‘How I Met Your Mother’ Farewell at Paleyfest

I had been looking forward to last night since the Paley Center announced this year’s PaleyFest lineup.

After fighting LA traffic to the Hollywood and Highland Center, I made it to the Dolby Theater for the How I Met Your Mother Farewell Panel. I cruised in like 10 minutes before the event started. I had a fantastic view- I sat center mezzanine. I was like perfectly in the middle. While, I would’ve preferred to be sitting on the orchestra level, I had a perfect viewing spot. The Dolby Theater is so small. I couldn’t believe it, because the Oscars make it look like it’s huge. However, I digress…

The chief marketing officer for the Paley Center came out and introduced Wayne Brady, yes that Wayne Brady from Let’s Make a Deal and Whose Line Is It Anyway? Wayne plays Barney (Neil Patrick Harris’s) gay black brother, James. So, he came out and said that we would watch a best of reel of the first 8 seasons, another one of season 9, and “if we were really good an upcoming preview”. Let me say that I hope/wish they would post those recaps because they were fantastic. They were so great that I’d really like to see them again.

We got to see Monday’s episode of the show and it was definitely classic How I Met Your Mother. The episode is called “Gary Blauman” and it wraps up many supporting characters’ storylines in a very HIMYM-way. It features Cobie Smulders’s husband, Taran Killam as Gary Blauman who used to be on the show a lot more before he was on SNL. But, the highlight of the episode was more interactions with Ted and the Mother and I will say no more.

After the episode, Wayne Brady introduced the panel – Carter Bays and Craig Thomas, the creators of the show; Pam Fryman, the director (there have only been 4 directors in HIMYM history and she’s directed 192 episodes out of 208; Alyson Hannigan, Lily; Cobie Smulders, Robin; Josh Radnor, Ted; and Cristin Milioti, The Mother (yes, we still don’t know her name). At the beginning of the panel, Neil Patrick Harris joined in on Skype because he’s in NYC prepping for a Broadway show and couldn’t get back for the night.

Wayne Brady kicked off the questions with the one that the whole world has been asking- “Is the Mother actually dead?” Yes, that’s actually a theory that’s been floating around a lot and more and more it’s seeming like an actual possibility. But, Carter and Craig said that they’re “wildly excited about the finale”. At this point, I’d really like an answer, but we will see…

There was also a question that Cristin Milioti was answering and she looked over toward Carter and Craig and said “if I start saying anything revealing please tackle me” and Cobie Smulders chimed in and said that she should start going there “because I’d like to see that happen”. I think the whole audience laughed at that one.

But the highlights of the night were:

• A confirmation of the final slap in the infamous Barney-Marshall slap bet
• The cast and crew’s pinch me moments and favorite recurring gags.
• Little fun facts about the final weeks of shooting- they were given mini kleenex that said “No questions asked”, which was a joke from earlier in season 9
• The final scene Cristin Milioti shot was the same exact scene she performed during her HIMYM audition. “To have that be the last thing… I could barely get through it,” she shared. “[It was nice] to have it come that full circle.”
• NPH skyping in – first of all he was drinking and second of all he ripped his shirt off during his exit only to realize he forgot to say something nice about Pam and came back on camera for another few seconds.

A good thing to know, if I ever go to Paleyfest again, is to get lower seats because you can sprint up to the stage after the panel’s over to get autographs. In a shocking twist, I did not go for the autographs because I had such a nice time that I didn’t want to ruin the experience by fighting with people.

It was such an enjoyable experience, especially on their farewell tour and all. There are only 2 more episodes including tomorrow’s before the finale and I’m enjoying every last second.

Here’s the whole thing on YouTube if you have any interest in watching it.

‘Mulaney’ Taping

Another item taken off the bucket list this week – a sitcom taping! 

Mulaney, which is apparently a working title, is going to be a new show on Fox. It was originally developed for NBC by it’s creator and star John Mulaney. He originally came on my radar sophomore year of college, because he was the comedian we had for Spring Weekend. Anyways, John Mulaney is hilarious. He wrote for SNL and his most famous character was Bill Hader’s “Stefon”. But, he’s done a ton of other work – he’s worked with Nick Kroll, he’s done spots on Conan, and his Comedy Central special is on Netflix and I definitely recommend that you all go watch it. If you don’t laugh, you have no sense of humor.

