Mackenzie Rosman spent eleven seasons growing up as Ruthie Camden, the youngest of the Camden kids on 7th Heaven. In Part 1, she sits down with Blake and Jordan and goes all the way back to the start: the kindergarten tag-along that accidentally turned into a career, and the producer session where a five-year-old walked into the room and shook every single hand in it. That, it turns out, is how you book an eleven-year job.

From there the three of them trade the stuff only child actors really know. The 4 a.m. call times and falling back asleep alone in the trailer. The set teacher who turns out to be one of the most important people in your whole childhood. Choosing to go to a real public high school for senior year just to find out whether she could socialize with people her own age, and what it does to you when everyone knows you from TV before they ever get to know you.

It gets honest, too. Mackenzie talks about the strange grief of a show ending when you have never once not had a job, the panic attacks that made auditioning feel like a completely separate career, and how long it took her to learn to trust her own judgment. Then comes the turn nobody saw coming: horses, adrenaline, and racing steeplechase in Maryland, the one thing she had been doing for as long as she had been acting.

She also opens up about watching her own childhood back for a living on Catching Up with the Camdens, what it feels like to see Mackenzie and Ruthie grow up side by side, and the cystic fibrosis episode she brought to showrunner Brenda Hampton for her stepsister Caitlin. We had way too much fun to fit it all into one episode, so this is Part 1. From our childhood to yours, this is The Not So Little Rascals.

Part 2 is coming soon.

🎥 What happens in this episode?

00:00 Cold Open & Intro

01:01 Welcome, and the Great Mug Debate

02:19 The Call That Changed Her Life, and the Handshake Audition

07:19 Stage-Mom Days and 4 A.M. Call Times

10:03 The Set Teacher You Never Forget

12:09 Public School, Senior Year, and Being Known from TV

16:17 When the Show Ended, and the Hard Part After

20:42 A Grounded Kid on the Biggest Show in the Country

22:35 Polaroids and the Shower-Door Factory

25:43 Life After the Camdens, and a Family Loss

27:58 Burnout, and Learning to Trust Her Own Judgment

31:09 Horses, Adrenaline, and Steeplechase

32:53 Watching Her Own Childhood Back

34:46 Mackenzie vs. Ruthie, and Firsts on Camera

37:40 The Cystic Fibrosis Episode, and Caitlin

41:08 Part Two Is Coming

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Every gang of misfits needs a bully to run from, and Butch was ours. This week Blake and Jordan reunite with their old castmate Sam Saletta, the leather-jacketed troublemaker who made the Rascals' lives miserable in the 1994 classic. Sam was the "voiceover kid" out of Chicago before he ever met Steven Spielberg, and he walked out of his screen test 90% sure he had the part. He did, and nearly thirty years later the three of them pick right back up like no time has passed.

Sam finally spills the story of how Blake and Jordan actually got their roles: the original Woim got sent home for calling a kid "fuckface" on the playground, and the original Froggy flipped a Connect 4 board in the school trailer. From there the guys trace Sam's whole run, the TV circuit and Seventh Heaven alongside sister Nikki, three or four years as Sam Dullard on Rocket Power under cartoon legend Charlie Adler, and the voice change that quietly ended his cartoon career. He talks about stage-parent Karen (pushy in the good way), chasing normalcy as an independent kid who watched Hollywood chew people up, and the high school music program that launched a second career as a professional musician.

The back half gets into the real stuff and the ridiculous stuff in equal measure. Sam explains how his family handled the money, why he knew about and signed off on the investment in moving to LA, and the residual-check absurdity that ends in a check for literally zero dollars. He shares how first-season American Idol wanted a contract owning his past, present, and future, why he walked, and how he made peace with Butch after years of people trying to test him for playing one of the most legendary bullies in cinema history. Plus the pig pucky rankings you've been waiting for (oatmeal and dirt, dead last).

And yes, the guys build out the full Butch cinematic universe: he buys the clubhouse, tears it down, puts up luxury condos, and hires Woim as his loyal maintenance man. From our childhood to yours, this is The Not So Little Rascals.

🎥 What happens in this episode?

00:00 Cold Open: Pig Pucky, Ranked

00:47 Reunion: Butch and Woim Back Together

01:28 The Chicago Voiceover Kid and Meeting Spielberg

04:36 The Replacement Rascals: How Blake and Jordan Really Got In

06:49 Typecast as the Bully, and the People Who Try You

09:30 The TV Circuit, Seventh Heaven, and Sister Nikki

10:20 Rocket Power, Sam Dullard, and Charlie Adler

13:52 When the Voice Changed

15:00 Stage-Parent Karen and the Sibling Dynamic

18:14 Favorite Rascals Memories and School as a Kid Actor

21:10 Burroughs, Music, and Chasing Normalcy

26:02 The Third Act: COVID, Real Estate, and Buying a House from a Little Rascal

28:51 How the Money Was Handled, and Residual-Check Hell

34:20 Perform Forever? His Son, and Watching the Movie Together

38:17 Pig Pucky Rankings and Butch's Hypothetical Future

44:06 Anonymity, American Idol Season One, and Making Peace with Butch

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We sit down with Kiami Davael, who a whole generation knows as Lavender, Matilda's loyal best friend in the 1996 classic. Kiami's "first call" story starts with a dream she'd had since age three, and a mom who told her that while there was only one Whitney Houston, she could be the best Kiami there ever was.

Kiami takes us from a small town in Kentucky to Los Angeles, where an agent fought to get her in the room for a role that wasn't written for a girl who looked like her, until Mara Wilson's mom took one look and told Danny DeVito, "that's your Lavender." She shares what it was like to grow up on that set with "Uncle Danny," turning nine over a giant birthday cake, and what it means now when grown women tell her Lavender was the first time they ever saw themselves on screen.

We get into the honest stuff too, the sting of rejection as she aged out of the roles she used to book, the loneliness of high school, and the "create your own yes" mindset that turned her into a writer, director, and producer. She's open about a mom who did the research, protected every dollar, and made decisions with her instead of for her, one of the most refreshing money stories we've heard. And she tells us about the documentary she's making about her own life, on her own terms.

It's funny, it's honest, and it's a reminder of exactly why this podcast exists, because the real stories behind the kids you grew up watching are always more interesting than anything that made it on screen.

🎥 What happens in this episode?

00:00 – Cold open, and welcoming Kiami

01:21 – Booking Matilda: "that's your Lavender"

04:21 – Kentucky, Whitney Houston, and "be the best Kiami"

07:44 – The move to LA and the first auditions

10:16 – Did she know Matilda would be huge? Why Lavender is her

14:08 – On set with Uncle Danny and a birthday cake

16:37 – Oldest of seven, and different households

21:00 – "The first time they saw themselves on screen"

23:34 – Handling the trolls and owning her place in history

25:33 – After Matilda, and aging into the awkward years

31:11 – Rejection, and "create your own yes"

34:44 – High school, bullying, and turning that tassel

41:55 – Choosing college, going home, and Starbucks

48:12 – The money: a mom who did the research

51:03 – The chocolate cake scene and the reunion

54:10 – The documentary, identity, and the proud/grateful close

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