One of the joys of being here on the west coast in Los Angeles is Megan and I have an opportunity to do things that are unique to here, that otherwise, we may have never been able to do. We've already driven a good section of the Pacific Coast Highway, gone to San Francisco, drove through Malibu, and rode down Sunset Boulevard. Last night, we went to a taping of the sitcom of Mike and Molly, which even in its first season, has quickly become one of Megan's favorite shows on TV.
We left our apartment at 3:30 to drive to Burbank where Warner Brothers Studios is located. Traffic wasn't too terrible, and we finally saw the "Hollywood" sign. Megan's attempts at taking a picture failed, but we'll get one soon. We arrived at the studio around 4:30, and found the place where we were to wait in line. After about 40 minutes, we headed towards the lot and went through security. We finally arrived at the studio where Mike and Molly is filmed around 5:15. It is the same studio where Friends and Full House was filmed, in case you were curious.
We waited in the studio until 6:00, when they began by showing us a previous episode. Apparently, there were a lot of people there that had never seen the show before. I guess they just wanted to see any show filmed. Once the show completed, they began with the introduction of the cast. I must say, while there are no "big names" in the cast, it was very cool to see people that you typically only see on TV only a few feet away from you. They were filming their Valentine's Day show, and the show was filmed in the order that the scenes will go on the episode, which I had always heard that they bounced around during filming. The scenes that they didn't film, they reenacted for us.
During all of the breaks, there was an emcee that tried to keep the audience engaged. What normally happened, was they would film one segment, reset, and film it a second time. It was interesting, at least to me, to see how the writers altered the lines in between takes. If we, the audience, didn't respond like they wanted, they would change a line. It typically resulted in a much bigger laugh the second time through. (They may do that intentionally to get that big laugh. I will say, the laughter was not as genuine the third or fourth time you heard a line, but whenever it suddenly changed, and they said something you weren't expecting, it made the line that much more hilarious)
Filming an episode is a long process. They started at 6:30, and we left right around 10:00. At least in the middle, they did provide pizza for the audience. Megan and I both had a great time, definitely a unique experience. I think we are going to try and go see a couple of other shows filmed. I personally would love to get tickets to see either The Big Bang Theory or Two and a Half Men be filmed, but those tickets are hard to get due to the popularity of the shows. Also, Megan wants to get tickets for the Ellen Show (which had a huge crowd and line for it). Those tickets are all "sold out" into March.
If you haven't seen the show, you should definitely tune in Mondays at 9:30 on CBS. The show is hilarious, and maybe in a few weeks, you will hear our laughter in the background.
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