Switch to Channel 2 audio podcast with Rick "RAP" Pizante

Get ready to Switch to Channel 2—In this episode, host Donny McGuire sits down with renowned TV producer Rick Pizante for a wild, behind-the-scenes look at the entertainment industry! Whether you’re a TV fanatic, aspiring producer, or just love a good Hollywood story, this episode is packed with gems you can't miss.

🔑 In This Episode:

• Rick shares jaw-dropping tales from legendary sets like the Oscars, the Emmys, and The Voice.
• Hear how he navigated high-stakes moments—like anthrax scares at the Emmys and nail-biting security issues on New Year’s Rockin’ Eve.
• Dive into Rick’s hilarious and sometimes bizarre runner stories (ever delivered a penile implant to Flip Wilson? Rick has!)
• Uncover the secrets of live TV, assembling top-notch production teams, and what it really means to be a leader behind the camera.
• Donny and Rick riff on the challenges of the creative vs. production sides of television, with candid talk on management, work ethic, and REAL Hollywood problem-solving.
• Plus, the most outrageous props and wildest on-set moments—think alligators, parade floats, and so much more!

00:00 "Switch to Channel 2 Explained"

04:10 First Emmys Amid Personal Struggles

07:35 Emergency Decisions During Live Show

11:55 "Morning Visit's Unexpected Discovery"

15:35 Marlon Brando's Lost Checks Drama

19:03 "Scantily Dressed Encounters"

20:32 Busy Launch of Three Shows

24:07 "Organizing The Voice's Rose Parade"

26:57 Unexpected Praise from Executives

30:36 Creative Challenges: A Divided Perspective

33:13 "Go for Donnie Channels Promo"

✅ Why Listen? This episode is pure gold for anyone interested in TV production, creative leadership, or who just wants killer insider stories that you won’t hear anywhere else.

📺 Watch the Action:
Don’t forget to catch the full video episode and more exclusive content on YouTube at @gofordonny! See behind-the-scenes footage and dive deeper into several episodes of both Go for Donny! and Switch to Channel 2.

🔗 Subscribe & Follow:

• Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Amazon | YouTube 
• For bonus content and updates, visit gofordonny.com

If you love untold Hollywood stories, tune in NOW to Switch to Channel 2 with Rick Pizante and get inspired, entertained, and—even better—in the know. Don’t forget to hit subscribe and drop a comment over on YouTube!

#SwitchToChannel2 #GoForDonny #RickPizante #TVProduction #HollywoodStories #Podcast #BehindTheScenes #Leadership #GoForDonnyYouTube

Don't forget to check out my website www.gofordonny.com for some cool GFD Swag and some fun videos and photos.
And Remember...#HTFU

