Everybody Loves Phil Rosenthal, And Now We Know Why!

00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hey, that folks.

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Speaker 2: It is Sunday, May twenty fourth, And excuse the noise in the background, but we are sitting backstage right now at the Bottle Rock Music Festival, and we're sitting in a tent where.

00:00:13
Speaker 1: We just had one of the coolest conversations.

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Speaker 2: One of the coolest dudes we've ever had the pleasure of hanging out with. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ.

00:00:22
Speaker 1: Rose.

00:00:22
Speaker 2: We're in a music festival talking about a guy who was behind one of.

00:00:27
Speaker 1: The greatest sitcoms ever. How did all this come together?

00:00:31
Speaker 3: Yes, it was a little confusing.

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Speaker 4: Why are we getting the privilege of speaking with Phil Rosenthal, who created CBS's probably most successful sitcom Everyone Everybody Loves Raymond, who now has a wildly popular Netflix show called Somebody Feed Phil. He made this incredible, epic transition from being a creative writer, producer, comedian to taking some of those skills and bringing it to the culinary and travel world.

00:01:02
Speaker 3: So he has now found a way to have.

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Speaker 4: A second wildly successful career as a food and travel host and entertaining us all along the way. But it was what he told us about what he's trying to teach the rest of us. That made it so cool to hear his story, the struggles he had, but the goal he has for all of us. When we watch him, we shouldn't just be entertained. We should actually be learning something about the world.

00:01:28
Speaker 3: And with that, everyone, please take a.

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Speaker 4: Listen to our fascinating conversation with the great Phil Rosenthal.

00:01:35
Speaker 3: All right, Bill, thank you for being with us today.

00:01:38
Speaker 1: Hello, Hello, You know you can hear the music. Yes, that's because I'm supposed to be singing out there.

00:01:43
Speaker 3: Oh really, what's your good saying?

00:01:46
Speaker 1: I'm done? Tenth Avenue, Freezeft, Bruce Springsteen. You know that one? No, I didn't know that one. You don't know thunder Road. You're like that Thad It's born to run album. There you go, Phil, you had to here. We are bottle rock.

00:02:04
Speaker 4: Yes.

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Speaker 2: And if somebody dropped out as a musical performer and says, Phil, we need you to go up there and sing. What would could you actually pull off a song in front of a crowd?

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Speaker 1: I could could. Nobody would like it, but I could do it. Now.

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Speaker 4: This is your first time at Battle Rock and it's bringing together food, travel.

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Speaker 1: Music, things you love, things I love.

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Speaker 3: What are we going to see from you on stage.

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Speaker 1: It's just such a silly thing. They are actually excited for me to go on stage and taste food, and there'll be a thousand people out there standing out there watching me eat and getting excited. I don't understand it. I don't understand the world. But I was invited. This seems like a very good time.

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Speaker 2: So here I am, and let us say, first, congratulations and second, how did you do it? Because that's the we want. It is a chief you want people cheer for us when we do it.

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Speaker 1: I guess it's because I have a show where I travel and eat and people seem to enjoy that, so they want to see the live version.

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Speaker 3: I love it.

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Speaker 4: Your reaction to what you eat. Do you have a favorite food period?

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Speaker 3: Pizza? Oh me too?

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Speaker 4: Right?

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Speaker 1: Well kind of pizza, you know, that's a great question. I'm from New York, so I love a New York slice, but I also love all the other styles. Grandma's style to Drake or Detroit stun tavern style, which is thin and crispy, right Sicilian slice if it's done well, deep dish if it's done well. I don't care what like, I have no loyalty. It's like sports. I like the great players. I don't really need to have a team to root for. If somebody's great, like Brunson the Nicks, I'm rooting for him to do well. So my pizza is the same, and it's the same with every food. It doesn't matter. There's no loyalty. There's no you can't say I don't like that kind of food. If you say I don't like that kind of food or that ethnic style of food, that means there's probably a spice in there or something that you don't like. There's probably a great version that you haven't tasted yet. So my advice to everybody is to keep trying new things. What would you line up for?

