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| Seinfeld and friends at the US Open tennis tournament. |
| That's my elbow at the left of the picture. |
The term sitcom is short for situation comedy. Most of the sitcoms I worked on were taped before a live audience. Most of them were taped in the evening, beginning at about 7:00PM or 7:30PM. Extras were treated better on sitcoms than on any other type of production. Usually there weren't a lot of extras on a sitcom. This resulted in sitcoms being the most fun for most extras, including me, to work on, and also extras being more prominently featured on the shows.
The reason I preferred working on TV dramas to sitcoms was that sitcoms were taped at night, and I didn't particularly like working at night. Especially on Friday nights, when many sitcoms are taped. During the autumn, I wanted to be at high school football games, where my daughter was a cheerleader. Nevertheless, I worked on quite a few sitcoms, which are listed as follows:
Some of the shows I'm describing are not sitcoms in the strictest sense, as they weren't taped before a live audience, but are included because they are comedies and are a half hour in length.
PARKER LEWIS CAN'T LOSE "Parker Lewis Can't Lose" is one of those exceptions that prove the rule. It was not taped before a live audience and was taped in the daytime. I worked on two episodes of the show. On the first I was walking down the hall of a high school dressed as a teacher. On the other, I was dressed in coveralls and was one of two extras carrying a heavy plate glass window, when one of the characters was to run into the window, shattering it. We were directed to look shocked as the student approached us. The actual collision would not be shown, but the aftermath would. As it turns out the scene, which was so carefully directed, did not show us carrying the glass, but only the aftermath with shattered glass all over the floor. I hadn't been seen in the other episode either.
The student whose character ran into the plate glass window was a rather large young actor who has since become a regular as a hospital attendant on "ER". The days on "Parker Lewis Can't Lose" were both short. Many kids under the age of 18 worked as extras, so their mothers were also there. Rules provide that anyone on a set under the age of 18 must be accompanied by a chaperone or guardian who can't have any other responsibilities. That's why so many casting calls ask for "18 to look younger". I enjoyed working both times on the show because it was pleasant and the days were short.
WINGS I worked on two episodes of "Wings". The series is taped at the Paramount Studios on Melrose Avenue. The first time I worked on "Wings" was also the first time I worked on a sitcom taped before a live audience. During the day the actors rehearsed the scenes and extras were placed in the scenes. When not actually working we could sit in the stands and watch. Later, the scenes were run through again while the cameras were blocked. Sitcoms generally have four cameras, and there are monitors in the stands showing all four views. Blocking of the cameras and marking the floors is done so when the show is taped the cameras can be placed quickly. Finally, the cast, crew, and extras are served a catered hot meal about two hours before the show is to begin. When the show starts, the extras are in a holding area and brought to the set when needed.
Teri Austin, who had been a regular on "Knot's Landing", was the guest star in this episode. The first scene I was placed in was sitting at a table in a restaurant with a young woman who I was told would be my stepdaughter, home from college. When rehearsing that scene, the director said that it looked too much like a "dirty old man with a young chick", so the gal was replaced by an older woman and moved to another table with other younger people. When the episode aired, my table wasn't seen at all in the restaurant scene.
Later, I was in a couple of scenes in the waiting room at the little airport that is the mainstay of the show. First, I was standing at a newspaper rack browsing through the paper when Teri Austin's character walked past me into the room. Later in the same scene I was seen in a close up sitting at a table and sipping coffee. During rehearsals of that scene, someone noticed a "gray haired" man who walked on the actor's lines on the monitor. That was me, even though I didn't think of myself as gray haired at the time. It was easily fixed by changing the timing of my cue to get up out of my chair.
The next time I worked on "Wings" was a two day call. It's much the same as a one day call, but extras are placed earlier in the rehearsals. Also, in this case, a scene was to be pre shot. Occasionally, some scenes are pre shot and not taped before the audience for mostly logistical reasons. Country singer Clint Black was the guest star on this episode, playing himself. One of the scenes was a Clint Black concert and the actors and extras were members of the concert audience and used the same bleachers where the show audience sits. In that scene I was seen walking down the stairs in front of the actors when the concert ended.
I was also seen later in the airport waiting room, sitting down and then walking up a flight of stairs. Two of the regular actors, Farrah Forke and Crystal Bernard, followed me up the stairs.