Transcript

0:00

Foreign. Have you heard of the new addition to the Go for Donny! podcast? I haven't either, but it's called Switch to Channel 2. That is where Donny will get to ask his guest some questions so you, the listener, get to know them better. And Remember,#HTFU. Hey, everybody, welcome into Switch to Channel 2, where we have the one, the only, Rick Pizante with us here today. Thanks for joining us on Switch to Channel 2, Rick. Kidding. I'm happy to be here. Donny let me explain. I don't know, I don't know if I explained what switch to channel two is. Just so everyone knows. And you know, just like when we're on set and you have a little chatter, you reach back and you hit that dial and you switch your walkie to channel 2 so that way you can have your chatter and everybody listens in. And then as soon as you're done, everyone switches back to the channel while you switch back to your respective channel. So that's what Switch to channel 2 is all about. Just a little bit of chatter. As long as you don't go 10-2 while you're switching the channel 2, you're okay. We'll save that one for later. This is true. But you know what? Now I'm thinking about it. At your level, you don't ever have a walkie. I usually, I don't even wear. I don't. Yeah, like. I hate to say it, but, you know, comms would be on a rare occasion when I really need to pay attention to things, you know, but like, yeah, I, you know, I think, I don't know if it's at my level, but I just feel like you should trust the people that, you know, you bring in to do these shows and, you know, and have faith in them. And that's of how I run things, you know, I, I think you do it long enough, you know, when a spark is going to become a forest. Fire, you know, like a real leader does. So that way you hire greatness around you and let them do their thing and it makes you look great and you don't have to micromanage. So I, I get that. And when they up, it really makes you look bad, but otherwise it's great. Oh, I'm joking. I'm joking. It's true, though. Yeah, no, I really, I really do try to let people, you know, get people enough, you know, enough rope and most people don't hang themselves. So it's, it's, it's good thing. So, so, okay, so before I ask how you Got started in the industry. Just give me like, let's say the Emmys during the Emmys, like break down what you're doing on that day or during the shoot. The Emmys. Well, ironically, the Emmys was not my first job, but later in life I was an associate producer on the Emmys. And ironically, it was around September 11th again. So the Emmys had already been canceled two times. Okay. Because of 9 11, essentially. And Don Misher, who just passed away, who, I mean, was a prolific producer and just such a. Just a great guy. Everyone loved John Mishear. He did a lot of Olympics and specials and things like that. He had to go on to do another show. I was working for a gentleman named Gary Smith of the company called Smith and Emian Productions, and then it became the Gary Smith Company. Gary is a story producer as well. And you know, my father in law was terminally ill. I was doing, you know, we were going to go down to Cuba to do an I Love Lucy reunion special. So I was doing all the paperwork for that. And then I was going to go on to Christmas in Washington, which we just talked about. Well, in between 911 happened two days before we were going to leave for Cuba after six months, seven months, eight months. Wow. So we obviously couldn't go down there. And we were going to go down with, you know, Desi and Lucy's kids, you know, to bring them back to the homeland. So that didn't work. But. But then September 11th happened and then Don Mishra couldn't do this Emmy, so they, they awarded it to Gary Smith. Gary calls me, he's like, hello, Rick. You know, listen, I'm doing the Emmys and I need you to, I need you to shift gears and, you know, focus on that. And I'm like, Gary, you know, my father in law is passing away. I got to go do this other show for, For Christmas in Washington for the Stevens Company and you know, blah, blah, blah. I just really, I don't think I can do it. Like, what are you talking about, Rick? You know, the whole, you know, gave me the whole riot act and then. Anyway, he eventually convinced me to do the show and that was my first Emmys and that was in Century City at the Shubert Theater. Was very somber, A very somber year. Yeah. And, you know, I just remember having to deal again. I always got assigned a security detail and all that stuff. So we had sharpshooters across the street at the Century Plaza and, you know, Fox Studios was the command. Command center for all the authorities. And oh, God, we We were testing the air ducts for anthrax every day. Like, I mean, just crazy, crazy stuff, you know, so, you know, and a lot of people don't know, you know, you don't want them to know, you know, what, what, what happens behind the scenes sometimes because there's, you know, they're freaked the out. Yeah, they don't want to know that. They would freak the out. Yeah, they really would. And, and I, you know, I mean, I, I, I've been in that position before where, you know, I mean, on New Year's Rock and E, which I'm doing now for Dick Clark, we had a medic, of all people, pocket a bunch of credential credentials and sell them to people that were not