Latest / Uncluttered and Unfiltered: The Podcast For Women Over 50 / SPECIAL THANKSGIVING EPISODE: FEATURING SHAUN CASSIDY!

Transcript

SPECIAL THANKSGIVING EPISODE: FEATURING SHAUN CASSIDY! · Uncluttered and Unfiltered: The Podcast For Women Over 50

0:04
Welcome to Uncluttered and Unfiltered, the podcast urging
0:08
you to let it go and don't look back, with nationally acclaimed
0:12
professional organizer Christine Stone and self-proclaimed Hot
0:17
Damn Mess radio and TV personality Eden Kendall.
0:21
Welcome everyone to Uncluttered and Unfiltered.
0:23
We were planning to skip this week because it is obviously
0:28
Thanksgiving. We are recording this on the
0:30
Wednesday prior to Thanksgiving. But we got a phone call that
0:34
said there was somebody who was interested in speaking with us
0:37
on the podcast and his availability was for today.
0:41
So we're like, you know what, let's do a recording.
0:43
However, this person did not merit you canceling an
0:49
appointment you have coming up at 1:00, which is when he's free
0:53
to speak. And we're going to talk about
0:55
why that is so. First of all, our special guest
0:58
today for Thanksgiving is the one and only Grammy nominated
1:03
super mega teen idol, star of the Hardy Boys, and writer of
1:09
many years of television, Sean Cassidy.
1:14
Yay. I love him.
1:18
He's on a tour right now. He's coming to our area, which
1:22
is Jacksonville, FL. He's either going to be coming
1:25
to your area or somewhere close by or he already has been.
1:29
So we are going to talk to him. I say we, but you will be
1:33
occupied during that time. Yes, now.
1:37
Tell why this now don't don't be offended.
1:40
If you're Sean Cassidy listening to this, it's it's just that
1:43
sometimes when you're a woman in your late 50s, early 60s,
1:48
appointments get made and they cannot.
1:50
Well, especially the day before Thanksgiving.
1:52
So I think I have a little bit of reprieve anyway.
1:57
So I had to do math, which, you know, I hate doing math because
2:01
I am not good at math. Because I kept thinking, why do
2:05
I not have a connection with Sean Cassie like I do with Donny
2:09
Osmond, right? So.
2:11
Because if it were Donnie Osmond, let's be honest, you
2:14
could be prepping for brain surgery and you would get off
2:17
the table, right? And you?
2:19
Absolutely. On this zoom call.
2:21
App I would do I nothing would stop me, as you all have seen in
2:27
the past from talking to Donnie Osmond anyway.
2:31
So when I did my deep dive into Sean Cassidy as well as the
2:36
years he was popular, his debut album was in 77.
2:41
He was a teen idol from 77 to 79.
2:45
OK, right. And the Hardy Boys and
2:48
everything. I was already in high school and
2:51
I was already into the disco years.
2:53
I was already into Saturday Night Fever and anything disco
2:58
related. We went to discos.
3:00
We, you know, so it kind of made sense to me why I didn't really
3:04
have a connection to Sean Cassie because I was too old.
3:08
I was out of that teen idol phase.
3:12
Now I knew who he was and of course I had an older brother
3:16
who was the David Cassidy years, but my younger brother was only
3:20
one year younger than me, so he was already out of any kind of
3:24
teen idly stuff too. So it made sense to me.
3:29
But I I've been seeing a lot of stuff on Sean Cassidy recently
3:34
and he's just such a great guy that's.
3:37
Great guy, great guy, So incredibly successful in the
3:41
entertainment industry, but behind the scenes as a writer
3:45
and producer. And you know, I think we forget
3:49
that even though, and now, now I'll, I'll speak to it from my
3:52
perspective, which was, you know, between the ages.
3:55
I was, I originally thought I was like younger like 8, but I
3:57
think I was more like 11. Right, which is peak?
4:01
Peak and you know but there were a lot of girls older than me
4:06
that weren't necessarily into the Saturday Night Fever thing
4:09
that really loved him because he was 1819 years old at that time.
4:13
But you know he he had played the Hollywood Bowl for like
4:18
55,000 people he opened the Grammys in 77 he has a story
4:24
maybe we can get him to tell it of taking Carrie Fisher as his
4:28
date to the Grammys. You know, he is and from every
4:33
interview I've watched with him, he gets it.
4:36
He connects with his fans as as someone who really has lived a
4:44
well-rounded life despite coming from Hollywood family and being
4:49
surrounded by that. He really understands like we're
4:51
going to reminisce, we're going to enjoy this.
