My parents came for a long-weekend visit, and it was just as much a vacation for me as for them. I was able to show them some of Manhattan and Brooklyn, but we also did plenty of stuff that was new for me too.We did so much that this will have to be a multi-day post, so stay tuned. And stay tuned (yes, I'm very punny today) to David Letterman on Friday night-- we got last minute tickets to the taping. The Late Show tapes Friday's show on Monday evening, and we were able to get tickets by stopping at the Ed Sullivan Theater on Sunday, filling out a form and proving we were fans by telling them about our favorite segments.
The guests were Jaime Pressly (from My Name is Earl) and a comedian. More interesting was seeing the set in-person. I watched Letterman with Dad from the time I was a little girl until I graduated from high school, and sporadically since then. Although I'm not a frequent viewer now, I have such good memories of watching it with Dad that I really wanted to see it in person.
Unfortunately, Paul and I got split up from Mom and Dad when we were seated, but the two of us were about nine rows back directly in front of where Dave does his monologue at the beginning. It was a neat experience, but probably one I won't repeat soon- we had to be there by 5:30 to pick up the tickets, return at 6 to get in line, wait a bit longer to be seated and then wait some more until the one-hour taping started at 7. I'm glad we did it though.
The next day we went to a completely different taping-- The View. A relative of a relative is a stage manager there and was able to get us tickets (Paul went to work). The handful of us who got tickets this way were seated first, in the front-- we were in the second row and I think we almost could have reached out and patted Barbara Walters on the shoulder. I was amazed how small the set was! I think I heard it holds only 200 audience members.Unlike at Letterman, we could take pictures inside the studio during the commercial breaks. A couple of the hosts even came out and talked to the audience. The woman sitting next to me spoke to Sherri Shepherd for a bit.
The breaks were the most interesting. I always thought it was a large stage, with the table at one end and the couch where they do the interviews in another. Nope. The crew moves everything out of the way and sets everything up in the 2- or 3-minute breaks. The woman who got us our tickets chatted with us for a bit and was extremely nice. It was also fun to see her name in the credits at the end of the show. Of course, I taped that day's show on the DVR and we watched it when we returned to the apartment that night. The back of our heads were shown quite a bit!
I saw Oprah once in college and had a similar experience. The studio was really small ... a stage with a couch and at most 200 people, probably less. It was a Dr. Phil episode on marriage, so I kind of zoned out. But during the breaks Oprah really comes alive and is much funnier and laid back. She cracked jokes, talked about the tabloids, answered some questions and in general seemed like someone you would want as friend to have coffee and gossip with.
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