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"Anyone been to a TV recording before..?"

Started by alan strang, February 07, 2005, 09:46:46 PM

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benthalo

QuoteDid you ask him what he'd done with "the stuff"?

"You've given us the right royal run around!"

Was that actually Hugh's baby? Wow. I didn't know that.

med

QuoteWas that actually Hugh's baby?

yup.  he picked him up after the sketch finished and gave him a cuddle, and introduced him to the audience, which was sweet.

that sketch was longer on the night too (though don't ask me details).

Village Branson

Quote from: "Goldentony"
Quote from: "DuncanC"I was in one episode of each TMWRNJ series.

you lucky lucky bastard. possibly my favourite tv comedy series of all time is TMWRNJ.

Well I must be even luckier as I peppered the audience with my face for about half of both series. Great show to go to, if you fancy a TV show, definitely go for a live one.


Best show-Whose Line is it Anyway, the last series of which in this country I remember as being outstanding. I imagine I'd be embarrassed at the number of suggestions used in that series which were suggested by my friends and I, but as it's never repeated I'm happy enough.


Worst show-it had Gyles Brandreth in.


Most special show-the pilot to Gash, which was recorded in a church hall with apparently no recording equipment visible anywhere. Many of the audience had made a poor choice in going, and slowly started to leave halfway through. About half were left by the end.


Most recent-That Mitchell and Webb sound (which I mention in the other thread anyway, but it is worth a listen, again say I.)

alan strang

Quote from: "benthalo"Was that actually Hugh's baby? Wow. I didn't know that.

I did. The sketch in question got a few complaints to Points Of View at the time, one letter saying "I can't imagine what kind of parent would allow their baby to be used in a sketch like that!"

Anne Robinson then added a (faintly smug) "Well in that case I'll tell you - it was actually a parent called Hugh Laurie!"

morgs

Most I have been to have been... alright.  The worst is so awful I have almost erased it from my mind.

It was the last episode of the 10%ers - ITV sitcom I think.  From Grant or Naylor or both.  It had a tarantula in it.  It was so unfunny that I wept.

Jemble Fred

Med – I hate you I hate you times a million.

I've always believed that the very finest half hour ever recorded, from a live studio audience POV, must have been Private Plane. No other sitcom episode, from us or the US, has such an electric studio atmosphere.

And as for the rest of your list... well, nothing posted on CaB has ever made me feel so jealous.

Oh well.

Barney Sloane

Been to see the following:


The Thin Blue Line : ISM ISM ISM

Not a bad night all told, Ben Elton came on and did a sort of pre-warm-up telling everybody to laugh as loud and heartily as possible; the warm-up comedy duo (can't remember who they were, but they kept harking on the baldness of one of them) weren't particularly funny, but I won a packet of honey-roasted peanuts by answering their question about the name of Marc Bolan's offpsring; Rowan Atkinson had to do the line "I am a Martian dissident, Habib" about forty times (didn't he stutter as a child?), but he was *incredibly* serious about his fluffs - when anyone else fluffed a line, they'd just say "Oh, shit!" or blow a raspberry (no "Merry Xmas, VT!" unfortunately), but RA would just say "Sorry, can I just, erm...?" and then do it again.  Strange bloke.  


Never Mind The Buzzcocks (with Suggs, Jo Brand, Boy George and Lisa Scott-Lee)

Bit bored with this one, to be honest, the warm-up man was Andy Robinson (not the murderer from Dirty Harry, but the wretchedly unfunny Brum comedian).  Mark Lamarr made shit joke after shit joke about Boy George's sexuality, LSL seemed out of her depth, and Jo Brand went off before the very end because she was dying for a fag.  I didn't even watch it when it went out, so eager was I to forget the experience.


The Fast Show (various series 3 sketches)

Went to this one on my birthday, and enjoyed myself for the most part (although the audience's cracking up for about five minutes after hearing Simon Day say 'cunt' (as the punchline to one of his Billy Bleach sketches) tested my patience).  The warm-up man was Andy Robinson again, with nary a new joke to be heard - he even picked on the people from the same areas of the audience as last time, and made the same unfunny remarks about them.  Lazy twat.


