Amy Yazbeck brings the laughs and the real talk in this warm, hilarious, and unexpectedly moving conversation with Steve Kmetko. From growing up as the “puppy” of a big family to finding her lane as a naturally gifted comedic actor, Amy breaks down how she built a career by staying fearless, staying curious, and not taking herself too seriously. We dig into her time on Wings and what made that ensemble click, plus the backstage joy of working with pros like Tony Shalhoub, Tim Daly, Rebecca Schull, and of course her on-screen partner in crime, Steve Weber. Amy shares a phenomenal story about Debbie Reynolds guest starring as her TV mom and why that moment still feels like a dream. There is also plenty of rapid fire chaos, including boom mic shenanigans, Wizard of Oz impressions, and the kind of set humor that makes you grateful you were not sitting next to craft service. Then the conversation turns personal and powerful. Amy opens up about love, loss, and the kind of grief that does not “wrap up neatly,” as well as how she turned heartbreak into purpose through the John Ritter Foundation and her advocacy work. It is funny, heartfelt, and full of those little Hollywood truths you only get when someone is willing to be honest. If you loved Wings, Robin Hood: Men in Tights, Problem Child, Dracula: Dead and Loving It, or you just want an interview that is equal parts comedy and humanity, this one is for you. Subscribe for more Still Here Hollywood interviews and check out the Patreon for early episodes, behind the scenes, and bonus content: patreon.com/StillHereHollywood
Amy's Foundation in memory of her husband John Ritter is https://johnritterfoundation.org/
Another favorite charity of Amy's is https://angelfood.org/
Steve Kmetko
Jen, yes, I'm still here Hollywood. Coming up on today's episode, she's an actress whose warmth, humor and radiant energy made her one of television and film's most memorable comedic talents, from sitcom standouts to beloved movie roles, she's brought a spark audiences instantly connected with but beyond her work on screen, she's turned personal heartbreak into a mission, using her voice, her platform and her heart to help save lives through awareness and advocacy. This is still here, Hollywood. I'm Steve kometko. Join me with today's guest actor Amy Yazbeck from wings. Hi.
Amy Yasbeck
Amy, Well, hi. How are you fine? How are you I see we're still here.
Steve Kmetko
Yes, we're still here. Hollywood, Hollywood. When did performing first become something you really realized you could do
Amy Yasbeck
about five minutes ago. Would you like to see monolog our town? No clocks ticking. That's all I know. I mean all I didn't ever, I didn't ever not perform. It's called a quadruple negative, and I think it means I always love to perform. When did you know it? You mean like, as a professional thing, or just like, be a, be the center of attention, dancing monkey in the middle of the room. I think those both count. They do. They don't. They don't pay dancing monkeys with the
Steve Kmetko
no, they don't. Sadly, an organ grinder. Ai, organ grinders are hard to find.
Amy Yasbeck
Yeah, that's, that's my porn search term. Just kidding, this is gonna be rough. No, it's gonna be fun. Here's the thing. So when I was born, way back in 1962 I know I look her for my age. I don't give a shit the My family was pretty established. I don't mean in the world of finance. I mean in the world of having four kids, all two years apart, and the youngest was 12 when I was born. So basically, you are, boy, it's like, like they got a puppy, and I was that, and you were the puppy. So, yes, so I was, I was, I was very entertained, and apparently very entertaining. And people used to say kind of a pejorative, Oh, little actress, you are you? Meaning that it was whatever a show off or didn't know. Were you housebroken as a little puppy? I was a housebroken little puppy. Yes, I used to go on a newspaper and it was variety, and I would read it sometimes, and that's how I got into showbiz. We did it.
Steve Kmetko
One thing led to another. Was, was there a moment early on when you almost took a different career path? No, never.
Amy Yasbeck
I didn't know. I didn't. I didn't even think of it as a career. I just pictured it happening. And not that I use some kind of like, like, I didn't. What is it that the people said, project? No, the other thing I manifested.
Steve Kmetko
Oh, you didn't. Man other, yes, that's a favorite term these days, isn't it? Which I
Amy Yasbeck
get it, and I understand that. I think I had some lucky breaks and I didn't know any better. I really don't know. I still don't know how everything happened.
Steve Kmetko
Well, then what would you have done if you hadn't become an actor?
Amy Yasbeck
Well, I mean, I'm, I was gonna say a singer, but not like a singer, singer, like a lounge singer, like the Great American Songbook, but actually probably a kindergarten
Steve Kmetko
teacher, really. Yeah, you like kids. No, small doses, yeah,
Amy Yasbeck
no, I love them. No. It's more the creativity and the art. I like, I like being around children because they're not full of it yet, and very old people who are over it. It's the middle. It's the middle when people are figuring themselves out and I'm trying to figure myself out at the same time
Steve Kmetko
you're kind of in the middle.
Amy Yasbeck
Yeah, it's midlife for me. If I live to be 150
Steve Kmetko
I know that's what I tell people, too. If I live to be 140 I'll be in midlife. My midlife crisis is now. You're doing it now,
Amy Yasbeck
baby, get that red car. But I I just mean, I like the way that little kids think, without, kind of without limitations, like I said, like not knowing any better, but to say and like tell the truth, it's kind of refreshing to me.
