The set was really wild to see! Looking at it, I couldn't believe that this is what I see on TV every week! The main set consisted of Mike's office and the main office area. Way to the left is Mike's apartment and bedroom, but we couldn't really see those very well. The press room is in the back to the left, from what I could tell. The scenes that they taped that we couldn't see, were shown on TV screens suspended from the ceiling above our seats. Along with the screens there were microphones hanging to record our laughter. And yes, I laughed tremendously! Ha Ha! You can hear my laughter for sure in the first 10 minutes of the show. :) :) :)
The show began with a casting call. I just about died when Michael came out in a faultering stumble........I admit that I shrieked like a young girl seeing the Backstreet Boys for the first time in concert!! :) From that point on, I was in a daze, feeling like all of this was just a dream....hoping with all of my might that I wouldn't wake up!! After a few hours, Julie started complaining that she was cold, she was hungry.....I didn't feel anything! My body was totally satisfied and far from being in a state of need! :) They did 'feed us' bottled water and boxes of raisins during the show. Julie complained, "This is all they are feeding us?!?!" I didn't complain though! At that point, I didn't care if I ever ate again! :)
The taping lasted from 7 PM until close to midnight. But let me tell you, it never felt that long! Actually, it wasn't long enough for me! HAHA They had a local standup comedian named Kevin (if my memory serves me correctly). He kept the audience 'alive' through the whole taping. Michael has recently referred to this man's technique on "Conan O'Brien" by saying how he is kinda nasty to the audience, or rough, I guess. Well, for instance, Kevin was giving away "Spin City" hats and T-shirts before the taping for silly reasons--he would ask to see your driver's license, look at it, then proceed to tell you that you are either too ugly to have a T-shirt or that you need the shirt to improve your looks! :) At one point, it was looking like I wasn't gonna get anything and I was bummed! Julie told him to give me a shirt.....that I've traveled all this way to see my dream guy and that if I didn't get a shirt, she would NEVER hear the end of it! She kept razzing him and then he threw a shirt at me and said, "Here's your goddamn shirt!!" Don't know if he was really mad or not but I didn't care! I got my shirt!! :)
Seeing how they actually film a half hour sitcom was interesting. You would think that they just take a half hour and that's it! But they would shoot a scene atleast twice before going onto the next one! It got to the point that I would laugh like crazy during the first taping and then, when they would do it again, I wouldn't laugh as hard because it was 'old news', ya know? I found too that I was trying to watch everything else without really paying much attention to what was actually being said! Not too hard to do when you are watching how Michael looks, moves, and acts! :) And another problem was that, the show that you see being taped, might be like the 5th show down the road since the last show you just saw on TV last week! And that's where I was confused! There were new people on the show (Stacy was one of them....didn't know who she was for a little while there!) and there were stories going on that you didn't know of before, that might have been introduced during the shows that had already been taped but not aired yet! Those two things made it kinda hard to keep with the show and laugh at times.
In between takes, when the crew would be setting up for the next scene, Kevin, the comedian, would be keeping the crowd going on his own or he would bring one of the cast up to where we were! 'James' laughed a little with us.....'Carter' did some singing for us (his impersonation of a song sung by William Shatner was interesting! HAHA)....then Michael was there!!! Whoa....what a rush! :) First, I have to tell you about this woman from Rhode Island, I do believe, that sat in the row below me about 4 chairs to the left (if it wasn't for her I wouldn't have done what I did, which I will get to in a minute). Talking with her later, I found out that this was her second time at a taping of "Spin City" (she was a big fan of Michael!!). On her first visit, she didn't say a word to him and left without an autograph or anything. She was determined this time to leave with a momento of some kind! She made this sign that read, "I love you Michael!"---she waved it around during the whole show.
