By Jamie Ruby

NBC Conference Call
Guys with Kids
Executive Producer Charlie Grandy and star Anthony Anderson
 
August 28, 2012

From executive producer Jimmy Fallon, comes one of NBC's new comedies starting this month, Guys with Kids. The sitcom follows three thirty-something dads who barrel through the trials of fatherhood, all while trying to still maintain their social lives.

Comedian actor Anthony Anderson (The Departed, Law & Order), who stars as Gary, and co-creator, executive producer, and writer Charlie Grandy (Saturday Night Live, The Office) talked to the digital media about the new sitcom, which premieres September 26, with a sneak peek September 12, on NBC.

SCIFI VISION: Can you talk about what it’s like working with so many kids running around the set? Is it hectic there?

ANTHONY ANDERSON: It really is. Yes, during the pilot, Charlie, correct me if I’m wrong, we had 19 kids or...

CHARLIE GRANDY: Yes, I think we had something like 14 kids with all the twins and triplets we had to hire just to make sure we had enough time with each kid and to make sure if a kid was fussing, we could take them away and not force them to be in the scene. And it ended up being, I believe it was 14 infants under the age of 1 for the pilot.

ANTHONY ANDERSON: Yes, so if you can imagine -- that’s what our days were like, but I’ve told every reporter who asked that question, the kids are the real stars to this show. That’s where the magic happens with them, and we’re kind of handcuffed and forced to go where they lead us. And that’s where we have a lot of the fun during these episodes.

CHARLIE GRANDY: Yes, there are at least three moments in the pilot that were not scripted that were just the cast reacting to what the babies were doing in those, and they’re so spontaneous and so real, which is what we really go for with the show, that it was really just fun to be able to have them and to put them in.

SCIFI VISION: And Anthony, does your comedic timing and everything, does that come easy to you? Has it always?

ANTHONY ANDERSON: It has, it has. My comedy, or comedy itself, is just something that’s innate within me. I never really thought I was funny growing up in the household that I grew up in with my mother, who was a -- and I say this with love -- with my mother who was a failed actress, but a hysterical woman.

And the same with my father and my siblings, so we never thought we were funny. I never thought I was funny. It was just the way that I was raised and how I grew up living my life. And then, you know, I’ve always wanted to be an actor since the age of nine. And then once I got out and saw the response from people being entertained and thinking what I was doing was humorous, when I just was being me, that’s when I was like, “Oh wow! Maybe I am funny. Maybe there is something to this.”

QUESTION: Is it hard for you, after it’s being so many years on a serious show, to come into a show like this, or is it fun, exciting, different, and all those things above?

ANTHONY ANDERSON: It was it a bit difficult, outside of it being difficult, all those things above. I mean, I started my career in comedy with some of the best -- the Farrelly brothers, Jim Carrey, Eddie Murphy, Martin Lawrence, Bernie Mac -- I got to work with them at an early age and cut my comedy chops.

And then I had something that I wanted to prove as an actor on the dramatic side. And so that’s why I made the turn. And a lot of people, a lot of my fans over the last five or six years that I’ve been in this dramatic turn, have been asking me when am I coming back to comedy.

Would they miss me in the comedic world? And I was like, it’s coming soon, it’s coming soon. I just have something that I need to prove to myself and to show to Hollywood that I’m more than just the comic relief in something.

And I think I did that. And with the cancellation of Law and Order, that allowed me to be available sooner than I anticipated to step back into the half-hour comedy world. And Guys with Kids just fell into my lap and so here I am.

QUESTION: So what was it about it that you liked, besides the fact that it was comedy? What was it that really drew you to it? I’m sure you had a choice of a couple of things.

ANTHONY ANDERSON: Obviously you didn’t hear me when I said there was an unexpected cancellation...

One, it came from Jimmy Fallon, who I’ve been friends with for a long time now. Two, it was mostly (cam), which is what I want to get back into. You know, I was developing something - I had a development deal, rather, with the FX Network to do a half-hour comedy. And the Guys with Kids script fell into my lap. I read it. It came from Jimmy. The offered it to me. It was great. I could see where this show could go. Everything jumped off the page at me. And I just felt it was a no-brainer.

So I contacted FX, and was like, thank you for the opportunity, but I have this opportunity here. They were gracious enough to say if that opportunity didn’t work out, we would love to have you back, because I’d love to have a half hour on network.

