I Am All In…Again: Earning Her Grade with Michael York (Season 4 E19 “Afterboom”)

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Hi everybody, Scott Patterson, I am all in Podcast, one of them productions. iHeart Radio Media. iHeart Podcasts. Recap, Season four, episode nineteen After Boom very special guest Megan Duffy. Hello Megan. Let me tell you a little something about Megan. She played one of the ladies hitting on Professor Fleming at his book reading Guilty that Rory and Paris attended. Megan, how is it watching your episode back?

It was my first TV job, so when I see it, it's a little baby me who showed up. I had no idea what I was doing whatsoever. It was my second time on the Warner Brothers lot. The first time was only to audition, so I just just look.

At like young naive. I mean, it was twenty two years ago.

We shot that in two thousand and four, So I just look at baby Me and I think, Wow, I wish I could go back to that time now knowing.

What I know. Well, before you got the role, were you were you a fan of the show.

So I didn't watch the show simply because I didn't have like a TV or cable. I had a bunch of friends who watched it. And then also it was you know, I was a struggling artist, so I had, you know, four or five different side jobs, so I wasn't really home a lot to be able to watch. But I hear my friends talking about it, so I was very familiar, and I knew I was missing out on something important.

All right, Well we're going to talk about After Boom. Episode nineteen, scenes four, Air date April twenty seven, two thousand and four. Synopsis. Luke gets divorced. Jason gets pushed out, which makes Laurela I come to a difficult.

Decision between her parents and Jason.

Rory questions her grade with Professor Fleming in a hilarious scene, and a major decision between Richard and Emily is figured out by Laurel I. Directed by Michael Sindberg, written by Sheila Lawrence. Jason is getting snubbed out, Emily and Richard are separated. Jason is at the golf riends trying to smooth things out over with some clients or former clients.

Doesn't know that they are former clients yet, but they keep brushing him off. Then he tells Laurel I, and we have another guest. And who is this very special guest with those piercing eyes?

Oh?

This is Iris, the cat, Iris.

The cat. Hello, Iris, My good look at those eyes. Look at those.

She's always trying desperately to be discovered, so.

Well, got my attention. Look at that? Huh, he tells Laura I. Jason tells Laura he got a call from Richard's lawyer that he's going back to work with Floyd, Jason's father and taking all the clients. When Laura I can't believe her dad would do this, a lot of outrage to go around. Laurai goes to Richard and Emily's to confront her dad about Jason. He gets upset because all Laura I cares about is our boyfriend. Emily talks to Richard about it, concerned that Laurai is going to shut them out? Is it, Megan? Is it tough to hear?

But I think Richard says Laura is justified when she goes over to defend Jason.

I mean, I don't know. I don't love the Jason character. I think that he know that he takes advantage. I just think he's an opportune So I think that, you know, Lourla, she's those rose colored glasses on where she you know, just wants him to succeed in isn't really looking at the bigger picture in my opinion.

You do you agree with Do you agree with Richard that Laurla only think of what's happened to her boyfriend rather than her own parents? And that's a pretty cutting remark by Richard.

Yeah, I mean I agree, And.

Then even more cutting and what's even more disappointing Laura I is that I'm not surprised. It's like, whoa lowering the boom on his adult daughter? All right? Then for Emily to swing it back around defense with Laura I when she tells Richard she doesn't want her to lose her as a result of this, it is that a surprising turn of events for you? No?

No, I mean I think, you know, I think her parents, like for how much kind of strife there is in the relationship, they.

You know, they ultimately.

Love their daughter and they want to see her succeed and they want her to be happy.

And I think they just they know Jason's not it.

You know, what I love about this storyline is that we see the Gilmore's close ranks and they band together and it's like, you're not I can't be with somebody who's going to assume my family, and we're all going to stick together. And then we realize this is called a caused a rupture in Emily and rural Emily and Richard's marriage, which is a very interesting development. Anyway, some some real strange goings on in the Gilmore house. Everybody's breaking up. Laurla is breaking up with Jason, Luke's getting a divorce, her parents are split up. What is happening to this?

Well, well, good for learning, right, yeah, yeah, he seems like thinking good spirits.

