It's a Living with the 90s TV Babies

Welcome to Eighties TV Ladies, part of the weirding Way Media Network by and So Pretty the City. Here are your hosts, Sharon Johnson and Susan Lambert HadAM. Thank you, Melissa, I am Susan, and I'm Sharon. Welcome to Eighties TV Ladies, where we explore female driven television shows from the nineteen eighties and celebrate the people who made them. Sharon, you know, sometimes I think it's good to get another perspective from another generation.

Yeah. I think it's meaningful to look at these shows with fresh eyes, which is why we decided to bring some awesome younger folks who were all born in the nineteen nineties to watch these shows for the first time and tell us what they think. Now, it's been a long time since we've had him on the show, so we're just gonna jump right in. Please Welcome back to Eighties TV Ladies. The smart and sassy, clever and classy nineties TV babies Serta Fontanesi, Sergio Perez, and Megan Ruble.

Hi. Hello, Hi, welcome back. I'm so excited to see you. This is your first appearance in season two. We haven't seen you since season one or hurt you since season one.

Missed you, guys, I missed you. The last time we talked was over Cagney and Lacy. Yeah, lesbian covid icons. Yes, you took us right back. He took us right back on that hill.

I know it's been forever. I don't know what y'all did this summer, So why don't you tell us two cool things? I'll start This is Serta. I use cool loosely. I helped my dog overcome hearts, so we've been on great rest.

And also I did make a summer bucket list, and I've almost crossed everything off of it, so that's pretty fun. That's awesome. All right, what's one thing on the list that you crossed off? The last thing that I did was I sat in a floaty on Barton Springs. You're in Austin.

That is one of my Austin things to do. Come visit. I've got a guest room, two floaties. We can go. Let's go, like right before Rich and I got married.

We got married July thirty first, July fourth, we went to Austin, Texas and and visited my my my friend Buzzy lived there. We saw the bats. We saw everything and I was like, we're gonna go float down a river and yes, uh and Rich was like great. And then the day before he had never done anything like that, and he got all nervous and weird and like, I'm not gonna go. I'm not gonna go.

I's not gonna I'm not gonna go. I will say the like moments before it happened, I panicked and Michael, my husband, and two of our friends had to help me like float across like like they coached me through it. So Rich I get it. Yeah, yeah, And then he went and then at the end he was like, this is the greatest idea I had. Yeah, I said the same.

I was like, wow, this was such a good idea. That's awesome, Okay, Megan. Well, I so my summer has been bookended with weddings. So I had one at the start of summer and I've got one in a couple of weeks and it's awesome. I love weddings, especially ones that I'm in because then like you just get to go to an awesome party, celebrate your friends and they tell you what to wear, like it's it's incredible.

So I've had two or well, I had had one awesome summer wedding, and we'll have another one soon. Very exciting. I also, this is kind of lame, but I had a summer goal to not get sunburned, despite like being outdoors and hiking and all of that stuff, and I have so far accomplished that. I got a little singed on the top of my shoulders one time. But we are.

We are taking care of our skin over here. That is accellent. That's important. Where soundscreen sounds like a great summer, Yeah, it's been awesome. That is cool, Sergio.

I know a little bit, but tell tell this little bit. I'll tell everybody something they don't know. Let's see. This summer, I did three different play readings for three different queer Filipino playwrights in Los Angeles. They all know each other.

Yeah, the ecosystem is very tiny, but I'm glad to finally be a part of it. I've been trying to break into that for a second now. My second cool thing is that this summer I went to RuPaul's drag con and got to yell at some protesters because there were protests is right outside, telling everybody as they were walking in that we were all going to hell and like, no, I'm going to drag Con and I got to meet a bunch of queens from drag Race Philippines who I've been meaning to like see in person for like so long, and they're so iconic, and I was really excited about that. Drag Race is really taking over the world, is it not. Yeah, oh my gosh, I did not know they had made it to the Philippines as well.

That's awesome. Like literally almost every country now has a franchise. It's crazy. It's like McDonald's. That is fantastic.

And I didn't know either of those two things that I thought. I knew what you did this summer. I know what you did this summer. I'm making a book movie reference just for those who are been sitting in a I don't know a tomb for twenty years. I want to know.

I want to shout out to Brittany Taylor, our friend, for turning me off to Lois Duncan. And I know you did another summer. But first book she turned me on to was Killing Mister Griffin, which is an earlier book that she wrote and she was trying to option it in ninety Yeah, I know that was something that she really really wanted to be a part of making a film about Brittany was amazing casting and then like pre trend crap, and that was amazing because then it was like ten years later she was everywhere and they were doing every one of her books. Lois Duncan is the book author who wrote I Know What You Did Last Summer, and one of her other books was called Killing Mister Griffin, and it's about a group of kids who kidnapped their mean high school teacher and then oops, something happens.

We're off track already and we're like minutes in. It isn't that that never happens to us? Never? Okay, did we hear from everybody? What is it?

