#67 Scott Valentine Has Family Ties

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Jeff Dwoskin 0:15

All right, Alex, thank you so much for that amazing introduction. You get the show going each and every week and this week was no exception. Welcome, everybody to Episode 67 of live from Detroit, the Jeff Dwoskin. Show as always, I am Yeah, guessed it your host, Jeff Dwoskin. Great to have you back for another incredible week. And this week is the most incredible list. Yes, that's right. We've got such a fun guest for you today. Scott Valentine is with us. Ladies and gentlemen. Wait a minute, Jeff, Scott Valentine. You mean Nick from family ties Mallory's boyfriend? Yes. That Scott Valentine.

And does Scott have a story to share with us? Scott Valentine before his big break as Nick was in a horrible car accident. He was literally dead and brought back to life. He shared this incredible story with us of coming back persevering, never giving up and finding success. You're gonna love it. And that's coming up in just a few minutes.

Speaking of amazing journeys, I hope you didn't miss Episode 66 with Keith Famie, celebrity chef, survivor contestant from survivor Outback Season Two of survivor and now amazing documentary filmmaker. We talked about a lot of amazing stories he's putting to film stories of amazing people that he's sharing with everyone, definitely check out that episode. And then check out the great work Keith is doing. You're gonna love it.

Speaking of loving stuff, head over to my YouTube channel, search the Jeff Dwoskin show on YouTube, give us a follow check out crossing the streams. We have all the backlog there. And you're also invited to join us live every Wednesday 9:30pm eastern time we talk about amazing shows you should be streaming me and a bunch of friends. It's an amazing treasure trove of information of things that you should be bingeing and streaming on all the different streaming platforms. So check that out. And when you're done checking that out, and by all means take your time when checking that out. I don't want to rush you head on over to Jeffisfunny.com or JeffDwoskinshow.com. We're on the worldwide web. That's right. We're all over the world on this incredible tool called the internet. You can find us anywhere in the world at Jeff is funny.com. Did I make that sound fancy or what I think I did. I was pretty excited. It's all about tone and confidence.

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And now it's time for the social media tip. This is one of my favorite parts of the show where I get to share a little bit of my social media knowledge with you so that we can all be masters of the social medias. Today's a pretty straightforward tip. The tip is when structuring content for your social media, when you're trying to get people interested in what you're talking about. Make sure it's engageable. What do I mean by that? Make it something that people are going to want to respond to or reply to or share. That's way more important than likes likes or kind of an easy way for people to just kind of say, Yeah, it sounds so bad. But if you can really get people to stop and engage comments and share then you know you're doing something special Instagram, ask a question, get people talking underneath the post on Twitter, get something that people can share, but also respond to get a conversation going. When you get a good conversation going, then you know you're on to something special. And those are the real people that are really engaged and interested in what you have to say and what you're doing. That's it easy peasy. Right? And that's a social media tip.

I do want to take a quick second to thank all of my beautiful listeners for supporting the sponsors week after week. When you support the sponsors. You're supporting the show and that's how we keep the lights on here at live from Twitch. All right, the Jeff Dwoskin show. This week's sponsor is East Village Book of the Month Club act now and get 50% off such clas sics as Land of the CArnasaurus, Nick's guide to winning over your parents the ties that bind, marrying your demon lover, how to handle black scorpions, all must haves and all yours for 50% off just use the code MOOREBOOKS to get your discount. All right, well, I love books. I could go on and on about books all day. bookstores are a great place. But I think it's time I shared the conversation I had with Scott Valentine with you. It's like my valentine to you. My fans accepted to interview and not flowers and candy. It's Scott Valentine not anyway, sorry. That sounded a lot better in my head as I was working it out. And then as it came out, I realized I'm just gonna get right to the interview, Scott Valentine's journeys, incredible. I can't wait for you to hear all about it. Enjoy.

Alright, ladies and gentlemen, I'm excited to introduce you to my next guest. I'm very excited to have here. Actor Scott Valentine, you know, as Mallory's boyfriend from family ties. He's so amazing. And we're here and we're going to talk about a bunch of stuff. So hey, Scott, how are you doing? Thanks for coming to Mr. Dwoskin. Thank you kindly for having me.

I am so happy to have you. Thank you. So Scott, before we get into the some of the iconic stuff you did, how did you get into acting in the first place? What got you the bug?

