A/N Some of the experiences here, and in the next chapter are basically a combination of my experiences at a Big Bang taping, along with comments by others who have attended and other comments from the cast and crew as to what occurs during a taping, with some minor artistic license changes. If you have gone to a taping, a quick comment in a. review or a PM letting me know how close I got would be appreciated. Oh yeah, a Tuesday publish can be a Monday night publish. Finally, since I haven't done a disclaimer yet, and this is the tenth chapter (remember the prologue), here it is. I don't own the characters, those belong to either the creators of TBBT or the original author,(Well, there are a few, Kelli and Jim for example). Hell, I don't even own the overarching plot. Have fun.
Chapter 9
Warner Brothers Studio, 9:15 AM, Friday, Feb 17th, 2012
Penny pulled up at gate number 3, she gave her name, Penelope Jensen. The guard checked his sheet and nodded, then he asked about Leonard. Penny explained he was with her, and that he would get a guest pass on set, and the guard raised the gate.
Penny drove to Stage 25, and found a parking place. They both had their bags with them. Leonard had his computer, and several pads of paper and pencils to work on his detection idea. Penny had her computer and also her wallet, script and some makeup. They got out of the car and Leonard followed Penny to a door.
Penny entered, with Leonard following and she made her way to the camera bay in front of the set. Penny was looking for Tina and found her talking to one of the cameramen. Her and Leonard walked up and waited until Tina was finished, and the camera man left, before Penny said, "Hi, Tina, can you help me?"
"Sure, what do you need?" said, Tina looking at her clipboard.
"This is my boyfriend," said Penny. "Dr. Leonard Hofstadter, and I need a guest badge for him."
"A doctor, Penny?" said Tina. "Way to go. Nice to meet you Leonard." She shook Leonard's hand.
Penny smiled and said, "Not that kind of Doctor. He has his PhD and works at Caltech."
"I'm not sure if I should be even more impressed," said Tina, looking at Leonard. "He must be one of those smart guys. Is he going to be here all day?"
"Yes," said Penny, "he'll be up in my dressing room for the morning run throughs, although I may bring him down to let him see what goes on here on and around the set. We'll eat lunch together, and then he'll be in my dressing room when we shoot. I'll bring him down after the show."
"That sounds good," said Tina. "How do you spell that."
Penny spelled his name for Tina.
Tina said, "Give me a few minutes and I'll get one for him."
"We'll be up in my dressing room," said Penny, "can you bring it up?"
"I'll get one of the interns to run it up."
"Ok, see you later," said Penny. "Come on Leonard, let's get some coffee and head up to my dressing room."
After getting to her dressing room, she turned on the TV. They both took out their computers, and signed into the stage Wifi. She took her script out, and was looking it over. Leonard found the Caltech work website, and signed in, and finding his files, started working. There was a knock on the door and an intern gave Penny Leonard's guest badge.
She gave Leonard the badge then said she was leaving and headed down to the set. Penny was sitting in her chair, going over her script, when she felt someone giving her a hug. She turned and found Jeanie smiling at her. "You ready for your first taping?"
Penny smiled back, "Yes, I am, but I'm so nervous."
"Don't worry," said Jeanie.
"I suppose I shouldn't be, but without your help, I…"
"You'll be fine," said Jeanie.
"I hope so, I was…"
"All right everyone," said Tina loudly, as she walked up. "Jim and Kelli will be here shortly. I just want to go over what we will be doing today."
"First, we'll run the show a couple of times. After a break, we'll work any scenes the director wants to work. Or possibly rework, if there are changes. Around one, we plan on breaking for lunch, then another run through and then you are free to do whatever until four thirty and we'll have a short break for dinner."
"At 5:15 we'll do a speed through and if you have concerns, we'll talk about it," said Tina. "At 5:30, the actors will start in on makeup and hair and they will start allowing the audience to enter. At 6:30, we'll start the taping. We will introduce the producers to the audience, and after that, the actors."
"Please when you're introduced, come out from behind the screen, bow, then move to your right, and when you get to the person that is already there, turn to the audience and bow again. After the producers and creators, we'll introduce you in this order, Penelope first, then Dana, then Dave, then Jeanie. After that, you will all come back behind the curtain, and we'll head into the first scene."
"We'll do the show in order," said Tina. "The scene sheet will be on the note boards behind the set and on one below the audience, in the center. We will also have one each near the top and bottom of the stairs. Of course, those scenes we shot yesterday, will be played over the monitors here, so we can record the audience's reaction. So, make sure you know where those scenes are, so if you're in a scene after, you are ready. Any questions?"
There were none and it was a few minutes before Jim and Kelly came out. Jim spoke, "I want to thank everyone for the work they've put in. I've got a good feeling about this, I had a couple of network execs here the other day and they were laughing and were very positive. So, keep doing what you have been doing. I'm looking forward to this. Break legs everyone."
