← Where Everybody Knows Your Name with Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson (sometimes)
Where Everybody Knows Your Name with Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson (sometimes)
Denis Leary
01:21:45
Actor and comedian Denis Leary talks to Ted Danson about growing up working class in Worcester, Massachusetts, his mom’s spaghetti, how a Catholic nun inspired his career in comedy, and memories of working with Peter Falk and Clint Eastwood. He also shares about his relationship with the firefighting community and how it inspired his acclaimed show “Rescue Me.” Denis currently stars in season two of “Going Dutch," airing now on FOX. Like watching your podcasts? Visit http://youtube.com/teamcoco to see full episodes.
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- [00:00]
Ted Danson
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- [01:02]
Dennis Leary
Limited time price, participation in selection may vary. Tax and gratuity excluded. Now it's turned into my podcast. Please, ladies and gentlemen, it's Dennis Larry with my guest, Ted Danson.
- [01:21]
Ted Danson
Welcome back to where everybody knows your Denis Leary amazes me in many ways as a stand up comedian, actor and writer. You know him from films like the Sandlot, Demolition Man, Bug's Life, and Ice Age. He also starred in and co created the show Rescue Me, which earned him Emmy nominations for his writing and acting. These days he's starring in and executive producing the Fox sitcom Going Dutch, which is in season two. Now Dennis has this easy way about him that made this such a pleasure. I could have kept talking for another hour. I can't wait for you to meet him. Dennis Leary just turned 78.
- [02:05]
Dennis Leary
Damn it.
- [02:06]
Ted Danson
I know. Wow. It is a bit of a wow.
- [02:10]
Dennis Leary
It is. No, it's crazy because I never think like yesterday with Conan because I've known him for so long and he took off right after I got famous. He got his talk show in New York. Yeah. Always forget like you, you just forget, right? So when you're hanging out with people a lot. We were at, we did a, a charity concert together earlier in the fall. And so. And I said, how old are you again? We were in the middle of the podcast and he was like, 64. And I'm like, fuck, I can't. Or 62, whatever it was. And I was like, whenever when he says that. Cause I still think I'm 40, right? And I. When I'm talking to him, I think he's like 30 something. You know what I mean?
- [02:47]
Ted Danson
Yeah, I do. I go around being kind of noble about pretending to be my age, and I'm kind of going along with it. And then I look at myself on TV or I write a date somewhere when they ask me my age, and I write it down, then it's like, fuck.
- [03:04]
Dennis Leary
Well, listen, dude, you mentioned the candidate. Like, one of my first. Are we recording?
- [03:09]
Ted Danson
We are.
- [03:09]
Dennis Leary
Okay, good. One of my first memories. My first, like, really conscious memories are 1963. I don't know why, but if you think about it, my parents are Irish immigrants, right?
- [03:22]
Ted Danson
Well, yeah.
- [03:23]
Dennis Leary
And we lived in Massachusetts. Right. And an Irish guy is president. Right. But the big thing in my family was that summer. Cause they could never afford to go back. They came over in 1949, 1950, by boat, and they didn't have the money to fly back to visit their family. But jet travel took over in the early 60s, and finally that summer of 63, they could afford to go back, but they could only afford to take one kid. So my older brother got to go, and me and my sisters had to stay back. So I remember that summer being at Logan Airport in Boston and watching them get on this plane. I just. Like. They went to Ireland, and JFK was in Ireland that summer, so it was like everybody was in Ireland except me and my sisters. We were stuck in these. I got stuck in my Aunt Betty's apartment, and she went to Mass every day. So I had to go to Mass every day for a month that summer. And she made me read the Bible. It was. It was horrible. It was horrible. And my sisters were at the. One of my cousin's houses a couple blocks away, where it was. All the kids hanging out, having a blast every day. It sucked.
- [04:27]
Ted Danson
Did you. When did you get to Ireland?
- [04:29]
Dennis Leary
I didn't get to Ireland until I was a teenager. That's when we could start to afford to actually fly everybody over in the summertime. But then I. I made sure when my kids were. When my kids were growing up, when they were young that we went over every summer. We had a. A cottage that we would rent in Dingle. My whole family's. My parents from Killarney, so that whole ring of Kerry is where my cousins are. So my kids went over and grew up with their cousins every summer.
- [04:56]
Ted Danson
So they're still in touch as children.
- [04:59]
Dennis Leary
As a matter of fact, we shoot going Dutch in Ireland. So all my cousins come to do Set. Yeah, because it matches the Netherlands. The base is based on a real army base that was in the Netherlands that got shut down. So visually and weather wise, it matches the Netherlands.
- [05:18]
Ted Danson
So I don't envision that show being shot in Greenland in about three or four years.
- [05:25]
Dennis Leary
Well, once we buy it, yes. Oh, my God. Oh, my God.
- [05:31]
Ted Danson
Lord, Lord.
- [05:32]
Dennis Leary
Ireland's the next place he's gonna buy. He's gonna buy Ireland or Scotland.
- [05:37]
Ted Danson
See, I'm Scottish by grandfather, and so it's the same Celtic. It's different. I don't think we're as.
- [05:45]
Dennis Leary
Are you purely Scottish?
- [05:47]
Ted Danson
No. English. Scottish. Both grandfathers, one was English, the other one was Scottish, but the Scottish grandfather was born in London, which pisses him off a little bit that. That was true. And then got stuck over in America during World War II in the British Consulate, which pissed him off a little bit more. So that's ferociously Scottish.
- [06:09]
Dennis Leary
Yes.
- [06:10]
Ted Danson
Yeah.
- [06:11]
Dennis Leary
Well, my cousins, even now, my age and below, you know, ferociously Irish.
- [06:15]
Ted Danson
Yeah. Isn't it the same Celtic?
- [06:19]
Dennis Leary
It is the same Celtic. And it's also both. Both people enslaved by the British. So.
- [06:25]
Ted Danson
Yeah.
- [06:26]
Dennis Leary
My cousin, one of my cousins my age is still so rabidly, because he's. So he lives there, he farms there. He took over the. The One of the family farms, and he's like. I brought a British friend once over to visit with me, and he was like, this is Dennis's British friend. One of the good ones. Like, they still. It's just. It's in the blood.
- [06:48]
Ted Danson
The same thing.
- [06:48]
Dennis Leary
Yeah, same thing. Scottish John Connery. He wanted to. He was like one of the supporters of, like, let's just secede, you know. So anyways, I don't know why we're talking about that.
- [07:00]
Ted Danson
Very bloody. The land you can feel is soaked in blood.
- [07:04]
Dennis Leary
Yes.
- [07:05]
Ted Danson
You know?
- [07:05]
Dennis Leary
Yeah, yeah. And, well, you know, Dublin is. One of the beautiful things about Dublin is if you're walking through, like, St. Stephen's green or where, you know, there's statues of. Commemorating the day of the uprising, like, of nurses who, you know, patched soldiers up as they were being shot, you know, as they took over the government.
- [07:26]
Ted Danson
So the neighborhood. You grew up as a little boy, like five, six, seven year old. Is it a Irish neighborhood in Worcester?
- [07:34]
Dennis Leary
No, it was. It was my. We went. I grew up in a place called Maine south in. In downtown Worcester. So it was all three deckers. And you know what three deckers are? They're three. They're wooden apartment buildings, like wooden brown.
- [07:50]
Ted Danson
Houses kind of thing.
- [07:51]
Dennis Leary
Yeah. Made out of Wood.
- [07:52]
Ted Danson
Yeah.
- [07:53]
Dennis Leary
Yeah. We lived in a two and a half decker. Actually, we couldn't afford the third floor. It was an attic that me and my brother lived in. But anyways, it was a lot of immigrants, and we all went to the same school for 12 years. You could walk to the school and the church was basically attached to the school. And there's a hockey rink and a football field and a baseball field and everything. But it's all Irish, predominantly Irish and Italian and then some French, some Armenians, one Russian couple during the 60s. It's crazy. And. And Puerto Rican and some black families as well. So we all went to the same school, but. And again, my mother died past this year. She lived to be 98.
- [08:37]
Ted Danson
98.
- [08:38]
Dennis Leary
Amazing woman. But the Irish, you know, we grew up with all this great food. Like you're in three deckers, you go out on the back porch, you go out on the front stoop, you can smell great food from coming from everywhere. I tell you, all the different.
- [08:52]
Ted Danson
Yes.
- [08:52]
Dennis Leary
All the different kinds of food, right, that all taste. It actually had a taste, as opposed to the boiled, tasteless stuff that my mother was making. So. Oh, my God, it was crazy, because you'd want to get invited into the Corelli's because, you know, they would have. They would have homemade pizza. Oh, my God, the pasta. I told this story a couple of times. This is so true. My brother, who ended up marrying an Italian girl, um, my brother and I were out, we're playing street hockey or football or something in the street. Mrs. Corelli came out, as she often would, with pasta for us and her kids to eat, you know, and so my brother and I, we had it for lunch. When my went into the house, we're having this, whatever it was, boiled, you know, boiled something. Boiled something. And my brother says to my mother, because, you know, in those days, like, especially. Cause, you know, we were working class kids. Like, you ate at what when they served it, you had to be there, and you ate what they had. That was it. You know what I mean? Like, they're not making extras. They don't make different meals for different kids. You all eat the same thing and quickly so that somebody else doesn't steal the food off your plate. Anyways, my brother goes, you know, Mrs. Corelli makes, you know, great, you know, spaghetti and stuff and pizza and stuff, and it all tastes really good. And this. We can't even taste this. And I thought she was gonna kill him. And she turned around and instead of killing him, she said, I can make you think I can't make spaghetti. And even as a kid, when she said it, I was like, this is such a bad idea. Why did you bring this up, right? So the next day we're outside, and he said, hey. My brother says to me, hey. Ma said she's going to make spaghetti tonight. I'm like, dude, what kind of spaghetti do you think Ma is going to make? So we get called in for dinner that night. I swear to God, Ted, I can still remember this. It's so ingrained in my. My frontal lobe. She's got the spaghetti in the colander in the sink, but she has boiled it to the point where it's tiny little colander holes. But the pasta is coming through, like, melting through, right? She dumps it back into the pot. My brother and I don't know anything about cooking, right? She puts it back in the pot. We're looking at each other like. She shakes it around in the pot.
