In this powerful and deeply personal episode of *Still Here Hollywood with Steve Kmetko*, Emmy-nominated actor **Rob Morrow** opens up like never before. Best known for his iconic role as Dr. Joel Fleischman on *Northern Exposure*, Morrow reflects on how the groundbreaking series changed television—and his life. He shares why going sober after decades of casual marijuana use led to a creative rebirth, how fatherhood gave him purpose, the story behind his daughter’s unforgettable name (“Tu Morrow”), and the reason he almost passed on directing and starring in his own indie film. Morrow also talks candidly about aging in Hollywood, the highs and lows of marriage, the meditative power of music, and launching a *Northern Exposure* rewatch podcast with co-star Janine Turner. Packed with vulnerability, career insight, and laugh-out-loud behind-the-scenes stories, this episode is a must-watch for fans of 90s TV, Hollywood reinvention, and honest storytelling.
Rob Morrow and Janine Turner Podcast:
"Northern Disclosure"
Get it wherever you get your podcasts along with Youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/@NorthernDisclosurePodcast
Steve Kmetko:
Yes, I'm Still Here Hollywood. And coming up on today's episode.
He's a familiar face to anyone who loves smart Offbeat Television, an actor and director whose work has earned both critical acclaim and a loyal following. With his sharp wit, unmistakable charm, he became a household name alongside Janine Turner in one of the most beloved series of the nineties Northern Exposure. This is Still Here, Hollywood. I'm Steve Kmetko. Join me with today's guest, Rob Morrow.
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Thanks for stopping by and agreeing to do this. We're having a good time. It's been about a year now. One of the things we were talking about prior to sitting down and turning on the cameras was how young you look.
Rob Morrow:
Thanks.
Steve Kmetko:
You don't appear to have aged a day since Northern Exposure.
Rob Morrow:
I have. My chiropractor would attest to it. Yeah, like, I mean, it's really luck of the genetic draw except that I do take care of myself. I am healthy. I would say spiritual not in a dogmatic sense, but I am. But that helps. I meditate a lot, every day, every day. I am sober now over a year, which is interesting for me. Because I didn't have a problem, per se. I didn't, alcohol was my thing. Pot was my thing for like 30 years. I love pot. And I used it effectively. It didn't, you know, I never used it at work. It didn't, you know, but I used it a lot. I was a stoner, and now not using it, first of all, I feel high a lot, you know.
And I don't mean like, like the THC is still, oh, my friends’ joke. There's so much of my system that I'm still, but it's not that I just, it's like a new reality. It like this, like it's the opposite, you know. Because what was happening is it was dulling me, I think on a lot of levels. It was starting to dull me. And so anyway, I think a lot of these things contribute to me looking young. But the, the, the interesting thing is I think it works against me in my career, because I am not a kid. And yet they won't, sometimes when I have to do a self-tape, I don't do them that often, but when I do them, I gray my hair because, and my hair is, and my friends don't believe me. Like, I've never dyed my hair. It's this, for whatever reason, it's not going gray yet. I know it will. But they won't cast me as the kind of, they tend not to cast me as the older, you know, mature. And yet I'm too old to play the 45-year-old. So, it's like, I think it's hurting me. But nevertheless, my life is good. So, I'm not complaining.
Steve Kmetko:
I don't know. I think you'd pass for 45 with no problem.
Rob Morrow:
I would, but the problem is they're going to cast the real 45-year-old.
Steve Kmetko:
So, it's always something.
Rob Morrow:
It's always, you know who said that?
Steve Kmetko:
Who?
Rob Morrow:
Gilda Radner wrote a book just before she passed away. And the title of it was, it's always something, which I think about all the time. I mean, because every job I do, there's always something. There's someone that's pain in the. There's something about it that doesn't work, you know. It's always something. And I think when we accept that and don't re resist it or fight it, we're happier.
Steve Kmetko:
Tell me, we were talking earlier, you said one of the things that stuck with you has stuck with you is the birth of your daughter. How come? How so, other than the fact that you're the father?
Rob Morrow:
Well, first of all, being a parent, are you a parent? Right? Well, It's the first, it was the first time I actually had perspective, right? When my daughter was born. It because I was, you know, I am a narcissist. I am ambitious, I am materialistic. I've been on a focused path since a very young age. And when she was born, it was like, oh, something, someone is more important than me. And the most important thing from, from my perspective was I have to make sure this creature flourishes. That's the priority. No matter what I want, no matter what job I want or what house, or what trip or what car, whatever I want, the priority is this person. And that was liberating for me because I felt like, okay, I know, I get it. Like, now I know what my life's purpose is. I've got to make sure this person's okay and it, and you know, none of it's easy. But when she was born, I was directing a show called Oz, you remember? Right? For HBO.
Steve Kmetko:
HBO. Right.
Rob Morrow:
And my wife went into the hospital, and I went in the, I stayed overnight with her. And the, I was not going to go to work. It was all worked out. There was a actor, great actor named Terry Kinney who you've seen. A zillion things. And, and he's a director as well as an actor. And he was on the show. And so we had made a plan that if I had to leave for my, I was not going to miss my daughter being born. So he was going to take over for me. So we had that worked out. But, so I go to the hospital with my wife at night. She says she's, you know, ready and we go and the baby doesn't come. And she's, she ends up only being like two centimeters dilated. So she wasn't even near. But the next morning I said to the doctor, I said, look, you tell me.
If you tell me I should stay, because it's going to happen soon, then I will. But if I can go to work, it was my last day of the episode. And he said, go to work. I can give you an hour's notice. And you'll come, you'll be here. So I go to work. I'm shooting, I'm setting up the last shot. I'm explaining to the DP what I want, camera here, come over here. And the phone rings. I have it on my thing. I don't even, I just look at it. I say, Hey, they say, now I just point to Terry. I point to him. I walk out the door, my car's there. I get in the car, I drive to the, to the hospital illegally park and go upstairs. And the doctor had decided to do a c-section at that point.
And I didn't quite understand, you know, it was all blurry. Now I'm on 12, 13, 14 hours the night before I hadn't slept. So it's starting to get very surreal, but I'm, I'm so excited. But they just, they said they, they needed to do a c-section because there was some complication. And then the doctor winked at me and said, told you I'd wait. And in retrospect, I realized that I think he just was, wanted to go home, and he didn't want to wait around anymore. So he just elected to do, which I'm told is done all the time. So my daughter was born with a c-section, which I became an advocate of, because she came out pristine and beautiful. And the next night I was also, I didn't say this at the first, I was also acting in a movie called The Emperors Club with Kevin Kline.