What are two things you did? Sharon? We haven't even talked about it. Well. I went to New York City for the first time in probably twenty years.

Saw five shows while I was there. Amongst other things, I saw Cottage, directed by Jason Alexander, starring Our McCormick. I saw Shucked I, which for which Alex Knewell won a Tony this year. I saw Sweeney Todd, which not not for me. It's I'm bad.

No, it has nothing to do with the it's it's more, It's more about the Sondheim of it all. I also saw Hamilton, of course, and I saw good Night Oscar, which starred Sean Hayes. I now understand why he won a Tony this year for his performance in this show, because it's fantastic. Before New York, I spent a week and a half with my mom helping. There were some stuff around the house, so that was really great.

We've really got a lot done during the ten days or so I was there. So those are my two things. All right, Well, I'll tell you one thing. I threw a fundraiser with Melissa Roth for the TRR Foundation. We raised five thousand dollars to send two choices for abortion access for women, travel funds for women to get there because they're one spot, you know, serving seven states now.

And it was a really fun party that we threw with a drag Queen Tricksie of the Kinsey Six and she was amazing. All right, enough of what we did this summer. Who did their homework assignment? Yay okay? For a listeners, the ninety CB babies had to watch the following episodes of It's a Living from season one episode one and episode thirteen the Pilot and You're Not Old, You're Fired from season three episode two.

We jumped. We just we just skipped season two for you. From season three episode two, Cassie's Cowboy and Jillian dates a cowboy and has to decide what she's going to do about that. For season five it was episode two called Her Back to the Future, and season six episode one Pistol Pack and Mama. Okay, so those were the shows that they were assigned to watch to get a sense of It's a Living.

We gave them a few more because we got some listener feedback saying that we didn't give them enough to really get a sense of the show. And it's only a half hour show, so it's all timewise, it's probably comparable to what your other homework assignments were. Okay, well, now we're just going to sit back, and I'm curious what you guys thought. Who wants to be Well, I love a sitcom. I love a workplace sitcom.

This is a workplace sitcom. I love just the heightened characters and the shenanigans that they get into, and specifically for It's a Living. It was not what I was expecting just because we've watched Remington Steel Scarecrow and Missus King Kagne and Lacy, and I was just like, oh, like this came out it premiered in nineteen eighty. Yes, premiered in nineteen eighty. I was like, okay, like some of this might be a little dated, like we're going to get some jokes that I just would not fly today.

And it felt surprisingly well aged, Like I was like, oh, this actually, this is actually like pretty salient, and like the stuff that they were talking about the fact that all these women in the back room were just talking to each other and barely any of it was about men, and if it was, it was to disparage the men who were in their like rest staurant doing some dumb stuff, touching people where they shouldn't be. I was thoroughly surprised by it. And I really enjoyed the episodes that you had us watch, especially the one with Cheryl Lee Ralph and her singing. But we we can talk about that later. That's just my first initial thought.

I would just like to point out that we all had a physical reaction to Sergio saying her name because of the obsession d Mitchell. She will always be d Mitchell to me from Mosha, I audibly like screamed when I saw her come on screen. So you didn't know she was going to be on the show until no, not until she appeared. Wow, Okay, sometimes that's the best, isn't it? To have a nice surprise like that.

It was a treat. So this was the first one that I was like, Oh, I'm gonna go back and watch the other episodes in between. Like I liked some of the other stuff that we watched, but I feel like I didn't have that like, oh, I definitely want to know what happens with these people, Whereas like again, it kind of had this like Golden Girls vibe of just like gal pals who kind of like roast each other but also have each other's back, and you know, some of a couple of them do live together, not all of them, kind of going to that workplace comedy of it all. But I was like, these they're fun, Like this is fun and you know, the whole dynamic with their boss and like the backstaff and also someone who was like broken her twenties and was like a cater waiter very much, you know, can relate to that, like restaurant vibe.

And also I think it's fun that this restaurant in Los Angeles only needs four wait staff. There are only four waitresses. They all are scheduled at the same time. They're all in each other's business and the rest of the restaurants business as well, and that's fun. I agree with both Surgery and Serta.

I also went back and watched more Scarecrow and Missus King as well, Like, I really enjoyed that and watched more of that. But I will also be watching more of this. I didn't expect to enjoy it, though. I try not to look up a ton. I try to just sort of watch it and let the opinions wash over me.

But just looking the intro and like just kind of looking at the poster, I was like, all right, Okay, here we go. I loved it. I did not expect in a sitcom such nuanced conversations to be happening, and I really appreciated that because sitcoms necessarily have to have exaggerated stereotypes usually just for the form to work. But the fact that they could break those at times to have just women sitting and talking, I thought was really great. I really appreciated that.

That's awesome. Again. Once again, you guys have surprised me. Sharon, did you think you we'd have this reaction? I did not.

I'm at the point now where I have no expectations about the reaction of our nineties TV babies to any of these shows. But nevertheless, I am surprised that there is this universal let's call it love for this show. That's great, That's fantastic. Okay, all right, now I have so many questions. Okay, So the first two seasons were on back to back, then it went off the air for three years, and the last final seasons were actually syndicated, and so there's an actual break of years between season two, which you didn't see and season three.