Scott Valentine 6:32

I was through college or high school I worked for the Gannet news organization was the sports editor for the local newspaper or assistant sports editor. There was a job in Guam to be the sports editor for The Guam journal, little newspaper that served the military base over there. And they asked me if I wanted to go and I was like, Yeah, sure. I don't want to go to college. I go to Guam and have sex with wwami and babes beautiful. And then there was an attempted coup d'etat about a month before I graduated high school. And I thought, well screw this, I'm not going to go out I went to the local community college had no idea what the hell I was doing. The first semester I had about a 1.8 GPA. second semester, I had a one three GPA was totally lost audition for a play, got apart, liked it. And then I realized the same research I was doing for the play. I can actually write that up and use it as a thesis for one of my whatever lead classes or history classes or something. I just retitle it kind of liked it and then auditioned again, got another part and liked it more. Not only was I getting better grades, I was getting more dates and I thought what can make this better money. I audition to try to attend the American Academy of Dramatic Arts aact the American conservatory Theatre in San Francisco and Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh that accepted all of them and chose the academy because it was you know, a hop skip and a jump from where I grew up.

Jeff Dwoskin 7:56

The rest is history. There's more to the history I think so. Thank you very much. It's been great. It has been Scott Valentine it was right that retrospect. So it's interesting when you do interviews because you start to you know certain things and then you start to learn certain things as you kind of dive in as you were starting to become Scott Valentine actor or getting some movie auditions and soap opera. You got into a horrible accident and that kind of sidetracked you for a while Yeah,

