Dean Taucher - production designer, art director, and playwright

Dean Taucher is a film and television production designer, art director, and playwright. He is behind some of television’s most iconic shows and spilling the beans in his new play, “Reel Stories.” On this episode we peek behind the curtain and talk set design, “Miami Vice,” and working with directors like Michael Mann.

--------------------

Dean Taucher is a production designer/set designer, originally from the Chicago area. He attended The Goodman School of Drama - Art Institute of Chicago and immediately began designing in the Off-Loop theater scene of the 1970’s. These theaters included Body Politic, St. Nicholas, the Organic Theater Company, the Goodman and Victory Gardens.

He moved to New York in 1979 and thanks to his membership in the United Scenic Artist Local 829 he worked on many Broadway shows including 42nd Street, Evita, Cats and at NBC on Season 5 of Saturday Night Live. His design work continued in regional dance and opera at The Penn Opera Theater, Atlanta Ballet and the Hubbard Street Dance Company.

His work as a scenic Artist let him to working on feature films where he was able to move into positions in the Art Department. From his initial job as charge scenic on Michael Mann’s film “Manhunter” he became an assistant art director and the following year he was hired by Mr. Mann as the production designer (credited as visual consultant) on Season 3 of Miami Vice, with Dick Wolf as the head writer.

Dean then made the TV movie “ L.A. Takedown” with Mann. He returned to New York to work with Dick Wolf for the CBS series, Harlem Eastside Lifesaving Project, H.E.L.P., and subsequently three season at FOX for New York Undercover and over 20 seasons of Law & Order, SVU at NBC. For David Chase at HBO, Dean designed Season One of The Sopranos and episodes two through thirteen, including many of the iconic permanent sets, the logo of the Bada Bing and the logo for the show.

Off-Broadway he designed the plays Tabletop, Snakebit and River Deep: A Tribute to Tina Turner. He has worked with the director/choreographer Gabrielle Lansner on all her live and filmed projects for the last 25 years as designer and on her film projects as Executive Producer. Their current film, I AM NOT OK, is part of The Brooklyn Museum’s 200th Anniversary Show, The Brooklyn Artists Exhibition.

Dean’s play “REEL STORIES-MADE IN NEW YORK” is a riotous exposé of the inner workings of film and TV, informed by the myopic, egocentric and clueless motivations of the people who work in front and behind the camera. Nothing may be true, but they are all “REEL STORIES- MADE IN NEW YORK.” It is Dean’s first play.

------------------------
Produced and Edited by Arts and Craft.
Theme Music: Sound Gallery by Dmitry Taras.

Transcript

00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:13.600
<v Dean Taucher>A lighting person explained that cheating the moonshot is impossible because of the light source, that you could get maybe the wattage of lights down, but then you'd have multiple shadows.

00:00:13.600 --> 00:00:16.800
<v Dean Taucher>And he goes, there's no way to achieve that.

00:00:16.800 --> 00:00:20.100
<v Dean Taucher>There's no light big enough, except maybe the sun.

00:00:20.100 --> 00:00:24.920
<v Nancy Magarill>He is a film and television production designer, an art director, and now playwright.

00:00:24.920 --> 00:00:30.640
<v Peter Michael Marino>He's behind some of television's most iconic shows and is spilling the beans in his new play, Reel Stories.

00:00:30.640 --> 00:00:34.580
<v Nancy Magarill>Dean Taucher gets real real with us on today's episode.

00:00:34.580 --> 00:00:36.320
<v Nancy Magarill>My name is Nancy Magarill.

00:00:36.320 --> 00:00:40.380
<v Nancy Magarill>I'm a singer, songwriter, composer, performer, graphic and web designer.

00:00:40.380 --> 00:00:45.440
<v Peter Michael Marino>And I'm Peter Michael Marino and I'm a writer, producer, creator, performer and educator.

00:00:45.440 --> 00:00:48.700
<v Nancy Magarill>We are New York based artists you may or may not have heard of.

00:00:48.700 --> 00:00:54.100
<v Peter Michael Marino>And we are here to introduce you to other artists you may or may not have heard of.

00:00:54.100 --> 00:00:57.560
<v Peter Michael Marino>Dean, you have the career I thought I wanted.

00:00:58.720 --> 00:00:59.800
<v Nancy Magarill>Wow, really?

00:00:59.800 --> 00:01:03.500
<v Peter Michael Marino>Yeah, I wanted to be a set designer.

00:01:03.500 --> 00:01:06.660
<v Peter Michael Marino>I went to school wanting to be a set designer.

00:01:07.800 --> 00:01:09.340
<v Dean Taucher>Where did you go to school?

00:01:09.340 --> 00:01:10.280
<v Peter Michael Marino>Buffalo.

00:01:10.800 --> 00:01:13.340
<v Peter Michael Marino>And between set design and graphic design.

00:01:13.340 --> 00:01:14.820
<v Peter Michael Marino>I just knew I wanted to go into design.

00:01:14.820 --> 00:01:21.520
<v Peter Michael Marino>And then I just got sucked into the theater world and moved over to acting and directing.

00:01:21.520 --> 00:01:27.800
<v Peter Michael Marino>But everything I learned from set design, of course, came in very handy as a director.

00:01:27.800 --> 00:01:32.580
<v Peter Michael Marino>And it allows me to kind of like throw shit together when I have to here in the city.

00:01:32.580 --> 00:01:37.940
<v Peter Michael Marino>And when I was reading all about you, I was like, oh, oh, wait, wait.

00:01:37.940 --> 00:01:40.100
<v Peter Michael Marino>Then he did season three.

00:01:40.100 --> 00:01:46.440
<v Peter Michael Marino>He did season three of Miami Vice, like the most visually stimulating show of that time.

00:01:46.440 --> 00:01:47.160
<v Peter Michael Marino>Hold on.

00:01:47.160 --> 00:01:50.100
<v Peter Michael Marino>Sheena Easton was on season three.

00:01:50.100 --> 00:01:51.580
<v Peter Michael Marino>No, she was on season four.

00:01:51.580 --> 00:01:53.140
<v Peter Michael Marino>Dean, did you work with Sheena Easton?

00:01:53.620 --> 00:01:54.700
<v Dean Taucher>I don't think so.

00:01:54.700 --> 00:01:55.500
<v Peter Michael Marino>Damn it.

00:01:55.500 --> 00:01:58.480
<v Nancy Magarill>Well, you don't really work with the actors, do you?

00:01:58.480 --> 00:01:59.540
<v Nancy Magarill>Or did you?

00:01:59.540 --> 00:02:01.580
<v Peter Michael Marino>Well, you're on the same set with them, aren't you?

00:02:01.580 --> 00:02:07.480
<v Dean Taucher>We interact somewhat, not in a...

00:02:07.480 --> 00:02:13.680
<v Dean Taucher>I would turn up on set sometimes when they're shooting and the rest of the crew would ask, what's wrong?

00:02:13.680 --> 00:02:14.720
<v Dean Taucher>Because...

00:02:14.720 --> 00:02:17.640
<v Nancy Magarill>Oh, because you were there, they were like, Oh, why is he here?

00:02:18.100 --> 00:02:25.440
<v Dean Taucher>That usually meant the schedule was getting blown up and I had to talk to everybody to figure out how to make something work.

00:02:25.440 --> 00:02:29.940
<v Dean Taucher>So when I turn up on set, it wasn't like, hi, Dean, what do you think of this scene?

00:02:29.940 --> 00:02:31.180
<v Dean Taucher>What do you think of that?

00:02:31.180 --> 00:02:37.280
<v Dean Taucher>It's just like, oh, it was more like there's another opinion in the house.

00:02:37.280 --> 00:02:39.080
<v Dean Taucher>I have to listen to him too.

00:02:39.080 --> 00:02:40.660
<v Dean Taucher>Oh, no.

00:02:40.660 --> 00:02:49.920
<v Peter Michael Marino>It's a hard job because you are, I mean, you're really using both sides of your brain, especially when you're an artist working on TV or film.

00:02:49.920 --> 00:02:50.580
<v Peter Michael Marino>So much of what you do.

00:02:50.580 --> 00:02:51.880
<v Nancy Magarill>And Broadway.

00:02:51.880 --> 00:02:52.340
<v Peter Michael Marino>Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:02:52.340 --> 00:02:57.000
<v Peter Michael Marino>But I'm talking specifically about TV and film as a production designer.

00:02:57.000 --> 00:03:04.160
<v Peter Michael Marino>You are not only, you know, designing things, but you're also like managing so many different departments.

00:03:04.160 --> 00:03:05.340
<v Nancy Magarill>Yes.

00:03:05.340 --> 00:03:08.440
<v Peter Michael Marino>How did you learn to do that?

00:03:08.480 --> 00:03:11.240
<v Dean Taucher>I guess that, I don't know.

00:03:11.240 --> 00:03:13.220
<v Nancy Magarill>Is this what you always want to do?

00:03:13.220 --> 00:03:20.280
<v Nancy Magarill>I'm so curious because I know you have this immense love for music and you have an exceptional catalog of music.

00:03:20.280 --> 00:03:25.280
<v Nancy Magarill>So how the hell did you get into this aspect of the arts versus music?

00:03:25.280 --> 00:03:26.500
<v Dean Taucher>That's very easy.

00:03:26.500 --> 00:03:31.700
<v Dean Taucher>I was very involved with our music department in our high school, and there were two high schools.

00:03:31.700 --> 00:03:41.760
<v Dean Taucher>And instead of having two lousy bands or orchestras, all the students auditioned for a good orchestra and a good band and a bad one.

00:03:41.760 --> 00:03:45.180
<v Dean Taucher>So they were pulling from almost 7,000 students.

00:03:45.180 --> 00:03:53.540
<v Dean Taucher>My high school again, it was a combined student population of 7,000 some students, just, you know, cheek and jowl to Chicago.

00:03:53.540 --> 00:03:54.420
<v Peter Michael Marino>Oh, okay.

00:03:54.420 --> 00:04:02.920
<v Dean Taucher>And we had such session players who would work with the different, you know, the woodwinds, the this, the that, they were all from the Chicago Symphony.

00:04:03.240 --> 00:04:09.940
<v Dean Taucher>Very good music department, band, orchestra, chorus, marching band, summer camp, band camp.

00:04:09.940 --> 00:04:12.100
<v Dean Taucher>But the big thing at the start of every...

00:04:12.100 --> 00:04:13.160
<v Peter Michael Marino>What were you playing?

00:04:13.160 --> 00:04:14.120
<v Peter Michael Marino>What were you...

00:04:14.120 --> 00:04:14.660
<v Peter Michael Marino>Okay.

