Warner Brothers Studio Tour

College Girl really did her research before coming to California.  Clearly, she was needing to procrastinate:)  But it worked out good for our visit!  She scheduled a tour at Warner Brothers Studios.  And it was fabulous!  You may recognize this water tower from the opening credits of Warner Brothers movies.

Warner Brothers is a working studio, not a theme park.  It was so interesting!  I highly recommend it to anyone in the LA area.  This section of the back lot is basically small town USA - it was used in things from Rebel Without A Cause to The Waltons to Gilmore Girls.  Each 'town' can be detailed to fit any place the set designer wants.

They had sections that depicted Chicago (recognize the el train from ER) and New York and every other town in between.  Nothing is real there.  The buildings were not made of brick or stone - just painted to look that way.  Even the el track was not made of metal.

Everything is completely moveable.  All the light posts.  Benches.  Mailboxes.  Even the entrance to the subway was fake. 

They had a huge building called the mill, where all the set pieces were made.  It is also used as a film location for anything that requires a factory-look.

One very cool place was the garage, which housed the General Lee from The Dukes of Hazard and the Batmobile and the car from Harry Potter.  Even the Mystery Machine from Scooby Doo.

The most interesting place was the prop house.  It is an immense building absolutely stuffed with anything and everything that it takes to flesh out a set.  Everything from light fixtures to doorknobs.  Sofas to coffee mugs.  The sheer amount of stuff was incredible.  This pic is from one tiny section in one small room.

We learned so much but so much information was thrown at us that I had a hard time taking it all in.  Reason enough to go again:)