My husband and I recently moved from Seattle to LA for a new job opportunity. Having been surrounded by the tech culture for many years in Seattle, we were excited to explore LA and take advantage of all that the entertainment capital of the world had to offer. My thoughtful husband got us tickets to attend a live taping of The Big Bang Theory (TBBT) as a small celebration after we were done with our move. TBBT was and continues to be my favorite sitcom; we actually ended up living in Pasadena partly because of TBBT! What better way to start exploring LA than to go to a live taping experience like this? Here’s a recap of our day.

The Arrival

The e-tickets that my husband booked explicitly stated that simply having the e-ticket didn’t guarantee entrance. There was still a first-come-first-serve check-in process as space allowed the day of. The recommendation on the ticket was for us to check in at least 1.5 hours prior to the scheduled show time with an unsettling suggestion that “some people may choose to arrive earlier”.

Since this was my first time, this begged the question — how much earlier did we need to arrive to ensure that we could get a spot? Are we talking 2 hours prior to the show or did we need to camp out the night before? Unfortunately, we didn’t know where to find the answer to this question, so we went with 2.5 hours. Our showtime was at 6:30pm on a Thursday, and we got there at 4:10pm. When we arrived, we immediately had second thoughts about that decision.

This was what we saw when we arrived.

Sweat rolled down the sides of our faces as we walked passed the crowds of people, wondering if we were too late. They sat us down in the order of our arrival time, and we didn’t start feeling better until more people showed up after us. By our estimate, we were part of the last third of the entire audience. We were assigned audience numbers 93 and 94, which also meant that we were the 93rd and 94th people to fill the audience seating area on set. We would estimate that there were probably 150 total spots. So there you have it: 2.5hrs, nearly 100th in line.

By the time we got to the set, the seating area was mostly filled up, with seats only toward the left end that remained available. Luckily, the seats we ended up with had good line of sight into Leonard and Penny’s apartment, the elevator/hallway, as well as Sheldon and Amy’s apartment. However, since the sets were built side-by-side in a horizontal line, Howard and Bernadette’s kitchen was too far to the right for us to see. What helped was that there were TV screens everywhere in the seating area that showed what the camera was recording live, so even though we couldn’t see every set, we could still watch the actors act out the scenes on those screens.

The Show

I wish I had even a single picture to share for this main part of the experience. However, since what we were about to see contained content that was 2–3 episodes ahead of what had been aired on TV, the studio enforced a very strict no cellphone/any recording devices rule. They made us go through 2 metal detectors and performed 2 purse searches, so you know they weren’t kidding around.

According to the studio, they did these live tapings in order to record the audience’s laughter for the laugh track of each episode. I’m not sure I totally buy that, but it did appear as though everything was arranged to elicit the best audience response/laughter throughout the entire show. Here are some of my main takeaways from the show:

The MC was both entertaining and annoying at the same time — A guy named Mark hosted the entire show to boost our energy levels in between takes while the crew was setting up the next scene. He did everything from telling jokes to performing magic tricks to engage with the audience. He also tried to encourage participation with prizes (candies, autographed pictures etc.). I personally found him annoying as he solicited audience participation for his activities, but also had to admit that several of his jokes were quite spot-on hilarious.

A guy named Mark hosted the entire show to boost our energy levels in between takes while the crew was setting up the next scene. He did everything from telling jokes to performing magic tricks to engage with the audience. He also tried to encourage participation with prizes (candies, autographed pictures etc.). I personally found him annoying as he solicited audience participation for his activities, but also had to admit that several of his jokes were quite spot-on hilarious. Viewing of an un-aired episode — In order to give us context for the scenes they were about to shoot, we got to see the most recently completed (but un-aired) episode of TBBT (aka the episode right before the one they were taping for the show). We watched the episode where Bernadette gave birth to her second child (which just aired recently on March 1st). Being one of the first to watch this exclusive footage with other TBBT enthusiasts made the episode so much more memorable for us.