00:04:14.660 --> 00:04:15.140
<v Dean Taucher>Trumpet.

00:04:15.140 --> 00:04:18.960
<v Dean Taucher>The big thing at the start of every year was the homecoming floats.

00:04:18.960 --> 00:04:24.180
<v Dean Taucher>So every day after school, I would go and help make these homecoming floats.

00:04:24.180 --> 00:04:26.720
<v Dean Taucher>And this went on for like almost two months.

00:04:26.720 --> 00:04:28.960
<v Dean Taucher>And I played okay.

00:04:28.980 --> 00:04:30.260
<v Dean Taucher>I think I have a good ear.

00:04:31.320 --> 00:04:37.340
<v Dean Taucher>And my ear was good enough to know that I wasn't going to be a professional trumpet player.

00:04:37.340 --> 00:04:42.060
<v Dean Taucher>There were some people that I played with that were professional trumpet players.

00:04:42.060 --> 00:04:48.800
<v Dean Taucher>One guy in my high school went right from high school into the Chicago Symphony as a French horn player.

00:04:48.800 --> 00:04:51.100
<v Dean Taucher>And I think he was there his entire career.

00:04:51.120 --> 00:04:55.620
<v Nancy Magarill>So you knew you had to do something different basically.

00:04:55.620 --> 00:04:58.220
<v Dean Taucher>Well, I had so much fun making these homecoming floats.

00:04:58.280 --> 00:05:00.460
<v Dean Taucher>And it was like, yeah, I think I'll do that.

00:05:00.460 --> 00:05:06.560
<v Dean Taucher>And so I picked something I thought was the closest thing to doing homecoming floats.

00:05:06.560 --> 00:05:10.000
<v Dean Taucher>And at first, I was just going to be like a stage carpenter.

00:05:10.000 --> 00:05:13.760
<v Dean Taucher>And my mother was like, why don't you try to be a designer?

00:05:13.760 --> 00:05:16.140
<v Dean Taucher>If it doesn't work, you can always build.

00:05:16.140 --> 00:05:18.180
<v Nancy Magarill>Good, good advice.

00:05:18.180 --> 00:05:18.800
<v Nancy Magarill>Yeah.

00:05:18.800 --> 00:05:19.860
<v Dean Taucher>There you go.

00:05:19.860 --> 00:05:22.460
<v Nancy Magarill>And so then you, how did you then grow?

00:05:22.460 --> 00:05:23.880
<v Nancy Magarill>Did you go to college for this?

00:05:24.520 --> 00:05:27.240
<v Nancy Magarill>Or did you end up just landing an amazing gig?

00:05:27.640 --> 00:05:34.560
<v Dean Taucher>No, I studied at the Goodman School of Drama, which at that point was part of the Art Institute of Chicago.

00:05:34.560 --> 00:05:37.600
<v Dean Taucher>And it was a conservatory.

00:05:37.600 --> 00:05:39.040
<v Dean Taucher>There were no academics.

00:05:39.040 --> 00:05:40.800
<v Dean Taucher>So it was three years.

00:05:40.800 --> 00:05:45.060
<v Dean Taucher>If I got my academics elsewhere, I would have gotten a BFA.

00:05:45.060 --> 00:05:48.720
<v Dean Taucher>And I think I'm like three science credits short on that.

00:05:48.720 --> 00:05:51.200
<v Dean Taucher>And I got out of the union.

00:05:51.200 --> 00:05:59.800
<v Dean Taucher>And in the next, that next season, I was like designing, I think I designed five shows in the off loop theater in Chicago.

00:05:59.800 --> 00:06:09.440
<v Dean Taucher>So I did shows with people like Joe Mantegna, Dennis Franz, the guy from CSI with his name Billy Peterson.

00:06:09.440 --> 00:06:11.260
<v Dean Taucher>They were all Chicago actors.

00:06:11.260 --> 00:06:19.780
<v Dean Taucher>And then Stuart Gordon at the Organic Theater who went on with a big film career in LA.

00:06:19.780 --> 00:06:21.500
<v Nancy Magarill>That's a lot of big time players.

00:06:21.500 --> 00:06:24.100
<v Peter Michael Marino>So you were actually studying scenic design?

00:06:24.100 --> 00:06:24.380
<v Dean Taucher>I did.

00:06:26.420 --> 00:06:30.240
<v Peter Michael Marino>And you came out of school with just tons of stuff to show what you did.

00:06:30.240 --> 00:06:37.160
<v Peter Michael Marino>And then that's what got you hired for these, because coming out of college and designing for these other places, that sounds miraculous.

00:06:37.160 --> 00:06:43.160
<v Dean Taucher>Well, because it was Chicago and it wasn't New York, and I didn't even have a BFA.

00:06:43.160 --> 00:06:45.720
<v Dean Taucher>I just had my portfolio and a few things.

00:06:45.720 --> 00:06:48.880
<v Nancy Magarill>But did that matter as much at that time to have a BFA?

00:06:49.780 --> 00:06:51.180
<v Dean Taucher>It maybe did in New York.

00:06:51.180 --> 00:06:52.580
<v Dean Taucher>It didn't matter in Chicago.

00:06:52.580 --> 00:06:52.760
<v Nancy Magarill>Yeah.

00:06:53.180 --> 00:06:55.740
<v Dean Taucher>And I just kept working.

00:06:55.740 --> 00:07:00.020
<v Dean Taucher>And I also got in the Union almost right away.

00:07:00.140 --> 00:07:01.420
<v Nancy Magarill>Oh, that's big.

00:07:01.420 --> 00:07:05.200
<v Dean Taucher>They were organizing The Goodman School of Drama.

00:07:05.200 --> 00:07:07.900
<v Dean Taucher>I went to the school, but there was a professional company.

00:07:07.900 --> 00:07:09.920
<v Dean Taucher>I was designing a show for them.

00:07:09.920 --> 00:07:17.980
<v Dean Taucher>They had their main stage and then they had a secondary, like the off-loop version of their company.

00:07:17.980 --> 00:07:23.200
<v Dean Taucher>And I was designing for them and the Union didn't have a contract with the second stage.

00:07:23.200 --> 00:07:27.280
<v Dean Taucher>So basically, the Union gave me my card to help organize them.

00:07:27.280 --> 00:07:28.600
<v Nancy Magarill>That's wonderful.

00:07:28.600 --> 00:07:34.880
<v Nancy Magarill>And it's pretty hard for people to get their Union cards for lighting, for stage.

00:07:34.880 --> 00:07:38.920
<v Nancy Magarill>My cousin's a lighting designer and I saw what he went through.

00:07:38.920 --> 00:07:45.440
<v Nancy Magarill>That's not as easy, not that getting it for actors is that easy, but it's a bit more of a process, right?

00:07:45.500 --> 00:07:47.280
<v Nancy Magarill>To get your Union...

00:07:48.280 --> 00:07:51.400
<v Dean Taucher>And when I did it, they asked me, they wanted to give me my...

00:07:51.400 --> 00:08:04.240
<v Dean Taucher>I was at that point signed up to take the exam, which in Chicago at that point, you could take as an all-class, where you took set painting, set design, lighting design and costume design.

00:08:04.240 --> 00:08:10.340
<v Dean Taucher>And so if you were rounded in all of that and strong in some, you would get your all-class card.

00:08:10.340 --> 00:08:12.720
<v Dean Taucher>And I was signed up to take that exam.

00:08:12.720 --> 00:08:16.080
<v Dean Taucher>And a lot of the people in the Union knew my work from the school.

00:08:16.080 --> 00:08:18.040
<v Dean Taucher>And they offered me membership.

00:08:18.040 --> 00:08:21.320
<v Dean Taucher>But I said, I want my painting card too.

00:08:21.320 --> 00:08:22.600
<v Dean Taucher>And they go, we can't do that.

00:08:22.600 --> 00:08:25.960
<v Dean Taucher>I said, well, I'll take my chances when I take the exam then.

00:08:25.960 --> 00:08:28.340
<v Nancy Magarill>And why did you want the painting card?

00:08:28.340 --> 00:08:30.240
<v Dean Taucher>Because that's where I made most of my money.

00:08:30.240 --> 00:08:31.460
<v Nancy Magarill>Oh, smart.

00:08:31.460 --> 00:08:34.760
<v Dean Taucher>I mean, this initially, initially.

00:08:34.760 --> 00:08:39.760
<v Peter Michael Marino>You had a skill of knowing brushes, knowing paints, knowing application.

00:08:39.760 --> 00:08:43.820
<v Dean Taucher>Well, the scenic artists, you know, were paid pretty well and they still are.

00:08:43.820 --> 00:08:49.220
<v Dean Taucher>Their rates are higher than regular crew people in New York.

00:08:49.220 --> 00:08:50.280
<v Nancy Magarill>And why is that?

00:08:50.280 --> 00:08:55.600
<v Dean Taucher>They were better organized and their skills were, you know, what's easier to do?

00:08:55.600 --> 00:09:01.400
<v Dean Taucher>Measure a piece of wood and cut it or paint something that's indeterminate of what it is?

00:09:01.400 --> 00:09:02.240
<v Nancy Magarill>I don't know.

00:09:02.240 --> 00:09:03.280
<v Peter Michael Marino>Is that a rhetorical question?

00:09:03.520 --> 00:09:04.960
<v Peter Michael Marino>I don't know.

00:09:04.960 --> 00:09:06.640
<v Peter Michael Marino>They both sound hard for different people.

00:09:06.640 --> 00:09:07.560
<v Nancy Magarill>Yeah.

00:09:07.560 --> 00:09:12.360
<v Dean Taucher>Well, taking a piece of wood and measuring and cutting it is a little straightforward.

00:09:12.360 --> 00:09:13.300
<v Dean Taucher>Taking...

00:09:13.300 --> 00:09:15.320
<v Peter Michael Marino>Don't ask me to do it.

00:09:17.320 --> 00:09:18.240
<v Nancy Magarill>But I know what you're saying.

00:09:18.240 --> 00:09:23.780
<v Nancy Magarill>You can measure it and you can cut it, but you have to have the skills to cut and the equipment to cut it.

00:09:23.780 --> 00:09:24.380
<v Dean Taucher>No.

00:09:24.380 --> 00:09:29.720
<v Dean Taucher>What I'm saying is being a carpenter is more straightforward than being a painter.

00:09:29.720 --> 00:09:36.460
<v Nancy Magarill>Is a painter because you also have to have an eye, you have to have a visual sensibility and know how to do the textures.

00:09:36.760 --> 00:09:41.060
<v Nancy Magarill>Where you're talking to two actors, although Pete's a lot more technical than I am.

