# American Dreams with Vanessa Lengies

An episode of [And That's What You REALLY Missed](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1645980188), 9 Feb 2026, 54 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/67adaf3b-fc3c-4c67-9613-af12015fa842/3872c17a-94db-4ed6-910e-b3eb01646cc9/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=d5f905ac-eb40-4fc6-9d03-af120160041a

Before Glee, there was American Dreams on NBC. Jenna and Vanessa Lengies, filling in for Kevin, are taking it back to the early 2000s to recap the pilot episode of the nostalgic TV series 'American Dreams,' starring Sugar Motta herself! Vanessa shares behind-the-scenes stories from her time on the show, from her audition experience at 15, to her relationship with her co-star and next-door neighbor, Brittany Snow, and a scene she wishes she could have said no to. Plus, the music, the huge guest stars, including the one who made her so nervous she hid under a blanket, and spending her off-hours at the under-21 hotspot where all the biggest celeb teens, like Hillary Duff and Lindsay Lohan, were hanging out!! For fun, exclusive content, and behind-the-scenes clips, follow us on Instagram @andthatswhatyoureallymissedpod & TikTok @thatswhatyoureallymissed! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:01] Speaker 1: And that's what you really missed with Jenna and Kevin
[0:05] Speaker 1: an iHeartRadio.
[0:06] Speaker 2: Podcast, Welcome to you, and that's what you really was
[0:10] Speaker 2: podcast Sadly, today, Kevin McHale is not with us, but
[0:18] Speaker 2: the one and only Sugar Matta Vanessa Lenji's is here.
[0:24] Speaker 1: Hi, Vanessa, I am no replacement for mister McHale, but.
[0:27] Speaker 2: No, you are the replacement. He would even say that
[0:31] Speaker 2: he'd be like, go on without me and to be.
[0:34] Speaker 1: Talking about American dreams. He's very upset not to be here.
[0:37] Speaker 3: I will say that was part of it.
[0:39] Speaker 2: We were like, Kevin, are you going to be so
[0:41] Speaker 2: upset that we're talking about American dreams without you?
[0:43] Speaker 3: He was like, you guys, just do it. I don't
[0:45] Speaker 3: want to talk about it, just do it. So we're
[0:49] Speaker 3: very excited things for coming on.
[0:52] Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, it is a pleasure to talk about
[0:56] Speaker 1: this show that I did. I mean I didn't even
[0:58] Speaker 1: do the math. How many years?
[1:01] Speaker 2: Okay, So this premiered September twenty nine, two thousand and two. Vanessa, Wow,
[1:05] Speaker 2: no iPhones, no social media? What a blessing? Right?
[1:12] Speaker 3: This was the year.
[1:13] Speaker 2: Okay, let's we're going to get into it. So this
[1:15] Speaker 2: is American Dreams.
[1:16] Speaker 3: Vanessa.
[1:17] Speaker 2: Nji's here to talk about it with us, because not
[1:19] Speaker 2: only did we watch it, but she's in it. So
[1:22] Speaker 2: this is very exciting. This is the pilot. It premiered
[1:24] Speaker 2: September twenty nine, two thousand and two, almost twenty four
[1:27] Speaker 2: years ago. That's insane. We're going to go through some
[1:31] Speaker 2: a little bit of news, Vanessa. So the number one
[1:33] Speaker 2: song in the world at that time was Dilemma by
[1:38] Speaker 2: Nelly featuring Kelly Roland.
[1:40] Speaker 3: Incredible, couldn't I don't remember that song.
[1:44] Speaker 1: I'm glad you said it.
[1:45] Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And the number one movie actually, believe
[1:48] Speaker 2: it or not, I did see this. I don't often
[1:49] Speaker 2: don't see the number one movie Sweet Home Alabama.
[1:53] Speaker 1: Oh come on, I mean adorable. I could watch that classic.
[1:57] Speaker 1: Could we watch that together? Never mind Kevin, see you later.
[2:02] Speaker 1: This is Jenna and I love it.
[2:05] Speaker 2: Yes, well, definitely we should watch that, although we're watching
[2:07] Speaker 2: musical movies. But that's okay, uh okay, this is what
[2:11] Speaker 2: was happening. Let me just paint the picture for.
[2:13] Speaker 1: You and asked it I want to see.
[2:15] Speaker 2: Two thousand and two September Network TV was appointment Viewing,
[2:20] Speaker 2: which shows like Friends on air west Wing alias. Oh.
[2:25] Speaker 1: My point of viewing means you had to wait for
[2:28] Speaker 1: it to air exactly, and then you would be like, Okay,
[2:32] Speaker 1: Thursday at eight, that's my appointment.
[2:35] Speaker 2: I'm going to sit down and watch it.
[2:37] Speaker 1: Yeah right. We had yeah, yeah, we know, Sunday night slot,
[2:40] Speaker 1: which was pretty cool. That's that's appointment.
[2:45] Speaker 2: That's a Graze Anatomy slot, right, that is a family slot.
[2:52] Speaker 2: American Idol had just crowned its first winter earlier that month.
[2:56] Speaker 2: Kelly Clarkson was just launched and to start them.
[2:59] Speaker 1: Yeah, and she ended up starring on one of the episodes,
[3:03] Speaker 1: that's right.
[3:04] Speaker 2: Uh. And then just another little quick snapshot. We had
[3:08] Speaker 2: music was on tr L on the radio. We had CDs.
[3:12] Speaker 2: We were burning mixed CDs at the time. Whoof what
[3:16] Speaker 2: a time low Rice Jean's Baby, Tease, Cargo pants.
[3:20] Speaker 1: It was the main way to crush on someone. It
[3:22] Speaker 1: was to give them a mixed which I know before
[3:25] Speaker 1: that was mixtapes, before that was mixed eight tracks. I
[3:29] Speaker 1: don't know, but but.
[3:30] Speaker 3: Like people were burning CDs, do you remember it was?
[3:34] Speaker 1: It was high end technology at the time. That was
[3:36] Speaker 1: your bio CDs. My computer no longer even takes a CD,
[3:40] Speaker 1: which which shows how old I am, Like, well, where
[3:43] Speaker 1: do you what do you mean? This doesn't wear the
[3:45] Speaker 1: CD player? Where do you put the DVDs? Where do
[3:47] Speaker 1: you put the CDs? It's like, no, no, they don't come.
[3:50] Speaker 2: With those anymore.
[3:52] Speaker 3: There's like an extension that will be extinct at some point.
[3:56] Speaker 1: Cargo pants are back, all those all those outfits you
[3:58] Speaker 1: just described her back.
[4:00] Speaker 3: It's pretty wild. Yeah, y two k.
[4:03] Speaker 1: Now the fashions are are y two k?
[4:06] Speaker 3: I mean?
[4:06] Speaker 1: Or is it or did we is it over?
[4:09] Speaker 2: No?
[4:09] Speaker 3: No, no, no no no, it's twenty years ago.
[4:11] Speaker 2: This is right.
[4:12] Speaker 3: It's to making a resurgence and it is y two
[4:14] Speaker 3: k yes, because.
[4:16] Speaker 1: I saw I saw my friend in a Von Dutch
[4:19] Speaker 1: hat and he's young and cool, and I thought, I
[4:23] Speaker 1: thought that was this was American Dreams. When American Dreams
[4:26] Speaker 1: came out. If you had a Von Dutch hat, you
[4:28] Speaker 1: were it it?
[4:29] Speaker 2: Were you here for Club one seven? I know, sorry,
[4:32] Speaker 2: it was not, I was not. Was it a club
[4:35] Speaker 2: in Hollywood? It was a club in Hollywood? People who
[4:39] Speaker 2: were under seventeen?
[4:41] Speaker 1: What I think it was? You had to be under
[4:43] Speaker 1: twenty one because the twenty one was the drinking age.
[4:46] Speaker 1: It was like that was where everyone went like, if
[4:49] Speaker 1: you were on a TV show, Oh yeah, we were there,
[4:53] Speaker 1: Lindsay Lohan, Oh yeah, And because of American Dreams, I
[4:56] Speaker 1: got to go to.
[4:57] Speaker 2: Do you have to be invited to this rope?
[5:00] Speaker 1: You? I think you had to wait to get in
[5:02] Speaker 1: if you were not on a TV show, and if
[5:04] Speaker 1: you were on a TV show that truly had your
[5:06] Speaker 1: head shots in the front in a folder.
