Judd Apatow

Summary

Podcast Summary: "Where Everybody Knows Your Name" Featuring Ted Danson and Steve Carell Discuss Judd Apatow

Introduction In the August 13, 2025 episode of Where Everybody Knows Your Name with Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson (sometimes), hosts Ted Danson and Steve Carell delve deep into the life and career of comedy legend Judd Apatow. The conversation offers listeners an intimate look at Apatow's influence on comedy, his collaborative efforts, and his philanthropic endeavors. Through engaging dialogue, memorable anecdotes, and insightful reflections, Danson and Carell celebrate Apatow's enduring legacy in the entertainment industry.

Early Influences and Career Beginnings Steve Carell reminisces about his early fascination with comedy, tracing his inspirations back to classic sitcoms like Taxi, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and Cheers. "I had this deal at DreamWorks, and I said to Paul Feig, if you ever have any ideas, let me know," Carell explains, highlighting the foundation Apatow helped build ([35:02]).

Danson adds, "Judd Apatow is probably the closest thing we have to a professor of comedy," emphasizing Apatow's role as a bridge across generations in the comedic landscape ([00:48]).

Collaborations with Garry Shandling and the Larry Sanders Show A significant portion of the discussion centers on Apatow's collaboration with Garry Shandling. Carell shares, "Gary would go through the writers. He fired a lot of writers, a lot of the best writers ever," illustrating the challenging yet creative environment Apatow fostered ([20:35]).

The hosts delve into the behind-the-scenes dynamics of The Larry Sanders Show, recounting moments of creative tension and breakthrough. "Dana Carvey did an impression of him, and I think Robert Smigel wrote it... Larry's version of 'I'm a Goody Two Shoe Asshole' was basically my version of that," Carell recounts ([22:23]).

Creating Freaks and Geeks Carell provides an insightful narrative about the inception of Freaks and Geeks. "Paul had such a sense of what it was. He really wrote this giant bible that was like 60 pages, just explaining the town and the clothes and the characters and the people and the themes," he explains ([35:02]). This meticulous planning, combined with flexible casting, allowed the show to authentically capture the lives of teenage outcasts and high-achievers.

Danson praises the show's authenticity, stating, "Every second that we shot, there wasn't a frame in the daily that wasn't perfect from them. And you felt it the whole time, like, something's happening here that's really special and it's clicking on all cylinders" ([39:11]).

Despite its critical acclaim, Freaks and Geeks faced premature cancellation in 1999. Carell reflects, "It was 99... but it was a little bit like independent movies on TV. It was like independent TV" ([39:50]). The hosts acknowledge its lasting impact, noting that the show has garnered a larger audience post-cancellation.

Transition to Producing and Writing for Film The conversation shifts to Carell's transition from television to film production and writing. "After Anchorman, I asked Steve Carell, do you have any ideas? Seems like you should be the lead of one of these," Danson remarks about Carell's burgeoning career in film ([42:45]).

Carell discusses his work on The 40-Year-Old Virgin, highlighting the collaborative effort with Judd Apatow. "We pitched it around town and they allowed me to direct that one," he recalls ([43:00]). The film became a seminal work in modern comedy, blending humor with heartfelt moments.

Philanthropy and Social Responsibility Beyond entertainment, Judd Apatow's commitment to philanthropy is a focal point. Carell shares his involvement with Comic Relief and subsequent charitable initiatives. "It started really with charity, and then at some point, it just becomes about kindness," he states, underscoring the importance of giving back ([56:40]).

Danson echoes this sentiment, expressing admiration for Apatow's dedication to addressing societal issues, including homelessness and mental health. "My goal is to try to help that happen," Carell adds, referring to his ongoing documentary projects and charitable donations ([61:56]).

Personal Reflections and Future Projects As the episode nears its conclusion, Danson and Carell reflect on their personal relationships within the comedy community. They discuss upcoming projects, including Carell's documentaries on Mel Brooks and Norm MacDonald, highlighting Apatow's role in fostering such endeavors. "We've worked together a ton of times. This is 40 we did together," Danson notes, celebrating decades of friendship and mutual respect ([46:30]).

Carell anticipates future collaborations and the continued evolution of comedy, emphasizing the importance of storytelling that resonates emotionally while maintaining comedic integrity.

Memorable Quotes

• Steve Carell ([35:02]): "I loved this already. And he's like, yeah, it's a show about the potheads and the nerds. I'm like, okay, this is my favorite thing ever."
• Ted Danson ([22:23]): "Larry's version of 'I'm a Goody Two Shoe Asshole' was basically my version of that."
• Steve Carell ([56:40]): "Like today in the news, you hear Trump wants to criminalize homelessness... We have to fight on regardless."

Conclusion The episode serves as a heartfelt tribute to Judd Apatow, showcasing his multifaceted contributions to comedy and his unwavering commitment to social causes. Through candid conversations and shared experiences, Ted Danson and Steve Carell honor Apatow's enduring impact, making this episode a must-listen for fans and aspiring comedians alike.

Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Steve Carell ([35:02]): "I loved this already. And he's like, yeah, it's a show about the potheads and the nerds."
• Ted Danson ([22:23]): "Larry's version of 'I'm a Goody Two Shoe Asshole' was basically my version of that."
• Steve Carell ([56:40]): "Like today in the news, you hear Trump wants to criminalize homelessness... We have to fight on regardless."

Closing Remarks Where Everybody Knows Your Name continues to provide an engaging platform for meaningful discussions, blending humor with poignant insights. This episode not only celebrates Judd Apatow's legacy but also inspires listeners to appreciate the intricate tapestry of relationships and experiences that shape the world of comedy.

Transcript

[Judd Apatow]

In the fight against Alzheimer's, now matters more than ever. Because now we have treatments, treatments that could change everything. But now is no time to stop. Now we've got momentum, so now we use it. Now we seize the moment. Now we turn the tide. Now we make a difference and make some noise. Now is the time to get up, get out, and join the movement at the Alzheimer's Association Walk to End Alzheimer's held in over 600 communities nationwide. And we need you with us because now is the time for hope. Join the [e-mail] walk and then she.

[Steve Carell]

Went off to the side and made the vomit herself out of, like, strawberry yogurt and granola. And did she pass it by? Steve? Yeah. Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

Welcome back to Everybody Knows yous Name. Judd Apatow is probably the closest thing we have to a professor of comedy, or maybe even a dean. He bridges generations of comedy through his writing, producing and directing. Think 40 year old virgin, Knocked Up, Freaks and Geeks, Girls Love, and so much more. If you can believe it. August marks the 20th anniversary of the 40 year old virgin, which was remastered for the occasion. Judd also has an amazing new book called Comedy Nerd, which documents his lifelong obsession with comedy in stories and pictures. He just gave me one, and so I have one and you don't. Let's get into it. Meet Judd Apatow.

[Steve Carell]

When do I get my makeup done? You know, you get brought into all these things and then you think, well, there's no video. You don't think much about the video. And then you suddenly you see it on YouTube or somewhere and you look crazy because you don't have your massive glam squad covering all of your tablets.

[Ted Danson]

I have glam lighting. I have to tell you, this is the best lighting I've ever seen on a podc.

[Steve Carell]

So relieved.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah, me too.

[Steve Carell]

Actually, years ago, I realized I didn't care how I looked on anything because I thought, well, I'm just like the weird comedy guy. And so now, like, when I do, like, the talk shows, if you ever track it, it literally may be the same suit for 11 straight years because no one cares how I look in any situation.

[Ted Danson]

The hair, the beard, the color, it's all working.

[Steve Carell]

So in this stage, in this stage.

[Ted Danson]

You'Re better because it's silver foxy.

[Steve Carell]

But I can't shave the beard because when the beard goes, it doesn't look like that.

[Ted Danson]

I wish I could have a beard. Mary goes, no.

[Steve Carell]

Have you ever seen the video?

[Ted Danson]

I mean, you can, but I won't kiss you.

[Steve Carell]

Have you Ever seen the videos where there's, like, a dad with a beard and he has, like, a baby that's like eight months old or two years old, and then one day he just walks in without the beard, and then the babies just scream and cry and flip out and lose their shit.

[Ted Danson]

That's Leslie, your wife. If you shave.

[Steve Carell]

Oh, if I shave. My daughter Maude would always go, ew. Your mouth does weird stuff when you talk. They literally get furious at me. It's not even a debate about regrowing it.

