I Am All In with Scott PattersonGilmore Girls loves to reference iconic TV shows, but one rises to the top! It is the most referenced television show in Stars Hollow… and that’s Happy Days.
So, we needed to go deep with the MOST…DON MOST! We’re talking to Don Most aka Ralph Malph, star of Happy Days. You’ll love hearing his stories about one of the most legendary shows in TV history.
Sunday, Monday POP CULTURE! Tuesday, Wednesday POP CULTURE! Thursday, Friday POP CULTURE! Saturday, what a day, podcasting all week with you!
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I Smell pop Culture with Easton Allen and I Heart Radio Podcast. Hey everybody, Easton Allen, I am all in Podcasts one eleven productions. iHeart Media, iHeart Radio, iHeart podcast. It's I Smell pop culture. I smell pop culture. You smell pop culture. We'll smell pop culture. And we're smelling it here. Baby, we are back. We are exploring the pop culture references in Gilmore Girls that we love. We're going deeper than just listing them off. We're taking We're taking a submarine into these references and we're exploring what makes them a part of pop culture. We're talking to the people that created them, that wrote these songs, that play these characters, that are these people.
It's so exciting.
My name is Easton Allen, and it's so great to have you here with us. Something we love about Gilmore Girls is that is the pop culture references. I mean, that's the whole impetus for this podcast. And when you look at the grand scheme of what they have done, everything they've referenced, books, movies, television, real life people. There's one TV show that rises above the rest, and the fine folks at Vulture have tallied all the pop culture references in Gilmore Girls and categorize them by you how many what books were referenced, what movies, what songs? And when you look at TV shows, the one that was referenced the most is Happy Days. Five references to Happy Days, and of course of Gilmore Girls more than any other TV show. I'm not going to list them all here, but I'm going to list my favorite one. In season two, episode four, It's The Road to Harvard, Rory and Loralai are walking around and Harvard campus pretending to be students, and they have this lauraizes this like cringe conversation with some real students versus pretending to be like, Oh, you're gonna go the Pie Alpha Gamma thing tomorrow. And after they leave, Roy says, Laura, you do realize that all of your college kid jargon comes from Happy Days in the Valley Girls song, right, such a sick burn. Besides all the references, Happy Days in Gilmore Girls actually shares an actor Mary and Ross. She was Mary in Cunningham in Happy Days, she was the mom. She's also Tricks in Gilmore Girls and Marilyn Tricks's niece. But we're not talking to Mary and Ross today. We're talking to another star of Happy Days. We're talking to Don Most. Don Most played Ralph Mouth on Happy Days. And I don't know how much Happy Days you guys have seen. If you haven't seen that much, you are doing yourself a disservice. You have to watch Happy Days. It's so funny. Ralph Mouth is hysterical. He is so Everything he does is so funny. He has such a great catchphrase, I still got it, I still got it. It's so funny. We're going to talk to Don mos all about that. But here's the thing about Don Most. This man is a layered performer. He is I mean, he was on one of the most iconic and legendary sitcoms of all time. But he's also he's directed movies, he guests starting a million other shows, and he's a singer. This man has the voice of an angel. He's got such an incredible voice, and he's he's made some jazz albums. We're going to talk about it all. We're gonna talk about Happy Days. Don Mose is here with us. How's it going, Don, Oh, It's going pretty well.
Thanks Thanks for asking it's a little cold. I live in Colorado.
Now, Oh wow, Yeah, I moved about.
My wife and I moved here about a year and a half ago, really liking it. Our daughter and granddaughter here, so that was kind of the motivation. Oh excellent, we'll pull right now.
Well, let's see. I want to go back to you the beginning. I am so fascinated by Happy Days. It's one of those it's just such a touchstone in TV history, one of the most legendary shows of all time.
How did you get involved with Happy Days? How did that happen?