[5:10] Speaker 3: This is American Dreams.
[5:12] Speaker 1: So you're waiting to a cringe, this might be this
[5:15] Speaker 1: might be a cringe thing. Yeah, it is very American Dreams.
[5:17] Speaker 1: It's exactly right, just waiting. It was exactly like the
[5:20] Speaker 1: pilot where they're waiting to get on American manson History,
[5:24] Speaker 1: just repeating it.
[5:24] Speaker 2: And repeating itself. All right, so we're going to talk
[5:27] Speaker 2: about this whole thing, all bts. We need to know
[5:30] Speaker 2: what you were doing while you were shooting it, what
[5:33] Speaker 2: it was like. Let's just paint a quick picture of
[5:36] Speaker 2: American Dreams. It aired on NBC for three seasons. When
[5:41] Speaker 2: were you went all three seasons?
[5:42] Speaker 1: I was all three seasons And this was exact like
[5:44] Speaker 1: this was still back in the day when seasons were
[5:47] Speaker 1: twenty six episodes a year.
[5:49] Speaker 2: Or whatever.
[5:50] Speaker 1: Crazy. Yeah, numbers there were. That's what we did on
[5:53] Speaker 1: gleef YEA three seasons. I was in all three Wow.
[6:00] Speaker 2: This was and the pilot specifically, this was written by
[6:03] Speaker 2: Jonathan Prince is directed by David Semmel. Is that right?
[6:07] Speaker 1: Perfect pronunciation?
[6:08] Speaker 3: Thank you so much.
[6:09] Speaker 2: And the music supervisor was Greg Sill, which is important
[6:11] Speaker 2: because music is an integral part of this show.
[6:14] Speaker 1: Yes, and Rip, he passed away. He was amazing and
[6:17] Speaker 1: what he did.
[6:17] Speaker 2: Yeah, well left behind something very special and very important. Okay, Vanessa,
[6:23] Speaker 2: we're going to We'll go through some of these like
[6:25] Speaker 2: fun things and you know, fun facts and all this.
[6:27] Speaker 2: But I need to know where you were in your
[6:30] Speaker 2: life and what was happening and how did American dreams
[6:34] Speaker 2: fall into your lap? The audition or whatever it was,
[6:37] Speaker 2: how did it come to you? Do you remember I
[6:41] Speaker 2: did ask my mother this morning?
[6:43] Speaker 3: I did, I did ask her.
[6:44] Speaker 1: I was okay, So, Jenna, I am fifteen years old,
[6:48] Speaker 1: No I am I have. I am from Montreal, Canada.
[6:53] Speaker 1: I've done only children's television at this point. I've been
[6:57] Speaker 1: working since I was six, but only on kids TV.
[7:00] Speaker 1: Shows that are afraid of the dark, are afraid of
[7:02] Speaker 1: the dark popular mchannas for kids. There was a really
[7:04] Speaker 1: funny Canadian show called Radioactive that I did and a
[7:08] Speaker 1: lot of animation. Anyways, it doesn't matter. I put myself
[7:14] Speaker 1: on tape in Hudson, Canada and Hudson Quebec, Canada, this
[7:20] Speaker 1: tiny little town in the middle of nowhere which now
[7:22] Speaker 1: is probably like a city, but at the time it
[7:25] Speaker 1: was popular for cows and antiques and maple syrup. They
[7:30] Speaker 1: called and flew me to Los Angeles, off to the tape,
[7:33] Speaker 1: which it feels to me like a fever dream, Like
[7:38] Speaker 1: I just don't understand of VHS. VHS.
[7:43] Speaker 2: It's funny that you were putting yourself on tape for
[7:45] Speaker 2: things when that I remember doing that as a kid
[7:48] Speaker 2: as well.
[7:48] Speaker 3: But like it's such a it feels like putting yourself.
[7:53] Speaker 1: One I know, I've never thought of that, and that
[7:57] Speaker 1: is really interesting to interesting to me. I did not.
[8:01] Speaker 1: It did not bother me to put myself on tape
[8:03] Speaker 1: when I was younger. It bothers me very much to
[8:05] Speaker 1: put myself on tape today. I know that I know
[8:08] Speaker 1: that that's interesting. Yep. So put on a tape it
[8:11] Speaker 1: was a VHS, sent it away into the void, got
[8:15] Speaker 1: a call back, got flown to Los Angeles. I remember
[8:18] Speaker 1: because they put us at the W Hotel and I
[8:22] Speaker 1: had never I was like I I that bed was
[8:26] Speaker 1: so gorgeous and so soft, and I just remember thinking
[8:29] Speaker 1: a lot about how comfortable the bed was. Wow, fifteen
[8:34] Speaker 1: fifteen fifteen, and I I didn't Gosh, it's so funny.
[8:41] Speaker 1: I'm so grateful that you asked to do this. I
[8:43] Speaker 1: know you told me, Hey, we're going to do a show.
[8:46] Speaker 1: We're going to listen to or watch a musical together
[8:49] Speaker 1: and talk about it. And I wanted to dose Sound
[8:50] Speaker 1: of Music because Sound of Music's my favorite movie of
[8:52] Speaker 1: all time. And then maybe Singing in the Rain because
[8:55] Speaker 1: come on, turn of turn of a huge from silent
[9:00] Speaker 1: films to talking films to musicals anyways, all of this.
[9:03] Speaker 1: But I'm really grateful that we're doing American Dreams because
[9:06] Speaker 1: this time of my life, even though there are memories
[9:09] Speaker 1: that are missing, there are certain memories that are in
[9:12] Speaker 1: high definition. Wow, of how much change happened. It's for
[9:19] Speaker 1: like these are these are you know, you think about
[9:23] Speaker 1: a fifteen year old You're simply this is probably the
[9:25] Speaker 1: most awkward you're ever going to look your hormones are raging.
[9:29] Speaker 1: Everything feels uncomfortable and strange, and I'm having this insane
[9:35] Speaker 1: experience of moving to Hollywood. Yeah, well, actually I take
[9:39] Speaker 1: that back. We did actually film the pilot in Vancouver, Canada,
[9:43] Speaker 1: so I got the I filmed the I came to
[9:46] Speaker 1: Hollywood for the audition and getting the job, and then
[9:51] Speaker 1: I'm back to Vancouver. That's funny show, and that's why
[9:54] Speaker 1: when you watch it, everybody looks so moist, because it
[9:58] Speaker 1: was always raining. You know, everyone's here was a little
[10:01] Speaker 1: more of a luminous yes.
[10:03] Speaker 3: And then did you end up moving the show and
[10:06] Speaker 3: filming the show in LA because.
[10:08] Speaker 1: Exactly that Jonathan Prince had just had a son and
[10:12] Speaker 1: he really wanted to be in Los Angeles to be
[10:15] Speaker 1: with his kid, which right now I can so respect,
[10:18] Speaker 1: and I think I think the story was that he
[10:22] Speaker 1: took a huge paycot to take the show down to
[10:26] Speaker 1: Los Angeles so he could be with his family, which
[10:27] Speaker 1: I think is beautiful and was a huge life changing
[10:32] Speaker 1: moment for me because I don't know that I live
[10:35] Speaker 1: in Los Angeles. That's where I've spent more time here.
[10:37] Speaker 1: This is my home than I have in Canada, And
[10:41] Speaker 1: it was all because of this moment and his decision
[10:43] Speaker 1: to put his family first. And I have to just
[10:46] Speaker 1: shout out to him as well. He made that show
[10:49] Speaker 1: feel like a family for everyone who worked there, all
[10:52] Speaker 1: of the cast, it was families were always welcome, We
[10:56] Speaker 1: always he created events for the crew to invite their
[11:01] Speaker 1: families too. We always watched the episode together every week.
[11:04] Speaker 1: I think we did that on Glee too, which I
[11:06] Speaker 1: always loved and respected. I think, you know, he really
[11:11] Speaker 1: it was a family show for families, and he made
[11:14] Speaker 1: it feel like a family and that changed my life.
[11:18] Speaker 2: And eventually.
[11:20] Speaker 1: I went to Los Angeles to film the rest of
[11:22] Speaker 1: the show my dad until it got picked up and
[11:24] Speaker 1: then my mom came and so it moved it. It
[11:26] Speaker 1: just uprooted us. And wow out in.
[11:29] Speaker 3: LA that's so crazy.
