Being a communications major, I have always been fascinated watching TV shows in the making. So far I have been to taping of game shows, sitcoms and food shows.
How did this journey start, well many, many years ago I dragged friends in LA to a taping of a game show. Little did I know that a game show tapes a whole week’s worth of shows in one evening and lucky for me they still to do this day speak to me! Years later when I was in LA with my daughter the only tickets to a show taping we could get was to Nikki Cox’s sitcom Unhappily Ever After and we enjoyed the experience!
Next in our process move over sitcoms time to see how food shows are taped! Somehow my daughter scored tickets or I should say a letter for a taping of Emeril’s show on the Food Network! With letter in hand, off we go to New York City and followed the information in the letter exactly as it was written. Little did we know that we would be standing in line for a very long time with no hopes of sitting in the preferred seats but rather in the bleachers in the back of the studio! My daughter was a big fan of Emeril’s and was so excited to see the show live. The experience was so disappointing my daughter was no longer a fan of the show or Emeril after that point.
Unfortunately, she was not with me when I went to a taping of Simply Ming because she would have enjoyed the taping as much as I did. It brought me back to my communication roots and the process of producing a show where even the smallest detail was important and we watched the whole process. Ming Tsai was involved with every aspect of the show and if he did not like something, it would be done again. This does not mean that Ming did not have help from those in the kitchen in the back of the set or a whole production team, just as Emeril did. But Ming knew all that was going on and made sure every shot of the food that was going to photographed was perfect and no details were overlooked by Ming himself.
Simply Ming does not tape with an audience but for charity you can make a donation and go see a taping of the show on specific dates each year. We had a few tastings of food and an autographed book from the show and off we went! It was a wonderful experience that I would like to do again and since Simply Ming tapes in the Boston area, we did not have to make the trip to New York!
Next in the series a visit to the BCAE for a taping of Educating Jenny!