And I was going back and forth, you know, on schedule. And I had to go shoot that night. And I just real, I remember now I'm on like, close to 48 hours with no sleep. And I'm just sitting there doing a scene with Kevin like this. And they, I just remember hearing kind of echoing of the DP and the director Mike Kaufman talking, saying, I can't get light into his eyes. He's, they're just so low. And they were like, Rob, can you keep your eyes open a little more? And I was like, you know. But so that's my birth story. I don't know why. I just felt I just, my daughter just turned 24. She's a little baby actress. She's a badass. I pretty sure you'll be hearing from her. And so here I am 24 years later.
Steve Kmetko:
You know, you're talking about the clarity that her birth brought to your life. That's kind of the same way I feel about stopping drinking. All of a sudden, there was a clarity that I didn't have before.
Rob Morrow:
Now tell me, you were an alcoholic. Or you are an alcoholic, I guess they say. And it was really bad. Like, you were like--
Steve Kmetko:
Well, I never at work thought, I never thought it was bad. But enough people around me started saying, you know, you kind of knock this off--
Rob Morrow:
And how much could you consume?
Steve Kmetko:
You know what after I left Los Angeles, I moved back to Chicago because my parents were there, and they're both, they were both in their nineties. And I wanted to be there for them. I couldn't find work here. And so I went home and being around my family more, because my family's in Chicago, they started saying things. And I just, I ran into somebody who recently passed away himself. His name was John Smith. And I remember when I met him, I said, your name's not John Smith. Come on. But it was John Smith. Yeah. and, and he was such a mentor for me, and all the things.
Rob Morrow:
He was a mentor in showbiz?
Steve Kmetko:
No, no. Just in my sobriety journey. And--
Rob Morrow:
So, what was your pa like, would you drink all day long?
Steve Kmetko:
No. I'll tell you, when I went back to Chicago and I couldn't find work I got a job with Apple in their store, one of their stores selling computers, which I didn't know anything about. I was so depressed. That alcohol was my calming.
Rob Morrow:
Sure.
Steve Kmetko:
I used to, I'll tell you, this is what I would do. I would drive home at the end of the day, the store would close at 11 o'clock or 10 o'clock, I would drive home, stop at a liquor store, pick up a bottle of Johnny Walker Black. I'm not being paid for that picked pick up a bottle, a whole bottle of Johnny Walker Black. And I would go to bed. I would take a couple of sleeping pills, and I would drink the entire bottle.
Rob Morrow:
The entire bottle.
Steve Kmetko:
The entire bottle.
Rob Morrow:
And in a two-hour period. And pass out.
Steve Kmetko:
And pass out.
Rob Morrow:
And you'd wake up.
Steve Kmetko:
The next day. Yeah.
Rob Morrow:
But you could sleep late because you had a late job or something. But that was it. It wasn't like you weren't going socializing, you just were using it to anesthetize yourself.
Steve Kmetko:
Right. I had a cousin who lives in the country, Vicki, if you're watching, she always does. But she asked me once, I don't understand why did you drink so much. And I said, it's not easy to explain, but I wanted to black out. Yeah, of course. I wanted to shut everything out of, that's why I did it. Yeah.
Rob Morrow:
That's why we do it. Yeah. That's what I miss. And I don't really miss it because first of all, I could do anything I wanted. Right now, I didn't have a problem with alcohol. I would have, you know, a big party drink night. It was three drinks. That's what would be the max I would ever have. And it was rarely that it was usually two drinks on a Saturday night, maybe a wine glass of wine or two during the week. So it wasn't an issue. The pot would be, and it wasn't even like, you know, I would, I got into eating it because the smoking wasn't working. I sing, you know, so it wasn't, so I was eating like, you know, often five milligrams of, of a candy at the end of the day, like for a cocktail. Right. So it wasn't like, you know, I wasn't, I didn't have like this huge problem.
I could function, I could do anything. I didn't, I couldn't work. Although as a writer, I would always do what I called my stoner draft. And I would do all the structural work. I would do all the labor with all the hard stuff. And then I would go and do a draft with a little being a little high and always get good stuff. Right. Because the next day I would, you know, under clarity of sobriety, I would be like, it would, it was good. And so I was scared I was going to lose that. But so I didn't have to stop it. It just, I just wanted to. And but what I do sometimes think I'd miss is that sense of being able to just stop the world. I want to get off for a minute, you know? Because That's, because look, life is difficult. You know? It, it's for all of us. I don't care who you are, you know, and how much you have life. You know, the Buddhists say life is suffering, you know? And so we want to get away. And so first of all, I applaud you for being able to do it, but I'm curious, were you, was it an evolution? You're drinking? Like, you were a social drinker and then it became a problem, or--
Steve Kmetko:
Oh, there's a lot of different elements. You know when I got fired by E and I went home and I had nothing to do all day.
Rob Morrow:
Is that for drinking?
Steve Kmetko:
No. No, No.
Rob Morrow:
No, no, not at all.
Steve Kmetko:
Right. Just lousy management. I would go home and start drinking. I found a liquor store in my neighborhood that delivered. And so, I used to, I lived on a hillside in Silver Lake, and when I would finish drinking, because I didn't want people to find this stuff in my garbage cans. So, I'd walk out to the edge of the property and I would heat the bottle down into the bushes. The ivy covering the hillside. And when I started hearing clinks.
Rob Morrow:
What an image.
Steve Kmetko:
Yeah. You're doing this too much. You can't do this anymore. Yeah.
Rob Morrow:
Shame is an interesting, it's an interesting component of it. Right.
Steve Kmetko:
And I was raised in a Baptist household, so shame was omnipresent.
Rob Morrow:
Right. And so, you got into, you said you went into rehab?
Steve Kmetko:
Three times.
Rob Morrow:
Three times. So, you would go and come back and fall and then life would get to you and you would start again. And what, how were you able to finally make the--
Steve Kmetko:
I just got to a point age-wise right. Where I knew this was not a good thing. And there have been alcohol. Nobody in the family had a stroke, but there were a number of members of the family that drank too much.
Rob Morrow:
Right. So, it was in the jeans. My dad was an alcoholic.
Steve Kmetko:
Oh, really?
Rob Morrow:
Yeah, it's and that was, I think a lot of my motivation was the idea of get, of, of getting older and knowing that even a little bit of alcohol's not good for you. And I started to read reports about pot not being good for you. I have to be conscious of my heart, you know? And it's funny, it's like the clarity that I have and the productivity that I have now. And I was a pretty productive guy to begin with. But it's like a, it's, you know, it's like a new lease or something like it. As I said, I'm really, I'm enjoying it.