[11:31] Speaker 2: It makes sense to me though, having a leader that
[11:35] Speaker 2: set a tone for you on a show that young,
[11:38] Speaker 2: you know, your first kind of like for a inte
[11:40] Speaker 2: like adult you know content right as this family friendly show,
[11:46] Speaker 2: but had some real.
[11:49] Speaker 3: You know, context in the in the show too.
[11:51] Speaker 2: That was really important in historic and it was so
[11:55] Speaker 2: beautiful and we'll talk about it, but just setting the
[11:59] Speaker 2: tone for you to to understand what a show could
[12:02] Speaker 2: be and how it could be led, and how your
[12:06] Speaker 2: crew is treated, and how your past is treated, Like well,
[12:09] Speaker 2: how special that was to have a family, and then how.
[12:14] Speaker 1: Shocking that not everyone does that live on just to
[12:17] Speaker 1: be like, oh that I thought that was the standard
[12:19] Speaker 1: and that was not the standard.
[12:21] Speaker 2: Right, But you came into Glee and you had so
[12:23] Speaker 2: much under your belt already, and Kevin.
[12:25] Speaker 3: Was like she was on American Dreams.
[12:27] Speaker 2: I know her, but you came in with such professionalism
[12:31] Speaker 2: and also like just a knowing energy that like treated
[12:37] Speaker 2: the crew the way they should be treated, and just
[12:39] Speaker 2: like the way that you moved through set was very
[12:44] Speaker 2: informative for I think all of us and for me
[12:46] Speaker 2: who was very close to you in that time, because
[12:49] Speaker 2: it was like you always knew everybody's names and it
[12:52] Speaker 2: was it was just important. And I learned that from
[12:55] Speaker 2: you and from the show and other people who had
[12:57] Speaker 2: had that experience before.
[12:59] Speaker 3: You know that everybody now.
[13:01] Speaker 1: You know, Jenna, It's like, if you spend that much
[13:03] Speaker 1: time with people, yes, yes, yes, that is there. You
[13:08] Speaker 1: have a choice. You have Yes, is this going to
[13:11] Speaker 1: feel good and like family or is this going to
[13:13] Speaker 1: be some place like all of my time in total
[13:18] Speaker 1: but and and and Brittany, Brittany snow who's the star
[13:22] Speaker 1: of American Dream. She's so brilliant in the show. She
[13:24] Speaker 1: also moved her whole family from Florida. We actually I
[13:28] Speaker 1: moved from Canada. She moved from Florida and we ended
[13:32] Speaker 1: up getting apartments next to each other at the Librea.
[13:37] Speaker 2: Oh Park Laia. Yes, I lived there when I moved
[13:40] Speaker 2: here for Glee.
[13:41] Speaker 1: Right, that was where you moved.
[13:42] Speaker 2: That's where I moved.
[13:43] Speaker 1: That is that's where actors would move. Yes, it was
[13:47] Speaker 1: a really it was a time where the path it
[13:52] Speaker 1: was there was just a very clear to Hollywood. Yea, yes, exactly, totally.
[13:57] Speaker 3: Oh wow, that's exciting. And so you guys, I just
[14:00] Speaker 3: got to do this together.
[14:01] Speaker 2: It must have been so nice to have a friend
[14:04] Speaker 2: of a similar age, kind of going.
[14:07] Speaker 1: One year younger than me. So she was Oh my gosh,
[14:09] Speaker 1: she was fourteen.
[14:11] Speaker 2: Oh my gosh. You guys are both brilliant on this.
[14:13] Speaker 2: It's so good. I love this show. I admittedly have
[14:18] Speaker 2: never never seen it, so this was such a watch
[14:22] Speaker 2: for the first time.
[14:23] Speaker 3: Yes, and I had no idea.
[14:25] Speaker 1: Oh me, what you thought? Did you? What did you
[14:28] Speaker 1: tell me?
[14:29] Speaker 2: I loved it. I loved it. Also watching it on YouTube,
[14:33] Speaker 2: there's something very nostalgic about the way it was filmed
[14:36] Speaker 2: and the time. It's like going back and watching The
[14:38] Speaker 2: West Wing. You know, it's like it's like a stamp
[14:41] Speaker 2: of time that you're like, oh, I know when this
[14:43] Speaker 2: was shot on film.
[14:45] Speaker 3: It's so beautiful. It was really like.
[14:48] Speaker 2: The family story is so good, and the characters are
[14:53] Speaker 2: already so well developed, I agree, and within the family,
[14:57] Speaker 2: and then you guys and her Juri to be on
[15:00] Speaker 2: the show, and it was just so clearly paved out
[15:06] Speaker 2: for everybody. But then I was shocked when they I
[15:11] Speaker 2: didn't know what the music was. I had no idea.
[15:14] Speaker 2: So I was just so floored and so excited when
[15:18] Speaker 2: I heard the like the contemporary music of the time
[15:21] Speaker 2: or just like important music of the time that was
[15:25] Speaker 2: being included. And the Beach Boys song is actually my
[15:32] Speaker 2: song for Graham, my son. So I picked a song
[15:36] Speaker 2: for each of my kids when they were when I
[15:38] Speaker 2: was pregnant with them, and I would play it for
[15:39] Speaker 2: them every day. And I didn't realize that this was
[15:44] Speaker 2: Don't Worry We was Graham's songs. I was like, So
[15:48] Speaker 2: I was so moved it's brilliant. It's so brilliant.
[15:52] Speaker 1: So I want to say a few things about the
[15:54] Speaker 1: music and the brilliance of the music because and it
[15:57] Speaker 1: deserves it deserves its whole, a whole special or documentary. Yes,
[16:01] Speaker 1: the music was always sourced somewhere through the whole series,
[16:06] Speaker 1: from episode one to the end. Anytime you heard music,
[16:10] Speaker 1: it had a it had a place it was coming
[16:13] Speaker 1: from in the physical world, the physical world of American Dreams.
[16:17] Speaker 1: So the transistor radio at the top, or American bandstand
[16:20] Speaker 1: or or the TVs. There's always there was never music
[16:23] Speaker 1: just to be music. Yeah, it always had to be
[16:26] Speaker 1: coming from a source in the scene. Oh that's so cool.
[16:32] Speaker 1: They did not have any celebrity artists in the pilot, however,
[16:39] Speaker 1: that became a huge part of the show, was having
[16:42] Speaker 1: celebrities of the day of two thousand and two, two
[16:45] Speaker 1: thousand and three, two thousand and four, two thousand and.
[16:47] Speaker 2: Five, Michelle Branch, Yes, sure, Vanessa Carlton, I mean you name.
[16:52] Speaker 1: It, Lauren Hill, and you're like so many And they
[16:56] Speaker 1: would and they would play artists from the from the
[17:00] Speaker 1: the sixties yea. And then on top of that, which
[17:04] Speaker 1: you do see in the pilot. Either they would hire
[17:09] Speaker 1: someone to be like the Vandells they had had you
[17:12] Speaker 1: saw actors, dancer, singers pretending you saw their faces, and
[17:17] Speaker 1: they were not the real they were not the artists,
[17:20] Speaker 1: the real artists of the time. Or they would use
[17:23] Speaker 1: actual footage from American bandstand like the Beach Boys footage,
[17:27] Speaker 1: and they'd have stand dance actors, dancers memorize the old
[17:34] Speaker 1: footage so that they could be in the background of
[17:37] Speaker 1: the shots. So on the cameras, I'm hopefully this is
[17:40] Speaker 1: making sense on these cameras on the stage, on the
[17:43] Speaker 1: little things, like it looked like they were recording the
[17:46] Speaker 1: people that are blurry in the back, but actually it
[17:49] Speaker 1: was just playing a video of the original Beach Boys,
[17:52] Speaker 1: and then in the back blurry was a live actor
[17:55] Speaker 1: imitating the movements.
[17:57] Speaker 2: Wow.
[17:58] Speaker 3: Wow wow.
[18:00] Speaker 1: Then and then so they did that a lot, which
[18:03] Speaker 1: I loved, loved, love, love.
[18:14] Speaker 2: Obviously the music is such a huge part of the show.
[18:17] Speaker 2: But for you coming into this, did you understand what
[18:20] Speaker 2: that was going to be like or did it surprise you, Like,
[18:23] Speaker 2: because you're so you know, you're fifteen, come on this show,
[18:26] Speaker 2: You're like, this is so exciting, But like, what did
[18:29] Speaker 2: you know, coming in versus what did you learn along
[18:31] Speaker 2: the way?
