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Welcome, welcome, welcome back to Welcome to Our Show. How have you all been out there? I hope you're doing well. I hope all of your hopes and dreams have come true. I hope you get the job that you want. I hope you start that company that you have been dying to start. I hope you slept with that person that you've been dreaming of sleeping with, and I hope that person is laying next to you right now, and I hope you guys are in perfect harmony.
in sync and madly in love with each other, which is a perfect segue into who our guest is on today's show. Folks, we're recapping episode four of season two, Neighbors, with a very special guest. For nearly a decade, he wrote for Conan O'Brien. Scratch that. I'm going to say he wrote with Conan O'Brien. Conan O'Brien could be so lucky to have known this person.
Did all that before writing on the hit series Single Parents and New Girl. Now, recently, he wrote a hilarious episode of the Sarah Borealis and Busy Phillips show Girls 5 Ever. Fantastic show. This man is one of the coolest and funniest people that I've ever had the pleasure of knowing and working with. I've always said that this man is someone who has and will help me hide the body. So please welcome Berkley Johnson to the show. Berkley, what's up, man?
There's nothing. Thank you. It's a real treat to be here. Thank you for being here, man. We've been doing this show for a season and you are someone who has the inside scoop on this show because for a long time, you've been a creator of this show. Tell me, man, what's going on with you? What's going on? We talked a little bit about your writing credits and such. What are you working on? What you got going on?
You know, very little right now. But, you know, this hasn't been my favorite three years in the history of time, but it's been, you know, it is what it is. And, yeah, just...
i don't know i gotta say none of that matters because you worked on one of the greatest shows of all time oh yeah no i'm done i'm yeah why even why even try to uh to top uh you running around with a ski wanting to hit people with it jesus that i gotta say that was one of the more um
interesting things about my character development. And I was always curious what some of those
I don't know, those discussions in the writer's room look like? Because, you know, for so long, coming on as a new character on a show, you have to piece certain things together and figure out storylines. And you've lived with other storylines for other characters and character traits for so long. But then you have this guy who just pops up in episode two. What was that like in the writer's room? Was it hectic? Was it kind of loose? I mean, I think it has been well documented both in...
speaking for man by just watching the show the we had we took us a little while to figure your character out um because uh through no fault of your own and entirely our own thing and we were very sleep deprived just in general it was a long a long couple seasons but um
Anyway, and then when we kind of just figured, I don't even know what the figuring out moment was, but then I think it really unlocked a lot of stuff. You were always great. We just weren't giving you enough to do. I'm sure you humbly didn't feel that way. You're like, no, no, I'm just here to support. But no, you...
Yeah. I was like, no, I'm dog shit. I'm dog shit. I need to figure out. That's what I meant. I know. I said support, but I meant dog shit. You didn't have, I appreciate that, man. You're being kind. You're definitely being kind. But like with this episode, I vividly remember,
I mean, as vivid as, again, you can remember anything when you've been sleeping eight minutes a night, like on the couch in someone else's office. But we were beating out the story and Nick was going to be pranking Schmidt. And it was like, he's really good at, and I was pitching it out for Liz and she's, and I was like, Nick's really good at pranks. And, and she's like, what's Winston and what's Winston's take on the pranks. And I had nothing. I'm like,
well, he's really bad at pranks. And she gave me a classic Liz eye roll. And yet that became, I feel like, one of the most...
through no credit to myself, just to you, what were the most like few through lines of like seven seasons? Was it like Winston's bad at pranks? Yeah. Which was fun. It was very fun. You know what? I want you to hold that thought. Well, here's what I'm going to do for the folks at home if you're just tuning in. I'm going to give you a quick recap of this episode and then I do want to dive right back into what you're talking about because I don't think a lot of people know
The origin of that. And you feel like people, when I just start talking about pranks in an episode from 11 years ago, you don't think people immediately know what I'm referring to, that it needs a recap? 100%.
I don't think they do. I love it. Please do. But I do want to jump into this recap. So neighbors, we're talking neighbors. Jess has reverted to a pre-professional life. You know, she used to be a respected teacher and educator of the youth, but now she just slings casseroles during the day and watches TV.
TGIF every night. Now, Jess, unfortunately, some millennials, they move down the hall, right? They embrace Jess's regression, which causes Schmidt to lose his mind a little bit. Now, why would they love the casserole over the successful and handsome Schmidt? Meanwhile, Winston, he reconsiders his path after a test tells him that he will live to be 67 years old.
