Welcome to the Crown and Anchor Greyhounds. This is Richmond Till We Die,
the conversation about the Apple TV Plus show ted Lasso, where we explore the
characters, their relationships to each other, and how they're able to make a
slap until we can hardly breathe one moment and feel with the deepest parts of
our hearts the next. I'm Christian and to air for today's interview, I
listened to copious amounts of big crit the most notable rapper of all time from
the state of Mississippi. Our guest today is Alex McDaniel. Alex is the
managing editor at USA Today's For the Win, a social news hub that focuses
on sports and entertainment. Of course, Alex is a huge, huge fan
of ted Lasso as well. She's written about ted Lasso for at the Win
and has had the opportunity to interview principal cast member for the site. Alex
also co host ted Lasso episodes for the Big Screen Sports Podcast. Is one
of our favorite Twitter follows, and as such is the primary reason we have
a working knowledge of news. Emanating from the University of Mississippi Athletic Department,
and this is your official warning there are some light spoilers for ted Lasso season
three up through episode five, So Greyhounds please join us in giving a warm
welcome to Alex McDaniel. Thank you so much for being here with us this
morning. Alex, this is so exciting y'all. Thank you so much for
asking me to come on. I feel this is just a treat. Y'all
are great. I love what you do. Oh well, thanks, Well,
we're fans of your work too, and the reason one of the reasons
we connected with you on the internet is because we are all fans of the
show ted Lasso, of course. So why did you decide to start watching
ted Lasso? And what was the moment you knew Okay, yeah, I'm
in this. Yeah. So it's a few things. I mean, I
think one of the one of my favorite things just about I think the collective
fan base who've been watching from the beginning is we all know we were pretty
much in the same situation, right and it was different levels of terrible in
summer twenty twenty. So you know, like right after COVID hit, I
kind of had a dream job at ESP Nation. I loved it, and
we all got unceremoniously laid off, and I spent that summer playing animal crossing
and being just like waiting to find out, Like I was doing freelance stuff,
but I felt so lost, and I think all of us did,
and it was just kind of this collective isolation and sadness. And I forget
where I saw it, but it was just something that had popped up,
maybe on an ad. And you know, I've been an SNL fan since
birth, and I've loved Jason Sadigis forever, and I especially love his dramatic
work. I think I've seen all of his movies, and I you know,
in my head, I was like, oh, that'll be funny.
Yeah, it's another funny shot, but that'll be really good. And so
I just started watching it. I guess it was that August or whenever it
draw, I think it took. I knew I was going to watch it
regardless, because it was one of those things I just think you invest in
certain people and you're like, this could be kind of garbage, and I'll
still watch the whole thing, right, But I think it was episode three
with Trent Krem. I think that was the one where it really clicked for
me and a lot of people where I was like, oh, this is
more than what we thought. It was, like, this is going to
go deeper than just this major league esque plotline. And that's when I started
squawking on Twitter every day, like bullying people like you've got to watch the
show because there's just something here and I don't know what it is, but
yeah, So that's how I got into it. Now here we stand,
we're about halfway through season three as we're having this conversation right now, and
at the beginning of this season, you wrote a piece at for the Win
titled te Lasso's third season feels like the end. Now we have to trust
them to stick the landing. How are you holding up now with your trust
to the process meter as to them sticking the landing, I think they're going
to do it. I think this season is so different for a lot of
reasons. Number one, we had to wait so long for it. Number
two, these episodes are twice as long, and so we're the experience of
watching it is so different. We're getting all of these storylines that are progressing
and wrapping up, and it's certainly not the simple like season one. You
know, is Rebecca going to be nice. You know, it's like so
much happening, but you know, this writing team and as a writer myself,
like I just really love good storytelling, and I have no reason to
believe they won't. Like I think in that column, my biggest point was
when you get invested in the show and you love it for whatever reasons you
have, you do get an idea in your head of like what does a
good ending look like to me? Like what would make me happy for these
characters? And so I think my point was like you may not get that,
you might not get what you want, you know, pun intended,
But I do think think it's going to end the way it's supposed to end,
and so I'm still very confident in that. But I kind of like
how clueless we are about a lot of things right now. It's kind of
anything could happen. So it's been good. Yeah. One of the really
interesting things as this show has developed is kind of taking what you said about
first season. It was very like clear what the focus was, like,
you know, we were learning about Ted, but really it was like is
Rebecca going to be redeemed? Like is she gonna actually like sort of start
to heal and now they've done so much work with all of these characters,
who, like in a lot of shows, would be more of like supporting
characters, like they would have some kind of B or C plot stuff.