- [11:03]
Ted Danson
She.
- [11:04]
Dennis Leary
She opens a can, a jar of ragu, and pours it in cold, mixes it up. She puts it. And we're like, this can't be it, right? We sit down and my dad sits down and takes a bottle of ketchup, just like De Niro in Goodfellas and puts it over the. As I'm describing this to you. So we all did the ketchup. Cause that's basically all you could taste was the ketchup and the ragu.
- [11:35]
Ted Danson
Did you tell this story when your mom was alive?
- [11:38]
Dennis Leary
I not. You could not. She had a great sense of humor, but she had no sense of humor about that from the kids point of view until we were older. And then we'd go, like, mom, remember when you tried to cook Italian food? And she was like, listen, I did my best. And you're. You know. Which she did. But my brother's wife is his high school sweetheart, so she was Italian. And so we started to get. Right after high school, we started to get great. Cause her family would come over, or we'd go over there, and once you hit that food, like my mother once complained, because after they would come back to our place after a wedding, whatever. My dad was a mechanic, but he also was a good musician. And he played in some Irish bands. He played accordion stuff. They'd come back and my dad would play accordion. One of my sisters was a fiddle player. So we would have a lot of music in the house, but everybody would bring Italian food. And then my aunts and my mom would have this. The worst Irish stuff you can imagine. And then they complain, like, you know, there was 40 people here, and everybody. The Italian food just disappeared. And nobody ate art. And it was like, ma, you don't even need to put it out anymore. Like, there's Italian food. That's what they're gonna eat, you know?
- [12:46]
Ted Danson
Yeah. And that would hurt, though.
- [12:48]
Dennis Leary
Oh, my God.
- [12:49]
Ted Danson
Oh, my God. That would hurt.
- [12:50]
Dennis Leary
But she had a great sense of humor, my mom.
- [12:52]
Ted Danson
We lived in Northern Arizona country, out in the country, and there were no vegetables to be had. You had great beef and great lamb, and that was it. So it was all bird's eye. This bird's eye.
- [13:06]
Dennis Leary
Yeah.
- [13:07]
Ted Danson
Yeah. Ruined lima beans for me forever. I only thought lima beans with these little pasty, gray, horrible tasting things. It's tough. It's tough. Back then, food was not available. Well.
- [13:22]
Dennis Leary
Well, I don't know about that.
- [13:24]
Ted Danson
That's not true.
- [13:25]
Dennis Leary
I think it was all about the approach. Listen, you can't fault, you know, the root of that thing, of the Irish food being bought, that it comes from the famine, you know, from the potato famine, which is afterwards, eventually. Because I asked my dad about it as I got older, and he said it comes historically from the idea that they then wanted to boil everything. So there was no chance you could get. If there was something wrong with it, the disease and the germs would be boiled out of it. So. But it's crazy, man. It's like, there's great food in Dublin now. There's great food in Killarney, where. Where my cousins live. All kinds of food. But when I went back, whenever I go back there with my ma, you know, she. If we went to a Spanish restaurant in Killarney or wherever it was, she would have to get fish and chips from across the street delivered into the restaurant because she won't eat them. You know, it's like.
- [14:17]
Ted Danson
So tough neighborhood or not tough?
- [14:19]
Dennis Leary
Yes, very tough. My brother was a very tough guy.
- [14:21]
Ted Danson
You fought your way around the neighborhood.
- [14:23]
Dennis Leary
I fought my brother. Cause we shared a room till I was 18.
- [14:28]
Ted Danson
Fought fist fight, fought.
- [14:29]
Dennis Leary
My brother's a big guy. My brother was a football player. Big, big guy, big round guy and a great fighter. And I'm just gonna make the number up. I fought him 2,000 times. I lost 2,000 times. But I still won. Because my brother, although he's funny, he's not as quick as me. So. And I. I was always fast. So I. Even after, at the end of the fight where he beat me up for making fun of something that he was doing or him.
- [14:54]
Ted Danson
Yes.
- [14:55]
Dennis Leary
I would then make another funny remark about his weight or whatever, and Then take off. And he couldn't catch me. But I had to come home to the room. That's where we slept anyways, so. And we're really close now, but. And nobody else was allowed to touch me. Which was great because he was such a noted street fighter.
- [15:11]
Ted Danson
Yeah.
- [15:12]
Dennis Leary
In the neighborhood. That nobody touched you. Touched me. Because they knew that they would have to deal with him.
- [15:18]
Ted Danson
Yeah.
- [15:18]
Dennis Leary
So he was like, I'm the only one who gets to beat him up. Which is like a big brother thing. But that led to trouble when I played hockey. And I still play hockey, but growing up I played hockey and I was great at causing trouble, especially like chirping on the ice. Cause you know I'm funny, but I never had to be in a fight because I always had my brother and one of my brothers in law who married my sister. Right behind me is my best friend from childhood. He was a great hockey player and he was a tough guy and crazy like a bull. And I would just. I could say anything to anybody in the ice and even like face wash a guy. And as soon as they started throwing punches, I just went like this. And somebody was always there to step in, my brother or somebody. And I remember the one day I thought they were on the ice with me. Cause we were on the ice as a line, right. And then there was a whistle and there was some scrum in the corner and some giant guy. I said something and I face washed him and he started beating the crap out of me. He grabbed me and I was like what? And I look my line mates. There was a line change so there was nobody except me and the goalie at the other end. And some guys are coming on the ice and I got the beat out of me.
- [16:36]
Ted Danson
So anyways, I had the exact opposite. I was 6 foot and 120 pounds at 12 years old.
- [16:45]
Dennis Leary
That's me too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think I was £90.
- [16:50]
Ted Danson
People. I went away to a prep school in Connecticut. Where Kent. Kent School for Boys.
- [16:55]
Dennis Leary
I know Kent School.
- [16:56]
Ted Danson
You played hockey probably or something.
- [16:58]
Dennis Leary
Well, no, we didn't play against Kent because that was way. That's fancy for us.
- [17:02]
Ted Danson
Fancy. But you would have kicked their ass.
- [17:04]
Dennis Leary
But I know where Kent is because I raised my kids when at a certain part point in their lives. In Connecticut. Yeah, yeah, in that area. Yeah.
- [17:12]
Ted Danson
I was so skinny and all of that stuff that. And it was a very handpicking kind of, you know, if you.
- [17:19]
Dennis Leary
Did you play sports?
- [17:20]
Ted Danson
Basketball. My passion. I'm only an actor because when I went to Stanford I Didn't make, you know, such a joke. I didn't even bother to try.
- [17:29]
Dennis Leary
Do you still play 45?
- [17:32]
Ted Danson
I stopped my knees. Or this or that.
- [17:34]
Dennis Leary
Rough. That sport's rough on the knees.
- [17:36]
Ted Danson
But you. You still playing hockey?
- [17:38]
Dennis Leary
Still playing hockey.
- [17:39]
Ted Danson
Jesus. But how do you do that? That's contact sport.
- [17:42]
Dennis Leary
I'm an idiot. I'm a complete idiot.
- [17:45]
Ted Danson
Michael J. Fox used to play.
- [17:47]
Dennis Leary
Yes. Good friend of mine. Yeah, yeah, Cam. We both Cam Neely. Yeah. That's how I met Woody.
- [17:53]
Ted Danson
Yeah.
- [17:54]
Dennis Leary
Yeah, I met Woody for those guys.
- [17:55]
Ted Danson
Yeah.
- [17:57]
Dennis Leary
Yeah. Michael was a great little hockey player. Yeah, I still play. My kids played. I used to have an outdoor rink at my house in Connecticut. I don't have it now, but I moved closer to the city so that the kids would come and visit us on the weekends. Cause they have their own lives now. And a friend of mine named Rob Burnett, who was the head writer and a producer on Letterman for years, he had an outdoor rink as well. But now I move not because I wanted to be close. My wife thought that I wanted to be close to his rink. His rink is nine minutes from my house. So I get the skate outdoors now in the winter without having to do any of the making of the ice or anything. But there's still a ton of actors who skate, you know.
- [18:41]
Ted Danson
But is there. Are there, like, gentlemen agreements at this age?
- [18:45]
Dennis Leary
No, it's worse that it's especially because most of us now, I play. One team I play on is that there's a. The first line is all the young people, which is basically our sons and. And, you know, daughters and. And then the second line is like, the older guys. Right. And so the thing about hockey is some people know this if they're hockey fans, people who are close friends. Even in the women's game, you're more likely to get into a fight with your brother or your cousin or your best friend on the ice than you are with, like, some random player. It's just. I don't know what it is. So we always start.
- [19:26]
Ted Danson
How could you do that to me?
- [19:28]
Dennis Leary
Exactly. Exactly. Right. So. And then, you know, it's. It's a contact sport. So even when you say, like, okay, you can't run a guy. It's light checking, you know, not major contact. It turns into that because it's a game where you're going on. You're on skate, you bump into each other, you get angry. Some guy beats you because he's faster than you. You start chopping on him. You have a stick, there's wet. So it's just crazy now. Like, the fights that break out are just like, guys, you know, we're 60 something.
- [19:58]
Ted Danson
You have to go to work in front of a camera tomorrow.
- [20:00]
Dennis Leary
I have to work in front of a camera that you have to go to the office, you know, come on, what are you doing? You know, and the other thing is we're all so old, it takes us forever to get over where the fight is to break it up. You know what I mean? It's so, we're all so slow now. It's crazy.
- [20:14]
Ted Danson
Did you break when you were bones, things?
- [20:18]
Dennis Leary
Yep. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [20:19]
Ted Danson
Playing sports?
