Image credits: ABC/Courtney Lindberg
Many of us first knew Christine Lakin as an actor wearing a ball cap on ABC’s TGIF sitcom Step by Step, where she played the spunky Al Lambert. Her work ethic and talent translate to a rich, varied career in entertainment, from screen to stage. A comedic creative and master of satire, Lakin wrote and starred in the digital short-form series Lovin’ Lakin, and later executive produced and starred opposite Jodie Sweetin and Beverley Mitchell in Pop TV’s Hollywood Darlings, hilariously exaggerating the life of a mom and working actor. Christine is an accomplished choreographer and director whose work can be seen on the decade-long ABC sitcom The Goldbergs and its spin-off, Schooled, plus High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, Life by Ella, the short film Who Am I?, and many other series, films, and stage productions. She recently co-directed Cindy & the Disco Ball at the Garry Marshall Theatre, years after originating the role of Cindy.
In a time when I was contemplating my own work and career direction years ago, I began listening to Worst Ever Podcast, which was co-hosted by Christine Lakin and Alaa Khaled. On this podcast, the product of a live show the two created called Worst Audition Ever, the co-hosts delivered honest conversations and memorable stories from friends and colleagues in the industry. Christine’s next project in the podcasting space is equally exciting.
With her fabulous Step by Step sister Staci Keanan, a criminal prosecutor, Christine now co-hosts Keanan and Lakin Give You Déjà Vu, produced by Steven Ray Morris of My Favorite Murder! Staci and Christine tell you everything you want to know about their time on the blended-family sitcom. They dive into Step by Step’s opening credits and take note of all the ’90s hair and fashion moments. The duo discuss their beloved TV parents, played by Suzanne Somers and Patrick Duffy, and their fellow TGIF legend Jaleel White, who danced his signature Urkel dance with Christine. If you are attending ’90s Con in Hartford, Connecticut, March 15-17, you could actually meet Christine, Staci, Patrick, Angela Watson, Sasha Mitchell, Christopher Castile, Brandon Call, and Jason Marsden! It will be a cast reunion like you’ve never seen, as Christine rounded up so many of the Foster-Lambert kids to join her.
Christine chats with me about rewatching Step by Step for her podcast and reuniting with her castmates after Suzanne Somers’ passing. I think you’ll love Keanan and Lakin Give You Déjà Vu as much as I do. Enjoy my conversation with the lovely Christine Lakin!
This interview has been edited and condensed for length.
Steven Ray Morris was your longtime producer on Worst Ever Podcast. How has it been to work with him again on the new podcast?
It’s amazing to work with Steven. I love him so much as a person, and also, he’s such a prolific producer and engineer. He, I think, really started in the world of podcasting before podcasting was so ubiquitous, so he was a real pioneer in it. We worked with him for a long time on Worst Ever.
It was just kind of happenstance how this worked out. He and I have been friends since then, and we ended up grabbing lunch last fall. Staci and I had had this podcast mostly in the can, but we were sort of deciding, what were we going to do with it, and it needed an editor because we just started it. It was really her idea, to be honest.
She came to me and said, “How would you feel about doing a Step by Step rewatch podcast?” And I was like, “I think with almost anyone else I would say no, but with you, yeah!” Because it would just be so much fun. And anytime I get to get more time with Staci, I jump on it. So we slowly started recording it, not really knowing, What was it? Did we like it? Was it fun? What would we talk about? Would it flow easily? So it was kind of an experiment, honestly, in the beginning, and then we found out we were really having a good time.
The funny thing about it is that Staci’s never seen the show, ever. So, I found that really hilarious and kind of interesting as an angle to revisit this in a new way.
What was it about the idea of reconnecting, rewatching and discussing Step by Step with Staci specifically that excited you so much?
A couple things about Staci that I just thought were so unique. Number one: The fact that she had never watched the show. Number two: Her take on the world, I think, is always interesting. She’s a really intelligent person. She’s also incredibly funny. I’ve always had such a high respect for her. When I was a young person starting off in this business—Step by Step was my first television show, I was twelve years old—I really looked up to her. I watched My Two Dads. I watched everything. I was a TV nerd. I knew everything. I watched all the shows. TGIF was like, Oh my God, are you kidding me? It’s the thing I looked forward to all week. I was the demographic, and then there was this other person who had been on TV shows and had been doing this her whole life. She was just in a different category. So as a young person, I felt like I was always kind of looking up to her and wanting so badly to be a part of her world. I remember a lot of things really specifically because I was making major core memories, let’s be honest.
