Hollywood Studios – IAMNOTASTALKER

February 24, 2011February 24, 2011

Paramount Studios – The Fifth Time Around

This past Tuesday, my good friend and fellow stalker Kerry and her daughter Jen and I embarked on a tour of Paramount Studios in Hollywood. While it was Kerry and Jen’s very first time visiting the historic lot, it was actually my fifth – I had previously been on three paid tours and one wedding venue tour. Yes, yes, I know – I just can’t seem to get enough of the place! Sadly though, this tour was easily my least favorite of the bunch and if it had been my first visit to the lot, I doubt I would have ever returned. Our tour guide was painfully, painfully slow and quite boring to listen to and she, sadly, made the tour boring, which is quite a feat being that the lot is so extremely fascinating and has such a vast filming history. Worst of all, while she spent the majority of our tour showing us the exterior of various soundstages and telling us what had been filmed inside of them over the years, we only got to spend about ten minutes in the New York backlot area (my favorite part of the lot) and were only shown the perimeter of it. But we still managed to have fun and, even though I feel like I know the lot like the back of my hand now and could probably host my own tours of the place Winking smile , I still learned a few new things that I thought I’d share with my fellow stalkers.

When arriving on the lot for a Paramount Studios tour, groups are always first led to the Studio Store to purchase their tickets.

I was EXTREMELY excited about stalking the Store, which also doubles as a Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, because I had recognized it pop up as the Lima Bean Café in a few recent episodes of Glee! (I love that producers dubbed their faux café Lima Bean, by the way, being that the show is set in Lima, Ohio! LOL LOL LOL)

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The Studio Store first appeared in the Season 2 episode of Glee titled “The Sue Sylvester Shuffle”, in the scene in which Blaine Anderson (aka Darren Criss – who I just found out graduated from the very same high school I did!!!!), Kurt Hummel (aka Chris Colfer), Rachel Berry (aka Lea Michele), and Mercedes Jones (aka Amber Riley) discuss the recent problems with the McKinley High football team.

The store also appeared multiple times in the Season 2 Valentine’s Day-themed episode of Glee titled “Silly Love Songs”, as the regular hangout of Kurt and Blaine.

And it was featured twice in this week’s episode of the show which was titled “Blame It on the Alcohol”. It was first used as the spot where Blaine and Kurt discuss the fact that Blaine might actually have a crush on Rachel.

And it next appeared in the scene in which Rachel kisses Blaine to see if the two have any chemistry.

After purchasing our tickets, our tour guide spent over 25 minutes (not kidding!) hosting a getting-to-know-you session, which seemed just slightly excessive being that the entire tour is only scheduled to last two hours. Sad smile Because that ate up such a significant portion of our time, the rest of the tour was quite harried and rushed and we did not get to see a whole lot. We were first driven by the site of the studio’s former film vaults, which, as you can see in the above photographs, have sadly just recently been demolished.

You can see what the vaults used to look like in the above photographs.

My dad was quite obsessed with the vaults when we took our wedding venue tour of Paramount back in July of 2009 and he managed to snap the above picture of the inside of one. Even though the vaults had not been used in years, due to the fact that because they lacked air conditioning films were apt to melt while inside, it is incredibly sad to me that they are no longer standing.

We were then taken to the Lucy Park area, where we were shown a cement block that Woody Harrelson and Ted Danson had christened with their hand and footprints – a la the famous hand and footprint forecourt outside of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood – in 1989 while they were filming Cheers. And while Ted Danson just signed his name on the block, Woody’s inscription reads, “Woody Harrelson was here (naked)”. Apparently Ted had dared Woody to run around the lot naked one day and while he was doing so, the two happened upon a block of wet cement and decided to make their mark on it. LOL

Lucy Park is also the site of the famous tree where Grey Brady (aka Barry Williams) smoked his first cigarette in the Season 2 episode of fave show The Brady Bunch titled “Where There’s Smoke”. So I, of course, just had to get my pic taken in front of the tree. Winking smile

Our tour guide informed us that the very same tree and surrounding area were also used in the Season 2 episode of The Brady Bunch titled “A Fistful of Reasons”, in the scene in which Buddy Hinton (aka Russell Schulman) teases Cindy Brady (aka Susan Olsen) about her lisp.