[Ted Danson]

And I think it has nothing to do with your face. It's that it's different.

[Steve Carell]

It's like when you see Spielberg without the beard.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah.

[Steve Carell]

You don't like it.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah. Well, I won't go that far. I'm still looking for it.

[Steve Carell]

Well, it's different, but the beard is the key element in the look.

[Ted Danson]

We did work together once.

[Steve Carell]

Yes, that's right.

[Ted Danson]

For an afternoon.

[Steve Carell]

That's right. Was I a patient of yours? You were playing a therapist.

[Ted Danson]

We were all therapists.

[Steve Carell]

Oh, I was a therapist, too.

[Ted Danson]

Yes. It was therapy for therapists within Help Me, Help youp, which lasted nine episodes. But I got to hang out with Jenny Connor, the best.

[Steve Carell]

Who ran Girls With Lena.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Steve Carell]

And you got to act with me, which is a rare thing, because I don't do that.

[Ted Danson]

You and Phil Rosenthal, who doesn't do that either that often.

[Steve Carell]

There's a reason why we both don't do it, because it's not good. We're supposed to not be seen most of the time.

[Ted Danson]

I am so happy to be talking to you, having read, especially having read the book, because I'm a hired hand. I'm the actor, so I'm not the writer, directed. So my knowledge of the comedy strains that exist out there. But it makes me so happy. It's one of the things I'm proudest of, that I got to be part of a strain that held remarkable legends.

[Steve Carell]

Throughout the best of all time.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah. And this book, I'm going to jump around a lot. Sorry, but the book. Comedy Nerd. And what is the sub thing? Obsession. A lifelong obsession with photos and stories? Something like that.

[Steve Carell]

Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

Let me first just say how wonderful the book is, because I've read about half of it. But I feel like you're sitting down with me, Ted, in front of a fire. I put the fire there. That's for me. But you have a scrapbook, and you're saying, let me tell you about my life and some of the stories and some of these remarkable people. Look here's Garry Shandling, and that's me. And here's this amazing thing you wrote about Gary or about that time in your life. So it's so personal, because it's not just personal writing. You're seeing it, you're believing it with pictures, which makes it so much richer and kind of resonates even more so to me. It's just a joy to read, literally.

[Steve Carell]

Oh, good. Because when you write things that are autobiographical, for me, I instantly think, oh, God, who wants to hear this? Like, my critical voice is like, don't even write the book. So the fact that you like it means a lot to me because obviously your work and the work of all the people around you when you were doing Cheers. All those people, they were all my heroes. And as a young comedy nerd, I mean, that was the center of it. Taxi. There was a lot of the Taxi people. Yeah. Bob Newhart show. I mean, I used to watch those shows when I was a kid. I wasn't good at sports. I'd come home, I'd watch Mary Tyler Moore and mash. I always wonder what it was like from my young 8, 9, 10 year old brain watching MASH every day about the Korean War. It was a dark show. And then you'd watch Mike Douglas and Merv and Carson and then later Letterman, and then Cheers was on. And it was the glory days of sitcom television for sure. And that I felt, programmed my brain of what was funny. I remember you as the hairdresser on Taxi.

[Ted Danson]

Jim Brooks. I can still hear his laugh on all of the taxis.

[Steve Carell]

You were not a nice hairdresser. You were a villain.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah, but I got my come up, and it's because Danny DeVito dumped his whole jar of goo on top of my head at the end. I just also want to say, just contextualize for a minute. It's like, it's so perfect that you wrote this book. It's perfect that you, somebody who's written, directed and produced with all these amazing comic minds because you worked at it, you studied, you came out of the shoot going, no, this is what I want to do, and I will. In high school. I love that you literally had the balls to pick up the phone. Did you have a radio show?

[Steve Carell]

I had a radio show on my high school radio station.

[Ted Danson]

But then you would cold call people who were already making it in the business who, like.

[Steve Carell]

Well, I mean, I would call the publicist and the managers. Yeah. To interview Seinfeld and John Candy and Howard Stern and Sandra Bernhard with no.

[Ted Danson]

Credentials, no reason why Anyone should say yes.

[Steve Carell]

Well, before the Internet, no one could check. So if you said, I'm with WKWZ radio on Long island, nobody could go online and go, wait, this kid's 15 years old. You know, there was no way to track it. And I, and I also think a lot of those people, because it was like pre podcast days, no one wanted to talk to them. They weren't doing a lot of interviews. It wasn't the world of a long term, of a long form interviews. So I think the publicists were like, oh, this is fun. And then I would show up with a tape recorder and I'd be like 15, 16 years old, and they'd give me a look like, okay, I guess I can't cancel this, I gotta do it. He's a kid, he's a child. I also get a lot of like 15, 16 year olds who called me now because they heard this story and they think, oh, well, he'll do it because he knows, do you a third of the time. That's a lot of people. But it was really exciting because I think as a kid I loved variety television. I loved sitcoms. I was just really into show business and just watching it as a kid on Long Island. And so when I started meeting people, it was like getting to the other side of the bubble, like, oh, John, Candy's like a real guy. They're real. Oh, maybe I could enter this world.

[Ted Danson]

Right.

[Steve Carell]

And so I just wanted to, you know, touch them in some way.

[Ted Danson]

I totally understand it. I confess that I bumped into you socially a handful of times and I usually am the wallflower who, mostly because I'm such a sycophant, I'm afraid that I would offend you, me kissing your ass, looking for work. I'm so glad that we got to do this because I would never have the guts to do it.

[Steve Carell]

Yeah, well, this is why I did it. I mean, sometimes I think, like, I was trying to invent the podcast as a kid, you know, that's what I wanted. I, I wish there was a world where I could hear Jay Leno talk for an hour and a half.

[Ted Danson]

Yes.

[Steve Carell]

And so I thought, oh, well, I.

[Ted Danson]

Have to talk to you.

[Steve Carell]

Yeah, well, I have to do it because it doesn't exist.

[Ted Danson]

Right.

[Steve Carell]

In, in that era. And so you wouldn't know what anyone was really like. And like, there was no way for me as a kid, you know, to know, oh, what's Ted Danson like? You know, unless, you know, maybe I read your Playboy magazine, Q and A. If you ever did that. I mean, I used to go to the library and look up the microfiche. I don't know if people remember. Like, there used to be scans of like, the New York Times. And you could go on the microfiche and look up like, John Belushi's obituary or Lenny Bruce trial transcripts or something. But you had to work hard to learn things. Now it just comes up in a second. But I literally was. I remember being at the library, for some reason, looking up Jimi Hendrix obituary on the day he died.

[Ted Danson]

Wow.

[Steve Carell]

I mean, but that's how hard it was to get information about stuff.

[Ted Danson]

I. To this day, I'm thrilled to meet anyone who's part of this tribe of funny people, because it just thrills me.

[Steve Carell]

Yeah. How did.

[Ted Danson]

Going back just a second, your. Your mom managed or headed up a music label?

[Steve Carell]

Well, my grandfather was a jazz producer. His name was Bobby Shad, and he. He produced Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie and Dinah Washington. He worked with Quincy Jones for a long time. And he. He ran labels like Emersy Records. And then he had his own label called Mainstream, which was a. Not a mainstream label. It was in the 60s and 70s, and he had everyone in, you know, from Sarah Vaughan to Janis Joplin. He signed Janis Joplin before Columbia and Ted Nugent and Gerry Mulligan. So that's how I first got exposed to show business, was my grandfather was this very independent jazz guy.

[Ted Danson]

Right. And your mom managed that for a while.

[Steve Carell]

And so then when he died, my mom took over the label and re released everything on CD when that became a thing. But after my parents got divorced, my mom got a job one summer at this club called the East End Comedy Club, and where she was just a hostess seating people. And I was like 14, 15 years old, loved comedy. Had never seen it anywhere but the Westbury Music Fair. We used to go see Rickles and Dangerfield. But this was the summer where I saw the comedians from Catch a Rising Star and the Improv and the Comic Strip. And so, you know, people like Jay Leno were coming out to perform there, Paul Provenza. And that's when I thought, oh, maybe I can ask these people to talk to me.

[Ted Danson]

And just before that, all your comedy's coming from TV watching.

[Steve Carell]

Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

And that's where you went, all right, I gotta have some of this.

