Seat-Filler: Part One

Have you ever seen in a movie or a television show where the scene in the background suddenly gets picked up and moved away?  Its funny because at first you think it's real and then you realize you have been fooled.  Ah, life in Hollywood.  Tricky, tricky...

You know, watching television talk shows or game shows, I never even thought that people just didn't go for fun.  Don't they line up outside and wait in the rain or blasting heat just to get inside to watch a taping.  Did I ever think you could make this your part time JOB? 

That's right, folks, I am a member of the privileged, oh-so respected class of people they like to refer to as "seat-filler."  Myself, along with a hundred of my closest colleagues get to dress up, stand in lines, (yes, in the blasting heat) and then sit for hours upon hours without being fed, allowed to go to bathroom, clapping, cheering and acting excited.  But, you get paid.  CASH.  Who ever THOUGHT?

I have seen some crazy sh*t, too!  A certain golf player's highly publicized mistress, marriage proposals, a Jonas brother, perfect strangers sharing their most intimate secrets.  I have made friends with the people sitting around me, at least for that day.  I have laughed.  I have cried.  One show about cheating in relationships was so heart-wrenching I actually fought back the tears much to my own embarrassment.  And of course every time they surprise the game show contestant with their mother who "couldn't make it" before I get all dewy eyed.  Is this me being too emotional, getting too attached?  I think not... entirely.  I mean these are people like you and me.  It's a human experience.  As one host says, "It's not a game show, it's a life-changing show."  

I've come to enjoy watching game shows live way better than on TV.  At home, never watch 'em.  But as much as my a*s hurts at the end of the day from those terrible folding chairs, I keep going back.  Just one of the herd.