Film Hustlers
Filmmaker Mark Roberts (Meet Me Next Christmas, Strangers with Candy) and aspiring filmmaker Rod "Tuddy” Rinks discuss in detail how to navigate the treacherous world of filmmaking from pitching, financing, casting, securing rights, post-production, distribution etc. We cover it all!
Film Hustlers
DAVID KENDALL from Cosby Spec to Growing Pains, iCarly and much more!
Episode: David Kendall (writer/director/producer) — This week the Film Hustlers sit down with TV vet David Kendall (Growing Pains, Boy Meets World, iCarly, Hannah Montana) to unpack sixty-plus episodes, breaking into Hollywood with a spec script, and the real hustle of writing, directing, and producing. They also discuss making their Lifetime movie Steppin' Into the Holiday (Mario Lopez, Jana Kramer), chaotic on-set weather, choreography under pressure, and practical advice for writers and creators. Tune in to hear career stories, tips for writer’s rooms, and why doing the work matters. Listen now — new episodes weekly.
Hey hustlers, it's Mark Roberts. Welcome to another episode of Film Hustlers. I want to welcome all of our listeners from all over the world. We really appreciate you. Wanted to remind you to review and rate our shows on whatever platforms you listen on. I want to remind you of our fantastic sponsor, extreme music.com, for all of your music needs. Amazing scores, amazing needle drop music, very flexible and controllable in terms of length and instrumentation. It really is an amazing tool. Check them out, extremesic.com. Today on the show we have the amazing showrunner, writer, director, producer, David Kendall. Enjoy the show. This is going to be special. For the new listeners, and we have new listeners, guys. Yes. Friends are sharing. I'm not sure. I'm not sure if friends or filmmakers are sharing. I'm not sure how people are finding us, but uh, but they are finding us. It's every week, like we're increasing by a lot. Uh it was it's noticeable. Like we totally this this last week I was really starting to notice. I mean, you're all you're getting phone calls, right?
Tuddy:Dude, I got a phone call today. I got a text message. Yeah, I took my my phone number was up there. It's a deck. Yeah. Oh well. That's probably because you signed us up.
Mark :That's probably what happened. That's what it was.
Tuddy:Yeah, I got I got a pitch this morning from Albuquerque. Oh wow. I looked at the phone, I was like, Albuquerque. Nice. I pitched me a doc, and the other day somebody sent me a couple decks, and I was like, who's this?
Mark :I do want to say the Film Hustlers podcast is about the hustle of making your own content. How to throw your hat over the fence and get it all done, right? That's what we're about here. Uh this season, our fourth season here at Hustlers, we're gonna make our own movie. From idea to raising the money to finished product. I think the reason we're doing it is because we're I I'm tired of telling people that you can do it. Like, let's do it. And you can hear it unfold right here. If you'd rather wait and see what happens, perfect. You listen to the podcast, you see how we do. We may fail, by the way. Someone may say, like, I don't want to give you money for a movie. Um yeah, well, you who knows, right? But if you want to do your own project right alongside us during this, you pull out your pen and pencil.
Tuddy:Pen and pencil properts, what are you gonna learn? Or or you just what year is this? What are you doing?
Mark :Save the show to your phone and listen to the phone. There you go.
Tuddy:Save it to the and then you can do the notes on the phone. That's what they do in 2022.
Mark :Um, but if you have questions as the process is going along, you slide into the DM, right? Then send some uh some questions and we'll cover you. In addition to talking about film on our show, we also have amazing guests who tell us how they arrived in Hollywood and became successful. It's meant to inspire and also to make it clear that anyone can do it if you follow your heart and have a little luck. So today we want to welcome David Kendall, the director, writer, producer. You do it all, right?
Tuddy:Round of applause. I do think. The most dedicated dude I've ever worked with. No doubt. Even today he came prepared. I like to be thorough.
Mark :David Kendall, he's a writer, producer, director. He's worked in television since people watch Joes on actual television. There you go. Okay. He's produced and written for iconic situation comedies like Growing Pains, Boy Meets World, and directed classic programs like iCarly, which is a huge favorite in our house, um, Disney's Hannah Montana, and what else? Melissa and Joey, which is another favorite.
David Kendall:Yeah, that was uh you know, 104 episodes. Did you direct and produce I co-created it with my friend Bob Young and I executive produced it, and along the 104 episodes, I directed about eight of them. That's amazing. Wow. Dude, that's a lot of episodes. That's a lot 104 episodes, that's a lot of television.