He at least wants a job that means something. You know, he whips out this amazing speech and demands his own show and the title of producer. Now our man has his own 2 a.m. show, which is fantastic. It's prime time for truckers. Schmidt perceives the neighbor's rejection as an indication that he is an old person. Nick exacerbates this fear by pulling insane pranks on Schmidt.
He removes a small portion of his shoes. He steals the stuffing out of his favorite chair and pretends Schmidt's hearing is gone. Jess tries to warn Schmidt that the kids, they don't like him. But he's persistent. He's trying to gain their respect and actually begs Jess for help. Then he ignores all of her suggestions. At the party, Jess's cool low-budget web series, Family Matters, wins over the neighbors. But when she learns that their parents still do their laundry and they're all still aimless...
She comes to her senses and decides to grow up. Schmidt learns the kids don't think he's old. They just think he's an asshat, which I'm still trying to figure out what that is. But that title is perfectly acceptable for Schmidt. And that's what happened on episode 204, Neighbors. Boom. Now let's jump right back into it.
Let's start from the beginning. I do want to talk about the idea of, of the writer's room and the age gap between all the folks. We're, we're the same age. So I'm imagining folks were in their, you know, early mid twenties, you know, uh, maybe early thirties writing on the show. And then there were some folks, you know, who are a little older. Was there, was, was there ever that, uh,
argument or was there ever that discussion about millennials versus you and me and all that BS that goes on in society? Sure. Yeah. I mean, I was on the older side, I suppose. And I was kind of...
But I had spent so much of my life doing basically what the neighbors across the hall were doing. Not like, you know, hula hooping and eating artichokes, but just kind of drifting through life. And, you know, just a staggering amount of my, like, you know, 20s unemployed. So I like really, even though I'm unbelievably old and don't know what's going on in the world in that sense, I did. There is like a fundamental truth to like, oh, yeah, when you're that age, you kind of just hang out.
I don't remember getting into a lot of fights about like, no, it would be this way, because I think once we decided like, oh, they're going to be fooled by Jess's pretending TV show catchphrases are her, like sort of all realism goes out the window and it's kind of just like, well, here's what we're doing. Right. Because I love these. I remember watching that episode and kind of going back into my own TV vault in my head going, damn, Alf, stop.
perfect strangers bro like these shows were uh these shows were what we grew up on that's that's all that we had you know what i mean tgif was our shit so yeah i feel like and i feel like watch if someone were to watch it now they would probably it would be as if we're like you know
And she's quoting like the Ed Sullivan show or like a radio show from 1920. They're like, what are you talking to? Who are like, it just feels like it must feel so like, um, archeological to, to today's. Oh, 100%. Even when you look at just the quality of it, it was dog shit. It was not. Yeah. It was not great, but we love it just the same.
It was on and we loved it. That's all it took back then. You're like, there's a box in my house and there's people on it and I get to watch it till my parents say go to bed. And that's like really all it took.
So we are, let's plow through this episode for a second. That's the best way to get through this one, is plowing. No, because, you know, normally, so what happens on these, you know, we're doing this season a little bit different than we did the first season. First season, you know, we would just do a Q&A and just, you know, talk about stuff with your fans. And this one, we want you, you know, as a creator to kind of help us break down this episode a little bit.
And when we walk through it, who came up, we just talk about, you know, some of the specific minutiae and the details of the show. So we've got, we start off with Jess sitting on the couch. She can't find a job. And then we go into, you know, you know, the pranks. You were talking about this earlier. Winston is someone who, and even to this day, people walk up to me all the time and talk about fucking pranks.
But I'm watching this and I'm reminded that I'm not 100% sure I was the OG Frank Sinatra because it was a duo. It was Nick and Winston when they were kids. And Winston was actually really bad at it. But it feels like Nick is like, he's fucking fantastic at it when you watch this episode. It feels like this was unintentionally
It was as if we decided we could only have one prank person on this show. And this was sort of like a backdoor audition to like, who is more enjoyable to watch pranking? Is it Nick taking it really seriously and being like sort of diabolically good at it? Or is it Winston also taking it very seriously, but being completely out? Yeah, completely on Mars.