[Steve Carell]

Yeah. And so I was at the radio station. My friend Josh Rosenthal started interviewing rock bands. So he would trick rock bands into talking to him, right? So he would interview, like, REM in 1983, things like that. And then he said, you should try if comics would talk to you. So we abused this high school radio station and acted like it was real to see, like, could we get free tickets to see Ray Charles Carnegie Hall. And we would just call up and see who would give us free shit. And then that turned into who would talk to us.

[Ted Danson]

Didn't the. The teacher or the. Whoever that ran it. Didn't he say something to all of you who were doing that as make use of this?

[Steve Carell]

Yeah. Jack Demacy, who is still a great friend, and he. He inspired all of us to. To act like adults. Like, you have this. You know, all it was was like a mic and a phone. And then, you know, we would be talking to Congress people. You know, we would just milk it. Whatever your interest was sports, you would just try to convince people it was real.

[Ted Danson]

Was that ever scary to you, or did you. Because that is a cold call.

[Steve Carell]

Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

Is terrifies me.

[Steve Carell]

Yeah. I don't know why, because, like, I. I don't know why I was ballsy enough to do it. I was probably so bored. Cause I had been watching so much tv, I didn't really have that much to do. And so I just thought, oh, maybe this is my thing. And then as soon as one or two people said yes, the first one, I think, was Steve Allen, the original host of the Tonight show, which at.

[Ted Danson]

That point, what was he doing was he.

[Steve Carell]

He had put out these albums that when he did, like, variety shows, they would do phony phone calls. And so he had these albums of phony phone calls, like him doing phony phone calls with Jerry Lewis or pranking Johnny Carson. And, you know, and so he was promoting these records.

[Ted Danson]

Wait, is this still available? You probably.

[Steve Carell]

I'm sure they're out there.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah.

[Steve Carell]

Somewhere. This is the Jerry Lewis one.

[Ted Danson]

Was. It was hilarious.

[Steve Carell]

And so I talked to him so then I could call the next person and go, yeah, I have this show. We just did Steve Allen. And then I get Leno. And they go, oh, I just got Steve Allen and Leno. And then suddenly it looked very legitimate.

[Ted Danson]

And.

[Steve Carell]

And the truth is, I mean, maybe out of the 50 interviews I did, I aired four. I didn't even bother putting them on the Right.

[Ted Danson]

Because all you wanted is.

[Steve Carell]

I just wanted to do the interview.

[Ted Danson]

Were you in the back of your mind thinking they could help you, or was it just, no, I want to be in the same space. I want to rub shoulders.

[Steve Carell]

Yeah. I don't think I was conscious of this is information I need. It turned out to be everything I mean, comedians talked about how to write jokes. I remember interviewing Harold Ramis. He was in prep on vacation.

[Ted Danson]

I knew him so well, actually.

[Steve Carell]

The best, right?

[Ted Danson]

Yeah.

[Steve Carell]

Just the nicest, most rabbinical man.

[Ted Danson]

Yes.

[Steve Carell]

And just a special guy. We did a movie called year one with him. And that's right. Everyone wanted to be in it because then you got to hang out with Harold. So Jack Black and Michael Cera were in it. Then all the comics played, no matter how small the part was. People would fly to New Mexico. I mean, to Louisiana, to just be around Harold. And then he was the greatest guy. He. He loved to tell you about Belushi and the early days of the Lampoon. Like, everything you wish he would do with you, he would do.

[Ted Danson]

Including singing a song.

[Steve Carell]

Yeah. He loved playing the guitar and singing on set. He had the guitar at the. As he directed.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah.

[Steve Carell]

All day long. So when I was a kid, I interviewed him, and he talked about writing jokes for comedians like Dangerfield and as a way to get in some money, make some money, make some money while you're getting in. And so I started trying to write jokes for people. Cause I'm like, oh, so there's this way to do this where you can be the writer. You could still try to be a comedian, and you could try to write jokes for other people to pay your bills as you learn how to do it.

[Ted Danson]

Woody Allen did that route, too. Right.

[Steve Carell]

There were so many people that started. Larry Gelbard just wrote jokes for Bob Hope.

[Ted Danson]

And what does that mean? Literally that you watch it so you know their style. But then what do you do? You write, dear so. And so, here are some jokes for tonight's show.

[Steve Carell]

Sometimes. Well, sometimes you would just write up a sheet of jokes, and other times, you sit with people. So when I was really young, me and Norm MacDonald and John Rigi were hired to write jokes for Roseanne. And I remember going to her house, and we would sit at her kitchen table, and she would bring out a big stack of yellow legal pads with her ideas.

[Ted Danson]

Right.

[Steve Carell]

And then we would try to figure.

[Ted Danson]

Out which ones for a comedy routine.

[Steve Carell]

Yeah. And then we would, you know, she would just go, like, I want to do something about stretch marks. You know, something. And we're like young guys. Like, okay, I don't really know what that is, but I'll figure it out. And so we would listen to her ideas and try to help her shape them.

[Ted Danson]

Right.

[Steve Carell]

And then sometimes just write jokes and just see if she.

[Ted Danson]

And this is before anything else had happened for you. You were writing jokes yeah.

[Steve Carell]

And for Tom, writing jokes for Tom, which.

[Ted Danson]

Which I understood could be sometimes scary.

[Steve Carell]

Well, Tom was like, the world didn't know who Tom was. So Tom started dating Roseanne and he was a comic from the Midwest. And then it's like, who's this guy that suddenly with Roseanne? And Tom was very funny and very up for writing very self deprecating jokes. And he was hilarious.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah, yeah. So okay, then Garry Shandling, were you writing for him at that point or did that come later? Cause that's a huge person in your life. If I read that.

[Steve Carell]

Oh, yeah, absolutely. Well, I was working at the Improv doing standup in Dallas, and then I got a call. Gary needs jokes for the Grammys.

[Ted Danson]

Right. So wait, wait, get me there. To the standup in Dallas. Had you, when you were doing jokes for Roseanne, had you done standup yet?

[Steve Carell]

Yeah, I'd be doing standup, like at the Improv at night. I was like the MC for years in the late 80s. And it was just everyone on earth was coming in. It was like Seinfeld and Leno and Ellen and Robin Williams. Like every night was like this greatest hits of the Earth shows. And I was like the host trying to squeeze in a joke in the middle. And I'd go on the road, to the road, Improv clubs. And I didn't know Gary. I'd met him once very briefly, and then I got a call and they said he needs jokes for the Grammys. And so I stayed up all night and just literally wrote him like a hundred jokes. And the next day we had a call. And I always remembered because it was when the first Gulf War started, like literally that week.

[Ted Danson]

Wow.

[Steve Carell]

And so we sat on the phone and he read every joke. And then he. We kicked around the joke. And then he would make it better. He would fix every joke or come up with a better punchline. And then he said, do you want to come to New York when we do the Grammys? And so I was like a kid. He flew me to New York. There were other writers too. Jeff Cesario worked on that show a lot and got to be on the stage during the Grammys. And I'd never seen anything before in my life. And suddenly Bob Dylan's playing the show, Bono's giving an award to Sinatra. It was like nuts. Like, the best thing that ever happened. And that's how I got to know Gary. And then later on I got to work with him on his show. I mean, he was just always so nice to me. And when I did this sketch of the Ben Stiller show. I asked him to do the pilot, and he said yes. And then I asked him, do you want to be in one of the other episodes? He said yes. And then he started the Larry Sanders Show. And then as soon as the Ben Silly show was canceled, he said, why don't you work for the Larry Sanders Show? He's like, you'll learn a lot. Which was kind of a big deal because he didn't say, you're going to be really helpful. He's like, you're going to learn. So it was a very much a giving gesture. And then I worked there mainly just pitching jokes, and then I slowly had more responsibility. But Gary would go through the writers. He fired a lot of writers, a lot of the best writers ever. That for reasons both logical and completely illogical, the place got.

[Ted Danson]

Was that. Is he. Was that a scary part of him?

[Steve Carell]

It was in the sense whimsical or.

[Ted Danson]

No, in his head.

[Steve Carell]

It was just that he's, you know, brilliant and exhausted and neurotic, and so he would work with a writer, and then suddenly it would turn for him in some way, and it's impossible to know what's in his head. So if you're writing for Garry, it's very easy for Gary to go, well, I wouldn't say that. And he'd be right. But you don't. Like, you couldn't climb in with him totally. So there were very few writers who didn't have moments where he was deeply disappointed. Because I used to say, it's like, if you wanted to paint with Picasso, say you were painting with him. And then Picasso's like, why are you using red?