Steve Kmetko
What does living in Hollywood and being here for so long now. What did you learn from that? How does it get help you get through life?
Amy Yasbeck
Living in Hollywood help you get through life? Believe people's actions, not what they say.
Steve Kmetko
Is it as hard to get through Hollywood as most people believe it is? Is it hard. Make it. Here is,
Amy Yasbeck
oh, I don't again, lucky. I mean, I feel like I had, like, I mean, I was I met the I met the challenge, or I was there, like, luck is part of it? And then I just, I don't know. There was a kind when I first started. There was a kind of, I would say, naivete, not so much about the world, but just about how show business worked, that when I would go into an audition, I was just having fun putting on my little play, and like they would call back, or they didn't call back. And then what happens through a career to a lot of people, is, then it starts. There starts being more, almost like risk involved, and the risk is getting your feelings hurt or get and I that would last for two seconds for me, I think that's part of it is because I don't know, like, I don't have such a high opinion of myself, but I always feel like, Hey, can I be in your movie? No, next time. Okay, all right, craft service. Well, you got somebody, okay, I don't know why, and it's not a great thing, because it speaks to a lack of ambition, which is true, and the ambition that I should have had to maybe make I don't
Steve Kmetko
matter, doesn't ambition and drive, don't they naturally kind of dwindle as you get older, or do they? I don't know.
Amy Yasbeck
I can only speak for myself, when I had and in this year, I had fun. I worked on a couple short films, and I did like a feature length film, and I loved it, and I love to work, and I'm surprisingly good comedy. I mean, you kind of get you got it, or you don't got it, and I, I tend to make writers very happy with their jokes. That's the important thing. But it's the thing of, I feel like, if you have that ambition you also have, maybe ambition is the wrong word. Or, if you have that, whatever it is, then you can really, like, get hurt. Do you know what I mean? No. So I feel lucky to still be here Hollywood and people having me in and read for their thing. And I'm definitely going to work a lot more now, because I I have the foundation, which you know about, and I have so John Ritter foundation for the last long time, because John died in 2003 and I've kind of, it's not like, I've stepped back from it, but I'm usually like, so over it, so on top of everything, and I have such a wonderful group of people helping me now that it's like, Oh, okay. And when somebody says, hey, it was a audition, and it shoots in, I go, okay, I can audition for that for before I wouldn't stick close to the family. Stick close to I need to be ready for the foundation. I travel for that, and now I've got free time. I want to work well. I get in a lot. I get in a lot of hijinks at my house. I'm a MacGyver type, so I'm like, building things, and I also have wild ADHD. So it's just, I get 90% into a project, then I'm like, I'm gonna go to sleep. I wake up in the morning like, what have I done?
Steve Kmetko
So does it seem like John's been gone that long already? 2003 this is 2025 No.
Amy Yasbeck
And I mean, I think if you talk to anybody who's lost a spouse, a family, God forbid, a child, it's it's present at all times. So even if it was a long time ago, the and it's not just the feeling that is present, it's the the change that it made in you and who you are by having that part of you missing brings it up every time, like when a parent dies and you're a child, which happened in my family and plenty of families, you miss that loved one at every not even milestone, just like, who's going to teach me how to tie my tie? Who's going to do like these little things? So it's always so that absence is always present, and sometimes it's just kind of beside you, and sometimes, like last night, I just started driving. Wasn't even a song. I don't know. It was just, like, Christmas decorations or whatever, and you just it's okay to, like, lean into it for a while, because the pain. That you feel like the longing, the sorrow, which is very Catholic word that I grew up with Our Lady of Sorrows, and that's what that is. It's not a thing that's like, that's over like you stubbed your toe. Sorrow is something that shows you the measure of how much that person was loved and meant to you. So I could live to be a 200 years old, and I would still feel the same sorrow for John, and I don't think that's the thing that is affected by time as we know it. I think that's always going to be there. And it is surprising, and it's surprising to a lot of people. Well, how long have you, you know, than doing the foundation, it's like when John died 2003 and they're like what? And my favorite is people say to me, my kids can't believe this, but it happens to them too, especially the ones that are in show business, which is kind of all of them. But it people will say, You can't imagine how I felt when John died, and I go, I bet I can, like, No, I remember exactly where I was, like, me too, but they're not here. They're wanting and I it a couple times. It's made me if somebody's drunk or stupid or something when they're talking to me, because I can't take it, but if somebody is actually expressing, they're like, I was just because I loved him. I'm like, Yeah, me too. And I it's so odd because it's that thing where you want to go, Oh, you think you miss him. I miss him. But everybody has their own relationship with my my late husband, it's fascinating to me. And he did that, he made that that's on him. He was wonderful. And everybody you know felt that loss and felt their own kind of sorrow. That might just be a passing thing for them in the day, but when it hits them and they think of John, it hits them with an impact, and I'm the one that they just met, and they need to tell me, and it's hard.