Okay? Well, I grew up in Brooklyn, New York, and about the age of thirteen, I started going to a school in Manhattan on Saturdays. I remember taking the subway at thirteen from Brooklyn into Manhattan to a school a studio, Charlie Lowe Studio. He was an old vaudeville performer and he had a school for mainly kids and teenage uster singing, dancing. I didn't really care about the dancing, but I had to do some and acting, and that's when I started going after it. And then I actually from there got picked to beat in this nightclub review. So when I was fifteen, I was part of this review of the teenagers, seven of us singing in the hotels and nightclubs of the Catskill Mountains, which was a big resort area upstate New York where they had a lot of entertainment. So that summer I was so that's like my first it was, you know, singing really came before acting. But then I switched my focus the next year really laser focused onto acting. I really started getting into that and went to a different school for that in New York and then started getting I got a manager through that and going out on auditions and doing doing a lot of TV commercials and some little theater work, but you know, came real close on a couple of Broadway shows. But then I went out to LA This was this summer after my junior year in college. I was twenty now, and so I went out there to try to sort of plant the seeds and so that when I graduated yor later, i'd have some footing already. So I went out there and I was able to get agent, and I went out on auditions during the summer and booked a couple of guest roles on TV shows. So then my agent said you know, instead of going back to school, take six months off. You got some momentum going, you know. So I said, yeah, I think that's a great idea, and you have to think more than a second. So I didn't go back for my senior year for six months, and then went to started going out on auditions, got one or two more jobs, and then nothing for like a couple of months, and then I thought I made a mistake. But then my agent said, I'll have an audition for you for a pilot for a new series takes place in the fifties and called Happy Days. And so that's how I went in on the audition. They called me back. I did another one. Then I had a screen test, and then uh, then I was screen testing for the role of Potzi. Uh. But then but they came back and they said that, you know, you didn't get Pozzi. Anson Williams had and Ron Howard actually screen tested, even though a year and a half earlier they had done a pilot for the same show with a different name, but it didn't sell. Now it's a year and a half later, and and and Greece is a hit on Broadway, and American Graffiti is a hit. So they ABC was like, oh, we had a show. And they went back to Gary Marshall and said, we want to redo the pilot, but you know, you might need to recast because they thought Answering and Ron might be too old now because it was like two years later. But Gary wanted Ron and Answer, but he had to go through screen testing them along side a bunch of other hopefuls, myself included. So they called me and said, no, they've got to go with Ron and Anson and yeah, and you know, but they liked your screen test so much they want to sort of create a role for you to be on the show. They said, there's a small role in the pilot, a guy named Ralph, you know, Ralph Mouth. He's he's into cars, He's got a cool car. He's a bit of a wiresecracker, that's all I said. And and so so I decided. So I decided I would do it, and because I was up for another role at the same time, and long story, and I actually passed on Happy Days on the Friday night. But then on Monday I changed my mind because my agent played basketball at Gary Marshall's house on Saturday, and Gary talked to my agent and sweetened the deal that they offered me and and said told my agent they thought it had a great chance of getting on the air. So then yeah, because because the other one there was a dramatic World War two TV movie and I I was really more into dramatic, wanting to do drama. Then all the parts that I had gotten leading up to this one, except for one, they were dramatic roles. So that's I was, you know, and I've said to my I can do comedy, you know, if it's a if the script is good and the writing's good, you know, the character. So that's why I passed. But then now after hearing what mys has said, so you know, we decided burn hand, let's let's take it. And so that's how that's how that came about.
It's so interesting that you were more drawn to drama. You're so funny in happy days, like you're hysteric. I was watching the other day, like a clip on YouTube. It was like best Ralph Mouth moments. Really yeah, and it's every single time you say I still got it, that just I burst out laughing. It's everything is so funny that you do on that show.
Oh thank you, thank you. Yeah, well you know, and I wasn't like that character, but you know, it's to me that was the joy of acting. That's why I was saying to you a little earlier that I loved playing a wide variety of different kinds of roles, and I've been getting to do that. It was tough, you know, after Happy Days, because you're so associated with that character and that style of comedy. So it was tough. But yeah, I wasn't like that guy, but that, you know, that was the joy of acting. And I was, and I based him on people I knew, and in even our director Jerry Parris reminded me very I said, he's more like this character than I am. And I would, you know, get ideas from Jerry steel things from him. As a matter of fact, that line, I still got it. I borrowed, stole it from That was what Jerry used to say when he would when he would crack us up, and he'd get a good laugh and say, I still got it, you know. So one day I decided it wasn't in the script, and we were doing a scene in Arnold's in front of an audience, and I came was supposed to come in the scene and say something funny and the guy's crack up. So before we shot it, I went up to Ron Howard because he was the one in the doing dialogue right with me in that, and I said, I'm not going to tell you what I'm saying, but just get ready so that I don't throw you too, which I'm going to say something that's not in the script. I just decided it was a perfect time to do it, and so I did it, and every day all cracked up. The audience didn't even know, but they loved it, and Jerry Parris was cracking up, and so then you know, they loved it so much. Then the writers started putting it in, you know, in different situations, and so that's how that came about.