4:54
This is this is, you know, we're in a moment here.
4:59
We're, we're remembering and it's just, I'm really excited to
5:03
talk to him because unlike a lot of celebrities I've seen
5:07
interviewed who are there to push their agenda, which, you
5:11
know, the end we had with him was that he is performing this
5:16
tour and through the venue I was able to secure this interview.
5:20
But I think with him, he really loves just chatting about the
5:25
world, being a, you know, a great place.
5:28
And I heard him talk in one interview about how, you know,
5:33
everyone thought the 70s were better than it is now, but
5:35
that's just because we remember it that way.
5:38
He's very deep. He's very intellectual, and he's
5:43
very gracious. So I'm really excited to talk to
5:45
him. And.
5:47
I love that you did the deep dive as you do.
5:51
I love to do because I love to learn like little things about
5:55
people that I never knew. And so when I did my deep dive,
6:00
it was from Peter Faltrop, who's like a music critic person and I
6:06
learned so much 'cause his debut album was one of the biggest
6:11
selling solo debuts in history in history.
6:15
It's an album comprised almost in of remakes, the single
6:20
version of the run It's do run run.
6:22
He also suffers from comparison to his brother David Cassie, who
6:27
he only speaks so lovely about and yes, so wonderful about.
6:32
Everything he says about his brother is just so loving in my.
6:37
Empathetic. He's.
6:39
And he, yes. You know.
6:40
Empathetic. He really, and again, I, I don't
6:43
know if I've researched someone as thoroughly for an interview
6:47
and I listen, I've interviewed, you know, 1000 by now in this
6:51
career. I, I've done so much research
6:54
because he's so delightful to listen to.
6:57
I couldn't stop. Exactly.
6:59
And that's why when I was reading this, I was like, I
7:02
didn't know that. Oh God, that's so sweet.
7:05
So he took over the successor to the teen idol throne which such
7:11
an aesthetically pleasing set of songs and talent of his own.
7:15
Sean Cassidy is a thoroughly enjoyable and old fashionably
7:19
hip record. There are two kinds of one hit
7:22
wonders this. I loved those who made bad
7:25
novelty music and are forgotten advance embarrassment of ever
7:29
having to listen to them, and those who made good music.
7:32
Meaning that if the singer appears on a daytime talk show,
7:36
all housewives will stand up and cheer and proclaim their
7:39
everlasting and crushes. And Sean Cassidy is the second
7:42
kind. Because he was not ardently
7:45
cheesy. He made music for his for, for
7:49
who he knew he was making music for.
7:52
And I just, I thought that was such a great way to explain him.
7:57
The only thing I would take exception with that is one hit
8:00
wonder. I mean, that's rock'n'roll.
8:02
Did you run? Run.
8:03
Hey Deanie. And then do you believe in
8:06
magic? He had a cover of that that I
8:07
thought for years I thought was the original, and then I heard
8:11
it by Lovin Spoonful. Or was it Lovin Spoonful who did
8:14
that? I was like.
8:15
No. Who originally did?
8:17
Do you believe in magic? Oh God, now I don't know.
8:22
Anyway, I I think that he was his own kind and he could have
8:26
gotten all messed up in the celebrity world and like his
8:30
brother gotten into things that most celebrity and he just
8:34
stayed really, really true to himself.
8:37
And then one day I right, he just said I'm not doing this
8:40
anymore. And that's when he went on to be
8:43
into, you know, the the other side, the TV series and.
8:48
Created American Gothic. He do you remember a movie he
8:52
did where he played Roger and he was it was called like normal
8:56
people. I think it was no, they were
8:58
mentally, I don't know what the politically correct word is, but
9:04
they were they were challenged, he and Linda Pearl and they
9:08
wanted to get married to each other.
9:10
He was so good in that. He was fantastic in that and
9:14
the. Hardy Boys.
9:15
Well, of course, the Hardy Boys, I mean, but also he was on
9:18
General Hospital, he was Dusty on General.
9:20
Hospital. I don't remember that either.
9:22
Yeah, yeah. I remember the Hardy Boys,
9:25
though, with Parker Stevenson. Yeah, but I just love that he
9:31
didn't even make an excuse. He didn't even go I'm retiring
9:34
or what? He just said I'm done.
9:35
That's it, it's over. And in the kind of height of his
9:40
success, he just was like, yeah, I don't want to end up in that
9:45
whole thing. And I just.
9:46
I think he's a really, really good person and I loved learning
9:51
so much about him because I knew nothing about him because I
9:56
wasn't of that error. And so you constantly compared
10:01
him to David Cassidy, but they were two totally different
10:04
people. And that was even his
10:05
stepbrother. So it wasn't.