And fortunately, for me, Guys with Kids worked out, and here we are talking about it now.

QUESTION: Charlie, did you always have him in mind when you were thinking about doing the show, or...

CHARLIE GRANDY: It’s funny that the Gary and Marny characters are the closest to my wife and I, we have three young kids and just being overwhelmed, and so I was looking for someone who could be overwhelmed but strong at the same time.

You don’t think you can get someone like Anthony Anderson, quite honestly, when you’re writing a pilot, and I’m not Chuck Lorre, I don’t have a bunch of things on the air.

This is my first show and even if it was Jimmy Fallon, you just don’t think you can get that caliber of talent. And then when there’s interest, and then you actually, you get him, it’s amazing. It’s brought so much more, not to just the character, but the show.

I mean, it’s far exceeded any expectations I actually had for the role. So I feel like we definitely won the lottery with Anthony.

I never thought I was funny. It was just the way that I was raised and how I grew up living my life.
 -- Anthony Anderson[/quote]
ANTHONY ANDERSON: And I just wanted to say that I am the black Charlie Grandy.

CHARLIE GRANDY: He’s been saying that for a long time.

ANTHONY ANDERSON: And he is the white Anthony Anderson. That’s how we work with this.

QUESTION: I think it’s easy, especially when you’re doing a comedy about stay-at-home dads, or about dads, to fall into that Mr. Mom dynamic where dads are naturally inept at doing everything from spilling the baby formula to putting on the diaper backwards, a lot of these kind of cliché jokes.

And it seems like more of the comedies out there now are getting away from some of those clichés, where we see a lot of competent dads at home performing tasks that typically we only say women perform -- things like everything from picking up the kids to changing diapers to folding laundry, all these tasks are no longer strictly a female role in a lot of comedies.

Does your comedy make a concerted effort to stay away from those sorts of clichés?

CHARLIE GRANDY: Yes, absolutely, from the moment we pitched the show, that was part of the pitch, we wanted to do confident dads. That’s not to say that they can’t be befuddled, but I think it’s more on a general parenting level as opposed to the nuts and bolts of the changing the diapers, the making the bottles, the doing the laundry, the folding the laundry, the cleaning up, that is now, we just want to present dads as that is ingrained in them as it is in their wives.

QUESTION: Yes, I think the Homer Simpson dynamic of guys are naturally unable to do this sort of job. I think that it really it is fun, by the way, I think that’s for the better. Again, there are more and more dads that are taking more active roles, for example Anthony’s character, taking on the fulltime role of being a stay-at-home dad.

CHARLIE GRANDY: Yes, and by choice. He could have stayed the work, he could have gotten help, but he really wanted to stay home with his kids, and that was what was always interesting about the character and Anthony does so much with it. But, yes, it’s exactly what we wanted it to be.

QUESTION: And Anthony, how is it was for you playing that role of stay-at-home parent? Was it something that you naturally fell into, or was it something that maybe you always wanted to do in your personal life, as well?

ANTHONY ANDERSON: You know what, working as hard as I have been in this industry for the last 16 years, I would welcome falling into the role of the stay-at-home dad. I get the comforts of home. I get to raise my kids, I get to have fun with them. I get to watch them grow.

So, yes, that was a natural thing. And just to piggy-back on what Charlie was saying earlier about staying away from the cliché things, I called the writers and (unintelligible) them for not giving us the lowest common denominator to work with in these situations as actors on our television show.

I mean, you can go for the quick and easy laugh all the time, but that’s short-lived. And like I said, I applaud them for allowing us to find the humor in the situations of parenthood. And not just fart jokes and pee jokes, and diaper jokes, and all of that.

It goes to show that we’re all invested in this for the long run, and I applaud them for it. And it makes coming to work and bringing life to the words that are on page that much more fun and that much easier.

QUESTION: Anthony, how does your own parenting style compare to Gary’s?

ANTHONY ANDERSON: It’s pretty much the same. I get to live, re-live, vicariously through Gary. Some of the things that I couldn’t do with my kids because I didn’t know how they would turn out if I raised them the way that I was raised.

And we’ve had talks earlier on, even before we shot the pilot, about my experience growing up, especially with my mother and my father. And we just shot an episode where I think every parent goes through what we went through in the episode, like, “I want to raise you differently than how my father raised me.”