Mark :Yeah. How many episodes would you say you produced a year in a 12-month period?
David Kendall:In a 12 well, an a season is anywhere from 22 to 26 episodes, a normal season.
Mark :That's the way it used to be. Is it still that way?
David Kendall:Well, in Melissa and Joey, it it was odd because it was basically cable, so the formula was a little bit different. Our first season, we did um I think we did 30 our first season. And then our second season, we did 15. And then Melissa had a baby, so we didn't uh do any for a year, and then our season uh three was 37 episodes. And then season but it was it was two seasons, it was like two years, but they called it three A and three B because if you uh uh make it a four season, they're salary bumps. So it was uh uh season three A and three B. And then uh our fourth season, which was really our fifth season, we did uh twenty-two.
Mark :Before we rewind, uh often you watch shows that you love um and there's lots of episodes, and sometimes you think it must be really hard to come up with idea after idea when all of those episodes are being shot in one season. For instance, 22 episodes in one season is a lot to come up with. Is there an arc to the whole story?
David Kendall:It it depends. Like uh now that we're in the streaming world, you want arcs because that keeps people, you know, the next episode in three seconds keeps them hanging on. Uh in older times you you would do um shows that weren't necessarily I I call them uh wacky one-offs, you just do something that just lives on its own. But sometimes you're trying to do an arc, you know, take a kid through high school, and so you'll do periodically touch on the story arc. But you know, it's a little bit uh uh different with every series depending on what the needs are for the network or the streaming service, but uh it can be a bunch of different things. But yeah, it's tough. That's the toughest part. Coming up with good stories that are solid, that will support your characters, that will uh have conflict that you can put funny in, that's the hardest part. If you have a story and you have strong characters, the jokes kind of fall out by themselves a little bit. Um but the hardest thing is is coming up with uh good stories. Yeah.
Tuddy:What about picking right? Because you writers' rooms, what how many writers are in a writer's room? It depends on the show.
David Kendall:It depends on the show, it depends on the budget. You can have four or five or six, eight, ten. So um I like a room where it's you know, six, eight, nine people so that you can see everybody's face around the table so that you're all kind of together. There's some shows where they have bigger budgets. Well, they'll have a separate story room or a separate joke room. I I think it's nice to have people together, but uh, you know, people do it differently.
Mark :It's an amazing thing you do. I mean, you're super talented. I I have I've had the pleasure of watching you work uh both in in television uh in a series.
David Kendall:And you hired me to do a movie, which I'm really looking forward to.
Mark :And then we yeah, and then we did a movie called uh Stepping Into the Holidays, which comes out this holiday season. I don't want to say December or November because we don't know yet, but it is for lifetime. It does have a star Mario Lopez and Jana Kramer, and it was directed by David Kendall, and you did an amazing job. You were the most prepared person I think we've ever seen in our life. Incredible.
Tuddy:And you're like the most dedicated guy I've ever worked with. Yeah, you know, thank you. You went for one walk for like 30 minutes on a Saturday and then went back to work. That was it. That was true. That's true, yeah.
David Kendall:Yeah, yeah.
Mark :And I had to walk to the drugstore, but you know, otherwise let's go back in time for our listeners because lots of successful people have been on the show that have told us their story, and we want to get an idea of how you got your start.
David Kendall:Okay, um, well, I grew up in Philadelphia, and the idea of jobs in the entertainment business was like, you know, jobs on Mars. Yeah. It just didn't look like anything that anybody that I knew did or that my family knew did it was just totally foreign. But um, you know, I went to uh uh college, I went to a place called Wesleyan University, and I studied film, and um a bunch of us said, you know, I bet we can do this. And um the first place I went after college was New York, and I worked in a lot of small jobs here and there just trying to learn production. And um I always wanted to direct, like you know, like everybody wants to direct. And um they hire more writers than they do directors. Yeah. So I always like sitcoms, I always like being funny. My my my joke is I'm very fortunate to have found a way to monetize being a smart ass. Um thanks for the laugh, good.
Mark :Well, that that's a really good point, though. If you're a smart ass and everyone's always telling you are you, maybe you're a writer.