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Speaker 2: I'm curious about we see sometimes we have a favorite dish in New York, a favorite place to go. Yes, is there a restaurant or even a dish that you would actually line up on the street. It's so good that I will wait here to get this thing. In particular, there.

00:04:48
Speaker 1: Was a hot dog place in Chicago, and I love this place so much that I wanted to bring my wife. So when my wife came with me to Chicago, I had to ca drop us off was kind of far from the hotel. So now we're there and there's a long line today, and we waited an hour and a half for a hot dog. But the hot dog was so good. I said to Monica, this is worth it. You should do it. Does she believe you? After she had she had no choice. She's married to me. She had no choice. She couldn't get home by herself. It was she was stuck. That's a metaphor for life. She's stuck with me. So and we had the hot dogs and they were phenomenal. Sometimes the way if it isn't too crazy, kind of makes it better.

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Speaker 4: You're anticipating it. I get it, and I love a hot dog. You just named two of my favorites. Yes, and I love it. It's not highbrow, it's just but if it's gone well, pizza and hot dogs, I'd rather have.

00:05:45
Speaker 1: A good pizza or hot dog than a four hour French tasting menu at this point in my life. Yes, right, I mean there was a time when you first discovered high end dining where it becomes like, oh my god, it's Disneyland. I can't believe how great this experiences and how long it lasts. Now I don't want it to last for every long my back hurts thinking about this meal. Now I can't do it.

00:06:10
Speaker 4: Do you have a favorite country, a favorite city, a favorite place with many? Yeah?

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Speaker 1: I mean if you had to, are you gonna pick a few?

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Speaker 3: You got?

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Speaker 2: You got?

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Speaker 3: You got a month left to live. Where are you going Japan?

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Speaker 1: Have you been? Yes? So you know, my daughter's on her honeymoon there right now, and she's sending me pictures and I'm just so happy for her because anyone you send, like tell them to go, or anyone that goes after you've been, you start getting their first reactions and you're just so happy for them, you know, because Japan is another it's another planet in terms of.

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Speaker 3: Quality, and they take their sushi seriously. It's nothing like the United States.

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Speaker 1: Wait, we have some good places because Japanese people have emigrated here. Listen, the whole theme of my show might be after eight seasons, I think I got it. Immigrants They make most places they go to better, not worse. This is my message, your message there through food. But there's a bigger message there is it That a lot of people say we should be building a wall, and I say, how about a table?

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Speaker 2: What response, do you get Now, that's quick and that's clever, but it actually makes sense to be honest with you, that the only answer. How is that answer being received? When is anybody seem to be open to yes? Is it catching on? I should say it.

00:07:39
Speaker 1: I have a feeling I'm preaching to the converted here and I feel like if I was to walk out on stage today in front of Bottle Rock in Napa, California, I have a feeling they would be receptive. I also think that most of the world is receptive to that, because that's how most of the world actually is. In real life. We see a tiny percentage of humanity represented in the news. The news gives you the outstanding things that happen in life, the outstanding things, the things that are not the usual are the negative ones. Because most of the world and most people are sweet and nice like you. And that's what I find. So if you think my show is positive, it is why because that's what I'm finding. I'm not manufacturing it. I'm finding ninety nine point nine percent great, sweet nice. Did you know or suspect that's what you were going to find? No, because you watch the news, like, for example, they said We're gonna film in Vietnam this year, right, so I go, oh, god, Vietnam. What do I know about Vietnam? I know Apocalypse Now and The Deer Hunter and Platoon and the news from when we were growing up. Yeah, and people tell me, know, this the best vacation place we've ever been. Really, Okay, we'll try. I go.

00:09:06
Speaker 3: Have you been, No, We've been on our list. It's on our bucket list.

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Speaker 1: So if you go, you're gonna find a lush paradise. That's nothing what you expect. There's hardly any reminders of the Vietnam War. By the way, you know what they call the Vietnam War in Vietnam, No, what are the American War?

