3 Things Ted Lasso Can Teach You About Making TV & Film

Announcer: Welcome to Producing Unscripted with Joke and Biagio.

Angry Man: Is this some kind of joke?

Confused Woman: Biagio-WHO???

Unidentified Voice: In this episode.

Biagio: It’s episode 127 and we’ve found great advice in an unlikely place. A new Apple TV series called Ted Lasso. We’ve got three things Ted Lasso can teach you about making film and TV, how horseback riding and filmmaking have similar gotchas, where Curious George fits into the equation, and a potentially life changing new philosophy.

Joke: Be a goldfish.

Biagio: Be a goldfish. Be the goldfish.

Joke: So well said.

Biagio: Music courtesy Dave Pelman and music Dave Pelman.com. Hey everybody, she is joke. He’s Biagio. We’re married. We make unscripted film and television and want to help you do the same.

Joke: Hopefully by teaming up with us.

Biagio: Well, happy end.

Joke: Of September, everybody. I know we said we’d be back towards September. I guess I really meant, like, after September began once it was almost over. But we’re back where, you know, like, all of you were right. We’re we’re all adapting to this crazy situation. I’m sure some of you have kids, right? As you know, from our last podcast episode, we’re doing the homeschooling thing, which occasionally becomes the office schooling thing because we.

Biagio: Live in California, more specifically L.A. County.

Joke: Yeah, which means schools will likely never reopen. So we’re just adapting to this new way of life, you know?

Biagio: Yeah. Please don’t say that, though. Gosh, please let the let the schools be able to reopen.

Joke: So I’m sure at all. I’ll work out.

Biagio: Our numbers in L.A. County are dropping. So as long as we all keep doing the right thing, we should be able to go back to school.

Joke: I’m pretty sure we’ll get back to school before I turn 50, which is in a bunch of years. So let’s let’s hope that’s the case. Anyways, we’re also in production on our newest series, which is going to take us probably another year to finish, which means we probably won’t be able to talk about it until 2021 and tell you what it is. Right?

Biagio: February.

Joke: Oh, February. Yeah. February 2021. Great. We’ll be able to tell you in February. So we’re really excited. It’s it’s a little bit of a new twist on something for us. That’s all I can say right now. But in the meantime we wanted to do today is we actually wanted to talk about one of our favorite new TV shows ever. It’s a feel good underdog story that we think actually offers a lot of advice to both aspiring and working filmmakers and TV producers. How does that work? Well, well, we’ll get into that in a minute. Joke. What’s the show we’re talking about?

Biagio: The show we’re talking about is called Ted Lasso on Apple TV. I don’t I never bought Apple TV because it was like one more streamer. But Biagio needed a new computer. And apparently when you buy an Apple product, you get a free year of Apple TV. So we started looking around and seeing what there was, and there was this new show called Ted Lasso. And Biagio and I don’t really watch comedies a lot. Maybe that explains why we do so much crime television. Maybe we need to watch more comedies.

Joke: A lot more.

Biagio: Anyway, we we gave it a shot and fell in love pretty much from the first episode. Now, if you haven’t seen it, don’t worry, we’re not going to give away any spoilers. It’s definitely worth checking out though. But what will stick to your stuff that you could take away from the trailer? Or just mention a few quotes that kind of inspired Biagio to come up with this topic for this podcast. And no, seriously, go check it out and enjoy it.

Joke: Yeah. It’s great. Okay, so so what’s this amazing. Makes me smile all night long. Show about. Well, well. Ted Lasso stars Jason Sudeikis as an Uber optimistic college football coach who is tapped to take over the coaching of a flailing British football team. And that would be known to many of you as a soccer team. It’s, of course, completely different from American football and something Ted Lasso has never done before. On top of that, for various reasons he doesn’t even know about, he is set up from the beginning to fail. And what does this have to do with making unscripted TV? Well hang on. We’re going to get there.

Biagio: The show is actually based on the NBC sports comedy sketch that they did years ago. It was like, it was like a commercial, like NBC sports kind of ran their own, like, shtick commercials for, I think, their Premier League programing, you know, soccer. And honestly, you know, I only we tried to do some research and I only found a little bit about it, but pretty much scrubs creator Bill Lawrence turned it into a full fledged series. And it is far better than most people could have imagined. I mean, if you think about like a one kind of note character coming in for like quick 15, 32nd little sketch things, promoting, you know, sports programing, you’re like, how am I going to turn it into a series? But they did a really amazing job.