But in the second and third season especially, like that has really come into
focus and become part of, like a major part of the show. So
it's not just what is Ted or what is Rebecca doing, Like we're seeing
lots of growth from Roy and Keiley and Nate, like, there have been
so many other characters that have very weighty storylines and that I think has contributed
to the sort of feeling of what's going to happen, because it feels like
there's a lot to resolve with seven episodes left. If this is indeed the
final season, you know, if we if we're wrapping up this you know,
this arc, this chapter, however you want to think about it right
now, it's a lot And I think that's a credit to the writers that
they've made these characters so interesting that we care about all of them, I
know, and we really do care about all of them. I think when
you do kind of a rundown, it's like I need to know this is
going to work out for everybody involved here, and so you know, it's
exactly what you said. It's just a credit to the to the writer's room,
because they are so intentional about both how they've structured the show but also
in the micro sense of like how they've you know, made these episodes kind
of further these stories. Yeah, it's their fault for making us so invested,
is what you're right? Hate it? You alluded to earlier how this
question has shifted from will Rebecca be nice to kind of how can Rebecca process
the trauma that she's been through to the best of her ability in this moment.
And you did write a piece called What ted Lasso taught Us about Abuse
Recovery in the Pitfalls of Revenge way back in the dark ages of twenty twenty
one. It's probably one of the best pieces of writing on to quote Higgins,
the goddamn Internet thoughts. What thoughts or insights would you add to that
article now that we've seen more of Rebecca's story play out? You know,
it's so interesting too, because kind of going back to that story I started
telling twenty twenty where I'd lost my dream job. I didn't know if I'd
land anywhere. I started it for the win that month that season two is
coming out, and so that first week I was like, so, um,
can we do a Ted Lasso week? You know? And I like
a lot of my team, my employees, like they had followed me on
Twitter and they knew I was obsessed and like, yeah, let's do it.
And so I hadn't written anything for the site yet because I was getting
acclimated as an editor and trying to learn everything. And I told my deputy
editor, I'm like, I'm gonna write something really light and fun. Okay,
I'm about ted last time. I'll just hand it to you. And
then like he gets on at six am and sees like this, you know,
this long thing. And so I went back and because I don't like
to reread old stuff. I think when you're a writer or any kind of
artist, you just it's part of it is like I see a million things
I would change, and part of it is when you write something personal,
it's like, get that is exactly where I was two years ago, and
I don't know if I want to revisit it or look at it with fresh
eyes. But I did go back, and I was glad I had written
some of the things I had. I didn't feel like it was a total
stranger right back at me. And I think Rebecca's story to me has been
the most personal for sure, and the one I've related to the most.
It's you know, I see a lot of obvious I see a lot of
people on Twitter talking about things this season that I don't necessarily agree with,
where some people have said, oh, this baby things out of nowhere,
Well that's not true, or you know, she's regressing and you know her
hatred towards Rupert is clouding your judgment, which I do think, but I
don't think it's as simple as oh, all of her healing is gone.
I think, you know, there are a lot of there's a lot of
nuance there behind why she feels the way she does and the fact that she
you know, we season two was such a big mental health season and we
saw a lot of healing, especially on Ted's part and everything, but she
hadn't really started that process yet, like we saw it in the funeral where
she started talking about things. But she's very closed off and a very British
kind of like I'm going to keep everything buried down deep and who needs a
therapist when you can just bother your friends with your problems or whatever. So
you know, I think she's still has a lot to figure out. I
think for me, it's just she's trying to find what happiness is to her
and what it will take to make her feel like she's lived a fulfilling life
for what she's wanted. When people talk about the pregnancy or just going to
become a mother thing, and we go back to that episode in season one
where Rupert says, you know, I suppose I just didn't want a baby
with you know, or like this is better or whatever he says in her
face, and she's the best face actor I've ever seen, but you can
tell her just devastates her and she feels like she's missed out on something.
And so I think people are wrongly interpreting this as, oh, well,
she's just like so desperate for love, she's looking for a baby. It's
like, no, this is actually a part of her she's really wanted.
She has maternal instincts that have shown through the show. So I'm really interested
to see how that comes about and what that family looks like for her,
because I don't if it is romantic love, great if it, but if
it's if it's her adopting a child or you know, becoming a stepmother or
something like whatever form that takes. I think that's when we're going to really
see kind of the evolution and completion of that character's journey because she, you
know, I think she's going in the right direction. She knows where she
wants to go. We just don't know how it's going to end up.
But you know, I love Rebecca. I just think she's a great character.
Being press can be tricky because there are some people in some press outlets
where you have to remain objective or neutral or whatever. One of the nice
things about some of the places you've written is that you still get to be
a fan of things, and so anybody who follows on social media knows there
are some things that you really really love. Was that tricky when you were
part of the official Ted Lasso press junkett to keep your fangirl at bay as
you were interviewing primary cast members. So it's interesting because you know, my
career, I started in traditional news and magazines and you know, went to
J school and I'm definitely one of those that I do not believe you need
a traditional journalism background to make it in this business. That's just where I
came from. And early in my career, and I wasn't in sports at
all until about six or seven years ago. Early in my career, there
would be people who would call into like a newspaper I worked for, and
they would see on my Twitter that I went to All Miss and I was
an Ole Miss fan, and they would accuse me a bias even though I
wasn't covering the team. I wasn't. It was wild and it was this
whole and I was confronted by a few bosses that were like, you need
to keep your opinions to yourself as if I was out there doing politics,
you know. And so that was really tricky for me because it, you
know, I which I'm not going to get into like my media philosophy here,
but basically that we have focused so much on objectivity, which I think
is a really unrealistic goal for people, that we have ignored the importance of
fairness. And so my argument for years has always been, because I do
have I have had to write about almost sometimes if I'm when I was working
in Mississippi, My thing is be honest about where your loyalties lie. And
where your biases are, and then make sure there's a system in place that
if you are covering them, you are covering them fairly. You have verification,
you know, Like I just you know, I don't. I just
don't buy into the idea of like journalists must be objective. Can look up
any journalists passed and look into their history and what they like. We're people
and we should be people. Then I did when I was able to pivot
into these websites that celebrated being a fan, it was certainly more comfortable for
me, and with the junket, I wasn't worried about because I've done enough
interviews that like you just kind of go into interview mode. I was worried
about getting starstruck or anything like that. But it was different than any celebrity
interviews I've done because of how personal it was to me. And you know,
it's we haven't shared the full interviews yet. We're kind of letting those
come out as the season goes on. But like in Jason's interview, I
don't know what came over me, but I had like one question left and
it was going to be a good one, and I lost my mind and
was like, I just need you to know, like how much this show
meant to me at a time when I thought my whole life was falling apart.
