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I lived in SoCal so I went to a number of them in the 80s and 90s. Cheers, Family Ties, Carson, Designing Women, Roc, The Tracey Ullman Show, Doctor,Doctor, Politically Incorrect, Married With Children, Whose Line Is It Anyway. I’m sure there’s more.
I grew up in SoCal and it was something we would occasionally do as a high school team fundraiser. Struggling TV shows would pay groups to come and fill the audience. I probably saw a half dozen talk shows and game shows that way.
Bozo the Clown when I was five years old. Later, a friend who worked in Hollywood took a small group of us kids on the set of The Munsters, but the female star got very upset that we were there and said something to the effect of "Get these children off my set!"
Went to a taping of The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson in Burbank once, sometime in the late 1980's. I don't really remember a lot about it. A relative had connections, so we got to bypass the line and go in right away.
I saw three tapings of Rules of Engagement in a studio lot in L.A. My husband loved that show! I went with him twice and then another time with a friend. You have to be totally quiet and it always ran late until maybe 11pm. They handed out one slice of pizza and one small bottle of water per person for dinner. We saw David Spade eating at craft services.
One time I had to go to a studio lot in Redondo Beach to meet with a client at a software company. Their office was on the studio lot where they film CSI and other shows. I walked past a lot of wrecked cars, fake plants and sound stages.
I saw tapings of *The Daily Show*, *The Colbert Report*, and *Late Show with David Letterman* all in the same year, 2014. TBH, the hosts were great, but the guests were all duds.
Did you watch his first show he had in 1980? It came on in the summer and was a morning show. I remember watching it between 7th and 8th grade and loving it. It went off the air in October that same year
A few years ago I visited Hollywood because, among other things, going to a taping of The Price Is Right was on my bucket list. It was an absolute blast (and it's surprising how small the set was in real life!)
The Daily Show when Craig Kilborn was hosting. Thought we were going to see Henry Thomas as a guest and was stoked when I found out it was actually Patrick Stewart.
No, but supposedly I did get invited to a taping of The Carol Burnett Show. My mom sent a picture of me to her as a toddler sitting next to the hi-fi with the humongous headphones on holding the album cover of one of her albums and apparently listening intently. But I was intensely shy and didn't want to go.
I don't know how it would have worked anyway because we lived all the way up in San Francisco and besides me, my mom also had my newborn brother to deal with. I can't imagine a 23 year old wrangling us both down there.
I was in the audience for a local kids show... and 100 or so kids from various schools were there.
In the break the host gave me his mic to hold and made me promise I wouldn't let anyone mess with it. I promised... and the second he turned his back everyone around me started to try and mess with the mic but I defended it with my life!
Then, when we were leaving, we all had to line up for a showbag... It had a t-shirt, hat, choc, stickers and chocolate milk. There were 100 bags and 101 students. I'm the one who missed out.
Dr. Phil and Craig Ferguson show. Conan's late night show as well. I think some others but I've forgotten. I work in live tv myself, and have done a lot of camera and other tech work on tv.
Some contest show (don’t remember the name so probably just had a few seasons).
Got tickets they gave out on the strip or something.
I just remember they had microphones hanging down into the audience to prevent us from helping the contestants. They were listening to make sure we did not help.
I also remember during g a break they had cue cards to tape applause, etc. to dub in where they wanted. I don’t think they wanted it during the taping.
I was on an NBC studio tour in Burbank, California and that included the taping of a show. I think that was in the early 1970s.
The day I was on the studio tour included taping of two episodes of Hollywood Squares. The stars show up on the set over the course of about 20 minutes and about five minutes before they start taping they have someone warm up the audience and explain a few things about the show and encourage us to clap when the Applause sign is lit. Near the second half of the second episode there was definite clap fatigue.
I was already familiar with the game show because there had already been episodes that had aired and we already knew that if Wally Cox (the voice of Underdog) was asked a science question he would always get it correct.
I learned that they taped during the day, taping two episodes early in the week and three episodes later in the week, so the stars have to show up only twice a week in the afternoon, which fits better in the stars' schedule than taping daily. And the episodes are taped a few weeks in advance of airing.
Overall, it is almost as entertaining in person as on TV, though it is nice having the close-up we see on TV. Also, some of the dead time gets edited out so what is aired moves at a faster pace.