Besides Clint Black, there was another guest star. It was Kirstie Alley, playing the role she played on "Cheers". "Cheers" was taped at the same studio, and she just showed up long enough to play a brief cameo role on "Wings" as a Cliff Black fan crashing a party. She was accompanied on the "Wings" set by her pet dog.
During the taping of the show I noticed a woman familiar face chatting with Farrah Forke. I couldn't place her at the time, but it turned out to be Lisa Hartman, the wife of Clint Black. Earlier, after our meal and before the show started, I was walking around the Paramount complex to get a little exercise and came across a limousine parked next to another sound stage. I asked someone who the limo was for, and was told guests of the Arsenio Hall show, which was being taped. The guests were Lauren Bacall and Emmitt Smith, the Dallas Cowboys' running back. The Super Bowl was going to be played at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena the following Sunday, and that's why Emmitt Smith was in town. While I was standing there, he came out of the studio and entered the limo.
MURPHY BROWN I worked twice on "Murphy Brown", which is shot at the Warner Brothers studio in Burbank. On the first episode I worked, I was in one scene, which was taped while the live audience was there, but was located in a spot where the audience could only see us on the monitor and not in person. The scene was one in which I was one of a group of pickets picketing the TV station that is the center of the show. I was seen carrying my sign, because the director had me step ahead about one count before the rest of the people. The director was a former actor who had been a regular as a dentist on the old "Bob Newhart Show". Other than Candice Bergen, I didn't know who the other actors were at that time.
The extras holding area was in another sound stage next to the one where the show is taped. We spent all of the time that we weren't working there, so we were unable to see the show, even in rehearsal. In another sound stage at Warner Brothers that day, a sale of clothes that had been worn in various productions was going on, and a couple of extras went over there to buy some things after dinner. They got back to the set late, but nothing drastic happened. I noticed another thing that I've never seen before or afterward, but which I hear does happen occasionally. Some extras were hoarding food. Food left over from the dinner was taken by one or two extras, who planned to stretch it over two or three more meals. It made me realize that the minimum wage pay extras get is the only source of income for many. Sometimes leftover food from catered sitcom dinners is distributed to homeless shelters.
The next time I worked on "Murphy Brown" turned out to be the final time I worked as an extra. Even though as of this writing I haven't worked as an extra in more than two years, I haven't completely ruled out working again if the right opportunity comes along. These scenes were taped at the Warner Brothers ranch in Burbank. They were outdoor scenes taped ahead of time that would be incorporated into a later episode of the sitcom. I worked in three scenes. In one of them I was seen walking past the actor who was playing a TV reporter. In the other two scenes I worked on I was not seen prominently. In one scene two of us were used to frame the picture, that is it was shot between our shoulders. My left shoulder was seen in that scene. One woman was in a scene walking her dog, and was paid extra for using the dog. I was impressed that while not being used, the dog was well behaved for hours while tied to a tree.
COACH I worked on "Coach" for one episode. It was a two day call with the first day being dedicated to rehearsals and wardrobe approval. The second day was further rehearsal and actually shooting the show. Craig T. Nelson, Shelley Faberes, and Jerry Van Dyke were among the regular cast members on the show. I later worked with Craig T. Nelson on the movie "Ride With the Wind." When I got to the set the first day, Nelson and others were in a production meeting.
In addition to the regular cast members, Nannette Fabray and Bill Wiley were among the guest cast, and a stunt woman had a prominent role. I found the cast of this show to be easy going and friendly, typical of sitcoms. The exception was Craig T. Nelson, who seemed to be uptight and easily irritated. Bill Wiley, who played a small part and was seated next to me during the wedding scene, was an especially friendly guy. Jerry Van Dyke, the brother of the better known Dick Van Dyke, proved to be as funny off camera as he was on camera. Claire Carey, who played the daughter of Craig T. Nelson's character, would rest between rehearsals by lying across several chairs that were set up for the wedding scene. I was surprised that she could sleep while rehearsals were going on in adjacent sets.
The wedding scene was the only one I was in, but it was an exciting scene. Craig T. Nelson's character was to marry Shelley Faberes' character in her parents' home. Chairs were set up in the living room for the guests, who were mostly extras. There was a huge wedding cake (mostly cardboard) on a table behind where the wedding guests were sitting. Shelley Faberes' character's wedding dress snagged on the balcony and she fell from the second floor right into the cake. The scene was rehearsed several times on the first day, and on the day of the shoot it had to be done in one take, and it was. The actual fall was done by the stunt woman, who was dressed in a wedding gown exactly like the one Faberes was wearing. The guests were to whirl around in shock as the fall occurred, and I was seen throughout this scene. Medical personnel were placed all around the set in case anything went wrong and instructed us to just get out of the way if an accident happened.
