Kevin & Tracey Thompson Meet World

Summary

Pod Meets World: Kevin & Tracey Thompson Meet World

Episode Title: Kevin & Tracey Thompson Meet World
Release Date: February 10, 2025
Host/Authors: Danielle Fishel, Ryder Strong, and Will Friedel
Description: In this episode, hosts Danielle, Will, and Ryder revisit their iconic series "Boy Meets World" by bringing in two of the show's unsung heroes—Kevin and Tracey Thompson. These stand-ins played a pivotal role in the early days of the series, ensuring seamless production while fostering a supportive environment for the young cast. Dive deep into their experiences, challenges, and contributions to the beloved show.

---

1. Introduction to Kevin & Tracey Thompson

The episode warmly welcomes Kevin and Tracey Thompson, a real-life married couple who served as stand-ins during the early seasons of "Boy Meets World." Known for their versatility and dedication, Kevin and Tracey were instrumental in maintaining the show's production schedule, especially when the child actors were unavailable.

Notable Quote:
Danielle Fishel [16:28]: "Kevin and Tracy Thompson were stand-ins at the beginning of Boy Meets World during our humble, very young beginnings."

---

2. Hollywood Origins and Career Beginnings

Kevin and Tracey shared their journeys into the entertainment industry, highlighting their early roles and the challenges faced by little people actors in the 80s and 90s. Kevin's debut was in "Blade Runner," and Tracey began her career on "Give Me a Break!" Their combined skills in gymnastics, mime, and stunt work made them invaluable on set.

Notable Quote:
Kevin Thompson [18:57]: "It's the perfect combination of super art house Sundance cinema and horror B movie."

---

3. Life as Stand-Ins on "Boy Meets World"

The Thompsons detailed their roles as stand-ins, emphasizing the importance of their work in blocking scenes and managing on-set dynamics. They recounted how they had to mimic the child actors' movements and expressions, often 2 to 3 feet taller, ensuring that scenes were ready for filming when the stars returned.

Notable Quote:
Tracy Thompson [19:00]: "We didn't know we were amongst legends."

---

4. Representation and Advocacy for Little People

Beyond their on-screen roles, Kevin and Tracey have been at the forefront of advocating for better representation of little people in film and television. They discussed the limited roles available during their careers and the ongoing challenges posed by modern CGI replacements.

Notable Quote:
Austin Hankwitz [42:45]: "When's the last time you saw a little guy or little woman playing a teacher?"

---

5. Memorable Stories from the Set

The episode was rich with anecdotes from their time on "Boy Meets World" and other projects. Kevin shared his experience working in the rain on "Blade Runner" and interacting with iconic figures like Ridley Scott. Tracey recounted the camaraderie on set and the supportive environment fostered by people like Arlene Grayson.

Notable Quote:
Austin Hankwitz [21:49]: "So this is Revenge of the Jedi."

---

6. Legacy and Continued Influence

Kevin and Tracey have authored a book titled "My Journey to Endor," chronicling their adventures and the intricacies of their roles in "Star Wars" and "Boy Meets World." Their advocacy continues as they mentor young actors and push for more inclusive casting practices.

Notable Quote:
Tracy Thompson [27:16]: "It's about creating something, having the same goals as everybody being a team player."

---

7. Reflections on "Boy Meets World" and Beyond

The Thompsons reflected on how "Boy Meets World" evolved from a family-centric sitcom to exploring the complexities of growing up. They highlighted their seamless integration into the show's dynamics, ensuring that the production remained on track despite the cast's hectic schedules.

Notable Quote:
Kevin Thompson [51:43]: "You guys make us proud."

---

8. Closing Thoughts and Appreciation

As the episode concluded, Danielle, Ryder, and Will expressed their deep gratitude to Kevin and Tracey for their indispensable contributions to "Boy Meets World." They encouraged listeners to support the Thompsons' endeavors and celebrate the often-overlooked roles that make beloved shows possible.

Notable Quote:
Danielle Fishel [65:55]: "You guys are Hollywood legends."

---

Conclusion

This episode of "Pod Meets World" offers a heartfelt tribute to Kevin and Tracey Thompson, shedding light on the critical yet underappreciated roles of stand-ins in television production. Their stories not only provide behind-the-scenes insights into "Boy Meets World" but also underscore the broader narrative of representation and advocacy within the entertainment industry.

Notable Quote:
Kevin Thompson [67:00]: "Anybody out there who doesn't know who Billy Barty is, go and Google him, because he's arguably the most famous little person actor ever."

---

Key Takeaways:

• Importance of Stand-Ins: Kevin and Tracey ensured the smooth production of "Boy Meets World" by stepping in whenever the child actors were unavailable.
• Advocacy for Representation: They have been vocal advocates for better roles and representation of little people in Hollywood.
• Behind-the-Scenes Insights: Their experiences offer a unique perspective on the challenges and triumphs of producing a beloved sitcom.
• Legacy Continued: Through their book and ongoing efforts, Kevin and Tracey continue to influence and inspire within the industry.

---

For More Information:

• Book by Tracy Thompson: "My Journey to Endor" available on Amazon.
• Follow "Pod Meets World": Instagram @podmeetsworldshow | Email: podmeetsworldshowmail.com

Transcript

[Danielle Fishel]

It's Danielle Fishel, Ryder Strong and Will.

[Will Friedel]

Friedle from Pod Meets World.

[Danielle Fishel]

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[Ryder Strong]

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[Tracy Thompson]

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[Kevin Thompson]

They want churros.

[Tracy Thompson]

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[Danielle Fishel]

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[Austin Hankwitz]

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[Danielle Fishel]

I saw you went to Sundance and had your pasta party.

[Ryder Strong]

Yeah, the pasta party got huge.

[Danielle Fishel]

Yeah.

[Kevin Thompson]

Really? Wait, the party got big or the pasta got big?

[Austin Hankwitz]

Which Which.

[Kevin Thompson]

Okay, good.

[Ryder Strong]

The amount of pasta had to increase with the. It was like Strega Nona. Do you guys remember that kid's book where they make the.

[Kevin Thompson]

What?

[Ryder Strong]

You don't know Strega Nona? Danielle, you didn't just read the. Oh, it's the one where the. The pot that makes pasta and it overflows and takes over the whole town. You guys don't remember? Get Strega Nona for your kids. They're like. Yeah, it's. It's means like magical grandmother witch.

[Danielle Fishel]

Of course. Of course.

[Ryder Strong]

Right? Something like that. Anyway, it's great. It's a great one. Yeah. So we somehow. It just. You know, Sundance was weird this year. It was. Because it's the second to last year. It's gonna be at Park City, maybe. Like, they're talking about leaving and leaving.

[Will Friedel]

Leaving Utah entirely or le.

[Kevin Thompson]

Just Park City.

[Ryder Strong]

It's a debate. Leaving Park City. It might stay. It might go to Cincinnati. It might. Yeah. So anyway, it's. It's going to be still around next year, but also, I think because of the fires, it was a really mellow year. It was, like, weirdly quiet on Main Street. Usually it's packed on the first weekend. Yeah. And so what? Normally our pasta party, which was, you know, usually pretty big, got, like, overwhelmingly big. But it was fine. It was still a great time. We still played charades like crazy. And I think, actually, because it was mamellower year, I got to see more movies. Like, I got into more screenings, so I saw some amazing films. But actually, I think rather than talk about the films I saw, which, like, at this point, you know, they're kind of like hit or miss, whether they're going to come out or not. I wanted to mention movies that I saw last year that. That our listeners can go watch right now.

[Danielle Fishel]

Oh, that are out now.

[Ryder Strong]

Great. That are out now. Yeah. Because I saw two films that were, like, really stuck with me that I loved. Um, one of them is the most fun. I was sitting in the movie theater watching this. It was like my last night at Sundance last year watching this movie. And like, 25 minutes in, I was like, I am having so much fun in the movie. This is the most fun I've had in a movie theater in years. I don't care where this movie goes. Like, this feeling right now that I have, like, you know, breaking into Act 2 is like, this movie is perfect. I'm so excited. No matter where this goes. And it totally went there. It's amazing. I was a little bummed Because I found out after watching it in the theater and thinking, oh, my God, this is going to be the biggest movie. It's going to sweep the nation. It was bought by Netflix for a lot of money and it did come out and not enough people have seen it. So I would highly recommend you go to Netflix. Go watch. It's what's Inside. It is such a fun thriller.

