Day 4 - Being absolute tourists in Hollywood! - Part 2
Continuing on with the day! It was a little before 2:30 by the time we got back in the car and got going. We had sort of jokingly thrown the idea of doing the WB Studio Tour earlier in the trip, but then one friend actually was being serious about it so we looked into if they had reservations. They said yes, but their final reservation slot was for 3pm. So we put our name and information in, and then rushed to get a quick lunch since we were starving at this point.
We stopped at the Dog Haus in Burbank not too long before the tour, so we went in, ordered, went to the bathroom, grabbed our food and drink and ate in the car. I got the Das Brat which was a Bratwurst, caramelized onions, sauerkraut, and spicy mustard. I'm normally not big on mustard, but with the rest of the ingredients it combined really well. The Bratwurst was really good and it was not only cheaper but way better than the crappy hot dog I had at USH the day before. We then went over to WB.
So a little about this Studio Tour - It was $69 per person with $15 for parking for a three hour tour. They had a longer tour, but we didn't even look into it since we didn't have the time for that and I think we may have been too late anyways. We were a bit skeptical about this tour, but after looking into it we just decided to go for it. Even if we didn't think it was worth it, it was still only $70.
So you kinda just start off in an area that's not included in the three hours and more just something that anyone can mill around in if you pay to park. It's sort of like a small WB showcase showing off their history, and some of their classic films. Then after you scan your ticket, they have you go into a small theater with some others. As soon as you enter the theater it becomes apparent that you're about to watch some corporate fluff video. It was short and to the point, just sort of letting you know who WB is.
So moving on, the carts fit 14 guests + our driver/guide). We sat in the second row to be close to the guide in case we wanted to ask any questions (which I recommend if anyone does this as you can make this as much of an interactive tour as you want). Our guide Dan was absolutely great - the fact that I still remember his name without having documented it should at least tell you something!
He was very personable and it was very inviting in asking him questions. He started off by asking us what some of our favorite shows are so he could cater the tour to us a bit. He wasn't looking specifically for WB shows as he worked in even some Marvel at one point in the tour, but I mentioned
The Last of Us just to see how he would work back around to that.
Our first stop off of the cart was to their backlot sets
We moved onto their Midwest village in the backlot where there's things like the gazebo from Gilmore Girls (which I actually know plenty about because my sister happens to be watching the show right now). There was actually a decent amount of Gilmore Girls used houses in the area here as well. Funny enough, in the picture above that has the Gazebo in it, the midwestern street there was actually recently used to film Our Flag Means Death which is about one of the last things you'd think would film in this midwest area. The opening musical scene in 2011's The Muppets was filmed along that street as well for the song "I've Got Everything I Need". The church has been used in many things and has an actual inside to it and isn't just a facade so that funeral scenes can be filmed there. I believe our guide said it was used quite a bit in Riverdale.
So remember I said that our guide asked about some of our favorite shows so he could have the tour be a little bit more personal? Here's where he worked in
The Last Of Us for me. If you don't recognize the house, I envy your youth, as it's the
Growing Pains house. How did he work in TLOU? He brought up that Ashley Johnson, who portrays Ellie in the game, got her start as a part of the main cast on this show in some of its later seasons. Won't lie, I found that to be a really cool way to incorporate TLOU into a tour like this where they didn't have any sets or anything (since it was filmed in Canada).
We then went down the street a bit more to another Gilmore Girls used house where it was a full walkthrough house but the facade was the front side of the house on both sides which was a first for me and i've spent a decent amount of time actually filming, although I guess when I have it's been either on location or in a soundstage as an extra, not a backlot. Certainly makes sense in terms of cost savings, etc.
We then passed the exterior for Abbot Elementary which was cool and building used as Gotham PD in 89's Batman. Our guide also showed off one of the few Marvel related productions that we went by, which was the exterior of Scott Lang's house while he was on house arrest in Ant-Man 2. We also did go near, but not directly by the fire escape used for the iconic kiss scene in 2002's Spider-Man so I couldn't get I good picture.
We couldn't take any pictures, but we did go into a soundstage that is gearing up for filming a new season of the WB produced CW show "All American" (which I only know from Netflix trying to get me to watch it). From having been inside of soundstages for filming, it's about what I expected on that front, although our guide did show us some interesting things about the set.
We then went past the tallest soundstage in North America and one of the largest as well. Stage 16 on the WB lot was built in the 1930's and is roughly 9 stories tall and just absolutely massive to see in person. I believe it's over 30k square ft so you can do a lot on that type of space, especially considering the height. Lastly for now, we passed the on lot WB theater and they were getting ready to seemingly have a cast & crew premiere or party for Peacock's Mrs. Davis, something to that effect. There was a bunch of people walking over to it when we went by so something was happening right around that time.
Anyway, that was a lot to go through. It actually wasn't quite the end of the tour, but that's the backlot part with the exception of one thing which i'll show when I do the next and probably last post in the trip report. So to quickly answer did I think the tour was worth it? I was skeptical going in as I said, and maybe that helped it exceed expectations, but I really enjoyed the tour overall. I think the real reason we ultimately did this is because we told a local that we ran into we were thinking about it and he said he thought this one was the best tour you could do. He also led us to a great dinner spot so props to that guy