- [20:20]
Dennis Leary
Playing. I, I, I literally, I played baseball and hockey, predominantly. Little bit of football, but everything that's wrong with me is from hockey, so. But I love it. I love it, I love it. I still love it. It's one of those things like basketball. Like, you have to, you have to forget all your troubles and every, your phone bill, whatever you're thinking about, because if you don't, you'll get killed because the ball people are coming at you. There's a ball flying around or a puck flying around. I love it.
- [20:51]
Ted Danson
And so fast. That's a faster. It's a hard game for me to even watch on tv. I miss.
- [20:57]
Dennis Leary
See, I think the two greatest live sports are actually basketball and hockey because you're so close to the action. Especially in hockey, you can be right in the glass. But in basketball and the games are so fast, they're best live sports.
- [21:11]
Ted Danson
How big are professional hockey players now?
- [21:14]
Dennis Leary
Well, they're getting bigger. Like my son. My son's huge. My son was a great hockey player. And when he was in school, like the generation of kids, same thing with my daughter. Like everybody, generationally, they get bigger. My son is six, seven. Yeah. And big. So like Cam Neely's son, Jack. My son's Jack. He's got a son named Jack. His son, Cam's son is like six. Six and. Yeah, yeah. And on skates, you still can't hit what you can't catch, which means, like in football there's always a small guy who's always going to be able to get around you. But players are just getting bigger and bigger and every. People are getting bigger, you know, it's crazy.
- [21:55]
Ted Danson
So you're getting the shit beat out of you by your brother playing hockey. Where did you go? Oh, I think I want to be funny. I think I want to do comedy. I think I want to act.
- [22:05]
Dennis Leary
Well, I was always funny, right? My parents were funny. The household was funny. I was not A great student. That I liked the things I liked, which was literally. And that I was good at English and history. That's it. Sorry. Right. So. And also I was good at. With a couple other guys I grew up with because we went to the same school. So all the same kids I like. There was three funny guys. I was one of them in my class. We would just like. That was the reason I went to school every day was girls and making girls and other people laugh. It was all nuns and priests. So it was all Catholic repression. It was easy to make people laugh because people. You're not supposed to laugh. You know what I mean? So this nun, Sister Rosemary Sullivan, there was a math nun whose name I can't remember. She was ancient. She couldn't remember a lot except math. But at the beginning of her class, if you raised your hand and said, sister, I gotta go to the boys room, she would let you go and then she would forget that you left. So if you did it early, you could get out and not have to come back. And so we would do that, a couple of us, and then go smoke. So this one day I went. I started smoking when I was 12, so I did that and I went to smoke. And I was just walking around the hallways. And this nun, Sister Rosemarie Sullivan, said, hey, Larry, you know, what are you doing? And I was like, nothing. She's like, I know what you're doing. Tell you what. I need you to be in a musical. I need boys. I don't have enough boys. I got a ton of girls. No boys. I need boys to lift the girls in a dance number. So you're in it or else I'm going to tell what you're doing. And I was like, so. And then you got an hour out of class because she said, you miss an hour of school. So at 2 o', clock, come I'll tell the headmaster. So that's why I did it. And I walked into this room and it was literally all the hottest girls from all four classes were in the room. And she was like, grab her under the bosom and by the rump and lift her up. And I was like, grab Mary St. Thomas by the. You want me to like. And I lifted her. I was like touching her boobs and I'm touching her ass. And I'm like, this is unbelievable. Like, what is this? So then she asked me to sing. I could sing, you know, with the piano player. Because my. From my dad, you know, musically talented. She's like, you're in the show. I Can't even remember. I think it was Bye Bye Birdie. It might have been Mame or something. But anyway, it wasn't Bye Bye Birdie because I got a lead in that later. But anyways, so I went back the next day. First I told my brother that night. I'm like, yeah, Bo. He's like, what do you mean? I go, it's all the hottest girls. And she just wants, like. She told me to grab Mary's thing. So he's like that. What? What? So I got this kid, Tommy Creamer, and I told him he was in my class, so he joined up and he was like, this is crazy. Like, it's just like every time every girl is hot. And the nun's like, grab her now. Kiss her. And like, this is unbelievable. And so, And I still remember my, When I made my entrance, I got a huge laugh, whatever the play was. And it was because my, my zipper was down. I didn't realize it. And I, I, I was, I was like, what? Why is this so funny? I looked and I, when I zipped up, I got another. And I saw from that moment on, you entered. I entered with my zipper down. And I was like, okay, this. And the girl thing was like, this might be my thing, you know? And then I just did every play, every year in high school. I did the musical. And that nun was taking drama classes and music classes at Emerson. She herself, that the school was paying for. And she said, you know, when I was like a junior, she said, when you are thinking about going to college, your SATs aren't going to be great because you're not a great student. But I know a school where you do an audition, a written essay and an audition, and if you're, that's all you need to do. They don't care about your sat, and if they like you, they'll give you a scholarship. And that's how I went to Emerson.
- [26:25]
Ted Danson
She saved my life at age 18. 19.
- [26:28]
Dennis Leary
18.
- [26:28]
Ted Danson
18.
- [26:29]
Dennis Leary
I was still 17 when I did the audition and stuff. Yeah. And then I got a full scholarship, which, that. And I stayed friends with her through most of my career until she died. She was a great nun. Really, like, made a. Saved my life, you know.
- [26:43]
Ted Danson
When did she pass away?
- [26:45]
Dennis Leary
She didn't pass away. She lived a long time. So I think it was. She was old when I knew her, so it was. I got famous, like probably 91, 92. She probably died around 2000, something like that.
- [26:57]
Ted Danson
But she, she knew you.
- [26:58]
Dennis Leary
She would call up or, or have me call her and she was. And she was a, like, she was a fan of everything. And I was like, she's like, no cure for cancer. Which was, you know, it's one man. My first one man show, but became a special. And, you know, it's full of crazy.
- [27:14]
Ted Danson
Yeah.
- [27:15]
Dennis Leary
Subjects and language. And I. So I said to her, she was like, I loved it, I thought it was great, but. And I said, sorry about the language. She's like, oh, come on, you kids were saying that stuff when you were in high school anyway. I know, but she was, she was a great nun. She changed my life, you know, I had.
- [27:33]
Ted Danson
It's similar. I was following a girl named Beth who I finally had the nerve to ask out to have a cup of coffee at Stanford. She was going to an audition.
- [27:42]
Dennis Leary
What were you studying?
- [27:44]
Ted Danson
The joke? Political science. Which means. I have no fucking idea that anyone who didn't know what they wanted to do in life majored in political science. And I did nothing. I did nothing at Stanford. Literally, absolutely nothing. I'd wake up at 11, turn on the Dick Van Dyke show and do a little dance on top of this wood stump I had because it was 60s. I was a go go dancer for myself in my room. And then I'd go see if a class was still available. But I fell in love with acting by following some girl into some audition.
- [28:20]
Dennis Leary
At Stanford.
- [28:21]
Ted Danson
At Stanford. And to stay in the room you had to do something. So I made something up and I heard someone laugh and it was like, oh, it ain't basketball, but that's not bad. That's not bad. And I.
- [28:35]
Dennis Leary
So where does, where does your sense of timing come from, genetically?
- [28:44]
Ted Danson
My father. My father was this great source of embarrassment to us at a certain age because he was the kind of guy in a restaurant, he would land on a funny joke and he'd see someone out of the corner of his eye, a table over, smile, and then he had the whole fucking room and he would tell the rest of his joke story to tables around him. To my horror as a, you know, 15 year old or something, when you.
- [29:13]
Dennis Leary
Was he getting laughs.
- [29:14]
Ted Danson
Yeah, and he. And he loved people. Yeah, he loved, you know, all people.
- [29:20]
Dennis Leary
Because timing, man, that's like you can't. That is, you can't teach. You can teach a lot of things. You can't teach timing in comedy.
- [29:26]
Ted Danson
Jimmy Burroughs. I mean, cheers. I grew up.
- [29:29]
Dennis Leary
I know, but you can't do that. Jimmy Burrows didn't teach you your timing. You just had that right.
- [29:37]
Ted Danson
I don't know if that's true.
- [29:39]
Dennis Leary
I mean, listen, you cannot teach timing. You can turn the knobs a little bit on Ted Danson, like in terms of his time. You have to have the timing.
- [29:49]
Ted Danson
Thanks.
- [29:50]
Dennis Leary
There's no fucking way. There's no way. I've never fucking seen it. It's not possible.
- [29:55]
Ted Danson
I did learn how on a, on a. See, I. I never fought. I think I got into one fight in my life and it was. He pushed me, I pushed him. He hit me, I hit him. You know, it was just very basic.
- [30:07]
Dennis Leary
And that man was Woody Harrelson, ladies and gentlemen.
- [30:09]
Ted Danson
No, no, I would never, I would never take on Woody. He's one of those guys who escalate you. You throw a pine cone at him and he'll throw a boulder back.
- [30:20]
Dennis Leary
Yeah. Plus he's like, he's got all that crazy yoga wiry, you know.
- [30:24]
Ted Danson
No.
- [30:24]
Dennis Leary
And God knows how high he is.
- [30:26]
Ted Danson
Mean spirit and human being.
- [30:27]
Dennis Leary
Well, and by the way, that's his thing. He is a sweet human being.
- [30:34]
Ted Danson
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- [34:00]
Dennis Leary
I want to go back to this. Yeah, now it's turned into my podcast. Please, ladies and gentlemen, it's Dennis Larry with my guest, Ted Danson. So you mentioned Jimmy Burrows, who's the. If people don't know, the most famous comedy director in television history. Still working.
- [34:16]
Ted Danson
Right, Right.
- [34:17]
Dennis Leary
So he can't teach you. It's funny to me that you thought he was teaching you the timing. Because I'm just saying from watching that show, there was so many fucking amazing sets of timing. Right. Because you have grammar, you have norm. You know, I mean, John Ratzenberg.
- [34:38]
Ted Danson
Yeah.
