Matt Connarton Unleashed: Gracie Gato

0:00 Speaker 1: Get command, God, don't get supremely magzoming.

0:09 Speaker 2: Hey, everybody, welcome.

0:11 Speaker 3: This is Matt Connorton Unleashed and this is the podcast edition of the show.

0:15 Speaker 2: We do one of these once in a while.

0:17 Speaker 3: And the nice thing about the podcast version of the show is because it is not on FM radio, we can actually say whatever we want to, which we kind of do on the radio show anyway.

0:27 Speaker 2: But this is exciting because so.

0:30 Speaker 3: Gracie Gatto is here with us, and Gracie was recently with us on the radio show. But we're going to have a follow up conversation because there are a lot of very exciting things happening, and Gracey, welcome back.

0:43 Speaker 4: Welcome, thank you, thank you for having me. I'm trying to find you on my, oh my, I'm having some technical difficulties here, so forgive me. There we go.

0:55 Speaker 5: Uh oh, I lost you for a second and now you're back.

0:59 Speaker 4: Okay, awesome, Thank you.

1:01 Speaker 2: For having me back. I'm never far.

1:05 Speaker 3: Of course, of course, forgive me, forgive me if I I don't know if you, I don't know if you heard the radio show on Saturday, but my voice was cracking and everything, and I'm still not one hundred percent but doing the best I can. But so, of course when you were on the show with Jenny and I, we were talking all about Adam's World.

1:25 Speaker 2: Yes, And for those who.

1:27 Speaker 3: Are listening for the first time, for anyone who missed that conversation, please tell us what uly is Adam's World? Tell us anything you want to share about it.

1:36 Speaker 2: Oh.

1:37 Speaker 4: Absolutely, it's a it's about about a twenty minute show of autistic superheroes. So it is the main character, Adam, who was modeled after my son, and he's a nine year old boy with special abilities to touch things and upload it for me directly to his brain. And we have his friend Sam, who is a whiz with numbers, mathematics. And we have the only female character, Zoe, who can run so fast that she could travel through time. So it sets to stage four, multiple adventures, historical figures they're going to meet throughout the series.

2:24 Speaker 4: It's going to be fun.

2:26 Speaker 3: And why did you decide to do this, Why is it so important to you to develop this, this animated series, and what's the what's kind of the driving force behind this for you?

2:39 Speaker 4: Actually it was my son. He's he is Adam, nine years old and he is autistic, nonverbal, which means he can't communicate through voice, which is really strange, you know, considering you know who his mother is, you know, but he can't talk. He can't talk. He never could. We didn't get alarm till me he's about three years old. And then you know, we we had some suspicions and my husband at the time took him, Adam's father took him to see someone and he was diagnosed as autistic ADHD. So it's been a real journey to get from where he was entering school kindergarten through now third grade.

3:27 Speaker 4: So it's been a real interesting and then having to be a caretaker for my mother who passed away recently, on top of an autistic child, it was you know, it's been heavy. It's been heavy and humbling, and I just feel like this Adam's world and this is like like no bs. But the night my mother passed away, I moved the bed. I moved to bed. I got a bed from retas that are in one of those cheap beds, and I nudged it next to hers. And then I was writing a treatment of Adam's world, what it will be like, just on a textbook paper.

4:13 Speaker 4: And she passed away two hours later, so it's very personal. Yeah, so it's like she left this world and another life was born in a way, which is you know, the show to help autistic children, and you know, she loved Adam, and Adam they had their own special language because he was non verbal. So excuse me. So he has been thriving at a at a local small town school here in Hudson, New Hampshire, and the school is shout out in Nottingham West. I mean they're awesome. They've really changed Adam's life and taken taken from what I've learned from what they do, and they and learn you know what I do, which is you know, broadcasting using your voice and you know mannerisms.

5:05 Speaker 4: We've been communicating and doing our own kind of acting out. So yeah, the show actually wasn't a show. I just started doing these little video vignettes for my kid, who was you know, hyperactive and just like go way busy, busy, I'm busy, and he started to like really pay attention to him, and he started to notice how I was putting things together frame by frame and then have them move, and that like totally tripped him out. So he's I got him a part of the process as well, So it's kind of cool, but it really comes from a you know, from a really heavy place, you know.

5:41 Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, how long how long had this been kind of been in your mind to do something like this? I mean you mentioned, you know that when your mom passed, kind of saying you know, you're you're definitely gonna this. But I mean, had you been had it been a long time that you'd kind of been been doing this with Adham and then and then you know, you show, yeah, I've been doing relates to what you're doing. I mean, had that been.