Scott Valentine 8:30

I went to the academy graduated with just loved love love going to the academy got out of the academy started working at the actor studio. I don't know if you know the famous actor studio was in class with guys like Al Pacino being taught by Ilya Khoisan was loving life has not an actor I was a thespian, that was a tragedy. And Geoffrey started auditioning was doing a lot of plays and then got offered a role in loads of discipline feature film for Paramount got offered a part on one of the soap operas. I can't remember which one one within a world in it. And my age was like, yeah, to take this soap. I was like, I want to do the movie. He said, Come on, come to the office. Let's talk about it. So I was riding my bike north on Eighth Avenue in Manhattan. That's the corner of eighth and 42nd started the red light truck driver in the truck to the right of me. He and I got into a verbal altercation because when a young woman was crossing in front of the truck, going from the east side of Eighth Avenue to the west side of Eighth Avenue, he popped the clutch to make a jerk forward of what she then scared her here the little girl and left hand was a baby in the stroller and they started laughing like wow, Isn't this fun? And I turned in gave him my best my best few luck. And he turned and said, What's your effing problem? And I said, What's my effing problem? What's your problem? He's like, Fuck you. And I said, forgive me. I said, Yeah, you're big man. You're gonna run over a woman and her kid. And at that time, the woman had crossed the street and he's like, Fuck you. I said, You know what? You're You're an effing idiot. He said, fuck you tried went open his door to get out and the light turned green. So I took off on my bike. And between 42nd and 43rd he ran me from behind, flip me up in the air front tire ran over me that I got trapped into the back tires and pushed or block and a half up to 44th Street and a guy who had heard me screaming was a nickel and dime drug dealer heard me screaming and ran and jumped on the running board and started punching the driver to get them to stop the driver stopped. Partly he stopped because he couldn't get over me. I could tell he had put the clutch in again tried to downshift to get more torque to get over me couldn't thank God because I wondered if he did get over me. I would be there in the middle of Eighth Avenue and more cars would have run over. And then the guy who got him to stop came back, you know, talking in a very thick Puerto Rican accent. You know, what do you want my What do you want? I was like, can you get him just getting back to back and offer me which he did? And the guy came back and he's like, you know what, what do you want man? What do you want them like just let me hold your hand. Let me hold your hand. Nice and get them can you get them to turn the truck off because for some reason I thought I assumed I was bleeding somewhere and my right upper thigh and my buttocks my gluteus maximus in the lower part of my back all the skin had been dragged off. And for some reason I thought the exhaust from the truck was going to give me cancer I don't the weirdest things go through your head, you know, then I heard sirens. And when the sirens got closer, the guy who had saved my life said to me that he had to get out of there because him and the Cubs didn't get along so well. And he took off. And next thing I know there was a cop holding my hand coming again. Like Let me hold your hand. Let me hold your hand. And you know sometimes when you're in such pain, like you knock your knee on the edge of the table or something and you go I and I went to bite just bite almost by his hand. It's like don't bite my hand where it's funny when the ambulance came I Oh, I always wanted to ride in the ambulance. I always wanted to be in an ambulance and Abbott sirens and lights going to make the sea of cars part in Manhattan wasn't fun and hurt was taken to St. Claire's hospital. 52nd Street between ninth and 10th no longer there, died in the emergency room died. They brought me back this leg. My left leg was up in the middle of my back. my pelvis was in 32 pieces. And my left hip and left femur were smashed. I was in ICU for two weeks, I think 18 days total in the hospital for about three months. Got out went back to my parents house up in Saratoga Springs, New York to convalesce. And after being there. I mean, I love my parents, my dad's dead now my mom's still alive. She's a sweetheart in 87, four foot six inches over. And it's funny, she's this little little going on she used to, she used to put the fear of God and all of us used to beat the shit out of us after being there in September. Like I think January, February, I just I'd had enough I was doing therapy every day, going to the local wine having aquatic therapy. But in my mind, I just I had to get back to New York, I had to get back because the movie learned to discipline had been delayed. And I communicated with Frank Rotom. And I'm like, I'm coming back man, I'm gonna do it. I never got back it took me two years to eventually have an artificial femur and hip and a little bit of my pelvis put in so I could actually walk normal without looking you know, I had a terrible gait it was at a throw my leg until then to be able to walk. But after two months of being with my parents who was just you know, the the old adage, you can't go home, I'll let my mom and dad but I just couldn't take being in the house with them. So move back to New York, started auditioning again, and went to therapy went to rehab. Eventually, when I got my new parts put in. Two years later, I started auditioning, which was funny in the interim, I never told anybody this sort of in an interview, I did do a play in the interim there with my bad leg when I still and I was getting around with crutches. And the casting director on that play was George and walk and Chris Watkins wife, she used to pick me up at my apartment every day and Upper West Side and drive me down to the theater on 27th Street has very little little funny story. And and when I was doing aquatic therapy, I was trying to find a pool where I could swim where nobody would hit me and find a pool also where it wasn't the general swim. And if you've ever gone to a why like that, especially in New York, and there's only certain hours that you can go in and do laps, and you got all these losers that think they were the next Michael Phelps and just wanted to go over yet do I know the Olympics is waiting for you to give me your medal just go around me and went to the manager the why and I said you know, I told them what had happened on my leg and my hip. my pelvis were very involved, as they say, and they say can I please You know, just there's a time when the pool when nobody's in there. I've seen it. Can I just go in and eventually he caved and he said you know you'll go in there but One of the guy is one of the guy, you go in the pool, you don't look at them. You don't talk to him. You don't mess with them. You just go in you do your laps, you get out, you leave him alone. But then one of the guy was Chris Walken. And I didn't know and I've been going there for about maybe a month ever done laps in the pool for exercise in school. It was horrible. So you know, you're not looking left or right. You're not concerned with who else is in the pool. You know, you come up the end of the pool, you do your flip, you go back the other way, but every time I would pull up to rest, I would make certain the guy would either be, you know, over here over there, and I made sure the look, the look to one day pulled up. I'm standing there, you know, because I had to get in and I was still using crutches. Hey, what happened to your leg? I can't I can't do a Chris Walken.

Jeff Dwoskin 15:47

Hey, what happened?

Scott Valentine 15:51

In this guy's asking me like, you know what happened? You lay What's going on? Why do you get the crutches Why do you always you know, use the crutches for a long time. It was Chris Walken is very cool. Okay. It was very sweet. And it was just it was like a little teeny tiny touch of like, being in the presence of a great actor. I think he's a phenomenal talent. You know, it was it was very funny that he's in the pool doing labs, and I couldn't even say, you know, your wife comes and picks me up and takes me to rehearsals, which was funny. I was just I was so awestruck today ever make that connection? Never with either one. Never Never. I was what 24 about, and I was still pretty. I was rather daunted by he had done what was that movie with Bobby De Niro

