A Wallace Story: Our Trip to Ellen and the Big Bang Theory

Back in September, my mom, sister and I went to California for a week of vacation. I had planned the whole week with the intent of visiting Disneyland (which we did), going to the Price is Right (which we did), and seeing Ellen and a taping of the Big Bang Theory (neither of which we were able to do). I put in a request for the Ellen tickets very shortly after the dates I wanted became available - however, no luck. You see, you have to request the tickets by filling out a little online form and then wait for a phone call from someone at her show to confirm the tickets. Well, I never got a call. Very disappointed. I knew they were tough to get, but I thought I had put in my request fairly quickly after the date was posted (I had been stalking the website relentlessly). The Big Bang Theory wasn't taping the week we were going to be there - just my bad timing with that one.

HOW I GOT ELLEN TICKETS:

So, as a matter of principal I kept requesting tickets for Ellen randomly with the hopes I'd finally get a call. I was only looking for a Monday show taping and would check the website daily (multiple times a day actually) and so I only requested tickets for one day each week. The afternoons seemed to be when the tickets would come up. Well....I got the call back in February for guaranteed tickets for the show on March 9th! Yay! Of course I jumped on it and said we'd take them. I knew Melanie probably couldn't make it work - so I got tickets for me and Mom. Yes, it is tough to get Ellen tickets - but keep trying and be flexible with your dates.

The initial plan was to just stay one night (Monday - the day of the taping) because of having to take off work and line up child care for while John was at work. But, when I found out that the Big Bang would be taping on Tuesday night (the 10th) and I could get tickets then I figured we had to stay the extra night and go because when else would we be able to do that. I am very lucky to have a family member with a connection at the WB studios who was able to make the arrangements to get us VIP for the Big Bang Theory taping. It was a huge favor to ask and they came through for me. I have some pretty awesome people in my life! Okay, so now we're going to be there Monday and Tuesday. The Big Bang Theory wouldn't begin until 5pm, so what to do that morning? Well, request tickets for the Price is Right of course.

Everything was in place - tickets, hotel, flights, rental car and dinner reservations at Madeo's (we enjoyed it here so much back in September we had to go back - thanks Cherri for the suggestion). Well, the week before the trip we hit a bump in the road. The Ellen show called to say the Monday show had been canceled. What?! Oh dear. But, they did say they could get us in with 2 guaranteed seats for Tuesday since we'd still be in town. Okay, great - let's do that. They sent me an email with the confirmation letter. Because you have to be at Ellen by 2pm for check in, we wouldn't be able to do the Price is Right too (the taping doesn't start until after noon and we would be cutting it way to close).

We left Houston early Monday morning and arrived in Burbank at 10:15am. Retrieved our rental car and headed to the hotel. I picked a hotel that was really close to the studios for convenience and it was only 4 or 5 miles from the Burbank airport. I booked the Tangerine Hotel and was pleased with our stay - it was a cute little, no frills, motel type place - with comfortable beds, clean rooms and a friendly staff. No complaints there - they even let us check in early (we arrive by 11am). We dropped our stuff in the room and went to eat lunch. Lots of places within walking distance. Then we took a nap since we didn't really have anywhere in particular to go until dinner that night which wasn't until 7pm. After resting a bit, we went driving around and walked through a few shopping areas in Brentwood. Cute places but no sightings of celebs.

Dinner at Madeo's was excellent as usual. I'm sure the valet there is used to parking luxury vehicles but they got a real treat when I pulled up in our rented Toyota Corolla. Ha! The place is cozy, the staff is very nice and the food is excellent. While waiting for our car at the valet, we did see a couple of paparazzi lurking around. I didn't see any celebs in the restaurant - but that doesn't mean there weren't any, just none I recognized off hand. After dinner, we planned on meeting up with my friend Joe and seeing an improv show at iO West. The show was really good but it was late now and we had been up since 2:30am (California time).

Tuesday we didn't have any plans until we needed to be at Ellen. So, we decided to go out and eat breakfast and then go do a little tour of the Dolby Theater. This was a quick 30 minute walk through the theater and our tour guide explained some of the workings of how the Academy Awards runs. It was very interesting. Our tour guide, Patrick, said this past award show his job was to escort Clint Eastwood around for the evening - not a bad gig, I'd say.

After the tour we headed back to the hotel to get ready for Ellen (after a quick stop at Trader Joe's for a snack).

