or whatever it is but i i don't think any amount of good acting can make up for bad Or somebody came up to you or told you the other day. Or you steal every scene and you go, oh, oh. Like that's not a good thing to hear.

Yeah. You know, because it's just, what you want is this, which is all these brilliant actors or everybody's doing at the height of what they're doing and with great writing. And you walk on the side of Mike's shows. And I mean, even the ones where I have a. been there. I know so much about it because of 32 years with him. And it's like, people are happy to go to work and they're happy with each other. And the makeup trailer of our man on the

inside is hilarious and fun. And yes, Ted is the butt of every joke. And yes, yes, it's mainly women in there giving it to it. But he knows how to take it. So it's fun. Isn't it an important thing in life is to know how to take the joke is just as... I made one mistake. I mentioned that I was a lactation expert. A lactation expert. And we will never stop here. Oh, my God.

My daughter, my daughter was a doula and I was being supportive and I was hearing everything. And I didn't say I was a lactation of my thing. But I did. No, somebody said I claimed that was the bull. But of the joke part. It's going on for so long that I'm like, so Ted's a lactation expert. I was taking interest in my daughter's work.

And I didn't, now that I hear me say it, I didn't really. I looked up and saw three women's faces go, oh. It's so funny. We have to wrap this up because you guys have to go around and explain. We don't end on that.

Yes. Well, end on that. Is that the best way to get? But here we are. You have a great season one. You have an even better season two. What are you guys hoping happens in season three? Where do we take this?

Well, should we be so lucky? The writers are working now to plan ideas. And I don't want to even make predictions because it's very early. But I do, the show takes place. in San Francisco, and I love that city. I always have. I loved it the first time I went there 20 years ago and continue to love it. And I think one of the things we would like to do is shoot there more and really kind of show off the city. Because I think it's a very weird place and it's a very beautiful place. And also, like, cities are like being attacked right now in very weird ways.

And the way that cities in America are described does not resemble in any way. My experience, of living in them or visiting them. And so I kind of just want to make that season two is a little bit of an argument in favor of liberal arts education. And I think season three, I would love to make a little bit more of an argument for just what cities are and can be and how they function. So that's a very vague thing to say. But I love, I just love the, I love, I love cities.

I think they're the lifeblood of this country. I think that there are places where enormous numbers of people go and live and commune and interact with each other in ways that are very important. They are not horrible hellscapes that need a federal intervention, in my opinion. So I would love to just show off

the city and make an argument on its behalf. First of all, I love that. I'm praised about that. And when each city is unique, and I feel like that happened more when I was younger, that if you would go to Miami or Chicago

and to where you're like, these people are completely different. Yeah. They eat different food. I mean, I was just in New Orleans. That food and culture does not play 50 minutes outside of there. No.

But you get there and you're biting a head off crayfish and you're listening to a guy play tube and trombone. You're like, this is great. Amazing. And then when you leave, you're like, I don't even know what I was doing. Yeah. You know what I mean?

That's not me. I mean, there's like donut and coffee that you can only get in that city and it's amazing. Like, that's what I mean. It's like these places are vital and interesting. Cities have been the centers of culture in every nation on earth

since the beginning of earth. And I just, I feel like they should be celebrated more than they're celebrated. And they get down and they get up. Yeah. Philly was scary when I was a kid. Then people went and, you know,

turn the city around. It seemed like at the same time that New York, York turned around. I don't know if we even know why all these things happen. They have, they go in waves. They have up times and down times. They have problems and solutions. And I think they're just fascinating places. Here's what I love about everything that you guys are doing. It's a great cast. It's great writing. But the themes of every year that you're all able to attach and bring through, it makes a man on

the inside a really unique and great show. Thanks so much. Thank you for a while. Let's keep doing it. Yeah, you're his son. Thank you so much. Yeah, really fun talking to you. Really much. Thank you so much to my man on the inside colleagues.

Mike Schur, our creator, Mary Elizabeth Ellis, Lila Rich Creek Estrada, and Mary Steenbergin, and to Ron Bennington for Leigham. that wonderful conversation. Season 2 of A Man on the Inside is streaming now on Netflix. That's it for this week. Happy holidays for me and all my friends at Team Coco. As always, subscribe on your favorite podcast app and maybe give us a great rating and review on Apple Podcasts

if you're in the mood. If you like watching your podcasts, all our full-length episodes are on YouTube. Visit YouTube.com slash Teen Coco. See you next time. Where Everybody Knows your name. You've been listening to Where Everybody Knows Your Name with Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson sometimes. The show is produced by me, Nick Leow, our executive producers are Adam Sacks, Jeff Ross, and myself.

Sarah Federovich is our supervising producer, Engineering and Mixing by Joanna Samuel with support from Eduardo Perez. Research by Alyssa Grawl. Talent booking by Paula Davis and Gene Boutista. Our theme music is by Woody Harrelson, Anthony Yen, Mary Steenbergen, and John Osborne.