00:09:41.060 --> 00:09:43.680
<v Nancy Magarill>What is it that makes that different?

00:09:43.680 --> 00:09:48.260
<v Dean Taucher>I guess it's the difference between hitting a note and making a song.

00:09:48.260 --> 00:09:49.000
<v Nancy Magarill>Okay.

00:09:49.000 --> 00:09:50.440
<v Dean Taucher>You know, it's like...

00:09:50.440 --> 00:09:52.300
<v Nancy Magarill>Talking down to my level now, are you?

00:09:52.300 --> 00:09:56.420
<v Dean Taucher>Well, I came out of a music background too.

00:09:56.420 --> 00:09:59.320
<v Dean Taucher>You know, there are some incredibly talented...

00:09:59.320 --> 00:10:07.440
<v Dean Taucher>And when the scenic artists first were establishing their rates and their conditions, it's when a lot of scenery was painted, you know.

00:10:07.440 --> 00:10:08.820
<v Dean Taucher>So you're doing these layouts.

00:10:09.320 --> 00:10:12.560
<v Dean Taucher>You're doing faux, you know, you're doing faux finishes.

00:10:12.560 --> 00:10:15.960
<v Dean Taucher>You're doing Renaissance style perspectives.

00:10:15.960 --> 00:10:22.400
<v Dean Taucher>You're doing all these things that are subtle and, you know, coming out of your head to your brush.

00:10:22.400 --> 00:10:26.940
<v Dean Taucher>And it's not like a two-step process, wood, mark, cut.

00:10:26.940 --> 00:10:28.280
<v Dean Taucher>That's three steps.

00:10:28.340 --> 00:10:32.620
<v Dean Taucher>It's a whole, it's a whole range of things.

00:10:32.620 --> 00:10:39.400
<v Dean Taucher>And so when I first moved in New York, I wasn't able to design a lot because, you know, who are you?

00:10:39.400 --> 00:10:40.520
<v Dean Taucher>You're from Chicago.

00:10:40.520 --> 00:10:43.360
<v Dean Taucher>You don't, you didn't go to Yale or NYU.

00:10:43.360 --> 00:10:49.520
<v Dean Taucher>And, you know, I didn't know any of the directors, but I started working as a scenic artist immediately on Broadway shows.

00:10:49.520 --> 00:10:51.220
<v Nancy Magarill>Wow, that's fantastic.

00:10:51.220 --> 00:10:52.560
<v Nancy Magarill>What was your first Broadway show?

00:10:52.560 --> 00:10:53.380
<v Nancy Magarill>Do you remember?

00:10:53.400 --> 00:10:54.600
<v Dean Taucher>Yeah, Sugar Babies.

00:10:54.600 --> 00:10:56.220
<v Peter Michael Marino>Oh, with Mickey Rooney?

00:10:56.220 --> 00:10:57.700
<v Dean Taucher>Yeah, and Anne Miller.

00:10:57.700 --> 00:10:58.540
<v Peter Michael Marino>Anne Miller.

00:10:58.540 --> 00:10:59.260
<v Dean Taucher>Anne Miller.

00:10:59.260 --> 00:10:59.760
<v Nancy Magarill>Wow.

00:10:59.760 --> 00:11:09.180
<v Peter Michael Marino>That was a great, well, yeah, I guess you were living in the Tri-State area at that time, but that was one of those TV commercials that those of us who grew up here saw a lot.

00:11:09.180 --> 00:11:12.760
<v Peter Michael Marino>And I remember I was probably like, I don't even know, Under 10.

00:11:12.760 --> 00:11:14.960
<v Peter Michael Marino>And I was like, I want to see that show.

00:11:15.340 --> 00:11:17.580
<v Peter Michael Marino>I remember everyone's going, you don't even know what it's about.

00:11:17.580 --> 00:11:19.600
<v Peter Michael Marino>I'm like, it has the word sugar in it.

00:11:19.600 --> 00:11:20.960
<v Peter Michael Marino>I know that guy, Mickey Rooney.

00:11:21.100 --> 00:11:23.480
<v Peter Michael Marino>He's in those movies with Judy Garland, you know.

00:11:23.480 --> 00:11:27.300
<v Nancy Magarill>And it was those beautiful sets that intrigued you in the commercials.

00:11:27.300 --> 00:11:34.740
<v Dean Taucher>Yes, that was a famous old, older designer, Raoul Pendebois, who I think did sets and costumes.

00:11:34.740 --> 00:11:36.320
<v Nancy Magarill>So that was your first show.

00:11:36.320 --> 00:11:41.260
<v Nancy Magarill>And then that's pretty amazing that you came right here and were able to go right on to Broadway.

00:11:41.260 --> 00:11:44.880
<v Peter Michael Marino>But that you weren't necessarily being hired to work on a show, right?

00:11:44.880 --> 00:11:47.400
<v Peter Michael Marino>You were in a scenic shop.

00:11:47.700 --> 00:11:52.340
<v Peter Michael Marino>A shop, and this was the show that they were currently working on at that time, right?

00:11:52.340 --> 00:11:52.920
<v Peter Michael Marino>Yes.

00:11:52.920 --> 00:11:57.480
<v Peter Michael Marino>They covered the floors with the backdrops, and you're painting with long sticks, right?

00:11:57.700 --> 00:11:59.160
<v Dean Taucher>You got it.

00:11:59.160 --> 00:12:00.600
<v Nancy Magarill>I didn't know it worked like that.

00:12:00.600 --> 00:12:03.000
<v Nancy Magarill>So they're different shops for Broadway.

00:12:03.000 --> 00:12:04.000
<v Nancy Magarill>Very interesting.

00:12:04.000 --> 00:12:06.560
<v Nancy Magarill>So a lot of shows will go to the same shop.

00:12:06.560 --> 00:12:07.340
<v Dean Taucher>Exactly.

00:12:07.340 --> 00:12:07.880
<v Nancy Magarill>Okay.

00:12:07.880 --> 00:12:09.720
<v Peter Michael Marino>And they're usually like in New Jersey, right?

00:12:09.720 --> 00:12:10.140
<v Peter Michael Marino>Are they?

00:12:10.140 --> 00:12:11.720
<v Dean Taucher>No, this was in Bed-Stuy.

00:12:11.720 --> 00:12:12.940
<v Peter Michael Marino>Oh, sure, of course.

00:12:13.280 --> 00:12:22.480
<v Dean Taucher>And then some were used to be in the Bronx, but then there's still some in the Bronx now, and then there were some up in Newburgh.

00:12:22.480 --> 00:12:24.180
<v Nancy Magarill>And that was a different time in the city.

00:12:24.180 --> 00:12:27.020
<v Nancy Magarill>What was that like going out to Bed-Stuy at that time?

00:12:27.020 --> 00:12:30.220
<v Dean Taucher>Well, I basically just went to and from this place.

00:12:30.220 --> 00:12:33.320
<v Dean Taucher>So it was a Caribbean neighborhood.

00:12:33.320 --> 00:12:34.120
<v Nancy Magarill>Oh, that's cool.

00:12:34.120 --> 00:12:34.720
<v Dean Taucher>You know?

00:12:34.720 --> 00:12:35.200
<v Nancy Magarill>Yeah.

00:12:35.200 --> 00:12:39.800
<v Peter Michael Marino>But were you just totally enthralled with the Broadway scene?

00:12:39.800 --> 00:12:44.080
<v Peter Michael Marino>Like, were you going to see shows when you weren't you know, painting perspective?

00:12:44.080 --> 00:12:49.460
<v Dean Taucher>First time, you know, I'm working in this shop and we're working on these all these different Broadway shows.

00:12:49.460 --> 00:12:51.080
<v Dean Taucher>And I go, I'd like to see this.

00:12:51.080 --> 00:12:54.580
<v Dean Taucher>And I go, could we get tickets to one of the other scenics?

00:12:54.580 --> 00:12:55.480
<v Dean Taucher>He goes, yeah.

00:12:55.480 --> 00:12:56.360
<v Dean Taucher>I go, how do you do it?

00:12:56.360 --> 00:12:58.420
<v Dean Taucher>He goes, you go to the box office.

00:13:00.040 --> 00:13:03.460
<v Dean Taucher>There are no free tickets for you guys.

00:13:03.460 --> 00:13:05.920
<v Peter Michael Marino>No, you don't get free Coke when you're the voice of Coke.

00:13:06.000 --> 00:13:07.000
<v Nancy Magarill>Yeah, right.

00:13:07.000 --> 00:13:10.060
<v Nancy Magarill>So how did you transition into television and film?

00:13:10.120 --> 00:13:13.400
<v Nancy Magarill>Did you have years and years of Broadway and then magically?

00:13:13.400 --> 00:13:20.100
<v Peter Michael Marino>Well, I want to know, I'd like to stay on Broadway for a bit, because I want to know, how'd you go from being a scenic painter to designing stuff?

00:13:20.100 --> 00:13:24.680
<v Dean Taucher>Well, I kept designing because I had various contacts from Chicago.

00:13:24.680 --> 00:13:32.980
<v Dean Taucher>So I started, I was designing some regional opera and also some dance, modern dance things.

00:13:33.060 --> 00:13:38.840
<v Dean Taucher>So I worked, I did a number of pieces with a choreographer, Lynne Taylor Corbett, who-

00:13:38.840 --> 00:13:41.000
<v Peter Michael Marino>Sure, we just lost her.

00:13:41.000 --> 00:13:42.640
<v Dean Taucher>Yeah, recently passed away.

00:13:42.640 --> 00:13:43.920
<v Dean Taucher>She was a good friend.

00:13:43.920 --> 00:13:45.840
<v Peter Michael Marino>But they're still missing this step.

00:13:45.840 --> 00:13:49.400
<v Peter Michael Marino>How did you go from painting on the floor to designing operas?

00:13:49.400 --> 00:13:55.500
<v Dean Taucher>Well, I'm saying, I had contacts from Chicago, not from New York.

00:13:55.500 --> 00:14:00.420
<v Peter Michael Marino>So they were hiring you to design, knowing your design work from what you did in school.

00:14:00.420 --> 00:14:08.600
<v Dean Taucher>I worked on, I did some opera in Chicago, at a smaller, not at the Lyric, at a smaller company that's long gone at this point.

00:14:08.600 --> 00:14:11.160
<v Dean Taucher>And I met some opera directors there.

00:14:11.160 --> 00:14:17.380
<v Dean Taucher>And then I got hired in a small company in Philly and I probably did four or five shows for them.

00:14:17.380 --> 00:14:21.880
<v Dean Taucher>I was doing some modern dance with Lin.