The tree was also where Peter Brady (aka Christopher Knight) beat up Buddy later in that same episode, knocking out his tooth and causing him to then lisp. Ah, if only things worked out in the real world as they did in Brady world!

Lucy Park also appeared in the Season 1 episode of Community titled “The Science of Illusion”, in which Shirley Bennett (aka Yvette Nicole Brown) and Annie Edison (aka Alison Brie) chase Jeff Winger (aka Joel McHale) after catching him with frog-sized mariachi band costumes (yeah, I don’t really get it either Winking smile ).

Lucy Park was also used regularly as Jefferson High School on the television series Happy Days, although that area looks quite a bit different today than it did back in the 1970’s when the series was filmed.

You can see Greg’s tree from The Brady Bunch in the screen captures pictured above, though.

Next, we headed over to the exteriors of Stage 27 and 30, where the hit series Community is filmed. The interior and exterior of both soundstages are used in the filming of the show. As you can see above, the exterior of Stage 30 is used as the Greendale Community College Library (the sign of which is missing the letter “Y” – love it!);

while the exterior of Stage 27 stands in for the campus’ Borchert Hall.

We were then taken inside of the two soundstages to tour a few of the sets used in Community and, even though I have never seen an episode of the show, the sets were extremely cool to see. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take any photographs while inside, but we were shown the Greendale Community College Library;

the Dean’s Office;

and the cafeteria/game room – which was quite possibly one of the biggest sets that I have ever seen in my entire life!

By this time we were already an hour and forty minutes into the tour and only had twenty minutes left. So we spent a brief ten minutes driving around the New York Street backlot area. While there, we were shown the practical set pictured above, which has appeared in several productions, including Spiderman 3 which I blogged about in one of my previous Paramount Studios posts.

On this tour I found out that the same spot was also the café where Indiana Jones (aka Harrison Ford) and Mutt Williams (aka Shia LaBeouf) met for the first time in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

I also finally got to stalk the stoop where Naomi Clark (aka AnnaLynne McCord) and Liam Court (aka Matt Lanter –sigh!) sat during their Junior Prom in the Season 1 episode of 90210 titled “Zero Tolerance”.

The last time I embarked on the tour, I snapped a photo while sitting on what I thought was Liam and Naomi’s stoop, but as it turns out I was sitting a few stoops too far to the right. So, this time I made sure to get a pic in the right spot, which I could NOT have been more excited about! Smile For those who would also like to take a picture where Liam and Naomi sat, their stoop is located on the Lower East Side portion of New York Street and is the stoop located closest to Washington Square.

After that, we drove by Stage 15 where NCIS: Los Angeles is filmed and I was able to get some great shots of the façade used as the exterior of the NCIS headquarters.

The last stop on our tour was the Paramount Theatre, the inside of which, our guide informed us, was used as Jeff’s former law office in the Season 2 episode of Community titled “Accounting for Lawyers.

And while we did not get to view the inside of the theatre on this particular tour, I snapped the above photographs on one of my previous tours.

The interior of the theatre was also used as an opera house in the Season 7 episode of Frasier titled “Out With Dad”, although it was heavily decorated in that episode and is largely unrecognizable.

The exterior of the theatre was also used as Brooks Memorial Hospital, where Pierce Hawthorne (aka Chevy Chase) was admitted, in the Season 2 episode of Community titled “Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking”.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Paramount Studios is located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Tours are given daily, Monday through Friday, at 10 a.m., 11 a.m., 1 p.m., and 2 p.m. and cost $40 per person. Reservations can be made by calling (323)956-1777. Parking for the tour costs $7 per car and the tour lot is located on Bronson Avenue, directly across the street from the studio’s main entrance. I recommend booking your tour at least a week in advance, as they tend to sell out quickly. You can find out more information about the Paramount Studios Tour here.