And clearly it was the latter. It was so much, you know, it's almost always more fun to see someone be bad at something than good at something. I think that's sort of one of the basic tenets of New Girl and all television I enjoy and life really. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. You know what I found to be funny is that the tag on this when Winston, and we allude to it when they're kids, when he's talking about hitting his chichi with a ski, I
Like in the moment, I'm like watching it going like, "That shit's funny. It's really funny." And then now, like as I watch it again, I go, "Did I hit my roommate with a skeet?" What has come of this craziness in this loft? - Yeah, I think, you know,
Similar to how we don't really know, was Taye Diggs okay? They left him unconscious in that elevator. It's like, just assume everyone's fine. It's got kind of a Looney Tunes quality where fall off a cliff with a rocket up your butt and you're fine. The next cartoon. Absolutely. So we're sitting down at the table and
Winston is reading... Is it an actuary table? Yeah, an actuarial table. Actuarial table. Are those real stats? It's, you know, Winston...
what is this? African-American men live, they have a life expectancy of 67 years old. Was that a real thing? I, having not watched this show and this episode in quite some time, and I rewatched it like, you know, to, to, so I could stumble through a few words for this podcast. I like let out like an audible gasp where I'm like, Jesus, that's not very like, I'm, I'm like 67 next year. But, but, but I have,
I have to believe that that, I don't know why we would have done that if it wasn't like true, at least for a certain, you know, slice of that demographic. But yeah, cause that freaked me out. That freaked me out. No, no. Yeah. Same. Back then. I think when we filmed this episode, I was 27, 28. I think I was 20 maybe. And so now, now being a almost 40 year old man,
I'm like looking at that clock going, have these stats changed? What am I doing? Am I drinking too much coffee? Am I drinking too much in general? You know, to try to figure this out. So when we moved through this episode, we also, we realized that Schmidt was
Actually, let's go back. Let's just talk about The Neighbors. That's the name of this episode. Let's talk about The Neighbors. Chaz, Fife, Sutton, and Broary. I know in life, I think I know a...
fife fife really i don't know personally fife dog from you know tribe called quest oh sure sure that's i think that's it chaz i don't know i've seen those chaz dean billboards all over yeah yeah but i don't know a sudden or a broary are these personal names that you guys knew uh i just i think this was this was the episode where i again this was a delightful job
really loved it. There's also was a lot, you're just, we're just there a lot and you kind of started doing things to sort of make it a little more like a game for you. And this is kind of when I was like, I'm going to try to just sneak as many insane names onto this show as possible. Yeah. Um, and like sort of low level infuriate Liz. Um, so it's kind of, I think I was sort of like easing into it with these four names. Um,
Also any turds. I really started wanting to get the word any turds in episodes. And this was the first one of those, I think. And it shows up a few times. Um,
And you turds, what does that mean? No, like any turds, like anyway, it's hilarious. The important thing is in a true new girl fashion, your story where you're truly worried about something very serious, which is like your mortality and, uh, and then, and, and how you can, you know, find, uh,
peace and joy in life and live longer is like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But here's... We'll deal with that. We'll do that in the season. We'll cut some scenes and then you'll be there. It'll be great. But what's important is the names of these fuckers.
No, it works because it definitely plays into who these characters are for sure. And the idea that Schmidt wants to be friends with them and can't be, you know? So they go over there. Jess decides to bring a casserole, which I think is stupid. You don't bring a casserole to somebody's party. It works in the episode, you know?
Well, I got to say, like, this is really making me sound like I put no work in on this episode, which is which in some ways is true. In some ways, no one's ever worked harder on anything than we did on these episodes. Not to like great effect frequently, but the name of my Wi-Fi network was the casserole shanty at home because I just thought that would be
quote, funny if my neighbors in my building were like, is there a casserole restaurant nearby? Really, just... So that had just been... That's pretty good. So they were like, well, Jess needs a job. And I'm like, well, this seems like a shitty place to work. What if she worked at this nautical-themed casserole place? That's pretty good. That's a pretty good one. But I agree bringing it to the party was, you know...
What would you bring to a stranger's house for a party? I mean, I would just bring whiskey, which is what I would just do. Yeah, or I just would not go. I think what you and Nick did, what you and Jake did when you guys show up is about, I'd be like, oh, right, I get you. This is crazy. But yeah, I would bring, you know, booze, a really elaborate flower arrangement. Would you really? No. Like a...