- [34:39]
Dennis Leary
I mean, every character is walking in with incredible timing, so. Including you. So. And you know, I'm forgetting her name. The original Diane.
- [34:50]
Ted Danson
Shelley Long.
- [34:51]
Dennis Leary
Shelley Long. All right. And not to mention her replacement.
- [34:55]
Ted Danson
Yeah.
- [34:55]
Dennis Leary
Oh, my God. So he's not teaching you the timing. He's twisting the knobs to adjust the timing. But you guys have to have comedy timing. It's like fucking Woody didn't come into that show and take over from the coach.
- [35:07]
Ted Danson
No.
- [35:07]
Dennis Leary
By the way, the coach.
- [35:08]
Ted Danson
How fucking Nick Colasant.
- [35:10]
Dennis Leary
Oh, my God.
- [35:11]
Ted Danson
He's. He's from your part of the world.
- [35:13]
Dennis Leary
Unfucking believable timing on that guy.
- [35:15]
Ted Danson
And the heart and soul of the show.
- [35:17]
Dennis Leary
And then Woody walks into that with his fucking timing. So Burrows is Just a genius who goes, okay, I've got. Everybody here has timing. I need to make the mesh happen.
- [35:27]
Ted Danson
I'll tell you what benefit you do get from really good writing.
- [35:32]
Dennis Leary
Yes.
- [35:32]
Ted Danson
Great writing. Because you don't have to carry the joke uphill. I've always thought the joke should be kind of homeopathic. You should reduce it down to. It's barely a joke. Or it's. And it still works. Yeah. If you can reduce it down.
- [35:48]
Dennis Leary
Yeah.
- [35:48]
Ted Danson
And you don't. And that writing was so good. You could play it like a drama.
- [35:54]
Dennis Leary
God, it was good.
- [35:55]
Ted Danson
Yeah.
- [35:55]
Dennis Leary
It's so funny, too, because it still holds up. If you. If you see. I know you probably don't watch it, but. Well, I do watch it.
- [36:03]
Ted Danson
I sneak. No, I haven't watched it for a while. But here's what I do. If I'm depressed and I'm dancing, goes.
- [36:08]
Dennis Leary
Home and watches whole Cheers episodes.
- [36:10]
Ted Danson
Well, I would. If I could remember. Yeah, I would. But I do.
- [36:14]
Dennis Leary
It's funny because I. I worked. I did a. I did a movie with George Wentz.
- [36:19]
Ted Danson
Ah, Georgie.
- [36:21]
Dennis Leary
That was a mammoth movie. And. Which was kind of a nightmare because I'm not a Mammoth guy. And everybody. It was directed by Montana, who is a mammoth guy. Yeah, Joe Montana. Great guy.
- [36:31]
Ted Danson
That's a tough. Mammoth's tough.
- [36:33]
Dennis Leary
It's tough. And it was his script. It was based on his original play, his first play, Lake Boat. And it was full of the guys that normally like Peter Falk. That's why I took it with Joe. I was like, I got a scene with Peter Falk that was like, oh, my God. It was so crazy because George was in it as well. All these great actors. But for me to do, like Peter Falk. Peter Falk. And he was. Did you ever meet him and work with him?
- [37:01]
Ted Danson
I walked for three blocks with them one night in Manhattan, randomly. Go on. I was just thrilled.
- [37:06]
Dennis Leary
So I told Mona, who's one of my dearest friends, I said, I'm taking it. And. And I love Mammoth, but I'm taking it because of Peter Falk.
- [37:14]
Ted Danson
Yeah.
- [37:14]
Dennis Leary
And. And he said, mammoth's going to pump up a scene between you two guys if you do the movie. So I did the movie, and it's Peter Falk. It's Charles Durning. It's when I met Charles Durning, who I. I know, right. And all these guys I'd seen on stage in Mammoth plays and all. All the other actors that are in his universe and Peter Falk. And I'll never forget this is in it. Did you ever do a mammoth piece?
- [37:40]
Ted Danson
No.
- [37:40]
Dennis Leary
Okay. And I loved his stuff, but we were on a. It's a lake boat. It's about a boat on one of the Great Lakes. And we were shooting in a boat on the lake in Toronto. And my first day, I was coming from another movie they had already shot for two days. And my first scene is like, I'm working a wrench on this actual valve in an actual boat. They're like two stories up on metal stairs where Video Village is, right? And I have a monologue in response to this question that I think George Wen asked me. But then I gotta really turn the thing. So I go, whatever. My line is, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then the wrench stuck, and I went, God damn it. Hang on a second, okay? And then I went and said. And I hear, cut. And then, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. And I'm going like, jesus, what the fuck? Is he walking all the way back down? He comes up and he goes. And Joe Montana, the director, and he goes, what are you doing? And I go, what do you mean? He goes, you. You can't. I told you this. You cannot improvise. We are doing the dialogue as scripted, like in the play. And I went, oh, oh, no. I don't know if you noticed, but the valve wouldn't turn. My wrench slipped off. So he goes, I don't give a fuck if the wrench slipped off, okay? A hyphen is a pause. Two hyphens together is a double pause, okay? A comma is a breath. That's it. You can't put it. And I went, really? And he went, not a fucking word. I promised him, dink, dink, dink, dink, back up the thing. And I was like. And that night on the way home, Peter Falk in the van goes to me, kid, yeah, you got it. You gotta do everything. You can't tell you what we're gonna do in the morning before they pick us up, meet for coffee, and we're gonna go. And I was like, okay. And every morning, we made sure that every. That's so cool. I know. And so anyways, the thing that was so amazing was Montanya tells me. He goes, listen, when we do scenes with Peter, he fucking will not stop rehearsing. He loves to rehearse. And he also is, to this day, a little gun shy of the camera. He wants to kind of direct the scene himself. So you know what I mean? And I was like, yeah. And he's like, I'm just telling you, you have to be on my side when we block. Like, we run through it twice. That's it. And you back me up. Cause I love to. I don't want to burn the scene out in rehearsal. And so, sure enough, we go in for this one big scene with Peter and he's just. We block it. We run it once. Let's do it again, Joe. Let's do it again. Do it again. And Joe goes, okay, we got it. Dennis, you got. Yeah, I don't want to over rehearse it. And Peter goes, I want to do one more rehearsal. And anyways. But it was amazing to watch to be in a scene with him. And one day, because we used to be. He smoked still, and I smoked at that point. We went out and smoked in between scenes. And he said, kid, you gotta come see my. You gotta come to my mansion when you come to la, when we're done. And I was like, I'd love to do that. And my wife's a huge Peter Falk fan as well, and huge Columbo fan, everything. And so at the end of the movie, are you gonna come and see me? I said, yeah, sure. I mean, I thought it was all bullshit, right? And the movie wrapped. And Montana calls me up, you know, like a month later, and he goes, hey, Peter Falk is having whatever the birthday was. He wants you to, you know, to come. And I was like, what do you mean? To come to the birthday party? He's like, yeah. I was like, fuck, are you going? He's like, I'm going. He goes, it's like, it's not everybody gets invited. So me and Ann, my wife, flew out and went to his house. It was fucking crazy.
- [41:22]
Ted Danson
I love it.
- [41:23]
Dennis Leary
It's crazy. I'll never forget this line. We got to the front door of the house. He wanted us to come early so he'd give us a tour. We got to the front of the house, the front door, and he goes. And he was so nice to Anne. He's like, I want you guys to come in. I'm gonna give you a tour of the mansion. And this house is so. And he goes, it's a mansion, which is such a working class guy thing. Like a mansion. God, he was a great actor.
- [41:46]
Ted Danson
Unbelievable.
- [41:46]
Dennis Leary
Oh, my God, unbelievable.
- [41:48]
Ted Danson
And funny.
- [41:50]
Dennis Leary
Funny. Great dramatic. Amazing artist.
- [41:53]
Ted Danson
What was that? Apple Annie? The thing Bette Davis was in. Ann Margaret. God, he was so funny in that.
- [42:00]
Dennis Leary
So funny.
- [42:01]
Ted Danson
Yeah. Isn't that the best part of whatever success you have in life? As an actor is who you get to meet.
- [42:08]
Dennis Leary
Listen, dude, I said this to you when I walked in today when I was in acting school. I saw you in the Onion Field, which was an amazing fucking movie, but full of so many great performances. And I was like, you were so great. And then when they. I don't want to give anything away if the audience is going to watch it. There's a great movie called the Onion Field. It's Ted and John Savage. John Savage, James Woods. Jimmy woods and Franklin Seals. Franklin, yeah. It's such a great, scary.
- [42:41]
Ted Danson
Real, true.
- [42:42]
Dennis Leary
Real true crime story.
- [42:44]
Ted Danson
Yeah, you would like it because you do like gritty.
- [42:46]
Dennis Leary
I mean, I do like gritty.
- [42:48]
Ted Danson
You like real. Yeah, gritty. I mean, all the stuff you've been doing around Fire. Fireman is so fucking gritty. But that was written by a cop, Joe Wambach.
- [42:59]
Dennis Leary
Yeah, yeah. I read the book first. That's the first time I saw you. And then I saw you shortly after that in Body Heat, which is another my. Like I told you this, my wife and I watch that movie at least once a year. That movie is fucking great. But you're fucking great in that movie.
- [43:16]
Ted Danson
Thanks.
- [43:16]
Dennis Leary
Your character could have just been sort of very straight and narrow. And you brought. So you brought, like a light touch to the very dark situation for your character.
- [43:28]
Ted Danson
We had one of those, you know, fortuitous. Couldn't, you know, count on it. We had two weeks rehearsal that turned into a month and a half because of a writer's strike right before we started. So I was dancing off car bumpers with this choreographer and learning how to do all these little dance moves for about six weeks instead of two weeks. And we just kept rehearsing. And so when he shot it, this was Larry Kasdan. He would shoot three quarters of a master, a half a close up because he knew, literally. And you could take the script today that we auditioned with, go watch the movie and conduct it like a score. Literally everything on the page is on the screen.
