Ten Reasons To Watch IHMTD Tonight!

Tonight marks the return of I Hate My Teenage Daughter to the FOX lineup. Sandwiched between Raising Hope and New Girl, it'll be part of the new Tuesday comedy block. So why should you add it to your viewing schedule tonight?

1. Eric Sheffer Stevens.

2. A fantastic ensemble cast that obviously enjoys working together.

3. Guest star Mark Consuelos.

4. Eric Sheffer Stevens.

5. A mention of telenovelas!

6. The cast members who tweet are really nice (and interact with fans).

7. Eric Sheffer Stevens and Kevin Rahm are goofy.

8. If you attend a filming, you'll get pizza.
9. It's only half an hour of your day. You can spare that, can't you?
10. ERIC SHEFFER STEVENS.

Any questions? :)

I HATE MY TEENAGE DAUGHTER, Fox, Tuesdays, 8:30 pm. Be there!

New Pic of Eric!

By request, because some people can't access the photo on twitter or Facebook...

Monday Movie Musings - Changes at IHMTD

Okay, it's not really a movie, but the changes being chatted about concerning new fall FOX comedy I Hate My Teenage Daughter have been on my mind lately.

First, what was already the latest premiere of the fall season has been pushed back even later, to November 30. The first premiere date, November 23, didn't make a whole lot of sense - it's the day before Thanksgiving, and you wouldn't expect it to get much attention (or ratings) then. But a week later pushes it even closer to the winter hiatus season. How many episodes will actually be shown before they go to reruns or holiday specials? At this point, they should just call it a midseason replacement and go with a January premiere.

Then comes the news that they're already retooling the show (which, to be honest, was one of the things I crossed my fingers for when I first heard they were premiering so late in the first place). When I attended the filming, I thought it was funny, but definitely a traditional sitcom-style show (not a bad thing, but it is what it is). And I was very impressed with the cast - the talent there was impressive.

But the show has been eviscerated by the critics. Absolutely shredded. And my hope was that the added time before the show premiered would give them an opportunity to change things up, maybe bring the show and script up to the level of the performers.

So word is (in the new issue of Entertainment Weekly) that they've done some reshoots that make them more confident in the show. The problem? The example given is that Eric's character, Matt, was changed to seem "less pathetic".

Okay. I have no issue with Eric being given more material, or his character switched up. But of all the negative reviews of the show (and believe me, I've read almost all of them -yeah, I'm a little invested in IHMTD succeeding), not one of them said anything negative about Eric or his performance. NOTHING. It's all about the parenting fail by the female characters, or the tone of the show, or the laugh track - but not a single critic has said, "I hated the character of Matt and it killed the show for me."

So, uhm, I really hope that's just one of the changes, and they've done other adjustments to the pilot to help it be successful - and prove the critics wrong. Even if it does start so late in the year.

Monday Movie Musings - Pilot Filming Follow Up

Over the past week I've gotten some questions about the filming of I Hate My Teenage Daughter (thanks, LoveLure!) and I thought I'd take today's blog post to answer them, rather than burying them in the comments of an older post.

1. Do they shoot the episode in the sequence we'll see the final episode? Or do they go out of order (e.g., if they use the kitchen set twice, do they do both those scenes before moving to another set)?

The pilot was filmed in order. The first scene (and last, as well) was pre-filmed, so we watched it on the monitors in completed form. After that, the cast and crew went through the script in order, making sure each scene was done to their satisfaction before moving on. Hence, the 4 hour filming time for what's essentially a 22 minute episode.

(Side note: I wouldn't be surprised if it was trimmed a little from what we saw filmed. Even taking into consideration the multiple takes and between-scene pauses, it still seemed longer than 22 minutes. Fingers crossed none of Eric's work is lost, though!)

Also, the video feed we watched on the monitors wasn't just raw footage - the angles and camera changes were already decided ahead of time, so we saw the angle change from one character head-on, to the other head-on, to a wide shot, as the scene played out.

2. Are there multiple sets of multiple cameras (one for each set)? Or do the cameras stay fixed and just point at different sets? Or do the sets move?

The sets are fixed, and the cameras moved from set to set, as each scene changed. One set was around the corner (we watched on the monitor as they filmed behind the wall at the edge of the audience seating), and I can't remember if they moved the cameras all the way back there. But otherwise, when a scene change was announced, the cameras would roll over to the next set, a clump of people following behind (director, cinematographer, various other behind-the-scenes crewmembers). This is part of why breaks between scenes took a while; the equipment needed to be in place before they could start again.