6:14 Speaker 4: That's been going on for a while. Yeah. You know, we have our special little games that we play songs and videos and you know, he's eight, so eight or nine years old, No, he's nine now, he's just her nine. So he loves fart videos and stuff. So any animals part he would just crack up and laugh, So you know what, Yeah, yeah, now I'm in that business to make people laugh. You know, the stuff I was doing before with documentaries and stuff. I mean, honestly, with politics, it's like all the informations out there and you already made up your mind and there's nothing I could do as an artist to take you a picture.

6:50 Speaker 4: It's going to change your mind, you right, So yeah, we all know politicians are corrupt and people don't care, so let's do something fun. It's just something I think we need laughs, We need to be we need to smile more, we need to be more like these kids, who you know, at least kids you can reason with.

7:12 Speaker 3: Right, Well, no, I mean, I mean you say that, and it's funny, but there's also there is an underlying truth to that, right, because kids haven't you know, they don't have all these sort of calcified ideas in their brains yet, right, you know, right, most adults, you know, by the time, and different studies will tell you different things. But I've read that the average American by the time they've hit thirty, they think whatever they think, you know, politically or or in other ways. And yeah, and and they're they're locked.

7:44 Speaker 4: In either mega, you're not mega, or right wherever on the spectrum you fall into. There's no change in your mind until something happens to you where you're like, oh, but you're on your own. You're on your own. You you're gonna go and have that Eureka moment somewhere else can't. I can't make that Eureka moment happen for you.

8:06 Speaker 3: So as part of this, I mean, obviously there's there's a lot of great reasons to do something like Adam's World that is so positive, and it's clear why this is so important and personal to you because of your son. But I'm also curious is there an element of is it also kind of like a little bit of a palette cleanser after having been involved in politics for so long? Is it sort of a relief to because it sounds like you're discouraged with the political stuff, which I can relate to.

8:33 Speaker 2: I understand.

8:34 Speaker 3: We used to do politics on my radio show, and the past year of keeping politics out of the radio show has kind of been I think, probably good for my mental health in some ways.

8:45 Speaker 2: So I think you.

8:46 Speaker 4: Start forming these petty prejudices against people, and you start to notice a Euro being a nitpicky asshole too, and you know it's like, yeah, unsubscribe something fun. I I do need the break, I do. You know, being a caregiver, a full time caregiver for one year changed me. And then some trips oversea, a trip overseas did so as well. Yeah, a different perspective where you know, should I just say it?

9:17 Speaker 3: You can on the radio show, I wouldn't have wanted to get into it. But here this is free and open and you can you can talk about whatever you want, Gracie, and I'm curious.

9:26 Speaker 4: Actually, yeah, I went to Lebanon and you're like, the no, not Lebanon, New Hampshire, you idiots.

9:35 Speaker 3: There's no reason to go there, no offense to anyone living up there. But it's the North Countries. Uh, you like skiing.

9:41 Speaker 4: But other than that, I I at the time fell in love with a one hundred percent Lebanese guy and

9:54 Speaker 4: love well, you know, he met my family and I had to go meet his, but his was in Lebanon.

9:59 Speaker 2: So wow.

10:01 Speaker 4: It sucked because you know, I've seen the movies, so I'm an expert, you know about because I've seen all these movies. I've seen That without my daughter.

10:12 Speaker 2: You know, great film.

10:14 Speaker 4: It is a great film. And someone actually lived on gave me a different point of view that film. But we'll get to that. Oh okay, they said, Uh, I said, I've seen not without my daughter. I'm like, I'm not gonna die here and they're like, yeah, but it's only told from the woman's perspective during the nineteen eighty four conflict, and it was a divorce trial and she wanted custody, he wanted custody. Oh, one of those moments. But anyway, getting back the dude from Lebanon, so we get we decided to get married, and he flew me out, and I'm thinking the most horrible, rotten things and I could, you know, I could relate to X And you know when they say about certain things about certain culture, and

11:02 Speaker 4: I highly suggest if you're an American to please leave the country just for a week or two every once in a while to kind of get a taste of different cultures. Because I was outside my comfort zone when I arrived at Bayroot Airport. Literally someone got kidnapped and I was like, oh my god, I'm freaking out. Like upon landing, the first story I get on my phone was someone was kidnapped and living on Bey Route right there terminal Like right there, Oh.

11:31 Speaker 3: My god, wow, Wow, that's too close for comfort.

