The first show I did was taped in several different parts of the hospital. They wanted to show the new lobby. Which since then has been replaced with a bigger one. The upto date water therapeutics room which included a swimming pool and, I believe, 2 whirlpool tubs. (At that time doctors were just learning how much easier it was to have physical therapy in water for certain kinds of injuries.)  

In the lobby they filmed my mother and myself, with me sitting on her lap reading a book. If I remember correctly the book was supposed to be a story how I would get better at the hospital by using it's facilities. While waiting around between scenes I got to see Bud from the original Flipper series. (Unfortunitly, I wasn't positively impressed, nor can I remember his real name.) I also got to meet Bill Dana, a comic, who is famous for his Jose Hemennance charactor. He is a sweet man.  

When I found out that some of the Flipper crew was coming, I got it into my head that Flipper was going to be there too. So, while we trying to film in the pool area I was asking for Flipper. The film crew didn't realize just how smart I was. They tried to convince me that a silly red plastic floaty toy dolphin was Flipper. It didn't work.  

After all the filming at the hospital was done, it was decided that my mother would do some voice over work. In order to get that done we went to a local TV station. While we were coming in, one of my favorite local childrens TV personalities, called Wunda Wunda was coming out. We didn't have time to stop and say " Hi! " But, I'll never forget watching her load up her props into the trunk of her VW bug while in full costume.
 

This outing was a little traumatic for me. They say everybody has that nightmare where they get caught out in public in their underwear. I never had that dream because I lived it! It was when EKG machines first came out. I believe I was about 8 or 9 years old. My mother had taught me modesty and I learned it very well. It also didn't help matters that they were telling me I was going to be on TV with J. P. Patches. (He is another one of my local TV, childrens program, heroes.)  

So imagine, if you will, you're teetering on the edge of puberty, sitting in a chair with nothing on but a few electrodes and your panties. The next thing you know is you're going on local TV with your hero.  Not Fun!!  

The other thing that comes to mind though, is just how big the EKG machine was. It was in a room about the size of a walk-in closet. There were actually 4 computers in that room. One for each of the sensors. Each of the computers was about 1 and 1/2 filing cabinets wide and as about the same height of a 4-drawer filing cabinet. They used the old fashioned reel-to-reel tapes to tell the machines what to do.  

By-the-way, I was there to show what a healthy heart looked like on the monitor.  

I've had few other experiences on television, you find them on the  TV in LA  page