00:14:21.880 --> 00:14:24.340
<v Dean Taucher>And I'm not sure what it, so I always-

00:14:24.400 --> 00:14:28.020
<v Peter Michael Marino>So your portfolio is just building and building and building in a wide range.

00:14:28.020 --> 00:14:32.900
<v Dean Taucher>I always scan my hand going in some design thing while I was painting.

00:14:32.900 --> 00:14:33.720
<v Nancy Magarill>Yeah.

00:14:33.720 --> 00:14:34.580
<v Nancy Magarill>Thanks for you.

00:14:34.580 --> 00:14:35.340
<v Peter Michael Marino>It's great.

00:14:35.340 --> 00:14:49.820
<v Dean Taucher>And then again, our union in New York covers the entire spectrum of the business from industrials to commercials to Broadway, some off-Broadway, dance, opera, film and television.

00:14:49.840 --> 00:14:51.580
<v Nancy Magarill>Wow, that is so tech.

00:14:51.580 --> 00:14:55.300
<v Dean Taucher>I'm working with people who are working all over the place.

00:14:55.300 --> 00:14:58.640
<v Dean Taucher>And there was also just this thing called the availability list.

00:14:58.640 --> 00:15:01.580
<v Dean Taucher>If I wasn't working on something, my name would go on there.

00:15:01.580 --> 00:15:06.800
<v Dean Taucher>And somebody not knowing who you were would just try you out, see how you work.

00:15:06.800 --> 00:15:09.580
<v Dean Taucher>So then all of a sudden I'm working on some movies.

00:15:09.580 --> 00:15:14.860
<v Dean Taucher>There wasn't a lot of TV in New York at that time, but there were big movies came in all the time.

00:15:15.360 --> 00:15:29.500
<v Dean Taucher>So I also worked at a like season five of, I was working at the NBC shop and I got, I did that season of Saturday Night Live because the hours were so crazy.

00:15:29.500 --> 00:15:31.000
<v Dean Taucher>The old guys didn't want to do it.

00:15:31.000 --> 00:15:33.260
<v Dean Taucher>So you go do it.

00:15:33.260 --> 00:15:45.140
<v Dean Taucher>And it was just like, maybe I could have gone to any of the after parties, but from Wednesday night to Saturday night, there were these incredibly crazy hours, including Friday night.

00:15:45.140 --> 00:15:51.280
<v Dean Taucher>I'd be there from 8 in the morning, all the way to the final rehearsal, which was over at midnight.

00:15:51.280 --> 00:15:56.380
<v Dean Taucher>And then they would clear the floor and the scenic artists would paint full finishes on the floor.

00:15:56.380 --> 00:16:02.540
<v Dean Taucher>So we'd be there to 3, 4, some in the morning, go across the street to a hotel and come back at 8.

00:16:02.540 --> 00:16:04.220
<v Dean Taucher>Until showtime.

00:16:04.220 --> 00:16:08.280
<v Dean Taucher>And they would do a live rehearsal performance.

00:16:08.280 --> 00:16:10.140
<v Dean Taucher>And then there'd still be notes and touch ups.

00:16:10.140 --> 00:16:12.800
<v Dean Taucher>And we'd be painting right up until showtime.

00:16:13.180 --> 00:16:16.820
<v Dean Taucher>And I don't think they even wanted to let us go at showtime.

00:16:16.820 --> 00:16:19.580
<v Dean Taucher>And then at that point, do you want to go to an after party?

00:16:27.098 --> 00:16:35.978
<v Peter Michael Marino>So when you're also, when you're working on set, either SNL made me think of this, are you also involved in like, proppy things?

00:16:35.978 --> 00:16:40.658
<v Peter Michael Marino>Hey, we need a rubber chicken that's edible, or any of that kind of stuff.

00:16:40.658 --> 00:16:42.998
<v Peter Michael Marino>Is that also in your wheelhouse?

00:16:42.998 --> 00:16:46.938
<v Dean Taucher>Well, it depends if the rubber chicken comes the right color or not.

00:16:46.998 --> 00:16:48.138
<v Dean Taucher>Yeah.

00:16:48.138 --> 00:16:53.978
<v Dean Taucher>And when I'd be working as a designer, all of that comes across your desk.

00:16:54.238 --> 00:16:54.698
<v Dean Taucher>Yeah.

00:16:54.698 --> 00:17:02.178
<v Peter Michael Marino>I remember when I was working, I was like, somehow I got hired for an indie film to be the production designer.

00:17:02.178 --> 00:17:03.338
<v Peter Michael Marino>I mean, I wanted to try it.

00:17:03.338 --> 00:17:04.158
<v Peter Michael Marino>I wanted to try it.

00:17:04.158 --> 00:17:07.718
<v Peter Michael Marino>And I had already done some, you know, this is way, way, way back when I moved to New York.

00:17:07.718 --> 00:17:18.378
<v Peter Michael Marino>And I remembered thinking, oh, my God, I have to be on set all the time with everything around my waist, every kind of tape, every kind of brush, every kind of knife, every kind of, like, I don't like stuff.

00:17:18.378 --> 00:17:19.558
<v Peter Michael Marino>So like, that's not good.

00:17:19.558 --> 00:17:23.798
<v Peter Michael Marino>But then I remember the director called and she said, okay, we've got to, it was about a wedding.

00:17:23.798 --> 00:17:25.838
<v Peter Michael Marino>Oh, we've got to hire the limousine.

00:17:25.838 --> 00:17:26.658
<v Peter Michael Marino>What color do you want?

00:17:26.658 --> 00:17:29.378
<v Peter Michael Marino>And I was like, oh, wait, I'm making that choice?

00:17:29.378 --> 00:17:31.498
<v Peter Michael Marino>Yeah, you're designing the whole look of the film.

00:17:31.498 --> 00:17:33.538
<v Peter Michael Marino>You have to decide what color the limousine is.

00:17:33.538 --> 00:17:34.978
<v Peter Michael Marino>And I was like, black.

00:17:34.978 --> 00:17:36.838
<v Peter Michael Marino>Can you get a pink one?

00:17:36.838 --> 00:17:37.518
<v Peter Michael Marino>Yes, we can.

00:17:37.518 --> 00:17:40.038
<v Peter Michael Marino>I was like, all right, that fits, that fits.

00:17:40.038 --> 00:17:42.918
<v Peter Michael Marino>That fits my color wheel for this movie.

00:17:42.918 --> 00:17:45.938
<v Peter Michael Marino>But I knew right after that movie was over, this is not for me.

00:17:45.978 --> 00:17:50.918
<v Peter Michael Marino>This is, this is like, like I started with, so many parts of my brain were being used.

00:17:50.918 --> 00:17:55.038
<v Peter Michael Marino>I could not, I could not handle the spreadsheets.

00:17:55.038 --> 00:17:56.898
<v Peter Michael Marino>I can't handle the spreadsheets.

00:17:56.898 --> 00:17:59.398
<v Dean Taucher>Well, I started in TV.

00:17:59.398 --> 00:18:04.138
<v Dean Taucher>The first TV show I designed was Miami Vice, and it wasn't low budget.

00:18:04.138 --> 00:18:09.358
<v Dean Taucher>And everything I did, you know, full cruise, money, experience.

00:18:09.358 --> 00:18:13.478
<v Dean Taucher>So those sorts of things didn't quite happen to me that way.

00:18:13.478 --> 00:18:13.658
<v Peter Michael Marino>Yeah.

00:18:14.558 --> 00:18:24.938
<v Dean Taucher>In TV and episodic TV, you know, the prop person in California, the transpo people do the cars in New York, the prop people do it.

00:18:26.078 --> 00:18:27.878
<v Dean Taucher>Well, it actually makes sense.

00:18:27.938 --> 00:18:29.278
<v Dean Taucher>Right.

00:18:29.278 --> 00:18:40.758
<v Dean Taucher>The whole union thing between New York and California is a whole nother mobbed up story with Reagan and union busting and all sorts of things.

00:18:40.758 --> 00:18:47.718
<v Dean Taucher>And it's a very, very exorbitant, exorbitant insanity that makes this whole notion about like they blacklisted like 10 writers just meaningless.

00:18:47.718 --> 00:18:51.798
<v Dean Taucher>Cause they like fired 20,000 people and no one talks about it.

00:18:52.098 --> 00:18:53.138
<v Nancy Magarill>When was this?

00:18:53.138 --> 00:18:53.898
<v Dean Taucher>47.

00:18:53.898 --> 00:18:55.178
<v Dean Taucher>Wow.

00:18:55.178 --> 00:19:02.418
<v Dean Taucher>But that's one of the reasons why in California, the union structure is different in a number of fields.

00:19:03.038 --> 00:19:11.358
<v Peter Michael Marino>And also like, it seems like in our world of business, that departments are very, very strictly delineated, right?

00:19:11.358 --> 00:19:21.618
<v Peter Michael Marino>There's always that, there's always a moment during tech for a Broadway show or even any kind of union show, where it's like this thing has to actually go here.

00:19:21.618 --> 00:19:23.918
<v Peter Michael Marino>Oh, no, that's not set, that's props.

00:19:23.918 --> 00:19:25.758
<v Peter Michael Marino>Oh, no, it's not props, it's set.

00:19:25.758 --> 00:19:28.138
<v Peter Michael Marino>Or the old, the makeup and hair people also.

00:19:28.138 --> 00:19:32.918
<v Peter Michael Marino>Well, is that thing considered makeup or is that considered hair or is that considered costume?

00:19:32.918 --> 00:19:33.158
<v Dean Taucher>Right.

00:19:33.158 --> 00:19:34.358
<v Peter Michael Marino>You take it, makeup.

00:19:34.358 --> 00:19:36.838
<v Peter Michael Marino>No, I'm not taking it, I'm giving it to hair.

00:19:38.578 --> 00:19:45.118
<v Dean Taucher>The same thing with props, it's like the jewelry is props, not costume design.

00:19:45.118 --> 00:19:46.898
<v Nancy Magarill>Which is a little strange.

00:19:46.898 --> 00:19:56.118
<v Dean Taucher>Yeah, I'm sure there's a lot of consultation in a period movie, you know, with a high level costume designer, and there might be deference.

00:19:56.118 --> 00:19:57.558
<v Dean Taucher>It's like, OK, you want to do that?

00:19:57.558 --> 00:19:58.118
<v Dean Taucher>You do that.

00:19:58.118 --> 00:20:00.178
<v Dean Taucher>But there's also budget and money involved.

00:20:00.238 --> 00:20:03.158
<v Dean Taucher>So, you know, how is it cut?

00:20:03.158 --> 00:20:08.518
<v Peter Michael Marino>So, Michael Mann, of course, is the man behind Miami Vice.