[Ted Danson]

Yes.

[Steve Carell]

Like, that's what it felt like at times. Certain people really were amazing at it. Peter Tolan, Paul Sims, Maya Forbes, and John Rigi. There were people that lasted, but it would always ultimately get weird. And so when I was asked to help run it with Adam Resnick, I just said, gary, I'm really worried about our friendship. I'll do this, but you can't hate me. Like, how can we do this where you don't hate me at the end of it? Like, where we still talk? And he's like, I'm not gonna hate you. And I'm like, but seriously, like, we gotta stay connected. Don't turn on me. And no, we did get through it. We definitely got through it.

[Ted Danson]

That was a game changer of a show. I mean, way ahead of its time, and no one had seen anything like that. I mean, it's Curb, like, in A way in that who was the actor of the story? Somebody insulted him or did something inside.

[Steve Carell]

Oh, Dana Carvey. Yeah, Dana Carvey did an impression of him, and I think Robert Smigel wrote it. And it was like, really, like kind of a mean, like, whiny Gary, you know, my ass. Like, it was just a very kind of two dimensional. Just tough making fun of Gary.

[Ted Danson]

Right.

[Steve Carell]

And then Dana Carvey calls Gary and he's like, I'm so sorry I didn't write that. And then Gary said, it's okay. We'll just do an episode about it. Yeah. And then he did an episode where Dana is filling in for him and he does the vicious impression. So Gary took something that he really didn't like and put it on his own show. And that's kind of how the show would work, is things would happen in life. And then he would bring it onto the show. His girlfriend that he wrote an episode, Linda Doucet, who played Hank's assistant. They were writing an episode where she becomes a Playboy Playmate. And then while writing it, Hugh Hefner asked Linda to be a Playboy Playmate, and she said yes. So everything would keep folding in on each other.

[Ted Danson]

So you must have been writing on the spot. Sometimes when something would happen and all.

[Steve Carell]

The guest stars would change, you know, they would write it for one person and then someone else would show up. And then you had to look people in the eye and say, you know, this scene is satirizing you. So people are playing themselves and it's our version of what's funny about them. And then they read it like, oh, that's the joke on me.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah.

[Steve Carell]

And so sometimes people were. Yeah, I'm thrilled about what the joke was.

[Ted Danson]

Larry. Larry's version of I'm a Goody Two Shoe Asshole was basically my version of that. Just a moment about Rip Torrent.

[Steve Carell]

Oh, wow. Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

Who to me is one of those remarkable actors. Any moment, anything. What was that like, Rip?

[Steve Carell]

I mean, Rip was like. I guess he was drunk a lot. But, you know, I'm so young, I don't even know he's drunk. I'm just like, Rip's kind of a character. I remember somebody going to me, he's just drunk. I'm like, oh, I just thought he was in a weird mood. I never got, like, what was really happening. I remember there was a moment where, you know, Rip and Jeffrey got into a fight and. And this is a story.

[Ted Danson]

Sorry.

[Steve Carell]

Yeah, this is. So Jeffrey Tambor, who played Hank, and Rip called. Rip's character calls Jeffrey's character like an idiot, right? And then Jeffrey afterward was like, can we take that out? My character is not an idiot. He is. He had another kind of word for him. But I don't think he's an idiot. You know, I think he's insincere. And. And Rip goes, well, my character thinks your character's an idiot. And then it turns into this big fight, and Rip runs out and he's like, screw this. I'm tired of this show. I'm out of here. And the producers are chasing after him, and he goes call his agent to quit the show. And he picks up the phone and he's like, bob Gersh, please. All right. Could you tell them, Rip Torn Cold. Okay, let's go back. It was kind of like that on a daily basis.

[Ted Danson]

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[Steve Carell]

Woody.

[Ted Danson]

I loved when you're talking about you're still a fan.

[Steve Carell]

Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely.

[Ted Danson]

You're still a fan. And the excitement of bumping shoulders with people like that.

[Steve Carell]

Oh. Sometimes I think I only make things to be allowed to be in.

[Ted Danson]

In the room.

[Steve Carell]

Exactly. Just to be in the business. Like, you have to actually have made something for you to want to talk to me.

[Ted Danson]

Right, right.

[Steve Carell]

Like, it's, it's like the, it's more like the, you know, the, the entrance paths.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah.

[Steve Carell]

Is that you've done something.

[Ted Danson]

And so my way in is just to be nice. I'm not particularly talented, but I'm really nice. And people like hanging out with me. That also goes a long way in this business.

[Steve Carell]

Are you nice to the core? It's a facade.

[Ted Danson]

I can do both.

[Steve Carell]

Yeah. Yeah. But you operate in the world is nice.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah.

[Steve Carell]

And then you keep the. The darker side to yourself. Unless it's like curb or something where they sense it in you and they bring it out. Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

He was mean towards me. Very mean.

[Steve Carell]

Disrespectful. Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

I get through a. Halfway through a season, and over here, I'd hit a mark earlier than I was supposed to. So I Came by when he was finishing up a conversation with somebody, and I heard, oh, God, Dan said, he's such an asshole. I agree. What a fucking asshole.

[Steve Carell]

And I went, whoa.

[Ted Danson]

I went, okay, well, I don't know what that's about, but it happened again. And I went up to Jeff Goldplink and said, I just heard. And he said, because I'd never read the scripts, you would just say, you know, they'd say, here, walk here, do that. This is what you're thinking. And he said, you don't know. You are the major asshole of this season. That's what you are anyway. That's me.

[Steve Carell]

That's fun. Sometimes you did they flip it that you go the other way.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah. He's a strain of comedy, wouldn't you say, Larry? Yeah, yeah.

[Steve Carell]

Just the.

[Ted Danson]

Where did he come from, do you think?

[Steve Carell]

Is that his attitude?

[Ted Danson]

No, no. This strain where he came, that he came out of, that allowed him to be Larry, or is it all just him? Because he did change things. Yeah, he changed half hour forever.

[Steve Carell]

I mean, I don't know, like, the source of Larry, like, how that all happened, but I would hear about him all the time when I was about standup. So this is before Seinfeld. And people would say, oh, you know Larry, like, if he's not happy, he'll just walk off the stage in the middle of the set. And then he came in one day and I saw him do a set. And I remember one of the jokes because I was so excited to finally see him. And it was all about how hard it is to get the head of a South American country to wear a condom. And it's like, I don't have to wear a condom. I'm the generalissimo. And then so when he did, when he started Curb youb Enthusiasm, I was just fascinated by it, and especially by the improv aspect of it, because we had been trying to figure out how to keep it really loose on sets. But not necessarily film sets or TV sets, both. Just like working from a loose place where we do the script, but we give people opportunities to break away. But then we heard, oh, he's working with no script, with just an outline. So I asked him, and I didn't really know him at the time, if I could come and watch him do it.

[Ted Danson]

Right?

[Steve Carell]

And so right before he shot, he was about to shoot a scene with an actor he didn't know, someone he just hired in casting. And I said, have you ever had anybody just lock up? Like, they just can't do it? He's like, no, we've been very lucky. And then I watched the guy lock up. And then he turned to me and he's like, this guy's got a three episode arc. We're gonna have to get rid of this guy. But then I heard that the guy actually pulled it together and they kept him.

[Ted Danson]

The other thing that doesn't work with that is when the person comes and has practiced being funny and trying to be funny for Larry, because that ain't your job. Your job is to service Larry, really, You know, and not try to demonstrate how funny you are.

[Steve Carell]

I heard I almost got cast on an episode, but they didn't think I was a big enough asshole. And I was like, I don't know. I wish I could have proven it to you. They're like, you got close on that one. But we went for a bigger jerk. I don't know who got us.

[Ted Danson]

It would be nice to name names.

[Steve Carell]

I know. I wish I knew where did.

[Ted Danson]

All right, go back a little bit, I think. Go back. Maybe not. Freaks and Geeks, to me seems like it was like, get me there. Because there are people there that you that either married or worked with, or were you already married to Leslie and Freaks and Geeks?

[Steve Carell]

I was married when we did Freaks and Geeks.

[Ted Danson]

But Seth, Jason, all these people you kept working with over and over again, they feel like part of your rep company almost.

