I am a Television Academy Student Member and with that membership comes a ton of perks! Not only do I get to see movies for free (they show a different one each weekend), but I get to attend their various “Night with -insert show-” …All with a guest!

I’ve been to their 80s comedy night with the cast and crew of “Night Court,” “Cheers,” “Murphy Brown,” and “Designing Women.” I’ll be attending the night with “Community” this upcoming week and “Glee” in a few more weeks.

The cast enters the theater via a walkway right outside. Notice the Emmy wall paper behind them. Photos or video from this event usually find their way into People Magazine or on Entertainment Tonight.


Waiting for the cast and crew to come out on stage. They showed a brand new episode of “Modern Family” to start off the night. That episode didn’t air for another 2 weeks…we received a sneak peek!


If you’ve seen the show, you know this character, “dog butler.” I find him quite creepy as well. The cast freaked out when they saw it standing next to them.
The whole cast and crew of “Modern Family” with host Tom Bergeron.

The night with the cast and crew of “Modern Family” was probably the most fun event I have ever gone to at the Academy. I felt like we were all just sitting back and chatting about this awesome show. I even had the guts to stand and ask the director, Jason Winer, a question. In fact, the Academy write-up of the event includes an answer to my question of how important rehearsal and improvisation was to the filming process. They film many different punch lines and pick the funniest!

This was taken after Tom Bergeron held the microphone for me to ask a question – so cool! I said “Hey Tom” when he walked up šŸ™‚

It must be so much fun on their set. They mentioned keeping the set environment very relaxed because comedy is very hard when people are exhausted or stressed. I can certainly respect that. I’d love to work in an environment like this one day!

-AM