 

Lorne Michaels and John Mulaney started developing Mulaney for NBC, much like Tina Fey and 30 Rock, but NBC passed and Fox picked it up (much like a lot of other NBC talent lately – ie, Mindy Kaling, Andy Samberg, Will Forte, and a few others).

The show stars John Mulaney (playing a fictionalized version of himself) a 29 year-old aspiring comedy writer and comedian; Nasim Pedrad as Jane, John’s roommate; Seaton Smith as Motiff, another roommate and another standup comedian; Zack Pearlman, as kind of an annoying neighbor/friend (their version of Kramer); Elliott Gould as Oscar, their gay neighbor; and Martin Short as John’s boss, Lou Cannon, a game show host.

Even though it’s definitely different, the best way to describe the show is to compare it to Seinfeld. John is a standup trying to make it as a comedy writer. He starts each episode with a standup intro to kind of get in the groove of the episode. They’re in the middle of taping the first six episodes of the series. I believe what I saw was number 5 of 6.

Call time was 4pm and I got there at like 3:45 or something. The PA who checked me in asked if I was going to be available until 10/10:30 and I was slightly floored because I didn’t really expect it to go 6 hours. They brought us onto the lot at CBS in Studio City. Let me note first, we walked by the stage where they shoot Parks and Rec and I got very excited, because they have a banner for Pawnee’s Harvest Festival up advertising an appearance by Little Sebastian. I wasn’t allowed to have my phone so there aren’t any pictures unfortunately.

They load you into the stage and you can kind of get a feel, the two sets that you really see are Mulaney’s living room area and Oscar’s living area and the hallway. The first thing they did was show us the pilot episode, so you get a feel of what the show is and the characters. The warm up guy came out and this guy’s got all this stuff to give out- candy, movies, gift cards, tshirts. Essentially, the studio gives this guy all this stuff to keep the audience at a high energy throughout (especially when it gets late at night).

Not going to bore you with every little detail- but the taping did last until 10pm. But, it was so funny that it was worth it. I really hope Fox picks up the series for more episodes because it’s really funny and smart. I definitely could see myself and a lot of my friends watching this.

Bucket List: Paramount Studios Tour

So, when Cara’s parents were here a few weeks ago their friend’s son works at Paramount as a page (I think). So, he took us on a private tour of the Studios after hours.

After fighting almost an hour and a half of really annoying LA traffic, I made it to Paramount at exactly the moment we were supposed to start the tour. Honestly, I was screaming and bitching my whole way through traffic. One of my personal LA catchphrases is “Isn’t the West Coast supposed to chill me out? I’m so not laid back out here!” 

But, once I got there it was all good. I was ready to go on this tour.

The tour started near the gift store, because that’s where everyone was by the time I got there. From there we jumped in the golf cart and started on the RKO side of the lot. I could bore you with a lot of RKO info, but I’ll link you to the Wikipedia page instead. But, to sum it up-

RKO was one of the BIG studios in the Golden Age of film- think like musicals with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rodgers. RKO also produced probably two of the most well-known classic movies ever- Citizen Kane and the original King Kong. Later RKO was bought by Howard Hughes who essentially ran it into the ground. 

Continuing on from Howard Hughes, the Hollywood part of RKO (Paramount) was bought by Desilu Productions. Desilu is Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz’s production company. We ventured onto Lucy Park!

 

 

 

Brief note about the above picture. Cheers was filmed on the lot and I guess one night Woody Harrelson and Ted Danson got a little drunk on the lot one night, Ted Danson dared Woody to run around the lot, they came across the wet cement and christened it with their hand and footprints. Ted Danson just signed his name on the block, while Woody’s inscription reads, “Woody Harrelson was here (naked)”.

