Interviewing the Cast of Grandfathered

Back in November, I had the chance to visit the set of Grandfathered starring John Stamos. Yup that’s right – have mercy! I have to admit that before my visit I hadn’t been able to watch the show even though my Mom kept telling me I had to. So I downloaded all of the shows and binge-watched them at the airport and during my flight. Oh my goodness….Grandfathered is SO funny!

Photo credit: ROBERT TRACHTENBERG/FOX

About Grandfathered

Successful restaurateur and man-about-town JIMMY MARTINO (John Stamos) is used to being the most suave, most handsome and most single person in the room. All that changes with the surprise appearance of Jimmy’s adult son, GERALD (Josh Peck), and his baby daughter, EDIE. Now Jimmy has to unlearn a lifetime of blissful selfishness and grapple with the fact that he went straight from single to grandfather in six seconds flat.

Keeping tabs on Jimmy is Gerald’s mother and Jimmy’s former girlfriend, rocker chick-turned-mother SARA (Paget Brewster). Equally concerned about how Jimmy will manage these new developments is Jimmy’s restaurant family, especially assistant manager ANNELISE (Kelly Jenrette) and chef RAVI (Ravi Patel).

Can Jimmy teach Gerald to be a little more like him in order to win the affection of Edie’s hot mess of a mom, VANESSA (Christina Milian)? Will Jimmy and Sara fall for each other all over again, even though she’s the one thing he never dates – a woman his own age? And who’s higher maintenance, Jimmy or the baby?

Interviewing the Cast of Grandfathered

We had the chance to go on set and visit the cast of Grandfathered! The interview took place in front of the bar in Jimmy’s restaurant. It was so fun to be sitting right there!

John Stamos and Paget Brewster

Our first interview was with John Stamos and Paget Brewster who play Jimmy and Sara. If you didn’t know, John Stamos is an executive producer of the show and is heavily involved. He shares how he got involved, “I love to be on TV and I was looking for something that was right in my wheelhouse. I love family, like family comedy and this was a character that I’m used to doing. And Danny Chun got the idea of me being a playboy guy and finding out that I had a son. And then we kinda stumbled upon, what if we had a granddaughter and that would be funny. But that kinda was how it worked out.”

Photo Credit:Erica Parise/FOX

“I like the idea of being another unconventional family. I think Full House was an early – we didn’t even realize it but it was a single parents, we had three parents really but we had a single parent home for whatever the reasons were there. This kinda has that feel too. It’s not a conventional family and I’m having to learn to be a good dad and I’m learning to be a good father when somebody good comes in my life.”

“I want it to be a family show with smart jokes, which I think it is. I wanted it to be a romantic comedy, which it is. I’m not gonna lie, I not only enjoy being with seeing the baby and I think it’s a good proven dynamic but I know people want to see it, so I want to stay on TV.” – John Stamos

I love the chemistry of Jimmy and Sara so right away I had to dive in and ask if we would see their characters getting back together on the show. Paget wisely shared, “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.” John added, “I think what’s happening with them right now ’cause we know we’re at least going towards it or at the end maybe because I think it was like how do we reinvent this thing? It’s straight up, you know romantic comedy. If you do it well, it doesn’t have to be so gimmicky. And I think we’re finding out that it’s going really well.”

Photo Credit: FOX

Ready for the cuteness? Paget shared with us that John Stamos and Josh Peck took Layla and Amelia {twins who play Edie on the show} to Disneyland and then John revealed that he took about “8,000 photos” and then proceeded to whip out his cell phone and show us some of the adorable pictures!

Photo Credit: Erica Parise/FOX

Josh Peck and Christina Milian

After talking with John and Paget, we then got to sit down with Josh Peck and Christina Milian where we asked them both how they got involved with Grandfathered. Christina shared that hers was an accidental audition where she went to audition for a different show and they handed her the script for Grandfathered, telling her to read for a “girl, she’s a single mother.  She is a little out there, you know.  They told me a hip hot mess and I was like, oh, it’s for me.  Perfect. I thought of it and the way that she described it, it was all me, so she gave me the script and three days later, I auditioned and then took all the necessary steps, so it was cool.”

Josh shared that they told him that he would be audition for “this geeky, dorky character”. With a smile on his face, Josh said, “Well, that’s not me”. Then they told him that he would also be playing John Stamos’ son and laughing, Josh said, “That’s not me!”. He went in to read for the part and “luckily, there was just kind of this magic in the room and then I got to come in and read with John and it fell into place, so I never sort of expected to be here, but man, I’m glad it worked out.”

