ABC Family’s Q&A Session With Joey Lawrence
(Joe Longo, Melissa & Joey)
M. Roberts Hello, everyone. This is Meg from New
Media Strategies. I’d like to thank you all, and especially
Joey, for being with us today. Joey plays Joe Longo in ABC
Family’s newest original comedy Melissa & Joey, which airs
Tuesday nights at 8/7 Central.
Moderator Our first question comes from the line of
Lisa Steinberg with Starry Constellation.
L. Steinberg You and Melissa have known each other
for quite some time. How do you guys maintain chemistry
onscreen? You’re friends in real life, but you have to have
a bit of spark onscreen, too.
J. Lawrence Right. Well, you know that’s why we get
paid the big bucks there. [Laughs] It’s just all part of the
job when you have to play certain characters. There are
areas that you have to tap into and you’ve got to pull from
personal things in your life and try to use those in your
job. I associate it to just putting myself into Joe Longo’s
world and he’s attracted to her, therefore, I am as well as
Joe Longo.
L. Steinberg You both also have younger kids. What’s
it like raising tweens [on the show]?
J. Lawrence I think that’s where the comedy comes
from because these people are barely in their 30s themselves
and they have 16-year-olds running around. So, it’s really
more of an uncle/aunt type relationship—do you know what I
mean—or an older sibling type of relationship. I think
that’s where the comedy comes from is that we’re trying to
create some kind of normalcy for these teenagers with their
parents either in jail or on the run. Yet at the same time
when you’re 16-years-old you’re kind of baked, you’re who
you’re going to be. It’s just a matter of the final toppings
on the sundae there. I think that we feel that
responsibility to hopefully at least set a good example for
them.
But it’s tough, being in our 30s, but we’re sort of on the
young end of that, so I think that we’re still kids at heart
and probably act like big kids at times. It’s a tough job. I
wouldn’t know what it’s like other than the fact that my
youngest sibling, Andy, is 12 years younger than me, so
growing up I was really more like an uncle to him than I was
a brother because I took care of him and he looked up to me
that way much more so than you would a sibling like Matt,
for instance. Matt and I are only three years apart, so you
have all the much more the normal sibling stuff.
Moderator Next we’ll go to Kenn Gold with Media
Boulevard.
K. Gold I wonder if you could talk about just how
this project got started. I would assume there’s something
from My Fake Fiancé, just that chemistry. Did that lead to
this?
J. Lawrence Yes, I think so. My Fake Fiancé was
something that we did together and we had a good time. There
were intangible things that happened and I think that in the
comedy world we just have this sort of innate timing that
really works well. You never know why two people work well
together in a certain genre or a certain type. I don’t know
if it would be the same in drama, but certainly in the
comedy world we just worked well.
We had never worked with each other or anything like that.
We had known each other, but when we were doing the movie I
think that we felt that and I know the network, they were
watching the dailies and stuff and they were feeling that.
Then one thing led to another and before the movie was over
we were all thinking, this might work to do a half hour
comedy or something like that, and a year and a half later
here we are. But definitely I think the initial idea came
from My Fake Fiancé thing and that whole experience.
K. Gold How different is it being the executive
producer on a series like this? What does that exactly mean?
Do you have more say into your character and how the show
goes?
J. Lawrence It’s awesome, man. You can’t be fired at
all, which is great. No. That’s why I wanted that, because I
think that it does allow you a lot more creative control
over how the show at least turns out at the end of the day.
In this particular medium I have a lot of experience, so
it’s not just like an actor grabbing at some power; it’s
that I know as much as anybody does in this particular
medium just because I’ve had so many years of experience. I
think that it just helps when you’re not feeling great about
something or if you have an idea about something, that
they’ve got to take it seriously. It’s not like an actor for
hire. It’s like a part of the team. And if I was going to
jump back into this world, to the half hour comedy world, I
wanted to be a big part of the team rather than an actor for
hire.
Moderator Next we’ll go to the line of Pattye Grippo
of Pazsaz.com.
P. Grippo You’ve been working in the public eye since
you were quite young. What, if anything, would you do
differently if you could go back and re-do it?
J. Lawrence There were certain movies that I did not
do during the whole Blossom run and stuff, just because I
didn’t want to get burned out doing the whole teen thing. I
was fortunate that when I was a young teenager I was playing
the age that I was. It wasn’t one of those things where I
was like some of these other actors and stuff that were 25
playing 16, so that was the good thing about it. But you
pass on some of these roles and they end up turning out to
be huge hit movies. I don’t know whether I’d re-do it, but
it makes you think twice, like maybe I should have.