00:20:08.518 --> 00:20:12.458
<v Peter Michael Marino>We'll talk some more about your career after Miami Vice.

00:20:12.458 --> 00:20:19.858
<v Peter Michael Marino>But Miami Vice's whole thing was, you know, I believe it was Michael Mann or the studio who was like, look, MTV is big.

00:20:19.858 --> 00:20:20.818
<v Peter Michael Marino>We like music.

00:20:20.818 --> 00:20:22.318
<v Peter Michael Marino>We like long shots.

00:20:22.318 --> 00:20:23.958
<v Peter Michael Marino>We like things to be very visual.

00:20:23.958 --> 00:20:24.718
<v Peter Michael Marino>Make it happen.

00:20:24.718 --> 00:20:26.238
<v Peter Michael Marino>So Miami Vice was born.

00:20:26.238 --> 00:20:31.718
<v Peter Michael Marino>And there are parts of Miami Vice where it is literally three and a half minutes of two guys in a car, right?

00:20:31.718 --> 00:20:32.618
<v Peter Michael Marino>They're not even talking.

00:20:32.618 --> 00:20:38.338
<v Peter Michael Marino>You're just, you're, you're hearing a song, you're watching, you're watching some great visuals and all of that.

00:20:38.338 --> 00:20:40.018
<v Dean Taucher>Not some episodes.

00:20:40.018 --> 00:20:40.718
<v Dean Taucher>Every episode.

00:20:40.718 --> 00:20:41.458
<v Peter Michael Marino>Okay.

00:20:41.458 --> 00:20:42.538
<v Peter Michael Marino>Every episode.

00:20:42.538 --> 00:20:44.038
<v Peter Michael Marino>Got to launch a song, right?

00:20:44.038 --> 00:20:48.358
<v Dean Taucher>The structure, it opens with a music montage and shots.

00:20:48.358 --> 00:20:52.338
<v Dean Taucher>And then in the middle of the show, there's another music montage.

00:20:52.338 --> 00:21:00.658
<v Dean Taucher>And then later, New York Undercover was, had the exact same structure as Miami Vice.

00:21:01.878 --> 00:21:03.598
<v Dean Taucher>Basically, it's a silent movie.

00:21:04.878 --> 00:21:06.718
<v Peter Michael Marino>It's a really good way to put it.

00:21:06.718 --> 00:21:07.098
<v Dean Taucher>Yeah.

00:21:07.098 --> 00:21:15.258
<v Dean Taucher>They'd start with a silent movie with music underneath, no dialogue that would set up the crime or the dynamics of the episodes.

00:21:15.258 --> 00:21:26.878
<v Dean Taucher>And then in the middle of the show, instead of like the car shots, because you're in New York, it was all this shoe leather cops knocking on doors, hitting neighborhoods and stuff like that.

00:21:26.878 --> 00:21:29.838
<v Peter Michael Marino>But they were some speedboats, a couple of speedboats.

00:21:29.838 --> 00:21:30.738
<v Nancy Magarill>Yeah, speedboats.

00:21:30.738 --> 00:21:31.818
<v Nancy Magarill>That much I know.

00:21:31.818 --> 00:21:34.118
<v Nancy Magarill>I'm not, I never really watched Miami Vice.

00:21:34.118 --> 00:21:37.298
<v Nancy Magarill>Sorry, Dean, but that much I don't get any residuals.

00:21:37.298 --> 00:21:39.058
<v Nancy Magarill>It's not OK.

00:21:39.078 --> 00:21:40.418
<v Nancy Magarill>That's all that matters.

00:21:40.418 --> 00:21:40.838
<v Dean Taucher>Yeah.

00:21:40.838 --> 00:21:41.398
<v Peter Michael Marino>You know, it's funny.

00:21:41.398 --> 00:21:47.778
<v Peter Michael Marino>I was thinking, oh, so do you have to like really do a deep dive into like 80s style or 80s and 90s style for that?

00:21:47.778 --> 00:21:49.518
<v Peter Michael Marino>And you didn't because you were living it.

00:21:49.518 --> 00:21:51.278
<v Nancy Magarill>Yeah.

00:21:51.278 --> 00:21:54.418
<v Peter Michael Marino>That show is 100 percent of its moment, right?

00:21:54.538 --> 00:22:01.118
<v Peter Michael Marino>If if a new kind of watch that like had a springy rubber chicken, let's just do that again.

00:22:01.118 --> 00:22:03.218
<v Peter Michael Marino>Rubber chicken coming out was all the rage.

00:22:03.218 --> 00:22:08.398
<v Peter Michael Marino>They had to somehow make sure that that was in that movie so that people would buy more of those things, right?

00:22:08.398 --> 00:22:08.638
<v Dean Taucher>No.

00:22:08.638 --> 00:22:14.298
<v Dean Taucher>And then there was probably all sorts of product placement with kickbacks to the prop person and the prop guy.

00:22:14.298 --> 00:22:20.798
<v Dean Taucher>There was like there was like one assistant production producer worked hand in hand with the prop guy.

00:22:20.798 --> 00:22:22.818
<v Dean Taucher>But it was like, let's put this watch in.

00:22:23.358 --> 00:22:24.838
<v Dean Taucher>Let's put that thing.

00:22:24.838 --> 00:22:25.958
<v Dean Taucher>Let's put this watch in.

00:22:25.958 --> 00:22:27.218
<v Peter Michael Marino>Wow.

00:22:27.218 --> 00:22:30.298
<v Dean Taucher>You know, I don't know, but everything was bent back then.

00:22:30.298 --> 00:22:31.038
<v Peter Michael Marino>Yeah, right, right.

00:22:31.038 --> 00:22:34.758
<v Dean Taucher>Well, it was one only assumes, I hope, that they did okay.

00:22:34.758 --> 00:22:36.598
<v Nancy Magarill>I like that you used the word bent.

00:22:36.598 --> 00:22:45.138
<v Dean Taucher>The producers at one point are talking about, see this was when Universal was still owned by Lou Osterman and Sid Sheinberg.

00:22:45.138 --> 00:22:47.418
<v Dean Taucher>You know, two people owned the entire company.

00:22:47.418 --> 00:22:54.758
<v Dean Taucher>No, maybe it was a public company, but they had total, total, total control.

00:22:54.758 --> 00:22:59.938
<v Dean Taucher>And these two producers at Miami Vice are wondering how many sets of books they have.

00:22:59.938 --> 00:23:08.818
<v Dean Taucher>They're wondering this because they know how much money they're sending back in cash every episode to Lou and Sid.

00:23:08.818 --> 00:23:23.018
<v Dean Taucher>So it's like, well, there's one set for the IRS, there's one internal set for the company, and then there's a third set for Lou and Sid that they gotta keep in the office that only they know how much money is coming back to.

00:23:23.018 --> 00:23:26.418
<v Nancy Magarill>So we kind of just jumped to Reel Stories.

00:23:26.678 --> 00:23:30.598
<v Nancy Magarill>Is all of this stuff, all of this is what you're putting in your play?

00:23:30.598 --> 00:23:31.878
<v Nancy Magarill>Is that what's been in the play?

00:23:31.878 --> 00:23:34.378
<v Nancy Magarill>Is all of these kinds of stories or?

00:23:34.378 --> 00:23:39.298
<v Peter Michael Marino>Oh, I love, listener, Dean has this look in his eye right now that could charm a snake.

00:23:39.918 --> 00:23:44.858
<v Peter Michael Marino>Amazing, I twinkle, twinkle, I'm turning red.

00:23:44.858 --> 00:23:45.558
<v Peter Michael Marino>This is amazing.

00:23:45.558 --> 00:23:46.778
<v Peter Michael Marino>I can't wait to see your play.

00:23:46.778 --> 00:23:47.838
<v Peter Michael Marino>Tell us.

00:23:47.838 --> 00:23:51.658
<v Dean Taucher>The play, there's a lot of stories that I didn't put in the play.

00:23:51.658 --> 00:24:03.898
<v Dean Taucher>The play is sort of structured where an actor, producer, director, teamster are telling a story where they feel as though they're being mistreated.

00:24:03.898 --> 00:24:04.918
<v Dean Taucher>They're aggrieved.

00:24:05.758 --> 00:24:09.758
<v Dean Taucher>When it plays out, they're the asshole of the story.

00:24:10.438 --> 00:24:14.718
<v Peter Michael Marino>So you're doing like a Rashomon, production design Rashomon.

00:24:14.718 --> 00:24:18.778
<v Dean Taucher>Well, each character has their own...

00:24:18.778 --> 00:24:20.038
<v Peter Michael Marino>They have their own part in it.

00:24:20.038 --> 00:24:21.738
<v Peter Michael Marino>Yeah.

00:24:21.738 --> 00:24:25.878
<v Nancy Magarill>Although we just gave away the plot, so we might have to cut this.

00:24:26.318 --> 00:24:27.358
<v Dean Taucher>No, there's no plot.

00:24:29.038 --> 00:24:41.798
<v Dean Taucher>It's structured as though it's a podcast, and these three actors are reading these stories, and they help define weird terms in the film business.

00:24:41.798 --> 00:24:42.418
<v Dean Taucher>Got you.

00:24:42.418 --> 00:24:55.178
<v Dean Taucher>First, it's the term, a messed up definition of the term, and then a story that's tangentially related to that, like method acting, things like that.

00:24:55.438 --> 00:24:56.698
<v Peter Michael Marino>And which character are you?

00:24:56.698 --> 00:24:57.898
<v Dean Taucher>Well, see, that's the...

00:24:57.898 --> 00:25:02.138
<v Dean Taucher>Writing this play was almost like doing a memoir, but I didn't want to write.

00:25:02.138 --> 00:25:03.738
<v Dean Taucher>And then I did this.

00:25:03.738 --> 00:25:04.218
<v Peter Michael Marino>No.

00:25:04.218 --> 00:25:06.158
<v Dean Taucher>Then I was sitting here, and this happened.

00:25:06.158 --> 00:25:10.818
<v Peter Michael Marino>But which voice, which voice or point of view is closest to you?

00:25:10.818 --> 00:25:11.958
<v Peter Michael Marino>Of these three?

00:25:11.958 --> 00:25:19.238
<v Dean Taucher>I guess the thing is the three actors are just, to me, were just a means of stitching these stories together.

00:25:19.238 --> 00:25:24.358
<v Dean Taucher>To me, the characters are the people that are telling these stories.

00:25:24.458 --> 00:25:25.798
<v Nancy Magarill>And you're not in it at all.

00:25:25.798 --> 00:25:29.038
<v Peter Michael Marino>The characters are the star who's playing the part.

