Early Election Returns

The part on last night's episode was taped on Wednesday. That's how they knew so much about the New York mayoral race.

Easy. They tape the show on Wednesday, the day _after_ the election.

Or at least that's my understanding of how weekly shows are produced. Read over, rehearsed, blocked, etc. the week preceding the day the show airs, and then taped the day before. That's how most sitcoms are produced, I believe. (Not that Seinfeld should be lumped in with "most sitcoms", but it is a 1/2 hour weekly show that is funny (which is more than "most sitcoms" are...)).

Bzzzzzzzzz! Thank you for playing! Sorry, but that's not quite how it works. Most entertainment programs are taped or filmed (BTW, "Seinfeld" is filmed, not taped... big difference) on a schedule that puts production several weeks before actual broadcast. No one wants to put themselves in a position where they're skating the bare edge of an airdate.

Now, that being said, the episode in question was filmed in advanvce with two sets of scenes (where necessary) to reflect each possibility of winner. The press conference with the winner (Rudy, as it turned out) was not taped until Wednesday, the day after the election and hurridly edited into the rest of the episode to make the thursday deadline (and yes, despite my earlier tirade, the press conference was produced on videotape rather than film, in case anyone cares).

So the sort answer is, your assumptions about general television production are not quite correct, except that they do happen to jibe, in some ways, with this one episode.

I'm done.

Derek

Derek Toten

Nope, not by a LONGSHOT!! These things are taped WEEKS (sometimes even months) in advance of the air date.

Phew... the idea of doing all these shows the DAY BEFORE they air is insane! That would be no way to do business.

Then you "believe" wrong! :->

[email] (Derek W. Toten) says...

Obviously...

NO, as you just said, it was all ready in advance. Also, the deadline is NOT "thursday". *I* saw this particular episode on TUESDAY night!

You did? I realize there is usually an advance feed (which is used, among other things, so affiliates can give copies to local tv critics for review), but there was much hoopla over how this episode was keyed to the election and waited until the day after (i.e., Wednesday) to tape that particular scene with the mayor-elect. This story was even carried on CNN. Did you see the entire episode on Tuesday, or just the portions that were complete by that point?

I don't mean to doubt your story. I didn't see what you saw, but I did base my story on a reputable source.

Derek

Derek Toten

Yep! I always try and watch/tape the distribution feed for the main group of network shows that I follow...

No, thats not really it. These feeds are not from the *network*, they are from the production company, and it is a means for distributing the program to the various outlets which have contracted for it...

Hmm... I missed all the "hoopla".

It looked perfectly "complete" to me. If the scene you are refering to is the one with the promise to "get to the bottom of the low-fat yogurt scandal", or whatever... then it was definitely there.

[email] (Dan Sachs) writes:

        Boy, I hope this guy isn't serious...
        Love the f**king Sein...
        :-)
        Wade