WB TOUR EXPERIENCE
Wednesday
Christina drove us right to the WB and on the way there they were like, “It’s the Hollywood sign!” So I kept trying to take a picture of it, cursing and yelling because I was very unsuccessful, yet entertaining everyone with my antics. So we got to the WB, parked, and got excited. We wanted to take the first tour we could, so naturally that would be 1:00…but the first tour they had open with 5 spaces was 2:30, so we took it. We were group 13B! 3B!!! lmao. Oh Ross. But we were just hoping 13 wouldn’t give us friggen bad luck on the tour. Anyway, so we were looking at all the merchandise and of course I didn’t buy a damn thing. But it was fun to see everything anyway. And I was freaking starving, but they only had a Starbucks there and I don’t eat muffins or anything lol. So I just dealt with it. And I was watching the Friends ep on the screen, “TOW The Inappropriate Sister” to entertain myself. And this Brazillian girl comes up to us and is talking about the tour she went on that morning. And she said that she saw Matthew Perry which made me almost fall of the bench lmao.
Finally it was time to line up. And I saw some people standing by the door so I was like, ‘Hey guys…move it.” Because I wanted to be in the front row lol. So that’s where we met our tour starter Robbie. We love you Robbie!!! He’s just the guy that introduces the WB video and your tour guide to you. But he was laughing at our shirts because me, Heath, and Christina were wearing “Stars Hollow” shirts, and Michelle and Vicky had GG ones on. So we nabbed the front row and center and then it was WB movie time! Now let me just tell you, this is the best movie ever lol. So when that was done the 2 tour guides came in. *Barry and Abby. So they told us that 13B had Barry and you know, he was hot, so I was excited. And we jumped up and followed him out because we had to be in the front of the cart of course. We threw our stuff in the cart and jumped in the first two rows, claiming our territory. But then he goes to drive and he says, “Oh whoops this is a receiver cart! We have to switch.” So then I got nervous that we wouldn’t have the front lol, so I made Michelle get my stuff out so I could steal the front again on the new cart. And there was this mother and like, 14 year old behind us, who said, “Guess we’re not getting the front.” Damn straight bitch!
So first we went to the museum. And while we were parking, Barry DID NOT hit and bend a sign. Blah. I mean, it’s cool at first. But we’ve seen it all before so let’s get this show on the road. But to pass the time we looked around, and showed Michelle everything, and I got sorted again – twice. Stupid Hufflepuff and Slytherin. God. So while we’re standing there, we hear Barry whisper to Abby, “We have to try and sneak in somehow.” And we knew they were talking about getting us into Stars Hollow, because of our shirts, and because Barry is awesome, and because we knew they were filming there lol. So seriously, we were all just trying to act cool, but we were squeeing at each other and laughing a lot. So then we had to wait for the whole stupid thing to end, so I was just watching the Friends montage video and testing my retarded skill by naming every episode that was flashing across the screen, because I’m weird like that. 20 minutes later, we finally got to leave.
Unfortunately, we tagged along with Abby’s group, which was annoying. We first went to the ER bay…though not really because they were filming. So we were stuck behind the Jumbo Mart (aka Doc Magoo’s) and we saw Mekhi Phifer there too because he was in the scene. They were doing a shooting scene for the finale I think. So Abby started talking to us about it foreveeeeeeeer, and then she goes “We can stay if you want, or we can go somewhere else.” Thank God we left.
Then we went through the little jungle place. And we had to hear about how they shot Million Dollar Baby in the shack for the 100th time, and how many scenes were shot in the stupid lake thing. But this time we drove THROUGH the jungle, which is where we were told last year the Ren. Fair was in 502 of GG. Huzzah! And there was another little house there too.