Steve Kmetko
Sometimes I have a problem with the word closure. I don't believe there is such a thing as closure. There's no if it's somebody you're really close to, there's no closure.
Amy Yasbeck
I remember talking to Craig Ferguson. He asked me on his after his dad passed away, he I asked me to come on his show. I used to go on there every, every once in a while, and I as the first time I ever thought of it, the first time I ever said it like we talked, somebody was talking about closure. I think Dr Drew, or somebody was on. That's me rolling my eyes. Dr Drew was on and said something about closure. And I just what, I understand, you close, you close a relationship, or you close a but, no, it's a circle. I mean, you're still in that circle, whether you are right at the part where you're in so much pain you can't breathe, or you see it and it's right there, that pain, that closure, that pain that people want you to have closure on, and you still go through your life, but it affects you, like the moon, like tides, like it's always going to be there, and you don't know why. Sometimes you have, like, a bad day, or something hits you, and you don't have to, for many people don't have to be an analysis and go back to well, because in my childhood, this and this, you can go back to, oh, yeah, I wish my loved one was here with me for this, to feel this with me, to go through this with me, or just as a witness. That's what John and I used to always talk about, like, Can I get a witness? We were great witnesses for each other. We would always, we would work a party in the funniest way, because neither one of us liked that's what he learned from Hollywood, the Irish goodbye, go someplace that we kind of had to, you know, he was on a show, or I was on a show, where he had to go to a certain party. And we just wanted to, like, be together, like, hang together, but it would be much more efficient get to the party. We have our, like, code words for, like, let's get gtfog out of here. But, and then he would go and see people, and I would go and see people, and then we would see everybody, and they would think that we were with the other person, and da, da, da. We'd say hi to their kids who are watching TV. We would pet their dogs, and then we would leave. And it was it's not like, then we would sit and, like, talk about the party, or we wouldn't, like, rip on people, but it would be like, what did you witness? What did it feel like? What did you see? Because he was an audience. John was an actor, but he was the best audience in the world, even at a party or baseball game or something. So he would love to talk about, like, what now you'd say, like, the vibe, but like, what the. Of like the feeling was, of the place was very cool, like, like download or like our experiences to each other.
Steve Kmetko
Tell me, let's talk about your career a little bit. What was the with the greatest experience you had, career wise? What sticks out in your mind?
Amy Yasbeck
Problem Child because I was with John, but Robin Hood Men in Tights, Mel Brooks, who I always, I mean, I did, I know I was going to meet him. No, but, like, that's the kind of stuff where just that was my guy, always. Mel Brooks, loved him, loved
Steve Kmetko
him, loved him, and he's like, 99 now, is yes,
Amy Yasbeck
yeah, it's crazy, yeah. But being able to work with him, even just, I mean, working with was fantastic, but just the idea of that he knew who I was,
Steve Kmetko
like, business that he thought really good ones make it their business to know who you are.
Amy Yasbeck
No, but, I mean, like audition like he that the fact that he would know who, like my Hicks and my own name, Amy Yazbeck, like from Cincinnati, that would be in his mind anywhere, much less the leading lady, my God, crazy to say in a movie where you know that he was directing, and it's just it all seems Like I'm maybe not really in touch with reality. But how can you be when it's like, you go to the movies as a kid and then you're in the movies?
Steve Kmetko
What was that like the first time you sat down in the theater and you saw yourself on the big screen?
Amy Yasbeck
The first time I scream, I think the first time I saw myself on the big screen is, there was a screening of a pilot that I did that didn't get picked up, called Rock hopper. I had a Russian accent, stupid, but it was, it was cute, and Parker Stevenson was the lead in it, and Pat Carroll was in it, and Janice page was not nice to me. Let it go for now. Robert wall, Gina Hecht. I mean, wow, look at me remembering all the names, but it was or Gina Hecht is her name, but it was like in the screen, like in a theater Lorimar. And so it was over on, over in Century, MGM, Sony, whatever was in those days, I don't know, but Lorimar had their big, like, building there and in the screening room. And I saw, I just, I think I just kind of like lose consciousness for a second. I go to a different place, like, are you seeing this? Like, I don't know who I'm talking to. Like, are you seeing this? You happen to be like, That's me. I mean, I still, honest to God, I still feel that way. I think I might be too. It's not like, I never, like owned it, but nothing that went along with it, like the idea that there would be another movie that I would be again, that's like the ambition part that I don't ever say ambition, or I just don't, I just like to go and play and have fun. And the best thing for me about being on the set, this is absolutely true, the call sheet, not where I am on it, but to have some because, I mean, I had debilitating, and I still do ADHD, a little medicated now, but went through all my life and not and Just thought, I'm just not like other people. I cannot pull this together. Being in a production. They know where you are at all times. I know where I'm supposed to be, when what's going to be happening that I do have to draw with a highlighter every other line. So I don't like go like this and go like this. I like, have all kinds of, like, weird, fun, neuro, divergent things that, honestly, that was why and why it is acting is like, almost the most comfortable place for me to be, somewhere where I can't get off track I know what I'm doing. It's like I have boundaries. I have a schedule. I have people whose job it is to make sure that if I go use the restroom, they don't start walking around looking at the flowers and they don't know where, and they bring me back, because I will do that. Don't be scared of me. No, I'm not scared of you. Just be happy that I survived.
