Today we had hoped to get down to NBC studios early and wait in line for tickets to the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Well, we were a little later than we had hoped - sleep is good! - but were up by 8:15 and out the door by 8:45. We had read that the office opens at 8am, but people start lining up even earlier of course. By the time we made our way to Burbank and found 3000 Alameda, there was no sign of ever having been any line. But we decided to walk around the building and see what we could find out.
Just walking around the corner of the building, a guy was sweeping the sidewalk and Derek spontaneously asked him if he happened to know where we should go to find tickets. The guy reached into his pocket saying, "you need tickets - I have 2 right here..." and handed them to Derek. Now my first thought was that we'd have to pay some marked up price for these tickets; however these tickets are free... short story - he had them for some friends, but his friend had just called and wouldn't be able to make it - so he no longer needed them. So just like that, we walked into 2 tickets for the show, and didn't even have to wait in line (well the line to get them anyway).
We wandered around to the office and ended up going on the NBC studio tour - saw the sets of Days of our Lives, The Tonight show, and NBC news shows including one called Telemundo from one of their spanish channels. Pretty neat to see the behind the scenes happenings - very different than how we see things on tv. Very different perspective. We even got to see Jay's car of the day - this one was a Bentley. Nice looking car, but no pictures allowed through this whole tour. =(
We then hurried back to the hotel to extend our stay another night and get cleaned up - to come back to Burbank and wait in line to get into the show with our tickets. We now knew that the studio seats about 350 people, but there was already 3 people starting the line by 11:15 when we were leaving there. We had been advised to line up around 1:00 or 1:30/2:00, but we figured we might be better off to improve our chances by coming even a bit earlier. So we made it back there by 12:30.
And then we waited. We got the last of the spots where you could sit along the wall. The line got quite long after we arrived, and we waited for at least 2 hours before anything significant happened. There was a lady there when we arrived who welcomed everyone to the line and answered any questions. Everyone thought at first she worked for NBC, but turns out she just seems to love hanging out in front of the Tonight Show all day, many days. She said she'd been to over 400 tonight shows. Whether or not that's entirely true, she certainly knew the drill and provided some entertainment to help the time go by. We chatted with a couple from Arkansas who joined the line behind us, and a local behind them was able to confirm our parking on a side street would be okay. Throughout the afternoon, people would go grab food/drinks from nearby fastfood restaurants and bring back for their parties. We had burgers and fries on the sidewalk of 3000 Alameda.
Shortly after 3, the NBC staff began counting people and checking IDs. Filming of the show was to begin at 4 and last about an hour. We ended up being seated just off center to the left of the stage in the second row on the floor. This enabled us to be some of the few to run up and stand by the stage when Jay came out to do his monologue. Pretty neat! Everyone in these front rows seemed to agree on the theory that we must have been selected for these spots because we're the best looking/best dressed. I'm sure people in other sections probably would disagree, but whatever!
Watching the show live is quite different than on tv - seeing the cameras in operation and just the experience. Will Ferrell and Mary McCormack were the guest stars and James Hunter was the musical guest. Pretty cool to be that close to Will Ferrell! But NBC security was pretty tough and only pre-selected guests got to go on stage after to get autographs. And of course, no pictures ... just not fair, it was torture!
After the show (around 5:30), we took a quick drive into downtown LA. Drove around a bit (saw the Walt Disney theatre ..) and then hit the freeway back to the hotel. By the time we made it back, we were both tired - how could we be so tired from sitting on a sidewalk all day?! Derek had a quick nap, then joined me in the hotel pool. It was nice to just relax and hang out for a bit. We then went to the Denny's on the hotel site to grab something to eat. I think we were feeling a little tired of the freeways and traffic, so seemed a good idea just to eat close. Afterward it was still early (around 9:30), but we were exhausted so just hung out in the hotel room. We were waiting for Leno to come on tv, but it doesn't air here till 11:35 so needless to say, neither of us made it to the that time. Oh well .. once again, sleep is good!
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
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