Not to say that our father raised us bad, it’s just a different time, a different era, and we have different sensibilities. But I get to have time and Gary, through my four boys at home, just like I have time at home. I’m the only father in the cast.

I was the only parent until we recast, but now I’m the only father that we have in the cast. And I get to tell the guys what I’m going through, how I used to (unintelligible) my kids, how I want to (unintelligible) these kids on the set, and just have some fun with it.

That’s what it’s about. And I think that’s what resonates - I think that’s going to resonate with the audience and that’s what’s going to show onscreen.

QUESTION: And how do you relate to the dads in the film? You might have touched on that a little bit, but can you maybe expand a little bit?

ANTHONY ANDERSON: I relate to all of them. One, because it’s a slice of life. I have friends who are recently divorced. I have friends who are stay-at-home dads. I have friends who are happily married and raising their family with their wives.

So I see a bit of my world in the world that we’re creating on television. And we can all pick and choose from that. And that’s about how it goes for me.

QUESTION: And can you quickly tell us about your son Nathan and daughter Kyra? How old are they and what do they do for fun?

ANTHONY ANDERSON: My daughter Kyra is 16 years old, junior in high school now, who started today, plays volleyball, has a boyfriend that I have to deal with now as a father. Never thought those days would happen, who happens to be the quarterback of the football team...

CHARLIE GRANDY: Uh oh...

ANTHONY ANDERSON: My daughter happens to be one of the stars of the volleyball team, so it’s kind of cool that they both are athletic and almost the stars of their team.

And my son is 12 years old and when I tell you the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, truer words have never been spoken. I just took him on an audition yesterday. Four or five years ago, he pointed to my wife and said, “Mom, I want to be an actor.”

And he’s actually pretty good at it. He’s been studying for it since then for the last four years and is really enjoying going out on auditions. And he’s come close on a few things, and one day he’ll get a job.

We had a long talk the other day about, “You know what, son? You can’t [know] what you want this soon. You just have to work for it. And eventually the chips will fall in your favor.”

QUESTION: Okay, and what do you like most about fatherhood? Do you have any special fatherhood memories to share?

ANTHONY ANDERSON: You know what, both are pretty simple. Both are, (unintelligible). Both of my children, being there, and that being the crowning achievement in my life, and it actually made me feel invincible. And it makes me feel that I can live forever now.

And secondly with my son, I do stand-up comedy. I host a monthly comedy show in New York. And going back to the story where I told you four years ago my son told my wife that he wanted to be an actor, and that he also wanted to tell jokes. I invited him to New York on Father’s Day weekend to come into my room, the (Gotham) Comedy Club and perform at eight years old.

And he got up and there was no fear, no trepidation, and he was funny. And that was the most memorable thing that I have to date as a father with my son, watching him on stage, alone, tell your mama jokes on Father’s Day, and having the audience respond favorably to him.

So that is the most memorable that I can think of right now, outside of watching them come into this world.

QUESTION: Anthony, I noticed that you are married to your college sweetheart. That’s so inspiring. I just want to know what are some of the things she does to help support you with a demanding career?

ANTHONY ANDERSON: Oh, wow, everything, from - I’ll go back to the beginning -- for letting me use her car to go to my first audition.

And me coming home from that first audition and running into the back of the school bus and totaling the car on the 91 freeway. So that’s how it all begins. She’s always been a constant pillar for me.

And I put this on my wife for my character of Gary. My wife is a homemaker who decided to give up her career working in the electronic publicity department at NBC for ten years and to sit at home and raise the children and to support me because I’m constantly on the go. And that’s what she does. What she does as a stay-at-home mom, just like all the other stay-at-home moms and dads across the country is invaluable and unquantifiable. And I applaud her for putting her career and her life on hold to help out with our life.

Sometimes it’s an ultimate sacrifice that these stay-at-home mothers and fathers do.

QUESTION: I have heard several answers to questions that mention your son, Nathan, and your daughter Kyra. And you also mentioned what you’re giving Nathan as advice because he wants to go into stardom as well. Do you have any more advice for your children, just so they can make it? Do you have any advice that you’d like to share that you share with your children about the industry?

ANTHONY ANDERSON: About the industry, I guess, and life in general, I tell them that we - the Andersons aren’t quitters. We finish what we start. And no matter what it is.

My daughter wanted to give up on volleyball early on when she first started. And I was like, “Sweetheart, this is what you chose to do, it’s the middle of the season, we are not about to quit. Now, if you want to stop at the end of the season, then that’s your choice, but we’re going to ride this out.”