cleared. Yeah. And this was street access, you know, so we, luckily we caught him before he was planning on selling them, but we caught him, you know, before he got in the act. So. But that would have been a major security breach on New Year's Eve, you know, to. That's a big deal in Times Square. I mean, so fortunately we were able to avoid that and we didn't have any issues, obviously. So. Yeah, crazy stuff. Crazy stories. God. So what about when the show's actually. I mean, I know you're probably putting out fires all day long, right. But are you in the control room? Where are you during the actual show? So I'm either in the control room or I'm out. Just, just. I like to walk the floor is what I call it. You know, I like to go out and I have a lot of camaraderie with a lot of the technical people on the crew. And, you know, I like to go out and press flash and say, hi. Everybody loves Rick. Everybody loves rap. So whoever works with rap loves you and they love talking to you. So I mean it. That's, you know, so I can see you totally walking around. You're like, what's up? Hey. I talk to the grips. Just like I talk to an executive producer or a network executive. You know, there's no. You're very approachable. You're very approachable, Rick. I try to be. I try to be, you know, we're just people, people, you know, people, people, persons. As are you, Donnie. So that's. But that's a good, but that's a good leader. That's a good leader right there. That's good leadership skills. Where, you know, it's not. You can't just teach everything. That's something that, you know, it's just come second nature. And that's Your personality. So that's cool. Yeah, yeah. And so something like, you know, the last. The last show, one of the last shows I was doing, I was in the emergency operations center. We were in Texas and, you know, there was some weather coming and, you know, tornado watch and, you know, lightning strikes and all this stuff. And, you know, during a live show on Amazon Academy Country Music Awards, I was the one that was going to make the decision as to whether the building had to be evacuated during a live show or not. Yeah, yeah. So, you know, pressure. There's some pressure, there's some stress related to my job beyond, you know, so what I do is I. I do a lot of the budgeting, I do a lot of the, you know, pairings of sensibilities, whether it be directors, producers, you know, people that we would bring in, you know, the crew members, the editorial staff. I try to assemble teams of people that complement each other and what the project is specific to the project, which I think is really one of my greatest strengths. Obviously, I brought you into full screen and clearly we were there at Mystery. Diners, so clearly wise. And, you know, to be honest, one. Of the reasons I brought you in was because your work ethic, you know, the fact that you were in the military was a big. A big plus on your resume to me because I knew the work ethic and your commitment would be, you know, totally. You'd be totally committed, you know, and I really thought that was a good quality of your leadership skills as well, so. Well, thank you. I appreciate it. Yeah, yeah, you bet. And so, yeah, I mean, it's been an interesting ride. I started as a PA and I worked myself my way up the ladder. You know, just like any of my first job was the Oscars. So your first PA gig was the Oscars? It was the Oscars, yeah. Do tell. How did you get it? Well, you know, we're at the age now, Donnie. Jeff Margolis, who is another storied producer, director, just passed away literally like a month ago. He was. He was directing the Oscars and he was a client of a company called Brown Craft and Company, which was a business management slash, CPA firm in Brentwood. And I had just finished Santa Monica College and I was, you know, planning on going to UCLA and transferring, and I responded to a classified ad in the Daily Variety, which is now owned by. By the gentleman I work for, ironically. That's crazy. It's all just, you know, six degrees, the whole thing. And I got the job. And it was for. To be a runner, basically. You Know, I was running, making deposits. I was going to people's homes to deliver checks to be signed or petty cash for their wives to use during the week or whatever it happened to be. I took cars in to be serviced. I did drug runs. I did you name it, I mean. I did it all. You're a runner. I, I even had to go and demonstrate a penile implant one time. So. I'm sorry. Yeah, yeah, sorry, what did you just say? You what you demoed. I had to go to the met, to the doctor's office to pick up a penile implant to do, to demonstrate it to a comedian who is now deceased, I guess I could say now because I was under an NDA before was Flip Wilson, who was the first black comedian to play the Apollo Theater and has his own dressing room to this day. And he had a, you know, big variety show in the 60s and really funny. He played, he was like one of the first black, he was one of the first comedians, not even black comedians, but first comedians to do something in drag. You know, I know Milton Berle did a, you know, but his, his character was Geraldine. So anyone that wants to go look and you know, through the annals of history, go look at, you know, type in Flip Wilson Geraldine. And it is hilarious. That character's