10:07
Even his. Or half brother, half brother.
10:10
So it wasn't even. He could have really distanced
10:13
himself, but he didn't. He was like, that's my brother
10:17
and he is who he is. And you know, I mean, I just
10:22
love how he is as a person and how he talked about his brother.
10:26
I. I think it's so funny because I
10:27
texted my sister who is your age, 2 1/2, two years older, 2
10:33
1/2 years older than me, and she, I instantly came back when
10:37
I said I'm going to be talking to Shawn Cassidy and she said I
10:40
loved him. He was all over my wall.
10:42
Let me tell you something that infuriated me.
10:45
No, you like David? Cassidy.
10:49
And I was so, you know, because she she has a different life
10:53
than me. She's not so infused in pop
10:54
culture. She doesn't often go down memory
10:57
lane. So in her mind, she was just
10:59
like, yeah, oh, yeah, I loved him.
11:01
No, Risa, you did not love him. He was my boyfriend.
11:06
Your boyfriend was David Cassidy.
11:08
So don't even come come for me with You loved Sean Cassidy.
11:14
I loved Sean Cassidy. And for that matter, if we were
11:17
picking Hardy Boys, I was Joe and you were Frank.
11:21
So just back off, sister. I did like Parker Stevenson.
11:26
Well, because you're a little older.
11:27
He was more manly like he was more.
11:29
Of a man I did. Like and Sean, you know, not
11:31
that he wasn't manly, but he was more of a boy.
11:34
Yeah, I just, I'm so glad and I would like to see him in
11:38
concert. So there you go.
11:40
Just by learning about him and reading about him and watching
11:44
interviews he did, I would go see him in concert because I
11:48
think he's he'd be great. I really think he'd do a great.
11:51
Concert. I think so too.
11:54
So with no further ado, we hope you have a wonderful
11:58
Thanksgiving if you're listening to this as it launches on
12:03
Thursday morning. But if very likely, maybe
12:05
you're, you've got us with you as you're driving around doing
12:08
some Black Friday shopping or your normal routine, whatever
12:13
that is, maybe you take us with you when you go for a walk or
12:15
you ride to work on Monday. Whenever it is, you're
12:18
listening. We are thankful for you.
12:20
You are. You are one of the things we are
12:22
thankful for on this Thanksgiving.
12:24
And we hope you have a wonderful holiday with your family.
12:26
With no further ado, Sean Cassidy.
12:43
Thank you. Because today is the day before
12:45
Thanksgiving, so I was very curious what your plans were.
12:49
You're obviously taking a little break on your tour.
12:53
Only a little one. Yeah, I'm in Wimberley, TX which
12:57
is a lovely little town near Austin.
13:00
My brother-in-law just retired from the Air Force.
13:04
He was an F16 pilot. He's going to be flying for
13:07
American Airlines. So we all came down here for his
13:10
retirement party. I was honored to sing the
13:14
national anthem. And now we're celebrating with
13:18
his family and my family, Thanksgiving tomorrow through
13:22
the rest of the week, and then I'll be back home in Santa
13:23
Barbara on the weekend. Oh, that's lovely.
13:27
So I, I wondered then I was thinking a lot about this when
13:30
you grew up in such a famous household, Jack Cassidy, Shirley
13:36
Jones, I mean, all of our listeners and all of our viewers
13:38
know all of this. What was Thanksgiving like then?
13:42
Do you have any fond recollections or famous faces
13:44
around the table other than your own?
13:48
Yes, my mom and dad and David. No, Interestingly, and maybe in
13:56
a good way, Thanksgiving was not like a Hollywood affair at my
13:59
house. It was very much family focused.
14:03
My dad would often cook. He made a great Turkey.
14:06
My mother would make sweet potatoes and this goofy dessert
14:11
that came from Western Pennsylvania called Apple Betty.
14:14
And if there's any Apple Betty fans out there, I apologize, but
14:17
it was basically Wonder Bread with sugar and apples in it.
14:22
But it was our family and it remains our family.
14:25
You know, one of the things I talk a lot about, some even in
14:30
my show a bit, my mother is one of the most grounded people
14:34
you'll ever meet. She's 91 years old now.
14:36
She looks younger than both of us, crazy and in great health.
14:41
But she was always sort of in the business, but not of the
14:45
business, if you know what I mean.
