Paramount Studios

After our Wednesday adventures, we were hoping this trip wasn't jinxed. Thursday turned out fine. Running on limited sleep, we picked up our cousins Sonny and Sheri and drove to Paramount studios for a tour. We won a VIP tour in an auction last year and were excited to finally be able to redeem it. Paramount used to have tours open to the public but after 9/11/01, they discontinued them. Not sure if they've restarted public tours. Either way, it's pretty exclusive; they had to have our names at the security gate so we could get on the lot. There were only 14 people for the 10 AM tour, split into groups of 6 and 8.

The tour started with some info about the history of Paramount and RKO (?) and we saw us a number of historic photos of Paramount artists. We saw all of the Oscars the studio had won. Then we then got to ride around the lot on a golf cart and see various sound stages and were told what shows were shot where. Trivia tidbit -- Cheers and Fraiser were both filmed in stage 25, also the location for The Lucy Show and Bosom Buddies. However, if a show is off the air, there's nothing to see but a plaque.

We drove by a tree that was used in a few episodes of Brady Bunch. One of the guys on our trip was a huge BB fan and had to have his picture taken several times near the tree. He was so excited, you'd have thought Marsha, Cindy, and Jan had walked by.


Next we got to walk on the set of The Insider. Neither of us have ever watched but if you do you'll recognize it in the picture below. We got it just before the kicked us out so Cojo could film a segment. He's even creepier looking in person than he is in that photo if you can believe that.


Then we went in the back entrance (our guide was great) and into the control room for the Insider to see how they put together various segments of the show and watch the download from New York.

We saw Dr. Phil (the man, not the TV show). He's taller in person. But the highlight for me was getting to walk through the stage where Dirt is being filmed. Dirt is new on FX this season, and has some high-end, hip LA offices and homes. It was something to be able to walk through it all. It does kill the illusion of multiple locations scattered across LA to see them all the sets together. Here's Monica on Lucy Spiller's (Courteney Cox) couch. Watch Tuesdays at 10 PM (9 Central) and for every indoor scene, we've been there.

After the tour we grabbed some lunch in the Paramount cafeteria, where once upon a time the stars ate, then went back to our hotel to crash.