Steve Kmetko
I am happy. Otherwise I'd be talking to a chair. Yeah, what comedic co star
Amy Yasbeck
share with great tits.
Steve Kmetko
Amy, yeah, what comedic co star taught you the most about filming?
Amy Yasbeck
John Ritter, did he Oh?
Steve Kmetko
100 not only a husband. He was a mentor, a teacher.
Amy Yasbeck
Yeah, he would have hated that. But no, but I mean. The first sitcom I ever did was The Cosby Show, and I was on it with John. And for a multi cam, multi camera show, there's just certain ways of doing it. And you do this, and you hit this, and you got to make sure this so all the cameras can see from this way. And then when they take that shot, you step it was a lot of learning, very, very fast. And I just am, luckily, I'm very good at, like, observing. You know, I really do, every once while, have trouble reading a room in terms of what I'm allowed to say out loud, as you may but I do kind of, I'm good at, like, catching the vibe and the mood, and this is how this goes, and seeing how John was always so at ease and entertained people, whether the cameras were rolling or not, and really was interested, like, like, I said, he was an audience as much as he was an entertainer. And so to be able to, like, be in the moment, still do your job and not be like, Excuse me, you're in my eye line. You know, just nothing one second of that from anybody drives me crazy. You are so lucky to be on this set. You are so lucky that you're working with this director or this and so you got to have that or you're not going to be comfortable enough to be to bring the funny or the tears or whatever, or whatever. Such a good actor, the tears or whatever. Which eye Do you want me to cry out over here? You catch it. To catch it.
Steve Kmetko
Did you ever practice doing that? Nope,
Amy Yasbeck
a one? Yeah, on days of our lives, there's, there's soap opera thing, and you see it all the time, where the character who has like, a secret or a special, you know, so you're the audience and that, like, everybody's in the background. They like, walk to the front, and they're like, having ideas and thoughts and emotions while shits going on in the background. And they're like, watch the who's a woman who played hope on Days of Our Lives, Kristen, something, and because she would do this like eyebrow thing, so I was, I would practice the eyebrow, the
Steve Kmetko
eyebrow, not Kristen Bell, no.
Amy Yasbeck
Kristin Alfonso. Is that her name? You don't know, you know, whatever. But So on days of our lives, they wanted me to, like, do more, like, downstage work, like, when the cameras right here and it's just on me, like, to be having, like, thinking and like having emotions and crap, but and then crying. I would just, like, stare into the lights until, like, keep my eyes open, until maybe a little tear would come down. And they're like, that's beautiful. I'm like, thank you. And then just a migraine on the migraine on the way home, driving home to Culver City, or wherever, Century City, wherever I lived at the time, I'm like, What am I? I hate acting, but no, I can fake it
Steve Kmetko
till you make it. Yeah. And after, after? Oh, sometimes after is more important. Yeah, and we'll be right back. If you'd like to be more involved with us at still here Hollywood, you definitely can just visit patreon.com/still here Hollywood. You can support us for as little as $3 a month. You can get our episodes a day before they post anywhere else. You can see what guests will be coming up and submit questions for them. You can even tell us what stars you want us to have on as guests. You'll see what goes on before and after the episode, plus exclusive behind the scenes info, pics, video and more. Again, that's patreon.com/still here Hollywood. Did you realize at the time when you were in wings, how important ensemble acting was? That looks like it was a fun set to be on.
Amy Yasbeck
I Yeah, joining wings had a little bit of an echo of how my childhood was, because I came into the family very late into the family was the new one, the puppy. It was his puppy, and it's so I loved, like, like, observing the actors and how this one related to this one. And then I would ask, what's like, figuring every buddy out I love that. I love that. And I was very. Lucky that I Steve Levitan is the one that basically got me the he was on it at that time, writing on it, but when I auditioned, he's the one that told me, you know, okay, we put this thing. It's like, there's, I think it was two episodes or three episodes, and then, you know, it depends on how the character works out. Then it could be a and I just went, well, that's got to happen. After the first episode. I'm like, oh, that's gotta I have to have more time with Steve Weber. You know, I This has got to happen. They've got to, at some point down the road, write for us. And then they started writing for us as a couple, not really a couple. They would hate F each other. I don't know what it was. It was fun for me.
Steve Kmetko
Steve is shooting in Chicago right now, right?
Amy Yasbeck
He loves it. He's like a Chicago guy now.
Steve Kmetko
He's always posting about it, yes, but I saw him, you know, I fly in from Chicago once a month for this. Then one Friday he was on the flight. It was so funny, because I was already seated in economy, and he, he came walking in and went, Steve. I went, Steve. It was very nice. It was fun. And it was, he's such a guy, you know he's a nice, normal, neurotic, fun, yeah, to talk to, and
Amy Yasbeck
he's hilarious. Yeah, he is hilarious, yeah. And he's definitely one of my best friends and
Steve Kmetko
a very supportive person, you can tell very he said to me, saw him at your function that one night, yeah, after we started, and he said, I told you it was gonna work.
