That’s all folks!

By ShellJune 23, 2018

Ever since I was 12 years old when my Mum & Dad went to LA on a trip, I’ve wanted to go to Universal Studios. I remember looking through their old chemist printed photos of Jaws coming out of the water and thought it was just amazing.

Well this time I get to go myself…. but as I read more and more about what was on offer at Universal the more I thought – ‘you know what, I don’t need to go there.’ You see, I’m not into rides and I’m not too keen on the Fast and the Furious franchise (never having seen any of the 13 films), I’ve also seen the Water World show once before at Sea World and I’d already done the Warner Bros Harry Potter experience in London…. so the only thing that was left to see was the Jaws thing and that didn’t appear like it had changed since 1982.

So I hummed and harred about what I would do, but then decided on the Warner Bros Studio Tour.

I didn’t actually realise that so many shows were made on the WB lots – Friends, The Big Bang Theory, Murphy Brown, Gilmore Girls, Full House and now Fuller House and of course The Ellen Show. Then there are movies such as My Fair Lady, Rebel Without a Cause, Gravity, Harry Potter and then most of the super hero stuff.

The tour took us around the back lots where some of the shows had their stages set up and also the street scapes where they shoot the outside scenes.

You have Patsy’s Pies from Shameless…

A generic City Hall building…

Stage 25 is where the Big Bang Theory is filmed. We weren’t allowed to take any photos in there, but the two apartments were set up as well as the foyer area where the lift and stairs are. They shoot over 5 days – day 1 the cast do a table read, day 2 they do a run through, day 3 they do a rehearsal where the lawyers attend so they can see if there is any content in the script that might offend/contradict any of their sponsors… for eg: they couldn’t eat a pizza and get food poisoning, then go to a commercial for Pizza Hut – so some jokes are rewritten if they don’t fit in with the sponsors. This is a reason that they are always eating Chinese or Thai food on the show because those restaurants are generally not advertising on TV. Then day 4 they have a technical rehearsal with an audience where they test out the jokes and if there are no laughs, they rewrite the jokes until they do laugh…. then day 5 they film in front of a new audience.

Can’t think which show this book shop is from, but it looks familiar…

Remember the episode in Friends where Ross became “Red Ross” in order to impress his girlfriend/wife, Emily by playing Rugby? This is where it happened.

These A frames covered in bushes are used to block other buildings…

Here’s the ‘town square’ – the gazebo is on wheels, so it can be moved out and some other monument put there to depict a new town.

Some houses. I think these are from Gilmore Girls – I never watched it, so I’m not sure but there was a girl on our tour who we dubbed “Gilmore Girl” because she knew everything about the show and thought that she was on a private tour with the guide.

So this house looks like this on one side….

….. and it looks like this on the other side!

Rose Wood – this was actually used in the dance scene at Rydell High in Grease.

Phil’s Bar from Murphy Brown. Apparently they are bringing this show back. I don’t know why writers can’t come up with new ideas. Don’t get me wrong, I mean I loved Murphy Brown…. back in the 80s, but come on.

The house from Full House and now, Fuller House.

This is called New York Street where they film the scenes meant to be in New York.

Then we were taken to the Harry Potter/Fantastical Beasts & Justice League costume displays. I know Wonder Woman and obviously Superman, but I’m not to familiar with the rest of the League….

Some of the facades in the street scapes were just painted on which to the naked eye looked obvious, but when viewed through a camera, it looked 3D… I think the 2 men standing there were real, but in a magical place like this, you can’t be too sure.

When a popular show finally finishes their run – like Friends, the stage gets a plaque celebrating the show. Ellen’s show is recorded in Studio 1 and she already has her plaque. Apparently when The Big Bang Theory finishes, they’ll get one too.

Then we were driven through The Mill which is where the sets are made….

Want to see the Batman cars? There was a young chap (about 18) on our tour travelling with his Mum and brother. He was offered the chance to switch on the bat signal, so as Mum was holding up the phone to film it, he made an excellent production of running in from the side and shouting “Batman – where are you? We need you!” and flicked the switch. Our group applauded him as his mother said, “I don’t think I pressed record.”

Next was the interactive area with costumes and green screens and audio talks, etc….. It was the first time I saw Ellen the whole day – I think she may have been avoiding me.

This area paid tribute to the writers and editors and storyboard drawers, etc….

Piles of screenplays…

Penelope Pittstop…

Storyboards showing how a show like Shameless follows its story lines for each character….

There were costumes from Ocean’s 8…

Then it was time to line up and have your photo taken on the Friend’s couch…

There were the old time classics…

And the new technical green screen types of movies…

Here we have Phoebe’s guitar from Friends, a real life Oscar and one of the Warner brother’s hardback script collections…

These are some of the items that you can buy in the gift shop…

The Friends’s door (you can’t actually buy the whole door, but this was a cupboard in the gift shop – you can buy a fridge magnet of the frame though… which I did)

A magnetic set of Sheldon dress ups…

Or a complete set of robes from each house of Hogwarts… there were a number of kids walking around in these robes (I wasn’t one of them….. or was I?)

Then you can purchase the wand of your favourite character.

There was one last chance to purchase a beverage at Central Perk…

Then you were shuttled back to the main gate. The whole tour was great, but there was a definite rush to it, with a so much to see, so little time vibe about it. I didn’t see a single famous person and we were told if we did spot one we’re meant to treat them like an animal in the wild – don’t approach them and don’t make eye contact or sudden movements.

Next to our apartment is Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffle House – there is a line up every day to get in there and today was no different…. however what was a little different was this group of people – there were huddled together around a chap and they all had their hands on him and they were chanting…. were they praying for a table to become available at Roscoes?

And then my time in LA had come to an abrupt end. I had a fantastic Uber driver who happily chatted all the way to the airport and eagerly helped me with ALL my cases. Thank you Emmanual from El Savador.

See you mainland USA – it’s been great.