The same with my son in everything that we do. It’s just like, no, we put in the work because you get out of it what you put into it. And that’s the philosophy that I live my life by and that I try to lead by example with my children.

QUESTION: We’re talking about guys being more involved in childrearing than ever before, so how has your experience been, just being the more involved dad and not just the one we see on TV from the 50’s, for example?

ANTHONY ANDERSON: You know, it’s crazy. There was a study on 60 Minutes or one of those news programs that I was watching before we even shot the pilot and they were talking about how stay-at-home dads are on the increase.

There are more fathers in the “Mommy and Me” classes than ever before. There are more fathers who are making play dates than the mothers than ever before. And a lot of people - it was kind of indifferent, because a lot of people look at them and say, “How could you?”

How could you send your wife off to work while you sit at home with your kids and being lazy, when I just said, that it’s unquantifiable what a stay-at-home parent does?

And why can’t this man or woman be - because it’s seldom looked upon negatively when you say “stay-at-home mom.” It’s only looked upon negatively when you say “stay-at-home dad.” Why can’t this husband and this father empower his wife and support his wife for going on out and making a career and the father staying at home to raise the children?

I think that’s very admirable for any parent to do, but more so than not, a father. I just think it’s a great thing. Charlie, what do you have to say about that?

CHARLIE GRANDY: Yes, I agree. I think in terms of fathering, the more time I spend with my kids, and the more I do, and even hard stuff, getting up in the middle of the night and changing the diapers and staying with them when they’re sick, and going to the hospital, you just feel so much more connected them.

It becomes such a richer experience. It really has been so powerful and life-changing for me to have children and have something, my life honestly feels like it has meaning now. And you’re trying to conduct yourself in a manner you’d want your children to conduct themselves.

And just being with them, those little moments, can turn not just weeks or days around, but weeks or months around, when you’re like, okay, well, I know I’m doing something right. And it just feels so basic and on such a pure level to have those moments and spend that time with your kids and pull your weight.

Anthony answered a question about his wife having supported him through his career, and it’s the same with me. And so to help out as much as you can with your wife and what she’s doing at home, again, it’s just incredibly fulfilling.

ANTHONY ANDERSON: Just an addendum to my answer, since I’ve been working with the show and working with these children on the show and getting into this character of Gary, it’s actually made me want to be a better father.

It makes me want to have a better connection with my children at home, because all my children have known from me is dad is on location. They were born into my career so that’s all they know. That’s all they see is me on a plane, them on a plane, going to exotic locations and working and having fun.

But now that I’m doing this show, I can look at my son, who’s 12, and look at my daughter, who’s 16, and I’ve already realized that I’ve missed out on a lot.

But doing the show makes me want to stay home. I no longer take the weekend golf trips or whatnot. It’s like I want to stay at home this weekend and just hang out with my kids, even if we don’t do anything but sit by the pool. It’s made me want to have a stronger connection to them.

QUESTION: What have you guys learned from your wives about fatherhood? Her mother’s experience -- how has that influenced you?

CHARLIE GRANDY: Yes, in every possible way for me. It’s just the amount of strength that she has and the digging deep for those reserves of strength and not complaining. It’s really just, as hard as it gets, is just putting a smile on your face and A, people have been doing this forever, and B, just realizing, knowing that you get so much out of it.
And that’s what a family is, it’s just working and helping your kids and supporting each other. And more, I guess if there’s one word, it would be patience, is what I’ve truly learned from her.

ANTHONY ANDERSON: Charlie said the exact same thing that I was going to say. I can’t add anything more to that. Strength and patience -- those are the two things.

QUESTION: How do you both give your wives me time -- time for herself? How does that work?

CHARLIE GRANDY: I’ll send her...

ANTHONY ANDERSON: Wow!

CHARLIE GRANDY: Yes, I’ll send her to a hotel. If she needs to get away, there are some times when she’s just burned out and I can see it on her face. And one of these is coming up very soon, because I’ve been at work a lot. It’s just like, “Go, just get away. Take a weekend and just go, and take a friend, don’t take a friend, whatever you want to do.”

Just go and have some time when you don’t have to worry about anything. You can sleep in, get a massage. And it’s funny, she’s incredible, because I’ll send her away for a weekend, and on the second day she’s like, “Can I come home now? I’m bored. I don’t want to sit around here.”