And you know, it's weird to think that three years ago I was
unemployed and lost and I just kind of fall in love with the show and
then here I am with a job. I absolutely love interviewing you. And
then it occurred to me what I was doing, and I caught myself like,
all this is on video. It's very embarrassing, Like that's so unprofessional.
I'm sorry, and Jason's like, who cares? Who cares if it's
unprofessional. I think it's important. It was just such a lovely moment,
and I felt like such a dork I got done, But then looking back,
I was like, I'm glad I said it, you know, because
I normally would would keep things very straight. But you know, I think
it was just fun. I think Brett was just a delight. More than
anything. I wanted to ask him about Greece too, probably more than anything
in the world, so I got to do that. But yeah, it
was just it was really fun and nerve wracking, and I think the high
leading up season three, the fact that we waited a year and a half
for it, and even like, you know, and this is what I
would I don't envy anybody who's famous. The fact that you have headlines about
Jason's personal life playing out at this just as strongly at the same time as
the show. I think there's just a lot going into it, and so
getting the opportunity to kind of just talk to them all for a few minutes
was very heavy and a blast. But yeah, I can't watch the videos
because I just can't do it. I feel like it's written all over my
face. I was recently very glad that you were a fan of Oldness because
they just recently hired a men's basketball coach who lost his previous job because he
was arrested on a This is always so tricky to talk about because you don't
want to like misrepresent it and get sued. But the police were called to
a domestic violence disturbance and he was arrested, and then he lost his previous
job, and a lot of people when he lost his job, we're like,
call me and he's never going to coach again. And then he is
now coaching again, like just a few months later, and I was like,
well, it sucks for I know a lot of old miss fans like
it sucks for them. But I do know one journalist that's not going to
let him get away with anything. So I guess that's that's not a good
thing about it. But no, I mean it's true. That's why.
And I will say this, I don't care if Godrey. A lot of
people who work for that university cannot stand me for that reason because they can't
reconcile in their minds. How can you love a place and I do what
that place gave to me built my entire life. They don't underly how you
can love a place and criticize it at all. And I'm like, yeah,
that's life. I mean think about just even with your family relationships or
your personal relationships, like you're fighting for something you care about, right,
and it would make no sense for like you married me, you can't criticize
what I do or anything. It's like, well, if we're gonna live
together forever, you know we're gonna have to talk about things that I don't
like. So yeah, I've been very vocal over the years, and even
in college. I mean, that university has a very contentious history with race,
related symbolism, and I have covered all of that for like fifteen years
at this point, but it hasn't been easy because then you know, run
into somebody at a football game and they're just like, Oh, I'm shocked
to see you here. I figured you would just reject it. I'm like,
man, I just want it to be the best it can be.
I mean, let's how I feel with the South in general, Like,
obviously this is a place that needs major overhauling on so many levels, but
like I'm a Southern girl at heart, like I want it to be the
best it can be. So, yeah, that basketball hires. We'll talk
a lot about it in the future obvia some Twitter rants. But yes,
yeah, we've made the correlation here on our show that SEC football and ACC
basketball are the closest analogs to the EPL in terms of both quality, like
being very high quality and having intense fan culture. And so speaking of you
know, your rivalries and allegiances, you have, I think, as an
external person, a cheeky and good natured relationship with Mississippi State fans. So
can you please explain to our audience why you went so far as to dress
in missus SUPPI State Colors for a recent football game that they played against your
beloved University of Mississippi. Not just the colors. I had the cowbell to
select a special cowbell. It's a special cowbell it was. It was a
ted Lasso cowbell um. So I was in the marching band. I was
actually a music major for most of college. Oh yeah, yeah. I
wanted to be a here, a band director. That's what I wanted to
be. So I was a semester. I was a semester away from finishing
my music D degree. I was like, you know, I'd always been
a writer too, and it was really bothering me that I hadn't done anything
with it, and I'm like, you know, I need to try it.
