Rachael's Underbelly Blog

OK, people, this is my last blog for the season, so the pressure is on to make it really hot. I can't believe we've already reached our season finale. ABC is "double pumping" us (I've always found that term awkward) on Wednesday, so we'll not only be on at 8:30 pm/ET but 9:30 as well. I have to say for all the moving around and delaying of our show, you guys have managed to find us and stay loyal. We all adore you and can't thank you all enough for watching! And by the way, we got picked up for 13 more episodes! So thank you very much! We couldn't have done it without you. I mean we could have, but then we would have been canceled. I think you get it.

In "Keeping Up Appearances" at 8:30, Julie and Cooper, get to spend some quality time together. I've already told you how much I adore working with Melanie Paxson, and in one of our scenes she really "cracks" me up. Pardon the pun. Ooof, that was bad. If you watch Wednesday you'll get it then. Hopefully. Or most likely not.

What's fun about Notes from the Underbelly in general is that almost all of the stuff that happens to the pregnant couples on our show has really happened to our writing staff. What happens to Melanie on Wednesday's episode actually happened to Stacy Traub, our executive producer. It's both mortifying and hilarious — my favorite combo.

Our writers have done such a great job with the show. It's been such an honor to work with all of them. Aside from the fact that they are all total nerds, they've done OK by all of us in the cast who wouldn't have jobs without them. I mean, I would probably be on The Office, but I turned down the part of Angela, Angela Kinsey's role. OK, I didn't, but she knows I let her have it. All right, honestly, I auditioned for Pam but wasn't even called back. I think they used the words "not right at all for this role." But I digress. I just feel very lucky to have such a devoted and talented writing staff.

The "Surprise" episode, airing at 9:30, was a fun (although completely scary) episode to shoot. Why? We flash back to what we were like when we all first met 10 years earlier. Jennifer Westfeldt wins the award for best use of acid-washed denim and Michael Weaver once again gets the a--hole award. Not for his clothes… just because he is. What? Pete Cambor gets the award for best use of '90s facial hair, and let me tell you, Cooper had some mad style. Tune in and check out my fantastic frames. When my husband saw a picture from the shoot he simply looked at me and said, "I hate those glasses." Nice.

Sabrina Rosen was our wardrobe designer and she's fabulous. Sabrina, Shawn and her gang of miracle workers found the best stuff from the mid-'90s to dress us all in. Our clothes were perfect. Horrifying, but perfect.

We shot a lot of the episode on a boat in Marina Del Ray. Just south of Santa Monica. It was supposed to be a moving boat, but if you pay attention you'll see that we just sit in the harbor and don't move. Obviously we didn't have the budget to be on a moving boat. That's what's called an "inside tidbit." I know… thank me later.

We're celebrating Andrew's birthday in the present, and in another hilarious Melanie Paxson scene she and Sunkrish Bala bust a move in Andrew's honor. I have to say, it was impressive. The producers hired a choreographer and Sunkrish and Melanie worked it out. That's hot, right? Wow, not feeling the "hot" blog right now. I'll just keep writing and hope I happen upon hotness.

I do know I had a great time working on this show, and I'm so grateful that we get to come back next season. It has been an honor and a privilege to work on Notes from the Underbelly, and I hope you'll watch next season! Who knows, maybe TV Guide.com will let me blog again? Now that would be hot.

Our first birth on the show is tonight! Or last night, if you're reading this Thursday.... I missed my deadline, and well, you know how that goes… lame. Me. Not TV Guide.

Shooting the hospital scenes for this episode gave me a lot of appreciation for all those who don scrubs on Grey's Anatomy. It's one of my very favorite shows, and I now understand why they get paid the big bucks. They're not paid to act — they're paid to shoot hospital scenes… that take forever. Especially if all the principles have lots to say around a body on a table.

There are, at one point, five of us in a scene and we're all standing around mom-to-be Melanie Paxson's hospital bed. So we had to do several scenes in the same room, and instead of shooting each scene individually, we did each scene directionally. What that means is that the camera stayed in one spot through a taping and then it was moved to another spot and we shot the scene all over again. Still nothing?

OK, the point is it made for a very long day with m'lady Melanie Paxson's legs up in a rather vulnerable position. And wouldn't you know it… she insisted on not wearing any underwear. That coupled with the fact that Barry Sonnenfeld directed — so every cool shot imaginable was in play — meant we were there shooting from 7 am to 4 am the next morning. (We get breaks… our amazing crew does not. Yeah, think about that. They are good people.)

It was 11:30 pm.... We had said the lines so many times I actually forgot my words — on my close-up. On my personal fancy-shot time. Completely blank. Which, if you've ever worked with me, you know I never give up. Ever. That is a grotesque lie. I feel as if I'm always one step away from breaking into a monologue from Tartuffe that I've buried way back in my brain from college in order to say something… anything. My waking actor's nightmare. Let me tell you it's not fun, nor is it pretty. It's actually horrifying and ugly when 90 people just want you to get it right. Flop sweat starts happening to the actor, and writers start thinking, "How the crank can we cut down this already incredibly easy phrase?" Luckily, I got it together just in time, but I fear the pressure from the day and mental gymnastics I had to do to stay fresh gave me the stink eye.