Amy Yasbeck
See, yeah, he knows he's very good. He is. He's very good. He's an artist too. Did you know that? No, he can draw anything, especially people like it's his own style. It's almost, like I want to say our crumb. I mean, it's like, just to the people that he draws, the personality that he and so, like I have scripts where it just has his drawings all over it. And that's was so much fun for me, because it was very entertaining over there on stage 19, a paramount at all times, no matter what was going on, I had so much fun. I had as much fun not working there as working there, like when we were just hanging out.
Steve Kmetko
Do you ever think they might do a reboot of that? No, I really enjoyed it on Saturday nights. You watched it on Saturday night? Was it Saturday nights? What night was it on?
Amy Yasbeck
I want to say, Tuesday, no, no, Thursday, be there. Let's all be there. Oh, was that? Was like, the NBC thing,
Steve Kmetko
must see TV? Was it must see TV?
Amy Yasbeck
It was one of those things. Oh, my God, I don't know, Steve and I always, still, we just did a thing for Project angel food, where we got up and introduced something together. And it was at Paramount. So we, like, had a whole bit about it, that kind of it. Half the room loved it. Half the room were like, Huh? But like, who are those people? But the thing we always say, it's Amy yasbek and Steve Weber from the hit high flying comedy wings. Be there. Let's all be there. We still say that. And people like, What are you talking about? So I think maybe that was it be there, okay, okay,
Steve Kmetko
where does wings rank in your career in terms of making you feel good about your work?
Amy Yasbeck
Right up there, really? Oh, yeah for sure. And I mean, that's one I enjoy. I enjoy watching it, because I have a really interesting kind of memory, just the way my mobile brain works, I'll remember, and it might not be like the words in the but I'll remember all of like, whatever the drama was that went who was in the audience that night, where I was in my life. It's interesting, it's weird. But I mean, I loved it again. I loved it. I loved the work. I loved knowing what it was, what was expected of me, and then trying to go above and beyond that. I'm not good with a, like, a blank page or no schedule,
Steve Kmetko
I just kind of, you like being told what to do and where to go. I like I like that.
Amy Yasbeck
You like that. I like that. And then in that constraint trying to, like, blow it out, like, do it. Like of everybody who is told to do this? Is it competition? No, everybody who was told to show up on the set and do this and read these lines, you did the best of it. But if somebody said, Go up there, do whatever you want, I'd be like, Nope, no. I like having the kind of restriction. And again, for me, it's like, literally, I would forget what time things are supposed to be or where I was supposed to go, and a lot of energy would go into that. So when you've, like, just got me on a set, and you say, let's, you know, then it's like, okay, this joke isn't working for whatever reason. And I'm like, It's because, you know, what could we do? And then on the night, and Weber and I would go, what if we say that? What if we, you know, with the with the writers, and then we would get to, like, come up with something. I like, a pressure cooker. I can't get stuff done until it's due. And then I do it, and they ta, da. And then if somebody says, show me your work on a separate piece of paper, I just go back and make bullshit, you know, like, here's my project, I'm finished with it. They're like, well, we need to see your outline and how you came up with it. And then I just kind of fake that part.
Steve Kmetko
Jim, any Tony Shalhoub stories?
Amy Yasbeck
I adore him. I adore Tony Shalhoub with all of my heart. We're both Lebanese starts with that, but he's somebody else on this set was, I don't know, I felt like I was with, like, the the, not the cool kids, like cool, but like, like, the lunch table that you want to be invited to. I'm saying way too many sad things about my childhood. Now, if you can figure that one out. But do you know what I mean? Where, like the cool kids that were, like, telling the cool stories, and Tony, you know, is so he does everything, obviously, but just I learned stuff about theater that I would have of I would have never known just by hearing Tony and Tim and Rebecca Schall and these people who had been doing theater forever and knew so much so a lot of the gaps in my knowledge about legit theater,
Steve Kmetko
I learned from them. Can you think of a story that you'd like to tell me about wings, one of my first,
Amy Yasbeck
like, real, like, I mean, I've been like, blown away by, like, meeting Hollywood, Hollywood people, Hollywood stars, but Debbie Reynolds came on to play my mom, Crystal, and my mom, Helen, and Casey's mom on on, On Wings. And so she only worked on the night her stand in, who was her friend, would come in with the Debbie Reynolds wig. And I mean, Debbie Reynolds had her own line of wigs. So when I say Debbie Reynolds wig, I mean branding, hashtag, Debbie Reynolds wig. And she would do all the blocking and run the lines and stuff with us. But on the day, I mean, I don't think Debbie came till, Debbie Deb ms Reynolds, I don't think she came till, like after lunch, and there she was, and was watched her, her person do it. Knew all the marks, talked to her for a minute, and then just the whole time I was working with her, you're like, Oh my god. Debbie Reynolds, I was most in I was most distracted, distractible by anybody with her, because I loved and she was wonderful. She was such a doll. And rip Taylor came the night of the show, and he started doing his stuff right with the confetti and everything. Oh, my God, I absolutely loved him, but that was crazy to be able to to meet her. That is one of those things where he just I like, I can't reconcile it in my brain that I'm me and that I'm able to not be lying when I say, not only did work, at one point, I had to, like, put my head on her lap in the scene, because I'm her daughter, and she was like, petting my hair. And I was trying so hard to, like, remember every little thing, because you always think every job is going to be a last and then one day it is. But do you know what I mean? And so just like, remember Hello, perfume and everything, and I remember that, and I collect those things. And memories are from my life. There's a time my age or later where you make these strong memories, and then you can sit back and kind of feast on them, and meeting her was
Steve Kmetko
the best. She came to Chicago once, more than once, probably tell me, but one year to my college, and they had me host the evening, An Evening with Debbie Reynolds. And so I spent quite a bit of time with her, and she was so funny. Yes, like you said, dirty funny. Yes, dirty funny. And she, if anybody came in late and she was like, 15 or 20 minutes into the into her presentation, she would go all the way back, like, rewind, Ryan the evening. Here's what you missed. And do everything. Had fast motion. She was so funny.