It was just the fear of like what if you fail and music ad
even though education jobs certainly and don't come with a lot of works or money
or anything. But I was confident. I was more confident that I would
have a consistent music I career than I was that I could. There is
a stability in that, yes, exactly, And you know, if even
if you're not a band, really there are different elements of that you could
you could do. But I just really felt to my god, I was
like, you need to try the writing. You just need to see where
it takes you. So my parents were thrilled for me staying in college an
extra year after that, but I stayed in the marching Man and I stayed
and went ensemble and and just loved it. And you know, for an
SEC school, which most SEC schools have money at their disposal, and really
college bands in general at that level usually have decent practice facilities. They at
least have a practice field similar to what the football team would have where it's
an actual you know field with turf and lines and you want to replicate the
stadium atmosphere as much as possible. Well, it's never had that. They
had an open field behind the baseball stadium with ant piles and it was like
a little valley so it would get muddy when it rained, and it wasn't
even a hundred yards long, so we would like there were some sets during
practicing we run into the trees and it was it was pitiful, and the
band was just mistreated for the longest time. And you definitely in Mississippi anyway,
you were not part of that band because like it was a great scholarship
or because you've got a lot, you did it for the love of it.
And so a few years ago they started raising money for a new bandfield
or they launched a campaign, and it just wasn't moving because again the university
hasn't neglected that program for a long time, and even people who donated considerable
amounts of money, like they were trying to reach a five, six,
seven million dollar goal. And the university had reached out to me in early
twenty twenty one and said, we do this thing every year. It's Giving
Day. We asked some of our alums if they would be ambassadors on social
media, you know, to support some of these funds. So they wanted
me to work for free basically, and I was like, you know,
and I'm again, I'm a journalist, so I'm never going to be like
a million dollar downer to my alm motter. But I am always happy to
do things that I am able to provide. But I I just started thinking
about it. I'm like, nobody wants to donate to the band. It's
just truely, like, how do we get innovative with this? And I
called I called my friend who he covers Mississippi State, and I said I've
got a wacky idea. Just hear me out. I want to. I
know we're not going to raise a lot of money, but like, what
if we did a thing where if we can get one hundred Mississippi State fans
to donate any amount It could be a dollar, but if we get a
hundred, I will go as a Missisippi State fan to the Egg Bowl this
year, which is our big rivalry football game. And he was like,
I don't know, Alex. I mean, people are not gonna want to,
Like, you know, money's tight for everyone right now. We're still
kind of the throws of COVID, And I'm like, let's just try it.
Will you support me if we do anything? Yeah. So we get
to the day of or I think it was like a two day campaign,
and I lay it out and like, you know, I think I'm friendly
with a lot of Missisippi State fans. I mean, I'm not from Mississippi,
but my dad was and his whole family was Mississippi States. So to
me, it's like there's a you know, there's a familiarity there. But
a lot of them really hate me. And so I didn't know how this
is going to go. But we ended up tweeting and retweeting, and we
hit the one hundred very quickly, and then suddenly all this other money started
coming in from people from different schools like auburnel Obama and outside the SEC and
like, and people were just so fascinated. But like, she is going
to do the thing that will make her throw up physically probably, Like it's
really that just to do this. So we ended up raising twenty five thousand
dollars, which again drop in the bucket, you know, but it was
more and then the band had ever raised. And the point wasn't to raise
the five million. The point was to get that story out there to people
that you know, I was tweeting out pictures of like George's field and Alabama's
field and saying, how is this okay to let a university that spends so
much money on all this other stuff? And you know, this is a
classroom, A marching field is a classroom, and this is it's not cool.
So yeah, so he did that, and I held up my end
of the bargain, and my friend I'm as State friend who helped me.
He made an itinerary for the whole day the cowbell thing for them is really
important. So you I was going to buy one. No, you don't
buy your first cowbell. You have to be given the cowbell. And I'm
like, oh, no, one's gonna give me one. And this amazing
thing. I have to shout him out. It's a man called his company's
called the bell Smith and it makes these beautiful custom cowbells. And so you
know, the day of like I'm tailgating with state fans and everything, wearing
my maroon and white. It was terrible, and he hands it to me
and I see the AFC Richmond logo on it, like shut up, and
then on the back I have it like at my office, so I can't.
I think the back says like be curious, not judgmental. But it
was just so kind and such a treat, and I'm like this is it
was awesome. I had the best day. We won, which was very
cool. I think I lost, it would have been worse, but you
know the cool thing about that though, And again this kind of goes back
to what I just said about people at the university. Not really, I'm
not their favorite gal. The university finally broke down and went it said okay,
just if she'll just stop you know, like here's the money, like
they reserved the funding and they never said me specifically, but it was just
it was very much conveyed, at least as far as my sources say,
like because I had written a story about it, it was like this is
embarrassing, like Okay, here's your money, you can have the field.