The Jack Docherty Show

I enjoyed this - the first sight that greeted me in the theatre (the Whitehall) was producer Morwenna Banks, who was milling around with a walkie-talkie, and a very welcome sight it was too.  It was also Jack Docherty's birthday, so the audience had to jump up from their seats and shout "Surprise" (to be cut in just after a shot of the empty theatre) and Pete Baikie lip-synched some Marilyn Monroe copyist singing "Happy Birthday To You".  The guests were JT Walsh (RIP), Intastella, and Rowland Rivron, who came on pissed as a newt and ended up accidentally smashing his lager glass, spilling glass shards and lager all over JD's desk.  (To think that he was in The Groovy Fellers, I dunno.)


Also went to radio recordings of Shelley (with Stephen Tompkinson, Gina McKee and Michael Fenton-Stevens) and the News Quiz (which I nearly walked out of when Jeremy Hardy, when talking about Mandelson, told the hilariously original story about the people of Hartlepool hanging a monkey which they thought was a French spy.  My sides, my sides.)

Bean Is A Carrot

Quote from: "Barney Sloane"the warm-up comedy duo (can't remember who they were, but they kept harking on the baldness of one of them) weren't particularly funny, but I won a packet of honey-roasted peanuts by answering their question about the name of Marc Bolan's offpsring

It wasn't Parsons and Naylor, was it? They used to do a lot of material about Andy Parsons being a slaphead around that time.

Jon_Norton

Hmm. I'm sure SF wore the police top/silver trousers combo for the "Privatised Police Force" sketch, that was in the very first F&L pilot show for the BBC, that was never repeated?

The sketch involved Hugh Laurie as someone who'd "been living abraod for a number of years" and came into a police station to report a crime. SF is a very charming desk sergeant who nevertheless fails to do anything much apart from ask him if he's a "shareholder". At some point he gets up and we see the silver trousers - he also introduces himself as "Oliver". The sketch ends with him having to handcuff Hugh to prevent him leaving the station "because we have an agreement with British Roads, and you're not one of their shareholders either".

Then it cuts to F&L as 2 TV pundits discussing the previous sketch... and then cuts to 2 pundits discussing that sketch (" I think that sketch had... 19 different levels...") ... then finally to 2 other pundits on a show called "Oh No Not Another One".... and the sequence abruptly ends.

Doctor Stamen

I went to see Reeves & Mortimer's ill-fated (i.e. rubbish) prime-time Saturday-night vehicle 'Families at War' about 6 years ago.  The only thing of interest that I can remember was that Ross Noble was the warm-up man and he was reasonably funny.

Emergency Lalla Ward Ten

Any survivors from 'People and Other Strange Creatures' on here?

benthalo

I made an audience recording which I've never dared to revisit. I always felt that it would be incomplete if Sue Perkins wasn't visiting my flat at the time, in order to laugh slightly too hard at everything Emma Kennedy says.

Emergency Lalla Ward Ten

And the terminally-long rip-off of Neil Innes' Godfrey Daniel.

Terrible title too.

What was the date of it? It seems like about 400 years ago.

benthalo

2 April 2002. A 62mins recording apparently.

Darrell

A bump for this because it's fascinating (and jealousy-inducing) reading.

Charles Charlie Charles

Red Dwarf, 1987, BBC Manchester. Can't remember who the warm-up was but he smiled a lot and I vaguely recall him doing Country and Western songs.

I've been to a few but the best was the Reeves and Mortimer recording including the 'Masterchef' sketch.  Me and my girlfriend are still convinced we can hear ourselves laughing on the VHS- but that's probably a fairly common fallacy.  Oh, and the first Father Ted recording when, tinged with a pang of jealousy, I realised they'd hit on something special.

Mr Merlin

I've been lucky enough to go to a few recordings.

Paris: This was the first recording I went to and it didn't leave much of an impression on me to be honest. I couldn't even tell you what episode it was.

Father Ted, Think Fast Father Ted: In a way, sadly, this was one of the worst recordings I went to because there were three sets in the studio (the Dancing Priest's house, the Parochial House bedroom and the living room) and from where I was sitting (right in front of the Dancing Priest's house) my view of the Parochial House living room –the most used set in the episode- was completely blocked and the studio monitors were turned off when recording wasn't in progress which meant that for most of the recording I was just sitting there looking at two empty sets while the right hand side of the audience who could see into the Parochial House set kept laughing at whatever was going on there between takes.
Best bit, during the scene in the bedroom Dermot Morgan started grinning at Ardal O'Hanlon and then leapt on him and wrestled him down onto the bed. In fact watching this recording completely changed my view of the series. In a way I'd really only watched the first series for Father Dougal but seeing Dermot Morgan at the recording really made me appreciate both the character of Ted and what Dermot Morgan bought to the role.
Worst bit: the warm-up man asking the audience," are there any students here?" which seemed a bit desperate. Also, this was the same night the IRA set off the Docklands bomb (10 Feb 1996 according to Google).