I'm so thank you for telling that story because I'm so curious, how like when you have like a catchphrase like that, I'm always curious, like is it I don't want to say manufactured, but like, did the writers keep putting it in? Hearing that you just added it and then basically reaction from the audience, I mean, that's so beautiful and organic it.
Yeah, and they wrote some of the others, you know, like sit on it. I remember the writers came up with that, and they were a couple of others. You know, Henry Winkler came up with his own because his his gesture and his a you know, that was something that came from Henry. But uh, but there were a few others that the writers did, but that one, Uh, that one I owe to Jerry. But but it was a good idea for me to use it that particular time.
Yes, I mean, someone else invents the guitar, but it takes an artist to play it.
I think that's that's, you know, good analogy.
There's a couple Your timing is so I don't want to kiss you ask too much, don but your timing is so great on that show too. There's a couple of times that I was watching in this like clip thing where you don't you say the line and then you don't even really wait for the other characters to react, so you just launch with I still got it. And it's that makes it even funnier. It's just it's so it's so great, and I was curious to like, so in the first season, you're Ralph is kind of like a like a side.
Character you're supporting.
Yeah, and then it's season two I mean your main cast, you're rain core. What was that transition like, going from getting bumped up like that?
Well, I mean it was great the evolution of that. And I often tell people, you know, if they're maybe introducing their kids to the show, or they say, oh, I love the show, but I haven't seen it in so long, and I know that there's reruns going on. You know, you could see it now. So I often tell people what you should do is watch it from because you could do it now. Watch it from the first show and chronologically take it because you'll see a real evolution. And you're right at the beginning, you know, they told me, you know, I was going to be this, you know, it was a small character. But they they say, we'll do seven out of thirteen episodes or something like that. You know. But then we started, you know, they started really liking what Harry too. Henry was just the same supporting type of character. But we started doing some things that they were really liking, you know, the producers and the director and Jerry Parris, who was our director. I would come up with things that weren't in the script. I'd have ideas because I wanted to make it a little bigger, you know. So I'd come up with things and he'd really like it, and so we'd do it. And we were not in front of an audience those first two seasons, so you could do stuff like that. It was like shooting a movie, you know. And and so they the writers started seeing the producers, so they started making it a little bigger, and slowly I wasn't like, you know, it was Richie and Possi that were best friends. Ralph who's like this guy that you know, they're kind of friendly with, but you know, he wasn't core, like you said. And then they started getting more friendly with Ralph, and he'd started including me in more and more things, you know, and it just kind of evolved in that way, and like you said, by season two, it was even probably towards the middle late part of season one where where it was getting pretty good, and then season two definitely even more so. And then in the third season when we went in front of an audience, it probably continued in that in that fashion.
Now, like if you stop someone on the street and ask them about happy days, like they're probably going to bring up Fonsie, you know, like that that's like he's kind of the de facto mascot of the show. I'd say, when when that character and like Henry's like popularity just like went into the stratosphere, what was that like for the for you and the rest of the cast.
Was it was there any like weirdness or anything like that?
Not really, no, I mean luckily, you know, people ask, you know, how did you really get along that well? And was it you know, because we say we were like a family and all that, and then they were wondering if how accurate that was, and and it was for some it was. Well, you have to give the executive producers a lot of credit for the casting of the show, the way they picked their people, because there was such a sort of immediate connection that we all had and respect for each other and developed a real fondness and affection and grew into we were really a type family. And then when and we were rooting for each other, you know, and then when when Henry really, like you said, burst into this stratosphere, it was exciting, you know, it's really exciting to see it. And we knew it was good for the show, you know, so we never really it wasn't the jealousy and that kind of you know, resentment or anything like that. I mean, there might have been a couple of moments here and there where we would look at something that happened and you know, like the network ABC, you know, would be fawning over him so much, and you know and kind of ignoring us. You know, yeah, you know, the gifts like they give gifts at Christmas, and we'd all get this sort of normal gift and then Henry got like something crazy, you know, So then there was a little like wait a minute, you know, we're feeling like what are we chopped liver? You know. Yeah, but we didn't have any uh any hard feelings in any resentment to Henry at all, you know, I mean we was excited and as Anson would say, why why would have you upset? Henry bought me my house, you know, because meaning that the show got you know, so popular and number one in the country that you know, it kept going and made everybody more money and so so I mean he was joking, but it was a good joke. But anyway, there were no there was none of that weird stuff. It was all support and excitement and happiness.
