Did you see me? Did you? I made my first appearance on the "Tonight Show with Jay Leno" on Thursday, January 8, 1998. You don't remember seeing me? I guess that might be because I was only on camera for two seconds. Okay, two seconds if your VCR is on super slow motion-and you have to know exactly where to look if you want to see me. Well, if you missed me on Leno, maybe you saw me in the studio audience of Politically Incorrect on January 7. Missed me there, too? All right, I will give you one last chance. Tune in on January 26th and you will be able to hear me laughing in the studio audience for "Caroline in the City."

Am I one of those groupies who hang out at TV studios looking to meet "the stars"? Not quite. Two days earlier, I had not even contemplated attending a TV filming because I figured it was next to impossible to get tickets. I was pleasantly surprised to find out how easy it is to obtain tickets.

This article is written to help motivate those individuals who have wanted to attend a taping (after all, you are in L.A.), but thought it would be too difficult to attend or had no idea on how to get tickets. Let me issue a disclaimer at this point that I have only been to three tapings and have no prior experience in television or film. I am sure our student body contains several individuals who have significantly more insight than I am going to provide, so I encourage you to follow up on this article with any additional hints, suggestions, or corrections of errors that I made.

My taping experiences started by chance. My girlfriend returned to L.A. with me after New Year's to spend a week of sightseeing in the city. She had been to L.A. before, but our previous sightseeing adventures had consisted only of the beach and the beautiful UCLA campus. Everyone had been telling us we should go to the Mann Chinese Theatre and the Walk of Fame, so on the Wednesday before break ended, we headed to the intersection of Hollywood Blvd & Vine. We were greeted at the corner by three youths who were spread eagle against the side of a building. Two policemen were holding a ziplock bag filled with a suspicious white powder. Hollywood at its finest. But I digress.

When we reached the Mann theatre, a man offering tickets to a "television studio audience" approached us. After seeing the unique individuals around the Mann and the police arresting the guys for drugs, I wasn't sure if this guy was about to try and sell us drugs or try and sell us tickets to look through a hole in the wall. However, upon closer inspection, this guy appeared to be genuine. He was offering free tickets to the taping that evening of "Politically Incorrect" starring Bill Maher. Both my girlfriend and I had seen the show, so we decided to attend the taping. He assured us the taping would only last 30 minutes since the show is filmed "live to tape." We had four hours until the taping, so we continued our journey along Hollywood Blvd. When we returned to the car, we decided to see what other tickets we could get since we were excited about attending a taping. Not having a clue where to find tickets, we took a shot in the dark and headed to NBC studios in Burbank.

When we arrived at NBC studios, we were greeted by a small crowd of people gathering outside The Tonight Show studio. The wheels started to turn and we decided attending the Tonight Show would be the ultimate in tourist activities in LA. We wheeled around to the ticket office (which is clearly marked by signs surrounding the NBC buildings) to find out that tickets are given out at 8:00 a.m. the day of the show, and a line usually starts forming at 7:00 a.m. Next to the ticket window for The Tonight Show was an additional stack of tickets for sitcom tapings. Tickets were available for "Suddenly Susan", "Just Shoot Me", and "Caroline in the City". A brochure with phone numbers to call for tickets to other sitcom tapings was sitting next to the tickets. JACKPOT.

We grabbed tickets to all three sitcoms and the phone sheet and headed to the nearest phone.

It turns out most tickets are handled by one company whose phone number is (818) 753-3470. They handle shows such as "Friends", "Mad about You", "Suddenly Susan", "Third Rock from the Sun", "Veronica's Closet", "Home Improvement", and many more. If you call the number, they will list what dates are available for you to be in the studio audience. Most shows were available for late January except for "Home Improvement", which was sold out for the season, and "Friends", which was not available until April. The number for information on The Tonight Show is (818) 840-3537. In addition to calling for tickets or waiting in line, tickets for the less popular sitcoms and talk shows are often given out at Universal Studios, the Mann Chinese Theatre, and Venice Beach.

If you get tickets to a taping, it is best to show up early to the studio if you want a good seat. Usually, but not always, the earlier you are there, the better seat you get. Also, dress warmly. The studios tend to be a little chilly when you arrive so the studio doesn't get too hot after the lights are turned on for filming.

When attending a sitcom taping, plan to take 5 hours from the time you park you car until you return from the taping. Most sitcoms are filmed on Friday evenings, starting between 4:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. so don't make any other plans for the night if you go. If you attend a sitcom taping, be prepared to be bored, and practice your canned laughter. Most all scenes are filmed twice, even if no mistakes are made. Although it can be boring at times, I recommend attending a taping just to see what really goes on during the filming of these shows.

Once you are seated, whether at a sitcom or at a talk show, you will probably be greeted by a "warm-up specialist", This is the person who keeps the audience attentive and in a good mood. They will walk you through the rules of the show and then entertain you during the breaks. Breaks only occur in "live to tape" shows for the two-minute commercial breaks. At "Politically Incorrect", the guy told jokes. At "The Tonight Show", the warm-up specialist did not appear after the show started. Instead, the band plays during the breaks. At "Caroline in the City", the warm-up specialist went from telling jokes, to singing, to interviewing members of the audience and giving away prizes.

Finally, if you try to get tickets to "The Tonight Show" and get a standby ticket, still go to the studio. The morning we went to get tickets, we overslept and didn't arrive until 8:30 at the ticket window. The line for tickets had already disappeared, so we walked right up to the window. All of the guaranteed tickets had been given out, but we were given a standby ticket in case people did not show up. Our standby ticket was number 11 (regular tickets did not have a priority number attached, which is why you want to show up at the studio early before the start of taping to get a good seat)-therefore if people holding regular tickets did not show up, we would be 11th on the list to get in to the show. I couldn't imagine people who stood in line to get tickets not showing up, but they told us a certain number of tickets are reserved for NBC VIPs who sometimes do not show up for taping. We had to be back at the studio by 4:00 p.m. and taping would begin at 5:00 p.m., so if we weren't going to get in, we would only waste an hour.

When we arrived at 3:45, the NBC Hosts who were monitoring the line told us that USUALLY most of the standby ticket holders would get in to see the show. HOWEVER, that night they were not expecting to take many standby ticket holders because of the guests on the show (we had no idea when we decided to go to the show that the guests were Robin Williams and Tracy Ullman-the TV guide is a good way to find out the guests). When they have popular guests, most of the VIPs will attend the taping. We lucked out and were the next to last standby ticket admitted. They had issued 28 standby tickets and the lucky holder's of tickets 1 through 13 got into the show. When we entered the studio to be seated, we were quickly led to the SECOND ROW. The standby ticket holders got to fill the VIP seats at the front of the studio. Arriving late to get tickets had the same result as arriving late in class, you end up in the front row.

I encourage you to pick a show to attend before your two years in L.A. are over. And if you're like me, you can finally tell all of your friends that you have seen a few stars in L.A.

Do you have a TV show taping or studio tour experience to share?  Please e-mail your story to us and we will share it with the rest of the world!