11:36 Speaker 4: Yeah, And then I asked elevenies police officer about it. American, yes, American, Like is it safe or do I gol or like oh, oh, you talk about that kidnapping? I'm like, they said, don't worry about it. I'm like, well, I'm an American and they said, yeah, yeah, that guy was no good. He did some bad deally, so they don't put that in the papers. So he did some bad dealings with this and that. That's that. He's like, don't worry about You're fine. Go And then I got I get to my fiance. He picks me up at the airport and find you know, to pick me up, and and I'm like, you asshole, Oh my, where the hell am I?

12:21 Speaker 4: And uh, I said, you know, someone got kidnapped. So again with the kidnap story. Okay of me, Oh yeah, don't worry about it. That's some guy. He did some bad stuff in the business, and you know he's he's on the wrong side, you know. Anyway, let's go have much. It's basically the same story the other guy gave me.

12:38 Speaker 3: So he was very nonchalant about it. It sounds it's like yeah, it's very yeah.

12:43 Speaker 5: Yeah, okay, so wow, I'm.

12:50 Speaker 4: Thriving in a you know, he doesn't. There's he has like a really low key like old Kia and he keeps there and he keeps tonight hours overseas and now I know why. So we went drive and drive and drive and driving, and it looks vaguely familiar because I'm from La and you got the palm trees, but post apocalyptic, you know. So I had all these prejudices and I was just like wow. And even he was like, what kind of moves do you watch? And he's like, see, this is the West, this is the West. They don't guess, they don't get us.

13:24 Speaker 4: And after meeting everybody at the village and all the other stuff, and talking to real human beings who have had real hardship, to a point where the worst of the worst that I think is happening in my life could never ever equate to what's happening over there. So mind you, I left about two months before the war started, so that was really close. I didn't want to come back, but it was a real spiritual trip. Anybody who is of Lebanese descent, go back home. They need you. It is beautiful, It is beautiful.

14:09 Speaker 4: There's something in the dirt, there's something in the rocks. It's it's just just such a spiritual cleanse that I needed, and that was part of the healing process for me, and a lot of the things that were taught that I was taught about Islam is not true.

14:28 Speaker 2: How long were you there?

14:30 Speaker 4: I was there for I would say about a month.

14:32 Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, so.

14:34 Speaker 4: I spent I spent some time there. I started part I think the first couple of days that called a prayer sounded so annoying really. Yeah, so like you know, being from la and then like you never hear that stuff, and then you know, living out here in New Hampshire for like what six years now, and I got accustomed to quiet. I finally got accustomed to quiet.

14:56 Speaker 2: Yeah.

14:57 Speaker 4: While so now I got called a prayer six times a day and the first three days were like let me sleep, you know, because the time travel, I mean, it really does feel like I felt like an astronaut that arrived to another planet. And that's really what it felt like. Yeah, And I don't know. The one takeaway from that trip was talking to the people and realizing how resilient they are and how I'm an American. I mean, they have a million reasons to hate my guts, and they took me in with open arms, and they even started calling me sister.

15:32 Speaker 4: Villagers came which with gifts and treats, and they wouldn't stop feeding me. I think I put on like fifteen pounds eleven and had to run off, you know. But yeah, seriously, they just keep feeding you and feeding you, and if you say no, it's against their cult. It's just not good too. Yeah, you know, so I always had to kind of like, you know, because I'm.

15:54 Speaker 3: So fool Well, we have people like that here too. They're called Italians.

15:59 Speaker 4: Italians, I think anybody who was not like from the UK right everywhere but the UK.

16:07 Speaker 2: That they want to feed you.

16:08 Speaker 4: Yeah, even the Irish they do the same thing, you know, big meals. So it was a real experience, and I mean when I wrote about it, but you know, for the sake of time, I would please tell the audience to have an open mind about Arab Americans.

16:25 Speaker 3: Yeah people, yeah, yeah, well yeah, I mean it's it's important to uh No, I mean, I'm glad that you say that because you know, and I I assume that the kind of audience that has listened to my show over the years knows knows better than the than the stereotype people.

16:41 Speaker 2: But but but but.

16:43 Speaker 3: Of course, you know, we we're in this time now where it's like, you know, you look at what's going on with Israel and and Gaza, and uh, you know, there's a lot of pressure as as there always is, unfortunately, but I think now more than ever, not only with that issue, but just with issues in generalone so polarized, and you're expected to be all the way on one side or all the way on the other. And we live in a world that is full of nuance, and things are complicated and complex, but you're, for some reason, you're not really allowed to see things that way.