Steve Kmetko:
That's exactly how it feels. Like a new lease. Yeah. Somebody woke you up, Steve. Yeah.
Rob Morrow:
Be Grateful. Good for you.
Steve Kmetko:
And it's the same kind of thing every once in a while, I think, boy, it would be nice to just turn everything off. Excuse me. But that doesn't, you know, one of the things, when I had my stroke, I remember them telling me when I got in the hospital, every, it's like a standard patter. You know, when you have one stroke, you're likely to have a second one. Oh, wow. Really. Thanks for telling me that. I feel so much better.
Rob Morrow:
So how do you what kind of preventative stuff do you have to do?
Steve Kmetko:
I try to stay active.
Rob Morrow:
Yeah. That's important.
Steve Kmetko:
I try not to sleep as long as I like to.
Rob Morrow:
Why? What's wrong with sleeping? I thought sleeping's the--
Steve Kmetko:
No, no, no, no. I'm to the point where, you know, I have got no specific job to go to other than this one. But I love this one. And so, you know, if I could stay in bed with my two dogs, with the TV on.
Rob Morrow:
Oh, with the, so you're not sleeping, you're just in bed. Oh, right. But how much do you sleep? What's your hour?
Steve Kmetko:
I go to bed on most nights. I'll be in bed by 9 o'clock, and I'll get up around 7:00 AM.
Rob Morrow:
7:00 AM. So, that's nine hours of actual sleep.
Steve Kmetko:
Well, yeah, that's--
Rob Morrow:
Pretty great--
Steve Kmetko:
Getting up to pee.
Rob Morrow:
But that's great. I mean, that's one of the most healthy things we can do as, especially as we get older. I've started doing this thing, you know, during C-O-V-I-D-I, I was never a terrible sleeper and pot certainly helped me sleep, but I don't know if it gave me the rest. I don't know. But it was never like a big issue. I mean, a couple times a week maybe, but, but, but during COVID, I re, Ariana Huffington put out a book called The Sleep Revolution, which I read. And she had great insights about, about how to get the rest and why we need it, and broke it all down. And I adopted some of those practices. And so now I'm like seven to eight hours if I'm, you know, usually no less than seven. But what I've started doing is I've been meditating for I don't know, 15 years. And it's 40 minutes a day. And, but I, what I started doing is doing it in bed, which I call meditation. And I wake up, like today, I woke up at seven 15 and I stayed, and I meditated till like eight 30 be And I'm not sleeping. Like I'm totally conscious, but I'm meditating. And that's become really that I start the days in such a good mood because of it. So that’s my new thing.
Steve Kmetko:
Do you do it every day?
Rob Morrow:
Every day. I let myself take Sundays off if I want, you know, and so which every, I kind of let myself do every, anything I want on Sundays if I can. But yeah, I mean, and I don't miss, I never miss a day. I mean, I really am diligent about it, even if I have to do it in a car on the way to a job or something, you know, being driven. I don't, and, you know, so many people talk, it's not like I have any special ability to focus. And a lot of my time, although recently it's gotten much deeper, is, is spent on thinking, planning, plotting, you know, stuff that you're not the thing you're not supposed to be doing. But I always touch that place, that quote, transcendent spot that makes me come back for more.
And what I've learned is it's a muscle. And if you do it, I started doing it five minutes a day. I'm up to an hour and a half, and I never thought I could do it more than 10, you know, I mean, and, but committing to that time, it becomes easier and easier. And I think as I get older, it's going to be a gold mine. Like of, of time, you know, when if I'm lucky enough to live, to be really old, because you, it's supposedly scientifically very restorative. And there's just something, it's the thing we're talking about, about getting away, you know, wanting to shut down life, wanting to get away using narcotics or alcohol. It's that you, when you get to that spot of transcendent, when you're out of, when you're just present in the actual moment it's euphoric.
Steve Kmetko:
We'll be back for more in a moment.
If this is your first time watching or listening to still hear Hollywood, what took you so long, even if you're a longtime fan, I have a favorite to ask. If you feel it in your heart, please like, and follow us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to us. Or if you watch on YouTube, please subscribe. And with both, it would be great if you rated and commented on your favorite episodes. Thank you so much. And now on with the show, you told me you were, ma you've been married 30 years.
Rob Morrow:
Yeah, I mean, married 28, 20. We were married in 90 eight. So, and we were together for three more years on top of that. That's another thing that fascinates me. Like, I knew my wife. I met my wife when I was about 21, 20. We didn't get together for another 15 years probably, but I knew that she was the one, it wasn't like I knew I was going to get married or her someday, but like, because she went off, she got married somewhere and she went somewhere. I went, you know, had lots of relationships. And but she has a very distinct name. Her name is Debbon. Debbon Ayer. And so really, my friends and Scott, it's her real name's Irish Scottish, I guess. My friends remembered me talking about the de Oh, Debbon Ayer, Debbon Ayer, Debbon Ayer. And sure enough, we got together, we got married, and we're together and we're now, we're together coming on 30 years.
And it has not been easy, you know, it's been a lot of ups and downs, mainly because of me, not her but we're through the hump, you know? And we're in a great place. And I find it fa I'm fascinated with myself that I actually had the insight that she was the one. Because It's not like I have clairvoyance on anything else. I can't tell you any other, there's nothing else I can say except maybe that I was able to succeed in show business that I was able to think like, oh, this is what I'm going to do and it's going to work. But she's amazing. And she, she's really, if there's anything coming out of my mouth that has some kind of a grain of wisdom. It comes from having, you know, her kind of reflecting back to me over these years. She's a good, really great soul.
Steve Kmetko:
I was with a partner for 14 years, and I often think had I stuck with it a little longer, everything I know now, everything would've been okay.
Rob Morrow:
Interesting. Well, I mean, that's a, it's a look. I mean, just knowing that is huge. And, and you'll, you'll apply it to the next one. But, I think you're right. I mean, we easily could have fallen apart, and if I were a minute younger, I would not have made it. If I had gotten, you know, my daughter tells me all her friends are, all these kids are getting married now, these 20 somethings. And I'm like, oh, made mistake. Definitely. Because like, it requires, first of all, it requires great sacrifice, you know? And, and I think you have to have, for me anyway, I had to have sowed my oats, so to speak, in many ways. To be able to be in the relationship. And even then, we had to deal with a lot of ups and downs.
Steve Kmetko:
What was your first reaction when you read the script for Northern Exposure?
