Warner Bros. and Baja…
We left for Hollywood and our Warner Bros.Studio Tour about 9 am, about 3 hours before our tour was to start. And I’m glad we did.
I figured it would take us about an hour and 15 minutes to get there and that would give us plenty of time to walk around and then eat lunch before our 12:00 noon tour.
But we hit a lot of traffic after we left the freeway, so it took us almost two hours to get there, get parked, and get checked in. That left us an hour to find a place to eat.
One of the problems with the traffic turned out to be the fact that Hollywood Blvd. was shut down on the block in front of Grauman’s Chinese Theater. At first we thought they were filming a movie due to all the production trucks It turned out to be a promotion for the upcoming Long Beach Grand Prix.
Looking around we decided to try Baja Fresh Mexican Grill right across the street. We’d seen the restaurants around but never tried one, so this seemed like a good chance. According to their ads, everything is fresh. They don’t even have a can opener.
Lunch was very good. Jan had a two taco plate and I had a bowl of chicken tortilla soup and a pork nacho burrito.
Walking back across the street to Grauman’s we looked over the footprints in the courtyard. Here’s one for Roy Rogers and Trigger.
We were supposed to leave on our tour at noon, but didn’t get picked up until about 12:30. The bus drove us over to the Warner Bros. studio to actually begin our tour.
The first thing we saw was the iconic Warner Bros. water tower.
It’s no longer a real water tower. It’s really just a sign now.
The first part of the tour took us thru some of the many backlot sets.
And here is a backlot used in the TV show ER.
It shows the EL train trestle and the ambulance entrance to the hospital.
Unfortunately, much of the really neat stuff we were not allowed to take pictures.
We visited the set of one our favorite shows, “Two and a Half Men”, which is on hiatus. It was interesting to see how different the sets look when you’re setting in the audience instead of watching on TV.
Next we watched an outdoor shot being filmed for a new TV show called “Pretty Little Liars” This is a pilot show developed from a series of young adult books.
Then we visited a car museum showing cars from movies and TV shows filmed at Warner Bros.
Here the Sunbeam Tiger used in the recent “Get Smart” movie
Here’s one version of the Batmobile.
And here’s another.
And here’s a scene showing the car from “Harry Potter”.
Next we saw the General Lee from the “Dukes of Hazzard” TV show. During the show’s run, they went through 257 of these.
In the General Lee pic above, notice the green screen in the upper right. They used this to show us how they can insert something into a scene that’s not really there.
They photographed us in front of the screen and then put a movie scene in with us.
The last thing we saw was the complete “Central Perk” coffee house set from “Friends”, using all the original furniture and props.
We really enjoyed this behind-the-scenes type of tour. We had done one of the special effects tours at Disney World last year that showed all the stunts and tricks, so it was nice to see something different.
By 4 pm we were on our way home. Heading out this late I was worried about going-home traffic, but it wasn’t too bad. We were home by 5:30 and in from the night.
More tomorrow…