November 30, 2010March 3, 2011

Paramount Studios as a Wedding Venue

Well, I guess it is finally about time that I start blogging about my wedding, but I can’t very well do that without first writing about the place where I got almost all of my wedding planning inspiration – the Studios at Paramount Pictures in Hollywood. When Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I embarked on our very first VIP tour of the historic lot back in September of 2008, our fabulous tour guide, Ian, who sadly no longer works at the studio, mentioned that sections of Paramount could be rented out for parties, weddings, and other special events. And even though at that point in time I already knew without a doubt where I wanted to get married, the thought of tying the knot at Hollywood’s oldest continuously operating studio definitely piqued my interest. Especially once Ian told us that it was possible to rent out the New York Street backlot area, which is quite possibly my very favorite place in all of Southern California. So, pretty much immediately after the Grim Cheaper proposed, I called up the Paramount Studios Special Events Department and scheduled a tour of the lot’s various event venues. And, let me tell you, it was an amazing experience! The special events tours are actually very similar to the VIP Tours in that all of the same areas of the studio are shown. The main difference, however, is that the event tours are private, so ours consisted of only four people – my two parents, the Grim Cheaper, and me – which was absolutely INCREDIBLE! The special events coordinator who we dealt with, a super nice man named Craig who I believe no longer works for Paramount, was extremely knowledgeable about the history of the lot and where various filming had taken place over the years, so the entire two-hour affair pretty much became a private, walking tour of the lot which was customized just for me! And, as you can imagine, I absolutely loved every single minute of it!

Events at Paramount can pretty much be held in any section of the 65-acre lot, making the party possibilities absolutely endless. Available venues include empty soundstages, each of which can hold up to 1,500 guests and can be completely decorated and customized based on each particular event;

the B-Tank, which is a 914,023 gallon water tank that can be filled and dressed to resemble any sort of water setting one can imagine;

any of the studio’s park areas, including Production Park;

and Lucy Park, which I’ve blogged about previously;

any of the lot’s theatres, including the historic Paramount Theatre;

and the smaller Gower Theatre;

the famous Bronson Gate and water fountain area, which can accommodate up to 500 people;

and, of course, New York Street.

As luck would have it, a huge breast-cancer awareness fundraiser was being set up in the New York Street section of the lot during our tour, so we were actually able to see firsthand what an event in that space would look like. And I have to say that it was absolutely AMAZING! I honestly don’t think I’ve ever been more inspired in my life than I was when I set foot onto New York Street that day and witnessed the extravaganza pictured above.

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Because the fundraising event incorporated three of the things that I love most in this world – New York, Hollywood, and filmmaking – I was completely in awe of the whole thing and my brain immediately started working on overload. All of sudden, idea after idea started pouring into my head and it was at that moment that I decided that the Grim Cheaper and I would be having a movie-themed wedding. Which in retrospect really seems like a no-brainer, but for whatever reason, up until we visited Paramount, the thought had never occured to me.

The most inspired wedding idea that came to me while at Paramount was that we could name each of the reception tables after various movies that had been filmed on New York Street and that, upon arrival, each guest would be given a card with a movie line written on it. Each line would correspond to one of the tables and our guests would have to figure out which movie their particular line came from in order to find where they would be sitting during the reception. And even though we didn’t end up getting married on New York Street, we did use that idea for our tables and our guests absolutely LOVED it, but more on that in a future post.

Even though I absolutely loved the idea of getting married on New York Street, the GC and I ultimately decided against it. As my best friend Kylee said after viewing the above pictures of the breast cancer fundraiser, a wedding – especially one as small as ours (we only invited 80 people) – would wind up getting lost in the spectacle of the space. The venue is much better suited for a party – a ten-year anniversary party, perhaps Smile – rather than a wedding ceremony. Oh, and there was also the little matter of cost! Renting New York Street will run you $12,500, which may sound like a lot, but is, amazingly enough, a fairly average venue rental rate for the L.A. area. (According to msn.com, Los Angeles is one of the most expensive cities in the US to get married!) The New York Street backlot area measures a whopping five acres and can accommodate up to 5,000 people and while it, according to the Paramount Special Events website, can now be customized to suit smaller groups, that wasn’t actually the case when we were thinking about getting married there. Even though we only wanted to utilize a small portion of New York Street, we would have been required to rent the entire five acres, which is actually fine – I expected that. What I didn’t expect, though, and what we were not told until we received the actual proposal, was that we would also have to pay to light the entire backlot as well – at a cost of $12,000!!!! – even if we were, in actuality, only going to light a small section of it. And, mind you, that $12,000 only covered “washing” the street in light, so that the space wouldn’t be pitch black during the reception. If we wanted any sort of specialty lighting, that would, of course, be an additional cost. There was also a fee of $3,500 just to power the event. I’m not kidding! And because Paramount hires only in-house employees for its events, you also have to pay union wages for absolutely everyone who works it – from the lighting technicians to the catering staff to the parking attendants. Besides paying union wages, you also have to adhere to union regulations, the most maddening of which was the fact that every employee must be paid for a minimum of six hours of work, whether they worked a full six hours or not. So, while I knew that getting married at Paramount would be pricey, I had no idea it would be as exorbitant at it actually was. Our proposal came to a whopping $41,000 for a pretty bare bones wedding – no open bar, no appetizers, no specialty food. The GC literally almost choked when that email came through! And keep in mind that that $41,000 did not include a DJ, a photographer, ceremony musicians, a dance floor, flowers, or the mashed potato bar that I had my heart set on. As the old saying goes, though, you get what you pay for, and a party at Paramount would have, no doubt, been nothing short of incredible!