That's great.
That makes me happy that that is a hard woman to hear, you and Anson became very close on the show, and that's something I think. I know, you guys aren't your characters. I mean, that's something you've had to deal with forever. But like I think fans love hearing that kind of things, like, oh, they're actually like they're close friends, they hang out in real life. How did that friendship develop?
Well, you know, the friendship with all of us, like I said, just happened pretty quickly and just kept growing. So we were all really great friends. But I'd say now like Anson and I like best friends, and we're probably even better friends than we were back then. That just you know, And there were some years where we didn't see each other that much because after I left the show after the seventh season, because they went for four more years after I left, so I didn't see Answer as much. And then we'd see each other here and there, and he was very busy directing a lot, and so it wasn't until we, I don't know, we got together for some baseball game that we were playing together and we just kind of said, hey, we got to get together more. And then we started to and we lived pretty close at this point. Twenty minutes away, So we just started doing more and more things together. Ron was now living on the on the East Coast, and Henry was still out in California, but he was busy and so I didn't see him as much. But Answer, I just became tighter and tighter, you know. So like now it's great and we're still all four, you know, still friends. We have like a group text so that the four of us, so that somebody texts, you know, and we all get it and we chime in, and so it's nice. It's a great way to keep it up, you know.
Oh that's all that makes me so happy that rules.
Is it true that you and Answer we're going to have a spin off together?
I heard that.
Yeah, yeah, that was a whole thing. What happened was they I guess they had the idea because they wrote an episode where the two of us decided to share an apartment together, and and you know, it became like an odd couple kind of thing. It was a funny episode. And then they then they showed it, you know, the network, and they go, yeah, yeah, this could be a show. And then they started talking more about it and they wanted to cast a girlfriend for me, and we had to bring in. We were reading with different girls, and I initially, when the executive producers talked to me about it, I wasn't sure I wanted to do that, because you know, i'd been playing this role for five six years at that point, I guess, and I knew what I was going to be facing when it was over, trying to get away from that so that I could play different kinds of roles and not just that. So I wasn't sure. And you know, we were doing great as a show. I wasn't sure about it, but they they kept talking to me and talked to me okay, made me think, okay, let's do it. And then it looked like it was I mean, they were already recording the title song, you know, for it, and then all of a sudden we hear ABC decided they're not going to do it. And I'm not sure what what happened, but I wasn't too upset, you know, I was kind of like, Okay, you know, it's not going you know where. Maybe in a different situation, I would have been pretty disappointed, but so I think it's it's probably better that we didn't even go there, because you know, spin offs are tough some of them. I mean Happy Days had so many Yeah, and la Verne, Shirley and Mork and Mindy didn't do too bad. But there were a few others that I don't think you know, that didn't make it. And it's it's always a little tricky. So anyway, that's the story there, And like I said, I was fine when when it didn't go.
Everything happens for a reason. Don Most is with us from Happy Days. We have so much more to get into. It's the ICE Smell Pop Culture Podcast. Stick around, everybody, We'll be right back. It's the I Smell pop Culture Podcast. We're here at Don Most, the legendary Don Most. Something I really want to ask you about. I'm so curious. I Ron Howard said that you were the one who actually coined the phrase jumping the shark. Like that was the story I heard on behalf of Ron Howard. Is that you look down the script and you're like, we're jumping sharks.
Now, that is that right?