14:46
She loved her work and she loved the creative process, but all of
14:50
the Hollywood glitz stuff, not her thing, and it's not my
14:53
thing. So I think maybe I inherited
14:55
that from her. Is that one of the reasons you
14:59
shifted gears and and did more of a behind the camera?
15:03
Thousand Yeah, it is yeah. I, I mean, I've got a crazy
15:07
career. It's been amazing, but it's
15:10
definitely different. I, I, I did concerts for the
15:14
first three years of my career from like 18 to 21.
15:17
And at 21 I was at the Houston Astrodome playing for 55,000
15:21
people. And I said goodnight, not
15:24
knowing it would be my last concert in 40 years.
15:27
But it was because I was able to fortunately transition to the,
15:32
the part of the business that I, it really is my passion.
15:34
I'm a writer, I'm a writer, producer, and I've created a lot
15:38
of TV shows and I've worked on a wide variety of shows, most
15:42
recently a medical show called New Amsterdam that I wrote and
15:46
produced and, and I stopped doing concerts.
15:49
I stopped acting and, and I think a big part of it was I, I
15:54
kind of longed to have something close to a normal life, whatever
15:57
that is. And I found 1 and I found one
16:00
because as a writer, I could be home more.
16:02
I have a lot of kids, I could be around my kids and I could have
16:06
something closer to a traditional job.
16:10
Whereas if you are the centerpiece, if you're the, you
16:12
know, guy in the white hot light, it's really hard to have
16:16
a, any kind of normalcy. And I don't think it's all that
16:19
healthy, you know? But now in my early 60s, I can
16:25
go out on the road and do it in a way that feels authentic to
16:28
the life I've had because a large percentage of my show,
16:32
beyond the music, is storytelling.
16:33
And that's been my job. You know, it's funny you
16:37
mentioned the storytelling. I've made a note to myself to
16:39
ask you this question. I did a deep dive.
16:41
Not that I really needed to. As a 59 year old woman, I
16:45
absolutely lived through all of those moments of your fame.
16:49
And I still remember the moment where my friends and I all
16:52
realized you could be a serious actor.
16:54
And it was with the Linda Pearl TV movie and you played Roger so
16:59
beautifully. And it was like, we all just
17:01
realized like, he's just not going to only be a Hardy Boy or,
17:04
or, you know, we also got to see you on General Hospital.
17:07
But but getting back to what I was saying, I was going through
17:11
this deep dive before getting an opportunity to talk to you.
17:14
And I started listening to you tell a story about Carrie
17:17
Fisher. And I'm imagining that some of
17:19
these are stories you're telling on the road.
17:21
And you were talking about being in a limo.
17:23
And I had I got called away to go to SAT or do something at,
17:28
you know, at the station. And I came back and I couldn't
17:30
find the interview. So I never heard the end.
17:34
And we left off. You were at the limo from the
17:37
Grammys. You guys were childhood friends
17:39
because. You had the same the salacious
17:41
part, weren't you? Yes, it was getting you use the
17:45
word frisky, which was such a fantastic 70s way to say things,
17:49
and I just didn't hear the end of the story.
17:52
Well, it's not that salacious. Carrie was a friend and a
17:56
neighbor. Carrie was a few years older
17:58
than I was, but we were pals and Carrie was really smart and
18:01
really funny. And, you know, she had a similar
18:05
back story to mine. Her mom was Debbie Reynolds big
18:08
movie musical star, and my mom was Shirley Jones.
18:11
And you know, we sort of had that kind of shared experience
18:16
in common. And then crazily, insanely, the
18:21
year that I showed up on The Hardy Boys, I had the number one
18:25
record in the country. She'd gone off to London and
18:28
she'd sent me postcards from London talking about this
18:31
terrible movie she was doing with this ridiculous hairdo and
18:34
these stupid robots. Of course, the movie ended up
18:37
being Star Wars. And this movie opens the biggest
18:40
movie ever. I have the biggest record in the
18:42
country. I want to hit TV show, and the
18:44
Grammys invite me to open the show.
18:46
Basically, you get to be Beyoncé this week, right?
18:50
I'm like, I'm opening the Grammys.
18:51
So I called Kerry. I said, Kerry, you want to be my
18:53
date? Sure.
18:56
So on the limousine ride there, we had never done anything
19:01
salacious. We got a little more friendly
19:04
than we had been as neighbors. And I get to the show and, yeah,
19:07
I need to clean up a little bit and go out there and do it.
19:10
And afterwards, we went out to dinner and we're at a table with
19:13
Ringo Starr and Alice Cooper and Patti Smith.
19:15
And it was a big night. And.
19:19
And she and I remained friends throughout her life.
