A few weeks ago my friend Briana & I went to see a Regis & Kelly taping. Having tried this once before with my old roommate Michele, I knew we had to be up early to get in the stand by line (we didn’t have tickets)! So we got up at 5A!! and met up for breakfast before heading over to the ABC studios. Upon arriving at the studio a little before 7a we could see a large line had already formed. Not knowing exactly where to go we got in the first line we saw and I noticed that the people ahead of us had tickets printed out, so I asked them if they had tickets or if they were in the standby line. Turns out they had tickets already! BOO!!! So we repositioned ourselves with all of the other non-ticket holders in the standby line. :( While we were waiting in our line, a street vendor that had been working this corner for years came over to greet the line and tell us where to look for the arriving guests & Regis as we were waiting. He also mentioned that the studio was small, so if we didn’t have tickets we might not get in & he said if that was the case, we should have over to Martha Stewarts studio because it was bigger and they often pull guests from the standby line. So Briana and I were thinking either way we would get to see a taping that day. As soon as we got to the front of our line, a couple to our left(who had tickets) told us they were a party of 2 and had 2 extra tickets and asked if we would like to join them? SCORE!!! Their names were Richard & Mary (I think!) and they had come into the city for the day on a bus from Pennsylvania. We had chatted with them in line and passed the 2 hour time frame nicely while waiting to be escorted onto the set.
The guests for the day were Chris Rock & the latest cast offs from Dancing with the Stars, Edyta & Aiden. During the commercials Regis & Kelly interacted with the audience & posed for pictures. Needless to say Kelly was as cute & put together as ever and Regis was charming in a grandfatherly kind of way. At the end of the show the dancers were teaching Regis & Kelly some moves and Regis had to explain to Edeyta that he couldn’t do a particular combo because of his hip. :) I was a little bit surprised at how pompous Michael Gelman (producer) acted, but I guess that’s what showbiz does to some people. That day they were also taping another segment with Nathan Lane co-hosting with Tracy Morgan as the guest. Nathan Lane was hilarious! And so was Tracy Morgan, but I was disappointed to hear (from Briana) that Tracy’s stand up routine was not as funny. BOO!!
Chris Rock
Tracy Morgan
After the Regis & Kelly taping we decided we should extend our star filled cheap day so we headed over to Chelsea to check out the Martha Stewart situation. It turns out the guy at Regis & Kelly had the times mixed up and we were a little early for the afternoon taping, so we went and got pedicures before grabbing some food and returning the studio. On our way back to the studio we noticed two familiar faces standing in the standby line (our adopted parents had had the same plan as we did!). We sat on the studio’s stoop and noshed on our sandwiches as we waited to hear if we would be allowed into the taping. We got lucky and made it into this taping too!
Once in the studio you are escorted into a “holding” room where the producer preps you all and talks about what will be going on in the show that day. We were fortunate enough to get: to taste some YUMMY coconut cookies that Martha made with her guest Maury Rubin (owner of the Birdbath Bakery here in NYC), a gift card to a clothing line called “skin” (although I am not sure how much the $50 will actually buy!), and should be getting in the mail any day now a pair of pearl earrings!!! The show is set to air this Friday, so set your DVR’s!!! I was shocked at how much bigger Martha’s set was compared to Regis & Kelly’s. The audience rows were very generous leaving enough room for guests to walk between the rows with ease! LOVED all of the plates on display in the kitchen, it was all white and coordinated perfectly!!! I can only hope to be so organized one day… I DO realize that that’s what all of the production staff is there for, to make it all look pretty and effortless.