Maybe to a funeral house party. Sure. Some sort of, you know, incredibly delicate pet that they would have to like take care of for years and years. I knew a guy who did that. He dropped his dog off once and never came back. And I would hear the stories about it all the time. Like, because I knew the guy and he literally asked him when the house sit. And then I heard years later, you know, he never picked that dog up. I was like, what?
Anyway, I digress. That's, well, did they learn to love the dog as their own? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Fell in love with that dog. Oh. It hit my drain. No, he didn't. That story was entirely made up. My mom used to always tell me, my mom would come to my house and she would visit me. And my house is filled with alcohol. But it's not that I drink a lot. It's just that
I would have parties and people would, you know, or even just invite people, people would just come by and they would always bring something. And it was always alcohol. Every time you would get a gift bag, it was always alcohol. And so, and I would always bring alcohol. So my mom would be over, hey, I got to go to this thing. I've got to go stop and get a bottle of something. And then I'll take it to someone's house. And for the longest time, my mom was concerned that I had a drinking problem. Sure. Because of all the alcohol that riddled my apartment and my house.
Well, I mean, I know you're in, you're out of town right now, but I've not seen any alcohol behind you. Look around that corner right there. Okay. And that little dugout, I can't get my hand right there. In that little corner right there, there's tons of bullet bourbon. All right. And some gin.
You're ready. You're ready. You're ready to go. Another thing I found interesting about this was that as much as they hate Schmidt, they definitely spent the night at their apartment. And I didn't realize that until they walked back in wearing the same clothes. And until now, I was like, wait, did they spend the night across the hall? Or did they just party till that early in the morning?
I think they were supposed to be partying, but yeah, it is a weird, because there's one place you're the least likely to stay over. It's probably across the hall from your own apartment. Cause there's like, no, the barrier to entry of getting home is couldn't be easier. You're like, I have to get up and walk eight feet. Right. But yeah, I don't know. It's not an airtight story. I'll just get that out right now. There may be some holes here and there.
One of the as many, especially earlier episodes of New Girl, we had a real just opus of a story that once filmed was an hour and a half long and then had to be cut down to 20 minutes. So there's like, you know, massive kind of like holes where everything.
If I'm there to watch it with you, I can be like, well, see, this would make more sense if you knew that blah, blah, blah happened, but we had to cut it for time. But since I can only do that, you know, a couple thousand times a year where I watch this episode with people, there's a lot of people out there who just aren't, you know, probably getting it. But, you know, I do my best. Well, you know, I didn't notice any holes. I just thought that was a very interesting fact. Yes. You know, one thing that I thought was cool about it is,
I guess the parallels between Winston being inspired by Nick's drive, which is very random, and his ambition, and then Schmidt needing help from Jess to be cool. That's kind of like a complete swap. Yeah. Now, is that intentional or we just happen to find ourselves in this place? I think so, because we'd sort of done...
The opposite of Fairmount, it seems. Well, you know, where Jess is the, like, motivator and the, like, come on, guys, let's do this. And that, like, Nick is the anchor. And Winston is generally, like, very enthusiastic and kind of the initiator. So I think it was kind of like a... Again, this is all... The fog of insomnia has robbed me of a lot of these details, but... Oh, yeah. Yeah.
But I definitely, I'm just going to say, sure. That's what we totally intentional and a plus execution. I thought it really worked. I thought it definitely worked, especially when you watch this show, when you watch the show, there's a lot of things that happen in the show, which sometimes I'll watch later and I go, was that intentional? Was that not intentional? If we find ourselves with,
Jess not having a job, but that's usually my thing. You know, and I, the character swaps a lot of times I think is pretty cool, especially when you go back and you watch it. Yeah. And when you go back and you go, oh my God, I didn't realize, for example, pranks was a Nick thing, you know, and it's interesting to hear how we, how we come to it being a, a, a Winston thing. Let's talk about, let's go back a little bit. I do want to talk about, you mentioned, you know,
You mentioned your Wi-Fi password being the casual. To me, that is a fantastic prank. Yes. It's a fantastic prank. Are you yourself a prankster? Is that something that you do? No. I aspire to be. Like, I think if I could change... Like, I think I have the brain of a prankster, but not the, like, the...
