It was only a couple of years ago that Tuesdays with the Pearson family ended, and thankfully it wasn’t for good as This Is Us stars Mandy Moore, Chris Sullivan, and Sterling K. Brown revisit the series with their recently-launched rewatch podcast, That Was Us.
Debuting in 2016, the Dan Fogelman-created series struck a chord with audiences right away and managed to tug at their heartstrings for six seasons until the finale in 2022. But what sparked the desire to revisit the Pearsons and their time-hopping history now? “I think the idea had been swirling in all of our heads,” Sullivan tells TV Insider. As fans will recall, he played the lovable Toby Damon who was introduced as Kate Pearson’s (Chrissy Metz) boyfriend at the start of the series. “I think it kind of just comes down to the fact that everyone who worked on this show has a deep true love for it and we also cannot believe in many ways that it is over.”
Ultimately, that inspired Sullivan to push forward with the concept he easily recruited Moore and Brown for. “People were starting to rewatch [This Is Us] and we missed each other very much. And so it was a perfect reason to talk about the show and the hangout,” Sullivan adds. For himself and the team behind the beloved NBC drama, “It all flew by so fast that we didn’t get a chance to break it down, especially with each other.”
Chris Haston / ©NBC / courtesy Everett Collection
And while viewers may not be returning to the Pearson family’s cozy abodes, Sullivan constructed the homey podcast set where he, Moore, and Brown welcome guests and fans to discuss episodes and the influence the Emmy-winning series had on viewers. While Sullivan is reluctant to take credit, Moore pumps up her former costar and podcast cohost, “We all thought it’d be fun to do a podcast eventually, but Chris was the one who truly manifested it, got the wheels in motion, literally built the set himself. So this was Chris’s baby and I’m grateful that he asked me to be a part of it,” Moore gushes.
“We’re like forever family cemented into the fabric of one another’s lives and to be able to revisit this show in a really thoughtful, intentional way [is special],” adds Moore, who played Pearson matriarch Rebecca. “While the show was on, it all happened so fast and you could engage in the [occasional] Twitter conversation, but [with the podcast] we’re able to go episode by episode and talk about what the characters are going through and intersperse that with our own recollections and engage with fans who loved the show at the time.”
Every recording session brings a fresh perspective to the series for the trio helming the podcast as Moore notes, “Each of us is having so much fun. We look at each other at the end of a recording session, and it’s like, ‘Wow, this is the best.’” One of those new perspectives both Moore and Sullivan have when it comes to the series is, “Chris and I were not parents when we started the journey of this show and we both are now,” Moore, who recently announced her third pregnancy, says.
Rob Holysz
“I think that changes the game on such a monumental level, ” Moore continues. “Rewatching the show with my husband and seeing it through the lens of being a parent now, everything feels so different. The conversations that spark from watching a particular episode and even Chris and I were talking the other day, it was like you agree with Rebecca at the beginning of an episode and then you disagree by the end or vice versa.”
While Moore and Sullivan experienced the series firsthand, that doesn’t mean they are immune to the signature twists and turns of This Is Us throughout their rewatch. “I’ve certainly watched episodes already where I’m like, ‘Oh, wow. I had actually missed that connection to that thing,’” Sullivan says of his rewatch experience.
“We’ve just forgotten about how much happened so quickly,” Moore confirms. “We just rewatched ‘Thanksgiving’ and the episode after and just putting those pieces together… I absolutely forgot that Rebecca and William knew each other and they knew each other for that long,” she says in reference to Rebecca’s history with Randall’s (Brown) birth father William (Ron Cephas Jones).”
Ron Batzdorff / ©NBC / courtesy Everett Collection
For Moore, the discovery of Rebecca’s marriage to her late husband Jack’s (Milo Ventimiglia) best friend Miguel (Jon Huertas) still shocked upon watching the show’s second episode. “I knew the Miguel thing obviously was happening, but it just brought me back to that time of people really disliking poor Jon Huertas’ character, and not even being completely hip to where his character was going, knowing that it wasn’t as nefarious as the world was thinking at that point.”
As That Was Us continues Moore, Sullivan, and Brown have plans to welcome a bevy of This Is Us talent from in front of the camera and behind the scenes as Sullivan muses, “We’re going to do interviews with all of the main cast members. We intend to do interviews with as many of the guest stars as possible. I’ve been talking to Sid Khosla, the composer, about coming in and doing a special music episode with Taylor Goldsmith. We want to have people come and play,” Sullivan continues, noting an interest in highlighting the work of makeup artists, writers, and more.
