While my parents were visiting me, my dad suggested that we go to a live taping. He instructed my mom to plan something, hoping that we’d end up somewhere cool like The Colbert Report or Saturday Night Live. My mom came through for us, and found tickets for a show that my dad was sure to love… The View.

The weeks leading up to the taping thus resulted in my teasing my dad that he would be the only man in the audience, and updating my Facebook status to indicate that we were going to The View to “cross an item off of dad’s bucket list.” All teasing aside, though, we were all excited to attend a taping of an iconic New York show.

When the day arrived, we work up early and Uber-ed (new verb) our way over to ABC studios on the Upper West Side.

After waiting in line outside, inside, downstairs, upstairs… we were shown to our seats.

I’ve been lucky enough to see a few tv-show tapings, and one of my favorite parts is seeing everything that goes into the filming.

The show that day was a lot of fun, and was, coincidently, my first time watching The View.

It was really sweet: my mom brought with Flat Stanley, a traveling children’s book character that her first grade class loves (we have high hopes that my mom will soon graduate to second grade, but she’s not the best studier…). The View‘s audience/cruise director agreed to get a photo of Flat Stanley and the ladies of The View. But not before taking lots of photos of himself and Flat Stanley…

There it is!

After that, Flat Stanley’s new best friend took some pictures of the audience. Can you find us?

During every commercial break, Sherri Shepherd would come into the audience and tell us the most hilarious stories about her life. This always resulted in the audience being near tears from laughing so hard, and Sherri having to hurry back to her seat in order to make it in time for the next segment. She quickly became one of my favorites on the show- I want to be her friend!

My family had a blast at the taping- even my dad got into it! It was a really fun morning, and I highly recommend attending!

You can find tickets to The View here.

I promise: you, your mom, your dad AND Flat Stanley will love it!

~A