00:09:27
Speaker 3: That makes sense.

00:09:28
Speaker 1: So suddenly you get an entire perspective shift. But the news is in the business of perpetuating fear, so you keep watching. They don't show you all the planes that landed safely. Today.

00:09:44
Speaker 2: I'm gonna start leading our daily news podcast. Yes with that, this is what went well today. You make a very good point.

00:09:53
Speaker 1: It doesn't hurt, it doesn't listen. I know you have to report the news, but the news, by definition is the off that stands out. But there's nothing wrong with sprinkling a little yeah positivity into the world, right.

00:10:18
Speaker 3: Phil. It's so cool to actually get to meet you in person.

00:10:20
Speaker 4: I mean, you have a joy and a warmth that just radiates from you.

00:10:25
Speaker 1: And it's really contagious because I'm the luckiest guy you're ever going to have on your podcast. I'm the luckiest guy in the world. Look what I get to do, Look who I get to be.

00:10:36
Speaker 4: And I was just going to ask you how you did it. Obviously you're a comedic genius. Obviously you've thought I don't know that, award winning shows, and you've made careers happen, and you you're.

00:10:47
Speaker 3: A self proclaimed foodie. How did you? How did you go from doing.

00:10:53
Speaker 4: What you did on the small screen in the big screen to then now becoming this food entrepreneur.

00:11:00
Speaker 1: I don't even know.

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Speaker 3: How do you describe yourself what you do?

00:11:03
Speaker 1: I don't know either. I'm gonna say I feel like a Goodwill ambassador when I'm doing what I'm doing. I'm only using food in my stupid sense of humor to get you the real message of the show, which I think you get, that the world would be better if we all could experience a little bit of other people's experiences. That's the point. But no one would put on a show that purports to be that. It sounds like you got to take your medicine. But what's the song. A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down. So food we all love, and laughs we all love. So if I put those together, I can sneak in the little message. I'm actually not even sneaking it in. It's just there. Like I said, I find these beautiful people around the world, and the joy you get is my joy in meeting them.

00:11:57
Speaker 2: How does this where in your Hollywood journey?

00:12:01
Speaker 4: Right?

00:12:01
Speaker 1: You wanted to make an impression in Hollywood and you did.

00:12:04
Speaker 2: Where along the lines were as you were producing hit shows and whatnot? Did you have this thought about having this part of your career or did you just fall into it and look into.

00:12:15
Speaker 1: It and here we are. So I made the show Everybody Loves Raymond, And during that show, I had this idea, based on talking to ray Romano and his i'm gonna say nervousness about travel, that we were gonna do a show set in Italy and we were gonna send him over there as him and he was gonna come back as me, someone excited about travel, and especially Italy and the food and Italy and the people in Italy. And it took me a few years to convince him to get on a plane because he was a little afraid of flying too. But I wrote a show literally about his personality, not wanting to go complaining the whole time. And then during the episode he gets the magic of Italy and travel in general. And when that happened and I saw the change actually happened to ray the person while we were there in Italy, I said, oh, wow, what if I could do this for other people?

00:13:11
Speaker 3: That is such a cool story. Yes, life imitating.

00:13:14
Speaker 1: Art exactly right. And then after Raymond, I forgot about that dream because Raymond rain For nine years. After that, I thought my purpose in life was to write other sitcoms. So I did, and nobody wanted them. The business changed in the nine years that we were doing Raymond. They didn't want that type of show anymore. So I knocked my head against the wall for a couple of years after Raymond, What's wrong with me? Why don't they want what I do?

00:13:43
Speaker 4: Oh?

00:13:43
Speaker 1: They want you what you do, just they want you to be more Hip and Edgie. I said, well, you got the right guy. I missed hipp and Edgie. I was thinking the same, Yes, so I go I think they said sexy and my wife fell off the couch. So I I thought, if I'm gonna knock my head against the wall, how about the dream that I had? And so we went to every network, every cable station. Nobody wanted because I don't have to tell you to change lanes in Hollywood is a hard thing or anything in life, right, changing lanes. It took me ten years. I just got chills the success of Raymond ten years to get the first iteration of somebody feet Phil, which was called I'll have what Phill's having That was on PBS. We did six episodes there and then Netflix, this new startup came along Netflix and said we want this show.