Rob Morrow:
I remember thinking, it read like no other TV script I'd ever read or seen at the time. I'd been, my experience I'm like the right out of the, the Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers. It was like 10 years to the day that I booked Northern Exposures. I had done, I don't know, maybe almost a hundred little plays, big plays, little plays. And so I was on a lot of short lists in New York for tv. Like anything being cast, they were, if I was in the ballpark age-wise or type wise, they would consider me. And so I was reading a lot. And this read like a movie script. It read like an independent movie. Like there was a director at the time named Bill Forsyth, who was making interesting movies, Gregory's Girl. And just a couple really great movies and local hero with Peter Riegert.
But it read like one of those movies and the character just kind of fit. Like I got him right away. Like I, you know, there were, there it we're not exactly the same. I'm very different than him in so many ways, but I'm also very similar culturally, geographically. And so, as I started to kind of prepare for the audition, it just kind of was like putting on a jacket that fit really well and was really comfortable. And I went in and, and, and read and you know, the rest is history. But it was like nothing else on Television. Once I finally saw it, you know, it was the, it was the only show I can think of where landscape was a character at that point. Now you see it more and more, especially something like Yellowstone or, or the, the last of us. You know, all these shows are had, you know, I used to say that we were the beginning of the cinematize of television, the show.
Steve Kmetko:
With that little moose that would walk in each week.
Rob Morrow:
The moose, not so little.
Steve Kmetko:
Not so little.
Rob Morrow:
His name was Morty. And he's passed away.
Steve Kmetko:
Oh, I'm sorry.
Rob Morrow:
And they, you know, you can't train a moose. So, when they shot that sequence, they had to fence in the entire town to, in order to, because they just basically set up a few cameras and let it go, you know, and then cut it into the opening sequence.
Steve Kmetko:
Can't go, Moosey, Moosey, Moosey.
Rob Morrow:
Yeah. It doesn't work.
Steve Kmetko:
What has been your most gratifying experience in, in acting or directing?
Rob Morrow:
Well, hmm, directing. I made a movie that I directed. I co-wrote, I produced, I ended up playing the lead by default. Lee Schreiber was going to do it. And then he got a big payday. And, and Laura Lenny played the, the lead. And it's called Maze. That was really satisfying because it was mine, you know. I love the idea of being a part of all aspects of the creative process, the genesis of something, of an idea. The, the exploring, the drama, dramaturgical possibilities, the screenplay, the concept, the execution, and then the actual acting. I love all those things. So to be a part of it in that I didn't, it was by default not design that I had to play the lead part in this. I had to make it at a certain point because too much time. My agents were like, you can't spend any more time on this movie that you're not going to make any money on. You know? And it was like coming on two years, I think. So I did, you know, acting and directing at the same time is not necessarily ideal, but in, in many regards, it, it makes the job easier because you don't have to explain yourself. I didn't have to argue with myself. Right. I just did. I did what I knew I had to do. But that was, that was a really rich experience acting wise.
Well, you know, I did a play two year. I did, five years ago I did Death of a Salesman out here in a little theater. That was pretty much the high watermark of my acting experience, because it may be the only masterpiece I've ever worked on. Most of what I do is making things work that don't really work on paper. You know, either rewriting them literally, or playing it in a way that takes attention away from the flaws or create being a part of some entertainment within the idea so that it, no one pays attention, that it doesn't really work.
Or death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller is an, you know, it's a masterpiece. And I didn't have to spend any bandwidth on making it work. It was like I had to fulfill. And to, to not have to be able to just get on that wavelength and, and ride that poetry. It just was blissful, man. I mean, it just was like, and hard. I mean, it's a hard play, you know? And I had this idea that, you know, he's, Willie Lowman is weighted down. So, I wore a 20-pound weight vest underneath my suit and ankle weights. And so, you know, I had a chiropractor I'd have to go to every week. Because it just, can we curse here?
Steve Kmetko:
Yes.
Rob Morrow:
He *** up my back, you know? And so, but that was the high-water remark as an actor.
Steve Kmetko:
Once again, working in a small Washington town. And you came from New York?
Rob Morrow:
Yeah.
Steve Kmetko:
Just like the character.
Rob Morrow:
Just like the character.
Steve Kmetko:
Was that challenging?
Rob Morrow:
That part of it? No--
Steve Kmetko:
Did you feel like a fish out of water, or did it help you bring something more to the road?
Rob Morrow:
Absolutely. Helps. You know, I mean, the co there were certain corollaries between that, between me and Joel, you know being out of our element that was helpful. Although, you know, I was living a pretty cush life in Seattle. We would go to the, we would shoot on sound stages in Redmond right, but right, right next to Microsoft headquarters. And then we would go at one out of every one or two days out of every eight, we would go to a town called Roslyn, which was the, in the show called Sicily. And that was about an hour and a half southeast into the Cascades. And so when we would go there, you'd be pretty isolated. You know, we would stay in these kind of motels. And that certainly helped. There's something about being in C two, as they say, you know, in the situation in the environment, that helps, you know, if you're freezing, you, you don't have to act, you don't have to act, you know, you're just freezing, you know? Walking down that street already put me in this environment that I didn't have to think. I didn't have to imagine, you know. Oh, what it's like to be in this town. I was in that. So, so it definitely helped me for sure.
Steve Kmetko:
I can't get over the fact that you have a wife named Debbon Ayer. I like that.
Rob Morrow:
the one and only, and you know what my daughter's name is? What? And this is her real, well, obviously it's her real name, but my last name is Morrow. So, her last, her first name is TU, she's TU Morrow.
Steve Kmetko:
I like that too. She's the one. People aren't going to forget her name.
Rob Morrow:
No, man, it's great when they come.
Steve Kmetko:
When they come across it.
Rob Morrow:
But I had so many friends that said, you're ruining her life and we're never going to call her that you, she's going to be ruined. And meanwhile, she grew up out here and everyone's got to, every kid, Gwyneth Paltrow's quit his apple and, and she's going to school with this kid life. And, you know, they, and so no one ever made, they made fun of her. Because every kid gets made fun of, but not, never for her name. But we gave her a great middle name Simone. So, if she hated it, she could be Simone, but she didn't hate it. And so--
Steve Kmetko:
Simone's a nice name too.
Rob Morrow:
Yeah. I color that a lot.
Steve Kmetko:
Simone. Nina Simone. They give her was there ever a period of time, or was there ever occasion that you can remember where you had trouble staying in character and not breaking up laughing or, oh, getting upset about always laughing.
