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Dan Fogelman

Appearances

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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Well, we have great editors who now know what I like and we're simpatico in terms of like that rhythm. And it's all of it. It's the show feels that way because Yasu shot it that way. John and Glenn directed it that way. The performances feel like that. The dialogue feels rhythmic. It's not just me. It's like a lot of people like making the same thing, you know?

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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That was Vera, our writer. She found that song? No, at the very beginning of the show, I said, have you heard this song? And as soon as I heard it, I go, that's going to be what's playing as the house burns down. And then after I fell in love with it and after I edited it, someone said, you know, they use that very famously in Grey's Anatomy. And I was like, shit, I'm too attached.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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Yeah. In all honesty, I probably would just because I don't, the 60 years I'd have remaining living with my wife when I let that dog burn would just not be worth it.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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In my mind's eye, I also always justified it. It's never said in the show, was like, if you were inside Jack's brain that night, it was the dog's barking. I'm looking at my little girl. She's begging me basically silently to get the dog. I can't let her down. But then as his brain starts thinking, can I make it downstairs? He goes, if I get down there, I can get the tapes.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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Yeah, I mean, it was a lot. It was a lot on our writers, I think, and the people that were constantly in charge of distributing scripts. We were so anxious back then. In retrospect, it was probably a little silly. I don't know what we were worried was going to happen that one of the few people who had access to it was going to put it on the internet. I guess that's what we were worried about.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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And like, I, in my mind's eye, that's, it wasn't, it was like that, it got him thinking I could get down there and get the stuff. Like he's a vet, he's seen some shit as we'll learn. And he's like, I can get down there and get the tapes out of the house. And that was like, that was how I always justified it in my mind.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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Also, I should say that lest anybody give us too much credit for having every single detail of the show mapped out, we did hit a point where we got up to the fire. And one of my writers came to me and was like, Dan, how did the whole family have childhood pictures all over the place? And we had a lot. And I was like, shit.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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And then we kind of started justifying the cabin. The cabin, sure. And then we were like, but there's pictures that predate our timeline when they bought the cabin. And I was like, well, Jack got it all out during the fire. When he got the dog, he got the pictures out.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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I'm less worried about it now because it's like everything's out there all the time. And so I just remember boards were constantly going down. Our writer's assistants were constantly taking pictures of things. We started realizing that every time we left our office, we were leaving the cards out everywhere that said what happened in the show.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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And there were tour groups coming through, and that started freaking everybody out.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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This is our next guest. You're absolutely right. Because that was what I was most freaked out about was seeing the parts that would say he survives the fire.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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Did we shoot that ambulance inside the ambulance in two different locations now? Like maybe it was something like the stuff we could shoot from the inside. I feel like you're right.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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I don't think they could go inside the office. But you know, those places are like, the temperature control in those places is terrible in those offices. So we're always having the windows open or closed depending on how hot or freezing it was in there. Because it was from 1892.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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And then you've got like 10 minutes of everybody in the other future storyline saying, my father died on Super Bowl Sunday 20 years ago. So you know you're so close.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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I have a memory. I have one picture of it somewhere, but I have a memory of that. We shot out at this ranch and they literally... Our show was not like a high budget in terms of production value show. On occasion, we would do something big at the Hollywood Bowl or go to Vietnam. But for the most part, it was beautifully shot scenes inside rooms.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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But they built the structure of the house out on this ranch and out in...

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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Yeah, I forget the name of the ranch, but they basically built the house to burn it down.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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It was a balcony. There was things and it was like, so they built it and then basically burned it fake. And then I just remember, I remember stepping through it with Milo

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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and then oh this is going to be awesome because the guys and milo are taking it so seriously that it's going to be very real i remember being really struck by hannah this little girl who we'd plucked out of nowhere with barely an audition process who was now like an 18 year old who could emote like that and i didn't know that she had that in her and i was that made it so visceral and real and then i just remember mandy it was freezing i remember we had a little heated tent and mandy was just sitting and reading a joan didion as a

