Midday, Sarah and I decided that we would return the VCR to Blockbuster then go to the Italian restaurant across the street from the EconoLodge. After lunch, Sarah wanted me to drive her up Vine to the T-shirt shop she'd seen on Friday so that she could buy souvenirs for her folks. As we're driving to Blockbuster, Sarah and I started talking about the tapings we'd seen. She agreed with my overall feelings that each fourth seater brought a totally different feel to the show. Greg's taping was fairly intellectual. Chip's was just plain fun. Sarah wondered what feel Brad's taping would have. My guess was raunchy. During lunch, I said that I was glad that I had asked Drew my question about Greg. And that I was happy that Keith Richmond had been dragged into the discussion. I just hoped that Keith would say something to Dan Patterson about it. Although I was disappointed that no one in the audience chimed in when I asked the question. With just me asking it, Keith could dismiss the question as one by an overzealous fan. So I had hoped that some of the audience would agree with me. Sarah surprised me. She was like, "You didn't know?" "Know what?" Apparently Dan was by the doorway and heard the whole discussion — my questions, my comments, Drew, Keith. What's more, an entire section of the audience over by her did chime in and murmur agreements, etc. Dan heard it all and was not pleased according to Sarah. I was quite pleased that Dan wasn't pleased. Maybe he'll learn something from it. After lunch, we drove up Vine looking for the T-shirt store. We couldn't find it on Vine, and she convinced me to turn onto Hollywood Boulevard to look for it. I wasn't thrilled about getting that close to the mountains again. But we eventually found it. She ran in and bought a shirt and a cap while I circled the block about six times. Afterwards, I hightailed it as far away from the mountains as I could back to the hotel where I packed some and rested about an hour.

Sarah wanted to get to Raleigh Studios earlier than we did Saturday because she didn't like our position in line Saturday. We got there so early that the Audiences Unlimited people weren't even out. The massive guard hulks at the door are even less friendly without the AU people around, let me tell you. Laura and Christina showed up after a while. Apparently, they were a bit worried about traffic and had left earlier than on Saturday as well. Eventually, the AU people came out and we got sorted into two groups. Michelle, Dawn, Laura, and Christina were in the first group. And Sarah, Iris, Elyse, and me were in the second. While we were waiting, we started talking about Saturday's Sound Effects game. Elyse and Iris confirmed something that I've suspected ever since seeing Sound Effects played in Las Vegas. One of the reasons the audience volunteers have difficulties making the sounds on cue is that they can't always see what the performers are doing. If you remember when Colin acted to Ryan's noises, he always tried to angle his body so that Ryan could see his movements. With two performers on stage, that's much harder to do. Elyse said that one point Ryan mimed shooting a gun, but she didn't see him do it. She didn't know he had shot a gun until after he commented that it wasn't working properly. And by then it was too late. Finally, Michelle, Dawn, Laura, and Christina had been let into the studio, and we were about to go in when all of a sudden, the ground moved. Literally. Everyone was stunned. Earthquake! Iris said that it must have been a major one. Probably about a 5.0. (She was very close. The Monday paper said the earthquake was a 4.2, and the epicenter was at the Beverly Center where we ate lunch Friday.) They didn't let anyone else in the studio for a bit while they checked things out and waited for aftershocks. If there were any aftershocks, I never felt them. The one earthquake was enough for me. And for Sarah who announced that she was ready to leave LA right then and there. While we were waiting to be let in, the four of us discussed where we wanted to sit if we had a choice. Sarah wanted to sit where she was on Saturday. On the Drew aisle. I wanted to be where we were Saturday. Iris and Elyse didn't care. So we decided to split up three and one.

When I got in I asked the page lady if I could sit on that aisle, and she had no objections. I was across the aisle and about three or four rows down from the other four. (They were already in the studio when the earthquake hit. They said the risers moved a little.) Somehow, I'm not sure how, Sarah who had started on the Drew aisle ended up sitting in the row below the other four. They asked me if I wanted to join them and sit next to Sarah. But I really loved my seat location. I was on the aisle itself and on the third row up this time. Not the second. Which I figured would put me just above the cameras for Weird Newscasters and Greatest Hits — the two games I had trouble seeing the last time. (I was right.) So I decided not to move. All through the seating, I was afraid that I would be asked to move because there were three empty seats next to me. I figured the pages would move me so that four people could sit together. Then the pages sat two men in the farthest two chairs. Eventually, a page asked the man and me to scoot together some to cover the single empty chair. Why they didn't seat someone in that chair, I don't know. After the taping, I overheard one of the AU pages say that 162 people were turned away from the taping. I'm sure that out of 162 people there was a single someone who would have liked to sit in the chair. But I didn't mind. It meant that I wasn't crowded at all. At the very end of the seating session, I saw Elyse and Iris get up and practically leave the studio. I figured that they were moved because they were sitting on the Drew aisle. The production people probably realized that they had been the Sound Effects people and didn't want them so visibly on camera again.

Dan came out and did his usual spiel except that this time when he told us not to mention anything too topical, he used the earthquake as an example. He then went on to say that he was the only Brit in the production crew and was freaking out. All the Californians were taking the situation calmly. But Dan was running around worrying about aftershocks, damage, and what not. "How do you know there's not going to be any more earthquakes!" I could identify with Dan right then. Dan also said something that puzzled me. When he got to the part about the audience participation games, he mentioned Dubbing. This surprised me because on Friday Drew had said that Sid Caesar was playing Dubbing, remember? So I wondered why Dan was mentioning it in his audience participation games. Why would Dubbing be listed if no audience members were going to play it?

Drew came out and took questions as usual. I don't remember any of the questions and answers so there must not have been anything that I didn't already know mentioned. Off to the right, near the green screen, I saw several families with small children standing by the doorway including one boy that I thought might have been Colin's son Luke. Later on, I decided it wasn't Luke because he had that "this is all new to me" look about him. Drew mentioned that one of the men by the doorway was the president of Warner Brothers entertainment. I guess he was there for Sid Caesar's appearance. Then the taping began.

Brad was introduced first. His shirt was similar in style to the ones Ryan had been wearing at the other two tapings. A casual pullover with a zippered front. Black pants. Wayne was dressed much more sedately compared to Saturday's taping. Even still, his outfit was flashy. His shirt was a dull brick red with black splotches all over. He wore black pants too. Colin was in a dress shirt again. This one was a reddish purple. At times, the lights would highlight the red threads running through it but the shirt was definitely purple. Ryan was in a beautiful robin's egg blue dress shirt with a tie that I don't remember seeing before. Both Ryan's and Colin's dress slacks were dull deep green that looked black sometimes. No fancy shoes, unfortunately.

During Drew's opening show introduction, he announced that they were doing a special salute to American television. So most of the games had a television setting to them. Every time Drew mentioned the word "salute", the guys would give a salute. I think Brad started the gimmick. There might end up being two episodes with the salute theme because there were a lot of theme games. There will be at least one episode that is non-theme though because not every game followed the theme.

© LKK