Rob Morrow:
I mean, for sure. Like, I mean, yeah. And it's the scariest thing. It's the scariest thing in the world, because one could argue that control is the most important thing an actor need. And the two things, two things come to mind. One was a play I did called it was, it was an adaptation of a Turgen novel, the novels called Fathers and Sons. I can't remember the name of it, but, but you know Ron Rifkin? Yes. Remember Ron Rifkin? Ron Rifkin was in it. And we were, Ron Rifkin and I were part of a theater company in New York called Naked Angels that we co-founded. It's still around like 40 years later, but so many famous people came out of it. It was called the it company of the nineties. We had Marissa Tome and Gina Gershon and Fisher Stevens, and Sarah Jessica and Matthew and Endless, and Ron Rifkin and, and, and Kenneth Lonergan, just endless list of people that have become, you know, really big contributors to this business.
And Ron and I had done a lot of plays together. And we would laugh. We would, every once in a while, we'd get into a thing. And this one particular show we were doing something happened. Someone was supposed to show up on stage to deliver a cue, and they didn't come. And so this, we were just sitting there and we looked at each other and we started, and it got so bad. We, we, you know, it was this kind of thing. We were just like, and I just was trying not to look at him. It was, I was so out of control that a little bit of pee came out in my pants,
And then, you know, it's funny, I had, I would get my own copy of dailies on Northern Exposure and have them in a box somewhere in storage. And there's, I have zillions of dailies of me cracking up, especially a lot with Corbett. Corbett could make me laugh to this day, I mean he, he just, we had him on this podcast that, that we're doing. And he makes me laugh. He's just really charming. But Adam Arkin really makes me laugh because Adam has the same cadences as his dad recently deceased, the great Alan Arkin. And so, Alan was a, you know, growing up, he was a huge inspiration before I even knew I was going to act. But even then, once I became an actor, I just was obsessed with him. And so Adam shows up and he's just as funny.
And, and in the same, those same rhythms, you know, he's just got those same way of talking. And he would, and they would, he would say something, he would crack me up and he could control himself, but I would be like, you know, SHA like, you see the cameras behind me, and you'd just see my shoulders going like this. And the producer would come up and say, Rob, man, you know, we got to got to get the day, man. We're like, we can't do this. And, and as soon as they said that, it was worse, you know? So, I've developed a habit of, of digging my nail into my finger to just like, when I sense it coming, because once you cross the line, it's hard to get back.
Steve Kmetko:
Yeah. It is hard to get back. And, you know, the funny thing is now with the internet, there's so many examples of that kind of thing, which I enjoy, of course. I sit there and watch.
Rob Morrow:
No, we love it.
Steve Kmetko:
Yes!
Rob Morrow:
There's something, there's something about seeing someone trying to not laugh, that's just makes you laugh.
Steve Kmetko:
Right.
We'll be right back.
What did playing Joel teach you about yourself?
Rob Morrow:
Hmm. Well, Joel, you know, Joel kept having to learn lessons about appreciating things that were out of his wheelhouse or out of his comfort zone. You know, he was constantly learning about other people's experience, you know, and so it's hard to qu, you know, to say exactly what I learned from him, but well, actually, I did learn literature, philosophy, spiritualism, metaphysics, science, all this stuff that he would have to know I would have, if I didn't know it, you know, I would have to go and learn it. So, there's that actual stuff, like the, you know, I mean, all these medical terms that I didn't know what meant I'd have to go and learn them or studying techniques to be able to fake doing it. So, I learned that stuff. But I think, you know, the ability to change and grow, I probably got some good insights from Joel's experiences.
Steve Kmetko:
Are you still growing?
Rob Morrow:
Oh, yeah. Oh yeah.
Steve Kmetko:
If you're meditating, I think you're still growing.
Rob Morrow:
I am. Yeah, man. I mean, it's like I know less than I've ever known, and I know more than I've ever known, but--
Steve Kmetko:
That's a funny way of putting it. Yeah.
Rob Morrow:
I mean you know, I think the challenge is, to continue to be willing to grow because you know, I speak to sometimes older people, you know, and they're like, I don't want to change. I'm, I'm good. I don't need to hear that. I don't know. I don't, I'm good. I've, because I've lived for 80, 90 years, I've lived all this time. I don't need to. I'm good. You know, I don't need another lesson. And it's like, I hope, and maybe I'll be that way too, but I hope to not be that way. I hope to constantly be opening myself. I am you know, I am anything, if I am anything, it's, I won an award when I was, I didn't win a lot of awards. But when I was a kid, I played hockey and I won one year, I won most improved. MIP, not MVP, MIP, and that's me. I am the most improved player because I am dedicated, you know, I mean, even on the way here, I'm going to podcast to podcast. I'm constantly reading. I guess you could categorize them as self-health books or self-awareness books. So, I definitely am learning every day and dedicated to it.
Steve Kmetko:
You came in here with a list of things you might want to talk about. How about sharing?
Rob Morrow:
Let's see, what else!
Steve Kmetko:
Have we missed anything?
Rob Morrow:
Talked the two we talking marriage, sobriety, career longevity, writing and music.
Steve Kmetko:
Tell me about your music. I didn't know you fancied. Are you a musician? Do you sing? Do you play?
Rob Morrow:
I do it all. And it's an interesting evolution because kind of referring back to the, our, our talk about drinking and stuff I remember being a young actor, actors have a lot of downtime, right. No matter what, no matter how successful you are or not, you have downtime and you can either go hang out at the bar or you can do something constructive. And early on, in my early years in New York, when I was getting my 10,000 hours in, I started studying photography at the new school, which ultimately led to directing.
And I started taking guitar lessons. Because I liked to sing and I wanted to be able to accompany myself. And thereafter, I always had a guitar on the set, and I always played in my trailer, but I just strummed. It was nothing about in, in 2010, I was on a TV show called The Whole Truth for ABC. We did 12, 13 episodes. It was me and Moore Tierney, and it was on, it was airing and it was a bomb. And the PR people came to me and said, Conan O'Brien just came. We were on Warner Brothers lot. Conan O'Brien just came to, he's doing his new show, I guess, on TBS. It was, and he's coming to do this new show, and he's on the lot now, and he's going to set up a camera in his waiting room, his lobby, his waiting room.
And anyone on the lot who's on a show, they're going to give 10 minutes and they're going to put it on their site. You got to do something. The PR people said, I was like, okay, well, what should I do? And they were like, well, why don't you do a song? You know, you always got your guitar. And I was like okay. And, and they were like, you know, write one. I was like, write a song like that. And I was like, yeah.
Steve Kmetko:
I got 10 minutes. Right? Or so?
