There seems to be utter chaos with checking your tickets and such by the people who work there, no one seems to know exactly what is going on. And we had to go through two different metal detectors, one before we got on the property and one just before we got into the studio itself.
I was amazed at how much smaller the sets look in real life and how parts of the walls in Will's apartment are hinged so that they can get certain shots of the hallway outside of the apartment. I believe they always had 4 cameras filming each scene as it was acted out.
Each scene is shot twice, once with the dialog a certain way and depending on our laughter, would be shot again with different punchline dialog added. More often than not, one of the actors would flub a line and that section would have to be reshot. I've never heard such liberal use of the "F" word, no wonder no one under 18 was allowed for the taping! Not to mention the re-writes that would come about where all the writers would come on the set and confer for about a half hour before they were all satisfied with the end result.
All in all what comes out as a half hour comedy show took about 4 and a half hours worth of taping!!! We were starving and exhausted by the time we left, the taping started at 5:00 pm and we left at 9:30 pm, but, had a wonderful time seeing how the magic is made in the studio.
All the actors are wonderful in person, very warm and funny. We even got to hobnob with one of the extras who was waiting to be let into the ladies' dressing room that was outside the studio. The tickets were free, I think you just have to get them 2 weeks in advance. The show we saw taped will be shown on November 11th.
