Access Blogs
Inside the 'Two And A Half Men' 100th Episode
Just two short weeks until the Fall TV Season is back in full swing. It can't come soon enough because frankly I'm bored to tears now that the summer shows have ended. It's been 110 degrees the past week here in Los Angeles which doesn't exactly make you want to rush outside for some end of summer activities. Instead, I braved the heat and spent my Friday night at a taping of "Two and a Half Men." In all the years I have been in this business I've been on probably fifty or so TV sets. I've never actually sat in the audience for a taping though. So, in the interest of this blog, I decided to give it a try.
I was told that I had to be on the Warner Brothers lot by 4pm, no exceptions or I would not get my seat. Oh and also I was told that once in my seat, I could not leave for any reason. So, as usual I was running late and as usual I had to use the bathroom. I had about 2 minutes to get to the set. So, I run into the restroom (which was empty) and set my purse down in the sink. You know, one of those sinks with an automatic faucet! All of a sudden I hear the water turn on, as my open purse is filling up with water I turn back to grab it out of the sink. Thank goodness my camera was in a case and my blackberry and cell phone I had placed in the front pockets knowing security would probably take it away when I got to set and I wanted to hide it. Crisis slightly averted (although I still have wet sticky gum on the bottom of my purse even as I write this). So, I walk to the set and make it just at 4pm where I realize that I am not late. There is an entire line of people waiting to get in. I'm ushered off to the side to wait for an escort as I'm told I'm a VIP guest. The entire line of people stare at me. I'm wondering if they stare at me because they want to know who I am and why I didn't get shuttled here on a bus like they did or probably more so because my pink purse is dripping water out of it all over the blacktop.
Security finds my hidden contraband items and takes them away. They too are puzzled by my dripping wet purse. I am taken to my front row seat by a crew member and get to my seat about 4:10. I wind up sitting there reading a magazine as the audience is loaded in. It's freezing in the studio and I forgot to bring a sweater. So, I cross my arms and try and warm up. 5:00 strikes and the audience warm up guy comes out to psych us up. My row is immediately called out for being low key most likely because we are invited guests and not actual audience members. First, we have to watch an entire episode of the show. I wonder if this is a lesson for us so we know how to laugh. At 5:30 the cast and crew get introduced. The audience gives everyone standing ovations which annoys me because they haven't done anything yet. Audience warm up guy yells at me to standup. I do so begrudgingly. Despite by best effort to fit in with the overly excited audience, he continually calls me out for my un-audience-like showmanship.
Finally at 6pm the taping starts. It's sort of like watching a live stage play. Except when they flub lines they get to do it again. The first flub is when Charlie Sheen can't open up a letter because it was taped down too much. It's easy to laugh the first time you see a scene. However, they tend to tape scenes two or three times. The audience guy tells us to act like we have not seen it before and keep the laughter level going. Easier said than done. I don't even crack a smile the second or third takes but most of the audience keeps the fake laughter going. Audience warm up guys laughs along too. I realize this is the hearty laugh you always hear in every episode of the show. I wonder if they are being paid or just take direction better than I do. Then we are shown scenes that have been previously recorded on a monitor and asked to watch it so they can record our laughter for that too.
To keep us entertained during downtime the audience warm up guy plays games and hands out candy. Bark like a dog, get a candy. Touch your tongue to your nose, get a candy. Sing your country's most famous song, get a candy. You get the idea. It always amazes me how willing people are to make fools of themselves in front of strangers. One man sings a song about Viagra while another woman turns the taping into a Jerry Springer episode with her story of how her 26-year-old husband left her for her 16-year-old best friend. Fortunately, no chairs were thrown here.
Three and a half hours after arriving, around 7:30pm for some reason they pass out pizza (it was cold) and water to the audience. I guess this is to keep people at bay since they are missing a real dinner for this. I sneak out at 8pm to go meet up with my crew as I will be interviewing the cast after they cut the cake on their 100th episode.
So, its a little boring but if you have never done it before then I say go for it. There are plenty of places online where you can score tickets like Audiences Unlimited and TV Tix. If you ever attend a TV taping here are my top tips:
# 1 Bring something to read during the down time
# 2 Hide some snacks in your bag.
# 3 Practice your fake laugh before you get there
# 4 Bring a sweater! TV studios are notoriously freezing.
# 5 Be prepared to give up your entire evening. Tapings can take anywhere from 4 to 8 hours.
# 6 Bring a water soluble purse. Oh wait that one is just for me.
tv taping...hmm i haven't been to one of those.
but i have gone to talk show tapings. ellen degeneres a couple of times and jimmy kimmel.
it is fun, yet annoyingly boring at the same time.
thanks for the tips for a series taping.
A water soluble purse would dissolve if you got it wet. That's probably not a good thing if you put your purses in sinks.
I think you would want a waterproof purse instead, though it probably would still drip a lot if you filled it with water.