[18:32] Speaker 1: That's such a great question. And as I was watching
[18:35] Speaker 1: the pilot last night, I thought, wow, I did not
[18:40] Speaker 1: pick up on I did not pick up on so
[18:44] Speaker 1: much at the time. You know, when I was fifteen,
[18:46] Speaker 1: I had only my very very narrow view of the
[18:51] Speaker 1: world and view of life. And I was also scared,
[18:56] Speaker 1: so scared all the time because I've just thrown into
[18:59] Speaker 1: this world that I want to be worthy of the
[19:03] Speaker 1: world that I was thrown into and all the insecurities
[19:06] Speaker 1: that come through that. So watching it last night, I
[19:11] Speaker 1: just got so much more. First of all, now being
[19:13] Speaker 1: a parent, why should be watching a family show from
[19:16] Speaker 1: the perspective of a parent? Changes changes everything. I realize
[19:22] Speaker 1: that music is art and we use art to cope
[19:28] Speaker 1: with the the messed up aspects of the world around
[19:35] Speaker 1: us at the time. And I loved I love that
[19:40] Speaker 1: music then and music now it just breaks It breaks
[19:45] Speaker 1: open and allows these glimmers of hope to come through.
[19:48] Speaker 1: And you really see that through Brittany and my character
[19:52] Speaker 1: Roxanne and Meg just the you know that everything feels
[19:55] Speaker 1: so stressful and so intense around the American Dream, right,
[20:02] Speaker 1: It's like this. It's funny because it really you think
[20:05] Speaker 1: the show is about the American dream, but it's actually
[20:07] Speaker 1: piercing this. It's piercing this illusion of the American dream
[20:12] Speaker 1: because it's he's worked so hard to have it and
[20:15] Speaker 1: everyone's unhappy inside of him. I feel like that's just
[20:18] Speaker 1: a theme that we can relate to today and and
[20:22] Speaker 1: and just anyways, and just how the art and the
[20:24] Speaker 1: music really is is more than just oh that song,
[20:27] Speaker 1: I love that song, or oh that song was so popular.
[20:29] Speaker 1: It was like, know, those songs were lifting the hope
[20:32] Speaker 1: of people and pulling them through into you know, what
[20:36] Speaker 1: we know to be a revolution, would stock peace? Yeah,
[20:40] Speaker 1: you know we're about to go into the Vietnam War.
[20:43] Speaker 1: And it's just like it's just interesting, oh for sure.
[20:46] Speaker 1: And it's interesting to see it from from It was
[20:49] Speaker 1: interesting to go back and watch it and pick up
[20:52] Speaker 1: on all the things I could never have understood, right,
[20:55] Speaker 1: even if there was one line my character said, she
[20:58] Speaker 1: goes two dances and so she's just she's just wanted
[21:04] Speaker 1: to dance with one of the main dancers on American bands.
[21:07] Speaker 1: And this is the first time they get in and
[21:09] Speaker 1: she goes up and she pulls him aside, and she
[21:12] Speaker 1: forces him to dance with her, and then he asks
[21:14] Speaker 1: her to dance again, and she looks back at Meg
[21:16] Speaker 1: and says, two dances and this guy thinks he ownost
[21:19] Speaker 1: makes me now beat him. I was like that line,
[21:24] Speaker 1: that line, first of all, that line I didn't get
[21:27] Speaker 1: at fifteen, And I wish I really understood it because
[21:30] Speaker 1: I want her so many bad boyfriends that I could
[21:32] Speaker 1: have just sure like that has a lot of wisdom
[21:35] Speaker 1: in that one line. And then and then to have
[21:39] Speaker 1: a character say that in the sixties was so incredibly
[21:43] Speaker 1: powerful because you see the mom and you see how
[21:44] Speaker 1: suppressed she is, and you see how how how she
[21:47] Speaker 1: doesn't have a voice and so has such lack of
[21:50] Speaker 1: self expression.
[21:50] Speaker 2: Anyways, how liberating to play a character like that. And
[21:54] Speaker 2: I don't know wise.
[21:56] Speaker 3: And at that age you don't know what I know.
[21:59] Speaker 3: I know, but you were emulating. You're emulating. It's so good.
[22:04] Speaker 2: It's so good, you guys were I love your in
[22:07] Speaker 2: Brittany's chemistry too, was the chemistry I know you guys
[22:12] Speaker 2: are still friends now too. Like where we saw her
[22:15] Speaker 2: at the baby shower, Yeah, so your baby shower. What
[22:18] Speaker 2: was it like having her and to grow up with
[22:21] Speaker 2: on this show, and you know, and I think.
[22:24] Speaker 1: It was I think it was twofold. I think it
[22:27] Speaker 1: was a lifeline in a sense that we had each
[22:30] Speaker 1: other because so much was happening, and what we know
[22:35] Speaker 1: about the early two thousands now is that it wasn't
[22:38] Speaker 1: a great It wasn't a great place for women in
[22:42] Speaker 1: dream right. I don't know if you did you get
[22:45] Speaker 1: to see Lilith the documentary.
[22:46] Speaker 2: In Lillith, No, not no, not yet.
[22:48] Speaker 1: Did on that anyways, I just it was it was
[22:53] Speaker 1: the climate and the culture was really intense for everyone,
[22:59] Speaker 1: not just for women but for everyone, and so so
[23:04] Speaker 1: I think having Brittany and I be the same age
[23:07] Speaker 1: and be so close and be so inside that experience
[23:12] Speaker 1: together was a lifeline. We really supported each other. And
[23:16] Speaker 1: then I think that there was the shadow side that
[23:19] Speaker 1: which was we were both so scared. It was a
[23:23] Speaker 1: lot of pressure, and there are our emotions were very high,
[23:31] Speaker 1: and we had different ways of expressing them. I think
[23:33] Speaker 1: I was very much hyper focused on her if she
[23:38] Speaker 1: was okay, and she was very much like there was
[23:43] Speaker 1: a lot of pressure.
[23:45] Speaker 2: Pressure.
[23:45] Speaker 1: So I think we I think we had like I mean,
[23:50] Speaker 1: I would actually, you know, I would love to talk
[23:52] Speaker 1: to her and to I would love to talk to
[23:56] Speaker 1: her and us to be able to tell the story
[23:58] Speaker 1: from as a.
[24:00] Speaker 2: Yes, and I'm sure her perspective is also different and
[24:04] Speaker 2: yet so right exactly, but.
[24:05] Speaker 1: I do, I do. It's it's this weird feeling with
[24:10] Speaker 1: Britt that it's somebody that is so inside my heart.
[24:14] Speaker 1: I love her so much. There is nothing that she
[24:17] Speaker 1: could do, There's nothing that could happen. Like she's my family.
[24:21] Speaker 1: That's it. She's just my family. I love her so
[24:23] Speaker 1: so so much, and we went through so much together,
[24:25] Speaker 1: and you guys love her. I have to keep watching
[24:30] Speaker 1: now and then you get to see the show change
[24:35] Speaker 1: because we went from being in Canada to Los Angeles
[24:39] Speaker 1: and then we got a studio where they built out
[24:41] Speaker 1: the whole. Where did you guys, Where did you guys
[24:44] Speaker 1: film Sunset Gower?
[24:46] Speaker 2: Oh?
[24:47] Speaker 3: So then you came, okay, so you filmed Sunset Gower.
[24:50] Speaker 3: You filed a musical TV show which was like slightly different,
[24:53] Speaker 3: and I have questions about that on American Dreams.
[24:57] Speaker 2: And then years later you get and you're across the street,
[25:02] Speaker 2: right across the street.
[25:04] Speaker 3: How weird and also not.
[25:07] Speaker 1: I mean weird? Those gosh what did It was just
[25:11] Speaker 1: such a romantic time to be filming television.
[25:14] Speaker 2: Yes, definitely, and those and that's a jump, right, that's
[25:18] Speaker 2: what a ten year jump?
[25:19] Speaker 1: Yeah? No, eight year jump?