ELLEN TAPING:

We arrived at the studios for Ellen at 1pm and checked in with security. There were already a ton of people there. Everyone just sits on these benches while we wait for the Ellen show reps to come and tell us where to line up to get our numbers. The standby ticket people had already checked in at 9am that morning, so some people already had numbers but there were like 250 and above. I wish we had sat closer to where I knew (and it was clearly marked where) the guaranteed line would be. Once the Ellen reps announced that we should all line up - there was a mass herd over there and we wound up in the middle of the pack. I wanted the lower numbers of course for a better shot at the seats closest to the stage. They said it didn't matter what your number was in terms of where you sit but it does - plain and simple, it matters. Mom and I got numbers 94 and 95 (I'm terrible at selfies).

Then we waited a little bit more before they walked you over to the stage in groups. VIPs go first, and then they go in numerical order.

You line up along a hall way right inside the studio stage, and then you go in the riff raff room. While in the room you can shop if you'd like (and a lot of people did) but we didn't buy anything. Once we got into the stage area they put us in a row kind of towards the top but they did direct me to sit on the aisle, which was nice to be on the aisle. The taping actually started a bit early. Ellen was great - her monologue was funny and her guest interviews were great. The guests were a male model who was discovered via instagram, Mindy Kaling (who I love - she's so funny), Michael Kelly from House of Cards and then Earth, Wind and Fire who performed a medley of songs. The entire audience got tickets to the Earth Wind and Fire concert (who is touring with Chicago) for this summer. We also got a gift card from a home decor website called houzz (it's also an app) and Ellen really seemed to love this app. Overall - we had a great time. Ellen and Mindy both walked right by me as they went up towards the riff raff room. I would love to go again sometime.

BIG BANG THEORY TAPING:

When we got out of Ellen it was 4:45pm and we had to be checked in for the Big Bang Theory at 5:15pm. Great - we had plenty of time and no rush (we just had to walk back across the street to the same place we had checked in for Ellen). I did have to run up to our car to put our phones away because you can't have them at all (even turned off) in the show taping. If you have guaranteed or standby tickets for Big Bang Theory you have to be there a bit earlier and it looked like a good portion of the audience (guaranteed ticket people I'm sure) had already escorted over. It was pretty cool checking in as VIP and having our name on the list! We sat with some other VIPs while we waited to be escorted over. It wasn't long before we were walking over to Stage 25. You go through security when you get onto studio property and then again when you get into the stage. No biggie - they just look through your purse a bit and you walk through a metal detector. Our seats were awesome! We were second row, kind of in the middle and we even had our names on our chairs. Okay, it was written on tape but still - pretty cool. Turns out that the other VIPs that walked over with us sat right in front of us and it was Jim Parsons' family. His mom sat right in from of us. There were 2 young boys with them as well, but I think they were his nephews and went backstage with Jim's sister and her husband during the taping since we didn't see them again. Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting's dad was there as well and we were told he comes to all the tapings and stands at the back of the studio audience.

The taping was great. It was so neat to see the creative process and just to see all the hard work of the entire crew come to life on screen. So many people are involved and it really looks like they love working together. The episode was hilarious. There is the audience liaison person who is there to entertain the audience between takes and to let the audience know what is going on. It was the same, obnoxious guy from the two show tapings we had done in September (Mike & Molly and The Odd Couple). He did the exact same routine and exact same jokes. I get that it's probably a tough job, but it just seemed so damn cheesy - plus this guy really loves to hear himself talk, he barely stopped.

The taping took about 5 hours and it does get uncomfortable after a while, sitting for that long. Johnny Galecki and Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting addressed the audience towards the end of the taping (like came right up to the railing just a few feet away) and talked about how grateful they are for the fans and how much they love doing the show. It was really sweet and genuine. They also showed us a video of their flashmob from over the holidays. It was a surprise for the writers and the whole cast/crew did a routine to Uptown Funk. I must say that Jim Parsons has some pretty sweet moves.

After it was over we were walking back to the parking garage and a girl (another audience member) came up to talk to mom and I to ask how we got VIP. She said she had been trying for months to get regular tickets (stalking the website like I did for Ellen) and was able to get her hands on 1 - so she flew in by herself from Utah. I knew it was tough to get tickets - but that is some dedicated fan. I hope this shows goes on for a while, it is really good.

BACK AT HOME:

John held down the fort at home while we were gone. He had to work Tuesday (7am to 7pm), so Pam came and watched the kids for the whole day. I am so grateful for them working out their schedule, so mom and I could go play. Here is a peak at spaghetti night from John.