So they are almost done with the field. It's beautiful and this I'm actually
going down in a month to see it, and it's just incredible. It's
something I never thought would happen. And you know, getting helping in any
way to get that done because I certainly wasn't able to donate a lot of
money. It means a lot to me because that program gave me a lot
and so you know, I'm never doing that again. I've never trust you
as articulars again, but it was worth it for something like this. Do
you anticipate being presented with a Nobel Peace Prize for your acts of diplomacy when
the project is finished? No, you know, And that's the other thing
I there's I have to be careful how I see this the spin And when
I say the university, I do not mean the band directors because I've wonderful
relationships with them, but it's been spun that this was going to already happen
for years, and this was just kind of you know, and fine,
I don't want, you know, I do want the people who donated that
day to be recognized in some way, because it's very cool to have people
from other schools say, hey, we support you too. But no,
I don't think I'm going to be like invited to a ribbon cutting or anything.
But it's cool because I, you know, the band director and I
are good friends, and so I just can't wait to see it. It'll
be great. Well, since we're already on the topic of music, and
you are a known fan of lots of things on the internet, I'm just
wondering. We geek out about the music use on the show all the time,
especially in our episode conversations where we sometimes pick specific songs or moments.
Do you have like a favorite song or artist that's shown up in the ted
Lasso soundtrack, or like, did you think that a song was particularly well
placed in a scene? Yeah, so, I you know, I totally
agree. I think they're so amazing and beautifully intentional with how they use music
in the show and I have, like, honestly, like a list of
like twenty moments where I could probably write individual essays on them, like this
is why it you know, but have you interpret it? This is why
it matters. I think I'm so partial though to season one. I think
just because that was the music had so much to do with why it hit
me. And I think, you know, when he and Michelle are saying
goodbye in the rain and Forever is playing, that gets me every time.
I will never walk again, right, I mean, just like you can
hear Marcus Mum's voice. And I think you know, we did a on
the Big Screen Sports podcast that I am the guest on whenever we do ted
last episodes. We did a Ted Lasso draft and I took my first pick
was the season one finale, largely because of how they use You'll Never Walk
alone. You know, I just thought that was beautiful too, But I
you know, I think it's just it's all so good. And something I
say I've said before on different podcasts that I want everyone to do is,
you know, the the use of celesque strange in the Liverpool episode. I
don't know if you're Saint Paul and the Broken Bones fans. Yes, I
love Saint Paul and the Broken Bones. Okay, so Paul, the lead
singer during COVID. He he has a video on YouTube where he did a
cover of Strange and he talks about like he said, I'm watching ted Lasso
and it's this great show that just kind of makes you feel warm inside.
It's his version, Like I wish he had recorded it, because they should
put it on the show. It's absolutely gorgeous. So please google that and
listen to it a lot. But yeah, you know, I just think
like they're really smart about it. I know there was a bit of commotion
about how Apple released the entire season three soundtrack or the playlist rather on everyone
than they went back and like changed it, and now people are reading into
what a lot of those songs might mean. So yeah, you know,
I just don't think there's a single thing wasted on this show, and definitely
never a moment where it's like we've got to put something there. I guess
we'll just go with this song. It's just another layer. I think that
makes the show really good. Yeah, when we've talked to actors or other
sort of creative or technical team members from the show, They've often commented on
how there will be there will be multiple choices, but it will be like
a song like this or one of these like four or five songs will be
here, and so I think there's sort of like a power ranking of like
this is what we want if not, like here's several other suggestions. So
it's never just like it will be something like hey, Jude, you know,
like there's like we specifically want this, and I you know, we've
talked about that on a handful of episodes of like how difficult it can be
to secure those placements, to get rights to actually use a song in your
show, which seems wild to me as an outsider, because I'm like you,
if your song is getting used in a hit show like that can only
be a good thing. But made by the company that has dump trucks full
of gold. I guess that's the thing that Apple money man. Yeah,
I guess I do get their reticence. That's like, you know, especially
with the Disney story that we've talked about, where at first for Frozen,
they were like, yeah, we don't think you can use let it go,
like never mind, but then they went and like shot the scene and
pitched it back to Disney and they were like, okay, yeah, that's
great. And I just like recently saw that the composers of the music for
Frozen had like shortly after that episode aired back in twenty twenty, they like
tweeted at Hannah and they were like, this is so beautiful, like you
did it justice, like which is another nice, like great moment and just
speaks to like the tenacity of the music team. I mean, they're obviously
Christa Miller works on all of Bill Lawrence's shows as his wife as the music
director too, but Antony Purview's work is just really amazing and as someone who
loves music and studied music, like that's just something that drew me to the
show instantly. Is like Okay, yeah, this like they're very intentional about
what's happening here, Like there's a lot of subtext here to really like sink
your teeth into. And that's just a wonderful, like a wonderful thing,
absolutely, And I you know two things on that. I think you know
the story we've all heard about how Jason had called Marcus and he didn't he
just didn't listen to the voicemail forever, and like I can't even imagine the
show without Marcus's influence. And like, you know, I'm a big mum
for and SNCE fan, and I remember, like back in I Forget when
that Hopeless Wanderer came out and the video with Jason Sadeki is in Baven And
so I love that there's that personal part of it because Jason's obviously friends with
him and connected with his music. And I think that's great And the only
other thing it's going to say, going back to what shows go through to
secure rights, one of my favorite little like I love the Office, one
of my favorite Office facts is the most money they ever spent on a song
was that scene. I believe it's the episode when they're finding out if Dunderman's
gonna go bankrupt or something, and yeah, Steve Carrel's in his office,
Michael's in his office and Sean Mullin's lullaby comes on and the other opened the
doors like he amything, and like, you know, it's just it's such
a funny scene, but it's kind of a throwaway. And I think they
spent something like forty thousand dollars just for that three seconds of that song because
they're like this is the song, this is the joke, We're It's worth
it, this is what We're gonna be for just that's one of my favorite
little trivia facts about the Office. So yeah, I agree with you one
hundred percent. Like the show felt like it needed Marcus Mumford, like in
the DNA. Now that we've seen it this way, it's hard to imagine
it any other way, and especially like you see his influence and things like
you mentioned with his version of You'll Never Walk Alone, which I think was
a brilliant choice by everyone involved to slot that in, to create a new
version to sort of fit this moment at the end of season one. Right,
We've talked about it on our pod. Many people know that comes from
the American Golden Age musical Carousel, Um, and it speaks to a larger
love I think of musical theater among the characters and the creators of this show.