Joke: Yeah, I mean, honestly, I was kind of shocked. I did not expect the show to be that good. And it’s funny because I looked around a little bit on the web and, you know, even like the most jaded reviewers who love to tear everything to shreds, I’m talking about, like, The Hollywood Reporter, places like that, they all, by and large, love the show as well. And they say over and over again, they can’t believe in somehow actually good. So kudos to the writers and to Jason Sudeikis for taking what could have been a one note character sketch, and instead they crafted a multi-layered, surprisingly touching series.

Biagio: Yeah, I mean, there’s there’s always laughter. It also kind of really hits you. Jason Sudeikis is phenomenal. The entire cast is just phenomenal that, you know, it’s it’s fish out of water. It’s irreverent, but with so much heart. Anyway, we like it.

Joke: Yeah, yeah. Show makes me happy. I mean, you know, listen, I’m sure you feel the same. We can all use some feel good moments these days. And this show delivers on so many levels. So. Which is nice and all, but what does any of this have to do with making documentaries and unscripted television? Joke. Take it away.

Biagio: Okay, so the lead character that Jason plays, the character of Ted Lasso, is very similar to what you go through as a filmmaker or a TV producer, because you’re constantly walking into situations in which you are the underdog. There are very well might be forces that you can’t see conspiring against you, although since you can’t see them, you can’t prove it. But, you know, and there’s there’s lots of people around who all have opinions, sometimes very much opposing opinions. And everyone wants to be right, making you doubt yourself at times and like, how do you how do you keep going through that?

Joke: It’s true. I can’t tell you how many times watching the show. I was like, wow. Being a coach is a lot like being a producer. Now the show has a lot of poignant moments, but today I wanted to pick out three takeaways that we thought serve as good reminders about the realities of working in the entertainment business. So let’s go ahead and jump in with Ted Lasso. Takeaway number one, except that you’re in over your head.

Biagio: It’s one of those things that like, even for us who’ve been doing it for several years, I always like, you know, start a new show going, yeah, I know how to do this. Like, within the first week, I’m like, oh my gosh, do I know how to do this? It doesn’t matter if you’ve made countless TV shows or tons of movies. Every project that you take on, there’s moments where you really are just like, wow, I am the underdog. Try and just keep my head above water. I’m pushing this rock up a hill and it’s, this shouldn’t be this hard, but here we are. And how are we going to get through this?

Joke: Yeah, there’s actually a great quote from the show from Ted Lasso that really sums it up. So says the wise coach, taking on a challenge is a lot like riding a horse. If you’re comfortable while you’re doing it, you’re probably doing it wrong. That’s so true. There’s so much at stake when you’re undertaking any kind of project TV, film, whatever. There’s just so many things that can go wrong. So much is constantly changing that if you find yourself completely calm and relaxed, there’s probably an iceberg that ahead. So when you’re facing a new challenge, that slightly uncomfortable, sometimes very uncomfortable feeling in your gut, it really lets you know you’re on the right track. Well, hopefully. Hopefully. Yeah, hopefully.

Biagio: It might just be telling you you’re on the wrong track. But the point is, it’s keeping you alert, right? In a way, that’s very liberating to know and accept that, like just being out of control and that that that nervousness of like, oh, how is this going to play out? And this is going. It keeps you hyper aware. It keeps you, you know, focused on things that are unfolding around you. And as producers, our job isn’t just to deal with what is right in front of us is to try and anticipate problems. So this nervousness, this thing that is making you uncomfortable, is helping you anticipate these things that could go wrong and so that you’re ready when they do.

Joke: Yeah. And when they go wrong, which will happen. You won’t be surprised. You’ll be in the right headspace to deal with it. What will happen? And I can speak from experience this over the last, what, almost two decades of making stuff with you joke. You know, is it every single time you’ll get stronger and more confident? Every time you face one of these challenges, you’re still going to you’re still going to feel that little fear, though, in your gut on every new project. So don’t be turned off by it. It comes with new challenges. It’s just a sign that you’re taking things seriously, which is a good thing. Otherwise, you’re probably doing it wrong. Okay, so that brings us to Ted Lasso. Takeaway number two. Don’t dwell on mistakes. All right. Coach Ted has a great take on this. He says, you know what the happiest animal in the world is? It’s a goldfish. It’s got a ten second memory. Be a goldfish.