17:18 Speaker 3: You're supposed to either you know, you're supposed to either support Israel no matter what they do, or you're supposed to be completely opposed to Israel.

17:28 Speaker 2: And and I think I.

17:30 Speaker 4: Love about Gin. Yeah he's a you know, a Jewish American and that's great. And nobody's say anything about that, at least I'm not. And you know we've we've talked off air before about you know, what's going on overseas, and yeah, we're on the same page, you know, just peace, cease fire, you know enough enough?

17:52 Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, absolutely absolutely.

17:56 Speaker 4: I did do an international campaign with with I was it's Mohammed Hadid and a couple of others ceasefires. So I'll send you link.

18:05 Speaker 2: That's yeah, I'd like to see that.

18:07 Speaker 3: I'd like to see that, and and and by the way, just just just for the record, for any for any listeners who are are at all confused about my position or anything like that. No, I I call uh, I call October seven a terrorist attack, and I consider Homosi terrists organization. But I also am deeply concerned about uh uh you know, just going in and wiping out everybody in Gaza over it, which from my vantage point, appears to be what's happening. And I I I oppose terrorism and I oppose genocide, and I don't think that I don't think that those are in any way a contradiction.

18:46 Speaker 3: I think you can oppose both terrorism and genocide. But again, unfortunately, for some reason we what's that. Absolutely I agree, but for some reason again, you know, it's like we live in a time where people expect you to you know, you got to be one or the other on everything. It's like, uh, no, I do want to see peace, and obviously not everyone uh you know, not all Palestinians are Amas and and all of it. You know, we have to.

19:13 Speaker 4: From from the Lebanese people. And this is a real gift, is look at the person as a human, yes, or anything else. And it sounds pretty simplistic. But living in this day and age where everything is so polarized about you know, X, Y Z or whatever whatever you're into.

19:37 Speaker 4: I mean, really, do you think do you think a Democrat will pick up a Republican bleeding on the side of the road or vice versa, because that's how polarized we are. And you know, she this woman, she lived in a village, peeling onions. She feeds the village. You know, she was so cool, but she lost she lost five sons in the war.

19:57 Speaker 2: Oh my god, imagine.

20:01 Speaker 4: I'm algobilistic after one. I mean, oh yeah. But I asked her, like, how do you keep going? Like I can't. I don't have that strength, Like I know, I don't.

20:12 Speaker 4: She said, uh, you know, believe in the human race. And there's something she said about that though, so it just connected. I connected, but I got what she was saying, Like she may not have had the best English, but you're human first, right, And it's like, you know what, we need more of that, We need more of that talk.

20:34 Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, we need to because that's something we need to hold on to, is our humanity. No matter what else happens. You know, if we once we lose our humanity, and once we stop seeing people as humans and and all life is as valuable, then uh, then we're you know then, and that happens when we become a little too vengeful, you know, a little a little too and a little.

20:58 Speaker 4: Too practicing what we preach as well, and it keeps us in check. So let's talk about the fun stuff. Let's talk about the TV show.

21:08 Speaker 2: Yeah, so.

21:10 Speaker 4: Excuse me. So there was a lot going on. So I was actually inspired by a few eighties television shows.

21:21 Speaker 2: Really, yeah, so do.

21:23 Speaker 4: You remember like The Facts of Life and Silver Spoons? Growing We lived in the Golden Age television. But there's things about growing up that you couldn't talk about your parents with your parents it was just weird. Or your brother and sister are too stupid and you kick them, and your friends are kind of dumb and you feel stupid about bringing it up. It's about a girl or boy or whatever you're into.

21:47 Speaker 3: You know.

21:48 Speaker 4: So it's like a lot of that stuff. So I did my old research, and you know, I remember like learning a lot from eighties television and being ahead of the curve, like academically because I watched Ductales. Yeah, I remember making that lead from childhood to like my freshman year of high school. It's like that was a Ducktails. That was that Ducktails episode. I know this one. I know this one. Everybody thought I was so smart, but I was really remembering a Ducktails episode right about ancient Greece.

22:21 Speaker 5: Okay, So that's where I kind of borrowed a lot of a lot of that, you know, on the current of these three kids who are superheroes and autistic and it can travel through time.

22:33 Speaker 4: You know, like, let's have them go on adventures and inject some knowledge and wisdom about history. Would that be cool? Talk to Paul Revere and you know, get to see Plymouth Rock when it before got really boring, like during the exciting time, not just a rock. You know what happened around that time with that rock, you know, things like that. So I wanted to make it interactive and stuff that they can remember, and also get into some deep stuff like my mother passed away, getting into I think I wrote.

23:04 Speaker 4: I already wrote the episode Grandma's Gone oh okay, and it's basically an episode on how to deal with loss and death. Of someone you'd love closely. And this is something that Adam could not speak through, so he acted out. So if they have a point of reference where they don't want to talk to adults, but they can have a point of reference where they can self soothe. I want to have that to be available to not just myself but everybody. So there's that we're going to go over. Divorce. One of the characters kids gets divorced, well one of their parents get divorced and the kid doesn't know how to handle it or you know, like what did I do?

23:46 Speaker 2: Is it me?

23:47 Speaker 4: Was I a bad kid? So we want to address that heavy stuff as well as the cool time travel stuff as well, where they go on adventures, the you know, death, the three major ones, you know, death, moving, We want to get into that too, because two of the kids are new, okay, new to the school district. Yeah yeah, so it's death. There's divorce, bad stuff, a lot mixed in with you know, trying to find the answers to how many teeth t Rex has in his mouth so he'll be quite the adventure.

24:28 Speaker 3: And this is oh yeah, no, I'm sorry, Gracie, go ahead.

24:32 Speaker 4: Oh yeah, one other thing too. I did have a question, someone asked me, But they're autistic superheroes. Don't you think you're isolating the other half of your audience who is not neuro divergent And that actually came up today and you know, it's a but it's a valid question though, it really is. And my response to my response to that was that it is a historical show, like where they're going to be meeting uh these big historical figures throughout the whole series, okay, and and the character arc for the uh these three characters is eventually harnessing their superpower, because that's what autism is.

25:18 Speaker 4: It's basically like spaghetti on the wall until you can organize it and you can make art instead. So that's that's kind of what we're doing. You know, we're just kind of giving them a healthy Hand's almost like you know, reaching out on the TV. He' saying, hey kid, you could you could do this too?

25:34 Speaker 2: Right? Right?

25:35 Speaker 3: And by the way, this is set right here in New Hampshire.

25:38 Speaker 4: Correct, Yes, it's gonna be one hundred percent New Hampshire, New England themed all the way, because I want New Hampshire to have some pride. I grew up in la and even if you get a like a receptionist job somewhere for like really like you know, these fifty cents an hour, it's probably gonna be at someone's office that happens to be connected to the film industry. Yes, h I mean it, and I do want you know, there's a lot of New England talent here. There's a lot, and I've seen it. But there's nowhere to go.

26:14 Speaker 4: So there's two things that happen. Either they one give up the dream, get married and get serious and get a real job. Or two they moved to La yeah, yeah, and finding out the hard way about certain things about life. So it's one or two, and sometimes two ends up becoming one and they give up, they come back home and have kids. So what if what if we could save them the trip and give them access to you know, seasoned professionals, seasoned animators, seasoned voiceoveractors. I mean, imagine if you had that at your disposal.

26:55 Speaker 4: I mean you probably have to pay me to leave. I mean I would live there. If I would have held my hand and say, hey, this is how you use Adobe Illustrator, this is how you animate, or if you want to get into voice acting, this is how you do it. Yeah, and to have you know, to have that ambition and to foster I think it's really important. And who knows who the heck we could discover right uncovery, like like whose career that we're gonna launch? We're like, oh, we didn't expect that to happen, Like I was getting an oscar, Like where's my oscar?

27:29 Speaker 4: But you know, like to have that kind of pride. I have a lot of great stories about like like my mother was a seamstress for MGM. You know, like everybody had a story. My uncles used to uh press hot wax at uh at at Capitol Records. Yeah, like his job was to you know a wax.

27:54 Speaker 2: Yeah. Wow.

27:57 Speaker 4: You know, everybody I know has a story they worked with so famous or you know they got the Clint Eastwood stories or everybody's got one. So why yeah, why not bring it here a little that?

28:11 Speaker 2: Yeah? Right, yeah, no doubt, no doubt.

28:17 Speaker 3: Well, I think as as as more and more people learn about the project, I think more people are going to want to get involved, you know, because.

28:24 Speaker 2: It's it's unique.

28:27 Speaker 3: There's nothing like this, right, like like that that I'm aware of an animated show like this, like what you're developing from from this particular point of view with these types of characters.

28:39 Speaker 4: You know that, but I want them to quantum leap, you know what. They're going to have some weird mind bending stuff that's going to happen to them, and it's going to be between the audience and the kids, and the parents are completely parents and teachers are completely out of it. They're like, really, you guys are just daydreaming.

28:57 Speaker 3: You know.

28:57 Speaker 4: It's like, oh, we went somewhere. It was cool, we saw ancient civilization.

29:04 Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, but no, it's a it's a fantastic concept. I'm excited about it. And uh yeah, and I I think it's it's great that you know, it's as I always say, you know, we got to shovel as much positive energy out into the world as we can.

29:24 Speaker 2: You know, now more than ever, you.

29:25 Speaker 3: Know, whatever we can put out into the world, that's that's positive and that I think people will really get something from. And you know, so I I think, you know, when I first learned about this from you, that you were doing this, I said, you know, any you know, any way I can help, and and I just think it's it's great. It's it's fantastic, you know, and and and seeing the images too on the on the website. So you're you're you're also animating this or you're or you're working.

29:55 Speaker 4: Well, uh, this is all me right now. But I just I just talk to a friend who gave me the he'll help me out, who has a great resume. He's worked with a lot of you know, big Hollywood productions.

30:13 Speaker 3: So I'm not going to say his name is Okay, Okay.

30:15 Speaker 4: Okay, I don't want to, you know, like a little shy. Yeah, I know, he said, yes, definitely he's in, but I just it just happened. I'm still processing. Yeah, yeah, but I definitely. You know, it's it's hard, it's it's hard to get the pitch out and you have the right of ears listening to this. But there isn't anything like this on TV. I did notice, uh when I did my market research for autistic leads and television shows. And you have The Good Doctor. You have a show called Attorney Wu on Netflix.

30:55 Speaker 2: I haven't seen that.

30:59 Speaker 4: Yeah, And basically it's uh, you know, they're they're great actors. It's a great show. It's well written. There's another one called uh, what was it atypical and it's about a teenage boy.

31:11 Speaker 2: Heard of that one.

31:13 Speaker 4: It's about a teenage boy who reaches the age of puberty and starts dating girls but is awkward. But that's the thing. They're all awkward and kind of robotic.

31:23 Speaker 3: And there's a stereotype, isn't there. There's this autistic stereotype that shows up in entertainment and a lead that.

31:31 Speaker 4: But there's people that are still pretty ignorant to say, oh, you don't look autistic.

31:35 Speaker 2: Yeah.

31:36 Speaker 4: Yeah, And there's still people that say that.

31:39 Speaker 3: There's a whole spectrum and there's autistic people, you know, just like anybody else's all kinds of autistic people, right.

31:47 Speaker 4: Well, Albert Einstein, Nikola Tesla, I mean those are like textbook Yeah, so yeah, I firmly believe that they are little geniuses, and I you know, I know that there's a lot of stuff going on in those brains because you could just see the wheels turn it. You know, Oh my god, I could.

32:05 Speaker 3: Just hack that, right.

32:07 Speaker 4: And maybe they sho can in a way you know, where they can start testing reality. How much can I get away with if I really really want it?

32:16 Speaker 2: Right? Right?

32:17 Speaker 4: Yeah, so maybe we can get it too. I want a fourth kid. I do want a fourth kid eventually, and that's something that once the show takes off, I would love to do a sweepstakes on like a really cool kid who's really done something great with on the autism, on the autism spectrum. That's what I would love to do to do to add a fourth But that's later.

32:39 Speaker 3: That makes that makes sense, So as the series goes, you know, if that that universe kind of kind of expands in terms of the characters. And are there other obviously Adam is your son? Are are the other two existing characters? Are those also based on real people or are those kind of composites or did those come from imagination or my imagination?

33:03 Speaker 4: Okay, what I imagine his friends are like at school because they don't let us in because once you drop your kid off, you know, so my imagination goes crazy. He might he might have a friend that can travel through time.

33:15 Speaker 3: I don't know for all, you know, Yeah, so.

33:18 Speaker 4: There you go. You know, they could do some crazy, weird, like you know, autistic stuff, you know with mathematics, you.

33:26 Speaker 3: Know, Yeah, yeah, no, that's that's that's cool. Though, what are they Maybe you said this already.

33:35 Speaker 2: I'm not sure.

33:36 Speaker 3: I may have forgotten, but what are the ages of the I mean, do you establish within the series? Do you establish the ages of of the three kids?

33:44 Speaker 2: Or no?

33:45 Speaker 4: Yeah, eight to ten? Okay, So I'm looking at that, uh, because that's like the honey spot where kids are sweet, they're starting to get inquisitive and they're about to hit peeby. So that's like the spot where we want to do storylines like I was say about the nineteen eighty sitcoms, Like you know, we had the Facts of Life and stuff to add some element of that undertones to the show. So if they're presented with a problem, they know how to handle it morally, okay, you know, like yeah, if Zoe can time travel, she can steal stuff, right.

