Friday, February 20, 2009
Last Night's "Wait, Wait" Taping
I went with Angela and two friends to watch the taping of NPR's "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" last night (February 19, 2009) at Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley. Panelists were Mo Rocca, Paula Poundstone, and Tom Bodett, and Frederica von Stade served as the "Not My Job" celebrity. (We were seated a few rows behind and across the aisle from her.) The taping took a long time, and it will be fun to hear on Saturday what gets left behind -- lots of scatological humor, probably, and a lot of awkward dead air when a snowplow operator from Colorado named Al couldn't come up with answers on the Listener Limerick Challenge. (We in the audience were practically jumping out of our skins trying to help the poor fellow.) Peter Sagal was charming and funny (though I found his oversized suit distracting), Carl Kasell looked kinda bored, and the panelists were great: Rocca stammering but smart, Poundstone following threads one step beyond their logical conclusions, and Bodett delivering low-key but pitch-perfect half-liners.
The other radio shows I've seen -- A Prairie Home Companion and the Grand Ole Opry -- are done live. They go out, flubs and all (though the broadcasts I've seen have been pretty flub-free). Wait, Wait, on the other hand, is recorded and edited. This gives the producers a chance to fix things after the bulk of the show is completed -- questions that get garbled, limericks that are mis-read, contestants' names that are given as "Tom" rather than "Brandon." (Ahem.) The engineers (three at a table, unsure what each one did) must keep constant track of what doesn't work, because these pickups were recorded immediately after the show was completed. After that Carl and Peter prowled the audience for a couple of quick questions.
The other radio shows I've seen -- A Prairie Home Companion and the Grand Ole Opry -- are done live. They go out, flubs and all (though the broadcasts I've seen have been pretty flub-free). Wait, Wait, on the other hand, is recorded and edited. This gives the producers a chance to fix things after the bulk of the show is completed -- questions that get garbled, limericks that are mis-read, contestants' names that are given as "Tom" rather than "Brandon." (Ahem.) The engineers (three at a table, unsure what each one did) must keep constant track of what doesn't work, because these pickups were recorded immediately after the show was completed. After that Carl and Peter prowled the audience for a couple of quick questions.
# posted by F.S. @ 9:38 AM 
