Yesterday we drove to Los Angeles because we had tickets to be audience members for a new TV show called I Kid starring Brad Garrett.  Remember him from Everybody Loves Raymond?  Anyway, it’s a new version of Bill Cosby’s show, Kids Say the Darndest Things.

I wasn’t allowed to take my big camera and so could only use my cell phone camera so the pictures aren’t that great.

The show was filmed in the center court at Universal City’s outdoor mall.  Can you see the cameras?  The show is going to be similar to America’s Funniest Home Videos in that it will feature funny kid videos found on YouTube or sent in and clips of kids reviewing movies and stuff like that.  In between clips, Brad Garrett talks to groups of people about the upcoming clip.  We got to be those groups of people. Yippee!

That’s Brad Garrett in the red shirt between those two guys.  Our kids are all huddled around him being filmed while listening to all the crazy stuff he said to introduce the next clip.  He’s very funny!

The picture below is of Emily and our friends playing the role of regular, unassuming background people.  Behind them they are filming a practice scene using one of the little girls who showed up like we did and Brad Garrett’s stand in, Fred.

The crew working on getting the lighting just right.

Below is a picture of the real scene being filmed with Brad Garrett and the girl with our kids “acting” as regular people sitting around talking in the background.

Brad Garrett changed shirts so it could be used in a different episode and filmed in front Bubba Gump’s.  This time we all got to play regular people sitting in the restaurant directly behind him.  We also played the role of regular people walking in the background and going up and down the escalator.  I guess no one really pays attention to who all is in the background and so they can reuse the same people over and over.  They had us go up and down the escalator 5 or 6 times while he talked in front of us.  Funny!

To the left is Brad in the blue shirt discussing the scene with the director.The picture below is of our friends and Emily coming back down the escalator for the umpteenth time behind Brad.

They filmed a total of 4 episodes with us yesterday.  They combine bits and pieces from different scenes so that you don’t see the very same people in clip after clip so we’ll be the background people for various scenes in 4 different episodes. Watch for us appearing over and over with our fine “regular people” acting skills!

Another shirt change and another scene.  This is Brad with all the kids.  Ethan, Emily and their friends are standing to his right.  Can you see them?  The camera is panned in for a close up on Brad and you can see Ethan and his friend in the monitor with Brad.  Woo-Hoo!

We moms were involved in some of the up close scenes as well but I couldn’t get any pictures of those. 

We will definitely all be seen up close on TV when the show airs at the end of February.

The last scene filmed only had kids in it so I ran out to my car and got my camera and got a better quality picture of the shoot.

The whole shoot took 4 hours but it was a TOTAL BLAST!!!