So it’s really that. It’s just trying to pay attention to those times, because she won’t take it herself. So you have to kick her out the door and say get out of here, you need a break.

ANTHONY ANDERSON: Right. I do the same thing, except, Charlie, my wife calls and asks if she can stay a week longer.

CHARLIE GRANDY: Well, I don’t have teenagers yet, so, we’ll see.

QUESTION: This question is actually for Charlie. Do you have any plans to recruit Jimmy for a cameo on the show?

CHARLIE GRANDY: I’d love to. That’s all up to Jimmy. His schedule, honestly, is so tough because he’s in New York doing his show and it’s been so hard, he was able to come to the pilot taping, but has not been able to come to another taping since, though he [might] be at next week’s.

So, yes, I’d love him to be a regular on the show, because he’s just so good and so much fun and has, honestly, a ton of good ideas for what to do with the show. But it will be a scheduling question, and if he wants to do it.

QUESTION: And I read something about him wanting to have James Earl Jones announce it in a live studio audience...

CHARLIE GRANDY: Yes...

QUESTION: Was he kidding?

CHARLIE GRANDY: We’re trying. I don’t know if it’s going to happen, but we really wanted to. Right now I think it’s Jimmy who’s saying it, but that’s just a placeholder for when we can convince James Earl Jones, perhaps in success, we can convince him.

QUESTION: Okay, awesome. Also, a quick one for Anthony. Would you ever consider bringing your son on the show to play, I don’t know who he would play, exactly, but..?

ANTHONY ANDERSON: Oh, well, once I found out I had older kids, that was the first question I asked Charlie and the staff. Can I bring my son on? They’re like, Well, how old is he, Anthony, we’d love to do that.” Well, they were like, he’s an old man. He can’t do it.

But I’m pretty sure if something ever came about, I would definitely have him audition for it because this is something that he wants to do, and I support it. I tried to convince him otherwise, and he’s really put in the work and really stayed on us about getting him into a class and this is what he really wants to do with his life.

So, if the opportunity does present itself on Guys with Kids or any other show out there, yes. I would love it.

QUESTION: I was just wondering how the idea for the show came about, how did everything came together.

CHARLIE GRANDY: Yes, it was Jimmy Fallon and his producing partner (Amy Olzoz). Jimmy had - I think it was maybe his brother-in-law had a young kid and Jimmy always saw him out and about with his kid, going to a bar, going to a ballgame, he always had his kid in a Baby Bjorn.

And Jimmy saw that and is seeing it more and more around New York City, these involved dads. He said, there’s no show about this. There’s no show about parenthood improving the life of a dad. It always is sort of encumbered, it changes your life for the negative.

Or it’s like you’re happy you have a kid, but in the whole it’s not much better to have a kid. And he wanted to do a show about people who really embraced parenting, fathers who really embraced parenting.

And I’d worked with Jimmy on Saturday Night Live and actually had gone to college with (Amy Olzoz), and they knew I had three kids and so they just approached me. And it was exactly what I wanted to do -- a show just about parenting, because that’s where I was in my life.

And then through our discussions, the show evolved and evolved and that’s basically it. But it was that first image that you see in the pilot of the guys turning around in the bar with their babies, that was really what the pilot was built around. Jimmy had that one image in his head and we kind of went from there.

QUESTION: When you guys were kids what the worst lie you ever told your parents?

CHARLIE GRANDY: Oh, boy. Oh no. I still don’t know if I want that out there.

ANTHONY ANDERSON: Yes, I don’t think the statute of limitations are up on the lie that I told my parents.

CHARLIE GRANDY: Yes, it’s probably along the lines of, “No, I didn’t have a party while you were gone.”

ANTHONY ANDERSON: That’s all? That’s all you got, Charlie?

CHARLIE GRANDY: I was a pretty decent kid. Yes, I know. I was terrified of my parents.

ANTHONY ANDERSON: I can’t say the worst lie, other than I didn’t take the money, I didn’t do it, I didn’t have a party, I didn’t wreck the car. But I always wanted to play the piano. And my mom enrolled me in piano lessons. But we didn’t have a piano at home for us to play.

So I went in her pocketbook and I took out her credit card, the one and only credit card that my mother has ever had in her life, and I called and bought a piano, a baby grand piano, and had it delivered to the house.