[Steve Carell]

Yeah. I mean, you know, I had this deal at Dreamworks, and I said to Paul Feig, if you ever have any ideas, let me know, because I'm looking to find some projects. And then one day he called me and he just handed me a yellow envelope. It's almost like, just slide it across the table, right? And you look and it just says freaks and Geeks. And instantly I was like, oh, I love it. I love this already. And he's like, yeah, it's a show about the potheads and the nerds. I'm like, okay, this is my favorite thing ever. I don't even have to open it up. And it was amazing.

[Ted Danson]

Did he write it?

[Steve Carell]

He wrote it. And then we brought on Jake hasn't to direct, and I was producing, and then we all were writing on the staff. But Paul had such a sense of what it was. I mean, he really. He wrote this giant bible that was like 60 pages, just explaining the town and the clothes and the characters and the people and the themes of what he wanted to do. And he just had so many stories. And just like, the amount of humiliating stories he had from high school was remarkable.

[Ted Danson]

Was he wearing a suit when he gave that to you, by the way?

[Steve Carell]

He wasn't wearing the suit yet. The suit happened right at the end of that. That time period.

[Ted Danson]

Oh, really?

[Steve Carell]

Yeah. Where he wears a suit when he directs.

[Ted Danson]

Every. Every day he directs.

[Steve Carell]

And I'm a pig, right? So I don't. You know, I. As I said before, I don't dress up. And Paul was like, me for a very long time. He was like a Hawaiian bowling shirt type of guy. And then suddenly, it turned into, like, the greatest suits ever. And I have to say, it made me uncomfortable, probably due to my own insecurities that I have no fashion sense. And so when we were doing Bridesmaids and Paul was directing right before we started shooting, I said, paul, I don't think you should wear a suit when you direct the movie, because doesn't it make it like you're the center of attention? Like, it just feels like. Make it about them. Don't wear the suit. And he just went, no, I'm gonna wear the suit.

[Ted Danson]

What is the story behind. There was a story, and I can't remember why he. You know.

[Steve Carell]

Well, yeah, I'm not sure, like, the origination of it, but I was so wrong, because the crew and the cast loved it so much that they would have, like, Paul Feig suit days where they. They would wear suits. Like, I was like, the jerk who just, like, didn't get that. You know, he's doing a little Hitchcock suit thing, and I'm. You know, I'm a James Purse guy, you know?

[Ted Danson]

Right.

[Steve Carell]

That's all I got.

[Ted Danson]

That ain't bad.

[Steve Carell]

That's as fashionable as I get.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah. Yeah. I got to be directed by him once. I just really admire him hugely.

[Steve Carell]

So it was incredible watching his vision come to life. And then we all told him all of our heartbreaking childhood stories and had a great staff. Mike White was on the staff of Freaks and Geeks, and he was really helpful because he had just worked on Dawson's Creek, and he was the only one who had ever worked on an hour show before. So he understood the structure of the hour show, and. And he would, you know, you know, he would write these scripts, and they would really be great. And I remember he gave me a script, and I gave him notes to do some revisions. And then a week later, he gives me the revisions. And then when the show was done, he said, you know, Judd, when you would give me notes, I would do the revisions in 35 minutes and then take a week to write a screenplay, which I respected. I Respected.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah.

[Steve Carell]

That's how I would have handled it.

[Ted Danson]

Dawson's Creek does not seem like a Mike White.

[Steve Carell]

You gotta starred in television. I mean, that was a giant show, but it was funny because that was the show that in a lot of ways, Paul felt like those are the beautiful kids. And it was like a soap opera. And Paul was like, I want to represent the kids you never see on a show like that. And that's why he wrote Freaks and.

[Ted Danson]

Geeks and the casting. How did you. Were those people you knew in advance, the Jason?

[Steve Carell]

No, we didn't know anybody. We just had a theory about it, which was, the script is great, but let's see who's out there and create these cliques of kids, and then Paul will tune it in to the people we find.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah. Which is the best way to write.

[Steve Carell]

And that was why I think it worked, because Paul was flexible. Like, he had archetypes. But, you know, when you would meet people, you know, like Sam Levine, who played Neil and Martin Starr, like, you could go, oh, I can add this aspect of what they're doing and their personalities, but then it's not a stretch.

[Ted Danson]

No one's acting. They're inhabiting exactly a big part of who they are.

[Steve Carell]

Yeah. And Linda Cardellini and John Daly, who were the leads, you know, they were just magic. Every second that we shot, there wasn't a frame in the daily that wasn't perfect from them. And you felt it the whole time, like, something's happening here that's, like really special and it's clicking on all cylinders. But at the same time, we were like, we are going to get canceled at any second.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah. And you were.

[Steve Carell]

And we were right about that.

[Ted Danson]

I don't see. I don't get. I came late to that. I didn't see it was on the air, but I came back because it became such a major. You got to see this, and everyone came out of that. Why did you just.

[Steve Carell]

I mean, you could say it's marketing. You could say it was too painful.

[Ted Danson]

What year was it?

[Steve Carell]

It was 99.

[Ted Danson]

We should have been ready for that.

[Steve Carell]

But it was a little bit like independent movies on tv. It was like independent tv. So the kids episodes would end in a really depressing way, but like a deeply troubling. Like there was an episode where Jason Segel was trying to be a drummer, and he auditions for a local band, and the end of the show is he's kind of realizing he will never, ever be a drummer. The end. And the last moment of the episode is Linda Cardellini, who he loves, but her character doesn't like him. He's so depressed that she kisses him.

[Ted Danson]

That she's so depressed. No, he's so depressed.

[Steve Carell]

She's so nervous about how depressed he is that she just doesn't know what to do because he's spiraling out and so she kisses him.

[Ted Danson]

Is that the end?

[Steve Carell]

That's the end of the episode, but.

[Ted Danson]

That'S a great end.

[Steve Carell]

Oh, it was beautiful, but just not like the end of a show that would make you feel great. It was more like life is really hard and your friends help you get through it and your family and that's it. So it might have been dark or there was a lot of things happening. I don't remember if it was like the World Series or the Olympics, but we were on every three weeks. Ah, that'll do it on Saturday nights in a weird slot.

[Ted Danson]

You were a streaming show before there was streaming. Really.

[Steve Carell]

And what's weird is more people watch it now than then. It's on as if it's on, but it's a long time ago.

[Ted Danson]

Okay, how close are we, career wise, your career in getting to going from writing to directing? Well, after Gary.

[Steve Carell]

After. Yeah, after Gary, you know, I worked on some movies. You know, I, I was able to write a couple of movies. I wrote Fun with Dick and Jane with Nick Stoller, and we.

[Ted Danson]

And that's Jim Carrey, who we worked.

[Steve Carell]

With on the, on the Cable Guy, who's an old, old friend who I used to, you know, help write sketches on and Living Color with and, you know, just.

[Ted Danson]

God, what a talented, astounding.

[Steve Carell]

Oh, Jim is. I mean, even back then when Jim was. Hadn't broken, you know, we all just thought like, oh, that's, that's our Charlie Chaplin. Yeah, that's. That's. He's going to be the guy. It was just like, how is it going to happen? And then it, you know, and then it did.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah.

[Steve Carell]

And so, so we got to work with him on that. And then I produced Anchorman, which Will Ferrell and Adam McKay read and Adam directed and. Because that did well. And a couple of movies, like especially the Will movies, started doing well. Like Elf Mary was in that. Yes. And that kind of changed the game.

[Ted Danson]

So you were a go to write the funny.

[Steve Carell]

I was producing on some and writing on others and being like a creative producer. And then after Anchorman, I asked Steve Carell, do you have any ideas? Seems like you should be the lead of one of these.

[Ted Danson]

Knowing him from.

[Steve Carell]

From Anchorman as Brick the weatherman. And so he said, a couple ideas. And he said, and I have this other thing about, you know, a 40 year old virgin. And I used to do a sketch where he was in a poker game and they're all telling dirty sex stories. And when you get to him, it's clear he's never had sex and he's lying. And then he said to me, you know, it's like, you know, like when you touch a woman's breasts and it feels like a bag of sand. You know, like when you put your hand down a woman's pants and there's all the baby powder. And so I just understood what that was. I just thought, okay, I get that I can, I can, I can relate to all of that. And so we, you know, we pitched it around town and they allowed me to direct that one.

