ANT Farm Taping 7/8/2011

ANT Farm Taping 7/8/2011, a set on Flickr.

On 7//8/11 we were invited to go to the taping of ANT Farm.

The pilot episode aired after the finale of Suite Life on Deck. It was called TransplANTed.

The name A.N.T. Farm refers to the school program that the kids attend.
A dvanced
N atural
T alent

The series follows four gifted students:

China Anne McClain plays 11 year old Chyna Parks, a talented singer and musician who plays 13 instruments. Her dad is a police officer and her brother, Carlon is a high school student who is an “Underachiever”. The ANTs go to his high school!

Sierra McCormick plays Olivia Doyle (Olive) She has an eidetic memory. She remembers everything she’s ever heard, seen or read! She is one of Chyna’s best friends!

Jake Short play Fletcher Quimby who is an artistic genius. In one episode he make life size wax figures of the ANTs. Jake is secretly in love with Chyna

The other characters and cast members are:

Stefanie Scott plays Lexi Reed a pretty but mean cheerleader who is always finding a way to make the ANTs’ lives miserable at Webster High School!

Carlon Jeffery plays Cameron Parks an average high school student is loves his sister but is annoyed at her being at his school!

Allie DeBerry plays Paisley, Lexi’s fiend who joins her in teasing the ANTs

Zac Steel plays Henry Gibson the ANTs tutor, counselor. He has wild hair and often stores odd things in it!

Aedin Mincks plays Angus Coboiea computer genius. The ANTs always come to him with technology problems. He has a crush on Olive.

Finesse Mitchel plays Darryl Parks, Carlon and Chyna’s dad. He is a police officer and loves sports. He’s disappointed in how average Carlon is. He is proud of Chyna but gets stressed out by all the problems that she deals with.

Elise Neal plays Roxanne parks Chyna and Carlon’s mom. She isn’t in every episode but she’s a children’s party entertainer.

Midy Stering plays Principal Skidmore. She’s really mean to the ANTs and has an evil pet Raven. She is annoyrd that the ANTs are at her school except when she finds a way to put them to good use! She loves trophies and loves when the ANTs can earn her more trophies!

We lined up at the studios in Hollywood. We saw lots of Twitter friends who came and talked with us. The way tapings work is you can get tickets on TVTickets.com You can get tickets on that site BUT every member on the cast and crew can invite guests. These guests go in first. Then groups ike schools and girl scout troops go next. Then if there are seats left people with regular tickets can go in. So if you do get tickets, go early. Many people get turned away each week. WE have been turned away and it’s NOT FUN We were really happy to get in this time! WE were led to our seats.

Before a live taping The audience sees an episode on playback. They showed us StudANT Council. Where Chyna and Olive runs for student council. Neither want to win though because you have to be the mirror ball, get shot out of a cannon, be a stuffed bunny as a prize for a carnival game.

The taping we went to was the 16 episode of season 1. It was called IgnorANTs is Bliss.

As usual for Disney comedies, there were 3 stories going on!

1. Olive loses her memory after hearing a loud noise. Principal Skidmore makes her leave the ANT program.

2. Fletcher learns that a girl will like him if the girl’s father likes him. So Fletcher tries to bond with Mr. Parks. Mrs Skidmore asked Chyna to write a speech and the Speech was in the ANT pad.

3. Carlon breaks Chyna’s ANT Pad and joins a Dog Show to earn the money to fix it.

The scenes were really funny. Sierra had a lot of lines and was kind of the star of this episode. Stefanie was only in play back as a person signed up for the dog show. They taped several scenes in front of us. Many scenes, like with the dogs, were pre-recorded earlier in the week.
After the last scene, there was a curtain call where we clapped for all the actors and actresses. It was Carlon’s 18th birthday so there was cake for the cast and crew. We all sang to Carlon and his twin sister Carla. After, the cast came to the audience area to take pictures and sign autographs. We brought a ANT Farm poster we got at another taping and a real ANT Farm to get signed. The whole audience got a script cover to get signed. The cast was so sweet and recognized me from meeting me before at events or from when I interviewed them.

Jake Short said Hey I know you! Aren’t you @Alexirob “You are the cutest girl on Twitter” That made me smile!!
So I got tons of autographs and pics.

Peyton List was also there and we talked with hr for a bit about HER new show Jessie. She said working with Debby Ryan is just a dream come true. She said Debby wants the cast and crew to feel like family.

It was a really fun night! I love the show and can’t wait to see more new episodes. I hope this show lasts as long as Wizards of Waverly Place and Suite Life.

I hope you liked this blog.

Follow me on Twitter @Alexirob
and follow the cast too!

China @RealChinaAnne

Sierra @SierraNMcCormic

Stefanie @StefanieScott1

Jake @TheJakeShort

Carlon @CarlonJeffery

Aedin @AedinMincks