TV and Movie Land- Friday, July 7, 2006

Day 1- Our tour of TV and Movie sites (or as Julie called it- our Great Tour of Fun. I don't think she was being sarcastic, but it's hard to tell.)

We started out really early in the morning this day, and were out touring. The list of the sites that we went to can finally be revealed!

We started at the Los Angeles Arboretum, where "Fantasy Island," the old Tarzan movies and The African Queen were all filmed. Unfortunately, we couldn't see much because we didn't want to pay admission, and they weren't even open yet. We might go back. Nearby was the Santa Anita racetrack where the Marx Brothers filmed A Day At the Races.

We continued on through Arcadia and Pasadena. We saw the Walsh house from "Beverly Hills 90210" and the house used for the pilot episode of 7th Heaven. We saw the houses used in Father of the Bride, on "Benson," and the house where Michael Meyers grew up in Halloween. We took saw Doc's house from Back to the Future (the house was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright). Then we stopped for a stretch break at the Rose Bowl.

We couldn't see "Stately Wayne Manor" from the "Batman" TV series because it's quite hidden from the road. That's not surprising, considering that Paul McCartney is supposed to own it now. We saw the hospital used at the beginning of "General Hospital" and the building used for the hospital in City of Angels.

We drove around Dodger Stadium and went to a beautiful neighborhood nearby filled with Victorian houses, including the one used for the TV show "Charmed." We saw the LA City Hall which was the Daily Planet building on the Superman TV shows. We saw the Mayan theater used in The Bodyguard. We went to a private school where the Genovian consulate was in Princess Diaries. Unfortunately, Anna was sleeping in the backseat by this point and the guard at the gate told us we weren't allowed to take pictures here.

We found the "Hyperion Hotel" from "Angel." We found the Cunningham house from "Happy Days." We went to the gates at Paramount Studios, featured in Sunset Boulevard." We went to the apartment from "Melrose Place." We found Angel's mansion from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (also designed by Frank Lloyd Wright).

By then we were close to Griffith Park in the hills north of LA. We were able to park and take a short hike to the caves used as the Batcave in the TV version of "Batman." That was a nice little hike to stretch our legs, though the climb hurt Julie's back a wee bit.

We drove through Hollywood, past the famous sites including Grauman's Chinese Theater. We saw Sydney's apartment from "Alias" and the houses where the terror took place in both Halloween and A Nightmare on Elm Street. Nice neighborhoods, really. By then, it was time for a late lunch at Pink's Hot Dogs. They were very busy, but it's the place to get hot dogs in LA.

We saw the office building used in "Charlie's Angels" and then went out to Greystone Mansion in Beverly Hills. It has been used in many movies, and we recognized the spot where Wolverine was in X-Men and where the Ghostbusters were in Ghostbusters 2. Luke and Laura's wedding from General Hospital took place here too. It was also a good place to explore and Anna liked finding a lizard in the garden. We saw a big limo and from the people we saw making preparations, Julie thought that someone famous was getting married that night. Maybe so, but we didn't see the actual couple.

On our drive to the coast, we saw the Beverly Hills City Hall, featured in Beverly Hills Cop, and the skyscraper used as the setting of Die Hard. We reached Santa Monica around 6:00, and spent some time on the beach. The girls appreciated a chance to run in the sand and the water. They didn't enjoy the tour all that much, so we let them have a while to play. Although we had more sites to explore, we fished the day touring here, although we were able to pick out a few places used in the opening of "Three's Company." All in all, it was quite a full day.