David Kendall:Yeah, maybe you can do something with it, you know, not just you know, make your friends laugh. Uh so um this was in 1985. I was living in New York, and I threw social connections, I knew someone who was an agent. And um I said, I'm gonna have to learn what Hollywood's like at some point. So I came out and um for two weeks and I had a spec script uh for the Cosby show, because this was 1985, and when you say Cosby now it has different meanings than it did in 1985. So I had an episode of the Cosby Show, and I came out, and I didn't know it was staffing season, I didn't know anything. I'm just standing on my friend Ed Deckter's couch. I went to Westland with Ed, he's still a good friend of mine. I talked to him yesterday. Uh he's had a great career as well. And um I got a meeting with somebody at Warner Brothers who had read my script, and a guy named David Sachs, who was an executive at Warner Brothers, who said uh uh it was like the shortest meeting. I I didn't know how short it, but you know, he I walked in, he said, I like your script, I'm gonna pass it on to producers. I said, Okay, now I leave. Yeah. So and then Is that is that what it was? Yeah, that was the meeting. That was the meeting. He got all dressed up, yeah. I found my way out over to the belly. You're gonna tell him. I drove to you know, Burbank the day before so I wouldn't get lost. And uh that's prepared. That sounds like David, yeah. Yeah, no, that's that's true. And uh then the producers of Growing Pains uh met me, and um I'm on staff at a sitcom. I'm I'm here two weeks and I'm on staff at a sitcom. And it was you know, you got to think of 1985, a sitcom starring Alan Thick, the late wonderful Alan Thick, didn't look like it was gonna be a winner. And so the show's programmed up against the A-Team. And there was a review in um the Los Angeles Herald that said, I pity the fool that schedules Alan Thick against the A-Team. So we outlisted the outlasted the A-Team and the Herald, by the way. Wow. So um exactly. Yeah, so I was on Growing Pains for six years, and I had great mentors. Uh, a guy named Dan Gunselman was that was the head writer and just an executive producer and a and a brilliant, hilarious man. And another executive producer named Mike Sullivan, these are both good friends of mine, uh, came from the network. So I learned uh, you know, producing from somebody who was at the network and and uh and a writer who'd uh been on some really great shows, and um it was a great group of people. And when you have a show that's a hit, and you I mean, the first season we had the 13 episodes and then a back nine, and then uh we had um as a hit, you don't have to worry so much about job security for a while. So we could think in terms of 22 shows, 26 shows, and so it was really nice sitting in the writer's room, not having to sweat for every rating point and make sure that we could get uh the pickup. So I was there for six years and it was great. It was really, you know, like uh uh undergraduate in graduate school in terms of everything. And I, you know, one year I'd be the guy who uh would be uh do all the uh do a lot of drafts, like a freelance draft would come in and they throw it on my desk and say, you know, you have three days, make this work. Or some years it would be I'd be the guy that go to editing. So the show's three minutes long, bring it to time. So, you know, these guys were great mentors for me, and and you know, I left there really knowing half-hour comedy and multicamera uh inside and out. And also I that's where I got a chance to direct, too, because um Growing Pains, if you guys are do you guys remember Growing Pains? There's this uh a spin-off called Just the Ten of Us. Right, and um that was my first directing gig was on Just the Ten of Us. So that was the first time I got my DJA card, so for just the ten of us. So I left there uh, you know, with uh a a great uh lot of knowledge and experience, and I think it was 142 episodes of television. Wow. Um it was great. So it was great. The Cosby show that you wrote on spec. That was just I I sat down, I'd never written a spec before. I watched uh the first season of Cosby. I did outlines from the stories that they did so I would understand structure, and uh I said, I think I have an idea for a show, and um I did an outline and then I I wrote it, and then it was just so incredibly lucky that I came out uh during staffing season when they were looking for young writers when they were staffing a family show, and uh it was it was great.
Mark :So you wrote this because you had an idea, you watched the show, and then that was sort of your calling card. You said, I'm a writer, and here's my spec. Exactly.
David Kendall:I mean uh it what my story is incredibly rare. And you know, I I I my first spec script landed me a staff job on a show that became a hit and ran for six years. That's like lightning striking seven times in the same spot.
Mark :We've had the pleasure of watching you work not only close up on our movie, Stepping Into the Holidays, but we also worked together on the expanding universe of Ashley Garcia. I will I love that show, uh which was beautiful and amazing, and and you and Seth Curlin did a wonderful job on it. Mario did a great job on it. It was just a beautiful fun. I mean, I don't I don't want to leave anyone out. Everyone did a great job on that, but it was fun.
David Kendall:Watch it on Netflix, everybody.