Hilarious scene by the way, really great scene inside the post office. Really just had a kick out of that one. Well, anyway, here we go, Rory more hilarious scenes. Uh. She gets an A from Professor Fleming. She is suspicious about why she got this a, having not the greatest confidence in the quality of her paper. And then she well, let's just do it chronologically. Uh, she imparised attend the reading of professor Professor Fleming's new book. This gave me the he b gbs a little bit. This this scene, the girls all all the young girls you included. You were the lead girl in this. Uh, we're going gaga over Professor Fleming. Uh. Doyle ends up telling Rory that he has a new young fling every year, the Professor Fleming

has a new young player. And it had one of the great lines in the entire episode because Dooyle walks in with a handful of cooks, he said, take some of these. I don't want to. I don't want people thinking I'm a pig. What do you think of that scene? Did watching it back? Did it make you uncomfortable? What do you think about this relationship between between these two with the with with such a huge gap and age difference.

I mean he's in his well into his sixties and she's a teenager.

I mean it's a tale as old as time, isn't it that you get, you know, someone with this kind of rock star persona and in this I mean you Michael York is playing right, and you know he's an older man, but he is so charming and you know what. I remember walking into the audition and just like asking questions because I wasn't watching the show, and they said it's Michael York and I was like, oh, and I smiled.

I think he's just a great actor, and the idea of like, oh, I could spend a day with him, and then on set he didn't disappoint, Like he is just so lovely.

In between takes, he was telling me the.

Most amazing stories about his life and being encouraging. And I kept holding the stack of books wrong and I kept getting reprimanded by the script supervisor and he was like, it happens to me too, and he joked about how fast everybody talks on the show, and like by the end of it, I was like, I get it. I feel like I'm in love with this guy. He's just really so it makes sense.

But but you know, age gap.

Relationships, some of them are okay, but a lot of them are just inherently problematic.

I just don't think. I don't think it's anybody's business. You know. It's like it's hard enough to find, you know, that spark, and if you find it, who cares? It's just and every relationship, whether their age appropriate or not, or have inherent risk and inherent problems. And it's just it's like, I just this whole you know, this whole thing about you know, it's just I just think people should just my own business worry about they should worry.

They should worry about themselves and their relationships. They got they got enough problems. They don't need to worry about other people.

I think the issue is when it's like you've got the person in the position of power and it's like there's a new girl every year, that it does make people talk.

But I don't know.

I got to say from being the Redhead, I.

Love that guy.

Yeah. I met him at Paramount. There was an audition. There was a big audition for a movie called The Phantom that he was ultimately cast in, starring Billy Zayne, And I was going in for the Billy Zaye part and obviously did get it. But I did meet him in the room in the in the waiting room, and he was he was great. Yeah, I mean, he was just a very charming guy. And I remember watching him and when I was younger, you know, growing up, and he was like the heart throb of all heart throbs and film, this this great looking guy who had this real training behind him, like you know, the Shakespearean trained actor.

Just you know, he was everything that the entertainment world wanted at that time and still does all right, So Rory thinks that her her grade isn't isn't deserved for some reason. She thinks it's because you know, asher Is is doing a little housekeeping and keeping you know, the people in in Paris's orbit happy and quiet. Maybe you know, I don't know. Well. She thinks she didn't do well in questions fleming about it, wants to earn her grade, which can be taken one of two ways. Supposed she knows about him, then she could have played it another way and we had completed her meaning completed. But he reassures her the reasons why she did do well and tells her never to question his grading tactic again. That

was some scene. That really was some scene, and the humor in it was And she made a comment about your thighs.

Yeah, here's the funny thing about that.

I mentioned.

It was my first ever TV job, So when the script was messengered over to me, I was so nervous. I just focused on my scene. I was told one day, one scene, Okay, I didn't read the rest of the script. So when I met Alexis on set, she said to me, you don't have fat thighs at all.

Yeah, I didn't think so.

And I was appreciative of that, but I didn't get the context. So I just thought it was like kind of a strange remark.

And I said thank you.

And then when I watched the episode, then I was like, oh, that's what she meant.

So you came on set thinking people were talking about your.

Fat thigh or it was, yeah.

Like what's wrong with this cast? What's going on? Like casting? Let everybody know, Hey there's a girl, new girl coming on and she got big thighs.

