Posted by chicagomedia.org on March 04, 2009 at 11:02:06:
Visiting Chicago's green rooms, where the TV-worthy people wait
By William Hageman | Tribune reporter
March 4, 2009
If you ever hit it big—write a best seller, make a name for yourself on TV, give birth to octuplets - you'll inevitably end up in a green room.
That's where television talk-show guests hang out before going on the air to be interviewed. Basically a holding pen, the green room can be comfortable and relaxing. Or it can be a dump.
"I've been in green rooms that were depressingly not looked after," says Chicago writer Sara Paretsky, author of the V.I. Warshawski detective novels. "Not necessarily in this city. Chipped paint, Kleenex on the floor, torn-up upholstery. It depresses you when you're trying to focus and be your best."
Paretsky, who will undoubtedly make the green room rounds again when her next book, "Hardball," is published in late summer, says she was surprised how roomy and restful WTTW's facility was, and also had kind words for WLS-Ch. 7 and WGN-Ch. 9.
Tim Kazurinsky likewise has had plenty of green-room experience, first as a member of Second City and later in visits to Chicago's various TV stations.
"The Second City green room was down a flight of stairs," says the former "Saturday Night Live" star, who lives in the north suburbs. "It kept the actors from getting drunk because you'd tumble down the stairs if you didn't stay sober."
He says he's most comfortable with WGN-TV's green room, which he finds "kind of cozy." But "usually they're not terribly relaxing because there's some staffer there jawing, an intern assigned to you."
Paretsky has a problem with the ubiquitous TV sets.
"You're sitting there, nervous, wondering if you're going to remember what you're there to talk about. But it's not very restful because the TV is always on," she says.
If Paretsky and Kazurinsky were asked to design a green room, one item they would agree on is lighting.
"Floor lamps for soft light," she says.
"Better to have lamps than overhead fluorescent lights," he says. "That overhead lighting is always annoying."
And while she's making requests, she would like to see more creature comforts.
"Like the old 20th Century Limited, with manicurists and massage artists," she says. "Creating a soothing atmosphere so you feel important."
Kazurinsky has more basic needs.
"A mini-fridge, with a bottle of water to wet your whistle. I think a mini-bar would be counterproductive. And a little thing of M&Ms. It's nice to get a little sugar rush before you go on. And no brown M&Ms."
Unlike Kazurinsky and Paretsky, most of us will never see the inside of a green room. So we went behind the scenes and surveyed seven local green rooms so we can tell you just what you're missing. (For openers, very few of them are actually green.)