follow through of it. Like, I think, I think if there was, if there was some sort of like service where I could just think of pranks and then just then like hand them out to people who had the like follow through to go do them and to like, and the sort of, I'm very conflict averse. So the idea of like doing something that then someone maybe gets mad about is horrifying to me, or I can't keep a straight face. So I'd be like laughing at me. Like, so there's a lot of, I have a lot of qualities that would make me a bad pranker, but, um,
Yeah. So I think, I think I could, I could maybe conceive of a few, but like that's, you know, that's the easiest part. It's, it's the going and doing that really matters. I'm not, I'm not, that's not. No one's spending 1200 bucks on pranks. I'm not sawing down someone's shoe. Yes. Yes. Yes. Um, we're going to go and sell some diapers, but when we come back, we are with Berkeley Johnson. Oh,
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And we are back. Berkeley, there's something that, there's a segment on our show that Hannah Simone is usually in charge of. And I'm not sure if you've noticed, it's just you and I here today. What?
It's just bros with our dicks out, just talking and drinking. That's right. I just assumed Zoe and Hannah were going to jump in when they had anything to add and we weren't saying the perfect things and that we just can do say the perfect thing. So there's no, there's, you know, they're just applauding with their computers muted. Yeah. They usually hold it together. Zoe is off on her private jet somewhere. And I think Hannah's got a joy riding and cruising the friendly skies with her.
So it's you and I today, but the segment that Hannah usually tackles is called Where's the Bear? Yes. And we talk about that on this show all the time. In fact, every episode. We don't know if that's a real thing. I don't think it's a real thing. Hannah swears it's a real thing. Is there a bear in every episode? Is there a bear reference? Not talking about the bear that's on the refrigerator. Not talking about that one. But what do you think? Is that a real thing? I...
I don't know, but I would think, and I say this with true love for the entire, all the writers, everyone involved with the show, I have the fond memories of everyone, but the thought that
could for 140 whatever episodes like do something as consistent as like oh there needs to be a bear in every episode is like should also be like oh there's you know like we go to the moon in every episode like there's just no way that there's no way that a detail like that was paid attention to and followed through on consistently i mean we couldn't get much more important things than that right so i can't believe we were like at least the bears in there
But I would also love to be wrong. I would say there's probably more bears in more scenes of New Girl than there are in most shows that take place in a non-bear environment. I do think at some point it just happened to have happened. There's photos of bears in the refrigerator. There's one in Winston's room.
Nick likes the Chicago Bears. I don't. I mean, Liz, as is well-documented, loves Bears. And I get it. Bears are very funny. There was someone in a... There was a guy in a... I'm going to say a guy. It could have been a lady. It could have been... Or non-gendered. I don't know. There was...
maybe it wasn't even a person i assume it was a person in a bear costume at liz and alex's wedding just wandering around so that's the really yeah i was there i don't remember that yeah or was it you and you're just you're just playing um the uh so there's a real love of bears there so um
It would make sense. I would love for them to be one in every episode and to be proven wrong. I just, having been there and having been like a huge culprit of this myself, the idea that we had any sort of system in place to get everything, to get anything like right with any consistency is not how it felt.
Yeah, I didn't, I never thought it was a real thing, but for a long time you would, I mean, there are quite a few, there are quite a few bare references. I just didn't know if it were every single episode, but I'm glad to hear from you that you felt that you guys couldn't have pulled it together. And maybe I'm drinking and partying. You were doing in the writer's room. If only no drinking and partying, a lot of like 2am, like,
Uh, what if Winston got a ceiling fan? Have we done that yet? A lot of stuff like that. Um, which is, it's, it's, it's a type of partying, musing on, you know, appliances you might acquire in a B story. Oh, 100%. Yeah. My storyline is the idea that I feel like I'm going to die, um,
early and I want to have a job that I can feel good about. And so him working, I think at the time he's like an assistant or something at the, at the, at the radio station and he wants to get his own show. And he goes in and he gives this very impassioned plea, this speech, which is one of my favorite things about the show was whenever I'm like a, an enraged or impassioned monologue was written for me. I had so much fun doing it. Um,
Was this based on anything? Has this ever happened to you before where you had to walk into a room and just let everybody know what time it was? Has that ever happened? Have you seen it happen? I'm sure that it has, but I can certainly say it didn't end with a good result. It wasn't like... And then cut to me telling my roommates, guess what? They loved it. I got the job. But no, I think, you know, you really sell it, though. Yeah, you've got some great...
No, there's some great monologues throughout. A later episode of mine, you have one of my favorite things that I can only take partial credit for because I remember Joe Wenger was helping me with it.