For her, she was just in a different phase of her life [as a teenager]. So we just have these two different perspectives on a shared childhood and a time in life that was very different than it is now. The ‘90s were just a totally different time.
As we got older, we got closer, and there’s a lot of things that we did outside of the show. Going back and having those memories together was really fun. My mom remembers almost everything and documented quite a lot, so there’s always Karen Lakin to fall back on when your memory fails you!
Through the years, we’ve stayed close. She and I, we’ve talked and gotten together, and she’s come to events at my house. But our lives and our careers and my family and my kids, those have all kind of been wedges. This was really a great opportunity for us to have kind of an appointment. It was like we were having a friend date once every two weeks or whatever it was, and we would sit and record for a couple hours and chat, and it was really lovely.
You talk about programming the VCR to record Step by Step in the ‘90s. I find it so funny that even though you watched the show while you were on it and Staci did not, both of you had all these VHS tapes and everything. I’m assuming that by the time you were starting on the show, TGIF had been around for a long time enough and Full House had been on long enough that for you, being in that first generation, it must have been huge to be like, I’m on this new show that’s part of this huge block.
Oh, it was like a dream come true, honestly.
I guess as I grew up, then that block of television turned into Must See TV, and it turned into Friends and Frasier. But when I was a kid, it was TGIF. I mean, I watched Perfect Strangers, I watched Full House. I watched Family Matters. I watched it all. And I used to have friends over. I was a dancer, so I would go do my dance stuff, and then on Fridays, we would come to my house, we would order pizza, we would watch TGIF. That was our thing.
Me from Atlanta, having done commercials and a couple random TV movies, I randomly get this audition, I get this job. They’re flying me out there. We’re doing this pilot. I mean, I’m looking around like, what the heck is happening? And everyone’s like, “Don’t count your chickens. A lot of times these things don’t go.” And then when it went, and then when I find out that it’s going to be on Friday, mind blown. It was like, Oh, my God, I’ve peaked. This is it. This is the greatest thing that’s ever going to happen to me. It was really exciting.
It was also–we talk about this, too–going back to real life when you are the demographic and all the kids around you are the demographic, kind of daunting, because suddenly that spotlight is really bright at a time in your life in seventh and eighth grade when, in real life, you don’t really want to be different than anyone else. So, that was a unique experience kind of straddling, I think, those two worlds for me.
The Worst Ever Podcast musical theme was always just the best to kick off that show. As soon as I heard your new theme song on Keanan and Lakin Give you Déjà Vu, I loved it. It’s perfect. Can you tell me what went into developing this theme song?
Staci and I chatted about the fact that we needed a theme song and about how much we love the theme song of Step by Step and so many of those other TGIF shows; they all have a certain quality, if you will. A lot of the shows in the ‘90s, they’re catchy, they usually have a great singer on them. There’s usually a saxophone or an electric guitar involved. So, we thought it would be really funny to kind of get that vibe and recreate something.
So, of course, I call one of my best friends, Rachel Lawrence, who I’ve known for years. Rachel is a very prolific voice coach in Los Angeles, and she’s also a composer and songwriter. Many years ago, I had a digital series called Lovin’ Lakin that’s now up on YouTube. My friend Rachel and my other friend, Joe Bwarie, created the theme song for Lovin’ Lakin. So of course, she was the first person I thought of and I was like, “Listen, Rach, I need a theme song for the podcast. It’s in the vein of Lovin’ Lakin, it’s that ‘90s kind of vibe, but also, I want it to feel a little bit like Step by Step so that people understand what it is right from the beginning…”
So I just started to tell her, “It’s a rewatch, and we talk about this, and we’re sisters and from another time…” And literally, she was like, “Oh, my gosh, this sounds great. Okay, I’m going to think about it right now.” And in about 30 minutes, she was singing on a voice note to me. That’s how fast it happened. I mean, she’s incredible. She’s, like, the most talented. So, it sort of evolved from there. She tracked it, she sang it, she did the backups for it. She’s a one-woman show, so it’s Rachel Lawrence’s voice and her lyrics.