I didn't actually get the stink eye; I just got a broken blood vessel. Again, not pretty. So, un-pretty that Barry Sonnenfeld famously gagged at the sight of me. In one of the upcoming episodes they had to digitally remove the red from my dead eye. No joke. Expensive. I love Warner Bros. and ABC.

It's 2 am and we've finally finished the hospital-room scene, and Melanie has finally put on her underwear. We move into the elevator for the balloon scene! I'm smashed in the elevator with almost 80 balloons and a helpless couple trapped in the scene with me. Barry said that this scene is one of his favorite. It turned out quite funny, if I do say so myself. It's a quick gag and only took us an hour and a half to shoot. First, the balloons weren't falling correctly, and then I went up on my lines. I had one line. OK, I'm kidding, but I needed a good out.

In this episode titled "Oleander," we gather for a meal at one of the hottest new eateries in L.A. The food is great, and the people are very cool. I love doing the group restaurant scenes because you get a nice taste — pardon the pun — of each of the characters and how they all relate to each other. Plus, when we’re not rolling we get to catch up and try our best to crack each other up. Melanie Paxson gets the award for the best, most embarrassing story. It didn’t happen to her but to a friend of hers, and it took our breath away. All I can say is, it involved a girl, a guy and a city. Sad that I can’t go into detail, but I fear Melanie might sue me. This is the thing about blogging... I start to write just for myself and then I realize millions of people are reading my blog. Millions! And I need to be really careful about what I write. It’s very precious.

I worked on Evan Almighty last summer and I loved when we were shooting, but I also loved when we had downtime. When you’re working with some of the funniest people around (Steve Carell, Ed Helms, John Michael Higgins, Wanda Sykes, Wayne Wilderson, Maile Flanagan, Jeremiah Birkett), it’s fun to just sit around and swap war stories. But on Evan, John Michael Higgins took things up a notch. Michael is an amazing musician and music composer/arranger. He would grab a few of us at a time and form quartets (soprano, alto, bass and tenor). He would teach us — line by line, note by note — what the arrangement of the song was. I, being the musical-theater nerd that I am, lived for these "sessions." I’m not so sure Michael lived for me participating in them, but I was gonna sing come hell or high water. Every now and then, if the others weren’t singing, they’d hear from the honey wagons the faint almost exquisite sound of jackasses harmonizing. Just for the record, Wanda never sang — she was forced to listen a few times, I think, but she never sang. PS. Evan Almighty is due to hit theaters on June 22!

Speaking of hitting (OK, that was a very lame segue), in this episode Danny and I find we’ve been hit on, or have been the hit-ee, of the same person. I know, just when you thought you had Cooper all figured out, she throws you a curveball. Constance Zimmer guest-stars and she’s hilarious. While she was shooting our show she had just joined the cast of Boston Legal, which is another one of my favorite shows. We were so lucky to get her before she became the property of David E. Kelley.

I’m going to New York this week to do some press and to participate on a panel at the Tribeca Film Festival! I will be chatting with Mike and Juliet of The Morning Show this Friday morning (check your local listings!) about Notes from the Underbelly and about my fear of getting different frames for my glasses... really important stuff, guys. The glasses part not so much, but the show: very important. The panel I am doing will be Sunday, April 29, at 4 pm. (Where I’m not exactly sure... check out tribecafilmfestival.org.) It’s titled "Look Who’s Laughing." I’m very honored to be asked to be on this panel because the ladies doing it are truly hilarious. Scheduled to attend are Debra Messing, Susie Essman, Rachel Dratch and Samantha Bee! Jay Roach is moderating, which really excites me, and I believe there are still tickets left! So check it out if you get a chance, but more importantly, thank you for watching Notes from the Underbelly and please tune in this Wednesday, April 24, at 8:30 pm/ET on ABC. I have a really good feeling that we will take American Idol in the ratings this week.... I don’t know, call me crazy, but I have a really good feeling. Or at least tie Idol. Right?

So we premiered last week, and you all kicked some major tushy in getting our show some good numbers! Thanks for showing up! Welcome to the universe of Notes from the Underbelly for all you Idol watchers.

Now this is your mission, should you choose to accept it: Call, email, send a smoke signal to anyone and everyone you’ve ever met and tell them — not ask them — to turn on our show and enjoy the funny this Wednesday at 8:30 pm/ET on ABC. If you do, some great stuff is going to happen for you. I don’t know what that is, but it’s gonna be sweet. Real, real sweet.