TMWRNJ, series two shows four and ten: In the TMWRNJ diaries that Richard Herring did he mentioned that the audience for show four was a bit quiet, this was partly because before recording started he asked us not to applaud too much because they had a lot of material to get through. Also, where I was sitting at the back the speakers were very quiet so it was often difficult to hear the lines. At the end of the show they quickly recorded a cutaway shot for later in the series when the Curious Alien fought the Curious Orange; they asked everyone to look up and scream.
For show ten I remember Richard Herring coming on looking really nervous and explaining that he was worried about having to do a complicated dance routine –My Name is Lola- it took some of the glamour away from the idea of working in TV to see him looking pretty sick with fear. This was the show where the person playing Nostradamus' horse came out of their costume as they were leaving the set. For something so noticeable in the studio it was surprising to watch the show and find you could barely see it.

Black Books, series three Moo-Ma And Moo-Pa and Party. Moo-Ma and Moo-Pa was noticeable for the fanboyish twinge I got when I realized Manny's parents were played by Annette Crosbie and Sam Kelly. At one point Annette Crosbie fluffed and let out a spectacular –and unexpected- "OH FUCK IT" which probably, and unfairly, got the loudest round of applause of the night. This show was the only time when I've noticed a scene that didn't make it into an episode. There was a fairly lengthy pre-filmed sequence in the kitchen –something to do with all the pipes being connected up wrongly?- that was dropped. This recording seemed a bit drawn out, maybe because of the costume changes that were required around the scene in the restaurant, to be honest I don't remember much about the other show at all except it seemed to go a lot more smoothly.

The Colbert Report- when I was on holiday in New York last October I'd suggested we go to see the Daily Show being recorded but by the time we got there Stephen Colbert had his own show and this seemed a much better prospect. Despite not having tickets we got fantastic seats right at the front. The main surprise was how different the recording style was to UK shows, the whole programme was basically recorded in real time- even to the extent of counting in and out of the commercial breaks as if the show was going out live.

Al Tha Funkee Homosapien

I think that Annette Crosbie outburst is included on the Black Books series 3 DVD outakes.

Spoonsy

The best recording I can remember was for Harry Hill's TV Burp. Russell Howard was doing the warm-up and he was great. It was the last show of the series and they let me into the wrap party afterwards which made the experience even better. The very worst was Swiss Toni a couple of years back. The warm-up was an excruciating Australian woman who I genuinely wanted to kill. I think someone matching her description has already been mentioned as a warm-up horror on this thread. The filming took bloody hours. I left halfway through.

The Mumbler

Quote from: "Spoonsy"The very worst was Swiss Toni a couple of years back. The warm-up was an excruciating Australian woman who I genuinely wanted to kill. I think someone matching her description has already been mentioned as a warm-up horror on this thread. The filming took bloody hours. I left halfway through.

Was this Julia Morris?

ccbaxter

First I went to was a pre-premiere recording of 'Joint Account' with Hannah Gordon and Peter Egan. Am mightily sure now, that my elder self would find it utterly unfunny and excruciating, but I shame-facedly think I tried to stick up for it once it hit the primetime Sunday screens, just because I'd witnessed the eighth episode months beforehand... My misplaced loyalty lasted as long as the first half of the second series opener, at which point even I saw the folly of even one series, let alone an optimistic two, as I suspect the then-BBC 'comedy' commissioner then did too...

Must admit, I never did see the killer (driver) potential in Hannah back then, either...

Also was at BBC studios for the filming of one of Angus Deayton's New Year's Eve shows. December 12th, I think it was.
All very amusing, too, though the incessant repeats of us audience drones linking hands and singing along to Auld Lang Syne for the, er, 'money shot' did get a little tiresome after a while.

Neither of these experiences come anywhere close to comparing to the joy of childhood-remembered, touring stage-show versions of 'Crackerjack', I assure you...

Spoonsy

Yeah I think it was her. I just googled her and I recognise the face, despite my best efforts to erase her from my memory.

