it all started with a big BANG
This week on Tuesday Big Bang Theory taped their 100th episode. Emily (bja727), who I met at a taping last season, flew out from New York for the occasion and stayed with me for a few days. She had a couple things on her list she wanted to do, but otherwise the schedule was up to me... So I tried to make it a Big Bang Theory week. :)
On Saturday night we had dinner at Soup Plantation ("You can't grow soup."), which was one of the things on Emily's list.
Sunday afternoon we explored the Queen Mary in Long Beach ("The Queen Mary is docked there, once the largest ocean liner in the world, it’s now a hotel and restaurant where they host a surprisingly gripping murder mystery dinner."). I'd never been there before, and there was a lot more to see than I'd thought.
Monday we were all over LA... Starting with a tour of the Warner Bros Studios. I'd done the tour twice before, but it was still fun to do it again. We even saw Johnny Galecki taking a break outside! Emily said "Hi Johnny!", and he said, "Hey, how's it going?" A few pics:
There were costumes and props from HP on display in the gift shop.
Chuck Lorre's offices. The exterior was used as April's school on Gilmore Girls. (All the buildings on the lot are kept plain so they can be used as sets.)
Stars Hollow!
Big Bang Theory's soundstage
From there we drove up through Griffith Park to get a good view of the Hollywood sign (another thing from Emily's list). The observatory was closed, but we were still able to park up there and walk around a bit.
Next we had a late lunch at Carney's in Hollywood ("Finally, we’re off to the glitz and glamour of Hollywood for dinner at, that’s right, the Hollywood Carney’s, a hot dog stand in a different converted railroad dining car."), then walked around a bit at the Glendale Galleria ("How did you manage to get on the second floor of the Glendale galleria?" "I don’t know. I was on the Pasadena freeway, I missed my exit, flew off the overpass, and one thing led to another."). For the record, I was unable to locate a pet store on the directory.
Inside Carneys
Tuesday was the taping, more details of which are further below. :)
Finally, on Wednesday we started the day in Pasadena at Lucky Baldwin's ("You met her at Pasadena’s most popular Irish watering hole, Lucky Baldwin’s, where Maggie spends her nights tending bar, with a head full of curls and a heart full of dreams."), which is actually a British pub. We took some pictures of the outside, then went in, and Emily bought a shirt.
While we were there we decided to find other Pasadena spots, starting with driving by the City Hall, which is the domed building you can see through the window of the guy's apartment. Then we used my GPS to find North Los Robles Ave ("We no longer live at 2311 Los Robles. We now live at 311 Los Robles."), but on our way we found Euclid Ave ("Euclid Avenue is shorter as the crow flies, but it has speed bumps, which appreciably increase point-to-point drive time, making it the less efficient choice."). So of course we drove down that stretch of Euclid, but it was disappointingly void of speed bumps.
After Euclid we got to Los Robles, drove down that for a bit, then set off to find the Cheesecake Factory. On the way there we passed another stretch of Euclid, and I glanced down as we passed, then yelled, "Speedbumps! I saw speedbumps!" I made a u-turn as soon as I could, and we went down Euclid, speedbumps and all. After driving past the Cheesecake Factory, we finished by circling past Cal Tech University.
Unable to think of much else to search out, we went back to LA for a stop at Whimsic Alley ("I'm saying believe in magic, you Muggle!"), a Harry Potter store, where I bought a book (written by the professor I had at Pepperdine for my HP class), and a couple stickers for my car (the Deathly Hallows symbol, and a "Student of the Month at Hogwarts Academy" bumper sticker). Then our last stop was a short walk around the Santa Monica Pier (which, I've just remembered, was actually mentioned in the season 2 bloopers in a cut scene - "Do I need to remind you that the last time my mother was here, she tricked me into getting re-baptized below the Ferris Wheel at the Santa Monica Pier.").
When we got back closer to my house we checked out a local comic book store, then that night we went to a hockey game at Honda Center, Anaheim Ducks vs Phoenix Coyotes. It was my first professional hockey game, and the Ducks won 4-1!
And now, for the taping itself... Emily and I got to the parking garage around 10:30 in the morning. It was a different lot than we usually lined up at, at the security guy wasn't sure if we were supposed to be there or not, but he let us in anyway (later on people were being told to come back later). There were already 4 people lined up who'd been there for about an hour already! So we settled in on the bench for a long wait.