But it's about when you look in the suggestion box of my life, you know what it says in there? It says, good job. And like, and you know who put it there? Me. You know how I know? Because I recognize my handwriting. But again, it's not quite right. But so funny. Well, still, I mean, you so you're responsible for and I'm not sure if you knew this. Actually, I'm quite sure you knew this.
The quotes that come out of this show, the things that fans post, the TikToks about our show. Is there anything that stands out? Is there any line that you're most proud of? Or you could always say, yeah, I wrote that shit. You know, when you see fans blasting it all over the place. Is there anything that sticks out to you? It's hard. I mean...
You'll be shocked to learn I'm, I'm, uh, I have a pretty light footprint on TikTok. So I'm not exactly sure what's, you know, what's lighting up the boards out there. There are, and in coming on this podcast, I was like, I should probably think of one fricking memory to just be like, here's the one. And I really, there's so many. And it's kind of like, I was there for like all seven seasons, which, um, though it felt much longer.
So it's kind of like, you know, what's your favorite memory from like college and your master's program or whatever? It was like, there's just like so many, like so many, so much. It's hard to like isolate one. Well, I could tell you from. You tell me what it is and I'll agree with you.
Well, I'm not going to tell you specifically, but I will tell you if you get on TikTok, they are everywhere. I can't. I'm tagged in all these things. And what's interesting about it is that the fans, when they tag you in it, the question is always the same. Did you improvise that or did someone write that? And I can tell you a majority of the time it's written. We improvise a lot on the show.
But majority of the time, the silliness and the madness, and I've always said this, comes from, which I think, the greatest writers ever assembled. And I genuinely mean that. And you are one of them. And, you know, I just, I'm like extremely like, extremely like happy to have been a part of something like that with people who, because then you're part of certain things where
Doesn't go quite the way you thought it was going to go. But you guys together, it's like it was brilliant, man. We got we got away with some really cool shit on this show. And, you know, and you're a reason for that. Well, thanks. I mean, I am. You're obviously a much bigger reason not to get into a reason measuring contest. But no, I am.
It was an amazing group, I mean, of writers. And there were a lot because people came. I mean, we were on for a long time. We made a lot of episodes and people came and went. And like every incarnation of the writers room was a really good group of people. And you guys were great. The cast was amazing. And like, it was a very bumpy ride at times, but like so much of the end result was, I think, really like... And so much of the process too. It was a lot of fun. But yeah, it definitely like, it was a...
really special to be a part of. And I also like, it was funny because when I was there, I was just like, just enraged all the time about all the things we couldn't do. Like, and then when I, you know, that was Fox. And then my next thing I worked on was ABC and,
And I was like, I think I need to write the execs at Fox, like an apology letter for a bunch of things I never said to them, but thought because like we were doing whatever we wanted as long as we couldn't, we couldn't mention like a name brand and you know, whatever, but like, otherwise they're like, we don't understand what you're doing, but like, all right, sure. We got to do some really for a network sitcom is like really, really, really weird stuff that, that, uh, I found quite enjoyable. And that is not the case. Uh,
many places yeah um so yeah it was in it was uh did you have as much freedom um on on any show after that or do you did you compare it and go man we got away with murder on new girl yeah it was a little bit i mean my next job was after that was single parents which was kind of like a um uh
new girl extension and they're like so many of the same writers and stuff were involved. Um, and that was great, but it, and also there were kids in it. Like it was, it was obviously a much more like family sort of like, uh, angled show, but, but yeah, the, the execs on that were much like more interested in stuff that I'm less interested in as opposed to like the stuff that, um, which, and listen, I mean, there, you know,
They're running the world and I'm not, so I don't, I'm not saying they're wrong. And then, yeah, Girls5ever was very, I mean, that was because that was like over Zoom, which is a whole different thing because it was, you know, pandemic era. And that was, you know, a little, that was kookier, but it's also hard to get a feel for something, not hard, but when you're used to doing 22 episodes for like years and years, which is like such a, yeah.
you know, you there's, it's just, you know what the thing is in a way that's like sometimes helpful, sometimes kind of like soul crushing, but you, you in compared to like with so much of TV now, which is, you know, eight episodes and you may not even be on set for the shoot. So you're just less kind of like, um,
I guess you're less invested unless it's harder for you to get angry at the execs for saying no to stuff because you're not even really sure what's happening. You're kind of just like, well, here you go, boss. Good luck making this. Whereas when you're on set and you're sitting in on editing and you're kind of just so much of your...
time and blood and sweat and stomach lining goes into something that then when they're like... I had an actor, I got ulcers on the show. Yeah. Well, that was one of the... Again, I said we don't... I said we weren't good about like setting goals and then like following through like with the bears. But with that, we did get together and we were like, let's really make sure we... Every day we ask ourselves, are we giving Lamorna ulcers? Three of them. Three. Oh, three. Wow. See, we were...
