My Two and a Half Men taping experience...

[McFly121]

25 years of watching sitcoms and I had never been to one of these. So I chose the season finale of the one show I watch right now.

I head up to Burbank about 3, park in one lot, walk to another and wait for a shuttle. Good thing I took a book, cuz we sat on the parking lot asphalt for two hours till 5:30. They take your ticket and ID, shuttle you to a parking garage, where you stand in line another 15 minutes, and are finally walked onto the lot (why they couldn't just shuttle us to the stage I don't understand).

There's one metal detector at the gate, then we marched single file alllllllll the way to the back of the lot. We go through another metal detector and are seated. It's now about six so there's another hour to go. For whatever reason huge black boards on wheels block the view of the stage (shrug). I took out my book.

About 6:30 one of those annoying warm-up comics blathers away for ten minutes, as well as shoving the mic in the audiences face awkwardly (he made me bark like a dog, Mr. Walley, like a dog! I didn't mind). We then watch the previous episode on the monitors above our seats, which by the way are nothing more than black kitchen chairs. I'm then moved from second-row center to a "better seat", according the page. This is row 2 as well....against the wall, extreme stage right against the curtain. It paid off two hours later when they shot a bar sequence.

Things started on time at 7 with intros of the cast, then the first scene is set-up. This took about 15 minutes, all the while either the comic asks EVERYONE where they're from and tries to find a joke about it. Or pounding music plays over the sound system.

The actual filming process is what made it a "one and only time I'd do this" sort of thing. The cast is very professional, running through pages of dialogue without screw-ups. However, they do it an additional 3 to 4 times so they can deliver the lines differently. This gets incredibly annoying.

Which stuns me as to how the audience (of only about 100 people) could laugh over and over at the same joke. The only thing that got me was Jon Cryer's dancing, as he has to gyrate to "Superfreak" and "Brickhouse" with some volleyball models in one scene. He was absolutely hilarious.

A handful of times we were shown scenes already shot on the monitors above us. They want to "record" our laughter for these, although you can hear the crew busting up on the tape that we're watching. The total shooting process went on until MIDNIGHT! So a total of five hours taping. A handful of people had left before that (it's not manditory to stay the whole time).

We were not fed or given beverages (unless you count the bag of candy that passed around with bite size offerings in it). I didn't care about that, but moreso the use of the comedian. Basically having to listen to this guy do a five hour set was mind-numbing. He was a hell of a juggler though, at one point balancing a ladder on his chin while flipping clubs around.

Charlie looked miserable. Not that I'm blaming him, but he was stone-faced and smiled maybe twice the whole five hours. Between scenes he disappeared off-stage, while Cryer danced or talked to the extras. Charlie kept using what looked like an asthma inhaler, but I'm not sure. He muffed a take and said the big "F", which we got a kick out of (there was a ten year old in the audience though, woops.)

Jon Cryer seems like a great guy. Mingling around and goofing before "Action" would be called. A light was making a noise which prompted him to squeal "Save yourseeeelves!". Or when the comedian---another thing I didn't like about him---would continue juggling or joking seconds before "Action" being called. The audience is of course laughing out of place, to which Jon cracked "So damn funny????"

Angus seems to be having the time of his life. Running around the set or riding on the camera dollies. He and Jon have a great rapport, play-fighting or trying to trip each other up. Angus also gave the comic guy a goodbye gift with the season ending.

The best was when wrap was called, not just cuz we had had enough, but the curtain call was cool. As Angus, an alleged joker on set, was silly-stringed to death as he tried to outrun about 50 crew, all armed with the canisters. Don't know how pleased Warner will be with all that silly string covering their million dollar Panavision cameras, though.

The crew mingled to "We are Family" over the loud speaker, one of them in attendance baseball great Reggie Jackson. I thought he'd have a cameo or something as he showed up an hour earlier, but I guess he was there to see Charlie, big baseball fan he is. Jon signed autographs for those remaining, and cuz I didn't have a pen, I just shook hands with him and said it was a great season. He thanked me for coming and headed off.

So, an interesting experience on how a show is taped, but not something I'd endure again. Unless they brought back Cheers, Wings, Frasier, Night Court, (I could go on....)

[peter may]

yep sounds exactly like the same procedure for when i saw Listen Up being taped, but luckily I got out of there at 10;30pm not midnight!