Even though we did not ultimately choose to tie the knot at Paramount, I am so incredibly thankful that we considered it. Our wedding would have been a very different event had we not. And now at least I know where I want to hold our ten-year anniversary party. Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Paramount Studios is located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. If you are interested in hosting an event on the lot, you can visit the studio’s special events page here or you can call (323)956-8398.

November 17, 2010November 16, 2010

Paramount Studios . . . A Third Time

As I mentioned in last Thursday’s post about my second VIP Tour of the Studios at Paramount Pictures in Hollywood, I also recently embarked on a third tour of the lot, along with fellow stalkers Lavonna, Debbie, Connie, and Beth, who were all in town visiting from Ohio this past October. And I am very happy to report that my third Paramount tour was just as fabulous as my first two. If you have yet to visit the famed Hollywood studio, all I can say is that you REALLY must! As I’ve stated numerous times in the past, it is simply the best studio tour Los Angeles has to offer. This time our tour group consisted of two guides, the five of us, and only one other gentlemen (who showed up in a business suit with the intention of handing out headshots to various studio executives that we might happen to pass along the way, which was extremely uncomfortable for everyone involved, but that’s a whole other story), so we were very lucky in that our group was not only smaller than normal, but our tour was also very much catered to the places on the lot that Lavonna and Co. were interested in seeing. I should mention here that Paramount guides are very good about customizing tours for each particular group, so if you do happen to embark on a visit to the lot, I highly encourage you to speak up and tell your guide exactly what it is that you are interested in seeing.

Our first stop, as always, was Lucy Park, the history of which I wrote about in last week’s Paramount post. One thing I forgot to mention, though, was that the Chevalier Building, which runs along the eastern side of the park, was used as Milwaukee, Wisconsin’s Jefferson High School on the 1970’s television series Happy Days.

Directly across from Lucy Park is the Ball Building, named in honor of actress Lucille Ball, where Tom Cruise’s production offices were formerly housed. Tom’s office is the one with the large bay window denoted with the pink arrow in the above photograph, from which is a fabulous view of the Hollywood sign.

We were then shuttled by Stage 25, which is considered by many to be an extremely lucky stage being that two of the most successful shows in television history, Cheers and Frasier – both of which ran for eleven seasons and both of which starred actor Kelsey Grammar as Doctor Frasier Crane – were filmed there. Our guide told us that Grammar likes to joke that his short-lived television series Back to You, which was filmed elsewhere, would have been much more successful had it been lensed on Stage 25.

Next up was Stage 28 where the Nickelodeon Television series Big Time Rush is filmed. The exterior of that particular stage is used each week for establishing shots of the Rocque Records offices on the show.

Right next door to Stage 28 is Stage 27, where the Grim Cheaper’s favorite movie of all time, The Godfather, was filmed, so of course I just had to snap a photograph of it.

We were then taken inside the set of the apartment belonging to Alex (aka Elisha Cuthbert) on the yet-to-be released series Happy Endings. Alex’s apartment, which we unfortunately were not allowed to take photographs of, but which you can see in the above screen captures, is VERY reminiscent of Monica and Rachel’s apartment on Friends. It was absolutely amazing to be able to see the set in such an up-close-and-personal manner and to discover how truly realistic everything actually was. At one point Lavonna and I wandered into Alex’s bathroom – which according to our tour guide is not going to be used for actual filming but will only be seen in the background of certain scenes – and were shocked to discover how incredibly detailed it was. There was a huge make-up basket filled with actual make-up on the counter, there was a toothbrush and toothpaste by the sink, and the drawers were filled with hairbrushes and other beauty paraphernalia. The attention to detail was astounding, especially considering that the bathroom will only be appearing in the background, if at all! There were also real life bills being stored in Alex’s mail holder and actual books piled on her bookshelves. So incredibly cool!