Rob Morrow:
No, they said they need two in two hours. And I was like, and I was at, I was in this place where I was like, I'm going to, you know, I was saying, yes, okay, if I can help the show, then let me see what I can do. So I go on my trailer, I take a basic blues progression, right? Which is a simple form. And I wrote, I'd written screenplays. And so words were not a problem for me. So, I wrote, you know, apropos lyrics to the show. My assistant comes and takes two cue cards, and we go on Conan's Lobby. It's on YouTube, you can see it. It it's not great. But I play this song and it's not bad, but a light bulb went off and I thought I wrote a song. And that became this passion. I started studying songwriting. I started; I found a partner who was at first my guitar teacher. And then we started, we formed a band and we've written, we wrote a ton of music and I started performing. And at first, I would go out by myself to these little clubs that have like, you know, music acts like The Mint or, you know or Molly Malones, you know.
These little clubs in New York, I mean, in LA. And I would say, I want to go early and, and I would go at like seven o'clock at night when they were still setting up. There'd be like three people at the bar, one of whom would be like, there's not that guy from, you know, but I sucked. You know? I did suck, but I videotaped it and I watched them and I studied. And now 15 years later, I'm good. You know, I'm not great, but I'm good. And the music's good. I've put music in TV shows. I perform with different bands now for charity. It gives me such joy. I do it every day. I play the guitar probably three hours a day.
Steve Kmetko:
Really?
Rob Morrow:
Yeah. And I go out and I perform. And the, you know, I think I was talking before about this idea of I have to create, like, that's just my nature. I've got to create. But as an actor, you're beholden on them saying, come or not, you know? And then you've got to negotiate it. And, you know, it's like, as a musician, I just go to work. You know, I can play in front of a thousand people or one, or by myself in my studio, and I can find joy. And there's something about music that's different than anything else, any of these other disciplines, because it's direct. You know? It, it's not here, it's here. Music hits us in a visceral way. And so those vibrations, those harmonies affect me. And it gives me incredible joy. So, I do it a lot. And I don't have any, you know, my, my first band after this was called NHI, which was stood for No Harbored Illusions. And now, you know, it's just a great, it's a great way to create. And I, and I love writing and learning and playing. And--
Steve Kmetko:
Music for me, if it's a song, if a song comes on that I like, it will take me back to what, whatever period I first heard it, or the last time I heard it, that was good. It can grab me and pull me back to where I want to be.
Rob Morrow:
It's like a sense memory we call an acting. Yes. Yeah. Of course. It's transformative, you know. It's also it irrefutable, which is what I think you're saying. It's like, if the Jackson Five oh baby, gimme one more chance that comes on. You just, he can't not like, kind of feel good, like, you know, or Stevie Wonder, or, you know, Taylor Swift or, you know there's so many, you know, it, there's nothing like it. And so, to be able to spend time on it is one of the greatest gifts of my life.
Steve Kmetko:
I would choose songs that aren't quite as hip as yours, but--
Rob Morrow:
Well, does it what? I mean, if it works, you know.
Steve Kmetko:
Well, I hear Dionne Warwick voice, and--
Rob Morrow:
I'm with you right there. I'm with you and Dionne Warwick.
Steve Kmetko:
Oh my God. I mean anything back. Right? I know. I'll never love this way again.
Rob Morrow:
Oh my God! So great.
Steve Kmetko:
Yes. That takes me right back, totally. yeah, it does great things for my nerves. I should have played records instead of drink.
Rob Morrow:
Wow.
Steve Kmetko:
But you live and learn.
Rob Morrow:
Yeah.
Steve Kmetko:
You and Janine and others are starting a rewatch podcast.
Rob Morrow:
That's right.
Rob Morrow:
How did that come about? Well, the show started, you know, forever, you know, on my social media, and get, boom, anytime I put up a picture from Northern Exposure, I have a zillion stills. They go crazy, like around the world or wherever I go around the world, people are like, why can't we see that show again first? Why can't we see it? Because it wasn't streaming until a few years ago. And why can't you do a new, why can't we see it again? Why don't you reboot it with all these reboots? I tried four incarnations, we came this close, and for dumb reasons it didn't happen. And I got frustrated and I kept getting bombarded with people saying, we want more. And then these podcasts started happening. And I thought, well, why? So I was writing, I wrote a memoir, which I can't tell the details, but it's coming.
And I had to rewatch all the shows in order to write the section on. I hadn't watched them since they aired. And it just reminded me how special the show was, and that it has something that I think these times really need. The reason Ted Lasso had was such a phenomenon is because there's something benevolent in those shows that the world needs. A lot of tv, great TV that I watch is very cynical. Northern Exposure wasn't cynical. And it just made me think, oh, it might be fun to kind of talk about what was so special about the show. So, I reached out to Janine because, you know, we were the, I mean, it was an ensemble show ultimately, but we were the kind of initials, we were number one and two on the call sheet. We were, you know, a lot of the show was through our eyes.
And so, I so we got together and we started doing it. And we've, we've shot about six or seven so far. We've gone; we're going through the whole cast. We started with the creator, Josh Brand. It was created by Josh Brand, John Foy. John Falsey has passed away. So, Josh came on and then we had John Corbet and Barry Corbin and Cynthia Geary and Darren Burrows. And next week we have John Collum, who is 95 and he's going to come into the studio. We're going to, Janine and I are going to be together in New York. And it's been for just selfishly just hanging out with them, all of our lives changed so much. And to be a part of something that clearly, I can't tell you how many people have come up to me and said, that show changed my life. You know, it made me find my, my mate. It made me choose a career. It made me move to this place. It made me open myself to religion. It made me, you know, whatever it was, nature, whatever it was, it changed people. And so, to kind of get into that pool again. And, just reminisce has been really fun. Really fun.
Steve Kmetko:
It was my sister's favorite show.
Rob Morrow:
Yeah.
Steve Kmetko:
She would never miss it.
Rob Morrow:
Do you know why? Do you remember, was there?
Steve Kmetko:
No, I don't remember why. She passed away.
Rob Morrow:
Oh, I'm sorry.
Steve Kmetko:
At a very early age. She was early forties. But I just remember that when that show came on, you know, she had to see it. She had to be somewhere where she could watch it. Not like today when you can stream things, but--
Rob Morrow:
And it's funny, it's like the number three stream, I don't know what they call it, nostalgia show or old show on Amazon Prime. And what I find fascinating about it is it doesn't look dated, which just blows my mind. Because most stuff you look at that's 25 years old is looks at--
Steve Kmetko:
Showing its age.