The stunt woman was experienced and had done some stunt work as Catwoman in the movie "Batman". She said she had one scare on "Batman" as her cable broke as she was falling off the top of the roof of a building. She was caught by a safety net and wasn't hurt. I always enjoyed working on shows where stunt people were employed.
SEINFELD I worked on "Seinfeld" twice. The first time I was not too familiar with the characters and worked on a couple of restaurant scenes. In the first one, I wound up not being seen. In the other one, I was seen sitting at a table with two other people, and then my arm was seen in the foreground sipping coffee and framing the actor in the background. Jerry Seinfeld spent some time during the day visiting with an attractive female extra in the stands where the extras hung out. The only other thing I remember about that day is that it was pouring down rain outside.
The other time I worked on "Seinfeld" I lucked into a prominent role. The episode centered around the U. S. Open tennis tournament. The story line included a supposed comeback for Monica Seles, the tennis player who had her career interrupted by being stabbed in Germany. I was originally cast to be a vendor at a concession stand serving an ice cream sundae to the character George, played by Jason Alexander. But I was replaced in that scene because wardrobe was unable to fit me in the uniform for that scene. Since I hadn't brought upscale suits, they were unable to use me in a party scene. I was placed in that scene, but told them I hadn't brought the proper wardrobe because I was cast for the concession stand scene.
It all turned out the best for me, however. I was cast as the umpire in Monica Seles' tennis match at the U. S. Open. Marlee Matlin, the deaf actress who had been a regular on "Reasonable Doubts", was cast as one of the linesmen. A stunt woman was in the role of Monica Seles. The scene was where Kramer, played by Michael Richards, had a job as a ball boy and wound up colliding with Monica Seles' character. I was to jump out of the umpire's chair when the collision occurred and run toward the stunt woman, who was lying still on the tennis court. Marlee Matlin's character and an extra that was another ball boy also ran out onto the court.
This scene was shot several times and adjustments made each time. I was told to take her pulse and to look up shaking my head no, that she couldn't continue. When the final take of the scene was shot, only the ball boy and myself ran out, and Marlee Matlin held her position shaking her head. Also in the final take of the scene, when I reached to take the stunt woman's pulse, she squeezed my hand so it was as if I was comforting her. It all looked the same to the camera.
Just before shooting this scene, wardrobe had me change shoes and socks into white socks and sneakers. As I was sitting on my umpire's chair barefooted, Jerry Seinfeld, Jason Alexander, and Julia Louis-Dreyfuss (who played Elaine) walked by to their seats. Seinfeld did a double take and had a strange expression on his face as I put on my socks. This episode was a lot of fun to work on because I was given specific actions to do, the camera was focused on me briefly, and I was seen pretty well in that scene. And all of this came about because I didn't fit the wardrobe for the other scene.
BOB "Bob" was a short lived sitcom that starred Bob Newhart. I worked a short day on "Bob" and was gone before the taping before a live audience. The reason for this was that the scene I was in was a Senate hearing which was to have happened 20 years before the time of the rest of the show. It was a flashback, so to speak, shown on TV in the show. I was not seen very well in this scene, which was aired in black and white. Bob Newhart had a wig on and really looked pretty funny, which I'm sure was the intention. I remember it was still daylight when I left, and that I called Kathy from a pay phone outside the studio for work the next day. That's when she told me she had seen me in "Body of Evidence". I think it was while working on "Bob" that I saw John Candy outside the commissary at lunch time. He was a huge man.
MAJOR DAD I also worked once on "Major Dad". This was another occasion where I was in a couple of scenes but wasn't seen very well in either one of them. The only thing I remember about the show was eating dinner with a male extra with whom I had worked before and two female extras. The female extras worked full time for a church and were using the jobs as extras to supplement their incomes and to invite people that were interested to visit their church. I saw one of them later when I worked on the graduation scene in "Beverly Hills 90210".