Biagio: Be a goldfish.

Joke: Be a goldfish. Be the goldfish.

Biagio: So well said. Very important. I think you know, be the goldfish also means don’t have an ego, right? When things don’t go your way in the heat of production. One. There’s no time to beat yourself up over it. There’s no time to, you know, go in a self-indulgent like, you know, what did I do wrong? Where did I go? What could I have done differently? Like, no one has time for that.

Joke: This is not the time to be a tortured artist.

Biagio: Yeah, no, you do that on your ride home. You know, in the moment, on set, when you’re in the bay, when things are happening, it’s like the longer you spend thinking about a mistake you made or something someone said to you or someone questioned you, it’s it’s all less time that you’re spending making your show great. It’s less time that you’re improving. It’s less time that you’re fixing the problem. So yes, mistakes happen. Apologize. Move on. I think think it was Garry Marshall who was famous for saying, like, that one’s on me. Moving on. You know, like when something went wrong, he would just take the blame and just. Okay, but we’re moving on. And I think that’s a great way of looking at things. Obviously don’t keep making the same mistake over and over again, because then maybe you’re in over your head and this isn’t a job for you. But I think we all do make mistakes. And I think the quickest thing is to just take accountability and then fix it so those mistakes don’t happen again.

Joke: Yeah, I definitely need to be more of a goldfish. I tend to hold onto things, right?

Biagio: I mean, you’ve been holding on to me pretty good.

Joke: Well that’s true. Well, I don’t want to be a goldfish when it comes to thinking about you, honey. A lot of the other things I don’t want to remember past 10s. So anyways. All right, so that brings us to our third and final Ted Lasso takeaway. Take away number three value curiosity. Now, without giving too much away, there’s an important scene in which fish out of Water Ted Lasso is once again being underestimated. And in a terrific monologue, he makes a great point, which we’re actually we’re going to explore, but also look at it from the other side as well, he says. You know, the people who’ve underestimated him his whole life, almost without exception, had absolutely no sense of curiosity. They never cared to take the time to learn what he was all about. To their detriment, they weren’t curious. So.

Biagio: You know, you could take this if you lead with the ego and be like, yes, people underestimate me all the time, constantly. They’re not very curious about me. I can totally do this. But that’s not the point that we’re going to take. The point that he’s making is for you to be curious about other people, for you not to underestimate other people, for you to understand that there’s always something you can learn from somebody else. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a fellow epi or a PA, you know, or a guest visiting the set. Their new eyes, new brains, new insights. And so I think that it’s it’s it’s important. Well, one, we’re creative storytellers. So we should be curious into the human experience and what humans see and how they react to things, because that’s the essence of storytelling. But it’s also important to stay curious in the process is to to learn from other people. You know, our business is very freelance. And so there’s a lot of times Biagio and I will be like, okay, well, how did you do this before? You know, this is the process that works for us. Please understand how we like to do things. And then once you’re comfortable within our process, we want to know how you’ve done it elsewhere. How can we improve our process? We’re curious to figure out how other people, you know, put all these pieces together and end up with a TV show. So, so constantly be curious about other people. I think it’s great to to have that in general in life. I mean, my, my dad is not a TV producer, but man, is he curious.

Joke: Oh boy, is he ever.

Biagio: He can’t go to a park without striking a conversation with someone on the bench. And next thing you know, within ten minutes he knows their entire life story. So I think it’s it’s good to to be curious and and with that, never underestimate what someone else can bring a value to the project.

Joke: Yeah. And taking it one step further into a one step father, one step further. Further. It doesn’t even sound like a word to me anymore. Taking going a little bit further with this. While it might sound obvious, curiosity, of course, as jokes hinted at is the backbone of any creative endeavor, but what you see happen, I’ve seen it happen. I’ve been guilty of committing it myself. Is that in the middle of a crazy production schedule? You know that curiosity tends to dry up a little bit. You know you’re running out of time, you’re racing the clock, and someone running an interview may have such a dead set idea of what they need to get. They miss out on the great story that they would find if they just listen to a little bit more, and we’re a little bit more curious about what’s happening in the moment. You know, it’s the same thing with just about every aspect of the production. If you’re not curious about where the story can go, I it’s going to it’s not going to be interesting. It’s not going to be multilayered, and you’re not going to find those little magic moments which are the backbone of unscripted television and documentary. It’s those moments you can’t predict. So when you lose that sense of curiosity, when you’re in the middle of, you know, a grueling schedule, it can hurt you.