I’ve gone back to the first couple of Step by Step episodes so that I can rewatch along with you all. Between the very first episode in the pilot (your hospital scene with Suzanne Somers) and the second episode (your iconic Urkel dance with Jaleel White), what was it like over 30 years later to revisit these kinds of moments? You were stealing the show from the beginning.
Crazy, right?
There’s a part of it that I don’t even know how to explain because it feels like such a part of my life, but yet, I’m watching it as a third party. It’s almost like watching this really well-done home movie that you have. So you remember doing it, like, I physically remember what the set looked like. I remember the director. I remember some of the rehearsals. I certainly remember a lot about the Urkel episode because it had so many parts to it, and being really enamored with Jaleel White and a little bit intimidated because he was a really big star (and PS I had watched him for years) and just wanting to do a good job and not wanting to look like a novice or an imbecile.
So, I remember those things, but then I watch it, and I can see myself for sure as this young person. I think because I have so many memories attached to it, I remember the feelings as well as, I guess, sometimes the punchlines. It’s kind of funny. It’s kind of weird.
You’ve stayed in touch with a lot of your Step by Step castmates—obviously Staci, Patrick Duffy, you had a really touching reunion with Angela Watson on Worst Ever Podcast. Suzanne Somers’ passing was such a huge loss, and I can’t even imagine how that has felt for those of you who worked with her. What was one of your favorite qualities in Suzanne, either as a co-star or a person or both?
Oh, man. It’s still so surreal, honestly, to think that she’s not with us. I have never met somebody whose light shined so bright and who was so down to earth.
She was the most generous, she was the most beautiful, the most self-deprecating, had the best laugh, was like salt of the earth but yet was also this very glamorous and sexy person who just owned it. To watch that as a young woman, to watch someone who owned her power, but who was also incredibly generous with others, and had real empathy for others, she was just an amazing mentor, and she was an amazing example of how you can be in this business. If you really think about it, now that I’m an adult, now I’m practically the age she was when she was starting that show.
So I sometimes think of: You’ve had this whole career and you’ve done all these things and you’ve had highs and lows and you’ve had to fight for equal pay. You’ve gone and you’ve done Vegas, you’ve done TV, you’ve been a pin-up, you’ve been an icon. You’ve done all this stuff. And then you go back to doing a show in which you’re playing the mom of like six kids. As an adult actor, there’s probably a little part of you that’s just like, Oh, my God, so many kids. So many kids. And I never got that vibe from her. I never got that she was like, Ugh, all these kids–because some actors complain about working with children, and I understand. I’m a director. I get it from a lot of different standpoints. It can be tedious. But she was never like that. She never made any of us feel that way. And more to the point, she was a queen. She was amazing, and we miss her a lot.
It’s wonderful that so many of you will be together soon and will be able to share those memories of her. I would love to hear about this epic Step by Step reunion that’s coming up at ‘90s Con.
Suzanne had just passed, and it had been maybe a month or so. I said, Life is short, unfortunately. We all spent this really incredible time together, and maybe it’s time that we all come together and see each other again. I mean, it’s been way too long, frankly. … Honestly, I haven’t seen Brandon [Call], I haven’t seen Chris [Castile], I haven’t seen Sasha [Mitchell] in maybe 15 years. So this will be a real awesome reunion for all of us and I’m really excited about it.
Everett Collection
What did you think when you realized that you and Jodie Sweetin and Beverley Mitchell were all going to be there and have this great Hollywood Darlings reunion?
We’re all really excited. That’s going to be a lot of fun. I mean, I know so many people there. This is the funny thing. When I was looking through everybody that was going, in some hilarious way, it sort of feels like a high school reunion. It’s like, Boy Meets World! I’m like, Oh! Andrew Keegan! Oh! I know all these people. Sabrina the Teenage Witch! Used to work out with them when we were on Step by Step; we all shared a trainer to do our PE credits. Hilarious. It’s the most ridiculous high school sort of vibe of people that were on shows at the same time that all kind of did a lot of the same things, in a good way, not in a bad way. So it’s going to be a blast.