Fogelman has already been featured in a special episode of the podcast, and Moore reveals, “We’ve done an episode with Susan [Kelechi Watson] already. We’ve done an episode with Jon Huertas. Justin [Hartley] has been filming in Canada, so once he gets home, he’s going to sit down with us, and the same with Chrissy who’s off shooting something right now. We’ll get Milo in there. We’re going to go down the list.”
Rob Holysz
But beyond the cast, Moore echoes Sullivan as she says, “We were really lucky that we retained 98 percent of the same crew for the entirety of the run of the show. And I think that’s what made it as special as it was. Everyone loved their job and were so incredible at their jobs that there are a lot of unsung heroes behind the scenes that we want to be able to highlight as well.”
“There’s work done on this show that gets overlooked because the work is not meant to be seen,” Sullivan says in reference to the makeup and hair department. “By the time you get to Season 2, Mandy Moore playing a 65-year-old mother of three doesn’t even phase anybody because it’s so seamless.”
Moore recalls how Ventimiglia would have to be clean-shaven for scenes when Jack was “super young, and then literally the next day he’s in a full beard again and you wouldn’t be able to detect it. I could barely detect it besides kissing him and getting some fake little pieces of hair in my mouth, and [I’d be like], ‘Gross!’,” she says with a laugh.
As for what episodes or storylines they’re looking forward to revisiting, Sullivan says, “The pilot episode alone, we were just so excited to talk about it. We had the same reaction to the pilot the first time we read it. The first time we got to perform it. The first time we saw it.” While the podcast continues to drop episodes, Sullivan and Moore continue with their recording schedule alongside Brown, “We just did episode nine, which was shockingly moving for me,” Sullivan reveals. “There’s a couple of big episodes coming up that I am interested to see what it’s like to rewatch them.”
Ron Batzdorff / ©NBC / courtesy Everett Collection
In addition to revisiting episodes and chatting with the team that helped bring it to TV screens across the globe, Moore, Sullivan, and Brown are taking time to connect with fans who were impacted by the show. “It means everything to us to be able to hear from anybody that the show impacted them and that’s what it’s all about,” Moore says.
“I feel like it’s such a rare thing that us as artists and creative people get to be a part of something that truly means something to people and it means something to us as well,” she reassures. “That exchange of emotional information, it’s not lost on us, the responsibility that we had for six seasons. And it’s always a really lovely thing to hear from people why they love the show or how they watch the show.”
“I think the show highlighted our aversion to sincerity and grief in a way that I think we as a society or as a group of people, we’re in need of having that pointed out to us,” Sullivan concurs. “Grief, although it is painful, is not only necessary, but it’s okay to express it. The show is full of so much joy, so much humor, so much grief, and so much sincerity. Going through filming the show taught me how to grieve and how to deal with those things and how to arrive sincerely in a moment, in a way that I just didn’t have the tools before,” Sullivan continues.
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“I feel like the people who come up to us or who share with us, it kind of feels like a weird superpower to be able to hear that and to hold that and to appreciate that and to be grateful for that,” Sullivan acknowledges. And while we can’t promise you won’t need a tissue or two should you choose to rewatch the series with Moore, Sullivan, and Brown through their podcast, rest assured there are plenty of warm and fuzzy feelings to go around.
If you have yet to tune into the podcast, Sullivan and Moore are inviting fans old and new to spend Tuesdays with them. “Come watch the show again with us for the first time. It’s that simple. Everything that you’ve gone through watching the show, we are now going through it with you and we’re going to talk to the fans about it and directly,” Sullivan says.
“And maybe there are folks out there who started to watch the show, but life got in the way or it just wasn’t the right time for them to sort of engage with all of this emotional information. But now’s your chance to do it again and do it with us in real-time,” Moore adds. “We’re having such a great time. We’re holding hands together and embracing everything that’s going to come our way. I feel like it’s the perfect season of life to do it together.”
Take their word for it. Relive This Is Us with Moore, Sullivan, and Brown with the That Was Us podcast which drops new episodes each Tuesday.
This Is Us, Streaming now, Netflix & Hulu
That Was Us, New Episodes, Tuesdays, Wherever you get your podcasts
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