funny, like pre Living Color type stuff, you know what I mean? But I'm sure if you ask Jamie Foxx or any of the guys, you know, they'd be like, oh my God, Flip Wilson was amazing. You know, so a true, a true vanguard. But anyway, yeah, so yeah, I went out there in the morning and you know, the whole place just reeked of weed and at nine o' clock in the morning. And you know, I, I, he had a 20 something, something year old, beautiful smoke show Swedish girlfriend. And you know, he was in his probably like 60s at that point and he's, I, I brought this thing out and it was like, it was like in a cylindrical tube and I, I took it out and it's like, you know, the shaft of the man, the male anatomy. And, and a little like, you know, like a little tube that went to a pump that was inserted in the groin. So you pump it like an old Reebok 10A shoe and that kind of thing. And then you release the pressure like a valve and it goes, you know, oh my God. And I, and he went, oh my God, this is the greatest thing ever, man. Just, just now you go back to that doctor and you tell him, I want the Rolls Royce model, not the Cadillac, okay? So I go back in there and I tell him he wants the Rolls Royce model, and he goes. So that means he wants the bigger model. Right. Two weeks after the surgery, he decides to go on a driving trip to the Grand Canyon. And his Range Rover, he has to stop halfway because he's in such pain from sitting there with this thing in him that I had to have his. I had to make arrangements to have his Range Rover towed back, and he flew home, so. With his girlfriend. Yeah, so that was a funny story. Anyway. I don't know, but I'm just proving to you the fact that I done a few different things. Yeah, one of your gigs as a runner, that's one of the things you got to do is experience picking up penile implant. Yeah, really interesting, right? And then, yeah, I went to Marlon Brando's house. After his son had killed the other. The daughter's fiance, I had to go to Marlon Brando's house, and I had to speak in code with him because he shared the property with Jack Nicholson up on Mulholland Drive. And I had to go get paper signs. So I went up to his house and pressed the intercom, and I had to say something. You know, blue jeans, you know, are brown and blue and yellow and gold or some. Some stupid code to let him know that it was me. And I went in, and he comes out, and he. You know, these two massive dogs come over to my window. The nicest dogs ever, but they were so daunting. Bill and Tim were their names. Bill and Tim? Yeah, his dog's names are Bill and Tim. Bill and Tim. And he comes over and he's in a bathrobe. And, you know, I met Marlon Brando. I mean, it's just, you know, just crazy stuff. I've done a lot of different things and met a lot of different people. Did he talk to you like Marlon Brando? Yeah, he sounded like Marlon Brando, definitely. And, you know, he. He spent a lot of time. And he had a. He has an island called Tetiroa, which is in French Polynesia, in Tahiti. And so, you know, when he was dating, the stuff he was doing the day, then the month, then the year. And I said, no, no, no, Mr. Brando. It's. It's month, day, year. You know, can you, you know, do that? And he's like, are you trying to screw me? You know, like, he was. It was really funny and super cool guy. I didn't ask for his. I didn't ask for his autograph, but I was going down the hill to make deposits. And I stopped at one bank, and then I took the pouch and I left it on my. The top of my car. And I must have driven off, and Marlon Brando's deposits flew off the car in the pouch, and someone retrieved them and saw that it was Marlon Brando and signed checks and everything. And I got a call from the office saying, were you. Did you go to the bank for Marlin yet? And I said, no, I'm on my way there now. And they're like, are you sure? You on the way there? I'm like, yeah, I'm on my way. And. Well, you don't have the checks, because someone just called us and said they have Marlon Brando's checks. And I'm like, what? So I had to go. And part of the exchange was I needed to guarantee and ensure this guy that I would get a signed headshot of Marlon Brando in exchange for the checks to get them back. And these are, like, checks, you know, big checks. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah. So I had to go up there and with my head between my legs and ask him for a, you know, an autographed headshot. And he was cool about it. You know, he was just joking with me. But, you know, I don't know. I've met a lot of different people, and I'm not impressed by celebrity. There are very few people, but. But it's cool. You know, they're all. They're just people, too. They're a lot of celebrity, are very insecure. You know, they're always looking for. Well, they're looking for that reassurance and just, you know, I think. I think. I think the people that they have around them most of the time are yes men. Know. Yes people. Yeah. They're not real with them. Yeah. And I. I always try to be real with people and. And are respectful, obviously, but. But, you know, like Tom. So this Brown Craft and Company firm where I started as a runner had all these celebrity actors, producers, directors in the industry. They were all clients. So that's how I got into it, long story short. And then I started