Yeah, it was just very very funny, you know it kind of I just oh, oh, oh, thank you, you know.

And obviously she meant no ill will. She was trying to make me feel good about the But.

I didn't even know the line was there, like I said, until I saw the full episode.

So I learned a big lesson. Read the whole script.

Well, yeah, probably most of the time. Let me ask you this, do you think Rory should have confronted him? And do you really feel that's the reason she confronted him because she thought she didn't deserve the grave?

Me think, I mean, I think her motive was after you know what Danny Strong says to her. Also, Danny strong, amazing, amazing dude took me under his wing and made me feel less like I didn't know what I was doing.

He's like, oh, you just kind of fake it, you know.

Introduced me to the Violent Fems that day. I wasn't really aware of their music, and Emembers like having some downtime and he played some songs for me, and I.

Was liked, this band's great.

But I think his remark to her, uh triggered, you know, because Rory's a protector, you know, she's always trying to protect her mom.

She's really the adult in this situation.

So I think when he said that, it triggered something in her that really wanted her to protect Paris. And so I think the motivation of her to kind of bring that up is to also say, hey, I know what you're up to to the professor, but without actually saying that.

But why would she do that?

Why on earth? But why on earth would she do that?

Because young women are impulsive.

That's why.

Just I don't know, I just she was so removed from it during the signing, she was so creeped out by the entire thing. We've vicariously experienced her her gross out when they were making out and she spied them, and then all of a sudden she comes up and she why is there something deeper going on? Why would she Why is that scene in the episode?

I think I think she wants to protect her friends, and maybe there is a bit of her too that's just so self conscious about.

Her own writing. You're right, because of after what Doyle told her about, you know, the war, the revolving door that Fleming has.

Yeah, I think she doesn't want her friend to get hurt, and I think she wanted to be like I, you know, I know what you're up to. But you know, at the same time, she is self conscious about her writing, and so I think it's it's too It's like a double motivation.

Mm hmm. Interesting seeing how good the writing is.

I mean, what an incredible show.

It's just you don't you just don't get this anywhere else. I gotta admit, I love the actress who played Lane's replacement. Just such a terrific job and such a funny thing. But it's like, I just think this is for me. This storyline is getting a little tired. Ah, and I thought it. I don't know that they're going into the house and kissing mom on the forehead and all that.

It just sort of felt a little melodramatic to me. It's just a little much. What is your reaction to about that? You know, Lane's constant outrage and constant It's just like, I don't know it, it's just feeling a bit much for me. How do you feel about it?

I think, I mean, I think Leanne needs to go drum it out, boom boom. But you know, this is also in two thousand. This is in two thousand and four where we didn't all have like a phone on us at all times. So it's so weird to see someone just like walk into a house and like spy on people without saying like, hey, I'm coming over or something like that. And so that's kind of what about that scene gave me the creeps. But in the in the context of the time, maybe it's not so odd.

But she's definitely I think she's struggling. You know, she's kind of the mom to this band, and she's I think she's really struggling to figure out where she fits in, and so seeing her mom giving this motherly attention to another person who's not her, I think just really sets her off, and she seems to have a hard time just self regulating about it. And my whole thing is to ask your mom, why Just talk to your mom about what's going on. Just say, hey, who's that new girl?

Why is she wearing my clothes? That's how I would confront something, not just make up something.

In my head, the writer in me wants to I want Lane to go on a bender. I really want her to go on a bender. I don't want her to go in the house and kiss her mama on the forehead. I want Lane to go on such a bender that her mom has to come look for her and kiss her on the forehead. You know what I mean?

What I think that's what bothers me about it. It's like, stop going to her, Yeah, do your thing, drum, go to the end of it. Get involved with some bad people or good people that do some shots. Come on, man, right, take it to the end of it. That's what I wanted to say, But I don't know if the show can accommodate that. Do you think that's what are the boundaries of show? Do you think that's outside the boundaries of this show?

I mean, I feel like there's a world where your version is maybe what was existing first and then the you know network comes in and was like what if not? You know, I found like for a lot of my friends who are working writers, you know, they'll have a great idea and then win something. You're watching a show and there's scene or a kind of closure on something that seems just a little too like, like you said, melodramatic.