[25:21] Speaker 2: Oh what when did you come on? Twenty ten? Two
[25:24] Speaker 2: thousand nine, nine nine? Yeah, so seven seven? Well, I
[25:28] Speaker 2: guess you finished in two thousand and five. So yeah,
[25:30] Speaker 2: it wasn't that long, but it's it was a there
[25:34] Speaker 2: was a it was a very special capsule, time capsule
[25:40] Speaker 2: for television. Yeah.
[25:41] Speaker 1: I would say if people love Glee, they would love
[25:43] Speaker 1: American Dreams. It has a lot of similar.
[25:47] Speaker 2: Yeah, tell me like the differences in the similarities that
[25:51] Speaker 2: it felt from the inside because obviously you guys were
[25:54] Speaker 2: doing some musical numbers in Bandstand? Did you were there
[25:58] Speaker 2: a lot of Was there a lot more Bandstand in
[26:01] Speaker 2: the later seasons? Were you guys there a lot more?
[26:05] Speaker 1: Yeah. Once we started getting celebrity artists to come in,
[26:08] Speaker 1: things started to revolve around it because it seems such
[26:11] Speaker 1: a important press press publicity point.
[26:16] Speaker 2: Yea.
[26:17] Speaker 1: And in the same way that we would have on Glee,
[26:20] Speaker 1: you'd have five scenes, but if we were doing a musical,
[26:23] Speaker 1: it would take a day or you know, it would
[26:25] Speaker 1: just take more time. That was also the case if
[26:28] Speaker 1: it was a bandstand day, it would take more time.
[26:30] Speaker 1: They'd have a crane camera, they would have a steady
[26:34] Speaker 1: cam that we would do multiple takes because they it
[26:37] Speaker 1: basically turned into a music video, same as Glee. You know,
[26:40] Speaker 1: those numbers became music videos in their own way and
[26:44] Speaker 1: would be funny, isn't it.
[26:46] Speaker 2: That's so funny because a lot of people don't talk
[26:48] Speaker 2: about American dreams when we talk about Glee, and yet
[26:52] Speaker 2: it sounds there's so much similarity to all the just
[26:57] Speaker 2: a different time here you guys were, And what about
[27:00] Speaker 2: the historical component of the show, because I was very
[27:06] Speaker 2: moved by the fact that they really did lean into that,
[27:10] Speaker 2: I mean with the assassination and at the end, and
[27:12] Speaker 2: it was just and I'd imagine like that music becomes
[27:16] Speaker 2: such an important part. Like when I was watching it, it
[27:20] Speaker 2: reminded me of I was in class during nine to eleven.
[27:25] Speaker 2: I was in school and I'll never forget where I was,
[27:28] Speaker 2: right just like people talk about our older generations talk
[27:31] Speaker 2: about they'll never forget where they were during the assassination.
[27:34] Speaker 3: And like the.
[27:34] Speaker 2: News and the way that it shaped what in entertainment
[27:41] Speaker 2: and music and art and the ways that we clung
[27:48] Speaker 2: to that for solace, for hope, for grief, you know,
[27:54] Speaker 2: for all of it, and for Bansion. I'm sure during
[27:58] Speaker 2: that time, like I don't know, I didn't know about Benson.
[28:02] Speaker 2: I don't know that, you know, but I'd imagine that
[28:04] Speaker 2: became such an important part for society to have to
[28:08] Speaker 2: uplift during that time, right, Yeah, But I thought it
[28:12] Speaker 2: was really beautiful that they included that, and I understand
[28:16] Speaker 2: that they probably continued to include like the historical components
[28:20] Speaker 2: throughout the whole show.
[28:21] Speaker 1: Absolutely they that was that was the way the show
[28:26] Speaker 1: was sneaky and political, was to show nine to eleven
[28:31] Speaker 1: was very fresh. Yeah, very very fresh and right, that's right,
[28:38] Speaker 1: and that's right. And really it's just history just keeps
[28:46] Speaker 1: repeating itself, whether it's the fashion the cargo Pants were
[28:49] Speaker 1: talking about coming back twenty years later, or corruption in
[28:55] Speaker 1: the government, or shocking murders and devastations of unfathomable content.
[29:06] Speaker 1: It's just incredible. And so it's funny because we're talking
[29:11] Speaker 1: about American Dreams as if and American Dreams was talking
[29:14] Speaker 1: about the sixties. It's just it's like here we are,
[29:18] Speaker 1: here we are, but it's so true and that's why
[29:21] Speaker 1: we make this art. And I think that's what was
[29:23] Speaker 1: brilliant about the show. And I think that the creators
[29:26] Speaker 1: and the writers, I mean, people always say was it
[29:31] Speaker 1: ahead of its time? I don't know if it was
[29:33] Speaker 1: ahead of its time. It kind of feels like it's
[29:36] Speaker 1: in a timeless yes, you know, yeah place, but yeah,
[29:42] Speaker 1: but it again. Watching it yesterday, I felt like it
[29:50] Speaker 1: was such an incredible statement on the early two thousands
[29:58] Speaker 1: as well as the sixties, and and starting the show
[30:03] Speaker 1: with the assassination of the president felt like, well, I
[30:10] Speaker 1: had no reference for it, like you. I was in
[30:13] Speaker 1: class when I heard about nine to eleven, so I
[30:15] Speaker 1: had that reference. But then everyone in the next the
[30:18] Speaker 1: generation above who was working on the show, that was
[30:21] Speaker 1: a huge memory for them, and everyone had a story
[30:25] Speaker 1: of where they were when this happened. And I think
[30:28] Speaker 1: that what that did for the audience of American Dreams
[30:32] Speaker 1: and what people tell me when I meet people who
[30:34] Speaker 1: love the show so much, and there's so many people
[30:36] Speaker 1: who love the show. I was reading Samantha's notes for
[30:43] Speaker 1: this episode and it said that once the show stopped airing,
[30:46] Speaker 1: they were trying to get NBC pick it back up
[30:50] Speaker 1: and they were hiring planes to fly around the studio
[30:55] Speaker 1: with banners that said, you know, bring back American Dreams.
[30:58] Speaker 1: I mean, it was just crazy. The fans that were
[31:00] Speaker 1: wonderful and crazy. But I think what I hear from
[31:03] Speaker 1: them is that it brought their family together. And I
[31:06] Speaker 1: think that's the reason that they brought the family together,
[31:09] Speaker 1: because it's something that the older generation in the family
[31:12] Speaker 1: could say, oh, I have a reference point for this,
[31:15] Speaker 1: and then I can connect to you about your reference
[31:18] Speaker 1: your newer reference point, and this brings us together in
[31:21] Speaker 1: a way where you know, families have a hard time
[31:25] Speaker 1: understanding each other when they're such an age gap, and
[31:27] Speaker 1: you see that in the show. JJ's fighting with his father,
[31:30] Speaker 1: Meg's fighting with his father. There's such a deep level
[31:33] Speaker 1: of misunderstanding between all the characters, and I think being
[31:36] Speaker 1: able to project that out as the characters from American
[31:40] Speaker 1: Dreams helped families talk about things that were happening inside
[31:44] Speaker 1: their their own homes and anyways.
[31:46] Speaker 2: It was just great, so good, so good. It's so
[31:50] Speaker 2: true your fans, I mean, the fans were really so
[31:55] Speaker 2: they did they they organized campaigns to save the series.
[32:00] Speaker 2: They sent thousands of emails and postcards, they signed petitions,
[32:04] Speaker 2: they flew a banner over the network studios, and it
[32:08] Speaker 2: was it was relatively short for how beloved it truly was.
[32:13] Speaker 2: And I'm sure you guys felt that.
[32:15] Speaker 1: Yes, I know the creators wanted to get to Woodstock,
[32:19] Speaker 1: oh my gosh, like they just really wanted because it
[32:22] Speaker 1: was because it's the it's the.
[32:24] Speaker 2: Journey out of right right through time.
[32:30] Speaker 1: But it's it's the journey through time, but it's the
[32:31] Speaker 1: journey out of the bubble of that that stuffy American
[32:36] Speaker 1: dream that you see that the mom's character, you know,
[32:43] Speaker 1: it is revolutionary for her to say that she doesn't
[32:45] Speaker 1: want to have a fifth baby on the show, right
[32:48] Speaker 1: Like she goes to a book club and they are
[32:52] Speaker 1: not interested in reading anything that is about provocative or
[32:57] Speaker 1: about a free, sovereign woman or anything other than the
[33:01] Speaker 1: young woman stays home, cooks, cleans and has babies. That
[33:05] Speaker 1: was that was true, And so I think the creators
[33:08] Speaker 1: really wanted to tell the story of the peace love
[33:13] Speaker 1: and and.