Which casts did you like and which cast members did you find the most exciting? Do you? Okay? So I've been working with Susan, so I know like a good amount of stuff about this Unlike Megan, you like just went in without searching. I have been like deep in its living stuff for a second now, and watching the first episode, I was like, Okay, I love Susan Sullivan who played Lois, I believe, and I loved Wendy Shaw, who played Vicki, and I just thought, like the dynamic between those two, like one of them is more mature, one of them's like further along in her womanhood than Vicky is.

Like the conversations that they would have were very pointed, and I believe like that cast just because it was a pilot, maybe that's like they were what they were going for, like really really worked. And I know that for season two they like retooled the whole thing, and I don't know what they did, And I know we didn't watch anything from season two, but I'm curious about why and if you could provide any insight at all into like what that was like, because we just avoided it completely. Basically, from what I've been able to figure out, the general consensus seems to be that they thought the first season was too sexy. Oh, they definitely got feedback from one of their sponsors. They lost a sponsor after the pilot because of the outfits and because of the conversation about having sex.

But she's a virgin. The whole conversation, she's a version who can't even drive, right, It's a conversation about like the choice of abstinence, right, Like sorry, the outbursts of a clueless reference. But yeah, that's so fascinating to me that it was too sexy when the whole plot centered around her choosing not to have sex and being okay if that means she loses a relationship, Like that's like, you know, there's a lot of power in that absolutely of her making choices for herself and her body and what her like line in the sandness, but there's that there's no sex quite literally, but the women are advising her to have sex, and oh, a sponsor was very upset by that. And this was a time when sponsors would literally pull out of a show.

So definitely the costume change, from what I understand from Jane Asminson, was because they thought those outfits in the pilot were too sexy. The off the shoulder, the off the shoulder, the slinky dresses, and they were they were a little like the nightclub singers or are they waitresses. Well, there was the comment in the first episode where Angelian comes in and like her like slinky dress and one of the other girls is like, you walk to work in your like outfit, Like isn't that a little scandalous? And it's like, oh, so it's okay to wear it in the restaurant waiting on these tables, but not to walk from your car to the rest and very interesting, very interesting. And then and then the outfits they end up when are very like a matronly, a little bit like they're they're you know, black and white, and they have the puffy sleeves they you know, there was an overcorrection, absolutely, and especially like as someone who very much pays attention to the wardrobe and the costumes and like, what's the story that's being told here?

The change in the wardrobe also felt like the show trying to be taken more seriously, which personally I thought made the jokes even funnier because it's like this is all so absurd and everyone's trying to be such grown ups. But like there was like a visible like a visual other than obviously the cast changing, but like a visual aesthetic change in the show. And I mean this makes sense now. Also, I'm curious, do you know who which sponsor it was that pulled out? I'd have to go look it up.

I don't know it off the top of my head, but I'm just fascinated. Yeah, and uh, it's in one of my notes from from my early research. So what happened with season two is that Susan Sullivan is gone and again she ends up on Falcon Crest the next year and stayed on Falcon Crest and was amazing. But they knew they were too many characters in season one. There's too many women in that room to navigate, and I felt that in the pilot.

Rich didn't. He was like, it's fine, but the reason I didn't give you season two is it it's a little bit off tone from the rest of the show. Susan Sullivan is gone and they bring in Louise Lasser. And I don't know if you guys know Louise Laster, because she was big in the seventies. She was Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.

It was meant to be kind of an absurdist version of a soap opera. Louise Lasser. She's very funny. It's amazing to watch her work. And Megan, I mean, like, you guys would all enjoy watching her.

She's just in a different show and it's hard to figure out. So I just I just Lucy was too much to throw that at you. There wasn't an episode from that season that I was like oh, but this is this is cool this way. She did some early Woody Allen. She's very New York, she's very like just a unique comedian.

She's amazing. She's just not a sitcom actress, and especially not in this one. Her character was a recent widow and they were trying to figure out a way to make that funny, and it can't. I'm not saying it can't be done, but they weren't successful, in my opinion, in making it funny, at least especially not for her character. Well, it was a little bit of an overcorrection, right, Like, Okay, so they were too they were talking about sex and they're having a thing.

Now let's have somebody on to talk about their dead husband. We just died, which listen, I'm a Gallows humor gal. I think there's really great ways to do it. But everything you're described about this actress, just what you said is not a sitcom And now I feel like I should have given you a Luise last. It's okay, we can do it on our we can do credit on our own time.

Yeah, that one's for Patreon. Let's cover the obvious nineties TV babies. Is it feminist? Is it progressive? I think it's feminist.