We were just trying for two, so that's really... Yeah. I've got to make some calls after this and let everyone know what a great job we did. We really fucked them up. Yeah.
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I do have a question for you. There is a fan question. Okay. Um, from Samantha ship, Samantha ship. She, she asks, was Adam Brody's character on new girl named after Berkeley Johnson. He played the role of Berkeley, just as boyfriend in season three episode execs. Uh,
I mean, it wasn't named after me. I'm involved like through no involvement of my own in a sense where like, as I said earlier, I was getting real into the like entertaining myself by just like giving characters like crazy names and trying to, you know,
just sort of sneak them onto the show. And sometimes if you're, if your episode is next to, is near another episode, you're kind of not involved with that other episode because you're so busy with your own stuff. And they're so like, you know, they're going into production one after each other. So I had very little to do with that episode. And, um,
I think they were like, oh, we'll call this guy Berkeley because that'll piss Liz off because blah, blah, blah, you know, whatever. And then Liz, in a very shrewd move, she saw it. She's like, oh, no, this is great. Leave this in. Fuck him. Leave Berkeley. And so I got a call or I talked to him from that room. They're like, we're so sorry we put your name in. We didn't think she was going to keep it. She's keeping it. And the next thing I knew it was...
It was in. But what is fun is like on the call sheet and it's and my name is spelled strangely because my parents decided to make it hard for me. But they spelled it like that. So then on the call sheet, which I still have, it's like it says like Jess tells Berkeley she doesn't love him. And it's like and then the next one's like Berkeley cries and begs for Jess to come. I felt very involved.
So they were fucking with you in a way. So tell, is it Samantha Ship? Samantha Ship. It sounds like a name you made up because you wanted to ask this question, but... I didn't make that up. Samantha Ship is my assistant. Oh, there you go. Okay. And she wanted to know. She's a huge fan. It is. She's like, I want her. It is... I guess I was involved. And I remember...
This tells you like one zone kind of where like then Adam was on single parents and I was like, oh, is it going to be weird again? Is it going to be weird to be like, hey, I'm Berkeley. He's like, wait, I played Berkeley. And like then I'm like, this guy has no fucking memory that he like ever played somebody like who cares? He doesn't care. I wonder if he did. Yeah, I could have, you know.
I could be like, my name's your name from the OC. And he'd be like, I don't really remember doing that. He's like, where's my check? Yeah. Exactly. If you know Adam Brody, you know, that's how he gets down. Actually, I don't know that. Yeah. He loves checks. He's a, he's a, well, I would imagine so. Yeah. No credit cards, checks only. Checks and money orders. We're going to dive into a segment in this show called Nick's box. Nope.
Okay. Nick's Box is brought to you by Hyundai. When it comes to your journey, Hyundai is thinking of every mile. Welcome back to the segment where we crawl in the back of Nick's closet and we pull out the memories that the cast and crew of New Girl have kept hidden for years. So let me ask you a question, Berkeley. Who was sleeping with who in the writer's room?
You know, I'm kidding. Unless you want to answer that question. Brett and Dave. Brett and Dave. Oh, duh. Yeah. Brett and Dave, a regular old Bert and Ernie. You know, shout out to Brett and Dave. What are some of you, now we talked about this a little bit ago, fond memories of the show. Is there anything that sticks out? Any story, anything that you always wanted to get off your chest? Anybody that you wanted to heap praise on or heap, you know,
non-praise on anything you want to say about your time at New York? I mean, there are so many that are of course, um, totally leaving my Swiss cheese brain as we speak. Just something I thought of the other day, because amazingly it almost happened to me again, was that, um, when we, this was an episode from season one, we were outside, um,
It was freezing. There were all these heaters around. This was the one where like it was Martin Starr was in it and German. It doesn't matter. But basically one of the actors had like asked me for some sort of thing and I'd given a note. And I don't know, something had happened. And then it was a guest cast member. And she came up to me afterwards. Well, we moved on to a different scene afterwards.