Ron came up. "OK, we're going to start with the guy's scene. I hope everyone has their lines and blocking down," he said, looking directly at Penny. "We'll start in five minutes."
The voices from the television startled Leonard. The picture had been on, but there had been no sound, so Leonard had assumed there was only a video link. He didn't realize that they sound guys hadn't turned on the sound yet.
He looked up to see someone talking to two guys. He assumed the two guys were the actors, as he recognized Dave. He figured the guy telling them what to do, must have been the director, so that left the third guy as Dana. The director backed out of the scene, and he saw the two actors go through the scene. They stopped and the director came back into the scene, and spoke with them briefly. He then backed out, and the two actors ran the scene again. Leonard could see a couple of minor changes. Then he heard the director say, "Ok, let's move on."
Leonard watched the scene change and he could see Penny and Jeanie on the monitor. It struck Leonard as a bit strange to see Penny on the TV, as if she was in a show. Then he shook his head, he thought she is in a show. He would have to get used to this, but he was happy for her. He saw the director come into view and talk to both of the women. Then, they pretty much went through the same process as they did for the first men's scene.
Leonard continued to watch the rehearsal on the screen, forgetting all about his work on the computers. He thought he was missing something as there were times the whole show seemed to skip parts, or refer to something he hadn't seen. I'll have to ask Penny about it. After about an hour, he heard from somewhere off camera, "All right everyone, be back in about a half hour."
About a minute later, Penny came through the door. Leonard smiled at her and said, "That was interesting, watching you on the television. I have to say, I laughed quite a few times at you. You would say the line, and when you would add something with your expression, I couldn't stop myself from laughing."
Penny smiled at Leonard, "You were watching?"
"Yeah," he said, "I heard the voices on the TV and just started watching. Although, I have to say it's a bit strange to see you on TV, like you are in a show."
"I am in a show."
Leonard shook his head, "I know, I told myself that, but I'm not used to it."
Penny smiled and grabbed his hand, "Come on, let's go get some coffee and a roll."
Penny took him downstairs, to the craft services table, and they each grabbed a bear claw and a fresh cup of coffee. They were sitting in a couple of the audience's seats. Leonard brought up the parts he thought they skipped. Penny said, "That was our pre-tape. We shot those yesterday and they'll be played back tonight, so they can capture the audience reaction. But there's no need to redo those, as those have already been shot."
Penny suddenly said, "Do you want to sit here for the next run through?"
"I thought you said I couldn't watch it from here."
"Well, as long as you don't say anything, you'll be fine," said Penny. "You see Jeanie and that older guy sitting with her?" Leonard looked around, nodded, then Penny continued, "That's her dad, he's going to watch from here so I don't think there is a problem with you sitting here, as long as you keep quiet."
"What if I laugh?" asked Leonard.
"Oh, that will be fine," said Penny, "the crew laughs also, just don't be talking while we're running the scene."
Leonard nodded and said, "I can do that."
At that, over the address system, they heard, "Everyone come to the men's apartment. We're ready for the next run though and we have some notes."
Penny said, "Gotta go," and she headed off.
Leonard sat in the audience section, watching first the director, then Jim tell each of the actors something about what they had done during the first run through. Then they started the next run through, with Leonard watching. He decided it was easier to watch it from the dressing room, as he couldn't see the scenes as good.
Oh, the women's apartment was in front of him he could see that better. But the guy's apartment and the other sets had walls separating them, so he couldn't see everything and had to use the monitors. But those weren't as close as the monitor in the dressing room. Of course, Penny could, and did, come to him and talk in between scenes, which she couldn't do if he was in the dressing room, so in that way, it was better.
Leonard saw everyone gather around and Tina speak to them. After Tina finished, Penny walked over and said, "Let's go." They both walked to her dressing room.
Penny sat down and said, "We have a few hours. The writers want to work on some things, so we have a three hour break before we have to do anything. Part of that three hours is lunch."
"Wow, three hours, why do they want to work on things?"
"The writers want to change a couple of things, so we don't have to be back until three. It's just instead of getting a break around three, we'll get a longer one now. Anything you want to do, now? I'm going to try and get a nap in around two."
"I'm going to work on my project for now," said Leonard. "Let me know when you want to get lunch."
Warner Brothers Studio, 1:30 PM, Friday, Feb 17th, 2012
Penny had been going over her script, while Leonard worked on his project. It was time for lunch and Penny thought about the craft services table, but then thought it would be fun for Leonard to go to the commissary on the lot, so that is where they went for lunch. They both got their lunch, and Leonard found it interesting to look around and see all the different people, in costume, as he wondered what movies or TV shows they were working on.
