Times Colonist Arts writer Michael D. Reid recently spent two weeks in New York CIty. This is the second of two reports.

NEW YORK — Kelly Ripa wasn't kidding when she described her ABC morning show as "the fastest hour in television."

It's 10 a.m. on a mild Manhattan Friday, two hours after 150 audience members have filed through a metal detector on the ground floor of WABC studios at West 67th and Columbus Avenue for the Live! With Kelly broadcast.

The hour does seem to have flown by since Ripa welcomed her guest co-host. She describes Mark Feuerstein, who plays Hank Lawson, the New York doctor banished to the Hamptons in Royal Pains, as a trooper since he was shooting until 5 a.m.

The excitement was palpable as viewers were ushered into vinyl-padded seats minutes before showtime in the intimate V-shaped, burnt-sienna-coloured studio. A massive cluster of overhead lights illuminates glass sliding doors, a Manhattan skyline and digital monitors beside Ripa's desk, adorned with a tiny American flag, black coffee mugs and a classic pewter telephone.

It's a familiar sight in the building where the petite and vivacious host has held court before millions of viewers weekday mornings for 12 years with Regis Philbin. The legendary talk-show host retired recently after 28 years in that chair.

Ripa, wearing a batwing dress, and her amiable guest host display terrific chemistry as they start shooting the breeze. She later ribs David Boreanaz, star of FOX's Bones, about his 10th anniversary plans with his wife, former Playboy Playmate Jaime Bergman, watching from the side. Boreanaz also plugs his new movie The Mighty Macs.

Later, ribbing Zachary Quinto, best known as Spock in Star Trek and now in Margin Call, Feuerstein says: "When you go to ComicCon [comic-book convention], it must be like Elvis has entered the building."

"Which is why I don't go to ComicCon," Quinto deadpans.

Before the hour's up, Ripa will have poked fun at Feuerstein as he makes a dubious pasta dish with processed cheese. To our surprise, she also wanders into the crowd during breaks for lighthearted banter about motherhood and other topics.

"Gelman has such a crush on me," she playfully confides as Michael Gelman, the highly rated show's executive producer for 28 years — motions to her to return to set seconds before going live again.

"It keeps them and me up and engaged," says Ripa, explaining why she loves to interact with fans off-air.

Gelman says while he likes to indulge Ripa's friendliness, there are reasons he needs her back.

"I just need her for two seconds to whisper in her ear, 'We're 10 minutes heavy. We have to move on,' or, 'Get to the clip.' "

The on-camera producer Philbin has playfully ridiculed for years says the studio audience is integral to the show's success.

"They bring an energy and realism you wouldn't have otherwise," says Gelman, who warms them up himself. When he isn't scribbling notes on the fly, he uses hand signals to conduct the crowd like a maestro, teaching them that louder applause is achieved by clapping faster.

"If you clap harder you just get sore hands," says Gelman.

What's most remarkable about observing a Live! With Kelly broadcast is how effortless it seems.

"One of the reasons we've been overlooked for so many Emmys is we make it look like nobody's doing anything," laughs Gelman. "The whole idea of the show is to be light, easy and relaxed. It takes a lot of work to make it seem so easy."

Indeed, it's the show's down-home "anything can happen" tone that contributes to its mass appeal and longevity.

"Everybody's in on the joke that we're a TV show, and we're not afraid of letting people in on what we're doing."

Describing it as "a lean, mean television machine," Gelman says his staff of 22 — who operate out of an unremarkable windowless warren of offices — is "minuscule" compared with other shows. Many of them have been with him for years. "We're very low-tech, very old-school," he says. "Not a lot is lost in translation. It's very much like a newsroom."

He describes creating five hours of live programming each week as "the black hole of TV, the black hole of creativity. No matter what you come up with, it just gets eaten up. So we're constantly coming up with new ideas."

Gelman says "keeping it real" is key to the show's freshness — a goal Ripa's "real girl-next-door view" helps achieve. "I never feel like I'm 'on,' " Ripa adds. "I feel like I'm doing my job and going to work. Between the interesting news items, guests and audience — that's what helps me look fresh. Oh — and coffee!"

Gelman puts in a 12-hour workday, rising at 5:30 to check pop-culture updates. He arrives at Lincoln Square by 7, discusses "mostly non-news items" in a production meeting, confers with Ripa and quickly rehearses segments that need blocking. Just before showtime, he does his warmup "and then 3-2-1, it's 9 o'clock and we're on. Then it explodes into all this energy and fun we try to keep going throughout the hour."

After the show, there are tapings of Fashion Finder, promos and so on, post-mortem meetings with Ripa and staff, and booking, budgetary and other issues to deal with before his wife, Canadian TV personality Laurie Hibberd, calls if he hasn't left by 6:30.

"The beauty of live TV is it's more real and exciting, but once you're done, you're done," says Gelman, adding viewers shouldn't expect major changes to his winning formula. "Evolution, not revolution."

While Ripa has since welcomed guest hosts including Jerry Seinfeld, Neal Patrick Harris and Josh Groban, Gelman says the show's too valuable to rush hiring a replacement for Regis. "We're in what I like to call the dating stage," he says. "We'll try different people out, test the chemistry. We're going to do that until we find the right person."

mreid@timescolonist.com