And to ensure that I wouldn’t get in trouble, I bought my father a gold-plated cubic zirconium ring and had it delivered to the house.

So that’s what I did. It wasn’t a lie, but that’s some of the stuff that I did as a kid. And Charlie, I think that was the time my mother tied me to the avocado tree.

CHARLIE GRANDY: Got it. Okay.

ANTHONY ANDERSON: That’s where that beating came from.

CHARLIE GRANDY: Got it. Okay.

QUESTION: Anthony, the old adage is never work with kids and animals. So what was it that intrigued you to be a part of the show?

ANTHONY ANDERSON: Wow, truer words have never been spoken. I’ll say that. But going back to what Charlie said, and how Jimmy had come up with the concept of the show, there hasn’t been, up until now, a show about that, a show about fathers and taking their kids wherever they go, to the bar, to the ballgames, the strip clubs -- no, maybe not the strip clubs.

((Crosstalk))

So that’s what attracted me to it. You know, we’re not reinventing the wheel. It was fresh, yet familiar, and that’s what really attracted me to it. And when the kids and the babies are on their best behavior, it’s magic.

And it’s wonderful and it’s beautiful. And even when they’re on their worst behavior, it’s still magic, we can still pull magic from that. And I love infants, I love babies because I believe that’s what keeps us youthful and keeps us striving for greatness and whatnot.

And to work with them every day on our set, on the pilot we had 14 babies that we worked with. Now that we’re on series we don’t have as many, but we have more babies on set than adults. And I think that’s a great atmosphere to be a part of.

QUESTION: Charlie, what makes NBC such a great fit for the show?

CHARLIE GRANDY: I think, honestly, at the time, when they were buying pitches, they were willing to give it a shot. And the show has always been about a very positive portrayal, and NBC has been - I think it’s a good fit because NBC is very positive about the show and for what we want to do, which is have a very upbeat, fun show about parenting that you can watch with your kids.

And putting Animal Practice before us, which seems to have a very similar vibe, I just feel that it’s great. And then there’s the history of the family comedy on NBC.

Those are what I grew up watching -- Cosby and Family Ties, and even you look at the shows like Cheers, which is essentially a family comedy, those people at the bar were family.

And it felt like when early on in the talks with NBC and (Amy) and Jimmy, we just decided we wanted to do the kind of show that NBC would have done in the past, that kind of family show that wasn’t pandering, but wasn’t crazy, familiar but also new at the same time.

And it really felt like spiritually it was in tune with perhaps not what NBC had been doing lately, but what they used to do better than anyone else.

SCIFI VISION: So what do you find most challenging overall, with the whole project?

ANTHONY ANDERSON: Keeping the babies from having a meltdown on the set. That’s the most challenging for us on the sound stage. Outside of that, everything is great.

I mean, you have babies who have their own temperament. They don’t know where they are. They don’t know what they’re doing. And they’re in a room full of strangers, so they’re definitely completely out of their element. Some take kindly to that and some don’t.

And it takes a while for the ones who don’t to warm up, if they warm up to it at all. So that is the most challenging, and it’s not in a negative way and it’s not a bad thing. It’s just that we’re dealing with infants who want to suckle on their mother’s nipple for their milk. But yet, they’re in my lap trying to suckle on my nipple for my milk. And I’m like, hey, it don’t go down like that. But, that’s it for us, that’s it for us on the sound stage. And I can never say this enough, once the babies are calm and ready and doing their thing, it’s magic. And you see it on the show. You see it.

SCIFI VISION: Okay. Charlie?

CHARLIE GRANDY: The exact same. Yes, it’s just when you’re trying to get through scenes, but we’re getting much better about how to use the babies and what to pre-shoot and what not to pre-shoot.

And honestly, we have some great babies right now. They’re very calm, and we try to get the actors to spend as much time with the babies off camera as well, just so the babies are very familiar with them and so it’s not jarring, when they are passed to them at the scene.

But I think everyone’s gotten so good and so calm with infants, especially the key when they start to freak out is to not freak out yourself and we’ve been very lucky with talent and directors to just say, okay, well, the baby’s crying, let’s give it a minute and see if the baby will relax, and if he doesn’t relax, then we’ll try - you know, this is why you work with twins and triplets.

So just say, well maybe the sibling will work. And then sometimes you just have to take break and start over or move on. And fortunately we’ve been very lucky on tape nights, that the babies, they’re all performers, they all come up for the audience.

