After we left NBC Studios on Friday morning, it was a short walk to Warner Brothers Studios across the street for what was probably one of the best tours we took all weekend.
Warner Brothers was a bit more decorated than NBC - upon arrival, we were greeted by a sign:
as well as statues of famous WB characters:
As it was later in the day, the line for this tour was a bit longer, and we ended up having to wait awhile for our group to start. Luckily, their waiting area was rather interesting. The gift shop was there, and a number of costumes from WB movies were displayed around the perimiter of the room.
They also had something even more exciting - the world's greatest gelato, for which they were handing out coupons. 
After enjoying our gelato, we set out on the tour. Our tour guide, Thom, was quite informative if a bit theatrical. He looked like a cross between Chris Farley and Jason Bateman.
Thom drove our tram all over the Warner Brothers lot, starting at this super cool museum. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but it was easily one of the best parts of the tour. It was full of various props and costumes from WB movies, including ones so recent as Music and Lyrics, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and my personal favorite, The Dark Knight - they had a Batsuit, masks that the Joker's henchmen had worn, and a few other things that had been in close proximity to Christian Bale. They also had an entire floor devoted to Harry Potter stuff that was fantastic. Like I said, they wouldn't let us take pictures inside, but I did get one of the outside as we drove away.
Next, the tram took us past the Warner Brothers water tower, which is where they locked Yakko, Wakko and Dot. But they broke loose, and then vamoosed, and now you know the plot!
We went to the WB backlot, where a number of building facades are set up to create the illusion of city streets. Thom pointed out the location where the upside-down kiss between Spiderman and Mary Jane took place,
and we also saw the City Hall building that Batman and Robin used to drive up to in every episode of the Batman TV show,
the corner where the tires were stolen off of the Griswolds' car in one of the National Lampoon Vacation movies,
and the theater featured in The Way We Were.
We also saw a number of sites that had been featured on Friends, including the park where Phoebe and Rachel went running,
We also saw a few places from Gilmore Girls, including Rory's study tree,
what was once Luke's Diner, 
and various streets that used to be Stars Hollow.
Another highlight was seeing the outside sets for ER, including the ambulance bay,
the parking lot used as a helipad (Helicopters: 2, Romano: 0),
and the fake El train where Carol Hathaway almost had her twins.
After seeing the outside sets, they took us to a couple of soundstages where things were on display. We weren't allowed to photograph the sets that we saw (including The Mentalist), but they did allow pictures in a few special storage areas set up for tours. We saw a number of vehicles that had been used in WB movies, including the old Batmobile,
Scooby-Doo's Mystery Machine,
the Weasleys' car after it got whomped by the Whomping Willow in the Harry Potter movies,
and the new Batmobile.
We also saw this vehicle, which was used in the upcoming film Watchmen, and was pretty much just a giant advertisement for everyone on the tour. 
One of the last places we stopped, and also one of the coolest, was a storage area where they had recreated the Central Perk set from Friends. Usually when a show ends, they redistribute the props as needed amongst other shows; however, they decided to keep the Central Perk props available for tour groups. They wouldn't let us sit down (although the obnoxious foreign guy in our group seemed to think that that rule didn't apply to him, and promptly got yelled at by Thom), but the pictures are still pretty cool.
After the tour, we got a cab back to Hollywood. It took quite awhile for the stupid cab to come get us, so we just hung around:
***For day 2c, visit: http://leahgia.blogspot.com/2009/03/california-dreamin-day-2c.html***
No comments:
Post a Comment