Jeff Dwoskin 16:35

Deer Hunter. You know, I just studio I mean, this guy. He was like, you know, he was a god in front of me. So you got out of the pool. What was the next steps to getting back into acting

Scott Valentine 16:44

went for a an audition on a film with Paul Newman and Robbie Benson to play Robbie Benton's buddy, and you know go the initial meet the assistant casting director and then the assistant again, then the casting director and the assistant then go meet the Buddha and one of the producers and after about eight auditions doing the same material was like Okay, now you're meeting the director and the producer, and it's you and one other guy went and got done did the scene two scenes and the director and the producer seemed genuinely interested? You never know because you go to so many auditions now. And they'll say, Well, Jeff, that was lovely. Thank you so much. What's really special and you never hear shit again. It's like what the fuck, I was so special. You don't want to call me. At the end of the audition, the director in the producers seemed seemed what I thought was genuinely interested in the casting director who had seen me at least six times that something happened to you, weren't you in an accident? I thought Oh, no. Don't you have fake parts? Yes, there's something with your head. But I'm like, yeah, I'm a hip guy. I'm cold. No, you had an accident. Well, we all have accidents. I like this morning. I wanted to be the coffee table. I hit my flood. Oh, you had an accident, you were hurt. He's like you got fake parts in you, don't you You're like a Tinker toy. We can hire him. He's like a Tinker toy. He's gonna fall apart on the SAT there was at that moment where I realized I've got to leave New York, I got to go to LA didn't want to go to LA. And I wanted to be a trained actor, I wanted to do plays 10 months out of 12. And the other two months do a film. So I could be paid enough money to pay my rent the rest of the year and do plays. But New York, and the acting community is a pretty small little pool. And everybody knows what everybody's doing. La was a new venture a new place. So finally I said, screw it got to go to LA when nobody knows about this. And I was lucky enough the guy who was my agent decided to open an office in LA went out pretty much right after he opened the office, us great guy, Michael Schlesinger stuck by me like blood, he sent me out. Sometimes I'd be 20 auditions in a week, again, and again. And again. And again. And after 10 months, I got family ties, you know, just kept auditioning and auditioning and His disposition. And I'll say, for any any aspiring actor out there, you just got to keep stepping up to the plate, you got to keep trying, because eventually you will get your shot. Eventually, eventually, either you'll be good enough or you'll fool somebody where they'll let you in front of the camera, and you'll get your turn. And I knew I just needed to get bankable to go where I could then have value. And nobody would ask me about the accident

Jeff Dwoskin 19:17

to worry about that. They did that too. In New York, though, every I guess everything happens for a reason the universe sends signs and you know, that sends you to LA. I do have one question when it comes to the accident. Should you come out of that with different philosophies? I mean, obviously, to get through something like that, where they pretty much thought you maybe wouldn't walk again or anything like that is a tremendous amount of willpower and dedication and focus. What did you kind of take away from that? And sort of probably I'm guessing To this day, did you gain any new mantras from all that?

Scott Valentine 19:50

Yes, very much. So. I was a pretty positive person before being run over. I think my cheery, Rosy disposition helped me get through being in touch. reaction for, you know, 52 days, and then being told you'll never walk, you're going to be paralyzed for the rest of your life. So we grew up in a house where you never gave up. But after being went over and going through that, it helped me many times of going, just never give up. Believe in yourself, eventually, keep trying. Don't keep trying the same way. You don't want to define insanity. Keep trying, don't give up. And as I have said to my son's got four beautiful sons, that was another thing I was told I would never have children. And I've said to other folks, just don't give up. So it truly gives you the mantra, don't give up believe Believe in yourself. And the other mantra how many times I've been in some sticky situations where it's like, well, this is not as bad as being run over by a truck could be worse, getting a ticket from the police or going through my divorce. That was fun. It gives you the ability to go Nothing is worse than and this will pass everything passes. People need to know that people think when they get into situations that you know, when people say oh, I'm fine, don't use that is that then you will be and you are and you're reiterating that and you're sending that into the universe, you know, just know everything is momentarily even those moments of bliss was moments of pure joy. They're only for a few moments. So so love them, drink them in swimming them and know you know life ebbs and flows. It goes up, it goes down, it goes up, it goes down. Have faith Be patient. Just keep digging, keep fighting. Keep keep on keeping on.

