After I had utterly stuffed myself with a wide array of delicious sushi in San Pedro, Jimmy and I headed out to our next destination of Tuesday, October 7, 2008: the CBS Studios in Hollywood. Bob had secured us V.I.P. tickets to see the afternoon taping of Dancing With the Stars. I must admit that I had never been a follower of the show and was only going because I knew that it was something that many others might consider to be a cool thing. While I do enjoy TV tapings such as these, they do not thrill me as much as other celebrity events because I know that there is little or no chance of any personal interaction with the celebrities.
We reported to CBS at 2:30, confidentally traipsing past the hordes of people who had shown up to wait in line to see if there was a chance to get in to attend the taping. When we got to the front of the line, we gave the guard our names and he called for another person to walk us to the studio. Another rather hot young lady and her Mom were escorted along with us. They were momentarily seated with us, but after I began a conversation with them, they were promptly relocated.
Feeling rather arrogant to be chosen among the many to attend this event, my ego was quickly deflated when we were combined with another large group of people, all of whom were forced to give up their cameras before entering the studio. The seats we were given weren’t too bad. We were in the last row to the extreme right of the stage. Last row provided an excellent view since the seats were elevated…and there only seven rows! I noted right away that the stage looked much smaller than it had appeared when I had glimpsed the show on TV.
The yellow arrow indicates our seats. We are just a blur.
We first witnessed two musical numbers that were pre-taped before the show began – to be inserted during the broadcast airing later that night. Kool and the Gang was the first act and they performed a rousing medley of their tunes that included Jungle Boogie, Ladies Night, and Celebration. Next were the Radio City Rockettes. They had to perform their routine twice because the audience didn’t cheer loud enough when a second group of Rockettes were revealed in the middle of the routine.
Kool warms us up with some funky tunes. His Gang follows suit.
We learned our lesson and cheered when the second group of Rockettes (in back) materialized before our very eyes so that we didn’t have to endure it for a third time.
After the pre-tapings, the crowd was encouraged to join a dance party on the floor while waiting for the show to begin. Naturally I didn’t partake, but still had a great time watching some middle-aged Asian man gyrating in dress pants that came up to his midriff.
The show didn’t begin the live taping until 5pm. Of course, we got to see the judges Len Goodman, Carrie Ann Inaba, and Bruno Tonioli – whoever they are – and the co-hosts Tom Bergeron and Samantha Harris. The show was early in the season so only three stars had been eliminated at this point: Jeffrey Ross, Ted McGinley, and Kim Kardashian. These three obviously weren’t present at the taping.
Hosts Tom Bergeron and Samantha Harris. I was waiting for some funniest home videos.
The remaining stars had done their dancing the previous night in a two-hour show. This particular show was a ‘results’ show in the one-hour format. Also, the night before, Misty May-Treanor had announced her injury that befell her during rehearsal the previous Friday and her withdrawl from the contest.
The celebrities who were present for us to gawk at were: Lance Bass, Toni Braxton, Brooke Burke, Rocco DiSpirito, Maurice Green, Cloris Leachman, Cody Linley, Susan Lucci, and Warren Sapp, who was situated closest to us whenever the announcers revealed who was safe from elimination. In the end, it turned out that no one was elimated due the the withdraw from Misty May-Treanor. But the celeb who would have been eliminated was Rocco DiSpirito – whoever that is. Turns out he was eliminated the next week anyway.
The stars and their professional dance partners await their fate. Fate nothing…they all came back the next episode.
Overall, the taping was fun if not overly exciting. But I must admit that I was really knocked over by the live performance of Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson. I had honestly never heard her before and was really impressed when she performed her new hit Spotlight during the proceedings. And of course, it was great to see Cloris Leachman as well. Of course her dancing was kind of a joke throughout the season, but she was an Oscar-winner as well – in one of my favorite films The Last Picture Show. For the record, it was Brooke Burke who eventually went on to be the victor on November 25.
Jennifer Hudson was the highlight of the show
We weren’t allowed to take this photo while on the property, so we had to take virtually the same picture from the sidewalk
My goal for the rest of the evening was to get back to the Pantages Theatre to try to catch It’s Your Move‘s David Garrison when he came out the front door after the 8pm performance of Wicked. It was 6:15 by the time we were herded out of CBS as the media poured in, retrieved our cameras, and were on our way. So we had about four hours to kill before we would head back to the Pantages area for the fourth time of the week. So I took this opportunity to have Jimmy take me to a few odds-and-ends places in Los Angeles.
First up was the famous Pink’s Cafe. I had long heard about how they have the most famous hotdogs in Hollywood…and they were actually used as a location in another of my favorite movies Mulholland Drive. The sun went down as we traveled the 30 minutes from CBS to Pink’s. I had a chili dog and a (rare) Coke. Frankly (no pun inteneded), I wasn’t all that impressed with the hot dog. It was good, but I’ve had dogs at Ashleigh’s volleyball games that impressed me more. Oh well, it was more about the Hollywood experience.
Getting ready to enter Pink’s
Under the autographed photos with wiener in hand
I didn’t fill up on hotdogs because the next stop was the Hard Rock Cafe. Bob has gotten me interested in attempting to visit all of these locations, so Jimmy and I then headed over to the Universal Studios Citywalk where the Hollywood restaurant was located. Since I had eaten the hotdog, all I had were some french fries…and an ice cream sundae. Our waiter was rather flamboyant and giggly, surely thinking that Jimmy and I were more than just friends ourselves, and then remarking that our photo was ‘cute’ after he snapped three of them with my camera (one seen at the top of the posting, another below). I rewarded him by leaving a phone number on the receipt…Bob’s of course.
Outside the Hollywood Hard Rock Cafe
Indicating the location on the floor of the foyer
Jimmy and me enjoying my second restaurant of the evening
Signed, sealed, and delivered
Next on the agenda was the Griffith Park Observatory located high in Mount Hollywood in Los Angeles. Many film scenes were shot on location here, most famously several key scenes of Rebel Without a Cause. On this basis alone, I was interested in visiting, but I little dreamed of the incredible view of the whole of Los Angeles that one could see from here. It was so astonishing that I spent a full fifteen minutes just gazing at the city lights of the L.A. Basin. The observatory had also been recently renovated and now also includes a great space exhibit museum.
At the Griffith Observatory
The bust commemorating James Dean’s role in Rebel Without a Cause, is the exact same tribute that can found in Fairmount, Indiana – as seen here
Overlooking the amazing L.A. cityscape
Making my point with Albert Einstein inside the museum
With a piece of moon rock
I thought this was cool: examples of all 117 elements of the periodic table
Incidentally, there was also a brief stop on the way from the Hard Rock to the Observatory: the stairs used in Laurel and Hardy’s The Music Box. As we were driving, I noticed that we were in the Silverlake area and asked Jimmy to make a quick stop on Vendome. More details of the visit can be seen here.
It was about 10pm when we finished up at the Observatory, so we began to make our way back to the Pantages. We found a parking spot and waited until the crowd began to file out. Armed with my It’s Your Move photo that I had just had Adam Sadowsky sign the day before, I waited out front hoping to spot David Garrison.
There’s a bit more to the story, but let’s just say that the night did not end well.
I totally followed what you were saying about Dancing with the Stars. I watched that show all season. You did a very good job reciting what was happening with everybody.
Bev
January 25th, 2009