After a beautiful drive along the coastline and through rolling, soft foothills, we arrived in Burbank to our beautiful, renovated "motor lodge" now called The Tangerine Hotel. Our room had a beautiful wall-to-wall mural with a matching table complete with Japanese designs and writing.
detail of wall mural at the Tangerine
Not only was the Tangerine beautifully updated, but the location was perfect. Restaurants and cafes were nearby and it was only a ten minute walk to the Warner Bros. Studios and to Ellen.
That is the exciting reason we decided to head south from San Francisco toward L.A....we got tickets for Ellen! Yippee!!!
Since the Ellen taping wasn't until late afternoon, we decided to take a morning tour of the Warner Bros. lot! What an interesting tour! It is so fascinating to catch a glimpse of what goes on behind the scenes to create the magic of movies and television. We started the tour by strolling down the set of a city street.
It was interesting to look at these buildings up close and realize that everything about them was a façade. This street can be made to look like New York City, Chicago, or Paris, set in today's time period or hundred years ago, depending on the signs made, and the type of cars and props they add to the street. Although its a lot easier to film on location these days with lighter camera equipment, often the studio will decide to shoot scenes here where day-to-day activities won't get interrupted and they don't have to pay big money to shut down city streets.
We went through all kinds of outdoor sets...dense trees that could look like a jungle, a huge lagoon that could be filled for water scenes, streets with different styles of houses, and lastly the "town square" where TV series like "The Waltons", "The Gilmore Girls" and a scene from the final episode of "Seinfeld" was shot.
In another part of the tour, we went to the Warner Bros. museum where we saw props, and costumes of the past, plus a whole floor dedicated to the "Harry Potter" movies. Below is the teacup tower and divination ball that Professor Trelawny (Emma Thompson) used in the movie "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban," 2004.
We went into several studio buildings to see the interior sets. Since production of most televisions shows is now on hiatus, we were given access to a few current sets and some famous sets from the past. Anyone recognize this place?
That's right! The famous "Central Perk" from the series "Friends!" And now...the latest breaking news! They have decided to produce a second series of "Friends" with a whole new cast of characters. Here are the two main ones....
Who knew how easy it would be to get that big break in Hollywood!
In the afternoon, we returned for the late taping of the Ellen show. After a very long wait, we were excited to be seated in the studio, and were prepped for some dancing, clapping, and cheering. The show went by SO fast...but it was great fun to see Ellen so up close and to be part of her audience! The show will air on Monday, May 16th in case anyone wants to see if we get a few seconds of fame!
On Friday morning, we headed back up north to the sweet little beach town of Cambria. To be honest, it felt really good to be heading out of all the hustle and bustle of L.A. and back to a more rugged and relaxed part of California. We ended the day yesterday on the beach watching the sunset and the waves and collecting beach stones. No artificial special effects here...just the awe-inspiring beauty of nature.