I think you have women sitting talking to each other, having nuanced conversations. I think there's an element to it that gets difficult again because it's a sitcom, and like, part of the structure of a sitcom is that you have people operating out of their their biggest weaknesses, and also you have like stereotypes that have to be played into to a certain extent. But I think even with that happening, like I said earlier, like I think it's really neat to watch them talk and interact, and it brings up some women's issues that I was like, cool, that's a really neat thing to talk about. In the pilot, them sitting down to talk about sex and one in a sex positive way, having a different opinion is really cool.

Them just having different political opinions, as we kind of see in the gun episode, that's really exciting. Having a woman be like really excited about a guy and then finding out that he's a pushy, not nice person and standing up for herself is a really incredible storyline. But then at the same time, and I probably shouldn't be the person who's commenting on that, and I acknowledge this, but like, you have finally, like a black female character on the show, and her stereotype seems to be that she's black and that's it, and it's a little like oh and then and there's other things like that on the feminism spectrum too, where it's sort of like we keep we didn't watch ton of episodes. But in our defense, we are all professionals within the entertainment industry, and I am certain that all three of us are very used to glancing at a script and needing to pick up tone and themes very very quickly.

And so when you see in almost every episode there being a like sexual harassment thing that is addressed in from a range of like this is not okay to like isn't this funny? Those were the moments where I was like, oh, this feels like a man wrote about a woman's issue without consulting a woman. And there's a couple of moments like that where I was like, yeah, I get it, we live it, we get it. Can we can we talk about something else? Or can we talk about it in a more nuanced way.

I don't need someone's but get it pinched every episode for you to remind me that, like this is a show about waitmen, I am like cackulie because the buttons specifically so much. It was just like, oh wow, again, I have worked in like the restaurant industry before, as I'm sure we all in adjacent whatever, especially living in LA like, deeply aware of the sexual harassment present in service industry jobs slash in the workplace in general. But somehow it all got boiled down to there's one guy who's a regular at the restaurant who pinches butts and you just gotta suck it up until it happens to the boss and now it's a problem. And it was like she just won't understand until she gets her butt pinched.

You know. Actually that to me, that is very typical of workplaces in general, unless and until it affects somebody higher up the food chain, not something is not going to be addressed, whether it's butt pinching or something else. But that's usually what it takes to get somebody to take action on something. I think that is fair. It was just like the fact that it's only a butt pinch, and like each one of them has like this very big and like they're like archetype specific reaction to it, right, like one's ready to fight.

One is like I don't know, customers always right, it's not that big of a deal, Like you know, the people pleas are like everyone had like a very which that's where the formula of a show comes in. So like, you know, similar to Megan, I definitely think that it was like feminists. I mean, obviously it was making men so upset they were willing to take their money away and the advertisers are pulling out. If that's not feminism, I don't know it is. But and also which you know, I think I say this for every episode, right, like where are the black people?

Like, I know we get Cheryl in later seasons, but she is one person, and yeah, her character kind of the most interesting thing about her. She is a black and in this space right like where are like I'm here for the girls, the gays, the days like I you know, like if we were to do this show now, which this is also I think one of the few shows that I feel like the very easily of the stuff that we've watched very easily get remade today, and in some ways it has and like other types of working gal shows whatever, But like you know, there's a very classic formula, Like even I said Golden Girls earlier, and I think what I really wanted was designing women of like a group of women together in a workplace.

There's giggles, there's some real stuff that goes down from time to time. Right, Like I live in Texas. I'm from originally from Texas, deeply aware of the gun conversation. And when we moved here, my husband was like, so we should get a gun, right, And I was like, absolutely not, okay, mister California. Right, but like so like there were absolutely pieces that are still super palpable today, and even like the Cowboy episode, like he's like an oil guy from Texas.

I was like, I definitely know that man, like like that is that is an archetype that I'm deeply aware of, and honestly, like, I was very curious to see where that episode was gonna go, Like I and maybe this is like the trauma of modern TV. I was like, oh't no, She's gonna end up in like an abusive relationship and we're gonna have like a black I scene that we're all gonna have to deal with and like process and like and and it's gonna be like you know, the After School Special, And honestly, I'm glad that that's not where it went because that, while is important, storytelling, is exhausting storytelling. And you know the fact that the story stopped with like he was really pushy and she was like, you know, enough is enough, and then we get jokes about but the mint coats, like you know, was very fun and and again like that's where I'm like, Oh, I feel like this is a show that would translate into modern time pretty easily.

And do we have I mean, like I'm thinking of modern workplace comedies. I mean, obviously the office, obviously, parks and rec but what's the one is there? I mean, the Bear, I guess is a workplace, not comedy like that, yes, workplace not comedy exactly. I don't think though that I can't think of any recent ones that are all women, though I definitely cannot think of one that's all women. In fact, most of them I can think of women are not even what I would call like the primary characters.

Well, yeah, but I have an elementary for Always Sunny in Philadelphia being a workplace, which kind of elementary is a workplace, but it's still not it's not all women because women driving it in a yes yes, and Cheryl's battle. So that's the key to a good women driven story. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll buy the official nineties TV baby students. About this, I wanted to jump in. Really this is kind of backtracking a little bit, but I did want to say too.