- [44:13]
Dennis Leary
It's so well done and so sexy and scary and great performances, if people haven't seen, really was the first appearance of Bill Hurt. Bill Hurt. And also Mickey Rourke, the original flavor. Mickey Rourke with the original face. He was fucking astounding in that movie. Everybody was. She was. Kathleen Turner was fucking.
- [44:40]
Ted Danson
So Mickey was very powerful.
- [44:43]
Dennis Leary
Yes.
- [44:43]
Ted Danson
He said to me, I was sitting.
- [44:44]
Dennis Leary
There, he's still a great actor, man. You know that fucking movie, the wrestler? Come on. Are you kidding me? Jesus Christ. That performance in Body Heat I still remember. Again, I was an Acting student. So I was, like, so enamored of what all you guys were doing. He popped. You popped hugely. Yeah. It's a really. It's crazy.
- [45:06]
Ted Danson
I was sitting around with them in between setups or something, and he was in a bunk. Top bunk thing.
- [45:12]
Dennis Leary
Yeah, yeah.
- [45:12]
Ted Danson
For the scene or whatever. And he was saying, if it hadn't been for acting, I'd be in prison.
- [45:19]
Dennis Leary
Yeah.
- [45:19]
Ted Danson
Or dead.
- [45:20]
Dennis Leary
Yeah.
- [45:21]
Ted Danson
And I went. I. I kind of start to smile and laugh and then went, no, he's serious.
- [45:26]
Dennis Leary
You know, he's not. He's not around.
- [45:28]
Ted Danson
No. He's the real deal.
- [45:29]
Dennis Leary
I did a movie with her.
- [45:31]
Ted Danson
Kathleen.
- [45:32]
Dennis Leary
No, with. With William Hurt, years years later in. I can't even remember the fucking title of it. It was a foreign movie. We shot it in the Netherlands, actually, in Amsterdam. Me, him, and Jennifer Tilly, who's fucking. Fantastic. Do Not Disturb. Yeah, that was the. The English title. Right.
- [45:56]
Ted Danson
Um, yeah, but I used to. I did a terrible thing to Bill. He was so. He's such a good actor. Really good. And we had this talk. Conversation early on, I think.
- [46:10]
Dennis Leary
Which one?
- [46:11]
Ted Danson
Body Heat. What I did was I would use him to make myself feel bad later in life by going, would Bill do this? Because Bill. When he heard I wanted to do Cheers, you know, and that James Gardner was kind of a hero of mine and things like this. He was very down on it because. Because it wasn't film and also because.
- [46:35]
Dennis Leary
He was a fucking snob.
- [46:36]
Ted Danson
Yeah.
- [46:37]
Dennis Leary
Bill Hurt.
- [46:38]
Ted Danson
Yeah. But to. I should never. You should never put somebody in the position, even if they don't know it, of being that voice in the back of your head judging you. But I did that to Bill until way later in life where I was able to laugh about it and tell him about it and everything.
- [46:54]
Dennis Leary
But, yeah, James Garner is a great guy to pick to model yourself after because that guy did big. Big screen drama, big screen comedy, and his television work was endless and really well done.
- [47:11]
Ted Danson
Yeah.
- [47:12]
Dennis Leary
I got to hang with him. The thing about Hurt was I really admired him as an actor, but he was. And listen, he's passed on, so I don't want to speak too ill of the dead, but he could be a dick, so. And I. And I. You know, I had. I had good and bad experiences with him in scenes on that movie because I don't like to play. I don't play any bullshit. Like, I'm serious when I go to work, even when we're doing comedy. Like, I'm serious and I love it, and I'm not there to be A fucking jerk off and treat people like. Like. Like I'm an exalted. He had that sense about himself, like, I'm. I've won Oscars. Go fuck yourself. You know what I mean? Like, I don't give a fuck. We're doing.
- [47:48]
Ted Danson
I'll kick your ass.
- [47:49]
Dennis Leary
No, it's not that. It's like, we're in. Let's. We're in the scene. You know what I mean? Like, let's go. We're here today on a boat. Let's go. What's the fucking scene? Yeah, it doesn't. Did you bring your Oscars with you? Great. We don't give a fuck, right? You got to be your character. I got to be my character. Yeah.
- [48:05]
Ted Danson
Yeah.
- [48:05]
Dennis Leary
And Jennifer Tilly, too. She was great. She didn't take any shit from him in the end because he's a great actor. He was great, but he had to learn that we're not. Like, he's not the boss because he was, like, trying to take over the blocking. No, dude, what the. What are you doing?
- [48:19]
Ted Danson
You know? Yeah.
- [48:21]
Dennis Leary
You know, you don't block. You're not the director. You know what I mean?
- [48:24]
Ted Danson
Thank God he's dead. We can talk like this.
- [48:26]
Dennis Leary
No, he's a great actor.
- [48:27]
Ted Danson
He's a little. Cut that.
- [48:28]
Dennis Leary
But what a great actor he was. I mean, truly like broadcast news. Just take that. Right? Because that's a light comedy, really, with real feeling and heart. And he's great in that movie. Right. Still is an amazing performance. Kiss of the Spider Woman.
- [48:44]
Ted Danson
He went for that, didn't he? Yes.
- [48:46]
Dennis Leary
Right?
- [48:46]
Ted Danson
Yeah.
- [48:47]
Dennis Leary
I mean, no, He's a great series of amazing performances from that guy.
- [48:52]
Ted Danson
I picked a good actor to beat myself up in my head. You did. I did.
- [48:55]
Dennis Leary
But you made the right decision.
- [48:57]
Ted Danson
Yes.
- [48:57]
Dennis Leary
You were following your instincts.
- [49:00]
Ted Danson
Go backwards. How'd you meet your wife, Ann?
- [49:04]
Dennis Leary
I've told the story a million times so people aren't bored by it. But I went to Emerson College. I was a writer and an actor there. I started a theater group with a bunch of my friends so that we could get more stage time.
- [49:20]
Ted Danson
Still as a student?
- [49:21]
Dennis Leary
Yeah, it's still there. It's the Emerson Comedy Workshop. We were contracted to do three shows. To get credit, we had to do two to three shows a year, which we did. All original. You couldn't do existing plays or musicals. And we loved it. It was great. There were so many talented people in that group in its original form. Mario Cantone. So many great people. My girlfriend at the time, Lauren Dombrowski, who went on to be one of the producers of Mad tv. I mean, just really talented people. And when we graduated, the guy who had been our sponsor, the English professor, a writing teacher named Jim Randall, called me up and said, would you want to teach this class? It's like comedy writing, where writers and actors are in the same playwrights, which.
- [50:10]
Ted Danson
I think is brilliant.
- [50:11]
Dennis Leary
Brilliant. Like, put them in the same room and everybody learns about each other's craft. Yeah, Right. And. And it was the first day, and every. We had started the class and. And this girl walked in late and asked me if this was the class, like the writing class. And the two women I had crushes on when I was growing up, Charlotte Rampling, good crush, right? And Julie Christie, great crush. I mean, I like all kinds of women, but those were like my. That was my wheelhouse. This was a woman who literally was a combination of the two.
- [50:48]
Ted Danson
Yes. She. I. From pictures.
- [50:49]
Dennis Leary
Yeah. My wife is beautiful, gorgeous, and she was holding a puppy. And I'm like a dog guy, right? And I was like, I. And I'm not a religious guy, right? But I literally went. My knees kind of buckled. And I literally went, oh, are you. Are you doing this to me right now? Like, are you sending this? Are you making this happen? Because I knew this is. It really hit me, just visually.
- [51:12]
Ted Danson
Yeah.
- [51:12]
Dennis Leary
And then I was like. She asked if it was the class. I said, yeah, she's gone in. I was like, if this girl's funny, like, I could be fucking dead, right? And sure enough, within five minutes, she's really fucking funny in the class. And I'm like, fuck, how old are you? I was 25. She had just turned 20, I think. And so anyway, she worked by the Bull and Finch, which is the bar that Cheers was based on. A few blocks away, she worked. Her job was. She worked in a flower store. So, like an idiot, you know, I would stop into the flower store to just discuss things from the class, right? And I would. At first, I bought a couple flowers when I went in. So later she tells me, like, I just figured you had a girlfriend because every time you came in, you bought flowers. And this. This buddy of mine at the time was with me one time, and. And he. I went in, he waited outside, and I talked to her for about 10 minutes and bought some flowers and came out. And he was like, what are you fucking doing? And I was like, what? He goes, you're fucking buying flowers where you're talking to this girl, she's going to think you have a girlfriend. And I was like, oh, fuck, shit. So the next time I went, I was like, yeah, I'm buying. These flowers are from my mom. You know, I. Oh, yeah. Anyways, we didn't date until after the class was over.
- [52:34]
Ted Danson
When she tells the story, when did she go, oh, look at him? She.
- [52:41]
Dennis Leary
Had the same. She didn't have the earth shattering moment like me, but she thought, oh, this guy must be the teacher's assistant. Right. And she thought I was cute, whatever. But she was the same thing. Like, if this guy's funny and I just am. Right. And I'm teaching a comedy class. So it was pretty apparent. And then we just. Once that term was over. Yeah, listen, it wasn't against the law at the time. It was frowned upon. Now it's against the law.
- [53:08]
Ted Danson
25 and 20. That's not like 45 and 25 and 20 is totally.
- [53:13]
Dennis Leary
Exactly.
- [53:13]
Ted Danson
Yeah, exactly. What do you expect?
- [53:15]
Dennis Leary
What am I supposed to do? God? I don't believe in God, but God sent that if there is a God to me. And here we are, 40.
- [53:23]
Ted Danson
Oh, I do believe that, by the way. What? Somebody sent that, made that happen.
- [53:29]
Dennis Leary
Listen, it's happened. Well, you've been married twice, right?
- [53:33]
Ted Danson
Yes.
- [53:33]
Dennis Leary
Yeah. So.
- [53:34]
Ted Danson
No, three times. Sorry, but who's.