You can watch the promo for Happy Endings by clicking above.

Up next was my VERY favorite section of the Paramount lot, New York Street, where filming for both Happy Endings . . .

. . . and Community was taking place. I happened to spot cutie Joel McHale walking around the Community set, but I couldn’t get my camera out fast enough to snap a photograph of him, which was so unbelievably frustrating I cannot even tell you! UGH!

Paramount Studios was used as the location of the Junior Prom in the Season 1 episode of fave show 90210 titled “Zero Tolerance”. In the episode, Naomi Clark (aka AnnaLynne McCord) and Liam Court (aka Matt Lanter – sigh!) decide to take a break from the dance to walk around New York Street and they wind up sitting on a brownstone stoop where, in a drool-worthy moment, Liam finally admits to Naomi that he has actual feelings for her . . . and then, it begins to snow! So darn cute!

I was absolutely dying to take a picture while sitting on Liam and Naomi’s stoop, but unfortunately I could not remember exactly which one it was, so I ended up sitting a few houses too far to the north.

Liam and Naomi’s actual stoop is located on the Lower East Side portion of New York Street and is the stoop located closest to Washington Square and is denoted with the pink arrow in the above photograph.

The café from Spiderman 3, where Peter Parker (aka Tobey Maguire) tells Harry Osborn (aka James Franco) that Mary Jane Watson (aka Kristen Dunst) is in love with someone else, is also located on New York Street, in the Greenwich Village area.

Much like the jazz club from Spiderman 3 which I talked about in my previous Paramount post, the café is a “practical set”, which means that it is not just a façade, but that it also has an interior area where filming can take place.

We actually got to step inside one of the facades while we were on New York Street, which I had never done before on a previous tour. As you can see in the above photographs, the interior of the facade consists mainly of large metal beams, from which set electricians can hang lights, and open space, where background actors are sometimes held in between takes.

The “Schlemiel, Schlimazel, Hasenpfeffer Incorporated” segment of the Laverne & Shirley opening credits was also filmed on New York Street, in the Washington Square section.

Interestingly enough, the exterior of Rosalita’s Bar from Happy Endings was dressed a bit differently than it was the last time I visited the lot a few weeks beforehand.

The way it looked on my previous tour is pictured above.

Fellow stalker Beth also somehow managed to snap the above photograph of the interior of the soundstage where Happy Endings is filmed, the door of which happened to be open as we drove by. As you can see, the doorway and part of the exterior of Rosalita’s Bar has also been built inside of the soundstage, which was very cool to see!

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Next up was the famed Stage 14, where fave show Glee is filmed. Because Lavonna, Debbie, Connie, Beth, and I are all diehard Gleeks, we were hoping to have the same star-sighting luck outside of Stage 14 that I had on my previous tour, but alas, that was not to be.

We all just about died a few minutes after driving away from the stage, though, when who should we spot being shuttled around on a golf cart but Miss Lea Michele! I was beyond excited to catch a glimpse of Lea as I had only seen her for a split second during my previous Paramount tour and, aside from Will Schuester (aka Matthew Morrison), Rachel Berry is my favorite character on the show. Sadly though, the experience was not a good one. As Lea’s cart approached, the driver put her hand up to block the actress’ face from us, which was absolutely unbelievable! It’s rude enough when an actor puts up their own hand to block their face from fans, but to have an assistant do it for you is an absolute diva maneuver if I ever saw one! The whole thing was extremely disappointing for us as, prior to that, we had all LOVED Lea. Our tour guide on the the previous tour had told us that Lea was the worst one of the entire Glee bunch and that the studio staff had taken to humming the Wicked Witch of the West theme song from The Wizard of Oz every time she rode past them on her bike, but, even after hearing that, I had still believed she was nice. Sadly that did not seem to be the case, though. Such a shame.