So, when Michael was talking with us, he made mention of her sign and said that he would autograph that after the show! Well, I was sooo fumed that I pulled out my Architectural Digest (with him and Tracy on the cover) and I began frantically waving it in the air!!! Kevin pointed it out to him and Michael made a comment like, "I see that you got the Digest! I can sign that too after the show, if ya want." I freaked out inside, realizing that Michael J. Fox just said something to ME! I turned to Julie and said, "I can die now! My life has been fulfilled!" :) :) I felt at that time that I was even with her! :) For some reason, I wanted to prove to everyone in that room that I was a bigger fan of Michael's than anyone else! Sad, isn't it? :)
Kevin then asked everyone if they had any questions for Michael. Julie nudged me and said, "There ya go. Ask him a question!" My mind went completely blank! I was not prepared! I didn't know that we were gonna be able to ask him any questions! I said, "I can't think! I don't know what to ask!!" She couldn't believe it! :) I kept searching my brain but still, NOTHING! I was beyond asking him questions! :) So, I didn't ask him anything! Now, to this day, I'm still thinking up questions to ask Michael the NEXT time! HAHA
A little while later, during a break, Kevin asked us how many movies Michael was in and if we could name them all. The lady with the sign said she could so I yelled out that I could too! I then grabbed a piece of paper from my purse and started frantically writing down all the movies that Michael was in! I was gonna beat her if it killed me! :) I was shaking sooo bad! Julie couldn't believe that I was freaking out like this! :) But then the conversation switched to something else and I never got to name them. But my time was coming, trust me! :)
During the taping of the whole show, I have to tell you that there were people LEAVING!! I was thinking, "What are you doing?!?!? You are WALKING OUT ON MICHAEL J. FOX?!?!" Well, Kevin was asking them where they were going and they would say that they had to catch a train or something! I'm sorry but I would take another train! ;) The later it got, the more sparce the audience got! They began pulling people in from outside to fill in the seating! I thought that THAT was a slap in the face for Michael! I was disgusted, to say the least! I mean, I was there because I wanted to be! I felt like others were just there to 'kill time' before their train or something! At one point, they started moving us closer to the stage (I was happy!) to even out the audience!
I got really happy when the lady with the sign started getting up and left! I was thinking, "Yes! Now I have Michael all to myself and I don't have to share!" HAHA It seemed like as soon as she left, Kevin called up Michael again! Yippee! :) Kevin asked him if he knew how many movies he had been in. Michael kinda got embarrassed and mentioned something like around 20 or so. Then SHE walked back in! What was she doing here? She left! (But apparently she only left for a moment to smoke a cigarette or something!!) Well, there she was, right next to Michael!! Oh, I was MAD! (Not really, just bummed!) :) Kevin asked her what movies Michael has been in and she proceeded to name them off. At the same time I was checking them off of my list. When she was at a standstill, I yelled out, "I can name more!!" Didn't really plan on blurting that out, it just happened! :) Well, Michael replied to me by saying, "Yeah, you are probably thinking of all of those B movies too, right?" I just nodded yes! :) Wow, the man talked to me twice! :) :) :) Well, as I was in seventh heaven, the lady with the sign asked Michael if she could get a hug from him and he obliged! That brought me back down to earth REAL quick like!! That was no fair! I wanted a hug too! Well, it was at that moment that I realized that I needed to be friends with this woman and not hate her for all of this, ya know? So when she sat back down, I asked her how the hug was and if he smelled good! HAHA She confirmed all of my suspicions! He was the best! :)
Then came the end of the show. The cast was reintroduced for the second and final time. Then, before I knew it, the audience began leaving! And the cast and crew below began mixing together in lots of congratulations and chit chat. But what about my autograph?!?! How do I get it? Did he forget about me?? Julie and I both walked down to the bottom row of chairs (along with the lady with the sign) and we stood there looking for Michael. We couldn't see him at all! Then some woman came up to us from our left and asked, "You two have something that you want Michael to sign? I can take them for you." We were thrilled! He remembered us! :) We then gave her our things and she left into the crowd. The lady (with the sign) and I were both trying to find Michael but we still couldn't! Then the woman returned with our things! The sign was autographed and my Digest was too! To this day, I still care for that magazine like it was my baby! :)
The rest of my trip involved normal touristy stuff (like meeting Matt Lauer and Katie Couric from the Today Show) and things like that! So I won't get into that! Oh, I will tell you that the show that I saw taped was "My Life is a Soap Opera". Listen at the beginning when they are all in Mike's office and the newspaper article is shown with Carter and Stuart on the cover being labeled as 'friends'. When asked what does that mean, and Carter says, "Gay!"--listen for the 'cackling laugh'! That is mine! HAHA
Well, I hope you enjoyed my story! Please let me know what you think! I would love to hear your input! Thank you again!
Debbie :)
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