Lucy Park is small park built by Lucille Ball for her children back when that part of the studio was owned by Desilu Productions. Lucy apparently built this area of the studio to look like her backyard in Beverly Hills. It was so she could take photographs with her children and pretend she was at home when she was actually at work. Couple of fun facts about Lucy Park:

• In the picture above – the brick building with the awning was Desi’s office or dressing room. It’s rumored when Desi and Lucy got divorced, she cemented his door closed.
• The grassy area was used as McKinley High’s football field in Glee’s ‘Grilled Cheesus’ episode 
• The tree in the below picture was used in The Brady Bunch episode where Greg tries a cigarette. 
• Two pictures down – the bay window was Lucy’s office. I had no idea how big Desilu Productions was- Lucy apparently started on on-studio childcare center because her head writer had gotten pregnant and was going to leave the show to raise her family but Lucy started a daycare to prevent her from leaving. There’s two parts of how cool – the head writer was a woman and the creation of a daycare to cater to women working on set. Also, Desilu Productions like started syndication or “reruns” and they were responsible for a ton of classic tv shows –  obviously I Love Lucy, Star Trek, Dick Van Dyke Show, and Mission Impossible, among many others.

 

I apparently, really didn’t get a good picture but on the right side of Lucy Park is the “high school” from Happy Days. It was very cool to see how much classic television history happened in this one area.

Next we kept driving through the lot. We stopped by the Gower gate, which was used in The Godfather as the entrance to Wurlitz Pictures. Then we came upon something I was very excited about- we were near where they film Community. Unfortunately, the last two seasons of Community they have filmed all the episodes before they air on TV, so they haven’t had the stages or area set up for Community. But, as Danny (our guide) pointed out – there’s still one little hint that Community films here- 

The logo on the door still says “Greendale Community College”.

Continuing on we hit probably one of the coolest parts of the Paramount Lot- New York streets. NY at Paramount is set up as different areas – Brooklyn, Greenwich Village, Washington Square, the Financial District, the Upper East Side, the Lower East Side, SoHo. This was really cool because we got to walk around and go inside some of the buildings, because they’re all practical facades meaning that you can actually go in and film inside of them. One of the corner stores had just been used on Brooklyn Nine-Nine and so many different things have been filmed in there. He showed us a clip of Indiana Jones that had shot there. 

 

Going through the NY sets is actually kind of lie a circle-  because you go through one NY and then you actually hit “Chicago”. So, in the Chicago area is “Murder Alley”, clearly famous for a lot of murders in gangster movies. But, right near there is what a set I miss very much – Rosalita’s from Happy Endings. Danny told us that they had to reconstruct the exterior of Chicago street on the Happy Endings stage because the way the bar faces, you wouldn’t get the right background (if that makes any sense). Right now, Glee films a lot in NY and Chicago. 

 

We wrapped up the tour, shortly after. Danny brought us around to the front to show us the famous entrance to Paramount. He showed us this window that belonged to the Head Costumer – Edith Head – who actually was kind of the basis of the character Edna in The Incredibles – you know the little woman who designed all the costumes “NO CAPES!”. Yeah. 

There were parts of the tour where I kind of wish that I was with a regular tour because I felt like I couldn’t nerd out as much or take as many pictures as I did. I feel like if I came like 2-3 years ago, I probably would’ve been a nightmare to deal with because then it was like the heyday of all of my favorite shows being filmed here. But, today a lot of my favorite shows tape in other studios (that really don’t do tours). I also didn’t get to see the Forrest Gump bench, but another time. Honestly, it was probably one of the coolest experiences getting to walk around and see up close a lot of the sets and stuff.

So what did I learn on this tour?

• Paramount is the oldest remaining film studio in Hollywood. Really stressing the ‘in Hollywood’ part of that sentence.
• In one of the NY sections there are two doorways- one that’s tall and one that’s short and they are referred to as the Tom and Nicole doors for Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. Because when Tom Cruise (or someone equally short) would stand in the shorter door they look tall and more masculine while someone a bit taller would stand in the all door they would look a bit daintier or vulnerable. 
• The Ten Commandments was filmed at Paramount and the early special effects of the parting of the Red Sea was played back in reverse. So, when Moses parts the sea it was actually filmed with the water in the tanks first and then emptied into the pool. So it started parted and for the movie the film was reversed.
• A lot of the RKO side of the studio was really cool. I felt like it had a lot more crazy history than the Paramount side. 
• One last fun fact- tour guides can no longer point out working offices or people around the lot. They’ve had “runners” people who’ve gotten off the golf cart and run down these people. 

All in all I had a fantastic time and I’m so happy I got to come here. Now, I really have to hit Warner Brothers! 