(Side note: When the flats were moved away from the front of the set and we could finally see the whole setup, I originally thought there was a narrow backyard or outdoors set between the kitchen set and the family room set. It took me a while to realize it was actually just set dressing for both sets, so that if the camera angle caught the view outside a window, it would look like there were trees and bushes out there. LOL)

Also on the topic of IHMTD, a quick perusal of general TV discussion boards and prognosticators shows that most people expect it to be on the schedule for next year. This means pretty much nothing, of course, since the Powers That Be at FOX have the last word, but it's encouraging in an inside-baseball, fantasy league sort of way.

Also also, I'm still highly tickled when I run across links to this blog in discussions of the show and the coming TV season.

Have a great Monday!

What I Learned On My Almost-Summer Vacation

I admit it. The main reason I flew down to LA last week for the pilot of I Hate My Teenage Daughter was to see Eric Sheffer Stevens perform live. (You might have picked up on that detail in previous posts. There were some subtle clues.) But I was also interested in seeing just what goes on behind the scenes during the filming of a TV show. So this was a chance to meet two goals at once! (And sharing that experience with friends was a definite bonus!)

The first thing I noticed as we entered the studio was the set construction pieces all around us, and the black curtains masking so many parts of the set and the studio. We were led to a stadium-style seating area, with approximately 200 chairs set up for the audience. There was a DJ spinning tunes at a sound system at the back of the audience section, lots of upbeat and dance-oriented tunes. A big section of the middle seating area was empty, and those seats were reserved for (we assumed) friends and family of the cast and crew.

The entire audience area was surrounded by black curtains that hung down from a framework, low enough to mask the microphones and monitors that lined the front of the seating, but short enough we could see the sets and equipment in front of us.

There were three sets visible (well, partially; the tops of the sets were visible, while the rest was blocked off by black partitions). Directly in front of us was the kitchen set, to the left was a living room set, and to the right was a coffee shop set. Later we discovered there was a high school hallway and principal's office set off to the side of the seating area. We couldn't see it, but while they were filming there, we could watch on the monitors.

There were many people walking around on the set, and more clustered around equipment. It was clear that there were a LOT of people involved in the filming of this one episode, and I remember thinking how many people would be affected by the decision of the network whether to pick up the show or not. (Apparently FOX has optioned eight half-hour comedies this season, with space for likely two or three of them. IHMTD is the only multi-camera comedy of the bunch.)

It's cold on set; I was glad I had a coat. I always assumed that they kept the studios cold so the heat of the lighting wouldn't be too much for the actors. But apparently it was too cold even for the stars, because Jaime Pressly mentioned the chill, and would wrap up in a sweatshirt between takes.

The first scene was in the kitchen set. Each scene is filmed multiple times, with adjustments to the script and performance in each take. I was impressed with the writers' ability to take note of audience reactions, rewrite/change jokes on the fly, and hand the revised scripts to the actors, who would learn their new lines and perform them - all without an unreasonable amount of downtime. For example, one of the jokes really fell flat in the first scene. The writers changed it, the actors performed it, and the audience gave the new joke one of the biggest laughs of the evening.

After the scenes are filmed two or three times, the director may decide to film just a short part of the scene over - one conversation, a few lines, even some stage business. The actors are careful to start and end in the same spot on set for each section, presumably so they can be cut together later if necessary. The camera work is also decided on prior to filming - as we watched on the monitor, we saw the cuts and changes as they would be in the finished product. The filming seemed to go quite smoothly to me, with the actors knowing their lines and stage direction very well.

There were only a few flubs and stops, one of which was when Eric said a line and immediately followed it with "no, I don't want to say it that way. Go back?" Which they did.

Between takes, or when the scenes were switching between sets, the warm-up guy would try to keep the audience interested and enthusiastic. When he wasn't busy making me look like a creeper, he arranged a dance-off, put together the dating game for another audience member, and auctioned off a pie.

It was a fascinating process, and I enjoyed the experience very much. I'd love to go back again now that I know what to expect! Only this time I'll keep my mouth shut around the warm-up guy. And maybe wear a disguise.

Sorry I don't have pictures of the set/actors/studio, but any recording device is strictly verbotene. Tune in later this week for some pics of my time in LA!