[33:15] Speaker 3: I wish they had gotten that. I wish that you
[33:17] Speaker 3: guys had gotten.
[33:18] Speaker 1: There me too. And I think the fans wanted to
[33:20] Speaker 1: see that too, of course, And it's yours is a
[33:25] Speaker 1: long time too.
[33:26] Speaker 2: I mean, yeah, anything on TV that you get, you know,
[33:30] Speaker 2: three seasons, that's what a blessing.
[33:32] Speaker 3: You had so much foresight to see.
[33:35] Speaker 2: What was coming for Glee, that you had this whole
[33:37] Speaker 2: experience that I just was like, not even privy to.
[33:40] Speaker 2: I feel like I learned a whole new era of
[33:43] Speaker 2: your life by watching this pilot. Did you when you
[33:47] Speaker 2: walked on Glee set? Were you, like, I know, this
[33:50] Speaker 2: was it familiar to you? Because he was a familiar
[33:53] Speaker 2: to anybody on Glee. But I think you.
[33:56] Speaker 1: Were the one I think, I guess you know, Jenna,
[34:01] Speaker 1: I think looking back, there must have been something in
[34:05] Speaker 1: me that felt like this is normal right from my
[34:09] Speaker 1: from my experience with American Dreams. And I don't think
[34:13] Speaker 1: I thought that. I think I was.
[34:18] Speaker 2: Some kind of subcondious thing, because like, I don't believe
[34:22] Speaker 2: that nobody talked about American Dreams in this way and
[34:26] Speaker 2: and Kevin, I mean Kevin did, but really nobody else
[34:29] Speaker 2: comparedly to American Dreams. And it's just so fascinating that
[34:33] Speaker 2: with the guest stars and with the dance days and
[34:37] Speaker 2: all of the things that are are so similar that
[34:41] Speaker 2: we wouldn't like, of course you were on American Dreams
[34:44] Speaker 2: and you came.
[34:44] Speaker 1: So I will explain why in what I and what
[34:49] Speaker 1: I think happened Plase, American Dreams was aired at a
[34:52] Speaker 1: time before streaming. It was just people were just starting
[34:58] Speaker 1: to see DVD sets of shows come out. So it
[35:01] Speaker 1: was like if it aired on TV, you saw it
[35:03] Speaker 1: on TV. If it was reruns, you got to see reruns.
[35:06] Speaker 1: But if the network didn't air it, then you didn't
[35:08] Speaker 1: see it. And then right after that they thought, hey,
[35:12] Speaker 1: people want to see old shows. They like, let's start
[35:15] Speaker 1: becoming them coming out with them. Except for because American
[35:20] Speaker 1: Dreams didn't know about the future technology of DV sets
[35:23] Speaker 1: for TV shows, the contracts they made for all of
[35:26] Speaker 1: the musical numbers were not done in a way that
[35:31] Speaker 1: could be find that made financial sense, Like the DVD
[35:35] Speaker 1: sets would have had to be six hundred dollars a
[35:37] Speaker 1: set in order to have that make sense because of
[35:40] Speaker 1: the rights that they would have to pay each the
[35:43] Speaker 1: celebrity and the original artist.
[35:45] Speaker 3: So they really didn't have the forest.
[35:47] Speaker 1: They did not they had. They did not know about streaming.
[35:50] Speaker 1: They did there was no streaming there was. So what
[35:55] Speaker 1: happened is it didn't come out.
[35:58] Speaker 2: Oh, I mean that is that why it's so hard
[36:02] Speaker 2: to find the show, Like if my Boddy can rediscover it,
[36:06] Speaker 2: like they're rediscoveringly at this point, there's you really have
[36:10] Speaker 2: to calling.
[36:11] Speaker 1: Through YouTube to find it out and hopefully it doesn't
[36:16] Speaker 1: get taken down because I'm pretty sure it's not there
[36:19] Speaker 1: and I don't think they're paying any of the artists
[36:22] Speaker 1: up there. I think maybe they came out with the
[36:25] Speaker 1: second and third season on DVD and figured out how
[36:28] Speaker 1: to re edit it and remaster it so that the
[36:31] Speaker 1: music wasn't as expensive. Maybe they edited the scenes down
[36:35] Speaker 1: so that they didn't have to pay. Sure sucks because
[36:37] Speaker 1: that's not the full experience of the show and that's
[36:39] Speaker 1: such an comfort part of the show. But anyways, if
[36:42] Speaker 1: you are lucky enough to be able to see American
[36:44] Speaker 1: Dreams on YouTube before it's you know, while it's still there, enjoy.
[36:50] Speaker 3: Do you have a favorite.
[36:53] Speaker 2: Musical number or musical guest from the show, or like
[36:57] Speaker 2: a memory that pops up in your mind?
[37:00] Speaker 3: There were so many. I mean, I'm looking like Hillary
[37:02] Speaker 3: and Haley Duff.
[37:04] Speaker 1: Well that was fun because then I did a movie
[37:06] Speaker 1: with Hillary afterwards.
[37:07] Speaker 2: It was really fun.
[37:08] Speaker 1: It was not related, but it was friends to have
[37:12] Speaker 1: seen that happen. I mean, okay, and we had Paris
[37:16] Speaker 1: Hilton on American two. Oh my god, she played I
[37:19] Speaker 1: Dream of Jeanie.
[37:23] Speaker 3: Wow.
[37:23] Speaker 1: For Love Hewitt was great.
[37:24] Speaker 3: I mean, Morris said, are you kidding? Okay, So this
[37:27] Speaker 3: is what's weird.
[37:28] Speaker 1: I saw Alenis Morris at on the list that she
[37:33] Speaker 1: must have been, but I don't understand because I think
[37:36] Speaker 1: I would have flipped out. So maybe I just deleted
[37:39] Speaker 1: that from my memory because I remember then filming Waiting
[37:41] Speaker 1: After and knowing that at the time she was dating
[37:44] Speaker 1: Ryan Reynolds. I just thought all day, every day Alanis
[37:48] Speaker 1: might come to set, Alana's might come to set, And
[37:49] Speaker 1: then I remember one time she came to set, and
[37:51] Speaker 1: I remember just looking at her from afar and feeling frozen.
[37:57] Speaker 1: So when I saw Alanis's name on that list that
[38:00] Speaker 1: was on American Celebrities on American Dreams, I was very
[38:04] Speaker 1: confused and a little regretful that I didn't make a more.
[38:10] Speaker 1: Or maybe I did and I've just blacked it out.
[38:12] Speaker 1: I don't know, but I'll say I'll say that I'll
[38:17] Speaker 1: say that all of the artists were amazing. I'm I'm
[38:19] Speaker 1: struggling to think of my favorite. I think Macy Gray
[38:25] Speaker 1: was on that was fun. Wow, there were so many.
[38:31] Speaker 1: And then I will say that two things that stand
[38:37] Speaker 1: out as my as my most starstruck moments are Jonathan
[38:43] Speaker 1: Taylor Thomas came and auditioned for American Dreams once. And
[38:48] Speaker 1: when I found that out, I was such a home
[38:50] Speaker 1: improvement fan. And when I found that out, I couldn't
[38:54] Speaker 1: I couldn't sleep thinking that he was coming JTT. I
[39:00] Speaker 1: mean I was, I get it myself, and I get
[39:03] Speaker 1: a Jonathan Prince and David Sammil to let me be
[39:06] Speaker 1: in the audition room when he came in. Begged them
[39:09] Speaker 1: and they let me, which I don't think they should
[39:12] Speaker 1: have because I was so nervous that I hid under
[39:16] Speaker 1: a blanket on the couch in the room. I mean, obviously,
[39:19] Speaker 1: I'm like, there's a human there's a human person under
[39:21] Speaker 1: that blanket. But I was so excited and nervous. I
[39:25] Speaker 1: didn't talk him. I just killed I didn't I just listened.
[39:29] Speaker 1: It was so weird, so weird, so weird. So that happened,
[39:33] Speaker 1: and that was a very peak moment for me. And
[39:36] Speaker 1: then when my levent Timkeley, I joined the show. Oh
[39:39] Speaker 1: my gosh, I was such a fan of Gilmore Girls
[39:41] Speaker 1: and I thought I just thought he was everything and
[39:46] Speaker 1: the Beasnies. Yeah, and he joined the show and then
[39:50] Speaker 1: he was so nice on top of it. It was
[39:52] Speaker 1: like the best. So those were my two they were
[39:56] Speaker 1: they didn't sing, neither of them perform, so, oh my gosh.
