Week 3

Sunday I had to run errands like the last week i worked, picking up food, coffee, and people. I had to hangout with some guests for Jerry Springer and take them to Buffalo Wild Wings. Because it's my job to "chaperone" guests so to speak, I can't leave their side - whatever or wherever they want to go (among selected choices), I have to take them.. including following them around Stamford as they took a walk. It took me a while to figure out that the two girls that I was with were trying to find someone on the streets to sell them weed.. and I told this to my PA (producers assistant), and she pretty much says that happens sometimes (of course it does, this is the jerry springer show). I spent pretty much the majority of the day with this group of girls - one of them grew so attached to me, she was sad when we parted. The guests are like, "so I'm never going to see you ever again??" it's funny, I guess I did spend the day with them and I'm part of the "experience" of coming to CT as an all expense paid trip to be on a TV show.. it's pretty cool representing NBC. I found out today that some of the interns drive an hour to work here (for free).. and we all have to pay for parking (about $5 a day).. i'm grateful at least i'm working for free from a shorter distance, and for school credit..!

Tuesday was hectic, i met a few other interns at the beginning of the shift - but i've realized that i am the only intern on tuesdays past 8 pm (i'm there til 10), and I get stuck with the residual work that the lazy jerry springer interns leave behind (on tuesdays i help with the steve wilkos show, which is filmed at night - jerry is filmed in the morning).. many times this means cleaning the green rooms of all the clothes from the ENTIRE day, and being the only intern to clean the green rooms at the end of the night.. but everybody is so nice, and I think that being the only intern makes me look good to my supervisor :)

OH and the minute i walk into work JERRY SPRINGER walks past me and a bunch of people and says, "goodbye"! haha!

and later that night.. I saw steve getting out of his dressing room haha

week 2

So this week the jerry springer/steve wilkos show is 'dark', which means they don't film - I asked one of the driving PA's why this is - and he said it's because most of the producers work 80 hour weeks and every once in a while they have time off - works for me!

I'm not worried about making my hours though- i only need 10 hours a week as part of my requirement, and I'll be working 15-16 hours every week for this show.

February 9, 2010

Today was my first studio day. Today was SO hectic!! I got there at 3pm, and as soon as I got there someone was coming up to me asking me if I had a minute to do something for them. I have a shiny NBC sticker that says INTERN, so I guess I might as well paint a gigantic target on my back. EVERYONE was like hey do you have a minute?!?.. but it was exciting though. Everyone there is so nice, and even if they don't know who you are they all say 'hey how are you!? Security guards stand backstage before the shows, and there are producers, associative producers, producers assistants, interns, and stage crew running amok everywhere. As soon as I got there, i had to put things in "lock-up".. which means we put their belongings away in a safe place. Also, the guests are required to stay in their green rooms, so we occasionally have to "babysit" them as they go for a smoke or to a bathroom break. Sometimes, it's all about keeping the story intact. So then right after I did lock up, i had to "pull" wardrobe.. which means they give me sizes, and I have to find good outfits for the certain guests to wear on the show. Oh and BY THE WAY there are about a billion rules to abide by for show days, pertaining to wardrobe and conduct in general. I CANNOT say guest's name out loud in the halls between green rooms, because sometimes we have secret guests! We call them by what green room they're in. For example, Monica is in Green Room 1, so we say, "hey can i bring the girl in g1 out for a smoke?" because guests cannot ever run into each other while backstage at the studio. And for wardrobe of the guests there are certain things we cannot put them in, like no white shirts, no stripes, no crazy patterns, spanks under ALL dresses and skirts, no jewelry for jerry springer show, heavy women MUST cover up their upper arms, boys must wear nice shoes/slack and look presentable, and girls must also look relatively dressed up with hair and make up also done. Picking wardrobe is nerve wracking! there's no one really telling you what to do, so I'm walking blindly into the wardrobe to pick out what I think is a good outfit. Luckily, one of the staff members that is in charge of wardrobe gave me a quick run-through of what I should know about wardrobe. I pulled outfits, and i was successful in the end - the guests liked what i put them in and the producers approved (which is the most important thing).

