Wheel of Fortune- December 11

We have now moved our home to Long Beach, CA. Our son Mike got us tickets to see the Wheel of Fortune live yesterday at Sony Studios in Culver City. I will have an entirely different perspective of the show when I view it from now on. The studio just does not look like it appears on television, for one thing it is smaller.On the televised edition it looks like the show runs on seamlessly,except for commercials. It flows differently when being taped. There is a break between each puzzle for the contestants to get their face powdered, and for the wheel prizes to be changed. During the live show I just wanted to sit back,relax and try to figure out the answers. But no we, the audience, were constantly directed as to how we were supposed to look. We had to sit straight, clap and holler appropriately according to cues given us. We saw three shows (to be aired March 8,9,10) and after the first show we were scolded because not only did we have puzzled looks on our faces (apparently we were to keep a smile on our face all the time) but we also looked like we had our worse enemy sitting next to us! Those comments may have been directed to me-it sure took me awhile to figure out all the flashing boards, and by the time I did the puzzle was solved by the contestants! In two of the shows the winner was able to solve the puzzle, allowing them to get the grand prize. It was interesting to me that when they were united with their families to celebrate the winnings, they are cued to keep up the jumping and screaming. It just looked too unreal. One other thing; all of the contestants walked off with at least a thousand dollars, so I was starting to get some greedy thoughts myself when we heard that because it was the holiday season they were giving tickets to members of the audience for door prizes. I got excited-maybe we would get books or purses like Oprah Winfrey gives away! Fortunately my ticket did not get me a Wheel of Fortune hat, t-shirt or cloth bag. All in all,it was an interesting experience. I didn't get any pictures,for security reasons no cameras were allowed.