saying, well, I'd really like to offer my time on the weekends. You know, anything I can do. And that's how I got my first job on the Oscars. So there you go. Damn. Wow. All right. You know, bow tie. Yeah. And I think I told you my story about working, you know, at the front desk at mtv. Oh, my God. For a summer, I answered when MTV was mtv, back when it was mtv and it was the craziest thing there was the contrast of casting, if you would. So you can imagine, for those that don't know, MTV Networks. Com, comprised of like, MTV, MTV2, Spike, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, CMT, VH1. And so back then, Spike was the all men's channel. It was all men's programming. Right. I pitched a show to them. Yeah. There was a lot of the old Duffy. Good old Tim. I pitched a show to Mike Duffy and it got to Tim. So there you go. Yeah, no, he. That's how I know Tim. And Tim is a guest on the show. We'll be releasing his episode here. I love this. I love the Duffy brothers. They're so great. They're so great. But, but, but the contrast of casting, what I'm talking about, when you would have a Nickelodeon casting where you have all these kids, you know, they'd come check in and sit down and then you would have. Oh. Or wilding out. MTV wilding out, where you have all these young, you know. Yeah. Hardly ever, barely dressed, scantily dressed. And same of the Spike. Like, they had these shows where these, These women were. This woman came up and in her nipple, the top that she's wearing, her nipple was out as she's talking to me. I'm mean, things staring at me like, you know, hey, Donnie. And I'm just like sitting here. I'm trying to type to my. To my. To my partner Elena. I'm like, oh, my God. Nipple. Like, can you see? And. And women didn't even know. So they're wearing these little tops. And then they'd go sit next to the kids and they're just so bizarre, you know, or the people that just come in, like the random celebs are just people. So it was a cool place to, To. To. To get my start in this, in this industry. Going from that, of course, that actually set me up for Suburban Virgin. So I was really prepped to get to a show where we tried to get virgins laid. Jesus, man. That's awesome. That's awesome. I actually, you know, we're talking about the Duffys, and Mike Duffy actually hired me at T Group. And I think he was just really impressed that I had just come off the Voice. I was a co executive producer of the Voice in season. I launched it here in the United States for Mark Burnett and John Demal. I didn't know that. That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. It was a big show. It was a massive show. And I had a very short timeline to produce it, to get it up and running because we Were. We were competing against X Factor to get to air first. Right. So, yeah, I got a call at the end of January. I was doing the BET honors in D.C. again. I spent a lot of time in D.C. and then. And then I had to launch, you know, the main show, which was, you know, the variety, live variety show, the Voice. And then we had a digital, you know, digital crew and a reality crew. So it was like three different departments, you know, and we were shooting Our first show March 20, and I. When I was hired at the beginning of February, the only people that were hired were the executive producing staff. That was it. It was four people. So we had to stack the entire show in, like a month. Holy crap. It was crazy. So that's. That's a stage show. And any second year, all the reality. Beats, behind the scenes, and then all the digital stuff beyond that. So did Rupert do. Did Rupert do some of that for them, for you? I don't think at that time. No, I don't think at that time. Maybe after I left, I. I was. I was like a spe. I was a special ops guy. Not. You're not the only one in the military, buddy. I. Even though I didn't serve, so, yeah, I get the really difficult assignments, and, you know, we drop in under the COVID of darkness and be extracted before anyone near you there. See, that just means. I know you could be in the military because you have that mindset where you like the challenge as well. I love. I like. I like a good. I'm a problem solver. I like a good wrench thrown at me, you know, and you gotta dodge, and you gotta figure that out. And it's so satisfying when you do. When you pull some out of your ass where people are like, you know, how'd you do that? And it's satisfying, right? We are master puzzle builders and problem solvers, really, is what we are. But I think, you know, when it comes down to, like you said, you know, being, you know, diligent about stuff and just, like, liking the thrill, clearly, you did Top Gear. That's. I mean, that's. I love Top Gear. You know, the US show was great. The British show was great. So much fun. Fast cars and just, you know, just stunts and, like, all this crazy dangerous, you know, and. And it's just like, you push yourself, you know, to do really interesting things. And I think I've done a lot of different formats and genres and stuff like that, and. And yeah, some of them are more difficult than others. I do. You know, I come from live tv. So like there's, you always have to have a contingency plan and there's very little room for forgiveness, you know? You know, you're right. And I, I was, I, I've been lucky to do. I worked with