[Danielle Fishel]

That's the name of the movie.

[Ryder Strong]

It's what's Inside. It is so much fun. I really wish this had come out in theaters. I think it would have been a huge theatrical hit. As it was, it just kind of went on Netflix and got lost in the algorithm, like a lot of things, which is a total bummer. So I am highly, if you like, fun, sort of thrillery, exciting, like Knives Out Ish, like who done it? It's actually a sci fi quality. It's like these people go back, they all come to a house for a wedding, so they're all college friends. And one of them has brought a suitcase from his tech company in Silicon Valley and he opens it up and he's like, you guys want to play this party game with this technology that I have, and the technology is a body swapping thing where people can swap bodies for a couple of minutes and they decide to play games for the night where they're swapping bodies. Oh my God, it's so much fun.

[Danielle Fishel]

Okay, okay, let's decide.

[Ryder Strong]

That's number one. Number two is this very, very strange movie that I saw that I loved. And this is like the perfect combination for me of super art house Sundance cinema and horror B movie. It's called a violent in a violent nature. And it's the. It's the coolest take. And this movie did get released in theaters. It did do pretty well considering, you know, it was made for very little money. It's beautiful. It's this bizarre film. It's as if you're watching like the second in a Friday the 13th ish style movie, like a slasher film. But it's like the second or third one in it. But instead of watching that movie, you're hanging out with the killer as he waits in the woods to go murder these kids. And you're just sitting with him in nature as he walks and the camera just follows him for like 5 minute shots through the woods. And it's kind of like. And then he goes and does the murders. And they are the most over the top B movie violent, disgusting, horrifying things. But you've been spending all your time with the killer as he like waits for the kids to go to sleep or to split up to go kill. It is. It's such a bizarre experience. It's basically like if you ever, if you've ever seen the movie Jerry or Elephant, these Gus Van Sant movies that came out in like the early aughts, they were like these, these movies where you really sort of just sit with characters or walk with characters and you're like over their shoulder. And even though the big things are happening, it's like the movie itself is very removed and like calm. It's like that for a horror film. It's the coolest take. They're making a sequel. I'm so excited. I. So if you like interesting weird movies that are unlike anything you've ever seen before, and especially if you like horror films, go see In a violent nature or go rent it. It's so good and such a bizarre film. And like, like I said, the perfect combination of sort of high and low brow smashed together. I love it.

[Danielle Fishel]

Jensen said that one in a Violent nature is like kind of like a silent movie.

[Ryder Strong]

Yeah.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Yeah.

[Kevin Thompson]

It's like weird.

[Will Friedel]

Beautiful and weird.

[Ryder Strong]

It's like. It's like a nature documentary. But you're watch and what's.

[Austin Hankwitz]

So.

[Danielle Fishel]

It's just.

[Ryder Strong]

I swear to God, it's like. Because the whole thing takes place outside and you're like sitting with him like while he waits to like it's. And yet the kills. Like I saw it in a midnight screen at Sunday it's. It's premiere and the audience couldn't. I mean seeing it with a full theater of like horror fans is. Was the best because it was like everyone's kind of like what is going on? And then they catch all the cliches that it's playing with but then sort of reinventing. It's so brilliant. I Love it.

[Danielle Fishel]

Okay, two great weird obscure movies.

[Kevin Thompson]

Sundance.

[Ryder Strong]

Yes.

[Will Friedel]

Gladiator 2. I highly recommend it.

[Ryder Strong]

I want to see it. I haven't seen it yet.

[Kevin Thompson]

Awful. It's just.

[Danielle Fishel]

Sonic release date in 2027. Sonic goes coming out in 2027. Guys.

[Kevin Thompson]

Sonic go. Yes. No. The first Gladiator was amazing. The second one is. Was unwatchably bad. Yeah, it was just bad.

[Danielle Fishel]

Yeah, this was really bad.

[Kevin Thompson]

Wait, speaking of movies, just very quickly I started back at Mission Impossible 1. And every night I'm watching another Tom Cruise Mission Impossible movie. And that's been kind of a fun week, if I'm honest.

[Ryder Strong]

The second and third are not great. Right?

[Kevin Thompson]

It's like the second one, the John Woo. One is awful. It's, I mean, just bad.

[Ryder Strong]

Indy went through a mission impossible phase last year and we kind of just skipped to the fourth one. We watched the first one and then I was like, let's just go to the fourth one. And that's the Brad Bird.

[Kevin Thompson]

Yes. And then it's not bad because it's Philip Seymour Hoffman.

[Will Friedel]

When you get Philip Seymour Hoffman as.

[Kevin Thompson]

A bad guy, you're not, you know, you can't go wrong with Philip Seymour Hoffman. So he's great. But yeah, so it's fine. It's just to be on a Tom Cruise schlockfest is so much popcorn happening. And it is just like it is the best. Yeah.

[Danielle Fishel]

So welcome to pod meets world. I'm Danielle Fishel.

[Ryder Strong]

I'm Ryder Strong.

[Kevin Thompson]

And I'm Will Friedel.

[Danielle Fishel]

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[Ryder Strong]

Oh, I have so many. Going all the way back to when my dad came home with a video camera when I was 2 or 3. And we have our first superhero movie that my first directing. My brother and I, oh man. Wrote and directed the great toy caper and starred as superhero and we still have it. It's the best.

[Kevin Thompson]

That's great. Yeah, mine was actually for another show that I did, but when I got to go to the set of. You can't do that on television. And got slimed as a kid on Nickelodeon. Like old school Nickelodeon slimed. That's one that I'll always remember.

[Danielle Fishel]

Yeah, Well, I bet you wish there was a way you could easily watch or share that moment, right?

[Ryder Strong]

It's getting harder and harder to watch old media like VHS tapes, an 8 millimeter film. Unless you time travel, which from my understanding is still not possible.

[Kevin Thompson]

Yeah, but we're getting closer.

[Will Friedel]

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[Kevin Thompson]

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[Ryder Strong]

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[Kevin Thompson]

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[Will Friedel]

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[Ryder Strong]

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[Will Friedel]

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[Kevin Thompson]

That's just me. Okay.

[Ryder Strong]

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[Ryder Strong]

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[Kevin Thompson]

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[Danielle Fishel]

Over the seven seasons of making Boy Meets World, as you all know by now, we met a lot of very interesting people. TV has a lot of moving parts and lucky for us, some incredible crew members helped make our show. And today we get to interview two more of those incredible people. Kevin and Tracy Thompson were stand ins at the beginning of Boy Meets World during our humble, very young beginnings. And as we've explained in the past, stand ins were used to maximize the crew's time. So when the child stars were off with on set teachers or hit their maximum amount of work hours available, the directors and cameramen could block, figure out eyelines and get scenes ready for when we returned by throwing adults with no restrictions in our place. But we were little kids. How could you properly prepare for how a scene will look when your stand ins are 2 to 3ft taller than who they're standing in for? Well, that's where Kevin and Tracy Thompson come in. The real life married couple, both little people actors, quickly became vital components to keeping our show on time and looking good. And little did we know we were amongst legends. Kevin Thompson began his career in a little movie called Blade Runner. Then he was something called an Ewok in Star Wars Return of the Jedi. A role and experience. Tracy and Kevin wrote an entire book about their resumes. Just don't stop. They've, they've been seen in Weird Science, the Neighborhood, Spaced Invaders, the Garbage Pail Kids Movie, Raising Hope, Night of the Creeps, Looney Tunes Back in Action, Munchies. And so, so much more.

[Kevin Thompson]

Munchies. Munchies.

[Ryder Strong]

But not Munchies too.

[Danielle Fishel]

Not Munchies Revenge.

[Kevin Thompson]

Not Munchies Strikes Back. Yeah.