FLYING BLIND I spent three days on "Flying Blind". I was prominently seen in two scenes that required the extras to rehearse with the actors. I was cast as one of several mercenary intelligence operatives who were close associates of the character played by Peter Boyle. He was cast in this episode as a spy who was the father of the main character, played by Tea Leoni. The story line was that he had come home to marry a younger woman, played by Sally Murphy, that he had met in his work. She turned out to be a hit woman with a contract to kill him, along with the help of the minister who was performing the ceremony.
The scenes I was in were the bachelor party and the wedding. I was seated at a table in a bar drinking and carousing with the actors and other extras during the bachelor party. A stripper came in and jumped on the groom's lap. Michael Tucci, later a regular on "Diagnosis Murder", was among the actors. In the wedding scene I was among a group of the same people reacting when the wedding ceremony was disrupted as Peter Boyle's character became aware of the assassination plot and captured the assassins.
Clea Lewis, who had a regular role on "Flying Blind", and Sally Murphy were standing around as the final scene ended and kidding around with another extra and myself. I no longer remember what it was about, but something funny had happened. While in the extras' holding area, I played cards with Bill, the tall white haired man I mentioned in Chapter 10 under "Ride With the Wind" and the extra that had played the stripper. Her paycheck for her role was around $250, a lot more than the standard extra pay. The extra who sat next to me in the wedding scene claimed he was had been one of the production assistants on "Deep Throat", the ground breaking X rated movie released in 1972. I've only seen him as an extra, but he said he was also the spy that SAG had sent out to close down "Dave", as I mentioned in Chapter 9.
FULL HOUSE I worked once on "Full House". The call was for two days, the first day being rehearsals and wardrobe approval, and the second day being more rehearsals and the actual shooting of the show before a live audience. My scene was in the background in a mall in San Francisco where a TV character called Rigby the Rhino was making an appearance. Since the show takes place in San Francisco, I brought a San Francisco University sweatshirt for wardrobe to look at. (My son had graduated from the University of San Francisco School of Law and had given me the sweat shirt). However, wardrobe said they didn't have permission from the school to display their sweatshirt and selected a plain sweatshirt for me to wear.
The adult stars of the show included John Stamos, Bob Saget, Lori Loughlin, and Dave Coulier. Bob Saget, who also hosted "America's Funniest Home Videos", was very friendly, and they all seemed pretty nice. Lori Loughlin apparently had some friends or relatives there that she was showing around.
But the real stars of the shows were a group of kids, ranging in age from infants to their late teens. Identical twins Mary Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen were cast in the single role of Michelle, and they alternated doing scenes. I think they were about six years old when I worked on the show and had been on the show since they were babies. You couldn't tell them apart, except that one of them was left handed and the other right handed. Candace Cameron played their oldest sister, who was in her late teens. Two male infant twins were in the show as twins, and getting a scene out of them required a lot of patience. On the day I worked on the show, a scene was cut from the show because the twins were misbehaving and couldn't complete the scene.
There were other teenage actors that were part of the show, plus a little girl who was Michelle's age. The one who impressed me the most was a girl named Jodie Sweetin, who played Stephanie. I would guess she was about eleven or twelve years old when this episode was shot. She seemed to be an exceptionally bright girl and always did her lines perfectly on the first take. Off camera, she kept the younger girls busy so they wouldn't get bored.
There were a lot of young kids there as extras, and is always the case, they were accompanied by their mothers or other guardians. Most of the extras, adults and kids, were used only in the mall scene, which was the final scene of the show. As it turned out, a few of the mothers were also used in the scene, because a few more people were needed. We all had various actions, such as applauding, chanting "Rigby's a Ripoff", and moving around. We had props such as shopping bags.
Since we were in the final scene, there was a wait of several hours between dinner and the time we were used. Our holding area was in an adjacent sound stage where dinner had been served. Although I walked around a lot for exercise during that time, I sat at a table where one of the kids and his mother were sitting. For hours we said nothing to each other, but finally she started a conversation. It turned out that she was the wife of a man that I had worked with for several years before retiring from my 32 year career in computer software. I'm always impressed as to what a small world this is. Their son had a featured role on this episode of "Full House" and, with his siblings, had been used regularly on the series "China Beach". As I walked to the parking lot with the woman and her son, we crossed paths with Warren Beatty. We had no idea what he was doing there at that time of night.