George Barnes, who is another, a good friend and, and a guest coming up on, on my podcast. He owns Take two Productions and a handful of years ago I worked with him on a lot of live stream, uh, red carpet events or just, you know, and so everything's live and you know, producing it. It's fun. It might be a little smaller, it might be like 20, 30 minutes, but man, it's live. It's exhilarating because it's live. And the worst thing that you can have is dead time on something that's live when you have the client right there as well. So. I loved it and I, I really thrive in controlled chaos, I like to think. I think that's where I'm really good, especially when, you know, on Top Gear as ad. So I just had to be on top of everything all the time. And so I really. Yeah, you find what you thrive in and I just like that. And I think that's what you probably like as well is that excitement of that live, you know, what could happen and what you can do to, to, to fix it if. Yeah. Something does come. Yeah. And, and you just have to think on your feet and be, be really quick to be a problem solver and you know, like, you know, the live thing you mentioned, I think I told you I was doing the Voice and like, you know, the Rose Parade and they wanted this activation and the Rose Parade with a big float with the Voice and the three winners and you know, the three runners up, I should say. And you know, I went to LA County High School for the Arts to get, you know, to bring in all these 30 kids to do, to audition to be part of the, you know, the float as dancers. They call them out walkers. Just who does know? And the Rose Parade's a pretty big deal. I'm local out here in South Pasadena, so I'm really into the community and all that kind of stuff. And there were two performance spots. One was on Orange Grove and the other one's on Colorado, right by the Norton Simon Museum. And I had all the ABC executives and everyone and their families there on the Colorado side. We had, you know, made all the kids go through these auditions. They had to learn choreography, the music, they got wardrobe fitted, you know, all this stuff that they're going to have to go through. In their lifetime anyway, as. Because it's a performing arts high school. So, you know, I thought, well, let's make them. Let's make them work for it. So once we got the final cast together, the first performance went really well, just as expected. And then the float is turning the corner, right, and to get to the second position and it stops and, you know, right in front of the NBC booth. And like, you know, Hoda and Al are like, not helping. They're not like, oh, we must have been having technical issues, blah, blah, blah. I didn't have a headset again, you know, and. And I'm like, what the is going on? You know, And I'm just, just wave, wave, wave. You know, that whole thing, seven minutes of airtime goes on live tv. That is a death sentence sentence, you know, And I'm like, I am never going to work again in my life. You know, this is horrible. It turns out There was a SeaWorld float, a couple floats up, and there were protesters that were. That launched a. An airship, a blimp that was shaped like Shamu. And it said, you know, said. It said sea World kills orcas or something like that. You know, it took the sheriff's department seven minutes to get them off the streets and find the. Who was controlling the blimp and all this stuff. Stuff. So we're. We're seven minutes behind on the parade and. And I've got the roast parade guy in my ear going, we gotta go, we gotta go. And they wanted to blow past the second performance right in front of the NBC executives and their families. I'm like, I went out there like the guy in Tiananmen Square in front of the tanks, and I just said, stop, stop. You know, and. And we did the performance and it went off fine, thank God. And I went out to the desert that weekend thinking, oh, my God, I'm gonna bury my head in the sand. I'm screwed. I'm never working in this town again. Of course, I get the call while I'm out there to come in Monday to NBC, and I'm thinking, oh, I'm so screwed. I'm just gonna get my head handed to me. I go in there, I walk into this conference room filled with executives. They're all like, you know, look kind of serious and, oh, well, you know, we just wanna talk to you about the success of the Rose Pool Parade. And I'm like, yeah, you know, I'm really, you know, I was about to go. I'm really sorry. You know, we were so ecstatic with the outcome of that rose break, we had seven minutes of uninterrupted airtime focused on the voice float from every station that was covering the parade. We were. We couldn't buy that, that amount of advertising for the money we spent. We are. Thank you so much. You know, like, I'm like, oh, me. You know, I couldn't believe it. It was. It was the best. That's amazing how things work out. That's awesome. Yeah, Yeah. I got a lot of stories. I'm sorry, I just. I keep going, but. No, no, no, it's fine. Let me. But I have. I have one question for you. Or maybe it's a statement. Maybe you feel the way I do. So in our industry, maybe it's different because you're not into reality too much. But I see it on, on, on. I don't know. I see that the two sides of what come together to make any production happen. You have the creative side and you have the