[Ted Danson]

I have to, I want more questions about that, but I have to interrupt by saying Mary and I were kind of like the virgins to 40 year old virgin. We had never seen it. We confessed to each other when you knew you were coming on. I said, I'm embarrassed to tell you I've never seen this. Would you mind watching it again with me? And she had the same story. Dear Lord, we howled with laughter. I mean, it is so funny. It is so brilliant. It is so touching. Your wonderful wife is one of those amazing actors who can literally go anywhere and be totally touching and believable in the same time. It's such a sweet, loving, raunchy movie. It's just. I think it must be everything you wanted in a movie because I can't remember what the quote was about. You. You want to be loving and caring and. And have a penis in it. Every movie has to have a penis in it somehow.

[Steve Carell]

There was a period we did want that, but. Yeah, sorry.

[Ted Danson]

It's brilliant. I'm sorry I'm late to the party. Absolutely brilliant.

[Steve Carell]

I like that these things just float around and find their way to people. We did a screening of it. It's the 20th anniversary of the movie.

[Ted Danson]

Coming up in August. 20th.

[Steve Carell]

Yeah. So August 22nd, they're putting it in movie theaters for a week. And Train wreck, it's the 10th anniversary. So both of those movies you could watch with people in the theater, which would be fun. But we showed it at the Motion Picture Academy Museum and with a thousand people. And I hadn't seen it recently. Yeah. And I hadn't seen it since, you know, 2005. So I got to watch it. Having not remembered about 80% of what was in it, like, I got a real watch of it as an audience member.

[Ted Danson]

You were an audience man.

[Steve Carell]

And I have to say, sag. I was laughing. There was good joke compression. It was like, wow, this is. Someone's working really hard to stuff a lot of jokes in this. Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

But it was also so touching.

[Steve Carell]

Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

Really was. I mean, that's Steve Carell. Is that.

[Steve Carell]

I mean, Steve has such a big heart. And at the beginning of the process, we were like, what if we took this very seriously, like, emotionally and not just a big dumbass movie. Like, what his problem is, what emotionally he needs to get over. And his shame, his sense of feeling less than. And his insecurities and. And really right to the truth of it. And because he's such a great actor and so, you know, emotionally available, in addition to being the funniest guy ever, he did something really remarkable was.

[Ted Danson]

Did you know Paul Rudd by then?

[Steve Carell]

Well, we did Anchorman together.

[Ted Danson]

Right. Was that. Where the hell did he come from? He's astounding and keeps getting richer and richer, but he's one of those people that are just. Can be funny without even. You don't see it ever coming.

[Steve Carell]

Well, I think back then he was doing probably more serious stuff than comedies, but he really wanted to do comedies. And I remember him coming in fully dressed in the 70s clothes for the Hanger man audition and the mustache. And, you know, he definitely was committed to, like, being a comedy star. And I would always say, all I need is for you to gain weight. I just want you to gain weight. I like Chunky Paul. Let's do Chunky Paul. And then when we were shooting the movie, like, three Days in, the Studio got really mad. They're like, what happened to Paul? Would he do anything about this? I'm like, I can't change his weight in the middle of the movie. But, you know, he was doing a De Niro for us.

[Ted Danson]

I loved watching him dawn when he started to look at Steve and it was dawning on him, something's not right. And I thought he was gonna go evil and mean.

[Steve Carell]

Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

And it was just. No, it went the exact opposite. Very sweet. But you could see a dawn on him.

[Steve Carell]

Yeah, yeah. No, he. He's the funniest. And so anyway, we've worked together a ton of Times. This is 40 we did together. He was like, you know, the husband to my wife, Leslie Mann.

[Ted Danson]

Leslie. Seriously, that whole scene with her getting drunk in the car, I mean, there was just uproarious laughs in it. So I'm really glad I got to catch up with you.

[Steve Carell]

Leslie was like, I think I have to vomit in his face in the end. Don't you think? You know, Leslie always has a great, like, joke ideas. And then she went off to the side and made the vomit herself out of like strawberry yogurt and granola. And did she pass it by Steve? Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah.

[Steve Carell]

And Steve does this great take is his face is just covered and he just kind of stands there and just lets it kind of run down his face.

[Ted Danson]

Did you, did you have a daiquiri tonight or whatever?

[Steve Carell]

I thought you might have.

[Ted Danson]

Wow. It's summer and there's a lot of things to say cheers to. Whether it's a sun filled day at the beach with your friends and family, or a dog that never leaves your side while you're grilling, or your favorite baseball team finally heating up. And nothing says life is good like a handcrafted summer beverage from Starbucks. Whether you're sipping the unofficial drink of the summer, the Summer Berry refresher, or trying something new like the Strato Frappuccino blended beverage, Starbucks summer beverages are cold, refreshing and handcrafted to brighten your day. I am speaking from experience because I just tried the Strato Frappuccino blended beverage, which takes the classic Frappuccino in an exciting new direction. I love the cold foam topping, which I proudly wore until somebody pointed out a little mustache on my upper lip. Super delicious. Every sip was so creamy. It's like a great spin off of a classic show like, oh, I don't know, Frasier to Cheers. And it's available this summer for a limited time. Your Strato Frappuccino is ready at Starbucks. Get the one that gives you a mustache. That's my advice.

[Steve Carell]

This episode is brought to you by FX's alien Earth, the official podcast. Each week, host Adam Rogers is joined by guests, including the show's creator, cast and crew. In this exclusive companion podcast. They will explore the story elements, deep dive into character motivations, and offer an episode by episode behind the scenes breakdown of each terrifying chapter in this new series. Search F Is Alien Earth? Wherever you listen to podcasts.

[Ted Danson]

How about your docs? You had one with the relationship between Don Rickles and Bob Newhart. Bob Newhart?

[Steve Carell]

Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

Two of the people that I loved, knowing that they were friends. When I found that out in some talk show, it just made me so happy.

[Steve Carell]

Yeah, I mean, I had only met Bob Newhart a couple of times and I got a call and he said, I want you to make a movie about Don, about our Friendship. And I don't want people to forget. Don't. After Don died. And so I just instantly started shooting just with my own money. I'm like, I'm in this business because of Bob. And I just. In my head, I thought of just literally the hundreds of hours of me as a little kid sitting, watching the Bob Neighborhood Hard show.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah.

[Steve Carell]

And so I just. As an act of faith, I'm like, I'm just gonna start shooting. Let's go. And so we interviewed him and his family and his wife, and it was.

[Ted Danson]

Really his wife alive?

[Steve Carell]

No, but. But Bob's. Bob's wife.

[Ted Danson]

That's all you had of Don was.

[Steve Carell]

Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

Bob's point of view. Memories.

[Steve Carell]

Yeah. And so. And it was just so beautiful that he loved Don so much and just wanted to talk about their friendship and their lives. And then when it was done, I realized, like, I think this is, like a short film, you know, that it's not a big, long doc because there's been a lot of great docs about Bob and Don, but let's just. Let's lean into, like, that. This is, like, beautiful and heartbreaking and. And very emotional. And then I gave it to the New Yorker, so you could watch it on the New Yorker website. It's called Bob and Don A Love Story. Or you could watch it on YouTube. So it's just free unless I gave it out so people could. Could see it. And. But I thought, like, I mean, you were friends with both of them, I assume, to some extent.

[Ted Danson]

No, no.

[Steve Carell]

Did you meet Travels?

[Ted Danson]

No, Never, ever got to. But I listened to his records. I remember that was a family thing back when I was with my folks still.

[Steve Carell]

But Bob has got to, in some ways, I think, edgier than Don. Like, in life. His sense of humor was edgier even. Like, he would make fun of Don even after Don was gone. Like, he would say, you know, so we were in Vegas together. I was in the big room. Like, he would still be insulting Don post his death.

[Ted Danson]

That's funny.

[Steve Carell]

The funny thing he said about Don, which made me laugh, was he said. I said, did he write anything? It seemed like he always had the same act. And then he would riff with the crowd. He's like, yeah, he never wrote anything. And we would watch him, and he would go out there almost like in a fugue state. Like, he would just start babbling, and it would be so crazy and so funny. And he would get off stage and we would say, remember that thing you said to that guy? And this thing? And he's like he didn't remember a word he had said. So he wouldn't come off stage and write down the great jokes to do them again. He would never do them again. And I find it's like almost like he had like ADD or something.

