In article ,
"Polly Esther" wrote:

Oh poopy, Marcella. I was up early and could have watched and didn't. I
wish I'd seen your big event. Lots of makeup, stand here and don't move?
That must have been a challenge.

It was. I don't do "still" so well, but I did then and look dorky :-)


Please do tell us about your tv SQ
experience. Did you have to do many (any) re-do's ? What did you think of
Alex? Did you want to faint? scratch your nose? Kick anybody? Was the
staff helpful or bored? Did you have a script or notes? Details, we want
to hear all about it. Polly

Here's a quick version. One day I really will get this and the pictures
up on my web page :-) HA!

My friend, Anita Grossman Solomon was scheduled to film an episode. She
lives in NY and I'm here in CA and our actual in person visits are few
and far between. I had harassed her that after filming she had to hop
up here and visit for a day or two - which was really impossible because
after filming she was off the next day to teach in Arizona. She said,
Hey the hotel is paid for so come on down and watch rehearsal and
filming and stay with me. So I did.

When I arrived at the hotel and was walking down the hallway she stuck
her head out the door and said something like I hope you brought
something good to wear because you're filming tomorrow at 11.

Turns out she was chatting with a producer about rehearsal and such the
next day and she asked why that person had called and not the producer
she'd been working with. There had been a cancellation with one of the
guests and her producer was scrambling to find a replacement and write a
script for the new show which was being filmed the next day. Anita
said, oh well my friend in coming and if you need anyone to pitch in and
help out or anything she'd do it. Then she said those fateful words,
like if you have an Ask Alex or something, she'd film it. Turns out
that busy producer was supposed to film an Ask Alex question she'd
submitted but with the schedule change didn't have time. They didn't
like to do reader letters but needed a body and there was mine,
conveniently being unused for anything else.

They really were extremely nice to me. Wardrobe told me which shirt of
the three I took to wear and pressed it for me (they don't do that for
other guests, you are own your own) then make up did mine (which they
also don't do normally) A producer came in and told me what my question
was and we practiced a couple of times and that was that.

They stuck me under the bright lights, Alex told me what she was going
to say and off we went. We did have to do a couple re-takes for a plane
that flew overhead (too noisy) and then I had a brain freeze.

They actually edit on the fly and inserted titles and such as they go.
They said they do very little editing after filming day - schedule and
budget were too tight. That season they had filmed 39 episodes in 2
weeks - four shows a day except for the first day when they did three.

My friend rehearsed that afternoon with her producer and was the first
to film the following day - that's why she got the two day treatment.
Otherwise most people show up in the morning, rehearse while others are
filming and then film their episode. Crazy.

Alex was quite amazing. They'd roll out the first segment table.
Cameramen, producer, director and such gathered around. In about 5
minutes the guest would say this is what I'm going to show and these are
the steps. Then they'd film and Alex would insert questions based on
what she'd heard the guest say in the run through. So if the guest had
said you must pin here or it won't work but forgot during filming Alex
would ask "so, how important is pinning" to remind the guest. It was
really quite something.

I would have loved to watch both weeks get filmed it was quite amazing
to watch.

Also, I confess to be the only fake Ask Alex person. I talked to all
the others who were there the two days I was and all of them had
submitted a question through Alex's web site and were asking their own
real question.

marcella