I just back from Deal Or No Deal in Waterford. Howie is taping 10 shows Today. I stayed for the 2nd and 3rd. They wanted me to stay for more, but I wanted to beat traffic home. It was "Teachers Week". I assume it will air either the second or third week of September. Attending a taping in Connecticut is exactly the same as attending one in Hollywood. It takes forever to actually get into the studio. Lots of waiting around as the pages count people over and over and over again. Everybody was very pleasant though.
As far as changes in the show. There are NONE. The set looks exactly the same. The audience holds 140 people. In Los Angeles the studio held about 100 more. But I couldn't tell a difference. It still looked the same to me. Everything is played the same way. They appear to use only jib cameras. There wasn't one regular camera in view. Just the flying cameras on poles. No monitors in the studio to watch yourself either. Maybe the studio was the same way in Hollywood. I don't know. No applause signs either. Just some larger black woman yelling at the crowd to applaud. Howie was pretty much removed from talking to ANYBODY in the audience. I've been to a lot of TV shows where the host will come out and talk to the audience. But Howie didn't say two words to anybody in the crowd. The warm up guy was cool. Throwing up candy to the audience during commercials. He was about to conduct a spelling contest among the crowd to give away "Deal or No Deal" T-shirts. He was also going to have some people in the audience come down and dance. But I didn't stick around for any of that. I decided that I had to go.
All the sound effects and music during the show were absent. Everything sounded very dry. You could hear each briefcase unlatch. The only music was the open theme when Howie was introduced and the stinger going into breaks. All other music and sounds must be added in Post Production. During every break they blast regular music though. Today I heard U2's Beautiful Day" as well as that early 90's favorite "Pump Up The Jam." I think the goal is to keep the audience pumped up and awake.
So it was an interesting way to kill a few hours. The taping moves along fast. Pretty much real time. There were only a couple of brief stop-downs for only about 30 seconds each. So... everything moved along at a good clip. If you've never been to a TV taping before it's a decent time. But as I mentioned it is no different than anything you would see in Hollywood. When I got up from my seat to leave I accidently stepped on my sunglasses and smashed them in multiple pieces. But I guess everything evened out with the free water and Candy they gave me.
Welcome to Connecticut Howie.
As far as changes in the show. There are NONE. The set looks exactly the same. The audience holds 140 people. In Los Angeles the studio held about 100 more. But I couldn't tell a difference. It still looked the same to me. Everything is played the same way. They appear to use only jib cameras. There wasn't one regular camera in view. Just the flying cameras on poles. No monitors in the studio to watch yourself either. Maybe the studio was the same way in Hollywood. I don't know. No applause signs either. Just some larger black woman yelling at the crowd to applaud. Howie was pretty much removed from talking to ANYBODY in the audience. I've been to a lot of TV shows where the host will come out and talk to the audience. But Howie didn't say two words to anybody in the crowd. The warm up guy was cool. Throwing up candy to the audience during commercials. He was about to conduct a spelling contest among the crowd to give away "Deal or No Deal" T-shirts. He was also going to have some people in the audience come down and dance. But I didn't stick around for any of that. I decided that I had to go.
All the sound effects and music during the show were absent. Everything sounded very dry. You could hear each briefcase unlatch. The only music was the open theme when Howie was introduced and the stinger going into breaks. All other music and sounds must be added in Post Production. During every break they blast regular music though. Today I heard U2's Beautiful Day" as well as that early 90's favorite "Pump Up The Jam." I think the goal is to keep the audience pumped up and awake.
So it was an interesting way to kill a few hours. The taping moves along fast. Pretty much real time. There were only a couple of brief stop-downs for only about 30 seconds each. So... everything moved along at a good clip. If you've never been to a TV taping before it's a decent time. But as I mentioned it is no different than anything you would see in Hollywood. When I got up from my seat to leave I accidently stepped on my sunglasses and smashed them in multiple pieces. But I guess everything evened out with the free water and Candy they gave me.
Welcome to Connecticut Howie.