19:23
But we often talked about that night and.
19:25
And I have a lot of interesting stories like that.
19:29
Yeah. Tell some of them in my show.
19:32
Some of them you do share in your show.
19:34
And I think what I and I, I mentioned, I don't remember if I
19:37
had already started recording when I mentioned our friends
19:40
over at the Pop Culture Preservation Society.
19:42
But you know, they were raving about how when, when the way you
19:47
approach your audience, a lot of women within a few years of my
19:51
age, and I'm sure you have a lot of newer fans too, and some
19:54
people that are the dates of the people who who but you, you
19:57
really get in the moment we're in, which is we're remembering.
20:01
We're not trying to go back. We're not trying to relive it,
20:06
we're just wanting to bond over these shared memories.
20:10
Is that something that I hit? Is that spot on?
20:14
Yeah, for me too. It's all of that and more in
20:19
that. Well, the first thing my first
20:21
line in the show is this is. Love story.
21:05
And again, because my primary job is storyteller, this is a
21:09
scripted show. I mean, I veer off it all over
21:12
the place and it doesn't sound like I'm reciting dialogue.
21:15
I hope but but it is crafted as a continuous narrative with the
21:19
beginning, middle and end. And the songs, many of which
21:22
were hits back in the day, and some new songs and songs in my
21:25
family are all interwoven to support the story.
21:29
And the story, the love story, is not just the connection I
21:34
might have had with an audience back in the day when I was a
21:37
very young guy and the audience was mostly younger.
21:41
But the rediscovery and reconnection with that audience
21:45
and with a greater audience because there's a lot of people
21:47
that come to my show now in their 20s, which is crazy and
21:51
was surprising to me. But The Hardy Boys has been on
21:54
television now for like 5 years on Peacock.
21:58
So a lot of people have discovered the show and then
22:00
they do a deep dive via social media and Internet on me and
22:04
they find out I was involved with so many television shows as
22:08
a writer behind the scenes or as a producer, like New Amsterdam
22:11
most recently. And they're interested.
22:14
They're like, this is an interesting story in theory that
22:17
this guy might tell us. And then my favorite audience
22:21
member are the guys who might have wanted to beat me up in
22:23
high school, who get dragged along by their wives or
22:26
girlfriends and they end up having a great time because the
22:28
show's funny. It's really funny and it's
22:32
emotional, you know? But the bigger purpose driven
22:38
reason I'm doing this, it's called the road to us, not the
22:42
road to me. Because I think it's so
22:44
important now, especially in 2025 when we're all living on
22:47
screens post pandemic where we're all isolated, to get out
22:52
and get into a shared space, be it a theater, a movie theater,
22:56
concert hall, church, whatever you want to go to go out there
23:00
and be with people and have an experience together.
23:03
It will immediately melt. Whatever division there is.
23:07
I don't care about your politics or whatever your religion is.
23:10
Great. Come on down everybody.
23:12
Have this shared experience and have, you know, enjoy our shared
23:16
humanity and go away happy and have your soul fulfilled.
23:21
That's what the show is. And, and I'm trying to, you
23:26
know, wrap my brain around obviously what you just said
23:29
about how it is a shared experience is kind of what I was
23:32
alluding to. But when you you get how many
23:34
people in a room and some of those people have seen the Hardy
23:37
Boys when it was on and we had to wait a week or two weeks, you
23:41
know, we had to mix in some Nancy Drew.
23:43
We had to, you know, we were right there waiting.
23:45
Couldn't be CR it couldn't you. You couldn't cancel plans if
23:48
your parents said you couldn't go out.
23:50
And now it's on, it's Binge Bowl.
23:53
And you know, you have no audiences.
23:55
Have you gone back and watched it recently?
23:59
No, no, I haven't seen it since it was on.
24:02
I haven't. Either, and I kids have seen it
24:04
either. What?
24:06
What have your kids seen that you've done and what was the
24:09
reaction? I know the range in ages.
24:12
Yeah, I have a bunch of kids. And one of the funniest part,
24:16
it's a funny part of the show too, because I tell this story.
24:20
All of my kids, I have 7 kids, all right?
24:22
All of them were born after I played the astronomer, after I
24:26
stopped doing concerts. So they grew up with a guy who
24:30
went to an office at a studio writing, which was still a weird
24:34
thing even for them. Like, what do you mean TV shows
24:36
are written? Don't those actors just make it
24:38
all up themselves? Well, no, but one day, imagine
24:42
your dad like one day just shows up at the kitchen table and
24:45
says, hey, kids, I think I'm going to be a rock star, right?