Jeff Dwoskin 21:30

Excellent. Thank you, Scott Valentine. Thank you, Jeff. Dwoskin. Okay, it's now your family ties. And you were on seasons four or 567. You're Mallory's boyfriend. You've gone to the fancy acting Academy. And now you're playing Nick Amano somehow, like song ish type.

Scott Valentine 21:53

I went from doing Shakespeare and congreve and wiggly to grunting and getting paid a lot of money to crunch so yeah,

Jeff Dwoskin 22:00

and killer hair. cost the hair their hair is still a little bit grayer and a lot shorter. So now you got you still got a good head of hair. It's good. It's the time is now to as next was of those times. Let's spill some tea. What was it like working on family ties Family Ties was part of one of the greatest NBC lineups I think ever and it was one of those shows that I think everyone watched Michael J. Fox got his start on that Justine Bateman who played Mallory, your girlfriend, her brother still accent is extremely well known now. Jason Bateman seen the others and Michael Gross and Meredith Baxter. It was such an amazing group and I the dynamics of that show. Were just so great. You came in how did they welcome you because they're three seasons and you come in and season four. How is that coming into like such an establish working family like that?

Scott Valentine 22:55

I knew of Michael Fox. I did not own a television at the time. I remember I was I was a thespian to Julian we don't watch TV. When I audition for the show. I didn't really know it. I think I knew of it but hadn't watched it. It wasn't no 20 What was I when I got on the show? 2027 I was 27. Wow. But still being like, you know, a theater rat. When I got on the show. first episode I taped I think was in August. Back to the Future had come out in July. Team wolf came out in August. So you're walking onto a set work with a guy that has the number one in number two movie in the country was pretty cool. I remember going to the soundstage walking to the support stage and then going through the support stage and asking people like where do I go I'm here for the table read and where Beulah I walk through that door with a bow there and nobody knew that I was this week's guest character and walking through the big huge fire door that separated the stage from the support stage. And there was a table there were people laughing and joking and walking you know getting settled in with their cup of coffee and their their scone or their Danish or whatever. folks sitting down. They walked up and introduced myself guy who eventually became a friend Rick Allen is a guy he sent over here and there was you know, Gary Goldberg out Ugur like Whitehorn, some other writer producers. There was that fox guy. It was that Baxter of Meredith Baxter woman that been on TV for years. Justine, Tina, Michael Fox, Michael Gross. And then when I was introduced this week's guest character being played by Scott Valentine, everybody was so warm and so gracious. Now coming from New York and doing theater. That's the way everybody doing Theater in New York. Everybody hugged behind. Everybody loved each other. We're here to put on a show. Let's work together. Let's do our best. So I thought that was just the natural way that the rest of the business was before Gary Goldberg died. He was a Executive Producer, the showrunner family ties, gentlemen who created the show that would say to him, you know, you set me up because I thought every Hollywood experience was gonna be as loving and as kind and as nurturing as family ties. And obviously, it's not on that show. It was really like family. They treated not just me, but everybody, everybody that came through the door and whether it was Tom Hanks doing a guest starring role folks that weren't so big at the time, but went on to do such great things. Michael Gross, Michael Fox, Meredith Baxter Birney, Justine Bateman, teeny others Mark price, everybody was always very gracious and very embracing wonderful, wonderful environment. I loved it because it was very theater ask, you know to do the table read was something that was germane to my existence to do the rehearsals and it's sort of a percentage I'm setting was very germane to what I had done. And then when we taped that was a little bit I had never done a four camera show before. Because taping a show like that is very loose compared to doing film, you know, film, they start with a very wide lens and 18, then a 25, and then a 50, and then 185, and then 100. And it gets tighter and tighter. on film, you're like in the zone, your own little petri dish of this little microcosm, it was great sitcom for camera presidium set because it was like doing theater, which I loved, and still love. Everybody was so cool. I was not a comedic actor. I didn't know comedy, and to have somebody like Michael Fox there to to help you and coach you walk you through sort of the rhythm of comedy. Pretty cool. I was very lucky. I'm still very appreciative and never wanted to have a capricious disposition and say, Well, I deserve this, you know? Well, you

Jeff Dwoskin 26:47

were talking. I mean, he came back from the dead to get it. So I'd say you know,

Scott Valentine 26:51

there's a lot of folks running around and they think well don't I deserve? What can I have? Nobody knows anybody anything? They don't you owe your children to raise them and love them and and try to teach them to be the best humans you can you owe your significant other, your wife, your husband, whomever it is your partner, you owe them to be respectful and to be a whole individual. But beyond that, nobody owes anybody anything. They don't you know, there's that expression. Jeff, that fish stinks from the head. You know, this smells really good or It smells really bad. And Gary Goldberg was the head and this fish smell as sweet as a bouquet of roses. It was just, it was a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, supportive, loving environment.

