The Grouch's visit Warner Brothers

The Grouch family had the pleasure of hosting some friends from the east side of the country last month and to show them a really good time in the couple days that they were to be with us, the Missus arranged for us to tour Warner Brothers studios.

Fortunately the studios are about 10 minutes from my regular place of employment, so the visitors, the Missus, and Young Son picked me up at work mid-day and spirited me off to the studios.

The Warner Brothers studios is a very historic site for movie buffs but alas because sets are used over and over, not too much remains from the movies made in the 30s to the near present.  Some of the outdoor streets and buildings appeared in various movies back in the day and carry on today for WB current group of chick-flick TV shows such as "Pretty Little Liars", "The Fosters", and others.  

The tour is via an electric tram with a guide giving a running narration.  At various points along the way the group disembarked to get close up looks at some the notable buildings.  We also got a visit to the Batman/Harry Potter studio museum and also the Batman vehicle garage.  A quick walk through the prop warehouse was very interesting.  I wish we could have lingered there.

The WB studios is very much an active filming area although most shows were on summer stand down so we didn't see anything being worked on while we were there.  The WB workers were friendly and waved and said hello as we went by.

As I've noticed previously when touring studios, it is amazing how mundane and grungy the sets and  buildings look but how nice and realistic they look on film.  Shortly after we toured the backlot buildings Young Son spotted one of the back lot street areas in the TV show we were watching.

I recommend the tour to any and all fans of the 'biz'.  It is fascinating to see what goes on behind the scenes!

Our visitors arrived and departed via Amtrak. We met them at Union Station in downtown L.A.

The famous WB water tower as seen at the beginning of WB TV shows and films.  It doesn't hold water any more sadly.

The happy tourists outside the studio visitor center.

One of the many street and building sets in the WB back lot.  Most of the buildings we toured were being used for current WB chickflick TV shows which meant nothing to me but sent many of the women on the tour into fits of ectasy when "Pretty Little Liars" or "The Gilmore Girls" were mentioned.

The original "Spiderman" was filmed here.

Young Son doing the sorting hat thing in the Harry Potter studio museum.

Now it is the Missus' turn!

Young Son approves.

The subway entrance only goes down far enough to get the actor's heads below camera level when descending.

In the Batman vehicle garage.  This part was pretty interesting even though I didn't see any of the Batman movies.

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As seen in the prop room.  Who would need a pair of giraffe legs in a movie?

Citizen Grouch and friend discuss the day's events.