And the camera was rolling and she was like,
She was like, excuse me, excuse me. And I was like, I was like, no, it was great. You did great. Like just assume me in my own, like again, sleep deprived, but just egotistical. I was like, well, clearly she wants to tell me like, Hey, that was a great note. Thank you so much. I really felt good. Or, or even be like, I didn't know, but I certainly thought it was going to be about like this note. I just give it that it unlocked her. And it was like, you know, I'm going to thank you when I, when I went on Oscar in 10 years or whatever. And, but I was like, also there's other take going. And she's like,
I'm just sorry. I'm like, can we talk? And she's like, I just want to let you know, your entire arm is on fire. And I like looked down at my jacket was like, cause I've been standing close to like one of these heaters. My like jacket had caught on fire. And then in a rare moment of coolness, I was like, I was not, not coolness. Like I was like, I know. And then just like, kind of like, like, like, like this happens all the time in Hollywood.
Your arm gets on fire. You just be cool about it. I don't know why you're making a big ruckus. But then as soon as it was like cut, I like ran to the part. We were shooting like outside of Dodger Stadium, like ran to the bathroom, like took off my jacket. I was like, okay, I'm okay. So that's not really like a Knicks box memory so much. It's just something that came to me the other day. That is definitely a Knicks box memory. Yeah. In fact, it might be.
It might be the greatest one. We may have ended the Nick's Box segment. That might have been the greatest one. Thanks for bringing out Nick's Box, Hyundai. Remember, from shopping to buying to owning, Hyundai has your back. Like our favorite memories, taking a Hyundai on your journey will keep you feeling safe and warm. Learn more at HyundaiUSA.com.
I had to drop a deuce really bad in an episode and I was begging, like begging someone to like call cut so I could go to the bathroom to do so. It was bad. It was, I forgot what I had salsa or something. It was,
And people remind me of that often. Yeah. You almost burned like Michael Jackson did in that Pepsi video. Yeah. And no one talked about this. That's the double-edged sword of being a writer versus being talent. Everyone knows what you're up to, good and bad. With us, we just kind of like...
slip, slip quietly through the night, like, you know, doing great stuff and people are like, eh, or like almost, you know, burning alive and be like, eh, it's, it's, uh, well, I can say, uh, I can say, and I can speak for myself, the rest of the cast and all the fans of new girl out there. Uh,
We are very, very appreciative of all the great stuff that you have brought to television, my friend, and to, I think, the greatest show of all time, New Girl. I'm not just saying that because I'm on it. Well, mainly I am. But I do want to say thank you, man. Thank you for being on the show. Thank you for humoring me, even though my co-hosts
bailed on me and ditched me. But thank you. Thank you for being a part of this, man. Yeah. You tell them that if I'm not a big enough draw...
yeah you have to promise me you will not tell them that you had this shit story and then they wouldn't like because that was just for you and me because they're not here and they missed it they definitely missed it yeah they definitely missed it yeah um i love you man i love you so much thank you for being here love you too man it's great to see you have fun you're in calgary correct i'm in i'm in calgary yeah all right that's why i have this weird mustache
I like it. Thank you, man. Thank you very much. Okay, folks. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Let's give a big round of applause to Berkeley Johnson for joining us today to help break down this episode. We truly do appreciate it. Now make sure to go like and subscribe and also turn on your notifications and all that fun stuff. Send in your questions, comments, and concerns. Go buy our merch. And as always, make sure to treat each other with kindness and love. Peace.
You've been listening to Welcome to Our Show, a New Girl Recap podcast. Welcome to Our Show is a production of iHeartRadio, hosted by Zooey Deschanel, Lamorne Morris, and Hannah Simone. Our executive producer is Joelle Monique. Our engineer and editor is Daniel Goodman. The Welcome to Our Show is a production of iHeartRadio,
Welcome to Our Show theme song was written by Zooey Deschanel, performed and produced by Zooey Deschanel and Pierre Derrida. Follow us on Instagram at WelcomeToOurShowPod. If you have a question you'd like us to answer, you can email us at WelcomeToOurShowPodcast at gmail.com. Don't forget to rate, subscribe, and share far and wide. Thanks for listening. We'll hear you next week. Welcome to Our Show.
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