And the audience is sympathetic. They know, they know what babies do.

SCIFI VISION: Have they ever done anything really unexpected, though, that got left in that was really funny?

CHARLIE GRANDY: A bunch of times, yes.

ANTHONY ANDERSON: In the pilot, one of the babies - well, at the end of the pilot, didn’t the baby put his hand...

CHARLIE GRANDY: Yes...

ANTHONY ANDERSON: In (Jessie’s) mouth and leave it there and then that was some of the things that was left in the pilot because it was funny.

CHARLIE GRANDY: Yes.

ANTHONY ANDERSON: Too numerous to name.

CHARLIE GRANDY: Yes.

ANTHONY ANDERSON: These babies are prima donnas. They’re prima donnas. They want what they want when they want it. And when they don’t get their way, they let you know. You thought Lindsay Lohan was a prima donna, you thought J. Lo was a prima donna. Work with Baby 2 and Baby 3. That’s all I have to say.

QUESTION: To touch on what you were saying before, Anthony, about being the only father with the other two actors, how was it for the other two actors working with the children? Was it something getting used to for them? Anything funny happen, and do you find yourself pitching your own dad stories for the show?

ANTHONY ANDERSON: I’ll start with the last question. Not really my own dad stories -- I’ve been pitching my mom to Charlie and the crew, just because I’m tired of taking care of her, and she needs a job.

And she’s a great character, so that’s the only thing that I pitch. But working with the fellows and being the only father, it’s really, “Yo, Anthony. Am I supposed to hold the baby like this?” It’s like, “No, you’re not supposed to hold the baby by its ankles.” You have to hold it and cradle its head and all of this other stuff.

And we just have a lot of fun, finding jokes amongst ourselves with regard to that. But they are amazed at how my babies are (unintelligible) remain calm throughout the day.

I attribute it to, I just got a great set of twins and triplets that I work with, but also the experience that I have as a father, knowing how to hold the baby, knowing how to rock a baby, knowing these innate things as a parent.

They turn to me, and say, “Hey, Anthony, how did you get him to calm down just now when you were doing that?” It’s like, step away from the madness, and you know, just go talk to your baby.

I find myself talking to nine-month-old toddlers. I’m sitting here having a conversation with a nine-month-old. So I say, “Hey, man, what’s going on?” And if he doesn’t respond to my English, I then talk baby talk. And then we really have conversation. And that’s what it’s about and that’s what we do.

QUESTION: Besides being an actor and a producer, what three passions you have in life that people necessarily wouldn’t know about you?

CHARLIE GRANDY: Oh boy.

ANTHONY ANDERSON: Oh.

CHARLIE GRANDY: I don’t have time for three anymore.

QUESTION: It could be your family, something specific like a film that you love.

CHARLIE GRANDY: Well, yes, a film that I love. I don’t know, “Bad News Bears” would have to be up there. “Parenthood.”...

ANTHONY ANDERSON: Oh, wow...

CHARLIE GRANDY: The original film of “Parenthood,” loved that. And honestly, right now, my passion is - it’s not super splashy, and it’s a little hokey, but really, I work so much now, and so much is focused on the show, that just those moments - I went to the beach with my family last weekend, and that to me is the highlight.

That’s sort of the passion now. My kids are old enough that you can get out and do all those things that my wife and I used to do together, now that you can fold the kids in and they enjoy it. And if I can occasionally read as book, that’s pretty special, too. Anthony?

ANTHONY ANDERSON: Three passions -- golf, to get better at that, to jump out of an airplane, and to -- I don’t know if that’s a passion or just a want, I guess it’s a passion -- and you probably mentioned the Bad News Bears. It’s one of my favorite movies growing up as a kid.

I would also like to remake Uncle Buck. I’ve been thinking about remaking Uncle Buck and a script that had come to me years ago that just wasn’t worth doing, but that’s what I would love to do, especially working on Guys with Kids, it’s like, yes, I could really do this now.

CHARLIE GRANDY: You should.

ANTHONY ANDERSON: I could really remake Uncle Buck.

CHARLIE GRANDY: That would be great.

ANTHONY ANDERSON: Yes.

QUESTION: And also, besides Jimmy Fallon, are there any other dream guest stars you would love to have on the show?

CHARLIE GRANDY: I’m trying to think right now. There’s so many people, so many names we’re kicking around. We aim high. I don’t know, Sigourney Weaver really made me laugh in Baby Mama.

