Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Montecito. After sunset today we are
breaking down episode six of this awesome new audio soap
opera Who Is the Boss? I'm Christy and joining me
today to break it all down as the executive story
editor of Monacito Andrew Pemberton Fowler.
Speaker 2: Hi Andrew, Welcome, and.
Speaker 1: We also have the creator of Monacito and executive producer
Grant Runner. Hi Grant.
Speaker 3: Hello, Christy, Hello Andrew.
Speaker 1: We are really getting into Monacito now, guys. It's been
several weeks since we sat down and talked about the
first amazing premiere episode of the show, and now we
are deep in this storyline. With this episode, we're starting
to better understand JJ and Bethany Gino's relationship. But I
think the understanding that I'm really getting from it is
that it's complicated, right, They're just as bad.
Speaker 2: As any couple.
Speaker 1: Is that because Bethany Gina and JJ themselves are still
feeling it out?
Speaker 2: Well, I think with Bethany, Gina and JJ, you have
two people who are as self involved as each other,
so a lot of hurt feelings, a lot of resentment
which stems from their own childhoods, and you know, that
famous quote. I don't know who said it, but it's true.
You know, you have siblings, but you're alreadys in different households.
Everyone has a very different opinions. When JJ thinks that
he deserves to be the CEO because their father said so,
but Bethany Gina says, well, I have the qualifications, I
went to the right schools. You were just born with
you know, male anatomy. How is that fare? So you
have that real push and pull between them. But he
is a CEO, so he has to be in Santa
Barbara mo Acito. So she does go to New York.
She does live her life in a way that I
think he resents. So you know, there's a lot of
tension between them, and you know, we can't always pull
everything out of that relationship in every single scene, but
I think, like any good sibling relationship, there's always something
bubbling right under the surface that I think really comes
to the forum this episode.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and there's a lot of distance between them, and
we hear that in the episode where JJ is walking
down the steps.
Speaker 2: You imagine this big house, a lot of space.
Speaker 3: They're in two different wings of the house, and it's
just kind of an example of their relationship. The distance
between them and Bethany Gena is a workhoorse and that's
all she wants to apparently on a Friday night, and
then JJ is ready to go to the bar. So
it just shows again like the juxtaposition of this sibling dynamic.
Speaker 2: And it's also interesting because in a way Bethany Gina,
I think, even to the audience, is trying to prove
herself and JJ's like, well, I don't do myself. I'm
ready CEO, like whatever, and the board just gave me
another vote of confidence. Whatever I have staff, I don't care.
So you can also see that as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I did kind of go, oh yeah, they
do work too, not just cause drama. In this episode,
and we learn about the Santa Barbara Wharf Revitalation revitalization project.
That's a mouthful that's introduced in this one, which kind
of goes along the lines of the families being in
real estate development. That's a through line of the show,
but really, you know the work storylines, there's the drama
and then there's romance and love to can I predict
that maybe GEO will somehow get involved in the Santa
Barbara warf revitalization. Is this where our storylines are gonna intertwine.
Speaker 2: I thank you for something.
Speaker 3: I love, the revitalization I love. Then we caught the
actors up with that one, too true mouthful, But.
Speaker 2: It was also fun because like, I don't work in
real estate, either does Grant. So I like googled like
a Santa Barbara project and I was like, well, Grant,
here's like the eight hundred page document. So we just
kind of pulled term out of that would be real.
Speaker 3: There's a real one out there, a real document that
was for you years ago, I think in the eighties
or the said wharf in Santa Barbara. So we did
pull out some things from it. Well why not reference material.
Speaker 2: Because again, like we talked about before, we wanted this
to live in the real world. We wanted it if
we have that one real estate fan who's listening to say,
oh yeah, that is something we would consider in a
wharf project. Just so, and it also, you know, I
think a lot of times in soap opera we have
characters who exist, They just kind of show up places
they go. They don't really have any tenth the place.
Speaker 1: In the world.
Speaker 2: But I think what Montecito does really well. Is everyone
people have jobs, people have homes, people go places, they
see each other, They're going in and out of each
other's stories, and I think that is really fun to
hear for our audience. It was actually really fun to write.
Speaker 3: Yeah. And then in the beginning of episode three, we
saw Deacon and JJ talk about proposals, and you know,
JJ are minded Deacon that they're the big dog. So
now I've kind of set that not rivalry, but you know,
this business competition. And now we're going to see how
both these companies are buying for this big contract, and
they both kind of have their own stakes. You know,
deacon stakes are more personal and JJ's are more proving
himself and being a big move for the company.
Speaker 1: Well in kind of contrast to these big money moves
that are happening. We also get this really intimate conversations
between GEO and Deacon in this episode. And you know,
I mentioned last week that I'm so rooting for these
two and it this episode kind of broke my heart
a little bit with what's kind of transpiring between the
two of them. There were so many sounds and the
dialogue was so good that I was just so into it.
There must have been a lot of thought put into
those scenes, in part tiarticular, right Andrew, what were those thoughts?