Rob Morrow:
Because everyone's in plaid or jeans and driving pickup trucks, it doesn't look that different than when you go out on the street right now. And so, and because of the themes that were so universal, it doesn't feel dated. It feels like it's happening right now.
Steve Kmetko:
Do you live in Los Angeles?
Rob Morrow:
Yeah, mainly. I'm in New York a lot.
Steve Kmetko:
Do you like LA?
Rob Morrow:
I do. I've grown to love LA. I mean, I don't like the fires. I'm really, we had a nightmare. We, it was got, we didn't burn down, but we almost did. And that was really traumatic. And it's been traumatic. We were evacuated four times over about eight years, and it's really taken a toll on us. But that said, I love LA. I have so many friends here. I love the, I love, you know, even just driving. I don't, I'm not, I mean, I spend a fair amount of time over here, but I'm not that much in Studio City. And just driving the way ways took me to get here today, passing all these stores and little neighborhood restaurants. There's just so many nooks and crannies of LA that are one of the great gifts of ways is it takes you through these areas that you wouldn't know. And I'm forever fascinated with the, the architecture and the diversity and the, the you know, they used to get a bum rap about culture, but I don't think that's true. I think there's, it's very culturally rich. And yeah, I love it. And, then you got all this nature.
Steve Kmetko:
I think culture has bent to the way of LA.
Rob Morrow:
How do you mean?
Steve Kmetko:
I mean I remember feeling those same things before I lived here. You know, that's LA you know, kind of dismissing it.
Rob Morrow:
Like Woody Allen used to say, you know, like, the cultural activity is making a right on red.
Steve Kmetko:
Yes.
Rob Morrow:
I pulled your Woody pulled your thought.
Steve Kmetko:
That that has happened a lot in my life, Woody. Anyway. do you remember any specific scenes or that would characterize or explain what Northern Exposure was about? Is there a thematic way of describing the show?
Rob Morrow:
Yeah, and it wasn't, it's not my way of describing it, but the way Josh that created it said, as I said before, it's a benevolent universe. And then, I'll further that, that it's a benevolent universe where anyone can exist. Anyone can coexist no matter what your predilection or your predisposition orientation is. You can exist in Sicily. And as he said on the podcast on our, you know, that he just did, you could do anything on northern exposure. A character could get away with anything as long as there was no malice, even manslaughter, you could kill someone. As long as it wasn't mal, there was no malice behind it. And I think that's what, you know, that was really what gives it, it’s kind of philosophical weight, you know. Because it wasn't Pollyanna, you know, there was dark stuff that happened. The characters went through stuff and but they all were, there was a, there was a striving to coexist that that I think gives it its special specialness.
Steve Kmetko:
Janine Turner's character was so strong and independent. How did that dynamic push your character?
Rob Morrow:
Well, I mean, they were opposites and similar in so many ways. You know, it's because I've been watching, I was just joking with Janine. It's like, both of us would do this. Both of our characters would do the same thing. We'd say, hey, you look really nice today. But that, that, where'd you get that shirt? It's like, you know, as soon as they would say something positive, they would undercut it. And they were both headstrong. And as Janine and I are, and our characters are, you know, there was things that, that dovetailed between us and our characters. But I think it, it gave, you know, it challenged Joel, you know, to meet someone like her, you know, and watching the shows now, early on, you know, when he showed up, when Joel showed up, he had a fiancé in New York who comes out and visited, wonderful actress named Jessica Lundy, came and played Elaine.
And, you know, but you see the moments where he's kind of clocking Maggie in a different way. Like at first, they're like oil and water. I mean, he, he calls her in the first time he meets her. He says, look, don't, you know, he thinks he's a prostitute coming onto him, which is ridiculous that anyone would have that, but he does. And so, they just dark combating. But then you just see these looks where he's just like, you know, who's this girl? Like, you know? And then he undercuts it and doesn't think about it. And, you know, and, and the conceit of a show like this is, is will they, won't they? So, you have to keep creating, keeping them apart. And so it wasn't for a good couple seasons before our characters actually consummated it. But, you know, the back and forth was what made it great. And Janine and Maggie, both gave me a run for my money, you know.
Steve Kmetko:
What are you looking forward to doing in your career, in your life?
Rob Morrow:
You know, I just, so I'm really digging writing. I'm really digging writing. I've written a lot of screenplays over the years, some of which have come to fruition. But it wasn't like I was a great screenwriter or anything. I could help projects I was on. But when I wrote the memoir, I had the confidence. It gave me the confidence to think, oh, I could write a novel. And so, I'm well into the novel, you know, it's all outlined and I'm writing it. And I love, I love, I love construction, constructing ideas and thoughts, and I love words. And, and, and putting them, putting that all together is just something I dig. And, ultimately the autonomy, which is the same with music. That I can do it. You know, I'm, I'm not trying to sell, I'm not going to pitch this book. I didn't do it with my memoir either. I didn't want to have a deadline. I didn't want to be beholden to anyone. I love the idea of creating on my own timetable. And if it's good and worthwhile, maybe it'll be seen in the world. But, but the process, I'm digging the process. So I've got a second idea for a novel. So, if this one work, you know, it takes a long time. It took me four years to write the memoir.
Steve Kmetko:
Did you consider for any amount of time the impact a memoir might have on people you write about?
Rob Morrow:
Oh, yeah. Are you kidding? I had to cut so much.
Steve Kmetko:
Oh, did you?
Rob Morrow:
Oh my God. Oh my God. I had so many stories, and it just, and I wrote them, you know, I wrote them out, but then upon editing them and my wife, and, you know, it just was like, I just, I had to really ask myself, do I don't want to hurt anyone. I don't want to hurt anyone in this world. And even though some of these stories are so good, I just was like, I can't, I can't put that out. But interestingly enough, you know if a project for, for charity, and I was asked to write something and, and I was trying to come up with something, a showbiz anecdote. And I was trying to think of someone, and I was talking to my friend this guy John Wilke, who's one of the kind of producers on Kimmel's show. And I had told him this Val Kilmore story that I, that I tell sometimes. And he said, you got to do that story. You got to tell that story. It's like an <Uncertain Words>, it's a crazy story. And he says, you got to tell that story. And I was like, nah, I don't want to contribute to his, you know, he's suffering enough. I don't need to make it worse. And he says, oh, what? When he dies, and he died four days later. So, I wrote the story.
Steve Kmetko:
I've been writing a memoir too for some time now. I took a class at Second City in Chicago called writing the Humorous memoir.
Rob Morrow:
Wow. Because I want to make certain that must be interesting.
Steve Kmetko:
Oh, it was great. It was great fun.
