On the Set of Grandfathered Chatting with the Cast! John Stamos, Paget Brewster and more! #Grandfathered

Have you had a chance to tune in to Grandfathered yet? If not, you can tune in tonight!! It is a hilarious new comedy that you’re not going to want to miss. Tune in or set your DVR. Grandfathered is back and on Tuesdays 8:30/7:30c on FOX.

Here’s a little peek at tonight’s episode:

JIMMY IS TRICKED INTO GOING TO THE DOCTOR ON AN ALL-NEW “GRANDFATHERED”
TUESDAY, January 5, ON FOX
Guest Starring Dr. Phil McGraw (“The Dr. Phil Show”)

After hearing that Jimmy hasn’t been to the doctor in over ten years, Sara and Gerald trick him into seeing their family doctor (Dr. Phil McGraw) for a routine physical, which results in an unsettling discovery. Meanwhile, Gerald and Vanessa stress over Edie’s upcoming surgery and Annelise and Ravi stumble upon Jimmy’s secret safe in the all-new “Perfect Physical Specimen” episode of GRANDFATHERED airing Tuesday, January 5 (8:30-9:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. (GF-111) (TV-14 D, L)

Cast: John Stamos as Jimmy Martino, Paget Brewster as Sara, Josh Peck as Gerald, Christina Milian as Vanessa, Kelly Jenrette as Annelise, and Ravi Patel as Ravi.

Guest cast: Emelia and Layla Golfieri as Edie, Brandon Sornberger as CJ, Dr. Phil McGraw as Dr. Melvoy, Abby Walker as Cindy, AJ Rivera as Victor, and Laura Krafft as Keener #1.

While in LA recently, I got to tour the set of Grandfathered and had a chance to sit and chat with the cast. What a fun visit!

While waiting for a few to finish up lunch, John Stamos decided to ‘mix’ a few drinks.

There were 25 of us on the set. We split up into groups to have a smaller interview setting. First up for our group was John Stamos and Paget Brewster. These two were such a hoot together.

Both were so welcoming and eager to chat with us. They both seemed very passionate about this new show and after watching and catching up on all the episodes, I can see why. It’s a great show!

We started the interview off asking if John and Paget’s characters will get together on the show. We’re always asking for sneak previews and hints! 😉

John gave us a little insight on his character Jimmy and talks a bit about how Paget landed the role of Sara:

Well we find out through the show that Jim’s a guy that gets in his way like, two steps forward and one step back and when we created the show, her character (Paget)was always really interested in me but first of all she’s a strong woman in her mid-forties, single, which you don’t see on television a lot. Or I don’t even know if you do, but don’t quote me. But I didn’t see it a lot and so I thought oh that’d be a great. And then to find the right actress for it who, you know to be honest with you there were some issues with the women trying to fight their age. There were auditioners for it coming in and they were afraid to lean in to go hey I’m in my mid forties and I’m great and F-U if you don’t like it!

And this girl came in and like knocked it out of the park like that.

And then I started writing towards that ’cause it’s a great dynamic too for Sarah to go like hey I’m mid-forties and I’m accepting it and… Jimmy is fighting and kicking and screaming and trying to act like he’s not his age.

So the long story short.. will Jimmy and Sara maybe end up together?

John says, “…yes, we’re leading to that.”

Paget added, “There are moments where it seems like we’re coming close and you don’t want to do that too soon in the wrong way and so they don’t want to lose if they did because well it didn’t work out so good.”

When John was asked how he became involved in the project, he commented that he really just loves to be on TV and was looking for something in his “wheelhouse.” And loves family comedy and that this was a character that he could enjoy playing. He also said that he liked the idea of being an unconventional family.

Now I have to admit, I recognized Paget but I hadn’t really watched anything she had been on in the past which included Criminal Minds. We asked her what it was like to come from Criminal Minds into this very different role. She said that she did have a great time on Criminal Minds and that it could be a really funny set. However, the hours shooting were much longer along with the different sets and scenes. Ie: running in the woods in the rain with a gun. But then she added that, “comedy is scarier in a weird way…” and that it’s harder in a way. Which I can only imagine. Trying to deliver your lines and be funny, get people to laugh. It’s not always easy I suppose.

Next up we sat down with Josh Peck and Christina Millian. Now depending on how old you are or how old your kids are, you might remember Josh from “Drake and Josh.” That’s where I know him anyway. That show was on quite a lot in our house. What an awesome thing to see Josh now grown up and in a different role.

Both were asked how they got involved in Grandfathered. Christina said that she actually stumbled into this audition on accident. She had shown up to interview for a different role and in talking to the casting director was encouraged to audition for Grandfathered. The casting director told her that this character was a “hip hot mess” and Christina thought, “… it’s for me. Perfect.”

