Christina’s “Joey” taping experience (contains spoilers)

Episode 1.20 - Joey and the Neighbor
Taping date: Febuary 18th, 2004
Airdate - March 24th, 2005

We got to WB Studios about 1:30pm. We checked in, we were numbers 28 and 29, and they checked our IDs, then were shuttled over to the main lot. Once we got there, we had to wait in line for about a half hour, inside the parking structure, because it was pouring rain today here in LA lol. We talked with some guys from out of town, one was from New York, and one was from Texa. Finally we got moved through security. Luckily, since we were numbers 28 and 29, so we didn't have to wait in the parking garage for too long. We were the second group to go through. We got our hands stamped with the little WB logo, but the rain blurred them all, lol. We had to go through metal detectors, then we had to walk to the stage from the security checkpoint. The woman taking us there let us stop for a bathroom break in this little area near stages 16 and 18, I think (and random fact: stage 18 is used for Gilmore Girls, it's Lorelai's house/the Dragonfly Inn). However, it started POURING beyond BELIEF at this time! Thunder and lightning and all. But we were all under the little roof. So when it finally slowed down, she was like "is everyone out of the bathroom? Let's go, quick!" lol. And the lot was like FLODDED, it was raining so hard, it was crazy. And so many people didn’t have umbrellas, because apparently, they didn’t think it rains in LA, lol. So we started walking through the puddles of rain towards the stage.

Then they took us to a stage that wasn't being used for anything, right across from "The Friends Stage” to line up, since it was raining. Once inside there, we had to get in a single file line, and we met our page. She said that she normally works Will and Grace, but does Joey (and did Friends) from time to time. She asked if anyone had a cell phone, and no one said they did. She seemed surprised. Someone said that they told us at check in that there were no cell phones, and she said "Wow, so you all followed directions!" Then everyone started clapping, but one woman pulled out a phone, so everyone awwwed at her, lol. Then she asked if anyone had a pacemaker. No one said they did. So she said, "So when we go through the detector to see if anyone has cameras, no one is going to pass out?" lol. Then they took us, ten at a time, to Stage 24, When we got in they had the set "Joey's agent's office" folded up and piled by the door. On the label it had Friends crossed out, then Joey's agent's office written over it. Joey's agent, Bobbie, wasn't in this episode.

As we walked in and up the stairs, we could see the set! It was almost surreal, like, "Hey! I saw that on TV!" It was so awesome, though.

We were in the second to last row, but in the middle, so we were right in front of Joey and Michael's apartment. So we got in there about 2:45pm. The taping didn't start until 4:00pm. So they kept bringing people in and filling the seats and everyone was just talking. About 3:30pm they brought us pizza and bottled water. Then the warm up guy, I *think* his name is Jim Bently, came in. He came in and talked to us for a while, they continued to play music, then a little before 4pm they showed us an episode of Joey, and it was actually the one that aired the previous night, "Joey and the Wrong Name."

After that they brought the cast out. Everyone stood up, so we couldn't really see the intro well. First Paulo Constanzo came out, in a blue robe. Then Andrea Anders came out, followed by Drea de Matteo, then finally, Matt LeBlanc. I was like 3 feet from Matt LeBlanc at one point, at the end of the night. Drea de Matteo is extremely pretty, IRL. I mean, they all were good looking in person, but she just struck me when I saw her in person, that she's prettier than on TV.


So the episode was 1.20, "Joey and the Neighbor." To quickly summerize it, Joey starts dating his neighbor, Sarah, and he likes her because she's different. They ran through all the scenes with Sarah only once, for our benefit, because the actress who was going to play her wasn’t there. All the other scenes they did like 4-5 times with different camera angles, changing the lines a bit, etc. Also, Alex's husband comes home, first time in two months, and he is getting on her nerves because she's so used to being alone. this was the episode that ended when Alex comes in saying that she and her husband have decided to seperate. That last scene was so adorable, when Joey goes over to hug Alex. They did it like 4 times, and it got better each time. Joey got more concerned by the last take, and Alex was crying during their hug in the last take. And ever since watching them film this, I’ve been completely for a Joey/Alex pairing. I don’t know what it was about seeing it done IRL, but their chemistry was so apparent.