Rob Morrow:
What did they, like? What's the bent of that? They're humorous.
Steve Kmetko:
To get your own voice onto the page.
Rob Morrow:
Right. Yeah. So, it will be inherently funny if you get your own voice.
Steve Kmetko:
I think so. Right. I have friends who think I'm pretty funny.
Rob Morrow:
Yeah. Yeah.
Steve Kmetko:
But I was going through all this <Uncertain Words>, is that the word in my mind about, I can't say this about this person. I can't say this about that person.
Rob Morrow:
You know, It's tricky. You can't, I mean, you can, but you have to ask yourself what is the upside? I mean, you have the momentary entertainment, but if someone's going to be harmed, I don't know. I mean, you know,
Steve Kmetko:
At the same time, I want it to be honest.
Rob Morrow:
I'm telling you, I cut, I had to cut so much stuff. But what you'll find is, what I found was that there's, it's so much bigger than that. I thought it's going to ruin the, I'm going to have nothing good to say because I have only bad thing. But, you'll find that, because I think what was important was when I kind of stumbled onto what the themes that I was dealing with, then it became something bigger than just, oh, here's my good story about this celebrity. I know, you know. And so, I think once you know what you're trying to put out into the world and why you're doing it, it'll focus it and allow you to not worry.
Steve Kmetko:
I saw an interview with Barbra Streisand when she was talking about her book, which she wrote, or--
Rob Morrow:
I love her book.
Steve Kmetko:
Do you?
Rob Morrow:
Oh, yeah. Did you read it?
Steve Kmetko:
I have it at home. I haven't read it yet. It's too thick.
Rob Morrow:
It's Fat. But it's well listened to it. First of all, it's great. Because she does it.
Steve Kmetko:
I bought the auto audio.
Rob Morrow:
Yeah. It's like 25 hours.
Steve Kmetko:
Well, I saw her in this interview, and I thought it was--
Rob Morrow:
It's a lot of, I could cut, I could in an afternoon, I could cut, you know, five hours out of it, because there's a lot of redundancy. But, it's pretty brilliant.
Steve Kmetko:
Well, somebody was asking her about it, and she was talking in this interview about how she tried to sanitize it, but then her editor or publisher or someone said, you got to leave some blood on the page.
Rob Morrow:
Yeah. I remember. She was okay. I mean, she was actually, I know some stuff that she, I know some stories that she left out about people that were pretty harsh. And, and I know that, and, and the stories that she wrote about were gentle versions than reality. So, I could tell where she was not going for the jugular. And it didn't hurt the book. The book is you know, she's just one of the most rare, she's just such a rare talent and individual that and she's very honest in the book.
Steve Kmetko:
And she sings pretty good.
Rob Morrow:
And she sings pretty good.
Steve Kmetko:
Tell me about this dinner crew. I'm always seeing pictures of you guys. Yeah. On the internet, on Instagram. It's Noah Wyle, Steven Weber who've been on the show. Eric McCormack, who's been on this podcast. And yourself, how did it come?
Rob Morrow:
Bryan Cranston, Alfred Molina, Kevin Pollak, Jason Alexander.
Steve Kmetko:
How come together?
Rob Morrow:
Levar Burton. Larry Fishburne. Titus Welliver. It started, I don't know, about five years ago. I think it just was casual, like Spencer Garrett, who's really the mayor of Hollywood, and he is the one who kind of was the catalyst for making this cohesive. Got a couple guys together and they had dinner. I wasn't in that first dinner. And they were at like Muso and Frank's, and they just thought, oh, we were all like character actors, you know, sharing stories, you know, it'd be fun to just do this. And then it just grew into this core group. And we started meeting like once a month, and we would have these incredibly great meals that were full of laughter, because I mean, I have to shut up half the time because you got Kevin and Richard Kinds in there and Jason Alexander, and they're so funny.
And McCormack that, and Weber, you know, they're just so funny that I just would sit back and laugh, just rolling with laughter. But, what happened was we started to get really intimate and it became, you, you hear women talking about women's groups all the time because they share, you know, they share. And we started to share a lot. And it became this very, it became a support group. And we are very protective and supportive of each other. If someone's going through something you know, to be there for them to see what we can do. And it's just become this thing we're called the CADs, which stands for Character Directors Dining Society. And it's a real source of support and comfort and joy. And we just, we just made a big deal to do a project for charity, which I can't talk about the details, but we, we got a fortune upfront for this project that we're going to give to showbiz charities, the Actors Fund, and the motion picture home. And so now that we, now we're going to do something good with this, like, it's just pure and we're all, you know, character directors, I guess.
Steve Kmetko:
I'm about out of questions. Was there anything you wanted to talk about?
Rob Morrow:
I think we covered a lot of ground.
Steve Kmetko:
We did.
Rob Morrow:
Yeah. It was fun.
Steve Kmetko:
I think so too.
Rob Morrow:
Yeah.
Steve Kmetko:
Thanks, Rob.
Rob Morrow:
Thank you.
Rob Morrow:
Thanks for sharing your story on your sobriety. It's--
Steve Kmetko:
You know, if it helps, which is kind of an egotistical thing to say, but if it helps anybody, I'm glad to share it.
Rob Morrow:
I think it does, Steve. I think it does. I think in, even if it's just incrementally, it helps, it helps putting this into the zeitgeist. And I think when two people like you and I sit here and say, I don't miss it. I do not miss, you know, drugs and drinking and cigars and coffee.
Steve Kmetko:
Oh, coffee!
Rob Morrow:
Coffee, I gave up too, man.
Steve Kmetko:
You did?
Rob Morrow:
Yep. And I don't miss it. I mean, if I did miss it, I would have it. I have not had one moment where I thought, boy, I'd like a cup of coffee. And so, I think there's something on the other side of all that that's really worth exploring. So, if we can help someone on that road, all the power to us.
Steve Kmetko:
Well, you know one of the other things I've talked about, which has, I've got a lot, a lot of response, positive feedback is being gay. And I was told by so many people, you can't, you can't.
Rob Morrow:
Yeah. I think times have changed.
Steve Kmetko:
Finally, finally, not for the better.
Rob Morrow:
Absolutely!
Steve Kmetko:
But there were so many people who said, you know, don't, don't.
Rob Morrow:
Right. Well, I'm glad you are. You seem comfortable in being gay.
Steve Kmetko:
I feel much more relaxed and the feedback has been so positive.
Rob Morrow:
Yeah. Good for you.
Steve Kmetko:
You know, so thanks Rob.
Rob Morrow:
My pleasure.
Steve Kmetko:
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