After lunch, both Penny and Leonard went back to her dressing room and laid down, Penny on the couch, Leonard on a blanket on the floor and they tried to take a nap. At 2:45, Penny's alarm on her phone went off, and they both got up. Penny headed down to the set, while Leonard tried to work on his project, and wait for her to return. When she did come back, she looked worried. "What's wrong?" asked Leonard.
"I've got five new pages of script I have to relearn," said Penny, "but in ten minutes, I have to go down and rehearse the changes. By the time we get done with rehearsing, I'll only have about an hour, and most of that will be for running through other scenes. I'll never get it."
"I can hel…"
"No Leonard," said Penny testily, "You can't help. I'll spend most of that hour on set, so you can't help. I've got to go." And with that, Penny headed out of the door.
Warner Brothers parking structure, 5:15 PM, Friday, Feb 17th, 2012
Bernadette pulled up to the guard, and rolled down her window. "What's your purpose?" the guard asked.
"Were here to attend a taping of our friend's show. She said we all have VIP tickets," Bernadette pointed to the other four in the car.
The guard nodded, "You see that guard over there, by those benches?" he said pointing across the exit lane.
Bernadette nodded, and the guard continued, "Go find a parking place and then go to that guard, he'll check your names and get you to the set." He pushed a button and the gate went up, and Bernadette drove through, looking for a parking place.
Ten minutes later the five of them were walking down the ramp, toward the guard by the benches. Bernadette sounded frustrated and angry. "Just be quiet Sheldon, I don't care that you called shotgun before Howard did. It's our car, and my fiancé was going to sit in the front seat, not you."
Sheldon started to say something, but a cross look from Bernadette kept him quiet. They got to the guard, and Bernadette explained why they were there. They all handed the guard an ID, but there was some problem with Sheldon, until he got out his Caltech ID. It seems the guard wouldn't accept his Justice League ID and Sheldon wanted to argue with him.
After checking all the IDs, the guard provided them with a wrist band and then called for transport. It was a couple of minutes until two electric golf carts appeared. Amy and Sheldon got in one, Howard, Bernadette, and Raj got into the other and the carts headed across the street, heading for gate three.
The guard there waved them through and they drove for a couple of minutes. Getting to a very large structure, with a placard with STAGE 25 on it, they could see Penny's car. The carts slowed and stopped besides the structure, and they got off the cart. Looking at the building, they saw a large garage type door, with what looked like a smaller regular door, and a guard next to it. They showed the guard their wristbands, and he opened the smaller door, letting them into the building.
They were met by a woman with a vest, who checked their wristbands, and who then led them to the front row, just slightly off to the right of the central walkway in the stands, the women's apartment was right in front of them. They sat down, looking around watching various people scurrying around on the set, doing whatever it was they were doing. The group settled in and waited for the show to start.
Warner Brothers, 5:15 PM, Friday, Feb 17th, 2012
Penny was in a panic. Trying to get all the lines and movement memorized, she felt that they were all jumbled up in her mind. But she had to leave. She got up, taking her script with her, and walked to Leonard.
"I've got to go," said Penny. "We have a speed through, then I have make up. I'll be back every so often, to change into my costumes"
Leonard could sense she was nervous, "You'll do fine, Penny. I have confidence in you."
Penny smiled weakly, "I'm glad someone does. Wish me luck."
"Break a leg," said Leonard.
"Oh, you know that."
"Yeah, I do," said Leonard. "Go get them, Penny."
Penny said, "Thanks sweety," then she kissed Leonard and walked out of the door.
Leonard settled in to wait for the show to start.
Penny went to the makeup room. There, she found six chairs, but there was only five actors appearing tonight. Four, of course, were for the four main stars, the other was a small part for a guest star. They all sat down and started going through the show, saying their lines as fast as they could. They all tried not to use their scripts, and the only place they slowed down, and referenced the scripts, was where they had gotten new pages earlier in the afternoon.
After finishing, the makeup artists started applying their makeup. Penny was asked to bring the two costumes for the first part of the show, down from her dressing room. She ran up to get them, told Leonard she would see him during the break and brought them down.
She went behind a curtain put up in the makeup room, hung up her second outfit, and put on her first. After that, the makeup person touched up her makeup, and she made her way to small area between the Dave's and the women's apartment.
The other three actors were there. The announcer was making announcements and introducing the producers and director. Jeanie said, "Come, put your hands here in the middle." The four of them did that, and Jeanie said, "Let's kick ass."
Dave said, "Break legs everyone."
Dana said, "Let's go get it."
Penny had no idea what to say, she looked around at the three people who had helped her this week and she simply said, "Thank you all for making this so easy for me."
The other three smiled, but before they could say anything, Penny heard the announcer say, "Playing the part of Jessica Rodgers, is a newcomer, please give an enthusiastic welcome to Penelope Jensen." Penny took a deep breath, smiled at the other three, then turned and went through the curtain, to the applause of the crowd.