NBC Page 1995

After graduating from Bucknell, I returned to Souther California faced with the extensional question of what did I want to do with my life. My undergraduate work gave me an excellent liberal arts education, but like so many graduate, I had no idea where I fit in and what my purpose was supposed to be. I had always been interested in the media, but wasn't sure where to start. A good friend of mine sent my resume to her cousin who worked at NBC and I landed my first interview for the position of NBC Page. The duties included giving tours, seating audiences for various shows and hustling to get as many informational interviews with the higher ups as possible. She said if accepted, I would join a prestigious fraternity including Willard Scott, Ted Koppel, Regis Philibin, Steve Allen, Marcy Carsey, Kate Jackson and Michael Eisner. I got the job and was told to report to the page office where I would get my uniform. Thankfully, I had managed to avoid the embarrassing jobs in high school that required a gaudy outfit, so this was a bit of payback. The uniform consisted of a polyester gray skirt, polyester blue blazer, white oxford, red clip-on tie and black tights. I sort of looked like a stewardess from the 1950s in far less breathable fabrics. And by the way, it was August in Burbank which meant daily temperatures around 100 degrees. But I was thankful to have a job and wore my page uniform proudly.

Over the next two weeks my page group of 16 were rigorously trained in all things NBC, the history, the trivia, the tours and the shows. We were then tested and had to memorize and perform the tour for the head page. I was certainly excited to be there, but some of my fellow pages were fanatical - planning their meteoric rise to run the town. I tried not to take myself too seriously, after all, I was wearing polyester.

Typically, we would be assigned to give tours in the morning then seat the audiences in the afternoon to evenings. Tours consisted of visiting sets from One Life to Live, The Tonight Show or any other show that happened to be taping at the time. There was a lot of walking backwards through warehouses to show off props or left over game show set decorations. While it never happened to me, we were trained in CPR in case a person passed out after seeing Deidra Hall from One Life to Live. We also carried these great walkie-talkies to report back to “base” (page office) in case of some overly excited fan bolted after seeing one of the local news anchors. The final stop on the tour took members to The Tonight Show studio where people gasped at how small it actually was, but at the same time there was always a collective sense of wonderment.

Answering the exact same questions like, “Did I know Jennifer Anniston? And what time did the 10:30 tour leave over and over again could be monotonous, but I was on the NBC lot, and everyday I could walk into a studio where the great Johnny Carson used to run his show.

By 2pm we started prepping for the taping of The Tonight Show. There were various posts that ranged from overseeing the greenroom (awesome) to walking up and down the lines outside announcing no cameras or guns are allowed inside 100 times (sucked). The best spots were typically commanded by the head page, but once everyone was seated, most of us were able to watch the show. The Tonight Show is an ideal show to attend because it’s live to tape and it would typically only take no more than an hour and half. Sitcoms on the other hand could take as long as five or six hours.

After five months of giving tours, seating audiences and selling ER and Seinfeld coffee mugs in the gift shop, my page days were coming to an end. I didn’t have the same devotion to television as some of my fellow Pagers. Honestly, I would have probably lost a "Page Off." I cared about my job, but I wanted something more that dealt with the issues. I sent my resume to KABC Talk Radio and scored an interview and got the job as a call screener. The program director asked me why I thought I got job. I naively said, White House Intern, college education perhaps? “No,” he said, “My ex girlfriend was an NBC Page.” True story.