- [53:36]
Dennis Leary
Three times?
- [53:37]
Ted Danson
Yeah. Once in college.
- [53:39]
Dennis Leary
You got married in college.
- [53:40]
Ted Danson
Yeah. And if we had been emotionally mature, the conversation would have been, I'm scared to go to New York by myself. Are you? Yeah. Oh, good, let's share an apartment together. That would have been the emotional truth of our relationship.
- [53:52]
Dennis Leary
Why did you get married then? Why don't you just move in together?
- [53:54]
Ted Danson
I don't know. I'm one of those people. Literally. Oddly, I played Sam Malone. But if somebody kissed me, we were married, somebody would have to be. The girl would have to be standing naked in front of me and I'd be still going, me, you want me. It's ridiculous. My upbringing, I don't know, whatever.
- [54:20]
Dennis Leary
So how long were you married for?
- [54:22]
Ted Danson
5 years. I last a long time. 5 years and then long.
- [54:27]
Dennis Leary
That's not a long time. What are you talking about? That's dropping a bucket. How long you been married to Mary?
- [54:32]
Ted Danson
33.
- [54:34]
Dennis Leary
Yeah, that's. That's speaking of great actors.
- [54:36]
Ted Danson
No, but that was.
- [54:37]
Dennis Leary
Speaking of amazing actors.
- [54:39]
Ted Danson
Yeah. Thank you. Say that again because she is.
- [54:42]
Dennis Leary
She's unbelievable.
- [54:44]
Ted Danson
I just started watching because I couldn't find it. A BBC production of Tender is the Night that she was in Unbelievable.
- [54:53]
Dennis Leary
No, it's crazy because she has been in period pieces where she's just like, you can't. It's so Exquisite. A performance you cannot find any. Any moment that's not a diamond. Right. Then she does like Back to the Future with fucking.
- [55:08]
Ted Danson
You know.
- [55:09]
Dennis Leary
Yeah. Who's like, you want to talk about timing? Right. And she's. And fucking. Chris Lloyd.
- [55:14]
Ted Danson
Chris Lloyd.
- [55:14]
Dennis Leary
I mean, I mean, what a fucking. And. And then. And then one of my. I mean, there's so many movies, but Stepbrothers.
- [55:22]
Ted Danson
Oh.
- [55:23]
Dennis Leary
You know, that's just like as big as you can get. Big broad comedy. But it's fucking amazing.
- [55:28]
Ted Danson
That is one of the funniest.
- [55:29]
Dennis Leary
She really just blows you away in terms of.
- [55:32]
Ted Danson
I'm with you.
- [55:32]
Dennis Leary
You know that.
- [55:33]
Ted Danson
I do. So let's go back to your side of the table.
- [55:36]
Dennis Leary
Can we talk about somebody that we share?
- [55:38]
Ted Danson
Yes.
- [55:39]
Dennis Leary
Jason Schwartzman.
- [55:40]
Ted Danson
God.
- [55:42]
Dennis Leary
I did this Christmas movie that was just out this past Christmas with a great cast with like Michelle Pfeiffer. And he was my son in law and I'd never met him before. I'd only seen his work and what a fucking great human being.
- [55:59]
Ted Danson
I met him creatively. I mean, I first saw him creatively in his first movie, Rushmore.
- [56:08]
Dennis Leary
Yeah. Which he was a drummer. That's what he was. He was a rock and roll drummer before. Yeah. His band is the band that did the theme song to the show, the O.C. right.
- [56:19]
Ted Danson
Yeah.
- [56:19]
Dennis Leary
And then he becomes. He goes into Rushmore.
- [56:22]
Ted Danson
Yeah. Having never acted amazing and was just brilliant.
- [56:27]
Dennis Leary
He is the most untouched by fame, famous person I've ever worked. Because I've been watching him for decades. It feels like I got to work.
- [56:38]
Ted Danson
With him and Zach Kalpanakis careers just. That was delicious.
- [56:43]
Dennis Leary
Talk about fucking timing.
- [56:44]
Ted Danson
Jonathan Abes.
- [56:46]
Dennis Leary
Yes.
- [56:47]
Ted Danson
Was the writer. It's great.
- [56:49]
Dennis Leary
Yeah.
- [56:49]
Ted Danson
Are we lucky, Dennis?
- [56:51]
Dennis Leary
No. How it's especially. Well, I think I'm really. I mean, I am unbelievably lucky that it's crazy that I went from where I was to like working with, you know, anybody. But at this point in my life, like, like I was coming in here today, like I. I take some people for granted that got famous like as I was coming up who were like Conan. I'm just like, I've been with. Done stuff with Conan for so long that so many of my friends became talk show hosts, you know, John Stewart and. Or they knew the writers at these shows.
- [57:27]
Ted Danson
Yeah.
- [57:28]
Dennis Leary
So like when I'm coming in today, I was here, you know, yesterday with Conan, but I was coming in today. Like I fucking. I've never met you.
- [57:35]
Ted Danson
I know. Which is so weird.
- [57:36]
Dennis Leary
I know.
- [57:36]
Ted Danson
Yeah.
- [57:37]
Dennis Leary
So it's a big Thing for me to walk in, like, I'm fucking doing. Like, when I told Anne, she's like, oh my God, you're meeting Ted Danson. I'm like, yeah, I'm fucking doing his podcast. So that's a big. I'm still getting surprises. And I'm 68 years old, you know, so it's fucking crazy what we've done.
- [57:54]
Ted Danson
And I love our tribe, our tribe of, you know, in my case, in yours, it's like looking for the giggle in life, looking for the funny, being creative. I just love that lineage of people that we've all come from. Who did you look up if you were to go, this is kind of the place that I am as an actor. Do you look back and go, oh, yeah, this person was a hero or an influencer.
- [58:20]
Dennis Leary
Well, it wasn't. It was weird because I didn't know anybody. My dad, like I said, played music and was in Irish bands and stuff and they loved, you know, our house was. Everybody was funny. All my aunts in. In Ireland and in America and my, My uncles, everybody was funny, especially the women.
- [58:39]
Ted Danson
Sorry, can I interrupt? And to me, I don't mean to. I'm being presumptuous.
- [58:44]
Dennis Leary
Yeah.
- [58:44]
Ted Danson
But Irish, recently coming from Ireland, you know, and starting a life here, that's. That's tough. In my, My vision of that is. It's hard, it's tough. And yet you are funny as all get out. That, to me is the kind of. My favorite kind of funny. Funny that's earned out of a hard a life that's not necessarily easy. Did I just paint a picture that's wrong of where you.
- [59:12]
Dennis Leary
No, we didn't know that. Right. Like, we, as kids, we didn't. We. We didn't know. Like, we. As we got older, especially in Worcester, which is a college town, and in Boston, you start to like your. Our prejudices were. We knew everybody. We knew all these immigrants, all these people that everybody's. So the preppy kids that went to the colleges nearby and the prep schools. Yeah, those are the kids we hated because they hated us. And they looked down on us and we were like. We didn't. We thought we were rich. We didn't know. And then you start to realize, oh, you don't have any money. But we didn't care because we. There was no choice. Right? And plus my parents loved comedy. Like, they loved Dean Martin. They loved the Dick Van Dyke Show. Dick Van Dyke. I mean, I still remember watching Dick Van Dyke. Like, what? And Mary Tyler Moore. Are you fucking kidding me? Like, the women. The Mary Tyler Moore show with Cloris Leachman and fucking Valerie Harper and all these funny women. I was like this. And then snl, which is a big thing. Monty Python. Huge, huge, huge. And in the movies, like my dad went to see. We went to see like the Beatles movies because he liked the Beatles, but my dad saw the big, like westerns. Clint Eastwood and John Wayne. Those people didn't. I didn't know anybody like that. And then I saw Mean Streets and I still remember the first time I saw Mean Street. So that's like 74 when I saw that. 74, yeah. Me and my friends were like, oh, we know guys like that. That's. I'd never seen those guys in the movies. And that was the first time we were like, what is that? The hell? What is going on? We didn't know you could be fat.
- [61:03]
Ted Danson
Real.
- [61:03]
Dennis Leary
Yes. Right. So that, that's when. And then, you know, within two years maybe I'm in acting school and I'm like, oh, yeah, like now you're watching. Especially in the case of De Niro, like you're watching performances and Al Pacino. I guess where you're going like, oh, wow, this is. Things are changing.
- [61:21]
Ted Danson
Do you remember? Beat the drum slowly.
- [61:23]
Dennis Leary
Bang the drum.
- [61:24]
Ted Danson
Bang the drum. Thank you.
- [61:25]
Dennis Leary
Yeah, yeah.
- [61:26]
Ted Danson
I remember thinking, going, well, this is awfully good. They're both amazing. But the guy who plays the catcher, why didn't they. Why did they just get. Why did they get a baseball player? Why didn't they get a real actor?
- [61:39]
Dennis Leary
He was so, I know, so realistic character.
- [61:43]
Ted Danson
I couldn't believe he was an actor.
- [61:45]
Dennis Leary
Amazing. And then also Richard Pryor was a big influence on me as a standup python and George Carlin and. And then I'm in college with all these funny women and these funny guys and I'm like, oh, wow. This is like. Because the funny thing was always like. So for me to be like, to go from there to like, I'm doing, you know, movies with De Niro and you know, I did a movie with Clint Eastwood. It's crazy. You know, my mother. This is like the two most famous things from my mother was when I first got famous. I got a phone call from my agent and he said, you're not gonna believe this, but Dean Martin, he was still alive. Is a huge fan of yours. Cause he's a comedy fan and he saw no cure for cancer. And his 18 year old nephew, grandson is a huge fan of yours. Cause of the MTV spots. He wants you to come to his house and have Dinner and sign a bunch of stuff for the grandson. Meanwhile, Dean Martin, like in my. He had that show in the 60s, and my parents thought he was hilarious. I ended up going to Dean Martin's house. He was with his original wife at the time, Jeannie. He was back with her. And they were living in separate houses in Beverly Hills. And I went in and signed all this stuff for his grandson and then had dinner with him. And then I hung out with him a couple more times. But that night, it was like three in the morning when I got done, when I left his house. But the next morning I called my mother and I go, ma, last night I was at Dean Martin's house. And she was like, oh, my God, what did you wear? What did you say? And the other guy was Clint Eastwood as well. That was like, yeah, you've made it now, you know.