Biagio: I think a great example of that, which happened back in 2004. We were doing a show called Caesar’s 24 over seven, and we were on the floor at Caesars. And the story really was like a docu series set at the Caesar’s Palace Casino, following staff and guests. And all of a sudden we got the call that someone hit the million dollar jackpot and we’re like, wow, that’s a story. So, you know, our crew goes down there and it was very early on in us being there. So I think like both of our field directors or producers were on the scene and we had a camera crews and and so our producer is doing an interview, you know, kind of on the fly asking like, how’s it feel? What does it feel like? Well, my God, you know why you hit $1 million jackpot? That’s crazy. And and the guy said something like, oh, it means so much to me, you know, especially now. And, like, just kept going. And I remember going, especially now. Like, what does that mean? So, you know, I talked to the producer and I was like, maybe it’s nothing. But like, what is especially now mean like, you know, like pushed a little bit and they pushed and then the guy goes, yeah, I have terminal cancer and I have like a few months to live. And this has been something I’ve been wanting to do my entire life. I’ve been gambling for 20 years. And this is a huge thing. And all of a sudden the story just took on like, such more heart and importance. And it wasn’t just about a guy winning a jackpot, it was a guy with terminal cancer, you know, checking something off his bucket list. And the truth of the matter was, it was never about the money because his man was wealthy and he actually didn’t really win $1 million, because that day he’d already put in $400,000. And over the last one years, he’s like, I probably wasted so much money just trying to get to the point where I can say I hit $1 million jackpot. But it meant so much to him because he had always felt like he was running out of time and he wasn’t going to be able to do that. But it’s one of those things where it’s like, everyone should listen. Everyone on said should be curious. Everyone should be like pushing and asking those extra questions, because that’s when all of a sudden, you know, stories can get better and bigger. And just just being curious, you know, and look for for every one of those moments, there’s probably been 20 or more where I was like, well, what do you mean by that? And they’re like, nothing. I was like, okay, you know, where it doesn’t go anywhere. But that’s okay. It’s it’s to be curious. Like Biagio said, even in the heat of the moment, even when you think you have the story and the story is a guy hits $1 million jackpot, that there might be even a bigger story. So to stay curious, even like during the highest of highs and like, you know, oh my God, I’m so tired. We’re about to wrap, you know, stay curious.

Joke: Yeah. I mean, so, you know, I got to say, I never thought when we started watching Ted Lasso that would lead to inspiring a podcast episode. But I got to tell you, it’s a great show. If you have Apple TV or you’re thinking about getting it, check out Ted Lasso if you want to watch a fun, uplifting show. In my opinion, never disappoints. You know three things you can learn from this unsinkable coach. Well, except you’re in over your head from the beginning. Don’t dwell on your mistakes and value curiosity. And I think remembering that those who underestimate you probably not curious in the least. You don’t want to be that person. You don’t want to end the underestimate anyone else, or miss out on things that your curiosity should draw you to.

Biagio: Exactly.

Joke: Way to wrap that up, honey. Sorry.

Biagio: Yes. No. Be curious. Curious. I had a great moment where my son was doing schoolwork at at the office, and we he came into my office and he sat on my lap during his little recess at my computer, and he saw there was a little container I have next to my laptop. And he goes, oh, what’s in there? And I was like, what do you want to know? And he’s like, Because I’m curious, mommy. I’m always curious. Of course, there was a little candy in there. So I think when he actually opened it, I said, okay, you can open it. And he opened and he was like, oh, so no way. I think I helped keep that curiosity alive, because now I think every little thing he’s going to think could be Candy.

Joke: There you go. Have a great rest of your month, the 22 hours that are left of it or whatever. We will be back next month. I have a feeling it’ll be right around the 30th of 31st. Something like that with a new podcast episode. But in the meantime, we wish you all well. As always, if you’re an aspiring producer, a working producer, and you’re looking for a production company to potentially team up with, check out our website. Producing unscripted. We have a lot of stories about people we’ve teamed up with and shows we’ve sold together, you know? And and if you think that we’re nuts and you don’t want to work with us, that’s why I do feel free to take the knowledge from this podcast. And please go set up as many shows as you can and wish you nothing but success. So that’s it. See you next time.

Biagio: Talk soon.

Unidentified Voice: Producing Unscripted with Joke and Biagio. Biagio.