Next up was the exterior of Stage 15 where NCIS: Los Angeles is filmed, which I was absolutely FLOORED about seeing (and which took my mind off of the whole Lea Michele debacle) as the outside of it is used for the filming of the exterior of the NCIS Office of Special Projects on the series. So incredibly cool!

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We were then taken to Paramount’s Production Park, where the Lubitsch Building is located, which was used as Westdale High School on fave show The Brady Bunch.

The Lubitsch Building is located on the east side of Production Park and the doorway which was used as the entrance to Westdale High is denoted with the pink arrow in the above aerial view.

Production Park was also recently used in the Season 1 episode of Rizzoli & Isles titled “Money for Nothing”, in the opening scene in which Detective Jane Rizzoli (aka Angie Harmon) and Dr. Maura Isles (aka Sasha Alexander) are shown stretching before a morning run.

The filming of an episode of Nickelodeon’s Big Time Rush had just wrapped when we arrived at the park, which is what the sign reading “Palm Woods Park” was set up for. Filming had involved the cast of the show being in some sort of a mud pit and the crew was covering up the pit while we were there, which is what you see in the above photograph.

We also made a stop at the Paramount Studios Theatre and while we were there our tour guide mentioned that the theatre lobby had been used as a hotel in a certain movie, but when I sat down to write today’s post, I could not for the life of me remember which movie. Enter Lavonna, who CALLED UP Paramount to find out for me! Amazingly enough, who should answer the phone, but our actual tour guide who informed Lavonna that the movie he had told us about was Clear and Present Danger. Thank you, Lavonna! 🙂

Our final stop was the famous Paramount Studios water fountain, which was also featured in the “Zero Tolerance” episode of 90210.

Despite our disappointment over Lea Michele, the tour was still a FABULOUS, FABULOUS experience and I honestly cannot recommend taking it enough! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – Paramount is hands down the best studio tour in Hollywood!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Paramount Studios is located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Tours are given Monday through Friday at 10 a.m., 11 a.m., 1 p.m., and 2 p.m. and cost $40 per person. Reservations can be made by calling (323)956-1777. Parking for the tour costs $7 per car and the tour lot is located on Bronson Avenue, directly across the street from the studio’s main entrance. I recommend booking your tour at least a week in advance, as they tend to sell out quickly. You can find out more information about the Paramount Studios Tour here.

November 20, 2008February 13, 2009

Stalking the WB – Again!

After spending our morning at Sony Pictures Studio, Mike from MovieShotsLA, his fiance Jen, and I headed over to Warner Brothers Studio in Burbank to take their VIP tour once again. I had heard that no two tours are ever alike at the WB and Mike and I wanted to see if that was really true. And you know what? It was! This experience was COMPLETELY different from the first time we took the tour back in September of this year. It was like seeing an entirely different studio.

Our tour started off the same way as last time, with a movie spotlighting the many productions that have been filmed on the WB lot. Then we were whisked away to our golf cart to begin our backlot tour. This time Mike and I both asked to be taken to specific places that we didn’t get to see on our last Warner Brothers excursion. Mike was dying to stalk the New York City Street area, which was closed off during our last tour due to some filming that was taking place there. My location request was to see the stoop Carrie sat on during her visit to the WB in the SATC episode entitled “Escape From New York”. It is on this fake stoop that Carrie, after many failed attempts at smoking in L.A., lights up a cigarette only to have a security guard walk up and tell her to put it out. “But this is New York!” she says, to which he replies “No, Ma’am, it’s a set!” LOL LOVE IT!

Our tour guide, Matthew, pointed out Carrie’s stoop on the New York City Street right as we began our tour – it is located about ten feet away from the fire escape where the upside-down kiss from the first Spiderman movie took place. For some reason the stoop didn’t look familiar to me, and “I couldn’t help but wonder” if our tour guide had made up the location to appease me and, in truth, didn’t really know where Carrie’s stoop was located. Turns out I couldn’t have been more wrong! As soon as I got home, Mike emailed me a screen cap of the scene with Carrie smoking on the stoop and quite obviously our tour guide had been correct. 🙂 Turns out they really do know their stuff! The fact that he knew the exact location of a scene that lasted only about 30 seconds in one brief episode of SATC that was filmed over eight years ago absolutely amazed me. I think the WB tour guides may even be better than me at this stalking stuff! 🙂

