My first "acting" job in New York was on a soap opera where I lay in a casket. I rose up, the show ended; unfortunately, it ended for good, so that was that.

When daytime TV was live, I got a job as an extra on a show. An extra says nothing. An extra does nothing. An extra is background. As an extra I was told to read a book while the two actors beside me in the plane talked. This plane was actually on the ground in the studio and the faithful soap opera crew rocked it back and forth, which was most uncomfortable. Clouds held by that same crew passed by the windows. You really knew you weren’t flying but I’m sure it looked like 20,000 feet to the audience at home. All of a sudden I was nudged by the actor next to me who smiled and asked how I was feeling. I was flabbergasted and mute. He was "up," he had forgotten his lines. I saw the terror in his eyes but it was nothing to the terror in my eyes. He nudged me again to ask after my husband. I managed to mumble "Fine." He asked after my child. Again, I mumbled "Fine." Next he asked about my dog. Dog? I couldn’t think, my heart was pounding so I excused myself, told him this was my stop, and walked off the plane into the clouds and the appalled camera crew. Amazing I ever worked again.

I saw another faux pas take place one Thanksgiving. The matriarch was cooking a turkey. She was oohing and aahing to the totally empty oven and basting the would be turkey. The cameraman unknown to her was shooting the open, empty oven as she was praising the "big fat bird," talking of "how brown it was getting," etc. The audience was phoning the network to point out there was nothing in the oven – had the actress had a breakdown?

One actor did have a breakdown on live TV – sort of. He was being written out and it was his last day. He needed one more day of work that year to get his health insurance so after he was declared dead on air at the end of an operation and near the end of the show, he rose up and declared, "I’m alive, I’m alive. It’s a miracle." It was live TV so he got his one more day to be declared dead and stay that way.

My favorite moment because I witnessed it and was not responsible for it this time was when we had prompters. These prompters had the script scrolling along and if you forgot your lines you could glance over and read your lines. One day a veteran actor forgot his lines and glanced over to the prompter. He’d forgotten his glasses too though, so he got down on his hands and knees to crawl over to read the prompter. This left the woman he was talking with making up her lines as the camera was turned on her. He finally crawled back to her, got back in his seat, and said his lines. She was bursting with laughter. We all were at the sight of him on all fours. But inside I knew my "This is my stop" walk into 20,000 feet was the worst faux pas of them all.

By Tina