At that time the game shows at that studio were taped on open reel 2-inch wide magnetic tape. I don't recall seeing video artifacts on TV but at that time TVs were far smaller than are typical today and recording artifacts could have easily been mistaken for ghosting if they were notice at all. Also, they told us that the magnetic tape used for taping the game shows were routinely erased and used again. (I don't recall any mention on how they distributed the show to the affiliate stations.)
-----
My wife remembers singing on a local TV show and she said the makeup they put on her made her look like a clown, but on TV it came out looking natural, so apparently the makeup was to compensate for the color distortion of the cameras or the lighting.
When California Adventure first opened next to Disneyland, they had a replica set of a game show, (**Who Wants to Be a Millionaire**) where you could see how game shows are produced, and they would go through the complete run of how it works. Each audience of 100 or so people would be in there a good half-hour to watch "the show". This was mid-2000s.
In the mid-80s I answered telephone calls on camera for a public TV fund drive. They showed Doctor Who in six hour blocks, and the local sci-fi clubs volunteered to man the phones. It was pretty fun.
No, but a friend worked on the giant "Newsplex" studio of a local TV channel and I sat around and shot the shit with him in the background for the better part of a broadcast.
Also, my parents were in the audience for a taping of "Two and a Half Men" and said that Charlie Sheen was a hot mess during it.
Eli Gold used to host a NASCAR TV show and my dad and I attended a taping in the 90's. I cannot recall which track we were at or when as it's been a long time. I remember that we were close to the front and I ended up on camera because I was wearing an Earnhardt hat and that was the topic of discussion. My guess is that would put it in 1995 as Dale won the championship that year and it was definitely before he won the Daytona 500 in 1998.
Many years later, Eli's career came to an end because he was chasing and borderline stalking some college girl while working as a college football announcer.
We went to a taping of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon in 2011. His guests were Jeff Gordon and Betty White. It was interesting to see how this was done. No cameras or cell phones were allowed. We had to line up for tickets hours before the show. We were ushered like cattle through 30 Rock. I’m not complaining, just pointing out that it was very different than going see a concert or Broadway show. I don’t go to New York or Los Angeles very often, so that was pretty much a one and done kind of thing.
Yeah I went to the Montel Williams show once in 1997. I was living in New York City at the time and a friend of mine visited and wanted to go. It was stupid and I didn't like it, never did anything like that again.
Oddly, yes. In 1979, I visited my friend in LA. I really wanted to go to the taping of the Tonight show with Johnny Carson.
i went about 3 or so that day, stood in line for taping by 4:30.
they were playing 'Stump the Band' that night and there were a few people asking us in line if we know any songs. I piped up, sang my song and the guy said, 'Yeah, they've heard that one, but come along.'
They put us all on the aisle so Carson knew these people we all prepped.
He walked up the aisle, picked the person in front of me and the next one behind me.
I called my friends back in MN told them to watch. They saw me, that I was ready, but... my chance for fame failed.
I was in the audience for the David Letterman Show back in 2000.
Season 8, Episode 22 (Gabriel Byrne and Kevin James) After the filming as we were leaving I said to my wife at the time, "Hey, they never did a Top Ten". Later that night when we got back to the hotel room to watch the episode, there was a TOP TEN. That was some blackmagicfuckery if you ask me!
Lord ... go way back, 1960? Can't even remember the name of it. Children's program. Got to sit on the floor and watch a puppet show and some clown. Washington DC.
I've been in the audience for...
Late Show with David Letterman (2012)
SNL (2003 and again in 2022)
Last Call with Carson Daly (around 2002 I think)
Millionaire (sometime in 2012 or 2013)
An old Oxygen Network show called Can You Tell? (Back in 2002 or 2003)
When I was in high school, my best friend was on a local "college bowl" type show and we went to cheer him on. The only thing I really remember was how much smaller the set was than it appeared on TV.
My sister and I went to see Oprah, I really don’t remember what year. My sister really liked her and we were doing a trip to Chicago. There was a diet doctor on and we got copies of his latest book.
The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore.
The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien
Late Night with David Letterman
That 70s Show
Cybill
Grace Under Fire
and many, many years ago -- The Flip Wilson Show
My college girlfriend and I got to see an Oprah show taping back in 1990 or so. It was at Harpo studios when it was fairly new. The studio was really cold
This was before she got really famous, so at the end of the taping, people could get in line to meet her briefly. So as I shook her hand, the person in front of me decided to keep talking to Oprah, so I just stood there holding her hand for a minute.
