[ Mysterious music plays ]
-[ Grunts ]
-I'm not dead yet.
-Take a sip from your soul
On a metaphysical milkshake
-Sorry about that.
We had to get you in the van somehow.
-Could've just called.
-Nah, too obvious.
But I'm glad you're not dead,
because then I wouldn't have a job,
because you're my new boss.
This is Mr. Hart Hanson,
TV writer, philosopher,
showrunner extraordinaire.
And I think a lot of people watching
don't even really know what a showrunner is.
But what is a TV showrunner?
-Well, it's the person who runs the show
and the final arbiter of what the show is.
-You cast the show, you plot out how a season is going to go,
you've got to get the tone of the show.
-Tone is the toughest thing. You have to somehow convey
to everyone who's making the show,
as you know, it's hundreds of people,
what it's going to feel like.
-But you make decisions from top to bottom.
-With a great deal of help, though,
a great deal of help.
-So what is your creative process
when you're writing a TV show?
How do you create a season of a TV show?
-My deal with the universe is I'll put my ass in the chair
and start the process. That's my deal.
-And so far, so good. -You're like Grandpa Television.
That's what I call you on the set.
You have worked on a sh-t ton of shows.
List them all. Ready, go.
-"Lies from Lotus Land," "Beachcombers,"
"Neon Rider," "Outer Limits," "Ready or Not,"
"Stargate," "Traders," "Cupid,"
"Snoops," "Judging Amy," "Bones," "The Finder."
-And my new show on Fox, "Backstrom."
Tune into "Backstrom,"
-January 22nd on F-O-X Network. -9:00.
-9:00. -9:00 P.M.
-Thanks. 9:00 P.M.
-Tune in. [ Burps ] -Did you just burp?
-It was kind of a half-burp. -Okay.
-I do that a lot as I get older.
I find just like gases
just kind of rising up from down below
and just filtering out.
-It's good -- it's good for the soul.
-How is it good for the soul? -Well, you have to contend.
We try very hard not to contend with anything.
We just want to on a frictionless plane, but this --
-Our body starts to become an obstacle.
-Hey, remember. -Remember your mortality.
-You will shuffle off this mortal coil.
-What do you think happens after we shuffle off this mortal coil?
-My suspicion is absolutely nothing.
But I'm the first person to say I have no idea
and I don't think there's any way to find out.
-But isn't that playing both sides of the fence?
Aren't you saying like, "My suspicion
is that the universe is all just molecules
and when our consciousness goes away,
there's just blackness and the end?
But it could be more, but I just can't say for sure"?
-I think that's the proper way to approach it,
because I would say to you,
"My dog knows as much
about what happens after death
as the Pope or the Dalai Lama."
-Can we get your dog on "Metaphysical Milkshake"?
-The dog does not speak well.
It just barks, which I think is meaningful.
-And that's a curious thing, 'cause for me,
I am reasonably sure
that there is more to the universe
than a crazy random assemblage of molecules
that someone formed Rainn Wilson
and he's having this life experience
and he has loves
and he has tragedies and he creates art.
-You will say reasonably sure,
which is reasonable.
There are people who know,
and I say to them, "No, you don't know."
-When you say "know," what do you mean?
Because you know up here in your brain?
Does that mean that you need proof
in a scientific laboratory?
Would you need a mathematical equation
that shows that there's more?
-No, we have the ability
to construct great theoretical things.
I believe Einstein was onto something.
I think Stephen Hawking was probably onto something.
And I think even great spiritual leaders are onto something.
But I get nervous when people say,
"Oh, I know what that star is."
And I don't understand microwaves or gravity.
-We still don't know what gravity is.
-We don't know what gravity is.
-We do know what microwaves are. I can give you a book.
-I don't understand them. I understand the theory,
but if they said to me, "Build a microwave," I couldn't do it.
Most of the time I'm trying to find enough space
to give my slow, single-cell brain,
puka-puka-puka,
time to catch up with the question.
-Is that the sound of your brain?
-Puka-puka-puka.
-That's 'cause you're half-Canadian.
'Cause American brains are like "zing-zing-waba.
Yeah, look at me.
Uhh."
Hart Hanson, lightning round, life's big questions.
Pa-poom.
Ahh. Wha-pa!
Ready? -As ready as I'll ever be.
-What is one thing
that people would be surprised to learn about you?
Yeah.
What do you miss most about being five years old?
-Picking my nose with impunity.
-Who is your hero?
-A little bit of Jimmy Page,
a little bit of James Salter,
little bit of my old man.
Do you have a single hero?
-There's a woman I met in Haiti
who left her life in Canada
to go run a school in Haiti,
and lived her whole life,
finally retired at the age of 75.
And street kids started showing up at her doorstep
and said to her,
"Hey, I hear you were a teacher.
Can you teach us how to read?"
So she took in two or three,
and the next morning, there were five or six.
-Yeah.
-And the next morning, there were 11 or 12.
And the next month, there were 30 or 40.
So she rented the house next door,
housed all these street children,
and devoted years of her life
to educating, training,
raising, housing the street kids,
and not only that, reuniting their families.
That is a real hero.
-Yeah. -That and Jack Bauer.
-[ Laughs ]
What do you want your legacy to be as a TV showrunner?
-I don't give a rat's ass
about my legacy as a TV showrunner.
-What about your two sons? -Yeah.
-What do you want them to carry on
from what you've taught them or what you've exemplified?
-I would like them to be good men
and to, in their hearts,
ascribe some part of that to me.
I keep choking up.
-What is your life's big question?
What is it that you struggle with the most?
-What's it all for?
Are there other beings out there?
-What if there was another alien race
that had a talk show very similar
to "Metaphysical Milkshake"?
Instead of the back of the van,
it was in the back of their quasnar?
-If the universe is infinite, then that's happening,
everything is happening that you can think of.
If it's not infinite, then maybe none of it's happening.
So my life's big question is,
is the universe infinite in time and space,
or just one or the other?
What's on the other side of existence?
You know, that expanding universe thing,
what's on the other side?
-If there's a Big Bang and all of matter
is in the size of like, a golf ball,
let's say, or a dime,
and it explodes, that means there's infinite space out there
without stuff in it?
Or is there lots of Big Bangs happening?
-There's no space out there in Big Bang,
and it wasn't in space when it banged.
There was no time or space.
-That didn't even hurt. -Fire me.
[ Both laugh ]
So I asked Hart Hanson
what he wanted his legacy to be,
both in television and in life.
Challenge to you, creative challenge.
Write down in the comment section below,
what do you want your legacy to be?
Let us know.
Hart Hanson and I are going to read through
every single one of those comments
and read about what you want your legacy to be.
-Deal? -Deal.
[ Blues riff plays ]
-Well, you never met a detective like this before
Lieutenant Everett Backstrom
He gets drunk on the floor
He solves crime by
Looking into the dark side of the human condition
Yes, sir, he's so connected
He is b-tchin'
Backstrom
Not played by Nasim Pedrad
There you have it. Send it to Rupert Murdoch.
Goodnight, everybody.
-Sorry, I just touched your nuts.
I just touched his nuts.