Medium - The Experience: Arrival

Medium – The Experience
A chronicle of my adventures visiting the set of Medium
1-Arrival | 2-Encounter With Maria Lark | 3-The Sets | 4-Patricia & Jake | 5-The Journalists | 6-Sofia | 7-The Ones I Didn’t Meet

I arrived in Manhattan Beach with some trepidation. I had no idea what to expect from the Medium set visit. Well, that’s not true. I sort of did:

In addition to a guided tour by our fabulous producers, Glenn Caron, Rene Echevarria and Javier Grillo-Marxuach, you will meet Patricia and the cast and get a sneak peek into post and see what is happening with an upcoming episode.

As if we didn’t already know they were fabulous. *snort*

To be honest, I wasn’t completely sure the email was on the up and up. Oh sure, it came from someone at CBS Paramount, but not the person I originally emailed. In fact, the person I emailed wasn’t even at CBS Paramount but rather NBC Universal. What I had asked for was cast contact information. What I got was an apology that things were taking so long but they finally had a date for my set visit. It was all very peculiar. Not unwanted or unappreciated, mind you. Just peculiar.

I am not normally prone to conspiracy theories and the like but it did occur to me someone might be playing a VERY MEAN trick on me. Someone who knows I write a blog devoted to the show Medium. Someone who knows I recently emailed the publicist asking for contact information. Someone who knows I live close enough to L.A. that I could actually get myself there on short notice.

In retrospect, I guess it’s pretty thin, my paranoid scenario. At the time, however, it seemed oh-so-very possible.

Several emails later, it turns out there is a CBS/NBC tie-in and I am one of several journalists invited to visit the set. How many, I do not know so of course I imagine a battalion-sized group of serious journalists and perhaps Giuliana DePandi.

At this point the panic set in. Will I get to meet the whole cast or just some of them? Will I get to interview them or is it just a quick meet and greet? How do I prepare to interview ten people when I only have a few days and don’t know which ones will actually be there? Most important of all, what do I wear? Ack!

So I spent the weekend shopping and researching then drove down the night before to be fresh as a spring daisy the morning of the set visit… which turned out not to be until the afternoon. No problem, actually. I did some morning reconnaissance to make sure I could find the studio and it’s a good thing I did. What is it about online maps that always seem to get you almost to your destination yet not quite there?

Although the Raleigh Studios address is on the main drag, you have to turn on a side street and go all way to the end to find the main gate. Not the gate halfway down the block with a guard shack and gate arm that looks like the entrance. No. All the way down.

Thankfully, when I arrived at the gate fifteen minutes early, my name was indeed on the roster. It was not a horrible joke after all.

Next post in the series: Encounter With Maria Lark (Bridgette)

TIPS I LEARNED ALONG THE WAY

• When you receive and email inviting you to a set visit, reply with a simple, “Thank you, I would love to attend.” If instead you say, “Is this for real? Can I bring someone?” you will end up feeling juvenile and unprofessional and just plain stupid.
• When you need information about a celebrity or production, don’t be shy about contacting the publicist. Getting the word out is what they do.
• When all the other hotels in the area are $200 a night and you find one for $105 plus tax, stay at the $200 hotel.
• Take pictures.

Tags: medium, medium nbc, medium set visit