Can I give you a few tips?
Get there early (crack of dawn!) - they always give more tickets than they actually have room, just in case there are no-shows.
When they ask you to come back for the actual taping, be as bright and funny and entertaining as possible! There is a very brief stop along the way in line and there are perhaps two or three people who ask you a couple of questions - that is the producer and runners…they are selecting who would be a good candidate to go on stage. They are looking for “fun” people, so you damned well better be “FUN!”. And have your hair combed and be dressed appropriately. Smile the entire time you are in line (they look down the line to get an idea of how you look when you think they are not looking). Theoretically, you should be borderline meth addict/clown/acrobat, full of energy and someone thisclose to be being thrown out of the bar.
I got screwed that day. The regular producer was out sick and the assistant was in charge. Every single person who went on stage that day was blonde with huge tits…I didn’t have a prayer to be selected - wrong gender, hair color and no tits to speak of.
Also, I only (half-jokingly) say I would rent some military outfit and wear it (they almost always take a guy in military outfits).
Thanks! Tickers are sold out in advance ($45!) and now they have an online registration for people to come on down. They claim it’s random draw of those that enter and have tickets but I’m not convinced. I’ll definitely try to be fun if they have a mini-audition. I’m afraid I’m not going to grow breasts before then. Maybe my wife will have a chance. They also say if you want to be onstage that you have to be there 3 hrs before the show so it sounds to me that it might not be so random.
The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson - we were in town for another reason (see below), and decided to do a whole TV/Hollywood/touristy week of it. You get tickets for Ferguson’s show for free online (there’s a link from his page on the CBS web site), and they seem to go 2-3 weeks out, and may or may not say who the guests will be on the show (ours were listed as “TBD”; turned out to be Jennifer Love Hewitt and an actress from “True Blood” whose name escapes me at the moment). The earlier you sign up for tickets, the more likely you’ll actually get in. They issue them in three groups that are essentially “Will Get In,” “Most Probably Will Get In,” and, “Might Get In,” as they purposely oversell to make sure they have a full house. The first group will include people who were bumped from a previous show, and those who sign up earliest.
This was in the old studio, and I was really surprised at how small it was. Two discoveries from that experience: 1. Musical and comedy acts are taped before the show proper, and are then dropped in when needed. We saw Trampled By Turtles tape a song, and I don’t think it actually aired until a couple of weeks ago. 2. The cold open is actually taped between the monologue and the e-mail segment. Apparently, Ferguson likes to sort of scan the crowd during the monologue and look for interesting people.
Dancing With The Stars - we got tickets for the past season’s finale at a charity auction (my wife is hella competitive with an auction paddle). This was pretty awesome! We had fantastic seats (directly across the floor from the judges, 5 or 6 rows back from the floor - you could see us clearly during a couple of the hosts’ interstitials). It was kind of interesting in that we often couldn’t hear what was going on. The pre-taped segments were shown on monitors with full audio so they could get an audience reaction foro them, but live vocals were often difficult to impossible to hear, so we didn’t “see” the complete show until we got back to our hotel and could watch the west coast broadcast. To be completely shallow for a moment, Anna Trebunskaya is really, really hot in person, and has abs you could stop a bullet with.
The best part of the DWTS trip is that we had a second pair of tickets from a different auction (I told you; don’t stand between my wife and something she wants), and were able to use that package to fly our mothers out for the Monday night show that same week. It was really, really cool to be able to do that for them.
Years ago, when I lived in L.A., I went to a bunch of game shows. “Wheel of Fortune”, “Jeopardy”, and some others.
I always wanted to be in the audience for a sitcom but never got the chance.
At least at that time, tickets were free, but they gave out many more than they actually had seats, so you had to wait in a long line to get in, and there was a good chance that you wouldn’t get in if you were too far back. That’s how the producers made sure it was a full house for every show.
I went to a taping of Family Feud back thirty years ago, when Richard Dawson hosted, and dinosaurs roamed the earth.
1.) No tickets. You just waited in line. The line is out in the sun, with no shade. There was no water fountain you could go to, or restroom, or anyplace sellimng refreshments. You waited a couple of ghours. I think they wanted to see if you really wanted to get in.
