{alltv} Today's Morning Madness

All week long, NBC's Today anchors have been pulling pranks for a segment called "Today Gets A Laugh." But the biggest joke of the series was on them. America's number-one morning team recently gathered for a photo shoot they believed was a TV Guide Magazine cover celebrating their selection as "The Greatest Television Cast of All Time." A reasonable honor, right?

"That didn't make sense to me," says Meredith Vieira in hindsight. "But then ego takes over."

When they arrived at the shoot, an actor playing an impetuous Italian photographer put Vieira, Al Roker, Ann Curry and Matt Lauer in bizarre costumes and tested their patience with unusual requests ("Pretend that you're walking on water!") while a hidden camera in a back room taped the hijinx, which aired this morning.

Lauer was the only one who knew the shoot was a stunt (it was for his designated prank), and his willingness to go along with it all should have been a tip off. "He would have been the first one to say 'no way,'" Vieira says.

Lauer, meanwhile, was worried that his colleagues knew it was all a joke and the last laugh would be on him. "I was concerned that they were punking me!"

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/33714605#33714605