But at the same point in time I didn’t want to burn myself
out as a teenager and not have any sort of career later in
life, because I think there are two ways you can go with
that. You can either get over-exposed and then never work
again, make a lot of money but never work again, or you can
pace yourself and say, you know what, I believe that I can
do this for the rest of my life and I think the prime area
of a career, for a male especially, really doesn’t even
begin until you’re in your middle thirties. Then if you’re
lucky enough and if you choose wisely and you work hard
enough probably 35-60 is really the career that you want.
If you look at all the great leading men, you look at Tom
Hanks and Michael Douglas and John Travolta, Bruce Willis,
George Clooney, these guys, I mean, George Clooney didn’t
even start ER until he was 35 or 36 years old. So that’s
what I was thinking. I was trying to keep my eye on the
bigger picture. But there were a couple of those movies that
ended up being huge hit movies that probably wouldn’t have
hurt, and that’s the way the cookie crumbles.
I try not to have any regrets about anything, just because I
believe that the way it went down is the way it was supposed
to go down and I think you have to believe that otherwise
you’ll drive yourself crazy.
P. Grippo On this particular show, why did you decide
to keep your first name for your characters?
J. Lawrence Honestly, that was an ABC Family
decision. They were emphatic and very passionate about that.
Initially, believe it or not, the character names were Jack
and Annie. But they did their marketing research and the
brilliant minds over there in the ABC Family brain trust
said, look, there are a lot of channels and a lot of
choices, and we believe in this show and we want to make
sure that people know what it is and we want to be able to
cut through. And we really think that if we use your names,
that that will be a no-brainer, people will know what this
is and instantly there will recognizability for it.
We couldn’t disagree, even though I think Melissa and I were
both sort of like, eh, at the beginning. But they gave us
some examples and they said look, if you look back at some
of the shows that have done this and it’s worked, to name a
few, they said there’s Cosby and Roseanne and Seinfeld and
Mary Tyler Moore, and after that you just kind of go, okay,
because people said do you think people will think it’s a
reality show or what. I said, really I don’t think so and I
think if they do the minute that they tune in they’re going
to realize that it’s not. But it was really for name
recognition and marketing and so far it’s really worked. I
think they know a thing or two over there.
Moderator Next we’ll go to the line of Jeanine Poggi
with TooMuchtoTIVO.com.
J. Poggi Your character on the show is a bit
embarrassed by having the job as a nanny, and I was
wondering what your feelings are about playing a male nanny.
J. Lawrence Look, I think that every good dad and
husband is part nanny. That’s part of the job, right, you
have kids, and I know that part of the domestic
responsibilities, it’s a 50/50 road there. I’m doing laundry
at home and cleaning up around the house and cooking meals,
and that’s just the way it works. But I think that for this
guy in particular it would be a little tough to go from
making millions of dollars and basically having life at your
fingertips to living in a basement apartment and cooking
meals. It would be a transition, to say the least, and I
think that’s where the comedy comes from for Joe Longo.
That’s why he’s obsessed with the fact that he’s not
actually working for her he’s working with her and he’s
freelance, so he thinks he can leave at any time he wants.
He probably could, but he wouldn’t have anywhere to go.
So until he gets his feet back under him, that’s sort of the
underlying theme. He’s going to use this job until he can
trade again, which is five years from now, because he struck
up a deal with the Feds to avoid jail time, but he can’t
trade for five years. So it would be tough, I think. Not
because of the job but just because of where you came from
to where you were at the moment.
J. Poggi Talking about families, both you and Melissa
have young children and I’m just wondering how hard it is
right now to balance the series and your families.
J. Lawrence I think that’s really the challenge of
any young parent with any job really. I’m not any different
than any guy who’s an upstart lawyer or an investment banker
or a construction worker or a teacher or anything like that.
That’s really, I think, the toughest challenge in life is to
balance being the best parent you can be and also succeeding
as much as you can, knowing that you’re doing it for your
family, knowing that you’re doing it for college funds and
to hopefully allow you and your wife to be able to spend
your later years in somewhat of financial comfort. That’s
what it’s all about. But that balance is probably the
toughest thing in life, really, because it’s about switching
gears constantly.
