Stalking the WB!

This past Monday, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I took a little stalking field strip to both Warner Brothers Studios and the Paramount Lot. I’ll get to the Paramount tour tomorrow, but today it’s all about the WB. What can I say – the Warner Brothers tour was awesome! It is nothing at all like the Universal Studios back lot tour. The WB tour is far more intimate and personal. A maximum of twelve people is allowed in each tour group, which makes for a far more flexible, personalized tour. The WB tour also lacks the cheesiness that is pretty much ever-present over at Universal. Don’t get me wrong, I had a blast on my Universal birthday tour, but if I had to choose between the two, I’d much prefer stalking the WB. Anyway, Mike and I arrived bright and early at about 8:30AM and I must admit I was as giddy as a schoolgirl! 🙂 Before the tour began, we got to do some shopping in the WB gift shop. The gift shop sells some great souvenirs like t-shirts, key chains, mugs, and even lip gloss, from hit shows like Entourage, Gossip Girl, Gilmore Girls and, my personal fave, Friends.

There is also a lot of movie memorabilia to stalk inside the gift shop, such as Daniel Radcliffe’s costume from the original Harry Potter movie and Will Smith’s outfit from I Am Legend (pictured above).

There is even a Starbucks located right inside the gift shop, so I was in heaven!! Movie memorabilia AND a Starbucks?? What more could a girl ask for? 🙂

After getting our shopping on at the gift shop, we were instructed to move into a small movie theatre where we were shown a short movie about the many productions that have been filmed on the lot. The movie definitely got me pumped up and excited for the tour and I was literally on the edge of my seat ready for the tour to begin. After the 15 minute movie, our tour group boarded a small tram and headed for the famous WB back-lot.

The first movie site stalked on our tour was the location of one of the most well-known screen kisses in cinema history – the famous upsidedown kiss between Spiderman and Mary Jane that took place on a fire escape in the pouring rain. That fire escape is located on the WB’s back-lot in an area that is now called “Spiderman Alley”. 🙂 Apparently the scene was not very fun, or romantic, to film, as Tobey Maguire had to hang upside down for over eight hours, giving him a massive headache, not to mention all the water running up his nose from the fake rain. That kiss was later emulated by Seth and Summer in one of my favorite O.C. scenes ever!

Our next stop on the tour was the exterior set of ER ‘s Cooke County General Hospital. This set was very cool to see as I was a big fan of ER during its first few seasons.

While 95% of the sets for ERare located inside a soundstage, the exterior set includes the hospital’s ambulance entrance, a small portion of the waiting room,

The Jumbo Mart where the doctors eat,

the “L” tracks from the Chicago railway system,

and even George Clooney’s former basketball hoop left over from the days he starred on ER.

Next up our tour guide took us to a small stretch of grass that often doubles for Central Park in Warner Brothers movies and television shows. The patch of lawn is so small, I have no idea how it can possibly double for a park, but it does. The small park was featured on Friends as the place where Phoebe “runs weird” and also as the location of Rory’s “study tree” on the Gilmore Girls.

Next up was Lorelai’s house from Gilmore Girls which looks pretty much exactly as it did during the filming of the show.

In actuality, the entire town of Sleepy Hollow from Gilmore Girls is located on the WB lot, and it, too, looks pretty much exactly as it did during filming. This set is usually called Anytown, USA and has been used in countless productions, most prominently as Hazzard County in the Dukes of Hazzard television series.

Pictured above is Luke’s restaurant from Gilmore Girls,

and the Hazzard County Courthouse from Dukes of Hazzard.

I think I was most excited of all to see the house from one of my fave 80s sitcoms – Growing Pains (pictured above). I used to seriously love me some Kirk Cameron. 🙂 The house looks a bit different now, but it is still pretty recognizable as the Seaver Family home. As we drove up upon the house, our tour guide asked if anyone could still remember the words to the show’s theme song and I am proud to say, I still could. 🙂 You can watch the Growing Pains intro here. Cue theme song – “Show me that smile again, don’t waste another minute on your crying . . .” 🙂

The side of the Seaver house was also used as Lane’s house on Gilmore Girls. Apparently many houses on the WB lot have double, or even triple, fronts so that they can be used for multiple houses at a time.

We also got to see crew members setting up a scene for Ghost Whisperer on the WB’s Paris Street. Ghost Whisperer used to be filmed at Universal Studios, but due to the recent fire, production has since moved to Warner Brothers. Paris Street was also used in the filming of Casablanca, as the location of Rick and Ilsa’s Parisian tryst.

The building pictured above was featured as the location of Rick and Isla’s teary Paris goodbye. Ahhh, we’ll always have Paris! 🙂

Also included in the tour was a walk through of the set of Two and a Half Men– which was VERY cool as I watch that show all the time; an up-close and personal view of many cars used in major motion pictures – ie. the General Lee from the Dukes of Hazzard movie, the Batmobile, and Keanu’s car from the Matrix; a tour of the Warner Brothers Museum which displays numerous costumes and other movie memorabilia from such films as Harry Potter, Fools Gold, The Matrix, and The Dark Knight;and a walk through of the third biggest soundstage in the US which has been used in productions such as Ocean’s 13 and The Perfect Storm. We were not allowed to take any photographs while inside the soundstages or the museum which was a total bummer! 🙁

My favorite part of the tour, hands down, had to be when we got to see the original Central Perk set from Friends. SO COOL! After the final season of Friends, the entire Central Perk set was moved to an empty soundstage preserved for us fans to visit. 🙂 The set pieces are a little tweaked and aren’t set up exactly as they were during filming, but it still looks pretty much as it did on TV. SO COOL!

Mike and I had an absolute blast on the WB tour and I HIGHLY recommend stalking it!!!! No two tours are ever the same, and I am seriously considering doing it again soon. 🙂

BIG THANK YOU to Mike for taking all of the above pictures – would you believe my camera died at the very beginning of the WB tour cause this stalker forgot to charge it the night before. I am such a blond sometimes!!! LOL

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Warner Brothers Studios is located at 3400 Riverside Drive in Burbank. Tours run every 30 minutes Monday through Friday from 8:20am to 4:00pm. Advance reservations are recommended. Tickets will cost you $45 per person – and I assure you, it is $45 well spent! You can learn more about the tour here.