24:49
Dad is clearly having a nervous breakdown.
24:52
And then to come and watch their dad, not at 20 but at 60,
25:00
perform, sing, tell stories in front of, yeah, many screaming
25:07
women still and some screaming then it was a lot for them to
25:16
absorb. And it still kind of is.
25:19
And they come and they, like, are kind of mystified.
25:22
The, the, the, the best way my wife put it to our youngest
25:26
daughter, who's 14, She walked in her room one day and my
25:30
youngest daughter is a poster of Harry Styles on the wall.
25:33
And my wife pointed at the poster and said, you know, that
25:36
was your dad. And she's like, what, that guy
25:40
in his robe in the kitchen was that guy.
25:43
Yeah. So that part has been fun for
25:48
me. And it's been weird.
25:49
I think for them. It's all weird, though.
25:53
My life is weird. But it's great.
25:55
It's really great. I'm really grateful.
25:58
I mean your kids grandparents, I mean Shirley Jones, have your,
26:04
have your kids seen the Partridge Family?
26:07
I don't think so. I mean, maybe a little bit.
26:11
One of the shows I created, I created from my brother David
26:14
and my brother Patrick. It was called Ruby and the
26:16
Rockets. It was on briefly on ABC Family,
26:19
I think in like 2009. And it was kind of based on like
26:24
Hall and Oates, like an 80s brother duo or Everly Brothers
26:29
back in the day, like who ended up not liking each other and
26:32
going their separate ways. And then one day, the daughter
26:35
of one of them shows up at the other one's house and says, I
26:38
think you're my uncle, which brings the brothers back
26:40
together. And it was 1/2 hour comedy.
26:43
Austin Butler played my brother Patrick's son, and that was one
26:46
of his first jobs. Why am I bringing this up?
26:51
Because, oh, my mom guested on the show.
26:54
Anyway, art imitating life imitating art, like being able
26:58
to take our weird lives, our unique lives and work them into
27:05
story and and understand them better, which is my process.
27:08
I mean, I'm certain I became a writer because I wanted to like
27:12
do self therapy. I wanted to figure out what this
27:14
all meant. How do I process it?
27:16
You take characters, you know, Norman Lear, great producer of
27:20
television, Norman Lear always said that every show's about
27:23
family and it's really true. You may be disguising.
27:26
I mean Star Trek's about family. They're not related by blood,
27:29
but that's a family, right? All my shows going back to
27:32
American Gothic, which was the first one, which was dark as
27:36
dark could be. It was about family.
27:39
Scary family, messed up family, but you know.
27:43
Do you? Do you?
27:44
What are you? What are you working on right
27:46
now? What as far as writing?
27:47
Writing a pilot literally in my hotel room every day before I go
27:52
to soundcheck, before I do the show at night.
27:54
I'm writing a pilot. I've sold NBC.
27:57
It's due next week so I'll be writing on Thanksgiving.
28:02
I'm in Act 6, so I'm close to the finish line.
28:07
I've been blessed. I've written probably 50 pilots
28:11
and I've probably had 15 go to television series over the
28:14
years. That's probably considered a
28:16
high percentage, right? Yeah, it's, I mean, it's like
28:20
threading a needle. There's the a network has
28:23
probably pitched 500 shows, ideas for shows a year.
28:27
And of the 500, they may buy 50 scripts.
28:30
Of the 50 scripts, they might shoot 10.
28:33
Of the 10, they might pick up 3 to series.
28:37
So you're not really in the business of getting shows in the
28:40
air. If you're a successful writer,
28:42
if you're getting pilots, if you're getting paid to write a
28:46
pilot, paid to get a horse in the race, you're doing great.
28:51
And I've been very fortunate. Because you're a proven entity
28:54
now they're like, OK, look, we're going to, we already want
28:56
you to know we're very interested.
28:58
We're going to put our money behind it.
29:00
You're going to go do this and. And hope it works out.
29:04
There's so many variables that have nothing to do with the
29:07
script or the, you know, the climate.
29:09
It's what's working. Like, you know, for years, like
29:13
nobody wanted to see anything with a horse in it or a Western.
29:16
And then Taylor Sheridan came along, Yellowstone came along,
29:20
and suddenly everybody wants their show about a ranch.
29:22
You know, it's just cyclical. And, and, you know, people often
29:27
come up to me, hey, I've got a great idea for a show.
29:30
And I'm like, I'm sure you do, but here's The Dirty little
29:33
secret. They're not really buying ideas.