Josh was first told that the character he was auditioning for was this “geeky, dorky character” and that the character was John Stamos’ son. Josh wasn’t sure he was at all right for the role. He went in and read with John for the role and said that, “luckily, there was just kind of this magic in the room… and it fell into place.”

With a new show and all new cast, you wonder how the chemistry will be. Christina said that she thinks that the writing has helped them grow their relationships on and off set and that they are so close now that they’re doing these “annoying group chats.” It sounds like they have a ton of fun together playing jokes, etc.

So who watches Grandfathered? Josh commented that it’s “cool” to see multi generations coming together to watch. He goes on to say that he thinks that was really smart about the casting to give it that broad appeal. They want to be able to be that show that families can sit down and watch together. He went on to say that, “John’s always been emphatic about always have the comedy, but what will set us apart is the heart.”

I love that!

Last up in our interviews was Kelly Jenrette and Ravi Patel. Both are so fun to talk to and their characters are so funny! We hadn’t taken pictures in our other groups. Really just because it was such an intimate setting and it was more like just sitting and chatting with friends. It was like that with Kelly and Ravi too, however, Ravi has a project called This Bar Saves Lives that he’s super passionate about. So he encouraged us to take pics.

Ravi explained a little about This Bar Saves Lives.

So this is something I started with a bunch of other friends in entertainment. …myself and [ Todd Brunell and Ryan Devlin and Christopher Bell] are the cofounders of this company. And our founding investors include like Jimmy Kimmel and John Krasinski.

Like a bunch of Actors and entertainment people. All of whom were just really passionate about helping alleviate severe kid malnutrition, which is that final stage of hunger that affects nearly 20 million kids every year under the age of six every 10 seconds around the world because of hunger.

So when Ryan and Todd were taking a trip to Africa a few years ago they witnessed severe acute malnutrition first hand. But they also were introduced to this thing called Plumpy’ Nut, which is this peanut buttery paste that’s packed with nutrients and vitamins and it’s prescribed to this kids when they’re days away from dying of hunger. And they take just this packet for 8 to 10 weeks and they’re healthy, but they’re very expensive. So Ryan came back and he sent– I’ve seen an e-mail, we sent it to Todd like just a little idea to save the world is what it said in the subject heading and they just said call me.

And the idea was these bars, which simultaneously kind of addresses the nutrition epidemic that we have here in the U.S., which is bad snacking and for every time someone buys one of these we donate one of these lifesaving meal packets through one of our charity partners.

We launched about three years ago. We’ve donated over 600,000 meal packets to date.

We’re doing a test market in Baltimore and Denver right now with Starbucks. So if any of you have access there please help. It’s been a really good journey and uh that’s it. I’m really glad to be on Grandfather. I’ve stepped down to CEO and it turns out this is exhausting [LAUGHS] and acting is so much fun.

Now back to Grandfathered. 😉

The question was asked about how much of their own personality they brought into the characters. Kelly said that she thinks a lot of her personality is in her character Annelise. She went on to say that she and Annelise are very similar in their humor which is “very dry, sarcastic, witty.”

This interview was so much fun and a lot of laughs! Both Kelly and Ravi are just so funny. Ravi was giving us the “mommy blogger exclusive” and letting us in on his acting secrets. Both Kelly and Ravi said that they “fake” and do some of the same moves over and over. For example, Ravi said he has 3 or 4 signature fake acting, fake cooking, fake Chef moves. If you can imagine him doing this in front of us, one was a big pot, big stir move. The other is when he has a rag on his shoulder and is just drying off his hands and fingers throughout the entire scene.

Now next time you watch the show (tonight!) you’ll be watching for these moves! 😉

Kelly has a hilarious story of how she got involved with grandfathered and what she first said to John:

Susan Vash is the Casting Director for the show and she called me in, I had a Producer session, and from that session they said they wanted to test me. I found out that John was gonna’ be at the test to do like a chemistry read.

And so I was at home and I was like, “Okay when I meet John I’m gonna’ say from the moment I watched Full House I knew that you and I were gonna’ work together. And even though that was only 4 months.

And so when I got to the test I was sitting in the lobby and I was like “Say it Kelly, do it.” So I go in and John pops up and I’m like,
“John!”

“John from the moment I watched Full House–

He was like, “You knew we were gonna’ work together?” I was like, “Yeah.” And I said “and even though that was only–” he was like “3 years ago?” I was like, “4 months ago…” So he was totally in on my joke and he grabbed me and he was like, “Oh I like her, let’s work together.”

Whew!! What fun interviews. Such a great cast and an awesome new show. Before we left, we grabbed this great group photo!

Don’t forget to set your DVR for tonight!