Mark :Yeah, check it out on Netflix. Paulina Chavez is amazing. Um what I wanted to find out from you is how do you decide when a joke's not working, or how do you know if it's flat or not? Is it the audience? Is it you? It's a combination.
David Kendall:I mean, you usually can tell it's it's almost pretty democratic. If everybody's laughing it's in the room, it's funny. Uh, but I mean there are exceptions where sometimes it's it's mean spirited or out of character, but um you can tell. You can tell if it's working, and if it's not, uh you can tell that too.
Mark :I mean so it's not rocket science.
David Kendall:It's not rocket science, not rocket science.
Tuddy:You the writers, you guys all read the the work, right? Before you do a table read. Like when you guys have a joke, do you guys go, hey, this, you know, you read what the joke is and see how it goes.
David Kendall:The way it usually works is that uh an individual writer or team of writers will do a draft, and then uh the executive producers will give notes to that writer, and then at some point after a draft or depends on the schedule, uh the script will go to the writer's room, and then led by the executive producers, you'll do a rewrite. And sometimes it's a heavy rewrite, and sometimes it's light, and sometimes it's a f a real restructure, and sometimes it's just a light pass, but that's really and then sometimes as you get into it, uh good ideas occurred, and um you just follow where the good ideas are going. But you you usually have an idea what the structure is and and uh if the joke works, and if the joke works, yeah. And if the joke works, yeah, yeah.
Mark :It was always it was always very cool to sit there and you know, even on tape tape day, you know, you get there would be a joke and you guys you guys would come to the pool of writers and say, All right, you know, this can we find something else for this for this moment? And in a matter of minutes, a bunch of things would get pitched and then something would get picked, you know. It was almost like being on on uh Family Feud. They'd all get together, they'd be like, No, no, that's funny, that's okay, go, go, go down there, come back.
David Kendall:That's true. I never thought of the Family Feud aspect, but but it's true. There it is. Yeah, but also it's you know, it's when a writer's room is really good, everybody's pulling for the same cause. And it's like first of all, you want to go home. You know, if the joke's good or if the story works, it'll help you get home. And then it's just it's great when it's when it's there. And if everybody's secure enough to to root for each other, it's just a great thing. Yeah, that's one of my favorite shows. I've done tons of shows, and in terms of just the quality of the work, the cast, I love that cast, and you know, working with Seth and Mario, man, that was that was a blast.
Mark :Yeah, it was super, it was super cool to uh to see you guys do your thing. Um, one thing that you're gonna run into if you're a writer, if you get on a show or whatever, um, is executives, right? Yes. So you write a script, um, and then you guys, as writers or executives, the producers decide, okay, this script's ready to read. The cast comes in to read it, and after that cast reads it, there's a meeting amongst the executive producers and writers, and then the network gives you notes. Do you hold anything dear or is any idea changeable?
David Kendall:Well, the Ashley Garcia experience was unique because we had great executives. That's true. And they loved the show and they understood the show, and they were uh always supportive, so it was like, hey, okay, that does make sense, or yeah, we can do that, or man, that really is that that's really great. I mean, we had we had terrific executives in terms of the support of the show. It was really um not always that way.
Mark :Yeah, oh, is it is it not always that way? Not always that way.
David Kendall:A lot of times, not every executive, but a lot of times executives really don't understand humor and don't understand um what you're trying to do. I mean, the worst thing whenever you're doing a show, especially a new show, is are you doing the same show as what does the network want to do the same show as you want to do as what the stars want to do? And so, you know, you think it's about these two people, uh the star thinks it's about her, and the network wants it to be about the kids, and it's just you know, it's just uh you're beodering dinner every night for the length of the show.
Mark :And you guys all seem to gel about what ideas were working and not working. It always got better, which I thought was really cool. Um this go back. You do six years on growing pains, everyone becomes stars, it's a huge hit. I still remember that show. I used to love that show. Um and do you come off of that show thinking this is easy?
David Kendall:Well, not quite, but I did have a development deal after that, and I did not get anything on the air. So it was just, you know, wrote some pilots, sold some pilots. I think we I produced one, but um nothing got on the air.
Mark :So that was just uh and what's a development deal, just for people who don't know what that is.
David Kendall:Uh that the network will a network or studio will keep you will hire you to come up with um pilot ideas and and sell shows.
Mark :So to them, right? To them, to them.
David Kendall:I mean if it's with a studio, uh it was my deal was at Warner Brothers at the time with the um aim of selling to any of the networks. And I had you know written for ABC for growing trains, so I I sold a couple pilots to them.