- [63:39]
Ted Danson
Did he direct what you were in?
- [63:41]
Dennis Leary
Yeah, yeah. It was called True Crime. And that changed my life because that was early enough in my acting career where I was still trying to learn about film acting and had started to be okay in there. Right. I had met DeNiro already because he had somebody from his company. He had just formed his company. They saw no cure for cancer. And he brought me in and wanted to develop. He wanted to work with young artist. So we were. He was producing a movie that I was going to be in, an Irish gangster film. And then, you know, we were on right before we did Wag the Dog, which he produced as well. So that was a big thing for me. Right. But in the middle of that, you know, I still was learning about how the filmmaking process I wanted to learn. And so on his set, I was like, can I ask you. He said, I stay on the set and I work fast. You know, if you want, ask me any questions as we're going. So that's where I learned how to work fast, keep the set comfortable for the actors. Cause that's all he cared about. And that was a masterclass in that, like, he knew people were nervous the first day they came on his set to work with him actors. So he would. The tricks he did. One kid was gonna come in the next day in the Oakland Tribune newspaper. That's we were shooting on the actual floor. And he said to me, like, the second week, he goes, I'm bringing a young actor to sit next to me when you come and yell at me in that scene tomorrow. But I can tell he's nervous, so I'm bringing him in today. And he thinks he's shooting that scene with Us today. So he's gonna get all made up while we're shooting our scene in between and the lighting breaks, we're gonna go over and rehearse with him, but we're not gonna shoot it today. I'm trying to make him come. And I was like, that's so fucking smart.
- [65:34]
Ted Danson
Wow.
- [65:35]
Dennis Leary
Yeah, the guy came in, young actor, very fucking nervous. Like, he made up. And you could tell. I mean, we all know the jitters, right?
- [65:42]
Ted Danson
God, yes.
- [65:43]
Dennis Leary
And he's right next to Kurt, Clint at a desk, and I have to come over and yell at them. We did three rehearsals, right? He got more and more comfortable. And then in between, he's hanging out with us. And then Clint turns to him like four hours in and goes, ah, we're not gonna make it to shoot that scene today. I'm so sorry that I had to bring you in. Please forgive me. And the kid's like, no, no, it's fine. He's like, we're shoot it tomorrow. We'll shoot it first thing tomorrow. I'm sorry. He's like, no, it's fine. Kid came in the next day, boom. I was like, what? He's so actor friendly, you know?
- [66:19]
Ted Danson
Is it true he basically does one take? He.
- [66:23]
Dennis Leary
This is what he does. And I do this as well. When I'm in charge, I do this. I shoot the rehearsal. So I learned that from him because we went into a room unbeknownst. Or you just say, I knew in advance because somebody else I had spoken to, maybe it was somebody who had worked with him, had said, listen, he shoots the rehearsals. I don't give a fuck. I was gonna learn. And it was me, him and James Woods. And woods had never done a film with him, even though they knew each other. And we went in and he goes, all right, so listen, you two, where his boss is, he goes, you two are arguing, and I'm standing here. And then I don't have really any lines to the end. You guys can do whatever you want. You can keep the dialogue. The important information is this. Do whatever you want, improv whatever you want. I'm here waiting. I'm going to have two cameras up, blah, blah, blah, blah. So let's just try it. So I knew it because I'm standing next to him and woods is behind the desk. And I saw it. He just went like this to one of the cameramen. So I saw that. So I know that we're rolling. And you know Jimmy woods, right?
- [67:31]
Ted Danson
Yeah.
- [67:32]
Dennis Leary
So he's a great actor, but he grabbed a baseball that was on his desk. And while I was talking, he was going like this. But, you know, we're improvising. So it was funny because every time he was really improvising, he was just holding the baseball. So he threw it up one time and Clint just caught it. And he went, put the baseball down. He said, don't do that. Let's start again. Because he knew he was just, like, trying to steal focus.
- [67:53]
Ted Danson
Yeah.
- [67:54]
Dennis Leary
And then. And so we did. And Jim, I said, oh, okay. And we did it again. And then. And then at the very end, he's got the closing little piece. He does his little closing little piece. And he goes, okay, cut. All right, guys, what'd you think? And I knew that we were rolling. He didn't. Jim didn't know. He goes, I know. Can we. Can we do one more? And he goes, I think I got what I want. He goes, what? You were shooting? He goes, yeah, I shoot the rehearsals. He's like, oh, I thought we were just blocking. He goes, we were, but I shot it. He goes, let me have one more. And he goes, okay, so we do one more, right? And at the end of that, he goes, let me do one more. And he goes, I don't think we need it. And he goes, oh, okay. He goes, let's go out in the hallway for the next thing. So he goes out in the hallway and this camera guy is going by woods. And he goes, he likes to do just one. So now we go out to smoke a cigarette, because wood smoked at the time. So did I. We get outside, he's very nervous. He's like, what do you think? Was it. Was you. Was he upset? Was he pissed? And he goes, well, I think he was pissed about the baseball thing. And he was like, no, no, no. I picked up on that. But when I asked for. When I asked for the other take, I go, listen, somebody told me, you know, we're coming in. He only likes to do one, maybe two. And he's like, so we're never gonna do like a third or. I said, I don't think he likes it. So the next scene, we went out there, same thing happened. Now we're in the hall, we're in the. In the office, and same thing. He. He shot the rehearsal and he went, okay, cut. I wanna do close ups now. So you guys okay, moving in. I was like, yeah. And James is like, well, wait, was that the master? And he goes, that's not the master. I got your coverage, basically, but I wanna get close. And he's like, okay, so. And when it was on him, he would do. We would shoot the rehearsal. His closeup. Shoot the rehearsal. And he'd literally go. He'd do whatever he was doing. And then when he was done, he'd go, all right, that's enough of that shit. Moving on, like every time. And I loved it, especially with comedy. But even drama, I like to. If I can have two cameras going so that we're both on camera for emotional scenes or funny scenes.
- [70:06]
Ted Danson
Both of those. Because both of them can dry up real quick.
- [70:09]
Dennis Leary
Yes. And people don't understand. Spielberg does that as often as he can. Two cameras go. Scorsese does it. You know that fucking scene, the famous scene in Goodfellas. You think I'm funny, bubba? He had multiple cameras going. Yeah, that was happening in the room. Part of it was they were improvising from a story that Joe Pesci told him that they change the script. But, you know, there's multiple cameras. You know, the scene in the Irishman, which is a great. Whether you like the movie or not, I love it when De Niro is talking. When De Niro's character is talking to Jimmy Hoffa, Al Pacino, and they're. They're very close together. There's two cameras going and it's a five minute scene where he's trying to tell him, like, don't fuck with Joe Pesci's character. You know, they killed the President. They can kill you. Very amazing acting scene. Like it's two cameras.
- [70:57]
Ted Danson
Yeah.
- [70:58]
Dennis Leary
You know, it's the theater. It's like recreating the theater on a film set. You know, I love that shit.
- [71:04]
Ted Danson
How much have you directed? Pardon? My.
- [71:06]
Dennis Leary
I directed a thing that my wife wrote for Showtime back in the late 90s. That was a great piece that I won a. You might remember these awards. I won the. The Cable Ace Award for. Remember? That was an award.
- [71:22]
Ted Danson
Yeah.
- [71:23]
Dennis Leary
I won the Cabalache, as I like to call it, to make it sound fancier. I directed that and I directed.
- [71:29]
Ted Danson
Were you in it as well?
- [71:30]
Dennis Leary
I was, yeah.
- [71:31]
Ted Danson
And did you win as a director?
- [71:33]
Dennis Leary
As a director. That's cool. That must have been nice. It was good. It was fine. It was a great piece. My wife wrote it and Annabella Sior played my wife in it. She was great. It was a great little film. And then I didn't have to.
- [71:48]
Ted Danson
I'm always looking to do more.
- [71:50]
Dennis Leary
Not really. If I don't have to. On Rescue Me. I didn't have to direct because my writing partner and the co creator, Peter Tolan, who did? Larry Sanders with Gary Shandling. He directed the big episodes and a lot of them and. And other friends of ours were directors that we used over and over again. So I didn't have to be behind the camera. I've. I've directed another show I did for fx and I've directed here and there. I like directing, but, you know, I'm fine if I. It's all about creative comfort, like comfort on the set. So if it's a. I try to work with friends of mine now or hire directors that I have worked with before so that I don't have to direct. You know, it's all about making the actors comfortable to me every day on the set. You know, God, I've done.
- [72:39]
Ted Danson
So I've done one. I did a show with Mike Schur for four years and I doing two or three years with Mike Schur in this similar ish styles. And I'm thinking, well, I'm going to have to go off and do something else one of these days. Am I even capable? Do you ever doubt yourself as an actor?
- [73:00]
Dennis Leary
Oh, all the time. Yeah. I'm one of those guys. The first day on a new project, I can't sleep the night before. I'm nervous. It's like a big game or a live show. Like, when I'm doing a live show, man, it's like I get the butterflies. Which is. You should good, you know, because it makes you. It's your body and your mind telling you, like, yeah, this shit's important tomorrow, you know, it could go south. It could go south. And I don't know, like, especially with a new character, I'm like, fuck am I. How am I going to be with this character? And the other actors and a lot of great actors I know have that same thing. Like, I think it's a good thing to have nervous on the first day at the new thing. Like, if I was gonna work with you, even having met you now, if we were gonna work together or I was gonna be on your show, I'd be fucking nervous until I get that first blocking in.