[Danielle Fishel]

And both have been at the forefront of fighting for little people representation in film and tv. Something that I have also taken up over the past few years. And they've seen it all, even the Hollywood Shorties, which we'll get into. And so now we feel privileged to introduce you to our guests this week on Pod Meets World. It's our unforgettable stand ins. Kevin and Tracy Thompson.

[Ashley Iaconetti]

There you are.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Oh, my God.

[Ryder Strong]

So good to see you guys.

[Danielle Fishel]

Oh, my gosh.

[Austin Hankwitz]

It's been like what, 30 years? Yeah, it has.

[Will Friedel]

30 years.

[Austin Hankwitz]

We got gray hair. I got gray hair.

[Kevin Thompson]

We do too. We have.

[Danielle Fishel]

Mine's just bleached, otherwise I'd have it.

[Tracy Thompson]

So is mine.

[Kevin Thompson]

Yes.

[Danielle Fishel]

So good to see you both again.

[Tracy Thompson]

Good to see you too. You guys were just babies.

[Austin Hankwitz]

You guys look the same. I wish they were true.

[Danielle Fishel]

I don't believe 30 years have passed, but they have.

[Austin Hankwitz]

We know because we have a 30 year old.

[Tracy Thompson]

I got pregnant on Rory Maids show.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Yes. It was a conception show.

[Tracy Thompson]

It was.

[Danielle Fishel]

We love it. What is your 30 year old child's name?

[Tracy Thompson]

Wyatt. Wyatt.

[Kevin Thompson]

Oh, great name.

[Danielle Fishel]

Oh, man, I love that. Okay.

[Tracy Thompson]

In French it means little warrior. And I had such a hard time because he was the size of me when he was born, so.

[Ryder Strong]

Wow.

[Tracy Thompson]

Yeah, it was crazy.

[Danielle Fishel]

Is he average sized?

[Tracy Thompson]

Yeah, he's six foot four.

[Ryder Strong]

Oh my God.

[Danielle Fishel]

Wow.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Six foot four that we know of. He's the tallest child from two little people.

[Tracy Thompson]

Yeah.

[Will Friedel]

Really?

[Austin Hankwitz]

Yeah.

[Danielle Fishel]

So you know, I'm very good friends with Nick Rosito.

[Tracy Thompson]

Yes.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Oh, yes.

[Tracy Thompson]

Yeah.

[Danielle Fishel]

And so, I mean, Nick is average sized. He's 5 10. He's not 6 4.

[Tracy Thompson]

Yeah, we love Nick. I remember when his mom. When his mom was pregnant with him.

[Austin Hankwitz]

In fact, I introduced his parents.

[Tracy Thompson]

Yeah.

[Danielle Fishel]

So amazing. Yeah. So Nick Rosito is a very good friend of mine. He's a writer and producer on some of the shows that I direct for. And his parents are both little people. And so we have spent many years talking about our connection with you guys and his parents. That's so wonderful. Well, I want to get into all of the stuff about how you came to us on Boy Meets World. But before we get to Boy Meets World, how did you two enter show business? What is your Hollywood origin story?

[Austin Hankwitz]

Okay, all right. You want to go first? Go first.

[Tracy Thompson]

I started my friend Kathy Gibb. She's a little person and she. Here we are talking about pregnancies and so she was pregnant with her son on Give me a break with the Lawrence.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Yep.

[Tracy Thompson]

Yeah, they were just babies too. So I worked on that show when they were little. And then that's how I started as a stand in dialogue coach. You know, as you know, we're not just stand ins because we're the size of kids. And so the. It changes a little bit. So when we are standing in for kids because kids are so active and they need a lot more help than just an adult standing In.

[Austin Hankwitz]

So bring them back from school. You guys are studying geography and algebra, and now it's like, no, no. Now it's the time to do the. Do the script. Get that back into your mind.

[Danielle Fishel]

Right. So, of course, you work with them on memorizing their lines and making sure they're focused and they know what's going on.

[Tracy Thompson]

Yeah, a lot of them had. I don't remember you guys doing it, but a lot of kids that we've worked with were hiding candy on the set. And so the director.

[Ryder Strong]

We did have a gum drawer.

[Tracy Thompson]

Go find that candy. Because the kids are all hyped up. And I'm like, I don't want to be the bad guy. I'm not gonna go get their candy. But, yeah, I remember finding candy in different hiding spots that kids would hide.

[Danielle Fishel]

Teachers won't let you have it, and parents won't let you have it. So I'll just hide it on set.

[Kevin Thompson]

You have to. I mean, it's gotta have a drawer filled with gum and candy somewhere on the set.

[Ryder Strong]

Come on.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Yeah. Craft service. You know, it's like, yeah, of course.

[Danielle Fishel]

Tevin, what about you? How did you. What was your Hollywood origin story?

[Austin Hankwitz]

I was studying drama television film in college, and then I got the movie called under the Rainbow, and they were looking for many, many little people, and they ended up with 150. And I was a local one, and I was agile, so they needed a stunt crew. So I did a lot of different stun for under the Rainbow, but it wasn't on contract, and I didn't get it on in SAG until the movie Blade Runner.

[Danielle Fishel]

Yes.

[Kevin Thompson]

It's a little film.

[Austin Hankwitz]

And so my very first line was homigan, home again, jiggity jig, as one of those little toy. The toy Napoleon Bear.

[Tracy Thompson]

Yeah.

[Austin Hankwitz]

And that was. That's how I started and just kept working from that. So that was 1980, 81, that I started doing that type of stuff. I mean, getting the line. So that.

[Danielle Fishel]

That must have been insane to film. What are some of your favorite Blade Runner stories?

[Austin Hankwitz]

Well, the very beginning, I was there. I was working nights. I was working in the rain on the noodle bar. The very beginning scene.

[Kevin Thompson]

Yeah.

[Austin Hankwitz]

And it was like, this sucks. This is. And we capture that. Tracy captured that in the book that she wrote about my time on Return of the Jedi. But I was just sweaty. I was sweaty. I was freezing. I was hot. I was tired. And like, why? What am I doing? Why am I here? And a guy comes up to me and says, hey, how you doing? It's like, does he really want to know? Right.

[Danielle Fishel]

Not good.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Probably not, though. I let him know and I was like, this sucks. I don't know who's writing this. I don't know who's directing. This is socks that. Blah, blah, blah. Because I was just a street extra at the time. And the guy, he just got those little Dixie cups. He goes, here, have a sip. I'm like, all right. I was like, scotch, good stuff. I was like, wow, what is this? He's like, what do you do? And he goes, I'm the director, Ridley Scott.

[Ryder Strong]

And like, oh, man.

[Kevin Thompson]

Hi. Hi.

[Austin Hankwitz]

So. And. But, you know, the crew really was having a tough time with them. They actually said, will Rogers never met Ridley Scott. They had all these T shirts made up of that. And so it was very, very tough set. So he kind of found a friend who was, you know, just. I'll just be. What do you want to say? His buddy. So he wrote three parts for me. He wrote I Jumped the car. I'm one of those guys. I did the bear, Napoleon Bear. And then I'm a mime smoking clown right before the big fight with Pris and Harrison Ford.

[Kevin Thompson]

Oh, wow.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Yeah. So it was. I just kept working through. All through the movie. So it was. It was cool for me. I liked it.

[Ryder Strong]

Yeah.

[Kevin Thompson]

That Will Rogers, that's a big. That's a big Hollywood insult. That's an old school big Hollywood insult.

[Ryder Strong]

I don't get it. What's the insult?

[Kevin Thompson]

So what they used to say is, will Rogers never met a man he didn't like. That was like the famous saying. So anytime somebody would say to you, will Rogers never met you, did he? It was like, you're an ass is what essentially they're saying. So, yeah, that's a. That was a big old school Hollywood insult. Yeah, that's.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Wow.

[Kevin Thompson]

That's having T shirts made. That's. That's taking it, like, to the next level, man.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Pretty crazy.

[Ryder Strong]

Shoot. Wow.

[Danielle Fishel]

And then you mentioned the movie. You are known around the globe for Return of the Jedi. You play in Ewok, first in Return of the Jedi, then in the subsequent Ewok films. Can you tell us about your experience on those movies and what were the suits like?