You come home from a long day of work and there’s a lot of
things on your mind and the normal stresses and anxieties
and responsibilities of your work, and then bang, you walk
through the door and it’s diaper changing and Phineas and
Ferb and story time and bath time, and it’s just, wow. So
it’s not easy, but challenges are something that I feel are
exciting and that I want to conquer, and this is certainly I
think one of the largest ones that any person will ever have
really.
Moderator Next we’ll go to the line of Sarah Fulghum
with Totallyher.com.
S. Fulghum Are you going to use your musical talents
on Melissa & Joey?
J. Lawrence Yes, I actually did write the theme song
for this. In the opening titles, the way they do it nowadays
sort of the theme song as a whole has kind of disappeared,
which is unfortunate, they don’t play the whole thing. But
at the end of the show if you listen out for it and it’s
like this, “I guess you’re stuck with me,” right, and that
is part of a full song which will be up on iTunes and it’s a
really cute little folky-pop thing. Then we totally did a
full remix, a brand new version of it, which will be on my
record which comes out early next year, which is really
exciting.
The record’s great. I would not have gone down that road
again if I didn’t really think it was awesome, and it’s
exciting working with Matthew Gerard and a bunch of great
guys on this thing and it’s a pop record that I think people
are going to be happy with. I don’t think people are going
to be upset. It’s really exciting stuff. Anyway, the total
remix version is we did this Reggae sort of dance version of
this song and we flipped it up on its head and I re-did the
vocal and everything and it sounds really sick. So that will
be on the record too.
S. Fulghum I read about your recent eye injury. Are
you doing okay and what exactly happened?
J. Lawrence I’m doing all right. It was just a freak
accident. You carry your scripts around when you’re on the
set, that’s just kind of the way it works, and one of the
actors just by accident was going to hug somebody else and I
got literally an entire roll of 40 pages jammed into my eye.
It just hit me right at the right spot, right in the center
of the cornea, and it just ripped it, which is a very
painful thing. Fortunately, the eye is one of the fastest
regenerating parts of the body; it can regenerate itself,
thank God. But it’s so painful when it happens. Do you know
when you get a big hair in your eye, almost like that
paralyzing feeling of oh my God, something’s in there, well
times that by three with this incredible burn, like the most
severe paper cut, because that’s what they associate it to,
and yet it’s always wet because it’s in your eye.
So it just is so painful and it takes, where I got it—it’s
right smack dab in the middle so it’s going to take a month
for me to get my vision back in there, because it’s all
blurry and nasty. And the pain is now just starting to
subside and it’s been five days, so it’s pretty crazy. It’s
one of those freak things.
Moderator Next we’ll go to the line of Traci Grant
with TheStarScoop.com.
T. Grant You and Melissa both have a really large fan
base that goes back a long way and so I was hoping that you
could talk about who the fans are for the show and what
audience you’re expecting, new fans, old fans, and just the
response so far.
J. Lawrence The response so far has been great. I
think our fans are people that have grown up with us and
then I think there’s a younger growing fan base that’s grown
up with the reruns of the shows. That’s what’s so great. I
know that when Brotherly Love went over to the Disney
Channel, although my fans at the time were probably 19, 20
years old, it went over there and became the number one show
on that channel for four or five years, and it was exposed
to a bunch of 8-year-olds and 10-year-olds who are now 17
and 18.
So even though probably my core audience is 25 to 35 or
something like that, there are all these 15-year-olds,
16-year-olds, and 17-year-olds that know very well who I am
and who Matt and Andy are just because of that success. I
know it was the same with Melissa with Sabrina being on
reruns everywhere and stuff like that.
I think that’s what makes it very unique. When you’re
blessed enough to do this kind of work for a long time and
yet still be so young, you are exposed to a bunch of
different ages, and they will start to follow you if you’re
lucky. I think we’ve both been very lucky in that regard.
I’d say the age range is probably, it’s really probably
anywhere from 12, 13, to 49, which is I think what made it
kind of enticing to the network, because I think that that’s
the age that they go after, that 18 to 49 is what they call
the key demo, that’s where the advertising dollars love to
be spent and all that stuff. So when you have that as your
base, then it becomes enticing on a whole other level, let
alone just the quality of the show and all that kind of
stuff.
T. Grant You said that you’ve been in the business
for a while and you do have all these fans. What do you
attribute your success to, anything in particular?