Jeff Dwoskin 27:33

So how did you go from one guest spot to hanging around for the rest of the seasons?

Scott Valentine 27:39

Got lucky. Lucky kept my mouth shut, never remembered my lines and hit my mark. No, it was the first episode. I think what was written Initially, it was sort of Steven and Lee's going. Boy, we dodged that bullet. Good thing Justin came to where Mallory came to her senses. The day that we were taping where they did hair and makeup, the principal cast their dressing rooms were under the raise rake stage where the audience sat in in that same sort of like tunnel like environment was the hair and makeup room for the principles for the guest starring folks. You were in the hallway and all this hubbub going on? And I remember sitting in the makeup chair, and Gary Goldberg walking up putting his arm on me like, okay, you good Ready to go? Like Yeah, he's like, Listen, I wanted to I want to ask you something. Okay, how did you change the spark plugs in your 351, Cleveland? And he asked, he said, you know, we kind of I kind of like having you around here. You're having some fun with you. What would you think about coming back again? It'd be doing another one or two or whatever these I was like, Yeah, sure. Cool. Okay. Jeff, I had no idea, the power of television and no idea that it would lead to what lead to I had, really I was going it was like, here's your gig, you're in and out one week, do a good job. Shut up and just be a gentleman, Kate the show. They contacted my agent the next week and said, you know, we'd like them. We'd like to have them back. And my agent was thrilled. I was thrilled, but I didn't realize until the first episode aired. I think about a month after we taped it. I remember that Thursday night lineup went from Cosby to family ties to cheers to wings to St. Elsewhere. Killer lineup for NBC. They trounced everybody at that time. And that was Brandon tartikoff picking what shows and his genius, him nurturing the showrunners and the showrunners nurturing their their cast, because if you look at those shows, if you look at cheers, Cosby family ties, wings, I believe from what I've been told, you know, secondhand from folks that work on the shows there was that nurturing loving environment as well. Before we knew that Bill Cosby was a kind of creepy predatory sexual guy. He was very loving of his cast and his members and he was one of the producers, one of the owners and he made sure everybody was taken care of that sort of that The Odd juxtaposition of his existence, but that existed also in tears and it existed on wings. The first episode aired, I think it was three weeks A month later, in literally the next day. I remember going to a audio store for car audio and stereos in your house, and just being kind of not mob but just like wow, and in the parking lot. And then when I walked out of the store to go back to the parking lot, just I don't want to say assaulted, but just people are like, hey, wow, I saw you on TV. Yeah, it snowballed to the effect of where it got kind of get a little crazy, a little bit much a little bit. You know, I think every actor, every musician, every star athlete that makes mega million contracts, guys like LeBron James, I think he knows that his money comes from his audience, his fans. I'm not so sure Michael Jordan bought into that as well. where maybe Kobe Bryant I don't know other guys that were other greats in that league as a talent in the Living Arts. And part of that is being filmed and being giving that to the public. You got to know that it's part of your game. That's a part of that you're going to you need to deal with that in public. Did it get uncomfortable times? Sure. Was it inconvenient at times? Yeah. But I think I always tried to be gracious and be appreciative. This is one time my ex wife and I, we were traveling and my two sons were, I think about three in one, we were changing flights in Chicago, you know how big that airport is. And we're literally going from one terminal to the other in the flight from LA to Chicago was delayed, then to be able to catch our flight was like a sprint, you know, with with strollers and baby diaper bags and carry on luggage and a breast pump and all that in I think one of the gate agent from the connect the initial flight was kind enough to call to the gate agent on the connecting flight and say these other passengers are coming in it probably helped being on a TV show at the time. But as we're going we're more and more having more and more fans that are stopping in Hey, can I have your otter Hey, I gotta catch flight. Gotta catch a flight. And as we got to the gate, I was holding my second son shaler, who was about a year, maybe nine months. And he decided to pass his bowels at that moment. And it was rather robust. And getting to the gate. I said to the gate agent, I said, you know, he just pood and we're going to get on the plane and I know it's gonna stink. And I really I don't want Can I have just two minutes can be two minutes to change the diaper. My wife will get on and the nanny and with all the sundry of stuff, let me change the diaper. And then we can put in the garbage can out here. And she's like, Yeah, got it found like a table. You know, right near the gate. There's no real convenient place, and I'm changing my son's diaper. And more and more people are coming. And like we sign this and we sign that here sign this sign that they're getting pissed me. Oh my God, let me change my child's diaper. Let me change his diaper. Well, let me sign that with fecal matter. They're holding the plane for me, please. Then it was just a little bit zany.