[Kevin Thompson]

And don't leave anything out. I am a nerd and I need.

[Will Friedel]

To hear it all.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Well, show them the book that's. We capture that all in Tracy's book about time on Return of the Jedi called. It's available on Amazon called My Journey to Endor.

[Kevin Thompson]

Awesome.

[Austin Hankwitz]

And it's. The suits were Very tough. We were little bear space bears. And we had a 2 inch fat suit from the wrist to our ankles in three different pieces. It was a chest piece from here to the arms, and then two like pork chop arms on the leg. Legs. Yeah, two pork chop legs. So then you put a fur coat over that, then latex feet, latex hands, and lastly a latex mask with plastic eyes that would fog up as soon as you put it on.

[Tracy Thompson]

And it's a 16 inch inseam, right?

[Austin Hankwitz]

And a 16. Yeah. 16 inch inseam, yeah. So most bushes are higher than our inseam. And my inseam is actually long for the little people who were there. Some little people were only 36 inches tall, you know, so they had us much smaller inseam. So a furnace Gigantis, which is a 6 inch, 6 foot fern, would be kind of like a. Those, those silent movies where you run into something and then it brings you back.

[Kevin Thompson]

Yeah, no, which, now which Ewok were you. Is it. Are you, are you one of the featured ones?

[Will Friedel]

Can you, can you point out to.

[Kevin Thompson]

Which one you are?

[Austin Hankwitz]

I'm 20 different Ewoks. I'm in all the battles.

[Tracy Thompson]

But your signature Ewok.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Signature Ewok is the one with the white slash like that.

[Will Friedel]

Oh, of course, of course, of course.

[Austin Hankwitz]

All right, yeah, I know exactly who that's Chub Ray. But I play 20 different Ewoks because I take out all three ATSTs, so I can't be in three different spots. But I swing into the village. Swing in with. Yes, I do. Every single swing. And the way Tracy captured it, I tried to write it, but all I had was notes. And so during COVID Tracy goes, all right, all right, I'll stop, I'll stop. You bugging me so much. It's. It's kind of like, can you write? So we sat down and we wrote the book basically for our son because there's so many and the, and the fan base is so big so that they, you know, it's. We just wrote it for him, but the fan base really liked it. And so it became a bestseller on Amazon.

[Danielle Fishel]

That is so great. What was the sense of writing like Tracy?

[Tracy Thompson]

Oh, it was, it was challenging because this was the first book I wrote. And so I had heard these stories for years with Kevin, and he had post it notes and things. And every time we went into a grocery store or wherever, he would always, like, see a kid with a Star wars shirt and say, hey, I'm in that. Do you want to hear the stories And I'm like, I just want to get in and get out. So I was just like, okay, the pandemic hit. We have the time. Let's write it. And it was for our son. And so our son hooked us up to. Since it was the pandemic, we never met the technical side of somebody who could take it and process it into a book form. So I don't even know what it's called.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Format.

[Tracy Thompson]

Format it. But.

[Austin Hankwitz]

And we chose the. We chose the. The different. Kind of like a fairy tale. It shakes.

[Tracy Thompson]

Yeah. You can use the font and the paper. And the artist. We met him on a pensacon. You guys go to all the. We seen you at cons and stuff. And so he's from Japan, and we went to the Blue Angels since we were down there. The Air Force Blue Angels.

[Austin Hankwitz]

The museum.

[Tracy Thompson]

Museum. And he couldn't speak English, but he toured with us.

[Austin Hankwitz]

He was doing reconnaissance for his work of a lot of Godzilla. And we met.

[Kevin Thompson]

Cool.

[Tracy Thompson]

So he. We came back and he drew this for us. And we asked if we could put it in our book as the book cover. And he was so honored. And now we're best friends, and it's just really sweet. So it was a fun process. It was. It took us four years.

[Danielle Fishel]

Wow.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Because the legalities. Because you didn't. You didn't want to say anything negative in the. In the.

[Tracy Thompson]

Lucas. Yeah, we had to go to Lucas Legal.

[Austin Hankwitz]

He wanted to make sure.

[Tracy Thompson]

Yeah. And at that time, Disney was also buying Lucas all this stuff. So we were right. Kind of caught in the middle of all that.

[Austin Hankwitz]

It's Lucas, but it's Disney, but it's Lucas, but it's Disney for all the licensing.

[Kevin Thompson]

Yeah. Well, Disney is famously very open with their ip. They love when people just take it and they write things about it and they love the kind of their thing.

[Tracy Thompson]

Yeah, of course.

[Ryder Strong]

So, Kevin, how long did you work on Return of the Jedi were you there for?

[Austin Hankwitz]

I was there six weeks. One week in London at El Street Studios and five weeks on location up in north of Crescent City.

[Ryder Strong]

Yeah.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Yeah. You're most. Smith River. Do you know that one? Do you have Fisherman?

[Ryder Strong]

Yeah.

[Austin Hankwitz]

River is the town that we actually shot the film in. Great.

[Kevin Thompson]

Oh, that's so cool. And, you know, it was originally a. A Wookiee planet. It was originally supposed to be all Wookies. And then they wanted to make it more child friendly for the toys, so they changed it to the Ewok.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Well, they were more primitive. And if Chewy is driving a spaceship.

[Ryder Strong]

Right.

[Austin Hankwitz]

You can't really say they're primitive.

[Kevin Thompson]

Right.

[Austin Hankwitz]

So then he changed the word around. But then there's also an Indian tribe out there called the Miwok tribe, which. So we kind of.

[Tracy Thompson]

He based it.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Based it off of that. Ewoks. Wookiee being backwards for Ewok. Wookiee. Same thing. And so there's a couple of different ways of doing that. Tracy and I were invited to the opening of the. The Sequoia Zoo in Eureka, which has a Ewok village path to walk above the animals there.

[Tracy Thompson]

Have you guys seen that? It's really cool.

[Kevin Thompson]

Oh, doing that. Oh, that's awesome.

[Tracy Thompson]

It was fun.

[Ryder Strong]

Kevin, it sounds like they threw you into a lot of stunts. Were you technically a stunt actor or.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I was the main stunt actor for all the Ewoks. That's why I played 20 different Ewoks.

[Tracy Thompson]

But you were a gymnast. That's how you.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Yeah, I was a gymnast. I was a wrestler. I was a mime. And so J.R. randall, who was the stunt coordinator, also did all the Indiana Jones pictures, went, wait a minute. You're a mime and a gymnast?

[Danielle Fishel]

Yeah.

[Austin Hankwitz]

You're exactly what we need, you know.

[Ryder Strong]

Get in the suit.

[Austin Hankwitz]

I made a thing of, like, a monkey and a bear.

[Tracy Thompson]

For your audition?

[Austin Hankwitz]

For my audition. And I ran around and I did many different gymnastic moves, and I actually ran full speed into a wall, fell backwards, went into a handstand, and fell on my tummy and said, yeah, I can do stunts. Oh, man.

[Tracy Thompson]

You didn't even know you were.

[Austin Hankwitz]

No, we were auditioning for Blue Harvest.

[Kevin Thompson]

Yeah, that's right. You never knew.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Yeah, I didn't know until I got to London. Yeah, actually. And I went, wait a minute. That's Mark Hamill. That's Carrie Fisher. That's R2D2.

[Danielle Fishel]

That's the first time you knew. All that time you'd been told it was something called Blueheart.

[Austin Hankwitz]

It's not really. It's kind of. But it's not Revenge of the Jedi. It's. And it's like, this is Revenge of the Jedi.

[Kevin Thompson]

That's right.

[Danielle Fishel]

It was Revenge.

[Kevin Thompson]

It wasn't even Return of the Jedi at the time. It was Revenge of the Jedi. That's right.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Yeah.

[Kevin Thompson]

Awesome. Oh, so cool.

[Danielle Fishel]

Well, Kevin, we also need to talk about the infamous Garbage Pail Kids movie. You play Ally Gator, and this movie is insane.

[Ryder Strong]

I've never seen it, but I've heard it's bonkers.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Be inebriated when you watch.