After running mundane errands like walking to get coffee/food or driving in a taxi or company car with a travel PA to go pick up guests, some sort of producer person (not entirely sure of his job title)walked up to me in the studio, handed me a company "petty cash" credit card and said "hey, you look like you know how to dress. I need wardrobe for my guest, she's super skinny but I want you to make her look HOT but young, but relatively tame. I want her to look like she jumps off of a magazine cover. Go to the mall, call me when you're done, we need it soon. Brian will drive you, he's outside right now." UMM, OKAY! I was pretty afraid but it ended up being fun. I spent the next hour or so in my favorite clothing store Forever 21 picking up any cute outfits I saw for wardrobe for this girl (with all of the wardrobe rules in mind). After all of the time contemplating the requirements with the cute and workable factor, I headed to the cash register. And then they told me they couldn't sell me any of the stuff because I didn't have a photo ID for the credit card i was using!!! Well, Obviously it's a company card it says Jerry Springer right on the damn card! and I thought my intern sticker would help, but nope. They refused, and I panicked and called the producer who had sent me out on this mission. I told him what happened, and he said "well then screw it and run to macys and get other stuff. But hurry we need it very soon like 10 minutes, call us when you're done kbye." I wanted to cry! Are you serious? I have like 10 minutes to do an hour's worth of work and macy's is 5 minutes away!! I ran to macys and threw some semi good looking things together from the tiny junior's section at macys. The saleslady here heard my story as I was on the phone getting ride back and definitely didn't refuse my sale! I ran out of there and into the cab as fast as i could with nearly $200 worth of girls clothes from macy's, and in the end the producers LOVED what I had bought, and we ended up saving the rest for the permanent wardrobe. Whew! For the rest of the night, I cleaned the green rooms and cleaned up wardobe. All in all, it was a very successful and tiring day. I think the key is not getting overwhelmed and focusing on the task at hand instead of freaking out. I will work every tuesday at the studio from 3-10 from now on, and it is definitely exhausting but yet very rewarding work.

First Day - February 7

I'm so excited!!! I just got an internship with the Jerry Springer Show and the Steve Wilkos Show with NBC!!!!!!! I'm a production intern, which means that a lot of my responsibilities coincide with the production team for those two shows. I've watched the Jerry Springer show since I was young - but i've never heard of the Steve Wilkos Show. I found out that Steve used to be Jerry's number one security guard, and he now has his own shows about more serious topics. My job is broken up into two parts (and two separate shifts): one travel show day, and one studio day. The travel show day consists of taking care of the guests that fly in to do the shows, as well as running basic errands and random office work. Guests are people that appear on the show - they're not paid actors, they are REAL people, with interesting personalities, and we give them an all expense paid trip to CT with food, hotel, cigarettes, airfare, and entertainment completely paid for by yours truly, NBC. On Studio days, the shows are being taped and I need to care for the guests at the studio. I put their things away, I put the guests in wardrobe, clean the greenrooms, and run any other errand that needs to get done.

Today (feb 7) was the first day of my internship. My supervisor Kateri told me to come in for orientation for about an hour, but after giving me a tour of the studio where I'll be working, a tour of the office building I'll work in for travel days, and some shortcuts to navigate around Stamford, CT, she asked me if I could stay the rest of the day. So, I did. I got started right away, and my first task was to go pick up some guests at the Holiday Inn and walk them to PF Changs. Apparently usually they call cabs for us to take, but I had to walk, so they sent another intern with me who had worked there for longer to show me the way. We got to the restaurant with the guests for the jerry springer show, and dropped them off at a table. I learned that just because its work doesn't mean it's a good idea to put my phone on silent! I realized that my whole job relied on being available to run any errand for my team, and they can only reach me on my cell phone. I had a few missed calls from them because I didn't hear my cell phone!! Whoops. I had to run back to the office to run other small errands, and made my way to the studio. I walked onto the set where the audience sits and sat with one of the producers of the show as the guests went over their lines. It was pretty awesome! Working in television is pretty cool. For the rest of the day, I hung out with another group of people from Ohio at the pool hall called Rack N Roll. It's EXTREMELY interesting to see lifestyle differences between my self and people from other parts of the country.

Overall, I'm extremely excited to continue with this internship!!! NBC tends to hire interns as Producer Assistants (PA's) because our job descriptions are pretty similar... except they get paid to do it and they can boss us interns around.

I have my first studio day for the Steve Wikos Show on Tuesday, i'm nervous...!