2.) Once inside, you sit in a surprisingly small studio (they look enormous on TV, and invariably tiny in real life), but you’re grateful to be inside and sitting. The announcer comes in for a warm-up routine, sand to get the audience relaxed and stoked. (At the same time).
3.) They taped a week’s worth of shows, five in all, in real time. They took a two-minute commercial break, even though you’d think they could simply turn the videotapers off and take a longer break. But I suppose a 2.5 hour taping run is long enough.
4.) I was surprised that we, as the studio audience, were not “polled” for the “Survey says” questons. I had always assumed that the “Survey says” questions were asked of that already captive audience. But they’re not. No one asked us any polls. We were simply there to respond.
I was actually on an actual game show once, on the local quiz bowl show (“Texaco Star Academic Challenge”, or something like that; KPRC Channel 2 in Houston in 1991) and was an occasional correspondent on the same channel’s kid-written, kid-reported and kid-produced show on Saturday mornings back in the early-mid 1980s (2Country Kidsworld).
The big takeaway is that editing is to a great degree, where the magic happens. They can generally take some fairly cruddy footage and edit it to be ok.
Otherwise, it’s a lot more boring than you’d think- either repeated takes, or a lot of sitting around. Plus, the sets only look good from one angle, and are really pretty rickety.
1993 or so, I was living in CA and my mom came out to visit. I took her to Hollywood to do the tourist stuff, and we were approached outside Graumann’s by a guy who was trying to fill seats for tapings that afternoon. Figured why not, and we got tickets to see them tape The Larry Sanders Show.
What I kind of remember is that they shot the talk show segments for a handful of episodes in one sitting, and I was a little disappointed not to be able to see them tape any of the behind the scenes stuff. Still had a good time, I remember laughing pretty hard at Adam Sandler, and they taped the scene where Hank got married on the show.
Aww, I tried to go to one of those. One of their “contestant coordinators” came to my high school in the late 70’s for a career day. I got tickets & convinced my parents to drive up to L.A. for the taping. There were people with different colored tickets, and they lined us up by ticket color. We found out that one color (not ours) got in first, and then our color went in if there was room. There wasn’t. So they exchanged our tickets for a different color to come back the next day. I gathered that those who got in that day had been sent away previously. We didn’t go back.
I went to a taping of “Wheel of Fortune” which was terribly boring. Starts, stops, starts, stops. And there was a row of advisors at the front of the “audience” who would tell Pat Sajak if the letter that the contestant called out was in the puzzle and how many. That looked really bad. Of course, they never show that on the “final product.” :rolleyes:
I’ve been to two tapings of The Dr. Phil Show. Once was when the show sent a bus around to pick up members of local Curves, I guess to fill up their audience. They picked us up, we saw a movie before the show taped, saw the show, and then they brought us back. That was a fun outing, just for the “goodie” bag. BTW, the movie was “Fever Pitch” and Jimmy Fallon was a guest on the show. The topic was people obsessed with sports.
I went to a WWE Smackdown taping earlier this year. They also taped an episode of Superstars and NXT. It took about 4 hours. The main things I noticed were that the cameras are mostly on one side of the arena, so the big moves and poses all face that side. Even though it was taped, they still stopped everything for commercial breaks. The lights in the arena would dim and everything.
Sometimes you see a wrestler coming out just as they’re about to go to commercial. When they come back from commercial, the wrestler’s music is still playing and they’re doing their routine in the ring. What actually happened was that everyone stopped and the lights dimmed. Just the the break was over, their music would pick up and they’d go back to acting like they had been working the crowd the whole time. It was strange.
The ring crew also runs in and adjust the ropes and other things while promos are playing for upcoming matches or events.
Not a taping exactly, but I got tickets for Saturday Night Live in December 2008. NBC collects ticket requests by e-mail for the entire season in August and then contacts the lucky recipients a few weeks before each show.
