Going behind the scenes

Originally posted on MySpace on November 14, 2009.

I had a long day experiencing movie and television magic. First up, my 5-hour Warner Brothers Studios VIP Tour. Now, I went on this tour last year and had such a good time, I decided to do it again. Even though a lot of the tour was the same, I learned some new stuff. One of the high points is always eating in the fine dining commissary. It's where the bigwigs eat...producers, executives and yes, actors, too. I decided to go with the top sirloin steak in red wine sauce, baked fingerling potatoes and sauteed spinach. Dessert was a tasty coconut cream pie. There was some filming going on in a few soundstages, but the only actor I saw was George Lopez. He has a new series called Lopez Tonight. I would have loved to see someone from my favorite TV shows, like Cold Case and The Mentalist. Ah, Simon Baker...where were you hiding? Oh, and I DID see George Clooney's parking space...no car, though.

Afterwards, I drove immediately to CBS Studio Center to attend a taping of the CBS television situation comedy, Accidentally On Purpose. I have never watched this series...in fact, I don't watch sitcoms in general...but I was familiar with the basic premise. I got there early, but didn't have to wait too long. Studio pages guided the attendees to the soundstage. After a quick runthough the metal detector...I guess those things are standard at film studios...we were seated overlooking the stage, which was divided into sections. Each section contained a different room or location. On the far right was a newspaper office, and the far left was a bar. The whole middle sections were the kitchen, living room, bedroom and bathroom of the main character's apartment. The cast of Accidentally On Purpose had a couple of familiar names to me. Star Jenna Elfman was previously on the comedy Dharma & Greg. Grant Show guest starred on several episodes of Private Practice, a series I regularly watch. And, Michael Rappaport was doing a guest appearance on the show. He has been in many feature films, and in another favorite series that is no longer on the air, Prison Break.

The audience was entertained by a stand up comedian who regularly appears at L.A.'s Laugh Factory. He was VERY funny and helped bide the time between takes when filming began. The actual filming process was very interesting...and very tedious! There was usually multiple takes, always to get other camera angles...and sometimes to redo scenes when mistakes were made. Intially, Grant Show was having a frustrating time saying his lines. He would occasionally forget a line, but more often stumbled over his words. But, everyone in the cast made mistakes...not only him. Filming started at 6:00 pm and went on for hours. So, a half hour...actually 22 minutes without commercials...show took 4 HOURS to film! But, like I said, the stand up guy was really good at keeping everyone entertained. He had people dancing, playing Name That Tune, etc and gave out free gifts, too. About 2 hours into things, they fed us...a slice of cheese pizza and bottled water. Nice! The most important thing was our responsibility as audience members. We were encouraged to laugh at the appropriate times while the actors were performing. Our laughter was recorded, and will be included in the laugh track when the episode is later edited. All I can say is I would love to do something like that again...it was fun!

Well, tomorrow I travel about 50 miles to Riverside, CA to visit March Field Air Museum and the Riverside Municipal Museum. I'm always looking to feed my mind...and I love air museums, too! The weather will be beautiful tomorrow...perfect for looking at planes!