Not only did Matthew know where Carrie’s stoop was located, but he also pointed out that the administration building where our tour began is the very same location where Carrie attended the studio meeting with Matthew McConaughey in the same SATC episode. AND the gate where she entered the studio for that meeting is the very same gate we were taken through at the beginning of our tour. 🙂 Let me tell you, Matthew really knows his stuff! 🙂

Next our guide took us up and down New York Street, which was amazing to see! Countless movies have been filmed there, my personal favorite being the 1982 movie Annie. So I was super excited when we were shown the orphanagewhere Little Orphan Annie lived before being rescued by Daddy Warbucks (pictured above). The orphanage looks a bit different now, as it has been dressed and remodeled for different productions through the years.

Other locations on New York Street include Ross’ apartment building from Friends,

the salon from You Don’t Mess with the Zohan,

the restaurant where Jack Nicholson has a heart attack in Something’s Gotta Give,

and Jack Nicholson’s therapists office in As Good As It Gets.

New York Street was extremely cool – literally every single building there had been used in a famous television or movie production. So much so, in fact, that I can’t even remember all of them!! Next time I need to take along a notebook to write everything down. 🙂

After New York Street we headed over to a small office building which had just been used in the filming of Without a Trace earlier that morning where it stood in for a motel. The episode was supposed to take place in Autumn, so the prop department had brought in fall leaves to place all over the ground.

Then we were driven by one of the studio’s commissaries, which our tour guide told us had stood in for a college campus restaurant where Rory Gilmore and her father eat lunch in an episode of Gilmore Girls.

Next we were driven by another set of offices which just recently were used as the high school in the Sarah Conner Chronicles.

After that our tour headed to the WB lagoon/swamp area which has been used in countless, countless productions including Million Dollar Baby (where a shack next to the swamp stood in for a roadside cafe), ER (the scene where George Clooney saves a boy from drowning during a rainstorm was filmed inside the lagoon) and Fantasy Island (the lagoon ws the location where the boats bringing weekly visitors were docked).

Next to the lagoon is a fairly new set named Warner Village, which was built after the WB’s Wild West Town was torn down. Warner Village is a small street of middle America style homes very similar to the Wisteria Lane set over at Universal Studios. Homes on this street have been used in everything from The George Lopez Show to Cold Case to this year’s An American Carol. Inside the Warner Village homes are production offices for television series and movies which are produced on the lot.

After visiting Warner Village, we headed over to the ER hopsital set. Even though we had seen this set on our last WB tour, it still held a new experience for us. This time the entire hospital exterior was decorated for Christmas and covered in snow, which was really exciting to see. In actuality, the snow is made from the shavings of plastic water bottles, but even up close it looked extremely real.

During this tour, we were allowed to venture inside the Emergency Room facade of ER to snap some pics. The vending machines pictured above are fake, by the way. In reality, they are high quality photographs of real vending machines pasted onto carboard stands. They were so realistic, though, that I actually had to go up and touch them before I would believe that they weren’t real. 🙂

After the ER set, we were driven by a small park-like area where some Ghost Whisperer filming was taking place. AND we even got to see Jennifer Love Hewitt for about half a milli-second as she hopped into a waiting van. JLove was super cute – at least she seemed so in the very brief moment we saw her.

Next we headed to a prop warehouse where everything from furniture to artwork used in various Warner Brothers productions is stored. The most famous prop piece located there? One of the Sam’s pianos from Casablanca, which is actually on loan from an art collector who stumbled upon the piece at an auction a few years back. The art collector liked the look of piano, bid on it, and apparently got it for quite a steal as the previous owner didn’t realize its cinematic significance. It wasn’t until the new buyer got home that he noticed a piece of paper with a Warner Brothers stamp and a serial number tacked to the inside of the piano. When he contacted Warner Brothers to ask about it, the serial number led them to discover the movie in which the piano had been used. And, lo and behold, it was one of the most famous films in history. 🙂

Mike, Jen and I had a blast on our second Warner Brothers Tour and it is definitely true what they say – it’s never the same tour twice. I HIGHLY recommend taking this tour – even if you have already been on it previously. : ) I can’t wait to go back myself for yet another WB adventure! 🙂

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 cost $45 per person. You can learn more about the tour here .