The show quickly emergedas one of the lone breakout hits of the fall.
Revisit that story below as part of our year-end coverage.
Click here for more Best of 2016 coverage.
Credit: Ron Batzdorff/NBC
An actor who has an epic meltdown on the set of his hit sitcom.
What do all of these people who are turning 36 years old have in common besides the same birthday?
Let’s hope that it’s not right now as you read this story.
Whenever you had that moment of “Ohhhhhh!”
I remember specifically reading the camera pulling back and seeing everybody was wearing ’70s-style clothes and lapels.
I think right around there was when I was like, “Oh my god…
I’m the third kid?”
My jaw was on the ground.
I was telling my wife, “Ryan, you’ve got to read this!
You’ve got to read this!”
and she was like, “It’s pretty damn special.”
I knew!"…
I was like, “Oh,damn!”
And you want to hear all the in-between moments and what happened when they were kids.
MANDY MOORE:I think most people aren’t clicking until he offers the cigarette to [Jack].
That’s when I was like, “Oh, whoa!”
Then they pull back, and you really see the television and what’s on the news….
I didn’t see it coming at all.
MILO VENTIMIGLIA:A, it was clever.
B, it was something that was truly unexpected.
I did not see that coming…
When grown-up Kate says, “What was it that dad said about the lemons?”
It’s a family.
They’re all connected.
This is how the show is going to work."
And I was like, “Wait, wait.
What are they going to do with the baby?”
And I was like, “Oh, I got it!”
And of course, then I was trying to be Magnum P.I., trying to figure it all out.
You make lemonade out of lemons.
Because things happen for a reason….
It’s so beautiful on so many different levels for me.
We put period cars in the modern storyline just to blur the line a little bit.
But I feel like nurses and doctors will be onto it before anybody else.
I feel nurses and doctors will watch the show and go, “Oh, come on!
They haven’t used that in 30 years!”
Just show it all.
I don’t think we’re going to have a problem."
You’re just not expecting it.
The bra that I had on top of my T-shirt was vintage, like, deadstock.
Everything was pretty period-correct….
I think I said something like, “1970s or hipsters?
What do you think?”
I love that John and Glenn didn’t necessarily go out of their way.
VENTIMIGLIA:People are just like, “Oh, wow.
Yeah, this guy must live inSilver Lake.”
There was definitely a kind of timeless quality, but yet, it worked today.
I got to work out just for my own well-being, sanity and health."
But I just kept eating.
The [box labeled] ‘79 photos.
REQUA:We have to tip our hat to the hipsters of the world.
Because in their bedroom, they have a vinyl record player.
I live in Los Feliz; there are people dressed like that on the street every day.
Hipsters really saved us.
NEXT: “You start to see this codependence that’s maybe a little unhealthy.
But you notice that Randall and Kevin might not be as close as Randall and Kate.
And I think you start to see this codependence that’s maybe a little unhealthy.
And so I immediately reached out to him, in terms of what his socialization was like.
Did they raise him as African-American?
Did he feel connected to his culture/community?
What did he have to do for gain access to that community?
So, I’m very interested in charting that journey for Randall as well.
They’re great partners.
They’re pieces that fit together.
They’re very loyal to one another and loving to one another, and supportive of one another.
We’re not living in the world of night nannies and all that.
Sometimes they’re just interrelated thematically; sometimes there’s a direct cause and effect.
So you’re getting the full picture of a character, and the elements of a character.
The ways in which the past helped to shape the present.
It just goes deeper.
It’s a show that doesn’t fan out, it just becomes more deeply rooted into the earth.