I also started the pilot and was like, WHOA, too many characters, and then got like five minutes in and was like, now this works. I really like this. I like the I like the diversity of it. I feel like everyone is getting a moment. I feel like I could watch a character centric episode of any of these characters and be interested about what they have to say.

And was actually kind of disappointed when we jumped ahead, not only because I liked some of these characters and they were now missing, but because I was like, oh, I liked how many there were and how many voices we were getting on different topics. Yeah, so I really liked the amount of characters. I also get though that, like that's a herculean effort writing wise. But similarly, I was like, ooh, I love how many people like you know, thinking about the office or parks and rec Right, we have our core, you know, four folks maybe that we're following, but there's this whole universe of regulars that we experience, and that's where I think I was. I assumed where the show would go, and then obviously, you know, I watched one more episode and after cast iss gone.

But yeah, I I wow, I agree with rich what happened to women supporting women? You know where I did. I wasn't overwhelmed by how many people were on screen. I think what's cool about that is that, Okay, my favorite character ended up being Nancy, which is how I know I'm old now, is that I was like, yeah, this lady is in charge. She is here for the friendship, but only until it didn't fares with work, and then we need to get back to work now.

And I was like, oh, I'm well, now that's fine, that's fine. It's hard not to love Marian Mercer. She is pretty great, so good, but also like if part of comedy formula, to quote one of my teachers, is you put the two characters together that will give each other the worst possible time. The more characters you have in play, the more combinations of that you have. And so in watching some of the later seasons where there were lesque characters.

It was like there was one person that didn't that really didn't get along with Nancy, and then everyone else was on like some sort of gradient of that rather than like this situation plus Nancy plus whoever the other character was created animosity between them, and so there's more like there's more possible pairings for chaos and tension. But they still did it like in later seasons, there was still nuanced to all the different relationships. Okay, now, and I'm just gonna caveat this by saying that we have interviewed Paul Kreppl, who played sunny Man in a previous episode, and we met him in person. We met him in person and he's awesome. He's really quite delightful.

But I'm very curious since we mentioned but pitching, let's talk about the character of sunny Man and what that read to you guys as nineties TV babies. Again. Maybe this is because I love golden girls in designing women, but I thought sunny Man was going to be our stereotypical gay friend in the group of women. Like that was like my first seeing him on screen, I was like, oh, okay, we found like, you know, every golden Girls only had it for the first season. He was the guy who cooked in the house.

They had a male roommate and he always cooked for them, just the pilot. The pilot. Yeah, yeah, you're right, which is crazy. And then then he's gone and then and then never to be seen again. But you know, we had Anthony and Designing Women like that's a very common stick.

Also not gay, and I thought he was gay. I'm sorry, yeah, not gay. I totally and we've just really started rewatching that. Not gay. I was like, he's gay.

It never occurred to me that Anthony was. You're lying to me right now. I am not lying to you. Anthony getting married. Anthony gets married to Chrylee Ralph.

I watched Designing Women every morning getting ready for school because I have been seventy seven my whole life and the way that I'm gonna have to like revisit, I'm blown away. It's like the Shazam. It's it's like some yes, this is the Mandila fact. It is a history I was sure of, and there is nothing at all he is not at all. Wow, maybe that's an indictment on me.

You know, maybe I need to look with it. I know me too, I do tend to be oblivious about some things that later seem obvious, but I never ever got that vibe with Anthony. I have no idea why I did or didn't, but it surprised me the first time you said that that, I'm so glad Serena that you and I at least I swear like Anthony what like He was like, I'm really gonna have to like go back and really take a look, because never once did I ever consider Anthony as straight. Which again, maybe that's more of an indictment of me than the writing. And I'm willing to sit with that truth.

You know. I think it's admirable to walk in and be like, yeah, everyone's just gay until everyone's just go and maybe the for me, it's the exact opposite. Everyone is, at least certainly at that time, everyone is straight until proven otherwise or some indication of otherwise, which that's the other thing is I was like, oh, like, because of the time, the joke is that he's gay, like which like is not a joke, Like it's just a fact. And I was like, oh, like, but it's fun that like he gets to be around with the sugar baker, No it's I'm breathing it is. Yeah, but to listen, don't worry, don't start watching Designing Women yet because it's okay alkait al wait alway, I mean, I guess you can.

Actually, I think it's the valid reading of the show. Thank you, No, no, Melissa, Melissa's thank you. Anthony is not Anthony. He was not written as gay, but he's like the gay guy. Yeah, they say they don't think they like, they didn't write him is gay, but no, Anthony plays gay.

Okay, Melissa's on ay read it on that show post and even like when I was watching it, like I didn't know he got married. I never watched it through the end, which is what I thought Sonny was going to. I thought we were going to have another Anthony when when when they reboot the show after nineties, after adestv Ladies makes it super successful on streaming. That's the only way you could do, Sonny, I think, yes. Otherwise, Sunny's a creep.

