The New Adventures of Old Christine!

This post is cross-posted at BlogHer.

It was February 12th, and I'd worked just two days at my new job when I had a day off for a "prior commitment."  The best prior commitment EVER!  I had a date to visit the set of "The New Adventures of Old Christine" on the Warner Bros. lot.

Which, by the way, is back on the air March 12 on CBS.  But more about that later - Now for the total awesomeness of being invited to an expertly planned blogger day... with mommy bloggers.

Yes, the concept revolved around blog outreach to popular parent bloggers - all mommies and one daddy.  Oh, and me.  SINKing and sneaking in as a BlogHer representative and SO GLAD to be there.

This was a great opportunity for me on so many levels.  Personally, and as an aspiring director, I'd never been on a sitcom set, so it was interesting (read: so weird) to see a stage with audience seating.  My favorite part of the day was watching how they rehearsed, worked on the comedic timing, and used all the cameras (female camera op in the house, btw).  That part was painfully short for me, but probably just right for just about everyone else.

Before that, we had an intimate Q&A with the cast and the executive producer where we each got to ask a question.  When the cast walked in, you could just feel the star power.  I mean, I live in L.A. and work in the entertainment industry, but to have a whole cast come out to answer questions just for us felt absolutely amazing.

I was *really* glad I was towards the end, because the questions I brought with me were all the types of things I might ask at an industry panel.  (For example, I was curious if Julia Louis-Dreyfus was ever offered or ever had considered a one-hour drama.)  Good questions, but not really in the theme of the day.  The mommies were all asking about parenthood stuff.  I didn't want to do that, either - I wasn't that undercover! - so I quickly thought about my blogging, and my experience watching the show, and what's interesting to me... 

And I asked about sex.

People, they made each of us a personalized video of our visit, which features, among other things, my Q&A moment.  There's also a couple shots towards the end of me studying the shooting.  Behold:

 

 

If you're having difficulties viewing the video here, you can also try watching it on YouTube.

The bloggers in attendence included (and this is from the press release):  Amy Keroes and Dawn Dobras, founders of the popular working mother website Mommy Track’d, Erin Kane and Kristin Brandt, who created the website and podcast Manic Mommies – which features a weekly podcast available for download on Itunes and Yahoo; Melinda Roberts, better known as The Mommy Blog and author of Mommy Confidential;  Liz Gumbinner, who is an advertising agency executive by day and pens the wildly successful blogs Cool Mom Picks and Mom101; Sara Fisher, a part-time public relations executive and author of the blog, The Self Made Mom; Tim Clark, who is better known as L.A. Daddy; as well as four contributors from BlogHer.org including the authors of the blogs: Wannabehippie, The Soccer Mom Vote, Joy Unexpected; and yours truly.

One anecdote more than one of us shared was about watching the DVD they sent us in advance of the event.  I was watching the show in my living room, and my roommate came out of her room to ask what I was watching, because I was laughing so loud.  You know, I am totally into the hour drama, I really am, but when a sitcom works, it really is comedic magic.  I remember when sitcoms were the must-see-TV, and there was a lot more laughter.  I finished the DVD they sent and immediately added The New Adventures of Old Christine to my Tivo.  Laughter isn't just for mommies!

After the Q&A, I mentioned to Wanda Sykes that I'd seen her speech at The Crystal + Lucy Awards a few years prior and really enjoyed it.  I also gushed to Julia Louis-Dreyfus.  I've put all of my pictures in a photo album on my blog, and no, I didn't leave out the one where I'm looking at Julia Louis-Dreyfus like she just descended from heaven.  In fact, I think there's more than one pic where my expression is embarassingly priceless.

I think I was in heaven is what it really was.  Heaven is set; it's just that simple.

So here's the 411 on the show.  It's back on the air March 12 with a full hour starting at 8pm.  The following week, March 19th, it will fall into its regularly timeslot at 8:30.  CBS, my friends.  Rapidly becoming my favorite network.

ALSO INTERESTING (and from the upcoming press release):  On Monday, March 19, at 7pm, Emmy award-winner Julia Louis-Dreyfus and series creator and executive producer Kari Lizer, will participate in an exclusive virtual press conference with BlogHer!  The 30-minute live interview webcast, with questions provided exclusively by BlogHer members, will be conducted by the site’s co-founder Lisa Stone, an award-winning journalist.

Which leads me to something really cool.  If you're reading this, you probably can't comprehend how clueless the entertainment industry generally is about the Internet.  It's actually breathtaking how mysterious it seems to be to some of the people in charge.

And yet, here I was, taking part in an awesome marketing idea that expertly interacted with bloggers and the blogosphere.  Gave this aspiring director hope for the future, I'll tell you.  They planned a really great day with great opportunities to check out the show, ask questions, and - key for bloggers - have a good time.  Not to mention shooting us each our own video and pics.  Amazing.

Finally, after our set visit was done, we moved to Priscilla's Gourmet Coffee, Tea & Gifts where this The South Beach Dieting blogger indulged in a sweet for the first time in two weeks - Woo, sugar rush!  We were joined by the "mean mommies," played by Alex Kapp Horner and Tricia O'Kelley, who were supernice.  All in all, an amazing day on the set of The New Adventures of Old Christine, and a great opportunity to meet fellow bloggers and some entertainment industry pros.