Look Alive! Bucket List Gettin’ Done

I’ve got about 3-4 rapid posts coming up, because I’m a terrible blogger. These are the

1) Paramount Studios Tour with the O’Connors

2) Mulaney taping

3) How I Met Your Mother Farewell at Paleyfest

4) Out and About

As Stanley Tucci says in Easy A – “Let’s bucket list this bitch”

PaleyFest 2014

I GOT TICKETS! At least to one event…for now.

I’m literally so excited because I got tickets to the How I Met Your Mother panel at PaleyFest.

What is PaleyFest, you ask? Well, PaleyFest is “an extraordinary interactive pop culture event produced by The Paley Center for Media that connects fans with the casts and creators of their favorite series. Named for the founder of both the Paley Center and CBS, PaleyFest is two weeks of events where the audience see episodes or highlights of the featured work followed by a panel discussion and Q&A with the cast and creative team” run by the William S. Paley Foundation.

Boom. Actually, I just took that from the events site. But, still rather informative. I think every year since my freshmen year I watch as the Paley Center announces who the panels will be for that year and I die a little inside (apparently, I’m a bit dramatic this morning) but I die a little because I really want to go. Well, this year I can- the beauty of living in LA. Unfortunately for me I really had to pick which event I wanted to go to, because I really can’t afford to go to all of the ones I wanted to go to.

So, I picked probably my favorite and probably the most important – the How I Met Your Mother Farewell panel. The finale airs March 31, only two weeks after this panel. My roommates already know that I’m going to be in a state of depression following the airing.

Until, I pay rent next week I’m only going to get tickets to How I Met Your Mother but here are some of the other panels I would love to go to:

• Orange Is The New Black
• Parks and Recreation
• Mad Men
• The Mindy Project
• Community 
• Veep

In reality, if I do manage to come up with more money I’d probably pick Veep and Parks and Rec just so I could see probably the two funniest women on TV. But, we’ll see how things go and if there are still tickets left.

A Typical SoCal Weather Update

I’m currently sitting in the office, it’s 9:54 am, but it looks like the sun is just rising because there is a wildfire. Yes, you read that correctly- a wildfire. 

I’m not really 100% sure on the details but outside looks crazy right now, especially when I was driving to work. To my left (or the east) it was really kinda hazy and cloud filled, but to my right (or the west) it was all blue skies. Crazy. And I just read that they’re starting to do evacuations. But, no need to worry about me- it’s a good ways off from where I am but the winds are really carrying the smoke right now.

Hope the snow’s treating you all well back at home! 

Fordham in LA

Yeah, yeah, yeah- so I’m 90% sure that I’ve already talked about Fordham in LA, but this was actually Fordham in LA. What do I mean? Tonight was the Fordham Los Angeles reception and it happened at CBS Studios on the Entertainment Tonight set! It was a ton of fun, especially after only getting back here about 24 hours ago.

It was great to be back in routine today, except I know that I’m running on empty considering I went to bed at 12:30 PST, which was 3:30 EST because I didn’t sleep on the plane and then I woke up at 6:45am. Excuse me, I’m about to collapse.

But, tonight was awesome. I learned more Fordham trivia- like did you know that Fordham was the first college to have basketball and football games televised?! Yeah, neither did I, but I’m glad I know that now.

Also, Vin Scully – the voice of the Los Angeles Dodgers – received the Ram of the Year Award. He made such a wonderful speech about his Fordham life and his career post-Fordham. What a really incredible and really inspiring guy. He told one story that the owner of the Dodgers asked him if he had all of the World Series rings that they won. He said he didn’t have the 1955 ring, because at that time they only gave the managers and the players the rings- not the whole organization. Well, long story short – Tommy Lasorda’s wife was leaving church one day in SoCal and this guy came up to her. It was the jeweler who made the rings for the 1955 Brookyln Dodgers team and he still had the mold. And then the guy made two more rings- one for the owner of the Dodgers and one for Vin Scully. How cool is that? And as McShane said- that’s why we’re supposed to go to church.

Father McShane ended up calling out my friend Kathy who was laughing so hard about a joke he made about Ohio (she’s from Ohio if you couldn’t guess). Kathy, Shay and I ended up talking to a few newly admitted students who are thinking of going and we told them we’d happily take their spots in the incoming class.

Well, as Kathy put it- here is our “RAMily” picture:

Edit 1/16/14: Here’s Fordham’s coverage of the event