- [73:51]
Ted Danson
I find also the first time out, it's embarrassing. Yeah, it's embarrassing to go from, you know, hi, Dennis, we talked that time, remember? Now we're gonna go pretend together. This is gonna be embarrassing. That we're gonna both be pretending.
- [74:07]
Dennis Leary
Yeah.
- [74:07]
Ted Danson
Until you do it a couple of times. And it's like, okay.
- [74:10]
Dennis Leary
Yes.
- [74:11]
Ted Danson
To give yourself permission.
- [74:16]
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- [74:44]
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- [75:43]
Ted Danson
Let me switch subjects with you just for a second and talk about fire. All the stuff you've done for firemen over the years. And I know there's a history of family loss. I don't remember where that big fire was.
- [75:59]
Dennis Leary
Yeah.
- [75:59]
Ted Danson
Was it in Worcester or no?
- [76:00]
Dennis Leary
Yes. So when I growing up, like I said, we same school, same kids, Same nun, same priest. 12 years. Very few changes in the kids. You know, it's like we're up. We all and all of like. I had 17 cousins. We all grew up basically in the same neighborhood. I think there was two cousins that weren't in that neighborhood. And at that school, that's the way everybody was. So the nuns hated you even before you got in because they already hated your older brother. Right, so. So when we graduated, most of your choices were basically cop or a teamster, like a union job, cop, firefighter, teamster or you know, gangster, criminal, whatever. But so like 35 guys between my class and my brother's class like became firefighters. You know, my cousin Jerry, Lucy was, was one of those guys that became a firefighter. And he was. And man, that's all he wanted to do since, you know, when we were young he would talk about that. So he loved it. He was a great firefighter. But he was also, like. He trained probies in the training programs and young firefighters coming up, and he was involved in the school bearing Rescue 1. He wasn't working in rescue divisions of the fire. I mean, he just loved it. It was his life. There was a famous fire, December 3, 1999, at the Worcester Cold Storage warehouse, which was this old abandoned factory downtown close to where we grew up. And there was a homeless couple. This is, you know, cold weather at night. There was a homeless couple that lived in there, and they thought they were trapped inside the building when it caught fire. So they went in to try to find the homeless people. The homeless people had started the fire to keep warm and then left when it got out of control. They didn't know that. One of my best friends from when we were growing up and from my class, Tommy Spencer, was the lieutenant. Once my cousin and his partner got lost and all the other firefighters came out of the building, Tommy said, I'm gonna take some guys and go in and find them. So he had three other guys. They went in. Then the whole building blew up and collapsed. I can't remember how many stories high it was. It was a big building. So anyways, there was a crazy amount of kids, like 15 kids between the six firefighters that died. It was a big fire, and it was big news at the time. Like their funerals, once they got the bodies out, their funerals were held together, this memorial service at the hockey arena downtown. And President Clinton came and spoke, and Ted Kennedy, because he's a senator at that time. So it was a big deal anyways, my brother and I. My brother was like, we have to do something to help the families and the kids left behind. So I started this Larry Firefighters foundation first to help the Worcester Fire Department recover and the families. Right. Some friends of mine, one of my close friends at that time, was in the FDNY when Jerry had become a firefighter in Worcester. When we were in our 20s, he had become a member of the FDNY with firefighters, whoever their crew is, you become. They become like part of your family. So those guys, the FDNY had come up to help dig out the bodies in Worcester. So you know what? I think it's like a year and a half later, it's two years later that 911 happens, and the Worcester guys are down digging for the FDNY guys. So my friend survived the World Trade center attack, and it was his idea. He's like, we got to bring the foundation to New York. So we did an event in New York, and Then it just. At that point, we just thought, let's see if we can start helping fire departments all over the place, because this is true. Was then 25 years later, my foundation is still in business because the departments all over the country, volunteer departments, and professional departments like big city departments, are all constantly being underfunded because they never go on strike. So of course it makes sense. Local government, you know, small town and big city government, when they're cutting their budgets every term, they go, if you cut the garbage men, then the streets pile up with garbage and people complain. You can't. You have to pay the teachers when they go on strike, because otherwise the kids are home and people complain. You cut the fire department, they still go to work. So that's why they're always gonna get their budgets cut. So it's crazy.
- [80:36]
Ted Danson
Which has an impact not just on salaries, but on equipment and equipment and training.
- [80:41]
Dennis Leary
And it's everything from actual new fire trucks for the fdny, the biggest fire department in the world, to tools like Halligan's, to. To breathing apparatus. I mean, it's crazy. And every year, like, we're still giving out grants every year to this year we're giving out. I might be slightly off in the numbers. We're giving out, you know, 45 grants in 37 different states, big city departments and small town departments, because the, The. The request for grants go up every year because the. They keep getting their budgets cut.
- [81:19]
Ted Danson
Right.
- [81:20]
Dennis Leary
By the way, when they talk about first responders and everybody salutes them and says all the great. You need to know that almost every single fire department, except in very wealthy small towns, every fire department is in dire straits in terms of equipment. Some of these departments, even big city departments, are driving trucks that are 30 years old. It's crazy. A new fire truck costs about a million dollars, sometimes more. So what we do is every year I have this event with the FDNY at the Rock, their training facility called We Can Be Heroes, which is you can come down and be a firefighter for a day or hang out with the firefighters as they go through their training, or you can put on the bucket gear and hang out and do some of the training, and you donate the money to our cause. And within six months to a year, we have. We can actually show you pictures of the building or the vehicle or the equipment that we have purchased for these departments. Because they tell us what they want in their grants, we raise the money and we literally build the building, or we buy the vehicle and have it made, or we buy the Tools and deliver them. And every time you give them a new piece of equipment or a vehicle, it goes to work that day, especially in the big cities, you know, So I thought we were gonna go out of business, but now we're raising more money and giving out more money than ever before because the need is so great.
- [82:50]
Ted Danson
I've always loved your work as an actor. I really admire that this is part of what you do with your life.
- [82:56]
Dennis Leary
I didn't have any choice.
- [82:59]
Ted Danson
I hear that.
- [82:59]
Dennis Leary
I had to.
- [83:00]
Ted Danson
I hear that.
- [83:00]
Dennis Leary
Yeah.
- [83:01]
Ted Danson
But that's amazing.
- [83:03]
Dennis Leary
I know. I'm an amazing human being, aren't I? I mean, I'm just.
- [83:07]
Ted Danson
There must not be a fire department, fire station that you can't walk into and have people full of gratitude.
- [83:16]
Dennis Leary
Back in the days when Rescue Me was on the air, you know, the reason that we were able to do that show is because of my buddy Terry Quinn, who's retired now. I knew his crew and his guys, so it was sort of. I had a lot of experience. We could. And he was the technical advisor on the show, so he would give us the stories. Funny and dramatic and other firefighters. But we were still. We were young. The older guys that had survived 9, 11, did not like the head officers did not like the show because they didn't want the secrets and all that stuff, the behavior getting out. So they did not like the show. So I had to be careful which firehouse I was going in, because sometimes, even out here in la, I might stop in to a firehouse where I knew a guy, but the head officer would be like, you know, I don't want him in here. I don't like your show. I don't think it's funny, Right?
- [84:13]
Ted Danson
Oh, my God.
- [84:13]
Dennis Leary
But now that's changed. Those guys are all retired. So now I can walk into any firehouse because now I'm old and those guys are. But it was funny because they did not like, especially in New York, the fdny, the senior officers were like, I don't like that behavior. I was like, I know you don't like it because it's true, but that's the show. They were always like, well, can't you do a show that's just about the heroes? And I was like, that's not the show that we're doing. We're doing what we know. Because if you know anything about firefighters and especially the FDNY, but firefighters anywhere, part of. And EMTs, part of why they can survive mentally in their job and emotionally is because they can laugh about it, right? You need to, they need to be able to find the heart and the humor in what they do. And they do it all the time. It's like they constantly bust each other's balls and you make a mistake, you're never gonna hear the end of it. And I'm proud of that show, man. We really, we love doing that show. It was a great cast. It was a great. Peter Tolan is just a genius writer and a great director. We had such a good time. And the fire, the young firefighters loved it. So that's what, that's what we, our aim was, you know.
- [85:36]
Ted Danson
That's really cool. I'm so happy to sit down and talk to you. You're very.
- [85:40]
Dennis Leary
I'm so happy to meet you.
- [85:41]
Ted Danson
Yeah. Back at you. I don't know why we haven't, but.
- [85:44]
Dennis Leary
We have to find a way to work together.
- [85:46]
Ted Danson
I would love that.
- [85:47]
Dennis Leary
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [85:48]
Ted Danson
And I'll keep my eye on you. And that rolling on rehearsal thing, well.
- [85:52]
Dennis Leary
I mean, you never know, man.
- [85:55]
Ted Danson
Your wife can write it.
- [85:57]
Dennis Leary
My wife can write it. Your wife can act and do the music for it. Do the music for it.
- [86:03]
Ted Danson
And she loves a chorus.
- [86:04]
Dennis Leary
So why do I need you?
- [86:14]
Ted Danson
Thank you, Dennis. The second season of Going Dutch is airing now on Fox. That's it for this week. Special thanks to our 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.comteamcoco See you next time. Where everybody knows your name.
- [86:51]
Dennis Leary
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 Sachs, Jeff Ross and myself. Sarah Fedorovich is our supervising producer. Engineering and mixing by Joanna Samuel with support from Eduardo Perez. Research by Alyssa Grall, Talent booking by Paula Davis and Gina Bautista. Our theme music is by Woody Harrelson, Antony Genn, Mary Steenbergen and John Osborne.
- [87:28]
Ted Danson
This is Rich Gannon from Sirius XM NFL Radio reminding you that Sirius XM is the place to hear any every NFL playoff game from the wild card round all the way through the Super Bowl. Plus, you get to decide how you want to listen to the game. We'll have the hometown announcers for each game and the national broadcasters on your radio and on the Sirius XM app. And if it's football talk that you want, just search for NFL radio on the app or tune to Sirius XM channel 88 in your car did you know?
- [87:55]
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