So I'm wondering, do you have any favorite musical theater references that have
been made so far across the three seasons. Um, I'm trying to I
don't know if I have a specific reference, though I did. I have
to say I loved the Julie Andrews that I thought it was just oh,
I know, it was just so brilliant. I think, um know,
another reason I was pumped about the show in general was because of Hannah Waddingham.
Yeah, and obviously like for musical theater nerds, like she's just you
know, she's a Lady of the Lake and she is just like such a
big star. And I love I just I love anything that incorporates kind of
a quirky subgroup of society as if it's just commonplace, because you know,
theater and music kids would get this rep for being theater and music kids and
like, right, oh, you're in drama in high schooling. Yeah,
I was, actually, But it's like I love how like seamlessly the kind
of weave a lot of that stuff in is that everybody in society knows that
this is fine. I can't think of like a reverence on the top of
my head. I do think it's interesting that, you know, I just
talked about the season three playlist that was released and Party is kind of hoping
it's a fake out, but the last few songs from it came from Lakajo
Fault. Yeah, and like, yes, very excited to find out what
that is all about Yeah. I have tried very hard not to speculate,
but yeah, it's on them for putting out the whole soundtrack. They did
it, wouldn't it be. I just like, I really hope it's a
trick though. I hope they start, they keep releasing and then it's just
all something different. They are kind of doing the Kanye thing of like I'm
just like switching this up in real time, Like I'm just I know,
just changing it. I was like, I went back on there the other
day and I was like, there's like six songs here that we're not here
a couple of weeks ago. I know. So from now I'm going to
refer to the soundtrack as Life of Lasso. Yeah, I love it.
Before we leave Musical Theater, I did just see on your Twitter we mentioned
how fun you are as a follow on social media, and you recently had
the opportunity to travel to New York and see a show on Broadway. Do
you want to tell us a little bit about why you decided to take a
last minute trip to see Mulin Rouge in New York. So I love Aaron
Debate more than air. I think he is just delicious and I've followed him
for years and years and years. It was back during the dark COVID times.
He was on Broadway for this, and you know, you just kind
of make a plan in your head, like, Okay, well he's gonna
be there for a while, I'll go see him whenever. And I had
made plans with my friend to go in the fall of twenty twenty one,
yes, and they fell through, and like, I had just started a
new job, so I really didn't feel comfortable like just taking off for something.
So I was like, it's okay, he'll be there a while,
and then he left that I was devastated. We missed it, We missed
our shot. And then of course last year he came back and announced another
limited run this year, but the same thing happened where it's like, okay,
I'll make it a point to go, I'll make it a point to
go, and then you get caught up with life and it just doesn't happen.
And so my Sun's spring break was last week and he was spending it
with his dad and his family in New Jersey, and I just that same
friend that I was going to go with two years ago. I was like,
Okay, here's the deal. I can only see this show like Sunday
at five pm. That's it. That's our shot. And this is like
three days before. You know, I don't want to go, That's fine,
I'm gonna go and get a hotel. So it's a very last minute
and we got really great seats. And you know, the last thing I
had seen on Broadway was like right before COVID it was Tom Hilston, another
love of mine in Betrayal and so and I used to like go to show
us all the times. This is just kind of a big deal for me
anyway, and we went. It was just an incredible show for so many
reasons, and his last show with them it was actually this past Sunday,
So yeah, it was great to kind of see that. And just there's
nothing more energizing for me than live music or musical theater or something. It
just recenters me and it again reminds me of like being that performer and being
that music kid. And there's something so light and free about being in the
presence of really talented people and seeing what they can put together. So yeah,
that was such a treat, no regrets. Yeah, and it's nice
that we get to see Aaron debates talent on Display Weekly at the moment on
Shamika Dune season two, also known as Schmicaco. So, I mean,
he's just doing incredibly excellent work as the character tofur in this season, I
know, and you know that show oddly enough, even though like I'm pretty
trusting in most of what Apple TV does because I haven't seen a show yet
that's been like, O, well, you know, like everything they've done
this incredible. I did not know how they were going to pull that show
off in the beginning. I'm like, ah, is it going to work?