In this next episode Lauren (Jenn Westfeldt) is having trouble deciding if she should quit her job as a high-school guidance counselor to be a "stay-at-home mom" or keep her job and be a "working mom." Julie (Melanie Paxson) attempts to woo her to stay home, while Cooper makes an equally compelling — and might I add sexier and hotter — reason to stay in the workforce. The girls duke it out to keep Lauren on their team. Check it out to see which lady friend of Lauren's wins.

Meanwhile, Andrew and Danny take to some heavy lifting and get their sweat on… a lot. In this sweaty episode. We shot at the Warner Brothers Ranch. There are no cattle or horses from what I saw, so why it’s called "The Ranch" has yet to be explained to me. I know there is probably some fabulous old-school reason, but for now I got nothing.

While we were filming the yoga scene, the air conditioning in the building broke, and it made for a very sweaty, tense day. The crew was hot; directors, writers and makeup and hair all lost their "cool." You probably think there is some payoff to this, but no. It just goes on.... Actually, I think Melanie and I kept saying: "If I had to be sweating, there is no place I’d rather be pitting than here at 'The Ranch' with our funny writers Mitch and Jana and Barry "Live in Fear" Sonnenfeld." We are eternally grateful for working and stinking at the same time. Stinking from the sweat, that is. Sweat seemed like a funny idea when I started blogging. Now I realize... it is not.

What is funny is Michael Weaver (Danny). During the filming of the show he and his wife found out that they were pregnant. And much like the pilot episode, they couldn’t tell us they were until the first trimester was over. I swear to god, it was some of his best work. Seriously. I’m kidding, Weaver. Easy. Weaver is the kind of actor that can make any line funny. His delivery is unique to him, and that horse's mane of red hair he "maintains" on his funny head is fantastic. Danny and Cooper have some good stuff coming up in the next few episodes. Could there be chemistry? I think so. Subtle, yet mysterious. All the makings of a hilarious comedy. Seriously though... ouch. I even blogged "seriously though…."

Thanks for watching, guys. Stay tuned. It only gets funnier... and hotter. Sex-wise, that is.

OK, here's my Notes from the Underbelly blog. Get ready! I'm so excited to be premiering Thursday, April 12, at 10 pm/ET on ABC! The pilot was shot way back in March of 2006! Over a year ago — it all seems like a blur! A great blur, nonetheless. So I'll wax poetic about a few of my favorite topics: Barry Sonnenfeld, director and executive producer; Stacy Traub, creator, writer and executive producer; and Melanie Paxson, who plays Julie.

Working with Barry Sonnenfeld, executive producer and director of the pilot and three episodes, has been an honor and a privilege, and I truly adore him. He most certainly does not suffer fools, and getting a laugh from him is like getting a laugh from Jesus. There is just something very satisfying about making Barry laugh. Maybe it's because he's so unoptimistic. Barry wears cowboy boots, sits on a saddle on an apple box, and every once in a while wears a fake mustache to set just because. I love that about him: he has the confidence to amuse himself — and the cast occasionally.

Barry is very direct in his, well, direction, and he knows what he likes. That I admire. I also admire that he drinks Coca-Cola BlaK. I swear, if I drank that my head would explode, or I wouldn't stop talking for two weeks. He has the gut of a warrior. Not only does he drink Coca-Cola BlaK, but he inhales espresso. Oh, and he also wears a cowboy hat. And he's Jewish. I believe he was dubbed "the kosher cowboy" on the RV set.

Stacy Traub is the writer and one of the executive producers of Notes. She has that "cool girl" style and shops at Ethel on 3rd here in Los Angeles. She's the kind of gal who instantly puts you at ease. Super-personable and welcoming. She will hate that I wrote that. That's why I dig her.

She was extremely supportive during the casting of Notes. I went in for a work session with her and the casting director, and we worked on the scene. When I was done, I asked about my clothes. Did they look "Cooper" (my character) enough? I was wearing a low-ish cut jacket and wanted to know if it was OK. Stacy suggested I wear a tank of some sort underneath so I wouldn't be so, well… boobish. My words, not hers. Knowing I was testing in a few hours she said I should just run over to the Banana Republic on Ventura and snag one up. I did and I got the part. That's how it works, people!

Melanie Paxson is one of my favorite people in the world. We were testing at the network (the final audition) for our roles on Notes when I realized I adored Melanie. We were waiting to go in and I saw Mel hunched over like she's hugging a gigantic beach ball, breathing audibly and making a loud, "Huuuh, huuuuh, huuuh" sound. I looked at her and asked what she was doing. She said, "I'm trying to stay in my body. This helps ground me." I started doing it with her. We looked absolutely crazy, but she was right, it grounded me. And we got the part. She got Julie, and I got Cooper. That's how it works, people! That's how it works.

I hope you enjoy the pilot episode of Notes. It truly is one of my favorite shows. I'm partial, of course. Peace, and let's be careful out there....