Photo Credit: John P. Fleenor/FOX

Talking about the chemistry of the cast of Grandfathered, Christina shared, “It’s been growing.  It’s been a growing chemistry from the beginning.  The chemistry  at the very beginning was just like, hey, nice to meet you.  Everyone’s really nice.  We can all deal with each other.  This is cool.  Like, these are all very cool people and as episode by episode has progressed and I think the writing has given us, has helped us to define ourselves and our characters even more and the relationships we all have kind of intertwined with each other now, it’s allowed us more time to spend together and then now, we’re at the moment where we’re all doing annoying group chats. I usually hate group chats, but I don’t mind ours.”

Josh interjected, “We’re three weeks deep in a group chat right now. When is this chain going to end?!”

Photo Credit: Erica Parise/FOX

What I love about Christina’s character Vanessa is how in tune she is with everything – like how she wants to become a professional YouTuber! Christina shares more about Vanessa saying, “I think with Vanessa, she’s young and she’s a millennial, you know, but at the same time, I think she’s got that traditional – she’s Latina.  She’s protective over her baby, but she’s got to think ahead and think forward.  She’s doesn’t want to have a regular nine to five, but she’s like got all these things going on in her mind. I think due to the Internet and having the opportunity especially for a moms, like yourselves, it’s now having that is like another outlet creatively.

It’s another outlet for success to pay our bills.  Everything. I think it’s fantastic. I actually came up with that idea when we met with the writers when they started writing my character and they’re like, well, what do you think?  And I was like, well, think about the new generation. People want to write some traditional story.  The new generation is making YouTube videos about makeup, about this.  They’re becoming the online celebrities now to the point where sometimes, it’s up against us.”

She then mentions Josh’s popular Vine account, where he has over 2 BILLION views of his Vines!

What’s great about Grandfathered is that it’s bringing together all of these different generations of viewers. There are many people tuning in for John Stamos but just as many for Josh peck, who was one of the stars of the popular show Drake & Josh, which aired on Nickelodeon. Josh shared, “it’s very cool to see sort of like the intersection of all these different viewers coming together and watching it together and I think that’s what’s so smart about the casting of the show. It’s a thing that I’m proud of that it can appeal to families because, you know, I feel like everyone retreats to their Netflix and their bed and on their laptop, like I’m going to catch up on my queue and you watch your stuff. Then when you get together and sit down and enjoy it, I think it’s great and that’s what we were shooting for and John’s always been emphatic about like, we’ll always have the comedy, but what will set us apart is the heart.”

Kelly Jenrette and Ravi Patel

Our last interview on the set of Grandfathered was a duo that kept us laughing. I absolutely love Kelly’s character of Annalise because she’s such a straight character with a lot of hilarious zingers. I asked her how much of her own personality was brought into the character. Kelly shared, “I think a lot. Someone said that my sense of humor was like Tommy Lee Jones. Like very dry, very like–  is she joking?  Is she not?  So I love that about her.  We are very similar in that we are very dry, sarcastic, witty.  Like we’ll come in, we’ll do a drive by, drop a line, and then we’re out, you know.”

Photo Credit: Jordin Althaus/FOX

When asked if Kelly or Ravi had any restaurant experience, Ravi laughed saying he did, but had forgotten everything. He revealed he has “3 or 4 signature fake acting, fake cooking moves, fake Chefs moves. One is big pot, big stir. That’s #1.  Two, I got that rag on my shoulder.  Just drying off my hands, drying off my fingers throughout the entire scene?  Through the entire scene.” His third move is garnishing any dish with fake pepper, just moving his hands like he is. That’s acting, folks!!!

Ravi also shared with us about one of his passion projects called “This Bar Saves Lives”. He started the company with Ryan Devlin and Todd Grinnell and it’s also backed by a lot of people in the entertainment industry like Jimmy Kimmel and John Krasinski. All of them are ‘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.”

This Bar Saves Lives is sold online and in select Starbucks locations. The best thing is when you buy a bar for yourself, a packet of life-saving food is given to a child in need!

Watch Grandfathered!

Okay, ready to watch Grandfathered? Well, it’s on TONIGHT (January 5th) in its new time slot at 8:30pm EST.

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!

PHOTO CREDIT: Jordin Althaus/FOX

I so can’t wait for this episode! Make sure to tune in tonight and prepare to get hooked on this show. Like Grandfathered on Facebook too for all of the latest updates.

Disclosure: Disney provided an all expenses paid trip to Los Angeles including travel, accommodations and activities. All thoughts and opinions are my own.