Amy Yasbeck
I love that. I can totally see her doing that. But I mean, you must do that too. Like all the people you've met, do you are you just like, completely inured to like? Is there anybody that, if you met them you would
Steve Kmetko
Yeah, you know, time would stop. Did that to me, Michael Jordan, is that right when I met my dad? Yeah, yes, he was in town. Here Was he nice? Oh, he was very nice. He was at Fred of Beverly Hills. Fred was making a cologne, Jordan cologne, and he was there to promote it and take pictures and that kind of stuff. And they said, you know, they were gonna, this is when I was at E Yes, and they were gonna send somebody else. And I said, Oh, no, you don't, I'm from Chicago. I'm going to exactly right, yeah. And it was just like, I couldn't wait. It was That was exciting for me. And there's other people.
Amy Yasbeck
I think it's important that we still have that, yeah, because if not, then we think we're Michael Jordan and we think we're Debbie Reynolds and we're not.
Steve Kmetko
No, no, we're not. Do you know what I mean? I know exactly what you mean.
Amy Yasbeck
It important to know, and it's not like a humility thing, or like I'm humble, and they're big stars, but that when you you love their work, they've given something to you again, back to John, when people come up to me and they're gushing or crying or remembering in that moment when they see me that how sad they are, I have to let people have that, and I have to reassure them when they say I loved John, and I Say he loved you too. He loved his audience. He loved you. He would be sitting here talking to you if he was here. And I think that those connections where you're as John's quote of the golden thread of humanity that runs through all of us, and like with music and entertainment, and you can, kind of like, pluck that golden string all at once, and the audience kind of goes forward, like brings you to them. It's always been around. We need it more than ever. And I just, I'm so happy that I got to, like, play in that world for as long as I have and I'm ready to do so much more. Like, what? What would you want me for? What do you got? Not much. I mean, in the last year or so, I've played like a PTA, Karen, of course, like a real book burning a hole, whatever. That was great. That was fun. And also, I played a Victorian like GrandAm kind of lady too, in a short called fireflies in the dusk. That sounds very fancy and snobby, but there's Ultra violence at the end, which we all love. It's very funny. Check it out. I'll send it to you. And then, like a super football fan lady, and I just, I don't know, I like embodying all these little characters. I love doing character stuff. I'm gonna buy a gray wig, a gray wig. Don't think I should,
Steve Kmetko
or you could just let your hair grow out. I'm sorry that would take that was nasty.
Amy Yasbeck
Do you know how long that would take me? My hair is grayer than yours. My hair is white. It's beautiful.
Steve Kmetko
My hair is not gray, but is it white? I don't know. You're seeing something you're hallucinating, talking about All right, this isn't exactly a new idea, but we're going to try this with you, because that's always a good idea. It's a classic. It's a good idea. We call it rapid fire round.
Amy Yasbeck
Don't roll your eyes at your own thing. Funniest, somebody worked hard on that. Here we go. We're about to do rapid fire. Here we are with rapid fire, round, ready and
Steve Kmetko
go. Funniest cast mate ever,
Amy Yasbeck
Jonathan Southworth, Ritter,
Steve Kmetko
most serious castmate.
Amy Yasbeck
Serious castmate, I can't think of any,
Steve Kmetko
okay. First big laugh you got on camera
Amy Yasbeck
versus I did a thing called Rock Hopper, and it was a pilot and I was a Russian lady. I don't remember, but I must have gotten a laugh.
Steve Kmetko
Roll fans bring up the most maid.
Amy Yasbeck
Marian from Robin Hood, men and tights. Absolutely people love that movie.
Steve Kmetko
Well. Mel Brooks, what are you gonna do? Yeah, what are you gonna do? Roll your wish. Fans brought up more. I.
Amy Yasbeck
Let's just for fun. Say Mina from Dracula, dead and loving it again. Mel Brooks, okay, because I like to talk about her.
Steve Kmetko
Tell me more. No, okay, have it your way. I'll tell you more later. Okay? Costar, most likely to improvise.