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Speaker 4: So I have chills from head to toe because anyone listening, if you have a dream, people get told no, and they just back away. They walk away to hear that someone with your success sixteen Primetime Emmys had to spend ten years to figure out how to get your dream.

00:14:53
Speaker 1: Exactly right the launch pad.

00:14:55
Speaker 3: That's just remarkable.

00:14:56
Speaker 1: We're here for a limited amount of time, why not pursue your dream? Why not? I look, if you make something a priority in your life, you simply won't stop until you do it. Now, it could be that along the road, your priority is to eat and feed your family. I understand that's a better priority, and you give up the pipe dream of having a travel in food show. Right. I understand that I was lucky. Why because I made my money already and so I could afford to pursue this dream. But people do it without money, as I did before Raymond. So once I had it, now what Listen, A lot of people, I understand, would have given up a lot of people would have thought this is a silly dream to begin with. But who's laughing?

00:15:48
Speaker 2: Now? You know when you said it, I have to ask him about this?

00:15:54
Speaker 1: You know TV?

00:15:55
Speaker 2: You know this business you said when everybody loves Raymond ended? Yes, the industry had changed that they didn't want what you want him? What does the industry want for a sitcom or TV or whatever?

00:16:07
Speaker 1: The sitcoms do you see on TV right now?

00:16:09
Speaker 2: I can't think of but the one with Sed the entertainer right now. To be honest with you, but I don't know. What do you see is in terms of the industry, what people are watching, what people are Is there a sitcom anymore?

00:16:20
Speaker 1: Is it gonna go away?

00:16:21
Speaker 2: I'm just curious of what your take is on an industry that's changed so much since the Raymond left that.

00:16:26
Speaker 1: They didn't even want your hit writing. So there's always been a limited amount of let's say stars, right, Uh, there's there's one Tom Hanks, there's one Tom Cruise. Those stars are gonna be there. Those, but they're gonna be different. The kid who writes, directs, produces, and makes a movie with AI on his phone, and it's good that kid will be a star.

00:16:58
Speaker 2: Wow. Wow.

00:17:00
Speaker 1: So that's what I mean by the business changes. It's just gonna be over here now. So old people like me and maybe you, yes we're over thirty, have no idea what's coming and don't won't understand that, just as our parents didn't understand what we do. I yield, that's that's what's gonna I think that's what's gonna happen. Why, Because that's what's happened every generation.

00:17:26
Speaker 3: Wow, it is.

00:17:27
Speaker 4: It is remarkable to see what you've done, and we know your time is limited.

00:17:30
Speaker 1: By the way. Let me tell you one thing. Yes towards that. Yes, my show is moving is the first show to move from Netflix to YouTube next year. Wow, because that's the direction I see things are going. YouTube is the biggest platform in the world. They have two billion viewers. Why don't you get in on some of that.

00:17:50
Speaker 3: Yep, we are, We're working on it. We are working on it.

00:17:53
Speaker 4: And also just wanted to say, you got your shirt on Max and Helen's Yes, you.

00:17:57
Speaker 3: Talk about waiting in line. People wait in.

00:17:59
Speaker 4: Line to even just get a reservation to your restaurant, all in honor of your parents.

00:18:04
Speaker 3: That is that is such a beautiful, beautiful gift to them and their memory.

00:18:10
Speaker 1: My daughter and her husband run the diner with Nancy Silverton as the executive chef, and it's just a very good version of a diner. But it is just a diner. But that tells you something else. We're all craving comfort.

00:18:26
Speaker 4: Today, comfort, laughter, entertainment, inspiration.

00:18:31
Speaker 3: You have it all. Thank you so much.

00:18:34
Speaker 1: It's so nice to be with you. Thank you.

00:18:36
Speaker 3: It was our pleasure.