That's how you do, Sonny. I think we all know it, Sonny. That's my thing that I was thinking about. We all know a young musically talented man who is a creep and a people pleaser and I just think that that's a universal thing that we all share. I don't know if anyone has anything they want to shound off about.

This is such a niche joke, but he's such a musical theater tenor yes, yuck, wow, yuck. He's the guy who in his like high school theater, got all the leads and played SpongeBob and everyone was like, oh my god, we love him and they all thought he was really really hot, when in reality he could just hit the notes. Okay, here's here's the thing. I think we're gonna musical theater right now. Go ahead.

Every yes, every theater department has the one straight dude who is like vaguely good at acting, as in, he remembers the lines and occasionally emote. He can, to Sergio's point, hit the notes on beat like the bar is in hell. But because he is, you know, the one A few in the space, if any in the space, especially like when I was in high school, I was in a small town, like you know. Then even in college, which we all we all knew with fear department was like and I have a very specific person in my head of who Sunny is, and I will not say it I'll tell you guys later. But the problem is is it's a big fish and a small pond situation, and so this person gets this idea of like, oh, I'm so good, I'm so talented.

My ego is overinflated, and then they finally get into the real world and it is devastating, soul crushing. They're just not like thriving at all. And it goes one of two ways. Either they're like, you know what, let me learn a lesson and like get over myself and like find a hobby and like become a real person, or they double down and they become a huge creep. I want to add the just and not just because you said you had him on the show.

I would have said this either way, kudos to him as an actor, because because that like role and that stereotype, even just his lines could have become so creepy so quickly, to the point where we would have watched it now and been uncomfortable. And instead we're all watching it now going not, that's okay. But I know that guy. And the thing about that guy is that which I think he captures so well is that it's not usually coming from this place of intentional maliciousness. It's I say this with the utmost love.

It's coming kind of from a place of stupidity, Like he doesn't get that what he's doing is not okay. He's a kin. Yeah, he's just a child, and and it's kind of uh. I think that's what stops it from being something that we watch now and go oh and instead we watch now and gob He's in his Mojo jojo kassa house. He's been this.

Ken's job is music. I think Paul will be very happy to be compared to Ken. I also liked to and Grant. We were given an episode that was very musical as well. But I liked that there was an element of music in each episode because of him too, that there were a lot of jokes that came out of that which was fun.

And also, I don't know, I think I'm a music lover and I am a musical theater person, so like, I like that little touch to it. It breaks up the comedy nicely as well. You have other jokes that can happen. Yeah. I love the music in the show, and there's a lot of it.

One of the challenges apparently they had when they were trying to get the show for streaming and stuff like that was clearing all the music. Paul Kreppel was saying that there's actually like seven episodes that didn't make it to streaming just because they couldn't clear the music. Because there's music in every episode, and sometimes it's song Like what's surprising is it's not public domain songs. It's like song songs, and sometimes there are parodies, so you could probably get away with it, but a lot of times they're not. But I love they do another other episodes that are big musical numbers because they have talent in that cast and it's really quite fun.

Okay, So anybody else that sort of pop for you, or any episodes that felt particularly I'd be curious to talk about the gun episode for a minute, but if there's another episode that you guys felt, oh this was interesting to me. I mean, I loved the Cowboy episode. I was in my house, you know, screeching Cowboy take me away, Like, yeah again, I'm writing the modern version of You're ready to go this show? Yeah, I put me as soon as this strike is done, put me in coach. But like I said earlier, part of that episode, I was very much I had primed myself for an after school special moment of like and now we have to talk about DV and the glitz and the glamor that might like the love bombing that might distract, Like I was fully prepared for like a heavy episode and again was glad that that didn't happen.

And still the point got across of you know, she isn't a controlling relationship, even if it's not like physical abuse or even like outright emotional abuse, like it is an unhealthy relationship, and her being like, no, I told you, like my friend needed me, and that's really important because you know, one of the other girls needed to get to her daughter's play and him just being a bad boyfriend, like not caring about the things that she cares about. But it was done. I loved how she's like having this very real moment in this relationship and having to like make a serious decision, and then one of the other girls is like the whole time is like it should have been me. It could have been me, he was said in my section, Like, so like the show managed to like keep it still really light and in the universe of there are four women who work at this restaurant and they are all the servers all the time, on the same shift all the time.

And again, as much as they are co workers, they are friends and they like have each other's back, and that like that loved that is still there. I agree with you about the tone. I actually was very surprised looking back at this show, having not really remembered it. I remembered Angelian, but I didn't remember this show that well. And I was really pleased watching it again how much it managed to be funny, real conversations with the women and yet not feel too after school special or preachy.

It got its point across without feeling like, you know, this is your lesson of the week. This is yeah, it felt like this, you know things had happened too, and that were dealt with by real women as opposed to characters on a tea show. I would like to see Susan Sullivan and Shirley Ralph in another workplace comedy. That would be great where they're you know, they're in charge this time. Yes.