J. Lawrence It’s the intangible, really. But there’s
no rhyme or reason for it and there’s certainly no
progression that you can follow, other than just try to work
hard. I’ve always tried to work hard. I try to live right
and make as many right choices as I can. Nobody’s perfect by
any means, but I think that we all know right and wrong and
I think the goal in life, as my grandfather told me, is to
try to make as many of the right decisions as you possibly
can.
I was from a generation that, not too long ago, but it was a
generation that was about the work. There were young people
even in my generation growing up that messed up, that had
problems with drugs and run-ins with the law and stuff, but
it was about the work. They didn’t go into it wanting to be
famous for anything other than doing great work or being in
big movies or TV shows.
I think today if there’s been any change at all it’s that a
lot of young people are coming in to this to be famous, like
famous to be famous, not famous because of the work or
forget about the fame and it’s just about the work, which is
what I came into it for. It was just about doing what you
loved to do. The fame thing was like, wow, you knew that was
a cherry on top and it was a cool thing but you always kept
perspective on it. Whereas, today gosh, so many of these
young people are just famous for a sex tape or famous for
something else crazy or getting arrested or drug overdoses,
you know, it’s horrible.
I think that part of the reason why I think that I’ve been
able to stick around for a long time is just because, well,
number one, I’ve been lucky and I have great, incredible
fans out there that grew up with me, because I’ve been able
to do this from 5-years old to 34-years-old already. And I’m
just sort of beginning really, I feel, because as a leading
man this is when it begins, at 30 really. So it’s kind of
cool. And then keeping my nose clean and trying to live
right and making it about the work instead of about my
personal life, and trying to keep as much of that private.
And even though I’m a public person you try to keep as much
of that private and try to keep it classy. I think that it’s
worked so far.
Moderator Next we’ll go to Lauren Becker with
Shooting Stars.
L. Becker I know in the past you’ve worked with your
brothers in a lot of different projects. Is there any chance
one of them would guest star in the future? Would you be
interested in that?
J. Lawrence Sure. I love those guys, man. I love
those guys. They’re so talented. Yes. We’re already starting
to throw around some ideas in interesting, cool ways to have
Matt and Andy on the show in some regard. As a matter of
fact, it’s a very good chance that Matt at some point will
be on the show very shortly, and Andrew will as well, but I
think the role for Matt will probably come up first. But
it’s something that we’re working on, yes, because those
guys are excellent and if there’s a role that makes sense,
there’s nobody that I’d want to play it more than those
guys. But we have really great writers who find new and
unique ways to make these things that you expect and twist
them on their head, and that’s this idea that we have for
both Matt and Andy that will be on separately. But yes,
definitely working on it.
L. Becker I know you’re still involved with film
other than TV and I was wondering if there’s any upcoming
projects or things you’re working on that you could talk
about?
J. Lawrence We’ve got a new record coming out next
year, which is going to be exciting. It’s the first time in
a long time, but it’s so good and it’s taken a life of its
own. I was able to work with Matthew Gerard on the whole
thing, and I don’t know if you know who he is, but you can
Google him. He’s just a prolific producer and has had 30
number one hit songs, and one that Kelly Clarkson did, Jesse
McCartney, to the Hannah Montana, it’s just incredible what
he’s been able to do to Miley Cyrus and all that stuff. We
just started working and it’s turned into this amazing
thing. I wrote the theme song for the show, so that will be
on the record as well, as a remix version, which is great.
In terms of films, I’m always working on that. That’s just a
process that I really wanted to take my time and not rush
it. That’s why even as a teenager I passed on a lot of those
movie roles because I wanted to do them later when I felt
like as a man that I’d be able to do the roles that I wanted
to do. We’re getting there.
I’m going to be doing a movie next year called Havana Heat,
which is this big action Miami Vice thing, sort of in the
line of The Expendables. Wesley Snipes is in it and we’re
working with a bunch of great other guys. They’re closing
their deals right now so I can’t really talk about them, but
we’re going to put together sort of a dream team of amazing
action guys and I’m going to play this cop that is sort of
in the middle of it all. It’s about a drug lord that goes
from the United States down to Cuba and me and my team
follow him. It’s really exciting. It’s really cool. We’re
going to start shooting that probably early next year, as
soon as I’m done with hopefully the first full season of the
show and before I start the second season.
Moderator Next we’ll go to Far Hossain with Farflips.
F. Hossain I wanted to know what you like best about
your character, Joe Longo.