I like guest stars when they’re doing things that you don’t expect them to do. And so I like to incorporate people from the drama world. I don’t know who he’d play, but I’d love to have Brian Cranston on the show, especially that he’s done comedy and now Breaking Bad.

It’s just always fun when you can do something new with someone.

Obviously, when you have Jamie-Lynn (Sigler) and Tempestt (Bledsoe) on the show, everyone’s like, “Oh, get Gandolfini, get Cosby.” It’s interesting, but you just don’t know. You have no idea what’s going to work and whatnot.

QUESTION: Charlie first, and then Anthony, what do want audiences to take from the show? What would you like them to feel and keep coming back for?

CHARLIE GRANDY: I just want it to be a fun place they can come with their families. It’s really trying to re-create that feeling I had with my family growing up and watching television, those family comedies, NBC ones but also Roseanne, Growing Pains, what have you.

It was just those nights where it was dinner and then sitting down and watching TV and catching up with the family. And we want to create a place where you could do that, where your kids would be entertained, but you’d also be entertained as the parents.

And I don’t know if we have a message, because we’re not really proselytizing about anything, just trying to paint a fun world to be in that’s at once relatable but also aspirational, really focus on the great moments of parenting, and when things actually do work out.

QUESTION: Yes. And Anthony, what would you like to add to that?

ANTHONY ANDERSON: The same thing that Charlie said. I grew up in a point in time, watching Cosby and watching other shows where we got together as a family and sat in front of the television and watched these shows, in fellowship as a family.

And some of these shows had messages to them without beating you over the head that you could take and impart to your family. That’s what I want people to take away from this, just to sit back.

Because the way we watch television now and entertain, especially with me having a 16-year-old and a 12-year-old, things are just so fragmented now.

My daughter’s off with her volleyball schedule and her friends. My son is off playing his video games and online with his friends. I think this is show that will and can bring the family back together for at least a half hour after dinner for family time, which is what we used to do when we watched television growing up.

That’s what I hope people take away from this. And it sounds kind of cliché and corny and hokey-dokey, but, to bring the family back together again. That’s what I hope for.

QUESTION: Anthony, what did you do as a family this summer, any fun road trips or vacations?

ANTHONY ANDERSON: No fun road trips or vacations this summer. We started the show in August, so [there] were volleyball trips for my daughter with her traveling team, a couple of trips to the beach, a couple of trips to (unintelligible) Park.

My kids like simple stuff. They don’t really care for traveling unless we’re going overseas or to Hawaii. And I’m like, “Look, until you guys get a job and pull your weight, we’re going to cut back on some of that stuff.”

But it was just a lot of family barbecues at the house with my immediate family and my kids’ friends, and so that’s what we did, intimate time at home by the pool and dinner.

QUESTION: And what is up next for you, any other shows, movies, or any other endeavors?

ANTHONY ANDERSON: No, nothing, hopefully we can crank out another 107 episodes of Guys with Kids. So that’s my whole plan, to devote myself to making it the best show possible and having a great run with it and living the good life.

SCIFI VISION: Is there anything that you’ve both taken away that you learned and helped you in parenting your own children, other than to spend more time with them?

CHARLIE GRANDY: Oh, from the show?

SCIFI VISION: Yes, that maybe you’ve used later in with your own kids.

CHARLIE GRANDY: Other than just spend more time with them, for me it’s hard because I’m writing the show, so it’s more the opposite. As my kids get older, as they become more individualistic and are teaching you more about yourself, how can you fold that into the show?

It’s interesting for me, the writing process, because there are so many dads on the writing staff, it’s interesting that we’re writing about parenting, there are a lot of disagreements about what to do in certain situations.

So I think the show has made me more, certainly more open to other styles of parenting that aren’t my own, because everyone on the show is so smart and has such great kids, and it’s been a nice, open forum for honest discussion about parenting.

You’ll see that in some of the episodes, what to do when your kid’s acting up, what to do when kids are stealing, and there’s no one right way, you just have to figure out what works for you and your family.

ANTHONY ANDERSON: Yes, I’ve already learned from my mistakes as a parent. So what I’m taking away from the show is spending more time with my kids, that’s what I’m learning. I’m learning how to carve out time out of my professional life and my individual personal time to spend more time with my family -- my wife and my kids.