For the show I saw, Hugh Laurie was the host and Kanye West was the musical guest. We arrived at 30 Rock around 10:15 and lined up. A little before 11:00, we taken in small groups through security to the elevators up to the 9th floor (above Studio 8H) and shown to our seats. Studio 8H is small and rectangular–maybe 200 or 300 seats. Seats are along the long end of the rectangle and around one side. We were seated right at the bend; not the best vantage point, as some skits were performed directly below us, but we were on camera during the opening and once between skits.
Around 11:15, Jason Sudakis came out to warm up the crowd and point out the Applause signs and the studio monitors. He introduced Don Pardo, who sat in small booth right in the center of the stage. (I believe his voiceovers are now recorded and he no longer attends each show.) At 11:28, they quieted the studio and began a 60-second countdown (with whoever was doing the counting pretending to get exasperated with around 10 seconds left). The show began precisely at 11:29.
Show was fun. I probably laughed more than I would have if I were watching at home…just something about being in the crowd. It’s interesting how all the stagehands scramble around during commercial breaks to quickly build each set. Lorne Michaels calmly stands among the chaos as they put everything together. They set up the Weekend Update desk directly in front of the SNL band stage. On this show, Amy Poehler had just returned from maternity leave and, at the end of Weekend Update, announced that she was leaving the show.
After the show ended, Kanye West–who performed twice during the show–went back to the music stage and performed 3 or 4 more songs. Around 1:20, it was all over and they ushered us back to the elevators and down to the street, where there many people waiting, presumably for someone more famous than me to exit.
I’ve tried for tickets each year since, but haven’t been picked.
Exacerbating this slight hijack: I didn’t experience much of the live taping of the last Seinfeld episode, but I did pass champagne at its conclusion with my catering company (and we were intermittently going into and out of the sound stage with product and I peeked in at every opportunity as they taped – it was my all-time favorite show at the time). Our call times were 10:30pm and they didn’t wrap until after 2:30. Even though it was a festive atmosphere, it was a little muted. I couldn’t tell if it was because it was late or because there was a sense that the final episode (as well as the final season) wasn’t up to typical Seinfeld excellence. Remember, Larry David was not there for the final season.
As a fan of a show, though, it was pretty freakin’ awesome passing champagne around all of the Seinfeld guest stars over the years – although I, too, was getting tired. (Sneaking a sit-down at the diner table or checking out the cold cereal selection in Jerry’s kitchen: priceless).
FTR: Soup Nazi over-the-top pleasant, Keith Hernandez, pretty cool/laughed at my spitting joke, the dude who ran the cockfighting ring on the “Little Jerry Seinfeld” episode not all that pleasant (but could have been a cultural/ESL thing).
The Daily Show - twice, once at the old location (where The Colbert Report films now), around 2002 and once at the new one (2005). I had no idea ahead of time who the guest would be. At the first taping, when word got around in line that Bill Kristol would be interviewed, I wondered what Billy Crystal would be plugging on the The Daily Show. :rolleyes: The second time was interesting because they told us Gary Sinise would be the guest but in Jon Stewart’s opener he said “Elijah Wood is here!” When watching the show back you hear NO response at first because the audience was all thinking “No, he’s not.”
The problem with TDS is the show is very short - only a half hour and I felt like they had shorter breaks for commercials in the studio than they do when the show airs. So after you wait for hours to get in (they played episodes of South Park to pass the time), the taping itself goes way too fast. Aside from the hours waiting, though, the experience overall was really fun. Plus, you get to hear Jon Stewart’s uncensored swearing.
The first time I got tickets by calling, or emailing or something. The second time Stephen Colbert himself arranged the tickets for us.
I somehow got Letterman tickets back in 2001. David Spade was one of the guests, I can’t remember who else. I’d say we were treated like cattle but I think cattle are generally treated better, at least they are put out of their misery. The handlers were nasty, you waited in crowded rooms for hours on end, and threatened with charges of High Treason if you dared not belly-laugh to exhaustion every time Dave opened his mouth. We were actually told that we would ruin the show if we showed any flagging of energy. After waiting in a series of cramped, hot rooms without water, bathrooms or any sort of entertainment (we weren’t allowed to have phones). By the time we eventually got to sit down the LAST thing we were in the mood for was laughter. The taping itself, however, went mercifully quickly and the Ed Sullivan is a nice theater. We were seated up fairly close to the front so I had a good view when musical guest Laurie Anderson played, so that almost made it worthwhile. I would NOT do that again if I were paid to (and I like Letterman).