J. Lawrence What do I like best? I like that he’s a
guy’s guy. I like that he’s brutally honest. I sort of
wanted to create him as a throwback because I didn’t think
that this guy was on TV right now, sort of this brutally
honest kind of Bruce Willis from Moonlighting type guy who
had a swagger and had a great heart. But he’s just the kind
of guy that if a woman asked him if she looked good or not
in a dress he would be perfectly honest and say, “Honestly,
that one doesn’t look that great.”
That’s the kind of guy that you think you’d hate, but at the
end of the day I think you’d probably like him because he’s
not saying it for malicious reasons but he’s saying it to be
honest. Whereas, most guys would go, “No, honey, you look
fine, you look great, you look wonderful,” you know, and
they really wouldn’t know one way or the other or maybe they
would but would never say it. This guy would say it. I just
wanted that guy back on TV.
He’s a little politically incorrect. He’s kind of a unique
combination because he’s very smart and made a lot of money
and now he’s taking this job that he feels he’s really
sucking it up for a minute until he gets his life back
together. And he’s kind of a complex guy and I didn’t think
that that guy was on TV, so that’s probably what I like
best, that he’s just brutally honest.
F. Hossain I wanted to know what is your favorite
memory or what you loved best about working on Blossom.
J. Lawrence There’s not one specific memory, just
kind of a really great, warm feeling about the whole thing,
because that was a tremendous time in my life. There was a
period of time there where as a 16-year-old, I was probably
the most successful one in the world, so it’s not something
that you plan but you certainly can’t beat that. It was just
so great to be on a big hit show like that and to be so
successful personally and yet still have all my friends. And
I was in school and I was in high school and it was all
those great things, you get your prom and you get your
school trips. And I flew back every three weeks to my
private school in Pennsylvania and got to experience all
that stuff and ended up graduating from there and never did
the home school thing. But it was just a wonderful time. You
look back on that and you say, wow, man, it was crazy how
simple and just awesome it was, because as you get older
life gets complicated, you know.
Moderator Next we’ll go to Danielle Turchiano of LA
Examiner.
D. Turchiano I guess my first question is just what
it feels like for you to work in front of a live audience.
Do you find the energy is different having the immediate
reaction from the fans?
J. Lawrence Yes, I think that with this particular
medium, the half hour comedy, I prefer it in front of a live
audience, or at least some sort of hybrid version of it,
just because I feel that a lot gets lost when there’s no
live audience at all. It was really intended to be theater
in a box, I mean, that’s what half hour comedy on TV was
intended to be, and I think that as it’s grown and changed I
think that there’s a single camera format where you don’t
have any audience.
But me personally I miss the sense of the live crowd there.
I think it keeps the show alive and moving along and keeps
it bubbling under the surface, so to speak, and I like that
energy being in this format. It’s fun to watch and I think
it makes you feel alive when you watch it. It is a rush,
because it really is like theater. You get that great
response when a joke works and you also don’t get a great
response when a joke doesn’t work and you know and then you
can change it, which is what we do. I don’t know; it’s a
great experience.
D. Turchiano With the teenage characters on the show,
how involved are you in choosing some of their storylines as
executive producer and saying, you know what, I don’t want
to go too dark with them and I don’t want to make them seem
like they’re growing up too fast? Because you are a parent
of young kids and in a way I feel like ... role model for
the younger audience that is watching them.
J. Lawrence Yes. We’re on the edgier side, so we’re
not going to sugar coat it, but at the same point in time
it’s not the Disney Channel. It’s not for 8-year-olds. I
would say minimum would be 13, just because of the content
of the show. It’s a young adult comedy with teenagers, so it
certainly wouldn’t be for 6-year-olds, 7-year-olds, or
8-year-olds. It probably wouldn’t hurt them to watch it, but
it’s not for them.
In terms of the teenage stuff, we try to handle it
responsibly but part of the comedy is that Mel’s character
is not responsible and that I’m there to sort of shed some
light on responsibility. That’s where some of the comedy
comes from. So there are moments when there is not the right
example set, but I think by the end of the half hour somehow
you get a sense of either what should have happened or what
will happen the next time. They’re not really parents and I
think they’re both less developed in that area than I am in
my personal life and Melissa is in her personal life,
because we are young parents and they aren’t. That’s the
give and take, and then they have these two teenagers who
are running around and they’re kind of baked already.
When you’re 16 you’re the person that you’re going to be.
