Tillie Takes New York

On Monday morning, we packed the car, put Coco in her travel crate, bedded with fresh, pretty yellow straw (Martha Stewart-worthy) and headed to NYC. It rained and rained, but Coco, as always, enjoyed the drive. Five long hours later, we pulled up at the hip, gorgeous, SoHo Grand Hotel. I got out and explained to the doorman that we had a chicken to unload. It turns out that the doorman volunteers at an elementary school and was delighted to usher in a picture book star. He, and the rest of the staff took very good care of us.

Coco liked the stylish lobby.

She also really liked the wallpaper in our bathroom. Look closely – those are doodles of birds!

There was torrential rain on Tuesday, but that didn’t affect Coco’s mood. We traveled by chauffeured SUV (courtesy of Scholastic) to the television studios, where we settled into someones office while we waited. I had my makeup and hair done by professionals! Can you tell?

Everyone came by to meet Coco. Here she is with Lenore Welby, one of the show’s producers.

Lenore and I rehearsed my segment on the set. I wouldn’t meet Martha until the taping.

My 2 minutes of fame would be the last segment of the show. It’s taped in real-time, although sometimes it takes longer (the egg dish didn’t set when it was supposed to – I don’t know how they’re going to edit that!). We had a long wait. Coco went back in her travel crate and was placed near the door to the studio. I was supposed to stay in that spare office (there’s not one large room where all of the guests wait; we were kept separate). But, I kept going back to check on Coco. Just after the show started, I went to the staging area and she was gone! It turns out that the tucked away corner that she was put in was actually the freight elevator which was now down in the basement! We found an official-looking man wearing a headset, who got the elevator back to our floor. We moved her crate to a safe place under a table.

Finally it was time for me to go in front of the cameras. Coco was a star. Despite the distraction of chickens behind her in the coop, she posed on her toy truck. She looked prettily at Martha. I think that I strung some coherent sentences together. I’ll have to watch the show to see.

MARTHA airs at different times and stations depending on the region. This chicken show should be on April 2.

Comments:

  1. Thanks for the report– I have been checking the blog everyday 3-4 times to see if you posted this yet! Great pics – the one of her on the towel rack made me spit my coffee out from laughing! Can’t wait to see the show– I’m sure you did great!

    Hope the rain has stopped in MA! The sun is finally out here, but we have some flooded roads nearby and very high rivers and streams…….

    • I was too exhausted to post yesterday. We drove back very late Tuesday night in a torrential rainstorm. Some scary driving. I’d have been tired anyway, but that wiped me out. But, today, FINALLY the sun is shining, and although some of my neighbors are flooded, we are dry here.

      • Completely understandable… I figured that was the case, but I couldn’t contain my excitement and curiosity. Driving at night in heavy rain might just be the worst!

  2. ROFLMAO- I bet Coco liked the ride in the freight elevator. Sounds like she stayed calm & happy the whole trip. Was Martha a nice lady?? Glad you all had a good time except for the rain part!! It’s raining here in CA and we have more coming Tue, so more rain is heading your way!!

  3. Did Coco get to roost on the towel bar all night? Nice and high I bet see enjoyed it if she did.

  4. Oh my goodness! Coco is such a cool chick :-) taking everything in her stride like that.

    What an amazing experience for n=both of you.

    Celia

    PS – I think I need that wallpaper!

  5. I was anxious to have news of the TV show. I loved the pictures. Coco and you did good! Congratulations Terry and Coco :-)

  6. Terry,
    Very fun to hear about your trip to NYC for Martha. The pictures look great! Like any picture… the real fun is the story!

    Congrats and thanks again for posting.
    Cathi

  8. My vintage egg display rack gets more air time than me! You’ll see it front and center on the counter during the cooking segment. Also, the show begins with a photo of a Victorian woman and her hen. That’s a photo from my collection. The producers might invite me back for a collectibles segment on another show.

  10. Don’t you wish Martha still had her old show? I sure do! Congratulations on appearing there with your lovely hen!!!!! Michele

    • Thanks so much Terry for sharing the pictures of you and Coco, I see that the show is on this friday in the US, I have seen 28seconds of a preview on Martha’s website, we are still watching 2008 episodes here so guess unless she has pre recordings or highlights of her show I wont get to see it.
      I saw that you had had a lot of rain and the girls were in a bit earlier than usual, we actually had rain the same day!! Please post any photos you have during the show I would love to see them

      Kindest Regards

      Ann-Marie in Australia

  11. Congratulations and thank you Terry for all the pictures. I’m so glad that you and CoCo had a great time and a safe trip despite all the rain. I’m looking forward to seeing the show.

  12. Hi Terry,
    I just saw this about the Martha show. Congratulations!
    How exciting.

    I look forward to watching the show.
    Have a great weekend.
    Pam

  13. Hi Terry,

    You looked beautiful and so did your chicken. Brian (10), Jodi (8), and I watched the whole thing on Channel 3 at 11:00 am, here in California. We didn’t know when you’d be on, so we sat through the whole hour. I know it was a big deal for you (+ a lot of work for just a couple of minutes on TV), and I hope you get a LOT of publicity, and sell a lot more books!!

    Also, Steve said you were going to point him out in the audience… since he got so dressed up and all that! However, I didn’t see him at all. Maybe they ran out of time and they had to cut that scene. And that was going to be Steve’s 1 second of fame!! (just joking).

    Best Regards,
    Alisa Yaffa (your buddies in California that you have never met, but knows Steve well from the EDA Industry)

    • Alisa- Steve was sharply dressed and ready for his one minute of fame, but they didn’t seat him in the audience! He spent most of the time there waiting with me in an office, and then at the last minute he was allowed to watch from the side-lines. But he had a great time! Worth missing SNUG :)

  16. I came as close to killing my hubs of 45 years yesterday as I ever have. I was taping your show and he came in about 20 minutes into it and CHANGED THE CHANNEL!!! I didn’t notice, until it was over and I pulled the tape out and saw what channel the tv was on. I may still kill the old fart. LOL- seriously, I was so looking forward to seeing you. My sis says Martha doesn’t do reruns, so guess I AM SOL.

  17. Thank you so much Terry,
    I did post a link on another post with the shorts from Mathas show but this is wonderful!! Thanks so much you have no idea how disappointed I was when I realised that Marth’s show was so old in Australia
    Warmest Regards

    Ann-Marie

  18. Hi Terry, This is my first time on your site. I’ve been meaning to check out the hen-cam since seeing you on “Martha” — you and Coco were both poised and lovely! I had a seat on the floor, as a guest of Traci Torres. “Tillie” has become my two-year-old daughter’s top bedtime reading request — thank you (and thanks, Scholastic) for that wonderful freebie! She and I will come back during the day to “visit” your flock.
    Best,
    Jessica

    • Were you one of the people in the front with a chicken? Lucky you to get a seat. My husband was allowed to stand far off in the wings during my segment.