FAMILY MATTERS I worked on "Family Matters" for two days also. As is typical on sitcoms, the first day was a short day of rehearsals and wardrobe approval, and the second day was long and included dinner and taping before a live audience. The scene that I, along with most of the other extras, was in was in the bleachers at a tag team wrestling match. The story line had the characters, Carl Winslow and Steve Urkel, recruited as a last minute replacement for a pair of professional wrestlers who had been accidentally drugged and couldn't perform. Their opponents were played by a tag team from Australia, called the "Bushwackers". I was seen cheering and throwing popcorn into the ring when the match got out of hand.
Reginald VelJohnson and Jaleel White, who played Carl Winslow and Steve Urkel respectively, did much of their own stunt work in the wrestling scenes, with significant coaching from their opponents. They were replaced by stunt men in only a bare minimum of the action. The two Australian wrestlers were very friendly and were also very funny. They helped make the scene as good as it was. At the beginning of the scene as the wrestlers were being introduced and walking around the ring exhorting their respective fans to cheer, Carl looked at me and decided to shake hands with the younger extra sitting next to me instead.
Since the tag team that Carl and Steve were replacing were called the Psycho Twins, they were supposedly on furlough from a psychiatric institute for their match. Two very pretty young actresses were cast as their nurses in the scene. They wore very short nurses' dresses. Their only line was before the match when they both said, "If you win, we'll give you a victory massage". When the time came to shoot the scene, they forgot to say anything. The director repeated "Action". Finally Jaleel White said "that means talk". I guess you had to be there to see the humor in this incident.
GETTING BY "Getting By" was a short lived sitcom starring Telma Hopkins and Cindy Williams, who was Shirley in the old "Laverne and Shirley" series. Telma Hopkins was also in the cast of the long running "Family Matters" at the same time. She was able to do both shows, as they were not taped the same night and they were both shot at Warner Brothers, enabling her to rehearse both shows by going back and forth between the two sets.
The scene I was in was at a party. I was seated with a woman on a sofa, with our backs to the camera. We were between the camera and the actors and other extras, so the backs of our heads were seen intermittently throughout the entire scene. We were also seen getting up from the sofa and walking away at the end of the scene. Oprah Winfrey was supposedly in attendance at the party and was referred to by the line "Look, there's Oprah!". Michael Jordan was also at the party and a Michael Jordan lookalike walked quickly by in the scene.
During the day I visited briefly with a woman who said she was an attorney, but had not yet passed the bar since moving to California. Since my son had recently passed the bar, I was interested in her outlook. She said she shaved her head and often appeared bald in the courtroom. Of course she wore a wig while working on "Getting By".
EVENING SHADE "Evening Shade" was one of my wife's favorite shows, so I enjoyed the opportunity to work on it. The episode I was on revolved around the renewing of wedding vows of the lead characters, played by Burt Reynolds and Marilu Henner. I had met Burt Reynolds in 1960 when he lived in an apartment in Studio City over the apartment where a couple of my friends from Sioux City, Iowa lived. I had visited with him for about an hour, where we mostly talked about football, and he was just getting used to some of the problems of becoming famous. At the time, his biggest role had been on "Riverboat". Later, when he was married to Judy Carne, one of my two friends stayed with them for a time. A couple of years later, when I moved back to California after working in Virginia for a while, I called them to inquire about my friend. He no longer was staying with them, and Burt didn't remember me.
In the late 1960's and early 1970's I had season tickets to the Rams through Tom Bergin's, a restaurant and bar on Fairfax Avenue that had busses transporting people to the games and back to the restaurant. Another couple was a man who was a sound technician in the movies and his wife, who had gone on location with her husband on a movie (I believe it was "Deliverance") which starred Burt Reynolds. She became a friend with Burt and at one time she mentioned me, and he tried to remember me, but wasn't able to.
Because I knew he wouldn't remember me, I decided not to try to talk with Burt Reynolds, although he seemed friendly enough to everyone. I spent most of the time off camera visiting with another extra, an older man. It turned out that this man lived in Michigan and was visiting his daughter, an actress. His daughter was a friend of Linda Gehringer, who was a regular cast member of "Evening Shade", playing the wife of Hal Holbrook's character. The man's daughter and Linda Gehringer had known each other in Michigan. She had arranged for him to work as an extra on the show during his visit. During a conversation among the four of us, I mentioned that there was a hall of fame baseball player named Charlie Gehringer who had played second base for the Detroit Tigers in the 1930's and 1940's. Linda replied that he was her great uncle, her grandfather's brother.