It was funny because one guy in the audience had told the warmup guy that he thought Alex's marriage would fall apart (this was after the first scene where Alex's husband comes home and doesn't seem too happy to see her) and she would be with Joey by season 3. So at the end of the night he got a t-shirt for "calling" it. We got a free pencil, lol.

They had little audio/sound clips they would play over the speakers to entertain us. When Jim would say something, they'd play a clip that would play off what he had said, or would play off of what someone in the audience was doing. It was amazing how fast they were ready with sound clips. One was the AOL voice, and it said, "You've got Porn." That's really the only one I remember now, but they had tons of random clips, from tv shows, commercials, songs, whatever, that they intertwined with jokes people were making to make us laugh. The guys up behind the curtain on the catwalk sent down their microphones to wave at use once, too, lol.

Some bloopers and general observations:

There's the one scene where Alex and her husband were talking in the courtyard between Alex and Joey’s apartments, and Joey is watching them from the window when Gina comes in, and they both end up watching from the window. One time when they went to the window to look out at Alex and her husband, they started making out lol. We could tell they were going to do something odd, because when they went to approach the window that time, Matt had his arm around Drea and they were moving really quickly. Someone in the audience said, "That is so wrong!"

During the breakfast scene, they spent a long time making changes then everyone messed up. Andrea/Alex kept messing up her one line, she messed it up like three times in a row. Finally, she got it, and then Matt messed up right after it.

They did the scene where Michael and Joey see Sarah reading from two different camera angles, once inside the apartment, and once looking in from the window. When they did it the second way, they had to do it like 3 times because Matt and Paulo both kept standing behind the wood pannel down the middle of the window.

Matt and Drea were high fiving and/or hugging a lot.

After their last hug scene, Matt and Andrea high fived, then he hugged her and kissed her on the cheek.

The warm up guy, Jim, was kidding with some people and was setting two up to be married. Someone asked "is there a minister in the audience?!" and then Jim said "Joey could marry them!" as he married Chandler, Monica, and Phoebe.

The guy who used to write on the Magna Doodle on Friends still does it now, on Joey. He was writing on it before the episode started taping. There were also other props, like the American flag and the blue shark, as well as pictures of Joey and Chandler in London, and a picture of Joey and Chandler on the desk, that came from the Friends set.

Andrea Anders was the one who acknowledged the audience the most. She came out after a wardrobe change, and everyone started clapping, and she waved them off like "oh, please,” lol.

They took TONS of polaroid pictures of the set up of things and the actor's wardrobes for continuity, so things wouldn't change between scenes and have weird continuty if they used two takes to put the final thing together, or change when they filmed the final scenes with Sarah later.

Drea was dressed in the same thing, and very causally during the curtain call, and when she first came out. Everyone but Paulo, the only one in the tag scene, was dressed in their own clothes for the curtain call. Matt was wearing his wedding ring, and Andrea was very causal, in sweats and tennis shoes.

The best part was watching how they changed lines due to how we reacted. There was originally a Gina/Michael incest type joke, and everyone said "ewwww" and it was gone the next take lol. The redid scenes sometimes with like three different endings for the joke. Alex's husband changed what the word she missed in the crossword was three times. It was also fun to see how some jokes were so lame, then turned so funny as they edited. For example, one joke was about Alex's husband telling her the answer to the clue "Lawyer Ally blank" in the crossword puzzle was "McBeal." Her joke had been, "It's only my most favorite tv show of all time, thanks honey!" but later turned into a much funnier, "I'm a lawyer, I'm spunky, I know who Ally McBeal is!"

About 9pm we got more pizza and bottled water, as the cast rehearsed their last (eight page!!) scene.

After they did the last scene (it was long! But some of it had Sarah, so those parts they did only once) they did their curtain call. We got out of there about 10:45pm, so it lasted about 6 hours.

This episode aired on March 24th at 8pm on NBC.

Overall, very cool experience! We're thinking of doing it again next season.