Live from New York...

Earlier this week, it hit me - and I'm not sure why I didn't realized this before - I live in New York, home of live television broadcasts. I am a child of television. I love it. I have had cable my whole life, back when cable was 14 stations and channel 14 was ACTS, channel 8 was TBS and channel 9 was WGN. There was no MTV and no CNN and then I remember one day, suddenly there was channel 16 - an all sports channel (who needed that much sports?!).

Anyway, I digress. New York is the home of live television. It's home to the national nightly newscasts. It's home to Saturday Night Live. It is home to soap operas, and talk shows. I even drove by the Ed Sullivan Theatre last week and said, "I wish I could see Letterman live." Then Monday I realized, "Oh. Wait. I CAN see Letterman." I'm off every Monday. So I go online to the Web site and I sign up for tickets. This involves you putting in your name, a phone number, three choices of dates of shows and your guest's name.

I signed up for Jan. 15, the next Monday, and then the next two Mondays after. They take all the names, put them in a big hat (or something) and start drawing for tickets. If they draw your name, you get a call, which quite surprisingly I did today. A guy asked if I could still make the Monday taping. I said yes. He said, "Good call Jamie at this number today. She's an audience coordinator. She'll ask you a trivia question about the show, if you get it right, you get the tickets."

I was a little surprised I got a call at because I always had the impression tickets were hard to come by. (Those long lines outside the theatre they sometimes show during tapings don't really help dispel that impression, although now I think it's just the second taping's audience waiting for the early taping to end and theirs to begin.) But I was convince that though I had watched Letterman since, I don't know, I was 11 (I was supposed to be asleep, but I'd stuff towels under the door and turn the volume down super low and put my head up against the TV so I could hear it), I would not be able to answer any trivia questions. I'm very bad at trivia as anyone who has played Trivial Pursuit with me can attest.

But a quick search of the Internet turned up a few hints about what kind of questions they asked ("Who was Letterman's first guest on CBS?" - Bill Murray, in case you're wondering, who was also his first quest when Late Nite w/DL premiered on NBC "What is the name of the cue card holder?" "What is the bass player's name in the band?" ) So I hit the official site, brushed up on my cast and band members and executive producers and called Jamie. I had to leave a message.

About 45 minutes later I got a call back. She was very nice, actually, and she laughed a lot. I thought someone like that might be cranky because of all the people you must talk to in a day, but she was very pleasant and seemed almost like she wanted to stay on the phone all day and chat. Anyway, she asked if I and my guest were both over 18. If we'd be able to attend the early taping. Then she asked if I watched the show very often. I told her I used to watch it all the time, but now I work nights and don't get to as often as I did before.

Anyway, so my trivia question was, "He's at the beginning of every show. Who is Alan Kalter?" He's the announcer, by the way. After I answered, I added, "Well that wasn't so hard." Jamie found this funny and laughed and then said, "No. We don't try to trick you or anything."

So on Monday, we pick up our ticket's between 2-3 p.m. and the taping lasts from 4:30-5:30 p.m. The weird thing is the tickets are actually issued in your name and the name of your guest - as they appear on your picture ID. Each person has to pick up their own ticket and the tickets are non-transferable. It's like checking in for a flight or something.

Last Monday I also put in for Daily Show tickets. I'm interested to see how that ticket process goes. I think I'll try signing up for every show that tapes in New York. I'll try to work my way around to all of them eventually. That could be funny. Saturday Night Live will be tricky, though, as I am usually at work when it comes on. Oh well, there's always calling in sick. (Sure to be followed closely by the embarrassment of being seen on national television the night you were supposed to be suffering from the stomach flu.)