[40:01] Speaker 2: Okay, So Alani Systine looks like it was at a cafe.
[40:03] Speaker 2: It doesn't look like a bandstand performance, so maybe that
[40:06] Speaker 2: is why it's not as in your memory.
[40:09] Speaker 3: That's to be fair. Kevin and I don't remember.
[40:12] Speaker 2: Like core scenes from glean they were like we were there,
[40:14] Speaker 2: So it's okay, okay, it's a coping mechanism, I think.
[40:19] Speaker 2: And there's also a lot of days okay.
[40:23] Speaker 1: I agree about the coping mechanism part. Like Yestine is very.
[40:27] Speaker 2: Young, there's a lot happening so actually underage, Like that's
[40:31] Speaker 2: like I forget we were so treated like we were
[40:34] Speaker 2: supposed to be adults and we were just children children.
[40:38] Speaker 3: Yeah, that's also part of it. Right, you're you're technically
[40:42] Speaker 3: were you working adults or did you guys have like
[40:45] Speaker 3: limits on time and stuff like that, like a kid,
[40:48] Speaker 3: do you remember, because I know, like for said, like
[40:51] Speaker 3: when a kid comes, they you know.
[40:54] Speaker 1: I made a deal with them that I would get
[40:56] Speaker 1: emancipated as long as they promised to continue my schooling
[41:01] Speaker 1: as if I wasn't, so I could work more hours.
[41:04] Speaker 1: But then I also had to work more. Yeah, full time. God,
[41:07] Speaker 1: because if you're emancipated, you don't have to do school.
[41:10] Speaker 1: The deal was, I want to.
[41:12] Speaker 2: Do school, so they would pay for the school that
[41:14] Speaker 2: you continued school.
[41:15] Speaker 1: But I wanted to work longer hours.
[41:18] Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, that is crazy.
[41:21] Speaker 2: It is crazy.
[41:22] Speaker 1: It is crazy.
[41:24] Speaker 3: I know a lot of kids who got emancipated the school.
[41:27] Speaker 1: I got my emancipation. Wait, no, I think I had emancipatient.
[41:30] Speaker 1: And then I went to this school, this school that
[41:33] Speaker 1: you did your work remotely, and it was the same
[41:37] Speaker 1: school that justin Timberlake went to. I remember thinking that was,
[41:41] Speaker 1: I mean, very cool. I graduated from the same screen
[41:45] Speaker 1: Floridian Actor High school that justin Timberlake.
[41:49] Speaker 2: So you guys didn't have like school on set. We
[41:52] Speaker 2: did have school on set. You did, because.
[41:55] Speaker 1: Did Brity get him? No, I don't remember her having
[42:01] Speaker 1: school shorter hours? No, No, we both want to know. Oh, Yeah,
[42:05] Speaker 1: some of our favorite memories to talk about each other
[42:08] Speaker 1: is uh, school set school such.
[42:11] Speaker 2: Very weird time. It's a very weird times. Yes, definitely.
[42:14] Speaker 2: It's for people who don't really know you're if you're
[42:17] Speaker 2: under a certain age and you don't go to school,
[42:19] Speaker 2: but you work on set. They bring in a teacher
[42:23] Speaker 2: and you have a certain amount of hours that you
[42:25] Speaker 2: have to feel we're doing school while also working like
[42:28] Speaker 2: a professional.
[42:30] Speaker 1: That's like, it's very exhausting. You don't get any rest.
[42:33] Speaker 1: You have to do no rest, no rest, And we
[42:37] Speaker 1: can remember what the school room smelled like. Not good guys.
[42:40] Speaker 2: They just like set up a school room for you guys, like,
[42:44] Speaker 2: oh my god, the musty back room than you did.
[42:50] Speaker 3: Yeah, incredible.
[42:59] Speaker 2: We didn't really talk have the show, but it's it
[43:02] Speaker 2: touches on. No, No, it's just like this wonderful family
[43:05] Speaker 2: surrounding like Megan Pryor and Meg Pryor and her dream
[43:09] Speaker 2: to be on Bandstand and you help her do that
[43:12] Speaker 2: by making out with boys and being fun and teaching
[43:17] Speaker 2: her the things that she every teenage girl should should
[43:21] Speaker 2: have fun and learn how to liberate themselves. And it's
[43:27] Speaker 2: just really wonderful and it's the obviously the music, and
[43:31] Speaker 2: they had heat Wave by Martha and the and the vandellas.
[43:34] Speaker 3: Don't Worry Baby the Beach Boy is my favorite one
[43:37] Speaker 3: fine day. Of course, the Lady's choice stands and dancing
[43:41] Speaker 3: in the street.
[43:42] Speaker 2: I mean, what a what a selection for the pilot too.
[43:47] Speaker 2: Let's crade the music, let's grade. I think they all
[43:50] Speaker 2: get a pluses for me. But yes, I think that
[43:54] Speaker 2: Don't Worry Baby gets an extray plus for me, A
[43:57] Speaker 2: plus plus for Don't Worry Me, A plus plus me
[44:00] Speaker 2: plus plus. We do tarty takes, we can do Sugar
[44:04] Speaker 2: and Tina takes today auchies, so cringe moments of the show.
[44:11] Speaker 2: Things that don't age well. Obviously you touched on women
[44:16] Speaker 2: not really having a real say, and you know, kind
[44:19] Speaker 2: of this alpha man of the house and you know
[44:22] Speaker 2: it's up to your dad, and you know, you're like, WHOA.
[44:25] Speaker 2: I was like, okay, well the decision should be fifty
[44:30] Speaker 2: to fifty, but here we are. And then you guys
[44:34] Speaker 2: changing in bras was that like crazy at fifteen? Like
[44:38] Speaker 2: showing your was that so crazy for you? I would
[44:41] Speaker 2: have been like, I don't know.
[44:43] Speaker 1: Yeah, just take me through what you would have felt
[44:45] Speaker 1: take me.
[44:46] Speaker 2: I mean, I think it's like, I'm like, I don't,
[44:51] Speaker 2: how do you even shoot that and feel that comfortable?
[44:54] Speaker 2: And your character is so confident, confident, thank you, And
[45:00] Speaker 2: yet you're like, I'm fifteen on this brand new show
[45:03] Speaker 2: in this adult world, that I'm still a kid.
[45:06] Speaker 3: I'm still a kid.
[45:07] Speaker 1: Yeah, I would just I would just say that I'm
[45:13] Speaker 1: still untangling. I'm still entangling a life of doing things,
[45:20] Speaker 1: even though I was not equipped and did not have
[45:24] Speaker 1: the capacity to process or understand and did not have
[45:27] Speaker 1: the choice to say no, to say no like I
[45:30] Speaker 1: and and I have. And that's such a privileged thing
[45:33] Speaker 1: to say. I'm like, so happy with this career, so
[45:35] Speaker 1: happy with my life, so happy with everything. And I mean,
[45:40] Speaker 1: the definition of trauma is when something happens that's outside
[45:42] Speaker 1: of your capacity to process it. And I just feel
[45:45] Speaker 1: like that happens so often. Sure, And then an auchi
[45:49] Speaker 1: or cringe moment. Do you do you remember while you
[45:51] Speaker 1: were watching the one of the camera men was flirting
[45:56] Speaker 1: with the girl the Bake the TV show who did
[46:00] Speaker 1: the cooking show. Then there was a scene with Meg
[46:03] Speaker 1: in the hallway where he kind of made eyes at
[46:05] Speaker 1: her as she was looking at Flyers on the Wall.
[46:09] Speaker 1: I think that that is maybe like an auchi moment
[46:14] Speaker 1: or a cringe moment, but also represented a part of
[46:21] Speaker 1: the industry that that outlived the sixties that I still
[46:25] Speaker 1: feel like ex we experienced in the early two thousands, transcendent,
[46:31] Speaker 1: transcendent auchi, an auchi that continues to agree, hurt and
[46:38] Speaker 1: make me feel icky, but like, you know.
[46:43] Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, best dance move.
[46:48] Speaker 2: I think you guys dancing on bandstand.