You asked them later in they're usual like studio note. So maybe it was a situation like that where they didn't want to promote you know, binge drinking or something thing it was sacrony.

Yeah, but this show does that. But I thought they do that, they do it better than how they did it there. And I just I don't know who cares what I think. After a band meeting pre prepping for a gig, Lane leaves for the grocery shore. But on it while we know this that confrontation with and I just I apologize for not knowing her name. She was on the show, she was on the podcast. Susan Lee. Yeah, Susan Lee. Susan Lee was a great guest and it was just such a great performance.

That scene is so funny, and.

I see I wanted to see more of her. Yeah, it's like, give me, give me more of her, give me that relationship and stop with the Lane feeling mooney about it all the time. And I want to see missus him and and Susan Lee go, you know, existing and bonding. That's what I want to say. Anyway, who cares what I think? Did I just say that.

People care what you think?

Yeah? So I thought the gig was pretty darn good, right, They sounded really good.

That's my friend Todd Lowe in there in the band.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, he's getting all the chicks, you know.

And that was also a very cool You know, when you're an actor, a lot of times your family is like they don't quite understand what you do for a living. But I had a cousin who was a huge fan of skid Row, So when she watched the episode, she was like, oh, you're in the.

Same episode as Sebastian Bach.

And so for a little moment, I was cool, Well, at least you had that.

Yeah, all right, So they do the gig and they're rocking and they've hit a new level and things couldn't be better.

But oh sad little Lane. I mean, it's like, damn it, and I'm just screaming at the screen. Stop feeling sorry for yourself and go on a bender, Go have some damn fun.

Why are you doing this? This is not an empty dream that without mommy, it doesn't mean anything. It's like this is your dream, right, Yeah, so I was a little confused. I wanted her to, yeah, throw back some shots, get a little wild, you.

Know, find someone to make out with.

Find somebody to answer with. At least, you know, maybe it's a girl, maybe it's two girls. So come on a little spice it up a little bit. Anyway, sad little Lane heads home, goes through buying's exchange student room, and then she goes becauses her sleeping mother on the forehead. All right, you know, no question. Definitely sweet moments in a sweet show. I'm sure the fans responded positively to this.

I did not. I just did. I did not like these scenes. And I'm going to be right up front with you about it. I just wanted to go I don't know. I just think when you got a chance, and especially in a show like this, right where you expect it to be, you know, a little polyannish, no dark, when you can go dark, a little bit. You know, you don't have to go you know, to go all the way, to just go dark, just push it off a little bit, all right. Final thoughts, Final thoughts overall, what do you think of the episode?

It's a pretty fun episode, A lots accomplished, you know, from Luke's divorce to kind of we get rid of Jason by the end, right he's so it just it seems to really in terms of the characters, give them a lot of resolution to move forward in their storylines. I mean, I loved, you know, starting off with the Luke divorce. I just thought it was like his nonchalant miss about it of going into just like a mailboxes, et cetera, to just sign a form and what it means to him versus what it means to Laura. I just thought that was a really interesting conversation, and it's a conversation that I think a lot of people have about, you know, what does the paperwork mean and what is the dissolution of a marriage. I just thought it was

so smart and bringing into different perspectives. You know, the dinner party scene where you know you're just trying to figure out like what's going on with Mom and like that's really clever.

Are you sorry to see Jason go? No, it looks like he's going. You never you never bought into that, You didn't.

No, I didn't think that he was right for her. It just there was a like I get what she liked him, but there was just something about him where I was like, there's like a darkness in that character, like that cutthroat miss.

Then I just think she deserves better.

Well, you know, he he sprung onto the scene with bad intentions, didn't he? I mean right from the get go. And Emily sniffed him out right away. So yeah, he wasn't going to be a pillar here.

His wardrobe everybody on this show is impeccably dressed, and every time he was on Stred I was like, what is he wearing?

He just kind of looks like a jerk.

And do you remember the scene where, you know, after they first where they consummated their relationship and he didn't want her to sleep in the bed with him, so he put her in the gas room. Did you see that episode? Remember?

I remember that? Yeah? I haven't thought about it a long time.