— In order to give us context for the scenes they were about to shoot, we got to see the most recently completed (but un-aired) episode of TBBT (aka the episode right before the one they were taping for the show). We watched the episode where Bernadette gave birth to her second child (which just aired recently on March 1st). Being one of the first to watch this exclusive footage with other TBBT enthusiasts made the episode so much more memorable for us. Kaley Cuoco’s dad — Apparently, Kaley Cuoco’s dad has been to every live taping of TBBT to support Kaley. How adorable is that! He stood in the seating area and watched the show with us so we got to see him! He seemed like a quiet man who mostly kept to himself, but you could tell that the love was there. 😊

— Apparently, Kaley Cuoco’s dad has been to every live taping of TBBT to support Kaley. How adorable is that! He stood in the seating area and watched the show with us so we got to see him! He seemed like a quiet man who mostly kept to himself, but you could tell that the love was there. 😊 Acting mistakes — My favorite moments were when the actors messed up their lines or couldn’t remember what came next. It made the experience of a live taping that much more real. The actors were portraying the characters so well that sometimes we needed to be reminded that we were watching a performance and that those characters were fictional. When the actors made mistakes, it pulled us out of the engrossing story lines and pleasantly reminded us that these were actors doing a live performance. It would then occur to me how impressive the actors were to be able to quickly jump into character and memorize all of those lines to begin with! Plus, we get to see a little bit of the actor’s real personality come out when they make mistakes. I’m totally biased because I LOVE Sheldon and therefore, also love Jim Parsons. But he seemed like a genuine sweetheart who would say the nicest things despite how frustrating it must have been for him to recite the difficult lines that Sheldon frequently has. In one instance, when he messed up the same lines twice, he turned to the audience and said “That’s okay sweetie, we’ll get it one way or another.” Such a angel!

— My favorite moments were when the actors messed up their lines or couldn’t remember what came next. It made the experience of a live taping that much more real. The actors were portraying the characters so well that sometimes we needed to be reminded that we were watching a performance and that those characters were fictional. When the actors made mistakes, it pulled us out of the engrossing story lines and pleasantly reminded us that these were actors doing a live performance. It would then occur to me how impressive the actors were to be able to quickly jump into character and memorize all of those lines to begin with! Plus, we get to see a little bit of the actor’s real personality come out when they make mistakes. I’m totally biased because I LOVE Sheldon and therefore, also love Jim Parsons. But he seemed like a genuine sweetheart who would say the nicest things despite how frustrating it must have been for him to recite the difficult lines that Sheldon frequently has. In one instance, when he messed up the same lines twice, he turned to the audience and said “That’s okay sweetie, we’ll get it one way or another.” Such a angel! Retakes and rewriting lines — This was also what made the experience so magical. They frequently re-shot the same scenes over and over again with slight tweaks to the lines so that they could get the best jokes / effect. There was one scene where they re-shot it 3 times while experimenting with a different punchline for Sheldon on each take. The 3rd take was my favorite version of the scene and I’m eagerly waiting for the episode to air to see if that’s the one they ended up going with.

— This was also what made the experience so magical. They frequently re-shot the same scenes over and over again with slight tweaks to the lines so that they could get the best jokes / effect. There was one scene where they re-shot it 3 times while experimenting with a different punchline for Sheldon on each take. The 3rd take was my favorite version of the scene and I’m eagerly waiting for the episode to air to see if that’s the one they ended up going with. Pizza! — Surprisingly, everyone in the audience was given a free slice of pizza. I guess it made sense given that the show went from 6:30pm to 9:30pm and they wanted to keep our energy levels high. But don’t get too excited, they gave us 1 slice of lukewarm cheese pizza and a small bottled water that we had to eat within 10 minutes. Still though, can’t complain about free food!

Surprisingly, everyone in the audience was given a free slice of pizza. I guess it made sense given that the show went from 6:30pm to 9:30pm and they wanted to keep our energy levels high. But don’t get too excited, they gave us 1 slice of lukewarm cheese pizza and a small bottled water that we had to eat within 10 minutes. Still though, can’t complain about free food! Kaley and Johnny interact with the audience! — In the middle of the show, Kaley and Johnny climbed the rails to prop themselves up in front of the audience just to say hi and to thank everyone. The entire audience, including myself, went nuts with excitement. I was screaming and waving belligerently like an idiot, and I’d like to think that Kaley waved back at me. 😉

Conclusion

Needless to say, we had a great time and it was an amazing experience that we would have never been able to have anywhere else. We were initially worried that watching this performance would take the magic away the next time we watched the show on TV, but we didn’t feel that way at all. If anything, we felt and continue to feel more love and connection towards the show. There’s nothing quite like watching the production of your favorite TV show live. Watching the actors, who we’ve all gotten to known over the years, perform the show raw and uncensored was magical and breathtaking. I couldn’t stop staring in disbelief as the actors created an upcoming episode right before my eyes; an episode that will undoubtedly be replayed over and over for years to come. It felt like we were all witnessing a piece of the show’s history. To us, this experience was a fun transition into LA life with the added bonus of a memory that will never be forgotten.