Mark :So that feels pretty good.
David Kendall:Yeah, well, it feels great, but it's just it it it feels better when uh you're shooting it, and uh uh when you come at the end of the de uh the of your development deal and you don't have a series, it doesn't feel so great. But that's fun.
Mark :So what's the next big step for you?
David Kendall:Uh the next big step was uh Boy Meets World, which was another ABC family show, and um uh they I joined it in the second season, and as an executive producer, and the uh guy who created it, Michael Jacobs, had some other shows, so I was kinda kind of running it um while he was developing other shows, and so that was actually uh a really fun gig too.
Davie Dave:One of my favorite shows back in the day. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
David Kendall:It's really it's funny because uh Boy Meets World went from what's that show to is that still on? You know, it's just uh uh we were never like the big hit in the top ten, but uh there was a devoted following because kids love the show because I think we told great stories for kids, and that ran seven years uh two. Great runs. Uh yeah, I was only I was there uh I produced it for two and then I came back and I was in the director rotation for the rest of the run. Okay. So which was fun.
Mark :Did you was there a preference for you? Did you like directing as opposed to producing or writing?
David Kendall:Directing is more fun. Yeah. Directing is so much more fun. But writing and producing is more satisfying, if that makes sense. I my my my joke is that um uh writing and producing is like parenting, and directing is like grandparenting. That's it. I'm not a grandparent, but it's like, you know, you have the kids and you have fun and you can give them ice cream for dinner, and at the end of the day, you know, send them back to mom and dad, and just like maybe the diaper's full, I don't know. So um we're but if you're uh writing and producing a show, it's like every bad phone call comes to you, everything that's not working, you have to fix. Whereas if you're directing, it's hey, it's great, it's great. I had a great time. Yeah, so it's over with, time to move on. It's over with exactly see you guys l next time. Yeah, have a good night. Yeah.
Mark :So you worked on iCarly, which you know, we loved here.
David Kendall:Yeah, that was a I I directed that show. I didn't, yeah.
Mark :That was a that was a big that was a big deal. Was that fun to work on? I mean, obviously.
David Kendall:It was great. I mean, that's another amazing cast.
Mark :Yeah.
David Kendall:Yeah, that's an another amazing cast.
Mark :That was really fun. And then Hannah Montana, which you directed as well.
David Kendall:Yeah, I did um I didn't do the pilot, but I did the first three when it's went to series and got to work with Miley when you know she didn't know where to stand or what to do, and she was just suffering, but she just had star power. You looked and you you you uh said, Oh, okay, she's gonna like explode. Yeah.
Tuddy:So you know what's funny? Um, that was shot at where'd you guys shoot that? Was that at not Gower? It was uh KTLA. KTLA, yeah. So Lopez, that was the first show I worked on. Lopez, we were the stage next to you, ESP in Hollywood, and Lopez used to sneak over there. Come on, Tody, let's go. He'd go to the craft service and raid craft services or whatever.
Mark :Yes, that sounds like him actually.
Tuddy:2004, maybe? That sounds right. Sounds about right. That sounds right.
Mark :That was a great show. I mean, you worked on some amazing stuff. You know, I've never wanted to be anything but a producer. I'm not interested. Directing is so difficult. It's just a hard job because you have to pick everything, like literally every decision that's made, you have to be on, like where the hands are, what's on the table, who's it's a crazy gig.
David Kendall:Yeah, it's a crazy gig. It's a great ride, though. It's really fun. I mean, I had fun every day on on our movie. Did you, Kendall? It didn't show? It was a lot of work. You were focused. That was a it was a tough. I was focused, but it was it was really fun.
Mark :We knew we knew you could do it because in television you have to be on your feet on a show that was only gonna be 16 days.
David Kendall:Just because I'm not smiling doesn't mean I'm you know, in record time every day. We finished every day early except for the tornado. Yeah, yeah.
Mark :Which by the way, we should have stayed and shot more. Not that it hurt the movie at all, but on that particular day, the call should have been we're gonna stay and keep shooting, and we're gonna take our chances. No, no, no.
Tuddy:When the dudes that live there who don't talk very much to say we're leaving, they were out of there before us.
David Kendall:Oh, did they leave? Did they I heard, but you know, it's all it's the fog of war a little bit now, is that the crew says they're leaving at seven.
Mark :Yeah, that's what I heard.
David Kendall:So you know, it's yeah, that's what it was.