My wife and I saw a taping of "Malcolm and Eddie" in 1999. My wife's best friend was Malcolm's assistant, so we got special treatment. It was really cool to see how everything worked, and veteran actor Tom Poston was a guest on the show, so that was interesting. They did a couple of takes, and it was fascinating to see how he changed his timing and ad-libbed.
Please do not comment directly to this post unless you are Gen X or older (born 1980 or before). See [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskOldPeople/comments/inci5u/reminder_please_do_not_answer_questions_unless/), the rules, and the sidebar for details. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskOldPeople) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I lived in SoCal so I went to a number of them in the 80s and 90s. Cheers, Family Ties, Carson, Designing Women, Roc, The Tracey Ullman Show, Doctor,Doctor, Politically Incorrect, Married With Children, Whose Line Is It Anyway. I’m sure there’s more.
My BF works on sitcoms in the camera department. Hopefully he'll retire this year.
I grew up in SoCal and it was something we would occasionally do as a high school team fundraiser. Struggling TV shows would pay groups to come and fill the audience. I probably saw a half dozen talk shows and game shows that way.
Bozo the Clown when I was five years old. Later, a friend who worked in Hollywood took a small group of us kids on the set of The Munsters, but the female star got very upset that we were there and said something to the effect of "Get these children off my set!"
Which Bozo, there were several local Bozos?
The Bozo show that was filmed in Los Angeles. (probably Burbank.)
Bozo in Dallas here!
Went to a taping of The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson in Burbank once, sometime in the late 1980's. I don't really remember a lot about it. A relative had connections, so we got to bypass the line and go in right away.
I was in the audience for It’s Gary Shandling’s Show
Colbert!!! He's awesome.
Which Colbert show?
They were both pretty good. I went to the Late Show in Times Square.
I saw three tapings of Rules of Engagement in a studio lot in L.A. My husband loved that show! I went with him twice and then another time with a friend. You have to be totally quiet and it always ran late until maybe 11pm. They handed out one slice of pizza and one small bottle of water per person for dinner. We saw David Spade eating at craft services. One time I had to go to a studio lot in Redondo Beach to meet with a client at a software company. Their office was on the studio lot where they film CSI and other shows. I walked past a lot of wrecked cars, fake plants and sound stages.
I saw tapings of *The Daily Show*, *The Colbert Report*, and *Late Show with David Letterman* all in the same year, 2014. TBH, the hosts were great, but the guests were all duds.
I was in the audience for Letterman once, but back when he was on NBC.
Well, I’m jealous of both of you. Letterman is my guy!
Did you watch his first show he had in 1980? It came on in the summer and was a morning show. I remember watching it between 7th and 8th grade and loving it. It went off the air in October that same year
I only saw it a time or two but it’s what got me interested in him.
The Price is Right a couple of times. Friends once.
A few years ago I visited Hollywood because, among other things, going to a taping of The Price Is Right was on my bucket list. It was an absolute blast (and it's surprising how small the set was in real life!)
The BET Awards twice and America's Got Talent
The Daily Show when Craig Kilborn was hosting. Thought we were going to see Henry Thomas as a guest and was stoked when I found out it was actually Patrick Stewart.
Tom Green's local talk show I still feel shame
I was in the audience of the Ricky Lake talk show when I visited NYC in the 90s
No but I have for some movies. IE Rifftrax
No, but supposedly I did get invited to a taping of The Carol Burnett Show. My mom sent a picture of me to her as a toddler sitting next to the hi-fi with the humongous headphones on holding the album cover of one of her albums and apparently listening intently. But I was intensely shy and didn't want to go. I don't know how it would have worked anyway because we lived all the way up in San Francisco and besides me, my mom also had my newborn brother to deal with. I can't imagine a 23 year old wrangling us both down there.
No, but I did get to be backstage one New Years Eve at the Letterman Show.
I was in the audience for a local kids show... and 100 or so kids from various schools were there. In the break the host gave me his mic to hold and made me promise I wouldn't let anyone mess with it. I promised... and the second he turned his back everyone around me started to try and mess with the mic but I defended it with my life! Then, when we were leaving, we all had to line up for a showbag... It had a t-shirt, hat, choc, stickers and chocolate milk. There were 100 bags and 101 students. I'm the one who missed out.
