1097852 When I was a youngster I thought any motel with a pop machine and color television was something on the order of the Ritz. These days I know better. Classy hotels come with internet access or those vibrating beds. I'm pretty sure the place we used had both. <p> <object width="440" height="361"><param name="movie" value="http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/player.swf?mediaId=3729187"/><param name="wmode" value="transparent"/><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"/><embed src="http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/player.swf?mediaId=3729187" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="440" height="361" allowScriptAccess="always"></embed></object> <p> The young actors who played the college kids in the hallway were very loud and their behavior should have drawn many complaints. But the hotel we used knew that there were artists at work. They put up a little sign welcoming Mayne Street. The lady at the gift shop broke my one hundred dollar bill but she gave me a very olden day looking 50 as part of my change. It was so old looking that the corner deli near the hotel where I was really staying rejected the 50 as counterfeit. That was only the start of my money troubles. I bought two tickets to Eddie Vedder, who was playing just down the street from our shooting site at the very beautiful (really) New Jersey Performing Arts Center. The lady at the hotel quoted the ticket broker as saying the seats were row four. It turned out I had paid four times the price of the tickets for row 34 but Ed was still visible and very good. To get back at society I needed to pass off that bogus 50 dollar bill. But before doing so I broke down and asked a police officer what he thought of it. He seemed to know a lot about fake money. This bill, he said, was genuine. Old but genuine. Maybe it was a rare 50 and could have brought me thousands of dollars on the antiquities market. Or at least paid for the row 34 Ed seats. I didn't have time to auction off my rare bill. Plus I needed to buy water for the room so I wouldn't have to pay fourteen dollars per bottle. The 50 dollar bill is out there somewhere. This blog is meant to take you behind the scenes a bit even if you didn't care to go there. So here's one behind the scenes thing for you. The very hotel where we shot the episode called "Hotel" is also the place where we shot the "Team Building" episode. I know I'm giving away a lot. It's like learning whether the river bank scene between Dennis Hopper and Martin Sheen is really only yards away from where the sniper says "I'm good" in Apocalypse Now. It's heavy stuff, I know. But now it's yours to do with what you want. As for the episode itself I haven't seen it since they made a few changes. I hope they didn't take out the part about the hotel. true 2008-12-02T16:17:58Z 73707 1 2008-12-02T16:17:58Z