It’s just the final touches of maturity and life
experiences, finishing the job. But the crux of your center
is already there and cooked and we’re just trying to
navigate that. You feel a responsibility but I think that we
try to make shows that at the end of the day you realize
what should have happened even if it didn’t happen during
the course of our show.
Moderator Next we’ll go to Michelle St. James with
Daemon’s TV.
M. St. James I read that you sold a script to Disney
for a movie called Mr. Everything. Can you tell us about it?
J. Lawrence Yes. It’s a movie that I’m doing with the
producer of the Wedding Crashers, which is great. It’s a
really funny movie, kind of like Doc Hollywood meets Sweet
Home Alabama. We hope to be shooting it sometime next year,
in between hopefully season one and two of this show. But
it’s a really funny, romantic comedy that I think will work
well for them. It would have made a great feature too. But I
think that with the success of My Fake Fiancé we thought why
not let ABC Family kind of give another crack at it, and
they were excited about it and got a great team, and we’re
going to make a good one. So I’m looking forward to that.
M. St. James Do you have any plans to write an
episode of Melissa & Joey?
J. Lawrence I don’t know about that. I may direct one
of them coming up at some point. But writing, that takes a
lot of patience, which I don’t have. I’m the idea guy and
then I’ve got so much going on it’s tough for me to sit down
and open my mind and complete ... right. That’s not always
been my forte. I can do it. But it would take a lot for me
to settle myself down at a point where I could do that.
Maybe, though, I never say never. If we have an opportunity
to run for a long time there will be several opportunities
to do a bunch of that kind of stuff.
Moderator Next we’ll go to Amy Bredemeyer with
TheTalkingBox.com.
A. Bredemeyer On the show Joe is a great cook, so I
was wondering if you enjoy being in the kitchen, and if so
what you like to make.
J. Lawrence Yes, I love to cook, actually. What do I
like to make? I like a little bit of everything. I make
baked salmon with a little bit of mushroom couscous stuff
and roasted cranberries on top. I can make a great lasagna
or spaghetti and meat sauce and grilled chicken and stuff. I
like to experiment. I have three or four things that I make
awesome, but I’m constantly looking for new things to try,
and I try them and sometimes they turn out great and other
times they’re horrendous, but I think that’s part of it. But
I enjoy it.
A. Bredemeyer Also you mentioned that you liked
working in front of the live studio audience with the
comedy. When you worked in ... in Chicago were you bitten by
the theater bug at all? Do you want to do more stage work?
J. Lawrence I would do that. That is a ton of work.
I’ve got mad props for those stage actors that do it 50
weeks out of the year, because it’s just tremendously
draining because every day you wake up and basically it’s a
countdown to the show. Especially a musical like that, you
have to be in perfect voice and you have to sleep and you
need your rest, and you wake up and just prepare for the
show. It’s eight shows a week. It’s unbelievable. I did it
for four months and it kicked my butt. It was a great
experience, but boy, it was like, wow. But if something came
up that fit right—I get offered to do stuff, but I don’t
feel like it’s really the right thing for me. But that, I
happen to love that particular musical and I love the
character and they let me do a Frank Sinatra thing with them
and I loved it, so that was why I did that.
Moderator Next we’ll go to the line of Deborah Wagner
with PopEntertainment.com.
D. Wagner By’94 when you actually graduated you had
already done Gimme A Break and you were working currently on
Blossom. How difficult was that to travel across the country
while you’re working on one side of the country and then
coming back here to Abington Friends?
J. Lawrence It wasn’t difficult because it was just
what I was used to, and I had been doing that ever since
second grade, first grade, really. So it was just what I was
used to. And 60% of my class, or 70% of my class were all
lifers, we were all there together, and it made it very easy
because there was never the new groupings of kids that I had
to deal with or that didn’t know who I was. They were there
with me so it never hit them overnight. It happened with me
and therefore I was able to come back home and get right
back into the groove of things and go on my coal country
trips and my trips to Joshua Tree Hill, all that great
stuff. It was really awesome.
They just had a great campus too. The school store, I mean,
come on the school store is awesome. It’s like 400 years
old, that thing. And the meeting for worship house, it was
just a great time. I was actually there when they built the
Grover Washington Theater, I was there when he—
D. Wagner Wow.
J. Lawrence Yes, so a really great time in my life.
It was incredible.
D. Wagner I really liked you in American Dreams.
Would you like to do more of the dramatic roles or do you
prefer comedy to drama?