29:35
They're buying auspices. They're buying the people that
29:38
can make them because they're investing a lot of money in you
29:40
and they don't want to see you burn through their money without
29:43
delivering something that's at least half good or, you know,
29:47
something they think they can sell.
29:50
Interesting. And you know, timing like you
29:52
mentioned is really important. I, I think you had said that you
29:56
started the idea of even touring.
29:58
The timing was not ideal. COVID hit right after you went
30:01
out and started doing. Some possible timing.
30:04
I mean, timing is everything. Yeah, I think.
30:07
That was just going to be for friends and family right when
30:09
you first went out and did a a performance.
30:12
Yeah, I, I started doing this again.
30:16
I, I did a little, we live in the wine country of Santa
30:18
Barbara. And I did it a little like,
30:20
let's see if anyone will come show at a little winery that
30:24
only had like room for 100 people.
30:26
And I didn't know if I'd like it either, by the way.
30:28
I mean, I, you know, I didn't know if anybody would care.
30:30
I didn't know if I'd like it. And it was great.
30:33
And we set it up to do one night.
30:35
We ended up doing 4 nights and people flew in from like
30:39
Australia. They came in from all over the
30:40
world. It was nuts.
30:42
So then an agent called me. I didn't even have an agent
30:44
then. And they, you want to do this
30:46
for real? Well, maybe.
30:48
So we booked a tour and just as the tour starred, I played
30:54
Vegas. I played like for 2500 people at
30:56
some showroom in Vegas and it was like Valentine's Day of
30:59
2020. A week later, the world shut
31:02
down. So I'd still went out and did
31:05
some of those shows, but they got moved a lot, as every show
31:08
did. And people there in masks and it
31:12
was weird and, and, and yet that's what got me going.
31:16
This matters, especially now this connection thing.
31:21
You know, I like Zoom. This is nice.
31:23
I'd prefer to meet you in person and maybe same, well, you come
31:28
to the show and we'll meet in person.
31:29
We are coming to the show and I would love to meet you.
31:32
I know a guy who can get you backstage.
31:35
OK. Very powerful.
31:37
Very. Powerful.
31:40
So this, this matters, this connection thing, and it
31:47
mattered to me. Then it became more important to
31:48
me as I started doing the show sporadically.
31:51
And this was the first version. It was called The Magic of the
31:53
Midnight Skies, a line from a song called Hey, Deanie that
31:56
Eric Carmen wrote. And I talk about Eric in my show
31:59
too. He wrote that after seeing
32:02
Natalie Wood in a movie called Splendor in the Grass at a drive
32:04
in movie theater, people had come together to have this
32:07
shared experience of this movie, and he fell in love with
32:10
Natalie. And Natalie's character's name
32:13
was Deanie. So we wrote a song about it.
32:15
And I knew Natalie in real life, and she was as lovely and
32:20
charming and beautiful and talented as everybody has has
32:22
said. So I get why he wrote the song
32:25
about her, So I can sing that song with some authority.
32:28
So my nickname, my name is Eden, and my nickname was Deedee when
32:31
I was younger, and I pretended it was Deanie so that I could
32:35
pretend that you were singing that song to me.
32:38
So I'm very familiar. With the song.
32:40
Yes, I'll be doing that. I'll be channelling that on
32:42
December 13th at the Ponte Vedra concert hall.
32:45
Like thank you so much. I I want to ask you, you
32:49
mentioned your winery about my first crush wine and you're and
32:54
you're donating proceeds to children's hunger to fight
32:58
hunger. And.
33:00
Yeah, so that's that's amazing. And it's it's just the perfect
33:03
fit because a lot of your audience enjoys a glass of wine
33:07
from time to time. I'm sure you've heard that.
33:09
I've heard that this was a natural, this was really a
33:14
lemonade out of lemons story because as the pandemic was
33:17
kicking in, as I say, we live in the wine country, Santa Barbara
33:21
and the wine and Santa Barbara wine country, they're famous
33:24
mostly for their pinot noir, which is extraordinary.
33:27
It's a perfect little climate to make that great thing.
33:31
And one of our dearest friends, one of the best wine makers in
33:35
the valley, called me, said, hey, I've got 500 cases, Pinot
33:38
noir that was set to go to some very high end restaurants,
33:42
including Wolfgang Pucks. And he said the restaurants were
33:45
all closed because of the pandemic.
33:47
And I don't know what to do with this wine.
33:48
You know, anybody that might want to buy it.
33:50
I said, well, no, but it's a lot of wine.
33:53
And I know you're a great winemaker.
33:54
And meanwhile, restaurants are closing in our community and the
33:59
farmers who grow the grapes are hurting.