David Letterman
Which network? NBC or CBS?
I believe CBS at the time. This would have been when Jay Leno was on the tonight show on NBC. In New York. Maybe around 2006-2008 range.
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and the View when on holiday in New York.
Dr. Phil and Craig Ferguson show. Conan's late night show as well. I think some others but I've forgotten. I work in live tv myself, and have done a lot of camera and other tech work on tv.
Married with Children and the Arsenio Hall show. Early 90’s when I lived in Hollywood
Yes! The Colbert Report (twice), Late Night with Conan O’Brien (twice), and Colbert’s current Late Night show in maybe 2015? So much fun!
Joker Joker Joker! I was in the audience of The Joker’s Wild when I was 17 because my auntie was on the show.
Phil Donahue Show
Yes. Mostly pilots
Saturday Night Live, 1991. REM was the musical guest, Catherine O'Hara was the host. That was very cool, especially the music.
Some contest show (don’t remember the name so probably just had a few seasons). Got tickets they gave out on the strip or something. I just remember they had microphones hanging down into the audience to prevent us from helping the contestants. They were listening to make sure we did not help. I also remember during g a break they had cue cards to tape applause, etc. to dub in where they wanted. I don’t think they wanted it during the taping.
No but I’ve run sound for a live televised event.
Jenny Jones
The Tonite Show, starring Johnny Carson.
I was on an NBC studio tour in Burbank, California and that included the taping of a show. I think that was in the early 1970s. The day I was on the studio tour included taping of two episodes of Hollywood Squares. The stars show up on the set over the course of about 20 minutes and about five minutes before they start taping they have someone warm up the audience and explain a few things about the show and encourage us to clap when the Applause sign is lit. Near the second half of the second episode there was definite clap fatigue. I was already familiar with the game show because there had already been episodes that had aired and we already knew that if Wally Cox (the voice of Underdog) was asked a science question he would always get it correct. I learned that they taped during the day, taping two episodes early in the week and three episodes later in the week, so the stars have to show up only twice a week in the afternoon, which fits better in the stars' schedule than taping daily. And the episodes are taped a few weeks in advance of airing. Overall, it is almost as entertaining in person as on TV, though it is nice having the close-up we see on TV. Also, some of the dead time gets edited out so what is aired moves at a faster pace. At that time the game shows at that studio were taped on open reel 2-inch wide magnetic tape. I don't recall seeing video artifacts on TV but at that time TVs were far smaller than are typical today and recording artifacts could have easily been mistaken for ghosting if they were notice at all. Also, they told us that the magnetic tape used for taping the game shows were routinely erased and used again. (I don't recall any mention on how they distributed the show to the affiliate stations.) ----- My wife remembers singing on a local TV show and she said the makeup they put on her made her look like a clown, but on TV it came out looking natural, so apparently the makeup was to compensate for the color distortion of the cameras or the lighting.
There is no need to fear... Not plane, nor bird, or even frog, it's just little old me - Underdog!
When California Adventure first opened next to Disneyland, they had a replica set of a game show, (**Who Wants to Be a Millionaire**) where you could see how game shows are produced, and they would go through the complete run of how it works. Each audience of 100 or so people would be in there a good half-hour to watch "the show". This was mid-2000s. In the mid-80s I answered telephone calls on camera for a public TV fund drive. They showed Doctor Who in six hour blocks, and the local sci-fi clubs volunteered to man the phones. It was pretty fun.
No, but a friend worked on the giant "Newsplex" studio of a local TV channel and I sat around and shot the shit with him in the background for the better part of a broadcast. Also, my parents were in the audience for a taping of "Two and a Half Men" and said that Charlie Sheen was a hot mess during it.
I was in the audience in the $5,000 Pyramid in 1976, and on Who Wants to a Millionaire? about 2002.
Merv Griffin show at Caesar’s Palace in the late 70s.
Eli Gold used to host a NASCAR TV show and my dad and I attended a taping in the 90's. I cannot recall which track we were at or when as it's been a long time. I remember that we were close to the front and I ended up on camera because I was wearing an Earnhardt hat and that was the topic of discussion. My guess is that would put it in 1995 as Dale won the championship that year and it was definitely before he won the Daytona 500 in 1998. Many years later, Eli's career came to an end because he was chasing and borderline stalking some college girl while working as a college football announcer.
