the Bonnie Hunt Show

For years, my sister, Heather, and I have been big fans of Bonnie Hunt. If you don't know who Bonnie is, she's been in several films, including Cheaper By The Dozen, The Green Mile, Beethoven, Jumanji, Jerry Maguire, as well as voicing characters in Cars, Monster's Inc. and A Bug's Life. She also was the star of a sitcom called "The Bonnie Hunt Show". This is when Heather and I became huge fans. Well, that and because we shared the same last name!

So this past September, Bonnie Hunt began hosting her own daytime talk show. Funny enough, this was the setting of her previous sitcom as Bonnie played a morning talk show host. Heather and I both became fans of this new talk show and began talking about the fact it was taped here in the LA area and how we should go to a taping. When Jeff and Heather made it back to California after the holidays, we wrote in to ask for tickets. a week or so before the taping, we got confirmation we had tickets. We were stoked for this, since it was to be both her and my first TV show taping. We had wanted to go to the Rosie Show back when it was on, but never made it to NYC to do so.

So yesterday, the day of the taping, I drive down and pick up Heather and Jeff and we drive to "the city of Culver City" and park in walking distance to the Sony Culver Studio. We picked up a friend of mine, Tyffani, and we grabbed some coffee (or non coffee drink for me) and then headed to get in line. We weren't allowed to have cell phones or cameras, so we couldn't get any of this documented. We didn't even know how long it was we waited outside the studio. But after they gave us our number and we went through the security check, we were seated in a waiting area. After a little more time there, we got into our numerical order and were filed into the studio.

Now this was a first for me, and it was so cool to see the sets that I'd seen so often on the TV. We were given ballpark style hotdogs (some of which had ketchup, some had mustard and Tyff's was plan!) and a Dad's Root Beer. We then were shown to our seats and sat down for what was to be a fun taping. The warm up guy did his job and told us ours. He was funny and entertained us for a little. The band played for a little, and then it was time for show time. The crew started coming out and we started recognizing the writers (Holly, best friend of Bonnie's, and then Jimmie Kimmel's brother) and Don, the producer and some of the other crew. We didn't know for sure who was the guest(s) until the title segment came playing across the screens. It was Brendan Fraser, along with a dog segment and one of the actress' from "Brothers and Sisters". After a TON, and I mean...A TON of clapping, we laughed and had a fantastic time at the show. Bonnie showed some real emotion after the dog segment, cuase of how many dogs are at the shelters and such. She commented she would take all of them if she had a large ranch for them! At the end of the taping, they did some tag line and promos, and then Bonnie comes into the audience and shakes hands and talked with us for a little bit. It was so nice to see her take the time to do that. And she was so gracious with everyone that asked her questions or made comments.

All in all, it was a great time with Bonnie! I would love to get a chance to meet Bonnie in person sometime. Maybe we'll bump into each other one day! It's LA...never know!

Until laterz!