[46:50] Speaker 1: I love the Britney snow. She does this iconic snap
[47:00] Speaker 1: and palm up snap and she like kind of does
[47:04] Speaker 1: a side smile and in her recent press for the
[47:09] Speaker 1: Amazing Million shows she's on right now because she's just
[47:13] Speaker 1: killing it, killing it. I don't know even where I
[47:17] Speaker 1: saw this, but she's dancing down a hallway of employees
[47:22] Speaker 1: on some some.
[47:24] Speaker 3: Oh it's like the Jennifer.
[47:27] Speaker 1: See something like that, and I'm like, she's.
[47:29] Speaker 3: Doing it, She's doing it the iconic.
[47:33] Speaker 1: I love that is that is so brit that's so iconic,
[47:37] Speaker 1: that is so burned into my memory and feels I
[47:41] Speaker 1: feel filled with joy when I see it. I felt
[47:43] Speaker 1: I felt filled with joy when I saw her dancing
[47:46] Speaker 1: yesterday and she's just such a light and her sweet
[47:51] Speaker 1: eyes convey so much and there's so much and delight
[47:57] Speaker 1: that comes through her on the show.
[47:58] Speaker 3: Agreed, okay, best song I say.
[48:03] Speaker 1: Don't worry Baby, Okay sounds.
[48:05] Speaker 2: Great performance by a prop, So we're your favorite prop
[48:10] Speaker 2: that was used.
[48:12] Speaker 1: We always ate real food on the show. I don't
[48:14] Speaker 1: know if you noticed that, but I'm eating it when
[48:17] Speaker 1: I say the string beans are scrumptious. At the dinner table,
[48:20] Speaker 1: they made you eat. Yeah, we ate the show, so
[48:23] Speaker 1: you I was always eating. I think there were a
[48:25] Speaker 1: few characters who just shuffled the food around on their plate,
[48:28] Speaker 1: which was probably smarter, but they had because the prop
[48:31] Speaker 1: person would have to reset the plate exactly to the
[48:33] Speaker 1: scene amount of food every time.
[48:35] Speaker 2: Well, isn't that after You're always like, do I want
[48:37] Speaker 2: to be chewing during this all the time?
[48:39] Speaker 3: Do I want to do one hundred takes while I'm chewing?
[48:42] Speaker 2: I did made the mistaken ugly once and I was
[48:44] Speaker 2: eating chips in a scene and my mouth was the
[48:47] Speaker 2: roof of my mouth was going on. By the time
[48:50] Speaker 2: we finished that scene, I was like, please, no more.
[48:53] Speaker 1: Yeah, you only make that mistake a few times. No,
[48:56] Speaker 1: cigarettes was interesting. So it was also a fifteen year
[48:58] Speaker 1: old smoking cigarettes. They were clothes cigarettes, And I think
[49:03] Speaker 1: the funny thing about that was I was so anti
[49:05] Speaker 1: smoking when I was younger. I would volunteer. I would
[49:10] Speaker 1: go home, I would make anti smoking posters and put
[49:14] Speaker 1: them up at my school by myself. Nobody asked me to.
[49:17] Speaker 1: Just thought i'd help a little, you know, yeah, PSA
[49:22] Speaker 1: about smoking and what it does. And I'm like, twelve,
[49:25] Speaker 1: what am I doing? And so it was so funny
[49:27] Speaker 1: that my character smoked, having been so against smoking. Ironic
[49:33] Speaker 1: it was.
[49:34] Speaker 2: And anti smoking.
[49:36] Speaker 1: I mean, so I would say that was that was
[49:38] Speaker 1: kind of interesting. Okay, a prop.
[49:43] Speaker 2: Those cigarettes also the priest smoking. Everybody's smoking, everybody's But
[49:48] Speaker 2: that was that was it? Like some they smoked in airplanes,
[49:51] Speaker 2: they smoked in the restaurants, they smoked.
[49:53] Speaker 1: Can you believe lied?
[49:55] Speaker 2: Yeah, it's the yes, yes, okay, best line okay obviously
[50:02] Speaker 2: what you never seen a braw before?
[50:04] Speaker 1: Yeah?
[50:04] Speaker 2: And then and then she brings it back later. I
[50:07] Speaker 2: was like, oh, this is good.
[50:08] Speaker 3: Is cute.
[50:09] Speaker 1: I also really liked the line. This one had me
[50:11] Speaker 1: feel a lot of emotion. Yesterday, Tom Verica's character who
[50:15] Speaker 1: plays the dad he's grounding Meg. He's telling her how
[50:20] Speaker 1: bad her punishment is because she lied and she she went,
[50:24] Speaker 1: you know, against his authority, authority, and he goes, you're
[50:29] Speaker 1: grounded for a week. You're going to it for the
[50:31] Speaker 1: first thing. You're grounded for two more weeks and you're
[50:33] Speaker 1: ground it for four weeks or whatever. And then he goes,
[50:35] Speaker 1: you can only go from here to school to church,
[50:39] Speaker 1: and they get to pauses and says, and you can
[50:42] Speaker 1: go to bandstand. But that's it.
[50:43] Speaker 2: And oh it was so good emotions. I know it
[50:47] Speaker 2: was the first time for the father that I was like, okay,
[50:51] Speaker 2: all right, sir, right, you're redeemed a little bit.
[50:57] Speaker 1: His character is so trouble and he plays it so well.
[51:03] Speaker 1: By the way, Tom Verica could not be a nicer
[51:05] Speaker 1: human being. I love this guy to this day. He
[51:10] Speaker 1: sends me messages when good things happened to me, like
[51:13] Speaker 1: with little hearts and emojis.
[51:14] Speaker 2: Oh my gosh.
[51:16] Speaker 1: But by the way, genius. And I think he's a
[51:17] Speaker 1: genius actor because he he conveys this this grumpy dad
[51:24] Speaker 1: that I think was very good because it made people
[51:27] Speaker 1: feel a lot. Either you related to it because you
[51:29] Speaker 1: had a grumpy dad, or overbearing, whatever the word is.
[51:36] Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, he was wonderful.
[51:39] Speaker 3: Performance. MVP.
[51:41] Speaker 2: Vanessa. I think you and Brittania definitely are.
[51:48] Speaker 1: I also love will Stes who plays JJ. He plays
[51:51] Speaker 1: the teen. Yes, he does so little and you feel
[51:55] Speaker 1: so much. You know, He's like, I just I mean,
[52:01] Speaker 1: just feel it. Wow, I just said nothing, but but
[52:05] Speaker 1: I did I felt something. Yeah, exactly. He did so
[52:08] Speaker 1: little and yet so I give him. I give him.
[52:11] Speaker 1: I think the priest was very.
[52:13] Speaker 2: Oh yeah, it was shook, shocking, it was shook by him. Yeah, Okay, Vanessa,
[52:21] Speaker 2: we ask everybody what is the feeling that he leaves
[52:23] Speaker 2: are with?
[52:24] Speaker 3: What is the feeling that American Dreams lead you with?
[52:27] Speaker 1: Nostalgia? Warmth?
[52:30] Speaker 2: Uh uh, yeah.
[52:34] Speaker 1: Yeah, there's there's a lot of feelings. I feel plump
[52:38] Speaker 1: with moisture, either tears of joy and tears of or
[52:43] Speaker 1: Canadian rain. Okay, Canadian rain. Thank you exactly right.
[52:51] Speaker 2: Well, Vanessa, thanks for joining us for this wonderful recap
[52:57] Speaker 2: of your show American Dreams. And what a joy it
[52:59] Speaker 2: was to watch this show. I feel like I got
[53:02] Speaker 2: to know you in a different life which I didn't
[53:05] Speaker 2: know about, and I really enjoyed this pilot, So thanks
[53:09] Speaker 2: for joining us, Thanks for asking me too. You guys,
[53:12] Speaker 2: Vanessa's going to be back with us on Thursday, so
[53:15] Speaker 2: you get more Vanessa again. You guys submitted questions for her,
[53:18] Speaker 2: so she's going to be answering all of these fun questions. Hey,
[53:22] Speaker 2: and that's what you.
[53:23] Speaker 1: Really miss Thanks for listening and follow us on Instagram
[53:26] Speaker 1: at and that's what you really miss pod. Make sure
[53:29] Speaker 1: to write us a review and leave us five stars.
[53:31] Speaker 1: See you next time,

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