So I'm curious what you guys thought of the gun episode, and I'm curious what you would do, who you'd be and who and what you would do in that kind of situation. So the gun episode is Christo Bernard is from Texas. She plays Amy, the character of Amy who is from Texas, and then Shirley Ralph is playing Ginger, who is not from Texas. I don't remember where she's from. And they are roommates and Ginger discovers that Crystal keeps a gun under her pillow, and you know, conflict and sus your thoughts, your thoughts and any experience that you have or how you feel like you would handle that.

I thought it was really silly that at the very beginning they panned the table and it's all of these people wearing bright red hats, because it just made me think, wow, we really haven't gone anywhere, Like we are still here having the same conversation. The way that the episode ends where it's just like there's never like a resolution to it. It's never like I'm going to get rid of my gun. It's never thank you for listening to me and doing the thing that I that made me feel safe. It just ended with a joke and like a little button.

I was like, Okay, so this tells me that we're still here and it's still the same conversation and we are getting into the same discussions with people where it is never ending and it never has a resolution. And it's been coming up on my TikTok a lot lately, and I just I regret talking into a mic right now, right next to my phone about what this is because for the next five days I'm going to get just all of this gun control stuff and I don't want to. I just don't want to see it. So you you feel like on your phone, you would be You're going to be served up now. Yes, really, that's that's how TikTok works.

It's listening to you and picking up on what you're saying and where you're talking about. As someone I don't know anything about TikTok so, but like, like really like technology is so deeply insidious and that is why, like, ultimately like most of these apps don't need to actually listen to what you're saying because they're tracking so much more information. There's another great article about It's great article is a strong word. But this teenage girl, she was like sixteen or seventeen, she was pregnant and got her pregnancy was outed to her parents be a target because Target had been tracking her like purchasing habits and then notice that she was spending more time in the baby aisle in the store because the cameras are up right, Like you don't even have to have your phone on you for someone to be paying attention.

And this is why also not to make it so political, but like I guarantee you there's nothing in the vaccine that has anything to do with tracking you because there are so many ways for like identities to already be tracking they don't need to get involved in like biologics like be serious, yes, too much a word? What about what about using a VPN? Does that help at all in terms of how we actually yes, So this is something that we recommend a lot for people who are looking up abortion services, who are looking for even like domestic violence services, right, a VPN will help like at a layer, like a shield. Basically for our listeners for the special content we're going to them. What does a VPN we'll get back to the show.

Sorry, it's basically it's something it's uh like something that you can download to help encrypt your internet so that any in what you're researching, what you're sending, what you're receiving gets protected. This is also why, Like, you know, I tell people, don't text on your phone about anything you don't want on the first on the front page of the newspaper, right like, if it's just a regular regular text, it is not I don't care what you do. It's not safe. What's up signal? There are other entities that are into end encryption.

That's what you're looking for, where both the what is sent and what is received gets protected. We really went in there. Okay, we're gonna we're gonna start another podcast. Yeah, yeah, we're gonna tell about this. Look patreon a listeners.

If you guys want to know more about technology and how to be safe online, call me, beat me. If you want to reach me, send us listeners, send us you're joining our Patreon and send us your technology question and we will have action called asked Serta and she will answer your technical questions and we'll sell a VPN virtual private network. There you go, Yes, thank you, thank you. Yes, I'm work in reproductive justice in a hostile state. These are the things that occupy my dad are very important.

Okay, well you Sergio, I hope that you do not get any gun TikTok's based on this conversation. But if you do in TikTok, are you able to block? Does it? Does it lead you? You're able to kid is not interested?

Yes, that's all I know. I'm doing. This is my other last tip. I promise anytime I encounter content that I am just really not trying to mess with, like I do this a lot with any like diet ads, I report them as hate speech because it's not going to get taken down right, it's not actually hate speech, but it us tell the platform like I'm really not like, if you show this to me again, I'm going to leave your act and they want you to say so interesting. All right, So, did either Sergio or Megan have any thoughts about the gun episode that we haven't touched on yet.

I know we went down a side row that took us places, took us to Texas, weren't we were expecting to go, but was still very, very interesting and informative. I might have the spiciest opinion on that episode, and it's still pretty mild, But my mild salsa opinion on that episode is that I was actually really excited for like what we had seen in the other episodes, like a nuanced conversation with multiple opinions being issued to actually happen around something like that, and I don't think that happened, and that was very disappointing. It would have been more interesting, And granted, I'm looking at this from a modern lens and I understand that, but it would have been more interesting to me if I forget the Texans character amy, if she hadn't been the stereotype of the opinion that we expect, if she had, like, it would have been interesting to me if she had been a responsible gun owner, which if you have a loaded gun that is in a and a stuffed animal, just also like, what are you what?

Anyways? What is any of this accomplishing, ma'am? The killer wouldn't find it. It's if it's in the pillow and the stuffed animal. That's a Wendy Williams reference.

By the way, I got it, and I loved it. Wendy Williams is always talking about the killer. We don't know who it is, but they're out there a killer. If you're wondering, yeah, if you're wondering, statistically, it's your boyfriend. Go ahead.