[Kevin Thompson]

I was gonna say it's like being on Acid without spending any money.

[Austin Hankwitz]

It's a badly made bad movie. Okay. You guys ever work with Mackenzie Aston at all?

[Ryder Strong]

No.

[Kevin Thompson]

No.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Or what's the girl's name?

[Tracy Thompson]

Jill Farfrae.

[Austin Hankwitz]

No. Katy Barberry.

[Tracy Thompson]

Katie. Yeah.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Katy Barberry.

[Will Friedel]

Why do I know that name?

[Austin Hankwitz]

She does a lot of Telemundo stuff. She's bilingual, and so she does a lot. She's very big in the Telemundo. But Garbage Pail Kid was still going.

[Tracy Thompson]

Strong at all these comic cons and stuff. People are sending us so many items.

[Kevin Thompson]

To sign, I'm sure.

[Danielle Fishel]

Oh, yeah. It's got a huge cult following.

[Tracy Thompson]

It sure does.

[Danielle Fishel]

And Nick Casito's mom is also in that movie with you?

[Tracy Thompson]

Yes, yes, yes. Suo.

[Austin Hankwitz]

SUO Messi Tessie.

[Tracy Thompson]

Yes.

[Austin Hankwitz]

They had, like, rubber cement all over the, like, doing her snot and stuff like that.

[Ryder Strong]

Oh, my God.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Yeah.

[Danielle Fishel]

What are some of your wild stories from that movie on that?

[Austin Hankwitz]

As I. I was not supposed to be one of the lead characters, but as soon as I was, my name was Alligator and I got to do the voice. I was one of the few guys who got to do the voice. I. I kind of said, where was it be a good place for an alligator to have a voice? And it's like, wouldn't it be great to have, like a New Jersey type of accent? Because, you know, I'm one of those guys that got flushed down the toilet because. Yeah, that's where the voice kind of came from. And then I started improvising a lot of my lines. Like an eyeball a day helps keep the doctor away and, you know, tasty looking toes.

[Tracy Thompson]

I love it.

[Kevin Thompson]

Oh, I gotta watch this movie.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Yeah. Be, you know, have whatever your. Your vice, whatever you're into. Yes. Well, that was.

[Kevin Thompson]

I mean, that was my age range. All my friends had Garbage Pail kids. That's all they ever did. And to this day, I still want the entire set just to have them. Just to have them. Oh, man.

[Tracy Thompson]

You actually have a little 45 garbage.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Yeah. First time I was recording as a singer. Yeah. Working with each other. Remember that tune? Yeah.

[Tracy Thompson]

It's almost like a Barney song.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Yeah, exactly. Oh, that's very much. So we have a couple of 45s around here.

[Danielle Fishel]

Yeah. Can you two tell us a little bit about the Hollywood Shorties as well?

[Austin Hankwitz]

The Hollywood Shorties? That. That was Nick Rosito's father. Yeah. Nick Rosito's father was the manager of the Hollywood Shorties, and they were looking for players. And my mom found out about this at 11 years old Billy Barty. Billy Barty started it for little people of America because Billy was a very good athlete. When he was younger he was actually a two time letterman at what is now Cal State la. At the time they called it LA State, but now it's Cal State la. And he was on the true. He went to school during the war because he was too young to and too short to fight in the war. But they needed more. They weren't, they didn't have as many players.

[Tracy Thompson]

It was more for awareness.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Right, but he wanted to join the football team.

[Danielle Fishel]

Right. For our listeners who may not even know anything about the Hollywood Shorties, why don't you tell, why don't you tell our listeners what, what, what they are.

[Austin Hankwitz]

The Billy Barty, I mean the Hollywood Shorties were the smallest professional basketball and baseball teams in the world. Our players ranged in size from 3 foot 6 to 4 foot 10. And we had baseball and basketball. We actually played soccer against the Laser Girls. We played whatever sport you basically threw at us. But our biggest was the basketball and baseball teams.

[Tracy Thompson]

And it was for awareness and charity.

[Austin Hankwitz]

It was awareness and charity. We raised a lot of funds for different charities all through the Southern California area and the little people of America. We raised funds for adoption so that kids, parents could afford adoption of little people who were put up for adoption and then also surgeries, some people couldn't afford surgery. So we would raise money to go towards that fund for that certain person's surgery. And just different things of, you know, the pta, the these different sports teams of little leagues and things like that.

[Tracy Thompson]

And you guys also met like a lot of average sized parents who have a little person, have never experienced other little people. And so a lot of times there would be new parents coming to these games or and seeing little people do just like everybody else. So it was a beautiful thing. I remember being in the audience and I would meet people that have never seen another little person before, even other.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Little people and say, wow, my child can do that.

[Danielle Fishel]

Exactly.

[Austin Hankwitz]

And so now what? We all kind of got old and now they have what is called the daa, the Dwarf Athletic Association. But the, the, we were the forefront of all that before that time. And then we had little gags in there. Tracy was actually part of our biggest gag. She was the, I would get knocked out and nobody could revive me. So a girl from the audience was brought out to give me like the.

[Kevin Thompson]

Snow White kiss, mouth to mouth resuscitation.

[Austin Hankwitz]

And I, and I go off with her and they come out and then Tracy comes back out and she's like, oh, I was fooling around on my wife, gives me a smack and sends me into the wall. So it was fun.

[Tracy Thompson]

It was a lot of fun. So cute.

[Danielle Fishel]

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[Danielle Fishel]

Both of you have been really at the forefront of little people representation in TV and film for many years and we will be talking mostly about your time on Boy Meets World. So I wondered if you could give us the lay of the land regarding roles and opportunities that you could get in the 80s and 90s.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Well, the 80s and 90s, it wasn't as PC, so you were able to.

[Tracy Thompson]

Do the character part. The character parts available now because of how the world is with political correctness. And I, I understand that, but I guess one of the controversies now compared to what it was back in the 80s, right?

[Austin Hankwitz]

You don't see little people playing leprechauns. You don't see little people playing elves. The question of that was, we didn't say we didn't want to play elves and leprechauns. We said we wanted to play other things.

[Danielle Fishel]

Exactly, right.

[Austin Hankwitz]

I mean, when's the last time you saw a little guy or little woman playing a teacher? Right, Playing a lawyer. Back in, Back in the 80s we had David Rappaport playing a lawyer on LA Law. Yeah, I was a stunt double. And there was. You had had little people playing doctors at times. Mom and dads. When's the last time you saw someone playing A mom and dad, Billy Barty and Patty Maloney were doing that all on the different shows like Love Boat or Fantasy island or all the different shows. You would say, oh, it was kind of like a guess who's coming to dinner and let's meet the parents.

[Kevin Thompson]

Oh, oh, right.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Well, we have. Oh, what do we say? You know, it's the awkwardness of the, of the moment, which was funny at times. And then you would come and tell more about the storyline of why they have an average size, of how that happens, the biological of things, like if it's not passed on of a, of a dwarfism, then they're an average sized child just like we have. And now your friend Nick or our friend Nick. I've known Nick since he was a day old.

[Danielle Fishel]

I know.

[Austin Hankwitz]

So Tracy's parents were average size. My parents were average size. Most little people are born to average sized parents. But back to, back to Hearts, we.

[Tracy Thompson]

Always have to bring Kevin back. She'll go round and round.

[Danielle Fishel]

Very interesting though, everything you're saying.

[Austin Hankwitz]

But it goes back to when's the last time you saw a little person on tv?

[Danielle Fishel]

Right, right.

[Austin Hankwitz]

On a commercial.

[Kevin Thompson]

Yeah, right.

[Ryder Strong]

I was thinking of Mickey.

[Kevin Thompson]

Mickey from Seinfeld, I guess. Was, was, was a pretty great role at the time, but it was rare. I mean, incredibly rare.

[Tracy Thompson]

Danny Woodburn.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Danny Woodburn. How many years ago was that?

[Kevin Thompson]

Yeah, 90s. Mid-90s.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Right. So that was 30 years ago almost.

[Kevin Thompson]

Yeah, right.