Neil

Quote from: "Mr Merlin"The Colbert Report- when I was on holiday in New York last October I'd suggested we go to see the Daily Show being recorded but by the time we got there Stephen Colbert had his own show and this seemed a much better prospect. Despite not having tickets we got fantastic seats right at the front. The main surprise was how different the recording style was to UK shows, the whole programme was basically recorded in real time- even to the extent of counting in and out of the commercial breaks as if the show was going out live.

Ooh you spawny get, which particular Colbert Report was this?  Yeah, it's odd how the record it in real time, especially as he fluffs at least once a night.  You'd think they'd do a retake now and then, but it doesn't seem to be something they even think about.  It's very much presented as live.

alan strang

Quote from: "Charles Charlie Charles"Red Dwarf, 1987, BBC Manchester. Can't remember who the warm-up was but he smiled a lot and I vaguely recall him doing Country and Western songs.


Tony Hawks?

hansen mork

Quote from: "Barney Sloane"Been to see the following:



The Fast Show (various series 3 sketches)

 The warm-up man was Andy Robinson again, with nary a new joke to be heard - he even picked on the people from the same areas of the audience as last time, and made the same unfunny remarks about them.  Lazy twat.


Bummer on the loose was it?

Bean Is A Carrot

Quote from: "Spoonsy"Yeah I think it was her. I just googled her and I recognise the face, despite my best efforts to erase her from my memory.

Here's a Julia Morris gag to tick off on your bingo cards next time you have to sit through her act:

"Isn't the London Underground amazing? We don't have an Underground in Australia, we have [PAUSE] clean air."

I am genuinely astounded that she gets work in Britain considering how awful she was on Australian television.

Ambient Sheep

Quote from: "sick as a pike"I've been to a few but the best was the Reeves and Mortimer recording including the 'Masterchef' sketch.  Me and my girlfriend are still convinced we can hear ourselves laughing on the VHS- but that's probably a fairly common fallacy.
Not a TV recording, but I went to the first and last nights of ZTT's "The Value of Entertainment" show back in 1986.

On the ZTT compilation album that contains snippets of the shows (sorry, can't remember the title now), there is absolutely no doubt - I can be heard laughing way too loudly, if genuinely, at one of Paul Morley's or Chris Langham's (again, I forget) crap jokes.

I can be so absolutely sure, because I recorded it at the time (naughty!) and obviously my laugh is a lot louder on my own recording, and it does match up.

Definitely one for the "piss-poor claims to fame" thread, that.

Zuffic

Not a comedy show, but me and a load of mates went to the first ever GamesMaster being recorded. Dominic Diamond did his really weak intro about a THOUSAND times before getting it right, and the first contestant fucked his attempt up so they reshot the sequence until he was victorious - making his arrogant shouts of "I'm the master" hilariously ironic.

We were so bored by this point that we all buggered off to the pub instead. I seem to remember watching it and thinking that the hole in the audience that we'd left was really obvious during some bits.

Mr Merlin

Quote from: "Neil"Ooh you spawny get, which particular Colbert Report was this?  Yeah, it's odd how the record it in real time, especially as he fluffs at least once a night.  You'd think they'd do a retake now and then, but it doesn't seem to be something they even think about.  It's very much presented as live.

It was one of the early ones -second week of the show I think- Neil deGrasse Tyson was the guest. They did stop for a couple of fluffs. One right at the start of the show when Stephen Colbert took a swig of water and put the bottle on the floor just before he did the opening monologue. He got a couple of sentences in and then started laughing because he'd kicked the bottle over and the water was running into his shoe.

Then towards the end of the show he did a list of Jay-Z songs and stumbled somewhere in the middle. They didn't get him to do the whole list again, instead they asked him to start the list just before the fluff and turn towards another camera, then they edited the two shots together. It's been a while since I've watched that programme but I think you can see the edit although it's covered pretty well.

If anyone does find themselves in New York I'd recommend they go and see The Daily Show or Colbert Report being recorded. There's details of how to get tickets on Comedy Centrals website and both studios are easy to get to. We just turned up and waited. It's also a good way of meeting people, as my friend and I were queueing I made some comment about how it would be interesting to compare the recording to something like Black Books. The guy in front of me turned round and said,"oh I love Black Books," and we ended up having a long conversation about what programmes were worth downloading off UKNova.