Mark :But we could have thrown a Robert Rodriguez and just said, go ahead, leave. I don't need you.
Tuddy:We had that storm shelter that everybody thought was like a Hobbit house because it just went in there.
Mark :You know, um, but it but I do believe that directing is I mean, I guess if you liked Tritty, you've directed and David, you're a director. I think if you enjoy it and you know what the challenge is gonna be, maybe it's better. But for me, I like solving the problem behind the scenes. I don't know. It's you know, I like getting the late night call. I like deciding if it's gonna rain tomorrow or not gonna rain tomorrow, you know, those kinds of things. Those kinds of things are more gambling.
Tuddy:I'm saying this right now, David Dave. If we were in uh Tennessee, he would come to eight seven. He thought he would go to the and he'd be stressed out. Fuck, I don't know if it's gonna rain. What do you think? I go, I don't know. Was it the weather channel saying? That was the most stressed I've ever seen. Yes. I was trying which time?
Davie Dave:The last the last one. The last one.
Tuddy:No, that was when he was praying.
David Kendall:When he was praying in the some of the weather, well also um the the day we shot the dance, that was well, that was the uh the tornado. That was like we had never seen the dance in its entirety. That was intense. And it's like, are we gonna get this done before the the the barn gets knocked over?
Mark :And just to give the listeners an idea, what happens is you show up on set, first of all, it was it's it's there's dance routines in this movie, and you can't always get five, six, seven pages done in a 10-hour day and get your dance routine. No, I mean it's a lot to do.
David Kendall:But um we had an amazing choreographer, Spencer Liff was. It looks amazing.
Mark :No, I think I think it was a great job, but you do you had a lot to do in a very short period of time, and I don't know if you sacrifice shots or not. I don't know those answers.
David Kendall:A little bit, but yes, you know, if you if you get every a friend says if you get everything on your shot list, you weren't being ambitious enough. You know, so so you know, you want to um try, and there are things I wish I could have gotten, but there's always gonna be that, you know.
Mark :But it but to do it, I think to do uh 16 16 days and to and to have uh routines in there and to deal with weather and tornadoes and and rain. I mean, look, the day that we showed up and it was raining and it wasn't gonna stop, you know, art department had to go to the room.
David Kendall:Oh, yeah, the art department. And and I remember sitting there with with uh uh Samson, the AD, and just kind of figuring out okay, we can do this, we can do this, we can kind of do this, we can maybe do this, not tomorrow, but in the next three days, and we just kind of in the air made the schedule for the next few days. Yeah, you remember that fun. It was amazing.
Mark :I mean, it was amazing to watch because we really did do it actually a beautiful job. Uh, you did a great job with directing those sequences, and they came out great. But the thing I want to stress is it's never perfect. There's gonna be problems, there's gonna be issues, you're gonna make mistakes. I still make mistakes, I make a lot of mistakes every day. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely I do. That's how the show that's how show business is. You know, you show up, you wake up one morning, you got a crew of 45 people, and it's raining. And there's nothing you can do except for turn to the people that you're at war with and say, We've got to go inside.
David Kendall:Yeah.
Mark :And somehow that inside gets lit, gets decorated.
David Kendall:The art department turned the barn around. Yeah, everybody has to see our movie.
Mark :You have to watch it simply to know that that barn where Mario does the dance uh was not going to be shot in the day that we did that.
Tuddy:What's tougher than that? Because look, you got it, you got X amount of pages, you got a choreography dancing. I mean, I guess it could have been worse if we would have thrown animals in there, right? That was a good one. Yes, it would have been worse.
David Kendall:There were we did actually. We shot on a farm, everybody, and there were real life farm animals making their noises.
Mark :There was a lot working against us. Um, but you know, you have to work your way through it. And you know, that's the great thing about having a crew that you worked with many times, is that they all care. Samson, RAD, cares.
David Kendall:Samson had RADs. He just cared.
Mark :You know, he it really mattered to him. He was in scenes, you know. Jeff Stearns will take credit for this, but it was Sam who got all those people together on the street when when uh when we were short.
David Kendall:Yeah, we were short of uh background uh extras, and the street didn't look very much alive. And Samson goes talking to people, and next thing you know, the street's alive with the background crosses and uh everywhere.
