A Visit to Martha Stewart's TV Show

Omnimedia TV Studios, W26th Street, New York, Tuesday November 24 2009.

Martha Stewart’s TV show is the matrix of all of her productions and merchandising. It's not just a TV show; it produces the raw material for magazines, books and websites as well as design concepts for merchandise and retail methodologies and much of the work is done in “real time” before, during and after taping in the Omnimedia studio on West 26th Street.

Members of the public can go and watch the show being filmed.  The studio audience is remarkably well treated, for a faceless crowd. The corporate Human Resources staff from the main building further down 26th Street are required to meet and greet the audience (referred to as guests) because, according to the charming, smartly-dressed young woman who welcomed me, Martha believes this is the appropriate relationship she wants to have with her customers.

Each guest is given a personal greeting, an assigned seat and a briefing about how the show works and what they are required to do; then they are conducted into the studio and told by the famous warm up man, Joey Kola, how to sit and how to respond to whatever goes on in front of the camera.

Just before taping begins a few individuals in the crowd are moved to different seats by an unseen hand (Martha?), evidently to create a more balanced on - screen palette, and it is obvious when the show was broadcast one week later that there is indeed a fine balance of colours, forming a pointillist effect across the TV screen.

Martha soon materialises in the vast kitchen, stage left of the set. Off camera, she is tall and beautiful and the relaxed and confident expression on her face never changes except when she breaks into a broad grin or a hearty laugh, which she does often when talking to her staff. She is surrounded, like a Delphic Oracle, by swirling steam, but she soon strides out of the kitchen and onto the set and, without pausing, begins to speak.  The audience is entranced to hear that she is profoundly hoarse from laryngitis, but nothing stops Martha Stewart and the show goes on.

Martha Stewart shows Claire Danes
how to make marshmallows

The segments today concern marshmallows, paper folding and Christmas decorations. A movie star, Claire Danes, arrives to help (rather hopelessly) with the cooking and an expert is on hand for each of the craft segments.  But it is quite clear that Martha knows exactly what she is doing and she is firmly in charge not only of the cooking and so on but of whatever is going on anywhere in the studio. She ignores the crowd and the camera and just gets on with it, continuing with her cooking or paper folding through the ad breaks while ensuring that her guests get their work done on time, too. During a commercial break, she orders Claire Danes to do the washing up. 

Martha is refreshingly brisk with Miss Danes, whom she evidently finds slightly irritating, but the actress is a regular on the show so they must understand each other.  “You’ll learn,” she intones when the movie star overturns her mixing bowl all over the counter which Martha has only just mopped up.  After largely ignoring Miss Danes' slightly self conscious account of her extravagant wedding in France, Martha grunts and says “Is it your first?”

Click here to read more about White Noise by David A. Carter

At the end of her segment, having been refused permission to leave until all the marshamallows were fitted neatly into their little plastic bags, Miss Danes is escorted through the wide, wainscoted doors of the show's elegant set and Martha turns her attention to David A. Carter.  His recent book, Bed Bugs: A Pop-Up Bedtime Book, is described by the New York Times as "one of the ten best illustrated children's books of 2009."  Today he is here to promote his latest book, White Noise, a copy of which is given to each of us in the audience, albeit to scant appreciation.  Joey Cola's pre-show comment that Martha was "feeling generous"  might have over-raised expectations, audience members being all too aware of Oprah Winfrey's on-screen generosity.

Everyone knows Martha Stewart can cook, but the audience is captivated by the fierce concentration with which she produces an elaborate folding paper Christmas tree, live on camera, in no time at all.  For someone with severe laryngitis, she is not only well rehearsed, but her perfectionism is demonstrated yet again during the commercial break, when the cameras are not rolling.  While Mr. Carter marks time in the shadows, and her massive studio crew races to change sets around her, Martha continues to work on her tree, ignoring all except a friendly young woman who brings her a cup of herbal tea.  It's difficult to avoid observing that Martha quickly establishes an edge of competetion between herself and her guests, whether consciously incompetent cooks, like Claire Danes, or acknowledged experts, like Mr. Carter.  Indeed, Mr. Carter appears to realise what he is up against and seems relieved when Martha moves on and he has been escorted through the wainscoted doors.

The Asian Christmas Tree

The next segment is intriguing not only because its focus is the creation of an Asian Christmas Tree but because her guest is the increasingly well - known Kevin Sharkey.  Pencil thin, laser- focused and evidently as driven as Martha, Kevin Sharkey is her accomplished home design editor and somewhat of a controversial character himself, owing in part at least to the obvious personal rapport he has with his boss.  They appear to thrive on each other's obsession with whatever they are doing; Martha Stewart is very relaxed around him, and he seems to find it easy to make her laugh.  Even so, when he proudly produces a huge plastic bonsai to form the frame of the Christmas Tree, she remains competitive. 

"Do you know how to paint a tree?" she challenges.  Without waiting for his answer she seizes the entire tree and up-ends it into an enormous garbage can full of water with a slurry of paint on the top.

“See,” she says, pulling out the delicately - coated branches, “paint floats." 

Kevin appears to be speechless. 

"Did you know that?” insists Martha.  Kevin flinches slightly and takes a couple of steps back.

Kevin Sharkey

Between the two of them they somewhat combatively decorate the Asian Christmas Tree so it resembles a drawing by Old Mister Wang, and the show is over.  But not quite; the lights go down and the cameras are switched off and Martha wanders into the audience and does an entirely spontaneous home hints Q and A, off the cuff and unrecorded.  A woman from Philadelphia asks her how to make perfect fondant, as if this is the sole reason for her long trek into Manhattan. 

"Buy it at Cake and Bake," she replies, throwing an elegant arm upwards and behind her head, in the vague direction of New York Cake and Baking Supply on 22nd Street. "I always do."  The crowd is silent, apparently stunned. 

"Oh, come on!" yells Martha. "It's sugar and water, nothing to waste time on."

With this, a beast is unleashed and Martha Stewart is pelted with an uninhibited torrent of earnest questions about short cuts and efficiency measures.  Someone even asks her where to buy the best pizza. She seems to enjoy this rally with her fans, not only because she knows what she is talking about, but because she enjoys demonstrating that this is so.  She comes close to laughing at herself, especially when asked how to measure out a pint. 

"A pint is a pound, the world around," she laughs, instantly.  "Did you know that?"

New York Cake and Baking Supplies
52 West 22nd Street, New York, NY, 10010

She wanders, chatting.  Unlike many American crowds, this studio audience is not overawed by her celebrity, but they really do want her advice.  It's difficult to tell what she is better at, household hints or people management.  She's a master at creating happy customers who want more and more of her advice, her books, kitchen gadgets, shopping bags, clothes and umbrellas, millions of which are sold every month on line, in shops, and at the studio itself.

Martha works the crowd, happily and effortlessly creating the impression that she is reluctant to end this time we've had together.  People are quietly and sincerely mesmerised by her and it comes as a surprise and a bit of a relief when she suddenly says she has to be off, gives a casual wave and disappears with Kevin Sharkey into the vast stage left kitchen from which she entered over two hours previously, and from which she will soon emerge for another taping. 

We are individually escorted from the studio with exquisite courtesy and handed a goody bag containing David A. Carter's book.  Another smiling Omnimedia personality hands us our coats and scarves, all of which have been invisibly tagged so as to return to their rightful owners, and waves us goodbye at the studio door.  We are sent very happily on our way after what feels like a delightful afternoon at home with Martha Stewart, and her amazing merchandising machine.