[Tracy Thompson]

But even now with new technology, we're being replaced by CGI and all that with the Huntsmen. They're not little people. They have dwarfs in it, but they're all not little people.

[Kevin Thompson]

Or the new Snow White movie coming out. Yeah, the new Snow White movie coming out is.

[Will Friedel]

That was a big controversy.

[Tracy Thompson]

That's very controversial.

[Austin Hankwitz]

It's bad animation.

[Danielle Fishel]

Yeah, right.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Have you looked at it? It's like.

[Kevin Thompson]

No. I mean, yeah, there is, it's very strange all the way around.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Why did they use animated dwarves?

[Danielle Fishel]

Taking jobs away from little people actors. Right, exactly.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Right now I did, I just ran into, we did the Hollywood show and I hadn't seen Rex Smith in years and he had played Prince Charming in Shelley Duvall's Snow White and the Seven Dwarves that I was in Fairy tale Theater. Theater, yeah. And he goes, and that was one of our conversations. It's what the heck? They're spending billions of money animating. And you guys, we did a great job in a week, right? We had a week rehearsal and a week to shoot the show. And he said, and it's great but no, they have to kind of ruin it.

[Kevin Thompson]

Yeah.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Of doing it that way, you know, which is. The controversy is. I'm glad people are mad about it, and I'm mad about it, but I'm. I had a job taken away from me, but, you know, I'm glad you're mad about it. I'm glad, you know, Tracy's going, where's my new shoes? But they're not offering something. Even today, Peter Dinklage has gotten many, many accolades. But even in that, you don't see little people in regular roles. Madison Avenue has forgotten us completely. It's just. It's. I don't mean to be bitter, but it's just. It's just what it is.

[Danielle Fishel]

Yeah. It's erasure.

[Kevin Thompson]

Yeah.

[Danielle Fishel]

Well, do you remember getting your job on Boy Meets World? Switching gears to Boy Meets World. Do you remember getting the job?

[Austin Hankwitz]

We didn't know what we were going to talk about. We were talking about Boy Meets World.

[Tracy Thompson]

Yeah, I do. Well, we worked with John Tracy on Growing Pains, so we had known him for several years.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Who did the pilot?

[Tracy Thompson]

Who did the pilot for you guys? So I remember being. He would bring us with us to a lot of different shows. We were kind of in his pocket, you know, So I love that. And he did all the kids shows. So during that time. So we went from Growing Pains to Boy Meets World. And I Remember we had 15 different.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Pilots with him over the years.

[Tracy Thompson]

Michael Jacobs. And so we kind of. We had this routine with John. It wasn't. It was just.

[Austin Hankwitz]

It was unspoken.

[Tracy Thompson]

Yeah.

[Austin Hankwitz]

He goes, you got. Are they ready for him? Are they ready for camera?

[Tracy Thompson]

He gave us a lot of responsibility compared to most directors, and it was almost like a father figure to us. So it was, you know, we didn't want to get in trouble.

[Austin Hankwitz]

We wanted to make him proud, but we didn't want to get in trouble. Yeah, sure. Because it was the voice of God. Did they get the note thrice?

[Tracy Thompson]

It was always. Yeah, we were kind of the go between with you guys, the kids and the director, because the director didn't have a lot of time once the. Once you guys came on set. And so I remember working with Lily, you know, Lily played Morgan. Lily, I'd say. And she. She was challenging. She was wonderful. But that age is challenging. And so just to stay focused. And I just remember always John would say, tracy, just over the intercom in front of everybody. Tracy, did you give them their notes? And I'm like, yeah. And the. And Lily's like, Like, like, I'm like.

[Kevin Thompson]

Lily or.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Ashley Johnson or Matt Shackley.

[Tracy Thompson]

Yeah, it was. It was pretty funny.

[Danielle Fishel]

But that's so interesting.

[Tracy Thompson]

That's how we started.

[Austin Hankwitz]

And we remember when you got the.

[Tracy Thompson]

Job, you do April. Well, yes, we were in the audience. It was during rehearsal. And April Kelly, do you remember her? She was hiding. She came up to the audience behind Kevin and I, because we always stood up on the audience when you guys were rehearsing so we could see your blocking and everything. And she was whispering behind us and she was saying, watch, watch, Danielle. And we're like, oh, okay. Because I forget the gal that was.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Originally cast, but she was cast a completely different type of role.

[Danielle Fishel]

Yeah.

[Tracy Thompson]

And so I remember her saying to watch you. And we were watching you, and she was really in your corner. She really liked you. And I remember her talking about you as Topanga and then. Because we always stay with the notes and after, you know, afterwards and that. I remember the whole thing when she was talking about it.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Yeah, it was the. The gal who you replaced was doing her role exactly the way that. Yeah, she did it exactly the way that. That Michael wanted her to do it. It just was. He realized in the middle of the show that the clicking wasn't working.

[Kevin Thompson]

Yeah. They just wanted to go a whole nother way with the character and.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Yeah, exactly. Well, I remember when Ryder was not cast in a certain character and they had a guest star of I Won't say, and it just wasn't working. And so. So when he was let go and you came in, everything was working. It was like they were writing for writer but not for the other character. And between you two, it was magic. Yeah. And when that came in, when you came in, everything just. It just flowed. It was like, wow, there it is.

[Ryder Strong]

Yeah.

[Kevin Thompson]

Yeah.

[Austin Hankwitz]

And it's funny the way that goes. It was nothing against the kid, the way who got let go. Yeah. It just really chemistry with you.

[Kevin Thompson]

So then.

[Will Friedel]

Wait, were the two of you then.

[Kevin Thompson]

On the pilot of Boy Meets World with the original cast?

[Tracy Thompson]

So. Yes.

[Kevin Thompson]

So you were. So you were there when it was Matt McCoy was the dad and there was another older brother. And what.

[Will Friedel]

So what was the.

[Kevin Thompson]

How did the pilot shoot of Boy Meets World go? Well, it wasn't even Boy Meets World at the time when we got into the untitled Ben Savage project, and before that it was called 11.

[Tracy Thompson]

Yeah.

[Kevin Thompson]

So what was.

[Will Friedel]

What was the.

[Kevin Thompson]

The shoot of the pilot like?

[Tracy Thompson]

It was still. It was still really funny. Well done. And it was funny. I think Michael Jacobs, you know, how he just is so intense and knows exactly what he wants. And so I think it just wasn't what he, you know, was envisioned.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Just needed a little bit of tweaking.

[Tracy Thompson]

Yeah.

[Austin Hankwitz]

You know, and so there was just the tweaks.

[Tracy Thompson]

Originally, it was all about family. You know, it was the family dynamics. And then it got into, you know, the relationships of you guys as kids and growing up and all the adventures that you guys would experience in the.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Schooling with Bill Daniels being the neighbor of Almost like the Mr. Wilson, Dennis the Menace type of thing.

[Tracy Thompson]

Yeah.

[Kevin Thompson]

But you. So you had done so many family show pilots beforehand. When you saw eleven or the Untitled Ben Savage project, was there a moment of like, this isn't. This isn't gonna work, or, hey, I think there might be something here. I mean, could you tell either way as the show was progressing in front of you?

[Austin Hankwitz]

I have to say, we've worked on some really funny things.

[Tracy Thompson]

Yeah.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Man, I can't wait to watch this one. And nothing.

[Kevin Thompson]

Right.

[Tracy Thompson]

During pilot season, Kevin and I would work, like, five pilots. Now you don't. You know, you don't.

[Kevin Thompson]

Yeah. Now it doesn't exist. Right.

[Tracy Thompson]

And then by the end of it, and then whatever is picked up, we would have to choose. Okay, who do you. Which one did you like? Which one do you think is gonna go?

[Austin Hankwitz]

So sometimes you're looking at time slots.

[Tracy Thompson]

Yeah.

[Austin Hankwitz]

So, wow, it's gonna go. That's a tough time slot.

[Tracy Thompson]

So we would have to pick. We were. Yeah, we were so busy during.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Oh, that's on the west side. We're gonna be driving from Santa Clarita.

[Ryder Strong]

Priority.

[Tracy Thompson]

Exactly.

[Kevin Thompson]

Know those conversations.