Before we'd been there long, I tweeted, "Hey @billprady, some of us are already in line for tonight's episode! #100" Almost immediately he replied "tweet a picture!" So I took a pic of the others to send to him, and Emily took a pic of the back of my 100th episode shirt that Michele (dark_spidey) designed that I also sent.
Pretty soon after that other people started showing up too (tbbtlenny and her brother were right behind us in line!). Around noon I left to pick up lunch for Emily and me, and by the time I got back Michele and her mom had arrived. We killed some time playing HP Uno, and finally the Audience Unlimited people got there and divided us into standby and guaranteed.
Michele and I had guaranteed tickets, and Emily and Michele's mom had standby. But after they checked us in, Michele and Emily switched places. So Emily and I went into the studios first, leaving Michele and her mom at the front of the standby line. When we got to the soundstage, we found awesome Rubix cubes on our seats, thanks to Bill Prady!
We weren't allowed to save seats, but thanks to luck and a little rearranging, Emily and I ended up sitting on the same row, just across the aisle from Michele and her mom. And our seats were right in front of the guy's apartment, with a pretty good view of the Cheesecake Factory. Before starting, instead of showing an unaired episode, they showed the Pilot, which ended up fitting really well for the occasion.
I won't go into details about the episode itself... I'll say it wasn't at all what I thought it'd be (or was even hoping for), but I just about loved it.
There were a handful of bloopers, most notably Johnny and Kaley kept flubbing in a couple of scenes. Nothing way out there, though. A couple times throughout the night, Johnny would come up to the woman with the clapboard as she was slating, and sort of rest his head on her shoulder. So then on the last take of the night, she gave him the clapboard, and he said "tag, take three," or whatever it was, and then patted his shoulder, motioning for her to come and lean against him. After he slated, he asked if he did it wrong, but she said no.
And it looked like the whole crew down below was wearing ties for the occasion, including the women. Some were dressed nicely, and others just had loose ties on over their regular shirts.
When the taping finished, Kunal was the only cast member who signed. He said hi when he saw me, and I told him congrats on 100 episodes. He said something like, "Thanks for the support, it means a lot." :)
Emily helped keep watch while I snuck this picture.
The picture came out blurry, but the top left square says "100 Episodes".
And that's how we roll in the shire.
(If you want to look through all my pictures from this week, they're on photobucket here)
On Saturday night we had dinner at Soup Plantation ("You can't grow soup."), which was one of the things on Emily's list.
Sunday afternoon we explored the Queen Mary in Long Beach ("The Queen Mary is docked there, once the largest ocean liner in the world, it’s now a hotel and restaurant where they host a surprisingly gripping murder mystery dinner."). I'd never been there before, and there was a lot more to see than I'd thought.
Monday we were all over LA... Starting with a tour of the Warner Bros Studios. I'd done the tour twice before, but it was still fun to do it again. We even saw Johnny Galecki taking a break outside! Emily said "Hi Johnny!", and he said, "Hey, how's it going?" A few pics:
There were costumes and props from HP on display in the gift shop.
Chuck Lorre's offices. The exterior was used as April's school on Gilmore Girls. (All the buildings on the lot are kept plain so they can be used as sets.)
Stars Hollow!
Big Bang Theory's soundstage
From there we drove up through Griffith Park to get a good view of the Hollywood sign (another thing from Emily's list). The observatory was closed, but we were still able to park up there and walk around a bit.
Next we had a late lunch at Carney's in Hollywood ("Finally, we’re off to the glitz and glamour of Hollywood for dinner at, that’s right, the Hollywood Carney’s, a hot dog stand in a different converted railroad dining car."), then walked around a bit at the Glendale Galleria ("How did you manage to get on the second floor of the Glendale galleria?" "I don’t know. I was on the Pasadena freeway, I missed my exit, flew off the overpass, and one thing led to another."). For the record, I was unable to locate a pet store on the directory.
Inside Carneys
Tuesday was the taping, more details of which are further below. :)
Finally, on Wednesday we started the day in Pasadena at Lucky Baldwin's ("You met her at Pasadena’s most popular Irish watering hole, Lucky Baldwin’s, where Maggie spends her nights tending bar, with a head full of curls and a heart full of dreams."), which is actually a British pub. We took some pictures of the outside, then went in, and Emily bought a shirt.