34:01
And I already had a relationship with No Kid Hungry, which is a
34:05
great organization, feeds kids all over the world.
34:08
And I knew that prior to the pandemic, one in four kids was
34:14
going to bed hungry. And now it's like, Oh no, it was
34:16
one in seven kids was going to bed hungry.
34:17
And with pandemic, it's one in four because so many kids got
34:20
their only meal at school and the schools are closed now,
34:24
right? So I'm like, I'm a producer,
34:26
what can I do? Hey, I have an idea.
34:30
I had just trademarked my first crush for a Las Vegas show that
34:34
I was going to produce. And the show went away because
34:37
Caesar's Palace or whatever said we're not doing shows like that
34:40
now. Nobody's coming.
34:42
They're all home. I said, well, I've got this
34:44
name, my first crush. It's actually a great name for a
34:47
wine. Why don't you let me label your
34:49
wine? I'll try and sell it off my, you
34:51
know, Facebook page or social media in general.
34:54
And we'll get proceeds to No Kid Hungry.
34:56
So we'll help the kids, we'll help the farmers, we'll help the
34:58
wine makers have some fun project during the pandemic.
35:03
And it kind of took off and now there's a whole site dedicated.
35:07
You go to myfirstcrush.com, join the wine club and we do these
35:11
events. You come out to Santa Barbara,
35:13
we'll have a glass of wine together.
35:15
Or if you can't get to Santa Barbara, we'll do it virtually.
35:19
And it's really a beautiful sideline and, and it's
35:25
completely unprofitable, but it's really fun.
35:29
It's so, it's so synchronous, so much synchronicity there,
35:32
though, because the timing was perfect.
35:34
Everything just worked. And of course, the name, I mean,
35:37
you cannot beat the name because that is what you are to so many
35:40
people. And, you know, my daughter is
35:42
trying to text me while we're talking, and I almost want to
35:45
text her back and say I'm literally talking to the Harry
35:48
Styles of my time. So you need to, you know, she's
35:53
on Do not Disturb right now, but I'll call her immediately when
35:55
we're done and I'll explain. I have some teenage daughters
35:58
like that. Yes, and she was a Ruby and the
36:00
Rockets fan. I just.
36:01
Want to be nice? So I had to explain to her that,
36:04
you know, I, I, I grew, I saw Pat, I saw your brother Patrick
36:08
and Joseph when he, when that toured through town.
36:11
So I was like telling her who everybody was.
36:14
But I don't want to be greedy with your time, Sean, because I
36:18
do appreciate it so much, especially while you're with
36:20
your family and celebrating your brother-in-law.
36:24
But I would love to tell all of our listeners globally how long
36:30
your tour lasts. This is the biggest tour I've
36:32
ever done in my life because when I was a kid I couldn't tour
36:35
extensively because I was doing the Hardy Boys.
36:38
I was recording at night. So I'd go out for like a weekend
36:40
here or there a couple weeks in the summer.
36:42
But this is a six month tour where I'm going out two weeks a
36:46
month, every month. The next leg coming to Ponte
36:49
Vedra, FL Yeah, go to seancassidy.com.
36:55
You can get tickets, I think still some.
36:58
And bring your friends and bring your kids and drag your
37:02
husbands, ladies. Those husbands that don't want
37:04
to come are my favorite audience member.
37:06
Those guys who wanted to beat me up in high school come.
37:08
I promise you'll have fun. You'll laugh a lot.
37:11
The show's really funny. I think they tell me it's funny.
37:15
And you'll be with people that are as much or often as
37:19
entertaining as I am, so. Well, I can't even imagine the
37:23
stories you have. And I just, I just, you know, I
37:27
was not disappointed because, you know, with due respect to
37:30
your lovely wife and my amazing husband, I kind of wanted to see
37:34
the white satin outfit from the Grammys, kind of.
37:37
No, there's still time. I'm on the road for another
37:40
three months, 3 1/2 months. Where was that outfit it's got?
37:43
Holidays. It's got to be tiny.
37:46
Those pants had to be tiny. They were tiny then and I'd wear
37:50
like three of them because I'd take one off and then have
37:52
another pair on underneath. It's made out of some sort of
37:55
material like designed for NASA or something.
37:57
I don't know where it came from, but it it was fun.
38:00
Well, you're so generous with your time and you're so
38:02
thoughtful with your answers, and so I was very much looking
38:05
forward to today and you did not disappoint.
38:07
So thank you so much and safe travels.
38:11
Happy holidays. You too happy.
38:13
Thanks.