[Tracy Thompson]

We knew that this one was good. Savage pilot at the time. Yeah. And we knew that that was.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Jacobs was a good name, and he.

[Tracy Thompson]

Was determined to make it work.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Yeah.

[Ryder Strong]

Right.

[Kevin Thompson]

Well, Michael knows family sitcom, and we've talked about that, as there's a rhythm to comedy and sitcom and family sitcom especially. And. Yeah, he's got the beat in his head. He definitely does.

[Ryder Strong]

Yeah.

[Danielle Fishel]

You guys also then worked with one of our absolute favorites, Lee Norris. Do you have any specific memories about working with Lee?

[Tracy Thompson]

He was so fun. Yeah. Tommy Madden. The late Tommy Madden. I don't know if you guys remember him. Of course, I remember Tommy the most, but. Because we were assigned certain people. But he came over from the Torkelsons. Was he on Torkelson? Yes, and I worked on that one. And, yeah, he just was so sweet and nice, and I really liked it.

[Austin Hankwitz]

He was as smart as his character was.

[Tracy Thompson]

Yeah.

[Danielle Fishel]

Yes.

[Kevin Thompson]

Yeah.

[Danielle Fishel]

Who were you guys assigned to? Who did you stand in for? Tracy? Did you stand in for me.

[Tracy Thompson]

Well, for Lily and I stood in for you. Yeah. So it was you and then any female. But we. We always jumped around. And so even like Kevin was Ben and Will was Matt Kirkwood.

[Kevin Thompson]

Yep.

[Tracy Thompson]

And Ryder, I think you.

[Austin Hankwitz]

I would sometimes do writer.

[Tracy Thompson]

We would just Whoever bounced around. Yeah. So. Yeah. But specifically I was kind of like a Tai tea.

[Kevin Thompson]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Tracy Thompson]

And it was, you know, with. Sometimes it would get physical. Well, not with you guys so much, but like, I would stand in for kids that are like five, six years old and they'd be jumping on the couch. So guess who has to jump on the couch after, like, a little kid.

[Ryder Strong]

And so bring all that kid energy.

[Tracy Thompson]

Yeah, it was very physical because a lot of times you guys wouldn't do the run throughs for the producers. And we would do it right at a time. Yeah. The day would end for you guys or whatever you guys had to do. So we would be doing the run throughs and things like that.

[Danielle Fishel]

Did you guys like being able to work together?

[Tracy Thompson]

It was fun. Yeah, it worked out great. And in fact, like, we were saying boy meets World. I remember just the scheduling and everything because you guys are all kids. The hours weren't as long as a feature film. Sometimes I was on location for 16 hours or whatever it was somewhere and acting in the middle. It was set times, so I knew. I remember telling Kevin, we were up.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Up in the audience, up in the.

[Tracy Thompson]

Audience and we wanted a family. And I remember saying, okay, this is the show we're gonna get pregnant on. And he's like, what? Like, what did you just say to me? And Matt Kirku was there and. And we're like, okay, this is the one. And so sure enough, we got pregnant and. But that was also.

[Austin Hankwitz]

And then Mac got pregnant.

[Tracy Thompson]

Yeah.

[Austin Hankwitz]

I was gonna say.

[Tracy Thompson]

It was fun.

[Austin Hankwitz]

It was a conception show.

[Tracy Thompson]

I guess it was. But it was also a tough show, if you guys remember. 94, was it 90. The earthquake.

[Kevin Thompson]

Yeah.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Fires in October. Glendale. No, Santa Barbara.

[Tracy Thompson]

Yeah, it was tough.

[Austin Hankwitz]

That was.

[Kevin Thompson]

Yeah. I had just moved to Los Angeles and that was my first year, and I was like, what? Where did I just move to? Earthquakes, fires, floods. It was. Yeah, it was like, where are we gonna get me back to Connecticut?

[Will Friedel]

This place is crazy.

[Kevin Thompson]

Yeah. Nuts.

[Tracy Thompson]

I remember meeting your family. I remember your parent. I remember everybody. Family and parents. And they were so happy for all of you guys. It was a new experience for you.

[Danielle Fishel]

Yeah, it was such a. It was such a family set. Like, everybody. We were. Everyone was there all the time. And yeah, it was. It was a. It was a good time. And Kevin, we also heard your voice on season one's It's a Wonderful Life. I think it may be episode number 18. How did that come about?

[Austin Hankwitz]

Well, they had. We always want to get a little something in there because our job doesn't. Shouldn't give the residual. And the residual is always nice off season, you know, when it shows up. Oh, boy. You know, Got a stick of gum. But they had tried out a couple of different voices for that R rated movie that Ben rents, and so they're looking for a bad guy. And I had just gotten off a movie, Space Invaders, where I played a character that has a Jack Nicholson accent. Once I did the. The accent, they were like, that's it. That's exactly it. You know, so.

[Danielle Fishel]

So great.

[Austin Hankwitz]

That's what they wanted as the character because he was kind of like a shining type of. And then you did the one on.

[Tracy Thompson]

Ben Sure Thing, that episode. Yeah. Where Arlene. We did Ben Sure Thing.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Yeah.

[Tracy Thompson]

Or I did.

[Austin Hankwitz]

I don't know. I think that was the. Ben sure Thing was the. The. Was the R rated video.

[Tracy Thompson]

I think so. And Arlene Grayson. Do you guys remember Arlene? Really, really sweet. And so she made sure to. She took care of us.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Yeah, she did.

[Danielle Fishel]

And so everyone we've spoken to, who.

[Ryder Strong]

Everybody'S like, everybody took care of me. Yeah, yeah. Every single person.

[Kevin Thompson]

Arlene found that and found every. She just. Yeah, that was her. I mean, that was Arlene, if you remember. Big pager, big smile, big laugh.

[Tracy Thompson]

Yeah.

[Danielle Fishel]

A lot of legacy she left behind for everybody because everyone says the same thing. I felt really taken care of by her. She took care of me. She looked out for me. She brought me from this show to that show. She plucked me out of obscurity in some cases. Like. Yeah, Arlene was a wonderful woman.

[Tracy Thompson]

She brought me to the Sinbad pilot with and Brandy, all kinds of. Yeah, she brought me to a lot of. She. She would bring me to different things and she was just so sweet.

[Danielle Fishel]

And. So what year did you guys leave Boy Meets World and where did you go next?

[Tracy Thompson]

Well, you guys outgrew us pretty quickly. And that's those things. That's the thing. Yeah, kids shoot up really fast. And. So where did I. Oh, I ended up staying home because I had Wyatt. So. Yeah. So I was a stay at home mother for a year until I started back.

[Austin Hankwitz]

I was on a show called Home. What is that called? It was the Smollett Family. So I knew Journey Smollett. It was a Kind of an offshoot from Family Matters.

[Tracy Thompson]

I forget what.

[Kevin Thompson]

Okay.

[Tracy Thompson]

Yeah. And that was. John Tracy also went to that.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Right. John Tracy. It started becoming the. It was a. What do you want to say? They tried to make it a sitcom, but it was a. It was. So much work was needed on it. They were doing it single camera.

[Tracy Thompson]

Yeah.

[Austin Hankwitz]

We didn't even have time because of all the kids. The kids were left home alone. And the oldest brother did a. Mrs. Doubtfire.

[Tracy Thompson]

Yeah.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Ralph Harris, a comedian at the Comedian at the time. So he did the. He did that. I think it may have gotten the Emmy Award for makeup. I'm not sure. I know he got the creator. John Cannon got the Academy Award.

[Danielle Fishel]

Wow.

[Austin Hankwitz]

For Doubtfire, who did. But that was just. That was the show that we went to, I think after that. And then you looked at it, you went, I gotta go. We worked so hard to have a baby. I'm not gonna do this, so I'm gonna stay home.

[Tracy Thompson]

And then I. I went to, like, HR for Disney Studios for a while as a regular job.

[Danielle Fishel]

Well, we talked a little bit about how difficult there are to be. You know, how it's become. They're making it more and more difficult for little people to find jobs in the entertainment industry. Is stand in work something that's still possible. Is that something. How has that changed in the decades.