Amy Yasbeck
Carol liefer, oh, really, yeah, I did a series called all writer ready at WB, and she was also the writer. So yeah, she could improvise all she wanted.
Steve Kmetko
It goes with the territory. It does costar least likely to improvise, stick to the every word of the script.
Amy Yasbeck
Andy Griffith, really? Yeah, Matlock, right?
Steve Kmetko
Yeah. I did too. Kathy Bates was Matlock. Kathy Bates is so good. Oh, she is. He's great favorite. John Ritter performance wedding night. You know my mind was going there. As you said that, I thought this is what she's gonna say. Sitcom you'd love to guest on today.
Amy Yasbeck
Do you know what show I love is loot?
Steve Kmetko
I don't think I've seen it. Oh yeah, what's it on?
Amy Yasbeck
Maya Rudolph, I don't know what channel it's on, but that like so a sitcom. Are there any sitcoms that are on? Are there any,
Steve Kmetko
you know, it's so it was so much easier when we had ABC, NBC and CBS. I don't know, what were you and I know, because it's so hard to, you know, they had a if it was on CBS, or if it was on NBC or ABC, it had a certain quality to I know, certain aspect you and you knew what network it was on, just
Amy Yasbeck
I know, and now, so I think you want me to say something besides loot. No, no. You that You can stick with loot. My Rudolph loot, and because I love Ron Funches and he's on it Okay,
Steve Kmetko
movie you've watched more than you admit,
Amy Yasbeck
Coal Miner's Daughter. Oh, that's a good movie, one of my favorite movies in the world. I can't if I see if I'm going by at channel surfing and go, I'm just gonna watch for this scene or that scene. I end up watching the whole I love it. I love sissies basics, so much.
Steve Kmetko
Yeah, and you know what movie I do that with? If I happen to be flipping channel surfing and it's on, I'll stop is Postcards from the Edge. Oh yeah, I love that movie. So good. Yeah, go to onset joke
Amy Yasbeck
when the boom mic is here. And then I have two things I love to mess with the boom mic, especially when they're fuzzy. They come down and but I always say leaping and hopping on a boom shadow, boom shadow, boom shadow. You know, remember that song, right? And also, Stevens, I do a great pig imitation, but I have to, like, hold the mic like this and do it. Would you like to hear it? Yes. Okay, you might want to take your I gotta warm up.
Amy Yasbeck
Okay. That's enough. Very good. They like that. They like that on a set you, okay, yeah, great.
Steve Kmetko
Nicest compliment a co star gave you.
Amy Yasbeck
You remind me of John? Oh,
Steve Kmetko
really, that would be nice, yeah? Comfort movie. Coal Miner's Daughter would fit in there.
Amy Yasbeck
Coal Miner's Daughter is a comfort movie, but, boy, I comfort food. Way I'm gonna tell you my comfort movie. Okay, I love little, big man. Oh, I don't know why. Dustin Hoffman, yeah, I love it. I love that movie, but it's not one like that. I would watch over and over again, but I don't know what my comfort movie would be. Guys suck at this Wizard of Oz. I saw Wizard of Oz at the sphere. Oh, did you so good? Crazy being up so close to it and seeing like little things, and then you can kind of see kind of what they added to, like pad out this, I was going to be very critical of it, but I loved it, but I was also high on gummies, which really helped.
Steve Kmetko
Yeah, that helps just about anything it does. Wizard of Oz is my all time favorite movie. Period, me too. And yeah, that's my favorite. I would say. I went to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra did one of those screenings where they had showed the movie, and the orchestra, which is spectacular, played the accompaniment, and it was just wow. And the one line I heard there. Removed was Aunt Clara saying Elvira Gulch, for 23 years, I've wanted to tell you what I thought of you and now, well, being a Christian woman, I can't say it. I think she did. Somebody told me they
Amy Yasbeck
removed because she says Christian,
Steve Kmetko
no, I don't know why, just because they were trying to condense the movie.
Amy Yasbeck
Because that's the greatest one. That's the greatest line. Do you want to hear my wicked witch imitation? I think I can do
Steve Kmetko
it. Okay, sure.
Amy Yasbeck
I'll get you Dorothy and your little dog too. And then phlegm comes up because I've
Steve Kmetko
I don't think the Wicked Witch was a
Amy Yasbeck
smoker, so No, neither am I director.
Steve Kmetko
You'd work with again, instantly. Mel Brooks, stupid question. Steve, stupid question. Steve, Hi, this is stupid question, Steve, actor who taught you the most John Ritter,
Amy Yasbeck
okay, I mean, I can I
Steve Kmetko
line you quote from your own work.
Amy Yasbeck
I quote everybody else's lines. I don't I'm sure there's something I don't know. Okay. Oh, wait, wait, I do know okay, because people quote it to me. Oh, this is Mel Brooks favorite line too, is when made Marion says, El, I'm so happy. And people want me to write that on the pictures and, like, how do you spell it? They're like, co hap, yeah. I'm like, so happy. Yeah, everybody has a different way they want me to spell it. I'm so happy. I don't know. It's a good line. It's pretty good, yeah.