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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as her family home burned. She was just reading Joan Didion by herself. And I took a picture of it. I was like, Mandy is just like, she's alternately like screaming, weeping, her house is burning down. And then she's just reading Joan Didion off on the side in a heated tent. And I remember it was like four in the morning.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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Yeah, and so we were sitting and taking such great care to protect the secrets and then realized there were tour groups just driving by with the windows open that could look right in the window and see everything.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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Yeah, we were... Jake was with me for all of this. I just, I came over to set. Maybe I just told the, I'd been watching Mandy like cry for two or three weeks because of just all the scenes. And she, and I went to say goodbye. It was like two in the morning and she was sitting in a little guest room of the house waiting for her next scene.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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And she was still just like heaving from the sobs of what you, as they were moving the cameras. And I went, Mandy, I'll see you tomorrow. She's like, okay, man. And I'm walking down the street and Jake's walking out and being like, we gotta do like send flowers or do something for Mandy. Like the poor girl has just been crying for three weeks.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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And we just walked in silence down this suburban street and Jake goes, what if we sent her a clown? And I was like, what? And he goes like a clown to her trailer. And I was like, Jake, I'll see you tomorrow. We're not sending Mandy Moore a clown.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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I'd deliver some balloons. Pennywise comes to me. And we just, every time, like, thanks for all your hard work, Mandy. Every day, I would look at the call sheet, like, what's today's shooting? And they're like, oh, Mandy eats the candy bar and sees Jack dead. I'm like, okay. And then I'd be like, what's the next day? She's like, she tells her children they've lost their father.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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I was like, what's the next day? Like, she tells Miguel that his best friend is dead. And it was like, every day was like this relentless siege of emotion on her.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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It was more, we just really built it out. We knew from the very beginning in those first couple of weeks that it was going to be a house fire, that he wasn't going to die in the house fire, that he was going to die from the after effects of it, that those after effects were going to have been caused by going back in for the family dog. So we knew all that.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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And then it was just really a matter of like parsing it out and making sure everything we told up until that point had been delivered at the right time and the right way. And just, it's kind of easy when you know the end. Like it's not as hard as it seems.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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I think that was Mandy's take too I think just all that was on the script was kind of like he tells her this news and she kind of has a like what the fuck are you talking about reaction and goes into the room to prove that that's not the case and what Mandy added was like the take if I remember correctly which is like there's something really wrong about this person.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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So it like getting this so wrong that they're telling the wrong person. And she kind of says at one point, I think like, can somebody tell this person to get away from me? And you call him this person? And it was like, and that was not, I don't think that was scripted. I think that was all Mandy just on the way to the door, filling that space of like, oh, that's her take on what this is.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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It's a doctor giving somebody the wrong information. It makes the switch so cool.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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I went there for the filming of that. And I mean, I completely agree. And I went there for the filming of it. I remember it was only, they only did, we only did two takes, I believe, of that big, the big walk, not the conversation with Bill, but the big walk in and the reaction to Milo. I think it was two takes. And I was like, oh, that's that's the best thing in the show.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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And that's going to be like an iconic moment of television. Like I was like, that's really crazy. And it's just all just it's a single shot on Mandy. I mean, it's just like literally just her up against the doorframe. And I was like, oh, that's unbelievable. I remember realizing in a real time. And I remember I'd driven down to that hospital and I was like, it was so intense.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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And I saw the second take. I said, bye, guys. I'm going back to the writer's room. Like I was like, oh, I don't there's nothing else to do here today. Like, yeah, it was nuts.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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I think also one of the, like, the theoretical things about this being the Super Bowl and on the Super Bowl and then I really wanted the Super Bowl was, like, in a family drama that doesn't have a lot of, like, it's not like a whodunit, right? Yeah. I was like, the death of the patriarch in that moment for Mandy, that's our Super Bowl. Right. It doesn't get any bigger than that. Right.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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It's like, um, we kind of have a lot in the new project we're doing, but John Rico always says it was his like life at full volume was an expression he always used that I liked and I've used, I've stolen from him. I was like, that's it. That's one of the, that's this fan for, you know, man, that's the moment that will forever be the most, the biggest moment in their life. Yeah.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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Yeah. I mean, for me, I was, so like, you know, you use your experience and I was, my mom passed away when I was like 30. But she had a surgery that wasn't supposed to be life-threatening and it went backwards, sideways. And she was in the ICU for a couple of days, but never woke up from the surgery.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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And I kind of stayed vigil at the hospital for like three or four days, like playing martyr, refusing to leave, sleeping there, eating there. And it was a surgery I'd arranged. It was a whole horror show. But it was like two o'clock in the morning and I had the experience of like just being woken up by her doctor, shaking my shoulder as I slept on a couch in the ICU, telling me she was gone.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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And it was singularly lonely and bizarre. And in my life thus far, it's been my moment, along with birth of kids and weddings and stuff. But it was like, I remember being struck by, that's where some of the stuff was born out of. I wasn't eating a chocolate bar, but I remember that day I had given myself a break and went down to a local bar

