On Tuesday, my assignment at work was field. On normal days, this would mean that I am out and about on the lot, making sure guides know where they can and cannot go on the lot, assisting them with guests, and getting them access to sound stages.
But Tuesday, I was forced to sit on just one sound stage all day. This means that I had to stay inside or outside with the door propped ALL DAY. Guides would call me when they wanted access, and I’d let them in and shadow them just a bit to make sure guests didn’t wander off or try to steal anything.
The stage that I spent my day in on Tuesday was Stage 24. Stage 24 is pretty famous for a few reasons, namely because of what’s been filmed inside it. Stage 24 is where the last two seasons of Full House filmed, where Friends filmed for seasons 2-10, and is currently one of the stages used by our new show Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (T:SCC). A pretty cool stage to bum around in. For about ten minutes. After that, I got bored and started wandering.
I discovered two things about Stage 24. First of all, the dressing rooms. The dressing rooms are leftover from when the stage was used for comedies filmed in front of live audiences, and so aren’t really used for T:SCC (a drama that doesn’t tape in front of an audience, so isn’t confined to just one sound stage).
The dressing rooms in Stage 24 are NICE. Remodeled for the cast of Friends during its final seasons, these dressing rooms are considered “deluxe.” Each one has hardwood floors (cherry-red color), and then the “waiting room” is deeply carpeted. They all also have bathrooms, complete with showers and even a few bathtubs (remember, there were six “Friends,” so six separate dressing rooms).
So… rather than sit on some dusty old golf cart all day, I reclined in the plush, over-sized furniture still in the dressing rooms. I don’t know whose dressing room I was in, but let’s say it was Matthew Perry’s. Chandler always was my favorite Friend. And later, when nature called, I decided to use one of the deluxe bathrooms. If I hadn’t actually been working, I might have just taken a bubble bath. Ah, the luxuries of bumming around in a big empty sound stage.
The second thing I discovered in Stage 24 is that is it really scary in the dark. Wanna know how I found this out? Why, by being myself, of course!
I love scary books and scary movies (not slasher scary, but mess-with-your-head scary). So of course, I’m reading a book about the CW show Supernatural. The book recaps all the episodes from season one of the show, and then has numerous interviews with cast and crew. A pretty interesting book, if you’re a fan of the show, and the more I got into the book, the more psyched out I was becoming.
With each episode recap, I’d be like “Oh yeah! That was a good episode! Good, but scary.” Kind of like Bill Cosby saying “Go get ‘em, Chicken Heart!” Scared, but good-scared.
Then at the end of the book, the author went to several cast and crew members, asking them if they believe in the supernatural. Some people scoffed, others were iffy, but a few declared personal experiences with the supernatural. In the middle of reading one such account, the lights in the stage suddenly shut off.
Not normally such a big deal, being in a dark room, but sound stages are huge! 68 feet tall, walls 18 inches thick that keep everything about 90% soundproof, and it’s cold!
So of course, reading about ghosts and stuff and having the lights just shut off on me, I freak out, dash for where I think the door is (I was right), and I run outside. In doing so, I lock myself out of the stage and have to call for someone to let me back in again before I can let any other tours in.
I was a little embarrassed at my foolishness, but I was still too scared to really care. And now? Well, now I just think it’s funny.
On the lot yesterday: Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Kathryn Morris.
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