That’s so cool. Even in your work as a director and choreographer, you spent a decade as part of shows that were intrinsically nostalgic for the ‘80s and then the ‘90s, The Goldbergs and Schooled. So what do you think it is about the ‘90s that makes the pop culture of the decade, at least, stay so nostalgic for so many people?
I think it’s a time that feels a lot simpler than the time we live in. I think the time we live in now is really complex. The internet as a whole has changed all of our lives. We change how we communicate, we change how we find partners. We change how we do our work, and for a lot of us, it’s opened up worlds and information portals we would never have otherwise. I mean, I used to have to go to the library and check out the encyclopedia to do my homework.
It’s sped up those processes and it’s almost disconnected us from, I think, in-real-life communication. And in those ways, I’m nostalgic for that. I’m nostalgic for the days of going to the mall and waiting by the fountain and saying, I’ll meet you at 2:30, and just honestly sitting there and waiting, to a degree. I’m maybe in the minority of people, but I used to like waiting around for that phone to ring or actually talking to somebody instead of being on my phone and staring at it and texting and trying to make plans. It was just something really, I don’t know, really easy about that connection. And so I think for some people, like myself, like a Gen xer, I’m nostalgic for that simpler time. … I think we’re all nostalgic for our childhoods in different ways because it does feel like so many of those core memories, whether it was going to Disneyland for the first time or it was watching those shows or having that first sleepover, getting that first kiss, or going to the dance, the music, the fashion–it’s all in the zeitgeist of what feels like, sometimes, a really happy, pleasant experience. And when you get older and you get in a world of adulting and you realize all the things that come with it, I think we all want something that feels maybe just a little more pure.
I’m a ‘79, baby, so I’m right on the cusp of that Gen X, but I’ll take it. I still remember so much about the ’80s. Some of my favorite movies were ‘80s movies… some of those first core memories of seeing Star Wars or whatever it was when it was really out in theaters, I think I’ll never forget. So much of The Goldbergs really hit home for me. The ’90s is really where I was coming into my adolescence, but the ’80s was my childhood, so I related to Adam Goldberg and the character on the show and everything he went through and the things he loved and Raiders of the Lost Ark and all his things. And I was always making movies with my dad’s camcorder when I was a kid, too. It was very nostalgic for me, as well, to watch that show and work on it.
You’re very much working in the entertainment industry right now. What do you think is missing in the TV landscape? Who do you think is doing a really great job creating either content for families or just something that you think needs to be seen?
I think, in terms of family content, it still feels like there’s nothing quite like TGIF, and there hasn’t really been in a while. Disney does a really good job with some of their content of making stuff that I would want to watch, and I feel great about my kids watching. I feel like they’ve always done that. High School Musical is a great example of that.
I really miss those family sitcoms where there clearly were the jokes for the adults that went right over my head, because as Staci and I both said, we didn’t realize Step by Step was such a hot and horny show.
It’s so funny, the part [on the podcast] about your daughter saying, “There’s so much kissing.“
“Kissing!” She’s so shady, but she’s not incorrect, and I don’t think I ever noticed that growing up. So I think maybe we have gotten maybe more sensitive to what’s appropriate and maybe what’s not. But I don’t know, I mean, two parents that are really into each other, there’s maybe nothing wrong with that, either, showing that.
So, I do think that’s sort of missing from the landscape. I miss those shows. I grew up on sitcom. I grew up on all of the sitcoms. Some of them for kids get a little snarky for me. And I wish that maybe there were more about families going through what families go through, but also, who always come together and love each other. That little message and moral at the end, sorry, I’m a sucker for it. I really am. There’s other shows I think that are doing a really good job of, in general, storytelling and creating situations and characters like we’ve never seen before. I’m in the middle of watching Bad Sisters, which is not a family show, but I’m really enjoying the character development and the storytelling on that. I love shows like Barry, I love shows like Dave. I like sort of dark characters who, you want to see try to redeem themselves, but continue to fail in all kinds of ways. That’s sort of where I come from. I think that’s really fun to watch.
Thank you so much to Christine Lakin for chatting with us about TV past and present, and about the hottest new rewatch podcast, Keanan and Lakin Give You Déjà Vu! Follow Christine everywhere @yolakin and the podcast @keananandlakin. Christine’s incredible work can be seen on her website. More pop culture articles can be found at our @pastfootforward Instagram and @AMcClainMerrill on Twitter.
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