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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like sports bar, walked out of the hospital, went to a sports bar and had like a burger at a bar and watched the NCAA tournament was on TV. And I gave myself an hour because there was just nothing. And I just like, that haunted me for a great long time that I'd left that day, even though there was nothing doing, I wasn't sick. You know what I mean? And so it was born out of that. Fun stuff.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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The ironic part was, I think, when I came into the writer's room, I believe... I had a couple of scripts. We definitely had the pilot done. And I might have written the second script already. I can't remember. And I kind of, whenever I'm starting a writer's room, I send out a document to the writers that says, here's what the show is. Here's what I don't know yet. Here's kind of my plan.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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You know what I mean? I think so, but I'm not doing it with that intent. I mean, honestly and truly is like you just write if you're willing to dig in and write your stuff, then you hope that other people it's not like I'm going to do this so that other people can relate to it. Sure. Of course, everybody's had those moments in their lives, right?

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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So that's a byproduct of the show being done well by all the actors and all the other writers and whatnot. is like everybody's writing about their own human experience and hopefully a part of it connects with people. This show did. That was like the real gift of this show.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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The reaction to this show will forever be different than any other show we ever do because everybody related to moments in their own lives and their family. Right, right, right.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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That's one of my other... That's one of my probably 10 favorite scenes in the series because that scene with Huertas and Mandy because it's very clear if you step back from the series and watch it, that's the moment that Rebecca becomes... like the lead of the family and the lead of the show.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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And that scene, up until now, she's been the dutiful, sometimes unhappy younger wife, a kind of unhappy-ish matriarch in older age of the family. He's kind of lonely and sad. And in the second marriage, it's quieter. But you haven't seen, this is the start of the chapter where she like,

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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And I'm pretty sure House Fire was just ingrained from the beginning. Yeah, okay. And all the detail of it, the going back in for the dog and the after effects of it. But I think just it was a decision I made early in that early document that just held. I think I thought...

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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she takes over a family without the kind of de facto guy who's always assumed the leadership position of the family and becomes the hero of the story. And it very clearly happens in that scene. Like, that's a different character from then on out.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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That's part of the time jump, right? Like you get to see the other side that you can't picture on the day. It's like after you experience great loss, you're hard pressed to even imagine you'll ever be

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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happy again let alone be able to talk about a person who's gone in a way without it making you burst into tears but but that is the human condition you will even if you can't see it and this show because you get able to jump right 20 years it gives you that the ability to make them work hand in hand it was like the great magic trick of the time jump yeah yeah so cool i don't have to talk

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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for a show that was gonna be about a family, that this hinge point being the burning down of their house would be like an interesting way to do it. Sure. I don't think it was something we backed into. I think we had that and then we backed into the steps of how to get there.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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The ironic part was that when we made the show, it never occurred to me how big a deal the mystery of Jack's death was gonna be. I thought it was gonna be a small component. And when I'd wrote it out, I'd be like, oh, we'll eventually get to the part where you reveal how it happened and that there was a fire.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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it wasn't until like the first episode started screening and people were like, where's the dad? And the second episode, what happened to the dad? And it took on a life of its own. It was always part of the fabric, but I didn't realize what a big deal it was going to become.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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And in some ways, I think that became our superpower early on, which was we had this propulsive mystery underneath what was otherwise a very intimate, small family drama. We had this big question and mystery that I actually hadn't planned on being

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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But it was a montage checking in on everybody in present day being all right, basically. And as you're also like... It was just all to music and montage.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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Space. Gives her her space, right? Do you want to know one of the Miguel things that we always talked about in the room? Mandy never takes off that necklace. The moon necklace, you know? Yeah. And what about...