Is it going to be? I don't know, And they did,
of course in that first season was great, but I was like, well,
it's got to end here, right they can't. How are they going
to do this? Yeah, that doesn't even make sense. And again it's
kind of like I am with Ted Lasso, where I'm like, how are
they going to do this? And then they always pull it off so beautifully,
and yeah, I shouldn't get Dunes one of those that I'm like,
this is just such a such a wonderful treat that we have, but it's
not for everyone. Night and that speaking of wonderful treats that may not necessarily
be for everyone. You're a big fan of this video game called Animal Crossing
that I don't personally understand a whole lot about. However, very much in
awe of the fact that you made a ted a Lasso Island in the midst
of this game. Podcasts are not very good for giving people like tours,
but could you please give us a little tour of ted Lasso Island and maybe
explain to me what Animal Crossing is. Animal Crossing was truly just one of
those things that came out right when COVID hit and my son suddenly at home.
I was at home, I had lost my job, and he was
like he was gosh six at the time, seven six six wow, And
we had a switch and I was like, oh, a little kid's game
because I never got into the old Animal Crossing and my sister was into that
because a little you know, I just I didn't play a lot of video
games as a teenager. I played them more as a kid with like my
Super Nintendo. So I got the game for him and then I'm watching him
play it and it's just this lovely like you're just on an island and you're
like working to renovate everything, and you're doing these little quests where you're trying
to earn enough money to like build the town store and you know, get
your house upgraded and buy furnishings and you can build things. You can change
your island. But it's not it's not like my set also plays Minecraft and
I played with them. Sometimes it's just my brain that's way too overwhelming for
me because there's too many possibilities. But Animal Crossing is controlled and enough,
I feel like and cute enough that you don't get overwhelmed by all this stuff
you could do. So yeah, so you can have a little house,
you can. What's amazing about this game is just the thousands of things you
can buy, whether it's furniture or like anything you would put in your home,
or like structures you can buy like market stalls that you can do whatever,
and they let you customize it. So a lot of the items you
can customize with either designs that you make in the game, or there's a
way that you can transfer logos or really anything to the game to make it
look like anything you want. We had to take a mandatory one week furlough
at Christmas, and I'm not good at not working like I have to be
working all the time, and suddenly I'm not even allowed to check my email,
and I was stir crazy, and we hadn't played in a long time,
so I restarted Our Island. And it takes a lot of work to
get to the point where you can even customize this stuff. And I'm like,
I'm going to make it ten last. So I went, so,
what the what it actually is like my house. When you walk in my
house, my living room is the locker room. I have that set up
with like the Beliefs sign on the wall, and I use like a flat
screen TV to be the window looking into Ted's office. Then you go upstairs
and there's Rebecca's office and like, of course you can't ever get anything exactly
right, but it's kind of the same layout of like her desk and the
art on the walls and the couch and I they have one of the objects
in the game is like a little takeout box, and so I was able
to make that pink to look like her little biscuit box. And you know,
it's huge. If you go to the basement, that is where they
have press conferences, So it's set up with like the chairs and the desk
and like the I have the fizzy water on the desk and the things in
the back. It's just so silly. But when I get caught on a
project, I'm like, let's make this as accurate as possible. And then
the rest of the island I had set up just kind of like a little
English town, so I've got like, you know, I used castle walls
to kind of make everything a little more elegant, or tried to anyway,
and like these cobblestone walkways and everything else. So I never fully finished it.
And here's the terrible thing that I so regret that I posted photos of
that island like three days before I interviewed them, but I had deleted it
because we wanted to start over again. And I was like, I'm okay,
you know, the game is just like you played as long as you
want and then you can erase it all and start over. And I kind
of like doing that. It was all gone, but I shared photos of
it online. Suddenly people are like, can I take a tour? Can
I see it? Can you make a dream address for me? Because you
can, you can make a little code where anybody can like they don't visit,
so it's not a live visit to you, but anyone. They essentially
make like a copy of your island where people can run around. And I
had just I had deleted all of it. So I recently started rebuilding it
again, which is just a lot to work. But you know, I
now I want to like add KJPR And I also I did have the pub,
so I had the little pub and try to design that the best way
I could. But the cool thing about it, you know, I was
able to import the Richmond logos and the Belief sign and everything else, and
you can just it's so easy to make things customize and cute and I don't
know, it's just the cutest game. It's a cozy game, is what
I call it. Have you added Zavaville to the corner of the locker room?
That's what I'm working on right now. Actually, so I was playing.