J. Lawrence I like both. I can do both, so it’s just
a matter of what makes sense at the right time. This sort of
seemed like a good project and I was able to have a lot of
creative control on this one and I hadn’t been involved in
the half hour in a long time so to come back to it this way
was kind of nice. But yes, movies and drama and stuff like
that I think is obviously in the future, and it’s all part
of the journey, and this is where I am at the moment.
Moderator Next we’ll go to Sara Bibel of Fancast.
S. Bibel This show harkens back to the’80s sitcoms
and TGIF, similar to Who’s The Boss? How did you and ABC
Family know that America was hungry for this sort of show
that’s different from a lot of what’s currently on?
J. Lawrence Well, we were all fans of those great
comedies, the great Thursday night lineup with Mad About You
and those Tuesday night lineups on ABC. I don’t think the
audience necessarily ever got sick of that. I think it was
the business that said, let’s try something new and maybe
reality will be a cheaper way to make people laugh and get
our bang for our buck. And I think, look, reality is not
going to die, clearly it’s going to be around forever, but
they can live and co-exist. I don’t think it needs to
replace it.
I think with the resurgence of the half hour comedies on CBS
and Two and a Half Men and all that kind of stuff I think
that you are seeing that, and we wanted to bring a romantic
comedy back, because I don’t think a romantic comedy was on
TV. So it’s working so far, man. But it’s like a big
chocolate chip cookie, it makes you feel good. And I think
that the chemistry is working on the show, I think the
writing is good, and it’s a young adult comedy. There are
very few romantic comedies out there for 18-year-olds to
49-year-olds, there’s just not a lot happening, so we were
happy to pave that road again and so far it’s been working.
S. Bibel The big question, whenever you do a romantic
or a sexual tension sitcom, is do you put the couple
together? Have you guys and the writers figured that out
yet?
J. Lawrence I think that this relationship is very
similar to Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd in Moonlighting,
it’s very similar to Ted Danson and Shelly Long/Kirstie
Alley. I think it’s those love to hate, hate to love things,
and I think that if you get these two people together that
starts to signify the show wrapping itself up. So you’ve got
to fight that for as long as you can, because I think if you
give into that then it becomes syrupy and gives you cavities
and then the comedy dies. So it probably will happen, but
hopefully we have an opportunity to be on for a while and it
won’t happen for a while.
Moderator Next we’ll go to Troy Rogers with
Deadbolt.com.
T. Rogers If you didn’t choose this line of work, how
do you think you would have done in real life as a nanny?
J. Lawrence Well, I’m a big proponent of whatever job
you have take pride in it and do it well. I don’t think that
any job is too small. I think there are people too small for
jobs. So I don’t care if I was painting roofs or doing this
kind of work, I would probably throw myself into it 100%.
That’s the way I was raised.
T. Rogers Hypothetically, would you have enjoyed
being a nanny?
J. Lawrence I’m a dad, so I’m part nanny anyway. I
don’t know. I probably would because I enjoy cooking and I
like things clean and neat. I’m not obsessed with it, but I
do like things nice and clean and neat. I’m always cleaning
up around my house and I’m cooking some of the meals and
doing some of the laundry and changing sheets and stuff. So
yes, it wouldn’t bother me. I wouldn’t feel like it was
below me or be in misery. If I could see my work and wow, a
nice clean house at the end of the day and some good food,
it would be a simpler life, but it would be okay.
T. Rogers I enjoyed you in Android Apocalypse. Are
there any other sci-fi projects coming up for you?
J. Lawrence No, we’re doing a big action movie next
year called Havana Heat, which is sort of a throwback to The
Expendables type of thing. It’s like Miami Vice. It’s really
cool, really cool, a great throwback, like a shoot ’em up
cop movie. But I would love to do that. But we’ll see. This
is a work in progress. There’s a few things that are
floating around out there, but nothing I can tell you I’m
doing for sure because they could not happen and then
someone else could do it, and then it’s like, why did he say
he’s doing that? But yes, it’s a genre that I enjoy, so
we’re always looking to do stuff like that.
Moderator Next we’ll go to Ariel Alexovich of the
Chicago Tribune.
A. Alexovich You’re really active on Twitter and I’m
wondering how you’re finding that and how you find time for
that.