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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Is that thing just hitting him in the head? And that was always our, whenever you felt really bad for Miguel, you just thought about that.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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That was always like when we were like, I'd be like, hey, let's give Miguel a good scene, like make everybody really love him. It's not really natural for the scene. I'm like, but think about the necklace. We got to give it to him.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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Okay. Ryan's gonna be like, I told you you were talking too much. I told you, see? See?

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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That was the thing about this episode too, which was like, it was unusual structurally because you're on network TV, you have 42 minutes of time and I begged them and I think they gave us an extra two minutes or so. Okay. But with all that story happening in the past of like the eight minute opening and then like these big long scenes of Mandy seeing the body, there was a lot of past.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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Yeah, of course. But it was scary at that time because it had taken on a life of its own. Myla had become this character that people were just like obsessed with, like a TV dad, Jack. His name's Jack. Sorry.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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So I only had room for like three beats in each of like Justin's story, Randall's story, Sully's story. Like there wasn't a lot, as much real estate as we normally have. It's 46 minutes. Yeah. I remember that was a big thing, like begging for extra minutes of time because we just couldn't, I couldn't do everything I wanted to do in one episode. Yeah.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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Well, he also says, she says that every year he sends an unexpected laugh her way and she knows it's from him. And then Justin calls and tells her the story how he finally spoke to his dad at the tree. And then he's like, mom, can I tell you something else? And you say, yeah, what? And he says, I'm not sure I was at the right tree. And she laughs. Yeah.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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And that's like, I always loved when we did phone calls on the show because it is how we communicate so often with our immediate family as we get older. We're not always all living in the same place. Kevin and Rebecca are just always on such different wavelengths in adulthood up until this point. I loved that scene. I loved watching Justin do that, I remember, at that tree.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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Yeah, yeah. Sorry. And so it had become such a big part of our conversation that it was like, it was exciting to discard it and be able to like focus on what comes next. But it was also really, really scary. Was it the most nervous?

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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Because it's like so not in Justin as an actor's comfort zone or Kevin as a character's zone to be like talking to the spirit of your dead father at a tree like earnestly. And Justin plays it so well because he's uneasy with it. Kevin's uneasy with it. And it's like he kind of – I watched it this morning, that scene. And he like – he trails off on scripted dialogue.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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the line was like i've become a man that you wouldn't have been very i haven't become the man that you would have been very proud of and justin just goes like i haven't become the man that and he just leaves it there because he's like struggling to say it and it's like very effective like the way like and then that phone call is so quiet and so intimate between them i just i love those scenes in it and i loved sully's final scene in the episode with chrissy

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The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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where she's saying how lost she was and she never thought that happiness would be something on the table for her. And that like what she's found in it with him and the way Sully sits and listens to her in that scene. And that it's just, it undercuts it just enough, but there's like such a sweetness to it. And so it's so simple. I really love those scenes.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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She says, this big guy, I was watching it this morning, and this big guy came into my life at a support group. And Sully's going like, me. And it just does enough to make it so this isn't getting too earnest. It's like, it's really- It's my job. But then Chrissy at the end goes, she just goes, I'm always crying. And it's like such a sweet way of undercutting the scene.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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I was watching it this morning, and I don't think that was scripted. That's awesome. And then, so-

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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I'm taking it off. I take it structurally off and it's fucking up Sterling. No, no, no, no, no. It's perfect.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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You feel how comfortable I was in watching and skimming the middle and then watching the ends, you feel how comfortable all you guys are. And it's like, it's so natural that it's almost turned into something else. Like, it's like the way Justin's not completing sentences or the way you and Chrissy are looking, the way Sterling and Susan are being funny with one another.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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you know, Randall's going to crack at some point. It all is just very like it's so natural that it's like it was like I think that was when we were really hitting our stride in that level.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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No, no, not at all. It was nerve wracking on a global, global sense of like, oh shit, we don't have that thing to do anymore. That magic trick to play where it's like, okay, in this episode, we're gonna introduce the redheaded girl. And now we know we're getting closer to the death.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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and Chrissy can't talk cryptically to Sully, Kate can't talk cryptically to Toby anymore about what happened to her father without saying it. So we lost that magic trick on episode 14. And I think a lot of shows might've tried to pull it out longer. And I was of the mind of like, this is where it should happen.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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This is why. We had to. Because I was very worried about the, like I needed the audience to follow the time jump. Recognize him, but we pushed it. And then I remember not being pleased with it, but knowing it was getting the job done for what I needed to get done. And then we started pulling back. Then we started to pull back as time went on. He lost a little weight.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

4593.461

Well, I'm... That was a particularly, when we found her, I was like, oh, this is gonna really, really work. That was cool.

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The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

4686.623

You know, I don't know. I mean, I think that the extra hook doesn't hurt if it's natural to your show propulsion. Sure. And like in this era where there is a lot of things competing for attention, like can beautiful only hold people anymore? Yeah. You'd like to think it could, but you do need, I mean,

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The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

4708.721

if you look at succession as an example of a show that's kind of cut through like that was a family thing but then they had like they had this looming question of who's gonna win who's gonna succeed the father they had a murder in the first season like you know what i mean like yeah and you do it's hard you know you look at the shows that are successful right now you know severance white lotus

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The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

471.03

Yeah, there was a moment they even wanted to change our scheduling in the second season of the show. If you guys remember that, when they wanted to put us, change our night. Change our time slot. And I threw a conniption. But the main way we won was by me saying like, no, I have a very specific plan of like, when we're going to do Jack's death, it has to be on the Super Bowl.

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The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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you know, our new show, there's a propulsion and often a mystery to them that is making audiences demand to go click on them. And we had that in a very surprising genre. And we tried to keep it going throughout because it was something people liked about the show without it ever overwhelming, which is what secrets is Jack holding? What is the secret of the future storyline?

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The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

4753.933

How do all these pieces intersect? And I think we did it really successfully it's kind of giving people the treat to go with the medicine. And so I think that was something that was organically built into the show. Do you need it nowadays? I don't know, but it sure doesn't hurt if you have it. If you're trying to make noise, it doesn't hurt. Dan doesn't know because he always has it.

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The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

4822.512

It definitely unfolded as it went along. We liked to present that we had the whole thing figured out from the beginning, but the truth was it unfolded every season, and we would find little things and then go back. Like I was speaking about earlier,

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The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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realizing we had pictures of the kids as young kids all over the show and then realizing, oh, it'll be good if Jack grabbed some pictures from the house during the fire. That is a small example of how it would like evolve.

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The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

4868.828

Yeah, but in reality, if I'm being honest, one of my great regrets, if I could do it all over again, is I would have done that all at the beginning of season one with those kids and with Mandy and Milo. And I would have like spent six months shooting tons of stuff. And then that could, and that could boyhood style.

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The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

4886.578

And that could have been the sixth season of the show, kind of like in some ways of the backstories. Um, I didn't have the foresight that I did it after the second or third season when we were like having great success, even though, so it's like, it's always a hybrid of like, it, it wasn't all just like, kind of like preformed.

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The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

489.96

This would ruin the plan creatively. And I was able to like win the day on keeping us on Tuesday nights because of that argument.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

49.382

Everybody stop. He's back. I can't believe you guys have a live audience now. This is amazing.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

4938.275

We didn't have another plan. There was, at the end of the show, there was like a little bit of conversation of... You know, nobody really wanted it to end. I knew it needed to end. And there was a little bit of conversation about talking about the family when we get to the very, very end of the series of doing something with the family whose lives intersected with Jack at the hospital that night.

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The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

4960.08

And maybe making a completely different family born out of the night of tragedy that we would then go off and follow. So it would be more of a spinoff than a continuation. And at the end of the day, it's just, I was like, I don't want to do this without the guys. I kind of need to step back from family dramas. And we just couldn't quite figure out that we had the appetite for it.

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The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

4988.12

We always talked about a couple of different pivots that like This Is Us could potentially be a genre about a family with each family has their own story to tell and the lives that intersected and the mysteries of that family. But I just couldn't see a way. We had hit our limit of runway with, we'd gone so deep in the future. I just didn't know how to continue the story any further.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

500.845

The Super Bowl. I started asking for it right away. Oh, wow. When we were like, I don't remember. I mean, I knew going into season two we would. But I just started asking for it right away.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

5036.044

Yeah, I mean, the ironic part is my father, who's like a big, kind of like growing up was like a big Jewish James Gandolfini type, was like, I'm Jack, right?

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

5048.532

Yeah, definitely. Like, I can't believe, like, I'm Jack. Yeah.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

5060.562

Yeah, I pictured him a little bit more, like, kind of normal, like, pictured, like, meaning, like, just a normal, like, I pictured him kind of like me, like, right? But I always thought that the example I give was that... Seth Rogen turned the park down. Yeah. Yeah. I pictured that the opening shot when you see his ass would be funny.

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The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

5084.381

I thought it would be like, you know, when your wife sees like you, regular guy's ass and she loves you. And they laugh. She loves you and she laughs. But like, it's not like she's like so hot that she needs you that moment. Yeah.

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The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

5096.492

Yeah. But the ironic part about Jack in those opening seasons is like, he's a very flawed dude. Like, I mean, this is a guy who's made decisions old school style for his family, his wife. He's like very explosive at her at times. He is an alcoholic. And like, and I always struck me that like, So many women would come after Rebecca and be like, be happy. He's hot and he's kind and he cares.

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The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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With all the women, they'd come after Chrissy about Toby. They'd come after Sterling Times about Beth. You know what I mean? It was interesting to me always that...

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The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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I knew the Super Bowl was going to be on NBC. I knew we were laying in that the family was a family of football fans.

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The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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I think part of it too is there's so few... people had a reaction to Milo in that role. So that's part of it that you cannot just like, he was just so good in it that you can't discard it.

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The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

5188.863

And his butt. And all the men in the show, all four of them, or five of them were kind of, I think there was something, there's a lot of anti-hero men on TV and there's a lot of like sitcom dads, right? But like the fundamentally decent man who's deeply flawed, but is trying to be good was like a sweet spot we hit on the show with all five of our dudes, which are like, these are good people.

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The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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We had established like the terrible towel and the pilot and all of that. And it was just, you know, it was network TV. And there was a lot. I just wanted that slot for something big and particularly for that episode. Yeah.

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The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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You would frame them all as good people who are really fucked up and flawed in a multitude of ways, big and small. but they're all desperate to be good. And I think the television landscape is littered with those type of guys, whether it's like Kyle Chandler in Friday Night Light, you know what I mean? And they're few and far between because so often it's the anti-hero.

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The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

5236.411

But it's even why people like James Gandolfini in The Sopranos, I mean, he was a violent mobster, but at his heart, he just wanted to be the dad who tended to the ducks in his backyard. So even that- It's like people just need a kernel of somebody trying to be decent to really fall in love. And then it's just the right actor in the right part. Yeah.

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The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

5267.917

No. No. I wish I could say they were. So wait, tell us about this camp.

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The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

5279.625

there were people who dressed up like clowns at the morning assembly. I'm trying to remember that part. A lot of clowns today. It wasn't like I went to a clown camp.

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The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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There's a lot of Matrix-style repercussions to Lester Stallone being in the episode. We talked about it a lot and just went with it. Yeah, just went with it. When we did that episode, I got to go to Sly's house to woo him. We got an entry point through Milo. Basically, I think he agreed to do it because he loved Milo, even though he wasn't going to really have scenes with him in it.

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The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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And his whole family and like kind of support stuff at his house as I was walking in was a really big deal because they were all watching This Is Us at the time. And I think they, it was unclear that how familiar he was with the show, but I think he wanted to do it to like make his family happy. And it was like a very cool meeting of like driving up to Sylvester Stallone's house.

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The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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It was like sitting in the house, like talking to him about doing This Is Us was like really cool. That was a really cool moment.

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The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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I miss the show, and I miss doing that show. I mean, it was so soulfully deep and important to me that... You know, like there's a difference between taking a scene in another project and say, here's something intimate from my life or my life experience. And I want that to frame a scene in the show. It's like something I always try and do.

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The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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When you're actually able to say, here's something intimate from my life. And then I'm going to actually execute that directly into a show without like, not just the themes of it or the exploration, but like. I'm gonna like take this episode we just did and like every single character's exploring like immediate grief in a very different way, right?

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The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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And that was like all the things I've gone through at multiple like losses in my life. And I was like, oh, I'm gonna be able to do it directly, like in a hospital scene with a family. And so I missed that. Is it cathartic? It did it at the time. I think in retrospect, I rarely look back at the show. This morning I was rushing here and I wanted to like reorient myself to the episode.

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The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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So I kind of watched the first 20 minutes and the last 10. i rarely watch the show but it it is like it you know i don't know how much longer like i do this or how many more shows and films i'll make but this will always be like like it's a it was a you know up until i was 45 years old this is a it's like a screenshot of my life experience in one TV show.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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Not much. I mean, I had... I had done two shows that I loved, but had been rewarded or not rewarded in various ways, but I had done only two shows that had made two seasons. One was like a sitcom called The Neighbors, and one was this musical called Galavant. They both did two seasons. I just named them. And then got cancer.

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The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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And all the people's experience who made it, but like it's the closest, it's the closest, I won't trump, you know what I mean, doing that show because it was like, it was just writing about my life. Sign us off, so.

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The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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But I certainly hadn't, I certainly hadn't never had, I had done big films before, but I had never done a TV show that had like jumped into the zeitgeist. I had never had that before.

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The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

590.327

Yeah. We knew the pilot was special. We thought we had something. And then it was just, you know, every indicator before we even aired was just, this thing was just like kind of like under, I'm not a very spiritual guy. I'm certainly not a very religious guy, but it was like, it was almost like this thing existed.

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The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

605.818

It was just kind of waiting for us to all come along and do it because the stars aligned over and over and over again in so many ways on it that it was pretty nuts. But yeah, I, It was right away. I mean, it was right away. The Super Bowl episode that we're talking about was definitely probably the pinnacle of that experience.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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I mean, when we all went to the Super Bowl that year in real time and you guys did, was Fallon after the Super Bowl. We did Fallon afterwards, yeah. That was so fun. And I remember being on the plane. I just remember being out to dinner and I remember... and one of you guys, maybe Milo, had come to dinner with me and my brother-in-law who I'd brought out with me. Okay. And it was like pandemonium.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

645.741

It was pandemonium. Like, remember Biden was there. Yeah, we met Biden. He was a nice president at the time.

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The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

650.505

It was crazy. And then we went and hustled over and you guys did the Tonight Show. And it was like the Super Bowl. I brought my brother-in-law who was very excited. He was a New England Patriots fan. And he's like kind of like just a great guy from Rhode Island, from Boston. And he like left the... I think the green room of Fallon, because he just almost couldn't take it.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

673.77

It was like getting too overwhelmed. Like the size of the whole thing was so big that he's like, I think I'm going to call it. Like it just felt nuts. It all felt nuts. And then I remember flying home on the plane and getting internet service and the studio and network were all calling that gazillions of people had tuned into the Super Bowl.

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The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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It was just, that was like, that was kind of for me, like the height of like the pandemonium right around that period.

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The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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Maybe a little. I mean, I remember trying to, in the most gentle way possible, kind of give a little exposition to situations at the beginning of the first scenes for each of the characters, just so that people, if they didn't know, like, who's this guy, if they were coming in.

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The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

729.24

The opening is like this action movie for eight minutes, so it kind of draws you in, even if you don't know the situation. So that was intentional. And then I think, yeah, we knew we were saving the big twist at the end with like future Tess and future Randall. We wanted that to be something we had. I always wanted to like bring back that pilot song at the end of the episode.

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The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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Like, is that this, that's this episode, right? The Labi Siffre, the Watch Me, it was a cover of it. Oh, I think, yes. Yes. And like-

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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I wanted to give everyone a moment to eat in the pilot, like all the actors. I remember that was a big focus for me. Being like, huh, I want everybody to have a moment. At least every couple to have a moment. You know what I mean? And so I remember that being something that was really on my mind. I was like, oh, people might be checking it out for the first time.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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I want everybody's dynamic to be great and clear and to kind of get a moment of the seven of you guys.

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The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

822.822

How did you develop that ability? I made a lot of stuff early in my career. Like those, the early shows I made, I got that opportunity to be in the edit bay and kind of learned how it worked a little.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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it was a play i feel overwhelmed directing because i don't always have the lingo and i don't know camera lenses and i don't know i still get confused about a long lens you know what i mean and i i never felt intimidated in edit bay somehow um because i just was like putting a puzzle together it's something i really i think i like yeah so you've been involved

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The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

853.016

in the editing of your projects from the beginning. From the beginning. Not my films, although I've directed now two films, but earlier in my career, I got to make a bunch of TV shows that didn't really cut through, but I was making 22 episodes and you just start learning.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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And a lot of people, when they get their one chance to make a TV show, don't have that experience, you know, so then they aren't ready for it maybe when it comes. So it took, you know, I started making stuff when I was 25, 26. Even the animated films, I was heavily involved in sitting with the directors and the edit bays and everything. And so I think you start learning.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

884.992

And it's just, it really isn't, editorial just requires like kind of like knowing what you like and what you don't, pacing. It doesn't need, you don't, if you have editors you trust, which I do, you don't need to know the lingo or be able to, that's always the thing that holds me back is not having a formal film or television education, but it never held me back there.

That Was Us

The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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Like I was just watching the opening of this episode that we're talking about. And I was watching the scene where Milo and Mandy are in the hospital room after the fire. I can't remember what happens in every episode, but I can remember every edit almost. It's a weird thing. And I don't watch the show often.

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The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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Decisions. And I was going, oh, what's there? I was watching something and something bumped me. And I go, oh, I know what it is. It was the littlest thing, but they're sitting in the hospital room. It's the last time they'll ever talk. And it was such an important scene. Yeah. And I remember like Mandy compliments Milo like three times in it, how super human he is.

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The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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And there's a rhythm where she's like, where you go, you're the best. And he says, I try. And the scripted line response was, no, you don't. Like meaning try, no, you don't even try. And that's what makes you. But it was like the third time you had complimented him in the scene. And I remember thinking, it's getting too much.

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The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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It's getting like, we're saying out loud that Jack's a superhero like four times in a four minute span, right before he's going to die. And so I just left it at, I try and just took a look from you where you shook your head with a cute smile. And it was like, it's like 80 billion of those little decisions of what makes a TV show.

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The Night We Lost Jack Pearson | "Super Bowl Sunday" (S2E14) with special guest Dan Fogelman

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But I noticed it when I was rewatching going, something's a little odd about that rhythm. I'm like, oh, I'm missing a scripted line that I'm still somehow... Like, vestigially remembering. Wow. Yeah. But so it's like, but then you make 20 of those decisions. You go, when is it too much? Like, Sterling's very light in this episode. And like, when does it get too silly? You know what I mean?

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Like, when do you want to, like, it's, and that's what editorial is for me.

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Brother Bonding Gone Wrong | "Brothers" (S2E5) with special guest Caitlin Thompson

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Dan does get excited because he would do that throughout the course of the show too. He's like, oh, I got to show you the scene with Susan and Sterling. He would just invite people into his office or whatever.