I'm just going to call him my old friend, because we have actually sat down and had dinner together in the Central West End.

William Stanford Davis, Stan, it is so good to see your face again.

Good to see you too, Carol.

How are you today?

I am great.

I'm great.

And just before we started recording, and we're going to talk about Abbott Elementary, and we're going to talk about your career, and of course, the great and young and dynamic Quinta Brunson, but you were asking me about how the city's doing after the May 16th tornado, because it struck the neighborhood where you grew up, The Ville.

Yeah, yeah.

From the videos and emails and texts that I got from everyone, it looked like total devastation.

Broke my heart.

And, you know, it just, I know how people have worked hard to save those homes, especially those, some of the brownstones, the three-story brownstones, which one of my grandmothers had over on Page Avenue, Page Boulevard, I should say.

Tell how long I've been away.

But, you know, I'm hoping that someone will come to the rescue in some type of way, you know.

I suggested a big concert like they do for some of these other big catastrophes, but no one seemed to bite on to that.

But hopefully, maybe someone will take the initiative to, to, you know, bring in some some help and help people, you know, rebuild their lives.

Like, like a farm aid kind of a concert.

Yes, to help rebuild.

Yes.

You have that type of mass devastation.

Someone and there are a lot of entertainers, a lot of major people from St.

Louis that have gone on into big things.

I'm not calling them out or anything.

I'm just saying it's just an idea.

Maybe someone should, you know, put that little seed into the ground and make it grow.

I was on the elevator coming down to the studio, elevator full of Nine PBS employees, and one after another, someone said, "I'm freaking out.

You're going to be interviewing one of my favorite people."

Someone else said, "Tell him I love him.

Use my name and say I love him."

What does it feel like at this stage of your career to now be called a beloved, to be hope, to be embodying a beloved character on a beloved sitcom?

Is there a word that's bigger or better than blessing?

I don't know.

It's so hard to, sometimes it's hard to describe the feeling and because it's, it's, whenever you, whatever you think it's going to be, it's 50 times more, 50 times better.

And I'm still in pinch myself mode and I want to thank everyone in St.

Louis for loving the show, but people all over the world.

I know that you got you got hooked and you were bitten by the bug because your mother was taking you to movies.

You saw a movie with Sidney Poitier in it and you were hooked at that time.

So that's you as a child.

But when you actually enter the field, what did you think would happen?

And does this compare to what you even thought?

You know, I started out in entertainment, you know, we both worked in radio, you know, at Lincoln University.

And so entertainment and I worked in nightclubs in St.

Louis before I went to college.

So it's always been in my, my system.

But when I went to my grandmother's to take me out of school, and tell the teachers or tell the principal I had a doctor's appointment.

And I might have had a doctor's appointment, I don't know, I just remember being at the movies on the same day.

Oh my goodness.

And that stuck out more than any doctor's appointment or anything.

They used to take me to everything, take me to the Muny.

We'd go to the Muny every summer and see everything from Flower Drum Song, you know, I don't know if you even know it.

Yeah.

That's how far back it goes to, you know, we see everything there.

And, and My Fair Lady, and I'm like, why am I going to see this?

But once I get to see these things, I'd be like, moved to it.

So that's kind of where it started.

What is next?

I know we're in season five of Abbott Elementary, but can you, can you tell us what else you're working on?

I just did a film with Wanda Sykes.

In fact, it was at the St.

Louis Film Festival at the High Point.

At that point, yes.

At the High Point, I mean, at Forest Park.

I think it's still there.

It is.

It was there Monday.

It was there Monday.

Wanda was able to come in for the premiere of the film there.

But I wasn't able to because I'm working on Abbott Elementary.

I just did that and, you know, I'm writing a book and working on that.

And I'm just enjoying this moment on Abbott and I'm hoping that I don't wake up from this dream for a long time.

Absolutely.

And no spoilers, but what is next for Mr.

Johnson?

Are we going to finally learn whether he really did work for the CIA, whether he really was?

I think he might be an astronaut.

I don't know.

I think he was in the mafia, so CIA, why not?

Stan, who should we be listening to?

You should be listening to Carol Daniel on Listen St.

Louis.

William Stanford Davis, Stan, it is so great to have you on this podcast on Nine PBS.

We are so grateful.

We are so excited for you and we are rooting for you always.

Thank you, Carol.

So nice to be here.

Thank you for having me.

Thank you very much.