[Ted Danson]

Right?

[Steve Carell]

Because I said, well, what about when he's performing at Reagan's inauguration? Does he have like jokes pre written? And he's like, no, that's not how it worked. They would just push him out on the stage and he would just start.

[Ted Danson]

He worked. He worked clean.

[Steve Carell]

Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

He wasn't using words that could, you know, you'd have to bleed.

[Steve Carell]

And some of the jokes are shocking now.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah.

[Steve Carell]

Like what he was going, what he was doing. Some of it. You're like, wow, I don't think you're gonna do that. Even picking the jokes to show in the documentary to get a sense of the spirit of it, but to not put any in where people would freak out. But it was a time where people really got a kick out of it. And Bob said people would walk up to him on the street and go, do me, do me. They would just wanna get lasted.

[Ted Danson]

Say the worst things you can think of. Do me. Yeah, yeah. Isn't that funny how we've gone? I mean, that whole cancel thing. Because you said some of you. I suppose pendulums swing back and forth and that's probably good, but.

[Steve Carell]

Well, according to south park, it's. Everything's fair game.

[Ted Danson]

I see.

[Steve Carell]

I.

[Ted Danson]

Damn it, I've missed this.

[Steve Carell]

I haven't watched it yet, but you just love that they're out there. Like, you guys might have rules, but not on us.

[Ted Danson]

How political are you? We don't have to get into it. You don't have to do anything. But how do you. When did you all of a sudden go, oh, all of you know, my career has led me to the point where now I am. Do I have a responsibility to da, da, da da. You know, other things to social things to life or I have the money that I need. That's power in a way. Do I, you know what did anything. What was that for you, that moment?

[Steve Carell]

Well, when I was a kid, I worked for Comic Relief and so those were benefits for the homeless with all the great comedy people. You were a part of it and Robin Williams, Billy Crystal and Whoopi Goldberg would host it every year on hbo. Like the Live Aid of comedy. There was a guy there named Dennis Alba and he was in charge of the money and how it was spent. And he was just a mentor to me in terms of charity.

[Ted Danson]

Right.

[Steve Carell]

And so at one point, he gave me a list of places that needed money. And so I just asked him, like, who needs it? And a lot of these were healthcare for the homeless facilities, because it's very hard for homeless people to get any kind of medical treatment. And I think I remember I spoke to you at one point about charities, because you turned me on to Oceana and LA Men's Place.

[Ted Danson]

Thank you. Thank you.

[Steve Carell]

Right, yeah. And so I would always have these lists of places, like what I can. That I would give to. So it started really with charity, and then at some point, it just becomes about kindness. Right. So, like today.

[Ted Danson]

Thank you.

[Steve Carell]

Like today in the news, you hear Trump wants to criminalize homelessness.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah.

[Steve Carell]

So some of those people are addicted, some of those people are mentally ill, and some of the people are just really down on their luck. In a bad situation, you can't just toss them in jails. The jails aren't set up for that. So just politically, the thing that guides me the most is don't you want leaders who are aware of that? Like, we don't want to torture these people. We don't want to torture undocumented people more than left and right. Like, don't you want people who go, what is the most humane way to do things?

[Ted Danson]

I sometimes think that there's, you know. Well, there is. There's the people around him or the people before him even. I feel like a lot of times, all the most hurtful, scary, sad, sorrowful things that you and I witness is a purposeful Pokemon in the eye. Because over here, we're doing this, which.

[Steve Carell]

Is the big stuff that is much more thought through, like what's happening in the country. There is probably a plan for the next 18 months of this is when we're going to deal with this issue, and this is when we're going to take over this thing. And I feel like everybody on the other side does not know what to do.

[Ted Danson]

No.

[Steve Carell]

And there are some people who are like, well, let them just fail and it'll swing back, but they're not failing, or they'll be in such a position that even if people are unsatisfied, you won't be able to get rid of them.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah, it's kind of scary. I mean, there's all this stuff that is humanity getting beat up, and there's a lot of fear and sorrow and all of that, especially in la, or at least feels, especially in la. But then you go, hey, folks, do you think you're going to be immune from climate change and the devastation that's coming our way as a result of that. The people that love you in the middle of this country. And you're saying it's a hoax.

[Steve Carell]

Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

And we're going to take all the science out of here because it's contradicting our. It's a hoax thing.

[Steve Carell]

Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

It's going to clobber all of us. You're not going to be rich enough or on the maga enough to avoid what's coming our way.

[Steve Carell]

Well, how much proof do you need? I mean, there's mountains melting and people are being flooded, fires. It's. You know, that's what I find most shocking is even the people who live in those areas. You don't get the sense that afterwards they're furious about these issues.

[Ted Danson]

Right.

[Steve Carell]

And then I think the scariest part is people deciding it's unfixable. So let's just go to Mars.

[Ted Danson]

God's will.

[Steve Carell]

Yeah, I'm just gonna.

[Ted Danson]

God's will. Let's go to Mars.

[Steve Carell]

I'm gonna upload my consciousness to a computer so we don't have to worry.

[Ted Danson]

About global warming or have a billion children that will carry my.

[Steve Carell]

Yeah. So I think it's. That's what's more scary is people giving up and going, yeah, let's just drill and make money and, you know, and ride this out and just milk it and just leave it in tatters.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah. Yeah. Very sad. Very scary.

[Steve Carell]

Wow, you really brought this thing down.

[Ted Danson]

No, no, no, no, no.

[Steve Carell]

But, you know, we have to. We have to fight on regardless. I mean, that's the hard part is you have to stay in it and try to come up with ways to, you know, be the light when there's a lot of dark happening.

[Ted Danson]

Yes. Because you can't fight dark with dark.

[Steve Carell]

Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

Or make decisions out of fear and anger. I don't think they work. So you do need to do that. My, my. I always ask myself, well, are you just being confrontation, you know, avoidance.

[Steve Carell]

Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

You know.

[Steve Carell]

Yeah. But you've been fighting that fight for the environment for a very long time.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah. And I'm. I'm happy to have that fight because it's science.

[Steve Carell]

Well, I know just right down the street from my house is a giant sign that says, you are in a stage four fire area. And I'm like, what does that mean?

[Ted Danson]

Yeah.

[Steve Carell]

Why do we have a sign a block from our house? Like, you're in the worst place on earth to live. Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah.

[Steve Carell]

But I was lucky is when the fires happened, you know, I had just moved. And so I used to live farther west, and I had just moved, but then I was in my house and I was packing stuff just because I was nervous how far would it go? And then I realized that I don't own anything of value. I really had. I was like, what would I take? I'm like, I didn't really get anything. I just like my iPad. I realized that I wasn't for a very stuffed driven. That made me feel a little better that I, you know, I could get new James purse shirts. But our house that we lived in when we first had our kids burnt down in the Palisades, and even seeing a house you used to live in, it's just devastating. And that's where we raise our kids. So every place where we raise our kids has gone our doctor's office, our dentist's office, the supermarket, the Starbucks. And so that's why when we did the book, I thought, oh, you know, we can give the money to Fire Aid.

[Ted Danson]

I wanted to mention that everything you've made, which is a nice, healthy pre sale chunk, is going to Fire aid.

[Steve Carell]

Yeah. And 826, which provides free tutoring to kids. Those are the two charities that the book goes to. And it's raised already about half a million dollars for that. Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

And rightfully so. It's really, truly a brilliant book. What else do I want to say to you, Judd? Hire me. No shit. Did that come out? Oh, I didn't mean that. I'm just kidding.

[Steve Carell]

Do you know that every meeting I go to, they go, could Ted Danson be in it? Yes. Do you know that you are almost like the thing that if you're a writer and you're just trying to get things through and they're like, you gotta package it. You gotta know who your actors are, and there's just a few people that get it done. And it's you. You and Nicole Kidman. I would say you're the two people that can do anything in the world. Do you feel that in your career?

[Ted Danson]

First time I've ever been associated with her, and I am so thankful. That's very cool. First off, I now learned that you have not listened to this podcast because if you had, you would have known that. I usually like the compliments up front because it relaxes me. This is almost over and I've been so tense.

[Steve Carell]

I wanted you on guard.

[Ted Danson]

What if you had to go, this is what I would like to be doing next. Or I have something I really want to do or whatever with. Yeah. Do you have that. Are you doing.