Mark :Yeah, it is a collaborative effort. Speaking of collaborative efforts, I want to thank our friends over at extreme music.com. Russ Emmanuel and extreme music.com have put together an amazing array of composers. I'm telling you this because I use Extreme Music for all of my movies. I did two documentaries, I did three Christmas movies, I did another drama, and I used Extreme for all of them. Okay. So the way it works is if I need a needle drop, if I need a song that's gonna be playing in a diner, coming off of a jukebox, I go to extreme music.com. If I need something special for a fun sort of montage y transition, I go to Extreme Music. I wanted something really unique, something a cappella for a movie I was working on for a lifetime, and I went to Extreme Music, I punched in what I thought I wanted and uh and it came up. So I want you to know that if you are looking to do something that sounds robust and beautiful and well thought out and expensive, you can get it at extreme music.com, whether it's a drama or thriller, action, romance, they got it all. Extreme Music.com for all your music needs. And it sounds like when you came out of college and you wrote your spec and you did and you got growing pains that you sort of knew what you wanted.
David Kendall:I I was really blessed, I really was pretty driven to say I want to work in um comedy. I I mean it's always uh I'm not comfortable outside of comedy, it's always what I wanted to do, and uh was pretty focused on that. And then you know, the the growing pains set up everything for me. It it showed me how to do everything. I went from you know absolutely no credits, wrote one script, and I'm on this big show with the people who are super talented at training me. My uh my mentors said we don't view you as a story editor, we view you as you're in producer school. And that's how it works. Yeah, good people, good people.
Mark :Yeah, I mean, well, you're a good person. I think, you know, look, uh my wife always says, like, the bank of good faith to my kids. And it's true, you know, you gotta you gotta bank good faith in this business so that you're able to go through doors and people are able to go, like, oh, you know what, Tootie or David Kendall.
Tuddy:And I think good people is good business. I agree. You know, Terrence Winter, who's like one of my favorite writers, he did boardwalk, he's done a bunch of things.
Mark :Of course, it's terrific.
Tuddy:Yeah, I listened to a podcast on him a long time ago, and he was saying about getting a writer's room together, and he said he would much rather have writers that are mediocre who come um with enthusiasm and want to be there than a writer's room filled with talent who are difficult to work with. He'll take that any day.
David Kendall:Well, the the the writer's room, if you have a bunch of people who are just there for to get their own scripts and their own lines and their own self out there, that's not gonna work. But if you have people who are part of a team who uh yeah, it's uh want to collaborate. But um that makes all the difference. I mean, I've been in writers' rooms where uh uh someone has written features and is here to to uh the experience and just you know freezes. Because also it's kind of weird and and and a strange thing to write out loud. You know, when you're in a room, you're writing out loud, you're not kind of in the solitude with the keyboard. So it's a it's a different weird thing. There's some people who are brilliant writers in the cubicle uh by themselves. So you know the collaboration writers' room uh isn't for everybody. It's not like the only way to do things, but for comedy, it it's really nice.
Mark :What would you say to someone who wants to work in comedy, who wants to be in a writer's room?
David Kendall:Firstly, if you're working in comedy, make sure you're funny. How do you know? Oh, you'll know. Has everybody told you that you're funny?
Tuddy:Yeah, it's okay. Keep producing, Robert.
David Kendall:If people tell you you're you're funny and you say funny things and people laugh, it's probably a good bet that you're funny. Yeah. If the opposite, you're probably not funny.
Mark :Are you funny because you're just funny, or are you funny because of the experiences growing up in a family that's Me?
David Kendall:I don't know. You don't you don't know why, really? I you know, I don't know. I mean, you you don't well, I've I've said this. You don't look in a writer's room, you don't see a lot of people. I bet he was captain of the football team. I bet she was the head cheerleader. Yeah, I bet he was president of a senior class. No, that's a good idea. You don't see that in a lot in the writers' room. I'm sure there are exceptions, yeah, but that's not the people that you see in the writer's room primarily. There's an outsider-ness, yeah. There's a there's a looking at things a little bit bent, a little bit from the outside, a little kind of unconventional.
Mark :Yeah. Although I suppose you could trust you could think you're funny and not be funny.
