Day 5: LA

Ken got up early to go stand in line for tickets to the Tonight Show. It is really nice that all the tickets here are free. You just need to wait in lines. He was successful, but got a dose of LA traffic on the way back to the hotel. The trip that took a half hour on the way (6:30-7am) took and hour and fifteen minutes on the way back.

After breakfast, we decided to take the NBC studio tour since we were already going to be there for the Tonight Show. On the way, we had to get one of the most famous tourist photos in the entire USA.

The NBC tour was a real disappointment after the excellent Warner Brothers tour. There are only about 4 things on the tour, the Days of our Lives set, the Tonight Show, Telemundo, and Access Hollywood. The best part of the tour for me was to see Jay Leno's parking spot. Apparently, the man has over 200 cars and drives a different one each day. The tour guide stated, "Most people wake up in the morning and pick out a different outfit and drive the same car to work. Jay puts on the same outfit, jeans and a denim shirt, and picks out a different car." We also saw a star. As we were leaving, we walked past a Days star. The funny thing was that no one in our tour group watched the show and the tour guide did not even know his name.

After the tour, we got in line for the Tonight Show. Unlike the Price is Right, you don't get a number on your ticket. You have to get in line. We had heard on the tour that the sound stage holds an audience of 382. We were pleased when they did a count and we were 133 and 134. Then, as we stood their waiting to go through security, this huge group came from around the side of the building. We asked a page who they were. We learned that Jay's guests get tickets. It seemed like almost 100 people. We began to be concerned that we would get in. There were others before our 133 with "guaranteed seats". (I just learned on the Internet that you can get these at Universal Studios.)

The show was really fun. Jay came out and chatted with the audience before getting his suit on for the show. Then John Melendez warmed the audience up with free stuff and audience talent show. Our seats were in the second row of the bleachers right next to the Tonight Show Band. You can hear Ken's whistle during the monologue, but we didn't make it on camera. The guests were Drew Barrymore, Zack Effron (High School Musical) and Kenny Chesney. I used to be a Drew fan until seeing her on this show. She flipped her hair 22 times during her interview (I counted when we watched it the day after!) and just was rather ditsy.