[Steve Carell]

That's my next goal.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah. Yeah. Or where am I really going with all of this?

[Steve Carell]

Yeah. I don't know if I have a goal. I mean.

[Ted Danson]

Because you're doing it.

[Steve Carell]

Yeah. I mean, I've been doing, you know, I'm doing a documentary on Mel Brooks right now. Yes.

[Ted Danson]

Thank you for that.

[Steve Carell]

Thank you for that. And we're also doing one about Norm MacDonald. So I really am enjoying, you know, telling stories in documentary form. And then I'd like to have, you know, more comedies in the movie theater with people at the theater, you know, and watching things together. So even though that's.

[Ted Danson]

Is that gone gone, or is it.

[Steve Carell]

I don't think it's gone gone. I'm going to shoot a movie in February and. And I hope that that swings back, but I certainly. It's a goal to try to help that happen.

[Ted Danson]

I love that you're grabbing people who have made such a huge impact on comedy. Mel Brooks, you know, grabbing them now. I want to talk to Carol Burnett. I got an award named after her and I got to tell her how much I love her. I got to hug her. And Dick Van Dyke. I. I've gotten to. We went to his house to do this.

[Steve Carell]

These are.

[Ted Danson]

These are people who should be, I don't know, cherished, memorialized, you know.

[Steve Carell]

Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

Grab them, you know.

[Steve Carell]

Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

And I love that you're doing Mel Brooks.

[Steve Carell]

Well, I mean, Mel Brooks is. Is amazing. So that's gonna be a two parter. That'll be on in January.

[Ted Danson]

Have you started shooting already?

[Steve Carell]

Oh, yeah, we're just finishing it up.

[Ted Danson]

Are you sitting with him talking?

[Steve Carell]

Yeah. Wow.

[Ted Danson]

That's.

[Steve Carell]

Yeah, we did 10 hours with him and it was incredible. And I love that. I was watching a Carol Burnett documentary the other day. Maybe it was like American Masters or something. And how funny she was. I think people don't even fully appreciate it when you just start watching a bunch of what the sketches were. She's as funny as anybody ever. She's murdering so hard doing so when she does, like, mama.

[Ted Danson]

Yeah.

[Steve Carell]

Oh, my God. And she's the nicest person. And she did the Larry Sanders Show. She did it a couple of times. We would watch her and go, oh, she's better than anyone who's walked through this place in every possible way.

[Ted Danson]

She's royalty. She truly is royalty. And what was brilliant about her show, I think, as well as seeing her comedic genius, then she stood in front of an audience fielding whatever came her way, and you could see her incredible heart and sense of humor and love of other people.

[Steve Carell]

And the other great. Your wife, Mary. I got to watch her when we did Stepbrothers. Just the best. And so nice and so funny. I love that that movie has become like the wizard of Oz. It really doesn't go away. It's always like people's favorite movie, so I can't.

[Ted Danson]

And they don't watch it once or twice. It's five, six, seven times or every year. It's such and such day we watch it.

[Steve Carell]

And she, her and Richard Jenkins as the parents and stepbrothers, I mean, they were so funny together. But we would sit around and go, what is this movie about? Because what Will and Adam wrote, it's the funniest thing ever. But at some point you have to go, it needs a story. It needs a reason to exist, not just the behavior. We would sit and try to figure out what's it about. And we were like, oh, it's about parenting styles. That Richard Jenkins wants to be tough, and she's trying to let them individuate on their own into whoever they're going to be. And they're having this terrible marital clash about what to do about these two kids. And then at the end, they win and they put the boat in the tree and make it a tree house. So Mary won. But watching her and Richard and all of them, for me, as someone, I didn't write it. I'm like, producing, so I don't have a ton to do creatively. I'm mainly like, where do we go if it rains? You know, on certain movies and. But I get to watch, you know, so it's like the equivalent of if I could watch the Marx Brothers shoot Duck Soup. As a fan, I'm just unsaid. Watching them going, this is like legendary, what I'm just witnessing as a fan.

[Ted Danson]

It's the first time I went to a set and visited Mary, where usually when you're not involved, it's fun and supportive and sweet to go support and be sweet to the people you love who are working, but you're not working. So it's like, oh, that's amazing. And then you want to go because you have nothing to do. That set, they had sofas lined up behind the monitors where Adam was sitting and people. We'd all come and just hang for an hour or two, three hours just to watch. I remember Mary said the other day she and Richard were kind of reminiscing about how they looked at each other after the first day and went, what the fuck are we here for you cannot compete, you know, with those two people. You know, how do you do that? And then they kind of realize, okay, that's not our job.

[Steve Carell]

Yeah.

[Ted Danson]

Our job is to be as real and believable as we can with our love for our children.

[Steve Carell]

Yeah. And it's. But that, like, reacting to all of it so that it holds together.

[Ted Danson]

You do need that.

[Steve Carell]

Oh, 100%. But they're both riotously funny doing that. And then Richard, when he does his dinosaur speech, I mean, you know, I mean, I remember visiting the set one day, and it was the scene where they both hit each other on the heads with golf clubs at the same time. And Wayne Fetterman is the blind guy with the dog is attacking, and Mary's got a hose and she's like, hosing them so they'll stop fighting.

[Ted Danson]

And Adam's yelling to Mary, say fuck. Say fuck more.

[Steve Carell]

Fuck.

[Ted Danson]

Fucking fuck. Fuck. Yeah. It's fun to make Mary's theme urgent. Say bad words.

[Steve Carell]

Yeah. I think that's what they were enjoying, putting her in the middle of all that.

[Ted Danson]

She admires you so much. This is cool that you. You brought her up. Hey, thank you. Thank you enough. Really, really appreciate hanging out with you. I love that you're a comedy nerd and sharing all of it with us, you know, and it's like you. Somebody said this. Nick, I think, said it to me earlier. It's like you're talking about the family tree of comedy. Just because of your journey, you've kind of nibbled on the edges of all of them and then created your own strain, the Judd Apatow strain.

[Steve Carell]

I'm glad we got pleasure.

[Ted Danson]

Pleasure talking to you. You don't ever have to hire me. Be nice. But you don't ever have to. I still admire you forever.

[Steve Carell]

I'm going to only hire you because I desperately have to keep my career going. Since you're the only one that gets it done, you get it done dancing.

[Ted Danson]

Okay, we'll just put that on a loop. Thank you, my.

[Steve Carell]

Thank you, my friend.

[Ted Danson]

Thank you. That was the most amazing conversation for me. I am such a huge fan. And now I won't be such a wallflower. I'll go up at parties and say, hey, Jud, it's me. Got anything? Stuff like that? I am truly in awe of him. Be sure and get a copy of the 20th anniversary release of the 40 year old Virgin on Blu Ray. And also Judd's new book, Comedy Nerd. That's all for our show this week. Special thanks to our friends at Team Coco. If you've enjoyed this episode, send it to somebody you love, 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.

[Steve Carell]

You've been listening to Where Everybody Knows yous 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 Grohl talent booking by Paula Davis and Gina Bautista. Our theme music is by Woody Harrelson, Antony Gend, Mary Steenbergen, and John Osborne. Foreign.

[Judd Apatow]

Hey there, it's Kelly Ripa. And if you've been listening to my podcast, we are knee deep in Season three. And if you haven't heard it, it's time to get on board. After years of interviewing celebs on camera, I finally get to bring you the real conversations that take place when the cameras aren't rolling. Where else are you going to hear Michelle Obama talk about keeping her girls out of Page Six? Hilaria Baldwin's hilarious reaction to Alec running for office, or Jeremy Renner's lucid hallucinations about Jamie Foxx? Nowhere else. It's raw, it's honest, and best of all, it's off camera. And believe me, that's where you get the good stuff. So download. Let's talk off camera with Kelly Rippa now. Wherever you get your podcasts.

[Steve Carell]

Did you know 39% of teen drivers admit to texting while driving? Even scarier, those who text are more likely to speed and run red lights. Shockingly, 94% know it's dangerous, but do it anyway. As a parent, you can't always be in the car, but you can stay connected to their safety with Greenlight Infinity's driving reports. Monitor their driving habits, see if they're using their phone, speeding and more. These reports provide real data for meaningful conversations about safety. Plus, with weekly updates, you can track their progress over time. Help keep your teens safe. Sign up for Greenlight [e-mail] podcast.