Yeah? Well, yes, yeah, I mean he's right, And I heard some people I think sent me a link to the interview where he gave where he said that, and he's right, But I don't know that the way it caught on in our vernacular, if you will, in the culture. I don't know how that whether the thread was from me or not, because what happened was, like Ron said, uh, this was about the fifth season, I think, and and and I was starting. Ron and I talked a bunch about this during that year because we felt that the scripts just weren't great that year, you know, like it was starting to get a little far fetched, or you know, because Phonsie was character was so popular that I think ABC started like pushing, you know, the right pushing the executives of our show and producers you got to do keep doing more with you know, with Phonsie. We loved when he snapped his fingers and he made all the animals stop making noise or whatever, you know, and that was a funny bit. But then they just kept wanting to do more and more of that, and it started getting a little ridiculous, you know, and we were feeling the scripts are just going in a insurrection, and so then there was a reading Mondays. We would all sit around the table, those cast, the writer's producers and read through the script that was going to be done for this you know, that week and to shoot that Friday. So we're reading the script and you know, and then after it's over, you know, Ron and I kind of walked over to the side or something, and and Ron's kind of like, you know, what do you think. I don't know, what do you think about this script? And I looked at it. It was right. I remember it. I said, now they got him jumping a shark, and and Roan remembered I'd forgotten that I had said those exact words, but I think I did. I probably did. I remember saying to him, now they got Phonsie doing you know, viz and and so I I don't know how that would have gotten beyond me and Ron so that it got out there. But somehow, you know, I guess these these guys that had some kind of I don't know, I heard these guys had started started it by saying this is you know, when a show they coined the phrase jumping the shark, and that's when a show starts to you know, it's hit its peak and now it's starting to lose lose its lose ground. So I don't he wasn't in the room and I said that. So I don't know how it You know, so I can't take credit, but I probably did say it first.
I'm attributing it to you Don Moss here that you came up with that phrase. Uh so moving on from happy is a little bit that You've had so many incredible roles. I want to ask you. There's one that caught my eye that I want to ask you about. You were on an episode of Chips Yes Rock Devil Rock and anyone listening if you have, if you have not done a Chip's Deep Dive, you should and you should watch this episode. I think it's season six. But you're you're the singer in a like a kiss style rock band. Yeah, yeah, heavy metal. It's like, you know, it's kind of implied that it's satanic maybe a little bit. Yeah, people are protesting the concert.
Yeah, were singing Devil Take Me, you know, I mean it was like Satan worship, you know.
Yeah, so that's actually you singing the song.
Right, Actually not. No. What happened was I was supposed to because they knew that I sang yeah, and I was going to do it. And then the a day or two before I was supposed to go and to record it, I came down with this really kind of you know, chess cold or whatever. And no, I was like going, I don't know how I'm going to sing. And so they they told my agent told them and and they said, no, problemly, you know, we have somebody, you know, studio singer that can do it. So I was supposed to but I wound up not, which is too bad. It would have been nice to do it. But the guy, the guy saying, it's great voice. And it was fun lip syncing and performing to it. You know, it was a lot of fun.
There's a part in the performance where the character breathes fire like it takes a swig of like was that you.
No, No, that wasn't me. They had somebody a double, you know, so I had a face paint and all that in the hair, so you couldn't you couldn't really tell. But yeah, I didn't do that.
Was that fun making that episode and like playing that kind of character?
Yeah, it was. It was a lot of fun, you know, because it was so different, you know, and I was able to to bring out a whole different kind of side and and what was interesting about it. Then they showed in the episode, you know, at one point they showed I'm taking my all that makeup off and you see and then I'm like this regular normal kid. I'm not that way. That was just an act, you know, of this character. So that was kind of cool because although maybe it would have been even more fun if I continue, if that character came through even off stage, but that's a whole different a different way. But but it was kind of neat that you saw that I was just this normal kid and then this was my act.
You know, Yeah, I love it, And you're on a couple episodes of Glee. Yeah, and it's so cool. And you know now that I know you have this you said have an incredible voice. We'll talk about your singing in a bit, but you have this passion for music and Glee is I mean, of course a musically centered show.
Was that was that? Like?
Is that what drew you to that show? Like what brought you into the Glee universe?
