SoCal Trip Part One - Warner Brothers Studios

This last weekend my wife Jennifer and I went on a whirlwind trip to Southern California. We went to visit friends, meet new friends from The Mosaic Alliance, go to the Origins Event [#origins10] and to go on a Studio Tour of Warner Brothers. The Warner Brothers Tour was a gift from my wife for my Birthday and the subject for the blog post. Make sure to come back later this week for posts about the other events.... Make sure you check out the photos below from WB.

Thursday night my wife and I drove down to Bakersfield and spent the night. The next morning we woke up early and headed down to go to the Warner Brother's Studio Tour. I was very excited about the tour. At the suggestion of some friends and the staff at the hotel we left way earlier than needed to get to the tour and arrived at Warner Brothers a full hour and a half before our reserved tour. Since we arrived early the nice people of WB snuck us onto the first tour of the day. We had a full tour with 12 people. Very nice and excited group of people from around the world. We sat beside a couple from Australia. Our tour guide Ashton kept saying how much he loved our group.

Ok, enough about getting there. I'm sure most of you really just want to know about the tour. It was amazing. We jumped on the oversized golf carts/trams and headed for the gate. After entering we started our tour of the backlot. The backlot are the full size, outdoor sets that are used in movie and tv productions. These include jungles, small towns and cityscapes. The first stop was the Jungle. The jungle has been used for films like Jurassic Park and the Last Samurai. Next it was off to see the Warner Village. This is a little street that looks like it could be any community in middle class America. What was cool about this area is that not only is it used for shooting film, but they also double for offices. This is where the office for Chuck is located. After that we toured the backlot areas that are used to represent "Anytown USA", "NYC" and "Chicago."

After we saw the backlot we went to see where they build the sets. It had a wood shop, sign shop and metal shop. The workshops will make any man jealous. After that it was off to see the front lot. These are the big warehouses where they do all the filming. We were really excited to see this area because we knew there was a chance to see the set of Chuck, one of the best shows currently on TV. First our guide brought us by the "Car Museum." It was cool to see all the different cars including cars from Chuck, A.I., Batman, Get Smart, Harry Potter and a few other cool cars. Next it was off to see our first studio set. Our guide kept where we were going a surprise. We had been bugging our guide to take us to see the set of Chuck. He wasn't sure if this was possible as they had been filming it all week. So it was a great surprise when our guide walked us onto the set of Chuck. The specific sets that we saw were Chuck's apartment complex, his apartment and the back of the Buy More. Very, very cool. This isn't a normal part of the tour.

Next we went to see the set of Two and a Half Men. This was really cool because they film it using a studio audience. They make the set so that you can see most of the set from the audience. It was very cool to see where this funny show is filmed. After that we went over to where the set of Friends had been moved after filming. It was very cool to see the famous orange couch and "Central Perk."

Last on the tour was the WB Museum. The top floor was dedicated to the hit movie Harry Potter. It was cool to see the various costumes and props. The downstairs portion was filled with props and costumes from the vast Warner Brothers history.

The only sad portion of the tour was that we couldn't take photos in the Museum or the sets of Chuck or Two and a Half Men. Completely understandable about the sets. I'm sure they don't want to give away to many secrets from the shows as they are being filmed. After all they are working sets. Not sure why you couldn't take photos at the Museum.

Overall I would highly recommend this tour. It lasts around two and a half hours and is worth every penny of the $48/person price. My wife and I will be returning to take the tour again, only next time we will upgrade to the "Deluxe" 5 hour tour.

Remember to check back later this week for posts on the Origins Event and our time with friends.