Our first birth on the show is tonight! Or last night, if you're reading this Thursday.... I missed my deadline, and well, you know how that goes… lame. Me. Not TV Guide.Shooting the hospital scenes for this episode gave me a lot of appreciation for all those who don scrubs on Grey's Anatomy. It's one of my very favorite shows, and I now understand why they get paid the big bucks. They're not paid to act — they're paid to shoot hospital scenes… that take forever. Especially if all the principles have lots to say around a body on a table. There are, at one point, five of us in a scene and we're all standing around mom-to-be Melanie Paxson's hospital bed. So we had to do several scenes in the same room, and instead of shooting each scene individually, we did each scene directionally. What that means is that the camera stayed in one spot through a taping and then it was moved to another spot and we shot the scene all over again. Still nothing? OK, the point is it made...read more
In this episode titled "Oleander," we gather for a meal at one of the hottest new eateries in L.A. The food is great, and the people are very cool. I love doing the group restaurant scenes because you get a nice taste — pardon the pun — of each of the characters and how they all relate to each other. Plus, when we’re not rolling we get to catch up and try our best to crack each other up. Melanie Paxson gets the award for the best, most embarrassing story. It didn’t happen to her but to a friend of hers, and it took our breath away. All I can say is, it involved a girl, a guy and a city. Sad that I can’t go into detail, but I fear Melanie might sue me. This is the thing about blogging... I start to write just for myself and then I realize millions of people are reading my blog. Millions! And I need to be really careful about what I write. It’s very precious. I worked on Evan Almighty last summer and I loved when we were shooting, but I also loved when we...read more
So we premiered last week, and you all kicked some major tushy in getting our show some good numbers! Thanks for showing up! Welcome to the universe of Notes from the Underbelly for all you Idol watchers. Now this is your mission, should you choose to accept it: Call, email, send a smoke signal to anyone and everyone you’ve ever met and tell them — not ask them — to turn on our show and enjoy the funny this Wednesday at 8:30 pm/ET on ABC. If you do, some great stuff is going to happen for you. I don’t know what that is, but it’s gonna be sweet. Real, real sweet. In this next episode Lauren (Jenn Westfeldt) is having trouble deciding if she should quit her job as a high-school guidance counselor to be a "stay-at-home mom" or keep her job and be a "working mom." Julie (Melanie Paxson) attempts to woo her to stay home, while Cooper makes an equally compelling — and might I add sexier and hotter — reason to stay in the workforce. The girls duke it ou...read more