[Austin Hankwitz]

I haven't. Let's see, the last couple of things. I've done skeleton crew. I did skeleton crew.

[Kevin Thompson]

Okay.

[Austin Hankwitz]

With Jaleel. I was Neil's. But I was all. Actually all. I stood in for all four of them. All four kids. They were great kids. And that was. You know, that was. Whereas we do a show in a week. They did a show in a month.

[Ryder Strong]

Yeah.

[Kevin Thompson]

Yeah.

[Austin Hankwitz]

So it was. It was seven, eight episodes for seven months.

[Tracy Thompson]

So I'm retired.

[Austin Hankwitz]

You're retired. I'm semi retired. So a lot of it is. Do I look like a child now?

[Ryder Strong]

Right.

[Austin Hankwitz]

I like to think so, but, yes.

[Kevin Thompson]

You look fabulous.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Yes. But, you know, I am a little bit up there now. I'm older than the parents, so it is a little different. I stood in my very first time for Peter Dinklage for a movie with Al Pacino called Lear Rex, which is King Lear.

[Kevin Thompson]

Yeah.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Just recently. And so that was the last thing I really did. It's just Hollywood, basically, the last couple of years since COVID has really shut down. We have a lot of friends who are, like, you know, going into different jobs who've been, you know, three generations of working in a certain either camera or Teamsters or things like that or looking for other jobs because it's just, it's not there.

[Tracy Thompson]

But the good thing about for us not only being in front of the camera, stand in work was great for us to it. It went towards our pension and held and held care. So instead of getting a job outside when we weren't working in front of the camera, the stand in, stand in work was a great.

[Austin Hankwitz]

It was our waiter job.

[Tracy Thompson]

Yeah. But actually we enjoyed it.

[Ryder Strong]

I know, to be on set.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Yeah.

[Tracy Thompson]

And some actors are like, how can you be in front of the camera one week and behind the camera as a stand in the next? And we're like, it's not about that. It's about creating something, having the same goals as everybody being a team player. And it went for. It was our love too. So whether we were in front of the camera or behind the camera, it still is making a beautiful product together. And that's what we loved about it.

[Kevin Thompson]

That's one of the things I think, I mean, we all kind of knew, as Danielle always says, it takes a village to make a great show. We all kind of, you know, we had that in our minds. Oh yeah. It took a lot of people. But the more we'd been doing the podcast and interviewing people and talking to people, we really realized how true a statement that is where it took all of us to do what was on the screen. And by the time you got to see us doing the lines or the actors doing the show, there were already 300 people involved in just getting us to that point. And man, that's one of the things that has really opened my eyes about doing this podcast is how naive we were to all the work everybody put in to make the show what it is. So yeah, it's much different than we thought.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Well, like the pre production is, it makes, it makes the production go well and then you a great post production to finish it all up. But one person, crazy thing is one person throwing a wrench in the thing can just screw up everything. Like you said, you want to be a team player and everybody playing that team.

[Danielle Fishel]

Yeah. Well, you two were an absolutely unforgettable part of Boy Meets World for all of us. And we appreciate you so much just in general, but really also being here with us and sharing your experiences. You guys are, I mean, you're Hollywood legends. And I encourage everybody to go and pick up Traci's book. Tell us the name of it one more time.

[Tracy Thompson]

It's called My Journey to Endor. You can find it on Amazon I'm getting it.

[Ryder Strong]

I'm ordering it today.

[Tracy Thompson]

I'm ordering it today.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Okay.

[Tracy Thompson]

Yep.

[Will Friedel]

That's awesome.

[Tracy Thompson]

You guys make us proud. We are so proud of all of you. You. You know, we see so many child actors come through, and we work all together as a family, and we're just really proud of each one of you.

[Austin Hankwitz]

So you're good kids. Yeah, you're good kids. You're good adults.

[Tracy Thompson]

You made it. You made our job easy.

[Ryder Strong]

So thanks.

[Tracy Thompson]

Thank you.

[Danielle Fishel]

Thank you.

[Will Friedel]

Thank you so, so much.

[Danielle Fishel]

It's great to see your faces. I hope. I hope I can see your face in person sometime soon, too. We should do it. We should do a Nick Rosito group. Group around where we get. And then all bring Will and Ryder, and that'd be really great. We'd love to see you.

[Tracy Thompson]

We'd love to have you.

[Will Friedel]

And since we've technically known him since.

[Kevin Thompson]

He was conceived, I'd like to meet Wyatt as well.

[Danielle Fishel]

We had a hand in that.

[Kevin Thompson]

You're welcome.

[Danielle Fishel]

Thank you so much for joining us. Great to see you both. Take care.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Bye. Bye.

[Tracy Thompson]

Bye.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Man.

[Danielle Fishel]

Oh, my gosh. So great to connect with them.

[Kevin Thompson]

His voice, especially when we heard him before he even saw him, I just. It brought me right back to the set. I was just some.

[Ryder Strong]

It's so funny, I was thinking, because when you were talking about, like, it being a team effort, I was like, right. We actually barely got to work with them in scene. We just hung out. I just remember hanging out and talking to them, you know, at craft service. But it's so funny. You're like, oh, right. Whenever they were working, we were in school.

[Kevin Thompson]

So, like, when they were. I got to work with them more than you guys did. Because a lot of times, because you're in school and I could sit there. Yeah, right.

[Jenny Garth]

Yeah.

[Kevin Thompson]

So it'd be Ben or B. Rider, whoever. Whoever they were, they were standing in for. So I got a chance to work with them a lot more, and it was just. Yeah, it was a ton of fun. It really was. I want. It's so strange to see because they're talking about Peter Dinklage, who is arguably next to Billy Barty with. He was talking about Billy Barty. Anybody out there who doesn't know who Billy Barty is, go and Google him, because he's. He's arguably the most famous little person actor ever. He was in everything. But Peter Dinklage comes along and is also in everything and is winning Emmys for Game of Thrones. And it seems like, as, again, arguably the most recognizable and famous little person is becoming more and more famous.

[Will Friedel]

There's less work for little people, which is such a strange dynamic.

[Kevin Thompson]

You know, it was.

[Ryder Strong]

I mean.

[Kevin Thompson]

Cause they are. They're casting Peter Dinklage as just a.

[Will Friedel]

Person, as they should.

[Kevin Thompson]

And you wonder why that isn't more and more.

[Danielle Fishel]

Exactly.

[Will Friedel]

Why is it just him?

[Kevin Thompson]

Because there's a whole group of little.

[Will Friedel]

People out there that are phenomenal. And yeah, it's very strange.

[Danielle Fishel]

Well, thank you all for joining us for this episode of Pod Meets World. As always, you can follow us on Instagram Pod meets World show. You can send us your emails. Pod meets worldshowmail.com and we've got merch.

[Kevin Thompson]

I don't know where to go with this because they're. Part of me wants to do Star wars merch. I don't want to. I want to do nub nub merch.

[Will Friedel]

Nub dub merch.

[Kevin Thompson]

I.

[Will Friedel]

Whatever.

[Kevin Thompson]

I mean, there's so many ways I want to go garbage pail merch. I'm just going to go with straight up merch because that's what Billy Barty.

[Will Friedel]

But Billy Barty, he sounds like this. He's very famous for sounding just like this.

[Kevin Thompson]

I'm Billy Barty.

[Will Friedel]

So I'm gonna do merch. There you go.

[Danielle Fishel]

I love it. Podbeatsworldshow.com will send us out.

[Kevin Thompson]

We love you all. Pod dismissed.

[Will Friedel]

Pod Meats World is an iHeart podcast produced and hosted by Danielle Fischl, Will Friedel and Ryder Strong, executive producers Jensen Carp and Amy Sugarman, executive in charge of production, Danielle Romo, producer and editor Tara Sudbury, producer Matty Moore, engineer and Boy Meets World superfan Easton Allen. Our theme song is by Kyle Morton of Typhoon and you can follow us on Instagram odmeatsworld show or email us at podmeatsworldshowmail.com the New Year's here.

[Danielle Fishel]

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[Ryder Strong]

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