Steve Kmetko
What do you miss most about the 90s? John Ritter,
Amy Yasbeck
that was, that's my answer to everything.
Steve Kmetko
Well, you know that's true. Yeah, it's true. That's true. What do you love most about right now?
Amy Yasbeck
Right now in this room with you.
Steve Kmetko
No, no, just right now in time being in this room with you. Thank you. Okay, I'll accept that. My favorite line from the Wizard of Oz,
Amy Yasbeck
oil can oil can. Nobody got it. He goes, oil, can, oil, can, what? And I look around and nobody's like, That's the funniest joke ever. That's like, one of the first jokes I ever.
Steve Kmetko
I love the line. Listen, honey, I got them hogs to get in when he's trying to, you know, Dorothy wants his opinion on something.
Amy Yasbeck
Listen, I got those hogs to get in, hogs to get in, and that, yeah, I that that stuff was crazy cool, because, like, really, like, because it looks like, like the hogs are right here, and like, when it falls off, there's so much did you catch one of the apples that fell I did. I gave it to my friend because her daughter wanted to bring an apple. But, like, leaves come out and stuff. And that stuff is cute and kind of kitschy and kind of whatever. But the tornado, because there's a little bit of wind, but also to have it all around, and I can, and you can see the parts that still, I hate to say, somebody said, this is the best, this is the top, what do you call it? Cutting Edge, dude? And I said, Yeah, like, but for now. And they're like, No, this is cutting edge. I'm like, but that's what cutting edge means. The cutting edge moves. And now that they've seen the people who have built this and made this thing, they're going to have to just keep they can't just keep doing different movies. There's got to be more and more stuff. I saw the Eagles there too. It was fantastic. Oh, really, yeah, because they're doing, like, a lot of cool stuff and cool imagery that makes you feel like the space opens up, or the space opens up above you, you kind of you're in the sphere, but it's also trippy again. High on gummies.
Steve Kmetko
We'll be back in a moment. Tell me about Project angel food. What you were just doing with Steve there. Stephen Weber, so I'm
Amy Yasbeck
going to hinge it on something else. Okay, okay. So what's interesting to me is now that I'm in so many ways, kind of in the nonprofit, charity, foundation, business. I mean, I don't get paid. It's not a business for me, but it is a machine that's run like a business. And me understanding, you know, we've got all the stars, whatever, for the not really we've we've done, like, our rating, or whatever, is so fantastic to know the difference with that. And the way I knew about that was because project angel food, when I was here in the late 80s and 90s, was such a gorgeous model. It's like meals. On wheels, and it was when it was started. It was mostly for people who were homebound due to AIDS, because it was huge and rampant, and people were afraid to go up to somebody's door. It was a nightmare for people. And John and I always loved project angel food, and would do stuff for it, and the way that that has grown and developed, and their their mission has widened, has deepened and widened, and that it's for anyone who's homebound and also delivers food for like their caregivers or their children. Because you start to realize when you're working and you have it in your head what someone's need is that it has to be a two way thing. And you start to see, really what is needed is kind of a more of a holistic that's probably the wrong word, but it's, it's everybody in your sphere, if you are someone who was ill, the caregivers are such an important part. So project angel food has done amazing things. And Steve Weber, he did the telethon one year, and I came on and embarrassed him, which I like to do. But, you know, I like to, like do the phone bank and all that stuff, and meet all those folks. It's a great it's a local charity that's doing amazing things. You should check it out right after you check out the John Ritter foundation.
Steve Kmetko
What do you do for fun? Let's take it to a lighter side here.
Amy Yasbeck
For fun, I build things and plant things. I'm just like anything three dimensional. I sound like a Rubik's Cube. I couldn't do that to save my frickin life. Are you a Rubik's Cube? No, no, neither can. I would get frustrated. Yes, my niece can do it. Yeah, pitch that. Yeah, no, I like puzzles. So I do saw puzzles. That's the only one I don't like.
Steve Kmetko
Oh, you don't like Jim. And the other one, the math one, the saduko. Oh, saduko, Sudoku. I don't
Amy Yasbeck
know how to say it. I don't like it. I don't care. You can try teach it to me, but I do like the times everything. Like all of the crossword puzzles, all of that, all of the I love a puzzle, I love a problem, but I also see, like, puzzles everywhere. Kind of, when I'm at my house, I'm like, oh, that's hanging this way. But this is this, if I tighten this one, then this goes as I'm always up on a ladder, which is not good at my age. Granny clamp it should not be up on the ladder.
Steve Kmetko
Amy, it was my pleasure sitting here and talking with you today.
Amy Yasbeck
Steve, it was my pleasure sitting here and being talked to by you.
Steve Kmetko
Being talked to you. Thank you, Amy, for coming in. I appreciate it.
Amy Yasbeck
It's my pleasure. Let's do this all the time. Okay, as long as we're still here Hollywood,
Steve Kmetko
as long as that happens, I'll be here. Still here Hollywood is a production of the still here network, all things technical, run by Justin zangerly, theme music by Brian sanoshin. And executive producer is Jim Lichtenstein.