J. Lawrence Well, it’s hard to find time for it,
actually. I was sort of pushed into it. All my friends are
like, oh man, you’ve got to be on Twitter. I’m like a
techo-idiot actually, but I was able to master my iPhone and
Twitter. It’s kind of cool. It’s crazy, it’s like crazy and
cool at the same time. It’s crazy that you are communicating
with your fans, and that’s kind of cool and you get that
instant feedback. But then it’s part of your job now,
because if you don’t do it there are a lot of people that
are doing it and developing that kind of relationship I
think is important.
They feel like they’re involved and they are involved in
your career, and it just makes them more invested in the
body of work that you do and that’s kind of the point, and
it’s a good information highway to talk about things. I
think sometimes people get too personal. There are
boundaries, I think, just like there would be in a
relationship with somebody. But it’s a cool tool for certain
things.
A. Alexovich I also noticed that Melissa is active on
Twitter and has more followers than you, and I’m wondering
if there’s any rivalry there?
J. Lawrence Well, she started a long time before me.
I just began the thing like five, six weeks ago, maybe seven
weeks ago, and I’m getting my feet wet. I haven’t announced
that I’m on Twitter as much as I should because I keep
forgetting to do it, like when I’m on Regis and stuff. But
we’re working on it. Yes, she’s got more than me. Bastard!
No, it’s fine, it’s cool. Like I said, I didn’t expect to
have more than 200, so I was like hey, I’ve got 8,000, it’s
pretty cool. I’m sure it will grow the more that I talk
about it and stuff. I just have to do a better job of
letting people know that I’m on it. That’s really my job.
Moderator Next we’ll go to Lori May with
Starpulse.com.
L. May Melissa and Joey were obviously given your real first
names. Are there other personality traits in real life that
have been infused into the characters?
J. Lawrence I think you’ve got to put a little bit of
yourself into all the characters that you portray. There are
some similarities, but I’d say there’s more things,
especially in Joe Longo that are not similar to me, but
that’s what I enjoy. I enjoy playing that because that’s not
the guy that I am essentially. But I do like the fact that
he’s honest. I think we share that in common.
He’s brutally honest at times, but I’d take that over some
sort of line of BS any day of the week. He’s sort of a
little politically incorrect, and I tend to be sometimes,
just because of the honesty factor. I think people today are
so worried about what they say or how it’s perceived but if
you’re just honest then that’s just the way it is. I like
that Joe is simple that way, that Joe Longo is very simple
that way, and he’s that weird mixture of really smart guy
but sort of rough around the edges and has had a lot of
success and now is doing this job that is sort of out of
body to him, and I think that’s where a lot of the comedy
comes from.
M. Roberts Ladies and gentlemen, at this time we have
time for one more question.
Moderator That will be from Sara Bibel with Fancast.
S. Bibel You mentioned the possibility of your
brothers guest starring, and I wanted to know if you guys
have any other exciting guest stars coming to the show,
either people we’re going to know from sitcoms or from
something else?
J. Lawrence Yes, we shot this big Dancing With The
Stars kind of crossover episode and we’ll have somebody from
that show that you all know. We did it in a very edgy, on
its head way, it’s not what you think the show would be
about. It’s kind of funny, which is what we like about it,
because it’s something that people will go, oh my God, it’s
a Dancing With The Stars episode of course, but then they’re
going to watch it and go, oh my God, that’s totally not what
I thought it was. I think that was our plan. But that will
be on in a couple of weeks, it’s September 28th, I think.
We’re always looking for people to come on if it makes
sense, not take you out of the show, but if it makes sense.
We have Lucy DeVito is helping us out, Danny DeVito’s
daughter, and she’s just been fantastic and is going to do
hopefully several more episodes with us.
I’m probably going to have Matthew and Andrew on the show at
some point, not as my brothers but at some point in roles
that are very cool and funny. Then we’re always open to the
idea of a name coming on and helping us out. There’s been
talk, you’re going to meet my ex-wife at some point, and
we’re throwing around a few great names for that too. We
haven’t locked anybody in yet, so I can’t tell you, but it
will be somebody that you know, I think, for that. It always
is fun to do that if it makes sense and doesn’t take you out
of the show.
M. Roberts That’s all the time we have for today’s
call. Joey, thank you so much for being with us today.
J. Lawrence No problem. Thank you for having me,
everybody.
M. Roberts Of course! As always, I’ll be sending out
a transcript of today’s call within two business days to all
participants. Don’t forget, Melissa & Joey airs Tuesday
nights on ABC Family at 8/7 Central. Thank you, everyone.
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