00:25:29.038 --> 00:25:30.778
<v Nancy Magarill>Yeah.

00:25:30.778 --> 00:25:39.998
<v Peter Michael Marino>Is this, are you envisioning this as one of the, is it's like the male vagina monologues, like one of these shows that like three different, three different guys from three different.

00:25:39.998 --> 00:25:40.818
<v Dean Taucher>Well, sort of.

00:25:40.818 --> 00:25:41.478
<v Dean Taucher>It's what-

00:25:41.478 --> 00:25:44.298
<v Peter Michael Marino>Sorry, I'm giving advice, Nancy.

00:25:44.298 --> 00:25:46.038
<v Peter Michael Marino>In the form of a question.

00:25:47.118 --> 00:25:50.138
<v Dean Taucher>It's one woman and two guys.

00:25:50.138 --> 00:25:54.858
<v Dean Taucher>And a lot of the stories are misogynistic and-

00:25:54.858 --> 00:25:55.878
<v Nancy Magarill>For Hollywood?

00:25:55.878 --> 00:25:57.058
<v Nancy Magarill>So strange.

00:25:57.058 --> 00:25:58.038
<v Dean Taucher>Yes.

00:25:58.838 --> 00:26:15.358
<v Dean Taucher>One of the stories is sexual harassment seminars, which a coworker woman said, the day of and the day before are the worst days of any year because every man has to make some off-color remark about having to go through the seminar.

00:26:15.358 --> 00:26:17.338
<v Nancy Magarill>Yeah, of course.

00:26:17.398 --> 00:26:19.698
<v Dean Taucher>How do you, how do you, how do you spell harass?

00:26:19.698 --> 00:26:20.238
<v Dean Taucher>Is that?

00:26:20.278 --> 00:26:21.638
<v Nancy Magarill>Oh, stop it.

00:26:21.638 --> 00:26:23.058
<v Dean Taucher>No, is that one word or two?

00:26:23.058 --> 00:26:23.778
<v Nancy Magarill>Harass?

00:26:23.778 --> 00:26:24.558
<v Peter Michael Marino>Nancy's the one.

00:26:24.558 --> 00:26:25.498
<v Nancy Magarill>I know, I got it.

00:26:25.498 --> 00:26:25.638
<v Nancy Magarill>I got-

00:26:25.638 --> 00:26:26.678
<v Nancy Magarill>I'm the one who laughs at the jokes.

00:26:26.678 --> 00:26:28.578
<v Nancy Magarill>I actually got this one.

00:26:28.578 --> 00:26:30.658
<v Nancy Magarill>I got it immediately.

00:26:30.658 --> 00:26:32.158
<v Nancy Magarill>I'm the worst with jokes.

00:26:32.158 --> 00:26:33.978
<v Nancy Magarill>I, it takes me, I don't know.

00:26:33.978 --> 00:26:34.638
<v Nancy Magarill>I think my brain-

00:26:34.638 --> 00:26:35.618
<v Peter Michael Marino>You're very literal.

00:26:35.618 --> 00:26:36.318
<v Peter Michael Marino>I think that's what it is.

00:26:36.318 --> 00:26:36.818
<v Nancy Magarill>I'm very literal.

00:26:36.818 --> 00:26:38.738
<v Nancy Magarill>My friend Carol has said, you're so literal.

00:26:38.738 --> 00:26:42.458
<v Nancy Magarill>And it takes me a little while to like go, oh, that was a joke.

00:26:42.458 --> 00:26:44.898
<v Nancy Magarill>But that one I got.

00:26:44.958 --> 00:26:45.638
<v Nancy Magarill>I did, you saw.

00:26:45.638 --> 00:26:47.178
<v Peter Michael Marino>We did not mean to harass you.

00:26:47.178 --> 00:26:48.858
<v Peter Michael Marino>That was not mansplaining, Nancy.

00:26:56.002 --> 00:26:58.782
<v Nancy Magarill>What were your favorite projects that you've worked on?

00:26:58.782 --> 00:27:01.542
<v Nancy Magarill>Not financially, from a, like, what are you most proud of?

00:27:01.542 --> 00:27:02.402
<v Peter Michael Marino>Creative, creatively.

00:27:02.402 --> 00:27:05.182
<v Nancy Magarill>You've had such an amazing body of work.

00:27:05.182 --> 00:27:11.782
<v Nancy Magarill>Like, whenever I tell anybody, you know, about you, I'm just like, by the way, he did the first season of Sopranos.

00:27:11.782 --> 00:27:12.982
<v Nancy Magarill>He's done this, he's done that.

00:27:12.982 --> 00:27:16.402
<v Nancy Magarill>Like, you've worked on iconic television shows.

00:27:16.402 --> 00:27:17.422
<v Nancy Magarill>You've done a lot of film.

00:27:17.422 --> 00:27:22.862
<v Nancy Magarill>You've, like, what do you feel most represents what you do as an artist?

00:27:23.442 --> 00:27:31.382
<v Dean Taucher>Well, if I was, if I still felt like I was pursuing more of this work, I'd say the next one.

00:27:31.382 --> 00:27:32.302
<v Dean Taucher>Yeah.

00:27:32.302 --> 00:27:32.822
<v Dean Taucher>You know?

00:27:32.822 --> 00:27:35.122
<v Nancy Magarill>But in looking back, in looking back.

00:27:35.122 --> 00:27:38.342
<v Dean Taucher>That's, that's done and over and what's next.

00:27:38.402 --> 00:27:39.982
<v Dean Taucher>Right.

00:27:39.982 --> 00:27:44.762
<v Nancy Magarill>But do you feel like anything really represents you as an artist in the work you've done?

00:27:44.762 --> 00:27:48.222
<v Peter Michael Marino>Or the one movie or TV show that you're most proud of, your work.

00:27:48.222 --> 00:27:50.262
<v Peter Michael Marino>You're like, that looks like me.

00:27:50.302 --> 00:27:52.322
<v Dean Taucher>The, looks like me.

00:27:52.682 --> 00:27:53.442
<v Peter Michael Marino>I'm sorry.

00:27:53.442 --> 00:27:57.442
<v Peter Michael Marino>I meant, looks like this represents my brain.

00:27:57.442 --> 00:28:02.242
<v Dean Taucher>The episode for The Sopranos, the college episode, that one was very good.

00:28:02.242 --> 00:28:03.222
<v Dean Taucher>I like that one.

00:28:03.222 --> 00:28:04.322
<v Peter Michael Marino>And what about it?

00:28:04.322 --> 00:28:06.662
<v Peter Michael Marino>What about it made you like it?

00:28:09.062 --> 00:28:11.222
<v Peter Michael Marino>We're watching Dean visualize the whole thing.

00:28:11.222 --> 00:28:15.282
<v Dean Taucher>Well, you know, sets don't work unless the show is good.

00:28:16.982 --> 00:28:18.382
<v Dean Taucher>It was the best episode.

00:28:19.302 --> 00:28:24.902
<v Dean Taucher>So I would say that's, that's, you know, there's so many sets that I've done that were good.

00:28:24.902 --> 00:28:30.522
<v Dean Taucher>And then the thing either doesn't get shot or it's lit terribly.

00:28:30.522 --> 00:28:34.602
<v Dean Taucher>Or the whole show is like, how did that happen?

00:28:34.602 --> 00:28:35.302
<v Dean Taucher>Right.

00:28:35.302 --> 00:28:43.502
<v Nancy Magarill>Although I think you could probably say that most of that isn't true in a lot of the work you did, because you worked with some of the best in the business.

00:28:43.502 --> 00:28:47.462
<v Nancy Magarill>And for the most part, everything is pretty spectacular, at least.

00:28:48.122 --> 00:28:49.882
<v Nancy Magarill>I don't know, I would feel that you've...

00:28:49.882 --> 00:28:56.922
<v Dean Taucher>Well, after 20 years on Law & Order's Special Victims Unit, there's plenty of chaff with the wheat.

00:28:56.922 --> 00:28:58.402
<v Nancy Magarill>Of course, yeah.

00:28:58.402 --> 00:29:00.662
<v Nancy Magarill>But there's plenty of wheat, I would think.

00:29:00.662 --> 00:29:01.262
<v Dean Taucher>Thank you.

00:29:01.262 --> 00:29:01.722
<v Nancy Magarill>Right?

00:29:01.722 --> 00:29:02.142
<v Nancy Magarill>Yeah.

00:29:02.142 --> 00:29:04.542
<v Nancy Magarill>I mean, you've had an amazing career.

00:29:04.542 --> 00:29:09.022
<v Peter Michael Marino>Did you go, were you, I know you're the production designer for LA.

00:29:09.022 --> 00:29:14.282
<v Peter Michael Marino>Takeover, which was a Michael Mann TV film, that became the movie Heat.

00:29:14.602 --> 00:29:17.742
<v Peter Michael Marino>Did you travel with that from TV to movie also?

00:29:17.742 --> 00:29:18.382
<v Dean Taucher>No.

00:29:18.382 --> 00:29:19.062
<v Dean Taucher>No.

00:29:19.062 --> 00:29:21.782
<v Dean Taucher>That was, I'd have to look up.

00:29:21.782 --> 00:29:25.422
<v Dean Taucher>I don't remember who the designer was to do that.

00:29:25.422 --> 00:29:35.722
<v Dean Taucher>But there's only a handful or one or two people that go with Michael Mann from movie to movie to movie to movie to movie.

00:29:35.722 --> 00:29:44.842
<v Dean Taucher>I don't think I would be the first to say it's very demanding and not necessarily easy to work with.

00:29:45.542 --> 00:29:45.942
<v Peter Michael Marino>Yeah.

00:29:45.942 --> 00:29:51.562
<v Dean Taucher>But it was that movie, it was almost word for word, shot for shot, heat.

00:29:51.562 --> 00:29:52.382
<v Peter Michael Marino>What?

00:29:52.382 --> 00:29:53.282
<v Peter Michael Marino>Wow.

00:29:53.322 --> 00:29:54.762
<v Dean Taucher>You know that?

00:29:54.762 --> 00:29:57.822
<v Peter Michael Marino>Well, I've never watched them back to back, weirdly, but.

00:29:57.822 --> 00:29:59.442
<v Dean Taucher>Well, I watched them back to back.

00:29:59.442 --> 00:30:02.622
<v Peter Michael Marino>When I do, I will be paying attention to that.

00:30:02.622 --> 00:30:08.062
<v Dean Taucher>And the network insisted on a young cast for LA.

00:30:08.062 --> 00:30:12.642
<v Dean Taucher>Takedown, but he wrote it for Heat, where it's an older cop and an older criminal.

