I chatted a bit about the Warner Bros studio tour my sister and I went on in this post about our trip to Venice. It was already chock full of z list reality star gossip and photos so I couldn’t really go into much detail about the tour. My sister Marcy and I did about 5 days in LA for a girl’s trip in the spring of 2019 and it was so fun. I definitely recommend reading that post as a fun guide for what to do (and not do) if you’re into a slightly vapid, find-celebrities type of trip (aka the reason why I went with my sister and not my husband lol).
On our last day in Los Angeles, we had booked in a studio tour at Warner Bros. There are a few different studio tours to choose from, I did some research and this is the tour that best fit what we were looking for.
We were able to tour a working tv set!
The famous Warner Bros backlot is a major part of the tour plus we could see the Friends coffee shop fully recreated with all the original set pieces and sit on the couch for pics. SERIOUSLY. The tour starts decently early, we were staying in Venice this time so it took us over an hour to drive to Burbank plus to find parking and sign in, all that takes time so if you’re booking a tour make sure you factor all the extras in.
Once we were parked and upstairs signed in, everyone was put into groups. It was very touristy, lots and lots of tourists and families, so if you’re not into that whole scene then you will hate this lol. We went with our group, which actually wasn’t that big at all – maybe 10 people total. The groups are small because everyone needs to fit in the xl golf carts that are used to drive around the lot for the tour.
This is the famous backlot in all the WB movies
I love behind the scenes everything and was fascinated by all of this. This whole backlot gets repainted all the time, new signs are put on the store fronts and a green screen obviously goes behind the lot to cover LA in the background.
I think the coolest thing for me was realizing that literally everything was fake. Everything. Like the gum on the sidewalk, not gum. It’s a painted dot to look like worn down gum on the sidewalk. I looked up close, snapped pics and all that to show you guys lol. This cigarette that’s ‘garbage’ on the street? Ya that’s not a real cigarette, it’s not even smoked out of. It’s a pretend one, painted paper and torn to look like garbage. Marks, scuffs, dirt, tar bits – all of that is painted on!
This makes everything look real, even though it isn’t.
The pretend subway entrance that goes nowhere…
The alleys end up with a wall at the back… (also this is the alley in Friends where Monica and Rachel are hiding from Jean Claude Van Damme!)
I tried to take a picture to show how the brick walls are.. they’re made to look aged like a real city but it’s not real brick.
This is the fire escape where the infamous upside down kiss happened in Spiderman (in the infamous Hennessy Street).
There have been so many movies and tv shows filmed in this lot it’s amazing. I wandered in to a few of the buildings and you can see they’re totally empty, just hollow construction inside (don’t mind my screen grab from my IG – terrible quality but you can see the interior of this building).
This is the building where Stanley Ipkiss aka Jim Carrey lived (above the hardware store) in The Mask lol.
All of the Friends outside scenes were filmed in this lot as well!
Remember the Porsche episode with Joey, it was filmed in this backlot! The scene where they played football in the park (I think it was a Thanksgiving episode?) that was shot in one of the little parks here specifically made for tv and to look like a NYC park. Actually, fun fact: right across the street from that little park is the diner that is Luke’s Diner in Gilmore Girls! (Of course I didn’t take a photo.)
^^ The park that they filmed this scene in we drove by, I didnt’ take a photo but Luke’s Diner is right across from this lol
So we toured the backlot, which was amazing.
Then we moved on to the next and were able to tour a working film set (this set was Lethal Weapon).
It changes all the time depending on when you go and what sets are currently being used or not. I sneakily snapped a few photos (we weren’t supposed too) of the morgue area. It was neat seeing the office area and the sticky notes people had written down, either jokes about other cast members or just random words. So funny.
Below is the office area that we went through and were able to look at everything. I had to grab a shot off the show because I couldn’t take my own photos (the tour guide was in the room with us lol.)
When we walked through the set, everything was shut off, no lights or anything. The whole ceiling was exposed and the doors weren’t real doors. If you tried to open them fast like a normal door they would swing wide and bang easily into the wall. The walls and everything were decorated to look like an office and hospital area but up close you can easily tell it’s all pretend, nothing is made with actual building materials and I don’t know, I just find it so interesting to see it all like that!
As we were driving to the next portion of the tour, we passed by so many sound sets, like Ellen 🙂
We couldn’t go in since it was currently being filmed that day. Sometimes the tour groups can though when there is no filming going on.
We took the golf cart and drove to DC Universe portion of the tour to see the Batman cars and stuff like that. Can you tell it’s not really my wheelhouse? LOL I took a few photos for my kid’s and Kiel to see though.
They were all smaller and more pretend looking in real life.
Like so many of the buttons were pretend and looked like a kid’s toy and plasticky.
It doesn’t really show on the photos that well but they literally look nothing like what they do in the movie. They’re so cheap and lots of little lights that were on but they were just a little light stuck on the vehicle lol. Hilarious and I loved seeing it all. Like giant Hot Wheels cars lol.
Afterwards, we were taken to a large room with all of the costumes from famous Warner Bros movies (Harry Potter, Aquaman, etc). Costumes irl look so much more cheap than they do in the film lol. Like to see Aquaman’s zipper on his costume, and to see Shelob up close (I freaking hate spiders) was so funny. We were able to check everything out at our own pace. I love Harry Potter so the costumes and little details, notes, all that was interesting to get a close up look at.
They had a few places to walk through and check out different Hollywood effects. We tried out this little area to show how forced perception is used in movies (like the Hobbit):
We walked through the prop department. This is literally rooms and rooms filled to the brim with props, decor, just everything you might need for a set and to style. It was all organized (although it doesn’t look like it) and there were a ton of famous props!
Lastly, we were all taken to the Central Perk set!
They recreated it to a tee the exact Central Perk coffee shop in Friends, this is all the original set pieces. We were able to snap a few photos on the couch and omg PIVOT PIVOT PIVOOOOOTTTTT
Here’s some photos I found of the full set and also the working set – it’s set up exactly the same!
I’m obsessed.
I definitely recommend popping in and taking a tour if you’re into tv or movies lol.
It was a fun way to spend the morning/afternoon! It’s more of a touristy thing to do but once you’re signed in and the assigned to your tour group it’s just you and a few other people that do the tour together.
I feel like all I said in this whole post was how fake everything was and how cheap it all looked in real life. I mean it’s true, but I mean that in the best way lol. It is fascinating to see how they add effects to make sets and props look so realistic! It’s definitely worth it and we had a blast 🙂
x Megan
** I know the timeline is all off, we took this trip pre-Covid and everything but it’s been sitting in my drafts this whole time lol. I have a few posts I’ve completed and then forget to publish so I’ll be working on doing that in the next few weeks! Thanks for reading though! Lmk if you like these travel posts alongside my normal home decor content!