While we were there we decided to find other Pasadena spots, starting with driving by the City Hall, which is the domed building you can see through the window of the guy's apartment. Then we used my GPS to find North Los Robles Ave ("We no longer live at 2311 Los Robles. We now live at 311 Los Robles."), but on our way we found Euclid Ave ("Euclid Avenue is shorter as the crow flies, but it has speed bumps, which appreciably increase point-to-point drive time, making it the less efficient choice."). So of course we drove down that stretch of Euclid, but it was disappointingly void of speed bumps.
After Euclid we got to Los Robles, drove down that for a bit, then set off to find the Cheesecake Factory. On the way there we passed another stretch of Euclid, and I glanced down as we passed, then yelled, "Speedbumps! I saw speedbumps!" I made a u-turn as soon as I could, and we went down Euclid, speedbumps and all. After driving past the Cheesecake Factory, we finished by circling past Cal Tech University.
Unable to think of much else to search out, we went back to LA for a stop at Whimsic Alley ("I'm saying believe in magic, you Muggle!"), a Harry Potter store, where I bought a book (written by the professor I had at Pepperdine for my HP class), and a couple stickers for my car (the Deathly Hallows symbol, and a "Student of the Month at Hogwarts Academy" bumper sticker). Then our last stop was a short walk around the Santa Monica Pier (which, I've just remembered, was actually mentioned in the season 2 bloopers in a cut scene - "Do I need to remind you that the last time my mother was here, she tricked me into getting re-baptized below the Ferris Wheel at the Santa Monica Pier.").
When we got back closer to my house we checked out a local comic book store, then that night we went to a hockey game at Honda Center, Anaheim Ducks vs Phoenix Coyotes. It was my first professional hockey game, and the Ducks won 4-1!
And now, for the taping itself... Emily and I got to the parking garage around 10:30 in the morning. It was a different lot than we usually lined up at, at the security guy wasn't sure if we were supposed to be there or not, but he let us in anyway (later on people were being told to come back later). There were already 4 people lined up who'd been there for about an hour already! So we settled in on the bench for a long wait.
Before we'd been there long, I tweeted, "Hey @billprady, some of us are already in line for tonight's episode! #100" Almost immediately he replied "tweet a picture!" So I took a pic of the others to send to him, and Emily took a pic of the back of my 100th episode shirt that Michele (dark_spidey) designed that I also sent.
Pretty soon after that other people started showing up too (tbbtlenny and her brother were right behind us in line!). Around noon I left to pick up lunch for Emily and me, and by the time I got back Michele and her mom had arrived. We killed some time playing HP Uno, and finally the Audience Unlimited people got there and divided us into standby and guaranteed.
Michele and I had guaranteed tickets, and Emily and Michele's mom had standby. But after they checked us in, Michele and Emily switched places. So Emily and I went into the studios first, leaving Michele and her mom at the front of the standby line. When we got to the soundstage, we found awesome Rubix cubes on our seats, thanks to Bill Prady!
We weren't allowed to save seats, but thanks to luck and a little rearranging, Emily and I ended up sitting on the same row, just across the aisle from Michele and her mom. And our seats were right in front of the guy's apartment, with a pretty good view of the Cheesecake Factory. Before starting, instead of showing an unaired episode, they showed the Pilot, which ended up fitting really well for the occasion.
I won't go into details about the episode itself... I'll say it wasn't at all what I thought it'd be (or was even hoping for), but I just about loved it.
There were a handful of bloopers, most notably Johnny and Kaley kept flubbing in a couple of scenes. Nothing way out there, though. A couple times throughout the night, Johnny would come up to the woman with the clapboard as she was slating, and sort of rest his head on her shoulder. So then on the last take of the night, she gave him the clapboard, and he said "tag, take three," or whatever it was, and then patted his shoulder, motioning for her to come and lean against him. After he slated, he asked if he did it wrong, but she said no.
And it looked like the whole crew down below was wearing ties for the occasion, including the women. Some were dressed nicely, and others just had loose ties on over their regular shirts.
When the taping finished, Kunal was the only cast member who signed. He said hi when he saw me, and I told him congrats on 100 episodes. He said something like, "Thanks for the support, it means a lot." :)
Emily helped keep watch while I snuck this picture.
The picture came out blurry, but the top left square says "100 Episodes".
And that's how we roll in the shire.
(If you want to look through all my pictures from this week, they're on photobucket here)