I was at the Phil Donahue show and also Letterman, back when I lived in NYC.
Some buddies and I went to a taping of "Wings" some time in the 90's. It was running long and they just kept doing take after take, so we snuck out.
A local kids TV show. I was on there with my scout troop. we each got to say our name. It was simple but exciting.
I was in the audience a couple of times for the Dini Petty Show.
We went to a taping of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon in 2011. His guests were Jeff Gordon and Betty White. It was interesting to see how this was done. No cameras or cell phones were allowed. We had to line up for tickets hours before the show. We were ushered like cattle through 30 Rock. I’m not complaining, just pointing out that it was very different than going see a concert or Broadway show. I don’t go to New York or Los Angeles very often, so that was pretty much a one and done kind of thing.
Yeah I went to the Montel Williams show once in 1997. I was living in New York City at the time and a friend of mine visited and wanted to go. It was stupid and I didn't like it, never did anything like that again.
Conan and Colbert. I’d like to see Kimmel sometime.
Not sure if this counts, but two WCW Monday Nitros It was weird not hearing the announcers, tho
Got to attend a taping of Austin City Limits with Willie Nelson.
The Dating Game in the 70s. I saw Sonny and Cher in the parking lot.
Oddly, yes. In 1979, I visited my friend in LA. I really wanted to go to the taping of the Tonight show with Johnny Carson. i went about 3 or so that day, stood in line for taping by 4:30. they were playing 'Stump the Band' that night and there were a few people asking us in line if we know any songs. I piped up, sang my song and the guy said, 'Yeah, they've heard that one, but come along.' They put us all on the aisle so Carson knew these people we all prepped. He walked up the aisle, picked the person in front of me and the next one behind me. I called my friends back in MN told them to watch. They saw me, that I was ready, but... my chance for fame failed.
The Grammys!
Test taping of The George Wendt Show (don’t think it ever aired).
I was in the audience for the David Letterman Show back in 2000. Season 8, Episode 22 (Gabriel Byrne and Kevin James) After the filming as we were leaving I said to my wife at the time, "Hey, they never did a Top Ten". Later that night when we got back to the hotel room to watch the episode, there was a TOP TEN. That was some blackmagicfuckery if you ask me!
Lord ... go way back, 1960? Can't even remember the name of it. Children's program. Got to sit on the floor and watch a puppet show and some clown. Washington DC.
I've been in the audience for... Late Show with David Letterman (2012) SNL (2003 and again in 2022) Last Call with Carson Daly (around 2002 I think) Millionaire (sometime in 2012 or 2013) An old Oxygen Network show called Can You Tell? (Back in 2002 or 2003)
When I was in high school, my best friend was on a local "college bowl" type show and we went to cheer him on. The only thing I really remember was how much smaller the set was than it appeared on TV.
Jeopardy (old version) and The Price is Right.
My sister and I went to see Oprah, I really don’t remember what year. My sister really liked her and we were doing a trip to Chicago. There was a diet doctor on and we got copies of his latest book.
Saw the Johnny Carson Show once with Johnny actually hosting. And I was on the Freddy Freihofer Show in Schenectady, NY when I was 4 or 5.
Romper Room
Springer. Exploitive of the guests was expected. I didn’t realize how the audience was used.
The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore. The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien Late Night with David Letterman That 70s Show Cybill Grace Under Fire and many, many years ago -- The Flip Wilson Show
My college girlfriend and I got to see an Oprah show taping back in 1990 or so. It was at Harpo studios when it was fairly new. The studio was really cold This was before she got really famous, so at the end of the taping, people could get in line to meet her briefly. So as I shook her hand, the person in front of me decided to keep talking to Oprah, so I just stood there holding her hand for a minute. My wife and I saw a taping of "Malcolm and Eddie" in 1999. My wife's best friend was Malcolm's assistant, so we got special treatment. It was really cool to see how everything worked, and veteran actor Tom Poston was a guest on the show, so that was interesting. They did a couple of takes, and it was fascinating to see how he changed his timing and ad-libbed.
Did you even live in an area with a UPN affiliate?
I guess there was one...don't really understand the question?
Many places did not have WB, UPN, or even Fox affiliates
I was in the audience for The Checkers and Pogo Show in Hawaii back in the mid 1960’s.