production side. Yeah. And it seems like in the production side, you know, you move up through the ranks. Like, you have. And you have the experience to be there, to lead, to manage people. On the other side, the creative side, they elevate people to the same level. And they're called showrunners, they're called executive producers. And at that level, they are supposed to manage people, except they're not managers of people. They never have been. They're only creative. But we keep elevating these people to manage other people below them, and it never. It hardly ever works. Yeah. Do you. I mean, right. I think, you know, the creatives, you know, well, the thing that. The thing that I struggle with sometimes is like, you get these producers and they think they're really. They're very talented. I'm not, I'm not speeding that. I'm just saying that they think they're really crafty, like they're gonna try to pull a fast one on you. They're always looking for corners to pull a fast one or like, you know, convince you, like, why they should be able to do something that's, you know, wildly dangerous or something. And I can't even imagine on Top Gear what you must have gone through. Oh, my God, that must have been crazy. But, like, I had, you know, like one producer wanted some contestant to jump off a two story roof into a swimming pool. And I'm like, you know, probably not a good idea. One contestant on Mystery Diners, the show we worked on together. We were in a restaurant and they wanted to let a snake out of the bag. And the audio girl was freaked out by that. And then with one restaurant, we had an alligator that was running through the, the restaurant and like, oh, my gosh. I mean, just crazy stuff, you know, and they're like, oh, it'll be fine. It's just a baby alligator. Well, yeah, when you call the insurance company and tell them that you need to file a special, you know, a certificate for, for an alligator, you know, they're going to think, what are you talking about? You're going to let an alligator go on set? No, we had to take, you know, that, that shrink wrap plastic tape and put it around the alligator's mouth and, you know, it's, it's still a wild animal, you know, it's like regardless if. It'S a baby, you know, and then here comes PETA. And then here comes PETA that they're not thinking about. Yeah, no, it's so it's a little things that, you know, clearly on, on one side, I want to call it the aisle this side of the aisle that, that we think of all the time, and the other side just doesn't. They want to, you know, a lot of times they want to do without thinking. Now, there are exceptions. I have worked with some amazing creative executive showrunners that do think the way we do. And, you know, nine out of 10 times they came through the ranks like we have, where they've done pretty much everything, so they know what it takes to get things done. But it just, it seems like we always, I don't know, it seems like we failed. The systems failed us to where not even these companies are giving the showrunners any leadership training. Like zero. Yeah. And then they throw them to the wolves and they don't succeed. And they wonder why, you know, they're not bringing a team together. So, you know, I got to be honest, like the, I came up with like in live TV and variety television and, you know, there's, there's a high degree of professionalism that goes along with that, you know, and, you know, because it is live and it's, you know, it's. You can't, you can't mess up. Right? And people know when you don't know what you're talking about. About. But then I got into reality and digital and, you know, reality people work really hard. You know, that was the first time I heard a minute minimum 12 hour day. That was the first time I heard that. Yeah. And, you know, for as many hours of you and I as you and I have racked up, I swear to God, I think we would be probably the richest men alive, you know, or maybe we've racked up enough, you know, maybe get enough to be a minimum wage for all of our career. But, but, but then, you know, and then the hardest working people I found were the roadies, like on tours and stuff like that. Oh, my God. They're in one, they're ripping down stuff and moving to the next one the next day. And that's. It was crazy. Let me ask you one last thing. What's, what's the craziest prop you think you've ever used on set? Craziest prop I've ever used on set. You know, it's all right. Vibrator or the, the penis. The penile implant, man. That's funny. I, I, I know you got to get going, man. They keep calling. They're calling me back to my channel as well. So, guys, thanks for coming. Rick, I really appreciate you coming. Don't forget to come and check out Go for Donnie. You guys, my YouTube channel at Go for Donnie. This is Switchy channel two. This will be on all this, all the, the podcast platforms from YouTube to Spotify to Apple to Amazon. And you can also watch this video on my YouTube channel or my website, gofordani.com. thanks, Rick. I really appreciate it. We got to get back to our channel, man. You bet. Donnie, great to see you, pal. Do it again soon. Okay? Take care, buddy. Later. All right, bye. By. Production for Donnie. Go for Donnie. Locations for Donny. Go for Donnie. Happy bar for Donny. Go for Donnie. Hey, Donnie. What the hell are they doing, Sam?