Television: Living in Glass Houses

Should we visit Ellis Island or go on national TV? New York is aswim in fishbowl studios

If the Statue of Liberty were being designed today, she'd have a video camera instead of a torch. And she would welcome them all to Manhattan--the huddled, sign-hoisting, body-painted masses yearning to be filmed. At the crack of dawn, they're at Rockefeller Plaza, peering into the NBC Today show's glass-walled studios, pestering Al Roker for a chance to say hi to Aunt Connie in Flat Rock. By afternoon, they're choking Times Square sidewalks outside MTV's fishbowl studio in hopes of getting into a crowd shot on Total Request Live. At various other times, they might hit either site for an open-air...

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