The Ellen DeGeneres Show

On Thursday, January 25th, my wife and I headed to Burbank for a taping of The Ellen DeGeneres Show as this was on her list of things she wanted to do before our son, Brady, was born. Although I'll admit that the show's staff is very energetic and seem to enjoy their jobs, I must say that the ticketing process needs to be revisited.

Now, before I go on, I must state that we ended up getting tickets for Ellen's birthday show. As a result, more people may have been in attendance than normal.

Like most shows, tickets are given in excess of capacity, much like how airlines overbook their flights. While this is quite normal and I've experienced it for every show we've gotten tickets for, this simply meant arriving early to guarantee admission. However, for The Ellen DeGeneres Show, this process was quite different.

Rather than simply arriving early to the taping, Ellen tickets are distributed at 9:30 am. for a 3:30 or 6:00 p.m. taping. While the gates open at 7:00 a.m. to begin lining up for "guaranteed admission" tickets, many people arrive early and begin standing in line before this time. However, the general tickets clearly state that the Burbank Police may move those who choose to line up early.

We opted to leave our home at 5:30 a.m. and arrived at approximately 7:30 a.m. When tickets were finally distributed, we received ticket numbers 240 and 241 and were told to return at 4:00 p.m. for the 6:00 p.m. taping; thus, wasting the whole day. Unfortunately, only about 150 people were admitted to the taping as 30 seats were reserved for VIPs. The end result is that we ended up in the "Riff Raff" Room, watching the show as it was taped on monitors, never actually seeing the studio itself. And as a result, none of us in the "Riff Raff" room were eligible for any of the gifts handed out on the show.

While I must give The Ellen DeGeneres Show credit for having such a room, the ticketing process has to be revised. And although they offered us the opportunity to rebook at a future date--which happened to be on my wife's due date--we would have to arrive early and follow the same process outlined above. That being said, the show staff is very energetic, and I've never seen so many people having so much fun at one time. People were dancing, the music was loud, and Ellen even came into the "Riff Raff" room to say hello. She even acknowledge us during the show and we were filmed, although briefly, there.

Two and a Half Men

My wife and I spent yesterday night watching an episode of CBS' Two and a Half Men being filmed at Warner Brothers Studios. We were able to acquire tickets through Audiences Unlimited, which I have used to get tickets to TV shows for nearly 20 years. They do a very good job handling ticket distribution and during this filming they provided the audience with pizza and bottled water; something they have never done in the past. In addition, a type of program for this episode of the show was provided, which I've scanned into this posting.

This is currently the only sitcom we watch on a regular basis and find it to be extremely funny. The show features Charlie Sheen and Jon Cryer. On this episode, Allison Janney, who played C.J. Craig on the West Wing, guest starred as Beverly, a woman with issues who ends up dating Alan (Jon Cryer) after meeting him on an internet dating service. We also discovered that Melanie Lynskey, who plays Rose, was leaving the show. Not only did this episode contain her last appearance, but they had a "goodbye" for Melanie at the end of filming that included a poster-sized card signed by the crew, flowers, sparkling cider, and the like. It was obvious that she was going to be missed and many were in tears.

What always surprises me when I see TV shows taped is how small the sets actually are. In addition, the "rooms" never quite look as good as they do on TV, probably as the consequence of lighting. In addition, the actors wear a ton of makeup, making them look very goofy in-person, but ironically quite natural on TV. This is probably exacerbated by the fact that people now have high-definition TVs, which show even more detail than ever before.

If you've never been to a TV show taping, it's quite an adventure. First, even though you have a ticket, there is no guarantee that you'll get in as more tickets are distributed than there are seats. In addition, the cast, crew, and studio reserves seats for guests, so there is no way of knowing how many seats will be available. Further, sometimes groups have reservations, which gives them priority seating. As a result, we arrived about 2 1/4 hours before taping and found that a like of about 18 people had already formed. Within 20 minutes, the line had doubled and I'm guessing anyone who was not there an hour and a half before did not get in.

At Warner Brothers, free parking is provided in a very modern, secured parking garage, which is a nice touch. Groups of 10 to 12 are then escorted through security to a secondary staging area. Once three or four groups have merged in the secondary staging area, the audience members are then escorted to Stage 26 for Two and a Half Men, where another security check is performed. By the time you reach the studio, you've been through two security checks and two metal detectors. You've also had any electronic equipment confiscated if you've failed to follow the directions of leaving such devices (e.g., cell phones and cameras) in your car or at home.

In general, the studios tend to be cool and cramped. In this particular case, the seats needed more padding and more space between them. Because we entered the studio an hour before taping began, we ended up being seated for 5 1/2 hours. By the time the filming was done, my butt was numb and my legs were sore. Even so, it was fun to do and we also got to see an episode that hasn't yet aired while we were waiting.