After waiting more than a month, Colin Clemens and his dad, Gordy, found out Thursday when their appearance on Ricki Lake’s daytime talk show will air. As it happens, it will air Tuesday, Gordy’s birthday, at 3:30 p.m. Colin said the show appears on channel 9 on Comcast regular cable and channel 190 on Comcast cable HD. Check your local listings. Colin and Gordy had been invited on Colin’s birthday, Feb. 11, to film the appearance on “Ricki”. They were flown out to Los Angeles later that week to film the show. “We found out right after we were done shooting and stuff that it was going to be about three weeks later when it would air,” Colin said. The talk show has live episodes and taped shows. The Clemens’ episode is a taped show. While “Ricki” stopped production today because it was cancelled, new episodes and reruns will run through September, he said. Colin is more than excited that the episode will finally air. “I’m actually kind of pumped about it,” he said. Colin was one of five Warsaw Community High School students featured in the 2008 documentary “American Teen.” That film led the “Ricki” show to invite the Clemens men out to Los Angeles for a taping of an episode about how kids can deal positively with their unique parents. Gordy is an Elvis impersonator. “I’m used to being on camera more than my dad,” said Colin. “He also had to perform.” Gordy sang “Amazing Grace” in his Elvis attire for the show. Colin said he and Gordy are the third family that appears in the episode. The first family has two parents who are professional clowns. The second is a mother who likes to dance whenever she hears music, no matter where she is, and her daughter. “We go on after that,” Colin said. After the Clemens’ appearance is a “cool” father and son, Colin said. The father was in a bad motorcycle accident and lost his leg. One day the father and his wife decide to embarrass the son by dressing up in a costume to see him off to school. It became a regular thing for several years. Colin said they met Lake only briefly, but most of their interaction with her was during the episode’s shooting. They met almost the entire production staff before the show. After the shooting, they changed clothes and then left for the airport. The night before the taping of the episode, Colin said they stayed in the hotel where the Munchkins from “The Wizard of Oz” stayed during that film’s production. The lot where “Ricki” was taped was where “The Wizard of Oz” and “Gone with the Wind” both were shot. Colin was happy with the whole experience, though it lasted only a couple of days. “Yeah, I would (do it again) if anyone ever asked me again,” he said. “You have to take advantage of those kind of things. Not everyone gets to do stuff like that.” The trip home ended with a “funny” story, according to Colin. Colin and Gordy changed their tickets for the flight so they could sit in the emergency exit row for more leg room since both are taller than 6 feet. When they approached their seats, Gordy’s seat was beside two big burly men while Colin’s was by two petite women. Colin’s smile on his face didn’t last long. Gordy made him switch, so Colin ended up sitting between the two big men, he said, “all the way home.”