It wasn't really that. I mean, yeah, the truth of the matter was that that for that one, they I went into audition like a bunch of other people. I just went in and auditioned for it because they wanted, you know, another ginger, a redhead, uh to be the father to Emma and and that the woman to play my wife would be a redhead that we were both gingers, you know, And so I auditioned for it, and you know, when I got the part, they music didn't enter into it at all. It wasn't like, oh, then we're gonna maybe have you you know, joined the cat in a song or something like that. That never came up. So it was just, yeah, it was just a regular, regular casting thing where I went in and read for it. But it was really fun because it was a great It felt almost reminded me in some way of happy days of how how well the cast worked together and how well the crew work. You know. It was really tight and well run and the people were great. So it was a really good experience. But but then I, you know, and then I played some other roles on TV TV scrolls that were different. I did a two part star Trek Voyager, where I played this sort of you know, a doctor that had a lot of evil, very you know what, not so well intentioned plans for you know, he was like the villain. He was like the villain of the piece. And so that was a completely different role. So that's what helped I kept you know, I kept chipping away and getting something a little bit different, then something even more different, and then people were like a little more open to trying me in different things. But for a while I still had to audition for you know, Chip Side. They just offered that to me, and luckily I had to. And but I auditioned for the Star Trek Voyager. It was tough because people are going, wait this guy for that part, you know, and a lot of times they wouldn't even let me read. But then but then I'd come in and get some of you know, get to read and get something. And then it started opening up. And then I started getting some independent films and a couple of studio films, small roles, but it's just started, you know, cracking that that, you know, the little opening in the wall start getting bigger and bigger. And then as I got older, I think it got a little easier because in the because I was more distanced from that character in terms of age and time. So although it's still on all the time, but obviously I'm in a different age bracket. So in the last five six years, as I think I mentioned, I've gotten to do more more films and a wide variety of different kinds of characters in the last four or five years than I had in the ten years before that or twenty years. So it's really been nice. And I mentioned you have a film coming out yes March that's very different, true story based on a book of the same name called Harson's Island Revenge and during Prohibition, and I play it's a very different role. I play the head of this gang. It was a real gang called the Purple Gang. You know, they were like a mob and they were vicious and this intense role. So I'm looking forward to I haven't seen it right, I'm looking forward to that and having it come out. I can't wait.
Yeah, Harson's Island Revenge, it's coming soon. Be on the lookout for that in theaters. And yeah, it's so cool.
You know, I don't know whether it's Netflix or Amazon. We'll see.
You were no slouched on most This man is working. You have albums out too. I mean you can go on Spotify or your streaming service and listen to your latest is called New York High and what a voice, man, I was listening to it this morning.
Incredible.
Oh, thank you so much. Yeah, Well, as I mentioned, you know, singing was my first first love, so to speak. And so it wasn't like, you know, all I decided, you know, at the age of you know, fifty five or whatever it was, that now, you know, I'll try to do this. I mean, that's when I was in my blood from the time I was nine years old wanting to do that, and I did do it when I was fifteen in those nightclubs, you know. So gutting back to it was and I'd done some singing in between, I did some musical theater, and every once in a while they'd be some you know, something on television where a variety show or telethon or where I'd get on and I and i'd bring it out do some of my some of that kind of music that I loved, which were the you know, the Great American Songbook but with the jazz field, jazz standards and swaying big band. And although this latest one isn't so much big band, it's a little more, but it's still the jazz standards, but it has a more contemporary kind of feel. So going back to it was, you know, it was like you know, riding a bike. It's just it was always always been there. So I decided. It was like about ten years ago. I said, well, if I'm ever going to do what I wanted to do with music, which was to do my own show and in the style or in the format of some of the greats that I loved growing up, you know, whether it be Sinatra or Nat King Cole, you know, Dino, Tony Bennett, all the great singers, and especially Bobby Darren, who I saw at the Copacabano when I was eighteen, and I was like, oh my god. So I wanted to do a show like that. And so I put it together, met a musical director, and we got some great musicians, and we tried it out at a jazz club in La It was called It's Vitello, and and you know, I said, let's I got to do it and see what happens. And the show when people were like, well, wow, we didn't know you could sing like that, and how come you didn't sing more on happy days? Why did Patzi get to do all the things? You know? I got all that, And so it was a great response. And then I did another club, and then I did some in New York, you know, a couple of jazz clubs, and and just and more and more in La and then it led to me meeting a producer, a musician, record producer, ranger named Willie Mario, and he he talked to me about doing an album together, and we did and that one's called The Most mostly swinging and with a great big band of top La jazz guys, and I was a blast. I loved it. And then another album that like you just alluded to, a New York High, which I did in Nashville with different musicians, different producer because has a different vibe, different style. But it came out really great too. So I'm real excited about that. And I'm going to be doing a show here because I'm living, like I said, live near Boulder, and I did a show at a jazz club out here called Dazzle in Denver, and they asked me to come back really quick because you know, it went so well. So I'm going back there and this Sunday I'm going to be doing shit awesome.