I had a few minutes the other day and I was like, okay,
this is We're going to read you the corner and and I've got the
little like numbers above all the lockers. So I've got to go back and
make the the Zava thing. Yeah, So it's just you know, it's
fun, but it's silly, and I tweeted photos of it. Like I
said, like, the three days before I did those interviews, well,
I didn't even know I had those interviews yet, is the thing. I
know, if I was going to actually get them, ide the photos with
something like, oh, like you've never made your animal crossing island, knew
a ted Lasso island. And I tagged a few of the cast members,
which is just something I do anyway, not so much because I think they're
going to respond, but back in the day when you could depend on the
algorithm, you know, if you tagged people that other people followed, you
might see the tweets suggest in the feed. So I was trying to reach
ted Lasso fans and then I just put Twitter away and didn't come back to
it for the night, and I got an email then I was like,
hey, we approved these interviews for next week. And I'm like, oh
my gosh, that's wild. And then I get so I had Jason that
Monday, and I get to the Jason thing, and like I said,
before I made, you know, I felt like such a dork revealing my
heart and soul to him. And after he said He's like, I don't
care if it's unprofessional. I think, you know, human connection is great
or whatever he said that was so super inspiring. Then he says, by
the way, my kids really appreciate your Animal Crossing Island and they want to
know they want to know how to do all that. And I actually made
a TikTok about this moment because I was just nervous and you know, running
on autopilot, and I say something like, I'll show them. I'll show
your kids since we have such a close personal relationship. And so that was
the coolest because it's like, oh my god, he saw it. But
then the next day when I interviewed Brendan, they like, you know,
the screen pops up. The way it works these virtual interviews is like you're
in a waiting room with a bunch of other journalists where it's just like a
zoom call or everybody's on it. Then they send you a link to a
breakout room and I click the link and there's Brendan and he's like Animal Crossing
for Life, Like I'm rebuilding it because a lot of fans reached out and
they're like, how do you get the design codes and all this? And
I'm gonna make like a little I'll probably just put a post on the website
about if you want to do it, you know, this is how you
do it. But so mad at myself for deleting it because I just never
I just wasn't thinking like other people would want to do it. It was
more of me saying, look at how much of a dork I am that
I would devote all this time to, you know, making it if you
gotta play it, And I love that Now. Crossing is also part of
the DNA of the show because just in the most recent episode there was the
mention from Isaac of saying that's the only game that they were allowed to play
before bed because it's so soothing it is. And I just it's wild how
Animal Crossing and ted Lasso like really played into my life journey the Fast Years,
because it's, like I said, during COVID, those were the things
that I kind of clung to as just sort of keeping me sane a little
bit, and like that game came at the perfect time. Everybody was obsessed
with it, so playing that a lot, and then ted Lasso comes and
it's just like these little life jackets essentially that everybody had to find peace somehow,
and they had to cope somehow, and there were healthy ways to do
that in unhealthy ways, and I'm sure like my wine consumption probably wasn't the
best buy then, but you know, those to me were healthy things that
you could you could do to get through that time. So I love that
they referenced it. I want to close with a very important topic, and
that is tea. It's not exactly a Midwestern thing. It's very much the
English and I iced tea is very much a Southern thing. So yeah,
that is explained for everybody. How sweet tea is its own wonderful creation.
And whether or not you think Ted would enjoy sweet tea, Oh yeah,
you know, tech you get down with some sweet tea. I have no
doubt in my mind. It's interesting because I moved to northern Virginia last August,
and I know what I was getting into. People would be like,
Virginia is still the South, not this part of Virginia. This is not
nothing southern, and so but I you know, I lived in New York
right out of college, and so like I've moved around. I even though
I grew up in the South, I've certainly spent most of my life here
and I think when I was younger, the funny thing was like going to
a northern state or you know, my mom is from Chicago originally, so
we spent a lot of time visiting our family there. And you would go
to a restaurant and ask for a sweet tea and they're like, we'll bring
sugar to you. It's like, no, because it won't mix again sweet
tea. And so it's it's even funny to hear people say iced tea because
in the South there is no iced tea. You either want sweet or on
sweet. Like, if you want on sweetee, that's how you order it.
I want an unwe like tea. It's just yeah, if you say
tea, you're getting a sweet tea. If you don't want sugar in your
tea, you need to be specific absolutely, and so um, and I
don't you know, I'm I'm one of those I can do a half and
half because I try not to have too much sugar when I was younger.
Record yeah, but so I really am an unsweet tea person. But yeah,
it's just you know, it's different, it's regional stuff. And um,
it's always funny to like live in a place like this and to go
and kind of forget where you are for a second. It's already unsweetened.
You can get iced tea, so um yeah. Ted's aversion to hot tea,
though, just cracks me up. Alex. We are so grateful for
your time today for coming in chopping up some ted with us. This has
been super fun and we hope that everybody will check out your work and your
tweets and your podcast and enjoy ted Lasso and all the things that you love
along with you. Thank you all so much. This is a blast,
and that's our show. We hope you enjoyed our conversation with Alex McDaniel,
who can find links to her work, her social media accounts, and everything
else we mentioned in the show notes. We'll be back soon with more ted
Lasso goodness, but you can keep the conversation going with us on Twitter and
Instagram in the meantime. Our handle on both platforms is at ted Lasso Pod.
This episode of Rich Until We Die is brought to you by Jimmy Kerosene
Productions is produced by me Christian as well as Brett. If you're enjoying the
podcast, please take thirty seconds to subscribe to our feed and give the show,
a five star review on Apple Podcasts or a five star writing on Spotify.
Heck, if you're feeling generous, you could even do both. As
always, we appreciate all the ways, and I'll share your love and support
for the pod. Okay, Christian signing off for Brett and Alex. Thanks
for listening and until next time, cheers y'all. Ninety nine nine Court