00:30:12.642 --> 00:30:14.722
<v Peter Michael Marino>Yeah, that's the whole point.

00:30:14.722 --> 00:30:16.002
<v Dean Taucher>That was the point of it.

00:30:16.002 --> 00:30:22.842
<v Dean Taucher>But it's the exact plot story and some of the same locations, some of the same shots.

00:30:22.842 --> 00:30:24.982
<v Dean Taucher>Wow.

00:30:24.982 --> 00:30:33.222
<v Dean Taucher>Can you imagine the mental strength and force to be able to do something like that twice?

00:30:33.222 --> 00:30:35.642
<v Dean Taucher>I mean, this is not a normal human being.

00:30:36.902 --> 00:30:41.882
<v Dean Taucher>You make a movie like that, ripping your soul out to make it, and then you're going to do it again?

00:30:41.882 --> 00:30:49.882
<v Dean Taucher>I mean, one of the interesting things about being a production designer or working film and stuff like that is you're always doing something new.

00:30:49.882 --> 00:30:50.862
<v Dean Taucher>Yeah.

00:30:50.862 --> 00:30:53.682
<v Dean Taucher>And that wasn't doing something new.

00:30:53.682 --> 00:31:01.342
<v Peter Michael Marino>Yeah, but director writers like Michael, they fall in love with this, whatever this baby is that they're raising.

00:31:01.342 --> 00:31:06.682
<v Peter Michael Marino>And then once it gets to a certain age, they go, actually, we want you to be bigger.

00:31:07.082 --> 00:31:10.942
<v Dean Taucher>Well, he raised this baby, LA.

00:31:10.942 --> 00:31:16.422
<v Dean Taucher>Takedown, and then drowned it in the bath tub.

00:31:16.422 --> 00:31:18.122
<v Dean Taucher>And then started over.

00:31:18.142 --> 00:31:19.342
<v Nancy Magarill>Started over.

00:31:19.342 --> 00:31:22.942
<v Peter Michael Marino>But used all the bones from the baby that was in the bathtub.

00:31:22.942 --> 00:31:23.902
<v Peter Michael Marino>Wow, that's deep.

00:31:23.902 --> 00:31:25.042
<v Peter Michael Marino>No pun intended.

00:31:25.042 --> 00:31:26.882
<v Peter Michael Marino>That's deep.

00:31:27.582 --> 00:31:28.262
<v Nancy Magarill>No.

00:31:28.262 --> 00:31:36.742
<v Nancy Magarill>Now, where, what possessed you after you have this huge body of work to decide to start as a playwright?

00:31:36.742 --> 00:31:39.182
<v Nancy Magarill>Where did that, how did that happen?

00:31:39.182 --> 00:31:45.962
<v Dean Taucher>Well, as I was saying, I lived through all these crazy experiences with monsters who killed people.

00:31:47.162 --> 00:31:48.182
<v Dean Taucher>That's in the play.

00:31:48.182 --> 00:31:48.862
<v Dean Taucher>They're there.

00:31:48.862 --> 00:31:50.142
<v Dean Taucher>Very nice.

00:31:50.142 --> 00:31:51.002
<v Nancy Magarill>Nice guys.

00:31:51.002 --> 00:32:00.142
<v Peter Michael Marino>But you, having worked in theater, you're, surely you're aware of how long it takes and how challenging it is to develop a new piece and to get it mounted.

00:32:00.142 --> 00:32:01.862
<v Peter Michael Marino>So that's a big, you know, you're-

00:32:01.862 --> 00:32:02.842
<v Nancy Magarill>A big undertaking.

00:32:02.842 --> 00:32:04.522
<v Peter Michael Marino>You're like, that's a big undertaking.

00:32:04.522 --> 00:32:05.802
<v Peter Michael Marino>Exactly.

00:32:05.802 --> 00:32:07.662
<v Peter Michael Marino>You just felt like it was time.

00:32:07.662 --> 00:32:10.882
<v Peter Michael Marino>Or you feel like you really need to share this story right now.

00:32:10.882 --> 00:32:19.882
<v Dean Taucher>I were, it was a week in March in 2020, and I had maybe stayed at the Dance Too Long on Law and Order Special Victims Unit.

00:32:19.882 --> 00:32:29.402
<v Dean Taucher>And I said, it was a Monday, and I said, even if you're going to add more shows for next season and work into the summer, I'm done at the end of this season.

00:32:29.402 --> 00:32:30.082
<v Dean Taucher>I'm done.

00:32:30.082 --> 00:32:32.522
<v Nancy Magarill>And was, had the pandemic already started?

00:32:32.522 --> 00:32:37.802
<v Dean Taucher>No, then Thursday, they shut the entire film because of COVID.

00:32:37.802 --> 00:32:42.242
<v Dean Taucher>So I missed six months of COVID shutdown.

00:32:42.242 --> 00:32:49.882
<v Dean Taucher>I missed all the really insane restrictions when they started shooting again with all these checks and this and that.

00:32:49.882 --> 00:32:51.742
<v Dean Taucher>And then I missed two strikes.

00:32:51.742 --> 00:32:51.902
<v Nancy Magarill>Wow.

00:32:52.702 --> 00:32:54.082
<v Dean Taucher>I missed the writer's strike.

00:32:54.082 --> 00:32:55.822
<v Nancy Magarill>Did you miss them?

00:32:55.822 --> 00:32:56.582
<v Nancy Magarill>What?

00:32:56.582 --> 00:32:57.782
<v Nancy Magarill>Did you miss them?

00:32:58.162 --> 00:33:00.242
<v Dean Taucher>I did.

00:33:00.242 --> 00:33:01.422
<v Dean Taucher>I did miss them.

00:33:01.422 --> 00:33:02.942
<v Peter Michael Marino>Oh, the strike was the best part.

00:33:02.942 --> 00:33:04.642
<v Peter Michael Marino>I loved marching around with masks.

00:33:06.882 --> 00:33:09.142
<v Peter Michael Marino>And very effective.

00:33:09.142 --> 00:33:20.322
<v Dean Taucher>And as an example on Law and Order, I'm probably all the Law and Order shows, the writing staff was probably the end of 14 writers.

00:33:20.322 --> 00:33:23.082
<v Dean Taucher>And they all got, they all get paid as producers.

00:33:23.082 --> 00:33:29.362
<v Dean Taucher>So every episode, they're all getting some money, depending on what level they are in their career.

00:33:29.362 --> 00:33:35.042
<v Dean Taucher>They could be getting a little to a lot, but they're all making enough money, more than enough money to live.

00:33:35.042 --> 00:33:39.142
<v Dean Taucher>And then they might write one or two or three.

00:33:39.202 --> 00:33:43.322
<v Dean Taucher>And then they get their writer's fee and the residuals from that.

00:33:43.322 --> 00:33:55.182
<v Dean Taucher>Well, the writers got this new contract, making sure that there would be five writers on every episode, because the streaming things, sometimes it would be one writer who'd write the whole thing.

00:33:55.182 --> 00:33:59.042
<v Dean Taucher>Well, the other network shows, Dick Wolf then fired all these other writers.

00:33:59.042 --> 00:34:01.622
<v Dean Taucher>So the show now has only five writers.

00:34:01.622 --> 00:34:10.602
<v Dean Taucher>All of the Dick Wolf shows and probably every network show that exists still as an episodic show, went from having a dozen to five.

00:34:10.602 --> 00:34:15.582
<v Dean Taucher>So the Writers Guild, brilliant, you know, unintended consequences.

00:34:15.582 --> 00:34:22.942
<v Dean Taucher>They like thought they were doing something to save things and they inadvertently screwed over a bunch of their writers.

00:34:30.270 --> 00:34:32.250
<v Nancy Magarill>So let's talk about what's next for you.

00:34:32.250 --> 00:34:33.410
<v Peter Michael Marino>What's next for the play?

00:34:33.410 --> 00:34:35.010
<v Peter Michael Marino>Have you had a read-through yet?

00:34:35.010 --> 00:34:40.090
<v Dean Taucher>I had two readings, one in Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor.

00:34:40.090 --> 00:34:41.410
<v Peter Michael Marino>I love that place.

00:34:41.410 --> 00:34:43.110
<v Dean Taucher>One at Theater Row.

00:34:43.110 --> 00:34:44.210
<v Nancy Magarill>Was the West Bank, right?

00:34:44.210 --> 00:34:46.150
<v Dean Taucher>No, across the street at Theater Row.

00:34:46.150 --> 00:34:54.270
<v Dean Taucher>And there's a director who's interested in doing it, and we have it in front of a theater right now, and we're waiting to hear back.

00:34:54.270 --> 00:34:55.030
<v Nancy Magarill>Oh, that's wonderful.

00:34:55.030 --> 00:34:56.590
<v Nancy Magarill>Is it in the city or where is it?

00:34:56.590 --> 00:34:59.450
<v Dean Taucher>Yeah, it's in the city, so I don't think I can tell you what.

00:34:59.450 --> 00:35:00.850
<v Peter Michael Marino>He's opening cold, folks.

00:35:00.850 --> 00:35:02.010
<v Peter Michael Marino>He's opening cold.

00:35:02.010 --> 00:35:03.510
<v Nancy Magarill>Well, you'll keep us posted.

00:35:03.510 --> 00:35:04.790
<v Nancy Magarill>That's fantastic.

00:35:05.170 --> 00:35:06.870
<v Peter Michael Marino>I would love to see this show.

00:35:07.290 --> 00:35:08.450
<v Dean Taucher>There's a nibble.

00:35:08.450 --> 00:35:09.350
<v Nancy Magarill>That's a, you know what?

00:35:09.350 --> 00:35:10.450
<v Nancy Magarill>A nibble's a nibble.

00:35:10.450 --> 00:35:12.550
<v Dean Taucher>I don't, I'm not reeling it in yet.

00:35:12.550 --> 00:35:13.450
<v Dean Taucher>There's a nibble.

00:35:13.450 --> 00:35:14.450
<v Nancy Magarill>That's all right.

00:35:14.450 --> 00:35:15.650
<v Nancy Magarill>It's cool that you did this.

00:35:15.650 --> 00:35:19.650
<v Nancy Magarill>It's a big departure for you, so that's where I think it's really exciting.

00:35:19.650 --> 00:35:21.410
<v Peter Michael Marino>Who's designing it?

00:35:21.410 --> 00:35:35.750
<v Dean Taucher>Well, this director works with somebody who does a lot of, he's incredibly good with sound, the director is, and he works with the designer that has done all these amazing things with projections.

00:35:36.530 --> 00:35:40.110
<v Dean Taucher>So I'm going in and out of these different stories and different worlds.

