Hollywood a.k.a. Last Day of Househunting



I am extremely overdue in getting this post published, but here's the story anyway.  On our last day of our house hunting trip we were done with everything we could do except for the waiting game.  Our realtor was going to be texting us some information and actions but we did not have to be available to meet him in person so we decided to play tourist and do some sightseeing.  One of the things I've been dying to do is to take a tour of the Warner Brothers Studio, which is in Burbank, CA and conveniently close to where we are moving. 

 

We were early for our tour so we headed over to Hollywood first for a really quick tour of the major touristy things there.  We paid $10 to park (knowing we would only be there an hour-expensive!) and set out walking.  We learned right away that the "Hollywood Walk of Fame" isn't really an attraction, rather it just covers every sidewalk in the Hollywood area.  Everywhere you walk there are stars' stars beneath your feet facing all different directions.  And you can't read them all as fast as the flow of foot traffic is moving.  We still managed to scope out some cool ones like Elvis, The Beatles, and Michael Jackson. 

 

We found a several story open air shopping center that had excellent views of the Hollywood sign and took the required pictures of that:

 

 

After that we did some more walking but everything started looking more seedy and less touristy so we walked back to the car and headed to our WB tour.  I was excited about the tour for many reasons, but mostly because that is where my favorite show of all times, my beloved Gilmore Girls was filmed.  The set of Stars Hollow is still there, although redecorated because it is now used for the set of Pretty Little Liars, and I was starstruck standing in the middle of town!  It was all decorated for Christmas, because it's Christmas time on Pretty Little Liars I guess, but the bones were still easy to see.

 

Luke's Diner was there, although repainted:

 

 

The church:

 

 

And of course The Gazebo:

 

 

 

There was a museum of old props and costumes that featured a Luke's Diner menu and the letter that Lorelai wrote to Rory when she was considering giving Logan a second chance.  The show never reveals what the letter says, so it was pretty cool to read the letter!

 

There was another iconic scene that we got to visit:

 

 

 

It was very cool standing on the set of Friends!  The set is now a permanent fixture for people to visit and will no longer be used to film other shows.  We learned that every episode of Friends was filmed here, not one scene was ever shot in New York. 

 

 

We got to tour some of the cars used for shows such as Harry Potter's car, the car from the Dukes of Hazzard, and the Batmobile.  

 

 

 

We saw the iconic WB water tower, and also the WB building that is featured in all the opening credits of WB movies:

 

 

We also learned that the WB logo on that building just so happens to face Paramount Studios directly, which was not an accident!

 

We were there on a Saturday so we didn't see any filming taking place or run into any stars, but we did get to go on the empty sets of The Mentalist and Big Bang Theory.  It was very cool and we can't wait to take more studio tours.  Next time it would be nice to go during the week where you can actually see some of the stars during filming.  We would also like to take some of our guests on these tours, but trust me, you won't watch television the same once you've seen behind the scenes!