Jeff Dwoskin 33:06

It's crazy. Yeah, you know, whenever I see I love meeting celebrities. But if I noticed that they're in a certain situation, like with their kid or eating or changing poop, I would never approach them. So let me let me ask you a question, though. Because I know our time is limited. But I do want to get to one other thing. So your character goes from one episode to 41. But it becomes so popular, so popular, they want to spin it off into its own show. So they try it three times, three times to making a spin off for you. Right. And one first time one of the main characters sadly passes away or some minority great guy, great guide. Second one, you're in a juvenile thing and they realize all right, that's just not jiving. And then the third one, the art of being Nick, which I watched. So you were with Julia Louis Dreyfus, pre Seinfeld, she was actually really great. You were too and it does really well. I mean, it's score as well. It was it was cute. It was cute. You move in with your sister bond with her son calls you uncle Nick, at the end. You're like, Yeah, what happened? I mean, what kept it from

Scott Valentine 34:12

not getting picked up? The first of many Hollywood lessons I was to be taught. We shot the show. When I think well, Julia was a sweetheart, Ray Baker. If you look at his resume, had a great you know, great resume, Christine Sutherland, who played my sister. They edited it, they test it a test really high. And they keep saying oh, they're gonna pick it up. They're gonna pick it up. Yeah, that humbug. They started ordering, you know, publicity photo sessions. There's nothing that shows that what happened? Oh, nobody tells me what happens. Right? They are the show in the middle of the summer. They throw it on. On primetime. It gets a 47 share, which means that 47% of the available television audience is watching that show, which is still in that day and age pretty phenomenal considering that family ties typically averaged around like 42 Cosby was like a 44 right? So 47% and I said, I'm just confused. I don't know what what the hell happened. And a couple years later me and Bruce Helford are out for lunch and we go back to his office after and Bruce Helford was the showrunner, the grand Poupon, the show though it was Gary's company, booboo productions. Bruce was the man, the guy that Bruce Alfred had gone on to show run Roseanne Barr show to carry show Charlie Sheen show the Roseanne Barr show again, probably some other shows that I can't think of at this moment. Bruce is very good at what he does. He's very sweet guy. Very intelligent, very funny, very empathetic. And he says to me at the end of lunch, yeah, it's a real shame Gary and Brandon got into that fight, isn't it? Like what fight fight about our show? What fight what show Gary Goldberg's company booboo productions had signed a deal with NBC productions to produce more sitcoms for NBC all and Gary shows that that time shot at the Paramount law, where we shot part of the deal with NBC productions was that they had to shoot at NBC studios. in Burbank, when you're an actor and you go to work, you show up at this hour, they have to feed you within six hours where they get a heavy fine, called meal penalty. First time I was on family ties, and we were shooting and they came up to me at a certain point said, we're gonna go into penalty, we waive your meal penalty, and like, what's meal penalty? It was explained to me it Oh, you gotta feed everybody. And we six hours and if you don't, the show gets fined every 15 minutes. And that fine goes up exponentially every 15 minutes and becomes very weighty and is to protect our kids. Because there's a lot of schmuck producers that would just keep working everybody, you know, nobody gets a break. So they had gotten to that point on the show that Gary was doing the first show with NBC productions at Burbank. The show hadn't been going well and was finally working. And they were finally happening. The stage manager first ad whatever the title was save time for meal. Gary's a no, no, no, we're gonna we're doing good. Let's go, let's go. And they're like, No, we got to break. Now if it was a Fairmont with Gary's crew, everybody would say, yeah, I'll waive my penalty. And Gary's always made sure everybody got a little something extra in their envelope at the end of the week, the end of the month, end of the year, whatever it was an NBC this crew didn't know Gary from Adam, he was just another schmo. And they're like, I want to eat, I'm gonna eat and Brandon tartikoff coming, Gary, just relax. We'll get it goes like, No, I want to go in brands like relax. No, I want to go. Look, we'll get it after lunch. And Gary and Brandon got into an argument. The argument went from hollering to shoving each other. And at one point, somebody said, I don't know if Gary said, well, you can have my show. Or Brandon said, I don't want your show. And the show was the art of being Nick. And I got screwed. I'll show. That's life. Shit happens. You know, you get back up on the horse. You dust yourself off and you keep riding?