We went past the study tree next, also central park in Friends. And it was set up for a funeral on Cold Case and there was a casket there and everything. So then we finally got into Stars Hollow via Babette’s house. We were on the left side of it, which is weird…I don’t think I was ever there. So we walked through and the band’s van was like, large and in our face. And we ran up on the steps of the house and poor Barry had to use 5 cameras to take all our pics lol. But it was cool because it’s the *new* house. And then I went over to the mailbox and did my goofy act with pics. And then it was chuppah time, and Gilbert was on it and was all broken, which was sad. And the boat was hanging out of the garage, and was filled with a whole mess of crap. So we walked through there, and they were filming over at Luke’s, so we had to only take pics in the other direction, but I got one of the gazebo before that lol. My bad! So then Barry was like, “Hey go in the gazebo if you want to see them film!” So we did of course lol, but they were on lunch break dammit. And we heard gunshots randomly, so we were like, “Oh someone’s dying! Maybe Chris is killing April or vise versa a la Sheridan on Passions.”
From there we were just crusing around on our nifty carts, and we saw the “Off White House” lol from West Wing. And there were airplane seats outside it. And Allison Janney was just standing there chillin, and she waved at us which was cool, before heading into her trailer. I’m pretty sure that was the last thing we did, but I’m only saying that because I’m stealing from Christina’s entry since I have no concept of what we did when, and that’s the last thing she has written down.
Then it was soundstage time! Yay! So while Barry’s parking the cart, Abby’s leading us inside, but we’re hanging back outside of the stage, and all of a sudden I heard someone, can’t remember who, say “Look it’s April…” So we all like turn around and stare lol. So yeah it was Vanessa Marano with some woman..her mother? And I think she kind of gave us a dirty look lmao. Sorry bitch. You ruined our show. We should throw tomatoes at you. And the woman with her kid was like, “Do you know her from something?” “Um yeah…Gilmore Girls. She plays April.” “Who’s April?” *sigh* this is why you’re not sitting in the front lady. But yeah, she looked nothing like April, but like her IMDB pic with her hair down and wavy. And we were like, “Oh damn we just got out of SH and here they are out of their lunch break. Friggen A.” Plus you know, she’s the last person we wanted to see.
So we walked inside and it was the Invasion set. I’ve never seen the show, so I didn’t really care. And Abby was asking us like, what we could tell about the characters from the paintings on the wall and the locks on the door. Um, who gives a shit. And it was a hot set, so we couldn’t touch anything. Yet as we were walking through the set Abby kept picking crap up. Good move. You just ruined the next episode. And it was a 2 floor set which was weird. So we walked upstairs while Abby wouldn’t shut up on the balcony in front of the other 19 people. And we’re hanging outside, and doing illegal things (shhhhh) until we got to leave finally. So we kind of sprinted down the stairs, but then we realized, “hey there’s no one behind us” because they went down the other way. Lordy.
And the tour cart was blocked in by a huge truck, so we went mosying on into Stage 18 (aka the Dragonfly and Lorelai’s house). And we still had our cameras (shhhh), and you know, “Scott Rocks!!” And we went into the Dragonfly and walked around kind of fast. In the kitchen Heather was like, “It’s Lucky Number 7!” lmao. So we walked around the back of that, and past Lorelai’s house. And we could see Lorelai/Luke’s bedroom and the bed was all messed up lmao. Sweet. And the bathroom too.
After that we went to see Central Perk, but there was a long wait lol. So we had to learn about holding prop forms, which I took lol. So there were like 5 groups in there, so we had to just like, go in for 5 seconds and go back out. But I managed to take a quick pic. So we got dropped off after that because the tour was over, but I managed to grab Barry and ask him about the next day. Since there was going to be 9 of us, and we wanted to have him again. So he just said to request him or whatever, so we decided to just get there ASAP in the morning.
Thursday
So Michelle got up at 6, and I got up at 6:30, but her alarm woke me up anyway so the extra half hour did nothing. Plus Vicky was snoring lmao. So basically we just all got ready, had my donuts and banana, and we called Gen but she was already there! We left at like, 7:57 because it literally takes 3 minutes to get there. And we saw Gen walking towards us as we were parking the car. So she’s the first new person we met lol. We all said hi and whatever, and went right into the studio. The 3 other ppl weren’t there yet, and we really didn’t want to risk that they might not be there, but then I think 2 of them were sitting at the Starbucks lol. So the 8 of us all went up to the counter and asked the girl when Barry was giving a tour and he came out of the back – “Hi guys! I do my tour at 9:00!” YAY! So the 8 of us bought tickets for that and we reserved a seat for Priscilla since she wasn’t there yet. And they were so nice, everyone else that came up to buy tickets they gave a different tour guide lol. So yeah, we were just all hanging out waiting til 8:55 so we could go in, and it was getting tense because we couldn’t find Priscilla and Gen kept calling her. So at like, 8:54 Gen comes out with her…apparantly she had been sitting at the Starbucks the whole time but no one could see each other lol. So yay we had 9! We saw Robbie again, and he was laughing because we were back and still wearing our Stars Hollow shirts. Now there were 4 of us with them on lol.
So we went inside and completely took up the entire front row of the theater/room. And as usual, the movie rocked the house and we could practically recite it lol. So after it was over, Barry came out of the room laughing at us, and said “Hey my group!” And yay!! No one else was on our tour! We were so excited lol. We all went outside and Barry goes, “Remember yesterday when we took the receiver cart? Let me make sure this doesn’t happen again.” Haha oh Barry. So we hopped on the cart in our normal positions, and he asked us if there was anything besides Gilmore Girls stuff that we wanted to see. But there wasn’t. So yay private tour! So he takes us around and was like, “Do you guys know about the water tower? I feel bad that I’m just driving around not saying anything,” lol. Then I asked him if anyone ever told him that he looked like *insert celebrity* and he said he gets that all the time lol. Nice.
We were just telling him everything we wanted to see, which was basically just the soundstages and Stars Hollow. So he told us the gameplan, (which I’m stealing from Christina) “This is the plan. The cast has 10:00 call times, so we’re going to go to Stars Hollow, take some pictures, look around, go check out some of the soundstages, we have to put in an appearance at the museum, even if only for five minutes, and we have to go to the transportation (where they have the cars) and take your picture, because we didn’t do that yesterday, but other than that, we can just see Gilmore stuff, and then we can go back around to Stars Hollow and see if they’re filming anything. Sound good?” Um…hell yes.
So we went right to Stars Hollow before they were filming, and we walked right by Luke’s, and the truck!! That was cool. So seriously, we went EVERYWHERE. First I think we looked in Luke’s and saw the balloons and food and presents set up all in the set for April’s party. Hot set, so we couldn’t go inside. But then I think we just ran around in the park, and swung on the swings!! And I sat on the little duck thing too haha. And we looked in Patti’s studio, and there were some people inside. And it wasn’t set up for anything in particular. More like storage space. And behind Patti’s studio was the place for the Rich Man’s Shoe bar. So then we just walked all around Stars Hollow doing everything. We took some random store pictures, and then went up to Lane’s apartment which had red/orange paper over the windows, but we looked inside the other ones and took some pics of it. Then we went to Kim’s Antiques, and the door was open so I looked inside to see the infamous Prom Video stairs from Friends! Gazebo and mini gazebo time! And Barry, you ROCK for taking pictures of us with like, 9 cameras lol. And standing right by the gazebo at the Growing Pains house was Sherrilyn Fynn who plays Anna. And she was wandering over to the Twickham house because they were filming inside of it. And I really wanted to yell, “Ginger, where’s your leg?!” But we didn’t see her again so I couldn’t. We also looked inside Antonelli’s Pizza, and the Doll Hospital. And there were Chinese Lanterns all in front of the Chat Club lol. And of course I had to take a picture in front of JoJo’s with the crappy ass food. Ooo and the Church’s side door was open too, so we took some pics through there. The Beauty Shop door was open too, because they were gonna film in there, and another secret door was open, so we convinced Barry to take us there and take some more secret pictures lol. “I don’t think so! Homey don’t play that!” Oh and Barry got us some top secret materials/souviners too haha. Barry I love ya.
So after we pretty much did all of Stars Hollow that was possible, we went back to the cart and saw the nicest security guard in the world. We were asking her when they’d be filming, and if we could come back and watch them film. She goes, “I feel you! My daughter and I are big Gilmore fans. I try to get my daughter to watch it with me and she finally likes it.” Haha. Then on the way out of there we drove by the study tree again, and all the Cold Case stuff was gone, so I went out there and did a little “thinking” pose that everyone loved because they all took pictures of me haha.
He told us that we had to make an appearance at the museum because it’s part of the deal, so we literally went for 5 minutes. I think I just stood in the one spot and watched Friends, until we could finally leave. The people there were like, “Have you seen the GG stuff in the back?” Uh yeah. And then we went to the car showroom place with the Dukes of Hazzard Car, the Batmobiles, and the Scooby Doo Mystery Van. And we were like, dying to get out of there. So he took our quick group picture, and in the computer he put it as “Barry’s Gilmore Group” haha. Because we’re so cool like that.
So then it was soundstage time! Holla! I think we went to stage 14 first aka Yale/Rory’s Apartment/New Hospital set. So first we were walking past the hospital set and I think it was pink…or maybe blue. Can’t remember. And we walked through the apartment and man, is it crappy. There were books everywhere, and a pile of mail on the desk. And then we walked out of there and into Yale. We just walked down a hallway and it was funny because on the bulletin boards there’s all these notices that really make no sense. I think some are ones they actually made up, but other ones are just paper that I think they’ve found and put up there. And we walked into the newsroom set which was cool. Paris’s little cubby hole was gone. And it was a hot set I think, but I could be making that up. Oh and we also saw Logan’s apartment for a minute. Oh man it’s so spiffy in there. So after we did some illegal things, we went out and went into the mansion – stage 12. But we went in the back way, so we didn’t walk through the front door. But we did walk in the living room with the candy dish *cough* and then Gen and I snuck into Richard’s study with his while you were out pad *cough* and then we left there. Then we went into Stage 18 – Dragonfly/Lorelai’s House. We went into the Dragonfly and meandered around there and then I spent some quality time in the kitchen with Barry for a minute, before everyone else came in. Oh and the pantry was still there from last year lmao. So after our illegal action, instead of getting yelled at we got encouraged, which was hilarious. And then we did something else exciting, that no fan has done before, and got the hell outta dodge.
Then we went back to Stars Hollow to see if they would be filming anything, and our nice security lady friend told us we could hang out at the Growing Pains house because they were filming over at the Twickham house. And we heard the little “we’re filming/rolling” alarm go off, and btw it was Lorelai and Anna filming in there for Anna’s shop. So Barry told us we could hang out there until they yelled “cut!” to see if anyone would come out…but then they yelled “reset!” so that was the end of that lol. So since we had information now, we were like, “Hey, when else do you do tours?” And he laughed and said he was doing them at 11:30 and 2:30. And since it was like, 11:15, we went for the 2:30 one lol. So we went back up to the front desk, and the same girl was laughing at us. And she used her little walkie talkie and was like, “What tour is Barry doing at 2:30? Can he be 13D?” and she was laughing the whole time. And she said that if we went on the 2:30 tour then there’d probably be more than just us on it. So then we had something to think about…and we thought really quick and decided to just buy out the tour. There were 9 of us, so it’d be like, an extra $12 a person which wasn’t bad. But I felt bad for Michelle so Heather and I split her extra ticket lol. And anyway, this way we were guaranteed our own tour again. Besides, we were originally going to do a Deluxe Tour and Regular Tour, and these 3 tours were cheaper than one deluxe tour. Oh and we didn’t do the deluxe because apparantly they’re doing them this month while they train new people.
So it was only about 11:30 and we needed to eat, so I had my first trip to Carl’s Jr. (They don’t exist over here) And because I’m weird, I’ll even tell you what I had, which was a chicken nugget meal (are you really surprised?) which was pretty good. And COOL they give you numbers and then bring the food right to your table! That’s amazing. So while we all bonded there (actually only 7 of us lol) we were looking at pictures and just laughing a lot, and I did a little Irish dance to the music that was playing.
So then we still had time to kill, and I needed more batteries. So we all went back to the hotel and chilled there for a while until we had to go back to the studio. So we got there (wow I say “so” A LOT) and got ready for tour #3. Robbie came out to greet us before the movie, and said, “So what did you do between the tours?” “Had Carl’s Jr!” Haha. And then there was this other tour guide that came in and was talking to us and telling us how crazy/awesome we are. And he asked us where we got our Stars Hollow shirts and told us he thought they should give us Gilmore Girls shirts for free because you know, we’re awesome. And they had the Friends 10 season box set, but I just wanted the box, since I have all the DVDs lol, and Christina said instead of the shirt I should get that, and then I had this conversation with him about that lol. Oh making friends.
So then it was movie time again which was of course fun, and Robbie sat with us. And I did something really cool because it was a beautiful day. And then Robbie was acting crazy…oh man we love him! And then the tour guides came in and Barry’s laughing and just goes, “Okay my group!” and we all just immediately got up and followed suit. And there was a tour guide in training that was with us the whole time, and she reminded me SO MUCH of a celebrity, but I can’t put my finger on who. But anyway she was hilarious and amazing too haha. Let’s call her Mindy. So we go outside and Barry’s pulls out a little piece of paper and tells us he did some research! On his break! I LOVE HIM! And on the paper are places that he could take us to, like the basketball court where Luke & Logan played in 615, and the gym they went to, and random other things. And we got in the cart and he goes, “Basically we’re gonna scour the lot!” And I guess he told everyone we were back because we didn’t have to go to the museum or any other stupid requirements of the day.
So he drives us right to Stars Hollow, parking at the ER bay, out of sight out of mind, but we didn’t even take our cameras with us. And we saw our security guard friend and she told us that GG was on break for like, 15 minutes I think. And we just walked casually past the caution tape and right up to the Growing Pains house. And then someone said something about our ages, because Barry was like, “Wait, how old are you?!” “21…or 20, or higher.” “Oh man are you serious? We thought you were like 14! Now I can start cussing!” OH LORD. I wanna say it’s because most of us are like, 5 feet tall instead of the fact that we were acting like kids in a candy store. So we were just waiting and waiting and waiting for Lauren Graham to come riding right by us on her bike on her way back from lunch, but she never came. But everytime we heard someone, or any kind of noise, we kind of snapped in that direction. And he was asking us if we wanted to go somewhere else, but seriously. Where did we have to be? So we stayed lol, and Michelle broke the fence lmao. She whispers to me, “Joanna I broke the fence!” because one of the wood piece things fell off lmao. So I’m trying to get it back on, but I can’t so I just kind of stuck it on loosely. And then all of a sudden it fell off onto the sidewalk so everyone was laughing and I think Barry managed to get it back on. Oh and then I had some kind of spaz attack. I was just kind of standing there, looking towards the town, when I noticed a little fly thing coming towards my face. But I waited until it landed like, on the corner of my eye to do something about it. And at the same time I had my hands like, under the strings on my badge. So all of a sudden I went to swat it while I also like, ducked, but since my hands were on the strings and the badge I kind of just started hitting my face and falling over and it was so freaking funny. And Barry was like, “OMG. What’s wrong with you?!” And I just explained it like, “Fly..on my face. And swatting it.” And oh man… Oh and we kept seeing April’s friends walking around, and at one point they started waving at us which was so cute.
So then Barry pulled some strings for us, and we were able to go up to the gazebo. So we were all standing up in there, but I was nervous the bench was gonna break…and that would not be good. So I had to move lol. And they were setting up for filming in the Beauty Shop by this time, so we knew they’d be coming into SH soon. And all of a sudden Heather goes, “There she is!” and we saw Lauren Graham riding in on her bike (with one hand and she had her cell phone in the other…now that’s skill) via, behind the school past the Growing Pains house through the street, past the gazebo and parked her bike. And she was wearing this long blue jacket type thing. And we’re all just like, “OMG that’s Lauren Graham!” And it was her birthday so we all wanted to wish her a good one, but she wasn’t close enough to us. Oh and Barry thought it was hilarious that we knew it was her bday and kept asking us like, “Are you sure it’s TODAY?”
So then Barry, being the amazing guy he is, let us move down to the gazebo to sit. And right next to the gazebo were some crew guys playing horseshoes and I swear I wanted to play so bad! Anyway, there we were, 9 girls and 2 tour guides sitting on the steps, all squeezed together, talking and having the time of our lives. We saw Lauren give someone a hug, probably because they said Happy Bday, and then we saw 2 girls give her some balloons. We also saw Vanessa (April) wearing the same blue jacket thing, and then inside the Beauty Shop everyone was singing Happy Birthday to her. It was ironic that all this was happening because you know, they were filming a birthday scene. So there were decorations everywhere lol.
So yay then it was time to start their rehearsal! And who should come riding in on their bike, right past Luke’s and up to the shop, but Scott Patterson! And he was just hanging out there, and him and Vanessa were hugging and rubbing each other’s backs which was so cute. So then he looked our way, so we just started waving at us, and then OMG he waved back lmao. It was so adorable and exciting! And then a little bit later he waved again, and then turned around really fast and like 2 seconds later he turned around again with like 3 of the girls and they all waved at us. It was so hilarious. And then Lauren came out and they were chillin’ by each other, and then Scott’s phone rang and we heard him say “Hello,” and it’s sad that we care about that. Then some person brought Lauren’s bike to her and she left us unfortunately, and it was the last we saw of her. We figured they were going to put on their costumes, and plus her hair wasn’t done…but it was in a messy ponytail thing so maybe they were doing hair too? Because they had so much setting up to do for the scene, there was really no need for them to just hang around. They started bringing in all these lights and weird things to set up outside the shop too.
But we could be completely wrong about that lol, because all of a sudden they were filming at Luke’s. There was a lot of stuff blocking our vision, but we saw some extras walking back and forth, and then back into position when they reset. And the cars were moving too and some crew guy had some CT plates. And so Barry’s like, “Hey do you wanna go see the Dragonfly again?” because we had to stop back there to look for Gail’s glasses, but seriously, who would leave that spot?!
So security and crew was walking by us like, every 5 seconds, and we were just like, “Act cool! Don’t make eye contact!” but no one ever said anything to us lol. And then the nice security lady came back with cake she was eating (for Lauren’s birthday) and we were like, “Hey can you tell Lauren that we all say Happy Birthday? And to look over at the gazebo?!” And she was like, “Oh I sure can! I told her Happy Birthday before, and she looked at me and she goes, ‘Thank you! Thank you!’” And she was like, squeeing herself lmao. It was soooo cute. And then finally a security guard or crew guy comes up to us with this almond popcorn bag, I think from April’s party, and he goes, “If you’re gonna be sitting here watching, you need popcorn!” or something like that. And we were just like, “OMG thank you so much!!” lol. So we opened that and were chowing down on it because I mean, come on.
So finally a crew guy comes up to us and he told us that they were going to be filming that way, so we had to move. But we didn’t have to leave or anything! They just made us go over and stand on the street kind of parallel with the church. So we hung over there for a while, but we didn’t see anything else. Oh except the little girls waving at us again from the gazebo lol. So unfortunately time was almost up, so we decided to go back to the Dragonfly to look for Gail’s glasses before the tour was over. So we had to walk through SH behind the gazebo and behind the school to get to the cart, because we had it in a little hidden location lol. And the whole time we were driving we had our eyes peeled for anyone from the show, but alas, we saw no one. But we went back to the DF and read the script pages that were taped to the computer, and did a quick run through before we had to leave again.
So he took us back to the store, and we insisted on taking a group photo with him because this is the best group of people ever lol. And we were telling Barry we were gonna fill out comment cards about him lol. So he took the liberty of getting them for us haha, and we were just writing things on the bottom like, “Barry and Robbie are AMAZING and AWESOME.” And it was just so cute. And he gave me his email address so I could email him the picture that we took of all of us and him, and btw – he emailed me back hahaha. I love him!!! So then we went up to the front desk to hand in the cards, and the manager was there. And she said to Heather and Vicky and us, “You guys look familiar, have you been here before?” And they were all embarrased, but I was like, “Yeah a lot.” Haha. And she goes, “You know what, next time you come, call up and we’ll give you reservations. We’ll give you private tours.” LMAO. But duh, we didn’t get a name or anything to say when we go…good thing I have Barry’s email haha. So yeah, we bid farewell to Barry and Robbie, which was sad. But they wished us good trips back and everything. *sniffle* I miss them.
So that's the end of my WB Experience...at least for this year ;)
Pictures can be found here: http://photobucket.com/albums/y30/JoWB
