South Beach Sessions - Phil Rosenthal

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The Dan Le Batard Show 1h 1m 2 speakers 8 chapters transcribed 5 months ago
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What inspired Phil Rosenthal to create 'Everybody Loves Raymond'?

Dan Le Batard 0:04
Kings Network.
Dan Le Batard 0:27
Do you know why you're here, Phil? Not on the planet, but do you know why I wanted to speak to you? I did something wrong? You did not do anything wrong. You've done much of life right. But the reason I wanted to talk to you, among other reasons, interesting people about interesting things, but also creative people about how they became creative. And so I need your help right off the start. Sure. I've been doing like a – I've been a bit of a dry cleaning bag at the beginning where I welcome people in. Welcome to South Beach Sessions. I'm Dan Levitar. This is Phil Rosenthal. He created Everyone Loves Raymond. He does the Netflix show Somebody Feed Phil. He writes children's books. But I need some help with the open, like how would you introduce you?
Dan Le Batard 1:09
Oh, here's an old Jewish man. Okay, but that's not going to really sell what we're doing here.
Phil Rosenthal 1:15
No, that's not a big demand for that.
Dan Le Batard 1:18
Well, there is a demand for an old Jewish man who writes and works with his family at all points. When I show you this book, because I mentioned all the other things you do, but this children's book, when I show you that on the top of it, Phil and Lily Rosenthal, what does that make you feel?
Phil Rosenthal 1:34
Joy, pride, luck, you know, to get to work with your kids. I work with Lily on this. I work with her at the diner that we opened. I work with my son, Ben, who's a little older. He's my tour manager.
Dan Le Batard 1:53
But you also, yeah, you've worked with your father. With my parents, yeah. The food show, your brother works on it, right?
Phil Rosenthal 2:01
Yeah, I guess you'd say.
Dan Le Batard 2:02
It's all family stuff.
Phil Rosenthal 2:03
A big fan of nepotism.
Dan Le Batard 2:06
But you brought these people in after success, correct? Like that's how that worked. You arrived at the top of Hollywood success with everything that everyone loves about, everyone loves Raymond, and then you were able to open a bunch of doors, right?
Phil Rosenthal 2:19
I guess so, yeah. It took a while to get there. If we're talking about how one becomes creative, I really don't know, other than it starts with curiosity. and a love of something. Like for me, I was very curious about how TV worked. I was born in 1960, and so I was born into a world of TV. TV, for the kids that don't know, was like the phone of today. And everything came into the house through that portal, and if you lived in a little apartment in New York City like me, the whole world was on that box. It was magic.

How does Phil Rosenthal blend food, family, and humor in his shows?

Phil Rosenthal 3:03
For me, it was. And also being a little kind of skinny kid that got picked on a bit when he went outside, being inside was safer. And all my friends were on that box. And so I would watch the Honeymooners reruns and Jackie Gleason show, which was filmed in Miami Beach where they have the greatest audiences in the world, right? And I just... My dad was funny. And so... Humor was kind of the currency of the house. When we weren't yelling, we were laughing. And so I wanted to be like him. And then I also wanted to be like every funny person I saw on TV. And that extended to... Anyone who went for a laugh and then later on the Johnny Carson show, you know, when they would all go on there. I was just enamored with it and I wanted to be funny on stage like those people.
Dan Le Batard 3:58
So is the box transporting you because the outside world is harder because you're getting picked on? You were just having trouble with just whatever was outside the magic box.
Phil Rosenthal 4:07
This was safer, easier, more fun for me. It's not that I didn't have my friends, but one of the things my friends and I loved to do was watch TV and laugh. And we would watch, you know, even the game shows that were on after school when we were, you know, now in like elementary school and junior high school. Those were funny. They were trying to get laughs too.
Dan Le Batard 4:30
But you decided then I'm going to be in television? You decided as a kid I'm going to figure out a way to get there. Yes.
Phil Rosenthal 4:37
I had interest in being an astronaut because the 60s, every kid wanted to be an astronaut. But then I realized I think the best part of being an astronaut is that you get to go on the Ed Sullivan show.
Dan Le Batard 4:48
Okay. So this was your North Star being on television.

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