Jeff Dwoskin 37:49

Well, at least you had family ties to go back to continue playing Nick there.

Scott Valentine 37:54

Yes, that year. Yep. And the next year, they're like, want to try another one. I like, Oh, we tried three times. It hasn't worked. Let's just and I didn't know at that point. When they had asked at the end of the seven years do you want to do another I was not told that Gary and Brandon got into a fight. And if I had known that when they were alive, because this was told to me after I would have addressed it in some way. Their their emotions, their petulant cost a lot for other folks. But

Jeff Dwoskin 38:20

that's life. I appreciate you sharing all these stories with me, Scott, I know you got to go. I know you got to go away. This is it's been a ton of fun talking to you. Well, I know you've done a million other things. I apologize. We didn't get to them. But maybe I'll come back.

Scott Valentine 38:35

I'd like to come back. Brother. Thank you very much, very much. Appreciate it. When I come to Detroit. We've got to go to lunch until more Tom tales and I'd love to come back. Okay. Absolutely.

Jeff Dwoskin 38:45

Thank you so much. Take care. Bye. Bye. All right, everyone. I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Scott Valentine. I know all of you loved him his neck on family ties. So interesting hearing about the politics regarding the spin off. That almost happened. But as Scott said, and everyone take this with you and never give up. There's always greatness that lies ahead. It was a great story and a great message. And I hope you enjoyed it. And now as we near the end of the episode, you know what time it is. That's right. It's divert another trending hashtag from the family of hashtags from hashtag round up. You got the app, it's free. Why wouldn't you have it? go to iTunes or Google Play Store download the free hashtag roundup app, follow hashtag roundup on twitter at hashtag roundup play along with us and one day one of your tweets may show up on a future episode of live from Detroit. The Jeff Dwoskin show. This week's hashtag comes to us from weekly humourist a weekly game on hashtag round up this week's hashtag #SizzlingSitcoms. That's right had sitcoms, it's a mash up game where you take a sitcom and you add a little heat to it. And here are some amazing hacks. #SizzlingSitcoms: Benson burner, Barney griller, third walk from the sun, Muggy Howser MD, happy glaze, parks and perspiration. These are awesome. Amazing sizzling sitcoms. They're hot. Everyone loves Ray Ban, Welcome back hotter, Green Bakers, in faita of the Night, grill marks and recreation, Burnie Hill. I'd watch any of these #SizzlingSitcoms. wouldn't you? it's always sunny side up in Philadelphia and finally king of the grill. All right, all right. Those are some awesome #SizzlingSitcoms. I love it. You want to tweet your own go and tweet #SizzlingSitcoms in, tweet your own. In the meantime, all those tweeters will be retweeted at @JeffDwoskinShow on Twitter and listed in the show notes. show them some love retweet them like them. Comment tell him you heard their tweet on live from Detroit the Jeff Dwoskin show.

Well, the hashtag game is over. So you know that means I know it's so sad. We're at the end of Episode 67. How do these episodes slip by so fast? I will never understand it. I want to thank my guests once again, Scott Valentine for joining me. I want to thank all of you for joining me week after week. It means the world to me. I'll see you next time.

Announcer 41:18

Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Jeff Dwoskin show with your host Jeff Dwoskin. Go repeat everything you've heard and sound like a genius. catch us online at the Jeff Dwoskin show.com or follow us on Twitter at Jeff Dwoskin show and we'll see you next time.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai