Shaun's Facebook Q & A Highlights

Shaun Cassidy drops back into Facebook Q&A mode and we grab the best of the questions and answers. We dig into the fan questions that matter most: Shaun’s favorite Hardy Boys episode, what happens to TV pilots like Hysteria when networks pass, and whether there’s any path for American Gothic to live again on a modern streaming platform. We talk about our own perfectly timed Chicago connection, heading to a Gary Cole stage performance while Shaun’s Q&A is happening and getting pulled right back into American Gothic, the cult series Shaun wrote and produced. 

Shaun says he learned his craft by working with great writers, and describes his scripts as deeply personal and often therapeutic. We also cover tour rumors, the possibility of filmed shows, deep cut song requests like “Hard Love,” and the story behind “Memory Girl,” including its roots as a Neon Philharmonic hit and why so many fans never heard it in the US. Wrap it up with us, share this with a fellow Shaun fan, and leave a review letting us know your thoughts on the episode.

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Transcript

Intro

SPEAKER_04 0:00

All right. So the next question that Lori asked is what's the story behind the song Memory Girl? Well, not to confuse it with Morning Girl. Morning Girl.

SPEAKER_02 0:11

Right. Yeah. Memory Girl is one of these lost songs that I just found out about when we started the podcast about three years ago. And, you know, doing all our research and stuff. Yeah. I happened to ponder. I'm like, what in the world?

SPEAKER_04 0:29

I never knew that existed. No, me neither. And I think I maybe heard it once or twice, but I don't like it as much as Morning Girl.

SPEAKER_03 0:37

Morning Girl, right.

SPEAKER_04 0:38

But yeah, Sean said, This is the first song I ever recorded, which is why I sound like I'm about 11 years old. Yeah, they did speed up the records, remember? They did the partridge family too.

SPEAKER_02 0:50

Yeah, they sped them up because they had an audience to attract. From his teen idol days to his recent adventures back on the road again.

SPEAKER_01 1:30

Please join us for the stories and memories that connected us to those happy days that helped create the Sean Squad Society Podcast.

Shaun Returns With A Facebook Q And A

SPEAKER_02 1:38

Hi, Cindy. Hey. How are you? Good, how are you? Well, not a lot changed since what? Yesterday when I saw you? Yes. We've been busy. We have been some busy Sean Squad Society podcasters. Yes, we have. And today we're here because, you know, um, just recently, Sean posted in his uh Facebook and uh social media the announcement of his uh great nephew, James David. Yes, David Cassidy's first grandchild. Yes, uh, he was born early June, and he's beautiful, he's a cute little guy.

SPEAKER_04 2:19

Yeah, he is.

SPEAKER_02 2:21

So happy for them. I am. I'm very happy for Bo and Stephanie and all of the Cassidys. So it's a great, great event. But within that post that Sean put out announcing the birth, he said, Hey you guys, tomorrow I'm gonna do a QA because I miss you. Concerts have ended, I'm not out there as much. How about if we get back together and you ask some questions, I'll answer them.

SPEAKER_04 2:54

Well, we knew he was gonna connect, you know, sooner or later. He must have just needed a break.

SPEAKER_02 2:58

Yes. And he broke. And he broke and now he's back. And now he's back. So just yesterday, he posted Happy Saturday. Let's all pretend we're in this theater together, but instead of music, we're doing a great big QA.

Theater Trip And Gary Cole Connection

SPEAKER_02 3:20

So we were kind of on the road. That's kind of funny when this came out.

SPEAKER_04 3:26

Yeah, talking about a theater. We were on our way to a theater yesterday.

SPEAKER_02 3:30

For what?

SPEAKER_04 3:30

We went to go see a Gary Cole play.

SPEAKER_02 3:33

And Gary Cole is, as we know, the one and only Sheriff Lucas Buck from my favorite show, American Gun. American Gothic. Yeah, we are so excited. Yeah, sure. Excited to see that. Sean produced and wrote American Gothic in the 90s. And Gary Cole had the lead role as Sheriff Lucas Bunk.

SPEAKER_04 3:57

And we just did an episode on the lost episode of the American Gothic.

SPEAKER_02 4:03

Our very last dropped episode of this podcast was American Gothic Potato Boy.

SPEAKER_04 4:10

Potato Boy that I don't know if anybody heard of.

SPEAKER_02 4:12

It's a lost episode. And we plan to cover a couple more, too, down the road. Yeah. Yeah. But um Gary, we're in Chicago, and Gary is from Chicago. And he returned after over 20 years.

SPEAKER_04 4:28

I think it was 25 years to the Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago.

SPEAKER_02 4:32

Where he got his start on stage to be in this stage production of a play called Catch Ass Catch Care.

SPEAKER_04 4:42

Yeah, I don't get the title, but it was interesting to watch it.

SPEAKER_02 4:46

It was a great play. And um we did get to make sure Gary knew we were there, and we got to extend an invitation to the podcast, though not personally, because accidentally we bought tickets for what's called a preview showing. Right. It wasn't the show opens actually today as we're doing this podcast. That was like uh let's iron out the wrinkles, bring in an audience, let's do the whole run. And at the end, the actors, the director, everybody get together and they iron out wrinkles. Well, that's why we couldn't meet Gary because he was busy setting up for the next show, which is that evening, right? And they had some wrinkles to iron.

SPEAKER_04 5:40

Yeah, but that's okay because we have an American gothic script that Sean signed. So we were lucky enough to get Gary to sign it. Yes. So we do have that.

SPEAKER_02 5:51

The theater people were so very helpful. The stage manager, the other manager we talked to, and they did make sure to take the script back to Gary, have him sign it, they returned it back to us, and they it delivered our package to him.

SPEAKER_04 6:13

So at least he knows we were there.

SPEAKER_02 6:15

Yes. And that's pretty much a great accomplishment in itself. Yeah, we had a great time. Yeah, the play was wonderful. Yeah. But during the play, something else was happening that we weren't really paying that much attention to. Sean's QA.

unknown 6:34

Oh, yes.

SPEAKER_02 6:35

That had to be at the same time. Yes.

SPEAKER_04 6:37

As the play.

SPEAKER_02 6:38

It started at two o'clock Central Time, which is where we are. And of course, we were in the middle of the play.

SPEAKER_04 6:47

Right. So But we were able to post some questions, and we did let Sean know that we were headed to a theater. Not to see him, but to see the play and Gary Cole.

SPEAKER_02 6:57

Yes, we didn't. What a connection. What uh talk about a connection? That was a great connection. And we let him know. And um we thought, hey, why don't we dedicate this up episode since we weren't really able to follow along live, and some other people probably weren't. Why don't we dedicate this episode to going through some of the uh most popular questions and reading his answers and giving our little one take?

SPEAKER_04 7:27

Yeah, because sometimes people don't go through all of the questions. You know, there's a lot of them there. There's over a thousand posts. So maybe they don't see all of them. So sometimes we like to have these summary QA's where we kind of go through it for you and ask ask the question and see what his answer was. And maybe they were busy just like we were. Right. So we're just doing a summary to pull it all together. Yeah. So how about we just kick

Hardy Boys Favorite Episode Revealed

SPEAKER_04 7:53

that off? Yeah, let's see what the first question is that I could find says, which episode of the Hardy Boys is your favorite?

SPEAKER_02 8:02

Well, guess what, Cindy? We also feature Hardy Boys episodes. Right. Right? And we did So far we did the Valerie Bartonelli. Yep. And did we do another one?

SPEAKER_04 8:16

Yeah, we did the summer episode.

SPEAKER_02 8:19

Uh The Last Kiss of Summer.

SPEAKER_04 8:20

The Last Kiss of Summer.

SPEAKER_02 8:22

So this is wonderful because now we know what our next episode will be.

SPEAKER_04 8:27

Yeah, okay, and this is Sean's answer. The one where Joe got married, lost his wife, then went on a Charlie Bronson revenge spree.

SPEAKER_02 8:37

Last kiss the summer. Last kiss of summer.

SPEAKER_04 8:39

That's what it is. We just did that. We featured his favorite episode. And we talked about him having more acting in it. He could show his acting abilities more. He was the main character in that episode.

SPEAKER_02 8:53

Yes. He was a little more dramatic. He got to be as he wasn't relying on Frank as much. In fact, Frank hardly had anything to do with the rebr the revenge spread. He had nothing to really do. Right.

SPEAKER_04 9:07

It was all Sean. So we loved that one because of that. And maybe that's why he liked it too.

SPEAKER_02 9:12

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 9:12

So that was interesting. Oh, yeah. Nope. He he liked the one we liked. Well, great. So that was a great pick. That's a great pick for us. Yep. All right. So the next one says, I had the opportunity to be an extra on hysteria. What was hysteria?

SPEAKER_02 9:33

Obviously, another show he produced.

SPEAKER_04 9:36

All right. Well, she said I even had some close-ups that got cut. I thought it was a great pilot and the premise was good. Why did it not get picked up for more episodes? I've always wondered about that. And he says most pilots don't get picked up. Just the way the game is played, he says. I've been fortunate to see a lot of mine go to series, but it's like baseball, right? The best hitters strike out seven out of ten times.

SPEAKER_02 10:03

So from what I'm gathering is he had a pilot out there that they shot. Usually what pilots are three episodes? I don't know. I'm not from Hollywood, but from what I remember back in the day, they used to say we had these three pilot episodes. They shot them. The network decided we're not picking it up. Right. So that's why we didn't know what hysteria is.

SPEAKER_04 10:27

Yeah. I mean, so he keeps keeps moving forward and keeps pitching the scripts. Yeah. Until one does get picked up. Exactly. That's the way the game's played, I guess. All right. So the next one, it says, Do you really want me to ask you about American Gothic again? Really? Who wrote that? So other people, Alan was his name. And he's asking about American Gothic. So there's other people out there too that love American Gothic.

SPEAKER_02 10:55

Let me just

Why Pilots Like Hysteria Fade

SPEAKER_02 10:56

say this. That reads exactly like something I would have written. Right? Don't those words sound like they could have come right from me. It does. Do you really want me to ask you about American Gothic?

SPEAKER_04 11:10

Oh, again. Again? Yeah. So he's asking again about it. And Sean's uh response was kind of funny. All he said was, um, it's a lovely painting. Oh. I guess of the farmers, right? The weary farmer couple. Yeah, that's American Gothic. So he's kind of being cheeky there, and yeah, thought it was funny. But no more, you know, into that one.

SPEAKER_02 11:36

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 11:36

But I'm glad somebody asked about American Gothic.

SPEAKER_02 11:38

Me too. I'm telling you, there's a following. I know. We have to do some more episodes.

SPEAKER_04 11:43

I know. I hope that Sean can reboot it. That would be nice.

SPEAKER_02 11:48

Well, there's the media for it, like the medium, I should say, whatever the word is. It's it could be on like any kind of streaming platform now. Right. Netflix or something. Anybody could pick it up. Anybody could pick it up.

SPEAKER_04 12:04

Yeah. That would be nice. Because it only had one season.

SPEAKER_02 12:07

It did. One good season.

SPEAKER_04 12:09

Yeah, but it would have been good to continue that. But you know, that's how it goes. All right.

American Gothic Joke And Reboot Hopes

SPEAKER_04 12:15

So the next question is you're an amazing writer of screenplays, songs, etc. Have you ever taken writing classes or have you developed your writing skill by just doing a ton of writing and self-incorporating peer suggestions into your writing? And the side note says, My sister and I loved your spokane show. Thank you for a wonderful nostalgia-filled evening. So did Sean really go to school for this writing?

SPEAKER_02 12:43

Well, I would I would say not. I say he um he was on sets a lot. So maybe it was like the school of what do you call it when you learn as you go there. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 12:58

So I think he answered this before.

SPEAKER_02 13:00

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 13:00

So he did say, nope, no classes, but as a young actor, I got to work with a lot of writers and playwrights and learned a lot about structure, character development, and etc. And I found I had a pretty good ear for dialogue, which I think may come from my musical side.

SPEAKER_02 13:20

Okay. Okay. That's a good answer. There you go. Sean never went to school, you guys, for uh writing.

SPEAKER_04 13:27

He learned, yeah. I I I think it started with the Hardy Boys.

SPEAKER_02 13:30

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 13:31

Because he did say he was in the writer's room a lot. Yeah. On the Hardy Boys.

SPEAKER_02 13:35

And I think that was the first show he ever did. He didn't do shows like before the Hardy Boys where he guest starred on little um episodes of other big series. He didn't do that.

SPEAKER_04 13:49

Right. Like David did.

SPEAKER_02 13:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 13:52

Bonanza or stuff like that.

SPEAKER_02 13:53

Emergency um bonanza.

SPEAKER_04 13:56

Marcus Welby?

SPEAKER_02 13:58

Marcus Welby. It was a bunch.

SPEAKER_04 13:59

Yeah. And then he got Partridge Family.

SPEAKER_02 14:01

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 14:02

But Sean didn't do that. He went straight to Hardy Boys.

SPEAKER_02 14:05

Exactly.

SPEAKER_04 14:06

Next question. All of your young life, it sounds like you wrote music to work your way through the issues of life. The last show I saw, you said that when you quit singing, you quit writing music too. My question is what became your way to work the problems, issues, and responsibilities of life.

SPEAKER_02 14:27

Oh, so if he wasn't writing, that was his way of working it out. So what took its place? What took the place of writing?

SPEAKER_04 14:35

Right, yeah. And he says every script I've ever written, and I've now written hundreds of them, has been personal for me in some way. I often write about my family, challenges I'm having, my hopes, dreams, whatever. But the journey is disguised because I create fictional characters to tell these stories. But make no mistake, all of my writing is deeply personal and often therapeutic.

SPEAKER_02 15:01

Let me tell you, I told you this whole dark side of Sean.

SPEAKER_00 15:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:06

I would love to get in his head and see just what is inspiring invasion, American Gothic. What the heck, Sean?

SPEAKER_04 15:17

What inspired that? Where did Lucas Buck actually come from? Where did he come from? Mm-hmm. And we know that his first son was named Caleb. Right. Because of American Gothic character.

SPEAKER_02 15:32

He loves that show as much as we do. Yeah. He said that more than once.

SPEAKER_04 15:38

Yeah. And what was his favorite line from a movie?

SPEAKER_02 15:41

Someone's at the door.

SPEAKER_04 15:43

I love that. It just sounds so creepy when you say it.

SPEAKER_02 15:47

My friend Teresa,

How Shaun Learns Writing By Doing

SPEAKER_02 15:48

who went to one of our recent uh Chicago shows with us at the QA, she just will walked up to him at the end and said, I love American Gothic. And he said, Me too. I just want to get into his head and find out where, Sean, you're writing all these, you know, other type of shows. And out comes that about the sheriff who's dirty and yeah, what's the inspiration for that?

SPEAKER_04 16:20

What what could he have come across that would have made him think about that?

SPEAKER_02 16:24

Oh my goodness gracious.

SPEAKER_04 16:26

Yeah, I I don't know either. That's very interesting. That would be a good question.

SPEAKER_02 16:30

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 16:30

I don't even know if he's answered a question like that before. I don't know that he would. Yeah. Good question to ask next time, though. Yes. All right. So uh Deanna asked, How are you going to spend your day after this QA is over? Well, well, and he answered it. He gave an answer. He says, I'm at our family's cabin in the mountains of Southern California writing. He's writing again. Yep. Multiple projects. And yes, I will be taking a break to watch the NBA Finals.

SPEAKER_02 16:58

Okay. So he did watch that. And it kind of, well, I guess he doesn't have to watch all of the games of the Dodgers. But they were playing the White Sox, which is my favorite show. Yeah, right? So I would have actually it was a good game. Yeah. Because from what I understand, the picture for the Dodgers was on the verge of a no-hitter. And the White Sox had a wrong home run against them and broke his no-hitter. Oh wow. So he wasn't watching that. But he did watch the NBA, which was also a good game. Yeah. I don't care about either of the teams, but the way the Knicks won, it was just a good game. Yeah, it comes down to those last few seconds, right? Yeah. So we know that's what he was doing after he was writing whatever this mystery thing is.

SPEAKER_04 17:51

Yeah, which hopefully we'll find out. Who knows? All right. And the next person, Terry, said, Do you still write music? And he said, Yes, happily. And then Lish uh says, Think you guys should do a new Hardy Boys. And Sean replied, uh, Hardy grandpas? And someone said yes.

SPEAKER_02 18:15

Yeah, he censored that one a couple of times.

SPEAKER_04 18:18

Yeah, he did.

SPEAKER_02 18:19

On his QA.

SPEAKER_04 18:20

Yeah. How would they incorporate them being grandpas now?

SPEAKER_02 18:24

You know, there of course could be other people as the Hardy Boys, and they mentor these people in some way. The way that their dad would kind of help them along. Right. Frank and Joe could be kind of helping them along.

SPEAKER_04 18:41

Look at Columbo. He was older. He was older. I don't think that if they decide to be uh Hardy Boys, I I think they would get away with it.

SPEAKER_02 18:50

Yeah, but running around as detected.

SPEAKER_04 18:54

Well, they can't run around anymore, but they can walk.

SPEAKER_02 18:57

But that's what I'm trying to get at. They could be more of um uh uh assistance uh behind the scene uh helping with you know this crime solving.

SPEAKER_04 19:08

Or have yeah, or they could have kids of their own. Yes, and they get together.

SPEAKER_02 19:12

That's what I'm saying. And and they're the Frank and Joe are now more of Like in the dad role.

SPEAKER_04 19:18

Yes, like their dad wasn't Hardy Boys. Now you're seeing what I'm saying. Yeah, yeah. He started it and then the kids took it after that.

SPEAKER_02 19:26

But he was always Fenton helped in his own way. That's what I'm saying. Well then they could be Fenton then. They could be Frank and Joe, and these new Hardy Boys can have their own name. Yeah, that would be fun.

SPEAKER_04 19:41

They can't take Frank and Joe from Sean and Party. Right, right, right. But a different version. I would love to watch that.

SPEAKER_02 19:47

That would be great. I think we just came up with it.

SPEAKER_04 19:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:50

Pitch it, Cindy.

SPEAKER_04 19:52

Okay. See if he'll take that.

SPEAKER_02 19:54

Throw

Touring Questions And New Music Plans

SPEAKER_02 19:55

out the first pitch on that one.

SPEAKER_04 19:57

Yeah, right. And this next one I think he's answered before, too. You probably will know the answer to this one. Angela said, Sean, if you weren't famous, what career would you have chosen to pursue? Yes, he has answered that. He has answered that. And I'll give you a hint, Parker. Architecture, painting? Architecture. Yeah. I think he likes the shapes of things or stuff, like he said. I'm sure when they were on the Hardy Boys they talked about that.

SPEAKER_02 20:26

Probably, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 20:27

Yeah. Alright, so next question from Mary. How are you, Sean? Will we see you out on tour in 2027? I know everybody wants to know that answer.

SPEAKER_02 20:37

Everybody everybody wants to know. Everybody does. So what are we thinking or hearing?

SPEAKER_04 20:43

What's the answer? I was hoping he would too, but Sean says that he's good for now and he's rested and he's busy and he's happy. And a lot of people have been calling him about doing more concert dates later in the year. So maybe for the holidays, he'll do one. He says we'll see how it all lays out. So there's a possibility at the end of the year. Maybe we'll see. Okay. You know, he'll be rested. He's doing his work. He might need a break by then.

SPEAKER_02 21:11

Hopefully.

SPEAKER_04 21:12

Oh, the end of this year. This year. The end of this year.

SPEAKER_02 21:17

Oh.

SPEAKER_04 21:17

Maybe for the holidays, he said.

SPEAKER_02 21:20

Okay. Well, we shall see.

SPEAKER_04 21:22

But I know he heads out east sometimes during that time.

SPEAKER_02 21:25

Yeah, and he does his uh event at the winery, his holiday soir. If he does one, then that's gonna be around that time. Oh yeah, right.

SPEAKER_04 21:36

Could happen. All right, next question is from Evelyn. Would you ever consider doing a show for HBO for all your fans that didn't get to see you live?

SPEAKER_02 21:45

Well, the way I look at it is the the performer doesn't consider it the network like HBO, the promoter, those kind of people. Ask them. Yeah. You don't go to them and say, hey, I'm ready. Let me do a show for you, HBO. Right. You gotta be asked. Yep. And I don't know if HBO is actually asking. What was his answer?

SPEAKER_04 22:10

He says, I feel like I'm writing it every day. Even this is writing my book in a sense, isn't it? Okay. Well, like he said, his shows are his book. Instead of writing a book, he wanted just to tell his stories and be in, you know, in front of us.

SPEAKER_02 22:26

You know, that that lady was onto something because I watch a lot of public broadcasting. And I watch a lot of concerts that were filmed even here at the small theaters, like Sean was doing. Right. We had one in this town called um Walkegan, and it's the Genesee Theater, and a lot of shows that I watch on our public broadcasting were filmed there. Oh that would have been so cool if those uh Arcada and St. Charles um shows were St. Charles and Display's shows were filmed. And then we broadcast on public broadcasting. Nice. And the funny thing about it, the uh owner of those two theaters here in Chicago, Ron O'Nesty, is directly connected to our public broadcasting station. Oh, interesting. Why didn't we think to pitch that to Ron O'Nesty for the next time?

SPEAKER_04 23:33

We still can. We will see about that. And then the next uh question, I guess her name is Katniss. If you tour again, would you consider adding songs from your under wraps LP like Hard Love and Lie to Me? He hasn't done that yet.

SPEAKER_02 23:50

Well no, he hasn't, but he did do my favorite. She's right.

SPEAKER_04 23:55

Yes. She's right. He did do that one. Yeah. So Sean says, My nephew Cole, our guitar player, is dying for me to do hard love. We did it a few times in the last show, but it felt it was too similar to another song of mine in the show called Break for the Street. But we'll see in the future. So he's leaving the door open. Okay. I like Hard Love. Yes. Yeah, I did too. I like that one better than Lie to Me.

SPEAKER_02 24:27

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 24:28

I think Lie to Me was at the end of the album and it was kind of like a tag-along song.

SPEAKER_02 24:32

That's one of those songs, you know, how you kind of it goes way back in the recesses of your mind and you gotta hear it. Yeah. And go, oh yeah.

SPEAKER_04 24:40

But Hard Love was more hard love is yeah, everybody loves more of a action pack kind of sound. Yes. Uh song. Yeah. It was rocking for sure. Yeah, so that would be fun. You know, he can still do tours and and sing songs he hasn't sang before.

SPEAKER_02 24:57

And I can see Cole liking that one because Cole

Deep Cuts And Missing David’s Laugh

SPEAKER_02 25:00

plays guitar. And that's a great guitar song. That's why he wants it. Yes.

SPEAKER_04 25:08

Yeah. That would be fun. Yeah. I'll be looking forward to that. All right. The next question is from Candy. And she said, I thoroughly enjoyed seeing you in Riverside, California, even though you suffered from laryngitis. I was a huge fan of your brother David until you came along. What do you miss the most about your brother David? Oh, he's probably got, you know, he's got a whole list.

SPEAKER_02 25:35

You know, he says in his show, he does that whole discussion about David. So he probably because he had laryngitis, he didn't talk so much in that show. Right. But if you were fortunate enough to see either one of his shows from his first Magic or Midnight Sky tour, or this way, he does tell a lot about David and what he missed.

SPEAKER_04 25:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:59

So what did he answer?

SPEAKER_04 26:01

He said his laugh and laughing with him.

SPEAKER_02 26:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 26:05

Just as simple as that.

SPEAKER_02 26:07

Well, remember, he did talk about that. How they had so much fun. They'd be in there, the lights are supposed to be out in there and they're playing. Yes. And laughing. He said David had such a laugh.

SPEAKER_04 26:20

Yes, he did. He liked to laugh. David had a happy personality.

SPEAKER_02 26:24

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 26:24

So he did laugh a lot and smile a lot. So they had fun together laughing. That's good to know.

SPEAKER_02 26:30

That's great.

SPEAKER_04 26:31

Good brother relationship.

SPEAKER_02 26:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 26:33

Mm-hmm. And the next question is from Deanne. Looks like maybe Dean E. I don't know. D-A-N-N-N-E. Did you ever get to meet Elvis? I don't think he's answered that before.

SPEAKER_02 26:46

That's a good question.

SPEAKER_04 26:48

Yeah. Because I think he's talked about Elvis, but I don't know if he talked about Medium. Correct. So that's a new question. So Sean says, got really close one time. I had tickets to see him in Vegas when I was 16, but he canceled the show a few days before I was set to go. And uh this was close to the end for him. And uh he said he wasn't in the best shape, but had he gone on with the show, I'm certain that I would have found a way to get backstage to meet him. But of course, you know, his mom's Shirley Jones, so Right.

SPEAKER_02 27:23

Sure he would have Yes. There would have been none of that like us figuring out a way. He would have been backstage.

SPEAKER_04 27:30

He could have went backstage, yes. But he also says he's fortunate to spend time with uh Priscilla, and he likes her very much.

SPEAKER_02 27:38

Well, that's nice. Who starred in the movie Elvis? Who was the lead actor? Oh, yes, Butler. Yes. You know, there's a connection why he would probably know Priscilla. Because Austin Butler starred as Elvis in the movie Elvis. Right. But before that, he starred in Sean's show Ruby and the Rise.

SPEAKER_04 28:11

Right, as the Sun, yes.

SPEAKER_02 28:13

As the Sun. So there's always six degrees. There always is. So Sean, of course, probably in some way, or this could be, I could be completely wrong. But the connection to me is he stayed with Austin Butler and throughout the filming, or somewhere during the production of the movie Elvis, Sean had an opportunity to become acquainted with Priscilla. I could be completely wrong. He may have known her long before the movie. Yeah, maybe. But that's my kind of take on the connection.

SPEAKER_04 28:50

And don't forget, his mom and dad did Vegas shows.

SPEAKER_02 28:54

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 28:55

I don't know if it was the same time Elvis was there, but it was in the 70s.

SPEAKER_02 28:58

But it sounds like Sean wasn't really meeting Elvis or Priscilla back then.

SPEAKER_04 29:04

No, but I think he was going to some of his parents' shows. So that was his in.

SPEAKER_02 29:08

Right. That's his in, right, to to Elvis in Vegas, correct.

SPEAKER_04 29:14

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 29:15

Another connection to Elvis and Sean is kind of a disconnect connection. Yeah. Danny Bonaducci, who was, of course, Danny Partridge on the Partridge family, was a kid actor in one of Elvis' movies.

SPEAKER_04 29:29

He was. I think that was his first role.

SPEAKER_02 29:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 29:32

I remember right. Yes. So interesting. That's kind of everybody's connected. There's all these connections. Yep. So the next person asked if Sean plans to write and record more songs in the future, go on tour, all that stuff. He says since he began touring again, he's also, of course, wrote the other two new songs, The Last Song and My First Crush. And um, you know, he put them on Spotify,

Almost Meeting Elvis In Vegas

SPEAKER_04 29:58

Apple Music, and all that, which is a new thing for him, which did well. Um, but he doesn't know. He says, maybe I'll put out some new music later this year. We'll see. So there he left the door open again.

SPEAKER_02 30:10

Well, if he does, we started a Spotify uh Sean Squad Society playlist, the Sean songs, and we'll just add them to our playlist, and you can download it from Spotify.

SPEAKER_04 30:23

Exactly. We have a Sean Cassidy playlist.

SPEAKER_03 30:26

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 30:27

We did his um set list from his tour.

SPEAKER_03 30:30

Correct.

SPEAKER_04 30:31

We made a Spotify set list playlist.

SPEAKER_03 30:33

Right.

SPEAKER_04 30:34

Yeah. So we have that available anytime you want to download it and we can add to it. The next question basically is asking about his children. Would you want your children to have that crazy amount of fame? Your life had to be crazy for some time and all that teen idle stuff. So basically, he says that all of our lives are crazy as we allow them to become. And he was certainly faced with a lot of questions, challenges, opportunities as a young guy and early on, but he made the decision to prioritize quality of life over just about everything else. And that's probably why he stepped away from that fishbowl, as he calls it. Yeah, I mean, for him, he learned from it, but he won't restrict his kids from doing it if that's what they decide they want to do. So as long as it's something fulfilling for them, he doesn't mind that. And you know, for his children, he hopes that they will succeed whatever they want to do.

SPEAKER_02 31:38

Well, one of them is definitely being very successful in baseball in college, I can tell you.

SPEAKER_04 31:44

And his daughter Juliet, I believe, is a producer and an actress.

SPEAKER_02 31:48

Okay. So they are doing what they do very well.

SPEAKER_04 31:53

So I think he's just gonna support them, whatever it is, which is good. You know, I mean, I'm sure his children know what he went through.

SPEAKER_02 32:01

So they heard some stories.

SPEAKER_04 32:03

Right. So do they want to face that or they want to just say, uh, no, I'm gonna go this way. You know, like Ryan did. Ryan did not want to do that. He's a set director, and uh he enjoys that.

SPEAKER_02 32:15

But on the other hand, you know, I think a lot of that is is not happening so much. So even if they went into acting, singing, I think kind of like how Katie Cassidy did, they would just get in and be themselves. Right. And there wouldn't be that hysteria of David and Sean. So I think that his kids, if they go into the business of show, they would get in and do very well if that's what they want to do. But I don't think they will have that mass hysteria. It's just not gonna happen anymore.

SPEAKER_04 32:52

Yeah, because I haven't seen that since then.

SPEAKER_02 32:55

Yeah, it's kind of not.

SPEAKER_04 32:56

There's been some some performers that have a lot of attention, but not like Yes, and it's just back in that day.

SPEAKER_02 33:04

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 33:05

It's different now.

SPEAKER_02 33:07

It's a lot different.

SPEAKER_04 33:08

Yeah. Which brings us to our next question that uh Linda asked, These tours have brought you back into the limelight, except now it's social media and podcasts like ours.

Memory Girl Origins And Neon Philharmonic

SPEAKER_04 33:20

Yeah. So instead of teen magazines, you know, like before, how different is it this time around? Because Sean lived through that and now the world is different. And what does he think of it? And he just cut a smart aleck comment and just said he has less acne.

SPEAKER_02 33:37

And so do we all. So do we? Yes.

SPEAKER_04 33:41

Yes, we're all different, uh, but we still love him. So things just change as you get through life. All right, so the next question that Lori asked is what's the story behind the song Memory Girl? Well, not to confuse it with Morning Girl. Morning Girl.

SPEAKER_03 34:00

Right.

SPEAKER_02 34:00

Yeah. Memory Girl is one of these lost songs that I just found out about when we started the podcast about three years ago, and you know, doing all our research and stuff. Yeah. I happened to ponder. I'm like, what in the world? I never knew that existed.

SPEAKER_04 34:19

No, me neither. And I think I maybe heard it once or twice, but I don't like it as much as Morning Girl.

SPEAKER_03 34:25

Morning Girl, right.

SPEAKER_04 34:26

But yeah, Sean said this is the first song I ever recorded, which is why I sound like I'm about 11 years old. Yeah, they did speed up the records, remember? They did the Parshish family too. Yeah, they sped them up because they had an audience to attract. The younger. Yes. So they made them sound younger. Yes. Yeah. So he says it was a hit in the late 60s for a band called Neon Philharmonic, which I never heard of before, ever. Never. Never. All right. Um and his record producer at the time, Michael Lloyd, which we all know, thought it might be good, a good cover for him for the album.

SPEAKER_02 35:05

For that album.

SPEAKER_04 35:06

Yeah, and he said it was a minor hit overseas, but never released as a single in the U.S., which we of course know that. Because we just found out about it recently.

SPEAKER_02 35:14

And I think they probably decided on Morning Girl for the Sean Cassidy albums and album and didn't want to put both to start confusing people. Yes. Can you imagine the confusion of Memory Girl and Morning Girls?

SPEAKER_04 35:28

I thought Memory Girl wasn't Morning Girl. Oh my. So that wouldn't have been a good thing.

SPEAKER_02 35:32

So imagine being 13. You would have been all confused.

SPEAKER_04 35:36

So I wonder if they had Memory Girl overseas and then they put Morning Girl on there instead. Because he said it wasn't really a hit. Who knows? So maybe they switched it to Morning Girl.

SPEAKER_02 35:46

Maybe.

SPEAKER_04 35:47

Because Memory Girl was taken off.

SPEAKER_02 35:49

Right.

SPEAKER_04 35:49

So and it sounded similar, so maybe. All right. The next question is to Sean Did you ever want to be on the Partridge family? As

Partridge Family What If And Farewell

SPEAKER_04 36:00

we know his mom and his brother were.

SPEAKER_02 36:01

They were both there.

SPEAKER_04 36:03

Yeah, and I know he visited the set there too. There's some pictures about that.

SPEAKER_02 36:06

Yeah, and that's a blooper, a very funny blooper of him. Walking into uh Cheryl Lee Singh.

SPEAKER_04 36:12

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 36:12

She was none too thrilled about it.

SPEAKER_04 36:15

Yeah, that was kind of funny, but he was hanging out with them. I'm sure he learned a lot too. I'm sure he did. Yeah. And he hung out with Danny, I think. Yeah. I think Danny mentioned that him and Sean would hang out when they would visit the set.

SPEAKER_02 36:28

Because Sean, I mean, Danny had to stay with Shirley for a little while because he had an abusive father. So Shirley brought Danny into the house.

SPEAKER_04 36:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:39

And they became kind of buddies.

SPEAKER_04 36:41

Yeah. So they all hung out together. So Sean said, absolutely, he wanted to be on the Partridge family, but his mom said he had to finish school before he could become an actor. So mom put her foot down. Um, or for anything that for that matter, he said. Well, that's great that she did that. She wanted him to finish school first. So he was already getting the feelers out there in high school. He was ready to go. He was ready to go. And saw what David had. Well, of course, remember they joked around saying it was a great way to meet girls. Yeah. So he met a lot of girls. He met a lot of girls. Yep. So that worked out, but he didn't like that fishbowl. Too many girls, I guess. Too many. It's not a good thing.

SPEAKER_02 37:24

So he didn't get to be on. That's that's okay, though.

SPEAKER_04 37:27

But he he took in all that all that learning about being an actor.

SPEAKER_02 37:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 37:33

So that was good. All right. But as it turns out, he's grateful he took a different path. See? So mom knows best. Mom always knows best. Yeah, but wouldn't that be interesting? If Sean was on Partridge Family, I wonder how they would incorporate him into it as maybe being Danny's friend or a neighbor or something. I don't know how they would incorporate him into it.

SPEAKER_02 37:55

Oh it would have been Danny and Sean and uh that other band of Danny's Punky Brewster. Punky Brewster.

SPEAKER_04 38:03

Oh no, no, Punky Brewster was uh another T another TV show, but his name was Punky Brew. Punkty something.

SPEAKER_02 38:10

Yes. Yeah, they would have gotten into something.

SPEAKER_04 38:13

Yeah, they would have. So, yeah, that would have been fun.

SPEAKER_02 38:17

A little known fact, one of the early, early pilots uh Puncturus Family films had Jack Cassidy as the uh dad. Yes. Before they decided they uh the dad would be dead. And I think somewhere along the way they didn't want to turn it into the Cassidy show. And that's why they took Jack out and made her a widow.

SPEAKER_04 38:40

He she had a date with him or something like that.

SPEAKER_02 38:43

Oh, is that it?

SPEAKER_04 38:44

Yeah, because then the kids were waiting in the room to hear about it. Yeah. He wasn't the dad. Yeah, she was just dating him. But they never showed it.

SPEAKER_02 38:54

No, they decided to take it out.

SPEAKER_04 38:56

I mean, we saw the uh we saw the scene, but it wasn't on an episode, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 39:00

Yeah, I found it on on YouTube. That's kind of interesting. Yeah, there would have been a lot of casuadies on that show.

SPEAKER_04 39:07

It would have been. I mean, how yeah, differently it would have turned out, but it was great the way it was. Yes. So this was fun. This was a great Yeah. I love getting into these QA's and trying to find questions that people haven't asked before because he always says that, you know, he doesn't want the same question twice. But sometimes we don't know everything that everybody asks.

SPEAKER_02 39:27

Right. And you find out something new all of the time.

SPEAKER_04 39:31

Yeah, so it's kind of fun going through these questions and yeah, just trying to pull things out that maybe are interesting or we didn't know before.

SPEAKER_02 39:39

If you haven't seen them yet, go to Sean's Facebook page and all of the questions are there and the ones he answered are there, and you can see for yourself some that you may not have heard here.

SPEAKER_04 39:52

Yeah, and he says don't feel bad if he didn't answer it, because he does try to get to as many as he can uh when he's on there. But sometimes the next day or two he may answer it too. So keep looking to see if your question got answered, because he he did that in the past.

SPEAKER_02 40:05

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 40:06

So all is not lost.

SPEAKER_02 40:08

Not at all. And thanks for hanging out with us. And let's uh do this again. Cindy, maybe he'll do another QA and we can just dive in there and have our little recap of it. Sounds good. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 40:22

Take care, everybody. Thank you from the bottom of our teen dream hearts. Keep on crushing. Always believe in magic.

SPEAKER_01 40:31

And have a peaceful, fantastic week. And don't forget to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, thread, and subscribe to our new YouTube page. Make sure to keep in touch with us on our email.

SPEAKER_02 40:45

Sean Squad Society at gmail.com.

SPEAKER_04 40:49

The Sean Squad Society Podcast, including past, present, and future versions, and its contents are owned and controlled by the Sean Squad Society. The podcast is written, produced, and recorded at the morning studios, and the views and opinions are solely those of the Sean Squad Society Podcast. We may think we are always right, but we may get things wrong from time to time. So we assume no responsibility for errors of submission of content.