Ashton Kutcher Saddles Up for Netflix's "The Ranch"

Here we are, the ranch. This is this is your hood, guys. Welcome. This is our front porch. Your new home, your new home. Yeah. It's exciting stuff. Yeah. Um, Sam, obviously this isn't your first time on a ranch on TV, but it's uh, it's your first time doing a lot of the inside set stuff, right?

Yes, it is. First multi-cam. Yeah. And I'm finding it a lot of fun. Yeah. I'm enjoying it. I'm love working with these two guys. That's a good thing. That's a good thing. I'm love working with this kind of material that the writers and producers are generating and uh, it's a, it's a great game. You're a linebacker, Dad. The day we did it all. Play both ways. Yeah, that means something different nowadays, Dad.

And this isn't your first time a sitcom. Not my first rodeo. You're both veterans. Yeah, it's not your first time.

No, we've been doing this for a while. Um, and we've been looking for something for about the last 10 years to to maybe team up and and uh, get back to beating each other up a little bit on TV. I finished doing Man at Work and he finished doing Two and a Half Men and the time worked out really well. It was, hey, let's not take any meetings unless we actually go put this thing together we've been talking about, didn't know what it was gonna be. And so we sat on his porch and and drank a few whiskeys and started coming up with ideas that eventually became parts of the ranch. Neither are our first time doing a sitcom, but I think it's our first time doing a show like this. Right. Um, cause I don't think a show like this has been done before. We're really trying to kinda push the boundary of what a multi-cam is and what's the content and what does it look like and what does it feel like? And working with Netflix, it's it's like the greatest partner you possibly have, cause they give you all the liberty to try things. So far, we're pushing the envelope pretty good. I would say that. I would say that. With the opening few episodes, yeah.

Crazy seeing you. What are you up to?

Dad called, said he needs some help at home, so decided it was time to be MVP of life and not just football. So

This is a sitcom based in a small town, which is a nice refreshing take on, as opposed to, you know, your bigger cities.

Yeah, exactly. I mean, we just sort of looked around and and looked on TV and it was like, well, little America, where's their show? Where's the show representing them that's that's that's not, you know, a Hollywood version of making fun of, you know, like a small town mentality, which is not. It's these are guys who've been working a ranch for three generations and they like to go to the local bar and have a drink at the end of the day and dealing with the relationships of the ladies of their life of of the family of trying to deal with, you know, an overbearing father and trying to be men but are real still acting like children and him having to deal with us, you know. It's I grew up in Iowa and, you know, my show was, yeah, obviously. My show was always Roseanne, um, because it felt like that could be my family. I mean, they were in like small town Illinois and it it it all it just felt like that could be my family. Like that was the the things that they were going through and what they were what they were dealing with felt like the way I was growing up and and, you know, when you look on television today, everything's in a apartment in Manhattan or in metropolitan areas and there really wasn't anything that was serving this audience. And definitely nothing that was serving the ideals and beliefs and the values of this audience. And I think that that's what we set out, we set out to make a show about.

Sweet Jesus, take me now.

Hopefully, in episode you obviously have that nice CPR moment on a car. I think it's the first time many women wish they they were a cow. Yeah. Um, is that that's your that's your first time

I was I was that cow. I I wish I was a cow. Yeah, I played, I role-played after the actual episode. We role-play. We role-play after the show's done.

But Danny was a stand-in for the cow all week when we were rehearsing. He wanted something familiar.

I can see that. I mean, if you're rubbing a bit there, that's fair. You've got cow features. You got. Um, that was obviously your first time CPR on a cow. Has anyone milked a cow before? No. No. Okay.

I've milked a goat before. That's good. That's pretty good.

You say milked a cow or birthed a cow. Well, either. I mean, either would be impressive.

I've milked a few cows.

I've milked a cat before.

Okay. Okay, you've milked a cat. You've done a lot more than me. You've been given them any tips on obviously spending a lot more time outdoors on the ranch. Have you been given them tips?

Oh, I don't think so. I I think I'm really kind of a pain in everybody's ass because I'm always striving for some sort of reality, but finally I realize that it's really it's not about real, it's about creating this illusion. Okay. of reality. So I'm kind of caving in on that.

Uh, that's not true. So, he is a, we have two people that are like resident expert ranchers. One is Sam, the other one is Mark Rich, who runs our props department. He's had his own cattle ranch for years. So, every single script, Sam comes in and says, you know, this isn't right, this isn't right, this isn't right, this isn't right. And we go back to the drawing, drawing board and and as much as we possibly can get right, we try to get right because the truth of the matter is there's gonna be some ranchers that are watching the show and they're gonna go, wait a second, that's not real. And and I've already seen, you know, a couple things this that and the other thing just about the kind of cow that we had. Uh, that people were like, you know, and and but I think that that's important because I think that these guys are probably looking at other ranches around, uh, around them going, well, they're not doing this right and they're not doing that right and I and I think that that's that's a part of the culture and it's important to us. You know, you do the best you can do within the confines of the game, you know. Right. And you ask for forgiveness if you didn't get it right, so, you know. This is this is what we do. It is entertaining. We're not ranchers here. We're entertainers.

Being a show on Netflix, um, if you were to binge watch something, what was the last show you binge watched? Because that's the great thing about Netflix.

Frankie.

You gonna watch yourself? He likes to watch himself. He watches to watch himself. He's only watches himself on.

It's actually before I joined it. Because I wanted to see what it was about. I wanted to see what I was getting myself into. So to speak. Nice.

My wife and I watched the new season of House of Cards over three nights this week. Before that, we had finished the last season, I think it was season three of Peaky Blinders.

Peaky Blinders. It's a good one.

It's my favorite show right now, yeah.

I've been crushing Curious George with my daughter.

Okay. She's a huge fan. I love that. See, what a variation. Just a variation.

My daughter loves Peaky Blinders too, though. My daughter loves that. She's two.

Yeah, might want to be careful on that one. Don't teach her how to knife people. Okay. Okay, good stuff. That's a great note to end there, I think. I think we'll end it right there. Okay, good to see you. Cheers, man. Yeah, man, great to see you.