Speaker 2: Oh goodness, Well again, it starts with an outline, the outline, breakdown,
whatever you want to call it. So Grant wrote that,
you know, we went over it, we refined it, and
then when it was time to write the script, I
remember distinctly Geo is nervous about finding clothes, so you know,
we kind of I think I took it out at
one point like put it back like okay, and at
the end of the day. A scene like that I
think is very important in a soap opera because it
shows the evolution of characters. But it also shows how
you can want the same thing, but for whatever reason
you can express it, you can't have it. I know
I mentioned this before, but soap operas are all about
your hopes, your dreams, your fears, your anxieties or desires,
and I think all of that really comes out between
Deacon and Geo. I think it is a stellar scene.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and it's really not about the it's really him
again now, it's his trying to be fidgety and trying
to find something to do and busy himself, and it's
really about like he knows he has to have this
conversation and they're back from dinner and it's quiet, and
he doesn't want to be the first one to say it.
He's trying to find a way, like almost as an
excuse to to kind of you say, this isn't really
working for me. But you know, Deacon's desperate to hang
on through both of those long scenes that they share,
and he really lays it all out, like I don't
think there was anything else we could write, you know,
short of like groveling for Deacon at this point. I mean,
he really really did, you know, just said everything. And
even at that, Geo has to move on. And I
remember we raps recording our last take and I was like, damn,
I'm really on team Deacon this time. Ed Mark said,
well the marketplace. Geo said, yeah, me too. But you know,
we've got other background forces that are influencing this. I
don't want to call it a breakup because they were
never together, as Geo said, but this separation right.
Speaker 2: And I also love that when Geo starts behaving in
this way, Deacon instantly knows that Mina doctor him like it.
He knows what she's like, and I just love how
she is still present in that scene even though she's
in the room with.
Speaker 3: Them, And it was important at the same time that
these two men have a conversation with each other as humans,
where it wasn't Mina in every line. I really wanted
it to be about like their dynamic and their relationship.
Obviously the undercurrent is and he's married to her and
she's now got this playing the Marcus Medici card on GEO,
But I really wanted it to be about like their
relationship because that's what originated their dynamic, and like they
were together before Mina came into the pictures. So looking
at that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there was so much emotion in those scenes. And
then we, by contrast, have our scenes with Mina and
Bethany Gina that are just so much fun, for lack
of a better word, just to kind of hear their
dynamic and to try to guess what's going to happen
next between the two of them. But it really helps
to balance out the episode. Was that a conscious effort
to give us a little bit of everything each episode?
Speaker 2: I would say definitely yes.
Speaker 3: This the scenes, especially after we edited them, they were
quite heavy, and you know, we have the music that plays,
and I believe it was Tory Wolf that was the
singer of that song and.
Speaker 1: Very powerful moment playing the song.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so you have to balance it out. The scene
came across funnier than I intended it too. The intention
of the scene was to have these two people under
the same roof classic soap opera a few. They're living
in the same mansion. They can't stand the side of
each other. You can just imagine Mina reaching over Bethany
Gina trying to go through the drawer to find it
a stapler. But Mina really lated on thick. She knows
now that she can get Bethany Gina riled up, and
she leaned it all the way till it was almost gross.
Speaker 1: Well, despite her best efforts, it doesn't sound like GEO
will be leaving Montecito anytime soon. How about a tease
for next episode, guys, I can't wait.
Speaker 3: My teas for the episode seven is that there is
an incredible scene between Vincent Arazari and Crystal Chappelle, Bradley
and Helena, and we finally see them when everyone's away
and it's just them as a couple and we learn
that there's some tension there, it escalates, and I just
think it's a really great scene for them. The performances
are fantastic, but it was really important to see how
Deacon and Mina their relationship with Diego, how that informs
their marriage and what it does to them as a couple.
And we meet Diego too. Diego comes in as well.
Speaker 2: And I love writing teenagers like Diego. I don't know why,
it just it always takes me now to write characters
like that. But we see a lot of Diego, We
see different sides of a lot of people we think
we know, and I think that's really important just by
virtue of Diego being there. Diego as a child sees
speaking in a very different light than everyone else. He
sees his mother in a very different light, and that
is very very important in a soap opera to make
even your villains, whoever your villain may be multi dimensional.
One of the things I'll never forget is I was
reading a book about the Mary Tyler Moore Show and
oh I read that one. Yeah, and they had the
character of Rhoda and the pilot and you know, the
character worked, but they were like, we don't know, maybe
the audience won't like her. So they had Chlorisk Fleechman's
character's daughter be like, I like her, She's night and
that was it and they were like, Okay, now that
a child likes her, the audience is now on her side.
So kind of with diego with kids and teenagers on soaps,
you know, getting their point of view can turn a
bad character to a good one because they see things
not adult can't see because of their own prejudice.
Speaker 1: So that's still somebody's mom.
Speaker 2: It is. And you know, no matter how bad a
mother is, a son will always defend her.
Speaker 1: Oh good, pease, guys, Well everybody watching. If you have
questions for Grant Andrew or any of the cast members
who may be joining us on future episodes of the
After Show, please leave your questions in the comments on YouTube,
or visit our Facebook page for Monacito and leave your
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don't forget to subscribe to Montecito on YouTube or wherever
you get your podcasts. Thank you so much for watching.
We'll see you next time for more a Montacito after
Sunset