If if she had been a responsible gun owner, and then we had been able to like or if there had been somebody else, or if she wasn't a responsible gunner when she wasn't and there had been somebody else who was, or somebody else who was, like, I don't care about this. Why should I care about this? Like any other than just like this is good? This is bad would have been more interesting to me. Where instead the interesting conversation that was happening in the episode was about wallpaper.

I was way more invested in this couple sorting out their wallpaper situation than I was in the guns situation. Although I will say I do appreciate even though it was not really a resolution, I do appreciate that she is a friend was willing to be like, Okay, I will compromise because I care about you as a friend. Again, it being written off as a joke at the end was kind of concerning. It felt like they started a conversation that they weren't ready to have. It is also not lost on me though, that it was like the black woman having to advocate for any type of response sable gun ownership as someone who has been in that position and had to talk about.

Like I said earlier, when we moved to Texas to my husband was like, we should get a gun, and I was like, as a black woman, I'm not comfortable having I'm none in my house, Like it's in this economy? Are you getting me? And again in this in the modern retelling, because I'm going to manifest this show to today, right, Like that's a really big conversation for what does it mean for gun ownership of a black person versus a white person? What does it mean as women to be gun owners? What does it mean?

Again, there are like poles will show you that Texans believe in like responsible gun laws and safe gun storage, and meanwhile she's just recklessly under her below. Well, it was also such a that's where I think we're looking at a nineteen eighty five conversation. I'm not quite sure exactly what year that was, but it was a very less subtle conversation. I agree that it was sort of this she said, she said, and nobody else really seemed to go into that conversation. Yeah.

I would almost even argue like it wasn't a conversation. Yeah, it almost became like a joke, a joke set up, and it was like, oh, this is this is too important to just be a joke set up. The wallpaper can be a joke set up. I would also like to know where to get make it hockey player wallpaper, though it was kind of down with that. That was a good compromise.

All on, there's someone out there that makes it. You can also make custom wallpaper. They're like websites where you design it yourself and it does a repeating pattern. Come on, naked hockey players, Sergio, I'm in. I want to see that wallpaper.

All right, final thoughts, and then we're gonna have to wrap it up once again. This conversation has been fantastic and so much fun and all over the map and I love it, from Los Angeles to Texas and back again. The other thing I was going to say is that I feel like there aren't like very many shows that are set in Los Angeles, and whenever I do get one that's set in LA I'm always like, oh, I know that, Like literally in the pilot where they were like, yeah, well I was down the Pcho when I went on the one on one and you got I'm like, the one on one is right there at the Bonaventure, Like of course there was traffic on the one at one like that. That's just something that really scratches in it for me, because everything's either set in New York or in nondescript town like so I love it when La just comes up.

My parents had their wedding reception actually at the Bonaventure in nineteen eighty eight, so I just I have a deep connection with this show. I feel like you buried the lead. Sergio. There's a great documentary called La Plays Itself, and it's all like at the time that it had been made, like film and TV references to La being La on the big screen. That sounds like something I need to find.

Well, what's great when you when you come in the parking garage of the Bonaventure and you're coming up into it, we discovered that they actually have walls showing all the with all the movie posters that have been shot at the Bonaventure. At first, we thought it was like, Oh, they must have a movie theater here and they're showing these weird movies. Why is that? And then we realized, no, these are the movies that were shot here because they're very random. And not only that we didn't go to all the elevators, but one of the elevators we went to there was actually a plaque that indicated that scenes from a certain movie were shot at this location in these elevators.

So they're very, very proud of this. And I'm not saying we may have shot a little spoof parody video where myself and Melissa and Sharon are they be recreating the opening of its Living, But keep an eye out on your social media's, ladies and gentlemen. And we tried to get Megan and Sergio to join us, but I couldn't because it was We wanted to fill it with all five of us, but Serta was in Texas, for God's sake. I'm the Texans, you know. And we cannot thank you guys enough for watching the episodes and for joining us today and talking to us about this.

Has been great. As always, we're happy back sooner rather than later. We got lots more shows to cover. Thanks guys, Thank you, Thank you y'all. In today's audioography, you can watch It's a Living on Amazon to be or YouTube.

If you want to learn about real life safe gun storage, you can check out be Smart for Kids and Mom's Demand. We love hearing from you. Please send us messages. At our website Eighties tv Ladies Dot. If you like our podcast, please rate and review us.

Five star ratings really help us a lot. Next time on Eighties TV Ladies, we've got the authors of the upcoming Scarecrow and Missus kingbook, including David Johnson. Another Martha Smith recommendation. Hey, did any of you listeners play along? Did you watch the homework assignment that we gave to our nineties TV babies in season two, episode ten?

If so, what did you think of It's a living? We'd love to hear what you think. We hope Eighties TV Ladies brings you joy and laughter and lots of fabulous new and old shows to watch, all of which will lead us forward toward being amazing ladies of the twenty first century. Yay