Okay, Well, if you're in the Boulder area and you want to see hang around your local jazz club, you never know who might pop up.
Don most might how long stage and sing some songs. That's awesome.
In Denver Dazzle called Dazzle.
Yeah, all right, John Most, you're just the absolute best. I have a couple more questions for you, if if we can stick around just a few more moments here on I Smell pop Culture. It's the icemo pop Culture podcast on I Am all In. My name is Easton Allen, and I'm sitting here with Don Most. We know him as Ralph Mauth from Happy Days, but he's so much more than that. So this is a Gilmore Girls podcast. And I'd be remiss if I didn't ask you about working with Mary and Ross. She was Mary in Cunningham on Happy Days. She had she was in Gilmore Girls. She had two roles in Gilmore Girls. Yeah, she played She played Laura Lei's grandmother, the main the mom, the main mom. Yeah, her her father's mother. It was Laurlai Trixie Gilmore. But you got to work with her too on Happy Days.
What was that like?
Oh, Maryon is the greatest. She's just it's so incredible. I mean as a as a as a person, as a just as a wonderful person and an actress. I mean she was one of the best. What you see, that's the way she is in a lot of what you see. I mean, she's she also has range as an actress and can play different characters. But but she's got such a great heart, and she's just so vibrant and and loving and funny and just unbelievable to work with. And it reminds me I need to give her a call. I haven't spoken to her in a while. And because when I lived back in you know, the LA area, I could pay her visits a little harder now, but I'm gonna I want to give her a call. I'm glad you brought her up. What was the other role that she played on Gilmore Growth?
Marion also played Marilyn Gilmore, who is TRIX's niece, So the grandmother's niece, Marilyn Richard who is louralized dad. It's her cousin, and she's in a couple episodes. But that's the other She's in two episodes. That's the other character that Marion Ross plays.
I'll have to try to kick those episodes.
Yeah, yeah, I'll send them over and then you can you can tell her you like, hey, Mary, and I'm just saw you Gilmore Girls.
What was that like?
Yeah, that's a good so you told me before we started that you and your wife watched a big Gilmore Girls when it was on.
Do you remember what was there something that stood out to you about that show?
I mean, you're such a your sitcom like legend, so I'm always interested when when guys that have your resume and your experience, when you'll watch another show like this, like kind of is there something stood out to you about The Gilmore Girls.
Well, I thought the writing was it was really really good writing. I like the tone, the sensibility of it. I really liked the actors. You know. I thought Lauren Braham I'd never seen her before, and I thought she was great. I loved her in that role and the relationship that she had with her daughter. I'm sorry, I forget.
Her her name, Alexis Plodell was the daughter.
Yeah, and she was and she was really so refreshing and genuine and and so that relationship between them I just loved. I remember, and then and some of the other characters. I didn't watch it, you know, for what it was kind of regularly for a while, but then you know, I lost touch with it for a while and get back to it, so I don't and it was a while ago because it was when it was originally broadcast, so it was a while ago, but I just remembered and the warmth it had and the humor. I thought, all the combinations worked really well and the cast awesome.
I mean, that's what we love about it too, and I love that that that's what stood out to you. Don Moss. You've just been so generous with your time. Thank you so much for hanging out with us and everybody listening. You should go check out Harson's Island Revenge when it comes out in March, and uh yeah, and also put on an episode Happy Days when you're sitting at home, just put on and check out Ralph and watch some great Ralph moments.
He's so much fun.
Well, thank you for I have to look on YouTube for those great Ralph moments.
Don There are multiple, there's like if you look up best Ralph moments, there's like ten that coming. Like people can't pick their favorite. There's so many.
Yeah, you brought that up. Thank you.
That's awesome. Thank you so much, and I hope you have a great rest of your day.
Appreciate it's a pleasure chatting with you. Really enjoyed it.
Everybody I guess.
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