David Kendall:U Yeah, but it's also I I think comedy is is uh its own weird thing, and uh what it's most closest to in a lot of ways is music. If you can't sing, don't try and sing. If you can't carry a tune, don't say I can sing. So I think comedy is a lot like music, you know, you know when you're musical, you know when you can sing, but you should be able to know when you're funny. Of course. But uh and the rest of your question is advice is um uh to writers is write. Don't just say, Oh yeah, I want to be a writer. Write something and write what you're excited about, and it helps if you write what you know, what you're familiar with. You're talking about stories that come from your life. Uh it's uh there's always uh an authenticity if it comes from your life. It doesn't it doesn't have to be. I mean, Ashley Garcia, I wrote for a show. I was never a 14-year-old Latina growing up. You weren't kidding. I was not, I was not, uh, but yes, I I know your guys look at the shock. You should see how shocked they look, everybody. But you know, you can put yourself in something someone else's uh uh place. Uh it doesn't have to be a totally lived experience, but a lived experience has an authenticity, and uh especially if you're creating a show, um you know, you need every advantage. Like Ashley Garcia about uh uh a bachelor, do we still say bachelor now? A single guy in his 30s, and his niece comes to live, and they both have very different lifestyles, and they love each other but uh have uh clashes. And you know, we can relate to that. Everybody, I think, uh has relatives and and has tried to get along and and kind of as everybody uh you know growing up is not easy for anybody. No, and uh, you know, that's why coming of ages, age stories are always shut up! I was about to say we go.
Tuddy:See that? That's what I'm he hates coming of ages. Robert's coming of age.
Davie Dave:This is the biggest debate we have on the show. Did I step on a landmine here? Oh, yeah.
Tuddy:Well, no, you did it. You just you resurfaced what's the truth. I mean, stand by me. Did you like stand by me? I don't I think I'm pretty sure I get it. No, look at Juno.
Mark :I love Juno, love Juno. Yeah, I like coming of age movies. I just don't like to produce coming of age movies, I guess is the answer. You could have just said that eight months ago.
Speaker 3:I mean, okay.
Mark :Well, I you know, handshake.
Tuddy:By the way, your story, his story is the greatest coming of age, it would make the greatest coming of age movie, but he doesn't want to do it.
Mark :What is your favorite joke of all time? Do you have one?
Tuddy:Yeah, I do.
David Kendall:Okay. Can you tell it? Yeah, sure. Uh ready? Okay. What's the very first thing you need to know before you train a dog? What? More than the dog.
Tuddy:Good one. That's pretty good. That's pretty good. I would use that one tonight when I get home on the kids.
David Kendall:By the way, it's very applicable to many things in life, too.
Mark :Well, David, I appreciate you being on the show. We covered a lot of ground. I uh one of the takeaways I think for everybody who's listening is trust yourself, make a plan. If you're a writer, write. Work hard. Work hard. And the harder you work, the leftier you'll get. On the weekends when we were all hammered over at uh On the weekends, what are you talking about?
Davie Dave:We were at a bar at the hotel. Every night we were drinking. Every night. Kendo would walk by. Hey, Kenny, what? No, I'm gonna kind of go work another Christmas movie. What? We're making a Christmas movie. He would just walk by silently judge us. He would just swing it. Hey, there he goes, Kendall, come back here.
Mark :Hey, part of the part of the beauty of making a movie is having a good time, right? I think I think we I think we all have a lot of fun, but you were great to work with. You, I think Mario and I, when we saw you work on After Dark Sio, we were certain sitting behind you watching your work, we were certain that we were gonna work with you, and we did. It was like Manifest Manifest Destiny, let's do it again.
Tuddy:But feature, David? Are you the features? Okay.
David Kendall:Sure. Just well, you know, yeah, you guys know this. After you work in this business for a while, the people are so important that you're working with. You're gonna show up and work and bust your ass. You wanna be next to people that you like and that you get along with and are talented and you can work with. Everybody's nodding. Everybody who are listening, everybody's nodding here violently. We're in violent agreement.
Mark :In violent agreement. I will say, working with you was amazing. You're a team player. I think that we made a great movie. We did. And I and and I hope people enjoy it. Stepping into the holiday, directed by David Kendall. Who's in it? Come on, Robert! Sorry, Mario Lopez and Jana Kramer. David Dave's in there. Who else do we have? Who else is in it? Kendall was in it. David Kendall makes it appearance. Carly Minnesota is in it. Enzo Rodriguez is in there. Mike Esterman. Mike Gesterman is in it. Stereo Terry. Stereo Terry. Mario Cantone. Oh, Mario Kenton. We had a heck of a cast uh on this really, really uh unique and fun Christmas movie. So I hope you guys like it. David, thank you for being with us. Thank you for inspiring our new listeners and our old listeners. Thank you. Yes. Thank you guys all, and we'll see you next time on Film Hustlers.
Tuddy:There we go. You got it right, Robert. That was good.