Oh yeah, But you know, the thing, the thing I liked about it is like he really owned his quirkiness and he justified it for me. I'm like, all right, all right, you know, he put her in a good room and she's happy as a plan, but very strange. So it was never going to amount too much. You know, placeholders, you know, have their place, and he was definitely a placeholder.

So what are you doing now? Tell us about any new projects or anything that you're getting into now.

I mean, I'm still in the game. Hold on for dear life. You know, the industry has definitely changed, you know since we had the twenty plus episode seasons. But so, something I did while I was simultaneously acting in the in the mid two thousands was I was also producing a lot of music videos and commercials and so and indie films, and so I've been doing a lot of that lately. And I've got like three things with first time female directors that we've made that are in post production I'm so excited about. And then the thing I can talk about that I've acted in is this film it's called Grossies Padre that we shot last year in Masolan, Mexico, from a first time writer, director Jen Kuhn, and it's based on her real life story of finding out at

age forty that she was the product of sperm donation, and she because of twenty three and me, and she kind of tracks down who she.

Believes her biological father to be.

She doesn't confront him, but she's written a story about what if she did confront him. So I got to play her half sister in it. And we all moved to Mexico for a little while and shot it, and it's she's just now finished it. It's having its first screening soon and then I guess we'll see where it goes from there. You never know with an indie film.

But that's the one thing I can talk about that I'm excited about.

That's very exciting. Have you seen a rough cut?

Yeah?

And is it good? You like it?

I mean, it's just was so beautiful there. Everything's really colorful. And we were on the beach a lot, and that's shot beautifully.

Mazitlan, Mexico. Where is that it's.

It's down by Wahaka.

Yeah, it's like a two and a half hour plane ride from Los Angeles, so.

You're down by the Wahaka. Beaches are incredible down there.

I mean, it was just beautiful.

I took a vacation down there one hundred years ago, and I've never seen beaches that beautiful.

I mean they're just so and you know when you go to the restaurants and you know all the fish it was caught that day, everything, I mean, the food that was, the people. It was just really an incredible experience. And right in the center of town there was this music school, and when the lessons were going on and rehearsals were going on, it's all open air. So you would be walking through the streets, like on the way back from getting a coffee, and you would just hear music echoing just all through the neighborhood. And my most magical experience was coming back from a coffee walk and hearing the strings section of their orchestra playing eleanor Rigby.

Oh my god, do do do like?

It was really magical.

Oh. The Mexican people are just They're just gorgeous people, aren't they. They're so giving and generous. Oh, they just they just take care of you. There's it's such a beautiful, beautiful country. Yeah, I mean that experience on those beaches, wow, And there's nobody on them, and I'm sure we've just ruined it. Haven't we.

Well, there there was a couple of days, like on the weekends, they were definitely a little more crowded.

Oh is that right with families?

Yeah, And well we were there in like March and April when it's very warm, but it's not stifling yet with the heat in the summer.

I guess it's impossible.

But so it was just like really perfect, like eighty five degrees.

Yeah, I I didn't want to leave. Tell you did not want to leave, all right, So we're gonna we're gonna wrap it up. Thanks for joining us, Megan. Please feel free to come back if you do more Gilmore episodes. Not just kidding.

I wish maybe there'll be another movie and she'll bring me back. But what a treat to get to work on a show like this that's so iconic and legendary, made by truly talented people in a way that they just don't make TV shows anymore.

What I like, I just feel like it was such a gift.

Do you get recognized because of the show every so often? So people like you know that they're about to say, hey, you look really familiar.

No, I mean I'll get recognized on the street from other things. But every once in a while I get that text from you know, someone I met at you know, a party seven years ago that'll just say, like I think was that you and can work roles that Oh my god, you're having a rewatch.

That's fantastic. All right, Thank you, Megan, appreciate it. Thanks for the time, best fans on the planet. Keep the cards of the letters coming. We read every single one of them. We so appreciate you guys, and remember where you lead, we will follow.

Stay safe everyone

Hey, everybody, and don't forget Follow us on Instagram at I Am all In podcast and email us at Gilmore at iHeartRadio dot com.

I Am All In…Again: Earning Her Grade with Michael York (Season 4 E19 “Afterboom”)

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