I went with my aunt and uncle to answer phones during a pledge drive at the PBS station in Seattle. We wound up in seats right behind the announcers. I tried to look calm and professional, even during the obscene calls. It was during a Frugal Gourmet marathon, but they said you could pledge for other favorite shows too, and the camera pulled back to reveal me with a silver ‘H’ on my forehead.
(For any old Seattle dopers, I was told that the makeup guy was Gertrude from J.P. Patches, but after I found that out he never came out to do the makeup again.)
Been to a few radio tapings, Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me twice (once in Chicago, once in Boston) and Says You! twice. On the broadcast you can hear me yell out a couple answers that the panelists didn’t get.
Oh yes, I’d forgotten about my PBS work, probably because those were live gigs rather than tapings.
Think I’ve done two with KQED in San Francisco and three or four with KTEH in San Jose. Other than the “hurry and sit down at a phone because we’re live in two minutes” aspect, they treat you well. Ever notice how there’s usually one or more restaurants being thanked on a pledge night? The volunteers on the phones are probably eating food from that restaurant.
Yes, we’d get a couple lewd calls each night. Some would start out normally and then dive into “What are you wearing? Can you wave to me?” and others would just launch right into filth.
One of our best moments was on a break where the phone system failed and we were getting no calls at all. The director asked if we could fake it for the next break if the phones were still out. Bad idea. As if on cue, twenty Rennies started moaning and saying “Ohh yes, YES!” and almost as quickly, we were back to our normal selves after a good round of giggles.
My husband and I have been to many tapings, but this is our favorite story.
We went to a “Tonight Show” taping, starring Johnny Carson. The main guest was Chuck Berry. Awesome! Brought down the house.
Then, when the taping was finished, they asked if anyone wished to stay for a taping of Bob Hope’s Christmas special. It was summertime. We decided to stay and it was such a treat to watch an American icon perform his shtick so effortlessly.
This was 1981.
We were newlyweds and broke.
Best free entertainment we could have asked for.
I saw Family Double Dare in the 90s with Mark Summers. The thing that sucked about it was that they brought in two different audiences for the quiz portion and for the obstacle course at the end (the cool part), and I was in the crowd for the first part unfortunately. My main observation is the most common one, the set looks way smaller in person than it does on TV.
I’ve also done some wrestling shows, but it looks like that ground has pretty much been covered already.
I live in LA, in the past I worked at a studio, so I’ve seen more tapings than I can remember. But that’s in the past.
The most recent I saw was a pilot being taped. It was called “Freshmen” and it was put together by Arianna Huffington. It was about a group of newly elected congresspeople and starred Sarah Chalke.
As others have mentioned, the process involved arriving early. In this case we got tickets from Huffington Post. We stood in line in a parking structure, then were bussed over to FOX studios. There we went through some fairly heavy security (lots of beefy guys in dark suits, sunglasses, and earpieces. Really?) Then we were seated.
The taping was about 3 hours, it was a very festive atmosphere. Arianna was holding court, Neil Patrick Harris stopped by (they were taping How I Met Your Mother on the soundstage next door.)
One thing no one has mentioned is the audience warmup person. There is usually a standup comic who keeps the audience engaged while the production is resetting for the next shot. They keep everyone in a good mood and staunch the boredom.
One interesting aspect to this taping was how they would tape scenes a number of times and change up the dialog to try to get better jokes. The writer was very present on the stage and interacting with the audience. At one point someone passed a note to him with a suggestion for a piece of dialog. I don’t think they ended up trying it, however…
It was a fun show, Sarah Chalke looked fantastic, but the show wasn’t picked up for broadcast. Every year dozens and dozens of new pilots are filmed that don’t get picked up, so it’s not too surprising.