I appeared in two scenes. The first scene was in the coffee shop sitting at a table in the background with the older man and a younger woman. I was seen pretty well in that scene. The second scene was the wedding scene where I was first seen in the background standing up by my seat and conversing with another extra. Later I was seated next to this extra, a young woman. Charles Durning and Ann Wedgeworth, also regulars on the show, sat directly in front of us. This was also a good scene for me.
During rehearsal the woman sitting next to me had a lengthy conversation with Ann Wedgeworth. When the scene was shot, she had been replaced by another young woman. I mentioned to Ann Wedgeworth that the gal she had been talking with earlier had been replaced. She replied that she knew, that the other gal was her daughter.
After the show was finished, the cast and crew, including extras, were invited to listen to some music performed by some people who had been in attendance. I don't remember who they were, but I think they were a country western group. I decided to go home as it was late and I was tired. One thing I remember is that "Evening Shade" used a few permanent extras, who were in nearly every episode.
LOVE AND WAR "Love and War" was a sitcom starring Annie Potts and Jay Thomas. I worked two days on this episode. I was in a scene in a Chinese restaurant, seated at a table with another man and two women. The table was across the aisle from the table where Jay Thomas and Annie2 Potts were seated. My arm and shoulder were seen throughout the scene, and my head was seen from time to time, reacting to the action around me.
During the lunch break of the first day Jay Thomas tossed a football around with a few of the crew. He has a pretty good arm. I talked with Joli Lallo, the extra that I mentioned in Chapter 11 under "Second Chances" and found out she's a sports fan. At the time basketball player Michael Jordan had decided to retire from basketball and try his hand at professional baseball. Joli said she had met him and several other professional basketball players socially. At that time Michael Jordan was playing class AA ball. Joli and I made a bet. She said that he was such a good athlete that even though he hadn't played baseball since high school, he would make the major leagues. I bet that he wouldn't. The bet was tentatively to be a lunch at our mutual convenience, probably in Burbank. Burbank is somewhat midway from the West Valley, where she lived and Covina, where I live. When Michael Jordan eventually gave up baseball and returned to basketball, I called her answering machine to discuss the bet. As I more or less expected, the call was never returned. Joli is also a model, and I found her picture on the Internet. Click here for the picture.
DAVE'S WORLD "Dave's World" is another sitcom where the extra's worked two days. There were a lot of kids in their mid teens cast as extras as well as "18 to look younger". The scene I appeared in was in the lobby of a movie theater, first buying tickets, and later walking across the lobby. The scene where I was seen best had me walking across the lobby and made me realize when I saw it that I needed to lose a little weight.
Harry Anderson played Dave, the title role. Delane Matthews played his wife. Another cast member was Shadoe Stevens, whose face was well known as Fred Rated on the Federated commercials. At the end of the first day, the 2nd AD was on the set giving instructions to the extras. Delane Matthews wanted to talk with her and was waiting for her to finish with us. I noticed this and said to the 2nd AD that someone was waiting to talk with her. Delane said that she could have waited, but the 2nd AD immediately took care of her and then returned to finish with us. This is as it should be, but I was impressed that Delane Matthews didn't stand on ceremony and was willing to wait her turn.
I don't recall much about waiting in the holding area when not working, except the unusual number of teenagers and the long boring hours between the times we were used. "Dave's World" was the last sitcom I worked on that I hadn't worked on before.
SUMMARY As I said earlier, I enjoyed working on sitcoms and only preferred TV Dramas because of the late hours required for sitcoms. In every other way sitcoms were the most fun to work on. Extras are usually featured prominently because there are fewer of them. The atmosphere is generally more relaxed.
Although most of each show is shot before a live audience using four cameras simultaneously, some scenes are shot separately because of logistics. Also, there are pickups. Pickups are when a part of a scene needs to be shot from a different perspective than any of the four cameras give. Pickups are sometimes anticipated and can be shot before the live audience. Occasionally the cast has to wait around after the audience leaves to shoot pickups. This can result in a very late night. On one show, the gate from the parking lot had been closed and locked, and I was trapped inside Universal Studios till I found my way to the main gate and was able to get out.
With four cameras and pickups there are plenty of angles to choose from during the editing of the show. I usually didn't watch a lot of sitcoms on TV, but after having worked on them, I have learned to appreciate them.
This page was last updated on September 14, 2003
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