34:24 Speaker 2: Is it?

34:25 Speaker 4: Would that be good or bad?

34:26 Speaker 2: Or you know?

34:27 Speaker 4: And there's also the ripple effect things like that, so there's always going to be the moral of the story. So I watched Facts of Life. Oh God, I can't believe I'm admitting this. When I watched the Facts of Life rewatching everything all over again. Yeah, yeah, and there is a They were really really really really good at the morality talk. You know, like if it's offered to you, what do you do? What will you do? How do you handle that? Yeah, and there's not there's not there's not a lot of that. They just automatically have the girl go through the worst case scenario and almost in a voyeuristic stick sort of way, you know, And and they don't really handle the inner morality talk as far as like a, y, you should be doing that and you know, kind of go from there.

35:15 Speaker 4: We don't have that anymore.

35:18 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that's interesting. Yeah.

35:22 Speaker 3: I used to watch the Facts of Life when I was a kid. I think I even remember that. It was the theme you take the good, you take the bad, you take them both in there you have the Facts of Life.

35:30 Speaker 4: Yeah, that's exactly it.

35:31 Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly watch it.

35:34 Speaker 4: But I know the themes song by heart. No, it's it's infectious. It's infectious. You know, silver Spoons. Even Small Wonder had you know, elements of harm that would come to Vicky the robot. There is this where the girls are trying to so either you're with Small Wonder or you hated Small Wonder. There was no in between Small Wonder people, so I could tell.

36:00 Speaker 3: I never I never saw a single episode of the show, but I do remember it. I just remember seeing the promos on TV for it, but I never actually never actually saw the series.

36:12 Speaker 4: Well one of the episodes, Vicky and the Robot gets off for drugs. Yeah, only in nineteen eighty six.

36:19 Speaker 3: Man, that must have been That must have been a very special small wonder.

36:25 Speaker 4: Yeah, small wonder, all right, and can go all day about this one. But uh yeah, I mean there's you know, there is another episode of the Facts of Life where Natalie gets assaulted. It's actually assaulted, oh wow.

36:37 Speaker 1: Yeah.

36:38 Speaker 4: Yeah, And that was heavy because it wasn't in a voyeuristic six sort of way where they go through all the motions to show you exactly how right the facts allied. They give you an idea and she just had a rip jacket.

36:50 Speaker 2: Oh that's it.

36:51 Speaker 4: But it went that wasn't you had you got to hear her side of the story, being scared and afraid and alone, yeah, versus having a witness all that again you know. Yeah, yeah, So I mean I want I want those under tones of you know, these are the things that are going to come at you and how you should handle them.

37:12 Speaker 2: Yeah.

37:15 Speaker 3: Reflecting on old old shows though, like like the Facts of Life, it also makes me think about and we talked about this, I think on the radio too, is that we're fortunate that, you know, we live in a time where there are so many different ways, you know, so many different options where a show like this could go in terms of distribution. Because if we were, if we were having the same conversation back when The Facts of Life wasn't first run on NBC, you know, we'd be talking about, you know, hopefully maybe getting a network executive to show some interest in it, and how do you even do that?

37:52 Speaker 3: And of course, but you know maybe of course you mean from from la you know, you might have an end. But but it would be a very different conversation in the sense that it would be a much higher hill to climb in a sense, right, because there were so few options, whereas now because of you know, streaming and streams.

38:13 Speaker 4: Changed, the industry flipped it over. It's flipped it over its head. And I predict that the celebrity culture is dead and that the we're at the age of the influencer.

38:25 Speaker 2: Yes, I agree with you. I agree with you.

38:27 Speaker 4: That's where I think we're heading. Yeah, you know, I would love for you know, maybe maybe we could stick to eight to ten and do a spin off show where they quantum leap to different ages, or they can leap into a different reality where they're all live action. There's so many things we can do. Yeah, there's so many things we could do, and it's fun.

38:49 Speaker 6: Absolutely, absolutely, And you have should we announce that you're going to be the voice we're gonna Okay, so since Matt is awesome, Matt is going to be the.

39:00 Speaker 4: Voice of Sam and Adam. Unless I like Jen to voice four.

39:08 Speaker 2: Well we'll well, we'll see.

39:10 Speaker 3: Who know you you You might you might end up hating my voices and decide you don't want you don't want me involved.

39:17 Speaker 4: Hopefully, Well there's well I'm thinking Jen, Yeah, the female here, the female voice is a little more easier to Yeah, but well we'll get into the technicalities. Yeah, yeah, I think I think you'll be great. I mean, there's gonna be lots of characters. You're gonna be my my, Hanka's area. Okay, it's like we need the lux room guy. Hey, I'm here, kids here, very south Park. You could be you could be a chef like from south Park alread you know kids.

39:48 Speaker 3: Well that no, but but I'm very I'm very excited. Like I said, I think it's it. Uh, yeah, it's it's like it's like I said, this is very positive, you know, and I think that's.

40:02 Speaker 2: Amazing and.

40:04 Speaker 3: I'm excited for the challenge of it and just to be involved on any level is amazing. So I appreciate it.

40:12 Speaker 4: Yeah, it is very heavy. It's a it's a heavy project because it's sort of like being a CEO of a startup. You know, you have the creative aspects of it, and then you have the artistic and then you have the uh, the infrastructure of how all this hangs. So yeah, you get a cool title like showrunner, but really, if anything fails, it's your butt. So it's like and your reputation in your ass. So it's like, ye, make it work, make it work.

40:41 Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, absolutely, Is there anything else we I know, there's a probably a lot you can't say yet, right I don't know, is there anything else that At this point, we want to make sure people know about Adam's world right now.

40:56 Speaker 4: We can definitely use donations. Right now we are going through well, we want to do what I love, love love that, uh episode one. I want to be able to fund that with you know, uh, illustrations, like with real artists and have the whole team finally working together and see what happens. I want to see what kind of magic happens, but I want to be able to pay what they're worth and to be able to afford my life as a single mother as well with an autistic child. So yeah, that could help as well.

41:36 Speaker 3: So yeah, absolutely, and we should mention too. If you go to your website there are you know, you can you can see uh some of what the project is about there visually, and also I.

41:48 Speaker 4: Have the first script up there as well, and early concept videos, market analysis, everything there, and.

41:57 Speaker 3: People can make donations right there, correct, right there.

42:00 Speaker 4: They can go to kickstarter or they can go to the graciegatto dot com and just donate.

42:07 Speaker 3: Yeah, and you offer other services too through the website.

42:09 Speaker 2: We should make sure people know that too.

42:11 Speaker 4: Oh absolutely. Yes, I'm a copywriter. I have done a copywriting, screenwriting, ghostwriting, web content technical writer. So I am for higher at least until this thing gets picked up, and then I'll be married to my work.

42:26 Speaker 3: So yeah, yeah, that'll be a good problem to have though.

42:30 Speaker 4: That would be a good problem to have.

42:32 Speaker 3: Yeah, I'd love to know who you've ghost written for. But you probably can't tell us.

42:36 Speaker 2: You can't tell you can give us a hunt.

42:40 Speaker 4: Well, it comes as it comes, like, you know, I don't really know who it is. They just want like, hey, can you write a chapter maybe of this is what I got so far, but could you mix it? Yeah?

42:54 Speaker 2: Interesting, it's interesting.

42:56 Speaker 3: That's cool though, that's very cool.

43:00 Speaker 4: That's very Can you make it funnier? Can you make it funnier?

43:04 Speaker 2: Do you guys do that to punch up scripts?

43:07 Speaker 4: Oh? Yeah, the thing is about like chat chiput is a great tool, but there's a human element that happens with comedy writing that chat ChiPT just doesn't get right. So it's very sanitized, like like speaking like robot, you know. So it's good for certain things like here draft a report that I need blah blah blah. Yeah go, but like when it comes to like people talking and dialogue and how people interact and how they you know, approach things, is chat Chipet's got a long way to go and to figure that out.

43:41 Speaker 3: So absolutely, yeah, I don't. I don't think it'll ever be I don't think it'll ever be able to replace humans in that sense, at least I hope not.

43:50 Speaker 4: I heard it. They come pretty close depending but you still got to spoon feed it.

43:54 Speaker 2: Yeah exactly.

43:54 Speaker 4: It's like it's like it's like having a word blender, but you've got to put content in there blends something.

44:00 Speaker 3: So right, exactly exactly. Well, Gracie, we can, we can. Uh well we'll wrap this up, but uh there's lots of good stuff to come, and please go to Gracie's website Graciegatto dot com.

44:13 Speaker 4: Yes, all right, thank.

44:15 Speaker 2: You, Bye everybody

44:17 Speaker 1: Bye bye, Command God, don't get Supreme La MEGXO coming