How many Warner Brothers were there? That was a question I was unaware that I didn't know the answer to. On a recent trip to the studio grounds---for a tourist-style trip, even---I eventually learned the answer.
Early on, in the waiting zone before getting on the tram for the guided tour, there are plenty of things to look at, plenty of chest-puffing, imagination-hold flexing images, and I snapped a pic of one of the kinkiest, weirdest superhero movie ever made, Batman Returns:
The floor was a Google Map style picture, with the occasional table or water tower were scaled up buildings or, eh, the following sculpture:
The drive around was heavy with, "Remember in (insert television show I never watched) when (some action that I had no connection to)? Thatw as right there!" The people in my tram occasionally 'ooohed', but other times, they were not scared to say, "I never saw that." I smirked.
There were many "Little Midwest" and "Little New York" style streets, which were, eh, quaint. I thought it was cool, or noticeable anyway, that nowhere were doorknobs. The tram driving tour guide explained that the doorknobs get put on once the time era that'll be filmed get's set.
One show that was shot entirely on the grounds was NBC's Friends. We saw the plaque on the wall of the soundstage where the main scenes were filmed, but we also saw the stairs where Ross played his electronic keyboard before going toi get dressed for Rachel for the prom in the VHS flashback video they watch when Ross and Rachel finally get together:
Those building are always so funny. They look normal, but they never have electricity or working water, and once you get above the normal human line of sight, the upper parts of theses "houses" are just a series of catwalks for grips to set lighting and hold boom mikes:
Here's the house from A Christmas Story:
Here's the shop, where they make all the gear they use on the sets where they film:
They filmed plenty of movies in this space also, back in the 1940s.
The large sound stage below with the WB on it is the largest sound stage ion America, nearly 100 feet tall:
They filmed really big set pieces there. Think the final scene in the Goonies with the ship. It turns out, at one point, they realized they just needed more space. So, instead of adding thirty feet to the top---which would be very time consuming and expensive---they grabbed fifty guys and bunch of cranks and hand-cranked the entire structure up thirty feet, adding these buttresses to the bottom of the hastily created walls:
Later on, during a walking tour, I snaped a pic of some cartoon things I liked. Also, some stuff for the kids:
They put two of the best Batmobiles next to each other, 1989 and 2022:
The whole DC comics area was pretty cool, while the Harry Potter zone was lost on me.
Four. Originally there were four brothers: Harry, Albert, Sam and Jack.