00:35:40.110 --> 00:35:50.290
<v Dean Taucher>This would be, because I have it set in a recording studio, as though they're doing this podcast there, but this would open it up and make it a lot more interesting.

00:35:50.290 --> 00:35:56.170
<v Peter Michael Marino>Plus, we already had Stereophonic last season, so we don't need to be in another recording studio for three hours.

00:35:58.010 --> 00:35:59.530
<v Dean Taucher>This wouldn't be that.

00:35:59.530 --> 00:36:03.590
<v Dean Taucher>The trouble is that's musicians and this is not like that.

00:36:03.590 --> 00:36:04.910
<v Nancy Magarill>Pete Marino.

00:36:04.910 --> 00:36:10.170
<v Peter Michael Marino>It's on silent, but I always forget that there's two people who can get through to me in an emergency.

00:36:10.170 --> 00:36:12.690
<v Peter Michael Marino>One is my 82-year-old mom.

00:36:12.690 --> 00:36:14.970
<v Peter Michael Marino>Your cousin's coming for a visit.

00:36:14.970 --> 00:36:16.490
<v Peter Michael Marino>Clearly a very important message.

00:36:16.490 --> 00:36:18.170
<v Peter Michael Marino>Your cousin Judy's coming for a visit.

00:36:18.170 --> 00:36:18.990
<v Peter Michael Marino>I'm so happy.

00:36:18.990 --> 00:36:20.670
<v Peter Michael Marino>Oh shit, my mom's going to listen to this.

00:36:21.350 --> 00:36:27.930
<v Dean Taucher>I just had lunch with my two-year-old grandson and my 105-year-old mother.

00:36:27.930 --> 00:36:35.570
<v Nancy Magarill>I think your mother's probably one of the oldest, I mean obviously one of the oldest living people in the country right now, maybe in the world.

00:36:35.570 --> 00:36:38.210
<v Nancy Magarill>Have you like, do you know who the oldest is?

00:36:38.210 --> 00:36:39.710
<v Nancy Magarill>She's amazing, by the way.

00:36:39.710 --> 00:36:41.730
<v Nancy Magarill>She is unbelievable.

00:36:41.730 --> 00:36:45.330
<v Dean Taucher>Yeah, no, I don't know where that puts her.

00:36:45.330 --> 00:36:54.370
<v Dean Taucher>I don't think 105, it's old, but you have to be, I think you have to get in the teens before you start getting in to the...

00:36:54.670 --> 00:36:56.990
<v Peter Michael Marino>Did she get her card from the president?

00:36:56.990 --> 00:36:58.070
<v Dean Taucher>No.

00:36:58.070 --> 00:36:59.090
<v Peter Michael Marino>What?

00:36:59.090 --> 00:37:01.330
<v Peter Michael Marino>That's like the whole point, isn't it?

00:37:01.330 --> 00:37:03.730
<v Dean Taucher>No, she never got a card from the president.

00:37:03.730 --> 00:37:04.790
<v Peter Michael Marino>Wow.

00:37:04.790 --> 00:37:08.510
<v Dean Taucher>I think she wouldn't have wanted the card.

00:37:08.510 --> 00:37:13.610
<v Dean Taucher>I think when she turned 100, I think it was the one who's there right now.

00:37:13.610 --> 00:37:16.390
<v Nancy Magarill>Oh, so she doesn't want, she wouldn't want, that would be burned.

00:37:18.010 --> 00:37:26.710
<v Peter Michael Marino>My grandmother died at 99, and to her, to the literally from the grave was like, one more year and I would have gotten that letter from the president.

00:37:26.710 --> 00:37:28.550
<v Peter Michael Marino>That's what she lived for, was the letter from the president.

00:37:28.550 --> 00:37:29.270
<v Nancy Magarill>I never even knew this.

00:37:29.270 --> 00:37:31.670
<v Nancy Magarill>So you turn 100 and you get a letter from the president?

00:37:31.670 --> 00:37:32.370
<v Peter Michael Marino>Some of them.

00:37:32.370 --> 00:37:32.690
<v Nancy Magarill>Oh, that's-

00:37:32.690 --> 00:37:35.090
<v Dean Taucher>Yeah, I guess not all of them.

00:37:35.090 --> 00:37:38.650
<v Dean Taucher>Without that letter, they might be able to cut off her social security.

00:37:38.650 --> 00:37:39.610
<v Peter Michael Marino>Right.

00:37:39.610 --> 00:37:41.490
<v Dean Taucher>Maybe she's actually not alive.

00:37:41.490 --> 00:37:43.270
<v Peter Michael Marino>Happy birthday and fuck off.

00:37:43.410 --> 00:37:43.690
<v Nancy Magarill>Right.

00:37:43.690 --> 00:37:45.010
<v Nancy Magarill>Oh, God.

00:37:45.010 --> 00:37:47.070
<v Nancy Magarill>I thought we weren't going there this episode.

00:37:47.070 --> 00:37:48.130
<v Peter Michael Marino>We barely did.

00:37:48.130 --> 00:37:51.650
<v Nancy Magarill>We were trying not to, because we've been trying to avoid.

00:37:51.710 --> 00:37:53.290
<v Peter Michael Marino>This is how fucked up.

00:37:53.290 --> 00:37:56.710
<v Peter Michael Marino>We're in a place where even birthday cards are connected to politics.

00:37:56.710 --> 00:37:57.830
<v Nancy Magarill>Unbelievable.

00:37:57.830 --> 00:38:00.330
<v Peter Michael Marino>Dean, I can't wait to see your show.

00:38:00.330 --> 00:38:05.090
<v Peter Michael Marino>And I can't wait to bring so many people I know, would love to hear these stories.

00:38:05.090 --> 00:38:11.250
<v Peter Michael Marino>And I'm really looking forward to watching two back to back episodes of Dean's The Best of Dean.

00:38:11.250 --> 00:38:16.750
<v Peter Michael Marino>To be fair, I have to be honest, I am watching the original pilot of The Love Boat tonight as well.

00:38:16.750 --> 00:38:19.690
<v Peter Michael Marino>Nobody from the cast who we know was on.

00:38:19.690 --> 00:38:20.770
<v Peter Michael Marino>I can't wait for this.

00:38:20.770 --> 00:38:22.430
<v Nancy Magarill>Wait, what do you mean you're watching the pilot?

00:38:22.810 --> 00:38:29.090
<v Peter Michael Marino>It's on some, a friend found it on YouTube, and it is the pilot episode of The Love Boat, which was just a TV movie.

00:38:29.090 --> 00:38:32.350
<v Peter Michael Marino>And they changed the whole cast for the second pilot.

00:38:32.350 --> 00:38:35.030
<v Peter Michael Marino>And then they changed half the cast for the series.

00:38:35.030 --> 00:38:36.210
<v Nancy Magarill>Oh, that's too funny.

00:38:36.250 --> 00:38:37.470
<v Nancy Magarill>That's your big Friday night fans.

00:38:37.470 --> 00:38:51.150
<v Peter Michael Marino>You know, I want to see what the pool, you know, the pool was all, the greatest thing about The Love Boat, believe me, there's one, the greatest thing about The Love Boat is the terrible lighting, because they are always outside on the deck, at the pool, and everyone has three shadows.

00:38:51.150 --> 00:38:53.930
<v Peter Michael Marino>Dean, would that drive you crazy?

00:38:53.930 --> 00:39:13.670
<v Dean Taucher>Yeah, somebody, a lighting person explained that cheating the moonshot is impossible because of the light source, that you could get, maybe, the wattage of lights down, but then you'd have multiple shadows around, and he goes, there's no way to achieve that.

00:39:13.670 --> 00:39:17.830
<v Dean Taucher>There's no light big enough, except maybe the sun.

00:39:17.830 --> 00:39:21.570
<v Nancy Magarill>So you just debunked all of the conspiracy theories.

00:39:21.570 --> 00:39:23.650
<v Peter Michael Marino>Yeah, the moon landing happened.

00:39:23.670 --> 00:39:26.030
<v Peter Michael Marino>Yeah, you can't light it.

00:39:26.030 --> 00:39:28.010
<v Dean Taucher>You can't light that.

00:39:28.010 --> 00:39:39.350
<v Peter Michael Marino>And if you watch Attack of the 50-foot Woman, which I also recently watched because I'm working on a B-movie-inspired project, every scene at night is clearly day for night.

00:39:39.350 --> 00:39:40.990
<v Peter Michael Marino>Every single one of them.

00:39:40.990 --> 00:39:42.810
<v Peter Michael Marino>They never even tried to fool us.

00:39:42.810 --> 00:39:43.570
<v Nancy Magarill>Right.

00:39:43.570 --> 00:39:45.130
<v Peter Michael Marino>But at least it's consistent.

00:39:45.130 --> 00:39:47.910
<v Peter Michael Marino>And there's a 50-foot woman in it.

00:39:47.910 --> 00:39:50.210
<v Dean Taucher>There was a movie, I think it's called the...

00:39:50.210 --> 00:39:55.950
<v Dean Taucher>God, I think Supermodel Hitman or something like that.

00:39:56.070 --> 00:39:57.510
<v Nancy Magarill>God, are we dating ourselves?

00:39:57.650 --> 00:40:02.030
<v Dean Taucher>No, it looked like they'd shot it to make it look like it was shot in the 50s.

00:40:02.030 --> 00:40:03.930
<v Dean Taucher>But it was shot more recently.

00:40:03.930 --> 00:40:06.330
<v Dean Taucher>And it was really hilarious.

00:40:06.330 --> 00:40:09.050
<v Nancy Magarill>Just because they couldn't get it right or because they nailed it?

00:40:09.050 --> 00:40:10.830
<v Dean Taucher>They nailed it not being right.

00:40:10.830 --> 00:40:13.910
<v Nancy Magarill>Oh, God, I'm going to have to watch it now to know what you're talking about.

00:40:14.050 --> 00:40:16.110
<v Peter Michael Marino>We're ending our episode on a cliffhanger.

00:40:16.110 --> 00:40:19.230
<v Peter Michael Marino>People, you have to watch this and figure out what does that mean.

00:40:19.230 --> 00:40:23.170
<v Peter Michael Marino>It's right, but not right where it's right and not right.

00:40:23.170 --> 00:40:24.270
<v Peter Michael Marino>Hey, thanks for checking us out.

00:40:24.270 --> 00:40:26.870
<v Peter Michael Marino>Links to today's guests can be found in the show notes.

00:40:27.110 --> 00:40:32.050
<v Nancy Magarill>Don't forget to subscribe, like us, rate us, and tell all your friends about arts and craft.